Hadi : The Tiger...

Yesterday, Hadi came back screaming for me from the door... He wanted to show his painted face...oooo... He claimed to be a tiger... oh, okay... and he was very proud of it too... hehehe... Aliah was a bit jealous I think... until I started taking pictures of Hadi... (by the way, he insisted on crouching because a tiger's supposed to be on all fours...oh, okay...). Aliah started to get into the ludicrous positions...play acting's definitely her forte...hehehe...So, enjoy... They had fun yesterday... Luckily taking off the paint was not that difficult...sigh...

Crouching tiger...

Up close and personal...

It was Aliah's ideas to role-play...

Amir was amazed...

Over acting was more likely...hehehe...

I'm just taking a break from packing...hehehe... We're going back this afternoon...yeay!!!

Countdown update : 3 more days!

3 more days to go back to Malaysia!!! yeay! This would be the first time for the kids and me to go back to Malaysia since we came to Khartoum in April. Believe it or not we've been here for 8 months...wow, we have survived living in a foreign country! And the kids are still alive even after eating my cooking for 8 months...hehehe

I think our family and friends back home would be amazed at how big the kids have grown. I truly need to do some shopping for their clothes in Malaysia...such a good excuse to go shopping...hehehe... but truly, they have outgrown most of their clothes, especially Aliah and Amir, they are literally bursting at the seams!

The kids are so excited to go back and see their tok and tok ki'. And they're looking forward to so many things in Malaysia. But, Hadi's looking forward to one particular thing... he's looking forward to buy toys... hehehe... I'm the worst of the lot...enough said.

Actually, I haven't started packing our clothes, yet. Maybe, tonight. I only packed the 'souveniers' for family and friends. We got the tickets about two weeks ago... yeay! And we'll be in Dubai for only a couple of hours... the shorter the better...hehehe...oh, another thing... for our neighbours in Tasik Puteri, the 10 kg of khoruf's nicely freezing in the freezer...hehehe

The e-tickets...

'souveniers' for family and friends...

I don't know whether I'll be able to blog or not in Malaysia, but I'll try my best ... I have so many things to do around the house like catching up with my 'hill' of unfolded clothes before flying home...sigh...So, what can I say... see you guys there!!!

A trip to Shendi : Frolicking in the sand...

My kids were so looking forward to go to the pyramids. The funny thing was Hadi, in his mind, 'pyramids' and 'Egypt' were the same thing. During the journey, he kept asking ,"Are we in Egypt, yet?"... sigh... how can you explain to an inquisitive four year old that Egypt's very far away. Till this very day, he would refer to the pyramids as 'Egypt'!

Anyway, when we reached the site, he was very impressed. I think it fits into his image of the desert... clear blue skies and orange sand... Anyway, Aliah and Hadi went for a 'slide'... it was fun although the heat was terrible... They kept on going up for mineral water...hehehe... Amir tried to slide but he was too small...

Hadi and Aliah...sliding down...

Amir...

When the heat from the sun was too much for them, they played with the sand under the shade. Amir and Hadi were thrilled to be able to play with the sand to their hearts' content... Just look at how they enjoyed themselves...sigh...

Amir was making a lot of noise...

They were happy...

Aliah was screaming...

They were playing with so much sand that it got into their shoes, shirts and pants. They left a trail of sand everywhere they walked...sigh... When we reached the apartment, I immediately ordered them into the bathroom. I had to spray all the three of them with water. The funny thing was, Amir even had sand in his pampers...hehehe... I guess the sand was so fine that it got into the crack in his bum...hehehe... Serve him right for playing too much with the sand!!!

Amir was one happy boy...hehehe...

A trip to Shendi : The pyramids...

When we arrived around 11.45 am, I saw a group of sudanese selling trinkets and stuff outside of the gate. We were too excited to explore the pyramids to take too much notice. The plague outside gave the name of the pyramids as the royal cemetery of Meroe. Fortunately, we have among us En. Razali who could speak Arabic (he was an ex-student of KISAS). The entrance fee was 10 sdg for adults, kids free.

The trinket sellers...

The kids trying to find shade...hehehe

The plague outside of the pyramids...

En. Zainal was a bit nervous when he heard En. Razali mentioned that we're an 'usrah'... he thought that we had to be involved in an usrah before going in... hehehe... En. Razali was just explaining that we're a family (keluarga). We were laughing when we went in but looking at the little hill that we had to climb, we inhaled deep breaths...

Picture taken about a third of the walk up the hill...

The kids were already half way up the hill, while the adults inch our way up...literally, okay?!! I was with Hadi, while Amir's with my husband. I discovered that I had to walk fast in order not to be 'swallowed' by the sand... Actually, I was too heavy to stay in one place too long...hehehe... We were breathless by the time we were up there. Discovered a shady spot and the ladies took advantage of some rocks to catch our breath.

Picture was taken from our resting place...

We discovered that there were many little pyramids, not like in Egypt... I guess the technology was adopted in Egypt in a grander scale. They even used Sudanese labourers to build the pyramids in Egypt. I don't think the labourers were all that happy to be the servants of the empire... hmm... I should have read more on the subject because there was no guide and no leaflets to tell us about the pyramids in Shendi. I wish there was a guide to tell us about the history, instead we literally just roaming around the area.

After a while, I decided I'd better explore the area also... well, I did endure hours on the road not to enjoy this wonderful remains of an era. It was quite hot and we were easily thirsty. Aliah had fun with her friends while the boys kept me company.

My husband and Amir...

Amir was very cranky because of the heat...sigh...

As a family...in the shade...hehehe...

Mas and me...relaxing while watching the kids play...

After about an hour, we went down where all the camels await us... hehehe. We were delightfully surprised that Hadi agreed to ride the camel with Aliah. I was also glad that each and everyone of us managed to ride on the camels. Even the XXXL among us could ride (that includes me...hehehe). I just remembered that it was very high sitting on top of the camel and I had a scary experience when I tried to get on the camel. It suddenly lurched forward and nearly stepped on Amir. It was scary alright!!! Anyway, we felt like travellers during olden times sitting on a camel... Those single status engineers were wearing jalabiya, so they looked the part...hehehe...

Aliah and Hadi...

Amir and me...

En. Zainal with his camel... hehehe

En. Zainal was the last one to ride a camel and he was unlucky enough to get a temperamental one. The camel was making a lot of noise from the beginning of the journey until the end... from the picture you could imagine the noise the camel was making...hehehe...or was the camel protesting under his weight...hehehe... jangan mare ye En. Zainal... nanti kena jual... hehehe

Suffice to say that we had fun. We were making jokes how P.Ramlee got it right in his movie (3 Abdul)... we even recalled some lines like...'tumpuk2 tahi unta...). It was true, there were little mounds of camel s*** lying around... hehehe. After that we went to Shendi to have a picnic near the Nile river but lost our way. When we finally reached the spot, the men decided that it was not suitable for the ladies (on account of the place was where the sudanese men took their bath in the river without a stitch on...hmmm... could have make a very good entry that...hehehe).

Anyway, we finally reached a shady spot under a huge tree to consume all the food...not that we could finish everything...there were just too much food!!! We even gave some to a few sudanese sitting nearby. The only concern during the whole trip was the lack of toilets. There was one at the pyramids but nothing at all where we ate. So, we just went back to 'nature'... hehehe... imagine what you like but desperate times called for desperate measures. We used towels and even mats to cover ourselves...hehehe...

I truly enjoyed the trip... the visit as well as the company... We reached Khartoum during maghrib... Alhamdulillah...

A trip to Shendi : The journey...

Yesterday, Saturday the 22nd of November, we went to Shendi where the famous pyramid of Sudan is situated. It's one of the oldest pyramid in the world, even older than those in Egypt! I've been wanting to go there since I came but it was not advisable to go then as it was very hot during the summer months. Anyway, after a chance meeting with Aiza and family about 2 weeks ago, we planned the trip to Shendi at last.

En. Razali was kind enough to make all the arrangements with the help of En. Faatih. 4 families and 3 single status engineers ended up going in 2 vans and an mpv. The vehicles were not only laden with passangers but also with food...hehehe... Among us, we ended up with tons of nasi lemak, sambal udang, spaghetti goreng, sandwiches, karipaps, cekodok and lots and lots of drinks... well, we were going to the desert after all... hehehe... Suffice to say that if we were stranded in the desert yesterday, we won't die of hunger and thirst!

The vans...

It seemed that it was not that easy to go to Shendi. We had to abide by a few rules. First, the van should not have more than 8 passengers excluding the driver. We also need a permit to go there and we only got the permit about 3 pm the day before, on friday. As it's a long journey, we also needed to pay for the fuel and the drivers.

We were rearing to go as early as 7.30 am yesterday morning. The ladies had to wake up as early as 4.30 am to cook for the provisions...including me, okay... Anyway, we started the journey at 8 am. I was as usual, expecting the worst... but was pleasantly surprised that they have a highway out of Khartoum... Only two lanes but it was quite well maintained so the journey was quite smooth.

About half an hour into the journey, we encountered the first check point. There were 3 altogether. This is where we were asked to pay the 'toll' of only 4sdg...really cheap for a 300 odd kilometres journey... After checking our photocopied passports we were free to go...yeay...

This is the first check point...

We were also pleasantly surprised with the 'greenery' outside of khartoum. There were plenty of vegetables farms and we had fun guessing the plants. We saw cornfields aplenty plus the abundance of animal herds. Maybe it's near Eid-ul-adha, so we saw a lot of cows, khorufs and goats. We nearly met with accidents twice because the cows were crossing the road infront of a big truck ahead of us. Anyway, from my observation on the road, the trucks here are very long. Sometimes, they hooked two trailers together and it was quite difficult to overtake. Luckily, the road was so flat you could see miles ahead.

At first, we could only see miles and miles of flat lands. Maybe in geography, they were called savannah?!! (I can feel Cikgu Poyah rolling her eyes at me...hehehe)... I especially liked the 'perfect' tree... It looked like the bonsai tree which the Japanese tried to perfected, but here it's natural...subhanallah... About 2 hours into the journey, we could see the land change... we could see hills and a mountain range from afar.

Look at the 'hills'...

When we drove closer, the 'hill' consisted of a lot of rocks heaped upon each other. It was fascinating... The 'hills' were made of slabs of stones. If it was smaller, it could have been done by humans but these were natural, Allah-made, subhanallah...

The white speck was actually a pickup truck, so you can imagine the magnitude of the hills...

From flatlands to mountain range...beautiful...

Then, after about 3 1/2 hours journey we saw the pyramids. It's not just one as I imagined but many little ones. It was quite far from the road so, the drivers found a way to drive closer. Though as soon as we stopped at the roadside, we were greeted by boys on camels, willing to give us a ride. I was surprised at the speed of the camel though... it was fast...

The pyramids from the road...

One of the boys on camels...

My first cheese cake...

Last Thursday, it's movie night's as usual. Since we're going to watch Transformers for the countless time, I decided I'd better do something else with my time. I wanted to make tiramisu, I even made the coffee and put it in the fridge to chill. Then, I open Kak Elisa's blog, she just made no bake cheese cake... It looked so tempting and since I have most of the ingredients, I decided to make it instead...

Since I didn't have strawberry jam for the topping, I decided to use peach slices. I also didn't have lemon juice, so I used the juice from the canned peach. It turned out purrfecttt!!! hehehe. We ate it the next day, but it was so delicious. I've been wanting to make the no bake cheese cake for ages but since I do not know how to mix the gelatine in, I've never tried it before. I prefer Kak Elisa's version everytime... Just look at the pictures, it's mouth watering, even if I say so myself...hehehe... Enjoy...

The mixture of whipped cream and cream cheese...yummy...

I used peach slices as the topping...

A little bit messy when taken out of the pan...

Became half in no time at all...

Aliah was the happiest because she could lick the leftover cream while the boys were engrossed with Transformers...hehehe

My 100th entry...

Do you believe that this is my 100th entry since I started blogging on Tuesday, the 3rd of June 2008? I can hardly believe it myself! At first it was quite difficult to write an entry, but now it comes naturally to me.

I started blogging when I read my friend, Nora's blog. She was my high school classmate in the 80s. By reading it, I found out about her life for the past few years, her heartbreaks and her triumphs. I was inspired, maybe this could be a way for me to share my life experiences with my family and friends. That was the beginning.

At first I wrote about my experiences when I first came to Khartoum and I was a bit shy about my blog. It was personal, just for family and friends. Now, I blogged about everything and very happy if people read my entries and more wonderful if they leave comments (just a way for me to communicate with friends).

In my earlier entries, it was quite boring, just words and more words... then, I discovered how to post pictures... hehehe... now, it's always a picture report...hehehe... Even my husband's a bit disgruntled because every new recipe I tried need to be photographed first!

Through blogging I 'met' a new sort of friends... virtual friends... I got to know Kak Olie, Ina and many more... I got hooked with 'trengganuspeak'...hehehe... and surfed a lot of blogs... I was glad that I could share my laughter as well as my tears with 'friends'. Losing my favourite and youngest brother was a big blow to me... Luckily I am surrounded with lots of people and activities to help me get through the pain...not to forget, never to forget... but just to dull the pain... Soon, it'll be a 100 days since he left us all and very soon I'll get to finally see his grave... May he rest in peace, insyaAllah...al-fatihah...

I also realised that I have a quirky way of writing. My trademark 'hehehe' would always be somewhere in my entries. I don't know why but it's just my way of looking at things. There's always potential laughter and merriment around the corner. I think it reflects my personality as well as I am always the 'provider' of laughter in real life too... hehehe. I don't know, it's just that I find life is actually quite funny...

Anyway, this 100th entry is very special to me. It has a bittersweet tone to it... But I promise that I won't stop blogging in the near future... I think I'll be writing a lot about food and cooking in general... also about my travel plans in Malaysia... I have so many ideas that I'd have to stop myself from hogging the computer...hehehe... Anyway, feel free to drop me a line whenever you visit my blog, it'll really make my day. Thank you Nora, Kak Olie, Syikeen, Karee, Adik, Mi, Amina, Josephine and the rest who left their comments and give me the strength to keep on blogging... This will definitely not the end... au revoir...

Sewing class : the basics

Last Tuesday (18th Nov), I went to the first sewing class. Even my husband raised his eyebrows when I told him about my plan to join the class in the first place... hehehe... For your information, I hardly ever sew anything... In Malaysia, any torn shirts or pants would either be put in the closet to 'rest' forever or thrown in the bin. I could only sew on buttons (there's no style whatsoever, as long as it stays on... hehehe).

Then, in Tasik Puteri I discovered 'Mama Jarum', so anything to do with needles, I would send it to her. (Mama Jarum's the name of a tailor shop). Needless to say, in Khartoum, I have to sew myself. Luckily, so far I only use my lack of skill to sew Hadi's buttons.

When Syikeen came up with the timetable, I was a bit reluctant to join. But, I decided that why not?!! At least I can improve my knowledge... I'm going to the class as a novice and hoping to learn a few tricks of the trade.

True enough, not many attend the sewing class, there were only about 10 of us. But, I did have fun learning the basics of sewing. Najwa showed a sample of the basics, such as 'jelujur', 'kia' (I thought kia is a korean made cars... hehehe), 'chain' and another one which for the life of me, couldn't recall at this point in time.

We were supposed to make a pouch and everything's provided by Najwa (the needles and all the colourful threads). I am sorry because I did not have the camera with me on that day, if not I would have shared the many wonderful and hilarious acts we did. Who says sewing's not fun?!! We laughed at the inability of some people (including me) to put the thread in the needle. Ila was nearly blinded with a needle... some sew the materials together and some sew it to their own pants...hehehe... Some even showing off their skills (Kak Siti, Kak Jaz and Kak Hanum were a pro).

Personally, I was glad that I joined the sewing class. Even though I know nothing about sewing, I managed to try 'kia' ,'chain' and 'sulam penuh'...hehehe. Najwa even said that my 'kia' was very good. I'm so proud of myself. Chuffed actually...hehehe. I was also not intimidated by the pros because they would help you with your sewing if you're in a rut, which happens often... while concentrating, I forgot how to make the next chain for example... I'd never imagine that I'd ever sew but I realised that living in Khartoum made me more open to try new things. I feel that I'm the better for the experience. Just look at my handiwork...

Pink is 'kia', purple's 'chain' and green the combination of 'kia' and 'sulam penuh'...

The 'chain''s not so even... and there should be flowers with the vines but I was really slow...hehehe... next time, huh?!!

Farewell to Kak Faizah...

On the 20th of November, Kak Faizah and her kids are going to go back to Malaysia for good. Her husband will continue working for MISC until the end of the year. She's also fortunate because she's going to perform her hajj next month, insyaallah...

So, she's been on shopping excursions for the past few weeks... buying clothes, carpets etc. Some to give away as presents and some for her own use. Since food's always at the heart of malaysian lifestyle, there's been a lot of eating as well... We disguise it as 'farewell(s) to Kak Faizah'... hehehe...

First, Kak Jaz and Lisna hosted the farewell in Kak Jaz's house on the 9th of November. It was supposed to be morning coffee but lasted well into lunch time... Lisna prepared laksa sarawak while Kak Jaz prepared nasi dagang, roti jala and a heavenly chocolate cake... Some of us prepared kuih and deserts. I fried the mini fish karipaps...hehehe

Amir's focus was on the desert table...hehehe

We were intent on the discussions about carpets...

On the 11th, Kak Faizah invited us to her house for a pot-luck brunch. We had nasi lemak, mee udang, nasi impit and lontong and a variety of deserts. I made tiramisu. I was amazed looking at Kak Faizah's house... it looked like the insides of a treasure chest. Full of knick-knacks and showcase items. She travelled quite a lot, so in her travels she collected quite a lot of beautiful decorations. Just look at the pictures...

The crystals are from Egypt and the mini Faberge eggs...

Beautiful isn't it?

Very small and delicate items on display...

On her counter and behind, you can see the ceramic plates...

This is the desert table...

I was very careful with Amir, lest he breaks anything. One of the candle sticks did fall and broke but I was glad it's not broken by Amir...hehehe. By looking at her house, I realised that there's so many treasures that you could find in the middle east... Hmm, lots of shopping to be done... hehehe

Anyway, we're supposed to go to Kandahar last friday, but since one of Kak Faizah's kid was not well, we cancelled the trip. We can always go to Kandahar some other time. Lastly, Kak Faizah, it's been great knowing you and hope you attained Haji mabrur, insyaallah. Hopefully, we'll meet again somewhere on Allah's earth (direct translation of 'di bumi Allah')...hehehe

My husband :The general worker...

When we were staying in the old accommodation, each block was provided with one or two general workers. In Block G, we had Malek and Adam (very nice chaps). They're there to help with any maintenance problems, cleaning the stairs and the landings outside our apartments and also helped us carry our groceries upstairs after shopping. We do pay them for their kind service, okay...hehehe

Anyway, in the new Petronas Complex, the general workers job descriptions do not include helping us with our groceries. Being in Block A has also the disadvantage of being quite far from the helpdesk (in Block B). In Block B, the general workers would wait at the entrance to help carry the grocery bags etc. In Block A, we're lucky if there's any on standby. More often than not, we would just lug it upstairs ourselves (rather than wait for any general worker to appear or walk to Block B to call them.). It's such a hassle especially if you have a small child to tag along as well...

We have also realised another problem, there's no general worker working on Fridays. A day when our working spouses would be available for our weekly grocery shopping...sigh... So, last Friday, when we got back from Marwa, my husband added another to his job description. He's now not only an engineer but also most importantly, my general worker... hehehe

When we arrived at Block A (with bundles of plastic bags), he discovered a 'trolley' next to the lift. He insisted on using the 'trolley', much to my dismay... Let me describe the 'trolley' first. The 'trolley' consists of a piece of wood on wheels. The 'handle' was a actually a piece of rope (this is to direct the 'trolley' along the way). So, we put all our shopping bags on the makeshift 'trolley' and my husband pulled it along. This is when I burst into gales of laughter...hehehe...

It was definitely not easy to pull the trolley along, you have to be careful to properly manoeuvre it, lest it (and all your grocery fell into the drain)... it was hilarious, plus the fact that it made such a racket... and I was of course too busy laughing at my husband...hehehe... Just look at the pictures...

He was concentrating...

Trying to be in control of the contraption...hehehe

Another problem... we had to pay nearly 400 sdg for this lot (well 398.89...) That's just to show how expensive is the cost of living in Khartoum!!!

My potato-au-gratin...

Last Saturday, I made potato-au-gratin... My husband insisted that we googled the recipe on the internet because he missed the Deli France version in KL...sigh... I've never tried it before. For those of you who're not very sure what it is, it's just a fancy French name for a potato dish... hehehe...

Anyway, making it couldn't be simpler. I sliced the potatoes and boiled them for 5 minutes. Then, put it in layers (with onions in between). Season with salt and pepper and then pour the white sauce on. Baked for 20 minutes and voila!!! Your potato-au-gratin would be ready. You can eat it with grilled fish, any meat (chicken or beef etc.) or you could just eat it like that. Being a lazy mother like me, I just fried some beef burgers and everyone except for Hadi loved it... yummy... I'm definitely going to make some more, soon, I think...hehehe

I would like to apologise because lately this blog is swamped with a lot of my cooking trials... I'm truly sorry, it's just that once I learned how to make the white sauce from Kak Roza, I have so many ideas on how to make a lot of western dishes...hehehe... Anyway, just look at the pictures...

Layers of potatoes and onions, seasoned...

The finished product... emm, quite delicious actually...hehehe