From house to college

There is no turning back, my son!

Walking him to the registration desk made your host feels that time really flies!

Oh how so true! Time really flies. He is a fast growing young man now! Enrolling into varsity. And when your host walked him to the registration desk, she realized that he wouldn't even wait for her!. And he needed the minimum of assistance from her! Your host wishes you all the best in your studies, son! She has faith in you!

To my mother, with love

The verandah area.

The side verandah - the family favourite area to sit together and talk.

 This has been my humble ambition since the year 2000. Due to a lot of challenges, I only managed to embark on this project in the year 2010 and completed it 8 months later. This is my humble gift to my dearest mother, Habsah bt Hassan. I knew this will never equate all her sacrifices and hard work raising me up.

The front door. The steps were cracked due to Tsunami effect in 2004!.

Yours faithfully standing on the rubble, giving the sign of victory (Hitler's style)! 

This was the humble abode where my other siblings and I were born in. We grew up together, all the 10 of us in this very house. Although this house keep a lot of memories, it has to make way for the new house for my mother.  And I am proud to stand tall on the rubble for all these are made possible with my mother's non-stop prayers for my well being and happiness. Mother, I love you!

The Secrets

I am glad I attended Ms Azie's class on the 12th to specifically learn how to do these roses. I know now that it takes patience and great interest in doing these until one gets the hang (or the 'feel') of it. I personally feel that the smaller rose nozzles are somewhat easier to handle. 

I also learn that achieving the right consistency of the butter cream is crucial to get the right forms of petals. And I also learn that these roses need not necessarily be chilled before arranging them on the cake.

 

Anyway, I shall take my own time in practicing these roses until I got them correct!
Thanks Azie for sharing and allowing me to discover the secrets to this beautiful art of butter cream roses!

Advance Butter Cream class with Ms Azie

I am grateful to my dear friend, Ms Firus for agreeing to go with me to fulfill our insatiable desire for knowledge relating to cake decorating. I can never thank her enough for making today possible. We both were very excited and delighted to meet our very talented and patient teacher, Ms Azie and learn as much as possible from her.

Today I learn how to bake a great tasting sponge cake. We also learn how to make simply delicious butter cream. I also know now how to make the cake according to the customers' request in weight. I also learn how to make roses, lattices, ruffles, drapes, mixing colors and making gold leaves. Seen in the picture are my gorgeous teacher, Ms Azie and I with the cakes to be arranged later on three tiers cake stand.

I wish to extend my gratitude to Ms Azie for her generosity in imparting her knowledge in cake decorating to me (and the other students). I am ever so indebted to you, Ms Azie for this priceless knowledge I have been wanting to acquire. And thank you too to Ms Linda (her beautiful Assistant) for such hospitality and warmth. I personally am looking forward to attending your next class soon, Ms Azie!  

Lake Toba

We had breakfast by the ever so famous and cool Lake Toba. The food was so simple but tasty. With such great scenery, cool, clean, crispy air and complete quietness and peace and tranquility, who needs fancy food for breakfast. Everyone was eager and excited to take the boat cruise on the Lake. Seen here is my newly found friend, Madam Jaleha. She has a heart of gold and charming smiles! Just love the way she speaks.
(Psst.. someone was peeping from behind the doors!)

Ever loving couple!

Back: Nan, Ashraf
Front: Yours Truly, Dato' Jamil Sulong (Abah) &
Datin Rosnani Jamil (Mak)

Mak is as beautiful as ever. She gave us that ever familiar smile when I told her how she looked so beautiful in that Sri Mersing movie I watched few days before. We had great time over dinner talking about her passion - films and all about films. She shared with us on how and why she likes Korean dramas. And she was delighted to learn that Cikgu shares her interests (in Korean Dramas!). Abah was attentive and his eyes sparkled with excitement when we talked about how he managed to direct films those days with very limited resources.
And the rempeyek she gave us was simply tasty!
"For you, to eat while watching Korean Dramas! " said Mak, before we bid good night, while handing out the package containing the rempeyek to Cikgu.
Love you Abah & Mak! 

Makan-makan

We tried this shredded spicy chicken dish served with some kind of nuts sauce and olive and tomatoes.

This is the much talked about Nasi Mandy. It was actually plain briyanni rice with lamb dried (very dry!) curry and a few slices of cucumber and tomatoes. I guess the local nasi briyanni is a lot more spicy and tasty! ;-)

And the roti (almost can't differentiate with the mamak's capati) and the curry. The roti was too much (can't finish them) for me though. ;-)

This is the chicken kebab. Would have been much nicer if it was piping hot! I only ate half of the first stick. But the olives were great in taste! I just like the olive better than the chicken. ;-p

This is the best item for the day. Local boh teh served very hot with mint leaves. Very refreshing to drink after all those meat and nut sauce. ;-o

And this is the salad. Quite salty to my taste but not bad. The crispy keropok (at first we thought it was very thin slices of meat fried to perfection) add the crunchiness to the salad. Not bad. 

We gave our support to this locally set up kedai makan offering Arabic food. The place was half full with students who preferred to sit outside to smoke sheisha. After waiting for a good 30-40 minutes we enjoyed our food although they are all cold! Had they been served hotter, they would definitely taste a lot better, I reckon!  Luckily the soup (some murky looking liquid, that was) was hot.

This makan experience is only good to have hmmphh.. maybe once or twice a year?! ;-)