Bellydancing anyone?

The other half had cautioned me not too long ago that my tummy had looked like 5 months pregnant except that, there is no foetus in it. Haven't we all ladies, face this neverending problem after each delivery of our offsprings? Well, at least, we have EXCUSE why our bellies have turned out the way they are, while you men DON'T!

9 months (that's almost a year, man!) of carrying a full term baby, the product of our happy union many many moons ago coupled with the usual morning sickness (mine started from the moment I got up from bed till I went to bed...sheesh!), the lethargicness, mood swings changes in split seconds which can give shame to the current weather and yadda yadda yadda and he dared to comment my tummy? After all, I bore him 3 healthy children that inherited some of his qualities.

So, I was a bit bothered when he keeps saying things like that (yes, it hurts sometimes, you guys) although I knew deep deep down inside, he didn't really mean it bad. Nevertheless, being the self-conscious person that I am, I have tried all options available (read: selective ones only) to reduce my tummy size from err, size 34 (halamak malunya) to size 24 (very impossible mission!). The list of exercises I've tried were;

1. Jogging, which I did for a month only and after that I stopped as my jogging partner decided to call it quits. I dare not jog alone as sick perverts might be lurking somewhere waiting to pounce on someone . You can never be too careful these days


2. Cycling, which I did for a smooth 3 months until I was chased by a pack of wild dogs. I cycled as hard as I can, nasib baik tak jatuh basikal, fuh! and after that it's tata titi tutu


3. Wearing corset (cheap one only lah) but I am not the disciplined type, besides it's too tight and itchy itchy the whole body after usage


4. Girdle - this one works better especially when I go out. I put it on so that my tummy does not look flabby when wearing long skirts or pants but it's only a temporary solution


5. Dieting - didn't work. after 2 days of going riceless, I surrendered. Kebuloq perghhh!


6. Slimming spa - too damn expensive


7. Liposuction - forget it! the horrific scenes from the Extreme Makeover series will forever etched in my memory

So basically, I have tried every option there is (liar liar) to get rid of that stubborn excess flesh. Perhaps there's one more option I haven't tried it out yet - bellydancing. Now that is something. Bellydancing is fast catching on in Malaysia and it's a happening form of exercise in the west. Probably made famous by the lovely Colombian latino babe, Shakira. She really rawks!

So I was hugely dissappointed when I didn't get the chance (of a lifetime) to join the bellydancing class last month when it sort of collided in the same month with the cupcake decorating class. I had a (housewife) budget for one class only that month and besides, the husband had annoyingly teased me with his caustic remark..."dari hang dok belajaq menari gelek tuh, lebih baik hang pi belajaq mengaji Quran kaa, betulkan tajwid tuh sket, ada gak pekdahnya...".

Ouuuch!

Sambalicious

picture was cilok-ed from google search engine

Sambal belacan has always been essential in many a malay household. It is a must have condiment, usually eaten with hot piping rice and fried fish (ikan kembong is the best, I found out) together with mixed veges, fresh ulam and a little bit of gravy; it can be curry or lemak cili padi, whichever that suits your tastebud. Even the very mentioning of this salivates me to the core. Kecur liur tau!

There are many varieties of sambal belacan. For example, some people like to add tomato or mango or belimbing besi (smaller version of starfruit family with sour taste) or lime juice instead of tamarind juice. Normally, I'd use pestle and mortar to pound my sambal belacan. A simple sambal belacan ingredients usually consist of;

10 cili padis (or more if you like it extra hot)
2 red chillies
1 tbsp of sugar
belacan - belacan melaka is the best
tamarind juice - must be pekat-pekat (concentrated)

Heavenly yummeh!

Sambal belacan is best looking and tasting if pounded with pestle and mortar. But lately, I have succumbed to laziness, hence the use of food blender. Thank god for modern technology. Yeah, modern technology tends to bring out the worst in some people. I use food blender to make my job easier and less mess in the kitchen. And I also want to avoid the chillies from squirting into my eyes. That can be unpleasant.

Well, the outcome of it, it tastes pretty much the same but it looks a little bit bubbly and watery as compared to the original looking sambal belacan made with the pestle and mortar. I have become adept to using the food blender that I'd know when to get the right texture for my sambal belacan; not too coarse or too pureed. If kept refrigerated (with the lid on) for few days, the texture can become concentrated and tastes even better. Oh well, as long as it tastes quite the same, its really fine with me.

Sambal belacan is like my natural anti-depressant drug. I can't live without it. Can you?

Sendaloka (Part deux)

Apo nak dikato, habis madu sepah dibuang. Dah nasib orang pompuan gitu. Sabor jek lah.

*pictures were cilok-ed from here

Sendaloka di pagi rabu

While browsing the contents of my email yesterday, I spotted this. I had a good LOL. Is it any wonder why they lost big in the recent election?

* If you can't read the small prints, click to enlarge. Enjoy!

You talking to me?

I am slightly concerned with little B's development. At 30 months old, he should be talking like a bullet train with increasing vocabularies. But he has not. He still babytalks and couldn't utter a single phrase of recognisable words that we could understand. Except for the occasional words - no and wow, that's about it.

So when we went for his hepatitis A second jab with his peditrician last saturday, the doctor himself was kinda surprised that he isn't able to speak like any toddlers his age should. He has a normal growth and weight which is hardly surprising because he has a voracious appetite. Despite that, he is not a chubby kid. He is also very active, always jumping up and about, every second that he is awake. That kid doesn't know when to stop. He likes to wreck things too. Everything that stands in his path will be destroyed in a blink. My living room always look like it has been hit by a tornado.

He has very little attention span. Many times, I tried to read him a book and after one or two paragraph, he'd become fidgety and wiggles like a worm in a heated pan. Fortunately, he has no problem watching cartoons on tv. He could sit there for a good hour, without changing his sitting position, chuckling at the sight of his favorite cartoon characters. This is also the time I could catch my breath ... pheww!

From my observation, little B is a loner kid. He doesn't seem to need friends around him. I attribute that as being the only son and also the smallest in the family, he has grown attached to me as I'm the one who has been taking care of him since he was born. So he has no direct contact with other kids his age besides his 2 primary schooling sisters. Despite his inability to talk properly, little B possesses other remarkable ability. I've seen quite a number of times how he arranged the dining chairs in a circle position, in a straight line position and sometimes in an abstract position flawlessly. He is also capable of stacking up objects according to its shapes and sizes and seem to be in deep concentration when he does that. And he also likes to dismantle the tv/astro remotes and has strong fascination with anything electronics.

So back to the doctor's visit, he has recommended us to see a speech therapist if little B still hasn't talked by the age of 3. That advice itself has got me wee bit anxious.

Driving up the wall

Now that the great election is over, I guess most of us ordinary citizens by now had resumed our lives back to normal. To those who won big time, congratulations and to those who lost big time; well, what can I say. You sucked in your job. Better luck next time? Sing the blues, kapisch! To those who accepted their defeats graciously, thats the way to go man. To those who are still in denial, snap out of it for goodness sake. To those who are in the power now, do your job diligently and restore our faith. Make it happen!

Its the first term school holidays this week and we've been mulling over and over again to repaint our house since like 5 years ago. Each time the subject is brought up, we would argue with remeh temeh things like, what color to use, which brand to buy, budget enough or not, got time to do it or not, where to dump the kids, they will kacau more than helping out...yadda yadda yadda and in the end, we'll only end up with nothing but empty can (read: tong kosong). Talk talk talk, no action. Sheesh.

You just have to look at these pictures to understand our agony why we need to repaint our walls. Sangat malu nak ajak orang datang ke rumah ok.

1) where are the clowns...send in the clowns. is that a clown or what?

2) doodles doodles on the wall

who is the real culprit of all...

3) picasso in the making?

4) ninja turtle in blue? awesome...

5) rain rain go away. come again another day. the sun wants to come out and play...

6) I give up. I dont know what that is...

After much deliberation, we've decided to put repainting on hold, again, at least until little B had turned 7. He has picked up where his sisters left off...sigh!

He's baaaack!

More mature and wiser this time. The man who whips his enemies' arses with a lash instead of shoot with a gun, hates the sight of snakes, his naughty smirk, his signature fedora hat. He's the real deal.

Welcome back Harrison Ford!

Solitude

*picture has nothing to do with this post


The husband is off to the Middle East tonight. Ready to leave on the jet plane as I'm writing this. And starting tonight....

I'm having the bed all by myself for the next 5 days. Yeehar!

At the risk of sounding like an ungrateful wife, I am enjoying every bit of moment without him. Don't get me wrong. Its not that I don't like having him around. I do so very much. Its just that sometimes, husbands and wives need to get their own space, away from each other, in order to function better. Do you get what I mean? Sometimes an absence (short period of time) of someone you love dearly makes the heart grow fonder.

What can I say. I'm an insatiable biatch. Conventional I-love-you, you-love-me seem so 18th century. Text-messaging can be monotonous. Email is so business like and lack intimacy. So this works out fine for me. Stay away from each other for a little while, with minimal contact and the next thing I know, we're one happy shiny couple....(wink and grin!)

Works everytime.

untitled

we are 2 days away from polling day and already the use of the indelible ink had been cancelled by SPR!

how appropriate!

was it an act of cowardliness by the coalition party? beats me.

ah, politics and elections just give me the creeps.