Did James Dean like chocolates?

One of my varied interest which, I must confess, I am not very good at (YET) is cooking.

Tapi I tak suka cooking yang bangsa you have to spend berjam-jam kat dapor tu. Where is the fun in that? I like the kind yang people masak, then I makan! And comment! Macam Food Critique gitu!

Seronoknya kalau dari dulu I tak menyusahkan kepala buat Math. I should have taken journalism! As a journalist I maybe suited to the Life and Times section kot? Tapi nak buat macam mana...the rebel in me would not kow tow to deadlines. So there goes...

(That's handsome James Dean in Rebel without a cause-incidentally adik2 yang tak kenai Dean, he's the one who said Live Fast, Die Young and leave a good-looking corpse. I tell you...that's why he died at 24!)

Anyway, cooking yang menjadi kegemaran I ialah desserts macam blueberry pie, apple pie, apple crumble, chocolate cake and cornish pie, pizza dan yang sewaktu dengannya,...get the drift? I suka yang boleh cepat-cepat masak and cepat-cepat boleh keluar dari kitchen. And I suka yang end product dia bukan setakat boleh dimakan, tapi juga chantique!

So that's why I am learning how to make chocolates now. Before long, I tak payah menggemukkan badan on Cadbury or Hershey's but my own brand of handmade and homemade chocolate.

Sapa nak rasa, boleh mai rumah masa Raya nanti. And when the blog is ready, feel free to browse and order from the Merry Chocolatiers!

!



(Walaupun gambar ni bukan choc I buat tapi I kidnap from Black Dinah Chocolatiers, I sumpah...coklat I pun nampak macam gini gak!)

So what's the connection between James Dean and chocolate making? I don't know...Ask me another day...)

Sapa kata perempuan lemah?

My day started early yesterday.

At 7, I was hanging my laundry, at 8 I was feeding the cats, At 8.30 I was at the airport to pick up Yanti (my youngest sister by the same mother and father, not some INDON girl my mum adopted), by 8.45 we were at MakNgah's house for jejak kasih session (Mak Ngah is a leading contender for the Neng Yatimah award, she weeps buckets for every reason you can think of and every reason you can't think of. Since she was the one who kept house for us when Yanti was a baby, you can imagine the river she cried yesterday having not seen Yanti since a year ago)

At 9.15 we were in the auto car wash (everybody was beginning to suspect that Proton has come out with a new color for SAGA- off white, kinda yellowish, streakish...you get it?) By 9.30 we were already in PLUS highway heading to SP.

The real agenda was to visit Bapak at the hospital, but visiting time isn't until 1.00pm so there was time to kill. After all bapak was undergoing bronchoscopy, and he was not expected out of the O.T till mid day.

At 10.10 we were at Cik Ja's house to pick her and Ida, and by 11.10 we were in USM to visit Ayang, she had just finished her lectures and we squeezed her into the car and went back to her room. Oh penat nya!

(The mother plus 4 fairyGodmothers at Desasiswa Tekun USM)

This little boy couldn't understand what the big deal is in stopping him from visiting kak Yang's room...We made him stand guard at the entrance, after all the sign did not refer to any age limit. (HEHEHE! Saja nak bully, syok!)

By 12.15 we headed back to SP, visited Bapak and was informed he was well enough to be discharged the next day, but he would have to undergo MRI on Sunday. Alhamdulillah, GOD is Great and Beneficient especially in Ramadhan!

By 3.00 we were visiting Kak Fizah's chocolate factory as Yanti wanted to buy Raya gift packs for the Teganu folks. This year is Teganu's turn...so tak yah lah buat muka sedih, kena balik Teganu gak!

By 5 we were at Ja's for solat and to take a breather. By 6.15 we were on the highway again heading to Astar for ifthar with Man's family at Spring Leaf. SIL kami belanja makan lah weh! Immediately after, I unloaded Yanti and Makngah to Man and hurried back to catch Maghrib and Tarawikh.

So much for what I planned. After Maghrib, I put my head on the pillow to straighten my spinal cord and when I woke up it was 12 midnight, the telephone was screaming cos BIG boss was back and nak masuk rumah tak boleh sebab rumah was latched from inside. There flew my Tarawikh for the first time this Ramadhan.

Betul lah ~MANUSIA MERANCANG, ALLAH MERANCANG,
TAPI PERANCANGAN ALLAH LAH LEBIH BAIK"

BUKAN HATI TAK CINTA

Yesterday was 31 August and our 52nd Independence day.

There was no entry from me to mark the day.

Bukan sebab hari tu tak bermakna that I did not immortalize the day with an entry, just that a lot of thought was racing through my mind.

52 tahun! Sekiranya negara ini adalah seorang insan, pada umur 52 tahun, seseorang itu telah sepatutnya mencapai tahap kematangan yang memberangsangkan. Sesetengah dari kita pun telah menjangkau usia emas dan berada dalam kategori sama tua atau sama muda dengan Malaysia, it depends on how you look at it. Do you feel that your life on earth has been too long or too short?

Yang penting bukanlah mencapai kemerdekaan secara lahiriah semata. To attain is not as difficult as to maintain, I always believe. The hard work is in actually preserving and improving!

Kemerdekaan yang hakiki adalah yang di dalam hati. Kemerdekaan yang sebenar adalah dalam penghambaan diri kepada Yang Maha Esa. True freedom, true victory lies in submission to GOD Rabbul `Alamin. How can you not be free, when there is only GOD in your life, everything including, solat, ibadah, hidup dan mati lillah hi rabbil `alamin? (iftitah)

Apakah anak-anak muda negara in telah mengisi kemerdekaan negara dan diri dengan sebaiknya? Pencarian di utube menyedihkan. What a terrible loss to the family , what a terrible loss of potential to the nation, what a terrible waste of time and resources, what a terrible waste of life!

Nama-nama aruah yang terkorban dek aksi merempit , apis, emy, wan, pudin...rata-rata anak Melayu yang sia-sia menggadai nyawa...untuk apa? Untuk di kenang aksi mereka dalam cyberspace dengan kata-kata RIP! RIP? Tak pernah ke kamu dengar...it 's not how you die, but what you die for!? Di mana cinta kamu kepada ibubapa, kepada kekasih, kepada negara, kepada agama untuk diabadikan dengan RIP! Dan kalau analogi di teruskan ke amalan ibadah yang lain, adakah boleh disifatkan kurang ajar kalau ditanyakan bahawa boleh kah kamu berharap untuk berehat dalam aman di sana?

Semurah itu kah nyawa? Pada umur begini, the ball is at your feet...tendanglah ke arah mana yang nak kamu tuju, kenapa jalan begini yang kamu cari?

Pada adik-adik, anak-anak sekelian, hargailah nyawa, isi kan lah jiwa kamu dengan segala yang berfaedah. Jalan ke arah sana masih panjang tapi jangan digadaikan dengan sesuatu keseronokan yang bersifat sementara. Ingatlah bahawa setiap kita di beri modal oleh Allah iaitu MASA, dan bila tiba detiknya, tidak akan dipercepatkan ataupun dilambatkan walaupun sesaat.

Al Ankabut (The Spider) Surah 29 Ayat 64 cites:

What is the life of this world but amusement and play? but verily the
Home in the Hereafter,- that is life indeed, if they but knew.

Tafseer by Abdullah Yusuf Ali

AN ETERNITY IS A LONG TIME TO SPEND IN REGRET!