Time for a Medical Check-Up..

Oh my, more than two months without a post...I don't know what happened to me. Must have caught the lazy bug..lol. Anyway, it's time to get rid of whatever bug I had and start blogging again. Well, for a start the hubby and I went for a medical check-up about a week ago at Kota Bharu. The last time I had a full check-up was about 5 years ago! (that's bad for over 50s like me..). It's a first for the hubby, though. Here are some pics of what we went through for about 5 hours at the Medical Centre:

Reception: still empty because we were quite the Eager Beaver..

The Hubby looking apprehensive being his first time (we don't exactly love hospitals!)

After the weighing and blood pressure-taking (which is normal, Alhamdulillah),  waited to be X-rayed

The X-ray room..

Next, the dreaded mammogram testing. The side views had  to be done twice and for both (aarrgh..)

You hold this machine up with both hands and it calculates your BMI and fat percentage (I failed..haha)

Blood-taking.. (Google image: am too scared to look, ok)

Waiting to be Echo-tested..

The machine I would be hooked up to..

There you go..heart functioning perfectly..(Alhamdulillah..)

The hubby did his Echo-test by walking on the treadmill..

Next is the ultrasound for organs in lower part of the body and whatever-else the machine could detect..

Last test for me..the pap-smear (I would've run a mile if I'd seen the tool used!)

And lastly, after not having anything to eat since about 10 pm the previous night, lunch at 'Yati', our favourite restaurant in KB (just to get my mind off my fat percentage...lol)

We'll be informed of the results in a week or two but the fact that they haven't call us pronto meant everything is all right, I guess! We hope to be doing this on a regular basis, insyaAllah.

By the way, I hope to be writing again in owh.. two weeks time? Alhamdulillah, we'll be leaving for another umrah on Tuesday, 26th March and be back on the 4th of April. So, insyaAllah I'll have much to blog about..

Let's Bake a Date Cake...

...or how to get rid of those dates accumulating after last Ramadhan... Yeah.... come the fasting month and you start buying dates. You buy extra because you want to give some to other people and then other people will give you some, too. And so by the time Ramadhan and Syawal are over, you realised your fridge is full of little date boxes (I even have some from the year before..) Anyway, what to do with them dates huh? So I tried making a date cake (using a recipe from the internet) and discovered a recipe which uses almost a whole box of dates and delicious as well. (The hubby likes it so much he keeps pestering me to bake the cake like, every time he has a craving for something sweet!) So here's a simple recipe for you:

• 250g pitted dates, chopped
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 1/2 cups boiling water
• 125g butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 2 cups self-raising flour, sifted

Remember to pit the dates first before weighing them...

Chop the dates

Now add the boiling water over the chopped dates and bicarbonate soda. Leave to cool

In the meantime, beat sugar, butter and vanilla until creamy. Then add the eggs one at a time and beating well after each addition. (I use a food processor. Using an electric mixer is much simpler, I think - my mixer is in our other home unfortunately)

You will find the mixture rather runny

Now add the flour....

...alternating it with the dates mixture

Once everything is mixed well together, pour into a cake pan (which has been greased well)

Put into a 180 degree oven for about 45-50 minutes

Ta..da..

Moist and yummy...

Packed some for the hubby to take to his Happy Circle meeting..guaranteed to disappear before meeting ends..lol

Only 2 more boxes to go!

Last Entry for 2012

Today is the last day for 2012...and it's been raining non-stop from this morning. We got back from Klang at about 1 am this morning after spending about a week away from home. While we were away, some parts of Terengganu was flooded (Alhamdulillah our home is on higher ground). It had stopped raining a couple of days apparently but a second 'wave' has started and well, it's still pouring... Anyway, the hubby was away in Melbourne for a Corelle Shopping Spree while I stayed in Meru having an alone-time... He was taking advantage of the Boxing Day Sale at this time of the year. In Melbourne, he stayed with our second son and the first son coincidentally arrived from Adelaide around the same date bringing along his family so the hubby got to see our grandsons, too.. (and I just got to see the pictures only...*sigh*). They came in a motor-home so the hubby had no problems with transportation for the boxes and boxes of Corelle that he bought! He had a grand time in Melbourne indeed...(went fishing, too it seemed). And me...what I did in the meantime in Meru was cleaning up the place (and going on a shopping spree of my own actually...lol!) Yup, too busy dusting and scrubbing...that not a single picture was taken! Okay, not to worry, I have other pictures to share... here goes:

Taken on our way back to Klang: rain all the way from KT but dried up once we reached the Kuantan-KL highway

Raining all day today...

Flooding of a friend's home...

A school in Kuala Berang.. those kids will be having extended holidays!

Google image: Flooding in Kuala Terengganu...

Next, pictures from the the hubby's camera taken on his holiday in Melbourne:

Umayr showing he wanted 3 of something or rather... (he can be very insistence if you take him shopping!)

Ammar looking pretty grown up with his hand in his pocket!

And little Amru oblivious to the frenzied shopping probably going around him..

Corelle Sale!

The motor-home parked beside Bang Ngah's 'cabin-house' which is not much bigger...lol

Here's a picture of what hubby bought for me from Melbourne:

Summer fruits - nectarines, peach, apricot and cherries... yum!

But this one I like very much..thank you so much my hubby ya habibi..!

Daughter green with envy...but hey, her daddy bought her THREE pairs of Cotton On shoes!

So...here's wishing everyone a Happy New Year! Resolutions? Always think positive, act positive and be positive... (Law of Attraction okay?)

PERMINT Family Day

It has been raining and raining these past few days... (I do believe the Monsoon season is here at last!) But... life must go on, Monsoon season notwithstanding. So, yesterday we attended PERMINT Family Day (as usual; just the two of us - the family...), a supposedly an out-doorish programme held at the Telaga Batin Scout Camp. Of course the organisers were ready with plan B in the event of a downpour so... eventually all activities were carried out in the 'open hall' (read: dewan terbuka). There must be about a thousand participants including children and babies... and every one of us were given a red t-shirt and a cap... Here are some pics:

Raining cats and dogs...

Filling in the card for the lucky draw...

First activity: aerobic exercise everyone!

Next activity: breakfast - adding back the calories lost in 1st activity...

Of course, speeches...

The Lucky Draw...yeay

One lucky lady won the Bonanza prize: a motorcycle

Time for games: coconut bowling!

Ladies' teams. Have you any idea how difficult it is to bowl with a coconut? (I didn't hit a single pin...lol)

This is what we won at the Lucky Draw...another camera...*sigh* (Alhamdulillah)

We didn't stay long because we had to attend a wedding in the afternoon. The activity for the afternoon was for the kids, anyway...fortunately we didn't bring any! There is also an Annual Dinner coming up for PERMINT staff on the 25th of December but we wouldn't be attending as I will be spending the week in Meru (we are driving home tomorrow in fact) while the hubby goes on a little business trip to Melbourne (to buy more Corelle, what else?)

Stressed...

I haven't sat for an exam for ooh.. ages but yesterday I had to sit for one. For about a year now I have been attending a Tajweed (which is the knowledge and application of the rules of recitation of the Quran so that its reading is as the Prophet Mohammed's [peace and blessings be upon him]) class almost every week. I missed a lot of classes though when I went for that holiday in Australia a couple of months ago... and also when we went for the umrah and the Cairo trip last April. Thus, for a day or two before the exam (always the last minute cramming..) I was almost stressed out - trying to understand and memorise the rules and their applications... And talk about being super-stressed; yesterday morning at the start of the exam, I found myself staring in horror at the question paper handed out... OMG, I couldn't believe my eyes, it was in Jawi! (By the way, Jawi is an Arabic alphabet for writing the Malay language.) I don't remember ever learning Jawi at school because my late (Allahyarham) father sent me to English Medium school (at the time..eons ago..) and everything is 'Romanised'. But somehow I did learn how to read Jawi somewhere along the way, Alhamdulillah, (usually takes me about twice the time to read things in Jawi...) though writing it is certainly out of the question! I'll make a mess of the spelling (and the fact that they kept changing the rules didn't help) Anyway, as I was about to pass out, I gathered my wits about me and consoled myself to the fact that they were multiple-choice questions and I wasn't required to write any Jawi! Well...anyhow, I think I did all right, Insha allah, even though I didn't get all the answers correct! I think it's a good thing that we have exams for this subject because it makes you study and learn seriously and thus remember the rules... So... stress is not always bad, people!

The Jawi script..

Pictures of my classmates and I doing our exams at the Institut Quran (IQ): 

Snails for Lunch (yikes!) and the recipe, too..

The other day we went grocery shopping and I found some siput sedut sold at the supermarket. I was delighted because we have never seen this delicacy sold in this part of the world (Kuala Terengganu that is) One of our favourite food which I haven't cooked myself for quite a long, long time; though we did buy some cooked one for lunch about 3 weeks ago when we were back in Meru.  What is siput sedut you might ask (if you are not a native of Malaysia). Siput is snail in English and sedut means suck. I suppose the name came about due to its edibility and the means to eat it is by sucking through the wide end of the snail. However, its scientific name is actually: 

 Cerithidea obtusa is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Potamididae.^[1] The Obtuse Horn Shell also known as "Mud Creeper" is a relatively common snail found in muddy coastal areas. It grows to around 5-6 cm. It is used as food in Southeast Asia where it is known by the name "Siput Sedut" or "Belitung". (thank you Mr.Google)

There you go.. So how do you cook them? Usually masak lemak cili padi (cooked with hot chillies and coconut cream). Of course, we normally eat them with rice... So, here's what you need to do for a yummy snail dish:

This is what it looks like after cleaning with lots of water. What I got from the supermarket was a muddy mess (they are mud creepers?) of about half a kilo (enough for about three people..or two if you are really into snails..!)

To make sure the snails are really squeaky clean swirl in cut lemon grass leaves..

Next, you need to cut off the tip of shell of each snail (this is going to be quite tedious if you are feeding an army..). You can either use the kitchen scissors or smash with your stone pestle). If you don't do this bit, you will not be able to suck out the flesh.

The ingredients, from top: chillies (you don't need much because if the dish is too hot, your throat and lips will be on fire with all the sucking that you need to do, believe me), lemon grass, turmeric and dried asam gelugor.

Two 200ml boxes of this - coconut cream

Crush and grind the chillies and turmeric until fine..

Also crush the bottom part of your lemon grass stalks

Put everything (pounded ingredients, lemon grass, coconut cream plus a cup of water) into a pot and cook over  medium fire for about 20 to 30  minutes. Stir once in a while so that the coconut cream wouldn't curdle AND don't forget the salt okey!

Ta..da..enjoy your erm..snails! (tip on eating these: if you're squeamish, don't  peek at what you are about to swallow..lol)