Yummy Yogurt

My husband is as pleased as the cat that's got the cream.. or in this case, yogurt! He has been complaining since coming back to Malaysia that the price of his favourite food; the humble plain yogurt is atrocious compared to in Iran. So he has been surfing the internet for make-your-own yogurt recipes. He got one which requires heating 8 parts milk until just before boiling and then letting the milk cool until about 100 degrees F. Add 1 part yogurt (starter) and then keep warm for 10 hours (he wraps the pan with layers of tea towels and placing it in a prewarmed oven). His first two tries were well.. not exactly disasters but watery and not as sour as it should be. I thought he was going to give up but.. anyway, on his third effort; he forgot about the cooling milk and thus it was left longer than the previous experiment (that's how I got most of my pans burnt when he starts warming leftover food..). He added the starter anyway and surprise, surprise the yogurt turned out firm and tasted, well.. like yogurt! It turned out that he got the temperature of the cooled milk wrong - instead of 100 degrees F; he added the starter at 100 degrees C! So now, we have endless supply of yogurt to our hearts' desire.. And that's why my darling husband is as pleased as the cat's that got the erm.. yogurt!

Camping Trip

I just got back from a 'camping' programme. It was at G7 in Perak. We left Klang at about 3.30am on Friday 1st May (Labour day holiday) and arrived home about 9.30pm. We didn't exactly camp, we stayed at Rindu Alam Motel - a dorm-like accomodation, simple, but reasonably clean. I was one of the facsilitators.. the participants had to build rafts, go orienteering, attend workshops, learn self-defense etc. Anyway it was tiring - even for me who didn't have to participate in all the events.. Came back with a sore knee but getting better today. It must be through drinking iced water (or it may have something to do with age..). Have been trying not to drink any iced beverages since coming back from Iran (something easy to do over there with the cold weather). Anyway, have been kicking myself since just now when I remembered I have a blog; for not taking any pictures of the trip (not one!) to paste in here.. aarrgh

Back Home

I'm back in Malaysia now. It's so good to be back. The climate is warmer though - much, much warmer! We arrived on the 18th. I went on Iran Air but the hubby came on Emmirates. I arrived about 6 hours earlier and waited for him (his flight was delayed; so was mine - when it was still in Tehran..) Anyway, when he arrived at about 3.30pm we went home on Qussam's taxi that I called when I arrived in the morning. Well, life is getting pretty busy now that we're home. We attended a daurah last night and met most of our friends. And I'm going to the school tomorrow for an iftar. Plan to bake a cheesecake tomorrow to take there.. And on Sunday, I hope to attend the SMWI at Shah Alam. I still need to go and see Aniz and have a little chat. Anyway, here are some pictures of our travels that I promised:

Adik at the Malaysian Embassy in Cairo

Father and son moment..

Adik and his 'big' friends (two are 'wardens' at the 'hostel')

Street in Cairo (a mix of modern and ancient means of transportation)

Shopping for groceries at supermarket near Adik's 'hostel'

Rumah perlis - where we stayed

Having to cross the tramlines to get to Adik's place from Rumah Perlis

Cairo city

This was taken near the biggest library in the African continent in Alexandria..

With Basyir (my ex-student) who was our guide in Alex

Taken from inside the Citadel in Alex

Taken near the Library

In front of the Citadel

Statue of Alexander The Great near Library

This is one of the entrances into the famous bazaar in Cairo, Khan Khalili

Sights in Cairo..

At Khan Khalili Bazaar

Trip to Tehran

Yesterday, we went to Tehran. We had to go on a weekday as the shops would be open. So, after the hubby got back from work in the afternoon we rushed to the bus station only to find it already full. Therefore we decided to go on the 'microbus' - the first time for us. The vehicle stopped at 'Harem-e-Motaher' (I hope I got the spelling right) metro station which goes to Mirdamat. That was great but the fare was just about RM5 less than a taxi and it was taking us still further from Tehran (about half an hour ride compared to one hour on the bus). However, the cheap metro ticket fare offset the amount... And part of the journey was overground so we got to see some countryside view... And the train was almost empty when we got on so we got seats.

Anyway we stopped at Shouys and got cuttleries and a teapot. It was starting to drizzle then. Then we got on the metro again and stopped at Saadi and yeah... I got myself a new leather handbag! My feet were starting to kill me then so we headed on home. By the time we got to Sadighieah bus station, it started to rain heavily - there was thunder, too, and cold (thank God I brought along my sweater). Well, we reached home about 9.20, tired out...

So today, I stay home but the hubby has gone to Tehran for his Friday prayers.

I want to post pictures but alas with dial-up internet it just takes ages just to post a picture and after the first posting which I have no idea why it was more successful then my later attempts, I have almost given up! Anyway, never fear, we are going back to Malaysia next week and when I get home (sweet home...), I'm going to post lots of picture cos' we have streamyx down there...!

So..here are updated pics:

The metro - underground train

Queuing for tickets (please ignore the terribly misleading date at the bottom..)

Hubby shopping

Hubby enjoying pizza

Farmer's market near home

Walnuts - usually sold whole

More nuts

Gigantic veggies..

Travels to Egypt and Jordan

I haven't been writing for quite sometime because my husband and I have been on an eleven day vacation to Egypt and Jordan. We started our journey on the 13th of March and came back to Tehran on the 24th. We went on Jazeera Airline from Tehran to Alexandria and on coming back we caught a flight from Amman, Jordan to Tehran. It was good to see our youngest son in Cairo. We haven't seen him for about three months. I was also happy to see most of my former students there. Some of them were kind enough to invite us for dinner.

We were in Cairo for about 8 days - extended because the baby wanted us to stay on for a few more days, so we didn't get to spend more days in Jordan as planned. From Cairo, we took a bus to Nuwaiba, and from there a ferry to Aqaba, Jordan. The journey took us like, a day.. Then we spent another 5 hours in a bus to Ibrid where we stayed the night at another former student's and then fly back to Tehran...

Some pics to bring back memories:

In Aqaba, Jordan

At the port - probably queuing for immigration..

Ex-students in Cairo invited us to dinner...

Adik having picture taken at the Citadel in Alexandria.

Ex-student in Ibrid, Jordan serving us breakfast..

Waiting to board the boat at Nuweiba, Egypt.

Guests for Dinner

A few days ago we had guests from Malaysia. They slept at Joe's house upstairs and had dinner at our house. I cooked beef stew - not bad, my very own recipe! And today, I cooked an Indian recipe from my Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cookery Book (which is about 20 years old and falling to pieces). I love the dish because it uses lots of fresh tomatoes. And over here in Iran the tomatoes are really marvellous! Sweet and yummy!

A simple meal

Joe giving the thumbs-up for my cooking (I hope)

Warm Days...

Since the days are getting warmer... we don't need to turn on the heater much during the day. And what I hate most when it starts to get warmer is the insects - flies, ants... no mosquitoes yet though, thank God! The neighbours are starting to wash their carpets and hanging them to dry on the brick walls separating our houses. The dry climate makes carpet drying a cinch. Don't do that in Malaysia or you'll have one smelly carpet if you can't predict the weather...

Drying carpets..