Quarantined!

Not to worry, it was a self-imposed one... The daughter returned from Melbourne after nearly two months in Adelaide and a few days in Melbourne visiting her brothers there. A day before her flight home, to our horror, she caught a fever and what with the frequency of people returning from Melbourne, particularly, contacting the deadly Swine Flu, we were sick with worry! However, she did assure us over the phone that it was nothing serious, but the day before her arrival, we were already busy buying foodstuffs to last us for a week in case we were quarantined... Waiting for her at the airport, I envisioned her being escorted out through the arrival lounge with masked nurses but there she was, smiling away as she went through the arrival door (without even a mask!):

Apparently she got through the body heat scanner... However, as she was still having a cold and sneezing now and then, we thought we'll just stay indoors for a couple of days until she's well enough. It's not difficult for me to stay indoors... but for the other two; the daughter wanted desperately to go and register for her new semester and also meet her friends whom she hasn't seen for 2 months (as if they haven't YMed through the holidays..), the hubby had to go out and buy durians because his daughter was craving for one... Anyway, she is just fine now (Praise be to Allah), and let's hope and pray that we are all spared from this terrible disease...

Like Father, Like Son

I got a phone call from my daughter a few days back; she is on vacation in Adelaide, visiting her brother. She was describing to me her nephew's antics (the cute and adorable grandson featured a few posts back), always on the go, cannot sit still, overall making everyone constantly on their feet going after him! Well, it reminds me of HIS father when he was around that age. We were in Cardiff, UK, then. One day, a friend, Hanim who just came from Malaysia came for a visit with her 5-year-old daughter (I think she was around that age, then). My son, Umar was, as usual running around, climbing on the furniture, grabbing the tea-set and doing all sorts of thing a toddler would do. And as the little girl was eyeing him with interest, I was going: "Umar, stop it! Umar, stop it!". Later on, Hanim told me that when they got home, she was telling her husband about the visit and saying that our baby son's name was Umar Faruq. But her daughter interrupted: "No ummi, you got it wrong, the baby's name is not Umar Faruq, it's Umar Stoppit!". Whenever I meet Hanim, we always have a good laugh over it! Here are two scanned pictures of Umar Faruq from the good old days..

Hazy Days...

I think I ought to change the title of my blog since we've been in Malaysia for like, ages now...well actually nearly 2 months. The hubby is still waiting to be called back to Iran to commence with the project but it seems like we'll be in Malaysia for another month or so.. However, at the moment we're not too anxious to go back to Iran, though - what with the political turmoil going on over there. We wouldn't like to be caught in the clashes between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi supporters! Anyway, I hope we'll manage to get back to Iran before summer ends or else we'll be greeted with a dreary wintry landscape! Although.. I'm not terribly excited about the hot, scorching weather we're having in Malaysia at the moment. (Praise be to Allah..but O God, please give us some rain..) It was quite hazy, too a few days back. I caught some pictures then, while we went jogging.. er.. walking.. in the Setia Alam Park. You can see how hazy it was that day. I thought it was silly to be going out for some exercise if you're going to breathe in some foul gasses, but there you are...the hubby said I need the exercise. (anyway, I always manage to get him buy me breakfast; thosei today, nasi kerabu next...hey, those are healthy breakfast you know!) By the way, for all fathers out there: Happy Father's Day! Check out Luther Vandross' 'Dance With My Father Again' - lovely song..

Weddings

It's school break time.. and that means wedding invitations! Last weekend, we attended two weddings. On Saturday it was the wedding ceremony of my good friend Ainon's son Ahmad Zubair. The couple looked lovely in blue... It was also a delightful surprise to meet our daughter-in-law's parents there as well! They came down from Sungai Petani to visit their eldest daughter for the school holidays. We stayed for sometime catching up on the latest news...

The next day, we attended another wedding. The father of the bride is a cook and he cooked for our son's wedding three years ago. And naturally the menu was quite extensive... although they were mostly Javanese-oriented. Anyway, here are two pictures from Ahmad Zubair's wedding and one from the other one (I wanted to take more from the second wedding but my phone camera suddenly refused to cooperate after the first pic - darn!)

Spring Cleaning

I haven't been writing these past few weeks - caught the lazy bug! No.., I was actually a little bit busy with housekeeping; tidying up the old house which has been accumulating junk over the years. The primary school which my children used to go when they were young holds a jumble sale about twice a year for school report day and it is a good opportunity to get rid of stuff and donate to the school as well. So, I have been quite ruthless and got rid of most of the childrens' clothings which I suppose they wouldn't need now that they are not living here anymore.. Except for the daughter who accumulates clothes and shoes and insists she needs all of them even if every inch of her wardrobe and drawers are filled to bursting point! Anyway, the attic certainly looks much tidier and spacious now.. with a little help from the hubby of course.

By the way, thank you Nur Diyanah for the suggestion on yogurt making. I'm sure the hubby will find the tip useful indeed!

I'm posting some lovely pictures of my cute and adorable grandson (any grandmother will say that about her grandchild..). Here they are:

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