A Short Trip to Melbourne

The Hubby and Kak Lang have already arrived home in Malaysia by now... alhamdulillah. They took the flight from Melbourne early this morning (1.40 am). From Adelaide, the hubby was supposed to drive with Kak Lang to Melbourne on Sunday (they had to bring back Bang Ngah's car) It wasn't exactly planned but at the last minute we decided that I would make the journey to Melbourne as well (wanted to spend more time with the hubby I guess..lol) and then take a flight back to Adelaide this afternoon. As we intended to spend the night on the road, we didn't start the journey early on the Sunday. In fact we had time to attend a friend's Eid feast and I managed to marinade 2 fish fillet and made fish ball vegetable soup before we started our journey...

Some pics at the friend's home:

Hubby making new friends

The hostess, Rusliza (PR in Australia) barbequing chicken which tasted heavenly (only marinaded with curry powder, chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt and sugar)

The spread.. (somebody even brought apam balik - not usually home-made even in Malaysia)

Nasi impit and peanut sauce (traditional Eid food..)

Laksam? (people can get very creative in producing Malaysian food locally)

Hubby meeting someone from his kampong.. (what a small world)

We left Rusliza's (and hubby, Nizam - both from Negeri Sembilan, my homestate) house at about 12.30 pm to start off our journey. Here are pics taken along the journey:

Leaving Adelaide - Adelaide Hills I think..

Strange-looking plants along the way

Another one..

I thought I'd never see this sight in Australia..but I did, I did!

Vineyards..

You can't go too fast..and you can't go too slow.. (I think we had to creep to take this picture)

The daughter and the dinosaur..

We actually saw 2 kangaroos by the roadside during the night but I couldn't get the camera fast enough to shoot..arrgh!

Strange statues - didn't have time to read the signs as we wanted to reach the Blue Lake before sundown..

Trees planted for lumber - when are we going to follow suit?

Blue Lake at last - at Mount Gambier

Hubby - freezing (nearly sundown actually)

We parked in the seaside town of Apollo Bay at about three-ish in the morning for maghrib and isha prayers, slept in the car and woke up for the dawn prayer and slept again to start our last leg of the journey to Melbourne. More pics:

Stopped to check out the Split Point Lighthouse

Nearing Melbourne (through bug-squashed wind screen..)

We headed straight to Bang Ngah's house and after emptying the boot of the car (and using his bathroom) we went shopping! Yes, the hubby was here especially to stock up for his Corelle business. So off we went to Corelle heaven..

Boot of the car filled with boxes of Corelle bought in Adelaide

Bang Ngah's little house..

...also filled with Corelle

Breakfast first at Hava Kebab before serious shopping..

One kebab enough for 3 people..

Hubby in his Corelle heaven - calculating his profits I bet..!

Kak Lang and I window-shopped

Got myself a discounted watch from this shop

Kak Lang got herself a little handbag and a pair of 6-inch heels (how do you walk on those things?)

Hubby packing boxes of Corelle for shipping (tools specially bought from Malaysia)

Ready for shipment (had to be put outside the house cabin)

Dinner at Secret Recipe Melbourne Central (the manager paying, of course!)

The Cypress-Turkish Mosque for prayers

Inside mosque..

Before Bang Ngah send his Dad and sis to the airport, he drove me to my friend Joy's (of the Swimming with Joy entry) house for me to spend the night..so grateful for the comfy bed after a night in the car.. poor Hubby and Kak Lang had to spend their night..or rather early morning on the plane..

A comfortable bed to rest my weary limbs.. (thanks Joy)

So this afternoon I caught a (Virgin Airline) plane back to Adelaide. Bang Ngah dropped me at the airport.. An amusing incident after I went through the bag-check: I was one of the 'lucky' passengers to be chosen at random and be scanned for explosives (whoa.. and the lady officer was ever so polite, though..) and I thought I'm the sweet little old lady (okey omit the 'old') who doesn't pose as a threat to anyone!

Leaving Melbourne..

Arriving Adelaide..

Adelaide Airport

 Well that's my short trip to Melbourne..what a tiring 'holiday'..*sigh*

Eidul-Adha at Down Under

Two years ago the whole family celebrated Eidul-Fitr in Adelaide and now this year we spent Eidul-Adha here as well. The difference was the absence of my youngest, Adik, who couldn't join us as he has started his classes, in Cairo, Egypt... (miss you lots, babe!). The hubby and Kak Lang arrived from Malaysia in Melbourne on the 25th and after picking them at the airport, Bang Ngah and the two of them made the 16-hour journey to Adelaide... (it's not supposed to be that long but with stops along the way..) Anyway, they arrived about 8.30 pm Thursday night, alhamdulillah. (Bang Ngah couldn't stay long so he took a flight back to Melbourne yesterday morning) The next day, 26th October was Eidul-Adha and unlike Eidul-Fitr 2010 the prayers this time was held in a field at Bonython Park. The congregation must have multiplied since then...alhamdulillah. Here are some pics of the day (which was freezing - it must have been like 10 degress..brrr):

Waiting for prayers to start

The men's section..

The ladies section..

Bouncing castle to entertain the kids

The imam giving the khutbah.. (love the little girl's hair-do in the fore-ground!)

The daughter posing for a picture

Bang Long's friends enjoying the food we brought..

Joining in the picnic breakfast

Digging in..

The hubby with an Iraqi friend married to a Malaysian

Grandsons' antics..

The messy eater at it again..

Grandsons playing with friends

Umayr having a go on the bouncing castle before we went home..

For our Eid meal I cooked rendang (again) and nasi impit. This time the nasi impit was made the traditional way. Not that they don't sell the instant ones here but we forgot to buy  them before the shop closed the day before. So here's a short tutorial for those who may get in the same boat! Well, you need to cook  the rice in the proportion of: 1 cup rice to 2 1/2 cups water. Immediately after it's cooked (while still hot) you will need to press the soft rice into a squarish container (so you have more cubed-shaped rice).

Lay a clean plastic sheet on the pressed rice

Press again with your hands (and your weight)

Now you need to do this the night before because the rice needs to be really compressed and cooled or else you'll have difficulty cutting it. And over-night you'll need to put some heavy object on top.. so here's what I used..:

Heavy object to compress rice..

I couldn't help but chose the particular book title above (below Dan Brown's) as the tool.. now they could add the book as having one extraordinary use.. (lol)

The next day..easy to cut

Perfect cubes masyAllah

The chicken rendang to go with the nasi impit

A family picture before Bang Ngah's flight back to Melbourne

 Happy Eid everyone!

Ammar.. and a Carrot Cake Recipe

It was Ammar's 2nd birthday yesterday (22nd of October) and his father's birthday was 3 days earlier (19th of October). So here's wishing both of them:

Here are some pics of Ammar:

Made with PicsArt

Loves the trampoline..

A..huh! Eating before paying..

Ammar's happy face (rarely caught on camera)

After baby had his bath, these two decided they'll fit in the tub, too...

Going out in cold weather to send big brother to school

Happy time on the swing

Eating his favourite food - fruity yogurt (messy eater this one..)

Ammar and his birthday (carrot) cake - because he loves carrot so much! (unfortunately he loves it more in a soup than in a cake... nevertheless he enjoyed the frosting,,)

Carrot cake that I made for Ammar

I'd like to share this recipe that I probably got off the internet (I've got it in my list of carrot cake recipes for like ages) and I'd normally give credit but unfortunately I didn't keep the links.. Anyway, the recipe is extremely simple to make and I'm posting it so that the daughter-in-law can refer to if she wants to make it. (she enjoyed the cake but picked out the walnut as the baby's tummy kept rumbling after feeding after she ate it with the nuts..)

Carrot Cake  

• 2 cups self-rising flour (there was no self-raising flour in the house so I googled: to make SR flour you mix/sieve 1 cup plain flour to 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Therefore in this case I sieve 2 cups plain flour with 2 1/2 teaspoon BP and 1/2 teaspoon salt) 

• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (maybe 1 teaspoon will do..) 

• 1 1/2 cups white sugar (the original recipe called for 2 cups and I thought it might be too sweet so I used less) 

• 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil 

• 4 eggs 

• 3 cups grated carrots 

• 1 cup chopped walnuts (omit this if you like)

Frosting 

• 1 (225g) package cream cheese 

• 1/2 cup margarine, softened 

• about 400 g icing sugar (less if you don't want it too sweet) 

• 1 cup chopped walnuts (in original recipe, this is mixed with the frosting but I used them for sprinkling only so I needed less walnuts) 

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease two 9 inch round cake pans (we don't have these so I used a rectangular Pyrex size as shown in picture above..)
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon and sugar. Add the oil and eggs, mix until blended, then stir in the carrots and nuts. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans (I used only one pan)
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes (it took longer for my cake because it was thicker.. so about 50 minutes will do or until a toothpick inserted came out clean - too long in the oven would dry out the cake) in the preheated oven. A toothpick inserted into the cake should come out clean. Cool cakes on wire racks before removing from pans.
4. To make the frosting, use the second set of ingredients. In a medium bowl, cream together the margarine and cream cheese, add the sugar and cream well. Stir in the nuts and vanilla. Use to fill and frost the cooled cake layers. (obviously I used the frosting on top of the cake only so had some left-over. It would be enough to cover the sides, too if you like)

Happy baking!