Berbuka @ Dome

The residents of Danau Kaseh spent the afternoon at Mid Valley Megamall today & planned to berbuka at Chilli's. The kids always look forward to having a meal at Chilli's as we rarely get to go there. Unfortunately, when we arrived at Chilli's at 6pm, we were greeted by an unbelievably long queue! Looking into the restaurant, we knew there was no chance for us to get a seat before berbuka. Most of the seats were taken by other Muslim families who were waiting for berbuka. So grudgingly, we had to change plans... & went to Dome instead. It was the kids' first time at Dome & they were not so happy with this turn of events... Surprisingly though, this turned out to be one of the best berbuka we had this Ramadhan!

The service at Dome was excellent! The waitresses who waited on us were very friendly & we were given complimentary sirap bandung selasih & kurma for berbuka. The food was delicious & came just in time for berbuka. The Melting Moments & Tiramisu were perfect desserts to end our meal. The kids gave Dome a thumbs-up! Here are some pictures to drool over...

Grilled Chicken in Tumeric Sauce made to perfection

Papa's Choice - Lamb Stew

Adlan & Hakim waiting for Berbuka..

Anas passing time with his dinosours

Adlina, all smiles with her Tiramisu

Melting Moments - Seriously Yummy!

Viennese Coffee - perfect with the desserts to end your meal

Dome. We'll be back! (^_^)

Last working week before Raya

It's the last working week before Raya & everything is suddenly TOP URGENT. Everyone wants their matters resolved & agreements signed before Raya. Now, now, now!

But as I had written once before in a previous posting, somehow when you work under pressure, you can get a lot done. You stretch yourself & challenge your mental & physical capabilities. You will even surprise yourself! After the job is done, the satisfaction is enormous.

So, Monday was finalizing drafts & resolving issues. Tuesday was preparing a power point presentation for a talk I was asked to give on Thursday. Wednesday we had an Agreement signed (this is THE Agreement that have been giving me brain-freezes the past 2 months - & with this Agreement, we are getting an Aerorail system in Malacca soon - the first one in Malaysia). Thursday I had to give the talk to Company Directors (for State companies & agencies) about Corporate Governance & the Code of Ethics in a Seminar organized by the State Government. Today is Friday. TGIF! But I'm expecting a fully crammed day ahead as it's the last working day before Raya.

The silver lining is that we will be closed the whole week next week! Yaaa-hooo!!!

Can't wait for Raya...

(^_^)

Bread Pudding

Crispy at the top & soft on the inside

This is the easiest bread pudding recipe & the preparation time is less than 10 minutes. It's great for working mothers who haven't got much time to spare before dinner. If your kids love bread & butter, this is the perfect dessert for them. My kids love it!

You will need:-

6 slices of bread

1 egg

1/2 cup of sugar

2 cups of fresh milk

butter

2 tbsp raisins/sultanas (optional)

Method:-

1. Spread butter thickly on each slice of bread. Break each bread into quarters & put in a bowl.

2. Put egg, sugar, raisins & milk into the bowl. (I usually skip the raisins as Adlina & Anas do not like them!) Mix well & make sure the bread is totally soaked. (Jangan sampai roti hancur)

3. Bake in oven at 170C for 40 minutes.

Serving option:-

Can be served plain or with vanilla ice-cream or custard cream. Yummy!

Have fun trying out the recipe!

(^_^)

 

Officially Older

I'm officially in my last year of being 30-something. Feel so old today!

Self-reflecting on this milestone in life, I ask myself: what have I achieved in the 39 years of my life? Having established a law practice & leading a good team of people, living in a nice home that I love or being in control of my time to a large extent? Alhamdulillah, I am really very thankful for all these but personally, I would say that my greatest achievement is, above all else, being married to my soulmate & having 4 beautiful children; and having a close-knit family & very supportive friends.  All that I have is a great blessing from Allah.

364 days to 40... sigh...

(^_^)

Early Birthday Surprise

I always love Fridays but today was extra special! 

It started out with a meeting early this morning with Raha (a friend first, a client second!) and when she came in, she brought with her Birthday Cupcakes which are really sweet & wonderful! I was lost for words. Thank you ever so much to Raha & Noraini for being so thoughtful.. Rasa sebak pulak. Cantik sangat the cupcakes rasa sayang nak makan... (But of course, bila sampai kat rumah, as soon as buka puasa, all the kids attacked the cupcakes!). Note to my cousin Shikin: thanks for introducing the cake-maker to us..

The bear at the top is wearing a lawyer's wig :-)

Actually my birthday is not until Sunday. & I'm trying to make it as low-key as possible because it's my last year of being 30-something (next year, the BIG 4-zero will kick in. Getting old la..). Anyway, after our meeting, just as I was walking out of the office to another meeting at 11.30am, I received another birthday surprise from another friend. It's a beautiful Denni bracelet. Thank you Puan Siti.. I really didn't expect this. Rasa nak pakai tadi but it's not officially my birthday yet.. :-)

Rushed back home after my meeting. I was one of the 8 lawyers in Melaka who were invited to Berbuka at Istana Melaka this evening hosted by Tun & Toh Puan. I've never been to Istana Melaka, so it was with mixed feelings when I accepted the invitation: excited to be going to the Istana for the first time, but sad that Zaharim couldn't be with me for the occasion. It went quite well. Food was so-so but I was seated with the other lawyers, so the catching up was good. The Istana is built on a hill in Bukit Beruang & from where I parked,  I could see the lights from Jusco, Melaka Mall & the houses around Ayer Keroh. Very pretty.  I left just before Isyak prayers as I couldn't wait to go home..

Then came another surprise & this one was the most special. Zaharim bought a tiny early birthday cake for Mama, the kids sang happy birthday & they all gave Mama birthday presents 2 days early! 

Colourful wrappers! <3

I got a camera from my Kaseh! It's perfect for my blog entries!! He must have carefully chosen this gift as I've been borrowing his camera every time I needed to take pictures for my postings! :-D Thank you so, so much darling & thanks Adlan, Hakim, Adlina & Anas for the birthday gifts & card - I love them. Love you all so much. Tonight was really special..

What a perfect way to start my weekend... (^_^)

Raya Hampers

It's 12 days to Hari Raya & this is normally the time when I get the help of a very talented friend to pack up hampers for my clients. However, Linda is in confinement this Ramadhan & I didn't want to impose on her while she is recuperating. I was quite desperate as I didn't know anyone else who could do it for me. So, I decided to pack the hampers myself! I know this sounds too ambitious, but I didn't have any choice. Kes terpaksa la ni..  

I made a checklist of the things I needed:-

1. Fruitcakes - ordered from my neighbour Noridah

2. Baskets - from SSF, KL (see earlier post on De-Stressing)

3. Ribbons - also from SSF 

4. Kain Organza - from Nagoya at Jalan Bunga Raya, Melaka

5. Flowers - from Kedai Bunga at Jalan Bunga Raya

6. Glue Gun - also from the same Kedai Bunga

So, this afternoon after office, I started packing the Raya hampers at home. Here are some of the hampers packed by yours truly. Linda, if you are reading this, please don't laugh ok? :-) 

The basket from SSF is really nice -

feel like keeping one for myself!

It was quite a struggle at first especially cutting the organza into the correct size! (Pakai gunting yang sangat tumpul that I took from Adlina's room!) But after a couple of hampers, I started to get the hang of it. It's really quite fulfilling after seeing the result. You gals should try it la. Quite therapeutic also..

Just hope that my clients won't realize that the hampers were packed by an amateur! 

(^_^)

Spring Cleaning

It's spring cleaning time in Danau Kaseh! Since Raya is just around the corner, the task of cleaning up the house must start from now! Fortunately, the kids were more than happy to help :-)

We started in the morning with getting rid of all the rubbish in the kids' bedrooms & this alone took almost 3 hours! Broken toys & crayons, candy wrappers, torn pages of magazines & notebooks, pen covers etc were all mixed up in the toy boxes! (Mothers, I'm sure you can identify with this...). Clearing the stuffs from under the beds...OMG! I need not explain further! Dust, dust, dust everywhere! I'm glad we bought the plastic boxes that fit under beds at Ikea a few years ago. They are so useful to organize things. Adlina & Hakim helped take off all the stickers which Anas sticked on his shelves (!!!). 

Meanwhile, Adlan & Hakim were forced to re-organize their bookshelves which looked like a hurricane had swept through the shelves. Needless to say, Mama's pot-pet-pot-pet didn't go down too well with the boys this morning. Somehow, the magazine organizers that were supposed to hold books were filled with everything else but books, & books were strewn everywhere else. Sigh...

Mawar, our maid (my PA at home!) took down the curtains at the living room for a wash. It was a nice sunny Sunday & all the curtains dried in no time. Took a break in the afternoon & then cleared the store room & re-organized things. It's unbelievable how much rubbish we accumulate! Nak buang sayang pulak... So, everything were put in storage boxes! Feel so much better now after Spring Cleaning Chapter 1 is over!

Spring Cleaning Chapter 2 will come next week...