B&B pudding, no, not Bed and Breakfast..

...but Bread and Butter !

Today we had bread and butter pudding for dessert. (Well, actually I ate it well before dinner but the rest, ate it for dessert). It was my first attempt preparing such a desert. I am not particularly keen on raisins when it comes to dessert but I guess this one is not too bad.

It wasn't one of the spur of the moment kinda thing. Mrs Z is nearly 5 months pregnant and is naseous to the smell of cooking and of course, her kitchen too. And so, being a person who loves to cook myself, I take charge of the kitchen almost every other day. Yes, I love to cook. I am not saying that I enjoy cooking 24/7, but, I enjoy cooking when knowing people are anticipating to eat what I am cooking.

2 days ago, Mrs Z requested bread and butter pudding. And hence the dessert today. And tomorrow, I am to fulfill Z request for a marble cake. Last week it was mee bandung, and last weekend, tauhu sumbat.

Back to b&b pudding. I shouldn't have put brioche for a 3rd layer. The top had gone dry since the custard could only soak up the first two layers.

If you'd like to give it a try yourself, here's a simple recipe for it.

Bread and Butter Pudding
Ingredients
1x tin evaporated milk
50g caster sugar
1 x egg
2 x egg yolks
1 x loaf of brioche (or several sweet potato buns you may find in Carrefour)
handful of raisins (or choc chips..as much as you wish)

Custard preparation
*Whisk egg and yolks together with caster sugar.
*On a pan, heat evaporated milk until it started to simmer. Take it off the heat and slowly whisk the milk gradually into the beaten egg.

Method
*cut thin slices of brioche, buttered and arrange nicely (butter side down) into an oven proof dish to form a layer.
*scatter raisins on this first layer of brioche (alternative: choc chips)
*arrange another layer of brioche, and again, scatter the raisins over the 2nd layer.
*Pour custard mix over the brioche layers carefully as not to overflow. Push the top layer downwards slowly to ensure that custard soak up evenly.
*Place the dish into a bigger roasting pan filled with water, and bake it in the oven at 180 deg C for half an hour or until the custard has set.

..and voila..

I am too lazy to snap the photo of my b&b pudding. It has reduced to less than half of its original content anyway.....

But this is how it should look like



Good luck!

Zombie, me.....Please asleep, let me be.

Today I am practically a zombie.

I slept at 3-4 in the morning, woke up with eyes wide opened at 6am. Since it is soon summer, the sun is already up as early as 5am. So at 6am this morning, looked out the window and thought it is already 10 am but when I looked at the clock, No, it is only 6 am!

I couldn't go back to sleep. No, not that I couldn't but I can't.

It's already 8.15 am now. Am feeling sleepy but just can't drift to Slumberland.

This reminds me of my insomnia yrs ago. Total agony. No matter how you toss and turn in bed, countlessly adjust your pillow or pull over duvet/blanket, you just can't sleep. Thanks to the 'good-9-months' insomnia, I have two permanent black rings like the eyes of a panda.

And I hope I am not into that phase again.

I know there are times when I have overslept, but god, please just let me fall asleep, now..pronto.

Twin yolks, twin babies?

There were two plates. Each was nicely filled with two medium toasts and scrambled eggs. Realising that I hadn't made enough scrambled eggs for another 2 plates, I reached for another egg from the chicken porcelain thingy Ms Z has in her kitchen.

I was blankly staring at the water tap as I cracked open the one egg that I had taken, into LO's favourite bowl. As I looked down at the bowl to give it a good beat, I saw two small egg yolks.

Wait a minute!




I looked down at my hands and there were two-halves' shell of one egg. And I was positively sure that the bowl was absolutely empty before cracking the egg.

It had been a twin yolk! I don't know about you, but this is my first time to ever experience this. Never had I experienced getting two yolks from a single chicken egg. Is this common?

I was so excited that I took the bowl into the room and showed it to DH.

"Look!!!"

"Umpph???" *trying hard to lift his eyelids*

"Two egg yolks!!Look!"

I was actually expecting DH to say "So?" because I hadn't told him that it had come from a single egg.

"Uuhh?" *lifting his head off the bed*

"Uuhh... ohh, then you'll be getting twins!!!" *trying to get back to sleep*

"Two egg yolks, from one egg!" *with a disbelieving tone, trying to make a point without realising that DH has hinted so*

"Yelah..I know. Tu tanda nak dapat twin !!" *saying with one eye shut*

I don't believe in such superstition, but if it would be a coincidence, I am more that happy to accept the fact!

:)

Datuk Jimmy Choo and Alleycats

A photo of the Alleycats and Datuk Jimmy Choo.

Thought that it'd be great to share it with you here. I've written about their live gig in Colindale where you could read it here : Alleycats Live

:)

Alleycats LIVE!!

We had started the journey from Basingstoke at around quarter to 3 and arrived Colindale about half past 5. Had underestimated the traffic in central London hence, the delay. *Fingers crossed* . Half of me was saying that we might not make it (to meet Allyecats) and the other me, just stayed optimistic. I was told that the show will begin at 4pm but had no idea how long the show is for.

As we stepped into Oriental City, there they were, the Alleycats!! Unbelievable. All six on the stage, with an appropriately decorated backdrop, complete with a silhouette of the famous two Arumugam brothers clad in bellbottoms, made by what seemed to me, cuttings from black cardboards. The Alleycats' logo was nicely squeezed in beneath.

We were lucky for we had arrived exactly just before the 2nd show begins. (Missed the first one). We soon learnt that there are 3 shows scheduled. First between 4 till 4.45pm, second between 5.30 till 6.15pm and last at 7 till 7.45pm.

People were seated on long benches located at the front of the stage. Almost full. Each member of the band was busy preparing for their next perfomance. David Arumugam (DA) was squatting by the stage, discussing something important with the organiser. And DH was busy focusing the camera on David, Z getting our videocam ready for recording and I, busy finding a good location to enjoy the music that was soon to begin. As the music started, LO had a hard time adapting to the loud live-band music. Half scared, she insisted to be carried and hugged me most of time, refusing to tilt up her head to listen to the excellent music or watch the band performing. At the end of every song, people contently applauded. The crowd grew bigger and bigger and inevitably inundate the concourse area.




The whole performance was very entertaining. Indeed, awesome!! Some guys in front were shaking their booties. During the last song (my favourite one in the show, a zapin song with Tamil lyrics) an indian guy, whom I later learnt a M'sian Indian from the mamak stall at the food court danced wildly to the rendition. I wasn't, at that time, sure whether his act was to justify his undying idolisation towards Alleycats or because he simply loved dancing to the Zapin beat.

DH was really over the moon for seconds after David had started to sing, he recognised the drummer as his long lost friend. Later, we met up and after a brief introduction, he catches up with stories of other acquintances through him (the drummer). He told us that they have been in London since last week and are flying back home tomorrow. They have come to London, fullfilling an invitation from Datuk Jimmy Choo whom have sponsored them all. By the way, he (DJC) was there too. He is just a medium-sized man, looked very humble and calm. He is indeed a person who loves to smile.

Snapped a photo or two with David and Logan. Cool!

Remarked Logan, "...Fantastic camera you have there!" ..and this, I guess will make DH continuously smile in sleep tonight for he is indeed proud of his camera.

The most funniest thing happened though, as we were exchanging words with DA, LO was overly concerned with his afro; she was trying hard to push herself away from me (I was standing near to DA). She was exactly afraid of the physical look of the massive hair !! I had hoped that DA hadn't notice LO's reaction. He brushed LO's cheek and made a remark she looked rather sleepy, though. Hahahaha..



Later we went out of the building and browsed the pasar malam. Saw DJC humbly eating mee (probably mee kari) on a pasar malam table, perhaps surrounded by his family or relatives. And half an hour later, we went inside to the food court to snack on something light before the 3rd show starts. There too, I had spotted DJC eating (yes, again) and David and Logan talking with a group of an Indian family (looked like they already knew each other for a long time). I suddenly had the temptation to snap Datuk's balding head (his back was in my view) but decided not to, after realising it would be a rude thing to do. But, I tell you, later while waiting for my soto ayam, I realised that Datuk was standing and looking around at people around him, and as he was scanning towards my direction his vision seemed transfixed to me (maybe I was imaganing it, or maybe he was just staring blankly, dreaming or maybe I was in the awe mode feeling perasan + jakun hahahaha)

We managed to catch the 3rd show. At the end of it all, someone had requested 'Hingga Akhir Nanti' (or maybe it was everyone's choice) and DA jokingly said...

"Huh? Saya sudah ampat kali nyanyi itu lagu!"

But he sang it again anyway. And the whole audience sang along.

All in all it was one worthy day of an outing. It was worth missing the FA Cup Final game for Arsenal won the cup and plus the fact that we could still watch rerun of the game on Sky tonight.

Well, guys I am too tired to elaborate more. My eyes are now half closed and yet my teeth need brushing.

Enjoy the video of Alleycats. We had only captured them doing the Malay rendition (they did sing other popular English songs including the pops by Maroon 5 and Avril Lavigne). Ohh..loved the way Logan rapped away and danced!!

Last but not least, would like to thank Kak Teh for if it wasn't her blog, we wouldn't have the chance to meet them today.

...'MA KASEEEEEEHHH !!!!!!!!!!!

P/s:- Kak Teh, you didn't have the wig on did you? Had a hard time spotting which one makcik blur is you. Had a wild guess though. Were you the one with white tudung, sequinned denim-like blouse and batik-printed long skirt? And most importantly, sat beside Datuk Jimmy Choo?

Reminiscing the Alleycats' renditions..live in Colindale!

In a few hours time we will be watching Alleycats at the front of our very eyes. *can't wait*.

I remember when I was an undergraduate about 6 yrs ago, Pak Uda came to visit me at the university. He was on a-year course with the British Aerospace and since Farnborough is not that far from my place, he decided to spend the weekend with me. And so he drove a hired MPV, along with 5 other Malaysian friends. That weekend we all went to Isle of Wight, a small island at the south of Southampton. As we had been crossing the channel with the MPV (by ferry), our ears were softly serenaded by Alleycat songs played on the car radio. Apparently, Pak Uda had brought a cassette of his very much adored band, the Alleycats.

"Aaahh..best lagu2 nih" Pak Uda said noddingly.

"Nih lagu masa kecik2 nih"

"Yelah, lagu nih kau kecik lagi, masa tu Pak Uda tengah dating Mak Uda kau"

"Ala, ingat, masa tu Pak Uda rambut afro, dating Mak Uda"

"Ingat pun kau!"

And today, I will get to see the band live in Colindale. I shall snap a few photos with the band and send some copies to Pak Uda. Maybe generously give him an autograph of his idol, David Arumugam or the whole Alleycats.

The band excellently survive adoration from several generation. From when I was just a little girl and during Pak Uda's courting years with Mak Uda, until now I am married with a daughter of my own and Pak Uda married with 3 children with Mak Uda.

"Sampaikanlah salam..cintaku pada-nyiaaa....ladida..."

Oh my little daughter - Part 5

Right after my last salam (zuhur prayer) , LO sneaked into the room. Seeing her looking at me, I held out my arms and as fast as a flash, she ran towards me and we hugged.

"You like mummy hug you?"

"Yeah!!" *nods sheepishly*

"You love mummy?"

"Yes, of course!"

"How much?" our cheeks brush each other's.

"Um, TEN! "

I have never asked her how much she loves me. Intrigued by the answer 'ten' , I knew I just have to ask her,

"Ten?? Ten what? Ten out of ten?"

"No, mummy, Tennnn! " *emphasizing the word 'ten'*

"Ten what?"

"TEN minutes!!" and off she went.

Oh my little daughter....

Avebury World Heritage

Note: Do click on photos for clearer, bigger images.

The visit to Avebury was one memorable visit. Avebury is a place situated between two small towns, Marlborough and Beckhampton (not David Beckham alright?). Both towns are equally beautiful in their own senses, although the sights of long fir trees, hilly sides and wandering stallions in Marlborough looked more appealing to me.




As we were driving along Roman Road, I immediately noticed a huge mound. A sort that makes you hint in seconds that it is not mother nature that has helped shaped it but had been man-made. Funnily it looks like a huge ant hill, only the difference being, it has grass all around and rather flat on the top. There were a few sheeps grazing on its grass and made it look like tiny 'white' ants when viewed comparatively to the mound.

"Mummy, look . That is BBBIIIGGG!!"

Even LO saw the extraordinary qualities of the huge ancient mound, dated back to 4500 years ago. I couldn't help imagining how it felt to be an ant, climbing up the steep slant and reach the peak. The return of a huge crowd of European school kids (from the language, we hinted they are Slovakians), snapped me out of my imagination.



A location across the road from the Silbury Hill, is the West Kennet Long Barrow. An ancient burial mound, stretching over 400m long and dated back to 5500 years ago. There were 5 chambers, and had been the place burial over 46 people over the period of 1000 years. Afterwhich, the entrance had been permanently closed until in year 1859, the tomb was discovered and few chambers were excavated. Further excavation into the completion of the discovery of the whole chambers was carried out in 1955. (p/s; lilian, there you go!)




Naturally, LO was scared of the tomb (it looked sombre and dark), after much persuasion, she entered the tomb only when mummy promised her a trip to the McD's. THe smell, I tell you, perrghhh! I couldn't describe you the smell, but surely enough it made me choke several times. The smell just went straight to my throat and made me choke (although I 'm not too sure how that was actually possible..) I had to take several minutes 'out' to breath fresh air before I could enter and inspect again. Nevertheless, it was rather impressive. Imagine, the neolithics, the ritual that had taken place and etc. Bizarre.

The walk back to our car was pretty tiring for we had to walk about a mile across the farm, which is said to be an example of the ancient meadow that once existed. Nearby is an ancient spring where sacred, pre-historic votive offerings might have taken place around the same circa of years. As I had been tired from walking the distance (and from the piggy back ride by LO), DH encouraged LO to chase him all the way back to our car, so as not to let her tire me any further.

"Come on, chase babah! Wheee!!"

"Hehehehehehe...I chase you"

"No you can't get me, wheeeee..." " Gulp!!!!" *holding his neck with his two hands and literally was stunned, and started to khark..ptui *

The khark..ptui, ptui went on endlessly followed by him spitting into the poor river.

I had to ask " Apasal?"

"Masa I tengah bukak mulut tadi, one black flying bug masuk straight to my throat"

"Huh?"

"Really! Now I can feel it trying to crawl up my anak tekak" *help!*

Ayoooo...what a luck!

"Camne? Stop spitting, you're ruining nature's beauty...nah minum air" *handed him an Evian bottle*

It may solve the problem but the thought of the black bug flushed helplessly down his throat made me wanna think no more of it and so ushered LO and DH, quickly to the car.

Next, we drove a little bit to the north and found the exact Avebury village. It is one serene village with beautiful cottages around. This time we anticipated the Avebury Circle and much like that of Stonehenge, it is a circle formation that consists of huge rocks that are equally distanced (I think). As usual, our arrival was not straight to the site, but to the souvenir shop. You see, I love collecting pencils of all sorts, including those worthy of souvenirs from places like this. (Other people I have known collect tea towels, keychains and plates but I find pencils are the most affordable and need less space for storage).




Half an hour later, we ended up purchasing 2 celtic silver rings, and of course a souvenir pencil. (oh boy, rabak poket). Not that expensive, affordable though. Soon enough, we entered the site and it was indeed remarkable. The circle was very huge, if seen from aerial view, you would notice that the circle is in fact divided by several roads belonged to the village. The most funny part was, LO and I were more fascinated by the existence of sheeps and lambs that were happily grazing. So much so, so jakun had we become until terpijak tahi biri pun tak perasan.

Hahaha..padan muka.

Our trip was completed with a short visit to Stonehenge in Amesbury (boy, to my recollection, it must have been my 6th or 7th visit, because every time a friend or a member of family comes to UK, they demanded a tour to Stonehenge). We headed home at around 8pm, it was still bright, filled our tummy with fries on a motorway service and I slept the way back home.

Total bliss!

Loving Su-Doku!

We had a brilliant day today visiting Avebury Circle and West Kennet Long Burrow. However, I am just too tired to blog about it tonight. Uploading photos would take a while for it is an AOL dial up that we are using.

After dinner and a hot shower, as usual, at the dining table, read several previous D Mirrors bought by Z. There weren't many global news for it is only a tabloid. Juicy, detailed stories of Big Brother, a-jungle-style celebrity reality show and a pin up of Sharon Stone conquer the more important global affairs worthy of any elaborate writings. Half the content is on sports, ie football. I guess that is why Z had bought them. He, is fanatics about football. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining, in fact, it didn't matter to me at all, for I go only for the crossword puzzles. Love them.

What had intrigued me for the past few days is the newly (well not so recent but they say it is a new craze nowadays) introduced puzzle called Su-Doku, a japanese numeric puzzle. 3 nights ago, I had given it a try but gave up the moment I slipped into SlumberLand. Yesterday, had another try but had difficulty in dechipering the puzzle. The instructions given were too simplistic that I hadn't got a clue on how to go about solving it. I had even tried solving it Mensa-style (you know lah kan, Mensa puzzles are very tricky..) Yup, no luck.

Tonight, after much mind-bongling, I finally managed to solve it within minutes! It is so simple and very straight forward. You have to got a good, clear instruction in order to understand the puzzle.

Go on, give it a try. Find one on a google search.

But I guess once you know how to solve it, you'd find it boring the next time around. At least that is what I felt tonight. Unless, if you decide to challenge yourself (or a friend) to solving it against time. That would spice it up. Carol Vorderman, the British TV celebrity cum mathematical genius (with an IQ of 154) had once solved a Su-Doku for approximately 7 minutes.

See if you could beat her!

..and let me know if you are faster!

u la la ..I'm OK some are not

Oh boy, everyone in the world should learn how to manage stress, depression and anger.

Stress is no good. To impose your stress or depression on others is far worse.

Same goes with anger.

We should calm ourselves down and take a breather.

Stress shorten your life, you know?

Try to avoid yourself from conveying any ill-meaning intentions to others. And you will be blessed!

OK, have a nice, stress-free day ahead!!

And do not forget to smile.

You litter, I'd be richer

This is certainly one good news. Living (would be actually) in Selangor and loving photography, I could as well earn extra money.

Read this article in Malay:
Littering in Selangor

Imagine if you could snap 4 photos of people littering. That would make you RM200 richer.

People who are jobless and own a camera (or could borrow one) might as well make this a full time job. An average of 4 photos a day would earn (4 x RM200) you exactly RM800. Multiply by 30 days...wow! lumayan beb!

Let me think, the best place to spot people littering is in Pasar Malam, markets, at food stalls and carnivals.

Maybe those who already have a proper job and at the same time need the extra fulus for that special gift for ze girlfriend or wife, should start thinking of hanging a camera over their necks everytime they are outdoors. They'd be lucky, who knows!

Brilliant!

Petai in Paris...woohoo!

I have to say, I am lousy at keeping in touch with friends.

Before, I was busy with completing my studies and usually when I am entangled in work I refuse to correspond with friends for I felt a bit paranoid when people asking me how my work is progressing (eventually they start asking that you know). The completion of my study was a bumpy ride and that is another story. I am just glad to say that it is soon off my sleeve and I am next to the next stage of life, that is the working life.

Back to the main story, keeping in touch with friends. When I had started blogging the first time, I found that it is not bad all. Blogging is indeed one of many convenient ways to check out on friends back home, without having to compose an email, or pick the phone up.

A friend of mine, petaijering has not been updating her blog for many, many, many weeks (months?). I had become curiously concern of her dissapearing act from the blogging world. With a few things in hand, I wasn't able to correspond with her and recently, after I have submitted my thesis, thought that it'd be a brilliant idea to give her a call (or her mother) to ask her what's up.

Before I could have the chance to do just that, received an SMS this morning which reads..
Hi, how r u? i kat paris dengan s***** (her sister) til 23/5. Meh la cuti2 paris dgn kitorg :)!

To which I replied,
Waduh x2 bestnye patut blog sunyi sepi. Siap mimpi you lagi. Kitaorg tak leh gi paris pokai. Lagipun next week nak balik 4 good. Kirim salam s**** *

I somehow felt relieved receiving her SMS. I had feared the worst. Yalah..she drives to KL (from Kuantan) every weekend, managing 2 hours' drive! You know how scarry Karak can be at times!

Anyway, thanks for your thoughtfulness petai. Hoping to see you too in KL.

Next time, when I am rich, I shall tour Paris with you (even if it means you have to go again..hehehehe).

Oh my little daughter - Part 4

Daisies.

My daughter is a big fan of flowers. Her favourite ones are daisies. Here, daisies are almost everywhere. Whereever we go, LO would stop to pick some if any caught her eyes, afterwhich she'd turn and present them to me .

"For mummy!"

Seconds later..

"More! For mummy!"

..and I'd end up having several daisies in my pockets.

I think it must have started when she was 1 or 2. I used to stroll her (buggy) to the university nursery, everyday from home. It wasn't that far, however, when you consider pushing a buggy along the busiest road in campus with traffic here and there, what looks like a 5 minute distance seemed much further and the journey seemed longer. And so inevitably, (apart from being an active child she is) there were times when she got bored sitting in the buggy, became edgy and demanded out of the it. Most of the time, she wanted to be carried so she could see the 'outside' world. And me, with a heavy knapsack on my shoulder and a buggy to push, I simply didn't have the extra energy to carry her all the way home.

And so, I started to let her walk on her own and we would stop every 2 minutes to spot flowers. It didn't matter where the flowers were. I used to encourage her to pick flowers that we may find all the way home. This successfully distracted her from wanting to be carried. And her habit of flower 'spotting' remains until to this day. (During those times, I hadn't developed any allergies to pollen or flowers)

She has become very fond of daisies lately, because the area where we are residing at the moment has massive green fields. Daisies sprout out from the ground like mushrooms, especially when it is sunny. Sometimes when we had to walk on the grass, she would teeter, not wanting to crush those lovely daisies.

This morning as I was blog hopping, LO had looked out of the window to spot rabbits. (There are big brown rabbits here too!). Instead she had seen one of the maintenance people, on the cutting grass machine, cutting grass on the block's compound. When grass is cut, inevitably daisies are massacred (because they are very low on the grounds).

Being very angry at this, LO shouted

"HEY You!"

"Hey, you! You don't cut grass and cut flower! Can?? HUH? Can? Owait?"

"Understand??"

She repeatedly shouted these to the poor man. I had to restrained her from the window to avoid any further embarassment. I hope the man didn't hear her.

Dissapointed and unsatisfied, LO ran to the lounge and told DH about her poor fav daisies.

Oh my little daughter...

Grassy business..

Huh??

It is not everyday that you see signages like this one, correct?

Most of the time you would see them telling you not to park or walk on the grass. However, this one is the opposite. This photo was taken in Watermill Theatre area in Newbury. Having got limited space for visitors' vehicles, the management decided that it is a brilliant idea to let them park on the small patch grass along the stretch of their well-trimmed hedge.

Awesome.

Highclere and Donnington Castle

It was a very sunny day and we had decided to go to Highclere Castle near Newbury. After a quick shop in Boots for our daily toiletries and an hour lunch at Pizza Hut, we headed for Newbury. It wasn't that far from Basingstoke. About 40 mins drive.



Highclere castle is an astounding castle with its exterior well preserved and it is surrounded with massive green fields. These green fields are mostly fenced, with hundreds of sheeps and lambs grazing about within. You could see some grazing in the sun and some happily sit under the trees' shades. We were unfortunate for the castle was closed to public (today). Perhaps for restoration work. But our visit were not rendered for the castle grounds were opened to public. We saw a few families cycling about the castle grounds and some sat, with cycle helmets still attached on their heads, sitting under the shade. It was a serene view, indeed. With no chance of entering the castle itself, we had no idea what history that lies behind its closed doors.

As I am allergic to pollen, we didn't decide to sit and laze on the castle grounds like the others but decided to move on ahead.



Apparently the county of West Berkshire is filled with historical places to visit and so as we drove on towards the centre of Newbury, we stumbled upon Donnington Castle.


Studs by the castle

This castle is much older than Highclere. It was destroyed during the Civil War in the 14th century. What is left is only the main entrance and the castle base. Unlike Highclere which is located on a flat ground, Donnington Castle is based on a higher ground. When you are at the top, you could almost see the rest of Newbury.

It was really enjoyable. Our next trip would be to Avesbury Circle (tomorrow?), a few miles away from Newbury. Have you heard of Stonehenge? Well, Avesbury Circle is something like Stonehenge but the circle is made of timber instead of stone. If I am not mistaken the timbers used to construct the circle were also 'hinged' to one another, similar to the stones that made Stonehenge.


LO in the sea of flowers.

One our way home we found this massive land with 'unidentified' yellow flowers planted. The stems are as high as my height. LO is actually on DH's shoulders and as you can see, she is just above the tip of the flowers. It was a quick visit for minutes later I started to sneeze and had a headache. We reached home at about 7 pm, it was still bright as day. A good thing during Spring/Summer, you have longer days for your outing.


It's a long way back home.

Do please park considerately!

How inconsiderate people can be sometimes.

Yesterday after returning from the university, we found there wasn't a single available space to park our humble car. There was a tiny red car parked inconsiderately in a large space that seemed to my eyes, ample for accomodating two cars (the distances of the cars at the left and right of the tiny car are a distant away but the spaces were too tiny to squeeze any car in). It seemed deliberately notioned. DH was angry enough to swear. I, being the optimist of us, calmed him down and thought positively.

The tiny red car might have been parked much earlier than the rest along the row.
And so I thought. You can't really blame the person for parking clumsily where there were no lines, can you? People simply park their car at their very best, considerately of course. But, in the real world, when the existence of good people are complemented by the bad, considerate people are complemented by those inconsiderate ones. *sigh*

We had to eventually park our car on the grass, next to Devon block. Later, I sat by the window and looked out for a breather. Suddenly, saw a Volvo estate drove in. Out went a blonde, then the Volvo continued to drive out of view. The blonde who was clad in a nurse's attire, hurriedly entered the red 'inconsiderate' Fiat and started the engine and reversed.

*you fool, next time if you are the first to park and amatuerish at parking a miserable tiny car, make sure it is the sidemost space, save others from misery!*

She seemed to be hurrying elsewhere. I was about to tell DH that we could remove our car and parked at the soon available space that the Fiat had taken, when she suddenly parked the Fiat back. This time, she had properly parked the car nicely, leaving an ample parking space next to it. I was numbed with what I saw immediately. The Volvo estate returned and nicely parked the car next to the red Fiat. A pan-Asian male doctor in blue scrubs stepped out of the estate car and walked hand-in-hand with the blonde nurse into their block. I felt sick. I don't know why. It was maybe I have always highly regard doctors for having good simple manners but when I find how schemingly selfish this doctor was, I was angry.

It dawned on me that the doctor and nurse are a couple, and DH was right. The Fiat was indeed heinously parked to deliberately and selfishly 'save' them the spaces they wanted for their cars. arrghhh...

I reported what I had seen to Z and DH.

"Lain kali kita himpit kereta dia" said Z.

"Apa pulak himpit, kita tulis note "Inconsiderate Fool" aje kat wiper dia" DH suggested.

"Tak apalah. Next time aku jumpa dia, aku cakap face to face" said a calmer Z.

Oh boy, what a day!

A visit to the Basing House

I have always wanted to blog about Basing House, a historical ruin that we had visited a month ago, but never had the time to do so. With a few things off my sleeve now, I am eager to briefly blog about it.

Basing House was basically a habitation (sort of like a village), started since the Iron Age. Houses were built out of mud and the village was surrounded with a moat to keep away enemies. It flourished over the hundreds of years until the 4th century, AD. It survived several invasions including from the Romans and Saxons. In 1066 William the Conqueror gave the Basing manor to his supporter, Hugh de Port whom begun the building of a castle made of flint and stone.

Basing House changed hands until the 16th century and it was renovated and added a new house. It had been dubbed the 'largest private house ever', even larger than the King's palaces. It had seen the Civil War in 1643 and was attacked 3 times after which the buildings were sacked and caught fire. In 1740, these were demolished. In 1870s the archeological work began and the council bought the ruins in 1972.

..And you thought archeological work only had begun in the earlier 20th centuries!


This is the artist's impression of the Basing House during its last hours.Note the size of the area.


The Gun of Basing House.The canon that they had used during the Civil War.


The area is a massive green field, with ruins here and there. Food and drinks are allowed inside and visitors are encouraged to picnic.


Cess Pit. Mind you, this used to be the toilet cubicles. They had timber planks for the seats. Very basic, but ewww!!


One of the remaining building. It could have been the guards' or servants residence for it's located on the margin of a long brick wall.


This maze was constructed and identically copied from the original, exactly where the authentic garden would have been located. Love the towers at the corners.


Wide angle view of the main site.This is the main entrance to the 'new' Basing House, leading to the owners'residence. It comprised of a basement kitchen where thousands of breads were cooked daily, an underground prison, several wells, an adequate chamber toilet, a great hall equipped with wine cellar and of course stately rooms.

After exploring every corner (it was a huge area to cover, although there seemed to be nothing much worthy of anything spectacular,unless, if you appreciate historical ruins) DH and Little One chased one another and raced each other to the exit. It was indeed an enjoyable outing. And I, I was too tired and wished we had more digital storage on our camera.

Alive and Kicking..with hay fever

Weee Heee I am back and miss blogging so much. I miss you all readers too!

I have been busy and this Hay Fever I am getting, I could so do without! These are partly reasons why I have become so disengaged with blogging for these past weeks.

It is funny really. All these years I have thought that only locals (mat sallehs) do get hay fever. It never dawned on me that people like me could ever get it, well, although I knew that the ailment could attack almost anyone who are prone to become allergic to pollen (you out there with medicine knowledege do correct me if I'm wrong on this). Ironically, it has been 9 solid years that I have been residing in this beloved Queen's country and have gotten it only now.

Let me tell you what hay fever is. We hay fever patients are allergic to pollen. When it's Spring and Summer, pollens are at their maximum activity. We get affected by this. A lot. It is annoying really, for you get sneezing continuously almost like a choo-choo train. Your eyes water and you'd have a running nose. When you are outside, people would mistaken you for having been crying, all thanks to that red nose and those red puffy eyes. To some extend, your throat becomes dry and your ears ache. Yes, very annoying. I have tried taking Clarityn but it does me no good. I get drowsy, albeit the pack labelled 'Non-drowsy'.

A trip to the local play ground or park is a big No-No. The other day we spent the afternoon taking photographs in the local grounds. It was a beautiful day and flowers were blooming bright and the sun was out. After an hour, I had to recluse myself indoors. Sneezed 7 times in a row. Became light headed instantly. And if I could graphically describe it to you, 'like-a-koala-bear-got-stucked-hugging,holding-on-to-my-nose-24/7' would be the best description.

Times like this I miss home. Huhuhu....nak balik!

Pardon for Hiatus

Yes, people have been coming and questioning why I haven't been updating. Well, to be frank I am quite busy at the moment,with time not permitting me to sit down and update. I would like to express my gratitude for the patience and returning visits that you all have given and have time for.

And yes, I shall update this blog as soon as I have the time to amuse you more.

Till then, have a nice day and I promise I shall return no later than 3 days!