Touched

Tiba tiba rasa tersentuh bila dapat SMS berbunyi "We are the bowling champ!!!Haha" pagi tadi. Even though I'm not part of the team anymore, looks like they still remember me in anything they do. I miss you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pasir 'O' Pasir

 This is the story of our adventure with Desert Safari in Abu Dhabi.

Mak n Ayah is coming. And I didn't know where to take them. Well, as a residence, all I do are go to work and shopping. While waiting for their ticket at Etihad's office I read this pamplet stating all you can do in AD. One of it is Desert Safari.

Gambarnye macam menarik. So I decided to bring my parents to this adventure. Bila lagi kan..

The price showing on the pamplet was 270AED. I tried browsing the net but couldn't find anything less than that. So I just took the package with Etihad and they gave me DISCOUNT which I like very much. These are  what we're paying 230AED for.

Memula tu mcm nak marah gak. Yelah, katanya tour start kol 4p. So we had to leave home latest by 3.15pm. Pastu dia g anta driver yg tak reti cakap english. Dok asyik 'aina anta' je la.. (tu la.. dulu Wana ajar arab ko rebel. hamik!). Finally jumpa jugak la mamat tu..Setelah dinelefon nye officenye dan marah 'kenapa ko anta driver yg tak reti cakap omputih. tau dah aku ni bukan arab speaking toruist. hish..'

Perjalanan bermula. Dari KM ke Al-Ain lebih kurang dalam setengah jam disebabkan driver ni dah sedar dia dah lambat dan lantas memecutkan keretanya bagai nak rak. (Sambil sekali sekala emergency break sebab ada speed trap). Sampai kat pinggir padang pasir tu 1st pit stop ialah kat camel farm.

Amik2 gambar dgn camel. Saya sangat takut sebab takde org jaga pun. Dia cuma ikat kaki depan camel tu supaya camel tu hanya boleh berjalan tapi tak boleh berlari. Dan terlalu banyak yg amat tompok tompok taik unta.......

"Luas lagi tanah ni kalau nk wat shopping mall ni..."

After about 10 minutes or so, maka bermula la journey of the lifetime. Dune Bashing. One of the other group tu 8 orang satu kete. For this dune bashing sume kene ada seat belt sendiri termasuk children. So 2 of them kene join our car since we're only 3 people. 

Sila perhatikan bagaimana kereta lain bergerak ye. Sebab masa ni sume org dalam kerete kami dah give up.

Cerita penuh: Mamat driver ni (Akan dikenali sebagai Wahid lepas ni) drives in second. So basically he's suppose to follow the lead of the first car. But I think he is a little bit crazy and so much in love with the dune bashing activity that he went off-road and lalu kawasan yang bukitnye macam menggila. After 5 minutes or so one of the american kat belakang tu dah tak nak dah and we were trying to tell Wahid to go through a straight road. Since dia ni tak reti cakap omputih agak sukar jugak la. Akhirnya dia paham setelah diterangkan oleh rakan driver yang lain kepadanya. 

Malangnya, Wahid ni nye straight road was not so straight either. Jadilah kami bagaikan kinder egg kat dalam land rover tu... I was quite worried coz this is my idea and I thought it was not this bad. Plus takut tetiba ayah kene heart attack ke apa ke.. naya aku kat situ..

Describing the experience is quite easy I think. Imagine u r on a roller-coaster. But this time no track. The car just go as and how Wahid likes. Up and down. Around the desert. The problem is, we knew that this kind of desert is not a static hills or mountain or even land. It moves every second. Look at how the wind brings the sands away..

 

 

So even though u have an experience driver, u have to make sure that he is not a crazy driver that want to go wild like this.

Sebab the sands moves. Diulang sekali lagi. The sands moves!!! They still have (should) to be extremely careful and find the right path and go as fast as they can to avoid being stuck in the sand bila lalu kawasan yang lembut or terbalik sebab lalu kawasan yang keras. 

Tapi, in the middle, it's worth it bila dia stop kat kawasan yang scenary nye sangat sangat cantik. 

 Breathtaking view.

After 30 minutes enjoying the view, the journey continues to the final destination. Where the camels, henna, dinner, shisha, and belly dancer are waiting for us. All inclusive except alcohol.

I'm so glad I brought my parents here. It's really an adventure of a lifetime. They might not want to do this again. But if people are talking about it they knew how's the feeling.

Footnote: I took the package from Etihad Holidays. They put in the brochure 270AED per person. Alhamdulillah I got it at 230AED per person. Definitely worth the experience.

Mak n Ayah D' AD - Teaser

Moment of Gerun

It happens twice actually. Cuma semalam semakin menggerunkan jadinya.

1st moment was almost one month back. Jadi kat KM Hypermarket bawah rumah. I was doing some grocery shopping when suddenly ada mamat ni tegur. Dia tanya "Do u want to work part time at my place?" Aku macam terkejut la kan. Apahal plak ni. Politely I said no. Then this guy start tanya orang mana keje apa sume. Still don't want to be rude aku jawab la. Tetiba dia macam excited. Dia bagi name card dia kat aku n suruh aku buat miss call. Aku try tolak dengan baik tapi dia berkeras jugak. Memandangkan hp ada kat tgn mmg susah la aku nk ngelak.
Then 2-3 kali dia sms n call ajak kuar minum. Malam plak tu. Finally aku terpaksa cakap aku dah kawin n my husband tak suka aku jawab sms or call laki lain. Luckily he stops.

2nd moment was yesterday at Madinat Zayed Shopping Centre. That was my first time there. Jalan sorang2. Beli2 tudung. Tengah jalan2 merayau rayau tu tetiba ada sorg mamat ni hulur beg plastik "This is for you. If you like it call me. If you don't like just throw away". Pastu dia blah. Aku terpinga pinga la kat situ. Tak berani nak buang (ingat lagi presentation by Perfect Protection masa GEWN Summit 2010) aku bawak balik rumah jugak la beg plastik tu.
Sampai rumah aku bukak beg plastik tu. Ada sehelai selendang (lawa gak selendang dia) and sehelai kertas bertulis no telefon (no telefon mamat tu la kot). As trained, aku buang semuanya (walaupun rasa sayang nak buang selendang tu).

Balik rumah tu terasa macam takut nak jalan sorang2 dah. Tapi pastu g jugak AD Mall lepak... huhu..

Ini Bukan Blog Masakan

Guess what am i cooking with all these ayam and sayur?

I was fasting. Ganti of course. Malas nak beli bahan2 masak. And I knew dalam fridge ada banyak sayur sayuran yang masih belum di masak. So, I was thinking apa nak masak..Pastu teringat the sweet taste of LADNA.

So I went to KM and bought tepung jagung. Balik rumah and start cooking.

Siapkan bahan2 dan masak2.
Bawang putih (2ulas) bawang merah (5ulas) halia (1inci) - tumis
Isi ayam (seketul) potong kecil - goreng lepas tumisan naik bau sehingga separuh masak.
Sos tiram (2 sudu) - Masukkan lepas ayam dah separuh masak.
Air (2 cawan) - masukkan lepas sos tiram dah nampak kewl.
Sayuran (carrot, kobis, jagung kecik, collieflower, etc) - masukkan yg keras dulu. Then after a few minutes yg lain2.
Tepung jagung (2sudu) - bancuh dgn air dan masukkan untuk pekatkan kuah.

Masak for 15-20 minutes ikut brapa byk sayur nya.

Hasilnya:

Journey of My Sambal in UAE

Bukan senang nak buat sambal ikan bilis kat negara arab ni. Mula mula kena cari ikan bilis nye. I think in this case I'm consider lucky enough sbb tak susah sgt. Kedai bawah rumah pun ada. Cumanya (of course la ada 'cumanya' kan) ikan bilis nya besar2 n tebal2. Also keras berdengkang. Every time nak masak kene rendam dalam 5 minit pastu perisi kepala n perutnya (yess.... ada perut lagi siap...). Step one complete!
The next challenge is to find the cili. Takde cili boh yang pastinya. My cousin said she had to blend her own cili boh. Not bad. Beli la blender kan. Then mencari cili kering TAK JUMPA!!!. Kedai bawah rumah takde. Co-op @ AD Mall pun takde. Dari sehari ke sehari ingat nak tanya Kak Ina tapi tak tanya tanya jugak. Sudah nya 2 bulan tak makan nasi lemak. Padan dengan muka sendiri.
Di suatu hari yang damai, aku pusing la Co-op tu skali lagi. Pusing2 kat kawasan sos2. Tiba tiba ternampak

Adakah ini pengganti cili boh yang didambakan? Mungkin tidak... I tried to make the 1st sambal telur. FAILED! Terlalu pedas n taste weird. Maybe sebab aku masak masa puasa kot. So ari tu bukak puasa dlm keadaan sedih. huhu..
Then aku nekad. Aku nk try jugak. After all aku dah beli sebotol kan. At least habiskan la botol tu ye tak.
So i took about one genggam of ikan bilis. Rendam, perisi buang kepala perut. Panaskan kuali. Minyak masak. Chewwww!!!! 3 sudu of blended bawang merah. Bau mcm dah sedap chewww!! lagi skali ikan bilis nan segenggam. Lama sket goreng bagi garing. Cheww!!! 2 sudu of the Red Chilli Paste. Goreng bagi pecah minyak I added bawang besar n air rendaman asam keping (asam jawa takde). Gula dalam 5 sudu. Garam 1 sudu. Goreng dan goreng dan goreng sehingga...

Nyummm........ N now I can't stop from meratah sambal ni.

My Gardi is 'ere!

4 loaves of Gardenia. 2 white bread and 2 Butterscoths. Arrived on 6th of Feb. Specially delivered by TJ.

Kenapa dengan roti ni? Kat Abu Dhabi ni roti tak mcm kat Malaysia. Keras. Nipis. Kalau sapu butter masa butter tu keras kompem berlubang roti tu. Dah beberapa jenama roti aku try sume sama. So I've been longing for Gardenia for weeks when suddenly Anip told me that TJ is coming to Dubai for fun. I called TJ up and kirim this Gardenia. I told him to bring as much as he can he brought 4.

Bak kata Mie, "Mesti Mariah makan sehari sekeping je ni nak jimat..". huhu.. tapi kompem la tak. asyik makan roti je sejak dapat ni. haha..

Tanah Melayu - Abu Dhabi - South East England

We finally had our 1st conference across the regions. Un was visiting Kak Lin. So there're Kak Lin n Un.

Ow.. and Fila joined in later for the 'moment capturing' session. Fara n I has started our video call since hours before Kak Lin joined in. But we were really excited and captured the moment too..

Hehehe... So glad we could do this. It's not so easy to get everybody at the same time. First of all the weekends are all screw up where I work on Sundays and others are working on Fridays. Not to forget Fara had to study most of the weekends too.
Then there's the famous time difference. Fara is 8 hours late than Malaysia. I am 4 hours late. Even at the time of event Kak Lin n Un was already 12.30 am dated 6th of Feb. Myself was 8.30 pm dated 5th of Feb. And Fara was 4.30pm also 5th of Feb.
 
So we manage to have our 1st ever coffee talk and gossip thanks to the technology.

Ayam Padprik

This is really new. My first ever trial for Ayam Padprik. Alhamdulillah.. sedap.. <wink> Apa boleh buat.. skang ni apa terasa nak makan kene buat sendiri..

Tumis bawang merah (4 ulas) bawang putih (3 ulas) halia (1 inci) and bawang besar (1/4 labu) sampai naik bau. Masukkan 4-6 sudu kicap + air ikut keinginan kuah nye. Tambah 1 sudu sos tiram and 1 sudu sos tomato. Masukkan semua sayuran keras (kacang panjang, baby corn, carrot, kubis bunga, etc). Gaul2 sket. Masukkan ayam. Gaul2 lagi. Rebus for about 10-15 minutes. Masukkan 1 biji tomato di potong cube and cili padi ikut keinginan kepedasan (3 should be ok) dititik. Rebus lagi for about 5 minutes.

Ayam Masak Halia

Tumis bawang putih (3-4 ulas ditumbuk/dicincang) dan halia (2 inci di hiris) sampai naik bau. Goreng ayam (5-6 ketul yang kecik2) sehingga setengah masak (daging ayam dah jadi putih2). Masukkan sos tiram (4-5 sudu) dan air (1/2 - 1 cawan) untuk dapatkan kuah. Tambah garam kalau perlu (biasanya tak pernah perlu sbb rasa sos tiram dah cukup). Tunggu ayam masak sepenuhnya (lebih kurang 15-20 minit) dan hidangkan.


P/S: Dah dekat 2 tahun tak masak lauk ni. Bila jadik tadi mcm excited plak.. hehe..