Nak makan?? Tara hall nya!!

Dear family and friends (I start the post with this cause we miss them dearly),

Most ppl are always worried about finding food when traveling/moving abroad. It's never been a problem for me personally. Coming from a guy who ate nasi+kicap+telur dadar (occasional sardin tin) for a week and a half without complain (not by choice but by financial reasons).

My wife and me are always adventurous when trying new food or places - can ask Shahrul (eats anything he thinks wont make him fat.. I emphasize "thinks") or Wafi (eats everything THAT does make him fat except chicken skin[case of overdose when he was a kid - macam obelix dalam comic asterix]). The kids however are choosey but add sugar in it and they'll be fine. We know sometimes we miss our local dishes and home cook meal (terliur jap pikir asam pedas and sotong hitam) but fortunately we can find dishes that brings us back home and hit the target. Here's a pic of nasi lemak and nasi ayam when we had lunch with our adopted Malaysian-Canadian friend Grant (thanks for bringing us although we got lost most of the time):

I promise you its authentic as you can expect. It better be when I see the prices they charge with what I used to pay at the warung tepi jalan (but i'd rather have the REALL authentic makcik kampung style food - by far).

So apart from being all nostalgic and hitting the spot, I would like to introduce/expose these food to the kids. I dont want them to lose out on an integral part of our culture - YEss the food. So heres a pic of them having bubur cha cha and bubur hitam. Sedap giler this one cause its freshly ~ sort of home cook made. Nothing like the ones I used to buy at the pasar malam - macam nak basi and cold and tawar.

A little bit more on the cuisine, it is so popular even the best part of Melbourne Zoo has an Indonesian warung (pic above). So if indeed rindu sangat nak makan, I might just be thinking of opening a restaurant (kalau ada rezeki). So Haziq (our family chef in training), sharpen your skills/talent cause this might be an interesting possibility.

Stats of Paul der Krake aka Paul Oktopus/Octupus

The world cup is at its peak (finals) now and apparently all sorts of predictions were proven wrong ala Shabby Singh. Recently the hype about an octopus called paul predictions is the talk of the footballing world. People talk about it more than Carlos Puyol rare goal headers, Anelka's manners or ronaldo's hairstyle. Well if you can get the stats the octopus gets, you might get a Tan Sri-ship in Malaysia not mentioning making a lot of people filthy richhh. Those who are really involve in the betting market are also paying close attention not to mention the Spain PM offering protection for the poor thing after several on dish threat. Even Argentine Chef celebs are posting recipes on facebook. If he was human... he could own Apple, Coke Ikea etc etc...

So here are his stats I took from Wiki. Amazing innit!!!

Opponent	Tournament	Stage	Date	Prediction	Result	Outcome
Poland	Euro 2008	group stage	8 June 2008	Germany	2–0	Correct
Croatia	Euro 2008	group stage	12 June 2008	Germany[3][8]	1–2	Incorrect
Austria	Euro 2008	group stage	16 June 2008	Germany	1–0	Correct
Portugal	Euro 2008	quarter-finals	19 June 2008	Germany	3–2	Correct
Turkey	Euro 2008	semi-finals	25 June 2008	Germany	3–2	Correct
Spain	Euro 2008	final	29 June 2008	Germany[3]	0–1	Incorrect
Australia	World Cup 2010	group stage	13 June 2010	Germany[25]	4–0	Correct
Serbia	World Cup 2010	group stage	18 June 2010	Serbia[25]	0–1	Correct
Ghana	World Cup 2010	group stage	23 June 2010	Germany[25]	1–0	Correct
England	World Cup 2010	round of 16	27 June 2010	Germany[26]	4–1	Correct
Argentina	World Cup 2010	quarter-finals	3 July 2010	Germany[17]	4–0	Correct
Spain	World Cup 2010	semi-finals	7 July 2010	Spain[27]	0–1	Correct
Uruguay	World Cup 2010	3rd place play-off	10 July 2010	Germany	3–2	Correct

Some wise footballing words from a true master

The much debated jambulani ball in the world cup is a hot topic. But it isnt an excuse in my personal opinion. And I have always wanted to see what a true master of a kicker can do with it. The best free kick taker in my opion has always been juninho palamwnsjhdhdd (or something like that) brazil/lyon. He is good at all types of free kicks. The dipping, the bending, power shot, placing.. Short and long ranges. Definately better than beckham or cr9.

So here's what he said about it in soccernet:

Juninho also said that, while he is disappointed by the quality of performances in South Africa, the much-maligned Jabulani ball is not to blame. "I bought one and I went to test it," he said. "The ball requires a little practice, but it's delicious. It's a poor excuse."

Apart from the official messing up/video officiating debate the only let down is the ball in this worldcup I reckon. So here's just what I think and my favorite free kick taker.

ps.. I do think zee germans had an advantage using this ball a few months in the bundesliga.

Summary for the past month or so

Hello family and friends. Several people wanted me to update the blog. I apologize for being lazy about it. Will put more effort in the future. The official reason being new and trying to settle in (doing everything ourselves, starting a new job, exploring and experimenting) but I have to admit I would rather catch up on my recorded world cup games ( I love foxtel IQ - besttt.. boleh record the whole series semua, lagi best kalau dapat upgrade to HD - $200 jeeee kan sayang). Still trying to win the furniture vs. foxtel priority merit. Talking about furniture... we still need a few more but at least we are not lying on the cold floor that much.

So what have we done so far?? better start the Iphoto (our way of recording events via pics) to get a timeline/storyline.

Here's a few highlights in no particular order:

• Soaking up the culture . Knowingly we are going to stay here a while we had to learn to adapt. So we are slowly following traditions and fascinations they have. Zareef soaked in the red nose day well.
• overbilling/over-system. I'm starting to hate the charges they make u pay cause it's so expensive and we still don't know what's right and wrong in the billings/system. Hate the complexing of simple things. Bureaucracy is a different level than what i'm used to. But the golden rule still apply - bugger them until u get what u want.
  
• the prime minister changed. Macam takde impact je. Semua buat dunno je. Kitorang lagilah dunno. pasal apa thailand tak buat macam ni. Negara kita jgn cakap lah, lepas najib i bet it will be hishamudin. so predictable and change resistance.
  

• zareefs birthday. Not our traditional big celebration but he was happy with his devastator besar. Costs a bomb and have always wanted to buy it for him. Every week we went to gymbo bangsar he would insist to stop by at toys r us to play with devastator. So i promised when I get a good job here i'll buy him one. Now his going on about a bicycle. Kids nowadays dont know when to stop asking.

• exploring. Went to several great beaches. Brighton and st. Kilda was beautiful but cold so just played at the playgrounds and walking. Took pics with the iphone.. camera tertinggal lah selalu cause impromptu visits (about 5-10 minutes drive) and prime lens yg diidamkan tak terbeli lagi. The kids frust tak main air. Mandi sejuk sikit complain tapi nak terjun icy water. Ingat port dickson ke ?
• sale. Stocktake sale end of the financial year sale. A lot of things went cheaper. Unfortunately gaji takde so berangan je lah. Surprisingly after the sales gone i reckon prices went higher than the original. Lesson learned don't wait when u see a good deal.

• Daycare. Zareefs fine apart from a few fights and one accident poop (had to come back from work to handle that). He really loves it but the sad thing Zara can't go to the same daycare cause limited spots. So Zara is going alone to another daycare. She hates ittttt!!! Phobia giler. She won't stop crying kalau tahu nak pegi. Breaks our hearts to see her like that. It gets worst when we come to pick her up we can hear her crying from the parking. She gets upset when other kids start going home. Hang in there baby girl.
  
• jobs. I love the locations of our offices. Right in the Cbd. We are only 5 minute walk away across the river from each other. Boleh lunch sama2. It's the scenic part of the city beside the river bank. Aquarium and casino right across the street for me. Main train station 3 minute walk for wifey and 7 for me.

• started playing football. Only one game but enough to make me happy for the week cause I scored a screamer. Ala forlan. So slowly starting to make friends (Ppl are nicer here than it was in NY). Unfortunately the majority of melbournians are more into footie although they have this big jom-bo-yani ball right across from the office.

• had friends over. Since the pinggan mangkuk cukup baru booleh Ajak. will invite more when they can spare the time. Masak je lah problem. Nak masak western tak pandai sangat.. nak masak mesian tak terror. Order pizza jelah. Pizza flavored satay, tandoori, sushi semua ada.
  

• Enjoying the weather - Although its winter it isnt as cold as we expected. Tak macam kat NY that snowed 5 months of the year. Kids are ok with it and sometimes u get really nice weather in the betweens and would just like to stay outside. We are trying to persuade Zareef to do his painting on the balcony when its nice outside.. kononnya cari ilham but actually tak nak bagi dia buat sepah.

• dishwasher terbakar/smoking. Tak pandai load dishwasher sampai jatuh senduk plastic kena the heating filamen. Being lazy and overloading it might be the reason. Sian the family had to wait outside in the cold before the smoke/smell cleared. It still smells burnt after use now cause i tried to rub the plastic off but it wont completely come off. Just a small reminder that anything can happen.

So thats about it. Boring kan? On a tight budget so duduk diam2 lah tengok bola and minum teh panas. Next time the plan is to go snowboarding (11 ppl or so) and travel to some islands here. Hope to get that nice camera lens before we do. Tak jauh by Aussie standard but still at least a couple of hundred kms. Hope the car can pull through especially on top of the snowy mountains.

Talk to you later matesss!!!