My idea of good home cook meal

I went to my Mak Lang's house yesterday. I love it there.. I loved going there when I was 5 and I still love going there now. This is due to numerous reason especially the authenticity of the house.. I will write more about the house later... but the food, I tell you its the same type of food for the past 4 generations in the house. Minang kampung all the way!! Every time after I take my first bite I fell like the the food critic guy (Hugo) in the cartoon Ratatouille when he tasted the tested dish - reminiscing the joy of the food since childhood. I know everybody has that feeling... brings all those memories back..

So here is what I thought that made it great:

1. Served on a table that is older than myself
2. The table has to be pack where you can barely put your plate on
3. Not less than 3 types of sambal - sambal udang petai, sambal manis ayam, sambal tumis, sambal nak makan ngan tahu sumbat, sambal semalam ada dalam fridge for emergencies
4. All the accessories in reach - kicap sebelah, fridge belakang je, pinggan + cawan kiri/kanan.. everythinglah dont have to get up until u finish.
5. The same original ingredients from the same pasar for decades.
6. At least 5 types of snacks on the table - roti 3/4 jenis, biscuit, wafer dan lain2.
7. Ice still buat sendiri dalam tupperware - so u can get the biggest ice you need
8. Weird combinations of lauk for those who crave creativity - Nugget cicah kuah lemak cilipadi ikan tenggiri.
9. Introduced to those cheap stuff (chocolate, snacks) but tastes at par with ruffles, Lays etc.
10. Most importantly - MADE WITH LOVE

So heres a bit about what I like about my ideal home cook meal.. I sure will miss this.. not so the rip off nasi lemak/ roti canai at the stalls. Do share on your thoughts on the matter.

ps.. I'm telling you what I told my Mak Lang before we left - "I would rather eat here than any other grand hotel"

First separation - Waja tersayang

Yes, i used to kutuk my old waja a lot (especially realizing the cost vs performance of our car industry - car tax is the biggest fraud in malaysia) but without a doubt it has done me and the family a great deal of service. From the first ride of our new borns, to the sleeping comfort in the hot midday sun , the muntah/sheeshee/popoo incidents even our dates before marriage.... it sure has done a lot. Apart the occasional small parts that keep coming off (literally and frequently) it never had any big problems (engine and so not). Proves the proton engineers are doing a good job but not so with its purchase of vendor parts (croniii.. but lets not get into that).

Being nearly 7 years old this august (yes we got it before we were married and a month after coming back from our studied).. our loan balance was really small but we still decided to let go cause we need the money to bring to oz. Got a friend in the office that helped me tolak to a car dealer.. which i believe we got a really good price with the minimal of hassle. To tell you the truth the business transaction (checking loan balance, condition of the car, paperworks) took less than 15 minutes.. we were talking longer about migrating issues of mesia. Bada boom bada bing.. the check was handed to us there and then after signing some papers. Really loved the convenience - kalau kenal org memang senang (mesia style). Being paranoid and eager.. we banked in the check the first chance we got. Done and dusted, just hope no summons creep up.

So heres to the waja.. still cant get used to not seeing it in the driveway. Miss you mate!!

Easter Egg

The only thing we know about easter ... is the easter bunny and the easter egg. While trying to instill some artistic creativity to the kids, we decided to let the kids make an easter egg (being part of the bangsar village kids activity). Well its a lot easier than making a bunny. They seem to enjoy it although ours was the messiest among the rest. The important thing is they had fun.

So heres some pics of our prized egg. Imagined if we had to decorate an easter bunny.

Zareef's temper flared when Zara meddled with his creativity

Selling stuff off

Seeing that we are leaving, we wanted to sell some of our stuff off. Some suggest that we have a yard sale. Some advice to go to a second hand shop. So before getting into all that, I would like to advertise it here (the easiest/cheapest way).

I dont know how to describe each and every thing... so lets do this, anybody who wants anything from us or think we might have it why dont you leave a comment and ask. I guarantee the price would be dirt cheap. The purpose is not really to make a hugh profit, just wanted to cover some cost to replace stuff when we get to melbourne.

Things that we think might be good buys are:

• Jati katil and wardrobe
• TV 21 inch LG
• fridge - the best fridge ever
• my bench + weights - agak complete set
• my acoustic guitar + amp - already taken by haziq
• Waja car - anybody can top 22k (second hand dealers offer)
• various baby stuff + preggy mother stuff
• almari kecik2
• sofa
• carpet
• dining table
• pinggan mangkuk
• books - lots of them

If there are still stuff that we cant sell, we are going to have a yard sale on the 18th of april. Time to be determine and we will inform you in the future.

Hope to get a great response especially on the bigger stuffs. Pics are available upon request

Boss, I quitt!!

People always ask why I quit my job. I have wrote a lot about it before. The details are here. I have been complaining about it for a longggg time but since my scholarship 7 year bond is up this coming september and cuti pun 125+ days (cuti banyak sebab takleh amik cuti) or so, I took the earliest date to quit - 1 April. You cant imagine how long I have wanted to submit that golden letter of resignation. Unfortunately the drama that I have imagined (bosses pissed off or somewhat) didn't come to reality but the kepuasan of freedom was still there in my heart. Bosses tried to act all cool which was fine... but later I found out they had an emergency meeting because of this (Me and AZ leaving).

Better yet, because of this... HR GM called us up asking why and all that, the CEO knowingly the reason we quit asked the 5-men policy (suckiest decision ever) to be reverted back to the 6-men immediately by sms to our GM the very same day he knew the details. Bergegar jugak lak management. Even the HR GM, our GM, Chief engineer with our new VP set up a meeting to rectify this issue with all of us. CEO dah marah baru lah nak kisah kan!

Even papers were sent upwards regarding our department structuring without proper channelling (bypass the new VP- pissed him off real good). Kesimpulannya AZ and me were really satisfied that our point got across. The shouting and grunting for the past 1.5 years were ineffective.... we just had to quit.. together. We wish we could have done it before but the bond was holding us back. Although its a lost to us but in the end it was a gain to our successors and the rest of the department. No doubt good things came about from this. Hope it turns out the same for us too.

ps.. one more funny thing in TNB, you dont notify that you want to quit instead you have to "memohon meletak jawatan". Yes you have to get their approval to quit. If they dont approve it you cant quit. Good luck doing that to me.