The menu is fish

The main star of last night's bbq, that is. (Apa! Makan2 lagi?).

Gitu lah.

My brothers inlaw together with hubby, after a golf session yesterday morning had a sudden urge to eat home-barbequed fish and decided then to have bbq at home. The text came from my sister before I got word from hubby, basically saying there'll be bbq party at my place 7.30pm that evening. Oh really? I'm invited to my own party? And when was hubby going to tell me this? It was 3.00 pm. What do I cook?

They were getting the fish. I was to cook rice and some vege dish and make enough dipping sauce. Oh, alright.

And then the fish came at 5pm.
Oh my god. Did they buy the entire boat load? BECAUSE that's a whole LOT of fish. Wow... I stared at the basin and stared at hubby who just shrugged. Can we finish this? Hubby was thinking the same and started texting his other staffs to come.


.....
Three hours later....

Yummy, yummy, yummy...oooo...punya sedap pula ikan belanak yang besar2 ni bila di panggang! ( i just learned the name). Kulit dia yg tebal menyebabkan isi dia masak macam kena stim, lembut dan licin. Oh sure we can finish this and we did so without much difficulty. It was the only main meal anyway. No chickens or lambs to distract. For once we felt like we were eating healthy, less cholesterol-packed sort of.. but enter bubur durian+nasi made by MIL for dessert..hmmmm...lets just stop delusioning right...

what's in the basin is just half. more was still in marinating process.
the big fish makes 2 rounds of the tray, about 8pc, another trayful of ikan kembung, a tray of big ikan putih and a tray of ikan belais (both not pictured).

we got out both the bbq set (manual & gas) to speed up cooking.

ikan belanak - nasty looking but very tasty

my 3 darling helpers (tq dears)

Good night.

Sepetang di Sipitang

Dan seharian di perjalanan. Because we made stops to eat and this and that, plus heavy rain.

My brother in law has to visit his family's kebun buah today in Sipitang so we tagged along, all 5 families, to see and 'help'. We got our city kids make themselves useful in the kebun and experience first hand a bit of the hardship of kampung life. Bitten by mosquitos, filling up the 'tekiding' with durians and heaved the heavy load to the car. Our salute to inlaw's mom for managing this all by herself all this time, in addition to living alone in a house remote from neighbours. The area is so empty and quiet. I feel a kind of sadness whenever I visit her. And how she manages it without transport is another mindblowing thing. She actually walk home with the load of durians on her back (and its not a short walk, oh my god). Durians are heavy ok. Have you tried carrying a sack of it? There's got to be at least 20kg in there.

The reward is ofcourse sampling the harvest. Durian putih, durian kuning, other fruits- mangosteen, langsat. No need to tell you they are all juicy and sweet.

We made our way back late afternoon and stopped by the esplanade for satay. I know that's not the wisest thing after durian but.. well..whatever..too late. I dont know why we were so hungry, did we work too hard in the kebun? Hardly. We were just posing and taking pictures but we finished about ..probably 200 cucuk satay and some 30 pc bbq chk wings between 20 of us. I guess that's not so bad.

Looks like pesta durian la sepanjang minggu ni.

Bowling Nite

My arm is sore from lifting and rolling the 10kg ball 40 times last night. Thats more than what I do in a regular gym session.

We had an Inter family Tournament at Sutera Strikers that looked more like a practise session than a competition with prizes to grab.Some bowled for the first time in their lives.

But competition it was. We made 4 categories and the winners are :

Men Senior (the daddys) - brother inlaw (my elder sis' hubby)
Men Junior  - nephew (another elder sis' son)
Women Senior a.k.a The Big Momma - sister in law (my late brother's wife)
Women Junior - niece (eldest bro's daughter)

Meaning me, my younger brother and younger sis didn't win anything for our family. The elders rule. Well they had bigger and stronger kids. (bah, sour grape).

We exit the alley at 11.00 pm after photo session and prize giving and then adjourned for supper across the road till midnight.

That was a fun get-together do.

mini holiday

we got a room voucher to claim at mt kinabalu heritage before it expires so that was where we at on the weekend. we wanted to extend at another place and were lucky to find 2 connecting rooms available without prebooking at another resort the next night. its the start of CNY holiday, the place is full of Bruneians and West Malaysians on vacation.

the kids suggest we go climb the mountain. i dont think so. my eldest son has started coming to the gym with me, which pleases me, i got company now. he might be ready for mountain, but i'm pretty sure i'm gonna have to carry helmi on my back. not that i think i can muster climbing myself or planning to in the near future (or any future). just hypothetically speaking. V and S, please stop me if ever i go that crazy.

moving on. the kids enjoyed feeding the rabbits at the Rabbit House and strolling (running) up and down the resort driveway feeling the cool breeze. note - i need to work out more to keep up with their energy. sometimes i want to press 'pause' on these kids. they are growing up much too fast for me.

ok, enjoy the pics.

 Helmi impatiently waiting for feeding time

 room view

 we found some friendly squirrels in the woods at timpohon station.

and then i found my slipper at Kundasang shop.

Gong Xi Fa Cai. Enjoy your holidays.

Introducing new maid

Finally i have a maid. After searching high and low (as if). No I haven't really. The truth is, i didn't try hard , i'm getting quite comfortable with no maid. Tiring yes but satisfying, i set my own standards and sometimes the kids chip in where they can. I am managing fine. Hubby is the one concerned about me getting tired and stressed out.

Ok, maybe the biggest downside, i do get stressed out over a particular chore - cooking. I over think about cleaning up after, which i truly hate, which sees me opting for boring simple no mess meals. And then i stressed myself further trying to get creative, time efficient, energy saving and so on.

Righ, enough blabbering, i digress.

So meet Fitriyani. Just that, no surname. Nickname Nani. Compared to previous maids, this one is XL (ok call me mean, i'm just saying). But her face is cute. She's comel, that's the exact impression. Her record is good, she stays long with employer, not a job-hopper.

I hope i dont jinx the record by announcing this news.

Ok, till later, wish me luck with this one.

The Weeks That Were

These are backlogs of the 2 weeks prior to last post :-

1. I exhausted myself cooking for hubby's birthday party. Not that it was grand or anything but you know, maidless made it very tiring. Note to self - next time use paper plates. Why I never is beyond me. I just like doing things the hard way. Anyway, we received a surprise home made durian cake from unexpected guest/ friend which was so delicious and instantly became famous.

2.  The next day, we played (or rather the boys and men played and we ladies running about aimlessly giggling) futsal in a family match. Helmi put on a good show and won golden boot  for top scorer. Two family members arrived so late, we have finished playing and were resting and having drinks outside and were about to finish that too when they finally turned up in their sports attire. Haiyya.

3. The same afternoon, we had a family karaoke session at K-Box in town arranged by my brother who was a renowned singer during his college days.  Aduh. Immediately we characterised into 2 groups. Oldies and Teens. Whenever Korean songs blared from the speaker, the mike is passed over to the nieces. We noticed then that they memorised the  lyrics and were singing as if they could read Korean from the screen. The oldies , well you know, standard evergreens. There's Celine Deon,  Bee Gees,  Jamal Abdillah, Dewa. Problem is, only one can really sing and whenever we like certain songs we don't even know what's the title to look for. And just why the video clip so rubbish is unfathomable to me. Absolutely irrelevant and poorly and hideous. Entah apa-apa. Patut pun budak2 tu nda sudi, bagus lagi K-Pop boleh lagi layan dance video dia.

4. Invited to a xmas wedding by inlaws. The halal food catered for muslim guests was very delicious. (makanan saja aku aga kan?).

5. Got together with BFF for year end lunch at our official hotel restaurant (aiseh). Perfect lamb roasts made our day. Hubby asked only one thing, 'kenapa hari Khamis, bukan Jumaat ka hari kamu makan2?'. Sudah tukar la kan. I didn't realise it was a Thursday. I got some cute Hong Kong souveneirs from Sri which I adore. Thanks gal.

6. The next morning, sailed to an island for a family day trip. Just 3 families, the rest backed out at the last minute due to weather scare. We had  an awesome time. I swam a little, tried snorkelling a little and munched snacks non-stop. Helmi and Azim become pro at parasailing. The weather was fine, wasn't too hot so we didn't burn. We got back on land before it rained and sambung makan2 at Garden Point. Have you tried the new stall selling ikan bakar? Not bad kan? I recommend ikan putih bakar sambal and terung bakar.

7. On 31st we had a family bbq at home to welcome the new year. My inlaws did the barbequing , of fish, squids, chicken wings, lamb, sausages, which turned out perfect and superb. (This time we got the paper plates out). And the famous durian cake made another appearance, and disappearance. The countdown finale was fireworks in the front yard, anxiously waited on by our children. I was actually getting sleepy and ready to call it a day. Mental note telling I consumed too much lamb and durian for 3 days in a row. Unwise but unavoidable.

So holiday is over. How is everyone's first day of school? Somebody made Prefect this year. I think he looks cute in his new uniform.

Happy weekend.

New Year post

I actually stayed up till the stroke of midnight. I haven't done that for some time. Normally I turned in my usual bedtime not bothering to count down. This year my inlaws arranged bbq and fireworks so there was that to look for. Seeing the sky erupt with the bursting flames and booming noise. The area we stay is always big on fireworks. Chinese new year , xmas, eid, you'd be sure there'll be someone starting the crackers. So it was like some sort of competition, one display after another all round the neighbourhood. The kids were beside themselves with glee, jumping and shrieking.

Later, barely an hour after everyone turned in, sad news came in. Hubby's elderly relative who's been warded for 3 weeks has passed away. Hubby and his mom and siblings left for hometown next morning for the burial.

I stayed with the kids and got to a last gathering at a sister's for tea and bubur durian. As if I haven't been stuffing myself enough. We had bubur durian too at our bbq and then durian cake. Not durian shaped or durian flavored cake, ok. This is a cake with durian flesh, generously, layered in it. Yummy, my word..that's the most fresh durian cake I ever tasted. I don't know when I turned into a durian lover. I normally don't really go crazy.

Yesterday I went for another gathering at a friend's to watch a certain box office movie on
her CD. Over rated in my opinion. It was not bad, it wasn't really great. What's great is our lunch that day. Perfect ten for Sri's mom's cooking. The sambal ikan masin and bambangan made serious damage to my diet plan. Seriously, I couldn't not have second helping with that combination. I had third and fourth helpings. Help me.

Oh well. Have a blessed year everyone.