Revisited.

Have you ever felt like ditching the plan you made with your friends, because somewhere along planning that outing, either you messed up, or your friends messed up or somebody else messed up? You felt so lazy to get up, to drive, to shower, to dress up, you simply have no mood whatsoever to go out you started making tonnes of excuses why you couldn't make it? But you went anyway, because you didn't want to upset your friend, because you promised your friend that you would turn up, or simply because you love your friend you didn't want to let him/her down. At the end of the day, it was an awesome outing, you had so much fun, you forgot that you almost missed it because of your stupid mood swings.

Fuuuuhhhh...that's a long introduction. You get what I mean, kan?

I had my share last weekend.

I will spare you from all the drama. Long story short, everybody messed up. Most important thing is, despite all the dramas, I managed to go on with the plan, and I had a great time :)

I volunteered for JBM 3, and on Sunday we brought the kids to Petrosains. Oh memories! I used to volunteer there for 3 months last year. I was supposed to help out on Saturday as well, but I had this family gathering in the evening, so I didn't want to rush for it, so I passed on volunteering for that day (I got my surprise party at the gathering!! Will post about it later).

I spent the day mostly with Tira actually, seemed like I volunteered for her, not JBM, haha. I met some of my Petrosains colleagues and good thing they still remember me, even though I was there for just a short while :))) Oh Tira and I me our long lost mutual friend, Pean. She's volunteering there as well, before she flies of to UK for her clinical years. Fate works in some weird ways sometimes. I knew Pean quite well then, compared to Tira, even though Pean was in a different program, and Tira and I were in the same program (all three of us studied at INTEC for our foundation programs).

After Petrosains visit, we headed to the KLCC park to have our packed lunch. While waiting for the food, guess what we did? Camwhoring! Haha what else, meh? Plus we got a nice view of the towers, we just couldn't miss that, right? I'd love it more if it is at night, with all the lights glittering the towers.

There was a little bit of a twist that day. We were supposed to head over to Shah Alam right after lunch for presentation session. But Tira had bought these Skybridge tickets as a gift to her friend who is going to pursue her PhD in Aussie this year. Too bad, her friend and family couldn't make it that day. We couldn't go on any other day because the tickets were fixed for Sunday, at 2 pm. We could easily bypassed the tickets, because they cost only RM3 each, but then Tira had asked Arif, the Petronas engineer guy to get them for her earlier. So macam sayang pulak nak burn macam tu je. So we decided to us the tickets for ourselves :)) And off we went up up and above! 

Actually it was my second time; my first time was when I had my volunteer training session last year. Tira could have gone with somebody else, but because she loves me so much, I just had to follow her :P It was a brief visit - 7-minutes video screening, 40 secs elevator ride up, 15 minutes visit on the bridge, and 40 secs elevator ride down. Btw, the bridge is at Level 41 (Sorry no photos of the sceneries up there, we did took some but Tira didn't send me those). More or less, plus waiting time, it was just a 30-minutes visit. We managed to drive back to Shah Alam, and made it in time for the kids' presentations. Along the way to Shah Alam, we had a heart-to-heart talk; it was so refreshing. Haven't had such a talk with her for such a long time :) Thanks dear for listening :))

JBM ended at 6. Since the place is close to the Les Copaque office (if you don't know what/who Les Copaque does/is, sila tekup muka dengan selimut sekarang! They are Upin Ipin producer lahh!!), we went to the office and snapped a few pictures. Haha. Actually it was Kak Shu's (Tira's friend from MGI) idea, she loves the botak kids to bits; so we had to tag along since Tira was the only one with camera (I brought mine, tapi malas nak ambil gambar huhu). And later, we had quick bites at Geng's Corner, a restaurant owned by Les Copaque, just across their office. Did a quick post-mortem, and it was Maghrib by then, so off we went.

JBM 3 kids with the organizer and volunteers. Form 4 kids of SMK Seksyen 16, Shah Alam.

As decided during the post-mortem, JBM will take a break for a while, as the organizer, Hamidah needs to revise the modules and plan for better JBM next time. However, she will be available as 'penceramah' for JBM if anyone would want to use her service and expertise.

So back to what I said in the intro..

I dreaded waking up that Sunday morning, no, not because of you Tira, because of what happened to the planning and all, and it's not your fault , don't get me wrong okay? It was more of me battling with my moods and questioning my intentions.

But at the end of the day, I had a lot of fun, laughed a lot, talked a lot and helped a little bit :P But I do hope that the kids did gain something out of the two-day program. Now I can't wait to join KULN NY-NJ Summer Camp in Hulu Langat next month :)

Till then, au revoir! 

p/s: Pictures credit to Tira.

Supir.

 Salam,

Hari ni jadi supir, drive dari Putrajaya ke Seremban. Keluar je Tol Kajang, perghhh jam bumper-to-bumper. Tak bajet plak jam seawal tu, ingatkan paling teruk pun jam kat Nilai. Sekali tengok message board kat highway tu, 'Trafik perlahan dari Bangi ke Seremban. Harap Bersabar'. Fuuhh nasib baik CC aka the pregnant lady aka my sister tahu ikut jalan dalam. Masuk simpang Bangi, patah balik Putrajaya, cari jalan masuk Dengkil, pegi Seremban ikut jalan dalam. Sampai gak la dalam sejam lebih. Kalau ikut PLUS tu mahu 2-3 jam nak sampai Seremban tu. Time tu dah la lapar gila, nasib ada bawak roti telur dalam kereta, sebab tak sempat makan kat rumah. Maka bersuap lah dua makhluk dalam kereta tu sementara nak sampai.

Sampai je Seremban, terus Ayah bawa pegi area Stadium Paroi, makan kat Nasi Arab Damsyik. Actually a friend of mine yang suggest, so pegi la try. Lagipun setiap kali datang Seremban, asyik makan tempat sama je, makan masak lemak cili api, kali ni tukar selera plak.

It's actually a restaurant in a house. Keliling semua banglo, tetibe satu rumah jadi restaurant.

Indoor seating macam ala-ala Mediterranean. Ade outdoor seating jugak.

Chai tea (tea with peppermint leaves) and their signature drink Mango Lassi. Mango Lassi tu mmg sedap la, tapi Chai tea tu kureng sikit. Tak rasa sangat mint nye.

Set Thalasa Ayam+Kambing, for 3 pax. Ada set Wahid for 1 pax and set for 5 and 10 pax. Tak silap ada ayam and kambing je. Sedap! Nasi tu ade rasa ayam, rasa daging and rempah-rempah semua cukup. Oh set for 3 ni harganya RM50. Served in a dulang.

Licin yo! Haha Overall memang sedap. Cuma yang kurang part menu la, tak macam restaurant arab yang lain. Yang ni mmg simple je. Jalan Jalan Cari Makan pun dah sampai sini. Pasni nak try Sahara Tent plak, or Al Rawsha ke. Yang memang pure Arab-style punye. Oh yg ni owned by Malays kalau tak silap, sebab waiter sume Malays. Sahara Tent tu semua macam owned by Arabs.

A- for food.

A+ for ambiance.

For dinner, CC aka the pregnant lady aka my sister mengidam makan sotong kangkung. Ayah being a caring daddy, bawak la dia pegi satisfy her craving. Last nye bukak sotong kangkung je, kerang bakar and tauhu bakar pun masuk list.

Oh oh, something funny happened tonight before dinner (tetibe English pulak dah). Kelam kabut siap tadi, Ayah dah tunggu kat luar. Terhegeh-hegeh nak iron baju (padahal makan kat tempat gelap je pun gigih nak iron baju) sekali terbakar baju. Ok terbakar tu exaggerate. Macam terlekat kesan burnt la kat baju tu. Dah kelam kabut takde baju nak pakai, pegi sarung je baju Mama. Tak penah share baju ng Mama selama 23 tahun hidup okay, melainkan baju kelawar ke maxi ke. Ni baju berjalan pakai baju Mama. Nasib la okay. Keluar je rumah kene gelak ngan CC and Ayah, sebab baju tu besar sikit, and nampak macam makcik. Dah la tudung pun sarung tudung Indon Mama. Adoi lah.

See? See? Makcik much? 

Eh gambar satu lagi takde watermark. Malas pulak dah.

Ok itu sahaja kthxbai!

She is married!

Salam,

Woah, last weekend was really something. I was so excited I couldn't bring myself to post anything in the blogosphere. But since someone is requesting for an update, now here it's for you, my dearest colleague!

So one of my school BFFs is married! Oh the feeling - happy, excited, sedih, terharu, semua ada. We went to her solemnization at Seri Kembangan on Friday night. It was a simple, yet beautiful event. The tok kadi even made some jokes, all of us in the house were laughing to them. I want that kinda tok kadi for my wedding, to ease my future's husband so that he won't have to repeat the 'akad' twice. Tee hee hee (berangan mode). But really guys, you have your whole life to memorize the 'akad', just insert the bride's name and 'mas kahwin', then there's no reason to repeat it, right? *Matilah ramai yang marah*

Two of the 'hantaran' really caught my eyes. The bride gave a DSLR-shaped cake to the groom, and the groom gave her a laptop-shaped cake in return. Comel kan? *Now let's see what I would want for my hantaran. Shusshhh Dila, this is not about you. SIGH*

Guess who we met there? Adriani Adnan, the Scarflet's blogger. Oh my, she's so ayu and soft spoken. She's also getting married soon. Congrats Adriani! *it's not like she reads my blog pfftt*

Well, it wasn't only a wedding, it was also a reunion for many of us. Bee is the first one to get married in the batch, so a lot us looked forward to her wedding to reunite with old schoolmates. It was indeed a memorable moment, to see each other so grown up, and matured. It's been 5 years since we left high school, feel so 'kertu' already.

And and, it wasn't only a reunion for my batch, my schoolmates, but also with others, friends whom I met/got to know after school. My life after SPM was quite fun, I got to know a few people from another school just by 'lepaking' at Jusco Ipoh and also through Friendster and Myspace (kids these days might not know what Friendster is, they only know Facebook haha), and instantly knew each and everyone in the circle. It was a fun memory though, somehow someone in this circle was related to somebody else in another circle *wink wink* Kinda miss that time.

Met Liyana again after 4 years.

It was also the first time me and my BFFs talked about marriage seriously. We discussed who's next, what would be our tasks during one's wedding, should we coordinate colors, are you willing to be the dulang girl etc. Someone (shall not be named) even cried at the thought of 'melepaskan' her BFFs to their future husbands. True enough, memang sedih pun tengok best friend sendiri kahwin, macam rasa kehilangan sikit. Let's not discuss about that until the time comes okay? I'll make sure I make note to my future husband that my BFFs are my VIPs, and I need to attend to them immediately if they call for help, deal?

Oh oh, what a surprise, when Hanis Zalikha and her whole family walked into the hall. All eyes on them. We didn't manage to get a picture with her mom, but seriously, Auntie Nani Rostam sangat cantik :) Wedding ni dah jadi bloggers reunion la plak. 

All in all, I had a GREAT time last weekend. I was supposed to go for BTN course in Rembau, but I guess Allah had better plans for me :) He didn't want me to miss meeting and reuniting with all these beautiful people. Thank you Allah. Now I hope it's not too late to go for the course in June :P

Selamat pengatin baru, Bee and Danny.

Semoga berkekalan hingga hujung nyawa.

Remember what I said about supplying me and the girls with flower girls and boys for our weddings. Haha

xoxo

Girly Weekend - Part 2

Salam,

As promised, here's the second part of my girly weekend. This time it was with another group of BFFs.

On Sunday, 8 of us gathered at Little White Cafe, Bangi to welcome Aisyah home, and also to celebrate her engagement yo! One of us is engaged, MasyaAllah! 

I reserved for the 10 of us, but only 9 could make it. Me, Tira, Pao, Hawa, Aimi and Aisyah's friends from PennState-Peyya, Resty, Yaya. Zawa couldn't make it to LWC, but we managed to meet her at PKNS afterwards.

You really don't want to put 9 girls together in a cute little cafe. We pretty much treated the cafe like our own, and we talked and talked like nobody's business. Initially, I was thinking of having a private gathering (Ecah I'm spilling the initial plan for you :)), maybe in somebody's house or something. Pao thought even bigger, to book a hotel room! Then I thought of having a tea party, with cupcakes, muffins, together with English-inspired tea set and everything lah. Hahaha me and my angan-angan. I know you would love that, but sorry girl, the plan fell through, next time maybe? I thought, the closest thing to a tea party was to have the gathering at LWC. Jadilah kan? Hehe

I got lost on my way there. First, I thought I wanted to avoid using MRR2 because you-know-why lah. I'd rather drive back to Putrajaya, and use the usual route. But then I said, just try my luck, and yes I was indeed lucky that day, no heavy traffic except for in front of Tesco Ampang. Then when I arrived in Bangi, I got lost! LWC is on Jalan Medan PB 4A, (oh here's their Facebook) but Jane doesn't have it registered! She only has up to Jalan 3A, so the stupid me pergi pusing sana sini cari-cari tak jumpa. To make things worst, my handphone died on the way! Like flat habis. Out of desperation, I stopped by at a burger stall and asked for direction. Too bad the guy had no idea where I was heading. Guess what I did next?

.

.

.

.

I asked if I could borrow his handphone and he said yes!!! Must be my desperate look lah, thanks Abang Burger. Now you kiddo, don't do this at home. It iz very dangerousszzzz!! Kalau dah desperate sangat nak buat macamana kan? Survival 101. Thing is, I'm useless when it comes to memorizing phone numbers. I don't know Pao's or Tira's number by heart. So I dialed my sis and asked for direction. 

'Ko turn dekat ^*&()hkjo**^&^_GJBmnjgk' 

My mind was everywhere, I didn't bother to listen carefully. After what seemed like a good 5 minutes of menghabiskan credit seorang stranger, I hung up and relied on Jane again. 

'3A pun 3A lah.' 

Suddenly, I turned at one corner and there it was 'LITTLE WHITE CAFE' right in front of my eyes. Thank God!

Got into the cafe, hugged Ecah super duper tight (oh I miss you now) and talked the evening out. It was a great time catching up with her and others. Tak cukup kt LWC, we then moved to PKNS Bangi to find a place to lepak, and we settled for its food court. Empty food court, just perfect! Talked, gossiped, talked, looked at Aisyah's engagement pictures, gossiped some more, and it was 8 by then! Resty had to rush home, so off we all went. 

Saying goodbye was the hardest. Aisyah will be going back to the States this Friday to continue with her internship, and she will only be back for good in December. I, on the other hand, insyALLAH will be leaving this September, and not sure if I'll be coming back during summer. So yeah, the feeling of not-sure-when-we'll-see-each-other-again, it's so sad! We had many rounds of hugging-letting go-hugging-letting go we almost cried! Seriously Ecah, if you dropped just one little tear that night, I would have drove back in tears, okay!

But it's okay, it's not a goodbye, it's just 'See you later' eh? (One bear hug for you)

Now, the review part. (Wah so long ah the post?)

I give A for ambiance. English-themed interior deco, I guess. 

All white, me likey :)

*I'm not an interior designer by profession*

I had Chef Salad and Berry Cooler. I was quite full since I just had lunch.

Food wise, I have to say I'm a little bit disappointed. The food is a bit pricey, for the quality. I didn't try what others had, but from they were saying, the food wasn't that great. I took home a piece of their Red Velvet cake. Erm let just say, I've tasted better. I think they could have increased the portion to match with price they are charging. Just my opinion.

The cafe is quite small. I would say they could accommodate about 20-25 people at one time. You can see the whole of the dining area in this picture. Despite the whole food and price thing, I'm totally in love with the deco. It's a personalized cafe, the cafe spells its owner.

Oh I must say, the waiters are nice too. One of them even waited outside and offered to take our picture in front of the cafe. Just that he didn't take it with the signboard -___- Bummer!

Here's some info about the cafe (taken from their Facebook);

Little White Cafe

13-G-1, Jalan Medan PB 4A, Pusat Bandar Baru Bangi, 43650 Selangor

Operation hours: Tue-Sun; 8 am to 10 pm

Till we meet again :)

Congratulations on your engagement my dear Aisyah.

Girly Weekend - Part 1

Salam,

By now you should how 'tak boleh duduk diam' I am comes weekend. Last Saturday, I went on a road trip with the girls to Melaka. Yes, again. And actually, the places we visited, the food we ate, were exactly the same the last road trip. EXACTLY. But it doesn't matter if you have to do the same thing again and again, when you are doing it with your best friends.

We drove out of KL at 1 pm, after my test in Damansara. I told them to just go without me, since this was a day trip, I thought it'd be too late to go after 1. Things you do for friends- they were willing to wait for me, though it'd drag the trip to 1-2 am in the morning (we had so many eating places to visit!).

We reached Melaka at 3-ish, and our first stop was Jonker Walk! Went to Jonker88 to eat the famous laksa and cendol. Only during this second trip I realized that there are many other laksa/cendol outlets along the stretch, but people are willing to wait in the long lines for this particular one. I guess I can say we made the right choice.

Taken after we went back to Jonker Walk at night.

Saved my stomach the whole morning for this. 

But I remember it being better the last time I had it.

Oh my, I'm salivating just by looking at this. 

Nak cendol lagi!!

The crews. 

Coincidently Cik Wana had to attend a wedding in Jasin.

 Found her in Dataran Pahlawan and kidnapped her right away!

After touring the historic sites (not!) and Dataran Pahlawan (it's a mall btw), 

we went back to Jonker to eat lah what else :P

Calanthe Art Cafe! The interior deco is so artsy.

Hot brownie with ice cream!!

Sweet sweet sago with ice cream 

On the way out, I saw this. 

Rugi plak tak try, with me being laksa lover of all time.

A huge stage in the middle of nowhere.

What is a trip to Melaka without going to Umbai? Hehe

Just FYI, in case you guys are heading to Melaka anytime soon, there are three medan ikan bakar at the Umbai area-Alai, Umbai-Pernu(Umbai Lama) and Umbai Baru.

Yang banyak orang pergi, sampai parking tak muat-muat tu is Umbai-Pernu. 

And kedai yang kitaorang pergi ni, D'Muara. The first kedai.

*Fuuh talk like an 'insider' already. Sorry kalau salah orang Melaka sekalian*

See, same exact orders like last time! *If you read my dead blog lah that is*

Sotong tepung, ikan siakap-1/2 bakar, 1/2 masak masam manis, kailan ikan masin.

So, 3 cafe/restaurants from 3 pm to 10 pm. Kami memang suka makan. There were two other eatery we wanted to go to. I wanted to eat the sushi at this one small stall on Jonker Walk. Cik Zaf wanted to have this Arabian pizza we had last time. Thought of just tapau-ing them and eat while driving back. Guess we were too full we could vomit at the sight of anymore food. Haha. It's actually quite a crazy idea to 'khatam' 5 eateries given our limited time. We may be food lovers, but our stomachs are not that big you know. 

If we were to go to Melaka again, I know we would repeat the same cycle. That's why, girls, we should plan for Penang next! But first we have to make friends with one 'insider' dulu, baru senang nak pergi. An 'insider' is someone who knows the place well, know where good eateries are, know where to park the car with the least charge, and so on. So, any takers?

We headed back at 10.30 pm, all with sleepy eyes and bloated stomach *very dangerous*. As usual, I was the first one to doze off, sorry girls! Arrived in KL at 1 am, safe and sound. Special thanks to our drivers, Cik Hana and Cik Zaf. *Kalau nak harap I drive, dah ke laut kot. Yelah, belum pape dah tidur dulu. Sungguh tak guna*

The end of Part 1.

To be continued...