Saturday, August 16, 2014

bakes & cakes 15

My last bakes and cakes was in February...Ya Allah lamanya tak update my bakes! Well, it's not because I did not do any baking but most probably I've been baking the same the same stuff over and over again. soo... this weekend I decided to go through my food folder and realized there are a few 'cakes' that has not been uploaded yet.

Strawberry meringue layer cake, recipe from one of Nigella's cookbook, requested by Alia for her birthday.
Senang aje, she chose her own cake, tunjuk kat mama, siap dengan resipi2 skali. Mama just cakap ok, boleh buat.

Irfan's birthday cake, rainbow cake with m&ms. He doesn't really know what cake he wanted, so he just stick to the ones that he's familiar with.
Tersipu-sipu pulak bila kita nyanyi happy birthday kat dia..
nicely cut to be eaten
another birthday cake, for my 1-yr-old niece
recipe is the same as rainbow cake but in pink with cream cheese frosting
My hariraya cake, well, not mine actually...2 red velvets for MIL, another 2 for grandma, kek kukus masam manis for my mom and kek suji for nenek kajang. took me 5 hours to bake all these, excluding the frosting on the red velvet. Frosting was done a day after... tak larat to do it on the same day..baking during Ramadhan is really challenging.
chocolate pavlova with kiwi and pineapple... couldn't find any strawberry to top it off ;-(
irfan really loves the meringue, makan macam to aje, maybe next time I'll just make that for him.
Superfudgy brownies with choc chip and walnut, requested by my neighbour, thank you for your order, Kak Kin..

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Raya 2014


 Selamat hari raya, this year first raya @ senawang.... the customary photo every year..
 My favourite family photo for raya
gambar ramai-ramai...would you believe the whole photo session took 40 minutes! 

main dulu while waiting everybody to get ready to jalan raya
raya @kajang. went to six houses for raya today. after so many rayas i learned the trick to survive house to house raya...you only eat the smallest possible amount of food in every house...just enough to not offend the hosts and be able to say ' dah, dah makan dah...'

2nd raya @ grandma's place in Jasin. Jalan raya to another six houses today. I just realized that  we did not take any photo in Jasin except with my grandma. No family photos here this year.

Last house 2 Syawal...sorang dah pengsan, sikecik tgk tv, sorang lagi layan sikecik tengok tv ;-)

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Trip to Taman Negara


During the last school holidays we went to Taman Negara. It was the first time for all of us. DH wanted to go earlier but we figure that the kids might not be ready yet for these kind of outing. After the Banding/Belum and Bako trip, we were quite confident that they can managed. We started in the morning and drove straight to Kuala Tahan.

The jetty point. To go to Taman Negara from here you just have to take a boat to cross the river. If you are going on your own, one way trip is RM1, but if you took a package, you don't have to worry about that.
 This is where we had our lunch. there a several other floating restaurants nearby
.
 took the best seat...corner seat hihihi...After lunch we scout around for the best package...then balik bilik to rest.
 Malam, after dinner, we waited in front of the jetty for our night walk. There were 10 of us in a group.At the Mutiara resort there was a tapir looking for food.
 We were told that the tapir will come here every night and leave early morning into the jungle.
can't remember this creature name...the nightwalk was fun, the first time for them, the second time for me, but this is much more interesting than my first nightwalk experience. the kids were a bit apprehensive when we started but they seem to relax and enjoy the walk later on.

 outside our room
 irfan enjoying the view...we booked a room with 1 double bed and 2 single beds and were given the last room along the row of rooms..the entrance is a bit secluded than the rest and you can sit at the balcony looking down the rest of the rooms with practically no interruptions from any of the guests.
next morning, this is what DH found in front of the guest's door. For us, we had a butterfly, kumbang, cicak and belalang inside our room.
 where we stayed.
 DH parked the car  infront of the floating restaurant before we started our trekking.
 while waiting for the rest of the group...it's the same group and guide as last night.
 A must take photo in Taman Negara
 we started our journey...this tree is also known as 'toilet' tree...you can answer nature calls behind this tree and nobody will know.
we were told by the guide that the marks on the tree was by a sun bear a couple of days ago, probably to look for madu kelulut...this tree reminds me of Winnie the Pooh cartoon pulak..
 after many many many stairs later I was happy to reached here..finally..
Queuing for our turn..initially, they should be at least 10 metres distance between you and the person in front. If you have a fear of heights and are not sure whether you can managed the whole length, you have the first 10 metres to decide, after that...you have to finish the 510m  walkway, like the guide said...kalau kena merangkak pun merangkak la..

 It's very safe but because it's narrow it can sway especially when the wind is strong.
 Dah sampai first station...9 more stations to go..




 this girl look quite scared to go on...but no choice...if you don't move, you'll create traffic jam and you will be forced to walk anyway.
 going to the highest part of the walkway...at 40 metres..just look at the stairs that you have to climb! I am afraid of height and for most of the walkway I did not look down, but for this section i have to look down to see where to put my feet..yikes!

 Gambar tak clear...my hands are probably shaking when i took this photo hahaha...
alhamdulilah... selesai sudah canopy walkway
 Another 30 minutes of climbing stairs, stairs and more stairs we reached the top. rehat sekejap and went down. By this time my legs are really hurting me...sakit betul rasa kaki bila turun tangga. For once i actually prefer to climb up rather than down.
 It a loooooooong way down. Irfan actually cried when we reached the jetty because he was so tired and hungry. My samsung s4 pedometer actually clock in 10000 steps by the time we reached the jetty. It's the first time actually, and it's not even 1pm! . had our lunch ( Irfan managed to get a nap while waiting for food to arrive) at the floating restaurant, we back to our room, mandi and went out again.
 This time we took a boat ride to go to Lata Berkoh waterfall. Just look at what a nap and a big lunch can do to Irfan hihihi...back to his old self
 the boat ride is so relaxing....
 the most enjoyable part of the holiday for me..
 we trekked for about 20 minutes to get a secluded area. Dh actually went all they way up to the waterfall but said that it was full of people. tak pelah.. turun balik, we saw  a nice spot on the way up tadi. Alia kena gigit lebah/wasp while waiting for DH. i managed to get the sting out and we waited for a while for Alia to calm down. We spent about 45 minutes in the water....bestnye..
singgah kelah sanctuary on the way to Lata Berkoh but didn't get to see any kelah coz the river is not clear. there was  a lot of wasps here...were told because it's their mating season. Balik bilik suma pancit. DH went out to buy us dinner. I was asleep went he came back with burger. Bangun, makan baru rasa ok sikit. The next day we went back after breakfast. balik rumah sambung rehat...one of the most tiring but exciting holiday.

P/s: Have a blessed Ramadhan!