War museum, Penang

During the long raya break we went to Penang for my cousin's wedding. We went there a day earlier and DH decided to visit the war museum.The briefing was interesting and we made our way to 'Malaya' shortly after.

 passage way to bilik senjata and escape route

 all of us crawl inside this escape route

at the end of the route before you have to climb a very tall ladder that connects you the the outside world

it was quite high and since the kids were with us, we decided to to climb it...so i had to 'reverse crawl' from the tunnel.

 quite a scary looking tree/place...

 at one of the dorm/room/lock up area. We also given a flashlight when we went into one of tunnel. there was another tunnel  but since there was a warning on bats at that tunnel we decided not to go in. This was a different kind of outing from what we usually went for, but it was definitely enjoyable.

bali trip

just came back from bali...presented a paper here

view from my hotel room...huge swimming pool but not enough time to take a dip

after the congress i went for a hot stone massage...my expert tukang urut. A 90 minutes massage just cost me RM50...pure bliss

halal food is not easily available ...makan mee maggi je la malam tu

and some chocolates

at one of the park with temples

panjat & intai...there's a ceremony going on inside but tourists are not allowed, so we climbed and took a peek

temple at one of the lake..can't remember the name

i've been to jakarta, surabaya and bandung..but i've never seen a kebaya being worn as extensively as in bali..probably because there was a ceremony going on at this time. The kebaya that they wore were mostly white and made of cotton, unlike the typical indonesian kebaya that's full of sequins/bling-bling to the extent of looking gaudy. i wish i could get hold of one of the cotton white kebaya but our driver has no idea where exactly to buy those and since we are so short of time i just let it go. I did asked the driver about uluwatu kebaya but was told that it was franchised and price doesn't really vary much from country to country...and here it starts at USD150...Gulp. tak payah la...i might as well buy it in malaysia then, kalau betul2 nak beli.

manage to take a photo with one of them

at the bat and monkey sanctuary...they will just climb you if they see you holding food.

ok..the sanctuary is near pura dalem..i've visited so many puras that i dont remember their names

this i remember...pura batu bolong

there was a ritual going on here

kecak dance

photo taking session with the dancers

seafood at jimbaran beach.. a romantic candle light dinner

udang bakar with balinese sauce

jumbo oyster with cheese...yummy
overall it was a great trip. but since DH only decided to follow me after i bought my flight ticket(and those flight ticket cant be change) we only managed to spent a day together. the rest of the time i was in the conference and DH was at some other part of bali. would have extend the stay if i know DH is coming with me.

raya 2012

we celebrated first raya at seremban this year. our theme this year is grey/black.

 the customary first day raya photo

 full house this year

 second raya..in melaka..at my grandma place

 close up..hehehe

third raya off to kuala pilah...then back home, raya in shah alam one day then off to utara...this is one of the longest raya break i had since i started working, the reason being two cousins of mine is getting married the following weekend, one in penaga and one in sungai petani. so we use this break to travelled to penang as well...coming up in the next entry...

tioman trip

we went to tioman a week after school holidays. started the day at 4am and reached Mersing around 9 am. we were stuck at the jetty for quite some time and finally reached tioman at 2pm.

 sampai aje the kids sibuk tanya bila boleh mandi laut, so after eating our lunch packed from the stall near the  jetty, rest for awhile and straight to the beach.

 pure bliss...this photo was taken by DH and was featured in a camera magazine (not sure which one). 

the next morning, time to go snorkelling, waiting for our boat

 in our boat, getting ready, there are six of us in the boat, including a young couple

 dah sampai, ready to go

 at one of the stops, the kids favourite game at the beach

 another snorkeling place, irfan said, 'ehh, irfan nampak ikan pompuan!" Ikan pompuan? iyaa... mulut dia kaler pink...Hmmm ok, ni mesti penangan nemo ni. this is the first snorkelling experience for irfan and i'm glad that he enjoyed it.

where we stayed

balik time... during this time everybody was ok. one and a half hour after that all of us was feeling queasy. the sea was rough and there were 3 passengers vomitted in our level. by the time the 3rd passenger vomitted i practically have to plug my ears to lessen the urge to vomit. Alhamdulillah managed to control it walaupun kepala pening. we reached mersing at 6.00pm and by 6.30pm we were on our way back. Overall it was an enjoyable holiday.

bakes and cakes 9

I can't remember the last time i made florentine but I know it was more than 5 years back as this is the first time I baked this in my present home and I have been staying here for four and a half year this June. This is a very fragile cookie and if not because of its taste I wouldn't be bothered to make it after the first try. But I have made this many times, each time trying to modify the process so that it would look as good as it taste. I've tried scraping the sides into a rounded corner when it's still hot as suggested by the recipe book which is so time consuming, making it in a large square aluminium foil and cutting it after I've spread the chocolate (easier but still doesn't look good) but most of the time I just drop a large chunk of dough on the tray and pray that most of it will stay that way during baking.

Last week I bake the dough on my new silicone pad and sure enough the dough spread into one large thin layer cookie. We ended up eating the bits and pieces straight from the tray because I can't even hold the cookie to spread the chocolate layer.

The next day I decided to bake the cookies in a silicone cupcake cases, spread the chocolate when the cookie is cooled, put it in the fridge till the chocolate is set and then peeling the cupcake cases to get a perfectly rounded florentine. This is how I'm going to make florentine from now on and I think I'm going to bake this again soon. Yummy...

I've made macarons a few times but everytime the results will be different..I've got cracks, empty shells, no feet macs, different shape and sizes etcs. But this is the first time I got macs this even sizes with a weird looking feet.

 It is definitely easier to remove the macs using a silicone pad than a baking sheet.

 peanut butter cream and kaya butter filling

 I still can't find out why the feet turn out this way. The shell is also crispier than before..may be I overbake it.

 nevertheless, it's yummylicious!

child labour??

 cat/touch up dinding yang previously kena conteng by irfan himself...

 habis badan & rambut kena cat sekali