See ya, mate!

Ok, in case some of you are wondering, things look set to change a bit for kamidisini in 2008. we’ll be going flying home on Monday, and while the Hasbern returns to Perth in early January, Ilhan and I will be here to usher in a new member of the family (insya Allah) and stay on till….whenever…haha

Thing is, WA is experiencing a major boom sending living expenses for a growing family almost impossible to cope on a measly self-funding international student budget. The rental crunch is especially bad, with the rental agents and landlords going *ka-ching* and grinning evil-ly all the way to the bank. A 2-bedroom villa/apartment/house which was probably $160/week just a few years ago is about $260/week now, and it just keeps getting worse. Factor in the costs of childcare, groceries, petrol blah blah blah, there you have it.

And lest some people start extolling the virtues and benefits of being permanent residents here, we are not. Yet. Insya Allah that will come through sometime next year, tapi itu cerita tahun depan.  Even so, we don’t look at things through rose-tinted glasses. Nature’s nice, beaches are empty, space and pace is good, but survival comes first, no?

All our baby stuff are back home in SG anyway, so that’ll save us a lot. And you can’t beat good ‘ol mother, mother-in-law, nenek, nenek-in-law pampering that you’ll get…haha…:P

 
And so, Perth has been an amazing learning experience. We saw the good, the bad and the downright ugly. I am so going to miss my indon pengajian group, who (unlike some fellow countrypeople) sees me through thick and thin.  Yang baik jadi teladan, buruk jadi sempadan dan memang pengalaman ini telah mendewasakan. We are grateful for the nice people who touched our lives in our way or another, and the intangibles which have made the 3 of us closer as a family.

 

And so these past week has been a mad flurry of sorting and packing – apa nak pack, apa kena jual (sebenarnya bab ni pun ada orang nak ambil kesempatan...manusia eh? ), apa nak buang, apa nak kasi Good Sammy, apa nak minta tolong jasa baik orang simpankan. and making a list of what we shall eat when we get home…hehehe!

 

I’ve so many stuff to update before we leave on Monday, but our ADSL connection has been down for almost a week (biasalah tu, try get anything to move fast around here). Primus said something might be wrong with our cable – kena gigit tikus kot – so right now we are relying on s.l.o.w dialup. Jadilah.

 

KFC and SGD$1.20 masala thosai….here we come!

A Very Mild Guide to Halal Eating in Perth

As some of you would know, kamidisini likes to eat. And no matter how I’d like to think that my culinary skills has improved (out of necessity basically) since we got here, there’s only so much cooking (mis)adventures kamidisini can take.

 

Hence, after almost a year of being here, we present to you the Kamidisini’s Very Mild Guide to Halal Eating in Perth. Why mild? Because we erm…are quite mild people, and can’t bring ourselves to give scathing comments about food. Tak baik kan, orang tu nak carik makan (but then again kita pun memang tengah literally carik makanan eh? but nevermind).  Also, we are non-connoisseurs and taste-wise we are quite easy to please.

 

[Disclaimer: Some of these eateries are not ICWA-certified halal, but are owned by Muslims or are basically seafood)

 

Fish and Chips

Cicerellos (Fremantle)

This is probably the first place first-time visitors to Freo will head for, cos it’s more visible and..hmm..iconic? and it’s got this 22-m gorgeous aquarium which will enthrall kids and makbapak kids alike. But, menu-wise I think they have limited choices as compared to…

 

Kailis’ Fish Market Café (next door)

I love the market section where you see cooked fat red lobsters and prawns on display. The café side has oohlala cakes while their core business of fishchips has a better selection of sets.

 

Malay

Insan’s Café (Perth City)

One of the first Malay restaurants we went to. The owner’s from Cocos Island. Wide selection of dishes; boleh tahan jugaklah. I like to see the nenek cooking in the kitchen.

 

Al-Noor (Spencer Village, Thornlie)

Far from our place, but quite worth the drive there. Very friendly husband-wife team from Singapore. The first time we were here we wanted to order EVERYTHING on the board – macam-macam ada and the pictures are very tantalizing. Sedap jugaklah. Plus point: epok-epok dia gemuk dan sedap, dan ada kuih dadar. Cheapest kuih too, $1 each.

 

Makan-Makan Cafe (Vic Park)

Pretty overrated, we think, and standards have slipped, the Nasi Goreng Kampung used to be Nasi Goreng Kampung, but not anymore. Very good the-tarik (standard price here $3). Frequented mainly by students, the place to see and be seen.

 

Indonesian (we always love their keropok and iced teh sosro)

 

Latansa Cafe (Vic Park) – Aceh/Sumatra

I wrote an entry on them once. We used to love coming here, mainly because of the big LCD TV showing Indon sinetron. But hey..a dose of Hikmah can’t make up for the tiny portions. Sorry Ilhan.

 

Batavia Restaurant (Vic Park)

Very nice, macam-macam ada. Very nice Mie Ayam Jamur Pangsit Bakso (ha kau…triple whopper..haha…that’s Mee Ayam Mushroom Wantan Bakso for you). Very nice tahu telur, gado-gado, nasi kuning set with the balado and all, ayam penyet, you get the idea.

 

Bintang Café (Vic Park, next door to Batavia)

I personally prefer this tiny eatery. They offer the same thing as Batavia but they have this warung-feel to it. You’d almost feel like you’re in some warung in Jakarta complete with the 70-s Indonesian pop playing softly on the background. Very nice Mie Ayam Jamur Pangsit Bakso too.

 

Djumbaran Bali (off South Street)

Jauh (dah dekat Freo), and the one time we went there itu takde ini takde. Don’t you hate when that happens. A waitress hands you the menu which you drool over and then goes “Oh we’ve run out of that” to the first 3 things you ask for. So too bad, we can’t really comment.

 

Thai

 

Supreme Thai (Girrawheen)

The first Thai place that we tried. Thai-owned. Nice selection, but a bit lacking in the dessert department. And by dessert I mean my favourite pulut with mangga which I so love. Generally ok.

 

Sara Thai (Karawarra, very near Curtin Uni)

Just got to know this place, and we think we prefer this one. Owned and run by a former SQ stewardess. They have kick-ass tomyam and after eating our main dishes we didn’t have any room for dessert unfortunately. But I think they have my pulut mangga.

 

Indian

 

Singapore Indian Muslim

We come here only for the the-tarik and mee goreng mamak, which is the best mee goreng mamak we’ve ever tasted, even better than any in Singapore (and I’m not a mee/nasi goreng mamak fan mind you). Everytime we have the mee goreng here we’d be trying to guess apa dia letak sampai sedap macam ni, and try as we would, we couldn’t replicate it at home.

 

Sinbad Curry House (Spencer Village, Thornlie)

Also Singapore-family owned, and oh they’re really good! Worth the long drive, cos they really taste like mamak stall back home. Their the-tarik murtabak, briyani, prata cheese/banana (the whole range) and especially their thosai is wunderbar! And best of all, they are the cheapest of them all (eg murtabak $7)! And did I mention their masala thosai is as good as it tastes back home?

 

Maya Masala (Malaga Markets and Mirrabooka Square outlets)

This Northern Indian joint is quite good. The nasi+dishes sets are nice and the naan and butter chicken is yummy. And the Morley outlet baru buka and I have my $8.50 thosai fix there (cos it’s only 5 minutes from home and Sinbad is too far away).

 

Note: in all these mamak restaurants, do not order the prata. It’ll cost you like $2-$3 per piece while you can buy the frozen Kawanku-brand Paratha and fry them yourself at home ($2.50/pack of 5).

 

Chicken

 

Charco’s and Charcoal Chicken (Carousel, Inglewood, Vic Park, outlets)

I dunno if they are under the same company, but they all serve the exact same thing and taste so I guess they. Love their Portuguese chicken, and go for the Slimmer’s Pack. I have no idea why they call it the Slimmer’s Pack since the set consists of a huge quarter roasted chicken and your choice of 3 ‘salads’ which is really enough for 2 hungry people. For my ‘salads’ I love their crème potatoes (which I can’t replicate at home), seafood salad and Caesars salad. Their ribs set is nice too, but it’s an indulgence cos you’d probably need to swallow a whole bottle of washing detergent afterwards to get rid of all the fats and grease you can feel sticking to your digestive system afterwards.

 

Chooks (Mirrabooka Village)

Sells fried chicken, chicken burgers. The Hasbern loves it, but I find it a bit salty. But when the craving for KFC gets so bad, it’ll do.

 

Turkish/Kebabs and Pizza (they are everywhere here, so I’ll just mention the worthy ones. Oh..and our favourite sauces combo for kebabs anywhere is sour cream and sweet chilli.)

 

ISPA Kebab (Harbourtown)

The best kebab, I think. Wonderful after you feel spent (physically and economically) shopping at Harbourtown. Go for the baked potato combo..very worth it.

 

Istanbul Kitchen (Fitzgerald Street, Mt Lawley)

They’ve got nice pizza, especially the cheese pizza which I ate for the first time when Zaqy and Filzah were here (Filzah’s a cheese fan too, right Fil? She ordered this). It’s purely 2-3 types of cheese. But the downside is they use Turkish bread (which is thick and spongy) as the base.

 

Ali’s Pizzeria

The Kite Runner is one of my most fascinating reads, and Ali and his 3 brothers happen to be Afghans of what I think are the Hazara tribe. I read this book Tales from a Suitcase – The Afghan Experience which documents the survival stories of Afghan refugees in Australia, and the Hazara story rings a bell. Everytime I eat here I wish I could ask Ali and his brothers their story, but macam kepo kan?

 

Oh, anyway, their thin-crust pizzas are the best!! They serve very Italian-sounding thin-crust pizzas (not the pizza hut or Turkish varieties) and pastas like gnocchi and ravioli parmagiana which you can’t get halal anywhere else.

 

Ok, so that’s it for now. Hope you found this very mild guide helpful in some way :)

The Day I'm No Longer in My Twenties.

Start:

Jan 7, '08 02:00a

just where did 29 years go?

4th Wedding Anniversary

Start:

Dec 20, '07 02:00a

...and many many many more to go insya Allah :)

Balik Kampung

Start:

Dec 17, '07 02:00a

all our bags are (almost) packed, we're ready to go...
goodbye perth, we'll see you when we see you again :)

Face-Painting, Again.

by now you should now how Ilhan loves having his face painted. this was at Morley Summer Fiesta and we queued for a good half-hour to get him looking like one of the Turtles (i dunno which one).

khalidah and farah - 15 years on

it's been 15 years since we last met, so you can imagine how we were squealing and hugging and jumping when we finally met up again - here in perth. at farah's place in Canning Vale, under the pretext of a playdate for our kids.

goodness...15 years! that's 15 years of no contacts whatsoever mind you. we first met at a camp in sec 1 (farah says she still has that oh-my-god-that's-us-doing-the-running-man-at-campfire-photo!!!), were buddies until we got busy with O levels and all (i live in the west, she in the east) and then we lost touch.

until now. oh the wonders of facebook!

so anyway, since we are both well past our glorious slim shady days and are not very photo-worthy, here are photos of our offsprings instead. Ilhan was quite overwhelmed by Amara in the beginning ("I'm shy..." kata anak bujang aku) but they got along fine. and for those who knows farah talib, she's every inch still very much farah :)

oh very nigella lawson too!

here's to more playdates! :)

from Him we come and to Him we return.

i got this from huda's site, and it stunned me.

melihat gambar ini aku tersentak dan diselubungi rasa sebak, kerdil dan insaf tentang kewujudan kita sebagai insan yang sememangnya fana ini. mungkinkah kehidupan kita akan bernoktah begini?

betapa sayangnya Allah dengan hambaNya ini.

Here is a man who passed away while in sajdah in Masjidul Nabawi( Saudi Arabia )- Allahu Akbar - What a beautiful end!!! 
Prayer is the key to Paradise,there is no excuse to miss it .

If a praying person knew to what extent he was
surrounded by Allah's Mercy, he would never raise his head from Prostration.

Feel free to pass on this reminder to all ... Because the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam) said:
'Pass on knowledge from me even if it is only one Verse'

can you tell me how to get...

this got me cracking early in the morning! surely the world has other things to worry about other than Cookie Monster's dietary habits or Bert & Ernie's living/sleeping arrangements? :P

*******************************************************************************************************

The New Paper

Monday Dec 3 2007

'Sesame Street: Old School' released with warning

(Dec 1) HOW to get to Sesame Street? Don't tell the children.

Recently, the earliest episodes, covering the decade from 1969 to 1979, were re-released on DVD. But apparently, the series that so shaped the young minds of millions worldwide - many Singaporeans among them - has been deemed suitable only for adults.

A warning by the creators on volumes one and two of Sesame Street: Old School said: 'These early Sesame Street episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today's preschool child.'

The New Paper could not find a copy despite calling several DVD retailers here. But each volume is also available online at store.sesame- workshop.org for US$39.95 ($58).

Sesame Street executive producer Carol-Lynn Parente told the New York Times that Alistair Cookie (Cookie Monster's alter-ego) used to appear with a pipe and eat it on Monsterpiece theatre and 'that modelled the wrong behaviour'. So the scenes were reshot, this time pipe-free, and then the parody was dropped.

Oscar The Grouch was another problem. The filthy, trash can-dwelling muppet was, well, too grouchy. 'We might not be able to create a character like Oscar now,' Ms Parente said.

Also, back then, Cookie Monster didn't care about fruits or vegetables, like he does now. Snuffleupagus was only a figment of Big Bird's imagination (he became real in 1985). And the unfathomably cheerful Elmo didn't exist.

It is understood that Sesame Street: Old School will be released unrated in Singapore. This means it is suitable for all ages. Singapore is typically seen to be more conservative than the US. A case in point: The temporary banning and M18 rating for the Xbox 360 game Mass Effect because of a lesbian scene between a woman and an alien.

But if even we found it okay, why did Sesame Street feel the need to add a warning? Perhaps it's because of the lawsuit-happy culture in the US.

Assistant Professor Bradley Freeman from Nanyang Technological University's (NTU) Wee Kim Wee School of Communication And Information, wondered if the label sounded like a legal disclaimer. 'So they don't end up sued by parents whose children end up getting fat after watching Cookie Monster,' he said.

Mr Caleb Liu, 26, a former foreign service officer, quipped: 'Far from being labelled 'adult programming' that is 'unsuitable for children', the DVDs should be labelled 'children's programming' that is 'unsuitable for adults without a sense of imagination'.'

Some parents also feel that it's a case of being over-protective towards youngsters. Mr Noel Tan, 37, a father of three, said it's ludicrous to say those episodes of Sesame Street are not suitable for preschoolers, when there are far worse programmes on TV.

Mr Tan, a programme manager and co-founder of Sanctuary House, a volunteer charity organisation which dedicates itself to saving abandoned babies, said: 'It is political correctness gone overboard.'

Educational psychologist Amanda Kok, from Dynamics OTC Therapy Centre For Kids, said it is difficult to gauge what is over-protection. It is up to the parent, she said.

EXPOSURE IS GOOD

Psychologist Daniel Koh of Insights-Tse said: 'Children who are exposed to both good and bad (situations) are much more equipped to deal with anything that happens in life, making them both socially and emotionally resistant.'

However, NTU's Assistant Professor Freeman, who has researched children's TV policy and programming, said: 'As a parent, it doesn't hurt to have a warning.' The father of a 1 1/2-year-old daughter also suggested that the target market may not be children but nostalgic adults.

Sesame Street is one of the most researched children's shows ever, he noted. He said researchers had found that Sesame Street wasn't really teaching children to love learning, but just how TV teaches learning. And that while children who watch Sesame Street have a better vocabulary, the advantage fades by age 6.

No one needs to be worried.

He doubts that old-school Sesame Street would be attractive to today's children, who are reared on fast-paced programming. 'They'll be bored,' he said.

------

REASONS:

OSCAR THE GROUCH

Too negative

COOKIE MONSTER

Binges on too many cookies

BERT

Has too-close relationship with male roommate Ernie?