Perth Revisited Episode Four - Friends and Old Haunts

IN that one week, we didn't do much touristy thing, opting instead to go to familiar places and re-live the days.

Visited Farah and Brood; for the uninitiated, Farah and I go waaaaaaayyyyy back to when we were just sweet 13, and now...errrr...the number's reversed!! the last time we had a playdate was when we were both preggers with No 2. Now, both out Ilyas and Jada have popped and are very intrigued with each other. Ilhan and Amara are shy though :P

Also met up with Wan&Sukma and kids. Ilhan loved meeting up with Nadya and Danial again.

Also went over to Zuraina&Shidi where we wallopped countless lamb *burped* and sweeT Amelia was all Sugar spice and everything nice.

And of course, to Harbourtown, our fav indo restaurant for Mie Ayam, and Caversham which Ilhan truly enjoyed.

Perth Revisited Episode Three - The $70 Lelong

We were finally reunited with our harta karun, not without adventure though. Got lost in Belmont with a flat mobile batt, no GPS AND no street directory. at 10pm. Found Yuhana's house and then wondered how on earth did we manage to accumulate so much STUFF in just a year. You know stuff. It breeds.

Anyway, sorted through the stuff till 2am, got up at 5am and was at Morley Market by 7am.

Our first customer was the vietnamese Bargain Queen (Hafiz said she's a permanent fixture at flea markets). Boy was she ruthless...10cent turun pun jadi..hahaha! And then she even got her mother, Bargain Queen Mother onto the act! benkrap aku! The Aussies didn't even bother bargaining, they just either buy or walk away.

We lelong-ed our stuff for mostly a dollar or two, with the exceptions being my CELTA Grammar book ($5) and the samsung dvd player ($20). towards the end thing were going cheap cheap at 20cents or 50 cents per piece.

Managed to clear about 40% of the stuff. The rest went to the Muslim op-shop Farah told me about.

Ilhan slept in the car throughout the entire operation (7-11am) while Ilyas was a useful bait. We rewarded ourselves with Charcoal Chicken after that.

Perth Revisited Episode 2 - The Beaches

What's a visit to Perth without the beaches? The empty beaches and open ocean are, after all, among our favourite things there. Sharks not included.

We first went to our favourite Sorrento Quay at Hilarys, where the shallow water at the harbour was perfect for ahem...our budding Surfer Dude.

Next, Cottesloe Beach where there was the ongoing Sculpture by the Sea. Surfer Dude takut big waves rupanya. Surfer Jr had no reservations though.

Perth Revisited Episode 1

So we were there and back. This first instalment of a photojournal (since I seem to have neither the luxury of sitting down nor inspiration of crafting words as I used to) captures our journey there and we where stayed.

First time flying by SQ, and yes, they do have great service (as compared to say.....Qantas!) where if you are flying with kids/babies, they are attentive to your needs.

Take note however, that a 1930hrs flight is NOT a good idea with my kids - Ilhan lawan mata tengok cartoon, decided to fall asleep an hour before touchdown and hence was VERY grumpy bila kena kejut.

Ilyas couldn't sit still, and was grumpy cos he was sleepy. When he did fall asleep, he would wake up the moment I put him in the bassinet. And when he DID sleep in the bassinet, I would have to take him out 10min later cos the seatbelt light went off. And mothers out there would know what I mean when I say you have to contort your body is a million different positions to accomodate a sleeping child.

I can't believe I did not watch anything on the inflight system. And they were showing Slumdog Millionaire! Bah!

We stayed at hafiz's house, where we were all smitten by Kitty the Kucing. The feeling's mutual.

Excuse us...

in hot, hot Perth :)

will be back with thoughts and pictures!

March Holidays BakeFest!

Hola Mums, the occasional Dad, and Anyone with a Sweet Tooth!

Come join our BakeFest this March holidays! Our kids' (and still-a-kid-at-heart] baking workshops will be held on these dates:

Sat 14 March 2009 – Pretty Yummy Bugs!
[Bugs and creepy-crawlies themed cookies with frosting and toppings]

Sun 15 Mar 2009 - Flower Power!
[Undeniably girl-centric cookies with frosting on sticks]

Sat 21 Mar – Nice to look at, nice to hold, once eaten you'll be completely sold!
[Cupcake with frosting and fondant].

All sessions are at 3pm @ Fil's Kitchen. Fun and sugar-high guaranteed. Email/pm us to register now!

Sweetly yours,
The AlphaBake Team

Of Ben 10 Tak Jadi and How Forbidden Fruit Tastes Best

First of all, if you have no male acquaintances aged 4-10, you're forgiven if you have no clue who Ben is. fyi, he (along with his posse of aliens) is the current budak Terhangat di Pasaran.

It's 3am and I've just finished baking cookies for Sukesy's boys' birthday party this Sunday. The theme's Ben 10 (Ihsan and Rifky are 7 and 5 so it HAS to be Ben 10 lah what else?) and I had this grandiose idea of making Ben 10 cookies. Slight problem - my fine motor skills aren't well-developed, and I have zilch artistic gene in me.

Ilhan was excited the past week, drawing all the aliens for me on the whiteboard and in the air. I let him play with the dough and he made Four-Arms, Humongosaur and Echo Echo free hand. They looked like the real guys, surprisingly. But although the shape is there, the end product is erm..definitely not.

clockwise from the top: Four-Arms, Humongosaur and Echo Echo

Even if you have absolutely no idea what they are really supposed to look like, you can tell that Humongosaur is the most pathetic-looking of them all. Echo Echo's face adalah iras-iras sikit-sikit, while Four-Arms; well, the four arms are there.

Anyway, for the fun of it, meet the real McCoys..

Echo Echo

Humongosaur

Four Arms

To Humongosaur, sorry for turning you into some sissy-looking Marshmallow Man :)

Another mindless trivia at 3 am in the morning:

If I could be a Ben 10 alien, I'd be Four Arms. It's pretty self-explanatory, isn't it.

Ilhan would like to be Echo Echo. His scream is uncannily similar.

The rest of my cookies look pretty decent, if I may say so...

As for Ilyas, while we were busy with the cookies, he was busy with...

Lest you alert Social Services, I am NOT feeding my 10-mth-old junk food. This fella somehow spied that can of Pringles and figured out how to pry the cover open and put his chubby hand in to grab some. And the look says "Once you pop, you can't stop!"

I think it's time to sleep. Tschuss!

 

Expressions - Ilyas 'Izzuddin

I am guilty of negligence. Ilyas is turning 10 months next week and how many entries do I have of him (save for the one announcing his arrival)? None. tsk tsk tsk....

I'm not good at those write-from-the-baby's-point-of-view style found on mummy blogs. So here's Ilyas unplugged - he's brought so much joy and laughter into our lives with his many expressions and feisty character so apparent at this young age. With my new verve in using the digicam, expect him to wrestle (very literally) the limelight away from Abang Ilhan :)

It's going to be a Love-ly day!

Come join us on a lovely Saturday and let your kids (maybe even yourself!) have a hand in baking and decorating lovely sweet cookie treats for loved ones. You might have a hard time stopping them (or yourself :))  from munching the spoils before it reaches the intended recipients though!

Details:

Bake from the Heart (for all ages, young and old)

Saturday 14 February 2009, 11am-1pm

$35

pm/email us at alphabake@gmail.com to register!

The One with the Red Rhino

What a drama. I was at my mum's with Ilyas getting ready to pick Ilhan up from kindy when i got a call from Mdm Nura asking if I was on the way, and that Ilhas has his hand stuck at a door. i thought "Oh that is so Ilhan", tinggalkan Ilyas dengan datuk dia dan bergegas ke Iyad di blok sebelah.

I was greeted by these...

(photos from www.scdf.gov.sg)

...and a crowd of people outside his classroom. "Whoa...a stuck finger can't be that bad!!" I rushed to the class and saw the firemen sweeping the glasses of the broken glass door. Aku baca punya baca as I peered into the room and I saw a teacher lying on the floor, Mdm Haj nursing a bleeding hand, and.....a medic bandaging Ilhan's hand.

So what happened was, this fella somehow got his hand stuck at the hinge side of the main glass door, and the Red Rhino was summoned after unseuccessful attempts to free it. By 15 min the hand was swollen, so it got stuck even more, and the teachers were trying to soothe and calm him down. The SCDF guys put a rug over Ilhan and tried to prise the door open when it fell and shattered over cocooned Ilhan and the poor un-covered teachers.

Injury count: Ilhan's bruised hand, cuts on Mdm Haj's hand and poor Miss Hanis was in shock for a while.

So the little fella and me got to ride in the ambulance to NUH Children's A&E where an x-ray ascertained no fracture. It was some muscle and soft tissue damage. He got to watch Ben10 on Youtube while the doctor examined him and got him in a sling, hand all tightly wrapped. He also got plenty of sayang-sayang, dukung all the time cos we forgot his sandals in school. And the rest of the week off.

I hope he's learnt his lesson - Jangan Main Pintu.

me and the casualty

the view from where we were strapped

at triage

Dr Lim warming him up, but Ilhan was in no mood for corny jokes..hahaha

cleaning off the blood and shards of glass before x-ray

alalalalalala....sedihnya si mangsa....

nope...no fracture

all done!

his weird forced smile; tak sakit lagi tu, tengok ben10 in the doc's office dah baik dah.

meanwhile, his mother harbours thoughts of becoming a nurse....(ok go on angah and icu, LAUGH  at me...:P)

Who Can Resist Cookie Dough?

had the MiniBakes and JuniorBakes sessions running concurrently on Tuesday 27th, and it was good fun! Watch out for our upcoming Love workshop this February!

We turned 5!

Our 5th came without much fanfare, just a fantastic dinner at Carousel where we got what we craved for the most - lobsters for The Hasbern, bread pudding for me (only Carousel's will do) and some quiet time for us.

It started quite awfully..I had a terrible headache and was feeling nauseous that I couldn't face the prospect of food, much less a buffet spread, and almost gagged after the first 2 plates (at this point, no, i'm not preggers.haha). But of course it presented the splendid opportunity for some TLC from The Hasbern....awwwww.....after which I was up and raring to go. plates after plates after plates...:P

and so as we dined we talked about our KPIs and AFIs and our respective performance review...we've come a long way baby, and while you are not perfect, neither am i, but we are oh-so-right for each other :)

we so love Carousel dinner....discovered halal Wagyu beef and how it really does melt in your mouth...

Houston, we have a problem.

On the way to United Square:

"Ibu, can we keep a parrot?

*thinks fast* "Uhm...I don't think so. Nanti Chichi makan dia macam Awang dulu. Cats like to eat birds." (for the uninitiated, Awang Kenit was a former cat who butchered my dad's expensive songbird)

*silence*

"Ibu, can I have a good dog for a pet?"

*GULP* *apa hal pulak budak ni?*

"Uhm..eh mana boleh...kan kita orang Islam. We cannot touch dogs."

*silence*

"Takpe, we can just hold the string."

*mind racing, thinking of ways to deliver a lecture on responsibility*

"Abis kalau dia nak manja-manja macam Chichi macam mana? Kita tak boleh pegang dia."

"Never mind." *long pause* "We can wear mittens."