Nabila is TWO!

I have been planning this ages ago... the perfect birthday party for Nabila. It materialised how I wanted it to, most importantly, Nabila had sooo much fun. She started to really understand the meaning of a birthday party when she went to her friends party in November. Since then she had several birthday rehearsals of her own. I went through numerous hostess blogs and finally decided on a pink and brown coloured theme + minnie mouse. As usual I didn't charge our battery for the camera but I had my brother-in-law and everyone else take pictures. I'll put 'em up once I get them.

Career Detour

I was ecstatic to go back to work at the old work place. I didn't have to be the quiet new girl. Back to my comfort zone though. Projects fell into my lap and I was ready for the challenge ahead. Then I received a call that made me re-think this going-back-to-the-old-work-place thing. I received an offer I couldn't resist, something more family-oriented and some place different with a more promising balanced life but with new projects, new people and new challenges. After pestering everyone to give me an answer, I decided to try out the new place. So, I will be back to work NEXT Monday...

Back to work!

It's been more than a month since we arrived and life has been hectic. Weddings plus other kenduri kendara took most of the weekends. Other days were spent cleaning the house and sorting out stuffs we shipped back from UK, getting Nabila all settled into a new environment and deciding on where to work. Alas, back to the old work place. I was thinking of what to wear and I stumbled upon this image from tmi which I think is hot. New mission: search for high-waisted trousers! This helps easing my mind off the thought of being apart from Nabila, stress at work, late nights and such

Malaysia

We've been back home for almost 2 weeks now. Our friends back in Glasgow sent us to the bus station. I was quite sad to leave Glasgow, such fond memories. It was drizzling as if Glasgow was sad we were leaving. Nabila was such a good girl from when we left, went through 5 hours transit and also on the 13 hours flight. When we finally touched down, the lady in front commented that Nabila was such a good girl, not fussy at all. Everyone was waiting for us at the airport, mainly waiting for Nabila. She's everyones little sweetheart.

We spent the last 13 days commuting and dividing time between both granny's houses, making sure everyone got to spend time with Nabila. We were also busy helping with Nabila's aunt (Cik D) wedding. I did the hantaran with fresh flowers, it was a first time experience for me as Dd gave full trust in me. It turned out great or so they say :). Will put up some pictures once I get them. I didn't even have time to snap a couple first.

Well, it's back to reality now. We'll see what the future awaits :)

1 month, 1 day

Exactly 1 month and 1 day back to Malaysia. The packing has started, half of the living room is covered with boxes. Nabila has turned it into a gymboree. She can literally climb each box by herself and the next thing you know, she's on the top of the box. Will post a picture once I get the chance to snap a photo. Can't wait to go back. Glasgow has been good, will miss every minute here but just can't wait to be back home.

Moore Street, Glasgow

This housing area is just at the back of our apartment. It was of modern design yet blended with the listed meat market archway. It did not look out of place at all although having a part of the old wall literally attached to the modern apartment building. One can only wish to see an attempt like this in Malaysia and how much wonder it could bring to the Malaysian Architecture. For example the BBGS or the Bok House and the recent controversial Pudu Jail. Read more about it 'here'.

Summer time picnic and barbecue

I am so in love with this idea. Click here and here. We're planning for a barbecue tomorrow and I would love to whip up something like this. We'll see if I can manage....

I did make some jarfait just like the one in the blog but my layers were less distinct and I had no time to decorate the top of the jar as I planned to. Anyway, the jarfait was a hit. Will attempt to do more back in Malaysia with nicer jars and better layering. There were tonnes of food and as always, I get sucked into eating and chit chatting that I forget to take a lot of pictures.

chictopia vs mummytopia

I stumbled upon this website called chictopia. It became one of my favourite websites to browse through and check out what everyone was wearing and what I felt was chic. I registered myself and went through my photos to put in and detected practical solutions to the outfits I thought was chic enough. I'm almost always without a handbag/purse and always wearing comfy shoes especially when we do a lot more walking here than back home and we always carry Nabila's diaper bag plus added essentials.

Items for the home makeover

I've been collecting items to bring back home for our home makeover. Some were new and some were from the car boot sale. Some could be used straight away and some needed some TLC and a makeover.

Tour de Scotland

Day 7

We sent the 7 seater and rented a smaller car for my sister as we could use our own car in Glasgow. Hubby had to babysit Nabila, Aisha and Sarah while I brought my sister and brother in law to shop. My sister literally went rambang mata. While she loaded clothes in her shopping bag I asked her, best kan shopping kat Glasgow? hehehe...it's the same shops but with less crowd as compared to Oxford Street. Yes, I know, but as a shopoholic, how can you not go to London and not go to Oxford Street right? We came back at 4 and found that all three girls were fast a sleep. Wow, hubby has really mastered being the daddytopia. We went to the Glasgow Fort and shopped until the stores closed.

Day 8

Finally some sun in Glasgow after raining the whole day. We quickly brought our food and had a picnic at the Tollcross Park where it had a farm animal petting zoo, winter garden, small stream, animal paddock, nice green grass and an Internationally recognized rose garden with an old mansion as the setback. There was sun and wind and everyone had a pleasant time. Nabila taught Aisha and Sarah how rolling on grass was done. She simply lied down and looked like she enjoyed the smell of Scottish grass. Haha. The roses were in abundance and exquisite. It was huge like cabbages. We were in love with the roses coupled with the sun and nice breeze. We then headed to town to shop and to the Science Centre for more pictures.

Day 9

Edinburgh. We took pictures of the Edinburgh Castle, walked along Princess park and did some souvenir shopping at Hard rock Edinburgh. We then headed to Cairnie fruit Farm in Fife for some strawberry picking. Everyone had a blast. The strawberries were abundance and so sweet. Ooops, yup, they were too exquisite not to pop in the mouth. Nabila really enjoyed the fact that she was allowed to pick the fruit and pop it in her mouth. We had lunch there, it was a nice place with a nice setting. there was also a kids play area but we were short of time. the next destination was Aberdeen but we had a chance to past Dundee which looked so nice as you approach it from the bridge. we arrived at Kak Suni and Abang Taufiq's house in Aberdeen and were greeted by familiar friendly faces, the yummy smell of ayam percik, (Kelantanese barbecue), sambal kemiri, beef skewers and Triple Chocolate brownies. We literally stuffed ourselves.

Day 10

We had too much fun with kak Suni and her kids we did not want to leave, we did not walk about the Aberdeen town but we still had fun. The house was huge and had a back yard with a small pond and a secret garden. We had nasi lemak for breakfast and nasi putih, ayam masak lemak, daging goreng and sambal kemiri for lunch before heading out to the caravan park in Nairn. The caravan park was just by the seaside, the sea side was still cold albeit being in the summer but it was beautiful. The kids did not care and played with the sand and water and had fun. The caravan was nice though from outside it looked more cabin like. We realised that the caravan we always imagined were personal caravans. We had burger for dinner and slept early.

Day 11

We headed back home as Kak Na still needed to do some shopping. We still made one more stop along the way to the Loch Ness in Inverness though we did not see any Nessie monster. It rained all the way from Inverness to Glasgow. We had late lunch at a petrol station and a big dinner at our place.

Day 12

Bye bye... there Glasgow-London flight was at 6.30. It was a full-fun-filled trip for them, I hope.

L-O-N-D-O-N strike 3

I planned that we meet up in London first, everyone would still be excited and energetic. the only problem was that I was not a 'local' tour guide so I did not know the bus route well, we still relied on the tube. We were also short of time with so many places to go to. This time around it was one of the hottest London ever had so it was hot, dry and stuffy. We tried to take the bus and it was not at all that hard. I now recommend to take the bus if you have time for trial and error, we saw so much more of London, half of the time we followed most recommendations and walked. When we were tired or when Nabila needed a break, there was always a park nearby that we could just sit and relax. The only problem was that the weather was too hot and dry it burnt out all the grass. The grasses were discoloured and dry robbing a bit of the beauty of the parks. We assured my sister that we will bring her to green grassed parks in Glasgow as they were expecting to roll around on the park. This started to be a point to make fun of London as we were living in Glasgow so we were a bit of, erm say... 'Scots'at heart? Haha... my husband got overboard with the jokes (maybe because he's not only living but studying in Glasgow) so much as to annoy my little baby Londoner sister.. Azy!! Janganlah merajuk. Hehehe.... We were also a bit put off by the lack of courtesy I guess.. I was carrying Nabila the whole time and most of the time no one offered me a seat. There was even one time that I lost a bit of balance and almost fell on a lady, at first she was quite annoyed only to realise I was carrying Nabila, but she still did not offer her seat. The lady besides her offered her seat. I guess London is much more Metropolitan, and like KL, the courtesy is lost somewhere in the hustle and bustle and overcrowded Internationals. Glasgow is definitely so much friendlier, so more a reason to tease my sister? hahaha

Day 1

We took the 4 hours Virgin train and stayed at a friends house. The train trip was quite okay, whenever Nabila got bored we took turns taking her for a walk. The only setback was that her sleep was disturbed so it made the remaining 2 hours a bit trying for us as she was a bit cranky.

Day 2

We headed to the Malaysia Immigration as I had to renew my passport. We thought we had time to walk around but it was quite a wait considering there was not really much people. We had lunch at the cafe there and headed to our b and b in South Ealing. The b and b was quite nice, it was not in central London but it was clean, pleasant and affordable. It's called Benny's B and B. Click here for the link. There was a shared kitchenette that had an espresso machine, microwave, hot plate, oven and grill and crockery. In the room there was a sink and complete with own plates, cutleries and electric kettle. They even gave cereals in the small box and cookies in the cookie jar which were on the house. They even gave breakfast vouchers at the cafe just around the corner in the lovely South Ealing town. It was pleasant. We freshened up and went back to the immigration to collect my passport and headed straight to Heathrow to wait for my sister. Nabila straight away clicked with her cousins.

Day 3

This was a full touristy day for my sister, we wnet to Hrrods and Madam Tussauds where we split. We headed to the Malaysia Hall for some errands where we walked from Baker Street all the way to Bayswater Road without a proper map. Nabila slept the whole way so it was fine, she finally woke up when we stopped for a rest at Hyde Park near the Victoria gate entrance. We took a one tube station ride to the Bayswater Station afraid we were walking in circles but actually we were quite near. We had nasi campur for lunch and headed to Westminster by bus to meet up with my sister there as they came off from their cruise at the Westminster Pier. They were supposed to go to London Eye that evening but it was too much for the girls so we rested at Westminster Abbey, we wanted to take the girls for a double decker bus ride but there was a strike and the people were lying on the road so that was it for the day. We took the tube back to the b and b.

Day 4

We went to Buckingham Palace for the overrated but hard to resist change of guards and had lunch at St. James Park. I made rice with ready made Masala sauce, fried eggs. We ate it with sambal tempe and sambal bilis my mum made. I also packed chicken slice english muffin sandwich so everyone had a good eat and not fall sick. My sister said I transformed into 'achik' as I was the one preparing all the packed food but to be a bit more glam, we now call it mummytopia. I took it from chictopia, a blog/group on fashion that I like. We took the double decker bus ride to London Eye, we split again as my sister joined the long queue to ride the London Eye and we took the bus to Westfield to meet up with hubby's cousin. The bus trip was nice as we got to see other parts of London. We passed Holland Park which was lovely. Westfield felt more like a clash of KL's Mid Valley and Pavillion. It was a modern Shopping Mall. Hubby's cousin treated us at Jom Makan! a Malaysian cuisine restaurant. we had chicken satay that was scrumptious. We headed back to the b and b by bus and was entertained by two guys singing ala Jamaican throughout the whole bus ride.

Day 5

We went to Trafalgar Square and Regent's streets Hamleys. We had fish and chips at Hamley's and met with Azy's boboy there. We left my sister at Hamley's and left the whole day for Oxford street to her. We took a bus from Oxford Street to the Marble Arch and rested at Hyde park because Nabila fell asleep. We walked along Hyde Park hearing the buzz of Jay-Z's concert. If we weren't mummy and daddytopia, we might be amongst the buzz. We headed to Hard rock cafe London for souvenirs and to Harrods again.

Day 6

Back to Glasgow with a Bicester Village pit stop. We rented a 7 seater. Bicester was okay but Mendrisios Fox Town and Roermonds McArthurGlen's were even beter in terms of discounts and exchange rate.

To sum up, to see London you must take the bus and walk.

The Maysaa Snood

I stumbled upon a blog not quite long ago and was immediately locked to it. It was something I always imagined I would do at some point. A blog on style, fashion and design but at the same time modest and covered. Anyway, the writer was also a designer and she had her own label just recently launched. I pre-ordered the snood and it arrived yesterday. I was not expecting it as it was a Saturday but ..Yipee! Anyway, the design of the snood is perfect~ stylish and functional. I thought it was a normal 'anak tudung' with a stylish satin fold in front but this was even better, besides the satin wrap, it was attached to a neck covering. This is going to be perfect for the Malaysian weather I will be going back to where layering is always the last options so I don't have to wear a layer of turtle neck to wide necked blouses. At the back of the snood is a zipper, so this is the secret to the polished shape of the snood, I thought. It eliminates the bulkiness around the shoulder area. I can't wait to wear it to our London trip! Will put up some photos.

Rojak Pasembor/Mee/Mamak/Singapore

After Ibiza I had a 'cooking block'. I classify it as cooking block which was like writer's block but in cooking. Everything I made seemed bland and I didn't feel like eating. Kesian Imran. However, I think my cooking block is over, thank God it lasted only a couple of days. Today I made rojak. What kind of rojak? Hmm, it has so many names to it so I'm really not sure but definitely the savoury rojak and not the sweet and sour rojak buah. As I googled, all recipes were different here and there so I made up my own by gathering info from gooling so I'm not sure how to credit this so thanks all for giving me the inspiration. Here's the recipe to RojakPasembor/Mamak/Singapore. I'm just estimating because I didn't really measure.

The Sauce (Resepi Kuah Rojak)

8 Dried Chillies (boiled)

1 Onion

1 tbsp Dried Prawn

4 small Potatoes (peeled and boiled)

3 tbsp Peanuts (I used the ready to eat, snacking peanuts)

1 tsp tamarind paste

Salt and Sugar

Blend the chillies and onion, fry in pot. Blend potato, prawn and peanuts, pour in pot, cook. Add in salt, sugar and tamarind paste.

Fritters (Cucur Keras)

1 cup normal ap flour

2 tbsp rice flour

2 tbsp desicated coconut

1/2 chopped onion

salt and sugar

mix and fry

Fritters (Cucur Lembut)

1 cup normal ap flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 chopped onion

1/2 cup beansprout

1/2 grated carrot

water

prawns

1 egg

salt

mix and fry

Serve with egg noodles, beansprout, grated cucumber, hard boiled egg and boiled potatoes.

Ibiza, Spain

We went to Ibiza and came back, Alhamdulillah safe and sound. As usual, we were checking out any discounted flight rates and we found out that we could get cheap tickets to Faro, Portugal. We started researching on Faro and Albufeira. We could work this out, we thought, we could even get a 4 star room located in the middle of a golf course. The only problem was the timing to come back to Glasgow was at 6 am. Hubby left for the library as he still had his exams to get over with and I was in charge of further research if we decide to book. Then, I came across Ibiza and knew that hubby would prefer it because it was listed as one of the Adidas cities. We booked the flight almost immediately as we found out the hotel and apartment rates were really good and images of the Formentera island was breathtaking. A few days after that news of the Icelandic volcano eruption effecting flights started and we made ourselves worried by looking at aircraft problems and effects due to volcanic ash. We almost cancelled our plans of a holiday in Ibiza, that was how scared we made ourselves.

Day 1

We stayed at Apartmentos Lux Mar at the Figueretas Beach close to Ibiza Town. We arrived around 10 am and took the normal bus to town which cost us 3 euros per person. Luckily we didn't pre-pay or hire a shuttle service that costs more than double at 8 euros per person. The town was so near, it was approximately a.. say 15 minutes ride. We had lunch at a kebab restaurant and walked around the Ibiza town waiting for time to check in. I was soaking in the actual Mediterranean architecture. It's a famous style to copy but this was actually looking at the real deal. As I was admiring the buildings I didn't look where I was going and suddenly I felt myself falling to the ground and our heavy knapsack I had on didn't actually help and I felt that I was dragged to the ground even more. In other words.. 'tergolek dock'. Hubby was worried, he thought I fainted. I still have the bruise, it has yet to fade. We have classified this as my bimbo moment, as our friend Raja calls situation like these. We checked in to our self catering apartment and went out strolling by the beach and got some food supplies at the near supermarket. As we strolled, we found a Halal butcher and bought some chicken.

Day 2

We spent the whole morning playing at the swimming pool and by the beach. In the afternoon we walked to Dalt Villa, the old town and fortress of the Ibiza town. It was quite a climb but so worth it. The view was amazing. We walked along the fortress and discovered that the locals were still staying there and the houses were of what I would imagine dwellings on the Grecian Island would look like. We walked around and took as much pictures as we could while chasing happy Nabila running around. We found the exit labelled as Sortida and the exit part looked a bit Al-Hambra-ish with stoned walls, arches on columns. I was so in love with Dalt Villa. I was also happy with myself for choosing to wear my summer maxi dress and having Nabila wear her white summer dress. We continued walking to the port and had our Pizza Margherita while watching the view of yacht and boats docking at the Marina.

Day 3

Full day at Formentera Island. Absolutely stunning! We bought our boat ticket at the hotel the night before. We were a bit worried Nabila might get cranky if we were stuck at the island until evening. At first we opted for the more expensive ticket that we could come back earlier at any time but the hotel staff assured us we would need the whole day and there were restaurants and a small town at the island for keeping Nabila busy. Our return ticket was 20 euros per person. The journey was about an hour. There were many options to move about Formentera, we wanted to hire a car at 35 euros but luckily the lady there could speak english and told us to try the bicycle which we wanted to try since Amsterdam. We asked for a trial with Nabila, guessing that she might be scared or bored and wanting to climb out like every time in her car seat. Guess what? She loved it! She was immediately clapping her hands and laughing. We paid 6 euros each, the child seat was free. We rode from the port to Playa Illetes (the nearest and the most beautiful beach there). It was about 2 kilometres but I was starting to feel my legs fall. Talk about lack of stamina. It was ages since I rode a bike. Playa Illetes was magnificent. the water was clear, the sand was soft and white, there were not many people, no obstructing buildings except for a small restaurant. Lovely. We played by the beach and rode our bike to a couple of sides of Playa Illetes, which did remind us a bit of our honeymoon in Koh Ngan Yuen at Koh Samui in Thailand. We had lunch at one of the restaurants at one of the sides of the beach. It wasn't that expensive for a restaurant so remote. We had fried battered squid and a bowl of ice cream sundae while facing the view. After taking pictures and riding back to the port, we realised that it was time to go back. We definitely needed the whole day. Nabila slept the whole journey back so she recharged her batteries and was active again at night. We took her out for more ice cream and coffee for us by the restaurant under the moonlight. As we strolled to the restaurant, Nabila bumped into an active Italian boy, they immediately hooked up and started chasing each other and playing about. The boy's name was Luigi Matteo. His mum was so delighted, she called out to 'Baci' but as Matteo wanted to kiss Nabila, she ran away. Good girl. We then had our coffee at a place called Marco's. Everyone was quiet, enjoying the food and the music, and suddenly came this couple with a toddler... noisy and naughty, haha, sorry folks.

Day 4

More beach, sand, pool and walking about the town. We tried to look for the 400 year old mosque we read about but the hotel staff didn't know where. We were greeted by the president of the Islamic community there on the second day. He told us how to get there by pointing to a direction with a heavily Spannish accented accent. We thought we could reconfirm with the hotel staff. He was helpful, trying to google the place but there was not much detail on the internet.

Day 5

Not ready to go back... but we had to. Ibiza was a wonderful trip.

Blairdrummond Safari and Stirling Trip

Day 1

Stirling Town, Wallace Monument, Loch Lubnaig, Kak isma & Dr. Zishan's House

Stirling town was small. We parked by the roadside and paid about 2 pounds for an hour or was it 2 hours? Walked around, bought a peter rabbit book at the Oxfam book store and 6 dessert dishes at the British heart foundation store. There was a farmers market along one of the streets. the carrot cake looked yummy but I don't know why we ended up buying the scones, it was rather huge and dry. Took a few snaps and that was it. We headed to the Wallace Monument. Took a few snaps, we didn't walk until the top as we were saving energy for a whole day at the safari park the next day. We skipped the Stirling castle as we already went there early December. Nabila started to get bored and didn't want to stay still in her carseat so we headed to Kak Isma's house where Nabila had a blast playing with Kakak, abang and adik at the backyard lawn. We ate Bihun Goreng Kak Isma (bihun goreng sedap gila) and headed for a stroll at Loch Lubnaig with Kak Isma and family. The view was breathtaking, the loch was clear, the sun trickling on the surface of the loch...and... nabila was having her ultimate tantrum of wanting to swim in the Loch! We took off her leggings and shoes and dipped her feet in the loch, and thought she would like it, she continued to scream because it made her want to swim in the loch even more...sigh... we gave her a couple of pebbles to hold and she calmed down. Then we drove around the loch soaking up the incredible view and then headed back to kak isma's house for dinner.

Day 2

Blairdrummond Safari Park

Mummy and Daddy were as excited as Nabila. We didn't know what to expect only knew what we saw on you tube where there was one time the lion passed by so close to the car. When we drove along the trail, the lions were lazing about at the farthest end. The closest animal to our car was the Bison and Camel. After the trail, we parked our car and walked at the footpath for a view of the Rhino, Zebra, Giraffe and Elephant which were not wandering along the Safari trail... I wonder why... so basically the rest of the animals were caged separately just like the zoo. besides the animals, there were BBQ pits, a playground in a huge sand box, petting zoo among others. We let the kids play at the sandbox and then continued to the sea lion show. Nabila was at awe. She looked so serious watching the show. I guess she felt surreal..maybe. After the show we we went for a picnic and had Kak Isma's delicious chicken biryani. Yummy! Kak Isma headed back home and we continued to walk around for a while before heading home. On the way back Nabila slept throughout the journey and continued sleeping at home.

baking soda and vinegar

Did you ever know how much cleaning can a bit of baking soda and vinegar do? I never knew until, of course, domesticated me started Googling on how to clean stubborn grease on a cooker. The cooker was new in our rented apartment, but after a while brown hard-to-clean grease or whatchamacallits started appearing on the cooker. ugh.. to clean it you really need to give is a bit of a scrub but also be gentle to avoid scratching the surface. So, the easy natural remedy was to sprinkle baking soda on the surface and pour a bit of vinegar on it... it becomes a bubbly chemical reaction, leave it for a while and wipe it off... because of the stubbornness of the grease on my cooker, I decided to leave it for a while, a while became days and more cooking spillage and splashes dropped on the cooker but to my surprise, the baking-soda-vinegar paste sucked all of the grease. The cooker started to look pasty and disgusting so I cleaned it, just a simple 'wipe off' and the cooker looked like new..well, almost new... I was so impressed... after that I started cooking again and now the grease has stuck on to the cooker surface again...sigh...

Table Manners

Since last winter we had a habit of eating in our bedroom to save on heating and electricity bills. I think it developed into a bad habit and we were not teaching Nabila any table manners. We already bought a high chair for Nabila but it was too big and hard to clean so we sold it and continued our eating habits on the floor in the bedroom. We knew that it had to stop and continue eating at the dining table as children do pick up a lot from informal learning and we needed to teach Nabila table manners and how to feed herself properly. We bought the Ikea high chair without the tray and it fit just nicely with our table. Nabila's plate was stuck to the suction plate stay or whatever you call it so she could not lift it up and throw everything on the floor.

Day 1- A lot of rice ended up on the floor, Nabila used her left hand a lot, bit on cucumber slices and threw it to the floor

Day 2- A lot of rice ended up on the floor, Nabila used her left hand a lot but liked crunching and sucking on the broccoli

Day 3-Substantially less rice on the floor, Nabila used her right hand, used a spoon, held the spoon properly and fed herself, minimal rice on the floor and table and more in her mouth. Yippee!

Nabila being cheeky

Happy Birthday to me!

I'm 29 this year. Another year left to complete the 'things I wanna achieve before 30. Thanks everyone for all the wishes. Thank you my darling Mken and my darling Nabila for the lovely Hugo Boss loafers, the dinner we're gonna have this Friday so I don't have to cook, the early morning wish and xoxo, thank you Ayah n Mama for the virtual birthday cake in geni, thank you Na, Ni, Jie, Abg Syahril, Arin. Thank you Aisha, Sarah n Firdaus for the lovely and noisy birthday song. Thank you Abah n Mama, Along, Didi, Yana,Ash,Helmi. Thanks Nazrin n gang for the easter birthday chochies. Thank you all friends who wished in FB. ♥♥♥ to all

Dry Skin?

Winter and the oh-so blistering cold is over but why am I getting a sort of dry-skin-rash on my face now? Aaargh! Imran blames it on the hot water but I've been taking hot showers since forever. It could be that I'm allergic to something but I can't think of anything weird that I ate for the last 2 weeks. I've started a natural remedy regime today and we'll see how it goes. Today I wore a yoghurt and honey mask wiped it off after 10 minutes and applied a thin layer of olive oil. I'm also determined to drink that 2 litre plain water we're supposed to drink. Been going to the loo every 10 minutes. I know that I have to keep this up everyday and at least wait for a week to see any changes at all but I can't seem to stop checking myself (my skin) out when I look at the mirror. I hope my skin will get back to normal or even better soon.

Banoffee Pie

I wanted to make this since back in Malaysia but I just couldn't make the whipped cream. I googled whipped cream and realised I had to add sugar or icing sugar in the double cream so I was again excited to try and make Banofee Pie! I googled several recipes and realized making the toffee was going to take too much time until I found instant toffee at ASDA (my favourite grocery store in Glasgow). I wanted to make it since last week but Imran told me to wait until the Banana was ripe as it was still partly green-ish. I finally made it yesterday not following any specific recipe as I scanned through how it was made I kinda got the important part and created my own.

Ingredients:

4 oatmeal cookies

6 digestive cookies

about 2 tbsp of butter

instant toffee

1 small container of whipped cream + (1 or 2 tbsp) icing sugar

2 bananas

1. Melt butter, crush oatmeal and digestive cookies in melted butter and press on baking tray/tin foil.

2. Spread/squeeze toffee on top of base.

3. Lay cut bananas on toffee

4. Whisk whipped cream with icing sugar until it forms peaks. Spread on top of banana.

5. Decorate with melted chocolate or more toffee

INSPIRATIONS FOR THE HOME MAKEOVER

This is a major project. I've been working on it since being here in Glasgow. Okay, let me just give an overview. Our house is a bit aged. A lot has to be done to it to make it perfect. A lot as in a lot of time and money which we don't have at the moment. So I came up with two options.

Option 1~ Get a loan and renovate the house silly! Oooh how I love this option but of course would cost a bomb. The re-wiring and re-plumbing alone would cost a bomb and I haven't even started with the good stuff yet. Although option one realistically won't start in the first couple of years, I've already got the whole house's new look and plan mapped in my mind. I also did a few sketches of it. It will get better in time. By the time I'm done with it the renovation would have to go smoothly.

Inspiration for Nabila's room: Pink and ...

Option 2~ Deal with whatever you have and still make it beautiful, cosy and liveable.

For example:

Nabila's room. Empty, white walls, 80's arched windows with hideous brown shade, black grilles, brown skirting, parquet flooring, some even came off. Solution: paint pastel colours for the walls, I haven't decided the best colour to go with pink. White bed, pink, sweet bedding with matching cushions and flower cushions and mis matching frames with letters spelling nabila's name and triangle cloths for decorating the walls, small table and chair for tea time, carpet or rug for the floor, bed side table with cute lamp shade.

Another example. The masterbedroom toilet. It's huge, the bath tub was already removed, mis matched pink tiles and the 80's pink bathroom. PVC plumbing sticking out of the walls. Solution: Vinyls sheets flooring, crystal chandelier, paint window frames and door white, add frames/images, bathroom cabinet, shelves with candles and toiletries. Do you get the picture? There still will be some time and money spent on option 2 but a lot lesser than option 1 + my creative juices in charge. It's more challenging to achive all the decor solutions with the most teeny weeny budget. Here are some compiled inspirations.

Inspiration for the Master Bedroom: Brown and Duck Egg Blue

Inspiration for our living room: Greige and hints of Red

Health Visitor

We had an appointment for Nabila to meet the Health Visitor today. The health visitor (Linda) just asked a few questions about Nabila, what is she eating, what time does she sleep, do we brush her teeth and so on. Linda adviced us to stop the 1+ formula milk we were giving Nabila and start on with giving normal fresh cow's milk in a beaker. I totally forgot to tell her that Nabila was also still breastfeeding. I'll tell her during the next meeting. She also helped us register Nabila with a dentist and told us we could register normal ailments with the local pharmacy and get free medicine for Nabila. We got freebies from the Bookstart programme which contained story books, information for parents, children's library registration form (which we already did register for Nabila) and free toddlers tooth brush, tooth paste and tommy tippee beaker. Very useful! If only we got it earlier when we didn't already buy all of the above! Anyway, Nabila has her first dentist appointment next week. Isn't that cute? Oh, and I started giving her fresh milk in the beaker, she only took a few sips and opened the beaker and threw all the milk on the bed and on mummy and daddy... sigh, I knew it even when Linda was suggesting it that this would be a hard task since I already tried the beaker with Nabila a lot of times only to end up having water/juice and milk everywhere. The only thing that works for her is the pop-up straw bottle which we already have one for water. Would have to go and get another one for fresh milk.

Nabila enjoying her freebies

Holland

Day 1-Leiden

We took KLM this time around. We checked in a bag not really because we had to but more because we wanted to. We took Ryan Air to Milan and they charge checking in baggage. so we more or less felt like checking in was an opportunity. We arrived at Schipol Airport on time. We went for nappy change first. Nabila was at her usual 'I-don't-like-nappy-change' tantrum. The interrogation at the customs also took quite a while. They asked to see our return flight ticket, where we were going to stay, our friends invitation letter if we had them with us. after nappy chang + tantrum and customs interrogation we went to get our bag. To our dismay, our 1 piece, only 9kg checked in bag was not at the bag belt. We asked the KLM counter, they told us to give it a couple of minutes. We waited for half an hour at the belt. Nabila wanted to run about but Mummy and Daddy were tired and anxious. When our bag still didn't appear, we lodged a report. They said that if our bag is still missing within 24 hours, we could claim 100 Euros but we weren't excited, a set each of our spectacles, Imran's Jeans, Nabila's ear thermometer..... sigh... A missing bag was a first experience for both of us and it's not a pleasant feeling. We headed to Kak Asima's house, bought the train ticket at the counter, the machines were mostly for debit cards/credit cards and some accepted coins. The excitement of finally reaching Holland was a bit diffused by the missing bag incident. Our ticket from Schipol to Leiden central costs 11 Euros for 2 adults. We reached Leiden Central where we were greeted by kak Asima. Since we didn't have our luggage on tow, Kak Asima brought us to look around Leiden town and bought some necessities we needed. Leiden is beautiful. We didn't know what Amsterdam looked like yet at the time but we were liking the head start Leiden was giving us. It was serene, not much cars, quirky bicycles, canals through the town, windmill. The buildings were a mixture of old and new but the old were very much quintessential. The modern buildings also had a statement. Then we headed back to Kak Asima's home, about 20 minutes walking but we didn't feel a thing as there were so much so see. As we reached the house we were greeted by Kak Asima's three lovely daughters. They were excited having Nabila around. Nabila, of course was ecstatic.

Day 2- Zaan Schans and Leiden

It was a Sunday, the kids didn't have to go to school so Kak Asima and 2 of her daughters followed us to Zaan Schans or err, we followed Kak Asima? Hehehe. We took the bus to Leiden central this time around, because it was raining. The ticket costs 1.20 euros for 2 adults, 2 bus stops away. We took the train to Zaandam for 20 euros. Got 40% discount as Kak Asima has a discount card. Was supposed to catch a bus to Zaan Schans but we missed the 'hourly bus' as it was Sunday, lesser bus frequency. We took the cab that costs 12.80 euros. It was raining but not the heavily drenched rain KL always had so it was still okay. We took pictures of windmills and those very Dutch quintessential houses. We went to the cheese factory and did some cheese tasting. Had lunch (break to be exact) at the museums cafe. Imran an I shared a cup of hot chocolate and 2 cheese puffs (2 euros per cheese puff), the cheese puffs were superb. Maybe it used fresh cheese from the cheese factory? Continued to the clogs factory and diamond shop. Headed to the bus stop only to find out that we were quite near to another train station, walked a bit and it was Zaandjik station which was walking distance to Zaan Schans, if only we knew earlier, could've saved us 13 euros cab fair. Stopped by Leiden again for another stroll and bought Nabila Chuppa Chups lollipops and chocomel (Dutch's famous chocolate drink). At night Imade karipap pusing with kak Asima's mum. I told her what I tried cooking back in Glasgow and she seemed excited that I offered to make it that night. It was nothing compared to the hospitality they offered us.

Day 3-Roermond and Amsterdam

We took a 2 and a half hour train journey to Roermond, border to Germany. The town did look like it had German influence to it, not that I've been to Germany though. The town was beautiful, not crowded at all. We walked a bit and reached Roermond Outlet. Surveyed the shops there, at first we were kinda dissapointed of not finding anything for us. We had lunch then shopped again. Gucci was reasonable just like the outlet we went in Mendrisio, Italy-Swiss border. Hugo Boss was also reasonable. Damage done: a Gucci bag my sister asked to buy, an early birthday present- Hugo Boss loafers and Imran got a Prada driving shoe. Bought Belgium Waffles on teh way back...yummy! Anotehr 2 hours and a half and we reached Amsterdam Centraal. Went for a nights stroll in Amsterdam then headed back home.

Day 4- Amsterdam

Said our good-byes. Hope they'll come visit us in summer. We kept our bag at the locker in Amsterdam Centraal and finally saw Amsterdam in all its glory. We switched day 3 and day 4 itinerary at the very last minute and luckily we did. Imagine rushing from Roermond which was 2 and a half hours away back to Schipol. It was a nice day for Amsterdam. The day was all sunshine. Nice, nice weather for an end of February-early March weather. It was a rainy season so we were in luck. Anyway, we took the 1 hour Canal Cruise. Nabila loved it! Beautiful scenery, different set backs at different stops. Ducks were swimming along the canal, birds flying around. breathtaking! After the cruise we had lunch then headed for Hard rock Amsterdam to get our souvenirs. Got all of us t-shirts. Along the way we passed Dam Square, Leidesplein and people playing huge life-size chess and bicycles everywhere.We wanted to rent the tandem bike but everyone was cycling fast and we imagine we would be just kinda getting the hang of it so we skipped the idea. We headed to Rijksmuseum and the big I amsterdam lettering. Spent time there quite a while as the square was less busy, had a lot of birds, a perfect place for Nabila to practise her walking while chasing after the birds. On the way back we couldn't go back not even passing the red light district now could we? We finally arrived when we saw the actual 'window displays'. There were all kinds mind you! All kinds, looks and sizes. It was kinda surreal, listening to everyone talk or joke about it.... but it had to be the last window before we got back to make us remember! An image of a 'Queen Latifah' wearing next to nothing shaking he booty with a nonchalant facial expression... then we headed back to the station, and on the way we passed the sex museum which was actually quite near to the central station. It just didn't show in the maps...We got our bag and headed to Schipol.

All in all... fun..fun..fun!

Finally got Imran's birthday present.

The Local Library

After 5 months being here in Glasgow we finally went to our local library. Nabila was ecstatic! Will bring again every Monday morning for nursery rhymes and socializing with the locals. We were excited too, the books are of those you could find in normal book stores, the books you want to read. We were comparing this to our national library because we don't have a local library anywhere near. Our national library is more like a museum with a lot of text books and journals or maybe they changed it already since the buildings facelift? I wouldn't know, haven't been there in ages. Anyway, will need to register for the library, will do so as soon as possible. New year's resolution (2 months late) is to read as many books and brush up language and writing skills.