Bringing back the online diary

Dear blog readers (if there are still any),

With the advancement of technology, 

Yours truly is shying away from other platforms. 

Instagram are for pictures,

Facebook are for posts and information sharing. 

I still want to write, but trying to escape the normal audience. I guess boredom got to me, 

I'm penning down random trips and thoughts about life back here. 

Trying to re-live a space which was once a tool for expression. 

Til next time.. 

Will be posting soon 

Year 2020

Just for a record in Malaysian history

Movement Control Order
MCO Phase 1 : 18 March 2020 - 31 March 2020
MCO Phase 2 : 1st April 2020 - 14th April 2020
MCO Phase 3: 15th April 2020 - 28th April 2020
MCO Phase 4: 29th April 2020 - 12th May 2020

Conditional Movement Control Order
CMCO : 13th May 2020 - 9th June 2020
Recovery Movement Control Order
RMCO: 10th June 2020 - 31st August 2020


Today is technically day 86
I'm still working from home

2020 Movement Control Order

Hello blog,
I finally retrieved my password after several weeks of trying logon.

Today is Sunday 7th June 2020.
Day 82 of MCO - Movement Control Order due to COVID-19...

Stay healthy and stay safe

Birthday Mak

Al-fatihah.

Nothing more that I miss.

This clip from Uncontrollaby Fond sums it all. The guy in this drama is dying due to brain tumour. It's the most painful scene that reminds me a lot about my 'arwah' mak.  Thank you for being my mom (tears).. I hope I did my best as your daughter and I always pray Allah swt will grant you the highest place in Jannah. InsyaAllah

I miss you. Love you

There are better days to come..

Cappadocia Hot Air Balloon Ride - October 2015 

Better days are to come..

to travel more..
for a perfect journey..
for better things in life we can offer

I'll be here until the next trip..

(any sponsors?.. =D )

Links for flights--
Momondo 
Kayak
Ita software

Scarlet Heart Pandemic

A week had passed and still I still can't move on from this drama. Arggh, I just hate the aftermath feeling. The vague and emptiness feeling it gives you... sobs sobs (frequently playing its OST)

I suddenly got myself glued to watching this series after a friend's daughter (who is 14 years old just in case you wanna know) recommended me to watch it. I was an addict even after the first episode.
In Malaysia it was aired the same time as in Korea on Astro 393.

The poster might look cliche with a girl with so many princes but don't generalize yet like I did in the beginning. hehe. The drama is amazing as it portrays the past era where Kings reign the region and there's a whole lot of elements like love, family ties, power and betrayal (similar to King Lear's Shakespeare - ok I'm exaggerating a bit here).

The director did a good job in maintaining viewers interest as I was awed with each episode. some dramas takes too long to shift to a resolution but this one keeps you on your toes at all times. The cinematography and music intervals are just great. Love love love. The right moment of pauses touches your heart and allow you to mellow with your feelings.

I just love everything about Scarlet heart ryeo. Maybe I'm into historical drama with fightings and costumes but nonetheless without great scenes/plot it wouldn't be  equally as great. Besides that, the acting is superb too. I wish one day our local actors and directors can deliver something like this for us.

I'm not a fanatic of KDrama at all, in addition this is the 2nd story I've watched after Winter Sonata(which was 15 years ago I think). So here I am, finally updating my blog to vent my frustration out just because I can't move on with this story..

The heart is cruel as it can be wicked.
MoonLovers-Scarlet Heart Ryeo

of facebook posts and recipe updates

Everytime a person shares a recipe on facebook, I'd expect the person to make it within a time span of 1 day to 2 weeks maximum. Pictures of dishes well most of them makes you go all hungry all of a sudden even though you just had a hearty lunch/dinner.. Urrgh..

 There would be times I would ask my friend who normally update recipes, have you tried this and that recipe which SHE SHARED on fb.
 The answer would be - NO
 No?..
So you haven't tried making 'em?
 No, I just like sharing it.
 AAAAaaaaaa.. I felt like shooting myself.

 Well, that was the first disclaimer, then others confessed doing the same. Please cook what you have posted, it's similar like practice what you preach.. kihkih Or maybe I am just an emotional blob who is too attached to food.

Enjoy a short video of a simple Chocolate Banana Cinnamon Cake made in a mug which I saw someone sharing on facebook.. :)
Prep time: less than 2 minutes
Mix everything in a mug
1 banana mash with fork
Milk
Cinnamon powder
Baking powder
Vanilla essence
Flour
Chocolate
Brown Sugar
Microwave: 3-5 minutes

Travelling log

I have keeping my travel log pending for years since 2013.  As I plan to write it before this, there would always be one project to plan for and I'd totally forget to do/did not finish the entry...

Hello Afzan, wake up it's 2015 and close to the end of the year. Excuses and plenty of it coming as reasons of not updating. I somehow do blame Instagram and Facebook being the photo dumping places to store my photos as compared to uploading it on blogs. Well it is after all private, which is a good in one way tho :)

Anyways, I do intend to share my journey so that others can find it useful to plan their trip. So here is a simple list of the places which with God's willing will be published soon.

Korea 2013 Seoul - Didn't visit Jeju Island - 7 days, 6 nights

Gyeongbokgung Palace

Bali 2014 - 5 days, 4 nights

Kecak dance/music performance

Japan 2014 - Tokyo - Nagano - Hiroshioma- Osaka - Kobe - 9 days, 8 nights

Hiroshima- The only buiding standing after the bombing

Thailand 2015 - Krabi

Singapore 2015 - 5 days, 4nights

Merlion 

Melbourne 2015 - Melbourne - Phillip Island -Ballarat- 9 days, 8 nights

12 Apostles

Ramadhan Trip
Cambodia 2015 - Phnom Penh
Thailand 2015 - Pattani

Soon baby, wait for the update soon...

Steamed chocolate cake

Raya was just so-so for my family.
No kampung to head to, so it was basically just us circling around KL this raya.

Nonetheless, I tried to occupy my time by baking(something that I left several years ago). The baker in me started to creep out. I tried out this recipe for steamed chocolate cake (kek coklat kukus) as I wanted to ensure that the cake would turn out moist even if I served it on the following day.

Here's the recipe. Taken from Cikgu Suraya

Bahan untuk kek coklat.

Bahan A· 1 cawan serbuk koko
· 1 cawan gula pasir 
· 1 cawan susu cair 
· 1 cawan minyak masak 
· 1/2 cawan susu pekat 
Bahan B 
· 11/2 cawan tepung gandum 
· 1 sudu teh bikarbonat 
· 1 sudu teh baking powder 
· 1 sudu teh esen vanilla 
· 3 biji telur (suhu bilik) 

Cara-cara 
1. Masak Bahan A dalam periuk sampai sebati. Allow It to cool. 
2. Pukul telur sampai betul2 kembang kemudian masukkan bahagian A. 
3. Masuk esen vanilla. Pukul sampai sebati. 
4. Masuk bahagian B sedikit demi sedikit. kacau sebati selama 5 minit ++ 
5. Masukkan adunan dalam loyang dan ikat dengan beg plastik.  Papepun pastikan wap air tak boleh masuk dalam adunan. 

6. Kukus for 1 hour. 

Tadaaa. The amazing results which was gone in less than 24 hours. Senang nak buat, senang juga dihabiskan. Huhuuu

 

Verdict: nice, moist when not refrigerated. Simple chocolate cake recipe that I've found so far. Locking this in and  will definitely remake this cake soon. 

A little bit of styling would never hurt

All girls can relate to fashion, be it their outfit (top, bottom or headscarves), shoes, jewellery, makeup.. and the list continues.
Girls tend to have their own fashion sense or a certain style that they tend to portray. It might be a colour scheme, a theme, a pattern basically it is totally up to the wearer.
but talking about this, there are times where us (girls) are so lazy to even choose what to wear or even get up to iron! Moments like this stuck me so many times, especially on weekdays at night right after you dumped your work attire in the basket and walla- ring a ding ding a friend asks you out.
should I go or should I stay..
So guys, you shouldn't expect so much that we'll have decent attire on every single day. It's good enough, some of us have never left the house wearing a kaftan... :p


I'll leave you with some decent pictures which were taken a long way back
1) repost from dolceamera
2) repost from catteleya couture

The pleated skirt was to die for. Loved it to bits. 

Non iron top. Suits the lazy me. Truly recommended for travellers

Things I love

Life is beautiful. 

Stop and smell the flowers. 

Picture taken in Kobe, Japan. 

yonks ago

I received a new lappie recently.
This made the separation with my desktop really difficult especially when you find really memorable pictures like these. 

missing the younger years.
copy all files - transfer all. :)

So last year

Rewind of what I should have posted last January 2013.


We booked the tickets to Hong Kong a year before departure (which were obviously on sale) and were so eager to go to in Disneyland.  I've never been on tours, hence all my travels have been some sort of like a backpacking mode.So here are some tips

Tips for Malaysians for your cuti-cuti in Hong Kong.

1. Bring lots of food from home as the price range per adult for a meal would cost RM50.  There would be one or two halal restaurants (mostly kebabs) near shopping areas but getting there might be a problem unless you know your routes well.  So we brought maggi, instant porridge,1 packet of rice (5kg), brahims, mini rice cooker,serunding, sambal ikan bilis and whatever food that we can stuff in our luggage.
*make sure to wrap the sambal ikan bilis neatly with several layers of plastics/paper. Do not hand carry your meal as once you disembark the plane at HK International Airport, a security dog will be waiting for you.

Bring snacks such as biscuits or chocolate energy bars as you can eat them for lunch if you're travelling to many places in a day.
There's this one famous dimsum at ammar's mosque. You MUST try it out.
 

To get here ask locals directions to the stadium

which is located next to this building.

 

Dimsum at WanChai

2. Wear comfortable shoes as there’ll be a lot of walking and standing. Everyone in HK stands and there are not many seating areas even if you are in a shopping mall. Travellers are to stand and squatting/sitting on the floor is a no-no. You’ll be scolded by the police.

 

Kak Yan buying new comfy shoes.

No seats in malls. So this guy made a smart move by sitting on his luggage.

At the MRT station. Standing still.

Gel sole padding sold in markets in HK is something you must buy too. Super duper comfy.

3.  To get from one place to another, you can buy the Octupus card at any MTR stations and can be used for bus rides too. The signage are in English so it wont be a problem to navigate your way through the MTR. You can grab the map of the MTR online or at the MTR stations.

http://hong-kong-travel.org/MTR/ 

4.  There are  plenty of hostels to stay at in HK. I stayed at Mongkok since it was near so many street markets that operated at night, including the famous ladies market. I would highly recommend you to stay around the same area since you can explore farther places in HK during the day and come back to mongkok to continue shopping at the night markets.

Dragon Hostel Hong Kong

www.dragonhostel.com 

 

day-night markets everywhere

I didn’t know this would take so much time. No wonder travel blogs have so many parts.

So basically this was what we did 

Day 1 - After arrival , check in ho(s)tel then go to ladies market and Sham Shui Po. 

Day 2 - HK Disneyland. 

Day 3 - Shopping. Peak Tower and visit wax museum.

Day 4-  Shopping at Tsim Sha Tsui. View symphony of lights at Victoria Harbour. Bruce Lee figure.   

Day 5 – Macau full day.

Day 6 - Final round of shopping. noon back to KL

Shopping in HK can be in malls/streets. Will continue soon yea. xxx

Simple bread pudding

Guess who decided to step in the kitchen to cook. Your truly :)

On 10th of Muharam we are encouraged to fast on d day called Asyura day.
"Puasa Asyura menjadi penebus dosa setahun yang telah lewat" (HR Muslim)
InsyaAllah. :)

So, for buka puasa on that day I decided to prep a simple dessert.

So here we go. My simple bread pudding (roti puding)

8 slices of bread - tear them and arrange on baking tray

Ingredients to whisk
1. 3 eggs
2. 4 tablespoon of castor sugar
3. 2 tablespoon of butter
4. 2 tablespoon of flour
5. 1 teaspoon of vanilla flavouring
6. 2 cups of milk

Whisk and pour generously on the bread prepared earlier. Add raisin on top depending on your liking.
 Leave for 10 mins.. I left mine for too long and the results were sloppy.

For the topping. You need to heat
1. A can of evaporated milk
2. 2 tablespoon of sugar
3. 2 tablespoon of custard flour
Stir until it thickens.

The results? Walla!

dearly departed

My mom lost her battle to cancer last September 2013. 
"To Allah we belong and to Him we shall return." (Surah Al-Baqarah 2:156)

The feeling is indescribable. 

Empty, that's for sure. 

"The kingdom of the heavens and the earth and everything in them belongs to Allah. He has power over all things. " (Surah Al-Ma'ida 5:120)





I'd miss her a lot especially on any public holiday/s like today. 
Salam Maal Hijrah 1435H.