Puddings.. yummy!!!

Yesterday I had teased Fared about iftar when he suddenly said he had planned one but he was hoping us girls would come up with the dessert. Yippee, Fared nak masak heheh.. I told Farah of Fared's plan and she told me about this pudding she had bought at a stall, suprises of suprises, just at the corner of my house.

Now, even though we're halfway through Ramadhan, I still haven't got the chance to even set foot in the local pasar Ramadhan.. and last year I went there nearly EVERYDAY. One of my favourite stalls was this mak cik who sold all kinds of puddings so you can imagine my frustration on why I still can't go to the pasar Ramadhan.

However, listening to Farah, I decided to go have a taste at the particular pudding at this stall, imagining it to be a normal kuih stall. However, to my pleasant suprise, the pak cik who looked like a school teacher who owned the stall sold PUDDINGS ONLY.. and I was spoilt with choice. I bought 5 types of pudding yesterday hehehe.. and believe me, were they YUMMY.. hmm mmm!!!

Knowing that since I have class this afternoon, I can't possibly go to the pasar Ramadhan yet.. but today I don't regret it. I've still got a lot more pudding to taste from this kindly pak cik with a twinkle in his eye (why do I think I sound like Enid Blyton?) when he watched me and Farah go ga-ga over the puddings.. yeayyyy!!!

Bangun lambat!!!!

As I was lamenting yesterday, the night before I couldn't sleep at all, resulting me in going to school at the wee hours of the morning (7am still considered 'wee hours' ke?)

Then, arriving at school, I just remembered I had promised Farah to help her in her lab.. and I made the mistake of wearing a silk baju kurung.. adeh! Still, a promise is a promise. Uhhhh, no wonder Farah needs help, doing a reseach in concrete technology isn't exactly my cup of tea. Her blocks weighed around 13kg each and we had to haul them around the lab on both floors.. Gimme a traffic cont under the scorching sun anyday!

So naturally, last night I was VERY tired. I must've hopped into bed around 11pm.. Nope, make that 12am. I had called Adi first..

And I had a most peaceful sleep in a very long time..

So peaceful that I didn't wake up at the sound of the alarm at sahur..

And even when a friend had sent an sms (and believe me, Iskandar's phone has the most boisterously noisy tone for a received sms!!!), I still didn't wake up.. sheesh!!! And I was counting on those sounds to wake me up.. uwaaaaaaa!!!

I only woke up at 7.35am..

Ohhhh.. lapoooo!!!!

Tummy tum tum..

Its 7.00 am and I'm wondering what I'm doing in school mase ayam pun tak bangun lagi (kate si Nabil laaa..)

Truth is, I had trouble sleeping last night. After tossing and turning until 1am, I decided to read this boring book I had bought years ago.. somehow, last night the book didn't seem that boring, thus dashing my hopes of making it help me sleep. Then around 1.45am, the power went out and I was left in total darkness.. sheesh!

I tried reading with my flashlight, but reading with your flashlight looks good only on tv, or when you were smaller. Before long, my hands were tired from holding on to the flashlight, so once again I tried to sleep.. without succeeding that is! The next thing I knew, it was time for sahur and after Subuh, I still couldn't sleep.. thus explaining the reason why lil' Miss Ayu seems a little bit rajin to come early today.. *sigh*

Sitting infront of the pc, I think I have to write something (Dr Farhan said,"You have left your writing for too long now.. you should start practicing!" Hmmm, wonder if blog writing counts heheh..)

Yesterday morning, I woke up to sahur with an uneasy stomach. A quick calculation made me realize it was nearly my time of the month anyhow.. but somehow, this tummy ache felt a bit different.

As I tried to get some shut eye before Subuh, my tummy became a bit more uncomfortable so when I heard the azan (without getting a chance of a nap), I decided to head to the toilet and get done with it once and for all.. hah!!

Turned out, it was pure torture!!!!!

Adi had diarrhea a few days earlier and sounded so weak when I called him.. this time it was my turn I guess. But seriously, I've never felt anything like this before.. gile sakit perut mase tu! I felt like crying.. (tipu, dah nangis pun haha..)

I'm not sure what I ate. I mean, I was avoiding eating the chicken soup again for iftar that day so I had bought maggi goreng ayam at A.Rahman after my class.. which btw, I have bought numerous times before. I just dunno what happened..

When it started, I really felt like fainting. Seriously! I was holding on to the tap till my knuckles were white as I was afraid of falling down. Cold sweat broke all over my body and before long my pyjamas were wet.. and I wasn't wearing a thin nightdress ke ape ke.. I was wearing cotton pyjamas that could be squeezed as it was so soaken (ade ke word ni?) through. Then I started vomitting.. sheesh! And the cramps in my bowels hadn't even stopped though I think I had nothing else in me anymore.. but the pain was terrible!!!!

I was whimpering in the end.. pathetic! But seriously, I've never been in such pain :(

When the duration between the cramps got a bit more longer, I managed to walk slowly to my room to change my wet pyjamas but the cramps came again so I just wrapped my towel around me and went back to the bathroom and before long, even the towel was wet with my sweat.. adeh!

I tried to lie down but everytime the cramps came, I started whimpering again.. oohhh, seriously pathetic this time!

It was around 7am that the cramps finally stopped and I didn't feel nauseous anymore. Then only did I manage to perform my Subuh prayers while hoping that the pain was FINALLY gone. I then slept for 4 hours straight (didn't go to school in the morning then..) and woke up feeling better with no temperature whatsoever except for a bitter taste in my mouth..

I seriously don't know what is it that I ate, but I guess I'm gonna skip A.Rahmans maggi goreng for a while.. I certainly DON'T want to experience THAT again!!

Ayu and her soup ahaha..

I'm not the type who actually spends my days cooking. In fact, I usually only cook during Ramadhan or when I'm bored with bought food or when I'm at home and feel like, what the Malays say as, bagi dapoq berasap hehe..

I'm not saying that I'm a good cook too.. just so and so. Enough for me to survive. Though I do love trying out new recipes that catch my attention. However, there is one dish that I really suck at making.. and you may be suprise when I say that I suck at making soup!

Yup.. the simple clear soup.. and I dunno how to make it. Laugh at me if you want to, but thats the truth.

However, a few weeks prior Ramadhan, I had made up my mind to at least be able to make edible soup, thus started my journey toward the enlightenment in soup-making ahaha..

And I found out, just as everyone says, its not really that hard. I'm beginning to wonder why I was never confident enough in soup making before. Not that I find out my soup is outta this world, far from it! But at least it tastes like everyone else soup.. but made by my own two hands.. yeay!!!

The reason I was happy for this was because I love chicken soup with lots and lots of mushrooms and the pasar malam is usually bursting with these fresh ingredients so now I don't have to go to Bagan Samak for a dose of soup (except when I want delicious soup la.. as opposed to my biase² soup). The second reason is, as a potato lover, I've always loved potatoes when cooked in soup or spicy curries.. yummy! At home, when I make the chicken curry for the family, I put an abundance of potatoes in it.. and I won't need rice. Just a plate of steaming chicken curry heaped with potatoes and maybe a slice or two of bread.. Ooohh! Even my tummy is grumbling at the thought of it..

Anyway, last Friday, I was suddenly craving for some chicken and mushroom soup (besides the fact that I wanted to improve my soup making skills hahah..) so at noon, I went home and sauteed the shallots and garlic then proceeded to make soup kosong first with only potatoes (well, potatoes DO take long to soften, don't they!) I hadn't bought any chicken or mushroom yet as I didn't have a fridge at home but since my class ended at 6.30, I expected to be able to pop to the pasar malam for some chicken (there's this stall that sells cut up chicken where you can choose whichever part you want.. and they've cleaned the chicken too!) and mushrooms then head home and leave them to boil in my soup kosong while I take my shower or something.

However, I was disappointed to find the particular stall closed, much to my dismay. Shessh! Now I had to buy chicken which I had to wash myself haha (ayat pemalas). At first I thought of cancelling it all, but then I remember, I had already prepared the soup at home so nak tanak, terpakse la beli ayam jugak. And you know la the usual stalls sell chicken by the whole thing or paling sikit pun you have to buy half the chicken.. which was what I had to do! Gile banyak.. sape nak makan???

Back home, I had to add some seasonings to my soup as the prepared soup was actually for just a small portion, then I had to cut and wash my half-chicken before dumping them into the soup. Then, I realized the pot I had used was too small thus I had to dump all its contents into a larger pan.. uwaaaa!!! Sangat gile banyak dah ni..

As a result, I got what I wanted.. but on a larger scale. Gile tul, I had chicken soup for that iftar, then for sahur the next day. Then for iftar on Saturday and sahur on Sunday.. AND for iftar on Sunday and sahur on Monday. The differance was just that some days I took it with bread and some days I took it with pasta. By then, I was sick of chicken soup. On Sunday, the potato lover in me couldn't even take another potato in soup anymore so I fished out all the potatoes and fried them and ate them with ketchup hahah..

So yesterday, I told abg Fadzil and Farah of my soup weekend (being just eaten another bowlful of soup that morning for sahur *ughhhh*). Abg Fadzil even asked me, when I had told him about the fried potato incident, "Awat hang tak buat cucoq ubi ka.. begedil (burger-dil kate Pojie hehe..) ka.. wedges ka.. kan hang suka ubi.. amik la semua ubi kat hang!!" Uwaaaa..

That afternoon, while we were sitting quietly in our cubes (Farah in Choong's cube), abg Fadzil suddenly asked us what we were having for iftar?

I for one know, whatever it is, it WON'T be chicken soup!!!!

*contented sigh* & drums in my head

*sigh*

Its been days since I last felt at least this bit of contented. Since last week, it has felt as if I' m in a lost world.. lonely and dark. The reason: I don't have my pc with me!!!

Last week, I came to school full of hopes of being able to start on my proposal and papers (Tipu!!! Niat nak main game dulu tu..). As usual, when I get into my cube, I switch on the pc first before putting down/arranging my bags on the seat beside me. Usually, by the time I turn around, my pc is already on. However, on that particular day, I was met with a blank screen..

Aik.. ingat dah switch on..

So I switched it on again only to find out something wrong with my pc which refused to be switched on. Asking abg Fadzil for help, he suggested I call Hurman and that was what I did. Hurman then godek² my pc whilst I had to help this final year student with her thesis. Around half an hour later, after Hurman had tried all the tricks in his trade, he concluded that I had to replace the power supply.. and since the one at school was too big for my cpu, I had to send it to the shops outside of USM.. sheesh!!!

I had already seen Hurman try to replace mine with the one in school and it only took him 5 minutes. However, I had to leave my cpu at the shop itself and I knew it was gonna take days.. uwaaaaaa!!!

For days I wandered around aimlessly <--Ayu exaggerating hahah..

Anyway, I just got my pc back today.. yeay!!! Wanted to do a 'Welcome back' party complete with banners, balloons and food, but since its Ramadhan, I just welcomed it back with a cleaner desk (gile byk habuk bawah pc tu selame ni..) hehe..

*******

This morning, I had this splitting headache that I definitely don't wanna experience again. Have you ever seen cartoons with natives banging large drums? Well, I felt as if I had a group of them in my head.. and not only that, they also had other drum beaters banging on THEIR respective drums ala dragon boat drums style, giving encouragement for those natives to bang even louder! I could even imagine someone doing the tarian naga in my head to the beat of those drums.. and its was a very energetic tarian naga there..

Okay, my imagination is getting the better of me here..

Still, it hurt like h***! When I went to take my wudhu' this morning, the bathroom felt like it was swaying and by the time I wanted to raise my head, it felt as heavy as lead :(

It didn't help that I haven't had enough sleep throughout the weekend. I mean, tossing and turning but eventually going to sleep (even if its at 3am) is soooo much different than staring at the ceiling without being able to sleep at all right till sahur. I managed a few winks while waiting for Subuh for those three days (including this morning la..) but thats about it..

No wonder my head hurts like mad!!

And I was starting to regret my decision to never counsume any panadols or pain killers when the rain suddenly came down very lebat la around 6.10am. The noise kinda was in rythm with the beating of drums in my head.. though it just hurt much more, it was kinda therapeutic..

Gasp!!! Look at Ayu.. me thinks she's already lost it!!!!

Haha.. anyway, luckily right now, the headache has gone away for quite awhile. Still, that doesn't account for another 'headache' I'm having right now regarding something I'm trying to 'repair'..

Well, wish me luck guys.. and pray that I'll get to sleep tonight, will ya?