My Prince Khaleef is 6ix

my eldest boy turned 6 on 15/11/11.

khaleef is a strawberry-fan, so for his birthday, he requested for a strawberry cheesecake, very berry strawberry ice-cream from baskin robbins, and a berry banana smoothies. so very berry!

we didn’t do any kenduri harijadi (birthday party) this year with a big cake and lotsa guests – i just packed goodie bags for khaleef to bring to school for his classmates. and that night we just went out to JBR to get him a small cake, because this weekend there’s gonna be another hoopla.

*wink wink*

 

 

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thank you BERRY much for the well-wishes!

 

 

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happy birthday khaleef, may you always be in the loving protection of Allah ~ always here for you, mak, bapak and your brothers kahfi and kazim. we love you very much, abang long!

Fell Asleep on Metro? Fined AED300!

imagine you’re fined RM300 for falling asleep on the LRT. imagine.

of all the times i had to take the LRT from gombak station to taman bahagia, i admit dozing off a few times on the train. travelling from one end to the other is not a short trip, so memang letih! but in malaysia, sleeping on LRT is allowed right? right?

however, you read right – AED300 fine for sleeping on trains, in dubai!

it all started when an american student fell asleep on the dubai metro, missed her stop, and was fined when she reached the final station. kesian gile. tak pasal-pasal kena saman just because she was sleeping on the train!

this is downright weird. people sleeps on public transportation all the time. sometimes (or even most of the time) it can’t be helped. when you’re tired, you’re tired. or maybe you’re not well. or you’re pregnant and sleep is part of the cycle. at times people can’t wait for the train to arrive so that they can get into the air-cond space and catch a few winks before arriving at their destination.

hmm. a new way for dubai to make money? the powers that be of dubai, PLEASE if you want so badly to FINE people for AED300, you’re better off taking it on SMOKERS.

just found out that dubai is implementing fines on people chewing gum on metro – just like in singapore – so take that ‘fine’ example further and implement fines on smoking in public places too! that would be fantastic.

anyway, back to fined-for-sleeping – the funny bit was when a couple of attendants cleared it up by saying that “..if a passenger falls sleep and snores or disturbs others - by drooling or falling over on to someone else's space - that can invite a fine. as long as they don't disturb other passengers when they sleep on the train, then it's OK.”

lemme get this straight – so apparently is IS okay to sleep but no

• drooling - haha
• snoring – what, an officer will just stand beside the sleeping passenger, listening and fine him as soon as he starts snoring? agak kelakar di situ
• head-falling-on someone else’s shoulder – i admit this could really be a bother, but waking him/her up would be enough right? a fine is too much. after all, they’re not some perverts who are doing it on purpose!

there is a comment asking for a fine on people who “stepped on her clothes with their dirty shoes”. hellowww you’re in a PUBLIC transportation. with CROWDS. there are bound to be jostling of arms and knees. as long as they’re not pick-pockets and perverts taking advantage of closed space. tapi takkan ketiak passenger busuk pun nak report kat officer suruh dia fine orang ketiak busuk tu kan…

ok, so anyways, if i wanted to lentok my head manja-manja on my husband’s shoulder while on the metro, still kena fine ah?

to read full article, click here.

Turning 81 on 11/11/11

my beloved tokwan turned 81 on this special date of multiple ones – 11/11/11. what a blessed day to be celebrating 81 years of good health (alhamdulillah!), wonderful family and contented in life. at 81, he is still manning his makan place in taiping; his specialty is making ice-kacang – yum!

tokwan is tokcik’s husband. ala, tokcik is very famous in my blog. haha. my grandma who owns a makan place in taiping, ‘selera desa’. drop by when you’re in taiping ok! i’ve written about it here and here.

a man of few words, but plenty of smiles and laughs. no doubt one of the nicest man you will ever have the pleasure in meeting.

 

tokwan with the love of his life the ever vogue tokcik, with their grandsons

 

happy 81st birthday, tokwan – may Allah grant tokwan many more years of health and wealth in rezeki and rahmat; in this world and the hereafter. amin!

Our 3rd Aidiladha in Dubai

a short entry to wish everyone a blessed Aidiladha!

 

my eldest khaleef donning the mckk sampin this raya. this is the very sampin worn by his bapak during his schooldays. classic tu! following the footsteps of atuk, bapak and his pak ngah? we’ll see!

 

my naughty 2nd boy kahfi couldn’t keep a straight face when taking picture. lantak la mak bubuh jugak gamba yang kelam kabut ni. hoho. these days he completely refused to eat rice, but this morning he ate A LOT of lemang!

* lemang is glutinous rice cooked in bamboo with coconut milk – delicious!

 

my youngest prince kazim was being weird this morning as he kept wanting to wear the songkok (headgear) padehal during last eid syawal he kept pushing it away! unpredictable!

 

mr. khairul actually went back to malaysia for about a week, and came back with his mom’s chicken rendang. absolutely divine. i don’t know how to cook rendang, so having this means the world. when i heat it up this morning, the whole house was filled with the aroma of ‘raya’. best! thanks a bunch to my mother in law for her thoughts and effort!

* rendang is a spicy malay dish usually cooked using chicken or beef, and is an excellent partner with lemang.

 

bahulu! again, thanks to my mom-in-law for packin them. the whole family is a bahulu fan, so two huge packs of bahulu would probably be finished by the end of the week. if not by the end of the day. haha. the last time we went back to malaysia, my aunt cik packed a whole lot of bahulu and we ate ‘em all in one day in dubai. bahulu freaks!

*bahulu is a malay traditional sponge cake. yum!

 

malaysians in dubai solat hari raya at matrade office, al-shafeena building, in oud metha – this is always where we would have our annual malaysian gathering for solat aidilfitri or aidiladha. there are A LOT (really, a lot!) of malaysians in dubai but sometimes they pray with the locals and other expats at the mosques near their homes

the tables at the back are for pot luck dishes – this year there are plenty of goodies!

thanks dubai baker fida for the picture!

 

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ok, enjoy the rest of aidiladha, people! may Allah grant us patience and courage to keep sacrificing for our religion, our family, our country. amin.

Assorted Dates @ Fish Market Deira

one of the busiest places in dubai – the fish market at shindaga tunnel, deira. been living here for almost 3 years now and this is my FIRST time coming here! usually we go to the karama wet market (click here for my posting on karama wet market), or else we’d happily settled for shopping fish and chicken at lulu, geant or carrefour.

interesting enough, my mom-in-law had been here countless of times. well, everytime she’s here, her anak manja eldest son mr. khairul would definitely bring his mom here to buy stuff he wants her to cook! hihi.

 

 

like any market, the fish market deira offers everything under the sun, like any market does. fruits and vegetables; grocery items and FISH in abundance. even sharks, sadly!

 

men with wheelbarrow waiting for customers who need help

 

all around the market, even from outside, you’ll see men with wheelbarrows offering to help carry what we bought – for a small fee. most people here come over to this huge market to buy in bulks, and it eases the burden when these wheelbarrow-ing men come to help.

 

the man in kurta behind mr. khairul was waiting to gather our ‘catch’ of the day – the fruits, veggies and fish. now waiting for mr. khairul to choose some dates

 

one of the main reasons why we decided to go here instead of our usual shopping haunts was to buy dates. mr. khairul is going back to malaysia soon (JUST HIM on business trip uhuk uhuk) and he wanted to buy a lot of fresh dates as souvenirs.

and there were a LOT of stalls selling all sorts of fresh dates.

the stall-keeper packed the dates in small individual plastic bags before placing everything inside a box, and helped sealed it too, since mr.khairul mentioned he’s taking the dates on a long journey back to malaysia.

 

yums!

 

my favorite is the top left, the most juicy, shiny soft and taste like chocolate! lagi lembik lagi sedap!

 

the owner was so nice, he gave out free dates to khaleef and kahfi

 

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and of course, you’d be a fool to go deira fish market and not buy FISH!

since it was my first time, i was surprised to see the scene inside the big huge warehouse-like market. hundreds of stall-keeper in strapping uniforms stood by their stalls shouting welcoming phrases to invite patrons to buy from their stall.

the smell of fish was pungent. duuh!

 

 

the staff here did not mind being photographed. in fact some stopped and smiled, and a few even cheered. i guess it’s sort of a break from their everyday routine around fishes.

we bought our usual favorites – bawal (pomfret) and a few other fish. (of course my number one favorite fish ever is IKAN KELI! but dubai takde ikan keli… sob sob) we also bought ikan kembung – dah lama tak makan ikan kembung goreng-goreng garing!

i don’t know much about fish – types and the many ways to cook ‘em so i wasn’t able to take full advantage of the endless choices of fish here at the deira fish market. beli yang mana tau je!

 

 

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a lovely mural by the side of the fish market

 

dah lama tak nampak kucing liar macam ni

 

the wheelbarrow man helped to unload the plastic bags into the car while kahfi supervised hihi. thanks man!

the deira fish market opens daily at 7am till 11pm. parking is said to be extremely bad on weekends so brace yourselves. we went at night on a working day, around 9pm plus, and it was not that crowded, and parking was easy. wear old shoes and t-shirts!

Just Ban Smoking!

"UAE approved warnings on cigarette packets with a graphic picture covering about half the packet...it also bans tobacco company from using 'smooth', 'silky' and 'light' or similar words to describe the product." - gulfnews today. click here for full report.

while i applaud UAE's effort in curbing the filthy smoking habit among its people, i can only snicker in sceptism at its effectiveness. tak jalan punya! this is not my way of belittling UAE's noble effort, but rather a scornful smirk towards the *incorrigible smokers.

*incorrigible : incapable of being corrected or reformed.

buat lah apa saja. rise the price of cigarette. put no-smoking signs. put pictures of blackened lungs on cigarette packs. have taknak campaign. ban tobacco advertisement on tv. create awesome no-smoking ads. under 18 cannot buy cigarette. cammon, tell me the truth - NONE is really working, right?

1. rising the price of cigarette - have you ever wondered why run-down flats in kl with owners who probably can't afford monthly insurance payment, managed to have astro satelite dishes mushrooming all over the building? same logic. mahal macam mana pun, orang yang tak berapa mampu pun will make it a priority, because they want to.


2. put no-smoking signs - i was there. at PWTC. there was a no-smoking sign. and this man still lit up a cigarette, without a care.


3. put ugly pictures of what harm rokok can do - smokers KNOW that smoking is harmful to them. they KNOW their health is affected. so pictures are just pictures. it's JUST the box. again, do they care? nope!

i'm sorry. it's just my sincere opinion. this is coming from someone who has lived with a smoker for her whole married life. and because of the same reason, i will tell you what REALLY works :

the ONLY way smoking can be deterred, or lessened, or eradicated totally - is to BAN SMOKING. the best example is our neighbour singapore. even as a non-smoker, i was surprised to see the long list of smoke-free places in singapore.

this includes so many, many places like carparks, playground, clubs and even hawker stalls! kat malaysia, hawker stall la tempat yang paling seronok nak merokok...

the best one was definitely 'no smoking within a 5 meters radius from ANY doorway. gile best. this means that even when you walk OUT of an air-conditioned, smoke free building, you need to make sure you're 5m away from the entrance before you light up a smoke, or else!

when we were in singapore last july, mr. khairul was restless as he searched for a place to smoke. it seemed like everywhere we go, it's a no-smoking zone. fantastic! whenever he felt like it might be okay to smoke, he was still cautious - can i? can't i? anyone watching? it was great to see him without smoking while we enjoy the holiday.

so you see, singapore makes it VERY DIFFICULT for anyone to smoke. also, singapore makes smokers feel like they've done something worse than armed robbery! as someone gets less and less chance to smoke each day, eventually they will come to their senses - hey, i CAN do without cigarette! it is possible. it can be done. i can slowly quit.

in this matter, i hope one day malaysia can emulate our neighbour, who is already famous for its squeaky clean image - ban smoking!

Kahfi & Kazim’s Emirates ID : Finally!

“congratulations. you have just received your new UAE national identity card. this is your official identification in the united arab emirates.”

just like our MyCard, the emirates ID also has many functions - driving licences, work permits, employee cards, passports – all in one single identity card. kahfi and kazim finally got theirs a few days ago. so comel!

 

 

for ANY information you need on emirates ID, go to emirates identity authority (EIDA) official website – how to apply, where and how long, click here. you can also check the status of your emirates ID application on that site.

you can also check out here for a quick how-to-apply, complete with fees in straighforward point-form.