Nasi Lemak Sambal Tumis Udang

The last time I made/had nasi lemak was when I did the surprise bday party for Michael. That was 2 months ago and I was craving for it. So last week, I made them again. Fried anchovies, hard boiled egg and cucumber are a-must for me when I have my nasi lemak. Want some? ;)

So sweet

Quote of the day

"Regis is sweet and funny and confused. So he made me feel wanted and needed"

- Joy Philbin on being asked abt her husband, Regis Philbin, host of Regis & Kelly show on Friday July 27 show.

Owww... isnt that so sweet? ;)

Love (not) thy Neighbour

I may not be the friendliest ppl on earth but i do say hi, hello or at least a smile whenever i bump into our neighbours or the workers. Be it along the hallway or in the mailroom. Sometimes I wish Im more like my mom who would walk around the neighbourhood with my dad and actually get to know the neighbours. I remember when my mom came to PA back in Aug 2004 to visit us (and witnessed our nikah). It was Sunday morning and we were still in bed (Michael was still working night shift then) so she went out walking around the neighbourhood, went to a few garage sales and bought a few stuff. Me? I havent even been to any of the garage sales then!

Anyway, yesterday I had an incident with 1 of our neighbours. I dont exactly know who that person is but Im gonna call her "bitch" in this story. Im also assuming that its a, her. Before I start, let me just say that when it comes to laundry and/or clothes, Im a very particular person. I have my own "system" in washing, drying and folding them. Especially folding. I fold them in a certain way and will not be satisfied until and unless its done exactly that (my) way. Maybe 1 day I will tell the story when I was in UiTM but today its about the bitch neighbour.

There are 2 washers and 2 dryers in the laundry room on each floor. Unfortunately for the past 2 weeks, 1 of the dryers have not been working properly which left us with only 1 functional dryer.

So yesterday as usual 2 loads of laundry. With only 1 dryer to work with, I had to do them 1 by 1 (obviously!). When I was putting the 2nd load in, I saw that both the washers are already being used and somehow I had this feeling that that person is going to mess with my clothes in the dryer after she's done with the washing. I dont know why I felt that way since Iv never had any problem before but I did. True enough, 45min later when I went to the laundry room to pick up the clothes, they were all on the folding table and the dryer was being used with the time saying 32min left. My clothes were not just taken out from the dryer but they were taken out before the 45min were up! I was so furious. In my head i was already thinking of;

1. taking the bitch's clothes out and put them on the floor and step on them.
2. putting them into the dustbin (in the laundry room)
3. putting them into the rubbish chute (goes down str8 to the big dustbin in the basement)

But Im a good person/housewife/neighbour so I let the bitch go easily. I only opened the door of the dryer.

Chicken on a skewer a.k.a. Satay Ayam

I cheated. I know and im quite ashamed of it but hey! We live in an apartment and the only grill that we have is the electric grill, a x'mas gift from my in laws.

I use minimum ingredients to marinate the chicken. Ginger, shallot, onion, cardamom seeds, lemongrass, salt, sugar, honey and vege oil and tumeric powder. OK. Maybe not minimum but it did sound minimum when I was making them. :P

Just blend all the ingredients and marinate for at least 20hrs. You can do it in lesser time but I like to taste all the ingredients in the meat when i eat them thus the lonnnnngggg marinating time.

Shirley i.e. Meltingwok told me tht I can simply grill them on the electril grill that we have. Just dont forget to keep lathering them with oil and honey. Ialso made the ketupat and peanut sauce (not in pic).

Presenting... Darwisy!

My sis-in-law, Fara gave birth to a healthy boy, Raja Darwisy on 07-07-07. This is the only pic that I have of him courtesy of my Aunty Som. He is the 5th nephews&nieces that I havent met in person yet. :(

Kaiser SUCKS!

I am so mad at the so-called customer service at Kaiser Permanente. As some of you know, we're trying to get pregnant. My nightmare started the moment I made the phone call for my appointment.

Medical care in the US is so different from Malaysia. Although I have never needed a gynae then, I do know that if you're trying to get pregnant, you just go and make an appointment to see one. So after telling the customer service what I want (to get/go thru fertility treatment), I was finally given a date, a month and a half away from the day that I called. I was told that they would send me a reminder about my appointment. Did they? NO. Fine ......

On the day of my appointment, June 25, i found out that I was seeing a certified nurse midwife (CNM). (Can someone please highlight me if a cnm is a gynae? Im serious. I really need someone to tell me if there's a diff between those 2) Since Iv already done my paps smear 2 mths earlier so I didn need to take another one. All that she has to do is put my name in the computer to sign me up for the fertility class or something like that. (for that we parted with $30 for our co-pay) Iwas told that somebody would call me to set the appointment date for the class. Sounds familiar? Of course nobody called.

So earlier today, I called the customer service (her name is Angela) again hoping that THEY will do something about it or at least let me know what the hell is going on in their multi-million dollar facilities. I am not easily angered if I get the service that I expected. And that's the key-word. SERVICE. When I pay for a service, I expect that I would have to do the minimum and THEY, do the rest. Imagine how I felt when i was told to call the CNM myself to find out what happened to my appointment and that the call never came? I let all my dissatisfaction known to her. She, on the other hand told me to contact the CNM myself. Basically telling me tht its my duty to make sure that THEY give me a call so that I get the appointment that I needed. Does that even make sense? And to make my blood-go-upstairs even more, since I keep questioning her why I need to do all that, she rudely just said to me, "im going to tranfer your call to the doctor's voicemail now" and thats it. She just transfered my call. Anak haram sungguh! Pardon my language.

Dealing with the insurance/medical here is like walking in a maze. Its just so frustratingly frustrating. And I still dont know what is it that we have to do or need before we can actually get the treatment that we want. Or if even need any treatment.

Dapurku Masih Berasap

Its been a while since I last post anything about food. Doesnt mean that I havent been cooking though. Its just that Im too lazy to "present" my food. This is my Clam Fettuccine with light white wine sauce. My 2nd time making them thanks to the recipe that I got fr Rasa Malaysia.


Being lazy-me, I got the basic idea fr her foodblog and then made my own sauce. I just sauteed the thinly sliced ginger with some olive oil, add abt 1.5 cup of white wine and half-cup water until it boils. Add the clam and cubed tomatos, cover for about 3-4min. Uncover, add salt, sugar and pepper to taste and stir for another 1-2min. Pour on top of cooked fettuccine.

This pic is taken by Michael. Somehow, the way I arranged the dishes on my plate amused him. lol! No, I didnt cook the siput sedut. I got them in a box (frozen) from the asian supermarket. Its actually Viatnamese and tyer's pretty sweet to my taste. So what I did was just cut some thai chilis and add some salt when I reheat them. What you dont see in the pic is a bowl of my sambal belacan and a bottle of sweet soy sauce. ;)

Polis oh Polis!

The OC Register's special section last Sunday reported that law enforcement & fire-fighting are among the top government occupation in OC (Orange County) . The hourly rate was given while the yearly figures were calculated at 40/hrs a week for 52 weeks. (For those esp in Msia, you might wanna kno tht for every hr after the 40hrs/week the o/t rate is usually at 1.5x. )

1. Police/sheriff's patrol officers - $35.30/hr @ $73,424.00/pa - Moderate-term-on-the-job training

2. Civil engineers - $34.55/hr @ $71,864.00/pa - Bachelor's degree

3. Rehabilitation counsellors - $17.09/hr @ $35,547.20 - Master's degree

4. Detectives and criminal investigators - $39.65/hr @ $82,472.00/pa - Appropriate work experience

5. Fire fighters - $24.22/hr @ $50,377.60/pa - Long-term on-the-job training

Now lets go back to Malaysia for a second. If im not mistaken, the starting pay for police personnels in Malaysia is around RM900/mth or RM10,800/yr(?). Yes, they'r not as good as other police personnels in other countries but as the saying goes, "pay w peanuts and you will definitely get monkeys". With crime rates going up, I seriously think that our government should do/invest more in our police force. If I have any say at all this is what I would have them do prior to being hired:

1. Do a thorough background check to be sure that they dont have any criminal records.

2. Strenous physical training & martial arts classes- we need cops who can and WILL chase after those snatch thieves and actually catch them!

3. Be at least bi-lingual (Malay/English)

4. Pass the necessary exam papers required

5. Take empathy class/test - anybody dealt w those attitude-macam-s**l??

Once they've passed all of the above, then only they'l be interviewed for the job. By then, hopefully we'l finally have a police force that we can really be proud of and trust.

Next topic, im gonna venture on what we, Malaysian are expecting from our very own Polis DiRaja Malaysia (PDRM). ;)

Banned by PBS - Muslims Against Jihad

I actually got to watch this on MSNBC last weekend tho only the 2nd half of it. Who says only Malaysia banned tv show? ;P

Taken from FOXnews.com:

Banned by PBS: Muslims Against Jihad
Friday, July 06, 2007
Saturday, July 7 at 8 p.m. ETHosted by E.D. Hill

Tune in this weekend, as FOX News Channel presents the documentary the Public Broadcasting System didn't want you to see.

It's a film about the difference between moderate Muslims and the radicals who want to kill us. It asks where are the moderate Muslims and why aren't they speaking out against the jihadists? And it was financed with $675,000 of taxpayers' money.
It was commissioned as part of the PBS series "America at the Crossroads" about the post 9/11 world, but PBS executives rejected it.
PBS claims the filmmakers were "alarmist, overreaching and unfair."
The filmmakers say they were censored because of liberal bias at PBS.
On a topic this important, we think you have the right to decide for yourself.

Im still not sure how to get youtube on my blog and there are 8 parts of them on youtube. Here are part 1 & 2 of the show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGkrnDpH6sg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_HVZrDdt4o

SayaSaya

Lady Patsy senyap2 tagged me on Sunday. Well, not exactly senyap2 since iv not been online since saturday. I dont think iv anything interesting to say about myself but il do the tag coz LP the cheeky lady asked me. ;)

5 Things found in your bag

1. A set of keys - Back in PA, we were locked out of the apt when Michael forgot to bring the key after making a call to his mom. Yesterday, we went to the apt's office to renew our lease and he didn bring his keys again! Wht I learned?.. to always bring my keys even if i dont bring my handbag.

2. Cellphone - so tht Michael can call me or in case i sesat. Maklumlah stil new in CA.

3. Purse - well, who doesn bring purse when they go out? :P

4. Old receipts - dont ask me why but sometimes once theyr put in my bag, they stay there for a while.

5. Ciggie - im a smoker and i smoke 2 brands.. marlboro lights and djarum menthol (they dontv sampoerna here)

5 favourite things in your room - (since we live in a studio apt, its gonna be my fav in my room back at my parents place)

1. Queen size bed - i need to sleep on something!

2. A bottle of water - i always keep 1 within an arms length.

3. Remote control for tv, hifi, a/c

4. TV, hifi, a/c - since i need to use the remote controls on something, right?

5. Books, cellphone, hse phone & notebook - Long distance relationship needs a notebook to see each other, phone line to get connected, cellphone to talk to each other while online and i need to read a book when we were not online. ;P


5 Things you have always wanted to do

1. Go back to school to study finance

2. Learn how to sew - so tht i can make my own pillow cases and curtains

3. Give a huge monthly allowance to my mom

4. Introduce Michael to my best fren Lin & Stu in NZ

5. Get back at my ex-fiance and his whole family - yes im very bitter but they'r the worst kind of all!


5 Things you are currently into

1. Prenatal vitamins - hahahhah... but we are trying to get pregnant :P

2. Reading other ppl's blog

3. Looking for a job

4. TV - did i say im a tv junkie?

5. Surviving


5 People you want to tag

Well, since im new to the blogging world and very bad at doing this tagging 'sayasaya' thingy, im gonna leave it to others to continue the tagging.