Amin's Silver Medal

Amin won his first silver medal yesterday, with his team, the Sports school council competing in the Pesta Sukan 2008. We are really proud of him and glad that at last his tennis practice has earned him a medal! He's now competing in the Open category and so far it looks positive too. Zahra in the picture below did not want to be left out and wanted to show off the medal too!! Who knows in a couple of years time she might win a couple of medals herself for....? which sports.....time can only tell. Well done again Amin!

Chocolatey birthday cakes

Last month my parents went to Switzerland and Suisse Maman very kindly bought me these two giant bars of cooking chocolate. I never got to thank her properly for them until now when I had the chance to use the dark chocolate to make chocolate cakes for my two nephews whose birthdays it was last week- Hariz and Hamdi or Awang as we know him! Thanks again Suisse Maman for these two giant bars as well as the other goodies you sent us..nanti if you come back for holiday we blanja ok!!

Hariz had very early on sat me down and went through my book of children birthday cakes and chose this simple design. Thank God!! The chin was slightly damaged by Jagabar who was carrying it from the car in the mini typhoon that occured prior to the cutting of the cake!!

As for Awang well I just made it simple and decorated using my M nMs. Zahra unfortunately has a great affectons for M n Ms and took two off before we even managed to cut the cake!! After another brief hiatus to Singapore at the end of the month I am hoping to be producing more of these cakes by the summer as well as others which we will put up pictures and prices of very shortly!

Middle Eastern Food Cooking Class

Yesterday was really fun as I was invited by Zaena our Lebanese friend to a lebanese cooking class . It was interesting to meet the expat ladies - some new friends and and some familiar faces. Zaena went through 9 recipes and showed us how simple and healthy middle eastern food was- provided you have your trusted blender!!.

Preparing the Samboulik or minced beef in puff pastry The fried pine nuts were really yummy in this.There were several ways of doing this either in the open style or like a curry puff.

The Tabouleh with curly parsley, chopped tomatoes and fluffed up bulgur wheat. This is one of my favourite dishes as it is really refreshing.

The shish taouk or chicken kebabs were spactacular. Next to that is another dip made of aubergines and Zaena made capsicum cakes as well. Something different was the Hummus topped with the minced beef filling used in the Sambousik.


The bonus dish in the middle spoilt yoghurt- I know this sounds weird but this is just wonderful,and tastes in between yoghurt and cream cheese

The demonstrations all ended with a sumptious lunch ofcourse! Thanks Zaena for a great morning!

Day out at Vivo City

We spent a day out at Vivo City where Usuh and I spent most of the time sitting in the shade while Zahra had a blast in the small play area with spurting fountains and some playground things! She went on the slide and burnt her bum cos it was too hot! Then she went on the animal rides which was fun she said although she got tired of jumping up and down on the seat to move the toy. She climbed vigariously on the plastic figures set around the play area for climbing. Then when she got tired and thirsty we had a quick and not so yummy lunch at Secret Recipe. After lunch Zahra continued with her day of play at the small paint shop where she filled in 3 pictures with the paints. Getting to Vivo City cost us $7 from Hyatt and overall I think its a good day out with the kids and if you get bored you could always hop on the sky train and go around Sentosa, but we'll leave that for another day.

Zahra on the slide which was hot !!

Zahra on the dog


Zahra on top of a plastic climbing figurine

Filling in the colours at the paint shop

Showing off her finished product at the deck overlooking Sentosa

Singapore Hiatus

Hello from Singapore! We are here for the the next week to accompany usus to undergo Radiation Therapy at the National Cancer Center here. She is ok just a bit nervous I guess. The therapy starts this wednesday and the doctors have explained that there are no real side effects. In the meantime we are just taking it easy hanging out sometimes at the shops not really shopping just window shopping! Despite it being the Singapore Sales now. Zahra ofcourse has bought her stash of toys and by the afternoon we settle down to our comfy room at the Hyatt to watch her CDs on Usuh's mobile CD player. Unfortunately the pool at the Hyatt is undergoing renovations so we can only see from our room the rubble below! Anyway the photos are of our abode for the next 10 days. Zahra and her large TV!!

Will do another post later!

Happy Mother's Day!!

Well it was a quiet mother's day really as I had one order of cucpcakes to do, for lunch we just had takeaways and in the evening amidst the mini hurricane in Gadong, we had to run around the mall looking for Fatin's school shoes! I swear she really eats through her shoes!

Still my kids were sweet enough to make chocolate chip cookies for me. I think Amin and Zahra raided my baking cupboard and found my stash of M n Ms.

In the evening Amin my aspiring cook did steak, mash potatoes and courgettes for us. He made this special pepper sauce which was not to my liking but as always he had his own style! My own mum is still overseas or else no doubt we would have had lunch or high tea at their house. Happy Mothers day to all you mums.

My e-mail account dissappeared!!

What a weekend! From the start of thursday morning I was inundated with calls and smses from friends abroad and within Brunei that they had recieved a weird e-mail from my hotmail account! Then a kind friend told me that sadly my e-mail account was probably hacked into. Once I could get hold of a computer I checked and tried to open my account and lo and behold I couldn't. The hackers had changed my password and even changed my reminder question! At an instant I felt lost and so down because all the contacts I had in that account had disappeared and whatsmore they all had been duped into thinking that I was lost and stranded in Malaysia with no money and awaiting for their kind donations!!! Some friends actually thought I really was stranded and immediately called me to reconfirm I was ok..others were cautious in asking what was going on!! As if I would stoop so low so as to ask for donations via e-mail!!! Hello!!!



Anyway I have now set up another e-mail with g mail and this time I have be very vigilant with giving out personal info etc!! But I couldn't wallow in self pity too long there were a couple of orders for pavlovas and mini cupcakes to do. I would upload the photos but my naughty daughter has kidnapped my camera's battery. I am over all the self pity and feeling of annoyance and helplessness after all it was only an e-mail address adn ALL my contacts!!