Selamat Hari Raya!!!

Selamat Hari Raya everyone. Maaf Zahir Batin. I can't believe that raya is Wednesday! This will be my second raya in the US.

I remember fondly as a child celebrating raya in Teluk Kumbar at tok wan and tok's house. It sure was a full house since all the children (my grand parents have 11 children) would be there with their kids in tow. So that was the time when I'd meet all my aunts and uncles and my cousins. The things we did as kids during raya was loads of fun. At that age our number one mission was to collect as much duit raya as we could from family as well as the neighbors. So Itos, myself and few of our cousins would 'round satu kampung' and go door to door. However, as we grew older, we became a little bit shy and would not go round making our collection. This tradition is however carried on by our younger cousins :)

The other thing that I remember about raya as a kid was the food. There would be tons and tons of food and drinks. My favourite had to be the drinks that my grandpa would order especially for hari raya. We would get Coke, F&N Fanta, 7UP etc that came in glass bottles. Man, that was so special and I loved my grandpa for that. He was so cool to get all those drinks :) And at that time, being able to drink fizzy drinks was a treat since it was only once in a blue moon that I was able to get my hands on those bad boys (mama doesn't think fizzy drinks are good for you). Also, it was like a tradition that every year I would eat and eat and eat and puke right after for eating too much! You think I'd learn. But noooo, I do it every year. But I'm happy to report that I do still eat and eat and eat now during raya but thankfully my body has learned to adjust and I am able to hold my food in! hahah..

My favourite food for raya has got to be nasi impit with rendang daging (my mum's), rendang ayam (my aunt Q), kuah kacang with perut (my cousin Kak Ina), and my own kari ayam. Yum..yum..yum.. Hari raya now as an adult involves eating, relaxing and socializing in front of the tv, eating some more, relaxing and socializing again, eating, you get where I'm going with this... ;)

Once again, Selamat Hari Raya and don't be eating too much of that rendang now...Save some for me!!!

Pictures, pictures, pictures...

As promised, here are some pictures of Vegas. I'll upload more and write about it soon. There's plenty of pictures to upload and plenty to tell. I miss Vegas already *sigh* Kaaaaaacccchinnnngggg!!

I'm back...

Hey ya'll...I just got back from Vegas about an hour ago. It was what I expected it to be and more :) Sad to leave Vegas and all the excitement but glad to be back home...I will blog more about it tomorrow and yes, lots and lots of pictures. I promise :)

I'm leaving on a jet plane...

It's about 1 am now and I need to be up by 8 am tomorrow... Now I am beginning to regret having had a Starbucks Frappucino at 7.30 pm just now...Damn...Now I am up like an owl and too alert to even fall asleep...I must, I must, I must go to sleep soon...

Itos and I and another 2 friends of ours are leaving for Vegas in approximately 13.5 hours...wohoo! Boy am I excited...So I won't be blogging till I come back on Sunday. I promise to blog about it and yes, put tons of pictures...

Need to sign off now...Taxi's coming at 11.30 am. I need to go to the bank, library, and store and I have to do all that before the taxi comes. So hence having to wake up early...

Vegas, here I come...wohooooooooooooooooooooo!

Jumping, jumping...

Perhaps some of you have noticed, perhaps some of you have not..Itos and I are now big on taking our pictures jumping. Hahahha...Some jadi, some tak... But it sure is fun when after numerous shots (camera cikai so ikut nasib lah), we actually get good shots of us jumping! wohoo!! Fun and good exercise perhaps?

Anyways, these pictures were shot 2 weeks ago at this place called Independence Grove. It was a beautiful day when we were there and we had fun feeding the fishes and ducks and gees. And what else? Jumping of course!

p.s. Maini S, not until you pointed out that this is ala2 'Leap Ahead' that I remembered the Intel video! fun times..fun times..

On my birthday..

On the first day of being 28..Here is roughly a list of what I did today:

1) 9-10.30: Drove to the college to pay the tuition fee

2) 10.30-10.45: Stopped at Walgreens (ala2 Guardian/Watson) and picked up an eyeliner

3) 11-12: Read chapter 2 of my 'Social Problems' class. Test end of this week

4) 12-6.30: Work (note to self: next year take the day off on your birthday.. Go to a spa or something and chill :) )

5) 6.30-7: Got ready to go out

6) 7.30-10: Dinner at Wild Fish with Rob :) Thank you..Dinner was fantastic...Food was great, but most importantly company was superb ;) I have had a craving for sushi for awhile, and today my wish came true..wohoo!!

7) 10.30: Internet (blogging, facebook)

Today was really good. Happy birthday self...I feel more like 18 rather than 28.. In denial perhaps? muhahhahahah..

p.s. Thank you all for the birthday wishes...You guys are the best!! xoxo

It's my birthday...

In approximately 1.5 hours, I will be 28. I am already 28 in Malaysia though :) Thank you all for the birthday wishes.. So so sweet and I feel so loved :)

It's raining again..

It has been raining non-stop today since about 11.oo am. I love the rain when I am indoors. Given a choice I would love to just curl up in my bed reading or watching a movie. Listening to the rain pouring down is kind of therapeutic. And being so comfortable, soon enough I'll doze off to sleep...So so nice..Man, I miss doing that so much. I don't remember the last time I did that.

However when I am outside it's kind of a pain *sigh* It's really cold and so wet.. But I am not complaining.. I love the rain...Love the smell of it and how fresh rain makes the surroundings look.. But it would be nice if it was only raining when I am indoors :)

Cold weather and ulat bulus...

Before I came to the States, I had a few things that worried me. At that time (February 2007) my biggest worry was whether I was going to be able to endure the freezing temperatures. The night before I flew to the States there was a massive snow storm. So I was just anxious to see how my body would handle such extreme coldness. I didn't want to go home in a kotak (box) lah! Surprisingly, I handled the winter pretty well. Yay to me.. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.. And now I am looking forward to the winter again so that I can put on my boots! Yes, I am obsessed with boots! The sad thing about it though is the fact that I won't be able to wear any of my boots when I go back to hot Malaysia *aih*

My next biggest worry was whether I was going to be able to find someone to help me maintain my eyebrows. Having been blessed with ulat bulu (caterpillar) eyebrows, I had to thread them every 2 weeks or so. In Malaysia I was lucky to have had Mrs Maninder to thread my eyebrows. So I panicked when I thought that I would not be able to find a threader in the States. However, my worries disappeared fast when I was roaming around the mall (5 minutes away from the house), I found a threader! wohoo! Boy was I happy. I found Mrs Maninder's replacement and her name is Mrs Uzma :)

My kind of food...

After spending the whole day in Chicago last Monday, Itos and I decided to go have dinner (bukak posa) at the Penang Restaurant. It is located in Chinatown (about 10-15 minutes by car) from downtown Chicago. I have been there a couple of times with my Malaysian friends and food has always been really good. So wanting to be the good tour guide, I knew that Itos would want to sample some delicious Malaysian food. She's been here approximately 3 weeks and already she misses Malaysian food. Who wouldn't right? It is the best food in the whole wide world! yum..yum.. So I was really excited to go eat there.

We took the cab from downtown instead of the 'L' (like our LRT). It would have cost us $4 if we had taken the L, but we opted for the cab that costs us $13. Oh well, we were both so tired and didn't want to walk no more.

There we ordered laksa, roti canai, and koay teow goreng. The food was excellent. The laksa was really spicy but so succulent and yummy that we finished both the noodles and the soup. I was impressed with the fact that the laksa was 'laksa basah' and not laksa from a packet. So that was a plus point. Even in Malaysia when you go to some stalls they give you laksa from a packet which I hate..So I am pretty impressed by that.. The koay teow was good too. It had shrimp, towgeh (how do I spell this..Lupa lah), and eggs. I just wished that the koay teow had kerang (cockels) in it. That would have been so delicious..Man I am craving for koay teow kerang right now... The roti canai was more like roti tisu than roti canai. Not having had roti canai for more than a year, it was pretty amazing to have roti canai again..I believe that roti canai is one of the greatest food inventions ever...Go roti canai!!

We were happy with the food and as usual I ate way too much.. *sigh* It was worth it though.. My only complain was the fact that service was very very slow. It took ages for them to take our orders. And at one point I asked for some sambal (chili paste) which never arrived till today.. haha..

Having recharged our batteries, we decided to take the L back...wohoo..That saved us a couple of bucks and we needed the exercise anyways ;)

As promised...

As promised, here are some of the pictures Itos and I took (we took way too many pictures!) when we were roaming around Chicago. The first two were at Navy Pier. It's a cool place with tons of restaurants and shops, as well as the Ferris wheel and other stuff like the swings etc.

The picture of me jumping like a happy 5 year old who had way too much sugar is by 'The Cloud Gate' in Millennium Park. But a lot of locals call this sculpture 'The Bean'. Honestly I think 'The Bean' is a way cooler name than 'The Cloud Gate'. Simple yet amusing.. hahaha...That's just me though.. Also a picture of Itos and I (yes, we had to buat muka tak malu and ask people to take pictures for us. If not only individual pictures, mana syok).

The pictures with the flags in the background is somewhere on Michigan Avenue a.k.a. 'The Magnificent Mile'. It is really pretty here with the awesome buildings and most importantly there's tons of shops on this strip :) You also get to see the Chicago river on both sides of the road..

Till then..Hopefully you enjoyed looking at the pictures of beautiful Chicago :)

Rain, rain go away...

Today was indeed a wet, wet, wet day. It was raining non-stop from morning till night. Even when I came back at around 9.30 pm just now from the mall, it was still raining. Hopefully tomorrow there will be no rain *wishful thinking*

My True Religion...

Yay! I am so happy! Jules got me a pair of True Religion Jeans for my birthday (early birthday gift..My birthday is on the 10th, oh my, I'll be 28!!). It was my mission in life to get a pair for myself before I left the States (yes, I am that shallow!). I was saving up (those jeans cost a fortune!) to get myself a pair. So when she got it for me I was ecstatic! The reason why I love it so much is because it fits so so well. Also, it has these unique back pockets and stitching. So people who know True Religion will recognize it in a second..The jeans are still too long on me (yes, shorty me). I'll need to get it altered. Here's a picture of my very own True Religion jeans (oh, my new baby!). I'll post a picture of me with my new favorite jeans once I get them fixed..

It's been awhile...

It's been awhile since I blogged (4 days actually). It seems a lifetime for me though. Ever since I started blogging I've been addicted to it! hehehhe.... My mind is constantly thinking about the next thing I am going to write about. Taking pictures, making mental notes of things happening around me, etc. And now Itos and I have another common interest that we share...Blogging that is.. We can talk for hours about blogging etc and get all excited and enthusiastic about it (yes, we are nerds at heart)..muahhahah..

Anyways, I haven't been blogging in 4 days because the computer at home is broken (*oih*) and still needs to be fixed. I am blogging from the library today to 'lepas gian' ;) My weekend was great. Took Itos to the Irish Festival on Saturday. And on Monday (it was a public holiday here - Labour Day) took Itos to downtown Chicago. It was her first time there and we had a blast if I have to say so myself. I'll add pictures soon (took pictures with Itos's camera). My camera is dying on me (so so so slow but still takes really really nice pictures). Thinking of getting a new camera soon. So come back soon, hopefully I'll have those pictures of us in Chicago posted by then.. ciow ciow..

Oh before I forget, Selamat Berpuasa people!