sorry peeps… not that i got no time to update stuffs here.  sampai dah tak tau apa nak blog.  with me changing job recently, its been a pretty busy week.  and tak kan asik nak blog apa yang kita orang makan kat sini aje kan?  we have 2 more days before school starts… that’s when life in aberdeen really begins!  and if you are wondering why 2 days… that is because its a bank holiday here on monday.  tak tau berapa banyak bank holiday kat sini ada dah~

oh yes, i  quit working in Mc’D and i swear never to work in fast food restaurants ever again.  barulah tau bertapa kotornye kitchen dia… so much for getting ’A’.  heard from amirah that they found a family of rodent falling from the ceiling of Tampines Mall Mc’D.  that must be horror!  can’t imagine eating and having not one but a couple of them falling right into your food. blurg!  however, got to know few nice people there.  as for rossdi, he’s still loyal with Mc’D … actually, kalau ada better opportunity, dia pun nak blah~

currently, i’m working as a personal assistance to a cerebral palsy girl.  shereen is 18 years old and comes from a Bangladeshi muslim family.  she is the eldest of 2 children.  the family has been in aberdeen for the past 15 years. 

“Cerebral palsy (CP) is an umbrella term encompassing a group of non-progressive,^[1] non-contagious conditions that cause physical disabilityin human development.  It is a non-progressive disorder, meaning the brain damage does not worsen, but secondary orthopedic difficulties are common. There is no known cure for CP. Medical intervention is limited to the treatment and prevention of complications arising from CP’s effects.

Spastic cerebral palsy is by far the most common type, occurring in 70% to 80% of all cases. People with this type are hypertonic and have a neuromuscular condition stemming from damage to the corticospinal tract or the motor cortex that affects the nervous system’s ability to receive gamma amino butyric acidin the area(s) affected by the spasticity. Spastic CP is further classified by topography dependent on the region of the body affected; these include:

• spastic hemiplegia(one side being affected). Generally, injury to the left side of the brain will cause a right body deficit, and vice versa.
• spastic diplegia( the lower extremities are affected more than the upper extremities). Most people with spastic diplegia do eventually walk. The gait of a person with spastic diplegia is typically characterised by a crouched gait. Toe walking and flexed knees are common. Hip problems, dislocations, and side effects like strabismus(crossed eyes) are common. Strabismus affects three quarters of people with spastic diplegia. This is due to weakness of the muscles that control eye movement. In addition, these individuals are often nearsighted. In many cases the IQ of a person with spastic diplegia is unaffected by the condition.

• spastic quadriplegia(Whole body affected; all four limbs affected equally). Some children with quadriplegia also have hemiparetic tremors; an uncontrollable shaking that affects the limbs on one side of the body and impairs normal movement. A common problem for children with quadriplegia is fluid buildup. Diuretics and steroids are medications administered to decrease any buildup of fluid in the spine that is caused by leakage from dead cells. Hardened feces in a quadriplegia patient are important to monitor because it can cause high blood pressure. Autonomic dysreflexia can be caused by hardened feces, urinary infections, and other problems, resulting in the overreaction of the nervous system and can result in high blood pressure, heart attacks, and strokes. Blockage of tubes inserted into the body to drain or enter fluids also needs to be monitored to prevent autonomic dysreflexia in quadriplegia. The proper functioning of the digestive system needs to be monitored as well. “

-facts taken from Wikipedia-

sadly, shereen falls in the spastic quadriplegia catagory.  so with that, her diet is in liquid form.  there is a tube that connects straight into her stomach which dangles just beside her belly button.  everytime, when handling shereen, i have to take extra caution not to damage the tube.  basically, my duties would be helping shereen in doing daily stuffs just like getting ready to school,  go for short walks in the garden, taking shower, feeding through the tubes and settling her down for bedtime.  the other night, which was my first night, i didn’t know how to make her fall asleep.  for your info, i never even once manage to dodoi my dearest nephew to sleep…heh!  guess what i did?  i sang to shereen.  hahaha!  bet my voice sounded alien to her cos she didn’t fell asleep, i think she gave me a look instead.  agak kalau lah budak tu boleh bercakap … “what on earth are you trying to do, ernie???  dah lah lyrics sembarang hembus…suara pun mintak ampun… look, its not helping me to sleep ok?!” LOL!!!  anyway, come’on peeps… at least i try wat~   i’ll think of a better way next time.  well, today, i’m goin to get some training from saleha, my flatmate.  i will learn from saleha how to make her sleep. : )

alright…  that’s it for now.  take care peeps~  i promise to get internet connection soon yah~ and kalau tak sempat…

Selamat Hari Raya… Maaf Zahir dan Batin… salam sayang buat semua.  insya’allah kita bertemu di skype on 1st day raya ( kalau dah ada internet connections that is… ).

we decided to check out seaton park.  its is a nicely decorated with colourful flowers and covered with carpeted grass park.  The park is so huge that it shortens the distance from tillydrone (tat’s where we are at) to hillhead student lodging ( tat’s where erza used to stay). 

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during the first time when i came to aberdeen, it was in year 2002 and in the month of shawal.  both hernie and myself came with bags filled with lauk pauk hari raya and all the kuih mueh… but it was a school term for erza though.  it was our first winter trip in aberdeen and we wanted to see his school.  so there was one morning, erza sneaked the both of us into his lecture hall.  in the midst of winter, we walk through seaton park.  it is gloomy during winter and it reminded me of some lord of the rings movie scenes. 

above three photos are the exact spot in seaton park which i was talking about. its this bad at present…. try imagine during winter… nasib baik we don’t we to walk through here~

as for suhoor, we do a little cooking.  here is what we have been having over the week…

simple je~  we had the same thing for the first 2 days… oh, just wanna share this with you peeps, sini conflakes dia sedap2! and i’m beginning to enjoy drinking milk here.  i thought i can only drink hl milk.

kari ayam with stir fry veggie

                                                                    

the delicious kari ayam above was made by none other, the greatest chef in tillydrone, rossdi.  *** he insisted on me typing it.  we had this meal for the next 2 days.  sini lauk tak senang basi.  to save time, we try to cook and make it last for at least 2 days.

asam pedas power giler

                                                          

i made this with the help of my mum’s recipie.  we bought red garoupa from martin’s chinese supermarket.  it was as good as the famous one in malacca town, at lubok cina traffic light.  the only thing was instead of using normal dried cilies we used dried cili padi.  so it was very hot as there were also black peppercorns and we add a dash of curry powder ( pak lek’s style ).  the ikan masin tenggiri adds more flavour thus making the meal fantastic!  i’m so proud of myself as this was my first attemp. 

asam pedas sedap, mak saya punya~

copyrights ok

ingredients:

- cili kering cut into smaller pieces and soak with hot water.

- 3 onions

- 5 to 6 garlic

- 1 ginger thumb size

- fresh tumeric ( kunyit basah ) thumb size.   if not just use half teaspoon of tumeric powder.

- a pinch of belacan

- a tablespoon of black peppercorns.  depending on spicy you want it to be.

blend all the above ingredients together.

steps:

1. heat up pot with sufficent oil.

2. pour in the blended ingredients.

3. once fragrance rises, add a dash of curry powder.

4. grab a fistful of asam jawa and squeeze out juice in the bowl of water. then pour in the water into the pot. 

   do not throw the remaining asam jawa so you can squeeze them again if its not masam enough.

5. put in the fish and let it cook.

6. simmer and add sayur asin / daun kesom / daun bawang.

7. serve with steam rice and ikan masin ( tenggiri ).

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…. sedap. ~ala bj kadir.

*odie kasi ernie 8.5 out of 10 for this dish!

these are some of the pictures taken when we are walking around town the other day.  the first 3 pictures shows the some part of the city of aberdeen.  its not a big city though, it is just made up of a long stretch of street called the union street. 

just to share some information with you peeps, due to animal rights here in the uk, dogs and other domestic animals are allowed to board the bus with us.  being me, the pengecut especially when it comes to dogs… i’m always on the lookout when i board the bus… takut je sitting right next to someone with the dog underneath.  however, i realised that the dogs here are very well trained and quick in responding to their master’s commands.  kalau master suruh duduk luar kedai… they will duduk there despite the cold…  u can see them looking through the glass door.  there could be other customers walking right through the door but they would not follow like some silly dogs in our country.  instead, they would wait just there for their master to come out.  like what erza told me, ”sini anjing pegi skola lah” …

the spice shop is where we buy our halal chicken and meat.  and not to forget, our south east asian calling card to call back home~  there’s a few halal shop here in aberdeen and mostly all of them are located in george street.  it is also home to other ethnic grocery shops.  just to name a few, africans, philippines, nepalese… and many more.  i made friends with the owner of the shop and he offered me the grocery home delivery services.  just spend 20 pounds and above and delivery is free of charge.  this would come in handy especially when we are badly handicap with personal transportation here.  and this would be of a huge assistance when buying the 5kg of rice.

opps! totally forgotten.. the picture of the bus stop is especially taken for dearest cik pit.  hope you like it~ heh!

total of 80 ++ kg worth of belongings

after such a long wait, our cargo finally arrived.  with so much perseverance we had in the cold, no means of personal transport, and exhausted from fasting, we manage to make clearance and had to pay freaking 100 pounds for whatever s***t reasons, only God knows!

over skype the other day, which was on the 1st of ramadan, i was talking to MIL and hernie bout the month of ramadan. here in aberdeen, we have to fast a total of 14 hrs. imsak is at 4.30am and maghrib is around 8.04pm.  phew!~  degan sini punya sejok despite summer, mane keje dekat dapur yg panas, balik tunggu bas berjam! bus-stop takde shelter… allah sahaja lah yang tahu~

orang kat singpore and the one at down under tu dah buka, kita kat sini masih puasa… dah tu’ sedap – sedap je minum air while on skype! tensiondi buatnye~ ( hahahah… ‘tension’ is the typical word here being used to replace ‘binget‘ by most of the malaysian peeps) rossdi feels that i beginning to talk more like the malaysian ppl here…especially with their malay slang.  is it? :S

anyways, we buka puasa at the mesjid on 1st of ramadan.  allahmdullilah, banyak makanan and balik dapat ta paw  lagi~  pilu hati bila dengar azan… maklumlah 1st time ramadan away from home. firstly we buka dates, mixed fruits with milk and water.  Followed by solat maghrib then continued feasting.  starters was fried samosa.  the main course was sini punya nasi briani.  nasi dia sama cuma lauk dia a lil different. its mutton by the way.  nak cakap dalcha bukan, curry pun bukan… cuma yang pasti, sedap! heh!  suppose to take pictures tapi mcm segan pulak.  pai seh lah.  so we only manage to take pictures on the way, walking towards the mesjid which is only 10 mins walk.  both rossdi and myself, got to know  more sisters and brothers here. circle of friends increase! 

while walking towards mesjid, we took some pics...

~ heh ~ ;p

passed by school ... there's a moster here awaiting for us.. takutnye!

rossdi sempat posing before reaching mesjid

mesjid is right at the end of this street

                                                    

1 can of sardines in tomato sauce. ( remove the sauce and leave some for mashing )

1 large onions. ( i love the onions here. they’re dark purple in colour and taste juicy and sweet! )

3 batang cili padi. ( can do without them but i love my cili padi )

some lemon juice. ( to get the fishy smell out )

mayonnaise. ( i put bout 3 to 4 table spoon of it . this is to remove the fishy taste out )

salt and pepper to taste.

add them all together and whip them up till all evenly mashed. and its ready.

here’s what i had for lunch…

was on skype with amirah while having lunch

i never appreciate the sun we had back home in singapore.  we would sweat and get sticky from the hat.  even by walking under the void deck to avoid as much heat from the scorching sun, i would somehow feel sticky after a short walk to the common provision shop found in housing estates.  just the other day, we were doing laundry and had to poke our heads out of the window in search of the sun.  lucky enough, it happened to be a sunny day and we placed the laundry hangers as close as possible to the directions of the sun.  i took advantage of the time to do a little sun bathing right next to the laundry hangers.  to enjoy the heat, i raise my track pants right up to my knees and stretch my arms out.  this does not last long though.  thanks to the strong wind despite a sunny day, it moved the clouds and block me out of the sunlight in less than approximately 10 minutes. there goes my sun.

here’s a picture of our laundry hangers.  opps… don’t mind the undies ; )

                                                                                                                                                                             back at home, i never enjoyed lipat kain baju…  but there is not much choice here. our iron is in the shipment which only arrives tomorrow.  so i try to fold the dried laundry as cantik as possible.  so here’s the outcome… anyone need lipat kain baju services?

Everything seems to be getting into places here.  both rossdi and myself are pretty settled.  we got our drafts safely deposited into the royal bank of scotland with the help from sister mahmuda.  she was here when erza was a student here in year 2001.  and she is still here in 2008.  not too sure as to how long she has been here but one thing for sure, it has been for a while.  really appreciated her help.  right after the bank, sister mahmuda brought us to the chinese supermarket .  i was delighted when we got there to see many familiar groceries.  while the sister shopped hers, rossdi and myself walk down practically every row of groceries found in the supermarket.  we discuss about the prices and made comparisons to the local supermarket here eg. morrisons and asda and also prices found in the halal provision shop which is mostly owned by pakistani or indian nationals.

i’m a little hungry now and am waiting patiently for the dear husband to come back and have dinner with me.  today is his first day at work and mine is tomorrow.  hopefully, carol ( the manager of the restaurent ) didn’t catch rossdi’s shoe today.  not sure if he got the right kind.  and oh by the way, talking bout food … rossdi’s maggi kari masak cili padi and asam keping rocks!!!

a couple of days back… we had grilled sea bass, tom yam soup with mussels and made bagedil for dinner.  however, it didn’t turn out tat good i must say.  i followed the instructions given by my MIL carefully and let rossdi handled the mince meat.  i was too busy mashing up the potatoes and didn’t realised the amount of mince meat the husband was frying.  the ratio of potatoes to mince meat is around a kilo to a cup full of meat i guess? but for ours.. it became a kilo of potatoes to halve of a 1/2 kilo of mince meat.  since its already fried, we didn’t want to waste the meat and so we continued to the next step hoping that the ratio of the potatoes would compensate to the ratio of the meat. as i was mixing up the potatoes and meat together dalam hati dah berkata2 … ‘nie mesti tak jadi nye.. terlalu banyak danging..’  and true enough, it didn’t turn out like the normal bagedil our moms make!  sigh!  gua nya bagedil tak jadi barang babe ~ …any tips ?  thought i can show it to hernie and action sikit lah kat dia … yg kita pun leh buat bagedil…  nampaknye next change lah.. but i have to give ourselves some credit lah for trying out and somehow it taste good too … cuma bagedil kita tak de rupa je~ heh! beh pai seh.  anyways, here is some photos of our dinner. not photos of thebagedil though and was too dissapointed about thebagedil that we totally forgotten to take a pic of our grilled sea bass, the main course. blurg!

we're smiling despite the wet weather here

here is our room and wif me sitting on the floor. have yet to get a study desk tho

     hi peeps.. welcome to my humble blog.  i’m pretty new to this and as you can see, there’s nothing much in here.  oh yes, don’t mind the previous post.  its just a test.  i’m excited to show you photos that i’ve been taking. not much but i’ll add on as i go snapping around~

weather here is tempremental… suka suka dia nak hujan, dia hujan. its always wet here and it will get worst in weeks to come.  summer is ending soon and autum is coming.  ‘summer has come and passed
the innocent can never last, wake me up when september ends’

meanwhile...

this how the neighbourhood looks like

 

taken at one of the school carpark

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