Upclose & Personal With Dikny

Last weekend I was busy preparing an order from a production team of 20 people for their breakfast and lunch meals. For breakfast, they ordered Egg-Mayo Sandwiches and for lunch they ordered Nasi Beriyani with Chicken and Papadom. Fyi, it was my first time accepting orders for Nasi Beriyani. In fact, it's not often that I accepted offers to cater. However, lately, I gained the confidence to start accepting orders for small scales. Since I had to cook for quite a number of people, I decided to do everything at my parents' place. My parents let me use the kitchen while they took care of my kids. To tell the truth, it was not easy indeed to complete such task. There were many unexpected challenges that I had to endure during the process of making the Nasi Beriyani last weekend. At first, everything went well especially in the preparation stage, ie, preparing the ingredients. Mind you, it was a one-man show. Yes, I was the only one doing everything from scratch (why did I accept in...

Malam ini ku sendiri Tak ada yang menemani Seperti malam-malam yang sudah-sudah Hati ini selalu sepi Tak ada yang menghiasi Seperti cinta ini yang selalu pupus Tuhan kirimkanlah aku Kekasih yang baik hati Yang mencintai aku Apa adanya Mawar ini semakin layu Tak ada yang memiliki Seperti aku ini Semakin pupus Tuhan kirimkanlah aku Kekasih yang baik hati Yang mencintai aku Apa adanya

Muammar Daim is my youngest son. He's 3 years old and very very cheeky. Daim likes: 1. to sing 2. football 3. to take a walk with Mama 4. to hold hands with Mama 5. kissing Mama on her cheeks 6. to eat rice with kicap 7. to drink plain water 8. to sleep late at night but he won't disturb anybody 9. to wake up late in the morning 10. talking on the phone with Atuk 11. to tell stories even though Mama tried so hard not to laugh everytime he started his story with "Once upon a time....." 12. to run and hop, he doesn't walk, he skips...hahahaha... 13. to sit in the car quietly with seat belt on 14. to watch Ultraman and wishes to become one 15. to read just like Abg Ngah and Mama 16. to wear his khaki bermuda shorts 17. to play hide and seek, he hid in the wardrobe once and fell asleep there making Mama panic for a while 18. to be the youngest in the family, whenever someone asked him if he would like to have a little sister/brother, he would quickly say 'No way!...

Umarizz Darwisy is my second son. He just turned 4 last Merdeka Day. Yes, he's a Merdeka baby. Although at birth he weighed 3.56 kg which was quite big for me, at 4, he's only 14 kg. He's small, thin but no doubt, quite strong. You could feel his hard bones whenever you pressed his arms or thighs. Darwisy is an extremely active boy. He hardly sleeps and always on the moves no matter when and where. He could run fast and I often imagined Darwisy as a football player looking at his speed while running. I've described Darwisy in this blog a few months ago about how he could cry really hard and I even said that Darwisy had crying as his hobby. Hahahahaaa.....and the statement remains until today. Yes, let me tell you how he could cry and cry and cry whenever his wishes were not granted. There was once when he wanted me to take his bottle for him which was only at arm's length. Of course I didn't want to do it because he could take it himself. But being Darwisy, afte...

Danish Muqri bin Rozinor is my eldest son. Today is his last day of school for this year. Yes, he was quite excited to go to school because he told me that he wanted to play with his friends before meeting them again early next year. He just turned 7 last 8 November. Being the eldest and biggest, he's indeed a responsible son and brother. He could tolerate his two younger brothers well. He often gave ways to those two cheeky little ones. There was once when Danish was happily munching a piece of biscuit, one of his brothers came up to him and asked for a bite. At first, it was clear that Danish was a bit reluctant to let his brother have it. The two boys were looking at each other intensely when suddenly Danish offered the biscuit to his brother, not just one tiny bite but the whole piece! Wow, that was something, I said to myself at that time. I expected Danish to just ignore his brother and swallow the whole thing, but he tolerated and gave away his favourite biscuit happily. The...

Back in late 90s when Astro had just started its operation, my father subscribed to it. I could still remember that it was considered a luxury thingy back then due to its installation fee which was about 1K++. I couldn't recall the monthly fee however. I knew at that time not so many people had installed Astro and we were amongst the first few subscribers. The image of the digitalized screen was quite clear and at times you could see some alien boxes on the tv screen. Seriously. I guessed technology was still a trial and error on the cable at that time. The channels were not so many like today. The local channels (free ones) were not even on the list yet. There was only one Malay channel, Ria and the movie channels available were only HBO and Star Movies. There were also one Chinese channel, a Tamil channel and of course there were MTV and Channel V around. The best part about Astro during those times was the attraction that it offered to its limited viewers. There were many contes...

Dear readers, Being a normal human being, I'm sure all of you have been late before. Be it late for class, late for submissions, late for a movie and late for anything that you can think of. I have been late myself. Throughout my adult life, I have been late for so many things. And all my lateness had good reasons behind them. Yes, everything happens for a reason, right? Whenever I was late for something, I'd be rushing like mad. This is because I'm the type of person who would try the best to be on time no matter what. If not on time, it'd be earlier. Get what I mean? If I was the one waiting, and the other person was late, well, I would always be the forgiving person. The reason is obvious....I've been late before, so, it's not wrong for another person to be late too. That person must have his/her own reasons for being late. We just have to compromise and tolerate here and there in order to make both parties happy. There's no point being angry just because...

Last Tuesday, on the way back from picking up Danish from school, the sky was threatening to rain heavily. It was very dark making it look like night time. However, luckily, the traffic was not too bad. As I was driving, one of my sons said that he saw a car broke down. I drove past the car and saw that there was a lady in her late 30s and carrying an infant. Beside her on the right was a small girl and on the left another girl. Could be her daughters. They were standing by the roadside, behind their MPV. The emergency lights were on. The lady was just smiling, looking cool and she was trying to console the daughter on her right who looked like crying. The lady then tried to stop the cars that passed by. I slowed down my car and I was about to stop when suddenly I heard a loud honking behind me. There was a lorry honking me like mad right behind my car. I was startled and sped off. Damned the lorry. Couldn't the driver see what was happening? Even if the driver didn't want to h...

Since I work from home, I have my own SOHO at home. My small office home office concept is just a little corner of the living room. Let's look at the following conversation between my sons (Darwisy, 4, Daim, 3 and I): Darwisy: Kenapa Mama pakai lipstick? Mama: Eh, Mama nak pegi work la.. Daim: Ha? Work? Mama: Yup, I'm going to my office to work... Darwisy: Mama pakai lipstick nak pegi work? Kat mana? Daim: Tuuuuuu....(pointing to my SOHO) Mama: (speechless)

A & B were best of friends. They had been friends for as long as they could remember. They shared many things together. They had seen the best and the worst of one another. They both felt their ups and downs with each other. When A was feeling terribly down, B would cheer A up. When B was having a really hard time, A was there to calm B down. Years passed by without noticed. A & B had become quite distant from each other. It could be due to the distance between them (they lived far away from each other after both got married) or it could simply be because of 'something that had happened' somewhere along the line when they were still communicating well with each other. Something that really broke A's heart and B was heart-broken too. A was busy with work and B was struggling in business. Both had been thinking of each other all the time all this while. Although both were not keen to make the first move to say hello again, both were wishing that things would be fine s...

I was blog-hopping last night when I came across my ex-colleague's blog here . In her latest entry, she wrote about her blog being reviewed by another ex-colleague, Jogger , whom she hadn't met for quite some time. When we were working at the same place, Jogger was my next-seat neighbour. At first, he was quite reserved but as I got to know him, he was not bad, quite a cool chap. He's easy to talk to and I could discuss many things with him, be it the current issues, women issues or anything that we felt like discussing. He's almost like a brother to me. In fact, he's of the same age as my own younger brother. I guess that explains how we could get along well with each other. Oh yes, he played paintball at that time and good at it. I wonder if he still plays it now. After I left the company, we didn't keep in touch. Therefore, I didn't know his progress in life, whether he had gotten married, his whereabout and also what he's doing now. So, when I came a...

I've been neglecting my blog, yes, I know.... Those who know what I'm doing professionally or even personally would understand how busy I could be at times. Well, to tell the truth, being a loving mother to three active heroes who are growing up too quickly, being an understanding wife to an extremely busy filmmaker, being an obedient daughter to wonderful parents, being this and being that....wow, just being me at this rate really takes up the full 24 hours a day to the max!!! But, I'm not here to complain. I'm writing diligently today to say that I'm truly blessed with a healthy body, a clear mind and a full source of energy, Alhamdulillah. Although I'm not working fulltime at the office anymore, I'm still working fulltime at home. Yes, I'm not a housewife. I am a work-from-home mom. On top of all the housechores that you could think of, I have my own professional work that I have to attend to at home too. I do translations, editing and proofreading wh...

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all my readers out there. As some of you might have known, we take turns to go back for raya (Rembau & Johor Bahru). Since we'd celebrated the first few days of raya at Rembau last year, therefore, this year, obviously, we are going back to Johor Bahru. All of us got a week break and there won't be any connection with the internet at JB's home. So, I'll be only back in-touch with the virtual world a week from now. I wish all of you a safe journey home and enjoy the break!

14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th Days of Ramadhan updates: 14th Day of Ramadhan: Sorry as I couldn't remember what I cooked on that day. So much for not updating obligingly. 15th Day of Ramadhan: I cooked at my parents' place as a cousin of mine was coming over and my dear nephew was also around. My mom requested that I cooked Ayam Masak Merah, Ikan Sos Tiram, Masak Cili Api Ikan Tenggiri and Sup Sayur. 16th Day of Ramadhan: I cooked at my parents' place again. The dishes were Masak Tempoyak Pucuk Ubi and Sambal Tumis Ikan Bilis. 17th Day of Ramadhan: I cooked Sambal Tumis Ikan Bilis again and also Fried Fish. 18th Day of Ramadhan: My mom was cooking because I was tired after accompanying Danish to a casting session at Luncai Emas Sdn Bhd which is owned by Sifu M.Nasir. Too bad we couldn't meet him but we managed to hear his voice loud and clear from his office. My mom cooked a dish which she watched from a cooking show in the morning. The dish was called Ayam Kicap A...

MULANYA CINTA Tiada sesiapa dapat melupa Perasaan cinta pertama Akan ku ingat selama-lama Saat pertama jatuh cinta Kasih sayang Senyum mesra bersama Gurau senda pujuk rayumu Pasti ku ingati Apapun juga akhirnya Aku kan tetap Mengingatimu dengan setia Walaupun kau akan pergi Pasti ku ingati gelora cinta Kali pertama

12th Day: I cooked Ikan Kerisi Masak Lemak Tempoyak, Ikan Kecik (I didn't know the name, actually, hihi) Goreng Cili and Fried Spinach. 13th Day: I cooked Chicken Curry and Kacang Panjang Goreng. Very simple dishes for break fast but nobody complained, so, I guess, it's okay....

I was quite occupied with things in hand for the past few days, hence no update on the rest of Ramadhan in this blog of mine. Well, I guess it's okay to list everything altogether in one single entry of the seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth and the eleventh days of Ramadhan...here goes: Seventh Day: I cooked Ikan Keli Berlada with Fried Cabbage and Kuih Keria for break fast. We had the same dishes for sahur as well. Eighth Day: I didn't cook because my mom asked us to break fast with my parents at home. When we arrived, everything had been laid out on the table...hihii....sorry, Mak, didn't help you out this time.... My mom cooked Sambal Sotong, Gulai Lemak Cili Padi Telur Itik and Tauhu Sumbat. My younger brother joined us too and he brought with him Ayam Golek and the famous Bubur Lambuk Kg Baru (not the mosque, it's at a corner somewhere behind Maybank). My hubby went to the Bazaar Ramadhan which is just a walking distance from my parents' place and bought some Sardi...

Last night my hubby said that I had still not cooked for him Lontong ever since he mentioned about it few months ago...yes, you read that correctly....few months ago... So, I decided to cook Lontong for the sixth day of Ramadhan. Luckily I had all the ingredients in the fridge, therefore, I did not have to waste much time looking for things to accommodate the recipe. I started off with making Nasi Impit in the afternoon. Then, I prepared the 'rempah' for the gravy and thawed the coconut milk. At the same time, I prepared another of my first attempts in making kuih which was Kuih Lopes, also a request from dear hubby. After all the 'rempah' were ready, I started cooking the Lontong complete with its condiments like Sambal Tumis and Serunding Kelapa. When Lontong was safely put aside, I made Kuih Lopes slowly and steadily because there was still so much time to spare before the time to break fast. Since I managed to make quite a few pieces of Kuih Lopes, I asked Danish to...

For the fifth day of Ramadhan I cooked Chicken Soup+potatoes+carrots and Telur Bistik. I also made Pulut Serunding as requested by my hubby. It's my first attempt making Pulut Serunding but Alhamdulillah, it was not bad at all. Easy to cook and good to eat.... So far, we hadn't bought any food from the Bazaar yet...everything was homemade till this very day. Hopefully, I would have enough energy, time and ideas on what to serve and feed the family throughout the rest of this holy month, insyaAllah.

Today is the fourth day of Ramadhan. For break fast, I cooked Sambal Cencaru and Goreng Kobis+Carrot+Tomato. For dessert I made Ondeh-Ondeh or also known as Kuih Buah Melaka or in my hometown, Kuih Kolopong. Danish and I made Fresh Orange Juice where we used four oranges, a spoonful of sugar and three cups of cold water, blended everything in the mixer and it's ready to be consumed by Danish...heheh After eating, Danish had his other portion of 'Lengkong' and he finished it in just a few seconds. You really fancy such simple 'Lengkong', huh, Danish? It's ok, Mama would make more next week for you...