I babble, I ramble, and I rattle

You know tomorrow is raya when:

1. The queue for chicken (to weigh, cut or both) at Tesco is horrible i.e at least 10 people in a queue even when Tesco has kindly provided two different places to queue, one of which has TWO counters.
2. Each person queueing has at least 2 whole chicken in the trolley, though most have three or more.
3. Chicken is almost sold out (if you’re early enough).
4. Beef is sold out. (I took the last packets of local beef at Tesco this morning There were still some imported beef left, though)
5. Ingredients for traditional dishes are sold out; for example (and especially) lemongrass and coconut milk.
6. Many of the Tesco customers buy fizzy drinks in bulk.
7. Tesco employees are asking each other if they get tomorrow off.
8. Lots of shops are already closed.
9. Everyone wishes everyone else a happy Eid; cashiers to customers, customers to customers, etc.
10. You can hear your Muslim neighbours are all in the kitchen
11. You can also hear that their radios are playing a raya song or another.
12. You hear the unmistakable sound of someone frying peanuts for kuah kacang.

After sending my mum to work this morning, I headed to Seksyen 13 for the special market for Eid, which, according to my mum, is held every year on the day before Eid. Unfortunately, despite the signs leading towards the Shah Alam Stadium, there was no market. Perhaps they had it yesterday.

I then headed to Tesco. My mission was to get 2kg of beef, 2 or 3 whole chicken (depending on size), lemongrass, kerisik (coconut paste), coconut milk and galangal. That’s all. Not to mention, I arrived at Tesco at 8.35am (Tesco opens at 8am), the earliest I’ve ever been to Tesco EVER. I usually go to Tesco between 9-10am when there are not many people around so this time should be much easier, right?

Not really.

There were only 7 packets of local beef (my mum doesn’t want the frozen/ imported ones) left, each weighing about 200g. Lucky me. I took all.

The queues for chicken were… well… abnormally long. I noticed that there were two big empty table covered with ice near the queues with signs saying “Whole chicken without head, with feet: RM5.99kg”. No wonder. The normal ‘whole chicken without head without feet’ costs RM7.59/kg whereas ‘whole chicken with head with feet’ is RM6.99/kg.

Ah, well. I missed the cheap chicken. Too bad.

I didn’t feel like queueing so I called my mum. We couldn’t decide whether I should go to the market in Seksyen 6, which is quite out of the way for me, or not. We also thought of buying packed chicken parts which were aplenty on the shelf.

Several phone calls later, I find myself being the 10th person in the chicken queue.

Coconut milk and lemongrass were out of stock. After I took two packets of kerisik, there were only four left. Those who get the last four should consider themselves very lucky.

I thought I could get the rest of the items from a shop near my house but it was closed. I then went to another one near my primary school. They were out of coconut milk too but at least they still had lemongrass.

We all knew tomorrow is raya even when it was not yet officially announced. We always did. The announcements have always been somewhat predictable.

However, there was this one year (I can’t remember which) in Dublin when raya caught us by surprise. Malaysia had ‘predicted’ (I call it prediction as local calendars would already have the date marked as public holiday) that raya would be two days after the new moon sighting date.

Dublin is 8 hours behind Malaysia so on the evening of that Syawal new moon sighting day, we already confirmed that Malaysia would not be celebrating raya on the day after. It would be two days later. A few other countries have also announced that their Eid would fall on the day after the following day. Therefore we expected the same for Dublin.

The news came late. We did not receive any sms from anyone (once the mosques have announced the date, people would spread the information via sms) until well after Isya’. And it was not good news. Eid was tomorrow. No one was prepared for that. Luckily we had already bought chicken (for raya feast, not for our daily consumption) and the ingredients needed to cook the traditional dishes of chicken rendang, kuah kacang and nasi himpit.

Since we had no idea that Eid would be on the following day and the announcement came a bit late, we had not done the preparation for cooking the dishes (e.g clean chicken, fry & grind peanuts, peel onions, etc) which we could have done in the afternoon. After frantically working together in the kitchen, we finally managed to finish cooking around midnight.

I know. We should have been glad that we didn’t have to fast on the following day but we were not. In fact, due to the surprising date, we didn’t feel like celebrating Eid at all. My housemate, C even went to the extent of sulking in her room for the entire night.

At the same time, we heard that Germany (and perhaps Great Britain as well. I can’t remember now) had announced that their Eid would be on the day after and those few Malaysian students in Germany who went to visit friends in Dublin became our target of a joke that they went to Dublin because they couldn’t wait to celebrate raya.

I’ve been meaning to blog for the past few days but never got around to actually doing it.

I made lots of puteri mandi (a.k.a badak berendam among the non-Kelantanese), a traditional dessert made with glutinous rice flour and coated with grated coconut cooked in sugar syrup, on two occasions last week. Yummy stuff, I tell you. Perhaps I (or my mum) will make some more tomorrow.

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On Friday, my dad’s new TV arrived. The old one was moved to the upstairs family area together with the gaming consoles (PS2 and Wii), therefore indirectly banishing us (my siblings) to the said area. What to do… We go wherever the consoles go.

The old TV. Picture cropped from a much larger picture, hence the poor quality. Oh, that’s a scene from the BBC’s Planet Earth, a nature documentary series.

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New TV in the family area.

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My dad tested the pictures that he recently took in New Zealand on the TV. This one is of Lake Pukaki.

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On Saturday, my dad and Boka went to get a PS3 to complete the high definiton experience. He had wanted a Blu-ray player for some time and we managed to convince him that a PS3 would be his best option. Of course, we had our hidden agenda too.

Dad was happy to finally have his own Blu-ray player but Boka was elated too. Together with dad’s PS3 (it’s his raya gift from himself), they also brought home Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. In no time at all, we conquered the new TV.

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Actually, only Boka played the game. The rest flocked the TV area simply to watch the cut scenes which we referred to as the Solid Snake Movie Marathon when Boka announced that he was going to stay up to play. Everyone, except me (I was too sleepy and only had a few hours to sleep before I had to cook for sahur) watched the ‘movie’.

That aside, the package that Yi asked us to send him is ready for shipping.

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This morning afternoon, I went out to look for the ingredients for my cookies. The bakery supply shop in Seksyen 7 (Shah Alam) was already closed for raya so I had to go to the one in Seksyen 13. The shop was so busy with last minute shoppers like me and many items were already out of stock. I need chopped almond for my chocolate snowdrops but they were sold out. After much deliberation, I bought almond slivers. Will have to cut them into smaller pieces before I make the cookies tomorrow.

I also needed cocoa powder but the shop was out of cocoa powder packed in medium-sized packets.

I went to Tesco afterwards and guess what? They were out of chopped almonds and cocoa powder! I went to two other shops, both of which were out of chopped almonds but at least they still had cocoa powder in their stock.

So… today I finally started making cookies for raya which is only two days away. We have to have cookies every year not because we want to impress guests with the number of cookies that we have (believe it or not, some people do that!) but because we LOVE cookies. Whenever I make them, I’d have to hide them from the rest of the family so that they wouldn’t be finished before raya but that seldom worked so a few years ago, me and my mum resorted to sealing the containers immediately after they were packed.

This year, my mum bought hundreds of pineapple tarts for raya and tried hiding them from us (yes, I’m one of the cookie monsters) but to no avail. There are only some containers left (each contains 50), one of which is currently half empty on the dining table.

I know. These coffee flavoured cookies look ugly. I was supposed to glaze them with egg yolk but I didn’t feel like wasting the white so I mixed them.

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Cornflakes with mixed fruit and honey.

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I still have to make a few more (types of) cookies tomorrow. Hopefully there’s enough time.

When I was in Dublin, my weight hovered around 60-65kg, depending on the time of the month (yes, it fluctuated according to my menstrual cycle). For my height of 167cm (or 5′ 6″ if you prefer), I was quite chubby then, leading to my nickname of pizza face, thanks to my dad.

Upon my return to Malaysia, my weight dropped to a new range of 55-60kg, again, depending on the time of the month. For me, losing 5kg in a week was not a big deal as I often did that in a week without any effort and would maintain that weight for another week, before regaining the entire 5kg within another week. How can it be so fast? Simple. It was mostly water that I lost and gained.

My weight range went down mainly because I drastically cut down my chocolate consumption as I really don’t like Malaysian chocolates (low cocoa content) and would only settle for dark chocolates which are considerably more expensive than others. I have always been a big fan of dark chocolate ever since I can remember but before I went to Dublin, I could still tolerate Malaysian milk chocolates. However, after my stay 2.5 years stay in Dublin (chocolate being almost like a staple diet), Malaysian milk chocolates are no longer palatable to me.

I maintained that weight for the next 1.5 years, before I again lost 5kg in a week (which was normal then), only this time I was not able to gain it back. It stayed at 54-55kg despite my usual voracious appetite. I AM a pig when it comes to food.  Maybe being born in the year of pig had somehow influenced my behaviour.

Being a medical student, I was taught that the only clue to some cancers is weight loss. And it so happened that around the same time, I was having some ENT problem which left TWO (I repeat, TWO) ENT specialists (one in Penang and one back home in Shah Alam) baffled on the diagnosis. A medical officer in the ENT department of PGH joked, “Perhaps it’s psychological”. Perhaps she (the MO) was right.

Anyway, during that time, every possible test was done on me, the ultimate being a nasal scope. The MO who did the scope on me asked if I wanted the anaesthesia spray. I asked her if it would make much difference. She said no. SHE SAID NO. So I figured, why bother. Right?

WRONG. It hurt like hell especially when they were taking the biopsy sample. I cried in front of my friends who happened to have an ENT class in the same room that day. Except that it wasn’t like crying at all. The tears simply came out without you realising it.

The best part was that, she first inserted the camera inside my right nostril. It didn’t hurt so much. I could still make jokes at that time. Then she saw a swelling somewhere inside which was an indication for a biopsy. She inserted a solid metal whatever (let’s just call it a forcep) into my left nostril which turned out to be too small for that thing to go in. After at least three VERY painful attempts, she finally consulting another senior MO who was teaching my friends in that room.

The more senior MO then took over the procedure. He took out the scope from my right nostril and reinserted it into my left nostril. It was painful this time around. He then inserted the forcep into my right nostril. It took him more than two VERY painful attempts before it was finally in but nothing prepared me for the excruciating pain when he took the biopsy… TWICE. That really really really hurt! Tears streamed down on my cheeks like a broken dam but seriously, I didn’t feel like I was crying at all! Must be a physiological response of some sort, perhaps just like how you would end up with some tears when you have a huge yawn or a very powerful sneeze. That day I lost my appetite for two reasons: pain and blood from the biopsy site which continued to bleed for the next few hours.

Sorry, I digressed. They said they would call me if they find anything from the sample. Otherwise I was to go to the clinic for a follow-up consultation on the following week.

I was so scared about the possibility of the swelling being cancerous that for the next three days were spent in misery. After all, I had lost my weight and was not able to gain it back no matter much how much I ate. That would increase the suspicion for cancer and me, being the paranoid person I usually am, did not help at all.

After three days, I recovered from my semi-depression as I figured the result must have been insignificant enough for them not to call me. I was right. The doctor who saw me on the following week assured me that the swelling was harmless.

Back to now…

My paranoia has returned. For the past few months, many of my friends told me I look anorexic (though I still maintained my weight at around 54-55kg). Then I started to experience altered bowel habit like I’ve mentioned in my previous posts. The thought of having a gastrointestinal cancer is really disturbing. Even though I am considered too young (according to the textbooks) to have such a cancer, a friend of mine had come across a young patient, in her mid 20s with gastrointestinal cancer so it is not at all impossble.

With my unhealthy eating habit (lots of junk food, salted fish, processed food/ fruits, fizzy drinks, etc), it is not unlikely for me to get something similar to that patient. However, it is actually more likely that my problem is due to increased metabolism. I’ve always had high metabolism rate, anyway.

Tonight, I gingerly stepped on the scale to see if I have made any improvements (I usually gain about 5kg during Ramadhan every year; except last year, that is).

Much to my horror, weight is now 52kg!!!

Yes, the scale was dusty.

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Some people may be happy to be able to have my weight-height ratio but I am not one of those who think the skinnier, the better. That’s crap. I never approve of the skinny models/ celebrities that people idolise. Give me my chubby self anytime. I prefer to be called pizza face than a skeleton.

Ah, well. I’ll work harder (to gain weight) after raya.

Three days ago, I only noticed it was time for breaking fast when they (the small mosque/ madrasah near my place) started reciting the al-Fatihah which meant that they have started the prayers and therefore already about 10 minutes past the time to break fast. There was no azan (call for prayers).

Two days ago was ok.

Yesterday, again, I was more than 5 minutes late in breaking fast because there was no azan but at least they turned on the loudspeaker during iqamah so I was not as late as three days ago in breaking fast.

Today, however, was another story. They did not turn on the loudspeaker until it was time for Isya’! Luckily I happened to glance at my clock at around 7.30pm and knew it was already way past the time for breaking fast which nowadays is around 7.15pm.

Yes, I’m ignorant. Yes, it’s my fault that I didn’t properly get ready (i.e wait) for the time to break fast. Yes, it is my mistake for not checking the time regularly when I knew it was almost time. Yes, mostly it was my fault that I did not get to break fast in time.

The problem is that I am so used to hearing the loud azan for every single prayer of the day on every single day without fail that I never bothered looking at the clock. Why should you bother looking at one when you have an audio indicator of the time?

Besides, I only take light snacks to break my fast and would only go looking for serious food later in the evening because I tend to be preoccupied in other things (crochet & internet) while waiting for the time to break fast. What I would do everyday is remain glued to my laptop or my crochet until I hear the azan and I would take some cookies while continuing with my activitiy at that time. Only about half an hour later would I go to the kitchen and fix myself some serious dinner.

That is why I say they’re mean! Mean! Mean!

They have been using the loudspeaker for the entire duration of the tarawih (since the first day of Ramadhan) which lasts from Isya’ until around 9.30pm, followed by Quran recital classes (yes, classes as in lessons! Where you can hear a student reciting the Quran and a tutor correcting his recital) and sometimes late night sermons. I have nothing against it, though honestly speaking, I find it quite bothersome. I mean, why can’t they let ME decide whether I want to listen to them (by going to their place) or not?

Oops… Before anyone reports me to the authority to be detained by the ISA or anything like that, I think I should clarify here that even though I find it (‘it’ being the use of loudspeakers for the mosque/ madrasah’s own religious lessons and sermons) annoying, I have not and am not complaining (yet). It is one of the few things that you just get used to and I AM used to it.

The only thing that I am complaining is… I don’t understand WHY did they not turn on the loudspeaker for the most important call for prayers (to me, at least) in the fasting month?

Hey, be more considerate! Hungry people are depending on your call!

Let’s sing along to one of my all time favourite songs:

C is for cookie

That’s good enough for me

C is for cookie

That’s good enough for me

C is for cookie

That’s good enough for me

Oh, cookie cookie cookie starts with C

(For those who don’t know this song, watch it HERE )

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Hey, mama! I’ve made cookies (though inedible ) for raya! What about you? I heard you still haven’t even bought the ingredients.

Oh, I forgot. You’re waiting for ME to buy them because it’s ME who makes the cookies every year.

Meanwhile, is anyone up for some double chocolate ice-cream with a dollop of whipped cream topped with chocolate syrup?

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With this much ‘food’ at hand, I feel that my crochet stint is almost over.

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p/s: Boka has been criticising me for not comparing the sizes of the cakes with anything else (that’s the whole point! To deceive you! ). Now that I’ve put them together, you can see the relative sizes of these desserts (to each other).

I blame my mum for my current misery of not being able to put down my crochet needle despite the pain in my fingers especially my right index finger.

She challenged me to learn how to crochet while she was away in New Zealand and I did exactly that. After that, crochet seemed to occupy my poor little mind most of the time.

I bought shiny cotton threads to make these floral pins for my mum which I gave her for her birthday.

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A few days ago, my mum called to tell me that her friends asked her if I could make a few more for them. I told them no as it would not make the pins special anymore but the truth is that I am still undecided on the matter and therefore still persuadable.

In the process of making those pins (I made more than 3 even though there are only 3 in the picture above), I hurt my fingers because me being the perfectionist that I occasionally am, put in a huge effort to make sure all the crochet stitches that I did with the flowers were as tight as possible.

I wanted to rest my sore fingers but my mind wouldn’t let me so I figured doing something that requires different movements from my fingers wouldn’t hurt and knitting seemed an interesting option. I’ve never ever finished a knitting project before but this time I was ambitious enough to make a PSP pouch for a friend as a belated birthday gift.

I had yarns but I didn’t have knitting needles. However, chopsticks proved to be a good enough replacement. The only problem was that the chopsticks were too big (i.e thick) for my yarns and therefore I decided to combine two yarns. The colour combination reminded me of my favourite jumper in Dublin.

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Ok, this picture of me in Thun, Switzerland is a digression. Just wanted to show everyone the favourite jumper that I mentioned earlier.

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Belatedly I realised that I’ve never ever finished a knitting project before and therefore had never learned how to finish off the knits. Fortunately, I have learnt how to crochet and vaguely remembered that it was mentioned somewhere that one particular crochet stitch is commonly used to finish off knitting projects. I certainly did fumble with the finishing but it turned out quite well.

Total cost: RM1

Value: priceless (hey, it’s my first FINISHED knitting project!)

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After the PSP pouch, I went back to crochet. Initially I wanted to make amigurumi but realised that I’m not creative enough to make them cute. I ended up with a few balls (meant to be amigurumi heads) which I do not and could not see evolving into cute little faces.

I began looking for cupcake patterns and made a few, stuffing them with pieces of cloth.

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However, I thought the cupcakes are not cute enough.

That was when I stumbled upon this website which has lots and lots of pictures of great looking cakes and puddings and ice-creams and anything dessert. I showed it to a few friends who expressed their disappointment in finding out that those are only needlecrafts and hence not edible.

Drooling for some rich cheesecakes and creamy ice-creams was one thing but getting the intense urge to make (crochet, that is) one myself was another. I couldn’t sleep thinking about the delicious looking cakes that I had to go out on the following day to get some butter, chocolate, whipped cream, cherries, strawberries, cheese, coffee new yarns in colours that I might need in making my desserts.

I tore off my old cushion to use the fibres inside (or whatever you call that filling) as my dessert stuffing.

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Aren’t they adorable?

I still need to improve on my stitches and my creativity (or lack thereof) in cake decorating but I simply love making these little things that serve no purpose except maybe as a pin cushion (how many pin cushions do you need? Not that I ever needed one anyway).

Oh, talking about food… Our chef from Tuesday came over today to return my plastic containers (which I assured him need not to be returned as they’re disposable wares) but the containers were not empty! He brought me some Danish pastries made during his class today. He made a lot and yet only gave me FOUR??? He should have known better.

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Half an hour after breaking fast, he texted me to ask if they were good. Unfortunately for him, my vocabulary for food review (unless it concerns a few particular dishes that I’m nuts about) is very limited; edible, barely edible or inedible.

His pastries fell into the edible category so I guess other people would have said they’re delicious.

Our take home chef was late.

However, we all frantically worked together in the kitchen and managed to get everything ready by 7.45pm, 25 minutes after breaking fast.

I was assigned the task of preparing the salad. Without any care in the world, I simply cut everything in the plastic bag that our chef brought and ended up with a huge bowl of vegetables. Since A & Z could not come because they’re currently in KL, we stared at the bowl and shook our head. There was no way we were going to finish it. We’re meat lovers. Can you imagine our amazement when there was only a small bowl left after we were done with the meal? The salad was simply delicious and irresistable!

Our chef called it a fusion salad. With local herbs and tuna flakes mixed in, M commented that it tasted like laksa and surprised us by having a huge portion of it plus a second and even a third helping.

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The main course was a (supposedly) grilled chicken with black pepper sauce. He cooked the chicken in my old pan, resulting in a very thick crust at the bottom of the pan which I have given up trying to remove.

The chicken was supposed to be marinated with cajun spices (along with several others) but we had none. I mean, how could he expect me to have those spices? I’ve never cooked anything cajun before. Anyway, we made do with whatever we had.

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Our messy dining table. We also had some mashed potatoes, fruits and fried stuffed tofu.

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I noticed a big difference between our styles of cooking… He doesn’t care what happens to the pots and pans as long as he gets good food out of it. On the other hand, I don’t care if the food isn’t good enough as long as my pots and pans are not damaged.

It was amusing to see that he came with a tool box. Yes, tool box as in the tool box that plumbers and mechanics carry around. But inside was full of kitchen tools, a few of which I’ve never seen or heard of before. Interesting box, I’d say. Too bad I forgot to take a picture of it.

Actually, I totally forgot about taking pictures until we were already halfway through with our meal. If you think that the salad (in the picture) was a lot for four people, that picture was actually taken after all four of us had taken our portions.

Oh, about my cheesecake… It wasn’t too bad. It was soft… Quite soft, really but luckily it didn’t melt. Everyone simply loved it and much to my amusement, the chef admitted that he had never thought of a cheese and chocolate combination. I mean, who would not have thought of such a sinful indulgence? I specifically looked for such a recipe when I wanted to make a cheesecake for the first time.

I guess I did quite a good job at impressing our chef. He asked me for the recipe (which I obviously don’t have… the proper recipe, that is) and thought of making it for his project. He even asked for another slice to bring home!

This picture was only taken after we were done with it. See how much little is left? Good thing A & Z didn’t turn up, otherwise it wouldn’t be satisfyingly enough for everyone. I totally forgot to take a picture before we attacked it.

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Our friends are coming over for breaking fast today and one of them is going to cook for us. Yes, people! Surprise, surprise! Someone is going to cook for me today. Well, when you have a chef-to-be in the house, would you want to cook for everyone? I don’t.

However, I was asked to prepare some desserts. I weighed my options. I have no oven so baked items would be out of the question. I’ve made bubur kacang and onde-onde yesterday so those two are also out. Besides, I thought they wouldn’t really go well with the rest of the menu.

My housemate, F then suggested I make a cheesecake, just like what I always did when I couldn’t come up with a better dessert idea. That reminded me of the chocolate cheesecake that I loved to make when I was in Dublin. It’s easy to make and it’s deliciously chocolaty.

BUT… I don’t have the recipe. F (who doesn’t cook unless you count making instant noodles and frying frozen food as cooking. Oops, sorry F! ) innocently asked if I could just estimate what to put in to make the chocolate cheesecake.

In a serious tone (really hard to make that up when I was laughing like mad inside), I patiently explained to her not just that I can’t remember what the quantity of each ingredient… I can’t even remember what they are! The only thing I am sure of is that the recipe has no gelatine, unlike any other non-baked cheesecakes.

This morning, I realised that F’s suggestion was actually not too bad. The only problem when making such a cake (to me) is the consistency. You would never have problems with the taste/ flavour as the main ingredients are cheese and chocolate… two things that no matter how bad you screw up, would still taste good. Besides, the basic recipes for non-baked cheesecakes don’t vary that much. How wrong can I go?

So…

I used one pack of cream cheese because it’s a dinner for six and I figured a small cake would do.

As for the chocolate, I remember using an entire packet of Tesco cooking chocolate (500g) when I made the same cake last year but for all I know, I could be recalling the recipe for my favourite chocolate fudge which requires 450g of chocolate and therefore I would always use the entire packet. I also vaguely remember when I was in Dublin, I used 1 1/3 packet of the 375g cooking chocolate (don’t ask me why or how I remember the size of the packet. By coming up with the numbers, I amazed myself too). Conclusion: half a packet (250g).

No gelatine, no eggs (the reasons why I loved the recipe) so those didn’t bother me at all.

Whipped cream… errmmm… Maybe (just maybe) I was right in recalling using one packet (200ml). So I’ll just halve the quantity this time.

Condensed milk… to taste. Seriously… That’s exactly what I did!

Have you ever come across any cake recipe that instructs you to add something ‘to taste’? When it comes to cooking, sure, you see it a lot. Add salt to taste, pepper to taste, etc. But for a cake?

Maybe you don’t get the humour here but I find it hilarious and that was why I decided to put it in words. Right now, the cake is chilling in the fridge. I just hope it would not be too soft (it would definitely NOT be too hard) to be cut into slices. Actually, soft is still ok. Just don’t melt on the plate. That would be really embarrassing especially when there’s a culinary student around.

Will report how it comes out later.

We left home quite early to fetch my brother Mae from his boarding school in Seremban. No, he wasn’t coming with us but we only found out that he was allowed to go home that weekend a week or two prior. Having no other options, we dragged Boka along with us to Seremban so that he could drive Mae back to Shah Alam after dropping us (me, Kona & our parents) at the airport.

We thought we barely made it in time to check in for our flight (who wouldn’t with all the delays we experienced?) but luckily there was plenty of time to spare.

To our disbelieve, when they called up the passengers for the AK1026 flight to Ujung Pandang, only 30 people queued at the gate. Yes. THIRTY people to board a plane which can accommodate 180 passengers.

It was during my previous flight to KL that I noticed this page in the AirAsia’s onboard magazine, Travel3sixty.

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Together with the magazine was a separate sheet promoting their Buka Puasa Combo.

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However, my dad had pre-ordered our meals and therefore the combo was not an option for us (not that I was interested anyway). Much to my dad’s envy, for some reason, he pre-ordered the briyani rice for me instead of nasi lemak (my parents and Kona had nasi lemak).

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It was my second time breaking fast in a plane (the first time being during a flight from London to Kuala Lumpur when I was 15) and I took great pleasure in recording the moment.

Like father like daughter.

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My mum had kindly offered me and Kona a second helping after we finished our portions. It was embarrassing (the stewardess tried her best not to laugh at us the way my mum told her how we were starving) but what the heck. Hungry tummies had to be fed.

Just as my second helping (this time a packet of nasi lemak) arrived, I noticed that it was already 7.00pm. We were scheduled to land at 7.25pm. In semi-panic, me and Kona hurriedly finished our meals (the hot chocolate that came with Kona’s sandwich meal was really good!).

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It was obvious that the airport had just only recently opened. The furnitures were lacking and everywhere I looked were signs of unfinished renovation works. Our taxi driver later informed us that the airport was opened on 1/8/08, making it merely a month old.

We were further amused to see that out of the 30 passengers from our flight (the only international flight to that airport), less than 10 (including 4 of us) were holders of foreign passports. The rest were Indonesians.

As we left the arrival hall, we came across this money changer which we initially thought was manned by a mere child (we didn’t notice his mother who was sitting at the back).

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We then proceeded to get a taxi to send us to our hotel. That was when I had my first encounter with Indonesian’s affinity for weird acronyms. I mean.. KOPSIDARA? (Later I discovered even weirder names such as PUSKESMAS and KONSEKHANUDNAS)

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Located at the Losari Beach, our hotel was about half an hour drive from the airport. It was an interesting hotel decorated with antique furnitures (well, they sure looked antique though I know very little about them).

My dad couldn’t resist taking picture of the ancient radio which we discovered the following morning.

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We were excited to be informed that our breakfast buffet would be converted into sahur buffet and they would give us a wake up call at 3am. We were like, “THREE am???”

It wasn’t very early, really, considering that sunrise is at 5am.

True enough, at 3.10am, the phone in my room rang.

Him : Hello.

Me : Hello… (very sleepy voice)

Him : Sahur?

Me : Ya…

Him : Udah masanya. (Translation: It is time)

I half heartedly attempted to wake my sister up and went back to sleep. My parents knocked on my door about 10 minutes later and then only I finally managed to get out of bed.

The food selection was modestly satisfactory but the taste left much to be desired. Good thing my parents do not (yet ) have medical problems. The condiments for the rice congee (which happens to be my all time favourite dish anytime anywhere) were extremely salty I considered abandoning the entire bowl that I took. But eat I must and therefore eat I did.

On the second day, I made another mistake. I didn’t take the salty things that actually goes well with the congee if they’re not too salty but I accidently took too much of the chilli. I ended up burning my mouth and I was sweating like I just ran a marathon by the time I finished it.

.

That first morning in Makassar, we couldn’t help but notice a similarity (the first of several as we later discovered) between their people and the Kelantanese. Both prefer their drinks to be sweet. And by saying sweet, I mean really really sweet. I had to add an equal amount of plain water to the orange drink that I took to make it drinkable.

Thank god I bought a bottle of tea the night before.

In view of our problem with the inaccessible gallery, my dad has created a new one.

My first impression of it was not a good one. After about half an hour playing around with it, I’ve decided that I don’t like the new software. Halfway through uploading my pictures, I gave up and deleted the entire album.

I miss the old gallery.

Updated at 1.10am, 12/09/08: Fickle minded me have recreated the album and uploaded a few pictures.

Updated at 1.40am, 12/09/08: I give up. It’s too tedious uploading & editing pictures there. Besides, I can’t figure out how to rearrange the pictures. Very frustrating, indeed.