Salam Aidilfitri

Saya dan keluarga mengucapkan selamat hari raya aidilfitri dan maaf zahir batin kepada semua. Terutama kepada kaum keluarga di Tanjung Malim dan Kota Bharu. Hati-hati di jalan raya.

Raya Spirit

So everybody is in raya mood already, eh?

Well, I'm not quite. This year raya I'm no longer busy with shopping for raya clothes nor preparing duit raya angpau. This year also I don't have to plan for balik kampung trip, calculating number of days I could take as raya leave.

This year is the first raya I'm going to celebrate away from my extended families and the first time celebrating it abroad. I'm sure it must be very festive back in Malaysia for raya is just less than a week away to be celebrated. There must be raya songs being aired everywhere!

Here in Germany, there's not much excitement about raya coming soon. And to uplift the spirit, Liza the host has suggested we make some raya cookies. And we did! So far we have made 5 different cookies. Not bad eh?

Trainees in action...hehehe

Sarang semut cookies. Notice there are 2 different colours?

The first batch was a bit burnt...hahaha

This kuih karipap of course is not part of raya cookies but still will be served during raya. We made a lot, about 80 pieces. We even baked them for a while to preserve the shape.

Tat nenas bunga yg sgt menarik pembuatannya

Iftar

Hari Sabtu kami dijemput berbuka puasa di rumah konsulat Malaysia di Frankfurt. Dan kami diberitahu, celebrity chef, Chef Ismail akan memasak juadah berbuka puasa. And ada wakil TV3 nak buat liputan. Wah! Apalagi...takkan x pergi kan?

Dari Russelsheim ke Frankfurt, kami naik train dan berjumpa ramai lagi Malaysian (students & expatriates) di Frankfurt Main Haupbanhof. Then naik bas utk kerumah konsulat. Pendek kata separuh bas tu mmg penuh ngan Malaysian. Macam rombongan cik kiah....hehehe.

Di rumah konsulat, kami berjumpa lagi ramai Malaysian. Cerita Chef Ismail yg memasak mmg betul tp cerita wakil TV3 tu x betul rupanya. Juadah berbuka puasa jgn cerita la....dr masak lemak daging salai (yg sgt famous di Restoran Rebung Chef Ismail tu), ikan kering dan segala ulam2. Ada bendi, pegaga, jantung pisang pon ada! Kuih saja pon bermcm jenis sampai aku x tau mana satu nak makan dulu.

Razif & Liza, tuan rumah kami menumpang buat masa ini. Such a sweet couple...

Nak jugak amik gambar ngan chef

Sebelum balik kami dijemput utk dtg majlis rumah terbuka hari raya pada 1 October nanti. Not bad rupanya beraya diperantauan.

Kena Marah

Seorg kawan yang telah lama menetap di Jepun pernah bercerita macamana tensionnya dia dgn jiran sebelah rumah yg akan mengetuk dinding dgn kuat setiap kali anak2 teman ini buat bising. Buat bising bukan la bising yg melampau tp setakat bising bermain. Dan bukannya di waktu malam, siang hari pulak tu. Jadinya si teman ni terpaksa la mengawal sentiasa anak2 supaya x berbunyi kuat setiap kali bermain. Macamana la budak2 nak main tanpa berbunyi, ye tak?

Dan skrg kami pulak yg mengalaminya. Semalam sewaktu kami tgh berbuka puasa, jiran di tingkat bawah dtg dgn marah2. Katanya budak2 ni bising di siang hari. Melompat2 mcm kanggaru. Dia ni rupanya bekerja malam, jadi waktu siang dia ada di rumah. Dan seperkara lagi, rumah di Jerman ni lantainya kayu, so kalau berlari atau melompat, agaknya org bawah mmg terganggu la kot.

Kawan2 yg dah lama tinggal di Jerman ni, bgtau mmg mcm ni la perangai org Jerman. Langsung x boleh terganggu walaupun kes budak2 bising. Dan aku terfikir, no wonder diorg ni kebanyakannya x berkeluarga sbb ngan budak2 pon x boleh tolerate.

Well, nak buat macamana, dah nama pon duduk tempat org, kena la ikut aje kan? So, skrg keje aku asyik mengawal si kembar, jangan berlari, jangan melompat, jangan ckp kuat2, apalagi menangis!

Harap2 kami boleh dapat rumah groundfloor supaya budak2 boleh berlari dan melompat dalam rumah sendiri!

E-Bay

Call me jakun but I have just found out the wonder of ebay.

We were discussing about buying strollers for the twins. So we checked the price and where to buy the strollers from the Internet. A friend who was online suggested we buy from Ebay. And she was willing to do the bidding on ebay. So we agreed. And we got this stroller at 65 euro (inclusive delivery cost). The market price is 199 euro. Isn't it amazing?

Anyway, when we tried to buy another same stroller, being auctioned 4 hours later, we failed to get it. Someone faster had bought it at 59 euro!!!

Our friend told us in order to bid in ebay, there are several tips to follow. First, don't bid during peak hours, and second; use special software to enable us to grab the bid at the final call. Whoa!! It means we have to learn a lot before we want to get involved in this auction business.

Tomorrow we will try again. We still need another stroller.....

The Playground

We hardly go out now. It's very cold outside, mostly between 17 - 21 celcius. The twins are restless and cranky since they have nothing to do. But yesterday it was a bit hot, so we took them to a nearby playround in the neighbourhood. Playground here looks antique to me cause the slide, the swings and the jongkang-jongket still of those wooden made, like those during my childhood time. And I believe those have been there since the playground exists, for the past 20-30 years ago perhaps. But still in good condition.

Sands are everywhere on the playground. I guess children here are encouraged to play with sands. So I too, let them played with the sand which a big no-no back in Malaysia.

That is all for now.....

Eating out

Today we decided to break fast outside. Just to eat something different. So we went to Turks' famous eatery, Doner Kebab in Russelheim. It's darn delicious but served in a large portion. I couldn't finish mine so I passed it to cik HB for him to finish it off.

Durum Doner

I don't know what is this meal is called

Going out at night is actually very torturing because it is so windy and chilly. We need to buy more warm clothes cause it's getting colder everyday. What we have now is barely enough to warm ourselves. Goods prices are cheap in euro currency. Buying power is high here. For example, I get to buy a pretty sweat shirt at 5 euro. But of course we have to bear in mind not to convert the price in RM or we would be stingy to buy anything, hehehe........

Nabilah refused to walk cause she said it was so cold

Though I'm so tempted to buy more clothes, I have to refrain the wanting. We don't have house yet. The house that we tumpang now is not that big, so we shouldn't be using the space to keep our things. So we need to be patient.

Oh, when are we going to get a house?