Reading hazards

 

Lately I’ve been giving in to strong urges to curl up (and various other positions which allows me to read) in bed and read one book after another. I’m happy to say that it’s been a progressive week on the reading front. And I totally blame the cold, stormy weather. I’ve made a total of 3 trips to the library this week alone and now I’ve already run out of books, hence the post :)

I can’t believe I had a childish quarrel with Mr Sheikh just because I wasn’t able to get to the library on time earlier this evening. Too much reading does this to me. I get transported out of my life and then I start behaving strange. I wonder what Mr Sheikh thinks of me at moments like this heheheh.

 

When I’m on the reading spree, the house is most often unkempt and meals are simple. At times like this, all those 30-minutes-meal recipes do come in handy. I don’t watch Rachel Ray for nothing you know! Oh come on, I’m not that bad, I still get the laundry done on time and even if I don’t I have the rain to blame! Muahahaha. Poor Sameer has also been forced to read because I can’t be entertaining him with chatter or other activities when I’m totally absorbed in my book. I do bathe and brush my teeth in the morning when I wake up, in case you are wondering :D

 

Today I was rewarded with a splitting headache after days and days of staring at hundreds and thousands of pages filled with millions of words. So it was good that I ran out of books (must remember to be nice to Mr Sheikh later) and managed to shoo my headache away with a short nap in the late afternoon and I’m one person who’s not prone to napping! Goes to show how hazardous reading can be. 

 

My pc is being difficult and I’m unable to download pictures from my mobile phone for now. That’s one reason why I have not resorted to doing picture stories  to keep this blog updated. I hope I resolve the problem soon! Just to keep you in the loop, I’ve done all sort of begging known to modern men to get Mr Sheikh to buy me us a laptop. No results YET. Maybe begging is not the right approach. Ohkay I shall start enticing him tomorrow. If you have any brilliant ideas on how to entice a man to get a laptop, do drop me a comment :P

 

Oh, among other authors I’ve been reading Eloise James for her wittiness. I was craving for some medieval romance :)

I also had more than 3 brownies this week though it has nothing to do with medieval romance. It’s the weather.

 

It’s 3.05am right now and I think it’s high time I get myself into bed if I were to wake up early tomorrow.

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Sameer, Me and the never-to-be-Avocado plant

 

Some weeks back Sameer and I attempted to grow an avocado plant (in Singapore). We excitedly planned to take pictures of the progress and patiently waited for the seed to grow roots in the water. Weeks passed and it was still like taking forever to see any visible shoots! I admit I was more excited than my 8 years old son! And guess what? The shoots never made it to the surface of the seed and it has turned all rotten looking!

 

I love gardening but have always been a failure with the greens. The last time I tried caring for the screw pine and curry-leaf plant, I ended up killing them both after a few months! I then decided not to keep anymore plants at home to avoid murdering more greens with my hands! Sigh….the avocado seed is yet another testament to my black fingers! But at least it wasn’t a breathing, living plant yet you know, so I’m not feeling that bad. Plus avocadoes do need Mexican weather to grow, right? 

 

Now that I’m home with all the time in the world (sometimes I do!) and since Sameer will be introduced to Science in school next year, I decided to do that little avocado plant activity with him hence the (non-existent) avocado plant story :D After all, his studies and exam results are now my sole responsibility (among other things). His academic success (among other things) lies perpendicularly to my success as a SAHM in Mr Sheikh’s eyes.

 

Jokes aside, I love the hands-on teaching concept! From the age of 2 to 5 years old, most of Sameer’s  knowledge of vocabulary, colors, numbers, textures etc came from observing and touching whatever he could get his hands on in the wet market/supermarket. Trust me, markets are THE place to get a kid explore sights, sounds and smells (yah I know ewww) what with all the hustle and bustle of activities and the endless variety of things to see and touch! Sameer was such a visual learner (as are all males LOL). He grasped fast with visual teaching aides and hands-on sessions (yeah that definitely sounds very male!). And boy did he love colors! His coloring books were filled with colorful people, animals, robots, airplanes, cars etc. Which got me worried for a while. I thought he wasn’t being normal you know, shading the picture of an elephant in 10 different colors. Like wasn’t it obvious to him after our numerous zoo trips that an elephant was supposed to be either grey or black? We had a little talk and he insisted that he loved everything in his books to be colorful. I left it at that while he was still in kindergarten and thankfully he grew out of his multi-colored human beings and animals :D

 

There was another phase he went through where he would paste every single artwork done by him on his room walls! Sometimes I even felt that he sketched and colored more so that he could cover all four walls of his room! I still have the tape/glue marks on the walls which I can’t be bothered with. It’s good that my boy took pride in his work but I also remember having to come up with all kind of explanations which I hoped would enlighten the nosy aunties for the dirty walls hehehe. Believe me when I say the older generation can’t comprehend why we young parents are so “relaxed” with our kids and allow them to stick papers all over their room walls!

 

I knew I would eventually get to this : School holidays are looming ahead!

I neeeed to plan our daily activities for 6 weeks! Though deep down in every cell of my body I know we will mostly end up lazing around at home :D

Which is not necessarily a bad thing I would say. Lazing around is a form of bonding activity after all. So I just need to balance up the days with a few outings and other educational and physical activities. Sounds easy enough!

Being the spur-of-the-moment kind of people, let’s see how we surprise ourselves :D

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Life redefined

 

A cousin asked me if I have anyone in particular whom I specially turn to in life, to confide in, share my worries with or to blast out at when in tension. Being the mostly private person that I am, I answered cautiously that as a teen I used to be really close to my brothers and late sister.

 

Of course he noticed the past tense! More prodding, then how about now? Are you close to anyone NOW?

 

Having turned 32 recently and feeling obligated to let the young adult gather information about life, I resigned myself to the interrogation. I went on to answer him rather openly that my brothers got married when I was 13 years old and my sister passed away when I was 16. I didn’t feel the need to get close to anyone after them as I strongly felt it’s an even lonelier feeling to miss someone than not to have anyone to miss at all. To end my heavy confession on a light note, I added on that nowadays I just blast at anyone who pry and come nosing about my business if need to let out any frustrations :P

 

He’s a 19 years old young adult. He found it appalling that I hold no one in confidence the way he does. He’s probably in a state of disbelief and now under the impression that people like me are loners, losers and anti-socials.

 

I had the same notions when I was a green-horned teen. I used to believe that people I trust will always be there for me whenever I needed them. To catch me when I fall, to get me out of trouble, to sooth my wounds, to wipe my tears, to take away the pain. I gradually realized that nothing much in life is permanent (it’s funny how the things that I hated most never failed me! Namely zits and pms). I had to let my brothers go (as in I don’t get to be in their company 24/7), because after marriage it was only right that they concentrated on their families. I had to let my sister go because death is part of everyone’s life. To think that they will always be with me was my fallacy. I don’t hold such expectations anymore now. I have learnt to expect nothing from people around me and enjoy the occasional surprise when someone is kind to me hehehe. But how would he understand all these things right? He still has 13 years to go before he turns as cynical as me :P

 

Anyways, having had that conversation set me thinking about the drastic changes I have seen in my own self over the years. Changes on a subconscious level of awareness of course. I admit that I no longer hold any clear definitions of things. It scares me on one hand and on the other hand that’s the cycle of life. I remember my not-so-distant youth which was filled with blind trust, puppy love(s?), unrealistic ideals, fat huge dreams and unwavering believes.

 

Not that all the above do not linger in my mind anymore, I would say the mechanisms have changed. Now that the notions cease to exist, I have learnt that I can hate and love at the same time. I can see the right and still am able to understand the wrong. I loathe black but can’t stop myself from questioning if white is really white. Where did the boundaries go? Life experiences are such wonderful teachers! Pfffftt!

 

What I really want to say is that the meaning of things such as trust, love, and belief changes with every new experience in life.

 

As for the ever changing people in life, after much intelligent thoughts, I have decided that people DO NOT change over the years. Our personality traits just become richer over the years. People close to us begin to see other sides of our nature. With every passing day, we let our guards down slowly and we let people around us view us as we really are and were from the start. The wholesome us! We are not changing, we’re in fact giving others a complete piece of ourselves. With that, I have now ended the torment I have been through for the past few months. I had the (mis?)fortune to glimpse the evil side of someone really dear to me. For a long time, I couldn’t bring myself to stomach the fact that people I love could possibly change overnight and are capable of such evil actions (yet another fallacy which wasn’t taken into account until now). Presently I have enlightened myself that, (I wouldn’t go as far as saying that we are born with evil streaks but rather) we develop good and evil aspects in our growing personality from the time we were able to process thoughts in our young minds. And it took me 7 years to finally witness the complete, wholesome person that I thought I knew so well. 

 

To cut the long story short, almost every possible emotion in life needs to be redefined over the passing time. Don’t cry if someone in your life is a “changed person”, that person has probably given you the best of himself/herself (for the better or worse, depending on how you see it)

I missed blogging!

 

My last post was dated 27th July!!! It’s been a long. time. I. know.

 

My dear friends, I was (am?) having a serious writer’s block! I mean really serious, you know the constipated kind?! Every time I typed a sentence I would feel the need to delete it and form another sentence again and delete again. You get the gist right.. so for those of you who’ve wondered, other than the slight writing malfunction in my brain, I’ve been gooood!

 

Currently blogging as a SAHM and enjoying the long stay at home :D What else can I say? I simply love being lazy. I might have mentioned this before, as a teenager my ambition in life was to be a stay-at-home-wife (the mom part comes later na, my immediate concern was being a wife who gets to stay at home :P ) Anyways, I hope I’ll be an efficient SAHM so that Mr Sheikh might consider employing me permanently hehehehhe. I wanted to add employ me permanently with a good benefits package, excellent career prospects and promotions but that would be like asking for too much na? :P

 

Since Eid is celebrated right up to a month here, I’ve been busy entertaining and visiting. It gets really tiring having to get all dressed, travel to every corner of Sg till late night or prepare the home to receive guests and hold polite conversations almost every weekend! Well ok, it’s not too bad this Eid as I no longer have to worry about work and I hardly get to meet people on weekdays. So yeah I would have to admit all the entertaining and visiting is in fact quite enjoyable this year (the tiring part still stands ok! ;)

 

At this stage of my half-written post, I can feel my writer’s block slowly creeping in again as I have deleted a few sentences by now. Hence before I get the urge to delete the whole painstakingly-written post, I HAVE to click the publish button now!!!!!! Yeah, emergency publishing :P

 

Enjoy the week people, till I download some pics and do my picture story posts. They are soooo much easier on my writing constipation!

10 honest things about Nisa, honestly!

 

Got tagged by Nadia just when I started to slack in blogging yet again! Thanks Nadia, for the nudge :D

 

This is how the Honest Tag works:  tell your readers 10 things about you that they may or may not know, but are true. Tag ten people and be sure to let them know they’ve been tagged (a quick comment on their blog will do). Don’t forget to link back to the blogger who tagged you.

 

This is not that difficult as I can actually choose the 10 good things about myself and be honest about it. Thank God! :P

 

Here’s the list:

 

1) I prefer wearing traditional salwar kameez than any other clothing. I do wear pant suits, long dresses and skirts to office, but I feel the salwar kameez has such a modest and practical concept, design wise. Love it!

 

2) My first ever mobile phone was one of those bulky black Ericsson phones. (Back then it wasn’t Sony Ericsson yet) And I remember my monthly bill used to be around S$100 (much to my dad’s disapproval). The only people who would call me were my nieces and Mr Sheikh :D

 

3) Kids love me (and I love them back too if they are  well behaved) . No, I’m sure it’s not because I’m as cute as them but I prefer to think they can sense and relate to the kid in me :P

 

4) I can go without the main meals but I can’t resist desserts. A victim of sweet tooth. In fact, I just had some ice-cream before I started on this post.

 

5) I get mad easily but forgive just as easily (probably due to the high sugar content in me :P) Jokes aside, I think forgiving is a healthy habit. Some years back I decided to forgive someone for the most hurting mistake ever imaginable and I’ve now learnt to be a more laid-back person. I’ve said this before, there are lot of things in our daily lives that just don’t matter. Things that are not worth the heartache we put ourselves through because at the end of the day its between us and our Creator.

 

6) I’m not a very social person. I do not make friends easily but the few friends that I do make are gems.

 

7) I had an arranged marriage! Back then, my friends, colleagues and boss were so shocked that they kept asking me for many months before my wedding if I was alright hehehehe. I think I shall blog more about this some time ;)

 

8) I’m unable to view Pakistani men romantically. They remind me too much of my brothers, specially when they speak Urdu/Punjabi and you know it’s impossible to have any romantic thoughts about a man when his words and actions evoke all the sisterly feelings in me lolz.

 

9) I’m a serious procrastinator and it doesn’t help that I get distracted easily when I do get down to doing something. Sometimes I wonder if I should seek professional help for this worthless habit :D I typed all the above sometimes last week and I just got down to doing no. 9 today and I wonder if I will finish no. 10 in the next few minutes or days.

 

10)  I’m very bad with road directions. I really should have a GPS navigation system in my car (hint hint). Typical female you say? Nopes, it’s just me. For the past donkey years before I got my driving license and when I was still being driven around (in car, cabs or bikes), the routes have never been of much interest to me. Instead of looking at the roads and the surroundings, I used to close my eyes (and daydream) till I reach my destination.

 

That’s 10 facts about me and as always, I shall tag the few friends that I have :D

 

http://morgenprinzessin.blogspot.com/

http://jussaemon.blogspot.com/

http://blissfulmommyhood.blogspot.com/

Brownies and Strawberry cake

 

Ladies, this post is for you. I never imagined my blog would have recipes. Anyways, I can’t recall the source of the recipes as I’ve been collecting recipes since I was in high school! You know there’s a saying which goes like a woman collects more recipes than she can try in her lifetime or something like that hehehe… and yeah it’s a very true saying in my case :D

 

Chocolate Brownies

 

You can top the baked brownies with a store bought chocolate fudge or simply melted chocolate.

 

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1/3 cup self-rising flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8x8 or 9x9 inch baking pan.

 

In a medium bowl, beat together the butter and sugar. Add eggs, and mix well. Combine the flour and cocoa; stir into   the sugar mixture. Mix in walnuts if desired. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.

 

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are firm. Cool before cutting into squares.

  

Strawberry Cake

 

I didn’t follow any specific recipe for this, just modified a basic butter cake recipe. Flavoured it with strawberry emulco, added swirls of melted chocolate into the batter and topped it with fresh strawberry slices. Below is the basic butter cake recipe which I usually slander and assault when modifying :D You can do that to your favorite cake recipe too, really.

 

3 cups sugar

250gm butter

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 inch tube pan. Mix together the flour and baking powder; set aside.

 

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.

 

Beat in the flour mixture little by little, mixing just until incorporated. Pour batter into prepared pan.

 

Bake in the preheated oven for 60 to 75 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

 

As for the Cheese and Macaroni, if you know me well you would know I’m the queen of cheats in the kitchen :D I used penne (or any other pasta for that matter) as I didn’t have elbow macaroni on hand. For the sauce I use the normal spaghetti sauce from the jar, add in some chilli paste or red chillies as we like it spicy, grated cheddar cheese and cooked minced meat (you can add anything you like). Toss the pasta into this mixture and into the baking dish. Top with more grated cheese and into the oven it goes! Wana, I’m sure your cheese and mac is much more sophisticated than this :P

 

I sure hope you ladies would find my cheating cooking hints and recipes useful!

How to kill your husband and other handy household hints

 

There is no need to panic after reading my post title. No, being cooped up at home for 5 days and recovering from the lower back pain is not making me lose my marbles.

 

This was one of the books which caught my attention at the library the other day when their system was down. Can’t recall what the book is all about but the title itself was definitely eye catching! The household hints part kind of gave me an idea on what to fill my post with today, as for killing your husband, that’s definitely not an advisable thing to do I would say. I know most of us ladies would be more than happy to get some hints on how to drive our husbands mad :D

 

 

 

Unfortunately I know of no such handy hints, I can only come up with a few important kitchen/cleaning tips which I learnt over the last decade (that’s how long I’ve been married)

 

I have never done this before you know, showing the world a part of my house and that too the inside of my freezer! I guess I have learnt to be more sharing too.

 

The few things below are nitty-gritty stuff and considerations which made my life a whole lot easier and breezier as a SAHM and a working mom (and temporarily a SAHM again now). The challenges of cleaning and cooking for a self-confessed lazy bum! Sometimes I simply adore myself :P

 

1) Always flatten your food when storing in the freezer. As you can see I flatten almost anything from chicken to minced meat and to the various pastes. It makes thawing so much faster and thus cutting your prep or waiting time. Even my frozen briyani gets nice and warm within 2 minutes in the microwave. Time is precious! (Urmm, I guess it was when I was working and now I’m just impatient! I have grown into those bred-in-the-concrete-jungle impatient zombies!)

 

 

2) Deep fry some minced garlic till fragrant and once cool, keep it together with the oil in a container and store in the fridge for daily use. This one hint is really handy and I just came across it like 1 year ago. I use the fried garlic or sometimes just the oil (which is really fragrant) for all kind of stir-fries and quick meals such as fried rice, noodles and salads. In fact, I manage to eliminate the peeling, chopping, washing-the-chopping-board and sauteing time (which is quite some time) when I have this mixture on hand! I guess this won’t be a handy hint for those who can’t stand garlic but for me, I use garlic in almost anything!

 

3) Invest in at least 2 good quality non-stick pans. You can whip up any dish on high fire within minutes and not worry about it getting burnt and sticking to the pan/pot. Washing is easy and yes again, less time in the kitchen for us :D

 

4) If you don’t have a maid and you are not staying with your parents, please invest in some sophisticated mop or vacuum. It doesn’t end there, you also need to store these items somewhere within easy reach. The logic is that if the cleaning equipment is cool and dandy, chances are you’ll be more inspired to pick it up and get started. And if they are within easy reach, you won’t have any excuse to put off the cleaning chores. It’s allll in the mind I tell you, you just need to play some mind-games with your own mind! (which is kind of sad, but hey whatever floats your boat!)

 

5) If you are lazy like me but are decent enough to want to maintain a clean, hygienic home, please avoid unnecessary clutter around your living space. The less things you need to pick up or remove from the floor, the easier it is to carry out your cleaning job. Decoration shelves, wall frames, vases, miniatures etc are all items that collect dust and need to be shifted around when you are cleaning. Which means more effort and time. Which (when the realization sinks in) directly send lazy signals to the mind and makes you not want to lift a finger, I mean really I don’t blame the mind. Who in the right mind would want to do all that additional dusting, wiping and shifting? Not me!!!

 

I would love to post some pictures of my pratically empty home, but right now its already 10pm and my sony ericsson would not be able to capture a decent shot due to the poor lighting. Another day perhaps :D

 

Ok, I confess.

 

This morning I got 2 part-time helpers to spring clean my home after over 2 weeks of neglect.

There, I said it! Phewww!

And you were wondering why I’m going on and on about household stuff, hahahahha! 

Temporary disability – Day 5

I managed to drive over to my brother’s place and my MIL’s place last night! Being cooped up at home for 4 days in a row was driving me absolutely nuts! (yeah I know that’s my favorite line lately, please bear with it!) However when I got back home 2 hours later my lower back was aching and I badly needed to stretch on the bed. Thank God I woke up more or less normal this morning. I have to put on the elastic back support belt though. My spine feels less fragile with the added support and well, it just feels comfortable and secure to have that cushiony belt hugging my spine tight :D

 

Since I was beginning to feel better yesterday morning, I spent the whole morning baking! I alternated between sitting and standing  when I was whisking and washing away. And of course with Sameer’s help, he was my kitchen aid for the day hehehe… fetching ingredients from the fridge and stuff like that. At this point of my dull life, all that baking and creating yummy dishes seems to be the only peak of excitement , so here are the “excitements” in pictures!

 

 

Cheese and Macaroni for lunch    

                             

 

Brownies topped with chocolate fudge (my nephews have been asking me for this for ages and I needed to break my back to finally find the time to bake for them! huh!)

 

  

Strawberry cake with fudgy chocolate swirls. Sinfully Yummy! I need to repent for baking and eating this AND making my family members eat it too! Tauba tauba.

 

 

A slice of that cake.  I just need to add a dallop of vanilla ice-cream to this! So much for my repentance lolz

 

Right now, Sameer has already left for school and I hope I can keep myself busy instead of getting lazy and then feeling down about being useless!

 

* 20 minutes later *

 

I actually just got off the bed after resting my back and going to publish my post now :D