Quickie

Quick question.

I'm emceeing a semi-important dinner event next week. Expecting nothing much except that I look good. Of course.

So....

Updo. With hairband?

Yes?





I prefer the second look, except that I don't have those bone structure, har har.

All up in fur.


Last night I came home looking for Handsome Boy. He was nowhere to be found, and I got all paranoid, thinking that he prefers the company of someone else that night. I practiced the piano till late, every once in a while taking a break to walk around the house, looking for him. But Handsome Boy was nowhere to be found.

Twas near midnight when I then spotted him, sitting on the tembok outside our gates. I extended my arm out (so couldn’t be bothered to actually open those gates) and tried to touch him. Tak sampai. So I stretched further. He was, of course, totally oblivious to my antics and decided to just stare at me and my wriggling hand.

After some minor acrobatics and gentle coaxing, I managed to scratch his head a little. *sigh * that was enough to send me to bed smiling. So I went back into the house and locked the door. I sneaked a peek outside the window just before going upstairs, and there he was, walking slowly towards the main door. I kid you not, I jumped and opened the main door and went “Hieeeee!!!!”.

I sat at the doorstep, wanting to pet him some more, but somehow, he slipped by me and went inside the house. Ok, not good, because I would have to chase him out later and I don’t know how to. Yeah, my future children will be unfortunate enough to have a spineless mom.

But he was so cute, just lying there, so I stroked him some more. Until my sister came and started scolding me. Her words included germs, kutu and leukemia. So after about another 5 minutes of petting Handsome Boy, I tried to shoo him out.

He would not budge. I could actually see him dig into the ground when I tried pushing him, and then he got a little bit testy. I remembered seeing claws, so I tried a different strategy. I shook his cat food container outside the door, but he just ignored it. I switched off the lights and yet he didn’t move. I managed to lure him to the back door, and just a few inches away from it, he lied down and would not be budged.

After panicking, I resorted to seeking for help from my brother. He looked at me weird and with a mighty sigh, picked Handsome Boy up and placed him outside the door, with me waving him goodnight. My brother turned to me and went,

“You seriously need a boyfriend”.

Whateverrr.

But tonight I got to meet Handsome Boy right after coming back from work. *Dreamy smile*

My reason for breathing these days.

I have never liked cats. Well, the better word to describe my liking is, fear. I have always had this fear of cats, that probably stemmed from my experiences with them when I was younger. When I was a wee 5-year old, the cat next door, kinda chased me. Albeit, in soft padding steps. Well, at the age of 5, it seemed like it was CHARGING at me. That was probably the first scary encounter.

The next scary one was during a Raya visit to a friend’s place. I must have been about 10? The girl I visited loved cats, and in displaying her love, she actually placed a scratching one on my back. Could I have run 100 metres away, I would. Just that my pudgy self got me far enough into my dad’s car and I didn’t even wind down the windows to say goodbye properly. Because she could shove the cat through the window!!

Growing up, it was easier to avoid cats altogether. My mom never allowed them into the house, and although my dad had the tendency to feed strays with leftover bones, we never got close to any. Well, there was that incident where one pregnant feline found her way into one of my mom’s cupboards to give birth, but I never knew what happened, because I had ran upstairs to lock myself into my room.

Oh, this fear, growing up, was not mine alone. You should have seen my brother and I cowering behind the door, too afraid to enter the wet kitchen, because there was an innocent cat, sitting nicely there, cleaning itself.

Fast forward to this year. There is this cat that took upon himself (was told that it was a he, never really bothered to check though), to divide himself between our house and the neighbour’s. Apparently, he was more of theirs, but spent his night-time, sleeping on one of our cars or the gate post, our own self-appointed guardian.

One day, my dad bought some cat food. Which, in itself, is a monumental event, because it’s not something he has done EVER. Perhaps it was because of those 2 puyu fishes (Intan calls them Superpuyu!) that we acquired to bela a few years back, that gave him this rare compassion towards animals. Or else, makan tulang and leftovers lagi je la kucing tu.

Anyhoo, so we started feeding this cat. He would know where to wait for the food (by the shoe closet) and where he would be fed (just outside the kitchen door). He was never really demanding, and was quite complacent with whatever he was served.

The thing is, a few weeks back, I suddenly had this urge to pet and scratch his head. Ok, this is like, totally NOT me, because, hey, remember the fear? But I did it and I found him purring. Well, initially I didn’t know it was purring and I jumped back the first time he purred. But after consulting cat lovers in the office, I was assured that yes, he likes it and yes, keep doing it, he will not bite you!

Thus, I began to pet, stroke and rub him softly. Around his neck, top of his head, chin and err, cheeks? Almost on a daily basis.

And now I’m in love.

Well, more infatuated actually. Like, I would rush home and call out “Cat!” and go to him, and start to stroke his head and body. I now know why you cat lovers are, well, cat lovers. For me, it would be because your actions are reciprocated. Every time I stroke him, he purrs and wriggles his way for more.

So effing endearing, I must say. I can do it for hours, i think.

I don’t have a name for him yet, and I doubt I’d love another cat as much though.

For now, he’ll just be known as my “Handsome Boy”.

Beautiful Disaster

It all started with an innocent phone call on a hot Saturday afternoon. I glanced at the number, saw that it was my primary school friend turned new buddy, Lish. She wanted to confirm on dinner plans that we were having the week after. After a few minutes of conversation, she finally asked,

“Dalie…can you do me a favour?”

O-oh. Not good. I happened to know that she would be singing in a band, comprised of friends from her school-days, the coming Sunday at another friend’s wedding as their wedding gift. AND, I happened to know that she is in need of a keyboardist.

“What?” I cautiously asked

“Can you play keyboard for the band..please?”

I nearly screamed, and am pretty sure that I said NO at least a hundred times. But I found myself the next day, sitting at the piano in her house, getting to know her friends aka bandmates.

And that was, the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

I’m not saying that it’s a pretty one though. For our first gig, we had all of ONE week to practice 5 songs. And for a person who has not touched the piano for a very long time, let alone perform (apakah kau gila??? I la tu), it was extremely daunting, and a huge amount of coaxing, reassuring and free food were presented to me.

It was rather a funny and fun situation to be in. That week, I barely had enough sleep and my nerves were on its end, mainly, to ensure that I perform decently and not make a fool out of the band (who were all great players). We shared a good chemistry and there were lots of laughters in those dinghy, cheap studios plastered with sponges that we practiced in.

My band leader is a very optimistic and highly-excitable guy. And creative too I must say, as he christened our band’s name: The Impromptus. Oh, the sheer genius of it all.

Day of the wedding/ performance: I was already quaking in my shoes, and with my sister capturing an uber-serious looking me playing the keyboard, really did not help. I looked crazed and hungry enough to swallow the keyboard whole. But despite the late sound checks, the lack of proper amps and music systems, the mad dash to do our hair and makeup (harus jugak lah kan), we managed to scrape out a decent performance.

Yes, there’s Youtube videos and no I’m not posting any of them here.

The next gig (yes, we had another one), was actually by default. The lead guitarist got married.Of course he insisted the band to play. What’s more we’re really cheap to hire, judging by the Nando’s dinner we were treated to as a thank-you gift from the newly-weds. Kidding. We love Nando’s! and we weren’t expecting any payment at ALL, especially after I made several ke-kucilans, and managed to wipe out an entire keyboard accompaniment for a part of the opening song *oh I SHUDDER at the memory!*.

The second gig was relatively easier as we merely repeated two of the songs we played earlier, and due to a dream Lish had of us playing Jordin Sparks’s “No Air”, we played that as well. After only one proper practice, I thought we did pretty ok. Despite not being able to conduct sound checks on the performance day, we managed to pull this one off as well. I even managed a shaky smile or two, in between my shaky playing.

Hence, all this playing has made another friend get all excited and booked us for her wedding, happening in less than 3 weeks. The said playlist looks to be a foot-long, so goodbye to the world as I know it, for I will devote all my extra time to bury my nose in between those ivory keys, yet again.

Oh, btw, I totally suck. It’s just that since I blend in with the others, the suckiness is not that apparent. But yeah, I so totally have to work on memorizing my notes, memorizing my sequences, coming up with new rhythms, and hey, trying to smile while doing all that on a sunny afternoon.

Wish me luck!



Music scores with my notation. Notice that yeah, it was all Roman characters, buat penat je belajar Piano Theory 7 tahun kan??



Sponges on the wall



That's most of The Impromptus at Akarkarya Uptown

The jury is still out on this one.

I very recently made contact with a person from my past. A person who has caused so, so much grief to me in the past year, and who, although maybe not entirely by his own doing, has made me doubt my identity and caused me so much confusion that I sometimes don't know myself anymore, nor do I trust much my instincts.

It's probably unfair to accuse a single person all that, but I remembered being very carefree and gung-ho about life before. These days, I tend to just go with the flow, not having too much future plans, and being rather cautious with my opinions.

Our encounter, however, seems to be the closure that I need. I think I have spent a considerable amount of time, locked in my head and my thoughts, and generally not being too optimistic about life. I now learnt that things are better off this way, and that no matter the amount of hurt he has caused me, I needed this to move on. And to sympathize that he is still grappling in his own darkness, clawing his way out.

It was nice reconnecting though. One thing that came out of it was that I realised how nice it was just being friends: no expectations, no drama, just peaceful bantering and quiet conversations. I know things may not return to all that, after all that has happened, but I do know that I am still that friend he has, a year-plus back.

I am still me. Maybe not as bubbly as I once was, sobering up a little as i turn 30, and toning down (not body unfortunately) the loudness (although my laughter these days have gotten a wee bit louder, hopefully it's all sincere) and the konon witty sarcasm. I have also come to realise that sometimes it's not all about looks, personality, intelligence, or whatever. Sometimes, it is just circumstances, or what we usually forget in our pursuit: Fate. It's the way our stories are written. We don't know why things happened the way it did, but we just have to roll with what's thrown to us. God is the Almighty All-Knowing, so I will put more faith in my daily doings and just try my best to have a good life.

I don't know what will come out of this. Highly probably, nothing. But I'm glad it happened. I'm glad I was given the chance to see things clearly now, and I understand better now. In a way, I pity him. We all have our demons and the exercise of exorcising them can be extremely tiring, and I can see the toll it has taken on him. But he's a strong one. If my faith in him stands, I know he'll emerge one day a much, much better person. Someone to be proud of.

My feelings? Hard to say. But let's just say this has given me that push to really, really embrace my life, giving it the best and going all out to reach my goals. I have a few (funny how our goals tend to change shapes after major events of our lives) and I still suck at believing fully in my own potential and capability, but I'm going to give it my best, insya-Allah. And let the rest fall in between the lines of that story God has written for me.



Ooh, but the clincher has gotta be: Listening to the very song that was used as his ringtone came on the radio during our car ride...Thanks Big Guy *rolls eyes heavenward*

Bersilat di Dapur: Episod 2

So the other night, I made fried rice. Then I went all over confident and cooked up a huge batch of sambal prawns. Sampai today ada leftovers ok. * sigh * must learn how to budget!

Last night, rushed home with the grand idea of cooking chicken curry, stir-fry veges and some fried fish. Guess I was lucky that my mom had already coated the fish in some kunyit, and froze it, so all I had to do was to thaw them and fry them up. Tapi, balik-balik je, my dad assisted me in rummaging the fridge for ikan masin. Apparently, he was hankering for it. Hmmph. I felt insulted and immediately unappreciated. * sigh * Drama kan? Haha.

So I ended up, reheating said prawn sambal, fried the fish and stir fry some vege, for dinner along with rice. Which he walloped almost entirely. Leaving me with almost nothing. Cheh. My sister and brother had to have their dinner outside.

So today would be my final day in the attempt to be a domestic goddess. In order to do that, I took a 1-day leave. HAHA.

Did household chores like hanging the laundry, washing the driveway and patio, vacuuming and mopping, and the piece de resistance, the lunch. Which is not a big deal sangat la but since it was my first time cooking it, I took a picture of it. Nah:



Chicken korma with potatoes and onions. Kitchen drama includes almost being in tears because I couldn’t find the right spices *I can practically hear my mom nag, Tu laa, tak masuk dapur lagi, cari barang pun tak tau! *, over-marinating the chicken, worrying about the lack of potatoes and onions, all that tears as I pound the lesung batu with shallots, garlic and ginger, and the clincher: slightly scalding my hands while blending the coconut for santan.

*Takes deep breathe * I swear if it were not for my family la kan…

But things turned out ok. At about 1 pm, I ended up with Chicken Korma with Potatoes and Onions, Sambal Ikan Bilis Garing and instant Pratha(s).

Dah. No more cooking until it’s ABSOLUTELY necessary to.

I’m hanging up my apron *wah, pakai apron kah?* and gonna kiss my yoga mat now.

Mari kita bersilat di dalam dapur ye puan-puan.

Due to some reasons, I have had to cook/ provided dinner this week for the family.

I took leave on Monday, so I thought I had plenty of time to cook up something. Unfortunately, due to the warm weather and 3 pm kemalasan, my errands run started rather late and ended around 6pm, rendering only about an hour to prepare dinner.

Choice of dishes: Braised chicken with broccoli and carrots and sambal telur. Spartan, yet, those were the only things that I could come up with, with whatever’s left in the fridge. It has been a while since I last cooked a full meal, and ideally, I would like to whip up 3 dishes for dinner. But ingenuity failed me that evening, so the family just had to make do with whatever I produced la.

I thought I handled it pretty well, chopping up and marinating the chicken, the veges and letting them simmer. But my sister had this brilliant idea to make it soupy, hence, my veges turned out soggy. Oh well, better than nothing. My sambal telur, looked nice, until I tasted it at the table and discovered I had forgotten the salt.

But the family wolfed it down, what do you know? Ok la, they’re prolly famished and didn’t have much choice. I have yet to tell them that there are 2 types of instant noodles in the pantry and a stash of junk food and ice-cream somewhere in the house. I’ll leave that till the situation calls for desperate measures haha.

Second night, I prepared mentally earlier. By that, I meant fantasizing on the dish I was gonna prepare. Last weekend, my sister and I had this brilliant idea of cooking up pasta alfredo, but we ended up eating dinner outside. So, I rushed home yesterday, sampai almost at 7pm, campak-ed some chopped up garlic, start sautéing them and later, some sliced up sausages (it’s a good thing I remembered to ask my sister to take them out of the freezer before she left for work). I then chopped up some broccoli (leftovers from what I used the day before with the braised chicken), cooked the pasta, cranked open the pasta sauce in its tin, and proceeded to mix it all up together, with a sprinkle of salt and and good dash of freshly-ground pepper. I didn’t know if my dad would enjoy this alfredo pasta, so I fried 3 burger patties, sliced some lettuce and tomatoes and served them up with the other condiments for a home-made burger. All done in about 45 minutes. Not too bad, if I do say so myself.

Surprisingly enough, the pasta was barely enough for all of us (my brother decided last minute to come home for dinner), and although we stalled him with an order of Chocolate Cream Chip Frap from Starbucks, and though he was like 3 minutes away from home, he turned around to get it for us (such a sweetheart! Anyone wants to marry him??). But as soon as he came home, the pasta was gone in a jiffy, so were the extra 2 burger patties and 2 sausages that I fried after dinner in anticipation of his return.

So tonight the menu would be: Fried Rice Chinese-style and Sambal Prawns with big onions. I have already cooked the rice last night and it’s about just right now, and I have brought down the prawns from the freezer this morning before I left for work. Let’s hope all goes well in the kitchen today *cross fingers*.

*Phew* All this bersilat in the kitchen action is definitely making up those lost hours in the gym. I'll see you next week then *winks at training machine*.