winter wollaton-land

some pix i took last weekend at wollaton park

swans walking on frozen lake

deers grazing 'frozen' grass..

and these were taken around our house...

and the snow just keep on coming..

winter came early..

its not even december and yet winter has arrived

last week it flooded in south cornwall - lostwithiel (where we stayed for a week during xmas holidays in 2008) and st austell were badly hit.

last friday, scotland & wales & north east england were snowed down. winter came early this year to uk; its not even december yet! uk is experiencing the earliest widespread snowfall since 1993. this is caused by high pressure over Greenland and low pressure in Baltic states forcing cold winds from north east across Europe. on saturday, the cold snap & snow reached the midlands; nottingham was the 7th coldest place in the UK on sunday with temp of -10 deg C. the coldest place was in wales with temp down to -18 deg. the subzero temperature extends for the whole week with more snow and wind chill.

this is our first winter in this house..and its cold!!! my flower bed is ruined..pokok kesom in greenhouse pun wilted..tak tau lah boleh diselamatkan ke tidak...

we havent switched on the gas central heating yet cos we are only in at nite. and whenever we are in, all of us keep ourselves warm in the living room with just one electric heater/blower & electric radiator. we switched on the central heating last weekend, just to check how long will it take to warm up the house as we are expecting guests from msia in less than 3 weeks. nanti guests beku pulak. but the upstairs room are quite warm cos hot air rises and warm up the room quite easily. and also, last weekend we bought an electric blanket for the guest room.

despite the cold weather, we went out to the shops on saturday; the kids spent their duit raya collection on warm clothings.

it was very sunny which made it colder! on sunday, we bundled up and went out for a walk at wollaton park and there were lots of people - walking & sledging. lake was iced & frozen but we enjoyed the walk.

big missy's bakes..

she's really good at baking now. at school 2 weeks ago, she made scones; last week shortbread, today apple crumble.. she achieved level 4+ in her cooking class today - for the appearance, how well she worked for the lesson & for following instructions. next week she's making pineapple upside down cake, which is also one of my favourites.

my aunty who's coming for holiday in spring next year had made a special request for aisyah's scones on her arrival!

and this is my version of apple & strawberry crumble..

baking weekend

last weekend, weather was not good at all - cold and gloomy.

on saturday morning, big missy baked scones again, upon my request, we had them with Devon clotted cream and cherry & berry jam..and they were just lovely!!

in the afternoon i had to go to the dissertation class..proposal to be handed in on 10/1, topic pun belum confirm lagi. the thesis has to be submitted at the end of april, how to enjoy my spring holidays macam ni???

on sunday, kamar made a lovely english breakfast (minus bacon of course laa..) - sausages, egg sunny side up, chips (??), mushromms and toast; makan dengan sos lingam haha.

then i baked carrot cake for my workmates to bring to the office on monday; which by the way, was rated superb! by my colleaague - now they call me the official cake maker of construction management dept.

the kids & daddy dont really like carrot cake so i made for them a bowl of trifle, tak sempat nak ambik gambar dah habis dimakan..

now thinking of what to bake to give away as xmas presents..

do we read enough?

my friend mira who inspired me to start blogging (but she stopped blogging few months ago for some personal reasons which i still dont know to this date); has been doing this audiobook review for NST for few months now.. kudos to her.she writes really well - lawyer kan, of course laa...which reminds me of chris, my colleague who teaches law, well liked (and loved) by the students who created a facebook account to honour him. even our group of academics admire him for his exceptionally good written and oral communication skill. he always wear suits and tie to classes; unlike almost all of us who always turn up in casual attire..


back to mira, last weekend dia sudah mabok beli over 100 books at the Big Bad Wolf sale somewhere in klang valley..i've lost touch with all the bookstores in msia; yang i tahu only kino, borders, mph to name but a few. she's always been an avid reader and i used to give her books as presents but i reckon now tak payah lagi dah sebab dia dah ada banyak buku haha.


i read a lot when i was single, staying alone in the one bedroom flat in glasgow, loved buying second hand books from the bric a brac shops on byres road; read while travelling on buses and trains.. now, my leisure reading has kind of gone down the drain. at one time i was into sophie kinsella books, my most recent buy is Eat Pray Love, havent started on first page yet. but i never stopped buying books especially cookbooks. now my reading is rather limited to more serious, reference reading for teaching materials or literature review for the assignment. sometimes i read a bit on the bus on the way to/from work but taking the reading glasses out of the bag is a bit of a hassle. yesterday i got an email from a book publisher, offering me to review a few chapters of a new reference book on estimating, written by a senior academician from a london uni. quite an easy job, get a bit of cash (cud do with a bit of money to buy xmas presents!) for about an hour of reading, filling in some forms and writing a short review. after glancing through few chapters, we reckon between both of us, we could write better book ! in the past, few students suggested that i compile my teaching materials into a book..a bit too ambitious if you ask me...

kamar loves reading and he used to read a lot. he's a big fan of tom clancy, dan brown and jk rowling - owns and read all of their books more than once.however he's finding it a bit reluctant to buy his books now cos they are not really his cup of tea.


now aisyah takes over and her reading is more on horses and teenager stuff such as jackie wilson, not a fan of stephanie meyers though. she spends most of her pocket money on books and also borrows from our neighbourhood library. i bought loads of books for aliyah at the car boot, at the moment she's into disney princesses books. and at preschool, they have reading/story telling sessions and when she comes back from school, she would narrate to me about goldilocks, magic porridge pot.

reading is a culture here, people read on buses and trains, in the cafe, while on holiday... and i hope my kids will instill that habit.

selamat hariraya aidil adha

aidiladha was celebrated on tuesday in the uk land and its just like any other weekday for us. as usual, my day starts at 6am..and i was on my feet non stop till i leave before 8am for i had a 9am lecture. when i got home, there was kuah lodeh, nasi himpit, pulut kuning and kuah kacang; courtesy of mimi & family.

i'm staying up late again tonite, finalising the slides for tomorrow's lecture. just when i prepared my lecture materials early this year, there's always the finishing touches to do..while family & friends at home are celebrating raya haji & attended to the korban ritual, i'm 'berkorban' too in my own way and little missy is sleeping soundly on the sofa, keeping mummy company.

my dearest friend Salwani & her hubby, Hassan are performing their haj this year and i hope they complete their pilgrimage, insyaallah mendapat haji mabrur. we spoke last week and she sounded well despite the sore throat and mild cough. me & sally been friends since we were 7 years old and i couldnt help feeling sad when we were on the phone. hope to speak to her soon when she returns to msia as hajjah salwani...

angel...

little missy painted a picture of an angel at her preschool which will be printed into seasons greeting cards. we are going to order a dozen to send to close friends & relatives this xmas & new year..

the back of the card

we've got a proof/sample but we are not going to reveal it just yet...tungguuuu!!

crumble, brownies & scones..

last weekend we didnt go anywhere despite the lovely sunny weather - reason being, little missy was still coughing and had a temperature and feverish at night for more than a week already. and we had to do the garden as the dried fallen leaves from the willow tree had blanketed the backgarden.

staying in means strong association with cooking and baking. on saturday, i made tagliatelle carbonara with smoked salmon for lunch, followed by delia smith's apple crumble for dessert. for dinner, we had roast chicken which was prepared and cooked by my significant other.

the next day, i felt like having penang assam laksa but i had to cook something less spicy for the kids, so ended up making both!

then i baked chocolate brownies cupcakes for the people at work. the assam laksa was really 'kick' and the brownies were yummy! the next day, my colleague said 'the cakes were delicious and superb!!!'

rupa tak lah lawa macam orang jual kat msia tu but the chopped walnuts and dark choc chips make the choc brownies taste simply awesome!!...

on wednesday, big missy had her DT (design & technology) lesson and they made scones which were really really nice; better than the ones i made. tracy, lauren's mom had one and she rated it 'A+'!

this morning, big missy asked if she could bake scones for us and of course, mummy said a big YES! i helped to weigh the ingredients; she said they use digital weighing scale at school which mummy doesnt have haha.. i put the photos of her in action and the fruit of her labour on fb; ramai orang impressed..dah boleh harap dah, nanti boleh la buat scones for mummy tok & aunty yan when they come over.

firstly, rub flour & sugar & butter. then pour in egg beaten in milk into the flour, bit by bit until u get the right texture. leave some egg&milk mixture for glazing.

then, knead the dough but do not overwork ... and cut with scone/cookie cutter.

next, glaze with remaining egg&milk and bake

15 minutes later, the house was filled with freshly baked scones.

serve with butter (or fresh clotted cream is better!) and jam. ...table cloth matching pulak dengan jam jar cover haha...

the scones were simply delicious!!..light, not gooey and melt in your mouth...

halloween and bon fire

last sunday of october was halloween nite..i bought the girls some hair accessories and small make up palette just for fun. little missy had halloween party at preschool on friday; she didnt want to dress in halloween outfit (i bought her a pumpkin suit & a cat suit at the carboot last summer) because she said "pumpkin has moody face". on thursday nite i bought a minnie mouse dress fr tkmaxx, she loved it and wore it on friday.

big missy went trick or treating with her friends lauren & kaylee at the girls' neighbourhood and came home with lots of goodies..

our halloween dinner - lamb chops with coleslaw, peas, chips & yorkshire pudding

last friday - remember!remember! the 5th of November which marked Guy Fawkes Day/Bonfire Nite which coincides with Diwali/Deepavali (orang malaysia cuti lagi...). when nite fell, berdentum dentam bunyi fireworks in our neighbourhood despite the rain. the next morning i bought a box of fireworks & few packets of sparklers for the kids to play on saturday & sunday nites. on sunday nite, little missy could lit up the sparklers herself because she said 'she's a big girl now'...