Monday, November 2, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Bakul(Basket)
(Redirected from Baskets)
A basket is a container which is traditionally constructed from stiff fibres, often made of willow. The top is either left open or the basket may be fitted with a lid.
The plant life available in a region affects the choice of material, which in turn influences the weaving technique. Rattan and other members of the Arecaceae or palm tree family, the thin grasses of temperate regions, and broad-leaved tropical bromeliads each require a different method of twisting and braiding to be made into a basket.
Although baskets were traditionally created to serve a utilitarian rather than an aesthetic purpose, the practice of basket making has evolved into an art. Artistic freedom allows basket makers a wide choice of colors, materials, sizes, patterns, and details.
Maybe some of you wonder, why suddenly I want to write about baskets.
This is one nice basket, commonly used in Malay wedding to give presents to either bride or groom.
After seeing some examples of baskets, guess what I am going to write this time. This is still about basket. Some of you maybe heard this Malay saying, 'Masuk Bakul Angkat Sendiri'
After attending the course in school on the 10th of October that day, what the woman said really make me think. The talk was given by Dr Fatanah Mohamed. She is a counselor in MU, ex-student of STF(Sekolah Tun Fatimah, one of the elite boarding school in JB). She got a master with GPA 4 flat.
Why do you think she told everybody about her achievements either in her studies or her carrier? Is she becomes a member of my Kelab already? If any of you attend any seminar or talk, the MC always introduce the speaker with her/his qualifications. Why do you think that it is neccesary to do that?
I never thought about having my own 'bakul'. Do you? What the lady meant by having your bakul was, you try to achieve as many thing as possible. If you do things, 'you must always be the best in the world', this one I really quoted from her.
For example, I am the best F6 maths teacher 'in the world', in ACS Klang. This is how we started fill in our bakul. If you are a student, you started fill in your bakul from now. Ask yourself, what you really love to do. If you are good in sport, then your bakul must be filled with something about sports. If you are good in academic, maybe you can start fill in your bakul, lets say, 5A for UPSR, 7A for PMR, 8A for SPM and 4 flat for STPM. Then you can continue filling in with dean's list, best students, and so on after you enter college.
Come on, every one must have some thing that you are good at. So you can start fill in your bakul now. Don't worry about your bakul different from your friend's one.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Fasting Month..........Buka Makan Apa?
This question is frequently asked among us either in school or within the family.
During fasting month, many people will show their hidden talent in cooking.
Including me.
In school, we start exchanging recepies.
When breaking our fast, we want something different from having rice everyday.
So we come up with many recepies.
Some of the dishes I cooked to break the fast were soto ayam, sphagetti bolognise, baked macaroni, fried rice, kebab, nasi ayam, nasi lemak, mee goreng, and as for today we had soup with either behoon, mee or roti canai.
And don't forget about the kuih. So far I made puding pelangi, puding jagung, puding caramel, popiah, bubur jagung and many more.
I used to make many more kuih and dishes for buka puasa but this year I kind of not in the mood to cook. Most of the time my maid will cook for us.
Another tradition during fasting month that I always did with my husband was going to bazaar Ramadan. We would go to almost all bazaar in Shah Alam(Stadium Shah Alam, Seksyen 17, Seksyen 19, Seksyen 18, Seksyen 6 and of course Seksyen 7). But we hardly bought anything. We just like to look at different kuih being sold there. But we stop going to bazaar Ramadan this year already. We just eat whatever we cook at home.
This year, no more taking bubur lambuk from masjid negeri, which I always did almost every other day last year.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Fasting Month-Bamboo cannon
Bamboo cannon
Meriam buluh or bamboo cannon is a type of home-made firecracker which is popular during the Hari Raya festive season in Malaysia, and during the New Year's day celebration in the Philippines. Like other fireworks, bamboo cannons are illegal as stated in Malaysian Explosive Act 1957; ironically, more Malay children turn to the more dangerous bamboo cannon as an alternative to commercial firecrackers which were made illegal by the government.
How it works
A typical bamboo cannon consists of a large bamboo and a mixture of calcium carbide and water. The chemical reaction formed as a result of mixing calcium carbide with water inside the bamboo produces acetylene, an explosive gas. The acetylene explodes when a flame is introduced to the mixture. The explosion may cause severe injury if not handled carefully.
Kerosene is also used as a fuel. Less than a cup (about 200ml) of hot kerosene is poured into a small hole near the breach of the cannon. A lighting stick is used to ignite the fumes and fire the cannon. Then fresh air is blown into the small hole and the cannon is fired again. It takes some practice to make the loudest bang. The bamboo is usually around 4 to 6 inches in diameter and 4 to 5 feet long.
This is not us, just a picture to show how one play with meriam buluh.
I promise in my previous post to write a story about meriam buluh. For us in the kampung, our fasting month won't be complete without meriam buluh. How we to know that playing meriam buluh was against the law(according to the above statement). We just wanted to have fun. We couldn't afford to buy the fire cracker as we only got money to buy food only. We used kerosine as the fuel to ignite our meriam buluh. But the sound was not so fantastic. Some of us came out with a lot of ideas on how to outdo our friends one. Whoever had the loudest sound was consider like champion. I played meriam buluh with my friends too. Don't be suprise that I also helped my brother in making our meriam buluh the loudest.
This incident happenned when I was still very young. If I am not mistaken, I was about 6, as my brother was 5 years older than me. My brother decided to play meriam buluh with his friend. When I wanted to tag along, he said no. They played the meriam buluh near the surau, about 200m from our house. We heard a very loud bang came from their meriam buluh. It was not a usual bang. The villagers ran the surau to see what happen. We saw blood was everywhere. One of my brother's friend was covered with blood. My brother got a slight injury as he only watched the friend playing. The friend lost two fingers. After further investigation, we found out that they did not use the kerosene, as we always did. This time they use carbide to make the sound louder. And carbide can explode easily and the meriam buluh also can break quite easily too.
Do you think we learned our lesson? The answer is yes. At least for that year only. When Ramadan came again the following year, we went back to our ways, have fun with meriam buluh.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Fasting Month.........so fast
Saturday, August 22, 2009
PMS (Version 2)
Imagine how we fast during summer because the day was longer than night. We started fasting about 4 am and only can break our fast about 8.30 pm. The temperature (it was about 100degrees F) also didn't contribute to our comfort. Some of us took summer courses and some of us just lazying around. Many of us who didn't have class went sight seeing in New York City or some other cool places like Niagara Falls.
It happened during the month of Ramadan. The Malay community there was small. There were about 30 of us. Once a week, we girls cooked something special and we broke our fast together. As for me, I was just helping only since I was not that good in the kitchen.(Learned to cook only after I got married)
The next day, I didn't fast because it was that 'time of the month'. I was cooking something (only goreng telur) in the kitchen for breakfast. At the same time my roommate was talking on the phone to her boyfriend(now her husband). And the phone happened to be in the kitchen. He heard the noise of my cooking and asked what was that noise. My friend said "Biah tengah basuh pinggan yang lepas makan semalam". Takkan nak cakap I was cooking when everybody suppose to fast. Her boyfriend told the boys about me washing the dishes, and they felt bad since the dishes was used by them the previous day. He didn't know it was a lie to cover me eating in the day time of Ramadan.
The moral of the story is, after that incident, the boys would wash the dishes after each gathering. And the girls didn't need to clean up the dishes after each gathering. At least they can rest after they were quite tired cooking the food for them.