Saturday, January 29, 2011

A very busy year end.

Wow, January is almost over. I have been super busy since the last post. Well, even before that, actually. Sampai demam2, it was crazy! Why people always assume being a housewife is easy, is beyond me. You have MORE social obligations you can't run away from.

My mother in law went for haj last October, so the Mr. and i played host before the send off. I was already running here and there for my December project. So, knowing that we don't have any help especially when it was a weekday and time is always an enemy, we catered for about 20 pax, but catered in the sense that we ordered food. So picking up, setting up, cleaning up and all was all basically DIY :"( (Thanks to Cik Lili who got herself busy as she arrived). The very next night was the time we welcomed  my lil nephew, baby Hazir into the world (wrote abt it in my last post). I went to sleep over at my brother's house to help look after my sad nephew whom the parents had to leave for the new arrival. Brought him to the hospital the next morning and helped my brother with his stuff the next day when the wife got discharged from the hospital. Penat being a host pun still tak hilang lagi...


Before sending off the mum-in-law, makan-makan at our place.
Not even a small picture can spare me the eyebags.... :'( 
 
Then i went for a hide-away (from life outdoors) to prepare cakes for 2 occasions. In which i received a phone call for order when i was asleep after the haj send off. MIL was called in about 1.30am. So by the time i reached home and done cleaning up, i slept about 3-4am. I remembered talking gibberish on the phone and finally offered a call back soon because i realised i was scaring my customer away. Hehehe.

I made a simpleThomas birthday cake as requested for the birthday boy to bring to school (but fyi to those who are not in the know, a simple cake does not mean simple to make. Just in case you are wondering WHY a simple cake can cost so much sometimes. Kalau tak percaya, i suggest you try make one. Yes, i sound annoyed don't i? Because that's the truth). And made another 50 cupcakes the day after for the party at home. Complicated lil cuppies that requires a head start on colouring, cutting, shaping and moulding. Days ahead. So you can imagine the lack of sleep and all. I never look good attending these birthday parties whenever i have to come with my own cake in my hands! lol (And i don't think i ever want to do this kind of cuppies ever again!! :'( Unless of course, someone would really want to pay for all the pain and hard work).

(But in between, i still manage to squeeze some time pegi Angel Spa ;) Wanted to write about it but haven't had the chance to. So this will have to wait).

After that came Raya Haji. Since the mum-in-law was away for haj, my hubbs being the eldest son suggested we had the makan2 pagi raya session at our place. It was our turn to spend raya with his family anyways. So we once again played host for the celebration but this time, yours truly did the cooking (of course). Thanks to mum and ayah for dropping by to offer help. You guys are the best!!! Oh yes, u too, Harris! :D I managed to get the kari ayam, kuah lodeh, sambal goreng, rendang daging, (ketupat plastic, no less :p, and lemang (beli) too) all ready on time! In fact, the cooking was all ready way ahead of schedule! An accomplishment for me. Tak pernah masak full course for a large pax on my own for pagi raya so far. This was a first for yours truly :) (Though i got some help but mainly things were done by myself la. Thanks again mum n ayah... i couldn't have done it without you!!! Well, can la tapi takla siap by 5pm! Hehehe ;) )


 Table all set in the morning of Aidiladha :D
Waiting for the guests....

Next came dad's birthday. I made him a cheese cake since i know how much he loves them. It was my first time attempting a cheese cake and i was quite surprised how simple it was to make! But the ingredients aren't cheap, though. Then, i was down with fever :( I can't remember for how long. But it was not very long before my next order that was long booked by the cousin. I had to forego the one before that, though-the quite last minute order for a friend. (Pix below). Because i still had to squeeze in time to go meet people for my December thing.. so ampun, babes. Tak larat. Hehehee.. Health comes first, considering our age now.. :P

Us sharing a tiramisu @ twentyone

Finally November was coming to an end. Made the 2-tiered Barney cake for the cousin's son 1st birthday for the 27th November party. She was getting nervous when she got to know that i was not well, worried that i might not get the baking done for her but all was well, alhamdulillah. Tee hee. Luckily she wanted an exact design of a Barney cake i've done in the past, so i was able to skip the head scratching part to think about designs to come up with. But just when i thought i have the remaining 3 days to breathe before December comes, the Mr. fell sick! Can you imagine that?!!