Wow!

I am honored that farha would nominate me for this one. Surprising really because my journal looks bland, sometimes. But anyway, here goes…

Brilliant Weblog is a prize given to sites and blogs that are smart and brilliant both in their content and their design. The purpose of the prize is to promote as many blogs as possible in the blogsphere. Here are the rules to follow:

1) Put the logo on your blog.

2) Add a link to the person who awarded you.

3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4) Add links to those blogs on yours.

I want to nominate all of my journal readers plus these

Tia’s little online story book

My own travel journal

Disastrous attempts in my kitchen

Puan Wangi

Aida sayang

MQ

Farmgirl

Athira’s little journal

Again, I’m gonna pimp Tia’s little story book here. I have it linked over at the side through MyBlogLog, so hopefully more people would go and have a little visit.

We stated off her journal in January 2006. My husband used to write there, until it just had gotten too much for him. So I continued on this from last year until now.

There had been couple of dried spells in between, for about three months each. During that time, I would mostly update about her in my own journal here.

There is too much stories that I had shared with friends over here through the years, sometimes it felt like this is turning into her own little story book.

So I am doing what I should have done years ago - updating her own little story book. From last month, I had been going through her photo album from the first month, and updating little stories as I share more photos as she grow older.

I am up to month sixteen as of couple of days ago, about our travel to Glasgow and Edinburgh in January 2006. Actually she turned sixteen months in March , and these entries were of photos that I had forgotten about, but forget about that. The latest entry that I made was this one .

I would continue to update about her in her little story book until I reach her very recent photos. That would be last month. I had been so lax in taking her photos, and almost any other photos around. Funny to think that I used to snap at least a hundred photos a day.

Hopefully that would change, if not sooner, later.

I just have to share this photo of me and her. Taken circa December, 2005, she just turned one few weeks before.

Tak kesah la den gemok sanggup nak letak gambaq den kat sini juak. Journal den. Den bayaq hosting. Den bayaq domain. So, suka hati lor…

Play dough

I am not really talking about playdough the kiddie dough stuff, actually. I am referring to fondant. I am not sure what fondant’s are, but I am so enamored with its end result.

I am not a good baker. I could bake some cakes, some breads (if I was lucky enough to knead the dough well), and some cheesecake. OK, so I could bake some delicious cheesecakes, but I was lucky that I found one very fool proof cheesecake recipe.

Again, I am off tangent. I could cook OK, but baking is still a hit and miss thing. I wished that I do more baking, actually. I always wanted to be a better cook, even thought of going to culinary school to learn pastry and baking. I could do that, I supposed, when Tia is older, and when we have that extra moolah stuck here or there.

The idea of going to culinary school had been there for a long time, even when I was still in college back in Memphis. But of course, I had no recourse and no resources of changing my major back then, so I had to stick to what I was doing. I am not sure what I would be doing should there were any options of changing into culinary school then. I am not sure where I would be, what I would be doing. But those are not worth thinking about since I did not go into culinary school. Close the book on that one, and just move on.

Well, move on I did, but the idea of going to culinary school is still at the back of my mind. Baking and pastry school, that is, because I am not interested to go to cooking school. Let me rephrase that. I know that I wanted to culinary school, but my main interest would be in baking and pastry. If I was able to do that, and finish the course, I might want to go into cooking school afterwards. But then, there are gazillion of things that I need to learn in baking school, so maybe I should stick to that, yes?

What’s with all these talk about going back to school, yes? Probably I just wanted to relive the joy of being in school. The joy of almost not having much to be responsible for, I guess :).

But anyway, I know there are culinary school in Malaysia, but I don’t think our financial situation would permits me to apply to one.

But that’s besides that point. Point it, I wanted to learn how to do cakes like the one above. Simple, yes, since I gotta start at the simplest ones, no?

Don’t you just love that little jumping monkey, eh?

The Messengers

We have two cable cards at home, one for Tia since she would badger me about letting her watch her cartoon networks all the times, and one for me to watch all the movies that I wanted. That is the downside of living with a very busy husband who just started work in a new company. He is just not there much of the times, so both of us, meaning me and Tia, would have to make do with the arrangements for now.

But anyway, I watched lots of movies on Star Movies or HBO. It is a hit and miss. Sometimes I would love most of what they aired, but some weeks it would be too dull, and I ended up not turning up to the movies channels at all.

One of the movies that I enjoyed was this one. I had it recorded since I knew that I would have to watch it when Tia is asleep, at night, since during the day I would be at her beck and all. Yes, I know, sounds like I am her maid. Thankfully we only have one kid at the moment, so I don’t mind doing stuffs for her.

Especially since she is only three and a half, and most stuffs she could not do anyway. Heh…

I recorded the movie, and I watched it few times afterwards. It was scary during the first screening when you had no idea what was going to sprang out, but after couple of times, it was not that surprising no more.

But anyway, here is what I think about it….

That’s one of the main characters in The Messengers, Jess Solomon (Kristen Stewart) , a troubled teenage girl who just moved to North Dakota from Chicago with her parents, Roy and Denise (the very hot Dylan MacDermott and Penelope Ann Miller) and little brother Ben,(the very adorable Evan and Theodore Turner). Dylan is mute, partly due to an accident that occur about a year ago. And partly due to Jess’s fault. The family had to spend all their savings for Ben’s medical bills in Chicago, made worse by the fact that Roy had not been able to secure a job in the past year or so. That prompted the move to North Dakota. To start anew.

When they arrived to their newly bought piece of land, the house greeted them.

When I first had a glimpse of the house, it freaked me out big time. Just look at the color. Just look at how abandoned it looked. I know that if my husband would to show this house to me and said that we are moving there, I would show him the finger :p.

The Solomon’s moved there to plant sunflower, for the seeds. Though they could not afford to hire help around the farm, another character, John Burwell (John Corbett) passed through while Roy was attacked by a group of crows, and helped Roy around the farm afterwards.

Something sinister is a lurking around the house, and only Jess and little Ben felt it. Jess had gone through an episode where she thought that she was under attack in their house while she had to take care of Ben. Everything was thrown everywhere, and she called the police. She and her brother crawled out the window, but when she turned around, everything was as it should be.

Her parents believed that she was delusional and was going through a phase. She knew better, and she knew that her brother saw those things, too.

Things started to get pretty much predictable after the first episode of the attack. But one thing I could not get out of my mind is thing image.

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