- Marhabannnn -


- Assalamualaikum -

A day lepas pindah to new building, we went out to buy groceries kat Lulu. Tgh angkat2 barang, someone approached us and bg salam, asking whether we're Malaysian. Obviously de pun malaysian la kan hehe so start la sembang. He lived at Level 2 with another Malaysian family. As he need to go airport picking up someone so we just had a quick chat and he left. Soon after that, his wife came to our house membawa cake sebagai salam perkenalan. From her, I came to know that there's 2 Malaysian family staying at level 2 and another 2 families at level 1. So far, I only met 2 ladies from level 2, which triggered me the idea to do house warming. Afterall, aku tak jumpa pun lagi wife wife Malakoff-ians yang base sama sama kat Q8 ni. Stakat jumpa di alam maya aka facebook, blogs.

Menu decided soto, meehun, nasik impit, begedil, honey cornflakes for kids, rojak buah for adults but cancelled due to kekurangan bahan bahan utk rojak kat sini like sengkuang and jambu, rojak then changed to buah-buahan sahaja hahahah. Since Lulu ade Mango Mania fest, so mango la menjadik pemenang kali ni. Ade yang cakap mango tak sesuai, beli je tembikai. Senang ! When it comes to jamu my guest, I am very much like them to feel satisfied, kenyang and tak serik datang. I'm not against tembikai, it just that selalu sangat tembikai kan, sesekali tukar la pulak buah lain hehehe. Ramai jugak suggest buat pudding or agar agar but I dun feel like making one for that day. Reason is I dun like to eat agar2 myself, I'm not good in making agar2 and pudding and it is like common desserts usually found during makan makan so I decided to lari dari kebiasaan. Hahahaha padahal nye tak reti nk buat, cakap je laaaaa... Anyway, I found sticky stuff not really un-appropriate for party with kids. My personal opinion okay !!! No offense but agar agar kan macam melekit lekit.. so nnti risau pulak budak2 ni nak makan then melekit2 tgn dgn baju, menyusahkan parents derang asik kene cuci kan tangan. So no agar agar this time, maybe some other time.

Air pulak adelah air manga sejuk and kopi untuk yang nak air panas. Dua dua laku especially kopi Aik Cheong ku...

Menu dh decide, problem nye adelah kaki tangan. So far if my mind served me correctly, I had two tangan and two legs. Alis and Erin dah tak masuk buku sebab mmg tak ley membantu sangat la kan hahahha.. menyepah adoo. En Muddy pulak was on 6 nites shift straight, which could only be means, he'll be sleeping during day time. There gone my most suitable helper candidate. Looks like I'm alone this time. Really alone. Before this, I've never short of helping hands coz in any occasions or kendurik, my mum and my sisters will always comes to help. Mostly my mum will cook and the rest will do the preparation. This time, I'm all about to do the preparations, cooking, serving, entertaining guests, cook lunch for kids and bekal for En Muddy keje malam, clearing dishes, cleaning the house....etcetera etcetera etcetera by MYSELF !. Senang cite one woman show .. huhuhuuhhu invitation already out, takkan nak cancel although at some point mmg rasa nk cancel wakakkaka.. Takperla, it's worth a try. Sedap ke tak sedap, chaos ke tak chaos our majlis, yang penting nawaitu nk menjamu tetamu dan merapatkan silaturrahim mattered most huhhhh...

Majlis as in SMS invitation starts after maghrib for families and 5-6 pm for bachelors. Rumah ku kecik sahaja wehhh.. kalau semua datang serentak mmg lah ade yang kene bertenggek atas speaker En Muddy. So 1st group of bachelors arrived around 6pm and start menjamu selera. While they enjoying their meals, I was at kitchen preparing for next wave after Maghrib. Rebus meehun, potong ketupat, potong manga, bancuh kopi bla bla bla then I performed my Maghrib prayer 1st. It is pretty embarassing to admit but we had only 1 sejadah at home, bawak from Malaysia that day meant to be shared between En Muddy and me. When the bachelors are here, they decided to sembahyang jemaah hence I'm praying 1st coz the sejadah will be used by "imam" of the day after me, Pak Udin from Indonesia. The rest of jemaah, aku lapikkan kain pelekat En Muddy. Afterall derang sembahyang atas karpet kat living hall hehehhee. Note to myself, beli more sejadah.


- tuan rumah menunggu tetamu -

Second group came one by one right after Maghrib and after chatting a while, bachelors group excused themselves to give some space for families. This is where I just dunno what to do at some points. I kept go back and forth tambah kuah soto, tambah meehun, tambah ayam siat, tambah begedil and in between bertegur sapa dgn jiran jiran baru, jemput derang makan, try to get to know each other, make conversations, clear garbage bags huhuhuhuhu Mamaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, datang Q8 segeraaaaa....tawakkal jek la hahaha...


- "Bachelors but not available" was leaving. They came on single package here. Wifey and kids were at Indonesia -


- separuh dari tetamu kecil yang hadir, separuh lagi tak sempat amik gambar -


- ade tetamu kecil, pasti ade tetamu besar. Sebahagian tetamu besar yang hadir, separuh lagi either belm sampai atau takdedlm gamba -


- among malakoff-ians yang hadir, En Izham dan En Sabri bersama pasangan masing2 Ayu dan Ema yang handal handal memasak belaka -

Among juadah yang ade dan termampu di sediakan pada hari kejadian :


- Begedil -


- cornflakes madu and keropok Semek Daik goreng, keropok ni 1st menu abes. Tak pelik sbb most tetamu adelah orang pantai timur. Rindu kopok ekkk ? -


- bawang goreng and cili padi kicap -


- 2 malam aku buat mendaalah ni so gamba kene lebey hahahah -


- chocolate for kids and strawbery pudding, courtesy of Mr Lim's wife, Lina. Our 7th floor neighbour yang sangat rajin masak dan sangat baik hati. Thank you Lina and Lim -


- ayam siat and adik beradik daun, bumbu for soto -


- manga yang terbaik dari ladangggggg, siyes de tabur baja gula kot-


- mother of all menu, takde kuah soto ni org mkn nask impit dgn air paip la jawap nye -

Overall, I can call my majlis a success. I think everyone went back with full stomach. Aku sempat peeked on my guests and some of them bertambah soto 4-5 kali so rasa nye all went well. Alhamdullilah syukur, my food doesn't go to waste. Kuah soto tinggal dasar2 jek, ngam2 seperiuk kecik, which ended up got reheated for next morning breakfast hahahaha, makcik penat wehhh, x larat nk masak dah. Cornflakes madu pun tinggal dalam 10 bijik jek. Thanks to everyone atas kesudian hadir ke majlis yang tak seberapa dan menu yang tak seberapa ini. Insya allah ade rezeki, kite bertemu di majlis yang lain.


- pompuan pakai turban tu la peneman setia aku kat dapur. It doesn't matter if you don't bake anything, yang penting u owned a very gedik glove. Motivasi diri ni walau setakat ni kegunaan de hanya lah utk kuarkan piring panas dari microwave kah kah kah -


- Kissy muahhh muaahh from Alis dan Erin -

Cara cara kentang mengejar cita2 menjadik begedil :

Step 1 :

Kentang di goreng sehingga kuning keemasan dan empuk seempuk sofa. Biarkan mereka bertenang dan sejuk.



Step 2 : Proses menumbuk

Kentang yng dh sejuk dan dah bertenang tadi perlu di tumbuk, di blend atau di-mash kan maka anda memerlukan batu tumbuk, batu giling, blender atau alat alatan yang sesuai asalkan kentang itu boley hancur. Oleh kerana di Q8 ni takde batu tumbuk( ade sebenar tapi x best, de made of kayu atau marble ), perhatian di alihkan kepada blender. Pun tak happening kerna kalau nk blend kena campur air which akan membuatkan kentang itu lembik. Lepas tu kene campur tepung yg akan menghilangkan keaslian rasa kentang. Dgn niat memintak simpati dari En Muddy aku pun mengadu. Jawapan yang di berikan langsung tak membantu. Kata En Muddy : Be creative mummy ! Masa ni la kene kreatif !

Dalam hati trus terflashback cara cara orang dulu2 buat wine. De pijak2 kan grapes tuh.. Boley la kot aplikasi kat kentang ni. Dgn kelebaran kaki aku ni, 3 kg kentang rasa nye 5 minit pijak dah settle kot. Okay..let's try.....






















Kah kah kah.... gile ape nk wat menda bukan bukan. Anyway, ni la cara kreatif aku yang ley terpikir mlm mlm buta tu.




- I found out cara ni lagi pantas dan effecyive compared using batu tumbuk. I had around 3 kg kentang there and it only took 3 round of tenyehan and it's mashed as I want them to be. Ade hikmah takde lesung batu ni kat sini -

Bagi sape sape yang mempunyai masalah dgn anger management atau mempunyai keperluan utk menumbuk seseorang, proses ini amat sesuai utk anda kerana anda boley bayang muka sesape sahaja didalam loyang anda dan start menenyeh. Tenyeh dan tenyeh dan tenyeh. Lepas tu jgn lupe solat sunat taubat mintak ampun heheheheh..

Step 3 : Proses menggaul

Bahan bahan yang diperlukan bawang goreng( preferably home made, lg siokk ), daun bawang dan daun sup di racik halus atau sederhana halus, garam secukup rasa. Minced meat atau sebarang elemen lain boley ditambah mengikut kehendak dan selera masing masing.






- jika rumah anda seperti rumah saya yang ketandusan mangkuk besar, bahagikan kawanan kentang itu kepada dua seperti ini bagi memudahkan proses menggaul-

Bahagikan kedua dua daun dan bawang goreng secara adil dan saksama ke dalam kedua dua mangkuk bg mengelakkan mana mana pihak berkecil hati.



Step 4 : Proses membentuk/menggentel

Setelah daun2 dan bawang goreng serta garam sudah sebati mesra dan nampak boley click dgn kentang tu, boley la mula mengentel dan membentuk mengikut bentuk yang anda mau. In my case, sebab nak jamu tetamu yang ramai lebey afdal aku buat kecik kecik, bite size orang kata. Kalau nak buat besar penumbuk pun boley, takde sape yg marah.



Step 5 : Proses graduasi


- Yeayyyy, aku dh berjaya mencapai cita2 menjadik begedil. Dah ley start gi Jalan TAR nk carik kebaya pakai waktu konvo nanti.. yeayyy yeayyy -

Sabar ye kentang... Cita cita kamu masih belum tercapai.. Kamu perlu melalui satu lg final exam, iaitu ujian menahan marah dalam kepanasan yang tinggi. Jangan khuatir, tidak la sepanas yang kamu sangka, seperti mandi sauna sahaja feeling de. Owhh kamu tak perlu risau dgn baju konvo sebab ianye dah tersedia utk kamu. Made of egg lagikkk..













- Tahniah kentang ! Kini baru la cita cita mu tercapai. Kau kini rasmi nye bergelar sebijik begedil !!! Suka dgn jubah baru kamu ??? -

I've been meaning to update this post since like....... hmmmm forevah and evahhh.. This draft itself dh terperuk dlm ni dekat seminggu. There's always distractions.. Both good and bad. Be it someone ring the door bell nak anta dapur, nk tukar water filter, nk buat wiring baru... or it's almost lunch time hence kene start masak, or En Muddy offday so masa utk sight seeing, and most baddest distraction adelah our internet line was down for freaking 3 days. This one dh tak ley panggei distraction. Dh patut panggil cekik darah punye kes. Anyway anyhow, aku ade bnyk menda nk story kat sini, so one story at a time ek.


Kami pindah lagik ! Tu tajuk utama ari ni. Dari Mangaf Block 3 ke Mangaf Block 4. Block kat sini adelah macam kawasan or mukim ( hmmm aku x sure la ape sebenarnye, zone maybe???). Contoh macam Puchong Utama, Puchong Perdana, Setiawangsa, Wangsa Maju. Cenggitu lah kira nye. Block block kat sini on another hand di panggil building. Ntah kenapa setiap kali dapat rumah, kiterang mesti dapat tingkat tinggi sekali. In old building, tingkat 6, at new home tingkat 8. Sume tingkat paling tinggi hehhe.. Adekah ini sign bile balik Mesia nanti akan duduk pent-house ? Kah kah kah...keep on dreaming makcik !!!...Keep on...

To be truth, dari sampai mmg dah ade hint2 nak kene pindah so I decided not to unpack, just leave everything in the box as it is. Basically, for the last 2 weeks or so, we're living out of suitcase and out of box. Nak pakai baju korek dalam beg, nak masak korek dalam kotak. Asik ulang ulang baju sama jek hahahhaha. Malas nk kluar banyak banyak baju.

Reason perpindahan kali ni ade pelbagai tetapi cerewet was not among it. Bukan nak mewah mewah pun, yang penting selesa dan convinient for all sebab nak duduk 3 tahun. Infact, rumah baru ni lagi kecik dari rumah lama, takde laundry room ( washer, dryer sume peruk dekat dapur ) and comes with only 1 bath tub (rumah lama dua dua bilik air ade bath tub). There's reasons why we decides to move. Senang citer, this house suits our taste more, kene selera bak kata orang Malaysia ( cheh cheh cheh, orang Malaysia ek?? Lempang skit tuan punye blog ni, de tuh orang mana ntah )Nanti dh setahun lebey br nak pindah, barang dh banyak lagi leceh.

Just to name a few on priority basis :


1) Easy access to main road

Rumah kat block 3 ( famously known as Swiss Gym sebab ade Gym kat situ nama Swiss Gym. As simple as that. Most building kat Q8 ni known by its famous bakalah or any trademark nearby the building. Ade satu building was called Shrimpy because ade kedai nama Shrimpy kat tepi building tu hehehhe) was located a bit secluded from main road. Kalau nak kluar, kena jalan kaki keluar ke main road. During winter, it may be a pleasant walk tapi sekarang ni summer wehhhhh. Jgn kan jalan kaki, br kluar lobby dah kluar keringat keringat jantan. Else, another way is kene call chartered cab lah. Mostly this so called chartered car was not well maintained, could be dirty at times and mostly in very bad condition. Ade yang tayar takde angin pun, tapi taknak kalah speed smpi 150 km/h. Jadik pe pe kang sape nk jawap? Dah la aku tak sampai lagi 360 mall uhuhuhuuhh. Yang takde aircond pun ade. Feeling de ala ala macam duduk dalam kebuk wasap. Prebet sapu "Q8 mari" lah senang cerita. New building kat Block 4 on another hand, betul2 tepi main road. Kluar je ade teksi. At times, x sempat sampai gigi jalan, dh ade teksi stop. Tak yah tahan tahan.


- New building punye entrance, just outside the door dah mainroad. Mudah kan?? Sesuwei utk lazy bum cam aku hahahah -

So this is plus point yang membuatkan we all decided to relocate here. One more factor, Swiss Gym tu entrance de siap ade tangga lak weh, mcm 10 anak tangga gak la. Kalau sekali beli brg, paling tak kurang 20-25 plastic bags. Go figure !!!


- Entrance at Swiss Gym, mmg hebat-grand bagai tapi kurang convinient-

Building baru, entrance de trus direct ke main door and terus lift. Super convenient ! Cheh macam macam la alasan ko baiiii hahahahah...

2) New building, new facilities, new furniture


-Lobby building baru -

Block 4 ni building baru, just operate not more that 2 months if compared to Swiss Gym. Jadik, biasa lah bangunan baru kan. Facilities de pun baru and as new building, the piping system, tank system, wiring all are mostly terbaru dan terkini. Like i used to mentioned before, Swiss Gym punye air sangat slow ya ampun !, tend to be very hottttt dan air de a bit yellowish. Unlike Swiss Gym, water here are clear, at reasonable speed and the hot-ness are bearable. Thanks to newly water-tank or the water-tank system, whichever applicable. Alhamdullilah.. Allah made it easy for us.

There are gym facilities and swimming pool also, just like Swiss Gym. The only different was, we can actually use it for real compared to Swiss Gym. At Swiss Gym, they don't actually allowed woman/families to use the gym and pool as the gym was open to everyone including Kuwaitis, explained the strict rules. After few series of complaint made, sebab dalam contract ade tulis yang we can use the gym and pool at anytime we like, they finally gave kelonggaran and allowed women and children to use from 7-9 am daily. Another problem occurs, they did not consistent in opening the pool or gym. Kadang kadang 8, kadang kadang 8.30. Baru cecah kaki kat pool, dah kene halau. How larrrr ??? At Block 4, the building, or accurately, the pool and gym was closed for outsider. Only open for tenants and can be use at anytime we like. Ada yang ckp, ala kat Malaysia dulu, rumah ko ade gym jugak, ade pool gak. Tak mandi pun ari ari. Hahhaha betul betul betul. Kena paham yang kat Q8 ni, not much entertainment can be found around. Nak jalan luar, panas! Nak shopping, barang mahal! Nak tgk movie, banyak cite arab, else english movies de sume dari zaman aku still layan Feminine lagi. CSI New York de pun still season 1 ke season 2. Sedih!! Pool ngn Gym lah jadik pelepas stress cenggituhhhh..One more thing, pool de indoor so anytime pun boley guna. Berkat asik turun pool jek, Alis and Erin can kick correctly and able to swim from one edge to another by themselves. Ofcourse with floaties but I betcha, it wont take long for them to not needing the floaties anymore. Maybe I can borrows theirs if I wanted to go to 2m side hahahahahaha.....


-kinda small tapi cukup la utk kegunaan penduduk bangunan ni yang x berapa kerat ni-


- open concept gym, de terabur kan jek kat depan pool hahhaha -




- pemandangan dr depan entrance, building building jiran. You won't get more than this here. It's either brown, beige or in it's original brick colour. I can understand why coz no point spending thousand dinars on fancy glossy paint coz it's going to get covered in sand anyway. Furthermore, it blends more with nature. They compensate it with highly well decorated lobby entrance. Most all buildings here got somewhat grand entrance, wrough iron gate, fancy lift,fancy drawing at lobby,fancy carpet,fancy wall paper and caretaker that will welcome you everyday, everytime. Most of time ! -


- sedikit preview master bedroom. Please be informed, model is not including in the house package. King size bed were given for both room. Quite bermasalah for us sebab King size Malaysia equivalent to Queen size in Q8. Even though we took extra precaution by picking King size bedsheets in Malaysia ( bedsheets in Q8 are very expensive so we brought few from Malaysia), still it cannot fit both beds. Truthfully, it does looks exactly like me trying to force 5 years old Levis jeans into my post-delivery body kah kah kah -


- dun hate the orange shower curtain, peoplesss !!! I tried my very best not to hahahha. Of all colour, orenggg jugak pilihangg hati building manager ni nk match ngn grey background. Belasah la labu,dummy jek ni sbb bile budak2 ni dh masuk tub, jgn kan lantai bilik air, lantai luar bilik air pun lencun -


Di sebab kan Swiss Gym ni bangunan lama, so basically penyewa de dh bertukar ganti. We could be tenant number 10 or the number could be more. So most furniture dah worn out. Cracked kat dinding mmg dh macam corak. There's one incident, one of the room lamp pecah tiba2. Takde angin takde ribut. Owhh there's ribut alright tapi kat luar hhahhaa. Sah la mmg x pernah bukak tingkap kat rumah ni kan. Just imagine, penuh kaca atas katil, dalam beg baju ( kata living out of suitcase,so beg mmg terbukak ). Bile called building caretaker, de just ckp biarlah, bersihkan la, nanti nanti de tukar. Sampai sudah la x bertukar huuhuhuhu. Dapur de pulak, mmg dh ramai pakai kan so banyak kerja-kerja menggilap, menggosok, membersih lah yang terlibat. Tak la teruk sangat pun, ok jek cuma sense of belonging tu takde, feeling macam rumah sendiri tu takde. Mengada ngada kan hahahha...Isk isk sangat mengada..

Block 4 pulak, dah nama block baru so everything was basically new. Furniture de pun more up to date, more modernize, and furnishing de pun cantik. It's rather small by 1/2 size compared to previous home but there's something about this house. Ade connection. Me likey !
The previous tenant was an American doctor who rented the house only on monthly basis as he came here on assignment. De duduk tak sampai dua bulan pun, he doesn't cook I guess coz dapur bersih berkilat tak bersentuh, freezer de tak berpakai lagi siap manual pun ade lg dlm tu, no trace of food inside which means he doesn't use it, and most all of kitchen stools provided by the management like toaster, cooking pots, fork and spoon still dlm either dalam plastic atau boxes. Somemore, since he came on single basis, only master bedroom's toilet was fully utilized as guest bathroom left untouched. Another alhamdullilahhhh... Again, Allah made it easy for us.


- setiap block pasti ade menda ni. Flyers utk delivery. Kat sini, tiap menda ade delivery. Thai restaurant, chinese restaurant, indian, turkish, krispy kreme.. segala mak nenek la ade delivery. Kat rumah aku ni dah ade berpuluh flyers. Sangat senang utk suri suri rumah yang di jangkiti penyakit allergic masuk dapur secara tiba2. Bile kena jek ngn penyakit misteri ni, all you have to do terabur kan sume flyers dalam koleksi, sebut teka teki teka tekuk, tengok mana yang kene, pehtu call jek. Mudah kannnnn -


- galley -



3 ) Neighbours

In Swiss Gym, most of my neighbors were US American soldiers base in Q8. Only 1 Malaysian family that I know off. Not that I have problem with that coz personally, they are nothing but nice and friendly. It just that we came to hear that there's a lot of Malaysian staying in new building in Block 4.

Infact, there's a lot of Malaysian living nearby.It's like mini perkampungan orang Malaysia. This triggers me something u know. Back in Malaysia, there's a time we gets worried about mini perkampungan Indo or Vietnamese yang tumbuh mcm cendawan lepas hujan. Could it be now Kuwaitis's turn to worried about us. Just like can be seen gerai bakso tepi tepi jalan, who knows tak lama lg ade pulak gerai2 Ramli Burger kat Q8 hahahaha...Acah jek, ngeri wooo sbb kat sini instead of normal police patrol car doing round, they sent FBI doing patrolling. Like wat the @#$%. FBI wehhh. I've seen them only on TV before and now, they're patrolling on road we use everyday. Wat malu Embassy jek kang ade rakyat Mesia kene tangkap coz setup illegal burger stall hahaha.

Okay, back to topic yang dh terlepas 3-4 simpang. So far, there's 6 Malaysian families including us staying here. 2 more on their way. It is indeed feel good being surrounded with familiar languanges, cultures and faces sometimes. Bukan tak nak bermingle dgn orang local or lain lain bangsa, it just the fact that En Muddy working on shift rotation. We dun have our priviliges like in Malaysia. We dun have car here. We certainly have no Columbia Hospital behind our backdoor and we obviously doesn't have parents staying 15 km away. In any case of emergency or kids got sick, it is indeed good to have someone we can trust and speak our language few floors away. Tu jek reason de.

4) Dekat dengan convinient store dan shoplots

Block 4 ni, as i kept mentioned was very near to main road. Near to seaside pun yer jugak. Near to Fahaheel pun yer. There's one convenient store ala ala Giant, opened 24 hours at sini. So senang la kalau tgh malam tiba2 nk makan ayam goreng tapi ayam takde, lari kejap gi beli. Sultan Centre pun dekat, within En Muddy's walking distance, so senang la kalau nk beli ape ape. Reason aku letak En Muddy's waking distance, sbb setakat ni de jek gigih jalan kaki. If i were to come along, sila la tahan teksi walau hakikat nye, 2-3 minit dah sampai hahahhaa. There's a lot of interesting shops can be found around this area if you keep looking. Most of kedai kat sini style de agak outdated. Style ala ala super kinta. Mostly all the good stuff located kat basement. Road level cuma entrance jek, we have to go few stairs down, masuk ke bawah baru la jumpa kedai sebenar. To those yang pernah pergi SuperKinta kat Ipoh paham la maksud aku hehehe. We found one store yang jual barang barang made in china. Mostly plastic ware and cheap household. Sangat sioookkkk . I'm sucker for cheap stuff. Takkan la nk beli mangkuk plastic, tapis sayur pun kat The Avenue kot hehehe. Trus En Muddy booked ticket anta balik Mesia. Lagi menambah belanja lak bawak dtg Q8.


- view from tingkap dapur, kat sini la aku skodeng FBI yang lalu lalang -


- another view dari tingkap dapur, motif sebenar nak tunjuk laut, dekat kan dr rumah aku, rasanye jln kaki smpi ni..kami mmg tak ley dipisahkan dgn laut. Lumut, Besut and now Qwait. -


- humble living room, sejengkal je hehhe -


- little project for alis and erin, called misi menghias bilik air mereka-




- end result cermin, jadik laaaaaaaa, ceria skit hahaha -

So, tu la sesi pengenalan kepada rumah baru kami yang cute ni. Dah dekat seminggu, so far alhamdullilah takde masalah. Hopefully this will last for 3 years and next relocation we have to face is when we leaving for good. Insya allah.

Till next post, satu pesanan dari penaja : Walau di mana anda berada, "Safety comes first, dan practice makes perfect". Ingat tuh !!!



- Mak saya kecoh, mandi dlm tub pun kene pakai floaties, kecoh kan de tuhhh ! Saya tgh prektis swim ni sebab mak saya kata cara saya "kick" ade gaya, gaya ratu renang negara !!! -

People always say, negara padang pasir kot Q8 ni! mana de shopping complex grand grand?? My oh my there were wrong. In here, tak kurang hebat shopping mall der. In fact, there's few designer brand outlet or retailer yang takde kat Malaysia ade kat sini. Some of it, aku tak pernah dengar or rather pernah dengar tapi x reti nk pronounce hahaha.. One thing I noticed, adults designer boutique will comes with kids boutique of it's own. Contoh, they have Ralph Lauren kids boutique, Burberry Kids Boutique and many more. Zara clothing comes with Zara Home Centre. I couldn't even afford to wear Zara blouse left alone nak beli rug cap Zara huuhuhuh.. Different case for Kuwaitis of course. What else ek, ohh Pottery Barn for adults furniture and Pottery Barn for kids furniture in different store respectively. Maybe someday Jimmy Choo kids pun ade kat sini sebab Jimmy Choo dah ade :)

From my reading and from hearsay, there's few Kuwaitis pastime activities based on season and month. Like during winter and spring, they like to camp. It's like biggest pastime among Kuwaitis it's like a festival. They will set up camp in the middle of desert. Of course those allowed one by the government as Q8 still has a few reminders of The Gulf War, even till today. Some of the houses with traces from the war still can be seen as a living example of the Gulf wars scars and one there's still a case of people found unexploded ordnance or in short, active bomb in the desert. Scaryyyyy..

Currently, as it's summer here, and at times, it can reach 50 degree during day, of course the activities during weekends change as well. Some fact I've read in travel guide, Q8 summer climate can be compared to the dry omitted from an oven when you're cooking your Sunday roast. Easier comparison, seperti berdiri belakang with engine on. Good thing is Q8 is rather low humidity country so it's not like Malaysia. We dun sweat like we used too during hot sunny day back home. Macam orang cakap, musim panas kat Gulf country ni tak mandi seminggu pun takper. Tak berpeluh. Betul seyhhhhh !! ( am taking my daily shower ehhh, sweating or not, x reti la tak mandi ni hahaha ). So since temperature was high outside, people like to spend days inside where it's more cooler. Since Jumaat public holidays kat sini, can be seen all Kuwaitis flooding most of the shopping mall here. As a foreigner, this is a good environment if you wanna see ragam warga warga Kuwait. Best way to get to the local flavor, so to speak.

Back to topic, pengalaman ku yang tak seberapa ni menjelajah shopping2 spot in Q8.

| Al-Kout Mall and market |

Al Kout Mall just like other malls. Located just by the seaside. Sangat cantek the scenery. Macam macam kedai ade. Most designer outlet ade kat sini. There's few restaurant can be found here also if you feel like eating, there's a lot of option here. Else, there's food court here for alternative. 1st time here we tried Asian Thailand restaurant in their food court. They have variety of lauks you can choose to paired with your white rice or Beriyani. Owhhh for those who doesn't know, beriyani here is a must, staple food more like it. Everything will come with beriyani. Be it Thai food, Chinese food, Indian food or western. You can opt for white rice though if u dun feel like eating beriyani.


- nasi puteh with 2 jenis lauk each set. Cost around 6 KD ( RM 72 ). Portion here ikut tekak orang Arab so satu set boley share 2-3 orang.


- This is illegal indeed. You must ask permission before taking pic of any Kuwaitis and mst building here doesn't allowed photoraphing but just for the sake of showing sample, no harm done. If u can see their plate, satu pinggan ade dekat sekilo mee, not sharing okay. Kire sorang makan je ni. After this, Mr husband came with another plate of shawarma like segunung tinggi de. That's how big their portion are. -


- Selingan, lunch on our arrival day. Turkish Grill, sedap tak tahu nak kata camne. Budak budak ni suke gile kubbus ni ( roti arab). Makan begitu pun sodap kata mereka -

Just opposite Al-Kout Mall,Fahaheel, located pasar. You can get all your grocery needss here. Again, it's divided into few sections. Section selling barang kering where you can get all kinds of vegetables, fruits, milks, biscuits, cooking oil, butter, spices. segala mak neka lah. When talking about sayuran, not much varieties sebab mostly Arabian makan timun, daun basil, carrot and onion in almost their meals. Timun de pun bukan macam kite punye timun. tak tahu la jenis aper tapi kulit de ijau pekat. Mostly made into pickles. They're like American . They have things for pickles. Sume jadik jeruk. Timun jeruk, carrot jeruk.. dan bawang is a must side dishes. Sejak duduk Q8, Erin dah terikut ikut, makan bawang merah mentah macam mkn keropok.


- cik kelapa pung adoooo.. lom kopek lagi -

Sayur yang familiar so far kangkung, bayam and bendi. Sawi tak jumpa lagi so far or maybe sawi de jenis kategori lain, aku tak cam kah kah kah. Togeh, lengkuas, daun panda, daun kari, halia, serai sume ade. Shouldn't be a problem. Daun kunyit je tak jumpa lagi. Santan de ade whether in powder base or milk base. Made in Malaysia lagi so takde masalah. Paling meriah kat sini, infact mana mana market here, are olive and cheese bar de.. I think there's more than 40 jenis olive for selections and so did cheese. Macam macam jenis, macam macam nama .. meriahhh..Ohh their selections of kacang pun variety.. Segala jenis kacang ade, gajus jek ade 5-6 jenis, walnut, almond, lentil sume ader..


- mostly, sume sayur datang dlm pacakging camni, siap ade plastic tray skali -


- the Girls main transportation. Erin perangai sungguh nak berdokong jek kat sini, so on the very 1st day outing, En Muddy beli menda ni, come very handy specially during grocery hunting, brand huduh huduh jek, amik je mana yang ade kat Centre Point tu -

Then there is Fish Market. Sesuai dengan nama nyer, jual ikan la of course hehehe. Mostly ikan besar besar. Ikan paling kecik adelah kerisi. Even selar kuning de jenis yg besar. Ikan merah ade, bawal ade, baby shark ade.. Memang segar. Udang2 de pun besar besar. They dun have small size prawn though. Crabs are available seasonally.

When i went there, happened to be I am the only lady there. Suffice to say, i drawn unwanted an unpleasant attention. Most eyes glued on me and they stares wherever i go even i'm coming with my husband. I just ignore them though to be on a safe side and not stare back like I used to be in malaysia. I am very aware that this is not my country, I'm new nere and still learning about their culture so it is best to respect local peoples and being humble all the time, even by all means, get stared along the process hahaha.. I thought my husband didn't noticed it as he didn't show any reaction, so i didn't brought to his attention, but soon as we exited the market, he sounded me in straight face and low tone, as if he was mumbling to himself : Mummy kena pakai hijab ngn abaya la keluar next time. Sume dok pandang awokk jek, dah la muka mcm arab arab skit..

I just laughed after heard him but couldn't agree more. Even my attire was fully covered and not revealing but indeed it is following my body shape. Compared to Kuwaitis ladies which fully covered from head to toe in loose robe, of course the attention was drawn to me whom lesser covered ni hahha. Wake up call sebenarnyer. Insya allah I will try to don abaya and dressed up more appropriately as a true muslimah. Insya allah, changes doesn't happen over-nite y'all.

Finally there's s meat and Chicken market. You won't get any fresher chicken elsewhere coz chicken here are sell alive. Kite pilih ayam yang berkenan di hati, they will sembelih and buang bulu. They will also cut it for you based on your request. They sell beef and lamb also. All in glassy bakalas ( corner shops) and scrupulously clean. No slippery and wet floor. You can get telur also here. They're a lot of poultry here in Q8, but so far i think the most widely known one was Naif Chicken Poultry. They even had this chain of restaurant, just like Ayamas.


- telur ayam Naif Chicken. Telur ayam sini warna putih -


| Friday Market & Lulu Hypermarket |

Friday market hv similarity with Pasar Malam kawen campur dgn Flea Market in Malaysia lah so as to say. It just that, they dun selling foods for instance. They're divided into few sections. There's section selling goods, second hand stuff and clothes, carpets n furniture, collectible items, second hand bulky item like gym's equipment, generator, industrial stoves, freezer and electronic gadgets. So many stuff to look at you won't realize time passed by. Not too worry coz there's bakalah ( small store) selling juices, waters and soft drinks in every section. Very important during summer. Rasa nye setiap section kiterang beli air hahahha .. We was left for a while by my husband as he had to leave for Friday prayer. Good thing living in country where MAsjid were plentiful. Masjid can be found everywhere and in our case, there's masjid just beside the Friday Market. Once Azan, everyone leave for prayer. Including all the shopkeeper and shop assistant. They just left it without even care to close it. Everything was left as it is. Maybe because there's seldom happened robbery or pick pocket case here. Even dalam paper pun susah nak baca pasal kes kes kecurian kat Q8 ni. Highest crime was sexual related crime like cabul, rape case dan sewaktu dengannye.. Hmmmmmmmm..


- carpet carpet mari beli carpet -


- haaaa amik , kalau beli letak kat apartment aku skang, ley cover smpi pintu lift, silap2 ade lebih lg ley cover smpi unit depan hahahahha..-


- teko aladdin -


- very classy second hand pram..hmmmm Paaaaaaa, nak yang ni !! -


- sofa arab, me likey ! -


- baju kelawar arab version -


Lulu Hypermarket : adik beradik Mydin superstore heheheh. Not really related though, it just that they share the same concept. Favourite place among foreigner's and expat to get groceries here coz it's rather cheaper than other international chain hypermarket, it does offer varieties too, just like Mydin. We found durian, rambutan and manggis here! Yeayyyyyyyy.. Can't afford to buy them though ! Booooooooo...kah kah kah.. Siyes mahal sebijik durian can reach up to RM100 lebih sebijik jadik tuan puan dan adik adik, tahan la nafsu nk makan durian smpi balik Mesia nanti. In short, Lulu hypermarket have been my favourite place to shop. I found ubi dan keledek also here. Pisang pun banyak if tiba2 teringin nk makan pengat pisang ke, pisang goreng ke..

Like yesterday, they had Mango Mania fest. 100 lebey jenis mango imported here. Juling mata tgk manga byk jenis, beribu2.. Since we ain't mango expert, we just pick those yang ramai orang kerumun. I saw one Indian uncle was picking one type of mango so I decided to copy him. All i could say, rugi amik 3 bijik je hahahaha, kalau tau sedap gile, amik 10 bijik. Oh anyway, Lulu Hypermarket from our place are quite a distances. Lebey kurang dr Puchong ke Setiawangsa so since we dun hv transport here, I planned to come here for monthly ritual groceries hunting. Duet teksi tak murah sini. From our place ( Mangaf) to Lulu, cost us 4 KD ( RM 48 ) sehala. Tazi here doesn't have meter so it could be 4 KD or 5 KD depends on the driver. Converting to RM, sehari berjalan, we need to spent around RM 100 lebey for taxi fare only. Lom masuk makan, beli barang lagi, budak2 nak ice cream la, nk pop corn la..I used to convert to RM during early days ( chehhh macam la dh 4 thn dok sini ), but i stopped as En Muddy cakap, kalau sume menda kite nk convert to RM, makna nye tak berjalan dan tak membeli lah kirenye.. Need to start learn to compare dinar to dinar, instead of dinar to RM.

Ohh one thing about being in rich country like Q8, everything will be taken care for you. Be it shopping mall or market or parking lot, there will be a porter ready to serve you. Mostly bangladesh or Indian. They will be ready incase you need them to push the trolley for you. Their service mostly used by Kuwaitis where they will be required to tailgate Kuwaitis that hired them all day with trolley so all Kuwaitis ladies have to do is just pick what they want and pay. The porter will be at their services till the goods are safely tucked inside car boot.

For us, takyah la sampai ade orang tolak kan trolley sepanjang jalan hehehe. At each cashier pun ade satu porter yang akan bungkus kan barang2 customer and arranged inside the trolley. Let say you wanna go somewhere else 1st, nak pergi makan ke, nk pergi naik tingkat atas ke, they had a service where you can leave the trolley full of goods with them and collect it back once you about to go home. Talking about being spoiled ehh. Bile dah ready nak balik, of course we will collect our purchase and headed to exit door to get a cab. Ade pulak porter tunggu, sambut trolley anta smpi teksi and help to transfer everything inside teksi boot and send the trolley back where it belong. Takyah susah susah. As i said, everything is taken care for you. I bet ade Kuwaitis ladies yang x pernah pegang pun trollet bar tu hehehe..Whaddaya think ?


- Punye spoiled, ATM pun drive thru -

| The Avenue |

Biggest shopping mall by far. It's like MidValley Mega Mall. Most all designer's brand can be found here. I found Anna Sui Clothing Boutique here. Rasa macam takde kat malaysia. Anna Sui makeup ade la slalu nampak. Correct me if I'm wrong eh. Aku tak rajin ( read : tak mampu) nak pakai branded branded sangat ni so tak tahu. Mungkin ade la Anna Sui clothing kat KL, cuma aku yang x perasan :) .

There's one scary experiences on the way to Avenue. We was stopped by the policemen. Sangat takut walau tak buat salah. All law enforcement teams are Kuwaitis so if you get stopped here by police patrol car, they won't come to you like in Malaysia or US, you have to go down and go to them. In this case, our cab was stopped because the driver, Ali was not wearing seatbelt.


- Again, it is not recommended to take photo Kuwaitis without their permission especially policemen hahaha but...arghhh it's either do or die . Alis was fine 150 KD ( RM 1800) for not wearing seatbelt. -

Talking about Ali, he's very religious and honest old man my husband known for quite sometime. De drive pun releks jek, unlike any other taxi drivers. Senang hati naik teksi de so when he was fine, macam sedeh giler macam he dun deserve it. Macam driver lain yang actually membahayakan nyawa orang lain deserve more to get fine compare to his fault. Mind you, kat sini 200 km/h hour was like 100 km/h in Malaysia and there's no fast lane or slow lane. Every lane is a fast line. Mmg mengucap panjang lah aku sepanjang aku naik public transportation kat Q8 ni. Another fact to share, it is legal to use handphone during driving so mmg meluas la penggunaan handphone kat sini sambil drive. On more thing, berdasarkan pemerhatian aku, drivers here will on their hazard light immediately in any case of emergency break occurs. En Muddy cakap, to warn drivers behind, to avoid being slammed. U wouldn't want to involved in any accident here in Q8. Sangat leceh process claimed dan sangat menguji keimanan dan kesabaran.


- tangki air Q8, belang belang lagik -

Back to Avenue story, sangat besar lah senang cite. Macam MidValley. Among many og big store can be found here was IKEA, Toy 'r' US, Debenham, AL-Ghanim ELectronic Centre yang jual Apple Ipad secara longgok jek ( trust me, main longgok je depan kedai ).

So macam biasa kalau pergi megamall mcm ni, masuk kedai kluar kedai, masuk kedai keluar kedai la jawapnyer. Tak de beli ape sangat pun kalau tak silap coz dah beli barang2 dapur a day before kat Lulu. We had lunch at IKEA sebab tempat lain sangat packed with Kuwaitis. Bought a dozen of Krispy Kreme, then jalan jalan.

Actually our main purpose coming to Avenue sebab nk carik Blue Ray Avatar. We bought one in Malaysia already sebelum datang Kuwait. Unfortunately, En Muddy punye PS3 tak boley baca due to reason the region was incompatible. Malaysia falls under Region B while Gulf countries was set as Region A & C. Ehhh ke terbalik? Tak ingat lak tapi lebey kurang camtu lah. So tak boley baca. Need to get blue Ray from same region hence pergi The Avenue. dah carik kat Alghanmim Eletronic Centre takde, so pergi pulak Carrefour. Unfortunately, eventhough Q8 was a very rich country, Malaysia was way advance in some aspect. Errrr in most aspect to be exact. Derang macam 5 tahun kebelakang from Malaysia. Contoh nyer, their buildings, road system, entertainment and many more.

Sufficed to say, they dun have Avatar Blue Ray here. To be truth, tak sampai lg ke Q8. Well it's expected though sebab even international magazines will only reach here 4 months after the publication date. Senang citer, kalau tiba2 Jennifer Aniston kawen baru, 4 bulan lepas tu baru aku tau cite. How bout that ? All in all, ade 4 pcs jek Blue Ray kat Blue Ray rack de. Sedey sungguh menengok nyer uhuhuhhu. Tiba tiba rindu kedai DVD kat Puchong !!!

Since dah takder Blue Ray edition, we took the next best thing. Avatar DVD version. Jadik la kan dari takde !! Small arguments happened here that caused Alis to melalak tak hengat. She want DVD Michael Jackson (the ever so famous This is it) cost around 7 KD ( RM 84. The problem is we had spent a lot beli groceries and few household so En Muddy informed Alis that her Jacko have to wait till next gaji. Of course she didn't agree and throw tantrums. En Muddy bertegas tak nak mengalah and so did Alis. Yang kene memujuk of course mummy la kan. Tension sungguhhhhhhhh...

End result, de tetap tak dapat DVD tu hahahhhaa. Muncung jangan tak panjang laaaaa. I just ignored her coz I do agree she need to learn that she can't have anything she want. At times, she need to learn to be patient. Then aku amik fresh milk skit, roti sikit, ready made margharita pizza satu then off we go to counter to pay.

Di sebabkan barang yang kiterang beli not more than 10, so we headed to express counter la kan. Cepat skit. Bile sampai kat kaunter express tu aku bertembung dgn deejay bertugas that day. He was speaking in Arabic, holding a microphone and doing his deejay thing. De lalu just sebelah kiterang and heading to big colourful wheel situated estimately 5 meter from us. Ala like the one in Wheel of Fortune tu. The wheel have a lot of colours and numbers. Tak tahu pulak numbers tu represent ape. It could be some ticket number or lucky number we had to ballot somewhere else. I dunno, it could be anything. Rupanye they celebrating Carrefour's 3rd Anniversary so mcm ade cabutan bertuah. The problem is i dun know the cabutan base on what sebab the deejay was clearly speaking Arabic explaining about the so called cabutan. Aku paham de nak pusing wheel tu pun sebab de kira 1.....2.....3..... rollllllll.... Excited nak tgk sapa yang kenaaaaa so I kept focus on the wheel. The pointer stopped at number 20. Then the deejay was pointing at us and everyone started looking at us and clapping their hands. Hmmm... En Muddy masa ni tgh sebuk nak bayar barang yang kiterang beli and wasn't paying any attention to what's happening around us, but the filipino cashier kept saying u won... u won.. It's counter 20. Rupanye number number tu adelah number kaunter and indeed we're are at counter 20..

Weeeeeehhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.. Never been lucky in any lucky draws before in own country home. Turned out nasib menyebelahi kami di negara orang alhamdulillah. The deejay then approached En Muddy, tanye nama and from which country we came from and then Carrefour manager came, congratulate us and asking for some ID or passports. The deejay then announced that as our winning prize today, we can have anything we purchased for free. Do not have to pay for any single dinars. Ini lah saat nye bile terdetik dalam hati aku, dammmmm if only we did our monthly groceries HERE ! TODAY ! . Major rugi wehhh. We can spent up to 40 KD and yet our purchased today that we won was only 7 KD huuhuhuuhh.. Seperkara lagi yang terdetik adelah, sepatut nye aku sebelahkan Alis instead of being natural party. Kalau tak free free jek balik ni dah boley tgk This is it ! Ingat kan aku sorang, rupa rupanye En Muddy pun cam menyesal tak amik jek DVD tu tadi.

Moral of the stories is : Mungkin ade hikmah kalau anak anda mengamuk tak tentu hala. Lenkali jangan kedekut dgn anak ! Lenkali Alis nak ape ape , amik lah Alis.. nak Workswagen beetle pun boleyyyyyyyyyyy( batting eyelashes )