Wednesday, October 29, 2008

CREAMPUFF

This Friday, ada jamuan lagi. When do we ever stop gorging ourselves la, aiyo! Sampai bila pun diet aku tak berkesan kalau ofis dok buat makan-makan gini hahaha :-)

Anyway, bos mintak aku buat creampuff. Tak aci, orang lain oder je makanan, aku kena buat sendiri. Tapi no hal, sebab boleh buat the night before. Since I don't have anything interesting to write about today, aku tulis pasal resepi creampuff la plak, ok?

For the Pastry :-

2 cups water
1 cup margerine (Planta works better than other brands)
2 cups plain flour
7 eggs (medium size)

Bring to boil the water, add in margarine and stir until completely dissolves. Reduce heat, chuck in flour and stir continuosly until dough is smooth. Using electric mixer, add in eggs one by one. Spoon mixture into piping bags (will fill 3 disposable piping bags). Pipe out mixture (in a circular motion) onto a pre-greased mini cupcake pan. Bake on 175 degrees for about 15-20 minutes until pastry is golden. Cool before serving.

For the Cream Filling :-

I can evaporated milk (I prefer Ideal brand)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup custard powder
1/2 cup water

Heat water, sugar and half can of milk over medium heat. Meanwhile, mix custard powder into the remaining milk. When the water, sugar & milk starts to froth, pour in the custard mixture a little at a time, stirring continuosly to ensure the cream doesn't burn or turn lumpy. Continue stirring over slow fire until cream thickens to the consistency you like. If you hold a spoonful of the cream and it pours down in a ribbon, that should be just about right. If cream gets too thick, you can always melt it down a little with a spoonful of boiling water.

To serve, make a slit in the pastry, spoon or pipe in the cream filling. Enjoy!

I'll upload some pics on Friday, when I've actually made them creampuffs hehe :-)

Friday, October 24, 2008

STAF KONTRAK

Lahhh.... baru je cakap sal job interview semalam... tup-tup keluar berita 50,000 kakitangan awam taraf kontrak akan kena terminate hujung tahun ni 'berikutan kekangan kewangan kerajaan'.

Isy.... camana ye, depa kata ekonomi kita OK... tapi nampaknya dah macam 'eko-no-money' la plak.

Nak kena belajar buat side-income la. Ada sesiapa nak tempah creampuff? Fruit tartlet? Errr... outsource assignment PTK? Hahaha :-)

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

INTERVIEWS

Job interviews - they're like having diarrhea after eating stale food. You get tensed, stomach cramps, you feel like throwing up. You go into the little (interview) room, (bull) shit around, and then only will you feel relieved *phew!*. Did you stink or not? Well, "don't call us, we'll call you" hehehe :-)

Anyway, the HR is conducting interviews for temporary clerical staff, to be upgraded into the permanent employment scheme. OK, for their level, interviews are not as subject-oriented as interviews for professionals. But I think sometimes the interviewers just take it as their personal entertainment lah, jahat!

Here's some of my friends' experiences - but these are not necessarily interviews conducted at my office, okkay?

One candidate said her hobby was reading, so the interviewer asked her to name her favourite author, to which she answered "Ramlee Awang Murshid". The interviewer asked her to recount the novel "Hatiku di Harajuku", since the interviewer herself had just finished reading that novel. Well, she was so nervous that she muddled up the ending - she said that Noriko died, when the actual ending was Hisham married Noriko and they opened up a strawberry farm in Cameron Highlands. What a sad 'reason' for losing interview points *sigh*.

Another candidate was asked her opinion about a certain procedure practiced in her department. She was still in the midst of her first sentence, when the interviewer cut her off and proceeded to tell her HIS opinion about the procedure, how ineffective it was, the problems caused by it, and ways & recommendations on how to improve the procedures. Well, who's actually being interviewed here, huh?

One candidate in an interview for a promotion, exited the interview room royally pissed. The interview took only about 5 minutes, and just the basic 'introduce yourself' questions were asked. So the candidate asked the panel, how come I am not asked about my current job performance - the normal question in an interview for job promotion. One of the interviewers said "oh kami dah ada calon, awak ni cuma untuk cukupkan kuota temuduga aje". Buat sakit hati je!

There are some who actually bully the candidates, just to see them menggelabah. One of my clerks was told by an interviewer "saya dengar awak ni kat pejabat ada masalah sikit ye? apa hal nya ni?" The clerk was tongue-tied and panicked, before he realized the interviewer was laughing his head off "muka awak kelakar la bila awak takut!" Oh yeah, have some laughs at someone else's expense. Why don't you just drop dead?

Some candidates also go through embarassing moments. One clerk was asked what events led to her divorce, and whether she feels lonely now. I can't see the relevancy of this question to her job interview, can you?

Menyampah tul dengan interviewer yang mulut sampah macam ni!

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

RAINBOWS

You may have come across this line before, but I just found it this morning -

" Kadang-kadang Allah sembunyikan matahari
Dia datangkan kilat dan petir.
Kita menangis dan bertanya, ke mana hilangnya matahari?
Rupa-rupanya, Allah nak beri kita pelangi..... "

Anyhow, I like it - it's inspirational :-)

So friends, don't fret, and keep an eye out for our rainbows!






Monday, October 20, 2008

ENYSH & KOJIQ'S ESCAPADE LAST NIGHT

We had a hysterical moment last night hehehe :-) Apa lagi, melayan budak-budak tu punya kerenah la.

My sis had bought some cupcakes, and Enysh dok 'pau' semua orang punya. After some time, sis thought he's had enough, so tak mau kasik dia makan cupcake lagi. Dia pun mencebik-cebik la...

Enysh : "nakk.... mama, naaakkk...."
Mama : "nak apa?"
Enysh : "nak tuuuu.... *pointing to the cupcakes* "
Mama : "sebut dulu - nak cupcake"
Enysh : "naaakkk..... tuuu.... *nangis* "
Mama : "nak apa? sebut dulu - nak cupcake"
Enysh : "naakkk.... *meraung*.. naakk kepepek...! nak kepepekkkk....!"

Adehhh.... hahaha! 'cupcake' disebut 'kepepek', obscene la pulak!

Yang si abangnya Kojiq plak, terjumpa his dad's self-inking stamp... ala cop nama yang tak payah pakai stamp pad tu. Sibuk la dia mencari kertas putih, nak main cop nama tu.

Dia tak jumpa kertas putih A4, tapi dia substitute dengan another white flat surface that he could use the stamp on and see the results.

Noo.... bukan dinding. He used.... tada! His dad's white briefs. Hahaha! Chantek je dia letak briefs tu atas meja, pastu dia cop. Budak sekolah asrama pun takde bubuh cop nama dekat spender tau! Anyway, his dad's now got patterned briefs :-D

Friday, October 17, 2008

ENYSH LEARNS WORDS


My nephew Enysh is 2 years old, and he's at that stage where he's dilligently trying to increase his vocabulary. I say 'dilligently', because he's forever poring over his picture books, magazines, cookbooks, anything with pictures-lah. Whenever he sees a familiar pic (also on tv), he'll call out it's name. Even when he's playing with toys, he'll pause often to recall and say the words he's currently learning.

We're coaching him in both Bahasa Melayu and English, starting with single-syllable words, and then two-syllables, like names of animals (although he calls any grazing animals as 'cow'), vehicles, fruits, foods like 'cookies', 'burger', 'pizza', 'coffee' etc. I just realized a lot of his vocab is food-oriented hehe :-) Dasar kuat makan!

Lately, mom's teaching him a few three-syllable words (also food-oriented, argh!) like 'banana', 'potato', 'papaya', 'tomato'.

This is where I get mean huuuhuuuu! I'd call out to him, "Enysh, babana! Payaya! Popeto! Tomamo!" Just to confuse him lah. But he's never, ever said these wrong words, instead he'd correct me, "Ayong, bananaaaaaa. Papayyyyyya."

He's also picked up some cute tricks. One day last week, when my brother told him to pick up a toy, he held out his hands with palms facing my brother, and said "ayahsu, no way!"

Damn. This kid's either gonna grow up to be a teacher, or maybe a lawyer? hehehe :-)



Wednesday, October 15, 2008

DIVA AKHIRAT

Berilmu tu bagus, suka mencari ilmu juga bagus. Bila suka berkongsi ilmu, itu lebih lagi bagusnya. Nak-nak lagi berkongsi ilmu keagamaan, sudah jadi berdakwah lah juga. Ganjaran dunia pun dapat, ganjaran akhirat pun dapat.


Tapi cara mesti betul, beb.


Kita kongsi ilmu, kita terangkan dengan lembut, ajarkan perkara yang baik dan tegurkan yang kurang baik, kita ajak kawan kita perbaiki apa-apa yang perlu dibaiki. Kita buat dengan cara yang hormat, insyaAllah orang akan lebih hormat kita.


Tapi kalau berlagak 'diva akhirat' apa-orang- buat- salah- tapi- kalau- aku- buat- tak- salah- sebab- aku- niat- hati- murni- aku- masuk- syurga- korang- masuk- neraka, hmmm... susah lah. Mungkin juga jadi sampai tahap riak, berbangga sebab banyak ilmu agama sedangkan orang lain cetek pengetahuan.

Bukan saja apa yang didakwah tu tak sampai, tapi juga menyakitkan hati orang lain dan mengundang umpat-keji, malah memutuskan ukhwah pula nanti. Orang tak tegur-sapa, tak tolong buat kerja, tak ajak makan sama, tak mesra.

Sudahnya, ofis yang ber-aircond pun rasa panas macam neraka...

Isunya? Ambil gambar berkumpulan (bercampur lelaki perempuan) dengan big boss, sebagai kenangan majlis hari raya.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

JAMUAN HARI RAYA 2008

Jamuan Hari Raya is baaacckkkkk!

*burp*

As is the tradition here, every department will host a 'open house' during the month of Syawal. We held ours today! However, at the agency's level, the 'openhouse' for all staff & public has been scrapped off, due to 'langkah berjimat-cermat' so as to save our budget allocation for something else more important.

We had the usual fare - nasi beriani, lemang & rendang, sate, roti jala. Yang lain sikit, cuma mi hailam. Same old, same old. I wish the committee had been adventurous enough with the menu, like maybe have a popiah table where guests can choose the condiments to be assembled in the popiah - but my idea was shot down unceremoniusly *bummer*. Last year, one department included ubi rebus in their menu, and it was a hit! We had fun trying out ubi rebus cecah sambal cili goreng, sambal bilis, sambal belacan, ikan kering, ikan pekasam, kelapa parut manis, kelapa parut masin etc. Another department had rojak buah - choice of more than 6 fruits including kedondong & green apple, yummy!

Anyway, all ends well although a few guests just dropped in to say hi, as they were fasting (Puasa 6). Most invited guests turned up, and some uninvited ones as well. I'm glad that this year we managed to include our 2 cleaning ladies, some building maintenance crew and some of our security guards as our guests. It's these 'rakyat marhaen' whose service we use daily, but they are rarely appreciated.

I'm dead beat. Gonna get an early shut-eye tonight :-)

Monday, October 06, 2008

BACK TO WORK

Salam Aifilfitri, dear all!

Back in the office today.

Bosan nak mampus, food court penuh sesak sebab 2 gerai je yang bukak. So pepagi subuh sepihi, terpaksa menapak ke restoran mamak seberang jalan untuk sarapan. Kira OK jugak, dah sebulan lebih tak pekena roti canai, so sedap ajelah bedal pagi ni.

Tengahari nanti, nak makan kat mana pulak?

Isy... inilah penyakit aku. Sebulan puasa, berat turun sket. Tapi habis je posa, perut dok keriuk-keriuk, lapaq!