Prague, Czech Republic

Made this karipap daging from scratch for the first time.

Tried the the recipe from here

Gigihla nak buka puasa makan sedap kan.

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Anyway, here I would like to share the recent photos from my last trip to Prague, Czech Republic in April 2014

The trip was very sentimental for me. 

Because when I was 8-9 years old, 

a childhood friend of mine said she had already been to Prague when we both were flipping her family album together.

In one of her photos, they were taking picture against a wall with the word 'PRAGUE' written on it. 

We saw the spelling on the wall behind them was P-R-A-G-U-E and pronounce it as 'Pra-gieu'

And we thought the spelling was odd so she went to her mom and ask her how to pronounce the word.

Her family had lived in Russia before so her mum was very fluent in Slavic language.

Her mum replied her that the name was a state and it was pronounce as PRA-GA or PRA-HA.

Both of us were making our odd faces at her mum.

Like, kalau PRA-GA, kenapa tak eja  PRAGA je? 

But because it was her mom who said it, so of course my friend chose to believe her mother.

I on the other hand, being the cocky child as I once was said to myself,

"Mak dia salah ni. Mistaken ejaan kot. Nanti Reena pergi sana Reena check"

As I grew up, I never forget this story. 

My childhood friend remain as my good friend till this day 

and her family has been nothing but dear to me all this past years.

 And to be honest, I never even make a plan to go there, not even once.

The story sort of remain as a childhood memory.

Until one my schoolmate invited me to go on a trip to Prague and then there I was.

Witnessing the city with my own eyes and breathing the same air as other locals.

The whole time I was there, all I could think of was my childhood friend and our little conversation.

Syukur Ya Allah for allowing me to experience such a moment.

The trip has continue to be very personal for me.

Who knew such meaningless conversation of two children could turned up to a surreal moment in ones life.

I am always amazed by God graces to His servants.

Therefore,  I would like to share few of my snapshot of the city with you darlings.

View of the Charles Bridge

One of the main entrance to the Senat office building

View from Prague castle

The streets.

And yes, the city is pronounced ad PRA-HA or PRA-GA

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xoxo darlings! Love you

Happy Ramadhan 2014!

Selamat ber..eh!

Heip!

Selamat Berbu..ah? Move your tangan people!

Selamat Berbuka and Happy Ramadhan to all!

I'm celebrating the holy month of Ramadhan this year in Middlesbrough, UK.

Syukur Alhamdulillah.

Do you know how many hours the Muslim has to fast in England this year?

Its 20.5 hours

Starts from 2.30 am till 9.40pm (on average)

Hats off to all the Muslim in England.

I thank God Allah SWT for easing my way to perform my fast this year.

For awhile there all the memories of my Ramadhan in the last 6 years runs through my mind like a flash back.

The time when I was in my diploma years, where 6 of my friends would gather in a really confined space on the floor to have our buka puasa every day.

And then during my degree years where one of my girlfriend has a car that year so we would go to bazaar and shop our tummy out for food almost every day.

Those nasi kukus and ayam goreng berempah in Shah Alam..aah..heaven!

Then those speedy break fast with my colleagues from work and the girlfriends while spilling the juiciest gossips of the month even though we only had like 1 hour to eat and pray.

Aaa..women and gossips, you know what they say. XOXO Gossip Girl

And right to the Ramadhan last year where I was in a complete mess. 

Ramadhan 2012, yes I was in a major complete mess

And this year, I'm having such a blissful Ramadhan with my friends in our new home.

Not to mention the endless break fast menu where we have trouble of deciding which is which for our menu today.

We even have a whatsapp group dedicated to discuss on what food to cook today.

Outrageous, I know. 

I even brought my bread pudding to bed to feed my already bulging tummy

And yet I'm still hoping on getting a Miranda Kerr's body by end of this month. Sigh

Till then peeps, Happy Ramadhan to all!

xoxo

Trdlnik from Prague, Czech Republic

 

From my  recent trip to Prague, Czech Republic with a fellow friend.

 

Stumble to this café by the road side and their traditional sweet pastry called Trdelnik

 

Its a dough pastry that is grilled to golden perfection and coated with ground almond, sugar and cinnamon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had to had the melted chocolate inside.

Drooling, aren't you?

 

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xoxo!

Lazy-bum

 

A quick breakfast after the gym at The Baker Street Kitchen

 

Before I wanted to write this post, I had so many ideas to share with you like my travelling journeys, the silly things my friends did and the wonderful memories that God has granted me to.

 

But as I 'm writing this post, my mood seems to be.

 spiralling down the drain.

In the beginning of today, life was good.

I started my morning by heading to the bakery to fetch some warm scones and chocolate croissant for breakfast.

 Then I do the dishes, get the laundry done and head to the library.

Here is where my tantrum starts to creep in.

I am SO LAZY to get my final year project writing done.

 I have been delaying it for more than a month now.

God..

 Imagine dragging myself form the floor to the library computer just to type a sentence.

 The struggle is so unbearable.

Only a plain authentic lazy-bum like me would've understand the feeling.

 

 I have been sitting in the library for an hour with no progress on the writing part except I managed to get my Candy Crush levels up, browse few cake recipes, ate another chocolate croissant, blogging, and add a song playlist on my mobile phone. 

 

WHAT AM I DOING?

**Cries**

 

How do you get yourself motivated to keep your writing going?

Long silence......and then I came out with no idea.

 

Help!

 

 

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Baked these Blondies/Congo bar last week, twice.

Got the recipes from here

It tasted like baked cookies dough.

 

 

Expect the end product to be very gooey and thick.

I reduce the sugar amount to 3/4 from the recipe the second time I baked it.

The first one had a sugar content that were toooo sweet  for my liking.

 

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xoxo..cries..

How to be beautiful?

Met with these wonderful people that gave me a journey with memories worth to remember forever

I was on holiday for 2 weeks straight, back-packing between 4 countries with my friends.

It was my first time travelling back packing so I had this vision in my mind to packed light, be practical and choose comfort  over fashion in my clothing.

I had an image in my mind where I'll be travelling in my  sport shoes, no-iron shirts, messy up dos and faded jeans.

But oh boy, was I wrong

My friends packed their sophisticated leather boots, Zara jacket, Marc Jacobs perfume and Chanel make ups lines, with perfect honey mustard cardigans, feminine crisp stripe shirts and 100£ Superdry jacket.

They all look fierecely awesome in every picture snap along our journey and there I was, the most chowkia one in the pictures.

In the mid of the trip,  one of my companion express her joy that it was such a bliss for her to went travelled with me because she thought I was awesome. 
(Well- duh!)

So she said that we should go to Paris together for our winter holiday this year to indulge in macaroons and Longchamps shopping handbags.

But then she said the darnest thing..

' Reena, nanti pergi Partis kena pakai lawa-lawa tau. Sebab orang kat sana semua pakai lawa-lawa '

I laughed and said ok. 

But at that point I knew, I was obviously the selekeh one among my friends.

Sad. Its just plain sad.

To be honest, I don't know or have the faintest idea on how to be drop dead gorgeous?

I mean I love classy and plain colours elegant clothes and all.

I love Palzzo pants, Kimono cardigans and artificial-fashion leather bags.

But I just don't think I can rock them.

Plus I'm in the UK for God's sake.

Do you know how strong the wind gets here?

Given that Middlesbrough is in north of UK.

Which means the weather temperature are higher than most states down south and I have to wear winter jackets all the time.

How am I going going to walk with poise when the UK blizzard keeps hitting my face everyday 5 secs once I got out the door.

Not to mention ruining my perfectly done hair.

Its cold even in the spring.

I could not afford to bring myself to wear linen or single layer clothes.

I'm that girl who'd choose comfort over beauty.

I tied my hair so my hair won't get to my face.

I wear knitted and thick shirts so that it keeps me warm every second of the day.

I wear sneakers everyday because hell, I need to keep my feet warm and comfy too.

So how the hell am I going to be beautiful in Paris?

Its a dilemma that I have been figuring out for the past 25 years.

And please, don't even think to talk about inner beauty on me.

I'm gonna boo you at the face.

**cries**

 ****************

 Netherlands

April 2014

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Till then, xoxo

A little bit of my heart-beat and soul

 

 

 

 

 

Picture coutesy of Afiq.L

  

Trust God as He shall never stops to reward you with enough heart and souls to love.

 

xoxo
Love you.

 



Grateful

Its almost spring time here in Middlesbrough. Hooray!

After freezing my bones out in the last winter, a little bit of sun was more than a bliss.

Finally I can wear shorts while walking around town.

Bahaha..as if that's gonna happen. 

If it did, I'll look like a whale wearing tights!

Anyway life has been filled with ups and down since the start of the year.

I've been struggling with few assessments, felt deserted by my busy hummingbirds in KL, hook up with an amazing new girlfriends, managed to pass my exams without any glitch and the best part of it, 

I think I've found myself back. 

Its been awhile since last I can say that.

Syukur Alhamdulillah Ya Allah. 

It took me so long to get through these phase and I'm almost there. I am finally me again. 

I've started to laugh out loud, enjoying myself in a crowd, restored my unlimited urge to daydream all the time and I've added going to the gym as a routine! Haha

For whats it worth, it felt good to be me again. 

It felt good to be silly and clumsy. 

It felt really good to be me.

It has been a very looong journey, God knows!

But to my dearest friends who are and always have been the love of my life, I love you to bits. 

I am forever grateful to You Ya Allah for blessing me with these wonderful people around me and for giving me such a humble life that I could have never imagine.

Okey, dah macam speech menang award pulak kan. Hee. 

But truly I am grateful when I think back of all the things that they had done for me. 

I am one lucky girl in that department.

I hope we all are being bless in the same way.

XOXO

Love you!

Brownies!

Okay, its not state of the art kind of brownies-baking but its my first baking product since I arrived here in the UK so yes I am super proud of myself for being able to make this.

I found this recipe at the allrecipes.com here. 

Its a 10 minute microwave brownies recipe thing that I have never trust every time I stumble across it.

The thing is I really don't like baking using a microwave because the cake won't rise like it suppose to and it won't give the browning effect like we see on homemade cakes. 

At least this is what I learn in my Food Technology module. 

 But since I am just that desperate to bake something, so I thought why not give it a try. 

I went to the supermarket, gather the ingredients, came back at my kitchen-hall, whisk the batter, set it in the microwave and voila!

A brownies is made. 

It taste very chocolaty, thick and sweet.

The bright side it take less than 30 minutes to make (whisk, baked and washing), it can be hand-whisk and has a very lush taste.

But the batter can only cater less than 10 people. 

So I had to double the batter if I were to filled up a 9 x 9 inch platter.

The only thing that restraining me from baking all the goodies was the oven at my kitchen-hall here. 

I'm staying in a hall so the oven doesn't actually well-suited for baking. 

The heating mechanism were more for grilling or melting cheese etc.

So I guess I just gotta learn how to bake using microwave now.

Surely more recipes to come streaming its way after this

Till then, toodles peeps!

xoxo

Ski-Trip

(Lets just keep my obvious weight gained in this picture to ourselves, shall we?)

Hoho.

Last weekend one of girlfriends invite me for an all girls-trip to Glenshee Ski Center, Scotland for a weekend ski retreat.

It was a six-hour journey from my place to the highland.

The outing was almost awesome if it weren't for the occasional ice bits hitting our faces to a numb state.

But then the experience was ethereal.

There goes one item to be scrape off from the bucket list.

Alhamdulillah.

What I learnt from these weekend trip was God will always reward you with echanted moments when you have full faith in Him and less expectation of your journey in life.

So let us all take a moment to let go of the unworthy things that holds us back and celebrates life as it is.

Have a bless day peeps.

xoxo.

Buddies

Breakfast at Nero's. Yup, the unhealthy kind with chocolate full throtle

Hello gorgeous people!

How have you been?

I know I'm good and I can't stop be thankful to Allah SWT for that.

I just finished  my exams earlier this month and been travelling to meet my friends in Cardiff and Manchester.

Both short trip has been nothing but filled with pure happiness and self-celebration.

Just though want to share something.

When I first arrived here at Teesside, I did not when through the commotion called homesick.

As arrogant as it sounds, I actually experienced another side of the longing which was I miss my friends back in KL a lot. Like really A LOT.

I even went through a short depression trip when I miss them too much and I had no buddies here in the first 5 months.

Back in KL, I'll always have my monthly food hunting sessions with my girlfriends, occasional dinner with my colleagues and chilling out at mamak till wee hours in the morning with McDonalds sundae's to wrap it up with my hummingbirds.

So what happen was after the exam, I took an impromptu trip to Cardiff and Manchester to meet my friends.

Just to get away from the town awhile.
 But first I bought myself these giant meal to celebrate the last day of exams

And then Subahanallah, God has blessed me with a heaven trip in both places.

Despite the rain and 108 miles/hour cold wind blowing in my faces, I guess God still works His mysterious ways to sneak in the happiness and blissful of a friendship through these people.

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Cardiff

Had a cup of hot chocolate at one of the most authentic  coffee shops called Coffee Barker

Thanks Nadiya for being the most competent photographer!

Thank you Fida for causing me to unzip my pants on my way back home sebab bagi makan banyak sangat

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Manchester

I had expereinced the worst wind ever in Manchester.

I was told that the wind was blowing 108 mph that night

This guy actually cooked me a nasi lemak for breakfast when I was there. Sumpah sweet

I came back from both trips with a happy heart and a cold, unfortunately.

But I was grateful. I started to feel that I had find myself back and feel the love of a friendship again.

The best part was, I was greeted by my Teesside girlfriends with same amount of love here after.

And just like that I have found my buddies here.
Bless them
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Guess what, its finally snowing here in Middlesbrough!!

HAHA. The most jakon person in the world to see actual snow.
I was practically screeming by the road side when the snow rain on us.
Hee.
Till then , toodles peeps! xoxo