Saturday Night Fever, Resident Evil : AfterLife, Last Man Standing

What, did I have a movie marathon week ?

Nope.



So, did I enter some sort of a quiz that involves all 3 movies in my answer`?

Nay.


Or, am I writing a new book, based entirely from all 3 movies ?

Wrong !



The entry above (Saturday Night Fever, Resident Evil In The House and Last Man Standing) pretty much sums up the reason why I was unable to stay on the Net last week.



Episode One : Saturday Night Fever

Ahh...who could ever forget this movie and the soundtracks of the movie, that had brought the new meaning and changed the music landscape of the 70s ?


And who vould ever forget Mr Travolta, with his gyrating and swaying hips moves that had made girls gone crazy ?



If my doctor is this yummy looking, I don't mind having a fever!



Episode Two : The Resident Evil : AFterlife

Mila Jovovich, such a beautiful leading character in The Resident Evil: The Afterlife, kickin some bad ass zombies in that movie. Cool !!!!! And she is really stunning!


Bad-ass zombie like creatures in that movie. Gosh how I hate their ugly faces !



Mila and co-star Ali Larter, boy, they really kick some a$$ !!! Girl power to da max!


Episode Three : Last Man Standing

My fave scene in Last Man Standing. Bruce Willis is so howwwtttt!!!!



OK. So what does those movies got anything to do with my absence from blogging ?

Well, here's what happened...

There was a Saturday Night Fever episode in my household last week. But nope, it was not tke kind of fever that John Travolta had started when he pointed his index finger up towards the sky, gyrated his cute butts and danced to the tune of Staying Alive, ah ah ah ah Staying Alive, staying alive! (oh yes, this really brings back the dance floor memories!)...


It was another kind of fever.


The real McCoy kind of fever, the one that started when my MIL vomitted non stop at 3 a.m. in the morning, and had to make a few mad dash to the toilet afterwards. She was really weak after the non-stop purging sessions, and then my FIL was also infected with the same spell. We brouht both my MIL and FIL to the clinic, and they got their meds, so I thought that all would be OK. I should have expected that the whole household would be infected, but nahhh, I didn't see it coming.

So all hell break loose when my youngest prince caught the same disease by early Monday morning. He vomited non stop, and he retched and retched until al that came out from his empty tummy was just the greenish bile liquid. That really hit the panic button in me. So off to the clinic again we dashed, but the doctor reassured me that my boy is as strong as an ox, and he just prescribed some dehydration salt and some medicine to stop the vomit.


And then, by Monday evening, my 3 other boys were also infected. So right and left, up and down there were always someone vomiting in my household. Yep, it was such a nightmare! I had to be a good nurse slash doctor slash toilet cleaner etc etc...

So I prayed that I would not get infected, and that's how I envisioned myself as Alice in that movie The Resident Evil:Afterlife...yep it sounds hilarious, but I think that had helped me tremendously, I swear!

I pictured myself as Alice, with that same sexy outfit that Mila had worn on the movie, with that same high kicks that had bashed numerous zombie-like creatures, and with that same, no-nonsense attitude, and of course, I envisioned myself with that same great body (not that difficult to do this, mind you!) haha.


The only difference is our weapons. Alice used guns and knives and whatever that was handy to kill those ugly zombie. Moi, well, I used lots and lots of Dettol disinfectant and lots and lots of disinfectant handwash. But it worked for me.


By Wednesday, hubby dearest caught the same disease, but not me. I stayed strong, and healthy and still kicking some nasty germs that dared to come into my household, very much the epitome of super sexy and gorgeous femme fatale. So in other words, I was the Last Man Standing in that nasty diarrhea episode that invaded my house last week.


sigh....


Penat, kan ????

So I'm off for my well-deserved rest (clue to hubby : some 6-stars hotel stay for 2 nights wouldn't hurt).

Yeah. As if my hubby reads my blog, hahaha !

Well, off to rest anyway, and maybe this time I should envisioned myself as Lara Croft, off for another of her great adventure!


Take care, people, and don't let that nasty diarrhea germs bite you!

Craving Session...Arghhh!!

Argh. Since I came back from Raya, I just couldn't shake this craving that have....This craving really drove me crazy but I just couldn't find the right channel to assuage the lust that I have (oh mama mia!)


You see, I crave for this object.


It's gray in colour, cylinder in shape (like a sausage to be exact),, longish (about 6 inches minimum, and can go up to a whopping 10 inches long), and yep, it came in sizes - the small ones would normally have a diameter of roughly 1 inch across, and the big ones would have a diameter of about 2 inches across...In whatever sizes that it came from, it's deeply satisfying, and once I taste it I just couldn't stop !!!! I would just go on and on and on and on until I am fully satiated. And yep, I would just suck every juicy bits of that thingy, every last drop of that juicy, velvety good taste!


Wait. Did I sound like a sultry, super sexy adult (read:porn) movie advertisement ????

Sarah Michelle Gellar, former Buffy The Vampire Slayer actress....yummy!


Alamak...Sorry to mislead you.


Was actually talking about this.


Keropok lekor Terengganu..
Pic from the Net


You see, the other day, when I came back from Terengganu for Raya, I didn't get a chance to stock up my keropok lekor. Reason being, Mr Hubby decided to try the supposedly finished LPT/Lebuhraya Pantai Timur highway and bypassing the coastal state roads along Marang/Dungun/Kemaman, which are laden with roadside stalls that offers a haven for seafood lovers.

Yep, I missed those keropok lekor or fish sausage (I made up that description!), that keropok keping (fish crackers?), all those lovely ikan kering/salted fish, budu (anchovies sauce?) etc etc....sigh....


So this prompted another trip down memory lane, when my relatives used to make their own keropok...Hopefully, by doing this I could ease off my keropok lekor cravings...hmmm, worth a shot, no ????



You see, the single most important ingredient in making keropok is of course, the fish. The more, the better. And the best fish is ikan tamban, for its sweet, sweet taste. There's also keropok ikan parang, which are famous with people from outside Terengganu because the keropok or the crackers would bloom after frying, and it had that lovely whitish colour. Of course there are many other fish which are suitable for keropok, but I simply love keropok ikan tamban.

Then, after the fish, you must have sago powder, which would help the fish mixture to stick together and hold their shapes once you roll. And of course you must add in salt and enough MSGs (optional) for taste.


OK, that's the ingredient. So how to make keropok ?

First, you must remove the scales and the skin of the fishes. The scales and the skins would make it hard for the fish mixture to stick together, so to speak, so off them go from the fish. Next, you remove the head. Just chop their heads off, show no mercy! Next, make a small slit along the fish body, and remove the guts (this is basic, who eats fish guts anyway?). Then, make another incision along the fish backbone, and remove the flesh from the bones.

Repeat this procedure until you have enough fish fillets, or until you run out of fish, or until you can't stand with the fishy smell haha. OK so next, you pound the fish fillets, and mix it with the sago powder and salt and MSGs fro taste. When I was a child, there was no such thing as a machine to pound the fish, so the adults would take turns in pounding the fish in a big, wooden mortar and pestle.

Then, you roll the mixture into that cylinder shape. In the mean time, the heat up a big periuk with enough water, pour a bit salt, and wait for the water to boil. Once it boiling, just throw the keropok rolls into the hot water and once the keropok surfaced on the hot water, voila, it's a sign that the keropok is already fully cooked. So it's chow time!!!!!


We, the Terengganu people have no qualms in eating the boiled keropoks, it's fully cooked already. But then, there are squeamish people out there who are scared to eat those boiled keropoks (read: my Hubby), so we invent the method to cut those long rolls into shorter (and cuter!) pieces, and fry those in oils. But of course, frying will intensify the taste, and will make the keropok taste even better, yummyyyy!!!!!

Keropok Goreng for tea time...
Pic also from the Net

To make keropok crackers, wait for the keropok rolls to cool down (normally the next day), and just slice the keropok rolls into paper thin pieces, and dry those under the hot, scorching sun for a few days, alternately turning the cracker pieces so that they would have enough exposure to the sun. Of course there are machines to do all these jobs nowadays, I am just recalling the traditional method of producing keropoks....


The most famous place for keropok in Terengganu is a place called Losong. So the name keropok Losong is almost like a brand name, with places as far as Cherating and Kota Bharu also boast of selling keropok Losong at their stalls. During Raya of school holidays, the queue for keropok Losong is very, very long, and could easily turn into catfights if you are stupid enough to cheat and cut queue of the guy or the makcik before you! Lol!




Argh. Talking about this simply intensify my cravings. Gaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!! Mayday mayday, need to make a phone call to Terengganu and ask (read: FORCE) my sister to go and buy the keropok, and courier them to me.


Ahhhhh don't I love the technology and the courier company ???


Well I rest my case....

Raya Memoir : The Beach, The Sea And My Heart....

Just came back from my kampung for raya...sigh....and I still got some pieces of my heart there...sob...sob....2 days just felt like 2 minutes, and I'm still longing for my hometown...aghhhh!!!!!!!


So with that, let me just pour out my longings here in my blog....hmmmm so where do I start this eyyyy ????



Geographically, I hailed from the East Coast of Malaysia, where there are many, many pretty pretty women per square feet, more than any other places in Malaysia, yours truly included. (haha!).

Terengganu is the name of the state, and Batu Burok Beach, is the name of my kampung. So that's the geographical facts. Enough with that.



Ahhh Batu Buruk...do you know that the name Batu Buruk is derived from one huge rock that resides about 500 metres from the beach ? The rock is not very big, but it is clearly visible from the beach, and here's the fact, the rock NEVER tenggelam or sink below sea level, even when the monsoon season or high tide !!!! Yups, even during the high tide, you can still see the tips of the rock, winking at you amidst the crazy, monstrous and swollen angry sea.



And Batu Buruk is such a beautiful place to be.



Picture this.


The beach...an endless long, white, pristine beach. And the sea in front of you that came in almost all shades of blues and greens, and sometimes the blues and greens are intertwined together, creating a new shade of turquoise that you won't find in any artist's palettes. And then the sky above reflected the sea shade in blue, and the gentle fresh breeze softly blowing right at you, like a lover's sweet whispers and caresses...mmmmmmm.....


Feels like paradise, right ?

Batu Buruk Beach...bellisima!!!!!



Well, that's my paradise, that's my childhood playground, and that's where pieces of my heart still remain....


And it was such a charming place for a playground. I remembered many, many games there. One that I fondly remembered is the war games. First, we ( me n my cousins and kampung friends) would dig up holes about knee deep. The holes would be our forts or barricades. And for ammo, we would go to the wet sand neat the water edge, dug up the wet sand, and rolled up the sands into many, many tiny balls. Then we would roll the balls onto the dry sand. Somehow, the dry sands made the wet sandy balls hold its shape, and we would stocked up those as much as we could. Those would be our hand grenades (yes Uncle Lee, I started early on the hand grenade thingy!).


And then the war began, and we throw up our ammo left and right, up and down and every direction in the horizon.


By the time our little war is over, we would have sands in our ears, in our mouths, in our bajus and all over our bodies, and this, would trigger our moms to be an incredible hulk to see us in such a mess! And of course we would very much like to avoid such a situation. No, thank you very much! Incurring the wraths of our mothers is a big NO NO!


So we would (stupidly) opted to wash all the sands from our bodies (i.e. removing the evidence) by dunking into the sea. And we had such a fun time getting rid of all the sandy evidence and chasing each other and continuing our war games in the sea. And boy it was fun!


Until someone pointed out that our grannies were standing near the sea shores, with a pelepah kelapa raised high and shouting for ALL of us to come out of the water.



That evening all of us got a nasty canning from our fathers because we mandi laut without any adult's supervision. And that is how we learn that besides from incurring the wrath of our mothers, we must also avoid from incurring the wrath of our fathers ! sigh.....such were the memories...


And I remembered how we (yep, the same gang again) would hunt down for little crabs and clams in the shallow sea water, and cooked those little buggers in Milo tins and have our own little BBQ party by the beach! I only stopped doing such activity when one of my aunts pointed out that we were being cruel to the little buggers, coz we cooked those buggers alive! Gasp! Masak hidup-hidup ??? Kejam tuh ! And I don't want to be cruel to the animals, so that is how our little BBQ parties ended....sigh.....such were the memories....


But we respected the sea. Even though we always curi-curi mandi laut without our parents' consent (we did this by mandi laut only when our grannies took their naps in the afternoon, thus bypassing the informers, smart thinking, kan???), we would never go near the sea during the monsoon season. Somehow, we have this inborn or built in instinct that the sea is not always a safe place to be.....


But I still love the sea, no matter how it looked. Looking at the sea made me forget all my worries. And watching the endless waves crashing on the shores made me feel calm. And seeing the big blue sea, with the big, blue sky above made me think that anything is possible.


And last few days, I rekindled my long, childhood romance with the sea, the beach and the sky....yet it still feels like I don't have enough, and I'm still longing for more....


And all I have are just memories.....



Batu Buruk, in the early hours in the mornin....





The South China Sea rushed to greet me, like long lost lovers embracing each other after long, long separation....and the morning sun blessed our little rendezvous with its golden glory....yup I'm being super poetic...must be the sea water....




My own boys, having a sand frenzy moments...it's such a delight to see this moments...



Sigh....enough with this reminiscence, hope that I can persuade my Hubby to balik kampung again, perhaps next month hehe...

So here's wishing all of you....


Selamat Hari Raya, peeps....thanks for dropping by !

Maaf Zahir Batin....


signed
Razzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (yep, off to sleep and dream of my charming little paradise)