Washington DC National Zoo

Saturday morning in DC was a very fine day. The weather was nice but with some gusty wind. It all started with the guys went out for a soccer game (kat US kena refer as soccer, kalau sebut football orang ingat American Football pulak) at the nearby field. There are around 10 of Malaysian guys were playing soccer that day. Main tak seberapa, penat je lebih. Siap ada sesi fotografi. Macam professional players la pulak. After the soccer game everyone heads to the house yang kami menumpang ni. Our friend, Afdal hosted breakfast after game. Guess what we had for breakfast? Nasi lemak. Hehehe... Baru burn 1 kg, tambah balik 3 kg. Anyways, it was a good one. Thank you ladies for preparing the excellent breakfast. All in all, it was good. The soccer, the nasi lemak and the get to know session.




Somewhere around late afternoon after freshen-up, we've get ourselves ready for a trip to the Washington DC National Zoo. The National Zoo dengan Vienna, VA ni takla jauh sangat. It tooks us around 20 minutes to go there. Petang tu cuma kami dengan Afdal and his 1st son, Ilhan je yang ikut. Nak bawak semua tak muat kereta. Afdal actually tengah tunggu kereta yang dia order tapi tak sampai. Nak sewa kereta minggu tu dah tak sempat. So kami je la yang pegi National Zoo tu. On the way there, we stopped by at the Embassy. Ambik gambar kat pintu depan Embassy je pun. After that kami teruskan perjalanan ke National Zoo yang dah tak jauh dari situ.




The National Zoo is free for public. Cuma bayar parking je la. Tapi parking usd4.oo per hour. Ramai jugak orang petang tu. Maybe pasal cuti Easter kot, so orang ambik kesempatan bawak family jalan-jalan. Everything starts well masa kami sampai. The weather was nice, tapi sejuk sikit since angin kuat. Tapi lepas tu hujan turun renyai2. Nasib baik zoo nie kebanyakan animalnyer indoor, dpt gak la berteduh sambil tgk animal.



Later at night ader jemputan makan2 at Lt. Kol. Hisham's house. Dia ni Assistant Defense Attache (ADA) kat sini. He hosted a makan2 sempena menyambut org baru sampai and org yg dah nak balik. Ramai gak mlm tu. Berkesempatan la kami berkenalan dengan warga Malaysia yang ada di DC ni. Ada jugak orang DC ni yang kenal warga Malaysia kat West Haven. Even ada yang pernah makan kat Warong Selera. What a small world. By the time balik rumah semua dah penat. Kena cukup rehat. Esok nak jalan jauh balik ke West Haven. Another long hours of driving.

Kami ambik kesempatan ni nak ucap terima kasih kat tuan rumah, Afdal, Salwa, Imah and the boys sebab sudi bagi kami tumpang rumah throughout our stay in DC and for supplies of groceries. Rumah korang lawa la. Harith kirim salam kat Ilhan dan Arfan. Hehehe...

Suhaimi @ Aca and Tini (both orang Keramat tu), Zaki and the rest yang tak tersebut nama, thank you a lot for the kind hospitality. You guys really have a good community there. Ada rezeki kami datang DC lagi, and in case any of you guys plan to come this area, let us know.

Kalau ada sumur di ladang,
Boleh kami menumpang mandi,
Kalau ada umur yang panjang,
Lain kali jumpa lagi.

Washington DC

After having our breakfast, we headed to the nearest Metro station here, Dunn Loring - Merrifield station. Took a day pass which costs usd7.80 each. Our 1st stop was Federal Triangle station, located underground of Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.


Our target is to go to the famous icon in DC, the White House... :D and area2 sekitarnyer, including Smithsonian Institution, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, US Capitol, and few others. Nie semua kat satu tempat jek, tapi luasnyer mmg tak larat la berjln.


The National Air and Space Museum itself pun dah cukup besar. Dalam ni je dah ada IMAX cinema. Tengok orang queue nak beli tiket dia, punya la panjang. Macam-macam ada dalam tu, especially on the achievement of the Americans dalam bidang aerospace. For kids pun, ada dia buat simulations and demonstrations on how things flies and other informative inputs pasal bidang ni. Harith seems to enjoy this place. Boys dengan airplanes and rockets, memang cukup synonym. Tambah pulak tempat ni luas, seronok la dia berlari sana sini. Tapi manusia punya la ramai, MasyaAllah.


Memang penat berjalan the whole National Mall area. Tu nasib baik tak masuk semua tu. Berapa hari la baru nak habis masuk semua. Tapi some of the museums are not in our interest pun kalau nak masuk, especially kalau benda-benda arts and history ni. Hehehe... Mintak maaf la.

Overall it was an enjoyable trip though we thought we should have strategically plan our visit ni. Eventhough it was tiring, dengan Harith at times dah tak larat nak jalan, and mintak nak dukung. Penat jugak la. Tapi it was worth it.


Before we head back, we jumped in the Metro and head towards L'Enfant Plaza to look for some foods and refreshments. It was 2 stations away from the Federal Triangle Metro's. Kat sini, kami makan la sikit, and bought some souvenirs for ourselves. Not much to see kat L'Enfant Plaza ni. Tengok gaya macam mall lama je. Dah settle makan semua, we headed back to Metro and gerak balik to Dunn Loring's station, where we parked our car and headed back to our friends place.

More pictures will be uploaded in our fotopages.

Road Trip to DC - Travelling Day

We've been planning for this trip for about a week ago. It will be a long weekend since Friday ni cuti Good Friday. Therefore, no schooling for Harith. We would like to take this opportunity to go for a long distance trip. Contacted a friend in DC saying that we're coming over. Alhamdulillah he and his family were welcoming us.

For this trip we've rented a car for the ling weekend. Maklum la, susah sangat nak dapat kereta, sewa je la lagi senang. This time dapat pulak the new Nissan Sentra. Macam tau-tau je orang nak pegi long distance trip. Indeed it is a long distance trip. Approximately its about 300 miles of driving. Estimated traveling time around 5 hours and 30 minutes to 6 hours (depending on the traffics).

Kami bertolak around 11.30 in the afternoon, straight away hit the highway. It was our first time traveling abroad bawak kereta sendiri for a long distance trip. Kalau takat jalan dekat-dekat tu pernah la. Speed limit atas highway is between 55 to 65 mph. At first kami ikut la the limit. Tapi it seems we are the only one driving at that speed kot. Berdesup... semua kereta lain pergi. Tengok lori trailer overtake kami selamba je. Kami pun maintain around 70-75 mph on the road, which seems like a reasonable speed.

Overall the trip was boring, sebab highway dia takde banyak benda tepi jalan. Tapi the trip was not that tiring or makes us mengantuk. Maybe due to cautious kot. Nice service area, with Starbucks and Cinnabon at every stop. Harith pulak buat perangai nak hotdog. In the end beli fries for him. Kat rumah bila buat hotdog, tak pulak makan. Agaknya bila tengok gambar dalam display, buat dia teringin kot.

For this trip, we didn't use GPS, the GPS itself will cost more than our rented car ;) We just rely on a printout direction from maps.google.com. We studied the map earlier, highlighted few landmarks - George Washington Bridge, Newark Airport, Delaware Memorial Bridge, Millard E Tydings Memorial Bridge, and Fort McHenry Tunnel just to confirm that we were on the right track. The tolls cost about usd16.45. Total states crossed = 6 - Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.

The trip went smoothly, except for a massive traffic jam somewhere around Bronx. A short stretch dalam 7.8 miles, sangkut dekat sejam before dapat naik GW bridge. We've reached Virginia safely around 1900 hours. Alhamdulillah selamat sampai within 6 hours plus of traveling time. Tuan rumah pulak kebetulan buat house warming merangkap sambutan Mauludur Rasul kat rumah dia in the afternoon. We've missed that event, but not the food. Hehehe. Friday, kami plan nak jalan sendiri ke DC naik Metro train. Will report that in the next entry.

Together signing off...

Easter

We are not celebrating Easter. To us, the day (Friday) before Easter means CUTI. So it will be a long weekend. Gonna take this opportunity to go jenjalan. Will report about it later.

Pasal Easter, Harith's school held an Easter party today. They have Easter baskets for the kids. The contents of the baskets were contributed by the parents. We contributed cookies. To Harith, it was just a party, ader makan2 and play around with friends. They have Easter game during the party.










Btw, Happy Birthday to atuk Harith in Keramat (20th March 2008). Semoga panjang umur dan sihat sentiasa... Love from all of us in US...

Tahniah kepada Barisan Jemaah Menteri yang Baru

YAB Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi dalam pukul 12 tengah hari waktu Malaysia telah mengumumkan barisan Jemaah Menteri yang baru. Senarai ni nampaknya banyak juga la gabungan muka lama dan muka baru. Tak dilupakan juga orang-orang lama yang digugurkan.

Barisan Jemaah Menteri yang baru ni, nampaknya ada sedikit perubahan apabila YAB PM membuat keputusan untuk menghapuskan jawatan Setiausaha Parlimen. Nampak gayanya para Menteri dan Timbalan Menteri semua akan berusaha lebih kuat lagi.

Tahniah pada semua YB dan selamat menjalankan tugas dengan penuh dedikasi.

Senarai Barisan Jemaah Menteri

Perdana Menteri : Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Timbalan Perdana Menteri: Datuk Seri Najib Razak

JABATAN PERDANA MENTERI
Menteri : Tan Sri Bernard Dompok
Menteri : Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz
Menteri : Datuk Ahmad Zahid Hamidi
Menteri : Datuk Zaid Ibrahim (senator)
Menteri : Datuk Amirsham A Aziz (senator)
Timbalan : Datuk Johari Baharum
Timbalan : Datuk Dr Mashitah Ibrahim (senator)
Timbalan : S K Devamany
Timbalan : Datuk Hasan Malek

KEMENTERIAN DALAM NEGERI
Menteri : Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar
Timbalan : Datuk Chor Chee Heung
Timbalan : Datuk Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh (senator)

KEMENTERIAN KEWANGAN
Menteri : Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
Menteri II : Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop
Timbalan : Datuk Ahmad Husni Mohamad Hanadzlah
Timbalan : Datuk Kong Cho Ha

KEMENTERIAN PENGANGKUTAN
Menteri : Datuk Ong Tee Keat
Timbalan : Datuk Anifah Aman

KEMENTERIAN KERJA RAYA
Menteri : Datuk Ir. Mohd Zin Mohamed
Timbalan : Datuk Yong Khoon Seng

KEMENTERIAN PERUSAHAAN PERLADANGAN DAN KOMODITI
Menteri : Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui
Timbalan : A Kohilan Pillay (senator)

KEMENTERIAN TENAGA, AIR DAN KOMUNIKASI
Menteri : Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor
Timbalan : Datuk Joseph Salang Gandum

KEMENTERIAN PERDAGANGAN ANTARABANGSA DAN INDUSTRI
Menteri : Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin
Timbalan : Datuk Liew Vui Keong
Timbalan : Datuk Jacob Dungau Sagan

KEMENTERIAN PERTANIAN DAN INDUSTRI ASAS TANI
Menteri : Datuk Mustapa Mohamed
Timbalan : Datuk Rohani Abdul Karim

KEMENTERIAN PERDAGANGAN DALAM NEGERI DAN HAL EHWAL PENGGUNA
Menteri : Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad
Timbalan : Jelaing anak Mersat

KEMENTERIAN PELAJARAN
Menteri : Datuk Hishammuddin Hussein
Timbalan : Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong
Timbalan : Datuk Razali Ismail

KEMENTERIAN PENERANGAN
Menteri : Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek
Timbalan : Datuk Tan Lian Hoe

KEMENTERIAN PERPADUAN, KEBUDAYAAN, KESENIAN DAN WARISAN
Menteri : Datuk Mohd Shafie Apdal
Timbalan : Teng Boon Soon

KEMENTERIAN SUMBER MANUSIA
Menteri : Datuk Dr S Subramaniam
Timbalan : Datuk Noraini Ahmad

KEMENTERIAN SAINS TEKNOLOGI DAN INOVASI
Menteri : Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili
Timbalan : Fadillah Yusof

KEMENTERIAN PERUMAHAN DAN KERAJAAN TEMPATAN
Menteri : Datuk Ong Ka Chuan
Timbalan : Datuk Robert Lau Hoi Chew
Timbalan : Datuk Hamzah Zainudin

KEMENTERIAN PERTAHANAN
Menteri : Datuk Seri Najib Razak
Timbalan : Datuk Wira Abu Seman Yusop

KEMENTERIAN KEMAJUAN LUAR BANDAR DAN WILAYAH
Menteri : Tan Sri Muhammad Muhd Taib
Timbalan : Tan Sri Joseph Kurup
Timbalan : Joseph Entulu Belaun

KEMENTERIAN LUAR NEGERI
Menteri : Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim
Timbalan : Datuk Seri Tengku Azlan Abu Bakar

KEMENTERIAN BELIA DAN SUKAN
Menteri : Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaakob
Timbalan : Wee Jeck Seng

KEMENTERIAN KESIHATAN
Menteri : Datuk Liow Tiong Lai
Timbalan : Datuk Dr. Abdul Latiff Ahmad

KEMENTERIAN PEMBANGUNAN USAHAWAN DAN KOPERASI
Menteri : Datuk Noh Omar
Timbalan : Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah

KEMENTERIAN PEMBANGUNAN WANITA,KELUARGA DAN MASYARAKAT
Menteri : Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen
Timbalan : Noriah Kasnon

KEMENTERIAN PELANCONGAN
Menteri : Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said
Timbalan Menteri : Datuk Seri Sulaiman Abdul Rahman Abdul Taib

KEMENTERIAN WILAYAH PERSEKUTUAN
Menteri : Datuk Zulhasnan Rafique
Timbalan Menteri : Datuk M Saravanan

KEMENTERIAN PENGAJIAN TINGGI
Menteri : Datuk Seri Khaled Nordin
Timbalan Menteri : Datuk Dr Hou Kok Chung
Timbalan Menteri : Datuk Idris Haron

KEMENTERIAN SUMBER ASLI DAN ALAM SEKITAR
Menteri : Datuk Douglas Uggah Embas
Timbalan Menteri : Datuk Seri Abdul Ghapur Salleh

Sources from Bernama

Scooby Doo...

Siapa tak kenal Scooby Doo? With the almost famous phrase "Scooby Doo, where are you?" we guess ramai yang biasa tengok this cartoon or at least heard about it. Scooby Doo and the gang: Fred "Freddie" Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley and Shaggy Rogers, are always on the move in their van called "The Mystery Machine". Jangan lupa Scooby Doo favorite snack, the "Scooby Snack". Puas gak la carik Scooby Snack ni, tapi tak pernah jumpa lak. Nak gak rasa macam mana. Apart from that, once in a while ada la character Srappy Doo, the nephew of Scooby Doo.

Believed it or not, Scooby Doo cartoon series has been there since 1969. No joke! Patut la rasa macam dah berkurun lamanya kenal Scooby Doo ni. From TV series, they came out with a animation movie in 1998 and there are series of movies later. In the year 2002, Scooby Doo later came out as "live-action theatrical release" called "Scooby Doo", and in 2004, release another movie called "Scooby Doo 2 - Monster Unleashed". Video games jangan kira la. Macam-macam video games ada for various platforms. Harith pun dah pandai jugak layan Scooby Doo ni lately. Biasa la dia, bila ada cartoons yang ada jenis kejar-kejar ni memang dia cepat excited. Monsters, giants and aliens kinda stuff.

Cerita pasal Scooby Doo ni, Harith now hooked up to Scooby Doo ice cream. Its a push up style rainbow serbet. It tasted good anyways. It has the mixed fruity taste, and being a serbet, it gets soft easily. Everytime balik sekolah, confirm kena singgah 7-11 nak beli Scooby Doo ice cream. Sampai staff kat 7-11 dah cam muka kitorang and always make sure the stock is always there. Hehehe... Kat sini dia jual $1.47 inclusive tax. Its a product of Nestle and rich with Vitamin C (yeah rite!). Nasib baik la tak mahal, tapi jangan la convert to RM, ok. We've tried to look elsewhere kot la ada jual dalam boxes. Kot la a lot cheaper, and we can stocked up at home. Unfortunately, tak jumpa pun. Other characters ader la, Dora, Spongebob, and Marvel characters. Tapi Thomas takde :P

Together signing off...

Our Little Mr. No

This is Harith. Our one and only manja boy. This is the first time rambut dier dibiarkan panjang macam tu. Dah nampak macam one of the Japanese comic characters pun ader. Kalau kat M'sia, rambut Harith always maintain ala-ala Mawi style (org la ckp camtu, pdhal tak tiru style rambut Mawi pun!). Budak kecik nie kuat berpeluh, psl tu takleh simpan rambut panjang. Tapi since kat US nie sejuk giler... takde chance nak berpeluh, so biarlah ader rambut. at least kepala pun tak la sejuk sgt :D



Last Monday, Harith buat perangai. dier yg sgt suka pergi sekolah, tiba2 taknak pergi sekolah. Nak suruh bangun tido pun payah. Maybe dier penat lepas 2 days berjln sakan last weekend. So mood tak baik tu terbawa2 la sampai ke sekolah. His teacher, Mrs. Palmer said Harith was not being himself that day. He said "No!" when the teacher asked to do something, and cried when he didn't get a toy. Kids sometimes do that, said Mrs. Palmer. Ok, hopefully his next class he'll get better.

Hari Rabu, lain pulak cerita. He insisted on bringing the PSP to school. So dier bawak la PSP, bukan utk main dlm kelas, just untuk sementara dier tunggu pintu sekolah bukak. Harith and ayah normally arrive about 10-15mins early (since diaorg pergi naik public transport, kena la ikut jadual bas). Silap kitaorg, dier takmo serahkan PSP tu before masuk kelas. So mengamuk la dier... siap guling2 dlm kelas. Mcm biaser, biler mood tak baik, semua bende "No!". one of the kids in his class asked, "Why he suddenly become Mr. No?" Later when he came back from school, he told us that his friends called him "Mr. No". Hehehe... Memang patut la pun kan! But Mrs. Palmer said he gets better throughout the day. Ok dah la tu kot...

dier tengah kemaruk main this game on PSP...

Today, Harith went to school as usual. but his mood dah ok. balik from school pun happy jek. So I guess, no more Mr. No... :D

Friday and Cendol

Its Friday again. Friday afternoon is the time when the male Muslims went to perform the Friday Prayer. Its a mandatory for the male to perform the prayer, unless you have some solid reasons not to. Some Muslim scholars even made compulsory to the women too. I do remember there was an Ustaz (means male teacher in Arabic, but normally we refer them as the religious teacher) once shared his experience saying that in Mecca, during Friday prayer, people just left their business premises unattended to perform the prayer without any worries. I don't think that'll work elsewhere.

I am not a religious scholar nor the right person to lecture regarding the Friday prayer. However, during my college days, I do remember associating Friday prayer with having cendol after the prayer. Without fail, there will always be the cendol guy waiting outside the mosque in Seksyen 19, Shah Alam. Under the hot sunny day, the thought of having a cold cendol really quenched the thirst. Sometimes, we did have 2 or more servings. Please bare in mind that, we are not the only one were rushing for the cendol, there others too. Normally ordered few servings in advance just to avoid the queue.

For those who don't know what cendol is about, please read below extracted from Wikipedia.
Cendol [pronounced 'chen-dul'] or es cendol is a traditional dessert originating from Java, Indonesia, but is also popular in Malaysia, Singapore, and Southern Thailand (where it is called lorkchorng singapore ลอดข่องสิงคโปร์). The dessert's basic ingredients consist of shaved ice, coconut milk, starch noodles with green food coloring (usually sourced from the pandan leaf), and palm sugar. Red beans, glutinous rice, grass jelly, and creamed corn are optional additions. Cendol has become a quintessential part of cuisine among the multi-racial population in Southeast Asia and is often sold by vendors at roadsides, hawker centres and food courts.

However, please read also the following:

In Malaysia, cendol is usually sold on the roadside by Indian Muslim vendors. It is common dessert fare in Singapore popularly found in dessert stalls, hawker centres, coffee shops and food-courts, and served by vendors of various ethnic background. The first Indian Muslim vendors learnt the skills of making the cendol from the Javanese in Indonesia and brought the recipe and preparation methods with them to Malaysia and Singapore. Cendol is also popular as a snack, particularly after Friday prayers among Muslims.

See... I've told you earlier why Friday prayer reminds me of cendol. However, my preference is still having cendol by roadside instead of in a fancy restaurants. My top 5 ranking are as follow:

1. Depan Telekom Sungai Besi (now no more)
2. Behind Petronas Jalan Kolam Air, Ampang (the one with Craven, also moved)
3. Seksyen 19, Shah Alam mosque (only available on Friday, and same guy selling at Seksyen 18)
4. Near Old Post Office Taman Melawati
5. In front kedai motor nearby Menara Celcom (formerly known as Wisma Telekom Semarak)

Mana nak carik cendol kat US of A? I heard at Warong Selera they sell. Hmmmm...

Together signing off...

Is It Safe to Lie Anymore?

I had an interesting evening class on Tuesday for NSP602. Dr. T had invited his former colleague during his days working with one of those 3 letters agency. Being in a course where all topics are serious and heavy, I have the perception that this guest speaker will be a boring one. Knowing people that works with one of those 3 letters agency, and the stuff they do, I was expecting a very long evening.

Our guest speaker had served the agency for more than 34 years and 2/3 of his service, he was doing "Polygraph". He's now retired. He was the best polygraph examiner in the agency. We were all quite fortunate to have him as a guest speaker. His vast experienced doing polygraph for various reasons really impressed us. His involvement in major cases in the past really deserved an applause. He talked to us on the reliability of the polygraph test to examine the psycho physiological or defection indication or in normal term known as lie detection.

A polygraph is an instrument that measures and records several physiological responses such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration and skin conductivity while the subject is asked and answers a series of questions, on the basis that false answers will produce distinctive measurements. The polygraph measures physiological changes caused by the sympathetic nervous system during questioning.

Polygraph test have been widely use here in the States. The Intelligence Community and Law Enforcement Agencies are using it for the obvious reasons. Few years back, polygraph have been used as part of Security Clearance process, which means you need to be polygraphed before you can be granted with a Security Clearance. I can see the relevance here. In order for the organizations/agencies to decide a suitable placement for a candidate, it is best to verify the candidates beforehand. The reason is being that, the only person that can verify what you've stated in your security clearance form (ie SF86) is nobody else except yourself.

The evolution of the psycho physiological test or lie detection test is a growing technology. There are few other options to detect lie using technology such as the Voice Stressed Analyzer (VSA) and Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). However the big question is that the reliability of the test. Polygraph technology was there ever since the 1970's but still people are still questioning the reliability. From my personal point of view, there are no single technology in the world is a perfect solutions. It is really hard to define how reliable is reliable enough especially in the Criminal Justice system. It is really a tough job for the investigators, prosecutors and adjudications, and not to forget the policy making people.

The overall session for the NSP602 class was interesting. The talk, the insider stories and the experienced shared was a splendid evening. The session ended with a polygraph demo. A classmate volunteered and the test was conducted upon him. It was like a magic show to us. Hehehe... Personally, I would say polygraph is reliable enough as a defection identification tool. With all the devices being strapped on your body, its enough for me to be nervous and not to tell lie. I would say, I am a bad liar anyways.

And now, the next question arises in my mind is "Is it safe to lie anymore?"

Together signing off...

Featured picture

We added a new column in our sidebar, Featured picture. Featured picture will publish a picture that has something to do with our life. It maybe something that we bought, a place we went, food we ate, or even an activity we did. Something that we feel interesting to be shared, but not enough to be blog or to be up in fotopages.

Let the picture speaks for itself.

Our lunch

As usual, we had our simple lunch around 5pm. Normally cuma masak 2 lauk je. Both of us tak cerewet sgt pasal makan, except for me who doesn't eat fish. Azrul mmg senang, masak je la aper sajer, semua jalannn... hehehe... Harith pulak, being cerewet on memilih makan, he most of the time tak makan nasi. so boleh la masak lauk ikut our selera yg gemar makan pedas.

3 months in US, our selera still towards M'sian food. Luckily senang dpt spices and other ingredients, so still can masak and taste the same. tak mcm masa duduk kat Guinea dulu, most stocks sendiri bawak dr. M'sia. Menu hari nie ayam masak merah and sayur goreng sos tiram. simple, tapi mengenyangkan. Yg penting kena dgn our selera. Joey, if you're reading this post, ada berani nak try recipe ni? :D


Since duduk kat US nie, hari2 memasak. walaupun dah seharian keluar berjalan, penat... balik umah still memasak. kalau kat M'sia jgn harap la... mesti makan kenyang2 dulu kat luar... hahaha... patut la tong gas tahan berbulan2. even maser jual whole set dapur (dapur+tong gas+cabinet), the condition was as good as new (nie komen from org yg beli the set). Btw, we sold as much as possible our furniture and appliances before dtg US.

Siang yang panjang....

Woke up as usual on a beautiful Sunday morning. It supposed to be a beautiful sunshine day, except for strong wind is expected through out the day. The strong wind is said to carry a cold temperature, estimated around 20 Fahrenheit. However, that does not really worry us much since we have a car this weekend to drive us around. Before getting ready for the day, boot up the laptop to get more interesting news regarding post-election. Que sera, sera...

Sedang elok tengah baca news tu, rasa pelik gak bila perasan the time display on the laptop dengan jam dinding kat rumah differ by an hour. Bukak la Connecticut local news, and got to find out that, it is the effect of Daylight Saving Time (DST). Apa dia DST?

Daylight saving time (DST) is the convention of advancing clocks so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less. Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted backward in autumn. Modern DST was first proposed in 1907 by William Willett. Many countries have used it since then; details vary by location and change occasionally." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time)

Since Spring is coming anytime soon, I guess here comes the changes. We are now advance an hour compared than previous. No wonder during last Friday prayer, there was an announcement saying that the following week Friday prayer will commence at 1.00 pm.

Logically, the 1 hour difference doesn't really gives a big impact. However, since this is our first encounter, terasa juga la siang tu panjang. We did realize this when we were at Westfield Connecticut Post Mall, masa tengah tunggu Harith main kat indoor playground, kami tengok jam baru pukul 4.00 pm. Rasa macam dah lama je keluar. Once we got back home, we still feel that the daytime is longer than usual. Normally during Winter, by 5.00 pm, dah masuk waktu Maghrib, except for last week when Maghrib is at 5.40 pm. Hari ni, pukul 6.20 petang pun langit still terang benderang. We are adapting well so far. Cuma siang tadi je terasa panjang...

Together signing off...

Shopping Spree...

Bangun pagi berkobar2 nak tau result pilihanraya umum 2008. both of us tak dapat mengundi tahun nie coz tak sempat nak register utk undi pos. so P98 and N18 kekurangan 2 undi.

Malaysian PM suffers election shock, reported by CNN. Frankly, both us quite disappointed with the results, tapi bak kata Pak Lah, "ini pendirian rakyat untuk menunjukkan pilihan mereka untuk tidak mahu memberikan kami majoriti dua pertiga". skrg terserah la kpd rakyat utk melihat impact atas keputusan yg telah dibuat. Since the results were pretty much expected, we decided not to wait for the official announcement.
After having our brunch, we went to Clinton Crossing Premium Outlets. Many designers and brands can be found here, and tengah sale pulak tu! Dpt la few harta karun from Coach, Gap, Nike, and Skechers. my x-colleague, fikri mesti suka this place coz ader kedai favorite, Polo Ralph Lauren. Sure borong sakan kalau dier jumpa kedai nie... hehehe...
Later we continue our journey to Westbrook Tanger Outlets. sini pun byk pilihan, tapi cuma harith je dpt habuan from here. bought him few toys from KB Toy and books from Reader's Digest. we definitely will visit these 2 outlets again and again... especially before balik M'sia nanti :D

Orthodontic

I had my 1st orthodontic treatment in West Haven yesterday. Actually it was my 2nd visit, the 1st visit the dr. just tgk2 current condition of my teeth and asked details about the treatment record. I had to ask my orthodontic back in M'sia to transfer my record here. We had discussed about this earlier, so the dr. is already aware.

Yesterday, the dr. made a new model and changed the chain. The wire is still using the old one coz he wants to wait for my treatment record to arrive and get the exact size for the wire.

The cost? hmmm... should I mention it here? kalau ikut US currency, for the mthly treatment it is cheaper than my mthly payment in M'sia. but kalau convert to RM, errr... takpe la... saper yg tau, taulah. Anyway, I mmg dah expect psl the cost and had it prepared earlier.

To compare between the two dental centers, the one in M'sia is much2 canggih and cantik. For the friendliness, both are the same. My dr. in M'sia gentler in doing his work. Sikit pun tak raser sakit. tapi dr. kat sini plak, pasang the chain without using any tool. Ke psl tu raser sakit sket? Btw, the dr. here quite impress tgk my braces quality... hahaha... siap tanya where the M'sian dr. got his training and he even wondering where the braces was manufactured :D So seems like I tak salah pilih la kat M'sia. Worth it with the amount I paid for.

A Beautiful Day Ended as a Boring Day

It was Sunday yesterday. Time really flies this week. Sekejap je dah habis another week. Its was a beautiful day yersterday. With Ms Sunshine and no strong wind adds up to what supposed to be a beautiful Sunday. Woke up a bit late than usual, tengok ada 3 missed call from Zakir. Sure dia call masa nak pegi East Haven for the weekly bowling get together. Melepas lagi nak main bowling this week. Siapa suruh tido pukul 4.00 pagi, ada hati nak bangun awal.

Anyways, since dah tak ada rezeki nak main bowling weekend ni, we have to make do with what we have je la. As a normal routine, boot up the laptop and get hooked up to the net. Sementara nak tunggu booting up completed, sempat la pegi basuh muka, gosok gigi and minum air. Normally malas nak mandi awal-awal, sejuk la. Tunggu a bit later in the afternoon baru mandi. Dah settle with the personal matters tadi, duduk la mengadap laptop. Try to download the emails, keep giving me the message "Unable to connect to host". Hmmm. Sensed something not right here. Sekali tengok modem bawah meja, rupanya tak ada connectivity. Run the diagnostic tools, confirmed there are no internet connectivity, alas. Tried to restart the modem and other basic diagnostic, still no positive signal. Seems like memang confirm tak ada internet. Its ok then, we'll wait till bit later in the afternoon and try again. Since dah tak dapat online tu, just proceed with presentation slides preparation. Luckily managed to gather some info yesterday. Boleh la proceed buat slides.

Later in the afternoon, we tried to connect to the net again. Must still no signal. Went to 7-11 next door to reload the mobile phone, nak call AT&T. Jadi student ni kena la berbelanja secara berhemah. Pakai mobile phone, guna prepaid. Upon reloading the mobile phone, kami call la AT&T Customer Care. Dalam hati semangat nak sembur orang ni. After going thru the so-called "Interactive" Customer Care line, kami dapat notification yang katanya memang ada internet connectivity error in certain part of Connecticut. Totally frustated...

One whole day with nothing to do. Nak keluar jalan, kalau la ada kereta, dah panjang dah langkah. As we said before in the earlier entries, kalau tak ada benda, memang malas nak keluar. Eventhough Ms Sunshine ada, but its still a bit cold. So duduk la kami anak beranak kat rumah. Sorang main Solitaire, sorang main PSP. Nak tengok tv, dah kena conquer dengan Harith. Its either Cartoon Network or Disney Channel je la. Layan je la. It feels soooo long nak sampai malam. Malam lak, still sama no connectivity. In the end, kami anak beranak layan Harry Porter - Prisoner of Azkaban kat ABC Family. Habis cerita Harry Porter, saja je jengok bawah meja. All the indicator lights kat modem tu menyala. Yahooooo! At last, after the whole day without internet.

Its really weird when to think of it. We are now too dependent to the internet nowadays. A day without internet seems incomplete. Rasa gelisah je. What can we say, we are both IT Graduates. Lagipun, aper guna technology kalau kiter tidak menggunakannya... :D. Alhamdulillah dapat balik online...

Together singing off...