Sakinah Abdul Aziz

What struck me as an interesting phenomenon I stumbled into last week was how an untouched tupperware of pineapple tarts is almost empty right now as I'm typing this. That poor tupperware has been resting on the television cabinet for 2 months. All I had to do was to bring it into the study room so I could start munching on some while watching my Korean drama and then leave it there next to the computer. And for the next few days, voil à , alm ost half of tarts were eaten. Of course, by everyone else at home. All I had to do, was to make it more reachable, more visible. And these pineapple tarts were so good, soft tart shells and really sweet fillings. There has been claims of 'out of sight, out of mind' phenomenon which I cannot completely attest to because there cannot be things we can completely get rid of despite the physical absence. Things such as memories. But on the flipside, we can make things more salient if we push them enough to exist within our attention span...

I must say that my last week of October was eventful. There were days that were enriching, and there were days that were fun-filled. Things at work underwent major restructuring and there was a huge event where everyone came together as one, one last time. Didn't sign up for any activities on that day, but spontaneously ended up learning introductory Salsa and did archery. Super duper fun. Caught David Cook live. I was really contented because he played about like, 10 songs. I must say it was worth waiting 2 hours for him to finally appear on stage. Thanks to a close friend who asked me to come along and follow her for this event because she's a major David Cook fan. The last time I saw him was through a video conferencing the same friend won tickets for. Was invited for an interfaith dialogue (Islam-Judaism) at a synagogue. Very eye-opening as I've never stepped into one before, and I certainly have never met or spoken to a rabbi before. Had kosher food, and of course...

Say hello to the girl who cuts apples with fangs. About more than a week ago, I was arrowed to bring something for breakfast before the meeting yesterday, halloween-themed. So a dear good friend of mine sent me this link for ideas. Really creative and cute right? Anyhow, I decided to make monster jaws out of apples after some persuasion by a couple of colleagues who were in charge of the breakfast. And mine turned out like this (photo credits to a colleague). LAWLS. I tried my best. Although this was a far cry from what I intended to make. Anyway, by lunchtime where there was a steamboat lunch in the office, I was officially known by everyone in the staff lounge as the 'girl who cuts apples with fangs'. So it turned out that I was the only one who brought something halloween-themed. Another colleague was supposed to bring a pumpkin cake but that didn't work out. There was even a joke that if anyone needs apples with fangs, "Sakinah would gladly do it at 5...

Why taking time-off from work on Monday is a good thing: 1) There is no such thing as Monday blues. 2) I could sit in and take my time to have breakfast. Hotcakes from Macs. Super yums.

In no particular order: Making someone smile Seeing strangers smile back at you Rolling your tongue over heavily syrup-coated Baklavas from Turkey Basking under the Sun on the Lazy River like a boss Deep conversations 1-to-1 McNuggets Baking something for the first time and then eating your very own product immediately the moment you've done your finishing touches Licking cheese cream frosting from your index finger from a very fine tupperware Watching Bean movie with the sister and laughing away as if it was the first time watching it Taking your time to shop and trying on every single apparel you love as if you own the hours on the clock, on a perfect weekday Roaming Town alone and going anywhere you want to Seeing how your unread, good books are piling up and loving the idea of books waiting on you Spending late nights just talking Getting out from the bed to drag yourself for breakfast dates Heading to the airport not only to send/fetch people, but really to just be at the air...

Good morning. I woke up today thinking about this awesome new pizza that Pizza Hut just came out with. Not that I'm advertising for it. But this advertisement at some random busstop caught my eye while I was on my way to school. Being a cheese-lover, I've gotta try this one. Hoorah for Italian cheese :D Speaking of Italy, I'm dying to watch this! Ah, gelato! You might be wondering why is it that I seem to have more time in my hands. The arts faculty's having this e-learning week now. It masks all the million things I actually have to do. Like the 3 pending lectures to hear, and of course my projects. You see, we actually think that by having this, we'd be able to save more time but it actually makes you do more work. By being at home and being in front of your computer, people actually thought it will be faster, but in actual fact no. Like online discussion is twice as long as the actual physical discussion we could have had in classes. I just had two e-learning via...

So here's basically what sums up my Sunway getaway: - Sleeping late - And with that, of course waking up around noon almost everyday - Playing Monopoly Deal till late nights/early mornings - Social networking - And by this, knowing Kiki's circle of friends in Sunway, thank you for making my stay awesomest! (: Kiki has awesome housemates and her roommate from Sabah is hilariously expressive! - How I Met Your Mother marathon. In need to finish up Season 5 before the semester starts! - Karaoke with an unbelievable, cheap cost of 5 Sg bucks somewhere in Sunway Pyramid. It's not even those shady-looking karaokes, it's actually better than decent. Zomg, why is karaoke in Singapore so bloody expensive?! - Had the best of both worlds of food. Hands down, nothing can ever beat hawker centre food with sumptuous home-cooked meals. It makes me feel closer to home. And for what felt like the longest time ever, I finally taste the best Nasi Padang with awesome belachan! Everything fo...

1. Never ever walk with anything else but flats (and NOT wedges) when you're walking uphill with winding paths to an isolated, important place, that seemingly feels like 400m worth of distance. So I established that amongst all kinds of shoes, flats are totally made for me. 2. I ate the best cheese fries ever today after such a long time. 3. I love food, and it's not only because they taste good, but I like how some of them look and the whole presentation of it. The best part of it is how pretty they can actually look in pictures! 4. I rarely take the train, but when I do, I actually enjoy the rides (the un-peak hours of such rides). And each time I take the train, I would find myself wondering how long it would take to reach from one end to the other in another city (considering the fact that it only takes about at most 1.5 hours to do that here, in Singapore). 5. The thing is, I do feel like being in another city each time I imagine as such. 6. I love cozy cafes with beauti...

Friday night was super, had dinner with the just-turned-21 Nuurun, with amey, alvin, adit and jessie. Then just like what we always do, went to chill at Arab Street. The Iced Mint Tea served at the place we went was really refreshing. Played another crazy game of charades! Smashin' good time with awesome company as always :) I took a rather small break this long weekend, getting amused by all these Ris Low issues and whatnots, watched movies at home, and just reading. You should watch Diner De Cons because it is so hilarious! It's regarding a group of friends who bring idiots for dinner and treat them as objects of mockery until one fine night, the biggest idiot of all screwed the day of the protagonist throughout the course of one day! What faddy said about French movies are right, they comprise loads of talking, very few locations/scenes but the movie quality is good! I just watched La Chevre also, this movie is rather old (but not ancient), it's about how a klutz helped ...

The sad truth is, we live in a quick fix society and we are all pressed for time. So what really happen to our mealtimes? Have you ever had days when you haven't eaten any filling, satisfying food for the whole day and despite having gobbled down some finger food or fast food within a short span, you would still go back home, looking forward to the very sumptuous home-cooked meals? Even when your stomach isn't growling in hunger, somehow you'd just want to sink your teeth into the food that you have grown to be fed with. Home-cooked meals are the best, and although my mother is working and her meals aren't as spectacular as when she was a housewife (she cooks really awesome things really), I appreciate the things she cooks and the time she squeezes in to fix something homemade; not daily, but fairly often. 4 pm, or 8 pm or even 11 pm, one thing I look for when I step into the house is really her cooking. No packed foods, no take-aways, I just need food that my stomach ...

Reese Peanut Butter! Yummy, in need of loads of chocolates!

Gosh, I totally lost track of days. It's Thursday and I'm still thinking it's the earlier part of the week. It's 18th February and I'm still thinking it's the earlier bit of February! This is nuts. Probably because I've been playing more than studying. And perhaps I'm avoiding the two-one subconciously. Anyway gathering at Alvin's was a blast. I'm really glad that I've made really awesome friends from french classes. I reckon we can probably just have a meet-up just because without any specific expectations or agenda, and we can make the most out of it, mostly by laughing and talking. We did those exactly on Tuesday. Heaps of fun. And then myself, nuurun, nicholas, amey, alvin & wangjue headed to Simpang Bedok and then Arab Street just to chill (again, I know) and we had crazy fun. We played Indian Poker (AMEY hasn't heard of the game before, ironic!) and then charades. Charades was the best because Amey finds it SO hard to do actions...

Aalok just told me that the principal of Nai Disha school told him how my Class 5 kids love the pictures pasted on the notebook (with our personalized messages) we gave them. This really made me miss them so so badly. I'm really thankful that they appreciate what we did. Sigh. If I ever am an Indian national who speaks fluent Hindi, I could just help them, and hopefully they are all able to proceed up academically. If I could send messages through the air, leaves and trees, I'd send many many misses to them right now. Eva's 21st birthday party today. I hope it was a success, it was a good experience planning and executing it. Woa, can be one hair-pulling activity but I totally love planning for something that's totally worth it, yes Eva? :DDDD Love ya many many my dearest :D

So yesterday, mugged the whole day at central library. And then met up with aiman & khai for late night supper at batok. Honestly, I'm amazed at the amount of energy I have to trudge along at 10:30 pm to see these two stooges. It's probably their company, tsk tsk (: Since each of us was dressed in red, green and yellow respectively, khai labeled us as traffic lights yesterday, ha! Banters with khai over food, endless random conversations, crow-like laughter, rants, the lamest jokes. Again, beyond-midnight walk from batok all the way to our houses. Almost perfectly empty roads. Screamed out names of our friends whose houses happened to be along the route we took. Simply awesome.

Indeed, I'd really kill to know how things are gonna turn out because some unprecedented things coming your way might kill you first. Is there any way of knowing? I'm really high on caffeine right now from khai's drink. Spent the night with the usuals and bestie at wheelock's starbucks, laughing and chilling. What's there not to love the long weekends before Tuesday when school starts? Ate, laughed way too much (there's no other way to justify this statement really), had pointless discussions on cheese which turned out really hilarious for the umpteen times we tried to explain how La Vache Qui Rit cheese looks like to Rauf, laughed at how "we did what we did that night" sounds totally wrong, played murderer paper game, "i have never", pictionary, seeing display of gorilla-like movements, and getting on khai's nerves in his brand new car. Tonight, or rather this morning, aiman and me coined a combined name for Blair Waldorf and Chuck Bass ...

I just got back from the perfect getaway of the moment yesterday afternoon. Technically I didn't really stay in KL, it's more of staying at Sunway at Sunway hostel in the compounds of the Sunway University campus. How cool huh? Perfect was the word to describe because I ate to my heart's content (someone remind me that gluttony is one of the deadly sins), slept till late, unrushed, carefree and with heaps of laughter. It was just pure fun and it was nice seeing Kiki again, thanks for the accomodation in your room! And all the fun hassle to come in and out of the hostel separately just not to get the security guards suspicious. Haha. So I'm a happy goober. Why? Here's the list of things/places we ate at: Nandos Subway Auntie Anne's Baskin Robbins (nuurun had tons of ice cream) Ichiban Ramen J.co Some bakery Secret Recipe A&W Johnny's Paratha Wrap/Crispy Wrap San Francisco Coffee Restoran Nasi Kandar Jaafar (LOL) Haagen Daaz Manhattan Fish Market Food cour...

Yum, butter biscuits and caramel go pretty well.

Bread and caramel don't go together at all! It's true, I tried. Unlike bread with kaya or nutella or jam. My Brittany caramel is really nice though, I just need to find a compatible food to go with that's all. Which was why I bought frozen crepes from Carrefour. The bad thing about it is the after-effect of being microwave-d. It's just a little.. soggy. Not nice :( I need pancakes. Perhaps that would be good. Went to Kak Lin's wedding on Sunday. Was nice seeing relatives again. I think I'm very much closer to my second cousins than my direct cousins from my dad's side, like seriously. The thing I like about my dad's side of the family is that it's too huge that I see various faces in just one event and I'll end up figuring how we're related. I love to see how the connection works. My mom's side is too petit, I kinda know everyone haha. That's Kak Lin. She's my dad's cousin's daughter. So that makes her my 2nd cousin? So ha...