Musings By Jan

My Wish

Since the new year is just around the corner, I am thinking of things that I want to do for the next year and the coming years. 2007 has been a great adventure but also a trial and challenging year.

First of all my mama had stroke in the month of Ramadhan. It was a really trial time for me & my family. We are adjusting right now, my mama is fine its just that she is not like what she used to be physically. She gets tired easily. All this while, she is the one who handles everything. When I mean everything, it means EVERYTHING. I just dont have to worry about anything. One thing that I miss most is her cooking. I am used of coming home after work or anywhere else and have delicious food ready for me. I can cook, I cook all the time. Anyway, somehow, no matter how tasty the food are, I crave for my mama's cooking. Pray that my mama would be better ok?

The other thing is that, work has been challenging. I am not going to go into that because I have something exciting to look forward to. I am going to work in a new place starting a week after the new year. Let's hope for the best.

I am really looking forward to the new year. I wish for good things next year. I already have good news coming next year.. I'll be an aunt for 4 babies.. lol.. 2 from my own family (2 my sisters in law, Kak tine and Kak Liza both pregnant with their 3rd child) and 2 of my best friends are also expecting. Plus, one of my best friends is getting married in the first week of new year. Good things are happening already. I wish good things will happen to me too.

Anyway, I wish to do at least these things next year (if not, the coming years lor LOL):

1. Travel somewhere outside Malaysia

2. Go to a rock concert (coldplay pleaseeeeee come here please!)

3. Enroll into a dance class.. lol

4. Go to a Harry Potter movie premiere, there are only 2 more.. lol (wishful thinking ahahaha)

Anyway, have a great year ahead friends and hope we'll change for the good things.

I wanna live life and never be cruel
I wanna live life and be good to you

And I wanna fly and never come down
And live my life and have friends around

We never change, do we? no, no
We never learn, do we?

So I wanna live in a wooden house

I wanna live life and always be true
I wanna live life and be good to you

And I wanna fly and never come down
And live my life and have friends around

We never change, do we? No, no
We never learn, do we?

So I wanna live in a wooden house
where making more friends would be easy

Oh, and I don´t have a soul to save
Yes, and I sin every single day

We never change, do we?
We never learn, do we?

So I wanna live in a wooden house
Where making more friends would be easy
I wanna live where the sun comes out ...

~ "We Never Change" Coldplay, Parachutes

*smitten*

OMG!! i loveeeeeeeeeee this song called "Standing in the rain". It makes me feel like i wanna be in love. hahah oh well, i dont know how that feels like.. but listening to this song makes me have goosebumps and butterflies in the stomach. Weird. LOL

So anyway, this is a song by a band called Jamie Scott & The Town. The singer, Jamie Scott is a hottie. LOL. ok. he looked a lot like my baby Jamie Oliver and Duncan from Blue. They could be brothers. lol. So anyway, i love this song, and most of the songs in the album, he has this raspy voice, sounded a bit like Adam Levine of Maroon 5. I love his voice, its sooo unique. His sound is mostly acoustic, guitary, bluesy sound. haha

If you have seen Step Up the movie (yeah with the hottie Channing Tatum), Jamie Scott played a role called Collin, the heroine's best friend's boyfriend. He played in a band during one of the party scene. So that's where I recognise Jamie's face when I saw him on mtv few weeks ago.

So anyway, check this song out. This is the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmAVaDKthLs

look at him....;-P pretty huh

"Standing in the Rain" by Jamie Scott and The Town

- from the album Park Bench Theories

While you're talking to me
With blood on your hands
You're tired of being a stranger
Tied up in his plans
You'll cry forever and all you want to know is how you ever got here
Why ain't the loving you

Hope you just don't stop praying when the water does fall
'Cause standing in the rain ain't gonna leave you dry
People say your love pure one of a kind
But standing in the rain ain't gonna leave you dry

People say no

We all fall sometimes
Get out wide open
Thought you'd learn by now

So why you want to do this
Why you want to fall
Why you keep pretending
To make sense of it all

I hope you just don't stop praying when the water does fall
'Cause standing in the rain ain't gonna leave you dry
So stand up feel the light
Don't you want to see all that you've got inside
Your love pure one of a kind
But standing in the rain ain't gonna leave you dry

So take the chains off your world
'Cause they ain't gonna do you well
Take the lock from your heart
Open it 'cause it ain't hard
It ain't hard

Oh woman just don't stop praying when the water does fall
'Cause standing in the rain ain't gonna leave you dry
So stand up feel the light
Don't you want to see all that you've got inside
Your love pure one of a kind
Standing in the rain ain't gonna leave you dry
Said your love is one a kind
Standing in the rain ain't gonna leave you dry

Finish Line

Have you ever felt like you wanted something so bad, but you know somehow deep in your heart that you can't have it? Or that you want something that you don't even know whether it is the real thing or the truth. You think too much about what you want and then you tend to expect too much even though you know that you shouldn't. Then at the end of the day, you have to console your own heart, when that thing you really want so bad turned out to be different than what you had in mind or disappoint you. And you finally think that you are too tired to go through this anymore. Why bother? Hmmmm...

The earth is warm next to my ear
Insect noise is all that I hear
A magic trick makes the world disappear
The skies are dark, they're dark but they're clear

A distant motorcade and suddenly there's joy
The snow and ticker tape blurs all my senses numb
It's like the finish line where everything just ends
The crack of radios seems close enough to touch

Cold water, cleaning my wounds
A sad parade, with a single balloon
I'm done with this, I'm counting to ten
Bluest seas, running to them

I feel like I am watching everything from space
And in a minute I'll hear my name and I'll wake
I think the finish line's a good place we could start
Take a deep breath, take in all that you could want

~ "Finish Line" - Snow Patrol

I'd Wait For Life

smitten. *sigh*

There's a place we used to be
There's a face that I used to see
There's a picture with you by my side
There's a moment that I want to find.

I don't know where to start
Or how to begin
But I kow I love you still.

If you ever turn away
If you ever change your mind
If the road ahead becomes too hard to climb
If there's something in your heart that tells you to stop
Oh to hold you close tonight
I'd wait for life.

There's a voice shouting inside my head
There's a space on your side of the bed
There's a hope everytime there's a sound
There's a silence that's playing too loud

I don't know how you are
Or how you may be
But I know I love you still.

If I close my eyes
I'll dream a little deeper baby
'Cause you are always on my mind
Yeah you are always on my mind
For life.

~ "I'd Wait For Life" - Take That, Beautiful World 2007

Pasta Aglio E Olio

Friends have asked me for this recipe. It's very simple and easy. I was kinda shy to post the recipe, but since you guys asked for it, here it is. If I am not mistaken, "aglio e olio" is a common italian dressing which means "garlic and oil". So basically that is what the recipe is about. Just simple garlic and oil recipe with some additional items based on your tastebuds.

Ingredients:

1. Generous glugs of olive oil - as long as it is enough to cover the amount of pasta. I think it would be around 3/4 or 1 cup for a packet of pasta. Adjust the amount as you wish ok?

2. A packet of dry pasta of your choice (cook according to the packet's instruction) - i would recommend spaghetti, linguini as the oil will the cover the pasta pretty nicely, as they are thin.

3. 1/4 - 1/2 cup of chopped garlic (depends on how much you like the garlic)

4. 1/4-1/2 cup of chopped fresh chillies (depends on your taste as well)

5. Freshly ground black pepper - about 2 teaspoon (up to you really)

6. Salt to taste

7. Meat of your choice (optional) - i love to use seafood : squid, prawn, white flesh fish meat. chicken breast tasted nice as well, sliced nicely

8. Veggies of your choice (optional) - baby asparagus, brocolli tastes great with this (blanch in boiling water first), capsicums (sliced thinly)

9. Parsley & parmesan cheese - as garnishing

How to:

Heat oil in the pan. Sautee the garlic, chillies. Then put in the meat (chicken cooks longer, so put chicken in chicken first. However, i like to cook chicken first with little oil salt & pepper, then take out and put them in later when you throw in the pasta). Add the pepper, and salt to taste.

Put in the pasta, veggies and the garnishing toss them around until the oil coated the pasta thoroughly. Put in the veggies and some parsley toss around. Put them in serving dish, sprinkle the balance parsley and put the parmesan, if you like.

happy trying, and bon appetit.

p/s: a friend of mine asked me whether, instead of using pasta,we use other type of noodles. I never tried it before, but i think you can use the egg noddles, yellow noodle, probably also bee hoon and those kuey teow that you have to soak them first, like in thai dishes. Hmm i think it would be ok cuz they have this chewy texture.

A Lot of Firsts

It's been awhile since the last time I wrote in here. Lots of things happened of course.. last month was a pretty adventurous month. LOL.

I had one of the most terrifying experience in my life. Compared to others, mine doesnt put the meaning of terrifying to justice but it was terrifying to me ok! My car broke down in the middle lane of federal highway, just after Amcorp Mall turn off. It just stopped and refused to start. It stopped dead! It was nearly about 7 pm, kinda dark, it was raining and the traffic was stand still. It chose the most convenient moment to stop dead! When it stopped, I cant even operate anything, including the hazard light and the central locking. I immediately called my brothers, but of course, they are not superman and cant come to me immediately. So they just told me to stay there. I was so shakened up that I ended up crying the whole time until they came. HAHAAH so ok, i am weak. I just have no idea what to do!!! i wanted to move the car, but I cant do it alone. I was there about 10-15 minutes without anybody offering any help. They just honked me and move on with "pissed off" look on their faces. so much of friendly and helpful malaysian huh.  I was so afraid that the cars behind will ram into me since i have no hazard light no light nothing and its already kinda dark. I decided to get out of the car (even that was scary ok!), and put the boot of the car up or at least ask for someone for help. I just got out of the car when a chinese man came out too and told me to move the car. I told him, how am I supposed to that alone? So he walked around and asked the people around to help me move my car. So they came and I went in the car to manoeuvre it to the side. I didn't have the chance to say thanks to those men. Whoever you are, I am forever grateful. Thank you for your help.

By this time, it was already dark and I didnt know what I am supposed to do but just wait. i waited in the car and cry. Hahahaha. What else can i do? My brothers kept calling saying they are on their way. It was very scary to sit in the car in the dark ya know. Eventhough i was on the emergency lane, still cars coming up behind and honked. One car even hit the right side mirror. I cried even more. HAHAH. Then my bros came and all was well. It was a battery problem so ya know they jumped the car or whatever they call what they were doing. I was afraid to drive my own car after that, so Dik drove my car home. LOL. I know it was nothing to some of you, but I think I was in shock. My body ached and shivered, I dont know why. I took the next day off.  hahaha. I take this chance to express my gratitude to my brothers - Lala, Pipiq and Dik for their rescue. I am forever thankful to Allah that I have brothers I can always rely on to.

so thats one bad thing that happened last month. Other than that, I really had fun, I went to my first ever tennis match, between the HOT HOT HOT Rafael Nadal and Richard GasquetI It was great, hahah i spent most of my time zooming in to watch Nadal using my camera. HAHAAH so what! Then I won my first ever concert tickets thanks to hitz.fm cruiser. It was the first time I ever won anything!! HAHAAH! It was for the Live & Loud concert - R&B, the big act was KCi & Jojo. It was also the first concert I attended with my best friend D, so it was memorable. It was also the first concert that I had the chance to be in front of the stage, even though for just a few minutes. The concert was ok. The best for me was this one Philipino singer called Mark Douglas if I am not mistaken. He wasss wonderful! Maybe I have a soft spot for him cuz he sang one of my fave songs, Let's Get Together by Al Green. His voice *sigh*. ahahah.. Then Taufik Batisah was pretty good, I was impressed. He sang quite a good rendition of "Me & Mrs Jones". me like!

I guess thats all. haha.. Cant wait for this coming weekend. I am organising my first ever Bachelorrette Party for a friend of mine and it is also our first ever slumber party. A lot of firsts in this past few weeks huh. There are actually 2 other firsts but hmm next timelah citer. haha.

So anyway, have a nice week people!