Winter 2016 : Comfort food

Nothing can beat a bowl of warm rice porridge, crispy salted fish and fried sambal in a cold winter morning.

Winter 2016 : Main air belakang rumah

Winter 2016 : Language theraphy

I went to my sons' school to discuss on the Council's language therapy session for my kids. I decided to sign them up for the intervention to help them with listening, grammar, vocabulary, social language and question skills in English.

Winter 2016 : Harry Potter

Apart from having Quidditch as one of the sport activities for the students, our University bookstore also sell Gryffindor's, Slytherin's, Ravenclaw's and Hufflepuff‎'s neckties and magic wands. Harry Porter is really a thing here.

Winter 2016 : Nazmi's first day

It was Nazmi's first day attending supplementary school on Saturday.

His class ends early, so we went to the library together because I want to borrow a few books.

We had a blast eating and waiting for Papa in the cold. Papa picked up abang-abang first, before he came for us.

Winter 2016 : Malaysian breakfast at SKMM

Usual scene on Saturday mornings at Abraham Moss High School cafeteria.

We had Malaysian breakfast with our kids, who are attending Saturday supplementary school, Sekolah Komuniti Malaysia Manchester (SKMM). Malaysian community around Manchester will come here and sell Malaysian delicacies at this 'Kedai Kopi Malaysia'.  

Libyan also runs their supplementary school here on weekends. It is a good exposure for the students to mingle around with others of different nationality every week. We love to buy sandwiches made by a very nice Libyan lady.

Winter 2016 : Mung bean

We bought a pack of mung bean at an Oriental supermarket, Wing Yip at Oldham Road, Manchester.

On weekend, I made a mung dessert with coconut milk and palm sugar. This dessert is originated from China but equally popular in Malaysia. In Malaysia, we called it bubur kacang hijau. Recipe in English here.

The kids took a few beans, placed them on a damp kitchen towel and watch them sprout over a few weeks.

I turned the leftover dessert into bubur kacang hijau popsicle!

Winter 2016 : Innocent juice

I did my work at AGLC as usual. A guy sitting at my back says Hi and hand me a bottle of antioxidant juice. He said there was a free giveaway at the cafe downstairs and he took extra bottles for me.

He just arrived from Malaysia and now doing study on branding and marketing strategies. We chatted for a while and he let me continue with my work because I keep checking my watch lol.

I cant remember his name after one hour. Anyway, thank you for being thoughtful. So, those were my lunch that day. Serius kenyang sampai malam.

Winter 2016 : Nabil joined football training

We received this letter in November and thought that it is good to let Nabil join the football team. We are in Manchester kan.... a city famous for football, so why not?

They got meal sponsored by famous sports brand (I cant remember, Nike? or Adidas?) on Tuesdays and trained by experienced footballer.

This is an experience that Nabil couldnt get somewhere else. Alhamdulillah.

Winter 2016 : Really serious frost

Came out to send the kids to school to these..

And frosted grasses too!

Useful article - Keep off lawn on frosty mornings

Winter 2016 : Meet Doody and Kerala from India

Hi!

Worldwide Cheetham Hill, 2016

Winter 2016 : Ancient Egypt Home-Learning Projects

So this is what Nazreen will learn this term. 

For Ancient Egypt, Nazreen chose to produce a book on River Nile.

First, we discuss on the content and layout. Then Nazreen will proceed with the work. He started with the world map showing major rivers in the world. He traced the map on my laptop screen.

Then he cut each continent, pasted them on the blue card and labeled each river with a pink paper.

These are what he managed to do that night. The world map, animals of the River Nile..

...and diagram showing how people lived along the River Nile longgggg time ago. This is a very detailed drawing and he spent more than one hour to produce this precious.

At the other corner of the room, Nabil pasted together 6 A4 papers to make one big sheet for his Ancient Egypt project. He produces a drawing on the process of pyramid construction.

Similar to Nazreen, he produced a very detailed drawing, however, I didnt manage to capture them because my phone was broken. I was using a very old phone with low resolution and didnt work well at night.

Nabil managed to finish his project that night.

Winter 2016 : Another trip to Smithfield Market

GBP10 for a medium-size salmon and GBP12 for those mackerels. Our supply of fish for a week when we had enough of chicken and mutton.

Winter 2016 : Yellow sticky rice and chicken curry

Have I told you I have a really nice neighbour who was also my junior in KAED? Her name is Siti Nora.

She always send good food to our house, and this time, pulut kuning (yellow sticky rice) and delicious chicken curry. May Allah blessed her family.

Winter 2016 : This is how we clean our car

Self-service vacuum at the gas station. 1 pound for 2 minutes.

My son asked why they put both Air & Water as both means the same thing (water is AIR in Malay). 

 After vacuuming, we proceed to this area - the self-service jet wash. There are two pipes – one for water and another for foam. You can choose to only wash it with water or water-foam-water.

 

Winter 2016 : Another round of debate

The reading list. I am the proponent.

The afternoon session at the Arthur Lewis Building preparing for the debate and other essays. 

At this point of time, my eating habit has changed. I just take hot chocolate and cereal bar for my lunch. I am full until I go home.

Winter 2016 : Story Hunters

Year 4 students across the UK are so fortunate because they received free set of Story Hunter books from the Book Trust UK! I could not believe it when Nazreen received the first pack – the books are of high quality, interesting and they are not just for read. There are also activity books and stationeries! They will get a new pack every month and parents need to pick it up from the class teacher.

Image from BookTrust (here)

From Story Hunters - Book Trust UK : To encourage that love of reading, every pupil signed up to Story Hunters will get a monthly personalised pack of books and activities, for a six-month period. Every pack will include at least two carefully chosen books, plus engaging games and resources that children can share with their families – a rewarding way to make the most of pupil premium and build home-school links.

Nazmi usually would be very excited when Nazreen come home with the new Story Hunter pack but due to different reason. So he could do this.

Winter 2016 : Launching of Global Development Institute

I am truly honoured to be part of the crowd that night. To witness the Official Launching of the GDI and listen to the inspirational Keynote Address by Winnie Byanyima, the ED of Oxfam International.

I donned a baju kurung in a shivering cold winter night, just to celebrate the diversity in the international development community. When my husband dropped me near the entrance, I just left my jacket in the car and try my best to compose myself while walking towards the building in the cold. Sometimes, I just had enough wearing thick jacket and bringing it everywhere inside the building (since you are not wearing it inside).

Winter 2016 : I dont know.

I just don’t know. 

Winter 2016 : Brotherhood lagi

How I keep them close?

Do everything together and share everything (in this case, the warm blanket).

And sleep together. 

They can talk and laugh together for hours before they sleep. We usually make sure the lights out by 9.30 - 10pm because we dont want any trouble with the Council.

Winter 2016 : Fruit yogurt

Plain yogurt (our favourite, only 99p for 1kg), honey, strawberry and kiwi.   

Diced the fruits and mix all ingredients together.

Enjoy.

Winter 2016 : Cars

Atur kereta macam ni supaya muat banyak.

Winter 2016 : Ethical Trading Initiatives

I took Work and Employment in Global Economy course. It taught me a lot about globalisation, labour, private standards and global production network. I wrote a lot of essays on private standards, Ethical Trading Initiaties (ETI) in the UK and Fairtrade.

One day I came home and I saw Nazreen’s homework on ETI! It is good for them to understand about ethical trading from early stage and raise the awareness to choose the right products from the supermarket shelves. 

I, on the other hand, only being exposed to this pretty late, during my Masters ;p 

Winter 2016 : More fruits!

One week supply of fruits for the family. I don’t keep snacks in the house. If you need something to eat in between meals, you take fruit. 

Winter 2016 : Coca dates drink

Blend together low fat milk, cocoa powder, banana, dates and oats.

Delicious!

Enough to keep them full for a couple of hours before dinner. It is already dark at 5pm and they keep asking when they could have their dinner.