Cheat Work Thursday

Last year, once again, I didn't manage to send my baju raya to the tailor. I mean, why on earth do we go to the tailor five months before raya? Who would've remembered to do that? Plus, at about the same time, I was rethinking this habit of spending too much money on kebaya. Then when I tried to look for a ready-made kebaya, I realized, "God. This is hard. I should have got it tailor-made. Next year in January, I'm going to take a day off just to get this done. Just me and my baju raya." Well, January was eight months ago... I'm getting raya things this Tuesday: - Baju (a social obligation), kuih and duit raya. - Pecan pie recipe and ingredients. I hope my mother's oven, last used probably in 2006, is still working. I had a buffet lunch with a friend before puasa and really loved the pecan pie they served. I went to get the pie twice and was just a little 🤏🏼 embarrassed when I realized the staff was staring at me scooping the pie like nobody...

I've been looking for the story's comic version for a while now. I read it when I was probably 10 and loved it so much. I think the one that I read was a translated-to-Malay version. I tried to look for it online but only found the illustrated version ie the actual book accompanied by some illustrations. I asked my nieces to look for it in their school's library, but they said they'd never heard of it. The judge-y look I gave these kids. This is the book version:

"Mortals, you are so about to fulfill my every demand." *waves magic wand*

I've been doing a lot of cooking these past few months — partly to eat healthily. A pinch less MSG, oil, salt and sugar, and an extra cup of fresh-or-not-overcooked vegetables a day adds up to a lot in a year, right? I still go to, for example, McDonald's, of course. I hate myself a little each time I eagerly grab take the pancake bag, but the drive-thru is so convenient. And the pancakes are so yummy. And I love McDonald's coffee. Two days before puasa, I went grocery shopping, feeling ambitious, thinking maybe I could try to make kurma or chicken curry for a change. I don't know much about cooking, you knew that already, but anyone who can read can also cook — with instant mixes. So I grabbed four or five packets of those kurma, black pepper, sweet & sour etc mixes, and the dishes turned out ok — as per my standard, which is not very high, I suspect. They only take me about 20 minutes in the kitchen. I'd start at 7 and finish just in time for berbuka. And...

My mother made one of these for each of us recently. I will never trade it for anything. (Unless someone's paying me a ridiculous amount of money, then I'm open to negotiation.)

Hi 👋🏼, hope you've been good. I had a nice month -- working, gardening, cooking, reading, drawing, playing with numbers, spending time with family, seeing friends more, organizing (and reorganizing) things, volunteering , deep-thinking . Even went swimming for a grand total of one time. Here are some of the books +more that have kept me occupied for the past month: Lone Survivor, Marcus Luttrell The book is an eyewitness account by Marcus Luttrell, the only survivor of Operation Red Wing in Afghanist*n, which killed three US Navy SEALs and, later, the entire rescue team. It took me a lot of pages before I could tolerate the book, mainly because I was thinking, "Right... a book by a proud SEAL..." And it feels like the tone does somewhat carry throughout the book. Luttrell also has some funny comments about the liberals. Go read them. But the part where he describes how his best friends died was also a difficult read. He survived the battle and was later ...