Biskut Raya

Every Ramadhan, without fail, I will try to make my own biskut raya. And without fail, it will always fail me. Yesterday, I tried to make some Biskut Suji or Biskut Arab to some. I followed the same recipe I used last year and the result was "Bleigh".... I don't know what went wrong but it did not taste the same as last year's. Last Ramadhan, I managed to bake a few batches of the biskut suji and proudly gave some to my siblings. But other cookies did cause me some heartache.

As usual, the first tray baked will be the food of the dustbin. It's the same story every Ramadhan. Be it biskut suji, biskut kelapa or what ever biskut. There must be some that were burnt. In fact, more than 10 years ago, when I just moved in to this house, the house was nearly burnt down because of the fire caused by the oven while baking the raya cookies (actually the fire was in the oven, not a bit of the house was affected. Just an exaggeration from me. More dramatic huh....But it did cause a lot of panicking because the fire might spread if we were not able to control it). That year, not only the cookies were thrown away in the dustbin, but the oven received the same fate.

And every Ramadhan I swear that I'm not going to bake any raya cookies. But I always eat my own words. Why? Beats me. I guess it's just my ego trying to prove that I too can make my own biskut raya. Especially with the newly renovated kitchen this Ramadhan, maybe I feel that more cooking should be done in the kitchen. To say that making my own cookies is more economical, I think it costs me more. I don't know... Or maybe because of the fighting spirit in me....the never give up spirit (He...he...he...but I don't think this is it).

Well...for this Ramadhan, I guess no more baking cookies. I'm only going to make my favourite biskut cornflake which will only involve my oven top and microwave. Until next Ramadhan, insyaallah, we'll wait and see.....

To Blog or Not to Blog

The idea of owning a blog has never once crossed my mind. True, I had created my own webpage before, but even then it was solely meant for uploading notes, assignments, and what not for my students. With the e-learning thinggamajig nowadays, my webpage is a thing of the past. In fact, I've totally forgotten all about it.

The traditional me has always associated writing a blog with writing one's diary or journal. It's something personal and is for the eyes of the writer only. As a matter of fact, reading other people's diary was once (and maybe still is) an offense. So why in the god's name would I want to blog and let the whole world read my "diary"? More importantly, would anyone even bother to care for what I think or write? In actuality, I am never in the habit of writing a diary. I do keep tab of the important stuff I do or something that I feel important to remember in my PDA, though.

Once, when the word blog was never even heard of, I did try to keep a journal, something which I was trained to do in my distant past. It was actually my reflection on interesting events or phenomena I observed. Alas, it was shortlived. So, why did I want to start blogging? Wouldn't I better occupy my time with writing-up my thesis than blogging away?

Well, to be honest, I really thought I need to have my own blog in order to comment on others. I was reading my brother's blog one day and when I tried to post a comment, I was asked to sign in or something like that. So, I just left his blog without commenting. Then I read my daughter's blog and really felt that I need to leave a comment on her posts. Thus, on August 15, at 1430 this blog was born.

Little did I realise that I do not actually need to have my own blog or account to leave her a comment (she told me later that I can sign in as open ID, what ever that is). Well, since I'm now a blogger, I might as well share a few thoughts with whoever would want to hear me rant. Hopefully my blog will not end up with the same fate as my journal. Until next post....