A FIRST AMONG MANY

A Happy Chinese New Year 2009 and Happy Holidays to fellow Malaysians who will be having at least 2 days off work.

I'm not in the mood to write but just want you all to know that I'm still alive and kicking, hehehe..

I had a halal reunion dinner with husband, my mom and brother at a restaurant last night. Unlike last year's steamboat, we chose a 6-course dinner. And for the first time, all four of us were dressed in red (unplanned), like boria, hahaha. InsyaAllah next year, I'd cook and serve halal Chinese festive dishes in my own house.

Here's a festive CNY dish that I've cooked for the first time since my reversion to Islam this afternoon (husband left in a hurry this morning so he'll have to wait until I'm in the mood to prepare this dish again.. dok merajuk ni).

It's called "jiu-hu-char", a mixture of finely chopped garlic, fresh sengkuang, carrots, shreds of cuttlefish, mushroom and fresh prawns.

Of course the original version has pork too ( I replaced the pork with a few spoonsful of oyster sauce and it seems to work). Put a scoop of it onto a salad leaf, wrap it and add a dash of spicy sambal belacan..yummy!

As I'm alone this CNY, I'm not actually cooking up a storm in the kitchen this year although the fridge is full of foodstuff. I'll be at home till school starts again on Wednesday. Of course, Mum did invite us over but I don't want to pay a visit now and being asked why husband is not tagging along (One of the things I promised myself after my divorce is, I'd never make excuses for the men in my life ever again). So I'm staying home by choice, and pampering myslef with the festive goodies and interesting movies on tv.

Well..my ingredients for a special CNY tong-shui (dessert) are ready but I'm posponing the cooking until tomorrow. Preparing the gingko nuts is tough work, huhuhu.. will show a picture of it when it's ready.

Some of my friends emailed me the 2009 Chinese astrological forecast. Hmm.. I wonder why people even believe in them, yet many do. It's quite silly how the fate and future of thousands who share the same year of birth with you, are believed to have the same destiny in 2009. Of course in Islam, we can't believe in astrology and even fengshui. It's haram.

As a Chinese, I do know what animal sign I'm born into, as we've been told to repeat it from the time we could talk. Our ages are revealed to the elders just by proclaiming what animal sign we are! I see more and more of these fengshui and astrology books today, a sign of desperate time calling for desperate measures? Tips of how to alleviate bad luck during 2009 are followed by the believers. Exactly how effective those tips are, I don't know. All I do know is, the sellers are making a big profit as the stuff recommended are not cheap, hehehe..

We Muslims don't need those forecasts to tell us how to be richer or how to prevent disasters. We should believe that everything that happens, happens for a reason and only He who is All Knowing will decide our fate. No need for the special "stuff" to be placed at the best location for wealth to grow, right? Because once we start to believe in the special power of something, other than God, then it's time we check ourselves and our faith in Him.

There's supposed to be a solar ellipse today (first time out of the many CNY I've lived through) but no sign of it in my area. Have anyone seen it?