of strawberries,chocolates & weddings ..

Today is the first day of the school holidays - :D .. it starts on November 18th 2006 and it lasts through till January 3rd 2006 - 6 weeks and a little more of no screaming, crying, whining, playful little children running around - I am going to miss that so much lol .. When you get use to the noise all year - solitute though welcome - you cant help but still need some noise ... At least i know i do .. anyways, ive been away from my blog all morning and all day actually seeing ive been a busy little bee - having my hands on all the sweet stuff though i wished it was someone instead of something .. ;)) .. anyways, i was busy putting the finishing touches to the chocolate & strawberry wedding cake due to be delivered this afternoon at a relatives house .. I smell of chocolate which i like alot just dont like the stickiness that comes with it though .. anyways, we completed the cake - which included a second round of chocolate icing, chill and then arranging the strawberries in about 3 hours tops - cleaned up the kitchen, got about 45mins of rest and then its time to get ready ...

A school of pirahnas came over lol actually it was my cousins - they love raiding my fridge though unfortunately for them bears no fruit cos i havent been grocery shopping (poor little fishies) so they raided the cakes and cookies on my dining table lol i like it when they do actually - food brings families closer together i would think .. anyways at about 2 we all left for the wedding - one care brought the cake and the other us - imagine having to fit about 8 eight people into my uncles mini van - heh heh .. we are not exactly petite creatures except maybe two of my cousins anyways - we did manage to squeeze in ...

At this point i was a little nervous about the cake - truth be told this was the first time we did a chocolate wedding cake - usually its the 3 , 4 ,5 of more tiers of fruit cake with royal icing which can withstand the humid weather especially when the cake sits out for a few hours. The invitation is for about 8 hours - so that chocolate cake has to sit out that long - i was afraid it would melt - but i thank my lucky stars it didnt until the time i got home so i was really happy about that.

I fell inlove with the wedding decor at the reception hall - it had so much elegance and class to it. It was a mixture of deep red, creams and a touch of gold. I loved the crystal lanterns that they hung at the entrace on top dried wood and twigs And the stage where the bride and groom sat was sorta like a harem with soft chiffon curtains, cushions - it was exotic and romantic all at the same time .. Makes you want to get married lol but of course we know there is more to a marriage than just the wedding well anyways .. From what i heard the bride & groom had like 3 change of clothes for the whole function. I probably missed the first one cos the second time round they came in clad in Arabic garb. The groom wore a white top(a long kaftan like top for men) and he wore a jacket over it complete with the head gear - like a true warrior .. and the bride wore a cream dress with gold embroidery and a scarf that matches it - she looked so radiant .. reminds of princess jasmine in Aladdin .. they came in true Hadrami style (Hadramut ,Yemen is from their ancestors were from), with Arabic music in the background and women making celebration sounds with their tongues - i call it a mating call lol i dont know what it is called really - i think ill ask my aunt .. but its like a cheer on or something like that anyways they were accompanied by cute little flower girls .. rose petals were thrown as they made their way to the stage .. Then there were speeches, picture taking and so on and of course there was food - there was the traditional briyani rice served at weddings, the assortment of pickes from cucumber to pineapple to onions, then there is the dalcha - a soup like lentil dish with tomatoes, potatoes, long beans, aubergines and of course spices .... and last but not least chicken pieces cooked in a curry like gravy - all these eaten together makes for one very very delicious meal ummmmmmmmm so yummyyyyyyy ... and we cant forget the dessert ... an assortment of bite size cakes like oreo cheese cake, eclairs, brownies and more traditional cakes like wajik(glutinious rice cooked in plan sugar and coconut milk), kuih kacau (its tapioca flour i think cooked in kaya - one of my favs) and they had some steamed puffs ,kuih apom (glutinious rice grouded cooked in pandan leaves with sugar and steamed till the top fluffs up - its usually eaten with fresh grated coconutes soooo sedap that means sooo delicious in english and then there were grapes too.. what can i say we stuffed ourselves silly .... :D and it was a grand affair for sure

It was a very long day i took a short nap when i got home and was way refreshed when i got up - and a little bored i wasnt in the mood to read so i decided to create avatars well actually i was asked too anyways by someone who had all the time in the world and dont know what to do with it lol - so i made a pilgrim me avatar, a native indian me avatar and i think one of me on a picnic lol .. it was sheer boredom as you can see ..

Well i think im done squeezing my brain cells .. ill call it a night hoping for some sort of message when i get up - so nites nites world - sleep tight dont let the bed bugs bite ...