A Homemaker’s Diary

“The clouds I can handle. But I can’t fight with an eclipse.”

Among all the 4 books in the Twilight saga, my personal favorite is Eclipse. Yes, I finally bought it on Monday while going shopping for groceries..haha!

If the first two books (Twilight and New Moon) are about the crush/first love experience and a separation which almost led to fatal end, the plot for the third book is more enjoyable. There are a few parts where you can read about how Edward and Bella are jealous with each other. And Edward being a 100-plus year old vampire kept on proposing to Bella to marry him before he will change her into vampire and got turned down because who would want to get married at 18, anyway..hehe!

Despite the almost happy beginning in the first few chapters of the book, the old enemy Victoria from the previous books still won’t rest and now they have to be strong to fight the army of newborns. This is when the werewolves and the vampires allied together to protect Bella.

The ending is quite good and sad as well since they finally managed to kill the enemy and Bella accepted Edward’s marriage proposal. The sad part is Jacob was so heart broken to accept the fact that Bella loves Edward more than him and decided to run away into the forest.

These days it is quite hard to find time to sit down and talk. Being parents are not an easy job for us. As we are preparing to celebrate our son’s birthday, Hubby reminded me that how the birthday will always be celebrated about a week after our wedding anniversary..yes, we have been married for almost a decade now.

It reminds me how young we were when we first met each other back then in college. And once we started working we decided it was time to get married. With the unstable financial situation at that time, getting an expensive wedding ring was really out of question. We just made do with whatever the budget allowed us.

I always told Hubby that he should get me a better ring for our 10th year wedding anniversary gift. And then I found about this eternity ring. For those who never heard of such term, the eternity ring appeared about 4,000 years ago at the time of the Egyptians who were the first recorded people to make and wear eternity rings…(now I feel like Cleopatra..haha!)

Eternity rings are essentially a continuous circle of metal studded with stones either halfway or the full way around the ring. The symbolism of a circle made with precious metal, which has no beginning or end, reflected everlasting or eternal love between two people. In addition, some eternity rings have multiple strands or are plaited to emphasize unity.

As I read further, I found that the eternity rings have more recently become known as celebration rings, given at the birth of a child or marking a wedding anniversary. They are usually worn on the third finger of the left hand, next to the engagement and wedding ring.

Now, which precious metal should I choose? It’s either white gold, yellow gold, rose gold or platinum. Which one would you choose, help me decide.

This week my son will turn 3 years old. Well, time does fly even though I wouldn’t say it was a breeze for us in bringing up a child. Since he has asked for a birthday party, we thought we will do a small one for him, inviting just a few neighbors and their kids.

Anyway, I still have some pending tasks to do for the birthday preparation.

I need to go to pasar borong and buy at least 3 chickens and prep them for the birthday dinner. Since it will be night time and weekday, I thought making nasi ayam is more appropriate to feed all the attending adults.

I need to blend garlic and ginger to marinate the chicken pieces. I also need the blended ingredients to make nasi ayam itself and make soup. I could cut down the time to peel the garlic by buying the peeled garlic at pasar borong…(easy way out..haha!)

I need to fill up all the birthday goodie bags by Tuesday’s night. But actually I only have to decide on what to put in one goodie bag then delegate the rest of the task to Hubby..hehe!

I need to blow all the balloons and put up all the decorations. Balloons should only be blown the night before. I have tested letting the blown balloon out for 2 days and sigh, they deflated. Err..Hubby can put up all the decorations..after all he’s taller than me when it comes to putting up the banner and all, right?

On the afternoon of the birthday, I will fry some nuggets and make mac n cheese for the children apart from cooking the main meal nasi ayam.

Hubby is in charged of taking the Secret Recipe cake to the person who will put the CARS edible image in the morning of the birthday and later in the afternoon take the fruit tarts which I have ordered earlier for dessert.

He will prepare drinks for the birthday party.

Oh, I have to make sure I buy birthday candles..but I hope Secret Recipe will give some..I already bought the number 3 candle at the party shop but maybe it won’t look very grand on the cake without all the other single pieces.

I hope to make home made caramel pop corn as part of the candy buffet. Will have to buy corn kernel tomorrow and test it first.

Well, I still have to print some CARS stickers to decorate the party table. That can be done the day before the birthday, I think..if I have done all the cleaning up and prepping the ingredients by Monday, then my mind will be less worried about the food.

I really prefer cooking on my own for event like this rather than order food from others, unless it’s something I am really bad at, like baking..haha! But of course, the hassle will be on the buying the ingredients at wet market and prepping them later at home. Worst case, Hubby can always help me to basuh ayam even if it will take him longer than what I usually do..

I really hope things will go smoothly as planned, Insya-Allah. Will share some pictures once the birthday party is over.

A few years ago when the whole crazy phenomenal Twilight Saga started, I asked my niece what’s the whole thing is all about. She said well it’s a story of first love. I never bother to buy any of the books..seriously why should a woman in 30’s like me doing reading first love story like that..huhu!

Thanks to BBW for selling each book for RM8, I decided to gamble my money and buy all 3 books available..yes, I don’t have Eclipse, have to go and buy it this weekend even though I have started to read Breaking Dawn.

Taken online from a fan prespective, this is what describes Twilight (the first book):

The way Bella gazes at Edward during science class, delighted at the mere opportunity to touch his hand. The moments of charged, awkward silence during the pair’s first meal together. Bella’s insistence that they spend every waking—and sleeping—moment together. I’d been there: I’d felt that intense longing for a handsome, mysterious classmate; that exciting discomfort of a first date with someone I really, really liked; that desire to be with a person all the time, for fear that even a brief period of separation would lead to a cooling of affections.

Oh, the wonder of first love..or even first crush..who could deny it..haha! What I can say is that the books are much more detailed and intense compared to what you can see on the movie. It describes many aspect of relationship that would be so hard to be portrayed on screen. If you notice in the movie, nothing has been said on why the title is Twilight or New Moon, but it was mentioned in each book.

“It’s twilight. It’s the safest time of day for us. The easiest time. But also the saddest, in a way… the end of another day, the return of the night. Darkness is so predictable, don’t you think?”

If you have the time, please read the books..yes, all of them so that you will understand why even an adult woman can cling to such story as escapism.

I didn’t plan to go again to the BBW Aftermath Sale..but somehow on Saturday after completing the materials for my craft class, I mentioned to Hubby that I feel like going..and then we were off..heh!

Of course since the place is such a God forsaken mall which has nothing interesting except the Kopitiam Old Town, Hubby decided to bring our son to Mines so that his Mama can buy books in peace till the sale close at 9pm..hehe!

Surprisingly the crowd was not as bad as the first day. I didn’t even have to queue long to pay.

My initial plan this time around was to find some chick-lit books but somehow I couldn’t find any. I have to buy all these heavy drama fiction instead because as you should notice by now, when it comes to books I just can’t go home empty handed..huhu!

After reading the synopsis at the back of this book by Iqbal Ahmed -Empire Of The Mind I decided to risk spending RM5. Maybe I can learn a thing or two about Britain by reading his writing.

And then I remember someone mentioned about PG Wodehouse so since I found one book, I just chucked it inside my IKEA bag. Yes, in sale like that you should bring a bag rather than trolley or box, trust me!

Again I made it a point to read all the synopsis at the back of the cover and decided these books by Anne Giardini and Meg Rosoff will be something that I might spend my time reading later. God knows how many books I have bought since BBW 2009 and yet to even read the first page.

I found the hardcover version of Twenty Fragments of A Ravenous Youth. I think I will give the paperback I have read to my niece, or if she’s not interested, I can make it part of my book giveaway next year. What do you think?

Oh, for those interested to go and check out the Aftermath Sale, if you buy 10 books tomorrow (Monday their last day), you will get 1 book free. If you buy 20 books, you’ll get 3 books free. That’s what I read on the Big Bad Wolf FB page.