Travel Photo : What A Landscape! - Mount Bromo, Indonesia

I'm sharing a super old travel photo taken from a trip to Bromo, Indonesia.

What A Landscape - the area comprises of volcanic ashes, dusty and we left Mount Bromo with grey, powdery shoes and socks. The view is totally out of this world.

 A busy day at Mount Bromo with tourists and the local trying to make some ends meet

Something Intense For The Tummy : 10 Minutes AB Workout

This is really something very important for the tummy! I really need to keep up with this because I've put on a little bit of weight. It's either I've put on some weight or that scale is playing tricks on me. If this workout doesn't work, at least, I'm really happy to look forward for Ramadan (insya Allah coming in 1 month plus) because it's the fasting month and hopefully, I can tone down that tummy fat by then. :)

Let's do this people!

Oh, it's actually a 10 minute, intense AB workout which is a must do for people above 25 year old because that's the time where you body metabolism is getting lower and all your fat will start 'growing' into the tummy area.

Truthfully, it's tough and I think I'll be needing a proper mat for this. But hey, I think I'm seeing a bit of a flat tummy right now - yea, right! Of course not, not yet :).

*Note: Thanks to PositiveMed.com for sharing this AB routine.

I Love Hummus!

Hummus with crushed basil eaten with spelt crackers

I think I had my first ever hummus like two years ago and it was delicious, an excellent lunch snack and I think it's healthy too! I don't think there is anything unhealthy when you are eating too much chickpeas and olive oil - which essentially is what hummus is all about.

To cut the long story short, since having tasted hummus for the first time, I started learning, tasting and discovering more on Mediterranean/Arabic dishes. Since then, I've made couscous, lamb mandi and a few attempts of hummus without the tahini or tahina. I have yet to make my own tahini, although I've stocked up on the sesame seeds ages ago. Probably I just need to get some chick peas to get me started with the tahini paste.

My version of the hummus : coarsely ground because that's the way I like it!

Hummus is real easy to make. All you need to have is some boiled chickpeas ( I don't really like can chickpeas), tahini ( can do without), garlic ( optional if you love the garlicy taste, I just avoid it because I don't want to have bad breath), good extra virgin olive oil, salt, paparika(optional). With all these ingredients, simply blend them in a food processor or a blender until it is smooth and silky. I made the one above a bit chunky because that's how I like eating my beans or nuts - haha. You know like chunky peanut butter, so yeah, it's the same way with hummus.

If you grow up eating boiled chickpeas with salt like I do, probably you should give hummus a try. In fact, even if you've never had hummus in your life, you really should give it a try. It's delicious and there are so many other hummus recipes out there. There are easy to make, fast and didn't I just say that hummus is so delicious!

I Have A Dream : To Live in A Tiny Home

If you haven't known already, of course you don't - I have the craziest dream to one day live in a tiny home or a container home - basically, anything small, minimal but functional, efficient, energy savings and ultimately self-sufficient - with built in solar energy to power the home and treated water from the underground. I think the whole idea seemed so possible to achieve when the family bought a container cabin and we literally lived in there once in a while. The tiny home living experience got even better when I stayed in Holiday Parks around New Zealand and we stayed in a self-contained cabin : totally equipped with running water, portable heater, kitchen, dining/living area, bathroom and the beds!

I simply love the idea that we don't have to have much 'stuffs' to be happy with our life and to appreciate the little things that we have around us. Thus,  living in a tiny home seemed like an ideal way to live, at least for me that is. Perhaps, I wasn't one of those kids who dreamed, when I grow up that I wanted to have a huge house to live in. Despite saying that, while growing up I've had the privileged to live in different houses and some are really big ones. While it's great to have space for yourself living with few other people in a home, however, the daunting fact on the amount of cleaning you have to deal with is not a good thing for a cleaning freak like me. I think I have a small case of OCD going on where I literally have to constantly wash my hands, wiping, washing, scrubbing, collecting stuffs which drives me insane but I just can't help from not doing them.

Hence, I believe it make more sense for someone like me to have little stuffs to deal, so there will be less mess to clean up and living in a tiny home seemed like the perfect thing to do. I really hope, soon enough in my lifetime I will finally achieve this dream of mine. If you think it's not possible to live in a tiny home, well think again because a lot of people are actually living in them especially those in big, metropolitan cities in the world.

I'm going to stop here by sharing the kind of favourite YouTube videos that I enjoy watching from time to time and one of them is this Tumbleweed Tiny Homes:

Save The Turtles - WWF Malaysia!

Hey! What do I have in the post yesterday?

It's a WWF - Save the Turtles magnet!

WWF - Save The Turtle!

Fast facts on 'em turtles :

"Only 1 out of 10,000 hatchlings survives to adulthood which means that fewer turtles are living long enough to reproduce." - WWF Malaysia .

Then again, why would we want to bother so much about turtles anyway?

"Green turtles constant grazing help to increase the health and growth rate of the sea grass beds which are essential in supporting other marine species." - WWF Malaysia.

If I understood the letter correctly, the sea grass beds provides food and habitat for fishes, shrimps, crabs, seahorses and many more tiny living creatures underwater.

Hence, if you take you want to be a part of the people who help to make a change in this world, I highly recommend you to help out with this cause. For more info you can visit WWF Malaysia website: http://www.wwf.org.my/

Personally, I feel that the more that I learn to 'give', it seemed that my life is more meaningful and worthy. There is that unexplained 'satisfaction' and 'happiness' that you gain by just giving which is true to the saying ," The more you give, the more you will get back. " I always believe in that and for that with God's willing, I will continue 'giving' , Insya Allah.

It's all about the Weather, Wordpress functions and Blogging!

Is anybody home? :)

Is anybody home? Can you tell that this is an antique, super old skool kind of door handle? Only weirdos like let's say an 'interior designer' will snap such pictures.

I haven't updated anything on this blog for the longest time and I guess I shall need a bit of  'standard' blogging to get things started. Let's talk about the weather shall we!

The weather right now in Malaysia is super, super hot! The temperature is around the standard 31 - 33 C but the humidity level is most of the time high which is around 70++ %. That's crazily humid and stuffy air and it is definitely a good time to have the indoor AC ON like all time.

If you've been keeping up with the world's news, we all know that it is suppose to be Spring time already by now which isn't really happening. Instead, it's a snowy Spring time and I guess we have to wait out for a couple more weeks for Spring to finally really come.

So what else is new???

I've just realized there is a 'Distraction Free Writing Mode' in Wordpress! Haha. As you can guess, I've only just started using it for this post. I knew I've seen the square with four arrows icon since forever and I've only started to be inquisitive about it only today. Great! I'm hoping to churn out some more 'exciting' blog posts to keep going at this blog writing thingy. It's been fun writing some posts and keep on getting comments even years after posting them up. For all you readers and commenters, I thank you for reading and exchanging thoughts along the way!

For more posts to come. Until then, toodles!

Photo Of The Day : Flat White Coffee

The best thing to wake up to in the morning - a nice hot cup of Flat White!

The typical selection of coffee you'll get to choose in the cafes around NZ and I believe also in Australia.

Maybe that's not a best looking picture to represent a Flat White but the taste is simply amazing and gives you a quick run to the toilet right after :). A Flat White if you must know is a combination of espresso and milk - usually it's called a latte.

This is a super quick post and have a great day ahead peeps!