I had a good year with my blog in 2024. It has yet to reach 1K views per month but I am pleased with the statistics. Of course, big-time bloggers or influencers have way more readers per month. They worked hard to get their numbers by crafting beautiful posts and jumping on trends with their unique online presence. It is something that I plan on learning for this coming year. Writing in better sentences and capturing beautiful photos.
Wish me luck in 2025.
This coffee shop hails from Muar but has already set up a branch in Melaka. It has been open for a while but I have never actually tried a heavy meal from there. Just it’s coffee and toast. Last weekend, my dad came for a visit. He just recently came back from a trip to Langkawi with a female companion. I have my suspicions of who it is but I will wait for a better time to hunt for that identity later.
We went to Kopi 434 for breakfast and ordered quite a huge spread.
We had nasi lemak, Mi Siam with Otak Otak, Buns with butter and kaya, Toast with butter, the original kopi, Elephant Bean Coffee and iced peach tea. The total came up to RM 110.00 for 5 pax. The price was acceptable.
The ambience was great but the food portion was exceptionally huge (for me). It triggers me a lot as a person taking care of patients with NCD. Ha ha ha. The meals were also very spicy. Only the chicken noodle was nice and palatable for children. I did enjoy my Elephant Bean Coffee though. It did not require additional sugar. But I had a headache afterwards. Perhaps the caffeine was too much. It’s called elephant beans not because they come from the dung but because of their special shape and size. Anyway, I am sure this kopitiam has their own target market of which I am not one of them.
They even sell their own products in the store and ADAMI products. We didn’t get any but the options were a lot. My mother (now deceased) would be excited to get her hands on them.
Posted a mini vlog a few days ago. As a filler to Season 4. Cause the YT Gurus said you need to be consistent in your uploads. So that YT will consider pushing more of my content to others. My target market is not Malaysia, so we will see how it goes. The uploads are getting a bit slow. Momentums are a bit off. I think my challenge now is time and the side stress factors I have to deal with.
Sometimes I ask myself – sure ke nak belajar Psychology nih? What is your endpoint?
Until I remembered Namjoon saying (I think) something about making happiness part of your journey, not an endpoint. Or an ambition. In a way, I should just enjoy the learning process. I should also not look too far ahead. Take it one step at a time. Breaking it into little trips so that I wouldn’t be overwhelmed. Kalau nak terus fikir Master and phD tu susah. Statistic tu susah. It will become susah.
I have the Chinese language part of my module currently. Susah ke? Yup. But if I think of all the benefits I would have in learning a new language, it will all be worth it. As long as I persevere and remain consistent.
Ever since the plant haul at Baba Wan Nursery, I have been quite obsessed in landscaping my garden. I discovered Gadek Nursery, a 25 min drive from my home. Gadek has more variety and they sell at a cheaper price too. I decided to get my hands into succulent care too. The edible garden will have to wait cause it is still growing.
I recorded all my expenses in a file hoping to later see how much did I spent in total for this new-found hobby. My latest purchase was a mini greenhouse. I think I slept on that purchase for a few weeks before I finally clicked the button Buy on Shopee. *money flew. less doterra for the month *
It would be an invaluable addition to the garden especially in rainy seasons. Furthermore I am on a mission to resurrect my Polianthes tuberosa which is taking ages to heal. I believe in you, plant! To further fuel the nerd in me, I downloaded an app called Plant Diary where I can make an inventory of what I have in my garden. It was exciting when I first used it but then I thought it was tedious to document it all.
I am calling my garden Taman Kayangan Minci. It will be a blend of Modern & Woodlandish sort of thing. I cannot wait for my flowers to bloom at its best – my hibiscus, petunia, zinca, Maid of Orleans, chrysanthemum and marigold. Once that is done, I can start on my edible plants. Tomato is still at its seedling stage.
I hope this garden is at its peak moment by December. It will be a wonderful backdrop for picture taking for my 10th wedding anniversary.
Finally, Melaka is not under water rationing anymore. The state have not been getting much rain last year and consequently the water levels in the dam was low. It has been a challenging 2 months but manageable because the Bekalan Air Berkala schedule seems to be well thought out by Syarikat Air Melaka Berhad (SAMB). Nevertheless people still complain but as the mantra goes, you cannot please everybody.
The rationing affected highly populated residential areas except those near industrial/commercial areas. My housing area was rationed but my MIL’s place was not affected. I was thankful for that because my kids transit at their grandparents house after school. But now with the Movement Control Order (MCO) – all grandchildren are at my MIL’s house driving her crazy as school and nursery are out. I can only pray that Allah will grant my parents in law Jannah for their sacrifice in helping to mind the grandkids while we children go to work.
Previously, we get water running from the tap on alternate days starting from 10am till 10am the next day only. On days that we don’t, we depend on our household water tank and the public tank in our area. Thankfully, our house is near one of the big ones located near the surau.
My motivation to cook was dampened tremendously. Rasa macam tak best to masak and wash the dishes and pots meticulously using rationed water. It feels less great either to leave the dishes till the next day. So, meals consisted of takeouts, intermittent fasting or kids eat at grandparents house whilst us parents grab a bun or something.
Laundry is done at night as water pressure is stronger in the quiet hours near midnight. Mopping are done on those rare weekends where we get water supply. I haven’t wiped down my window grill for ages. I can see lizards pooping everywhere. As for my windows, I am in dire need of rain to help clean it up a bit.
Alas, all the above has come to an end. Alhamdulilah.. now I can start planning my spring cleaning schedule again. I would also like to thank all my re-purposed mini containers and barrels that has helped this family to contain water throughout this rough period of time. It would have not been possible without them.
My sister asked if I had to switch off my Coway machine during the water rationing. I find that there’s still some small amount of water being ‘sucked’ into the machine and that we could still get some water out of it. Of course there were days when we are out of hot water and this usually happens on the weekends when we are all at home drinking hot beverages and such. So far, the machine is functioning well and had not broke down yet. I am not quite sure what the representatives of Coway would advice though.
Now that the dry season is coming to an end, it will mean a different challenge for the coming months. While we appreciate rain, we hope there wouldn’t be any floods cause then it’ll be challenging to manage that and Covid-19.
Minci Moss 