PITA D' PISA

My pita bread with a wooden doll from Bali
The more green, the more lean you'll be
Pita d' Pisa for the madame of the house
Some pain in serving when food is a pleasure to indulge
I can devour two of these when I'm hungry
I might try to substitue the meat with kidney beans, one day
WHAT'S 4T?

A rather strange combination was laid on my dining table last Sunday. I always have tea when I am at home. I have had roti john, soto, mee siam and even shepherd pie for the past week.

I was almost at loss at what to serve the family when I remember that I had snatched a packet of pita from Tesco hypermarket in JB. I make my own pita filling and love my pita till it's last bite of the pocket.

I marinate thin slices of beef or chicken with coarse grounded pepper, oyster and soya sauce and oregano. With a splash of olive oil, I fry the meat and add a dash of salt. When the meat is almost done, I throw in cubed mushroom. Some mayonnaise and chilly sauce are added to the filling once is it cool. I also mix the filling with , lengthwised-cut cucumber and diced onion.

The pocket pita is lightly toasted before the meat is stuffed in together with some greens like lettuce or salad and ringed tomatoes. I prefer the wholemeal pita bread because it is more filling.

What else did I have? Some sparingly coated batter pisang goreng fried till crispy and refreshing Sosro tea which I accidentally came across at a value shop.

My simple tea was so heavenly beautiful.

HARI RAYA DECO

EXPRESSING MYSELF

Didn't really change much of my existing home deco this time round for Hari Raya. For one, I din't have much time to go shopping for new items and secondly the existing deco was good enough for me. I only added some items I bought from Shanghai to create my Chinese corner and a new runner from Geylang Bazaar to my floor.

As usual, got my husband to be the handyman when it came to fixing the items. Enjoy the slide show of our combined effort.

RAY FOR RAYA

CURIOZ CORNER

The approach of Hari Raya means we will get everyone involve in furniture arranging, painting the house and putting our heads together in decorating the whole house. Naturally my husband will be the handy man while I do a lot of ordering and coming up with the 'The Do List' for him. Frankly, we enjoy such moments together, minus the disagreements and the sulking of the faces for we would be full of anticipation and excitement to see the final outcome.

This year we took out our treasure troves from the store room, under the bed and in boxes and started to play with the deco a week before Raya. We were still changing the deco even till 2am of Hari Raya eve.

We were thrilled with the result and received many comments from our guests who loved our Ideas Factory Home Project.

THE WAR ZONE

Plastic sheet covering everything in the hall

Water proofing took three days. Had to use community toilets instead.

New piping in the toilets

The toilet capsule after assembly. Narrow and slim.

The toilet capsule waiting to be assembled

Foreign workers clearing the debris. Gave them redbull and iced drinks.

Scared and pitted walls and ceiling

No more of the original look

The pile of broken tiles and concrete

Even the dining lamp had to be covered

My house is a war zone. No cooking no sleeping!

Resorted to covering the nose and mouth

Hacking of the floor and wall tiles about to begin

Toilet and sink gone

The original toilet

Dismantling part of the kitchen cabinet

LIVING WITH MESS AND DUST

The Home Improvement Programme finally started at my unit. We had to cover everything with huge plastic sheet as it meant a lot of dust would be flying and settling on exposed surfaces. With that done, we next had to bear the noise coming from the pneumatic drill demolishing our toilets and hacking away the tiles. When the noise and the dust got unbearable, we hid behind the bedrooom door which had been lined with wet towels. The whole scene of the house was like a shot taken from a war movie.

We were thinking of shuttling to Orchid Country Club for some sanity and clean air but my two boys refused the idea flatly. They said they would be fine and would make a do with the things in the house. As it turned out, things were fine and there were no complaints and violent protests from them. Why should they when nightly they got to experience eating at new locations?

The whole project took ten days. I had to bundle my 78 year-old mum to my brother's place as the dust might affect her breathing and health. The waiting, the dust and the noise were worth it for we got spanking new toilets, freshly coated white piping, a new gate, an alluminium rubbish chute cover and some change in wiring.

The Home Improvement Programme was really HIP!