all in the day-before-Raya's work...

Woke up (relatively) early today... Lots to do. Cleaning, wiping, washing, cooking. It's always like this on the day before 1 Syawal. Being a girl, you're expected to do all those *women related* work. I don't mind... but it wouldn't hurt if those boys do their part as well. They bangun just in time for sembahyang Jumaat, hmph...

Pagi2 first thing I did was go to the kitchen to see what needs to be peeled, cut, blended etc. So it was seperiuk bawang, some garlic, cili kering and ginger. Tengah syok2 blend tu, blender pulak berasap. Alahai... byk dugaan. Nasib baik ada spare blender. Tapi masa nak kisar kacang, the mill tak ngam pulak. So had to go get a new one. Sambil buat tu semua, nasi impit (instant lah... we're not skilled to make it from scratch, hehe) tengah direbus atas dapur.

The next kerja was vacumming and mop lantai. Nasib baik lah half of the house already done... Dalam byk2 housework, that's the one that I hate most. No, correction... paling tak suka is lap2. And my mom has A LOT of benda to lap2. When I have my own place, I'll have minimal benda to lap2 ;) Also cuci the patio outside the dining area... this part I like sebab main air :) And Ina pun dah bangun by then so she helped.

Lepas tu take out pinggan to be washed and dried. As you might suspect, I dengan sukarela nya volunteer membasuh while Ina lap. Mama was feeling tired so she lied down. Tengah syiok2 tu Che Peni datang hantar kueh... Aunty Faridah mmg business kuih time raya ni, and this time it was tart nenas, samprit, kueh arab and erm... tak ingat apa satu lagi. Rupa2 smlm Mama, Papa and Amt pergi borong kueh kat Jalan TAR... so now banyak lah *collection*. Cukup lah untuk menjamu sebulan Syawal ni... I was so sleepy last night. Lepas balik tarawikh terus boom... Tak perasan pun they all keluar.

By petang it was a bit quiet. Most things dah siap... tinggal nak get ready for orang datang bertakbir je at night. So got some rest... duduk depan kipas and terlelap. Until I heard a commotion. Normal lah... Mama usually gets agitated bila nak ber-get ready ni. Dah lali... Tapi marah dia sekejap je, lepas tu gelak2 balik. Then marah balik, then ok balik... no wonder lah she has high blood pressure. Cool Ma cool... Mama dah start putting the ingredients together for the rendang. While it was bloop-blooping away on the stove, I pergi cuci toilet pulak. Memanglah hari ni banyak main air :)

Hari ni malas nak masak... so Ina and I decided that we'll just go buy food. So off we went to Jusco... the mission: beli chicken rice, KFC, cushions (for the cushion covers that Mama bought kat Hanoi hari tu), bread and Starbucks frappucino. By the time balik tinggal about 10 minutes je before berbuka, just in time...

It's the last berbuka for this Ramadan, selamat genap berpuasa 30 hari (minus a few days for me)... tak tahu whether tahun depan panjang umur untuk Ramadan again ke tak. Although juadah ala kadar je, it was a happy moment. And usually masa Ramadan je lah jugak that we all have Maghrib berjemaah as a family. Time2 lain, tak as regularly. No wonder lah Ramadan is penuh rahmat...

Come night fall, time to get ready untuk orang datang bertakbir pulak. Had the toughest time trying to *buka* lemang. Ina came to rescue and voila!! Got everything ready by 10pm... our house is towards the end... lambat lah tido malam ni. Tiba2 hujan turun pulak... quite heavily. Papa called to say that they're cancelling. Hmph... penat je prepare macam2. Tak apa lah... Then 15 minutes ago, dia call balik. It's back on sebab hujan dah reda. OK... it's now 12.45am, I think the group will reach our house around 1.15am kut, if we're lucky. Selalunya Papa will sampai rumah lepas dah habis semua around 3-4am. Itupun our kampung area only has about 40 houses... Sometimes I wait for him, usually I dah zzzz...

Although penat buat semua2 ni... my favourite part of Raya is this day... the day before until noon tomorrow. Because that's when all the excitement takes place. Having no kampung also makes it a bit quiet and hassle free. No travelling required macam masa kecik2 dulu when arwah Opah and Nenek were still around. Which reminds me that I've not been back to Teluk Intan and Sijangkang for a while now. Mama ada ajak balik kampung hari tu, but I couldn't take leave. Tak apa... maybe one of these days we'll make that trip to bandar dengan tangki air condong. In any case, we'll get to meet the rest of the family soon at Ima's wedding. Plus, my cousins never fail to drop by ChuWok's house on their way back from Perak, Terengganu and mana2 lagi their kampung is. Strategically located not far away from Jalan Duta toll and Karak highway makes our house the perfect stopover. Plus, they'll get a *lecture* from my mom if tak singgah, hehe...

I hear suara takbir from downstairs... time to go down.

SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDIL FITRI!!! Maaf Zahir Batin...