My Raya was rather quiet... seperti biasa, like these past few years. No travelling balik kampung like the way we used to masa kecik. Malas nak go through the hassle of traffic jams etc. I do however expect to be receiving A LOT of guests on the weekend of the 27th... with many of the Hj Mohd Tahir clan coming down for a wedding.
So I kind of enjoy these periods of relaxing, lazy days... cuma, when you have too much time in your hands, your mind tends to go to places...
Here's a rundown of my Raya...
1 Syawal
Woke up early... was the first to go down. All was quiet... a bit abnormal for the first day of Raya. Usually around this time Mama would be busy making kuah kacang and lodeh. I cleared up the dishes and glasses from the takbir the night before. Started to potong nasi impit, heat up the rendang, potong lemang. Cut up the vegetables for the lodeh. It was already 7.40am and still no sign of orang lain dah bangun. "Did I get the day right?" I began to wonder.
Went to my parents' room... both of them were still in bed. Went to my mom and asked, "Mama tak nak pergi sembahyang ke?" She said that she's not feeling too good and asked me to rub some DeepHeat. Lepas sapu she got up and asked me to wake my siblings up.
By 8am we were ready to go for sembahyang Raya. I just had a sip of tea and some bread... sunat makan before pergi sembahyang. Solat Raya started at 8.30am... so we went early to *save* the best spots :) By 9.30am khutbah dah habis.
Sambil tengah minum teh kat bawah surau I got a call... from my tailor. Dia kata her brother was waiting in front of our house to send baju. So rushed home and apologised profusely... pagi2 Raya dah kacau orang punya plan pulak.
We started to masak lodeh and kuah kacang. Tapi kuah kacang tu *off* pulak... the kacang was not good. So penat je Mama buat... goreng and kisar the day before. And kurang lah the Raya meal. Nasib baik ada lodeh which I love and a very nice, soft lemang which we got through Pakcik Zainal.
I waited for people yang kata might come for beraya in the morning, but after a certain time, I resigned that they were not going to show up. Kalau call or sms bagitau kan senang, tak payah tunggu... and I could have gone to visit some people kat Titiwangsa that morning. Wasted...
If pagi no action, petang was the opposite. 3 groups of people came over all at the same time. Like what they say... when it rains, it pours... and literally it poured. Hujan very the lebat!
First to arrive was Abg Man and family. Every year without fail they will visit us petang Raya. Abg Man is my cousin... anak arwah my mom's eldest sister. Then came Aunty Misah & Uncle Radin with their family, complete dengan anak menantu and cucu. Last to arrive was Tao and Steph. Nasib baik lah our house cukup besar nak fit all those people at one go :)
Malam Raya we went beraya kat rumah Kak Or, my cousin kat Tmn Tun Hussein Onn... Abg Man's elder sister. Jumpa K Sue and family kat situ... their youngest sister. I saw my latest *cucu* too... Kak Or may be my cousin but she's my mom's age. Her kids are my age and her youngest daughter just gave birth masa bulan puasa. Actually, I have so many cucu, I even think I have cicit!! Nasib baik no one has called me Opah yet...
2 Syawal
Today I woke up VERY late. Ganti the lack of sleep from the past few days. I heard Mama waking my brothers up but she didn't kacau me, hehe... I deserve some lie in ;) When I went downstairs Abg kata "Semalam kata pagi2 nak pergi Pavillion?". I just smiled back sheepishly.
While I was sleeping Ina dah buat her delicious chicken curry. Yeay!! I was getting tired of eating rendang, lemang etc. The sight of a normal nasi meal was very much welcomed :) After lunch while lepak-ing in front of the TV I asked Abg whether still nak pergi Pavillion. "Jom..." Amt pun excitedly kata "Nak ikut!!" So off we went...
I think we were the only Malays in that whole place. Sure orang pun heran tengok why lah these people are here instead of beraya, hehe. The place is big and nice. I like it :) If only it is not right smack in Bukit Bintang I would like it even better. Lots of shops, not all are unaffordable and lots of nice makan places. Mesti pergi try...
We jalan2 check out some shops, pergi tengok handphones and then headed for LowYat. I wanted to get speakers for my PC in the office. Banyak betul orang kat that area. No wonder lah I jarang pergi that part of town... orang ramai macam semut!! Itu pun ramai yang balik kampung beraya... kalau tak sure lagi kerumun. Masa jalan towards LowYat, we passed a restaurant. Smiled to myself... I went for a dinner date with my first crush once kat situ. Totally forgot about that, then all of the sudden it all came back... he was late that evening, sampai the waiter pun tanya. When he finally arrived, berpeluh2 and apologised repeatedly... train from Shah Alam lambat and he literally ran to get there. We stayed until the kedai tutup...
[Got in touch with R a few weeks before Raya... he's now one of my friends on Facebook. Still working with BF and has been married for 2.5 years. Good for him :) His wife looks a bit like him, hehe...]
Back to the present, lepas beli speaker and ink refill, Abg Amt & I walked back to Pavillion. Amt wanted to try out Carl's Jr tapi still belum buka. Sedih dia... Nak makan tempat lain, tapi nak solat Asar dulu. But when we went to the place that was supposed to be the surau, belum operational pulak. So instead of taking the chance, we went straight home. Lepas maghrib, us empat beradik went to Pizza Hut while Papa hunted for Char Kuey Teow. So un-Raya like...
Lepas makan we went to check out handphones for Papa. His is the ancient Nokia, which must be at least 7 years old. He has been complaining that his phone's reception tak bagus. Well... in hp years, tu kira dah *pencen*. We proposed a basic Nokia model, tapi dia tak berkenan. Tengok2 yang lain, he minat pulak a Samsung. Nak yang ada colour rupanya ;) "Cantik sikit" dia kata. OK Pa... we'll get you that one, tapi you kena promise jangan bising when you have to re-learn the functions...
3 Syawal
Today pun bangun lambat, but tak lah selambat semalam. Best betul :) Habis je *brunch*, dengar ding-dong. I was not suitably attired to receive guest, so quickly pinjam Mama punya jubah. It was Mama's cousin, Pakcik Hamid & family. Borak2 sekali found out that his wife knows SS from office. Small world...
Lepas Maghrib I received a call from Don the architect... Abg Don as we used to call him. I kenal dia sekejap je masa kat Melbourne, masa duduk kat Malaysia Hall. Tapi dia rajin layan me and my friends... we selalu kacau dia dlm his studio masa dia buat his models. I'm always amazed with architecture, designs and buildings, so selalu dia and Shah the surveyor would *entertain* my questions :) Selalu kesian kat the JPA architecture students... their duit selalu tak cukup nak beli barang to buat models etc. And they spend so much time making those models... I suka tengok, complete dengan the design tables etc.
He was in the area visiting his brother and nak singgah. I haven't met him in ages although we would call up to wish Selamat Hari Raya every year without fail. Came with his wife and boys. Cute2 betul his two sons... sorang Nordini (he said he wanted to name him Nordin Jr tapi tak pernah pulak dibuat orang Melayu...) and sorang Norman. Muka chop mcm their dad, hehe. Don keturunan yang sama mcm my dad and kampung dia not far from my dad's kampung. So we have a *connection* walaupun I ni dikira Jawa celup... Sambil2 borak tu found out that he knows my nephew, K Or's son, who is currently working in Jeddah. They pernah kerja sama2 and have been in close contact since Don is also working on a project in Riyadh. Small world (again!)...
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