I can't believe this!!
On the ONE DAY that I decide not to cook my family a full meal (I was angry) and instead decide to punish them by making beans and bread...
GUESTS COME OVER FOR DINNER!!
I am soooo appalled! what to do!
Ya Allah get me thru this alive...
(brother Imraan high on something...Eid Day)
Leaving Kota Damansara at 5:30pm we zoomed along the highway feeling all happy and silly and hyper. Time to balik kampung! time to visit our family again! (yes, I was even prepared to pretend like I hadn't seen my mummy and Abu for ages....all for the sake of the 'real feeling' of balik kampung...) At Iftaar time we stopped at Seremban highway resthouse for a bite. It was here that I finally saw the masses of people heading back for their respective villages. And they only represented a small percentage I am sure, but The place was packed!! and i'm not even just talking, it was literally smashed sardines in the place.
Uh-oh, I think to myself. How'm I gonna get my cuppa? I WANT MY CAPPUCINO FOR IFTAAR!! glancing at my watch at panic I see that there's only 15 minutes left!! whattodowhattodowhattodo?
After 10 seconds of agonizing I told my sis to queue up for the coffee whilst I would try to go and grab some food. My aunt, of course, was not with us, as she had so wisely foreseen this and offered to stay in the car and guard it from hooligans *rollseyes* whilst we youngsters faced the gore and muck of the crowd.
At first I turned to the KFC. I thought that maybe I would just get some sandwiches. But when I went there I found that the line of people reached all the way out the door and down the stairs! Okay next option. Food court. I cringed. Foodcourts on highway restplaces are not exactly the best place to eat...
Pattering down the steps I was confronted by another wave of humanity. It was all a-jostle down there. Timidly I lined up with all the other hungry fasting people...Standing there and watching the spectacle before me, a saying idly flitted thru my mind.."A hungry man makes an angry man". I think that for that moment all fasting Muslims in that place shed their good manners just for the sake of grabbing the next plate of rice before the next person. I personally abhor any type of pushing and shoving whilst standing in line, and I absolutely HATE any sort of uncivilized and wild behaviour when it comes to food!! It really puts a person down. Anyway, I finally got mines - slapped down in front of me with my money snatched from my hand and the change flung to me across the counter.
"Where's my chicken sandweeeessshhhh" My sister whined. "I want one!!"
And so I went to stand in line at KFC...at this time I wasn't even hoping to get anything into my gut by iftaar time lol.....after half an hour of standing in line I finallyyy reach the front. I think it was a shock to my brain to be suddenly confronted with the option of getting my food after standing in a food scented restaurant and going weak in the knees for over half an hour! But whatever it was, my previous decision of 'just getting a sandwich' flew out of my mind and 5 minutes later I walked out with potato wedges,fries,three soft drinks,three sandwiches and RM40 poorer.
(cousin Zahirah on Eid Day)
But I have to say it was nice eating out there in the carpark. Everyone around was breaking their fast also and I suddenly felt a surge of happiness at not being the only fasting human being around for as far as my eyes could see. Other muslims were breaking their fast also!! I am not the only one! It was a blissful moment...
Back on the highway the soda and food got to our brains and we began acting wacky. Singing 'baaaalikkk kampuunnggg' in tuneless voices we laughed and giggled and cracked silly jokes. At one point there was a bus next to us and the driver was staring down at us. By now my sister was obviously high on coke and she gave the driver a HUGE smile before we zoomed off. Not five minutes later the bus came back alongside our car and the driver gave a friendly two blows on his horn whilst waving at us before zooming off. Well!! that certainly set us off!! That simple happiness of sharing a smile with a stranger on the road is just exhilarating!
(cousin maisarah on Eid Day)
On the morning of Eid My family bundled themselves into the car to go to the Musalla and I almost broke my neck in the process........thanks to the stiletto heels I had just bought. I have to say that the Eid Khutbah bored me to tears.....sad right? But who can blame me!! we went to make salaat at one of those PAS places (to be with the other relatives) and I was left speechless when the Khateeb decided to talk about his politics on the minbar!! ya Allah drop it off will you!! for anyones information I am sick and tired of hearing about Malaysian politics!!! and especially from the PAS point of view, which, unfortunately is what I hear most of the time since most of my relatives are affiliated with them, it's agonizing!!
After exchanging a few hugs and half hearted 'Selamat Hari Raya's ' (I was really put off by the khutbah) we came home with my 101 relatives to partake in breakfast....and for me to turn hundreds of ringgit even MORE poorer with my little cousins asking for duit raya. 'Not fair!' I told my aunt ' How comes I dont get duit raya? never mind if I am grown up already, what about all those kiddy years that I missed having eid in Malaysia?' ( I was joking of course, but hey, no harm in trying lol) But I only got a neat pinch for all my efforts haha...
And then afterwards came the most BORING and repetitive part of the eid. VISITING! Ya Allah, not that I dont like visiting all these unknown and unheard off relatives, but just dont give me an overdose of it...dont stuff it all down my throat in the tiny timespan of just one day!! We were out from 10 in the morning up to 10 at night visiting and visiting...and eating and eating....and supressing belly aches...and having eardrums popped with the whining and exploding of fireworks...and developing cricks in my neck from the constant bending to kiss hands...by 5 o'clock that evening I had developed an allergy to hands but what to do? I must be polite and kiss more..and more..and more...at one point I tried to do what I saw my cousins do, sniff the hand instead (I hear this is a malay way of kissing lolololol) but after one whiff of a hand I threw that method out the window..
By the time I got back home that night I made up my mind :
NEXT YEAR I WILL GO TO SOME GOD FORSAKEN PLACE AND HAVE A PICNIC ON EID. ON MY OWN!!
Last week we invited all of our relatives over for Iftaar. Anyone who knows how many family members I have will know that it was one painfulllllllll day preparing the food! And Ya Allah it was, me and my mom and sister were cooking from 9 in the morning until just before Iftaar and after everyone left (around 11pm) we just collapsed in bed and didn't wake up (from after sahuur next day of course) until 12'oclock midday!
But anyway this post is (mostly) dedicated to my youngest and newest cousin Irfaan Haarith who was here also with his mama and Ya Allah! I hadn't seen him in just a month and the boy has grown gorgeous *swoons* Masha'allah!! I barely paid any attention to the other kiddos running around when I was snapping pictures, lol, I was just too taken by this young man....unfair or what :p
So here he is!!
I received a call today from a school in Kota Damansara. It turned out that I was being offered a job as a kindergarten teacher! They wanted me to teach Arabic and Islamic studies to the kids. Well! I was really happy at it, and after a little while had passed I decided to go and look up some nursery rhymes and Arabic and I came across this version of the Arabic Alphabet. It's so nice! I absolutely looooooooove it. Interview is on Monday, Insha'allah all goes well :)
Today did NOT start off well, in fact it was just plain harrowing! and it's only 8 o'clock in the morning!
I had to drop the kids off to school today since my aunts car suddenly got a flat. No problem. I zoom on the way to their school all happy since I had the windows down and the cold cold air from the surrounding plantations was swishing in and it was SO refreshing.
Come to the turn to their school and I slowed down since the roads to their school are just narrow tiny village roads, and to make it even worse, there are open drains on both sides, and here was the first bad event of the day: I was almost pushed off the road and into one of those drains because this dumb school van just insisted on coming from the opposite direction without even letting me thru first!! And what makes me mad is I WAS THERE FIRST NOT YOU, BIG GREY VAN!!
After I got out of that my heart was hammering so fast that I didn't even see the speedbump ahead and I just flewwwwwww over it and those poor children in the backseat almost hit the roof. And then what do you know!! a second car comes barreling at me and tries to push me off the road too!! My Goodness!! are they the only ones in a rush to send children to school?? The road is not yours you know!!
Second Incident.
Coming back from dropping the children I had to swing around by my aunt to send her to work since she lent her car to my uncle. Reversing out of her driveway I mistakenly (and I emphasise again , Mistakenly) press the gas instead of the brakes and BOOM I knock into her wooden shed causing my sideview mirror to swing all the way back (Alhamdulillah it's the swingable kind!! otherwise it would've broken for sure) and whats worse, knocking down the pole of the shed and bringing half of it down!!
Not amusing at all.
Lastly, on the way back home, I stopped by the gas station to fill up and as I was walking towards the cashier to pay, POP and my sandle strap snaps, sending my sandle swiveling across the cement and leaving me standing there in total shock. In the open! with the gas station full of cars filling up! Aaaaaaah the embarrassment!!
What else can go wrong today? This has put me into a bad dangerous mood!
(adorable cousin Zahira)
Just a short rant.
It looks like I wont be buying any nice pretty bling-bling abaya/jilbaab this Eid :(
And Guess why? It's the most silliest unthinkable reason too.
Because there's no Jilbabs or Abayas my size in the stores!! And dont even tell me to check KL because I already did, and the response I got was the same as in Melaka "But you are too tall!! Sorry we dont have your size"
*sigh*....... Now is the wrong time to wish that I had polished up on my sewing skills..
But seriously, too tall? I am NOT too tall!! I mean I know i'm taller than lots of Malay girls but still...?
Is 5'7" too tall?
In my first entry about my family background, I had mentioned that the reason for my GreatGrandfather (from now on referred to as Tok Odang) coming to Malaysia was unknown. Well during my visit at my aunts place in K.L. last week, she informed me that he was actually a very well off businessman! He used to go off for long trips on business, and in her words "So that's why he married three wives, one in each place"
"Three?" I echoed " I thought it was only two?"
But my aunt revealed to me that, no, actually there were three wives, besides Greatgrandmother (Moyang), and the lady in India, he had married again whilst on 3 year trip to Sarawak, and from that marriage there was a daughter! this information left me stunned, and for a split second I felt grateful that I wasn't living back in those days.......*cough*
But he was a rich businessman my Tok Odang, and together with other wealthy inhabitants of Kampung Ayer Barok, the village in which the story of my family unfolds, and the village in which I now live; They erected the very first Masjid in the area. The year was 1911 and it was a grant little masjid for the padi field village at that time. The marble pillars with floral designs were brought over all the way from Indonesia, and the roof is of traditional Betawi style, three triangular layers, one atop the other and each one smaller than the next, with the edges finishing off in an elegant curl. Tok Odang was made the Imaam of the Masjid, and after him my Grandfather (Atuk). The little Masjid is still standing to this day, a pretty little building at the end of the village road. In the mornings the villagers gather there to make Fajr Prayer, and in the evenings little children from the Islamic school next door tumble around on it's floors and play hide and seek behind the pillars. And in the middle of the courtway stands a sign proclaiming "This Masjid was built in the year 1911......." (I must take a picture of it one day)
Now back to where I left off : The marriage of my Grandmother (now on referred to as Nenek) and Grandfather (Atuk).
Atuk was a poor man of Javanese descent. His family owned next to nothing except for the rice fields in which they worked. Their meals were sparse, and their clothes threadbare. Here is the story of the engagement of Atuk and Nenek as told by my aunt, who in turn tells it like how Atuk did :
" They went to masuk meminang (go in proposal for marriage) to your mothers family, asking for your mothers hand. Afterwards my mother came back and told me that it was all done and I was now engaged for marriage. But I had never even seen your mother before! One day I decided that I must go and see this lady whom I was marrying by all means, so I went over to her house and climbed a coconut tree which was growing near the house. Your Ayah (father) can climb like a monkey you know! so I sat there and waited for your mother to come out. I waited so long that my foot even cramped and went to sleep, But then your mother finally came out , she was so beautiful, She was like a puteri raja (princess),she sat on the verandah of her house and began reading the Qur'aan...such a beautiful voice too. I forgot all about my cramped foot and just sat there up in the coconut tree watching your mother read Qur'aan."
" Soon afterwards your mothers family invited me over to their house for a meal. I got so afraid when I saw their table! Do you know why? Because there was so much food on it! I had never seen that much food in my life.......and I became afraid of my mother in law at that time. They served me a whole fresh fish! and it was huge, when in my house all we ate was ikan kering (dried salted fish). We were so poor. And my mother used to tell me ' If you want to become rich, you must not eat, and if you want to eat fish, then catch a fish, but dont eat it straight away! instead hang it up by it's tail and wait for it's juices to drip. Then use the drippings to flavor your food with. That way your fish will last longer and you will spend less money!'. My mother in law did not like me, and she told your mother 'Hah! this poor man! it's better if you dont marry him, if you do you will live like a beggar!' But your mother and I still got married....see?"
(To be Continued......Iftaar is nearly here :) )
It has been long hasn't it? have you missed me blog? No? Well I didn't expect you too. Actually, and I'm sorry to break your chips-y heart; I haven't missed you either.
It's been just too painfully hot to blog! The heat is driving me insane, it's beating down in waves and sucking out all the moisture which I so carefully packed into my body at sahuur, so that by the time Iftaar time comes I gulp down my glasses of iced drink so fast I can't even taste them. It's all silence at the time at iftaar time, save for the glugging sound of throats which can't swallow the ice cold drinks fast enough.
I've just come in from watering the worms btw. Watering the what? you screech. The worms darling, the worms. You know? the wiggly ones that live in apple houses like in the story books? yes those ones, except that these ones are living in a bunch of straw and dirt and dried up goat poop spread out in wooden boxes in my porch. They are so exciting! I bought them last week, 2 kilos for me, and 2 kilos for Hafsah and all that time they've been doing nothing but wiggling around happily in the straw-y,poop-y dirt, making worm tea and vermicompost for my nice and lush garden-to-be (Insha'allah).
Worm tea. Yes the word makes me nauseous also.
But it gives me such happiness for some reason whenever I stare at their dirt haven and imagine them wiggling around underneath (I can't see them, they're 'underground') and as I sprinkle the thinly sliced watermelon skins over the dirt for them to eat I sing to them " Eat up wormy mormy eat uppp and get FAT" except that when I say it, it sounds like FUT.
So what else happened whilst I was away from blog-world?
Oh yes, I went to KL with my sis and bro to look around for an apartment and my sis went for a job interview,HAHA it gives me the stitches just to think about that interview!! I can still see the shock on her face as she reached the address and saw that it was a Modeling agency. Tut Tut, next time ask before you make a move little sis!
But that is all, Ramadhaan is drawing to an end and I dont even feel a prick of joy at Eid finally coming around. Everyone is asking me ' so what cookies are you making this year?' and I tell me "MALAS LARR" (I'm too lazy monnn) which is very bad of me, but who wants to bake cookies in this heat?
Oh yes, I also got some more old time tales out of my Aunt whilst I was in KL, some more interesting info about my long gone ancestors, and so I will write about that in another post Insha'allah :) :)
