Mak dan 5705

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh..

So many things happening in the world today, particularly last weekend, Trumps executive order to ban Muslim from entering USA has caused massive chaos in their airports and mixed reaction from all over the world. Everybody seems to be talking about it, regardless whether they are impacted directly or not. So need I say more? I don't see the need to do so.

Lets talk about something closer to me, in fact, someone really close to me.

Mak has never had the privilege to learn how to drive. She's been either on the public transport or relied on arwah ayah to move around. She knew how to ride a motorcycle when she was young, but she didn't really use it that much since.

So when ayah fall sick and many of us lived far from home, we urged mak to take up driving lesson and get a license. Mak was reluctant at first, she was not confident that she can do it. She initially went for few lesson but the instructor was really strict, kinda scared mak a bit. I guess its the age. Mak is one steadfast lady, that worked odd jobs, braved the storm of living in the big city, sacrificing hours making kuih and nasi lemak to feed us. She normally doesn't give up easily, but when it comes to driving she was happy to be in her comfort zone.

And then ayah got really sick, up to a point ayah could no longer drive. So happened adik is still at home since she has decided to take some time off before pursuing her degree. We trusted adik to send mak for driving classes, study for the test etc. Mak finally took the driving test and she passed!

However, we plan, but Allah SWT plans as well. Just after mak passed the driving license, ayah passed away. Few days later mak went over to JPJ to get her license. She told the counter staffs, 'Makcik ambik lesen sebab nak bawak pakcik pi hospital, tapi ajal pakcik dah sampai..tak dan.'

Well, all is not lost we say, because mak used to rely on ayah to travel around, and now she has a valid driving license, and has built some confidence to drive around, it gives her more freedom to move. She can visit Lang anytime she wants should there be any emergency.

Therefore we decide to buy mak a new car. She passed the test using an auto car, but we only have manual car in the house. The colour was of her choice. I purposely asked for the similar plate no :)

And mak already had the test drive all the way to Baling to my cousin's house! What you don't see in the picture is the jam packed passangers, my sisters and nieces and nephew. Excited semua!

Till next time. I've yet to test drive the new car..hehe

Wassalam..

Pergi Tak Kembali

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh..

My last post talks about my then emotional state of being. I did went for my Nordic adventure. Had loads of fun, but before that had some series of unfortunate events or bad luck (as KBB put it). First it was my worry that something were to happened at home while I'm on holiday, and then there was this incident in the work place that caused me to be hospitalized for 4 days!

I fall on my back on the last day of a site visit to a terminal. Quite fair bit of fiasco, to the point that MEDEVAC were to be activated. I told my travel mates, they assured me that they will help me with my luggage, and it's not like we were in Amazing Race or something :). I was working from home until the day I traveled.

And my series of unfortunate event did not stops there, the day I was supposed to travel, Nov 23rd, Lufthansa's pilot decided to launch a strike. So I had a choice of waiting for a later flight, or change to another flight. Without much thought I booked Turkish Airline ticket direct to Copenhagen to meet up with the rest. The original plan to transit in London went bust because of it. There goes my another pair of cheap Clarks! hehe..If I were to wait for the later Luthansa flight, the whole itinerary will have to be changed as well, so no can do.

So there I go happy-happy joy-joy in Scandi. I will save the travelog later. Our last destination was Stockholm. I have to leave early to make it to Shaz's wedding. I was supposed to meet with my parents at the wedding and head home direct to NG after that wedding. Before I touched down KL, mak informed me ayah is already on wheelchair, definitely could not make it to the wedding. Without further ado, I've tried to delay my return flight back to Nigeria, but all Emirates flights seems to be fully booked on the tentative fly back dates. I've tried both ticketing offices, Stockholm, and Dubai and by the time I touched down KL, I knew for sure that I will not be able to change my flight ticket back to Nigeria.

That very day I touched down, I bought a one way Air France ticket, end destination Port Harcourt. No point for me to return to Lagos and waste another day there. Booked MAS return ticket to AOR and I attended Shaz's wedding with the peace of mind that I am travelling back to SP on Monday, the day after the reception.

I flew back with 1.30 PM flight to AOR, adik fetch me and rather than heading straight to the hospital (ayah was admitted on Friday night, mak spare me the news, as I was busy with Shaz's wedding), I went back to take a bath and quick nap as I was having massive headache from few days lack of sleep. The plan is to go to the hospital at 6PM.

Around 5.50 PM, another sister texted the news, ayah no longer there. He has peacefully passed away. Innalillahi wa inna ilahi rojiun.. This was on the 12th Dec 2016, Monday. We head straight to the hospital, and when we got there, ayah's remains was still in the ward, yet to be transferred to the mortuary. I stayed with mak, clearing all the hospital documentations etc and was with mak in van jenazah heading back home. Some people may beat themselves up for not being able to see their parents before they finally departed, but for me, I will not do that. Terkilan maybe, but I am even more thankful that I was there back in SP when all these happened. Imagine if I were in Nigeria, or on a cruise somewhere, how much help can I render to the family. I am really thankful of Allah's planning, the timing especially. Syukur sangat-sangat, dah besar rahmat I was there to help mak uruskan mana yang patut, and not be scrambling for flight tickets and what not.

Meanwhile my neighbours quickly helped to set the house ready for us. By the time we got back, all has been prepared for us. Jenazah was laid to rest the following day around 12 PM. The whole process were smooth alhamdulillah. My sister witnessed the ghusl at the masjid, and she mentioned that the kariah took time to properly complete it, they were not rushing, which is good for the jenazah I guess. Should be handled with care. So there it is, ayah has left us, went to see his Creator. Until a few days after his demise, there a few people came over to the house to look for Pak Long Usop, as he was fondly known off by the kampung folks. Some of them did not get the news, and ayah is the kind of person that can talk to anybody he met at coffee shop. Ayah's phone was not working and even if it was, these people are the random people that he met all around. You know how kampung folks are, some has mobile, some doesn't. But I guess by now, most of ayah's acquaintances already knew about his passing.

Till next time, wassalam...

Twas the Year 2012

Assalamualaikum wbt (for the benefits on non Muslim, peace be unto you),

I am going to start off with this greetings consistently from now on :)

As the sun sets and as most of the celebration kicks in, here I am again, alone in my rented home with nothing much to do. I am holding the pager, but even if I am in KL, I don't thik I'll weather through the crowds just to say hi to 2013. I am kinda old.. I guess ;) I treasure the quite moments at home, watching sinetron on TV (ya buk..masih lagi deh nontonnya :D)

This year 2012, has been the year with my least entry in this blog. I guess one of the reason was because I started using smart phone and I get online the normal quick touch and go thing, be it to check FB or some other stuffs. And I logged on to the blog even less when Instagram is available on android... (a cheapskate talking here y'all!!!)

So what happened to me this year? A lot actually, see if I can remember all and list it down here (did I mentioned I'm old..?) hehehe...

I can't remember much of what happened in Jan, but one thing for sure I had a blast doing this with my friends..!!

January action

In Feb, I made it to the land of middle earth, story only half told here, and in Sha Allah I will pick up where I left off here later :)

In March, probably one of the start of my physical activity as I joined my colleagues cycling from Seremban to Putrajaya, I took some 3 hours, if I'm not mistaken...(phheewww....)

Now what happened in April..? nothing much, I guess, or have I forgotten it? (Yes, age is catching up.. :P)

In May I managed to unwind with some friends in Janda Baik. It was meant to be a reunion for ROTU UiTM Batch 21, but as fated, only 4 of us made it, nonetheless we had a good time just chilling out.

June probably sees me busy running around (or swimming around!!) . This year the nieces + nephews club has one more member, Hana was born in March and we have the first outing for all the kids in June. They were treated to fun ride at Cosmos Times Square by Mak Teh.

Sometime mid month, I went to Redang with people at work. The snorkelling trip was fun considering I have not been swimming for the last 10 years, and yes, I did have a  panic attack once they let us off in the sea. Well, I'll try to blog about that later.

Did I say I was busy running around? well....fast walking is more like it. I managed to complete the Standard Chartered Marathon : 10KM within 2 hours, and after that sore feet, pain in the joint etc for the next 2 weeks, serve me right, I had it coming I guess ..hehehe...

too tired to stand :)

Now what happened in July..? I was busy working I guess..hahaha..finally work after all play.
Ramadhan was somewhere end July and as usual we have the iftar with local communities. This year its a bit special. Our event was graced by Yamtuan Besar Negeri Sembilan. He, Tuanku Ampuan and his two boys (wink, wink!!) joined us at Masjid Kg Paya and yours truly was asked to be one of the usherer for the day. We all are all given a free baju kurung each (yes!!) by the organizer :)

notice the gents does not have matching outfit :D

After that life pretty much the same with Eid and all. I can't remember where I put my photos, must still be in the camera I guess :P

In October, I reached another milestone by reaching the Low's Peak of Mount Kinabalu. A picture would not do justice to the adventure and I promise you I will write a whole post on it.

In November, we had an open day at work, where the worker are allowed to bring the family and they were given a guided tour around the plant. Yours truly was volunteeered as one of the tourist guide. Again, I thought I have downloaded the picture but can't seem to find it now.

Dr K was approached by some of the locals and asked us to organize a youth program at the local masjid, and as usual, I was pulled into the organizing team. With the help of his usrah and my usrah, we managed to came up with Klinik Remaja Islam Soleh (KRIS) . I was in charged of the ice-breaking game and believe it or not I was referring to some of the Christian sites for the games !! anything good would do, its not like the game involved the kids understanding the concept of trinity or anything like that, its teambuilding type of activities :) More pics are on his webpage .

Since I was on duty during Deepavali, I managed to round up few ROTU gang and had them coming over for a picnic. This time, turn out was a little bit more than during the 'reunion' but still not more than 10. Whatever it is, we still had a good time catching up.

Come December, I joined yet another activities organized by the company's sports club, this time its a trip Beijing. When I enroll for it, it did not occurred to me that we are going in the winter time. I will blog about this, hence a sneak peak would do :)

The year 2012 ended with me attending the 2-days conference, Twins of Faith 2012. And as usual, the sheikhs keeps us entertained and at the same time gave us some very good reminder of the states of our deen. And yes, I will blog about that in detail later...Guess I came out of this with bunch of delayed post for 2012. Its better late than never, they said.

Till we meet again in the next post, pray for good health and great year ahead to all of you, I really hope something can be done to stop Israel oppression against the Palestinian in 2013. Enough of the all talks yet no firm action. I hope Egypt & Syria can be stabilize soon so that they can return to their glory days in 1940-50's of helping the Palestinian. And I also hope that I can join one of the solidarity mission to Gaza, in Sha Allah.. :)

Raya tak berapa sakan 2011

Ayang and I reached SP on Friday early morning, and yes, ayang is my younger sis (xde maknenye ayang lain2..huhuhu...) As mentioned before it was raining cats and dogs until the day before raya, so some of the things that we planned never happened.

Normally we would have buah melaka at the very first few days for iftar, sort of like a family tradition, but since this year we only managed to gather with mum towards the end, so it was a late appearance for the sweet treats.

Despite the rain and slight objection from mom, I vetoed to buy the paint and proceed with the original plan. We painted the bottom half with a new colour, this was almond cream, and left the top part to its original colour. The border was intentionally blue to match the new drapes but still would match if we were to change to pink drapes next year :)

Sebelum start cat, dah warning mak budak dua orang ni, kalau dorang nampak gaya nak mengacau, kita cat anak dia dulu, so that tak kira cammana dorang kacau, the paint is not affected, amacam, kijam tak mak ngah ni? hehehe....

For the first day raya, my older sis was not with us. She only make it to SP on the morning of 2nd day raya, but by that time kakdik has already left for the hubby's side in Perak. So yet again we could not get a complete family portrait.

This was taken on the second day raya. Cucu sorang lagi, si Tisya dah lepas ke Perak.

Selalunya first day raya dah sampai ke umah njang and lang, but this year we only went after kak arrived. First pit stop, Pokok Sena, umah Njang. There's a new addition of nephew, my cousin, abang chik (my age btw) just got his second son, and this time nobody bother to ask when is my turn :P

Next, we went a little bit up close to the border, Changlon to visit Lang, normally all of her kids would be there, but this year some can only go back later, so I only saw 2 of my cousins there.

The rest of the raya was spent with more shopping (stocking up the groceries), running errands and doing odd jobs. We only managed to cook something up for people visiting on the Saturday. We have the begedil-less soto. Dah siap baru perasan x buat begedil..hahaha...and we had another not so northern cuisine, lontong (kat SP dah boleh jumpa tempe...very the globalised you know, ye la, kat Texas ada, kalo kat SP xdak, malu weh...)

The guest arrived until night time, but we (my sis, me and our niece and nephew) cabut pi tengok Smurfs 3D at Kulim, the only 3D cinema in Kedah!! First we thought that we need to go all the way to Penang Island and since people are already heading back to KL, the highway are jammed packed with cars, so its good that we only need to go to Kulim, and avoid the massive jam on the highway.

We drove back yesterday, thinking that most people would have driven back during the weekend, but we were wrong, still the traffic were pretty heavy but bearable, ahamdulillah no accidents along the way and we reached KL by Maghrib. Jadi itu sajalah cerita raya tak berapa sakan kali ini. Tak sakan sebab tak dapat kacau dodol..sungguh tak best :P its OK, next year, come rain or shine, I'll make it happen, insyaAllah :D

Yang tertangguhkan...

Alhamdulillah, dah selamat sampai ke SP pagi semalam. Hajat hati macam-macam nak buat. Balik ngan Ayang (my 3rd adik) so dah susun plan beria dah ni...Tapikan....

Its been raining cats and dog from the moment that we got here. These things may not see the light of day:

• Paint the bottom half of the living room and stick the wall border that I just bought last week. 
• Buy that kawah kenduri with the intention to kacau dodol. Bukan takat hujan, xleh kacau dodol, we couldn't even find kayu api yang kering.

Regardless, I am still buying the paint, just in case we get one sunny day before raya, :f

IOU

I owe these people, listing down so I won't forget : 

1. My boss 1 - Farewell gift
2. My boss 2 - Farewell gift
3. Aniem - Baby gift
4. Cik Lad - Baby gift
5. My sis - Birthday gift
6. Nora - Birthday gift
7. Blog friend - Baby gift
8. Myself - crotchet table runner
9. My nephew - Birthday gift
10. My niece - Birthday gift
11. Reja - overdue wedding gift (got married last Jan)
12. Cieda - overdue wedding gift (kawin taun lepas...)

Anymore?

Of Family and Stuffs

My younger sis who just graduated from a Maktab in KL has been posted to a school in Sungkai, Perak. I have not been there yet. She was a bit down when she came to know about the school. Its a small town chinese school. Based on her senior's experience, mode of communication is only Mandarin, and even when they hold meeting, Mandarin is used. So the non Mandarin speaking teacher is left clueless (be it Indian or Malay). So much of 1Malaysia spirit huh?

The senior couldn't stand the condition and nothing much he can do about it, so he asked to further studies. There are also other teacher giving tips to my sister, if you teach BM, that is all you can do. Don't even bother to get involved in other extra curricular activites, basically mind your own business. Well, like me, my sister is also the adventurous type, she loved to get involved with the students, be it in uniform body or any sports activities, and she said if she could not do that, then what is the point of being a teacher then? She got a point there.

I tried to talk some sense into her, noting that not all schools are the same, mainly depends on the headmaster. I told her, unless you try, you'll never know. The school is small, total students is only ~90 persons (Std 1 to Std 6), so there is chances that the headmaster is not as controlling as she would have thought. She reported duty yesterday and according to her, the teachers are OK, just the common feedback that she gets is the students did not really have respect for non Chinese teacher....hhmmm... that is tough.

I told her to hang in there, see how things work, try her best at least, and if she really could not adapt to that situation, there is always another option, whatever that may be.

People should realised that there is big different mindset between community living in kampung and small town versus the one living in big city. I used to take school buses with kids from chinese school (SJKC Jalan Davidson and SM Confucion) and we (4 of us) are the only people from non Chinese school. And these kids got along just well with us. They even tought us how to swear in Cantonese and Mandarin back then... :P So if you are talking about kampung chinese vs town chinese, it is different. 

On another note, her house hunting journey was not so good. She started by wanting to share a RM450/month house with a friend, but the friend is posted somewhere in Slim River, quite a distance from Sungkai, so she started looking for a new house, she found one kampung house RM 175/month and decided its a go. But when my other sister went and have a look, she did not approve, the house is not in well kept condition, and the house owner who lives nextdoor just mind their own business. Since she will be staying alone, they decided to look for another house, with a housemate is preferable.

Luck is on her side and Alhamdulillah, they found this house ,


Cantik tak? baca gaya Eric Leong ye....

If you are driving heading upnorth on PLUS, after Slim River exit, you will see a well built housing area on the left. Its actually a Felda project building homestay, but somehow this owner decided to rent it out. It has 4 rooms with RM 450/month. She is sharing this with another new teacher reporting to a school nearby.

I just hope that my sis can endure the atmosphere there (the school), as I am already making plans to go to Sungkai Hot Springs and free accomodation is always welcomed :D  

Raya..raya..raya..-Edisi Gambar

Nothing much, just a typical Raya for most Malay in Malaysia (oversea lain cerita..) Let the pics tell the story :)

Child labour - very cheap ones!!!

new deco for this year

ketupat palas, northern delicacy

family portrait

nak pi beraya

model jelapang padi ;)

Salam Aidilfitri 1431H ;)

Edisi Mintak Ampun...

Is it just me or the day just gets shorter? Work not done yet (it never will eh?) Yet I could not concentrate anymore. This year, have not sent out a single cards at all, jangan kata pos, hand delivered pon takdak. Today, albeit me complaining on shorter day, it will be a long one, will be driving back to SP after iftar in KL.

bazar kat SP

I found this interesting stall at Tasik Permaisuri's bazar

Nak Upin Ipin, nak Barbie, nak Ultraman..semua ada..

Sudah semestinyalah lepas post gambar ni, ada orang tambah sedih dan sayu...oleh itu di hari baik bulan baik ni, hamba menyusun jari memohon ampun dan maaf to all out there who reads the blog (adakah?). For all the wrongdoings, this that I wrote that may have hurt your feelings one way or another. And with that here's a virtual card for you. (Kalo kak tek nak print pastu display kat dinding pon boleh jugak!! ;0)

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri and have fun celebrating with your loved ones, be safe, no matter where you are.

Movies and More Movies...

During the 9 hrs flight from Cape Town to Dubai, I could not sleep at all. I don't know why, so I tuned into ICE (Information,Communication and Entertainment). Emirates In Flight Entertainment. They offered quite a wide range of movies, musics and games. I watched many movies and these 3 are worth to mention here:

Remember Me

This is the first non Twilight movie played by Robert Pattinson that I watched. Its a sad movie, about how a son struggle to make the father realised that he is needed not just because of money, because of other things as well. Its also about a brother who would do anything just to spare his little sisters feeling the same way that he did. Its a family struggle trying to keep it together after losing one of the member. Its about how a boy meets a girl. Its about some things that are simple in life that we tend to overlook.

This guy (Pattinson) can actually act, (in Twilight, he just act pale..or was it just make up?hehehe..) but the emotional depth potrayed here, not only by him, but the rest of the cast, makes it one of the soppy film I ever watched (same level with My Sisters Keepers). Verdict? I like.

Everybody's Fine
I watched this movie because of Drew Barrymore, little that I realised, I got more than that. Its about a guy, having just lost his wife, tried to get the kids together for a weekend. The kids of course being forever busy, stood the father up. He did not gave up, despite his medical condition, he make plans to pay a suprise visit to his kids in the city. Its kinda heartbreaking seeing him going through his journey, and although all the kids accepted and welcomed him nicely (bukan macam Tanggang halau mak dia la...) but something was not right somewhere..I recommend all people who still has parents to watch this. You will understand and appreciate why we need to see them while we still can. Its a bit funny at times but mostly it was sad and emotional...

Green Zone
So wanted to see this in the cinema but too bad during the show, none of it aired in Seremban. So I watched on air. The story is about a US army officer challenging the intel that led to Iraq invasion. He and his team were tasked to investigate the places that is supposedly holding the Weapons of Mass Destruction but they came back empty. Not once, not twice but 3 times. He began his search of truth on what is really going on. This movie has been accused as anti-America because it gives an idea what kind of conspiracy is going on in Pentagon. It is based on a non fiction book written based on real time experienced of US army personnel.

There it is, my very much delayed 3 in1 movie review. Nothing much but I think worth to share. Now go watch Everybody's Fine!! ;)

Ni semua Aida punya pasal...

I like photography, and naturally it should comes with editing pictures as well. But being IT blinded as I am, the best editing that I did was crop..(budak darjah 6 lagi terrer..)..besides, I am too cheapskate to but all those fancy photo editing software ;p

I like the editing done in Aida's post, so I asked how did she did it? It turns out there is free picture editor online (nampak sangat IT blind lagi..hahaha..) So I gave it a try, and voila!! Let me present to you the pictures of my growing list of nieces and nephews ;) (in chronological order)...

Aren't they cute? ;)

Tengokla sape mak ngahnye...hahahaha.....

I'm It!! : Tagged by Cik Aida

I was visiting my regular blogroll and it turns out that I'm it. Have been tagged by Cik Aida yang kini berada di bumi Espanyol. So here are the rules...(lama weh tak jawab tag-tag ni...)

1. Go to your photo files…Select the 8th photo folder.
2. Select the 8th photo in that folder.
3. Post that photo along with the story behind it.
4. Then challenge 8 blogging friends to do the same! "...

Soklan : Apsal 8? 6 tak bole ke? mesti orang yang invent tag ni suka no 8..bnyk soklan plak...nak jawab, jawab je la....hehehe...

So here goes...

1. Done : Kenduri Kakdik Jan 09
2. Done
3. Done : as attached;

The story:

This was taken during my younger sister's (Kakdik that celebrated her birthday on the 6th March) wedding on 3rd Jan 2009. No, that was not me in the picture. The one wearing kebaya on the left hand side is my younger sister, Ayang. The one in white baju kurung is her best friend, Alin. To Cik Aida, my sis met her best fren when she was schooling in Pahang...hahaha.. adik kite Sekolah Teknik Chenor. Actually Pahang is quite close to my heart as I was born in Temerloh, back in those days a lot of Kedahans move to Pahang, and my late grandma move to Temerloh, Charok Puting in particular. The whole village was opened by Kedahans, so eventhough I was born and raised until 5 years old in Pahang, I could not speak Pahang dialect, because the whole village, the first generation is Kedahans...I still have two aunties in Pahang, one in Bera, and another in Kg Awah.

Ooppss...lari tajuk. hahaha...The receiption was held in Dewan DBKL in Bandar Tun Razak, the whole family theme was green + peach. Alin and Ayang was the one who helped me prepared the high table dish. I think Ayang has already told Alin about the theme colour, and she brought baju kurung that is in the same colour tone. Alin has a boyfriend named Ali (funny rite..hahaha..). She is a tru blu Pahang gurl, but which area, koi kurang periksa ye Cik Aida.

So there you have it, its a coincidence that this story ade sangkut paut ngan Pahang..hahaha..

4. Tag other 8 blogger friend...

Hmm this is the tough part. Nobody really reads my blog except for few people (kalo kira tak sampai sebelah tangan..hahaha) So whoever is reading, YOU'RE IT!!! You know who you are....hehehe....

Lebaran 1430H

Its after lunch and the office still quite. My neighbours (colleagues in next cubicles) are still out and my boss is nowhere to be seen ;)

I have just had a handover session before lunch and my head is kinda filled with -things to do- from that session. Howeverrr...I have this urge to post about my Raya this year. Many pics will be attached as the friendly IT ppl have configured all USB connections to my laptop. (at least they did something right)

My car is packed as ever with stuffs to bring back home. We started from KL on Friday at 2pm-ish.Arrived at Juru exit around 5.30pm- ish, only to be greeted with heavy traffic jam. After about 1.5 hrs crawling, we managed to arrive in SP just in time for iftar.

We had quite a full schedule, having only arrived 1+ day before Raya. First things first, pelita..and my sis bought the deco lights

We sort of hold back all the preparation until official announcement aired on TV, from then onwards, it chaos!!.

Little did I know my mom revert to using the 'kukur nyok', a traditional tool to grate coconut. It took me half an hour to finish half coconut, and we need at least easily 20 coconuts to be grated for all dish to be prepared.

LOL!! so in the end my father took all the coconuts to local grocery store and have a more industrial way done, by the machine ;) This time we even imported coconut leaves from KL so that we can make 'ketupat nasi'.

We also put up a temporary shade outside. We did all the cooking using 'kayu api' to save on cooking gas ;). besides, it free fuel..

Notice the three 'supervisor' at work 'supervising' my youngest sis doing her chores.. :p

We made dodol and my mum forgot the original recipe that we used last year, so we ends up making 4 times than what we make last year ;p. The cooking starts around 2am-ish and only finishes at 7.30 am. I was so beat up that after solat sunat Aidilfitri, I spent almost the whole day sleeping (both my sis and I)

We also had ketupat palas (I did not take any pics though..) and lots other cookies (which none that I made)

More pics on pagi Raya, we always tried to get a family photo, this year my younger sis - kakdik spend the first day with the hubby side, so she was not in.

Najia was in bad mood and I tried to 'pujuk' her to get in the mood for the photo session, not really working though....

This Raya, we also had kenduri, a wedding reception for my sis (delayed one to combign with akikah + tahlil masuk rumah baru) So all in one due to recent economics crisis..hehehe...

We ordered the cow from my uncle 'Pak Lang' and I went to see the slaughtering process but didn't have heart to stay and witness. My sister snap all the photo

The kenduri is on 5th Syawal, tahlil was done on 4th Syawal after Isya'. Some pics during preparation of tahlil + kenduri+ many others;

Preparation for kenduri went on smoothly although on D-day itself I was rushing in and out to send to send the bride for make up, pick up cupcakes and many more neverending chores. Alhamdulillah all things went well. More pics, as usual....

Cupcakes orders came from SP and all the way from Kulim, the decos are lovely and I loike ;)
more pictures....

I also bought fresh flowers from KL since its much cheaper and I have reliable supplier. Stairs deco are made of fresh flowers..

The bride....

Candid and not so candid shots...

Later that night kids have fun playing fire crackers- supplied from the long arm of the law..hehehehe..

I was using my tripod, but the subject were not static, hence the results ;p

Only on Saturday did I managed to do some visiting to my aunts place, after all the dust had settled.

At Mak Njang's place...

Most of the beautiful pictures not taken by me, my sis and nieces was doing most of the snapping as I was pretty much occupied doing other stuffs.

We head back to KL on Monday and yesterday I spent all day in KL settling stuffs. Today back to work although am still very much in Raya mood....sigh.....