Getting my priorities right - first, clean the car

I haven't been updating my blog for the last couple of days. I have been on vacation with the family. We went up Fraser's Hill on Sunday and we just arrived home a couple if hours ago. First things first, the car needs cleaning. Unfortunately it has been raining outside. It has stopped since.

We stayed at the Smokehouse Hotel there. It's a mock Tudor English house which was built in 1937. It has since been converted into a hotel. It serves authentic English food, which was half the attraction. All in all I was very happy there. Anita insisted that I leave my MacBook behind. Phone connection was rather hit and miss although the hotel have got free wifi at the louge.

I was uploading the photos onto my computer earlier. I counted about 450 pics in total. Was too lazy to edit yet. Maybe I'll leave it until tomorrow. Rather tired with allthe drivig and the prospect of having to return to work tomorrow. I might blog more later if I can muster it. Oops! The car is ready!

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Qurban

Salleh with his QurbanSelamat Hari Raya Qurban. This year, Salleh, my brother-in-law bought a couple of portions of Qurban and was involved in the slaughter yesterday. It was held at my Mum's local surau at Bukit Antarabangsa. There were a total of 5 cows put down. The event started just after 9.30 in the morning after the Raya prayers. Salleh's cow was the first to be slaughter.

The crowd looking on

Qurban described the event when Allah decreed for Abraham (Ibrahim a.s.) to slaughter his favourite son Ishmael (Ismail a.s.) to test his and his wife, Hagar's (Siti Hajar) faith. During the slaughter (Qurban), Ishmael was replaced with a qibas (desert goat) and to commemorate the event, Qurban was performed yearly during the end of pilgrimage (Eidul Adha).

Volunteers being roped in.... and helping each other outThe morning was blessed with beautiful weather. Around 120 people turned up and the Qurban went on without a hitch. Everyone chipped in, the younger once watching in awe of the whole process, maybe for the first time. After the Qurban was done, everyone started cutting up the slaughters and preparing them into small portions for cooking. Some of the meat were given away as sedekah, while others were cooked in a broth to be distributed.

Each sacrifice are divided into 7 portions. As you can see, some of them were for Aqiqah.The young and the old joining forcesSpare ribs anyone?

My local masjid in Taman Melati will only be performing the Qurban today - it does not have to be done on the first day of Eidul Adha. They are offering courses for the younger generations to learn about the process and hopefully lead it in the future. I learned about it late. Maybe I will enroll in it next year.

I spent the rest of the Hari Raya at home with the kids. Not many of our relatives came this time around. Anita went shopping in the afternoon to prepare for our upcoming trip to Fraser's Hill. We then went back to Bukit Antarabangsa in the evening with the kids to have dinner with my Mum. The rest of the slideshow can be found here.

Selamat Hari Raya - Maaf Zahir Batin

Performing my prayers at Taman Melati with my Dad-in-law. Will be heading to my Mum's at Bukit Antarabangsa for Qorban later in the morning. Just realised that I left my wallet at home. No cash! Preparing to be sheepish when the Tok Siak comes around for collections!

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Idlan making pizza

As part of the school holiday activities, Marche at their the Curve outlet held a pizza-making workshop. We enrolled Idlan in. The workshop started just after lunch, ran for a couple of hours. The kids were thought about hygiene to start with. Everything, from apron to the dough were provided. All we had to do was turn up.

First, the dough need flattening! I kept asking him to do it mamak style but he refused to get in touch with his roots!I think he needs a stoolThere were about 12 of them in the group and I think Idlan was among the youngest. Few of them I am sure were already in standard 4 at least. They started off with just the base, then adding it the tomato paste and toppings of cheese and pineapple. Since Idlan was too small, he had to go onto a platform in order to reach the trimmings and put them on his pizza. Idlan was grinning all the way. After the pizza was prepared, all of them went into the oven. It took about 20 minutes to cook and the young chef took the time to mingle, take pictures and drink some juice to cool themselves down! Even though it was not exactly Hell's Kitchen, it was still pretty hard work for them. Eating time came next. Unfortunately we did not get to keep the cute little aprons. In the meantime, Irfan was sulking as he also wanted to join in. Unfortunately he is still too small.

Now comes the hard partThe staffs there were really friendly and I can tell they were really prepared for the event. It was held at the front entrance of the restaurant, in the shades by the main walkway. The instructions given were very appropriate to the young boys and girls. They were showed how to carry out the instructions. After everything was done, the participants were given a certificate, plus the recipe for the pizza they have just made.

... and it's ready!Irfan reviewing his brother's bakingAfter everything is done, it was back to Kung Fu time!All in all, it was a very well run event. There are other workshops coming on, but I don't think Idlan is keen to bake muffins. The pizza-making workshop is held on Monday, Thursday and Friday afternoons during the school holidays. It cost RM20 to register. Just Google for Marche or click here or here to find out a bit more. It was great fun, I would recommend it to other parents for sure. The slideshow for the workshop can be seen here.

Out and about in town - at Pavilion at the moment

It seems that the first day of any of my long break involves sending the car to the garage for servicing. That was what happened this morning. Off my Kelisa went. Mind you, the mileage - er kilometers in that beast is almost 100000. Not bad. Once that nestled in the workshop, I went to Bukit Bintang to settle my bills and others. I also took a look at the Nokia E72. It was not much bigger than my current E71. It has 5MP camera and still no compass. I asked if they do trade-ins. One of the seller there said he will take-in my E71 for RM700. Hmmm! But the price for the E72 was quoted for RM1650. I think that that was a bit too expensive. I won't pay any higher than RM1400. I'll give another couple of months.

I spent the afternoon being Anita's taxi. She wants to explore some more private schools around here. We ended up visiting 4 schools. We have a couple more lined up for tomorrow morning. So it's going to be another long day. After all that was done, we went to our games dealer at Plaza Damas. As promised, I have to get the boys the PSP they have been shouting about. I got them a matching pair. The console themselves were still affordable. What made things expensive are the trimmings, covers, bags, memory cards, crack programs and the lot! I am officially broke now!

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