Selamat Hari Raya

It had been a full day of eating, drinking and all round partying. After the prayers in the morning, my brother-in-law came to visit and hang around for a bit before I received a call from my sister to come over to Bukit Antarabangsa.

More food. I was really full even before lunch. For lunch, my sister went over to one of the celebrity who lived in my Mum's neighbourhood for more food. We did not join them, and called it the day.

Irfan and his grandparentsCome evening, we went over again to my parents house and it was havoc. The sparklers were out and the boys with their cousins were really having a ball. Even helping out clearing the mess they created after playing with the fireworks.

As I was blogging this entry, I was still at my Mum's having more food, while waiting for the children to calm down. Chelsea was playing Wigan on the TV, leading 2 nil. It was halftime. I might hang on until the end of the game.

To all my friends, colleague and family, thanks for all the Aidilfitri wishes. I may not be able to reply to all of them today, but I was sure I would get around to it soon. Selamat Hari Raya.

First Ramadan

So, where did you have your first berbuka. I try to make sure that I would be on leave the first day of Ramadan. This would allow me to have the first Tarawikh knowing that I do both have to rush to work tomorrow morning. And the second major advantage was, I could get to plan where to enjoy my first berbuka. Inevitably it would be with family.

When do I start consciously plan for this? Well, staying abroad for 13 years did put things into perspective. I've been on call on first days of Ramadan before, had exams, alone to myself. I did not mind so much back then, but your mind do wonder. How nice it would be to be with family.

Nowadays, it was not really a choice anymore. I would make sure that the first day of Ramadan was free. A bit of a personal holiday for me. In fact, I value it more than the Eid as it was a lot more hectic on Eid, and one do not have time for themselves then.

What did I do this year? At my Mum's, enjoying her cooking. I couldn't say no to that. My sister was there as well, minus Irfan who was still having a temperature. We didn't want him to pass it on to his cousins.

So, Happy Ramadan again to all ....

Impromptu Birthday Cake

Thanks to my sister Julia, I had a birthday cake this year. Believe it or not, I did not get one for my birthday, with the kenduri and all. The initial plan was to take my parents out for lunch. Julia and her family was on their way back from Melaka, and they joined us at Pavilion as they arrived in KL. We had our lunch at Madam Kwan’s, in a nice little table, tucked away at the back room.

She prefers children plastic plates. I don't really know why ....Then it was durian time ....BurpAll havoc broke loose when the children started playing with their iPads and iPhone. Even if they had one each, they would still like to fight. We had a good lunch, with all the singing and cake blowing. After lunch, we settled back at my parent’s house at Bukit Antarabangsa. Julia brought back plenty of durian from Melaka. Please don’t smell my breath tonight …….

Mixed Bag

Day started with a game of congkakAll together it has been a mixed bag of a day today. It started off badly, with Irfan sniffling all morning and I hardly got any sleep. Thank god today is the last day of the long weekend, so I still get to chill all morning. By lunchtime, we decided to get out for some fresh air. We decided to head over to 1Utama which sounded initially as not that bad an idea.

When we reached there, it took me 30 mints to find a parking spot, which at the end we decided to park illegally. As far as I am concerned, as long as I pay to get into the carpark, it was legal! The place was crowded and Irfan got restless. We decided to have lunch and oh boy, did we pick the wrong place. Idlan wanted to sit on a sofa, so we ended up at Theobroma Chocolate Lounge on the first floor of the new wing. 

Idlan munching away at his chocolateThe show from our vantage pointI will describe the experience there in my later entry. I was still traumatised by the whole experience! While we were having the drinks, we heard sound of drums from the foyer. The boys quickly rushed over. It was a show by a group of Shaolin monks from China. They were quite good and from the upper floor, we got a decent vantage point. They went through their repertoire of jumps, skips and tricks. They also got member of the audience to join them for some fun and games. Not bad. Before long, my two boys started jumping and kicking, imitating the monks!

Passing by Pavilion on the way to Low Yat later onSince Irfan was still under the weather, we decided to head home. On the way, the boys wanted to stop at their Gramma's over at Bukit Antarabangsa. We hang around there all afternoon. Enough time for me to head over again into town to get something from Low Yat. My LiveScribe pen ran out of papers and ink. Unfortunately there were not many shops that do them. Some of them were closed for the New Year. Fortunately today, I got my stock and was happy. So the day ended up very well indeed.

To cap it off, one of my Uncle - Mamu - turned up at my Mum's with his family. Their son will be married o the 23rd May, which happens to be Idlan's birthday. That will be busy weekend, since we can't cancel our birthday party scheduled on the 22nd since everything was booked up. It sounded that we have to drive on the morning. If the boys were not coming, it will likely be a day trip for me.