Open Apartment

Last Sunday, the day before my and my father-in-law's birthday, we hosted an open house at our apartment - hence the dubbed open apartment - inviting mainly Anita's cousins and my father-in-law's siblings. The turn out was better than expected. Mixed with that, we also had an impromptu cake-cutting and all the usual birthday stuff.

It was just beginningMy parents-in-lawOne of Anita's auntIt was an excellent day all around and some of our friends stayed until the evening. Food was curtesy of Anita's excellent soto as well as a few orders of biryani and "laksa Johor". Everyone was entertained, even our new driver - who was a pastry chef - chipped in with some desserts for good measures.

Most of our cousins only visited us for the first time, and many had not been here since the renovations last Christmas.

The four of us ....A close-upEven the baby was behaving ...Good time all around ...Everybody had a good time and Anita was the most pleased. She put plenty of effort for the afternoon, and her mother actually spent the evening with us. We also got the help from a friend of our maid as there were plenty to do during the event. But everything went well.

Idlan and Irfan though only made sporadic appearance, although one of their cousin joined them in Irfan's room playing with the PS4. That left us adults to chill out while enjoying the food. The main problem our visitors had was the security and parking arrangements. To make things easier, we stationed our driver at the visitor's car park to fetch them through the main lifts rather than them having to go through the visitor's route and the main entrances.

Peace!The day's entertainment ...Group photos with friends ...We were stuffed by the late afternoon, and the party was only halfway then. My father-in-law did not stay until late as he was getting tired from all that. He did however gave a speech after cutting the cake. Off came the story when I called Anita's home when we were both still in college. Hilarity ensued! But great day all around ...

A Day of Rest

I had a good night sleep last night, dozing off despite the TV blaring away. The 7 hour drive up to Kota Bharu certainly contributed. We set off just after noon and everything was moving swimmingly all the way to Gua Musang.

In fact it took us only 3 hours to get there. But the drive from then on was a completely different proposition. Kuala Kerai to KB took almost 3 hours. So many cars ... and too many roadworks. The initial estimate of getting to the hotel by 6 pm was certainly an optimistic one. But a 45 minutes delay was. To too bad.

The day then kicked off with a visit or two ...We soon got settled in, went for an early dinner with one of Anita’s Aunt joining us. Not long after, we were back to our room, hitting the shower and soon enough, I was already in the bed. But not after getting some family Raya photos from the morning sorted out.

Woke up this morning fresh, got the boys sorted out and we down for breakfast at the cafe. Unfortunately, the place was already packed, and we ended up in the smoking section.

Irfan had something to tell ...The rest of the day went by pretty swiftly. I went to the airport to pick up my father-in-law who caught the flight from KL in the morning. Then we went straight to one of my Anita’s Uncle’s place for lunch.

I spent the afternoon having a walk into town but it turned out to be a boring one.

Not much else happening in town ...Most of the markets were still closed and the shops were deserted. The malls were opened but it was nothing special. I turned back to the hotel empty handed, with only 10 shots on the camera. Next stop would be taking the boys for a swim at the hotel pool, before another family dinner later tonight. Hopefully another early night as I got a long day tomorrow.

Raya came Calling

It was not going to be the same compared to the previous year. Ba was no longer with us. We spent the evening before at my Mum’s place at Bukit Antarabangsa welcoming some neighbours dropping by for takbir after the Isya’ prayers.

I woke up early on the Raya morning, and it was raining heavily outside, cancelling my plans to visit Ba’s grave. The prayers came after that, also at Bukit Antarabangsa. Ba usually manned the Zakat desk. Since he was no longer around, the Imam was there in his place. I took some time talking to him and everybody mentioned that they missed Ba especially during Ramadan when Ba helped to manage some of the Surau events.

Prayers and then a short tahlil. We were off after that.

More food at Mum’s followed by the obligatory photos. I then set off to Gombak to join Anita’s parents before setting off for my long drive to Kota Bharu after noon.

40 Days

Last weekend Two weekends ago, Julia hosted a kenduri at her place. We had a prayer and Yassin recital to mark 40 days of Ba's passing. We got some of my Uncles and family friends around as well.

Nut sadly since it was a Saturday afternoon, I was late for the occasion. Anita and the boys were there and we later spend the evening in Kajang.

It was nice that so many people came. It was also the last weekend before Ramadan. It had been some time since I have been to Ba's grave. It now time to decide on the tombstone and in the coming weeks, I would be sorting that out.

Alfatihah.

Second Ramadan

It was a Sunday. The plan was to have berbuka at my Sister’s in Kajang. And that was after spending the best part of the afternoon at Viva Home Centre getting stuffs for the new converted bedroom.

At Viva, we spent much of the time at the newly opened SSF Home Furnishings. Certainly there were plenty of neat items to look at. All at reasonable prices. But unfortunately we had problem with the service. At how slow they were.

Anita exploring the crime sceneCarpets ....Cute wagonA pair of these ...And those as well ...Although I was glad to have purchased the items, the way they went about things really slowed us down. We ended up having to rush to Kajang after we were done.

I was still unable to get myself a replacement workbench after the last one was sold away as they were too big. That would mean another hunt next weekend.

Playing snap while waiting for berbukaLuckily with the light traffic in KL, we were able to reach Kajang early, and Anita went to passer ramadan straight after. I was too lazy and tired to follow and decided to hang around the house, catching up on a few episodes on Netflix.

The children appeared to enjoy themselves, but since Irfan had school tomorrow, we had to return early.