Open House at Sister's

It was a Raya, birthday, housewarming, doa selamat and Merdeka rolled into one. A do at Julia's new place in Kajang, first time she organised it there. And it was a big one.

It started off in late morning with doa selamat. Anita and the boys got there early as I had to do my morning rounds still. The highlight food-wise was roast lamb and satay. They were fresh, but unfortunately I was not a lamb person. The lamb was a big hit.

After my first round of food, it started to rain. Congregating indoors, I fell asleep in front if the TV. I wad then woken up by calls from the hospital, and in the end had to leave for Subang in the middle of the rain.

Anita stayed for a few more hours, but the traffic was too heavy for me to turn back.

Before leaving, we had the sing-along and cake-cutting for Nana, my niece's birthday. Anita, who bought the cake forgotten to bring along some candles. That cut down the risk of saliva contamination on the Red Velvet ...... And that could only be a good thing.

All in all, it was a great day. I wished that I could've stayed intil the evening, but I had to go to the hospital, and then another do in Melawati. That was what the schedule was like this weekends following Raya. Slideshow from the event here.

Flag at the Fountain

Went to Pavilion for a short hop to settle some bills and decided to take a peek around. The fountain had the Jalur Gemilang all around it and in the breeze, it was quite a spectacle. Real cute.

I also noticed the replica flag similar to the one from a couple of years ago. But this time it was hidden by the entrance.

This looks rather familiar ......Would have loved to hang around a bit longer but I had a few engagements today. And by engagements I meant food!

Happy Merdeka.

Memories of Merdeka

I'm not going to pretend that I'm a patriotic kind. But having lived abroad for a big chunk of my student life did put things into perspective somewhat. And for Merdeka Day, most of the students used to congregate at the High Commissioner's Residence in London for a quick get together and food, clad in their traditional costumes.

I guessed that made things felt rather different from the ordinary routine.

The first and only time that I joined in - making a trip to London from where I was based was rather tricky - was soon after I first arrived in 1990. I remembered that the High Commissioner's house was just outside Central London. We took a train there and then a short walk from the station. From afar you could see your fellow Malaysian in their Baju Melayu and Baju Kurung. Quite a sight in a foreign land.

We were ushered in, plenty of food at the garden this being late sunmer when the weather was still warm. A few of the students happened to be children of well known parents from back home and were known personally by the Commisioner or his staffs. They got to be introduced around, while us ordinary folk just mingled around looking perplexed.

We then decided from then on that maybe hanging around and meeting friends at Malaysia Hall was a better idea. Elitism can be stuffy .......

Merdeka Came Early

So, Merdeka was coming round the corner and just by the lift from my ward, I was greeted by this. A tad too early must admit.

Some good news at least. Just found that coming Monday would be a public holiday for Selangor. An unexpected day off for me. But Anita had already have some plans in store. Here one shopping I was sure.

Jalur Gemilang

It was the National Day today. I remember back in 2003 upon my return from the UK after living there for 13 years. Then, all the cars have flags strapped on their sides. Most of the houses on my street have Jalur Gemilang - the National Flag as it was affectionately called - flying proudly at their gates. Even the motorcycles presented with accident risk with flag poles sticking out from the back of their seats. Put it mildly, the whole country went Jalur Gemilang crazy!

I was wondering back then, what the fuss was about? Maybe the economy was good. The peasants were happy. Business was good. I stuck the flag at the front gate and that was about it. I could appreciate the need to have flags coming out from my car. Fast forward 7 years, and things were rather different. There were only a couple of houses with Jalur Gemilang at the gates - anther one belong to a Chinese neighbour. When I went out yesterday with Puan Anita to a Bazaar Ramadhan, we did a quick count on how many cars have flags on them. Out of 43, only 3 had one. Less than 8%. Maybe everyone realised that celebrating the National Day meant more than just flag waving. Maybe the economy was not as rosy as it was. Maybe Ramadhan was taking its toll after all. I shudder to think that the current generation have far less appreciation of what Merdeka was …… That’s not a good sign …..