The weekend just passed

At section 7, Shah AlamIt is almost an unwritten rule that the subsequent weekends following Hari Raya is filled with Open Houses amongst city dwellers like me. It is also a rule that people, the Malays mainly tie the knot. The weekend passed summerised it well.

The Rawang highway stop. Very well maintainedOn Saturday, the whole troop converged on Ipoh to celebrate the wedding of one of our best friend's sister, Itul. As usual, we were worried that the boys may become restless. Well, they did, but I thought it was going to be worst. The wedding itself was pure class. It was a full Perak affair. There was live band of course. Food was nice. No complains really. We wished that the boys were not as cranky so that we can spend some extra time with the the friends. Itul is only back for a couple of weeks. She just started a new post in Yorkshire. Maybe she has some free time this week for us to visit. Syahril is planning an open house for friends this coming weekend as well. Maybe we can spend some more time then.

On Sunday, we attended a few more open houses hosted by Anita's cousins. The problem that day was finding the address. One was in Rawang, right in the middle of nowhere. The other one was in Shah Alam, but getting there was rather confusing. We made it there alright but it was pretty tiring. Once the boys met up with their cousins, they were very happy and did not want to go home.

Cousin's Wedding in Muar

Cousin's Wedding in Muar 1, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

Made a round trip to Muar today, some 200 km from home. I attended one of my cousin's wedding. Initially I was reluctant to travel due to the pandemic and all, but I finally gave in to my Mum.

We hit out at around 11am, stopped for a quick drink as my nephew, Imran was hungry. We managed to get lost on the way over there as the last time we went there was some 4 years ago. We got there by 1.30, had lunch, then it started poring down.

The rain eased off just in time for the wedding procession to arrive. I was also surprised as there was a live band playing. In KL, especially in house kenduri, there are usually karaoke, or people attempting at karaoke, but today there were some serious singers and musicians. And they were good, or at least I thought they were.

A sign I saw on the way hone ... Pedas!We left shortly after the procession arrive as the return trip will take another couple of hours at the very least, and it looked like it was going to rain again. I finally arrived home, after dropping my Mum at around 6. Flipped through the channel and was disappointed to find that they were not showing the World Athletics live on Astro. Quick check on the YouTube to watch clip of Bolt and Gay in the heats. The second round will be later tonight. Oh! And there is a small matter of The English Premier League back on the tubes! United is only playing tomorrow though, so the season has not started until then in earnest.

Southbound

The reason for travel up to Penang this time is to attend my cousins' wedding. My father has a total of 12 siblings, including my uncle who passed away last year. My grandmother has more than 50 grandchildren and 20+ great grandkids now. I happen to be the eldest among the grandchildren. The wedding ceremony is for one of my father's sister's son.

After a big feast last night at the pasar malam, we woke up this morning to sample a selection of nasi lemak near Kelab Cinta Sayang here in Sungai Petani. It is roadside stalls which specialises is nasi lemak. There were tons of selection when it comes to the sambal and gravy. I tasted it before and was well impressed.

My auntie then had a visitor from Kelantan. That means that we can't leave early for the wedding. We finally arrived there at almost 2.30, well after the bersanding. We stopped over en route to buy some noodles. This stall serve the best noodle, and we actually packed it back to KL.

After meals and meeting relatives we had to rush back to KL. y grandmother was there, and she appeared to have lost weight. Apparently she caught a virus last months and was off food. Only recently she got her appetite back. She suffered multiple stroke in the past and she is not able to speak. It is a times difficult to make sense of what she is trying to say. She has what in the medical field termed as expressive dysphasia. She knows what she is trying to say but cannot muster the muscles to actually articulate it. It frustrates her at times. She is almost at tears when we can't make out what she is trying to say.

The drive back to KL took just over 4 hours plus the stop in Bukit Merah for a quick tea. We got to KL at around 8, then after dropping my parents, I rushed back to Gombak. It's the Manchester Derby tonight ......