Eid Mubarak, and selamat hari raya to all! Vin, Allie and I were out of town for the holidays due to work commitments, but coincidentally, we had a work-related party to go to on the eve of Eid that actually specified that it was a national dress party. So Alllie put on her new baju kurung raya from Opah and Atok, and Vin and I wore our green bajus to match Allie. Here we all are, at Rob’s party. [[image:allie370a.jpg:The Raya family picture:center:0]] Note that in the above, Allie is no longer wearing the skirt of her baju kurung as she kept stepping and tripping on it. But here she is, when she first got ready to go to the party in her full outfit. [[image:allie369a.jpg:Look at my pretty baju kurung!:center:0]] Gnarly party last night, thanks for having us Rob! Maaf zahir batin to all! And to Yope Irfan, a […]
Continue readingTag Archives: Hari Raya
Eid Mubarak & Happy 7th Birthday
Aidilfitri greetings to everyone from us who are spending the holidays in Pasir Mas this year. This year, our family was garbed in black on Aidilfitri morning. The next day was Irfan’s seventh birthday. There was no place in the fridge to store the cake so we cut the cake that morning. Irfan’s cake was very nicely decorated by the cake shop, complete with edible Donald Duck, Doraemon, Ultraman, some funky cat and for some reason, an unidentifiable Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle with a goatee. He must be evil. Meanwhile in the kitchen, Ain was leading the team to cook her nasi dagang, which I sampled quite a lot of before the end of the day. Later that afternoon, Aiman came to visit from Salor with his parents, so Irfan and Aiman did their regular things together, watching TV, chasing each other all over the house and playing with the […]
Continue reading
Manjung District Scout House
Being in the 1st Troop Manjung of the Scouts was great. Some memorable experiences while there. A bunch of us sometimes went down to the district Scout House on Fridays to see if one of the other schools had a camping excursion there. Then we’d sign up to be the camp ground guardians, keeping watch on the campsite all weekend as the kids as they and their respective Scoutmasters went about their work. Last week I went for a quick drive into Kampung Sitiawan where the old Scout House stood, and was saddened by the fact that it stood no more. The camp warden’s house was totally gone. Even the “haunted” trees with the unknown talismans tied to them surrounding the camp ground behind the scout house had been long uprooted. I wonder where the district Scout Troops are based now. Below are photos of the Scout House from behind […]
Continue readingSelamat Hari Raya from Ohio
Selamat Hari Raya, maaf zahir batin from all of us in Ohio. We wish we could have been in Malaysia for the holiday, but we will have rendang and stuff here too (eventually when I get my act together). Lily did not show up for the picture taking session, and I had already changed out of my baju kurung, so here are Vin and Allie, wishing you all a wonderful month of Shawal. [[image:allie71a.jpg:Vin and Allie in their baju raya:center:0]] * Allie is wearing the baju raya that Opah and Tok got for her.
Continue readingEid Mubarak From Ipoh
[[image:aidilfitri-ipoh.jpg:Greetings from Rapat Setia Baru:center:0]] It’s been already 30 days into Ramadhan and beyond? It’s already Eid-ul-Fitr? How time flies. Greetings from Irfan’s Opah Cu’s home in Ipoh from our family to all three* of you regularly reading this blog. *This number might or might not fluctuate according to the phases of the moon.
Continue reading
ACS Kids at Aidilfitri
At Aidilfitri Irfan met and played with a whole bunch of kids of his generation whose parent(s) were former students of ACS Sitiawan. Here are some pics of Irfan and friends. Too bad we didn’t get photos of children of Lan, Dila and Gnana. Here’s Chris C’s (the other Chris C) daughter Aleyxia whom Irfan invited to play with the hamsters brought back from Kuala Lumpur by Irfan’s Opah Ngah. The small dark on is called Ciki and the big orange one is called Oren. Irfan loved to go upstairs and feed the little guys seeds and carrots, loudly and spiritedly commently on everything they do. Then, Irfan tries to escape the camera, to no avail Awi and Hanim came with young Aisyah. She found Tok Irfan’s fish pond and Irfan’s plastic toy car very intriguing. She was also very friendly with Ain, trying to get Ain to help her […]
Continue readingEid Mubarak From Sitiawan
[[popup:aidilfitri2007.jpg:(thumbnail):Everone but Sila & Vin:left:1]]Click on the thumbnail on the left for a photo of everyone present for Aidilfitri this morning. Although it wasn’t perfectly done, the different families are colour coded for ease of identification. 🙂 Although you can’t see them, Sila and Vin were also present by way of Skype video call and were privy to the regular Raya ruckus. Ain’t information technology grand? Their actual presence are missed by us all and we’re looking forward to them able to make it for Hari Raya in the coming years.
Continue readingAfter That We Took Some Pictures
A belated Eid Mubarak from Ain’s kampung at Pondok Lubok Tapah, Pasir Mas. We spent a week here, and had plenty of good food to eat. The morning of Aidilfitri, Tok Ma made Nasi Dagang – Terengganu Style – but there are no pictures of that. The second day, Ain made Laksa Johor and there are no pictures of that either. For most of the rest of the week we didn’t travel out much because of the horrific traffic jams which were practically everywere. We didn’t even go to Kota Bharu, which didn’t mean we didn’t try. After the Aidilfitri prayers that morning we took some photos. Irfan put on his best action hero intense look. [[image:eid_pmas01.jpg:Intense Look of an Action Hero:center:0]] More family photos: [[image:eid_pmas02.jpg:Irfan with Tok Bah:center:0]] [[image:eid_pmas03.jpg:Family:center:0]] [[image:eid_pmas04.jpg:Irfan’s maternal family:center:0]] Later Irfan and I took a walk outside in the yard and the sun gave ample opportunity […]
Continue readingIn a galaxy far, far away… Eid Mubarak!
Eid Mubarak and Selamat Hari Raya to everyone! This year, for the first time, Mak and Abah came to spend raya with us, so we had a nice quiet celebration, just the 4 of us. We had the raya breakfast of pulut (glutinous rice), rendang ayam (chicken rendang) and sambal tumis daging (beef sambal) but took no pictures of the food as we were too busy chowing down the morning of the 1st of Shawwal. After the food, we then all got dressed in our Raya finery, took a bunch of pictures and then did the ritual salam-salam and asking of forgiveness of each other, as is tradition for a Malaysian Eid. Take a look of the pictures of Mak and Abah with us for the first time during Raya, and because it was quite cold outside and our Malaysian thin cotton materials, we only took pictures indoors. Mouse over […]
Continue readingAnd Now For A Word… Or Four
Today is the last day of Ramadhan and tomorrow is Aidilfilti. We’ve just had our last sahur for the year and now the sun is slowly rising in the cool morning air of Irfan’s Tok Bah’s house here in the outskirts of Pasir Mas. We arrived here at noon yesterday, commandeering Irfan’s Atok’s car which he left with us before flying off to Ohio earlier this week. As you can see they’re having lots of fun (and awesome food) in the previous post. We planned on beating the massive holiday traffic by leaving long before the terminator crosses our location, at 0300, or 0330 at the latest early Sunday morning. Unfortunately we woke up at after 0400 because of the amount of work done the previous day taxed us physically. (Damaged car tyre was switched with the spare and we assembled a new bookcase, which I hope will be left […]
Continue reading
Into the Second Week of Ramadhan
It’s now the second week of Ramadhan. If anyone asks (and you’d know the answer to this if you’ve asked me) it’s been more tiring than it’s been hungry. The myth that you’re wiped out and floored by the hunger was totally dispelled when I was fourteen and playing hockey in the mornings during fasting month. And again, when I was seventeen and whacking tennis balls against the wall after school at 3 PM in the hot sun – though I was wiped out after that. However, this year I find out I can barely stay awake after 10 PM. I wonder if it’s because of the job I’m working now. I’ve already missed 2 nights of Tarawih & Witir prayers. I remember less than 10 years ago completing a full month of them at the mosque, even. And this year, for Aidilfitri, Tok & Opah Irfan will be in […]
Continue readingOpah Irfan’s Wayward Purse
We only noticed it when Ain got off the car to buy some drinks in Kuala Kangsar. It was on Ain’s seat, hidden beneath her when she sat. It was a small coin purse labeled Adamas Goldsmith. Wondering when Ain bought the purse, I took it. Irfan saw it and said, “Opah punya.” And within it was Opah Irfan’s driver’s licence and identification card! We called Opah and told her we had her important documents and figured a return to Sitiawan would be in order. But Opah told us to keep going. If we were late, we’d be driving along the East-West highway after dark. We told Opah that we’d send the documents back to her by courier. But when we got to Pasir Mas it was almost 7pm. I didn’t kick in the afterburners because of the dodgy state of the car’s shock absorbers and the weight load of […]
Continue reading
Eid Mubarak from Sitiawan
Eid Mubarak, and Selamat Hari Raya from Irfan Shafiq, Khairul Hisham and Nurul Ain. Here are some family photos from the morning of the first day of Aidilfitri. Present are Irfan’s grandparents and the family of his Opah Ngah. Unfortunately, Tok Irfan wasn’t feeling to good earlier in the morning. He went for a check up at the clinic and discovered his blood pressure was low. So what did the doctor tell him to do? Go back home, eat as many of the Aidilfitri food as he can. If only the rest of us were that lucky. 😉
Continue reading
Pre-Aidilfitri at Pasir Mas
As was blogged earlier, three days before Deepavali were spent at Lubuk Tapah, Pasir Mas. Not only were there the pre-Aidilitri preparations going on, but they were also getting ready for the wedding of Ain’s cousin some time after the festivities, which Ain & I will have to miss. What is there to report at Tok Bah and Tok Ma’s house? I really like the solok lada at dinners. Irfan hoarded all the pillows in the house and buried himself under them. Biscuits were baked (picture below). It rained quite a bit, which was pleasant. We didn’t even leave the kampung in the day, knowing full well that the traffic in the town of Pasir Mas would be horribly jammed because of the balik kampung season. Irfan discovered the joys of Cartoon Network on Astro. Here are some of the pics. Irfan smiles for the camera at Tok Bah’s […]
Continue readingRamadhan Activity Updates
Time flew by quickly this Ramadhan. It’s already almost the last week of the month and it’s the longest time ever before I actually checked how many days were left before Aidilfitri. There’re only two more days before I’m out of town until after festival season. Tomorrow is the last exam of the mid-term season, and on Saturday it’s balik kampung time. The itinerary is such: Saturday (Oct 28th) we’ll be driving back to Pasir Mas, Kelantan. There we will stay until Deepavali on the following Tuesday (Nov 1st), when we head on down to Sitiawan to spend the last days of Ramadhan. It’s been a while since we did long distance travel (more so this year, since money is tight) and I’m very excited about it. [[image:train.jpg:Irfan’s Birthday Present:center:0]] Irfan really can’t wait to get to Sitiawan to play with a train set and a bus that his grandparents […]
Continue reading
Almost Aidilfitri?
Well not exactly. Another two months. So, for no reason in particular, here’s another pic of old ACS Sitiawan buddies; this time gathering at my house for Aidilfitri, and to eat the food as well. We’ll be in Sitiawan this year instead of Pasir Mas, so you all are invited for makan-makan at Taman Pegawai.
Continue reading