RAYA PREPS

It's the last week of Ramadhan, only 4 days away from Aidilfitri. The whole of today was spent ferrying mom around for her shopping. We reached Sogo at around 10.15, and already the parking was almost full! I guess actually a good number of people just park their vehicles in Sogo and then go shopping in Jalan TAR, since the usual parking spaces in Jalan TAR have been converted into construction sites. Anyway, duit keluar macam air, in a matter of a few hours, we came out about RM400 poorer, bukannya banyak barangnya pun! Tu baru barang kecik-kecik untuk rumah, like cookie canisters, table runners etc. Belum kira personal items like baju, tudung, kasut etc. By afternoon, there were so many people (mostly men) sitting on pavements everywhere holding plastic bags. Tu mesti dah letih sangat tunggu wife dok shopping :-) Well, ikutkan sajalah. Wife tu shopping pun untuk seisi keluarga, bukannya untuk diri dia sorang, kan?

Personally, Raya festivities have ceased to mean much to me these days. {Tak baik cakap gini Jie!} Oh I know, hari mulia meraikan kebaikan, bermaafan & kunjung-mengunjungi antara keluarga, jiran & sahabat yadda yadda yadda. I understand the spiritual context of it. But the festivities & tradition, dah maleh nak layan la. Pegi rumah relatives, I'd hear whispers from the makciks to my mom "Jie camana sekarang, dah ada orang?" Duit raya, well tahun ni aku banyak commitment, so takde kasik, except to my bro & nephew je. Anak orang lain datang umah aku, sori takde salam kaup ye. Buat kuih pun, just my favourites, some of which will surely end up in my own tummy, yum! {Camana nak tuyus???} Tart nenas! Tart nenas! Raya dishes, bab ni takleh escape since I'm just the assistant chef, so kena ikutkan aje la arahan Ibu a.k.a Chief Cook.

Anyway, you guys have fun for Hari Raya, OK? Jangan main/kasik anak main mercun, esok-esok kang susah nak sarung cincin plak. Jangan makan berlebihan {ya right, Jie. You should take heed of this advice yourself!}. Drive carefully, Ops Sikap baru start pun dah ada 15 korban. Tahun ni Raya panjang, so dapat la balik kampung lama kan?

As for me, I'm celebrating Raya here in PJ {nak pi mana lagi Jie oii, sini la pun rumah hang}. And as usual, jadi 'dapur officer'. Baju kurung pun pakai 2-3 jam je, once relatives start coming, kena tukar uniform. OK I know this is not in the spirit of Aidilfitri, but I'm thinking of going shopping, possibly watch a movie on second Raya. Hmm... kena cari geng ni...