Pictures from First Day Raya

Truth be told, The first day of Eid was mendak/mundane to me.


It was ... just awkward. and i was soooooooo looking forward to this day to show Zubair our culture.... But there were some consolations at each houses.

To make matters worse, Kak Long wanted us to use her camera to take pictures but she was always feeling shy to snap even when i asked her to... so didn't have much pictures...

First Stop:

Mak Long's House in Woodlands. Pak Long is my father's first brother and Mak Long is his wife.

It was sooo awkward, even Zubair asked me, "those are your cousins? Dont look like you are cousins. How come you dont talk to them?" Er.... i just dont.

As girls, the 3 of us were very quiet... we only meet them once a year, or maybe twice... And back then, there were quite a handful of other children too. They all played together but nobody seemed to notice us and asked us to play. Or is it just me? *shrug*

It was more awkward bcos about 50% of my cousins in Singapore are 3/4 CHINESE when we're just 1/4 Chinese. You see my paternal grandmother was a chinese from China. Then my cousins' parents married real Singaporean Chinese. So we dont really have anything in common to say. They dont wear baju kurung, they dont celebrate it like its their culture. So there.

But yes, i CAN talk to my other 3/4 Malay cousins if i wanted to... depending on mood.

So here's the living room of Mak Long's house... Can u spot where's Syifaa'?

The theme is BROWN for today.

Consolation: Abg Izhar was friendliest to us, being close to Zubair bcos of his music band and all.

Second house :

Abg Fai's mother's place, Woodlands too.

The house is always spick and span. The 2 main motivation of going to this house were

1. Good food
2. Favourite Babies Sohail, Bilal and Humaira

Food were great alright. I LOVE the Kuah Lodeh (and i dont normally favour this dish)... it is some yellow gravy that u eat with Lontong/rice cake. Not sure if Zubair enjoyed his since he doesnt like lodeh nor does he like the prawn in Sambal Goreng. *shake head* but he LOVEs the marble cake!

unfortunately, Sohail just left when we reached that place. His parents were sending him to the hospital bcos he was suffering from stomach flu after getting infected from his brother. While Bilal has recovered, Sohail was pale and wasnt as active as always. I missed him! But at least the other 2 were there to soothe our aching heart. hehehe

So to the 3rd house we went...

This time it's my maternal grandfather's place. Ok my family's a bit haywire and Zubair got really confused who's who. This is because my mum's real parents divorced and both married somebody else (and to be more confusing the guys were somehow related - cousins or something) and created new branches of family.

This is my mother's REAL father, Tok Husaini, who is married to Nenek Saadiah and now living with their youngest son, Cik Jojo.

The owners of the house ie Cik Jojo were not in, and we made ourselves at home. But there's nothing much to say to my grandparents bcos they were also entertaining two other families whom we had no idea who they are though we see them every year. To our surprise, Tok Husaini said that is his younger bro! My, he doesnt look anything like Tok Husaini... and then Tok asked us to salam/shake and kiss his hand... Hmmm... is that allowed? Out of respect, we did.

Consolation: The Simei people finally joined us!

Nenek Saadiah is a cool nenek. She's simple minded but easy going and liked to be teased by us and will definitely play along.

House No 4:

Tok Lan in Choa Chu Kang.

I've only gotta know this yr (Ok prolly she's told me earlier but i never bothered to remember) that Tok Lan is mummy's godfather and that he's not actually a real relation with us and every year we kissed his hands! Oh no! But mummy said his old and frail it's OK.

Tok Lan was hospitalised early this year or perhaps late last yr.. and he's become even frailer and almost bedridden.

It was sad to see that he was just lying down on a mattress on the floor for the guests to meet him. and i am really ashamed to say that ALL OF US didnt talk to him! Didn't even make eye contact with him like he was some eye some or something. I'm disgusted at myself for that!

To make matters worse, his daughter, Mak Busu, was also ill and in her room. Mummy spent all her time talking to Mak Busu and kinda forgot Tok Lan

Some of Tok Lan's other children whom we've never seen before were there the whole day to help out. I felt soooooo bad being there. Like we are actually more of a burden and are imposing on them. Photo taking is also deemed inappropriate.

And worse still, it was SUPER hot in the living room. Perhaps cos there were so many warm bodies, or perhaps the fan was set to low bcos Tok Lan was shivering. Even the kitchen were much cooler.

The only consolation for us is that the food were SUPER DUPER Yummy! The Beef Lung in chilli and battered prawn. Slurrrrp


Last but not least....

Nenek Mon's house in Toa Payoh. Ok technically its my aunty Mama Nana and Pak Arif the Pakistani's house.

It's always the last house we visit each year where we can actually spend more time. This is also the place where my other favourite cousins will be there namely Hamzah and Fitriah, and Francesca and Gerald (however u spell it).

Thank God Zubair had somebody to talk to and intensely at that that i'm relieved to talk to other pple...

Again, i'm ashamed of myself for not talking more with the hosts. We're talking about my biological maternal grandmother, Cik Aton and Cik Girl. we were very close with them before, they always come and sleep over at our place or we at theirs bla bla bla... we still are close.. but this year, our eyes were glued to the TV! Damn Suria and Sensasi for bringing us interesting shows that we forgot to pay attention and actually talk to our relatives!

We were so engrossed that we forgot to take pictures!