Raya?

I went back home for raya. Again. I’m studying overseas, and yet, I’ve been back home every raya ever since I entered the university. Cool isn’t it?
This year’s raya, I think was the funniest. Mainly because of our ever-growing family. My married cousins have at least a child of their own, and like what Arif said, he was shocked to see that “ semua orang keluarkan anak masing-masing”. Yeah, like Kak Ija has Nurin (the ever cute girl, who we can pass around like cookies) plus she’s pregnant with her second child, Kak Pija has Zafran who is too little to understand anything, Kak Ngah has Danish with his “pabob, pabob” (Spongebob), Kak Long Siti with Nana and Fakiha, Mak Busu is already 9months pregnant with her second child, so on and so forth. Too bad I didn’t manage to meet Kak Nor since she went back to her husband’s kampong this raya. I want to meet their fourth child, Fadli, in addition to Husna, Salwa and Fathi the vet.

I have 18 aunts and uncles, 32 cousins, and some of them are married with children (10 anak sedara..wee!)

We have HUMONGOUS family. I think. Hahaha!

Too bad I’m only close with my mother’s side, not my father’s side. Mainly because I’m staying in Melaka, which is my mom’s hometown (our house is only 10 minutes drive from my grandma’s house).

Oh, I forgot to tell the funny part of this year’s raya. Well, our family has a tradition, every raya evening, kami akan buat kenduri, but families only. Since few years ago, the term family only restricted to my mother’s siblings and their children (like I said, there’s 35 of us cousins). As usual, two days before raya we’ll be weaving the ketupats, at least 300 pieces of ketupat cases (I’ve mastered the art for three years now, yeah!!) and one day before raya, the mothers will be busy preparing all the rendang (3 types: rendang ayam, rendang daging and rendang itik), sambal (two types: sambal udang and sambal sotong), kelapa goreng and boiling the ketupats.
And on the eve of raya, there’s the kenduri. Oklah, kenduri, we all ate together, and there’s a lot of dishes to be washed (argh!) and cleaning up were done.

Thank god for having a hired help, and a lot of cousins (unwilling laborers. Hahaha!). The next day, before going for raya prayer, my family (my mom, Asyraf, Amir and me, plus the ever sesat Ahmad) went to my grandma’s house for breakfast. Hah, I was shocked to see most of the lauks are gone! I mean, gone!!! The only thing left at that time were bits and pieces of rendang ayam. And a few ketupats. Others, others had gone into the massive stomachs of my cousins. There’s nothing left for the guests. Nothing what so ever. So my mom and her army of sisters cooked ayam masak lemak and pindang daging for lunch. She even made sambal udang for the remaining ketupats, but she hid it before any of us managed to find it (I’m the lucky one, I managed to grab 3 prawns before my mom hid it).

The chocolate cake my mom brought for raya to grandma’s house, was gone after 1 hour of breaking fast. That fast. Haihh… and people said I ate a lot. I had to! Influences from the family! XD

And I went to Singapore on the evening of first day raya with Pak Long and Mak Itam, to visit Mak Sal. Her husband had been in the hospital for 3 weeks plus and was released on the evening of second day raya. The Tan Tock Seng Hospital was super duper cool. I thought I was in some sort of hotel! And they even have two floors for John Hopkins! John Hopkins dudes!! We didn’t manage to catch Fauzi Fauzy since he was involved in National Service. We only managed to see Aainaa (whoa!), the aspiring actress Uteh and the gentleman Hazmi Hazmie (or, as Mak Itam calls him, Ami-go. Kes kes kes!). One day in Singapore definitely not enough! I want more!!! Next time next time…. XD

(no pic. aku malas upload pic. hahaha!)