Archive for celebration

Hari Raya is Coming!?!?

11 August, 2009 · Filed under celebration, Islam, pictures

Ok this year, finding the right outfit for our Eid celebration will be a real challenge yet!

For one, It’s diff to shop around with a baby in tow. Make that TWO babies to incld Syifaa’.

For another, I need a comfortable one for BF-ing! ie not as long as the knee length baju Kurung. Also need buttons in front but not all the way. Material also should be cooling and one that won’t irritate baby like sequins and stuff.
We went to Joo Chiat yesterday. I had to resort to feeding the babe in a FITTING ROOM!
Shhh baby.. don’t let them know we’re in here!
Well.. at least my sis did buy something from this particular shop. so i dont feel too guilty.
The new Geylang Serai Market.
I’m prolly the last person in spore who hasn’t been here. and still haven’t cos we just passed by to catch a cab!

And for that, i am not too looking forward for that festival. The Hassle! Yikes! My Best friends would say it was more diff for them last yr when their babies were only 2months old thereabouts .

On the other hand, when i visited a friend with her newborn yesterday, she asked her baby, “Emel, Are you ready to go visiting? to go “Collection”?” Ah! ok! I suppose that’s something to look forward to, although not the MAIN reason *wink*.

But FIRST! Need to start repaying the fast! i missed like… 6 days last yr when i was pregnant. Today, i dont even know if i can survive a single day of fast since going without breakfast would make my body very weak by lunch time!! And the thought of waking up BEFORE Dawn when the baby already keeps me awake most of the night!? How do other mothers do it?!

Ya Allah, please give me strength and Iman to complete this pillar of Islam.

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Pre-Bday Lunch

23 December, 2008 · Filed under celebration, family, Food

Sun 21/12

My parents, Ash and i went out at 12:30pm for Bday lunch @ Sakura International Buffet.

It was a guided move to just be sure and reserve a table. Bcos initially we wanted to go to the one at Admiralty, however, when i checked their website for phone number i discovered that that outlet was not halal!!! The halal ones are only at Downtown East, Clementi and Jurong West Stadium. We decided on JW.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Zubair gave priority to his music, so he wasn’t able to join. Shan’t comment on this further. But i told him to give ME a treat next time simply bcos he cldnt make it that day.

I dont know why but that day i just cldnt be bothered to pick up the hp and take pictures. Well prolly cos the batt was @ 50%, if i take pictures, it might just die soon. I tried to charge in the morning but the damn wiring in my room really irked me. I was practically slamming and tossing the cables around to unravel it. Such was the extent of my pent up anger. Ayah did take some pictures and videos but hm… havent received from him yet.

But… this is a good occasion. So im determined to enjoy it. Even tho we were late. Well not late late but just late to be able to eat MORE. Well i was nicely full by the time it finished anyways.

I had chicken satay, pizza, mushroom soup, siew mai, breaded prawn, cereal prawn, pasta salad, wedges, breaded scallop… and of course… Ice Cream! =) Ash cldn’t stop herself on those raw squid and japanese green peas or something. I didnt dare to try. I cldnt imagine how somebody could actually eat RAW seafood… esp PRAWN. real GREY uncooked prawn. Er….

My parents were then off to two wedding invitations and not wanting to be subjected to same, we made our way home first by train. Found out Jurong Point has a sequel. Jurong.2 (notice how i put the Point? haha)

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Protected: Restaurant Ember Xmas Lunch

12 December, 2008 · Filed under celebration, Food, pictures, S'pore, work

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Hari Raya Haji 08

9 December, 2008 · Filed under celebration, family, Ups

Felt soooooo wasted that i didnt fast the day before Eid cos it was a Sunday and i slept the whole day anyways. Totally forgot about it.

I’m very thankful that it didnt take much to persuade Zubair to go visiting with us. The Key Arguments:

  1. Only 2 houses
  2. I WANT TO EAT!!!!!!!!!

So we only went to my maternal grandpa’s place and the Simei Cousin’s. Just chilled. And reached home before maghrib. Now that’s a first!

I actually wanted to go to my father’s side – Kak Lynna’s mother’s place – bcos i know the food there will be MORE DELISh / more variety and i was craving for sweet malay cakes. Unfortunately, we were not really ready in time and i promised Z only 2 houses and i absolutely can’t miss Simei’s.. So decided to skip. =( Kak Lynna, ada belen kuih2 tak? he he he

Me & Syifaa’ with matching Baju Kurung!

Just look at that cheeky Tweety Bird’s Smile. GERAMMM!!!

Please excuse my red Clowny nose, i got a mosq bite just right there. Ergh!

The one and only picture i took for the whole day!! I cant believe i didnt take any pictures!! Maybe the fact that my sis nor cousins were there made me feel lazy to lah.

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Finally I Boarded The Flyer

31 October, 2008 · Filed under celebration, ME, pictures, S'pore, work

It was just as well that Zubair wasn’t free to go to the Flyer on his bday that time.

Bcos now i gotta experience my first ride free of cost! My Company organised this high profile event in lieu of the visitation of Paris Boss to reiterate the launch of our branch in Singapore =)

The queue had to be stopped to give way to VIP guests… the whole 26 of us to pass thru the security check point.

Soon we’ll be in that capsule!

It was like boarding an airplane lah! Complete with the what (airway?) bridge and everything…

The flyer doesnt stop but there are two platforms on each side of the capsule. First the bar came in from the other side where the exit were supposed to be. Then all 26 of us trooped in.

This is the view as we were climbing up…

In the background are Firstly the starting point (?) of the F1 Grand Prix held in Spore end of Sept, Benjamin Sheares Bridge – the expressway leading to city and Luxury condominiums behind it.

The whole place was riddled with Halloween decorations. Actually there was a “grave” and a few skeletons there on that patch of grass. LOL

Oh … there we are now…

It was rather crowded so taking picture of ourselves felt a bit embarassing – at least amongst all these high flyers lah.

See the orange ball behind us? That’s the scary pumpkin.

The last snap of the day before night envelopes us….

Those colourful grids are seats facing the biggest floating stadium where our national day celebrations were held.

We gotta ride for 2 rounds so we gotta see the landscape view during the day as well as night time. But to be honest, by the 2nd round, it got dull already, and was freaking hungry.

Thankfully, i remembered to bring some snacks (Frosties Cereal) and i was munching away after 3 glasses of orange juice. Fortunately too that i went to the loo right before i boarded this 1hr ride. My poor 7 mth pregnant office manager, in the haste of it all (she was organiser), forgot to go to the loo and she got really desperate towards the end of the ride. LOL
To tell you the truth, i wldnt go up there a second time. Well .. maybe until after all the construction works finish and a new landscape is in view.
Me and my colleague expected it to be a bit boring bcos we’re the only small fry in that cabin. Luckily, there was another one from our broker so we could relate and then there’s this guy who was friendly enough to chat w us. But when they were talking to my face… i cldnt help getting dizzy from their be-champagned breaths! Ergh! Get off of me!!!!
I felt a bit claustrophobic too and viewed the other capsule with envy as there were a lot of space for them w less than 10pax inside, while we were all squashed up.

 

But then again, at least i didnt hafta cough up $28.90 x 2. I would suggest though that they quicken the ride a bit and make it 2 rounds per trip. Its too freaking boringly slow ok! deathly slow that at times we tot we had stopped entirely.
Lastly, Do visit this site for more information on Singapore Flyer ;)

 

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Two Things I’ve Learnt Last Week

10 October, 2008 · Filed under baby, celebration, opinions

From Nisa:

Calling somebody in advance that you would come later in the evening or the next day might cause problem to the host.

In my younger days, I used to get flustered during Hari Raya if we dont plan whose house we’re visiting next or for the whole day. To me, i thought one would lack organisational skill when we call the house owner for the next house or 2 only to find out that they’re not in or whatever. I mean it’s such a waste right like we are already there but bcos they’re not in we have to come by on another day or whatever.

However, i just realised that we’re locking and blocking the host from any other appointment in anticipation of our arrival. Maybe we might even cause them trouble as they sure would think, “What should i serve them? But our money is tight…” etc etc…

Worse is when, you ran out of time, or you had to rush to another house and couldn’t make it to that person’s house after all as what happened to Nisa. Not only have you wasted the host’s otherwise free evening, also you might have caused her to waste time, money preparing food you’re not gonna eat!

So this is a social skill one should also have.

Question is: How to strike a balance of being organisational as well as socially responsible?

Maybe a tentative question of host’s availability is kinda moderate. Eg: Will you be at home this Fri evening? It’s ok if you’re not free. See? Not really committing that you’d come… But would the host go all the way to assume you’re coming and cook whatever? *shrug*

I’ve never been a host before so i wldn’t know what a host would think or do. But if it were up to me, i bet you im gonna be selfish and leave it up to me.

Most of the time the infrequent guests call, you would find me holed up in my room! Mostly they are my parents’ friends or a very distant relative that i dont even remember their name. Esp if they come weekend morning, too bad, im still sleeping :P

But is it my imagination or is it for real that this is the trend going nowadays? That the young would just stay in the room? It sure is how it feels like from what i see.

““““““““““““““

From Sue:

A child’s education starts as early as a few weeks old.

What a coincidence that just the night before i was trying to convince Z that it’s ok if someone undesirable takes care of our baby for the 1st year (like how can it possibly affect the baby’s characteristics, right?) when Sue told me otherwise.

She said something to the effect that after being hospitalised quite a no of days, her then 1mth old baby is now very pampered. Will only sleep after being rocked etc.

Sleeping pattern IS definitely IMPORTANT in defining a child’s trait, i feel. If there’s no routine, the baby will take its time sleeping and the desperate parents (read: me & Z) would be obliged to carry and rock him to sleep which would translate to a pampered baby?

I sooo dont want my baby to be as pampered as me. hehehe … They must be Independent. Sleep on its own, study on its own, work on its own.

Perhaps its easy for me to just say it now… God knows how it will turn out when i finally deliver this baby and smell it, kiss it, carry it. Awwwwwww *GERAM already!!*

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Pakistani Night @ Fara’s House

9 October, 2008 · Filed under celebration, friends, married life, Ups

As i was from the office and Zubair from home, we planned to meet at Tampines Mall McDonalds, shopped a bit and headed our way.

Suddenly i wgot confused and thought out loud “O oh. What bus goes to Fara’s house?” Z stopped me in my track and told me to be very very sure before we proceed so as not to waste energy and time going in the wrong direction, we were already so hungry! haha.

I contemplated surrendering to a cab from TM BUT looking at how the cabs hafta make a big detour turned me off. I just thought hard and i exclaimed, “Yes! 21! i remember now.” Z made me say i was doubly triply sure. I said, “Yes im sure and that’s the bus.”

We missed the one and waited for like 20min for the next one!!!! I suspect we could have reached there earlier if we had just walked instead.

I havent surveyed the map for the specific block location but i roughly thought that Blk 230X should be near Blk 230 which is 3 stops away. But at the 2nd stop, Z said its here its here. While i was quite sure it wasnt the 3rd stop yet, i just heeded his instructions and got down. If anything goes wrong, i can just blame him. haha

So i prepared myself to trudge on 200m or so… By all the forces of goodness that was bestowed on us last night, we decided to cross the road there n then as opposed to the next junction ahead. As it happened, i accidentally saw the block no. Lo and Behold, its blk 230X!

We finally reached Fara’s house around 8:15pm last night.

There were not many guests around so we got the host and hostess’ full attention. Yayy-ness.

Z actually asked Fara what’s she cooking tonight. She teased him saying she cooked Malay dishes. To that Z said, “To be frank, im only here for the Pakistani food. If you’re cooking Malay food, im going home right now.” LOL

While waiting for our turn to eat, i played with her two girls and had fun listening to the guys talking in Urdu. They were also making remarks about the Indian soap operas on Star Plus and the likes that has been running for like 10 years. Pple die and then returned alive blardi blardi bla…

And so finally…. The Spread.

The cute round things are the Shami Kebabs. Anti clockwise from there are the raw veges, Dhal, Aloo Gobi (Potato & Cauliflower), Chicken cooked Red Spicy version, Mint Yoghurt and mutton something.

The Carbo available are: as Sabrina, the 1st daughter, put if, Rainbow Rice, Hmm Pakistani white rice as well as Hmm Pakistani Pratha.


That’s Z with Aslam and 2nd daughter, Wusqa.

I hafta tell you that the Shami Kebab is excellent!!! VERY SPicy! The mutton is also spicy. But i still couldn’t pluck a courage to try yoghurt.

Fa: You came all the way here to just eat white rice?
As: Nevermind, let him eat. He knows its not just any white rice.

I had a plate of the Rainbow rice first then took a piece of the HUGE pratha. When Z finished his 2nd plate of rice, he started to tear half of my pratha.

As : Eh let her eat lah, you take new one
Z : I know her, she cannot finish one
Me : What makes u think so? Today i feel extra hungry.

As it turned out, he knows me better than i know myself! LOL right after i finished half, i slowed down finishing the rest. but i DID finish it lah. and Z DID finish his whole pratha too.

Ok so we’ve finished, and a 2nd group arrived, so we retreated to the sofa while waiting for Tea to come and i continued to play with the girls. This time she’s got a balloon with her. We were passing the balloon to and fro. The fan was blowing just behind us and i either kept missing to catch the balloon or it bounced right back (cos of the short distance). To my horror of horrors…. The balloon knocked down two glasses of coke on the coffee table nearby on its own accord!!!!

HUARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I felt soooo guilty. The hosts kept reassuring me its ok, this kinda thing MUST happen. But it broke my heart when Sabrina cowered to the other end of the room and kept apologising with tremendous fear in her voice, “It’s an accident, Abboo, an accident.” I wanted to hug her and all but she was afraid to come to me now. Boohoohoo….

Tea came shortly and then it was time for us to take our leave…

It warmed my heart how very gracious Z was when we were leaving. He thanked everybody… Aslam’s bros and the hosts.. He just seemed totally at ease saying goodbye… While me… i was actually lost for words…

I wanted to say so many things like… sorry again for the spilt drink, wet carpet, thanks for the food, all their help these while, most importantly to say the “Maaf Zahir Batin” (literally means Sorry Out In) ie the essential parting words in this festive season. But they all didnt come out… Like as tho i was having a stage fright or something. But i dont normally get stage fright on theatre’s stage but Real Life’s stage.

I managed to mutter some this-is-for-u-thank-u-for-inviting-us, the rest was a blur.

It was 10pm when we got to the bus stop.

Tonight had been a mix of extreme Good & Bad luck. I came home a happy girl though because this was the first night me and Z actually went out together for Eid visiting. I was sooo happy i actually lalala-ed aloud! hahaha

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Sunday Visiting

8 October, 2008 · Filed under celebration, ME

You know what? Zubair escaped Sun too!!! tak fair! tak fair! boohoohoo….

Today, we entertained 2 guests before going out at 4:30pm again.

This is what i wore for Sunday.

Not very festive looking by Malay standard but the long scarf added a glamorous twist. (hahaha perasannye aku)

This is actually a sleeveless Punjabi suit but i just wore the top and the scarf. The pants has no band yet so lazy me wore my own.

To be honest, i felt a bit suffocated that day bcos my black pants is suddenly VERY TIGHT!!! and the “normal” scarf i wore and hid underneath the shirt is making me look… HEAVY!

Nonetheless i felt elated when at the first house we visited, the host suddenly asked me, “are you pregnant?” I said yes how do you know?. She said she can tell from your “unusual” weight gain. She has 3 children herself.

2nd house is Nek Ngah in Bukit Merah. She served us Mee Rebus Special! Her Mee Rebus is not very thick but extra spicy with prawns inside!!! Yumminess!! I helped myself to 2nd serving despite my mum’s reminder that the next house is also serving us food. I didnt care cos this Mee Rebus is SUPER special.

3rd house is Cik Zaini, my mum’s bro from the same father, in Yishun. Ohhh again my favourite SAMBAL GORENG PARU (beef lung). if Z was there, he’d probably say, “Dont give my baby nonsense food to eat, ok.” He’d say that even if i eat normal beef. Apa jer.

4th : Nek Busu’s house also in Yishun. She served us instant Popiah sayur / Vege rolls. Also my favourite!! But i limit myself to just… 3 pieces? Heeee

5th and final house is Cik Adi’s house also my students’ place lah. They’ve just moved so i was sooo excited to see their house. It’s a condo in Yew Tee. NICE!!! Me and sis wanna buy a unit there too! LOL. She served us Lontong Goreng! Fried Rice cake. She also had Nutella horseshoe cake that is quite a rare find nowadays that the craze is over. there were over 10 of us and she had to serve plate after plate after plate of this cake. OMG we were so crazy! Thank God its just our uncle’s house so no need to feel too shy. Can even make yourself at home.

So this Sunday is very much in contrast to Saturday’s no proper meal visiting! Sunday is a good day to visit people, i guess. haha

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First Hari Raya Weekend

8 October, 2008 · Filed under celebration, family, Food

It is an unsaid rule that the first weekend of Hari Raya / Eid is dedicated to visiting the elders with your family.

This year is no different. Except that Zubair managed to escape again as he had The Highlight, The Concert of concerts. He was performing for his beloved Singapore Pakistan Association.

We have been going out later and later. Last Sat, we went out after Asr ie 4:30pm. I was actually ready at 3:30pm but was waiting for the rest!! Imagine, when we were in pri sch ie 6 – 12yrs, we used to go out like 10 in the morning and covered like 10 – 12 houses?!?! Those were the days.

Syifaa’ striking a pose

She was actually twirling in her new Baju Kurung, that’s why a bit blurry.

That’s me in Baju Kurung with a long rectangle scarf sometimes aka Pashmina.

This Sari material was a wedding gift from my Nenek.

First Stop: Simei!!

Our visitation hour coincided with my cousins from mum’s dad’s side so a bit chaotic with all the children around. Plus they’ve just found out i was pregnant and the girls, 2 of whom i tutor were so excited. Nice to get some attention. hahaha

To give u feel of what a typical Eid visit looks like

Altho we went out late, we managed to cover 5 houses. No make that 6.

After Simei, we went to a relative house in Tampines, Cik Esah. She lives on 3rd floor of the same block where i used to live for 18yrs of my life! So its like going back to the old playground. It never fails to give me a nightmare still.

3rd was a certain Nek Milah’s house.

4th was somebody’s fiance to be’s place!!! His house is VERY SUPER DUPER NICe! But they were all saying that its very easy to maintain the house because the bachelor lives alone, while his family all reside in M’sia.


A view of typical cake containers that decorate the coffee table and fill guests’ tummies

I must say that he’s a very good host and a very nice guy. She is very lucky and hmm… best wishes, babe!

By then it was close to 10pm. All of our tummies are grumbling noisily! Last proper meal was at 2pm!!!! All the 4 houses that we went didnt serve any heavy meals…

So it was with relief, that when we reached the 5th house, albeit at 11pm, the host served us with RICE! Holy Glorious Rice! with the normal Hari Raya dishes.

But we were still not full … so we decided to go to this 6th house to eat PROPERLY.

At 12:15am we reached their house but the hosts were only too eager to serve us. McDonalds crews are just so charming!

Yeah we went to a fast food outlet all the way at west coast with a very nice ambience for our “proper” dinner. Surprisingly or not so surprisingly, there were quite a handful of other baju kurung clad families having their dinners or suppers there too! Some with very young children as well.

I suppose Saturday is not a Cooking Day.

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My Eid 2008

3 October, 2008 · Filed under celebration, family, married life

Ok i dont have much pictures on my hp, as most of them were being snapped from other pple’s digital cameras. I shld have known they’d take a while to upload! :P

Firstly, Z has been telling me since beginning of fasting month that he only wants to go to 2 houses MAX. As it turned out, he couldn’t make it after all bcos he has a concert at Temple of Fine Arts from 9am and finished like 8pm by which time he was too tired to join us for the last, most special house! I felt that TFA was quite inconsiderate in that sense lah. But then again most of them are not muslims save for two or three of them, so they would take the PH opportunity to org a concert. Sighhh

Anyways, first stop is Nenek Jah’s House, Syifaa’s paternal grandmother.

Banging the keyboard while singing A B C

Syifaa’s cousin. So now Syifaa’ is KAKAK (older sis).

Soon she’s gonna be kakak on her maternal side also. =)

2nd house was my father’s oldest brother (aka Pak Long). Traditionally, the bros and sisters would gather at his house as their parents, my paternal grandparents have passed on about 10 yrs ago.

We are normally not vocal with this side of the family. But with the help of facebook, and blog we became loud VIRTUALLY. hehe Kak Lynna, a regular commenter here, is one of my cousins lah. The strange thing is that, when we meet outside out of family gathering context, we could talk like friends… Ok maybe its just me … it doesnt help that a bunch of them dont speak malay but mandarin. I dont know why but i always have difficulty making chinese friends. Too comfortable in my own “world”.

3rd house is my mother’s father’s (aka Tok Husaini) house. This is where we usually join forces with the Simei Gang.

I get to be one of the Tiga Dara Pingitan (3 single ladies) for a day…. haha

If you can see, i was wearing a pashmina (long rectangle scarf type). ERK i think the way i was wearing it made me look BIG lah. So much so that Ayid, who didnt know i was pregnant thought i gained weight. But Nur (the rightmost one in the pic) tot i DID looke like i lost weight.

While almost everybody at Pak Long’s house knew i was pregnant, nobody else noticed my discreetly bulging tummy. Maybe they did but was too shy to ask for fear of being wrong and got me offended! hahah

Next was some Tok Long’s house. I THINK its my mother’s mother’s oldest brother or something. It was around 5pm and i actually got too tired, i napped awhile. (takleh salahkan, org mengandung – can’t be faulted, a pregger.) My cuz even snapped a picture of me dozing but i dont know there seems to be a technical error saving the picture so can’t upload. haha just as well.

the 5th and 6th houses were mundane at best. No picture, we just entertained ourselves with each other’s company. Of Course Syifaa’ made it more livelier for us.

The last and most important one is visiting my mother’s mother who lives with my paki uncle. Here, we are all a boisterous bunch as the youngest aunty is just 5 yrs older than my 1st sis, 10 yrs older than me. So she’s very one of us lah..

Can u spot my nenek?

The turqoise pple are the Simei Gang

The girl in pink and small boy is another set of cousin.

The other one is Tiah, with whom i went to Geylang with two nights previously.

The 10yr old Paki + Malay breed boy was fast asleep by the time we got there.

I saved my tummy, purposely skipping main meals for the last 4 houses, and eating just 1 pc of ketupat at first 2 other houses, to have a big dinner at my grandma’s place. And to my great pleasure, one of the dishes is Sambal Goreng Pengantin which consists of only Beef and Beef Lungssssss…. Fuyohhhh yumminess!!! I dont like other variation of Sambal Goreng that might include Tempe (fermented soya bean) and tahu (beancurd) and even long beans!

All in all, we covered 7 houses this yr after leaving the house earlier than usual ie @ 12pm hahaha. and i seem to be eating less this yr as compared to pre pregnancy! Ironic! Even then, i managed to gain 1kg in just one day! So i’m back on track!

Next yr, there’s no escape for Z. He HAS to follow all the way to help with baby, insya’Allah.

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