This Is How It's Done

This is the Wan Hamidah clan.

So mynn, this is how Raya looks like back here in Malaysia.; at least for the descendents of Wan Hamidah in Kelantan. In my opinion, this was one of the merrier Rayas as almost everybody was back home for the celebration - save for one of my cousins who's in Liverpool pursuing a degree in football hooliganism medicine.

With the presence of all my cousins, you can almost imagine how cheerful it was in the house. The older cousins had a whale of a time teasing the smaller ones (adik Ayu suka kat Irwansyah ke?) and the even smaller cousins (read: toddlers) provided much needed 'cute-ness' in the house. I'm sure my grandmother was really happy to see all of her children and grandchildren under one roof.

Well then, if everybody's ready, let's go take a look at how Raya is celebrated in Kelantan, shall we?

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Actually, before we go anywhere, I think it'd be in the best of everybody's interest that I announce something first. These pictures were taken using a normal Fujifilm digital camera, so I'd advise our shutterbug friends to not waste precious ATP looking for captions that go something like "Canon 400D - 18mm - F3.5 - 1/6 sec - ISO 800". The closest that my captions would come to would be "Fujifilm Finepix - 1 years old - 512MB XD card". And that's elaborative enough for me.

The ones sitting are my dad, my brother and I. The ones standing are my cousins


Something for the boys......


....and something for the girls.


These are the boys in my family (heh, dah bermisai janggut pun boy lagi ke?)


From left: Abang Fendi (he's my cousin's husband), Abe Chik (yes, that's the authentic spelling) and Ayah Din (as he's known to his nephews and nieces)


Another shot of the boys in the hood family


This is my dad, my mom, my dad's cousin and my sister


There. The complete family in red. My sis looks a bit out of place.


From left: My dad, my grandmother and my dad's (half?) sister.


My dad with a good friend of his. Yes, they finished what you're seeing in the picture.


Nasi Lemak Raya. Trust me, this will be THE dish of future Rayas.


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Here's something interesting. On the second night of our stay in Kelantan, I woke up all of a sudden and realised that my little finger was throbbing with pain. Being curious (and half awake), I inspected what was it that was causing the discomfort. This is what I saw:


According to my aunt, apparently I had been bitten by a cockroach.

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I so hate that creature. Mind you, this is the digital version of the picture. I also have the printed out version and that one looks even more horrific. I am half hoping that some Thailand director will come along and make a thriller movie entitled "The Finger" so that I can sell that picture to him as a promotional poster.

postscript: I really liked this year's Raya. There was something subtly different about it from the past Rayas; something which left a nice taste lingering in the mouth - much like all the ketupat, roti jala and gulai daging I had over there.

p.s.s. I scaled down the pictures from a considerably large 2408x 1536 to a measly 800x600. This serves a twofold purpose: 1) To cut down on upload size and 2) To minimise visibility of pimples and wrinkles.

p.s3 I'm sorry if this entry sounds 'unstable'. I was typing it in the wee hours of the morning after arriving home today.

Going on a Holiday

Well, not really. My finals is due in less than two weeks time and my mid-semester results (which funnily enough, came out only about four days ago) are still far from satisfactory. Getting a B- is not quite the kind of result you would want from a medical student, especially if the test concerns the endocrine system.

Anyway.

I do suppose that I'll be gone for awhile, what with the finals and the raya celebrations both just around the corner. In these coming two weeks, I predict that I'll be very busy collecting duit raya studying (or at least, trying hard to look as if I'm studying)

Therefore, before I make my leave, I would just like to take this opportunity to wish everyone happy fasting and happy celebrating this year's Eid. I don't know why, but I'm getting giddy with anticipation ahead of this year's celebration - most unbecoming of a young adult.

Oprah once said on her show "There is something special about today. Today is the day you move out of your fat zone!" I considered carefully those words as I took in yet another spoonful of cream (creme?) caramel.

Where is my fat zone? Is it that narrow band between my waist and ribs, or does it mysteriously envelope my room, humming subsonically like the force field emitted by some glowing kernel of nuclear fatness? Does it perhaps, move along with me, all the time hovering over my head like a small personalised raincloud, raining not water, but small hourly increments of pudge?

Yes, that must be it! The quality of my increasing weight stems not from the things that I eat and drink - it droppeth upon me like dew from the heavens. When I feel the buttons beginning to strain and the seems begin to sigh, it is not my doing. It is because I am still living in my fat zone.

Whoever conjured up the ridiculous idea that you can lose weight during the fasting month should be covered with sugar and tied to a rambutan tree.

I used to believe that idea, mind you. I used to think that since you weren't eating throughout the day - unless you were cheating, of course - then you could easily lose a couple of pounds daily. Add in the daily physical activites, and you were on the fast track to swimsuit model waistlines. It seemed that there was hope after all for those suburban whales out there. They could finally slim down to look like Kate Moss.

But that is all in the past. I have long abandoned all fantasies concerning the idea of losing weight in Ramadhan. Indeed it should have come as no surprise when you consider how I am 'forced' to finish the last few scoopfuls of rice each time we (my housemates and I) sit down for iftar. How everybody ends up buying a few bagfuls of kuih each time they visit the bazaar. And how dessert strangely enough becomes a must rather than an option.

Never mind. If it is my fate to be one with the suburban whales, then I quietly submit myself to what shall be.

postscript: Actually, I was dead out of ideas on what to post this time around. But still, I wanted to do so after reading all the other bloggers' nice, nice entries on Ramadhan. So here is the end product of approximately half an hour's worth of mindless scribbling.