Friday, 27 October 2006

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.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do cockroaches actually bite? *yikes* And about commercialising ur finger, if only u can get ze picture animated, say, making the digit fall off from the metacarpus, further making it mobile, now THAT will be super-horrific. And a mega-hit for sure *snort*

Anonymous said...

lovely photos! lovely raya story.

but the cockroach bit is not so lovely. and of all the people there; the cockroach chose you! lepas makan tak basuh tangan ke apa ni, future doctor? isykh 3x

btw, u look a bit different from the photo in DITH blog (gambar raya tahun lepas)

anyway; 'get well soon'.

dith said...

Thanks for sharing the pics! How come no pics of your mom's side? Anyway how sure are you that it was a cockraoch and not centipede or seomething more sinister?

Jalilah said...

Selamat hari raya and maaf zahir batin, hiyoshi. Wah, it seems you had a great hari raya. I had just realized how tall you are.

euww.. the cockroach bite was a little freaky. did you put anything on your finger to avoid infections? eh, I forgot I am talking to a future doctor. Huhu...

Jamil said...

Robin

I'm not really sure if they do bite. But being a naive *cough*cough* young adult, I'm willing to believe what my aunt said.

And yes, I do agree that the finger would be more horrific were it animated. Thing is, I don't know how to make animated gifs -_-"

mama sarah

I do? That's funny. I think I still look the same. What is it that looks different? By the way, I did wash my hands after eating. I guess they (the roaches) find my hand tempting.

DITH

My mom's side are all of the shy type :) To me, roaches are already sinister enough. I'd rather face a cadaver than a cockraoch any day.

jalilah

Salam Eid to you too! Hope it's not too late to wish you. I do suppose I'm a bit tall. Maybe I should start sitting down more.

I didn't really put anything on it. Just washed it with some water and soap. But it's better now. Thanks for the concern :)

Anonymous said...

looks like a good raya there. banyak posing gambar yer. we didnt take that many pics because the schedule was just so crammed up. and getting everyone to sit put looking all pretty and whatnot is no easy feat either. :p

cockroaches are neeeeevil things. eeeeecks. i hope your aunt is wrong and that cockroaches dont bite like that. O_o horrornya.

pycnogenol said...

I really enjoy looking at your Raya pics. Thank you for sharing.

Were you bitten by the pet-cockroach that you guys have forgotten to feed Raya morning? Tu lah, makan, makan juga. Binatang dan serangga peliharaan, jangan di lupa. ;)

SELAMAT HARI RAYA Yoshi!! Back in College? Ada Exams, kan? BEST OF LUCK!!!

Anonymous said...

What's this baloney about biting cockroaches, yeah right cockroaches bite!! my guess is it was a rat .... or your siblings... hehehe.

very nice collection of photos hiyoshi, really love looking at them. beautiful collection of family photos and lovely raya photos.

and "everyone was wearing a songkok too" <- i bet ikelah and pycno would cheekily comment :)

ps.

wonder why people are blogging about their raya beginning something like "hey mynn and mama sarah, this is what raya is like ...". is it because our raya in the UK seem so bland? or because i wasnt wearing a songkok? or is it our inauthentic food?

Jamil said...

23

Hehe..Whenever kids are forced into the picture (pun not-so-quite intended), the photogrpahy session does tend to become a circus.

Down with roaches!

azura

Gee...thanks!

pycnogenol

The pleasure was mine :) Perhaps that could have been the reason why I was bitten. But why on earth did they bite me? I've never had a pet cockroach in my life -_-"

Exams started today with physiology. Now my head is in a swirl. I'm seeing random flashes of words like insulin, renal clearance, oestrogen....

mynn

Cockroaches don't bite? Really? I don't know what to believe now with the surge of Hollywood horror movies.

Thank you for the compliments. I liked your raya photos too :)

Rest assured, I didn't have any of those thoughts when I began my entry with "so mynn..." I think it's probably because being in Malaysia, we're eager to show you guys over there how raya is here. Just to compare notes, you know *wink*

Anonymous said...

hiyoshi
good luck with the exams!

and true, i guess you're right, all of us over here are trying to show you guys what raya is like over here and you guys over there are trying to show us how the celebrations are slightly different. i do love seeing family photos though.

ps
yup a movie titled "The Finger" would definitely be a blast *laughs*. do you know you have a knack of saying things that are unintentionally funny, hiyoshi?

Anonymous said...

hmm..cockroaches do bite human??yeww..scary..never heard that before..thanks for that info..:)

crimsonskye said...

Lovely, lovely Raya photos... but The Finger takes the crown ;) only because it reminds me the way most of my friends and housemates would scream their lungs everytime a cockroach appears, and I'd be the one stuck with 'damage control' job.. hehe.

'Eid Mubarak to hiyoshi and the rest of the Wan Hamidah clan :)

pycnogenol said...

Crimsonskye - Dont know about other bloggers, but I cant seem to link to your site. How come?

mynn said...

i tried, i could get to crimsonskye's blog as well.......

ayumi said...

Salaam..
That looks like a lovely raya... and I'd like to taste that nasi lemak raya as well!

Yikes. Didn't know that cockroaches bite either.

Arifah said...

selamat hari raya, maaf zahir batin! =)
Theme's red huh this year? =P