14 days to Syawal

Salam Ramadhan people. Semalam on the way to Batu Uban, Penang, Radio Sinar (my tuned-in channel) pasang lagu raya. Lagu Sudirman lak tu, sayuu tak ingat. I was driving (well, my hubby sebenarnya) along the old trunk road from Kuala Kangsar and start revisiting the times in my memory bank of balik kampung raya (or balik raya kampung). Teringat masa balik kampung with my then very noisy siblings. Sume dengan perangai masing-masing naik the mitsubishi galant estate BBW 4473, sopi mesti dok belakang wit all the lugagges and foodstuff. we brought tonnes of stuffs. Baba mesti pasang tape Quraan by Sheikh Mahmud Khalil all the way (sampai pening kapla dibuatnya). Masa tu belum ada PLUS lagi, so kena lah lalu dari Kuala Selangor. My happiest memory was when travelling through the villages, tengok persiapan raya depa. pasang panjut ke tak. Lalu all the three states (Selangor, Perak, Penang) sebelum sampai Kulim. I hate the stretch from Bota to Changkat Jering sebab lalu Beruas, jalan cam ular kene palu. Doesn't sit well with my stomach. Pastu pasar Changkat Jering is a sight for sore eyes. Mama mesti nak singgah, beli 'choq penigham' either on the way pegi or balik, ngan some ikan wadi' (pekasam). The Pasar is an indication that the end of the destination is near and that we could stop and catch a breather sebab dah berjam2 dok dalam kereta. Semalam I saw the Pasar, and smiled inwardly. Some things change very slowly, but eventually all will change.

Anyhow, Siti's singing next door is my favourite raya song by Siti. Banyak lagi yang belum buat for Raya at no. 18 and 6028. Foodwise, household issues...baju hubby and child (arggh). Pelita belum keluar lagi, tunggu Mak Su from Alai? Mak tam refuses to do any cookies this raya, only popcorns and some bread and butter mushroom cheese thingy? Mak Lang have not given any feedback on the broken brand-new oven? Mak Ndak..well mak ndak tengah sort out some old stuffs to give away as per ambah's instructions last I check. The tension is building, but it's the tension we don't mind having. After all Aidil Fitri is setahun sekali. Cheers peeps, till the next posting.

Ramblings of a Travel Bug...

Baru dapat balik the camera from P.Ngah and uploaded the pictures to the PC. Ada gambo M.Su and P.Ngah's graduation (which I attended) in two different states. Ada gambo mase supervise my 'children' kat Tawau n Ranau. I quite like Sabah actually, travelled from KK to Ranau, which was very interesting, went pass the Tamparuli Bridge, u know as in the song? went up to Kundasang, ade vistapoint from which to see the peak of Kinabalu (which was awesome, I might add). People are growing shiitake mushrooms by the roadside, that was how 'nyaman' the environment. The sight of the peak was another matter..it was so massive, no wonder the bobohizan (Kadazandusun female shaman) believed that it was the dwelling place of all souls once departed from their earthly bodies.

Next stop is Tawau. This is the second time we went. I was planning nak beli ikan fresh and airpacked it to semenanjung sebab ikan sangat fresh and relatively cheaper. Tapi a source told us that ini musin bulan gelap, so fish is not as abundant. Takdelah this time around. As usual we went to the dry market and stocked up on ikan masin/kering. Ikan keropok is a big hit in my household..make mental note to self..beli lagi bebanyak next time, very useful kalau dah bosan tak tau nak makan apa, especially time sahur.

Some of the catch from Tawau Market. This time around tak nampak exotic fish sangat, like last time. Mmg betul ikan takde. Sotong pun tak banyak dan mahal sikit aroung RM8.00 a kilo, in March, ada yang RM2.50 a kilo... I mean compare to semenanjung? Sob...sob... So that's it from your correspondent. See you next time, take care y'all.

I Ramadhan 1429 H

I don't know why, but I am so looking forward to this year's Ramadhan. The surau is 1/3 siap so by mum's standard dah boleh pakai. I joined the Tarawikh on the second night, hoping that I'll be able to join as frequently as I could. Ancaq is also looking forward to pray ngan ambah, which is cool. My nieces had iftar with me, we had pomfret curry (who called bawal pomfret anymore, anyway?) and sambal tumis sotong kering from Tawau... I thot it was yummy, but my pomfret was upstaged by mak tam's seafood krabu? (wha?). In any event, lest we forget, which we often do...Ramadhan is the month not about food, it's about total submission to God. A hadith of the prophet mentioned that whoever fasts during Ramadhan, hoping for rewards from Allah, Allah the Merciful will surely grant it. Nak top-up iman bulan nie...better do it peeps, and soon...next ramadhan we could only hope to see