Raya 8 - 2012

Hari raya ke lapan baru nak gi open house.

First, I went to bff Zetty's open house in Subang Jaya. Walaupun it was my first house for the day, I reached there pun almost 4pm already.. Hubby had a migrain, so kene tunggu dia tidur and recover from the migrain.

Walaupun lambat, managed to catch up with some old friend, Iena and Nadia. But did not manage to take photo with them. Tapi sempat bergambar with my friend, Aziati that has been working in the US for quite some time now, dah lama tak jumpa.

With Aziati and Zetty, the tuan rumah

Had my lunch there, makan kueteow goreng basah yang sangat sedap.

After that, shoot to bff Dini's house in Kota Damansara. Dapat jumpa another old friend, Sarah, my college mate. Tapi, jugak tak dapat bergambar with her. Only managed to take foto with my Subang girls. Biasalah, my Subang girls ni memang giler camera sket, pegi mana pun sure amik gambar. ;)

Back: Ali, Stewart, Dzue's fiance, Adri (with ARR), Hadi, Riz and Dini
Front: Me, Dzue, Nadira, Aziati, Myra and LA

Chewah, siap caption perkenalan lagi... Anyway, dekat sini, makan Spagetthi home-made yang sangat best, and satay kajang.

Oh, I love open house with good food!



Pic courtesy: Aziati Wan Haron

Raya Celebration 2012

We have pretty much decided we are going to spend our first raya in KL every year, now that my atok is not in his best condition to be staying on his own, he will be staying in KL with us maybe sampai bila-bila. Even if he is getting better, he will not be able to be staying alone with my opah in kampung where no one is around to look after. So, yea... first raya insyaAllah will always be in KL.

But we need to take turns to be with who's parents on early morning raya. Pagi raya memang sangat bermakna untuk semua orang, at least to my family. We will bersalam-salam and take photos and makan nasi tomato together, that's our family tradition.

Last year, we spent our first day raya morning with my husband's family in Ampang. This year, it's my family's turn to have that morning with me and my husband. But we went back Ampang on raya eve to buka puasa with my in laws. It's nice to give and take, so far, between me and hubby, takde pernah gaduh nak pegi mana, nak balik mana, we understand each other and the needs to be fair with both families, very well, syukur for that.

So first raya morning, oleh kerana the night before, after we came back from Ampang, my neighbours in the same lorong and my family sedang sibuk berlawan mercun dan bunga api dengan penduduk the other side of Bidai Residence, kami pun join and stayed up very late, semua bagi alasan tak pergi solat raya. Cheh konon-konon.

Mama and Papa

Papa tak pakai baju raya this year, sebab atok still sakit, he didnt want to look beriya beraya. So he decided to wear shirt instead. Tapi colour off laaa...

There is no picture of me salam with hubby, private session, ;) awal pagi lagi dah mintak ampun, takleh nak tunggu solat raya abis.

Me and hubby di pagi raya

With my family

After all this salam and makan session, we headed straight to Kajang to my makngah's place where my atok was. Surprisingly, atok was handsomely dressed in baju melayu. Still bed rest though.

At Makngah's house we had some kueteow goreng and nasi with kurma ayam and rendang. Then we headed to Damansara, hubby's nenek's house where we meet all my hubby's extended family in one place. Tapi tak dapat nak ambik gambar, it was soo packed, and everybody is like scattered everywhere, tak dpt nak berkumpul ambil gambar.

At night, we received guests at Bukut Jelutong.

My in laws came, but tak sempat take foto with my BIL's lil family.

Mama's siblings and my opah from Puchong

Neighbours also came

Second day raya, we went to hubby's mak sedara's house in the morning and then to his tok sedara's house for lunch. No picture, sebab semua concentrate on makanan yang dihidang.

After that we hit the highway and headed to Ipoh to my opah sedara's house (mama's aunt). It took us 4 hours to reach Ipoh (normally 2.5 hours the most).

BBQ on second raya di Ipoh

Third day, we went to Padang Rengas to my other opah sedara's house (papa's aunt).

Padang Rengas family

Yes, no picture of me...!!! Sebab gemuk sangat, malas nak tangkap gambar.. haha :p

We hit the highway to KL, and it took us 6 hours to reach KL, hamaigadd!! Jam tak hengat!

Lepas maghrib, we went to hubby's Pak Ude's house in Damansara for open house.

With hubby's family

That sums up my raya celebration before I started to go back to work. BOO for going back to work!

Hope everyone is also enjoying their raya celebration as much as I did.

Salam to all.

Raya to me

Last year was the first raya I celebrated as a wife.

This year is the first raya I am celebrating as a mom-to-be.

Next year insyaAllah I will be celebrating raya as a mom.

The past 29 years? When I have always been celebrating as a daughter. Lain sangat semuanya.

When I was young, Raya to me was all about new baju kurung (I always had at least 4-5 pasang each raya, tailor-made), new baju casual (always Guess or Esprit), new baju tido (sepanjang malam ada kat kampung mesti pakai new pyjama), new undies (always start pakai new undies first day raya, perasaan dia...sangat best, hahah)  wearing jewelleries (every raya eve, mama will pakaikan rantai, gelang kaki and gelangan tangan to be worn sepanjang raya), collecting duit raya (always been getting almost a thousand every year).

As I grew older, slowly, semua jadi berkurangan. Baju kurung maximum tempah 3 pasang je. Baju casual only a piece or two beli dekat Pakson sale. Baju tido baru sepasang je beli kaftan dari Kelantan. New undies pulak beli dekat Scarlet Jusco yang jual 5 pieces for RM10. Kadang-kadang mama terlupa keluarkan jewelleries from the safe, so, pakai je rantai mama yg ada yg besar gedabak, panjang giler. Duit raya.. hardly reach RM400 a year.

Bila dah start kerja, slowly, semua semakin berkurangan. Baju kurung masih 3 pasang tapi some tempah, some beli ready-made je. Baju casual, baju tido, seluar dalam semua beli kat FOS. Jewelleries, takde pakai yang baru...pakai apa yang memang tengah pakai hari-hari. Duit raya, I give out RM1,000, dapat blk dalam RM300.

Bila dah kawin, semua dah takde. Baju raya cari kaftan yang dah siap je jual kat ruang legar shopping mall. Baju tido, seluar dalam, baju casual dah tak beli dah for raya, pakai apa yang ada. Jewelleries pakai barang hantaran dari suami, my barang kemas yang simpan dalam safe dah tak pernah kelar-keluar dah. Duit raya keluar double than usual, tapi tak dapat balik dah, because my dad stop giving me duit raya sejak kawin.

Yes, everything fades away as you grow older and older, you get less and spend more, you buy less things for yourself because there are other important things to spend on.

Tapi semua tu material je. Each phase of my life has given me different meaning of raya. More meaning of course. We appreciate raya better each year. Dengan penuh rasa kesyukuran, rasa rendah diri meminta maaf dan ampun, saling menziarahi all our family members. And alhamdulillah, I could not ask for a better raya, now that I am a wife and carrying a child in my womb, semua ni memberi erti yang sangat bermakna. Takde baju tido and undies baru pon takpe.. haha my raya will still be complete.  

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri kepada semua. Maaf Zahir dan Batin.
    

Ramadhan 2012

Alhamdulillah, we are now reaching the end of Ramadhan.

Initially before Ramadhan starts, I was very much worried that I could not tahan the fasting. Mana tak nya, bila tak puasa, hari-hari kene makan, kalau tak kene heartburn wooo!! Sejak membawak budak dalam perut, makan kene on time, if not... gastric la jawabnya...!

Tapi, syukur la, bila niat berpuasa, Allah permudahkan semuanya. I managed to puasa penuh....so far! I still have 2 days more, but insyaAllah... kalau takder sakit, I shall complete my puasa this year.

I find this year's Ramadhan quite different from past years'. Mainly because my husband is now back in KL, and we buka puasa together almost every day.

Tahun ni jugak, we don't really buka puasa outside. We enjoy buka puasa with each other at home so much, that we seldom thought of makan outside.

Towards dekat nak raya ni, lagi la, kerja belambak, everything gotta be settled by Friday evening, before I go on raya leave.

Bank Negara report, Interim accounts, RBC report, Ofin Reconciliation, EVERYTHING by Friday. It's crazy man!

Takpe, biar stress sekarang, raya boleh yahoo!!!

Selamat meng-complete kan puasa anda.. lagi dua hari!

1 year old marriage

We celebrated our first year anniversary pergi holiday, no fancy dinner, no fancy hotels. We just went to Cherating.

We booked ourselves Eastern Pavillion by Holiday Villa in Cherating.

It has villas that are named according to the states that we have in Malaysia. Ours was Johor Pavillion.

This is our private villa...

With private pool..

This is the hall of the villa. It has a separate toilet from the room's

The room with attached bathroom

Ini tepi laut, ada tempat lepak-lepak. 

Different from our first honeymoon at Tanjung Jara, laut dia putih. Which I personally prefer Tanjung Jara's laut yang sangat biru warnanya. 

Nothing much nak review about this place. It has great villa and service dia so-so lah. I still prefer Tanjung Jara which has first class service. They treat you like King! Not in Cherating la of coz.

Food wise, makanan dia biasa jer. Not fair to comment coz we only had breakfast there. Other times, we eat outside or tapau KFC back to the villa. (Jauh wooo nak cari KFC, tapi teringin punya pasal...) 

Villa rate, I think that overall, Cherating ni more expensive. In Tanjung Jara, the rate was about RM2k plus for two person, makan 3 times a day, with 3 course meal, every meal. That is all inclusive. Although it was the cheapest room that we could get, it was good enough.

Eastern Pavillion's rate was about RM1k plus, just the room! Not even breakfast was included. If we were to eat in the hotel jer like we had in Tanjung Jara, ntah berapa la agaknya total bill. 

Chewah, asyik puji Tanjung Jara jer ni... ye lah.. berbulan madu pertama kali... Tempat jatuh lagi dikenang, inikan pula tempat bermain.. haha!

Tapi yang different about this honeymoon than the first one.. kali ni.. datang bertiga, bukan berdua lagi dah...

Yes, alhamdulilah.. ada seorang lagi dalam perut yang baru nak menjadi masa tu.. :) :) Bak kata orang, no more honeymoon... It's babymoon! Atau erti bahasa lain adalah, berbulan baby.

Welcome back! Hopeful

Dah lama kan tak post :) The last post i was writing was on 17 November 2011, another review of my reception..but it never get posted!

Reason? Because I ended my job as a temporary housewife and started my new job in KL. I became very busy, had to live separately with my husband... when we only had weekends together. Hence, I stopped blogging for a while.

I never realised that I had a lot of silent readers, left me so many emails, that I failed to reply. Some bride-to-be came across this blog and asked me questions and guidance through emails, and, I failed to reply them on time. Sorry sangattttt!!!

Truthfully, I seldom check my gmail since I stopped blogging. So its really not because i do not want to reply, bukan sombong, bukan kedekut nak share stories. But i reply all the emails immediately bila terbaca.

Friends also dropped me messages to continue updating the blog. Well, insyaAllah, I shall start again. But those who requested me to update my Bertandang review... I think..better not! Sudah satu tahun lebih woooorrr!!!

I shall just share some pictures, when I have the time to upload later. One of the reader who dropped me messages and wanted to see my baju songket bertandang, I have guided you to my FB page, I hope you found it!

Dah satu tahun lebih berlalu, I surely have a lot of updates about my life.

My new chapter begins.