Raya!

i drove to my eldest sister's house on the eve of raya, and because i wanted to avoid the traffic, i used the Duke highway. ah! the comfort!

well anyway, it was soothing to be near your flesh and blood. since my eldest sister, kak ma, has advanced alzheimer, there's only farah my niece and her hubby yusri for me to talk to. and their baby aleesha to entertain. the last buka puasa was simple. yusri cooked nasi ayam for us, being the son of a caterer, and i must say that his culinary skills are commendable. we were joined by farah's sister, lina and her hubby romy, who derives pleasure from teasing (menyakat) me. he is forever making stupid jokes, and i always have this bored look on my face, and sometimes when i just can't stand it any longer, i'll just say "romy go away". around 20 minutes after the buka puasa, abg mi called me to confirm the raya itinerary.

early the next morning, i woke up simply because our body is used to waking up for sahur, and my tummy is rumbling. it's raya morning! so i made my way to the kitchen, and also because i had a mild migraine, i decided to partake the nasi minyak so i could swallow the pills. yusri woke up early too, to make ayam masak merah.

we made our way to the first destination - kak dah's house in bukit mahkota - the farthest house first. abg mi and family and lina and family were already there. there was a big fuss especially when i went straight to the kitchen island and started dishing out lontong for myself. i was the first one to eat you see hehehe...but i assured them that my gym opens on the 4th day of raya and i intend to go. abg mi's 3 arshads were there, all giving their attention to the little aleesha. as usual, when we gather, abg mi will start talking about food, especially the food that he managed to buy in terengganu when we went back for the hearing. after some social eating, we took some family pics but i can't post them now at the moment. have to wait till i get home. the next destination was at abg halim's house in sg buluh. by the time we arrived there, i was too bloated to eat anything so i just watched them eat nasi dagang. abg halim loves big soundspeakers so you can just imagine the noise when he put on a dvd and turning the volume on loud. i couldn't even hear myself think.

after abg halim's house, we proceeded to kak sham's house. we avoided her house till afternoon since abg jenal's extended family is much bigger than ours, and to put our side with his side in a house can be a nightmare. kak sham made mother's chicken briyani, and i was happy to eat them. her rendang is like Forrest Gump's box of chocolate "you'll never know what you're gonna get" since many parts of a cow are in there. again, abg mi talked about his much loved subject - food and also rearing fish. and also asking me pointedly how long was i at the dining table.

the raya itinerary finished here today, as i'm staying at kak sham's house. tomorrow will be abg mi's open house. there'll be some serious eating and some photo snapping as well.

selamat hari raya y'all.