Raya and family reminiscence time!!

Raya this year is great as ever.To me there is no definition of a bad Raya.Though after my grandfather,Sheikh Haji Jamaluddin passed away, the mood was quite somber. Every year my family spend our Raya in Shah Alam except for 1 year where my grandma wanted to spend Raya at Alor Setar with her relatives, where all of us followed suit.Because my father’s mother and father has passed away and so does my mum’s father, I only have my nenek during Raya. Every year,on the eve of Raya my family will sleep at my mum’s parents house in Sect 11.We’ll visit the kubur after Raya prayers and breakfast and then we go back to change clothes,upacara bersalam-salaman & bermaaf-maafan & picture taking!Both of my late grandparents on my dad’s side, my late grandpa and great grandma on my mum’s side,all of them resides at the kubur in Sect.21.So every Raya we buy many flowers to put at the 4 respective kubur. And then, back when my tok ayah and wan was still alive,after berayaing with my mum’s side, my family will head to Sect.19 to beraya with my dad’s side of the family. Actually we still do that even to this year because my dad’s siblings all ‘berkumpul’ at their late parents house in Sect.19 where my Mak Lang serve a great Raya spread every year! And I always anticipate her ayam masak merah and pudding laici every Raya..yummm!!Yup,everybody is in Shah Alam except for some of my relatives who’s in Klang & Alor Setar.I’m born and bred here, I still keep in touch with my primary and high schoolmates due to the convenience of Friendster.

On the day before Raya, after my mum got back from the market with my dad,I helped her make the beef and chicken rending.Cut this and that.Blend this and that.And then my mum let me off so that she can finish cooking.heheheh.And then after my mum have finish cooking, we will head to my grandma’s house in Sect.11.Since the house is big(it has 5 rooms) and only my 2 single aunts and my grandma live in it, the other empty room will always be filled with her grandchildren who comes during weekends and it is especially ‘riuh’ during Raya. This year, just like every year, after bukak puasa on the eve of Raya, my parents,me,my cousins &my aunts will go to PKNS for some last minute Raya shopping. It is so much fun because the place is packed with people buying last minute baju raya and cookies, serunding and such.This year I even manage to snag a beautiful baju kurung which cost RM150 but because every vendor is competing with each other,he marked it down to RM50 to finish his stock .And my shopping savvy mum manage to mark it down further to RM45!That adds to my 2 other baju kurung for Raya!!hehehe.

We also bought some beef serunding and kerepek.No cookies as dad got a lot of cookies from the hampers given to him and the ones my aunt made. My cousin Kak Hani bought tudung to match her baju kurung and then we went home. I have already planned what I’m going to wear tomorrow and which baju kurung I should wear for going to kubur.I learned it from my cousin.You wear a not so flashy baju kurung for the kubur and the flashy one for Raya.^_^ Since I have 3 baju, I wore the most not flashy one for kubur and the other 2 I save Raya.I ironed all of my clothes, even 2 casual ones because I don’t know what I’ll be wearing tomorrow.We went to bed a bit late because of borak-borak sessions.I woke up at 6.30, after subuh prayers, Kak Hani,Adila & me arrange the cookies.This is a tradition every year for me and Kak Hani.Every Raya morning we have to wash the container for the cookies,wipe them clean and arrange all of the cookies.Every year there will be 10 type of cookies altogether. This year Adila helped out too.

I have about 26 cousins on my mum’s side but they are scattered around Malaysia at the moment.I have 5 cousins in Alor Setar,3 in KL,5 in Klang,3 who goes back to Taiping(their father’s side)every Raya although they live in Shah Alam.Every year only my 4 cousins are the main faces.Kak Hani,Firdaus,Syazni and Adila. My cousins who are in Alor Setar and the ones who go back to Taiping are rarely present during Raya.My other cousins comes around lunch tine on the first day of Raya.

My siblings and I are very close to Kak Hani,Firdaus,Syazni and Adila.All 4 of them are brothers and sisters.We grew up together and have many memories with each other.We have many homevideos to prove it.We’ve been close ever since we were in diapers! Eventhough Kak Hani is busy with her studies & I rarely see her during weekdays eventhough both of us study at UiTM Shah Alam (though my faculty is in Sect 17), we try to catch up with each other whenever we can through sleepovers .hehehe.Firdaus is studying in UiTM Segamat and he comes back whenever he can because he gets bored there since its in the middle of a jungle .Syazni and Adila lives with their parents back in Bandar Baru Bangi.

This year after taking pictures and beraya(Syazni is not in the pictures because she got sick and slept throughout the whole day!), my family and I went to Sect 19 and beraya with my dad’s side.I stuff myself silly because I only get to eat Mak Lang’s cooking during 1st day of Raya.I have about 15 cousins on my dad’s side but all of them are small as in not my age group so we don’t keep in touch.hahaha.After that, Kak Hani msg me saying if I want to go to Jusco Klang because she wants to buy sushi for lunch .So I followed suit because I want to buy the right straightening/curling iron.But there wasn’t any that I like at Shins. When we arrived at my grandma’s house, my 2 uncles and their family came. Uncle Affendy and Uncle Fauzi. Oh I forgot to mention that I am an aunty (it makes me feel so old!) because Uncle Fauzi’s daughter, Sameerah, my cousin, got married 2 years ago to Hafiziand now her baby,whom we call Fasha is about 1 year old. And then Kak Hani and her family left to visit their father’s sister (their grandparents on their father’s side have passed away just like my dad). In the evening my late grandpa’s relative came .My cousins Tariq & Zul who are stewardess in Dubai( they came back for Raya) came with their parents. I haven’t seen them in ages because they don’t live here .It was good to see that they’re doing well.I always love their sister Lubna but since she got married and live in Dubai, I haven’t seen her in years!

The next day,after breakfast I went shopping with my family and cousins. Manage to buy Philips Geometricks and it was worth the RM150 spent. After that went back to Puncak Alam & Firdaus stayed over at our house up until Tuesday whereby we’ll go to his house because Umi(his mother,my aunt who eventhough is not our mother, my siblings all call her Umi because we are used to calling her that ever since we were lil kids!)invites the whole family for lunch.Kak Hani stayed at grandma’s house cos’ she has a study group thing.