Raya with The Harfy Bunch

I guess everyone is still in the Raya mood. As for me, this Raya, is full of mixed emotions..full of complexity. I have to admit, I had fun celebrating Raya as for the first time in 10 years or so, my 2 sisters and I plus the other half and the 7 Bambinos ( Kakak's 4, Ours 3) got together to celebrate Raya with Mak. Mak was really excited and happy to have us all at the same time together with her grandchildren. It was written all over her face. For that, I am glad.

On Hari Raya morning, I was woken up by the smell of Mak's Beriyani and rendang. Delicious..yum yum. Got my boys, Adlil and Alief ready for sembahyang Raya. Ironed their sampings and all. There after when they came back, they had makan Raya - ketupat pulut, beriyani, lemang and rendang. Then when everyone was ready (we had to get the kids ready first ). Ryan looking all adorable with his baju Melayu and Songkok Bujal and Qyra looking princessly pretty in her baju Kurung. Then, it was salam Raya time. It started off with Mak, my sisters, B-I-L and then the Harfy Bambinos followed by the nephews and nieces. Then came the finale, really don't why this year I was teary eye when I seek forgiveness from Adlil, usually I do feel sedih but this year is a bit different. I guess it is because this year has been quite a challenging year for me, I got all soppy and slushy this year. I guess that's good, it is sincere, comes straight from the heart. Corny, but it does makes you realize all the things that you have done, a moment of reflection...Deep..

After that, we headed down to Ayah's grave at Mahmoodiah. I guess is also happy to have us all visit him all at the same time. All over us were all trying to contain ourselves, not to cry but the atmosphere is really sombre. I really realize how much I miss him and hoping that he is happy as we want him to be. Amin.

Then we headed down to Kak Antein's house over at Kampung Melayu. As usual, we would eat, drink, gossip and ridicule each other - Bobby, Olin, Hannah, Ijal, Adlil, My Sisters, Pak Mat Tongkol, Kak Eda, Yus and all. Seeing all our Aunts, Uncles, Toks and Neneks made us realize that we will reach that point in time, sooner that we expected. While chit chatting, we were actually trying to picture how would we be like when we are in our 50s or 60s. Simultaneously agreed that we will be just as loud, bitchy, laser and the swearing rawkss on. the last time we had everyone all together was during Zaza's and Fifi's Wedding. The amount of noise and the mockery that took place was out of this world. Didn't bother to watch our tongue, just went on shooting our victims with our bullets. Best gila.. Hehehhee. You should experienced being with us, its mind blowing..full of noise and sarcasm all over the place. These are people that you will grow old with...simply divine. Lepak there till before Maghrib where we headed home to just relax. Our whole family just wanted to go home rather than go visiting. We also had to pack since tomorrow, The Harfy Bunch, Mak & Mackie will be heading up to Malacca where we will be taking Mak and the kids for a short break. Kakak and her family will be heading to Negeri Sembilan to my B-I-L's kampung. Adlil will be filling you up on the details to the trip, while I summarize the whole Raya week in this entry.

The next morning we went to Hwa Mui at Taman Sutera Indah (yup, its the new branch) coz, my B-I-L kept thinking of the Mee Goreng Mamak, simply delicious. Just two days before Raya, we brought them for berbuka there - Yup all 13 of us!!. So, we decided to go there again since, there is no Hwa Mui in KL, so better fufill my B-I-L's craving. We started off by ordering 15 sets of Roti Bakar, all of us had our main dish of our choice and at the end of it all, we were contentedly stuffed to even move.

So, we made our way to Malacca and surprisingly the traffic wsn't that bad untill we got to Malacca town. My goodness, it was jammed from just after the Ayer Keroh toll plaza till the waterfall/feature inter-junction. Other than that, we had a lot of fun there in Malacca only that we always found the roads in Malacca being a bit "challenging" despite the numerous times that we have been there. Honestly, I have always had this thing for Malacca. To me its really a nice almost clean city. It has that modern facilities but still restoring the authenticity of the historical city. Kudus to too the government of Malacca whom in my opinion, did a good job in developing Malacca to the way it is. There was one period that I was constantly bugging Adlil to move to Malacca since we both equally like the place but reality check.. I guess not now. Like my aunt who lives in Malacca said, it is a nice place to grow old in. I guess I'll be revisiting that idea again when the kids are all grown up..We had fun while staying at the Everly Resort which has just been renovated. Nicely made up with new coat of paint and some improvisation of the facilities.

By 5pm the next day, we were on our way to Beranang where our in laws were all eagerly waiting for the arrival of the Harfy Bunch. M-I-L cooked Lodeh which happens to be my favourite Hari Raya indulgence. Did not go anywhere - beraya and all, only went to Mid Valley the next day to get some stuff and bought Adlil's youngest brother Irfan's birthday present. Unfortunately, we had to go back earlier than expected. We had to drive back to JB at about midnight, that day as Adlil had some last minute function set-up that needed his technical expertise.

Well, I guess The Harfy Bunch had a reasonably fun Raya. Raya to me now is more to the kids' enjoyment and fancy. To me it is more of a time for reflection and spending quality time with family. Hope you guys had a great Raya, we did.