Missing Raya Memories

They are missing. I have been searching high and low for them since this morning. They are not in the archived files of my notebook harddisk. They are not in my desktop archives either, nor are they in my portable harddisk. I can’t seem to find them anywhere. OMG! I have lost the collections of my precious memories of my celebrating Raya, last year and the previous year, and the year before that. Those were the snapshots of the happy Raya times Himself and I used to enjoy with both sides of our families.

Now all I have are mental pictures and video shots of those days as what have been permanently recorded in my memories. And I do hope they too are recorded in Himself’s memories as well.

I still have vivid remembering of those happy moments from Himself’s side of the family, although they are mostly the collections of memories of four years old or even older. For the obvious melancholic reason my memories seem to be blocking those Raya moments after Uwan, Apak, Omak & Kakak left us.

Himself and I would always make sure we were back for Mantai a few days before Raya or even Ramadan. Since we were the most flexible of the whole lot (well, Himself only has Yours Truly tagging along all these years, no other commitments, baggages, pebbles in the shoes, and what not so-to-speak), Bang Long, Bang Ngah, Bang Teh, Bang Chik, Bang Chek and Kakak had always by default delegated to us the responsibility to ferry Uwan/Apak/Omak around looking for good fresh bargain of daging kobau, lombu, ayam, itik to feed the whole clan.

Let me count how many they were. In average there were 9 members from each of Himself’ siblings, so there had to be lots and lots of rendang basah, rendang kering, gulai salai, ayam goreng, sup tulang, lemang, nasi impit, lodeh, kuah kacang, etc to be prepared. It was a painstakingly exhausting process from sourcing, cleaning, chopping, slicing, dicing, and cooking them all; but they were all worth it when the whole big family would congregate together in the night before the first Raya, enjoying every bit of the delicacies.

And after hassle and bustle of ironing tons of new clothes and the long queue to use the bathroom, we all then together walked to the mosque for the Raya Prayer the following morning. It was then followed by rounds of cooking, eating, teasing & laughing, and more rounds of cooking, eating & cleaning before we made our own way to the respective other half’s side of the families. They were undoubtly among the merriest and happiest memories preserved forever.

Reminiscing back, I think I might not mind trading my whole life to turn back the clock. Sigh! What a wistful wish!

I don’t know whether it is good or bad that all my Raya memories after being called a married woman seem to be allocated to Himself’s side of the family. It’s a bit funny too when most of those vivid moments from my side of the family are mostly coming from my childhood time.

As usual there were memories of lots and lots of firecrackers, we would be firing missiles of mercun roket to our neighbors and they definitely would be retaliating. The battle normally started after Maghrib prayer and there would be temporary ceased-fire moments when the parents from both sides shouted that it was time for Isyak prayer; and the fight would continue thereafter until we finished our good stock of fire-crackers. With no clear winner of who had won and who had lost we then converged to share our last stock of bunga api bodoh together.

And of course, how can I forget the homemade meriam buluh. Bapak was not much of an adventurous lot when he was younger (he is still isn’t now ), so when lil Bro was in his teen and he longed to compete with the neighbors on who got the loudest meriam buluh, it was Mak who helped make him one. We knew it got to be a big boom-bang one after realising the soil where lil bro half-buried the meriam buluh before lighting it to fire the night before was all burnt like hell. My Mak is one super duper cool Mak Cik Kampung, I tell ya

Sigh! And now after all these rantings and ramblings I still can’t find where I might have misplaced the CDs and DVDs containing those happy Raya memories.

And what the heck am I still glued in front of my desktop when the rest of the world are busy driving balik kampung to celebrate Raya. It’s because I am not going balik kampung this year (I will write more about it in my next entries), and that is the reason why I need the previous Raya photos so badly, so I can reminisce all those happy moments much more clearer.

Himself and I are now officially home alone in this big concrete jungle, for the first time in our Raya history in the homeland!

The Story of Two Pots

An elderly water bearer had two large pots, each hung on each end of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master’s house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water in his master’s house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. “I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you.”
“Why?” asked the bearer. “What are you ashamed of?”

“I have been able, for these past two years, to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master’s house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don’t get full value from your efforts,” the pot said.

The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, “As we return to the master’s house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path.”

Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path, and this cheered it some. But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out half its load, and so again it apologized to the bearer for its failure.

The bearer said to the pot, “Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of your path, but not on the other pot’s side? That’s because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you’ve watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master’s table. Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house.”

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True. As my life journey continues, no matter how much I sometimes try to deny it, I do believe that the many valuable lessons I have acquired so far are indeed coming from what I perceive as the imperfections and misfortunes in my life.

Spring 2008 in Paris – Disneyland

My Dear Kecik Ketot (short & tiny) DY,

“Mak Long, Boleh tak bawak kite ke tempat permainan yang kite nampak dalam kamera Mak Long tu” (Translation: “Unty, Can you bring me to the wonderful playground I saw in your camera”).

I remember you said that to me the other day.

DY (my 4-year old nephew), that is Euro Disneyland dear. I can’t promise I will bring you there dear, but I can share with you my adventure when I was there, so when you are big and you intend to go back-packing to Europe, you can use Mak Long’s guide here to roam around Paris yourself later.

It is a wonderful magical land dear. Mak Long went there alone. I wished Pak Long was with me, but he had to attend to his business in KL. I wished you, AD (his 7-year old big bro), Mama (my lil sis) and Mak/Bapak were there with me too. I would have been million times much more fun if only we were all there together. Just like the fun we all had when we spent a day at Sunway Lagoon a few months back, remember. But of course Euro Disneyland has much more games and entertainment to play with dear.

Alone or not, yes, Mak Long did manage to enjoy myself. I felt 15 years younger, I was reliving my first visit to Disneyland in Anaheim LA. Yes, it was still that playful and fun!

So DY, here is my journal on how I managed to find my own way from central Paris to Disneyland using solely Paris public transports and with some guide extracted from free brochures widely available in any hotels in Paris.

You know DY, I did my own travel arrangement in Paris, unlike the full arrangement my boss’ PA made for me for my business trip to Frankfurt/Berlin, a week before to Paris.

Can you imagine I only booked my hotel in Paris a few hours before I checked in to KLIA en route to Frankfurt/Berlin? But Thank God, the online hotel reservation system was very reliable and efficient; I immediately received a booking confirmation, of course after I surrendered my credit card details. You can use this website’s booking.com to search for suitable accommodation in Paris, and being the kiasu person that I am, I only looked for 1 or 2-star hotel since I only needed a place to sleep and take shower (after all my expenses in Paris were all from my own pocket, not the company’s). But, I insisted that the hotel must be within walking distance to Paris’ Metro system and must provide transit arrangement to Charles de Gaulle airport. So I had chosen this 2-star Libertel Montmartre Duperre, located in Rue Duperre with only about within 5-minute walking distance to Pigalle Metro station.

To get to Disneyland, you can take the Metro from Pigalle station to Nation which would take about 30 minutes. I forgot how much it costs because I purchased Metro tourist passcard with unlimited travel use to any destination covered by Metro. Once you reach Nation Metro station, you have to switch to TGV, a high speed train system, which will transport you to Marne-la-Vallée/Chessy station, which is located between Disney Village and the park entrance, in about 40 minutes.

And these photos captured in Disneyland and Walt Disney Studio should best tell the wonderful stories of the visit dear.

Dog Ate My Homework (aka Excuses, Excuses)

I wanna write, I wanna update my blog, I wanna bloghop, I wanna leave comments, I wanna share my thoughts my confession my observation. But life is too hectic in the office, and my cats have been ferociously hijacking my blogging territory at home. So how?

Relix: Hallo, this place is ours, go away

Relix: Hei fren, wake up, let’s do this together
Relix: So, you are still holding the mouse eh?

Koko: Woi, apa bising2 nih…

Koko: Biar je lah mak cik ni nak guna PC…
Relix: No way…

Relix: I am cute right…

Relix: I can be cuter … Why can’t you play with me… preety please…

Relix: See, I can try to look mean too…

Relix: Aiyahh…I give up… so sleepy alreadi

Ma’am Besar: Wake up… wake up, now I have no more excuses not to update my blog