:: ceritera raya ::

H-E-L-L-O!

First and foremost, I hope it is not too late for me to wish Selamat Hari Raya and Maaf Zahir Batin to all muslim readers although today is the last day of Syawal. Hope everybody had a great time with family and friends; and also enjoyed the food galore through out the month. It has been weeks and I have been trying to post this entry almost everyday but I just couldn't make it because my life was very occupied lately. Hopefully I can make it this time and eventually write again for this pinky blog. Oh my, time flies really fast because it is already the end of Syawal and yet I haven't share anything about Hari Raya *gasp*. Please forgive me for being such an outdated blogger; so in this post I shall write everything about my Raya celebration since day 1 till today hence expect a long post full of writing and piccas.

Like previous years we spent our first day of Syawal at my home town in Seremban. We have a small family so first Syawal means a lot because that is when everybody gathers around at my grand parents' house which is approximately 20 minutes drive from home. It was a joyous session and I was happy to meet my relatives that day because I only see some of them once a year. Besides gathering at my grand parents' we usually visited other relatives who live in the same kampung but this year we did not go anywhere else. My parents travelled in another car so they continued the tradition while we returned to Seremban and visited hubby's auntie, who served the best soto everrr!

From observation, purple is the most chosen colour for Raya 2012

I have to admit we did not shoot a lot of photos this year and too bad, not even a single family photo with my own parents...gahhh! I also realised there is no photos on food too except a pic of my oreo non-baked cheese cake and even worst, the Instax was left in USJ. Dunno what had happened to me but I promise I shall shoot more photos during Aidiladha later.

We went back to hubby's home town in Sik, Kedah on the second day of Raya and for the first time ever, we had to face sluggish traffic on the way up North. We normally faced massive jam on the way back to KL but it was the other way round this year and caused us 9 hours on the road. Cars got stuck inside all major R&Rs because there were too many people so we had to exit at a toll, stopped at PLUS office for toilet visit and entered the toll again to continue the journey. We had our dinner at Nando's Auto City Penang because nothing good left when we stopped at R&R Sungai Perak. By the way, Auto City which can be seen at left side of the highway going up North is such a happening place because it has varieties of restaurants and also bazaar style area called Shop In D Park where people can shop at night at more than 100 shops. Wish we could have one place like that in Klang Valley because the surrounding looks more comfortable than the Uptown bazaars.

Nothing much happened on the next day except visiting relatives. We stayed at hubby's late grand parents house, a huge wooden kampung style (~~not gangnam style~~) house and the best thing about staying there is the cold, minty water. Honestly, the water was damn cold but totally refreshing. It makes you feel hesitated at first but once you splash it over your body, you will want more and more... brrr! On the fourth Raya, everybody who came from KL travelled to Perlis for a Raya visit at one of hubby's auntie. We had lunch; spent almost half a day there before returned to Sik and dropped by at this mamak place named Sickenter. It has been our routine to have meal at Sickenter when we return to Sik because hubby loves their special, tasty mee goreng and as for me, I always go for their roti canai.

babyAdy enjoying himself

On Thursday, we started our journey back to KL around 4 pm. It has been a tradition for us to stop by at Ipoh on the way back to KL every year so for another year we visited hubby's ex-roomate (Halid and his wife Balqis) and also my BFF (Nor) at her hometown. Ady was very happy because at Halid & Balqis's he enjoyed playing with their daughter Hannah and when we visited Nor, he enjoyed playing with Alvin, Nor's big white kitty. Thank you for entertaining us, friends and hopefully we can still continue the tradition next year. We reached home at 1:30 am and spent rest of the week in USJ before going back to work on Monday.

Later that week (Wednesday) Group Human Capital Management had our Raya gathering and this year we also invited orphans to the event. My division was in charged of ushering those special guests and my team was assigned for Rumah Permata Hati. There were 10 of them, girls from age of 7 till 12 and they all came in same baju kurung and red hijab. So cute. As for me, I only have a pair of Raya dress this year so I have to wear it again for the third time because I don't have any choice. The event was happening and a big success. I got the chance to meet some ol' friends and colleagues; and also met Upin and Ipin! I'm not a fan of Upin and Ipin though but it was still fun to take photo with them. By the way if you look carefully at the picture below you can see me singing on the stage with my friend, Ita. I was asked to sing by the organizer to kickoff karaoke session and luckily Ita agreed to do a duet because honestly, I'm not a very good singer. We sang Seloka Hari Raya song by Hail Amir and Uji Rashid and I was so glad when some of the kids voluntarily went up the stage to sing with us. Thank you boys for being the backup singer and covering my 'sumbang' voice (lol).

I may sound cocky but I love my raya dress this year :-D

By the way, later that day I received a bad news because Ady started having chicken pox. He threw up since the day before so we went to SDMC and got admitted...and spent our Independence Day in the hospital suite. The best thing was that suite suddenly became our second home. My besties who are always there in thick and thin came for a visit and it was like a small Raya gathering. They brought me dinner, Chatime and happiness. Man... I have the best girlfriends on earth and I thank God for allowing me to have these lovely girls as my friends. Sayanggggg korangs!

Luckily I brought some cookies to the hospital~!

On the next following week (third week of Syawal) I got three invitations and luckily they were in different days so I managed to go to all three of them. The first one was invitation from Group Strategy TM. Brought my team members together but ended up sitting with my MMU friends and ex-hommie. The roasted lamb was tasty and I had two ice creams for dessert. The next day was lunch treat at Nor's crib. She organised it for her GEMS colleagues so I was the only one who is not an expert in SAP within the group. Nor served homemade spaghetti bolognese and scrumptious bread butter pudding together with ayam golek and Auntie Anne's pretzels (very posh isn't it?). Thanks to the kind hostess, I went back to the office with a tight tummy... brrrpp! The third open house of the week was one organised by Persatuan Eksekutif TM (PET). It started with PET's Annual General Meeting and I attended it with Nor because we wanted to get the goodies which consist of a book, cookies and landyard placed inside a mengkuang basket. At least I got some return from RM2 deduction made to my salary every month.

Raya with friends

Honestly, we hardly get open house invitation during weekend so I was happy when Fila texted and invited us to come to her sister's open house last Sunday. Nor couldn't make it so we were there with Rabby. I don't know where to start if I want to talk about food because there were varieties of dishes served from the usual nasi impit, peanut sauce, rendang to rice, sambal sotong and many more. Thank you for inviting us, Fila :-)

Wearing my latest handmade bib necklace. Gonna blog about it soon.

Finally, here comes update for the final week of Syawal and it started with our Unit's raya gathering on last Wednesday. My team was assigned to be the organiser so I came up with a theme called 'Raya in the Garden' because we held it at the sky garden one floor below our office. Alhamdulillah, the event was a success; thanks to every single person in the PDS team. I was happy because everybody enjoyed themselves and glad when they excitedly used the photobooth props we prepared. As the head organiser I didn't eat much maybe because I was already full of satisfaction. Although everybody contributed their energy, extra appreciation goes to my supportive team members who are always dedicated in everything they do and they all deserve a pat on their back *pat pat*.

Awesome photo booth shots

The next day (last Thursday) was something different. The company organized Merdeka Raya celebration and I was assigned to become an usherette, taking care of Datin Azrene (Masterchef Celebrity winner and singer - Dato' Fazley's wife) together with my colleague, Fyfy. Dato' Fazley who also came with his mother showed cooking demonstration while his wife was in charged of cake deco demonstration. Both of them were then invited to be the judges for several contests and yet, they didn't show any sign of exhaustion even after being brought from one place to another. All three of them are down to earth and I was touched with their strong bonding *respect*. I don't want to write about the event in details but it was really happening. I was occupied the entire morning until noon and spent quarter of the afternoon attending two 'open units'. The first one was invitation from Group Legal & Company Secretary TM and the second one was from Group Corporate Communication TM. I really enjoyed myself that day because besides all the good food (especially the tastiest laksa johor at GCC) I also managed to mingle around with friends and colleagues. Ahhh.. the beauty of Hari Raya.

Fyfy suggested us to wear pink so I wore my engagement dress (over kan? haha)

My celebration doesn't end there though because on Friday I had the last (and another) Raya gathering with my BFFs at Wondermilk Citta Mall which I shall write in a different entry later but here is a sneek peek of the gathering: