Photos!

*Editted

The photos are here! From my Eid open house. Well not all though. Plenty more on Facebook.

Thank you Faiz, Fadzil and Rachel for the photos. Here are some.

We look very '1Malaysia' here. Tee-hee!

Playing host

With Faiz and Rauf

My favourite ladies, Soph and Rach

They have been cam-whoring with the Panda all day long. Poor him

Makan-makan

Keefe and Calvin in their singing elements

Enam perempuan dara. I heart this photo of us!

Putting on the 'vogue pose'. Hehe

Maaf Zahir dan Batin, Shiqin

Hanging out

Women in the mirror, me and Mimi

Mum's Nigerian students, Ahmad and Ismail

Guitarman strumming

That's us chit-chatting

September babies! Fadzil, Rauf, Syamir and Alia

Together-gether memotong birthday cake

A belated birthday gesture for Fadzil

Aaww comel!

Shiqin with her 'purdah' and Wai Meng in baju melayu. Don't they look good together? Haha =P

Uh-oh, imagine Wai Meng practising polygamy and having 4 wives

Oh Nunu! I still can't get over your smile in this photo. Lol

Rahman! My new chum =)

Hanging out at the park nearby

With love!

Friends, food, fun

I just realized how awesome, talented, beautiful and fun my friends can be. Well I knew it before this. But today, it became clearer.

Had my Hari Raya open house and for those who know me well would know I prefer small, intimate affairs so pardon me if I couldn't invite more people to today's affair. But those who came, thank you and I love you!

We ate, sang, laughed, ate some more and we even had a discussion on syariah law and polygamy. That came from the nerdy debaters (haha kidding!). My mum invited 2 of her Nigerian students to join us for lunch. So, indeed it was a pretty colourful open house. Oh yes, we surprised the September babies with a birthday cake too. I hope the guys (Rauf, Fadzil and Syamir) and the girl (Alia) enjoyed the small gesture.

I loved it when we sat in a big group, with Keefe and Nunu sitting in the center, strumming their guitars while the rest of us sang along to the songs. It was so cool and at that moment, I felt blessed to be surrounded by these people whom I call as friends. Really and truly.

So thank you again to Faiz, Rauf, Nunu, Keefe, Alia, Wai Meng, Andrew, Daryl, Sophia, Fadzil, Shiqin, Calvin, Syamir, Rahman, Anis, Mimi, Rachel, Syira, Safwan, Naj, Ellya and Jabir for your wonderful presence.

Photos will be posted soon when I get them from the others =)

Raya oh raya!

I'm home! And oh Raya was so fun! It was chaotic, colourful, loud and everything else in between.

So, this year we celebrated Raya with a few of my mum's students. Well I'm not sure if 8 would be counted as 'a few' but heck we all had an incredible time. We had boys from Afghanistan, Mozambique, Palestine, Yemen and Tajikistan (yes, there is such a country). The Afghans painted my house and cooked dinner for the whole lot of us on the eve of Eid. And the rest were brought back to Raub to have a taste of Malay culture and Eid celebration in the kampung.

We visited the kampung houses, the graveyards of my dead ancestors, played firecrackers all night long, went for a boat ride and a swim in the river and of course we stuffed ourselves silly with lemang, rendang, ketupat and what not. Seriously, there was food everywhere and I reached a point where my stomach couldn't take it anymore. Bleehh.

I need to detox myself after this and lose all the Raya fats. Ohh well.

Photos! :)

Our house painters for the day

And here we have our cooks for the day. They made some Afghan rice and salad. Sedap!

Maghrib prayers 'berjemaah'

The 'additional family' on the morning of Eid, at my paternal grandparents' home in Kota Damansara

The three of us looking good in baju raya :)

Ohh la la! 'Vogue pose' Hehe

Cousins

The whole lot of us

And on my mum's side in Raub

My aunties. They are fearless, patronizing and everything you can think of. In a good way, of course.

These cousins of mine who think they are tall, not-so-dark and handsome. Mehh =P

Minah main mercun. Haha

This is how kids these days smile for the camera

Prayers for those who have left us

Hasan from Mozambique trying to climb the wooden stairs of the kampung house

Benny, my aunty's pet. Imagine having this deer as your pet in your backyard

The river

The guys enjoying their boatride

Yes, me too

Swim, swim!

Raya's almost here!

Oohh trials are practically over and Raya's almost here! It's a much needed break after the 5 long weeks of exams.

And this year, my family is hosting 8 foreign students from IIUM to celebrate Raya with us. Eight, imagine that! Hah. We'll have 8 on the eve of Raya and they will stay over our house. And we'll shoot to Raub, Pahang after lunch on the first day of Raya but we are only bringing back four of them then. Tak muat kereta la.

They're from Afghanistan, Africa and god-knows-where-else but I'm pretty sure it'll be as fun as last year's. My mum has already planned stuffs for them to do while they're here in KL on the eve of Raya. Some of them are gonna cook their traditional cuisines while others are gonna help paint our house. Domestic help much? Haha.

Oh yes, have a blessed, great Eid Mubarak everyone! May this Raya be a time for close family bonding and forgiveness.

From last Raya:

One of the traditional wooden houses we visited on the morning of Eid

The guys we brought back to Raub last year. (Left to right) Mahmoud from Palestine, Adnan from Bosnia, Swabry from Kenya and Ali from Central Africa

Oh no, white hair!

4 weeks into SPM trials and I'm still in the midst of it. One more week to go. Gah!

Personally, I think the whole system is pretty screwed. 11 years of formal education and the most we learn is how to memorise facts and taught to follow the ridiculous yet stringent schemes and guidelines set.

It's like eating packets and packets of nasi lemak, only to regurgitate them back. And even then, you gotta spew it in a certain way. Heh. I can't wait to get out of here. Out of here to search for something new and fresh.

One more week of trials and I couldn't be bothered anymore, seriously. It's not that I'm loosening my grip on SPM. Oh no, of course not. I'm just taking it easy for now. No point pushing myself to the brink too early of a time like this. My sight was always on SPM. Never so much on trials.

But I reached my ultimatum today when I was standing in front of the mirror, combing through my hair. I noticed I had 2 strands of white hair! And they weren't grey or pale white. They were white of the whitest white. And I was like, "WTF?! I'm getting old." Ok, so probably it's in my genes to have white hair. But it's also possible that the white hair came from all those stress and sleepless nights.

That was when I decided I have to take it slow and easy.

I don't want to be an old makcik with a head of white hair before my time comes. Hell no!

Should I or should I not pluck the hair? They say pluck one and two more will grow back. Uh-huh =\