Rushing Prep and Eid Mubarak

I have been meaning to write a post, even before Eid or AidilFitri arrives but I've been busy, and if not too tired and if not, I wasn't in the mood to write.

The paragraph above was written about two days ago, but I ran out of things to say, despite that a lot of things have been happening in my life. So anyway, updates, bear with my dear diary moments, alright?

The day of the moon sighting, we were just getting started with my brother's flat. We worked since the day before, painting upon 2 layers of paint to cover the pen and pencil marks on the wall made by his children. My brother and his family have been living on a deteriorating plastic floor covering for more than a year, my brother have been meaning to change them, since he's busy most of the time and it is a job not for one person, he waited until there is a better reason to change it. So Eid is approaching he thought it will be the best time to change the floor covers. I have been telling him to change the floor covers, but he said he wanted to wait until it was close of Eid to change them, being afraid that his children might tear the floor covering again. No disrespect to my brother's children, and my brother thinks the same that his four sons are really naughty, they are the cause of the deteriorating floor covering and the lack of decorations, because these four boys really can cause havoc and chaos in the house. That is why sometimes, my brother is embarrassed to bring guest home.

We were finishing the last coat that it was time to break fast. My brother's wife i.e. sister-in-law didn't cook anything as she also helped us as well, so I booked a seat for us to break fast at my favorite restaurant. It was my treat. My brother asked to wait to see if the moon sighting was a success. The moon was not sighted. We were relieved... Because not only that his home was not fit for guest, it was looking empty and more looking of a newly painted warehouse. We went home and continued the last few paint layers.

The next day which was the last day of ramadan, we cleaned the floor and started putting on the floor coverings. It was indeed a huge task. It took us the whole morning and afternoon to finish it. Again, we didn't have food and had to eat out, the problem this time, the place I booked were unavailable. Reason, the weather started to pick up, and the place I booked was outdoor. So I scurried alone looking for a place to eat. I remembered a nice place to eat, and doesn't look popular called Deli City in Kiulap. I remembered that they serve really nice satay. I went there... And it was full! I panicked... I walked a few shops along... Luckily I saw some empty seats... I booked them, and called my brother and his family. They came just in the nick of time to break fast. Of course the restaurant that we went to only serve ala carte, so it took a while for our food to arrive. My brother highlighted that, his eldest and second son had a full month of fasting... So to celebrate, I treated them all french toast... It is amazing that my nephew only 9 and 8 years old respectively manage to fast for the whole month. I am so proud of them...

While we were breaking fast, my mum called. She asked for some help with some DIY, my brother-in-law couldn't help as he was away at his father's funeral. We sent off the children and my brother's wife back home and we drove almost an hour away to help my mum. Nothing new needs to be put up, only things that came back from the cleaners such as the curtain that my mum send for cleaning, moving furniture around and putting on the wire casing to run the television cables so it looks nice and tidy. That took the whole night. My brother and I were absolutely exhausted at this point. We came back at 1 a.m. that night...

We came back to the flat feeling a little refreshed by my mum's delicious corn beef fried rice before we left home, we finished the remaining works at the flat. It took us till 5.30a.m. But my brother stayed up until 6a.m. putting on the finishing touches. I slept the whole morning. No morning Raya for me. I woke up at 1 p.m. dressed up in my last year's cara melayu and headed back to my parents. My dad was not home, my brother who slept late and woke up pretty early brought my dad to visit his wife's side of family. So my morning raya was more like an afternoon raya, kissed my mom's hands, wished and asked for forgiveness... It was nice, but her face was exhausted and she wasn't wearing anything nice, she was helping out cleaning the ground floor of the house. My parent's house is a stilt house, you see. I thought I missed out on my uncle's open house gathering in Lumut, about 45 minutes drive from my parents. But fortunate for me, no one have went there yet. So I was happy that I still got a chance to go with everybody. Not long, my eldest brother came with his wife, six children. The house was a complete chaos... Children running amok at my parent's house, my mum didn't mind, but all of was couldn't stand it. Okay, here's the thing about me. I'm their strict uncle. I'm very strict with kids, thus they hate to see me mad. About 15 minutes of screaming, even my sister-in-laws are afraid to see me screaming. The kids all settled down. My sisters and brothers were relieved that I was around. By the way we never went to my uncle's (my mum's brother) open house because we were all too busy still cleaning up the house.

I stayed at my parents until it was midnight and left. My dad came back with my brother. And poor brother, he didn't have enough energy to text back his friends' greeting on his mobile. My brother was completely flat out. I went back home to my brother's flat at midnight only to find my room completely in shambles. Oh the reason for this was that my room was half storage for my brother's decorations. And when my brother took the decorations out, everything in my room look like it had seen an earthquake. So I stayed up and cleaned up the room until 3a.m. I was absolutely exhausted. I woke up again in the afternoon and waited for my sister to call me. Reason for this wait was that, on the second day of Eid, my uncle i.e. my father's brother was having an open house. So it would be unnecessary for me to travel to my parents and make my way from there. All I need is to wait and go there directly. As I was waiting, I went online on Facebook. I saw one status, my friend wanted to get some McD. I texted him up, and joined with him, after a Big Mac, Big Fries, Apple Pie and Big Coke later, we went round The Mall as to digest the food. A caramel flavoured gelato followed soon. LOL. Felling stuffed, we made our own way, but I decided to make a quick stop at the barbers, my hair was in desperate need of a cut. As soon as I finished, my sister called and they said they are on their way to my uncle. I wasn't even dressed yet! So I decided to just go with my t-shirt and jeans, I planned to apologise for my inappropriate dress code.

At my uncle's, I arrived early, ten minutes later, my sisters, my mum, nieces and nephews arrived. Again, the strict uncle routine was played, so that they would be nice angels. (That didn't happen, by the way). There was this huge playground that my uncle had set up, and they all went straight to the swings and slides, ignoring my screams and calls.

A funny and half embarrassing scene happened. I met my grandmother. As soon as she realised it was me, she hit my shoulder for almost a minute. She was mad at me! Why? Because I have been missing from most family functions. She was really pissed but still she sat next to me and took my hand. I smiled. Oh yeah, another reason why she is mad pissed at me, was because I'm not married yet. She said she needs to see me married before she passes... It was sweet. No, not at her being mad. But she seems to have a keen eye on me. She has, hmmm what, almost 50 grandchildren, and she remembers my name, she knows that I have been missing from family functions, she wants me to get married. Ya Allah, bless her. Of all her grandchildren she sat next to me and took my hand. She's not really my grandmother. My late grandfather married 6 times, and my father was the only son from the first marriage, making my father the eldest in the family. My father wasn't the eldest in the first marriage, he was the fifth out of seven children, but all his brothers and sisters had passed away, including his mother in the cholera epidemic in the 1950's.

Hey, now you know more about me eh? Anyway, digressing. Nothing significant happened on the third and fourth day of Eid. But on the fourth day of Eid, I went with my brother-in-law to see an architect. And it seems that I'm a step closer to my dream house. I'm pretty confident with the architect and contractor. It looks good. I'm finalising everything after this trip offshore. Oh which I forgot to tell you about. I am offshore now, thus I have the time to write this very very long post, which I promised Babe to. So I hope reading this blog isn't much of a waste, I do hope after reading this very very long post, you know a little bit about me.

On a personal note, I'm fasting on dates, I'm fasting on relationships. Thus making me on a dry spell. I need to find a hobby soon. Or perhaps put my energy on this future house of mine. Well I'll try to spell and grammar check this long post, but if there is any mistakes, I do apologise. Oh speaking about apologising...

I wish my readers a "HAPPY EID MUBARAK" or as they say in malay "SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI, MAAF ZAHIR DAN BATIN, MINAL AIDIL WAL FA IZIN". I wish to send my forgiveness for any heartache, offenses or sins that I have done against anyone who I know and I don't know, or any heartache or offenses via my writing. For I am only human, not freed from any mistakes and errors. And thank you for reading up to this point.

Until then....