Zaf's open house

taken from Rachel's blog

(my home looks good in this pic.Thks Rachel! )

Zaf made a special request that this Raya we organise a raya open house just for her friends seramai 25 orang.You know don't you that malam raya tu I masak macam2 cos' the new maid could not cook? : from rendang to peanut sauce to nasi impit to macam2 lah.That's why I looked so tired in my raya pics. :)

Nasib baik my good fren Shahril tak cuti raya so I oda saja nasi bryani gam for 30 people.Then masak lagi nasi impit and kuahnya.Then Z kata buat lagilah laksa Sarawak cos' I did it the day before depa semua kata sedap.Sigh...kalau anak I sepuluh..memang aku malas nak layan yang seorang ini! Lagipun I fikir next raya entah ke manalah dia.If still in Msia, memasak lagi lah saya...

Lepas tu I pi cari lemang kat Gombak.Jumpa satu spot.Dia baru bakar kayu api.Masa tu I dah bawak balik 2 IIUM students.Kita tanya pak guard mana nak cari lemang kat kawasan Gombak.Dia kata pi arah Ong Tay Khim ke hapa.I tak biasa kawasan ni.I just know how to go to work and come back.Nasib Ismail and Siraj ada.They showed me the way.Suruh depa turun tanya mana jual lemang (I kata kat Ismail just say where to buy lemang)..dia pi tanya kat orang India.India tu tak tau apa2! Lepas tu pi tanya Cina jual pisang..Cina tu tunjuk goreng pisang.Sigh.But akhirnya we found one spot.Siap jual rendang minang.Raya mana complete without lemang. I was willing to swim lautan api for lemang! :)

Meanwhile Nik pi service kereta.I mintak dia pi collect the nasi bryani.He went pakai kereta burok Cina repair kereta tu.Brek tak berapa nak makan. Hahaha! The things we do for Zaf.I harap bila kita tua, she will not be mean to us.

But Zaf's open house went well.Ramai kawan2 bukan Melayu dia datang berbaju melayu.Hensem pulak jadinya: Wai Meng pun ada (yang selalu baca column artis dan hafal semua lagu2 pop melayu.He and aruah Yasmin Ahmad sering bersms-sms sebab Yasmin suka sikap 1Malaysia Wai Meng ini). Lepas tu mentor budak2 debater ni Andrew Loh (from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania) pun datang siap bersampin dan berbaju Melayu.

Andrew ni bagus budaknya.Selalu bagi semangat kat his juniors still at school (Sek. Men Damansara Jaya) sebab dia jaguh debat.Kalau dia balik cuti dia datang tolong coach budak2 junior ni. He picks up Arabic and spoke fluently with my two guest students from Nigeria (pelajar Islamic Studies/Civilisation).Lepas tu depa semua nyanyi, tunjuk bakat.Ismail and Siraj nyanyi nasyid in Yoruba.Sedap juga bahasa Yoruba ni.Then Keefe and Nunu main gitar nyanyi lagu Rihanna lah..dan saya tak tau sapa lagi (gen. gap dah terlalu besar for all this).Andrew pun nyanyi.Dia ni semua boleh.Terkenanglah pulak raya kita di perantauan.Shef came to collect Alya.Dia pun teringat raya in NZ and how malam raya some of them tertidur bawah meja sebab penat sangat memotong bawang nak buat satay dan kuah kacang.

Nik and I left to beraya kat rumah Makcik Ma in Subang Jaya.I bawak lah Ismail and Siraj (they are Master's students, dah dekat setahun kat sini) but inilah kali pertama mereka encounter budaya Raya mcm ni.Surprisingly, depa ni taklah tertutup sgt pemikiran mereka (they admitted IIUM had trained them a lot in this).Mereka boleh duduk2, cerita2 dgn tetamu2 yang ada.Kita selalu ingat org2 pengajian Islam ni kerjanya nak haramkan itu ini, kan?Ismail and Siraj boleh enjoy lagu Rihanna lagi by Keefe. Hahaha.Siap dapat duit raya lagi.Makcik Ma gave them a lot!).