Exciting Weekend - With Family and Friends

The last weekend was an exciting weekend for Ram and I. Sita and baby Najla was home, so also Tessa, who had just returned from Aceh, Indonesia. As it is still the month of Syawal, the month of Eid’l Fitri celebrations, we had calls from my brothers/sisters, Ram’s nephews/nieces, other relatives, and their families checking whether we will be home during the weekend for them to visit. We were delighted. They are always welcomed to visit. We also had several functions to attend, a number of open houses to visit, a birthday party of a very close friend’s grandson, a wedding and also a newborn thanksgiving session.

We were juggling time and hopping out of the house to attend to the various functions or rushing home to welcome visitors to our house. We even managed to visit our neighbours. As always, there were food and more food. We just indulged. However, these gatherings, get together, visits and functions were not just about food. Food is only a part of it, not the main part though. It is more about meeting and fraternizing, sharing news and views, exchanging thoughts on issues, current and others. It is about respect for the elders and the younger ones alike, all in the spirit of Eid’l Fitri.

In preparation for the visits of relatives, Ram and I made some plans of what to cook and serve our guests. We woke up very early every day to clean up the house. We also cooked several different types of dishes, beef and chicken based, to be taken with either rice or buns and french loafs. There were also the cakes and cookies that Tessa and some that Sita obtained for us, including the colourful Sarawakian spiced cake that Mini and Shaffik brought for us when they came home recently. All these were served to our guests. Ram’s nephew and niece brought some food with them when they came. So there was more than enough food for everybody. At some point in time there were more people amongst our guests than there were chairs in the house to seat all of them. So children had to make do sitting on the floor. It was fun and we had a good time. The children especially, had fun, receiving ‘duit raya’ or money from their elders.

A few days later, baby Najla had her body temperature on the high side with running nose. Sita was also not well. Because of too much food? maybe…. Running around too much and stressed up? maybe that too. We brought both of them to the clinic and got medicine for their ailments. That’s the easy part. The difficult part was to make Najla take the medicine. It’s a ‘fight’ whenever it is medicine time!!

In the coming week or so we have more functions to attend, especially during the weekends. Many are holding their ‘open houses’ in these remaining days of Syawal. We look forward to catching up with more of our neighbours, friends and relatives. It is not often that we get to meet so many at one time and Eid’l Fitri and Syawal certainly fill the gap. There are also weddings to attend on all the weekends until January. The Christmas holiday weekend is especially full of weddings. We have four wedding invitations that weekend alone. Hmmmm …. I look forward to attend all the functions but aware that I must double up on my workouts being more aware that I can easily put on the bulges either in my thighs, paunch or waistline ……………

MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Petaling Jaya