Wednesday 22 June 2016

#Rayamoodon

Salam everyone. How's your Ramadhan so far? Today should be the 18th day since we started fasting. Alhamdulillah.

Today is also a public holiday, specifically for Nuzul Qur'an.

As expected, traffic jams everywhere in KL. With the public holiday and Raya/Eid fast approaching, everyone was most likely shopping for Raya and picking up their clothes from their respective tailors (including yours truly).

We started off our morning at the Kraftangan fair in Chulan. It's a yearly thing for us. I must say that it's poorly organised though. A disappointing start to the morning. I refuse to hear such excuses as "Malaysian work culture" or "Ikut Malaysian time looor". Really? NO! Such wastage of both time and money. It was advertised that the fair was to start on 22 June at 10am hence it should begin rightly so. Everything should have been set up last night. To boot today is a public holiday and is the best time to capitalise on people having the time to go through the booths. Yes, the fair will only be officiated by our Minister tomorrow. Regardless, things could have been prepared in advance. Things can proceed and all booths open for business with the opening ceremony being held tomorrow. If the idea was to only begin after the ceremony, then it should be advertised that the fair will only be held on the same day as the ceremony itself or the day after. I felt like we wasted time coming over on the first day, hoping we could avoid the massive crowd. Yet, many of the booths were still not set up or still preparing for the day. The confused faces of some tourists who were there also does not bode a good start to the fair. Ayoyooo... sayang sungguh! Hubs suggests that we come again this weekend. I don't think I can though with revision classes and all.

We then moved on to KLCC to finish off our Raya preparation. This year we gradually bought the necessary and with exams looming over, not much is needed with Raya time most likely being spent in our library in my case. We managed to catch a performance in KLCC as part of their Raya celebrations. Nice deco at the concourse. A colourful rendition of life in the kampung.

By noon, we were already heading to Jalan TAR. Fuuh, so many people. Even then the sales lady at one of the boutiques mentioned the crowd was even more massive two weeks ago. Wow! We were in Jalan TAR to pick up our baju raya. At the same time, we went to look for something for my mum and sisters. With her impending move to KL, thought a nice baju raya would cheer her return to KL. She is definitely a bit sad leaving Kuantan after many 'more or less' peaceful years there with things such as 15 minute jams and bird watching almost everyday. However with everyone here in KL, the move is definitely for the better.

The Raya mood is definitely in the air. Our initial plan to spend only an hour or two in Jalan TAR extended to more than that. Despite the crowd, I do feel my Raya spirits lifted seeing people's excited faces shopping in Jalan TAR. The next trip there will most likely to go for their night markets. Hubs especially loves this specific stall which sells mini keropok lekors.

I hope your Raya mood is ON as mine.

Wishing you all well with the preparations.



Monday 6 June 2016

Greeting Ramadhan

Alhamdulillah, tadi dah settle kat dapur after our sahur.

With the exams looming so near, I thought my reaction towards greeting this year's Ramadhan would be lukewarm than usual. However, it's totally the opposite.

The sense of excitement and euphoria in greeting the holy month this year is definitely different. I don't recall being so "semangat" to cook for sahur last night after spending most of my Sunday in revision class and walking about in Pavi jalan-jalan with Hubs. Somehow I managed to muster some energy to do so after an hour of chilling in front of the TV once we got home.

This will be our third year greeting the Ramadhan and Insya Allah, Eid, as husband and wife. Hoping for more Ramadhans and Eids together in many more years to come, Insya Allah with our own family soon.

Wishing everyone a blessed Ramadhan Al-Mubarak. May our Ramadhan be filled with peace, blessings, forgiveness and enlightenment. Please forgive my family and I for any wrongdoings we might have committed to you, knowingly or unknowingly.

Happy Ramadhan everyone!