My Desperate Housewives (@ DH) friends were telling me that Eid was gonna be boring here. According to them, people just go to the mosque in the morning then spend the whole day sleeping. Visiting and such maybe that night or the day after. I guess it would have been boring; since almost all of them either went back to India or went to other cities/across the causeway.
How was my first Eid away from home (not counting last year which I spent with hubby in Phuket hehe)? EK and us started from the night before, with our last iftar (break fast) at our place followed by a pizza "celebration" then a game of cards. On Eid itself, S gathered us S'poreans at her place for a potluck and as she put it, to have a little Hari Raya feel. It was a great gathering, chatting up with the Sg nurses, eating good Malay food and getting to know more people. After the meetup, we made our way to the stadium to watch fireworks. Cannot beat our National Day fireworks lah, but it was pretty nevertheless. Will upload it one fine day... EK were also on their way to catch the fireworks so we met them. After that, we went to their place for an eat-drink-and-be-merry time. This time there was beer, chips and more cards till 1am again. Happening right??
On Day 2 one of the nurses invited me to her compound for another little gathering. It was interesting walking around their grounds and experiencing a different kind of living here. Day 3 saw us on the outskirts of Riyadh, partly because we initially got lost thanks to wrong GPS coordinates, and partly cos AM's compound was literally in the middle of nowhere. It was food galore at their place. Chicken dishes, begedel, stir fried beans, even keropok ikan... mmm... yummy Indonesian food. I'd been craving for Malay food very much before this so these gatherings were a real treat. [On a side note, this was because firstly I don't cook much Malay food cos Mr F doesn't really like Malay food partly cos his chilli tolerance is pretty low, and secondly because the iftar gatherings at the DHs' houses were always very standard - haleem, fruit salad and briyani. Like ok, I love briyani, more aptly what we get in Sg, and not the Hyd kind, and 4-5 gatherings in a row of briyani, briyani and more briyani.....I don't mind staying off it for another 6 months now..hehehe). Needless to say I shamelessly packed food each time before going home. Hey, good food I've been craving for and 3 days of no cooking - why wouldn't I? :P I felt a little bad not giving duit raya (Raya money) to the kids but with our tight situation, we have to be thrifty.
I kinda regretted not spending my "last" Raya with my family (though at that time Phuket with the hubz sounded like a fantastic idea) especially when I started feeling homesick on Raya morning. I miss the Raya takbir (special call for Raya prayers) which I did not hear on Raya night nor the next morning, I miss mum shouting at us to get up early and go to the mosque or help her with cooking, I miss not having visitors i.e. Auntie's and Uncle's family in the day. I used to think Raya was a chore till of course now. When you don't have it, you miss it more. Despite this, I'm glad to say that I had an excellent time this Raya. Even more happening than in Sg since with my small family, our visiting can be done in a day or so. S brought up a relevant point that celebrating Raya away from home is sometimes better since there's no family drama and no need to make 4 sets of clothes for visiting (thank God we don't need to do the latter in our family). I'm really grateful and happy to have met with the lovely people here who made my first Raya away from home a very pleasant one. :)
How was my first Eid away from home (not counting last year which I spent with hubby in Phuket hehe)? EK and us started from the night before, with our last iftar (break fast) at our place followed by a pizza "celebration" then a game of cards. On Eid itself, S gathered us S'poreans at her place for a potluck and as she put it, to have a little Hari Raya feel. It was a great gathering, chatting up with the Sg nurses, eating good Malay food and getting to know more people. After the meetup, we made our way to the stadium to watch fireworks. Cannot beat our National Day fireworks lah, but it was pretty nevertheless. Will upload it one fine day... EK were also on their way to catch the fireworks so we met them. After that, we went to their place for an eat-drink-and-be-merry time. This time there was beer, chips and more cards till 1am again. Happening right??
On Day 2 one of the nurses invited me to her compound for another little gathering. It was interesting walking around their grounds and experiencing a different kind of living here. Day 3 saw us on the outskirts of Riyadh, partly because we initially got lost thanks to wrong GPS coordinates, and partly cos AM's compound was literally in the middle of nowhere. It was food galore at their place. Chicken dishes, begedel, stir fried beans, even keropok ikan... mmm... yummy Indonesian food. I'd been craving for Malay food very much before this so these gatherings were a real treat. [On a side note, this was because firstly I don't cook much Malay food cos Mr F doesn't really like Malay food partly cos his chilli tolerance is pretty low, and secondly because the iftar gatherings at the DHs' houses were always very standard - haleem, fruit salad and briyani. Like ok, I love briyani, more aptly what we get in Sg, and not the Hyd kind, and 4-5 gatherings in a row of briyani, briyani and more briyani.....I don't mind staying off it for another 6 months now..hehehe). Needless to say I shamelessly packed food each time before going home. Hey, good food I've been craving for and 3 days of no cooking - why wouldn't I? :P I felt a little bad not giving duit raya (Raya money) to the kids but with our tight situation, we have to be thrifty.
I kinda regretted not spending my "last" Raya with my family (though at that time Phuket with the hubz sounded like a fantastic idea) especially when I started feeling homesick on Raya morning. I miss the Raya takbir (special call for Raya prayers) which I did not hear on Raya night nor the next morning, I miss mum shouting at us to get up early and go to the mosque or help her with cooking, I miss not having visitors i.e. Auntie's and Uncle's family in the day. I used to think Raya was a chore till of course now. When you don't have it, you miss it more. Despite this, I'm glad to say that I had an excellent time this Raya. Even more happening than in Sg since with my small family, our visiting can be done in a day or so. S brought up a relevant point that celebrating Raya away from home is sometimes better since there's no family drama and no need to make 4 sets of clothes for visiting (thank God we don't need to do the latter in our family). I'm really grateful and happy to have met with the lovely people here who made my first Raya away from home a very pleasant one. :)
2 comments:
And no one to ask u things like when's ur little one coming etc etc...
thats so trueeeeeeee...hahahaha
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