26. The highlight of the Hj Hassan clan gathering - BBQ night. At RM35 per pax, it was quite a feast. However, hubby had a headache and our helper wanted to stay with baby Haniyya in the room with Ayah Tam's helper, so I could not enjoy the food thorough and thorough. Not when I had to ensure that Huzaifah and Humaidi would not dive into the tempting swimming pool.
27. I had not a single photo of the BBQ night.
28. And it was not fun when hubby did not came down to join the BBQ at all. Hence he did not join the big family photo session. Really felt a bit awkward being in the family photo shoot without my hubby beside me.
29. Although I repeatedly told my aunts that it's hubby's normal reaction to sleep off his headache, my cousin Atiqah and Syifa' were both reprimanded by their respective mother for 'causing trouble for me with my husband'. (Interestingly, both aunt are also married to Ustaz)
30. One aunt in fact told me that I should cut down on all-girl's day out or lunch, when I told her that normally hubby has no problem allowing me to go for all-girl's day out.
31. Happened that on that particular day hubby was not too happy with me taking ages to get back to the hotel (because he had to take care of the kids. Our helper mistakenly thought that I was back with him so she sent the toddlers to our room and hubby found it difficult to handle the kids on his own)
32. The reason it took so long for me to get back? Massive traffic jam from Queensbay mall to Tanjung Tokong due to heavy rain. Our journey to Queensbay Mall lasted for about 30 minutes but the return journey took more than an hour. Good thing there were some DVDs on board, so the girls watched "Aliens in the Attic" while I struggled in the traffic jam.
33. However, I don't think just because I was late once I should be penalized from having any all-girl's day out ever. Truth is, I seldom have any and seldom get to have lunch with girlfriends too. Everybody is always so busy and so occupied that it's difficult to organize even one all-girls's day out. And sometimes, when a friend finally get to organize it, I could not make it due to other commitments.
34. Anyway, we had a better day the next day. Visited Ummi in Sungai Petani, had a reunion of sort in Alor Setar and spent the night in Pendang.
35. It was great meeting both Che Lee's family and Pokcik's family in Alor Setar. When Che Lee and Kak Ita found out that we were in Penang and going to visit my biological mother in Sungai Petani, they quickly invited us over to their home in Taman PKNK, Alor Setar. "Take the Alor Setar Utara exit and I'll meet you there," or so Che Lee promised.
36. True to his word, he did met us up at the highway exit, but after being held up in another place because his other guest confused a building in Taman PKNK with Wisma PKNK or something. No worry, we assured him. We were happy just being able to meet up with him and family.
37. And his other guests were no stranger to us - it's Pokcik Nasa and his family. While hubby and I had met up with Pokcik since we came back from Japan, we hadn't had a chance to meet up with Kak Mai and his kids, and it's been two years since we last met up.
38. As for Che Lee, Kak Ita and kids, they'd just came back for good in April 2009 and we haven't meet up since a year ago.
39. Kak Ita made us really delicious laksa. She said sorry for the famous laksa teluk kechai stall was not opened on that day or otherwise we could have a taste of the famous delicious laksa. But really, after almost a week of ketupat, lemang, rendang and stuff, her "laksa Taman PKNK" tasted like heaven.
40. The kids had really grown up so quickly. No wonder last time Ayah's relatives used to say "dah besar dah ye" everytime they visit my grandparents' place. I had the urge to say exactly the same thing to my friends' kids. The one thing that held me back was the thought that crossed my mind when I was greeted with such comment "Laa, it goes without saying that kids grow up. You don't expect them to grow smaller, right?"
41. I was especially impressed with Nazhan Ariq, Pokcik's youngest. Barely 3 years old and already he handles his dad's expensive DSLR Nikon camera expertly. "That's his toy," Kak Mai quipped. Hah, my guess is he is a chip off the old block in making, inheriting Pokcik's creativity and productivity when it comes to photography.
42. True to their adventurous nature, Huzaifah and Humaidi raised a small ruckus in Che Lee's house. Good thing that Che Lee kids have some stuff that could distract the smaller ones for a while - they keep some hamsters. Fascinated by the 'tikus' that he saw then, for a while Huzaifah keeps asking to watch the 'tikus' also known as "G-Force" DVD in the car.
43. "Yeay!" comment heard during raya: "You looked thinner" (from someone who hadn't seen me in a few month)
"Ouch!" comment heard during raya: "Nampak dah bertambah (berat) noo" (from someone who hadn't seen me in a year)
Truth: I'd shed about 2 kg during fasting month and gained about 600 gm since Raya.
44. Spent the night at hubby's friend, Ustaz Ghazali's house in Pendang. He had some trouble regarding change of scheme under the old SSB to SSM (he deserved to be graded as DGA29 but was graded as DGA27) Helped him out a bit some months ago and he told us that if everything goes well, he had been told by the state education office that he'll be getting his long overdue extra pay soon and he might get a time-based promotion too, insya Allah.
45. The next day was not a great day for us though. Huzaifah had an asthma attack. First took him to a clinic - and it was hard finding a clinic opened on Friday, the day off in Kedah. A patient in the clinic recommneded us to take him to the Klinik Kesihatan Pendang.
46. Took him to Klinik Kesihatan Pendang, but the government clinic was closed. No one manned the "Emergency" area. Went back to the private clinic, this time we waited patiently for our turn to be called in by the doctor. And told by the doctor that due to the seriousness of Huzaifah's condition, we had to take him to the hospital in Alor Setar.
47. So we drove all the way back to Alor Setar, to Hospital Sultanah Bahiyah. A real efficient hospital - Huzaifah got his nebulizer treatment in no time at all. In fact, right after he got his share of 'gas', he started wandering all around the A&E unit while I had to wait for my turn to see the doctor.
48. Well, turned out that every morning, my eyes went all itchy, really, really red (like those owned by ghosts/demons in Hong Kong movies), the lids went all swollen, with lots of tears and yellowish goops (or locally known as "taik mata") that at times seemed to stick the lids together, especially after sleeping. The doctor confirmed that I'd gotten eye infection and issued an MC for four days.
49. I got flu too and got a one-day MC after the first ended. The week after Raya week, I only went to the office once. I took two more days off - because my eyes were still red and swollen and I did not want to cause infection in the office yet I was not keen to spend another long day in the government clinic to get another MC issued.
50. But after all is said and done - it was a good Raya, alhamdulillah. One must never forget the blessings showered by Allah in so many forms and guises - family, friends, good health, laughter and all. Alhamdulillah.
No comments:
Post a Comment