Bah Merah

Whenever I'm in my car, driving, alone, I think. A lot. About everything. I have a lot of thoughts too. About everything. I keep on reminding myself to blog it. No matter how petty it is. Or how insignificant it is. The thing is that, whenever I am in front of my computer, all my thoughts fly away, and left me sitting motionless in my chair. Thank God my favorite cousin (mind you, all my cousins are my favs =P), Yie, tagged me. At least there is something for me to update. This is what I am supposed to do (this sounds rather familiar actually).

* Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog. * Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. * Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. * Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

• First rule... checked
• Second rule...weird and random huh?
  

1. I dance to my own rhythm a.k.a I seriously don't know how to dance
2. For this year alone, I've read and reread Harry Potter series for more than 10 times.
3. I like traditional songs, not classic like "Tudung Periuk" but traditional like "Cindai"
4. I like my foods and drinks at room temperature.
   
5. I never win a lucky draw ever in my whole life.
6. I think that my luck for lucky draw has been transferred to being lucky when finding a parking space in the mall/office. Always found it, front row.
7. I can't sew a straight line if my life depended on it. My last attempt on sewing was trying to sew beads on my blue baju kurung sleeves. I ended up messing it so bad that the sleeves are all cutted out/up and the baju kurung ended up in my thrash can. It is that bad.
   

• Third rule... I think I've tagged my friends before on this and I don't know many bloggers, so I'm gonna pass
• Fourth rule... irrelevant

On another note, I went to visit my grandmother the other day. She suddenly fall sick and can barely talk. When I was there, her eldest sister was there too, we called her Tok Long.

Tok Long is a very cute old lady. She's petite like my grandmother but she looks a lot stronger. She walks around on her own (without a walking stick) and full of energy might I add. Her voice is loud and clear and she remembers everything. Amazed at the old lady, my brother and I asked her, her age. She told us that she is 86 years old. My grandmother though interrupted her by saying that she is only 81 years old since she was only 2 years older than my grandmother. They bickered for a second until both agree that they don't know for sure their birthdate. They also agree that they are 2 years apart and Tok Long was 2 years old when "bah besar" hits Terengganu. Puzzled with the term, my brother and I asked them about it. What they can tell us is just that there is a huge flood in Terengganu back then that was called 'Bah Besar' & 'Bah Merah'. Neither can tell us the year when it happens.

I did a little googling on the subject when I got back to my house. Yes, there is a 'Bah Besar' back then, 1926 to be exact. The flood is also called by another name, "Bah Merah". Mainly because the water is all muddy and also because it took many lives and destroyed many houses and plants. The flood did not only affected Terengganu, but many other states in Malaysia. Since then, Malaysia was hit with big flood every 40 years. The latest was the one that hit Johor on 2007. There is no documented evidence on any flood previously to 1926. It is however being speculated that there is a big flood sometimes in 1888s.

After a little calculation and some deductive reasoning, my brother and I both agreed that Tok Long was born around 1923, which makes her 85 to 86 years old. She does actually remembers everything!

Lagi-lagi Hari Raya?

This Hari Raya eve marked a 2 years anniversary to my blog, Hijri Calendar of course. Who knows after 2 years, this blog is still up and running. Although, like Sarimah said many times, update sebulan sekali, it still is being updated every now and then. =)

How was your Hari Raya?

Mine was a little tiring this year not that it's not fun. On the first day of Raya, we left for my grandparent house a little after 12.00PM. We usually left right after Raya's prayer but this year my brother bought a new camera and all of us were taking our sweet times posing for pictures. I guess after 2 years of no proper camera (we only have handphone camera before), we became a little obsessed with taking pictures. The thing is, no one can sit still for that few minutes. There will always be someone who would break and laugh.


We don't really have anything to eat at home except for Nasi Himpit, Kuah Kacang and Rendang Daging. We usually have Lemang and Ketupat but it seems this year, everyone that I knew who sell these Raya meals were not taking any orders anymore. Oh well. Thank God for Nasi Dagang at my grandparent house. I am not a big fan of Nasi Dagang, but I guess empty stomach + festive(y?) feeling clean my plate. Around 4.00 PM we left for another grandparent house (my late father's side). They have always celebrated Hari Raya in Kuala Lumpur with my aunties, Ciksu and Auntie (Saba) since Chik (my grandma) stays with them.

This year however, they decided to come home and I was ecstatic to be spending Hari Raya with them. Their house is where I grew up and having to leave the house for quite a while, the house looks very old. It was a little sad being there.


We left Chik's house at 6.30PM and got home around 7.30PM. Since everyone was hungry we bought a family bucket at KFC. Surprisingly, the line is quite long. I guess many have missed Hari Raya meal this year. On the second day, we started our Hari Raya jalan-jalan to our relatives house around 12.00PM. We got up a little bit late that morning =P. We went to Tok Ngah's house at Bukit Kecil but the gate was locked. Then we went to another Tok Ngah's house in Kuala Ibai. They didn't really recognize us if my mother wasn't with us and I guess it goes both ways. I wish we'll be more in touch but leave it to me, always so malas to visit family. Thank God for Hari Raya. After that we went to another Tok's house in Batu Burok, only to find out that Tok already moved to a new house (the current house that we always visit is his daughter's), a new wife in fact. Heheh. Then, we (all the other guests who wanted to visit him also) drove to his new house which is only 3 minutes drive.

After that, we called Ayah Zih (my uncle) because his house was supposed to be next. He said that he was at Istana Maziah and would be home in 30 minutes. We went home first because everyone needed to use the bathroom and my mom wanted to pray (zuhur) at home. After we got home, we went to Cik Nor's (neighbor) open house and we were about to leave for Ayah Zih's house when Cik Nah (another neighbor) and her family came knocking.

We left to Ayah Zih's around 4.30PM. I haven't been to Ayah Zih's house in a while. Been meaning to drop by when Yie came back for his semester break but didn't get a chance to since I've been running forth and back to Kuantan and Kota Bharu. So, I didn't know that Ayah Zih have done an extension to his house. I was a little surprised when the usual yard now turned into walls and pavements. The place looks gorgeous though. Not many furniture in the new living room. So, it looks spacious especially with the right wall color (Ayah Zih had been bragging about choosing the color himself. hehe). He left the deco to Makcik Nor though. So, the room looks as elegant as the rest of the house.

We left around 6.30PM and after Asar's prayer, we went to Mydin Mall to buy all the ingredients for our Hari Raya makan-makan on the next day. Abang kept reminding us that we only have 30 minutes since they wanted to pray Maghrib at home and Abang has a prior engagement at 8.30PM. We managed to shop for 35 minutes (thank you for the constant reminder). I was a little disappointed because the beef, beansprout and tempe are all sold out. I guess the soto can manage without beansprout and kuah lodeh won't lose its taste without tempe. But try telling the guests that they are eating beefless beef biryani.

Nevertheless, I started cooking that night with the helps from everyone. Abang was late for his futsal game because he was helping with cutting the chickens. Ijat was assigned to finding all the ingredients I couldn't found in Mydin, all over Terengganu. Co was crushing the potatoes (and that was only after I pulled a face since he was busy playing online game while others were busy cooking, my poor brother. hehe) and adik baked her famous chocolate chip banana bread (erk, famous only to us).

My soldiers fall one by one, starting with Ijat. Then adik said she wanted to take a nap in the living room. I know what that means, =P. When Abang got home from futsal, he kept on asking if there's anything that he can help me with. I left him in charge for mencarik-carik ayam for Soto, I thought that would keep him occupied. Turned out he was quite fast. Then, I asked him to peel the fried ground nuts (for Kuah Kacang), that took a while. Co was helping with shaping the potatoes for begedil and that took a while too. They finished around 4.00AM. I was cooking Dalca when they finished. Abang went straight to bed while Co continued with his online game.

After frying papadom and suhun, I felt a little light headed, that was around 5.00AM. I decided to take a nap in the living room and set my alarm to 5.30AM. I woke up to my mother's voice waking up my brothers and sister for Subuh prayer at 6.30AM. After washing my face, I took my car key and drove to the nearest butcher stall and got my 2 kilos beef. The butcher told me that the Gelugor morning market was opened and I went there next, hoping I could find tempe and beansprout. There was barely 5 stalls opened.

I then headed to Pasar Chabang Tiga (wet market). The pasar was crowded considering it was only the third day of Hari Raya. I asked around for tempe and bean sprouts but it turned that no one makes tempe yet and someone showed me the stall (the one and only) that sold beansprout. The crowd was intense. Everyone wanted a little bit of beansprout. I could never believe, me, who have been hating beansprouts my whole life was battling for beansprout at 7.00AM. I lost the battle.

I started cooking (again) as soon as I got home. Adik was up early and she helped me with grinding and cooking and cleaning. Our first guest came at 11.00AM. We told everyone to come after 12.00 but I guess Mi's (my mom) friends must have missed the details. The second guests was Cik Nor and her family. I was still in my T-shirt and Jeans at the time and was still cooking. Soto, kuah kacang and lontong has finished cooking. Nasi biryani was on the stove still.

I managed to sneak upstairs after Cik Nor and her family left and get myself cleaned. I guess we overestimated the guests. The crowd was much smaller than the previous year but I guess it's better this way. I got to spend some quality, personal time with them. To my surprise, some that I haven't met for quite sometime showed up. That was nice. There are a lot of leftovers. I think I'm going to bring some to the office tomorrow.

Like I said. Tiring. I had fun though. Selamat Hari Raya everyone. Have a great one!