Guests Coming For Raya

We departed from Alor Setar on early Friday morning. Last year Raya we caught in a terrible jam – 12 hours stuck in the traffic. So this year we tried a different strategy, head off at 5am. The traffic was very good n smooth. We stopped at two R&R n arrived in Shah Alam our home sweet home at 11.30am.

Everybody was so glad n relieved to be home. After an hour rest I went out to the wet market. We have visitor coming the next day for Raya. I managed to prepare rendang daging n boiled ketupat.

The next morning our visitors - my hubby’s cousin Kak Umi n the family from Malacca arrived. I cooked mee goreng plus the ketupat, rendang, cakes n cookies. After my house we went to my SIL house which is just about 5min drive.

At night we met them again. We went to Danau Kota. This was my first time here. I heard about this place from many people n last night at last I got to see the place. It is a place with rows of stalls selling from shoes, clothes, handbags, sunglasses n lots more. They sell an imitation products which some of them are the high grade quality.

The place opens daily at 10.00pm till morning. We were there till 12midnight. Quite interesting place if you plan to shop or else just cuci mata je lah…

Dinner With The Family

Since the day we arrived in Alor Setar, everyday we went to eat nasi mamak. Breakfast roti boom at mee abu, dinner at nasi royale n breakfast again at nasi zam zam. Sampai sakit perut ah semua.. toilet is our favourite place!

Tonight we planned to have seafood for our dinner. My family in Kedah loves to eat. We can sometimes drive to Kuala Perlis to try out ikan bakar or seafood. Sometimes we even went to Penang for nasi kandar.

Tonight we just went to the seafood restaurant at Kuala Kedah. Surprisingly there were many people. Probably dah jemu makan ketupat rendang.

Tonight also we had a surprise birthday celebration for my youngest brother – Boy. He will be 30 years old on the 25th Sept. Since everybody is here, an early celebration has been done for him.

We got the cake for him. This gonna be his last birthday as orang bujang. Next year kena kahwin! So next year will be the final kenduri kahwin in the family.

Raya at Alor Setar

On the second day of raya we went back to Kedah. We departed from Malacca at 5am. The traffic was so good n smooth. We arrived at Alor Setar at 11.30am.

In the evening we went to visit my mom’s pusara. This time around I brought all my children. Nabila & Hakeem always curios n asked lots of questions about their Tok Ma. Like how she died, where did she go, how did she goes to heaven n lots more of questions.

After an explanation during the journey they seem to understand a bit. I told them to read Al-fatihah all the time. Nabila was behaving herself very well sitting down while Hakeem was running around the graveyard.

At night I went to my aunty’s house. The following day we went to my cousin’s house. She made kuetiaw sup.

I have all my brothers around at Kedah. It has been so long that I n my brothers have the opportunity to be together at my dad’s house. I feel so happy to be with them. One thing that I miss n wish for is my mom to be with us. I really miss her cook for raya n the cookies as well.

Selamat Hari Raya

I celebrated my first day of raya at Malacca. This year my entire hubby’s siblings were in Malacca. It was so good to see everybody around. The kids got to see n play with all the cousins. We came back to Malacca on last Thursday then followed one by one by other siblings.

As usual my mother in-law will cook the ‘must’ menu for the house – sate goreng n sambal tumis udang plus with ketupat, rendang. This year we have special menu – mandi rice with kambing cooked by Nazri & abg Kadri. Menjadi gak deorang masak. I didn’t eat lamb but from their response n comments mcm sedap je…

As usual early in the morning we already received visitors who actually close relatives. After solat raya we had out eating session n receiving guest. In the afternoon we went to the nearby relatives’ house.

I wish all my friends, relatives n readers Selamat Hari Raya. Maaf Dzahir Batin. Semoga Hari Raya ini memberi seribu rahmat dan kebahagian kepada kita semua.

Finally..

It has been so so long that I have not updated my blog. The blog that I used to visit daily n updated regularly. I was very busy with my new project. I am actually selling kek lapis Sarawak for hari raya. As I used to ‘brag’ baking is my passion.. hehehehhe so I wanted to try changing the hobby into profit . But seriously I love to bake especially cakes.

Well talking about this kek lapis Sarawak, I learned to make it when I was staying in Miri. I was pregnant for Nabila at that time. I resigned my job to follow my hubby to Miri. I left my life of career woman n be a domestic manager. I took the weekend baking class. From there I experiment n tried out all kind design of this delicious stunning look of kek lapis.

After about 6 years making kek lapis for friends n family I took the first step created my online kek lapis business. Then I spread my wings promoted my product for Hari Raya. Frankly I didn’t really actually went all out promoting it. It was just mouth to mouth.

To my surprise I got quite lots of order started from before ramadhan till the end of it. I only have two ovens n fulltime helper (my maid) n part time helper (my daughter). We started baking from early morning after sahur till Iftar time. I tried once to continue after Iftar but I just couldn’t. I was so worn-out that sometimes I just couldn’t stand up properly n felt very weak.

My daily routine was baking kek lapis. I had sleepless nights worried that I couldn’t fulfill the orders. Though I had close the order there were still order continuously coming in which at the end I had to stop taking orders.

Anyway I finally managed to make all the delivery in KL yesterday. I went back to Kedah a week ago to deliver order from there. I feel so relieve that all of these had been settled.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to everybody that has helped me. Thank you very much to my SIL – kak faridah, Ida, Sis Nora, Boy, Kak Yan, Ita, Nazri for trusting my products helping me selling my kek lapis to your colleagues. Those that I’ve not mentioned names here, my friends n family – all of you are not forgotten. Thanks a lot.

Last but not least – those yang bekerja di belakang tabir… my hubby for taking over my job sending/fetching my kids to/from school. Then my daughter Nadira though sometimes sampai nak tercabut tekak menjerit suruh dia tolong – u did played the role. And the last one – my maid, I know she will never read this but she helped me a lot. Without her I could never do this alone. Balik Indon nanti boleh ah dia bisnes kek lapis ni… :)

I will definitely strategize better plans for next year hari raya. Thanks to Allah for the rezeki n kudrat yang diberi untuk melakukan semua ini. I will improve n do better.

Weekend Trip

I am now in Alor Setar. I arrived yeterday evening. I came back alone as this is only a weekend trip - business matter. Yesterday I had Iftar at my dad's home - nasi tomato. Later at night as planned I went out to have something that supposely to be "light supper" - nasi royale.

I just couldn't resist not to go there. Though I was already full but atas nafsu yang tinggi I forced myself to go there n eat. Honestly I didn't regret as the food was super yummy. Lepas gian nak makan nasi royale...

Later on my bro n cousin brought me around the town. They brought me to the place called Uptown. Huh.. kat Alor Setar pun ada uptown... ini satu peningkatan!! It is actually located behind the stadium. Rows of stalls selling clothes, shoes, tudung - mostly man's attire. I then went to stalls near Pekan Rabu which mostly sells baju melayu, songkok n baju kurung.

Yesterday was Friday - day off for Kedah so the town was quite packed with people. My night ended at midnight. I was so tired as the moment I put my head on the pillow I was probably dozed off. The next thing I realize when I woke up, it was already morning.

Thank You

I’ve been very extremely busy. I have forgotten when was the last time I touch my laptop or hook up to the internet. Hubby has taken over my job dutifully sending n fetching kids to/from school. My routine started early in the morning baking till nearly time of Iftar. In between I cooked for Iftar. I will tell later about my baking project..

Anyway last Sunday hubby took me n kids to have our Iftar outside – birthday treat. We had Thai food at Plaza Masalam. We didn’t do any booking n just try our luck walked in. The place was crowded n we were lucky to get a table.

Thank you so much as I don’t have to cook on that day! I also received cards – musical card special chosen by Hakeem n lovely gifts from my children. Thank you also for the big surprise – a beautiful bouquet of roses from my dearest Faizah. This really caught me into surprise. Thanks dear.. the flower was so lovely.

Thanks also to Danny for the ‘exciting’ gift – have no time to experiment it yet n not to forget Piqah.. ehem.. u still owe me! hehehehhehe..

Well.. who says I didn’t enjoy being 40? I’ve been surrounding n love by all the people that are so thoughtful n caring. All of u are so special n always in my heart. Thank you..

40

40. Yes I am 40 years old today. First n foremost I would like to express my gratitude to Allah S.W.T for giving me a good health n long life that I will be able to see the world n as who I am now for 40 years old.

40 is a big number! Some would say dah tua pun… some would say muda lagi ni.. People always say life begin at 40. That is mostly said to man but I don’t know whether it is applicable to a woman like me.

If people ask me how do I feel? Well.. I feel good, happy n blessed. At the age of 40 people are still mistaken me as mid 30. time ni perasan ah sikit.. I still got no wrinkles on my face. I can still run n doing steps in the gym continuously for 30min without pancit.

Alhamdullilah n I feel so grateful n I pray and hope that these will last longer. Apart from that I am very happy with my husband n children, my family. I also wish that all my plans can be achieved successfully.

I pray that my years ahead will be filled by happiness, prosperity, love, long life, good health n fully blessed by Allah S.W.T.

"One year older doesn’t mean that u are getting old but u are actually a year beautifully matured."

p/s: zillion thanks for all the wishes.