 | dah gatal nak kahwin | Feb 13, 2005 |
and kahwin we did, three years ago. and here are the days of our lives. from sheikh zayed road to sharjah to simei. where to next?
I know in the respective Inbox-es of those in my contacts/network list there was a sudden flood of notification updates from me today BUT please dun bother viewing the onslaught coz they're all actually old news, baby! Just a few recent entries from my Blogger blog and only because I'm feeling itchy enough to try out the cross-posting feature. Oh how exciting my life is.
*cue in sound of crickets in the background*
Dunno how long the cross-posting fever will last, knowing my affinity for The Hot Chicken Shit Concept (read:hangat-hangat taik ayam) but while it lasts, expect a bit of redundant activity from raihanraihan.multiply.com so feel free to ignore.
Oh and I finally succumbed to regulating the viewership of SOME of my stuff. I made all my new postings on Multiply (if ever) a bit more private, which means either only my contacts or my network AND my contacts can view. And my Facebook's full monty can only be seen by my Facebook posse. Only because TheLaki got sound sikit so have to oblige. I'm still so tak kuasa actually but tak nak degil with TheLaki pasal nak berkat bulan Ramadhan!
I feel so grown-up suddenly. Exercising control and vigilance over my Internet stuff...bypassing stubborn behaviour.....obeying TheLaki's requests with nary a tantrum....not bad for a 27-year-old ganyot!
Next thing you know, Raihan masok senoman or something to that effect. :P
In the meantime, have a perfect Ramadhan, everyone!
|  | Thursday 10th October 2007
See, TNP New Face 2007 Candidate Number Four is Sharifah Hood. Shireen's cousin Irwin's hot girlfriend.
And we were the noisy supporters of Da Hood!
Hot as she was though, the competition was triumphed by a (yes..yet another!)pan-asian! And I really thought Da Hood had a chance of getting into the top three at least! Methinks dia jambu gilerr okay..she looks like Nelly Furtado tau!
Anyway, credit has got to be given to us, Da Hood's Posse of Pemekiks! Shireen, Shameen, Riza (Shameen's friend), Zihan and I were quite vocal hokay! We shouted, shrieked and squealed for Da Hood as she sashayed and strut her stuff down the runway. Err...we also did a little of the above for the hot male dancers and hot(-ter!) male model escorts who were added on in between for...I dunno, aesthetic purposes? To balance out hot girl aura with hot guy? To give Jolly Boys (gay men!) a reason to watch the competition? I dunno really but boy, were they....hot boys! Heheheh.....sorry Azim Honey...worry not... you're stll my ultimate hotness hokay?!
Undoubtedly, Miriam Wright, the winner, though not typically what one would call "runway model beautiful" as she was quite busty and a tad "berisi", was visibly at ease, exuding warmth and radiance the whole night with her ready smile and a distinct happy bounce in her walk. If this competition was based really just on the face, then she had a beautiful happy face on show.
I guess it also helped that her dress for the final segment had a deep V-neck with an ample sample sight of a healthy cleavage. I mean, as I mentioned, she *was* busty and there *were* men in the panel of judges, as well as men in the voting public.
After that, the husbands (who had quite a night themselves on a certain black two-wheeler!) met us up for late-night supper at Kampong Glam and later-night silly shopping at Mustafa. When I say shopping, I meant playing with insecticide (spraying and sniffing incuded!), pretending the Birkin and Damier lookalikes were real and making a big fuss over cat food.
It was a riot! A real Ramadan Riot! Pictures for the later part of the night?
Too busy laughing to take pictures.
So just tengok apa yang ada kat sini lah ye?!
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| | These are also pictures circa December 2006. I've uploaded them ages ago but I totally forgot to publish them for public viewing. Aaahh..the occasional blonde strikes again.
So, a few days after Fizrina's wedding extravaganza, before leaving for Dubai, Azim and I had a little after-midnight go-around Singapore, just a lazy drive-here-drive-there thing we like to do on our short Singapore stints. I happened to call Nazreen to see if she fancied a go-around (pasal aku tau dia pon burung hantu) since ZIhan (who adores her Kak Nazreen) was with us and she said she was at her friend's shoe shop.
Now, the very mention of shoes got me so flustered that it took me quite a while to take command of my senses and demanded to know apa dia buat malam-malam buta kat kedai kasut? Is there a 24-hour kedai kasut I am not aware of? Has the world evolved enough to accomodate such inane shoe fetishes to the extent of offering an always-open array of pretty footwear for sale?
Well, no. Not really. Nazreen's just keeping her uni coursemate, Angeline, company while Angeline and her beloved Leon put in the final touches to Lilica before its official opening. Lilica is Angeline's baby -a little shoe shoppe of beautiful handmade Korean heels within the four shiny walls of Cathay's new shopping arena.
Naz said if I wanted to drop by, I am so very welcome. Magic words, my friend, magic words.
Without further ado, I held a knife to Azim's throat and hijacked our car towards Cathay where I raced up the the fourth floor to the boutique and proceeded to pour myself into every pretty shoe I set my eyes on. Which is every single shoe Lilica had on display. I swear the shoes were prettier than them Korean drama stars. Betol tak bedek.
Oleh kerana Raihan nak support member (although Angeline is Nazreen's member not mine..but STILL kita members by default) I steadfastly decided to buy a pair. After narrowing down my contestants to the final three and after pesyening all three for half-an-hour around the carpeted floor, I settled on a lovely pair of peep-toe slingback heels in dark blue carp skin and gold leather trimmings. Yes..CARP skin! As in the fish! The texture was so soft and delicate, I was this close to rubbing the sides of the shoe on my face!
Angeline also explained to me there are only one or two pairs per size for each design and not all designs come in all the available sizes so Raihan konon feeling exclusive lah kan?! And they're not even that pricey for a pair of handmade, limited-edition shoes so it's very value for moolah. I happy lah.
So if anyone fancies a little bit of difference from the masses when it comes to fancy footwear, pay a little visit to Lilica. Or before you get going, pay a little visit to the website... http://www.lilica.com.sg and start ogling from home. :P
I'm rubbing my hands in glee now, thinking of my next pair of Lilicas.
Oh ye pretty pretty Lilicas! Oh ye I heed thy call!
Yum.
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| | The Post-Wedding Party...or lack thereof.
I think there was supposed to be one but everyone was too pooped to do anything so we just cleaned up and cleared off from the suite to let the newlyweds get on with business. Heh. There was a bit of wedding post-mortem here and there, a bit of gossip and feedback from everyone about everyone and everything and then everyone said their farewells and kissed goodbye.
Azim and I, somehow hungry again, made our way to Simpang Bedok with Shireen and Malique. And we met my darling unkle Nur, who was back from Melbourne for a bit, during term break. His poor friends kena abandoned kejap while Nur regaled us with his Turkish delight stories (winks at Nur...heheh).
Perfect ending, I say...to a perfect day.
And for the whole Izrina+Firhad wedding affair...this is the last bit of photos. So breathe easy now, while waiting for the other pics coming up soon of other affairs. Heh.
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| | And so, the wedding dinner now.
I had the pictures uploaded ages ago but I totally forgot I have not published them for public viewing. So there the pictures stayed...along with a bunch of other ablums..which I will proceed to publish once I've made sense of everything I uploaded.
(And then we have the ones I still store for reasons unknown in my myriad of SD cards. Yes, I need help.)
But for now, enjoy these grossly overdue but gorgeous pictures of Izrina+Firhad's wedding dinner, which happened a few hours after the wedding lunch ended.
Though it was in the same ballroom, dinner was a different wedding fairytale altogether. Though the dais remained the same, the dinner table settings were totally and tastefully transformed, with each table bearing a different Asian theme. Our table was presumably Indon-styled so we had wayang-kulit napkins and little Indon figurines. Another table nearby us was Japanese-styled and boasted origami and paper fans for its decor. Very unconventional, very cool! With the dinner guests decked out in their "asian best", as instructed by the dinner wedding invite, outfits coloured in hues as asian as possible, this was one wedding dinner ASEAN would be proud of! :)
Oh..and one of the couple's friends actually came as a ...(jeng,jeng,jeng)...sushi chef! Betol tak bedek! At first, Azim and I (and many other people, I'm sure!) thought he was a real sushi chef because sushi was on the dinner menu! Then it became apparent that the "chef" was seated amongst the guests, which is normally frowned upon in most wedding cultures so I figured the dude was a guest and hardly a bona fide Japanese culinary maestro. Heh.
I didn't get to take his picture because I didn't know him but I was pretty impressed by his interpretation of the dress code! I would never have thought up of that...it's too.....out-of-the-box! That's why I stayed on the safe side and came dressed as a rejected concubine/fired getai singer/fancy nyonya sayor from China. Heh. And Azim came as a Wak Indon (unwittingly, he complemented our table's theme very well!). Together, as what we told everyone who wanted to listen, we were characters of a true love story (i.e made-up tale to justify choice of dinner wear) between a rich but gay Indonesian bachelor who took enough tongkat-ali herbs to turn straight, afterwhich he desired a young, nubile wife from China but took pity on a blapok and rejected concubine who used to be a getai singer but got fired and now sells vegetables in her native Guangdong province.
Yeah...cerita dongeng of convenience.
So the dinnerguests were as quirky and as colourful as they come but the dinner itself? Pesta perot aah! Dinner was served course by course and I was served many of my favourites so I was sufficiently sated. They even served steak! And it was good steak, hokay?! Though I usually have my steaks done medium-rare (yes...gimme the bloood!), the one I was served, which was done medium, was done to perfection (in my books!).
Yes, it was hard to keep my bloated babats from bursting my cheongsam at the seams. But it was harder to stop eating. So trying to stop stuffing my face was a lost cause. I just sucked in my almost-full tummy to prevent that cheongsam from ripping.
All in all, it was a fun affair, this wedding. I wouldn't have expected anything less from Mr and Mrs Firhad! Needless to say, my dinner company was also fantastic. Oh we talked and chewed and talked and chewed and took photos and talked and took photos and ....well...just had a lot of goodness pumping! So much so that one of us, at the table, even had to endure the torture of having a glass of water down his front (thanks to someone else's very excited gesticulating!) but graciously forgave the culprit, smiling away. Heh. Eh...not me, eh? I didn't spill that glass of water. I was on the opposite side of the table, far away from the crime scene. :P
Of course, any wedding of any of my decade-long galpals of Crescent Girls' School would reawaken the prepubescent schoolgirls in us. Cue in crazy giggles, racous laughter, trips down memory lane and priceless Crescentian moments. Madness is a given when we're reunited, regardless of us at 25, 35 or 105, I'm sure.Aiyaah...see lah..I've gone all sappy... I miss and love all of ya, tau!
And I'm waiting for a few more weddings to happen. Till the next one...this is belated but Happy Halalhood, Izrina and Firhad....you two, j'adore much much! Thank you for having such a lovely wedding affair and for including Azim and I in your festivities!
And yes, there are more photos. Coming right up but again, don't hold thy breath!
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| | The solemization went on smoothly and beautifully and as mentioned before, Izrina's composure is top-notch. Though obviously happy and undeniably radiant, she actually looked like she was listening to the tok kadi's speech (I wasn't really..hehe!) and everything else, while she waited for her moment to come and the officiating to commence. Firhad was all calm and composed too..but then again, Firhad's the groom. During solemnization ceremonies, without fail, grooms are always...cool (action or otherwise, no matter). Mat maintain. Smooth. Like all the grooms I've seen. Including mine. Heh. I, myself, as a bride, was like another species altogether.
Anyway, there was this symbolic bit, immediately right before and after they exchanged rings, where they fed each other sweet things like a bit of fruit and a bit of cake. It was incorporated into the ceremony to honour Firhad's Indian ancestry (also note Firhad's fabulous wedding kurta!). I thought it was a lovely addition to the whole thing...I mean, you get to exchange more than just rings and kisses so you get to prolong this very important, life-altering ceremony.
And did I cry? You betcha! But not much. I could have bawled like a baby but I controlled my floodgates well, all the while thinking of the perils of going through the rest of the day and night with blotchy skin and swollen(-er) eyes. And that would so not got with the outfit I had picked out for dinner.
Speaking of outfits, you would be surprised to know that all of Izrina's wedding outfits were designed by the couple themselves. They thought up of the designs, decided on the colours and picked out the materials. You would be even more surprised that the outfits were made by Izrina's favourite seamstress, a little old Chinese aunty who runs a little tailoring shop in the market right by Izrina's childhood home in Jurong! The pictures here don't do them justice...the end results ran along the lines of designer haute couture!
For us galpals who were going to be present at the ceremony, we were given specific instructions (a tad too late!) to wear beige or beige-based outfits. I, in true fashion (or lack thereof), brought NOTHING of that sort from Dubai and I am only so lucky that one of my mom's old bajus was in a lovely light beige-yellow colour and it was one of my favourites from her very vintage collection (refer to Retro Bit O'Raya album!). My own bajus were in Dubai..for reasons unknown. Really, I have no clue why I keep my Malay bajus in Dubai since I hardly have a reason to wear them while I'm there. So anyway, the baju you see in the pictures is my mom's, is in very vintage Saloma/Cha-Cha-Cha/Bossanova Melayu style and graced my mom's elegant shoulders when she was only 23. :)
Anyway, after everything has been said and done, the lunch reception began and so did the crowd. Guests invited for lunch started streaming in and the couple's delicious wedding fare had to be replenished very quickly as the buffet lines hardly got shorter. It was hard not to go for seconds..they had soft-shell crab and lovely oreo cheesecakes on the menu! Hands down (or rather hands full of soft shell crab!), it was one of the best wedding lunches I've had in a long time!
Heheh...unfortunately for my mom, nenek and sister, the soft shell crab was out of stock by the time they came. Nevermind, I'm sure I had their share anyway..heheh.
By around 4pm, everyone (and I mean everyone..well, everyone in the entourage lah..not like my mom, nenek etc etc) was back in the suite and napping. Yes, napping. Every viable space had a sleeping body and it was good that the suite's sofa is actually a sofa bed (which I had the pleasure of partaking..with three other bodies!). Qutie a pity that I don't have pictures of that since I myself was knackered and knocked-out (from what...I don't know!) but it was quite a sight to behold. :)
Two hours later, nap's over. Dressing-up for dinner begins. For the happy couple and their happy families and friends. And pictures for dinner....next.
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| | Very early the next morning, after finally lulling ourselves off to slumberland a mere few hours prior, we were duly woken up by the rude ringing of the telephone. It was Firhad. He's up. So we also have to get up. Things to do, weddings to have, people to marry.
So both of us woke up to find only two of the three of us left on the big suite bed. Nazreen was gone. I was surprised to realize what a morning person Nazreen was, since she was clearly up and about way before we were. Macam gini Smurf pon kalah hokay! But we found Nazreen curled up on the balcony, only recently stirred from sleep too. So, no, she's not really a morning person but yes, the balcony. Nazreen slept on the balcony. Apparently, she found the suite to cold for her liking so she actually went out to there not too long after we all fell asleep and comfortably crashed. No longer surprised but mortified, I thought my sleep-kicking (which I know, by themselves, can be mistaken for new martial art moves) forced her to leave. But she insisted it wasn't me and she does look rather satisfied and quite comfy on her wicker chair so as long as kau bahagia lah eh, Naz? Anyway, how often does one sleep on the balcony voluntarily?
And finding Nazreen on the balcony gave cause for us to chill for a bit there since the weather was lovely....checking out the view (the CBD is surprisingly gorgeous that early!!), gossiping a bit more and letting the morning settle in our systems before all systems go. And before we refueled our systems with (the free) Fullerton's breakfast buffet.
Which we did a while later (dengan penuh kopet!) with Firhad, his mom and his brother. Then Firhad and I went to check out the progress of their ballroom decor while Izrina and Nazreen prepared for the arrival of Izrina's pak-andams and the rest of Izrina's wedding entourage.
And so the 16th December 2006 began.
I have to say, Izrina was truly a picture of peace, gorgeously unlike the harried bride-to-be I was the morning of my own wedding a year ago with my hair in disarray and my face even more so. She was calm, collected and took each pre-wedding emergency situation (they had their fair share!) with careful composure. I know it did help that she had Mardi as her Wedding-Honeymoon-PostWedding Planner, Chief Bridesmaid, KahwinCommander et al. FYI, for our Mardi, failure is not an option. Heh.
Firhad was a little bit more reactive and for each reaction, Izrina was the sedative. I really take my hat off to her lah....didn't know she'd be like that since I thought everyone was like me...fight fire with fire. Heh. Really impressed. Having said that, I take my hat off to Firhad too..for it's not often that the men are interested at all in the nitty-gritty of the wedding. They just usually sit back and grunt their approvals until forced (at gunpoint!) for some activity. Firhad's different. He's involved, interested and incredibly hands-on. He contributes ideas, vetoes crap and gets things done. And it helps that he's got good taste. :)
Anyway, the morning, though relatively uneventful, brought us to the afternoon event..where these two people, who are so meant for each other, sealed their deal for real. Pictures for that...next.
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| | I know this is grossly overdue but hey..what is a tak-busy-action-busy girl to do?
This was on the 15th of December 2006, at the Fullerton Hotel's very lovely Loft Suite, one of my all-time favourite suites ever (but I still lup my RCMS hokay?!)! Yes yes, I am a big fat sucker for swish suites.
Initially, Izrina and Firhad only booked the two of the regular fullerton Courtyard rooms since their wedding was at the Asian Civilizations Museum and they only needed the rooms to rest or get ready and Izrina insisted she really did not need so much space. But I insisted she did.Strongly insisted. :)
But seriously, I knew Fullerton's Courtyard rooms are teeny-tiny and to pack a whole wedding entourage, a few sets of kahwin bajus and a gaggle of giggly galpals would result in wedding glitter coming out of everyone's ears and the mak/pak andam probably screaming for space! Even in two rooms.
So I booked for them the lovely Loft Suite and I'm glad I did. The space did everyone good, the beauty of the place calmed everyone's nerves and there was even enough place for everyone (and I mean everyone and everywhere) to crash for a bit before the evening dinner.
But that's another story.
Izrina's hen night did not become a hen night coz there were BOYS there so it wasn't counted. Heck, the groom was there so naughty bachelorette stuff went out the window. Well, didn't really matter anyway since Izrina, Mardi and their uni friends already had a hen night for her -which someone insisted they DID NOT have....only a massage and spa thing...aiyah..tak payah bedek lah hor..:)- so we had a simple NightBeforeBigNight thing with the groom and HIS pals included. Complete with Izrina's mad older brother Imran and his hot girlfriend. Heh. And so we partied the night away...
...which started with solemn promises to Mardi (the MaidOfHonour) to put the bride in bed by 10pm but still had the bride giggling away at midnight. Heh. Coz we had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs and a lot of running up and down the stairs of the suite. And no matter what, I still adore my galpals.
Night finally ended at around 1am, when almost everyone was gone. Firhad The Groom went back to his teeny tiny Courtyard room (yeah they still kept the two rooms for their families to rest in), most of the gurlies went back home (SK was the last to leave when her hero came to pick her up later) and only Nazreen and I were left to keep Izrina company overnight in that big suite! You can imagine our panic when Izrina refused to sleep (excited..I know!) but weariness wore everyone down and by the next morning...well, you'll see what happened the next morning in the next bunch of pictures I'll be uploading!
Till the next bit...enjoy these pictures!
PS: Before anymore of MUIS undercover agents give me any more of their dua-sen worth...lemme just clarify itu pink champagne is betol-tak-bedek non-alcoholic sparkling juice okay? Tsk. Tsk. You know the push has come to shove when Raihan resorts to these kinds of clarifications. Bonafide kaypochis ah some people! :)
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| | Once every year, us "muka reject air-babus" (I quote FlyingMummyK) have to remind the airlines who employ us how actually quite intelligent we are (as misleading as that may sound) and that we are not going to forget how to open aircraft doors, pump passengers' chests and put out a fire no matter how much the cabin pressure (and passegner pressure) has taken out of our braincells. We take two days off our "very highly-demanding" schedule of flying in and out of random countries and we play around with life-sized dolls, pretend we're panicking when a machine starts to vibrate very dangerously (although I don't see how increased vibration is a bad thing) and try to keep our professional selves in check as we prance around our very serious training college to reinstate in our inner cores what we have commited our very precious lives to do (blankets, meals and lav checks included!).
:P
So mine was in November and all I can say is that I had so much fun, I wish it went on for longer than two days. Seriously. Okay..the first few hours were a killer as we had to sit quietly and take the refresher tests to indicate how much we still know of our emergency procedures. Sounds rather redundant perhaps to some but let me tell you, there have been some eejits who tried to put out a fire with an oxygen bottle tau! Nak mampos kan?!
But later on, things get really fun and the classmates I had this time round were a crazy lot. And it didn't help that some other eejit from some previous class played around with one of our simulators so by the time it was our turn to re-enact emergency scenes, nothing was going right with the...vibrating.
So we made our own scenes. And no it did not include rejected take-offs, severe tuebulence, crash landings or aircraft decompressions. It was more of a Days of Our Lives thing as it involved an illegitimate (and plastic) child with its slutty mother who is secretly in love with her husband's best friend, a husband who came out of the closet with his homosexuality,the husband's best friend whose own wife just left him for another woman and the real father of the baby who is ready to settle down with his scandal and love child....hahah.....you get the drift. It ended up with the plane they were somehow ALL travelling on crashing and everyone having to jump out of the plane before they become inferno.
Needless to say, the only one without a pulse at the end of the flight was the baby. Heh.
It was hilarious.
I daresay, I LOVE my yearly SEP refreshers....and mind you, I used to look forward to them as much as I look forward to my monthly mestrual cramps. |
| | Searching for Fatso's replacement was not without its madness tendencies, financial limitations and willpower challenges. It was very difficult to come to a sane conclusion with both parties sufficiently satisfied..what with the amazing array of automobiles on display at Al-Awir. We made many trips down to Al-Awir, with an array of our friends for their valued opinions but it took probably the fifth or sixth trip for me to give up my hopes of ever getting a truck and for Azim to finally realize his dream of driving his fantasy SUV.
Of course, it is Azim's turn this time to make a choice and of course, Azim makes practical choices like the proper adult that he is. I was, on the other hand, more swayed (complete with shrieks of delight!) at massive Hummers (H1 and H2 only aah..no H3s....small Hummers like H3's gua tak main..), big-assed GMC Sierras and muscly Chevy Silverados and Avalanches. I know...I know..these trucks makan minyak. As much as petrol is cheap here in the Middle East, none of us here are the Gates, hokay!? :P
Still, I couldn't help wistfully drooling over some very bling trucks but at the end of the day, practicality (and my sheer malasness to reason with Azim out of getting his caRR) wins the day.
Now, months after spending time and driving the caRR myself, I must say I have moved on and fallen in love with my new fat caRR, though my heart will always stay with the first Fat one who greased my V6 cylinders. Heh. |
| | It's that time of the year again when Raihan clears out her SD cards and upload overload is in order.
This was a sad time for me...back in late 2006. I think it was in October or November. I don't really want to sell-off the Murano (it IS a kickass car!) but Azim feels its time to move on. And as much as I'd like to move on to a black GMC Sierra truck, a Chevrolet Silverado truck, a Chevrolet Avalanche truck or...well..you get my drift...it's Azim's turn to pick the next fat car. And that's another story altogether. Pening aaah!
Anyway, we sold our lovely Fatso to Amir, a cutie Singaporean dude who started flying with Emirates last year. He has been drooling over our Murano since he first met us and when he heard we might be changing cars, he kept on bugging us to sell the Murano to him.
So we did and the day of the handover was a sad sad one for me, as you can tell..the muka monyok is NOT just for show, hor! Good thing Mel and Dom dragged me to Goodies at Wafi City to distract me from the apparent pain of parting.
Fatso, you'll always be loved by me...the times we've spent together cruising up and down Mamzar Beach, ogling at hot Arab men....the hours we've wasted together in gridlock traffic jams in Dubai...the people and cars we almost hit and the Nissan Sunny we DID hit...the perfect parking lot I used to scour for you so that I can park without problems....the people who eyeball us just coz they think I'm a tiny girl in a fat car so tak sajak....
...happy times!
But hey, good thing is...we're selling Fatso to a friend so whenever I need to lepaskan rindu.....I can just go down to 21st Century and it's as though my Fatso and I have NEVER been apart...
Heh. |
| | On the 1st of November, we were set to pack up and fly back to our other home.
The one in the middle of the desert.
And this time, Azzat's coming with us for a few days before he returns to Cairo to take his semestral exams and resume classes. And this time, like every time, we had a grand sending-off party in the form of Shiralique! I love these little last minute airport teh sessions all four of us would have before they walk us to the gate and exchanged farewells. :)
Azim and I feel so loved, tau! :)
And maybe one day, instead of walking us to the gate, you guys walk through the gate sesama aaah!! HOLIDAY lah apa lagik?! Heh.
The flight was surprisingly not full so we all had like three or four seats each to ourselves but I slept on sitting one seat anyway, as Azim dozed off the full six hours, stretched out on four seats with his head on my lap. Yelaah..kata love!! Azzat conked out in another three seats across from us, totally oblivious even when we went through a particularly bumpy stretch once! Penat nyer dia!!
I must note this down for the record coz this tak pernah terjadi to the likes of me before. For the first time, when we reached the long walkway to the baggage arrival aread, the guy with the buggy meant for pregnant or elderly or disabled passengers asked us whether we needed a ride. Kita, of course, never to turn down shortcuts to embrace our kemalasan, agreed. Then it occured to me, did he offer us because I look pregnant in this dress? Coz it's highly unlikely coz we looked old..clearly we are but teenagers (hahah!) and unlikely coz we looked disabled since Azim and I were walking straight (I think!).
That's it. I'm not wearing this dress anymore until I betol-betol pregnant. Chet!
Do I? Do I look pregnant in this dress? Coz you know, when one looks pregnant when one is not pregnant just means one is ...
...fat.
*curses the raya fare I engorged myself with blissfully before, now settling itself heavily on my insides*
Welcome back, Babats! :) |
| | Aidilfitri 2006 IIII
26th October - 1st November 2006
On the 30th of October, our day started at 7am in the morning and ended way after midnight.
Jalan raya, you'd think? No. Salah. Tak correct. T'was not jalan raya but it was jalan banyak-anyak, all the same!
To begin with,the 7am wakeup was very difficult to accomodate as our heads only hit our pillows at around 4am from the night before. Then why so early, one might ask, since we're supposed to be on holiday and all?
Well, it's coz we finally had our first appointment (at the ungodly hour of 8am!!) with HDB for the little Simei hole-in-the-wall we've decided to get for ourselves. With the airport a mere five-minute drive away and my Mummy living on the other side of Simei thus granting us the $40K discount, why not? We might not be needing the place now but who knows what the future holds? :) We've actually booked the five-roomer since May but the sellers had a bit of a problem and we were at a distance and so everything was put on hold for a bit. Come 30th November, it was imperative that the first appointment happen since everything was solved for the sellers and good to go now and we're both in Singapore. And since a certain other couple was childfree after dropping their brood off to be educated, they volunteered to lend us waiting support. Thanks Shiralique! Heh.
After a million signatures, paperwork and CPF and cash statements later, we're all set for appointment two (which has since taken place and we're getting our keys on the 27th of December ..yay!). Shiralique went off to pick up the mini-Shiraliques and we embarked on getting our OTHER stuff straightened out before we had to leave in a day's time. Wahlau...so tiring doing all this things I only thougt grown-ups had to do last time, forgetting that I had to grow up sooner or later too. Bah. I have now newfound respect for the adults in my life then! And driving all over Singapore when we've totally forgotten some routes is NO carnival! At one point, we ended up in Hougang when we clearly wanted to go to Pasir Ris. Now, how in the world did THAT happen?
In the evening was when the fun was supposed to start but by then, my clothes have been on my sticky self since 7am and I was as cranky as a baby belom dapat susu tetek but once we picked up Shireen and her kids to go to Punggol to visit two gorgeous moms, I perked up dramatically and indulged the excitement of meeting some beautiful people for the first time.
Like As and her beautiful kids. Her little Andi was such a sweetheart and so friendly somemore. He even offered to read to us his favourite book, in his own words of course and he just sat down and chatted away happily with Azim and I like we were all-time besties! What a cutie! Pretty little Arynn was really shy and as her mom called her, quite a Sticker (melekat dengan mummy dia tak lepas!) but surprisingly, before Azim left, she actually waved goodbye at him! Her mom said she never waves to anyone unfamiliar at random. So cute! Heheh! Honestly, As, I'll follow your technique when I get pregnant one day...see if my kid comes out adorable too! Never mind that I tak suka Korean drama sangat. Heh. T'was a pleasure meeting you and thank you for welcoming us into your home. If I see more pretty girl's stuff in Dubai, I won't forget who has a pretty girl to dress up hokay?!
And then, we finally met the Damdils in person. And Azim and I are officially in love. They are such interesting, adorable and "talkative" little bubs!! It seemed like they had so much to say to us, their captive audience. With their pau cheeks and thunder thighs, both of us just couldn't stop carrying each one in turns and taking their pictures. Rini and Naz, thanks for letting us monopolize the Damdils that day without chasing us out of your house with a broom. And thanks for preparing such a wonderful spread for us...*sniffs*. I so touched hor...and I'm so taken. Taken by those boys that both of you so luckily brought into this world.
MasyaAllah, such beautiful children my friends have!
And with such an ending to such a long day but with such little joys to make it all worthwhile, I might look like a wreck but I feel like a million baby dollars!
PS: Rini and Naz, in my captions of your Damdils, I tried my very best to name each twin respectively. It's easy when they're side by side but it's tough when they're in single shots so forgive me if I mixed the two up in any of my captions and please correct me where necessary. I swear I wasn't guessing....I observed sampai my mata keroh. Which was fun since I can't take my eyes off them anyway! :)
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| | Aidilfitri 2006 Part III
26th October - 1st November 2006
Vintage is in but can you just throw on anything that belongs to your nenek or mother and hope the novelty would speak for itself in terms of style?
I don't know but if it's any time to pull of anything possibly off-beat, it should be during Raya. I mean if some people can get away with the most SchwanStabiliner-neon-highlighter-coloured baju kurung or the tightest kain on the biggest butt or the most transparent top with the flimsiest of camisoles, then I can get away with wearing something that was only in pesyen some decades ago. Pesyen is pesyen. Make or break. But I do love the baju kurung, kebaya and mini-kurung pieces that my mother and nenek have saved from their hooray-hooray days. Obviously, the quality was uncompromised since each piece I dug out from their wardrobe was in excellent condition. And boy, were my nenek and mom SEXAAAAYYYY...heheh.
This one that you see here on me in this album belongs to my nenek. She said wore this when she was 30. Yes...THIRTY. Now she's 76. You do the math. Baju old skool but it still looked brand new, I swear! And the colours were still so vivid!
So upon discovering it, I took a break from all my own bajus and happily slipped it on, much to my nenek's amusement. Also, that evening's plans only involved a few important houses so should at anytime I realize that my vintage's not so vouge anymore, I can be rest assured the night will not be long and I will not get older.
But I came, I stayed and I vintaged. And my grandmother's baju was very well-received. :)
Anyone for Saloma's baju next??
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| | Aidilfitri 2006 II
26th October - 1st November 2006
So here's the deal.
The White Deal.
The White bits of my Raya were just as eventful as the Royal Blue bits. Maybe more because this year, I made an attempt to visit at least one of my father's siblings. And I did manage with one sister. My father's first younger sister, Cik Norli, whom I called Cik Nurse during my younger days coz...uh..well, she IS a NURSE. Anyway, will attempt with more of my father's siblings next year, InsyaAllah.Cik Norli and her husband, Cik Adam were pleasantly surprised to see us at their front door and welcomed us wholeheartedly into their home, the home that used to belong to my late grandparents. Got a little sentimental there when I saw the nooks and crannies I used to squeeze in, the balcony I used to hide in when I didn't want to see a particular aunty and the bedroom my grandparents used to sleep it. Oh well. :)
See, I'm sooo close to my mother's side of the family but not so much my father's. It does happen, you know, these kind of family arrangements It also didn't help that one of the spouses married to one of my father's siblings kept putting me down to put her daughter up high when we were growing up. Like how her daughter pandai masak, pandai kemas rumah, pandai this and pandai that. Such a little lady, such an angel. And I'm the smelly little retarded, lazy, tomboyish relative, perhaps, in her eyes. Heh. Well, we're all grown up now, doing our own thing and no, I don't think any of us are doing better or worse than the other now...we're all just living our own lives. Different lives. And then, I'm sure some people are still comparing, no?
*sigh*
One thing's for sure.... I'll painfully bear this in mind when I get older and become a bonafide MakBudak and MakCik...that dissing other people's kids is just not nice. No matter how fantastic your own kid is. Even if your own kid is a Rocket Scientist in NASA and the other kid's JUST a little booger.
Anyway, Raihan digress emosi overload. Sorry. Okay...other than that, in our whites, we managed to visit other lovelies, liven the Raya spirit and help to finish the Raya food. And I didn't stain my baju one bit! Mighty proud of meself. After all, I'm the kind who gets stains on a black skirt, gets curry dried on the ends of my hair without knowing and mud on my Pradas while walking on a clean pavement. Not pretty at all.
Speaking of pretty....Azim and I almost ran away with a pretty baby we met on one of our visits. To us, she was absolutely gorgeous, to many people who were there, she looked like she was OUR baby but to her real parents, she was their precious SEVENTH child. Yes, seventh. Little Shafiah belongs to my aunty Mak Yong's colleague, Uncle Salim. Yes, Uncle Salim and his wife, with their eldest child at 21, had little Shafiah just seven months ago. Nie baru dikatakan POWER!!
And again, you shall see....kita manyak pinjam anak orang in our visits...heheh.
And no, I'm NOT broody.Nor am I in denial. Hah!
More pictures, coming up!
PS: When you see a CERTAIN picture in this album, please just admire me for my guts for putting it up here, okay? It was a picture of A Raihan Before Time so cut me some slack. Heh.
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| | Aidilfitri 2006
26th October - 1st November 2006
This year's Aidilfitri was royally special. On so many levels.
It was the first one in Mummy's new home in Simei. I do miss Gillman Heights but it is reassuring to know that at any time, should we all want to go back to Gillman, we can chase out our tenants, break the contract and go make more memories back there.Heh. But so far, my mom and the rest of my posse are enjoying living in the Simei Street Four flat and hey, it would be her grand return to the East, after living for so long in the West and then the South of Singapore. Yeah...my mom was a minah east, y'all! Jalan Lagi to be exact.
Anyway, royal blue was our colour of choice this year and yes, Nazreen, I have a sick thing for all things dark blue. I don't know why. Oh wait...I know why...the colour is slimming, it's not as harsh as black and it's so easy on the eye when one spills lodeh gravy down the front. Heh.
Visits were so rampant, as Raya always is and when much-needed togetherness prevails. Everyone wanted to visit everyone and someone had to be at home at some point every time. Heehee. In any case, I was so happy to see so many babies and little kids just bouncing off the walls (and bouncing off Azim at one point!). Look closer at these pictures (and the ones in the other albums) and you'll see many shots where Azim and I pretend to be makbapak budak, carry an array of adorables and pose for festive Raya pics. To the actual Makbapaks who loaned us your offspring at some point, thanks for trusting us not to drop your precious. And but of course, I ate like Homer Simpson personified. I ravaged each table, coffee table and at one point, kitchen. Raya whaat...it's okay to be tak tau malu, yes?
Thank goodness for the colour's slimming effect I mentioned earlier.
Okay, to make things clear so that people don't think I'm SuperRayaQueen, I did NOT manage ALL these pictures in one day. Yes, we love our royal blue so much, we wore it for the first day, sent it for dry cleaning for the second day (and wore our other set), got the royal blues back on the third day...you get the drift. Don't be surprised if next year's a royal blue raya too! In between, we wore my other favourite karer, white and in between that, I wore my nenek's baju. No kidding. You'll see when the other album is up. Heh.
So, though a tad too late, I hope everybody's raya was as royal as ours.
:)
Stay tuned for more overdue Raya pics, y'all!!
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| | Aaah the perils of living overseas.
Well....just one real peril. The perilous task of getting to Singapore just in time for Raya..and at least ONE day of Ramadan. You compromise sleep, time is valued tenfold, your composure is challenged and you start imagining the worst things happening...like not being able to be in Singapore on Day One to posing-memposing Baju Raya Day One. Yah, I know. Damn scary.
But somehow, it was a true godsend that Syawal began a day later in Singapore than in Dubai. It gave us the chance to take full advantage of that one extra day to have one day of Ramadan in Singapore together.
Anyway we made it to Singapore, albeit one whole FLIGHT later than our scheduled one (you know I know why), fasted one last day in Singapore and did what many proper Malay couples do on the last day of Ramadan....
...we hit Suria Raya Karnival..you know, the live show.
Don't get me wrong. As much as I want to soak up the atmosphere, I wanted to soak it up straightaway in Geylang..not at a live concert. But Azim and I, together with his younger brother Azzat, who was also back from Cairo for Ramadan and Raya holidays, went there for the sake of my fanatic little sister, Zihan. Who is she a fan of? No, not Mahadi Shor (although I am HIS big fan!). No, not Maria J. It's......Hyrul Anwar. Yes...Hyrul Anwar is her LOVE....sungguh love. Sungguh adore. Sungguh gatal! She has even planned how their wedding would be like. In Paris, no less. Oh adikku sayang, I'd jump off the Eiffel Tower in my SpongebobSquarepants underwear (yes, I have one) if that came true. Hah.
(For the record, that was how she felt THAT time only. Now dah "breakup". Dah tak love. By no fault of Hyrul. No..Hyrul selalu SANGGUP layan Zihan when Zihan popped up at EVERY ONE of his public apperances so it wasn't like he broke her heart or filed a police protection order against her. No..it was my sister's fault. She fell in love with someone else. Just like that. And that person is....jeng jeng jeng...Hady Mirza. I know...what a big surprise.Ho hum. Who is NOT in love with Hady Mirza, you tell me?! Anyway Zihan, you've got serious commitment problems, girl. Not like me..I love Nazri Nasir long time.)
Anyway, when we reached there, there were already hordes of people covering a huge area in front of the stage. When we managed to find a spot to stand, the stage was quite a distance away and Hyrul Anwar and other glitterati were merely GI Joe figurines. Zihan macam nak nangis. I had only a shred of patience left but I tried to be nice and consoled her by saying, "Alaaah...nie dah nampak dia macam gini dah ok what! You said you wanted to see Hyrul Anwar. Neh...see lah!"
"No, I want to meet him in person!"
"This IS in person. Only the person now looks small enough to masok your kocek but STILL in person what!?"
"No...no!"
Member punya mata started to berair.
Being the baik sister I am (usually hokay?!), at the end of the show, I tried to find out who the producer is, found out it's none other than my Uncle AJ, hunted him down and thought I could get him to haul Hyrul's pretty ass out to meet his future wife but we ended exchanging news about respective family members pulak.
So while talking to Uncle AJ, I tried to scan the crowd for anyone I knew who could locate The Hyrul for me. Amongst the few, I spotted Cikgu Rina, my beloved tarian cikgu back in Crescent (yeh lah..saya dulu budak tarian..tapi bangsa joget kat blakang nyer, blocked by the more lembot Malay dancers!) but she didn't know where he was. The rest all also don't know or tak nak tahu. Then, suddenly out of one of the tents popped out this gorgeous girl whose face is familiar to me in more ways than one. It's none other than fallagain.pitas.Nurul! I did try to call her but she didn't pick up the phone so I thought she ran off the stage and ran straight away home alrady but thankfully, there she was!! So I pulled some blogging strings by asking Nurul a favour lah hor?! And so because of Nurul, Zihan got her "wedding" picture with her ex-husband-to-be.
Nurul, my sister now owes you her life! Though I'm not sure if that's valid now coz dia dah tak heran ngan Hyrul Anwar skarang. But still....it was nice of you to literally drag him out of the dressing room (or tent) for Zihan's sake and I thought it was just HILARIOUS when you told Hyrul that Zihan nak kahwin dia. Hahahahahah....Zihan nearly died of malu-ation and I could tell Hyrul dah tak-kena-gaya...his eyes actually looked scared! Heehee!
And after all that drama, we hit Geylang, lantak the greasy food, rubbed up against a million perky minah butts and elbowed two million mat crotches. And at 3am, we hit home.
And then Hari Raya happened.
Next batch of gambars!
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| | Malam-malam buta keluar carik makanan.
Well, we had a good reason to..it's for sahour!! Ramadaaan maaah!
And so we scoured Dubai for places to cekik. Surprisingly, unlike last year, not many places were open for sahour in the Jumeira area (which was where we went to, of all places!).For the uninitiated, the main bit of Jumeira is like the Beverly Hills of Dubai, for the time being lah until the Palm and the World villas open up. Jumeira is where the big-assed villas stand, where the Bentley GTs, Range Rover Vouges, Range Rover Sport, Maclarens and Aston Martins are parked and where the fancy fellows flourish. It's the strip where the rich locals live and the expensive expats stay. It's where Burj Al Arab is. It's the road one goes on to go to the aforementioned villas on the Palm and on the World. So you get my drift....rumah orang-orang kaya ajerlah. We were merely visitors and action kaya. Heh.
We finally ended back on Sheikh Zayed Road (where the famous 21st Century tower is!!) and found an obscure Lebanese eaterie still open and thankfully, empty (coz Rainy and Raihan not at their best made-up, glammed-up selves hor!). Only after everyone dah kenyang at the end of the whol sahour saga, did we remember that OTHER parts of Dubai were open for sahour business.Like Deira, BurDubai...etc etc.
Oh well.
Dapat sahour jugak. Kenyang jugak. Posa jugak. And that's all that matters when the eyes are sleepy and the perot is full.
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| | It's been a year since we moved in to our current apartment and now, still another year till our own apartment is ready so Ramadan is a good time to have more friends over to our little rented hole-in-the-wall. It's also been some time since we've had any of my friends over...yelaaah....rumah aku kan jauh, Kampong Al-Taawun. Heh. Only Azim's guy friends have been over so far and tu tak boleh jadi tu...must have a little gurl power over. And since Rainy and Ross rented a car that day....Rainy also counted as gurlpower so can lah. Welcome to RaihanAzim's Little Cave.
And what did pemalas-haram-wife-tak-jadi Raihan cook on her little cave stove that day?
Pizza. From Domino's. I not so wife-champion-pemenang-peringkat-akhir as some young winnerwives out there. I can't cook to save my life so Domino's saved my life. :)
Rainy,Ross and the rest of our Singaporean Convoy Kakis (whom Amir has tentatively named the The Bavarias...for reasons I still have yet to fathom!!), jangan serik datang Al-Fayha Tower hor!
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| | Ex-Crescentians laaah...
Yes...a few ex-crescentians managed to take time out from their busy schedules for a gathered iftar.And fortunately, I managed to be there for I had a Singapore duty flight! Again, I take my RedHat off to NurulAsh for pulling it all through efficiently. Thank you many many! You are truly power lah, gurl! Kalau aku yang plan, half of us would end up in Arab Street, the other half on Bali Street and I would be stranded at BeeChengHiang trying to figure out where everyone went to. Really
Anyway, as much as I was so super happy to see almost everyone again, I was especially heartened to see MY SADIN Cikgu Nora again....coz I have not seen her since...MY WEDDING tau!! Aaaaah..the geography lessons we tried to stay up for, the track-and-field warm-ups we tried to avoid and the few hundred hours of study time we wasted by not studying but by talking cock.
Lovely times, girls! As the laughters ricochet off the brick walls of Alaturka and the familiar (not one bit older) faces of my yellow-and-blue girls were stuffed silly with the lovely buffet spread, I am glad at least Ramadan will always be the best excuse as always for everyone to meet up (obliged or not also nehmind!).
For if not, I'll be perpetually whining this mantra,
"I wanna be a Crescentian schoolgirl again!"
And no, it's not an age-defying thing!
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