Of food and relatives that come once a year

It’s almost Raya now. Ramadhan is well on its 23rd day. I am looking forward to Raya. Not as much as I did when I was a kid, nonetheless, still looking forward to it.

This year we’ll be celebrating it here in KL, my beloved hometown. Yeah yeah, don’t make cracks about not having a kampong to balik to. I’m a city girl and my so-called ‘kampung’ is here. My grandma is here and my parents are here. And contrary to popular belief, it is meriah to celebrate Raya here. People who say otherwise are just people who don’t belong. They need to go balik elsewhere, so just go already, and leave us to our merry-making. I don’t mean to sound rude, but if they are patriotic over their respective kampungs, why shouldn’t I be? KL is all that I’ve ever known.

Oh well….

When I was younger, my mother used to make nasi tomato for every Raya. We’d have chicken curry and sambal tumis and acar and daging dendeng and cakes and cookies. My mum loves cooking and baking. Those were great fun times. Now however my mum doesn’t cook up a storm like that anymore. She buys all her cookies. Lucky for us she buys most of the cookies from my aunt. So it’s still homemade, though not made in our home. Haha!

Both my parents and in-laws will be here this year so we need to go visit both, and then we shall go visit my grandma and aunt. Can’t wait for the wonderful food that will be waiting for us. My grandma’s house will be the meeting point for all my aunts and uncles. I’m looking forward to meeting them all. Now that I’m a working adult, I don’t get to see them as much as I used to. I haven’t seen an uncle of mine like ages ago! (Ok I exaggerate, it was probably a year plus ago.)

So I’m definitely waiting for the food and the relatives. In that order. Yeah yeah, can’t you tell I’m a glutton already. *smile*

13 is depressing

13? That’s it? 13 measly books read this year? Ah what is wrong with me? How can I ever read more than 20 at the rate I’m going?

Hubby’s solution was simple. “Read thinner books.”

I look at him incredulously. The mere suggestion emitted a cry from me, “And for what?” Downgrade my reading level so I could have more books on my list? Substitute quality for quantity? Such nerve…. Giving such a suggestion to me. Well you have to applaud the guy for coming up with a fast, easy (and cheaper?) solution. But no thanks. I’d rather have read fewer books that are notable, compared to more books that are…. how do you say… mmm, fluff? Hahaha, that’s the book snob speaking again. I am honestly not a snob in real life. Honestly….

Now, come to think of it, it’s not that I consciously choose to read less books, it’s that I’ve just got no time to spare, more so now in Ramadhan. Days after work are spent with dinner, prayers and maybe 30 minutes of channel surfing or magazine flipping. That’s it. I get too tired to do anything else. My attempts to read, ahem, keyword here being ‘attempts’, are normally just that. Attempts. No action follows whatsoever. I take a book, curl up with my pillow, read one page, and doze off, while the book remains unread save a page or two. That’s why it took me so long to finish Gaiman’s book (though I started reading way way wayyy before Ramadhan). And now that I’m finally done with that book, I’m on a deliberate break from reading novels.

13 books huh…. Sad….

Status: Not connected

I have no email?

I have no email!

There’s something seriously wrong with my email. Something’s screwed up somewhere. And to make matters worse, the only person who can come and look into this matter happens to be on leave today. No!

It seriously sucks. I cannot see what I have to do for work, I cannot send out any for fear they might never reach their destination.

I cannot just sit here and not get email.

Seriously!

mudslinger rummages around for online games to keep her occupied till 5.30….

Sometimes I just wanna snap my fingers....

Buying a house is no joke. Both hubby and I are first-time buyers and we sure don’t know a lot. And to make matters worse, we have to be the unlucky ones with the wishy-washy developers. I am just so frustrated sometimes. I don’t know what to do. And then there are these problems of late delivery and being given vacant possession without water and electricity. I mean, what gives????

Wish I could snap my fingers and all would right itself.

Talk about wishful thinking....

My preciousssss....

Life at high speed continued, that’s why no blog posts. My sister was in the hospital and I had deadlines (again!) and I had to move office.

Last week I was busy with packing and unpacking. Moving office is really no small matter, even though my office is actually just me, me, and me.

Now I’ve got computer boxes left over from my move. I intend to keep it for moving house end of this year. Yep, you read right, moving house. That’s gonna be more hard work coz I’ve been in that rented house for about 3 years, so I’ve got stuff lying about everywhere. I don’t even know where to begin! Should I start with the store room with my boxes of books? Or maybe our bedroom with errr.... more boxes of my books....

Seriously, I have 4 rectangular boxes of books in my bedroom, plus two Ikea cardboard boxes filled with more recent purchases. And loads of Penguin classics and Archie comic digests in the storeroom. I just can’t let them go. They’re my preciousssss…. Ayaya, where am I gonna put them all in our new place? All this still doesn’t take into consideration hubby’s books - his architecture books and his paperback novels. I think our home will be filled with books, books and more books. We need to invest in some real hard wearing covered book cases (hear that hubby?) to keep them all. They’ve been staying in boxes for three years, and it’s time they got some fresh air.

I love my books....