Of Open Houses .....

Its not too late to talk about Open Houses, is it ? The Syawal month is almost over ...and now Deepavali is here .....celebrated for 3 days for some Hindus and others for about a week ....another friend said " for a month ."

Whatever ....I'm not suprised if I am to receive invitations to other open houses ....a fantastic and unique experience for us in Malaysia . That's hubby and son Amir at a neighbor's house , Cikgu Muru on the first night of Diwali ...




All those spread of food served during Hari Raya ( and now Diwali ) had not done justice at all ....to me . Every few days I would weigh myself ...and getting down from the scale I would give myself a sigh ...........!!



Its not getting any better .......If the scale had a life of its own ....it would be doing this ..........!!



I thought that there would be less open houses this year ..what with the increase in cost of food and everything .Well , what do you know ...open houses functions were numerous .


As usual , there were the usual crowds of various races visiting each other ....good to see that the Muhibbah spirit is alive and kicking . It certainly cultivates and strengthens friendships ....open your hearts too ...if I may say so . You get to make new friends ....

My Sg. Petani friend ..

That's what attending open houses do ....plus you get to bump into old friends ....like this friend .....Jeriah Abang .



I must have looked the same after all these 30 odd years as she could recognised and remembered my name as well . I'm bad with names ......and so as not to " drop my water face " , , I decided to ask for her cell phone number ...and said like this ..." and which glamourous name do I put in this phone of mine ? " This certainly works ...and at least it " saved my water face " if you know what I mean as by then her name rang a bell...ringgggggggggg!!! So far this never fails to work .

At my second cousins house ....
happy faces plus full tummies !!

Now , at open houses ...you are supposed to eat ....if you don't ...don't go ....because if you don't eat ..the host gets " kecik hati " . So don't spoil the day and fun of everyone there . As for the host ...food must be enough for everybody for the simple reason ...you had invited these people and these people do expect food ...food plus expectation to eat when they came over to your house .


Of course at my second cousin's house during raya ...food served were delicious ....briyani rice ...lemang plus ketupat ...plus rendang ....plus cakes . Too bad I did not take pictures of the food .Hmmmmmmmmnnnn...yummy .



Yunno I once went to a friend's open house ...she had this tent sat up in the compound of her house and as usual the crowds of people were already there ....her neighbors ...her friends and her husband's colleagues . This friend welcomed me with open arms ...full of warmth ...inviting me and my family to eat . Alas !! When I approached the trays of food on the table ...there were hardly any food to eat !! For a while I didn't know what to do ...then I just scrapped whatever there was to put in my plate . Honestly ...I just don't know what to say ...only that it taught me a lesson ...always have enough food ...don't " alang alang . " I will never know if this friend was aware or not about the situation at the " table ".




Now , there was Diwali Open house to attend.....a different array of food served .... rich spicy food ...of tosei , mutton curry , chicken or" ayam kampong " curry , spicy crabs and lots lots more . Of course , being the odd one out on the block ..we were given a plate of indian sweet goodies ...like marukku , kuih rose etc. etc . Do try to identify these out .



This was given to me on early Diwali morning ...by this liitle girl ...my neighbor. I was drying my laundry when I heard a chirpy voice saying " Hi , Auntie !! " . I turnt and saw her ....looking cute in her traditional clothes .



She was waiting for her parents to go to the temple for prayers ... it was Diwali morning ...a reason to look your best in your new dress.



Plus the bling bling on the hair too !! Don't you think she looked adorable ?


Then , I was given another tray of Indian sweets by another neighbor . How nice ....!!



Now ...I need to return my neighbor's plates . Its a no no to return an empty plate ....very very not Malaysia . I just have to bake something ........

Deepavali......

Today is Deepavali ....or Diwali.....It means " Festival of Lights " . Celebrated by the Hindus plus the Singhs too . Every child , parents and grandparents look forward to this day of joy . There would be the visits from families and friends . Indeed a very significant and favourite event for them .




The first time I heard the word " Deepavali " was when I was about 10 or 11 years old . The Indian culture was never exposed nor experienced by us in our environment . Words like " kolam " just don't exist in my dictionary .



Reason being Hindus were very , very , very few and far in between in our town .

As a child , my first encounter with an Indian was a Singh man . He sold ' kacang '....or nuts . He had this simple wooden box up on his bicycle . This box had several compartments ,,,for him to put in the various types of nuts . He was known as the ' kacang potet " man . To buy , he had this ready made cone shaped paper ...in it he would put in the nuts ...worth any amount you had told him . At that time a 10 cents worth of nuts can be quite filling . Thinking back , he did not use any spoon to handle the nuts ...just his bare hands . My father used to remind us to be extra careful where cleanliness is concerned . ' You never know yunno ...he could have used his fingers to pick his nose ...what if he didn't wash his hands ? ' Father's words fell on deaf ears ..............

My next encounter with the Indians was when I was at secondary school . I remembered few names like Satwant Singh , George Kuruvilla , PJ Joseph and Ava Bhattacharya . George and PJ Joseph were Christians . Am wondering where they are now ...these few Indians who were indeed a rare breed in my town .

As I grew older , I crossed paths and made friends with more Indians ...with names like ...Mrs. Somar , Mala and Mr. Narayanasamy . I never had the chance to observe them in celebrating this festival . Strange how events turnt out , I am now staying in the midst of an Indian neighborhood . And that make me and my family the odd ones out ....perhaps to them we are the rare species from Borneo island . They were eager to know us and we were glad to have known them too . We spoke the typical Malaysian lingo ...Bahasa Malaysia plus English all thrown in . We understood each other and that matters .


Now my neighbours are in a festive mood . There were the buying of new cloths before Deepavali as well as the preparation of food and sweets .The nightly playing of fire crackers and sparklers are there too ....occasionally set off .


Its a beautiful sight now ; their houses are adorned with beautiful lights .....




lots ..and lots of lights....



hung at their door entrance....




and their patios.....




and some in the streets . I can't resist but walked through these canopy of lights .



As my son and I walked through we were greeted by these nice young men who welcomed us to their neighborhood . I bet they were surprised by our presence there ...which is rather rare . Local folks don't do that as they are accustomed to such sights .



Busy , busy and busy ...last minute preparations ....making kolams seems to be a must for each household .


The women are an artistic lot as they created beautiful kolams during Deepavali eve .




Like any other festivals , there is good business when such occasions comes round . Bizz - vali ...( Business valli ) .

Today the praying bells ranged louder ...and incense are burnt far longer in the day .

Happy Deepavali to all my Hindu friends and neighbours . May there always be peace , prosperity and good health in this neighborhood .

Another Day........

Monday morning ....another day passing by . So.... a good morning to everybody especially to the kind souls who bothered to stop and read this blog . Good to have you around , my friend .

Hubby is at work , his first morning shift after 12 days of taking a break from work . It was good to have him around . We function more as a family ...we spend more time together ...made a couple of trips outside town together ....went to the shopping malls together and as usual we spent more , too.

The other two children are at school now.

Eldest son is in bed , snoring away . He and his father slept late last night ...watching a football game at 11pm .I had to make way for them and I will never know the ending of the show ' Premonition '...starring Sandra Bullock . Who wouldn't give up when your eldest son is begging away to let him watch the match . Only a mother knows when to give up and give in . Frankly I was tired too ...and my bed was beckoning for me .

Well , eldest son made a lot of noise last night ...could hear him laughing away and the cheers ..and whatever that excites him during the match . The house vibrates ....whatever will my neighbors think ?


Me ? Its been two years since I am a stay at home mum . I seem to have so much time in my hand . But I never seem to finish my housework . I cannot say I missed my working life ...everything happened for a reason . However I do missed my friends ...large crowds of them .


So what have changed so far ?

For starters , my kids are growing up . Getting smarter . Getting bigger ...well not all . Only daughter seemed not to grow . She's thirteen and I hope she is not stunted at this age . There do seemed to be a couple of " short ' genes in the family ...and I mean from both sides !!. But then ...Syukur alhamdullillah , she is all complete ...she has a nose there , two eyes and ears in place , two hands and legs ...in fact everything a human body requires to function . So , I shouldn't be complaining .

Let's hope by some miracle she will ' shoot ' up .

Second son is getting taller by the day . He is of the same height as his father . He is 14 years old ..and is still growing .....another two or three inches more , i must say so . He likes getting taller than his elder brother .

Eldest son is big ....not good . What can I say ? He said he is big boned ...like mommy . Hello , don't compare , okay ? he likes to ...eat ...eat ...and eat . And he sleep and sleep ..and gets up when his tummy rumbles for food . He cooks whstever fancies him and yes ...do expect the mess he left behind in the kitchen . And when I " keluar tanduk " upon seeing the mess , I told him to clean up . He would do it and said ...why do you like to bully me ?


My personal life ? Alhamdullillah . Its been a good life for both hubby and me . Bless him for tolerating me . When you are the home manager ,I do try to run it as efficiently as possible . but there are some tasks that kind of turn you off .....like ironing . Now this should be done daily ....do you hear ? But no ...this stay at home mum would rather do other things .


Really ...I am at the point of being " allergic " to this ironing chore . Hate it ! Yunno , I was 13 years old when I was pushed to accept this task of ironing school uniforms . Three sets each for me and my younger sister plus three other school going brothers .Multiply all those and what do I get ? A mountain of clothes by the end of the week . So sunday is ironing day . I would start at 11 am and finished four hours later in the afternoon .


Okay ...enough of my ramblings ! Now I gotta do my housework ....and that includes ...you know it !!!!

So have a nice day ...to me !