The title says it all. This post is about my first raya away from home, family, and all other things in Malaysia. Its my first raya abroad, in clayton, victoria. Before the day came, i thought it was going to be a dull one, no pelita, no crackles, no mercun, no fun! Maybe ill just spend the raya myself, no celebrations, no open house, etc. That was what i thought, at first. But everything changed. It changed when i heard the halls kids are making an open hall, and that it actually is an annual celebration. Thats when i heard more things. There are open houses, there are crackles, there are many other things. Its going to be just like back home. So, thats when everything started. The halls kids began planning, decorating, cooking and preparing stuff. It was all for the 1st day of raya, where everyone are invited to come over and celebrate it together after the eid prayer.
I remembered, the night before the 1st raya, I’m in charged to make the ketupat (just boil it in water) together with sharul and shapiq. As the job wasn’t that difficult, we played some ping pong and snooker in between. The girls were even harder as they had to make ‘kuah kacang’ from scratch! And someone bought the wrong ‘kacang’, so it took even longer for the ‘kuah’ to be cooked. After we’re finished with the ketupat, someone called, saying ‘wei, ko tolong masak satay plak. Aku x cukup orang ni. Ko dtg Rusden ah’. Blurhh. Just when we thought our job are done, thats when a job calls for duty. Fortunately, we didn’t have to go to Rusden, as they just wanna grill the satay in the oven, so they came to halls instead. And there we were, putting the satay one by one in the plate, making sure each and every single one of it are grilled evenly. After putting the satay in the oven, we played some ping pong just to kill time. And again, duty calls. ‘Hasif, ko bleh tolong wat banner yang ko wat untuk birthday aritu?’. Being a good person I am, I couldnt refuse not to do it. Afterall, it is for raya celebration. So I went back home to start making the banner, print it out and have some rest. I think it was about 1.30am at that time.
After a few minutes rest, I went back to Roberts, to play ping pong and see the satay (ping pong is the only game available at that time). We all did. It turned out well. Nicely grilled, smelt good, and tasted even better! We each have a taste, to see whether its properly cooked or not (actually we just want to eat). After dropping the satay to one of the girls, we went to the location for the celebration. To decorate. So we put on the banner, added a few ‘ketupat hiasan’ and also some other decos. Someone said, the background looked so blank. Ugh, i cant agree more. With all the leftovers, we put on something as the background. And finally, by the time we finished, its already 5am in the morning. With 3 hour sleep, I woke up, take a bath, and went for the 8.30 eid prayer. Then came back to hall, and celebrated raya 2008, abroad, away, and all the while, happy.
Selamat Hari Raya! Eid Mubarak!
the banner and the background
the people
the 'ketupat'
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