The end of Ramadhan and the start of syawal is near

How fast time flies. Ramadhan is almost at it's end and the raya mood is all around. Whilst I look forward to the raya celebration and the catching up with relatives and old friends, I'm always a little sad for Ramadhan to end. It's such a special month and it'll be another year before we meet again, insyaAllah.

The raya perparations are in full swing. Balik kampung for us is here in Petaling Jaya. Both my parents and my in-laws are here. In fact they live less than a km from each other, straight road, with one set of traffic lights in between. First day raya is an up-down-up-down day for us as we shuttle between the two homes!

This year, preparations at my parents (Uwan & Atok to the precious 4) are a little subduded. Uwan hurt her back a few days ago and can hardly move for the pain. Have taken her to the doctors and rest is the main remedy. So we've told her that she can only be mandor. Have been going to the pasar for her these past two days. Tomorrow, together with the precious 4 and Kak P, our helper, we'll be going to vacumm and lap tigkap the whole house for them. I think Atok might even get the precious boys to help him paint the pagar.

Baju raya all washed and ironed waiting to be worn come 1st Syawal. Had to get new baju melayu for the precious boys this year as they've outgrown last years', especially Abang, who's now only 2 sizes smaller than his Papa. Went to Wisma Yakin to get them. Same shop we've been going to for the past 10 years, if not more. InsyaAllah, we'll all be in blue. Precious Girl and her mama's baju was ready a month before Ramadhan. A ploy to get the tailor to finish the baju without rushing and also to spread the ringgit outfllow ;-)

After Raya, it'll be PMR, so precious Girl is not celebrating just yet ;-). But come malam Raya, we'll all be at Uwan & Atok's for the annual neighbourhood takbir rounds and a spot of bunga api. Ahh... definitely something to look forward to each year.

I'd like to say "take care" to those who are gracious enough to come to this blog, and have a happy holiday.

To my Muslim friends in blogland, Selamat menyambut Aidil Fitri. Pohon maaf zahir dan batin.

image from : nizam83.files.wordpress.com

15 Ramadhan

In our household, we celebrate two birthdays...(bestnye, someone said), date based on the gregorian calender and the islamic calender. Today, 15 Ramadhan is Abang's hijriah birth date. He turns 13 today. Quite the young man and every bit the "Abang".

Abang was born with much fan fare. Girl was so excited to get a little brother. When my waters broke just as A was having his break fast, Girl quickly ran upstairs and got a pillow for me. She put it on the floor and told me to lie down. "Baby nak keluar Mama, cepatlah baring!" This from a 3 year old girl! Must be those pictures in the Mirriam Stoppard books. We waited for Tok Ma to come pick Girl and Kak P (who was our helper at that time, and still is now, albeit after 2 breaks home for her - another story for another day) and A and I left for the hospital. Abang arrived after only about 1 hour of hard labour (!!), a relatively easy delivery at 1:08am. He is cucu #6 on my side (making up an even 3 boys and 3 girls) and cucu #8 on A's side (and only the 2nd boy cucu after 6 years of girls). Girl was having chicken pox at the time so we didn't stay in the hospital too long. He's also the first baby to come home to our own house as Girl was born when we were still living in my parents house.

Today, Abang is slightly taller than mama (although this isn't too difficult a task as Mama is vertically challanged) and is fast catching up to his papa. He just completed his UPSR and is looking forward to going to boarding school next year [ :-( ]. Mama prays that Allah guides him down the best path for him.

Abang is into sports. He plays soccer for his school, touch rugby for school and district, is a Pum in taekwando (pre black belt as you have to be 16 to be a black belt) and was the olahragawan for this year's sports day with 5 golds and 1 silver. Alhamdulillah. He supports the Manchester United football team and frequently gets into arguments with mama and papa who are die hard Liverpool fans.. hee hee hee.

He's a good boy and mama is proud of him and is humbled by the responsibility of raising this precious young man. May Allah keep him in His blessings always, and may his Iman always be strong, his heart pure, his mind sharp, his life long and fruitful and may he always be among the solehin. Amin.

Happy birthday precious Abang.

UPSR

Abang starts his UPSR exams tommorrow.

InsyaAllah all will be well. Mama prays that Allah will terangkan hati, tajamkan fikiran, tenangkan perasaan so that Abang can achieve the very best. Amin.

Good luck to all the UPSR candidates out there... and to their mamas too.

Apam Ice Cream

As long as I can remember, I've liked this version of the apam family. The one that is not so airy, is colourful and is made with ice cream soda (as my Mak would tell us) hence the name with which we referred it to. My mak used to make it, and sometimes one of her "mak angkat"s would make it for us too. (One, whom we called Tok, was from Johor and was a great cook. I still remember her "roti kukus pintal colour colour")

For the past 3 or 4 years, my sis-in-law (SIL) and I would drive to the pasar ramadhan in USJ to look for the stall that sells this apam. They only sell it during ramadhan and it was one of the nicest versions we've had. (I know of a stall in Kelana Jaya that sells it all year round but their version is too sweet for me) We'd walk up and down all the stalls looking for this particular stall and once found, the excitement is quite something else! We'd usually walk away with a few bags of 10 pieces, to be sent to the other siblings' homes yang also suka tapi tak rajin nak gi cari. Once a year we'll satisfy our apam ice cream craving.

But this year is a different story. Thanks to a good friend, Z, I got a recipe that works! And after some trials and error (I'll explain this in a while) the result is now one that I'm happy with. I made this batch for buka puasa on the first day of ramadhan, and since we had our iftar at my parents home, all the siblings and mak and ayah pun dapat merasa sama without having to send to the individual houses. The verdict : nicer that the bought ones! Yay!

Here's the recipe if ever any of my precious 4 want to try it (and to anyone else that stumbles upon this blog)

3 cups of plain flour
1 cup of caster sugar
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon of Quick 75 (you can get this at the baking section of most supermarkets)
1 teaspoon of rose essence
1 cup ice cream soda
colouring (I use green and red)

Put the first 5 ingredients together in a bowl ready to mix. Then last of all put in the ice cream soda. This is important. If you put in the ice cream soda in between the other ingredients, for some reason the batter with be like putty ie. likat sampai tak boleh nak pukul. I killed my food processor doing this as the motor overheated from trying to beat the stuff. So remember to put the ice cream soda last then beat (in my case, with a hand mixer since old trusty processor is still dead) until it forms a smooth paste. Divide the batter into three and colour two of the bowls. (I like my apam pastel in colour so I don't put too much of the colouring) Then fill in your cups (I used small cupcake cups) up to 2/3 full with the three colours and place them in the steamer. (I put my cups in the tray first so that it'll keep the shape). Steam for 10 minutes and wallah! you get apam ice cream!

It's easy to make. This batch gave me 60 small apams, so the neighbours got some, my mom in law got some and the rest was finished off by my family. I think my mak alone ate 5!

That made me really happy!

Ramadhan Al Mubarak

Alhamdulillah! Another Ramadhan has arrived and insyaallah, we are able to rejoice in the blessings of this glorious month.

May we be included among the people who are granted Lailatul Qadr', Amin.

Have a blessed Ramadhan

Merdeka

Merdeka eve:
Drove into town to visit my aunt. Thought we might get stuck in the traffic jam but alhamdulillah, Jalan Tun Razak was absolutely clear! After the borak -borak session with her and exchanging our Ramadhan gifts, A and i finally left at about 10.30. Again the road was clear. I guess everyone was already at Dataran Merdeka or KLCC or Bukit Bintang or... mana mana lagi lah yang tengah dok berpesta. Girl and Abang were still up and asked us if they could have pizza while waiting for the fireworks (this is beginning to turn into a tradition since we did this for Merdeka last year and also while waiting for fireworks for New Years) But DP's toll free line was so busy, we were put on hold for about 5 minutes and still didn't get to speak to a human. In the end we decided to stop by the outlet in TTDI and ordered take out, which only took 15 minutes. Looking at the stack of pizzas waiting to be delivered, it's no wonder the delivery number was unreachable! At the stroke of midnight, Girl, Abang, A, Kak P( our helper) and mama stood outside in the driveway and enjoyed the fireworks from the Curve. This year there was no competition from 1U.

Merdeka morning:
Joined Chik and J in front of the tv. "Let's watch the Merdeka celebrations today okay?" "Huh? No cartoons ke today mama?" "Nope" hee hee hee. Managed to get them to watch for a while before the lure of the PS2 became irresistable.

I remember when mama was part of that throng, marching along and creating formations. When mama was in form 2 and form 3, we were part of that "largest ever marching band" show. We had to endure months of practice, first in school, and then in Wardieburn camp for the regional rehearsals and the final national rehearsals were in UM. The band girls at that time were so tanned and berbelang, we looked like zebras (this was in the era when we still wore short tunics and boots) It was loads of fun though. We got to travel out of school, stay in the nicest hostel in UM at the time (Zaaba college) and got to meet lots of people. Some of us even struck up some pen-pals along the way. : ) But it was also a lot of hard work. The marching seemed endless and a few kids fainted from the heat and exhaustion. At the end of the day though, it was one of those experiences you're glad you had. A chance to be part of a celebration for our country's independence. To this day, I still sing along to all the old songs, Berjaya, Barisan Kita...etc. The kids think mama's nuts!

I hope that the precious 4 will get to live in a country that is forever free, in every sense of the word, and that Allah blesses this beautiful country of ours always.

Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!