Day.. I dunno

I'm now back from my trips round Malaysia :) Interesting things that happened: 1. My stepdad is weird. He thrives on breaking the rules. 2. I got stung by a hornet :S 3. I got asked a *million* times about whether I had a boyfriend or not :P My aunt and my grandma's now at my home, so I'm now evicted from my room :P So far I've been meeting lots of friends almost every day of the week. And so far, I've only met *one* person twice this whole time. I'm really blessed to have so many diverse sets of friends, I guess ;) It's pretty odd though when I see my friends.. it's like everybody's on the fast track of life.. jobs, marriage, kids, death.. and I feel like I'm still sitting there waiting for the bus to arrive :P

Eid - Day 1

I've got about 1.5 hrs left before I head off for my second leg of Eid fun-ness!

So what happened on the first day of Eid:

Ate awesome rendang! Enough said.

Got to meet my extended family members that I haven't seen in years. I saw my granddad, my aunts and my uncles. I also got to play around with my stepmom's awesome camera. Took a million photos of the aforementioned rendang, and four pics of my granddad :P

Visited my grandmother's grave. I always get a bit melancholic when I visit her grave. She's known to be quite fierce amongst all her grandchildren, but she always spoiled me and my brother. There was once I wanted a cassette of my favourite artiste (OMG I'm so old) and on the release date, she accompanied me to a few cassette shops to look for it. Unfortunately because it was so new, they didn't stock it yet, so I changed my mind and asked for my second favourite artiste's cassette instead. And she still bought me that cassette! So yes, I miss her a lot.. and I always tear up a little bit when I see her tombstone. It's such a shame that my younger brother and my younger nieces and nephews never got the privilege to meet her :)

Travelled 6 hours in total for a 3-hour visit. But it was more than worth it :)

Today we'll be doing a 5-hour trip to Alor Setar, staying there for two nights, before heading back home again on Friday.

Day 5

.. is the last day of Ramadan!

So I woke up to prepare the early morning meal, then proceeded to sleep until 1pm, so slight improvement there :P

But today's been amazing :D

Went to our local shopping mall at 11pm to see all sorts of Eid stuff being sold auction-style. The atmosphere was amazing! People were shouting out prices and the longer we stayed there, the lower the prices were! I managed to snag Eid biscuits for 1/3rd off. I even got to haggle some of the prices down :)

I also saw some *amazing* headscarves, but unfortunately I had already ran out of money by then. Some other time then :P

Apart from that, I also went to pick up my Eid dress from my aunt. Of course I was asked the all-time favourite question:

"So Dayah, do you have a boyfriend yet?"

:P :P :P

Oh help me God.

See, if you say that you don't have a boyfriend, the next question would be:

"How old are you now?"

Which can then go one way or the other:

"But you look so young!" --> positive result!
"OMG what are you waiting for?!" --> not-so-positive result.

I think on this occasion, I've managed to deflect their attention adequately enough. However, I'm not so sure how I'll fare when I finally meet my extended family members over the next week..

Tomorrow's Eid :)

I'm seeing my paternal grandparents in Ipoh tomorrow, then I'm seeing my maternal grandmother in Alor Setar the following three days.

And the interesting bit about our trip to Alor Setar is that my stepdad's following us there the whole time as well. This will be the first time he'll be in prolonged contact with my youngest brother. So this will be interesting to watch :D

I'll be travelling all over Malaysia until Saturday, so I won't be online very much, hence not blogging much either.

Selamat Hari Raya, everyone. Maaf zahir batin :)

Day 4

Arrrgghhh.. must stop oversleeping!!

I only woke up at 3pm today :( :( :(

Woke up earlier this morning to cook our early morning meal, but once I slept around 6:30am, I completely missed my 11am alarm and *six* of my dad's calls.

:S

On a happier note, I actually managed to reheat everything *and* got the rice cooked (the night before) all in time for 5am! Result :D

Sigh.. I think I'm writing off today.. hopefully tomorrow will be a lot better :)

Day 3..

.. could be considered an off day, in more ways than one.

I was in charge of cooking the early morning meal. Considering I was still awake, I decided to stay awake until the 4am that I'm meant to be up for. So I completely had zero sleep last night.

I had reheated everything and I put some rice into the rice cooker and everything was set by 5am when everyone usually wakes up to eat.. except, by 5am, the rice was still not cooked :S

I was panicking.. I apologized profusely to everyone saying it was my fault for cooking the rice late..

Then my mom took one look at the rice cooker and said, "Of course it's not cooked, you didn't turn the power on."

*facepalm*

So in the end, nobody had the rice, and we had to make do with the leftover noodles from last night's dinner :P

Sigh...

So around 6am, I went to bed, setting my alarm clock so that I'd wake up at 7:30am because I was going to go Eid shopping with my stepmom.

6:37am and I was still looking at my clock..

By the time 7:30am came, I had *just* about went to sleep, which meant I could barely open my eyes, so I quickly texted my stepmom to say I'm not coming. I think she was a bit disappointed by that.. she was already in her car by the time I texted her.. sorry! :(

But I went back to sleep.. and I didn't wake up until noon :P :P

By the time I woke up, my brother's been fed, all the laundry's been washed and hung to dry, and all the dishes have been washed.

:D :D :D

So yes, I just continued faffing the whole day until I met up with my old collegemates H and F for iftar. So yes, today's been a brilliant day, alhamdulillah :)

It was great talking to H and F. Back in college, we used to be in the rebel group, or what was called the MIC (Malay-Indian-Chinese) group (don't ask!). We didn't really fit in with everybody else, but we were quite a close-knit group back then.

Then university happened and we stopped speaking to each other for nearly 4 years.

It was quite amazing to be talking to each other after so long.

I always assumed them both to be the poster children of people going overseas and migrating for greener pastures, which essentially they both did for awhile. They both took some time to work, or look for work, and in the end they're both now working in Malaysia.

It seems so odd to me. They both were fighting so hard to get to stay in the UK to work there, yet in the end, they both ended up back home.

They both said there were better work opportunities back home, hence why they both returned.

See, I'm still in the stage of fighting to stay in the UK. I can't help but think that there's something I'm missing here :/

Day 2

Actually today's not too bad.. I think I executed my maid duties fairly well :)

02:30 - Went to sleep :P

04:30 - Woke up to check if my mom's up to cook sahur for the family. She was. Went back to sleep :P

05:15 - Woke up to have sahur.

06:15 - Went back to sleep :P

08:00 - Woke up to get my brother AA ready for school. So ironed his school uniform, dressed him, gave him cornflakes + milk (which he threw away at the kitchen sink), cooked him some fried noodles.. only to *then* realize that today he was not going to school. *smacks forehead*

09:00 - Washed two sets of laundry and later hung them out to dry.

11:00 - Washed a *million* dishes, from sahur to AA's breakfast.

12:00 - Sent my brother T to buy some McDonald's to feed AA for lunch. I was lazy to cook.

12:30 - Retrieved laundry from the clothes line because it's starting to rain.

13:00 - My mom asked me "so how's your PhD?" :S :S

13:05 - Went back to sleep :P

17:30 - Eh? Is it 5 already? Woke up.

18:00 - Fed AA leftovers for his evening meal.

18:30 - Write this blog post.

18:45 - Got scolded for writing blog post instead of helping in the kitchen.

When can I go home?

Sorry, gtg now.

Day 1..

.. as the maid :P

Our maid's gone home for Eid, hence it's now time for all hell to break loose everybody in the household to pitch in.

My mom's in charge of cooking. My brother's in charge of taking care of my youngest brother. I'm charge of laundry and cleaning.

I think I got off lightly there!

Just two hours into taking care of my youngest brother, and I already felt like tearing my hair out of my scalp.

:P :P :P

I really need to learn how to be patient.

Things I Forgot About Malaysia #1

If you leave sweets out in the open, you will attract millions of ants :S

I'm home :)

I'm now back in Malaysia for three weeks :)

It's funny how it seems like such a long time but I'm quite sure it's gonna fly by in a blink of an eye.

My trip from Southampton to London Stansted was a trek! I had to take two buses, taking five hours in total. The first bus was late by an *hour*, and my layover before my next bus was also an *hour*, so that was a bit nerve-wracking, but I managed to catch the second bus (thank God!) and it all worked out in the end, so it's all good :)

At the airport, my mission was to get my brother some Flake chocolates and my dad wanted some cream for frostbite(?). I spent a good 30 mins or so just to find out that the airports no longer stock Flake chocolates, and I had no idea what my dad wanted so I had to abort the mission. In the end I just bought some Toblerone instead :P

Because I had wasted so much time faffing about, I hurriedly had to find some secluded corner to eat my Krispy Kreme doughnut and leftover pasta bake (it's Ramadan :P) before people began to board the plane.

All in all, my journey to get to the plane ran according to plan. It's just that everything was so manic and rushed; it was a definite departure from my mental image of relaxing in the lounge sipping a cold Coke (at a secluded corner, of course), surfing the Internet on my laptop before I leisurely stroll out to board my plane.

I took the AirAsia X flight from Stansted to KL LCCT this time round. I've heard lots of mixed reviews about the flight, so I guess I was bracing myself for the worst, but it's actually quite alright. Except for the smelly toilets and a wailing kid in the middle of the night, the flight was surprisingly pleasant. The chairs were nice and comfy, but I guess that only applies to people with Asian builds (i.e. short and small :P). The Spanish guy next to me had trouble sleeping the whole night. Speaking of the Spanish guy, he ended up borrowing my blanket throughout the flight. Did I tell you that you had to buy your own blanket for the flight? Well I brought my own, which I ended up not using in the end, so he asked to use mine instead :)

If he was hot, I suppose I would've chatted him up or something. But he wasn't. The air steward, on the other hand, was quite hot, but I was too embarrassed about him serving me food in the middle of Ramadan, so I didn't chat him up either :P

I had brought a novel, a magazine and a newspaper with me, in preparation for the long entertainment-system-less 13 hour flight, but surprisingly I only had time to read the novel and that was it. The rest of the time I spent eating (:P) and sleeping (unsuccessfully). The flight was a bit bumpy around the Indian Ocean, and unfortunately the travel sickness pills I took weren't as effective as I had hoped.. :S

But anyway... we finally landed at KL in good time. It was 31 degrees Celsius, so I was quite glad I had a T-shirt on. I got my luggage OK and I was greeted by my mom, my *two* dads and my two brothers. It was the first time I'd met my stepdad. He bought me a rose :P

What do I say about my stepdad? Hmm.. He looks like a good guy. Compared to my previous stepdad, this one definitely seems a bit more open to me and my family, which is nice. He's a Scorpio though, so I'm always on alert for any unexpected traits ;)

Another cool thing is my mom's now wearing a head scarf.. hence why I couldn't see her at the arrivals hall :P

So now I'm at home, and I've had my first dinner together with my "new" family, i.e. me, my brothers, my mom and my stepdad. I'm still not sure what to call him, to be honest. So far I've successfully managed to dodge that by *not* having to call him. But I guess at some point I'll have to decide on something.

He's made so many changes around the house. My room used to be really empty. But now, instead of a single bed, I know have a massive double bed. There are now two picture frames of flowers on the walls, and I now have *two* sets of wardrobes - not that I even *have* that many clothes to fill them with! I also have this half length mirror which has some wiped out scribbles made with lipstick on it.. weird.

So yeah, so many new things have happened while I'm gone. It seems to be for the better :)

While I'm in Malaysia, I plan to meet a few close friends and get back into the routine of helping out around the house. I also need to see my boss at some point. It would be nice if I could grab some time to go out and have fun on my own, but I guess I'll need my brother to drive me around for that. Ooh, he's got a job now as a trainee, which is starting on 6 Sept :)

My brother's all grown up now, so proud of him :D

I wonder when am *I* going to grow up..

He's sad that I bought him Toblerone instead of Flake :P

I feel a bit disjointed here at home. Like a stranger at my own home. Is that normal?

Ah well.. I guess I'll settle in soon enough.