Ramadhan and Syawal

9 Syawal 1429H/9 October 2008
Salam EidulFitri to all muslims and a greeting to all.

Alhamdulilah I am back to work. After the festival mood and family gathering affair, and not to forget 9 days and 8 nights spent at the two states of Johor and Kelantan. Luckily no horrendous traffic jam encountered by us. My 'raya' routine started with visiting my beloved parents' graveyard and their closed relatives and friends. Normally I did this before raya itself (if Muar first)..so that I could give some presents to them. By now I realize the numbers are getting lesser.. and it shows I am getting older. My mother in-law Alhamdulillah is there to compensate the lost moments with my parents. I treasure very much the various festival food in Johor and Kelantan. In Muar Johor I will always have this ketupat nasi, rendang, lodeh, kuah kacang..The best thing some of the food were given by relatives and neighbours. So we always escaped from weaving the ketupat.

In Kubang Kerian Kelantan, we always have the Kelantanese speciality of nasi dagang and laksa/laksam as raya food. This raya, I mean third raya I managed to make mee bandung for my in-laws..Not that difficult because I bought some ready-made ingredients from Muar wet market called "mee bandung mak pon".. Just add squids, prawns, eggs and vegetables to the boiled ingredients, then ready to be served ..This raya also I was made known "kuih ulat bulu". God they like to call food..such as "tahi itik"..but those food are nice and scrumptious.

Talking about Ramadhan I missed the last ten days due to..syarie reason, but I prayed hard may Allah forgive my sins and accept my inadequate ibadah as amal soleh. Procastination is the evil for productivity. It happened to me the last two days. UM called me for the full paper for the next week International seminar entitled Islamic philantrophy and poverty eradication. Suppossedly it should be ready before raya. Time flies. My husband also experienced some kind of 'stone' problems since second raya. I could only advise him to to do some scanning..but the decision is his..the doctor at the DEMC also said " ikut sukalah" after he refused a jab, instead he opted for viral medicine to ease the pain..you could only bring the horse to the river. but you cannot force the horse to drink..


Eid Mubarak again
PUZIAH AHMAD