First of all, my attempt for a whole Ramadan with Nordette failed. Despite my diligence in consuming it at 8pm daily, I still menstruated. Indeed it was delayed from its usual timing but spotting happened 2 weeks after that and I decided to just stop taking the remainder of the pills. Perhaps ada hikmahnya.

A typical EID morning is us going to my in-law’s house for Eid prayers and visits to usual dwellings. And then we would shoot off to my dad’s house 90 minutes away. I had wanted to spend some time with my sister but she was planning to go back to Terengganu the next day. Hence, it was a day trip to my dad’s place. He was very eager to wait for my brother to come visit. They had some altercations before and have yet to be mended. My brother and my dad are both very stubborn with high egos. I sent a WA message to my brother, in a gentle tone, reminding him of filial piety and all but he has yet to respond. So yeah, maybe one of them needs to die before they start to forgive each other. I mean, I am also stubborn but I try to remind myself of the grace of Allah and still try my best to be patient and nice when the ego is disturbed.

Usual Raya dish at my dad’s place is ayam masak merah, lemang, sate and kuah kacang. There is also rendang but I am not a fan. I still eat them when I go to people’s house or when my husband cooks it, out of appreciation for the cooking effort. I am contemplating preparing daging masak hitam on Wesak Hols but I’ll think about it, alongside maybe Laksa Sarawak and my own version of ayam masak merah. No rendang of course.

We also went to Segamat for the annual family day event. My daughter won the lucky draw and got herself a plastic tiffin. She had always wanted a tiffin and now she has one. She also won a place in the colouring contest which is cool. Then, the event is wrapped up with the ‘gift and duit raya’ session with the kids. That’s their favourite part.