Category Archives: Everyday Life

The elite elders at a wedding reception – an observation

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We’ve all been to weddings before. Or a ceremony of some sort. On arrival at the venue, it is customary for the visitors to greet and ‘salam’ the host and whoever is nearby – cause that’s just the right thing to do. Similarly when it was time to part, one would meet the host and family to express thanks and gratitude for the food and such. Some may ask further questions about work and all but eye contact with ‘thanks’ is enough. It was a gesture my siblings and I felt was normal and part of common sense. Something that we thought everyone would do.

We were wrong.

Apparently, not everyone does that. It made us even more speechless that this ‘not everyone’ group is not the young Gen Z’s but the older generation – the ones in my dad’s age category. 60 years and above.

My dad has retired and it’s only natural that people of his age are all accomplished in their respective fields. Mostly in the Tan Sri, Datuk and Datin category. Or CEO, CFOs, bosses in their organizations etc. People who use mixed English and Malay in their conversations. In short, the typical representation of T20s you see in a Malay soap drama.

MENONONG

My siblings and I were lined up at the door, ready to greet the guests when most of these elite elders with their wives would just walk past us without an ‘Assalamualaikum’ or ‘hi’. We are a team of brothers and sisters, so even if the Datuk’s cannot salam us.. surely the Datin’s have hands kan? But no, not even a smile. And we are not even wearing masks anymore. The same thing would happen on their way out as though the relationship they have at the time is strictly between them and our father. ONLY. They’d be walking by so fast to the door as though they needed to escape quickly. It’s fine if you do not want our honey gifts since you eat caviar anyway but – a ‘thank you for the invite, we have to get going’ would suffice.

I am not saying all Elite Elders are like that. The very few Datin’s who greeted us were, on the other hand, nice and sweet. There was however an over-friendly lady friend of our father at the ceremony. My sister and I are suspecting that she is trying to place herself as a candidate for Dad’s wife. We will keep an eye on this Lady F.

The work before the reception

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My youngest brother’s wedding reception is happening this weekend. He has hired a wedding planner to organize the reception. Naturally, the outcome correlates with the budget given. They say it will be a peach & white concept with maroon attires. In the meantime, we siblings chip in from aspects of time, energy and other relevant matters.

Father ordered extra kueh for a santai corner. My sister was put in charge so I am helping her with the props. I have some pua kumbu tablecloths and table accessories laying around. She can use these props later after for her intermittent open houses. And just like any inspiration, they come by at the last minute. I ordered something from Sarawak. I am not sure if it will arrive in time. If it does, alhamdulilah.. if it doesn’t then it is not meant to be. Hidup ni tak susah.

My daughter excited looking at pics of her uncles when they were little

Father put me in charge of the reservations placards which is not much to do once you have Canva, a printer and pretty paper. So I have settled my part. I have other ideas regarding the door gift area but I’ll have to see the setup first at the hall the night before the reception. Our door gifts are honey jars for the adults and honey sticks for the kids. Father ordered a few extravagant plates for his VVIP guests whilst my sister and I ordered Beryl products for the family coming from Terengganu, Melaka, Sarawak and the team involved. We have yet to inform him about it.

My brother, Danial’s role, is to shuttle the relatives coming to the wedding. And attend to their needs.

This is just a brain-dump post. There will be better pictures later.

I think I am getting it now

The part where you need to grab your wife and children away from temptation

Cause when I see women twerking on social media, misunderstanding the concept of empowerment and success, arguing over mundane issues, and outing rightful stuff …

… and they choose to become mothers one day – living and thinking like how they used to be – they will raise their own mini-me with similar values

the hand that rocks the cradle still rules the world but in an ‘inviting-apocalypse’ way.

Hosting Eidul Adha 2023

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I was excited to host because it seems a while since I had people over to the house for a meal. What’s the point of having a dining table if you don’t plan on using it kan? Perhaps later I can invite some people over for lunch on a Friday when I am on leave or something.

Setting the house

Cleaning a home is not something I can do in just one weekend. It takes at least a few weekends to get it into order as I don’t have any helper at home nor do I enlist the services of professional cleaners. I feel that when it comes to Malaysians, privacy is easily invaded as the people like to ask personal questions and I’d have to evade it like a bullet. They’d be asking what you do as a living, the this and the that.. so unless I feel like sharing about it one day, we’d just do it ourselves.

One of the major cleanups I did was the gym and storage area. Previously it was full of bags of plastic bags filled with old curtains, clothes and recyclables that I wanted to get rid of. Now that I know where to bring this stuff for donations, it makes decluttering easier. There is a Kloth care bin at Peringgit but it looks uncared for and messy. I chose to send mine to the Lotus donation bin instead. It also helps that the disposable trucks from SWM come here every Monday to collect our recyclable items which makes these environmentally friendly efforts easier.

I charged and put up my solar lights for an aesthetic night setup. It felt like a cafe outside. I bought a lot of lights from a seller on Shopee as I plan to paint the walls and drill more of them later – after my exams in August.

Menu List

The menu I wanted to prepare started the day before Eid, which was on Wednesday as my dad has already reached my home. I decided to make Lamb Briyani using Adabi’s instant lamb curry. I ordered Sate. Boiled some instant lemang and chopped up my chickens for the Ayam Masak Merah dish.

I went to Mydin for my shopping trip as the items are cheap and there’s a lot of variety to choose from. I spent nearly RM400 on everything as I also needed to get some items for Matin’s goodie bags, a BBQ stand, charcoal and other miscellaneous things. I bought my marinated drummers and ikan tenggiri papan from here as well for our BBQ and umai.

Our BBQ was on a Saturday morning because my sister needed to leave by lunch. We did not have one the night before because there were mosquitoes in the yard. I don’t want anyone to get dengue fever. So I prepared a normal home-cooked meal for her which consisted of ikan bawal, stir-fried vegetables, my umai and telur dadar.

I also bought some rolled cakes from an online Shopee vendor. The visuals were great but the taste was mediocre. I am thinking of sharing some of these cakes with my daughters’ friends at kindergarten. Our Eid mornings were in fact very simple and cosy.

Parcel kasih sayang

I just realized that I have no photos of my PKS. These are bags filled with food and gifts for my dad and my siblings. This time I gave them a packet of Instant Coffee from Arifcafe, Cadbury’s Chocolate Drink, Indomie, cookies, chocolates and snacks for my nephew and nieces. I also gave 3 bags of daging korban to my siblings as sedekah.

There will be more celebrations to come towards the end of the year. There will be loads of birthdays and parties to go to. I look forward to more mini-staycation as well.