Tiring but a meaningful celebration

It's been 2 days since my last entry. I was busy since Friday afternoon when I prepared some food for the first day of Eidul Adha. While I was busy cooking in the kitchen, my eldest daughter, Fathini had her own project. She cut her own hair using the scissors meant for cutting papers! I didn't realized what happened until she called me to see what was happening. "Mama, come and see me", called Fathini. When I went to the living room, I could see some hair laying on the carpet and she was grinning with a satisfaction look as if she had achieved something. Her hair looked like a layered hair but the hair-wired layered. (mcm kena tobek2). I was so furious at that time and I couldn't help myself but to slap her on her right cheek. maybe some of you think that I'm a bad mother. Then, I asked her to collect her hair and put it on a newspaper. I had to repair her hair afterwards i.e. cut her hair. The result; well let's just say she's now has a very short hair. When I wrote about what happened in the status box in the facebook, my friends shared some interesting views. Most of them said that that's normal.

All right I had to go back to my intention of writing this entry. It's about the celebration of Eidul Adha in Hamilton, New Zealand. We celebrated Eidul Adha on Saturday, 28th Nov. 2009.(well, a day after Msia and other countries). Early in the morning sesudah subuh, we woke up, dressed up and ready to go to Hamilton Garden. (solat raya kat tengah2 pdg kat garden tu). We were among the first to arrive there. dah hubby sibuk2 suruh siap awal2 sampai tak sempat nak breakfast The first thing I noticed was the gap between the men's and women's prayer spaces. They marked two lines with strings. We (the women) had to be moved few times before they finally decided how far the gap should be placed. susah betul nak pindah2 tempat sbb kita dgn 2 anak lps tu ada tikar lg. The prayer started about 8.15 a.m. and by the time we finished praying, I could see there were many muslims here. Most of them were the refugees from Somalia. The rest were from Saudi, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia (kwn2 kami yg belajar dan bekerja di sini) and India. My Malaysian friends were sitting at the second line as they arrived just before the prayer started. We (my daughters and I) sat beside an Indonesian lady and her 7-year-old daughter. She has been here for 9 years and her daughter was born here. She even shared some cookies that she brought along while we were listening to "khutbah" (the sermon). Some Somali women were chatting so loudly after the prayer until the Imam told them to keep quiet or get out from there. But they were so stubborn and the warning didn't affect them at
all!

Right after that, we went back home to have our breakfast before we headed off to Morrinsville (about 55 km from Hamilton). We went there to get one part of the slaughtered cow. (kami buat aqiqah untuk Hafizah). We thought that we were going to see the whole slaughtering scene there. However, when we arrived, we were told that the slaughter man had slaughtered the cow in a farm near Cambridge. So, we only saw the pieces of cow that had been slaughtered to few parts. The cow was a huge cow because when they weighted the parts; it was about 210 kg! The men had the job of cutting the cow into smaller pieces while the women became the photographers and the quality control managers. tukang arah2 We had the chance to taste the cow when they started to cook them on the BBQ set. Before we went home, we also had the chance to taste the yummy beef soup.

The second day; Sunday, we had two houses who organized a feast. We collaborated with another family to have a feast at their house. (niat aqiqah tadi). We made satay, bbq beefs, noodle with soto soup, mashed potato and gravy, special raya cake made by the host and fruit salad. The preparation began the night before at Dr. Sazali's house(the host) and I did ours at our house. At 9.30 a.m. on Sunday morning, my daughters and I went to the house to help preparing for other food. It was good to have so many helpers who didn't mind to lend their hands. biasala sambil buat kerja, borak2 dgn gossip2 sikit. hehe By 2p.m. all of the food were ready except for satay and BBQ beefs that would be done during the feast. By 3.30 p.m. the feast started. There were about 100 people who came and luckily we had plenty of food for everybody. K.Ija (Dr. Sazali's wife), was quite busy entertaining the guests and topping up the food on the table. I helped her around too since we were collaborating in having the feast. Throughout the event, we had nice time, chatting to our friends and cathching up with each other's latest news. The feast somehow ended at about 8 p.m. nasib baik skrg asar lambat habis sbb dah summer-hr makin pjg.We went back home first before we went to another house that served "Laksa Sarawak". It was the first time for most of us to try the dish. My daughters really liked it. kena belajarla mcmmana nak buat ni We stayed at the house only for half an hour because we were so exhausted by the end of the day.