It's been sometime now, I guess, since my last entry. A lot has happened during the last two months. Hari Raya came and went in a whirldwind of 'open houses' and constant eating of goodies, non stop... I'm sure my girth has expanded from all the cookies and cakes but who cares for diet when the festivities are on! I had not realised that most of my good friends are all Datins and Puan Sris ,Tengkus' and Rajas until one of my friends pointed it out to me that my social circle was hmmmm , as she put it 'betul betul berpangkat ' . Seriously, this slant of observation had crossed my mind . If you ask me, I think it is a pretty stupid observation from a pretty stupid friend .It does not matter to me one bit what titles they have, for I have always looked upon them as friends , good friends whose friendship I cherish and value with all sincerity. Good friends are hard to come by and their worth is weighed in gold. Titles and prefixes to names have never bothered me and I'm not about to rearrange my thoughts now . Come to think of it, I have always addressed them by their names and no one has been offended either. Maybe it's because I've known these friends for donkeys years, hmmm... Anyway,the upside was I got to eat lots of fattening and mouth-watering home-cooked food cooked by these titled ladies themselves throughout the month. The downside was the struggle to slip into my pants after every visit .
I must take this opportunity to decribe my visit to my good artist friend, Roslina's house. Lin,as I call her, is such a lovely person, that you cannot but share in her enthusiasm of her craft and the tremendous amount of energy and effort she had put into transforming her house into a beautiful and cosy home. Goodness gracious, it was like walking into a painted house. A beautiful painted house. It was like you were in a different country! Her garden, with the lush greenery and bright flowers were as inviting as a cool glass of lemonade on a hot day. And that was just the outside. The interior was , of course, like a page out of a Beatrix Potter book. Well, sort of, anyway. I couldn't stop gawking and exclaiming at every one of her wall hangings, shelves, cupboards, bottles, tablemats, containers, cutlery, china, curtains... etc,...etc... etc.... Ha, ha. my camera was in automatic mode, clicking away at every thing in sight. Luckily, I had just put in new batteries...!
It was simply amazing. The renovations they had made to their home added to the enchantment. Credit must also be given to her good husband ,whom,I guess helped in the handyman department. I'm sure he too was very pleased with the results achieved. Believe me, I didn't and couldn't eat anything, so carried away was I with her artworks. Surely, her house is worthy of a magazine shoot.....
Hardly was Hari Raya over when the Festival of Lights 'Deepavali' descended. Now, it was my turn to do all the cooking and baking. I was sooooo busy, busy, busy. My daughter's exam had started just about that time and thus she was unable to help , although she and my son did manage to make 'muruku' and 'achi muruku' ( rose). The first batch of muruku was all eaten before Deepavali itself and the second batch came out so hard to bite that I had to use a hammer to crush them. I think I know now why my dental filling came off! I had to eventually throw them away. I was just too scared to serve them to my friends.
As usual, my kids and I trooped down to Klang town's "Little India" on the eve to watch the fantastic fireworks, the packed crowds of last minute shoppers and to feel the hustle and bustle of the festivities. It made us feel alive with the festive mood. Back in Shah Alam,however, it was very quiet, as not many Indians live here.However, I had a large turnout of guests to visit me, mostly my students and their parents, that I had a hard time trying to cope. Of course, all my 'berpangkat' friends came too. Apart from thosai with chicken curry, mutton rendang Indian style ,putumayum and poories with chutney, this year, I had also for arranged 'mee rebus'. This was a favourite dish that I used to have when I was schooling, so it did bring back old memories of my parents and siblings. My guests seemed to like it too. I had also baked a few cakes like coconut cake, chocolate cake, orange n poppy seed cake ,lemon prune cake and pound cake. The others were a peach pie, chocolate and walnut tart, french apple tart, apple crumble and a cherry and almond tart. This was also the first year that I had not made any cookies. Hmmmm.. looks like I had baked quite a number of cakes and pastries. Now I remember, the whole of the two days prior to Deepavali was spent on baking and baking non stop. I do get into a frenzy when I start baking.
As I had no help this year, I couldn't call all my art friends. I can't remember calling so many guests either . I was totally swamped by the bumper turnout that I don't think I ate anyting on Deepavali. My last guests clocked out at about 11.30pm so it was a really tiring and exhausting but happy day for my family.
It's almost 1am now and way past by bedtime. Goodnite/good morning to everyone.
