Music: Hope by Jack Johnson

Its a feat to type when my cat is covering half of the keyboard..
But here I am typing anyway.

Its been busy days at the office..
I've been going to the office even during my off days..
Nak start up my personal project pun susah coz office work comes first (Tel, your patience is appreciated!)
And now with GA, Ugly Betty, GG and Bro&Sis season complete as of last week, got lots to watch and catch up with.
I've been downloading the episodes every week, but have not started watching it coz its always more fun to marathon then watch the episodes week by week.
And also I really need to start planning my NZ trip.

Was in Kelantan for the past 4 days for my cousin's wedding.
I didn't plan on going back initially because I had to work.
My father wasn't exactly happy with that.
I haven't gone back for the past 2 years for raya, raya haji, and when my Tok Wan (pronounce Tok-where) passed away.
So I found ppl to take my shift..
And I also thought to myself.
If I could go out of my way to attend friends' wedding, why can't I do the same for my own relative?
At the end of the day, its your own family that will stand by you through good and bad times (especially), until you're old.
(I never wholly realized this fact until a couple of years ago).

I drove from KL to Gua Musang R&R.. my father then took over until we reached KB.
That's a first, I've never driven to Kelantan before..
And it was a very exciting drive!
Through kampung roads.. and mountains and what not.
Driving on a two-way single-lane road is like an art.
Finding the right moment to overtake the slower cars/lorries/trucks.
You gotta gauge whether sempat or not to overtake the car in front when there's incoming traffic on the other side.
You gotta take into account the speed of vehicles on both ways.
At times when I wanted to overtake, my father would say, sempat or tak sempat.
Dude memang heart rate aku selalu increase everytime nak overtake lol.
There are also unwritten rules, like if you reach the occasional sections of the road for 'memotong' purposes, you must not overtake using the left lane.
Even if the cars on the right lane is slow.
Seriously, I pissed off 2 cars for just that, got honked and flashed and waved at furiously.
The big trucks like the lori2 balak usually warns the cars behind them about oncoming traffic, the kind ones that is, cause they can see much further from their high seats, and cars behind them usually can't see anything coz the trucks are so big.
They would signal left if the road is clear to overtake, right if there's oncoming cars, sometimes they put on the lampu pusing2 like the ones on police cars to warn.
My father's been driving the Big Triangle for the past 30 years, mmg expert habis lah.
Big Triangle: KL-Kelantan-Penang.
He'd do like crazy maneuvers that'd I'd never have guts to do.
Well, this is only my first time driving on such roads.
And now the roads are soooooooooo much better than 10 years ago.
I drove a lot in the States but they're mostly on interstates and highways, a kid could do that.
On the way back, I drove from KB until after Gua Musang town.
My father again took over coz it started to rain.
So all in all, it was a fun and entertaining drive. For me, at least. lol

On with the story..
My cousin's wedding was like totally different from the KL weddings i've been to.
Kat KL aku rasa 99.9% org hire caterers.
Over there, for nikah ceremony semua masak sendiri..
Can still handle coz tak ramai la sangat, just ours and in-laws punya family yg attend.
For the wedding reception, the main dish upah org masak.
The day before the wedding, the daging2 etc semua was sent to the house, then these ingredients were sent to the ppl yg diupah to masak the main dishes.
The cooked dishes would arrive on the day itself, and we had to put them in the trays ourselves.
Meja kerusi pinggan mangkuk cawan sudu garfu semua susun sendiri.
As for side dishes, semua buat sendiri.
Macam sambal, telur masin (penat weyyy nak rebus and potong and susun2 telur2 masin itu).
Dishes for the high table for bride and groom special, so masak sendiri jugak.
Air pun buat sendiri.
Pinggan and cawan tak banyak, so there's ppl kat dapur yg akan basuh all the dirty dishes while the reception was going on.
Refill food and drinks pun sendiri.
Well, you get the drift, mostly buat sendiri.
Door gift pun obviously buat sendiri.
And mmg last minute coz besides the chocolates and pot pourri, my cousin wanted to give the guests nasi manis and pulut kuning, which came late the night before and some the morning itself.
Bunga mangga buat sendiri juga, guna betik.. tgk2 betik tu terlebih masak pulak and terus jatuh meleleh from the batang kayu yg god knows where they cari.. hahaha lawak gila lah..
The night before, my cousin gave me the decorations she bought for the arch to be put in front of the house, and said.. nah kirah tolong buat..
hahahha tiba2 aku kena buat, so buat lah.. decent jugak la arch aku tuh wahahahhha
the day before, the pengantin (my cousin) still duk potong bawang okay..
Ahh god knows what else we did.. it was so busy.. and so fun.. and so tiring!
Everyone did anything and everything.. LOL..
Mostly family members lah..
I've never been direcly involved with wedding preparations before.. so it was a new experience for me.
Apparently, there's a name for this kind of wedding preparations.. its called majlis rewang.. hahahha.. perfect name.
To top it off, it was a quiet weekend in the sense that I only got a couple of calls from some friends, which was good.
Of course, I was bombarded with the inevitable "Bila lagi?" question..
My answers differed from "ntah" to "lama lagi" to "adik/abang dulu" to "no comment"..
Depends on who did the asking..
In conclusion, I'm glad that I went back.
It'll be a while before I go back again, I think.

But I'm glad to be back in KL coz I can never stay in Kelantan for long periods.
1 day-penat
2 days-just nice
3 days-boleh tahan lagi,tapi dah start KL-sick
4 days-ok but dah start cranky
5 days-maximum tolerable
Seriously.