Open House at Vista B Penthouse

Even though Hari Raya month nearly ends (tomorrow is the last day of Raya), I was invited my friends from International Medical University (IMU) Bukit Jalil to attend an open house conducted by a batch of students. Each house of students were required to prepare some food. Ida and Bella's house prepared spaghetti with two types of topping which were the red and white topping. While Helmy's house prepared 'dadih' and chicken nuggets. Meanwhile, Azery's house prepared the drinks. This open house was held at a penthouse owned by Pean and the gang at the 18th floor of Vista B (Tower B1).

It has been a month I haven't seen my friends. The last time I meet them was during the departure of the Manipal students, Badd and others. That time was at KLIA. I missed them so much and therefore I agreed to come to the open house. Because I'm not an IMU student, I felt guilty and shy somehow. Therefore, I also prepared something for the open house. On the day before, I made about 200 honey cornflake cookies at home with the help of my mom and my younger brother. All the leftover ingredients from the last time I made the cookies were fully used until nothing left except half pack of cornflakes. This cookies had become one of my significant speciality, and most of my friends had taste it before at INTEC.

I left home at about 5.40 pm. I was supposed to move earlier than that, but somehow my mom got involved in a car accident just a couple of hour before. Luckily my mom didn't suffer any injuries. The red Proton Iswara car also not badly damaged, therefore I still could drive it to Bukit Jalil. After my parents got back from the police station, I immediately drove to Bukit Jalil because I promised Ida to send the tupperware after Asar.

I arrived at Vista C at about 6.10 pm. I visited Helmy first and hang up with him for several hours because the open house started at 8.15 pm. We had a long and interesting but yet confidential conversation in Helmy's room. Helmy served me a mug of juice. He was so nice, even though sometimes he could be emotional, very emotional....

After Maghrib, I left Vista C with Helmy and then, picked up some containers of honeylicious cookies in my car before we headed to Vista B. Before we went to the penthouse, we dropped by Ida's house to help her to carry some food. Helmy and I got lost in Vista B several times until we had to call Aimi. Sorry Aimi for bothering you. Lastly, we arrived at Ida's place with our bad condition. Our body were all sweaty because of the lost before. Luckily the elevator got air-cond, therefore we could dry out some of the sweat.

Several minutes later, we finally arrived at the penthouse doorstep. We were welcomed by my ex-classmates (Jah and Wan) which I haven't them since we finished A-Levels 3 months ago. Then, we set up the food which we brought together. I put my cookies on the empty table on the left. Not many guests had arrived by the time we got there. My friends and I had some meals because we afraid that we couldn't eat comfortably when the house were full later on. I tried out the spaghetti, bihun tom yam, kek batik, and dadih. Ida, Bella and some girls ate quickly because they had job to do which was as guest welcomers at the door. They left Helmy and I and we continued eating the delicious food. The dadih was not 'menjadi' because they were too diluted and not kept cold. Then, Achik, Awi, Am, Mije and Ameer also had arrived bringing two type of drinks. However, the drinks were too sweet for me. Maybe the put a tonne of sugar without realising that the drinks were oversweet.

guest welcomers (penyambut tetamu) plus Aimi's brother and also polystyrene plate from Saffa's hand

Later, guests started to arrive like hell until the house were full like a sardine tin. Joash and Si Han whom were my classmates at INTEC also were there. Joash also teasing me saying 'What are you doing here? You are not an IMU student! Kidding!". Because I was too used with Joash before, I didn't mind what he said. He loved to joke around and made people laugh. I also had a little chat with Si Han about how to find a house there since I will enter IMU in January. He suggested me not to stay in IMU hostel because the house condition were sucks and there is no washing machine. Azery also came with Joash and Si Han. We got united finally.

I also tasted the pudding, brownies from Secret Recipe, fruits and some other deserts prepared by the girls, I didn't know whom made which. Without I noticed, suddenly the food on the table were multiplying. Suddenly there were Penang laksa and roti canai on it. Luckily at that time, the guests were still arriving continuously.

At about 10.30 pm I guess, the number of guests rapidly decreasing. So, we started to clean the place and packed some food. By the way, I was so glad that my cookies were 'laku' like hell. Many people gave me compliment for the crunchy cookies. Also, Aimi's brother who is the senior in IMU suddenly thanked my mom (supposed to be me) for making the cookies. I'm just happy that the container was empty at last so that I could bring it home lightly. But still, there were so many left over food. They said the many seniors didn't come. Without any hesitation the last guests packed the food for themselves so that they could eat it later. Jah also was busy washing the dishes in the small kitchen.

Charlie's Angels pose

We also had a lot of photography session with my friends. Thanks to Aimi for her camera. Hope you will upload the pictures on Friendster or Facebook soon. I didn't bring my camera because my brother borrowed it. We took pictures in the house, outside the house in the corridor (with Azery and Saffa), on the floor (with Ida and Bella), in front of the door (with Jah and Wan) and also with the boys.

Iwa and Helmy

IMUians plus Iwa Samian

Sitting down on the floor due to extreme tiredness

Before I headed home, Helmy and I dropped by Ida's house again to helped her brought the empty containers home. We hang up there for a while and Najwa served us cold refreshing plain water. Then, it's time for me to say goodbye. I really don't like this situation... Being separated with my friends again and the start of boreness at home later.

Helmy and I walked to Vista C but before that, we went to the tennis court to pick up Achik's slippers which he forgot to take before. Helmy waited for me outside the Vista C until I drove the car out of his sight.

What a great night. I felt very happy for this great, memorable and yet satisfying open house. The food was great just like Joash said. Thanks Helmy for accompanying me most of the time in the house (but not all the time).

Looks like this year's Raya had come to and end. I'm delighted that it ended in such a beautiful way.

=)

ZARAing with Helmy on A Lovely Sunday

Yesterday, I went to Midvalley Megamall which is located approximately one-hour journey by public transport. As usual, I used commuter train to go there. Helmy, which is staying at Bukit Jalil took LRT and then changed to commuter train at Bandar Tasik Selatan. Both of us left our house at the same time but Helmy arrived at Midvalley first. When Helmy was loitering around MPH Bookstore, I'm still stucked at KL Sentral waiting for another train to Seremban.

I reached Midvalley at 11 am which is half an hour late than our promised time which was 10.30 am. I met Helmy in MPH. Then, we went to ZARA because Helmy said he wanted to find a t-shirt for his beloved friend for his belated birthday. After browsing the t-shirt collection, we decided to go to other shops first because Helmy said that he didn't really like the design there and the price was very expensive also.

We headed to Topman later and found nothing to buy. Then, as usual, we went to our common shops that we usually went like Romp, Samuel & Kevin, Giodarno, Soda, SEED, Padini and some other shops. Besides that, we also went to several toy shops because I like toys.

At noon, we had our lunch at the food court. Strangely, the food court wasn't full like usual Sunday. Maybe people still had open houses to attend especially during this festive month. Helmy and I decided to eat Western that day with iced milo. We talked so much, like we hadn't meet for a year. We shared opinion and talked several other unimportant things. After filling our empty belly, we went to a toy/anime/manga shop nearby. I was very interested in the Transformers toys there and bought one (Rescue Ratchet) at RM100. Helmy was shocked because he never know that I love to collect toys. Looks like you don't know me yet Helmy, even though we had been friends for more than one year.


We continued our journey on the top floor, the same floor with the food court. We went to Converse (Badd love this shop), Tropicana Life, music shop. Radioactive, Why Pay More? and some insignificant shops. Then, Helmy decided not to buy present today because he felt it's not worthy to give expensive present for a person who didn't appreciate him. He also asked my opinion about this. As a solution, he bought several expensive things for himself only. He bought a ZARA t-shirt and two new arrival S&K t-shirts (v-neck). He really wanted to try on v-neck t-shirts.

After we had nothing else to do there, we decided to go home. We bid goodbyes and we boarded different train heading towards our different destination. During my way to Shah Alam, I called my mother and told her that I wanted to join my family to go to my cousin's open house at Ampang. So, my mother asked me to wait at the KTM station and we went to Ampang just right after I arrived.

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Even though I'm very tired (tired of helping my sister the day before, tired of walking in the shopping mall), I still managed to transformed my Rescue Ratchet into a robot. LOLZ!

At Kak Nora's place, not many guests were there since we came late which was nearly night. I ate 2 bowls of Mi Bandung, several sausages and nuggets with orange juice.

My day wasn't end at Kak Nora's house. After that, we went to Setiawangsa to visit my parents' friends. We used to go to Mecca together to perform umrah together. It's raining that night. My parents had quite a long chat with them while my brother and I just sat there. I felt very sleepy.

On the way home, I slept along the way home.

Super Wednesday

Yesterday, I went to Sunway Pyramid with my ex-schoolmates from MRSM Beseri. At noon, Helmi picked me up at my home and later Aniq and Raden joined us at Sunway Pyramid.

Because I was strictly on budget (because I want to use my money during my travel later on this year), I just window shopped and walked around. We went to Romp, where we could see Aniq's t-shirt hanged in this shop. It was the same t-shirt he wore that day. He was also very ashamed to get into that shop. I was very attracted to the white sweater there with gold lining. It's just RM49.90 which was quite cheap for a sweater. But I didn't buy it since I already have a white sweater which I bought with Badd earlier in this year.

Aniq and me

Helmi and me behind the kolam

Then, we went to MPH Bookstores to read some magazines and books while waiting for Raden to arrive. He was so late that day until we had to postpone our lunch. After browsing the pages from Islamic Names book, Raden finally called. I just found out that the meaning of my names which is Hazwan means 'pemberianku', or my gift. It's kind of different from what I read before from other book which said that my name means obedient (yang patuh).

We waited for Raden near the ice rink. We were supposed to ice skate that day but it's already late. The time now was 3 pm. We dropped by Dunkin Donuts to buy a dozen of donuts to fill up our empty belly. After half eating the donuts, Raden came. Then, we had our lunch (lunch at 4 pm?) at KFC. I tried out the Spice Crunch chicken. It's quite satisfying because it was served with rice.

Raden, me and Helmi (sitting on driver's seat). We weren't playing, just posing.

Later, we went to the cinema to watch movie. We decided to watch The House Bunny. At first, Helmi wanted to watch Senario The Movie (eiww), then Aniq want to watch Mamma Mia since it's a musical movie. Raden and I want to watch Eagle Eye because it looked interesting but Aniq already watched it. Even though Raden had watch The House Bunny before, he didn't mind watching it again with us. Since it's Wednesday, the ticket price was on RM7.. (Super Wednesday promotion). This movie was quite funny. I loved it. I was very shocked to see Katharine McPhee in this movie. I didn't know that she could act.

After watching movie, we went home. We bid goodbye to Aniq and Raden who took the bus from Sunway Pyramid while Helmi and I went home by car instead.

Even though it was a quick and short outing, I feel very satisfied. I hadn't seen Raden for about 2 years since he went to study at Egypt. Aniq also like that. Both of them study at in Egypt; Raden at Alexandria while Aniq at Cairo.

Happy VS Sad

HAPPY

Yesterday, my house was holding an open house for Hari Raya Aidilfitri. My parents invited some relatives, neighbours as well as friends. I also took this opportunity to invite my friends to my house. I invited my friends from INTEC as well as MRSM Beseri.

After Subuh prayer, I didn't went back to sleep on the very comfortable bed. Instead, I went to help my mother in the kitchen. First, I boiled 3 packets of spaghetti, then wash all the dusty plates which I took out from the cabinet. After wipe them dry, I arranged them on the table in front.

Then, my brother and his wife came to help. Thank God, they reduced my work a little bit. I also helped my mom chopping the cucumbers, tomatoes, limes and bla bla bla... (I didn't remember other things).

Our first guest was of course my mom's friends and their families. My mom invited all the teachers from her school (my mom is a teacher) which is about 70 person. That's a lot! I couldn't stop washing the used plates back at the sink. After one batch, one batch of plates came. Guests kept coming like running water until my house was packed with guests eating happily while chatting with each other. Thanks to Kak Kyra for taking after my shift.

My neighbours came at the evening because at that time, my house was quite clear. My friends closed the open house and they got packed satay as well. Only my friends from MRSM Beseri came, none from INTEC. Poor Azery, he really wanted to come, but Azam had created some problem with the transport. Azery had waited for him at Vista for so long until rain poured down. Sodox however didn't have anyone to accompany him. Pity him. Helmy was buzy with his Wan and Mak Lang, Ida went back to Pilah and Bella got some transport issue. Only 5 of my friends came. The common ones were Aiman, Helmi and Bobby which came every year and Aniq and Ikhwan. Aniq was supposed to be back at Egypt, but he decided to skip his classes for a couple of weeks.

Helmi, me, Ikhwan, Aiman, Bobby and Aniq

SAD and shocking news

While I was buzy washing the dusty plates, bowls and glasses, my dad received a call from my uncle saying that Wak Saadiah had just passed away this morning at about 11 am. Last week, we visited her at Hospital Batu Pahat because she had run into accident before Raya. Her condition was very critical and severe at that time. Two of her right ribs bones were broken and the bones stabbed her right lung as well which cause her hard time to breath normally. She also couldn't talk much because she had a short breath.

Anyway, let's us present her with a recitement of al-Fatihah. Al-Fatihah~

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After cleaning and tidying my house after the open house, we went to Batu Pahat to visit my uncle who had just lost her wife. We arrived at my grandparents (nyai and yai) at midnight.

On the next morning, we headed to my uncle's house which i located about 2 km from my grandparents'. On the way there, we met his sons and daughters who were on their way to the cemetery. Then, we followed them to the graveyard and went to my uncle's house after that. The soil was still wet showing that it was just being dig recently. After reciting Yaasin and tahlil, we went to my uncle's house.

After had a little conversation with my uncle, we went back to Shah Alam.

Hari Raya Aidilfitri Greeting Card

I just got the chance to design my own Hari Raya greeting card yesterday. As usual, I used Adobe Photoshop to turn my photo into Hari Raya card. Since I got 2 baju Melayu as baju Raya, I chose maroon as my theme because the colour looked more interesting, more dashing, more stunting, and more stylish. I already sent this card (not really a physical card, but it's an e-card) to all my friends through Friendster. I took 3 hours of my precious time just to design this card. I hope my friends will love it.


Besides e-cards, I also sent the real Hari Raya cards to my friends. This practice had become my routine during Hari Raya, actually fasting month was more accurate. I bought some cards from many places like Giant and gift shops. Usually I bought the cheap one because I liked to send them to many recipients including my friends and my ex-classmates.

However, this year, I only got 2 physical Hari Raya card; one from Kuma and one from Cipak. Kuma sent me card every year. He never missed one after we got separated after SPM. He also sent me Birthday card every year. As return, I also frequently sent him Deepavali and Birthday card each year. Besides that, I also got so many Hari Raya messages in my phone but I already deleted all of them because they took a lot of memories. I didn't send any Hari Raya messages to anybody except the closest one.

This year, not many of my friends could attend my open house because most if them already flew away celebrating Hari Raya overseas. Badd and Wawa in India, Elia in Ireland, Apal in Indonesia and many more.

Hari Raya Aidilfitri

Hari Raya Aidilfitri Eve

As usual, my family and I celebrated Hari Raya at Shah Alam first before we headed to Johor where my grandparents lived. On the night before Raya, my house was visited by the surau members to 'takbir' at my house. This year, our turn was quite early because ours was the second house. Last year's turn was very late which is at nearly midnight. This 'takbir' ceremony or we called it 'baraan' usually started after Isyak and can could ended after midnight depending on how many house took part.

My married sister and recently married brother came to help and also took family picture together. My sister had to go to Indonesia on the next day because my brother in-law's cousin was going to marry an Indonesian girl. We dressed in maroon baju melayu that night, while my brothers and sisters dressed in pink.

Kak Kyra and Angah setting up the camera

Family picture

1st Syawal

After performing Aidilfitri prayer, my brother and sister in-law came again to take family picture but this time, without my sister and brother in-law because they were on their way to Medan by using Air Asia flight. Yesterday, I helped my mom with cooking. She cooked a lot of dishes like ketupat, rendang, sambal kacang as well as ayam masak merah.

Family (not full) picture

Nearly noon, we headed to Johor to visit my grandparents at Batu Pahat and later to Johor Bahru to visit my grandmother (from mom's side). A lot of my relatives, uncles, aunts and cousins were already there. We also visit some of our relatives house during that day. We also got a shocking news which was my aunt was warded in ICU because she had some serious accident with her motocycle.

my younger brother and I

the women in the house

2nd Syawal


We went to my aunt's house at Pasak in the morning. We had chicken rice. It was delicious and tempting. Later, we went to my uncle's house + orchard at Sg Telor, Kota Tinggi. My aunts served us with chicken wings, nuggets as well as fries. Not forget, the mouthwatering corn ice cream.

with my cousin in front of Pak Lang's house

the dead tree which was struck by lightning

Then, I followed my aunt and uncle to AEON Tebrau City for shopping. I bought a Transformers toy. We had a light meal at Johny's where we ate steamboat. The sauce was also very nice with some spicy and sour taste. My aunt also bought some clothes for my cute little cousin, Siti.

After Mahgrib, we went to Batu Pahat again to sleep overnight there. Some of my relatives already went back home but some of them had just arrived today.


3rd Syawal

We went to Wak Long's house to visit him. His wife was the one who was warded in hospital. Then we headed to Batu Pahat Hospital to visit her. We need to take turns because only 2 person were allowed to visit her at a time.

Then, we had out Jumaat prayer before we headed to Kg. Batu Puteh to visit my great grandmother. Her children also were already there with their families. Then, we continued our journey to Segamat.

That night, we went to my mother's friend's house nearby. Her husband died recently during Ramadan. It was a good month for Muslims. She cried several time when she told my mother how her husband passed away.


4th Syawal

It's today! We went back to Shah Alam. Luckily the traffic was smooth and fine.

"SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI"

"MAAF ZAHIR DAN BATIN"

from : Hazwan [Iwa]