Raya 2010 vs 2011

Changing nasty oil

Processing the oil  

Syawal is nearly over and the Raya season is passing us by even in Mesia the one country I know that celebrates it for a month. I still remember last year we had the crappiest Raya ever. We didnt get the day off (baru start kerja), work wasnt easy, knew hardly anybody, kids got sick often, things were bloody expensive. It wasnt fun I can tell you that.

I still remember that Raya day. At work, something dropped into the oil I was replacing (part of my training) and it splashed all over me.... I said to myself "what a %&@ life, others are wet with wuduk and me with this nasty stinking oil". I vowed we are not celebrating raya like this again. Felt sad and guilty that the kids will miss out on our culture. So we said we are going back each raya from now on. But 2011 would be different because MIL is around. Next year onwards insyallah. We can only plan.

This year raya on the other hand was full of happy feelings. Got great food (lemang, ketupat , rendang, kuih tart... semualah) and great company. Did all the traditional stuff. Loved it. Absolutely loved it. Thinking back about last year makes it all the sweeter. Even my waistline agrees. So below are some of our happier memories of Raya in Melbourne.

The first year in Melbourne - part 1

It has been a year since we arrived in Melbourne. How time flies. After each milestone or 'check ins' i always like to ponder back what we/I have done in that time. So this post is a summary of how our first year was in Melbourne

Struggle but surviving the change and moving. Still remembered how panicked i was before getting a house and a job. Stress giler especially financially. I realized how expensive and confusing Melbourne can be. Wouldn't do that again.

Zareef first birthday in melbourne was a real quiet one compared to the ones he has had before. We always had a party for our birthdays - any excuse to get together is a great excuse - those were the days. I have always wanted to get Zareef this present. In a way it represents a little why we moved here. couldn't even think of getting it before i got a job here.

My birthday was a damped one as well.. no complains i think when you past 18 you don't really want people to know how old you are

Little by little we started exploring our surrondings... From the zoo to the beaches to the markets to the parks... we started falling in love with Melbourne our new home...

Had a few gathering as well just to make sure we feell melayu and keeping to the roots..

Mt hotham was a real memorable expedition... had lots of fun and experiences there... the theme of that trip was 'extreemeee'.

Maz birthday wasnt that bad... we had lunch beside the yarra river.... it was lovely day too...

Puasa and raya came... we had the open puasa gathering and bunga api which I really appreciate.. but when raya came I was really sad cause I was drenched in oil instead of wuduk for sembahyang raya.... the only day i regret being here instead of Mesia... we also had the open houses which just bring backs home..

Thats it for now.. i'll write more later.

My new version of 'Pelita'

"Pelita malam ni kul 9.42pm jom!!!"

I used to love getting this sms. It means a good night out with friends to discuss whatever mundane things in our lives. We used to have this 'board meeting' at Pelita seksyen 9 Shah Alam with the same culprits. Typically once a week. I liked it a lot cause it can be therapeutic and we share thoughts and insights on what we are going through. More heads are better than one kinda thing.

The other day the same mates gave me an SMS and FB message kinda inviting me to the usual 'pelita' session. Made me jeles in a way. So instead I went to Brunetti's. Its a pretty famous cafe in Lygon St. Lots and lots of cakes and fantastic drinks. Heres a few pics. Check it out.So now instead of "Jom pelita" I will go "Jom Brunetti's". LAYANNN!!

Ramadhan

Its a little late but I would like to wish everybody a blessed ramadhan and would like to apologize for any wrong doings. It is the favorite month in my calender but this time around its a little different.

When back home I can really feel the excitement and peace that comes with the month. The pasar, the gathering during breaking fast and the cleansing feeling when going to terawih and praying. I'm not getting that much here now being abroad. Namely cause everybody else don't fast and doesn't understand why we are doing it after i told my OZ friends of Ramadhan and fasting. Apparently the guy that impressed me with his Ramadhan understanding was my course instructor that had just came back serving in the army from Afghanistan. He even knew when Ramadhan started before I told him.

It was kinda hard to explain about fasting and I had to emphasize that I'm doing it out of will instead of being forced upon. If anybody who is knowledgeable can better explain things please do tell me. Its not my area of expertise. Most people I talked to was thinking it was extreme to fast like we are. I beg to differ. So please help me in explaining.

All seriousness aside, being new to the area I still cant find a place to go terawikh. I know a few but they are so far away. I don't even know who to ask cause all of my muslim friends are not used to this area. I guess I can still terawikh at home but I would rather find a mosque/surau soon.

On a positive side, we break fast at around 540pm. Early right. Sometimes its too early and the food isn't ready yet. We had our share of opening fast with some chips in the car. I realize too that we dont eat that much to overcompensate like what we used to especially after visiting the pasar ramadhan and the buffet's.

Talking about buffet's and pasar... I sure do miss them. Although I can still get the laksa's and nasi lemak's here theres more I would like to get my hands on. Here is my dream list:

1. Roti jala with rendang
   
2. murtabak raja not the murtabak kedekut daging
3. putu piring yg tak kedekut gula murah
   
4. Tau foo fa yg brown bukan white
   
5. popiah basah and goreng smothered in the sweet chili sauce.
6. Apam Balik special - lots of jagung with chocolate toppings
7. Keropok lekor ori nya dari Kuala Terengganu
8. Butter prawn dari hotel Concorde Shah Alam
9. Kuih pelita
10. cucuk udang yg banyak udang and sos cili sedap and not watery.

Could write more but cukuplah.. I don't why I'm writing all this food down. I guess cause I'm waiting the time to break fast so start lah berangan. So you can imagine how annoying I can be when I'm hungry.

Enjoy the rest of Ramadhan everybody. May everybody be in peace. Salam

Extreme Sport on Mount Hotham

Last weekend was a really great experience for us the Zazamazu's. We went to Mount Hotham Ski Resort. It was an awesome adventure but in Gel's words 'EXTREME'. Apart from the family there were 9 others . Iqbal the organizer/chief of the tribe, Suhayl the Jester with Hanom as sidekick/bik, Aina and sister Eli (i might gotten the name wrong) - Zuber sisters lah senang, Pyan the talented architect(direct words from Fariz Helmi) with wife Wani, and the ever good looking couple Jel and Eza.

Seeing that none of us had ever been to Mt Hotham (which is considered a more luxurious ski resort in Victoria comparatively) we (80% of it was from Iqbal's effort) did a lot of research and planning for the trip. Siap buat meetings and tons of email. It paid off cause if we didn't it wont be enjoyable or safe enough. Extreme lah katakan (yes.. your gonna see a lot of the word 'extreme'). First and for most... it took us 6-7 hours drive to the hotel/apartment. Extreme tak.. especially arriving at 230am. In my case, I took a half day and started in the rented car at 230pm so I was really tired after all that time in the car. Had to pickup everybody - wife (port melbourne), kids (Ormond), Gel(Heidelberg) and Eza (Doncaster). The drive was also a little stressful cause we had to rush and reach the bottom of the mountain before 12 midnight to get the snow chains at a rental shop. It's against the law to go up without chains in the car. Good reason too... you wont get anywhere without it.. being stuck and slippery... dangerous too.

The drive up was really scary. It was late, dark, slippery, snowing, windy and extremely foggy. Horror pikir balik. I wouldnt want to do it anytime soon. You know the feeling of slipping and sliding during brakes and turnings.. well we got a lot of that dah lah ngantuk giler (jeles dengar budak dengkur baik kat belakang) at the time. Plus the sesat and slow drive... adventure giler.

So after what seemed like ages, we reached Lawlers Apartment. The best located Apartment I believe in the whole resort - Good choice Iqbal. You can literally ski all the way down from the front doorstep. But the sucky thing was that booking only one apartment we got only one parking spot. So the other van had to park 3 km's down the road (thanks pyan for doing that). Traveling in snow, even a meter seems far. Unloading the stuff into the apartment was also considered a tough task. Everything seems harder and heavier especially walking up hill.

Once everybody was safe and sound in the apartment. We had snacks to get back our energy. The apartment was old but it was very well maintained. It has everything... even washers and dryers. Good cause we plan to cook and everything. So after settling in we slept while dreaming of snowboarding the next day.

Early in the morning, I was excited although with 3 hours sleep. Can't wait to play snow. So being a strategist that I am, I made sure I played with the kids first before I have my own snowboarding time. We made a few snow man and played with the sledges or known here as trabugan (or something that sounds like that). The kids didn't last long in the cold maybe abour 30-60 minutes only at a time. Maybe cause I didn't get them proper gear. Sorry. But I think they didn't mind. They had heaps of fun nonetheless. Ohh.. the frustrating thing about the whole thing was sometimes it took us longer to get dressed/undressed than to actually be outside.

So after some quality time with the family, I had some quality time with the snowboard. I ABSOLUTELY love to snowboard. It was the best thing that I did and most missed when I was in NY. When we were in the states, we went snowboarding every winter.. we even went all the way to Aspen, Colorado the Beverly Hills of snow. So after strapping up the board, I was super excited. Didn't even wait for the other guys. Sorry friends. I bought the lift tickets and down I went. What a feeling especially I found out I can still snowboard after 6-7 years on being dormant. AAAHHHH the feeling of freedom and rush. Wosshh Wissshhh going sideways feeling like a seasoned boarder.. best gilerrr!! but then KEDEBAPPP!!! Now I remember how much it hurts.... But I loved it and kept going for several rounds.

The trails were pretty hard, steep, fast and narrow in compared to the ones I have been to but it was still manageable. You tend to get lost too cause of the various branches of trails and more sky lifts than I can count. Another thing worth mentioning is that Mount Hotham Ski resort is on top of the mountain while most other resorts are bottom based. So getting to the right spot you started was also an adventure. It took me an hour to find the right trail (extreme lagi). Yup being lost and all I sometimes end up in the hard trails (black diamonds category). Thats when I tend to KEDEBAPPP most and learn to read the signs more diligently. Unable to see past 10 meters due to the snow storm wasn't helpful too. But the best thing of all was the snow was super fresh and powdery.

After all the snow play, everybody was exhausted. We didn't really do much that night apart from sharing stories, healing and feeding. Lots of bruises and aches. One story involved was about a run away snowboard. Apparently Iqbal lost and watch his snowboard fall into the bushes with despair. What bad luck... he has been unlucky the whole trip. Another story involves getting the snow patrol in a minor rescue mission but lets keep that confidential.

Moving to the next day, we played with snow again ... it was fresher due to the storm on thats still going on. After the play, I had to get the van. It took forever to get it. Had to get the shuttle bus to get to the car park. Rasa macam kat Alaska cause nobody else was around. Shoveling snow with my legs and fitting the snow chains was no easy task. After getting the van... we loaded our luggage on off we went home. The drive back was still a little scary but at least there were more cars on the road and we can actually see whats over the cliff. The astonishing thing was when we descended there wasn't any snow suddenly.. passed that snow barrier thing. The rest of the drive was nice but still we were cautious of the 'black ice' thing.

After the drive, we reached home around 5pm ample time to rilex for the coming week. I sent the rental van in the city and enjoyed my train ride home replaying the snowboard and snow experience feeling satisfied with the adventure.

If you realize I havent mention the cost of anything cause it was truly madly deeply expensive. It was more expensive than Aspen I reckon. But playing snow is priceless.

ps... so Zareef jangan cakap ayah tipu.. there is snow in Australia!!

Summary for the past month or so

Hello family and friends. Several people wanted me to update the blog. I apologize for being lazy about it. Will put more effort in the future. The official reason being new and trying to settle in (doing everything ourselves, starting a new job, exploring and experimenting) but I have to admit I would rather catch up on my recorded world cup games ( I love foxtel IQ - besttt.. boleh record the whole series semua, lagi best kalau dapat upgrade to HD - $200 jeeee kan sayang). Still trying to win the furniture vs. foxtel priority merit. Talking about furniture... we still need a few more but at least we are not lying on the cold floor that much.

So what have we done so far?? better start the Iphoto (our way of recording events via pics) to get a timeline/storyline.

Here's a few highlights in no particular order:

• Soaking up the culture . Knowingly we are going to stay here a while we had to learn to adapt. So we are slowly following traditions and fascinations they have. Zareef soaked in the red nose day well.
• overbilling/over-system. I'm starting to hate the charges they make u pay cause it's so expensive and we still don't know what's right and wrong in the billings/system. Hate the complexing of simple things. Bureaucracy is a different level than what i'm used to. But the golden rule still apply - bugger them until u get what u want.
  
• the prime minister changed. Macam takde impact je. Semua buat dunno je. Kitorang lagilah dunno. pasal apa thailand tak buat macam ni. Negara kita jgn cakap lah, lepas najib i bet it will be hishamudin. so predictable and change resistance.
  

• zareefs birthday. Not our traditional big celebration but he was happy with his devastator besar. Costs a bomb and have always wanted to buy it for him. Every week we went to gymbo bangsar he would insist to stop by at toys r us to play with devastator. So i promised when I get a good job here i'll buy him one. Now his going on about a bicycle. Kids nowadays dont know when to stop asking.

• exploring. Went to several great beaches. Brighton and st. Kilda was beautiful but cold so just played at the playgrounds and walking. Took pics with the iphone.. camera tertinggal lah selalu cause impromptu visits (about 5-10 minutes drive) and prime lens yg diidamkan tak terbeli lagi. The kids frust tak main air. Mandi sejuk sikit complain tapi nak terjun icy water. Ingat port dickson ke ?
• sale. Stocktake sale end of the financial year sale. A lot of things went cheaper. Unfortunately gaji takde so berangan je lah. Surprisingly after the sales gone i reckon prices went higher than the original. Lesson learned don't wait when u see a good deal.

• Daycare. Zareefs fine apart from a few fights and one accident poop (had to come back from work to handle that). He really loves it but the sad thing Zara can't go to the same daycare cause limited spots. So Zara is going alone to another daycare. She hates ittttt!!! Phobia giler. She won't stop crying kalau tahu nak pegi. Breaks our hearts to see her like that. It gets worst when we come to pick her up we can hear her crying from the parking. She gets upset when other kids start going home. Hang in there baby girl.
  
• jobs. I love the locations of our offices. Right in the Cbd. We are only 5 minute walk away across the river from each other. Boleh lunch sama2. It's the scenic part of the city beside the river bank. Aquarium and casino right across the street for me. Main train station 3 minute walk for wifey and 7 for me.

• started playing football. Only one game but enough to make me happy for the week cause I scored a screamer. Ala forlan. So slowly starting to make friends (Ppl are nicer here than it was in NY). Unfortunately the majority of melbournians are more into footie although they have this big jom-bo-yani ball right across from the office.

• had friends over. Since the pinggan mangkuk cukup baru booleh Ajak. will invite more when they can spare the time. Masak je lah problem. Nak masak western tak pandai sangat.. nak masak mesian tak terror. Order pizza jelah. Pizza flavored satay, tandoori, sushi semua ada.
  

• Enjoying the weather - Although its winter it isnt as cold as we expected. Tak macam kat NY that snowed 5 months of the year. Kids are ok with it and sometimes u get really nice weather in the betweens and would just like to stay outside. We are trying to persuade Zareef to do his painting on the balcony when its nice outside.. kononnya cari ilham but actually tak nak bagi dia buat sepah.

• dishwasher terbakar/smoking. Tak pandai load dishwasher sampai jatuh senduk plastic kena the heating filamen. Being lazy and overloading it might be the reason. Sian the family had to wait outside in the cold before the smoke/smell cleared. It still smells burnt after use now cause i tried to rub the plastic off but it wont completely come off. Just a small reminder that anything can happen.

So thats about it. Boring kan? On a tight budget so duduk diam2 lah tengok bola and minum teh panas. Next time the plan is to go snowboarding (11 ppl or so) and travel to some islands here. Hope to get that nice camera lens before we do. Tak jauh by Aussie standard but still at least a couple of hundred kms. Hope the car can pull through especially on top of the snowy mountains.

Talk to you later matesss!!!