Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Raya in Bristol

This year my family celebrated Eid ul-Fitr for the first time in Bristol.  Well, we did get the chance to experience  raya in Bristol last year because we came to Bristol three days after Eid, but I was still curious of how it would feel on the first day of Eid.  Well, Raya is Raya :)!

On the eve of Eid, there was the preparation of food for the next day.  The only difference was instead of my mom, I was the one slaving in the kitchen... huhuhu!  My family's juadah wajib was the Rendang Cili Api Pilahdelphia eaten with nasi impit (rice cubes) and lemang.  Thanks to the microwave, making lemang could not have been easier :)!

On the morning of Eid, after asking for forgiveness among family members, we rushed for the Eid gathering.  The only difference was, instead of having our family and relatives with us, we have the Malaysian Community of Bristol (MCB) to bond with.  So, there was the Aidil Fitri prayers, feast and photography sessions - just like in Malaysia :)

Next came the jalan raya @ open-houses.  Open house is a unique concept only practised in Malaysia.  During festivals such as Eid, Chinese New Year, Deepavali and Christmas, Malaysians often 'open' their houses to family, friends and strangers even, to join in the celebration and enjoy the food. 

In Bristol, we not only attended a few open-houses but also got to organize one!  (watch the vid :D)


So, this year it was satay as usual for my family.  Only difference was it was not ordered in bulk from the restaurant but we (org Kg. Filton) made them ourselves!  Wow!  Being overseas did bring out the best in us... hehehe!

Yes, we do missed our loved ones back home.  Thanks to Skype, we got to share our joy with them :).

Raya in Bristol was not so bad after all :).

Hanya kad pengganti diri...

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Happy Birthday Jon :) ... Kaulah segalanya

song:  Kaulah segalanya (You're my everything)
singer:  Hazrul Nizam

Since Slide.com no longer permit the embedding of Youtube videos to their slide shows (...since Google's acquisition of Slide.com??), I had a rough time trying to find a slide maker that could embed songs for my personal project - a birthday video (present) for my son.   Sampai tak tidur malam dibuatnya.  Buat assignment pun tak macam ni... Kui! Kui! Kui!  After experimenting endlessly with a few free slidemakers and googling (the irony of it...), I finally found the so-call slide maker in the form of Picasa 3 (which was right under my nose all the time!  Grr!!!).  After successfully putting together the slide cum video project, another headache:  couldn't straightaway upload it to Blogger via Picasa.  Frust betul!!  After a few more rounds of troubleshooting, googling and youtubing, in the end I managed to upload my video  to this blog.  Alhamdulillah :).  Not as easy as it used to be with Slide.com but at least I learnt a LOT of things:

#1    Perseverence in the face of adversity.  Don't easily give up!
#2    Patiently troubleshoot using whatever resources you have at hand (in my case:  Google and Youtube).  Do-it-yourself first before asking for help.  You would be surprise with your capabilities and creativity!
#3    Lastly, kalau tak boleh jugak, seek advice from the expert, techie, husband :) ... whoever that can help you solve the problem.  It's also good to pray for some divine intervention.  Always helps :)

If only I'm all this charged-up when I'm doing my research.... Huhuhu! :P. 

On a positive note, I might even do a Youtube Picasa video upload tutorial to help bloggers who faced the same problem.  Online publishing, here I come!! (If I have the time that is... :)).

In the meantime enjoy my labour of love :).  For those who know Malay, you'll know that this song is not exactly about a mother's love... hehehe!  However, I feel the melody of the song suits this project.  I can still remember how I was terpana (awed??)  when I first heard the song being delivered by the little-known singer, Hazrul, at a glitzy Malaysian TV Award Show in 2006...

Hope you enjoy it too :)!