Halaqah : Rumah Kak Siti...

On Wednesday the 21st of October, we had halaqah at Kak Siti's house. Halaqah is actually a 'majlis ilmu' where the ustaz/ustazah would share with us hadiths among other things. This time round, we started with yassin recital.

The funny thing was, we've forgotten to bring our own water to make air yassin...hehehe. So, we just put the big bottle of mineral water in the middle of the room...hehehe...Just look at the pictures...

Before we started...

Look at the background... hehehe

A clearer picture!

After the yassin recital, we listened to ustazah siti. After the halaqah, we were invited to taste the spread prepared by kak siti. She cooked nasi briyani if I'm not mistaken. The table was laden with food, as usual. I had to leave early as I had to cook for lunch and later picked up Amir and Hadi from school. 

Listening intently...

The other side of the room...

Concentrating...

Amboi, Kak Anum...

Macam2 ada...

The spread...

Amboi, manjanya kak siti...muahaha

Sembang2...

Makan2...

Jamuan Raya Blok A...

The programme started after isya', around 8.15 pm. It was very simple, bacaan doa and Rommil as the MC was nice enough to ask everyone to give a hand of applause for the warden. It was greatly appreciated! Hehehe...Then, eating time!

Asrul and his sweet tree...

Creative orang bujang ni...

Since there was a concern that the salata should be mixed using gloves, we did it ourselves in the end. I asked Najwa to do it...hehehe. If you don't believe me, look at the picture below...

Najwa and the salata... proven not using hands!

Tomato and the peanut sauce...

We were doing some last minute preparations...

While waiting for the guests...

Even though we're tired, the ladies came down with their finest dresses... As usual, we tool lots of photos. I was a bit unlucky because my camera run out of battery...sigh. But, I'm sure there were thousands of pictures taken on the night...hehehe.

We were naughty enough to make a line to receive our guests from Block B...hehehe. We must have looked so formal that Nadzifah who came down quite early was flustered and kept telling us, she was not the VIP...hehehe. We sure had fun kidding around...muahahaha!

Pasangan romantik... Kak Anum and Ipin

Nadzifah (5th from left) was hiding behind our line...hehehe

Posing jangan tak posing!

I didn't really eat because frankly I was too tired to eat. Instead I guzzled down at least 6 ice-cream malaysia...hehehe. The rest of the time I spent going round and chat with the guests. Everything went smoothly except for the time when we temporarily went out of nasi impit. We had loads but some were not cut. The OGP fellers were really on hand in everything... they kept on replenishing the khoruf and if I say so myself, all the guests tasted the khoruf. Alhamdulillah.

Our spread was quite simple, nasi impit with kuah kacang and rendang, soto and khoruf. That's all. The variety was not there but the quantity was ample. The guests also seemed to enjoy the soto with loads of pegedil...hehehe. We also have desserts and ice-cream Malaysia and fruits. 

Sukanya fateh, liyana dah sampai Khartoum...hehehe

Makan time...

A good turn-out...

Nak makan soto le tu...hehehe

To tell you the truth, I had great fun... When the last guests left around 11 pm, we worked hard to clean up the area. Alhamdulillah, we finished everything by midnight. I was so happy to see the men helped clear the mess. We had a little bit of kuah soto left and a lot of rendang. We kept it for the next day's breakfast.

The next morning, Kak Jas and Ina Sakinah with the help of a few other ladies turned the rendang into serunding. We had breakfast with leftover soto and nasi goreng. We also cleaned A-G-8 together. Alhamdulillah by lunchtime, the serunding was ready and we divided them into equal parts and distributed them to the whole Block. Everyone including the single-status guys and the OGP fellers got their share. Alhamdulillah.

Just for paying sdg 100 for family and 50 for singles, everyone got a three-day meal. Not bad huh?!! But definitely, we'll take a long rest after the biggest event of the year...hehehe... I could still feel the tiredness. Don't get me wrong, I love having this kind of gotong-royong but let a few months past before tempting another one...muahahaha

Thank you everyone! Your help in making the jamuan raya a success was greatly appreciated! 

Jamuan Raya Blok A : Lunch...

Early in the morning of the 16th, we started cooking for the Jamuan as well as for lunch. Syed and Najwa wanted to have an aqiqah for their daughter, Sh. Nayela. So, they provided the khoruf while Ipin cooked it for them. Zuhairi and Asma' sponsored the chicken for lunch because they 'bersyukur' that their whole family managed to perform their umrah safely.

So, for lunch we had kari khoruf, ayam masak kicap, sambal tumis ikan bilis and kailan goreng ikan masin with nasi putih. Around 11 am, the men went to Najwa's house to have a short tahlil and it seemed they managed to hold the majlis bercukur for the baby as well...hehehe

After tahlil, around 12.00 pm, we had lunch together downstairs. What did we do in the morning?!! Made pegedil, thousands of them. I think Kak Shidah, Kak Adik and the gang had had enough of pegedil for the next few months...hehehe. Imagine making pegedil out of 15kg of potatoes?!! Sorry, you guys.

I helped Kak Jas cooked the soto, while some of the ladies help shredded the chicken into tiny little pieces. It took a long time also because we had 30 pieces of chicken! After the soto was cooked, we started on the rendang and later kuah kacang. We really worked hard. And alhamdulillah everything went well. Only the rendang was a bit 'hancur'. There were two reasons for it... first, the meat was cut too fine and over 'kacau' (stirred). Nevermind...

Kesian, budak terbiar kat rumah...

Rendang yang dah hancur...

Those who ate after jumaat prayer...

Penggoreng2 tegar...

Thank you, guys!

Yang dah digoreng...

Yang belum digoreng (this is only half!)

Bawang goreng...yummy!

When the men went for friday prayers, the ladies helped clean up after lunch. The ladies from Kandahar were supposed to arrived around 3.30pm, but they arrived around 4 pm (without charcoal?!!). The driver had to go out and buy charcoal while the ladies set up on the sand mound...hehehe

The men who love khoruf were hovering around, waiting for the action to start. Fatima and the gang had to fry 100kg of khoruf! The others helped set up the area for the jamuan and berkat working together and cooperation from everyone, we finished well in time. I also let the men eat the freshly fried khoruf (at least the first 3 batches) because later they had to serve our guests. I could see that they're satisfied with the arrangement...hehehe (hmm...kalo 100 kg tak cukup, I don't know what to say...muahahaha!)

Jamuan Raya Blok A : Hantu or Warden?!!

Even though we worked hard but there was simply too much work to be done. By midnight, the ketupats were done, the fried chicken was done, the fried potatoes for pegedil was done, the frying of onions was still on going and the chicken for soto was still in the pot. The ladies and most men went to their respective homes. It was hardly appropriate to ask them to stay after the work that they've done. Thank you, guys!

Jumasri and Zamri fried at least 3 rounds of onions to perfection. We will keep Jumasri as the onion fryer for the upcoming feast(s) as well... hehehe. Hj. Ayob also kept us company until 12.30 am, if I'm not mistaken. He helped put two stoves together to make the chicken came to the boil faster. But in the end, there was just the two of us, left...my husband and me...

While waiting for the chicken in the pot, we got to talk. It was kind of a weird date...hehehe. With me telling him all sorts of stories...hehehe... and of course we laughed out loud. Not once, but many times. 

Can you imagine, the two of us, huddled together near the pot... and giggling in the middle of the compound. To make matters worse, it was quite dark with only source of light coming from the lamp posts. Around 1 am, I suddenly sensed some movements... It was coming from the entrance of Block A, where we would wait for the vans... I could see a dark shadow moving in between the pillars.

Lo and behold! It was the guard! He must have thought that we were the ghosts...muahaha! When we realised what he was doing, I couldn't stop laughing. Luckily the ground was a bit dirty, if not I would have rolled on the ground literally! Hehehe...It was so funny and we had to stop laughing in order not to wake up the whole of Block A... we were literally gasping for air, ok?!!

Anyway, when the chicken finally done around 1.30 am, we locked up everything and went to bed... 

My husband 'tasting' the fried onions (his favourite!)... Even his own mother would keep the container away from him at home! Hehehe. He's a real 'hantu bawang goreng'! Muahahaha!

Happy that finally it was done!

Jamuan Raya Blok A : Malam rewang...

Before I start, I'd like to warn you that this entry is full of pictures...hehehe

After isya' on the 15th, we started our rewang. We had so many things to do. The men had to cut the chickens (some for lunch the next day and some for kuah soto for jamuan). The ladies had to peel 20kg of potatoes (some for pegedil) chopped, sliced or blend chillies, onions, garlic and ginger.

Everyone had their own job to do. Kak Adik with the help of a few others prepared the condiments for gear-box soup to be eaten on that night. I already asked Kak Maria to buy the bread to be eaten with the soup. We had to use the only house available in Block A (A-G-8), which was full of gym equipment...sigh. Luckily the ladies were not too picky and they worked hard. 

Though they still had time to tell each other about ghost stories...hehehe. I got to know that at the height of the 'story', they even stopped the blending machines because they wanted to 'concentrate'?!! ...sigh. I already told them not to listen but being humans I suppose, the curiosity got to them...and then everybody got scared! I didn't listen because I was busy in and out of the room...supervising...hehehe.

Cerita, jangan tak cerita...hehehe

Ayu aje Kak Anum and Nor...

This is the ginger gang...hehehe

Sukanya Kak Rohana...

Afraid but curious, huh?!!

My kids yang terbiar...sigh...

The men were busy cutting the chicken and also beef for rendang the next day. We were happy to see that most of the men came down and helped. The OGP guys were cooking the nasi impit in their house upstairs. When the ladies struggled with slicing the onions for bawang goreng, I distributed some onions to the guys also...hehehe.

Hamdan with a gunny sack of onions...

Hj Ayob, Kak Adik and Kak Jas...preparing the soup

Pemotong2 daging...hehehe

Pemotong2 bawang...hehehe

I had to thank everyone who sincerely did all the jobs that needed to be done. Bravo everyone! I'm proud to be one of you and as a community, we did a hell of a job! Because we had the cooperation of everyone, the tasks were done beautifully.

The only problem we had was the stove. We had 3 stoves but all had problems... api kecik sangat, in some cases, we had to combine two stoves to make sure that the food would be cooked faster. We also rebus ketupat on that night. The ketupat leaves were brought by Ipin and Kak Anum made it into ketupat. That also took ages to cook...hehehe, but the end result was delicious!

Authentic ketupat, beb!

Busy preparing the condiments for soup...

Kerisik and rempah soto from Johor...

The garlic gang...hehehe

Sembang pasal apa, huh?!!

Kak Maria and Ina Wahab...

Then it was time to enjoy the gear-box soup. Actually in Sudan, even though I asked for bones, we got a 'meaty' meat instead. They seemed to enjoy the soup though...hehehe. They were a bit surprised when I told them that I bought 20kg for the sole for purpose of the soup. Hehehe, terperanjat ko...hehehe. Well, if I buy less, it wouldn't be enough. So, I'd rather we had ample food for everyone. 

Ceduk, jangan tak ceduk...hehehe

One whole pot of soup...hehehe

Dah buat keje, baru boleh makan...muahahaha!

Single-status and memang single pun ada...hehehe

Angkat, jangan tak angkat...