Hari Raya Visiting

We had great fun as we envisioned it would be, every year without fail. It was exciting as I mentioned before in my previous post "Finally The Visits!" when we got our coach.

Hari Raya visiting on Saturday, 4 November 2006 armed with a chartered coach was great! Everybody from grandparents to grandnephews and grandnieces, all together the whole day in a joyous mood.

Unfortunately, 2 families could not make it. Youngest Brother just had their baby girl Alya Kalysa a few days ago, and second Brother was hosting an open house for Raya visiting.

Like every year, the bus started at my eldest Brother's place in Tampines Street 22, formerly where we lived with our parents before the last 3 were married.

We lived on the 5th floor while my eldest Brother on the 6th. My eldest and second eldest Sisters lived on the 7th and 4th floor respectively.


Everybody except my eldest Brother has since moved to Jurong West, Sengkang, Punggol, Woodlands and myself Tampines Street 71. Yet the same car park was still where the coach waited for our rendevous every year to start our visiting quest for this year.

Like every year, everybody started the day with vigour and zest. Full of jokes and noise in the coach. House after house, and food consumed after another, everybody became noticeably slow and quieter, unmistakenly filled with food in the tummy.

As the day progressed, apart from the Raya cakes and cookies, the different types of delicious traditional Malay Raya food dished out from almost every host, was as always too tough to resist... so we were glutons on that day.

It was hard on the eyes.


By that I mean, everybody tend to become sleepy after the 4th or 5th house. The coach will tend to be quieter than when first started. Eventually, everybody will be having quick naps on the coach in between journeys of houses.

The last house visited, will be the most quietest, almost zombie-like when everyone is totally "filled to the brim" with food and drinks, while the day can reach all the way to 1:00 to 2:00am in the wee hours of the morning.

Fortunately, we Muslims are not allowed to drink, else there would be chaos with drunk siblings. Will not be a good sight nor example to the impressionable little kids at all.

My house was the second and was the longest everyone stayed for. Simply because it became an unofficial "Hamster Adoption Centre."

With our beloved hamsters... all 40 of them in 7 separate cages, it did not take much persuasion for each family to take in their little babies.


I had to give everyone a crash course on caring for their new pets. The food and drinks these hamsters need, their sand-bath, their granulated-toilet and the bedding needed and when to change them.

Every family left my home with a cage of coupled hamsters and a little "dogie-bag" of hamster food to go, just in case they did not have time to buy the hamster food.

We were short of time, else I would have asked each family to pose with their new pets. It would have been interesting to adopt a pet in itself, but on a special day like that day... it was magical.

Tiring, but oh, what a special day it was. Every year, we never fail to enjoy ourselves as one big, happy family.

Now, cardio on the threadmill to loose all that kilos from that day...

To our Parents & Beloved Families
Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri!