My Not So Selamat Hari Raya

This is the third Hari Raya in London for me. I’m glad to say it will be my last. Hari Raya is the worst time to be away from home, don’t you think?

It has been the most ‘bizarre’, to put it mildly [and ‘miserable’ when I’m feeling extremely ruthless], Hari Raya celebration for me. Reasons being:

* Celebrated [if you can call it that] first day of Raya at work.
* My rendang just would not turn into a familiar dark brown hue despite the endless amount of coconut milk I added *frustrating*.
* Having to avoid someone’s un-flailing calls.
* Discovered that I was not invited to an open house [sour puss].
* Stalked and pursued by a certain someone for three days consecutively, who insisted we come over for Hari Raya despite [valid] reasons provided. Talk about being persistent.
* Stumbled upon friends’ blogs in Malaysia with photos of family and friends all decked in baju kebaya and baju melayu and became deeply depressed. I sorely miss being at home with the family for Eid *sob*.
* The fact that in Malaysia I would have the whole week off unlike here where I will be back at work tomorrow.

As for the do, well what can I say?

Turn out was almost 100% but since everyone dropped in from another open house prior to ours, their tanks were full to the brim and so they could hardly relish our Hari Raya spread. [Or was it because it was indeed very unpalatable? Yikes!]

Regrettably, there were lots of leftovers. I admit I did overdo on the amount cooked but I belief it’s better to be safe than sorry. I wouldn’t want to have to haul my guests across to McDonald’s for McValue meals should there not be adequate food for all, would I? Seriously, how do you estimate how much you need to cook if you are having dinner parties? Apart from the non-existent skills in the budgeting area, I also had a self-discovery moment on my lack of ‘hosting’ skills.

I guess the spill over effect of the Hari Raya blues of not being with loved ones accumulated further when all the effort put in to prepare for the food was sort of wasted. It would have been a nice stroke to my ego to see everyone polish of my cooking and sing praises at how delicious my kuah kacang was etc.

Oh well.

The good thing that came out of this - I probably will not have to cook for the next 5 days!

I do have to thank IK profusely; if it were not for his incessant assistance in the kitchen; onion chopping + veg slicing + beef/chicken cutting + clean-up efforts, I would still be in the kitchen toiling away to this very minute.

If I put my emotions aside, my Hari Raya was fine. I may not have mum/dad here but I do have IK and friends. And even though there were a lot of leftovers, I had my first taste in hosting dinner parties.