Mon 31 Dec 2007
It was a big day for Cartcart. After studying Islam at Darul Arqam for several sessions, today was the day he converted.
It felt sort of festive with my relatives and family bearing witness to the entire ceremony and I wondered how it would be like during the actual wedding itself.
Cart and I already looked like a bride and groom, with our matching green outifts.
Coupled with my relatives whom were already wearing colourful clothes themselves, I heard someone quip, “Was there a wedding going on?” while we were having our lunch together.
Tues 1 Jan 2007
We spent the new year visiting my maternal grandmother’s place. It wasn’t anything eventful, but it was nice to get together and interact with the extended family anyway. But the air seemed a different there with my relatives all teasing me to hurry up and get married.
After we visited my grandmother’s place, we decided to drop by my maternal aunt’s place. It was an interesting experience as Cart and I reached there on my scooter!
Thank goodness that I did not get too lost trying to get from one part of the Island to the other.
It was already reaching nightfall when we reached there. We rang on the doorbell. No answer. We rang again. Didn’t seem to be anyone inside. No one home? We almost left for the elevator when the door opened gingerly and out popped my cousins head.
“Come in! Come in!” they invited us in warmly, “We thought that you couldn’t make it”
My aunt and cousins were one of the first of my relatives to know of my relationship with Cartcart. They were there when I first brought Cartcart to meet my parents for the first time. They are very nice and both Cartcart and I are very comfortable being around them.
We both made friends with their cat called baby.
Isn’t baby absolutely cute.
Naturally our conversation flowed to baby, the star of the day. Cart starts to ask why baby had such a short tail :
My aunt invited us to have dinner where we had pasta and vegetarian finger foods that resembled mini sausages and squid balls that tasted quite yummy actually.
We also had dadih. This is a rather popular Malay dessert which is made up mostly of yoghurt and fruits. It tastes light and fresh and absolutely delicious. And it’s a whole loads of fun to play with as it’s quite shaky.
We had a most lovely evening. It was really nice to be there with my aunt and cousins, laughing the evening away feeling very relaxed.
So much so that I did not realise that it was already past 10 pm! Reluctantly, we had to say our goodbyes as I had to go to work the next day. I rushed to send Cartcart back to his bed and breakfast while I went home and had to force myself to go to sleep.
Next : Heavenly Chocolate Fondue at the Esplanade and yummy pizza at Da Donato!
In this series :
I’ve never attended that ceremony, even though i’ve got a few family members who went through it. : ) The celebration after that seems really nice. I love dadih!
Mintea
Its how we describe as … “Kecoh” with everyone being noisy and lively 🙂
Dadih is one of my favourite desserts!
Well, that reminds me back when I had perempuan Melayu and was faced with same choice like your husband. I couldn’t do it. I’m just not religious and also I had doubts about the future. So it didn’t work out.
But I had such a great time. Malays are so friendly and I been there during Hari raya and we went visiting like so many ppl! OMG, at one time there was like 25 ppl in a small 2 room apartment of my ex, all dressed up in baju.. I was the only white guy… but they were all friendly and the food is really so delicious. I hope u manage to cook Malay food there… This is really one of the best times for me.
I still know this phrase I used to say to my ex’s mother: Makcik pandai masak! 😛