Of open houses

The month of Syawal is (nearly) coming to the end. How’s life then, you might ask. Well, apart from the increase in workload (as usual), I spent quite a few weekends going to ‘open houses’. Yeah, even in the UK the Malaysian tradition of open houses still lives on. *grins* Anyway, whose open house did I go to last weekend? Well, it’s my own. *grins again* My housemates got the idea to do an open house, and we invited (most of) our friends to come. In different time slots actually, since our house can’t cope with 50 people all at once! Yup, that was the estimated number of people who came. It could be more, but I didn’t count exactly. *smiles* They were mostly Malays, but my housemates did invite a few of their classmates, while I invited a few of my friends from the department. My officemate Steve came, and he even ended up learning how to weave a ketupat! *big laugh*

Anyway, to cook the food for the open house we actually did the preparations a few days earlier (like buying stuff, etc), and started cooking the night before. Well, I have to admit I was only the helper (i.e. helped with chopping stuff, stirring the food, etc) while my housemates were the main chefs. Go Ada and Madah! *grins* So, what was on the menu? Well, we did nasi lemak, laksa Penang, rendang and soto for the main meal, with agar-agar, trifle and carrot cake for dessert. Yum!! You can just imagine the amount of cooking we had to do… The open house lasted nearly the whole day, and it was a very long day for me (and my housemates). What with preparing the food, and entertaining guests, and cleaning up after that. The day after that my whole body ached. But I have to admit, it was fun. It’s good to meet up with all the people. Luckily (for us) it’s a once-a-year only occasion (for me, maybe once in a blue moon). *grins* Oh yeah, thank you people for coming!!!

Yesterday, there were actually two open houses for us to attend. Yes, imagine the shock, the horror, the problem of making a choice! (Melodramatic much? *grins*) Luckily (for me, at least), one of them also put separate time slots for us to attend, so yeah, more food to eat! *evil laughter* I spent most of my time at the other open house though, since the host didn’t specify any time frame… And ended up eating a lot of food. And watched an actual live (albeit short) gig, since their son is into bands. All in all, I had fun. So this time, thanks people (Thornbanks and Kak Za) for inviting me to your open houses!

Well, I suppose it’s true that the Hari Raya celebration is for the whole month of Syawal… *grins*

Event, Food and Drink, Life |