Cooking During Ramadhan

Since my parents are at home coz they wanted to visit my brother who is still in Tawakkal, yesterday I had to cook more than usual. My basic dishes are three. But coz my parents are around, I added another dish yesterday. So I ended up cooking Ikan Tenggiri Masak Lemak Cili Api, Mixed Vegetables, Sotong Kicap and Sausage Sambal Ikan Bilis (own receipe). Bie bought some popia basah and tauhu bakar. Ayah was on his way back from the university. I told him not to buy anything because I am cooking. Though he promised that he wouldn’t, when he came back late yesterday afternoon, he bought two other dishes i.e. Lala Berlada and Sup Daging. He also bought Roti John and two packets of bihun goreng. So yeah, end up, we had a LOT of foods to eat. And since my dinner table is one of those roundy types and quite small, we barely had spaces to put our plates..!!

Ayah is like that. He likes to buy a LOT of food during Ramadhan. Ibu is tired of arguing with him. After all Ayah keeps on still buying a lot of food. I am ok if he wants to buy Murtabak, Roti John and all that, but lauk-lauk? Hhmm.. but then, though I always tell him not to buy a lot of food. It’s a waste and all that, and that it’s Ramadhan, so we should actually be spending less and try to be less gluttony, I have ALWAYS enjoyed that habit of his, because it only occurs during Ramadhan. If I wasn’t breaking fast at my parents, Bie and I would talk about how Ayah likes to spend on a lot of food and that he doesn’t eat much of what he has bought anyway. We would somehow know the type of food that he would buy. Among them are Roti John, Murtabak, Siput Sedut Masak Lemak Cili Api, curry puffs, kuih apam, tepung pelita, etc, etc. He just loves to. He buys them because he said that he doesn’t buy them for himself, but for his family. He wants his family to eat. Well, that’s his reason. For actual fact, he just can’t resist the temptation of the foods being displayed on the tables in the Bazaar Ramadhan.

And because of too much food yesterday, I am thinking of cooking something simple tonight. Maggee goreng, with chicken burger. How does that sound? I know it doesn’t really complement one another, but once they’re in the stomach, they still get processed the same way… and come out the same!! Hehehehe.. talk about being gross during the holy month of Ramadhan. Sorry about that. But yeah, maggee goreng sounds like a great plan. I am definitely going to do that.

Sleepy

It has been a nice Ramadhan for me, so far. My ‘best friend’ has not visited me yet. So I think I should be able to fast for at least two more weeks, hopefully. And I just got back to work today. I was on leave yesterday. I didn’t do anything. I just stayed at home with the family. Marsya isn’t around as she is at Maksu’s (once in a while, she would tell me that she missed Maksu and wished to go there for a couple of days), so I have Raqib all to myself. And it was nice. I love staying home with him. It is so nice to see his smiling face in the morning. I love it when he walked out of the bedroom, saw me in the living room, and walked straight into my arms, hugging me. The feeling is amazing. It made me wonder why I don’t stay home more often. I mean, take leave and just stay at home… [sigh].. the plight of a working mother.

And now I am terribly sleepy. I only had 3 and a half hour of sleep last night. My brother, Ayin, was admitted to Tawakkal yesterday. His toe didn’t seem to be recovering very well since he kicked my other brother in the shin during a futsal game. And that was months ago. Apparently, its recovery is sort off and on. And to make matters worse, his not-so-good toe is now infected with bacteria causing his gland to engorge. And if not treated, the bacteria are going to enter into his blood system causing more damage, which can be hazardous. I was so worried. I only learnt about it at 5pm, and I had made plans to break fast at my in-laws. So, I could only reach Tawakkal after I break fast.

At 8pm, I left Raqib at my in-laws with the maid and rushed to Tawakkal. Luckily the hospital was quite near. No one was at the hospital with him. Ayah had already left with Ayin’s wife to fetch their son, so he was alone. When I opened the door to his room, and he was walking obviously in pain, my heart reached out for him. He is after all my brother. No matter that he’s 30 years old, and has his own family. As a sister, I saw passed all that. I helped him to his bed, and started to ‘mother’ him. I helped him change his pants, called on the nurse to clean the water leakage in his room, and asked the nurse LOTS of questions so that I know what sort of illness we were facing. Ibu, Ayah and his wife will only visit him the next day. His wife was sending their son back to Bentong with her mother, so that she could stay in the hospital with him, and take care of him.

I left the hospital at 12am. I went to my in-laws to fetch Raqib and the maid, and reached home at about 12.30am. Raqib had woken up. And after 3 hours of sleep, he was a bit refreshed to do stuff. So, it took quite sometime to coax him into going back to sleep. But when he finally did, it was already past 1am. I managed to sleep for a few hours until I heard my alarm rang indicating that it was 4.30am, to wake up for sahur. And I haven’t been asleep since then.

Now, I am VERY sleepy. My eyelids are drooping, and I am yawning like… a lot. I really can’t wait to go back early today. If I could only have a nap for about 10 to 15 minutes, I think it would do wonders to my body. We’ll see how.