Trip Down Memory Lane.....

Raya Haji Holidays-as mentioned earlier I followed en. hubby to Kedah together with Inessa and Marissa. We left on Friday (after settle solat raya/salam-salam/makan-makan). Sampai Bandar Darulaman dah almost pukul 5 lebih. Traffic was not at all smooth and some parts hujan. Had late lunch/early dinner at Bandar Darulaman (en. hubby's friend's house). The makanan was nice, nasi/kari/ulam2/sambal belacan and some daging goreng kunyit. Thanks to Abg Rahman and wife, Nik for hosting us. About maghrib we checked-in at one of the chalet dekat Darulaman Golf and Country Club. Chalet tu namanya Ixora 3. Ok la - 2 rooms with all facilities minus internet access, overlooking the swimming pool (not that we swim lah). And the chalet mahal juga - it's RM250 a night. Malam we (minus en hubby - sebab dia keluar with friends) had dinner at the club house. Boleh tahan harga makanan kat situ. Club house la kata kan.... Balik tengok TV. TV channel pun cuma ada TV1, 2, 3, 7, 8 dan 9. Namapun raya korban, apa lagi program yang ada selain drama2 melayu yang berkonsepkan korban! macam2 la dikorbankan, korban cinta, korban nyawa. Ish, ish, betul ke tidak konsep korban tu tak tau la. Anyway, tengok la juga, no choice.

Next day, had late breakfast/early lunch at one kedai makan at Shahab Perdana. Gerai nasi campur (masak kampung), sedap and murah lagi. Four of us makan nasi with all the lauk was only RM14 and drinks was about RM5. Ok la daripada spend so much for food at the club house. En. hubby ada golf in the afternoon and we took the opportunity to drive out to town, ingat nak melawat Rumah Kelahiran Mahathir. Mind you, I am pure Kedahan, tak pernah pun pi rumah Mahathir ni. Maha Klinik tu dok pi la sebab kecik2 dulu kalau sakit, itu la klinik yang we all dok pi. Ada lagi sebab2 lain yang lebih nostalgic why we were always there. Never mind, nak tulis kat sini nanti jadi berjela pula. Unfortunately it's a public holiday and the rumah is closed. We took pictures from the outside sahaja. Panjat tembok and took pictures, ha, ha. Told Inessa/Marissa, we'll make another trip soon (had plans already in mind). Hopefully the plan will materialize.

After Rumah Mahathir we went to BTM (kedai baju kurung yang we always frequented when balik Kedah). Tak la beli baju kurung, cuma the girls beli some tudung and brooch. And off we balik to my mom's house in Sg. Korok. Before that singgah kubur arwah ayah - alfatihah. I missed him and I always do. Balik rumah mak, macam biasa. Nothing much to do, makan2, sembang2 with my sisters (cuma ada 2 of them there, Sharos and Ina) and mak. And I had fun time mengusik Nafiz and Pe'ah. Syok dapat usik budak-budak kecik ni. I had always missed my kampung (walau dah tak semeriah dulu). To be in the house where I grew up, the places I used to play. A lot of things I wanted to do, explore and bringing back all those childhood memories. Dulu-dulu I used to go to sawah padi (bendang orang Kedah panggil) pagi-pagi with my sister, Haiza. Berjalan atas 'batas baan' sambil nyanyi2 lagu2 BDB, lagu2 J Mizan, lagu2 Razis Ismail (those were the days!) . We were involved, tak tau la directly ke indirectly ke with all these bendang activities, daripada membajak, menyemai, menuai and all. As children we had fun getting ourselves involved, indirectly I supposed. Kalau orang-orang tua sekarang akan marah kata kita menyibuk. Tapi dulu tak pula kena marah. Dapat naik kerbau bajak lagi. Best tu. Kids now dah tak ada those kind of fun. I had fair share of those sweet and bitter memories of growing up. The kampung now dah banyak berubah. Nothing much dah sekeliling rumah. Rumah Tok Wan dah lama dirobohkan. Kawasan sekeliling dah jadi macam hutan pula. But no matter what, sometimes I do feel this is where my heart belongs.... maybe because I hold on to the past memories... maybe. But I missed arwah ayah, seeing him around the house, going out riding his motorbike, and busy himself when all the cucu balik kampung. I can still see the satisfaction and the happiness on his face doing things for all his cucu. Those are all the memories which will forever etched on my mind. Now mak, seeing how she aged after arwah left, sometimes makes us worry, scared - scared of losing her actually. Tapi itu semua ketentuan Allah. Kita hanya merancang, Allah yang menentukan But seeing mak - she is always happy bila dapat balik kampung - to the house which she shared closed to 50 years with arwah. It's her place, her friends, her surroundings. Nothing and no one can change that. Thanks to Sharos who always make time to bring mak home during school holidays. Susah for her to drive all the way from KL with her two children (one still a baby), tapi she still does that, her sacrifice for mak. Oppss, thanks to Ina for taking care of mak in KL and also to Imi (these are all mak's babies - she loved them to bits!). It's always good to see mak happy and contented with her familiar surroundings. Wishful thinking - we can keep the house for as long as we can. We pray for mak's happiness and good health, for whatever time is left. Mak, semoga Allah sentiasa beri mak kesihatan yang baik dan sentiasa di bawah rahmatNya.

Was there until almost maghrib. Had to leave coz en. hubby dah habis golf. Driving back, passing some sawah padi along the highway, made few stops for Marissa to snap some pictures, pictures of sawah padi, pictures of pokok kelapa (ni kes duduk KL all their life, tak pernah tengok sawah padi and pokok kelapa) and also the sunset. For me, I have always loved seeing and witnessing sunset and sunrise. That nice and soothing feelings.... hmmm, I am getting nostalgic again.

Malam, had maggi mee for dinner (all three of us). En. hubby keluar dinner with friends again. We just kirim food for later. As usual, tengok drama, again some malay drama berkonsepkan 'korban'. No choice, tengok la juga. Other half came back with french fries and spaghetti. Makan again, before retiring to bed.


After checking out on Sunday, we left for lunch in Alor Star, kedai ikan bakar opposite Maktab Mahmud. Food was quite ok. Before leaving Alor Star, we stopped at KSAH sebab budak2 pompuan ni nak bergambar & berposing sakan (maybe sebab all boys' school kot!). Girls being girls.... Dulu I was schooling in Sultanah Asma - maybe next time I will take them there (ni all girls' school, see if they want to bergambar there!) And after that we were off to KL. The driving back was bad. Traffic was not smooth at all. Dari Juru, then Kuala Kangsar, then Ipoh all the way jam and also hujan in some parts. Other half drove all the way. Nak tidor rasa guilty pula. Offered myself to drive dia tak bagi. We finally sampai Damansara Damai at 9.30 pm, singgah solat kat masjid DD.
Walau not much activities, and the 'not so smooth' traffic, the trip was an enjoyable and interesting one. We had fun, nonetheless. It was nice to be able to spend time together, even when doing nothing. The spending time together was great, alhamdulillah......

"To the world you might just be one person, but to one person you might just be the world"