Manusia hanya merancang .....

Have you heard this before?

"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail"

So for Raya this year, I've got it all planned out, I tell ya.

1. Holiday planner - updated CEO's secretary (early this year!) on how many days of leave I plan to take, before & after raya
2. Block a tentative date in personal calendar for post raya BBQ gathering with uni mates
3. Block a tentative date in personal calendar - possibly for makan-makan session for my team & other colleagues from office
4. Purchased air ticket on line for my work/conference trip immediately post raya
5. Purchased air ticket on line for Ayah to join me a week later post work/conference - to merayap-rayap somewhere
6. Influenced ayah (successfully) to purchase on line the 'train' ticket & hotel for the merayap-rayap trip
7. Dusted off my luggage & have it on standby - ready for packing
8. 'Tempah' new cushion covers for the AV room & collected them just a week before puasa
9. Bought baju raya (both baju 'Melayu' & baju 'berbilang bangsa', hehe) for the kids & Ayah
10. Bought my own baju raya too .... phewittt!! Jangan tak beli....
11. Bought baju raya for Bibi too..... triple phewittt!!! Bling-bling you.... suka dia!
12. Bought the 10 pcs of 'pelita Raya' (the bamboo ones) & went to get a bottle of kerosene from Mak Long's house (her stock from last year! can't find any shops in Rawang town that sell kerosene any more)
13. Ordered some kuih raya - the usual ones; London Almond, Suji, Pineapple Tart, some kerepek & rempeyek, etc, etc
14. Bought some flat basket trays for ketupat & ketam Raya for breaking the ice with our new neighbours ( we just moved here a couple of months back remember? )
15. Last weekend bought daun kelapa for ketupat, ayam, daging, kerisik segala
16. Also ordered our big size ketam (jantan only!) - 40 pcs please, to be de-shelled and washed before collection
17. Bought a dozen of new clear goblets & placemats for pagi raya breakfast (table setting a high priority for me somehow)
18. And..... you'd better believe what come next : Blue key baking flour, custard flour, vanilla essence, butter, chocolate rice, castor sugar, the cute colourful cups, weighing scale, the measuring cups, the baking trays ..... my spirit to bake my own biskut sarang semut soaring sky high this Ramadhan.....muahahaha!!! Siap googled up & printed out the recipe for it!
19. Change 'duit raya' for the green packets - Ayah's department ni.
20. Transfer some money to Nenek & Atok for their raya preps

And I can happily tick off all the above from my checklist.

The only ones remaining for final execution on my checklist :

21. Buy one or two new pair of pants & comfortable moccasin for the trip
22. Pack for balik kampung & for the trip
23. Bake the sarang semut cookies
24. Pasang pelita
25. Anyam sarung ketupat
26. Prepare the dishes on Raya eve - earlier please; not malam-malam buta hingga ke dinihari like last year (nanti pagi2 raya pegi rumah in laws with eye bag segala? hmpphh... tak ayu la kan?)
27. Pagi raya, deliver the ketupat & ketam to our new neighbours (I'm visioning my boys tagging along, complete with their baju Melayu, songkok & sampin carrying the baskets, going ding-dong-bell to our multi racial neighbours' front doors ...ohhhh......comelnya....)
28. Wait for Ayah to come home from Solat and we'll all have our extended breakfast
29. Then salam2 & photo session
30. Pack the dishes, luggages, not forgetting leaving lots of food & water for Blackie & the kittens

Then we can all skip along to Damansara (Ayah's family) and by petang, off to JB (Ibu's family). Yeayyy!!

So that is the grand plan.

20 out of 30 completed, that's 66.66%. Not bad isn't it? Just another one third to go.

YET, guess what? Where do you think I am at this very minute?

Hmmm...... at Damansara Specialist Hospital, tending to Abang Idin who has been warded since Sunday night, for prolonged high fever and bacterial infection. He's been on the drip eversince.

As at noon today, i.e. a day before Raya, he still cannot be discharged just yet. That means, Ibu also cannot discharge the remaining duties as planned above. Pelita ke mana, biskut sarang semut ke mana....

So you see...... I've got plans for the immediate future - for Raya this year that is.

And yet the naked truth about the future is that it still comes one day at a time.

Itulah yang kita namakan,

"Manusia hanya merancang, Allah jua yang menentukan"

The remaining of the plans are shelved for the time being and let's just hope & pray Abang Idin will be back bouncing on his feet again soon.

Salam Aidilfitri and Maaf Zahir Batin.


p/s Messages from Abang Idin :
Thank you Auntie Shana & the clan for the visit. And the doughnuts of course!
Thank you Auntie Onair, Auntie Abid & Auntie Joe for the well wishes.
Ameer & Hafiz .... Sorry Abang Idin has to keep Ibu away from you two for a while, lil' bros.
And Ayah..... errr... dah jumpa bunga api ke belum?