Hectic Weekend in January

Assalamualaikum.....

We were having a very busy weekend recently. Alright, I know... I know. Every weekend is a busy weekend for me. Well, particularly recently. On Saturday morning we were at Adam's school for briefing about the school's action plan in confronting the UPSR in this September.

To make it worst, me and hubby didn't have a good sleep on the night before because we were travelling down from Kuantan to PD. The supposed 4 hours journey became 6 hours for we were too exhausted to continue the driving. Made a few pitt stop for half an hour nap here and there. Drove from Kuantan at 12.30am and we reached PD at 6.30 am. We departed late from Kuantan because I arrived in Kuantan quite late that evening. Friday is a working day, remember? So, after work at 6.00 pm in KL, to Kuantan alone from KL and headed back to PD with hubby.

Thus, the boring speeches, and presentations by the teacher with the interruption from their laptops' failure, PA systems problems and so on has appeared to hubby as a lullaby. Owh, he slept well in the hall. On the other hand, I managed to go through the situation for the sake of Adam.

The event ended just right on the lunch hour. We rushed back to home, had our lunch, and I helped Adam with his schoolwork. At 2.00, we sent off Adam to his tuition class and we straight away drove back to Malacca. That evening, me and hubby felt as if we were drowning into the earth. It was a terrible exhaustion. But I can't rest yet. I have a mountain of clothes waiting for laundry and ironing besides this and that to do.

And that night, we only managed to visit Mommy at almost 10.00 pm. But at least hubby did have a good rest.

Hubby's phone rang with messages at about 9.00 pm. His colleague, Zaki from Kuantan is in Malacca with his family. Hubby worked together with Zaki some time ago in the same company. However, Zaki has left the company many months ago. We had a teh tarik session with him and his family quite late that night. Chatting about retrenchment, the politics, the manufacturing industries, and bla..bla..bla.... Short session though. We called it a night at 12.30 am (again...). Pity his children and wife. They looked exhausted. We invited them for lunch at our place the next day....and they agreed.

And so it goes. What with my unfinished laundry business at home, and cooking for the guest. Instead, we were so excited to have guests coming to our small home. Tired, but the happiness of having people around us beat it away. That night we arrived at home around 1.00 am and I quickly went through my cooking stock for tomorrow's lunch planning. Yeap, I definitely need to refurbish almost the entire ingredients. Since it is already passed midnight and there are no more shops or supermarket are operating in Malacca, I had no other choice than to wait for the next morning.

Sunday morning was a rush shopping hours for both of us. And I was literally running back and forth to cook, to prepare the table, to prepare the drinks and so on. I have less than 2 hours for everything. Hubby helped me to vacuum, wash our front porch and in short, make our home presentable.

In less than 2 hours, I only managed to cook Masak Lemak Cili Telur Itik (Duck Eggs in Spicy Coconut Milk), vegetables soup with tofu and fishballs and also tenggiri (mackerel) fried with spices. I have also prepared cold strawberry juice and hot tea as well.

The timing was just nice. The moment I put down the final plate of fried tenggiri, Zaki and his family greeted us. Oh, I feel bad because I do not know that Zaki and his family do not really favor our masak lemak telur itik. Zaki and his wife are Kelantanese and both of them studied in US. Seems like Malacca and Negeri Sembilan dishes are not clicking to their taste. But they tried the dish a little bit at least, whereas the children enjoyed the vegetable soup so much.

A lesson to be learned. I need to prepare something universal next time I'm expecting guest that I am not sure about their preferred food. Probably a fried chicken dish, or sweet and sour sea bass could be a hit, right?

I hope that lunch wouldn't be their nightmare. However, we feel a bit relieved when hubby received a thank you note from Zaki later that night. He said they enjoyed our hospitality. That is good enough for us to smile.


I was still a dead body walking around in the office on that next Monday though....


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