McPi McDelivery

Since judgement has been made that a particular fast food chain doesn't have exclusive rights to the use of "Mc" for only their products, I guess nobody should be complaining about the title of my posting this time. If somebody does complain, I shall just McDono (make donno daa..), tak gitu McYam? (for the uninitiated, that's MekYam!)

OK then, back to my story...

I got home from Putrajaya yesterday at about 2 pm. I still had some shopping to do for the poor families but I needed a rest first. So immediately after my zohor prayer, I took a short nap which was good enough to refresh me.

Then off I went shopping - other than foodstuff for the poor families, I also needed to look for a birthday present for Wani's 7 year old son, Shahril. You see, both Wani's sons are sponsored under our Education Sponsorship for Children programme, and since Shahril's birthday was yesterday, his sponsor has sent some money for me to buy him a present.

I wasn't really sure what to buy for Shahril. I was looking at this, looking at that... unable to decide what to buy. Suddenly I saw a boy about Shahril's age, begging his mom for a badminton racket. Hmmm... why not I thought. Besides, he has a brother to play with. So yep, I ended up buying a pair of badminton rackets, complete with the shuttlecocks, of course.

I was too tired and lazy to cook (actually I was plain lazy), so after shopping yesterday Pi Bani masak guna jari telunjuk. Tunjuk, tunjuk, tunjuk... BAYAR!

This morning, after my pasar tani routine (erm, not so routine actually - had more things to buy today as my suku sakat kaum kerabat is expected to be back next week for Raya), off I went for McPi McDelivery. (Mek Pi make delivery...)

First up was Wani's house. Besides being the one furthest amongst the 3 homes I intended to visit, I also needed to get the raya cookies I had ordered earlier to be delivered to the other families. Wani was actually just expecting me to get the cookies and pay for them. She was pleasantly surprised when I handed over the birthday present, some foodstuff and some duit raya as well. She had purposely kept quiet yesterday (about Shahril's birthday) as she didn't want the boy to nag her for a present. Her intention was to buy something after raya, ie after she gets money from her temporary job selling the cookies.

Next up was Sofie's house. I pay extra attention to this family - no, not favoritism... but based on the fact that Sofie herself is still rather weak to cook or go out shopping. For the other families at least I could just hand over some money as the mothers are still strong enough to cook for their children and go shopping for their needs.

Apparently just yesterday morning, Sofie's 7 year old daughter, Ika, was asking, "Mak, makcik Afizah tak nak datang ke dah dekat nak raya ni?" Oh God, thank goodness I decided to visit them today. She was already outside her house on the buaian hijau, waiting for me.

Her 2 older boys, who slept after subuh, got up when they realized I came. It was almost 11 am by then. They had already asked their younger brother to wake them up at 10 am, but the boy forgot...

Sofie's sister (the one she had been staying with before this) and family will be going back to their father's home in another state on Friday before raya. She did ask if Sofie too would like to balik kampong, but Sofie is not fit to travel that far. So yep, it's just Sofie and her children on Hari Raya this year.

And since Sofie is too weak to cook for Raya, this time I made sure the foodstuff I brought along were either easy to cook or "instant" stuff. They were delighted when they saw the nasi impit segera I brought. Sofie was thinking of teaching her second son (the 13 year old who had been showing interest in cooking although he doesn't know how to cook) to make some kuah kacang. But I told her there was no necessity for that as I had also brought along canned kuah satay, canned rendang ayam and canned beef curry. Nothing beats home cooked food I know, but at least Sofie doesn't have to worry about her children not having anything special to eat for Raya.

I also gave them the Raya cookies I ordered from Wani. Again, the children were delighted. They had earlier on hoping they'd get some courtesy raya cookies from a neighbour. Apparently, Sofie's 11 year old son had been helping out that neighbour with some easy tasks with her kuih raya business, to get a little income for raya. Gosh, only 11 years of age and already has some sense of responsibility to get income for the family. Mind you, the little income he gets is for the family, not himself!!

Before I left, I handed over a packet of duit raya each to the children. Ika then asked if I'd be visiting them during Raya.

I told them I'd be busy with my own family on Hari Raya, but I promised I'd come to spend Raya with them within Syawal. Hopefully within the first 2 weeks. And this time, I hope to bring along some home cooked food for them.

After Sofie's, I headed straight to Fuzi's house. I didn't tell Fuzi earlier that I was coming. I just decided to drop by since her house is just on the way back.

Nobody was home. When I called, Fuzi said they were out shopping for the children's Raya needs. I asked if it was okay for me to leave some kuih raya and some other stuff outside her house. She said it should be alright. So yep, I just left some kuih raya, foodstuff, used clothes and the family day photos they had been asking for.

And so that wraps up McPi McDelivery for the day...