I had initially planned to start my Raya rounds on Saturday with a visit to Sofie's house. But a friend invited me to her open house today, and so after completing only one day of my puasa enam, looks like I have to cuti 3 hari from Friday to Sunday and only continue on Monday.
And since my friend's house is in a town not far from Lin's house, I figured I might as well visit Lin's family today.
As usual, whenever attending gatherings or the likes, I'm usually one of the earliest to arrive, if not the earliest. Today, I was the earliest. Well, my friend did say the open house was from 3 to 6 pm, and I got there at 3.15 pm! So I wasn't really early, they were the ones who were late. I wanted to be there early so I could leave early to go to my next pit stop - Lin's house.
Even my friend was not home when I arrived - she was busy going around the neighbors' homes inviting them to her open house. But all her 4 children are already familiar with me so I spent some time chatting with them instead.
I didn't eat much at the open house. Oh, they had good food - mee rebus, satay, cakes, etc; but I didn't want to overload my tummy with too much stuff. I was fasting yesterday and if I ate too much today, I'd probably end up with a stomach ache. (orang Perak kata perut tak semiak!)
Before I left my friend's house, I called Lin to find out if she was home. Well, she wasn't. She was already at her goreng pisang stall which she just reopened today after a whole week of Raya break. She invited me to go to her stall instead.
So yep, after the open house, I headed straight to the open stall... :)
It wasn't too busy when I got to the stall, and Lin's daughter who is still on holiday was helping her out at the stall, so I could chat with Lin without worrying about her having to man the stall. I was served air kelapa, pisang goreng, keledek goreng and cekodok. Ahh... a change after the usual Raya cookies...
It was a good thing I didn't go head straight to Lin's house. Apparently she moved to a new house just before Raya.
You see, the house she and her children had been staying in all the while, belonged to Lin's father. The father, who had remarried since her mother died, stays with his new wife at her house, but from time to time would still go back to his own house. Which is not the problem really. The problem is, Lin's 18 year old son, who had been doing nothing but lepak-ing with his friends since he finished his SPM last year, doesn't seem to get along at all with his grandfather. They fight every time they meet. Lin herself doesn't know how else to handle her son. Her other children seemed very responsible, especially her 3 elder daughters; but this son doesn't seem to want to listen to anybody. Not Lin, not his sisters, and definitely not his own father, Mr Darling.
There was once when Lin was at her stall, her other son came cycling as fast as he could to inform Lin - "Abang dengan Tok Wan tengah bergaduh, siap dah keluar parang!!"
That was it for Lin - she figured she might as well give in. The house wasn't hers anyway, and to avoid more of such confrontations between her son and her father, Lin decided to move to another house. She has to pay rent of course, which will make life more difficult for her financially.
According to Lin, her son did seem interested when Lin suggested to him to join the police force, but he will have to wait until he officially becomes 18, which will be in October. If he is no longer interested to study, he might as well work. Lin doesn't really trust him to work simply anywhere - she's hoping that by joining the police force, the discipline instilled during the intensive training may change him. I hope things will work out.
Before I left, I handed over 6 packets of duit raya to Lin, to be given to her 6 children. I also left some money for her 14 year old son's school fees since the boy is under our sponsorship programme. All in the amount to be paid to the school is RM91. So I gave her RM100 and told her to keep the change. At least the balance was more than enough to cover for the air kelapa and all the goreng stuff they served me. I also took down her new house address, so that I'd know where to head next time I need to go to her house.
Tomorrow insyaAllah will be my next stop... Sofie's house.
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