My brother’s daughter tied the knot last Saturday so I took leave last Friday afternoon as my sister wanted to head south the same afternoon. We left during the downpour and braved our way out of Selangor. My brother-in-law took the old road so we avoided the highway for a while. It was dry and pleasant after we entered Negeri Sembilan and part of Melaka. We encountered another torrential rain after we entered the highway and it was a challenging drive against the elements – we could hardly see beyond five metres ahead. The rain finally eased when we left the highway at Yong Peng. We stopped en route for dinner before finally arriving at the homestay in Parit Raja just as the clock struck 9 that evening.
An overcast
Saturday greeted us the following morning. The sun bravely tried to make its
way through the clouds so you couldn’t fault it for trying. We left the
homestay at 10:30 and drove to Rengit. We arrived just after 11:00 and there
were guests already leaving (they probably came for the solemnisation of
marriage earlier that morning. Or they had another one or two other invites
that day). My sister and I went in to see the bride who had changed clothes and
was being made up before going down to the tent to eat. We stayed until 13:30
before taking our leave.
We continued
south to Masai for my dear aunt’s place in Plentong. We arrived at 15:30. We
gave salam, called out her name and entered when we heard no reply. The door
was slightly ajar. She was inside and was watching an old movie. As we caught
up with her, I realised that we needed to speak a bit louder or repeat
ourselves to make ourselves heard. We stopped for prayers before having our
tea. She had gone to all the trouble to prepare us soto with compacted rice,
fried mashed potatoes and black sambal. What a lovely kind-hearted lady. It’s
such a pity we live too far apart to be able to see each other more often. She
was expecting us to spend the night but we didn’t want to trouble her and
besides she had her great grandchild’s birthday to attend in Skudai and we were
already too tired.
We left at
18:30 and drove to De’ Tees Hotel and checked in. I paid for a triple room for
myself, niece and nephew. It was a windowless room on the ground floor and I
didn’t care that it didn’t have windows.
We checked
out at 09:10 on Sunday and drove to another brother’s place in nearby Pasir
Gudang. After a brief stop, we headed out to a restaurant for brunch. We left
after an hour and drove back, stopping en route at my mum’s cousin’s house in Bagan before continuing our journey home via Muar and following route no. 5. I reached home at 9 p.m. and immediately
unpacked and ran the washer, watered the plants, and boiled water before having
my shower and performing prayers. I also hung the clothes the very same evening
as I didn’t want to do it the following morning. Ahh, nothing like household
chores waiting to be tackled after a long day!
