Eid 2006 Revisited

Salams all. I'm sorry for the long silence without any updates but as Puan Mama Sarah has mentioned in the comments in the post prior to this one, I am currently oncall right after my Eid holidays. The oncalls are quite busy, and afterwards I tend to get really tired, hence the blog neglect.

However, I've come to thinking; rather than stay silent without any updates at all I might as well just put up something. And this update is that "something". I think from now on, whenever I get too busy to put up anything I'm just going to flood/spam my blog with topical pictures. And the topic for this one is: Eid Revisited.

Do bear in mind that these are pictures chosen lazily, and minimally edited due to the limited time. I'm just posting up pictures just so that I have at least something for the blog, and also I heard from some people (especially the family) that they would love to see more pictures of us. So, roll the pictures:


Puan Mama Sarah getting ready in her custom-made-since-one-year-ago-with-special-material-from-the UK-but-tailored-in-Malaysia Eid costume. I don't think it's pre-planned that this year's Eid would be pink/peach costumes for us but Along and family sent the little kids very pretty pink baju raya that we immediately chose pink as this year's theme.


Picture taken on second day of Eid, notice Puan Mama Sarah is wearing a different baju raya of a different style on that day (whereas the rest of us were wearing plain) . We the adults were gathered in the living room playing with the little ones and here is Amar asking Puan Mama Sarah to blow up a baloon. Notice the expectant twinkle in Amar's eyes and I like this picture as it conveys the relative size between Amar and an adult. Both were sat near the glass door and I like the slits of illumination (however, not done effectively enough in the picture in my opinion).


Puan Mama Sarah with Auntie Maryam aka Auntie Wa. Taken on the first day of Eid, Auntie Wa was preparing Nasi Minyak for expected guests.


Kak Wati in Eid costume busily preparing our Eid breakfast.


Auntie De in Eid baju kurung, Auntie De's family's theme this year was also coincidentally pink (and white). At this point I have to say that my problem with the new camera is that I am so far still struggling trying to take good portraits and I fall flat every try. People are just too unpredictable and dynamic and I find it pretty difficult to capture them at the right moment (That's why I prefer to take pictures of static, immobile buildings and architecture instead). I'll keep practising.

Uncle De with his high-definition Sony video camera, finally caught in a close up. I trying hard to tempt Uncle De to give in to buying a DSLR. I'll keep trying.


One of those *eye-rolling-upwards* moment as Auntie De was feeding Uncle De a specially made bread-and-butter pudding. Uncle De was laughing afterwards as Auntie De made sure there were lots of raisins, which Uncle De despises!


Auntie De helps Sarah with her hairclip as Safiya was watching.

Emyr. Another attempt of capturing someone's portrait. Emyr is really photogenic, I find, especially as he goes through various different emotions throughout the day. He's such a handsome lad.

Safiya. I was careful to frame Safiya's eyes which were further highlighted by light from the glass door.

Shafiq, as we were waiting for Eid prayers to start. I'm not sure why he was covering his nose and mouth at that time but I know he has asthma. It was also a cold morning.

Final picture of "our family". Amar and Sarah was refusing a family picture, so Puan Mama Sarah and I jokingly took their dolls and posed them instead of Sarah and Amar. That's why we were laughing so much in the picture and that also explains Sarah's confused and tentative expression. Look further in the background to the right, and notice in the mirror a reflection of Auntie De, also laughing.

Whew, that took longer than I thought!

Aidilfitri 2006

Eid morning, the second thing in everyone's minds was probably, "finally we get to eat breakfast!". Above was Puan Mama Sarah busy helping with setting out the morning feast for the family. The Eid must haves were mostly available: nasi himpit, rendang, lodeh, kuah kacang, beryani and kopi kampung.

The first thing in our minds was of course, getting ready in our traditional baju melayu and baju kurung to get ready for Eid prayers. It seems that one of us was a bit late in getting up...

We went to the rented local community centre for Eid prayers, the khutbah celebrated our success in completing the fasting month and reminded us of the blessings of islamic family values.

After Eid prayers, we took the time to shake hands and mingle with the community.

This year we are celebrating Eid with our sister angkat's (Auntie De's) parents: Uncle Zainal and Auntie Maryam in Nottingham. It may be our last Eid celebration with them in England since I'm soon moving back to Malaysia.

The rest of the family was patiently waiting our return from Eid prayers. We asked each other for forgiveness and then settled for a second breakfast. Above is our family in our Eid costume. The children's costumes were so very generously sent from Malaysia thanks to Along and family. Thank you Along!!! We deeply appreciate the children's baju raya :)

Uncle de, Auntie De, Emyr and Safiya had to be forced to pose in front of the camera :) When I asked for a picture of Auntie De to "salam & cium tangan Uncle De" they replied, "We don't do cheesy wedding poses :p".

Here's a picture of all the boys.

This is my favouritest picture of the series: of cute little Safiya. She is the female equivalent Amar in my opinion; quiet, settled, never a whimper and very sociable. She didn't even cry once when her parents left her under our care to go shopping. She's so cute too!

The day before Eid 2006

Part 1: A visit to Sherwood Forest
As I have mentioned in a previous post, our Eid for this year is tomorrow (Monday, 24th of October). While waiting for Iftar, we went for a "short" journey to Sherwood Forest, of the Robin Hood fame.

I was extremely surprised by a number of things about Sherwood Forest; one - that the forest is very far away from Nottingham City Centre, around two hours drive and two - the forest is HUGE. No wonder in the movie Robin Hood Prince of Thieves they were not able to find Robin Hood hiding in the forest.

It is now Autumn in the UK, and soon (people say towards the end of October to the first week of November), the leaves are going to turn red and photography during that time is NOT to be missed (remember that, Rosli & Arep!)

Uncle De taught me yet another thing about the 400D - that I could increase the colour saturation, which I had for these series of pictures. In my opinion, the pictures are more vibrant and alive. I'll be using that setting from now onwards i.e +1 for saturation. In the picture above, I love the texture given by the green moss, and I tried to compose the picture so that the bark of the tree acts like a natural frame for the rest of the forest. However, I think the picture would work better if the background is slightly less blurry.

The forest was full of very ancient looking trees, such as the one above. Look very closely, and you could almost see a face, with the eyes staring back at you. The branches look like limbs, very much like the Ents in Lord of The Rings, eh?

PMS pointed me to these mushrooms which would make very nice close up shots. In this picture I again feel I included too much in the frame, I still have to learn to simplify my compositions!

All sorts of fungi making interesting photos in my opinion. In retrospect, I should have photographed the above from a top-on angle as well - perhaps the patterns could be seen better from that angle.

Part 2: Second Box of Fireworks

I mentioned in my previous post of the buy-one-get-one-free offer for all fireworks from Tescos. Above is the second box, opened for your viewing pleasure. Notice the variety of fireworks offered for the minute sum of money: various shooting stars, rockets and fountains.

Uncle De was generous enough to buy several packets of sparklers. Sarah, who was afraid of the fireworks last night, braved looking at the displays tonight. Finally, she even agreed to hold a sparkler.

Then she got braver, and burnt one sparkler after another until we finished two whole packets! I'm sure she had fun tonight. Uncle De and I were finally successful in creating "light trail" photographs - relatively easy really. Shutter was set to bulb, ISO 100, F8. I held the shutter open for around 2-3 seconds for the above picture.

Sarah was also much more assertive in lighting up the fountains and rockets tonight. I carried her while lighting the rockets and after achieving ignition, we ran away together - it was fun! Above was a "bulb" mode picture, but I experimented by coupling it with fired flash. I like the picture as the garden was illuminated enough. The above is a picture of a fountain spurting 4-6 seperate shots.

Hopefully you've enjoyed the pictures.

I think it's time for me to retire for now, as we have to wake up early tomorrow for Eid prayers. Eid mubarak, selamat hari raya & maaf zahir dan batin everyone!

Wassalam.

Hanabi

Ask prior generations of Malaysians what they find most memorable during Eid and you'll get varied answers which would probably include the food, meeting family, attending Eid prayers and giving/receiving "duit raya".

But most memorable, and most exciting to me during my childhood were the fireworks, now (?fortunately) banned in Malaysia...

... but not in the UK :p

I have always wanted to convey to Sarah and Amar how exciting the celebration of Eid is in Malaysia, and this year I decided to share some of my childhood memories of playing with fireworks with the two litle ones.

This year, Eid coincides with bonfire night (5th of Oct) and so fireworks could be found by the truck loads! Furthermore, Tesco is currently offering a "buy one get one free" offer for all fireworks - much to my happiness and glee.

I bought the evolution pack - £16 pounds worth of rockets, ferris wheels, greek fountains and various other explosives. Yess! ... and I got one packet free. That's a LOT of explosives.

We're now in Nottingham, where we normally celebrate our Eid with our family friends, and even though Eid for us is set on Monday, we still decided to open one box of the fireworks.

Man, it's difficult to photograph fireworks: (shutter set to "bulb" mode, ISO 100, F8)

Sarah originally was excited seeing all the pyrotechnics but after hearing the loud explosions, she became scared & remained inside the house. Amar didn't care less about the beautiful displays. In the end it was just us grown-ups; yours truly, uncle De and Shafiq who had the most fun!

One more box waiting for tomorrow, and several left overs from today too ... can't wait!