I am back in slightly cold West Ireland. Straight back to work and it was a bit of a shock finding 29 patients on the list. The guys whumped me on the back and did the guy-handshake as a welcome-back sign. Greta, the lady who does the bloods grinned as she saw me, the girl who orders blood like anything. And there are 4 med students crowding the ward rounds now. Peh. OK, OK, I shouldn’t complain, but they’re all so much taller and bigger than I am and it is hard to maneouver (sp?) around the place.

So. It’s ok being back. Louise the SHO asked if I got married while I was away. The Reg asked for his BNF software (I didn’t get it). The consultant asked about the weather and everyone asked if I had fun.

Yes, it had been the best 2 weeks of my life. But really, how often do you get to spend the last few days of Ramadhan and Eid with the whole family huh.

Ramadhan at home... is the best. After 6 long years, I’ve finally managed to be with my family again (exaggerating much?). Well, it is the best as in I get to do more things with more people. Tarawikh together in the Blue Mosque. I just love being there and I can say that it’s one of the places that I find to be calming and just soothes my mind. And then, there was that trying to khatam. Which I failed miserably. tsk2. Oh, also the iftar with murtabak, ibu’s cooking, tepung pelita…

Eid at home… is the best. We took the Raya pictures and this time, it’s really Eid time. Not just some pictures we take months before Eid, just so as I would be there. And I still like it, even though we had no new clothes and we weren’t colour coordinated. It’s colourful and that’s what I like. Plus, the goofy sessions are absolutely saiko.

Being at home… is great. Everyone’s back. Lil Lion and lil Princess from college, Klong, Grasshopper and Papa dearest taking time off work, AB and Maman on school holidays and myself (saje je kodok2 tulis papa and maman). The Round Table was fully occupied come dinner time and it would always be noisy with us bunch. Unless everyone’s really hungry and there would only be the sounds of munching and slurping and whatnots.

Going back to the Hometown… made me feel old. Because I get this really annoying backache after the long 6-7-hour drive in what used to be our spacious family minivan thing. Now, I’d have to bend my legs crazy and shove AB a bit due to all of us expanding vertically (and also horizontally in some cases I’m afraid). We didn’t stop at the usual stop which was the old surau. Or maybe you guys have not stopped there a while now. I don’t know, because I haven’t been back for 6 years. Maybe that was the norm 6 years back? Dunno.

Anyway, back in kampung. I’ve nearly but forgotten about how beautiful the place is. Blue skies, paddy fields, coconut trees.

Kids everywhere and I had to refrain myself from squeezing them to a pulp due to extreme chubbiness of cheeks.

Can I have favourites? I can? Well, there’s the older cousins - Kauthar - somehow, it’s nice just chatting and taking pictures together. She hates it when I do candied shots because it makes her look ugly.

And then, the younger cousins - B-Luq, the baby. I just feel like squeezing him to pieces whenever he comes to me for a ‘swing in the air’. Like most kids, he doesn’t like to smooch people. But for me, he did. Mwahahahahah!! (Ok, I told him that if he wants to swing in the air again, he has to give me a kiss on the cheek). On the last day there, he ran to me and started tugging my dress, telling me not to go. “Don’t go.. Come to my house instead. OK?” B-Luq, I miss you already.

I met nearly all the cousins, 2nd cousins, aunts, uncles, 3rd cousins etc. We went to 12 different houses in one day and it was great fun albeit the fact that my tummy was getting the brunt of the food assault. Yeah, food was aplenty. Mama tried to make us remember all the 2nd cousins and all, but my poor cloudy memory could only take in Kak DikAh and Kak Mek. My sonyalpha, klong’s Nikon and Papa’s Canon clicked away and we have tonnes of pics of kids being kids (dunking hands in jars of juice, eating sticks of satays, 3 in each hand, bouncing around etc).

You’d never be bored there, what with all the artwork and useful info scribbled everywhere

Lots of hugs and kisses going around that Prof Cormican would be shaking his head at the thought bugs jumping around.

BBQ at home was AWESOME. AB, the youngest, set about cleaning the backyard. and I fell asleep in the very comfortable massage chair and when I woke up, everyone was out, cleaning and doing stuff at the back. Of course, I went to help around. A bit. :D The men of the house did all the BBQ-ing while the girls sat about on the picnic mat and fought over hotdogs and shrimps. We left some for the guys too since we’re not that bad. Grasshopper brought out the big squishy cushions and that led to…

Star Gazing! which was brilliant. The night sky was scattered with stars, like fireflies, stuck in the sky (as told by Timon to Pumbaa). I saw the Northern star. I think. And two real fireflies, three planes and a UFO. Both Grasshopper and I agree that the orange blinking lone light was one.

We made cookies, muffins/cupcakes, currypuffs, dadih…

Dominos for the last dinner. Strange really. But I wanted to taste Malaysian Dominoes and there I had it. We ate at that Japanese-y table and if I weren’t so chocked full of food, I would have eaten much more. I always seem to be full back home. I suppose I’m making up for the starvation minimal amount of oral intake I get in Rosc.

I drew some. Yoru. The cat of my dreams.

Played with Eyeball

Uhuh. 2 weeks of :) and :D and bliss

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And today? Today is my post call day, after more than 30 hours oncall at the ED (emergency department) which was really crazy and I had the luck to be paired with this person who is “not nice at all”, as said by the nursing staff. But it wasn’t that bad. I got 3 hours of sleep. Pretty good. I’m supposed to be sleeping now, but there’s a strange surge of adrenaline in me (Nawok je. I wanted to use the internet).