Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Kluang Trip - Part 2: The Big Dinner
After some gruesome driving under the hot sun for almost 3+ hours, we arrived at the small little town of Kluang. Kluang is located about 8km from the Ayer Hitam exit along the North-South Highway. The trunk road leading to Kluang is in surprisingly well condition to the extend that I can drive at 100kph. There was a beautiful looking secondary school situated along the road leading to town. I didn't see such nice school being built near my area, not fair!We finally arrived at J's granny's (maternal side that is) house at 4.30pm. J's parents have already arrived two hours earlier from JB while the rest of the relatives are not here yet. J's parents were very happy to see us (actually happy to see Little Skywalker more than us) as they have not seen him for the past two months. J's granny was even more excited as she has not seen our boy since she stayed with us for the first month after J's delivery.
Everyone was ecstatic when they saw Little Skywalker walking around (albeit in a drunkard manner). They took turn to carry him as well as holding his hands while he tour the large porch area. The rest of the family were seen starting to lay out tables and chairs. Oops... did I mentioned it was a house catering dinner instead of a restaurant? Although I would prefer to dine in a restaurant, but catering offers more of a kampung feel to it.
The satay man reached our place around 5pm to start his preparation while the food caterer arrived half an hour later. There was no waiter provided, hence, all of granny's daughters (all seven of them) started laying out the food and drinks on the table. Some of them were busy preparing fruits and deserts namely water melon, duku langsat, jelly, cakes etc.J and I took Little Skywalker for a stroll at the roads around the house. He was quite excited with the new environment, unlike the busy streets back home. He likes to look at flowers and birds. He would follow the flight path of a bird religiously as soon as he catches sight on one. To me, is just another good trick to distract him when he starts yelling or crying :P
Dinner time came, all the family members started eating first so that they will have time to entertain the guests who are coming later. Instead of eating, Little Skywalker walked towards the ice boxes which are holding all the can drinks covered with ice cubes. He spent the next half an hour playing with the ice cubes and serving can drinks to people who asked. J and I quickly had our lunch (albeit two rounds) before Skywalker get bored with his "bartender" business.As we were having deserts with Little Skywalker, guests have begun to arrive. We had to retreat back into the living room (where the TV is) while the guest occupied the seats outside. I was suddenly appointed the official photographer of the event as Jenny's aunt (the original photographer) brought her camera with a dried-out battery. Since I was the only one who had a camera and an extra battery, I accepted the job.
I went round each table and snapping photos of strangers (every one of them didn't knew who I was actually). Some of the pictures I took were quite funny with people stuffing their mouth full and yet want to keep talking. There were more than 50 guests or so, which is quite the norm here because most of them are neighbors who lived near by.
Little Skywalker was busy playing and entertaining other kids from our relatives. He was the youngest of them all, hence the centre of the focal point. All the other kids round him up and started playing with him. He was very excited with everything that is going on. We were afraid he would be scared and cry as he always does when he got too much attention. Luckily, he didn't. He was mixing well with all the other kids with ease as though they were his peers.Come to think of it, he is quite the lone gun at home. Everyone is at least a few decades older than him back in KL. Although everyone at home talked to him often, but I don't think anyone of us is offering such fun and enjoyment to him. Maybe is time to make him a sister or brother? Or is it better to put him with a professional babysitter where he can enjoy the company of kids his age? Food for thought...
Finally, we came to the highlight event of the evening - cake cutting. J's aunties brought out the cake they bought from a famous cake house nearby. We were surprise to find out that the cake was three-tier. The last time we ever saw such a cake was during our own wedding, and that was not even a real cake! The top and the bottom tier was made out of lemon while the center piece was coffee, all of them coated with lemon cream. Looks delicious!Granny went back to her room to put on additional make-up for the camera before she appeared in front of the cake. As usual, everyone present sang her a birthday song before she blow out all the seven candles (guess how young is she?). After she did a ceremonial cut on the cake, all her family members took turn to pose and take photographs with her. Although I was the busy photographer, our family managed to take a photograph with her as well.
Granny has seven daughters and three sons (lost count of grandchildren), and all of them were present. It took almost half an hour and nearly all of my SD card capacity to complete the photo session (all daughters, all sons, each family, friends etc.) before anyone got a bite of the cake. Little Skywalker enjoyed the cake very much and we were happy feeding him more and more.I continue to do my photo rounds around the house, snapping photos of everyone before they took off. I could see some of them were already on their way "high" with all the beers and cigarettes around. For me, I do not like to be in a state where I loose control of myself. But hey, I am not here to judge! If they are happy and no one got hurt, is fine with me. However, I would prefer if Little Skywalker follow his father's footstep in the matter of alcohol as well as tobacco.
All the guests had almost left around 11pm. We were busy cleaning up the mess they left behind. Little Skywalker was beginning to give us his "half-eye-close" sleepy look after he totally let his hair down for an entire evening. We were subsequently assigned to a air-conditioned room for the night. Although they said someone might come in and sleep on the floor later (while we slept on the bed), but no one did and we got the entire room to ourselves.For the record, I think we were the only ones that slept through that night as everyone else were still awake and chatting in the living room. I woke up around 4am to tone down the air condition and I could still see lights and hear people talking in living hall. I bet J's family really had a lot to talk at such rare gathering.
For Little Skywalker, he only talked in his dreams...
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 8/03/2005 10:30:00 AM :: and invited 0 Blah(s):
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