Family Events and Remembering Rawa Roots

This week was pretty uneventful and coincided with a low point in my life. Nevertheless life goes on. Last week was different; full of activities surrounding family matters.

First, was the readmittance of my other half's brother-in-law (Pak Teh) into IJN HDU (high-dependency unit). He had his stitches opened after a week of the surgery. From what I heard, there was some bleeding and he was advised to be readmitted. My son, Ihsan from JB, in his last stay at home, was not able to visit Pak Teh at the hospital. So, he decided to come home again to visit Pak Teh at IJN on early Thursday morning. He reached Seremban sometime at 3 am in the morning after his work hours, so that he can go together with us to IJN after Fajr prayers. We went there so early just to beat the traffic congestion in KL and to get a parking space (comfortably) in IJN.

Because we have rushed off early in the morning, we forgotten to bring our face-masks. As we arrived in IJN, I rushed off to the MyNews store there to get a box of face masks. The first one that I bought was for kids and thus I had to buy another one for adults (they told me that I can't exchange for the adult ones).

I decided to put these on the table near the seats as we sat waiting for the visiting hours at 12 noon. Just did this simply if anyone would need them but of course nobody came to ask.

Here is a pic of my other half with her sister at the IJN cafe.

Here is Ihsan with Hitam at home. He didn't get to see Hitam before because Hitam was warded.

Just the weekend before, my other half and I went to Grand Beach Resort in Port Dickson for my other half's half-day seminar (on Saturday). Normally this will be counted as points for renewal of her APC (annual practicing certificate). Later she found out that there were no points given for it since it did not meet the necessary requirements.

The next day (Sunday) we were in Rembau for her friend (used to be her staff in the Rembau clinic) wedding invitation at Restoran Sungai Rembau. 

The weekend after the IJN's visit was also special for me, since all my sons came home. Here we are at a local mamak restaurant having our light dinner.

Last Sunday, we were also at Avant Court to meet my sister who just came back from Hajj. They organized a gathering which is also in conjunction with their 50th anniversary.

I was also told by my sister to meet a long lost distant relative in Tapah, Zulfahan. I don't think I have met him but here we are at the function.

I wasn't so sure how I am related to him but he brought up the name Lokman, son of Pak Deris, whom (the latter) I know during my childhood days, visiting his shop (Pak Deris') just meters away from the my grandfather's (Udin) place. Zulfahan told me not to forget my roots. I can only reason (for myself) that I was only in Tapah during brief visits with my mum and brothers and sisters. Not only I was largely absent in Tapah but for most parts of my life, I was not even at home (being in boarding school, and later abroad for my Bachelor and postgraduate studies). Even as I returned from UK (after my PhD), I was sent to Bintulu campus. Of course, the other reason is my low social skills and I do not mix around very well and always have kept only a small circle around me. In some way, I do feel that I betray my parents for not keeping close to our relatives and forget my Rawa roots (see also here). My observation is that we often assimilate and adopt cultures of our spouses. I will try to do my part to give some knowledge of Rawa to my sons.