RAYA MV 2016 (MESDY FAMILY) from fazmals on Vimeo.

Long time no blog but there is always time to share my extended family's Hari Raya music video!!!

You can also watch our past music videos - for Raya 2012, click here and for Raya 2013, click here, for Raya 2014, click here (and its accompanying "Terjah" interview sessions here), for Raya 2015, click here.

Love the fact that our extended has grown from strength to strength (Especially my batch of cousins! All of us are married now, which explains why we didn't have much breathing space during our dance segment lol) 

Also love the fact that my husband has morphed from the bewildered new member of the family caught in headlights to a more-than-willing participant in our yearly family tradition hahahahaha seriously our future anak is going to grow up thinking every family makes a music video for hari raya in Singapore HAHAHAHAHA

Weekend in Krabi - Flight and Transport

Saliheen has been wanting to go to Thailand over a weekend to tailor more shirts for work so after we came back from Tokyo, that's exactly what we did: Made plans for a weekend in Thailand! He actually wanted to fly over to Bangkok but my family told me they were going to Krabi during the same period so I asked Saliheen if we could go to Krabi and spend some time with them instead. It'll be fun, I said, we get to surprise my dad (who didn't know our plans), we get to go to a beach destination, and oh look, there are tailors in Krabi too!

Whiiiiiiiich explains how we ended up spending the leap year weekend in Krabi. Hehe.

The Flight

My sisters already chose the dates and flights before we decided to tag along so we had to choose the same flight via AirAsia. I wasn't happy with the booking process because the website kept crashing on me wtf but after 2387034 tries, it finally went through! If I ever meet Tony Fernandes, I am giving him a piece of mind about my lousy booking experience >:(

But whatever. It didn't take away the excitement that Saliheen and I felt because my dad didn't know we were tagging along to Krabi, and we had to pretend to send the family off at the departure gates haha! Going through security and boarding was a tricky and heart-thumping affair (kita dah macam penyangak siak, trying to hide our faces all) but we managed well enough for my dad to be genuinely surprised on the flight haha his expression was priceless, you guys!!!!!

If you follow me on Snapchat (I am active there now) you'd have seen how it went down snap by snap, hehe. Although I guess I could also upload a video which my sister recorded from her point of view..............

Check out our pathetic bobbing heads, trying to avoid being spotted by my dad HAHAHAHA

Nice little discovery I made on this flight: me having another similarity with my dad in the form of our love for flight take-off and landing! I saw him peering intensely out of the window during take-off and landing and realized he wears the same fascinated expression as me during the same moments. Ke mana tumpah lauk kalau tak ke nasi (atau meja... atau baju).

Anyway, my thoughts about our AirAsia flights: Seats were ok for a short-haul flight, flight had several short bursts of turbulence, but generally more pleasant than the time I took TigerAir to Jakarta (there was turbulence and taik idong on the window). I might or might not take AirAsia again, depending on whether their website decides to be a bitch next time.

Airport Transfer

I don't know whether it was just the timing that we arrived (2.10pm) but the airport counters were crazy packed by the time we got in line for customs clearance!!! I think it's because of the cramped layout for the arrival counters la. The crowd cleared after awhile and we were out of customs clearance after an hour of waiting.

Booked airport transfer with Krabi Shuttle (as suggested by my sister Farahin) because we wanted the convenience of having transport immediately after we arrived in Krabi. Highly recommended! They were fast and responsive via emails, their vans were decent and their drivers were polite and always on time (We used Krabi Shuttle to go to Krabi Town too). You can pay via credit card online or pay cash on the spot (which we opted for because it gave us a peace of mind)

It cost us 1500 baht (S$58.00) for a round-trip airport transfer on a standard minibus that can accommodate 8 pax. You can use their online booking form here (easy to use) to see their quote for various routes and vehicle types! Oh, I think it took about 40 to 45 minutes to arrive at our accommodation in Ao Nang area from the airport? Definitely less than an hour ah.

Ending this entry with a travel video which my sister shot and edited! We appear sporadically in the video because Saliheen and I stayed in different accommodation from my family and we didn't join them for the water and island-hopping activities during the day (We've done them before when we were in Phuket and didn't want to do them again). But we met for dinners and Krabi Town + I still wanted to post this video because 1) my sister did a lovely video of her birthday trip/our family vacation and it deserves to be watched 2) this is to make up for the lack of pictures in this boring ass entry hahahaha.

Birthday Trip 2016 - Krabi from fazmals on Vimeo.

If you're wondering why Saliheen looks like he is done with the world at 04:43, it's because he came down with food poisoning on our second last day in Krabi HAHAHAHAHA ya ya now kelakar la, can laugh about it all, but at that time, he really looked like he was going through a world crisis k (Shall blog about food in Krabi next)

Hari Raya Dah Habis La

Long time no blog!

My blogging mojo is really perangai biskut seh, kejap ada kejap takde. I didn't have the inspiration to blog because firstly, I've been really busy at work and home (always like this at end of the year!) and secondly, I was (kind of) jaded with blogging and social media.

I won't elaborate too much on the second point; I was just trying to limit my usage and minimize the negative feelings I had against it and its users. I still used social media la, I never really went away or anything, but I just didn't want to blog the thoughts I had because of it. Maybe not yet. Or maybe never!

Trying to restart my blogging mojo so I'll start with the latest pictures I have in my phone. Saliheen and I took leave on Friday so we had a good and long Hari Raya Haji weekend to meet our families and friends ♥

Ok fine, I only have 2 pictures from Hari Raya Haji - one with my sisters, and one of my favourite little boy Chah Inn, who wailed and cried bloody murder because his brother and my sisters took a picture without him lolol I wish I had his problems! #kidlogic #kidproblems

The rest of the time we stuffed ourselves with good old Malay raya food, both at his side and mine. Perut kembung sampai sekarang, beb. Recycled my one-piece baju raya because I knew that was gonna happen. Note to self: Buy a black loose fitting jubah for occasions like Hari Raya Haji and other majlis!

Posting pictures from Hari Raya Haji just made me realize I didn't blog about our Hari Raya Aidilfitri festivities few months prior! Shall I use this entry as an excuse to post outdated pictures hwa... hwa... hwa..........

Kept our baju raya cheap and simple, the way we like it, because we value comfort over anything else! It was our first Ramadhan and Hari Raya in our own home and it was very enjoyable - picking out our first lampu lap-lip, ordering kuih raya (Makcik pro tip: order kuih raya 1 month in advance!!!) and having our relatives and friends over for Raya celebrations. Ramadhan was lovely too, we managed to cook for most of our sahurs and iftars, didn't miss any sahurs, went for terawih together and hosted several iftar sessions. 

(Love my lipstick in the last picture! It's NARS Audacious Lipstick in Vera. Damn solid.)

We had full bird's eye view of SG50 fireworks which set off in front of our friends' new house during one of the raya visits! How lucky! I'm not a sucker for fireworks but I have to admit the ones we saw that day were sooooo pretty ♥ Saliheen and I also visited his cousin's place one of the Raya days and his cousin and wife dah macam ada cat cafe kat balcony rumah la sia. Gerammmmm!!!!!

We entertained the idea of getting a cat as our house pet but some of our friends said I won't be able to clean the cat's poo once I get pregnant in the future (something about parasitic infection???) and can you believe it - betul betul during Hari Raya Haji, my cousin's cat berak inside the toilet just before I needed to use it and the stink was nauzubillah min zalik! Nak kena beli gas mask dulu ni sebelum beli kucing haha.

But aku seriously berangan je k. Taik baby aku belum nak handle, ada hati nak handle taik kucing. Cis!

HARI RAYA MUSIC VIDEO 2015

I would like to interrupt my series of NYC-related posts (MASIH AH) to selit masuk my extended family's Hari Raya music video for this year! I always look forward to lip-syncing, dancing and brainstorming ideas for this piece of madness every year, and everyone is always more supporting, more rowdy, more creative than the year before haha! 

Last year, Saliheen and my cousin's wife fell sick after joining our jalan raya sessions for the first time, kesian dorang kena terjah terjah segala HAHAHA. They fared better this year (although Saliheen tried to gelek his way out at the start of the video hahaha bo chui) but next year, we're going to see who else will jatuh sakit - four of my cousins are getting married next year - BUSY! - and will come with their new spouses next raya MUAHAHAHA WELCOME NEWBIESSS 

Once our younger cousins start dating seriously, they should really consider letting their bakal jodoh watch our family music videos and ask him/her whether they are willing to lip-sync, dance and be supporting nak mampos during Hari Raya for the rest of their lives. For those who are eyeing our single cousins lolol, you may also wish to refer to our 2012 Hari Raya Video, 2013 Hari Raya Video and 2014 Hari Raya Video (which came with a special 'terjah' segment here)

Hello Family

 So we found some time yesterday to bring my family over to our new unit!

Turns out my sisters just wanted to have a photoshoot inside the new unit wtf

Tapi best ah ambik ambik gambar. Especially bila part hair flips hahahahaha my youngest sister started it first! Can you believe that the picture below is of her FIRST ATTEMPT WTF CAN BECOME SWIMSUIT MODEL ALREADY LAH LIKE THIS

Mesdy Family Annual Raya Video 2014

So my baby sister finally finished editting our annual raya video and have posted it up for our fun and laughter! :D

You can watch the main annual 'Raya 2014' video below:

RAYA MV 2014 (MESDY FAMILY) from fazmals on Vimeo.

My second sister also had the brilliant idea of doing 'terjah' sessions during our Raya visiting (ala 'Melodi' and 'Roommate') - the idea of names flashing during each interview was her suggestion too! - so we have two separate videos to repeat and laugh and laugh over this year.

You can watch the 'Raya Terjah' video below:

I can't choose which ones are my favourites because most of them are so hilarz! I like my husband's interview, of course, he was complaining about being exhausted because it was his first intense Mesdy family jalan raya experience. Haha!

It's a shame my baby sister just bought legit professional microphone and technical gear which will only arrive next week because those would have been so useful! Guess we'll have to wait to use those for next year's Raya. Hehe.

You can also watch our past videos - for Raya 2012 video, click here and for Raya 2013 video, click here. 

I love the fact that we can all see each other grow up in these videos - some of my younger cousins who looked like foetuses in the 2012 video now look like they're so kakak kakak and abang abang in this year's video already. 

Aku pulak, jangan cakaplah, dari macam mak anak satu to macam mak anak sepuluh hahahahaha. Tapi takpe. Hari raya dah habis so hari ni boleh start diet.

Selesai Sudah Si Bulan Syawal

Aaaaannddd we're done with another year of Syawal.

Some snippets of our Raya celebrations this year for memories sake! 

I'm in the midst of privatizing my blog entries from the past 12 years (more on this in another entry) and came across tons of Raya pictures from past celebrations that I've forgotten about! So I figured I should post up some pictures from Raya 2014 so I can laugh at them di tahun 2024 kelak. Hehe.

Makan Review: Sakura Charcoal Grilled and Shabu Shabu

Since Ramadhan starts this coming Sunday, I should probably post about my birthday dinner today eh.

Kan tak baik tunjuk you all gambar makanan during bulan puasa! Meleleh leleh nanti air liur, dah tak jambu.

So anyway! Your air liur aside, I finally got to try out Sakura Charcoal Grilled & Shabu Shabu, which is located at hujung tanjung Marina Country Club (Punggol)!

I first found out about this makan establishment from Dyan, and ever since then I've been looking for the perfect excuse to makan kat situ. Which is why bila my sister tanya where I'd like to have my birthday dinner, apa lagi.....

I know my husband looks grumpy in the first two pictures but oh trust me, he enjoyed stuffing himself, alright. Tu muka boring sebab dia dah tak sabar nak kena tunggu the makanan masak haha. Fat boy siol perangai.

Okay, time for verdict!

We went there with no expectations and the food turned out sooooo good!!! 

The variety pun best, you pilih pilih pilih sampai tak tau ape lagi nak pilih. Ada fish, chicken, ada beef, ada duck, ada sotong, ada prawns, ada squid, ada rice, ada noodles, ada sushi, ada sayur, ada macam macam lah! The only thing yang takde is akak punya faberet oysters, and of course ba alif ba ye, because this tempat is 100% certified halal.

Another good thing: there were different flavours for different categories tau - for example, beef ada macam macam beef, ada chilli beef, black pepper beef, etc. Which means there will always be something for everybody's taste buds! Oh, and drinks are freeeee flow, you guys. Minum lah korang sampai mabok.

(And by mabok, I don't mean actually mabok ye. It's just a figure of speech so calm your kopiahs and hijabs, brothers and sisters! Just thought I should clarify because recently kan ada influx of people who main tuduh tuduh ini tak halal itu tak halal tanpa usual periksa. This one MUIS dah kasi chop confirm guarantee halal logo k. Kalau you don't even trust MUIS then you buat your own cucuk tanam and ternak your own ayam and lembu k. Insya Allah halal.)

The only thing yang I tak impressed sangat about this place is the service. So sembarang. 

I mean, I don't expect red carpet service segala for a makan place like that lah, but the girl who attended to us looked and sounded macam she was half dead seh. And even though my sister already made reservations and we came early, our reserved table was already given to another family so we still had to wait for a table. Ape je. Kan beats the purpose of taking in reservations gitu.

Tapi takpelah. Nasib baik the yummy yummy food made up for it! Definitely want to go back and makan there, and I definitely recommend this for makan outings with large groups.

Cuma it can get pretty hot and smoky in the restaurant (unsurprisingly) so I don't recommend this for my friends yang ada babies and toddlers because trust me, honey, those young 'uns will get crank to the ky! Lagipun dangerous ah if you bring your cute mintak-kena-makan baby to these kind of places with me. Suspect kuat kau pusing sekejap je, aku dah letak anak kau kat atas the barbeque grill and panggang dia into sataaaaayyyyy.