Selamat Hari Raya everyone!!!!! Maaf zahir batin, sincerely apologise for every wrong I might have done and/or said. I love Raya - it's my favourite ever celebration and I look forward to it every year. This year, hmm a bit different. I actually enjoyed myself and I told myself that it was just an experience celebrating it abroad (London, no less) with some of my very good friends. I spent Raya at my friends place where we ate and borak borak. Watched some Youtube videos and Home Alone haha! We watched a Christmas movie on Raya day but still very good hahahaha and in very classic Raya fashion, we all felt very sleepy half day in. No different than how it is in Penang! EVERYONE sleeps after lunch.
Definitely missed family though, especially my grandparents. They *always* make a big do out of Raya because it's some of the only days the Penang house becomes very lively and very meriah with all of the grandkids there. I Facetimed them for a bit very early in the morning and wished them Selamat Hari Raya. Can't wait to see them again in KL and beraya with them properly. Nothing beats bersalam-salaman with your elderly.
I completely forgot to bring my baju raya along last September and so I was decked in a blouse and a pair of jeans. Sad!!!! Tragic!!!! Where's the Raya semangat???? I hope people still have open houses later on this month because I miss my baju kurung's.
The night before I left Bristol for good, went to meet Nana for our routine Korean dinner at one of my favourite places to eat in Briz.
See, told you I'd have a photo of my bed. Looks so untidy and lived in but that's exactly how I wanted it to look because it was never, at any point in time, tidy. It was already ruffled and tunggang terbalik because I never saw the reason to constantly have it neat since I basically lived under the covers. Sighhhhh love you bed thanks for being so warm and comfy for me.
This was when I was waiting for the cab. I wanted to initially have the taxi driver take a photo of me with my bags in front of the house but i) I was SO late for my bus because I forgot to book a cab earlier and it was peak time ii) The taxi driver looked so DONE with me when he saw my bags ahahah so this photo would have to suffice. MISS YOU HOME!!
With Tariq - one of my very good guy friends. Most of them dah balik KL so I was glad/relieved Tariq stayed back. And yes, I HAVE told him to cut his hair.
My Raya outfit - how exciting right?!?!?!?! #teamrayaLondon #boringoutfits!!!!
Also, Pana stayed back!! Yay!!!!! I would've been surrounded by boys if not for Pana.
And as the technology-driven 20-somethings we are, a Raya selfie.
Aww cute Raya portrait with tuan rumah sat in the middle.
2nd day of Raya I spent it with my brother who is also here for the summer. We went for burgers (WHAT IS NEW WITH ZAIM) at Stax and I tried out the Stax Insanity and it's perhaps one of my favourite burgers EVER! The maple glazed bacon strip was ~ heavenly ~
We wanted to go have a shop around but we both didn't get anything. It's sale time everyyyyywhere so of course that would mean the amount of people have also multiplied. I don't mind the crowds too much (because it's not Oxford Street if not for the crazy crowd), it's the having to go through racks and shelves that gets tiring. After having gelato at Snowflake, we parted ways and I went off to see my friends for dinner at GBK.
The next day was another day of shopping, this time with Pana. She had some things to do and things to buy so I just tagged along for the fun. And this time I found so many things I wanted to buy!!!
Like this pair of chunky heeled shoes... y'know for graduation purposes...
BTW I freaking loveeee the living lights out of my coloured lensed sunglasses. I ordered them from yesstyle but they took ages to come!! Literally 2 days before I had to leave my Bristol home! This was obviously Korean popstar inspired - don't I look like GD yet?!?!?
The beautiful Picadilly Circus at night. I can never do it justice through my camera phone but it's such a pretty sight!
I was telling Pana how much I was craving for apam balik and she told me there was apam balik selling in London! If you're wondering, it's at Brick Lane. I haven't been to Brick Lane before but it pretty much resembles Camden Market - a bit smaller but exuded a very similar eccentric vibe. I loved it!
Fun fact : Apam balik is my favourite tea time snack. Ultimate. Specifically, the nipis one with no jagung. I know some people might say the jagung is the best part but I feel it's too sweet for me so I like mine just crispy with sugar. And I think it's so cute how they named it as a 'pancake' here - never thought of it that way. Just like how cekodok was dubbed 'banana buttons'. Cute right?!?!?!
And obviously the guy who was manning the stall was a Malaysian and it was just so nice to speak to someone in Malay. Not that I don't in my normal daily conversations!!! I speak Malay to my friends all the time but outside of friends, it's very rare I get to converse in my mother tongue. When we went to Roti King, the waiter spoke to us in Malay and I was just very pleasantly happy about it hahahaha #timetogohomeNadia
Also at Brick Lane, there was a stall that sold coloured lenses sunnies!!! I got a blue one as seen on top of my head in this photo. I am obsesseddddd I am so going back for more!
So that's been the past few days for me! Been a pretty mellow Raya - maybe because there's not that big of a hype here in London than it is in the rest of Malaysia but grateful to have friends and family here. I can't imagine not spending it at all with anyone! It was sooooo lovely to see everyone's Raya photos on Instagram, I tapped like for every post I saw!! Everyone looked so colourful and made up, it was so wonderful to see. I hope everyone had a great Raya regardless of where you are and regardless of who you spent it with. Time to forgive and forget and time to gain back all that weight we lost in Ramadhan. And even if you didn't lose weight, can we really say no to lemang and rendang???? I actually asked my mum to bring a whole balang of jam tarts here because it's my favourite kuih and can't believe I'm missing out!!
Take care everyone! Selamat Hari Raya again and hope to beraya with everyone soon insyaAllah!!
xx
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