Hari Raya Blitz ...and Ended with 2 Rapids

Recently, we i.e. hAnA, cHEss pIRATE & I started playing Blitz chess. Normally, we'll set the timer for 5minutes each.

Hence, in the morning after performing Raya prayers at Surau Mutiara Damansara in PJ and whilst waiting for their mum to prepare raya food for 2 families(Mine and my eldest sister Akmar)...we played a few rounds of blitz chess. This time the timer was set at either 4minutes or 3:30seconds. Had fun playing blitz and without realising it, my beloved wife had called out - " Dah Siap, Jemput Makan!"

It has always been a tradition since my late Mum was still alive that we'll have Sayur Lodeh(a concoction of mixed vegetables cooked whilst being simmered) and Ketupat with Kuah kacang....yes, Ketupat and not the cheap "knock-ons" called Nasi Himpit. Normally, the dishes will be ready by 2-3am in the morning...and without fail every year when everyone is asleep I would have the first taste of the dishes so to speak. Corny or weird as it may sound, I'd always considered the first taste of the dishes at 2-3am in the morning as a time where I reminisce about previous years while listening to the Takbir Raya. This year my wife might have wised up to my early morning food fetish especially when a few ketupats were unaccounted for and/or the lodeh levels had gone down....so she decided to prepare the stuffs the night before and only start cooking at 6AM.....aaaarggghhh! There goes my traditional early morning "tribute" to yesteryears.

...we finishEd having our meal and berhari raya with my family and my sister's family(who came from Penang) and by noon we were off to Kg.Mantun - KL to celebrate with my in-laws.

Before we knew it it was already 10PM and was Just finishing "dinner" at an Uncle's House in Bangsar...we decided then to go to an A-Level friends' (Azlina & Nizam aka Lin & Dag)house in TTDI where we met another A-levels friend i.e. Fazlur & family. We had known the couple & Fazlur since 1988...slightly below quarter of a century when doing our A-level programme in DU. What a relief as finally the cHEss pIRATE had a chess-sparring partner and he was still willing to play rapid even at 11PM. cHEss pIRATE managed to play 2 rapid games before we called it a day....just before 12midnight.