Serangan Bala Tentera (Attacked by an Army)

I forgot to tell you what happened last weekend.

Thursday is usually the day we do major house cleaning. Taufik and kids would help me vacuum the carpets and mop the floors and wash 2 of the 3 bathrooms (I wash the 3rd), while I would clean the whole kitchen.
I would usually 'close the kitchen' and would only make breakfast and we'd go out for lunch (but I'd still make dinner).

So last Thursday was no exception. After breakfast of sausages and scrambled eggs and toast, we started cleaning the house.
It wasn't long after we started that I got a call from Kak Nora from r1yadh. I met Kak nora when we went to the Edge of The World last year. I knew her husband, Arimi, from when he was working with M0torola. She said she's in d4mmam. Of course I asked her to come over. She said she wasn't sure where we were and I gave her Taufik's number so that her husband can talk to my husband about directions. I asked her if she's coming for lunch and she said "datang singgah aje" (we're just going to drop by).

In Malay terms, there is no such thing as 'just dropping by'. There has to be at least tea and some finger food.
So while scrubbing the stove I had to wreck my brain for what to cook. Looking at the ingredients that I had (we were planning to go grocery shopping after lunch), I had decided to make a pandan sponge cake and fried meehoon (rice vermicelli). I didn't even prepare lunch for us coz I was thinking we could go out after they left to have our lunch. Furthermore, there was nothing to prepare lunch with.

I had put the pandan cake in the oven and soaked one packet of meehoon when Taufik came to tell me that they'd arrive in one or two hours (they wanted to drive around and sightsee first) and get this: there were 4 cars!
4 cars = at least 8 adults and if these were families, there'd be at least 8 children too! My pandan cake and a packet of meehoon won't feed an army of 16! *panic*
So we decided we'd go out for a quick lunch and buy more stuff to serve our guests. It took me almost an hour to finish up cleaning from the time we decided to go out , so by the time we were on our way, we got a call from our guests telling us that they were on their way to our house.
oh horrors of all horrors! how embarassing! We had to ask them if they could come an hour later instead, dengan sungguh tak malu nya.

So we had the quickest lunch we could at the only restaurant here that is equivalent to a banana leaf rice restaurant (Lollies, where we ate puri for breakfast the other day), and I scooted to the nearby indian food store and bought some banana chips and nuts. On our way back we got a call that our guests are already waiting near the entrance to our compound.
We arrived at the entrance to see 5 cars all lined up in a row, waiting for us. It was a good thing though, because then they could just follow us in without having to go through security interrogation.

In just a short time from their arrival, my house was literally filled up to the brim.
The husbands occupied my small living room, the wives and babies (there were 3 cute fat babies!) in my equally small dining room, and the kids were spread throughout the house, including the play area, the TV room upstairs and my kids' room where the computer is.
I boiled 3 pots of water for tea, brought out all of my teacups, used all of my jugs and serving plates.
I didnt fry any meehoon coz they said they were still full from their lunch. Even then, my pandan cake was swiped clean and Ita, one of the r1yadh ladies, even brought in her banana cake to top it up.
I didn't get to take any pictures, Nonah, because I was too busy serving drinks and food and chatting chatting chatting. The house was filled with sounds of laughter and chatting (and exchanging of recipes) and occassional shrieking of little girls playing. It was the most havoc and the most festivity that my house has ever experienced! As we teranung folks like to say, "Kalu dok gegae, dok soh!" (something like, It's no fun if it's not noisy!)

I am really thankful for their visit. It was a lot of fun!
Kak Nora, Yan, Ita, Ramey and Nor, if you're reading this, Jangan serik datang lagi, ya?
;)