When Less Is More: December 2009

If I am asked how many nephews and nieces do I have, I will need to scribble the names before I can give the number. And it is no guarantee that I will be correct. That's me and they called me "ayah chik".

Likewise, I cannot readily give an answer how many grand-nephews and grand-nieces that this "tok chik" have at the last count.

But this blog is not about the extended family of my late father and mother. It is about the much-awaited wedding of the last of my sister's (Ramlah) son - Shamsul Adzmir bin Hamzah. This "goat smile" sums it all.

Adzmir has every reason to smile. He scored a perfect 10. There was NO REPEAT for the akad. I was one of the two witnesses. However, his vocal chord somehow cannot strike a high pitch, tapi tak sumbang! And there was no "male sweat" trickling down his forehead. Lucky too that my hearing was still perfect. I suspected he was practising the akad throughout the night before and through the entire 3 hour journey to the bride's house in Felda Sg Klemah, somewhere in Gemas.

I suspect too that his 3 married brothers coached him. Yes, Adzmir has no sister. There is no Jane in the family, all Tarzans! The only lady in the house is their mother, my sister Ramlah.

Ramlah is a retired teacher. Now in her mid-60s, she proudly declares that throughout her teaching career, she DID NOT TAKE A SINGLE DAY OF MEDICAL LEAVE! Hei, I am proud of you sis (err...a little bit ashame of myself la). She also used to be the fastest 100m runner in Kelantan in her school days.

So back to the akad ceremony, it was performed in the mosque in this Felda scheme. The bride's father gave away his daughter. Contrary to his son-in-law to be, the father required several coaching from the Imam while Adzmir was quietly rehearsing the akad.

Again back to the ceremony, there is always the adat "membatalkan air sembahyang" and Adzmir was pretty amateurish in his attempt to put on the gelang on his wife, Siti Sarah. Obviously there was no trial run for this part of the program. Obviously they bear the brunt of the jokes from the family members and the smiles on their faces say it all.

The akad over, our entourage was brought to a house to wait the bersanding ceremony. We feasted on heaps of rambutan, freshly plucked from the trees in the compound. You can get this only in a kampong wedding.

This is a special occasion. We have the entire sibling together under one roof and we took the opportunity to have our family photo taken.

And there are nine of us, with only 2 boys. Considering my brother and I were grossly outnumbered, we were lucky we did not become "lembut". The oldest, Zainab is seated. The rest are positioned chronologically from left to right - Ramlah, Kamariah, Ramli, Zainun, Rahimah, Rahimi (Mahmood), Rohana and Rokiah.

But I prefer this pose!

Fun time over, it was then the procession for the bersanding. The usual sound of traditional music followed the procession

and in no time they were comfortably seated on the dais

and we were soon feasted and it was time to let the newly weds to be on their own. The following day in Seremban, it will be the "menyambut menantu" for my sister. Another day, another reception.

Several months ago, my late friend Anwar Batcha phoned me up why I was not updating my blog for nearly a month. It was followed soon after by an email from my respected elder. He was wondering whether I was not well that caused my silence. Alhamdulillah, I am okay. It is just the lazy bones that often stifles enthusiasm. Just like bears in winter, it is the hibernating season.

I do have two other updates in my draft before I would call it curtains down for the trip my wife and I took to Dublin. Returning from Venice, we had planned a 2-day outing to Cliffs of Moher, two days before our departure for home.

Located about 260kms from Dublin, on the western coast of Ireland, we decided to take an easy drive there.

Renting a car was the best option. It accords flexibility of travel and unregulated stops - just like touring on my bicycle, except that the speed is multiplied many folds.

We booked a night at a Travelodge in Limerick, a town roughly 60kms from the cliffs.

Limerick is the 3rd largest city of Ireland. Records states that it started as a viking settlement, with the Shanon River being the major waterways of the wandering vikings.

Entering Limerick city, we were greeted with a huge crowd of Irish in their familiar green colored t-shirts and jerseys leaving the stadium. They were the supporters of their rugby team. There was no rowdiness, so we further assume the local team must have defeated the visitors.

Other than the pockets of these supporters and their vehicles, Limerick remains relatively not busy.

We stopped for a photo shoot at King John's castle. It is one of the numerous castles you can find as you drive on the roads. The cloud was dull grey as one can expect in late autumn approaching winter. On the river bank, the winds dropped the temperature by a few more celcius and staying out could not be a prolong option.

So, a quick photoshoot for the 3 ladies in the entourage. Here is mom and daughter Syakira, hugging close for warmth.

And the two sisters admiring each other on the screen of my EOS camera. Nowadays, I prefer a compact than the heavy DSLR and a comprise on quality has to be expected. The compact suits well for my light travelling on my bicycle tours.

This is the Travelodge Limerick we stayed for the night. I downloaded this picture from the internet as I discovered none of us took a shot of the lodge.

A Travelodge is a cheap option to bed down for the night. It is a no frills hotel and for Euro 40 a night, one gets a room with large size beds adequate for 4 Asians, though maximum allowed is 3. It is very clean with modern facilities. Just across the road is a shopping mall where we got to buy our provisions for dinner.

The following day, we checked out of the hotel very early in the morning, still in darkness. The cliffs of Moher was still a good 60kms away. The car showed a quarter tank and when we passed a petrol kiosk a few kms from the Travelodge, we decided to proceed on and fill up somewhere along the way.

This proved to be a very poor decision. As the fuel needle slowly dipped to the red zone, there was still no sign of a petrol kiosk. We should have known that petrol kiosks are as rare as halal restaurants in Ireland! We were also driving in darkness.

I recalled that during our stay in Dublin, we did not come across any petrol kiosk in the city. I could perhaps be correct to say that Subang Jaya has more cars than a few cities in Ireland combined! Little wonder that working Malaysian students in Dublin can afford to buy a 3 series BMW. Poor demand, hence low price - simple economics. Well not really la!

Back to reality, I was driving cautiously. When we finally came across a petrol kiosk, it was still closed. We drove on to another small town. Same story. We were not even sure whether this other petrol kiosk will even open on Saturday. We waited for a while but decided to check whether there will be another one around. Wishful thinking it was. But a man in a sundry shop which surprisingly opened early said there was another kiosk towards our direction to the Cliffs of Moher. He did not know how far but gave us a "about 10 minutes drive from here" distance. Reminds me of the "sebatang rokok" story of the orang asli back home.

He was right. It was roughly the time he mentioned. Boy, were we happy to see a petrol kiosk? You bet. It was already daybreak. We filled up full. From the kiosk, it was only 10kms to the cliffs. This place is called Liscanor.

We passed a golf club and there were already golfers arriving at the club. If invited to play, I would politely turn the offer down. In the cold, my swing would be too stiff and I would not have a feel of the club in my hand.

I could not avoid but notice the generous speed limit of 100kms/hr on what I would classify as a kampong road. Even stretches of our PLUS highway has speed limit of only 80kms/hr. and of-course that would be the favorite hunting ground of our traffic police.

The road to the Cliffs passed through some farmland

and the famous Liscannor Stone. We did not buy any Liscannor stone as a momento. It would be too heavy for our luggage. Besides, what can we do with a stone!

We were early. We were the only second group of visitors to arrive. We were greeted by this crow and it was not able to provide much information to us! We asked, but the informant just flew away.

This is the entrance to the site. At such an early hour, it was still unmanned. But it was opened so we decided to pay our "exit" fee later instead of entrance fee.The winds blowing from the Pacific Ocean was cold, very cold. I just cannot imagine how Vikings travelled in their ships in such weather in the old days. The blankets we brought came in very handy indeed.