Raya Perantauan Listography 1#

Eid this year was very different. Very. Here are the reasons why.

1. There're nothing "Eidly" special going on before Eid. No mom to fuss on houseworks or mega sales at the mall or special Iftar dine-outs on the last few days. In fact, the last few days of Iftar went by without noticing. 
2. Sadly, I wasn't in high spirit of either Ramadhan or Syawal. I think it was exam and this research work. I hardly spend any time reflecting on my ibadah. Sadly, I should have put more effort. InShaAllah, next year I'll be better.
3. Eid Prayer. The earliest jemaah scheduled was at 7.15 AM and to my surprise they have 6 jemaah scheduled. So, anyone feeling a lil lazy bum, could go perform Eid prayer even at 12.15 PM. It was a little different atmosphere because they recite takbir not in a familiar melody like we did in Malaysia. They were... brief and monotonous, I guess because the men had to rush to work afterwards. 
4. Cooking for yourself. After prayer Luqman and I rushed to Tesco to buy foodie cause we're so hungry and we haven't cook anything Eid-ul-Fitr-ish. Baru la nak memasak for tomorrow's potluck. At times like this I missed mom and her potpetness early in the morning suruh makan rendang and everything as breakfast. We worked on Bakso real hard, stressed over missing food processor and Alas my smoothie maker became the victim to blend onions and chillies.
5. Who queued for food on first day of raya? Honestly that was my first. In the afternoon, we dragged ourselves up and down the hill of Hampstead to join the Open House held by Malaysian Ambassador. To our disappointment, we didn't get the chance to taste every food, after 4 years residing in London we hardly know any Malaysians (boo us, nerding too much)
6. Working on Eid. I secretly wished my professor would email me and said I wouldn't have to come for meeting later on the day. In the morning, I stressed over the amount of work I still had to do. Hafta cook quickly, so I can squeeze some research work before going open house. During the Open house, there were no signals up on the hill, there's no way to reschedule the meeting. We rushed back, which was about 15 mins up and down the hill (on foot killing heels) plus 30 mins train ride away to meet my professor. Luckily he was being cheerful and more interested on my Eid celebration than the blanks on my excel spreadsheets. Fuh.

Yeap, thats pretty much my first day Eid. I felt so much like an adult, and an independent one.