the eid

it's 12.51AM of 1 shawal and usually at this time i already slept with an extremely full stomach of all the glorious eid dishes.

or sometimes i tried really hard to sleep but i couldn't - the masjid next to our house do the takbir for one full night. sometimes i wish their speakerphone got broken or something.

and by 5AM dad would wake the four of us and he would be this extremely annoying if by 5.15AM we are still in our bed. he always said that we might not get a praying spot at the masjid. dad, we live next to the masjid, there's no way we could not get a spot. i never argue that with him by the way. it's taken for granted, we always leave the house by 6.15.

oh yeah, do you notice that it's always sunny in the morning of 1 shawal?

after the eid prayer we would do the sungkeman, a.k.a the javanese way of showing respect and asking for forgiveness. it's always solemn when we do it to my mom and dad. but my sisters don't really take sungkeman with me seriously. disrespectful lots.

and mom and dad will give us the eid pocket money. but i've stopped receiving mine since i got my first job.

then we'd go to gramps' house and see mum's 100+ relatives or so. jakartans breed like rabbits. but it's always fun. they are the most kind-hearted people ever.

around 4pm we usually head back home but stop by first at some supermarket to buy 'travel-foods' that is, chips and chocolates and the likes, for the overnight drive to my dad's hometown of cepu.

at 8pm my dad the obsessive-compulsive would make sure that our suitcases have been put in his car. he always drives his red toyota land cruiser to cepu, his pride and joy, the car that is. i remember that he really wanted that car since 1996 or so but can afford to buy it only in 2004.

when we were still kids mum used to make lemper, sandwiches and other snack foods for the trip. 'to save money' she said. but most of the time we ended up not eating those foods and opted for chips and chocolates. she stopped making them when i was 17.

back to the land cruiser, we have a sort of seating arrangement. driver seat = dad, front seat = mum or me, middle seat = anita/mom or me, back seat = attika/ade. it's obvious that age determines where we sit. i am usually in the front seat when dad needs help with navigation/the map, or when the air conditioner gets too cold.

we sing a lot in the car. like a lot. or we play the 'read the sign' game. so we read aloud every sign that we see on the road, the winner is one who can say it the most. it is through the sign game that we know that the wasgitel tea stands for 'wangi sepet legit kentel'.

at 2.30AM (or anytime my dad feels like waking up) we will leave the house to cepu. my dad is the best driver ever. we leave the house that early to avoid heavy traffic. the jakarta-cepu route that is usually 12-14 hours by car can be done in just 7-8 hours.

this year same thing will happen. exactly same thing but without me.

and i will never see eid the same again.