Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Looking Back

18 Ramadhan, 1438

Came across the following in my journal from this date in the Ramadhan of 1422. Gosh that's 16 years ago - when Ramadhan fell in December:

22.49

My back is aching pretty savagely despite my having taken two panadol tablets but we managed to have a good time at Geylang. Fithri bought a balloon, or rather we bought a balloon for Fithri, we got the twinkling lights (which I must put up tomorrow), Noi bought for me my Hari Raya outfit (in navy blue), and we ate well at the market - a delicious bowl of sup kambing in my case. A newly and cheaply purchased Khaled CD is pounding away at the moment and we also got Zubir Abdullah's CD which I am looking forward to playing. This sounds like an orgy of conspicuous consumption but I would have been quite happy just to wander round without buying anything. Fithri put some money given by Noi in the charity box "for poor people" so that helped balance things a little.

There's a wonderful sense of atmosphere at the bazaar. The crowds are dense, suggesting the stall-holders are doing rather well. It only takes a few moments for me to get completely disorientated once I'm amongst the stalls.

Things haven't changed too much. I'm still thinking much the same thoughts, insofar as I'm thinking at all, and still disoriented much of the time. Can't imagine Fifi buying a balloon anywhere these days though. But the girls did put their money in the charity box at Geylang the other night, so Mak Ndak's tutelage can be said to have borne the right kind of fruit.

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