Of course then she was speaking in Malay in her heavy Kelantanese accent and was refering the the rising floodwaters, which is annual in Keantan then. It's a particularly difficult time of the year for her since with all the rain, the firewood is eternally wet. Not to mentioned mobility issues for her small venture of selling traditional sweet Malay cakes and deserts. It's a mobility issue since her partner in the venture is an old frail lady in her mid sixties who peddle the fruits of her labor on foot on top of her head throughout the district. With the floods, her mobility is seriously impacted.
Well, summer's over. We had plenty of seemingly foolproof plans for the kids and the family as whole to fill up our warm summer days in Norway. It was plentiful for the kids with Minecraft, fasting, and two weeklong camps. It's mostly work for Mommy. It's mostly work for Daddy with the weekly or sometimes every other weekly birdwatching trips around Rogaland.
There were plans for visits to the islands around Rogaland, which fell completely on it's face because the entire program was delegated to the children to get them to use their computers for reasearch ie. logistical planning and digging out information. They were more interested in carrying on with their Minecraft, watching the latest Yogcast and generally watching silly things on youtube. You have a great excuse to stay indoors in the cold months; their excuses for staying indoors in the summer months were plain inexcusable.
They did manage to go out exploring the neighbourhood on their bikes, skateboards and push scooters on several occasions. Wished they had done more of that.
Attempts to get the famiy out to the beaches completely failed. Attempts to get them trekking the hills failed. Attempts to get them birdwatching wasn't very successfull either. Daddy ended up in the car scouring the coastal countryside for birds. On a couple of occasions Ali managed to pry himself away from the beloved lapop to see the sun, he missed all the birds.
Mommy worked extra hard in the summer months, full concentration with very little distractions from the children (they were busy with Minecraft and other computer related distractions) nor colleagues (who were mostly away on their multi weeks summer vacations) nor Daddy (who's either taking a nap or out chasing waders).
We celebrated Hari Raya in the most understated fashion this summer. The auspicious day fell on a Thursday of a weekday. Both Mommy and Daddy took two days off from work, the children were off on their summer camp. We had breakfast of instant roti canai together as a family. I think that was Hari Raya this year ...
We are still waiting to pencil in a date for the Hari Raya family sitdown portrait. And it has been almost two months now since Eid. We missed last years session as well.
You blinked, the entire season passes by. Take a more prolonged shut-eye, a lifetime might just slip by. Consider yourself reminded!
A photo from May 2012 after our farewell lunch with the birding gang from across the border. We flew to Norway a couple of days after this photo was taken. (Courtesy of Shirley 2012)
A snapshot of the kids with the gang in Oslo, enroute to our weeklong May vacation in Tromso.
Our spring visit to the Rogaland Arboretum to check out the arrival of passerines for the season.
Aisya photo near Vistestrande near Randaberg after visiting Svarthola, a 10,000 year old early human cave dwelling.
Ali receiving his token trophy with his middle school soccer team during their match in Tananger.
Daddy triumphantly lifting two tripods, one is a carbon. This is after having missing gym and weightlifting regime for almost one year.
Little Stint at Naerlandstande, what a gem.
Skateboarding to Stavanger city center on a wet overcast day.
Text and images by Nazeri Abghani/Sep 2013.
Note from author - we did not obtain the necessary release to publish photos of Mommy. We deeply regretted the circumstances, rest assured she has not changed one bit.
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