Ramadan in New York

I had stomach flu on the first two days of Ramadan and rested at home. But I dragged myself out of my basement den to go to the Ramadan Bazaar at the Malaysian Mission near the UN.

All the delicious food (laksa, nasi lemak, bubur kacang, rojak, teh tarik etc) and Malay music reminded me of home. Amali, Teresa & of course Sharon who worked at the Mission were there. Poor Gwen was sick and chose to rest at home instead. We shared the table with talented Ummi (http://www.ummi.tv/) from Bangsar (*joke) whose Parson School of Design's classmate Ruth is from Pasir Ris, Singapore! What a small world! Amali told me that he had met Ummi earlier at an anti-fur demonstration!

We chatted and ate (psst, Amali, your bubur kacang tasted better!) and reminisced about Ramadan celebration back home. As we were leaving, Amali whispered to me: "Hey, we have to throw all the dirty paper plates. We can't expect the Malaysians to clean up after us." We burst out laughing. Ahh, the Singapore-Malaysia love-hate political relationship. But, in actual fact, there is nothing but good friendship among fellow Malaysians & Singaporeans :)

Ramadan Mubarak to everyone. Yes, to Firdaus & Faiz in Moscow too. I'm sorry I didn't send my kek lapis prune over for you to taste, lain kali kot... Faiz, I make doa that you will get to see the "star of piercing brightness" in space next month, amin!