I started giving instructions to my sister cousin as early as a day before, for her to prepare the ingredients needed (which I wrote earlier) to cook the dishes, and asked her to prepare the meat and the chicken to the size I needed. Sometimes she did manage to amuse me, when unexpectedly she'd ran from the kitchen, carrying with her a small chunk of beef with question, 'Is this the size you need?' to which I found very funny. She always said that these sort of 'kitchen's helper' somehow giving her the training ground to practise her hand in cooking.
Perhaps some of you might think why I asked her to do the kitchen's stuff. Since this pregnancy, I somehow couldn't handle the smell of uncooked meats, or chickens, or fishes, prawns.. Let alone handling them. To be exact, somehow I despise the smell. I am not blaming the pregnancy (sorry baby). I am more than thankful, Thank God for this pregnancy. And to have a sister cousin helping, it is really truly a Bless.
Since I pre-occupied her with the ingredients preparation, I busied myself polishing the cutleries, the plates and glasses, the bowls, the jug, polishing the dining chair, cleaned the dry sticky biscuits off the chair legs, removing the chocolate stains from the wall, wiped the panel of door so it'll sparkling white, polished half of the marble floor so it'll felt smooth to feet, dust away the book racks, wiped the tele, and all those small details which may not became a big deal during the night. But then, I was expecting the guests to be quite a perfectionists and all small details might matter to them. I was letting the unbelievable inner obsessive perfectionist of me to come out, as I was hoping our family could make an impression to these guests, and good image does important in my husband's career. I never want to portray the sad image of incapable diplomat's wife, although there were moments that image was quite true.
And that was the day before my son second's birthday! I was so exhausted, and I just couldn't find any energy to bake him a cake. And in Europe, 6pm in 25th November is equal to 1am in 26th November as in Malaysia. Which means it was the date of my son birthday! When my husband came home later that night, I sheepishly suggested him.. let's eat somewhere, and buy Umair a nice cake, and celebrate it outside. And guess what, my husband agreed, and we have a nice Chinese dinner, and got Umair a nice chocolate pie, and bring along two candle sticks for him to blow.
I thought I could prepare a dessert to keep in fridge a day (or a night) before the expected dinner, but I was so full after the delicious dinner and I came out with lots of excuses to not preparing anything that night. After a good night kiss and birthday kisses for Umair, and after 'skype'ing with his grandparents at 12am (it was 7am in Malaysia), I sang him good night song, and I started to make a mental to-do-lists first thing when the morning comes.
I woke up at 5.00am. After the morning prayer, I get back to bed since my son needed me to keep him comfy. I ended up that morning smiling, when my son he hugged me on my neck, as if I was a big pillow for him. Aww.. and with him on my side, hugging me, came an unexpected surprise when my husband hugged me from the other side... Aww... when two people hugged you, feels like you owned the world..
That morning, my husband promised he'll be home earlier that evening, to help with the arranging and managing the preparation for the dinner. I started my morning by preparing a dessert, 'bubur pulut hitam' - sweet black glutinous rice porridge, and it took almost 2 hours to complete cooking. Then I proceed cooking 'daging rendang jawa' - javanese beef rendang, at the garage as I need to cook the dishes in a big stove in a big pot, so it'll cook quickly and evenly. That morning was so cold, I think it was around 2 or 3 degrees and I was imagining I was an Eskimo man cooking at the North Pole, warming himself with the fire.. It was so cold as I wore my winter clothes cooking at the garage, and the garage door was slightly ajar to let the cooking 'smoke' comes out. It took me about 2 hours to completely cooked the dishes. I couldn't let it cook by itself, slowly as it needed to be constantly stirred to prevent burning. I filled my time preparing some green vegetables to cook later in the afternoon.
When everything was done and packed, I asked my sister cousin to take back all the stuffs I brought to garage to kitchen, along with the pot of beef rendang. Then I started to prepare lunch for my husband. Then I get myself some rest, and my sister cousin helped with the 'ayam goreng berempah' dishes - spicy fried chicken. It took less than 1 hour. (thanks syiqin..)
After lunch, and after my husband returned to work, my sister cousin helped me with cleaning the washroom, while I busied myself preparing the ingredients needed for 'ikan kukus limau' - steamed fish with lime. And I pushed myself to bake a cake, Japanese Cotton Soft Cheesecake for my dearest Umair. I promised him the night before. While waiting for the cake to bake, I cooked Mixed Vegetable, and preparing the sauce for the fish. And the cake was done at 5pm. I cut a slice for Umair, and he was so liking it! Will do it again next time, and that time, will snap a pix as proof. Oh, talking about pix, I forgot to snap the pix of dishes I prepared that night, was so busy and couldn't find time to do pix.
My cousin sister help with the table setting, and my husband he bought some flowers to decorate the dining area and pressing some lime juice as drinks. After a while, I left my cousin sister and my husband to arrange the table and clean the kitchen area while I went upstairs refreshed myself and changed. Then I continued prepare 'nada mojito', a non-alcoholic mexican lime cocktail drinks. It's very easy to make, and since I was run out of time, I blended everything instead of crushed the ingredients.
By 7.30pm, everything was prepared and we were ready to accept our guests. And I was so exhausted I swear I could sleep at the very moment. And how my backaches really killing me, and was so stressed I remember the feeling I want to blow any time. But then there they came, and there was I, smiling as gracious as I can.
In the end, the dinner went well, and our guests left our home looked satisfied, and to my surprised, the lady guest said her son never took rice for dinner, but that night he ate 2 plates of rice. I was speechless (and of course my energy was totally drained). They loved the mojito drinks we've prepared, and I packed some beef rendang for the son as he liked it so much. I was overwhelmed when the lady guest compliment my dishes, and said that I am ready to invite special guest over for a home-cooked sit down dinner. I was so glad that all the efforts put for the night was really worthy.
And now here I am, am so thankful, grateful and really appreciate the help and the support from everyone near me, my husband with his help in decorating and arranging the dishes, my sister cousin with her help in preparing ingredients, house-cleaning, kitchen cleaning, and Umair with his attentive with his own toys and capable to play alone, understanding that everyone was busy busy busy... Alhamdulillah...
Who said being a diplomat's wife is easy? When it comes to entertain special guests, lots of effort needed to make sure that one is as graceful as the culture accept it. And I swear to myself, I will refine my skills in cooking, baking, house cleaning, flower arranging, table setting, small talks, dressing, speaking, all that essential in supporting my husband's career. And at the same time balance my role as a wife, and as a mother, and as a member of Ladies' Organisation Abroad. It's quite a challenge, and I know I need to improve my language skills especially my English, I needed that skills to adapt into the local culture of husband's work.
Again.. please excuse my grammar..
And, wish me luck!
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