<h3>Starry Starry Night</h3>

It was quite a night I had last night and phew! it was very hot under the glare of the spotlights!!

It started out with The Don and I finally finally making the time to break fast at his parents'. Ibu made (made from scratch not instant hor!) Roti Prata and cooked chicken curry while we brought back Mee Goreng, Mee Hoon Goreng & Otak Otak Udang. It was quite a spread!! After maghrib prayers, we went to Ba'alwie Mosque together with both his parents for Terawih prayers.

Ibu was visibly thrilled at finally getting the chance to show her future daughter-in-law off. While it was a novelty at the beginning, I didn't expect the spotlights to be turned up full throttle. Habib Hasan's Umi apparently has been very curious to see the Arab girl The Don was gonna marry so immediately after Witr prayers, Ibu brought me to her. My! Ain't she a lovely lady. She looks very beautiful, even in her old ripe of age of 80. I think she must be a real beauty in her sunny days.

Anyway when Ibu mentioned that I was The Don's fiance, she immediately touched my cheek after I salam-ed her. She asked "Sharifah?" - asking for confirmation that I was indeed from the same ethnic stock as she was. She asked for my name, family name and the ensuing conversation consisted of my outlining my heritage, both my mom's and dad's, and her singing praises of The Don. She reminds me a lot of my own late grandmother, always interested in genealogy and gets especially excited at seeing a fellow ethnically related person. It makes me wonder what went through her mind as she was talking to me. That I am lucky to have found such a nice man as The Don or that I am unlucky to have "fallen" into the hands of a man of generic race instead of preserving my ethnicity by marrying into the same racial group. Whatever!! I understand the implications of my decision but I know I am making the right choice. Funny why I still bother to wonder what people think. Can't help it I guess.

In any case, she looked mighty pleased to have finally met me. And me, her. It seems she has been asking The Don to bring me down to the mosque but I dun fancy going with him coz usually he will stay long till after the whole event is over to help out and leave me waiting alone in the car, sometimes for hours. That really makes my blood boil so I steer clear unless I have company, like last night.

Then as we made our way through the mosque on the way out Ibu stopped to chat with quite a few friends and I honestly felt like a prized chicken as she introduced me one after another as her daughter-in-law. And the people looked at me, smiled and went "Oh iye? Ni tunangnye THE DON ? Cantiiikk orangnye....." and 20 other variations of the same sentence. The thought of having to go through this over and over again right up to maybe after the first year of marriage is enough to make me shudder..It sure is hot being under the spotlight!!!