Gawai di Welly

It is that time of the year yang mana the Dayaks celebrate Gawai Festival ...it is a festival to mark the end of harvesting (of rice) season ..a time to be jolly ..a time to celebrate ...hehehehe memang tiap2 tahun, it falls on 1st June ..tapi kat Sarawak selalu cuti 2 hari ....and kalau kes aku pulak ..selalu  nyer aku cuti between 7-10 days ....but not this year ..my Gawai does not feel like Gawai ..sebab feel tu takde hahaha

pokok2 dah nak togel ...coz autumn is passing by and winter is looming

kalau kat sarawak, paling lambat by 29th tu aku ngan my parents and the kids dah balik kampung ..usually my bro and SIL akan menyusul kemudian ..they always have less leave than me ...and before that dah beberapa trip balik kampung antar barang2 hahaha memang rutin tahunan tu ..this year kata my brother, dorang gi sekali ajer before that ...antar barang2 and antar tv ..tv lama kat rumah aku di hantar ke kampung coz yang kat kampung tu dah tak berapa elok ...and selalu nya aku akan join in the festivities from malam 30th lagi ...and selalu nya always ada aktiviti till 5-6 jun gitu ...how i miss those!!! semalam i was skyping ..FB-ing, chatting via Whatsapp and WeChat ...masa org2 kat kampung nak sambut detik 12 malam ....it is not the same ..coz NZ if 4 hours ahead ...and seems like Jane and Dom ganti tempat aku hahaha dom was a judge in a karoks competition semalam..selalu akak yea yang jadi judge ...and both of them join the joget sampai pagi kat sana ..selalu nyer yang join joget sampai pagi was me ..hahaha ...my parents memang akan dok rumah ajer ..stay with cucu-cucu ...how i miss those moments ...

so, not to feel melancholic ...and nak gak rasa gawai, I did some baking today ..kan gawai nie, macam raya jugak, people akan always makan ...makan ...and makan ..selain beramah mesra ..jumpa sedara mara semua ...i had stop baking lama jugak ...last baking was maybe 2 months ago ...i baked banana cake then ...then sebab busy, terus tak baking lagi till today ..tu pun buat last minute ...but it was a success ...

 ingat nak tabur with icing sugar on top ..tengok2 icing sugar pun dah abes hahaha ...

pas kek masak tadi, aku cecepat gi siap....coz janji jumpa kak shidah di town ...plan nak dinner out ...konon bergawai le tu ...hehehehe so, i had a brisk walk to town dalam cuaca sejuk tu ...waited for her at Lambton Quay area ...and the we went straight to Courtney Place ..plan nak dinner kat Chow ..but it was full ..and we did not make any reservation ...daripada waiting for 1.5 hour for a table, we decided to gi tempat lain ...look see look see ..and end up at Public ...a nice place ...quite laid back ..service was ok ...suasana pu ok ...not crowded ...not noisy ...aku suka tempat nie ...akan masuk dalam senarai tempat yang aku akan gi lagi!

NZ mussels ...sauce nyer sangat yumm ...tomatoey ...and nice ..the salad ok lah ..and there were breads as well to mope up the sauce ....

and we also ordered garlic prawns ...yummy jugak ..sadly no photo hehehe the place is like nice and the patrons macam tak ambik gambar punya jenis ...and gelap plak tu ...kalau guna lash memang nampak sangat ...so i did not take photo of the prawns ...

and yang aku sempat snap is our chunky chips hehehehe ..nice, hot and filling chunky chips..sebab tak pakai flash, nampak kabur ajer ...anyway, all of these are sharing portions ...filling sebenarnya ..we ended up sembang ..and sembang ..and sembang ...lama gak lah di situ ..yang best, the staff tak halau pun kiter kuar walapun pun meja dah diclearkan  ..love it ...love the food ...and price is affordable lah ...will definitely come again ...next time nak try the salmon pulak :-)

pas abis makan2, and terserempak with a few people I know - see, I told you, Wellington is so small that you bumped into people you know all the time! - we went back ..tapi detour to Newtown, coz anak Kak Shidah was there with his friend ...then pas ambik dia, we all went back to my flat ...aku jamu kek and teh ajer ...hehehee our dessert for the night ...kira macam gawai jugak le kan ...at least I am not alone ..and i was celebrating with fellow Sarawakian, who knows what Gawai means ...

so, that's my gawai story this year ...my first gawai in Welly ...and my first wintery gawai ...as today is 1st June, it is officially winter in NZ ....nanti lah aku update on how the winter is treating me ...hehehe with its cold blast from the Antartic ...