Ramadhan 2013: Buffet at Horizon Hill, The Sombre Mood & The Magic Behind Raya.
This year's Ramadhan is almost over. I had the wrong expectation with the fasting month this year. In the beginning I thought that with the fasting, my mind would be clearer. Maybe I will got some time to do some extra readings or writings.
The truth would be so far from the truth. It seems that I still can't accustomed myself with fasting during working hours at the factory even though I have been working for almost 9 years. As lame as it sound, I feel that the lack of sugar does effect my brain.
For the most of the time I can't think straight, I even forgot stuff. What is worse it does effect my mood for the whole month. Since I need some good mood as fuel to write, I got zilch. So for one whole month there are no postings in my blog.
But there's a lot happened this month.
One of the good stuff was the buffet at the Horizon Hill Golf Resort. For the previous Ramadhan, there will be one day for the whole month that we went for a buffet meal for the buka puasa. For the last two years, we had buka puasa at the Tanjong Puteri Golf Resort. Not because it was cheap, but simply because the place was close to our home. For this year we want to do differently. We chose Horizon Hill at Bukit Indah.
The main reason why I chose differently this year because last year I had some experience at the cafe when one of our supplier had organized a sales conference plus buka puasa at that place. The variety of food was great plus there was a special offer last year. Book early - 2 days before & you will get a discount. That really turn my head.
Unfortunately that offer is unavailable this year. Being disappointed is an understatement. Nevertheless, since Lia & I want to try some new place for the buka puasa, we went ahead with the plan.
The date that I chose was during the second week of the fasting month. Incidentally, Lia's birthday falls during the fasting month, so I took the opportunity to celebrate her birthday with the buffet meal. But since the 17th July was fully booked, I booked the next day for our buka puasa.
On that day, Lia picked me up from work & we went to Bukit Indah straight to the golf resort. It will take us about 50 minutes to Bukit Indah & I don't to take any chances with the traffic. The worst thing that could happen during fasting is to buka puasa in a car.
We arrived early thanks to the clear traffic. There were already some patrons that arrived beside us.
There was still 45 minutes before buka puasa. I looked around the food that have been served. There was a lot of variety much to my delight plus most of them were to my taste. There were satay, some fritters, some kuih, laksa, & for Lia the kambing.
And after that I came to regret my decision to come early to the place because it was the longest 45 minutes in my life waiting for the azan for buka puasa with all the foods in front of my eyes.
15 minutes goes by.....& I start acting like a 3 years old.....
30 minutes goes by.....& Haziq start acting like a 3 years old.....
45 minutes goes by....& the both of us start acting like a 3 years old.....
Finally!!! It was 7:19pm the azan berkumandang & time for us to raid the food counters.
I started by moving foods from the counters to our table. Since Lia & myself goes our separate ways to get the foods, our table got packed quite fast. Even Haziq got excited with the foods. According to him with his understandable baby talk," Haziq puasa." Uhh, really?!
To be honest I was quite gluttonous during the buka puasa. That was not the usual me during buka puasa. Usually I was quite calm. But not this time. Satay-pisang goreng-drink-kuih-laksa-drink-keropok lekor-kuih-drink. My appetite really took control of me this time.
Lastly, I close my buka puasa with a cup of vanilla ice cream. Mmmmmm.....
In my opinion, the foods served at the Horizon Hill was really great. It was bad that the management didn't do much publicity for their buffet package, because the tables were not even full that day. Even their website didn't mentioned anything about the buffet. I got here just because I had the experienced last year. I hope the management will realized this & put more promotions to attract more Johoreans to come at the cafe.
Then about the sombre mood whole out the month.
Controlling one's mood during fasting is really challenging. It seems that for the whole month I was losing my motivation for work or just squabbling with colleagues over work. Sometimes I even frustrated with myself when the brain just stop ticking. Working in R&D really need a lot of creativity, but when a simple task left your brain stumped - you're just wondering what the h**l you're doing at work.
I also noticed that the evening Bazar Ramadhan in Pasir Gudang was not as 'happening' as last year. Whether is was because of the financial issues or the weather, it seems there were less people that went to the bazars. Even for the 1st day we're fasting (Johor was public holiday), some gerai was not opened. That was weird because the 1st day is the day that Muslims would like to splurge during the buka puasa. Not that really concerns me. Comparing to last year, this year we didn't eat out a lot. Most of the time Lia cooked the meals for buka puasa.
And then about the Tarawih after Isyak. After eating buka puasa , it will always be a challenge to go to the mosque to pray. But I found that during Tarawih, we're actually exercising ourselves during the whole month. The mosque that I frequented even brought in some Tahfiz students to be the imam for the month. Even though sometimes the surah that they read were so long (one time I almost had a cramp), but that was still tolerable.
What I found annoying was the tazkirah that one of the committee member of the mosque like to give before we pray for Isyak & Tarawih. I have nothing against tazkirahs, but if the tazkirah already eaten out 15 minutes & we're still not praying Isyak - that is something wrong with the arrangement. Most of the people is Pasir Gudang work in factories. We're being exposed to heat, labor work & we're tired after fasting one whole day. The last thing that I want to hear is someone who clearly need some coaching with public speaking rambling how the people in Pakistan and India practice Islam better than us.
Uhh, really? If that is the case, the Muslims in Pakistan and India sure have a better level of living since they adhere to the 'true' teaching of Islam than us? Then why there there's a lot of pendatang from both countries coming to Malaysia? He need to check his facts before elevate himself to be some wise man to give some tazkirah. Dem!
With all the sombre mood, it came to my surprise during the 20th July when Lia decided to throw a buka puasa for her family members & friends. I just go along with her plans. Actually, she didn't even go through the whole plan with me. She just told me that she want to invite her parents to our home for buka puasa. It took me by surprise that the list of people grew to 11 people that will eat that evening.
Even Rosman shocked when I told him the number of people that already at our home when I picked him up at his house that evening. The list goes like this:
1) Me
2) Lia
3) Haziq
4) Lia's mother
5) Lia's father
6) Lia's sister, Darlina
7) Lia's sister's husband, Khairul
8) Lia's sister's husband's sister, Nornikmah
9) Lia's friend's sister, Dekda
10) Lia's friend's sister's housemate
11) Rosman - my brother
Our apartment home is not too big so it does posed some issues. But Lia's really handling it perfectly. She cooked some foods. Her mother brought some foods. I also bought some foods at the bazar Ramadhan. Everyone got a good time.
Salute to Lia!!!
With Raya around the corner, the mood really brightens up. Actually, I take my leave early this year. While most my colleague will take their leave next week starting Wednesday, I already on leave today. I'll be driving back to Perak on Tuesday with a stop at KL on Monday. So you can understand when I told you that I'm all giddy up & can't focus on my job all this week.
Even my technicians in a good mood. The senior technician who always argues with me regarding job related, completed his part stock checking that I only expected to receive after the Raya holiday. Impressive!!!
It's all because of the magic behind Raya. The experience to go back to kampung halaman to meet up with families, friends, & folks. With the classic balik Raya songs from P Ramlee, Sudirman, & others - nothing can beat this feeling.
And that maybe why I can finished this whole postings even with low sugar in my brain, no?
The truth would be so far from the truth. It seems that I still can't accustomed myself with fasting during working hours at the factory even though I have been working for almost 9 years. As lame as it sound, I feel that the lack of sugar does effect my brain.
For the most of the time I can't think straight, I even forgot stuff. What is worse it does effect my mood for the whole month. Since I need some good mood as fuel to write, I got zilch. So for one whole month there are no postings in my blog.
But there's a lot happened this month.
Buffet at Horizon Hill Golf Resort
One of the good stuff was the buffet at the Horizon Hill Golf Resort. For the previous Ramadhan, there will be one day for the whole month that we went for a buffet meal for the buka puasa. For the last two years, we had buka puasa at the Tanjong Puteri Golf Resort. Not because it was cheap, but simply because the place was close to our home. For this year we want to do differently. We chose Horizon Hill at Bukit Indah.
The main reason why I chose differently this year because last year I had some experience at the cafe when one of our supplier had organized a sales conference plus buka puasa at that place. The variety of food was great plus there was a special offer last year. Book early - 2 days before & you will get a discount. That really turn my head.
Unfortunately that offer is unavailable this year. Being disappointed is an understatement. Nevertheless, since Lia & I want to try some new place for the buka puasa, we went ahead with the plan.
The date that I chose was during the second week of the fasting month. Incidentally, Lia's birthday falls during the fasting month, so I took the opportunity to celebrate her birthday with the buffet meal. But since the 17th July was fully booked, I booked the next day for our buka puasa.
On that day, Lia picked me up from work & we went to Bukit Indah straight to the golf resort. It will take us about 50 minutes to Bukit Indah & I don't to take any chances with the traffic. The worst thing that could happen during fasting is to buka puasa in a car.
We arrived early thanks to the clear traffic. There were already some patrons that arrived beside us.
There was still 45 minutes before buka puasa. I looked around the food that have been served. There was a lot of variety much to my delight plus most of them were to my taste. There were satay, some fritters, some kuih, laksa, & for Lia the kambing.
 |
| The food counters |
 |
| The chef preparing the foods |
 |
| Some ikan bakar |
 |
| The golf course beside the cafe |
And after that I came to regret my decision to come early to the place because it was the longest 45 minutes in my life waiting for the azan for buka puasa with all the foods in front of my eyes.
15 minutes goes by.....& I start acting like a 3 years old.....
 |
| We want the food |
30 minutes goes by.....& Haziq start acting like a 3 years old.....
 |
| We want the food |
45 minutes goes by....& the both of us start acting like a 3 years old.....
 |
| We want the food |
Finally!!! It was 7:19pm the azan berkumandang & time for us to raid the food counters.
I started by moving foods from the counters to our table. Since Lia & myself goes our separate ways to get the foods, our table got packed quite fast. Even Haziq got excited with the foods. According to him with his understandable baby talk," Haziq puasa." Uhh, really?!
 |
| Haziq eat like he's fasting |
To be honest I was quite gluttonous during the buka puasa. That was not the usual me during buka puasa. Usually I was quite calm. But not this time. Satay-pisang goreng-drink-kuih-laksa-drink-keropok lekor-kuih-drink. My appetite really took control of me this time.
Lastly, I close my buka puasa with a cup of vanilla ice cream. Mmmmmm.....
In my opinion, the foods served at the Horizon Hill was really great. It was bad that the management didn't do much publicity for their buffet package, because the tables were not even full that day. Even their website didn't mentioned anything about the buffet. I got here just because I had the experienced last year. I hope the management will realized this & put more promotions to attract more Johoreans to come at the cafe.
(Just one week after we went to the place, there was a Groupon promotions for the buffet at Horizon Hill for buka puasa. With 30% discount, it seems the management want to attract customers to make full the tables at the end of the Ramadhan period. It seems to be effective - more than 1000 people bought the coupon.)
 |
| The cafe at night - beautiful. |
Then about the sombre mood whole out the month.
The Sombre Mood
Controlling one's mood during fasting is really challenging. It seems that for the whole month I was losing my motivation for work or just squabbling with colleagues over work. Sometimes I even frustrated with myself when the brain just stop ticking. Working in R&D really need a lot of creativity, but when a simple task left your brain stumped - you're just wondering what the h**l you're doing at work.
I also noticed that the evening Bazar Ramadhan in Pasir Gudang was not as 'happening' as last year. Whether is was because of the financial issues or the weather, it seems there were less people that went to the bazars. Even for the 1st day we're fasting (Johor was public holiday), some gerai was not opened. That was weird because the 1st day is the day that Muslims would like to splurge during the buka puasa. Not that really concerns me. Comparing to last year, this year we didn't eat out a lot. Most of the time Lia cooked the meals for buka puasa.
 |
| The thing that I want to avoid during Ramadhan. |
And then about the Tarawih after Isyak. After eating buka puasa , it will always be a challenge to go to the mosque to pray. But I found that during Tarawih, we're actually exercising ourselves during the whole month. The mosque that I frequented even brought in some Tahfiz students to be the imam for the month. Even though sometimes the surah that they read were so long (one time I almost had a cramp), but that was still tolerable.
What I found annoying was the tazkirah that one of the committee member of the mosque like to give before we pray for Isyak & Tarawih. I have nothing against tazkirahs, but if the tazkirah already eaten out 15 minutes & we're still not praying Isyak - that is something wrong with the arrangement. Most of the people is Pasir Gudang work in factories. We're being exposed to heat, labor work & we're tired after fasting one whole day. The last thing that I want to hear is someone who clearly need some coaching with public speaking rambling how the people in Pakistan and India practice Islam better than us.
Uhh, really? If that is the case, the Muslims in Pakistan and India sure have a better level of living since they adhere to the 'true' teaching of Islam than us? Then why there there's a lot of pendatang from both countries coming to Malaysia? He need to check his facts before elevate himself to be some wise man to give some tazkirah. Dem!
With all the sombre mood, it came to my surprise during the 20th July when Lia decided to throw a buka puasa for her family members & friends. I just go along with her plans. Actually, she didn't even go through the whole plan with me. She just told me that she want to invite her parents to our home for buka puasa. It took me by surprise that the list of people grew to 11 people that will eat that evening.
Even Rosman shocked when I told him the number of people that already at our home when I picked him up at his house that evening. The list goes like this:
1) Me
2) Lia
3) Haziq
4) Lia's mother
5) Lia's father
6) Lia's sister, Darlina
7) Lia's sister's husband, Khairul
8) Lia's sister's husband's sister, Nornikmah
9) Lia's friend's sister, Dekda
10) Lia's friend's sister's housemate
11) Rosman - my brother
Our apartment home is not too big so it does posed some issues. But Lia's really handling it perfectly. She cooked some foods. Her mother brought some foods. I also bought some foods at the bazar Ramadhan. Everyone got a good time.
Salute to Lia!!!
The Magic Behind Raya
With Raya around the corner, the mood really brightens up. Actually, I take my leave early this year. While most my colleague will take their leave next week starting Wednesday, I already on leave today. I'll be driving back to Perak on Tuesday with a stop at KL on Monday. So you can understand when I told you that I'm all giddy up & can't focus on my job all this week.
Even my technicians in a good mood. The senior technician who always argues with me regarding job related, completed his part stock checking that I only expected to receive after the Raya holiday. Impressive!!!
 |
| Bila kerja siap, cuti Raya pun hati senang. |
It's all because of the magic behind Raya. The experience to go back to kampung halaman to meet up with families, friends, & folks. With the classic balik Raya songs from P Ramlee, Sudirman, & others - nothing can beat this feeling.
And that maybe why I can finished this whole postings even with low sugar in my brain, no?
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