Negaraku.net, Random Alphabet, gatherings and fun weekend

This weekend, it will be a long holiday in Malaysia as 31st August which falls on Monday, is Malaysia's Independence Day. It is also in the middle of Ramadhan, a time when Muslims fast and abstain themselves from food during the day, among other things. It has been decided by the government, other than the timing, the celebration will also be subdued due to the H1N1 pandemic. So, the celebration will be among those working within the government and private functions. And I was expecting a quieter weekend with lesser traffic jams and lesser people going around trying to show their patriotism which sometime include being a public nuisance.

Alas, that was not meant to be. As this is just one of the two long weekends that we are going to experience, and coincide for a celebratory event, people are making the most out of it. The other long weekend is localised to certain states in Malaysia and will not be for a celebratory reason. I have been getting a lot of invites for celebration this weekend and even before the weekend starts. I think even tonight (Thursday night) there is a celebration of sort at one of the club. As I didn't replied for the invitation, I will be going home early for iftar (breaking of fast) and will try to sleep early.

Those other events that I was invited to. I have confirmed my attendance for a few of them which include :

1) A late night drinking session at a local stall with my ex-schoolmates. More of a "teh tarik" session that beer drinking session.  I gave my "Maybe Attending" answer through Facebook as I am not sure whether my wife has a plan for herself that night or not. I always want to make sure she has something to keep her occupied if I have some shooting the breeze session with the boys. Anyway, any SMAPians who reads this, the session will be tomorrow (28th August) in NZ Wangsa Maju after 10pm until late;

2) A breaking of fast session with a group of bloggers from the Negaraku.net (a Malaysian blog aggregator in Bahasa Malaysia), which will be held at a restaurant famous for its roasted chicken in Pantai Dalam, Kuala Lumpur. I have never met any of them except for one blogger and his girlfriend. I use their site everyday to aggregate my post and I actually invited myself for this one. As they did wrote this one is an open invitation (and did not send a DO NOT COME email), I invited myself for me to the event to expand my blogger friends circle. You can read about that event at Noktahhitam.com;

3) On 29th August too, I was invited by Julian Hopkins for his birthday party. Julian is a blogger who is currently doing his PhD at a local university and I have met him at a few bloggers gathering. As he turns 40, he is throwing a big bash. Again, this is an open invite (though I got an email from him) and he asked me to bring along anyone who want to come for his birthday party in Petaling Jaya. So, anyone who wants to come for this event, can leave me a comment here. It will be between 8pm till late but I will only be there after event (2) has finished;

4) On 30th August, during iftar I will be bringing my in-laws to break fast somewhere around the Klang Valley. It would either be that or we will entertain them at our house. Either way, that day will be spent with them;

5) On the 31st of August, there will be two events held by the same organiser, Random Alphabet, in which I might only go to one. One is their Merdeka Train Party, an effort to do an impromptu independence day celebration on a train around Kuala Lumpur which open invitation you can find at this link - RA's Merdeka Train Party. It will be done flash mob style as all other events that Random Alphabet had organised before. At 6.30pm, Random Alphabet will also organise an event to launch their new "I love KL" t-shirts. As this one is a closed event, you can read about how to get the t-shirts at Random Alphabet's website, which link is here.

So, my supposedly quiet long weekend will be not so quiet and will be filled with activities ranging from a family affair to nostalgic event to blogger events and even an impromptu one. Just hope I can attend them all and has the stamina for it.