Good People

A few weeks back I was in KL to take care of personal business. I didn't know where to stay and didn't know how to get to that place. I contacted Husni, a very good friend of our family and he managed to contact a lady to help me. As soon as Husni dropped me at a bus stop, that lady gave me a ride to her friend's apartment. Since the place was sparsely populated she sent another person by the name of Herna to accompany me that night. I was thinking how lucky I was to be able to meet with such wonderful ladies who were willing to bend over backward to help a total stranger from Kuantan. I am glad good people still exist.

Muffin Tarts?

Making the pastry

Making the "pau"Pita bread halves

Tart shells

Stuffed Pita Bread

Steamed "pau"

Muffin tarts

Garlic bread

Almond Oat Bread loaves

Participants were enjoying garlic bread slices

Products we took home. Yummy...

Last week I received an sms from Izad informing me about the cooking lesson for last weekend. I have joined the lessons at his "cooking academy" twice : how to bake/decorate cup cakes and how to cook spaghetti bolognaise. As usual the fee was just RM35 for 4 recipes (except for cup cake decoration, the fee was RM75). This time around the recipes were "pau pandan", muffin tart, pita bread, and almond oat bread. I have heard of tarts, and I have also heard of muffins, but muffin tart? I was curious so I contacted Izad and told him I wanted to participate. Each participant was able to take home 3 "paus", 3 muffin tarts, 4 or 5 small slices of almond oat bread, and 2 halves of pita bread stuffed with a wonderful filling made of chicken nuggets, tomatoes, latus, chilli sauce, and mayonaise. For those who are interested in joining the future lessons please contact Izad at 013 938 8797. Above are pictures of the participants and our cooking products from yesterday.

Keinsafan

Saya baru sahaja habis membaca buku berjudul Travelog Dakwah yang ditulis oleh Prof. Mohd Kamil Ibrahim, Pengarah UiTM Johor di Segamat. Saya beli buku tersebut semasa berbengkel ISO di Kuala Lumpur pada minggu lepas. Itu pun secara kebetulan. Sepatutnya kami telah beredar ke Kuantan sebaik sahaja bengkel tersebut selesai pada jam 1 tgh di Hotel Seri Cempaka Cheras. Disebabkan kami terpaksa menunggu seorang rakan sekerja yang menghadiri mesyuarat hingga pukul 5 petang, kawan-kawan pun menyarankan kami jalan-jalan cari makan di Tesco. Dalam kesempatan tersebut saya menjengah di kedai buku Popular dan "terjumpa" serta "terbeli" 2 buah buku :) Salah satunya adalah buku Travelog Dakwah.

Isi kandungan buku tersebut memang sungguh terkesan di hati kerana saya pun lebih kurang sama dengan penulis dari segi kejahilan ilmu akhirat. Ilmu duniawi, no problem. Maklumlah, belajar sampai ke menara gading, di negara omputih pulak tu. Sekiranya buku tersebut ditulis oleh seorang ustaz untuk mengajak ke arah kebaikan, saya kira ajakan tersebut tidak begitu memberi kesan yang mendalam bagi diri saya kerana kita sedia maklum seorang ustaz memang baik dan tugasnya mengajak kepada kebaikan. Tetapi apabila seseorang yang jahil, dan menemui "jalan pulang", ajakannya lebih mengujakan saya.

Bila saya amat-amati segala yang diamalkan oleh beliau setelah diberi peluang untuk menjadi seorang "born again Muslim" memang tidak terikut oleh saya yang daif ini. Terjaga malam memang kerap, boleh dikatakan saban malam, tetapi hanya sekadar untuk melawat bilik air. Setelah selesai hajat, maka tidur semula adalah lebih menyeronokkan dari beribadah. Tetapi, seperti Muslim yang lain saya juga bercita-cita tinggi menggunung untuk masuk syurga tingkat teratas! Memang tidak logik. Walau bagaimanapun, Allah maha berkuasa.

2012

Danial said there was nothing to do at school after the PMR exam was over so he wanted to do something different with his buddies. They planned to watch the new movie "2012" on the first day it was released in Kuantan (I forgot what date it was!). The show started at 12 noon and ended around 3pm. I wish the movie started at 11am so it would end an hour earlier. At first I was quite reluctant to let him go because it hurt my eyes whenever I see a bunch of teenagers walking aimlessly at the mall. On a second thought, I should let him go out with his friends once in a while. So far he has been a responsible teenage son. Knowing how rebellious a teenager can be, I better not be too strict with him. In the evening, when I asked him how the movie was he said "ok, but a lot of bad words".

This morning Danial just left for Hulu Langat to participate in a school holiday camp which was organized by JIM for 3 days. The trip was almost cancelled because the organizer couldn't find any adult to accompany the participants. I am glad they found a UMP student who is on a semester break to be the chaperon. Our whole family got up at 4.30am so we could send Danial to the chaperon's house by 5.00am. We thought we were late but when we arrived, 2 more participants had not arrived yet. I hope they have a safe trip there and back (this Wednesday).

Trip to Petrosains

Yasmin and Harris went on a trip to "Petrosains" in KL on Saturday 7 November. That was the weekend after they finished their final exams. I wonder why Danial didn't go. Anyway, they left the school around 6:15am so our whole family had to get at 5am to get ready and send them to school. I realized that most of our time is used to ferry our kids around or to care for all their needs. It makes me understand more of what my parents have gone through. Understanding comes with appreciation...

Harris and friends

Lining up to get on the bus

Parents sending off their loved ones

Yaumul Ihtifal

Our family was really busy last weekend because we had 2 "yaumul ihtifal" ceremonies (award giving ceremony) - one was for Najla's kindergarden and the other was for Harris' and Hannah's school. Najla's was on Saturday morning (21 Nov 09) and Harris' and Hannah's was on Sunday morning. It was raining hard on both days and we were soaking wet when we arrived at both places. Najla participated in 2 performances. She was dressed like a tree in the first one, and singing a "nasyid" song with a group in the second performance.Since she is not 6 years old yet, she will continue studying at the same kindergarden next year. I know she is very disappointed because she really wants to go to her brothers' and sisters' school as a first grader (standard one). We had trouble persuading her not to enrol because the school gives priority to those who are 7 years old.

On Sunday, Hannah received an award for one of the most promising students (whatever that means) and Harris got an award for getting the 3rd place in his class. Harris performed in a sketch and sang a "nasyid" song with his friends. Alhamdulillah, he will be promoted to the "best" class next year. I hope he will do well and get all A's in his UPSR. Hannah on the other hand, will go to "second" class. Well, it doesn't make that much difference because Hannah did well in most of her subjects by getting high A's. But, so many other students did better than her. Since the ceremony was for the elementary school children, Yasmin and Danial decided not to go. They both stayed home and did what they do best - playing with the computer!

Brave

Najla is definitely the bravest of all my kids when it comes to seeing dentists. End of last month, when Steve was attending a conference in Manila, I took Najla to Dr Nazri's clinic. She had been complaining that her bottom front tooth was aching. It was close to Maghrib but the doctor who was supposed to replace Dr Nazri was nowhere to be seen. I asked Najla to go home and come back on a later date. She refused so we waited for another 20 minutes when the doctor finally showed up. As soon as her name was called, she walked into the room and sat on the chair calmly. She didn't make any fuss at all when the doctor injected her gum and then pulled her tooth! Later the doctor suggested that she pull the one next to it also because it was beginning to loosen and Najla said ok. Wow! What a brave girl! I still remember when Danial was about that age, he screamed, wiggled, kicked, and made all kind of other fuss that taking him out of the doctor's office was the best option. Maybe Najla would like to be a dentist someday...

Rezeki

Wow! Besarnya kuih bahulu. Mesti sedap! Tak sabar nak kongsi dengan anak-anak balik nanti.


Kalau dah rezeki pasti tak kemana. Itulah ungkapan yang terfikir dikepala sewaktu kawan saya datang ke pejabat tengahari tadi membawa buah tangan dari majlis perkahwinan adiknya pada hari Sabtu lepas. Saya sekeluarga telah dijemput untuk sama-sama hadir ke majlis perkahwinan yang berlangsung di Temerloh tu. Memang pada asalnya kami teruja sangat nak pergi sebab ini dah kali kedua dijemput untuk ke Temerloh. Kali pertama semasa perkahwinan beliau sendiri tapi masa tu kami sekeluarga di USA kalau tak silap, tak ada rezeki untuk hadir. Jadi bila dapat undangan yang kedua ni memang bersemangat nak pergi. Malangnya manusia hanya boleh merancang tapi Allah jua yang menentukan.

Kebetulan minggu lepas (10 Oktober) jiran paling hampir saya melangsungkan perkahwinan anak bongsu beliau dan emak saya pun kenal dengan jiran ni. Jadi saya pelawa emak untuk datang ke rumah supaya boleh sama-sama meraikan kenduri kawin yang terakhir, sebab lepas ni dah tak ada anak beliau yang nak kawin dah. Emak pun setuju dan terus beli tiket bas untuk ke Kuantan. Tambahan pula jiran saya tu (yang lelakinya) sedang mengidap barah paru-paru di peringkat yang agak kritikal. Jadi tujuan emak datang selain dari dari nak tengok anaknya kahwin ialah nak ziarah dia sekali. Manalah tahu kalau-kalau kesempatan ini merupakan perjumpaan mereka yang terakhir. Tetapi malangnya, sehari sebelum emak datang, dia mendapat sakit sendi kaki dan lutut. Tetapi dikuatkannya juga azam dan akhirnya sampai juga ke Kuantan.

Selepas menghadiri kenduri tersebut, sakit sendi-sendi emak semakin teruk. Kami bercadang untuk memasukkannya ke wad tapi emak agak keberatan sebab takut kalau doktor tak benarkan dia keluar pada hujung minggunya. Dia nekad untuk balik kampung pada hari Sabtu 17 Oktober lalu. Maka rancangan kami untuk ke Temerloh terpaksa dibatalkan. Insya Allah jika ada lagi jemputan lain kali, mungkin kami dapat juga pergi.

Halal atau Haram?

Wahai sekelian pembaca dan pelawat blog yang budiman. Saya amat-amat memerlukan jawapan samada mengiklankan GoogleAdsense haram ke halal pendapatan yang kita perolehi tu? Saya telah cuba mengemukakan soalan kepada yang pakar dalam soal muamalat iaitu Ustaz Zaharuddin A. Rahman atau ringkasnya UZAR. Tapi jawapan yang saya perolehi setakat ini kurang memuaskan, malah mengecewakan. Sebagai seorang Islam yang cuba untuk menjadi mukmin yang sejati, saya tak mahulah dapat duit banyak dan kaya raya di dunia ini tetapi menjadi papa kedana dan muflis di akhirat yang kekal abadi. Saya lebih rela hidup "miskin" selama 80 tahun daripada terbakar selama-lamanya diakhirat (nauzubillah). Kalau ada sesiapa yang pakar tu tolonglah jawab atau beri cadangan kepada siapa saya boleh ajukan persoalan saya ni.

Inter-racial Marriage

On Monday I got a pleasant visit by an old time friend Nisa. She told me she just got married and is currently 3-month pregnant. Of course the first question was "where's your husband from?" She said "I am in a similar situation with you because I married a foreigner".

So, that was the reason for her visit, to get "an expert" opinion and advice. Hahaha. Well, marrying a foreigner is not as simple as it looks, especially in Malaysia where laws and rules are male-biased. When we were first married, we received all kind of "advice" from those who have no experience whatsoever with inter-racial marriage! Not to mention the sarcastic remarks from those with authority. I was thinking "if one of these days your daughter meets and marry a foreigner, you will find out how I feel". Some of them said, "why can't you marry a Malay man?" or "a wife should be where the husband is". That's right! My husband wants to be in Malaysia, so I must stay in this country and just give me the necessary papers!

Alhamdulillah, after 13 years of waiting (patiently) and after 5 kids , 4 applications, 4 rejections and 4 appeals later, we finally received the long awaited PR card. So my advice to my friend Nisa, and whoever wants to do what I did, be PATIENT. One more thing, if you want your kids to have Malaysian citizenship, never ever deliver them outside of the country. Once you do that your kids will automatically follow their father's citizenship. But if you are a Malaysian male, the situation is totally different.

Morning Joke

It was 6:07 am. I was still in bed and I overheard a conversation between Najla and her Abah (Father). It goes something like this:

Abah: Najla... It's time to get up. Wake up Najla.
Najla: Grrrr
Abah: Najla wake up.
Najla: I don't want to go to school today.
Abah: Wake up. You have art class in the afternoon.
Najla: Get me at 1.00 o'clock (from her kinder garden)
Abah: Oooo, I'll get you at 3:00.
(Najla got up, being carried by Abah and stood at the door of the toilet and she said:)
Najla: You mean go to fart class? hehehe

Then they both laughed. And guess what? Najla really farted after that! Hahaha, what a conversation to be held in early morning. I smiled and decided it was a good time for me to get up as well.

Never End

I have been reading this book on and off since I bought it on 24 March 2006! For whatever reason, I am still not even half of it yet. In between, I have finished reading so many others. The book is interesting but I tend to pick it up at my worst reading mood such as last night when my eyelids were so heavy. After 3 or 4 pages, I was out. But I will not give it up until it is completely read from cover to cover, regardless of how long it will take.

Parenting

This book had just arrived at my office today. I ordered it last week from a fellow blogger named Zaid Mohamad. He's a senior manager in a multinational company and yet he's able to write a book on parenting! Ooooh, how I wish I could do that! I am not sure how I stumbled upon his blog but I am glad I did. I remember now! I read an article about him in the New Straits Times a few weeks back. At the end of the article there was his web site address so I started surfing and reading his blog entries. When I went to MPH I saw this book. I thought of buying it but I changed my mind. Then when I got back to Kuantan I contacted the author and was told that if I ordered directly from him, I could have the book autographed by him, so I did. I hope to get a few more tips on how to raise my five wonderful jewels.

PMR 2009

Today, on the 2nd day of PMR exam, Danial will be taking 2 more subjects which are Science and English. Yesterday he took the Islamic knowledge and Bahasa Melayu papers. I got a permission to be at his school for 2 hours yesterday in order to give him moral support before the exam started. I believe the exam will end on Tuesday next week. However, as a student from a religious school, he will have to sit for 9 more papers either at the end of this month or sometimes next month. For him, to be the best in PMR is not to get 9 As but 18 As! I hope and pray that he will succeed so he will be admitted to the school of his choice for form 4 next year, insya Allah.

One of the many banners at the entrance of Danial's school

One of the signposts outside of the exam room

Students were lining up to be screened for H1N1

It was Danial's turn to take his body temperature

Some of the candidates for PMR

The exam rooms

Craving

When we are fasting, we often crave for something even ordinary food like Maggi noodles. This happened to me yesterday when I was at a grocery store near my house. Originally I stopped at Miza Maju store to get my newspaper but unintentionally I saw rows of Maggi packets.
All of a sudden I craved for it. However, I didn’t want to cook with the condiment that came with it so I had to quickly improvise the recipe in my head. I went to the next grocery store to buy chicken, tempe, tofu, and fish balls. As soon as I got home, I boiled 5 eggs and started to prepare all the ingredients for my dish. Once the dish was ready it looked like “mee kari”.

The best thing was, all the kids said they loved it except for Danial because he was not home. He is having the final PMR camp at his school which will last for 3 days (Friday 2 until Sunday 4 October 09). He left yesterday and will be home tomorrow.

Books

These are the ones we bought at MPH

September and October can be considered as book months for our family. When we went to MPH on Wednesday 23 Sept. we bought the above pictured books. Then on Tuesday 29 Sept. Steve brought home a bunch more which the kids have ordered through Scholastic Book Club. Two days ago my sister-in-law asked me to provide a list of books for her to get the kids for Christmas. When I mentioned it to them, they were jumping up and down with excitement but I still haven’t seen the list. I told them to be reasonable so that it won’t be a burden to their aunt :) We’ll see what they’ll come up with.

These are bought through Scholastic Book Club

These 2 were my choices hoping that Yasmin will be a famous mystery writer someday

On Thursday 1 Oct I finally finished reading “Dreams from My Father”! I bought it on 17 Dec 2008 and started reading it sometimes this year (I can’t remember exactly when because it took me too long to finish it). Actually, once I got to the last third part of the book, it was a breeze. I would say the ending was kind of happy but sad in a way. Does that make any sense? I guess you have to read it for yourself to really feel the way I do.

This one I recommend to all my Muslim friends and readers

When I was checking my e-mails yesterday, I saw one from Kinokunia ( I signed up to receive news letters from them). When I opened it I saw a book by Angelina Jolie titled “Notes from My Travel”. Out of curiosity I checked the title on the internet and read the excerpts. It was a really moving story about her experiences visiting a few refugee camps around the world. Ouch! Another one to get!