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!

Sarawak Layered Cake

I was just doing my own routine in the office when suddenly, Azizan, a student from Sarawak, knocked on my door, walked in, and blurted out in a hurry “I wanted to give this yesterday but I was busy. Here, a cake from my mom”. He handed to me a black with gold stripes plastic bag. I was so excited and took out a rectangle chunk neatly wrapped in aluminum foil. I unwrapped the aluminum, and I saw a very beautiful layered cake wrapped in a clear plastic. I supposed the cake has been kept in a fridge because it was cold and very tempting. I had to wait until dawn to be able to taste it because I was fasting. Hmmm… yummy!

Kelas Tambahan (Tuition)

Perlukah pelajar-pelajar mengambil kelas tambahan (tuition)? Menurut pakar motivasi Dr Shukri Abdullah PhD, yang sentiasa keudara di rancangan-rancangan TV dan radio tidak perlu. Ibu bapa hanya perlu prihatin untuk memberi pengetahuan tambahan sekiranya anak-anak sangat memerlukannya iaitu dalam subjek yang mereka lemah sahaja. Dan kata beliau lagi jangan ambil pekej walaupun lebih murah. Contohnya anak kita lemah dalam sejarah. Kalau tuition sejarah sahaja harganya RM10 tapi kalau ambil pekej 3 subjek (sejarah, geografi, dan sains) harganya cuma RM20. Secara logik akalnya, lebih menguntungkanlah kalau ambil pekej tetapi sebenarnya ia lebih merugikan sebab anak-anak akan menumpukan perhatian kepada subjek yang mereka lebih mahir. Jadi, subjek yang mereka lemah masih tetap lemah.

Tetapi tidak begitu keadaannya di negara kita. Menghantar anak-anak ke kelas tambahan telah menjadi seakan-akan trend. Ibu-bapa berasa "janggal" atau "pelik" sekiranya anak-anak mereka tidak dihantar ke kelas-kelas tuition. Saya merasa lega apabila Dr Shukri menyatakan hal tersebut sebab saya dan suami sememangnya tidak menghantar anak-anak ke tuition. Nak kata anti tu tidak juga sebab kami pernah hantar Danial tuition penulisan Bahasa Melayu 3 minggu sebelum dia ambil UPSR . Alhamdulillah setakat ini kedua-dua Danial dan Yasmin berjaya mendapat 5A dalam UPSR malahan lebih dari 10A kerana mereka sekolah agama (ada banyak lagi subjek tambahan SPPM).

Isu ini berbangkit pada pukul 5 pagi tadi ketika saya, Mustafa, Danial, dan Yasmin sedang menikmati sahur. Tiba-tiba saya berkata "kesian anak-anak yang tidak sempat enjoy waktu malam dan hujung minggu kerana terpaksa hadir berbagai tuition". Apalagi, Danial dan Yasmin pun mencelah "mak dan abah sporting, kami tak rasa tertekan sebab tu kami ok dalam exam. Kalau kami dapat B dan kadang-kadang C pun tak de lah kene marah atau leter. Agaknya kalau kena marah mungkin kita orang akan dapat banyak gred D pulak". Saya terfikir, mungkin ada benarnya. Saya selalu berpesan kepada anak-anak supaya jangan tension atau stress semasa nak exam. Saya selau pesan "ala, senang je, mana ada Cik Gu soal benda-benda yang kita belum belajar dalam exam. Cuma yang penting anak-anak beri 100% tumpuan dalam kelas macam emak masa sekolah dulu (hehehe, masuk bakul angkat sendiri). Jangan sekali-kali ponteng, dan jangan menyakitkan hati guru sebab takut tak berkat ".

Walau bagaimanapun, kami suka hantar mereka ke kem-kem ibadah musim cuti, kem motivasi, kelas musik, kelas renang, kelas melukis, dan seumpamanya mengikut minat mereka masing-masing dengan harapan mereka akan sentiasa ceria dan bermotivasi dalam mengharungi kehidupan sebagai kanak-kanak. Kami juga sangat menggalakkan mereka membaca, malahan kesemua anak-anak saya adalah "kutu membaca" terutamanya novel. Sejak mereka bayi lagi kami telah "menyepah-nyepahkan" buku di serata rumah kecuali tandas. Kami pastikan yang kami pun sentiasa membaca di hadapan mereka. Ibu bapa adalah model terbaik. Mereka sememangnya bebas untuk menonton TV atau bermain komputer walaupun malam hari-hari peperiksaan. Tapi yelah, lain padang, lain belalang. Apa pun saya syukur kerana cara kami mendidik menampakkan hasil yang "lumayan". Cuma sekadar berkongsi pengalaman.