Grateful

Morning is the best time for me.  I really enjoy my morning drive to work because there is no jam and I get to listen to my favorite radio station, IKIM FM.  Then I get to continue listening to it online in my office! Listening to this channel really helps putting my life into perspective.  Sometimes we are so caught up in our busy lives and we tend to lose our focus and priority.  Every so often we all need to step back and look into our routines.  We have to constantly be grateful of what we have rather than wanting for things we don't have.  Well don't get me wrong.  It's good to have ambition, wish and what not but do not forget to say thank you for what we have so that we do not feel stressful all the time.

I wonder how many of us look around and take notice of the sun that still shines, the trees that provide oxygen for us or the rivers that flow and provide the most essential ingredient for our lives - water!    Normally we are too busy complaining of not enough time, money, etc.  For example, last week I ran into someone in the elevator who was complaining about being tired after sending her kids to the caretaker and school and then had to come to work.  Just stop for a second and think of how many people out there who do not have children and are willing to give anything to have them.  Or what about those unemployed people who would do anything to get a permanent job like us. 

It reminds me of what my ustaz said that we must always compare ourselves to the less fortunate in order to feel great at all time.  I guess age changes my way of thinking and looking at things.  So if we want to experience true freedom and happiness, never forget to be grateful..

Envy

I really envy people who can write well and they make writing  such an effortless activity.  I often found myself with so many ideas but when I sit in front of a computer nothing comes out.  I guess my ideas like to sit in my brain because it's so comfortable up there.  Come on ideas!  Come out.

I went through my blog list and noticed that a few of my fellow bloggers have not been writing for quite sometime also.  My guess is, either work or FB or both have taken up much of their time.  That's what happened to me.  Now that I don't have classes to deal with, I better force my brain to cooperate.  Lately, I found myself becoming less attracted to post events on my FB.  I used to take my camera everywhere I went and snapped just about anything I saw so that I could post them in my FB.  But after a while it gets old.  I started thinking who cares what I did or saw or ate anyway!  It makes me think that what I did was so trivial and nothing could be learned from any of them.  Then I decided, if I don't have anything worthwhile to post, I better not do it (well, not too often anyway).

Two of my daughters love to write.  In fact they have participated in a few writing competitions and they even won a couple of times.  One of them used to have a blog but somehow she closed it!  I still do not know the exact reason for her to take that drastic step.  Anyway, the other one asked me if she could write in my other blog which has been abandoned for so long.  I think I am going to hand it over to her.  I hope both of them will be famous writers someday.

Farewell

Every once in a while I thought of acquaintances  or friends whom I met sometime in my life - on the plane, at a university, at a seminar, etc.  Sometimes I can't help but wonder what happens to any of these people.  If we are lucky, our paths cross each other at the least expected time or place.

Last evening we invited a friend who is about to leave this country for Indonesia.  She will be teaching somewhere in the Java Island beginning next month.  The last time we invited her to our house was when we had a house warming gathering.  At that time she had just arrived in Kuantan for a few weeks.  I thought of meeting and doing activities more often with her considering that she is "alone" in Malaysia.  As usual, each one of us get caught up with so many things in life and forgot about our noble intention.  All of a sudden, there is no more time to do anything except to have her for a few hours before she leaves for good.  I suppose we could visit her in Indonesia or she could come to Kuantan during her breaks.  But, what are the chances for that to happen?  Only Allah knows.

Anyway, we had a great time eating soft-shelled  Tacos with watermelon cubes and homemade chocolate chip cookies.  I hope we can visit each other in the cyber world and that she will not be one of those in my "wondering what happen to 'em" list.  Good luck and enjoy your new experience Melanie.

Dental Appointment

It has been 4 years since Harris lost his front permanent tooth.  On Tuesday I took him for a regular check-up at HTAA clinic.  Alhamdulillah, the doctor said she didn't need to do any "treatment" to Harris' other permanent tooth.  She's keeping an eye on it and will review in 3 more months.  I hope and pray that he will be able to keep the tooth for ever. It's sad enough to see him lost one.  He used to love biting the whole apple using his front teeth.  Since the accident, he learned to cut apples into small chunks.  I am grateful because it could be worse.  I keep telling myself that other people lost more vital parts of their body and alhamdulillah, Harris only lost a tooth.  Nevertheless, it makes me feel so vulnerable, small, helpless, etc. which is not a bad feeling at all.  Humans need to feel like that once in a while in order to prevent us from losing sight on who we are.  We'll have to continuously see a doctor until he reaches 18 years old when he can have a tooth implant.  Only 4 more years.  It'll be here soon...

Najla's Story

My mom called last week and asked whether we were going home to visit or not.  As soon as she told me that durian has started falling, my answer was a definite yes!  Steve, Hannah and I had enough to eat although we wouldn't mind if we had more.  As usual, we left my mom's home at night except that this time we left a bit later than we normally would. We arrived in Kuantan past midnight.  As expected, Najla would make a lot of fuss not wanting to go to school because she was tired.  Since I was not in the mood to argue, I let her come to my office.   I don't know when she will learn her lesson that staying in my office for the whole day would be boring and she would be better off being with her friends at school.  I guess out of boredom, she wrote a story titled "the Zombie Shooter" and asked me to post it on my blog.  The story goes like this:


Hello, my name is Zack.  I have a Zombie shooter.  I like to use it to shoot a Zombie.  At my house, there are some Zombies attacking our house.  That's why I have a Zombie shooter.  I also like to use a Zombie shooter to play with my brothers and sisters.  I love to play with them and now I have to go shoot some Zombies before they attack my brothers and sisters.  Bam! Bam! Bam! "Go inside brothers and sisters, it will be o.k." Boom! Bam! Bam! Boom!   Pssst!!  Yeah, I won!  Suddenly the Zombie got up and became angry.  Then I fought again with them and they died.  Then it was finished!  I won! Yay!   -The end-

Well, I hope you had fun reading her story.  Ooops, it's time to go home now.  See you later...

Milestone

Time flies faster than a bullet!  Without realizing it, it has been been exactly 6 months since I wrote my last entry.  At that time Danial had just finished his SPM exam and last Monday he enrolled at UM.  My son is a college student!  I felt really different when we parted this time because it is a huge milestone for us.  It is another reminder that my life is getting shorter before I have to meet my Creator.  It sounds morbid but that's reality folks.  The same week that Danial enrolled at UM, the school holiday for the other kids started so the whole family got a chance to send him to register.  Just as he finished his orientation with the UM matriculation program, he was offered to join the Japanese matriculation program which happens to be located at UM campus also.  I guess he was lucky to go through 2 orientation programs in 2 weeks :-)  I wonder if he thinks the same way.

So much for Danial, let's see what happened to the other kids..  All in all it was a very productive school holiday.  Najla and Hannah were enrolled in a holiday program for the 1st week of the break and both of them really enjoyed it.  Hannah went to Johore for a public speaking and "khat" competition during the 2nd week.  She was there for 3 days and as soon as the competition was over, she hopped on another bus to go to KL for her school trip to Petro-Sains and a few other places.  The same day that Hannah left for Johore, Yasmin went to Penang for a 3-day leadership program.  On Friday, the day that Hannah and Yasmin got back from their trip, I took Najla to KL to attend an award ceremony at IIUM.  It was supposed to be for Danial and Yasmin for getting good results in their SPM and PMR exam respectively.  Neither of them could attend the ceremony.  Everybody seemed to have some planned program except for Harris.  He kept himself busy playing ping pong and badminton with his friends who happen to be our neighbors too.  They played until very late at night.

As for the parents?  Huhuhu, we had to do a lot of grading and marking exam papers!  Alhamdulillah, it's all behind now and that's why I have time to update my long-abandoned blog.