Road Safety

While driving to work yesterday, I turned on my favorite radio station, Radio IKIM. The topic of the day was about road safety/Malaysian drivers. Frankly, I am tired of this topic because it has been discussed by so many people in so many programs but the problem remains the same. The most popular question asked is "why are there so many accidents? Are they caused by the road condition or the poor driving habits?" I think any Malaysians regardless of age, race, background, and academic qualifications can answer this one in a second. Of course their poor driving habits. In my opinion, there are two major ugly Malaysian characters that contribute to road accidents: lack of patience and lack of tolerance. No matter how bad the road condition is, if the drivers are patient and tolerant, accidents can be prevented. Many drivers just ignore stop signs whenever they are at any junctions. Those who stop completely (trying to follow rules) are frowned upon as if they are committing the biggest sin! Many drivers also like to drive on the shoulder of the road, which makes it difficult for emergency vehicles to pass through at critical moments. Malaysians are proud of being friendly and hospitable, but the moment they sit behind the wheel, they transform into monsters!

Blog oh Blog

I was browsing through Prof Kamil's blog and as usual he wrote so many entries and he did it so consistently. I would love to be a prolific writer (at least in my blog) but somehow it doesn't happen! Reluctantly I browsed through my own blog and then I noticed something was wrong with the setting of the pages. I couldn't really see all the postings like I used to. I wonder how long it has been like that and I also wonder if other people were also seeing the format the way I saw it. I was so frustrated and decided to change the template. To say the truth, I don't really like this new one but it will do for now because I am not an expert when it comes to technology. I don't like this new template because it looks a bit cluttered. God knows how to get back the old one. Maybe it's time to pay my friend Lin a visit at KPTM. Hidayah used to be my Guru also but now she's in Iowa, little good that will do me. I lost my Hijriah calendar! I don't know how to get a new one. It says to click at the picture to get the new code but when I did, nothing happened! Errrgggh!

Evil Guardians

What a wonderful site to see. I wish all babies are loved and cared for like the one above. It is very sad and shocking when we read about babies and kids who are being abused or killed by so called parents or guardians. Yesterday I read the sad news about a 3-year old girl who died from abuse by her step father. So now the cycle is complete: the 1st 3-year old who died from child abuse a few months ago was a Malay girl, the 2nd child was an Indian girl, and the one yesterday I believe was a Chinese girl. When will it end?

Done Moving

Finally we are done with moving. Now comes the hardest part, to unpack and rearrange things. It has been 12 days but our living room still looks like it has just been hit by a "twister". We planned to label all the boxes and pack items according to their importance etc, etc. Unfortunately things don't work out that way in this life for us. Only the first few boxes were labeled. Then we took a break from packing, and suddenly, boomed! It was time to get everything out! So we gathered all the junk into huge plastic bags and started piling them into our car. Now we are paying for it. We can not find things when we need them. We said " the next time we move, we have to be more organized". Yeah, yeah, sounds familiar?

We are still adjusting our routines at this new place. Harris said he has trouble getting up in the morning. At the old place he was the first kid to get up. I guess the main reason is that the internet is not working yet at this new place. Usually he would play some internet games after he did some math problems in the morning. That brings me to the topic of our super frustration with TM (Telekom Malaysia). We followed the proper procedure in that we filled out the form and submitted to them a week before we moved, along with the RM50 fee! They were supposed to reconnect the line on the 1st of April at the new house. We waited for 3 days and nothing happened. So Steve decided to call them and was told it was "under investigation", or in lay man's term "nothing was done yet"! A week passed by and still nothing happened. Steve went to the office and talked to someone at the customer service counter. The response was "there was no line". What? We just moved around the corner for heaven's sake! Surely there is a line. If nothing else they could just use our old line! Then the person asked Steve whether the housing area is new. Gee, that was really pushing it too far. Today, it's the 12th of April and the telephone line is still not in. We are really upset!

My Impatience Cost Me 900 Ringgits

Cracked and scratched bumper

The month of July has always been the busiest month at the College. This is the time when we welcome new as well as the returning students. Last Thursday (9 July) was the registration for the returning students for our homegrown programs. As I was the person in charge for the event, I wanted to be at work earlier than usual. Unfortunately, things did not work the way I planned it to be. I was running a bit late, and I had to send my kids to school before going to the office. I took the normal road I usually take every morning which is a short cut. There was a car in front of me at the junction into the 4-lane highway. He was waiting forever, trying to wait until the road was completely empty before he would cross to innermost lane. I lost my patience so I overtook him and dashed to the road and boom, I hit a dark gray Proton aero-back. I was panicked. The other driver came out to inspect the damage to his car and looked at mine too. He asked me to move to the other side of the road so we could discuss about the next course of action. I did and we settled the problem. He would send his car to the workshop in Indera Mahkota and would let me know how much I had to pay. So I drove my kids to school and then to work. I was 2 minutes late. Around mid morning, while working at the registration, the driver called and informed me that the cost to repair his car was RM700.00! He had to have a paint job and the left back door had to be replaced. Then in the evening Steve and I went to the workshop nearby our house to have our car checked. The mechanic told us it would be around 200 Ringgits to paint and fix the front bumper. I am grateful that the headlight didn’t break, otherwise it would cost more. The sad thing is that the bumper was just replaced not too long ago because Steve hit a stump while parking at a wedding. The good part is that none of my children or myself got hurt. Life is definitely more precious than money…

Fever Is Almost Over

Finally everyone in my family has gotten their share of being ill. First was Najla and the last is Steve. What worries me the most is that Steve has blood stain whenever he coughs. He went to see Dr Fahmi and the doctor suspected that Steve has sinus infection. I hope he’s right, not something more serious than that. He started taking antibiotic 2 days ago and he told me the stain is getting less. I hope he’ll get better soon.

Water, Water, Everywhere, Not A Drop To Drink

Thursday 12 March 2009 - If I had to choose between a day without electricity and a day without water, I would definitely choose no electricity. When I was a kid we never had electricity until I was in standard six (12 years old) and I was doing just fine. But imagine living without water for that amount of time. I don’t think I would be sitting here today, writing this blog entry.

On Tuesday, the day of my husband’s birthday, the whole city of Kuantan was out of water supply. No wonder I forgot his birthday! It was such a pain having 7 people living in a house without any reserved water. Later that day I was told that the turbine at the dam in Kuantan burst. Since it was an emergency, JBA didn’t have time to warn us the poor consumers. Thank God the water supply was back on Wednesday night.

Money Definitely Can’t Buy Everything!

Marriages involve hard work - careful planning, sacrifice, sensitivity, compassion, tolerance, empathy, etc. etc. If you are a Muslim, add 2 more elements - “doa” and “tawakkal”. Even after all that, things can still go haywire. Recently, a friend of mine who has been married for many years shocked me with news that her husband divorced her to marry his co-worker.

It was like watching a soap opera listening to her pouring her heart out. The ex-husband holds a very high post in an organization and makes a 5-figure salary a month. So I guess that woman was after his money and position. The sad part is that my friend is not working because her ex-husband asked her to quit her job much earlier in their marriage in order to take care of their children.

I am not going to make any judgment because I don’t know the whole truth of what happened but there are a few good lessons to be learned as women:

1. Always be grateful of what we have. Do not look for a greener pasture because the color changes as you get to it.
2. Do not love a person too much, the more you do the worse the effects are.
3. Always trust in the Creator, because in Islam, there are no co-incidences. All things happened for reasons.
4. Never give up your job for any man! And,
5. Money can't buy everything, especially happiness, health, and peace.

Stay cool …

Danial Lost His Cell Phone

Monday 2 March. The kids had no school that day because of Yaumul Ihtifal (award giving ceremony) on Saturday. As usual, when they don’t have school I would take them to the Kolej so they could go to the library. I wouldn’t let them spend too much free time at home unsupervised because they would do nothing but watch the idiot box! Normally I would ask them to stay at the library until my lunch break at 1pm. Then I would take them home.

So, that day we followed the same ritual except that at about half way home Danial realized that his cell phone has gone missing. I took him back to the Kolej, checked all the places he had been, but no such luck. When the library personnel called his cell phone number, it was off already. I sent an sms to inform his father about it and he replied that he received an sms message from Danial’s phone number after the phone was gone and the message said exactly like this: “I am busy right now, I will call later”. I am very curious who the thief might be. That was the second cell phone he lost withing less than a year!

Being a good citizen I am, I went to the police station to lodge a report the next day. Unfortunately, the computer at the police station I went to, next to Teruntum, was off- line that day, of course! I went again on Wednesday, and thank God the computer was online.

Harris Lost His Tooth

On 21 April a tragedy happened to Harris. He fell at Irshad surau and lost his permanent front tooth (top left)! I was very sad when I received the phone call from one of his teachers. I went to see him immediately and he was asleep in the teachers’ office when I arrived. I called Steve at his office and arranged to meet with him at the Kuantan Medical Center emergency room. Since it was quite late in the afternoon, it didn’t occur to me to look for his missing tooth. I was only told afterwards by the doctor that if I found the tooth, I could insert it back immediately and the chances for it to stay permanently would be very good. There’s no use of regretting it now. There must be a reason why it happened. The doctor said that he would have to go see the dentist for follow-ups many times until he’s 18 years old when he can finally have a bridge or tooth implant. Poor Harris. My heart bleeds for you…