The years gone by - part 1

time passed by and it's more than 20 years now. recalling back the day ... it was 'bout 4.30 pm and i was in deep slumber. having just assisted a complicated duhamel's operation for hirsprung's disease and not having any rest for the last 36 hours, i was naturally flat and extremely exhausted ! i answer the pager (there was no mobile phone then !). somebody was screaming with joy on the other end of the line . ..' your wife has just delivered a baby girl. mata dia besar , bulat'.

i was in a dazed. is it a joke !. i remember her telling me the day before that she'll be on call duty today. furthermore her expected date of delivery was sometime next week.



( well, there she was ... mata bulat!)


the years gone by ... and with her good appetite she grew a wee bit chubby.



and of course at the age of three, she just love to pose . her favourite singer then was raja emma and sudirman.



and during the pre school years at merrylville good shepard. she used to be proud of the school as shiela majid also attended the same school.


way back in glasgow, scotland . i presumed she cherished her time at st. mungo primary. she is still in contact with her scottish childhood friends.
lucky for her as she had her mum full time with her. i was pretty buzy then having to do call duty once in three days at the southern general hospital.


prior to her pmr, we decided to take another break and head to the swiss highland.




first time travelling alone without the parents after her spm!


and there she was in her room in nizhny novgorod.





and this girl has now turn into a woman.

despite her idiosyncriasis and excluding her off points (short tempered, kuat makan, kuat tidur, malas study and spendthrift), she is obedient, determine, friendly and honest. well, we're still proud of you (provided you don't ask extras extras for your monthly allowance!)

Open House

i simply lost count of the numbers of invitation i got for the jamuan hari raya open house. sometimes just has to be selective and practical. attended a friend's open house yesterday in taman tun. spend about 20 minutes at his house and another 90 minutes on the road (tak tahulah kenapa jam sangat nowadays!). from taman tun, rushed to SS3, then to bangi (and another 2 hours on the road) sometimes terfikir pulak wheather is was worth going !.

things were much better today as the invitations were mainly from neighbours in the same vicinity. of course i looked forward to UKM's dato' VC open house - just four doors away. both she and her husband taught me in my undergraduate days (and her husband was also one of my examiner for my post grad exam). and i couldn't felt better when she greated me ...'welcome, my student and my neighbour'.

jantung oh jantung

minggu ni memang buzy habis. father in law terpaksa dimasukan ke IJN. khabarnya dah mengalami blackout dan sesak nafas sebanyak 2 kali didalam bulan ramadhan. appointment untuk pemeriksaan holter di hospital sultanah aminah JB ditetapkan pada bulan februari 2008. lamanya !. anyway, selepas the other half buat a few phone calls ke hospital, dapatnya appointment dengan cardiologist pada hari khamis. pemeriksaan electrocardiography mendapati terdapat elemen heart block atau sick sinus syndrome. father in law dinasihatkan agar terus di warded, tapi memandangkan tiada sesiapa di JB melainkan hanya mother in law sorang saja, my other half terus minta beliau dirujukan ke IJN. bertolak dari JB pukul 5 petang. selepas makan malam (late dinner), terus ke emergency department IJN. warded at 12.45 am.

2 hari pertama di IJN, hanya monitor tekanan darah, pemeriksaan darah dan ujian holter. decision untuk rawatan tidak dapat dilakukan sebab masih belum mendapat kata putus dari doktor pakar perunding kardiologi yang menjaga. mengikut kata petugas wad, pakar perunding sedang berkonferen di taiwan. jadi terpaksa tunggulah tiga hari lagi sehingga pakar perunding kembali bertugas. doktor pakar klinikal dan registrar tak boleh membuat keputusan. lewat petang isnin doktor pakar perunding datang berjumpa father in law. katanya ... besuk pukol 10 pagi, pasang pacemaker.



selasa pagi semua anak anak dah ambil emergency leave dan berada di hospital. cuba berjumpa dengan pakar perunding kardiologi yang merawat tapi tak berhasil ... mungkin tersangat buzy agaknya. cuba juga berjumpa dengan doktor doktor lain dalam team beliau bagi mendapat penerangan yang lebih lanjut tentang pacemaker tu serta kesan dan komplikasi pemedahan tapi tak berhasil. the whole morning father in law nampak gelisah , mungkin takut menunggu saat pembedahan tersebut. pukol 2.15 petang baru father in law di toloak ke bilik rawatan/pembedahan kecil bagi memasukkan pacemaker tersebut. pembedahan yang dilakukan mengunakan local anesthesia mengambil masa hampir satu jam setengah. menurut father in law pembedahan tersebut dilakukan oleh seorang doktor wanita dan bukan pakar perunding tersebut. tak kiralah siapa yang melakukan pembedahan tersebut ... yang pentingnya pembedahan tersebut telah dilakukan dengan jayanya dan tanpa sebarang komplikasi.

keesokan harinya, father in law telah pun di benarkan pulang. walau pun beliau masih dalam keletihan, wajahnya memang nampak berseri seri kerana itulah hari yang paling dinanti. sebelum pulang terpaksalah settle bilnya dulu. total bil melebihi rm 16,200.00. tetapi memandangkan beliau seorang pesara kerajaan, beliau hanya perlu bayar rm 15.00 sahaja. betullah kata seorang kawan, pembedahan yang dilakukan di hospital swasta lebih murah daripada di IJN. bapa beliau yang baru menjalani prosedur yang sama (implantation of a single chamber pacemaker) di sebuah hospital swasta di ampang hanya membayar rm 11,855.00 sahaja.

walau bagaimana pun, meski pun kami tak berpeluang berjumpa dengan doktor pakar perunding kardiologi yang merawat, kami seisi keluarga ingin merakamkan ribuan terima kasih kepada semua doktor serta petugas di IJN.

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Aidil Fitri 2007

took a short break to celebrate aidil fitri this year. had to reserve some leave for the schedule trip to bandung and iran in november. started from kl at 7.00 am on october 11. the journey was surprisingly smooth. with the cruise set at 110 km/hr, reached kuala terengganu 6 hours latter. a must rather, whenever we travel to kt, we'll stop by at kijal for the lemang or durian. i don't quite fancy durian but my wife says that the durian there is extremely delicious. of course the other place that we frequently stop by is kuala kemaman, for the keropok lekor and satar.




upon reaching kt, we proceed straight to mum's pusara. well, suddenly i really miss her. visited mum's pusara again with dad and sister after solat sunat adil fitri. another sister and our 2 grand parents were also laid to rest next to our mum. adil fitril was never the same again without mum and our late sister. Al-Fathihah dan semoga mendapat keampunan serta rahmatnya.


dad does not appeared enthusiastic about this year's aidil fitri. i'm sure he must be missing mum. furthermore, only me and my sister (a lecturer in uitm) was there to celebrate with dad. another sister only arrived on the 2nd day. my two other sisters celebrate elsewhere, one in bangkok and the other with her in laws in muar (or is it in batu pahat !) we don't get much visitors either ... most of dad's friends thought that dad celebrated aidil fitri in kl with his children!





exclusive family photos taken during adil fitri 2007.


(dad ...)


(my sister and her son)


(another sister)

Pleasant Surprises!

(my new DSRL Nikon D 80)

1. First Surprise

yesterday as i was about to leave office, this lady whom i could vividly recognized knocked on my door. instantly she introduced herself " you may not recall, but it's been a while since i last met you. i'm mr. WN's wife". i'm sorry WN couldn't come in person as he's in kota kinabalu. she handed me an envelope and said ' ini yang WN pinjam dulu, kami bagi RM 3 K dulu, nanti lepas raya 2 K lagi. well, i was really lost for words ! the least i expect.

WN was 4 years my junior in school and i met him on a few occasions during our alumni gathering. i remember in 2002, he called me saying that he wanted to see me for some personal reasons. i felt sorry for him as he just lost his job as an auditor at a local bank. the story goes on and on, until he came to the point. 'I'm financially broke now and i really need to borrow 5 K from you'. realizing how desperate he was, and without giving a second thought, i issued him a cheque for the amount. times passed by ... and since then i never met him again at our regular alumni meetings. after all the years, i thought to myself ... redar sajalah, but of course, i don't have any hard feeling ... my humble principle, kalau Tuhan dah tentukan rezeki itu bukan kita punya, then kita kena acceptlah.

At least i'm proud now, one of my junior is now a GM for a chain of a well known pizza outlets in the country. I hope he'll be successful in his undertakings .... but having said that, I looking forward for the other 2 K ( he he he ....)

2. Second surprise!

MF finally called me on my mobile some 2 months ago asking for my account number. says he was very sorry and promise to bank in rm 300.00 every month. Again i never though he would repay me !. and thanks god, i've already received 2 payments so far. MF came to my office sometimes in july 2005 when i was about to leave for lunch. i was initially quite puzzled as that was the first time he came to my office, he could alway see me at home. by the way, MF was a rank and file in the arm forces and also my part time driver. his wife was a full time staff in my wife's office. before i could asked what triggers him to my office, he suddenly burst into tears !. in between his sob ...please, please, please help me, my father is very ill back home in sungai petani. my other siblings have managed to raise rm 2.5 K. we needed another 7.5 K urgently for his surgery. i really felt so sorry for him and without further due issued him a cash cheque for 7.5 K. 'you take off for 1 week and please visit and care for your father'. in your absence, i'll fetch the kids from school.

3 months passed, not a single cent i recieved from him. after a year, still no news about the payment. his usual excuses, ... maaf, sebab saya masih tak dapat keluar lagi duit epf saya. six months latter, while we were having lunch, my wife mentioned that MN will retire from the arm forces soon and thus we need to plan early to get another driver to replace him. that will leave me with no choice but to tell my wife about it. ' what !. are you serious !. you actually give him 7.5 K just like that?. you know i could get a nice bracelet from habib jewels for that amount!. how could you be so stupid .... and of course the bebel goes on for the next 30 minutes. the sinister thing is that even his wife doesn't know that her husband borrowed the money. of course she felt so bad as her husband has cheated on her, more so she felt so ashamed to my wife. to cut things short, his father was never hospitalized, what more under went surgery. well, he needed the money very badly to repay the along. apparently he had borrowed some money from the along to help refinanced his brother's car and couldn't coped up with the escalating interest. i felt really sorry for him, wonder how much suffering and harressment he got from the along . Anyway i'm glad that i'm finally starting to receive back my money. hopefully the payments continues .....

well, well, ... what do i do with the duit terpijak yesterday. i only topped up another 1.5 K and got me a new camera ( DSRL Nikon D 80). sssshhhh, hopefully she didn't read this posting too soon, ... otherwise i'll be hearing something very familiar ... 'ish, ish dia ni pantang ada duit lebih sikit, membazirlah kerja dia' ...

what a day !

joseph au confirmed a couple of days ago that the case was on and i should be around to give my expert opinion. thanks god the case was scheduled at 2.30 pm. started from kl at about 11.00 am and reached kuantan just before 2.00 pm. it was a leisure drive as there was hardly any traffic on the east cost highway. stopped on at least 3 occasions to have a quick nap. the good thing about driving alone is that you can really test the machine. wow, can't believe it i actually hit 180 km/hr. yang tak bestnya, adalah pulak sebuah waja with the typical modified extra large noisy exhaust yang beriya iya bebennor hinting nak test power dia. unfortunately, no matter how they modified it, waja is still a waja. it's no match to the 5 series ultimate driving machine.

the defence lawyer was new, and for once i know he was not well prepared, and worst still, he was not well verse with the case. for goodness sake, don't ask me stupid and funny questions as it does irritates my neurons. kadanh kadang terfikir ... eh, macam ni pun boleh jadi loyer ke !. i remember someone telling me a joke before ... you don't need to have a lot of grey matter to be a lawyer (opss sorry, i didn't meant to offend anybody). it was a rather short session, thanks to the defence lawyer ( he seems confused and was lost for words !). since it was only 3.30 pm when i was discharged from the court, i decided to give a call to my friend in hospital tg ampuan afzan, kononnya nak surprise dialah. i initially though i've dialed a wrong number, only then to be told that she was his personal assistant . sorry, dato' tengah buat hysterectomy, boleh saya mintak dato call encik kemudian. well, typical of gynecologist ....i wonder what else they do in their free time !

i shoot off immediately after my asar prayers hoping to be home in time for iftar. just before reaching maran, i could feel the building up of typical throbbing sensation in my head. there it goes, my migraine is back again. it must has been triggered by the hot and humid weather. not at this time of the day when i'm fasting. it does not matter anyway, i didn't have my supply of imigran with me on this journey. well, the only option left is to find a place to buzzed off. that remedy occasionally works well for me and the nearest place to zzzzz was at r&r temerloh. it was only suppose to be a 15 minutes therapy session, but when i finally manage to open my eyes it was way past iftar ! now the hunt for the food begins, but i'm sure there will be nothing left at the stalls as it was almost 8.30 pm then. the only safe bet was to grab some crispies at the nearby petro kiosk.

dahlah penat and sakit kepala, upon reaching home kena interrogate pulak - kenapa lambat sangat? pergi joli kat mana tadi ? ke saja nak ponteng tarawih ? well, well ... typical lady ! sometimes i wonder why do ladies not think straight like men. what a day!

Hello Dad

i was waiting for iftar yesterday when the phone rang. as usual, AZ rushed over thinking that it was her friend again. ' abah, grandpa wanted to speak to you'. oh my gosh, i should be calling him and not the other way round. in between the faintness of his voice, i could sensed that he was very lonely. in between his sob, i heard him asking 'balik raya tak tahun ini'?

i know we have not been back to terengganu for the hari raya for quite sometime. last year i was in mekkah, the previous year in KL and the year before in JB. following mum's death early this year, dad is a different person. he's more sensitive and at times appeared depressed. can't really blame him for that as we know how much he love our late mum. though mum suffered from depression, alzheimer and brainstem stroke during the latter part of her life, dad has been very supportive, loving and caring. ever since then, dad insisted that he's staying put alone in his house in terengganu. been in his 70's, and staying alone was enough to get all the children worried. more so he's hypertensive, diabetic, and had 2 stents inserted for stenosed coronary arteries. he also has gallstones which on at least 2 occasions flared up into overwhelming acute choleystitis. and of course we have to respect his decision for not consenting to laproscopic cholecystectomy. on a lighter note i'm bless to have an adopted sister who visited him on a very regular basis. for the bottom of my heart, i can only say thank you very much kak Ha.

we have always tried to convince dad to stay with us but his typical answer was ... i miss my house , my friends and my masjid!. despite that he'll always make a point to visit his children either in KL, sungai buloh, seremban or bangkok at least once a month. if not for his deteriorating health, it would be wonderful if we could take him for a holiday again. the last time we have a great family holiday was in Beijing in 2003. despite some hindrances, he was full of excitement as he was finally able to scale the great wall. and to a wonderful and understanding dad, insyaallah we'll be back next week for the hari raya.