Always On The Run ..........

Perjalanan Ke Al-Quds

2010-04-03T16:40:00.017+08:00

Rencana untuk menziarah masjid al aqsa di al-quds @ baitul maqdis yang terletak di old city of jerusalem di wilayah tebing barat palestin dirancang hampir 6 bulan lalu. Setelah sekian lama menunggu akhirnya permohonan group visa serta security clearance untuk memasuki wilayah tebing barat telah diluluskan oleh pihak keselamatan israel pada akhir januari 2010. Kami memulakan perjalanan ke damuscus, syria sebelum ke amman, jordan.

Perjalanan ke sempadan jordan palestin mengambil masa lebih dari satu jam dari amman. Kami memasuki tebing barat melalui Allenby check point @ king hussain bridge. perasaan berdebar dan khuatir mula terasa selepas kami melintasi security check point pertama pihak keselamatan israel yang lengkap bersenjatakan M-16. Walaupun kami tiba di imigresen check point sebelum 10.00 pagi, sudah berbaris panjang warga palestin dan pelancung asing. Sungguh aneh, tebing barat milik palestin tapi urusan imigresen dan keselamatan di kendalikan sepenuhnya oleh yahudi israel. memandangkan pihak imigresen israel telah dimaklumkan akan kedatangan kumpulan kami,maka mereka membuka satu laluan khusus untuk kami. Tidak pernah terfikir di hati saya, untuk melepasi pihak imigresen sahaja kami terpaksa melalui enam pasport control. Proses pasport control agak lancar dan memakan masa satu jam setengah. Tuhan saja yang tahu betapa resahnya kami apabila dua orang ahli kumpulan kami dipanggil untuk soal siasat hampir 2 jam oleh pihak keselamatan israel. Yang menakjubkan saya hampir kesemua warga yahudi yang mengendalikan soal imigresen dan keselamatan di check point tersebut dilakukan oleh anak anak muda mereka yang saya anggarkan berumur dalam dua pulohan sahaja.

Pemandu kami di tebing barat adalah seorang warga palestin beragama islam. walaupun dia sudah berumur 69 tahun tapi masih terpaksa bekerja bagi menyara kehidupan keluarganya. Sebelum ke jerusalam kami berhenti makan di Jericho.Kami terpaksa melalui 2 lagi security check point sebelum tiba di east jerusalem. di setiap check point kami di minta menunjukan pasport dan visa yang asal.Di sepanjang perjalanan saya dapat melihat beberapa penempatan yahudi yang didirikan atas tanah milik rakyat palestin serta tembok concrete yang didirikan oleh pihak israel yang memisahkan bumi palestin. Tembuk tersebut seakan akan tembuk berlin yang memisahkan german barat dengan jerman timur. cuma bezanya di tembok yang didirikan oleh yahudi itu tidak terdapat lukisan lukisan grafiti.

(pemandangan hadapan masjidi al aqsa di al-quds @ baitul maqdis. masjid asal terletak dibawah bangunan masjid ini)

Memasuki baitul maqdis untuk ke masjidil al aqsa adalah impian saya sejak sekian lama. Masjid al aqsa banyak disebut dalam al quran dan pernah dikunjungi oleh Nabi Muhammad s.a.w semasa peristiwa israq dan mi'raj. Masjid al aqsa boleh dimasuki dari beberapa pintu yang dikawal ketat oleh pihak keselamatan israel. Kebetulan semasa kunjungan kami, penganut yahudi sedang merayakan passover holiday, maka bandar jerusalem dipenuhi oleh ratusan ribu penganut yahudi yang datang dari setiap pelusuk benua. Ini ditambah pula dengan penganut kristian yang berkunjung ke holly land mereka. pada waktu solat waktu kebenaran untuk memasuki pintu kota baitul maqdis untuk ke masjid al aqsa hanya diberikan kepada warga palestin yang berumur lebih 50 tahun dan pelancung beragama islam. Untuk melepasi pihak keselamatan israel, saya terpaksa menunjukan pasport. saya juga diminta membaca surah al-fathihah oleh pihak keselamatan israel bagi membuktikan saya seorang islam.

saya begitu sayu dan terpegun kali pertama melihat masjid al aqsa dan doom of the rock @ qubbah al-sakhrah. Ini mengingatkan kesayauan saya kali pertama melihat kaabah lebih 10 tahun lalu. Saya mengambil kesempatan melakukan solat tahiyatul masjid dan solat sunat dhuha di dalam masjid al aqsa yang asal yang merupakan seakan akan sebuah gua (masjid al aqsa sekarang dibina diatas gua tersebut). semasa kumpulan kami sedang berbual dengan imam di dalam masjid, seorang askar yahudi lengkap dengan senjata M-16 memasuki masjid untuk meninjau perbuatan kami didalam masjid. sementara menunggu waktu zohor saya sempat berbual dengan imam tersebut serta beberapa warga palestin lain.sedih mendengar tentang penderitaan serta kekecewaan rakyat palestin kerana tidak mendapat pembelaan dari pemimpin pemimpin negara islam lain (mungkin saya akan ceritakan tentang keluhan, kesengsaraan, kehampaan, penderitaan serta harapan rakyat palestin dalam tulisan saya yang lain). kesempatan menunaikan solat maghrib dan isyak di masjid al aqsa dan doom of the rock tidak saya lepaskan. Yang menyedihkan pihak yahudi tanpa menghormati umat islam yang sedang sembahyang berpesta riuh dengan music yang kuat di kawasan dataran di bawah masjid al aqsa sehingga menganggu jemaah yang sedang solat. Ini kerap dilakukan sewaktu umat islam sedang melakukan solat terutamanya pada waktu maghrib dan isyak.

(doom of the rock @ qubbah al-sakhrah dilihat dari hadapan masjid. semua bangunan di kawasan ini termasuk masjid utama, doom of the rock, masjid Al-Buraq dan masjid Umar merupakan komplex yang dipanggil masjidil al aqsa. pihak yahudi sekarang sedang membuat propaganda dengan mengatakan bahawa doom of the rock bukan merupakan sebahagian daripada masjidi al aqsa. orang yahudi percaya tapak dome of the rock merupakan tempat paling suci agama mereka dan berhasrat untuk memiliki tapak tersebut)

Sepanjang pemerhatian saya, pelancung yang bukan berugama islam (yahudi dan kristian) hanya dibenarkan melawat perkarangan masjid al aqsa dan doom of the rock (tempat nabi muhammad s.a.w memulakan perjalanan ke langit ketujuh. batu tersebut merukan batu yang ingin mengikuti rasullullah ke langit tapi dihalang oleh baginda) di waktu umat islam tidak mengerjakan solat waktu. mereka hanya dibenarkan ke perkarangan masjid dalam kumpulan yang kecil dan akan diiringi oleh pihak keselamatan israel yang lengkap bersenjata.

(pemandangan di satu sudut di dalam masjid al aqsa yang asal yang dipercayai merupakan tempat nabi muhammad s.a.w melakukan solat sebagai imam bersama para nabi yang lain semasa peristiwa israk dan mi'raj)

sesungguhnya saya rasa sangat bersyukur kerana telah dipilih menjadi tetamu Allah menziarahi masjid ketiga tersuci ini. beberapa hari sebelum kedatangan kami satu kumpulan dari indonesia telah dihalang oleh pihak keselamatan israel daripada memasuki masjid al aqsa.

My Next Stop

2010-03-10T21:45:00.004+08:00

The malas syndrome is here again. Now waiting for our next break.

........I have visited this two great mosques on several occasions.

Insyaalah the next masjid to visit ..... the 3rd holiest masjid in islam, located in the old city of Jurusalem. Hope everything goes as plan !

The Soro & The Boyo

2010-01-24T21:45:00.006+08:00

Overslept & woke up late for the flight to Surabaya this morning. The trip was planned well in advanced. Paying airasia Rm 182.00 for the return trip for 2 person is what I call an exceptionally super bargain. Reached LCCT just in time for the check-in. Being fairly busy over the last couple of weeks, I must have forgotten to book the hotel on line. And as usual, the flight was delayed by almost 40 minutes (a trade mark of airasia I suppose). Just a couple of months ago I was cursing when my flight to phuket was also delayed by almost 4 hours.

Reaching Juanda International airport 2 hours 30 minutes later, I was presently surprise to see that the airport was fairy big and modern (according to indonesian standard). Booked the hotel through the local travel agent at the airport. We settled for Surabaya plaza hotel, a 4 star smoking free hotel (knowing how well the Indonesians smoke, i do really need some breathing space !). I’m fairly surprise that JW Marriott in Surabaya is not a smoke free hotel!. The thing I always admire about Indonesia (medan excluded) is their taxi drivers. First and foremost, they make you welcome, they are generally polite, proud of their profession, uses the meter and hardly cheat on you (apply to the bluebird group of company). This is in sharp contrast to our very own breed of taxi drivers (of course the government of present has to share some responsibility for indirectly protecting this unscrupulous and selfish bunch of homo sapiens).

According to the local myth, this city witnessed the great battle between the white shark (suro) and the white crocodile (boyo) who fought each other to gain the title of the strongest and most powerful animal. Being the second largest city in Indonesia, the city is undergoing rapid transformation with a lot of modern high rise buildings in the making. Fairly typical of Indonesian cities, the only set back is the traffic congestion (macet). Like most other cities in Indonesia, I must say as a whole there is nothing unique about Surabaya. Tunjungan Plaza is perhaps the largest mall with a lot of internationally branded outlets. Opps, I just love the freshly chilled avocado juice from excelso.

(the land mark of the city)

One thing that excites me about this once glorious majapahit kingdom is the abundance of small street kiosks trading in gold jewellery. No wonder the people from east Indonesia is so obsessed in buying gold jewelleries as they can easily disposed them off without hassle for quick cash at the numerous buying back street kiosks.

( if only our ah longs can set up kiosks like this to render their service !)

On a different note we were quite dismayed as our intention of bringing back our second domestic helper did not materialize. It seems that 10 days is still insufficient time for our embassy in Jakarta to process all the required travel documents.

Dearest Alumni

2010-01-02T18:35:00.008+08:00

It's been almost 25 years since we left the medical school. The chance to meet long lost friends and former teachers and mentors was an opportunity not to be miss. A few former teachers flew in all the way from Jakarta for the auspicious night. Little did i realized that 13% of our total alumni are consultants and specialists in their respective fields. and to Tan Sri Dato' Dr. Sharifah, I'll always remember you as my physiology lecturer (sorry, i never did like the subject anyway!) and not the present vice chancellor of university kebangsaan malaysia.

(these girls has grown up.....none wore skirts any more i suppose!)

professor freda meah, a world renowned endocrine surgeon. i was very much indebted to this great lady. needless to say many top surgeons in the country has benefited from her unselfish guidance. she has instilled good and meticulous surgical skills in her trainees.Thank you prof.thank you, thank you, thank you

(somehow our teachers appear younger than us !)

And thank you Jack @ Major General Dato' Dr. Razak for organizing the event. and not forgetting my good friend Din snake @ Dato' Dr. Zainuddin Wazir for donating RM 1 million ringgit to our alumni(so proud of you bro!).unlike the present day medical students who can afford to tour Europe with their scholarship money, the amount we received then were barely enough for our basic needs. well bro,i'm sure you still remember the hard days when we had to swallow maggie mee for lunch & dinner and the days the three of us had to share one nasi bungkus from our favourite warong bamboo.

Life Goes On ......

2009-12-03T18:28:00.006+08:00

Since early September Puan SN has been convincing me to join her on a mission to cambodia. Been a regular volunteer to the country, she really assured that our service is much needed there. Unlike other NGOs with thick pockets (donated by the ever generous malaysia public), we set on our mission with our very own resources.

So there we were,on the morning of November 25, the seven of us (2 medical specialists, 3 young nurses, puan SN & husband) were in cambodia. From the airport we rented a van and travelled north to kompong thom some 200 km away from phomn phen. On arrival, we were greeted by the local imam who also offer us his house for us to sleep.It's a far cry from what we're used to ....but then we're here not on holiday.

I couldn't help feeling so sorry for them. many children were just malnourished and running around without a shirt and slipper.(a typical scenario in our own kampongs way back in the 60's or early 70's) One could see the grateful glisters in their eyes whenever puan SN handed them a small token of candy she bought from mydin.Sometimes it's just unimaginable ... the sarongs they wore were so worn out that one would not even think of using it to wash his car!

The imam was kind enough to allow us to use the masjid annexe as our clinic base. The patients were endless and the crowd kept growing.Despite working on a very basic and limited resources, we could feel how grateful they were. We felt so sorry for those who had to walk several kilometers away only to be told that we're running out of medications !!! (oppss, thank you to some of our GP friends who were kind enough to donate some of the medications)

Lining up were young boys eagerly waiting to be circumcised.It was tiring but thanks God, using the clamp technique, between us we managed to circumcised 105 children in 2 days. I could sense the tears of happiness in their parents knowing that their children underwent a relatively short and painless procedure. Even on the morning of our departure, there were parents who were begging us to circumcise their children.

Insyaallah we'll be in cambodia again in a near future (hopefully in kompong cinnang).Hope to bring more circumcision clamps (costing rm 35.00 each, ... sponsors are most welcome). Self sponsored volunteers are also welcome to joint us !

Reunion

2009-10-18T23:17:00.006+08:00

SATURDAY November 17, 2009 @ Ri-Yaz Marina Resort & Spa

...." hey where have you been ??????. why do we lost touch ???? ". well at a glance i didn't realized that it was her. it's been more than 30 years since i last saw her and the rest of them. of course i still remember her and our little secrets ... how could I ???.

The Reunion brought fond memories of the yesteryears. meeting most of them for the first time after more than 30 years was just too touching & emotional. there was so much things to talk (had to adjourned the session to primula over dinner !). quote from one of our former teacher - "seems to me that all the naughty students of mine is doing well in life!". i might have forgotten some of the faces, but their names sound familiar. well, growing up together in a small town was such a fun. regardless of the ethnicity, we were just like a big happy family - i would say we practice 1 Malaysia years ago.

To all friends,.... thank you for such a wonderful and memorable evening. please do get in touch. and ,.... oppsss, she still owe me a coffee !!!!

MaKan & MaKan Lagi

2009-10-11T19:21:00.002+08:00

To all Friends yang sempat berkunjung semalam .... Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. Nice meeting you all (oppss, after soooooo many years!)

Pada yang tak sempat jumpa semalam, see you all in Ri-Yaz Heritage Resort & Spa next Saturday, October 17. Please be informed that the venue is at 'VERENDAH' and the function will start at 3.00 pm sharp.

Good Luck Dear

2009-10-07T18:50:00.003+08:00

To Adik @ Geena

BEST OF LUCK IN YOUR PMR EXAM

P/S - didn't realise that you're a big girl now.
alway thought that you're still our little darling .....

What A Raya .......

2009-10-01T20:44:00.006+08:00

Sampai tanah malaya dah nak hampir senja, dah nak masuk malam raya. capet banget deh sebab gak bisa tidur masa dalam pesawat !. tekak dah mula perit dan batuk semakin menjadi jadi -sinario biasa aku setiap kali lepas pulang dari tanah haram. preparation untuk raya tahun ini below par. lepas beli lemang & rendang di pasar dato keramat terus tarik selimut sebab temperature sudah rising. the whole night jugak tak boleh lena sebab asyik terbatuk batuk !. bangun pagi dah kol 10.15, confirm solat sunat edul fitri terlepas. suara pun dah tak keluar !!. walaupun jiran-jiran di sebelah dan depan rumah juga tak balik kampung, tapi tak terasa pun seperti hari lebaran !!!!. well, the whole day berayalah kita sekeluarga di rumah dengan instant lemang & kueh kueh kering.

the problem started on the second day of raya. kata adik "kok jadi begini buk, gak ada papa yang enak mau di maken". and as usual adik came up with a bright ideal. so, there we were ....hari raya brunch in our favourite serena in nikko.

Hopefully we had a better raya next year .....

(hidangan hari raya 2009)

(waduh, kok uda besar mau di suapin !)

(makan tetap makan)

Looking forward to a better raya next year
& to all friends, a belated selamat hari raya dari kami sekeluarga.

Tarawih & Tahajud

2009-09-25T12:51:00.003+08:00

Dapat juga aku menghabiskan hari hari terakhir ramadhan tahun ini di masjid al haram. kali terakhir aku bersujud mengadap baitullah adalah pada akhir ramadhan 2006. suara imam al saudis dan al makki masih seperti dulu, begitu syahdu dan merdu dan membuat aku menangis hiba semasa bersujud menunaikan solat tarawih dan tahajud.walaupun kali ini cuaca tersangat panas dan tempat penginapan lebih jauh dari masjid (akibat kerja kerja pengubahsuaian masjid), aku bersyukur kerana dapat melakukan ibadah dengan penuh keinsafan dan kesabaran.semoga Tuhan ampun segala dosa dosa aku.

(menunggu iftar diperkarangan masjid al nabawi)

(pemandangan masjid al haram dari hotel)

(suasana di dalam masjid al haram)

(sekadar berlindung dari panas matahari dengan suhu sekitar 49 C)

Ya Allah, semoga engkau memberi peluang lagi kepada ku untuk mengunjungi tanah haram mu. tambahkanlah kepada baitullah kebesaran, keagungan, kehebatan dan juga kemuliaan. Amin.

Al-Fathihah ... A Traggic Farewell

2009-03-29T12:53:00.006+08:00

i've known the late dr. amin tai and dr. haliza since my early days in hospital kuala lumpur way back in 1985. our friendship grew even stronger ever since we started working together in the same organization since the last 10 years. A renowned pediatric surgeon, an active mercy volunteer and a nature lover, amin tai will always be remembered by family members and friends. likewise, haliza a skillful & caring pediatrician and also an active mercy volunteer will also be sadly missed by all friends.

Their decomposed bodies were airlifted from a deep ravine in bukit taboh, hulu klang yesterday evening. been among the first to identify the body, at a glance i just couldn't recognize them, but the backpacks stacked to their bodies were definitely theirs.

Amin and haliza were schedule to scale mount kinabalu again on saturday with a few other friends. i presumed on that fated wednesday evening, both must have decided to go for a warm-up before the kinabalu trip. Both were seasoned trekkers, having been to the everest base camp, and having reached some of the highest peaks in africa and asia. Why the need for a warm-up when they have conquered the kinabalu peak before.

i'll always remember amin as a close friend and a mentor. to the many surgeons in the country who were trained by him, will definitely remember him for his patience, fine decision makings, skill surgical techniques and his dedications to his job. and mercy will now be without 2 active volunteers for medical emergencies.

Al-Fathihah to dear friends. May Allah rest both of you in peace and make your abode in Jannah.

Sabar Aja lah

2009-03-20T19:13:00.004+08:00

dulu kata nak a bigger car, kereta yang lebih tinggi, boleh nampak traffic ahead. and now after driving for 2 weeks, katanya tak bestlah sangat, bawak rasa bumpy semacamlah, tak der accelerationlah, nak park susahlah. sekarang ni ada orang tu asyik bawak kereta kita pulak. ish ish ish sabooooorrrrr aje lah.

Jakarta Revisited

2009-03-15T22:24:00.014+08:00

I can't exactly remember how many time i've visited this city, but for sure this was my second visit for the year. For the kiddos this was their first even venture. Over the years, jakarta has really transformed. back in the mid 90's when grand hyatt was THE only hotel in town, one now is spoilt with choices of superb 5 stars accommodation.

(and there we were at Ascott. unfortunately we couldn't get the rooms on the higher floor as the occupancy rate was very high. needless to say, the location was good and very closed to the major shopping malls)

(view from the room overlooking the plaza indonesia and grand indonesia mall)

talking about jakarta, i'm always inspired by their inhabitants and their way of life. sometimes i think life is really unfair - looking at the poor on the street struggling hard to earn an honest living, the under privilege street kids and the helpless baggers. and in between the misery are the noble rich in their shinning lexus and bimmers (opss, btw i've already sold my bimmer !).

(and the greener part of jakarta pusat .... Ascott in the background)

Although the traffic in jakarta is a nightmare, i still feel that dbkl can learn a few tips from them to help manage our own chaotic traffic. For those who fancy shopping (the other half included), then jakarta should be on the list. for bargain hunters, mangga dua, tanah abang and blok m are among the options. Grand indonesia plaza is perhaps the biggest designers outlet mall in south east asia with hundreds of stalls ranging from nina ricci to harvey nicole. but the only setback is the branded goods in these stalls are perhaps 30 to 40% more expensive that in klcc - no wonder the jakartarians always shop for branded products overseas. and the mall also houses some fine restaurants (also fairly expensive and perhaps out of reach for ordinary jakartarians). we pay close to rm 400.00 for the dinner, which could have only cost us about rm 250.00 if it was in klcc)

.... and some of the images captured on our slr

....a must eat thing. despite on a 6 hourly feeding, i have only gained 0.5 kg in 3 days.

(a fairly common phenomena in jakarta ..."peaceful demonstration" . unlike in kl, the police were there to assist and not resist. and thanks god they never get sprayed!)

another common sight in downtown jakarta

(anybody fancy sop buntut or sop kepala kambing, then this is the place!)

Reunion

2009-03-08T23:50:00.008+08:00

it's been more that 20 years since we left the medical school. and the opportunity to catch up with them again was very nostalgic. there are those whom i totally lost touch with. and for some, though we hardly met in person, their whereabouts were known as they constantly appeared in the newspapers and tvs. i must say i'm very proud of you people. and among us, quite a number of our children are now in the medical school scattered all over the world. to dato' charlie, dato' maamor, prof zea, jah and irma thank you for your effort and hard work in organizing the get together.

and some friends caught on my camera

(tapo & irma)

(daud, nazri @ head department ophthalmology kangar hospital, zai @ director of health services seremban)

(murni @ director tangling hospital kl, adib, rick @ consultant radiologist DSH, jee @ head department of psychiatry selayang hospital, man @ director serdang hospital)

(murni, jee, azie @ director utm student health clinic, noi @ deputy dean faculty of medicine uitm, adib @ practitioner kl)

(general ello @ consultant physician & director lumut hospital, yeop @ head department of pathology, ipoh hospital, zai, pian @ consultant anesthetist southern hospital melaka, daud)

(man, maamor @ persatuan pengguna islam)

(rick, jee, jah @ practitioner ipoh, muhaya @ consultant ophthalmologist prince court medical centre, ba'e @ batu pahat director of health services)

well friends, i'll load more pictures in my fotopages. till we meet again, you people take care !

Is This a Joke !

2009-02-26T23:02:00.003+08:00

i recieved this plastic a few days ago. terkejut & terperanjat. the bank must be joking when it says 'we are please to advise that your application for pl***num card has been approved. ish ish ish bila masa lah pulak aku apply ni ?. penipu besorlah tu. and worse still katannya ' your credit limit has been raised to 40K !. ini kira dah melampau.

and to whom it may concern, ... give me 5 reasons why you deserve this new plastic. oppss, on second thought, i think it's best if you stick to your current plastic
(at least tak bertambah cerahlah kulit kepala principle card holder)

Thank You .... & Welcome

2009-02-21T20:10:00.004+08:00

siti will be leaving us soon. since our maid left us 6 months ago, life has been rather .. sob, sob, sob. imagine, having to shorten my slumber to prepare the 2 kiddos for school, help with the laundry, iron my own attire to work and bla bla bla. luckily the suffering only lasted for 3 months. while waiting for the replacement maid, one of our friend was kind enough to loan us siti. she has been such an exemplary and hard working girl. i wish she could stay longer, but then we don't really need 2 maids to help with the house chores. we used to have 2 maids before, one exclusively to take care of my late mum. having 2 maids was not easy though as they regularly back stab and quarrel with each other. and to siti we wish to thank you for all your deeds and wish you all the best in your future undertakings.

darsi at her first high tea in zende seri pacific today. i'm sure there are more to come !

and to our new maid (only 4 days with us), hopefully she'll enjoy her stay with us. just a piece of advise ... beware of geena, been the youngest, she can be very snobbish and kepala angin at time.

stop ! . take a break

2009-02-15T21:33:00.004+08:00

can't exactly recall when i last visited my own blog. i was extremely busy since beginning of the year, reached home fairly late in the evening, tired & exhausted!. i really needed a break. and when boss told me to represent him to indonesia last week, i felt so relieved ! well, there i was .... spending the weekend in this superb hotel. every thing was fantastic about this newly refurbish hotel. the joy of waking up late in the morning, enjoying my breakfast at leisure, spending time over coffee at the pool terrace and enjoying the evening at the lobby lounge listening to beautiful songs rendered by a most talented singer I've ever met. of course the kiddos kata tak aci abah tidur kat hotel yang best. a very deserving break i must say. well, jakarta, here we come again on the 13th. march. this time the whole family (minus nana) will be there.

didn't realised that it was valentine last saturday until the waitress at the kofuko restaurant presented adik with a small box of chocolate and a bunch of rose. been very naive, her first remark 'buat apa bagi adik bunga ni , adik mana suka bunga' well, i don't give a damn about valentine's day. we were there not to celebrate but to have our lunch and spend some time with the kiddos!.

and adik posing in the restaurant.

Salam Maal Hijrah

2008-12-21T17:55:00.003+08:00

Rasanya masa berlalu begitu cepat sekali. Disember hanya tinggal beberapa hari saja lagi dan bayang bayang tahun baru dah pun timbul. Akhir tahun ingatkan bolehlah rilek sikit, tapi terbuzylah pulak. Plan for another exotic middle east holiday pun kena scrape gaya gaya ketiadaan maid untuk menemani the kiddos di rumah. Ikutkan janji agensi tu, kami akan terima replacement maid sebelum bulan ramadhan, tapi sekarang ....... masih menunggu dan menunggu.

btw, untuk kawan kawan serta pelawat blog ini, saya ucapkan selamat menyambut Maal Hijrah. Pada yang ada kelapangan, jemputlah ke rumah , kita minum petang sikit & borak borak pada 25 Disember 2008, dari 3 - 6 ptg di No. 1, Jalan Kent 4, Off Jalan Maktab 54000 K.L (berhampiran dewan perdana felda).

3 Hari 2 Malam

2008-12-01T19:03:00.008+08:00

the much awaited break. pangkor here we come ! sebenarnya plan awal nak ke bukit tinggi in sumatra, tapi kerana kuasa veto anak anak, terpaksalah ikut pilihan mereka. perjalanan selama 3 jam agak memenatkan. balik rumah setelah selesai menghadiri jamuan amal pada malam sebelumnya dah hampir 1 pagi. terus bergegas kemas bag sebab nak mulakan perjalanan tepat pukul 8.00 pagi. perjalanan dengan feri ke PIBR dari jeti lumut mengambil masa hampir setengah jam. adiklah yang nampaknya paling excited sebab dia ni rasanya tak pernah naik feri.

bilik kami yang mengadap pantai agak run down dan tak dimaintain dengan baik. rasanya dengan rm 600 ++ untuk satu malam, one would expect a better room. di bali, one can get a very good room for just usd 100 / night. rasanya mungkin ramai setuju dengan saya kalau saya katakan bercuti didalam negeri taklah semurah yang di war war kan. untuk 2 malam penginapan (2 bilik) serta makan minum di PIBR our bil dah rm tiga ribu lima ratus ringgit. aduh !!!! kalau anak 7, 8 orang sure pening !

Anyway it does not really matter as the kiddos memang enjoy the beach. lebih bermakna, we really have quality time together. Needless to say, the beach was superb. pada kekawan, berbanyak sorry sebab tak ada apa apa souvenir - sebab tak keluar pekan pun. we just confined ourselves to the hotel & the beach.

dan beberapa keping gambar yang dirakamkan

(menunggu feri di jeti lumut)

(pemandangan dari balconi bilik)

(opps, orang putih kata sunbathing !)

(and this is geena)

(geena wish to dedicate this photo of hers to kak nana in the far away land)

pening pening !!!!!!!!!!

2008-11-24T20:09:00.006+08:00

So the school holiday is here ! pening rasanya melayan kerenah 2 teenage kiddos kat rumah ini. seperti kebiasaan, adik akan kata ' bosanlah abah asyik duduk rumah saja, tak pergi jalan mana mana !. and abang seperti biasa ... ' abah, abang keluar sekejap dengan kawan, nak pergi makan .....'. macamlah kat rumah ni dah tak ada apa yang nak dimakan.

well, nampaknya adik dah ada her own circle of friends now. and since the school break, rasanya dah a few times dia keluar dengan kawan kawan ke klcc, samada ke movie atau nandos(and thanks to her friend's parent yang sudi supervise budak budak tu). walaupun we're a bit relex now, we do keep a constant watch on her, what more, she's only 14. we're less worried for the brother. been a boy, i think he's more than able to care for himself. though he confess that some of his 16 year old friends do smoke, he swear that he has never tried. well, i suppose you just have to trust your heart and believe him. (in retrospect, i've done far worst things at that age!). and abang sekarang dah tak buat port kat klcc lagi, dah pandai venture ke pavillion. katanya ada short cut ke pavillion dari klcc, just a short walking distant.

the new geena

abang new cannon 450D

last week abang said he wanted a his own dsr camera. says he doesn't want to share my nikon D80. well, nak turn down his request at blank point pun rasa bersalah juga, .... what more bila dia ungkit 'kak nana mintak duit nak pergi holiday italy, abah okay jer'. on second thought, i suppose we have to be fair to the kiddos!. well, if only he had requested for a motorcycle, then the answer will be a definite NO. and of course adik pun ada dia punya request ...... kalau abah beli abang kamera, adik nak buat hair treatment and rebonding sekali lagi. well, that sounds reasonable as it only cost us rm 280 at derreck & team.

geena & classmates

abang and geng

sebenarnya awal cuti sekolah dulu memang bercadang nak bawak the kiddos for a short excursion to padang & bukit tinggi in sumatra but the 2 kiddo unanimously vetod the idea. 'buat apa pegi indon lagi. bukan best pun .....' and that sounds very familiar. as a compromise, we'll be spending 3 days in pangkor next week. and sorry kiddos, this year's abah & mama's vacation is still on.

Hello Dad & Hello Friends .....

2008-10-13T21:09:00.009+08:00

It was almost 4.00 in the morning when the phone rang. grabbing the phone i realized that i had 3 miss call. half awake, i thought it was from the nurse in the intensive care ward, only to realized that it was from my sister. i must be fairly tired then as I've just finished a craniotomy barely 2 hours earlier (poor child who sustained multiple skull bone fracture with massive intra cranial hemorrhage when a 32 inch tv accidentally fell on her). in between her sob i heard 'baba masuk wad pukul 2 pagi tadi ....deman dan sakit perut macam dulu, dah tiga kali bagi injection ubat tahan sakit tapi tak kurang pun'. oh no , not again , i'm sure he had another attack of acute cholecystitis. yes dad had multiple gallstones and had similar attacks of acute cholecystitis before. the option of treatment was clear - surgical removal of the gallbladder. but taking into considerations of his advanced age, recent coronary artery disease, and his concurrent hypertension and diabetes, he opted for conservative treatment as the surgical risk was fairly high.

after some futile attempts to speak to the doctor in charge, i finally managed to speak to her at 5 in the morning. of course no doctor is please to be confronted at that wee hour. i didn't mean to be impolite, let alone under estimate her professional ability. when i asked her wheather she has started my dad on intravenous cephalosporin and metronidazole ... only to hear her saying ' no, your dad does not need any antibiotics, he just require pain killer and rest'. and by the way in a district hospital like this we don't have expensive intravenous antibiotics. such antibiotics requires approval from a specialist, and there is no specialist in dungun hospital. a little annoyed ... i asked her how would she treat a case of acute cholecystitis then?. her answer was plain simple ... your dad presented with acute abominal pain and I'm treating him with pain killers.

absolutely frustrated with her answer, i blankly told her ... 'look you may be a young and inexperience doctor (just short of asking where she was trained!). if you're unable or not competent enough to treat such patient, then for goodness sake refer him to a centre or a doctor who is capable enough to treat such illness. well, she was still adamant that she was giving my dad the right treatment. 8.00 sharp in the morning i rang up the surgeon on call at hospital kuala terengganu. having introduced myself and before i could finish relating my frustration with the doctor in the district hospital, he interrupted 'okay boss, I'll instruct her to transfer your dad right away under my care. btw, i don't know whether you still remember me. you were one of the clinical examiners in my post graduate exam'.

feeling rather 'uneasy', i asked ana to postponed some non urgent appointments and close my clinic after the morning session. throughout the 5 hours journey, i can't help thinking about dad, knowing that his pain threshold is extremely low. and for 3 straight nights, i was camping in primula beach hotel, the nearest hotel to the hospital. Thanks god, with proper treatment and supervision under the care of my former post graduate student, dad has shown remarkable improvement.

(view of the hospital from the hotel room)

while in KT, i also took the opportunity to met some old friends. I called ZA a week earlier telling him that i'll be in town and hope to met up over lunch or tea. well, it turn out to be a real surprise, as within such a short notice he manage to gather 10 of our closest old friends that i've not met since our lower secondary school years. we have so much to talk about .... the memories of the yesteryear were still fresh in my mind , the days when things were very easy, the days when having rm 2 in your pocket make you feel that you were very loaded. and the days when you were the envy of your friends when you rode a new chopper bicycle to school. of course i still remember the days when we were teasing and trying our best to impress the girls. and the untold secret admirers that was kept secret for 30 years. and i feel so touch that despite not seeing each other for 30 years, our friendship and sincerity remained unfazed. and to all, thank you for a wonderful and memorable evening.

(teringat pulak lagu mary hopkins - those were the days .....)

(the makciks, ...opps the cikgu cikgu)

(the grown up boys)

(for the record ... he he he i'm not in the picture))

The Raya Journey

2008-10-03T20:49:00.004+08:00

Departed KL @ 3.00 pm on 30/9/08. Apart from a small glitch due to an accident just before Seremban, the journey was smooth and easy. Reached JB just on time for iftar.
Returned from JB @ 6.30 pm on 2/10/08. With the cruise set at 110km/hr, reached KL @ 10.30 pm. Apart from those little kancils and protons with out of place big and noisy exhausts cruising way beyond the speed limit, the journey was otherwise smooth and pleasant. Surprisingly all the mamaks and old town coffee shops along jalan Ampang & Yap Kwan Seng were closed. Lucky for us, the faithful tomyam warongs in kg baru were open for business as usual.

... well, raya is all about getting closer to the love ones.

suddenly every body miss nana. hope she do enjoy her raya in the far away land. ..... and for amalina who'll be leaving tomorrow, have a safe journey & study hard.

Ramadhan & Salam Eidul Fitril

2008-09-23T06:03:00.007+08:00

( iftar di perkarangan masjid al nabawi - 2006)

sedar tak sedar ramadhan al mubarak sudah hampir ke penghujungnya. sedih rasanya nak meninggalkan bulan yang penuh barakah ni. tambah sedih lagi kerana hasrat untuk bertarawih serta bertahajud di malam malam terakhir bulan suci ini di baitullah tidak kesampaian. sebenarnya memang sudah bercadang untuk bersujud di masjid al nabawi dan masjid al haram lagi pada ramadhan kali ini, tetapi terpaksa dibatalkan pada waktu waktu terakhir. bila teringat kembali memang terasa tersangat hiba dan sahdu sekali bila dapat menunaikan solat tarawih, solat tahajud serta solat sunat eidul fitril dengan ribuan umat islam lain dihadapan kaabah. eidul fitri pun dah nampak bayang bayangnya, tapi seperti hari hari raya yang terdahulu, rasanya saya tidaklah looking forward sangat dengan kehadiran hari tersebut.

sebenarnya pada bulan ramadhan ni, malas rasanya nak keluar rumah, lebih lebih lagi pada waktu malam. sayang sangat nak meninggalkan solat tarawih. that explains kenapa semua undangan untuk majlis berbuka puasa saya tolak - antaranya yang dihostkan oleh KPJ Berhad, Lejadi Groups of Company, Tropicana Golf & Country Club. even majlis yang dianjurkan oleh Alumni pun saya tolak, walaupun dalam hati memang nak jumpa sangat dengan member member lama. yang perit sikit nak tolak ni undangan dari Tengku A. dia ni pelik sikit,seperti biasa akan buat majlis pada hari hari terakhir ramadhan. rasanya dah wiser now, don't worry i'll sure find my way.

.... dan semalam puan Azlina dari CIMB called menanyakan samaada nak reserve new notes untuk duit raya.

pada semua rakan taulan serta kenalan, saya mengambil kesempatan ni untuk mengucapkan salam ramadhan al mubarak serta selamat menyambut hari raya eidul fitril, ribuan maaf saya pohon atas sebarang kesalahan.

THE weeding - biar betul !

2008-08-26T16:13:00.009+08:00

.....and finally the weeding invitations are all over. thanks god !. believe it or not within the last few weeks, i received a total of 16 weeding invitations. agak sukar untuk memenuhi kesemua undangan kerana ada yang bertembung waktu dan hari. just to share a few of those occasions:-

1.My CEO hosted her son's weeding reception at dewan merdeka pwtc. a fairly grand reception, typical of orang johor. tetamu memang ramai, agak full house. yang tak berkenang sikit, suami dia pulak ambil kesempatan mendendangkan a few songs (kalau sedap tu tak apalah !). from reliable sources she spend about 400 thousand ringgit for the reception.

2. A close friend held his daughter's weeding reception at hilton's kl sentral. a lavish reception with a touch of balinese style. the musicians are flown in from jakarta. well, the music was superb and fascinating. the only problem was so much time was spend on merenjis ceremony as there were so many super vvip's that were invited to perform the ritual. and as expected he spend close to 650 thousand ringgit (enam ratus lima puloh ribu ringgit sahaja) for the dinner reception.

3. Another friend held his celebrity son's weeding reception at dewan perdana felda. since his daughter in law is also a tv personality, naturally there were many artists, singers and tv personalies within the crowd. the music was fantastic, performed by the personals from ntv7 and his talented family friends. yang kurang sikit, ada jugak yang render rock songs - rasanya tak sesuai sangat dengan occasion macam ini. anyway, since he does not have to pay for the entertainment, his bill was about 120 thousand ringgit.

4. An immediate neighbour held her daughter's weeding reception at home. fairly simple and non glamorous occasion starting at 8.00 pm. and as expected from a senior high court judge, his circle of friends were rather limited, thus accounting from the relatively small crowd. any way the reception was superb as we get to know our neighbours.

on a personal note, i do not fancy attending weeding receptions at the hotels or dewan simply because i think it is just a waste of time. imagine wasting 3 or 4 hours for the occasions. and of course it doesn't concur to me to spend a few hundred thousand ringgits for the reception. my ideal weeding reception is always the typical kampung style - come at my free convenient time, spend 15 to 30 minutes at the reception, then off i go !

Such a biggg eater

2008-08-02T23:10:00.002+08:00

sometimes i wonder how people can eat soooo much. macam dah tak ada hari esok. of course i can't deny, when one is away from home for 10 months, the first thing they do on reaching home is to fill up their gaster. years ago i also used to be away from home, tapi rasanya tak adalah glutton macam ni. ...... just to recap how our big girl enjoyed her food.

arrived home past noon. barely 6 hours latter she was with her friends at the rows of middle eastern reataurants in jalan damai. the following morning dashed off to nasik lemak antarabangsa kg baru. followed by lunch at kl tower with her fellow african friend and old school mate.

lunch in the air

then of course the regular nightly kampung baru tomyam (one of the best in town i must say)and the nightly visits to old town kopitiam & mamak in jalan yap kwan seng. and not forgeting her asam laksa at little penang cafe in klcc. a wee bit lucky though, she just visited klcc's dome only once since her arrival. and her yearly bbq with friends at home.

the gathering .......

and despite been occupied with her daily practical training at ijn, sempat jugak lunch hopping ke cosy corner at ampang park and legend's di atas braserrie. and not missing the regular week end hi tea's with her bro & sis.

.... says this is her favourite.

guess who's the biggest eater.

and her list of makan goes on and on. i really find it difficult to keep up with her appetite pace - i'm only hopping that i'm not growing side ways !

Malas Malas Malas

2008-07-05T06:53:00.005+08:00

The malas syndrome is here again. without fail this syndrome will appear every 2 to 3 months. basically this syndrome consists of:-
1. malas nak pergi kerja (kalau pergi kerja pun mesti cabut awal)
2. malas nak bukak mata - prefer to zzzzzzz sahaja
3. malas nak hang out with kekawan
4. malas nak jawab sms
5. malas nak blog hop or komen kat kg mms
6. malas nak mikir masaalah orang lain
7. malas nak dengar the other half berleter
So what do I do when confronting with such syndrome ???
1. spend most of my time in front of the tv (sampai citer indon pun layan)
2. berangan taking time off for a good exotic holiday - eastern europe ke, south africa ke, syria ke .....
Time malas malas ni banyak pulaklah weeding invitation. antara yang belum terlupa:-
a. July 6, di PWTC
b. July 8, di dewan perdana felda
c. July 20, di jalan maktab 5
d. July 26, di dewan puspanita (dewan dr. siti hasmah)
d. August 3, di Hilton Kuala Lumpur Central
e. August 8, di dewan perdana felda
f. August 10, di pusat belia antarabangsa cheras
apa lagi yang nak update ni ....... ish malaslah !

the Tower

2008-06-25T17:01:00.005+08:00

dah lama teruja nak ke kl tower, tapi kenapa tak pernah pergi ?. alasannya belum ada kesempatan waktu ( ish ish ish memanglah a lame excuse !). the tower is so near yet so far away. terfikir jugak, kalau aku dah pernah sampai ke eiffel tower di paris, milad tower di tehran, berlin tower di germany dan cairo towel di egypt, tak kan kl tower yang dekat ni pun tak boleh sampai.

a view of kl tower from our garden

so, last sunday we decided to visit the tower. tak sangkalah pulak ramai bebenor pelancong asing di situ sehinggakan nak dapat parking pun susah. entah apa event yang mereka promote, ada pulak bazaar di dataran tower yang menjual perbagai cendera hati dan makanan dari middle eastern countries. rata ratanya pelancong pelancong tersebut sangat terhibur dengan cultural show yang dipersembahkan.

and since it was lunch time, we decided to have our lunch dekat restoran berputar di atas menara. nasib kami baik, sebab masih ada kekosongan tempat di restoren tersebut. forget about the deco which is a bit off, for only 12 euro, one get a very lavish buffet with a live entertainment and a fantastic view. kalau kat europe 12 euro tu boleh dapat kebab dengan mineral water jer. and honestly this is what i like about our beloved malaysia - cheap & fantastic food (lama lama boleh boroi perut ni !)

pemandangan dari restoran berputar menara kl. sikit sikit gayat adalah !

suasana dalam restoren agak meriah dengan kehadiran pemain pemain bolasepak negeri kedah yang sedang celebrate kejayaan mereka selepas memenangi perlawanan akhir piala malaysia pada malam sebelumnya. tapi tak adalah pulak nampak pengunjung restoren minta autograf mereka. ish, kalaulah yang dine tu pemain permain Arsenal .......

AMSterDAM ... here we come !

2008-06-12T22:44:00.013+08:00

masa dinner malam khamis lepas, rj @ fdm tanya samada aku nak ikut dia ke amsterdam. entah kenapa, secara spontan aku kata okay. rj kena attend training session kat headquarters dia selama dua hari. esok petangnya aku collect ticket kat KLM office di park royal and there we goes .... 3 days latter we were on our way en route to amsterdam. ish ish macam tak percayalah pulak, decision nak pergi amsterdam dibuat on the spot. nak balik kampung pun mau fikir seminggu. of course isteri aku thought i was joking bila aku bagitahu dia 'i'm off to amsterdam in 3 day's time'. sebenarnya aku dah pun 2 kali pergi amsterdam, pertama in 1986 dan kali kedua semasa bercuti bersama isteri & anak-anak pada tahun 2003. btw, terima kasih kak p**h kerana belanja makan malam tu.

penerbangan terus ke lapangan terbang schipol selama hampir 12 jam agak meletihkan sebab aku masih meneruskan tugas on call dua jam sebelum aku mengambil erl ke klia. dah memang begitu selalu, time aku nak pergi bercuti, masa tu lah pulak banyak kes. on arrival at 5.00 am, cuaca dah terang benderang sebab dah masuk musim panas (summer). seperti kebanyakan negara eropah, sistem pengangkutan awam di sini sangat komprehensive dan mudah. kami mengambil shuttle service yang di sediakan oleh pihak hotel yang terletak hanya beberapa km dari lapangan terbang. selepas check ini, kami keluar semula untuk explore the city.

dari schipol airport kami menunggu bas untuk ke schipol oost sebab rj nak kena beli something for his friends di klm shoppe. punyalah lama tunggu barulah ada bus. tak tahulah pulak syarikat bus ke laluan tersebut sedang melancarkan mogok. yang bestnya mereka ambil penumpang tapi tak ambil tambang. kalaulah malaysia airline atau airasia buat mogak macam ni kan best !. kita memang bernasib baik sebab on the way balik ada pulak a beautiful young dutch lady yang sudi tumpangkan kereta dia, kalau tidak tak tahulah berapa lama nak kena menunggu.

memandangkan the following 2 days rj will be busy dengan training session dia, jadi sebelah tengah hari kami buat perancangan untuk explore the city. keretapi dari schipol station ke amsterdam sentraal mengambil masa 20 minit. so apa specialnya amsterdam !!!!. 'the sex capital of the world' (sorry tiada gambar gambar XXX untuk diupload kerana this time tak pergi red light district), 'bandaraya basikal' , 'bandaraya bunga turlips', 'bandaraya terusan air'.

the presence of hundred of thousands of bicycle in the city is very interesting and unique. no wonder susah nak jumpa warga amsterdam yang berperut boroi sebab mereka burn the calories dengan berbasikal

bandaraya amsterdam juga unik dengan terusan terusan air yang cantik (airnya agak kotor jika dibandingkan 20 tahun lalu). amsterdam merupakan banyaraya eropah yang sangat senang untuk explore - untuk first timer pun confirm tak sesat. pada musim summer amsterdam adalah merupakan tourist city. secara amnya orang belanda adalah seperti warga switzerland - sangat peramah, very helpful dan tourist friendly.

windmill - lagi trademark of netherlands. looorrr teringatlah pulak lagi windmill of my mind !

and thank you puan azlina & suami, theo (opps lupa nak tanya nama islam dia) yang sudi menerima kunjungan kami ke rumah mereka serta belanja makan kat restoran morocco tu. seronok dapat berbual dan mengenali orang muar yang dah lama menetap di holland ni. dia ni memang peramah. dan terima kasih juga kerana sudi offer kami tinggal di rumah mereka. jangan lupa yer, kalau balik malaysia give me a shout !

dan masa summer begini ramailah yang akan bersantai menikmati cahaya matahari di dam square.

sebenarnya niat kami untuk ke amsterdam square untuk menyaksikan game holland dengan italy dalam perlawanan pembukaan mereka pada EURO 08, tetapi disebabkan terjet lag maka terpaksalah redha dapat tengok 2nd half game saja di hotel. negara Eropah memang fanatik dengan eufa euro cup .....bandaraya amsterdam memang dihias indah dengan warna oranje.

bunga turlips , satu lagi trademark netherland. walaupun dah masuk musim panas, turlip buds masih lagi boleh didapati di kedai kedai khusus di bandaraya ini.

well, the only thing i miss about amsterdam is the tram .... kenapalah kena tukar warna yer ....warna oranje dulu kan cantik jika dibandingkan dengan warna biru !

Tahniah & Selamat Berjaya

2008-05-20T21:39:00.007+08:00

Memandangkan seorang kenalan yang juga merupakan seorang dj radio akan dinaikkan pangkat dan bertukar ke Miri, maka kesempatan pada hari cuti wesak digunakan untuk meraikan beliau. it's more of get together over high tea rather. ingatkan nak berkumpul di menara Kl tapi ada pulak yang gayat. Marriot Putrajaya is a good option with it's good food, nice live music and polite crowd tapi jauhlah pulak. finally ended up kat Nikko. adik memang suka bebenor tiramisu kat Deli Lobby lounge Nikko tu. Lagi pun Nikko is only 5 minutes away from home.

and pada semua, thank you for joining us. maaf kalau ada kekurangan. Pada kak Diva tahniah kerana dinaikkan pangkat dan selamat memulakan tugas di tempat baru.

Tribute To The Teachers

2008-05-16T20:13:00.002+08:00

May 16 ... teachers day ! So what ! come to think of it why do people nowadays emphasize so much on the special days ....teachers day, mothers days, nurses day, labour day, fathers day .....and all the donnowhat days !. In my good ole days, i don't think anybody borders very much on the so and so days.

Come teachers day, i bet every body would give a good account of their teachers. Do I have fond memories of my teachers ? - of course I do. Well, some are worth mentioning here.

1. Cikgu Wan Mustapha (my standard 1 teacher)
- his son, wan farid was the class monitor. every time cikgu comes into the class, the monitor will stand up, acknowledged and says 'murid murid semua berdiri, selamat pagi ayah' ...and follows my the rest of the class.

2. Cik Gu Yahaya
- I was in standard 4 when the late Cik Gu Yahaya taught us mathematics. A very strict and ruthless teacher I would say. Even his name send shock tremors to the class. He would just point to any student to come forward and solve the mathematical problems on the blackboard. with the ratan always in his right hand, one is sure to get a token on the palm if one can't solve the problem. then automatically, you'll be sent to stand up on the chair. but he was also quite considerate as he would always give you another chance .... a second mistake however will see you on the highest peak in the class (standing on the table!). I do recall, whenever my name was called to approach the blackboard, rather then wasting his time, i would automatically spring up to stand on the table. I learned that by doing so, i always spare the mandatory canning - wow, clever me !. and of course a very common sight to see ... before the maths period was over, 90% of the students in the class will either be standing on the chair or table. needless to say one of the regulars on the table is now a professor in statistics at universiti kebangsaan malaysia.

3. Miss Ng (geography teacher when i was in form 2)
- a young, pretty and sexy teacher from Ipoh who always wear the shortest miniskit!. somehow whenever she came for the class, all the boys will rush to be seated in the front rows. and once the class was over, Arief will always hold a press conference ..... goes like , 'well, today she wears a pink colour undie' ... followed by a moment of Ooooooo and deep silence

4. Cik Gu MN
- a young teacher, graduate from one of the teacher's training college. a form 2 history teacher cum warden. somehow he was always up to something and honestly i find him very irritating. when we were in form 5, he must be in his early 20's. this is one teacher who always think that he was the smartest, strict tak bertempat and very very annoying. unfortunately, i was caught on at least a few occasions - skipping prep classes, lompat pagar keluar malam from the hostel and painting graffiti. he was the one who recommended and insisted that a group of us be awarded the honourable public canning. and he was also the one who recommended me and MRM to be suspended from school for 2 weeks - and that was less then 1 month before the MCE exam. and it's still fresh in my memory when he called me and MRM to his room and said.. 'i bet my last dollar, that both of you will never go far and i'm not surprise if both of you tak jadi manusia pun'. well, i'm glad we proved him wrong .... at least i'm not a pest to the society and dato dr. MRM is an adviser to the prime minister on energy section !

LABOUR holiDAY

2008-05-02T21:37:00.004+08:00

well, a short break for the first of May. the decision was rather late, thus despite taking the budget airline, the fare was not that cheap after all. the initial plan was to redang or tioman, but for reasons i still find hard to comprehend, we end up in langkawi. no regret really.

I can't exactly remember when was my last trip to langkawi. perhaps 10 years ago !. but i do remember taking a mid day flight and the hotel was perhaps 15 minutes away from the airport (honestly didn't remember the hotel's name). attended the opening ceremony at 3.00 pm and presented my paper just before the break at 5.00 pm. after a quick snack, i rushed back to the airport to catch the last flight home.
by the way this trip was the first for my 2 teenage kiddos.

.... and adik on arrival at langkawi airport - i gathered she was fairly excited

thought of visiting the under water world but as advised by the receptionists at the hotel, the cable car ride was a far better option . and there goes the kiddos and the maid in the cable car

and the scenery at the summit was just breath taking. and the aura and phobia of walking on the hanging bridge !

needless to say, visiting the mahsuri mousoleum was a must for the visitors to langkawi.

and of course the attraction of the beach. lots of places to hang out and unwind along the cenang beach at night - very much resemble the night life in kuta beach in bali. a lot of good restaurants serving good seafood and western cuisines. but alas, the tomyam was a mere disappointment!

and can't blame the maid - wow dia pun nak melaram !

and finally, that was me in langkawi.

Summary:-
verdict: a good and well deserved short holiday
Shopping: fantastic (at least i got 3 pieces of ralph laurent shirt for only rm 500)
Food: the restaurants were fairly good, clean and affordable
Setback: adik merajuk sebab tak jumpa cari starbucks to get her ice blended mocca

Does honesty pays ?

2008-04-23T17:11:00.010+08:00

a couple of days ago, while having our regular nasi lemak at penang village, a close friend was asking me whether it was worth been honest and trustworthy ! naturally i startled in disbelieved with such unexpected question. knowing him way back from our hostel years, he was the honest and naive type (and a bit blurr at times ,.... sorry Mr. N****). back to our dear friend, he must has been disappointed for been left out in the recent promotion exercise - most of his peers have been promoted to a pengarah level by now. he says his only weakness was that he was honest, transparent and doesn't know how to cheat his ketua pengarah (i suppose somebody has to tell him that there is such thing as tipu sunat!).

honest is a word which is hard to describe and can be interpreted in many different ways. you may not realise the act until someone congratulate you for your deed. usually those who appreciate your help and honest act will pay you in kind, be it a simple thank you or something beyond you expectation. just to reflect some of my personal 'unsangkarable' appreciations.

a. a young indonesian man was referred to me in HKL from a private hospital in subang jaya. he sustained severe head injury when he was high on drug and fell from his second floor hotel room. immediate attempt to contact his family members proved futile even with the help of the Indonesian embassy. his dad and mum arrived from Jakarta about 6 weeks latter after his came out from his coma and was able to tell us his house no. honestly i can't bear seeing his parents then with tears glistering in their eyes. for 6 weeks they were damned worried as their son has not contacted them. he was suppose to fly straight to Amsterdam via Changi, but decided to take a detour to kl. and i was really happy and proud to see him improving as the day goes by. when his parents requested that i accompany his son back to Jakarta, i naturally agreed. another big big surprise. yes we actually flew in his dad's private Lear jet ! little did i realize that his dad also own the Jakarta Grand Hyatt (never have i imagine that I'll be sleeping in a presidential suite at the hotel). 3 days in Jakarta, been very well entertained within the circle of the super rich is an experience of a life time. and an another surprise - a small token of USD 10K(that's what his mum said).

b. Puan F****** what admitted in a state of coma at about 3 in the morning. having arrived from heathrow about 5 hours earlier, her husband thought she was still having her jet lag until she started to have uncontrolled seizure. urgent CT scans of the brain done on admission indicated bleeding within a large frontal lobe tumor. all the while her complaint of frontal headache was dismissed as migraine attack. emergency surgery to remove the tumor was done in the wee hour of the morning. Thanks god, she survived. 3 weeks latter someone from the travel agency called. 'En. J***** was very grateful that you save his wife & he insisted that you take a well deserved holiday with you family'. and there we were, an unforgettable fully paid family holiday in mount titlis, Switzerland courtesy of Mr J*****. Thank you Mr J***** and Puan F******. do keep in touch.

c. Tan Sri Dato Seri D**** had a massive bleed in his brain following a fall in a posh hotel in Jalan Sultan Ismail. Apart from mild weakness of his left limbs and mild personality changes, he has indeed shown a remarkable improvement. and without fail, come hari raya, tan sri will deliver a huge 6 feet high hamper to my house, plus the rm 1000 dinner voucher. received a fax from his office on Monday for another informal dinner at his residence in tropicana golf and country club. well this is the second dinner in a year.

d. Dato L** was grateful that i treated his son who fell from the balcony while trying to so sneak his girlfriend into his room. we became close friends since then. and again he love to entertain friends and his close business associates over dinner. that reminds me of another dinner at one world hotel next week (lucky I'll be in langkawi then !). and of course he was rather disappointed that i couldn't attend the official opening of his restaurant in Perth last year.

e. and that reminded me of the other numerous gifts i received over the years ranging from nana ricci silk tie to mont blanc pen.

f. then there was this chap from muar who always bring a half gunny sack of rambutan or mangosteen when ever he came for his follow up visit. and not forgetting Tuengku A** who regularly travel from bandar aceh with buah salak madu sumatera and keropok belinjau (for some reasons, those patients from sumatera put more trust in our doctors than theirs)

g. and of course as usual, bottles of wine and boxes of chocolate from the Scott's whenever they came to see me in the follow up clinic at the southern general. needless to say, the nurses then were the happiest lots as they known invariably they were the lucky one to carry the bottles home.

h. above all, a small crayon painting from irina, a cute 7 year old sabahan girl from tawau touch my heart the most. in her drawing, apart from her parents and two other siblings, she included me as her beloved family member whom she dearestly love. sadly she died a week after i received her drawing. medulloblastoma is always a fatal and aggressive childhood brain tumor. Alfathihah.

well, despite what some people might think, I still believe that honesty and sincerity still pays. you may not get an immediate reward, but insyaallah the reward is always there in the here after.

KLKL

2008-04-18T22:50:00.002+08:00

selepas solat jumaat biasanya aku terus saja pulang ke rumah. receptionist aku dah memang maklum aku tak masuk lagi ofis lepas solat jumaat, jadi memang dia tak ambil appointment petang jumaat unless ada real emergency. biasanya lepas solat jumaat aku akan settle semua urusan bank, bayar utility bills, melepak kat favourite coffee shop atau terus pulang ke rumah melayari internet. jadi petang jumaat dapatlah dengar KLKL (kenangan lalu kuala lumpur) yang dikendalikan oleh dj fauziah zakaria @ kak porsh. lagu lagu yang dimainkan memang kelas dan nostalgik, lebih lebih lagi jika dikendalikan oleh dj azizah sulaiman dan fauziah zakaria. for some reasons, the two djs just have the instint for good songs. kak porsh is one dj who will try her best to please her listerners. kadang kadang terasa malulah pulak sebab selalu jugak request lagu. rasanya last week dah request lagu rafeah buang, hari ni request lagi sekali .... ish ish ish. but then, i just love her songs. so lepas dinner dengan the kids tadi di klcc terus ke tower record cari cd rafeah buang (lucky for me as that was the last copy).

petang tadi the kiddo from far away land sms ...'can i use my credit card to get a new nokia e65. they're having sale now. only rm 1500.00'(berapa rubles eh !). seems that the kiddos are upgrading their mobile once in 2 years. yang untungnya the maid ... rasanya si sri wahyuni tu dah ada 3 mobile phone. familiar sangat dengan statement ini ....'kalau abah belikan phone baru, nanti adik/abang bagilah phone yang lama ni ke kak sri' ......

birthday oh b'day

2008-04-12T21:13:00.004+08:00

March and April are always the months to reckon. I suppose life was much easier for us when the kiddos were very much younger - a barbie doll or an ultraman stuff would do the trick. well, time changes ... and one would not be able to pacify a teenage with such birthday gift anymore.

March 18 - adik request for a new 3G mobile. she just lost her new rm 1250.00 nokia(hardly 3 month's old). can't complaint very much - a fairy careless and destructive character at times. request granted - kalau tidak tak tahulah muncung panjang mana !

March 23 - a week prior to the date abang has be posing and playing with my nikon SLR. hinted that he'll be joining the photography club in school. one night he asked whether he could have a D60 or D40x nikon SLR for his special day. well, we reach a compromise, since i hardly use my D80, he's free to use it any time he wish. well, he seems happy but deep inside i could sense that he felt he should also get something solely for himself.

so then this was abang's 16th birthday present.

April 2 - it was nana big day. since the owner is in a far away land, then the pleasure was on us to decide what she deserve for her birthday. adik and abang came out with a brilliant idea. .... we decided that being the eldest, she should get the biggest present, a 40 inch sony plasma tv. well sorry nana for the time being, the rest of us will enjoy your birthday present. be free to ask for it when you're back for your summer holidays. such an excellent idea from adik and abang.

Merapi Oh Merapi

2008-03-25T18:38:00.002+08:00

Rasanya dah lama sangat tak jengok blog ni ... ish ish dah bersawan rupanya. sejak entri terakhir, memang rasa hopeless sangat ! sebenarnya tak ada apa special yang nak di update. well, we're suppose to head to palestin masa cuti sekolah yang lepas tapi terpaksa dibatalkan on the eleventh hour sebab pergolakan terbaru yang terjadi disana. kata our guide, pihak regim telah sealed off the border, jadi no way we can enter. further more keadaan masa tu sangatlah huru hara dan merbahaya.

pilihanraya telah pun berlalu but then rasa sangat menyampah pulak dengan the series of post election events yang berlaku. by the way i cast my vote for the first time walau pun dah registered dengan spr since 1988. rasa banggalah pula sebab calon yang menerima pangkahan pertama saya tu menang ! eeeee geram pun ada ..... ada ke patut adun adun di negeri kelahiran aku nak tunjuk act pulak dengan Tuanku Sultan. sedih rasanya melihat perangai those useless politicians. manalah lafaz 'kesetiaan pada raja dan negara' yang menjadi tunggak rukun negara.

disebabkan tersangat menyampah dengan isu isu semasa yang berlaku, we decided to surf the net, and there we were.

..... our flight on malaysia airline ke jogjakarta mengambil masa hampir 2 jam setengah. seperti lapangan terbang di bandar aceh, medan, bali dan bandung, lapangan terbang adisucipto di jogjakarta juga agak usang dan tidak begitu impressive. memandangkan hari cuti umum good friday, maka perjalanan dari lapangan terbang ke hyatt hanya mengambil masa 15 minit.

(gunung merapi yang jelas kelihatan dari bilik kamar)

as it was not a plan trip, kami agak at a lost apa yang nak di buat di jogja. our main aim was to visit candi borobudur (now that we've visited 6 out of the 7 wonders of the world). the hotel was amazing with very nice landscape and fantastic scenery facing the golf course and mount merapi.

(candi borobudur yang banyak menerima kunjungan penduduk tempatan dan luar negeri).

disamping candi borobudur, kami juga mengambil kesempatan menyusuli jalan desa ke kaki pergunungan merapi - the scenery was great dengan ladang buah salak di kiri kanan jalan ke kaki gunung.

sempat juga ke universitas gadjah mada (UGM) - antara universiti tertua dan terfamous di indonesia. rasanya ramai juga penuntut malaysia yang sedang melanjutkan pelajaran disana.

(penuntut UGM yang sedang menjamu selera - the best part is puluhan warung di sekitar kawasan universiti tidak menyediakan kerusi meja untuk pelanggan mereka, so that explain makan sambil bersila !)

the shopping district sekitar jalan malioboro tersangat padat dengan ribuan manusia (naik pening kepala pulak dibuatnya). terdapat banyak batik tulis yang memang cantik cantik. seorang pedagang batik di kawasan tersebut memberi tahu terdapat beberapa orang dari kuala lumpur datang ke kedainya bagi menempah pakian pengantin.

and as usual, what ole ole do I get for myself ? ..... NOTHING !. dan cuba tanya the same question to my wife. yang menghairankan, kalau shopping tak pernah dia mengeluh penat !

Oh God, I'm So Sorry !

2008-02-10T14:42:00.001+08:00

It's been more than a week now. It keeps lingering in my mind, and though i've tried to forget it, the memories keep coming. honestly, i just couldn't come to term with the fact that i've lost her. in Almighty Allah i place my trust.

she saw me a few weeks earlier complaining of increasing forgetfulness, persistent frontal headache and progressive blurring of vision. and of course i didn't take her words for granted when she told me that she was suffering from migraine. it came as no surprise when the magnetic resonant scans of the brain indicated a large broad based tumor over the fronto-basal region. there was also severe papillodema from compression of the optic nerve causing her to have impaired vision. the options were clear, surgery to remove the tumor or she'll gradually suffers until her time is up, perhaps in a couple or months or within the next 1 or 2 years at the most. somehow, deep inside me, i've some reservation - the uncomfortable feeling i sensed creeping in me. the feeling that i could not really expressed. not that i've never seen such a tumor - in fact i've operated on far bigger and worse tumors than this.

the 8 hours long surgery went fine, the blood lost was minimal and her vital signs were stable throughout. under operative microscope guidance, the tumor was removed piecemeal till the last bits. despite a bit exhaused, i felt a sensed of deep satisfaction knowing that the tumor was completely removed. hourly monitoring of her vital signs and pupil sizes were normal until disaster stroke at 8.00 am on the following morning. for reasons i found difficult to comprehend, her blood pressure suddenly dropped and within 20 minutes, both pupils were fixed and dilated. oh my god ! this can't be true .... I've just lost her. Why ??. no, it can't be that sudden !. of course i was worried about acute hemorrhage in the brain but then a repeat CT scan of the brain done soon after indicated no such hemorrhage. her deterioration was very rapid and within hours, she was demeed brain dead. my God, she does not succumed as a result of the surgery but to something else that was so acute and unexpected.

the next 2 days was indeed very stressful and full of despair. i just can't help feeling so sorry for her family and friends. i was really feeling very down and decided to cancel all my appointments. and i felt sorry for my receptionist anna as she had to deal with the dissatisfied and frustrated patients some of whom travelled all the way from johore bahru. my biggest doubt has always been when to terminate the ventilation when one is clinically brain dead. following our discussion with the family members and a renown ustaz we finally decided to let her go. her heart stopped beating approximately 40 minutes after withdrawal of the life support machine. Al-Fathihah. May Allah rest her in peace and make her abode in Jannah. according to the ustaz, based on the medical grounds (when the patient is pronounce brain dead and her condition is not compatible with life anymore as confirmed by a qualified muslim doctor) and hukum fekah it's a must for one to terminate any form of life support so as not to prolong the sufferings.

it was rather unfortunate that her death still remain a mistery. if only her family members have consented to a post mortem, then perhaps we could get to know the cause. but on second thought, was it really necessary. as a believer, i truly belief that Almighty Allah knows best !. and whenever i lost a patient, i would be suffering from a feeling of desperation and low self esteem...and i know this is going to last for weeks. how i wish i could turn back the clock and embark on a less stressful profession ........

You're a Joker !

2008-01-30T16:44:00.000+08:00

Found this in my alumni forum. Have a good day !

Somebody farted during the inquiry.

Inquiry officer asked Tengku Adnan first: Did you fart?
Adnan replied: You must be drunk or mad.

the officer then asked Dr Mahathir: Did you fart?
Mahathir answered: I don't remember. Anyway it's my prerogative to fart and
I don't have to answer to any body.

He then asked Eusoff Chin: Did you fart?
Eusoff Chin answered: If anyone wants to fart, what can I do?

The officer then turned to Lingam: Did you fart?
Lingam replied: Sounds like mine, smells like mine ...

Boring Habis $%@#$#$^#

2008-01-25T19:12:00.000+08:00

rasanya dah lama tak update blog ni. takut pulak blog ni blank terus, jadi tulislah apa yang patut (walau pun mood tu memang at the lowest level). sebenarnya tak ada apa yang special nak ditulis.

1.work load surprisingly agak heavy bermula dari awal minggu pertama tahun baru 2008. ada a few emergencies requiring surgery at the wee hour of the morning. naturally terpaksalah tukar sleeping pattern, kira macam kena jet lag lah tu. penat tu memanglah penat sebab the next day tu kena jugak kerja macam biasa. well, i'm not complaining either, sebab $$$$$$ masyuk.

2.Dad was at my house last week. Tapi this time around he seems to be a bit emotional. ternampak on a few occasion he was weeping tapi bila ditanya katanya tak ada apa apa. yesterday he insisted that I sent him to my sis house in rahman putera . i know dia memang close dengan the maid tu. lepas hantar baba ke sungai buloh barulah maid cerita. katanya he could't stay at my house kerana terkenang arwah mama. I was also very surprised sebab bila baba datang this time dia memang tak nak tidur kat bilik arwah mama. bilik yang arwah mama duduk dulu memang agak selesa sebab very spacious with attach bathroom, aircond and a king size bed. kata maid lagi, the memories of arwah mama tiba tiba make him very emotional, sebab tu lah dia mintak pergi rahman putera.

3. last week juga, tetiba on one fine morning maid mengadu kedua dua tong sampah sudah hilang dicuri orang daripada tempat sampah. ish ish, ... ingatkan curi besi penutup longkang jer, tong sampah pun mereka sapu. balik kerja sebelah petang maid bagi tahu, bukan tong sampah kita saja yang lesap tapi semua tong sampah dari rumah di jalan 4 dan 5 kena angkut !. yang bestnya maid sebelah kena marah dengan dato' majikan dia, katanya tong sampah pun tak pandai jaga !

4. and the march school holiday is just round the corner. yesterday rizal from the travel agency called. katanya ada trip ke jordan and syria. kalau interested, boleh cuba masuk ke hebron di palestin tapi risiko tanggung sendiri. ish, itu kira bagus tu, bukan senang nak pergi palestin tu .....

To Sir With Love

2008-01-13T17:15:00.000+08:00

I was flipping thro' the old album last night when adik asked .. who's that man ????
well, that was my professor, my mentor and someone whom i admired. the late Professor Sir Harry. Sir Harry would addressed everyone, from the tea lady to the most senior consultant surgeon as a 'professor'. Of course, i was shock when he greeted me ..'morning professor', on my very first day when i reported for duty as a medical office in his department. needless to say, though i had to work long hours, not a moment had i complained. i really enjoyed working under this great man. a man who had such a great sense of humour. remembering him triggers my gray matter to some of the jokes that we shared.

1. a man in his 50's was admitted to the ward with severe epigastric and lower chest pain. having clerked and examined him, i presented my findings to Sir Harry who was doing his evening teaching rounds with some postgraduate students. looking at me he asked .. professor, what was your differential diagnosis ? and what investigations would you do to support your diagnosis ? showing him the ECG (electrocardiography) tracing, i told him that the gentleman was suffering from acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) and that the medical officer at the accident and emergency department had wrongly diagnosed and admitted him to our surgical ward. the ECG tracing showed classical 'ST elevation' in all leads. picking up the ECG strip and glancing thro' for 2 minutes, he looked at me and his postgraduate students, he said .... very well professor, .... in the eyes of a surgeon, all ECG's look alike!. even a first year medical student would be able to diagnose a heart attack just by looking at the typical ECG pattern of elevated ST segments. the moral of the story is ,.. don't trust a surgeon when it comes to your heart.

2. there was this indian gentleman who was warded for melena (passing out of loose foul smelling stool mixed with stale blood). during the morning round, Sir Harry turned to me and said ..'professor, would you do a per rectal examination (sticking up one's finger into his anus to determine the progress and colour of the stool) on this gentleman now' . having done the procedure, the gentleman, visibly annoyed by now, looked up at us and has this to say 'apa pasal hari hari pun ada mahu jolok. awak semua ingat in buntut gomen punya ka ??

3. on hearing the code blue message, i rushed to the ward. there Sir Harry and a few other medical personals were ressusitating a patient who developed sudden heart attack following a surgery to remove his gall stones. following defibrillation, the heart rhythm was not in a synchronised state. turning to dr. gurcharan singh (a newly qualified doctor) he shouted ..."professor, get me the verapamil" ( verapamil was the drug use to resynchronise the heart beat). after 5 minutes Sir Harry shouted again ....where is the bloody damned verapamil ???. but dr. gurcharan was no where to be seen. he appeared after 30 minutes. looking very exhausted and gasping for breath, he handed it to Sir Harry. my god, what the hell you bringing this for, lamented Sir Harry. i'm asking for a verapamil and not a burial permit (an official notification form to document the cause of death before one can bury the dead). pity dr. gurcharan, he must have rushed down to the mortury to get the burial permit. well, to cut the story short, the patient indeed required the burial permit.

4. a middle age chinese lady saw Sir Harry in the surgical out patient clinic complaining of constipation (passing hard stool). as Sir Harry does not speak bahasa, he called me to translate. 'well, Ah Soh, saya kasi ini ubat (dulcolax suppository), masuk sana bawah, lepas tu najis mesti jadi lembut, kemudian baru senang pangsai', i explained to her. a week latter she came back to see Sir Harry who then instructed me to handle her case. the lady said ' saya sudah masuk itu ubat sana bawah, tapi apa pasal lagi tak senang pangsai ?'. i was a bit puzzled, usually the dulcolax suppository works very well. trying to solve her problem, i asked her again . 'Ah Soh, awak tunjuk saya macam mana awak masuk itu ubat !'. and this was what she has to say " hari itu awak cakap mahu masuk itu ubat sana bawah . jadi saya sudah buka itu ubat punya plastik, kemudian saya masuk sana bawahlah, dalam itu toilet bowl " i can't help laughing. no wonder it does not work. the suppository was supposed to be inserted into her anus and not into the toilet bowl.

To Professor Sir Harry,
Thank you for your guidance, trust and encouragement. Do rest in peace !

Sunday Routine

2008-01-06T19:44:00.000+08:00

come sunday morning, adik's usual remark ... 'abah, hari ni lunch mana ?'. the kiddos know it very well that since we're only free on a sunday, we always bring them out for lunch or dinner on our free day. needless to say we've to forget about dieting on a sunday !. but the biggest question as always is nak lunch or dinner kat mana ?? the usual options - nasi padang at natrabu or puti bongsu, tarbush, thai village, nasi kelantan in kg baru, legend, le meridian, penang village, grand seasons, marriot putrajaya, pelita nasi kandar (and the list goes on ...). the only problem is geena and farhi always has a contrasting taste. farhi would opted for nasi padang and his ice telle or the thai dishes. geena on the other hand would go for lasagna, speghetti or penang asam laksa. the parents, semua boleh !

so here we're today. at one of our usual pot ! the good thing about this place is ample parking space, only 10 minutes from home, not many customers (you can drop by without an appointment on a sunday but definitely not for lunch on a working day !)

having lunch or dinner at leisure with the kiddos at least once a week on a sunday is something we always look forward. usually this is the time we talk to them about school and their friends. and on their part, this is the time they put up their requests. and geena's request was a bit odd today ..'tasha tanya, boleh tak geena jadi flower girl for her sister's weeding kat bangsar next week ?'

and of course, to maintain the waistline we do have to diet !

Happy New Year - 2008

2008-01-01T18:51:00.000+08:00

i'm still down with low grade fever. this irritating non productive cough is killing me. and for the last 3 nights i've been sleeping alone in the spare room. kira very considerate lah sebab tak mahu the other half terjangkit pulak dengan upper respiratory tract infection ni.

saw some fireworks fired from klcc via the window on the upper floor at the stroke of midnight - nothing interesting ! and the neighbour's daughter with her group of teenages friends punyalah bising memekak celebrating the new year. was called in the wee hour of the morning. two arab students who were drunk had a browl in the pub, landed in the emergency department with kepala koyak sana sini.

azam for the new year ? . nothing new. last year punya pun tak tahu dah tercapai ke belum. as usual, just hope to make more money this year. *** SO HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY ***

i'm sorry for you son

2007-12-28T19:36:00.000+08:00

gazing on the piece of paper he looked perplexed and in sheer disbelieved. 'mamaaa, this can't possibly be my results' he lamented. his eyes were red with tears glistering over the sclera. i could sensed his uttermost despondence over his pmr results. both of us could not help feeling so sorry for our dear son. in between his sob, we faintly heard him murmuring... 'i was hopping for straight 'A's like most of my classmates'. but then exam is always an exam, you might have think that you've done well only to realized that the results were otherwise. well, i realised years ago that there are 'unsangkarable' elements in exam.

it took us 2 days to convinced him that that's not the end of the world. this is only the begining and you still have a long path to persue. academic excellence alone does not guarantee one success in life. frankly speaking, i never achieved excellent results for my LCE (pmr), nor for my MCE (spm). i cannot recall any of my classmates or close friends who are successful and earning in excess of 500K a year were straight 'A's students. in fact, a classmate who is currently an advisor to the prime minister on economic matters was a second grader. during our recent alumni pot pet pot pet, a former classmate, MZ (one of the other second grader then) was asking MH (our top MCE student with an aggregate of 6) how much was he earning now as a director in JKR. 'is that all'... exclaimed MZ. that's only 2 days of my income, says MZ. judging by his brand new 7 series and a newly acquired 5.5 million bungalow in tropicana, MZ must be on a 6 figure salary.

though AF have regained some of his self esteem, the sombre look is still evident on his face. i suppose he must had felt very sorry for letting us down. but then, in a family, we have different skillsets and flair. when it come to sincerity, honesty and love you're tops above the rest. having said that, of course we also have full trust in our 2 daughters.

Salam ldul Adha

2007-12-20T09:54:00.000+08:00

salam idul adha buat semua keluarga serta kawan kawan. ribuan maaf pada baba tersayang kerana tidak dapat beraya di kampung. terasa sayu dan sidih bila memikirkan baba yang keseorangan di kampung. sejak pemergian mama, baba banyak menghabiskan waktu beliau di rumah anak-anak di kuala lumpur. hanya minggu lepas baba insisted nak balik beraya di kampung bagi menguruskan hal hal korban. nasib baiklah dapat ticket mas (airasia agaknya mesti dah fully book).

seperti setiap musim perayaan, banyaklah sms yang diterima mengucapkan salam kesejahteraan. yang terkilannya seperti masa masa lalu ada pengirim sms (yang tidak tersenarai dalam phone book) terlupa menulis nama mereka, maka tergaru-garuslah kepala ini cuba membayangkan siapakah gerangan mereka. apa-apa pun ribuan terima kasih atas ingatan kalian.

antara banyak-banyak sms yang diterima, satu menarik perhatian saya .....
" satu perhimpunan akan diadakan pada 20 disember ini. diharap semua orang melayu islam BERSEDIA!. anda haruslah membawa senjata seperti parang, pisau dll yang tajam! PERHIMPUNAN BERDARAH ini bertempat di masjid kariah anda. SELAMAT HARI RAYA KORBAN "

A Desperate weekend

2007-12-14T15:59:00.000+08:00

back from office on saturday afternoon, she stormed, ....abah, i'm not sleeping at home tonight. for reasons only known to her, adik was very sore with her brother. i just can't stand the sight of him, she declared. i hardy see her lost her temper. and confronting the guy, the cool young man said .... alah biasa jer. adik tu sensitive sangat !

so there we were - 5 minutes from home on the 23rd floor of the Le Meridian. Not a bad idea , at least i could refresh myself after an exhausting week. the last couple of days were fairly hectic. i was summoned to the the emergency department in the wee hours of the morning on a few occasions. on second thought, apart from burrying my head into the pillow, i had better things to do ...........

so i brought along this two books to accompany me. by now, i'm almost finish with growing up in trengganu (GUiT). rather slow and behind schedule i must admit, partly because of too much distractions. following that i hope i could concentrate on zahrah de tigris, a book written by one of my blogger's friend.

for some reasons, i really enjoy GUiT. like brother wan, i also spend much of my yesteryears in my hometown kuala trengganu. reading his accounts of the yesteryears, evoked my own childhood memories. as i still could recall the trengganuspeak, i find it rather emotional when brother wan recalled the long lost words and phrases of trengganuspeak. the last memorable words of trengganuspeak that i conversed was when i had dinner with mak ku, the king's auntie some 2 months ago. recalling words like air cor, bibir jjueh, buoh ggarek and ketek ttunga triggers smile on my face. and of course, kedai mok mek and kedai pok loh yunang are the 2 pots i frequented during my younger days. how could i forget pak loh yunang as one of his grand daughter is also a fellow consultant clinician at my work place.

back from the hotel, we dropped by at the dataran merdeka where pesta masakan warisan was held. unbeknown to me, there were foods from different regions in malaysia with all the weird names and funny look. the best part is one get to sample the various traditional foods for free. and i must confessed, some of the foods felt a wee bit indifferent and fail to rouse my taste buds. by the way, i'm amazed that the serawakians are so inventive - they even cooked gelatinous rice in a 'periok kera'

The Iran Trip - part 2

2007-12-09T01:40:00.001+08:00

the traffic was horrible and we were dead worried that we'll miss the local flight to isfarhan. upon checking in we're told that the flight was rescheduled an hour latter (unfortunately there was no official flight delay notice on the information board). nevertheless, they were very apologitic and handed us a lunch pack - a packet of faily large size kebab, local fruits, salad, cookies and a can drink (by my standard, a very heavy meal indeed!). at the airport, met a fellow malaysian, a former MAS engineer, now a part time consultant with air mohan, the second iran airline. few of his fellow workers at mas, mainly senior flight attendents are also with the airline training the staffs. onboard the fokker 100, we're again served with a fairly heavy lunch (kebab as usual). again i keep thinking, why are they so generous with food. minus the budget airlines, all other airline will only serve some refreshment for a 35 minutes flight !.

the traffic in isfarhan was definitely much better and within 20 minutes were were at our hotel. en route to the hotel we passed by the kuala lumpur avenue, a street name after kuala lumpur following a special colloboration between the 2 cities ( there was this jalan isfarhan, near the sogo shopping centre in kuala lumpur). the hotel was stategically located in the city centre and facing the river zayendeh. unfortunately the hotel charged usd 5.00 for an hour of internate connection.

(the city of isfarhan)

i'm amased as i soon found out that this is one city with so many beautiful ladies (young and old alike). honestly i have never seen this phenomena ! even a middle age beggar with a young daughter (the only one i saw on the street) was beautiful ! the young people were also extremely friendly. knowing that we were visitors to their city, they would give you a welcome smile and would initiate a conversation. by the way, there were not many tourists in this city. through out our stay we only met 2 brittish couples from birmingham and stoke on trent and an eccentric australian gentleman from brisbane. most people that we met were excited to know that we were from malaysia (they call it malaysium). kuala lumpur have make quite a reputation in the city as a numble of young people we met were looking forward to further their studies in universiti islam antarabangsa, multimedia university, or universiti putra malaysia. there was also this young lady who proudly told us she'll enroll in islamic studies in university of malaya in january.

(a cute shy little lad of isfarhan)

(even the ladies in traditional chador are approachable and very friendly. they even invite us to their house for tea)

the people in this city just love to go out in the park and have an open picnic. the picnic area on the hill slope over looking the city was packed with people on a friday afternoon. of course i was quite surprise to see so many gentleman at the park at that particular hour ( or do they take friday prayers lightly !)

(an isfarhan family who insisted that we join them on their outing)

Apart from the iman square with an old palace of shah abbas, the grand bazzar, the mosques and the historic bridges overlying the zayendeh river, there are not much attractions for the visitors to the city. and like tehran, this city of 3 million people are also full of shopping malls and high street stalls. as friday is a public holiday, one will find that the city is fairly deserted on a friday morning till late noon. the activities started again after 4.30 pm when the businesses resumed and will last late into the night.

the indigenous people of isfarhan are natural and skill craftsmen. within the city there are numerous craftsmen putting their skills in the numerous gallaries specializing in carpet making, silverware and copperware.

(an typical isfarhan craftsmen hard at work)

the best carpet from iran, be it the normadic or city type usually come from qom and isfarhan. and as expected there are numerous shops and gallaries selling carpets in the city. visited a few of those gallaries. really fell in love with this particular masterpiece .... but then it was beyond our mean. A hefty usd 20K for a piece of 6'x9' size carpet !. wow ! i wish i had that amount of money to spare ...

and again what i like most about this city is the many nicely decorated restaurants.we just can spend hours in the restaurants admiring the deco !

but alas, despite the numerous and varied decos, the food is a real set back. unlike in malaysia, we're bless with numerous selections to choose from.

(a typical lunch consisting of local pita bread, salad, kebab of chicken or mutton) and the 'masam' soup). and despite that, i survive very well on the menu in our 10 days trip to iran. and i proud that i didn't need to open any of my maggie mee pack !

The Iran Trip - part 1

2007-12-05T20:01:00.001+08:00

Are you sure you're going to IRAN ? no kidding ? exclaimed my wife when i first told her of my intention some 2 years ago. yessss, i'm obsolutely sure i'm going to visit iran. yes, i've to visit the persian state before the yankees destroy it (just as they did to iraq). we registered with a leading tour agency for the trip in late 2006, but that was cancelled as they couldn't convinced others for the trip. still very much amused about the trip, we registered again in early 2007. unfortunately it was cancelled on the eleventh hour as the ground handlers in tehran felt that it was not safe to visit the city then in view of the threat from the texas cowboy.

Lady luck striked. 3 weeks before the departure we were contacted by the agency that we'll soon be on our way to persia. There we were, on iran air enroute to tehran in late november 2007. it was a pleasant 8 hours journey. though the 747 was not equipped with personal lcd screen and on board entertaiment, the food was superb and plenty (sorry to say, they are more lavish with food than our own malaysian airline). though the immigration clearence was rather slow (anyway definitely much faster that in jeddah or cairo), one does not need to fill any embarkation form. that really makes sense as all they need to do is to look at your pastport and key in the datas into their computer.

tehran in late fall .a very pleasant weather with a temperature of 5 to 8 C. the city is very scenic with a background of snow cap mountains in the north. the streets were straight and lined with maple trees by the side. unfortunately the traffic in tehran is a real nightmare. the congestion was unimaginable. the cars were barely 6 inches apart. if one think traffic jam in kl or jakarta is bad, wait till you visit the city. crossing the road takes a lot of courage and skill. despite sanction from the west, there are abundunt shopping malls and high street stalls selling imported luxurious and branded goods. if not for the signs written in parsi, those high street stalls resemble those in the uk.

the iranians are generally well dress and very charismatic. unlike in other arab countries (opss, the iranian does not wish to be labelled as arabs), the gentlemen on the street are very comfortable with suite (like those in the west). and underneath their traditional chador, the ladies were smartly dressed with designers outfit. the iranians are also were hospitable and extremely friendly. having travelled half the globe, i've not come across any homeless people on the street of tehran (shame on you new york city!).

with more than 14 millions people, the city is really congested. as the public transport is inssuficient, the tehranians had to use the own cars to commute. and with no 'entertaiment outlets' except for the state owned cinemas, naturally the city dwellers pass their time shopping or dinning. restaurants are abundant and nicely decorated. unfortunately shopping in tehran (or in iran as a whole) is not cheap !. traditional or grand bazaar are generally packed with shoppers. changing currency in grand bazaar is easy as a lot of money changers (usually young men holding stacks of iranial rial in their hand or tied up to the seat of their motorcycle).

(one of the many stalls in the traditional bazaar selling dry fruits and nuts)

the highlands, an hour drive (exclusive of the traffic jam) north of the city is worth visiting. with it's snow capped mountains, it's just fantastic and scenic. we headed to the dizin ski resort but it was closed to all skiers due to unexpected snowstorm. anyway, it was not too bad as it was only -2 C. well, after all i survive the russian winter of - 38 C.

and thanks to our friend hossein hatami and his dear family for hosting us.

Look, there's something in my head

2007-11-15T18:13:00.000+08:00

Nobody believed her and even her doctors brushed off her complaints. She insisted that she had headache, had twitching of her hands and that her head was heavy. for the past 6 months, she felt unusually sad and would cry to herself. Her brother and friends felt that she was still in a state of bereavement as she lost her house during the recent earthquake followed by her dear husband from a massive stroke. All the four specialists she visited in west sumatra told her that she was suffering from depression. convinced that the doctors have not solved her problem, she decided to sell off her business and came over to kl. her childhood friend in kajang took her to a family medicine specialist at a university hospital in cheras. again she was told that she suffered from reactive depression and that she was still in a state of denial. not convinced that the her symptoms were purely psychiatric in origin, a private psychiatrist whom she latter consulted in ampang decide to scan her brain.

CT scans of the brain indicated a large enhanced lesion in the left frontal region. the features were consistent of a meningioma (brain tumor)

the diagnosis came as a real surprise to her ! how could her doctors missed it. how could nobody believed her that there was something not right in her brain !. the only option - have the tumor removed. the thought of someone cracking open her skull and digging the tumor out of her head really frightened her. but for the sake of her beloved children and the love ones back home in padang, she was determine to go through the procedure.

(there she was, fully anesthetized on the operating table, waiting for the most scary moments of her life).

the craniotomy went fine and after 3 hours, all the tumor was gone. thought the tumor was fairly vascular and she lost quite a bit of blood, no transfusion was required.

and part of the tumor tissue that was removed from her brain.

and the end of the surgery with her head neatly bandaged

can't help feeling so sorry for her brother who was weeping by her bedside in the intensive care ward. was it the feeling of relieved as the surgery was over, or was it the feeling of guilt for not taking her sister's complaint seriously. I'm sure following her discharged in 5 day's time, she will be looking forward to take the earliest flight home. and for afrinowati, i hope your problems are over and may Allah give you his uttermost blessing.

Bandung Trip

2007-11-09T21:33:00.001+08:00

minggu ni ada 2 extra holiday, deepavali dan cuti hari minggu. cantttikkk. destinasi hujung minggu adalah bandung.

masuk kali ini dah 3 kali saya ke parisj van java. tapi bagi isteri dan anak anak, ini adalah trip pertama mereka ke bandung. berbanding dengan kota kota lain di indonesia, saya rasa bandung adalah kota yang agak bersih dan tidak terlalu sesak. yang paling penting, cuacanya agak selesa (suhu sekitar 23 C) dan rata rata penduduknya agak polite, amanah dan kurang menipu.

sedia menanti kami di bandara husein sastranegara adalah wakil dari aston bandung. perjalan ke hotel di jalan braga mengambil masa kurang dari 15 minit. hotel aston terletak within a shopping mall (ala ala hotel legend di kl). walau pun agak baru (about 2 years old) tetapi maintainancenya agak kurang memuaskan jika di bandingkan dengan hilton dan grand preangear yang pernah saya menginap dahulu.

kota bandung yang agak bersih dengan landscape yang cantik.

motosikal,basikal dan mini van (angkutan kota, sama seperti mini bus di kl dulu) memenuhi hampir setiap penjuru jalan. kereta serta van jenis toyota sangat popular di kota ini. seperti kota kota lain di asia tengara, melintas jalan di kota ini memerlukan ketabahan serta skill.

factory outlets yang banyak terdapat di jalan Dago (Juanda), setiabhudi dan martadinata (riau) merupakan lokasi pupular untuk pengunjung dari malaysia. antara puluhan factory outlet, rumah mode adalah yang terbesar. bagi yang ingin membeli kain batik, kebaya serta pakaian busana muslim, pasar baru berhampiran alun alun merupakan salah satu tempat pilihan.

(diperkarangan factory outlet rumah mode)

(penuntut-penuntut jurusan tourism dari sebuah kolej universiti di shah alam yang mengakhiri lawatan sambil belajar di bandung. pasti mereka sangat terhibur semasa di bandung).

Majlis raya klfm

2007-11-04T01:10:00.000+08:00

Sabtu 2 November 2007. macam tak percaya pulak. dah nak penghujung bulan syawal in banyak pulak jemputan. ada 11 jemputan jamuan hari raya dan 2 jemputan jamuan perkahwinan hari ini. confirm tak larat kalau nak pergi ke semua majlis tu. sebelah malam pulak ada undangan jamuan perkahwinan di sime darby convention centre tapi dari awal awal lagi dah pun buat keputusan ..' dato', i'm very sorry. i won't be able to make it', of course alasan yang sama saya berikan pada seorang jiran dan dr. rozita di ampang jaya. - alasan sebenarnya ... nak tengok EPL Arsenal vs Manchester United (of course i'm a gunner!)

pagi semalam kak porsh call. katanya kad undangan ke majlis raya klfm telah dipos melalui pos laju (sebenarnya nama je laju tapi sampai lambat juga). entah kenapa hari ini terbuzy pulak. keluar office dah hampir jam 2 ptg. rumah dato' jalil dah confirm kena pergi sebab tahun lepas dah pun mintak maaf dengan dia sebab tak dapat hadir. jadi tahun ni memang tak ada excuse lagi.

setelah di oooozoom, maka keputusannya - attend majlis jamuan hari raya klfm di pwtc (only 5 minutes from home), then rush to rumah dato jalil di hulu klang. Jemputan di kajang, cheras, putrajaya dan shah alam terpaksalah di tangguhkan.

majlis yang sepatutnya bermula pukol 2.30 ptg bermula hampir sejam lewat sebab ramai tetamu yang tersangkut dalam kesesakan. dalam kad jemputan ada di tulis 'pakaian hari raya' - tapi bila di ingat kembali selepas solat sunat aidil fitri hari tu saya hanya mengenakan t-shirt pagoda bersama slack sahaja . nasib baiklah tak pakai t-shirt pagoda tu , sebab semua tetamu yang hadir tu memang dress to kill - terpandang pulak seorang kenalan yang duduk semeja tu. mahu 3, 4 kilo rantai cincin dan gelang emas yang dipakainya.

anyway majlis memang meriah dengan kehadiran dj dj klfm yang sangat mesra rakyat serta artis artis undangan mereka seperti jalil hamid dan ella. ramai juga artis artis yang baru, tapi rasa macam tak pernah pulak dengar nama mereka tu. majlis memang well organize, tapi satu je yang kurang (klfm tak bagi duit raya !)

antara para tetamu dan dj klfm yang menghadiri di majlis jamuan hari raya klfm 2007

(dj azizah sulaiman dan fauziah zakaria @kak porsh @kak diva yang sering mengendalikan segmen kenangan lalu kuala lumpur)

(dj kak anoy dan dj izan pun ada. khabarnya dapat makan nasi minyak dj izan bulan december nanti, jangan dia belanja burger sudah!)

( eh, kawan kita ni pun ada !)

The years gone by - part 3

2007-11-01T22:41:00.000+08:00

having had her uterine fibroid and ovarian cyst removed barely six month earlier, it was least expected that there would be another fetus in her uterus on a routine abdominal ultrasound examination. nevertheless, we were very thankful as we thought that we would only end up having a pair. thanks god, she survived an episode of threatened abortion !

she was born just before i left to take up my post in the UK. due to unseen circumstances, we had to leave her under the care of grand ma in JB for a year. within that period we spent fairly large amount of our hard earn penny making regular phone calls to check on her milestone progress (there was no online communication by then !). can't describe the feeling we had when we were finally reunited.

unlike the other 2 kiddos, this youngest kiddo was very mischievous and full of tantrum. even during her early start, she was known to drops things and implicate damage to whatever things she set sight on. and yes, she just love to cry and scream ! despite that she was very lovable and remained very closed to us. and till today she'll never miss kissing us good nite before retiring to her bed.

(during her first european trip at 6 years of age. prior to the trip she keep pestering us to bring her to europe to experience the snow. says she has no memory playing in the snow as she was still a little baby then !)

years gone by, she became more closed and attached to us. even at 13 years of age, on a few occasions, she manage to sweet talk us to accommodate her in our bed (shame on you girl !). unlike her sister and brother, she can be a real pain at times .... very inconsiderate, selfish, self centered and jealous. and one thing for sure, she just hate small children , always calling them pests ! and please don't think about sharing her food or drink from the same plate or glass as you'll never never never see that happening - she's just health freak ! her favourite word ..." yak kotorrr !"

The years gone by - part 2

2007-11-01T14:52:00.000+08:00

After completing my postgraduate subspeciality training, we decided that the time was right to add up another member to the family. it wasn't a hard job really. and there it was, after 6 year, our daughter had a wee brother. the first couple of months were rather difficult as she was extremely jelous of him. she will find all means to antagonize him.

times goes by, this young infant grew into an adorable kiddo. unlike the sister who was more of a chatterbox, he was rather slow with his words. i suppose that has got to do with his tongue tie.(thanks to consultant pediatric surgeon, dr. amin tai for his help). he would slept most of the day and throughout the night, making life very much less stressful and pleasant for us. it worries us as by the age of six, he was still unable to recite the abc - wondering then wheather there was any insult to his gray matter during his antenatal days!

one thing i remember, this son of ours would very much prefer cold weather - in his younger days he would be running around with only a light jacket even during the cold winter days. or was he meant to be a cold blooded person.

time goes by and he turn out to be the mother's boy. secretly, he would share his thoughts with the mum. though he appeared blurr and couldn't be bothered at times, he was a gem of a person - obedient, homely, helpful and soft hearted. despite his kindness, he would always bill us when ever he spend on his friends !.

and this young man favourite past time is just dozing off. his mp3 with all the lattest underground numbers and playsation are his companion. and of course he is a die hard fan of MU - wonder what does he see in the short plump flat freckled face typical english guy wayne rooney !!!!!

The years gone by - part 1

2007-10-31T12:41:00.001+08:00

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

2007-10-28T21:48:00.000+08:00

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

2007-10-27T23:22:00.001+08:00

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

2007-10-16T16:27:00.000+08:00

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!

2007-10-07T06:47:00.000+08:00

(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 !

2007-10-04T23:28:00.000+08:00

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

2007-10-03T17:53:00.000+08:00

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.

Bengang habis ....

2007-09-30T07:39:00.000+08:00

(p/s he looks better in short hairs !)

back from school yesterday, AF looked very despaired. through out the journey home, not a single word he uttered. usually, once in the car he would immediately switch on to fly.fm. of course i sensed that something was not right. i don't want to upset him further, so i just keep my big mouth shut. arriving at home, he immediately dashed into our bedroom and blasted out ... 'mama, cikgu tu sioklah, abang tengah bengang ni. tengok ni cikgu potong rambut abang, dah pendik sebelah dah. abang susah susah bela, dia senang senang saja potong' ... well, so that's the root of his discontent!

honestly, i didn't want to blame the teacher. i know he was very obscessed with his hair. for the last few weeks we've been trying to get his hair trimmed but to no avail.i remember him saying ..' rilekslah mama, dah nak exam pmr, cikgu tak buat spot check lagi'.deep inside me, i thought the teacher has made a right decision, it's unbecoming of a 3rd former to keep long hair !. but on second thought, i could understand his frustation. when i was at his age, i felt the same thing when my hair was cropped off by non other than the late cikgu rashidi.

i remember a few years ago while glancing thro' the album, he was so excited to see his dad with long unkempt hairs. well, in the 80's every male students in campus kept long hairs. i still remember those guys who were very proud of their afro look. worn out jeans and partially torn t-shirts were the trend of the day. every guy wants to look ruggered !. thing have change since. varsity students nowadays are spotted with nicely groomed hairs and are also smartly dress. and apart from medical students, some do wear ties to lecture. ask me again, i would very much prefer the good old days !

KLKL

2007-09-28T18:49:00.000+08:00

come tuesday and friday evening i would try to make a point to listen to kenangan lalu kuala lumpur (KLKL), a popular program air on radio kl.fm. from 5 - 8 pm. the selection of songs (mainly oldies) were simply marvellous. i simply adore those 2 DJs (fauziah zakaria & azizah sulaiman). they just have natural taste for good songs. dj fauziah @ kak diva (quote from ixoraroxi) in particular, would try her very best to entertain requests from the many sahabat kl.fm listeners.

thro' kl.fm i've known some of the sahabat kl.fm listeners. needless to say i do enjoy meeting them. the good thing about them is they do interact among each other thro' kampung mms (www.kl.fm). and among the sahabat (yang dikira famous dalam kg mms) are ixoraroxi, lelamajnum, semekin, flyingdutchman, blackcanary, mem tito,azieazah,farhakesuma,bull, puansridewi (just to name a few)

the dj's (nik aida, azizah sulaiman & kak diva)

Buka Puasa Again

2007-09-25T22:50:00.001+08:00

Dato' E.G Lim left a message with my receptionist last week asking me to return his call. but knowing me, i always keep forgetting things. his new group assistant GM, puan MMN sms me a few days latter ... "dato' will be happy if you could joint him for iftar dinner on tuesday". i wasn't really looking forward for a free makan, not during the ramadhan time. knowing the old man, i'm sure he'll be upset if i turn down his invitation again this year. i've only known dato' E.G Lim, the group chairman of Lejadi group of companies only for the last 3 years. though at a glance he look like a serious type, in person, he's such a dear and wonderful friend.

i arrived in mount kiara (with my other half) 15 minutes before iftar. was greeted by Puan MMN on arrival and lead to a table in a small cozy private room. A small function indeed with only 6 tables. dato' introduced us to the 2 couples who were seated much earlier. the list of guests were clearly displayed on the table, goshhh, sharing the table were 2 tan sris and another 2 dato's and their spouses. looked like we were at the wrong table ... oh my god this can't be real, we can't be sharing the table with them. realizing that we were rather uncomfortable, datin penny broke the ice by introducing us to the other guests. according to her, it's an annual gathering for family members, closed friends and senior management staffs of Lejadi group. but alas, why do they have to prepare so much food for such a small crowd. bukankah sangat membazir namanya !

the last time i had dinner with dato' was about 6 months ago. and been a very friendly and talkative person, there was so much things to update, from his never ending jokes (occasionally the 18SX versions) to current political issues. sorry to say, whenever they met, business people and corporate figures alway talks about politics!. needless to say, i missed my tarawih again. anyway, nice to know some new personalities, tan sri RI, the formal malaysian ambassador to the united nation (such an interesting and lively person) and a very quite, reserve and serious looking dato' AS, the director general of anti corruption agency.

Bad Parenting.

2007-09-22T12:34:00.000+08:00

watch the prime news last night. teary-eyed, i can't help feeling so sorry and despair. a very sad ending for cute little nurin jazlin. how could someone be so cruel and sadist.implicating pain by raping and sodomizing a 9 year old is absurd, disgraced and unthinkable. my prayers goes to her and her family. the news of missing child is nothing new. recently too, there was this young boy who went missing while his parents were busy shopping at the sogo shopping complex. lucky for him, he was found safe and sound.personally the parents should be more responsible. in the first place, how could they let nurin venture on her own to a pasar malam !!!. very irresponsible parenting indeed.the parents should be investigated for possible negligence and if need be, charge them under the child protection act.

i suppose letting a young child on their own is quite a norm for some parents. just drop by at keramat or kampung baru at 1 or 2 in the morning. you'll see children as young as 4 or 5 years old still playing and running around while their parents are busy entertaining their customers in their warung. Please parents, be more responsible to your children!

Breaking Fast

2007-09-18T16:38:00.000+08:00

when was the last time i break fast at a hotel ??? oppsss, can't exactly recall. perhaps 10 years ago. well, come to think of it, it's really funny. come ramadhan, all the hotels in town will try to out do each other, providing tremendous and lavish buffet spreads. honestly, how much can one eat. i'm sure you can't possibly sample all the 120 different dishes. i keep wondering why do the fortunate ones would spend rm 100 for such a treat, knowing that the same amount of money could easily fill the gaster of 20 unfortunate ones. well, i suppose that's life. again, talking about breaking fast in a hotel, one thing i find very irony is the crowd. drop by at any porsh hotel in town. you're bound to see many non fasters. by 7.00 pm they have already loaded their plates to the maximum without giving due considerations to those who were fasting. and by the time the maghrib's azan is on air, those same people were already on course for their second or third serving. really pelahap i think.

A scenario i find very heartening. a great experience indeed !

breaking fast at masjid al-nabawi in medina. and those believers were very humble and considerate !

Centre Mosque

2007-09-17T18:05:00.000+08:00

semalam semasa sedang mencari some old documents di dalam almari buku, terpandang pulak gambar lama ini.

rasa rasanya yang masih ingat cuma 4,5 orang saja yang dalam gambar tu (sorry lah, grey matter dah berkurangan). Bukan apa, cuma teringat pada adik adik undergraduate tu. masa bulan posa dulu, memang boleh save duit, sebab tak payah keluar belanjar beli makan. satu jam sebelum waktu berbuka penuhlah undergraduate students (tak ketinggalan juga some solo mature students yang dok buat masters and phD) kat central mosque di glasgow tu). walaupun pada waktu itu saya bukan lagi di katogerikan sebagai student, tapi masih lagi menumpang berbuka free. setiap hari, selesai saja tugas saya di goven, terus rush ke centre mosque. selalunya sampai just on time untuk berbuka, sebab waktu petang trafik memang heavy dari goven ke city centre. kena pulak ford sierra saya waktu tu asyik semput aje. biasanya si kamal lah yang reserve tempat untuk saya. bila si paki tanya kenapa nobody's sitting here .... his standard answer, pergi ambil wudud. bila terfikir balik memang betul kata kamal, kalau nak tengok ramai melayu di glasgow, datanglah ke centre mosque time berbuka puasa.

I've since lost touch with dr. kamal. the last time i heard from him, he was lecturing in uniten. mungkin dia dah jadi full professor kot, tak pun dah ada title dato'.

SMSK in memory

2007-09-15T06:06:00.000+08:00

tetiba jer teringat pulak pada sekolah dulu. don't know why, at a very tender age i had to go there. had to leave my family and stay in a hostel. the first time in my life i embarked on a long journey leaving my kampung in kuala terengganu heading to kota bahru. of course i was scared, all alone in an express bus heading to a foreign land. can't remember much of the details, but i manage to find my way to pengaklan chepa. yesss, it was my school, sekolah menengah sains kelantan (SMSK). i wonder why they have to rename the school to sekolah menengah sains tengku muhamad faris petra now.

sesungguhnya kesempatan belajar dan tinggal bersama dalam satu bangunan membawa seribu kenangan dalam hidup kita. i may post my countless memories some other time. for a start, there are a few thing that i cheerish most
a. the dinning hall
- well the food (though some people just call it nasi kawah) was just heaven. first time in my life i have chicken and beef every week ( beef for lunch on monday and chicken for dinner on friday!). back home then, my mum will only cook chicken only on some very special occasions. i remember having alternate day of ayam goreng masa berkhatam dulu. and of course we only have beef during hari raya aidil adhar - the famous daging korban.
b. the airport
- the pengkalan chepa airport is just within the vicinity, and from the hostel we could see the fokker landing and taking off. oh how i miss the great sounds. don't blame me for that - that was the first time i saw an aeroplane !. since my first day in school i keep counting the days when i would go on an aeroplane.

childhood friendship last. so here we're now. we still remain good buddies. of course after 30 years everybody changed (samaada perut dah kedepan atau rambut dah berkurangan). one thing for sure, i'm very proud of my former classmates and SMSK ... among us now stood some very successful businessman and women, professors, specialist doctors, corporate figures, members of parlimen, advisors to both the PM and his deputy and heads of department.

Just Like Me

2007-09-14T07:55:00.000+08:00

this morning abang as we call him (AF, our only son) give me a letter from his school. 'jemputan ke majlis solat hajat pmr, khatam al-quran, berbuka puasa dan solat hajat SMKST'. whe he told us he was selected to participate in the khatam al quran, naturally we're very excited. but to our dismay, he says ' abah, mama tak payah pergilah '. kalau abah, mama nak pergi jugak, then abang nak mahu pergilah. cuma abah bagi sumbangan jer untuk jamuan berbuka puasa tu. well, not the first time he'll never let us go to his school, what more meet his teachers. i don't remember getting the invitation for the school's pibg meeting, sports day, meet the teacher session and hari anugerah cemerlang (bila ditanya, katanya ... dah lepas dah) and i don't remember signing his record book for the last 2 years ! secretly, on a few occasions, my wife would got thro' his school bag looking at his exam and test papers - not bad, in general his marks were consistently above 80%, so i suppose we have no reasons to complaint then.

on a personal note, i suppose i did exactly the same to my dad before.Kira macam like father, like son lah!). sampai sekarang pun i still remember my father's signature. i once remember that when i was in form 2, one of my sister bribed me to sign her record book. Despite that, AF is a nice and obedient boy. at 15, he's still very manja manja with the mum (kira mum's boy lah tu). unlike his peers, he still enjoys very much going out dinning and shopping with us.

last week we asked him what does he wants to be do after his spm. be a cardiothoracic or plastic surgeon kata dia. but he says, .... i want to study abroad!. to study medicine abroad will cost a fortune. scholorship are hard to come by nowadays and only reserve for the most academically excellent students. i'm fully aware that my son is not one of those brainy students. obviously we cannot afford to send him to uk or aussie. but he says he doesn't mind going to russia (at least legalah sikit) . katanya to moscow and tak mahu pergi tempat kakak (IL) in nizhny novgorod. sekarang ni dah mulalah terbayang how to cope paying for 2 kids studying medicine in russia ! pernah jugak tanya mara dan jpa dulu, kot kot boleh mintak pinjaman sikit untuk top up, untuk bayar tuition fees pun cukuplah. masih ingat kata pegawai yang bertugas 'syarat kita ketat, untuk pinjaman pelajaran, pendapatan keluarga mesti less than rm 5 K, jadi secara otomatiknya encik memang tak layak!

well, my son, we'll work something out. insyaallah if you want to do medicine, then you'll get to do medicine. let us (and not you) worries the finance part of it)
best of luck in your coming pmr dear son.

remembering her

2007-09-13T17:13:00.000+08:00

waiting for berbuka. as usual the kids (AF & AZ) dah minta mama mereka beli juadah kegemaran mereka ... laksa penang is a must for adik (AZ). samalah macam si kakak (IL), suka sangat dengan laksa penang.

agaknya apa khabar kakak (IL) sekarang. harap harap lecture dia taklah pack sangat hari ini , otherwise tak sempatlah dia nak masak untuk hidangan berbuka nanti. but knowing my eldest daughter, i'm sure she'll survive. if she can survive 2 russian winter with a temperature of -35 C, then what is puasa.

Oh Ramadhan..., Oh Tarawih

2007-09-13T08:06:00.000+08:00

Ramadhan is back and solat sunat tarawih has started. seperti tahun tahun terdahulu, saya menunaikan solat sunat tarawih di masjid yang paling hampir dengan rumah - masjid universiti teknologi malaysia jalan semarak. selesai sudah solat sunat terawih yang pertama tahun ini. seperti yang dijangkan kehadiran jemaah untuk malam malam awal ramadhan sangatlah mengalakan. hampir 75% jemaah merupakan pelajar pelajar universiti dan selebihnya mereka mereka yang tinggal berhampiran. imam malam tadi adalah iman baru universiti (but personally i would prefer the imam who lead the prayers last year). eh, tak nampak pun imam tu malam tadi !, entah entah sudah bertukar ke tempak lain. actually i'm not looking much for this year's ramadhan. dah register dengan rayhar travel untuk menunaikan umrah akhir ramadhan tetapi dukacita kerana tiada kekosongan lagi, so nampaknya this year saya akan menghabiskan solat sulat tarawih di masjid ini saja. itulah al kisahnya kalau last minit baru nak buat booking. bukan tak teringat nak book earlier, tapi just take for granted sahaja kerana rasa confident boleh dapat pergi umrah lagi akhir ramadhan tahun ini.

tapi walau bagaimana pun rasa syukur juga kerana tahun lepas dapat menyempurnakan keseluruhan 10 malam terakhir sunat tarawih dan sunat tahajud di masjidi haram. dan seperti biasa, sekembalinya dari umrah atau haji dulu, sure kena upper respiratory tract infection. so last year berayalah dengan ubat batuk, antihistamine dan antibiotiks. the best thing about spending your last 10 days of your ramadhan in Mekah is that you can really devote yourself to Almighty Allah - don't have to worry about the job, the family or friends. Insyaalah, next year we'll book early. kesayuan serta kemerduan suara imam masjidi al haram (especially imam al saudis) benar benar memberi satu ketenangan dan keinsafan. dalam mengerjakan solat sunat tarawih dan tahajud, tanpa disedari air mata akan mengalir membasahi pipi. sesungguhnya terasa betapa kerdilnya diri ini disisi Allah SWT. on of my friend use to ask me, what is so special about performing umrah during ramadhan ? it's not cheap you know, you can spend that amount taking the who family to gold coast. my simple and sincere answer ... well, it's worth paying that amount to cry!

selesai solat tarawih malam tadi , saya di teguh oleh suatu suara yang memang rasa familiar. terus saya memaling muka dan memberi salam sebelum menghulurkan tangan. walaupun tinggal berjiran, tapi agak lama tak jumpa dia. Dato' Dr. MMN adalah merupakan merupakan mentor dan bos saya dulu (opps, i used to be so scared of him before, he's a man of principle and very strict. with him you has to be very punctual. athough officially we clock in at 8.00 am, he'll be in office by 7.00 am, and make sure you're there before he does). after his retirement, he seem to be more approachable. as usual he'll come to the masjid alone in his merc. as ever, his wife, Dato' Dr. SH, been a vice chancellor of a university in bangi is alway very busy.

The Yesteryears

2007-09-12T22:41:00.000+08:00

can't remember much 'bout my humble years. vividly i could remember, in the late 60's i was still running around the kampung clad only in a worn out pelikat, minus the shirt. yes, that same pelikat serve as a selimut for the night. Only the kids from relatively well to do families (only a handful in our circle of friends) runs around in short and a shirt. on course i still remember the stripe shirt that was given to me by my father the day after i was circumscised. a shirt bought by one of his friend who was back from kuala lumpur. in retrospect, i was already brand conscious - a 'don' shirt from kuala lumpur (from the famous globe silk store!). Not surprising now my 3 kids are also brand conscious. i supposed they're lucky. though they have not earn they money but are running around in tommy hilfiger, united colours of benneton, levis, gucci, polo raph lauren and all those stuffs ! buying a piece of jean or t-shirt for rm 350.00 may be unthinkable those days.

can't remember much either about my early years in school. but i do remember having to wake up very early in the morning, rush to the nearby river and dive for a quick bath. by the time we started from home it was still very dark and we had to find our way through the thick undergrowth and cross the stream with our school bag high up on the head. we also kept our shoe in the school bag and walk bare footed, only to pun on the shoe when we reach the school.

Salam Ramadhan Al Mubarak

2007-09-12T08:18:00.000+08:00

Tak pernah terfikir untuk mewujudkan blog sendiri. Mungkin dengan adanya blog in saya dapat memaparkan pengalaman serta perjalanan hidup saya, pengalaman hidup yang mengcecah hampir setengah abad mungkin dapat menjadi sedikit tauladan dan panduan pada anak anak yang baru hendak melangkah meniti kehidupan. Pengalaman yang saya kira sangat berbeza dengan anak anak zaman sekarang. Pengalaman yang kita lalui sesungguhnya mengisafkan kita dan menjadikan kita insan yang berguna dan bersyukur. Menunggu Ramadhan yang akan tiba membuat kita bertambah insaf serta rasa bersyukur ke hadrat Illahi.