Wedding Road Trip (Updated with some photos)

This is a quick and short pictureless update.  

Right now I am still feeling tired from yesterday's wedding road trip. 

For one whole day I drove alone to three different weddings in three different districts.  

In the morning, Norbaya and Sharifuddin's solemnization in Segamat, Johor.  

Noon, Zulfadhly and Lily's reception in Sungai Mati, Muar.  


Evening, Lailatul Nadia's reception in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan. 


I had to cancel going to Faizal Tahir and Siti Munirah's reception in Batu Pahat, because it was too far away and I would've taken two hours to get there, and another two to get to the next wedding venue.  


Also had to forgo the intention of going to Sarah and Shamin's reception in Bangi because I was too tired.  


Anyways.  


My well wishes and congratulations to all my friends who recently tied the knot. May your lives be blessed by Allah always.

Caterpillar Closeup

I am glad that I discovered my interests in photography. Ever since I started picking up the camera, especially so since I got my Nikon D60, I realized that I paid more attention to the oft missed world of the minuscule. Those of you who have been with my blog for a while would know how much I like taking pictures of small creepy crawlies (to the delight and also dismay of some). My hobby has opened my eyes to the almost invisible, mostly ignored, and largely unnoticed minute details in the world around us. Sometimes I feel sad that most of us would miss seeing the beauty in the small things. We can discover a lot from viewing the most mundane things up close. And sometimes, creatures we regard as creepy or ugly can reveal their true beauties when we scale ourselves down to their size and try to see them eye to eye.

I was walking around in my apartment when I almost stepped on this little green caterpillar. It wasn't a big squishy caterpillar that one might find featured as a grub delicacy in some foreign place. It was pretty small, less than an inch long and definitely thinner than a satay stick. I picked it up from the white tile floor and set it on a thin stack of white paper. And of course, I ran over to the trusty ol' camera bag and grabbed my arsenal to shoot this little bug.




The little bugger was hard to photograph. It kept moving and wriggling and turning its head to different directions (probably trying to find its way to the edge of the paper). Because I used the reverse lens technique, the caterpillar's movement meant that it gets out of focus easily, and I had difficulty keeping it in focus. Out of the many, some are pretty decent and shareable. One of them is this side profile of the caterpillar. To tell you the truth, I'm not even sure where the eyes of this caterpillar were. What I noticed is that it's got some strands of hair sticking out from various parts of its body including the head. The hair strands were sparsely distributed, unlike other hairy caterpillars. Maybe this was a youngin', soon it'll grow a full body of hair and closeup fanatics like me would keep away from it for a change.




Here's one where you can see the 'face' of the caterpillar. I still am not sure where its eyes were.




Another perspective on how small this caterpillar was: you can actually see the thin side of the white paper for size reference. The white paper was a normal printing paper. Grab a printing paper and look at its thickness. Now look at the picture. You'll get a rough sense of the size of the caterpillar and how small it was.

...

I suddenly am reminded of the story where King Solomon's (Sulaymaan A.S.) troops were passing through the Wadi Naml (the valley of the ants, if I'm not mistaken) and how the King made sure his troops would avoid stepping on the small insects. This story tells us to appreciate the lives of Allah's creatures no matter how small. And that collateral deaths, no matter how insignificant the people/creatures killed may seem to be, should be avoided to our best efforts.

...

Have a wonderful day, everyone! Hope you liked the pics. And sorry to those who don't.

The Lone Mushroom

It was a few weeks ago during a family day in Putrajaya that I stumbled upon this peculiar lone mushroom on the ground.



There were no other mushrooms within visual distance.

For a mushroom to be growing here solo, there could be several possibilities: a) One single spore managed to be carried by the wind all the way to this place while the rest were carried elsewhere, b) Neighboring mushrooms were already picked or disposed of, c) The rest of the spores did not manage to grow into a mushroom except this one.

Whatever backstory that the mushroom must have had, it managed to tell me one thing: Life goes on, even when you have to face it all alone.

But, indeed, as a Muslim, I need not fear facing the harsh dealings of this world all alone, for I know when everything else turn their backs on me, I can always turn to Allah for guidance.

I believe in the power of prayers. I have had several answered, both instantly and eventually. And for this I am thankful.

And I believe there are hidden blessings in every thing that most of the time escape our senses and our thoughts.

The lone mushroom did not escape me. It captured me and managed to make me think, and that in itself is another blessing.