Cerai

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh...

I am so sorry that this blog has become an outlet for me to express all the negatives feeling that I have been having. Here's another one today. I found no other positive way to channel my frustration, so tinggal blog ni ja.

A friend has just broke the news that she is no longer living with her husband, they have separated for 3 months now. She apparently fall in love with another guy. (worst thing that could happened in a marriage..!) I noticed her FB feed full of pictures of her going out with another man, but her kid is with her, at that time I felt uneasy and suspected something but didn't have the nerve to ask for details. She once made a remark that I was too outspoken and maybe some of the things I said to her has hurt her, which I totally have no intention to. So when I see these kind of things happening, I hold back my opinion, for I know she will not be able to accept what I would say.

We are in a whatsapp group (who isn't nowadays?) and since she has been keeping mum about the whole thing, I tried asking in the group how is she doing? Then the news come. She is going to file her divorce in court. She said she no longer can live with her husband, she still did not give much details but the part where she has somebody else is clear. She admitted it. She even said that she don't think she can live without this new guy. I am shocked. I didn't expect it to go that far.

How can you fall out of love with someone that you choose to be married with? Its sad.. I don't really know how it feels to fall head over heels on someone. I had feelings, I like Kim for example, but I know that I can live without him, I liked one guy in uni,deep in my heart I still like him, but I don't go chasing after him after we both graduated. But the thing is, I can never fall out of love with these guys, maybe I can if they treated me badly. I know the husband, not very well, but I think I know enough to make a judgement of his character. He loves her, and he is not capable of finding someone else. He has not been hostile to her (not that I can see). She is the dominant one in the relationship. Apparently they (both husband and wife) have been talking to another good friend, and they have seek for advises, but my friend, she just don't want to be married to her husband anymore.

I guess every couple are being tested like this at some point. You will see someone else as being better than your spouse, but the key is I guess to remind yourself back why you love that person in the first place, why did you choose to get married, it is for better and for worse. If things goes sour, shouldn't you work on resolving it? I don't know how much they have worked to save their marriage, maybe there are some internal issues that she is not willing to discuss and being keeping it to herself all the while and now its too much to bear already, maybe. Allah knows best.

I just hope that this somebody new can give her the happiness that she is looking for. I hope this new guy is not just taking advantage of her. I really hope so. May Allah guide her to do whats best for her and her kid. May Allah protect us all....

Whats Up?

Assalamualaikum...

Sebulan satu post je...? Hahaha..sedih weh.. dulu-dulu (like 4-5 years back) I blogged almost everyday, and so does my other blogger friends. Hidup rasa warna-warni waktu tu sebab hari-hari ada update macam-macam cerita. Sekarang...? sendu.. haha.. The same gang yang gigih ber-blog sama2 dulu dah mostly tenggelam. I missed Aida with her gorgeous pictures, Dieya with her travel adventures, Kak Yong with her daily stories about dak Ammar, Alisya, Kak Tek dengan cerita anak-anak dan Abe Gapo.

Miss all of them. I guess its life. We moved on and other priorities supersedes blogging, and in my case, malas nak mams...hehe.

For the past month, many things has happened. One of which, I have to travel back due to some family emergency. One week in and out. Super efficient this time, tak buang masa kat London dah..hahaha... (boleh pon straight to the point balik rumah, saja ja nak melencong selalunya tu..) :P

And I will be back to KL again in December for 3 days. (Gilo ko?) hehehe.. when your best friend is getting married, you'll get all kinds of crazy! Shaz will be tying the knot, insyaAllah in December. We discussed about that during our London-Scotland trip and we aimed Feb 2017 initially so that I can take longer leave to attend the wedding. (Dia punya wedding dah apa hal kena ikut kalendar ko? hehehe..)But somehow dah jodoh kan, dipercepatkan ke December.

So happened I already plan a trip in November to home country of KBB, but of course not with him la, with my primary schoolmate and 2 of her friends. Trip is scheduled to end at the same date of Shaz's wedding. So I have to cut short my trip, fly balik Malaysia and attend the wedding, and crazy as it seems, I actually like it! (Suka kan buat kerja gila camni...hehehe)

I've arranged for henna session for us girls. I super love inai, so what is a wedding without inai? Gigih tau cari henna artist yang available at that time. Almaklumlah, peak season, December, semua tengah musim kahwin, and these people normally are booked way in advance. Alhamdulillah dapat jugak satu. Just hope that the majlis will go smoothly.

I am trying to re-ignite my blogging mojo. Doakanlah..haha.

Till next time, wassalam..

Hang Tuah 2 Reunion

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh...

February will be a crazy month for me. All because my boss did not allowed me to work from KL..hehehe. I have planned to take leave during the CNY and did planned a family holiday. My batch from primary school has been contemplating to organize a reunion for quite some time, and finally we agreed to a date, 8th Feb 2015.

To cut long story short, I wanted to attend the reunion, but I also have limited leave days left, so I could not extend (or bring forward) my leave. Hence, I took the crazy decision to fly back for the weekend solely for the reunion. It was crazy, tiring but truly satisfactory. Last time we had a reunion was 2003, 10 years after we left primary school and now its 2015. Some could not join then, and not many can join this year as well, but we proceeded anyway.

I was elected as the chairperson (me, located all the way here, :), but not to let down my friends, I agreed anyway. They are a bunch of dedicated people, they just need somebody to lead and give direction, even if it means remotely. And boy was I glad when all went well and the event was a success! Alhamdulillah.

Cikgu Sehah bagi ucapan sebelum acara potong kek.

Penyambut tetamu yang manis-manis :)

With my English teacher, Miss Indra

With Cikgu Ariffin

Cikgu Ariffin is my class teacher when we were in standard 6. He was mentioning about the shirt that I gave him, he wore it until it can no longer be worn. Even I don't remember that....gosh! Then again, I don't remember most of the things that I gave to people, but I remembers what people gave to me. It goes both ways I guess :)

Buddies since standard 1, stuck in the same class till standard 6. 

The whole lot - 30+ out of maybe ~100 students in our batch

I didn't get to eat this cake, but I tapau-ed it :)

The loot : souvenir clock, name tag, key chain I AM and we made it compulsory for everybody to come with a gift so that we can exchange it :)

Meenachi, Premila, Alvin and me : 1Malaysia ek? :)

Something happen during the brief picture session here. I was holding the cup, and typical me being clumsy turned the cup over without realizing there were still water inside the cup, yes, I am a klutz. Of course my hand was wet. None of us the girls had anything to wipe it, and here comes Alvin handed me out his tissue (so sweet!!). Seeing that Premila teases him, saying how gentleman he was and why he is still not married. Premila then asked me where my family are. I say, what family? Then she got the idea that I am not married as well. She teased me, and I asked her to find a good man for me, she then turn the attention to Alvin, ni ada..? 

Alvin was taken aback, he quickly went back to claim the gift. I have never seen him backed down from a provocation like that. Alvin that I used to know quickly snap and lash back at any attack/ advances that he gets. This is Alvin is now a matured man, my oh my, this childhood friend of mine is all grown up, and I am all grown up as well, it gave a weird kinda feeling at that time, such ease to see him that way. 

I didn't get to talk much to Alvin, not as much as when we catch up last time in Singapore, I was busy running around, to make sure the event went smooth, we changed the flow as we go along, taking timing and people's reaction into consideration. I need more Alvin time. Maybe I will contact him once I am back in KL, that is if he's not running away from me. He has that reputation though...hehehe..

Ok then, till next time. Need to pack again, going back to Malaysia twice a month is probably the craziest thing I have ever done.Who would have thought? hehehe....

Wassalam..

Of Scholars, Hijab and Arrogance

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

Pardon me for the value-less post previously. It was spur of the moment. Having been here alone, there is not many outlet that I can share my feelings, so ya, pardon me for that :) I thought of deleting it, but hey, nobody reads this but me, and the fact that I was happy for that one particular moment, I think I should not delete it. Let it be a memory, and this blog will remind me later should I loose my mind, or my memory..hehehe..

Back to the actual things that I wanted to share today. These past few days, there has been some incidents that has made me a sad Muslim. I have been following few scholars from the West, reason being is that I think their delivery are more in tuned with my thinking style. I have nothing but high respect with the local Malaysian scholars, but sometimes, when they speak, they carry more of a Malay mindset rather than Islamic one, I would not delve into details, just saying that their style does not suite me. Ok, about the western scholars, I was shocked to see Br Yusha Evans sharing a link that states 10 reasons why people should not follow Imam Suhaib Webb. I went through the list, and all of the things mentioned paint a bad picture of Imam Suhaib.

I respect both men, Br Yusha for his quest of truth, and Imam Suhaib due to his vast knowledge of tafseer. Days apart, Imam Suhaib issued a statement to refute one of the item, and his reasoning seems valid. But what makes me sad is, these two gentleman are good scholars to begin with, and to let the dispute came out in the open, its just not right. I see points in both sides and I pray to Allah that both of them are protected from any further slander. To me, Br Yusha is like Umar al Khattab, he is stern in his words and action and he is not about to keep quiet if he sees something that is not right. I hope Allah soften his heart and clear whatever misunderstanding that he has with Imam Suhaib. It really makes me sad to see the cyber war that has been going on between these two camps.

Second is, a long time friend, she has reached a certain goal in life, and as a result, she decided to put on the hijab. As a friend we were definitely very happy. The thing is, she is now on holiday, and we see pictures of her slowly loosing the hijab. We started to raise question among our small circle of friends and I decided to message her privately. I just want to find out why and remind her she needs to look inside, find out why she put on the hijab in the first place. Maybe the way I asked the questions intimidate her, she quickly became defensive. And for her to say that I woulds not understand how difficult it is for her to put on the hijab, it makes me even more sad. We all have challenges in being a good Muslim, it might not be about hijab, there are a lot of other things and temptations that is ever willing to drive away from the straight path.

She was mentioning, the more people push, the more she won't do it, as if telling me to shut my mouth and she has the right to do whatever she wants. Its sad, really, it really is. I asked her to seek the strength from Allah SWT. We face challenges day in and day out. We fall and get back on track most of the time, but we should never close a door for somebody that is trying to remind us. Maybe I am reading too much into this. I don't know. I have said my piece, its up to her how she wants to take it. I pray the best for her, and if the question of hijab is so sensitive to her such that she does not want any reminder at all, so be it. I know she will come to her senses, and I hope its not too late then. We never know when our time is due in this world.

I had a chat with a non Muslim last few days. He was born a Christian, but according to him, he and his family were not really practicing it, and he was amazed at me and another Muslim that has been fully observing what Islam requires us to do. The conversation went on, and somehow I mentioned to him that Islam consider everybody are born as Muslim, but the way they were brought up makes them a non-Muslim, as we should call them, the not yet Muslim. So when the not yet Muslim returned to Islam, we called them revert, instead of convert. His reaction to this idea took me by surprised. He said, that is an arrogant statement, are you saying that you are right, everybody else is wrong, they just don't know it yet? I was dumbfounded, when he put it that way, it does sound arrogant. But that was not what I meant, shoot, I said the right things, but he took it the wrong way, maybe its because of the way I said it. Allahu akbar..... I need to read more, I need to correct his perception, and in order for me to do that, I have to be well equipped. May Allah make it easy for me.

Till next time, (bila nak update pasai kebun ni..hehehe...)
Wassalam.

Belated Hari Raya in Port Harcourt

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh,

As usual, I will try to have a small makan-makan to celebrate friends for Raya. This year, though its now way past Syawal, I still want to make it happened, plus the fact that I have just moved into the house, makes it a double celebration!! :)

The menu is simple, rendang ayam, lontong (with instant nasi himpit that I brought in my container) and various kuih raya. I did made Puding Jagung, but it does not turned out the way I want it. However, there is one kuih that I introduced to the Port Harcourt community, buah melaka, and its a hit!! :)

No pictures of the food though as I was rushing back and forth and I was practically everywhere.

Here are some of the pictures of my guests.

Latha and Theresa

More ladies :)

The guest that preferred the other side of the couch

Andrea, Rafael , Robert

That's it for now, next update maybe on my garden, insyaAllah :)
Wassalam.

I'm Home!!

Assalamulaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh...

Alhamdulillah, I am no longer homeless..hehehe.. After almost 8 months staying in the guest house (well, tolak maybe close to two months of accumulated leave travelling all over), I have finally moved in.

This the picture before I moved in.

Some pictures in the course of moving...

These two gentlemen helped me assemble some of the small stuffs, the big ones were put together by the packers.

Since both of them did such a great job, I decided to cook some authentic Malay food for them. :)

Jogo de americano (place mat) comes all the way from Brazil.

Pajeri Nenas

Ayam Goreng ala Nyonya

Landon and Wai Kiong

Me and Landon

I am fully settled, I guess..hehehe.... This Saturday, I am having a belated Hari Raya do for the people that is still remaining in RA. They left when the summer starts, but with the Ebola outbreak, only staffs returned back for work, the families are all not returning. Until when, we don't know. Even the school is not re-opened yet. Tentatively they are looking at mid October to resume the school session, but if there is new outbreak, or more fatalities, it will definitely be delayed.

We'll see. As for us in the RA, chances of getting is quite low as we are not directly exposed. Anyhoo, I'll update more. Till then, wassalam. 

Kim

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh....

Kim, this is the first time I am writing about you. I just want to say thanks. You might not know what you have done, but I really appreciate it. We are not that close, but somehow each time I feel down, there you are comforting me. All the same, its about the house. We are fighting the same battle, just that you are lucky that they are finishing on your house now.

Last night I was so down, and somehow today you decided to sit with me during breakfast, thank you. You always sits with the rest, but today you sit with me. Allah knows that I am frustrated right now with the whole house stuffs and maybe Allah has sent you to just lift up my day. Thanks Kim. Next week, you'll move to your house. I will definitely miss your company. I am pretty sure you won't miss mine. Then again, thanks a lot Kim, for those little talks as we walk to the office, the occasional chat in the bus, thank you very much.

I pray for all the patience that I can get, and hope they can start the work on my house, finish it up, so that I can cook and have you over for lunch or something, so that I can return the gesture. Thank you very much Kim.

Wassalam.

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh....

Its been a while I shared my book reviews (as if I wrote that many reviews :P). Its been a while as well since I last finished a complete book. Time seems to pass by very quickly, especially when you are alone. You would have thought that being alone means you get to do more things, yes, but on condition that you have to be discipline. Me and discipline does not go hand in hand.

I started on this book more than 6 months ago. My first English books after a string of demam novel melayu....hehehe... I have never really read a chick flick/ chick lit, last was the one I shared here about a girl's trip to NY on new years' eve. I have never bought Sophie Kinsella's book, just not drawn to it I guess. So this is an attempt to see if I can survive the genre. (survived for 6 months that is!!)

The story started off slow, very slow, and its no way a page turner, but I had promise myself to finish this book before moving on to a new one. A simple friendship story with series of trouble among two girls that later in life brought them to two different paths. I can recognize one of the character in me, and that's the point it starts to hook me into reading it further. The plot is predictable, with a bit of suspense here and there but of course not to a level a thriller can give you chills. I think it would make a so-so drama that would probably survive one season. The tagline on the cover actually got me hooked .

I keep on reading to find out what the betrayal is, who betrayed who, as it can potentially goes both ways. And finally it happened, maybe I have not read enough chick lit, I didn't really see it coming, oh well.... there it is. Based on other people's review, they were quite pissed with how the two characters were brought together, so cliché, they say...hahaha... what do you expect, I wouldn't put high hopes in chick lit for the twist and turn. 

Reading this book, I began to reflect on my own, how solitary lives can impact me, it has, and I hope I am handling it well. Years worth of friendship does not guarantee anything. Friendship, as any other relationship goes through ups and downs, mine has pretty much been plateau for the very much part of it, be it with anybody. I managed to steer clear of just having one BFFs. I have big groups of girl friends, which I know when push comes to shove, they will be there for me emotionally. (Can't really count on physical support, each has their own commitment, I have to deal with it)

One of my close friend has just had a rough patch with another close friend (they still are as we are talking now). I listened to both sides, trying to be impartial, but somehow I tend to side with one of them, advises were given, but the outlook is not good. How far can you go in intervening somebody's else's problem? I found this video by Syeikh Yasir Qadhi helps a lot. 

Watch from minute 28 onwards, the second part of the khtbah. May it all help us as well. 

Wassalam....

Me Farewell Montage part 2 :)

Me Farewell Montage round 1 ;)

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh...

My farewell montage by lovely colleagues...round 1!! :)

Touched...!! sob..sob..sob...

The Farewell Begins

Assalamulaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh...

It has finally started. I am now going around saying thank you and good byes to people. Last weekend, I visited an ex-colleague, Kak Safura and her hubby Razif at their new house. And on Sunday I managed to hang out with the girls and later round up few of my squad from batch 21 ROTU UiTM. We had a small potluck get together with our respective small families. Yours truly of course la sorang kan.. :)

The view from 29th floor, Twins Damansara

The spread: kebab in saffron sauce, kuih cara, garlic rice, chicken something-something..all are yummeh!!

The highlight of the day : Homemade cream cheese and cookies ice cream, extremely good, I had more than one serving of this. Enough said.  

With the man of the house

The lovely couple. 

On Sunday, few of my girlfriend gave in to my request to take a shot at archery. We went to Stars Archery, Sunway Pyramid. It was definitely fun as later after the session we went for Hunger Games 2. Semua feeling Katniss Everdeen sat..hahaha...I am guessing we are going to do it again.

Ready to rumble...?

All suited up!!

Katniss versi melayu in action.. :p

Our last shot...nak jugak amik gambar...

13 out of 15 arrows made it onto the board..not bad.. not bad at all. The sharp shooter feeling datang balik...hehehe...

Later the same day, I rushed over to Shah Alam, to meet up with my blood sisters and one brother ex ROTU UiTM batch 21. We had a simple potluck and chatted over till it was almost Maghrib. Of course, they knew that I am leaving, hence we have that gathering. I will definitely miss this bunch, next 4 years or so I will not be seeing them again. But the world is such a smaller place now, with all the social media available, I would still be in the loop.

Kumbang nan seekor..tu pun sebab we have it right at his apartment..kalau tak dia pon tak datang... ;p

The whole lot.

Yesterday, we had a farewell session for two ladies, yes, I am not the only one leaving. The Finance Manager is leaving to Miri, end of month and I will leave end Dec. The reason I am being celebrated much much earlier as the office would be quite a deserted place come Dec, people would most probably be clearing their leaves then.

Helping ourselves with the food

Mei Li, (in front of me) is leaving as well.

This is probably when the story about 'the chair' came out. SRC's own urban legend...

I was asked to give a speech..nak nanges dah time ni... ;(

Sweet cuppies ;)

main actress je nampak...extra kena overshadowed..hehehe..

Lunch buddy minus one. She's out on course.

All the SWAN ladies!! gonna miss them :(

Amek kaw...dah lama tak update, sekali letak dekat 20 pictures. You would expect more with the next coming weekends :)