Al-fatihah...

I received a sad news about an hour ago... a dear old friend died in her sleep this morning...

I was, in fact we (possibly all her friends) were really taken by surprise. Mainly because she was always known to be fit and healthy. One would never have guessed her age - she was going to be 50 end of this year, but those who didnt know that would surely have guessed that she was only 40. In fact, if she was siting next to me, people would say that she was younger than me..

The news of her death was told to me by one of her daughters in a text message. I didnt recognise her no, the nice girl took an effort to send text to all nos in her dear mom's phone book in her mobile phone. It read "Ibu saya, Zubaidah meninggal di dalam tidur pagi tadi dan telah selamat dikebumikan selepas zohor hari ini".

I immediately called her to offer my condolences. She told me that her mother only had a fever since 2 days ago, and she did see a dr who only prescribed PCM. To her knowledge, her mom never suffered any chronic illnesses like diabetes or hypertension which are common among Malaysians over 40.

That is why I said the news took me by surprise. I'm sure if I go today, people would not be surprised at all, as I have always been in and out of hospitals, especially in the past few years. In fact I remember, when I was admitted for an operation about 2 months ago, certain people were already calling me "nenek kebayan" and warning me about dying and about my preparation for death...

Hm... that's one thing about ajal, as Allah promises it... bila sampai ajal kamu, ia tidak akan dicepatkan atau dilambatkan walau sesaat... noone knows it when his/her time would come. Like last year... a neighbour passed away - the wife had been suffering from breast cancer and was in and out of hospitals for chemotherapy, when suddenly the husband passed away choking on biscuit while having tea. When I saw many people at her house that evening, I assumed that it was the wife that had died, but was very surprised to find out that it was not her, but the husband.

Anyway... back to my friend... Al-fatihah for Arwah Zubaidah and may she be placed among the shuhada and solihiin...

And to her 3 lovely daughters, I hope that they will be strong facing this difficult time...

makeover...

Went for a makeover today, and this is the result...

Two-Face Tray...

Talam dua muka

Menggunting dalam lipatan

Telunjuk lurus kelingking berkait

Api dalam sekam

Duri dalam daging

There are at least five (5 that I know, there could be more...) Malay proverbs describing dishonesty...

Last week, I found out about someone in the office who I would never have thought would be a "two-face tray"... di depan bukan main memuji2 dan menyokong all my decisions, tapi di belakang she couldnt seem to stop complaining about me.

My boss called for a meeting last week, and I could not attend it as I had to attend another meeting. I was told by someone who attended that same meeting, that she was dominating the meeting talking all sorts of bad things/decisions that I had allegedly done. Kalau betul tak pe...

It got me to thinking... what was her motive... pelik... and what made me even more upset is the fact that I would never have thought that she would do such a thing. She has been quite cooperative to all tasks that I assigned her, she never showed any animosity towards me... in fact I always treated her like a friend, not merely a staff in the office where I am the HOD. I thought we were that "close" as she did once tumpang my office to pump her milk. She sometimes just came into my office in a hot day (as the aircond in my office is cooler than the ones in the general office). Kalau tak kawan, boleh ke buat macam tu... tapi kalau kawan kenapa dia buat apa yg dia buat...

I am not worried about what she said, because I can always back myself up with data and facts - all that she said werent true. What got into me is, why she did what she did? If she wants my post, go ahead and ask from the VP, I would gladly pass the job to her. In fact, if the menagement agrees to it, I would be indeed very happy as that would give me a chance to concentrate on my PhD...

Of all the people in the office, I am really surprised that she turned out to be the gunting in my lipatan, the kelingking yang berkait, the api in my sekam, the duri in my daging...

Are things back to normal?

Define normal...

Tak perlu minta maaf...

When someone says "tak perlu minta maaf", what does that say about that someone's character? Hm.... I dont think I have to elaborate on that...

Picture this... you are driving on the road, and accidentally hit the car in front of you... you and the driver of the car that you hit go to the nearest police station and file reports and your insurance covers the cost of the damage that you cause to the other car... end of the story.

End of the story? Really? Ekkkk!!! Wrong...

The insurance only covers the damage that you cause on the car that you hit... it does not cover the inconveniences that you may have caused, the trauma, the scare etc... Insurance does not cover that... An apology covers that...

The power of the word "I am sorry" or "I apologise" is often underestimated.

So, when I heard someone says "Tak perlu minta maaf" in the news today... my thinking was, that someone should not be holding a public post... for someone of that ranking to utter such statement shows that... regardless of the level of education, or the post held, a man's ego is always higher than the sky...

Urgh!!!!!

Happy birthday Amin...

Amin, my second son is 16 today. And this is his birthday present, which is also his present for getting 5As in his PMR.

Happy birthday Amin!!! Hope you like the present... actually Amin is not home right now - he is at his hostel and will come home for the weekend this Friday. So, before he comes home, mummy rasmi lah dulu mini notebook ni. In fact, his school doesnt allow students to bring a laptop to the hostel, which means faham2 lah siapa yg akan guna notebook ni most of the time... hahaha... pandai tak mummy pilih hadiah?

That's why all my kids are smart... mummy dia smart... hahaha...

Mothers' Day Weekend

This weekend was supposed to be spent moving to my new office... but due to some technical problems, the shift was postponed to 17 May... hopefully jangan la postpone lagi lepas ni...

Left with canceled plan, my kids (who were supposed to help with the moving) suddenly had an idea of going on a short holiday... so that's what we did... we went to Gunung Ledang resort near Muar...

The night of the 8th of May, we reached Muar and spent the night at my in laws' house in Pagoh. But before that we went to Muar, taking a walk along "Tanjung" by the river Muar and had a Mummy's Day dinner at a seafood reastaurant there (forgot the name).

Akim reciting doa makan before we ate

We balik kg because one BIL said he was going to belanja us Udang Galah (udang sungai), but he already left (he lives in JB) when we reached Pagoh. So, we had udang harimau instead at the restaurant.

Tak la sedap sangat... tapi boleh la... it's our first time trying the restaurant. Muaz in particular complained about his hard mee in his mee hailam...

The sotong tepung was nice...

Kembong 3 rasa, but the taste was more like "semacam"... hahaha... but Mia kata ok, this girl tak pernah tolak makanan... :)

Tomyam campur - Nabil wanted this, but was frustrated because it was quite tasteless...

Daddy enjoying his udang harimau... tak pandang kiri kanan... lepas tu bersin tak berenti... achum!!! achum!!! achum!!!

On Mummy's Day... we went to Gunung Ledang resort... mandi air terjun... dah lama tak pergi sini... last was in 2006, we stayed at the little hotel there at that time. Now, we only made a day trip...

Mia...

Daddy...

Muaz...

Daddy with Akim and Nabil.. the 2 little boys were shaking kesejukan...

Anak sapa la ni... eh, anak aku lah... hahaha...

On the way back to Shah Alam, we stopped by to visit Amin and had a 2-in-1 celebration - Amin's birthday and Mummy's day... Actually Amin's birthday is on 11th May, but we brought it forward to today...

Weekends are no longer days for me to rest nowadays... sigh... but for the kids... I'd do anything...

dunia ini ibarat roda...

Hm... who was it that arrogantly said that to my face not too long ago...

Well... today... hm... not today, it was 2 days ago to be exact... she (they) must surely believe what they said...

They laughed at me when that happened to me... they said I must have been really evil to deserve what had happened to me... Hah!!! Now when the ball had turned to them they must be feeling how evil they are for that same thing to happen to one of them...

Am I going to say PADAN MUKA? Nah... I'm not gonna say that, I'm just going to say, I am indeed a strong believer to the saying that DUNIA INI IBARAT RODA... benda yg satu hari terjadi pada org lain dan anda telah ketawakan org itu pasti satu hari nanti akan terjadi juga pada anda... tapi aku takkan ketawa, aku cuma ingin berkata...

DUNIA INI IBARAT RODA...... percayalah, ia bukan hanya benar untuk orang lain... ia juga akan terjadi pada anda...

Dan aku juga ingin bertanya, now that RODA tu dah berpusing dan salah seorang dari anda telah tergelek di bawahnya, apa perasaan anda?

Upah or rasuah?

I bought my son a brand new viva... his friends congratulated him, one in particular called him "anak manja".... hahaha... One of my friends warned me not to let him drive at 2 o'clock in the morning... And this one particular not-so-close friend from sekolah menengah, asked me this question: Upah ke Rasuah? And I terkedu didnt know what to say... because the truth is I bought him the car just because he is my son.....

The car no is also quite special... no, I didnt book it at JPJ... pure coincidence... the no is 1504, my late father's car dulu 1505... also terkedu when I saw the no...

Till today, I cant put the question off my mind: UPAH KE RASUAH? Hm...