Change again

By now I should know that change is my middle name.

After 2 days' leaves (flu and satu hari temankan Z pi second round Shell interview dia) I was informed that I was needed to serve elsewhere.A place so challenging.I thought if the new post was a face-saving position, I do not need it.I am fine going back to my Kull and continue teaching (and meet my undergrads again...yahoo!) and 1001 things I put on hold for 2+ years.But Dr. Badri was persistent (and Rector being a Communication person, was convincing).

So guys, watch this page as a new life unfolds.I just go with the flow.

I have no regrets with my time at ACSD.I know I had given my best.Colleagues/staff at ACSD will take care of themselves.They have enough exposure and experience to know what hard work and excellence is.I have faith in them.I think they came out stronger and more united than when I first came in.I learned a lot too from my stint there.

For sure, loads of fun as any Alumni Office would have around the world (Alum Office around the world is often called the 'party people' office)

And now, to plan a different kinda party at my Kulliyyah....

New experiences

The past few days had been incredible.It started with the 6th World Islamic Economic Forum where I met influential Muslim world leaders (both of the past and current ones) and talented young Muslims.Took home (IIUM) 2 of the artists to talk to students and show their short films and play their music.IIUM.fm also interviewed them.Some 50 students turned up at the talk/screening of the short films/musical performance held at Career Resource Room (thanks to Tanja and Sheena who assisted me in my absence.Everything was short notice but one has to be clever in seizing opportunities and my two colleagues saw that.Some people would complain,saying it's short notice.Due to Sheena's and Tanja's far-sightedness, our kids benefitted from such a rare opportunity to listen to two Muslim artists from New York City). Mohsin the younger brother was a Fulbright scholar who did some work with street kids in Morocco, empowering them through film production (the kids wrote, acted and directed their life stories and the short films were later screened to some 400 people ~ rich and poor who ended up respecting the kids and stopped spitting at them).

I hope IIUM kids will be inspired to do the same with our street kids/stateless kids in the city.

The whole office had an IEEP retreat in Kelantan and while we were there, the Industrial Networking team worked on internship opportunities as well and the Alumni team organised a reunion dinner for alums in Kota Bharu.Prof Kamal was the speaker for the dinner talk.We got 7 pioneer alums (first batch) Mahal tu! We have made plans for the future.Prof Kamal spoke in Kelantanese most of the time.Truly hilarious but his students missed him so much.One lawyer macam nak nangis as he was leaving, punya sayangnya dia kat bekas cikgunya.Quite touching.

Yang scary was our NLP experience.Everyone seems to embrace this NLP culture.I told Faisal (our coordinator) one has to integrate Islamic values in the prog.Silap2 boleh syirik cos' the prog trains you to believe in your power of mind.Pernah one Puan Sri who had problem sleeping said, after the success of NLP, "Saya dah buat semua, baca yassin, baca Quran, semua tak jadi tetapi selepas buat NLP, baru saya dapat tidur." Sepatutnya she added, "Dengan izin Allah."

It's a dangerous prog, easily subject to abuse.Maybe that's how I lost my RM50K to a therapist! He had NLP-ed me.Baik memang baik but I think he over-charged.

Likewise in KB, we were shown the power of our mind as we passed our energy to a bulb and this bulb was dropped on a thick glass.The glass broke! A colleague who visualised driving her dream car in 2012 could not lift her leg to return to 2010 cos' she had gone to live in 2012! Two other colleagues had to lift her back to the 2010 station, baru dia sedar.Really scary!

I'd say be careful with NLPers (Obama is said to be one of them)

Young Muslim leaders and enterpreneurs

I was a bit skeptical about the lineup of speakers at the 6th World Islamic Econ Forum which KL hosts this year but the pre-forum introduced us to so many young talents of the Muslim world and beyond.Truly inspiring and some talk sessions moved me so much esp. of this young lady from Manila who converted to Islam and became champion of the poor.It started with her love for horses (she is an equestrian who has won many medals in many world events).Met her mom at the Forum and congratulated her for having such a wonderful daughter, so sensitive to things spiritual.When asked if she had no prob with her conversion, she said not at all.Being the busy body I am, I asked "what about her dad?" She said the father yang converted dulu but it was her Arab equestrian friends who introduced Islam to her daughter and Toni said she went home to read more and the more she read, the more convinced she was that she was a Muslim.Toni was raised as a Catholic)

Anyway, I heard Nazir Razak spoke as a young CEO.Pretty impressive.And Aziz from Paris is a young millionaire.He started a taxi biz (out of social revenge he said) As a child of an immigrant, he didn't like the racism, marginalisation he encountered so he set to create wealth to be treated equally.His taxi biz slogan was " faster than a bird, cheaper than a taxi." Kelakar kan?

Jacques Chirac came to his biz launch.

Someone in the audience asked (also a French Muslim chap but he lives in KL) how these successful CEOs and enterpreneurs kept their faith cos usually when wealth increases, faith decreases, he said. The young leaders/enterpreneurs said they didn't think abt it but just did what had to be done.But Toni referred a lot to her faith in Allah as something motivational for her.

That rep from Air Asia came across as arrogant.I thot it was a cheap shot promoting Air Asia when they did not even sponsor the event (MAS did). Bak kata the moderator (so funny guy who spoke in thick British accent tapi rupa mcm Msian Indian.I loved him though.So witty) is he courageous or plain stupid? (in ref to stg else)

Rosmah Mansor spoke at lunch.Sah dialah PM kita sebenarnya! She is more composed and poised than Najib.In fact, she speaks better!

Z's 18th bday party

Teenagers are hard to manage.We arrived later than our caterer and magician.I'm a freak with time but my daughter usually is not good at managing it.So she creates stress for me, unnessarily.Geram juga.

Anyway, the food, magic show and live band by Krash Pad boys semua went well.I just wish ada orang baca doa.The place sounded more like a pub than a shelter home (orang tua punya impression).But the kids (esp. younger kids) had fun.Z also had fun with her friends (they will go separate ways soon) so we left her to have fun after the party.Balik dekat pukul 11 pm.While her dad ni jenis cool ("biarlah dia have fun dgn kawan2 dia"), I bising dia balik lewat. I wasn't raised like that, see. :))

Anyway, your kids will leave the nest one day, whether you like it or not.You must learn how to let go.I have to learn to let go.

The Muse Died

It was murdered by admin work.I miss writing short stories.Poems not so much. :)
I write all the time in my head.A beginning of a story.A leading character.

Just the other day, I had something like this written in my head:

Kilat dan petir di dalam kepala.Sabung menyabung.
I actually saw them.

Then blank.

If you have been a writer and writing easily, this is indeed a tragedy.

Lily says think of it as something that makes me happy at least every 2 or 3 hours for 15 mins.
Not the kilat or petir.My writing.

She says we need to recharge every 2-3 hours by closing our eyes for a good 15 mins and think of happy things.A person.An event.A hobby.Anything.

Try it and see if you can remember having been so happy in your life.Quite tricky if you have been busy with work and have not been on a good holiday with your loved ones for so long!

But my happy image is this: my family going on a vacation.Sometimes in Brunei.Others in NZ, Oman, Ritz Calton, KL and Putrajaya.Putrajaya! Hahaha (remember fishing in a lake without bait? I loved those moments)

2010 Mother's Day

We had lunch at my mom's in law (lunch was prepared by my in laws ~ roast chicken, spaghetti, desserts, etc. Nik and I just bought her a black forest cake and a bouquet of roses and orchids.Mama loved the flowers.They cheered her up.Still in mourning, remember.4 months 10 days tak leh keluar rumah.In eddah)

I had to leave early for my weight management hypnotherapy session (hahaha..Nik quit smoking through this treatment.He had one session only.So don't think it's a crazy idea.Just watch me lose my ugly 10 kg in a non-intrusive way, ok? I'll tell you how it's done after I've lost my 10 kg.I now keep a healthy lifestyle diary: part of this treatment.This includes walking after dinner for 15-30 mins with my family.We did it last nite.It felt really good cos' it gave us time to communicate as a family.Bonding lah kiranya)

After an hour with Lily (my hynotherapist) I rushed to HUKM to celebrate Mother's Day with my Mom and some siblings.Sal arrived late.Mek was already there cos' she slept over.Kak Ngah was also there.

So we gave her the Mom's Day cake, a bouquet of flowers and Mek gave her a new jacket.I'll upload pics later.

For all moms, happy mom's day! Insist on being served! :)) (at our lunch, we had 6 moms and we insisted that the guys and our kids serve us).I think we'll do this as a Mother's Day tradition.It felt so good.

In the news

This came out yesterday (gambar lama so if I look younger, you know why)

Thanks to Nurul and Nora who took the trouble to scan the pic. :)

Haji Ali in memoriam

My father in law, Haji Ali Daud passed away at HKL yesterday.He's one of the toughest men I've met (emotionally).At 72, he suffered from all sorts of ailment you can think of: diabetes, heart problem, renal problem (failure!), eye problem etc.He had all these in his mid 50s.His leg was amputated when Nik and I were doing our hajj in 2000.He plodded along, never showed any sign of self pity, trying to "menghabiskan lagu"/finish up the song (his favourite expression) which refers to his journey towards death.

Nik and I had been held up by so many things in the last couple of weeks of his living (I think I had not visited him longer than Nik cos' I was busy with my own mom, also warded for the same kinda illness) but on Sunday evening, I thought of how he was doing and text-ed Faisal, my bro in law.Faisal said the docs had announced that he had 0% of living and gave him 1-2 days.It was 9 pm, past the visiting hours.I told Faisal I'd go the following day, lunch hours.

Meanwhile I was on the ph with my niece doctor on this.She was wondering why my fil (father in law) was not placed in ICU if he had zero chance of living.So she rang up HKL to know details.

Then she rang me up to say my fil was placed on "death in line" and I guess it's just waiting for that song to end.I told Umi, I'll visit him the following day.

Umi: you still wanna wait that long?

Me: It's 9 pm.They are very strict with visiting time

Umi: Tell them he's nazak already.They'll let you in.

So I decided to take that chance.I told Nik (who's still recovering from his cataract removing thingy) but he was reluctant to go .Besok je kita pergi, he said.

I said besok may be too late.Nanti menyesal tak habis.
So the three of us dressed up and went.Memang susah nak masuk but we were prepared with our script.

"Dia dah nazak."

The guard let us in.

Haji Ali was sleeping (in difficulty cos' his lungs were no good).I read yassin for him.Then my psychic friend Borhan (with whom I was on sms earlier) beeped that I call him so that he could transfer some energy into my weak father in law.But he said, "If it's time, he would go peacefully.If not, he would recover."

Borhan is a family friend and we had gone a long way.I have seen his "magic". :)
I said OK but passed on the phone to Nik for fear of unexpected thing.

As Nik listened to Borhan on the ph while touching my father in law's leg, there was a violent reaction (as though two things clashed...Borhan later explained it's positive and negative energy colliding) I dah naik takut..my fil had so much energy to cough out his phlegm but it didn't come out.

He showed disturbed signs that I asked Z to call Faisal (who was having his dinner at almost 10pm! Itu pun I bawak his dinner.Since my mom got sick. I now know about caring for care givers so I was a bit more thoughtful than usual) Anyway, my fil calmed down after a while and then a stressful ph call from my mom's maid at HUKM came to say my mom was also having some red alerts at the hospital.So we rushed to see her.She was suffocating cos' her lungs penuh air walhal she just did dialysis during the day.They had to do it again (twice in a day!) to keluarkan air.

By the time we got home, it was 1 am.Before I slept, I said a little prayer, "If anybody had to die tonight, please Lord, delay it to tomorrow morning around 6 or 7 am.I am soooooooooo tired."

When I woke up for Subuh, I was amazed at how my sleep went undisturbed, said my syukur and prayed Subuh, with a sense of peace.At about 6.50 am, Nik's phone rang.Lina (his sister)'s name came up flashing.She and Faisal slept over at the hospital, each taking turn to care for their dad.

We knew.

The song had ended.

Al fatihah to Haji Ali Daud who was like my own dad who I could not give gifts every time I went away overseas (my Dad died when I was 18, just after my SPM.Tak sempat ku balas jasanya).Semoga rohnya ditempatkan di kalangan orang-orang yang diredhoi Allah.

Shook!

The family dined at Shook! last night then took a walk at Jalan BB and stopped kat spot tepi jalan tu to have ice cream and tonic water.We were hosting Natalie and her husband Carl who just flew in the day before.Seronok couple ni.Yang paling excited were Nik and Z.Depa (Nik and Carl) tengah merancang nak bawak Blue Man Group ke KL.Ambitious tu

Then Nik showed them Bangsar where 'it's happening'. But yang kita nampak belakang rumah orang yang gelap gelita.Z and I dah gelak2 kat belakang (Carl duduk depan sebab dia tinggi.Nanti tak muat kalau dia duduk belakang)..sah tourist guide menipu ni. Hahaha.I think Bangsar is not happening anymore.Ke mana expats melepak now? Sri Hartamas kaa? Nat and Carl tak minum arak and they said it's hard in England sebab kawan2 tak tau respect people yang nak berhenti minum.Kesian juga dengarnya.

Z will upload pics later.