Friends from the past

Macam tak percaya Seiki and I got wired today! Seiki ni kawan sekuliah saya semasa mengaji di Waikato, New Zealand.Dia budak dari Osaka tetapi masa tu pun dia dah ada a strong American accent.Dia ambik Linguistics dan selalu dapat A.Kawan dia yang seorang lagi Mieko pun ambik Linguistics.Masa tu Mieko tak pandai sangat cakap English tapi bila exams semua dapat A for Linguistics papers.Sebelum balik Jepun, she came to stay with me about 2 weeks.Naik bas dari Pekeliling dihantar oleh seorang yg kesian kat dia ke Raub cos' we missed the communication and I tak tunggu dia di KL.Mmg Mieko seorg survivor.

Hari ini Seiki cakap Mieko kawin dgn orang putih dari Ireland dan sepuluh tahun lepas, dia tinggal di Brussels.I pun googled mcm seorang stalker.Jumpa seseorang yg ada iras rupa Mieko tapi dah makin cantik dan dah mcm orang putih.Jika benar itu Mieko, dia sangat berjaya.Dari The Hague dia dah pindah ke California.Whoa....I hope she writes back.Would love to meet up with her again.

It's funny how we have all changed and yet bila jumpa kawan lama, rasa seronok satu macam.Seiki was in the same hall as I was so I guess that was how dia masih ingat who I was despite berpuluh tahun.Kelas kita dua je yg sama: Linguistics and Japanese.

I cari dia sebab ada urusan kerja yang diperlukan.Dept cari Prof of Linguistics nak suruh review our curriculum.Nasib jumpa.And my other Japanese friend,Shin is also his friend! What a small world.

The interview

Tadi I terperangkap.Tapi perangkap yang disukai. :))

I went to send over two trophies ke Konsul Iran sebab takut nak hantar courier.Satu, takut pecah since trophy is made of crystal (kaca sebenarnya).Dua..trophy berat giler.Berapa ratus pulak nak ngantarnya..dah le uni byk ragam before my money yang beribu yg I dulukan tu is reimbursed.Nak resit ori le (rasanya dah hantar habis belaka dah).They will pay back no doubt tapi buat susah mcm ni yang buat I tawar hati nak buat apa2 dah.

Anyway, I went with Ju...sebab malas nak berdua2an dgn Counsellor nanti although he's such a decent man.Mak oii..bkn je dia sorang...ada 3 lelaki lain di situ! Mereka ini dari media Iran.Wah! Wah!Yang sorang tu byk hensemnya tapi Henglishnya kureng.I terpaksa letak telinga I arah dia bercakap.

Borak2 punya borak, salah seorang mereka mula merakam  pendapat I tentang perceptions film Iran di Msia dan mcmana mereka can grow better. I cakap orang Msia takut Shiah dan itu masalah yang pihak diplomat yang kena selesaikan.Convince-kan le Msian gomen bhw mereka tidak berniat nak sebar Shiah, kan? Rakyat biasa nonton je any good film ..filem Tamil pun kita ralik..apa lagi filem bagus dari Iran asalkan mendidik manusiawi kita.

Guy yang merakam ni dari suratkabar Iran (based in KL).Mereka kata mereka semua kenal I.Kata mereka, I famous.Fuiii..bahaya ni.I said I am not famous.I am just a beggar.Tak sangka la I boleh rendah diri gitu sekali. :)) But gitulah perasaan I ketika bercakap tu.Sebab nak buat apa2 pun kena beg orang nak minta duit.

I told them I dah tak akan terlibat lagi dgn penganjuran apa2 festival dah (US Embassy pun tanya I benda yang sama masa film launch MW tu) so habis kat sini je la.Tapi I hope the new Director of the Culture Centre will pick up where I left sbb festival ni bawak byk kebaikan dari keburukan (buruk apa?).I have books to write and publish.This will be my new home for the next few years.

Parents can be too much

I was talking to some young adults and one was telling me how her dad was putting pressure on her to have a boyfriend and marry at the age of 22 (Zafirah's age!). Too much, don't you think.

And the poor girl was accused of many things: choosy, picky, not dressing up well enough to attract boys, etc etc.She was reminded that if she does not do anything about it, she'd end up a spinster.

The poor gal cried sampai bengkak-bengkak mata.

Parents can be cruel, sometimes.
I wish I could console this young woman and advise her to believe in herself and continue to do what she wants to do (study first).Kpd ibubapa yg membaca ini: be kind to your children.At this age, their self-esteem is so fragile.Help them to grow as confident young adults and if you want a menantu so much, pray for a good one.Ketidak pi cari satu for them but wait for the right time to marry them off.

Penjaga kubur

Entah mengapa, I woke up this morning and teringatkan my aruah mil.I told Nik dah lama dia tak ziarah the kubur and air tahlil we did in Dec belum siram2 lagi.Nasib Bibik tak siram kat pokok2 I.My plants are so manja.Air siraman mereka adalah air yassin yg Bibik baca every Friday. :)

So we went..before we went to pasar.The days had been very hot the last few weeks after our brief winter.Rumput atas pusara mama dah mula nak kering but masih ada green spots and the two trees masih hijau.Mungkin sampai doa anak cucu menantu dia.But I tengok kubur sebelah dia lagi hijau..mcm rumput padang golf.Hati I berkata..wahhh..berekatnya hidup dia dan makbulnya doa anak cucu dia.

Then I saw the penjaga kubur sibuk menyiram beberapa pusara.I asked awak jaga ke pusara ni semua? He said yes...rm90 sebulan kalau siram pagi dan petang.I asked about pusara ala2 padang golf kecil tu.Yang ini pun? He said yes and pointed to a few others termasuk kubur Datuk yg wife dia byr rm1k sebulan dan wakafkan a beautiful laman of rm10k for visitors to sit and baca yassin and tempat cuci tangan dan kaki.Whoa!

So we decided to go for it.He said RM200 nak tukar rumput baru with tanah then rm90 monthly.Amboi..bagusnya business dia nih! Sapa kata duduk tepi kubur cannot be kaya? So creative, kan? Dia bkn rakyat Msia, OK? Kotlah next visit he'll say kalau nak baja, tambah Rm50 lagi.

I buat laporan polislah pulak gamaknya.:))

Lunch reunion with Uni of Liverpool alums, Putrajaya Lake

We went sbb there's nothing to do at home today.It would be lovely catching up with friends frm the group.Nik kata nanti org yg sama je.True, but they are fun people. :)

No, the meeting had more people this time...more younger people..from batch 2004-2010 and some oldies we had not met.The venue was fantastic...open spaced, breezy and was like a typical summer's day in NZ or Australia.We ate by the lake with nice view.Awan putih dan langit biru.Tan mula la keluar teori engineering dia...not a good day to seed tne clouds kata dia.Seeding can only be done kalau cloud tu hitam atau ada tompok2 hitam.

We sat with our old friends...Delesh, Tan, Amin.Azhar and Annie takda kali ni but tiga tu pun dah cukup nak ckp pasal politics in China, India, Spore, Hong Kong dan Msia.Sambil tu ordered dua banana splits.And grilled this and that.Heh, this is better than having an afternoon nap daa. :) Amin cerita office dia kat Dsara Heights dah 6 hari no water cos' water pipe burst due to mrt constructions.He lives in Hartamas so boleh mandi manda lagi but wht happens is bad for biz and boleh sue sebenarnya.

Met some new faces.A guy from JB who knows Mek.Then there's Tuah who has equally fantastic names for his kids: Sri Delima (he calls her Ruby) dan Sri Mutiara (tak tau kot dia panggil Pearl kaa). Pas tu a young gal told me nama dia Adele.Mak ooi.But she's so pretty.

Mengenali diri

Two incidents took plc which made me self-reflect.

1.Sah I tak suka over-confident rude people.Haha.You can be confident but you can't be rude at the same time.Bdk yang I tolong dapatkan kerja tu sekarang dah nak menunjuk2 dan tunjuk pandai.Mungkin bkn tujuan dia tetapi dia perlu ingat, semua orang kena berfikir dan berpandangan jauh bukan thinking parochial.Ini yang buat I bosan sesangat.Thinking parochial.I'll be very careful who I'd recommend the next time.Orang kalau nak sesuatu dgn kita ..mula main politik lentok tengkok.I ni pulak mudah kesian kat orang.Tulah asyik kena tipu.

2.My kes dgn bdk Zionist tu juga membuat I nekad untuk audit kelas Thameem Usama. Dia (bdk zionis) mcm zionist lainnya menulis sejarah dan analisa politik yang menurut kawan-kawan I cherry-picking: pilih apa yang baik utk agenda zionist dia.Bila I bangkang dia tuduh I tak tau apa-apa.Walhal kita bercakap mengenai takrifan masing2 tentang sejarah dan analisa politik.My friends kata bdk zionist ni cuma a wannabe.Tin kosong.

Tapi I perlu bersyukur di atas encounter ini sebab kita tau pandangan (jahat) mereka dan perlu bersedia menghadapi era fitnah ini (dan hanya melalui peningkatan ilmu terutama ilmu agama dapat menyelamatkan kita dari ancaman fitnah terhadap kita dan dunia Islam amnya).

Ingat ini : Israel dan Turkey mempunyai hubungan perdagangan yang amat kukuh dan sebelum peristiswa Flotilla itu, diplomatic ties kedua negara sangat hebat...patut le Erdogan berani nak pi hantar makanan.Sebab jaringan persahabatan tu dah terjalin lebih 50 tahun dah.

Turkey adalah pembekal air bersih ke Israel (dan Jordan melalui Israel).Now nak buat paip minyak, kot?Cuba google.

Banyak lagi semasa menjawab komen zionist tu.Dia tuduh I penipu sebab I cerita pasal Msia memberi perlindungan kpd refugees Indo-China, Bosnians, Rohingyas, Syrians, dll.Dia cuba melakarkan imej paling buruk dan bila I bantah, I jadi pahlawan Perkasa (tuduhan zionis yang boleh berbahasa Melayu ini).

Kesimpulan: setiap pertemuan itu aturan Allah dan pertemuan dgn Zionis ini should make me better than who I am now. :)

Tea with Australian Foreign Minister

 Foreign Minister dia pompuan yang bijak.

Ambassador baru dia mcm pelakon Greek yang hensem. :)

Dan inilah recipients of Oz s/ships

Gempak je lebih..she came late (rushing from her meeting with Msian Foreign Minister in Putrajaya.Ingatkan Minister Melayu je yang selalu dtg lambat nih).But tak sampai la sejam or two mcm Pak Lah or Najib pernah buat at functions I attended with them.Bishop was late for 30 mins je.Mahathir is still the best.Dia jaga masa dia.

So para tetamu makan dulu (lunch hours babe).MC suruh minum tea je dulu.Some smart alecks pi ambik semua makanan.Like a herd, kita follow.Tan Sri Salleh Mohd Nor kata takpa. Haha.

I met two interesting..no..three..people.Kid Chan yang paling interesting.Fulltime dad, kata dia.I asked mana cari duit that you can afford that.He said he had a hobby that paid the bills.Photography.His company is well-sought after even for events overseas and that he covered weddings like Siti Nurhaliza's.Yer ke ni? But he was fun to chat with.He has just finished writing a guide for enterpreneurs.Nanti nak pi cari.

Then a lady from Kementerian Pendidikan (bahagian yang sangat sesuai dengan jiwa I..Planning and Research>Panjang la akal kami nak buat itu ini nanti).

Depa from Oz ni baru launched New Colombo Plan.Kali ni for org depa: phase one internships for their students in Asian orgs.Pandai nya org memikir nak memajukan rakyat.Tak mcm kita..nak mengabehkan beraih rakyat je.

But they gave away 4 s/ships for Msians juga.Fair.Duit deme.

Nb: Googled up Kid Chan.This is what Msian Tatler wrote of him: "100 people you must know in Asia".Whoaaa!

Wushu, yee sang and other stuffs

Doing the yee sang

First time doing a group yee sang this big

a fantastic acrobatic show

lion yang comel

lion berkaki dua!

tekun meng-yee-sang.Haha

Dato' Ma , Hj Shaari and guests

Haji apa ke namanya - the caterer of Chinese Muslim meals

MACMA held an open house at Menara TM Convention Centre.Seribu orang.We did a longgggg yee sang celebration.Wahhh..best giler tapi campur lelaki perempuan.Tht bit I tak suka.In one pic, baru I perasan one guy had my head in between his hands masa dia ambik gambar (obviously he's taller).

The culture show was superb: bdk2 UIA did a sketch, another group did flag dance and another group did wu shu dance.Suspen habis cos' pisau tajam di dada in which you have to balance..ketidak tertikam.

Then the acrobatic lion dance pun suspen giler.It took the kids five years to perfect their movements..memang mcm kat circus.My meja was at the front so we saw clearly.I menjerit2 takut jatuh bdk2 ni.But semua orang menjerit pun tak dengar cos' the drums were so loud.

I met three new friends.Yg sorang tu baba melaka (not a Muslim), the other said he's Korean living in Manila.Quite a character so I do not know when he's telling me the truth, when he's joking.The third owns a Chinese Muslim restaurant and was the caterer for the function.

A few gfs and I tadi suspen juga with another gf's fb status.Lawak gila when we thought the worst had happened (ingatkan dia dan suaminya bercerai).Rupa2nya some prob at work.Phew! If you are in your 40s or 50s, jgnlah nak bercerai berai ok? Kalu nak bercerai, masa baru kawin and belum ada anak.Just remember that.Unless of cos' it's an abusive marriage (both physical or emotional).

Have a great and productive week ahead.

Satu lagi tuduhan liar...

I should just laugh at this (I did as I related the story to a few friends) but semalam tergerak hati untuk menegor satu comment tentang giatnya orang Islam membunuh orang-orang Kristian di Timur Tengah dan Afrika.Satu demi satu pengadu domba mengiyakan pendapat ini.Seorang Penolong Pensyarah mungkin dari Pak berkata semua agama terlibat membunuh yg lain baik Kristian,Hindu atau lain-lainnya.Dan dia ckp byk lagi tapi intipatinya itu.Saya pun masuk menyokong dgn mengatakan tidak ada agama yg menyuruh membunuh dan tidak wajar kita mengaitkan agama dan konflik dan peperangan cos' people go to war for different reasons.Religion is just a convenient excuse.

Wah...datang satu mamat dari Washington DC berkuda dan meletakkan label kpd saya..dia tulis dlm B.Melayu (nak tunjuklah dia pandai..haha..I was impressed la juga) dan ckp saya mcm Perkasa, Jakim dan mcm Mahathir (part ni yg nak tergelak).Pas tu sedap2 je ckp saya bukan wanita bertoleransi (part ni pun  nak tergelak..the pot calling the kettle black). So berlakulah siri email bertikam2.Dia berkuda, saya berkaki ayam.I said maybe he should stick to discipline asalnya iaitu biology.And kalau nak berbual pasal gardening,silakan but trying to pick a war with me on war and conflict, aku tak kuasa.

My general comment tu ada juga orang like.:)) Budak kecik nak bermain api.Email kedua dia tuduh I shiah pulak.WTF (what the funny..)He actually reminds me of another wacko.Takkan orang sama, kot?

I went to visit Basyir.Dia warded for dengue.Three of Sal's kids got it.Mcm2 dugaan si Sal ni.On the way back, I got lost in Kepong.Whoa..besar Kepong ni.

The big event

It went well, alhamdulillah.

We did lunch at the Bookerz, iium.fm interview, the launch and tea afterwards.

The African dance performance impressed all and I think MW was touched by the video clip on him and the dance surprise we did at the launching.The most sporting person was Prof Hassan who accepted Ali's invitation to do a dance step with him.I was too busy to take photos and too busy watching the other sporting chap - Justin - doing a robotic step with the Hausa Prince.I'd put these pics here if I got hold of them.Justin (born in Ithaca!) said to everyone who teased him :pls, pls erase that pic pf me doing the African dance from your memory.

No one wanted to leave after tea cos' everyone had such a nice time.

 i love the sound of the african drums

robotic jgn tak robotic

come dance with me..

DELL gals with MW

The evening before the big event

...is now.Stayed back to check everything was in order.Ju (pgrad) and the boys came bck in the evening to do sound check with Ismail.Wanted to send Ju (maid) bck to the agent..she lambat so I took her to watch the rehearsal.Then my mom rang suruh jgn pulang lagi si Ju.

I bwk la dia balik ke rumah but had to drop by Syed's plc to collect the dvd for tomorrow.Dah tengah malam! Nasib wife dia belum tidor.Syed was still on the bus frm Penang.

Ju (maid) and I talked.She was misunderstood.She was talking to her cousin the other day, not her boiferen.Oh well.If I pulangkan balik ke agent,I'd never see my money bck and no guarantee I could get a new maid so soon or better.So whn my mom said tak pyh pulang..me so lega.Now I can focus on other matters.

Wedding of the month

This is the wedding which made me cry a little.My long time gf's son got married and I met my gf's sister with whom I had not met since we parted in 1988 after our Dip Ed.Kita duduk serumah masa buat teaching practical 3 bulan in Melaka.The two sisters found the plc at Telok Mas ..rumah bekas MP...and we all became anak angkat Datin (I think I was the fav...haha).

 Zah (my gf's sister) hugged me so hard and so long sambil kita got teary.Zah asked me: awak pergi mana all these years Dah? (The two sisters call me by my home name...punya la close masa tu).Sedih pulak I dengar soalan tu.She is one of those really sincere friends you could wish for.Alhamdulillah berjumpa juga.

 Some pics from the wedding.Since the father of the groom is a politician, maka ramai la celebrity polticians yg kita jumpa. AI was one of them.On my way to the car, a group of grim pak guards were walking to the Hall.AI is banned from entering IIUM.Masa tu AI pun dah masuk kereta dia.One of the guards said dah nak balik dah tu.

 Takkan nak halau kot?
 But Nik said tney came to shake hands with AI.

Talk Round 1

I had to go to work to work on the launch gimmick with Ju and the boys.The students started talking to one another.What an interesting bunch! One is a Hausa prince.And one had a Pol Pot history (her parents went through the ordeal but were assisted by good Americans - saving as many as they could).How do they keep their iman yah? Simply amazing stories.

Bdk2 foreigner ni mcm2 conflicts they went through.I told them to write their stories in poems or short stories or novels. Rushed to attend Wolfe's talk at D'sara Perdana.Waahhh..so happening area kat Menara MK tu.Woot woot, mcm kat overseas.

Zaidon and nephew were there and Riaz and the gang.Talk (or rather panel discussion) went well.I dah tak tahan nak put forth my opinion tht kita ni cepat sgt melompat bila tengok news on social media or media..yg buat jahat tu beberapa kerat je but majority would not condone crimes termasuk hate crimes.Eg. Issue sembelih ayam.Si moderator tu boleh tak pick up my point and went on and on bual isu pasal ngapa org nak salam ke tidak.

Luckily Uthaya (with whom I have not been talking since he deleted my name from his fb...haha) picked up and beautifully reasserted our need not to pass hatred and unverified news.We are the media, he said.Wah, respect!Michael Wolfe said tak sangka la pulak interesting banget discussion hari ni.I pun tak sangka we could be so honest and so loving of one another.Berjayalah mission Yunus and Justin kalau begitu.Alhamdulillah.

 As I was walking to my car, bumped into a grp of youths tengah shooting.Reporter CNN tanya buat advertisement ke drama ni? One young man said tengah shoot video clip.Oh..apa nama group ni? He said Aziz Satar.I terkebil2. Setau I aruah dah takda.Dlm hati berkata mungkin Aziz Satar Production House..anak dia punya. Then I was pointed the singer and was told dia lah penyanyinya.I asked dia popular ke? He said sangat.I asked, can I take his pic? The young man said biar saya ambik gambar Aunty dgn dia. After the photo taking, the singer introduced himself politely, nama saya Alif Satar.I minta maaf ckp maaf saya tak kenal sebab umur Aunty dah dekat 60...new singers tak kenal.He politely said tak mengapa. Balik googled and found out wahh..mmg mengetop.Haha.