Z on BBC Sheffield

I'm proud of my little gal - doing her bit for her country.Alhamdulillah.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01tcv0z (Click sebelah kiri sebelah gambar DJ tu dan dengar minit 1.07 ke atas)

As fate would have it...

Two meetings di hujung dunia on Friday.And I was limping.I got Din to drive me over to Shah Alam to give a briefing to our new clients.Lepas tu rushed ke Jln Maktab.Told Din nanti I balik naik taxi.

Tun M was ending his speech.Nothing new.Nasib I tiba lambat. :))

I asked Borhan if he could drop me at the nearest taxi stand. He was staying back for another meeting.But he said I could get a lift from Zaid.Zaid was in a hurry.I wanted to lunch first.Then Z said OKlah.Tengok2 dia yang lunch lama.Jenoh I nunggunya.

He was kind enough to drop me at my doorstep.We have met in meetings many times.He comes across as a very decent young man.Very polite and all.Tengok2 dia tua dari I but I swear, rupanya mcm 30 something.Muka org beriman!I read about his early days di UK, starting the intellectual Muslim youth movement.Taklah ku sangka.Nampak simpoi sahaja orangnya.

On the homefront: Eishah and the kids slept over.Kak Ngah and her grandchildren also slept over.Gosh, the kids tak tau nak tidur awal.I had to switch off the lights baru nak tidur.Past midnight!

ISA stories

My gal went to Hishamuddin Rais' play Bilik Sulit and heard him speak of his experiences as an ISA detainee (jailed without trial..for being a threat to national security).

Hisham ni mmg lawak.Z spoke with him and asked him about the fate of the Kajang move.Hisham kata ehhh...belum tentu lagi...(Z was saying it's stalemate between the gomen and PKR).

Z said HR said he would never want anyone to be under the ISA ever.They'd try to break you psychologically..it's the isolation cell yg paling tak tahan cos' you'd be given nothing.In the end, to keep sane, you have to make do with whatever you have around you - he had learnt how to watch and talk to ants on the wall, etc to the extent that he knew them by names he gave each of them.Then he made sculptures from breads given to him.Once the authorities found out you have a stable mind and sane, they'd take everything to break your spirit again.

Whoa..belum penjara di bawah al Sisi or Netanyahu or di Abu Ghraib lagi.

What if....

...a civilian plane (MH370) was used to carry military weapons ke China and US detected and intercepted?
Have I read too many spy books and too many Bond movies?

Kita tau ada pembesar ada syarikat yang berniaga senjata (dulu beli kapal selam).Bukankah trend pemimpin negara berniaga senjata? Bush? Prince Andrew? Prince Charles? Raja Saudi? Apakah tidak mungkin pemimpin kita juga?

Sampai hati sanggup guna civilian plane dan mengorbankan rakyat yang tak tau apa-apa (plot novel misteri).

Cluenya: ini bukan musim buah manggis nak bawak manggis bertan-tan.Also semua bahan bakar (termasuk bateri ke hapa ke tidak boleh naik pesawat.

Cluenya juga: tangisan Hishamuddin not convincing enough.

Semoga yang terfitnah syahid hukumnya.

Jika bukan ini penyebabnya, Amerika dan Israel tengah menyusun langkah nak mula WW3 (sebab Israel dah panggil balik semua duta2 dia dari merata negara..logik ke depa kata sebabnya sebab takda duit nak bayar gaji?)...oh evil thoughts..please go away.

Baca surah al Kahfi 10 ayat pertama dan 10 ayat terakhir in case Dajjal keluar merosakkan kita semua.

Happy birthday I-Glass

Just heard the sad news : the closure of a tragedy, MH370. I'm glad there is a closure.Takut witch-hunt je nanti...langgar tower, tuduh MH370. If it were on remote control, either aruah Zaharie sengaja tuju the lonely sea to avoid further deaths (crash tu sah dah crash) or mmg yang menganiayai nak campak plane tu ke hujung lautan.Tetapi Allah itu kaya dan Maha Mengasihani kita...ada je pertolongan to bring the tragedy to a closure.Byk2 lah bersyukur dan bertasbih.Semoga roh para penumpang mendapat rahmah Allah dan dilindungi kita dari bencana dan fitnah dajjal.

I-Glass is 8 years old today (March 25). Happy bday I-Glass and may my life narrative help others to reflect on theirs.Semoga kita semua tergolong dari hamba2 yang diredhoi Allah.Terima kasih di atas sokongan anda.

wall decor at Hadramawt Restaurant, Jalan Ampang.

Pretty sangat, ya?

Also part of the dining hall (downstairs)

Yemeni tu skrg negara miskin tetapi seninya sgt kaya

My Dean, Prof Zein

Berangan-angan buat kenduri bertunang Z di sini
(calonnya takda lagi)

The guys and I.Jangan marah. :))

Picture ni hantu yang buat (dia telah cropped for me and put it in

my album: creative juga => digabungkannya dua pics jadi satu.Dahlah 

my former Rector Prof AbuSulayman hilang kepalanya.Kalau tengok malam, mmg ngeri.

Terima kaseyyy!

My camping weekend

What a busy week! Antara speculating theories on MH370, visits from academics from Turkey, hospital visits, I sempat ber-camping with my colleagues (frm different faculties..lebih 100 orang semuanya).Sebenarnya kami terpaksa.Mana ada uni dlm dunia yang cakna pasal spirituality pekerjanya.Hanya di UIA! My daughter kata mcm bdk sekolah..she said they did Ibadah Camp when she was in Form 3.Sapa tak pergi, kena show cause letter.I said kita semua dah dapat show cause letter tu (I didn't go last Sept ..they went to Melaka..sebabnya? Hantar Z balik UK).Z asked me are you 15 or 50. :D

And mereka yang tak pergi Ibadah Camp yang wajib every year semua kena tidur kat mesjid UIA.Sedih, kan? Diaorang suruh bawak sleeping bag bagai.So I packed segala keperluan: ubat nyamuk letrik (the batch that went earlier kata byk nyamuk tidur kat mesjid), kain batik, selimut, toileteries, yada yada.I ajak kawan2 tidur kat office since we have two attached bathrooms and ada split aircons).We call our room ni hotel 3 bintang but later my friends kata 4 bintang sebab jarak dgn mesjid sgt dekat mcm hotel Clock Tower kat Makkah tu..turun je dah mesjid..bawah tu cafes..sebelah kanan tempat depa buat senamrobik (tak kuasa I pergi..why pretend kan? One day senam will not make me thin) dan bila ada ceramah perdana, the hall is just sebelah my ofis.Heavens! Syukur.

So you can understand why my friends and I enjoyed the camping on campus! Zetty, Lin and I decided we'd wake up to do the qiyamulail (at 4 am OK?)

That's the best bit which I enjoyed.Ni betul2 mcm kat Makkah..you do not want to think of anything duniawi..just solat tahajjud (sampai 6 rakaat imam tu buat) and solat witir and zikir till Subuh.Something strange happened to me during the 6 rakaat tahajud...badan I rasa ringan satu macam.Biasa nak sujud sakit lutut tapi hening pagi itu..tiba2 lutut I berusia 16 tahun.Haha.By Subuh dia kembali 51. :)) Dan ketika kuliah subuh, I went to the female section and tidur balik ..but heard kuliah tu ujung2 telinga.I was so sleepy!)

I dengar there'll be another ibadah camp for administrators...haiyo...jgn la over-do OK? Kita buat qiyam je lah..ajak family members sekali, gitu.Nik and I dah janji we'll do it at least once a week.I told him about my weightless-ness experience (and betapa tak mengantuknya ketika itu).

Besoknya kita pi dating kat sini:

Not in New Orleans

 It's the Curve

 Nik's 

 Mine...which I had to send back to the kitchen cos' I didn't like it raw.

Darah dlm daging yang buat kita byk uric acid.Itu sebab daging kena sembelih to let the blood 

flow out

Our guests from Turkey at lunch on campus on Thursday

Kuda kepang

I wish I could say I hate this horsey year...

I think we will never recover from MH370.It has affected all of us so tremendously.I hope they are wrong about today's finding.24 meter la konon.

Next week this horsey year akan terus mengepang.I tak larat nak terkejar-kejar macam minggu ni lagi. Mcm driver. Entah macamana I made it to the radio interview..dah janji bdk2 Comm tu I'd do a book review on their show (radio iium...haha...kali ni hits I bertambah from the last time I spoke: naik 20 tangga from 50 people to 70. :)) ) Anyway, we had a good time talking about the latest book I'd just finished reading - a memoir called Toyo by an Australian lawyer (of mixed parentage: Japanese-Chinese).Spoke a bit on multiculturalism policies in Oz and multiculturalism on campus (tak ke mana pun - kita tak pandai mengambil kesempatan, yo)

Doing a book review on iium.fm

Petang tu I was trying hard not to doze off with my friends at our former Rector's talk.Time soalan I asked him pasal his comment on why poverty is rampant amidst Muslims..kata dia sebab kita tak embrace Islamic worldview dan tak tau why we are here, where we are going..I kata more than that..tengok la structure education kita..belajar lama2 dan penat2 ..tau satu field je...zaman gemilang Islam you start early => 7 tahun dah hafiz..then berguru tiga tahun on a subject then moved on to learn another subject for 3 years (taraf PhD tu) sampai umur 26 ke 27, dah mastered 7-8 disciplines.Jawaban AbuSulayman (he's a witty guy): sapa2 yang ikut classicist pun tetap miskin.Kah2. (tapi I'm not convinced, ya).

He said something really interesting about hajj.He said kalau Quran tu dikaji betul2..musim haji sebenarnya 3 bulan bukan mcm kita buat la ni.Kalau setakat beberapa hari tu..ramai la tak leh buat haji.Well..tell that to the Saudis lah kan? (and he's one influential Saudi)

Let's hope there will not be many mosquitoes the weekend we are camping this week.Sungguh ngeri memikirkannya.I'll blog about it late Sunday, InsyaAllah.

One of those days again

We were doing shifts at HUKM..my mom was admitted for excessive bleeding in her arm after her dialysis.I cannot do midnite shift..Sal would do the dirty job (bkn tak kesian but I just can't).She and Kak Ngah bertukar2 shift between 12 midnite and 3 am.I went around 10 am.Ju was with her all the time.So after signing the paper for the blood transfusion, they'd just do the dialysis.I had to go to work.Was supposed to lunch with Prof Quayum and Shirley at Hilton but sms-ed him beritau I kena babysit my mom kejap.

Kejap betul.May Allah forgive me.
I sempat balik lunched kat restoran fav I.Then went off to work.Class was at 2.30 pm.Sempat solat.Then we went to listen to Shirley.Shirley and I were hugging meriah.Mmg lama tak jumpa.Q yg rajin jemput S to IIUM.S and I were like complimenting each other's 'youthful looks'.Ahaks.Dia ckp I gorgeous,I ckp dia comey.For her age (70 this Dec), mmg nmpk elegant dan comel.Still lively and energetic.I want to be like her when I get to be 70.

The talk was enlightening.The talk after the talk was even more (we were having drinks at Tastebud).Shirley loves it at IIUM.Masa azan, dia boleh stopped and asked: shall we stop for a while.Fulamak..terkejut berok I.She said she loved the melodious sound of azan.

It is so sad to know kawan2 seangkatan dgn Shirley..in US ke, NZ ke, Oz ke, UK ke...semua dah retired.Q and I were counting our days pulak.I told him you could still do a lot with that 5 years left of you. :D

Sedih kan kalau kita semua dah pencen.Dah tak boleh kerja sama2 dgn kawan2 kita lagi.Tapi idok ler I nak kerja sampai I 60 ke 70 ke.Nak catch up with kerja2 mesjid la pulak

 Quayum doing a centrefold. :D

I want to awet muda like Shirley too.

Petanda

Alhamdulillah...solat Jumaat dan solat hajat semlm nyata diterima Allah.Hari ni hujan tak, ribut pun tak tapi haze yg hitam pekat hilang seolah2 tidak pernah ada.

And then the good news: conclusive statement tht MH370 telah dirampas.Covert operation gagal sbb doa kita semua agar Allah tunjukkan yang benar dah jadi reality show.Kita mesti terus berdoa agar dlm usaha mana2 pihak nak tutup malu (exiting) jgn sesiapa dipaksa mengaku berkata bohong...yg paling I takut kena siksa adalah pilot2 kita esp Kapten Zaharie tu.

Nota tambahan: Dalam banyak-banyak joke pasal Atok tikar terbang tu ialah someone's comment which said kita semua patut berterima kasih dgn dia kerana berjaya mempromosikan buah kelapa sebagai buah 'magic' kpd satu dunia.Tak puas gelak bila ingat ini! Haha.

Satu lagi perkataan lucu ialah "kokedai" by KJ. :))

Antara tangis dan pasir berdengung

Ladies in diplomatic service

Ladies in education

Ladies having a cocktail drink and networking

Merilyn and I

g

Grilled goat's cheese salad (yummy)

power lunch

a sense of empowerment

the menu

His Excellency yang friendly

Chicken dish

Yang diminati Tiara

Sisters in Islam (not the association though)

Deputy Minister Dato' Mary 

Ahh...this sense of helplessness is slowly killing our spirit.Berapa kali tangis, berapa kali resah mengenangkan negara dilanda todak.Satu demi satu.Adakah kita terlalu berdosa sehingga doa-doa kita belum dimakbulkan Allah? But I think the space makes us self-reflect dan mencari kelemahan serba serbi.

Les wrote to me from Utah.Dia sgt pandai menyusun kata-kata.She's in charge of  Transition Change Management for Intel.Mungkin sebab tu dia tau nak handle situasi kita.Kata dia kalau faith kita strong, kita akan dapat menerima ketentuan Ilahi walaupun kita tak faham mengapa ia berlaku.Ha engkau! Orang putih tu.Dan kata dia, dia suka negara kita dan org2nya amat menakjubkan.Jgn malu dgn gambaran negatif di media, katanya.Takda sapa nak judge kita..mereka turut bersedih dan mendoakan kita semua.

Touching, kan?

So masa I went to celebrate International Women's Day at the Australian High Commissioner's home yg baru tu (yg rupa mcm pelakon Greek tu), moodnya very muram.Kat situ pun semua wanita bercakap hal yg sama (I started dulu sebab I dtg awal juga..so when others trickled in...mereka pun joined sama).Kata Merilyn, org yg dok paranoid dok ingat kena hendap all tne time tu patut sedar kuasa digital ni ada hadnya.Tak semua boleh dihendapnya.I thought that was so funny.

Meeting great women had a spirit up-lifting effect on all of us.Kami dtg muram tapi at dessert time, semua ceria sebab we spoke of our womanhood.Prof Zuraidah from UM and I berguling2 gelak perihal wanita2 berpendidikan tinggi menyekat kemajuan generasi muda dengan melarang mereka menerokai kehidupan...gen muda yg dimaksudkan itu adalah anak2 gadis kami.:)) Zu was saying she sekat anak dia pi belajar overseas.I byk juga menyekat Z frm doing adventurous things..like she wanted to travel to Belgium alone.I larang.Walhal, I have been doing that all my life...sampai hari ini.

I tanya Zu..you tak rasa guilty ke?She said, rasa but nanti macamana dia nak makan,nak basuh baju.I said lahhh..that is the whole purpose..suruh berdikari.Then kita org gelak2 galak.Enter Mr. High Commissioner and I briefed him tajuk perbualan kami.Rupa2nya dia pun sama.Over-protective dgn anak2 dia jika dibandingkan dgn cara dia dibesarkan..naik basikal ke hulu hilir...tak balik rumah pun mak dia tak kisah but now...jika anak dia tak jwb phone pun dah risau every minute.

Then there's Fiona, MD of a biz in Australia but she makes Kuching her base.She quit her well-paying job sbb one day she woke up and found herself paralysed.Kalu you tengok dia, tak sangka..she looks like a sexy Hong Kong artist.I asked how long did you take to fully recover.She said two years.Whoa.But truly inspiring.

Spoke a bit with Marina Mahathir and Tiara Jacquelina.Faridah Merican got mistaken for me when she registered at the entrance.Org ingat dia Prof Faridah.Dulu org ingat I Faridah Merican if I introduce myself as Faridah sahaja.Mengarut aje depa ni.

In this trying moment...

we can only pray, kan? But what is the take home lesson for you? (with regard to the missing MH370)

The take home lesson is jgn ingat with all the ke-gah-an technology, we'd have the answer for everything.It's like the Titanic tragedylah.Scale lah the ocean up and down, radars semua berpusing nak cari clue...spinlah byk mana pun (you'd appear stupid every time you open your mouth, OK?), nothing, OK?

I betcha by tomorrow kita akan dapat jawabannya.If I betul, I will say why.

On the homefront: baby Nazeer is now 7 kg.Belum 2 months pun.But he's adorable.He's started to babytalk with me.

nb. Dah keluar dah conspiracy theory.Negara suspect ialah USA..cuba nak porak-perandakan hubungan dan penerimaan Asia Tenggara akan kuasa China.Yang untung ialah dot dot dan dot dot. Logik ke US dan Spore yg canggih manggih tu tak leh nak detect apa2? Hong Kong pun boleh report mcm2 today (we'll see if it's true besok..diorang ckp nmpk large debris kat Ho Chi Minh dari kapalterbang yg lalu).

Allah Maha Perancang.Kamu rancanglah apa pun.Tengok je apa berlaku dgn apa juga rancangan jahat mereka selama ini.Backfired, bukan?

Uneven field

What a day! After attending RMC's session on research, I went to celebrate the International Women's Day with my girlies.We had 3 research topics (sharing research findings) being presented which every girl loved. Prof Najibah spoke of the regulation of filial responsibility law in Msia in comparison to a few countries in Asia-Pac.Enlightening gila.She mentioned a case in which a Muslim dad and his second wife sued his son for refusing to pay their hospital bills (this in Msia).Mahkamah syariah found the son guilty based on ayat Quran on the need for children to have mercy on their aged parents and to take care of them.Fui...dasyat.If my mom knows her syariah rights, habis kami kena sue. :)) Maybe today's session was a lesson from Allah for me.Dr Hari also spoke of her experience in    the Philippines working with elderly women helping other elderly women post Haiyan typhoon (she took a 4-hour boat ride to get to this island, you know? I can never volunteer to do things like that! She said I could help answer phones at MERCY.Haha.That, I can do)

I had lunch and a women's day cake cutting session with the girls before going off to do some stuffs at my fav mall.While going home, a friend sms-ed saying dia tengah bengang and sad.I said must be your hormones (men pun ada menopause,kan?). He said no...it's kes Anwar Ibrahim.I was out all day and missed the breaking news.Balik rumah terus tengok news on this.Darn!

But I have a feeling something big will take place.I hope some stupid people will not start any violent provocation during the by-election time nanti.

'Scholar' yang membosankan

Rasanya I buang masa all afternoon dengar pakcik dari US ni cakap.Tapi kesian juga ke dia.Dia baru tertanya2 akan tujuan hidup, apa guna kekayaan dan pendidikan, bla bla.Nampak innocent dan lurus bendul sangat.

Give me some new thoughts, folks.Ilmu yang berbalik-balik ginih buat I berdosa (cos' I'd sound so arrogant and snobbish bila I tanya - although under my breath- what is new).

Habis momentum nak sambung tulih article for the textbook.

Tengok ni lagi interesting:

Pertama kali...

Isn't Nazeer cute? (chewing his own fist)

 Nayli told Nadra this: do it like the Chinese

(cara pegang payung).Nenek Nadra dari keturunan Cina so it's so funny to hear Nayli

saying that.

Baby Nazeer (he's changed his name from Nasr to Nazeer)

is just over a month with a weight of 4 kg at birth.A huge baby.

the parade

sports parade

student reps

in competition

dance step

rumah hijau

order and discipline

hard work

kemas bergaya

...saya merasmikan sukan tahunan sekolah di bawah subsidiari uia iaitu Sek. Men. Setiabudi.I was too busy to think of what I needed to do.Semlm one of the teachers kata kena bagi speech.I was busy writing an article for a textbook I'm editing.Suruh dia email speech.Pagi tadi ada laporan sukan je.Haiyo.Then told her to write some points and names of people I needed to salute.But the teacher was so accommodative..she got her hubby at home to print it and give to me..but by then I knew wht I wanted to say.Tapi lupa nak ckp dgn lafaz bismillah,saya rasmikan sukan tahunan SM Setiabudi for 2014.Dr.Noraini was sharp and asked me abt it.

Lucky ada gimmick, lepas I signed my name on the rugby ball, I went to the mic and said dgn ini saya lafazkan...Nampak natural juga, kan? Syukur alhamdulillah for the experience.I went to inspect the barisan and kasi hadiah.But had to leave early sbb ada wedding to attend in Putrajaya.Ada bdk kena hysteria on the padang.Maybe the pressure and heat was too much for her.

 After the wedding, went to collect Nayli,Nadra and Nabil for ice cream but Nadra tidur so no Nadra. Seronok berbual with the kids.Nayli is such a diva.