scholars

today I just sat and listened to conversations of scholars. Sekali sekala saya menyampuk. Lebih enak mendengar. Dato Sri SY cerita mlm aruah Faruqi dibunuh (malam 27 Ramadan). Rupanya yang bunuh the scholar who almost became IIUM's 1st Rector was their own bilal yang diislamkan sendiri oleh Faruqi.Rupanya ejen CIA.Orang kulit hitam. Dia dah tunggu kat dapur. Aruah baru balik from bincang plans for IIUM. Bila dengar bunyi kecoh di dapur, isterinya pula turun.Dia pulak dibunuh.Allahuakbar.Semoga roh keduanya dicucuri rahmah.

Dato AS pun byk kisah about his stint in Beijing.It's really nice scholarly environs at ISTAC but I told Prof Aziz that I would just help out with the journal till Dec.Tak larat pegang dua post yang begitu demanding.This year jadual padat and kerja menimbun.I hanya berdoa siang malam semua kerja saya siap.

The prob of being old (older than the younger ones) is that nothing is new any more (except my piano lessons walaupun main lagu twinkle2 little star dgn merangkaknya...haha) and as my young ones share their news of going here there everywhere, I try to bite my tongue not to share my stories in those places for fear of being labelled nak berlawan2. Haha. So diam jelah. Talk about other things that excite me - the new physiotherapist or orthopedic yang you're not sure whether his touches are medical or otherwise (yang ni I don't categorise as exciting le. Ni category Me Too, kot?)

Anyway, busy months ahead. Tak tau nak nangis ke nak nangis.

John Legend in Genting

Z and I decided to go watch his concert biar mahal macamana pun tiketnya. But Z found a nice package a week before (agaknya tak ramai bought the tics that the organisers terpaksa offered a good deal: buy two tickets and get a free room at the biggest hotel in the world - The First World..7,000 bilik babe).

We took that up and saved more than 50% I think. Untungnya ada anak seorang economist. Dia sentiasa peka pada discounts and offers. :)

Oh my god, John Legend is a legend. Suara dia macam buluh perindu. Kalau orang melayu ni sure dah kena tuduh pakai susuk. And dia ni tertib (but not his vid clips). You don't see him..you listen to him.Hadoi mak. memang on the roadlah lagu2 dia. He sang this alone:

English Literature graduate

Mountain Lodge, Janda Baik

Nik's family members had planned for this outing a long time ago.Then Ajir got chicken pox and could not join us.We have not seen him for a month (first Z and I were down with a viral fever for two weeks then Ajir got chicken pox for two weeks). We had been looking forward to see him in nature.

But all 5 rooms and the smaller ones were occupied.The maids were in one room and Kak Yah in the other room.Besar betul apartment ni.So cosy too cos' every room had attached baths.Takda la berebut2. We had barbecue in the evening.I wanted catered but the two economists in the family said lagi murah buat sendiri. I said I was not touching anything in the kitchen.So the two shopped, marinated everything and the maids helped in the background.We went to the river after Zohor.The water was too cold and Riverside nampak tak begitu bersih dan berbatu2.We changed our mind and went to Pulau Santap.Nicer place but hari hujan pulak.The kids semua pi jungle trekking. Z told me later nasib I tak ikut cos' kena jalan, redah hutan and crossed a river yang berbatu2.Nadra was in tears and came home traumatised (demam). Haha. She said it was the worst day in her life.Drama queen.

But it got better with barbecues and all.Malam2 tak payah pasang kipas and aircon so Nik and I tak payah gaduh2 pasal nak switch on/off aircon.We slept in the sounds of nature.

Besoknya we went fishing.I caught the first fish.Menjerit2 tak tau nak buat apa.Haha. The guide took it off and released it back into the pond.Then all the kids caught a couple..Nadra had started to enjoy the nature now.Begitu juga Tasneem who said I hate nature.Then they went to do archery.Yang tua2 balik ke apartment.Makan lagi. Then baru pi swimming at Pulau santap.Airnya cetek.More like berendam and tube-ing. Nadra terbalik while tube-ing with Faiz.Everyone laughed (air tak dalam..no one was going to die) and Nadra in tears shouted at all of us ,"It's not funny!I almost died!" haha..betullah drama queen.

But everyone agreed that it was a lovely time out.So now we are thinking lain kali tak nak cuti kat hotel mandi dlm swimming pool je.It's much more fun in the nature.No one brought their handphone

The fish I caught

Barbecueing

Hasilnya

With nature

Tube-ing