Sheep or goat?

It's interesting to read one of my friends' fb statuses on chinese new year...do we say Happy Chinese New Year or Happy Lunar New Year? Is it sheep or goat? A few wrote "ram" (male sheep).

It's not only the Chinese having this new year celebration..friends in Vietnam (who do not consider themselves Chinese) are also busy celebrating.For them, it's the lunar new year.

For Europeans, sheep makes more sense than goat so according to my BBC correspondent friend (now based in Bangkok) for consistency purpose, BBC has decided to use sheep instead of goat so if you see sheep images, itu European version.Chinese version is kambing gurun.

Chew invited over but I could not find his email which carried his home add and I don't have his tel no.There goes one free lunch.Haha.

Watch for CNY news later.

Misi ke 3 ASA

The 3rd mission will leave this evening.The team will be meeting a few families and giving a few stuffs as requested.

Lin will be setting up the pusat sumber at one of the schools.She managed to raise RM4K worth of books from her friends in addition to funds raised by ASA.

The mini bus departed at 6 pm with only me, Kak Ngah (I invited her to join us since she biasa buat misi bantuan and GM is like one of her playing grounds too) and Lin.The rest were still busy with correcting theses, vivas etc.Mmg ramai wanted to go initially.Dr Alias and Dr Maszlee went separately in their own cars (Dr Alias convoy with us.His Hilux pun penuh dgn buku2 Lin).Dr M and his students bertolak at 4 am.The three of us shared a nice hotel room next to MRA's gudang.Dr. Alias slept thr with MRA man, Fadhil.

Our hotel tu murah but mcm 4 star..semua ada..wifi, astro TV, iron, coffee tea biscuits, air panas system, air-con, ubat nyamuk!And it's very clean.We loved it.Syukur alhamdulillah for the comfort.

Besoknya on Saturday, we went for breakfast at the pasar.We had nasi kerabu with daging bakar.I also had nasi lemak.Then we went to buy some mosquito nets cos' tak sempat nak beli in KL.I doubt if anyone sold it in KL.Tak cukup for the no. requested by our groundman.Beli semua stock.

We first went to the primary sch to hand over Lin's books.Met a few people who mengadu pengagehan tidak adil.Pengagehan kepartian.One cleaner was almost in tears.She saw the tilam in our mini bas and asked if she could have one.We said we had allocated those for a group of wargamas.I gave her some money (tak sempat pi bank so tak dpt nak bagi banyak to ease her pain) and advised her not to despair over people's lack of assistance.I told her: minta kpd Allah sahaja kerana rezeki comes from Him. She said ya, ya.

Selepas itu, we went to the pusat banjir where the targetted recipients were already waiting.We gave what was requested.I wanted to see the wargamas who didn't turn up.So Nazli took us to a few homes in our kampung angkat Kg Limau Kasturi.A look of calm and serenity..in all of them! All of us felt good making this personal touch as we spoke with Mek Yang, Poksu Pa, Mek Wan Jah etc.We also met a lady whose 3 gen of kopitiam biz was destroyed in the flood.Teh ais limau dia the best I had ever had.The group agreed we should help her rebuild her biz.She cuma perlu RM10k modal.

Then! We met Suhaimi, jaguh paralympic negara -olahraga.His last overseas game was in Seoul in 2012 and he's still winning golds at national level for Kelantan.Ada sesiapa kisah? Not even Kementerian Sukan tampil ke hadapan tolong buat rumah dia balik! Tapi wajah dia tetap senyum.MRA tolong buatkan rumah dia to save him and a pregnant wife and a 4 year old son from staying in the tent...rumah sementara frm plywood and Suhaimi himself helps MRA to rebuild other people's homes.I felt like crying over this story.Sometimes we can be so insensitive and cruel over the needy.Masih nyenyakkah pemimpin kita tidur apabila ramai rakyat masih tidak berumah?

He didn't show any remorse

 AI's verdict didn't surprise anyone.In fact I guessed it a day earlier that he would be found guilty.All the signs were there but when Tun M said terima dengan hati terbuka- a day before judgment...I just knew what it meant!

I think everything has a price.RM40 mil? RM10 mil? I just need RM3 million for my research.Ahaks.

I hope everyone sleeps well esp. judge yang kata,"But he didn't show any remorse."

Even if AI were a bipolar (usually bipolars would not show any remorse in addition to their manipulative ways), bersepah orang lain gays (even among top politicians and professionals)...no one questions if they show remorse/not when caught.

OK...I make a bad defense of AI.

Humpty dumpty had a great fall today at the Legal Unit. Maintenance is very bad at IIUM.I hope IP would re-tile corridor yang berlubang dalam tu.I had faxed them the concern.Dah tiga orang jatuh terpijak lubang tu.I'm surprised no one took the trouble to report so that orang lain tak cedera bila terjatuh.

UIA oh UIA

The gals and I and kisah kubur berlubang

The two gals Nayli and Nadra agreed to follow us home yesterday.They were kept occupied with Z's old toys..her Barbies, legos etc.I took a nap downstairs.Tengah syok deep in my sleep, sayup2 dengar Nadra mengadu from the stairway: Aunty Nor Aunty Nor..Nayli does not want to play with me.

I went (eyes still close): Nayyyliiii..play with adik.Share things.Play together.
Nadra tolong interpret: Nayli, we must play together.
Sayup2 Nayli from the lounge upstairs menjawab.Then Nadra pun berbalas2.

I said: don't quarrel.Nanti Aunty Nor send both of you home.
Nadra still interpreting what I said: Nayliiii..you go home!
And Nadra baru nak masuk 4. Haiyo.. Manyak belit woh. :))

When their parents came to pick them up, they were a wee bit reluctant to go but had to go.Then Nik and I went to visit his mom's pusara.The woman harasser was still there..she selalu datang minta duit,claiming she jaga kubur Mama etc.She said Nik's sibling from Putrajaya came and asked her to cuci.I said no one lived in Putrajaya and asked her to leave us alone cos' kita nak baca doa quietly (she was very kaypoh and noisy).

Then we saw kubur yg kita tolong tambah tanahnya a year ago kembali berlubang walaupun another Datin tolong tambah tanah lagi and pasang marmar.I minta the penjaga kubur tambah and tutup lubang tu balik but he refused.I asked why..he said even bayar harga sebuah motosikal pun tak boleh.I asked how come.He said ini siksaan kubur.Gulp.

I googled to find some explanation on kubur berlubang.One entry said if benda kita pakai tidak keluar semasa kita mati, inilah akibatnya.Wallahualam.

But I will call MPPJ kubur authorities besok if there are ways we can solve this problem.Mungkin there's earth movement affecting that lot.Entah ada orang korek kubur to curi organ etc.We don't know, right? But if no one wants to care, who's fault is it if anything untoward happens to the larger community?

You can't say I have a boring life. :))

An appreciation dinner

A few of us threw a thank you dinner for Prof (Emeritus) Ghulam Sarwar at Passage Thru India.I stopped at Sal's to do my Maghrib.Masa driving to the venue I dah dengar bunyi from the back tyre.I thot impossible punctured cos' the car was stable.Then the sound travelled with me and stopped after I baca doa Nabi Yunus ditelan ikan paus (I was afraid of being stranded in the evil of the night..mcm2 went through my mind..Canny Ong..itu ..ini..I prayed biarlah sampai kat restaurant dgn selamat)

The attendant sombong tak kasi I parked inside.He said penuh.I said I had a flat tyre..this is an emergency and buat bodoh masuk juga.I heard him saying astaghfirullah...then I saw one parking space.He said kecik..tak muat.Dasar! Tak terfikir pulak he needed to protect a woman with a flat tyre.But when I berkeras and told him I was a diner, baru dia nak layan baik.Apa ke kena migrant ni semua?

But we had a lovely time dengar Prof Ghulam telling us his life story.He said his time at IIUM was the best and he's writing this in his autobiography.

A couple of friends and I had a brainstorming session over ASA trip 2 to GM. ASA is menganak-angkatkan Kg Limau Kasturi.The needs of the people have changed.According to our ground contact guy makanan berlebih-lebih...rumah sementara rege RM4K in 3 days sedang dibina oleh an NGO (our smart partner also), pakaian, baju/bag sekolah semua dah tak diperlukan.They need tilam single for wargamas and about 50 other families, and kelambu cos' nyamuk byk (iyalah...sampah sarap tu semua kena clear). Lin is working on SK GM's Pusat Sumber.

Fasa 3 will be helping build more homes and supplying clean water.Ni kawan2 kita dari Engineeringlah punya tugas.

Pics of our dinner with Prof Ghulam:

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