Full day

Since I was not good at organising my time, I ended up squeezing too many events in a day! (akibat being too dependent on my PA and RA who keep my diary and appointments.. Heh heh..manyak eksyen).

Lunch : Grand Bluewave, Shah Alam with Azah, Waza and Shiha - my NZ girlfriends since 1981.We went Japanese.The Japanese chef sepuluh kali sekejap came to our table.Akhirnya tanya: where are husbands? I said sleeping when I left him.Rupa2nya dia masih bujang so kita ambik gambar dgn dia nak matchkan dgn one of our friends yg belum kawin. :))

Late lunch: since I could not attend the evening do, I went to the lunch do at PENA house to attend Khaled Salleh's daughter's wedding. Don't know him personally tapi my friend said every jemputan kawin wajib dipenuhi.Bumped into three people I know cos' the writers' group datang malam gamaknya.

Dinner: tahlil at Lina's place.They are renting out for the next 6 months cos' their home is being renovated.The new place a bit further from ours so susah sikit nak kacau Nadra every weekend.The guards buat rounds pakai german shepherds in addition to strict guard checks.Byk sgt ke reta depa ni nak guard berlapis2 gitu?

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?