Greetings from Salzburg

Ini adalah trip utama kami..me melepaskan janji nak bawak Z pi tengok concert kat Salzburg if she got all As for her UPSR. Itu dah dekat sedekad yang lampau.Apa nak buat..we were all too busy and belum diizinkan Allah untuk sampai ke sini.

Mozart lahir di sini.Filem Sound of Music juga dibuat di sini.Mcm Budapest, Salzburg menjadi rebutan pembikin filem Hollywood.Memang cantik.Tempat ini dah wujud sebelum Nabi Isa lahir lagi.Lepas tu Kerajaan Rom takluknya di kurun ke 8.Penuh sejarah tetapi malangnya kami tidak dapat lama..Nik nak mengejar waktu utk ke Hong Kong utk program kerjanya.Memang pelik jadual kerja kami kali ini.Saya di HK sebelum trip ke sini.Nik ke HK selepas trip ini.

Some pics (not in order cos' saya tengah mengantuk)

shops in Salzburg

From the cruise in Salzburg

From the hotel window we were in Salzburg

Buskering at the foot of Festung

Our cruise captain was a British Naval Captain

View of Salzburg from our dining table at the Festung

also view from the fort

ah Austrian dessert...

one of the statues at Mirabell Garden

open space at the foot of Festung

ini pun

from foot looking at the top (naik cable car yang canggih manggih)

magnificent

My all time favourite pic.Mcm film James Bond, kan?

Tengok je..tak mampu beli..

Salmon dish since Hong Kong! But Austrian style lain sikit rasanya.
Sedap!

The concert (tak leh ambik gambar while they play)

The station we arrived at from Budapest (train-bus-train cos' of the flood)
If you go via Munich lagi dekat..about an hour or so je from Munich on the train.
5 hours from Budapest via Vienna

Kesan banjir tu ada lagi.Strong river current!

Mcm ni strong nya!

Masa ni captain British tu tengah pecut.Air tengah dalam, he said

Salzburg in the evening.It is also a ski resort

Can't get over this.Mesmerising!

Mirabell Garden.Tempat Sound of Music being filmed

Mirabell Garden

Still at Mirabell.Can see Festung from here

The family with our kind taxi driver, Andrea who stopped at Mirabell after knowing
 we didn't have time to go there.

Roses, roses, roses

Nik said the garden in Hamilton dekat rumah Norman Simms lagi cantik

Lavender

If only my roses grow like this

Greetings from Budapest

 tasik yang cantik

 on the way from Budapest to Salzburg (train view)

 where Matthew parked his car to walk to our apt (tak jauh)

 the street of our apt ..central of Pest

 Dekat apt kami ada restoran Syria yang halal

 Apartment di Budapest yang perfect.With caretaker Matthew yang budiman (picked us at the airport..tolong belikan kita tickets ke Salzburg dan my Hungarian jazz cd)

 Promosi pakaian musim panas..model nya menari2 di belakang dinding kaca

 Depa dah tiru beca kita

 Begini le bilik tidur at youth hostel tu.This room has 5 beds

but we had 3 beds and tak perlu kongsi2 dgn org lain

 On the way back to Manchester at a youth hostel in Budapest

where we had to wash our own dishes (ala2 backpackers gitu)

Trust budak kecik to book your holiday (Z booked all) !

 cili kering is used as a decor in the Hungarian tradition

 The cruise we took on the Danube

Budapest Parliament House by the Danube

breakdancing buskers in Budapest

Me so happy that there's a halal Syrian restaurant on the same street as our Apt.Syukur

Fruit sticks to promote summer wear at a shop

Roma? Nengok nasib on the street of Budapest
(Pest side)

We flew from Manchester to Budapest yesterday.I love this city cos' it's walkable.We walked along Danube River after lunch at a Syrian halal restaurant near our apartment. We are right at the city centre..money changer at our doorstep, souvenir shop, Danube is like 10 mins walk.MasyaAllah...Allah knew how much this break was needed.I tak cuti dah lama.

We took a one hour cruise on Danube.The Turks (read Muslims) ruled Hungary for 250 years so the cuisine, rupa org2 kat sini mcm Turkish juga.

Pics later.I takut nak go phone roaming lagi so updating the blog isn't real time.Only when there's free wi-fi.

Harap maklum.

Wedding anniversary in Manchester

Lagu for Nik

 Din lives in Manchester now (dah PR) with his wife, an accomplished

architect.Both are NZ alums

 Fairuz (left), Yam (who is also an accomplished career woman...dalam setahun, almost setiap bulan she has to travel the world on her job with an international company.She's based in Manchester but ada ura2 kena move to London soon.She said nasib baik bukan South Africa ke). Semua ni NZ alums.I am so proud of these women.They dined with us on our 26th anniversary.Meriah la sikit, kan?

 View from our hotel in Manchester (yang di bawahnya pub)

 From our hotel window

The whole gang at Try Thai in Manchester (on 14/6/13)

Alhamdulillah selamat sampai in Manchester on June 14 and checked in the hotel in the city.It's above a pub.Z did the booking.Then we went to eat Thai at Try Thai with my NZ alumni
friends, living and working in Manchester.Alhamdulillah sedap gila.

I say syukur ke hadrat Allah the flights were not delayed from HK, Doha.I would not be able to spend my anniversary on time had that happened.

Drama

I changed my tic to return early to KL.Phone dah kena barred sbb bill roaming mencecah rm2046.I didn't know just whatsupping, fbooking pun kena bayor mahal gitu.Sampai klia decided to pay up all.Duit shopping HK semua byr bill roaming je.Haiyo.

Bibik pulak in Gombak.Nasib I called dulu so she had to take the cab to reach home before I do.Dahlah packed baju je without pants masa pi HK.Touch down je byk la my drama. :)

Kejap lagi catching another flight to meet up the family in Engrand.Miss them so muchlah.

Third day of friendship

Wough..heavy duty hari ni.But we learnt of Indian Street Theatre, Filipino Street Dance, Literotica in Asia and Bob Dylan.I had to tompang solat kat bilik Shahla and Sami and Samina fed us instant noodles sebab Otto kasi kita makan daun je (laparlah..mana cukup kasi lunch mcm tu kat kita...Otto buat conference style European..lunch was sandwiches and today makan salad je.But sebab dia baik dan jujur, I tak la nak bersilat.Haha)

I told Sami that we are sisters but only when I'm in trouble..(semlm tompang payung dia sbb hujan lebat).Nasib dia ni pun kelakar so she just laughed it off.

Then after the closing, Dennis and the gang ajak meeting about where to host the symposium in 2015.Sonia suka sgt KL and said I should do it.I malas la so soon..kasi chan kat India or Indonesia or Spore and Philippines lah dulu.Penat ooii.But kalau takda sgt, maybe I'll get my friends in Penang to host it.

The dinner at Jaspa was superb.Otto and wife (sangat la cantik.Rupa mcm Melayu but she's from HK,.A designer who speaks French, German, Swiss, English, Mandarin.Mana datang baka depa ni..senang je picking up languages)The food was good, companions were great, Sonia's hubby sangat lah kelakar.

Just as I was leaving, ckp kat Tim sorry tak sempat nak berbual2.He said yeah but I love your authoritarian voice.Bila la pulak tu? Must be masa I cakap we will not be apologetic about saying homosexuality is a no-no in Islam.He said dia suka my energy.Pulak? :)

Pics later.

Hong Kong Maritime Museum

We only had half day session today.I chaired a session of panelists from Barbados/Fiji, the Philippines and Brunei.Then we had readings from 2 poets and a novelist (asal from KL but migrated to Australia).Byk juga I learnt esp about rhyme and rhyming.

Then Otto took us to the fantastic Maritime Museum.Nama Islam Cheng Ho or Zhenghe (that's how he's known in the West) ialah Hajji Mahmud Shamsuddin.

We had more readings on Deck B (but I didn't sign up to read.Malu lah. :) ) We left early nak kejar waktu solat.After Asr, Mazni and I pi keluar balik sbb we had "lots" of money lagi (sebab no time to shop..tak byk mana pun) but we could not find anything nice..semua utk org kurus dan terdedah sana sini but I found a nice long scarf that went well with my new pants. :)

Besok pun no time to shop.Boringnya.Mlm dah dinner pulak.I will put maritime museum pics later.Canggih betul kapal2 yang singgah kat HK zaman dulu kala.And we found out about lanun perempuan terkaya di rantau ini. And how the West nipu Cina when bekalan silver from Africa terputus and they could not buy tea from China.So they decided to give something addictive so the Chinese would give them what they wanted.Bermulalah ketagihan candu di China. Towkay paling kaya (di dunia waktu tu!) was this Cina yang jual candu (opium dealer) dan  kurus mcm drug addict in a painting of him.

Kesimpulan: orang putih kapitalis ni jahat sepanjang zaman.Orang Asia asyik kena tipu.

Asia-Pac conference at Uni. of Hong Kong

My HK poet friend, Dr. Agnes Lam (at a dinner she belanja)

Dennis, Sonia and Sami at lunch

Sun Yat Sen studied Medicine at Uni of Hong Kong

Dinner in the city

Pond at the Uni of HK

What an exciting day at the conference.Dennis' keynote speech was deep (he spoke of his Asian journey as an Australian poet...very deep and philosophical take on culture and personal growth)

Finally got to meet Otto and Page..nice and lovely duo who put the conference together (hard work!) and meeting old friends (and new ones).Agnes belanja makan both lunch and dinner (she was so kind to teman I pi cari pants lagi at the city.Semalam tak cukup..I'm here for a few days).

Mak oii...Uni of HK ni dah 100 tahun..besar kemain..byk tangga and hills and slopes.Berpeluh2 jalan.Patut lah org HK kurus2.But HK people baik2.One guy actually stopped and asked us kita nak  ke mana cos' we were holding a map and not knowing where to go.This is masyarakat berilmu so nyata berbudi.

My paper was in the last slot.I thought people would have left by then but no...full house cos' Joanna from Mindanao was talking on Muslim women who were rebelling against the norm (ada yang lesbian, kawin dgn org Xtian yang tak mau bayar dowry, etc etc).Kononnya ke hadapan sgt la tu.I had to betulkan apa yang pincang.I ckp tak boleh dok categorise org Islam gitu...nak jadi gay ke lesbian ke, itu hak dia as individu buat pilihan tapi jgn babitkan agama sbb Islam tak berkompromi dlm hal lgbt gini.Dan kalau dia pilih jalan gitu, org lain tak leh nak judge cos' hanya Allah Maha Menghakimi tapi jgn guna nama Islam kalau nak jadi lesbian.

Mereka semua tersentak but I got a few people dtg lepas session tu dan kata it made sense.I kata mmg la make sense..ibarat kita masuk jadi ahli kelab..kelab ada peraturannya..takkan kita nak demand buat benda lain kan? Tak suka, keluarlah keahlian kelab.Gitu la ibaratnya.Lagipun kalau kita straight, ada kita nak heboh satu dunia kata ini lah cara kita? Buat kerja senyap2 lah (ini discussion belakang pentas dgn teman dari Sydney).

Tapi interesting la juga we got to discuss openly benda2 gini.Otto suka sgt my paper with my supervisee on Spore & Cambodian women writers tu.Otto ni Swiss tapi lama dah ngajar kat HK ni.Baik orgnya.Matanya mcm kolam renang.

Syukurlah my paper dah habis on first day.Besok boleh bersukaria dengar org punya.

Greetings from Hong Kong!

 Page at the opening with the Dean and Otto

Dessert at Hong Seng Restaurant

Gambar ni gambar first day conference.At lunch at the uni
with Carlotta

Otto (standing) and Dennis at the opening of the conference

I got up at 4 am semalam to catch my 9 am flight (taxi came at almost 6 am).Only to be told plane rosak..mula2 we were told no fuel.Plane kena balik ke bay isi minyak.Then after duduk dlm plane dekat sejam, disuruh turun.We were given lunch vouchers.Ate at DOME yang ramai org stranded.We were the last few to board the plane.Lantak kaorang...(but the MAS guy told us takpa..makan la slow2, they'd wait for us).

Rupa2nya small screw kena ganti.I takut cos' we would be flying on the same plane.Biasa they would tukar the plane.My friend said MAS is in crisis.Hutang byk, kapalterbang buruk.Hanya Allah yang menyelamatkan. Alhamdulillah we arrived safely at almost Maghrib time (sempat Asr though).

Only to find out while I was packing for two trips ..I packed only blouses on my HK trip! (gamaknya masa I packed my slacks/pants tu I ingat I masuk suitcase HK).It was already 8.30 pm and the hotel was not close to any mall except the Macau ferry mall (ala2 Puduraya gitu but very few clothes shops) Yang ada sama ada sold pants for tiny people or too expensive.

On the way back, we saw little shops yang jual baju.We walked back from the hotel after the cab driver dropped us (cab drivers here are very honest-lah!).I found a beautiful long skirt and a stretchable pants (muda bebenor le nanti pakai macam ni...what to do)

Definitely poems are coming out from these experiences..MAS planes, wrongly packed suitcases (tajuknya dah ada "looking for the other body")

Nik pun tak kurang ceritanya di Manchester....he missed the train connection sebab dah sampai malam in Manchester.Nak tidur kat hotel, semua dah penuh.In the end, he had to take the cab from Manchester to Sheffield.Nasib tak mahal. 65 pounds je (well..don't start converting-lah).

Satu travel ni yang seronok, banyak cerita. :)

Note: We kat atas tu means Carlotta (my friend from Arizona who had been staying with me for almost a week), me and.Mazni, my supervisee (my co-presenter).

Vacation

Nik just left for the UK to spend time with Z. First time kita pi asing2.I still have work and can only join him much later.

It feels horrible.I have become too dependent on him that I worry about travelling alone nanti.Terok, kan? Nik would check everything for me..passport, duit tukar, ubat, kunci bag, etc etc.On my own..ada la benda yg tertinggal sana sini nanti..I hope not.He had kept all I needed in places I know.

Prof. A rang to ask if I didn't mind being nominated for a post under his office.Aiyoo...I said after Sept-lah.I have planned NOT to take up any admin post. Dah penat and I miss teaching undergrads.But he said I would be doing things I'd enjoy...poetry...culture...talking..(haha).

I said nak propose nama no prob. but tak tau No. 1 setuju ke tak.I know she wanted me to head another Culture Centre tapi I wanted to finish up a couple of unfinished jobs and said hang on dulu.

I told Prof A even if I don't hold the post, he could always call me to help out.Makcik dah tua...makcik takut tak larat je nak oii.Kalu setakat nak organise events tu, sukalah.:)

We'll see how.My plate is quite full with book projects and NGO work.

My Ayurvedic treatment

Dah 2 tahun I tak jumpa my Ayurvedic doctor.Hari ni lepas mesyuarat projek antologi puisi/cerpen ASEAN di Anjung Bistari, I balik ke office kejap.

Then cabut pi berubat.Dah 6 hari limping.Mula2 ubat low dosage.Bila dah betul dosagenya, tak hilang2 juga the swell around my ankle (uric acid kesan makan ubat mcm2 after the d&c rasanya). My Ayurvedic guy said ini bone spur bukan uric acid.Jenoh pulak I nak convince him it's uric acid.Haha.Kalau bone spur, takkan lah tiba2 kan?

Anyway, I went for the hot oil treatment.Syaratnya kena buat 7 hari berturut2 but whr got time.I'm travelling soon.But I asked if I could do it for 3 days.Ayurvedic doc said OK.

Nasib yg tukang urut tu perempuan.She's from Kerala.Been here 7 years dan fasih ckp English.Nmpk letih dia.Kerja round the clock.So she did my ankle.Urut lembut.Syok wough..minyak panas berherbal.Boleh ketagih ni.Better than spa!Bsk Susheela kata kita boleh buat lagi waktu sama.

Alhamdulillah...ada leganya.

It was nice meeting old friends at Anjung Bistari tadi.Senang kerja dgn mereka.Keputusan kami buat dgn cepat.Projek mesti siap Nov.Memilih 3 cerpen dan 6 puisi sepanjang kurun 20 bukan mudah.Msia ramai penulis berbakat.Akhirnya kami nekad akan membuat antologi lain yg lebih inclusive dan dpt masuk ramai2.Semoga dipermudahkan.

All tears

These days if I go to weddings,I'd be in tears most of the time. Satu, cos' parents lose their child to a marriage.Dua, you are humbled by the union.

Today was one of my friends' son's wedding.He went through so much...2 weddings yg tak menjadi.Today my fren said the son said harap2 kali ini menjadi.Kesian, kan? He's the type who would give up a calon isteri if the mom does not restu.Muka bdk ni mmg muka syurga.I was in tears thinking about murninya hati bdk ini...giving up all loves of his life just so he gets his mom's restu.

Akhirnya  Allah beri dia jodoh yg bkn sahaja cantik, cerdik tetapi juga beriman (it so happens, the bride is the daughter of one of my friends of Matric days.Yam and hubby memang terkenal kuat pegangan agamanya.You'd see how berkat their family is).Ohh...it's so touching to see how great Allah is! I'm so happy for everyone and wish them much baraqah and blessing.

The reception will be during the time me and family are away so that's why we were invited to this akad..basically meant for family je.I'm glad I was able to attend.I enjoyed the wedding tazkirah.Jurunikah kata kita kalau dah kawin, buat cara dah kawin.Jgn berkelakuan mcm org bujang...buat apa-apa tak bersama.Also, jgn materialistic dan terima pasangan kita seadanya cos' takda manusia yg perfect.Kalau isteri tak pandai memasak, mengemas rumah, jgn mudah sgt nak ceraikan dia.

Simpoi kan? But it rings life.I made new friends.One young (friendly) Datin said ohhh...anak saya next year baru nak pi UK (after she asked me whr my kids were).Course apa? I tanya.

Medic, she said.
Oh cool.Where?
Cambridge University.

So happy to knw we have many intelligent young Muslims.I hope they will return to serve the country.