En. Terbos 2

Kita simpan kisah En. Terbos 1 for later.Hari ini hari En. Terbos 2. It can just be any man, really.Any man yang gelenyar.

Last week two stories came to my news desk.One about a friend's friend.The other about one of my close friends.Both were cheated by their hubbies. Both were caught with their pants down (jantan mana nak ngaku bila berak tengah jalan). So we all got emo.Mentele'ahlah  barisan kami ni dah masuk 5 series (ada kami kisah), depa dah byk duit, betina muda gesel sikit dah terlentang! The first story...cucunya yang caught grandad tengah nak tukar reta kat bini muda.Dah kawin dgn bini muda (bdk jual tiket je but now MD to biz laki dia..proxy le tu..mana le negara ni tak bocor kewangannya) dekat 10 tahun, anak dah nak tiga! Pandainya En. Terbos 2 cover line ...first wife kata everyday balik rumah, raya sokmo ada..bila masa dia mengelenyar? Maybe waktu dia ckp dia pi overseas..bini hantar kat airport, kissy2... Pas tu no. 2 dtg ambik bwk balik rumah no 2? Agak I ler.

My close friend pulak lagi berani.Dia pi letak gambar betina tu kat fb dia with slogan kata hang tak tau malu? (Lebihkurang gitu le). I cakap usah le buat gitu, karang tak pasal kena saman.Kawan I tak takut pun..duit dia byk nak engage lawyer gamaknya.

We had lunch on this today.Kawan I cool.I'm happy for her.Perlu yakin yang kekal dan yang patut kita depend on hanya pada Allah.Some women sanggup berendam airmata, makan hati sebab they fear of living alone in the future.We will at one point live alone: kalu tak bercerai, mati. I guess my friends know this but hati terluka will take time to recover.

Para suami di luar sana tu...cubalah be kind to your wives and your ex-wives.Just how much sex is enough bila dah tua gayut tu.Duit byk tu buatlah benda berfaedah.Bagi nafkah pada bekas isteri dan anak-anak tu (will blog on another news that has just arrived on my news desk).Terkenang I kpd aruah Syed Ali Asraf..dia takda anak.Takdalah pulak dia menggila nak jadikan itu alasan nak nikah muda.Ketika I met him at Cambridge Uni, dia dah 80.Isterinya pun uzur benar..jalan pun berpapah but Ali setia kpd satu isteri sehingga ke akhir hayatnya.Masa, wang ringgit, ilmu yang Allah pinjamkan kpdnya dia tolong buat sekolah di negara-negara miskin.Jadi dia punya beratus-ratus anak in that way yang akan doakan dia nanti.

I pray that the two women will be given strength by Allah untuk melalui ujian ini dan memberi mereka ketenangan jiwa dan berserah.InsyaAllah the crisis will make them stronger and more loving towards each other should they decide to stay in their marriage.

Are we good enough for Allah?

A touching day after we collected our daging qurban from Rose who helped picked it from the flat surau semlm.We were not there to witness the ibadah sbb masih di Raub.

So Nik ajak his siblings lunch today at our place.While I melepak2 after shower, my neighbour rang to say there were daging qurban for us (dua bahagian).Bibik took them sebab I tak sempat turun.Then I rang her and said thanks for your daging qurban.She said no, they are yours.I said we had taken ours semalam.

Ding dong ding dong we found out that someone tersilap letak our names for two cows (and we got 4 bahagian for the price of two parts!). Mulalah I perasan we had been good gal and boy tht Allah dah gandakan our qurban.Astaghfirullah..mudahnya nak rasa hebat kena uji sikit.So we rang here there tanya apa nak buat ni..we can't cook them cos' they are not ours.Akhirnya someone said beri kat jiran2, pak guard yg belum dpt share dia, sedara mara etc.We were told it's ok to take whatever we didn't have in the package semlm.

I rasa mcm touched sgt.Like rasa tak layak pun dipandang Allah but I felt He was talking to us.I think I know why...tapi tak mau la riak if I share with you the story (my mom kan dah pesan..bila benda2 gini berlaku,  just shut up) but anggaplah ini pengkongsian ilmu so that kita semua sama2 beringat.

Dalam ibadah korban, satu benda kita kena ingat is this: jgn cakap apa2 if you want to do it.Don't say...mahalnya..don't say buat kat Kemboja murah sikit...don't say sini semua org dah kaya so buat la kat tempat lain.Just don't say anything.Just give and mohon ibadah kita diterima.

I wanted so much to witness the sembelihan but contact Nik tak pasti..even a day before raya.He said yg pasti ours no. 6... Could be disembelih pagi raya or belah mlm raya pertama.We let go and said bkn rezeki nak nengok (ustaz kata kalu tengok waktu darah tu menitik ke bumi adalah waktu paling bagus utk mohon doa -yg tu yg I nak kejar) but bila dah diberitau ours was pagi raya, kami redholah.Ini semua hak Allah.Asalkan Allah terima ibadah itu sudah cukup.

You know kesudahannya? He gave us double! MasyaAllah..I teared up.But I know we also can't have it.

Semoga kita semua tergolong di dalam kalangan orang-orang yang diredhoiNya. 

Hari raya korban

This year's hariraya korban award goes to two Turkish gals I was supposed to host.Took them home to Raub to experience local Malay culture.As always, I put all my student guests at a hotel so that they would have their own space and comfort.I pun slept at my Long's house cos' my mom's house tak sempat vacuum but Sal and Mek slept over, respecting my mom's spirit.

I thought things were OK...the gals cooked a Turkish dessert and we had dinner at Angah's house.I told the gals when we dropped them at the hotel around 11 pm that we'd pick them at 8 pm for Eid prayer the following day.They said OK.I thought they looked happy.Sounded sincere to me.

Bila I bangun subuh and after solat, I saw a note on my phone from a man (using one of the girls' phones) that he had fetched them cos' one of the gals had bad stomach ache and they didn't want to disturb me so late and because they were at the hotel, this bad-mannered man said he had to fetch them and take them back to IIUM and that they had safely arrived (sms was sent around 5 am, I checked with the hotel, the receptionist said a big bearded man came around 3.13 am and checked out with the gals.His car jenis Atos)

Yup...I had the worst imagination after that..gals were kidnapped, sent to work in a brothel in Bangkok, yada yada.I rang up the officer at the International office.Both gals dah tak ngangkat phone dah.The guy was beyond our reach cos' he didn't use his tel.My family suggested I make a police report.I agreed but had to ensure that the gals were indeed safe at the uni.Ding dong ding dong, the officer said the gals' friend confirmed they were back at their hostel and sleeping.I tak puas hati..kot2 ikut boyfriend and the friend was covering up so we got another officer who knew the gals personally to check.If they were not there,I'd go ahead with the police report.

Gamaknya the guy takut, he rang the officer but the officer suruh called me personally.I tak kasi peluang dia mencelah pun..dan-dan tu I basuh cukup2. Islamik sangat la konon so concerned I left the gals at a hotel knowing they knew very little English.Waktu tidur, faham? What could be so life threatening?Even if it were, you simply dont larikan anak dara org right under the guardian's nose.Dia nak explain..I said explainlah ke Rector or Deputy dia and I don't have to explain anything to him..I answer to the uni.Dia siapa?I hung up.Nak kurang hajar, two can do it!

When I go back to work next week, cerita ni harus ada penutup yg membuahkan guidelines for both students and future hosts..students cant just run off if they find going local is so intimidating.Lagipun I didn't ask for them..mrk je yg minta uni carikan hosts.

The family joked about the incident: if anyone felt sick eating juadah raya, lari.Or if anyone felt overwhelmed buat kerja di dapor, lari. :))

So this is KL

somewhere in Ampang

Saloma

Saloma

with the undergrads

with staff, postgrads and u/grads

impressed with our diversities.At Holmst

learning new things

roti tisu and air kelapa at a mamak restaurant

a short meeting with other friends

with Kak Pah at Marche

with Dr Farizah at the faculty lounge

visiting Profs from Lagos

at Chynna, KL Hilton (yang ni Seiki belanja)

as always, Chynna wins

Like a zombie

also like a headless chicken running around!But when it comes to catching up with old friends, I'm the happiest. Kak Pah is also in town.Her cucu saudara is marrying Sharifah Aini's son this Friday.She's a dentist.So happy for the kedua mempelai (I don't know them personally).Kak Pah said aruah yang belikan cincin for the menantu.

We had a good time at Marche last night - Kak Pah and her maid, Seiki and I.Nik stuck in a jam...too tired to join us but we had dined with Seiki the night before at Saloma.Nak tergelak tengok orang putih and another Jepun doing the joget and bamboo dance.Seiki nak jaga macho dia so he refused to go upstage and "make a fool of himself".But he told us the experience was wonderful.This is his first visit to Malaysia.

The two talks were friendly.It's like syntax for dummies.A few postgrads said they would not rule out writing a thesis on syntax now. We have been going to physiotherapy as well and bumped into Tan semlm.Wong said his physio centre would be a meeting point for old friends..some met after 30-40 years (masing2 dgn penyakit masing2!) By the time I was done with my treatment, tengok2 Tan and Seiki (both wrapped in cold wrappers for frozen shoulders) dah berbual mesra. Betul2 mcm centre orang tua! Wong gave me extra treatment sbb I tolong market his biz (it's good anyway). Nanti satu plane from Japan pulak datang.We found out this: kat Jepun dah takda personal touch mcm kat sini.Semua pakai machines and computers.Wong said mana boleh..machines cannot do what human hands can do.A lesson to be learnt.I so love Malaysia! I'd die without my spas, tunku, reflexology, acupuncture and physio mcm Wong nih! Syukur sgt kpd Allah Taala.

Nawaitu

...saumarghadin...not.

I had the hunch already this morning that something good would happen as I weighed between attending the unionist meeting at MU and the conference on Islamic Advertising at IIUM and chose IIUM conference.Could have done both but I decided to spend half a day je to write my article for En. Li kita.I went  to show support for my colleagues in Comm Dept in addition to my own interest in the subject matter..visual arts kan? tak jauh beza than what we tried to do in IWFF.Nawaitunya sama.

My hunch was if we had good intentions, the good boomerang would return to us.But what happened was beyonnnnnndddd my imagination and for that alhamdulillah.

What exciting, well- meaning speakers (and personalities...the 'guru' of advertising pernah masuk ISA! I think as we spoke, terasa ada sama wave lengthnya.Gamaknya generasi sama...the other speaker vocabnya pun very 70ish and 80ish...discotheque...kah kah..I think kids today say clubbing).

At least three things they'd do as an aftermath of the conference and I doakan menjadi.But I got invited to an Oct function and self invited me to the other function by OIC when the good old Dato said he was planning for something in Nov..only by invitation...I said pls invite me yah.Muka tak tau malu...tak tau diuntung (ahaks) but tak kisah...kita nak belajar so kita boleh ajar students kita pulak.
There are good vibes in these great minds.I'm here to learn.

Part 2 Nawaitu

As I sat to write my article, Bibik rushed upstairs to remind me that I had to pick up Seiki from KL Sentral by 8.00.There went my writing hours! Nik pulak demam so I had to drive over alone.I took Bibik along cos' after dropping Seiki off, sure dah lewat malam.

Found him on a different level..lucky I found a good parking lot and the guard was kind enough not to chase me away while I waited for an empty space.
Problems at the hotel counter...haiyo I told them..can they be more customer-friendly and let Seiki cancel one night? He booked online and was told he had to cancel online as well.Apa ke ngok sgt depa ni...benda belum berbyr.But after much persuasion, they let Seiki checked in for the length of stay he wanted.Monday their boss will sort out the one day thingy.

We went to have a drink and supper at one of the hotel restaurants.Kata Bibik kawan Ibu baik ya..dia dengar je cakap Ibu (he asked me about makanan halal and stuffs on Islam).Kata Bibik Seiki tekun mendengar.I said orang terpelajar,Bik.Mereka terbuka kpd perbedaan budaya tanpa ada rasa prejudis.That's what I like about Seiki.A real scholar.

Edgy dodgy day

I got so easily edgy today.Pekenenye? Z left in the wee hours.Tak cukup tidur kot? Pagi dah bergegas ke Sg Jerlok 3. Get that right Waze! Everything didn't work like it should...class hours was pinched ( tht set a series of membebel O membebel...the penjara officers, director, spa girls and owners semua kena menerima "aduan"....bdk tukang urut I tu mcm membelai kucing masa ngurut I.Luckily the Filipino gal took over..tunku my womb..heavens!)

But I'm grateful to good students..I asked anyone feels stressed up here? NOOOO, they screamed back in unison...exciting...jerit mrk lagi,Ha? I didn't expect that but it's good that they were motivated.I bawak my set of Dior perfumes (miniatures) to stimulate their sense of smell.Apa lagi, yang kaki laram lumur lebih dari pusat nadi mereka..they said dah lama tak bau perfume.Kesian.They like us cos' we create the sense of home/ familiarity of a life they knew so well.

Bergegas balik for a meeting.I sensed an injured tiger out to jump on me.I snarled balik ( my edgy day jgn tak tau.Ada berani?) Apa kena yg sorang ni? I suspect very stressed up.After shooting an email to my colleagues, found out that it was an old issue raised (motivenya?).Always a step ahead, I went to see my immediate superior and told him my concern of cik pollen.Rasa dia on the verge of breaking down...better inform the management to reduce her workload and get someone else to cover the 3rd office cik pollen is covering.Usually she's a beautiful person to work with.Skrg bang doors sana sini, org bagi salam tak jawab, membebel O membebel ( kami semua dan cik pollen)..I don't work in this kinda work environment, okeh? So my team and I pakat we'll sit down and sort this out.Cik Pollen must be saved.No ward 13 here, pls.

Oh too much is happening at the same time.I must blog about Cik Terbos one of these days.Tunggu sahaja, need to write an article due soon.

Pet Shop Boys

Z and I wanted to go to PSB's concert besok malam but her Dad tak kasi. :(( But betul lah juga.If we went, harga ticket is close to RM500 per head (sebahagian harga lembu korban..tak patut sangat rasanya) so I guess pasang youtube je le and imagine you are at the concert.

Z finally got her car license and every day would go for cheap thrills in my car (with me sitting next to her..holding to whatever I could cos' I seram!). I am grateful she got her license cos' it would be very difficult when she starts to work next year and yet tak tau nak drive.

Bibik had a funny conversation with our new neighbour ( a new tenant).She said she's a datuk and wishes not to mingle with anyone cos' she didn't want to pressure anyone with protocols.Mak aiii! I better not say anything.I cannot afford to quarrel with neighbours but it is so easy if we do not respect each other's space (the owner ought to repair the sewage system which is now emitting bau busuk.The earlier tenant had the same problem so I don't think it's fair to get the new tenant to repair stuffs which should be the responsibility of the house owner). Happiness at home relies a lot on who your neighbours are.

A mother of four

I took care of 4 children yesterday. But for a couple of hours only. :)))

Z said Aunty Lina had to cope with so many : career and family.She'd go, what work-life balance, what family quality time.But for us, she's simply amazing as she jets around the world on work and plays the perfect mom and wife when she returns.I could never do that.Anak sorang pun berpuluh-puluh maids tolong jaga.

Yesterday, she and Khairil agreed to let us take all three of their kids pi beli ice cream.Nabil was away playing football so can you imagine us taking Nazeer out without the maid? Nazeer, Nadra and Nayli and Z! The funny thing was I could not get up without someone picking Nazeer off my lap.He's 10.5 kilos now.We went to Baskin Robbins where Nadra went I want alloon...alloon..nasib the guy baik and gave them two alloons. Nazeer had his first taste of raspberry ice cream.Just a wee bit. He made heads turn cos' he's such a cutie.

As we drove past familiar routes, Nadra went "We go home?" Then she said the famous phrase, "Where am I?" (patutnya "where am I" dulu baru "Are we going home?" She would always have things in the wrong order.Mak dia dah warn dah, Nadra will tiba2 ask "where am I?". Z and I dah gelak berguling2 when she said that)

By the time we dropped them off, there's a sigh of relief.It sure IS a lot of work being a mom of four.

Saturday was our nasi lemak day...Bibik and I cooked and dropped off the nasi lemak at three houses.Sunday was doa selamat lunch with Sal and family since Z is going back to the UK next week.Bibik and I cooked also. Petang was mee tok wey's day cos' Puan Zaiton came to send DBP mags for the prison's lib.Rasa mcm raya la pulak with so many people coming and going.Then Ros and family came.More eating. :)

University ranking: ada aku kisah?

IIUM didn't do that great at all in both world and Asian rankings - 501-40 at world level and 145 at Asian level. While I agree branding is useful and we should also be proud of how local unis, taught mostly by locals, do better than an international uni (taught by so many nationalities), I tend to share my daughter's skepticism of the rankings.Her own uni (Uni of Sheffield) beat LSE.Can you beat that? Mabuk gila.Z said: come onlah Ibu.The rankings are for unis which are big on research.The industries will know who the real players are.

Then Quayum sent me this link, on an article written by our friend at NUS. Of cos' Prof Kamal dah lama cakap pasal benda yang serupa.http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/university-rankings-a-need-for-critical-reflection-philip-holden

So hey, the next time you go through the ranking list, boleh baca, percaya jangan - until you see graduates from that ranked unis stand out in a crowd, doing good things for their countries and communities and not planning to carpet bomb other countries or swindle rakyat's money.

Kuala Linggi beach

Faisal convinced everyone that staying at a homestay by the seaside would be fun for all.The bungalow can take all four families.

So we went hari Sabtu after we were done with our chores...I went to see a respiratory consultant and did my chest xray.Alhamdulillah semua cantik.Dr. Ronald gave me antibiotics and more cough mixtures.Z and dad pi buat fitting baju kurung.Minggu depan dah nak balik UK, takut tak sempat nak jahit balik nanti.Ramai juga org KL moving out of the city for the long weekend.We took jalan kampung ke Kuala Linggi.

The first thing I saw in the kitchen was this belangkas hidup turned upside down.I screamed cos' I sprinkled some water on it and it moved! The lembing was directed towards me.I thought I read somewhere it can shoot the ekor tajam mcm lembing tu ke arah penyerang.Sapa la punya kerja letak belangkas hidup kat sink dapor ni.I told Faisal to get the caretaker to take away the animal.Dapat ke Nadra...habis!Rupa2nya ayah empunya rumah tu yg punya.He lives next door.Dia nak rebus buat sup! Mungkin buat ubat batuk, mujarab.:))

We all jumped into the sea.It's really private.But byk batu.Where there was none, we had fun just berendam or just swam or dived.Nik jadi our seahorse (mcm beca airlah).The younger kids got free rides on this seahorse.Kelakar betul.I had Nazeer on my lap but as the waves came, dia takut.Badan je besar budak ni.Penakut kemain.

The batu spoilt it all.Otherwise it was a nice time out in the sea.

Malam we went out to eat seafood.Tom yam dia sedap gila..Seh Seafood.
At night, you hear nothing but frogs croaking..kata org memanggil hujan.Entah2 tengah berasmara dana.:)) But hujan did come by subuh besoknya.It cleared the haze and the sea looked real pretty.

We rushed to attend Dato Zuhdi's son's wedding at KGPA.I loved tapai dia..dibungkus dlm kertas hijau beralaskan plastik.Satu inovatif tu.

Going with the flow

I thought I'd just take an mc and rest on Friday cos' I was still coughing badly.But Fri is my prison day so I just braved up.Kali ni we had asked to start early 9 am...lagilah early kena bangun to catch our driver who will arrive at 7 am.

We made it in good time and I asked Dr. CN to conduct her session first so I could rest in a corner for an hour or so.Betul-betul tak larat.Batuk mcm dada pun nak tercabut!The cough mixture didn't help much. The kids were talking on topics given by Dr. CN..on bersyukur, sabar etc.Sebenarnya we learn a lot more from them about life.One student said she belajar arti sabar semasa dlm penjara..dulu sebelum masuk, dia manusia yang paling tak sabar...semua nak segera (I thought how like me!)but in penjara, she learnt.Her coping mechanism is with her psyching up herself..she'd tell herself sabar...kali ni sahaja...although setiap kali berlaku, she will say that sampai she latih diri dia jadi sabar.I thought, wow!

Student yang seorang lagi bercakap tentang bersyukur.She said she bersyukur she masuk penjara which she found more tenang than hidup di luar sana..di sini dia belajar ngaji, solat, macam2 skills dan ilmu.Allah masih sayangkan mereka, she said.Yup, they are a bunch of intelligent lot.I begitu tersentuh.

Just as we were leaving, a student came and asked me what inspired me to do this prog with them because UIA tak pernah buat prog with them except once a long time ago on undang-undang and she enjoyed that a lot.Sebenarnya ada but not with penjara wanita I think.Dr Hariyati dulu pernah buat prog dadah tak silap.Anyway, I didn't know how to answer the lady.I told her ini semua plan Allah because I actually planned to work with a group of youths from keluarga miskin and develop progs and activities to prepare them for the workforce etc.That was how I met Dr. Kham.Then divine intervention and we ended up doing this prog.Sesungguhnya Allah Maha Mengetahui.Allah tidak pernah lupa akan hamba-hambanya di mana juga mereka berada.I told my students you hv lots of raw materials to use in your writings.Get them out cos' the world needs to learn from you.

Kita doakan objektif prog ini akan tercapai and everyone will learn something to be a better person

Conference on Pahang

The event was hosted by UMP at MS Garden, Kuantan.My childhood friend now a deputy dean at the uni wrote a paper with me on education benchmarking top schools in Pahang and Selangor.Our session was at 9 am.Pukul 8.30 am Tan Sri Aziz dah signed up.Tan Sri is my Majlis member who will hear no nonsense one.I thought haiyooo...

But alhamdullilah the paper was well-received (my moderator was such a sweet person, Dato Yahya org Maran..conference tu semua orang Pahang!) Tan Sri ckp kat my Rector (who also spoke at a later session) that I did well.My moderator tanya why org Raub pandai2. Iyalah tu.He had a theory..sebab Raub dapat jalanraya dulu, we get the schools first..colonial schools.Mungkin juga but I told him ramai bangsa lain so we had to compete with them as well.Plus the fact ramai Rawas.:)

I found out that evidence Islam sampai lebih awal dari Batu Bersurat di Pahang 1028 but pakar archaelogi who was on tne same flight with me back to KL (Prof Dato Nik Hassan) said tidak dibuktikan lagi.Mesti ada evidence..setakat documentation tak jadi.I found out that Pahang was known as land of gold and that Angkor Wat was built by gold bought from Raub.Byk lagi new things I discovered from pertanian to ekonomi to kanun Pahang to sejarah Pahang.They are trying to establish Kerusi Pahang at UMP.Baguslah.

I met kawan I masa darjah 6, Rubiah..jaguh pecut.I recognised her right away.She thought I dah tak ingat.Dr. Norrihan is another std 6 friend.Kelakar meeting up after so many decades.Ruby's hubby just passed away.

2 papers down, one more to go.I hv two more conferences.Never again to over commit!

Lagi satu drama yang anda tidak hingin..

...tonton, minggu ini.

It has been over two weeks I have this cough which feels like your chest and throat are burning fire.Batuk dia akan dtg tiba2 without warning..long and painful.Now it's very dry.I minum air halia with gula merah, dia senyap seminggu.This week, it came back.

I decided to go to our panel clinic.Sejak my fav doc left the country, those who look after the clinic entah hapa2 je.The lady doc is gentle and usually nice.Two weeks ago she said I was good, bp good, chest takda wheezing, no fever, etc.She gave stg for my flu.Alhamdulillah ok.Today pun she said the same thing.Dia mcm tak nak kasi I ubat je and everything I said, dia mcm nak tunjuk she knows better (i think docs ni ada masalah ego...like they do not want patients to tell them they knw better.Dah 2 org docs I jumpa mcm ni.Years ago on my spine problem, a rude orthopedic langsong ckp dont give me your xray..i don't hv to look at it to knw what is wrong with you...amboi, sombongnya!) When I reported this doc to the hospital management, the guy admitted most docs have probs with ego.I read an article which highlighted on a doc who sang to his patients and cheered them up.Patients cepat baik!

Anyway, I told off this doc.I kata you are not helping me here...do you think I enjoy visiting the clinic every other day..if it happens to you that you can't sleep nights cos of your cough, would you not want to do stg abt it? This is not the first time I go see a doc..usually if I complain of cough, most docs would give me cough mixture, you should know better...wht is wrong with today's doctors? I dah mengamuk sakan.I said tak nak treat me, ok..I will tell my hubby and get another panel (allo..loh..loh).I think doc ni pun faham why I was so meroyan.Haha.I got my cough mixture.

Hopefully, I will have a better sleep mlm ni.

 Usually I say No to this cos' travelling 

Firefly is closer to home

 first thought: got hantu or not...

 too big for one person

 takda maknanya sebab takda orang

even this I had to give away

(called up Taufiq to pick up) Too oily for my cough

Raising a daughter

It's a catch 22 thingy especially if you only have one child. Z is a wonderful child but her years living away from us has made her too independent in her thinking.And yet she is a child in many ways.It's difficult to pass on the values we subscribe to.Hari ni punya drama was me trying to teach her that to get what you want,you have to work for it.Usually, she knows this tapi hari ni I thought she had it too easy.I basuh.She cried.Maybe I am too harsh.But this is it: when do you differentiate between being firm and harsh.I almost succumbed to guilt and sympathy.But I thought when would she ever learn?

Susah woh.Moms of my mother's generation would never compromise.I wonder where they got such staunchness, such firmness that sometimes made them seem like monsters.WW2! They lived tough.They simply had to be practical to survive.Ini kena marah sikit, dah menangis.

Let's hope Z does not turn around and say to me in my old age :you want something, you work hard for it.

Gaza Bazaar

It started yesterday and continued so today.I was too lazy to drive to Maria's so early.By the time I decided I must complete the job (kuih semua dah berbayar for two days), she was leaving home already.I belum picked the kuih muih.I had to drive over to the Publika.Brought Bibik with me to carry the kuih boxes.We were early but there were a few people setting up their tables and then Maria came.Bawak nasi lemak yang sambalnya beralaskan daun pisang.

The event was organised by Viva Palestina Malaysia.Azra and family worked hard.Pagi2 dah datang bawak ice berkotak-kotak.

Bibik and I makan dulu.Then we shopped.Charity shopping is not cheap but they had some pretty things like the selendang batik.I just had to buy a couple.One for me and another for Z.Someone called me Datin.Ahaks.Mabuk.But guards mana2 suka sgt panggil I Datin.I think it's safer than calling me Makcik.:D

Some pics from the bazaar.The photo exhibition on female prisoners was eye opening.Women suffer more in war.Men ni tau nak berperang je.So sick!