panggilan illahi - part ii

we received a text from julina, inviting us for a small kenduri sebelum dia pegi haji on the 28th. hati i tersentuh. ju is a year younger and her husband, khairul is a year younger than made - my age basically. muda-muda dah pegi menunaikan rukun islam. syukur..

ju has one little precious aged 3. she'll stay with khairul's parents in taiping while they are performing haj. murah rezeki ju dapat menunaikan haji awal. time sihat, time masih kuat tubuh badan. alhamdulillah..

bila agaknya kami akan ke sana? cukup sudah ke rukun islam kami?

(1) Mengucap dua kalimah syahadat
- insya Allah, di setiap kali solat lima waktu. kalo kesempatan, di kala solat sunat.

(2) Sembahyang lima waktu
- mmmm.. kadang-kadang cukup. kadang-kadang, tak cukup lagi. kusyuk tu, tak taula nak kata. Allah s.w.t. sajalah yang menentukannya. bila tiba time solat, time tulah idea nak masuk. time solat itulah jugak teringat itu ini. pengaruh syaitan betul!

(3) Berpuasa sebulan dalam bulan Ramadhan
- alhamdulillah... untuk orang pompuan, adalah keuzurannya. dan memanjang ganti posa time ramadhan tahun seterusnya menjelang lagilah. itu hari dah niat nak posa sunat senin, khamis, jumaat. tak menjadik jugak. makan aje keje. badan pun macam hippo.

(4) Menunaikan haji ke Baitullah (Mekah)
- ya Allah.. panggillah hamba Mu ini ke rumah mu... insya Allah..

(5) Menunaikan zakat
- alhamdulillah.. sejak keje iskl ni, i dah start baya zakat. rasanya ramai kawan-kawan yang leka tang bayar zakat ni. hopefully, lepas ni kita beringat2lah ye. i was at first tak terpikir langsung tang zakat ni. sampailah mulut ni gatal nak nyanyi lagu rukun islam by p. ramlee. peh tu terpikir pulak.... "zakat is one of the rukun, kenapa pulak aku tak tunaikan eh?" from there, i adjusted my monthly budget.

cuba tengok org pakai baju oren dengan wife dia yang pakai jubah tu buat apa? this pic was taken while we were shopping in klcc. derang tu solat kat belakang kedai nokia yang kat centre court tu aje.

panggilan illahi - part i

our neighbour passed away recently. rumah belah depan, selang dua pintu ke kanan. suaminya makcik lat. arwah pakcik tu dah lama jugak kami tak nampak. dulu selalu nampak dia time petang-petang, dok perembat cucu2 dia balik umah. peh tu kalo arwah batuk, memang signature lah. satu kampung boleh dengar. raya baru ni, makcik pah sebelah ni ada bagitau arwah tak baper sihat. buang air merata, terbaring aje, kurang bercakap, etc. and i had the thought "kalo pakcik ni meninggal, sudahnya memang langsung tak bertegurlah aku ngan dia". and that's the fact. i have never spoken to him, and i will never ever talk to him anymore. kami masih confuse nama pakcik yang arwah ni. makcik leha depan ni kata nama dia mahmud. tapi makcik pah sebelah ni macam sebut noor. for the time being kami panggil arwah pakcik lat la ye

living in an area with most are pakcik, makcik made me sometimes "different" and "alienated". kalo bersembang, cite anak cucu. kami ni, anak ada la sorang ni ha. cucu ada jugak. tapi cucu sedaralah tapinya. itupun kadang-kadang tak kenal. jadi bila pakcik lat ni meninggal, truthfully, kami tak tau nak buat apa. when i came back from work, i looked at umah makcik lat macam ada kenduri. tapi kenapalah sunyi sangat. nak kata ada orang meninggal, takde pulak penanda kain putih tu. kebetulan pulak hari khamis malam jumaat. cuti sekolah pulak tu. my assumption was, makcik lat buat kenduri untuk sedara-sedara ajelah agaknya. tapi bila i nak tutup pintu, i saw makcik pah gi umah makcik lat pakai tudung putih. peh tu nampak makcik ana pun masuk umah dia pakai tudung putih. heran ni... takan gi kenduri berjanji nak pakai tudung putih kot? dalam kul 7:30pm, i called makcik pah. and she confirmed that pakcik lat had passed away at about 5:30pm. i called ayu sebelah dengan akak aishah to let them know as well.

malam tu, i jadik serba tak kena sebab made belum balik. bad traffic from banting. makcik pah pulak nak pegi lepas isyak. peh tu nak kuar, ada orang surau dah datang mengaji lepas maghrib. segan pulak... at this very moment, i felt sooooooo ashamed of myself. and at this very moment, i teringat uwan. if i were uwan, i would definitely, put on my proper baju, took my wudhuk, put on my sandal and headed to makcik lat's house. definite! but i was not uwan. i kept asking myself, what would i do there? how could i help? how much should i give as sedekah? where should i sit? what should i say? you know..

finally made arrived and we made our moves. lucky me, i saw makcik leha & makcik lat. i didn't feel so much strange for the familiar faces. after made has recited yaasin, i took a seat next to arwah pakcik lat and recited yaasin. then i saw makcik pah. i felt no different from others. after a while, we went home. i felt strange, but not so..

friday night was the first day of tahlil. again i had question marks. what should i do? where do they cook? should i wear something nice or just makcik-makcik's style? where should i sit? oh! pathetic! finally i was at makcik ana's house, had chat with makcik lat's younger sister and enjoyed watching makcik lat's nieces & sisters's mee hoon soup feast. i helped a bit with the makan-makan. and i ate with the makcik-makcik sambil mengadap periuk belanga. straightaway, my thought was, "ok.. peh ni aku kena tolong basuh periuk ni". fortunately, tak payah pun.. makcik ana kata, anak sedara makcik lat ramai. boleh tolong basuh. siap dia ajak sembang dengan dia. :D i did and i enjoyed the conversation.

and she made me rindu uwan :(

i am glad that we have made decision to move into this neighbourhood. i admit that my first year of moving transition was not a good start. but now i have started to blend well with the community. i am blessed to have such lovely neighbours (forgive me, with exception to my front door neighbour).

all and all, i believe, all things are up to me. if i were to stay with my own tempurung and kepompong, i wouldn't be enjoying the meaning of neighbourhood. despite that all my surroundings are makcik-makcik, i believe, what really count are my effort. i want to get to know them, i need to see them. i want them to help me, i need to help them. i want them to know me, i need to know them first. things are always vice versa.

they are my moms & dads..

my neighbours. makcik lat is the one in red

HR for Beginners

i attended "HR for Beginners" workshop the other day. it was a 3 days course, for which, i had the whole long week away from office plus the deepavali holidays. :D

only 4 participants, myself inclusive. the others were julia, siti & jocelyn. it was all fun. the workshop was in phileo damansara. attending one whole day workshop costed us rm20 for parking alone. damn expensive :(

the workshop essentially explained an employee's life cycle in an organization. from job analysis to job advertisement then from interview to orientation & induction. from there, move on to training needs and performance appraisal. the only thing we didn't discuss was resignation. :D the workshop was organized by MEF and it was all worth attended for.

one interesting question was asked during the workshop:

how do you feel when you look at the sea?

i'll let you think of an answer while you have a look at our lovely pics.

julia

siti

jocelyn

us

have you got the answer?

well.. whatever your answer is, it reflects your sex life.

hahahahaha

BFM 89.9: the business station

i'm no longer listening to other radio channels except for 89.9 - BFM, the business station.

found it by accident and now i'm an avid listener.

reason 1, less business making and self-claimed-i-am-the-famous-dj-with-good-voice commercials. the only commercial i've been listening to was "her name is lisa. lisa is 4 (5?) years old. everyday her mother walks her to her school which is about 5 minutes away from her home. today i will walk her home. to my home". social-care commercial. much appreciated.

reason 2, not that i'm an economic-reviewer-wannabe, but the channel feeds me with the current market & economic news. their interviews are also worth listening. tho not all, but the interviewers (& djs) are well-equipped with constructive questions. it's not kind of "well prepared, structured & written interview", if you got what i mean..

reason 3, the only channel ( i believe) that will play full version of "november rain". beginning to end, non-edited. i have to admit that i dont know most of the songs played by BFM, not my kind of songs. but i appreciate some enjoyable moments with my radio, in my car.

reason 4, less commercial, less talk. music, music, music & music. serenity...

"psst.. dont tell mama that i tell you this.. BFM is actually Big Fat Momma. shhhhhh..."

"what did you say adam?"
"no mama... i said Big Fat Millionaire"
"aaa.. clever.."

mama, adam & dino

I

mama: adam, macam mana bunyi dinasour?
adam: rrrrrroooooorrrrrrrrr...
mama: ooo.. rrrroooooorrrrrrrrrr.....
adam: lepas tu mama buat tangan macam ni (tunjuk gaya tangan ala mengcengkam)
mama: macam ni? (buat gaya yang sama)
adam: bukan.. 3 aje. bukan semua (referring to jari yg harus digayakan ala mengcengkam - thumb, telunjuk & jari tengah)
mama: oh! kenapa 3 aje?
adam: sebab dinasour ada 3 jari aje
mama: eh?

balik umah, i tengokla buku-buku dinasour adam, memang pun ada 3 jari aje.. sangat observant anak mama..


II

mama: dinasour makan apa?
adam: bertumbuh
mama: err.. tumbuhan? (looked at ayah)
adam: ha botol (betul). bertumbuhan
mama: eerrr.. bertumbuhan? (looked at ayah, again)
ayah: ha.. bedal ajelah..

bye-bye diaper

adam is going to school next year. hurrah!!

we have visited the school. adam likes his soon-to-be school. i'm thankful.

the only thing is, he's not fully potty trained. the teacher advised us to have adam potty trained so that it's easier for him & the teacher. and i believe, it's for adam's self esteem as well..

now adam is in the process of letting go his garment-consisting-of-a-folded-cloth-drawn-up-between-the-legs-and-fastened-at-the-waist (or diaper in short) and to have his wee-wee in the toilet. to-date, half success. alhamdulillah..

i'm amazed that most shops do not sell brief (underpants) for boys! i asked one of the sales assistants the other day. "do you have brief for little boys?". with odd look, she told me, "no?". to which i replied, "only girls wear panties? boys do not wear brief, meh?". she smiled.

urrgghhh...

we actually have some briefs for adam which we have bought from mothercare. rm70 for 6 pcs. a little pricey, dont you think?

chicken dance by adam

datin, please

sherry was in the admissions office. she told me, "one lady came in this morning. i addressed her as Puan XXX. and she said, "datin, please".

oh! eh?

then the same lady went into the business office and asked for wendy. another incident happened. wendy has written the receipt to "Encik YYY" to which this datin asked her to write it as "Datuk YYY".

oh! oh! eh? eh?

i asked sherry, "the datuk is from?"

sherry answered, "ministry of blablabla"

to which i felt, cakap banyak betul pompuan yg tidak sedar itu. education anak pun taxpayer yg bayar lagi nak belagak datin. esok2 di alam barzakh, tak denye Allah swt nak panggil "datin XXX, sila ke muka pengadilan"

podah!

gambar hiasan: datin seri mekna

waktu subur

kak sah left to abe chik's.

it was only me, made & adam.

made was doing his work, adam was watching "fairly odd parents" and i, obviously, had nothing to do.

i went to made and had my head on his lap.

i asked him "ovulation period should start right after my menses or we have to count from the day one i got my menses, eh?"

he answered, "ntah.. tak sure". eyes still on notebook, full of concentration

i snugly asked, "cuba check internet waktu subur starts bila?"

to which he was at first reluctant but he did anyway. and here's what he found that lead me to my honorary bed

click for bigger version

pick your choice:

a) husband's fault - he has not been listening

b) wife's fault - obviously the husband was concentrating on his work

c) child's fault - watching too much of cartoons :D