Espana~

I'm in Granada, Spain at the moment (or should I say memento). We (read: Yanie, Arnee and myself) arrived here in the morning after spending the night in the bus for a tiring 8 and a half hours journey from Valencia. And I thought I never survived the journey.

The night before we went to eat Doner Kebab near El Corte Ingles just around the corner from Estasion D'autobuses (read: bus station) and a group of guys with the most Malay looks came in. We "spoke" about them in our mother-tongue, just on general issues. An hour later while waiting for the bus at the bus station they came and approached us with "Are you from Malaysia?". So meet my friends, Min Jat from Sabah, Ahmed from Uzbekistan, and 2 anonymous from Philipines and Cameroon. The former 3 were the ones who looks like Malay, and you'd imagine the latter has a totally different look based on the country of origin. They're doing Masters in Water and Coast Management in Andalusia under European Union. Interesting.

Valencia was nice, quite a small city though. We toured around the city and went to the same places of interests more than twice in general, on foot. Other than paellas (read: Spanish rice dish of fish or chicken with vegetables and saffron) and Valencia naranja (read: orange), I couldn't find anything else that amused me, oh well I must mention other than the Hispanic's unconditional love on jamon (read: ham) although their shops smelled like ____ you'll puke. The message is if you want a fast tour of Spain, skip Valencia.

In truth we're already in this (self-proclaimed) exotic land of Espana for a good 6 days now. We flew to Barcelona on Sunday morning and spent the earlier 3 days there. I mentioned this to the very end intentionally, coz it felt like 'luka lama berdarah kembali'. Man..

Whatever happened, there must be some good reasons behind them. A lot of 'What Ifs' been shooting out of my mind lately, but I know that Allah's plan works best so I just play my part and pray and keep on praying. Honestly, it was actually a good halt for me, coz the previous couple of month's been treating me really great, I must've crossed the border at certain points. So when thing happens people stop and reflect, and I did. My friends been asking about "Betuke Shu hilang EUR500?" and I might as well answer that here, thanks for your concerns but I did not actually. Though I did lost a good sum of money for leisures and my nephew's photo in my purse but it was an indestructible damage and alhamdulillah I'm still thriving. It was just the aftermaths that cost me a change of perceptions on Spaniards and the tour itself. Numbed.

And the sun started to come out again today. Granada is a pure bliss to the eyes. My heart sank as I went back in times to witness the fall of the golden age of Islamic rules in Spain and whats-left in the surviving monuments of Alhambra..

of life and death..

I started my new medicine rotation yesterday morning shockingly with 3 new in-patients with acute poisonings. 2 patients had established psychiatric problems, depression in particular and tried to end their lives the previous night by taking drug overdose; Paracetamol and for the other one I wasn't sure. The third patient I saw in the I.C.U was put on the life support ventilation machine and hence unconscious, she was basically found unmoved with a syringe and a bottle of animal poison in her hands.

Then we had an old lady who was a known Myastenia Gravis for years. She came in with profound hypotension and septicaemia, said to be terminal. We ordered a nice room for her final hours. She died at 1pm.

For some life just worth a scandal between partners, for others an extra hour of sipping God's freshen air is gratitude.

Of choosing life and death, how human fails to repent what they do with their single chance of living until it's too late (8:50).

Thanking Allah The Ever-Living for my 22nd years of life~

bermukim di Navan

I know I was being unfair for my negligence over this place when many of my friends have brought out sizzling stories on their recent lives, ie raya and stuff. Well if I talk about raya now you'll probably be mentally boo-ing me as you're reading my raya rants, the month's so over u say. Just to let u know my raya was fine, as raya fell just when my psychiatry rotation about to end, I had a lot of self-created free times to bake kuih raya, the one thing I longed to do every Ramadhan with my 2 sis at home. And this raya surprisingly I wore a lot of pink, the colour I used to hate A LOT. One advise, don't overly hate something, coz you'll end up being closer to liking it later (and vice-versa).

At present I am happy to say that I'm enjoying every moments in Navan. The bed & b'fast accomodation the college provides' definitely top-notch, couldn't be better I say. The best part would definitely be the teachings in the hospital. I was loafing in the middle of the ward just checking things around when my ex-model Greek intern asked in his purfect Greek accent "Whattha you duing? Come let's do exsaminasion together." And it got bragged on from just taking histories and the normal pysical examinations to doing the admissions, giving consents, set up IV infusions, order bloods, and the very last efforts of filling in the patient discharge forms. I know he bullied me for what he has to do and paid me with "You're the best!" and "Excellent!", (he bought me sometimes with those), but the basal line is I am getting one step closer to being familiar with intern's daily routines and the Irish health-care systems which I found very good.

And when my consultant said it straight to my face "Now Wan Nor, you're a part of this team, attach yourself to the interns like an umbilical cord, and get to do what they do OK?" I remembered putting on a determined face with a smirk plastered on my mouth and inside my whole systems jumped all over the place in excitements, I knew instantly it was gonna be a good sign. Alhamdulillah it still is..

last phase of Ramadhan

Eversince Ramadhan commences, I've been rained by questions and jokes on the act of fasting, mostly from my psychiatric team members if not from my collegemates. Well most seasonal questions like "how long do u have to fast?" or "is it just food, or drinks, or both?" are tolerable, but sometimes jokes like "so u eat like crazy from sundown till sunrise ya?" or "owh, don't u think that's a torture? we do fast in our religion, but not as bad yours" are somehow downgrading. But, thanks to the perfect way of Islamic teaching, instead of smashing back with oh-yeah?-why-don't-you-just-mind-your-own-business(or religion in this case) type of answers, I calmly explained the beauty secrets of this holy month, with hopes that they would buy everything I said. You'll never know just when you're going to be tested like this, so just in case, save some pretty-good answers for the sake of saving our religion from being demoralized, or at least for the sake of saving our own dignity.

Alhamdulillah, I just realized this Ramadhan is going to be more meaningful than the previous ones. For an instance, if last year's Ramadhan I was all speeding up to finish reading the Quran just for the sake of finishing it or coz everyone was doing that, this year's understanding of why do I read the whole chapters of Quran in this month at the first place made my readings more smooth sailing. If last year I went home from eating Pak Cik Yusuf's tandoori in Dublin Mosque with a terribly full stomach and partially closed eyes during tarawikh, this year inshaAllah acknowledging the ukhuwwah I've revised when eating with friends from the same tray made me gained some extra points, though regretfully I still experienced feeling sleepy when praying from overeating

:(

I guess it's good to start training a new habit or even leaving an old bad habit whilst we're still in this month. I found preoccupations with prayers and reading the Quran made me less want to listen to slow soothing songs like I used to do. Time is moving pretty quickly so I have to steal times to get my chore done and at the same time increasing my daily amal, so I have to manage time wisely in order to get those things done. Just imagine if I'd be able to keep doing this for the rest of the year? Me, a bloody old procrastinator. It'd be great to leave the old time title for good don't you think?

Speaking of moving on, being in the fourth year is much emphasized when the new batch of juniors arrived. Oh, they look so cute and little it made me feel just old, so old. In the eid card mum sent me she reminded me about increasing the du'a in these last 10 days of Ramadhan, and don't forget to pray on her and my dad's good health so she could see me settling down with a good husband and kids and working as a specialist someday. Emm, I totally register the first part of advice, but the second one, wow never see that one coming from mom. She even reminded me about my random rant when I was kid on "nanti acu dengan suami acu bawak mak ngan abah pegi umrah tau" (*_*) aku pon da lupa menda tu..Anyway, it shows that I have to grow up and move on with my life, leave the freaking past behind and start putting on great efforts for the better future. Sedarlah Shuhada awak tu dah dewasa...(tidakkk..)

So as we enter the last 10 days of Ramadhan, I pray that we'll be able to taste the night that's better than the 1000 months, the Laylatul Qadr. For some who love staying up at night listening to pop songs on the radio while studying, let's try putting a different flavour to the nights by filling 'em with prayers and reading the Quran. It won't be that hard I promised. Also, as we're still in this barakah month, just send our little thoughts sometimes to our brothers and sisters whose fighting with cold and hunger in Pakistan, and fighting with bullets and freedom in Palestine and fighting for a better home in Acheh, do reach down to your pockets and donate, for inshaAllah every deeds you do will be multiplied in this month.

Lastly, here goes my serial 7's for Niesa who tagged me. Can't believe this game still exists in blogging world. Anyway, for a bit of fun, enjoy.

7 things you plan to do before you die;

1. Serve the people in the medical field
2. Master the Arabic Language and memorize most chapters in the Quran
3. Set up a huge foundation for charity all across the world (well, sungguh tinggi cita-citaku..)
4. Take care of my parents for the rest of their lives
5. Bring them to umrah to fulfill my kiddies promise (how on earth I come to say that I dunno)
6. Travel around the world for charity works
7. Have a beautiful white house by the beach with a loving husband, cute kids and a pet cat to go home to after a strenous day at work (gile kuat berangan..)

7 things I cannot do;

1. Not being a procrastinator
2. Read a fictional storybook till end (never did)
3. Resist to cry each time upon leaving home for a long period (from form 1 till 4th year of college, oh I'm such a wuss)
4. Learn from previous mistakes of being too dependant on other people, sometimes I hate myself for this
5. Make a major decision without second opinions
6. Getting ready to go out quickly, I hate choosing what to wear each time I go out
7. Say 'buayabiawak' rapidly and continously for more than 10 seconds, haha thanks to Izakusha for making me realized about this

7 things I can do;

1. Memorize a song after listening to it once (why can't this happen for the Quranic verses!)
2. Talk to a complete stranger as if I knew him/her before
3. Go out for window shopping and come home with 5 shopping bags
4. Eat cheeses, potatoes and white sauce pastas for the rest of my life (haha)
5. Stay awake for more than 24 hours (hence the dark circles aroud the eyes)
6. Work under pressure
7. Contain my anger within me up to the very point when I'll explode (and that'll usually take quite long)

7 celebrities crushes;

1. Farid Kamil (nice northern accent ^_^)
2. Brad Pitt (am still wondering how on earth he could be an Irish)
3. Jude Law (lovely Brit accent)
4. Adam Brody (I love celebs with curly hair)
5. Nicholas Saputra (more curls)
6. Tom Cruise (nuff said)
7. Viggo Mortensen (I've typical celebs taste I know)

7 often repeated words;

1. baiklah..
2. habis? macammana?? ha? jadi apa??
3. seriusss?
4. ow menn!
5. cis!
6. bisss...(haha teringat Alep)
7. ganggg!

7 things that attract me to the opposite sex;

1. A very good Muslim, a lot better than the average I-pray-5-times-a-day guy
2. Have flaws (flaws make someone special)
3. Wise, clear vision of the future
4. Smart appearance, and being smart need not to be trendy and expensive (coz I'm not trendy and expensive)
5. Know how to get along with people, with fine line of being 'sopan' and 'terlalu peramah'
6. Could at least give a smile to a kid eventhough he has the most stern/fierce face ever (I just realized that today in the bus)
7. Yang senang mata memandang...(and that's very subjective to my eyes)

Roger and out.

Aceh 3: Kg Suak Timah

I just received a 12 minutes Acheh clip from my Acheh pal, Atiqah, a while a go, which totally boosted my spirit to continue writing about my recent Acheh mission. You'll never know what could actually trigger you to start writing again until suddenly when you realized about it you're already eagerly typing every recollection of memories that crossed your mind.

Aceh 3: Kg Suak Timah
21 July 2005

MashaAllah it was a bright and wonderful morning in the small town of Meulaboh. We had our breakfast eating Acheh's traditional kuih muih with tea while discussing about the flow of the day at the PKS office. At about 7.30am we were all ready to move to our final destination, Kampung Suak Timah, which from what I heard has been the so-called 'kampung angkat' to Yayasan Amal for quite some times, since people from Amal has been staying there for emergency/relief works since the huge waves flattened most of the village last December.

Suak Timah here we come!

What was supposed to be an only 10 minutes journey turned out later to be a half an hour journey, and that was due to the horrendous road going into the village. Rumours told that this was the result of the undistributed enormous donations attained from various organizations that were given to the hands of the corrupted Indonesians rulers with hopes that they'd reached out to people in need, but as you could imagine likewise happened. And when rumours demand logics in this case, I'd say there's certainly a lot of logics there. On the way, one could already appreciate the scale of destructions that happened when the tsunami struck, the amenable damages that up till that very moment, 7 months later, there was only little efforts made in rebuilding the place back to what it used to be.

So we arrived there greeted by part of the group members who had already spent the previous night at the Balai Desa of Kg Suak Timah, one of few buildings that I could consider decently rebuilt post-tsunami. I put up one picture of the four guys posing in front of the balai desa here, and if you could see this place was built by World Vision, one of the largest Christian relief organization in the world. Well Naggroe Acheh Darussalam, well-known as Serambi Makkah, which populations are 99% Muslims, was never before being entered or having any influence from the Christians or any other religion whatsoever up till the Tsunami hit when these group of agencies saw the fast way to enter this sacred Muslim areas, that was by being one of the forefronts that offered helps when the locals were most in need. And that was one of the reasons why Yayasan Amal is still actively going in and out from the place, not only to reach out to the community material-wise, but also to help them to realize and to be aware of the hidden agendas these group of missionaries bring along with every little helps they offered.

4 Jejaka idaman gadis-gadis Acheh. He he (note the signboard)

We had another rapat umum shortly upon arrival, mainly discussing on the major activities going to be held the next day and also some brief introductions to the whole situations of the village. That was when suddenly we felt the house had a smooth circular shaking, at first I thought I was just felt dizzy, and at the same moment somebody was hammering nails on the wall outside the house so I thought that must be the reason why the house was shaking. A moment later I realized how stupid I was being, it was a brick-based house so there was no single chance it could be shaking like that by the force of hammering. Earthquake!! No wonder there was silence for a split second! So there it was our very first experience of earthquake, which lasted for about 5 minutes or so, which later I heard brought worries to most of the locals who were still traumatized from the previous episodes. And there we were feeling excited on our very own first earthquake experience! Anyway shortly after that the medical team had our own small meeting to go through the details of our mobile clinics, and we opened the pack of medications we brought along for the clinic, contently!

It was followed by gotong royong and cleaning of the area works. I went for a change and went out of the room finding few elderly ladies who came to help the cleaning works. Then many more people came with brooms and knives in their hands, I was happy meeting the locals for the first time. Dr Hatta told us that most of the ladies and kids had been coming to the place we stayed asking "Mana ibu-ibunya?" since the previous night when part of team first arrived. For once, I reminded myself not too be overly sensitive when being addressed as ibu, for that's a norm to call female adults that way (though sometimes it hit me straight to the heart, is my wrinkles that obvious?). So I helped in the kitchen to prepare the lunch, some went out with the ladies to clear the areas, and most guys did the manual labour works in front of the house; angkut pasir, batu-batu, which I could expect them to now understand the feelings of mat-mat Indon at the construction sites we find in our country. Anyway, good efforts guys!

Gigih berusaha. Chaiyo!

1. Mengulit air masak dengan penuh kasih sayang

2. Kitchen at a glance

3. Ketam yang diorang cakap makan orang. He he

I was busy cooking ketam masak cili padi (after pak Chef suggested that otherwise he'd just cook ketam masak air if no one wants to cook them in a different manner, well you know that crabs are just too precious to be wasted like that) when I heard voices of few kids outside the kitchen. I went out seeing 5 kids in school uniforms and got excited. At that time Dr Din Suhaimi was talking to them while recording the conversations with his camcorder, so I decided not to interrupt and just listened instead. He asked each kid to say their names and age, and asked some general questions about Acheh, health etc. Then slowly he started querying about what happened during the tsunami and that was when it started to catch me by the heart. It goes by something like this;

Dr Din: Masa tsunami ada dibawa ombak nggak?
One of the kid: (Smiled, nodding her head)
Dr Din: Iya, boleh kamu cerita sikit pada Doktor bagaimana keadaan waktu itu?
Kid: Dibawa ombak tinggi selama 6 jam.
Dr Din: Jadi bagaimana kamu selamat?
Kid: Pegang pada kayu.
Dr Din: Alhamdulillah, sebenarnya Allah SWT hantar kayu tu untuk kamu kan?
Kid: (Smiled again, nodding)
Dr Din: Ada tertelan air tsunami?
Kid: (Nodded) Banyak.
Dr Din: Ahli keluarga ada yang tewas?
Kid: Ada, sekarang hanya tinggal ayah sama datuk saja..

I was heavily touched by the conversations, she's just merely 6, yet she had been going through a major life event that one could predict the everlasting scar that would cause her inside. 2 other kids revealed the same experience as hers, and also lost many of their family members in the huge waves. It's things like this that made me want to slump onto my knees, pleading forgiveness from Allah the Almighty for the family members I have taken for granted. Inside I prayed to Allah, reward those kids' parents and siblings place in Jannah, and give them strength to live on with their lives without their loved ones. I gave them some sweets that mom and I bought a day before leaving KL, and I guess that would at least gave them some temporary enjoyments in their hearts. U know kids and sweets. Later they went home to change their uniforms and came back after that with more kids, looking more casual and cute in their little Acheh jilbab. So we were busy entertaining them, learnt some Acheh words and made them laugh trying to speak Acheh and Indonesian. It was somehow funny that most of the kids adopted Malay slang very fast, they said that was because they've been seeing many Malaysians since the tsunami happened so they've been basically speaking Malay most of the times if not in Acheh. And there we were trying very hard to sound like fake-Indon with "Mengapa ya itunya jadi begitu?" and them replied "Takde ape ape kak..."

The extraordinarily brave kids

Tents built on what used to be home, the view from our backdoor

After eating our lunch, we were busy packing up the medications into small packs for our first mobile clinic later in the evening. I was a little bit high, it felt like some sort of kongsi gelap jual dadah at times (we worked on a cemented floor, zinc roof on top, and large empty room). When it all finished, the guys were already loading the boxes of medications into the van and went to the place first. Farah and me followed not long after that on foot, I was basically enjoying the serenity of the evening with my little stroll. From far I could see the team settling down under a huge tree, few tables were arranged and long stools beside them. Many kids were noisily playing nearby, as if nothing been bothering them at all. It was a pure bless looking at them, reminiscing the good old childhood days when the world evolves on games, junkfood and throwing tantrums when not getting what I wished for. The only difference with these kids and myself is; I'm used to see disasters happen in typical American movies while they themselves have had a role playing in one, a major one.

We started the clinic with the multi-talented Dr Din putting up an informal oral health talk with the kids. It was a good one, and I am really stressing on that. He was the most spontaneous unpretentious doctor I've ever met, definitely the one a less than ordinary medical student like me should try squeezing every knowledge from. So he went on talking about the correct way of sikat gigi (read: gosok gigi), entertaining the kids unwearyingly which later been adopted and imitated by most of us (at least the ladies) as a way to build up good rapport with the kids. Then patients started coming in, I did my first history taking with Tiqah which later presented to Dr Faidzol. Few more patients after that, then only I passed the honour of hanging the stethoscope around the neck to Imran (if I'm not mistaken). So most patients presented with simple cases like gastro-intestinal discomforts, difficulty breathing, skin problems like scabies and headaches. Some of the cases were organic in origin; meaning they have the underlying pathological problems, but I could say most of them were actually psychological in origin which symptoms were exhibited in somatoform manners (it's like you have a financial problem that causes you a lot of worries that make you ended up having headaches). Alhamdulillah most of the patients I saw weren't as bad as others, like this one elderly lady who just started crying the moment one of the students opened her mouth to interview her. Pity that lady so much, she lost her children in tsunami and that kept coming back to her mind causing her a lot of physical illnesses. There was also one pneumonia (read: inflammation of the lungs caused by bacterial infections) case with fine crackles on auscultations, which I only knew the day after that about it. And if you're still interested to know most pneumonia cases were as the consequences of patients swallowing the sea water when being drifted in the waves.

Dr. Din's famous sikat gigi tale

Mobile Clinic Series 1

So the evening went on. Few students were clerking the patients with some basic physical examination followed, and later presented the cases to the cool doctors who confirmed the diagnosis, and then sent to Shu'ib our pharmacy guy to collect the medicines. Shu'ib was so good in looking after the medicines that I remembered he was the only one who knew everything about them for the whole mobile clinic series (which left me still confused which painkillers to be taken before or after meal). Out of the scene, there was Dr Hatta happily riding one of the kids' bike on the road, Tiqah giving some sort of informal health education to a group of kids, and Jaz fooling around with a kid with my stethoscope.

I almost forgot to mention that there was a bunch of American ladies playing with the kids just near our clinic (note the picture above). I've already heard about them since I set foot in Kg Suak Timah, just never expect to meet them on the same day. So I went to talk to one of the ladies which I have forgotten the name, out of curiosity. She said they were from the IFS, stands for the International Friendship Summit. They've been there for about 10 days and were actually leaving the day after that. Purpose of staying? She said they planned to help the villagers building the boats in order to get them back to the sea catching fish again, but oh well who knows the major intentions behind this whole building boats thing. Initially, I actually felt guilty for once for being so judgmental, but it diminished soon after I discovered the truth when I chatted with few kids later on. It was revealed when Rahmi, a 15 years old girl asked me whether it was good to received a small book on Jesus from them. They've actually been preaching to the kids about the Prophet Jesus as being the last prophet, and also the son of God. Another kid then asked me whether it was OK that the Americans taught them to sing few songs in school, but she didn't particularly knew what kind of songs were they as they're all in English. A-hah, so are these people been building their own "boats" at the schools instead? (huge question mark with an innocent face) Wallahua'lam. At least we were grateful that those kids had the hunch to tell us about this, so at least we could do something rather than letting the condition getting worst out of our concerns. I then asked Rahmi to bring me the book she mentioned later so I could have a look at it.

As the sun set down, we packed up and decided to have a tour of the village by van. We were back at the balai desa just before the very last red lines on the horizon disappeared, finding pak Chef and few more people were cleaning the meats from the cow that was slaughtered that evening. That night many ibu-ibu came to help cutting out the meats, peeling the onions and such, like Malaccans call it upacara merewang. And all of those were solely for the few huge occasions going to be held the next day.

Sunset in Suak Timah

End of Part 3

K.Kusyi

First thing's first,

read K.Kusyi's remarks on us post-Acheh, which reminds me of my pending Acheh reports. Aiyoh..

Oh well,

tomorrow's Nisf Sya'aban, mari beramal bersama-sama..

And, so it is..

It’s been 2 weeks since I got back to Dublin, 2 weeks now the lectures been going on, 2 weeks sleeping alone in a room, 2 weeks without the voices of the 2 Halflings, and owh 2 weeks of pure grayness. Yes I miss Malaysia terribly but I decided to be a little more mature and look on things seriously, as this academic year is not something I should take lightly.

When my friends asked me, “How was the holidays?” Smile, and I answered, “Owh it was great, (but if only..)” Yeah if only I had a little extra time to spend with my family the whole holidays would be a little more meaningful. Looking back the whole break was dedicated for the outside works; I was away in most of the week starting July till late August, going here and there from Chow Kit Road to Acheh. Regrets? Na ah, I enjoyed every single moment I had, but I just wish I had more time to spend with my family. Speaking of regrets, I admit maybe there were some regrets from the disagreements I had with mom on various issues, and the disheartening way I ignored some of dad’s advices, I was just being the stubborn daughter who thought she could go out and explore the world while there they were the two old chap that love me so much trying to teach me how to be a little more vigilant to the treacherous world outside. Nonetheless, it’s ripping me inside when my parents, with tears in their eyes, said that they forgave me for everything and that they love me so much, during our last jama’ah Fajr prayer just before I flew back to Dublin. O’ Allah, please give my parents good health and longevity, and grant them Jannah in the hereafter.

Well back to the present, being away from the family is not too bad when I’m surrounded by great friends that I adore, John the landlord who rearranged our many set of shoes back on the floor and on the shoe racks after installing the new washing machine in the house (I mean, who does that???), Garfield the new orange cat that lingers at my bedroom window once in a while, and the many ranges of cheeses that I could eat before I fell into guilt. Ha ha..

And I should emphasized myself that this is not the year of fun and absenteeism, I’m in my 4th Med, the inaugural year of all the rotations I’m going to have till the day of attaining the M.D, inshaAllah.

Res celata est aperta, which means ‘open and you shall reveal’.

And by that I meant the textbooks, not anything else you (pervert) might think.

Well who said the few Latin classes I had were sent straight to dustbin after all.

Aja Aja Fighting!! Fighting!! (lame..)

Acheh 2: Morning in Subunussalam

20 July 2005

I was awakened from a deep sleep by the loud burst. It was still dark outside. “GAM??” My heart skipped a beat, and inside I was constantly praying. The story about the couple that was held by GAM’s soldiers crossed my mind, where the husband was killed and the wife taken away just few days before. I saw some people from our group outside on the road, heading towards the vehicle in front of ours.

“Tayar pecah la..”

Phew. Moments of relief. As far as I can remember that was the fourth stop we made that night. I went to the toilet before that when the group stopped at one mosque. It was a long and tiring journey, I remembered waking up once or twice when the van hit bumpy roads. We were told that we had a flat tyre before that, and despite, I didn’t moved a pinch when they stopped to exchange the tyre. What a good sleep. Nyaman banget..hmm..

Ini kerja-kerja menukar tayar pecah dan bukanlah suatu kemalangan ngeri

Speaking of which, we were traveling along the footsteps of a mountain, so we had our natural air conditioning from outside. The weather was really nice, despite the rain and the iced cold morning air. I never had imagined surviving this long for a journey without air-conditioned vehicle, and yet there I was enjoying every single moment of it. Though it was not the most comfortable seat I had, and the thought of the four guys sitting comfortably in the Toyota Kijang while we suffered from dislocated hips and vertebraes trying to squeeze in this small seating van was sometimes demotivating, nonetheless, the big picture of Nagroe Aceh Darussalam overrides all of those. Enthusiastic, eh? Anyway not long after that it was already approaching dusk, so we headed to the nearby mosque for fajr prayer.

Subhanallah it was a beautiful morning in Subunussalam. Thin rain started falling down, there were birds chirping, almost like in a movie you say. We stopped for breakfast at one stall. I couldn’t eat much, well I have some restrictions in eating during traveling, just to avoid any problems concerning the bowels throughout the journey. But the sayur tempe they served with the nasi lemak surely looked delicious! (Sekarang baru nyesal tak makan..)

Having the stomachs filled in, full tanks of gas, we were all geared up. But first, repair tayar kempis dulu ya bu..- Pak Miko

Pimping our ride Aceh's style

We waited in our van while the other van went to a car workshop nearby. I got my chance to appreciate the morning better from my window seat at the rear end of the van. It was a working day for the people in Subunussalam, so the morning was busied with people in roda dua, kids in school uniforms walking in the same direction and elderly in nice clothes going to work. I spontaneously called 2 girls who were walking nearby and asked their permissions to take their photo and they agreed. I then asked “Sekolah di mana?” With a nice smile they answered, “S.M.A.” I thanked them for the photo and bade my farewell, not intending to waste their precious school time anymore. It was basically a bless just to sit there and observe, though up till now I’m still unsure what S.M.A is..

Shiapa mahu kuliah akuntasi, sekretaris, manajemen bisnis dan mekanik otomotif di Kabupaten Aceh Singkil, sila daftar sebelum ketinggalan...

Tranquille Subunussalam morning

The two sweet S.M.A girls

Then the journey continues. I had my alternate moments of consciousness, just to avoid myself feeling nauseated by the hard corners along the way. Albeit, my keen observations on the sceneries outside continues. Having the chance to travel this far, I realized how lucky I am to live in a country like Malaysia. I don’t think I’ll find such views like what I saw there, even in the most rural areas back home. We all knew the fact that Indonesia has one of the largest source of oil and gas, the vast land for agricultural opportunities, the spectacular volcanic areas and not to forget beautiful beaches for tourism, and yet the country’s wealth doesn’t seemed to be equally shared to many groups of their citizens based on their horrible living conditions I witnessed along the way. I am not well versed in politics, but I guess everyone knows the problems with Indonesian’s rulers; bribery, kronisme, etc. Deep in my heart I prayed that Malaysia won’t turn into that one day, wa naudzhubillahi min dzaalik..

Albeit, one thing that we should learn from Indo is their good way of keeping the mosques. Along the way, I could see that for each few kilometers or so, there was always a mosque present. It was just some simple four-walled mosque, not too big, but complete with a huge dome on top of it. Initially I was in wonder why there were so many mosques there, later one of the makciks told me that only the bigger ones were mosques, the simple ones I saw were more like surau over there. Huge ‘owh I seee…’ I must give my compliments to Muslims over there, for in their lackness, they still keep Islam in priority. Having the thought of the situation in our country, going to the mosque for the daily jamaah prayers is almost out of trend nowadays, only people that lives long enough with no health restrictions are sometimes present. It’s not the issue of building a mosque, it’s keeping it alive that matters. And I wonder if their out of trend reason will still be in trend when God asks them about it during the Judgement day later.

Halfly damaged mosque on reconstruction works

Another small musolla

Then it was time for (what else but) food again, we stopped at Tapak Tuan for lunch. It was a simple restaurant by a scenic beach, kind of remote from other areas but nice I say. I had my es jeruk kurang gula (read: limau ais kurang gula), influenced by K.Kusyi’s keen interest on it. Tasty! But I must emphasized on the ‘kurang gula’ bit more, coz for whatever reason there is, Indonesians seem to savour sweet, I mean really really sweet drinks. I guess they need the sugar for their hard manual labour works, so realizing that, as someone who was going to be sedentary for another half a day or so, I avoided the large amount of unused sugars before they turned into fat later. There goes Dr Collins biochemistry lecture (which I hated so much before). You’ll never know when you’re gonna use it..

Tapak Tuan

Had a small chat with Pak Miko who said, “Semuanya gendut-gendut belaka dalam mobil itu jadi bagaimana tayarnya nggak asyik kempis saja,” when we asked why the other van had 2 flat tyres last night. Hehe funny guy. So we continued our journey. Few kilometers ahead the vehicles halted, only later found out that there was a landslide ahead of us. Yet another obstacles, but we took it quite OK. Some of the guys went out of the van to help clearing the way. Not long after that the road was accessible again, alhamdulillah.

Don't say they didn't warned you!

While waiting for the road clear-out. That was Indonesian's Red Cross lorry.

Our brothers van, the infamous Toyota Kijang and Pak Husin

After 21 hours of journey, 2 flat tyres and a landslide, we finally reached the small town of Meulaboh late in the evening. Greeted by the PKS members, we (the sisters) were given one room for exchange and rest at the back of the PKS office. At last, I could happily straightened my crooked legs from the long hours of seating in the van! After considering the pros and cons of going to Kg Suak Timah (our final destination) on the same night, we decided to spend the night there first and started moving earlier the next morning. So another laid back night for chit chatting and strategy planning.

So I slept, and I slept well, for I didn’t know when was the next good sleep I’ll have for the trip.

PKS's office

End of Part 2.

*****

When I talked about the prayers up there, it brings tears to my heart learning the fact that many people around me have started taking prayers lightly. Having the chance to live in a non-Muslim country overseas, I learn the precious price for time for prayers, I know the value of praying areas, musolla, surau, whatever you call it, all of which people in this so called Muslim country have taken for granted. It saddens me that people numbered prayers last in their to-do list, and whom at a certain angle when u think about it are better than some who have totally forgotten how to pray. And when the annual figures for pre-marital sex, teenage pregnancy, HIV AIDS and such come out, we started pointing fingers to other people for the alarming rates. Why don't we get back to basic, get ourselves to pray and do good, get people around us to pray and do good, coz a soul that has a heart to remember his Creator for five times a day is a soul that can recognize the thin line between good and evil.

"Sesungguhnya solat itu mencegah dari perbuatan keji dan mungkar."

So figure out the outcomes when you treat your solat lightly..

Or perhaps we do need to be sent a reminder from God then only we know how we have been all these while..

Wallahu'alam

Jerebu

Yesterday my 6 years old nephew Naqib shouted "Yay, esok Akib tak sekolah!" as soon as he entered the house after my dad fetched him from school. "Acu jangan bagitau Mummy tau, esok biar Mummy siapkan Akib pastu hantar Akib gi sekolah. Bila sampai sekolah je baru Akib nak kasitau, 'Mummy sebenarnya harini teacher kata tak yah gi sekolah, jerebu..'"

Good plan. It's been few days now since it looked so murky I could barely breathe going outside the house. As alarming as it is, mum's not going to school today, Naqib's not coming to the house, K. Rina has her school closed too, so Ariff's probably not going to come either. It's basically a free day for us.

Time like this brought me to remember the 1997's haze, when I was in high-school in the midst of KL's polluted air. Waking up in the morning looking far into thin air searching for the twin towers was always my own method of indicating the index quality of air each day. I remember we were so happy to be given the masks to wear during classes, that we could pretend talking whilst having some chocolates or sweets in our mouths, unnoticed by the teacher and the blue-blazers. And that for you who don't know, because the strict rules of the school that forbid us to eat inside the class, na-ah, not even a single sweet.

Speaking of which, MERCY's been giving away free masks to public for 2 days now. Expect to see few weird-looking people at your nearest LRT stations handling the masks, and don't be afraid to ask for one. We don't bite. Again, it's free, percuma, gratis, and I still don't get it when people asked "Kenapa percuma?" when I gave the masks to them.

Perhaps in time like this, it's good to look out and ponder. Why God created such fog? My nephew would say it's because God wants to give the schoolchildren an extra holidays, the unbelievers would blame the Nature for such a disaster, what say you, people of faith?

Perhaps the free holidays given by God was not meant to be taken alight, so think, for God creates your four lobes of brain to think.

Acheh I: Medan

Tuesday, June 19th 2005

"This is it," I said to myself as soon as the plane touched down Polonia Medan at 9.30am. "Can't believe I'm in Medan," I whispered. Everything looked the same to my eyes, as in I was still in KL. Medan Airport is much smaller and simpler than what I thought it would be. "Macam ni lah airport ni masa K.Ros datang sini 10 tahun dulu, tak berubah langsung," said K. Ros, one of the 33 members of this mission. She is the chairperson of Amal M'sia's wife, whom soon asked us to call her Ummi, which I thought sounds more respectable on her.

We were greeted by Pak Jasmiko and Pak Suffian, members of Parti Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS) and Komunite Kemanusiaan Indonesia (KKI) in which Amal M'sia liased with in going in and out of Acheh since the Tsunami striked. To be exact, they were the ones that were going to drive us from Medan to Meulaboh with few other pak supir, translated as drivers. Pak Miko was a funny and easy-going man, he came wearing a fisherman's hat and a t-shirt, with Amal M'sia's black cargo vest on top of it embroided the name Azmi on the left chest. On the other hand, Pak Suffian who was older than him looked more reserved, but he has the calmest and fatherly look ever.

A moment of chaos happened when we had 15 bags and boxes unreturned, alhamdulillah I saw mine as soon as I walked out from the kamar kecil (read: toilet). Some of the victims were Tiqah, Jazree, Shu'ib, Imran and amir of the trip himself, Dr Hatta. Tiqah was beyond comfort, worrying about survival without her clothes and stuff, Jaz looked more calm while Dr Hatta had a great time teasing the victims about having to wear kain batik and kain pelikat all the times if they still have their luggages unreturned. Not long after that we were told that the missing luggages will be returned by AirAsia at 8.30pm along with the night flight to Medan. Relieved. "Kamu baru hilang beg sekejap, akan dapat balik pun beg tu malam ni, dah nak menangis. Bayangkan mangsa Tsunami tu hilang pakaian, harta, semua, tak dapat balik sampai bila-bila," Dr Hatta tried very hard to pick on us. Albeit, he was very right indeed.


Pak Pian bercerita

On our way to KKI's office (KKI is pronounced in Indo as ka-ka-e), I appreciated Medan from the back seat of the red van the ladies travelled in. One word; packed. With people, vehicles and buildings. Medan drivers drove recklessly on the road, they honked in every second to every car passing by. As reckless as they are, I was told that they're so skillful in driving that the rate of road-traffic accident is not high in Medan, at least not as high as in KL. There were huge mansions right in the middle of the town, scraping the small wooden houses nearby from our sights. You should see the parabola (read: satellite dish) on every house, they're as big as the one in Pusat Penyiaran Asia. OK I'm exaggerating.


Medan from inside the car, this slot is not sponsored by IndoCafe.

There were the earlier group of students resting at the office when we reached there. They just got back from Meulaboh the day before, and were going to return to KL the day after. I heard some stories about Meulaboh and its people from them, just before the group called it for lunch. First nasi padang experience, not too bad. Still unsure why it is called nasi padang, my wild guess would be the many varieties of side dishes they served. We had about 9 plates. And we touched a little from each plate, only to know later that the norm would be to touch only what you'll eat. The ones untouched would not be charged in the bill. And it got worst when Farah asked for the bill from the waitress, and she made a confused face. And later we found out that we were charged as a group. Phew. Hidup Amal Msia!! Hehe..


Rumah Makan Bahari, please call for reservations. Hehe.

Lunch was followed by rapat umum (read: meeting), had a brief ta'aruf of each group member, and the flow of the journey were laid out. The plan was to leave right after the missing luggages were claimed that night, we had to leave at night in order to be at the perbatasan during daylight to avoid problems entering Wilayah Acheh with GAM and such. I almost forgot to introduce the members of this particular mission. Most of them came from Amal Malaysia, including an engineer and a cook, with Amal's main mission of putting the foundation for the building of a mosque in Kg Suak Timah and panti anak yatim in Kg Cot Darat, both in Meulaboh. The other group would be, us, the medical team consist of 8 medical students from PPIM's Student Chapter UK, Ireland and Egypt, along with 3 other doctors from Amal.


Sitting from left: Yusuf (Newcastle), Imran (Cambridge), Jazree (Dublin), Shuib (Ain Shams)
Standing from left: Shu (Dublin), Atiqah (Manchester), Zy (Manchester), Farah (Manchester)

As we were departing in the evening, they decided we should get going as soon as the luggages were claimed. In the meantime until evening? Free times! We were adviced not to sleep during the free period to avoid bright eyes during the journey later in the evening. It was estimated to be approximately an 18 hours journey, with bumpy roads and hard corners. So basically you want to be very tired before the journey in order to be fast asleep throughout the journey, at least the earlier half or so. "Pergilah tengok bandar Medan, belok ke arah kanan hujung jalan ni kemudian terus aja. Kawasan sini pun ada kedai-kedai, tapi pastikan kamu balik sebelum 6.30 petang," said Pak Hamid during the briefing. He was partially wrong, bandar Medan was impossible to be reached on foot, and we hesitated to get there by kereta sapu, afraid to get lost and afraid to be cheated. So we ended up walking in the hot afternoon sun on the streets. I bought a mineral water from one toko (read: shop) for only 1,200rupiah, which was less than 60 cent in M'sia. Super cheap! Farah, Zy and Tiqah had a wonderful time buying biskut panda and carbonated drinks, murah le katakan. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. At that time the exchange rate was approx. RM1 = 2,500rupiah. I exchanged almost half a grant at the airport, do the calculation yourself, and don't forget the fact that I was nearly a millionaire at that moment. Hahaha..

After that we headed back to the office to rest, and the ladies' ta'aruf began. Ustazah Rahmah lives in Penang, she got married with a guy from Acheh who was her classmate when she studied in Banda Acheh many years ago. And she speaks bahasa Acheh fluently, that's a credit! Ummi lives in Kuala Terengganu, for few times she kept telling me how I looked like her first daughter named Izzati. She's in Jordan doing Masters in Islamic Studies along with her husband (at least I have someone who looks like me, married, speaks Arabic, and doing a very good field of studies which I'm incapable of). Makcik Taksiyah is a retired nurse from Perak, and K. Kusyi who's a jounalist and also later found out to be the editor of wanitakini.net. The rest were Tiqah, Zy and Farah from University of Manchester, all one year junior than me, and the most latter is my junior from high-school. Though everyone was so different personality-wise, I think this was the fastest group I ever felt comfortable with. We chatted till evening and laughed our lungs out tried to figure out how to clean ourselves without towels and fresh clothes for the long journey. At that time, the van we put our bags in was away for other business, and we intelligently left our bags in there.

We started moving to Meulaboh at about 10pm after dealing with every problem, had our dinner at the same restaurant for lunch and headed out in 2 vans, a Toyota Kijang (equivalent to Toyota Unser in M'sia), and a small lorry with all boxes and luggages in there. I was praying hardly for the safe journey..


Before leaving for Meulaboh

English Camp

The weekend after I got back from Acheh was filled with an English Motivational Camp at a primary school at my hometown in Alor Gajah, Melaka. At the same time there was a Pre-Departure Programme for the new juniors going to UK and Ireland held in Bangi, which left me a hard decision to choose between the two. Of course as told earlier I went for the former, as it was originally my own project with a group of students from Ireland as well. I must thank, I mean, send my deepest gratitudes to other 6 fellows of this so we called English Camp, for if not for them, I was at the verge of turning to a dead end for this. It was really hard to cope as my body was still tired from my Acheh mission, hopping to another programme like this was something intolerable for my used body. Nonetheless, all praise for Allah SWT, my mates blew my dimmed spirit to a brighter one, the one day camp was a success judging from the scale of preparations done. May Allah SWT rewards them for every good deeds handsomely.

Some of the Year 6 students of Sek Keb Belimbing Dalam, Alor Gajah.

The main outcome for the camp was always practising charity, for this is the 'saving account' we'll need later in the here-after. Giving a second thought on it, giving charity almost seems illogical I say if one doesn't believe in the here-after. Well, try this. Would you like to spend half a grant for your journey to a place with people in need for help, reaching there, you spend the days helping the people with all your mights, playing with pain and dirts, and going back, broke, burnt and restless, and again, what have you got from that? If I were you, I would put that money away for my wished iPod Mini in stores. Lagi bagus..So where's exactly the essence of charity lies? My answer; strong faith, and always is. Let's talk about this sometimes later.

Going back to my outcome list, after a day of teaching English, I realized that my English is actually gibberish. I made my own rules of grammar and it got worse when I stick to it. Guess I really have to kick my old habit of not reading. And go 10 years back by starting with the learn-a-word-a-day method. Yikes.

And what more important is, I have proven my parents that my early twenties change from being a huhu-haha-kid to an I-talk-about-the-world-and-its-problems lady is not something I made up. I want to change, and it's important for them to take this seriously and be part of it. Not that I want to sound ungrateful, but my old fashioned pair still prefer another daughter to go out having a total body treatment along with her boyfriend rather than me talking about my plan of visiting a HIV infected adults and children home. And when they defined their meaning of safe boundaries and being protective, I kept on getting more confused by days. Oh well, who said that doing good deed's easy anyway?

May Allah SWT give me the force to continue on..

Acheh

Ever had the idea of scribbling the whatever grubbles left at your used-to-be home, just in case someone else forgot that there was once a house there? I never did, until I witnessed it with my very eyes.

Wait for Projek Nanggroe Acheh Darussalam 2005..

"Tidak ada sesuatu musibahpun yang menimpa seseorang kecuali dengan izin Allah SWT, dan barangsiapa yang beriman kepada Allah, nescaya Dia akan memberi petunjuk kepada hatinya. Dan Allah Maha Mengetahui segala sesuatu." (At-Taghaabun: 11)

people's problem's mine

I'm left alone at home after Ola and Adik went back to colleges. The bad thing is I have to take over Ola's chores, which means a new housewife job for me, and the bad thing also is I've lost my loyal driver, Adik, who's willing to take me anywhere I'd go.Well the good thing is, em, nothing I guess, none's good when you're left alone with no eating and fighting buddies. Wait, think I could do the latter with Naqib at times. Hehe. At least losing in the former case wouldn't be so much troublesome, considering the toothache I've been having for weeks now. Nak makan pun susah sakit gigi ni.

On Friday I went to MERCY Office in Ampang after been receiving calls for few days from the volunteer manager who said, "Akhirnya datang pun menyerah diri budak ni," when I finally showed up. Sengih je lah. Oh it was fun working there, met a couple of aunties whom, from my understanding being Datuk Dr Jemilah's closest buddies. When they came I thought it was for some official purposes, who'd guess they pulled out the chairs and sat one table with few young volunteers doing the office works together. So basically, middle-aged housewives, filthy rich, volunteering. That's interesting. Guess there's always kindness and peace when you thought madness and cruelty has conquered the world.

Well, I was making phone calls to the volunteers for some upgrading database works when K.Zu called it for lunch. We went out eating at the stalls under the trees nearby. For once I thought I've lost my sense of time after a good hours of working, then only I realized that it was not me, I was basically intact. So it was lunch time on Friday noon and I thought maybe those guys who were happily eating their lunch out had their wristwatches damaged, or maybe they were in the mode of bermusafir, I dunno, just guessing the possibilities that made them excusing themselves from solat Jumaat that day. No offense, but honey if you don't have the shame to Allah, just please feel ashamed to other human beings. It was as if I was the one who escaped from my responsibilities that I was the one who was tersipu-sipu malu looking at them.

Goodness, we are moving towards being a developed country, and yet we have the burden of underdeveloped ummahs like these. Bak kata Sayid Qutb 'tamadun ini umpama seekor burung yang berkibas dengan sebelah sayap yang amat gagah, sedangkan sayapnya yang sebelah lagi patah, ia meningkat maju dalam kemajuan kebendaan, tapi jatuh dalam konsep insaniyah, ia mengalami masalah kegelisahan, kebingungan dan penyakit jiwa dan saraf'. The only way out? Back to the Creator! Period.

Well, that's my khutbah Jumaat you've missed last Friday dear. Next time kalau takmo pegi solat Jumaat dudukla menyorok dalam ofis makan megi, jangan sakitkan mata orang lain dengan pemadangan yang tak best.

Oh my, I don't like spending the rest of this entry nagging about the painful truth about Muslims nowadays. I know I am not perfect, but being a decent human beings, I want to be perfected by my faith. I believe everyone else does too. Memanglah all these while we have always been mangsa keadaan, mangsa sistem pendidikan sekular British. Tapi takkanlah nak jadi mangsa sampai bila-bila kan? The world is changing it's views on Islam, hari ni London kena bomb, esok paling kurang 10 orang peluk Islam. Don't believe me? Go out, open your eyes and observe, like I used to read somewhere, cuba lihat dunia dari pandangan mata burung, bukan pandangan katak dari bawah tempurung kaca. Still don't get it? Balik rumah tanya mak OK.

holidays, so far

So far, well I could say nothing much had happened. My surge of passion for food has calmed down after few concerns on gaining weights during this holidays, my only weapon to counter that would be, if it's not now, then it's only going to be next summer, well that's IF I go back home next summer. U know with the Germany 2006 coming and my concerns on doing something serious like a research or so, somehow summer in the Europes seems a little fine for me. But don't count on my words people, you know me.

After the trip to the school, I've been going in and out with my 2 sisters and family, sometimes friends. Other than that, most free times were spent at home with nephews, mum and dad, and my giant-little brother who's currently on holidays. Only last weekend I attended the 2-days *PPIM's Scientific Conference at the Grand Seasons Hotel in the midst of hectic Chow Kit Road. I was one of the medical students who couldn't afford the fees so ended up as volunteers in the run of the programme. Not quite like another medical conference, this one gave me the window to look medicine not just being physical, but more spiritual as it should be. Like one of the doctors said in her talk, 'This what differs PPIM from the **MMA, we have the ruh that they lack with'. I couldn't agree more.

Anyway, on the second day of the conference I spent most times at the stalls; PPIM's and MERCY's. Well the former was totally understood, as for the latter, it was actually my first task as a MERCY volunteer assigned by the volunteer manager I met on that day. I coudn't say more, this is what I've been searching for, now Allah has opened me the way. All Praises only for One Lord! Many more tasks are coming, inshaAllah with all my mights I'll try to do this. Afterall, we are the best of nation ever to be brought forth for people, what else shall we do if not to benefit the ummahs, ordering honor and forbidding dishonor. (3:110)

So far, not so busy, but had these words coming from mum already;

'Asyik nak keluar tolong orang je, ni tolong Mak kat rumah dulu.'

Been a bit lazy lately I admit, have to improve on that I will. Eh macam Master Yoda pula cakap terbalik.

Roger and out.

*PPIM: Persatuan Perubatan Islam Malaysia
**MMA: Malaysian Medical Association

Shot!

Buka cerita sekali setahun

Quote:

"Huh, sapa yang nak bertunang? Waah!"

"Akhirnya!! Batch kita tak gersang, aku ingat dah takde harapan dah. Budak baya kita sekolah lain dah beranak pinak dah weh." -->boleh eh camni?? :p

"Apa cerita si polanah binti polan tu ha? Dia kat mana sekarang?"

"Aku dengar cerita Adib masuk Oxford, aku pun cepat2 cari dia kat friendster terus add dia!!" - Mizah -->sabo je la

"Eh ye ke? A' ah ek, aku pun takde friendster Adib!" -->aduss, giler teruk! batch kita 80 orang jeh cik kak oii. haha

With C.Aida in the Teachers Room

Quote:

"Asal kita still takut2 nak masuk bilik guru aa, rasa macam masa sekolah dulu pulak." - Siti

"Kalau lah ada bilik guru macam ni punya selesa, kalau aku lah cikgu, mesti aku rasa nak duduk dlm bilik guru je tak mo gi mengajar." -->patutla ko tak jadi cikgu..

"Saya sorang je single lagi cikgu, diorg ni malam tadi semua tido dengan handphone, saya sorg je tak kesah phone tu ntah hidup ke mati." - Shu

"Alah tak payah sibuk2 nak couple awal2 ni, pergi berjalan dulu, enjoy hidup single, nanti sampai jodoh kahwin la kamu. Tengok macam saya, tak couple pun, terus kahwin, haa dapat anak comel jugak!" - C.Aida -->comel lah cikgu!!

"Cikgu, asal saya tengok dekat teachers list tu ada 2 nama ustaz? Memang SSP dah ada ustaz eh? Ye lah zaman kita dulu mana ade.." -->bunyi kekecewaan je, fenomena budak sekola perempuan

Mengimbau nostalgia di Galeri Warisan

Quote:

"Eh adik, boleh tolong ambilkan gambar? Tima kasih, adik form berape ye? Adik main gamelan ni ke, sejak bila SSP ada gamelan ye?" - Shu, being nice. Hehe

"Weh dia budak Sains Selangor la, ko nih!" - Tak ingat sapa

"Aiseh, sori." - Shu, tepuk dahi.

"Ct, ko jangan nak merosakkan gambar yek!" - Shera, suka ambil gambar.

**photos are copyrights of Anem's, Fadhilah Hani's and Naim's which I've violated**

Tempat jatuh lagikan dikenang..

Went to SSP Cyberjaya on Sunday with the main intention to meet friends and teachers, also to attend the SBP Wind Orchestra Competition, though I was not a band member, only closed to become one when I was forced to by my band-member-college-sister when I was in my prime year of school. It's always gonna be for the love of sports and nothing else (well u cannot be a basketballer and a band member at the same time). Nonetheless, people who got through the 5 years of being SSP's band members amuses me, not only for the instruments they played, but their perseverance on standing the maki hamun from their fierce senior members, for some whom they eventually became alike when they became the seniors (the freak custom of boarding schools, give what u have gotten). Albeit, discipline was the main outcome for that and it is what matters most now. Tengok aja lah Anem, Ira, Baiti, Lina and fellow former band members, semuanya strict lagi berdisiplin. Hehe..

Anyway, we spent the night at Anem's apartment. Met them all at Sharifah PKNS Bangi, borak2, then headed to Anem's. It's like an annual custom to do a small gathering every year for the same group of people, exchanging news, exchanging sarcasms, reminiscing the good old school memories. That night we slept at 4 and struggled to wake up as early as we could for we had to depart before 9. Rasa macam high-spirited, though Cyberjaya was not our playground and there were less familiar faces left, at least the name is still the same. My first impression was, giler panas Cyberjaya ni, camne la diorang boleh tahan. And then I entered the main hall and thought, huh air-conditioned, for this I don't mind the humid weather outside!. Terus terkenang zaman sekolah kat KL dulu, where we would fit in the small school hall which still use kipas angin and sistem takal for curtains for the stage, and we only sat on the floor for every occasions including the assembly, sampai kaki rasa semut2 when it came to the long Monday morning big assembly. Kids nowadays should be really grateful for what they have, and I personally felt happy for them.

We were lead by 2 present students in very much familiar dark blue blazers and skirts, heh guess they still use the same prefects uniform. Shera instantly said to my face in a joking manner, "Huh prefects muka sombong, macam korang dulu." Now I know how they felt towards the dark blue students back then. I see that as a norm for survival, if I were not a prefect, I would've felt the same I guess. Anyway Shera said the same thing when one present student stood up and led the orchestra on stage for a while. I guess she really was joking. Hehe. For about an hour we sat in the hall, we were more to sibuk2 tengok kiri kanan than listening to the orchestra. We became loud at times when we saw familiar teacher passed by the aisle and silent again realizing we were over-reacting. Typical budak sekolah perempuan. As I sat there listening the orchestra, time flew 5 years back when basketballers had practice in one court and band members played instruments in the one next to it, and we became hyper for each time high notes hit. Aiseh those were the days. I said to Shera, "Nostalgia betul lah." She replied, "Tapi tak sama tempat, so tak terasa sangat." Betul jugak.

Then we went to hunt for the teachers. Miss them so, though only some still left there. Terkenang zaman sekolah dulu, when teachers posed a great influence on us. Si Iwa pulak tak habis2 tanya pasal Cikgu Wong (I remembered him as bau amil asetat, and cakap tak habis, --> "..kalau yang ini jawapannya em-?" kata Cikgu Wong. "-pat!!" jawab kami). Hehe. Met our beloved Cikgu Aida Jalal who said "Ha saya baca blog kamu" when I shook hands with her. Aisey, malu la pulak. Anyway Cikgu Aida was one of the closest teachers to our batch, and still am. She was always our cute talking physics teacher who writes the number '8' macam kucing, bak kata Mizah.

I'm always gonna remember every fun things that happened in physics lab, from changing our names to Shumedes, Cipahmedes, Sitimedes for Archimedes to Anot's attempts to draw a cat in her lab report for kanta cembung and kanta cekung topic (why on earth would u use kanta cembung to see a cat??) and also spending some times to get celah sempit and selah cempit right. We had a quick chat with Cikgu Aida, asking about what changes had there been in school. Well if u still interested in knowing, the students are not wearing tudung ikat belakang for sports anymore like we used to wear (and felt pretty in that, can u imagine how naïve we were?), lecture system has been going on where, at times, the whole batch would have a lecture given by a teacher in a brand new lecture theatre, like in the universities, and exams take place in the air-conditioned school hall where students normally have to wear sweaters for the cold hall. So not like our time where we would take off the socks during exams to ensure pure comfort for the feet to bear the heat. Technologies supposed to make your life better aight?

At noon, we were all ready to go back, for some had to run to other places.

We went home with SSP got the third place for the wind orchestra competition, and I went home with Cikgu Aida’s thoughtful notion;

“Budak sekarang dah ramai dapat A1 untuk fizik, dulu ye lah tak ramai. Nih ha budak sorang ni dulu main2 je dalam kelas fizik, tak sangka dapat A1 jugak akhirnya.”

Alhamdulillah. Terima kasih banyak2, Cikgu! U’ll always be in my prayers, inshaAllah.

It's A Feast!

Makanan Untuk Santapan Para Gergasi
Originally uploaded by Shu Hada.

Everything's been pretty biiiiggg since I got back. Though my anak tekak been sore since I stepped my foot in, and this hidung been berlari-lari with fluid from clear to yellow green coming out (eww), and my sinus also been sore, nonetheless, a feast is a feast!

Spending my time wisely, for I don't know what's going to happen next. Got many sedara-mara to visit, and going to turun padang for some medical and non-medical oriented programmes.

For what the people has given, it's time to return the favours. For what I have not eaten, well u know where's that leading to..

for the love of pasar malam

If one asked what's the thing that I missed most about being home when I'm in Dublin I'd prolly say, going to pasar malam with my family on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Well honestly it's not just about the usual roti johns, or murtabaks, or about tau fu fahs or char kuey teows, it's more about going out seeing a lot of people with a lot of characteristics in dealing with a lot of food. Never in my life had this thought crossed over my head till one day my i-wanna-ask-why-in-everything-6-years-old-nephew asked,

"Kenapa orang panggil pasar ni pasar malam, Akib tengok cerah je lagi dah ada pasar ni? Kita panggil dia pasar cerah je la!"

Well, that's the truth about the straight talking head of a 6 years old boy, u gotta do what the name implies, if u don't, then something's gotta change. That was not what I was trying to say, albeit it's going to lead me to my very point, which is the good timing of this so-called pasar malam. It's in the serene evening when the day is not humid and wind's blowing at times, people coming back from work feeling too exhausted to cook, and college students see another oppoturnity to varying the usual Dewan Selera's food, kids waiting for dreams of getting colorful balloons and mainan 3-10-ringgit to be fulfilled, and the hopes and dreams of the sellers to finished their goods for the day. A glob of each plus limitation for what money could provide give me a nice view to see what people do in keeping their needs fulfilled. Don't get me started on describing what it's like during fasting month, it's a hellavu view when hunger pang drives people to keep adding the number of that orange plastic bags filled with food in their hands, well that's including me.

When I was in Terengganu, pasar malam was always about ayam goreng. Since there was no KFC at the cowboy town I lived in at that time, and mom's restriction of eating one if there's any, pasar malam was a sneak-out for ayam goreng for us, well that was if we went there by bike with friends. If not, then no ayam goreng-lah. Another food to aim was always keropok lekor. So much for living in a keropok lekor part of the country, I personally felt that I never had enough of this tasty eastern ration. Then moving west to Selangor, I know yong tau fu by name. Seriously, this is the type of food that one would not dare to prepare at home, then pasar malam is the only place to savour it. And again, mom's disapproval on this was always loud, but I guess our driving force to eat was even louder, so she had to surrender. And then came roti john, oh me, I dunno why but this is what I'll be looking for each time I go to pasar malam (Mom once told me she doesn't have heart to eat roti john when I'm in Dublin-boleh banjir woo, now u know where I got my soft heart from). And there'd always also tau fu fahs, which I was told you could buy the machine to make them from Cosway or just redeemed the coupons u have (ask Yanie for more info. hehe). Not to forget the murtabak, putu mayam, ayam percik, nasi kerabu, nasi dagang, laksa penang, mee mamak, jagung bakar, corn in cup, apam balik, pau kacang, err I should stop there. Mm just to let u know this evening I was awing in amazement when I saw 'Ais Krim Magik' at pasar malam Bdr Tun Razak my friends brought me to. It's really amazing what people could produce (or is it just me who was jakun?).

Anyway, it is undeniable that pasar malam is one of the rarities that home could provide. For me, growing with it and seeing how the trend's changing is priceless. Even Naqib loves pasar malam so much that he once said to his mommy,

"Nantikan, bila Akib dah besar, pastu Mummy ngan Daddy dah tua, kita jual *kuih deram dekat pasar malam nak? Akib tukang terap kuih tu jadi bentuk bulat-bulat, Mummy tukang goreng, Daddy tukang masukkan dalam plastik."

*kuih deram=kuih peneram

So much for the love of pasar malam.

And Along, so much for sending your only son to a good school, please tell me he has more than that in his mind OK?

^_^

'tis where the heart lies

After an hour and 15 minutes journey from Dublin to Heathrow Airport, 10 hours of doing nothing but waiting at Heathrow, 13 hours flight to Bayan Lepas Airport, an hour of transit time there, another 45 minutes flight from Penang to KLIA, I am safely in the hands of my loved ones.

For that, I consumed some spaghetti goreng we made for bekal during the long waiting at the airport, some chocolates, Shikin's daging burger, in-flight beefsteak, in-flight kacang (thanks to the stewardess who gave us a handful of kacang masin, nampak lapar kot), in-flight fish meals, in-flight MILO (giler lama tak minum MILO), 2 Paracetamols and 2 flu medications.

Reaching KLIA, there were the whole family there except Adik, Along and Abg Pik (that was including Amir too), Pah, Mira, Amali and Is.

Reaching home, on the dining table there were udang masak sambal, rendang kerang, ikan tilapia and ikan keli goreng, satay kajang Hj. Sahmuri, the same old ayam masak lomak cili padi, red watermelons, pengat pisang, uhh, mentioning is already tiring.

I saw, it's the same old lovely parents I have, didn't noticed any changes, Along the same sexy sister, Angah menggemuk sikit, same in-laws (including coming in-laws), Ola pun menggemuk jugak sikit, Adik macam biasa la tinggi macam giant, Pah, Mira, Is and Amali pun sama jugak, kecoh, but mainly lovable kecoh-lah, my two grown jewels, Naqib si gemott, been cheekily genius, eversince he's been in the English school, and Ariff, who has a slim body and the head like Angah with K.Rina's face on it, hehe.

Since I got back, I've eaten keropok lekor, red bean bread, some lychees, rambutans, mangosteens and mangoes, Nando's Hot Peri Peri Chicken Meals, 5 Paracetamols and 4 flu medications.

Well, I got sick, but it healed as soon as mom's warmth hands were laid on my temple.

'tain't better than to be home..


Officially launching this food galore

blogger returned: not for long

Ronaldo
Originally uploaded by Shu Hada.

I have a serious love-hate relationships with the business I'm dealing with now. My high levels of curiosity is burying me alive, I'm stuck in this hole though I kept pulling myself out. Felt sick and tired of the games people are playing, fooling others like it's no one's business.

For that matter, it did make my enthusiasms to be home heightened with times. It's gonna be a hide-away from all of these junks in my head, though running from problems has never been my style. Sometimes we ought to be out of normality to survive. Yes we do.

And for that matter, the tantalizing smell of homeland's air is what's keeping my eyes open to scan the words on the papers, yes I did mentioned the word scan. Reading is not an option when you are counting on the left-overs of time you wasted before.

And for that too, my Ronaldo sulked for my negligence over him and preference on the Cahill & Gilles Tropical Medicine. Poor honey~

Blogger unfound

Going to take a break till the exam's over. Never felt this nervewrecking with so little time yet so many things unsolved. Pray for me, my survival instinct this time somehow not felt right.

Anyway, latest mugshot from my new mobile, alhamdulilah got it shipped to me last Friday. The same day Yanie bought the same model from the O₂ website, yeah it's just time when Sony Ericsson rules (Aida bought another model earlier this month). Booo hooo Rokiah Nokia, now you're gonna regret that you made an alliance with Israel. Speaking of which, on SkyNews today, another pitfall occured. Marks & Spencer reported a major loss this year, especially from the Ladies Department. Well who said that we couldn't make a difference then? (They're paying the price of losing some real serial shoppers there, one of them being, of course, me. Year right..)


Kira-kira, lagi berapa hari nak balik rumah. Err, harini 24hb, aku balik 11hb bulan depan..tolak..tolak.. damn I'm terrible with numbers..

Bittaufiq wannajah fil imtihan!

approaching Shurooq

Baru aku tahu, indahnya pagi hari hanya dapat dirasai oleh yang berpeluang 'menangkap' detik-detik itu. Agaknya sebab itula orang kata tak elok tidur lepas subuh, akan mewarisi kepapaan. Papanya manusia tak dapat menikmati rezeki pemandangan yang tiada kata-kata dapat ungkaikan. Nasib baiklah mata ni tak mahu tidur lagi, nasib baik juga bilik aku di bahagian belakang rumah, ada tingkap besar tempat intai-intai kejadian Tuhan di luar sana tu.

Tapi kalau hari-hari nak berjaga semalaman macam ni, parah jugakla..

Saat mata terhalang oleh malam
Tidur dan berkembanglah
Saat sang pagi kembali menari
Datanglah dengan hati

Pagi!

:)

approaching Fajr

On the wall;

Saturday, 13 Rabi Al Thani 1426
Fajr: 03:17
Shurooq: 05:14

Nearly there. Forensic notes don't look that tantalizing anymore when you're all foggy up there. The thought of what I learnt this evening crossed my mind. Reading what Sayyid Qutb has said in Muqaddimah Tafsir Fizilalil Quran, this chunk of words left me stumbled into amazement, learning Sayyid Qutb who was a famous philosopher, this analogy he made was purely simple, yet full of thoughts. I'm not really great with words, yet this simplicity caught me.

Umat manusia yang diciptakan Allah ini tidak dapat dibuka pintu fitrah yang tertutup itu melainkan dengan anak-anak kunci dari ciptaan Allah dan penyakit-penyakitnya tidak boleh diubati melainkan dengan penawar yang dicipta oleh Allah S.W.T. Allah telah menyediakan di dalam sistem hidup yang diaturkan oleh-Nya itu anak-anak kunci untuk membuka segala pintu yang tertutup dan penawar untuk mengubati segala penyakit.

Tetapi malangnya umat manusia tidak mahu mengembalikan ibu kunci kepada tukang pembuatnya dan tidak mahu membawa orang sakit kepada penciptanya. Mereka tidak bertindak dalam urusan diri mereka, kemanusiaan mereka, kebahagiaan atau kecelakaan mereka seperti mereka bertindak dalam urusan mesin-mesin dan alat-alat murah yang digunakan mereka dalam keperluan seharian mereka yang kecil. Mereka tahu jika mesin-mesin dan alat-alat itu rosak mereka akan memanggil mekanik kilang yang membuat mesin itu untuk memperbaikinya, tetapi mereka tidak menggunakan peraturan ini dalam usaha membetulkan manusia sendiri, dengan mengembalikan mereka kepada kilang yang mengeluarkan mereka dan tidak meminta petua dari Allah Pencipta yang telah mengadakan mesin-mesin manusia yang mengkagumkan ini, iaitu mesin manusia yang besar, mulia, halus dan seni, mesin yang tidak diketahui liku-liku dan pintu-pintunya melainkan oleh tukang yang membuatnya sendiri.

And yet, when we're feeling sad or depressed, why is it that music or sleeping or eating we first do when we know the correct manual in fixing the damage lies in our very own Mekanik Kilang, yakni our Creator, Allah S.W.T.

It's like sending our broken Kenwood Smoothies Maker Jr. to a Pensonic factory for a repair, which result's totally wasteful.

"Sesungguhnya Allah amat mengetahui segala isi hati. Apakah Allah yang telah menciptakan (kamu) tidak mengetahui (isi hati kamu), sedangkan Dialah Yang Maha Halus dan Maha Mendalam Ilmu-Nya." (Surah Al-Mulk: 13-14)

when you think you're busy studying..

1. SCHOOLS YOU'VE ATTENDED?
Tadika Petronas Kerteh, Taski An-Nur Kerteh, Sekolah Kebangsaan Tebing Tembah Paka, Sekolah Kebangsaan Sura Dungun, Sekolah Seri Puteri KL, Kolej Chermai Serting, RCSI (pjg sgt nak tulih)

2. WHAT IS THE WALLPAPER ON YOUR CELLPHONE?
I don't have a cellphone for about, emm lemme see..2 months now, or more.

3. DID YOU GET ENOUGH SLEEP LAST NIGHT?
More than enough, but I woke up with 3 different weird dreams. They're torturing me..

4. FIRST THING YOU THOUGHT ABOUT THIS MORNING WHEN YOU WOKE UP?
"aku nampak cahaya..aa..dah siang rupanya.."

5. WHAT DO YOU HAVE AT YOUR BEDSIDE?
Pink wall on the right, gobok baju on left. On the pink wall is my fav item, Naqib's masterpiece, a kad raya he sent me with "SELAMAT HARI RAYA DEKAT IRELAND, KESIAN ACU..."

6. EVER TRIED TO SKIP MEALS?
Not an attempt, more like have-to. M a weely busy woman..yeah rite..

7. GRILLED OR FRIED?
Grilled!

8. WHAT MAKES YOU UNIQUE FROM OTHERS?
I don't like what most people like, meaning; no pink, no Siti Nurhaliza. Be different, but nice different..

9. ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK?
Not really, only when the thought of how dark is it gonna be in kubur after death crossed my mind, that scares out of me.

10. FAVORITE HANGOUT?
No place in particular. I love being in coffeeshops, any of 'em. The beautiful smell of coffee, hmm~.

11. THINGS YOU CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT?
If it's a thing, then it's gonna be mom's wristwatch she gave me a year ago.

12. FIRST THING YOU WILL BUY IF GIVEN 1 THOUSAND DOLLARS?
For now, of course a mobilephone. Putting that aside, I think it's gonna be a pair of comfy shoes. As the name implies, I'm crazy for shoes.

13. FAVORITE SONG WHEN YOU'RE SLEEPY?
Percayakan Padaku (SO7)

14. WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF?
mati ketika rehat dalam berjuang

15. ARE YOU WILLING NOT TO TAKE A BATH FOR ONE DAY?
appada soklan ni..

16. WHAT ARE YOUR NICKNAMES?
Shoe, Shouta, Acu, Si Tembam Manis (long ago when I was a kid, thanks bro, U really 'made' my day)

17. MOST RECENT MOVIE THAT YOU WATCHED?
Notting Hill. After a long sit on the DVD rack, I opened my heart for Julia Roberts. Told ya I'm not into things most people love.

18. INVISIBLE FOR A DAY, WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
Do you really think that's gonna happen?

19. STUCK ON A DESERT ISLAND & COULD HAVE ONLY ONEKIND OF FOOD FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE,WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Mak's asam pedas, nothing more tantalizing.

20.FAVORITE T.V. COMMERCIAL?
Charleville Cheese's. The one when the mother sleepwalking and went to the fridge trying to find the cheese^{Are you OK there love?}.

And also Kellog's Frosties^{Ow no, we ge'in a sista}.

21. IF YOU'LL DIE TOMORROW, WHAT WILL YOU DO?
That's tricky. If only one knows when he's gonna die..

22. FIRST THING YOU'LL SAVE IN A FIRE?
Passport, purse, mom's wristwatch.

23. WHAT ARE THE THINGS YOU ALWAYS CARRY?
My complete survival kit. U wouldn't believe it if I mentioned 'em all.

24.WHAT DID YOU WANNA BE WHEN YOU WERE A KID?
Pegawai polis, I'm serious.

25. WHAT DO YOU USUALLY DO WHEN THE CLOCK TURNS 7AM?
These days, still sleeping.

26. THE COLOR OF YOUR BEDSHEET?
Green!

27. WHO DO YOU WANT TO MEET TODAY?
Khamis, 19 May? adala..(u wish)

28. PIERCINGS YOU HAVE AND WANT?
Not a piercing junkie

29. WHAT'S YOUR WORST TRAIT?
Big time procrastinator. Also bad in remembering places and dates. If you see me wandering around looking confused, just know that I might be lost there though you think it's the most impossible place one could get lost. My bad..

30. YOUR PLAN FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR?
Don't get me started on this..