Life..... whooshing past....

Looking forward to the coming long weekend. It's an off day (replacement) for us tomorrow in view of the Thaipusam celebration on Saturday. And it's going to be definitely long weekend since Monday is also an off day - cuti hari wilayah. Wow! hope it'll be a restful weekend... Will be doing some banking stuff tomorrow morning and Marissa's dental appointment in the evening - another two teeth will be gone! She wants to eat McD tonight, and I had promised her Prosperity Burger.

Time flies so fast. Pejam celik pejam celik, Januari dah nak habis. Can't remember if I ever made any new year resolution. Better not recall... No specific plans for the weekend. Yang menakutkan, masa berlalu terlalu pantas dan menjadikan kehidupan kita berlalu just like that. Every day, every second, life is whooshing past at an alarming rate. And it goes on getting faster and faster. Under no uncertain terms that life slowed down as we get older. Yup, it carried on getting faster. Scary isn't it? And the rule is simply get on with it. We have no choice. How to get on is another thing. Easiest way is the same way we would get on with anything else we knew we had to do. Life isn't so different. It's a project that has to go on, only that it is on a vast scale and much more important than anything else. Always regard life as a challenging, rewarding, exciting and rather fantastic experience - give a bit of thought, have a goal and work towards that rather than we drifted aimlessly if we want to get the best out of this life.

Have a good and restful weekend.... I will, insyaAllah.

"One thing you can't recycle is wasted time"

Selamat hari jadi ...... happy birthday....

Wishing my dear sis, Nana a very happy birthday. Born on 28th January 1969, she's 41 today. Sekejap masa berlalu. She is the sixth in the family, our family of nine. When mak gave birth to her, we thought she would be the anak bongsu. Ayah even called her 'kecik'. 'Kecik' meaning youngest. She was also small in size, so 'kecik' fits her well. Tak terlintas pula after that she will have three younger sisters. Even with all the young ones, Nana remained ayah's favourite throughout. She had always been active, been on the move... and it's not surprising she's now running a pre-school in Kajang. Education has always been in her blood taking from ayah and mak who were both teachers before. When she was born, I was in standard one. Growing up, we were all together, close-knit. I remember taking care of them (jadi pengasuh la) but as years goes by, too many of us in the family coupled with the age gaps, we got drifted apart. I left for college after form five, then started working. She was left with ayah, mak and adik-adik, taking care of them until her college years. After graduated, she left kampung to work in KL. And in KL most of us sisters got together again .... To quote our relationship .."we were born as sisters, but we grew up to be friends."

I love her. Eventhough we had different sets of life now, different views sometimes, we will always be sisters, flesh and blood....

Nana, selamat hari lahir. Semoga Allah memberikan yang terbaik dari yang terbaik di sisiNya. Dan semoga diberkati segala usaha. More importantly diberi kesihatan yang baik throughout....

"A sister is one of the nicest things you can have, and the best things you can be"

Looking forward.....

It's almost end of Friday. Definitely looking forward to the weekend. Needed the rest. It had been a tiring week, physically and mentally. Tapi every week pun rasa tiring, how? No excuse for this week lah. Anyway, still I would say, needed the rest, needed the sleep, sleep and sleep. Weekend plans? Nothing big, just the normal weekend chores. Marissa's dental appointment tomorrow morning and will have to be in Serdang to fetch Inessa in the afternoon (she balik every weekend!). Whenever she is around, it completes the 3d_tribe. And life will definitely be complete with these two bestest friends of mine! My plan with Inessa is to go for a nice lunch somewhere, but that would 'kill' Marissa because tomorrow she'll have two teeths extracted in preparation for her 'braces' procedures. She's got a total of four teeths to be extracted over two weeks. Ha, ha, I think we should go ahead with the lunch plan! Dah nak pakai braces sangat, let her suffer! A badddd mom... she would say. Will be meeting my sister, Seha on Sunday for lunch. She's back from Bangkok for two weeks, checking on her children, her cats, her plants, her house lah to be exact. Bet it would be a tiring checks! Whenever she's back, she is always packed with lunch invites, dinner invites, tea invites, macam-macam invites. So had to book her much earlier. Sunday afternoon will be a good time, other half will be off golfing. Therefore there's no need to crack my head on what to cook for lunch. Yahoo!!!

Had been talking on the phone couple of times this week with my sis, Sharos. We shared and talked about lots of things, from life to death, oppss... The normal ups and downs in life, I supposed. Sis, thanks for your time and sorry for disturbing you many, many times. Enjoyed our conversations. Dalam mengarut-mengarut pun, we did manage to have a meaningful conversations. Yes, we talked about sacrifices, about being here, being kind, being considerate...everything counts. This is interesting, about knowing what counts and what doesn't. Getting through each and every day in our life without seriously offending anyone or hurting anyone counts. Doing something useful with our life counts. Meaning focussing on what is important in life, making positive changes to ensure we are happy with what we are dedicating our life to. Also meaning knowing, roughly where we are going and what we are doing. Awake rather than asleep.

Some things in this life are important and also a whole lot that aren't. Yup, it doesn't take too much to work out which are which, we should know it. Having time for loved ones and friends is important, watching the latest soap isn't. Repaying a debt is important, what brand of washing powder we use isn't. Nurturing our children, teaching them real values is important, dressing them in designer fashion isn't. Got the idea? Think about what we do that's important, that counts - and do more of it.

Wish for a good weekend, and may Allah bless us always....

"You might wake up and realise there is no tomorrow. You might forget to say 'I love you' and never able to say it again. You might go to bed angry and never wake up. You never know what's going to happen -- so enjoy life, drink it up!"

This is funny....

Enjoy the rest of the Friday and have a nice and interesting weekend.

"in three words i can sum up everything about life : it goes on"

Be thankful......

Be thankful that we don't already have everything we desire
For if we did, what else would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful when we do not know something
For it gives us the opportunity to learn

Be thankful for the difficult times
For during those times we persevere and grow

Be thankful for all our limitations
For its gives us opportunites for improvement

Be thankful for each new challenge
For it will build our strengths and characters

Be thankful for the mistakes we made
For they will teach us valuable lessons

Be thankful when we're tired and weary
For that means we've made a difference

It is easy to be thankful for the good things. A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are also thankful for the setbacks. GRATITUDE can turn a negative into a positive. Find a way to be thankful for all the troubles and they can become our blessings....

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

Ayah.......

In memory of our dear ayah, Allahyarham Hasbullah Hj Shafie who we very sadly lost on 20th January 2004 after just a few days battling with heart failure. Early morning of 20th January 2004 will forever be etched in our memories. The day Allah took him home.... the day ayah return to his Creator. The fear, the sadness, the tears .... we can never forget those moments, those critical moments. The moments when he was slipping away. And there will always be an ache within our hearts that will forever stay.

Ayah, we were in tears when we saw you sinking, when we watched you passed away. Our hearts were totally broken. Yes, we wanted you to stay on, to always be our source of strength. We wanted the doctors to do all they could to make you well again, we asked Allah to allow you to be with us as long as you could. But seeing you sleeping, so peaceful, so free of pain, we knew at that point of time, we had to let you go. Allah knows best.

Ayah, born on 30th November 1936 to a family of five, three sisters and a brother. Chose teaching as a profession at an early age of 19. To be exact, he was registered as a teacher on 16th September 1955. He dedicated his life and time teaching in many schools, as long as I can remember, until he retired at the end of 1991. After retirement he became a fulltime 'pesawah', managing hands-on the few acres of paddy fields belonging to arwah datuk. Yes, we saw it, he had put all his energy and efforts in this new fulltime profession ..... till the end. We were always worried of his health, but the normal "ayah sihat, tak payah risau" statement will come out from him. Raya 2003 was the last 'balik kampung' gathering we had with him. He was already not well then. We made lots of plan with him, for him, but Allah had better plan for sure, no matter how much that hurts. Allah's plan would be the best....

It is impossible to express a man's life of 68 years in these few words, but the gift that ayah had given us, all nine of us, throughout will live on. In all limitations, he did give us the best he could and for that we are thankful. It has been 6 years now, the sadness of losing him is great.... and it still is. Our du'a will always be with him. May Allah blessed him with the best, in the best place... place of warmth and comfort. Al-fatihah.

"When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure."

Colours of friendship.....

Sharing this interesting piece. Found this piece on the internet some years back, and had kept it since...

Once upon a time
the colours of the world started to quarrel.
All claimed that they were the best;
the most important,
the most useful,
and the most favorite.

GREEN said :
"Clearly I am the most important. I am the sign of life and hope. I was chosen for grass, trees and leaves. Without me, all animals would die. Look over the countryside and you will see that I am in the majority."

BLUE interrupted :
"You only think about the earth, but consider the sky and the sea. It is the water that is the basis of life and drawn up the clouds from the deep sea. The sky gives space and peace and serenity. Without my peace, you would all be nothing."

YELLOW chucked :
"You are all so serious. I bring laughter, gaiety, and warmth into the world . The sun is yellow, the moon is yellow, the stars are yellow. Everytime you look at a sunflower, the whole world starts to smile. Without me there would be no fun."

ORANGE started to blow her trumpet :
"I am the colour of health and strength. I may be scarce, but I am precious for I serve the needs of human life. I carry the most important vitamins. Think of carrots, pumpkins, oranges, mangoes and papayas. I don't hang around all the time, but I fill the sky at sunrise or sunset, my beauty is so striking that no one gives another thought to any of you."

RED could stand it no longer, he shouted out :
" I am the ruler of all of you. I am blood - life's blood! I bring fire into the blood. I am willing to fight for a cause. I am the color of danger and of bravery. Without me, the earth would be as empty as the moon. I am the colour of passion and of love, the red rose, the poinsettia and the poppy."

PURPLE rose up to his full tall height :
"I am the color of power. I am the sign of authority and wisdom. People do not question me! They listen and obey."

Finally INDIGO spoke, much more quietly than all the others, but with just as much determination :
"Think of me. I am the colour of silence. You hardly notice me, but without me you all become superficial. I represent thought and reflection, twilight and deep water. You need me for balance and contrast, for inner peace."

So the colours went on boasting,
each convinced of his or her own superiority.
Their quarreling became louder and louder.
Suddenly there was a startling flash of bright lightening.
Thunder rolled and boomed.
Rain started to pour down relentlessly.
The colours crouched down in fear, drawing close to one another for comfort.

In the midst of the clamor, rain began to speak :
"You foolish colours, fighting amongst yourselves,
each trying to dominate the rest!
Don't you know that you were each made for a special purpose,
unique and different?
Join hands with one another and come to me."

Doing as they were told, the colours united and joined hands.

The rain continued :
"From now on, when it rains, each of you will stretch across
the sky in a great bow of color as a reminder
that you can all live in peace.
The Rainbow is a sign of hope for tomorrow."

And so, whenever a good rain washes the world,
and a Rainbow appears in they sky,
let us remember to appreciate one another.....

My wish for you.....

I wish for....
Comfort on your difficult days
Smiles when sadness overcomes
Rainbows to follow the clouds
Laughter to kiss your lips
Sunsets to warm your heart
Gentle hugs when your spirits sag
Friendships to brighten your day
Beauty for eyes to see
Confidence when in doubt
Faith so you can believe
Courage to know yourself
Patience to accept the truth
And finally, I wish for
Love to complete your life.....

"When you find a dream inside your heart, don't ever let it go....
For dreams are the tiny seeds from which tomorrow grow...

Older.... wiser? Not necessarily....

The assumption that as we get older, we will get wiser, may not be true. We would carry on being just as foolish, still making plenty of mistakes. Just that we make new ones, different ones. Learning from experience, and may not be making same mistakes again, but there's always a whole set of fresh ones just lying, waiting for us to trip up and fall into... and we will. But always be forgiving - and accepting that this is all part of growing older but no wiser routine.

In our younger days, ageing seems to be something that happens to old people. That was what we thought. But no, it does happen to us all and we have no choice but to embrace it. Whatever we do, however we are, the fact is we are going to get older.

Well, look at it this way - the older we get, the more areas we've covered to make mistakes in. As long as we look back and see where we went wrong and resolve not to repeat such mistakes, there is little else we need to do. Yes, time does heal and things do get better as we get older. After all, the more mistakes we've made, the less likely that we'll come up with new ones, same ones. Remember, the best thing is that, if we get a lot of mistakes over and done with early on in life, there will be less to learn the hard way later on. And that's what youth is all about, a chance to make all the mistakes we can and get them out of the way.....

"Wisdom isn't about not making mistakes, but about learning to escape afterwards with dignity and sanity intact"

Ayam ...., 'lau ayam'.... and the memories

Last visit back to my kampong (Sg. Korok, Alor Setar, Kedah), I managed to snap the above pictures. The one and only ayam I saw. A lonely soul? Yup, looked like one. Not sure who this ayam belongs to. That brings back the memories of our childhood days, me and my sisters. Those days, we had a ‘lau ayam’ (it means reban ayam), and full of ayam. Every morning we would collect the eggs, a lot of them! My late grandparents had a bigger ‘lau ayam’ and more ayam than us. And we also became more rajin to collect eggs from their ‘lau’ as well. Yup, that was not a nice thing to do, but as kids, those were part of our adventure (kampung style)! We even sold the eggs to ‘kedai Tok Ngah Bedah’. ‘Kedai Tok Ngah Bedah’ is the only sundry shop available in my kampong. The other one is ‘kedai Topui’ (belongs to some fat Chinese guy). It was a bigger shop further away from home. Had to cycle there if we needed to go. Cycling to ‘kedai topui’ was also an adventure! Too many distractions along the way and those distractions was definitely fun!. Haiza, if you are reading this, you would agree with me, right? Since most of the time, we had to ‘jalan kaki’, the only shop we frequented was ‘kedai tok ngah bedah’. Hmmm…. also a lot of distractions along the way!! Back to the chicken and the lau story…. Besides chickens, we also had a lau for ducks. But during day time, these ducks would venture out and away 'having fun' in the padi fields behind our house. Quite far, actually. And every evening became our duty to look for the ducks and to get them home. They did, most of the time, fortunately. When arwah ayah passed away in 2004, we still had a couple of ducks and also ayam, minus the ‘lau’, but slowly and finally they all left. Maybe because mak had also left for KL, and there’s no one to feed them. As for me, all these had been a part of my life, my growing up years, the fun time with all my sisters and brothers (consists of generations of the 60s, 70s and also 80s!), and more importantly the life we had with arwah ayah and mak. In all limitations, all these had been great. And I do want to keep those memories alive!!! Hence the above pictures....

----------- "What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others"

A great day .......

Today...
I woke up early, excited over all that I get to do before the clock strikes midnight... the responsibilities to fulfill. I am important, my job is to choose what kind of day I am going to have...Today....I can complain because the weather is rainy or I can be thankful that the grass is getting watered for free.
Today....I can feel sad that I don't have money or I can be glad that my finances encourage me to plan my expenses wisely and guide me away from waste.

Today....
I can grumble about my health or I can rejoice that I am alive.

Today....I can lament over all that my parents didn't give me when I was growing up or I can feel grateful that they allowed me to be born.

Today....
I can cry because roses have thorns or I can celebrate that thorns have roses.

Today....I can mourn my lack of friends or I can excitedly embark upon a quest to discover new relationships.

Today....
I can whine because I have to go to work or I can shout for joy because I have a job to do.
Today...I can murmur dejectedly because I have to do housework or I can feel honored because God has provided shelther for my mind, body and soul.

Today stretches ahead of me, waiting to be shaped.

And here I am, the sculptor who gets to do the shaping.

What today will be like is up to me.

I get to choose what kind of day I will have.....

Enjoy.... Sardar Story

Santa and Banta Singh on a Double Decker Bus
Santa Singh and Banta Singh landed up in Bombay. They managed to get into a double- decker bus. Santa Singh somehow managed to get a bottom seat, But unfortunate Banta got pushed to the top. After a while when the rush is over, Santa went upstairs to see his friend Banta Singh.

He met Banta in a bad condition clutching the seats in front with both hands, scared to death. He says, "Are Banta Singh! What the heck's going' on? Why are you scared ? I was enjoying my ride down there ?" Scared Banta replies. "Yeah, but you've got a *driver.* "

Sardar at the archery contest
Once upon a time there was an archery contest.

The first archer, wearing a long cape covering his face, lines up in position. He takes a deep breath and fires an arrow, which finds the center of the target.Then he takes of his cape and screams: I AM…… ROBIN HOOD!!! The crowd cheers!
The second archer with a cape lines up in position. He fires his arrow, which hits the center and cuts Robin Hood’s arrow into two!!! He takes off his cape and screams: I AM…… WILLIAM TELL!!!!!! The crowd cheers!!
Finally our Santa in cape lines up in position. He fires his arrow but it goes all wrong!It flies past the crowd and kills the king!!! Then the man takes off his cape and screams:I AM…… SORRY

Sardar and the Nobel Prize
A man is driving down a country road, when he spots a sardar standing in the middle of a huge field of grass. He pulls the car over to the side of the road and notices that Santa is just standing there, doing nothing, looking at nothing. The man gets out of the car, walks all the way out to the sardar and asks him, “Ah excuse me sir, but what are you doing?”
Santa replies, “I’m trying to win a Nobel Prize.”
"How?” asks the man, puzzled.
”Well I heard they give the Nobel Prize to people who are out standing in their field.”

Santa and Banta were looking at an Egyptian Mummy at a museum.
Santa: Look so many bandages, pakka lorry accident case.
Banta: Yes you are right. See lorry number is also written BC 1760 !!!

'Pokok Tai'

A few hundred metres away from my parents' house in Sg. Korok, Alor Star. Used to be a row of 7 trees fronting a padi field. A nice view! Now there's only one left. When we were schooling those days, back in the 70s, we would passed these row of trees every morning to get to where we have to take the bus to school. We had to walk few hundred metres, ok, and that's not a short distance! But we had fun, walking very, very early in the morning. It was as early as 4.30 or 5.00 am! The only challenging times where when it rained or flooded. Huhh!!.... But we survived those challenging days, no matter what. More importantly, we had fun as school kids. Not sure if you asked any of our children these days if they would want to walk that far and wake up that early! And these row of trees also became our 'landmark' whenever we took the bus from Alor Star town back home. Whenever we saw these row of 'pokok tai', that would be the indication to alert the bus driver to stop. And missing the 'pokok tai' would mean the bus would stop further away from home. Seha, if you are reading this blog, you will remember all these and others, I supposed. Another thing, my mom used to make 'kueh bengkang' from these 'tai' fruits - orange in colour and the kueh was so delicious - our standard for that matter and in that point of time! Seha, do not mean to bring back any memories, especially the 'not so-nice' ones - but you had been a part of those growing up memories and to me are all 'sweet memories'. The sweetest memories of growing up.... Thank you, sis. Haiza would also remember these 'pokok tai'. She used to be a part of our morning rendevous as well.

Went back to Alor Star last December and snapped pictures of what's left before all is finally gone...."We cannot change our memories, but we can change their meaning and the power they have on us"

Footprints on the Heart

Some people come into our lives
and quickly go
Some people moved our souls
to dance
They awaken us
to a new understanding
with a passing whisper of their wisdom

Some people make
the sky more beautiful to gaze upon
They stay in our lives for awhile
leave footprints on our hearts
And we are never,
ever the same.....

New sandals... finally

Got myself new sandals, finally.... Told the girls I will blog about it. They were not impressed, and to them it's unbelievable I would do something like that. Girls, at least I just put the pictures!

And the above became 'house slipper'. Not mine, anyway. It belongs to Inessa. Wait till she wants it back!

Bouquet of roses.... for 23rd anniversary

Surprise? Yes, it was. A lovely surprise indeed. Thanks, love.

Hope..... and a Happy New Year

I hope....
to wake up this morning with a big smile
the sun is shining, the birds are singing their best songs
the day is filled with lovely surprises
to feel on top of the world with a spring in every steps all day
I hope everything goes just my way....
I hope to have all my wishes and dreams come true....

At the end of the day
I wish for a perfect moon, shining
a snung and a cozy bed with the softest of pillows
a deep slumber with a smile

I hope ....to have a perfect end to a perfect day
and everyday is just as wonderful in its own way

Hope each and everyday is filled with happiness and love.

"Wishing for a blessed and a happy 2010"