Salam Perantauan

I really love this pic! Thanks to Seng Chee: the photographer extraordinaire!!

L-R: Naya, Majidah, Rosyada, Nisa, Norzi, Zila, Ana Shirin

Duduk: Zaini & Khairil

Ramadhan nostalgia

I feel a bit down. It's my first Ramadhan away from home and I don't like it one bit. After the Maghrib prayer, I called home to wish Mama and Papa "Selamat Menyambut Ramadhan". Then, I called 2 juniors, whom I am close to, to wish them the same thing. I feel worse after calling them. They all talk about the familiar things about celebrating Ramadhan at home; solat terawikh, pasar Ramadhan, sahur at Scud, etc ...

I miss all that right now. At IPBA (my previous college), we break fasted together at the surau. A caterer sent over food everyday and we only needed to pay RM5 per meal. This was a perfect arrangement for those people who don't fancy to go to Kerinchi's Pasar Ramadhan each evening like me. And the menu was so finger-licking good!
Let's see if I can remember a few of them correctly:

- Rendang Ayam

- Ayam Kurma

- Nasi Pelangi

- Ayam Panggang

- Nasi Beryani

Yum yum ... what's more, two kuih-of-the-day, dates, and drinks are also provided. Talk about a real bargain huh?

But it's not just the food that I miss. I also miss the company. It's so much fun breaking fast in a big group like that. We were such a noisy bunch! After eating, we performed the Maghrib prayer together. The space between Maghrib and Isyak was then filled with a short 'tazkirah'. More people would start to stream in during this time. We proceeded with the Isyak prayer as soon as we heard the azan coming from the nearby Masjid Al-Azhar or the IBMM surau (a neighbouring teacher training college). Terawikh prayers are next on the agenda. After Terawikh, it's time for 'moreh'! The menu was just as sumptuous:

- Roti Jala + Kari

- Mee Goreng

- Cakes

- Biscuits

I can't remember the others. But all of them were delicious!

After 'moreh', some people would go back to their hostel, some would stay for Tadarus Al-Quran, and some would either head for Scud or Kafe Blok 4 to lepak-lepak.

Another Ramadhan tradition at IPBA is have 'sahur' at 2am at Scud (where else?). Ramadhan is the only time where Asrama Pantaipuri's curfew is extended until 3am. I'm one of the regular 'sahur' people. I would always order the same thing: Banjo + teh ais. My accomplices were: 'Ainur, Zue, Nada, & Nisa. We had the best of times during the 'sahur' sessions. Gosh, I miss them!

I thought of writing about my fasting experience at IPBA as well as at Tmn Keramat, my hometown. But this post is already quite long. Better save the Keramat story for another day.

Before I end this post, I just want to wish all of my friends "Selamat Berpuasa". Semoga kita dapat manfaatkan bulan Ramadhan ini dengan sebaik-baiknya. Moga Allah ampunkan dosa-dosa dan terima segala ibadah-ibadah kita ... Amin ...

Oh, saya juga nak minta maaf kat kawan-kawan semua atas segala kesalahan yg dibuat sama ada sengaja atau tidak. Selamat Menyambut Ramadhan people!

"To me, you are perfect" -Love Actually-

Firstly, thank you Nisa for giving me something to do this evening :p

After much contemplation, below are the top 10 criteria of my perfect guy:

1) jaga solat ... insyaAllah, selamat dunia akhirat ... hehe

2) org yg suka pegi surau

3) funny ... I love to laugh + I admire witty people

4) tall & athletic

5) good-looking doesn't hurt I guess :p

6) someone who's hard to get; macam Mr. Dracy from Pride & Prejudice ... ehem2

7) not clingy. I like my space.

8) has his own passions + hobbies but shows interest in what I'm doing as well

9) someone who likes me just the way I am

Bak kata Jane Austen: "The sweetest of all creatures, faultless in spite of all her faults"

10) someone who aspires me to be a better person.

"Cinta akan memupuk, meluruskan, meluhurkan, & menumbuhkan mereka menjadi insan sempurna" -Faisal Tehrani-

It's okay to be choosy because:

"It's a funny thing about life. If you refuse to accept anything but the very best, you very often get it" -W. Somerset Maugham-

Itulah prinsip hidup saye :p

Oh, and another one:Dlm Quran kan cakap;
perempuan yg baik utk lelaki yg baik
lelaki yg baik utk perempuan yg baik.

:)

Damia

On Sept 11, 2006, I became a first-time aunt to baby girl Damia!



*wish I was there*

One crazy day

I wasn't feeling well when I woke up today. The weather's so cold and that made my nose runny. But I couldn't sleep in since we needed to start cooking for the "Dikir Mayang" party. The party is held to celebrate Macquarie people's successful Dikir Barat and Ulik Mayang performances in Malaysia Fest.

My house, Unit 31, was in charge of Mee Kari and begedil. Norzi's house was responsible for Soto and beverages. All the girls helped out to prepare the meals. But since I felt a bit weak, I got the easy job of boiling 8 packets of spaghetti with Fatin. Easy enough. (I never was talented in the kitchen)

Anyway, the party was great. I thought I would not enjoy myself since I felt so miserable. But good company always cheers you up :)

After eating the delicious food, everyone just sat around relaxing. Suddenly, someone started singing the Negaraku ... huh? Where did that come from?

From Negaraku, they moved on to other patriotic songs. And after that, songs from the various states in Malaysia. By now, everyone had joined in. Raya songs came next. And after that Dangdut (!) and other Malay songs.

The singing session was then replaced by a photography session. Seng Chee was missing in action. We took the pictures without him. Turned out that he went back to his house to fetch the volleyball. That was to be our next activity.

The rain had stopped. I shouldn't have joined them playing since my cold would only get worse. But I still did.

We played volleyball for a while before switching to "Baling Selipar". By then, more people have joined in. It was while playing "Baling Selipar" that things got a bit out of hand. Friendly rivalry got a lil' bit serious. I have to own my part in it.

I didn't mean to, but I threw the slipper quite hard at Sakinah. It was an instinctive act; not an intentional one. Anyway, I felt quite bad about it. Azan made it worse by saying that I probably dislocated Sakinah's shoulder by whacking her like that. He's kidding of course but I still felt bad because I knew from past experiences that I tend to get too competitive when involved in sports. It's not something that I'm proud of :(

That's why this blog's name is thus. A friend at IPBA, Syida, teasingly said that about me and it got stuck: I'm nice, as well as rotten. huhuhu

Anyway, after that incident, I played nicer. Well ... at least I tried to ..

Right now, I about to go to sleep and as predicted, my cold's gotten worse. Karma at work? :p

Shim's algebra question

It was during a particularly boring lecture that Shim slid a small piece of paper to Jaime and me, who sat right behind him. An algebra question was written on that piece of paper:

2xy = 10 + z
2x + y = 20
x = z + 10

What is y?

I just smiled. It was ages ago since I had done any math question of that nature. All those drillings I did to prepare for SPM has been forgotten. Yet, I was tempted to try my luck. Maybe the question's not so hard. There's no harm in trying is there?

Jaime, on the other hand, was more than gamed. She was really eager to attempt the question.

But before I started to pull a clean sheet of paper out, I asked Shim: "Betul ke soalan ni ada jawapan?"

He replied: "Mestila ade. Aku yang buat sendiri."

Hurm ... that's really promising (!). But I have faith in my friend. heh

Jaime and I tried and tried but we couldn't solve it. After sometime, Shim turned back to face us and said: "Eh, tak siap lagi ke?"

I gave up first. Jaime persisted for a while longer.

After she too had surrendered, Shim started working to give us the answer. I thought I would only take a while. But it took a lot longer than expected.

Jaime and I peeked over Shim's shoulder to see what he was doing. He seemed to be struggling with the question himself. We had to control our urge to laugh. From a small bit of paper that he was using, he had to pull out a larger piece to accommodate the more complex equations he's deriving.

Finally, he turned back once again, and slid us another note. It said:

"Soalan salah. muahaha"

It was a funny incident and it got me thinking about how bad I am in math. I used to be real good at it. But not anymore. My mental arithmetic is particularly embarassing. I guess that's one of the occupational hazards of being a TESL student. You deal with language, not numbers.

That's a pretty solid defence for my poor math ability don't you think?