Starting new life...

My son is now starting a new phase in his life, as a college student. He is now in Uniten, staying in the hostel as required by the university. Well, Uniten is not that far from my house. It is about 15-20 minutes drives depending on the traffic.

Well, I believe Allah has answered their prayers. I remembered few months ago, before heading to the lala land, my husband was saying that he hoped that Syafiq would get into the nearby university. "Hmm, why?" I asked curiously. "Easier to go and see him."

Well for Syafiq, he always wanted to be independent and to stay in the hostel. "Why," I asked. "I wanted to be independent." So both of their prayers were answered.

So, on Saturday 19th May, dressed smartly in black pants, white shirt and blue stripe tie, he went to UNITEN to register himself as a new student. Well he didn't go on his own. He was accompanied by his dad, mom and his favorite sister, Zara.

We reached there at 10.30am, and the place were already full of people. It looks like carnival at the admission hall. Parents, grandparents, who are proud of their grandchildren entering university, brothers, sisters and maybe cousins or friends.

We had to wait for two hours before he came out from the hall, smiling, carrying a UNITEN back pack, his student's id and his apartment key. We then left the admission hall and headed to his apartment, which was quite a distance. We have to drive further in  to reach his apartment, and I was surprised to see that the campus was beautiful. I told my hubby maybe I would come again to take some photo.

There were many signboards to direct us to the apartment, and when we reached the apartment, we were directed by the committee members on where to park the car. When I looked at his key, he was assigned to Block D, third floor. Since the apartment is a walk up apartment, there was no lift.

"O oh! Can ibu gets to the third floor?" I asked Zara," who helped to carry his big brother pillow.

"Boleh," she said and waited for me at he first floor.

Alhamdulillah, I made it to his room. Slow and steady, and my back was okay. When he opened the door, my husband first remark was, "Dusty. Need to clean and mop the floor first." We went in to his room. It is a small room, and he is sharing with another guy. He didn't look so happy when he saw the room. He was disappointed that the apartment facilities were really basic, bed, table, chair, cupboard and sofa to sit and rest at the living room.

The kitchen was not bad as it has kitchen cabinet and an island for them to eat. Unfortunately, no chairs there. I guessed if they want to eat, they can eat on the floor, cross-legged.

My hubby disappeared for a short while and returned with a feather duster, mop and a sweep. Haha, Syafiq first task at his new place was sweeping the floor. He was lucky. No mopping as his  roommates started to come.

Since he has no activities in the afternoon, we took him home first. We thought of  sending him back on Sunday morning and help to clean his room, but somehow at 5pm, he said there's a briefing for all residence, and he wanted to attend. Quickly, my husband sent him back to Uniten, but hubby didn't get to help him clean the room.  Zara also cried when Syafiq left. She and Syafiq are close, and Syafiq likes to kiss her. He always gives Zara kisses before she went to bed, and before she left for school. Not only Zara going to miss the kiss, me too...

Well, frankly speaking, I miss him too. Every morning before I left for work, he would play his  guitar,  updates me on his activities, and help me to keep the house in order. Allhamdulillah, he is not that far. I will be seeing him regularly as the plan is he will come back on the weekend. I bet he will bring back his dirty laundry.

Okay before, I go, here is from Syafiq Safe and Sound, his favorite singer Taylor Swift.
Safe and Sound by Syafiq 

I was scared.

I always perform my prayer first before I go home, and normally it would be late evening. The female surau or the praying room is located at level One. The room is at the end on the first turn. The whole floor house the meeting rooms, and normally by late evening, it will be very quiet. The surau is also a little bit secluded.

Occasionally, I would meet few people who were also rushing to pray before catching the bus or train or driving their car homes, but most of the time, I would be there alone. 

Since the floor is kind of almost empty, I would be a little bit cautious of my surrounding. I would look at the male surau, which is not far from the female surau. If I saw someone praying, I would be happy as there was still someone around.

When I reached the surau, I pushed the door slowly, and checked who else is there with me. If I saw someone in there, I would feel relief, else I would brave myself to enter. I would then put my things on the bench and slowly took my time to remove my shoes, my badge, and my tudung before I proceed to enter the praying hall.

Once I have put down my things, I would lay the praying mat, took my telekong and also my special chair. Hmmm... if you wonder why I have chair, it is because I cannot pray like normal due to my knee and back problem. I then proceed to take my ablutions and get ready to pray.

There were few occasion while I was praying I smelled something like man's hair cream. I just ignored it, but lately, it was quite frequent and normally, after I finished my prayer. Every time, I smelled that, I would look around, looking for the source of the smell, but the room is empty except for me.

"Ahh.. this is not good," I said, and I quickly folded my telekong, put on my tudung and within five minutes, I would be out from the room.

Yesterday, it happened again. I was alone in the surau and was putting away my telekong in the cabinet. I was adjusting my tudung, looking at the mirror when suddenly, I smelled it again. I looked around. No one. I continued to adjust my tudung, and when I looked up to the ceiling, I saw the source of the smell. Perched high on the wall is the air freshener.

Damn! All this while, the air freshener has been scaring me. I thought it was a ghost. I laughed loudly, happy and relief that I found the source that scared me for months. Every time I think about it, I smiled, I can't believe that the air freshener has been playing a trick on me, and I don't know who else experience the same thing like me.

Salam

It's my birthday!

My doctor's waiting room

 It's my birthday today and look at the date 12-4-12. Isn't it a special date? On this special day, I shared it with my eight year old son who happened to be born on my birthday. There's no major celebration or special dinner for us. It's another normal day in Zai's house.

But we celebrated my birthday one day earlier. Since yesterday was a holiday, my hubby went all the way to Kajang town to buy the cake, and I was surprised when I saw him coming home with the cake.

Normally I would work on my birthday, but not this time. I went shopping. I took a day off. Before that, I went to see my doctor. A new doctor that was referred to by an Orthopedic Surgeon. When I entered his clinic, I was surprised. The interior was so beautiful made that I don't mind staying longer. Unfortunately, not many patient today, so I have no chance of parking myself there longer.


After my doctor's appointment, I met up with my sister, her daughter and her husband. We went for lunch at KLCC, and after that, I went to Kinokuniya. I don't know when was the last time I was at Kinokuniya, maybe it was more than a year.

As usual, I would head up to the fiction section. I stopped and browsed through, but nothing interest me so I moved to the IT shelves. Whoa... I stopped there for almost an hour. There was so many books that I had not seen before, and after going from sub-section to another sub-section, I zoomed in between two books.

It was between getting the Photoshop book and game development for iPad. After going back and forth between these two shelves, I finally decided to buy the second book. Heh. I don't know whether I will develop anything or not, but I just wanted to know how it was done and how to do it. The knowledge might come handy later on. Who knows?

From the technology section, I went to kids section. Again I was lost in the world of books. After circling few times, I finally grabbed 2 books for Zaki, for his birthday presents and a book each for the other three. But when Zara saw one of Zaki's book, which has full of colors and pictures, she wanted that book and didn't want hers. Luckily, Zaki was in a good mood. He gave the book to Zara, but he made me promised to get him another book.

By the time I finished my shopping in Kinokuniya, my back had started to give me pain. I slowly made my way to my car. I have to abandon my plan to get Zaki his favorite K-POP CD.

I have to thanks my back for giving me some pain today, or else I would be shopping for others things too, and caused major damages to my purse. But it's my birthday, and I can do anything I want, right? Anyway, Happy Birthday to Zaki and me!

He is ready to fly.

Whoaaa… I miss my blog. I wanted to write these past few weeks, but I was so tired. My day job drained me out by the time I reached home. Phew!! Luckily today I decided to stay at home, but tomorrow I will be going with my son to JOM MASUK U at Mines Exhibition Center.

Thirty years ago, I don’t have to go to all this exhibitions to choose the University. There was not many to choose from anyway, but today, there are so many private university out there offering so many courses.

My son has decided to do Computer Science. Heh! He is following his mom footsteps. I didn’t really encourage him or convince him to pursue his study in computer science.  He wanted it. I pray that he got to do what he wanted to do.

Last week, we went to Uitm. It was where I studied thirty years ago, but I was doing Statistic then. When I further my studies than only I changed to computer science.

The Uitm campus has changed a lot from the last time I was there. The Computer Science and Mathematics department used to be at the main building. If I not mistaken, it was on the fifth and sixth floor, but today they have their own building. Big building. The Computer Science department in the main campus in Shah Alam is only for undergraduate students. For diplomas students, they will be at the branches.

The exhibition at the Uitm attracted a lot of visitors. Almost all eligible school leavers who are qualified to apply to Uitm were there. Since we went on the second day, the crowd was lesser, and we didn’t have to queue that long.

The organizer did a good job. The prospective students were first asked to check whether they are qualified to apply. They keyed in their results and then a report would be produce to indicate which courses they could apply. Alhamdulillah my son can apply most of the courses offered.

Among those, he qualified was Diploma in Building Management and also Architecture. I tried to encourage him to take this up, but he was so focus to do Computer Science.
By the way, that was what his dad studied.

I really hope my son will get the offer from the IPTA, but if he doesn't, I have no choice but to enrol him in the private university. We have checked few universities, and we have narrow down the one we interested in. One of the Universities is quite near to my house.  I told my son that I would have save a lot of money if he studied there. He can stay at home and commute to the college.

But he has other idea. He wanted to be independent and be on his own. Heh! If he does leave the house and stays outside, we will miss him. His younger sister will be the one most affected. Currently, he would wait with Zara for her school bus, and at night, he would kiss his sister before she goes to bed.

For me, I will also miss him as I rely on him a lot. But that’s the reality. I have to let him go and be independent. Insya Allah he will be a good son who will not forget what we have taught him.

A night in KLIA....

I was at the KLIA airport last night. My mom and my brothers were coming home from Mecca. They were there for twelve days for Umrah (minor Haj).

Their flight landed earlier than scheduled, that is at 9.15pm, and when we reached there, the time was 9.20pm. We looked for a spot that they can easily see us, but the place were crowded with people waiting for their relatives, friends and also some tour guides.

Among those waiting were a group of African. My guessed is  that they are  students, as all of them look  young. There were about twenty of them including four females. I was standing two feet away from them, and this gave me the opportunity to observe them.

What I saw reminded me of my time when I was a student in US.  We were always together, and we take care of each other. Whenever someone went back home, the whole bunch of us would be sending him or her to the airport. Ahhh... sweet memories.

When their two friends came out, everybody greeted and crowded them. Most of them were excited to see their friends. Maybe, they were asking how’s thing back at home. There was one guy busy recording the arrival of their new friends.

I didn’t see when they left as I was busy looking at the stewardesses that passed in front of me. My niece and me were commenting about their uniform, and I have to say that I like the Korean Air stewardess. They are so beautiful, and their skins, ahhh…indescribable. Shhh!!!!… I can’t tell that to my brother-in-law who is crazy about Korean girl.

Groups after groups of people have passed us, but my mom was still not out. My kids were getting restless, and kept reminding me about the time. Suddenly, we saw a group of people, with green sling bag came out. We were excited and started to search for my mom.

After about ten minutes of searching, then my niece said, “There they are.” I looked at the exit where the earlier group came out. “Not there,” she said and pointed to the other exit.

There, I saw abang Zahir pushing the trolley, and followed by Bang Ngah, who was walking slowly and holding my mom hand. My mom looked so old and frail but happy. Her tudung was askew, but who cares.

We went and greeted them. My mom lost her voice, and she was not feeling well. My Bang Ngah was not well too. The only fit and healthy person is my bang Zahir.

My bang Zahir has bought the ticket to take him and my mom to Seremban. So we walked slowly to the door number 3, where the taxis were, and there was a long queue. Syafiq slowly walked his grandmother to the queue, but when I saw a bench outside, I asked Syafiq to take his Uwan there.

While waiting for my mom to sit, Bang Ngah told me that mom was very weak. She didn’t eat well there. His said that he never seen mom so old as when he saw her during Tawaf. I looked at her and indeed she looked much older than before she left for Umrah.

I joined her after my short conversation with Bang Ngah. She was happy even though she cannot go to Raudhah as there was no female family members that could take her there. But she still able to say her doa.

When the taxi came, Syafiq took her to the taxi, but they have to get the bigger taxi, which the queue is at the door no 5. The Proton Waja cannot fit all their bags. I held her hand and together we walked to the door no 5.

Luckily, it was not a long wait. In fact, the taxi was there already. I opened up the door for her to enter. I hugged and kissed her before I closed the door. This time, all the bags can fit into the car.

When they left,  It was almost twelve. The kids were hungry and tired.  My husband took us to Mac Donald for a quick snack, and by the time we were on the way home, it was past midnight.

The kids were immediately knocked out, and when we reached home, it was 1’o clock in the morning, but I have to continue and finished up some work for the office. I only went to bed at 3 in the morning. Luckily I’m on leave today.

Salam.

Goodbye Mecca. Till we meet again

This post on Madinah has long been overdue. I feel bad for not doing it earlier. Not that, I do it on purpose, but I was busy with my work. I hope it will ease soon. Okay, enough about my work and me.

The Tabung Haji Travels team has planned the trip very well. We were briefed what to do before leaving Mecca. One of the things that we must do before  leaving Mecca is we must perform Tawaf Wida' or Farewell Tawaf.

We were told to perform our Tawaf Wida' earlier, especially for old folks and to those who were slow or sick, as the bus would come and take us at 2pm. My husband and me did our Tawaf Wida' earlier around 10.15am because of my back pain and hmm…slow. Since it was post Hajj, the Masjidil Haram was not crowded compared to during the peak Hajj period, but it was still not advisable to do our Tawaf on the same floor as Kaabah. We did our tawaf on the second floor.

We completed our tawaf and all the prayers that we have to do by 11am. We were told during the briefing that we have to leave the Masjidil Haram quickly once our tawaf is done and to wait in the hotel lobby. There should be no taking picture, no lingering around to admire the Masjidil Haram, and no shopping. With all those restriction, we hurried to go back to the hotel, and after a short rest, we checked out from the room, and waited at the lobby for our bus. It was quite a long wait before we were called to board our bus, Bus #10.

In the bus before we left for Madinah, we were given a pack of food and a bottle of water. Well actually by the time we reached Madinah, we have about 3 packs of food and waters. The trip to Madinah was a long one. It was about 447KM, and we reached Madinah at night around 10pm.

During the trip to Madinah, we stopped twice. The first stop was at a small place. We stopped just to perform our prayer before we continued our journey. The second stop was for our dinner and to pray. We could combine our Maghrib and Isyak prayer together or know as Jamak Taqhir. That's the beauty of Islam where if we travel for more than 90KM, we are allowed to combine our prayer.

Before we reach our hotel, the bus stopped and picked our guide. He is a Malaysian student who studied in Madinah. He shared with us on the history of Madinah and told us to be careful with our belongings.

In Madinah, we stayed at Hotel Movenpick, which is only about 50meters from Masjid Nabawi. I was happy, as I don't have to walk that far to reach the Masjid. The mosque is big, and there are special entranced for women, and the space is limited. Most of the time, I ended praying outside at the compound together with Yam Turkieye. Yam Turkieye was my faithful companion. She would walk with me to the masjid. I miss her, my dear little sister. In fact, I miss all my roommates, Mar, Fara and Yam. Their kindness and concerns have made my short stay in Madinah  much easier.

Okay, I'll stop here first and will continue to my next post about my outing at Madinah and my visit to Raudhah.

Belated Birthday Celebration

Maryam helped to blow the candles

Amir turned 12 on 20th Feb, and we had a small gathering at home. There was only cake and no gifts. He made a comment that Zara received quite a number of gifts, but not him.

Well, actually he has been asking for pen drive for weeks before his birthday, so the next day after his birthday, I went and got him a pen drive for him. He was happy because now he can keep all his favorite Korean song in the pen drive.

Since my mom had her ‘kenduri’ on Sunday, I decided to give him a surprised birthday party. I asked my youngest sister, Arda, to buy the cake for him, any cake except chocolate cake. He doesn’t like chocolate cake.

I also asked my sister, to include Zara’s name on the cake too, even though her birthday was on 15th Jan. After my mom’s guests had left, we had the celebration. All the kids were playing in one of the rooms, and they were not aware that we going to have the birthday celebration.

The kids were asked to get out from the room, and to sit in the living room quietly. Everybody came out, looking unhappy. When my sister brought the cake out, and we started to sing Happy Birthday, the kids were surprised.

Amir looked shy, while Zara looked surprised, but the happiest person was Mikhail, or Mika who rushed from outside and wanted to blow the candles. He was stopped right before he could blow the candles.

After Amir and Zara have blown the candle and cut the cake, we lighted the candles again for Mika and Maryam to blow and cut the cake. Amir received a B2ST or Beast CD and DVD, and Zara got a jigsaw puzzle. Another person who received a gift was Zaki. The king of K-Pop was given a U-Kiss CD. The three of them were very happy to receive their gift.

Were the aunties expected them to learn the new dance steps from the two CDs? I hope not, because Amir is sitting for his UPSR this year, and I want him to focus on his study. He can dances after the UPSR exam.

So, to all their aunties and cousins, sabar ya!....