A Quick Glance on 2010..

Wow! Another 6 more days and we will say goodbye to 2010. Are we ready to welcome 2011? Ready or not, we have no choice. It will comes and nobody can stop it except God.Well what have I achieved this year? Nothing much I guess. Let's see what I have achieved. 


Career wise, I have to say that I lost my steam this year. Used to be like Speedy Gonzales but this year, I feel more like I a tortoise. Slow and steady but still deliver. Guess age is catching up with me.


Health wise, not so good.  I took quite a number of medical leave compared to previous years. My knee and back problem are enough to slow me down. I have to be careful when doing my exercises or playing games. No more badminton or tennis or squash for me. Sob! Sob! Sob! 


Financial wise, just so so. Not so great and not so bad but my new house is taking a big bite from my saving but worth it. I don't know whether I can recover those money. Insyaallah boleh!


On personal front, I have achieved what I set in the beginning of the year except one thing, losing weight. That mission will be carried forward to 2011 and I really hope that I will achieve it. I need motivation and anybody want to join me? We can compare result. Oh another achievement, I will be moving to my dream house next week. Kids will have more space to run around and bigger place to clean up.


On the downside, I lost my dad this year and my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. The last two months of this year has been very challenging where I have to juggle between work, family and dad. Thank Allah for giving me the strength to go through the last two month and thanks to my friends who provided the support during the difficult period. No words can describe my gratitude.


Lastly, I wish everyone Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Salam

Goodbye Dad.

My dad passed away peacefully on Tuesday at 7.25pm. I was lucky to be with him. All his daughters were with him during his last moments. On Friday, when he lost a lots of blood, doctor gave him until morning but boy, dad was a fighter.


He survived for another four more days. On that Tuesday 14th Dec 2010, I just came out from meeting at 5pm when my oldest sister called me and said doctor has advised mom to take dad back home. When mom heard that, she called my oldest brother who brought an imam with him, to conduct the special prayer. This prayer is just to ease him to move to the next journey in his life.


When I heard the news, I quickly cleared some of my work and left office. As I was parking my car, I saw my brother with the imam leaving the parking. So I quickly walked to the ward. As I put down my backpack, my dad condition  changed. I saw Mom was standing at the window and when we saw dad's condition we quickly called mom. As we surrounded him, mom recited the shahadah to dad's ear. We quickly called the nurses who was stationed right in-front of dad's ward and they quickly brought in their equiments to monitor dad's heartbeat.


As we gathered around him, with my eldest sister reading Surah al-Bakarah and the rest reading Surah Yaasin,  dad left us. He went off peacefully where he just looked like he was sleeping. We cried but I managed to control my tears. We kissed him goodbye before they took him to mortuary where they did the final preparation before the funeral.


We took dad back to his house in Seremban, which was left empty since September, and get it ready to receive him. He reached the house at midnight and the neighbours came to pay respect to him. 


After the subuh prayer, we invited the jemaah surau for tahlil and at 8.30am, he was taken to surau for the prayer. His was laid at Makam Tuan Haji Said and his grave is facing the army camp. Yes, dad was an ex-army. Mom said to him after the funeral, "Tok, goodbye. Rest in peace tok. See you are facing the army camp. Goodbye."


We said our final goodbye to him before we left the cemetery but as we passed by on the way back, we can see his grave from the road. Abah, even though you are no more with us, you will always be in our lives and will alway be remembered by us.


 "Abah, Zai doakan roh abah di tempatkan di kalangan orang-orang yang beriman. Amin." Al-fatihah..... 

My son has grown up!

Yesterday I attended my youngest two year-end school's concerts and graduation. My son attended Little Tots,the kindergarten, for two years and I can see that he has changed from a shy, insecure person to a cheerful and outgoing guy. Changes in his personalities has given me confidence that he can adapt well in standard 1 next year. I hope he will not cry for me to be with him at school.

I still remembered last year when it was always a battle to get him to go to school. He will gives all kind of excuses and refused to get on the school bus. It was very stressful for him and also for me. I have to be hard on him and sometimes he will cried at the school gate when I dropped him off. But two months before the year end, he changed. He started to enjoy school and didn't give me any problem anymore.

I thought that he will still gives me problem. So I decided to send my little girl to the same school, to accompany him. To make sure that he didn't feel abandon. For your information, I have no problem with my 4 years old girl as she is always confidence and not scared of anything. She can take care of herself and can fight with her brothers and most of the times the brothers will be crying for help.

But I was wrong. He doesn't feel abandon at all. Instead he immediately take care of his little sister. He will ensure she drinks and eats at school, protect the sister from others and the cute thing is, he always reminded the sister what the teacher said. Whoa..he really plays the role of big brother beyond my expectation.No more excuses and will be the first to be ready for school. Wow! What a change!

Not only he has grown in term of his personality, he also shown a lot of improvement in his studies and now he can read and write very well. Zaki, keep up the good work and hope you will continue to excel in Standard One and Zara, continue the good work. Both of you can be what you dream to be..Amen. And thank you to all the teachers at Little Tots for making my children believe in themselves.

Chao..Salam.

Pencil and Eraser

I received this from friend, Wan, yesterday and I find it very inspirational and like to share with you.

Pencil: I'm sorry

Eraser: For what? You didn't do anything wrong.

Pencil: I'm sorry because you get hurt because of me. Whenever I made a mistake, you're always there to erase it. But as you make my mistakes vanish, you lose a part of yourself. You get smaller and smaller each time.


Eraser: That's true  But I don't really mind. You see, I was made to do this. I was made to help you whenever you do something wrong. Even though one day, I know I'll be gone and you'll replace me with a new one, I'm actually happy with my job. So please, stop worrying. I hate seeing you sad.

I found this conversation between the pencil and the eraser very inspirational. Parents are like the eraser whereas their children are the pencil. They're always there for their children, cleaning up their mistakes. Sometimes along the way, they get hurt, and become smaller / older, and eventually pass on. Though their children will eventually find someone new (spouse), but parents are still happy with what they do for their children, and will always hate seeing their precious ones worrying, or sad.

All my life, I've been the pencil. And it pains me to see the eraser that is my parents getting smaller and smaller each day. For I know that one day, all that I'm left with would be eraser shavings and memories of what I used to have.

This is to all the parents out there.

. 

Six weeks of freedom and fun

This week starts the year-end school holiday. School will reopen next January for new terms. For most of the parents and maids, it means headache, misery and stress but to those school kids, it is freedom. Six weeks of freedom with no homework or revision waiting for them. Six solid weeks they can play and enjoy themselves. But do I want them to spend six weeks like that? I guess not.

So what should I do with my kids? Vacation is out due to my parents conditions. We have to stay in KL area. Maybe I will take them to see some of the new movies but I can't be going every week to cinema. They may like it but my purse will not like it at all. What if I challenge them to read? Each of them choose one book each and it has to be an English book. Do you think they will like it? Maybe if I dangle something but I don't like to do that. I don't believe in rewarding every single thing that they accomplished with presents. 


I also want them to do it because they want to. No point if they do it because of me. It will not work. It will be a challenge especially to get my 10years old and 6years old boys to sit down and read. TV and PSP will be more fun for them. Think! Think! I need to be creative in getting them to read and make it fun at the same time so that they will finish the book. BTW do you have any idea? Share with me if you have any. Salam.

When good moments beats the sad moments.

I have to say today I have good moments and sad moments but definitely no bad moments. Today is my twitter friend's birthday and Doris is celebrating it all the way in the beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro. Hope she has a wonderful birthday.


Today also I kind of found my old lost friends that  went to college together with me. Whereas do you think I found them? Facebook! I have to say thank you to Facebook for this. I feel good to get connected back with all my old friends but I'm scared to meet them as I have changed so much physically. Heh! That's what aging, good food and life did to everyone right? Changed you.


I also met someone so damn cute that if I'm young and pretty, I might go after him. Who else but the doctor who treated my dad in the Emergency Room. What a naughty girl I am! My dad lying on the bed and me eying the doctor. But it is just for fun to release the stress and tension that has been with the whole family since dad was diagnosed with cancer. 


So what is the sad news today? Since my dad was rushed this morning to UH, I have basically left my four kids alone at home. Luckily the oldest boy can be trusted to take care of the young one else my house will be like a war zone. 


Another sad new is that my dad's condition is really getting worse.He is getting weaker and weaker everyday. Today, we have to call ambulance to take him to hospital and they are keeping him overnight. Pity my mom who has to be with him and she is also not well. Hope dad will get discharge tomorrow.


Next good news is that my new house is almost ready and we are targeting mid December to move in but the sad news is this house is really killing me. What can I say is that it took a big chunk of my saving and today I received the quotation for my curtain and it almost choke me. I think I just use my bed sheet as a curtain? Should I? It will be very colorful if I do that.


So I have to say thankful to Allah for all the good things happened today  even though there were some sad moment. Salam.

A Little Bit Wild by Victoria Dahl

Hey I'm not a book reviewer but if the book is interesting and worth for me to blog, I would do it. So is this book, A Little Bit Wild by Victoria Dahl. What I like about this book is that it is not the normal kind of romance book that you read. Furthermore, one of the character reminds me of someone I know in my office. If you are my friend from same office reading this, you may already know who is that person. This guy in my office is a real gentleman. He is very helpful, has great personalities, soft spoken and I can say that he is not good looking and big.


Okay, back to the book. Normally, the historical romance hero and heroine will be rich, handsome and with titles and for the heroine will be prim and proper,  and beautiful. But not this particular book. No doubt, the heroine, Marissa, is beautiful but she is shallow, wild and naughty even though she didn't show it to the society of her true character. For the hero, Jude, he is definitely not handsome and in fact, if I read it correctly this guy is ugly and he is a duke's son but he is a bastard. What's Jude lack in his looks department, he has good personalities and charming and most of the women like him.


Marissa is the only girl in the family and she was caught in the act of having sex by her eldest brother. As the common practice during that period, she has to marry but Marissa didn't want to marry the guy she did it with. So here come our hero who offered himself to marry her. We, Malaysian, will definitely label him Pak Sanggup but actually Jude like her. Jude knew that Marissa likes good looking men with great thighs. He knew that Marissa will not look at him in other circumstances. So what did he do? He volunteered himself and decided that he will win Marissa.  He used his charms to get to Marissa. Did he managed to get to Marrissa? Definitely. He managed to make Marissa feel jealous when he talked to women and eventually Marissa realised that she loves Jude. She realised that good looks will not make a happy marriage. Betulkan? 


I also like when Jude told Marissa the difference between men and boys. Aahh! You guys have to read the book if you want to know what's the difference. I would not share it here. This book also has the element of surprises. Marissa received a threatening letter that can exposed her character to society. The writer of the letter demand payment. And you will be surprised who is that person. It never cross my mind until she was exposed. So go and look for the book if you want to know who. Worth reading it!


This book remind me of my mom favorite quotes "Senang mata susah hati, Sakit mata senang hati." What it means is that if you have a handsome or beautiful partner, be prepared for the heartache as many people will go after your partner. If you have an average looking partner or ugly partner, you will definitely have less heartache cause nobody will go after your partner. But today's world is different. If you have loads of money, how ugly you are, you will look handsome or beautiful. 


Okay friends, this is my rating for the book: A-. Happy reading! Salam.

True Champion

Hey! I am so happy that Red Bull Renault won the F1 for the constructors and also drivers for 2010 season. They deserved it. Even though my favorite driver, Mark Webber, lost the championship title but I am still happy for him. I hope he will continue to race next season.


For Sebastian Vettel, he is one great and talented driver. He is the youngest Formula 1 champion in the history. Throughout the season he was never the leader for the drivers title. It was between Mark Webber and Alonso. But as true champion, he didn't falter in the race and I can see he was never really threatened by Alonso and Webber. Both drivers were stuck behind the two Renaults drivers.


With the end of the Formula 1 season, I need to find another sports until F1 starts again next year. Besides tennis, especially the women tennis,which I follow regularly, American football is another sports that I would follow. No doubts I can't follow my favorite team games all the time, but thanks to Internet I can follow Green Bays Packer game either on-line or delayed. 


You might be wondering why I didn't support any local sports. Well, I gave up in supporting or local heroes except for Nicol Davies and our cycling team. I have to say that some of our sport heroes failed to shine at international level. They might be good locally but that is not enough.


I'm really sad with the state of our sport. We used to be among top in world for hockey but now at Asian level, we are not even top three. So how can we help our nation to be back in the world sports again?

Weird things that happened to me when I was writing Dendam Bukit Putus

Today I want to share something that I have been keeping it to myself until few weeks back. Not sure whether you going to believe it or not but it kind of scary when I think about it. 


When I started to write the Dendam Bukit Putus (the ghost story), weird things started to happen to me. The first weird thing was my hand has a bitten mark and bruised but I didn't feel pain at all. My initial thought on that was I might have knocked my hand somewhere but after further checking, there was bitten marked like a fang and I showed it to my friend. She was also surprised to see that mark.


A few days later, another strange thing happened. My radio station changed from LiteFM to Radio Seremban every time I enter KL Sentral. It is weird because Radio Seremban will be difficult to get as it quite far from KL. To make it more weird, I cannot change the station immediately, which I tried. I have to wait for a few minutes before I can change to LiteFM again. Initially it was in the morning only but a month later it also happened in the evening when I left for home and this happened everyday. To make it weirder, it will only change at KL Sentral parking lot only. It didn't happened at any other places.


When all these happened, I just ignored it. I pretended that it never happened. However, three months into writing the story, another strange things happened. My car reading light suddenly was switched on. It happened when I was on the way back home at night and it was about five kilometers from my house. I thought something wrong with the wiring but it can't be as my car is still new. The switching of the light only happened at night and it can happened on the highway or when I was nearing my house. The switching of radio stations and switching on my car reading lights continue to happen until I finish writing the story. The moment I finished typing THE END, everything was back to normal. 


I kept this story to myself for almost two months and a week ago, I shared it with my family members and friends. Some do believe it and some don't but to me, it was one experience I won't forget. Do you believe in supernatural thing? Have you experience it yourself. Share with me if you have.

My Favorite Hero

It's always amuse me when my sister told me her monkey's stories. Her apartment is one of the nicest place to live where it is cool and lot's of greens. The only set back is that,there's a monkey which like to torment my sister and her family.

This monkey like to stole foods from her kitchen. This little fella is a smart monkey and not any ordinary monkey. He knows how to open the window latch. He know how to open up the cabinet door and choose what food he wanted to take with him. He knows how to open the biscuit container. What a smart little fella.

There are times my sister or her husband caught him in the kitchen and this monkey will ensure that he will not leave the place empty handed. There were times, he will took with him towel paper, mop head or anything he grabs. Message is very clear.."Don't mess with me else I torment you forever!"

Even though he took foods from my sister house, he never hurt my nieces. He also operated alone. No other monkeys can be seen with him. Either he has been an outcast or he is the leader. Nobody knows!

Two days ago, my sister said she has not seen the monkey because the Gibbons are in the area. Maybe they are taking turns to stay in that area but I definitely going to miss my sister famous monkey stories. He is my favorite hero!

What's Wrong With Me

I had Rosemary beef pie for lunch and coffee today but I was still sleepy. I thought that by skipping rice and having coffee will help me to get through the afternoon, but it was not. Not sure why I was so sleepy today but I have been yawning since morning. I felt everything moves very slow today.

When I saw maruku on my friend table, I happily took a piece. This is one of my favorite

maruku but the moment I bite it, it felt like I'm biting into a piece of brick. It was so damn hard.

I thought I'm the only one having problem eating the maruku but my other colleagues also find it hard. So we sit around my place and everyone busy chewing the maruku and start commenting and analyzing what was wrong with it. My friend who bought the maruku said the one that she tasted at the stall was soft and nice.

I wish that instead of discussing the maruku, I can discuss my current WIP that has not moved for the past two weeks. I kind of lost my creativity and motivation since my parents are diagnosed with cancer and my brain has becomes slow.

I'm not sure when I can get out from this situation but I hope that it will not be too long.

Meanwhile, I need my sleep and also please pray for my parents.

That's One Hot Stuff!

It' was four o'clock so normally it was our unofficial tea time. Time to take a break while enjoying coffee or tea. Normally one of the staff will have something on the table, it can be maruku, cookies, crackers or anything that can be munch.

I was kind of hungry today since I only have pie and minestrone soup. I was looking for what to eat when I saw kuih bangkit (cookies) and green peas on my ex-colleague table. I just grabbed it and took the whole thing back to my place and happily passed the green peas to my colleague.

"This thing is hot. Coated with Wasabi."

"Really?" I asked him. "Let me try."

"Are you sure?" he asked as he knows that I don't take hot stuff.

"Why not?"

He passed me the container and I took few out and dumped it in my mouth. I was shocked. My tongue felt like it was on fire and I spit it out and rushed to pantry to grab water. My colleague was laughing at me.

I guess it was foolish of me to try the Wasabi coated Green Pea knowingly that I was warned. Actually, I don't really like hot dishes. If people served me hot dished, I will eat it moderately. Dishes cooked with chili might not be my favorite but I love chicken curry. Give me curry anytime and I will enjoy my food. Put sambal in front of me, I will avoid it.

So what about you? You like hot dishes? What kind of food will you avoid? Share with me.

Facebook, Twitter and Smartphone Equals to Naked

Today everything was perfect for me. Traffic was clear. No jam today. I guess they heard me complaining about them yesterday so they make sure the road is clear for me. The weather was also good. It was cooler in the morning and also the sun was not hot either.

I had a good breakfast at home and when I reached office, the email in my inbox was kind of unusually low and I cleared it by 10.30am. And at 11am, I attended a talk on Security and Facebook. Wow! That guy made me scared and naked. I clearly remembered his word that "Facebook/Twitter + Smartphone = Naked" and that what I have. I have Facebook and Twitter installed on my iPhone and I always tweets from my iPhone.

The guy also revealed how most of what we shared on the Facebook and twitter are being read by the whole world. There is no more privacy and you are basically bare naked to the eye of the world. There are people who will sniffed all your data and then sell it off to this marketing company. Then you wonder where do you get all those junk mail.

After listening to the talk, it make me realized that some of the tweet has Geo Location tagged to it. Just imagine all your movement will be shown and if people wanted to kidnapped you, that's it they know where you are. Nauzubillah!

The talk were getting very interesting but I have to leave halfway caused I have farewell lunch to attend in KLCC. But the most important thing that I picked up from the talk is be careful in sharing you updates cause some offensive updates can haunt you back. Chao...

Cycle Of Life

I'm already accepting it. Now is the time to move forward to prepare for the day that I have to say goodbye. I guess this is the cycle of life. The old saying goodbye and the newborn saying hello.

Well, every day is precious to us. Every single minute we are trying to be with Abah but sometimes we can't because of work commitment or family commitment. But he is never far from our thoughts. He knows that we love him. We are trying to make him as comfortable as much as possible.

In this tough time, I have to thank Allah for giving me the strength to go through this. I know I have been praying every day, five times a day seeking Allah to ease Abah's pain. Now I have to step it up further. I need to do Sembahyang Hajat. I will sacrifice my sleep to do this special prayer, read Quran and Yassin. I'm not asking him to be like before because Allah promises everyone will face this. It stated in Quran and nobody can escape death. What I want is that he does not suffer or in pain until his last breath.

If you look at his face, he doesn't look like he is suffering from cancer. In fact, he looks much younger than his age. Healthy. Happy. That's how I to remember him as healthy and happy Abah.

We are together and proud of it!

Yesterday, I went to visit Abah in Putrajaya Hospital alone. He was admitted to hospital on Friday after he complaint of breathing problem. On Saturday, I brought my kids to see him. Well my youngest two don't know much what's happening except they know he is sick and with big tummy.

But I can see my eldest son was really affected to see his Atuk lying on the bed and no able to move much. He was very quite on the way back and in fact until Sunday he was still thinking about his Atuk.

On Sunday, it was decided earlier that we (the 7 of us) need to meet and discuss about our parents condition. No spouse or children in the meeting. So basically it only us with abah and mak.

Well I reached there at 4pm and bumped into my sister,Zura with her kid. Arda, my youngest sister and Ami, another sister of mine, were already there. Well abah was very happy to see us and when my abang Zahir came in later at 4.15pm, I can see how delighted he was. He cracked jokes and we laughed even though deep down we know we are losing him.

When Along, my eldest in the family, and Bang Ngah, oldest boy in the family, came in, he was surprised to see all of us without kids and spouse. We hanged around for a while and slowly slipped out of the room to discuss on their predicament.

I'm so proud that we really come together and united as a family. Bang Ngah as the oldest boy in the family lead the meeting. We discussed on where my parents going to stay, how we going to support them, who going to take care of their house, car, my mom flowers and also on the financial side. We also agreed to take turns to be with them so that they won't feel neglected and lonely. The most painful things was when we discussed life after abah, who gonna take care of mak and so on.

During the meeting, I can see that Bang Zahir was shocked to hear abah's condition. Maybe he didn't know that abah is at advanced stage and terminal. He was very quiet throughout he meeting. You can see the emotion running in the meeting. One minute we cried another minute we laughed just to ease the tension and stress. I can say all of us cried in the meeting including my brothers. Well it shows how deep is our love towards them and one thing that Bang Ngah kept on reminding us in the meeting, "DO NOT HURT THEM AT ALL. JUST FOLLOW WHATEVER THEY WANT." and yes that what I'm going to do.To make sure they are happy and comfortable.

T

I love my Sunday. Do I?

Well I always look forward for my weekend. After a long week in the office, I always look forward for Saturday and Sunday to wind down but since beginning of October, I don't have the luxury to sleep in late on Sunday anymore. On Sunday, I have become like other parents who are busy driving the kids from one class to another. Let see how my Sunday looks like.

6.30am. Up for my morning prayer but I will sleep again until 7.30am. Hubby will already be at the wet market will give me a wakeup call.

7.45am. Fresh from shower, will grab my phone and book to go downstair and to boil water only. Hubby will buy breakfast and bring it back with him. Oh! Since second son has his football practice at 8am, I have to make sure he eats his cereal or bread for breakfast. While waiting for the water and my son, I will check twitter first. I think I'm addicted to twitter. Let me say it again here "I am addicted to twitter". I guess some of you are also twitter addict.

7.55am. Send my second son to his football practice which is 5 mins away from home. Hubby will be home from market with breakfast so I only have to make Milo, tea or coffee. Depending on what they want. Easy life for me when it comes to breakfast.

8.30am. Get my little girl ready for her piano class. Normally there will be battle to get her ready to class as she is kind of playful girl. There will be lot of laughters and shrieking and shouting. Stress level up a little bit. This is also our favorite time together. Mother-daughter time.

9.10am. Off we go to Cadenza Music Academy in Bangi for her 9.30am session. Will wait for her since class is only 30mins. My iphone and novel will become handy during this time. Tweeting and reading to kill the time.

9.45am. Remind hubby to fetch second son from his football practice otherwise the poor boy will be waiting until I come and fetch him at 10.25am.

10.25am. Reach home. Need to get the other two boys ready for their music classes. Second son needs to get showered and it is another rush. Zaki will be searching for his drum stick and Amir will be rushing to get his things ready. Not sure they have practice or not for the session. Let them face the music...

10.40 Off me go driving these two boys. Zaki is more playful than Amir and he will disturb Amir whenever he has the chance. I just let them do whatever they want as long as no crying. But there are times that they got physical and one of them will cry. Stress level will definitely up when I have the boys in the car. I also bering bring my laptop with me as Zaki's class is at 11am whereas Amir is at 12am. So that a long waiting time for me.

12.40pm Will be driving home and by the time we get home it's lunch time. Heh! You see I don't cook lunch either on Sunday. Hubby will be kind enough to buy lunch.

1pm. Hubby home with lunch. So lunch time!!!

2pm. Afternoon prayer time and it also means my nap time. Will be lucky if I can have my peaceful nap coz Zara and Zaki will definitely try to enter the room no matter how I lock the door. Whenever I'm home, they will follow me. Cannot be out of their sight. I guess it payback time as Monday to Friday, I'm kind of busy with work. My nap time normally between 30mins - 1 hour.

4.30pm. Tea time. Hubby or eldest son will buy kuih from the nearby stalls. Normally it will be fried banana, curry puff. Again depend on what is the request, I will get the drinks ready for them.

5.30pm. Evening prayer and time for me to check my mail or facebook or twitter. In other words, computer time. Sometimes this is the time we will go out with the kids to do shopping and will be back by 8pm.

7.30pm. Maghrib prayer and also dinner time. Normally we will eat out as the kids have been eating home cooked food from Monday to Friday.

9pm. Will be a headmistress. Going through kids homework and also their revision. At the same time my computer time.

10pm. Kids bed time and also time for me to read or do things I have wanted to do. After the night prayer, I will normally ready for about an hour before saying good night.

My life is kind of boring right. No fun activities there and if you see no exercises too. Normally I will do in the morning but since I have to rush here and there, I have to reschedule my exercise time. Haven't really decides the best time for my exercises.

Okay..since this is a boring topic, I better go first..Chao! and see you soon.

The Day I Felt Numbed

I was happily drafting the letter and cross checking the contract and the issues when I received the following message from my sister "Mak test result positive cancer". I was stunned and slumped into my chair. I closed my eyes and covered my face with my hand with images of my shrinking mom and my dad's bloated tummy playing around me. I'm a tough lady and seldom cry but I cried when I saw the message.

Gosh! It so hard to receive this second news. When my dad was diagnosed with liver cancer few weeks back, I was still able to take it.I know he will not live longer as his cancer is at advanced stage. I'm preparing myself to face the day I will lose him forever. We are already made plans how to make my father comfortable and who and when to visit him and cheer him up.

But when the second news came, it totally made me numbed. I feel helpless as I don't know what to do anymore. Having one is bad enough but having both parents down with cancer at the same time is really testing me. I really need to be strong to go through this challenging time.

Ya Allah! Give me the strength to go through this challenging time. Amin!!!

What an Experience!!!

Have you ever experience something that really scared you? I have. Last Thursday, when I went to see my Orthopedic surgeon for my back pain, he asked me to do MRI to confirm that I have slipped disc and the appointment was set at 3pm on the same day for me.

So at 2pm, I went to the X-ray room with my son and I was called in immediately by the technician. She told me to take off everything and change to the hospital gown. I looked at the gowns and told her that the gowns are too small for me.

Since there is no gown that can fit me, so she allowed me to wear my blouse and wrapped my

self with bed sheet. Hah! I should bring my own sarong instead of using the bed sheet. The technician then took me to the MRI room and asked me to take off my glasses and lie down on the machine.

Without knowing what to expect, I happily do as asked. Then the technician gave me a headset. When I looked puzzled, she told me that it is very noisy and the music will help me to overcome the noise.When she say that I was ready, she switched on the button that slowly pushed me in the machine.

When I reached the mouth of the monster, I became panic because I feel claustrophobic. I closed my eyes, held my breath and I read whatever verses that I can remembered. When it stopped, I slowly open my eyes and when I saw the light on the ceiling, I took a deep breathe. But the torture doesn't stop there.

The loud noise stated and for the next 30 minutes, I was tortured with loud noise and also was sliding in and out of the machine. When the 30minutes was up and they slide me out from the machine, I was glad that I survived the ordeal.

This is one experience that I would not like to go through again. What about you? Do you have any experience that you don't want to have it again? Share with me.

Between Speed Demon, Road Hogger and The Kiasu

As I was driving to work on Tuesday morning, I saw a fatal accident where the motorcyclist was knocked down either by a car or lorry. It is not a good sign to start a day and I wonder how the family of the deceased take the news of his death.

Whenever I saw an accident, it will sober me for a while. I will drive slowly , according to the speed limit but normally, I'm one of the people who will change whenever I sit behind the car steering. I will transform to Speed Demon and my office colleagues can vouch for that.

Even though I drive very fast, I am always careful. I know when to speed and when to slow down. I always ensure that I will not endangered other people lives . But there are others who don't really care about other people lives and safety. Let's see who they are.

• The mat rempits who think that they own the road. They will not care about their safety or others. They only want the thrill of winning the race and to show their skills by racing on the road. They were time when I came back late from work, I will see them racing down the highway. I will slow down whenever I see them because they will just zoom past you without care.

• Besides mat rempit, I also don't like those motorcyclists who ride in the middle of the fast lane or those motorcyclists who cut right in-front of my car. I don't mind if they are fast but when they are slow and in the fast lane, it can be very dangerous. There were several time, I have to do emergency brake to avoid knocking them.

• Road hogger is another one that I don't like especially when I'm late to work and driving at 120kph. This road hogger don't care there are long queue behind him. They just cruise in the fast lane at 50kph. Normally when I passed them, I will give them the look. Some of them will get it and move to the middle lane but some just continue to drive as if the whole world can wait for him.

• Lorry and backhoe are another two vehicles that I don't like to see on the road especially during peak hour but I can't stop them. They also pay road tax to use the road. But at least,please ban them during the peak hour on all road. Currently these heavy vehicles are only ban from entering the city center during the peak hour but they can still use trunk road or highway that leading to city center.

• Lorry that carry pebbles or stones, especially those old lorries. They are slow and dangerous. Why dangerous? Because, if you unlucky, you will get the flying stone hitting your windscreen and you can say bye-bye to your hard earned money. So far, I considered myself lucky as I have not been hit by these pebbles.

• Speeding buses. I hate to see those bus drivers speeding along the highway without thinking of the passengers' safety. Just because they are big, they thought that they can rule the road. Wrong! They should travel either in the left lane or the middle lane but not on the fast lane. There are times that I saw them zooming down the fast lane at 120kph whereas their speed limit is only at 90kph.

• Queue jumping. Oh! I really, really, really hate this type of driver. They don't care that you have been stuck for hours in the jam. They will get into the emergency lane and then cut right in-front of you. They are the kiasu driver and one of the major contributor of the traffic jam.

I guess if we have some discipline and follow the traffic rules, we will have less jam and less accidents. Do you agree with me? I hope so and if you are the speed demon, road hogger, mat rempit, or the kiasu, are you willing to change? For me, I guess I can do it for safer road. What about you?

My journey throughout the decades....

Soon, don't know when, I'll be hitting half-the-century milestone. So today I decided to share with you what I have gone through in the past 40 years. Here, let me take you through the journey....

40 years ago: I was in standard 2. Happily walking to school, playing with my friend, catching fighter fishes from the nearby stream, playing in the rubber tree plantation. Life was so good. No pressure from my parents to outperform my classmate. Live is so much easier and fun back then even though we don't have TV to keep us entertained at night. My great-grandma was the source of our nightly entertainment where she shared with us all the Nenek Kebayan stories, Batu Belah and many more and oh yeah! that lady can sing.

30 years ago: I joined the rank of college students. Leaving the safe and secure environment of my parents home and to live in the unknown environment, sharing a room with 7 others girls who became my sisters during our stayed in college. I went through major transformation from a happily go lucky girl, rugged, mischievous into hmmm.. did I changed? Not really. It is still the same old Zai but what changed was that I covered my hair and perhaps less mischievous.

20 years ago: I joined the rank of professional workers. Worked and trained by one of the best IT company in the world, bought my first car, met my dear hubby and got hitched a one and half year later. The rest is history. Still the same old Zai.

10 years ago: We moved to our new home, gave birth to my second son, bought my third car, move progressively in my career with my current company and rediscover my passion for reading again and my oldest son was in pre-school. Did Zai changed? No Still the same Happy Go Lucky Zai with two kids.

Today: Still loyal with my current employer, has four lovely kids, moving to my new house soon, has cyber friends and enjoying my life to the fullest. I dabble into photography and some other things that I want to do and looking forward to the day I can retire. Any changes to Zai? Yes, she looks older but still a happy go-lucky girl (but my friends said I didn't look like my age, I looked much younger. Sshhh! If you know my age don't tell them).

When I hit half-a-century milestones, may be I'll do this again but for now I gotta go before I revealed more things here...Happy reading!

Maid: Do we have to be at their mercy?

Oh! My dilemma with maid is never ending. In my previous post Maid oh Maid, I was singing praises for my new maid but that only lasted for 4 weeks. My maid has been threatening us about leaving and before she do that, we sent her back to the agent.

Well, maid problem in Malaysia is kind of serious, to me, because the Indonesian government is banning their people to come to Malaysia to work until both government settle on salary, day off and some other issues. To me, I'm fine to accommodate their request but how can the agent or the Indonesian government ensure us that we get what we pay for?

The past experience has made us more wary and selective of hiring the maid from Indonesia as they are know to lack the required skill and also language. So for me to pay the amount they asked, I have no problem but the maid has to be:

1) have some working experience first. There are occasion where the maid doesn't know how to light the gas stove, let alone operating the electrical appliances.

2) the maid must be able to understand some basic language of our Bahasa Malaysia. There was one maid that I had before who totally doesn't understand our language. It was like a duck talking to a chicken and the training is very exhaustive because everything has to be shown with example.

3) be truthful about their age. Since the age legal age is between 21 to 45, they have falsified their birth date to meet the requirement. My latest maid age was 47 years old, which we found out from her passport, and she told the agent and us that her age is only 37. I also have a maid, my best maid ever, who was 18years old but her passport listed her as 25 years old. To me this has shown their insincerity. Be truthful about it as we are going to trust you to take care of our kids.

4) ensure that the maid is responsible and would not disappear from the house leaving your kid at their mercy. I have read and also through some of my friends experience, there are maid who will just pack and leave, leaving your kids at home alone. These runaway maids normally has contact outside and believe me they just leave the house and stay with the construction workers.

5) they are certified to be fit - physically and mentally. There are maids who came here with some mental problem ending up they abuse the kids that they supposed to take care. Some of the employer resorted to install CCTV inside the house to monitor these abusive maid.

6) no practicing of black magic-some of the maid, ewwww they spit or add in their urine into your food or drink. Why they are doing that, only god knows but from what I heard is that they wanted the employer to listen to them and not the other way round where they are supposed to listen to the employer. They also bring with them some kind of charms where they charmed the employer. There were few cases where the husband lost interest with their wife and took the maid as his new wife. Their reason for bringing this charm with them is to make sure the employer will like them. Duh! If you are good, we will like you. No need to charm us.

So how can our government ensure that we get the right kind of maid to serve us? Do we have to be at their mercy? If they imposed conditions to us, shouldn't we have some condition too to ensure the safety of our kids and home when we are away at work?

Do you agree with me that we need some kind of assurance especially when it comes to the safety our little ones? Share with me your thoughts.

Goodbye Ramadhan, Hello Syawal

After a month of fasting, we said goodbye to Ramadhan on 9th August and say hello to Syawal which started on Friday,10th September. As per our tradition, we seek forgiveness in the morning where I led my kids to ask forgiveness from hubby and then the kids asked forgiveness from us. The kids also asked forgiveness among themselves where the younger asked forgiveness from the elders. It also a practice in my family to give them "Duit Raya", money which we put in a special envelope instead of presents.

Raya also mean visiting parents and relatives and you can bet, my parents house was packed with all of us. My older brothers decided not to stay overnight at my parents' house but not for me or my sisters. No matter how packed the house, we will always sleep at my parents' house because there's a lot of stories and gossip to share.

My sisters went back one day before Raya but for me, I only went back on the first day itself. We didn't leave early as usual because my husband and sons decided to have their Friday prayer in Kajang first. So we left 10 minutes before 3pm.

We thought by that time, the traffics will be good but we were wrong. The moment we reached Seremban R&R, the queue started. The 45min drives took us 1 hour plus to reach my parents home. By the time we reached there, we were already hungry because we only had lemang and rendang for lunch.

Well I was not disappointed when I reached my parents home because my favorite "sup tulang" is waiting for me. This raya also saw all my relatives came to our house on the first day of raya. Normally they will come on the second or third day of raya. So we have to reschedule our plan to go to my eldest sister house. By the time we reached her house, there is no more "soto ayam". She has to fried noodles for us.

On second day, we decided to travel back to Kuala Pilah to visit my aunties. We left Seremban at 11am in the morning and I couldn't belief the traffic. The jam was from Bukit Putus all the way to Kuala Pilah and we were stuck in the jam for 1 hour plus. Luckily for me, my hubby was driving so I got the chance to sleep. At my aunt house, we had spaghetti but what I like most was the "ketupat and the kuah kacang". After spending two hours at my aunties houses, we then went to my hubby kampung which is only 20 min but due to the traffic it took us almost double than the time.

At my hubby's kampung, they served us laksa but I can't take it anymore. I have been eating non-stop from morning. I also met my hubby grandma who is about 90 years old and deaf but her eyesight is still good. The last time I saw her was last raya. However her condition is not good and she only sleep the whole time we were there.

We left for Seremban at 5pm and the traffic going back to Seremban was good. At 8pm, we went to my cousin house and this time we had mee curry. On the third day before we left for Kajang, we went to my other cousin house in Senawang. We thought we know Seremban very well but I was wrong. Instead of heading to Senawang, we headed to Bukit Chedang but it was worth it. My cousin served rice, fried chicken, sup tulang mamak style and air bandung. After few days of not having rice, that was the best lunch I had.

So my raya at my parents' house ended when we went back to Kajang that evening. Knowing Seremban -KL Highway was jammed, we decided to use LEKAS highway and it took us just 30 minutes to reach home.

Instead of eating non-stop for three days, I still missed the following foods:

1. Chicken Kurma and Nasi minyak. I think I will cook it this weekend.
2. My mom's and aunties' lemang and rendang.
3. My sister's soto ayam.

And I also forgot to:

1. Pack my little girl's jeans
2. My sons pajamas
3. Buy new songkok for my sons.
4. My cleanser and moisturizer (my little girl took it out from my bag)

So how's your raya? Were you caught in the jam on the first day of raya? Do you miss or forgot anything?

Maid Oh Maid...

After 3 years without maid, finally after months and months of waiting, my maid is here. The months of waiting is worth it as my maid is super efficient except;

• She is almost same age as me (in other words old)
• She understand arabics and little bit english and not Malay (I have to show and explain the words everytime she looks blank)

Because of the language problem, there tends to be some misunderstanding between us and her. There are times we asked for something, she will gave asked some other things. Sometimes it can be hilarious and some other time is can be very frustrating but overtime, she will overcome the language barrier.

When she first came, two weeks ago, she called me Makcik and my hubby Pakcik. At first, I let her get away with it until one day, I can't take it anymore, coz for someone her age to call me Makcik is very rude. I told her to call me "Kakak" or "Ibu"and my hubby "Bapak". She said her agent asked her to call us Makcik and Pakcik. I guess the agent must be someone who doesn't understand our culture.

Talking about the agent, I would have to say, we learnt our lesson well. We have met few agents, paid the advanced money as they requested and then dissapeared with no maid delivered. But this particular maid, she came in without agent but when she landed here, she met this lady who claimed that she can get a job for her. So what this lady did was she sold this poor maid to us for RM4000 whereas she didn't incur any $$$ at all. She made clean profit from the sale of this maid.

I was disgusted when I came to know about this few days ago (my maid told me how her money was swindled by this lady). Alas, it a lesson learned for my maid not to simply approach people for work. She was lucky that this lady didn't sold her to prostitute ring.

For me, I have to thank Allah for sending me a super efficient maid who my kids like her very much.

New Clothes and Eid Mubarak

Today is 15th Ramadhan. It means that we have fasted for 15 days and another 15 days to go before Eid Mubarak. As usual, I will always do my shopping last minutes and most of the time, I would not get what I want.

Last Sunday, I went to Kamdar to buy clothes for my baju kurung. This year I decided to buy extra because I don't have any new baju kurung that I can wear to office. So for 4 pairs of baju kurung, which include 1 for my litte girl, it only cost me less than RM200. I was happy with my purchased.

But when I brought it to my tailor, I had a shocked. For 3 pairs of adult baju kurung and one pair for kids, she charged me RM500. I knew she will charge me extra but I didn't expect that much. I guess these people really make money during festive seasons.

I haven't finish shopping yet. I haven't buy my three sons baju melayu and I guess it will another RM200-RM300. At least they need another pair of clothes each and I can bet that will easily cost me another RM500.00.

I have to say everytime Raya come, we easily will spent between RM1000-RM2000 for clothes, cookies and duit raya. So how much money did you allocate for any major festival. Share with me,

Cerita Baru

Ini adalah teaser untuk cerita Misteri Kotak Hitam yang akan di uploadkan kemudian....

Jeffri dan Haziq baru selesai menonton cerita seram di rumah atuk dan nenek mereka. Mereka bukanlah adik beradik tetapi ayah mereka adalah merupakan anak kepada Pak Ahmad dan Mak Timah. Ayah Jeffri, Hashim, adalah anak sulong Pak Ahmad dan Mak Timah. Dia seorang doktor sementara ayah Haziq, Hassan adalah seorang jurutera.

Mereka akan tinggal di kampong selama dua minggu untuk menolong datuk dan nenek mereka mengutip dan menjual buah. Rumah nenek mereka di kelilingi dengan pokok-pokok buah-buahan seperti manggis, langsat, rambutan, limau, mata kuching, duku dan di belakang rumah nenek mereka banyak pokok buah durian.

Nenek mereka juga telah menyediakan tempat tidur mereka di bilik atas berhampiran dengan anjung rumah. Bilik itu sudah lama tak di huni sejak makcik Halimah mereka berkahwin dan menetap di bandar.

Bilik itu agak besar juga dan ada dua buah tingkap di bilik itu. Satu menghadap ke hadapan rumah dan satu tingkap pula mengadap ke tepi rumah mereka. Tingkap bilik tertutup rapi untuk mengelakkan nyamuk masuk.

“Aku tidur kat tingkap,” kata Haziq yang setahun muda dari Jeffri.

“Okaylah. Aku bagi peluang kat kau.”

Mereka baru saja mahu melelapkan mata apabila terdengar bunyi tapak kaki di atas bumbung. Mereka berpandangan antara satu sama lain.

“Bunyi apa tu?” bisik Haziq pada Jeffri perlahan.

“Tak tahu.” Jawab Jeffri.

Mereka cuba mendengar lagi bunyi itu tetapi tidak ada. Haziq menarik langsir menutup cermin tingkap itu.

“Kuching agaknya,” kata Jeffri. “Jomlah tidur.”

“Aku takut.”

“Tak ada apalah. Baca Bismillah dan aya 3 Qul,” kata Jeffri.

Haziq masih merasa seram tetapi di lawannya perasaan itu. Dia merapatkan badannya pada Jeffri.

“Eh! Apa ni?”

Haziq diam tidak menjawab. Dia menutup matanya rapat-rapat dan terus membaca ayat-ayat yang diingatinya. Dia merasa lega kerana bunyi itu tidak ada lagi. Dia terus lena. Tepat pukul 1 tengah malam, tiba-tiba katil mereka di goncang. Jeffri dan Haziq terjaga dan memandang sekeliling. Semua seperti biasa.

Haziq betul-betul takut kali ini. Degupan jantungnya kuat. Kedua-dua belah tangannya sejuk. Sementara Jeffri tidak menunjukkan sebarang reaksi pun. Seolah-olah kejadian itu hanya satu illusi saja.

“Jeffri, kau rasa tak?” tanya Haziq.

“Ada. Kau buat apa sampai bergoncang katil?”

“Tak ada apa. Aku tengah tidur. Kau tak?”

“Tak lah. Aku pun tidur juga,” kata Jeffri.

Mereka menyambung tidur semula dan kali ini mereka di kejutkan dengan bunyi bising di atas bumbung. Kemudian terdengar bunyi tapak kaki seperti ada orang berjalan. Kali ini Haziq memeluk Jeffri dan badannya mengigil ketakutan. Jeffri juga berasa takut. Mereka terus lari keluar dari bilik menuju bilik atuk mereka.

“Tok! Tok! Buka pintu,” kata mereka sambil mengetuk pintu bilik atuk mereka.
Pak Ahmad bangun dan membuka pintu bilik. Dia kehairanan melihat anak cucunya pucat
dan ketakutan.

“Kenapa ni Jeffi, Haziq?” tanya Pak Ahmad.

“Ada bunyi orang jalan kat atas bumbung,” jawab Jeffri.

“Ya, tuk! Haziq takut tuk. Boleh tidur dengan atuk tak?”

“Bunyi apa? Kat mana?” tanya atuknya lagi.

“Bunyi kuat tuk, Bunyi macam orang jalan,” jelas Haziq.

“Ahh! Mungkin perasaan kamu aja tak?

“Tak tok. Betul. Mula-mula Haziq dengar dia jalan pastu katil kami kena goncang dan akhir sekali bunyi jalan balik kat atas bumbung.”

“Baiklah. Mari atuk temankan kau orang tidur kat atas. Atuk pasti tak aka nada apa-apa yang berlaku.”

Mereka pun kembali ke bilik mereka. Kali ini Haziq tidur di tengah-tengah di apit oleh Jeffri dan Pak Ahmad. Dia berasa selamat kerana atuknya tidur bersama mereka. Tanpa di sedari oleh mereka, ada sepasang mata memerhati mereka.

Ramadhan Mubarak and my family

Today is the 5th day of Ramadhan. Let me summarise my first 4 days of Ramadhan.

Day 1: Everything went smoothly. The boys went to Terawih with their atuk and for the sahur we had mee hoon and rice. As usual, I have my coffee at 5.30am. Except for my husband who suffered migrane the whole day, there was no major drama.

Day 2: For sahur, we ate rice with chicken rendang and omelette. Drama also started on the second day. My husband and me were having bad migrane. In fact, it was a struggled for me to drive home as I felt like vomitting. Alhamdulillah, no vomitting. My oldest and second son were also down with fever but alhamdulillah they continue to fast. Because of migrane and fever, nobody went for Terawih prayer

Day 3: I recovered from migrane and was basically active on the 3rd day. My sons were still down with fever but not as bad as the previous day. My hubby still having migrane on the 3rd day. Since my in-law have gone back to Seremban, I have to leave early to fetch my youngest two from my brother in-law's house. Since there was nothing at home, I bought Kuih Pelita and Soto ayam at Plaza Sentral. On the way home, it was raining heavily and I was stuck in the jam for over an hour. Went straight to my brother-in-law house which is only 5 minutes away from my house. Hubby bought nasi beriyani for buka puasa.

Day 4: All of us woke up for sahur including my little girl and my third son. This will be their first fasting. So for sahur, my dear hubby went and bought McDonald as the kids wanted McDonald. For me, I don't really fancy heavy stuff for sahur and just ate half of my portion. My little girl broke her fast at 11am and so is my 3rd son but they only take a sip of ice Milo. The boy didn't eat anything for the rest of the day so I have to give him credit for that. We also have family buka puasa at my sister house where all 38 of us were there. Lot's of food and thanks to my sisters and nieces they cooked fabulous foods. We left early because we need to go to Mid Valley to exchange something that we bought last week. On the way home, we stopped at JM Beriyani for our favorite drinks "Teh Tiga Rasa". It was very tiring day.

So I have to say that the first 4 days of Ramadhan has not been good for us as we were down with fever and migrane and not able to perform our Terawih. Insyallah tonight I hope we will be able to perform our Terawih.

Thank you for reading

Dendam Bukit Putus was the first story that I completely finished writing it. When I first started it, it was meant to be a short story where I targeted it to finish within a week. But somehow the story evolved and by the time I finished, it was 120 pages long and it needs me 6 weeks to upload it to my blog.

I have to thank my readers who has kind of encourage me to continue writing the story. If not, I would have stop much earlier.

As you know I'm not a writer and when I first started it, I was kind of bored with my day job. It started when I was staring at the documents that I need to review when suddenly I was struck with the idea. So instead of writing the idea on my black book, I quickly type it here and from there the story evolved.

I have no plot when I first started it but the idea keep on pouring. I enjoy writing about Zuki, Halim and Zeila and also the makhluk. I might do a second story with Halim still as the hero.

Will Zeila feature in the second book? Hmmm not sure yet. Maybe yes maybe no. Only time will tell.

To my blog readers, thank you for reading Dendam Bukit Putus.

Dendam Bukit Putus - Episode Akhir

“Awak okay?” tanya Halim sambil berpusing memandang Zeila.

Zeila mengangguk kepalanya dan Halim menghulur tangannya pada Zeila. Zeila menyambut tangan Halim dan Halim menariknya bangun.

“Ouchhhh!” jerit Zeila kesakitan.

Memandang Zeila kesakitan, makhluk itu terus menyerang mereka. Kali ini Halim lebih bersedia dan menahan dengan kedua-dua tangannya. Makhluk itu jatuh terperlanting dan terbaring. Melihat makhluk itu terbaring, Halim cepat-cepat mengangkat kaki mahu memijaknya tetapi makhluk itu tangkas bangun mengelak Halim.

Memandang Zeila tidak boleh bergerak, Halim menjauhkan dirinya dari Zeila dan besedia melawan makhluk itu. Sementara itu Zeila terus membaca ayat-ayat yang telah di ajar dan akhirnya dia boleh menggerakan kakinya. Dia cuba berlari ke keretanya tetapi harimau besar itu berada tidak jauh darinya.

“Alamak. Macam mana ini?” kata Zeila.

Dia akhirnya berlari kearah kambing itu. Halim terus bertarung dengan makhluk itu. Halim jatuh tersungkur apabila terkena tendangan makhluk itu. Zeila yang melihat Halim jatuh berhampiran dengan gaung itu, terus berlari kearah Halim.

Makhluk itu cuba menghalang Zeila tetapi Zeila lebih pantas dan menarik Halim naik. Halim tercedera terkena pukulan makhluk itu. Darah keluar dari mulutnya. Zeila cemas melihat Halim sebegitu.

“Halim, awak okay ke?” tanya Zeila.

Halim mengangguk kepalanya dan cuba bangun tetapi gagal. Zeila cuba mengangkat Halim tetapi tidak berdaya. Melihat Halim terbaring, makhluk itu terus mahu menyerang Halim. Memandang mahkluk itu datang menyerang, Zeila bertekad untuk melawan makhluk itu.

Dia yang tidak lupa membaca ayat yang di beri oleh Halim dengan pantas bangun menahan serangan mahkluk itu. Makhluk itu tergamam dengan pukulan Zeila. Pukulan Zeila lebih kuat dan menyakitkan daripada Halim.

Melihat Zeila dapat menahan serangan mahkluk itu, Halim mengangguk kepalanya memberi persetujuan. Sementara itu, Halim cuba bangun. Zeila cepat-cepat menolong Halim. Melihat Zeila dan Halim bersama di tepi tebing itu, makhluk itu terus menyerang Halim. Tetapi kali ini Halim telah bersedia. Halim menahan serangan makhluk itu dan pada waktu yang sama Zeila telah melepaskan satu pukulan pada leher mahkluk itu.

Makhluk itu kesakitan dan melihat paduan Zeila dan Halim amat kuat, dia meghilangkan diri. Zeila dan Halim berpandangan antara satu sama lain. Mereka dengan perlahan berjalan menuju ke kereta. Belum sempat sampai ke kereta, Zeila terasa ditarik tangannya dan apabila dia berpusing di lihatnya makhluk itu cuba membawa dia pergi.

Dia meronta dari makhluk itu dan pada masa yang sama Halim berpusing dan melepaskan tendangan tepat pada dada makhluk itu. Makhluk itu terpelanting agak jauh dan terduduk. Halim terus melepaskan tendangan pada makhluk itu dan makhluk itu kalah dan tidak terdaya melawan Halim.

Dia terus menghilangkan diri. Tidak lama kemudian kambing putih itu juga hilang. Yang terdengar hanya bunyi kambing mengembek. Kabus tebal itu juga telah mula berkurangan sedikit demi sedikit.

“Uhh! Lega dia dah pergi bawa kambing itu,” kata Halim yang masih sakit.

Zeila berhenti berjalan tanpa disedari oleh Halim.

“Halim! Halim!” panggil Zeila perlahan.

Halim berpusing apabila melihat Zeila memanggilnya. Zeila menunjukkan harimau yang masih ada di tepi kereta mereka.

“Ooopppss!” kata Halim sambil berundur kearah Zeila.

“Macam mana ni?” kata Zeila.

Halim panik kerana dia tidak tahu macam mana hendak melawan harimau itu. Lama mereka berdiri di situ memandang harimau itu. Akhir sekali harimau itu mengaum kuat dan beredar pergi dari situ. Halim dan Zeila masih terdiri di tempat yang sama apabila harimau itu hilang tiba-tiba.

Zeila dan Halim berlari ke kereta dan apabila Halim membuka pintu kereta, Zeila masuk di sebelah pemandu dan Halim sebelahnya.

“Eh! Bagi saya bawa,” kata Halim.

“Tak pa. Biar saya bawa sebab awak cedera. Lagipun ini kereta saya,” kata Zeila.

Halim menyerahkan kunci keretanya pada Zeila. Zeila menghidupkan enjin keretanya dan di waktu yang sama awan gelap mula datang dari arah gaung. Zeila dengan cepat memandu keretanya kearah rumahnya.

Sepanjang perjalanan balik, awan hitam itu mengekori mereka hinggalah ke rumah. Bila Zeila dan Halim berhenti, ibu Zeila serta ayahnya dan Zuki sudah sedia menunggu.
Zuki membawa Halim masuk kerana dia cedera. Halim meminta air dan menyuruh Zuki mengambil botol minyak kecilnya.Selepas minum air dan menyapu minyak, Halim tidur.

Sementara itu Zeila menceritakan pada mereka apa yang berlaku. Dia juga menceritakan pasal harimau yang di mengekori mereka dan pergi setelah mereka berjaya menewaskan mahkluk itu.

Pada esok harinya, bangkai kambing putih itu di jumpai tidak jauh dari rumah Zeila. Mereka terperanjat melihat bangkai itu dan bersyukur mahkluk itu menerima pertukaran itu.


Dua minggu kemudian…..

Zeila telah pulih dan kembali bertugas. Begitu juga dengan Halim. Kecederaannya pulih setelah dia mendapat rawatan seterusnya dari Ustaz Kasim. Tiada lagi gangguan di kampong Zeila dan orang-orang kampong sudah mula kembali keluar malam.

Tiba-tiba mereka di gegarkan dengan berita kemalangan ngeri yang berlaku di Bukit Putus. Pemandu kereta itu seorang gadis telah maut apabila keretanya jatuh ke dalam gaung.

Jauh di atas bukit itu, makhluk itu tersenyum puas kerana telah berjaya mendapat apa yang di hajatinya.


~~~~TAMAT~~~~