Birthday Party and K-Pop

Today is my youngest sister’s birthday. Happy birthday Arda! Welcome to the 40’s club. It’s a good club.

On Saturday, her husband, Zali, threw a party to celebrate her birthday. He did it on Saturday because he wanted the rest of the family to join and celebrate the big day with him. Unfortunately, me and my husband didn’t make it to the party because my immediate neighbor has kenduri, but we sent our kids to join and celebrate the big day.

My kids were very excited because it has been quite some time since they been at their Mak Net’s house. They love to be at my sister house because they can swim and they can perform. True enough, when my sister Arda sent them back on Sunday morning, I received a full report on what they did.

Amir, Zaki, and Zara performed their K-Pop routine in front of my family members, and was joined by my grand niece, the Little Maryam. What a surprised because they are normally shy kids. But I guess they are no more shy kids and ready to show their skills.

Zaki has been practicing his dance routines every day without failed whereas Zara and Amir would only practice as and when they like. I wonder if they can be fully dedicated to their K-Pop, why can’t they be dedicated to practicing their music or to revising their studies. Hmmm…. I must find a way to make them practice their music and do their revisions.

Zara and Zaki also drew something for her favorite aunt and gave it to her as her birthday presents. You can see the different here. Zara is the better artist than Zaki. Agreed? All my kids seem to inherit the artistic side from their grand father except Amir, who is into sports. At least one of them followed my foot step. Sport!

Okay, it’s lunch time now, and my stomach is growling. Time to hunt for lunch.

Salam.

Tawaf and Saie - Hajj Part 7

Since the trip to Mina was hectic, we were told to rest for a day or two before we continue with tawaf and saie. However, Cik Yam Turkiye and me took an extended break. We had our best friends visited us. She had hers before we leave for Arafah whereas mine was when we were at Arafah.

My husband, who was down with a bad flu and cough didn't do it either. He wanted to wait for me, but after the third day in Mecca, he decided to do his Tawaf and Saie. Whereas for me, I waited patiently and have to ensure that I’m totally clean. Tawaf has the strictest rule among all the rituals.

For the Tawaf to be consider completed and accepted, the person has to be clean and with wuduq. Nothing should come out from the front or from the back, and that including gas. For women, the surat has to be covered (only face and hands are allowed to be exposed).

On the seventh day, I though I was clean. I cleansed myself, and before I can proceed with my Tawaf, my menses came again. The pattern continues until a week before we left for Madinah. I was worried if I have to delay my trip to Madinah. Alhamdulillah, on the eleventh days, I was finally clean.

I told my husband, and he was very happy that I finally would be able to do my Tawaf. I took my wuduq, wore my telekung and carried my sling bag with me. I told my husband he could do a Sunat Tawaf. Before we left for Masjidil Haram, I had a quick looked at the TV. The place surrounding the Kaabah was packed with people.

Since the ground floor is packed with people, I told my husband to go to the second floor where there were less people. However, we have to cover a bigger circumference to complete the circles. Since this is my first time doing it at the second floor, we looked for the start points. I pointed to hubby the green marked that indicated the start and end point for the Tawaf.

After saying few words of prayer, we started our first round. As we went round, we couldn't see the marking of Sudut Yamani. We continue to walk until I saw the green marking.

"Eh! We are back at the starting point," I said.
"It’s okay," he said.

But it was not okay with me. I told hubby that we need to start all again. Instead of doing seven rounds, we did eight rounds. After we had completed the round, we went back to the hotel first. Firstly, I need to ensure that there's no discharge for the nexttwenty hours, and secondly because my husband was still weak. He had a bad attacked of cough and flu, and he only fully recovered in Malaysia.

After waited for twenty-four hours and there was no more discharge, we continued we Saie. Saie is another ritual where we have to walk from Bukit Safa to Bukit Marwah for seven rounds, and the total distance is less than 3km.

We didn’t do it at the same floor with the Kaabah where there were many people. My hubby took me to the basement. There were not many people initially, and I was enjoying my routine, slow and steady. My hubby, who has completed his ritual earlier, walked with me and encouraged me whenever I felt some back strained, even though he was not feeling well.

Since he was still weak, he asked me to bring along my chair. As we finished one round, he would sit and wait for me to say my dua. Once done, he would fold the chair and carry with him, until we reached the next. When I completed the last round of the Saie, I was overcome with an emotion. I finally achieved my dream of completing my Hajj, and I did it on my own even though I have back pained.

I have to thanks my husband who encouraged me to do all the routines by myself. Without his constant support and encouragement, I might not be able to do those routines, as sometimes my back pains would get really bad.

On the way back to the hotel, I told my hubby that we could start our shopping.


Okay, I stop here first and would give my last update on my haj trip – Our visit to Madinah.

It's my little girl birthday.

Ahh.. My blog has been very quiet for the past few weeks. It's not that I have lost interest, but I have been very busy with my work and my family. Furthermore, my health has not been very good lately.

But I promised that I would try to update my blog at least once a week. It is better than nothing, right!

Well, on Sunday, it was my little girl's sixth birthday. She has been talking about it for days, but she didn't have any specified thing that she wants as her present. So on her big day, we decided to give her drawing materials since she likes to draw so much.

Heh! My old house in Kajang was full of her drawings. Whenever she got upset with me or her dad or her grandpa, she would just drew one big mark on the wall. Luckily, she didn't do it here in the new house; otherwise, it would be a child's gallery number two.

Oh ya! She did asked one thing from her dad. Sunglasses, but her dad didn't buy it for her. He said he couldn't find it, but hmmm...I'm sure. If he put an effort to go and find it, he definitely would get it. Huh Man!!!!

So my little princess cried until Syafiq has to pacify her. Syafiq is really a good, big brother. He knows how to handle her little sister. Since she's her daddy's girl, the father took us out to dinner at Pizza San Francisco. She asked where’s her cake, but we told her that it would be later after her ‘mengaji’ class.

We bought Tiramisu cake for her from Secret Recipe, and after her ‘mengaji’ class, together with her Ustaz, we wished her Happy Birthday. She was very happy. While waiting for the rest to finish their cake, Syafiq gave Zara her first present. Amir was giggling while Zaki was super excited, and so was Syafiq. Zara smiled, and she quickly tore the wrappers.

Her super excited diminished with what she saw. "Oh! Sabun (soap)", she said disappointedly and gave away the soap to Syafiq. Eventhough, she smiled, but she looked as if she wanted to cry. Syafiq, who has a soft spot for Zara, quickly told her that there were more gifts in the living room. She jumped from her chair and ran to the living room.

"Wah! Banyaknya (so many)," exclaimed Zaki.

As Zara opened her gifts one by one, Zaki got upset because he didn't get his present.

"Didn't we give you few things earlier?" I said.

"It was not many as Zara," he cried.

Well that the challenge of having kids, whose age gap are close to each other. Luckily, my little princess was willing to share her presents and gave him one of her drawing materials to her brother. Well, she still has so many other things and the most treasured gift was the Angry Bird Soft toy from Syafiq. She took it with her to bed.

Zara, ibu wish you Happy Sixth Birthday. Semoga Allah jadikan Zara anak dan juga muslimah yang soleh, dan di kurniakan dengan segala kejayaan di dunia dan juga di akhirat. Amin.

Lesson learnt in Mina - Hajj Part 6

I was totally exhausted from the long walk, and also I had some pain to my legs. The next morning, my husband asked me whether I’m okay to precede with the ritual or whether I wanted to proxy him to do it on my behalf. I told him that I would let him know later.

Since there were not many activities during the day, I was able to recuperate and ready to go for the stoning ritual myself. After the Magrib’s prayer, I waited for the announcement. This time, I brought with me my chair that I have been using for prayer.

I gave the chair to my husband who helped to carry it without much complaint. Since we know our way to the place, we didn't bother to follow our group. We took our own sweet time to reach the Jamrah. Just like the previous night, we again took a break, and this time, we have chair that we can sit on when we took a break. We took turned to sit. 
  
This time, we brought twenty one stones as we need to throw seven stones to each Jamrah. The first Jamrah is Jamrah Ula, followed by Jamrah Wusta and lastly Jamrah Kubrah. After that we said dua before we headed home.

This routine was similar on the 11, 12 but on the 13th Hijrah, instead of after Maghrib’s we have to do it in the morning after the Subuh’s prayer. Whoa… I was worried as I might not have enough time to recover, but I prayed hard so that I can continue with the ritual.

Alhamdulillah, when the time comes, I was able to go and continue with the stoning of the devil ritual. But this time, my hubby forgot to carry his water, and on the way back, we had run out of water.

As we took a break and watched people passing by, suddenly out of nowhere, a guy came and distributes free mineral water. We were so grateful, and my hubby took two bottles from him.

When we reached our camp, we can't wait to go back to Mecca, but we have to wait for the announcement for our turn. When it was our turn to leave, a fully air-conditioned bus, which was meant for the al-Maas package (this package cost RM125, 000) stopped and took us back to Mecca. We happily boarded the bus, and on the way back, we saw most of the pilgrims have already made their way back to Mecca.

The short journey, 7.5Km, took more than 3 hours as the traffic jam was very bad. When we reached Mecca, the road leading to our hotel was closed as people already getting ready to pray. The bus driver dropped us near the hotel, and we have to walk back to the hotel. Luckily it was not that far.

Once we reached the room, the first thing that we do was rush for is the bathroom. Everybody took her time to shower, and after performing the Zuhur’s prayer, we headed to the restaurant for lunch, and then laundry mart.

When I looked back, the experience in Arafat, Mudzalifah and Mina, cannot be replaced. It was very precious as it thought me the meaning of being patient, tolerance and humble. It also made me realize that, in Mina, everybody is equal, whether you are Prime Minister, CEO, Datuk, Datin, Doctor or just a poor farmer.


I would stop here and would continue with the last two rituals before one can be called Haji or Hajjah.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Happy New Year! Happy New Year! I hope you have a great year, and I hope mine too.

Last year was a mixed year for me, but I was happy. I achieved my personal goal that is I went to Mecca to perform my Hajj last year. Eventhough my life and work have been great last year, but my health has been taking a dip.

Beside my slipped disc and knee problem, I have been having some pain at the back of my left leg. I thought it was nothing, until last week I cannot really walk. I was basically limping and dragging my leg, and when I went to see my doctor, she told me that I have Achilles tendonitis.

Whoa…it means I need to rest my leg. No walking! She gave me one day rest, and today I still feel the pain when I walked to the office. Ahh!! I can’t afford to take MC at the beginning of the year.

If I do have to go for long medical leave, I hope my boss would understand. Would he? Heh! I let you guess that, but I do hope that I would recover from my current health problem, and be healthy again. That’s my wish for this year, to be healthy and stress free.

What about you? What’s your wish for this year?