Weekend Stuff

Last weekend was one of the weekends that I did much more than lazying around the house, falling in and out of sleep. Brought about by 2 separate occasions in 2 different places. We had to attend this birthday do by my sister at the ikan bakar jetty on Saturday night and yet make it to the bowling alleys on Sunday morning 10am in the Lengkungan. Not that stressful, I know but definitely requires a lot more commitment then those sombre, easy weekend mode.

Initially, we had planned to detour to the beach home en route to the land of Tidak Melayu Hilang di Dunia even to visit the sis-in-law whom just came back from a Cik Kiah entourage to visit the Queen and maybe pick up some of her English while they were there. Fortunately (ahem!) due to some commitments that she had on her side, the detour was cancelled.

So we duly made our way to the Path of the Elephants after devouring some breakfast at Subaidah. Drove sanely around 120km/h mostly except at the only stretch that should've mattered, underneath that Pedas/ Linggi interchange when I drove slightly above 120 to overtake that coasting Proton in the middle lane only to discover a traffic monitor beaming his laser gun proudly under the shade of the interchange. I just checked the e-gomen service and so far, so good. No saman ekor yet. Arrived only to discover with the exception of my uncle's family, the whole gangbang was already there with the house bursting at its seams containing some 20 adults and adolescences and 25 little children running around minding their own businesses.

It had been been since I last went to those infamous ikan bakar venues. I don't fancy the weekend and long holiday crowds and considering the state is not that big, it will still take me quite some time to get to the other end of state, easily spending almost an hour despite the nicely built, traffic-light infested dual-lane carriageway door-to-door. While the fishes are generally palatable, stingrays were never my favourite fish and was more looking forward to those simple little nasik lemaks that I have failed miserably in finding its rival in the mighty Klang Valley for those little red spicy top. Since it was pre-booked Anjung Batu spot, we did not have to fight our way through the crowd and hung around for some time before making our way back to my mum's picking up some durians from my friends house which regretfully I had to live with the smell for the next 72 hours or so. But hey! At least the scale is still tipped to my side with wifey and Alyssa the durian-obsessed creatures and the durianophobic Amelya, Athyra and myself. And I fell asleep on the sofa in no time.

We had to set the record time to be coming back to KL to be able to make it as opposed to the 6pm norms and surprisingly we did. Shot off around 8:30 and arrived and the Lengkungan at around 9:40, also a record time. I was surprised that the old, twisted cow could still be cruising comfortably without much complain going by the minimum speed of 140km/h (apologies to pb). Somehow with the absence of gart and the prior advise to some of those really terrer people to screw up their games, our group managed secure the no 1 spot. I'm not complaining though while distributing the contents of the hamper among my 4 group members.

The rest of the family couldn't be there to witness my maiden victory because Alyssa had to be somewhere else accompanied by wifey at 12pm. The "workshop" (more like a promotion for their tuition class) about being left/ right brained kept me thinking of how left (means not good in their terms) brained I am.

That was the last real agenda for the weekend so the afternoon was happily spent on the normal itinerary of mass-napping, surprisingly joined by all of the kids up the wee hours of the afternoon.

Community Service Reminder

Received this from one of my MC friend in our mailing list. Reminds me of how fragile we are and what rezeki from Allah is all about. In just one single twist of fate, everything would go haywire and we are at the mercy of Him.

This event occurred recently while his brother's family were holidaying in London during the recent school holiday. Any advise in alleviating their predicament would also be welcomed actually.

To Xantheusian,

Thank you for the concerns, doa, advise and assistance given.

I arrive in London this morning, saw my niece and able to get a better understanding of the situation.

Basically, my niece was attacked by Pneumococcal Bacteria. So, it was classified as Pneumonia. Last Friday, she had difficulty breathing, and medical assistance was called from the hotel. Subsequently, she was brought to St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, London.

Within hours, her condition deteriorated. Her lungs collapse. The bacteria also releases toxins into the body that affected her heart, kidneys and liver. She was very critical. Alhamdulillah, when I saw her this morning, her conditions has slightly improved. She has been taken off the drugs that helps her heart pumping (her heart is now pumping on its own), her lungs have partly able to pump by itself, and partly assisted by a ventilator, her kidneys is still not fuctioning, but generally doctors said it is critical but stable, and describe her conditions as day to day compared to hour to hour previously.

As far as she is concern, we believe she is getting the best medical treatment possible. Our assistance for her is to doa for her recovery. Many people have done solat hajat, yassin hajat and other prayers for her. Hopefully the doa and prayers continues. May Allah grant all the doa and prayers and she recovers back to health.

Her conditions have shown positive signs, and next is for her to be able to breath without machine help. Doctors mentioned that it will take to recover to the extend where she is in any position to be brought home.

According to the Doctor, pneumonia is an illness not covered under the free treatment given by NHS for foreigners. Therefore, my brother have to pay full amount.

Amir, maybe you can help ask your old consultant about NHS coverage on this matter or if any special appeal could be done and considered for atleast some reduction in medical cost.

Currently, the ICU charges is 2500 UK pound a day (almost RM15000 a day). If she improves and able to be put under normal ward, the charges would be around 750 UK pound a day (almost RM4500 a day). At the ICU rate, the travel insurance that my brother took would cover for another 2 weeks. After that, is when we need to have some sort of funds for the medical cost, as we don’t know how many weeks she will be in the hospital until her conditions allows her to come home for treatment. That is why I am trying to find out any form of advice or assistance available in coping with the cost after the insurance runs out in 2 weeks time.

Swiney Thingy

All these while, I have only been reading about it in the newspapers or seeing and hearing the news bulletin. Well, yeah, it is up to the pandemic level declared by some god-knows officials in the WHO whom are sitting very cosily in their hermetically-sealed office somewhere up there in the Alpines. Or how our own gomen are giving conflicting messages by saying both people should not be panicking because everything is under control and all these cases confirmed in our bolehland are in fact "imported" ones from overseas and no local transmission has been detected. And yet, at the same time, reminding people how easily this disease could be transmitted and proceed everything that you do in life with extreme caution and avoid unnecessary socialising stuff etcetera etcetera.

However, somehow slowly this virus seems to be inching towards home ground. Surely, my desk job, deeply rooted home-bound lifestyle does not much translate much into the risk contracting the disease under foreseeable circumstances (or wifey for that matter). But signs of the impending approaches are already rearing its ugly head. A colleague who came back from the land down under (not the epicentre of the spread though thankfully) was showing signs of either cold or flu symptoms (definitely not observations as made clear by hafiz in one of his entry) such as sneezing, red and runny nose about a week after she came back. And the last I heard (and I don't bump into her that much it seems) she was just dismissing it as a common cold which has nothing to be worried about. True enough, under different circumstances, I'd be one of those last ones to be rushing to the clinic to at the first sign of fever or coughs and would bear through it until wifey would be sick enough of listening to my big baby whining and forced me to get my big butt to the clinic. But this is not a normal circumstance and I surely would hope she would get herself checked. On second thoughts, I did not see her at the office at all today so probably gart or somebody else has finally knocked some senses into her head.

Moreover, I was also informed by my colleague this afternoon that his sister has been sent away to the Hospital Sungai Buloh because she has become a suspect case of one. And she has not been travelling anywhere lately so would she go down the record as the first locally-transmitted swiney case? Only time and some samples of her blood would tell, I guess.

As for now, I am not in the panicky stage yet. Shaqeef has been enduring his cough for about a week. Not those disheartening, consistent cough but more like a little coughing in the morning and almost non-existent throughout the day kind of cough though it did degenerate into those deep, chesty cough but Alhamdulillah he recovered by the time we got back from the office in the evening so considering that he's only turning 5 months old at the end of the month, I have held out the clinic visit for now. Not quite a big fan of drugs especially given to such a small baby unnecessarily.

Or should I be panicking now already?

For Fathers and Mothers too

I have always been subscribed to Saifulislam.com. One thing that I like most about the ustaz is how he incorporates things that can be viewed as very secular such as watching movies, books, current political and historical events from an Islamic perspective. Here's an excerpts of one of his entry entitled Tidurlah Sayang.

Semasa bermastautin di negara Barat, ada banyak perkara yang saya perhati dan kemudiannya menjadi pelajaran buat diri. Saya selalu berasa teruja apabila berinteraksi dengan anak-anak Irisih yang datang berkunjung ke masjid. Ramai dari kalangan mereka mempunyai budi bahasa yang baik dan tertib semasa masuk ke masjid. Hingga terdetik di hati saya, bagaimanakah cara ibu bapa mereka mendidik anak-anak ini?

Saya yakin, tidak ada cacat dan kurangnya pada Islam. Tetapi mengapa sebagai Muslim, ada kalanya budi bahasa dan ketertiban diri anak-anak itu sukar untuk dicari?

Tanpa Islam, bagaimana mereka mendidik anak-anak dengan nilai yang murni?

Ada sesuatu di sana.

Also from the entry, he quoted a poem by Diane Loomans.

If I Had My Child to Raise Over Again
By Diane Loomans

If I had my child to raise all over again,
I’d finger-paint more, and point the fingers less.
I would do less correcting and more connecting.
I’d take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes.

I would care to know less and know to care more.
I’d take more hikes and fly more kites.
I’d stop playing serious, and seriously play.
I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars.

I’d do more hugging and less tugging.
I’d build self-esteem first, and the house later.
I would be firm less often, and affirm much more.
I’d teach less about the love of power, And more about the power of love.

Definitely a food for thought for me.

7 Thingy Tag

Ok Famy. Another hutang from you. Here it comes.

The 7 Things Tag

7 facts you may not know about me:

1. I'm short. Well not midget short but definitely not as tall as I would like it to be. Well, apart from aesthetics, would've been nice to be able to spike those volleyball wherever I fancied if only I were taller, and when I could jump before


2. I had an ACL reconstruction surgery on my left knee a very long time ago, possibly in 1995. A quick check by my ortho friend 2 weeks ago pronounced that it was brilliantly done and my knee is still almost as good new.


3. I was breastfed until very late apparently. In tandem with my younger brother who is 2 years younger than I am. That should explain the everlasting fascination with the upper torso region of the opposite sex.


4. I started getting my wisdom tooth really early. Probably when I was 20 years old or so, if I remember correctly. And had the complete set of adult homosapien teeth by 29 years old. All still there, the last time I checked. Biologically aging faster. Ah well. At least somebody told me before I look better as I age :p


5. Only had 1 other girlfriend before I got married to the One at the age of 28. Somehow I found it difficult to find a suitable one when I was really looking


6. I used to drive very fast. Not anymore. At least I did not change into those low profile, 17 inch rims for cosmetic purposes only. I have been caught (and got away scot-free) driving at 150km/h in an 80km/h zone


7. When it comes to appearance, I'm very seasonal. There are times when I just don't really care how I look like and when I am so vain, checking out the mirror all the time. But lately, it's the former rather than latter mostly

7 things that scare me:

1. Commitment. Refer to no. 5 up there


2. Road accidents. I have been in a few though Alhamdulillah now all had been material but not mortal damage


3. Wife?! Bukan takut... sayang...


4. Going downstairs in the middle of the night to get a glass of water. But then, if the man of the house takut, who else la kan. So, gain enough courage and just go lah


5. Creepy crawlies really creeping on my feet. I don't mind chasing after or use a broom to brush it off but if those damn lizards somehow landed on my feet, those minute cold paws would bring shivers down to my spine... grrr!


6. Height. Imagine looking downwards from a 25th floor apartment's balcony. Heavenly.


7. The opposite sex. Or at least I used to be when I was in secondary school. Now I've learned to live with many of them around.

7 songs that I like the most:

Many, this one. I'll give the first 7 songs that I have in my recent playlist

1. Dewi by Dewa19


2. Aku Mau by Once


3. Ayat-ayat Cinta by Rossa


4. No Air by Chris Brown


5. Bohemian Rhapsody by Fugees


6. Won't Go Home Without You by Maroon 5 (my ring tone also)


7. Kekasih Gelapku by Ungu

7 phrases that I say the most:

1. Salam. Standard intro in chats


2. How are you today? That would normally come after no 1


3. Adess


4. ooooo


5. Ngantuk!!!


6. I'm hungry!!!


7. Apa nak makan ni? (while scratching my head thinking of what kind of canteen food that I can stomach for another day while pacing up and down the aisle)

7 of my precious things:

1. My glasses, definitely can't live (see) without it.


2. My wedding ring. While the silver ring has many scratches due to the normal wear and tear, the amethyst stone is still shining brightly.


3. My watch, bequeathed from my aruah father. Battery is dead but I am still wearing it everywhere


4. My pants. I'm not really into a habit of walking around naked you know. Ok should include t-shirt, shirt or anything to wear on top also


5. My hair! Or should I say the lack of it. Cannot see those receding hairline or thinning population of those black thingy? You're not looking hard enough


6. Ah well I don't need to be explicit about it. I won't be a man without it.


7. And of course the cliche, my family ehehehe. Hey I'm running out of smart ideas here

7 memorable first timers:

1. First time I was away from home at 13 years old in a boarding school. Superbly homesick and was compounded by loneliness because I was isolated in the district hospital. I contracted chicken pox on the first week.


2. First time the opposite sex expressed her interest in me when I was 16 years old. Rasa hensem, cakap lu. Especially when the woman said something like why was I born 6 years earlier than you are


3. First time I could not answer the Add Math question that was presented to me, and it was in SPM! Had my first experience of mental block, in the exam. Damn! Sweating profusely. Needless to say, I did not get the coveted A1 that I expected to get :(


4. First time setting my foot in the land of down under. So gayat and surreal to actually feel cold while the sun is shining brightly in the sky.


5. First time breaking up with a girlfriend. Heartbroken wa cakap lu. Cerita lama sangat dah tu


6. First night sleeping with my newly-wed wife only to find her sleeping on the floor. She could not sleep due to the melodious orchestra that I would conduct in my sleep. Ah well, no more complaints nowadays. Alah bisa, tegal biasa.


7. First time holding my own daughter. I'm not really a baby person but when it comes to my own, a different sensation altogether.

7 people I would tag:

1. you
2. you
3. you
4. you
5. you
6. you
7. you

Da Little Fella

I am bored obviously. So I'm submitting another entry today which is not quite like me. But anyway, I have not submitted smiling photos of the little fella. So here they are at 3 months old.



As you can see, he can already smile widely with those both dimples showing (though not visible in the photos) and will make those funny faces with big widened eyes, enlarged nostrils and pouty lips trying to squeeze out those ever elusive voice that will occasionally spring out. And yesterday he finally succeeded in turning around, lying on his stomach.

Thoughts of the Day

If women in stilettos are such sights to behold, why don't women in stilts bring instantaneous orgasmic pleasure?