Happy Birthday Abah

Aku dan adik beradik telah merancangkan untuk mengadakan sambutan ulang tahun hari kelahiran Abah yang ke 56 pada 4 Jun 2011.

Pada mulanya, sepupu kami, Ila mencadangkan agar diadakan family BBQ dinner di Pantai Puteri. Sudah lama tidak diadakan family event, kebetulan hujung minggu ini, ramai sanak saudara yang pulang ke kampung. Perfect timing kata orang.

Tapi sayang seribu kali sayang, hujan turun (biarpun tidak lebat) tapi berterusan dari jam 6.30 petang santak isyak. Selepas maghrib, kami pun mengambil keputusan agar dibuat BBQ di rumah sahaja. Kasihan dan risau kepada anak-anak kecil yang mungkin terpaksa menunggu lama untuk makan malam.

Aktiviti memanggang diketuai oleh Kamil, suami kepada sepupu kami (Ila) dan dibantu oleh kedua-dua adik ipar aku iaitu Mus dan Helmi.

Terima kasih kepada sanak keluarga yang hadir pada malam tersebut.

Abah, yang kehilangan ibu ketika usianya empat tahun, dan kehilangan ayah ketika usianya 12 tahun, telah banyak mengharungi kesukaran demi kesukaran dalam hidup ini. Kadang kala, bila aku ingat kembali fakta ini, aku cepat-cepat panjatkan kesyukuran kerana masih punyai ayah dan ibu hingga ke saat ini. Alhamdulillah.

Abah, thank you for being a wonderful father to me and I will always love you di dunia santak akhirat. Happy birthday, Abah. Moga murah rezeki, berkat usia dan bahagia bersama Mak dan kami semua.

Happy birthday Din, Faiz and Rahim!

All the best in your future undertakings. May Allah bless you guys with more rahmat, berkat and joy. Aamin.

These are friends from my Geng McD, which I get to know through my cousin, Nazrol.

Talking about birthday celebration, I like to celebrate the birthdays of family members and friends. But, when it comes to my own, I prefer to be all by myself, and a bit uncomfortable with my own birthday celebration.

Why? I really do not know why.

As far as I could remember, I only had four birthday celebrations in my entire life - in 1992, 1997, 2005 and 2007. While I got two good birthday parties, I didn't want to remember the ones in 1992 and 2007.

So, what did I do on my birthday in the previous years? I went for my annual vacation, all by myself. Except for 2009, where I went to Kota Kinabalu with my beloved parents. And, alhamdulillah, no birthday celebration.

Aidil Adha, Melaka dan London

Hari Raya Qorban kali ini berlainan daripada yang sebelum ini.

Mungkin tak beza mana untuk keluarga aku. Except that this is the first time Mus (my brother in-law) celebrates Aidil Adha with us as a family. Also, this year Nek Chu celebrates raya without any of her children. Only her nephews and nieces, and of course cucu-cucu saudara. I know she feels sad, but she hides it quite well.

Raya ini juga, menelanjangkan dua lagi sifat keluarga di sebelah ayah aku.

"Sedihlah Kak Midah tak balik."

"Kenapa sedih?" asked my mother.

"Yelah, anak-anak Ani, dua-dua tu dia balik. Dua-dua anak si Enon pun dia balik. Anak Akak, dua-dua dia tak balik."

"Aku tak kesah. Asalkan dia, laki bini, anak beranak sihat wal'afiat, aku tumpang gembira. Kalau diorang nak balik, RM10,000 pun belum tentu cukup. Tiket lagi, wang belanja lagi, nak belanja korang makan ikan bakar lagi."

Mak saudara aku terdiam!

That's what I admire about my beloved mother. She sees the positive side of everything. Always! I hope I could emulate this trait of her. And she knows how to respond to such remark, intelligently.

Another ugly trait of my other aunt was due to ribbon. Yeap, betul tu reben. Aku pun malas nak ulas panjang. Tapi memang sejak dulu lagi, dia ni memang tak boleh tengok orang lain lebih. Aku pun dah alah dengan perangainya.

Aku pun nasihat adik-adik aku, "Udahlah... beli sahaja reben baru. Lagipun reben tu bukan milik kita pun, biarpun empunya sudah 'wakaf'kan lebihan reben itu kepada kita. Mungkin dia nak gunakan barang percuma itu untuk majlis perkahwinan anak dia, setahun dua lagi."

Sama-samalah kita menghayati kisah korban Nabi Ibrahim dan Nabi Ismail. May Allah bless us with more rahmat, berkat and joy. Aamin.

Selamat menyambut hari raya aidil adha.

"Siapa Saya?" and the Two Celebrations

I'm a shy girl. But can you tell who am I by looking at my eye? Yeap, one of my beautiful pair of eyes.

Two occasions to celebrate the rezeki recently received by my dear officemate and his beloved wife. Thank you so much and all the best in your undertakings. May Allah continue to bless you (and all of us too) with more rahmat, berkat and joy. Aamin.

The event celebration was held @Cafeteria, because they closed Dinar Matahari for an important event. Important lah sangat! :)

Kelakar betul Cik Pah kan, Malisa! Tak kering gusi diusik dengan telatah seorang ibu yang punyai kuasa bertih jagung! hehehe.

And I didn't know that they have Laksa Sarawak, the only laksa that I eat because it's made from prawn paste. Bukannya ikan-ikan yang dilumat-lumatkan.

The second one was a proper farewell lunch, casually organised by Liris @Lanai Kijang. A bigger group this time, and Vivien managed to join us too. Vivien who? Rahsia! hehehe.

We went for a Western buffet. It was okay because I could try everything and they did not serve any lamb dishes. Besides pork, I don't eat duck, lamb and kerbau. Dan arnab. In other words, I eat chicken, beef and salted water fishes. But not stingray (ikan pari, kan?)

Thanks Liris and Liza M organising one for our dear Zul. We will be missing you, bro! :(

Doa, Teacher's Day & Satay!

I know I've not been writing for almost a week now. It's because I'm occupied with my exams. I've one take home exam, which I've submitted yesterday, and one sit exam tomorrow morning.
I rang my mother just now, asking for her doa. A tradition, which I last did in May 2000. As always, hearing my mother's voice calmed my nervousness although I'm not satisfactorily prepared.

Also, I asked for her blessing to embark on my second part of Europe Tour this Saturday morning. Insya-Allah, I will be flying to Madrid from Liverpool airport and will stay in Madrid for a couple of days. From there, Nurul, Wan and I will go to four other Spanish cities, namely, Toledo, Cordoba, Granada and Barcelona. Then, we will fly to Brussels and hopefully to visit Antwerp too, as advised by Mush and Lee. After a couple of days, we will fly to two cities in Scotland, namely, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

I don't want to promise, but I will try my very best to update you guys with details and of course, pictures, as and when possible.

Talking about tradition, insya-Allah, I will publish the winners of HBH Excellence Award 2008. To those uninformed, this is a personal initiative to put forward my appreciation to individuals or groups who have vast influence on me and my life for the past one year. So, don't forget to check out the winners tomorrow on http://akhbh.blogspot.com/.

In case I don't have the opportunity to update this blog tomorrow, I would like to take this opportunity to wish Happy Teacher's Day to all my teachers and all teachers in this world. Only Allah can repay your undivided love to all of your students.

And Happy Birthday to Rudy, Adique Rose, Pierce Brosnan and Janet Jackson! I don't have a gift for you guys, but... terimalah gambar-gambar kegirangan kami membakar sate hujung minggu yang lalu.

Chicken satay

Mushroom satay