Salam Aidil Adha

Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Adha kepada semua Muslimin dan Muslimat yang sudi singgah ke teretak Ateh Lili ni.

Dalam sakit-sakit ni, akak tetap jugak balik ke Ipoh nak merai bersama bonda tercinta dan keluarga yang ada disana. Tak kiralah, kalau Kak Lina tak dapat balik sebab Abang JR bertugas invigilate calon-calon SPM. Rasa-rasanya, yang selalu tak miss datang makan-makan ni.... tentulah... Yeop and family... dan... mungkin juga big boss kat Proton City tu!


Okay, nak bersiap-siap dah... nak jemput Cik Min kat office... (ye... dia kerja gak ari ni walaupun dah ambil cuti....makan hati weh...)


Wassalamm....

Glambert!

It has been two weeks my pinggang is giving much pain. The doctor's prescription has completed but the pain still persists. It was better two days ago, and today I had to confine myself in bed all the time. Adeh....  Kalau balik Ipoh awal, kesian pulak kat 'ncik kena jaga Ateh.... so best if I rest at home.

Anyway, when a cyber friend feed me with her recent addiction of  that Glambert thingie on twitter.... hehe.... I'm all agog like a teenage girl all over again. One thing for sure, she is not aware that I've started blogging again. If only she knew.... I guess, she'll freak!

We both love this song from our Glambert....hehe...Adam Lambert.....



p/s: someday Lake, someday.... who knows, you'll find me here - Em

That One Person

Phew! School's out and I'm all relax at the moment. No hassle of fixing breakfast, searching hi and lo for MyC's missing stuff in the morning nor putting up with her tantrums. Yes, she does that... my fifteen year old still throws tantrums. No wonder she did not last long at MRSM Langkawi...hehe...she could not be the same there!

With the school holidays, everyone in the family wants to be with this person. The person who would cook scrumptious lunches, who would allow the children to play in her bedroom.... lepak-lepak until they turn the room upside down. The person is my mother, the children's Opah. Here's one for the album.....

Here's Opah with some of her grandchildren....

 

Here's Opah with her nephew, Shazalli....

 Her adorable great grand-daughters...Alisya & Aqish...

Well, Opah is not the only reason we're looking forward to.... hmm....

 ..hehe...rambutans and of course this fella, Qarim...our official photographer so that we could cam-whore at every angle and at every event ....

So let's balik kampung... er..in my case here....balik bandaraya Ipoh!

Words Don't Come Easy...

I'm not good at this. Not good in imparting comforting words for the sick or the dying. I do the consoling in my heart hoping the sick or the dying will pluck my thoughts out of my head and understand my concern. It is not them that I fear most for having to endure the pain; it is me.... because ... I had seen the miserable looks of a very sick boy. I wish and I wish and I wish....and how I wish.... I could turn back the clock - to the day when he complained of agonizingly painful sensation around his neck. He was already nineteen, well-built and shouldn't be seen nagging about his 'sore-throat'.... that was what I thought. The most I could tell him was, when it was time for breaking fast in one Ramadan day 2002, to 'drink a lot of water and take some painkiller'. Easy as that. And when his nose bled not with runny blood but congealed dark red blood, that was the sign we did not expect what illness he was to contract.

About a few weeks after Hari Raya that year, we were distraught  when we found out our sister's eldest son was down with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and was at stage four. I repeat, he was only nineteen. But all hopes were not lost. Still, it was wee too late for my sister's family... Allah loves him more. He succumbed to the deadly but otherwise curable disease on a Thursday night of July 31st 2003.
He was gone. The quiet and obedient boy we all loved to tease for being too attached to his mother, was gone! All of us, especially his 'bosom' cousins were devastated but accepted his loss as ineluctable fate.

I write this piece as a spin-off from my niece, Nadea's posting a few days ago about her missing her brother. Reading her entry brought tears to all of her caring aunts and cousins and mostly her mother, Kak Lina. I heard she cried buckets.
She usually does... oopps...sorry...

If only I could be wise with words, I would have said to my late nephew, Aizal Marzuki, " Bertahan ye...kita pergi hospital" instead of that regretful, " minum air banyak-banyak lepas berbuka..."

Me and my weight we got issues.......

......don't know if I should gain some or stop losing few...
Damn I wish that I could resist the juice...
Can't decide if I should eat nenas or lots of rice
Me and my weight we got issues,issues,issues
We got issues issues issues....
(....to the tune...."Issues" by The Saturdays)

Itulah dia. Bila kurus sikit cepat jer orang noticed. "Apasal cengkung sangat ni? Cik Min tak bagi makan ke?"
Bila rasa akak dah put on weight pulak, tak de orang tegur.
"Eh, biasa jer I tengok you, Lili. You tinggi, so tak nampak beza. Kurus gak!"

Problem is, my wardrobe. I have seven pairs of M&S pants that do not fit me anymore. And they're not cheap in the first place... To alter them means to lose their exquisite cutting. To wear them... er... macam pakai seluar pinjam pulak. Save for one black M&S, but I wouldn't want to be seen wearing it day in day out.

With November and December fill with weddings invites, I'll possibly have a tough time adjusting to my baju kurungs which by now look like massive tents, if I ever want to wear one. You see, I had them made all in one go early each year. By April or so, I started losing weight. So, imagine lah....nak korek balik baju lama-lama, jangan haraplah... samada dah sedekah atau tak elok langsung.

Only solution is to go back to Ipoh during the school holidays and start packing the extra needed pounds to fit into all my good outfits. Maybe I forget that age is catching up with me, hence the lost of appetite, the losing sleeps and what-not.

Alright, I'm outta here. We're going out to have lunch... at where else if not....you-know-where!

Just Another Day

Early this morning I predicted the weather would be as gloomy as yesterday. While going about my chores, I had my usual caffeine fix and of all the food I craved, keropok happened to be my choice. Datang laa hari malas itu... Malas nak makan... malas nak bersiap... malas nak masak.... and berjelalah listnya.
But when the sun suddenly shone brightly as I was pottering about the house (ye lah...kerje rumah mane pernah habis kan..kan..kan?), I just had to drop everything I was doing. I showered, got dress and before I knew it I was on the road heading to the beach. It was such a beautiful day and it would hurt so much staying indoors.
Ah, this is it... the sea has always been my escape when I need to clear my mind. I stood by the low retaining wall feasting my eyes on the vast open sea. I could see the island from here and it was a delightful sight. Unlike yesterday, when it rained and the island was only a silhouette. Every time I 'lost' the island I felt a twinge inside me that made me sad for awhile and for reasons I could not comprehend. Anyway, laut pagi ini tersangatlah cantiknya.... dan tetiba jer teringin nak makan kari kepala ikan! Terbayang kari kepala ikan kat Hameediyah.... tapi masak sendiri sedap lagi kot....

Meluru ke pasar... dah dekat benar dari pantai BA ni. Hopefully, dapat ikan baru. Alhamdulillah... dapat juga kepala ikan jenahak. Balik rumah, sambung semula dengan laundry and straight away did the cooking. By noon, I was famished. Apa tah lagi bau kari kepala ikan menusuk kalbu... alahai... Tak sempat nak tumis sayur... buat sambal belacan  aje. AND....ngap sorang-sorang!

Eh, lupa pulak..sebelum balik dari pasar tadi, sempat jenguk Kak Zah.... hehe..just to check their new car... ish...ish...ish.... PJJ... my PJC is sooooo ancient, peeps!

Reviving "Doc Faisal"

I DID IT!

My cousin's blog 'Doc Faisal Photography' has become dormant for some time now. I know, he is such a busy man but not hearing from him for a while prompted me to text him last night. I was asking for some photos that we took during our growing-up days in that big house above the Post Office in Butterworth. Then an idea struck me, why don't he be the one writing about our childhood memories. When he replied, insyaallah, I knew it would take weeks if not months.
Boy, was I so wrong!

Few hours after our 'berbalas sms', he text me again - to check his blog. There you go, with just one push (pun intended), out came his new baby 'zaman dulu-dulu'! Thus, Doc Faisal's blog is revived.

Thank you Share for sharing the lost moments we once had.
Keep 'em coming.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR SIS...

Wow, I am really, really behind in updating my blog. There's a lot in my mind lately. I get easily moved by people's (esp. if they're relations...) plight that I brood for days.... in this case.... weeks. May Allah give strength to those I'm feeling for. Berat mata memandang, berat lagi bahu memikul....

Well, on a lighter note, today, November forth, is my youngest sister's birthday.
Happy Birthday, Adek.... May Allah's blessings be with you all the way. I love you...
Read more http://hello-mello-neranera.blogspot.com/

(Picture taken on Hari Raya 2009 at Tun Terang, the family home.. Adek with her family)

p/s... also my birthday wishes to Kak Zah.... harap kak zah baca posting ni...

From My Treasure-trove...

I have been bitten by the 'kemalasan' bug to even bother to update my blog. Secondly, with the recent predicament one of my family members is facing, it is all too depressing to blog. I find solace lately in reading other people's blog while not neglecting my promise to pray hard for my aunt and her family in their difficult times.
Anyway, since I have nothing much to say lets just ponder on the story I feature below. This is from a long-lost friend who thought I would get over my sorrow by sending me this story a very long time ago, but did not want to make any comment nor...commitment... (hiks).  Here goes...

 .....This is a story about little Johnny Sparrow. Johnny was a sparrow who lived in the northern regions of Europe who was a strong willed and very individual little fellow. He did as he pleased and asked favours from nobody.

When time came for all good sparrows to fly south for winter, Johnny's nature got the better of him and he decided not to fly with his comrades, he was going to stay put and see the winter through in his familiar surroundings. Winter came and it was a particularly severe one. Johnny became colder and colder. After a few weeks he saw considerable wisdom in his colleagues' flying south so he decided, albeit reluctantly, to fly down and join them.

So he gathered up his little shivering body and started the flight. However as he flew along the cold so intense that he could not move his wings - gradually he lost altitude and became increasingly tired with the effort needed to stay up. Eventually he passed out and fell to the ground ending up in a frozen heap in the middle of an open meadow.

Now a cow happened to wander by and, feeling the call of nature, landed a large crap right on the spot where Johnny had landed. Johnny came slowly to life to find himself surrounded in a lovely warm substance. He thawed out and for the first time in weeks he felt terrific. So he started to sing to express his relief.

However a cat was also wandering past the meadow and was surprised to see a piece of cowshit singing. The cat went to investigate, found Johnny sparrow and ate him.

Moral:
1. People who pour shit on you are not always your enemy.
2. People who pull you out of the shit are not always your friend.
3. When you find yourself up to the ears in shit don't cry about it.