Living with Sarah

I have always liked outdoors. Before I got married, I often went to camping trips with kelana scouts friends and even joined a couple of endurance camps. I was in my 2nd year at UKM when I went to this Projek Anak Angkat at Felda Sg Koyan, Pahang and a week after to an endurance camp at Pos Betau, an orang asli settlement. On the 3rd day at Pos Betau, we went jungle trekking, about 20 kms upstream of Sg Jelai, passing through another orang asli settlement right in the heart of the jungle. The activity was for the teams to build their own raft using bamboo and go back down stream using the rafts. So, there was my team yang tak pernah tebang pokok buluh trying our best to pick the best bamboo trees and then tying the bamboos together to assemble a raft, or what looked like a raft. Since it was the first experience for almost everybody, the task took hours to complete. By the time the teams were done, it was almost dusk. Then off we went to the river and proudly launched our rafts. Each t...

Atas permintaan ramai (perasan!), here's my specs modelled by Bugs Bunny. I wear it on and off because I don't really like something perching on the bridge of my nose. But if I don't wear the specs too long, my eyes get tired very easily. Good thing is I get less headache now.

Kadang-kadang buat baik dengan orang ni masalah juga. Pasal tu orang tua-tua pesan - buat baik berpada-pada. I have this neighbour. Barulah berkenalan. I kan baru pindah. Balik rumah matahari dah terbenam mana ada masa sangat nak berkenalan dengan neighbours. Anyway, this kakak buat kelas ajar buat biscuits. One day dia datang bawak flyers nak ajak I masuk kelas dia. I ni memang tak minat buat biscuits, buat cake tu minat lah juga. Since baru berkenalan, I pun nak lah tolong dia promote kelas dia, so I volunteered fax kan dia punya info tu to some newspapers. So I pun suruh lah Linda fax to newspapers yang offer free columns for event promotions. Selang sehari kakak tu call I asking me whether dah publish ke belum. I already told her such columns tengok luck. If they have space, they will publish. I wouldn't know when they will publish the advert. So, dia pun senyap. Sempat tanya I tak nak ke join kelas dia. Actually kan, if I were her, with the help that I gave, I would have given...

Let's see, how many channels are there on Astro? Banyak sangat... I don't know if it's just me, but I always, always can't find anything interesting to watch on TV. Like last night, I scrolled the channels like 3 times until I settled to an obvious choice - cerita P. Ramlee - Seniman Bujang Lapok. I'm a fan of the 3 bujang lapok. The trio tells simple stories. Real people stories. No need to get too creative and invent imaginary plots. They tell of things around them. What kind of life people lead at that time. One amazing thing about P. Ramlee is that his subjects are universal and timeless. It happened during his time, the same thing happened now perhaps in slightly different manner but still same issues. There're these scenes where Sudin got conned by a Benggali who sold him a stone which can make any "worldly" dreams come true. He bought it for 10 ringgit. Then when Ramlee wanted to get married but got no money, Sudin volunteered to get him the mon...

Today I feel like telling a story. This happened years ago when I was just working barely 2 months with a subsidiary of NST. At that time, Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays were off-stone days - the days when our newspapers got printed. So, this incident happened on a Monday. And as luck has it, all seniors were on leave on that day. There we were - the 3 of us new sub-editors with me being the most senior by a few days. The newspaper for print that day was The Management Times. It was a weekly insert and usually completed days ahead. So, the task for the day was to go through one last round and when the chief editor says OK, off it went for print. I was unofficially the team leader for the day, so I went through all pages meticulously to make sure everything's perfect. It was also a chance for me to prove that I was all ready to become an officer-in-charge (OC) to my boss, so I wanted desperately to make it a perfect and error-free day. OCs are the newspaper's edition's te...

My warmest welcome to my newest niece. My sister-in-law, Angah, gave birth to a baby girl last Tuesday. I have yet to get the name. She was born about a month early, couldn't contain herself any longer. I went to visit the little one and just couldn't help but be touched by such a fragile innocent little baby. What great joy to hold a baby in one's arm and catch the little smile. But if you ask me if I want another child at this moment, the answer is still a "No". I'm very happy with Aliyah Maisarah, my one and only child. I bet my mother-in-law just can't wait to get the opportunity to drill me another of her sarcastic remark about having another baby. What more with my other sister-in-law, Siti, pregnant and due in 2 months' time. So what if I only want one child? I'll be the one making the baby, I'll be the one carrying the baby for 9 months, I'll be the one delivering the baby and I'll be the one taking care of the baby. Logically s...

It's been a slow week, I've not been feeling too well. Today, Aliyah caught the bug. She's now sleeping after taking flu medicine. I'm at home taking care of her. The "moved ons": 1. My datuk sedara passed away on Wednesday evening. He was my grandfather's younger brother. And he's the oldest, then living, male relative I have. He was already old when I was in my teens. My father said he died at 84. I didn't get the chance to visit as I was down with fever. But he has always reminded me of my grandfather. The same kind of lifestyle - kain pelikat & white pagoda T shirt, smoking rolled cigarettes, cycling the same kind of old bicycle. Al Fatihah. 2. Selamat pengatin baru to my used to be platonic friend. He got married last 31 March. Good day to get married - Maulidur Rasul. Semoga berkekalan ke anak cucu. 3. I got my specs, so my eyes have moved on hopefully to a brighter vision. Still pening and coordination is not so good. But reading is exce...

All these while I've always perasan that my eyes are perfect 20/20. I've always have glare problem, so driving at night is a little bit irritating. But then one day Aimy made a remark that made me notice that I might be actually long-sighted. I was composing SMS and she said - "Tak payah le pegang phone tu jauh sangat, macam rabun dekat je. Tu orang yang 40+ je kena". That's when I tested putting the phone nearer to my eyes and realized that the words are blurry. So, last weekend, we went to this optometrist to check out polaroid eyeglasses so that I can reduce the glare problem. Dah best-best pilih, I thought of doing an eye check-up, so pegi lah check mata. Not the simple look into a machine and got a computerized slip tu, the thorough one. Know what - I'm actually rabun dekat, rabun jauh and glare - all bundle into one. The rabun dekat might be caused by my exposure to computer screen - what, since 1995? The rabun jauh - I dunno. Things look pretty clear to...