Living with Sarah

I believe the most illogical thing in the world is "rabun dekat" or longsightedness or farsightedness or hyperopia. I am rabun dekat. I only realise it in 2005 when my friend Aimy commented that I have to put my handphone at a distance to read text messages. And I was in my 30s. Nowadays dah 40s ni memanglah patut rabun dekat pun. I believe the condition was due to my not taking good care of my eyes - especially that I love reading books before sleep. Masa kecik-kecik dan lepas tu duduk asrama, suka sangat baca buku lepas lights-off guna torchlight. One year masa kat asrama I was "blessed" to have my bed (double-decker yang atas) just by the window that has corridor light. Bila dah adult pulak, sebab malas nak bangun tutup lampu bila dah mengantuk nak tidur, baca buku dengan night lamp yang tak lah berapa terang. So, akibatnya mata pun rabun. What I'm trying to say about farsightedness is that it is illogical to the mind. How can one see the things that are fa...

I guess after my traumatic experience doing that writing job, another writing job made me jittery. It was actually a short piece and I was so confident I could do it real good. But after being stuck doing it for 3 days, I told myself - who am I kidding? I actually cannot write. I submitted an awful piece knowing I will get a handful of comments. And I did. The scanned piece was full of scribbles. I don't know. I guess I just lost it. (Yea, yea, blame it on that killing job). It took me one whole day of "mourning" before I could figure out what I should do. I felt so bad. And so stupid. I eventually got back to my senses and told myself that - admit that you can't do it (because you will do an even more awful job) and engage someone good instead. So I scouted. With the PRU13 just around the corner, I know I couldn't get that friend at the news desk to do. Another good friend had to pass. Finally got an ex-colleague to do. (Thank you so much!). Alhamdulillah... ...

Murphy's law. Ok, slightly Murphy's law. My Kak Long yang telah membuat plan for last weekend couldn't make it at the last minute. Her daughter Titin and family suddenly showed up without notice. But the makan-makan was still on, so I was the one doing the chores - booking cake, beli stuff. On Sunday, left Aliyah at home to wait for her Abg Ijam while I went over LCCT to pick Hubby. Then we met at my Acik Yaya's place. Small gathering.  Aliyah dapat hadiah tetamu "cilik". My nephew Along Iwan telah memotong rambutnya yg sebelum ni sgt panjang.  Menu - laksa, keropok losong yg awesome, cake - vanilla strawberry with fresh cream yg very yums.

I have been ferrying Hubby to and fro LCCT like four times these past 2 weeks. Suddenly his working schedule took a "high-flying" turn. Harap-harap tak sakit lepas balik ni. First was his trip to Kota Bahru, then another trip to Alor Setar. In between was his training in Penang which both Aliyah and I tagged along - that we drove. Yesterday was another trip to Penang for 2nd leg of the training. Aliyah refused to follow having cut school 2 days the week before. I think she was really tired. She doesn't like long driving trips. So I suggested Hubby take a flight instead. Takkan nak drive sorang-sorang kot. And so happen got good rates - almost the same amount to spend if he drives. Thinking that it will be a very quiet week for both of us. Then my Kak Long told us she's coming back. Yes! Agendanya - lunch treat by my Angah (he did a favour to my Kak Long when Titin gave birth a few months ago, she in turn repaid the favour handsomely, and Angah in turn will use the h...

Pilihanraya datang lagi. Tahun ni masuk kali berapa ya I mengundi? Tak ingat. Ini kali ke 4 kot? Ya, saya seorang yang meng-exercise my rights sebagai rakyat Malaysia. Hah! Actually my father dah daftarkan I jadi pengundi ever since umur cukup untuk mengundi. Veteran UMNO lah katakan. Also, I was always the one to take my mother pergi mengundi. Tu lah pasal. I remember the last pilihanraya was the political tsunami. Change came early to Selangor. Siapa I pangkah? Let's see - I can just say that I selected a female for parliament because I was so sick of seeing Bung Mukhtar and a few other male chauvinistic YBs making fun of women in parliament. So, blame stupid YBs like Bung Mukhtar for making people like me make the change. Was the change good? I really can't say. Sama je. But the whole scenario changed the political environment of the country forever. That the ruling party got the shock of their lives for being so complacent  And (hopefully) realise that they h...

Hubby was scheduled to conduct a training last week (Friday - Saturday) in Penang. At first, Aliyah and I decided not to follow. Perhaps the week after. But then Hubby was down with flu on Thursday and didn't look too good to drive alone. So, we followed. Just nak teman saja. We stayed in Sg Nibong at the free trade zone area. So, nothing interesting there. Even nak makan pun kena drive out. Since Hubby bekerja, it was up to me to find stuff to do with Aliyah. Good thing the pool was quite OK, so much time was spent there. I thought of taking Aliyah to go visit historical places in Georgetown but then since it was just the two of us, route pun tak berapa nak tahu, so we didn't go. I took her to War Museum nearby - the place was dark and quiet. We didn't go in sebab macam scary je. Then we stopped at the Aquarium, also nearby. Didn't look promising at all. Even the car park was empty! Thought of stopping by at Snake Temple. Aliyah pulak tak nak - geli tengok ular la, b...

Promo, promo... Linda and I went to get some materials for our baju kurung cotton for kids side-business last week. Not much yet, but enough for a start. So, check out:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Baju-Kurung-Cotton-For-Kids/133557940012638 .

Ok, this will be my last post on that killing job! I don't usually answer calls from numbers I don't know. More often than not, the calls are from banks asking me to pay up. If I see unknown numbers on my phone, I would usually ignore. If the person calling really need to speak to me, he or she can always leave a voice mail or send a text message instead or even email. And I will definitely return the call. This morning this unknown number came on and after thinking a few seconds, I decided to answer. Guess what - it's the director (the boss of the team I worked with) from that organisation of that killing job. Apparently he just came back from overseas and just got to know I quit! He asked why, I briefly told him why. I firmly said that it's better for the team to do the report themselves especially that all those intrinsic knowledge is in their heads. He then said that he didn't feel comfortable me not wanting any payment for the work done. I thought - it'...

Ada satu hadis Rasulullah saw: "Tidak rugi orang yang melakukan istikharah dan tidak akan menyesal orang yang selalu bermesyuarat dan tidak akan miskin orang yang selalu bersederhana". One of the surest way to get peace of mind after making a certain decision is by performing solat istikharah. After that, any decision being made, whatever the outcome is, insyaAllah, one will be at peace. Even if the outcome is not as expected. That decision to bail out from that killing project - I immediately felt at peace, even though consequencesnya mungkin not so favourable. Masa angkat tangan untuk doa - "Ya Allah, jika hal ini (my decision) dalam pengetahuanMu adalah baik bagiku, baik pada agamaku, baik pada kehidupanku sekarang dan masa datang, takdirkanlah dan mudahkanlah bagiku kemudian berilah aku berkah daripadanya" - one can actually immediately know, deep in one's heart, the decision to be made. Actually, by now dah move on and never want to even think back. But...