Sofi has gone back, back to the land of perestroika, back to where she resides for the past 4 years. The land of freezing , harsh winter where they need to seal the hostel windows or the unforgiving cold air will bite you to the bone. Her seven weeks at home was filled with many memorable things but can never satiate her. The last few days when the dreaded packing time came, she began her legendary must-do , that is to stuff her luggage to the bursting seams! But this time, she is committing the crime on Sarah’s red bag as she had busted her old bag, enough!
You see, Sofi has this weakness of trying to bring her whole room , if not the whole of Malaysia back to Russia! She desperately wants to be at ‘home’ there. Half of her luggage is jammed with sundries as she overloads it with stuffs she deemed necessary for her daily cooking there. She even staved in kaffir lime leaves and lemon grass, enough to quench her tomyam longing for few months, I should say. Whatever she finds on the supermarket shelves that incites her culinary instincts, she’d buy for that ‘what if I need it then?’ occasions. There’s more to this. Believe it or not, she has posted 2 boxes of these cooking goods via sea (submarine as the post-lady had jested) which will arrive in perhaps two months , just in time for her grocery replenishing.
Of course, the other portion of the poor bag is brimmed up with piles of books. As Volgograd has limited bookstores that sell English books, she naturally has to stock up a sufficient supply of fictions or not, to keep her sanity going.
By the way, she managed to pull through during baggage check-in in KLIA. Alhamdulillah the check in lady was extremely nice. After leveling out things between her hand and check in luggage, everything was fine, until she reached Moscow for internal flight to Volgograd. The strict Russians are as unforgiving as their harsh winter. She was charged few hundred roubles for excess baggage.
This weekend, it’s Muhammad’s turn to fly back. As Muhammad is a firm believer of traveling light, we would expect less hassle from him, insyallah. Meanwhile, Sarah is ‘basking’ in house-work and endless errands (plus taking care of my ailing FIL), till she starts work.
To all my kids, may all of you have a successful year ahead filled with Allah’s blessings. Amin.
A funny thing happened the other day and it opened my eyes wide and made me realize how naïve some non muslims can be when it comes to basic rulings in Islam. As our hair (my daughters and I) needed trimming badly after months of not visiting the hair-salon, I called my favorite hair-stylist to arrange an appointment. After agreeing on date and time, I managed to request for the back room to avoid meeting possible male customers.
However her reciprocated comments made me laugh. “Oh tapi ada dua male colleagues yang akan masuk bilik itu untuk ambil barang. Tapi you jangan risau. Mereka tak apa punya. Mereka tak kacau you.” Masyallah! What was she thinking? That I was worried that males who sat eyes on my hair will start to harass me or something? That I am so self-conscious perasan to even think that other men would ogle at my plain hair? I retorted with a giggle, telling her that I can’t show my hair to any ajnabi men regardless of his implicit intentions or not, if he does see it. Thus she sat another time, a date when the 2 male colleagues are not working. Good I thought, she understood.
So on the appointed time and date, we sauntered into the salon, straight to the back room. After a cheerful greeting, August (not her actual name but hers is also after a month of the year, the fourth in fact, ) said this in her chirpy voice, “ So siapa yang tak mahu lelaki lihat rambut dia?” addressing my daughters and I , nonchalantly. I almost blurted out in jest, “Only me. The rest are young and available so it’s ok for them”.
On a similar note, my daughters live in a hostel that allows male students to enter the female premise. Thus each time, a male student ‘intrude’, the muslim girls would run back to their rooms to cover themselves. Once an elderly technician ( a local Russian guy who knows nothing of Islamic rulings I guess) came in and was mystified to find the girls running helter skelter as he ambled through the floor. Baffled, he was given an even more bewildering answer by a male student who managed to pull his legs. “You are not allowed to see them without their cover or you will be forced to marry them!” The next time he came in and accidentally bumped into the girls, he immediately closed his eyes with his hands and shouted out that he didn’t see anyone! Talk about forced marriages!!
Do you know that with technology, the world is revolving faster? Technically, that is. Just think of hand phones. Skeptics would have rebuked the idea of hand phones becoming a necessity, say, 20 years ago. But just look around today and you’ll find that almost everyone owns/uses a mobile phone, except for my dad, who has one but refuse to utilize it personally but would relegate my mom to do so when the need arises. Even my dad in law who is a staunch proponent of living without a hand phone has converted albeit using it for kebun randezvous emergencies only.
Why the contradiction? That people can do without hand phones just merely 20 years ago and today, they would act like a fish out of water if they don’t own one? It’s simply because once communication becomes easy and fast, you’ll be left behind if you don’t get in the confusion bandwagon. If you need to settle a business transaction outside you make an instant mobile phone call. You need to see someone, you call them immediately without the need to get back indoors. You need to make a crucial decision, you call those who are concerned a.s.a.p.
Imagine years ago when hand phones were still luxury items. A business deal might take days as you keep on missing to get the important person online at the needed moment. A person who is late for an appointment can’t redeem himself by making an impromptu phone call telling them of his tardiness as he weaves through the traffic. By the time he arrives, the people whom he was supposed to meet must already be seething with angst. By then, it’ll be too late for even a basketful of apologies or a thousand kow tows.
Thus, an item which was deemed a luxury and of no desirable need, whatsoever or even perhaps considered as an evil tool, is now taken as a plain necessity, ranking near your clothing obligations. Nowadays, the first thing you check as you enter the car is your dear hand phones, making sure you haven’t left them perched on the table in the house, ringing relentlessly as others try to get hold of you.
With the advent of telecommunication technology, computers, handsets, wireless, etc, things are done manifolds faster and easier. It’s no wonder you find time flies at a ridiculous rate today. I feel as though I just celebrated Syawal yesterday, and now Ramadhan is nearing!
It’s as though we are slowly entering into a new dimension, perhaps a different realm, where time takes hold a different meaning and concept. So Einstein was correct eh?
'
'
'
'
'Btw, my daughter Sarah just graduated last Friday. ALhamdulillah.
Sundays are supposed to be my rest day, right? Wrong. In essence, Sundays can be one of my busiest days compared to my working days. Take yesterday for instance, I was literally up and about on my feet on a non-stop phase. That is despite the fact that I am down with pharyngitis and rhinorrhea.
From the word go, I was timing my schedule to prevent my chores from overlapping. After managing the laundry, feeding the cats which are exploding in population, I had a quick breakfast with Maman outside. Sent him back and rushed for an overdue appointment at the bali spa for a much, much needed full body massage.
After 1 and half hours of body kneading and untying of knotted muscles, I rushed to a staff’s wedding in Balok, stag, as Maman refused to go and Long was at work. I gobbled up a small portion of white rice with some acar and beef curry in a jiffy, albeit in a polite manner of course. After small talks with the host, I left the function, making it one of my record wedding attendance, approximately 15 minutes at the most.
Zoomed back home, prayed zohor and started out with Maman to Kerteh to fetch Long. Also making it an opportunity for a family outing on the last leg of maman’s ending school hols. Traffic was heavy as everyone was probably like us, trying to make best of the last day of the school vacation, i.e. galavanting out
Waited for Long who still had several patients to wrap up plus one chap who had chest discomfort, walking comfortably in not at all looking like someone with angina whatsoever. He even made a passing statement that it was just dyspepsia but demanded an ECG anyway. By the way Maman was sleeping through out in the car, an after effect of 3 days skulking till the wee hours of morning with his friends in his room! Despite telling Long that I have a skype conference Aqidah class at 8pm, he planned an impromptu detour to Ibuk to see the fireflies, assuring me that I will be in time for the online class. After maghrib prayers in Ibuk, we drove further to the said place by a bridge, near a river. A place with a name that tickled us pink: Yah Yah (kelip kelip). Initially, we couldn’t discern any fireflies in the vicinity. Disappointed, we almost headed out but Long made a last effort by turning back to the other side of the bridge.
Squinting hard in the pitch dark, Maman noted some blinking objects darting about in the trees. After a while, we started to appreciate hundreds of them roaming like fairies transforming the whole bakau area into an after dark fairyland or something. One tree looked like an ornamented Christmas tree, only this tree is not a fir tree and the season is so hot to be reckoned with santa and his rein deers at all!
While Long and Maman grappled with difficulty to snap the breathtaking sight of glittering flying bugs, I was back in the car, assembling my laptop and wifi, praying hard that my ‘berukband’ can pick up some signals there in Yah Yah (kelip kelip). It was almost 8 pm and Ustadha will be calling everyone soon! I was praying hard that I won’t miss the class this time. Oh ‘berukband’ please give me some signal, even a teeny weeny bit so that I can hear ustadha’s soothing voice, please. Anyway, to cut the story short, the berukband had failed me again. What do I expect?? If it can’t even give me good signals in town, should I expect even a tinkle in Yah Yah?? Fat hope! All the way to Kemaman, I tried frantically to connect to Skype but nothing. Even sister Fazila Hanis who is in the class too was unSkypeable. Once in the middle of Kemaman, Long stopped the car and left me to catch up with half hour left of the class. Alhamdulillah
My vow: do not agree to go anywhere if I am scheduled for a class. Not even for the gorgeous fireflies of Yah Yah!!!
Awife,a mother,a daughter and I suspect,a grandmother in 7-8 yrs to come??A doctor who works to treat the sick but at times get frustrated as the sick at times chose not to listen...sigh..
25 red roses signifying 25 years of married life
Our compulsory dish: bbq-ed chicken and lamb with coleslaw
Mashed potato . grilled salmon
The hanging ornaments
