1 Malaysia?

Same title as Cik Tutor's but the contents are from my own perspectives.

Cik Tutor remembered correctly. En Suami was posted to St Michael Institution when Cik Tutor was 4 years old. We stayed with our parents in Tambun until En Doktor began schooling. Then we moved to Rapat Setia.

En suami taught biology to Form 6 students in St Michael. Most of them became doctors. I still remember the Chinese students, about dozens of them, came for Hari Raya to my parent's house and we served them food. Their favourite was ayam masak merah. We didn't serve rendang because Buddhists cannot take beef. What I saw was, an atmosphere of cheerfulness and respect between them. When en suami was transferred to Kolej Matrikulasi Perak in Gopeng, his ex-students who graduated from medical school took an effort to meet him just to express their gratitude. One student actually named en Saad as his favourite teacher and the college sent en suami a certificate! En suami was on cloud nine.

En doktor studied in St Michael for 2 years. When the SPM drew nearer, his indian classmates came over to my house to study biology with en suami. They still get in touch with one another.

The teachers that I remembered most when I was in lower secondary school were Mrs Radha, Mr Yeoh and Mrs Yeoh. They were very dedicated, hardworking and had great expectations on their students.

Yes, those were the days. I wish that Malaysia will be forever peaceful and all the races can live in harmony.

Catatan hati .....

Yesterday I tried my best to retire early. At 10 pm I was already in bed, reading a book written by an Indonesian writer titled 'Catatan Hati Seorang Istri'. It was laden with heartbreaking true stories and it made me think how fragile life is. In the end, I made a conclusion that everyone should have only one true love, Allah and his Messenger, Rasulullah peace be upon him.

The writer wrote:

Harapan saya Catatan Hati seorang Istri, bisa membawa pembaca pada kesiapan lebih baik, ketika kita mendapat ujian serupa. Bukankah ujian itu Allah pergilirkan pada tiap-tiap hamba?

Cinta yang lepas dari genggaman?

Mengingat hidup selalu memiliki warna berbeda, saya mengajak kepada semua perempuan untuk mulai menulis. Catat tidak hanya kenangan indah, tetapi juga semua pikiran, beban perasaan, kesedihan, ketakutan, apa saja sebelum terlambat untuk menuliskannya.

Sungguh batin saya seperti dikoyak melihat semua tragedi melibatkan perempuan. Kerananya saya ingin kita sama-sama berjanji. Berjanji untuk menjadi teman bicara. Berjanji untuk menjadikan tulisan itu cermin dan renungan, sebab mungkin itu akan membawa kita pada jalan keluar, yang sebelumnya terasa amat buntu.


Kini waktunya berdoa dan meminta kepadaNya lebih sering. Sebab semakin hari, saya menyadari kebutuhan dan ketergantungan kepada Allah sedemikian besarnya. Semoga Allah memberi kekuatan bagi semua hambaNya, khususnya para perempuan.

Amin

Asma Nadia

New schedule.

It seems that Azhar and I are back with our old routine. With one new adjustment. Last week we replaced the strymix line with wireless and guess what happen. Azhar is very hardworking nowadays, 'studying' in the comfort of his room with the laptop by his side! To all my other sons and daughter who are concerned with Azhar's welfare, don't worry too much. I will check on him every now and then. I will make sure that he does all the exercises in the workbooks that en suami bought for him.

This week I have started on a new routine. I hope I can improve myself as time goes by. Pray that Allah will guide me to be a much better and healthier person.

4.45 am - Wake up
5.50 am - Subuh prayer
7.15 am - Off to school
5.00 pm - Cook dinner and other household chores.
7.00 pm - Dinner
7.15 pm - maghrib prayer
8.45 pm - Isya' prayer
9.30 pm - Sleep

Monday evenings - Off to parent's house in Tambun for breaking fast with them.

On Tuesdays, I have the luxury of having an afternoon nap since I come home at 2 o'clock. On other days, it is at 5 o'clock.

Wednesdays - Pasar malam and usrah with friends.

Thursdays - Spring clean

Fridays - Laundry

Weekends - Family outings and shopping groceries.

I hope I can do it and persevere, insyaAllah.

Make du'a

Salam.
Recently, while on our way back to Ipoh from Kuala Pilah, we listened to the radio interview. Everybody went gaga over this young Islamic singer from Sweden. Yes, it was an interview session with Maher Zain. Surprisingly, en suami was quite a fan too, so I can listen to the one hour long interview with no interruption! Alhamdullillah.

One thing that I like about him is, after each question and answer session, he would ask the listeners to make du'a. He would end his sentence with, please make du'a. That was exactly what he said. Usually, we pray when we face calamities, hardship or sickness. It is true that in hardships, we have no refuge except Allah alone. But as our Creator , Allah will not let us down and neglect the people who call on Him, however trivial the matter is because He is Ar-Rahman and Ar-Rahim.

The best and easiest prescription for happiness and to calm the nerves is thanking Allah, the All-Merciful. When we thank Allah, we appreciate the blessings that He has bestowed upon us.
Look at how Allah has blessed us with hearing, sight, reason, religious commitment, provision and a good life. We have so much to thank Allah.

'Check your past and your present, for life is a sequence of experiences from which one should emerge victorious'

KLIA

Di KLIA sekarang.

This morning I met cikgu Z, who happened to be en suami's colleague ten years ago. His wife passed away 3 weeks ago leaving behind 5 small children. He looked tired.

I told him to call us if he needs any help.

' Just pamper my children with lots of love. That's what they need at the moment'
'I knew the sign since first of Ramadan. She told me to let Hidayah take care of the children if she passed away.'

It was indeed a great trust and honour when cikgu Z mentioned his wife's last wishes. I feel a great responsibility and I hope the Hidayah teachers and I can fulfill their wish.

Two months ago we met cikgu Z and his late wife to discuss about the problem his seven year old son faced in class. There was a great improvement in his son's behaviour after the meeting. I was glad we took the initiative to contact them when the problem arose. Alhamdulillah, the problem was settled.

May Allah bless his family.

Short update

Aman is going back to Alex this Friday. Hope he'll study hard and be a good, dedicated doctor when he finishes his studies. Good doctors are difficult to come by. So he must focus on his studies and get as much knowledge as he can from the lecturers that teach him.

Once again we'll take the trip to KLIA by bus from Ipoh. En suami will join us in KLIA to send Aman off on Friday morning and drive to Kuala Pilah afterwards. InsyaAllah, on Friday evening , we'll go home to Ipoh.

School is busy with UPKK exams and final year exams. The enrolment for next year is already full and there is a few in the waiting list.

That's all for today.

Rendang Tok

One of the common food served during Hari Raya is lemang and rendang. For Perakians, we usually cook rendang pedas or rendang tok. A few days ago, I tried cooking rendang tok. Got the recipe from Puan Ros. My mum said that the elders usually slice the ingredients thinly but I followed Ros's method. I use the blender to grind the ingredients.

Here is the recipe for Rendang Tok.

I kg beef - cut into 4 cm pieces
1 kg shallots *
5 garlics*
5 cm ginger*
4 cm galangal (lengkuas)*
gula nira
5 lemon grass*
40 dried chillies*
2 kg coconut milk (I used only 1 kg)
kerisik
cinnamon, cardamon, star anise
2 asam keping
salt

Method :

1. Blend the ingredients marked *
2. Put all the ingredients (except the beef) inside the wok. Cook for 30 minutes .
3. Put the beef and turn down the heat. Simmer until the rendang thickens. Keep stirring.


Not yet done. When it is ready, it will turn dark brown.

Selamat mencuba semua!