A Surprise

About 3 weeks ago, the second son gave us a surprise by coming back to Malaysia unexpectedly. He just loves to do that. Early last year he came back in the same fashion, nearly giving us a heart attack. This time around he managed to make it to Kuala Terengganu, arriving about noon 18 February. He went back to KL early the next morning -  less than 24 hours... Nevertheless we managed to take him out to have some typical terengganu 'seaside food' in the afternoon (and too full for dinner after that). He said he had some business promotions to attend to over here - he has a job as manager of one of the Secret Recipe's outlet  in Melbourne. He was in Malaysia for about a week or so I think. Anyway, he brought a souvenir from Australia for his old mom - an ipad (no,not ipad 2; it wasn't released yet, then. *sigh..*) Its fortunate that adik is here to help me figure out how to use the thing! (he's quite over the moon himself for he got his brother's iphone..secondhand - whatever, as long it's an iphone!)

By the way. adik is due to fly back to Cairo this Sunday, so the hubby and I are taking Sunday and Monday off. His flight is about midnight  on Sunday. Alhamdulillah, his flight is paid by the state goverment (Selangor)...

Pictures of bang ngah and adik:

Digging in..

The brothers fooling around for the camera

Eventful Days in February

15^th of January was the birthday of our beloved Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him). Well, the dates vary if you are using the Gregorian calendar.  The Muslims also use the Lunar calendar and the prophet’s birthday is actually on the 12^th of Rabiulawal. Nevertheless there are some controversial issues concerning the actual dates.  Anyway, the prophet didn’t ask the Muslims to celebrate his birthday as such but the significance of the date reminds the Muslims of the prophet’s struggle and his traditions and at the same time strengthens our believes in our Deen. Incidentally, 3 days earlier than that; 12^th February is remembered by us as the day a great ‘mujaddid’ or reformer, As –Shahid Hassan Al-banna was shot to death. He was an Egyptian and his fight to uphold the Muslim traditions during the notorious Gamal Abdel Nasser regime is much acclaimed by most practising Muslims. His struggle continues to this day by the organisation that he formed nearly a decade ago; the Muslim Brotherhood. And incidentally, a day earlier than that:11^th February saw the fall of the regime which has been oppressing the Muslim Brotherhood almost since its inception. Yes, Hosni Mubarak has finally succumbed to the power of the Egyptian people! Allahuakbar! (And at last Adik is home – for a short holiday I hope. He has exams in July.. ) Have a listen to a beautiful nasyeed about  the Prophet (peace be upon him) titled Al-Muallim or The Teacher by Sami Yusuf..

Adik and Cairo

Quite an eventful week.. Started with what is happening in Egypt now. When they started the demos to oust Hosni Mubarak, my first thought was, oh no my baby's there! We started to call him almost every night just to make sure he's ok (telephone bill's atrocious!) Then things started to get worse and there were curfews and clashes between the demonstrators and pro-Mubarak.. only then did the Malaysian government started to talk about evacuating the Malaysians in Egypt; Cairo and Alexandria in particular (most are students, about what, 14,000 of them?) Anyway Adik's in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia now, in transit before flying back to Malaysia. Things are less critical in Cairo now but I do hope Mubarak would just GO and give the power to the people! Egypt's a great country, rich with history and a nation of prophets..

Here are some pics of our travels to Cairo 2 years ago..

Adik and his sister with camels we used to ride around the pyramids

Adik posing in front of Abbasiah Malaysia Hall

As tall as the pyramid..

Shopping for trinkets in Khan Khalili (ignore date-something wrong with the camera datings)

Kak Lang at Azhar mosque (ignore date - sigh..)

Wintry days in Terengganu

Honestly, it certainly feels like it! It has been raining on and off since December and the new year brought more rain (Happy new year everyone!). Well it rained non stop yesterday and it has just stopped today - midday, though the sky is still downcast. The rainy season bought colder weather... thank God for water-heaters!

The river in front of our house-nearly overflowing..

It rains day..

...and night

Annual Dinner

PERMINT held its annual dinner last week at Taman Tamadun Islam. Some pics from the event:

Waiting patiently for event to start (arrival of VIPs)

The Chief Minister giving his speech - in Terengganu dialect..

'Eating' event at last... for starters - mushroom soup

Main dish

H

Simple dessert

Hmm.. must get ourselves matching batik suits..

PS: Happy 'Maal Hijrah' (new year) to Muslim readers! Resolutions? To keep to my resolutions.. lol

Convo

Last Sunday (28 Nov) the hubby and I were at UiTM in Shah Alam attending the daughter's convocation. She has completed her diploma program in Actuarial Science (what on earth is that, you ask? Try the video I posted below for an answer.. ) and is now into her second semester of a degree program at the same university. Alhamdulillah she was also one of the 5 who received the vice-chancellor award (thus the sash).

With proud Dad

Celebrities for the day..

28 years together!

It was our 28th wedding anniversary 11 days ago - 11/11/10. I didn't have time to go online to document the event, so here I am 11 days later.. Anyway, we had our usual dinner date, this time choosing the restaurant at Primula Beach Resort (just next door to Sumai where we had our anniversary dinner last year). We ordered Western, again.. this time the meal was much better than last year. We ordered smoked salmon salad, asparagus soup and steak. Unfortunately, the steak was leathery and after trying my best to chew without success, the hubby asked the waiter to take it back to the chef. Fortunately they admitted that their meat that day was not very good and other diners had complained too. So we ordered fish and chips instead.. (missing British fish and chips!). I want to post some pictures but I can't seem to be able to.. (darn!) Anyway, here's a lovely song by Maher Zain (the hubby loves his songs, too) dedicated to his wife. Well.. hoping the hubby feels the same.. well, towards HIS wife (me! me! me!) not Maher Zain's, lol!