Free

Yesterday, a Friday, was the hubby's day off. So early in the morning (well, not so early), we drove around looking for a recreational area for our much needed exercise. And not 3 minutes from our homestay, we came upon a Park; couldn't remember the name though, but it was in the area called Pantai Batu Buruk (literally: 'Beach of the Ugly Stone'!). Anyway, many people were already hard at jogging and stretching and there was even a large group of people following an aerobic instructor. Here are some pictures of the Park:

The first and last pictures showed the aerobic activity already in full swing when we got there. Maybe next week, I'll join in the fun (they even had a lucky draw at the end of the session..!). We noticed that most of the participators were Malay ladies, with their colourful headscarves, kicking and swaying to the beat of the music.. By the way, what I find quite amazing in the East Coast, particularly the state of Terengganu and Kelantan is the number of Muslim women who wear the headscarves compared to some other places in Malaysia. The headscarves come in a variety of shapes and sizes, in a myriad of shades and colours and some could be tied in numerous ways that you can't imagine.. (pin it up, let it down and around it goes..my daughter is an expert on this). True, Islam ordains that Muslim women should cover themselves up at puberty and seeing the number of Muslim women in Malaysia doing just that is encouraging but sad to say not many of them actually abide by the exact law.. We see a lot of girls these days wearing short headscarves with short-sleeved T-shirts that are sometimes quite tight and revealing, too.. The T-shirts are usually short and then they wear tight jeans which of course show their curves. Not to mention those who wear see-through headscarves which do not cover anything at all! If you are going to cover yourself up then you need to do it properly - no showing of arms or feet, scarves covering the chest and loose clothing... I leave with a video-clip of the song Free, by my favourite singer, Sami Yusuf. It is about the wearing of Hijab for Muslim women..Happy listening!