Raining Transformers!

I watched Transformers yesterday! It was super COOL! My daughter jumped from her seat to give me a high five the first time one of them transformed! If you go for the storyline, plot, and whatever mumbo-jumbo artsy fartsy, better don't. Once they transformed, I was transformed to a 12-year old kid! My daughter and I swapped stories after that. We were like kids! Except that one had to drive the car back home whilst the other kept on talking.

The whole experience transported me back to the time when I watched Star Wars, Episode IV. It made me reminisced about light sabres we used to make with torch light and coloured plastic wrappers. How we would be swashbuckling with our light sabres from our double-decker beds. Yup, me and my elder brother. My parents wouldn't let us buy the "real" light sabres that kids at our age were playing with at that time. My parents would say, "Buat apa buang2 duit beli?" At that time, we thought they were just being parents, spoilers of fun. In actual fact, the money they had, which was not much, was used to buy food, clothings, our Hari Raya clothes, pay the school fees, etc. But still, without the real light sabres, my brother and I had fun like other kids, except that when we swashed, our sabres would buckle.

Then, there was Luke Skywalker. When we played with our light sabres, my brother and I would argue, and in the end, we took turns who would be the hero. Whoever was Luke of the day would have the blue coloured sabre, mark of a hero. Saviour of the galaxy. Even at that age, we've learned how to compromise. Maybe because there were only two of us and if we didn't compromise, then each of us would be playing alone. That wouldn't be very fun, would it?

When I was 12, there were a lot of fun things to do, without the use of TV, PS2, etc. With two sticks and a hole in the ground, us kids could play cakar ayam or was it sonkang sungkit? There are various names to this game, that I know. It is a game where we put one stick across the hole, and used another stick to flick the former as far as possible, without it being caught by your opponents. Then, your opponent would have to throw the stick back towards the hole. Marks would be counted as to the distance of the stick from the hole. Then, there was the TV series "Combat". We would be cutting and carving pieces of woods to make guns so that we could play combat. I remember that us kids would be running around like real soldiers in a combat, finding covers so that we can shoot our opponents without us being shot at. We used senduduk buds as our ammo.

Those were the time, eh? No worries in the world would stop us from playing games and having fun. Except of course, our parents. The "Fun Spoilers". After the movie, we went back. It was raining, more like a heavy drizzle. And I was still a 12-year-old kid. So, I asked my daughter whether she would like to join me for a bit of fun in the rain. She jumped out of the car and we started jumping in water puddles, dancing and looking up to the raining sky with our mouths open. It was fun! While it lasted. That was, when another "Fun Spoiler" came out from the house. My darling wife. And being the only adult, I got the worse end of the lecture.

It was fun, even for a little while...

Sad morning...

I was having breakfast this morning, alone and with a newspaper in hand. Read about the little 3 year-old girl... What has the world turn to?! How could a mother, who had been carrying her for nine months, tergamak did something like that? And that mother who abused her kid till he ruptured his intestine and died a slow death... How could a mother do all those things to her own child?!

All these happened here, in my beloved country. If it happens in some hell-on-earth countries like Afghanistan or Iraq (ironically, both are so-called Muslim countries), perhaps it is more acceptable. With the need to survive and what not. Even that, I still couldn't swallow the fact that a person would kill his/her own blood!

Ya Allah! Lindungilah keluarga aku dan keluarga umat Islam yang lain dari perkara2 musibah dan buruk!

I was discussing this with my new friend over skype. She said, she's sad as well. And felt like bashing up the mother and her boyfriend. I asked her, what good would that do? You might feel good about it, or you might not. It is because fighting violence with violence that makes the whole world violent. Islam allows an eye for an eye but, the great religion also said that giving forgiveness is a more noble thing to do. I think because of taking Islamic teachings in parts, rather than its entirety, that extremists mushroom.

I was reading the book my skype friend gave me. It was about Afghanistan, prior to Soviet invasion, during Taliban and post Taliban. Things are not looking up over there. Most Afghans may have forgotten the Islam way of life prior to the Soviet invasion. Then, when the Taliban took over, the literal and extreme interpretation of Islamic teachings prevailed. It was hell being delivered, rather than heaven that was promised. Imagine, a Muslim woman, being beaten for speaking out too loud in public without further enquiries being made. In the book, there was story about this woman who went to the market with the husband. She asked for the price of some fruits to the old man who was selling it. And the old man was hard of hearing. So, she asked in a raised voice. She was beaten there and then, in front of the husband, the crowd for doing that! She was beaten so hard that she couldn't walk for days! That wasn't Islamic teachings. That was just brutality to women. And what about the Taliban's massacre of the Hazara. Just because they are Syiah, they were massacred? Even the Prophet S.A.W said that towards the end, his ummat would have many sectarians beliefs, but they are not wrong as long as they hold to the 5 pillars of Islam and believe in the six pillars of faith.

I am not religious. I am no imam or ustadz. But I believe this, peganglah Rukun Islam dan percayalah kepada Rukun Imam, InsyaAllah, you'll be okay.

How do I love thee

I got this beautiful poem off the ERL. It was written by someone, I can't remember who. I just wanna share it with you. Hope by publishing it here, I won't get into any trouble for not putting the original author's name to it. If you know who wrote this, please enlighten me. I'll give him/her due credit.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the does of Being and ideal Grace
I love thee to the level of everyday's
most quiet need, by sun and candlelight
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith

I love thee with the love I seem to lose
With my lost saints - I love thee with the breadth
Smiles, tears, of all my life - and if God choose
I shall but love thee better after death

I was so moved by it that I text it down in my handphone. Hence, now sharing it. I dedicated this to my love. She said she liked it. Dunno whether she still keeps it with her. Hmm...

Idle but busy...?

9.30am:
Got into the office this morning. Actually, client's office. Have been here for two weeks.

Today is one of those days when I'm swarmed with work and have no inkling of head and tail as to what to do. Rasa malas je nak buat apa-apa. If only I could just lepak in front of the tv...sigh!


1.03pm:
Just had lunch with one of my colleagues. Somehow, the talk over lunch went from the tastiness of the lauk-pauk, to previous projects and to a mutual friend who is said to be getting married soon. About this mutual friend. He is the only Arab whom I know that eats siput sedut. Girls say he is cool, good-looking, tall...almost every girl's dream boy. You might have thought he is a bit of casanova, right? Wrong. He is the total opposite. I've known him for about four years and he has never talked about a girlfriend or makwe or any conquest. There was even a time when I thought he is, well...not straight. But somehow or rather, early this year, he kept asking about the procedure in getting married. And never once did he mention that he has a girl in his mind. But rumours have it (agh! no, i'm not a rumour mongerer...well, at least not the criminal kind...) that he is seeing someone for the past two years! Hmm....makes you wonder how come he had never mentioned about this. Or how he could have this big a secret. I guess, certain people are just good at keeping everything close to their chest. And now, he and the girl are getting married! It is still a rumour, hence, the kepochi in me started to make some inquiries. There and then, during lunch just now. I made some calls and all came back with,"Ha?! Dia dah nak kawin dah?!" It seems no one know. So, perhaps, it's just rumour....Or perhaps it's not...? We'll see...

11pm:
Another day went by. I had a meeting at 5pm just now. Had to go back to the office for that. The meeting went quite well. Finished off at around 7pm. Then only I remembered that I was supposed to watch Transformers with my daughter. Hurriedly went to the cinema to buy tickets for the 9pm show. But alas, all tickets were sold out! Aiseh, anak aku frust giler. She almost cried when I told her. Aku cakap kat dia, perhaps tomorrow. Hopely, besok aku boleh la balik awal sikit. Lately, I have been making promises to her that I couldn't keep. Like cooking her favourite ketam masak lemak or making her fried beehoon. I've been swarmed with work these past couple of weeks. Kerja yang aku tak tahu mana hujung pangkalnya. Aku sendiri pun dah pening, kerja mana yang aku buat sekarang...sigh! Hopefully, tomorrow I can at least fulfill one of the promises I made to my daughter...

Anak-anak....

These are my two beautiful children. I have a pair. The eldest, a girl, is turning 6 in a couple of months. The youngest, a boy is 2. Both have curly hairs. And the wife tak nak potong rambut anak lelaki aku, so, org selalu ingat dia budak pompuan. Here they are, my most sacred treasures!

Getting started

Man... I've been wanting to do this for a long time. Writing. On the net. I've done some writing before, got them printed and published and what nots. But never on the net. You see, when you get things printed and published on paper, a whole bunch of editors must have had gone through your manuscripts, checking your grammar, spellings and most importantly, making sure your contents make sense. But not on the net, though. It's akin to opening up yourself, in all its grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and incoherent thoughts for all to see.

Well, here I am. If whatever you got from here is beneficial to you, Alhamdulillah. If not, just leave it as it is.