Photographer in the making?

(one of her self-portraits)

Readers of my blog from day one would already know that my daughter Khadijah aspires to be a professional photographer.

Well, she received an email from an established publisher based in the tiny red dot country down south yesterday exploring the possibility for them to use one of her images from her flickr account (not for gratis by the way - they wanted to know her editorial rates bla bla bla) for next month's edition of an in-flight magazine of an airline based in that country who made the first Airbus A380 commercial flight last year! She was jumping up and down, naturally (dad wanted to join in but had to retain his composure....But joined in eventually!).

The downside of it was, they wanted a reply on the day they sent her the email which was the 7th! Dad and Mom has this policy of no internet access for the kids during weekdays and limited access during weekends of school term and public holidays! She actually missed the boat of what was supposed to be an embellishment to her curriculum vitae! Well.....I was visibly more disappointed than she was....But hey....there will be loads of other opportunities for whom who seek!

Umar's 5th birthday

I'm still busy......But I have to wish my dearest Umar a happy fifth birthday today.....

"My Dearest Umar,

May your life be filled with people who love you for who you are and with barakah from Allah swt......

Loads of Love : DAD"

Happy 2008

Welcome two jelo jelo fatt (two zero zero eight)!

Loads of things to update....Apologize if I have not replied to your comments...(will do soon!).

Many things to tell...! Well my law professor used to say....points form will suffice if time is not with you. So here goes :-

• Ib's starting school tomorrow...Paid all his fees. He's super kiasu. Harassing me to do all sort of things like wrap his books....label his clothings etc etc...Yusof is totally the opposite...(we have not been able to keep up with the school's co-op opening hours...So no books for him yet...sigh...tomorrow will be settling this; fees settled) - "Owh...still no books for me....Does that mean I don't have to go to school tomorrow..Yippee!"- that's Yusof for you). Khadijah is more or less settled...Good news is that she's promised to work extra hard since next year will be PMR...(***butterflies in stomach***, ***panic..panic*** - BTW this is how dad is feeling!). Need to settle Umar's fees tomorrow!
• MIL had a horizontal fracture to her toe...It warranted an insertion of 2 K-wires...
• We had fun over eid-ul-adha holidays...Man, I've never seen so many khenduris in my entire life! Life was total bliss with crisp air, padddy fileds stretching as far as the eyes can see, water supply from underground springs, pristine streams and waterfalls etc..etc...(will be posting pictures on this)
• Drove down to Port Dickson right after arriving from Kedah to sned my kids for my parents and siblings to baby-sit (sans Hajar and Umar)..Took the opportunity to have a dip in the pool and sea
• Watched fireworks of 6 different venues from my brother's new abode....Kids had fun (minus wifey who was too tired to go)..Had cramps in the pool while fooling around with my sons, daughter, nephew and niece; luckily it was a five feet pool in depth!
• One of my partners at the office left and hence "very the busy".

Hajar and her business

These pictures were taken by my daughter on our way back from her french class....Hajar was slightly cranky after our visit to the Curve [for GUiT hunting (after two weeks of failing to purchase a copy) and to meet our friends with their kids to pass on Dewa concert tickets] only to realise that she wanted to pooh.... This is how she normally poohs (just like her sister!). The last picture shows how satisfied she was thereafter.

Hajar's hectic weekend

Look dad, I'm in denim

Hajar's 2.5 months now and weighing about 5.5 kg. She's fully breast-fed and wifey plans to breast-feed her until she's 2 years old. I salute her and thank her for that for it takes a lot of determination and discipline and most of all - I don't have to wake up at night! (LOL). But seriously, it's for Hajar's well-being!

Hajar had a blast of a time last Sunday....We brought her to the Curve (well it's not her first Mall; she's been to Great Eastern Mall, Ampang Point, KLCC and Pavilion) - Borders in particular and later Ikea for lunch. Being a good-natured baby, our outing was a pleasant one save for the usual antics by Umar (surprisingly Ibraheem was quite good yesterday) - Umar rolled himself down the ramp (the underpass between Ikano and Curve) - yup all the way and usual ran about! The hazards of bringing them out all together! But it was FUN!

Met up with my sister, bil and their son for lunch and later adjourned to see the development where they just bought a house -NICE!

Dropped off the brood except for Hajar and went to a wedding feast (wifey's tukang urut's daughter's wedding). Food was brilliant! And the best part was that it wasn't a buffet meal. Hajar's adventure didn't stop there....- dragged her to wifey's colleague's house to see his baby son (delivered a week after Hajar)....Spent almost two hours there and finally went back home about half six! By that time Hajar was exhausted - and the parents too! : )

Ayat-ayat Cinta

This book came highly recommended by a friend...Went a few times to MPH thereafter only to find that they were all sold out. That heightened my curiosity even more! Finally made my purchase during the month of Ramadhan this year. I started reading the first four chapters and abandoned it as there were other pressing agenda for me. Khadijah finished it within a day!

I resumed reading two days ago, and made good progress today by finishing the second half of the book. I just couldn't put it down (wifey's comment was "Better finish the book soon so that you can concentrate on me more...!" LOL).

I have not read a malay novel for as long as I can remember.Well this one technically is an Indonesian novel but translated to Malay. It received rave reviews and won the Most Favourite Book award in 2005 (in Indonesia)! The underlying theme is of course love - but it covers wide ranging topics of love - God, neighbours, family, friends, teachers etc etc.....religious tolerance and interlaced with abundant of Quranic verses and Hadiths. Go buy it....The last few pages were heart-wrenching...And i shed some tears for fear of God...!

The movie will be out soon, but don't know when.....Meanwhile enjoy this trailer! Thanks Ahmad for recommending! Ya...I left it abandoned for some time!

Well done Ib

School : Assalamu'alaikum.

DoF: Wa'alaikumsalam

School: Is this Ibraheem's Dad?

DoF : Yes ...

School : Just to inform you that Ibraheem is eligible to be admitted to Primary One. In fact he did extremely well considering that he didn't go to our kindie.

DoF : (stumped but smiled from ear to ear...). Owh...

School : Don't forget to come to the book-sale from 10th to 13th December!

That's the teleconversation before lunch today. Mmm..I was stumped as I really thought that admission to Primary One is a matter of right and that the entrance exam the other day was for streaming purposes. Don't tell me that kids who are not up to the mark would be sent to K1? Anyway, I once used to be the super kiasu dad - but only with Khadijah....Even for her entrance exam to Ib's school's predecessor, I bought tonnes of work books (this school uses Singapore syllabus for Maths Science and English) and drilled her for almost two weeks... I got to a point where my blood pressure would shoot up weeks before exams...! She would cry everytime I drilled her for her exams and of course the results came out with briliant colours. I then came to realise that it's all a process and that forceing and drilling are creativity-inhibitors.

Came Yusof's turn, I had to learn to be more relaxed and let the joy of learning to come naturally..Ib didn't have to go through worksheets with me before the exam and I just threw him into the deep end! Some parents may disagree..but that's us.

Well done Ib....We are so proud of you.