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.

Hodgepodge

Ib was hilarious this morning - I was flummoxed and lost for words!

Whilst bathing Hajar this morning, Ib hugged me from behind and the ensuing conversation went on something like this:-

Ib : Dad, why do you have grey hairs?

Dad : Mmm...I suppose I'm old already.

Ib : Old people can have babies? (in a perplexed and naive tone)

Dad : (laughed......). Of course!

We attended Ib's school concert last wednesday night. He was one of the main characters, Atuk (Grandpa) throughout the show with the theme "Our Heritage" which touched, inter alia, the issues of global warming, 3Rs (recycling, reuse and reduce), etc. Scheduled to be held last Sunday, it had to be postponed because the venue was affected with closure of roads in Kuala Lumpur by the police.

During the second scene he forgot some of his lines and had to be prompted by his teacher. In the third scene, he had us all laughing - yes he forgot his lines again but he took off his songkok
and out came his script. Yes he read his lines from the script!

And he graduated from his kindie that evening too receiving a scroll...Primary One next year and he's looking forward to it!

I love this pic taken by Khadijah. It's a self portrait and she definitely has improved in her style of taking pics. And now to enrol her in a proper photography class......

Khadijah surprised us yesterday...She actually made a bag from scratch (see pic above). Her sewing is not bad at all for a first timer. And....she got two orders from her flickr friends. She was inspired by RANtAI Art event which is taking place between 12 to 16th December (read here for details) that she has planned with her friend Aisha to create the brand name "Aku-Streka" for hand-painted t-shirts and has expressed her wish to participate in next year's RANtAI art event...Now she has expanded her merchandise by creating the bags...Keep it up girl!

Second month

Hajar's two-month old today!

She's sooo adorable (NB : an impartial statement by the way!)...! We've started with flash cards and board books with her and amazingly she responds with her coos and giggles.

Our new maid, Wahyan, has arrived. Khadijah is helping out to baby-sit Hajar whilst we are at work...(thanks a lot daahling [this is how Khadijah would say it!]). But it doesn't come for free....(..sigh...) - she's charging us baby sitting OR rather we decided to give her pocket money for giving up her books (rather than paying the nursery). To us, it's important that a child should "grow-up" in her own home! But come 2008 school sesson, we have not decided whether to send Hajar to a nursery or be at home with the maid. We have to see how Wahyan copes...

Hajar is trying to roll side ways and has managed to do a 45 degree roll each time...Amazing!

The forgotten Ivory

I've forgotten it for the first time in my life.....! Wifey is the one who usually forgets and it's a no surprise that this particular day passed as a non-event for her yet again this year...; like previous years! For me to forget this important day shows how chaotic my life has been for the past two months!

It was our Ivory anniversary on 21st November 2007 and it really eluded me! Had it not been for me blog hopping to Mior's today...our anniversary would have escaped unnoticed...Thanks Mior for the prompt - and hey...you got hitched 2 days before I did!!! Happy belated anniversary to you and Azian!

Wifey and I went on a platonic relationship for seven years...It was, initially a subject of interests to a lot of friends but they gave up on us after a while! There was no courtship, candle-lit dinners, valentine gifts, "proper" dates, love letters etc etc.....

The relationship, thankfully, progressed albeit at a pace (to quote Andrew Leci) "of a snail on valium"! And it finally reached the point of no return, in 1993! - I felt I could not live without her! Let me be frank here....- it's amazing after all those years the feeling of "LOVE" didn't blossom within me at that point! I still kept mum about my feelings - even my best friend didn't know! (talk about slow worker!!LOL!). I'm not good at initiating all this mushy stuff... ** blush**

It was August/September 1993 that the relationship took on the express lane! My mom (thank you mak!) was the one who instigated that we should settle down and tie the knot - and I tell you, it happened so fast that the next thing we knew was that an engagement ring was purchased by my mom....! I didn't object to it because I knew then that wifey was the one who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with! Three months later we tied the knot!

Call me a traditionalist - and that's what I am when it comes to love and relationship etc- ! And yes we only fell in love after we got married...Well our 6 offsprings is indeed a testimony to "traditionalism is still relevant today and indeed a way of life"! LOL!

To wifey..... - Looking forward to many many wonderful, happy and prosperous years to come.......! I love you always...YAYAN!

Read my last year's anniversary entry here!

Finally......

Finally Ib's got a school! OR rather we registered Ib for Primary One next year....Yup just yesterday!

Yes yours truly have been procrastinating in registering him BUT hey it's all with reasons....For me it's really about balancing...the "type" of education which suits each child of ours, logistics, transport, etc etc.....And the decision normally comes at the eleventh hour!! There'll be four different places to drive them to next year (between wifey and me, of course)....Khadijah in Wangsa Maju, Yusof in Gombak, Ibraheem in Dataran Ukay, Umar in Keramat and Hajar (don't know where, yet - yes we are sending her to a baby sitter; may be Jalan Gurney which is near wifey's office).

I'm glad superwomanwannabe's kids are joining the same school hence we can book a car to transport them all back from school...Found a reliable "grandma" to ferry them back!

Ib's excited that he gets to go to the same school as one of his friends in Kindy and wants a Transformers bag...

Dilemma

Hi All....I've been busy...."maidless", "tonnes of workload in my practice (certainly good news)", "b-i-l's wedding", "Khadijah's DELF A2 exam" etc etc....

Just a quick one now...!

The email:-

"Can I please please PLEASEEE go with my friends only?sigh. Please say yes. anything, go here

Oh and do spread word to everyone :)

And HAJAR is fineee..."

The sender :-

Khadijah, my daughter the budding photo-journalist.

The event:-





Well I think I should tag along or at least send a chaperone....OR get her electronically tagged and trace here using GPRS service. Yes it's an extremely dangerous and uncertain world out there! And Hujan (the band) who sings one of my current fave songs, "Pagi Yang Gelap" (please listen here) will be there..!!!


Hmm....sorry you have to find out from here Khadijah...