Why nasi kenduri is always tasty?

There is a wedding kenduri back at home today for my youngest brother and his wife and his wife's younger brother and his wife. Hmmm ... a little bit confusing eh. Nevermind ... Too bad I can't go home because I'm working and can't get leave and also because Trg is like 600km away from KL. 600km is quite far, you know. Hmmm ... I miss nasi kenduri. Somewhow, nasi kenduri is always so tasty. Why eh? maybe because I get to eat it only once in a while.
Next month, my husband's family is going to have a family day in Genting. A brother-in-law has booked two apartments for u all. It should be nice to have a gathering like that. I wish I could have one with my own family too. But when? We must do that at least once.
Sy is getting more and more moveable. He has started crawling a bit. But he has also become a bit manja, wanting our attention all the time. Today, I saw A moving things out of her brother's way so that he could have more space to move. I'm so proud of her. She has shown her responsiblity towards Sy, although she can be a bit strong headed sometimes. She sort of understand what being a kakak means. And she's only two and a half years old. Sometimes, I pity her because she has to share our love with his brother when she's also still so very young. I used to cry when that crossed my mind. But not to say I regret having Sy. He's like a playing partner for A. Soon, they'll be playing together and arguing 'together' too. Hmmm ... I could imagine how noisy my house would be. Even now, our life has become so noisy, my husband and I find it so difficult to have a peaceful and quite conversation when they are around. There are always saying this and that and coming in and 'out' between our sentences. It's sometimes so hard to finish a sentence. But really, I have no regrets. Am sure my husband has no regrets too.
I have to call my parents after this to ask how the kenduri was. Chow .

Sy

Today, I saw Sy propping up on all four for a few seconds, like he was about to crawl. Not so fast baby, I'm still trying to adapt to your sister's antics. Sy is seven months old now and A two years old and five months. Looking back, I wonder how I, errr, we, did it. But Alhamdulillah, with God's help we manage to see them growing up well, without much hiccups.

Two days ago, I read Nik Aziz's comment on Kelantanese women who like to wear lots and I mean, LOTS, of gold jewelleries. He reminded them to only wear moderate amount of gold, as in economic sense, the habit doesn't bring in profit, but only endanger the users. I fully agreed with him. There are women in Kelantan and also elswhere who're carrying themselves around with thousands of ringgit worth of gold, it may add few kgs to their bodyweight. Some women wear big pendants, as big as a cup saucer, their neck might break as the pendants are too heavy (am I exaggerating). Isn't that a bit too much? and the habit endangers the wearers too. There are many snatch thieves out there who can't wait to put their itchy hands on the jewelleries. Lucky, I don't like gold much. And I think Nik Aziz just said the right thing.
But there are individuals who seem to disagree and feel offended by his remarks. Some politician, of course, and definitely, a woman. Puteri chief felt she must fire back, saying Nik Aziz was picking on petty things and that it's up to women to wear what ever they want as long as they wear it moderately. Hmmm ... must she disagree and criticise Nik Aziz's remark just because it came from an opposition party leader. Can't she just take it as an ikhlas advice from a senior, pious man. And wasn't she also being petty? I don't see anything wrong with what Nik Aziz said. He asked women to wear gold moderately. And moderately was also the word used by Puteri chief. Hmmm ... some people just like to 'fire back', no matter what. Politicians love to 'fire back' especially on remarks made by other parties' leaders, be it right or wrong. What's wrong with people these days? Can't they listen to others and try to consider 'teguran-teguran yang baik'? Isn't in Islam we're encouraged to always remind each others on good things?

I like to express a bit of dissapointment over the mission and direction of an NGO who has Islam in its name. Its objective is to help sisters in Islam, which I think is a noble intention. Helping others is always noble to me. But it seems, the only way the NGO makes itself known to others is by wading in murky waters. Its chief is a vocal critic of ulamas and Islamic practices. She, seem to me, contantly disagrees with whatever muftis, Imams and Ulamas say, using newspaper to voice her comments and personal opinions. It seems none is right about these good people to her, sometimes I wonder if she is actually the one with problems. There was one time, when she just talked about 'tudong' and tudong and tudong. She seemed so obssessed with tudong issue. From my understanding, she probably wished she could make her own 'fatwa' that tudong is not wajib. Why she's so against tudong, I've yet to figure out. And of course, at the same time, she also emphasis the need to open our mind. Maybe to her, open the mind meaning to not cover heads. hahaha ... Perhaps, she needs to open her mind a bit to what others say and think about their messages, no matter if they are 'traditionalists' or 'contemporarists'. She should just sit down and listen. I wonder if she ever puts some efforts to actually understand what these alim people sais, as most of the time, she seems to already has objections in her head before these people even open their mouths.

There are many issues the NGO can tackle, bigs or smalls, all are important. Tudong is one if them. Overly exposed, is another issue, which maybe the NGO forgets, or purposely forgets, to mention. Immorality among muslim sisters, kehilangan jati diri, budaya and ugama, un-islamisation of muslim sisters' mind, poverty, education, etc, etc. Banyak lagi isu lain.

- A muslim woman with the loudest voice does not always represent the voice of muslim woman majority. She may only represents herself and a bunch of her good old friends, to fulfill their own agenda.

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A with chicken pox. With her is Cousin Ai.

Who takes care who ...

Sometimes, I have problems understanding some practices among malays, and perhaps other races, regarding marriage life. When I was a kid, I used to see women, including those in my family, help out men at workplace, be it at paddy fields, kedai runcit, vegetable farms, workshops, Quranic classes, etc, etc. Of course, they also cooked, 'fed' the husbands, looked after the kids, washed the clothes, swept the floor, scrubed the bathroom, looked after the cows and chickens, sometimes pets, went to the market, looked after the elderly, sent kids to school .. the list goes on and on.
Most of the women I knew also had their own 'professional' jobs like sowing, knitting, drawing batik and bertenun besides normal office jobs as govt servants, teachers, etc, etc. During the busy hours of the women, the men were usually having their siestas, lepaking at kampung cafes, watching TVs, playing dam aji, splashing in the river nearby, polishing honda cubs or raleigh bicyle, talking to pet birds, the list went on and on. In this new era, although few decades have passed, not much change actually happened. Most men still have to fed and pampered, women do most of the jobs, including bringing in the money. In Islam, among the purposes of marriages, is for men to protect and take care after women. And because of that, men should be regarded as leaders of the family. In practice, the truth is a far cry from that. And for that reason, I wonder if it's ok if women be appointed as the leaders of the family, as they seem to be the stronger species. I'm sure God is fair and He sees and listens and sure knows what happens.
Why am I talking about this? I'm lucky to have a loving, caring and responsible husband, who does most of the things. So, why the complaint? I read a news about a 100 over grandma who married a 30 something guy, so that the guy 'can take care of her'. But she said in a report, she cooks, irons, washes, bla, bla, bla for the guy. I wonder if she also has to work to put food on the table. Now, who takes care, who needs to be taken care? I'm really pissed of.

Chicken pox or what ..

Sy had spots all over his face and upper body and we thought he was having chicken pox. Prior to that, he'd had fever for four days. So we went buy calamine lotion and semambu soap and also to see a doctor which confirmed it was chicken pox. But yesterday, the spots dissapeared. I wonder ... was it because we bathed him using the semambu soap? I'm sort of relief, because he's only 6 months old. But I'm quite worried too. A, when she was about one year old, also had spots which dissapeared for about one week to only return back as real chicken pox. I wonder what was that ... chicken pox, or some allergic reaction.
Today, he's back to himself, smiling, baby-talking and busy touching things.

I wish I were rich...

After a two-week leave, I feel so lazy to come to work. How nice if I could get more days. My brothers' wedding went on as planned, small and more 'family-oriented' :) ... maybe due to lack of fund eh. A enjoyed her balik kampung so much, so did her grandpa and grandma. I could see they were very happy to have us around. My son, Sy, also enjoyed lots of attention. Too bad, the attention had to stop there. Now that we are back in KL, attention is so limited. So used to having been picked up and carried around for about about two weeks, he must feel a bit abandoned when most of time now, he has to be contented playing only with his rattle while observing me doing household chores or errr ... sleeping .
A is so tan she actually looks like we just came back from beach holiday. She had sure been the centre of attention in Trg as she's the first cucu at my side. In fact, I can see she has become a bit spoilt. Back there, she bullied her tok and aki and most of the time, got away with it. And I also let her be as I go home only three or four times a year. So nevermind lah. Let her be and let my parents be ... so long they are happy. Trg is really so hot during these few months. Nevertheless, I enjoyed every bit of it. It's my hometown.
We also spent few days in Malacca. Although we go back to Malacca at least once a month, We never really spent more than two or three days there. So this time, we spent almost four days, and that could almost make my mother-in-law breathless as she moved around the house doing this and that. Most of the time, I feel guilty if I stay more than three days as this will make her move even more. She has asthma, and being busy may worsen her condition. But being active, she just can't just sit and relax. A also gives her more things to do. Mess up the living room and bathroom, bullying he pak su, asking to be bathed, blablabla. I cautiously enjoyed my holiday day too. Cautiously, due my in-laws asthmatic condition .....
And now, I'm back here, staring at this computer, thinking about headings, rewriting, wondering about what kinds of illustration to use ... How boring ... but life must go on eh ... and work also must go on ...
Looking forward to our next vacation.