Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Friday, August 1, 2008
Udang Galah @ Banting
Friday, July 18, 2008
A tribute to Rayyan
My beloved son Rayyan Hakimi passed away on 12th June 2008 at 4.45am after battling leukemia since March last year. He was 2 years, 8 months old. He passed away peacefully after enduring the pain of chemo for more than a year. His cancer cells were too strong and resistant to every chemo protocol given to him. In the end, doctors advised us to stop the chemo and to let him go peacefully without torturing him with anymore toxic chemo. Based on his blood count, the doctor predicted weeks to go & that we utilize that time to let him be free & enjoy everything possible - no more rules.
We had planned so many exciting things for him and looked foward to enjoy each of them as we knew time was against us. Unfortunately, his condition started to deteriorate further as the days passed by and despite all the freedom, he could barely run..walk..stand...sit.. every move was too painful for him. We didn’t give up hope and went for several alternative treatment…but he was getting weaker & hardly ate.
We had tried everything that we could possibly do and if there was going to be no miracle cure, then we prayed for Allah to take him to a better place. He will be dearly missed by our family and friends, even doctors and nurses. All the joy, smile and happiness that he brought to us (even temporarily) will be remembered forever. May he rest peacefully & bask in the joys of heaven.
I suppose we can find comfort in the fact that despite the chemo & other treatments for more than a year, he had quality of life - not bedridden, still full of energy and yes, lots of character. He was growing up fairly like a normal child eventhough his blood results were never great. We had a heads-up when the doctors finally gave up & said that he had about a month to go & he only fell into a coma for 2 days & went in his sleep while my husband & I held his hands.
My heartfelt thanks to all of you for all the well wishes, prayers, support, kind thoughts, contribution and condolences throughout Rayyan's illness until now. There is a saying that goes "When you need strength, it will come." And during this unimaginable difficult period, all of you have helped give us that strength in one way or another. Thanks to those who came over to the hospital, our home and the countless SMSs which I didn’t manage to reply. I also apologize for anyone that I may have missed out from this email. I am eternally grateful to all of you & there's no way for me to repay you but to wish that all the blessings be returned to you & your families."
To Rayyan and Farhan, Al-Fatihah..
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
3rd placing is good enuf!
I am always eager to see my kids (or any kids for that matter) to be active in sports. Why? Becos I want them to be like what I was before. But, emmm, these are the few of my experiences encountered:-
I wanted to enroll them for a teakwando classes - they said, sparring would tear my bone apart.
I gave them badminton rackets and a dozen of shuttle cocks - ended up, they kept the racket behind the door simply because they got fed up after not hitting the right targets for few times.
I promised Irfan to buy him a pair of football boots - he enjoyed playing football with kaki ayam or kasut sekolah MORE at the playground fronting our house.
At least I am proud to see Irfan ranked 3rd for 4 x 80 metres. For Yasmine, a big surprise for a girl!! she won 3rd for tarik tali, emmm not bad la.
Keep it up kids!!!
Monday, July 7, 2008
The art of defense
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Call me Tok Su
Tini had been fighting an agonizing pain (well at least I believe so, no personal experience though...) from the contraction as early as 3 pm the day before. Until around 11.30 pm, no good progress was reported to me, so I fell asleep.
While I was having a good dream that nite, at about 1.45 am, a call from Faizal woke me up. "No choice Paksu, the doctor has decided for a C-section".
That call had really freshened me up, went down to the kitchen for a cup of Milo and some kurma. At about 2.30 pm, received an sms from Faizal that Afiq was safely born. Thus, I am now officially become an Atok.
Welcome to the family Afiq!!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
My health
I did it again recently, it was an extreme increase of my LDL from the border line to 5.2, not only that, my liver and uric acid level showed a bad reading too. No wonder I was feeling so tired, especially after work, feeling like all energy has sapped out of my body lately. Now, I gotta force myself to change my lifestyle and eating habit.
Now, almost every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday I force myself on the treadmill at Bukit Mewah Gym (I can't play badminton anymore, thanks to my ankle injury since last Ramadhan). No late nite munching, no dinner beyond 8 pm. Bought some supplements from Himalaya, too. In fact, no rice on the weekdays.
A month has passed, I'm feeling a lot better now. I am eager to see the result on my next follow up blood test next 2 months. Is this one of the signs of aging?
Monday, June 16, 2008
A generation at stake
Last 2 weeks, Ayu and I went to the hopistal, ward 18 of the main building to visit him. The situation was quite horrible, a small ward, beds were all over the place like the verandah and even in front of the toilet entrance.
We walked along the row and saw him sat on the bed. Somehow it was really a touching moment for me - remembering when I was a kid, we were close until one incident (i.e. sommisunderstanding among the folks in my father's family), we started to distant away from each other (not only me, all of us) for almost 15 years.
I held his hand and asked if he still know who I am. His son (sat beside him) said "dia tak berapa nampak dah". I tried to continue talking with him, but it felt awkward. Before we left I held his hand again, placed an envelop (sedekah) on his palm, I could see tears in his eyes.
Driving back home, what came across in my mind was my aunty and uncle have left us one after another, Pak Uteh is now in his existing condition, abah with his heart by-passed not too long ago and Mak Usu's battle with cancer. Soon this generation will be gone forever. And one day, as time passes by, my turn (my generation) will go through the same thing.
That's life, isn't it?
A pair (that's only a wish), 2 girls are good.
Right after Dr Ashar scanned Ayu on her 4th month periodical check up last week, he looked at me and smile, told me that both would be girls. They were about 280 grams each, then.
I was hoping a pair (my wishful thinking) but conceiving 2 girls is the second on my wish. Not too bad, now I will be having 2 boys and 3 girls altogether. Most importantly both of them are fine.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Dua, Two, Twins !!!!!
Ayu called me from Ampang Putri (she was there for her first pre-natal checked up, for our 4th one, so I did not really bother to join her to see her gynae).
"You not gonna believe this dear" I sensed her happy voice on the other line just after seeing the doctor (my heart was racing and almost reached the red mark), but I just kept silent but so many thing was playing in my mind.
She add.. " Emmm.... we have a twins!!!!!!", I was relieved.... it was the greatest moment in my life!!!
Yes... syukur Alhamdulillah, we hope everything goes well. InsyAllah.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Udang Galah @ Pengkalan Kempas
Heard about this place via friends and infact, it has been on air, featured in Majalah 3 few months ago. This place is well known and famous for udang galah.
This river is known as Sungai Linggi leading to the sea about 4 km down passing by Sungai Timun and Tanjung Agas (and true enough, oh my God!!! yes, there are billions of "agas" there).
Me, Azmil and hamba Allah (can't mention the name for some reason) made a day trip there, rented a boat and tried our luck for udang galah. This was my first time experience, never tried it before. We had breakfast and ta pao for lunch at some small warung opposite a small old police station (forgot where it was but just before Pengkalan Kempas town). Damn cheap!!! 12 packets of nasi lemak, 15 karipap (big one, too!) and 3 cups of teh tarik just cost us less than RM20.
The boat moved at about 7.30 am, got our fishing gadgets fixed and ready, that was where the fun began. Great fun guys, we'll be back in next 2 weeks !! (though some locals there told us to watch out for "Bujang Senang" that may sometimes surface from the water - hope we don't bump into any!).
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
I was here when I was 11
This place is known as Kampung Ayer Batang, Pulau Tioman. My parents and I were here when I was 11 years old, we stayed at Nazri's Place I.
This trip was proposed when we (Kapten, Jaq, Fauzi and Dee) were having a very good seafood dinner at Kuala Sungai Baru (if I'm not wrong, it was at the end of last year). Unfortunately, Nazri's Place I was fully booked by a bunch of jokers from Kiasuland. We had no choice except to go ahead with the plan and stayed in Nazri's Place II (not too bad tho, in fact, it was kinda excellent to me *try sleeping in a sleeping bag on a carry mat on a bare ground with sky as your ceiling, then you'll appreciate what Nazri's Place has to offer*).
It was great fun - boating experience, beautiful scenery, easy peaceful kampung environment, excellent hospitality from Kak Ita (chalet owner) and the local people, great pancakes, karipap and teh tarik overlooking the beach served by an unofficial chubby waitress from Seattle, simple but nice meals and many more. I wished I was not reachable, surprisingly, the island was well service connected with 3G (so much of blissful peace for me, ahaks).
So did the kid - they snorkeled all day long at Pulau Tulai and Marine Park, they had a chat among themselves at the chalet's verandah until 11.30 pm, they could choose to dive into the beach or river (which connected to the sea).
Many thanks to Jag, Kapten, Fauzi and Zahir and families who have made this happened!!! Lets do this again guys!
Click here for more pics.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
14 years ago....
Yesterday, after 14 good years, we met for the 1st time. It was a Hi-Tea get- together in Kelab Tasik Putrajaya, about 20 of us were there from 5 to 9 pm. It was nostalgic.
Masrina (Rien) was the woman behind the scene, who has managed to bring us united yesterday, millions thanks to you too.
Sincere thanks to all of you, guys! For those who missed the ship, join us in the next meet up soon.
Click here for more photos ....
Friday, February 15, 2008
Condition Reinstated
All the hectics have passed. I fetched my new maid at KLIA with Ustaz last week and went thru all the exit process smoothly (surprisingly, it just took less than 15 minutes altogether). 4 days have passed, so far, no issue on our new maid (biasalah, baru kerje....). No comment from Ayu, Irfan, Yasmine and Imran too.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Breather ....
Time is running pretty fast now, a week has passed. I have reduced my teh tarik sessions with my friends lately, now I am really a family man!!!.
The kids had not been fit for school until last Wednesday. We (me and my dear wife) had no choice except to sent them all to Abah's house as early as 7 am for the past few days. At the same time, my wife had been terribly busy at work (me too, infact), we drove to office seperately (cos, in case she was late, at least I can manage the kids). Went home as sharp as 5.30 pm, fetched the kids at Abah's house and managed dinner for them (bought meal thru home delivery, to save time).
On last Thursday, Irfan and Yasmine were fully recovered and ready for school. They have morning school session at Sekolah Kebangsaan and Sekolah Agama in the afternoon. Again, we had no choice, in between those sessions, they were transitted at Wak Razif's house nearby for food and to change clothes (millions of thanks Wak...). When the afternoon session was done at 5.30 pm, once again, they were stationed at the same place for shower while waiting for us to reach home. Imran was at Abah's house whole entire day.
At home, we had to segregate the work to save time. I did the laundry whilst my wife did the ironing. I washed the plate and glasses and my wife did the rinsing. I went to Tesco to buy groceries whilst she cooked at home. The kids was forced to help us whatever and whenever they could. All the house works ended around 10.30 pm everyday.
At the same time, Fik invited me to join him to Kuala Selingsing for a two days casting trip. That sounded great but the situation did't allow me to go, leaving my family just like that in a hectic condition. I have told my wife the same.
On Thursday at 2 pm, my wife called me with a very happy tone - "my mum is on the way to KL, we have to fetch her at Puduraya this afternoon". Oh my god, I was really relieved - you just imagine that you were surrounded by enemies and suddently a heli came to fly you out. The first thing that made me happy was that no more that Irfan and Yasmine have to be transitted at Wak Razif's house anymore. Same goes to Imran, no more sending him to Abah's house since my mother in laws was going to be around. At least 50% of our hectic was reduced....fuh ....
On the same nite, my wife asked me whether I plan to proceed with my casting trip. I sadly replied nope, "I will not leave you all like this". She replied, "you can go ahead, it's ok, I have my mum here but for only for 1 nite".
On Friday nite, I packed all the fishing equiptments and headed to Kuala Selingsing. Spent a day there and reached home on the next day at 2 am. Not really matter on the catch, but what I had was a good breather after a week of very hectic life....... Thanks dear...
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Get Out!!!!!
The whole entire drama actually started last nite (of course, after a series of fxxk up and pent-up anger she managed to cause us over the period of her tenure). I wasn't at home, as usual, for a routine Saturday nite "teh tarik" at the "mamak" shop nearby. Thank God, I didn't go far, as ALL my kids (yes.. all of them) had viral fever . At about 12.30 am, while having a great laugh with colleague over "teh tarik", I received a call from my wife - "Yasmine and Imran's temperature dah naik 40 degree". Frantically, I ran to the car and headed back home, (can't remember if I actually paid the "tea tarik"..hmmmm...)
Upon my arrival, my wife was like crazy did whatever she could to ease the heat and asked the maid for help (the maid was in her room), but no response (as usual.. so we thot she was asleep). But when my wife entered her room to get Yasmine's stuff, you know what she was doing in her room? SHE WAS ON THE PHONE. IN THE DARK. TALKING AWAY. HAPPILY AS IF NOTHING WAS HAPPENING. Apparently she was talking to her boyfriend (we found out later from series of erotic sms exchanged between both of them). With full anger, my wife snapped the handphone and took it away. (And for your info, she bought the handphone without our knowledge...we did warn her zillion times that if we caught her neglecting her work because of that handphone we will take it away...but that is another story altogetherlah!)
The next morning, with a mutual decision made by us, the whole family, we decided to kick her ass out from our house. Now, we are technically maidless!! We have to figure out our strategy to face this situation for at least another 2 or 3 weeks while waiting for the replacement. SIGH.
This morning, looking at my wife's tired face, I held up her palm and told her," not to worry dear, this too.. shall pass..."