HAPPY 15th BIRTHDAY AFIQ!

At 7.16pm, 11th May 2007 I received an SMS from Atiqah's number. The message read "Ibu ari ni bpe haribulan". (Mum, what is the date today). I was quite surprised because Atiqah was with me at that time. Suddenly I realised that it must have been Afiq who is using Atiqah's mobile. Instantly, I remembered it is the 11th May - Afiq's birthday!!! Oh, No! I forgot!

After Mahgrib prayers, my husband, Arifah, Afiq and I sent Atiqah for her Taekwando lessons at UKM. We then went to Metro Kajang to get a football for Afiq. That is what he wanted for a birthday present from his Abah (Dad). I got him a birthday cake and Lamb Pie from Secret Recipe.

After all those shopping, it was time to go back to UKM to fetch Atiqah. Can you imagine the aroma when Atiqah entered the car - I mean after a sweaty 2 hours Taekwando activity!!! Both Arifah and Afiq had their noses covered!!! Cheeky brother and big sister teasing the little sister.......

Back to the house, I could see a happy and smiling Afiq - clutching his Nike football and deeply indulged in the Chocolate Indulgence Birthday Cake.

PUT THE BLAME ON.....

Does it need an Arab tourist to lament about our polluted beaches, the sour face taxi drivers or their offensive smell cabs? Looking at the situation in the past and present (may be future???), I would say that more often than not, the relevant authorities in Malaysia will react instantaneously to complains. Sad to say - after the quick reaction but without monitoring by any ministry or authority, we will be back to square one!

Take for example, smoking at public places. Do you think people care? My personal statistics show that when I eat at open restaurants (not fast food outlets), during more than 90% of the time I will encounter people who just smoke as though they can control the direction of their cigarettes smoke! Dear smokers, don't you know that secondary smokers face a higher risk than you???

Sometimes I blame it on the restaurant's owners for not being strict to their patrons. Once I told a restaurant owner to tell one of her customers not to smoke in the restaurant because the smell of the smoke was really disturbing me and my children. And all the owner did was to smile at me. Period! With the thousands of the 'TAK NAK' bill boards around the country, I think so much money, time and effort has gone to destruction.

I don't mind if smokers want to smoke. These are my tips for them:

• Smoke in your own house!
• Get into your car (alone), wind-up the wind screen and smoke as much as you want!
• Go into the deep jungle where there are no campers. Smoke there and don't come back to civilization.

Many years ago, I did not really mind smokers. I started to abhor them since I read that even though secondary smokers are not smoking, they are more likely to acquire diseases like heart failure and other sickness related to smoking. And also a car whose owner smoke habitually while driving will still have traces of nicotine that can pose a danger to others who are in that car even after many years later. So, please be careful the next time you buy a second hand car or get into some one's car!

BIBI WANI

Today, my eldest sister and her family came back from Kuantan with my mum's maid. Her name is Purwani (Bibi Wani). Bibi Wani is an Indonesian maid who has been staying with my mum in Kuantan for the past 4 years (if I'm not wrong). My mum is staying with another sister in Kuantan. During the day, when my sister goes to work, Bibi Wani will be Mum's company.

Tonight Bibi Wani is sleeping at my house because tomorrow, Monsieur A and I will take her to LCC Terminal, Sepang before subh. She will take the Air Asia 6.55am flight to Solo. She is on a one month leave. I can see the shine on her face. Can you imagine not meeting your family for 2 years? Just now I helped her unpack and then repack her belongings (did some tricks!?) so that her check-in luggage will not exceed the allowable weight. Air Asia allows a maximum of 15 kg for the check-in luggage only!

Hmm...well cheap fare and only 15 kg of check-in luggage. So, if passengers were to be fined for their over weight luggage, it would be equivalent to paying for a MAS fare, won't it? People like Bibi Wani would of course have lots of things to bring home. Well, who wouldn't? Besides the souvenirs that she bought for her kids and her other family members, my siblings also gave her some souvenirs to bring home. I just hope that she will not be fined for bringing excess luggage tomorrow morning.

I will have to wake up early tomorrow to send BiBi Wani to the airport. I hope she will have a safe journey home. Jangan lupa pulang ka Malaysia ya Beek....Bibi Wani's favourite colour is PURPLE!

MY ATTEMPT TO UPLOAD PICTURES

Today I was almost glued to my laptop. Luckily it is a public holiday today in Malaysia - installation of our 13th King, the Sultan of Terengganu.

I was trying very hard to generate my web album - putting titles to pictures, comments that go along with each one, arranging them in chronological order, etc. Well, for a first-timer I think I was quite successful. Thanks to my beloved Monsieur A, but let me tell you that it was not an easy task. At the end of the day I managed to generate TWO web albums and ONE of it is already on the web. Temporarily, it is residing at Mannlehrer's web page. He got free space through his employer's home page. (Excuse me, I hope I am using the correct ICT terms here!)

This gives me the idea that I should ask for an account from my employer so that I can upload information, pictures, etc on to the web. May be no one in my organization has asked for this before! Hmm...that will be another task for me. Being in the civil service, I wonder if this is allowed. Come to think of it, why not? After all, the objective of the government's smart school initiative is to produce a new generation of IT-literate Malaysians who are creative and innovative, adept with new technologies and able to access and manage information to enhance the competitiveness and productivity of the economy.

OK, wish me luck in getting my information and pictures to reside at a free server!

BLOG WAVE

My goodness! My last entry was like...7 months ago! What makes me want to return to my blog? Well, recently two of my collegues from the State Education Office in Sarawak and Sabah created their blog at wordpress. Well, theirs is mainly work related issues. But why bother! If they can spend a wee bit of time to write, so can I. And here I am.

My Sarawak friend, Johnny, has his blog at http://jonibong.wordpress.com/
The other friend is Mdm Chen. Hers is at http://mdmchen.wordpress.com/
I told you that their blog is very much work-base! Well, at our age, blogging is a bit more of the serious stuff, you know.

BTW, today I received an email from a friend, Erfino, who is an Education Attaché in the UK. I realized that at the bottom of his mail he has written his blog address. Now that is another reason why I feel that I should not waste the blog that I started in June 2006! If you are interested, you can visit Erfino's blog at http://erfino.blogspot.com. His blog is mainly written in the Malay Language (majority of Malaysians speak Malay), a bit of English and also some Arabic. Erfino can speak 3 languages! Hang on, maybe he can speak four languages! I think he speaks Javanese! No offense Ustaz!