Da’ KRUsader’s Manor™

It might surprise you to read my title entry but that’s how I feel about the current festive season. People close to me who read this might be wondering why since I’ve been more excited about collecting the alms on behalf of my daughter and doing the calculations on an almost daily basis, just like 10 years ago.

For someone who has been experiencing the yo-yo effect when it comes to losing / regaining weight, you can understand the situation I am in. I kinda accept the fact that as I age, losing weight is getting difficult by the day. Every kilo lost during the recent fasting month was met with a triumphant smile. 5 kilos lost can be considered an achievement, even if the initial target was 10 kilos.

But with all the sinful festive food being served, it’s damn difficult to turn down the hosts whose houses I visit. I’m always caught in a quandary, whether to eat or give a white lie and say I’m too full. I had actually planned to fast on the days we were supposed to visit about 5-10 houses but the wife talked me out of it, out of respect for our hosts. As a result, I have regained a good 3 kilos back within the first 4 days of Raya, which was rather shocking to say the least. Discipline is certainly not one of my fortes but at least I am currently back on track where fitness is concerned. You can understand why I hate Raya now…

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The other day I was listening to Radio ERA (104.5FM) on my way home from work. They always have this 1-minute capsule right after they announce the prayer times for all the Malaysian states and Singapore, whereby renowned motivational speaker, Dr. Haji Mohd. Fadhilah Kamsah would be giving a short reminder on etiquettes or something along religious lines. I always enjoy listening to these 1-minute capsules as they are easy to digest and stresses on how to be better Muslims and human beings.

This particular topic pricked my ears and I thought it would be good to share with you, my dear readers. Dr. Fadhilah brought up a topic on forgiving and forgiving sincerely, without any hint of “never forget”. In it, he said that those who do not practice this form of sincere forgiving are bound to have illnesses, be it minor or major as the events that make him / her to never forget, to eat up inside. It hit me like a bolt cos in the past, I was guilty of this “forgive but not forget” trait. And I was almost ill every other week, especially when it comes to my sinus and influenza, that I was tagged a “sick bird” by certain quarters.

It was only till I got married that I learnt to calm down and be a more forgiving person and as a result, the flu attacks have gotten lesser. I dunno if it’s a coincidence but upon reflection, it made quite a lot of sense really. Thinking of affairs that might hurt you again will eventually eat up inside. And a sense of hatred will still linger. I know, cos I’ve been through that and it hurt deeply. Not only that, I suffered quite a lot. I’m sure you guys know what a sucky feeling it is to be down with influenza.

Life’s too short to let any hatred linger nor problems still stuck somewhere in our cranium. I’m still learning to let go of certain problems / issues / grievances I have in me and I hope HE would guide me in banishing them away and make me a better person. And I hope you my dear readers would adopt the same approach as well. I know, it’s never easy to let go of something that can be so hurtful, but I guess we’ll be exalted in HIS eyes if we were to adopt this method, with Jannah beckoning us from a distance…

I’m back!!! Apologies for the long delay. I’m busy with work over the past few weeks to the point I had to work during weekends as well. Which of course was not so bad, since we were in Ramadhan and practically had nothing much to do except to spring clean the house for Hari Raya, besides doing the other necessary stuff of course. Speaking of Hari Raya, how has the celebrations been for you guys out there??? Mine’s been great so far, very blessed to be celebrating with my daughter in tow. I’m quite envious of her cos her alms collection so far has surpassed even my previous record earnings in the past, and we’re only into the 6th day of celebrations. I guess it’s true when they said children are a source of sustenance.

Year in and out, I have never managed to visit all my direct aunts, uncles and cousins’ homes. I thought I could do it last year but because Aida had her fall when she was 32 weeks pregnant and was subsequently grounded from visiting, my aim was not met. This year, I vow to do it, God willing, cos really I value my family ties and since we do not meet that often, this is the right time to foster better relationship with them.

I also learnt something new on one of my visits to one of Aida’s grand-uncles. It’s about reading these 2 verses (Ayat 128-129) from Surah At-Taubah. I learnt that if you were to practice reading this daily, you are able to make others look upon you with compassion and you are also able to know when you will return to HIM. Cos one such person who practiced it, passed on peacefully and even managed to bathe, shaved himself, said his last prayers and laid down on the bed with both hands clasped on his stomach, ready to face Izrail, the Angel of Death. Wallahu ‘alam bissawab. For those wondering, it goes something like this:

“Lakad ja-akum, rasuloon min anfusikum ‘azizun ‘alaihi ma anidtum, haritsun ‘alaikum bil mukminina raufurrahim. Fa-in tawallau fakul hasbiallahu la-illaha illa hua ‘alaihi tawakkaltu wahua rabbul ‘arshil adzhim…” Translated it means: “Now hath come unto you a Messenger from amongst yourselves: it grieves him that ye should suffer, ardently anxious is he over you: to the believers is he most kind and merciful. But if they turn away, Say: “Allah sufficeth me: There is no god but He On Him is my trust, He the Lord of the Throne Supreme!”

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Honestly, I’m not someone who is easily enticed nor willing to embrace new fads or craze to hit town or cyberspace. More often than not, it’ll take me ages to finally get into the groove when everyone else have deemed it old news. A fine example was my blog migration from Blogspot to WordPress. But somehow after the local papers ran a report on this latest craze to hit cyberspace and I kept on receiving numerous invitations in my mailbox to join in, I finally relented and went to furnish my own profile and lo!!! I’ve finally joined the Facebook craze…

This new fad is similar to Friendster, just that it has added features which allows you to show others who are your top friends, who amongst them have the hotness factor etc. There’s just too many applications one can add on to their profiles and I’m just amazed at how addictive it can be. Personally I’m not that keen on some of the applications and I had to turn down some requests from friends. Only when I am really free will I take the time to toggle my way around. So if any of you out there has a Facebook account, let’s link up shall we???

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Ok I might be 6 days late but better late than never. On behalf of my missus and beautiful daughter, I would like to wish my Muslim readers Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri. For those of you who have felt hurt, disappointed and vexed by some of my entries or if I had hurt you in any way possible, whether through

I’m back!!! Apologies for the long delay. I’m busy with work over the past few weeks to the point I had to work during weekends as well. Which of course was not so bad, since we were in Ramadhan and practically had nothing much to do except to spring clean the house for Hari Raya, besides doing the other necessary stuff of course. Speaking of Hari Raya, how has the celebrations been for you guys out there??? Mine’s been great so far, very blessed to be celebrating with my daughter in tow. I’m quite envious of her cos her alms collection so far has surpassed even my previous record earnings in the past, and we’re only into the 6th day of celebrations. I guess it’s true when they said children are a source of sustenance.

Year in and out, I have never managed to visit all my direct aunts, uncles and cousins’ homes. I thought I could do it last year but because Aida had her fall when she was 32 weeks pregnant and was subsequently grounded from visiting, my aim was not met. This year, I vow to do it, God willing, cos really I value my family ties and since we do not meet that often, this is the right time to foster better relationship with them.

I also learnt something new on one of my visits to one of Aida’s grand-uncles. It’s about reading these 2 verses (Ayat 128-129) from Surah At-Taubah. I learnt that if you were to practice reading this daily, you are able to make others look upon you with compassion and you are also able to know when you will return to HIM. Cos one such person who practiced it, passed on peacefully and even managed to bathe, shaved himself, said his last prayers and laid down on the bed with both hands clasped on his stomach, ready to face Izrail, the Angel of Death. Wallahu ‘alam bissawab. For those wondering, it goes something like this:

“Lakad ja-akum, rasuloon min anfusikum ‘azizun ‘alaihi ma anidtum, haritsun ‘alaikum bil mukminina raufurrahim. Fa-in tawallau fakul hasbiallahu la-illaha illa hua ‘alaihi tawakkaltu wahua rabbul ‘arshil adzhim…” Translated it means: “Now hath come unto you a Messenger from amongst yourselves: it grieves him that ye should suffer, ardently anxious is he over you: to the believers is he most kind and merciful. But if they turn away, Say: “Allah sufficeth me: There is no god but He On Him is my trust, He the Lord of the Throne Supreme!”

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Honestly, I’m not someone who is easily enticed nor willing to embrace new fads or craze to hit town or cyberspace. More often than not, it’ll take me ages to finally get into the groove when everyone else have deemed it old news. A fine example was my blog migration from Blogspot to WordPress. But somehow after the local papers ran a report on this latest craze to hit cyberspace and I kept on receiving numerous invitations in my mailbox to join in, I finally relented and went to furnish my own profile and lo!!! I’ve finally joined the Facebook craze…

This new fad is similar to Friendster, just that it has added features which allows you to show others who are your top friends, who amongst them have the hotness factor etc. There’s just too many applications one can add on to their profiles and I’m just amazed at how addictive it can be. Personally I’m not that keen on some of the applications and I had to turn down some requests from friends. Only when I am really free will I take the time to toggle my way around. So if any of you out there has a Facebook account, let’s link up shall we???

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Ok I might be 6 days late but better late than never. On behalf of my missus and beautiful daughter, I would like to wish my Muslim readers Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri. For those of you who have felt hurt, disappointed and vexed by some of my entries or if I had hurt you in any way possible, whether through bad-mouthing behind your backs, thoughts or deeds, I sincerely apologise from the bottom of my heart. May all the good things you have done for yourselves during Ramadhan, be rewarded with Jannah in the Hereafter, Insya-Allah…

Ok apologies for not updating. Even though my PC has been up and running for almost two weeks now, I really have been very busy. My weekday routine reads like this:

• Work

• Workout at the Gym

• Break Fast in the Car / Gym

• Tarawikh

• Fetch Syahindah at my In-Laws

• Reach home almost 10pm

• Entertain Syahindah & put her to sleep

• Read news / Watch TV

• Sleep by 12am

And my weekend is also busy with running errands here and there. Entertaining the little one is becoming the number one priority for us as we take turns looking after her and doing our own chores at home. I really salute those who can manage to squeeze in the time to blog and do everything else at the same time.

Speaking of Syahindah, she turns 10 months old today and is a very active girl. She’s learning to walk a step or two without support and her teeth are slowly appearing in stages. Right now, the 4 front teeth are visible and the molars are also appearing inside. She can’t keep still for a minute, always rolling over, trying to stand up or jump about. We’ve reached the stage where we cannot keep our eyes off her even for a second, for fear she would fall off the bed. But this is the fun part of parenting, seeing how your child grow up in front of your eyes.

I guess it’s not appropriate to be telling what went on in my life when I was away seeing that it’s kinda stale already. I kinda forgot all about it myself. But just to recap a bit, I did not quite enjoy the Glenn Fredly concert at the Rock Auditorium Suntec City on 17th August 2007. Even though the crowd was happening and the quality of the concert and Glenn’s vocals were excellent, it was all spoilt as my seat was right smack facing the technical console where the sound engineers were. As I had won the tickets through the quiz on radio, I had no power over the seating arrangement. But I did see a lot of familiar faces from the entertainment scene, notably the radio deejays from Warna & RIA, Taufik Batisah, Rozita Hussin (Erlin Montel & 2 X 5 Dol fame) and also Fauzie Laily amongst others.

My work-sponsored Brunei trip from 21-23 August 2007 was great. Made new friends, visited a new country, and stayed at The Empire Hotel. What’s more, my room was facing the South China Sea and the view of the sunset. It was heavenly really. Honestly I did not feel like coming back. The hotel is definitely the best I’ve stayed in all my life. I’m sure those of you who have stayed there would agree with me. For those who are wondering why, well check this out: www.theempirehotel.com

Other than that, life has been very operational and clinical. Very routine-like. Feels as though I’m a machine working on the same thing day in and out.

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In my last entry, I had beseeched the help of my dear readers to alert me of the presence of the Prata Tumbuk stall this year at any of the Ramadhan Bazaars around the island. On the very day itself, one of my secondary school juniors (her name’s Octavvia), chanced upon my cross-post entry in Multiply and alerted me to it. Apparently the Prata Tumbuk stall opened on the night I had decided to write an entry about it. Speaking of coincidence. This year, for those who haven’t chanced upon it yet, it is situated at the Bazaar tentage opposite Tanjong Katong Complex, the one nearer to Singapore Postal Centre, right smack along the main road near the bus stop.

When I knew about it, I didn’t waste any time. Right after Maghrib on that very day I knew of its existence, I went down to the stall. It belonged to this guy called Maliek, who happens to stay in the same vicinity as me. I know cos I’ve seen him many times before this and his family also owns the Majfa Convenience stores at Hougang Ave 8, Buangkok MRT Station and also at Block 45 Bendemeer Road. He was kinda touched when I told him I had sought out to find his stall via my blog. Even though he has Honey Chicken Briyani & Roti Long John Special as added varieties to his food fare, I think the Prata Tumbuk itself is already a trademark speciality in itself. For those who have not tried it, you wouldn’t be disappointed…

And as a sign of gratitude for guiding and informing me of the Prata Tumbuk’s existence, I would also like to promote Octavvia’s stall, the purple-themed Ola-Lola’s, situated along the row just behind the Prata Tumbuk stall. It sells female accessories like brooches, ear rings and scarves. I went down to her stall twice to look for stuff that Aida could wear after that night but she wasn’t around. But really, the stuff she sells are beautifully made and I would have gotten all if I had a blank cheque. My female readers would like to have a look at them. Even the guys who read my blog, might want to drop by and get your loved ones some stuff from this stall. It’s beautiful, cheap and affordable.

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Speaking of the Bazaar and with regards to yesterday’s Berita Minggu article on respecting Ramadhan, we still get a few jokers who don’t seem to register in their heads that it is disrespectful to be seen eating, drinking and smoking in public. As I walked along the stalls and the Banquet outlet next to the Darul Arqam building, I got plenty of eyesore just seeing them happily eating, drinking and smoking away like it’s a normal day outside Ramadhan. We have the old uncles seated on one table, we have the tattooed Mats and Minahs walking and munching titbits, we have the food vendors drinking and smoking away as they call out to the customers to buy their fare.

My younger sister had lamented in her blog some time ago that she felt like going up to these people and asking them if their food tasted nice or not. But me being the sarcastic me, I felt like going one further. I seriously had half the mind to buy a few packets of pantyliners and giving them to these people as a sign of “goodwill”. Of course, I can’t do that or I might create an uproar or get into unnecessary trouble. At the most I can do is just glare at them or in the case of the food vendors, I’ll avoid buying from their stalls as a sign of protest.

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Which brings me to the number of Hari Raya songs being played on our local stations this past week. First of all, I have no problems with regards to playing Hari Raya songs on radio. However, I kinda felt saddened that our local radio stations chose to air the songs as early as the 12th day of Ramadhan. Here we are, not yet passed the halfway mark (we have passed as I type this) and we already seemed to glorify Hari Raya more than what we have been encouraged to do in this blessed month. Not only that, by the time Hari Raya comes along, some of us would have been sick listening to the same old songs over and over again. I did air my grievances via sms and even though the deejays did not read them on air, they did stress that it was done with management’s blessings.

Now, to be fair to the Management, I certainly am not pointing fingers directly at them nor putting the sole blame on them. They only played about 2 Hari Raya songs per hour as a form of teaser for the weeks to come and they wouldn’t have made such a decision had it probably not been for the listeners’ incessant requests to play the songs. Year in and out, we have people requesting for Hari Raya songs as early as the first day of Ramadhan!!! Somehow I dunno what direction are we heading as rational human beings. If Hari Raya is being glorified more than Ramadhan, then there must be something wrong somewhere. I can only hope and pray that some of these people who make all the unnecessary requests can come to their senses and be guided to be more fearful of what is in store for them in the Hereafter.

Yes I had expected the Hari Raya songs to be aired as early as this past weekend, but certainly not as early as the 12th day!!! Even radio stations in Malaysia only started playing Hari Raya songs on the 16th day, which was last Friday. And from what I’ve heard, people are already giving out dedications wishing one another “Selamat Hari Raya” when it is still quite some time away with Lailatul Qadar still up for grabs. We still have a lot to learn with regards to respecting this month, not just by refraining from eating, drinking and smoking in public…