50th Anniversary

It was my 50th wedding anniversary with Ham on 27 Jun 2013. Both  our daughters came back from their abode overseas (Ida from London  and Nani from Dubai) to celebrate with us. We had a kenduri  with  tazkirah by an ustaz from Algeria, who is a PhD student at the UIAM  Gombak.

We invited him because he was to deliver the tazkirah in English for the benefit of our sons-in-law Phillip Rolland (Ida's husband) and Scott Shuey (Nani's husband.) Our invited guests of family and friends, of course, had no problems with English. Unfortunately, my boys — except for Zaki and wife Sabrina — couldn't make it earlier because they went to KLIA to pick up Fahd who came back for his semester break from Wanganui, New Zealand. The boys' mother, Ku Mek couldn't make it either because she is wheel-chair bound having had a fall in the bedroom (cockroach punya pasal) on 10 Apr, to be exact.  Her sisters Ku Yang and Ku Lan came. And the boys came later with their friend Nazrin and had a good late dinner. 



The food was catered by Ruz Aladdin restaurant. Everybody praised the nasi biryani gam (Johor speciality), beef rendang, the tapai ubi (my favourite; reminds me of my musim Jepun and Nyah's expertise with tapioca preparations.)


All in all, it was a wonderful evening and the weather stayed fine without the haze that came from Indonesia a couple of days ago. The girls left early the next morning for their holidays in Vietnam (Ida and Phillip) and Kota Kinabalu (Nani and Scott.)  We wished they could have stayed longer. Ah well, at least they came back and for that we are grateful.

Jalil passed away

On Friday 18 Jan, 2013 Ham and I (and Chor) went back to Ipoh to see Jalil, Ham’s youngest brother at the Hospital Tuanku Bainun. He suffered a stroke the night before. He was in coma the whole time we were there (from 12:30 to 1:30 pm). His wife and daughters were at his bedside.

We went back to Kuala Lumpur at 4:00 pm. And at 3:30 am that night (19 Jan 2013) Ham received a call to say that Jalil had passed away, without regaining consciousness. Apparently he had a blocked blood vessel at the brain that affected his respiratory system. Ham went back to Ipoh with Hj Alias and his wife Hamidah. Jalil is Hamidah’s uncle. I couldn’t go because I had a wedding to attend that night and won’t be back in time for it, if I went. I was, however, glad that I went to see him at the hospital earlier when some of his closer relatives didn’t do so.

Jalil was a few week’s short of being 55 years old when he passed away. He left behind a wife and nine children.

Tunisia

I’ve just returned from a trip to Tunisia with Ham.  We took the SafirgoTravel tour package and it was well worth the RM 7,390 per pax that we paid for the 9D7N trip. We left by Emirates for Dubai on 15 Dec at 03:00 in the morning.  From Dubai it was just 5 hours to Tunis and we were scheduled to arrive at 2:00 pm local. But we arrived at 5:00 pm because of delays at Dubai due to some technical faults with the A340. We changed aircraft and took off 3 hours later.
A lot had to be covered in the 7 days in this country that is full of historical – Roman, Goths, Vandals, Arab, French – heritage. The Arab legacy, however, prevailed to this day; and Tunisia is one of the 5 countries – Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania -- of the African Maghrib.
Our tour started with Tunis, the capital city, to Kairouan to Tozour, to Douz on the edge of the Sahara; then along the Mediterranean coastal highway to Monastir with stops for the sights at Sousse and Nabeul before returning to Tunis for a final 2N stay. Most memorable were the 1 hour camel ride into the dunes of the Sahara and a 4x4 trip to the Atlas mountains. A visit to a date plantation by horse cart was equally memorable (see video).

Camel riding at Douz	Early start for 4x4 trip to Atlas Mtns.

At a date plantation in Tozour, Tunisia

New Smart Phone

I just got myself a Samsung Galaxy Note II smart phone.  It’s really smart and I am very happy with it, even though I am yet to master all it’s functionalities especially the S Pen.  For the time being, I am busy transferring my data (contacts, pictures, and other stuff) from the old Blackberry Curve.
Actually I did like the Blackberry because I made it dumb and had the battery last me some 7 days between charging.  But now with the Galaxy Note, it’d be stupid to make it dumb; so I have to accept the need to charge it every night, sometimes in the car as well. It’s biggish for a phone, but I got big hands, so that’s okay. And the screen is much bigger too compared to the Blackberry. For GPS, the screen is even better than my Garmin.
Now, let’s see: how many hand phones have I had since my first Nokia? Umm...the Motorola clamshell, the O2, followed by two China made phones with TV functions, then a Malaysia made CSL Android smartphone with GPS, then the Blackberry and now the Galaxy Note II.  I hope this will be my last.
Afternote:  Even Ham now got a Galaxy smartphone. But Mek will probably go for the Blackberry Q10 or Q5 (updated 16 Jul 2013)

Spanish holiday

Last September, we went on a family holiday after a lapse of 12 years. The last time we went on holiday as a family was in 2000 when we went to Lake Tahoe for the children to enjoy a bit of snowboarding. After 9/11 no more travelling to America. However, I did a lot of travelling since then on overland adventure trips by 4WD vehicles in a convoy. In fact I’ve done five trips covering the four continents of Asia, Europe, Africa and South America. So this recent family trip was meaningful since the children are all young adults.

We had about 12 days in Spain with Malaga as the hub from where we drove to Granada (Alhambra), Cordoba and Seville. From Seville we took the train to Madrid. Apart form all the sightseeing and shopping, I think our most memorable experience was the bullfight.

Nice weather, hard seats	Provoking the tired, confused bull

There were six bullfights over the 2 1/2 hour session. All six bulls lost.

Bullfighting is a cruel, blood sport. And many Spanish cities – Barcelona, Malaga, Seville -- have banned it. And pressure from animal rights advocates is mounting. Madrid may ban it too in the future. But my Spanish friends in KL believe it’s all political and economics. When the going gets tough and the tourist dollar is badly needed to upkeep the splendid bullrings and the thousands of people in the business, then they’ll bring back the bullfights, they said.

 
However, I certainly don’t like it; the poor bulls just had no chance. Even if it could gore a matador it’d still lose the fight and be killed.

iPhone video by Nazrin 10 Sep 2012 Madrid

Cataract Op

I have been postponing my cataract operation since early this year because of the travelling I was doing - Italy, UK and Spain. Having just come back from Spain I got the op scheduled for Wednesday 3 Oct 2012 at Ampang Putri with Dato Dr Baljit Kaur doing the honours.

	She did my right eye first with the left eye scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday 10 Oct. I now have a brand new eye with multifocal lens; and it's great. My vision is certainly much better with the right eye - I am writing this post without specs. And it'd be much better when the left eye is done.
So next week I should be a new guy walking about without specs, except for powerless sunglasses. I could have it done at our Military Hospital and being a pensioner, pay nothing, but my dear wife was willing to foot the bill. Furthermore Dato Dr Baljit had all my records.

On this note, I can't help but remember how my father had cataract back in the mid 1950's but he refused to go for operation for several reasons: firstly, he couldn't afford it, secondly he was a great believer in takdir or God's will and thirdly he didn't quite like hospitals. So for almost 20 years until his death in March 1975, he endured blindness.
I don't blame him considering that the technology back then must have been quite primitive compared to nowadays, where we have laser and ultrasound techniques, local anesthetics and very modern OT facilities.

Raya 2012

We had a good Raya this year.  The governmet's largese with generous bonuses, windfall for Felda settlers and the good economic climate the country is currently experiencing, made everyone look happy and comfortable. Despite the Opposition's effort to create racial tension, the harmony among us remained intact. This is evident from the number of guests who came for our "Open House" today. Our friends and acquaintances, be they Chinese, Indians, Japanese, Syrian, Caucasian (Dane, Spanish, Swedish, Aussie, English, Scottish), Singaporean and Malays of course, came from far and near. And they came with their children too; and the "duit raya" was disbursed appropriately.

Everybody had a good time enjoying the variety of food typical of Malaysian cuisine; and in some cases meeting some long lost friends or relatives. The weather also played its part by pouring a bit of rain in the afternoon to cool down the environment.

In the morning after the Aidil Fitri prayers at the mosque, we had our traditional breakfast as a family. Of my six children, three are away — Ida in England, Nani in Dubai and Fahd in New Zealand. This has been the case every Raya all these years.

I certainly hope one Raya in the future we would see all six of them home with us, with their husbands/wives and children. Wishful thinking, perhaps!