Ya Kareem!

I am back from an interesting weekend in Melaka, in which we went to the mystical Pulau Besar. I will write more about that later when I have the time, but right now, let me wish whoever who reads this Ramadan Kareem. May this Ramadan be better than the previous ones and may the blessings pour on all of us. When making our prayers, let us not just think of what we want and what we need, but also for the needs of our fellow brothers and sisters in this humanity in Africa, Palestine, Yemen, Libya, the families of those bombed in Norway and everywhere else where people are grieving.

One thing I would and must remind myself is that, Ramadan in the fasting month and not the feasting month, so kindly, if you are praying, please send a lil prayer that myself and many others (in Malaysia especially) would remember that and forgo all these wasteful Ramadan buffets, set to let us forget the true essence of Ramadan.

Ramadan Mubarak!

*I’ve disabled my FB account for this month so as to minimise distraction, if there is a need to contact me for whatever reasons, I am at percicilan@gmail.com

** For the Nablus soaps, we are having Ramadan specials. Buy 4 get 1 free and you get to choose your free flavour. To order, kindly email to al.nablus@gmail.com

Gimme hope

Right at this moment the song Gimme Hope Joanna is ringing in my head because I’ve just experienced something which gives me hope for this already crappy world. I got a call from Maybank Damansara Utama asking me to collect my debit mastercard from one of its counters. Like huh? Only when I checked my walled, holy freaking sh*ts, I didn’t have it in my wallet so that means it was err, missing? I traced back my last usage of the card and it was to deposit some money from the sales of the Green Charity Bazaar we went to sell our Organic Nablus soaps at.

Someone must have found it (I have a habit of leaving things on top of the atm machines) or the card was left at the atm machine itself and it swallowed back the card or whatever. I was one nervous wreck in the cab on the way to the bank, like what if ALL the money in there had been spent? It is after all a debit card. When I arrived, the officer attending me was nice and sympathetic. He found my card amongst a whole stack of cards which suffered the same fate as mine (ramai jugak orang careless dalam dunia ni ye?). His colleague then checked if any transaction since my last deposit had been made and there weren’t any. Alhamdulillah. No foul play, I got my card and my money back.

As trashy as the world has become, there are still a glimmer of honesty lurking around and that gives me hope.

Very random

I’m trying to get ready for Ramadan. I hope this year will be better than the last year and I hope that I can get to fast the entire month. As with other years spending Ramadan here, we break fast at the mosque so that saves cooking time, really. So I only prepare sahur. And thankfully the husband is a very simple eater. So cereal and sandwiches are good enough for him. He can’t take rice too early in the morning so that works perfectly for me.

Before welcoming the month, we are planning a holiday and somehow the initially a weekend off to somewhere near, suddenly holds a mystical prospect for us. Will write about this later, IF we ever get to go there.

Before I forget.

PAT.. if you are reading this, last Saturday punye Singa lawan Harimau match, sedih aku tak terkata, Harimau Malaya main macan kucing beb. Tee hehe.

My current read, which I started early last week is Gadis Oren. It is a translated book from Norwegian to Malay from the good people of my alma mater ITNM. It is a good read, although with all European writers, it is also very ‘meleret’ as with their long winded personality and over analysis of anything and everything. In the midst of the book, Oslo was bombed by a right-winged racist. I then read the translation of his diary. For a purist/racist who aims for a pure European Christendom, he had the cheek to enjoy Chinese takeaways. He is also, in my humble opinion, super syiok sendiri. He claims himself to be a rare commodity and because of his looks and the way he dresses, he attracts looks and ladies seem to check him out at cafes. Confirm tak betul kan?

Anyway, this Thursday, I will watch the match at home. Although 60 thousand tickets have been sold at Bukit Jalil, I still think the Lion wil triumph… Jangan marah Pat… aku still sayang kat ko! hehe

Kancheong Tahap Dewa

I marked today’s date as the date I drove on Malaysian roads with my L plate. Being like a typical ‘lembu’ driver, my kancheong-ness surpassed worldly order. Kancheong tahap dewa. On the record, I knocked down a road sign, dented the school’s car a teeny bit–much to the chagrin of my instructor, let go of the steering wheel when I saw cats crossing in front of me and I think had I not been a bit more careful, the Indian uncles on their bicycles cycling to people’s houses to cut grass may jolly well be my victims too. And I was going at a mere 30 km/h.

I told myself. Nevermind. Pelan-pelan kayuh. Man man lai…

 

Art Market

I had a teacher training course at Scholastic Malaysia just now and that’s quite near Pasar Seni. The last time I went there was more than a decade ago, as a tourist and I remembered it as a place for mat-mat kutu who were really good in art and made their living there.

Today I was back for the second time and it is now too touristy, albeit organised and clean and all that. Looks like Lau Pa Sat. And the prices too, are no longer what the mat-mat kutu would ask for, sadly.

I guess the very arena where mat kutu met mat salleh had to make way to tourism Malaysia image.

Big brother is watching

Our of curiosity, I succumbed to the invites to be on Google+. And I am crawling in it trying to make my way through and I have no idea why I am doing this. It started out with Friendster, and then Myspace (which I was never a part of), Multiply, Facebook and now Google+. The convenience of these social networking sites in aiding keeping in touch with people who are far from you, especially for us who live away from our families is undeniable. However, I do wonder how much of it, in the bigger picture of things, are used as a tool to monitor by the Big Brother?

Anyway, yesterday we had to go to the German embassy as the husband had to renew his passport. I think I had a girl crush. The person who served us there was a beautiful, and I mean really beautiful, like the older and more beautiful version of Maya Karin. Terpegun sekejap, and I’m a straight female. Heh. The kind of beauty that warrants an immediate ‘Masya Allah….what a beautiful creation’. The fascination, however, didn’t last that long because she slapped us with the reality that a 32 page passport costs Rm 603. That kind of brought us back to earth with a thud. Secondly, we never declared our marriage in the papers there as we got married in Singapore. Apparently we now have to. And we were told I had to go back to Singapore to get my documents translated into German at the German Embassy Singapore (more money) and get it stamped certified true copy by the embassy there and hear this: each stamp would cost me 20 euros per document. That’s like a freaking Rm 70+ per page! Not only she brought us back to ground with a thud, I think she dug the hole into the ground and I fell into it. No wonder they put a beautiful woman to handle this department!!!

*And oh, this new template is clean and neat. To leave comments you actually have to click on the title of the post and the comment box will appear. Squeaky clean.

The food dilemma

I was at Bangsar Village last Friday, on the eve of the Bersih rally and while walking around, I decided to drop by the video shop. I like the video shop across Village Grocer because they always have the Rm 9.90 special offer for certain titles. There were quite a few last Friday and of all things, I had to pick up the film Food Inc. The dvd cover says that after you watch this film, be prepared not to be able to see your meals ever the same way again.

And of all things, I had to watch it after dinner that very night. And I felt like puking my dinner all out. Here’s the snippet to it.

Garlic Galore

My BB didn’t do justice to what I was trying to capture here. These organic garlic from the organic shop at Ikano was so tiny that they looked like buttons. I wonder if these are roasted, they can be eaten like nuts. Like garlic nuts for snack? While garlic is good antioxidant, their smell is a turn off for me. So if you eat raw garlic or chew on garlic, please don’t get near me.

psst… have you heard?

Singapore lions are going back into the Malaysia Cups yo!
Ole ole ole ole ole ole…
I think that’s the best news up to date this week.
*Heeeeeeee.

How many of you remember the last Malaysia Cup match Singapore participated in 1994? The one Abbas Saad scored a hat trick. Remember how our island rocked and roared?
Yeah.
That’s the one I’m talking about. And it looks like our roar will be back! Hasta la vista…

Being Garfield

Someone doesn’t want me to work on the macbook…