Life by the beach

Dragging my luggage, helter-skelter out of the smallish airport to discover that nobody was there to greet me... not expecting a welcoming party but a familiar face, at least?
"So how, now, brown cow?"
What actually is a two hour forty-five minutes flight seemed to stretch into three hour forty-five minutes. I forgot about the time differences. Well, it always feels good to be back home. The forum added new dimensions and challenges to my working life... missions to undertake... to walk the walk!

Upon arrival, a sad news greeted me. Demise of the wife of a respected member of our relative, who suffered from cancer for quite a while. May Allah grants maghfirah and place her amongst the chosen ones in Jannah... Amiiin

Death is a mystery and only Allah knows when it is time for us to leave the dunia for akhirat. I will always pray that I will get the chance to seek forgiveness from hearts that I have hurt, unintentionally or otherwise. Sometimes, what we thought best for us will work for others unfortunately that was not always the case. One might be able to share one's kidneys but one heart only beats for one!

6.45 am

Ramadhan is the most special month. A month to look forward to, where we will set new goals i.e. to do it much better than the previous year, perform more Solat Sunat, Quran recitations, Sadaqah, to pray for Rahmat, Barokah and Maghfirah from Allah, Most Gracious and Most Merciful.

I turned the ignition and heard a disgruntled choking sound from the hood of my car engine. It finally chose to stop working at the fueling station. The service guy glanced at me and responded confidently.
"Its your battery. Give me a moment and I will attend to that." A woman alone + a car = helpless, luckily a fuel station is rarely quiet. Three strangers jumped out of a van and also rushed to my aid.
"Can you lift the hood, maam?", said one of the three men hovering anxiously over my car hood.
"In a minute," I answered while fumbling with the switch which I imagined would be somewhere below the steering wheel.
"We need to look at the engine, maam?" the mustached guy sounded impatient. I was sweating with embarrassment because I was not able to locate this magic switch. Truthfully, ever since I bought this car, I never had the need to lift the hood. It is known accepted fact that the men in our family took care of any car-related stuff. Feeling defeated, I stepped out of the driver's seat and left the rest to the expert.
The rest of my Saturday went without a hitch. Work is very much easier to figure out but cars are not very much of a mystery either. At the moment, with all these men mechanics around us, it will be quite safe to entrust these greasy stuff in their capable hands.
p/s I learnt something new today. I had a maintenance-free car battery.

Sunday beaches are usually a no-go for me... crowds will start to fill the shoreline. Families get together with packed breakfast and lunches. Crustaceans tread the sand with caution and ready to bolt from a charging beach bike. Come evening, I can hear Maghrib call for prayer from the nearby mosque. The traffic light junction will be jam-packed with vehicles of all sorts and sizes, leaving the beach void of human presence. Then will be too late and too dark to spend the day on the beach. Instead, several weekends were spent working with packets of modeling paste.

"I used to be content with my life. It all changes after I inherited a bathtub from my great great great grandfather. I used to be married, but he left because of the bathtub. I cannot stop him and I cannot give up my heirloom. I am now miserable and needed help. The vision of the bathtub in my living room occupies my mind and is not inspiring. I think I have lost my writing skills. I am a part-time writer for newspapers and magazines, more rejections than publications but the mere payment helped me a lot. With $10 at hand, I really need help with the bathtub sitting uselessly in my living room!"

I sat somberly facing a group of more than thirty primary and secondary school teachers, who acted as groups of professionals that will be solving my problem. It was actually hard to stay in character and at times I have to withhold myself from laughing (either my line was quite funny or I was funny!). The teachers were going though the creative problem solving process as part of the week's workshop with Dr Daria Danylchuk, a Gifted and Talented Education consultant from the University Transition Programme, University of British Columbia, Canada.

They asked series of questions to find more information from the client (me) and find the actual problem. Later, they brainstormed for ideas, discussed and argued amongst themselves before coming up with several solutions, judged and weighed further to find the best solution presented, either to be accepted or rejected by the client.

Read, read, read! Write, write, write! Read to write and write to read. Daydreaming in class used to be a hobby... but hey, I needed ideas for my compositions! Work had taken so much of my time and energy that it stunted my writing. 'Siti Munirah' was my first (and only) picture story book published by the Language and Literature Bureau... and with computer technology, producing and publishing a photo storybook of a recent outing, developed using iPhoto or PowerPoint (to create an electronic Talking Book) could be a meaningful and worthwhile class project.

Most perturbed by the haze but avoiding it is beyond our control,
Walk, stroll or jog outside is definitely a bad idea, so Aiman and Iqah spent the weekend jumping on my bed.
I let go of my pen, tablet and ArtRage... and Aiman drew his first two digital painting; a cat and a goat!

Sarah took a photo of herself and I imported this photo and traced it in ArtRage (still maintaining the free version). I know, its like cheating but I did it anyway. I guessed it was easier because I used a Wacom tablet and pen to draw. 

"Ya Allah, aku berlindung denganMu daripada kesusahan dan dukacita, Ya Allah aku berlindung denganMu daripada sifat lemah dan malas, Ya Allah aku berlindung denganMu daripada sifat penakut dan bakhil dan Ya Allah aku berlindung denganMu daripada himpitan hutang dan penguasaan ma'nusia" doa untuk dihapuskan dukacita dan dibayarkan hutang; dan amalan Surah Al-Waqi'ah setiap malam untuk menghindarkan dari ditimpa kepapa'an. - petikan daripada Kuliah Mufti.