Dreaming Of A White Christmas?

Well, if you’re one of those wishing and dreaming of a white Christmas, it looks like your wish and dream have already come true. In Europe, specifically the UK, millions of travellers are either stranded or delayed when their Christmas and year-end holiday plans are disrupted by the heavy snow. It remains a question whether they will arrive at their festive destinations. It seems to be chaos all around, with 10,000 vehicle breakdowns, rail services disruption, blood stock depletion and deliveries backlog. Heck, even footie (boo hoo), rugby and horse racing were affected. So I guess be careful for what you wish for.

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It’s déjà vu all over again. Arsenal will face Barcelona in the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League. I was cursing when I found out about it. Why oh why can’t it be any other team? Well, I suppose we only have ourselves to blame for not finishing second in the group. We always do things the hard way...

Fragrant Harbour

8 – 12 December 2010

I had promised my niece, la niña, a trip to Hong Kong Disneyland if she did well in her UPSR and to our surprise, she did exactly that. I had wanted to take her on the trip at a later date, maybe during one of next year’s school hols, but decided to bring forward the trip. So, on 19 November, I booked a Hong Kong SuperCity Package from Cathay Pacific (the package included a return trip, a 3-day 2-night hotel accommodation, return airport transfer either by coach or Airport Express Line (AEL) and complimentary half-day city tour among others). If you are planning to go to Hong Kong, I really suggest you take up this package as it’s really good. I extended our stay to a 4-night stay and paid only a bit for the extra two nights.

We left KLIA on Wednesday evening, 8 December 2010 (24 hours after I arrived from Medan!), and landed at 9.30 pm local time (Hong Kong is in the same time zone as Malaysia). We had to board a train from the arrival area to get to the main building, go through immigration and collect our bags. It was 10.30 pm when we finally boarded our coach but thankfully the traffic was kind to us and we reached our hotel by 11 pm. I chose the coach as if we had taken the AEL, we would still have to find our own way to the hotel and some cabbies don’t speak English.

It was a bright and sunny day on Thursday. We took the hotel shuttle to Pacific Place and made our way to Admiralty MTR station. I bought a Tourist Day Pass (it entitled us to HKD30 off Disneyland ticket price). We stopped first at Tsim Sha Tsui station as I wanted to perform prayers first at Kowloon Mosque. We then boarded the train and finally reached Disneyland after changing trains twice.

There are only three lands at HK Disneyland and I had thought we’d breezed through them all but although the queues were considerably shorter, we still found ourselves rushing here and there (we decided to watch some shows and had to turn up early for those shows to secure good seats. Those shows, in turn, lasted up to half an hour each). We finally sat down for a meal after 7 pm (the park closes at 8 pm, unbelievable I know) and then rushed to buy souvenirs. Things didn’t cost cheap there of course.

We decided to take the tram back to our hotel. Unfortunately, we got down too soon and had to walk the rest of the way back.

I had booked to join the city tour on Friday morning so we woke up early on Friday and took the hotel shuttle to Hong Kong station. We then navigated our way to Central MTR station and took the train to Causeway Bay, the nearest station to Park Lane Hotel for the city tour coach pick-up.

First we drove to Aberdeen on the other side of the island and went on an optional boat ride around the harbour to see the fishing village. The ride lasted about 30 minutes. Then we hopped back on the bus and went to a gem showroom. Next, we went to Tin Hau Temple at Repulse Bay Beach. We stayed about thirty minutes there and I wandered up and down the pier, enjoying the hazy sunshine. It was neither too hot at 23C nor too cold (wind factor).

We gathered back on the coach after 12 noon and drove to The Peak; after my first trip, I had planned to visit The Peak again anyway (although I’m not too happy about taking the tram down the hill) and I was chuffed when I found that it was included in the tour. And no trams for us, hurray. We spent another half an hour here looking down at the spectacular view of the city skyline. Too bad the day was a bit hazy.

I asked the guide to drop us at Kowloon Hotel instead of Park Lane and after having lunch at a vegetarian restaurant, we walked to find Esprit Outlet. Turned out it had been relocated from Hankow Road to In-Town Outlets at 33 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui. It’s located near Harbour City (and that’s another gigantic mall – no, wait, it’s the biggest mall in HK; seriously everywhere you look, there are shops, shops and more shops! I kept wondering how people there could fit anything in their pigeon-hole apartment. Yes, consumerism is very much alive and kicking in Hong Kong). I didn’t find anything interesting at Esprit though (too many winter clothes) but managed to find some scarves at the Tie Rack outlet. After that, we headed to Haiphong Road to get to the mosque.

After prayers, we took the MTR to Mong Kok to check out the Ladies’ Market and Fa Yuen Street (aka Sports Shoes Street). We left empty-handed though as nothing particularly impressed us. I persuaded la niña to check out The Avenue of Stars and A Symphony of Lights (recognised by Guinness World Records as the World’s Largest Permanent Light and Sound Show). There were a lot of people taking a stroll along the waterfront. We walked until the Clock Tower then turned back to find a good place to sit for the Symphony of Lights show. The show starts at 8 pm every night and we were lucky that it was conducted in English that night.

The show lasted about 15 minutes and we then went into Sogo. We stumbled upon Food Paradise at Level B2 and only then realised we hadn’t had dinner yet. After a hot bowl of seafood udon, we window-shopped and I ended up buying a pair of Skechers sports shoes (they would have cost me more in KL and even other brands would cost me more even during sale in KL). We finally left at 9.30 pm and took the MTR back to Central. As the previous night, we took the tram back and this time, alighted at the right stop (Hill Road).

I told la niña that Saturday would be a shopping day so we started off the day with a tour of Pacific Place. Still not satisfied, we left and took the train to Tsim Sha Tsui. We walked to Sogo (yes, again!); I left la niña there and went to check out The Avenue of Stars again as I didn’t walk all the way to the Bruce Lee sculpture the evening before. It was a windy noon at the waterfront promenade and after having found Bruce Lee, I hurried back to Sogo. We had lunch at Food Paradise and feeling energised, went to check out the boutiques at the posh Peninsula Hotel.

Still feeling unfulfilled, I persuaded la niña to check out Harbour City, passing the beautiful Heritage 1881 along the way (The original site of Heritage 1881 was the headquarters of the Hong Kong Marine Police from 1880s to 1996). OK folks, Marks & Spencer stuff cost less in KL so don’t bother. Then I popped into H&M at Canton Road (crazy crowd in there but the queue was fast). After that, we headed to the mosque for prayers. There was an introductory course on Islam every Saturday – in Cantonese – so there were a lot of people in the mosque when we got there.

After prayers, we hopped onto the train for Jordan to check out the Temple Street Night Market. The market opens from 4 pm (the Ladies’ Market starts from noon) and we were very glad we didn’t buy anything at the Ladies’ Market as we managed to find better bargains at Temple Street Night Market. By no way am I saying that Temple Street is cheaper or is a better bargain but do shop around and bargain, bargain hard.

La niña wanted to return to the hotel and not eat out so we headed back to Central and took the tram to Hill Road stop.

Our coach pick-up on Sunday morning was at the ungodly hour of 5.30 am so it was a ridiculously early morning for us. I had to perform prayers at the airport as morning prayers was at 5.34 am. We reached the airport at 6 and after checking in our bag, went straight to immigration. We had a light breakfast (I was already famished by then) and walked around the shops. I don’t think there’s a significant difference between the prices of goods downtown and at the airport as HK is a duty-free city anyway. We then took the train to the departure area and walked to gate 43. Turned out there’s a multi-faith prayer room near the gate anyway so if you have a noon or evening flight to catch, you can always perform prayers there.

We took off on time and landed at KLIA at 1245. My bag however took its time to get out (it came out more than ten minutes after la niña’s bag although we checked in together). Akak was already waiting for us and drove us back to Ampang.

That was my third trip to HK, so will I return? And although I have now visited all Disneylands and Disney World (syukur alhamdulillah), I wouldn’t mind visiting Disneyland Shanghai (yes, inside me is still a kid who wants to play and doesn’t want to stop playing). Wait, people are evicted to make way for the park?? Hmmm... and it’ll be smaller than HK Disneyland. OK, scratch that idea then.

Medan

4 - 7 December 2010

I was in Medan over the weekend. We left just after noon on Saturday from Subang. There were thick clouds around and the small Firefly aircraft bravely made its way through. It was so bad at one point that I actually jumped in my seat – the poor cabin crew was trying to serve drinks but the juice splashed and they had to terminate the service. I woke up early that morning (jolted awake more like) when my dream suddenly featured Tommy (dang you, Tommy) and was hoping to catch a nap but with the rough ride, I doubted anyone could even rest.

We landed at Medan Polonia International Airport at 12.30 pm local time. You can smell the strong cigarette smoke the minute you walked into the terminal. Welcome to Indonesia (I do wonder how many cancer patients the country has).

It had started raining steadily by the time we walked outside. The local tour guide from Lovely Holidays was already waiting for us. There were two families from different travel agent and then we were joined by a Chinese couple from Penang (they arrived earlier and killed time by waiting for us in Sogo).

We went for a nasi padang lunch (the dishes were quite hot and spicy) and performed prayers there too. The guide then took us to a store selling prayer attire, kebaya and batik stuff. Most of us left empty-handed as we were not impressed with the store. He then took us to yet another store before we made our way to Parapat town, situated by the massive Lake Toba.

It continued pissing rain and the jam we endured was really horrible. There still was one more pit-stop at a store in a town more than an hour before reaching Parapat. I was feeling knackered and decided not to go down. That proved wise as even the airport sold the food stuff at lower cost than that store. The guide was good but I wish he was less obvious about his desire to collect commission from the shops we stopped at. We finally reached our Parapat hotel after 10 pm and had a very late dinner (hello, it was way after 11 pm in KL; it was more like supper than dinner). We then had to drag our bags down the steep stairs to our room ($#&(~)*~!%) and to my despair, there were only three TV stations available and none of them showing footie (!!!). I had to text a fellow Gooner to find out the results.

On Sunday, we left after breakfast and took a boat to Samosir Island in the lake. We first went to Ambarita, a traditional Batak village about 45 minutes away with stone court and execution place/Raja Sialagan, and stayed there for close to an hour before boarding the boat again to Tomok to see the tombs of three Batak kings/Raja Sidabutar. I dislike persuasive in-your-face hawkers like what we had at Samosir and was really put off by the charmless efforts, so much so I left empty-handed. I simply refused to buy anything. Besides, I don’t have much use for the things they sell anyway. Wood carvings? Not interested. T-shirts? I have more than enough, thank you. Bags? Looked pretty fugly to me.

We finally made our way back to the mainland and drove on for lunch. Prayers were performed at a mosque across the street from the restaurant. Then we drove on to Brastagi, stopping en route at Sepilo-pilo Waterfall. We reached Brastagi after dark and stopped at a market to buy fruits before heading to our hotel. Dinner was had at the hotel dining area. It started raining during dinner and went on well into the night. Now Brastagi is situated about 1,400 metres above sea level in the Karo highlands so it was quite a chilly night. A few people commented it was just like at Genting or Cameron Highlands.

We woke up to a misty Monday morning and after breakfast, we drove back to Medan. En route, we stopped at a durian stall (Delia and I shared a durian – heaven!) and later, at a gallery selling teak furniture and other items like t-shirts and Batak handicrafts. The items were a lot cheaper than at Samosir and wasn’t I glad I didn’t spend the day before!

We then went for lunch and after prayers, went to a factory outlet (again, the guide wanted to earn some commission). I wasn’t impressed at all; in fact, I thought the outlet was quite pathetic and I wanted to cry out aloud at the goods on offer. We were then brought to a place called Pasar Ikan and thankfully, the market was better. Well, except for the kids who chased you around and tailed you like a dog, asking that you spare them some change. I’m sorry but I don’t like to give money to beggars like that; I’d rather the money be donated to charities or orphanages.

We left the area after an hour and went to Medan Mall. It was yet another sad place for me and to kill time, we went to a salon. I had a manicure and pedicure while Delia only had a pedicure. It was getting dark when we emerged from the mall. After dropping off the two families at their respective hotels (we stayed at different hotels in Medan), we went for a buffet dinner at Tiara Hotel before checking into our hotel.

After breakfast on Tuesday morning, I went to Heritage Spa just next door to the hotel and had a herbal massage (I was badly in need of a massage). It was supposed to last 90 minutes but I told her I needed to return back to the hotel by 10.45 am (so it was like 75 minutes for me). It cost less than RM40 for a 90-minute herbal massage, bargain!

The bus arrived just as I was about to have some ginger drink so I declined the drink and hurried back to my room to get my bag. We reached the airport in 15 minutes. There was another ground handler from the local travel agency who helped us check in.

The flight took off at 13.15 local time and we landed at Subang at 3.30 pm. I was home by 4.30 pm (thanks Delia!).

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Nasri had the touch of an angel and his superb goals helped made the difference on Saturday and sent Arsenal to the summit of the league. Super Sam!!! To the tune of KC and the Sunshine Band’s Baby Give It Up, Nanananananananana Samir Nasri, Nasri, Samir Nasri! Go here for a mixed version of the chant. Nanananananananana Samir Nasri, Nasri, Samir Nasri! Our defence still needs a lot of work though.

Nicked from here

I'll Be Back

I know, I still haven’t really returned to blogging. I’ll be back again folks, I promise. In the meantime, I’m ready for adventure again.





Take care peeps. Until then -

Ahh!!! My Eye!!!

I know I haven’t been posting regularly of late. It’s not because I don’t have anything to write for I do have things to share and get off my chest. But somehow I seem to lose the ability to weave that into words. Writer’s block? It can’t be that when I can’t call myself a writer seeing all I do is just rant.

Do I have it?

It’s been just over a month since Mummy left and I miss her more than ever. I still cry occasionally and did more than my fair share last weekend (Arsenal’s defeat to the hated Spuds certainly didn’t help much. Damn you Arsenal for losing when we were leading by two goals. It hurt when we lost after leading by two goals, at home, to Spuds who had never won on Arsenal soil in 17 blinking years. I was so mad I sent many tweets to the club. And now we just lost another CL match. Brilliant. This Arsenal team will be the death of me. Wil the real Arsenal team please stand up already?). So when I felt some pain in my right eye yesterday, I thought it was because I cried too much over the weekend. It still hurt this morning so I braved myself and paid the doctor a visit.

She told me I have abscess in my eye. What? What? No wonder it hurts like crazy. She gave me some cream and anti-biotics and pills to chew. I have stopped taking anti-biotics for some time now but the pain is such that I will make an exception here.

For someone who’s afraid of pain, I seem to have doses of it of late.

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After a quiet November on the travelling front (and a disappointing footie month on the Arsenal front), I can’t wait for the month to end already. And as of now, it looks like I’ll be resuming my travels soon. I can’t wait. I won’t leave Abah alone for long anyway and besides, I still have my life to live. Even Mummy would understand that. Parents would not want us to stop living (although I think there are parents who want their children to live their lives or rather their dreams for them and I think this is wrong) or stop pursuing our interests.

What A Difference A Day Makes

I haven’t watched a movie in ages; the last movie was Inception way back when. I’ve been wanting to watch Red for a while and only managed to find an agreeable time on Saturday. I need something to cheer myself up and what better venue than KLCC where I can also indulge in a spot of retail therapy after the movie. I enjoyed the movie and laughed at some scenes. Highly recommended.

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We visited Mummy on Sunday morning. Abah wanted to leave before the sun rose high and I hastily gathered some flowers from the garden to bring. I still feel sad that she’s down there in another world and we’re up here. I pray I will meet her again, even if it’s in a dream. Adek misses you so much, Mummy. What a difference a month makes; you were with us then and now you’re gone ;’(

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I’ve been trying to encourage a colleague to master English. She does attend some English classes but I don’t think her English has improved that tremendously. I have advised her before that she must start to think and talk in English and she said that was what her English teacher said too. Recently, lent her a novel written in simple English and not too difficult. I was surprised to find the novel in my tray yesterday morning; she had returned it without even reading a page. I felt a mixture of anger, disappointment and frustration that my attempt to help had been rejected and without a valid reason too. I asked her why she returned the book and she said she doesn’t have the time to read it. Not even during the long time spent commuting into the city? She replied she prefers reading Quranic verses on the way to work and is usually too tired to attempt reading on the way home. I asked if she could change her routine by reading the novel in the morning and the prayers on the way home and she questioned why I felt I had to change her routine. I was taken aback and said I was merely suggesting that she change her routine/ritual; to me, there’s nothing wrong with change as long as she gets her daily prayers done, I don’t see any problem with it and I don’t think God will. She remained obstinate and said she’s used to the routine. Finally I told her that I too read Quranic verses on my way to work and yet still try to find time to read too. After all, you don’t just have to read Quranic verses; if you read something, it’s also considered ibadah - just like you don’t have to sit at the prayer mat the whole day because work in any form is also considered ibadah. I then muttered that it seemed like she’s giving excuses not to read the novel (oh, my children might tear up the book; I might end up borrowing it too long (to which I replied, my sister borrows my books for years); I don’t have the time...).

You know what? Fine. Remain this way for all I care. Reject any help or attempt to help you improve your English. Better still, prepare some ready excuses to answer back. Some people just don’t want to help themselves.

Oh, and your excuses are simply irritating.

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Finally, a bit on Arsenal – I can’t go too long without talking about Arsenal: it provides me sanity, grief, joy, heartache, despair, cardiac arrest etc (and yet, as hazardous and dangerous as it is to my health, I still go back and watch them play again). After the let-down at home last weekend, who would have thought Arsenal would close the gap with Chelshit to two points from a potentially eight-point gap? That’s football for you. A day can make a difference (and Ibra thinks so too) so think what a difference a week can make. Of course, I know that had we not drawn at Sunderland (or missed the penalty) or lost to WBA or Newcastle, we would have been runaway leaders by now. But I’m just happy we picked ourselves up and gunned down the Wolves with two shots with Chamakh scoring the fastest goal for the club and Cesc apologising after the match and that we repeated our fantastic away form (except for that trip to Sunderland) at Goodison Park, holding off a late fight back from Everton to claim all three valuable points.

Chamakh made a bookend record

I was so happy to see Sagna score

And my baby scored too!

Eid Mubarak to all Muslims.

Nothing Lasts Forever, Even Cold November Rain

The past few weekends had been back-breaking tiring and it looks like things will continue to be challenging in the next few weeks as we make adjustments and try to deal with our bereavement and grief. I’m not ashamed to admit that I still cry everyday. Sometimes I don’t know what I cry for. I know Mummy left in a good way: she went peacefully and didn’t suffer much, just the kind of death she wished for. So I didn’t cry over the way she left but I guess I cry more because of the suddenness of her departure, the deep loss I feel and the lost feeling I have at times. I don’t think I’m being selfish for wanting her to stay but of course I know she can’t stay forever. After all, nothing lasts forever... even cold November rain.

Everyone commented on how strong Abah has been, especially since he just mourned over the passing of my brother in April. What I mean is that Abah may no longer be strong physically but he is strong mentally and spiritually and he’s a pious man who believes that things happen because they are pre-destined to happen. And nothing we can do will stop God’s will. No amount of tears will bring Mummy back and even though I know this, it doesn’t stop me from crying, mourning and grieving.

Life will never go back to how we knew it but we have to accept it and move on. Akak and I have been busying ourselves clearing some of Mummy’s stuff. I’m taller than Mummy and hence while I can fit into her clothes, the sleeves are too short and the sarong too loose for me. So we’re giving some of her clothes away and still storing some others. Sometimes I think it’s too soon to clear Mummy’s stuff but it has to be done sooner or later and I’d rather do that and pre-occupy myself by being busy than to dwell on the pain. We have cleared the kitchen cabinets and drawers and some of her clothes. We still have a cupboard or two left to tackle and her handbags too. She also has a collection of crocheted items and a vast collection of bed- and table-linen and crockery.

I also now have a deep admiration for those maidless working mothers. How do they juggle their family and office lives, tending to the demands of family and work and stay sane? I’m trying to keep two houses in order and do other household chores (like ironing) for Abah too now and while it’s still early days, I’m not sure if I can cope.

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When I sit down and clear away Mummy’s stuff, sometimes I’m struck with the thinking that I don’t want to buy anything anymore ever again because you leave them all behind anyway when you die (I had this thought too when I came back from Haj). But that’s being silly because those alive have to go on living and consuming so why deny yourself life’s pleasures while you’re alive? Mummy always told me to spend on myself and not to insult myself by settling for fake goods and I shall continue to observe her advice. Live while you’re still alive. Indulge yourself while you’re still alive. You deserve it and it doesn’t make you a snob. After all, you don’t know when you will suddenly stop being able to enjoy life. Nothing lasts forever, especially life.

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I had made plans to travel over the long weekend and spent a lot of time and thought pondering where to go. Finally, I bought train tickets to travel up north and across the border. I have had to re-think and cancel my plan when Mummy left but as divine intervention would have it, it started flooding in the northern states in the middle of last week and on Thursday morning, I heard train services were cancelled. Well, at least I could get a 100% refund from KTMB.

I still want to travel but it looks like November will be a stay-at-home month for me. I’m reluctant to leave Abah alone. Not that I think he can’t take it for he’s much stronger than me mentally and spiritually but because I don’t think it’s right for me to start travelling yet. I still want to travel of course and would now have to make arrangements so that he won’t be left alone for long periods of time (again, it’s not because I don’t think he cannot survive alone; it’s just that he and Mummy were married for such a long time that her absence would surely have some effect on him). Knowing Abah, he’d insist everything is alright.

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I have hoped that football (or Arsenal) will cheer me up but the run of wins seems to have come to a halt now that it’s November, traditionally a difficult month for Arsenal. The performance last night was dismal, and Cesc and Chamakh were a shadow of their usual selves. It doesn’t help that we have eight matches in this cold month. Still, I hope that the back-to-back defeats will not last. After all, nothing lasts forever, right.

Come on Arsenal, cheer me up. Don’t you dare depress or distress me more than you already have.