Ramadhan Insights #2

picture taken from a park near Eiffel Tower

 

Assalamualaikum and salam Ramadhan to all,

 

Puasa tak? :p It is 13th Ramadhan today, how time flies so fast!! Here's my second Ramadhan insights for your eyes only ;)

 

1) I spent my weekend attending a camp(well, not literally), and it was a very fruitful one.At least it helps me to optimize one and a half day doing what is required for a Muslim especially in this fasting month, where all good act and ibadah gained double pahala from Allah :) Among the good things I earned is, to utilize `tasbih' , and appreciate it more than a mere decoration or as souvenirs received from Makkah.Thanks abang, your absence is truly a blessing in disguise, and best of all you'll get some reward for it too :)

 

2) Wan (nenek) is still admitted in the hospital, it seems that her fever is not getting better. I went to Seremban yesterday but haven't had the chance to visit her :( Am hoping she will recover gracefully, insya Allah. Can imagine how more worried Mama is... a few nights were already spent at the hospital, and hopefully not more to come.

 

3) Following Wan's condition, hubby tried to persuade his superior to allow him to come home earlier; perhaps by Wednesday. I hope he succeed! (Sambil rasa nak jerit tapi kena behave sebab bulan posa. Dan ramai orang di ofis ni yer). However I'm not so optimistic and still avoiding high hope as always. Because, falling hard out of frustration is the worst feeling so far..-_- And my treshold for him is to be back atleast, before Hari Raya. I can't imagine anything beyond that at the moment, yet.(Huhu manjeee la kau shah padahal my officemate masa dia first year kawin dah takpat beraya ngan husband sebab kena duty offshore)

 

4) Remember my kuih raya project? Haha yesterday telah selongkar stor rumah dan berjumpa oven Ma lantas terus mencubanya (bukan cuba buat kuih,cuba warm up je). Nampaknya masih berfungsi dengan baik walaupun telah bertahun2 bertapa dalam stor(Tapi insulator rubber kelihatan telah ternoda sikit, takpe ke? Wires not exposed, though). However, I am quite sceptical and worried to bring it back to my house, due to various reasons. So maybe, if ever my project come true, it shall be baked fresh from my mum's house instead of mine :) And option kedua adalah mungkin I bleh kecek my lovely hubby for a new electric tabletop oven?? :p

 

5) Have I mentioned that my stove rosak at the high time when I have the mood to cook? And saya adalah takut nak godek stove tersebut sendirian kerana takut kang meletup kang takde sapa nak panggilkan I ambulans or call my parents. Jadi expert from negara Viet telah menyarankan I takyah memandai2 and makan luar je sampai la dia balik. Masalahnya, I tak berapa gemar bazar Ramadhan. But I think I'll survive, for the moment.

 

6) Me and my parents had a (another) conversation pasal zakat yesterday. Yelah bulan puasa ni memang elok bayar zakat, pahala berlipat ganda. Dan berita baik kepada penduduk Negeri Sembilan, pusat zakat negeri akan dibuka pada sabtu dan ahad di bulan Ramadhan! Cool kan. As some of you already know, I prefer to pay my zakat manually/yearly rather than to have the monthly auto-debit by pusat zakat negeri just for a simple reason; I just want to master the theoretical and calculation part of it. Memang senang je konsep kira zakat ni sebenarnya tapi i still think i belum pakar lagi dalam hal ni, masih banyak yang perlu dirujuk. Among the gist of our conversation is that only zakat paid using official receipt by Pusat Zakat Negeri can be 100% waived in Income Tax, while zakat paid for the other organisation (although is recognized by jabatan agama negeri) can only be waived 24% of it-consider as `sumbangan/derma', bukannya `zakat'. And it is a recommended practice to calculate wisely and get your income tax to be waived fully by zakat. Dan.. some Ustaz suggested the method of varietykan penerima zakat dan bukan sepenuhnya kepada pusat zakat. Kalau kita kenal mana2 asnaf lebih baik kita salurkannya sendiri. Tapi kalau kita sendiri ragu2 dan tak yakin so serahlah sahaja kepada yang telah menerima amanah, iaitu Pusat Zakat ye..dah memang tugas diorang nak bahagikan pun.

 

7) Among the things that I loved working for the company, it is full with aktiviti kerohanian, kadang2 seaktif NGO2 agama yang full time. Dalam bulan puasa ni je, setakat ni setiap minggu dianjurkan solat sunat tasbih yang bagi saya payah dan susah sangat kalo nak initiate sendiri. Ceramah agama pun hari2. I still remember working with different companies before, nak dapat ceramah agama sebulan sekali pun payah.

 

8) If we are to divide this holy month into thre phases, we've left the first phase that often been referred to fasa `rahmat' (blessing). Now we are in the midst of fasa `keampunan' (forgiveness), hence lets us optimize this phase to seek forgiveness as much as we can from Allah ya :) And prepare ourself for the most awaited third phase of Ramadhan, insya Allah!

Ramadhan Insights #1

It is 8^th Ramadhan today. How was your Ramadhan going so far?

Mine was not too bad. I mean, there's alot of avenues to improve further. 

1) I was down with a slight fever (typical me) on 2 and 3 Ramadhan, but it's not severe so, Alhamdulillah.

2) I managed to berbuka puasa with husband once, when he came back for a short trip last weekend. I hope he's doing good over there. Since hubby's temporary housemate is away since yesterday, I started my routine of calling him every morning for sahur. The fact that the sunrise time e.g. imsak and prayers time is similar between Malaysia and Vietnam (although the time zone is slightly different, they are late by an hour) makes thing a lot easier. My only wish is for the roaming rate to be cheaper!

3) We had an unplanned family gathering last Saturday at Mama's house because my grandma (hubby's) was admitted to the hospital due to high fever. To date she was still warded, so let's pray for her speedy recovery.

4) I am struggling to get on track for my target of one juzuk one day. I was a bit off track when I was ill over the weekend. Hopefully I can catch up on time.

5) Solat terawih is such an interesting experience, and am looking forward for it as always. I'm glad to see my office surau is now equipped with chairs for the elderly who's unable to stand to perform solat. However, it is quite hard to find the facilities at other mosques/surau and most of the elderly need to bring chairs by themselves. Other than that, well I hope people are more aware to ensure closeness of saf and for those who bring children, kindly ask them to stand at the end of the saf, and not in the middle.

6) Are you fond of Bazar Ramadhan? Well, I am not. I felt that Bazar Ramadhan do not offer the healthiest food variation after all. OK, I'm not criticizing over here, mana ada bazaar Ramadhan yang totally jual makanan sihat. As I always say, makanan sihat selalunya kurang sedap :p My point is, please watch what you buy at bazaar ya..please avoid fried food and air cordial yang dijual di situ ye. And opt for no ice, please J We need to ensure our stomach is not overloaded in preparation for terawih and the other ibadah planned upfront.  

OK that's all.. have a blissful Ramadhan everyone! Sad to note that only 22 days left for Ramadhan to end..

Selamat menyambut Ramadhan

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah hiwabarakatuh!

 

Ramadhan hampir menjelma.. malam ni dah mula terawih~!

 

(kalini buat post gaya-gaya CheDet, ada bullet points. Perasan tak makin banyak bloggers dah buat style ni sejak CheDet mulakan?)

 

1. Banyak masjid dan surau di sekitar rumah, taktahu nak pilih mana untuk terawih. Pilihan utama adalah Masjid UTM baru di Jalan Semarak. Mungkin juga boleh cuba melompat-lompat masjid untuk mencari kelainan. Teringat pada waktu ini, tahun lepas, saya di Bintulu. Sering juga melompat masjid di sana untuk merasai pengalaman berlainan di rumah Allah.

 

2. Ramadhan kali ni tak disambut dengan Encik A ye tuan puan, sambut sorang je. Ataupun kalau bosan berbuka sorang balik rumah mak kejap kat Seremban. At least boleh drive kan Abah balik rumah sebab bas depan ofis dia sampai kul 5. Kitorang boleh balik kul 4 :)

 

3. Encik A akan mula berpuasa di sana, alah takpe situ banyak makanan halal kan?Ada makanan melayu pulak tu. Sabar je lah sebelum ni dok cerita hari2 makan nasik, siap ada roti canai lagi. Masjid pun dekat dengan tempat makan..ok lah tu. Lagi ok dari tahun lepas hampir seluruh Ramadhan dihabiskan kat Sudan kan? :p Alhamdulillah, harapnya hujung minggu dapatla pulang ke tanah air berbuka posa..sekali pun jadilah. I tunggu tau.

 

4. Azam bulan Ramadhan nie.. erm cam biasa nak khatam Quran.. dua tiga tahun kebelakangan nie asyik kantoi je beberapa juzuk takpat nak khatam sebelum akhir Ramadhan. Tahun ni kita cuba ye!! Chayok! Juga berazam taknak skip terawih berjemaah tanpa uzur! Dan mencari laila itu di sepuluh malam terakhir, insya Allah..

 

5. Biasalah dah kawin ni mulalah naluri keisterian (nak kate keibuan, belum ada little extension lagi :p), konon2 nak buat kuih raya. Diulang KONON je.. tapi takmo dijadikan azam sebab takut tak buat. Encik A kata buatlah kuih raya, saje nak bagi meriah sikit. Oh itu ke sebab orang buat kuih raya? haha FYI dah dekat 10 years my Mum tak buat kuih raya, so I memang bukan jaguh la dalam hal ini. Lagipun I ade alasan konkrit kenapa tak nak buat kuih raya mahupun kek. Alasannya, I fobia tengok penggunaan gula, butter dan telur yg banyak sangat dalam pembuatan kuih raya nih.. huhu self-proclaimed health freak lah katakan :p Nak tau jadi ke tak I buat, tengok la sebulan lagi ye.

 

6. Eh tetiba dah masuk cerita raya pulak kat point 5 tu..padahal bulan posa belum start lagi. Typical betul..insaflah ye diriku ini. Ok raya citer masa dekat raya laa. Setakat preparation, takde apa2 pun kena prepare kot. Walaupun tak sempat tempah baju raya, I ada plan B (B-beli).Dan mungkin juga Plan R (R-recycle?). Dan juga belum discuss camne dan dimana nk beraya tahun nie. Later laa, itupun kalau panjang umur kan nak diskas benda2 masa hadapan ni. Baik fokus on ibadah dan cara nak optimizekan bulan Allah ni kan!

 

7. Oklah, petang ni jangan lupa beli benda2 untuk sahur..biasanya susu,cereals,roti dan seangkatan dengannya. Barang dapur lain nanti la beli bila singgah pasar Keramat. Ni lah penyakit I kalau bulan posa, tetiba mood rajin masak sebab I lagi suka masak dari beli kat bazar Ramadhan yang berlambak2 kat area sini ( I cuti masak 2 bulan sebab Encik A takde. Ok masak maggi goreng and french toast tidaklah dikira ye). Singgah bazar pon beli 1-2 jenis kuih je, pastu balik. Hahah tapi sekali lagi cam Encik A cakap, gi bazar bukan nak beli apabenda sangat pun, saja nak rasa meriah je! Meriah betul anda ni Encik A.

 

Oklah akhir kata, selamat berpuasa kepada semua.. maaf atas salah silap sama ada sengaja atau tak. Kalau ada yang takpuas hati tu bleh contact I personally, I janji akan menyelesaikan segala2nya secara profesional. Ahah statement macam ada makna je, no comment :p Jom jom kita optimumkan bulan Ramadhan ni!

 

Baris Metasequire

Tiba-tiba saya teringat tempat itu.

Terbayang barisan lurus pokok metasequire yang sangat menawan. Pada mulanya disangkakan pokok itu tumbuh secara natural, namun sebenarnya ia berasal dari negara lain dan ditanam di situ untuk mencantikkan landskapnya yang sedia indah. Juga pada mulanya pokok ini ditanam kerana fizikalnya yang cantik, lurus tinggi dan dikatakan antara pokok yang paling cepat kadar penumbuhannya (tinggi) di dunia. Setelah lama baru kerajaan Korea mengeksploitasi kegunaan pokok ini di bandaraya Seoul, di mana daun pokok ini yang luruh boleh mengurangkan kelicinan jalan semasa musim salji. Walaupun ketika itu musim panas baru bermula, masih terasa angin nyaman menghembus dan sesetengah pokok turut mengeluarkan daun warna-warna musim luruh – merah, jingga dan coklat. Di hujung deretan metasequire ini kelihatan tasik indah berbalam-balam disinar cahaya matahari. Nyaman dan menenangkan.

Seperti mana saya ingin kembali ke Amsterdam pada musim bunga untuk menikmati tulip kegemaran, saya juga ingin kembali ke Nami Island, Korea Selatan untuk menikmati  musim salji.

Itupun insya Allah, jika Allah memberi laluan dan permudahkan urusan.