Lara merenung jauh ke luar tingkap. Kereta yang dinanti masih belum tiba.  Sesekali dia menoleh ke potret yang tergantung di dinding. Lukisan tangan, antara yang terbaik pernah di hasilkan. Sepasang mempelai mengharapkan kehidupan yang sempurna.

Sebagai seorang saudara baru, Lara tahu batas-batas seorang isteri, tanggung jawabnya tidak susah – 'Turut kata dan kehendak suami, di akhirat nanti syurga sudah pasti'. Berpegangkan kata-kata itulah Lara menjalani kehidupan seharian selepas bergelar isteri, juga selepas disingkirkan dari keluarganya yang menentang keras penghijrahan kepercayaan nenek-moyang mereka.

Hazri adalah suami yang terbaik buat Lara. Segala kemewahan ditaburkan, makan dan pakai tidak pernah kurang. Cuma….

6 bulan semenjak di ijab kabulkan Hazri tidak pernah menyentuh isterinya. Hazri seakan jijik melihat Lara. Dia akan mengelak bila didatangi Lara. Sekali mencuba, dua kali dan berpuluh kali kemudiannya Lara pasrah. Mungkin aku terlalu kurus..? Mungkin aku tidak cantik di mata Hazri..? Rambut tak macam iklan Pantene tu kot.

Mereka hanya akan tidur sebilik bila ibu Hazri dating menziarah. Sebilik bukan sekatil. Ibu Hazri, wanita terbaik pernah Lara temui, selepas ibunya sendiri. Sering apabila diajukan perihal cucu, Lara hanya tersenyum. “Belum rezeki lagi, mak”

Hanya Allah Maha Mengetahui.

Kotorkah aku? Busukkak aku? Hinakah aku sampai tidak layak untuk disentuh? “Ko tu makan babi!” 

Pada malam itu, Hazri pulang dan seperti dirasuk, Lara yang sedang tidur didatanginya. Pandangan Hazri penuh dengan benci seperti pedang tertusuk di dada. Pada malam itu Hazri dengan rakus memberi nafkah buat pertama kali kepada Lara. Pada malam itu Lara tidak diperlakukan seperti seorang isteri. Pada malam itu Lara adalah anjing.

Lara masih ingat sakitnya duduk walau di atas katil. Katil…katilnya dicemari darah, darah Lara. Hazrikah itu..atau binatang? Astaghfirullah.

Ya Allah Ampunkanlah dosaku. Ampunkanlah dosa suamiku. Bukakanlah hati kami. Tunjukkan kami jalan yang benar, Ya Allah. Sesungguhnya Kau Maha Mengasihani lagi Maha Pengampun.

Tidak lama selepas malam dajal itu, Doktor Ashar mengesahkan kandungan Lara yang telah mencecah 6 minggu. Ya Allah, besarnya kuasa Mu. Hanya sekali itulah. Lara sujud untuk sekian kalinya.

Mungkin ini petunjuk Allah. Mungkin zuriat ini akan membuka hati Hazri. Mungkin anak ini akan menjadi penyambung kasih Hazri terhadap Lara. Anak ini teramat istimewa. Insya Allah.

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Sambil bernyanyi kecil, Lara meninjau tajuk-tajuk buku yang tersusun rapi. Hazri has always love books. 'A parenting guide' by Meriam Stoppard would be a wonderful surprise for him. Dia tersenyum sendirian memikirkan reaksi Hazri nanti. Oh..ibu mertuaku… mesti lagi seronok orang tua tu!.

Hmm, suara itu seakan biasa didengar. Lara berjalan ke arah suara itu. Seorang wanita sedang memegang buku sambil tertawa riang dipeluk teman lelakinya. Eh…ha..Hazri!? HAZRI!!

Seakan gugur jantung, luruh dada ditimpa beban berat, terasa jatuh langit terhenyak di atas kepala.

Buku-buku yang tersusun elok jatuh dilanggar. Lara lari sepantas boleh. Sebaik masuk ke dalam kereta dia menangis semahunya. Pandangan Lara kabur dek air mata yang mencurah. Ah..hujan lebat pula!

Something worried me last night.

On Mother's Day, my mom, two sisters, my wife (mommies all) and me went on a sad excuse for the mommies to shop. With two roving kids plus a precocious one, I had a bit of a handful keeping an eye on them. (My wife will tell you that this is an embellishment..haha)

Like all parents, I did what a responsible, caring and level-headed father would do. I bribed them. With toys. The daughter gets a spanking new jeans. And the boy gets a toy electric guitar. Naim promptly opened up the package and started playing with it. Before you can say 'Welcome To The Jungle', all four (read four) strings has unwound itself. Not his fault though. The 5 ringgit guitar is hardly something that you can play a tune with anyway. He's happy enough cradling the body and going 'jeng jeng jeng'. On top of hitting his sister with it.

Najwa, on the other hand, was oblivious to it at first. She was busy running around with Aliya, her cousin. Not until we got back home that she started to play with the guitar. And only when she was sure that Naim was asleep. At first, she could not even grasp the concept of how to play the guitar. I noticed that Naim held the guitar like he was born to play it. Right hand placed at the pickup bar, left hand perfectly curled at the neck, fingers at the ready. Najwa, held the neck between her armpits, ending up strumming the back of the guitar, asking "Macamana ni Abah?". I showed her how she should hold a guitar properly.

Now last night, after picking them up from Nenek Kg Pandan's house, we got them ready to bed. The guitar was re-discovered again (with my kids, every toy has a great potential to be 're-discovered', after the owner absent-mindedly placed them somewhere right before they re-discovered another toy). After Naim has done a few imitation of..err...a guitar player, Najwa took her turn.

Immediately, she took the rocker stance. And I mean the rocker stance. Not just cradling the guitar. But feet apart-leaning backwards-guitar close to the chest-gazing upwards to rock-heaven stance. The classic glam-rock pose. Then she did her solo. 'Wowoowoowowo' she went. She even did the 'Jimi Hendrix' style of playing. Putting the guitar close to her ear, squeezing her eyes shut as if she could hear the guitar better. "Wooowoowowooo" goes she.

Of course, her brother just would not let her have all the fun. He took the guitar from her and started playing his tune. "Jeng Jeng Jeng". Najwa, went into the mosh pit. She headbangs, she jumped around, and if there is enough crowd, if there is a crowd, I'm sure she would have launched herself and body surfed.

Now, although I taught her to listen to Pearl Jam, (ask her who Eddie Vedder is...haha), Queen, and probably a bit of The Pilgrims, I have never shown her any rock concerts nor has she seen any Van Halen/Led Zeppelin/Kiss/Guns N Roses clips before..well..not that I know of. Err...there was that Pearl Jam's 'Live On Two Legs' concert before..but that was waaayy back when she was err..not even a year old.

My question is...where the hell did those glam rock came from? Glam rock, not punk, not heavy metal, not alternative. But glam rock. Hairspray-tights-glittering sequins(sp?) and diamond rings. Tut-tut.

*Title taken from "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" from The Ramones.

This entry is inspired by Glitter and Shiver wrote by Mokciknab. I'm rushing for my report so here's the deal;

A friend of mine, an Arabian-Malay is utterly excited of the idea "Ladies getting jiggy" and she meant only ladies. Anak Dara/Mothers with flabby tummy, cellulite colourful thighs, huge bumper, D-cup boobs or be it roti sekeping *alahai*.

It's an exercise, she says. Get the desired waiste line (i dont see she meets this objective, yet). Get all sweaty - not just the dancer, the husband too! aahhahahah. So you can say it's a two way exercise.

At this time, she's only doing it alone in front of the mirror, without the husband's presence and i quote "Too much for that poor old man to handle la".

Come as you are and be yourself, she says. Just bring a selendang to tie that lovely waiste and/or to wrap around that upper body part to create the moood.

She has some sort of instruction/how to belly dance in vcd. Not for loan but to watch and gelek together. Time is not a problem for her. Only thing is..a place. *hint hint*

No obligation. No fees. This is PURELY for fun (and for those who is looking for that extra spice!)

It's Teacher's Day today. Reading this entry remind me of my sekolah specifically my discipline teacher, Mrs Wang.

She was one pain-in-the-ass lady. I think character wise she did not have much choice, it's in the job description. She never really taught me, come to think of it i don't even know what subject she taught. My first encounter with her was when i was in Form 3. It was during the time (for me la) when hormone takes over my brain.

There was this book been circulated around i couldn't quite remember what it was all about but it was from that book that we found new terms like 'seludang' and 'lopak' to describe certain part of human anatomy.

I remember all of us sat in one line kat tepi longkang giggling, chuckling away 'discussing' the book. I suspect my Nek would have described us as 'gelenyar' then.

Anyway, being imaginative me (eceh), i wrote my own story. Yeah this gelenyar girl wrote porn in school.. during History class (Pn Sahar Banu). Alahai bukannya panjang pun, it was on a small piece of paper and i didn't even get to the climax interesting part pun! 

Just like the book, my masterpiece was circulated around.

True enough, we (my best friend and I) got caught. I had to share the story with her! She added few lines to my story so that's how she too was dragged into Mrs Wang's office.

Oh..i got caught by this nerdy prefect who cant stop giggling reading it and suddenly decided to hand over the masterpiece to Mrs Wang. So the very heroic! That was why i never like prefects. We librarian, always hide interesting books (read: books on anatomy) from them and we never showed them how to use index cards. That my friend, is satisfaction.

Di pendekkan cerita, Mrs Wang wrote a letter to my 'ibubapa/penjaga' and summoned them to school on the very next day.  Of course, i handed the letter to my 'ibubapa/penjaga'!... I gave it to my brother, Bang De. He always takes care of me! So that qualifies him as my penjaga, rite?

(Mir, if you're reading this, don't tell Mak!)

So the next day, Bang De came to school clad in long sleeve kemeja complete with neck-tie, carrying a leather case (I later found out that the bag was on-loan from his Boss ahahha so resourceful). Mind you, Bang De is 3 years older than me meaning he was only 18 then.

Bang De told me later that he asked Mrs Wang to read to him what i wrote. He thinks what? read aloud session? Poor Mrs Wang was blushing when she handed over the masterpiece. Bang De was trying very hard not to burst out laughing. He liked the story though.

So i got away with 1 counselling and few sessions with PRS (Perunding Rakan Sebaya). hehehehe

Mrs Wang never stopped harassing me, after that case. The following year, she called me on stage during assembly simply to ask why i looked so pale (Duh! why do u think they called me **na Putih) and so skinny. Overly-suspicious Mrs Wang even asked me to give my urine sample for drug test. Seriously!

The last time i saw Mrs Wang was when i was on fieldwork some 4-5 years ago. She was on Teachers Conference or somesort. Yeah still a teacher.  

So to Mrs Wang, you're not my favourite but i remember you the most and to all Teachers out there...Happy Teacher's Day! 

Due to the gap between posts, today's post will be an amalgamation of the past three day's post...I guess

Mish:

Today is Rotidua's big exam.It is extremely important for her. Me, being me, (that is..extremely ignorant in the field that my wife specialises in..numbers seems to constantly pack up and left my brain) couldn't help her with her studies, except probably keep the kids out of her way. I wished her good luck and prayed she'll pass.

But seriously...I know she would. She, on the other hand..doesn't know that...yet.

Mosh:

Batman begins...Bah! and they changed the badge....again. I had a huge argument with one of my colleague about how uncool the new Batman badge is.

Today I brought over my copy of "The Dark Knight Returns", the definitive arc in Batman history, written by (who else?) Frank Miller (now I can write "of the Sin City fame". In it is the reason why Batman uses such a striking and outstanding badge right on his chest.

To those who hasn't read the comic, the reason is so that when Batman descends on an armed villain, obviously the villain would seek a target to shoot right? Since Batman uses a Kevlar vest, and it is used to protect a chest shot, where do you think is the best place to put a target for the villain to shoot? That alone should give enough time for Batman to deliver his own blow eh?

Unlike some human alien who puts his err...emblem on his chest for vanity's sake. So each time a villain shoot him in the chest, he could just swell those chest out and watch as the bullets ricochet off them...into some innocent bystanders, I hope.

And my colleague even boasted "Don't talk about Batman with me..I'm a Batman freak.." To which I cooly replied "And you're telling me you have never read 'The Dark Knight Returns' where Batman died?" hahaha...what a spaz.

Mish & Mosh

My kids are fighting everyday now. The reason is that one of them are at the stage where she will come and whine about her brother. And the other one is at the stage where he thinks he is the King Of The World. And in his mother's eyes, he is. Well..no. not really..but my wife will rather give in to him rather then let him bawl his eyes out.

With Najwa, I would just let her cry herself out..no matter how loud she is. Hey, somebody has to show who is boss..And she is pretty obedient now.

But with Naim, I could not...coz she will go running to his mother. Then probably clap with glee in his mind when Ibu scolded Abah for reprimanding him.

Ah well..

Wooo...such a long hectic week and boy oh boy am i glad it's o-v-e-r!

I passed the exam! super yayness. Just for info, the exam's result is either 'pass' or 'fail' so..yeah i passed!

Edaran Endurance Classic 2005 was a successful event (mind you, no rain or whatsoever) The grand prize winner brought home RM25,000 and a trophy. DYMM Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin of Terengganu himself won 2nd place in 85km ride category. 

The youngest rider, Roslan Osman who is only 8 years old, bagged 1st prize in 40km ride category. The 2nd winner is double his age. Wooaaa...

Unfortunately the World Champion did not participated in the race. Apparently he could not find a suitable horse. His brother, Sheikh Khaleed Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan competed but was eliminated due to injury (jatuh kuda!).

View full results here.

More stories and photos here. Hey, i was mentioned in Stephanie Teeter's journal. I over-heard Steph said to Ms Rojek (i ordered Rojak Singapura for her ahhaha) "Arent you surprised how civilised people are in this region?" Hmmm.........

Both of them are nice people, tho. They tried very hard to explain abt the sport to a 'non-horse' person. Glad they enjoyed the food.

Anyway.... apart from defamation unpleasant remarks in B.U 'Lebih sudu dari kuah' (mendelah diorg ni...) and the emcee conveniently forgot to address the Minister during the opening ceremony, I'm happy to say that everything else went 'well'.

Najwa's and Naim's favourite songs now are 'Message Girl' and that 'uuh huuu huuu' number from V.E.

If you wanna party like this just sing along uuhh huuu huu

Just spend a lil bit of money...uuhh huuu huu

Today Najwa went to school in jeans and her favourite butterfly shirt. It's Teacher's Day! No school bag, no books, no school uniform. Yay! No ironing needed. fooh.

I was thinking of getting Najwa's teachers a bouquet of flowers each. Not the expensive kind, just those chrysantinum, forget-me-not and probably with daun paku pakis.

My cousin once told me "Treat the teachers well and they will treat your kids well" In other words..bribe them. ehheheh Is that the right thing to do? My nawaitu is clear..not a bribe..but a simple token of appreciation. *winks*

Najwa has 3 teachers to give present to; Teacher Jayanthi from her previous class, Teacher Shabra her current ..oh she's been upgraded! and her Teacher Nelly who reads Peter and Jane with her. So at 7am this morning i rushed to the market to look for the flowers. I gave myself 15 mins to finish everything. Time Management is important*

Alamak..tak cukup duit! Detour to ATM.

1st bank: 'Out of service'

2nd Bank: 'Renovation in progress. Sorry for inconveniences caused.'

3rd Bank: 'Temporariliy unable to process' ..wadda...?

4th Bank: okay *phew* that's the last bank in the area.

8 mins left...rush rush to the market. ((honk)) ((honk)) "Nak lintas tengok keta dulu la woii" . Rush... rush...parked the car.

huh? where's the lady? where's the flower lady? "Hali Labu dia cuti wo. Yu mali esok ah"

gggrrr....

Reached home at 7.16am..okay breached the 15mins budget and with no flowers. Go to Plan B. Arrgghhh i don't have Plan B!

Think. Think. Early morning. Gift. Anything along the way to school.

a hah!

7-11. 24 hours convenience store.

What do they sell at 7-11? Slurpee, Milk, Chocolates!

So, today Najwa brought 3 box of chocolates for her 3 favourite teachers.

Nenek: Kenapa pipi kakak bercalar tuh?

Kakak: Naim tu buat Kakak!

Nenek: Kenapa Naim buat Kakak? Sakit la Kakak.

Naim: mm..bab...uku Im anjang. Bab Ibu tu tak otong. (mm...Sebab kuku Im panjang. Sebab Ibu tu tak potong)

**Ibu jugak la yg kene sound dengan Nenek**

If i am to choose between filling up Income Tax BE form or PRA Application form..i'd choose the BE Form. Seriously.

BE is in booklet form and on each page, new details need to be filled in. Well, except for the header where we suppose to write our name and income tax file no.

This %%^%&%$ PRA Application form issued by Jabatan Imegresen, however is unbelievable! The information requested are the same on each form..and they have about 6-7 forms to fill in. I can tell you the information they want:

a. Employees name, pasport no, d.o.b, place of birth.

b. Employer's name, ic no, address, address and address.

why cant they merge the whole thing? i know 1 is a contract, 1 is a government bond but the rest are purely administrative which i believe solely meant for IMI's record keeping.

And we are expected to forge the maid's signature??

Best part is ..where is the protection clause for us, as the Employer? Ade la..but those were merely a general statement. We can only terminate the contract...nothing was mentioned on legal action againts them PRA (Pembantu Rumah Asing). Can i install CCTV in my home - not in the toilet or bedroom, please lah.

What are our rights? CCTV, voice/sound recorder are merely detective controls. What about preventive and corrective controls?

Abused maids were widely covered by the newspapers...but children yang lebam-lebam kene pukul/cubit/tak kasik makan tak citer pulak.

And And some of the forms are not downloadable. Why? because we need to BUY these forms. Why..why....whhhhyyyyy?

May I suggest something...may i propose that each government bodies publish a process flow chart or diagram or guide whatever. I mean, say in this case, maid application - what should i get, first. What are the complete documentation, the timeline - quality standard. Susah ka?

Yesterday evening at Nenek's house;

Najwa: Ibu tadi kat school ade boy tu kiss kakak.

Ibu: Huh? siapa?

Najwa : Dxxx

Ibu: Siapa itu Dxxx? Loyar? Majistrate?

Najwa : ((giggles)) Tak, dia kawan kakak.

Ibu : Dia kiss kakak kat mana?

Najwa : Kat sini. (pointing her left cheek) 

Ibu: Kenapa dia kiss kakak?

Najwa : Sebab dia suka kakak. ((*blush*..chuckles)) hi..hi..hi

Oh dear..

We decided to go to Carrefour last night to get a wedding gift. However, due to logistical issue, traffic flow (and to catch up 'Lost' by 9pm) we went to Jaya Jusco instead.

And whaddayaknow...... Jusco is on sale! Ho ho ho

Focus. Focus. Ooo...'buy 2 get 1 free'...Oooo Wacoal on sale oso. Walk straight. Walk straight.

We got the newly wed-couple an Akemi mattress set, comple te with comforter worth RM499 ...at 50% discount! Its 100% cotton, 280 threads..good buy, aye! By the way, it's a pool gift so we actually paying less hi hi hi.

"Sayang, can we get 1 for us too" me, lentuk a bit.

"hmm....hmmm...hmmmm...okay la"

You see, my husband is the jimat type, he won't spend unless the merchandise is item-that-human-cannot-live-without like cigarette, food and that's about it. Other stuff that we have been living without or already have (but needs changing, in my opinion) is not worth buying.

That is why I sometime shop alone or with the kids. But i do appreciate him tagging along tho, as a preventive measure. I'm a compulsive buyer, he once said.

So when he gave the green light, i quickly grabbed (in case he change his mind) a comforter set worth RM549...at 70% discount! hip hip hooray.  

Naim finally weighs sekampit beras i.e. 10kg. At 3 years old, he is small as compared to his same-aged cousin, Anis. Based on the growth chart he is kinda underweight but the Doctor keep saying, as long as he is active and healthy we should not worry too much.

Najwa was also like that before, now she is among the chubby-faces in her class..and tall too.

Could be the genes, ya.