Greetings to Ramadhan al Mubarak

Ramadhan.... is a month in Islam where all the Muslims around the world will be fasting during daytime. This ibadah is a challenge to all the Muslims because they are not only forbidding themselves from drinking and eating but also to control themselves from gossiping and actions that can make their ibadah 'lagha'.

This year will mark a new experience to me and my family where we will fast without the presence of my beloved mother. She passed away because of the lung infection. From the day she demised, not even a single moment, her face will appear in my memory. A mother is always a mother.

To all Muslim readers,

Love your mother ands appreciate her every second, once she left us, then we will see the difference. Love you ya 'Ammi....

Mak @ Bonda Zainap Hamit (16 September 1956 to 19 March 2008)

Taken on the first of Hari Raya last year in the house of Nek Unggal in Kuching
A picture of mother before she went for the surgery

Wahai Bonda ku,

Tika ku taip warkah rindu ini, umat Nabi Muhammad S.A.W sedang menyambut ketibaan Bulan yang penuh mulia iaitu Bulan Ramadhan. Sesungguhnya bila tiba saat ini, dikau lah orang yang akan sibuk menyiapkan kelengkapan dan persiapan untuk suami mu dan anak-anak mu.......

Wahai Bonda,

Pada saat ini juga, ketika aku menaip warkah rindu ini, air mata ku mengalir tanpa henti, merindui kehadiran mu di samping ku dan keluarga.... Pada saat inilah aku akan mula bermanja, meminta masakan yang istimewa. Hasil air tangan mu. Sesungguhnya, aku amat merindui kehadiran mu.

Bonda,

Sesungguhnya....kau tiada dua. Kenangan mu tetap terpahat di dalam sanubari ku....

Ku titipkan doa moga engkau tenang di sana...AMIN YA RABBAL ALLAMIN

Beautiful Girl

Dear readers,

As my previous posting, I have been sharing about my new timetable. As a floating teacher (that is what my PK 1 referred me as) my class started at 6.50 am. Luckily, the Form Five students are in their SPM Trial Examination. Thus, no preparation is needed where I only come to class to invigilate. My class ended at 8.10 am. My next destination was the school canteen. Lapaq siot!!

After a modest breakfast, I went back to my flat for resting. While resting, I remembered a movie that I watched last night. The title is “Beautiful Girl” and it was being aired by Hallmark. I love to watch this channel because most of the movies being aired are about families. Maybe I am a kind of a family type of a person.

In this movie too, I was surprised when I saw my one of the favourite actresses, Fran Dresher (forgive me for the wrong spelling) played a role of a mother to two young ladies. Her first daughter was named Becky or Becca (not sure) and the other one was named Rachel. Becca is a teacher in primary school teaching music while Rachel is unemployed. I did not remember the name of Fran’s character but let me called her here as ‘mother’. Becca is a short and chubby. She is bubbly and friendly. She is also very confident in herself and she has a handsome boyfriend. In the early scene, Becca is being proposed by her Bf in a bar (the bar is belonged to the Bf). So, she is practically engaged and Becca’s family is happy to hear the news.

In their wedding planning, the mother, Becca and Rachel bump into another mother and her daughter in a boutique. They are there for buying an evening gown for a beauty pageant. Becca’s mother (Fran) starts to lecture her second daughter, Rachel (who is slim and beautiful, totally different from Becca). She wants Rachel to join a beauty pageant because Rachel is not involved in any activity. Rachel disagrees with her mother.

In the next few scenes, we can see that Becca registers herself to enter a beauty pageant in her place, ‘Squirrel Hills”. Her colleague is happy to hear Becca’s participation and offers herself to become Becca’s Beauty Pageant Coach. Everyone who is closest to Becca is happy for Becca except her mother. She against the idea because she is afraid that her Becca will be hurt by other people comments.

She does very well and she ends up as the First Runner Up. Hence, in a swimsuit, she wore a not so sexy swimsuit with a squirrel tail. Cute...

The confrontation between Becca and her mother continues. It becomes very bad when Becca was chosen to represent her district to another level pageant. She only tells her fiancée. He agrees and supports Becca’s decision.

At this level, Becca learns a lot of things from her new friends. She transforms herself from an ordinary educator to a new Becca. Her fiancée and her families do not like the new Becca. They expect Becca has beauty addiction. In return, Becca does not agree with them and proceeds with the pageant. In this part, she makes friend with an Amish born contestant who joined the pageant for the sake of scholarship.

During the pageant day, Becca’s mother turns up (after a long lecture from Becca’s nana) and she meets with Becca in the Make-up room. Becca forgives her and the mother starts to share her view on fashion (reminds me with her character in The Nanny). What happen next? Try to catch the movie in the Hallmark channel as I believe, it will be repeated.

This story is very inspiring.

It teaches us that we cannot look down on other people potential. It is because some of the people are born with confidence which makes them able to show their uniqueness. Remember.....always think that what you do not have, he or she might have or even better than you.

Works...works.....and......works

Dear readers,

Careers are the main manipulator in one's life. Parents bring up their children in the best way so the children will end up in good future.

In my work place, major reshuffling was done for all the teacher's timetable. From tomorrow, I will be a floating teacher who will teach as early as 6.50 am in the morning and will be back as late as 6.25 pm. However, after a discussion with my Penolong Kanan Pentadbiran, he suggested that my punch in time will be very flexible, which means, punch in whenever I have class.

Before this, actually my timetable was not like that. They took away my EST classes and wanted me to teach ICTL. My answer was no way. I could not let my EST classes because I have a lot of plans with the students. I need to continue because there are only few months before them sitting for SPM. Consequently, I do not favour teaching ICT. I hate it very much.

I hope that there will be no reshuffling in the future. Remember, even if we are being manipulated by our works but make sure we play around with it. How? Be playful and creative...

Picturezzzz

A picture of Mount Kinabalu which is taken on the way up to the Kinabalu Park. At this level, the temperature is low and air cond is no longer needed.

This Pekan Nabalu. For a visitor, this is a place for you to shop souvenirs. Very cheap if you know how to bargain. For some items like T-shirts, the price here is cheaper compared to the Filipino Market.

A visual taken in Poring Hot Spring. Syiokkk amat.........

Letih lah you olllssss. The writer took skodeng picture of his sleeping companions.

That aunt tried to enter frame. But of course, she could not be better than me....

L.O.V.E

I was called to share a bit of my opinion about a general issue when I read two pieces of articles posted by my friends in the blog. One of them shared about the "the ex-" and the other one shared on "friendship". Two of the articles are very interesting and when I let my colleagues read them, they have agreed and they shared many comments on those issues. Well done!!

Hence, we I went back home, those issues have made me think further what is lied behind of those issues. L.O.V.E.

I dare say that many people around the world face a lot of problems with love. In the meantime, love also plays important role in shaping a person.

When we fall in love, semuanya indah belaka.... bau kentut umpama haruman Calvin Klein.... rajuk umpama permainan yang akan berakhir dengan pujuk rayu.... true rite?

As a degree holder in psychology, I learned that human beings cannot be apart from love. Love is essential but it is also painful. Love can make your life meaningful but it also can make your night sleepless. In positive way, love can lengthen your life. Undoubtedly, love also can shorten your life. It is up to a person to choose which path he or she wants to be in.

Let me share some of the stories that I knew. I start with my very own. When I was dumped, I felt my life was upside down. Only Allah S.W.T knows what was in my feeling. I surrendered myself in His Guidance and that was the first time I felt that I was so small.

It started when I found out the person had someone esle and they were in the process of tying a knot. The fellow stated to neglect me and the person seemed to forget all the promises made and totally ignoring me. All the sms's and calls were left untreated. The person was happy with the engagement and what had happened to me? It is unfair. That was my first lesson.

Lesson two. Last year, I picked a friend who came from Kuching and she was heading to Limbang. Suddenly, she said: " Saiful, could you lend me your shoulder?" I was surprise to see her face because she is the happy go lucky girl. When both of us in my car, she started to cry and told that her boyfriend has married to someone else without her knowledge. Out of the blue, it had reminded me with my own experience. Deep in my heart, I know the feeling.

This friend of mine who I named as M, is very close to me. She is the closest girlfriend I have back in my KPLI days. M who I know is a bubbly girl and she always speak from directly from her heart. She told me that they already been together for seven years back to her university days. When she was busy in completingmillion of tasks in KPLI days, it seemed like her ex also was busy looking for someone else.

M to me is a loyal type of woman. She never told me that she had a serious relationship. She had refused to accept another man even though that man was deeply in love with her. However the cheeky part is I see her as a bit playful when she was fooling around with one of the juniors. Toy-boy lah....

M again who I met recently in Kuching shared with me how she is in pain missing all the past experiences and she has thousands of questions. I told her that the best way is to deal with the problem. My suggestion was to ask her to contact her ex and she can ask until she is fully-satisfied. Luckily, she told me she did even though the outcome was not so very good. I hope from now on she will realize that she is actually very lucky because she does not have to suffer much. I always remind her that that man is not worth to be remember. She deserves someone better than that skeleton (her ex)... So M....be strong and I know you will find a good one, one day.

In a nutshell, love is actually a necessity in our life. It can be in many forms. It is up to a person or I would say an individual to choose what kind of love he or she wants to have in his or her life. Remember, life is short and never let this L.O.V.E control your life. Love is only a side dish. When you have side dishes together with your main course, you will enjoy your meal better.

Continuation.....

Our journey to the Kinabalu Park continued and about 45 minutes later, we reached a small town named Pekan Nabalu. I bought few souvenirs like Sompoton - a traditional musical instrument of Kadazan people, T-shirts and few small things. After about one hour browsing the shops, we continued the journey. Next stop was Kundasang... My companions bought cheap vegetables and fruits. As for me, I did not buy anything as I was tired because of my running nose. I stayed in the car while waiting for them.

After 30 minutes, we were on the track heading to the Kinabalu Park. The Park is full with amazing landscapes. There were a lot of Malaysian tourists. We stopped for a while and again I could not join my other companions as they visited a botanical park. After the Kinabalu Park, we continued or journey to Poring. However, we stopped by at the Ranau as we were having problem with our car. We took lunch in Ranau.

Then, we continued our journey and we reached Poring almost 4.oopm. The wheather was cloudy. We rushed to the Hot Spring as we scared that the management will close early because of the bad weather. In this park, there were a lot of visitors, local or foreign were having their bath in a small cubical jacuzzi (sort of). Then, me, Hafeez and Celest took the opportunity to take our bath in this jacuzzi as we heard the spring water is a kind of remedy for skin diseases and knee problem.

We spent more than two hours at this park without realizing the time was running very fast. Hafeez suggested that we need to depart early because along the way back to KK will be hilly and no lights. I did not recall any of the exeperience on the way back as I was sleeping and snoring (i did not care of other passengers). We reached KK around 8.30pm and we rushed to my uncle Kenny to have our dinner. Guess who is my uncle Kenny? The one and only uncle Kenny Roggers...we still need to pay though.....

Later that night, my flu was very bad and I had no mood for entertainment. We went back to the room and I slept early that night.

2nd Day Trip

In my previous posting, I did show some of the pictures taken on the second day in KK. We woke up early and had our breakfast at one of the "Kedai Laut" - Celestea's word nearby the hotel. On that day, I was not well. My throat was sore and I got flu. However, I was still in the mood of excitement to explore Sabah.

After we had our breakfast, we started our journey to Kinabalu Park. Hafeez was the driver. Me as the co-driver and the deejay. Celestea, the tourist guide cum the entertainer - "Telipok-telipok", Meq Lyn -?????? and Ijadz, (lupalah?!????!!!). Our journey memang best - as usual I kutuk Lyn and she got angry, Hafeez kacau Lyn and she got angry and even Celest pun ada kacau Lyn. Whatever it was, the journey was very interesting. So Meq Lyn, if you read this, jangan lah marah, tanpa mu mesti perjalanan kami akan boring dan kusam.

Our first spot was Tamparuli. Actually kan.....we salah masuk simpang. The correct way is to go straight instead of turning right. Suddenly, we were in Tamparuli. So, Hafeez decided to make a u-turn when Ijadz said "Eh, signboard tu kata Jambatan Gantung Tamparuli". Apalagi we people, we went straight to the direction and we reached the bridge. The Tamparuli Bridge is actually a suspension bridge (exactly the same that we have in Taman Awam Miri) but this bridge has its own value. Along the short walk to the bridge, each of us were singing the "Jambatan Tamparuli" song with our own wordings. That is because the song is in Kadazan language and we only heard it several times.

I explained to them about the story of the song based on what had been told by one of my friends. I said, "Kalo korang nak tahu, this song is about jambatan gantung yang rendah dan bila air pasang, di pertengahan jambatan akan ditelenggami air. Jadi orang pakai high heel pun boleh basah kakinya". Hehehehehe...........

After we took many poses, we returned to our main aim which is to reach Kinabalu Park. To be continued.......

More pics

Taken on board

Meq-meq yg ikut serta: Meq Lest, Meq Lyn (a.k.a Meq Moq) n Meq Jadz

"The Bakongitez"

Misz Ijadz

" The Famous Tamparuli Bridge"

Pics in KK

A Trip to Kota Kinabalu

Tuesday, July 29, 2008. A friend of mine, Celestea, suddenly suggested a group trip to Kota Kinabalu. At that time, we were having a breakfast in the school canteen. In response to her idea, Rohaizad, Nurul Azlin and I had agreed to to join her. We successfully managed to get the air seats and accomodation.

We boarded the Air Asia plane bound to Kota Kinabalu on the 17th of August 2008 at 7.20am. I was excited as this is my first trip to Kota Kinabalu.

We reached KK in 45 minutes and we rented a Proton Wira Saloon to ease our movement in the city. Our first destination was the hotel - Tune Hotels. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to check in as the hotel's check in time is at 2.00pm.

Our first lunch spot was The Chicken Rice Shop. Wahwahwahwah.......We ordered and we enjoyed the lunch. After lunch, my friends went to the Gaya Street Market while I stayed at the complex to browse through the outlets. The complex is a replica of a Mid Valley. The outlets have modern features and the complex itself is a pride of KK people.

We checked in at 2.30pm, rested a while and we continued our window shopping. We went to the Warisan Square and the complex reminded me a well-managed shophouses turned into a shopping heaven.

At that night, we had our dinner at Anjung Senja. After that, bought tickets for a movie - Meet Dave. Slept around 12.00 mid night.

Form 2 Bestari

Again this year, I was given a responsibility to handle a Form 2 class as the previous 2 years. My response was, 2 Bestari again?!

However, this badge is varied with odds behaviour. When it comes to make entrance "enter-frame"- they can do it very well. I am a kind of against this attitude since I am a low profile eventhough some of my friends would say "Yalah tu, low profile sangat lah ko tu.". I am teaching them English Language and luckily they are able to follow my instruments so far.

Still remember their first impression about me and the shocking faces they showed when I entered their class. For those who do not know me well, when it comes to teaching, my voice can conquer the whole building. My anger could affect the emotion of other students in other classes. My friends always said "Listen! Cikgu Saiful next door dah jadi "Super Saiya". Nak saya jemput dia ke sini" And obviously the students will say no. Ha ha ha ha (4 harakat jer)

In Form 2 Bestari, I don't have much problem with them. I only have problem with them when they have become motionless and passive. I am a kind of teacher that like them to move around and communicate with me or their friends in English only. I have warned them early this year that, if I hear them speaking in their mother tongue, I will pinch them based on the number or words they have uttered. Thus, my class usually is the noisiest as for this class, I only prepare students-centered activities where they will speak, move and do on their own. My role is only a facilitator.

However, deep in my heart, I love them so much even though this feeling I never let them see. Form 2 B - love u so much

Bulan Kemerdekaan

2008 is my third year teaching in SMK Bakong Miri. There are thousands of sweet memories that I have experienced in this school. The students in this school can be considered as ‘spoting’ whereby they will never hesitate in joining any school activities.

Back in year 2006, I was chosen to become a jury in the Inter-Class Creative Fashion Show. The outcomes were hilarious. The contestants were very creative and they could manage to live up the show. Some of them were cross-dressing. Made me laugh like crazy.

For this year, I was given a task as an organizer for ‘Carian Pahlawan dan Srikandi Kemerdekaan’. The mode of the contest is to find students that are able to dress as warriors. However, because of the short notice, majority of the contestants ended up wearing only what they possessed in their hostel. Above are some photos taken on that day.