She was sitting across him in the cosy restaurant of a 5-star hotel. Her hands were twisting the teacup on its saucer, a clear sign of edginess.
`You’ve not finished your dessert,’ he says, looking at the half-eaten apple pie on the small plate on the table.
`I am not actually hungry,’ she responds. He just nods, sips his coffee and looks at her in silence. It is obvious that she wants to say something but probably finding it hard to know where to begin. The restaurant is practically quite now, with most of the lunch crowd already gone.
She takes a deep breath and then asks, `Why are you leaving?’
`It is time to do so,’ he answers with a subtle shrug of the shoulders.
`There must be more reasons than that?’
`Yes, there are I guess… but it won’t make a difference for you to know.’
`Uh-huh… who am I to be asking you these things, right?’, she rhetorically asks in a resigned tone.
He does not give an answer... because he knows there isn’t a correct one.
Thursday 10 December 2009
Monday 7 December 2009
Four Fridays on a trot
If you make your living in the state of Selangor, you would be enjoying public holidays on the next 4 consecutive Fridays :
1. 11 December 2009 (Friday) - Sultan of Selangor's Birthday
2. 18 December 2009 (Friday) - Awal Muharram
3. 25 December 2009 (Friday) - Christmas Day
4. 01 January 2010 (Friday) - New Year's Day
That's four long weekends on a trot. You could use the time to go for a mini-break, to catch up on some reading, send your young son for his berkhatan ritual, attend wedding invitations or perhaps organize one of your own...
I bet the TGIF restaurant chain is really looking forward to this.
1. 11 December 2009 (Friday) - Sultan of Selangor's Birthday
2. 18 December 2009 (Friday) - Awal Muharram
3. 25 December 2009 (Friday) - Christmas Day
4. 01 January 2010 (Friday) - New Year's Day
That's four long weekends on a trot. You could use the time to go for a mini-break, to catch up on some reading, send your young son for his berkhatan ritual, attend wedding invitations or perhaps organize one of your own...
I bet the TGIF restaurant chain is really looking forward to this.
Sunday 6 December 2009
A good look at books
One of the things I loved about living in KL a few years back is the ability to browse for hours at the Kinokuniya bookstore in KLCC. While I don't actually buy that many new books, spending time flipping through pages of published text and photos is something that I quite like to do. For the buying part of it, I would normally go to the discount bookstore at Ampang Point. Additionally, warehouse book sales are events that I try not to miss.
In Johor Bahru, the only bookstore with a sizeable spread of books is Harris at Jusco Tebrau City. Harris is part of the Popular Book Store group.
This week, Popular Book Store organised a book fair at Danga City Mall and today is the last day. We made our way to the fair this afternoon and picked up a few books that were sold at significant discounts. My wife and I selected 3 books each while my son picked up 2 . I actually wanted to get a few more but I doubt I have the time to read all of them soon. There are still some books that I bought at a Times warehouse sale in PJ three years ago that remain in packing boxes.
All my choices are fiction. Two recent and one old. I had also wanted to get a Charles Dickens classic to re-read but while other titles from Dickens were available, The Tale Of Two Cities was not.
Of the recent books, one is called The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid. I got to know of this book through blogger Dr Wati who posted about it last month. At only RM19.90 less 20% discount, it is a steal.
The books that I've bought today would probably cover my reading appetite for the next two months. After that, I'll be on the look-out for other book sales or maybe even find an excuse to make a trip to Ampang Point.
In Johor Bahru, the only bookstore with a sizeable spread of books is Harris at Jusco Tebrau City. Harris is part of the Popular Book Store group.
This week, Popular Book Store organised a book fair at Danga City Mall and today is the last day. We made our way to the fair this afternoon and picked up a few books that were sold at significant discounts. My wife and I selected 3 books each while my son picked up 2 . I actually wanted to get a few more but I doubt I have the time to read all of them soon. There are still some books that I bought at a Times warehouse sale in PJ three years ago that remain in packing boxes.
All my choices are fiction. Two recent and one old. I had also wanted to get a Charles Dickens classic to re-read but while other titles from Dickens were available, The Tale Of Two Cities was not.
Of the recent books, one is called The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid. I got to know of this book through blogger Dr Wati who posted about it last month. At only RM19.90 less 20% discount, it is a steal.
The books that I've bought today would probably cover my reading appetite for the next two months. After that, I'll be on the look-out for other book sales or maybe even find an excuse to make a trip to Ampang Point.
Friday 4 December 2009
Spam comments
In the early days of starting this blog, I enabled the `word verification' (captcha) control for submission of comments. I later decided to do away with this step to make it easier for my readers to drop me a line while still maintaining some control by way of moderation.
The absence of this control meant that spam comments can access my blog. Initially, these meaningless comments from god knows where are sporadic. It wasn't much of a hassle to delete them manually. Of late however, the frequency of such comments have become more regular and it is becoming tedious for me to reject them each time I log on. An example of the crap that I get is copied below... this one apparently from Japan :
困っています。 said...
最近寂しくて困っています。夜一人で寝るのが凄く寂しいです…隣で添い寝してくれる男性いませんか？見た目とか特に気にしません。優しくて一緒にいてくれる方大歓迎☆一緒に布団で温まりましょう♪*******@docomo.ne.jp
I am now enabling the captcha feature again (at least in the short term) to see if such spam can be prevented. Sorry to inconvenience my readers on this. Let's see if these jerks can leave my blog alone so that we can return to the norm.
The absence of this control meant that spam comments can access my blog. Initially, these meaningless comments from god knows where are sporadic. It wasn't much of a hassle to delete them manually. Of late however, the frequency of such comments have become more regular and it is becoming tedious for me to reject them each time I log on. An example of the crap that I get is copied below... this one apparently from Japan :
困っています。 said...
最近寂しくて困っています。夜一人で寝るのが凄く寂しいです…隣で添い寝してくれる男性いませんか？見た目とか特に気にしません。優しくて一緒にいてくれる方大歓迎☆一緒に布団で温まりましょう♪*******@docomo.ne.jp
I am now enabling the captcha feature again (at least in the short term) to see if such spam can be prevented. Sorry to inconvenience my readers on this. Let's see if these jerks can leave my blog alone so that we can return to the norm.
Wednesday 2 December 2009
Slaughter and Sacrifice
Surah No. 108 in The Holy Qur'an
Al Kauthar (Abundance)
1. To thee have We granted the Fount (Of Abundance).
2. Therefore to thy Lord turn in Prayer and Sacrifice.
3. For he who hateth thee He will be cut off (from Future Hope).
Translation by Yusuf Ali.
The Aidiladha celebrations this year was merrier than normal because of the ibadah korban that we held within the compound of our family home in Mersing. It is the first time our family has organised a Qurbani (sacrifice of animals) of this scale. It is my first time being involved in the slaughter of cows because all my previous experience in korban involved sheep or goats.
But before I go into detail of our Hari Raya Haji celebrations, just a brief revision on this ibadah of Qurbani. The sacrifice of animals in Islam is the slaughter of permissible animals in the name of Allah on the 10th, 11th or 12th of Zulhijjah in the Islamic calendar. The aim of sacrifice, like all other fundamentals of Islam, is to imbibe piety and self righteousness. It also promotes the spirit of sacrifice for a right cause. To explain its purpose, God says in the Qur’an : “It is not their meat, nor their blood, that reaches God, It is their piety that reaches God”: (22:37).
The permissible animals referred to are domesticated quadrupeds, meaning goats, rams, cows or camels. For the larger animals (cows and camels), it is permitted for the single animal to be shared by up to seven persons. The meat from the sacrificed animal shall be distributed equally to three groups of people : one-third for the poor and needy, one-third for friends and relatives (including non-Muslims) and the final third for the sacrifice-giver's own consumption.
Blogger Zendra has posted an informative write-up on the historical perspective of animal sacrifice in Islam as extracted from the Islamic Voice website -> Re-inventing Zendra.
Our majlis korban this year involved the slaughter of three cows, meaning the participation of twenty-one family members that spanned 4 generations. Heading the list is the patriarch of the family, my father-in-law Haji Md Amin Bin Abdul Karim who is 95-years old. The youngest participant is a 6-month old great-grandson named Qhamarull Suhayl Bin Suhainizam.
My son Angah, giving some soothing words to the first candidate
The slaughter process was done by the time of Friday noon prayers but the more complex process of skinning and cutting the meat resumed after the prayer break. On the whole, the part meant for distribution to the poor came to about 70kg. The beef was cut and packed into 1kg portions and sent to needy households in Kampung Sri Pantai, Mersing. The portion meant for individual consumption actually works out to only about 4.8% of the total meat obtained from each cow (one-seventh part of one-third of whole cow).
Separating skin from meat
Chopping the bones into smaller pieces for the soup
Almost no part of the cow was wasted. Some neighbours wanted the heads while the feet were booked well in advance. The ribs which still had slivers of meat stuck on them, were chopped into smaller pieces and were cooked into a soup in a very large pot. The soup and some bread (french loaves) were then brought to the mosque for consumption by the congregation after Isyak prayers.
Having a hot bowl of beef soup with bread after a hard day's work was like heaven, especially in a large gathering of family members. I probably had 3 or 4 bowls that night.
The next morning, when the pot has cooled down, you can see blobs of solidified fat floating on the surface of the soup. Crap, I thought. Some of those things are probably clogging up my blood veins by now. Better watch my meat consumption for the rest of the week... or perhaps I should resume my weekly swimming sessions to burn off the fat.
More pics can be seen at my Facebook profile -> Fadhil Isma
Al Kauthar (Abundance)
1. To thee have We granted the Fount (Of Abundance).
2. Therefore to thy Lord turn in Prayer and Sacrifice.
3. For he who hateth thee He will be cut off (from Future Hope).
Translation by Yusuf Ali.
The Aidiladha celebrations this year was merrier than normal because of the ibadah korban that we held within the compound of our family home in Mersing. It is the first time our family has organised a Qurbani (sacrifice of animals) of this scale. It is my first time being involved in the slaughter of cows because all my previous experience in korban involved sheep or goats.
But before I go into detail of our Hari Raya Haji celebrations, just a brief revision on this ibadah of Qurbani. The sacrifice of animals in Islam is the slaughter of permissible animals in the name of Allah on the 10th, 11th or 12th of Zulhijjah in the Islamic calendar. The aim of sacrifice, like all other fundamentals of Islam, is to imbibe piety and self righteousness. It also promotes the spirit of sacrifice for a right cause. To explain its purpose, God says in the Qur’an : “It is not their meat, nor their blood, that reaches God, It is their piety that reaches God”: (22:37).
The permissible animals referred to are domesticated quadrupeds, meaning goats, rams, cows or camels. For the larger animals (cows and camels), it is permitted for the single animal to be shared by up to seven persons. The meat from the sacrificed animal shall be distributed equally to three groups of people : one-third for the poor and needy, one-third for friends and relatives (including non-Muslims) and the final third for the sacrifice-giver's own consumption.
Blogger Zendra has posted an informative write-up on the historical perspective of animal sacrifice in Islam as extracted from the Islamic Voice website -> Re-inventing Zendra.
Our majlis korban this year involved the slaughter of three cows, meaning the participation of twenty-one family members that spanned 4 generations. Heading the list is the patriarch of the family, my father-in-law Haji Md Amin Bin Abdul Karim who is 95-years old. The youngest participant is a 6-month old great-grandson named Qhamarull Suhayl Bin Suhainizam.
My son Angah, giving some soothing words to the first candidate
Cow no. 2 was the largest one
The third cow, giving its handler Sopi, a tough time
The organisation of the slaughter and meat-distribution was headed by our uncle who we fondly call Pak Anjang. The first cow went under the knife at around 10.30 am, after Aidiladha prayers. In terms of size, it was the smallest of the three. It was quite tame and could be led to the slaughter pit quite easily. The second cow was the largest. The third cow put up the most resistance. It took us almost half an hour of roping and pulling before the animal could be subdued. Seeing this spirited fight, some of us joked that the animal reflected the stubbornness of its owners :-)
The third cow, giving its handler Sopi, a tough timeThe slaughter process was done by the time of Friday noon prayers but the more complex process of skinning and cutting the meat resumed after the prayer break. On the whole, the part meant for distribution to the poor came to about 70kg. The beef was cut and packed into 1kg portions and sent to needy households in Kampung Sri Pantai, Mersing. The portion meant for individual consumption actually works out to only about 4.8% of the total meat obtained from each cow (one-seventh part of one-third of whole cow).
Separating skin from meat
Chopping the bones into smaller pieces for the soupHaving a hot bowl of beef soup with bread after a hard day's work was like heaven, especially in a large gathering of family members. I probably had 3 or 4 bowls that night.
The next morning, when the pot has cooled down, you can see blobs of solidified fat floating on the surface of the soup. Crap, I thought. Some of those things are probably clogging up my blood veins by now. Better watch my meat consumption for the rest of the week... or perhaps I should resume my weekly swimming sessions to burn off the fat.
More pics can be seen at my Facebook profile -> Fadhil Isma
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