An Act of Worship - A Poignant and An Emotional Experience

It was a journey of a life time - packed with spiritual and very personal experience.  I recall the struggling through the loving and worshiping crowds. I remember standing still - eyes roaming, in reconnaissance for that little space where I could fit in and do my prayers.  I remember sitting and read calmly His words,  crying for His pleasure, reading for His pleasure and praying for His pleasure.

Al-Haram....I stood in it with awe and inspiration watching at His creation; the millions who were already in the Holy Land, all ready to perform one of the five pillars of Islam. Nowhere else in the world does one see such a huge sea of humanity comprising every nationality and race that inhabits the earth, converge to the Holy City of Mecca, to fulfill God's commands and seek His forgiveness.

The Ka'abah.....always beautiful, absolutely splendid and magnificent. Syukur Alhamdulillah, He had given us a great bounty by making His house near us.  Tears ran down my cheeks as I made my invocation to Allah. Glory be to Allah, the Lord of the Ka`abah.

And most of all, I remember the day of Arafat -  the most important day of Hajj. The Prophet (pbuh) emphasised the importance of this day by saying that Hajj is Arafat. A day spent on the desolate sandy plain asking Allah for forgiveness and being deeply touched by this spiritual experience. As we stood before the Lord and creator of mankind, asking for His forgiveness - reflecting on our past life. The things that we have regretted; the hurt towards the loved ones; colleagues, family, friends.

In Arafat, we poured our hearts out and asking Allah for His mercy. Sincerity and humility caused uncontrollable tears to flow from our eyes, as we were absorbed in this timeless experience on this a day of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Now, years later, memories of my Hajj experience float through my mind as if I’m watching someone else’s film. Certain scenes are frozen, but most are lost in the maze and flash of the changing shapes, colors of Mecca and the streams of pilgrims on the desert plains braving the odds and going through great sacrifices and hardships to fulfill the command of God.

Labbaika Allahumma labbaika.
Labbaika la syarika laka labbaika.
Innal hamda wanni’mata laka wal mulka.
laa syarika laka

"I am present, O Allah, I am present, there is no partner unto You. I am present. Definitely praise and glory is yours (for You). The Kingdom is also Yours. There is no partner for You".

Wordless Wednesday

Gloomy and dark skies are causing me to have a persistent crave for this choc bar from food section Takashimaya Singapore.

Sent via Kay's Berry

Blackout Bakes

In 10minutes my cake should have been ready. Then all of the sudden, the lights went out. We thought it was just our home. A peek out the window not long afterwards affirmed that the entire area was affected.

Nissa was in the kitchen - going back and forth to the oven, checking anxiously on the cake. She's so hyper these days and her occasional sugar crave can drive me up the wall at times. Nak Cool Blog lah, nak Slurpee lah. Tonite she asked me to bake a cake.

When the lights suddenly went off, she jumped like a grasshopper around the kitchen, shrieking as if she saw ghost. Ingatkan kenapa je budak ni terlompat-lompat macam makan belacan! Ohhh rupa-rupanya ada orang ketakutan...cheh badan je besar! 

Facebook-ing in the dark....bad, bad for the eyes!!

Anyway, power only came back after about 45mins of sweating in the dark. And my cake?? Would it survive? 

Well, it did!! When power came back, I added another 10mins to the baking time. And the cake turned out great.

I was lucky, that's for sure :)


Sent via Kay's Berry

TALAM Bermuka-Muka

This is a rant, so bear with me.

I am so, so upset. What happened this morning at the housing developer office almost made me jump sky high. These people are ROBBERS, I tell u and they have no remorse guilt over the offense they are committing. They are cheats and they get away happily. Well, maybe they do feel a little threatened; thus requiring them to hire a couple of big built guys as their body guards. Chicken lah tu. Berani buat tapi tak berani tanggung! Tau pun nak takut kann.

My rant is about my LAD claims with TALAM; a developer for a property I purchased almost 10 years ago. Yess...sekian punya lama and sakit hatinya masih ada. Oh by the way, if you Google TALAM, you'll find TRINITY as well. Yess...they were in a rut and to get themselves out unscathed and what did they do? They changed their name – to avoid confusion they claimed. But me this lil person with no so lil brains thinks they want to continue cheating others and reap more and more for themselves. It's like they dug one hole, deep enough for people to fall into. And when there is so much huha, they dig another one elsewhere pulak. Tak ke cheats namanya tu? And just because they are associated with folks who have powers bestowed upon them, they have now become the untouchables and they feel they can do things as they wish.

Memang sah lah TALAM bermuka-muka!

Anyway, to begin with, today was not at all a good day. Well, it started pretty good. Went for my usual walk and then when I came home, I found Manis our cat screaming for food. Sharksss....someone forgot to buy cat food (again!!) I gave her some ikan goreng left over from last night's dinner but she wasn't to happy with that. Oh well, Manis, you have your bad day and so do I. So, please stop being a pain, okay!

Then off I went to pick up Abe at his spanking new office. Of course, I tak kuasa nak naik and melawat office which is said to have one of the best views of KL (and bump into so many of these “stiff” guys?? Ohhh tak kuasa sangat-sangat!) So, I bbm-ed him and told him to wait by the road side; saves waiting time and I don't have to do that run-around-driving. But of course lah guys being guys, if there wasn't any element of surprise, tak sah lah kann. Tak thrill kalau tak dera wifey yang dengan rela hati (read: bull%$#@) doing the driving.

In his bbm reply, he said, “Make a u-turn. I wait kat bawah office.”

Ayooooo.....this was like the 2^nd time I lalu kat office baru ni ya. Jalan kat situ pun I have not hafal-ed yet. U-turn? U-turn kat mana pulak ni??? So dalam hati sudah sedikit panazzz. But it's okay, follow instructions still.

Then there was this infamous KL jam to deal with. Roads heading into KL ni kalau tak jam, memang tak sah lah kann and as expected there was a bit of a crawl to get to his office. Van Nissan Vanette rosak tepi jalan pun can attract the attention of beribu-ribu manusia behind the steering wheels to slow down and have an eye feast. Driving to the city certainly equates to STRESS. If I have to do this everyday, confirm hari-hari akan meroyan bad mood!

To cut the story short, I couldn't find the u-turn Abe mentioned in his bbm. Had to make that turn still, tapi punya lah jauh detour. Akibatnya, tolerance thinning and temperature slowly rising.

Anyway, why must drag Abe along eh? After all it's a property under my name kann. Well, since I am so hopeless at keeping taps on documents and correspondence between developer and meself, and since he is the one who is very abreast on the latest developments on the property, he has to come along lah.

TALAM's office is somewhere in Pandan; yesss...it's on the other side of town, an area which I seldom go. Parking there could be a hassle but we were lucky to have found a spot which was close enough to the building. Upon arriving at their office we were directed to an officer whose table was full with computer print outs. Alah biasa lah kan...office developer, mesti nak nampak busy. Business juta-juta. Or maybe this guy was just a slob at cleaning his work station, I don't know and I didn't really care.

So we showed him the letter TALAM sent us; the letter which stated that our cheques were ready for collection. Next, surat bertukar tangan and he handed to us a letter which had numbers and figures. And asked me to sign – acknowledging receipt of payment.

When I checked the figure stated in the letter handed to me, the number was different from the letter that I had. It was a much, much less amount. Ehhhh??? Why pulak like this??

The officer explained yang my letter tu was no longer valid. Huh?? Tak valid?? Mind you it was a valid legal letter stating the judge's call on my LAD claims from TALAM; me confused sekejap.

The officer then informed us about a court convince that TALAM got and he said the decision of the court convince had superseded the letter from the consumer tribunal. He went on explaining more about the court convince and said that all the claimants agreed to the new settlement amount. Errr...how come I didn't know about this collective agreement??

Put it this way lah, simple plain logic. If you are supposed to get a Hermes, tiba-tiba tukar jadi Longchamp, nak ke? Logic ke semua orang agree to so much slashing in the deal?

I did argue and stated my case with the legit tribunal letter. He obviously was not interested to nego lah. I guess he wasn't there to entertain anymore negos either. His task was to pass cheques to the claimants and hope they will kiss the cheques and go home happy.

I told him that I am not going to accept the cheques, will talk to my lawyers and we'll see what's the next action lah. To me it was plain daylight robbery. How could they be so arrogant and not at all respect a decision that was made by the court and simply change the settlement amount without consulting us. And the best part was......the settlement was in 6 post dated cheques. And guess what was the date on the last settlement cheque? JULY 2014 ya!!! Haaaa....that blew my entire patience away and just something I couldn't tolerate. Dah lah reduced settlement and progressive paymentnya punya lah lama nak habis! Boleh ganyut tunggu settlement yang so ciput tu!!

I was so, so pissed by then. Naik je rasa macam nak maki the officer. But no point lah gaduh coz' bukan dia pun yang terang-terang scheming kaedah penipuan tu.

So I told him that I refuse to sign and I am not accepting the settlement. I pun bangun and walked away and left him blinking in disbelieve yang perempuan ini tergamak turned down their offer (read: gula-gula $$$ and I am not stupid!).

It really irked me how easily these developers could get away. They could commit the biggest sin cheating folks on the street and not nobody bothers to nab them. In my case, I'm considered lucky as the property was completed and we have rented it out. Thus, there is not much of a financial burden on us. But what about folks whose property they totally failed to complete and deliver? By now I'm sure there are cursing TALAM every month when the banks demand for the monthly loan payments. 

So, TALAM.....u rot in HELL okay!

Wordless Wednesday

Assistance for tire puncture in Yangshuo County, China 

Coordinates: 24°47′N 110°30′E

Roof Ridge Tiles

When visiting the Changdeokgung Palace recently, the ridge tiles on the palace roofs caught my attention.

Creepy creatures, as I saw them from afar looked so much like a life form of the animals.

From far the roof top looked as if they were "occupied"

At one glance they looked rather scary but as one got closer, one would discover that these were ridge tiles made in the shape of animals and are placed on the roof of a palace to prevent evil misleads and misfortunes.

Wordless Wednesday

Korean brollies are found every where - at the market, on the streets, in the subway. It's so common seeing a Korean carrying one.

Take your pick

full use at a film location

more to choose from

and finally settled for this one :)