Vicious Attack

Mosquitoes - who would imagine such pesky nemeses could cause great havoc in our family this last one week or so. What started with intense headaches, feverish spells, severe joint and muscle pain and exhaustion later led to one most unbelievable finding - dengue!! 

Hero #1

Faris was the first casualty. That Sunday night when he picked me up at the airport, he complained of the bout of headaches he's been having over the weekend. Next day it got worst and he went to the GP to have it checked. At the clinic, they did a blood test. Later that evening, his blood test results came back and it was tested positive for dengue. The GP quickly prepared the guarantee letter for him to be admitted at KPJ Hospital. I was at work when Abe informed me of his development. Next thing I knew, I was on the way to the hospital.

The moment he was in the ward, the nurses started him on the drip and got series of tests done. Tubes of his blood samples were quickly sent to the lab for more conclusive diagnosis.

Hero # 1 was down and Mommy still in denial.

Hero #2

Abe was supposed to be away on work assignment. That morning before I left for work, I saw him packing his suitcase. His movements were slow and he didn't look like he was at all excited to leave for Curryland. I thought it was because of my last minute tag-along-cancellation that got him upset; leaving him with little motivation to proceed with the trip (perghhhhh....perasan kann!!) Well, if only some (incompetent) people didn't mess up with the travel itinerary.......

Anyway, it's all history now. Close book. Fated. Tak de rezeki nak ke Bollywood again.

And nak jadi cerita lagi, he too fell ill. His headaches and sore joints became worst. Topped by chess pains lagi! And all these got him going to the clinic. Just hours before his departure, the GP asked to stay put and declared that he was not fit to travel. Doctor prescribed some medications and asked him to continue resting at home. This was quite a blow for him. First time in his nearing 30 years service with the power company, he experienced such an adverse misfortune.

Two days later came the second whammy. His blood test confirmed the cause of his aches and pains. Positive dengue jugak!

Abe checked-in to the same hospital; just two rooms down the corridor from where Faris was.

Hero # 2 was defeated and Mommy turned into Nurse Florence.

Mommy as Nurse Florence had to put a brave front. Couldn't possibly show the two heroes how worried she was. Close family members and friends on FB helped calm the squirms in my stomach. And this “not-giving-up-nurse” dutiful prepared soup ketam, rebus bayam, starfruit shake, 100 plus - the popular food for remedy suggestions received from friends near and far for her patients.

My office was very understanding on my situation. I was away for three days and during those days I was either hanging out in the hospital or preparing food for the duo. On a few occasions I had to run to the pharmacies, hunting for some ointment or cream to help ease the patients' pain. It was nerve wrecking tiring!

Looking back how, Alhamdulillah, the trying times have passed. Both heroes are recovering. Abe was first to be discharged and two days later Faris was allowed to return home. They are both making good progress and today Abe has gone back to work.

Bila ingatkan havocnya last week, macam tak terpikul di bahu. Ya Allah, itu baru sedikit ujian dari mu; your reminder to us of your innumerable blessings. Ya Allah, if compared to those with greater tests in war torn countries or plagued by droughts and famine, apa benarlah yang kami lalui ini.

I believe all these that happened is full of hikmah. Thank you God for helping us re-align our purpose and priorities. His grace upon us, as well as His eternal mercy and compassion, we should always be thankful. Our body, our health, our rezeki are all the great deal of evidence showing profound and great love of Allah. Kita adalah hamba Nya but He has such great love for us. Subahanallah.

To my love ones, this was Allah's test on us because he loves us and wants to bring us closer to him and his religion. This was His reminder for us to be better Muslims. To face tough and difficult challenges in life with faith put on Him. Some challenges may be difficult to overcome, especially when the odds are stacked against us. Go against the odds, have that "never quit" attitude in life. InshaAllah, by observing patience, remembering Him and turning only to Him for help and guidance during such times, He will be there for us.

To all friends and acquaintances yang tidak jemu-jemu memberi words of encouragement, offering their doas and prayers for the our safety and well being, from the very bottom of my heart, I wish to express my heartfelt thanks for your kindness and thoughtfulness. Thank you thank you so much for being there for us.

The Joys of Present

“Here's my love, take it. Here's my soul, use it. Here's my heart, don't break it. Here's my hand, hold it and together we will make it forever.”

Errr…those weren’t quite his words. No poetic ammo, just straight to the heart kind of question he asked me.

Early in the relationship, making sense with scents was perhaps easier to him, L'Air du Temps - Air of Time.

Today we celebrate our 24 years of each other - 2 + 3 makes 5; one big happy family (but if you add the many years when the eyes first exchanged glances, we’ve been an item for almost 29 years!!)

Today we celebrate the memories of yesterday, the joys of present and the hopes of tomorrow.

I thank God for everything - my family and my life and all the wonderful blessings He's bestowed upon us.

Alhamdulillah….syukur.

Proud Moments

I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. With my hectic schedule, obviously, I had to shuffle work commitments to liberate myself to attend this important event. In fact when Faris informed me of the date – 6th October 2010, I was somewhat relieved that it clashed with only one of my deadlines. (But had to miss two important events held on the same day – one was a talk on content development and the other was an event at National Planetarium. Tak pe lah…FAMILY comes FIRST. No two things about that.)

It was manageable. Like I said, I wouldn’t want to miss it for the world; be my son’s graduation ceremony, I MUST!!

Unfortunately, that morning I woke up with a lingering headache. The previous day’s irresponsible act of skipping meals has come to claim its brunt on me. Yikesss….yikesss…

I washed down two aspirins at breakfast. My head felt slightly lighter when the medication took effect. But I knew if I wasn’t careful, the headache may just develop into something much, much worst. And I definitely didn’t want that to happen, not today. I wished I could rest for a while before the drive to PICC, but there was still quiet a bit to be done.

Faris left early for PICC that morning. He said there were still some final preparations on the graduation ceremony that he needed to attend to. I did one last check on his baju melayu and samping (must thank Datin Mamasita for her referral on this helpful samping guy in KT. Chose Faris’ samping via MMS, paid online and the package arrived the next day; all in a day’s transaction!! Fast and convenient) and off he went after that. We couldn’t take the girls with us either coz Farah still had her SPM trials at school and Nissa was on for “ASTRO’s Waktu Rehat” audition later that afternoon. Ohhh….it was just the two of us lah nampak nya…..

Roses for the graduate

We left for PICC (Putrajaya International Convention Centre) slightly past noon. In the invite it was written that we were to be seated 10 mins before the ceremony starts which was at 2pm. Abe asked if I wanted to drive, I said, “No, you take the wheels.” I usually didn’t mind being the supir but that day, I just wanted to sit back and relax (hah…the real truth is…I was so anxious and such a nervous wreck and so not wanting Abe to notice the emotional build up).

Parking at PICC was somewhat a horror. The whole place was already packed with cars. The security personnel directed us to park along the road leading up to the convention centre. Ohhh…menapak la pulak under the blazing sun!!! What a test and minutes later I felt my head spin. Yikes….yikes….the headache was back…grr.

For those who have not been to PICC, well, let me warn you that the place is huge!!! And be prepared to walk and ride the escalators all the way up to the top. Our first stop was the surau for Zuhor prayers (ambil wuduk siap-siap from home tu….coz takut tak sempat nak re-apply make up…vain, vain, vain…caya tak??) Abe then managed to locate Faris and informed him of our whereabouts. He came to meet us up after that, all dressed in his black baju melayu and graduation robe. I couldn't believe what I was seeing – watching this handsome young man stride towards us, all so grown up and looking very smart in his graduation attire. I tried to hold back my tears, but I just couldn’t (and heck with my make up….)

As he walked passed us, it brought lump to the throat as I recall memories of his first baby steps, first words, first triple somersaults into the pool, first camping trip....and many other first moments.

Standing in front of me, was my baby whose little hands I held not so many years ago, walking to kindergarten on his first day of school. I recall us walking into the classroom and he just stood there, shy at first but then the teacher came over and introduced him to the others kids and he went off to play. I remember his first school concert where he danced joget with another girl at school. I remember his first piano recital where I helped him compose a short tune and him playing it in front of other parents and students in the class. I was a nervous wreck too then and dared not breathe till he finished playing.

There was like a deck of You Tube recollection on Faris’ accomplishments, his ups and downs in school and college and his challenges growing up during his teenage days under the watchful eyes of Mama and Daddy, playing in my mind in that split second.

No 31 in the list of recipients - Diploma in Chemical Engineering Technology (Process) - that's Faris!!

I tried to hold back my stream of tears, but I just couldn’t (and make up almost gone….) and to make matters worst, I HAD NO KLENEX stuffed in my handbag (tu lah…tukar handbag lima kali lagi before settling with the final one…kena sumpah dgn bags yg tak dipilih untuk di pakai tu kot..)

Anyway, my emotions was more settled when we were finally seated in the ceremonial Plenary Hall. To kill time (coz it was quite a wait till the parade of the graduates), I was fb-casting via BB. Yeah…the whole world was able to follow Faris’ convocation ceremony via FB. My sincerest appreciation to all who have kept me company the entire afternoon be it on FB and BBM. Your kind words and encouragement have helped calm this Mommy’s dup dap dup dap heart.

During intermission, UniKL choir entertained us with their rendition of Faisal Tahir's Sampai Syurga.

Faris and friends

Senior and Junior

The 7th Convocation Ceremony of University Kuala Lumpur was graced by YB Dato’ Seri Idris Jusoh, Chairman of MARA, who is also UniKL’s Pro-Chancellor II. The two day ceremony saw 3,193 graduates receiving their respective Degrees, Diplomas and Professional Certificates. I must say it’s an applaudable accomplishment for a relatively new university.

Indeed, the ceremony was each parent’s proud moments witnessing fruits of labor, paid off from the sweat and tears of the children as they walked up the stage to collect their scrolls. Each move by the young men & ladies prompted a medley of emotions - pride, relief, elation and ambivalence. Our greatest syukur to Allah swt for his grace on us, allowing us to be part of these prestigious moments.

To Faris....

We know that you will go far in this life, you deserve the best this world can give you and we know that you will get it. This day marked the start of your discovery of the world on your own, please know that we'll be with you no matter where you go and that we'll be there anytime and anywhere you may need us.

Loves,

Mama & Daddy

HSM Rockin' Saturday

"Five, six, seven, eighttt.... and turn!!"

That was her routine for the last couple of days. Last week, she even had to skip sekolah agama to attend practice session in school. She felt bad about not going for mengaji but at that age, nothing could stop her from jumping up and down doing the choreographed steps.

It was last month I think when she called me at work and informed me that she wanted to take part in the High School Musical My School Rocks cheer leading competition. My first question was, "You wanna dance?" She said, "Yes!!".

Nissa isn't exactly the athletic type, but she likes dancing. And the influence of Disney and the boys and girls from High School Musical has made her very, very keen to try her luck in the cheer leading competition. That's how it started. The next thing I knew, there were three other lil ones doing spins, splits and turns in the house together with her.

The foursome - Alia, Nissa, Raja Nur Samira & Alyssa

Nissa and friends passed the school audition with flying colours and to move to the next level which was also the selection round held in Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC) last Saturday.

Some sisterly aid here....Farah doing up Nissa's hair

Practice makes perfect

Alyssa the smallest of the four did the finale pyramid

Stiff competition...the elder children at practice

All in action on stage

Interviewed by the host....apparently the audition will be aired on one of the Astro channels

All four with their teacher/coach

What a relief after the show.....mommy pun legaaaaa......

With Zac & friends

Done for the day.....exhausted and sleepy, mana tak nya she was already up by 5.00am that Saturday morning.

Bake & Celebrate

I hardly bake, actually. But work related stress had me trying my luck - sweat dripping by the oven sometime last week. Tried making cookies from a recipe I googled on the Internet. I still have a long way to go, that's for sure.

Anyway, these nutty chocs turned out not too bad and kids finished the plateful at one go.

Last weekend, the "crazy feeling" to bake came again. The many pictures (which most of the time made me drool) posted by superb bakers on FB, got me taking out my baking stuffs. And result of the hard work were these cuties (puji sendiri lah kan....).

We named them "Lil Pink Buttons" - plain butter cup cakes with sugar icing on top.

These was also another reason to celebrate. Our anniversary; as usual, it slipped my mind again this year. Only remembered it when I was driving the girls to their activities on Saturday. I could have sworn I entered important dates to my BB. Err....perhaps I did, but I did not save after doing so (which is very typical of me....)

It wasn't possible to do much of a celebration on Saturday itself as girls' program got us occupied till late afternoon. So how did we celebrate? Were there fireworks? Blimp across Shah Alam sky? Oh tidakkk....no need for that lah. Instead we opted to go do our favourite pass time -makan-makan :)

Dinner was here on Sunday evening.

The girls...

The shy guy....

The couple... (of 23 years & many, many kilos heavier and centimeters wider)

The couple back then (ohhh how to get back to that size again???)

Be Strong, Be Intelligent and Smile

At 33 weeks, I was so sleep deprived; tossing and turning with unbearable discomfort throughout the night. The bed could accommodate only me. Throw cushions were all around – two on the side, a few more at the edge and not counting the piles of pillows needed to support my aching back. The bed resembled a war zone of pillows. And at week 34, I had thrown out my sleeping partner. Too bad, but I think he somewhat willingly did so. One zombie in the house was enough; he had no intentions of adding on to the number.

Results from my last check up had caused more worry. DrH told me that that my baby was still in the butt first position. My heart sank at the news. I had hoped for the baby to turn, but apparently she wasn’t listening to Mommy’s telepathic pleas. I hadn’t the faintest idea of what to expect with a C-section as the other two children were normal. Thoughts of being cut opened gave me the creeps.

My labour was intensive; almost forgot how to do the pushing. Mana tak nye, the last time I made my appearance before DrH was like eight years ago. Machines and wires were every where. I remember looking at the monitor, and not at all amused by the chart plotting my contractions. Each time the graph showed a spike I went berserk – grabbing the gas mask, piercing Abe’s arms, calling names at the nurses when they were slow at giving me my shot of pain killers. Even with that shot, the pain was urgghhhhhh……..

Anyway, after some serious and intense huffin’, puffin’ and pushing (and a few screams too!!), sometime around 6.30am, Nissa Maisarah was born. She was long and weighed almost 4kg. When DrH placed her in my arms, this bundle of joy gave her first smile, and just like that the agony from the wait and pain was gone. The rest I could vaguely recall. Tau-tau dah in the room, and the nurses just couldn’t wait to pass the baby to me to breast feed (in the end tak breast feed pun coz had problems in the milky dept).

Nine years ago, that was how it happened.

Happy birthday dear Nissa….

Believe in magic and wish on stars. Dance, laugh, cry, and sing when you want to. Make faces. Play with lumpur and lopak. Pet rabbits, hold kittens, and talk to babies. Love and trust and be compassionate. Be strong. Be intelligent. Smile.

No matter how many birthdays come and go, you'll always be our little girl. May each of your days be filled with joy and sweet surprises.

More of Nissa's stories here and here.

V-day Buzz

It was worth the wait for nasi lemak at our favourite breakfast joint in Seksyen 3 this morning. The Mak Cik meticulously scooped the fried peanuts and sambal and placed them on top of the rice before she packed everything into that spread of banana leave. Got 5 packs for everyone at home. I usually would stay away from "rice thingy" in the morning. But today...heck them calories, I finished that pack of nasi lemak, sambal, peanuts...everything which was my share!!

Hanya gambar hiasan... :)

After the sumptuous breakfast, the big man went on to work at re-organizing his tool shed. I had no interest of going close to his work station for the fear that I may not "tahan" with what's in sight and may want to shove 80% percent of those items into the black garbage bags. I am very sure that would make those MBSA garbage pick up guys smiling at Bibik, assuming it was her who had been behaving like Santa Rina.

Big man's understudy - the small man is busy listening to instructions given and trying to complete all assignments as fast as he could. Reason for the "lipas kudung" act is because a later outing arrangement with friends. Guy friends?? Girl friends?? Mommy here suspects both.

A similar scene can be seen upstairs where the two girls were busy making their room spotless. My instruction was to wipe everything, re-arrange all the book shelves and vacuum every inch of the room. They did pretty well, I must say. Of course Mommy had to supervise a little and made sure that no short cuts was taken.

And where did I fit into this robot like task force? My port - the guest room downstairs, and to specifically work on the rarely used family closet. Not going to be fun, but someone's got to do it. We Moms always get the most challenging task, don't we?

And guess what were my findings when I checked the top most shelve? Tadaaa....these old letters. Errr...make that old lurveee letters lah.

Letters came in myriad of coloured envelopes; this one, letter no 41 was in green. Used to number all my letters too...(zamam berchenta....semua nye indah & rajin nak buat!!)

One of the many cards sent...no occasions, saja suka pi book store and mission was to get hold of these cuties!!

Take a wild guess, how many letters are there?? During the times when I wasn't fizzling my brains in the computer lab, I wrote letters and then day dreamed by the lake.

Present day...no more day dreaming, just blogging and FBing with Chitty

His 21st

It must have been one of the worst gastric attacks. Everything I pushed in, came out the very moment it went in. Even gulping down fluids was difficult. It tasted funny and if I wasn't careful, my body would reject that too.

For the life of me, I never could recall having such a nasty attack. I knew I had mild gastric problem, but didn't expect it to be so bad. The fact that I was almost full term made the experience a horrible ordeal. The whole day, I did nothing but just lay down on the bed, hoping that I'd get better soon.

Well, that was how it all started. Unfortunately, my condition didn't get better for I went into labour on the following morning. Silly me, a first time Mommy, I thought it was gastric, when I was actually having contractions. Mana lah I tau.....there was no prior experience to make comparisons with.

All that happened 21 years ago and on February 7th 1989, our son Mohd Faris Afandi was born. I also recall that day being 1st Rejab coz when my parents and my late grandmother came to visit me at the hospital, they said that they were fasting. And it was the second day of CNY that this bundle of joy decided to arrive. He was a huge baby, weighing 3.89kg!!

The rest is history and today we celebrated his 21st.

Happy Birthday Abang. Hope you will always have a good health, more career in life..and hope that more birthdays to come. Have a wonderful day and fabulous year.

Exam Treat

School can be cruel at times. I received a call from Nissa when I was away in Kota Tinggi, saying that she came out second last in class!!! She was upset and I was frantic. Since I was away, I didn't want to make matters worst. No point screaming on the other end. Told her to calm down and we would talk when I came home.

When I came home a few days later, apparently she had gotten over her lousy spirits and was her jovial self again. Me the "kancheong" Mama, obviously wanted to know why was her performance so bad. After the "probe" session, she revealed that two of her papers were not taken into account. They were English and Pengajian Islam. Remember that day when she fell sick and missed these two papers? I thought her teacher had allowed her to sit for the exam on the next day. Well, she DID take the exam but they were NOT counted towards her total marks, even when there was a legit MC for her absence from school. The exclusion of the two papers pulled her percentage and positioning her second last in the class.

Knowing this upset me further. I had these two questions for her class teacher. One, why get her to sit for the papers when teacher wasn't going to include the marks. And two, if teacher wasn't going to include the marks, why can't the cummulative marks be divided by the number of papers Nissa took in the exam. Adding the two papers and giving zero mark would surely pull her grades!!! Adeiii...cikgu ni pun...for heaven's sake....ni baru Tahun Dua lah. Bukan college pun lagi!!! Even in college ader tolak ansur nya.

Anyway, cut the story short, memang tak de tolak ansur. Maka termaktub lah Nissa as the second last girl in class. Sakit hati tak??? Nissa wasn't at all bothered. She said she scored 97% and 92% for English and Agama respectively. Tak dapat number satu pun tak pe lah, yang penting she did well. That was her stand. I felt sorry for her, but on the other hand, I was proud that my girl stood tall even after being "victimised" in such a manner.

So...itu cerita sekolah kebangsaan. Nak marah lebih-lebih tak boleh. Everyday she still goes to the same class, being taught by the same teacher jugak. So....Mama ni pasrah & redha.

Then last week when I was in Kuala Telemong, another call came from her, telling me that she got first in class at sekolah agama. She was extremely overjoyed and so was Mama. Told her we would celebrate and treat her over the weekend when I got home from my trip.

The real test on me came this morning. I woke up with a horrible headache!!! I felt it coming last night and was hoping it would clear by today. It was so bad, by breakfast I felt like I wanted to knock my head on the wall. Took Actifast and nothing happened. In the end, I resorted to gulping down 2 ponstant and prayed that it would clear, still pening..but the throbbing wasn't as severe.

Ohh...Nissa's treat, what was it? When asked, she said she wanted to go watch Ice Age 3. Okay...that was easy to fulfill and told her we would go watch the movie today. A friend told me that I should go watch in in 3D. When I asked where, he said, "Pavillion". Gosh, that's like in town, jauhhh nya......

Lexus anyone?? At Pavillion Concourse

A promise is a promise lah kan, headache or no headache. By the time we got to Pavillion, my head felt clear a bit. Guess the drugs had begun to take effect. And that Coke I slurped down at lunch finally did the trick, must have been the caffeine. Folks...DO NOT try this crazy act of intoxicating oneself!! I was left with no choice, a real desperate case.

Dah keluar kedai...muka happy je

I'm glad the day turned out well. Nissa loved the movie. Farah wasn't too excited, guess she had passed the Disney phase. But too bad lah, she was dragged along. Her glum face wasn't for long. The retail therapy after the movie made up for the laborious two hours of watching a herd of warm-blooded mammals up against some long lost dinosours.

These must words running on his mind,"Hai...sihat dah tuh...dah boleh masuk keluar kedai!!"

Much too my surprise, my headache had disappeared. ABE, who was concerned over my suffering earlier, was able to sigh relief the moment he saw me heading towards Parkson and TANGS, all geared for RT (shhhyyyy...retail therapy that is..heh..heh).

To My Daddy

Hi my name is Nissa Maisarah. I don’t have a blog yet. So I am using my Mama’s blog to wish my Daddy a wonderful birthday.

His birthday was yesterday 10th July. I didn’t get the chance to write this earlier because Mama came home late from work. She got a cake for Daddy and it was delicious.

These two songs are for you Daddy.
Enjoy “Happy Birthday” and “My First Waltz” on the piano by me.

My First Waltz

25.05.09 SV 833 KUL - MED

That morning I woke up feeling free. My deadlines completed and it felt so relieved not having anything above my shoulders. Even though I had slept rather late, the burning of midnight oil was all worth it. All emails replied and the electronic handover was completed. I had gone the day before to the office to clear my stuffs. HR informed me that when I come back, I would start at the new office. I just didn’t want to dwell with this so much yet, for it would be another new chapter all together.

The last check on our luggage was done much earlier. Abe had helped us to ensure most items on my checklist went into our bags. Once my toiletry case went it, I’d just had to put the locks on the bags. We were given bags by R*yh**, the travel agency and I've decided to just use them. If during my other trips I'd insist on using our hard boxed Lojel suitcase, for this umrah trip, the purple canvas would do. Horror stories of baggage handling by airport workers in the land of the Arabs have never ceased to fade.

I took my time getting ready. Got out my best companion doa book and flicked to the page where it showed steps on doing solat musafir. It felt very calm when I did the two rakaats of the solat. It wasn't till I recited the doa in BM, that tears started rolling. MashaAllah, I was actually going. God has stood all the way behind me and helped me, for there I was standing before him asking for more help, more guidance to complete this journey. Subahanallah...

Farah at the umrah taklimat - 1 week prior to departure

With close friends, I have shared the ups and downs in the path taken in embarking on this trip. There were times when I just felt like giving up. Work was crazy, and working with folks who refused to respect the work processes was the ultimate test of my patience and credibility. It wasn't said in so many words, but put it this way, I've sensed it all along. Me being the "operational" me, was only interested in getting the work done. I don't play politics and my work speaks for itself. Apparently, that's not how some people work, thriving on relationships rather than professionalism. Well, if that's how the game was played, so be it then. I wasn’t going to be in any part of it.

So this journey has been tough all along. But words of my late father, have been a pushing factor. I am also very grateful to Abe for guiding Farah with her mengaji and solats. Ensuring that her sebutan was correct and at times giving short tazkirah about the Prophet s.a.w and the Holy Land.

Saying good bye to Nissa wasn't easy. She was not well earlier in the week. And again because of work commitments, the time I got to spend with her was so limited. It was only during the weekend before that we managed to spend quality time together. I pampered her loads that day. Got her new clothes, stuffs she needed and even got her a new watch. The only thought playing on my mind was, if anything happened to me, I’d want her to have that weekend fresh on her mind forever.

That morning, she had gone to her mengaji class. I knew she just wanted to see as little as she could of me making my preparations. When she came home, she told me that she's going to be bored, all by herself at home during the upcoming school holidays. It broke my heart listening to her pleas, but this journey was something I had to do, more so as I was doing it with her sister. To cheer her up, I said, one fine day, she and I would embark on the same journey too, InshaAllah.

Abe drove us to the airport, another change of plan from the initial arrangement where Faris was to be behind the wheels. Abe earlier on had a meeting, but he somehow managed to reschedule. He said he’d dropped us off at the gate as he was to still rush off to his meeting. Fine by me, coz I'm one of those non supporters to having the entire clan seeing one off at airports. I know about the "berkat" thing, but I’d rather say my good byes in private. So the drop off at gate 5 KLIA was a brief one. We salam-salam and exchanged pecks on the cheeks. Both Farah and I got our trolleys and headed towards the check in counter.

I called my sister who had come to send Mom. The original plan was to have Mom come over to my house the day before. Anyway, a few things came up, and she decided to go direct from Seremban. In a way I was glad with the change of plan. Reason being I was still so kelam kabot with my things. I had only completed my packing around midnight. Something that would definitely cause displease in Mom.

The baggage check in process went smooth despite the big group that we were traveling with. I was told that there were 80 jemaahs all together from R*yh**. Apparently, the flight was full and 80% are jemaahs performing umrah. All bags were tagged and off they went. We managed to grab some quick bites at McDonald’s. Had my usual fillet and by the time we finished our food it was almost zohor. I told Farah and Mom to go perform their solats first and I'd wait at the counter for our passports and boarding passes. The other thing that I had to look into was our mahram. Well, you see since there were just us girls traveling, it was necessary for us to “latch” on to a mahram - mahram tompang they called it. It was a requirement by the Saudi government. No arguements about that. Alhamdullillah, R*yh** had managed to find us one and the person had kindly agreed. Again I am so grateful to God Almighty. I finally met the kind person, just the two of them - him and his wife. They were both from Seremban.

Bye bye KL

Immigrations clearance was smooth and we headed to gate C1 for boarding. Our flight took off on time. I sent out text messages to my siblings and Abe informing our present status, only my sister TM responded. I knew Abe was in his meeting, so I didn't expect any replies from him.

It was a long seven hours flight to Madinah. I managed to do some reading about Madinah and cara-cara ziarah. Other than that, it was zikir and salawat to the Prophet s.a.w. as we reduced the distance between us and the holy land.