Cuti-Cuti Kedah, Our Jelapang Padi - Part 2

During our cuti-cuti time, we also went to Kedah, Cahaya's beautiful home country. Kedah lies in the north of Semenanjung Malaysia, distinctively known as the "Rice Bowl of Malaysia". We've stayed here for 3 nights.

A picture of us with Bae and D, together with their families. Bae is Cahaya's elder brother and D is the youngest.

The 3 handsome brothers - D, Non and Bae

and the lovely wives - Kak Na and Rozaini ...

Li'l Fatima and her sweet li'l cousin, Anis

One of our best moments in Kedah was when we had our little durian party at Kepala Batas night market .... Nyaman eh ....

Later in the evening, we'll be going to Sungai Petani, to visit Cahaya's brother, Abang Mi.

Selamat Datang 1430

Salam Ma’al Hijrah

You can find many wonders in this holy month of Muharram. One of them is the 10th day of Muharram, commonly known as Hari Ashurah, which has many distinctive qualities and features. Almighty Allah Ta’ala created the heavens and the earth on this blessed day. This is the day on which He gave His infinite blessings and bounties to many of His Prophets and rescued them from their enemies.

Muharram reminds us of the hijrah or migration, of our beloved Prophet Muhammad SAW from Mecca to Medina. Almighty Allah Ta’ala created Adam AS and pardoned him for his mistake. Nabi Noh AS had his Ark landed successfully on Mount Judi, and Allah saved Nabi Ibrahim AS from fire and rescued Nabi Musa AS from the cruel Fir’aun.

Cuti-Cuti Kuala Lumpur - Part 1

The decision was final. We chose to go to KL and Kedah for our year end holidays instead of KK. It's a budget trip, and it's fun!

When we are in KL, as usual Ipoh kway teow curry is definitely a must ... (slurp...). It's extremely delicious!

Kaka Ummi and her li'l sis, Fatima ....

We will be spending both new years - 1430H and 2009 here .... yeyyy!

Rezeki Allah, Syukur Alhamdulillah

Firman Allah Ta’ala yang bererti -

“Sesungguhnya segala sesuatu

telah Kami ciptakan sesuai dengan qadar”

[Al-Qomar : 49]

I really am looking forward to the weekend. As usual, Friday is a working day for me. So far the children’s school holidays are filled up with their own activities. They enjoy their swimming on alternate days. Both Maya and Fatima are getting better with their swimming styles. They make new friends and have lots of fun. Cahaya and I haven’t decided where to bring the kids, KL or KK. We were told by friends that KK is now full of Bruneians. Wherever you go, you are bound to bump into your fellow countrymen! Flights to KL are now expensive, oh no! Well, there’s no rushing for us. We’ll just wait and see, soon we’ll decide where to go. Of all you know, hehe who knows .... rezeki Allah!

Alhamdulillah

Firman Allah Ta’ala dalam Surah Ali-‘Imran Ayat 97 yang bererti:

“Dan hanya untuk Allah, wajib bagi manusia melakukan haji, iaitu (bagi) orang yang mampu mengadakan perjalanan ke Baitullah. Dan barangsiapa yang mengingkari (kewajiban haji) maka sesungguhnya Allah Maha tidak memerlukan semesta alam”

~ SELAMAT HARI RAYA 'AIDILADHA ~

Shanghai Moon ...

Assalamu’alaikum everyone.

After my short weekend trip from Kedah & KL last month, I was then busy with the preparation of my Brunei Roundtable 2008 event at The Empire. Alhamdulillah, the event went well and the attendance of foreign and local participants was overwhelming. Thank you very much to my BIFC friends who had helped me throughout the preparation until the day of the event. Especially to Hazel, Feem (spelling?) and Fatin. Great work to all of you. Bosses were all happy .... eheee.... Next year lagi yeah?

Right away the next morning (25th Nov), I flew off again, this time to Shanghai with Feem, through Singapore on business trips. Alamak, fenat memang fenat, and Shanghai was oh... so cold maaa .... It was winter. Upon arriving there, we joined the OCRA people - Wuei, Helen, and others - and also Alvina of Baiduri Bank. We had good meetings, OCRA’s promotional IBC showcase went very well. Well done OCRA! We had good times. I will upload the pictures in the blog soon. Meanwhile, you can check it out at Wuei’s blog. He went into detail with our hotel room facility - the well-equipped, sophisticated modern toilet, haha...

Back at the office last Monday, whoa, my work had piled up, which I must complete before my next leave! (Ahhh, cuti lagi, Sinar?) .... Yup, 22 days babe!! Yahhhooooiii!

Till then, have a nice weekend!

Scenic Brisbane

Sesungguhnya Allah tidak membebani seseorang melainkan sesuai dengan kesanggupannya. (Surah Al-Baqrah, ayat 286)

*************

Salam everyone! I haven’t been blogging since I got back from Fiji last month. That was like 3 weeks ago? Very busy with work, and keeping myself in pace with so many things, apart from personal errands. I just got back from KL yesterday. I took 2-day leave last Thursday and Friday. It was a very short trip, I spent most of the time in Kedah, my Cahaya’s hometown, and also met Ummi, our eldest daughter before I returned to Brunei.

Coming back to my Fiji trip - On my way back to Brunei, I spent a night in Brisbane. What do you expect, from just a one-night stay? Brisbane is very beautiful. It's a cool place to be. I love the scenery and the city is surrounded by water. That's Australia.

I post these beautiful pictures taken with friends, Irene and Joedi. Thanks Irene, for taking the trouble to email them.

There are lots more pictures to post.... Will do that!

Vinaka Vakalevu

Hey there, I'm still in Fiji!

Our meeting and seminar programmes were finally over. We were then geared for the post-meeting programme that had been arranged for us ahead. This included the tour to Nadi town (pronounced as 'Nandi') which is only about 10 minutes away from our Westin Denarau hotel and is on the way to Suva, where the Reserve Bank of Fiji is situated.

The main attraction of this small town is the handicrafts, cheap flowery shirts and little souvenirs. I bought some fridge magnets for myself and a set of place mats at the famous Jack's shop.

There's nothing much to offer at this sub-urban satellite town. To compare it with our place back home, it's like Tutong town, except that it's located within a resort. Anyway, I enjoyed the tour and the Fijian people we met at the handicraft market were very pleasant and friendly. They were cheerfully singing their folk songs which indicated that they are indeed happy people.

Our next fun organised on the following day was the whole day trip to Mala-Mala Island. That will be my next chapter! So see you soon. Vinaka!