Back to Work (for One Day!!)

Well, here I am, all alone in the office, with No Doubt Best of CD to accompany me and the occassional visit by Mr Patrick to the office. I had to say that luckily there is someone here in the office today because Mr Patrick's computer screwed up. Fortunately I am knowledgeable enough to fix his PC, all those years tinkering the home PC and also being in the IT profession, I should have some idea of repairing a PC, right?

The last blog entry was written the day before raya. A lot, and I'm saying a lot, had happened since then. Anyway, just to recap, on Raya morning, we all went to the mosque, did the prayers and came back to bersalam-salaman with my parents and siblings. Last year, me and Awi didn't do this because we were in Bidor on the first day of Raya. I really like this part of the day, where everyone is happy and all. I really missed it while studying in the UK, having to ask for forgiveness from my parents over the phone, which is never the same. After the sumptious meal of nasi tomato and kuzi, off we went to all the relatives houses in KL; my mother's aunt, my father's uncles and my uncles and aunties. Most of the family members on my mothers' side spend Raya in KL while on my father's side, they will go back to Kuala Terengganu. Nevertheless, I'll always prefer to spend Raya in KL (sorry Awi).

In the evening, after doing a lot packing into the car, we (Awi, Haziq & myself) drove off to Bidor to spend the other half of the Raya vacation there. The drive was okay, we exit the highway to enter Bidor around 7.40 pm. Don't know why, for some reason, I missed the turning into Awi's kampung and tried to manouver an illegal U-turn. I didn't see a divider was there in time, and a car coming from the other direction slammed into the left side passenger door. I remembered Awi sreaming something to me but it was too late to do anything. I parked the car to the road side and in the rain evaluated the damage to my car and to other person's. His was a Proton Iswara and the damage was to the front bumper and headlights. I admitted that it was my mistake and will bear any cost to repair. The damage to my beautiful Honda is not that bad upon close inspection, it has a strong body despite more than 12 years old. (Check out my photoblog).

Well, I think this is the second accident I've been involved in less than a month. Someone told me that I'm a clumsy driver while another person commented that I'm too don't-carish about safety. Hmm, whatever it is, I need to be more careful on the road. I don't really mind if it's just me who's injured but if it affects other people who I loved, then I don't want to do something that I will regret for the rest of my life. It was a split second decision to take that turning, maybe I was chasing time to pray Maghrib because it was almost 8 pm, maybe it was too dark (the lights were not ON that night) or maybe I was too confident. Whatever it is, perhaps it is best to wait and evaluate a particular option, even while you're on the road or anywhere else.

I know that I have this attitude of do now and deal with the consequences later. I remember, about 6 years ago, when I was on top of a crane, in the middle of London's Earl's Court waiting to do a bungee jump. In my mind, it was basically, never mind what happens, you just want to make the jump and I did get off the crane and made the jump. I suppose, being a father and having my own family doesn't permit me to have such an attitude anymore. In all accidents, it just take one wrong move in a split second moment to destroy everything that you've worked so far.

All Good Things Must Come to An End

Tomorrow is Hari Raya and so marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. I must admit that this year's Ramadan is truly an enjoyable one. I know there were a lot of anguish in other parts of the world that my fellow Muslims had to endure such as in Arab Saudi, Iraq and Afghanistan but on a personal basis, I had a damn good time. We spent a lot of breaking fast with friends and that sort of heightened the 'enjoyable' status of fasting.

With tomorrow as well, we will then drive up to Bidor, the hometown of Awi to spend the other half of the break with her family. The past four days had just flown and it is true that time flies when you're having fun. As mentioned previously, Awi didn't really like my 'adrenaline rush' when I'm in KL but that is the fact. I'm getting minimal sleep but I'm not groggy or totally energyless. Nevertheless, as a husband I need to be fair, as what is espoused by Islam so it is bye bye KL and hello Bidor for me. I will miss the moments spent with my family. Just for records, here are some of things that we did as a family.

1. Breaking fast together at the Bangsar home on the old Italian long table which had been around in the house almost as long as I have lived.

2. Tadarus (reading Quran) before the breaking of fast.

3. Shopping at MV with my two sisters and their other significant halves.

4. Lepaking in Lucky Garden with my brothers after terawih prayers.

5. Watching Smallville together and discussing about what happened afterwards. (I know it's sad, but it's just what we do)

And many other things but most of all, I just enjoy their company and hopefully, they will also have enjoyed ours.

Tomorrow morning, we will go to the mosque for the Hari Raya prayers, after that we will come back to the house to bersalam-salaman, take photographs and have delicious meal cooked by Mak. Haziq will surely be wearing the new baju melayu that his auntie (Adiknor) has bought for him. They'll be a lot of pictures taken of him and his cousin, Iskandar, you can be sure of that.

Anyway, I've had a superb time and hopefully, there will be many excellent moments such as this in the future.

Adrenaline rush

One thing I noticed when I'm in KL and to the annoyance of Awi is that I seem to have a strong ability to resist sleep. It's as though when I'm back in the house, I don't want to lose the opportunity to maximise the time I'm here on something as trivial as sleep. I've only slept 2.5 hrs last night and the night before around the same period of time as well. Hehehe, must be some sort of adrenaline rush giving me the strength to go by and minimal sleep. It's not that I'm fighting sleepiness, I just don't feel that sleepy, that's all.

I met up with Bik and Farouk yesterday afternoon. Just to beraya with them before Raya actually falls upon us in 2 days time. I know I won't be able to see them during the Raya month due to time constraint, as has been the case in the past couple of years. It's tough but I just have to accept things as they are.

Another early morning for me here. Not sure of my plans for today but didn't really mind if it's just lazing around the house.