CUP CAKES ANYBODY?

My good friend gave me these lovely cup cakes.She made them herself. All 50 of them! Free of charge.  Am I lucky or what? Not just of the cakes but to have such a dear and generous friend.  May Allah bless you, Sharizat. {Do you think I can eat these on my own? I'm sharing, of course!}

AWAK ADA 'A' KE...?

Dengan nama Allah yang Maha Pemurah lagi Maha Penyayang.


Pada suatu hari, beberapa orang pergi ke Jabatan Minta2 Biasiswa dengan tujuan untuk memohon biasiswa. Mereka pun di temuduga oleh seorang pegawai.

Pegawai: Nama apa?
             - Nama saya Thomas Edison. Saya nak memohon biasiswa, Encik.
Pegawai : Hmm..UPSR ,PMR ,SPM semua A?
Edison    : Saya tak ambik UPSR,PMR ,SPM, Encik.
Pegawai  : Huh! Tak ambik langsung?! Ni tengok dalam laporan sekolah awak, cikgu awak kata...awak bodoh.
Edison    : Tapi Encik, saya telah merekacipta lampu elektrik.
Pegawai  : Ada saya kisah...Permohonan di tolak!


Pegawai : Nama apa?
              - Nama saya Albert Einstein. Saya nak memohon biasiswa, tuan.
Pegawai : UPSR, PMR, SPM semua dapat A?
Einstein : Apa tu UPSR, PMR, SPM?
Pegawai : Patut la dalam laporan sekolah, cikgu awak kata awak bodoh juga.
Einstein  : Tapi saya telah merekacipta teori relativiti dan mengatasi pelbagai masalah matematik
 dan fizik.
Pegawai  : Mesti sekurang2nya 9A dalam SPM, faham! No biasiswa!


Pegawai  : Nama apa?
                - Kulop bin Seman, Encik.
Pegawai  : Berapa dapat A UPSR, PMR,SPM?
Kulop      : UPSR 10A, PMR 20A, SPM 30A. Semua subjek saya ambik.
Pegawai   : Waa.. bagus,bagus..Nak tanya satu soalan saja, ala soalan main2. Apakah ibu negara         
 Malaysia?                
Kulop       : Errr... tu tak ada dalam silibus... Saya tak hafal lagi, Encik.
Pegawai   : Tak pe, tak pe. Perkara kecik je tu. Tahniah! Permohonan awak diterima.
Kulop       : Yahoo!

HANYA 10% sahaja pelajar2 yang mendapat semua A dalam SPM cemerlang di institusi pengajian  tinggi. 90% yang lain tu?..   Sedih..sedih...sedih..

JUST MARRIED!

May peace be upon you.

I have more than 40 nephews and nieces. Hence weddings are inevitable. We have family weddings almost every year. Sometimes we had 2 or 3 weddings in a year and that does not include our cousins' children.

Last weekend, we had another wedding. It was a happy ,funny and  amusing occasion. Everything went well during the religious solemnization of the marriage which was held in the state mosque. . However, things turn a bit peculiar during the traditional custom of exchanging gifts and when the bridegroom slipped the wedding ring on the bride's finger. Suddenly there was a stream of what looked to us like Chinese people taking endless pictures of the happy couple. At first we thought they were friends of the bride or the family but we heard somebody said,"Wow! Today is your lucky day. There is a real live wedding!".

Then we realized they were actually a group of Japanese tourists. Maybe to some people, it was a grave breach of privacy but to my family we just took it with a pinch of salt. We laughed and said "Konichiwa" to them.

One of them had to wear a sarong (kain pelikat) because he wore shorts to the mosque which is a no,no. It was awfully funny looking at him wearing a sarong like he just completed his circumcision amidst us who were wearing our traditional clothes. Like what Anthony Bourdain, the famous chef and traveller said, "you don't go to a place of worship wearing something like you're going  to the beach..."

M y brother, the host, held the garden reception in the evening. And as wise men said, we, mere mortals can only plan, God decides. So... It rained and rained giving the true meaning of 'RAINforest'.

Astonishingly...people still came! And they came in throngs including uninvited guests. We even overheard them phoning their friends to come over for the free food!

The caterer was late to serve and when they did eventually serve, it was not enough. However my bighearted brother accepted the uninvited guests and forgave any shortcomings.

Even though with all the glitches, the wedding went quite well. The groom and the bride were resplendent in their traditional wedding attire. The groom Elliya, was absolutely handsome. The bride, Hannah was absolutely gorgeous. And he melts her heart when he serenades her with a beautiful, romantic song.

May Allah bless both of you and may you live happily ever after...

Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of them to be inserted now. It seemed my photographer(my husband) was either too busy... or he slept through the whole thing.

Maybe I can get some pictures from the Japanese tourists...

p.s: finally a picture is inserted after this blog was written
    

MAKE ME A MUSLIM

This is such an interesting documentary by BBC.You have to watch this with an open mind. I like it especially it featured Dar-ul-Isra' mosque in Cardiff, the mosque my friends and I went together for prayers and Islamic gatherings.

TIDAK SEMESTINYA.....

Orang yang menarik
tidak semestinya cantik

Orang yang tersenyum
tidak semestinya gembira

Orang yang ketawa

tidak semestinya gila

Orang yang menangis

tidak semestinya sedih

Orang yang berdiam

 tidak semestinya bisu

Orang yang berkata

tidak semestinya tahu

Orang yang melihat

tidak semestinya celik

 

Orang yang mendengar 

tidak semestinya faham

Orang yang berilmu
tidak semestinya beragama

Orang yang beragama
tidak semestinya beriman

Orang yang beriman
semestinya beramal!

LIFE IS cocoNUTS!

In the name of Allah, the Most Benificent, the Most Merciful
                                        

A while back, I told my young son how difficult life was when I was a little kid
living without modern appliances. I told him we didn't even have blenders or washing machine because we were poor. He was obviously curious and asked me questions:

_You didn't have computers?
_No.
_You didn't have playstation?
_No.
_Were there dinosaurs!?
 _Errr...





- MY COCONUT TREE

It has become like a family tradition for us to have "nasi lemak" for breakfast every Sunday morning. So last Sunday morning, I started to prepare to cook the dish. Nasi lemak is my family favourite dish especially to my daughter. She could eat it everyday.

Suddenly I just realized that I forgot to to buy the essential ingredient i.e the coconut milk! You must have coconut milk which is used to cook with the rice. Since we lived quite far away from the nearest grocery shop and I needed the milk at that instant, I had to think quick.

Then I remembered I actually have a coconut tree with real coconuts on it! The problem was I had never pluck a coconut, take out the flesh and blend the flesh to get the milk.  Was it possible? All these years I just bought coconut milk from the market. I knew it was a big task and I couldn't do this alone.

 

So I summoned my troops, my beloved children. My eldest spent a good 20 minutes to crack open two coconuts. My other children helped to scrape the flesh and my daughter blend it until it became white coconut milk. Yes... SUCCESS!  At last I could cook the rice.

And.. VOILA!.. this is our delicious, scrumptious nasi lemak. It had to be perfect (especially the fresh coconut milk) because my husband wanted to give it to my mother-in-law who is an expert in nasi lemak cooking.

This blog is not about how to cook nasi lemak. It is about how my family came together to prepare it (almost) the traditional way. We worked together and ate together. It was hard work but believe me it was well worth it. The children learned something. They learned how to work together as a team, as a family.

But one of my children said,"Mom, next time don't forget to buy the coconut milk..."

CERITA SEORANG PEMBUAT RUMAH

Dengan nama Allah yang Maha Pemurah lagi Maha Penyayang.


Ada seorang pembuat rumah yang telah bekerja selama 30 tahun. Tiap2 hari kerjanya hanya membina rumah orang. Dia sudah bosan bekerja dan berhajat untuk berhenti.

Olehkerana selama 30 tahun pekerja itu membuat kerja dengan amat baik, majikannya merasakan berat melepaskannya. Dia memujuk pekerjanya itu untuk meneruskan kerjanya tetapi pekerjanya tetap nekad untuk berhenti bekerja. Namun majikannya bersungguh-sungguh memujuknya untuk membina sebuah rumah buat kali terakhir.

Dengan perasaan berat dan agak marah, dia terpaksa bersetuju. Dalam hatinya menyumpah majikannya yang seolah2 tidak faham bahasa.

Olehkerana tidak ikhlas, dia membuat rumah tersebut dengan tidak bersungguh2 dan menggunakan bahan binaan yang rendah mutunya tanpa penngetahuan majikannya. Akhirnya, siaplah sebuah rumah yang berkualiti rendah.

Majikannya pun datang dan mengucapkan teriamakasih.Apa yang dikatakan oleh majikannya selepas itu membuat pekerja itu jatuh terduduk. Majikannya berkata rumah itu sebenarnya ialah hadiah kepada pekerja tersebut sebagai balasan dedikasinya selama bekerja dengannya.

Ikhlaslah dalam setiap pekerjaan yang kita buat. Buatlah pekerjaan dengan bersungguh2 dan teliti walaupun kita tidak mendapat ganjaran di dunia ini. Buatlah kerana Allah swt dan pasti kita diganjari di dunia dan akhirat.