Monday, May 11, 2009

I'm Throwing Away My Light Blue Shirt


Its a little funny when I think about it....
but still...
how irritating!!



Ummi asked me to do some errands at the post office...
and i decided to go to the one inside tesco...
thought that i would stop by and buy some water...
(i bought Tropicana Apple Twister...anyway....)



everything was a-okay...
until i reached the cordial water aisle...

"Excuse me, where can i find Sunquick Blackcurrant?"
an indian fellow asked me...
i thought that he was just asking because i was there...
pointed where the FREAKING cordial drink was sitting...
(which was an arms-reach away from where he was standing)
"Alamak... kecik saja ka?... Do you have the big one?"
what do you mean, "do I have..."???... i thought....
the shelves for the big ones were empty...
so i just said no, THEY dont have anymore....
then he said,
"Nevermind... do you have ORANGE Sunquick?"
i answered while ignoring the "you" again...
and pointed at the bottle right NEXT to the Blackcurrant Sunquick....
and walked away...

not even 5 steps after that...
another indian guy said "wheres the ice lemon tea?"
i turned and noticed dat he wasnt even looking at me but at the shelves...
but i knew he was talking to me because no one was around and he wasnt wearing any handsfree phoneset...
the same problem as the person before...
he was standing right beside the ice lemon tea shelf!!!
before i could answer him...
he noticed the familiar looking bottles that says "ICE LEMON TEA" on them next to him and said "oh! nevermind"...

THEN it hit me!!!!
they thought i was an employee!!!!...
and this was not the first time...
once i was walking down a road near college...
and saw one by one people coming out from a factory wearing the exact light blue-collared shirt...
and i swear i saw a chinese man (whom i think was the boss there) standing there beaming at me as i was walking away....

thats understandable because the shirts were exactly the same...
but tesco employees do NOT wear light blue-collared shirt!
they wear collared shirt WITH light-blue stripes!!

i have experienced being a tesco employee for 5 minits...
and i hate to work in that atmosphere ever!!
both of them was disrespectful...
didnt even say thank you...
not even have the tendencies of looking at the face of the person they were talking with...
(which is ironic because if they did that.... they might realise i wasnt an employee)
now suddenly i feel sorry for the tesco people...

the positive side of this anecdote is that i helped two men finding what they were searching for...
and did a favour to what-could-be a grumpy tesco employee...

Sunday, May 10, 2009

An Interesting Conversation

I received this email from abah...
its an interesting reading...
just wanted to share...
shed some light on this issue...
read on~....


Abu Dawud and Ibn Majah have related the prophet to saying:
"The one who wears a garment designed for a worldly fame, Allah will make them wear a garment of humility on the Day Of Resurrection then he will be set ablaze."

The garment of fame is any garment a person wears to make themselves look famous. This applies whether the garment is highly precious and shows admiration to the life of this world or it is chosen of a low quality to show lack of interest to this worldly life. The person may put on clothes with distinct colors so as to draw attention, act proudly and'or arrogantly.

Why She Won't Wear Hijab!
A discussion by A.Q Alidost
A conversation for Muslim Sisters:
"I'm so tired."
"Tired of what?"
"Of all these people judging me."
"Who judged you?"
"Like that woman, every time I sit with her, she tells me to wear hijab."
"Oh, hijab and music! The mother of all topics!"
"Yeah! I listen to music without hijab... haha!"
"Maybe she was just giving you advice."
"I don't need her advice. I know my religion. Can't she mind her own business?"
"Maybe you misunderstood. She was just being nice."
"Keeping out of my business, that would be nice..."
"But it's her duty to encourage you do to good."
"Trust me. That was no encouragement. And what do you mean 'good'?"
"Well, wearing hijab, that would be a good thing to do."
"Says who?"
"It's in the Quran, isn't it?"
"Yes. She did quote me something."
"She said Surah Nur, and other places of the Quran."
"Yes, but it's not a big sin anyway. Helping people and praying is more important."
"True. But big things start with small things."
"That's a good point, but what you wear is not important. What's important is to have a good healthy heart."
"What you wear is not important?"
"That's what I said."
"Then why do you spend an hour every morning fixing up?"
"What do you mean?"
"You spend money on cosmetics, not to mention all the time you spend on fixing your hair and low-carb dieting."
"So?"
"So, your appearance IS important."
"No. I said wearing hijab is not an important thing in religion."
"If it's not an important thing in religion, why is it mentioned in the Noble Quran?"
"You know I can't follow all that's in Quran."
"You mean God tells you something to do, you disobey and then it's OK?"
"Yes. God is forgiving."
"God is forgiving to those who repent and do not repeat their mistakes."
"Says who?"
"Says the same book that tells you to cover."
"But I don't like hijab, it limits my freedom."
"But the lotions, lipsticks, mascara and other cosmetics set you free?!
What's your definition of freedom anyway?"
"Freedom is in doing whatever you like to do."
"No. Freedom is in doing the right thing, not in doing whatever we wish to do."
"Look! I've seen so many people who don't wear hijab and are nice people, and so many who wear hijab and are bad people."
"So what? There are people who are nice to you but are alcoholic. Should we all be alcoholics? You made a stupid point."
"I don't want to be an extremist or a fanatic. I'm OK the way I am without hijab."
"Then you are a secular fanatic. An extremist in disobeying God."
"You don't get it, if I wear hijab, who would marry me?!"
"So all these people with hijab never get married?!"
"Okay! What if I get married and my husband doesn't like it? And wants me to remove it?"

"What if your husband wants you to go out with him on a bank robbery?!"
"That's irrelevant, bank robbery is a crime."
"Disobeying your Creator is not a crime?"
"But then who would hire me?"
"A company that respects people for who they are."
"Not after 9-11"
Yes. After 9-11. Don't you know about Hanan who just got into med school?
And the other one, what was her name, the girl who always wore a white hijab... ummm..."
"Yasmin?"
"Yes. Yasmin. She just finished her MBA and is now interning for GE."
"Why do you reduce religion to a piece of cloth anyway?"
"Why do you reduce womanhood to high heals and lipstick colors?"
"You didn't answer my question."
"In fact, I did. Hijab is not just a piece of cloth. It is obeying God in a difficult environment. It is courage, faith in action, and true womanhood.
But your short sleeves, tight pants..."
"That's called 'fashion', you live in a cave or something? First of all, hijab was founded by men who wanted to control women."
"Really? I did not know men could control women by hijab."
"Yes. That's what it is."
"What about the women who fight their husbands to wear hijab? And women in France who are forced to remove their hijab by men? What do you say about that?"
"Well, that's different."
"What difference? The woman who asked you to wear hijab... she was a woman, right?"
"Right, but..."
"But fashions that are designed and promoted by male-dominated corporations, set you free? Men have no control on exposing women and using them as a commodity?! Give me a break!"
"Wait, let me finish, I was saying..."
"Saying what? You think that men control women by hijab?"
"Yes."
"Specifically how?"
"By telling women how and what to wear, dummy!"
"Doesn't TV, magazines and movies tell you what to wear, and how to be 'attractive'?"
"Of course, it's fashion."
"Isn't that control? Pressuring you to wear what they want you to wear?"
[Silence]
"Not just controlling you, but also controlling the market."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, you are told to look skinny and anorexic like that woman on the cover of the magazine, by men who design those magazines and sell those products."
"I don't get it. What does hijab have to do with products."
"It has everything to do with that. Don't you see? Hijab is a threat to consumerism, women who spend billions of dollars to look skinny and live by standards of fashion designed by men... and then here is Islam, saying trash all that nonsense and focus on your soul, not on your looks, and do not worry what men think of your looks."
"Like I don't have to buy hijab? Isn't hijab a product?"
"Yes, it is. It is a product that sets you free from male-dominated consumerism."
"Stop lecturing me! I WILL NOT WEAR HIJAB!
It is awkward, outdated, and totally not suitable for this society... Moreover, I am only 20 and too young to wear hijab!"
"Fine. Say that to your Lord, when you face Him on Judgment Day."
"Fine."
"Fine."
[Silence]
"Shut up and I don't want to hear more about hijab niqab schmijab Punjab!"
[Silence]
She stared at the mirror, tired of arguing with herself all this time.

Successful enough, she managed to shut the voices in her head, with her own opinions triumphant in victory on the matter, and a final modern decision accepted by the society - but rejected by the Faith:
"Yes!" - to curls on the hair - "No!" - to hijab!
"And he (/she) is indeed a failure who corrupts it [the soul]!" [Noble Quran 91:10]
Subhana'Allah!!!
"Nay! You prefer the life of this world; While the hereafter is better and more lasting." [Noble Quran 87:16-17]
"You are the best community (Ummah) raised up for (the benefit of) humanity; enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong and believing in Allah." [Noble Quran 3:110]

Hope you like it!
Amazing how the points are familiar....

Sunday, March 29, 2009

No Way! Not Again!

gave us 3 "important" exercise....
saying the questions is similar to the ones we're gonna answer during finals....
i did all three...
and added a few other related exercises.....
and when i received my finals paper 2day...
i was shocked....
WHAT THE F***????
and from wat i can see from afar....
so was all the other students.....
the questions isnt at all close to the questions we torture ourselves to answer....
far from it!!!!....
there was even 40% worth of information dat she didnt even mention or "teach" in class....

our carry mark??
no~
she decides to not show us....
no quiz!
no assignments!
nada!!!
how the hell are we gonna stock up our finals marks???

the rumours abt the college trying to FAIL most students this semester seemed so true at this moment....
i am so pissed off right now!!!
and so is every one else!....
final semester!!!
final semester!!!
u want us to stay at that kolej another semester???
HELL NO!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Gunung Ledang, The Full Package Adventure

i know i said i won't gv the full story of what happened at gunung ledang...
but i just CANT help it!!!
here are basically wat happened:
- lost
- 28 hours hiking
- starved-almost-to-death during hiking = no energy
- hysteria
- snake-bite
- car keys fell into lubang jamban (not mine!) *SO funny*
- "prison break" a patient out from hospital
- check-in back the patient to HUKL
- 3-4 hours drv!!!
- the worst time management from the start till end

lets start from the beginning....
if there was an award for the worst time management program....
we'd b nominated for all the slots n win it big time!
the plan was to depart at 3...
right after jumaat prayers...
but SOME of us departed at 5:30...
n the plan was to arrive around 7....
we arrived around 9...
so starting from there...
our tentative starts to crumble...
no ice-breaking session no nuthg....
we come....
we settled down...
we eat lunch....
we go for the briefing...
we sleep....

now, we're suppose to wake up around 5 or 5:30 in the morning...
enough time to take a quick bath and go for our suboh prayers....
wait....
we DID...
but thats not the problem....
every one was still half asleep even after breakfast...
cmon guys!
if the cold bath didnt wake you up, wat would??
instead of 8 o'clock departure...
we decided to go at 9...
and the stretching session was pathetic!

alright...
now we're suppose to bring our lunch with us....
and the cafeteria was to supply us with food...
but no one knew which was ours...
they said ours was not ready...
so instead of arguing...
we went straight for the hiking...
thinking "we dont need food... we brought chocolates!"
idiots...
chocolates can only take you so far...

well that leads to the starving part...
by checkpoint 6 ppl's stomachs starts to grumble...
but fine...
biscuites to the rescue!
enough for us to push ourselves to continue...
30 minits after we start to hike down....
the energy meter starts to drop....
all~ the way down until checkpoint 2
our watter supply finished during half-time...

THAT results the getting lost and 28 hours hiking crisis....
i dun remember how many people got lost...
and how in the hell they managed to get lost...
the painful thg abt it was even they reached to the bottom b4 i did....

now lets talk abt me, sky and muhsin for a bit...
some ppl choose to leave their energy-low and tired frens behind and just speed downhill themselves...
our job was to pick-up each and every one of them....
mostly bcuz they were injured or REALLY tired...
dat slowed us down for another 2 hours....

as soon as we reached the bottom...
i thought i can have a nice cold bath and go straight to camp...
but NO~...
all kinds of news comes rushing to me...
"ader budak kene hyteria!... ader budak kene patok!... ader budak g naik balik!...ader org cedera lagi kat atas tu!"
hahahahaha!!
aside from feeling so sorry for them...
i was also feel a lil mad at them...
there goes my cold bath....
my whole body was covered in mud...
wet socks n whatnot...

the girl who was hysteria-fied (Girl A) continued being that until (from what heard) 7 next morning....
the girl who was bitten by a snake (Girl B) was rushed to the hospital...
she had to stay there for 3 days...
for dialysis of somekind....
and oh!
how tensioned it was...
after breakfast...
Girl A started to have her hysteria-attack again...
screaming and crying n whatnot....
we send her out of the area to meet some Pak Imam in Tangkak...
and after she's fine...
she had to wait there...
the pak imam forbid her to go back...

after getting back from the pak imams house...
i went back to gunung ledang.....
and muhsin called...
telling me that Mubin dropped his car-keys in the lubang jamban....
that REALLY made me laugh and all the heavy loads kinda lightened....
he even video-ed his many attempts to take the key out...
one of the attempt was by hand...
hahahaha!

so then...
the trip back to KL is another adventure...
Mubin was to go to the pak imams house n take Girl A
my group was to go to Melaka to return some camps we borrowed from adwa's father....
AND....
go to hospital tangkak to check-on Girl B
she looked fine when we reached there...
but she wanted to go back with us...
bcuz she's worried she cudnt return back to KL on her own...
so we persuaded the doctors n nurses....
finally they said yes....
gave her some meds...
and then we're off to melaka....

after melaka...
we stopped at R&R Seremban...
den Girl B said she's feeling nausious....
so we took a de-tour to Hospital KL...
without Girl B realizing of course...
she insisted that she's feeling fine...
left her there...
the doc said she needs to stay there for 48hours....
oh...
dis was aroung 12 midnite...
i was feeling all weak n sleepy already...
but we were all really hungry...
so before sending off kak adwa...
we stopped to eat....
5 person...
dis was wat we ordered....
1 nasi paprik, nasi lebih (epul sky)
1 nasi goreng ayam (kak adwa)
1 nasi goreng ladna (abdullah)
2 nasi goreng USA, nasi lebih, daging lebih (muhsin n me)

2 o'clock... we arrive at muhsin n abdullah's house...
i was so full, sleepy and tired to drv...
i slept there for the night...
n left the next morning....

Girl B checked-out from the hospital at 2 the next day...
and i heard Girl A had another hysteria attack next day too....
but now everyone is fine~.....
the end....

oh...
and the feedback....
well....
nvm....
u b the judge...
:P

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

XPDC to Gunung Ledang

last month abdullah told me that he's handling a program to go to Gunung Ledang...
abdullah is the president of the Adventure Club in IIC...



dat information didnt really stick into my mind....
cuz automatically i knew i wont go...
cuz cmon~
me?? going on an adventure?? Hiking??
i once spend the nite outside alone and dat was considered an adventure to me....
yes....
so lame...

anyway...
last week Muhsin reminded me of it...
saying That he's going n they needed more committees...
so i joined... as a member of the adventure club
my task was to drive a number of committees to Johor...
cuz the bus is for participants only (taekwando club)....

The Famous Family Car, Anser, was used as a back-up luggage vehicle....
i was going back to organize the bags...
den suddenly someone gave him his backpack...
den another....
den another....
and another.....
so the back of the car was loaded with smelly shoes, backpacks n such...
(other peoples.... not mine...)






and then we're off~
an exhausting 4 hours driving a lori-like anser...
and my car was the last to arrive...
after settling down....
we had our lunch at the cafeteria....
went to set up the camps....
den went for the briefing....
the hiking is the next day...
lucky the guy was a clown...
we were all tired from the trip...
and he made it easy for us to understand n not fall asleep....

N THAT WAS DAY ONE....

DAY TWO
got up at 5....
took a pain-stakingly freezing cold bath...
(the water was from the river)
went for suboh n had breakfast...

oh!
before that...
here's the 411 of the hiking route...
there are 8 Checkpoints....
the first checkpoint is a 600 steps stairs...
and thats like 2 or 3 times more than batu caves
the second checkpoint is called Lagenda Trail...
3rd checkpoint is called Batu Orkid....
4th is, if i'm not mistaken, is called Bukit Semput









i dont remember wat was the 5th checkpoint is called...
but thats where we re-stock our water supply...








checkpoint 2 until 5 are basically a trail that is beautiful to your eyes...
but painful to your muscles...
we went up down, right left...
and according to the guide...
checkpoint 1 until 5 are only for warm-up....

the 6th checkpoint is called Gua Kambing...
no idea why they call it that...








the 7th is called KFC...(Kill For Climbers)....or was it Batu Hampar...
don't really remember which...
its a 60 Degrees rock...
with only ropes to cling on...
and we have pull ourselves up...
and it is 110 metres high....









the final checkpoint is the top...
we're just going more uphill after checkpoint 7...
the view from up there was SPECTACULAR....
so AMAZING the power of Allah....
i could cry...
but i was so tired i forgot
:P










ok...
so back to the morning....
the plan was for us to start heading to checkpoint 1 at 7 o'clock tops...
stop at checkpoint 5 to hv our lunch...
and arrive on top somewhere between 1 to 3 o'clock...
and 3 o'clock we must start heading down....
any later we gonna arrive at night...

BUT.....
we headed out around 9...
DID NOT... i repeat... DID NOT bring our lunch...
arrived at the top at 2,3 and some 4 oclock...
started to head down at 430...
and reached the bottom at 9 ,10, 12, 1 oclock and 5 of us, 1130 next morning...
it was raining heavily when we started to head down....
so the journey was wet and slippery...
and soon dark....
only some of us brought torchlights...
the guide showed us a shortcut to jump our way straight to checkpoint 3...
everyone was starving...
luckily some of the guides brought food for us at checkpoint 2...

all in all...
it was a great experience....
but the story doesnt end there...
theres more....
but to protect some fellow students....
i'm not gonna put it in my blog....
the trip back home was also very amusing....
ripped my pants to reach the top...
lucky i brought an extra...
:P
REALLY glad i went....
but dont ask me when is the next time i'm gonna go hiking....
not any time soon i hope....
i had to push myself all the way up and down....
never really expects myself to reach the top...
guess i didnt know my own capability...
Thanks to YOU~!
you know who u are...
:P

This Dusty Blog

its 11 at nite....
on the 10th of March 2009...
a historical moment....
where after 2 years....
dis blog is again....
being used...
:P

in the mood for posting a new blog...
got back from Gunung Ledang, Johor...
a very adventurous experience...
got tonnes of thgs tu put in here....
busy busy busy~

so~
Brace Yourselves....