PLUS - Take Me To Where My Heart Is ...

We had been travelling up and down the PLUS highway since it was ready to be used back in the 90's. I remembered waiting for the highway to be ready as it cut off our journey from Alor Setar to Melaka by half. It used to be 10 - 12 hours journey and heavy traffic full of lorries. For years I travelled but I never thought of taking any photos of the captivating view of the Titiwangsa Range or lush foliage of our own tropical greenery, oil palm estates, mountains, clouds ....

Thus, last holidays, I was travelling with Ikram back to Alor Setar. Since he was doing driver's duty, I took photos. Well, Noor and my sons knew that I loved to take pictures of anything and everything. At times, they jokingly asked if they could eat their food as I would always take photos first .... well, if it was interesting ... :-]))  well, here are a few photos along the Sg. Perak - Taiping stretch ... it was raining and very cloudy .... but as an old friend said - there is always a rainbow after the rain - unfortunately I seldom see rainbows along the highway .... rain or shine ... ;-]}}

You can see the foreboding clouds merging ....

Heading towards the tunnel ... I have always been amazed and full of wonder for human technology ... as it is right in the belly of the mountains ... 

In the heart of the tunnel ....

The road slopes down immediately after the tunnel ..

The long journey back to Alor Setar which I now call "home" .... 

Muffins .... ;-0))

I needed to bring something for pot luck on Teacher's Day celebration in school. I was into baking muffins of late. Just wanted to try something new. I tried the cheese muffins and it was nice. I had willing guinea pigs aka food testers in school. A colleague, Tan, said he would eat anything if I brought it. He would guarantee its taste  .... hmmm ... such faith. I also tried the banana walnut muffins which both Noor and Ikram loved. The walnut brought out the banana in the muffins.

I tried these muffins when Ikram was home last month. All I needed was a block of cheddar cheese, plain yoghurt, fresh milk,  one egg, a spoonful of sugar, a pinch of salt, flour, baking powder and half cup melted butter. Mix everything and scooped it into its muffin tray and baked it for 20 minutes. Easy, simple but yummy and cheesy.

The ingredients

The muffins mixture with grated cheese topping

The freshly baked cheese muffins - simple, yummy and filling ... ;-))

Here's what the banana walnut muffins look like .... much heavier in taste and very filling. Crunchy and yummy.

Banana Walnut Muffins

One bite becomes two ... ;-)) thus one muffin becomes two...three..

So, this is a new experiment with muffins. I am tired of baking cakes although I definitely want to try the red velvet cake again. Hopefully it will become red in colour as intended. Maybe for Father's Day ... insyaAllah ... ;-))

Final Teachers' Day ????

For all I know, this could be my last and final celebration of Teachers' Day, insyaAllah. God willing. As was the trend of celebrating this auspicious day to celebrate and appreciate teachers .... it was a muted, low-keyed celebration due to exams in progress but put on hold for one day, the STPM second semester exam would be on the next day and I had another ULKCP meeting at 1:00pm on that day ;-{{.  I had just returned from Penang last week for a two-day meeting on ULKCP too. The week before I was out to check the ULBS files. I may be on the way to retiring but my work and commitment with the LPM and JPN Testing and Evaluation Sector were still on.

There was the usual assembly, speeches and shows. There was no special lunch or any class party. There was just a pot luck party organised by the Staff to appreciate ourselves. .... oh well .... I did not think I would miss out on anything when I left ...

Anyway, there was the usual presents and gifts of appreciation from the students. The one that really stood out this year was this hand-made card from one of the boys .... he painstakingly and lovingly drew each card for every one of his subject teachers, cut a photo from an old school magazine and copied the poem as dedication to his teachers. My son was impressed and saluted this young man's dedicated effort. I appreciated it so much that I put it up at my table notice board ... look at the lovely card attached ... ;-0))

He hand-drawn all the design and added the "pantun" - so classic and thoughtful

He cut out an old photograph from an old school magazine as a personal dedication 

The words were beautiful ....

Thank you, Azrul, for making my day. Where others just bought something, you were an original with so full of love and care .... was it worth being a teacher? Definitely even if the rewards did not justify with everything that a teacher had given with all his/her heart and soul ...

Happy Teachers' Day to all who had touched my life and made me what I am today - Mak, Bapak, brothers, sisters, friends, colleagues, all the people that I had met all my life and especially to the thousands of students that I had taught .... thank you because all of them had taught me too, in their own insignificant way. Alhamdulillah ...

Everyday Is A Bonus

I read this article by Soo Ewe Jin, a regular Sunday Star columnist. Everyday is a day to be grateful for. Every meeting with friends or family might be the last one. Especially for me as I live up north while the others are centralised in Melaka or KL.

Hamdan, an ex-colleague, went out with his family of 4 teenage kids and wife, for an outing to town. Just for window shopping or eating out as a family unit. Six went out but only five returned home. It was a tragic loss. While Hamdan, his wife and youngest daughter were at the fourth floor of the shopping complex browsing books at the book store, the other three siblings asked for permission to check out the sixth floor where there was a Youth Centre. The other two siblings could not comprehend what actually happened. Hadi, the second son (19 years old), suddenly dashed out and ran after something that the other two could not see. They ran after the brother but he had jumped over the waist-high wall and fell into a heap onto the second floor. They took him to the hospital where he was in a coma for one night and died without gaining consciousness. I taught him when he was in Form Three. He was studying at UniMap, Perlis. It was accidental and sudden death. There was just no explanation why he did it. Imagine the other two siblings who had to live with the fact that they witnessed his jumping for apparently no reason but could not stop him. The guilt, the helplessness, the futile calling out to stop him .... I cannot imagine the nightmares. Imagine the parents blaming themselves for letting them go up to the sixth floor. An innocent outing but a tragic outcome....

Rosli, another colleague used to be jovial, funny and always teasing everybody with his dry humour. He went out with his two sons to the mosque for Isya' prayers. He parked the car opposite the mosque. The second son was fourteen years old. Of course he would not want to take his father's hand to cross the road. Anyway, Rosli crossed and assumed his son was behind him. He turned back to check out his son and found him lying on the road, hit by a car. Imagine his feelings, shock and disbelief. When he came back to the school, he changed into a quiet, withdrawn guy. Once, when I had time alone with him, he asked me if he was crazy as he went to "talk" to his son's grave everyday since his burial. I assured him that it was normal because I did that for two years when my father passed away. He smiled and thanked me as I believed that he was not going crazy. He said that among his four children, this son was the most loved and he was also in a tahfiz school instead of the feeder school.

Everyday is not promised. It is to be appreciated. No sense of hating or feeling resentful. Take one day at a time ....

You will never stop grieving. If I watched any drama or movies with a suffering or dying parents, I would cry as if I was back in the years of losing my father. I finally learned to let go of him when I understood what it meant by "he's alive in my heart". He never actually left me ....

We have read so many stories and some were actually about people whom we knew. Thus, my fellow reviewers of this blog .... take everyday as a bonus. Take everyone as if it is the last goodbye .... if we meet again, Alhamdulillah ....

To my friends - Hamdan and Rosli ... take all the time you both need to grief. Appreciate and be grateful. Take one day at a time .... ;-(

We May Never Know If This Is Our Last Goodbye ....

I read this phrase in one of the many articles that I came across during my reading pursuits. Somehow it got stuck in my mind and whenever I read mails from friends or read their postings on their facebook walls, it crossed my mind - what if this is my last goodbye? Especially after hearing that Pak Wan, our old neighbour at our old home in Peringgit had passed away last month. Last Hari Raya outing was our last goodbye to him. I was glad my siblings and I made the effort to make time to visit our old neighbour ....

Last weekend I took leave to go back to Melaka/Kelana Jaya. Not for any particular reason. Yet since I was down in KL, I went to the Treasury Department to settle my house loan so that when I retired I did not owe the government anything. I thought I could meet up with an old friend but he was not available due to prior commitment. Anyway, after the dutiful visits to my siblings and mother in-law, I managed to contact my old classmates from college years.

Ikram and I stopped at Simpang Pulai RTC R&R. I knew Zam and Hasyi lived here. Since I knew they were here via facebook, I always had the intention to drop by for a visit. We were just trying to break the sleepiness from a monotonous highway driving and so, I gave Zam a call on the off-chance they could be home. Being fresh retirees with both children working in KL means that they are always not home. Alhamdulillah, Zam answered in the affirmative. Thus, without any planning, he sent me his address and with the GPS as a guide, we reached their house in Simpang Pulai.

After 31 years .... they were the cutest and sweetest couple in class. Hashiyah or Hasyi as we called her is less than 5 feet tall. Very cute and pretty. She still is. She looks much younger maybe due to her size. Zam is also about 5 feet tall. This made me so gigantic beside them. We caught up and both of them were happy for my decision to opt out next year. Yes, I guess as we grow older, we become more nostalgic of those happy, carefree years. Now, insyaAllah, we can relive them with our partners or children.

Zam told me the last time he met Awi or Moawiyah, another classmate. He was in Ipoh for a course and they decided to meet up. Awi passed away a few months later due to a heart attack. He found out about it via social media. I had not met up with the others since 1985 i.e. our Convocation Day from MPMK. Shamsizar, Laziah, Latifah, Norrizah, Hasnah, Mariam, Rosie Ling, Christine, Norizan, Khairunnisa, Salmiah, Sivakumar, Jegathesan, Kasmani, Lee Tian Aik, Lim Sang Khim, .... maybe we will meet one day ... insyaAllah. Yet, thanks to social media, we always manage to keep tabs of everybody through one of us. Just to know that everybody is alright. My thoughts and prayers go to the class of 3H (81/83), MPMK, JB. Al-fatihah for Awi .... may his soul rest in peace. Aamiin.