IT IS AWFULLY QUIET TODAY IN OFFICE

Today is 23 rd Ramadhan. In a week's time Muslims the world over will celebrate Eid.

As usual with us Malays, Eid is something very special.

We celebrate it with grandeur and lavishness.

Preparation for Eid is usually made early. Families are usually busy purchasing new clothes for their family members. It is uncommon for lady folks to buy 2, 3 or sometimes more pairs of the traditional Baju Kurung.

And they also prepare cookies well ahead of time.

Times like this some have already taken their leaves to make the final preparation.

That is why it is all quiet in the office....

BIRDS EVERY WHERE

The yellow palm trees are busy fruiting. Fruit bunches are sprouting all over despite of my constant plucking.

Peeking from a window from the master bedroom, I see Yellow-vented bulbul parents coaching their fledglings on the techniques of choosing the succulent fruits for lunch.

One fledgling is very good at it, picking and eating, just like its parents. Its fluffy body tells me that it has been eating well.

Coming and go, hopping from one frond to another, sometimes irritating the bulbuls, are the forever active Glossy starlings.

I have noticed that these shiny dark green to black (depending from what angle you are watching) birds have been relocating their nests from trees to my roof.

I frequently find dead nestlings in or near the drain. They and the bats are sharing our roof as their roosting place.

These bats give me the creep. I have place lights in my roof, but they are still there.

O RAMADHAN

Ramadhan is the month where ALLAH promise forgiveness, blessings and many other good things for us.

The greatest gift of them all is the Lailatulkadar - that special night. The night which is said to be among the last 10 days of Ramadhan.

The night that will bring many blessings to those who follow what have been ordered.

The night that will make us live longer even though physically we die at 70.

But, sadly the majority of us are too busy preparing for Aidilfitri during this period.

Mosques are relatively emptier compared to the early part of Ramadhan or the Nisfu Syaaban.

What a waste!

BACK FROM A TWO-WEEK TOUR OF DUTY IN UZBEKISTAN & DUBAI

Diyana was back from a two-week tour of duty in Uzbekistan and Dubai.


She came back with a few grams of Saffron (bought both in Tashkent and Dubai and much to the surprise of her friends that she was really serious looking for it), a few bayas (is it spelled that way? - jubah), Uzbek's sweets and other what nots.


Soon she was busy telling stories of her visit..things like they have different breaking fast time between floors on the world's tallest building in Dubai and about a special shop where every other Malaysian visitor frequented, even HRH The Agong.


Welcome back Diyana..at least for now..for I know soon you will be going places again..that is what you have been dreaming of...

GONE WITH THE WIND MY 55% NCD

Without any reason a motorcycle suddenly ran against the back of my car.

All I heard was a knock on the rear bumper of my car as I neared Impiana Resort Cherating.

I saw a motorcyclist and his girl friend tumbling down hard on the road in the left side mirror.

"Here it goes again." I said to myself.

I gradually brought my car to a stop a few metres away, avoiding the water melons.

I got out of the car to have a look at the damage.

The left rear light was shattered to pieces. There were also scratch marks on the bumper cover.

A group of motorcyclist quickly formed at the site of the accident. A storm was brewing.

I quickly summoned Syazwan to help equalize the tension.

A boy motorcyclist approached me and asked:"How to settle the this thing?" What he meant was how much I should pay for the accident.

"Who knocked who here? He ran against my car..he should pay!"

But, here in Malaysia, we car drivers cannot claim damages from motorcyclist!

I have to pay the damage from my own car insurance and my 55% NCD!


And I have to pay the full premium come this December!

A CAR IN FRONT OF ME CAUGHT FIRE

This morning as I was entering the City of Kuala Terengganu, a driver of the car in front of me suddenly put on her alarm lights and drove left onto the road reserve.

Smoke came out of the engine of her car.

I saw flame in her engine. Bits and pieces of burning debris fell down onto the ground beneath her car.

Her car was on fire!

RAMADHAN IS HERE AGAIN

Time really flies. Without we realizing it, it is already the first Ramadhan today.

All Muslims the world over, irrespective of their ethnicity and financial and social standings, start fasting on the first Ramadhan.

Ramadhan fasting consists of much more than merely going off food and water.

We are required to distant ourselves from all that corrode our fast. There are too many things that will do just that for me to detail it out here.

Our Prophet said that many of us who fast just get hungry and thirst only.

Why did He said that? 

Because that is what most of us did during Ramadhan...abstaining from food and water, but the eyes see, the ears hear and the mouth says all those that we are not supposed to see, hear and say.

Ramadhan fasting has a few levels, from that of the man-on-the-street fasting to that of the Prophets' fasting.

We are required to improve our level of fasting year by year and not just remaining status quo...

One personal observation that warrants our attention is our too great a love for food during iftar. 

I think we spend too much time and money on all those food and drink items.

At iftar, we quickly gobbled in as much food and liquid as we could.

We waste too much food too.

And we also think too much of the Idilfitri.

Happy fasting and may our fast will be accepted by Allah and it will be a better one this year.