Reflection...

I was in UKM yesterday meeting with PM NAMA at the Dato' Onn College. The discusssion was PhD related, but the overall and lasting impression was about life. Interesting how you came for some perspective for your research but leaving with more food for thought than you initially hoped for. It makes you wonder on certain aspects of your life, your appreciation and fulfillment of your own life and your loved ones. Where have you been…where are you… where are you planning to go next? Know that the choices you make today will either ‘cherish’ or ‘haunt’ you and those around you some day. But…that’s life. PhD is but just another one of those life choices.

Speaking of where have you been… Syawal is coming really fast ‘Malaysian’ style…It means our time in Malaysia will be over soon :-(. It also means that I need to do some last minute shopping not so much for Aidilfitri but for the stuff we need to pack up for Melbourne. I don’t dig the Aidilfitri shopping, since I don’t know when…I hate the jam, the rush, the hunt for parking space, the ‘pencopet’, the ‘ulat taik’ number of people, the crying & wailing (for Godsake, pleaselah leave the children behind!), the Q’ing, the waiting, and the ‘smell’ of people in a jam-packed shopping mall. It makes me dizzy and nauseous! Maybe one main reason is because I was born, raised and educated in KL. I really don’t need to see more of that side of KL. If I need anything, I’ll just passed it to my mom who’s an avid bargain hunter. She goes everywhere, almost anytime! Just don't forget to pass along the bucks. Truth be told, if it’s not due to her diligent search for a bargain, we’d never survive in KL all this while.

Anyway, last count yesterday, I still missed one or two items for the children. One item, I was being reminded by Aliyah of is…Tudung..tudung hari tu…So if I failed to get it, adalah yg 'muncung' this hari raya. I called Feddy the day before asking about the tudung. She said she had no stock, but we can get it at the supplier in Sri Rampai – the Marjan Muslim Fashion House. So after the meeting in UKM, I head straight to Desa Pandan, picked up Feddy and baby Naim and off we went to Setapak. I should have snapped some pictures of the shop. It supplied all the Islamic T’shirt, Jubah, Tudung & related items, some from Indonesia, the Aqso & Madina version, if you know what I mean…;-) They sell their goods mainly through agents, so most people who directly come there or knew about the place are either agents or regular customers. So no hassle, no Q’ing, no pestering or total ignorance by salesgirls. I finally got 2 tudung for Aliyah, one white and another one her favorite colour lah – pink. Got her to demo the white one down here...hmmm jadilah raya tahun ni nampaknya :-)