HUDA'S BIRTHDAY AND... KURSUS KAHWIN??

Huda's 24th birthday was exactly the same day that I had.. Wait for it.. A whole day of meeting at the Shang-ri La hotel.. (Yeays half-heartedly).. Thankfully, the meeting ended earlier than the planned 7pm (Yeays!!) so it was kinda fated that Huda would find me walking slowly home because my heels were definitely killing me. We got back together and to our surprise Nenek was there!!

Abah suggested we go celebrate somewhere near and after some begging from Huda, Ayang also agreed to join in on the fun. She came right as we were leaving for.. Wait for it.. BORA OMBAK!! It's been a while since we dined there, the ambience is totally purrty and we get to sit in this hut, cross-legged in semi darkness. Dini also joined but sadly Zaim had to leave for college earlier that day so he was MIA. Miss you, Adik!

There were lots of waiting around, which lead to many pictures being taken to pass the time. I think mine was the.. Wait for it.. Last one to reach the table.. Heheh.. I ordered Australian Striploin (not a good choice) and Cofee Toffee Delight (which lived up to its name). After we've gobbled up all the deeeeliciuos food, it was time to give Huda her birthday card. Look at us trying to pose out her reading it.. Hee..

And just because, both me and Huda attended our ... Wait for it.. Kursus Kahwin that weekend. The topics discussed were quite general but because we sat right at the front and center, it was kinda hard not to focus on what the ustaz was imparting. And I got a first-hand view of what Huda becomes in class. A total geek. LOL.. She kept writing down stuff and referring to the book provided while I would just calmly sit back and listen. The ladies outnumber the men, but not by a big margin since most of the participants came in couples. The course was organized by Huda's workplace and so I got to see her office and even met some of her co-workers. Yeay me!!

So, Huda has survived another year. Next year she'll be half-of-a-decade or quarter-of-a-century. May she continue to spread love and happiness with that effervescent personality she has. Although I really do hope she cuts down on the aegyo, it gets annoying after a while.. Stay healthy and may Allah bless you forever and always.

AIDILADHA 1431H

Lately my body has been kinda pre-programmed to wake up around 5.30-ish. So it was no surprise that I was bright eyed by 6 and in front of the computer. After Subuh I went down to the kitchen because my stomach was grumbling like nobody's business. I made toast (with chocolate spread and crunchy peanut butter, just like in Kelana!!) and had a few drinks. Took out Abah's birthday cake, had some of that and I was all set. Abah woke everybody up and all of us got ready. He had already told us that the solah would start at 8.30am but being the lazy bums we are, Huda, Husna and me only got out of the house and headed to the masjid at 8.25am. The entrance to the ladies' section was blocked off with the latecomers, so we thought that we could sneak in through the wudu' area. Turned out it was locked and we had to make do with an area just outside the sekolah agama.

There were no Raya fare when we got back, so we all helped Mama with preparing our breakfast as we were positively starving..!! Mama wanted to make hailam and since some preferred mee while others wanted meehoon, she ended up preparing both. Then, we all sat around our litle table and quickly finished off all of the yummylicious noodles. The boys took off first while the girls stayed on to chat, and there was one horrifying episode whereby in the end I ended up laughing till I cried.. Uhuu~

Anak bujang masuk dapur jugak akhirnya.. Mee and Meehoon Hailam Raya Haji..

Anyway, after we filled our tummies, what else do we have to do but sleep.. Haha.. Bet you didn't expect that, but we actually did sleep and only managed to trudge to Nenek's after Zohor. Only Nenek, Belle, Ya and Mak Long were home. Mak Long outdid herself.. There were lotsa good food waiting for us; Laksa, Rendang, Ketupat, Kuah kacang and even Yong Taufu..!! And the butter cakes were damn delicious. The picture below is actually my second Yong Taufu serving.. Eheh.. And then we watched a murder-thriller on TV (The Stepfather) which coincidentally has just been 'khatam'ed by Huda and Abah the night before.

The plaque in front of nenek's read "ERMYZA" originally, the initials of all the family (Enol, Ros, Mimi, Yem, Zainudin and Ana)

Then, we brought Nenek to Atuk's kubur for a visit. Just wanted to mention that Atuk's grave is near a rubber tree which I found somewhat soothing.. Heheh.. Totally random, I know.. So we went back home and got ready for tomorrow. The boys were going back to campus, Husna still had her finals and Huda and me... Well we've got work..! Uhuh.. Maybe that's why this year's Raya Haji didn't feel like an occasion since we only had a one-day break.. Still, it was nice spending it with family, eating good stuff and visiting dear relatives..

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABAH..!!

"Mama & anak-anak yg dikasihi, sempena dgn hari jadi yg ke 53 ini babah bersyukur dgn rezeki, kesihatan dan kebahagian yg ada. Tetapi sebagai insan biasa babah sudah tentu banyak kelemahan dan kekurangan sebagai suami dan ayah. Oleh itu babah mohon ampun. Doakanlah utk kebahagian, keselamatn, kesejahteraan, kesihatan dan keimanan utk kita sekeluarga. Aaaaamiiiin. TQ

ibn"
Above is the message given by Abah at 10.27am on the 13th of November, which also marks my parents' 28th wedding anniversary and also a year since Abah took his pencen. And what did the birthday boy do on his special day? Drawing up plans for our Nilai home.. Huhu..

Anyway, this year Mama left the celebration up to us. I suggested we have a yaasin recitation and tahlil and then we figure out something to eat. Me and Huda had already bought the food (Johnys) and cake (Baker's) before Maghrib. After the tahlil, it's Isya' (jama'ah, of course) and then it's eating time!

Since the menu is steamboat, obviously we could only start to prepare the food after the solat. As the girls scramble in the kitchen, Zaim went out to get some thing to eat for Nenek. It took some time, but we managed to get everything (steamboat, drinks, tomyam, naan, tandoori chicken) ready.

Then, we brought out the cake, all candles lit up and sang "Happy Birthday" and also "Allah Selamatkan Kamu" (for Nenek's benefit) to Abah. He blew out the candles and we all continue eating happily. When Abah finished eating, I gave him his birthday card and also their anniversary card. He must've felt quite touched because he ended up lying on the sofa with the cards on his chest.. Auuww..

So, Happy Birhday to my dearest Abah.. You are without a doubt the best father a daughter can ever ask for and we will always love and support you.. Thank you for the joys you shared and may you fulfil all your dreams even tho you pencen already.. Muacks..!!

(no pictures of me with the birthday boy, as I was not quite..ummm...decent..)

HAPPY 45TH SHAHRUKH!!

Happy 45th Shahrukh!! May you stay healthy and continue to be the entertainer that you are born to be.

I used to LOVE Shahrukh. And I really mean LOVE love. Like I would spend hours just reading up his Yahoo! thread. It was torture everytime I couldn't get access to the Internet when I started Matrics. Those times, I would play his "songs" (coz he doesn't really sing) and just look through his pictures saved on my computer. Hee... My absolute favourite film was Kal Ho Naa Ho. It's just a perfect blend of emotions and was so aesthetically refreshing... Shahrukh was absolutely glorious in it. I thank god that KJo didn't show Aman's death scene as it somehow made him ethereal-like, as opposed to Dev's death scene which sometimes brings a shudder through my entire body.

The obsession started simply enough with Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and I slowly started to seek other stories. I would buy all of his movies and watch them, either alone or together with my family. I knew I was hooked when my heart literally ached for this dissheveled guy going after his girl in Dilwale. That still is one of my favorite scene ever! (BTW, Shahrukh and Kajol is pure LOVE on screen, I love them!!)

Phir Bhi Dil Hai is the first Shahrukh movie that I saw at the cinema. I even brought Zaid and Husna along.. While I was stepping into the cinema, only one thought crossed my mind.. Would they have subtitles? Haha.. Ever since I try to at least watch his movies once in the cinemas, but have failed to do so lately due to my obsession with boys in other parts of the world (cough*TVXQ*cough*Arashi*). If I remember correctly, I watched Devdas an impressive NINE times at the cinema and Kabhie Khushi Kabhi Ghum, and KHNH comes at a close SEVEN. Don't ask me why, it just happened like that.. I used to be able to just fawn and spazz over Shahrukh until I could fill an entire FOUR pages just gushing about him. Aah, those were the days.. I couldn't find that paper, but if I do, I'll make sure to re-type it here for posterity. Hee...

What actually drew me to Bollywood was their song and dance. It's so full of life and (used to be) fun. It's gotten a bit vulgar now, which is kinda why I don't really watch Hindi movies (except for Shahrukh's, of course!) ... Back to the dancing, I used to memorize the steps and danced along whenever I got the chance. It was good workout. I've forgotten a lot but still remember some like Dola Re Dola from Devdas, Banke Tera Jogi from Phir Bhi, Bole Chudiyan from Kabhi Khushie Kabhi Gham and Dil Se from Dil Se. The songs were also one of the factors that drew me in. I loved the fact that they use songs to convey emotions and I'm such a sucka for good songs in a movie. Hindi singers also have a way of singing that totally pulls at your heartstrings. They have this sort of lilting that just brings more emotion to the songs. I particularly love Shreya Goshal and Sonu Nigam. Their voices just rock!

I still read up on Shahrukh. Just not as obsessively as before. His newer movies were OK. I cried when watching Billu, friendship themes just get to me somehow... Rab Ne was OK.. Surinder Sahni or Raj is just too cute! I love the picturisation of Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte.. The five heroines were amazing! My Name is Khan is phenomenal.. I've gotten all of my family and most of my colleagues to watch it.. As cheesy as the movie was (as pointed out in my previous post) the message it carried is worth to be shared by everyone. His upcoming movie is one that he's been thinking of doing for a while, which is a superhero movie.. Can't wait for Ra1.. Go Shahrukh!!

OK, so yeah.. Janamdin Mubarak Shahrukh Saab.. Stay happy with your family, friends and other loved ones.. May you have all the success and happiness you deserve.. Keep being the cheeky, rapid-mouthed entertainer that you are.. God bless you..

P/s-Is is OK for me not to use Dato' even once? Hee..

JYJ "THE BEGINNING" SHOWCASE IN MALAYSIA

17th October 2010.. Definitely a day to remember.. So, this is a sort of attempt to recapture everything to make sure even the littlest detail can be forever preserved, at least in cyberspace.
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I woke up quite early, got ready and had some toast while waiting for Huda. She's sending me off to Ayang's, and although we promised to be there at 8-ish, we only ended up in Kota Damansara at 9.15pm. After Huda wished us all luck, the three of us (Ayang, Aza and me; SEOULmate GO!!!) got into Ayang's car and the most amazing day-long thousand ringgit worth journey officially began.

Our VIP tix.. Hee...

I read on the redstar staffblog that JYJ's flight was landing at KLIA at 10.50am. So we headed there first, stopping only for gas refill and some light snacks for Ayang and Aza. We got to KLIA at about 10.30 and when we went down and saw the Marctensia SECURITY on Level 3, we promptly joined the crowd that was already there. I have to say, the crowd was not as large as I expected. I'm not saying it's a bad thing though, just wanted to point that out. Maybe it's because everyone was already waiting for them at Stadium Negara?? Hmm...

We saw a Japanese fan who came with her husband and two children. Kawaii.. They got quite restless though and the husband and the boy went off after a while.. We got ready when the security boys started to make their move. At first the three of us held hands, wanting to calm down and just taking in the fact that we were gonna see JYJ but after a few false alarms, we just couldn't keep that up. The fans up front kept cheering for the anything and everything by then, but the decibel instantly went to a whole different level when the boys appeared. The first one of the crowd was Jae. He just towers over everybody and with that copper hair, he's definitely not hard to miss. Lemme say, the guy is goddamn GORGEOUS. He walked up front of Su and Chun and I had to look quite hard for the two of them amidst the converging fans. Chun is all wrapped up and kept his head down and Su just walked calmly by his side, looking as macho as he tries to be.. LOL.. The security was definitely rough, I heard some even cursed. While the fans struggled for that precious glimpse of JYJ, the security pushed back giving some space for the boys. It got quite serious because me and Aza ended up screaming "Stop pushing! Stop shoving!" Oh, what good fans we are. We ran out the building, taxi honking for the sudden outbreak of fangirls. They got in their VIP white Alphard and we waved them goodbye.

Then, it's a sprint to the car to get to Stadium Negara. We squealed with our first peek at them and got all hyped up for the showcase. We took a wrong turn and had to make a faraway u-turn before reaching the venue at about 12.15pm. I made a beeline for the official merchandise, in this case they were selling the album and we got free posters. The VIP entrance was smack in front of the hall, and if you're standing way in front of the crowd you can practically see everything. So as luck would have it, we did manage to hear and see some of the sound check and rehearsal, which was why we didn't really mind the wait.

They finally let us in at 2.45pm even though the event was supposed to start at 2. I headed straight to the toilet and had a change of clothes. I LOVE our seats because it wasn't too far from the stage (thank you Aza!).

Red Ocean...

And the show started when the boys emerged from the stage... And everybody went crazy.. Jae was wearing sleeveless and you get to see firsthand the fabled heavily muscled arms. First, they sang Empty, which might be my favourite song now. I'd started screaming by then, but it was kinda weird since the ones in front of me were quite quiet. Then, it's Be My Girl.. Su's hipthrust is just pure DELIGHT. There was a BTS clip of the boys working on "The Beginning" with some comments from their producers and album collaborators. The intro of the video was uber cute, with the three of them smiling, while writing things on the transparent walls. When it ended, the boys went up again, this time for Chajatta. There was a project on this, where fans chanted throughout the song. It's safe to say Chajatta was definitely everyone's favourite and I loved Yoochun's expressions. I think he really appreciated us loving the song. And just seeing straight-laced Lee Seon Jun onstage singing was something. Made me wish Yeorim and Georo would join our dear Garang. Haha.. The next song was Ayyy Girl and I agreed when someone said that the live version is better . They sang their final song, Empty (Remix). Chun screamed "Everybody get up!!" so we did.. And after the first two verse of the song, he motioned the fans to come closer which is when everbody came stampeding over to the stage. I don't know why, but I was a bit slow then so I just decided to stand on the chairs. Aza joined me soon after and we were jumping up and down on the chairs screaming our head off while waving our balloons. When we were just starting to get fully pumped up, the song ended and the boys were gone. Definite BUMMER!

Okay, now on to the interview session. I don't want to point fingers but she could definitely ask more than "What are your solo projects right now". I mean, practically everyone in the stadium, except for her and the translator knew the answer. She also said something about asking the boys about their favourite Malaysian food. But she didn't!! And translator-sshi was so ineffective. Even when the boys were saying something else, she kept repeating the same translation over and over again. I mean, WTF? But there were some cute moments. Like when Chun didn't hear the MC the first time. Then when the MC asked about when exactly their next album will be, as in what month, Jae kept repeating summer. And Jae was shy once more when the MC asked him whether Malaysian girls are the prettiest. Then he said Beautiful but added in Korean "But the weather is so hot here" which made the MC remark "That's why the girls are hotter".. LOL. Before that the MC asked Su the same question and he said YES. Su was a bit quiet during the talk. What happened to our native speaker? You can tell even the boys were surprised that it was so brief because Chun was like "That's all" when the MC asked for their ending remark. All in all, the showcase was a disappointment. It could have been much better. Even most of the fans couldn't believe that it was already over and didn't want to leave their seats. Not until the MC ame out and asked everyone to leave according to the sections and RELA started to blow their whistles did the fans start to go out. We VIP's stayed in our seats and after most of the seats are cleared, they finally told us that the ones with red tags can go to Level 10, Doubletree by Hilton at 7.00pm for the photo session.

On our way out, we grabbed some burgers and fried wantan just to keep us going and then off to Ampang! We managed to get to the hotel by 5pm with some poor direction from yours truly. We parked at Ampang Park and went straight to the lobby. We sat down at the food store and ordered ice blended while taking turns to go freshen up. The staff promptly asked us upstairs at 6.30pm and we were divided according to our rows. This is where it was practically proven that loud people attracts loud friends because we were the loudest there. Joined by a cute 4th former who draws like an angel. And a very cool Mom with her two daughters. However, we ended up having to wait for almost an hour and a half beacuse the staff only let us out at 8pm. They made us line up and rushed us to a hall, where the boys were standing on a small stage and fans lined up in front for picture taking. Another disappointment as all of us were hoping for an autograph session and most brought gifts fotr the boys. Once again, the fans were left unsatisfied and bewildered outside of the hall. We dejectedly went down and saw the boys' car. Ayang took a picture with the Alphard and we went to our car.

We heard the reason for the hurry was because the boys were running late, and we figured that they were going back today, and not tomorrow night as originally planned. Aza found out from her friend the flight details to Seoul and after a brief stop at my house, we made our way to KLIA. We kinda took our time going up but when we stepped off the elevator, we heard screams and whaddya know, the boys are already here!! We immediately went on a full sprint to the boarding place and got there just in time. Through a stroke of luck, I managed to stand right beside the three of them, although I was shoved hard by the security. But I saw Su and Chun was standing like 2 freaking inches away from me. Jae had a turtle neck way up. After the three of them went down the escalator, we ran to the sighting point and screamed our goodbyes. Me and Aza squealed so hard, it was UNBELIEVABLE!!! That definitely was the best end to a fangirl's day and suddenly, the day turned out not so bad. On our way back to the car, people kept asking us who they were and we had to explain that they are Korean artists. But we didn't really care because we got to see them upclose!! Oh, what joy.. We made another wrong turn on our way back, which is why I only got home at about 11.30pm.

Thank you Ayang and Aza, for their generosity and the amazingly great day spent with them. Till the day I die, this was a day to remember. We were totally being fangirls today, complete with hours of waiting, running, and zipping all over town for the boys. And although we sighed and complained, we ended up meeting the boys four (FOUR!!!) freaking times that day. And in a span of more than 13 hours. Isn't that just unbelievably amazing?

Borrowing a fellow Cassie's word:Wished the poster was like this.. Then we would have gotten all five of them.. AKTF!!