Acik is 14 years Old Today

12.12.1995. It was the day Adib a.k.a. Acik was born. That was 14 years ago. And today he is officially 14 years old growing up as a handsome teenager. As a December born child, he is the last one to celebrate his birthday. Boys his age already celebrated their birthdays early of the year but Acik celebrates his almost a year after them.


Well from a usually small and short boy, he is now growing up - slowly but surely. In no time he will be as tall as I am.


And tonight Cik Hindon & Teh invited us to her house for dinner. It was in conjunction of Juke, Zetty and Zara coming back from London for holidays. And since most of us will be there, I might as well celebrate Acik's birthday as well. Kill 2 birds with one stone as they said.

His 14th Birthday cake!


My growing up handsome teenager.

Family Day at Port Dickson 2009

It has been more than a year since we had our last Family Gathering. Hence it is about time for us to have one. Pak Uda from Labuan mooted this idea of having a "time out" for the family to take a break.

Zalma than started to look for the place and Port Dickson came into mind. So it was a Banglo house that we had rented during the last gathering somewhere at Tanjung Tuan area. It was an old banglo house but big enough to fit about 30 of us altogether.

The Banner that welcomes all of us to this year's
Family Gathering in Port Dickson - with compliment
from Uncle Nazmi.

Everyone starts arriving after 2 p.m. Me and Nenek arrived slightly before 4 p.m. Acik & Mimi came along but Angah didn;t because he is in middle of his SPM. Along also is preparing for his University's final exam. Well that doesn't bother me to have good times.

Once everyone was around and had their lunch cum tea, we started to have Games. What else, right? No games no fun. And usual, I was the one who everyone expected to organized it. And that's no prob for me. It's a jiffy.

I divided them into teams and obviously all the Uncles will be the Team Leaders. They were divided into 4 teams, namely Team Pak Long, Team Pak Uda, Team Pak Dak and Team Papi. All were divided equally and have to be mixed into each other family.


Everyone is eager to find out what the games are?



Everyone listen attentively for the games instructions
ans who will be their team members.

And the first game is the "Teka Teki Lawak Jenaka". It's a game that each team has to answer all the Teka Teki or Quizzes.

Example :

Question : Gajah lalu titi patah, lepas tu kambing pula lalu. Apa yang patah pulak? Answer : Patah Balik. Question : Bila loceng bas ditekan, bas akan berhenti. Apa yang akan turun dahulu? Answer : Speedometer lah...

Now let see them answering it.


Team Pak Long.. thinking about the answers.


Team Papi.. trying to find the answers...


Team Pak Dak.. entah apa lah jawapan nya???


Team Pak Uda.. the winner for the first game.

The second game was the "Guess the pictures". I got the idea when I watch Ewah-Ewah in TV3. Since its a fun game, why not we do it, right?


Naza trying his luck to figure out what to draw from the list given.


Team Pak Uda trying to figure out what is drawn by Naza.


Team Pak Dak: What the heck is Uncle Nazmi's drawings?


Hidayat trying to show his skill in drawing.
Not bad all 10 were answered correctly.


Team Pak Long trying to figure out what Fazli is drawing.

Slightly before 7p.m. we stopped the Game for Maghrib prayers, Baca Yasin and Tahlil as well. What a better way than doing some prayers when we got to be together as a family.

After Marghrib, we started to do some barbecue.


Pak Uda preparing to grill the ikan keli.


The food and food and food which would filled up the table
or has it been cleared by the glutton.


Fazli, Acai & Opie helping out to grill the beef and prawns.




Pretty maids in a row.. or should I say Mak-mak Dara in a row

After having some foods, it time to have more games.
First it was building structure using balloon and masking tape.


Bukan senang woi nak buat...




You must have strategy to do it right!


And it must stand on its own and not supported
by anything or anyone????



I did some postmortem on each game. Actually I did all those games before and I knew the strategy and the morale behind it. Basically it's about teamwork, strategy, patience, and a bit of thinking. And I relate them to our real life. And how could we apply them.

After that we had the "Treasure Hunt". It's very interesting and it needs you to think about what is the things you should get.

As example :

Asam di darat, ikan di laut

Ditempat ini berjumpa lah ia

Masakan sedap hati terpaut

Dari tanah, keluli, aluminium pun ada

and jawapan nya ada lah ... periok!!!

Another one :

Yang panjang ada, yang pendek pun ada

Untuk merapi mahkota kepala

Kadang kala kutu menjadi mangsa

Tapi Mawi tak gunakan nya

and jawapan nya ada lah ... sikat!!!

Well it took me quite some times to do the questions in pantun style which sometimes rhyme and sometimes it doesn't. But who cares, right?

And all the teams have to start thinking .. of course..


Ha jangan gaduh-gaduh. Carik jer bende-bende tu cepat...





And all the answers have to be brought out to the front. Amazingly all teams answered almost perfectly correct.


And these are the things that have been collected as the answers.

Then we have the "Building structure using only straws without taps or strings". Quite interesting though.


Team Pak Long trying to build the tallest structure.


So is Team Pak Dak...


And Team Papi...

And the winner of the tallest structure that can stands by itself is....


Team Pak Long.. 1st place


Team Pak Uda.. 2nd place


3rd place goes to Team Papi

After the 5th Games, the scoring is as below:


The next day was a rest and relax day. After Subuh prayers the kids continued to sleep while me and my Mak relax sikit.


Reading newspaper after breakfast.


Pak Uda trying to bowl using buah kelapa.


Throwing loops.. not as easy as you think


Adik with the loops.. trying his luck


Playing the "real basket" ball using baskets.



After Asar most of us have to make our way home. I have to take Mak back home cos I got to take her to Hospital for her blood test tomorrow morning. So I got to leave early.

Well it was worth to have another Family Day this weekend. This weekend is well spent with people that I love and I cared for. Thanks to everyone who came and support our family togetherness. It's not everyday that we can get together as a family. We have mission to be together whenever we can. At least to tighten our family ties. Everyone is getting older by the day. Hence we need to enjoy the time left with us and with everyone we love.

Cheers!!!!

Al Fatihah to Kak Imah

I haven't been writing for quite sometime now. Work have been quite hectic nowadays. Not much time for myself.

Anyway, just to update you guys that recently one of my sister-in-law passed away peacefully recently. Fondly called "Makmi" or otherwise, Kak Imah, she passed away about 2.00 am on last Wednesday at Kota Damansara. Again it was cancer that took her life. That makes her the third person who is closed to me and who succumbed to Breast cancer.

She was first diagnosed of Breast Cancer about four years ago. Since then she had done mastectomy i.e. operated her breast to take out the affected area. She also had gone thru' several courses of chemotherapy and had been bald as well. I have seen all that and how she suffered like what my late wife had gone through.

About 3 weeks ago, she was told by a specialist that her cancer had gone to he liver. I was alarmed. So was all my sisters in law who knew that it will be difficult for her to survive. What we didn't know is that it would be that fast. Or should I say, very fast. In just 3 weeks after she had known that it spread to the liver, the had to meet the Almighty. She had done the CT Scan just to double confirmed the doctors diagnosis.

What is she to me? Well as I said, she is my sister in law. But we were close to each other. Although she lived in Kluang, I do contact her once awhile. Either just to ask her well being, wishing her birthday or just asking her what is she up to now. I know that she would never sit still doing nothing. There must be something up her sleeve.


Kak Imah at Nutmeg Bistro, Kota Damansara
on my birthday celebration last year.


At a wedding in Kepong.

To me Kak Imah has her own specialty. She is independent and doesn't like to work for people but for herself. I knew her when I was first married to this side of the family way back in 1989, Back then she sells stuff at Pasar Malam in Johor Bahru. For many years she did that. She knew where to get all the stuff at wholesale prices. We took advantage of that since we too want cheaper prices of stuff she buys.

Besides that, she is a good at handicraft. She sew cushion covers, curtains, bed spread and what ever you can name it - she can sew it. On top of that, she knows where to get all the cheapest price but the best quality materials. I always amazed at her creations of curtains, cushion covers, etc. Mind you that during my wedding, she sew everything : quilted bed spread, curtains, cushion covers, drape for our dais and many more stuffs.

Every time I complimented her on seeing new things she did, without failed she would always answer : "alah murah jer kain tu" or " alah kain-kain perca jer I jahit", etc. She is so humble. But the result of her craft is first class.

There wouldn't be Kak Imah around anymore. But the memories will still be with us. I would still remember her as someone who is jovial, someone who is independent, someone who cares for other people more than herself, someone who would help if its not a problem to her and many more things which is describable.

Only Allah would knows who good she is to us. May you now rest in peace. And we pray that Allah placed you amongst the ambiya. We will miss you Kak Imah.

SELAMAT HARI RAYA

I like to wish all of you a Selamat Hari Raya.Maaf Zahir & Batin.

Salam Ramadan

Ramadan is here again. This is the second year my kids will be going through this Ramadan without their beloved Mak. Today, during our first breaking fast together, one of our dining chair is empty. Only the 5 of us are there. This is a second year where the seat is empty. Insya'allah we can go through this year again.

Yesterday, for our first Terawih prayer, all of us went to the Surau Taman Selasih. The boys went on their own. Only Mimi went with me. She had wanted to go for the Terawih prayer for 2 reasons. One is to pray and the other reason is because some of her friends are there. Whatever it is, I guess she that's ok with me. And today, Ika (her cousin) went with us. Mimi told me that she was more excited this year because she can go to the Terawih now. Not that I didn't asked her to go with me last year. It just that she felt differently this year. Maybe she is bit more mature now. Whatever it is, I'm glad she want to go anyway.

And for those who have send me messages wishing Salam Ramadan, I thank you very much. My wish is that all of our good deeds will be accepted and be blessed by Allah S.W.T. This is also a month that we can changed for betterment. Ramadan is a month that we can do much more and much better that what we have done last year. Even a small change is better than none.

So to all, Salam Ramadan and Maaf Zahir Batin.

Victory - Bond

Just came out from an Exciting Weekend Leadership Seminar. The speaker was Mats Holmberg, a dynamic, funny but very influential Diamond from Sweden.

One of the statement he mentioned is that we need to have our Diamond song that signifies our Freedom. And this song came into my mind. I knew the name is "Victory" but I didn't know which music group / orchestra it belongs too. I asked Ida was was seated next to me. She knew the song as well but couldn't recall band's same. Somehow she sms her daughter and in a few minutes she told me that it was a group called "Bond".

So when I got back home (while still excited about the motivational seminar), I google the name and here I got it. Wasn't the music awesome. I have searching it for sometimes now and here I got it.

So why not we appreciate this Freedom music of mine. And thanks to Ida for helping me out.

Lena Imani 1st birthday

The Birthday girl : Lena Imani Huisman.

Age : 1 year old.

Daddy : Dennis Huisman

Ibu : Rizaitul Emma Razali



Ibu & Daddy:



The Doa Selamat.


The Birthday cake :



The giggle :






The Opi (Granddad) and Omi (Grandma) :


The make-up on my face with the icing:


The Food :


More Food :


Dessert:


The roast lamb:


And more food:


The children games: