Tuesday, December 8, 2009

ABANG.....again!

Three days after coming home from Seoul, we went to Penang to fetch Abang. The madrassah gave all students 5 days leave for Eidul Adha. He raced towards us and hugged Mama tightly...(in front of so many onlookers!)
Mama: "SO, you DO miss me!!"
Abang: "But of course!!"
Mama: "But you said you didnt miss us at all!!"

Three weeks before, exactly a week after being apart, we called him at the school......

Mama: "Abang, do you miss me?"
Abang: "No." ( firmly)
Mama: ( taken aback)"How’s everything? The food, the people,bla, bla..bla…" ( in motherly mode)
Abang: "Everything’s good. I like it here very much."
Adik took over…..
Adik: "Abang, I'm sure you think of me all the time, arent you??" ( confidently)
Abang: "I guess…but somehow I’ve forgotten how you look like."
Adik: ABANG!!!
I was highly perplexed… how could my only son who is soooo manja does not miss me at all!!!! And... I must admit that I was a tad sad. Abah was amused…. done with laughing at me, he pointed out that I should be relieved that he is adjusting well. Was I not so worried that he would be home-sick, not eating, not talking…. being morose in general? Yeeeesss, but, but….not missing me at all!! That’s too much…. Well, I am one fickle-minded, vain mother, I guess.
Anyway....

At Home.
Mama: "Do you crave for my cooking? ( still vain) Tell me what you wanna eat, I’ll cook it for you…."
Abang: "There are a lot I want to eat, but we are not suppose to follow our nafs, said our ustaz ."
Mama: "Oh… okay….,buuuut, I am offering you , you didnt ask, and you wont be home again until March next year. You are so thin anyway, you need to fatten up, bla, bla,bla…" ( bad mother..)
Abang: "Okay, I want to eat lasagne, any pasta with bolognese sauce, trifle, that fruit custard pudding, that white kueh......(the list goes on and on....)ogo on and on…)
Alas, he was home only for FIVE days…there wasnt enough time to cook and eat everything….
But I tried to cram in as much as time would permit and make it as healthier as possible by using organic ingredients as far as I could…
Abang is crazy over all things pasta....
IMG_1907
His all time favourite..........lasagne.
.



The trifle that Adik tried to ‘beautify’ by sprinkling chocolate rice on top…....
Abang finished 2/3 of it by himself…......

On the second day of Eid, we had qurbaan at our place where Abah slaughtered two cows shared with Abah and Mama’s siblings, plus Tok Ayah and Tok Su. After dzuhur, Abang had to leave for school again……

Alhamdulillah…thank you Allah for choosing my son to be there in that madrassah. He didnt miss a single day of tahajjud for the whole time he was home. Insisted on dressing according to sunnah and doing khidmat all the time . Being young and innocent, he seems to absorb every word of his ustadz. He may not understand the depth of everything his doing now, everything is because ustadz says so. And Alhamdulillah, the ustadzs are giving good tarbiyyah while being understanding to the needs of the young lads. Abang now is convinced that he’ll look more handsome only in Sunnah attires. He said he didnt miss me because ustadz said, you need to forget everything in order to gain ilm. And everybody in school is good because we are not to talk about bad things of others lest all our good deeds will be wiped out.

I earnestly pray to Allah that He will grant you the taufeeq to grasp the true meanings of all good things you are doing now and be steadfast therein for the rest of your life. Abang, we all love you soooo much and we are glad that you are so happy over there……..

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

THE SEOUL STORY

So, we sent Abang to the madrassah on the 1st of Nov and braced the loooong journey home in almost complete silence. Adik fell asleep almost instantly and stayed that way( switched herself off) until we stopped for prayers and thereafter continued sleeping. I sobbed silently. Abah had only one hand on the steering wheel as he hold mine with the other.....


We reached home and Grey kept trying to get into the car, looking for one missing member of this family.....

We then found Adik sat stone-faced in front of the opened wardrobe in Abang's room, looking at Abang's clothing. And I joined her. We then hugged each other and cried openly.....and loudly! Abah came in and tried to say something funny ( as usual) but stopped midway and walked away...

Adik was so down for the next few days that it worried us....


Then, the journey to Seoul came on the 14th of Nov and it saw Adik smiling again...what a relief!! Thanks to the fact that Kak Bibah was joining us in this trip. Kak Bib, along with many other nieces of Abah and Mama, are absolute addicts of Korean dramas. But she got lucky as her mum decided to reward her dilligence by paying for the airline ticket....needless to say, she was in cloud nine leaving Kak Aminah, Kak Basyirah, Kak Syida, Kak Maryam, Kak Syifaa and Kak Tim green with envy!! (these are all korean wannabes!)
Seoul was approaching winter, so it was -2 C when we arrived. It went lower in the evening and Adik prayed that it went lower still so that she could see some snow....As it was, she just had to be satisfied with some frost on the treetops in the morning.

Adik and Kak Bibah ( very knowledgeable with all things korean) enjoyed Seoul very much. Personally, I dont really fancy it. For one thing, everything is much more expensive than in our own country and we do have all that they offer over there. Anyway, Abang and Grey were not forgotten, Adik kept trying to buy knick-knacks for them...

Here are some pictures of Adik and Kak Habibah in Seoul....( Mama and Abah are not photo-friendly!)




Waiting for trains that comes in every 3 minutes ( Yet the Korean still running towards them as if it is thelast train of the day....they really value every second of their time...No, I dont wish to have to rush everywhere like that))Kak Nana( in blue) is Cik Jae's daughter who is studying engineering in Seoul. Without her we would be loss. She was such a great help....and her friends too. And all of them speak Korean fluently.






@ Namsan Tower where lots and lots of lovey-dovey couples 'locked' their love using all kinds of padloocks. Hic!




At the Bear Museum

We went up the tower, which is quite similar to our KLCC, in the evening and saw Seoul bathing in lights. 

At the famous market with Kak Alin (in red) and Kak Farah (in black). ( Adik and Kak Bibah were smitten with Kak Farah whom we first mistook as Korean as she looks, dresses and acts like one) We went to Dongdaemun and a few other markets as well...cant remember the names.


Nana brought us to this humble Korean eatery frequents by Malay students. I LIKE!! A dish of three types fish (barbecued outside the shop in using special coal) served with four tpes of kimchii and a bowl of rice and vegetable soup for each. Cost the four of us 18000 Won . And that's the cheapest food here.... On the day we arrived, Ayah Long's and Ayah Mat's friend, one Col. Aziz who is a Defence Attache serving at  Malaysian Embassy came to pick us at the hotel and brought us to a seriously luxurious Korean lunch. But all of us was so hungry that we forgot the camera!! It was at a gourmet restaurant where we experienced all those exotic Korean dish. I shuddered when I glanced at the bill....it was paid by the good Colonel of course. Thanks Abang Aziz....


The only mosque in Seoul...and we stayed in Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon  which is a walking distance to it. Alhamdulillah, Abah got to say all his five prayers in jamaat. We saw a group of local preparing to go out in 'khuruj' when Abah brought us to visit the mosque. It was awesome. We were told that Malaysian students brought the work of tabligh to Seoul and spread it around....



p/s
thanks to one miss fadzila for lending the winter clothings...all have been dry-cleaned, dun worry ya! and i only bought you a humble brooch...huhuhu,told u , everything else is not worth buying!!