Traffic laws

Whoa! Do you know that the fine of those who was caught running over the red lights here is QR6000?!! A big solid QR6000. Enam ribu!! Wow! Along with a 7 demerit points. The maximum demerit points for a year is 14 (or was it 15?). And busting the demerit points may cost you suspension of your license or jailed or both.

So one must think twice before you want to ramp your accelerator when one sees the yellow light. What more if you ramp your accelerator and exceed the speed limit, usually 80km/h, that will cause another fine of minimum QR500. No demerit point though. And they will add a further QR100 for every 10km/h extra.

Double, triple and hudreds of thoughts before you (I) ramp the car on yellow lights or even the green light that has been there for sometime. Basically don't speed at traffic light.

And they have cameras that will get your candid picture in the act. And the new ones do not have flash (so what?) even and stil get good pictures at night (aperture baik punya ni).

I must say with all the new gadgets and laws they put for Qtar, traffic has somewhat reduce the madness on the road. Five years ago, road was hell except there were less cars.

But still you can see crazy drivers. And sometimes you see ruined car by the roadside crumpled with high possibility of death.

The downside is though, the law is stricter to the expats. Many locals may get away with it especially those with connections in their family name. Same old same old.

Self reminder especially to those who are not earning an income but depending on lover for the car instalment, car's fuel, car's maintenance and car washing services. Fine like this may come out of your own pocket. Cough! Cough!

I nearly run over the yellow light just now. Phew!

No play play ah you.

Haziq's First Single Debut

Haziq is on his way to Dubai now. Alone. And alone means he is not with us, his loving family.

He is with his schoolmates and some teachers.

Haziq was selected to represent the school for the subject of science for the W0rld Sch0lar's Cup Middle East tournament event held in Dubai over the weekend. He will be in the junior team. Doing from what I understood, debate (hah! biar betoi), argumentative writings, quiz game and some multiple choice quiz.

He had to read up some stuffs which I helped a bit but left most of it to him. It's generally about how people come up with theories in science and later became a worldwide agreed theory like today the world is flat, and one day a stronger argument came up and say the world is actually a sphere.

Do you know that leornado Da Vinci's theory on baby was that the sperm was actually a dwarf man which will grow just like a tree grows in the woman's womb? Anyway I didn't learn that from what Haziq is suppose to read. I learned it when we are going through the hadith Man's development and his destiney,the fourth hadith of Imam nawawi's collection of hadith. In the hadith we discussed, we stressed mostly on Allah is Al Khaliq. tawhid! Tawhid! tawhid! besides telling that the stages of a human creation are in the quran even before any philosopher came up with any theory.

Anyway, basically haziq is suppose to look through the art and the science on how world accepts a particular science theory. Lebih kurang gitulah. But then he is in the junior team, so most likely he won't be doing much debating and such. i don't know. We'll wait for his story.

Anyway, I reminded him many times about solah and to take great care of it. (ya tau tau, that's what I said to my parents dulu) It is a test of conformity when you are around friends who viewed this as not as important. Take care of himself. Surround yourself with people you know and not to go astray. Hmm definitely not the time for me to tell him how I scoured the whole pertama complex (it was happening then) alone at the age of 11.

Anyway, I hope this trip will be beneficial for him. And that learning deeper will make him become closer to Allah.

I ask Allah that he will become the leaders of the muttaqun.

Anyway here is a summary of some of the topics for the cup. haziq will only be doing science. HERE.

A clip of W0rld Sch0lar's Cup Finals last year held in Singapore.



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My other two children are very quiet today. Sya mostly. She was caught crying. She said she really misses her abang. :)

The Last Break

I enjoyed the children's last school break. I need the break myself. A breather.

Anyway among the things I did was mostly to make sure the children do not have an idle time. Heh heh heh.

They were asked to make major cleaning of the house. Kih kih kih! They had to clean
1. the white kitchen cabinet
2. scrub the kitchen's floor sampai ke ceruknya
3. wash the toilet.

The school break is for me. :D

_______________________________________

I am not creative in nature. I cannot translate what is in my mind to a product that is decent looking made by my hand. I can't draw. I can't do much crafts. I can't cut things.

But Alhamdulillah lover is better at that. He has the patience and dexterity for it. Which i always use to his maximum potential. :D

For this break, I bought some balsa wood. Because Haziq wanted to mae sowrds out of it. Obviously I couldn't make swords out of planks of wood. I couldn't make small plank of wood out of a plank of wood for god's sake. I asked lover to do it. And so he did. The kids get to do other things like gluing. But soon I think can be allowed to use the knife on its own...until he shows that he is not clumsy or like to fling things about.

But lover said, he had started using the knife at a younger age. Hmm..

The kids googled up the sword model of their preference and lover went to the drawing board.

They made three swords and a gun.


Jack the warrior. Grrrrrrggghhhhh
______________________________

I am hoping that for each school break, we would have some some form of themed projects. Alhamdulillah we managed one for this school break.

We were on the topic rain.

Subhanallah, I enjoyed researching for this project. Seriously I learned alot. The objective is for the children to understand that rain is a blessing. And as I researched through, I began to understand even more that what is there to it about rain. More than that rain can provide water and let growth in barren land.

If you want to read up about the details, you can read it HERE.


Some pictures

Our Water cycle model. Exaggeration on the life.

Anyway we talked about the normal water cycle process : evaporation, condensation and precipitation. With a lot of other elements on each cycle such as the evaporation of salty ocean water results into sweet rain water that can be used by the earth by the will of Allah.

Al Waqiah 56: 68-70

Then tell Me about the water that you drink.Is it you who cause it from the rainclouds to come down, or are We the Causer of it to come down? If We willed, We verily could make it salt (and undrinkable), why then do you not give thanks (to Allâh)?

We talked about the wind that blows the cloud to where Allah instructed. We also talked about wind that blow haze covering our country. And wind that blows the ashes in the Iceland volcano eruption covering Europe halting "life".

Al Aaraf 7: 57
And it is He Who sends the winds as heralds of glad tidings, going before His Mercy (rain). Till when they have carried a heavy-laden cloud, We drive it to a land that is dead, then We cause water (rain) to descend thereon. Then We produce every kind of fruit therewith. Similarly, We shall raise up the dead, so that you may remember or take heed.

We also talked about water that seeps into earth and are collected as water table. Subhanallah.

Al Mu’minoon 23: 18
And We sent down from the sky water (rain) in (due) measure, and We gave it lodging in the earth, and verily, We are Able to take it away.

Just a little glimpse of what we learned. And the mess that we made.



I hope that they ubderstand how much blessings has Allah put on us and to take heed from Allah's signs all around us.

I based may of these on the book Kitab tauhid Az Zindani. Thanks to my friends who introduced this to me in our study group. I don't have the book myself. So something for me to get bila balik Malaysia nanti.

All in all we had fun. And I am happy that the two weeks break is somewhat filled with various activities. The mess is still there. And we are starting the busy schedule again. And I am finding myself to look forward to the two months summer break pulak. :D

School Two week Break Done

I didn't go anywhere this school holiday but faithfully stayed in D0ha. But was quite busy nevertheless.

Over the weekends we went to both the dunes - The singing one and the inland sea. This time round we went only with the Faths. We were also entertaining Mrs Faths relatives who came over all the way from Hong Kong. They are Mrs Fath's mum : Po Po (Po Po means grandma in Cantonese. I call her Po Po because everyone calls her Po Po). And then there is Mrs Fath's aunty : Yi Po (which means nenek sedara). And also Mrs. Fath's two sisters who do not have any nickname in Cantonese. They are Dorothy and Aries.

And then there is another lady. She is from China. Her name is Khadijah. She is a revert, masya Allah. She only speaks mandarin. And the only one who can speak to all of us at the same time is Mrs Fath who can speak english, malay, cantonese and mandarin.

They don't speak much english except for the two sisters. So most of the time I am surrounded by cantonese speaking people. Even Mr Fath and her eldest speak cantonese siap dengan slang yang sama sejibik macam dalam cerita Hong Kong.

I learned a few words. Or rather I already know these words butI perfected the way it is pronounced.

Sek Fan ah Sek Fan ah. Makan ah makan ah. but more of eating rice particularly. Fan is rice.
Pai Tee ahhhh. Cepat ahhhhh
Hoiyeh!! Good!!
Hoy Sem Happy
Emmm Koy. Thank you in general
Toh Xie. Thank you when people give you a gift
Leng Loi
Leng Chan

I felt like I am in a cantonese mini series.

So I went with them for some sek fan and hoy sem time and took them to the dunes for more hoy sem time.

Funnily, apparently over at the Faths family they are crazy about watching hindustani movie. Hahahhahaha! And they are all about Kotch Kotch Kota hey. And Loi Loi (Fath's littlest) kept singing that tumpah seair song in the car all the way to the dune and back.

Meanwhile I glued myself watching Andy Lau in Guli Guli mahjong (Mahjong warrior)or the official name is Fat Choy Spirit.

And while my new friends from Hong Kong are busy perfecting their Rahul poses for pictures at the dune, I am thinking whether I can remember all the chinese characters on the mahjong tiles.

Pong!
Kong!
Sek Woo ahhhh!

Cloudy with a chance of Lollies

We have a little school holiday project, my children and I. And in the project I am reading about clouds. Very fascinating indeed.

When I was small I love watching the clouds fly in the sky especially on windy day. I would make a mental race among the cloud. But I am never bothered much with the supposedly shape they make. Bunnies ka, ice cream ka. I am just fascinated at the way they are spread and moved about. Glorious!

Apparently people around the world love cloud too. They love it so much that there is even an association called Cloud appreciation society. Check it out at the name i just mentioned with a dot org.

So I thought of sharing with you some of the cloud pictures they have.



And there are these bubble clouds. Feel like scraping them. They are called mamatus.



os stripy cloud



Or perhaps wave cloud



or maybe UFO cloud



and check out these new series of cloud which has no latin name for it yet. Subhanallah!



OK this is my only cloud picture. Ignore the model. I called it (the cloud not the model) feather cloud. Bulucirrus.



But big dark clouds scare me. It scares me just like a vast black ocean. I feel like they will engulf me forever. Like the clouds below. *Shudders* I am definitely not cut to be one of those storm chasers or tornado spotters.



Do you know that Prophet Muhammad sallahu alaihi wasalam, whenever he sees dark clouds approaching, he'd be worried. he would enter the house and the go out, then would pace up and down. However if it rained, he would become happy.

When asked is he looking so worried, he would say, "It could be what the people of 'Ad have faced previously. The 'Ad had said, when they saw dense cloud coming towards their valleys, they say, "This is a cloud that will give us rain"". But rather it was a cloud of punishment which was so violent it overthrows them in the air and let them fall on their head. And this wind lasted for seven nights and eight days non stop.

Al Haqqah 69:6-7

And as for ‘Ad, they were destroyed by a furious violent wind! Which Allâh imposed on them for seven nights and eight days in succession, so that you could see men lying overthrown (destroyed), as if they were hollow trunks of date-palms!

Al Qamar 54:19-20

Verily, We sent against them a furious wind of harsh voice on a day of evil omen and continuous calamity. Plucking out men as if they were uprooted stems of date-palms

And thus we can make dua' when we see clouds of rain,

Oh Allah Bring beneficial rain clouds

or

the dua' when he asked for rain

Oh Allah shower upon us abundant rain, beneficial and not harmful, swiftly and not delayed

Abu Dawud.

Prayer (Kitab Al-Salat): Details of Commencing Prayer

Dawud :: Book 3 : Hadith 1165
Narrated Jabir ibn Abdullah:

The people came to the Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) weeping (due to drought). He said (making supplication): O Allah! give us rain which will replenish us, abundant, fertilising and profitable, not injurious, granting it now without delay. He (the narrator) said: Thereupon the sky became overcast.

Invoking Allah for Rain (Istisqaa)

Bukhari :: Book 2 :: Volume 17 :: Hadith 142
Narrated Aisha:

Whenever Allah’s Apostle saw the rain, he used to say, “O Allah! Let it be a strong fruitful rain.”

May we be spared from such calamity. May we be in His straight path.

So which cloud picture you like most?

Sya is now nine

When I finally put the age down like this, it began to dawn on me that she is really getting bigger. Let us enjoy the pre anak dara phase for now.

She still has a slight tantrum (ikut ayah dia) but not as much as when she is young.


Sya Bad Mood when she is three. hahahhaha!

And she still like to play teacher. And when you cannot find Jack and Sya, you may find them in their room with Sya standing in front of the white board equipped with a marker pen and Jack on the little table and chair diligently copying notes. She gives worksheets and exams too.

Sya has upgraded also to giving a project to her brother to write things that IBU must do! Which includes reading to them every night minimal two books.

Sya still want to be like me and now even look like me. She may be found pinching my hijab. She said to me the other day, "You know why I want to wear the hijab? because I want to look like you."

Hmm, what did they say, imitation is the best form of flattery? I am flattered however, that shouldn't be the right reason to wear. Not because of me. Because of ...? You answer me..

I also added, if you want to follow me, make the reason be for Allah. And follow me as long as I am obeying Allah. If you find me not obeying Him anymore, do not follow my ways, save me.

I am actually a bit hesitant when she started wanting to wear the hijab. But because she is young and eager to learn and not wanting to send the wrong message, I just let her be. Why was I hesitant? Because I am afraid she might get bored and when the time comes that she should wear, she shunned it. I felt that she should enjoy her youth. She was only eight then.

But after sometime, it looks strange when she is not wearing it. And I must say she is more persistent than I am on herself. And also I have seen how difficult for a girl to HAVE to wear it when her menses comes in unexpectedly, like when they are nine.And the parents (whom the mum wears a hijab) had to give in atas nama tak mau memaksa.

I suppose, hijab should be treated the same like the command Rasululah salallahu alaihi wasalam told us to start teaching prayers to our children at seven and hit them when they are ten. It will, Insya Allah make it easier for them and would make them feel "naked" when they are not wearing it.

So I guide her what is the correct way to wear, Insya Allah. So I want to change my niyah altogether. may Alah give her istiqomah and guide her to become a muslimah who is righteous. May that be a reward for me in the Hereafter.

I am thankful to Allah who woke me up when I realise that she cannot read the Fatihah when she was five. It was a matter to me because I know Haziq can (and many of your children too). haziq can because he went to school in Malaysia where I had the support of someone else teaching him to memorise the short surah and also the prayers.

Now at 9 she has progressed quite well. Nothing to be shouted about for I am sure everyone else is better. But I am taking it at a relaxed phase and throwing in challenges here and there. And she has has improved in her memory retention and attention skill. All praises goes to Allah.

Sya is sometimes quite strict on me. Alahai. May she be istiqomah.

I took this picture yesterday. We had some makan-makan. I am happy they are very playful with each other walaupun sangatlah bisingnya. All of them talk to me at the same time. Sya is using my shades.



As usual

She is five
She is six
She is seven
She is eight

Ayah's Armpit

"I think ayah's armpit smell really nice," said Haziq.

Really? When did you smell ayah's armpit.

In the morning when I brushed my teeth, and ayah stood next to me putting on his lense.

Hahahahha.. itu pun boleh bau ka? I told him, it will probably be the smell you'd remember most. Bau ketiwak ayah.

But well.. I couldn't agree more.

OK Dah Tak Panic

:P

Alhamdulillah Sya is getting better. She doesn't bleed anymore, but there is still pain when she pees. That's a huge relief.

And there are just so much to learn from this.

Panic is however, despite many times being taught, is something most mothers (me only, will not learn. One can cope with blogging though. :P

Anyway, the doctors advised Sya to drink alot. More than what she has been drinking all these while. And just like Shaikh Hansac pointed out, she needs to pee when she has to pee.

I suspect with Sya (and Jack too for that matter), in order to avoid peeing in school, they drink very little. This year alone I have been pointing out to them just how little they drink from their school tumbler. Haziq however drinks in gallons.

So the silver lining from this is I can be more serious about drinking. Plain water that is. So we now have made a rule, that if they don't finish the whole of their tumbler, they don't get to drink their favourite chocolate milk that I always bring when i pick them up from school.

So no drinky, no choccy.

Jack sometimes have to finish his drink in the car. All in the name of chocolate milk.

Of course the blood in the urine scare all of them. Especially when they see Sya has to go to hospitals many times. So Insya Allah, that was a scare, scary enough. I hope it stops there though. The scare I mean.

Of course there is this other story about not peeing. I asked the doctor to tell them how it is not good to withhold your pee. And I pun menumpang bebel.

Subhanallah, this cannot come in at a better timing. In one of our weekly "class" together, i touched about the dangers of not cleaning your pee properly because some of them are sometimes careless. Read HERE.

So I think all the lessons go well together. Subhanallah. Alhamdulillah.

My prayers go to all parents who are undergoing tests by Allah when their children are inflicted with fatal disease.

Bloody pee

The medical term for bloody pee is hematuria. Basically if you have hematuria, it means you have blood in your urine.

And this is what Sya is having now.

(I am trying my best not to sound panic in this entry. If you were to hear me read, I would read in a monotone voice and a poker face)

Sya found blood in her urine last Wednesday. She only told me after school, when we were having a nice lunch at the mall. I was hungry but decided that I couldn't eat after that.

She said she kept feeling like peeing too. And it hurts.

Did you have a hard fall?
Did somebody touch you down there?
Hmm could it be menses?

I went to check when she felt like peeing. there was blood alright. I ruled out menses. I think after 24 years of having menses, I should know how menses blood look like and smell like. And also menses blood have certain pattern of flow.

She didn't fall. And no one touched her down there.

I couldn't think properly after that.

Went home and immediately went to the clinic.

Took urine sample which was really hell. She felt like peeing so much, didn't even have time to collect it. Only after the third attempts and gallons of water drunk, was she (I actually) managed to collect a good amount of sample.

Also had to give blood sample.

The samples ruled out infection, stones, kidney dysfunction and don't know what else.

Then had to wait for a few more days for them to incubate the urine sample for microbiology test (I am loosely quoting the terms). Again nothing was found, thus ruling out infection again.

Went for ultrasound to actually check the kidney, bladder, pelvis (I think).

Alhamdulillah no problem was found. It was nerve wrecking watching the scan.

Went for another urine sample.

This morning, the results came out. She has infection. The RBC (red blood count shows >100). damn! i didn't have the results with me now!

Now they are incubating her urine again to determine the culture type. Saturday we will know more Insya Allah.

Since Wednesday, I couldn't think of anything else. I am sure Sya is worried too. She actually mentioned the word death. She questions me carefully and trying to understand the language and my body expression.

If you read up about hematuria. One link HERE., you would know that there are reasons to be worried. Well wouldn't you if you have blood in your urine?

Throughout the short period of time of not knowing what is happening, I tried my best to control my expression and ward off my worried look when I am with Sya. I tried to assure her, Insya Allah, this is nothing and treatable. Make dua' ok. Whereas in my heart, I myself was in deep worry.

Even they have diagnose her with an infection, they also told me that she would be under observation and her urine need to be sampled each month for sometime. For the just-in-case.

And this just-in-case is a reason enough for me to be on my toes, worried. Because this findings may not stop to just a simple infection. More READS.

Please pray for us.

About Teaching

I am enjoying teaching the children (at the weekend school) now, Alhamdulillah. But the challenges are getting bigger. I should have known that to teach just one said subject, requires the knowledge of so many other things to come in.

So it's either you just focus on the notes and read the notes in your hand, or get the students to read one by one, preferably in random, and stopping them at random words and ask the next-not-paying-attention student to read it. This is way easier and safer.

OR you can ramble on from the knowledge you think you have. Sporadically asking them question. Listening to their answers and opinion in their own words to determine their understanding.

I have a tendency to do the latter. Firstly because I don't like the you-read-and-next-you-read style. Secondly maybe because I just err like to talk and tell stories. Thirdly by listening to their answers in their own words I can gauge what level they are in and sort of give me ideas what to concentrate next.

When covering the manners of eating may get me off tangent to the stories of shaytan are our no 1 enemy. It even made me tell the stories of how Shaytan asked Allah permission to come to the people from the front, behind, left and right. From eating to the story of shaytan? I do ramble alot..

But with the more you say, the more questions they have.

They ask question that you wouldn't think anyone would ask. You wouldn't think anyone would ask because you never thought about it yourself. It may caught you offguard. Some you may be able to answer.

Like why you should not poo or pee under the shade of a tree when you are at the outdoors?
Why you should not pee in holes outdoor?
What is a well?
Is that boy your son?

Some you find it harder.

The other day a boy asked me why we only say sallalahhu alaihi wasalam when the mention of Prophet Muhammad and not subhana wa taala when we mention Allah. Err I don't know exactly. I was telling them to say sallalahhu alaihi wasalam, all these while. In the end I don't even really know why we have to do it.

Telan air liur, tebalkan muka and tell them you say it as a respect. But taht's not really answering the question. I will have to check ya. I will come back and tell you later. Went home and made research. That was challenging.

But Alhamdulillah, I have found out and are currently in the midst of telling them. Just giving that lesson sets me off tangent merata-rata sampai cerita Taif where Prophet Muhammad sallalahhu alaihi wasalam was thrown stone at, cerita wife Abu Lahab tabur thorns on the path way of Prophet Muhammad sallalahhu alaihi wasalam, the story of Abu Jahl putting the intestines of camels on Prophet Muhammad sallalahhu alaihi wasalam when he prayed.

In many sense, to teach is actually to learn yourselves. I have only been teaching them a few classes and I feel really the knowledge is too little, sometimes I feel I am not apt to teach.

I was teaching the younger ones to do things starting with the right side. Wear your clothes on the right first. Wear your shoes on the right first. then i realised I myself put things sometimes on the left. *Alamak!*

This is terribly worrying. On a positive note, perhaps it is a good check for myself.

For the teen groups I am facilitating, I had to refuse a few talks. The other facilitators are way stricter than I am. Many things I do not dare to tell the girls yet because I am far from doing them. :(

I am worried.

I worry for dispensing wrong ilm.

I worry mostly that I would be questioned in the yaumul akhirah, the day that no one can help you, the day that you have to answer for yourself. I would be asked why am I telling people to do things while I myself don't do them.
















I am scared.

I ask Allah for wisdom and beneficial ilmu and guidance in my act.