Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Perjalanan Seorang Huffaz

Sebelum cuti sekolah bermula, kami menerima sepucuk surat dari pejabat ADUN Gombak Setia, YB Dato' Dr Hassan Ali menjemput Dini ke Majlis Anugerah Pelajar Cemerlang pada 13 Mac 2010 di Padang Pinggiran Batu Caves. Ini adalah kali pertama kami menerima jemputan dari pejabat ADUN. Walaupun kami sepatutnya pulang ke kampung pada 12 Mac 2010, kami tangguhkan rancangan tersebut bagi menghadiri majlis tersebut.

Pentas Utama di Padang Pinggiran Batu Caves

Sanggup mendengar ucapan di bawah terik matahari

Ucapan YB yang bersemangat
Dini menerima sijil dan sumbangan dari YB

Kami tiba lebih kurang pukul 9 pagi dan pada waktu itu, khemah-khemah yang disediakan sudah hampir penuh. Selesai mendaftar, kami mencari tempat yang sesuai berdekatan dengan pentas utama. Seramai 400 pelajar yang cemerlang dalam peperiksaan UPSR, PSRA and PMR dijemput untuk menerima sijil dan sumbangan. YB tiba lebih kurang pukul 10 pagi lengkap dengan pakaian sukan. Semasa memberi ucapan, beliau memaklumkan bahawa beliau baru sahaja selesai menghadiri upacara Larian Sg Klang.

Kami begitu teruja mendengar ucapan daripada beliau. YB sememangnya seorang yang bijak dan prihatin terhadap warga Selangor terutama di bahagian Gombak. Setelah selesai memberikan ucapan, beliau menyampaikan sijil kepada kesemua pelajar-pelajar cemerlang. Kami amat kagum dengan kepimpinan YB. Setelah selesai upacara tersebut, kami beredar untuk pulang ke kampung. Tahniah Dini atas anugerah yang kecil tapi amat bermakna.

Kami langsung tidak menyangka gambar kami semasa menghadiri majlis tersebut tersiar di dalam Harakah isu 19-21 Mac 2010.
Setelah seminggu sekolah dibuka, Dini memberitahu kami bahawa MTS akan menganjurkan Program Jayawaris di mana ibubapa dijemput membincangkan program yang akan dijalankan bagi pelajar2 yang akan menduduki peperiksaan. Tahun ini Dini akan mengambil peperiksaan Sijil Menengah Ugama (SMU). Selain itu, keputusan bagi peperiksaan pengesanan yang dijalankan sebelum cuti sekolah akan diumumkan kepada ibubapa. Untuk tidak menghampakan Dini, kami mengambil keputusan untuk menghadiri program tersebut. Kami memilih untuk tidak memandu tetapi balik ke Kelantan menaiki bas. Sememangnya kami begitu teruja kerana sudah terlalu lama tidak menaiki bas.

Pada hari jumaat, 26 Mac 2010 lebih kurang jam 10.30 malam, kami menaiki bas di stesen bas Greenwood. Pengalaman menaiki bas transnasional sememangnya menyeronokkan. Dengan tempat duduk yang selesa, hawa dingin yang nyaman, kami dapat melelapkan mata dan hanya sedar apabila bas berhenti di tempat rehat, Merapoh pada pukul 3 pagi. Kami turun untuk ke tandas dan berehat sampai menikmati kopi O dan burger. Agak malang bagi kami, walaupun terdapat lebih dari lima buah bas transnasional yang berhenti di situ, makanan yang disediakan hanya ala kadar. Patutlah Dini selalu "tapau" makanan dari rumah setiap kali balik dengan bas kerana makanan yang dijual tidak menyelerakan. Kami tiba di Kuala Krai lebih kurang pukul 5 pagi dan Tok Abah sudah sedia menunggu ketibaan kami.

Hentian rehat di Merapoh

Bas-bas transnasional berhenti rehat

Keesokkan harinya, walaupun masih mengantuk, kami gagahkan juga diri kami dan bertolak ke Tanah Merah pada pukul 8 pagi. Setibanya kami di MTS, Dini sudah menunggu dan tidak sabar untuk bersarapan pagi dengan kami. Kami singgah di Kak Zah Nasi Kerabu, kedai yang terletak berdekatan dengan MTS. Kedai ini memang popular dengan nasi kerabu dan sewaktu kami tiba, meja2 sudah hampir penuh. Selesai makan, kami bergegas ke MTS untuk menghadiri program Jayawaris.




Sewaktu kami mendaftar, guru kelas Dini mengucapkan tahniah kepada kami. Kami tidak menyangka yang Dini telah mendapat kedudukan pertama di dalam kelas dan ketiga untuk keseluruhan pelajar seramai 259 orang. Dini telah mendapat keputusan yang cemerlang dengan 19A, 3B dan 1C. Kami amat terharu dengan pengorbanan Dini yang berhempas pulas belajar untuk meraih kejayaan. Walaupun Dini mengambil 23 subjek dan menghafal Al-Quran, Dini jarang sekali merungut. Sememangnya belajar di sekolah tahfiz integrasi memerlukan kecekalan, terlalu banyak cabaran dan ujian. Ramai kawan-kawan Dini yang bertukar ke sekolah lain kerana tidak tahan dengan rutin yang padat dan "expectation" yang tinggi.

Setelah selesai program Jayawaris, kami membawa Dini keluar makan tengahari di Restoran Tepi Sungai dan selepas itu ke Aneka membeli barang2 keperluan Dini. Ini memang rutin kami setiap kali menziarah Dini, ada saja yang tak cukup. Kami bertolak balik ke KL pada malam itu juga menaiki bas. Tetapi kali ini Bas Express Perdana, dengan kerusi yang lebih hebat dan selesa sehingga kami langsung tidak sedar apabila bas berhenti rehat di Merapoh. Walaupun kami terpaksa bermalam di atas bas dua malam berturut2, perjalanan yang kami lalui memang menyeronokkan dan amat berbaloi.

Kami berdoa semoga Allah swt memberkati usaha Dini menjadikan Al-Quran sebagai panduan hidupnya di dunia dan di akhirat. Semoga Dini menjadi anak yang soleh dan seorang huffaz yang dapat berbakti kepada keluarga dan masyarakat dengan ilmu Al-Quran yang dipelajarinya. We are so proud of you, Kakak.



Dewan Makan dan Dewan MTS


Dini di hadapan bangunan sekolah


Keputusan peperiksaan di luar pejabat

Friday, April 2, 2010

Happy Birthday Ibu...

Ibu celebrated her birthday a week after Tok Wan. Although there was no birthday party, we knew she enjoyed the day. Abah gave her a lovely card with a very special note that brought tears to her eyes. Later that day, she received a bouquet of 24 roses and 3 lilys from Abah delivered to her office.It's very rare for Abah to buy flowers for Ibu. Since she was working that day, she went out for lunch with her two colleagues who shared the same birthday with her at the Loaf, Pavillion.

That night, Bibik cooked a very special dinner for us, Nasi Kuning with daging dendeng, acar, sambal ikan bilis tempe and fried egg nicely presented. It's the indonesian way of celebrating birthday. Since Faiz was in school, Ibu waited patiently for him to call but to her dissapointment, Abang did not. He finally called Ibu two days later.

Later the week, Abah took us out for dinner at Kampachi, Equitorial to celebrate Ibu's birthday. We truly enjoyed the food, beef teppanyaki, udon, edamame, california rolls, saba fish, tempura dan a several other dishes. The food and service were excellent. After the dinner on our way out we saw about 20 ferari parked outside the hotel, mostly red. We found out later that the Ferari's Owners' Club were having their gathering there, majority were with Singaporean plate numbers. We did not waste the opportunity and captured some photos with the cars. Later that night Ibu spent her time responding to trails of e-mails and facebook messages from her friends. That's when the celebration ended.



There's so much to love about you, Ibu. One of the nicest things is the way you show your love to the people who are important to you. Just knowing that you're always there really means a lot, and always will. We love you, Ibu.


Thursday, April 1, 2010

Another hectic weekend @ Kuantan


We spent the last weekend of the school holidays in Kuantan on 20 and 21 March 2010. After sending Dini off to Kelantan by Transnasional, we headed straight to the east coast to attend Abah's colleague wedding at Bandar Sri Mahkota. This time, instead of making reservation, we tried our luck from Hyatt to Vistana and finally landed at MS Garden. The hotels were full and we were lucky that MS Garden still has rooms available for us but not the normal deluxe room but a junior suite! We wanted to try and stay at Shahzan Inn but Thaqif refused. He said that the hotel is "thin"! If you see the hotel, you know what he meant. What a funny way of describing the hotel.


The hotel is located in the city centre next to Kuantan Mall and our room was on the 11th floor facing the swimming pool. After solat, the boys dashed down to the swimming pool with Abah. Later that night, we went to Tanjung Lumpur and met Pak Long and family for dinner. We wanted to try ANA IKAN BAKAR PETAI but the restaurant was just too pack and there were not much choice of seafood left for us. So, we settled for a smaller restaurant along Tanjung Lumpur. We always thought that the seafood restaurants are along the main road. Little that we know that there are more restaurants if you drive further in towards the seaside. There are about 15 stalls with the biggest one is Ana ikan bakar petai. Not sure if the fish is grilled with sambal petai or it is just the name of the restaurant.
We had ikan pari bakar, ikan siakap steam, sotong bakar, udang goreng tepung, ketam chili and some vegetables. The food was good, the sambal was excellent. For 8 of us, we spent only RM150. I personally think that the price is cheaper than in Umbai, Melaka. We had good food and great time with Pak Long's family. It was our treat for Aiza who excel in her SPM. We returned to the hotel with our stomach full!




To our surprise, MS Garden offered a good breakfast spread compared with other hotels in Kuantan. After having a hearty breakfast, we checked out from the hotel as we need to be back in KL before 6pm to send Faiz back to IQKL. This time we decide to take the old road. It was a good choice as we encountered so many cendawan busut being sold along the road. Abah was excited to see his favourite mushroom that he immediately stopped the car to buy them. It is very rare to get this type of mushroom as it grows in the wild. All my life, I have eaten it only three times. Abah wrote about it in the previous posting.

We continued our journey and our next stop was at the food stalls in Bukit Angin, Temerloh. It is located close to the Pahang River and at the junction going to Triang/Temerloh. It is famous with masakan kampung and of course the original ikan patin masak tempoyak. I did not miss the opportunity to tapau some back. I bought one piece of ikan patin buah which cost RM22 and two udang galah, quite huge for RM40! Just imagine, one slice of ikan patin can cost RM22. They even have ikan patin muncung which is cooked when ordered. I dare not ask how much this type of ikan patin cost. It must be really expensive!! Still, the place is packed with people during lunch time. The food is just irresistable....

That was not the end of our journey. Our final stop was at Karak when we passed by a durian stall. Again, we stopped and enjoyed the durians by the road side. This is not the first time we had durians by the road side, we have been doing this for quite a while now. Our previous stops were at Bentong, Tanjung Malim and a few other places.

We reached home around 2pm and I immediately cooked cendawan busut and we enjoyed our lunch with ikan patin masak tempoyak and gulai udang galah. Just yummy...the whole journey back was just worth while.

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