DAY 6 : 18 Dec 2011 Sunday – Yesterday Today
There was a kenduri in Banting yesterday, the actual reason why parents came down to KL, not knowing of the event yesterday, which we had to miss in order to attend to the funeral. But we had informed the family in Banting and promised to drop by today instead. So, we went to Banting in three cars (Pak Ngah, Pak Lang and ours) for the kenduri and we in fact were not the only one who had to come a day later. There were many people having good times by the Morib beach. We had good lunch (home cook food, not bad to come on second day!) while we chit chat with the family, the wedded couple had left for another place but we sent them a congratulatory note....Barakallah.
We attended another tahlil later that night at Surau Taman Sri Hartamas, attended by the local qariah who knew the late Dr Ismail. I was informed by the local qariah, that Dr Ismail would occasionally became imam to the qariah and he liked to recite surah ‘Ar Rahman’. That ended another hectic day of visiting and meeting relatives, a very important thing that everyone needs to do. There will be another tahlil at his house in Hartamas tomorrow night but Uncle Mokhtar would be leaving for KB tomorrow. Nevertheless, the other brothers, Danial, Abdul Rahman and Zabidi would still be around.
DAY 7 : 19 Dec 2011 Monday – Moving on
I was back to work today and there was so much to be done in the office after a few days leave, which was supposed to be a family holiday. On top of that, the permit for our taman’s security system from MPS need to be renewed and I had to follow up on the progress. It was of course slow during this time of the year.
We attended another tahlil later that night, but this time it was done at the house in Hartamas and was attended by relatives from Indonesia. That was the last tahlil held in KL and everyone would be back to his/her own business after this. Nevertheless, my dad and uncle were planning for a tahlil on the 7th day at kampung Dewan Besar, Machang (where Dr Ismail was born), for the local relatives to come. After tahlil, as usual, I had to entertain Qiin to a late supper, either at TLG or Deen the mamak shop. Since it was Monday and TLG was closed, so we had tandoori chicken instead at Deen restaurant. He was happy that we entertained his normal routine and we negotiated on how he should be prepared to leave for the airport tomorrow. We agreed that I would be back home to send him and we should leave Gombak latest by 5:30 pm to be able to catch the 7:20 pm Firefly flight from Subang to Kota Bharu.
DAY 8 : 20 Dec 2011 Tuesday – Keeping a Promise
I was again back at work with so many issues cropping up towards the end of the year with not many people in the office, many were on leave....so had to do many things in very little time. Can’t really complaint but have to juggle the tasks wisely. Tok Abah went back to Kelantan with the 10:00 am bus from Greenwood and he was accompanied by Atif (this guy likes to balik kampung and is a unique guy). Pak Ngah would be going back again to Kelantan the following week for Naif’s MTS registration at Kok Lanas and would fetch Atif as well. This will be his round exactly what we had been doing for the last 5 years.
Pak Su and Tok Mama would go back later today via Firefly and this could be challenging if not handled with care. I promised I would do that latest by 5:30 pm but then again I got stuck and sucked into meetings after meetings. It was 4:30 pm and the meeting was still on and a new urgent issue came in, so I said I would delay leaving the office at 5:00 pm. When the time came, I was still stuck in office!! I was worried and restless...Pak Lang couldn’t make it as he was sick but luckily Pak Teh was around to bring Pak Su to the airport. They wanted to leave at 5:00 pm but Pak Su insisted that he held on to my promise to leave latest by 5:30 pm. At 5:30 pm, I was still in office and I called Pak Su and told him to follow Pak Teh to the airport and he agreed. Later I was told that it was quite a challenge to make him leave. Luckily Ibu went back home early anticipating the situation and managed to coax him to follow her to the airport.
It was already 5:45 pm when I was able to get out of the office and made my way towards Subang airport and to my horror the NKVE was jam packed!!! I was thinking, there goes my promise and I hope they would not run into difficulties at the airport. True enough, Pak Su didn’t want to go into the departure hall until I arrived!!!! Tried talking to him over the phone, apologizing for not keeping to my promise...although he was unhappy, he was willing to listen. Ibu and the kids were there to help convinced Pak Su that he should be moving on or otherwise the aircraft would not wait for him. At that time it was already 7:00 pm!!
Then Pak Teh came up with some tricks that made him happy...pushing him on a baggage trolley, all the way to the departure hall passing through the security...they were understanding enough to allow us to push him in using a baggage trolley...as long as it works and did not do any harm, that’s fine. So they finally left at 7:20 pm and I reached the airport at 7:15 pm...what a mess!!! Well, sometimes we can plan but we have no absolute control of whether the plan can materialize or not...we can only try and try very hard.
DAY 9 – 11 / 21 – 23 Dec 2022 Wednesday – Friday - Networking & Renovation
Don, arwah Dr Ismail’s son went back to Kelantan today with his wife and daughter, the first trip for the new family but unfortunately it was without Dr Ismail. He was fetched and entertained by Uncle Mokhtar’s family while in Kota Bharu. He was there to renew the relationship and to attend the tahlil planned for tomorrow night at Kg Dewan Besar. Shady and Ira coudn’t be there as they were occuppied with other matters. The next day, as planned, the tahlil was done in the kampung and Don had the chance to meet many of his relatives and renewed their relationship. Don and his family slept over in Krai for the night while taking the opportunity to talk to the uncle. The wife and the daughter had good times while in Kelantan enjoying the food.
On Friday, 23 December 2011, we have been busy at work trying to complete many tasks before the end of the year while trying to complete the minor renovation of a new condominium, 3 Residen @Melawati.
DAY 12 – 14 / 24 – 26 Dec 2011 Saturday – Monday – Last week of 2011
On Saturday, 24 December 2011, I had to be in PD early Saturday morning for some official company function. It was a nice and easy drive in the morning but on the way back during noon it was really a mad-mad crawl...from Seremban to Bangi...due to two separate accidents. Later in the afternoon, I attended a neighbour’s wedding kenduri at almost 4:00 pm, after arriving at 3:30 pm, having spent two hours in the mad traffic jam.
Ibu and the kids were busy with TLG matters as well as the surprised 50th wedding anniversary for Tok Wan and Tok planned for 7 January 2012. That plan was gathering a lot of steam... Faiz had been spending a lot of hours trying to create a short movie for the event and after all the time, effort and energy...he had successfully created a 9 minute movie for the 50th wedding anniversary.. he has some really good IT skills.
On Sunday, were again occupied by the condo (will write more about this place) and shopping for school stuff in the morning before attending another wedding kenduri by the neighbour.
Tok Abah was also in town as he came over by bus to send Atif back to Bangi while taking the opportunity to attend an engagement ceremony in Kota Damansara tomorrow afternoon.
Monday, 26 December 2011 it was still a pubic holiday as Christmas fell on Sunday. We attended Aliyah’s engagement ceremony at Kota Damansara, meeting many relatives in the process. After the ceremony, we sent Faiz back to IQKl as they start school one week earlier than the normal school, which is not too bad for planning purposes. So we sent him back to school at about 5:00 pm and wished him all the best for his study for this new year. Told him that he was lucky to be able to be here as the opportunity to be part of this community gets harder every year.
So there it goes, 2 weeks of stories, 2 weeks older and 2 weeks wiser. Truly a December to remember for many memorable reasons....
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