Celebrating life ... my way!

i.
Mrsgoodthings@home went to school this morning. UPSR result out. She was initially .. er. calm. Until she reached the school and met with scores of parents .. mostly mothers. And everybody .. mostly mothers.. were on the brink of nervous breakdown. And naturally mrsgoodthingsa@home became agitated too. Who wouldn't when... mothers mostly... some unknown to her... came up and asked "what if my child didn't get 5As?" before moving on wailing to some others.
For crying out loud...it's not the end of the world! It's only UPSR. Tomorrow, all will be forgotten. Life moves on.
Having said all that, to My Asma, congratulations baby! Am happy for you. Congrats to your bestest friends too - Anis, Fatihah and even Amyrah. Stay cool, girls! And oh! yes, congrats to other anak-anak who achieved good results too. I'm sure your parents and teachers are bursting with pride and happiness. Alhamdulillah!
And, Asma, as I told you the night before, even if you did not get a single A pun, Bapak will be okay. Mak too. Just be a good girl! A good Muslimah Girl! That's more important, really!
And have fun and celebrate life! (and it does not revolve around string of As only)

ii.
By the way, yesterday both of us went to school for a Hari Anugerah Kecemerlangan Sekolah. My Arissa received an anugerah for coming out third in her class. I'm especially happy and proud for when she's younger... for some reasons many pointed out that she's not normal. Granted, Arissa was rather slow to talk. Even her kindergarten teacher once told us to have Arissa checked by a doctor… simply because she still can’t read at the tender age of 5. Some teacher, right?
And "well-meaning" relatives and friends can be cruel too... how do you respond to words of "encouragement" like "dia ni cacat sikit!" when referring to then five year old Arissa. Imagine that? And do not get me started on the things said behind our back (yes words did get around!). For crying out loud...
So, excuse me yaa, this one I gotta celebrate. Big time! Wohoooo!!!!

iii.
I will never ever (never did, anyway) compare my kids with other people's children. You may ask about their performances in school and all that. I will answer it truthfully (depending on my mood... lar jugak). Period. Please, don't bother to compare yours to mine. And if your kids are positively brilliant than mine, don't you think such an exercise is rather pointless.
Afterall, I'm sure that you wholeheartedly believe that your kids are better than my kids, anyway. And I tell you... I am happy for your children. I really do.
But if you still insist on comparing them... just do it at your end. Please keep it to yourself, ya.... because I am far too busy......celebrating life with my kids and wife!

A Magic Moment I Remember

I was browsing the Net aimlessly these past few days. Can't think of anything worthwhile to blog. A classic case of blogger's block (it means plain lazy). So I hopped over to several blogs and read many dedications from husbands to wives celebrating their anniversaries. Ah! Very sweet. Oh! It's November already, no wonder so many anniversaries. Soon many Majlis Walimah will take place. Many more people will join the November couples to observe their anniversaries this month nex year. Alhamdulillah.

And I continued surfing. Then I chanced upon this poem. A beautiful poem, indeed. So I'm dedicating this one to My Yan.

A Magic Moment I Remember

A magic moment I remember:

I raised my eyes and you were there.

A fleeting vision, the quintessence

Of all that's beautiful and rare.

I pray to mute despair and anguish

To vain pursuits the world esteems,

Long did I near your soothing accents,

Long did your features haunt my dreams.

Time passed- A rebel storm-blast scattered

The reveries that once were mine

And I forgot your soothing accents,

Your features gracefully divine.

In dark days of enforced retirement

I gazed upon grey skies above

With no ideals to inspire me,

No one to cry for, live for, love.

Then came a moment of renaissance,

I looked up- you again are there,

A fleeting vision, the quintessence

Of all that`s beautiful and rare.

- by Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837)

My 11 Year Old Baby Girl

This is Arissa, our youngest. To me she will forever be my baby girl. And when I'm in my mischievous mood, I'll call her "baby girl". Even in public. Which, of course annoyed her no end. And she would normally ignore me then. Arissa can be very funny in her own way. And can be quite eccentric. For one, she speaks a rather formal Bahasa Melayu. Orang sekarang kata skema. And she addresses herself as "saya" as opposed to her sisters who use their names as gantinama. Even now, she uses "saya".When she was around five and six years old, she even called me "Cik Mior", can you believe that? Luckily, that didn't last.
She likes the Internet. She spends hours playing stuff over at the girls-related website. And watches Hannah Montana at youtube regularly. Ooh! She's into copy pasting lyrics too. I guess that's rather normal for girls her age. But the songs.... I've never heard of lah.
And of all the daughters, she's the most unassuming. In my household, it means she's orang yang paling blur sotong.
One more thing, she's very protective of her Mak. Even from me! So Bapak still cannot sit rapat-rapat dengan Mak when Arissa is around. Isn't that just delightful?

Arissa around 4 months old. Adorable, eh?

Then her face became more "squarish". Muka petak. We always tease her about this.

Once, we were having lunch. Arissa was on the baby chair. Sedar2 dah terlentok tidur. Still our favourite photo of her.

Dah besar dah anak Bapak. Dak jadik diva ker?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY BABY GIRL!!

Er.. Excuse Me, What Life???

This blog is titled The Life of a Bapak. But, sad to say that presently this Bapak has no life. Wait, ada life but its very the monotonously boring one, at least for now lah! I don't even have anything worthwhile let alone clever to post and share.

And I'm so tired with the goings on at the office. I'm too old for office politics. And I really don't have a brain to entertain er... the not so bright people who whine and whine when things do not go their way. And mind you, I'm not that intelligent to begin with. So imagine, what kind of people that I have to deal with... ooh whatever!

"A common problem at the workplace is confusing activity with accomplishment or results. That's probably why we spend hours on end in meetings, engaging in verbal jousting and exchange of semantics, completely oblivious to one simple fact: all the running around doesn’t really get us anywhere.Activities are often just cosmetic. At the end of the day, it’s the results that matter, you know." - a wise word from The Kimster.

But then again, this is life! Deal with it, right?

Spicing up Khutbah Jumaat? Can ...?

The truth is, more often than not khutbah Jumaat, week in and week out, do send many people to sleep. Paling tidak pun most will day dream rather than paying attention to the content of the khutbah.. and don't me get started on how noisy the kids can be at the back of the congregation.
Too bad really and this is what we get if an Imam is required to read a prepared khutbah that simply does not interest many people (think RTM's talk show). Yeah, maybe they can't do much about it, but then again the Imams can certainly spice up his sermon a little.. here and there. Just to jolt the jemaah...like what this one Imam, apparently in mid-west USA, who got up after one Friday prayers and announced to the people:
"I have good news and bad news. The good news is, we have enough money to pay for our new building program. The bad news is, it's still out there in your pockets."
But then again, boleh ker our Imams say something like this? Silap haribulan kena buang kerja. Eh, tak payah lar ekk?