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Saturday, January 31, 2009

Sabtu Yg Malas

Aku rasa mcm dah penah come out ngan tajuk yg sama, cuma entry tu dlm English....

Asal Sabtu aje mesti malas....apahal?

Cik HB dah pegi airport pepagi buta, temankan si Mat menjemput seorg kenalan Malaysia yg baru tiba kat sini. Dan baru aje call ckp dia menyinggah ke Flohmarkt.....uwaaa....aku nak gi jugak!!!

Rumah sgt bersepah...si kembar main Plastesyn dan abis satu rumah penuh ngan doh2 yg melekat. Dan aku pulak dr tadi dok melekat kat laptop ni....huhuhu..mak yg malas!!

Esok plan nak buat small luncheon. One of the Rheimers ( a title we use for Malaysian who lives in Russelsheim/Raunheim) is going back to Malaysia for good next week. So this luncheon is like a farewell. And we are inviting the boys too...so there would be around 15 guests tomorrow.

I would have to go out to buy groceries kejap lagi. Tp cuaca sgt la mendungnya.....

Malasnya!!!!!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Embarrassed

Just now, my landlord's daughter who is six and lives downstairs came ringing my door. She said something which I could only grab about her father had said something and it's about light. And I concluded that must be about the staircase light that is not functioning and I asked her to confirm again and she told me again and I couldn't understand the whole thing and I concluded to her another thing and she was annoyed! She shouted "Nein!!!!'.
And she pushed my door and helped herself in into the living hall and switched off the balcony's light. Oh! Now I got it! She had been trying to tell me that my balcony's light was on and her father had noticed from downstairs. I didn't know, I can't see because I had the metal curtain shut. That's why my landlord sent her daughter up to inform me.
Hmmm....3 months in Deutsch course and I still cannot understand the simple information like that? That is embarassing.....

Monday, January 26, 2009

Songs from the 80's...how nostalgic.....

I was creating my MyPod Nano MP3 when I have realized that I don't know what songs should I add to my playlist. Yeah..there are so many songs to choose from but those songs are just the songs that you don't want to hear over and over again.
I listen to both English and Malay songs, but other than Leona Lewis - Better in Time, the rest of the latest hits just don't go along with me.
So I felt bored after listening once or twice.

Then suddenly I remember Roxette and searched for their songs. The moment I clicked to play 'It Must Have Been Loved'....oh! I just love it so much. And I still remember the full lyrics!

This song, if I'm not mistaken was the most famous hit in 1988. I was in Standard 4 at that time. But having an elder teenage sister at the time, I was used to listening to English songs. So whatever my elder sister was listening to, I would listen too though we were not so close. I remember she had this cut-and-paste log book where she kept all the lyrics and singers' photos. So when she was not at home, I would sneak into her room and read this log book (she always furious with me for sneaking into her room!)

That was also how I got my English improved.

Then there was this sweet Debbie Gibson.....the Britney Spears version of the 80's, I guess...only she was more sane and talented....hehehe

So I searched in Youtube and found this clip:


Isn't she just lovely?

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Attending Talk

Last Friday, my Deutschcourse's institute had arranged for us to attend a talk in Ruesselheim's Rathaus (similar to Pejabat Daerah in Malaysia). The talk was held to provide information to the foreigners who live in Ruesselsheim, on the benefits provided by the governmet for the foreigners, the rules, so and so...

Photograpy session before moving to Rathaus

I was allowed to bring my twins along and so did some other mothers. At first I wanted to leave them at the nursery because I didn't think they would sit quietly during the talk. But since there were two mothers taking their kids along, it would be difficult to reason with the twins why I was not taking them too.



The kids who joined the talk: Nabihah, Nabilah, Kimi and Naomi

My coursemates waiting for the talk to begin


Inside the conference room


It was good to get the opportunity to listen to this talk. Although it was difficult to grab all the info (as it was presented in Deutsch), but I could understand a little bit. Here in Germany, a foreigner who wish to stay in a long period of time or permanently, is encouraged to learn Deutsch and the Bundesamt (Federal Office) will pay half of the amount for the Deutsch course fee. Anyway, since I'm here just for two years, I'm not entitled for this benefit.
I didn't manage to stay until the talk finished. After 30 minutes in the talk, the twins started being restless. And I was warned that, once the kids made noise, I need to go out from the conference room. So I left.
Lukas had given an assignment prior to this talk. We should be able to do it after listening to the talk. Guess I could be given an excuse for this!

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Babysitter - Part 3

I don't deny that under Kak K's care, there were events of the twins jatuh-jatuh, but Kak K was transparent about it. If they fell, she would tell us when we came to fecth them and apologized profusely. And I accepted that because honestly even under my care, the twins fell too. It's hard to ensure that a baby in the progress of growing up doesn't fall down. But of course, we have to make sure that the falling doesn't bring harm to them.

There was once were very unhappy.....

When the twins were just over 1 year old, Kak K took another toddler under her care. The boy was about to reach 2 years old at that time. Apparently, the parents were not happy with the previous babysitter because they suspected the babysitter's son kept hitting the boy. And Kak K took the boy because the boy's grandmother who was Kak K's husband's friend pleaded.

And things were not the same for me after that because I used to have Kak K exclusively caring for my twins. Mornings usually I would stay at Kak K's house about half an hour to chat with Kak K while breastfeeding but then now with another parents there (they were also normally lingered around), I felt segan-segan.

And then, the parents would always buy junk food for the boy to bribe him to stay with Kak K. He was normally threw tantrum when arrived at Kak K's house. The mother said he was probably traumatised because what had happened before. So the parents would buy him so much of junk foods to quiet him down. The problem here, when my twins saw those foods, they would want them too while I, on the other hand had tried hard enough avoiding junk food. It was also brought problem to Kak K because the twins and the boy were always fighting.

Then one day when we came to pick them up, we were surpised to see that one twin had so many scratchs on her face and the other twin had cut near her eyes. It was really a bad sight. Kak K cried while apolozing and explaining that the boy had first scratched one twin and when Kak K tended the scratched twin, he poked the other twin with something and hit near the eye. Kak K said she had taken the poked twin to the clinic (which right in front her house), and the doctor said everything was ok.

I gulped....I wanted to be angry but as Kak K cried, I didn't know what to say. Since I'm not the hot-tempered type, it saved me from saying anything bad. Seeing cik HB face also I knew he was angry too.

We were thinking : what if it was the eye that poked?

That night we were thinking about sending the twins to Kak K. I knew I couldn't really blame her, for things just happened the way it happened. But with the boy there, I was worried about my twins' safety.

The next day we still sent the twins to Kak K as we both couldn't take leave. And Kak K still apologized. It was sad to see her that way because she kept repeating she was worried we would no longer send the twins to her (which we had considered). She said she would rather give up the boy than loosing the twins.

The boy's parents also apologized to me that day.

Few days after that, the boy stopped coming to Kak K's house. And when I asked Kak K, she said the parents probably had hired maid. But I guess Kak K had mentioned to them that she didn't want to babysit the boy anymore.

So things back to normal.....

When the twins were 1 1/2 years old, cik HB got a job in Melaka and we had to move there. Cik HB said the only thing he regret about leaving KL is leaving a good babysitter like Kak K, and I agreed with that.

Even after we had moved, Kak K still called to ask about the twins from time to time. And when we have time, we would take the twins to visit her too. Kak K has the twins' framed photo (she took them to photo studio to be photographed!) inside her deco cabinet.

Before we came to Germany, we went to visit her and she was so happy to see the twins. Recently I called her and we talked a lot.

What I can conclude from this babysitter matter :

1. Not everybody is lucky to get a good babysitter, but if you have time and choices, check carefully on the babysitter's background or if possible get recommendation from the parents who have used the sitter's service.

2. Do spot check occasionally. Like coming to their house unannounced. But don't do it so often and obvious. They would be annoyed if you keep checking on them. It would ruin your relationship with the babysitter.

3. If you notice something amiss with the babysitter, don't hesitate to stop sending your baby to her.Quickly find another alternatives for childcare.

4. Provide complete baby's necessities to the babysitter. Don't expect they buy your baby's stuff from the money that you pay for their service. Unless if you are giving more and you ask for her help to buy, then it would be different matter.

5. If you are afraid that the babysitter would be calculative one day, try not to let her cook or wash clothes for your baby.

6. As an employee, apart from salary, we always expect that our employer would give us bonus or some gratification for the work that we have done, so same goes with babysitter. It may not be in terms of money, but you probably can give present or treat her with her family with nice dinner or something to show that you appreciate her taking care your baby.

Well, I don't know how is it going to be if I would go back working and have more children. Whether I would get a good babysitter next time or I would resorted having maid, I couldn't tell.

But what happened to Baby Zulaiqha is indeed a sad tragedy. To Zulaiqha parents, I hope you both are strong and redha with what happened. And may all the truth about her death will come to surface.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Babysitter - Part 2

Some people said if you really want to know whether the babysitter is taking good care of your baby, do spot check. I did that too at the beginning but I didn't make it so obvious. The good thing about my situation was that, my office was just a walking distant from Kak K's house. And since I was breastfeeding, during lunch hour I could go to her house. At first I didn't tell her my lunch hour time. But no matter what time I showed up, there was nothing wrong that would make me unhappy about her.

My sister-in-law (Kak N) had bad experience with her first babysitter who was also her neighbour in the opposite house. She wasn't really want to send her baby to her at first, but this neighbour had kept pestering her about how much she would want to babysit Kak N's baby (when she was still pregnant). So she thought why not.

One day, she came back early from work but she hadn't call that neighbour first. When she arrived at the neighbour's house she saw her baby (IN) was on the floor with no clothes on (he was about 4 months or so, baru pandai meniarap). And the neighbour's son was sleeping on the mattress belonged to IN. The neighbour, upon seeing Kak N, was shocked, quickly took IN into her arm and stammered that her son was not well, that was why he was sleeping on IN's mattress (without being asked!).

Kak N upset with what she had just seen, said nothing and took IN home. Then she called her mother to come to babysit IN for several days and later she sent IN to stay with her mother at her hometown. Not to make it so obvious, she told her neighbour that her mother wanted so much to care for IN so Kak N would no longer sending IN to her. In the meantime she went around looking for another babysitter and when she got one that she trusted (based on friends' recommendation) she moved from the housing area that she was currently staying. It was a drastic measure, yes....but she did it for her son. She could no longer believed the neighbour. The second babysitter turns out to be very good that all her five kids were cared by her. She and her family are like part of Kak N's family now.

Oh, I forgot to mention that not long after I've sent my baby to Kak K, I bumped into Kak G at our block entrance and she asked me who had been caring my babies and why didn't I send them to her. I really didn't know what to say, but I said I heard she had many children under her care, that was why I didn't ask her. She was disturbed and said that wasn't true, she always willing to care for my babies if I had asked her to. And she further said that how easier it would be for me if I sent them to her as we live in the same block. I said it was ok, it wasn't so difficult eventhough Kak K lived in several blocks away from mine. After that whenever I bumped into her (which turned out to be quite often, because the time I arrived home after fetching the babies was the time she came out for jogging!) , she would keep saying the same thing, as if she expected me to change my mind. So I tried to avoid bumping into her.

Back to Kak K, she managed quite wonderfully taking care for both twins. She didn't complain anything about them, instead she kept complimenting how good babies they were, didn't cry so much. She also did a lot of things in extra for us, like sewing the missing buttons on their clothes, buying toys and food but she didn't say anything. I found out accidentally. And from time to time she would buy clothes for them.

Anyway, I didn't take advantage on her kindness. I provided all the things needed by the twins and all the baby's stuffs that would make Kak K's job easy. I didn't count how many diapers used by the twins (some people do!!!). I left things like diapers, formula, toilettries, baby's foods at Kak N's, and she just have to tell me when things were out of stock or I would myself ask. I didn't allow her to wash the twins's clothes for I think that was not part of her job. When it was time for the twins to eat solid foods, I cooked myself the porridge eventhough Kak N offered to do it. For me, they are my babies, I should cook their foods although I had to get up so early. Besides if I do it myself, I could ensure the quality of the food.

Some of my colleague compared stories about their babysitters, some of them said they paid less that I did, yet their babysitter would wash their baby's clothes and cook the food. For me I didn't mind paying that much (RM500 for two babies, the Chineses are paying RM500 for one baby, mind you!) and I didn't mind the fact that Kak N didn't wash the clothes or cook the food for I think even with the amount that I was paying her still was not comparable with the works she had to do for my babies. Some people asked me, since I sent two, why wouldn't I asked for discount? Honestly, I don't think RM250 is expensive for babysitting, not because I could afford it but think about the works needed to be done. Ask all mothers: isn't taking care of one baby exhausting? Isn't cleaning up the poops dirty? Yes, it does!!! That, our own child. Imagine taking care other people's baby? Now, since I sent two, did I deserve to get discount? Did Kak K get to do less works with two babies? No.

In fact when the twins reached 1 year old, when I paid her the money, she returned some amount of the money to me, saying that she would accept lesser from that time. I said no, I would be paying the same amount as before (unless if she would want more) because cik HB and I were very satisfied with her service. Most importantly, we had peace in mind at work, knowing that our twins were under good care. She was also never give us any problems, never take day off from babysitting (my other collegues would have problems when school breaks come, because their babysitters would want to go for vacation or balik kampung thingy).

And then when the twins sick, which at the beginning I would take leave to take care them myself, and she had noticed, she insisted whenever they sick, don't hesitate to send them over to her. She told me don't waste my annual leave for the matter.

She was very loving towards the twins. If we were on holidays, like balik kampung for a week or something, and we didn't send them the day we should to her, she would be calling and asked where her two sweethearts.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Babysitter - Part 1

A friend of mine had forwarded a link of this blog. A sad story about the death of a baby.....under the hand of her babysitter. She was reported dead due pneumonia (sorry if I get this term wrong) to which later found to be incorrect and the actual reason is not known yet and the case is now under police's investigation. The babysitter is suspected hiding things on whatever had happened to the baby on the day of her death.

As I read the whole blog, it saddened me on the attitude of the babysitter (of course, the story is on one side only, we do not know what the babysitter would say about the tragedy and all the back dated stories of her babysitting the baby).

It reminds me how lucky I was to have a good babysitter for my twins when I stayed in KL.

The issue of child care for my babies had started bugging me while I was still pregnant. I had asked around about getting good babysitter, but until I've came into full term , I still couldn't get one. There were several babysitters in the list but these babysitters were already having several kids under their care. I had considered sending my babies to nursery but that was also not very good choice. We were also thinking of hiring maid.

There was this lady ( let's name her as K) who lived in the same block with me and she babysat children. Initially I was thinking to ask her to babysit my babies, but looking at her character (I know it is not right judging her by the way she dressed up, but I couldn't help it) , I just didn't feel like to. Besides, since I used to go home during lunch hour, I always heard she shouted to the children she cared for and the children always cried. So I decided not to. Luckily I'm not the talking type so I rarely talked to her. Once in a while when we bumped into each other, I only smiled to her.


By the end of my maternity leave, I still didn't have a solution for my twins's childcare. A week before I started working, I came back to KL with the hope that I would get a babysitter. Then, we received a visit from this elderly couple who live in my block and I mentioned about my situation and I said (since I was desperate) I was going to ask Kak G to babysit my twins. The couple gave us odd looks and said 'please don't do it first'. They said she already babysat many children so it's better to get someone else. The next day, the couple came back and recommended a lady (Kak K) who lived in another block to be my babysitter. He said he already called the lady and asked us to meet her.

And we did. But before that cik HB and I had discussed that we only send one baby first to see how things were and one baby would be sent back to my hometown, to be cared by my mother. The reasons were:

1) We didn't really know this babysitter, for one baby to be cared by her was already worrying enough, what with two babies. Call me fussy, but I've heard a lot of horrible stories when it comes to babysitters.

2) My hometown is just about 45 minutes drive from KL. We could go back everyweekend and switch the babies. So it wasn't that bad.

3) We too, were not confident enough that we would be able to care for both of them at home with no extra help. And with the nature of our job that required us to stay back sometimes, I was afraid that things would be

Kak K agreed to babysit my baby. And she wasn't even question why we only send one baby.

So we went on with the arrangement, one baby with us in KL for a week, and another baby with my mother. Friday evening, right after office hour, we would drive back to my hometown and by Sunday night brought the other baby back to KL.

It wasn't easy for us. Especially when I was still breastfeeding (but not exclusively) both of them. At first I wanted to wean them from breast feeding as I thought it will not possible to keep them breastfeeding with this arrangement. But my mother and my sister were very supportive. Since my sister who lives near my parents' house was also breastfeeding her daughter, she offered to help breastfeeding the babies, just to make sure that they didn't forget how to suck while any of them been separated with me in 5 days time. And Alhamdulilah, I managed to breastfeed both of them until they reached 2 years old. I owe a lot to my mother and my sister for their support.

During that time, some people in my office were talking about how could I separate the twins and only take one back with me. Although I kept explaining that I alternated both babies, somehow they got the idea that I only favoured one baby. Eventually, I just ignored those unpleasant remarks, bearing in mind "people can talk whatever they want, but it is us who have to bear the problem".

In the meantime we were confident with Kak K caring for our babies. When the twins entered their fifth month, I asked her whether she would want to care for both of them as I wanted to bring them to KL permanently. Commuting every weekend from KL to TM was very exhausting. And during working days, I kept missing the one I left in my hometown.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Dead Babies

I just want to share an article that I copied from someone's note in the Facebook. It's written by Kevin Barrett who is a former professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For the past several years he worked to get the truth about the events of Sept. 11, 2001 to the American people. He is a former radio host as well.

"Dead babies can take care of themselves. Dead babies can't take things off the shelves." — Alice Cooper, "Dead Babies"

For two weeks now I have been spending a lot of time watching dead babies on television.

Dead children, too. And dead women. And dead old men. And dead young men.And bleeding, maimed, mutilated, screaming people of all ages and both sexes.Disfigured women lying in pools of blood. Children with part of their faces missing.

Crowds of horrified people gathered around, trying to help.

Naturally this has made me angry, and sad. Sometimes I have to turn off the television to pray and meditate to regain my emotional equilibrium.

Horrific as the images have been, none of them really got to me until this morning, when I turned on the TV and saw a very cute, very dead girl-baby lying arms akimbo on the street like a discarded doll, a puddle of blood at her feet about the size of a manhole cover.

Her too-perfect features were frozen in what could have been bliss, or terror. I finally broke down and cried. Big shuddering sobs.

You're not allowed to see what I've been watching.

The zionist-controlled U.S. corporate media won't let you. Lucky you.

I've been following the carnage in Gaza on Al-Alam, the Iranian Arabic-language satellite channel. (Yes, I speak Arabic; I used to teach it at the University of Wisconsin before I was blacklisted for telling the truth about 9/11.)

What's going on in Gaza now — what's been going on in Palestine for 60 years — is genocide. European settlers there have been using mass murder to ethnic-cleanse the indigenous population.

Genocide. End of story.

Yes, I know about that bullshit you've been reading in the Zionist-controlled corporate and "alternative" media.

The genocide perpetrators are supposedly "defending themselves."

Yeah, right.

Just like the Nazis had to defend themselves against the Warsaw ghetto uprising.

What's going on is a war of extermination against the Palestinian population.

The Palestinians, who do not wish to be exterminated, are fighting back with every weapon at their disposal.

Like rocks. And bottle-rockets. Not much to throw against the latest U.S. taxpayer-supplied Zionist tanks and bombers and helicopter gunships and white phosphorus.

But sometimes courage and morality can triumph over sheer military power.

As of this writing, after years of starving the Gazans with a genocidal blockade, followed by two weeks of murderous bombing, the Zionist cowards are still unable to enter Gaza on the ground.

They've tried several times, and every time, Hamas fighters have sent them scurrying back to the safety.

To put it bluntly, David is kicking Goliath's ass. Just like in Lebanon.

So the Zionists, too cowardly to actually fight, content themselves with raining bombs down on the heads of women and children and old folks.

So those of us with access to uncensored media get to see lots of dead babies.

Don't tell me "Oh, they didn't really want to kill all those babies, that was just collateral damage.

"It isn't polite to say this, because for centuries adherents of the Jewish religion have been slandered as baby killers, but the truth of the matter is, THE ZIONISTS INTENTIONALLY SLAUGHTER PALESTINIAN CHILDREN AS A MATTER OF OFFICIAL POLICY.

Don't believe me?

Chris Hedges, one of our nation’s most respected journalists, wrote in Harper’s magazine (October 2001) that he had been in several war zones, but he had never seen soldiers luring children within range of their guns, then gut-shooting them for sport, until he saw Israeli soldiers doing it in the Occupied Territories.

Unfortunately what Hedges witnessed was not anomalous, but part of a larger Israeli policy of targeting children.

An article in the British Medical Journal (10/16/04) concluded: “Two thirds of the 621 children (two thirds under 15 years) killed at checkpoints, in the street, on the way to school, in their homes, died from small arms fire, directed in over half of cases to the head, neck and chest — the sniper's wound.

Clearly, soldiers are routinely authorised to shoot to kill children in situations of minimal or no threat.”

Why are the taxpayers of the United States of America handing the Zionist cowards billions of dollars worth of weapons for killing children? Why is the U.S. taxpayer paying for the Palestinian genocide?

Israel is not even a U.S. ally!

According to former C.I.A. official Ray McGovern, the U.S. has asked Israel to sign a formal treaty of alliance, but Israel refuses, because it would have to define its borders. Since it is conducting an ever-expanding genocide, in order to steal more and more land, Israel does not want to say where its borders are. So it refuses to be a U.S. ally.

According to reliable estimates, our non-ally Israel has cost the American people more than a trillion dollars, including more than $100 billion in direct aid.

And that's not even counting the war in Iraq, which is a disguised war for Israel. Throw in Iraq, and the Zionists have stolen maybe five trillion dollars from our economy.

What do we get in return? The undying hatred of most of the world's population, including virtually everybody in virtually every country that supplies our oil.

Murderous false-flag attacks, from the Lavon Affair to the U.S.S. Liberty massacre to 9/11.

A corporate media whose lies about Palestine expand and expand until pretty soon they're lying about everything, all the time, 24/7.

And yet U.S. leaders are almost unanimous in cheering for the Zionist genocide.

Why?

To hell with political correctness. I'll give you the straight answer — the answer that I've heard from virtually every intellectual I've spoken to during my years living outside the USA in places like France, Morocco, and Central America, where free speech still exists: "Because Zionist Jews, and to a lesser extent their Zionist Christian accomplices, control the U.S. media, the Anglo-American financial sector, and almost all American politicians."

The American dream is dead.

The United States of America, like Palestine, is now Israeli-occupied territory.

As James Petras told me on my radio show, the U.S.A. needs a national liberation movement to free itself from its Zionist occupiers.

When the chickens come home to roost, and the U.S. economy and the empire it pays for finally crashes for good — bled dry by its Zionist-instigated, Zionist-controlled war on Islam — maybe that national liberation movement will finally arise.

But I'm not sticking around to find out. I've had enough of living under Israeli occupation.

I will be leaving the former United States of America in the near future, and as long as it remains occupied by the Zionist child-killers, I won't be coming back.

Postscript:Mike: Are you really leaving?Kevin: Yes, i'm heading for Morocco — wife and kids are already there, i'm finishing up the logisticsWe're going to try to get a place big enough to have guests, along with a nonprofit-run "come to Morocco and learn about Sufism" thing, so yes, please visit.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Mari berdoa untuk Palestin

Picture from Citrasupply's Weblog


Rasanya semua orang sedar tentang kekejaman Israel terhadap Palestin. Kononnya atas dasar mempertahankan diri, maka Palestin diserang habis-habisan. Hinggakan anak2 kecil yg tak berdosa turut dibunuh. Yang paling menyedihkan, kuasa-kuasa besar dunia hanya mendiamkan diri.


Aku sendiri x banyak boleh membantu dalam situasi sebegini tapi memetik dr blog Ustaz Zaharuddin " Menulis ; Tulislah di blog, web, forum anda, ruangan akhbar, majalah yahoogroup dan lainnya, buatkanlah kajian ringkas dan permudahkan penyampaian info kepada orang ramai berkenaan kezaliman Yahudi terhadap Palestin dan sekutu-sekutu mereka. " maka aku pun ingin turut sama cuba menyampaikan maklumat. Mungkin tiada kajian ringkas tentang situasi di Palestine tapi aku letakkan satu link blog yg ditulis oleh seorang rakyat Palestine....From Gaza with Love. Sangat mengharukan......


Terbaru hari ni aku dpt message di Yahoo Messenger yg berbunyi begini:


salam, malam ini palestin akn di bom habis oleh yahudi termasuk masjid al-aqsa. ini benar ikhwam palestin yg menalipon ikhwan m'sia. kt diwajibkn membaca surah yunus 85-88 n al fath 26-27..tolong fowardkan.. ALLAHUAKBAR!!! dolphine cha's: Pimpinan Hizbullah, libanon sydHasanNasrallah meminta Seluruh msulim utk MELAFADZKAN QS. AL-FATH ayat 26-27. MALAM INI.. tolong disebarkan agar Israel hancur. skrg masjid Al Aqsa Sdg diserang oleh IsraelSkutu. buat pertama kalinya roket yg dilancarkan oleh pejuang hamas sampai shngga 50km ke israel dan askar israel yg mati tlh melebihi 50 orang setakat ni- askar israel telah menggunakan semua senjata yg mereka miliki dlm memerangi pejuang-pejuang palestin.Mhn disebarkan


Dan juga mari kita bersama2 bacakan doa Qunut Nazilah (sila rujuk disini)

Aku harap kita sesama Muslim dapat bersama2 membantu rakyat Palestin mengharungi kekejaman Israel ini.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Meine Wohnung (My Apartment)

This entry is like an assignment to me. Only because I had promised certain people that I would write about the apartment I'm currently living. My family in Malaysia are curious to know how my apartment looks like; so here it is.

View of An der Lache : our apartment is in the second floorView from our apartment entrance: the staircase

Living hall

Kitchen

Toilet

Our bedroom

Children's bedroom

Balcony

Trip to Siegen/Aachen

Last weekend, my family and our friends; Liza and Razif made a trip to the north. The destinations were Siegen and Aachen. After so much of considerations, we had decided to rent a car instead of taking train. Though someone said it is a waste and so risky to drive during winter; with icy road and unpredictable weather, we just tawakal. However, we took all the precautions and safety aspects and prayed a lot that we would have a safe journey.


First time cik HB drove in Germany's Autobahn

Germany's Autobahn

Kembar yg asik minum susu


Our first destionation was Siegen, a town located about 130km from Frankfurt. It's the home of Malaysian students; husband and wife - Didie n Nazrin and their cute girl, Ainaa, another couple - Dhyla and Md. Nor and the most eligible bachelor - Rusdy. We stayed for one night there, the guys had so much fun playing WII and I had fun watching several movies. Their house is like an entertainment centre, with big projector, WII (with so many games downloaded!!!) and USB multimedia (also downloaded with so many movies!!!).


Me and Dhyla (in Siegen). Photo courtesy of Liza. The only photo snapped while we were there. X tau la nape x sempat amik gambar...huhuhu


We were supposed to leave Siegen early the next day as we wanted to reach Aachen by mid day. But with the makan2 and lepak2, and another round of WII with the Siegen clan, we only managed to leave their house by 2pm. Tapi sempat jugak singgah Ikea Siegen sbb terpengaruh ngan saiznya yg nampak sgt besar. Banyak juga brg kami beli, nasib baik muat kereta. But unfortunately due to time constraint, we didn't have the opportunity to do sightseeing in Siegen.

We arrived in Aachen after dark. The Aachen clan had been waiting for us with the dinner already served. In Aachen, the Malaysian students community is quite big so sgt la meriah. Cik HB actually had applied to study here but it's not his rezeki to get enrolled here.

With Hatta and his family



With part of Aachen clan


Next day we went to see another friend who had just delivered her baby before Christmast. I found Aachen was much colder than my place; waiting for the bus to come in the open area was very torturing. The cold made my toes and fingers so painful.


Masa tunggu bas....


After the baby-visit, we ate at Sultan's Kebab and by the time we finished eating, it was already dark and colder so we couldn't go around Aachen Stadt for sightseeing. Besides, we need to go back to Frankfurt on the same day so we didn't to travel so late.


Makan di Sultan's Kebab. Quite an experience.....


Since Aachen is located at the border of Holland and Belgium, we are thinking to go there again. Probably during spring, to see the famous Holland's tulips. And Aachen itself is a historical town, with many monuments to see.


I want to see this....


Alhamdullilah, we had safely arrived in Raunheim/Ruesselheim at 9pm. It was snowing by the time we arrived and when I watched TV the next day, apparently at some places the road was jammed due to the snow and several accidents were reported. Syukur that we didn't have any problems throughout the journey and the twins also were well behaved. Apparently the extreme coldness that I experienced in Aachen was because there would be snowfall almost everywhere in Germany. No wonder it was so cold.

Serik la jugak berjalan time winter ni......

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Contemplation

After 20 days of school breaks (tolak 2 ari sebenarnya sbb aku ponteng), I finally managed to bring myself to school today. It was very cold this morning, -14 degree Celcius so imagine how difficult it is to be outside. But then it's a commitment that I had promised myself. And now I'm thinking whether I should continue with this Deutsch course.
Points why I want to quit:
1) Cold weather. It is reported that the temperature will even go down till -20 deg. It's so freezing cold outside. Though I dressed in so many layers of clothes, it's still cold. At least for this week I don't have to bring the twins along because cik HB is still on holidays. But starting next week they would have to come with me. And how pity it is for them to be dragged in this cold weather. But then again, I have applied to enrol them in the kindergarten, which is for now we can't send them coz there's no place and we have to wait. So if they are accepted into the kindergarten, we still have to go out. So this is not acceptable.
2) I've already got the A1 certificate which is part of visa renewal requirement, so there is no need to go anymore.
But then again I can't bring myself to quit because I need to be fluent in Deutsch for the following reasons:
1) I want to be able to communicate with the locals especially when it comes to official things. Last time we had to bring someone who is fluent in Deutsch to foreign office for our visa renewal process. We can't communicate with our landlord; he doesn't speak English and we are bad in deutsch so we need a third party to communicate. It's so frustating situation.
2) I want to enjoy watching TV here. There are so many interesting programmes, latest hits TV series, Hollywood blockbuster movies but all are translated into Deutsch. So since I don't understand, even Desperate Housewives is on the air, I just lost the interest.
3) The twins will be going to kindergarten soon. So I want to be able to speak to their teachers and other mothers too.
Actually when I first joined this course, it was simply because I wanted to fulfill the visa requirement. When I came to this school, the principal (Lukas) said the class are already full; but he was willing to let me join on free trial basis. And I didn't mind because I thought I wouldn't stay long.
But then I found this course is interesting, and I want to stay eventhough at that time I already obtained my A1 certificate so I begged Lukas to let me stay. Lukas was reluctant at first because he said I have to pay if I want to stay and I said I would. Lukas allowed me to stay but he refused to accept payment in full (I don't know why he's so reluctant to receive money from me, probably because cik HB's status as a student). He said he probably would ask me to do some voluntary works at the center, either to help as babysitter or to do office works. Currently the babysitters and the clerks are all his students from afternoon and evening sessions.
And now after 2 months in this course, Lukas still has not asked any payment from me. So if I want to quit, what would I tell him? Especially when he's being so nice all this while......
Besides, going to the course has given me a chance to socialize with other people of different countries. And furthermore, eversince I quit my job and moved here, I find myself easily distressed over unnecessary thoughts so going to this course is actually an escape from those feelings.
Well, I think I should stay in this course for as long as I could.
Ich muss lernen Deutsch sprechen!!!!

Monday, January 5, 2009

It's Snow Time!

I just got back from weekend trip to Siegen and Aachen (will write the entry about it) and we arrived in Rauheim last night, it was snowing. But it wasn't so heavy.
Then this morning when I woke up and opened the window, it was white everywhere and soooo beautiful!
Actually this is not the first time it snows here. The first snow fall was in the end of November but it wasn't so heavy and it was so brief. We didn't even had the chance to play with the snow.
The twins so excited to see the snow so we dressed them up in their snow suit, gloves, snow cap and let them play with the snow on our house's balcony.
Dah mcm astronout budak berdua ni.....
Sgt ler rajin menyodok snow....
But then it took us an effort to coax them to stop playing and get into the house. I couldn't stand being outside for long time. It was so freezing cold.
After lunch we went out to buy groceries from the nearby supermarket and to let the twins with the snow for another round at the playground. Apparently a lot of other people came out too to enjoy the snow.

At the playground

Some people made snowman and some rode on the snow slide


These two who were so fascinated with the snow!


Again, it was so difficult to bring them home and they only agreed when I said that we will play again tomorrow. Hopefully the snow doesn't melt by tomorrow or it would be more snowfall in the following days.

Oh! How I love the snow but it is so freezing cold.....