Books, books and more books

Prompted by my elder son who told us that he would be visiting the Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair at PWTC last weekend, we also follow suit by paying a visit there as well.

Though we didn't meet him there but the thousands of people thronging the place is evidence of the fast changing culture among Malaysians where book reading is concern.

The Book Fair which is still on until the 13th of April is certainly a place to be as you would be able to find all sorts of books, most of them on special discounts.

Several books were "collected" from the Fair, the daughter got a series of Malay adventure books, the son got some classical tale books and the mother, a few more of novels of her favourite writer.

As for me, I didn't get any for myself as the last novel that I bought had hardly move pages and I'm still struggling to actually understand the plot of the story.

True to being a cheapskate, I bought this novel by John le Carre titled Absolute Friends not because I love reading his books but I just can't help buying it as it was being sold for only a Ringgit! I guess they're just clearing up their stocks but after reading 44 pages, I'm still not sure where the story is heading at. I guess I would have no choice but to keep on reading to at least understand who's who in the story!

Incidently I am now an Editorial Committee Member to the Professional body I'm registered with, so I guess I would have to spend more time reading from now on, just to make sure that I can detect at least the basic errors so that they can be corrected before hitting the press.

Our collection of Grolier's "I wonder why" series Back to the Book Fair, I noticed that one of the most aggressive book marketeer at the Fair was none other than Grolier. Their booths were everywhere, near the entrance, in the middle, at the back with its salesmen roaming about hunting for anyone who brought their kids along.

Having had experienced the intimidation by their salesman before, I tried my very best to avoid passing through their booths as I just can't stand their marketing tactics.

I like their books, in fact I have a whole range of them, bought several years ago, out of guilt as the salesman bluntly told us that he was ashamed being a Malay, a community that would rather pay for Astro instead of buying books for their children.

Anyhow, the books that I bought for the kids are well read, all three of them make reference to the books and my youngest child adopts the books as his companion before going to bed.

I guess between the three of them, the youngest has actually read the most of the books.

The other two prefer getting a book one after the other, all books at one go put them off I guess.

Jasni AJ

I now solemnly promise .............

With the Malaysian education system continue to place a high emphasis on examinations, even at the primary level, exam taking school children will surely have a tough time from now till the last day of their respective examinations.

Among the thousands of the school children taking the various level of public examinations this year is my daughter. She will be sitting for her UPSR, the Primary School Assessment Test for Year 6 pupils.

In ensuring that the pupils and the school are well prepared for the examination, various schools have came up with various programmes to kick start the "excellence" campaign.

My daughter's school, for instance, which has started extra classes for the Year 6 pupils since the beginning of the year, had on last week organised a special meet the parents session where parents were briefed on what to expect and how to prepare their children taking their first ever major public examination.

A special event was also slated where children were made to make their solemn pledge that they will strive for their very best with their parents bearing witness.

Everyone is taking the UPSR exam seriously as eventhough the exam is officially called a "Test" but in spirit it really is an "Examination" without a doubt.

To most parents, this is the exam that would determine whether their kids would be eligible to enter the boarding schools or the premier schools, the type of schools that every parents dream they could send their kids to.

As for me, it is not really important whether my daughter would be eligible for boarding school or premier school admission but I do have to admit that for the first time in their life, this would be their first ever encounter to the word "serious" and serious is what they have to be in facing their first ever challenge.

Whether it is justifiable for such strain is still debatable but one thing for sure, the children are not really competing their own race solely as a lot them are actually proxies to their respective parents.

Is it really worth to be super excellent? Reading about Sufiah makes me think twice!

Jasni AJ

Rubbing Shoulders with Celebrities

Staying far far away from homeland does not deprive you from meeting those making waves back home. Especially when you're staying in London, more often than not you would be able to meet all the more established local celebrities there, either during their holidays or having special programmes to entertain the foreign based Malaysians over there.

Latest to make his appearance in London is Mawi. My brother, Jafri and his family who reside in London met Mawi last Wednesday and took the opportunity to have a photograph of them together taken.

Here's the photo sent over the internet for all to see.

Talking about rubbing shoulders with celebrities, I too had my fair share of such experience with international acclaimed celebrities when I was in London a few months back.

They include, Shah Rukh Khan

Daniel Radcliffe, the Harry Potter fame

John Travolta and Samuel E. Jackson

and Amitabh Bachchan

The only difference between my rubbing shoulders with the celebrities and Jafri's experience is that Mawi rubs back but those I met in London just stared at me without uttering a single word.

Oh, I forgot, they are not real people but just dummies made of wax on display at London's Madame Tussads. Got you there, ha ha!

Happy weekend folks!

Jasni AJ

Warded and Discharged

Getting ready to be transported to the Ward Room If only less than a month ago, she was the happiest 11 years old kid, blowing candles and getting birthday presents, it was the opposite last weekend when she was vomiting and crying in pain coupled with having a high fever.

Feared of having an appendix problem and as advised by the GP whom we consulted earlier in the day, we brought our only daughter to SJMC (Subang Jaya Medical Centre)for further checks. Though the MO at the Emergency Unit who attended to her was pretty sure that it was probably not due to an appendix problem based on the preliminary blood and urine tests, she was admitted nevertheless, basically for further observations and checks.

So there she was, at SJMC for the past two days. And so thus the Mother, staying by her side on a lazy chair.

Fortunately, SJMC provides free Wi-Fi facilities, so the Mother can just continue doing her work online and from the Hospital.

Thank God, there was nothing serious, just some infections that had disturbed her body systems. She was almost back to normal last night and this afternoon, she was discharged accordingly. Thank you to all the Medical team at SJMC for the great care given to our daughter.

In the Ward Room
Incidentally, this is my first time using the Prudential Medical Card for admitting her. In fact, this is the very first time of using the Medical Card as none of us had been admitted to ward ever since we took up the Medical Insurance policies (from none other than my brother, Jazlan) Though I'm yet to know whether I would still need to pay anything, as she was allowed to be discharged without settling the bill (though they still have my deposit credit card charge slip with them), getting things done via insurance medical policy seems to be very smooth. I'm glad that we had made the decision to take up medical insurance policies for everyone in the family. I would be more than glad if it is confirmed that I would not need to pay anything later.

And so tomorrow, everything will be back to normal, the daughter will be going back to school and both the parents can go to work uninterrupted.

Jasni AJ

Remembering those who had left us behind

If at the other weblog, I posted pictures of the newly completed mausoleum of Nurin Jazlin's, on this weblog I'm posting the picture of my mum's mausoleum.

Both of them are not far apart, my mum is sharing the same burial grounds as Nurin does. So now, whenever we visit the burial ground, we would have two spots to visit and recite the Al Fatihah at.

My mum passed away some 9 nine ago on 9th August 1998. Wow, 9 years... how fast time flies.

Her passing away was a day that I could not never forget. She is the one person that I have always looked up to, admired and love.

She left us too early, even before the grandchildren could had the opportunity to really know her.

My eldest son was only four while my daughter was only two when she left us. They are so unlucky for not being able to get to know their "great" grandmother better.

Oh Mak, "Semoga Allah Mencucuri Rahmatnya Kepada Mu Sentiasa".

Jasni AJ

A True Malaysian Christmas

Christmas at Jennifer's Place Though Santa did not visit our home delivering christmas presents for the kids on Christmas' Eve, the J&Fs Bunch was happily sharing the Christmas spirit with those who had the Christmas trees installed in their homes. Right after Zohor, we zoomed to Jennifer's place, our former next door neighbour. We were neighbours for 6 years but I had known Jennifer and her late husband Paul since the day I started working at Mesiniaga in 1990.

Paul passed away about 7 months ago due to a heart attack at the age of 47. And this year's Christmas is the first year the family is observing Christmas without Paul. Unlike the traditionalists, who would adopt a "No Christmas" for the first year of one's demise, Jennifer opted to observe Christmas just like all these years.

To her, Paul enjoys Christmas. Paul likes Christmas trees. And to keep Paul happy, she dishes out all the Paul's favourite dishes. There were Putu Mayam, Fried Chicken, Lala Sambal, Mutton Curry and Mixed Vege.

Jennifer is Chinese and Paul an Indian. Therefore, all their kids are more like Malays. The eldest is getting engaged to a Malay girl, the second married to an Iban of Sarawak. The third and the fourth are still young, so I can't speculate on whom would their life partners be.

So, the family being a product of an interracial union, is very comfortable with more and more interracial unions. And the best thing about this type of family is the absence of any racial prejudices. In short, the family is racial blind, and I could testify that the children in this family is perhaps the most well mannered people in town.

When FJas (my daughter) was born 11 years ago, it was Jennifer who volunteered to take care of her before we could get a real baby sitter to leave her with. And she took care of FJas for more than two months.

When we were there at her home yesterday, she was excitedly telling us of her son's forthcoming engagement and sought for our guidance in preparing all the necessaries for the engagement and eventually the marriage in accordance with the Malay customs.

Though the absence of Paul is clearly felt, the family has managed to sort things out one by one. And for this, Jennifer has my fullest respect.

Christmas with the Chengs We were at Cheng's place for dinner. The Chengs is our current next door neighbour for the past 7 years. They are not of interracial union, but inter religion union. Cheng is a Buddhist but Lilian a Christian. So both Christmas and Chinese New Year are of equal significance to this family. Just like Jennifer's, the Cheng's juniors are also among the best well mannered kids in town. They don't talk much but they know how to respect people, especially all those elder than them.

The eldest is awaiting his SPM results and would be reporting for National Service next week at a camp in Kelantan. The youngest, Li Zen is fast turning into a cute young lady, sporting short hair and contact lenses.

Though we visited only two homes for Christmas this year, it was still a Christmas to remember by. We now are looking forward to Gong Xi Fa Cai.

Oh, what a wonderful Malaysia. Festivities all year round, one after the other.

Till the next posting, Good Night and thank you for visiting.

Jasni AJ

Of Christmas and the suspicious minds

Jaya Jusco Bukit Tinggi
Tomorrow, the 25th of December, is Christmas. Just like in any other parts of the world, Christmas is being observed on a grand scale in Malaysia, more so by those in the commerce world. All shopping malls compete with each other to come up with better christmas decorations. Some have "White Christmas" as their theme, while some with a more down to earth local Christmas scenarios. Posted here are 4 photos taken at 4 different locations.

While the general public seem to be enjoying themselves celebrating each other traditions, there are those in the government machinery who deem it fit to dampened the joyous spirit by barring the local Catholics from referring their God as "Allah". It seems that only in Malaysia "Allah" is an exclusive name of the Muslims' God and therefore can't be shared by others of different faiths. Though it is a fact that "Allah" is the term used by Arabic-speaking Christians when referring to God i.e. God The Father, it is not common though for non-Arabic speaking Christians to refer their God The father as "Allah". Though to a certain extent I do wonder why the insistence of calling God The Father as Allah, when every other Christians from outside the Arabic world associate "Allah" to the Muslim God exclusively, I still think that this policy of not allowing Catholics to call God The Father "Allah" is simply due to the suspicious and local centric minds on the part of the officials.

The Curve
While the suspicious minds are busily at work in Malaysia, their counterparts in Australia are equally busy and more aggressive too. If Catholics in Malaysia could no longer call their God "Allah", Muslims in Camden, Australia can't even have their own Islamic School. To the Camden's community, an Islamic School is no more than an institution of producing terrorists instead of giving an avenue for the Muslim young to learn their religion and therefore be spiritually guided in leading their lives. I guess to some, to have soulless persons is better than having religiously guided people.

I guess suspicious minds will always be around us, but as a plain commoner, my only wish is for everyone to have a nice time during this joyous season.

Holiday Inn Glenmarie
Just like previous Christmas, we will be visiting both my left and right neighbours as well as paying a visit to my former neighbour's place to wish them "Merry Christmas".

Paul, my former neighbour passed away a few months back. So this year's Christmas, if ever they're celebrating would be the first year they're observing Christmas without the man who used to be the pillar of the house. Life have been difficult for them for quite a while even before Paul passed away. Losing his job and going in and out of hospital had taken a toll on their lives. I sincerely hope that they have managed to straightened things up.

Subang Parade
To all Christians, on behalf of the J&Fs Bunch, I wish you a Merry Christmas.



Jasni AJ

About Birthdays and Domestic Tourism

A couple of days ago, we were at my brother's place (not Jazimin's but Jazlan's). We were there to join in the fun in the celebration of his 38th birthday. Nothing fancy, just a get-together among friends.

With "Pulut Kuning" replacing the traditional Birthday Cake, we sang "Allah Selamatkan kamu" song, a song popilarised by the late P. Ramlee along with the more traditional Happy Birthday song when cutting the "Pulut Kuning".

Not having sufficient time to buy him a birthday gift, I ended up setting-up a new weblog for the Jazlan family as my birthday present. Isn't it just cute to have your weblog born on your birthday!

I'm sure he has lots of plans for the weblog (judging from the extra length entry of the write-up on "About me"), so I would like to invite you over to his new weblog from time to time.

The first entry is basically an introduction to the family. The pictures posted are really nice compared to mine which were all taken using only a phone camera!

Talking about birthdays, we also had our own birthday celebration earlier last week. It was my daughter's 11th birthday.

To celebrate her birthday in not the usual way, we packed our luggage bags and headed to Kuala Selangor. It was not that far but as we took the longer route there, it really felt quite far far away.

The main attraction of Kuala Selangor is the Fireflies Haven. Heard about the place about three years ago (thanks to TNB's Raya TV Commercial), that was our first time witnessing another natural wonder. It was really awesome sight seeing the naturally lit "christmas" trees all along the river bank of Sungai Selangor.

There were more foreign tourists than locals at that special place. Can't blame the locals though as most of them are still not aware of this spectacular place. Visit here to get more information on the Fireflies haven and make it a point to pay it a visit soon.

Bukit Malawati is another attraction of Kuala Selangor. Be there to visit the interesting museums, the historical canons, the grand Lighthouse and our "cousins" the primates.

Spending a night there was indeed a well spent excursion to remember the daughter's 11th birthday by.

As today is Hari Raya Aidil Adha, again we're packing up our luggage bags - we're not going far but just to a place where we can just relax and recuperate for the next two nights.

See you then.

Jasni AJ