layan....: April 2015

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Monday, April 27, 2015

February appeared. And with it came my sports responsibility. I was the school’s sports secretary. This time around, I planned to run all the activities within this month. The first week we had mini marathon. The second week was filled with sukantara. This year we were having two extra events, javelin and long jump, to add to the existing events, short putt and 100 metres. Though we had additional events, luckily everything ran smoothly. The third week was for all acara awal sukan: tug of war, football, netball, 1500m, 800m, 4 x 400. It was good that all the events were held in the morning because in the afternoon since late January, I had football training to handle. Time was a constraint because of the tight schedule. Image result for sports day

Nevertheless my plan was running as how I had wanted it to be. Oh, in between my busy schedule, abil was accepted to Malaysian Aviation Training Academy in Kuantan.

Syukurnya. The whole family went to Kuantan in the first weekend of February to send abil. We stayed the night at Swiss Garden and the children had a lot of fun.

After breakfast the next morning, abil registered at his college and after sending him to his hostel and making sure he was fine, we left for home with a heavy heart. Hopefully abil would be okay there, insyaAllah. But on a sad note, lisa’s application to mrsm was not granted. Pity her. But God knows best, kan..

By the last week of February, with the annual sports day lurking on the 28^th, under 15 inter school football began. Thank God I had managed to settle all paperwork and tasks pertaining sports day beforehand. All this endless sports work was so tiring that when sports day was over, I felt so relieved. Suddenly all my worries were over, a big burden had been lifted off my shoulder. And I had achieved what I aimed for: to finish every school-based sports activity by February. Yesss! Alhamdulillah.

part of the supporters

On the day the sports day was held, the under fifteen were playing in the semi against Tok Perdana. I was at the stadium for the opening of the sports day and stayed back for another couple of hours to make sure everything was running along fine before going for the football match. As anticipated, the team won 3-0. And they were in the final for the third consecutive time, against the same opponent, SM Sri Manjung. We won 1-0 last year and lost 0-3 the previous year. As defending champion, we had a point to prove: our win last year wasn’t a fluke. Last year’s final was a thrilling match with equal number of chances for each team, but we managed to score to be crowned champion.

last minute pep talk

On the day of this year final, the supporters, christened pangkalan ultras, from our school came in full strength. They sang songs almost all throughout the match. The atmosphere was spectacular. When the game started, the boys settled down fast. They swarmed the sri manjung half, attacked and attacked, and were unlucky to hit the post. Suddenly sri manjung, against the run of play, struck first. But the boys did not panic and raziq equalized within a few minutes later. It was 1-1 at half time. When second half had barely started, and yours truly was about to settle down on the bench, hadrie the captain fantastic, scored our second goal. We were all over sri manjung and it was a matter of time when hadrie scored the third. We should have scored a couple more.

pangkalan bikin baek!

At the last minute, sri manjung got a penalty and converted. It was a heart-stopping last minute because right after that goal, sri manjung came at us in full force to get the equalizer, but we managed to contain them and became champions again. Yeahhh!!

It was the icing on the cake kind-of-finale for February as I had finished sports activities as projected and the under 15 became champions again.

Thank you God for everything.

champions again!!

dunya! dunya!

Dunya datang

Dunya pergi

Datang membawa

Pergi memberi

Kenangan

nkc

saghir

Thursday, April 23, 2015

yang dah berlalu..

how time flies, kan.. baru je hari tu tahun baru, ni dh nak masuk bulan mei dh. Peh! Pederas je masa berlalu.. tapi memang banyak pun dh berlaku bila di kenang2kan..

January 2015

otw to Limau Kasturi

Was it a happy new year? It depends. If you were to be one of those revelers in big cities, surely new year eve would be a great time to party. But for the unfortunate, especially so the people in Kelantan and Terengganu as well as Pahang, it was a catastrophe. These states, specifically Kelantan, were badly hit by the flood. I was fortunate (sounds kind of irony, kn..) enough to see the damages myself. Because of the flood, school new session was postponed for another week. It was during that week, I together with few friends went to assist the folks in Limau Kasturi. We brought foods, drinks, gas cooker, comforters, blankets and slippers. When I reached Limau Kasturi that morning, (we left home some time after midnite) the scene that greeted me was a heart-wrenching one. I was so gutted that tears flowed down my cheeks. This was the kampung I had lived for a good five years, the place that taught me a great deal about life, and now, the place was no more the one that I once knew. It was devastating.

baju selut

The first impression I got was as if I was about to enter a cowboy town. It was dust here and dust there, dusty everywhere. Right after the flood water subsided, rain suddenly stopped. To make matter worse, there was no electricity and water supply. (it took almost a month for the water supply to be back to normal and until today there are still places where electricity is not yet restored..) I was dumbfounded for a while and I just did not know where to go since the damages were so overwhelming. After regaining my composure, I went straight for my closest buddies homes. What’s left of their homes were scattered planks of wood, concrete steps, ruined houses, fallen trees, soiled clothes, brown-colored cars and bikes, all covered by layers of mud. To feel sorry would be an understatement. Especially so when you consider yourself one of them kampong people. Luckily all my friends were safe, no life was lost, though the damage had been done. Even pok su mat nor, who’s over 80 years old of age, said that he had never seen a flood as great as this. It was greater than bah merah which occurred in the late 1960’s then.

what's left

Except for three houses, the rest was submerged in water. I was told that the water hit the kampong around 10 in the morning, and twelve hours later, everything was under water. Even the train and the station and the school. Cikgu fnd had to move to higher ground for three times in one day. The third time when he took his family to safety using the sampan, they passed over the submerged train, just to let you know how high the water had risen by then. And this was done in the wee hour. I just couldn’t imagine how scary it was for him and his family.

My being there was a mere consolation for the people of Limau Kasturi. I knew most of them, so to meet every single person was a monumental task. I did my best to meet the people, but I was lost for words. What could I say to console them?

kaum

me n hani

In the midst of going around the kampong, I unexpectedly met farah hani imran, ex gymnast of Malaysia, a plastic surgeon, my niece, doing charity work with a group of hospital staffs. She was delighted to meet me there, and I took her on my friend’s bike to give her a thorough view of the damages around the place as well as meeting up with my fellow kampong folks. The sight at Limau Kasturi was so bad that when I left a few hours later, I felt so terrible and helpless. On the way home, we stopped at Manek Urai and couple of other villages. It was an unforgettable moment, this trip.

On another note, abil, who got 3 A’s in the pt3 was called for an interview for a kolej voke course. It was an aviation course with a private college, under the sponsorship from the Ministry of Education. I and my missus took him for the interview in Alor Setar on the 26th. While waiting for him to finish his test and interview session, I went to Taman Uda to meet pak su and mak su. Pak su is a step-brother to my mum. The visit was done out of respect and the fact that I previously had spent time there when I was a young boy in late 70’s. On the way home I told abil that I and his mum prayed hard and were still praying for his success in the interview. Abil was brimming with hopes and enthusiasm. Hopefully God would fulfill our dreams. And with that January was over..