Sunday 11 December 2011

Lunar Eclipse

Have you heard about this phenomenon before or even seen it before? As for me, to hear about it.. the answer is yes and to see it...no.. until yesterday... yeah, yesterday i supposed many Malaysians were waiting to watch this full lunar eclipse at selected locations or if they were lucky, they could even watch it without using any special binoculars or equipments for the event from wherever locations that it could be seen. I saw some announcements in the media earlier that the eclipse would start from around 7 in the evening on 10 December 2011 until around 1 o'clock in the next morning. However, I didn't pay much attention at first because it was Saturday. That day was just like any other Saturday when I spend my weekend at my parent's house. It was a special day though for one of my younger brothers, Tarmizi, as yesterday was his birthday. Really wish you the very best for your future and hope things will always be better, bright and positive.  Ok, forget about my younger brother's birthday. 

Talking about the lunar eclipse, I didn't realise that that night many people would do things associated with the rare phenomenon until my father returned from Isya' prayer at mosque. As the mosque is quite near from the house, earlier, I could hear the Imam recited a few long surahs like during tarawih in Ramadhan and I was telling myself that there might be special occassion at the mosque. Then, when my father returned, he told us that we were having a lunar eclipse that night and the people at mosques just performed sunnah prayer for the eclipse. He told us that he also learned and experienced new things that night about how to perform this solat sunnat.. It has 4 rakaat and the Imam has to recite a few verses from Surah AlBaqarah during the first rakaat. The verses recited for the second rakaat should be shorter than the first rakaat but longer than the third and the fourth rakaat. It also has khutbah like the one in Friday prayer...wahhh I also just know about this.. I thought it is just like any other solat sunah which normally has 2 rakaats...it is not.. so this occassion must be very special...very very special...

Indeed, it was very special. At first I didnt see anything on the clear sky except the stars and a few thin clouds moving slowly. As I ignited my car engine to return to my own house that night, my eyes suddenly found the moon and the eclipse was in full I supposed. It was around 10.30 - 10.45 pm. I could not stop myself from staring at the moon. It was so unique and so beautiful. The colours were combination of white, yellow and orange. The white colour part formed a crescent like shape while the rest had the mixture of yellow and orange colours. There were small dark or maybe brown dots on the moon. Really, I don't know how to decscribe it here but indeed the phenomenon amazed me and exciting. I watched this together with my father and my youngest sister. Unfortunately, I couldnt keep this special moment in the form of picture as I forgot to bring my camera....waaaa there I did it it again.. forget about important things when the opportunity is there and dont know when it will occur again...slap slap slap.. 

Whatever it is, I feel very happy and grateful about it especially when I found out that not all people who are waiting to see the phenomenon were able to do so. So stop complaining... be grateful for whatever you have and enjoy it whether it is big or small... it is because others might not even have it or only see it in their dreams...


Monday 5 December 2011

Dream Kitchen - Part 1 - The Reason

I moved in to the current house two years ago. The house seems perfect for me because it has everything that meets my basic requirement including the kitchen.. If I said this to my sisters and frens, definitely they will say, hey the developer only gave you one fragile sink and a tap. I told them that would be enough for me for the time being. At least I don't have to do any renovation for the house. Only to fix some lights, fans and water heaters. That's all. Of course I dream of a nice kitchen cabinet but... well, I didnt have sufficient funds after all the payment & fees for the house.. argghh sale & purchase agreement, legal fee, stamping, maintenance & utilities fee bla, bla, bla

Everytime the maintenance people came to do some repairs, their workers always said, hmm this is among few houses in this area which maintain the original fixtures in the house. Hahahhah. When I asked them, what else other house owners did. The descriptions would just flow out of their mouth..owhh they would change the tiles, build kitchen cabinet, wardrobes, change the gate etc, etc, etc. When I asked them whether materials used for the house are good enough at least to be used for the next 10 years. They agreed with me for many things about the house except for the kitchen sink.. hihihiih. so, i told myself, nevermind, i will see how long the sink would last.

Yeah, the sink and the kitchen tap are usable until last August. And it was a day before Eid-ul-Fitr. My sister had assigned all the siblings and in-laws to prepare different dishes for the celebration and to bring the food to my parents house. My task was to boil small packs of rice (nasi impit) for the big gathering. Everything looked ok in the kitchen until I put the pot containing the rice packs and water onto the sink...Waaaaa my sink bended into an A shape and the water from the tap flooded my kitchen.. From that very day, I told myself, I badly need a new sink, a new tap, a concrete top for the kitchen and definitely a new kitchen cabinet. Otherwise, I will never cook again in the kitchen.. (huhuhuhuh does this excuse strong enough and acceptable for me to have a new kitchen cabinet? hmmm my sister-in-law and younger sisters didn't think so. They said this is only a lame excuse not to cook at home lalalalala)


Before
After