Random Rambles of Lotfi

I was in Tokyo last month. Alone... well there were millions of people in Japan but yeah I was travelling alone. Up till the night I boarded the plane, I was still asking myself “Oi! Apasal nak pergi sorang arr? Japan pulak tu... London kan senang? Gang ramai, semua cakap English” Ok panic kejap tapi tak boleh keluar kapal terbang dah.. So, yup, there I was on that MH night flight with an itinerary for 8 days in Japan. No turning back, perempuan! April was my birthday month and what I wanted was to spend it quietly alone. Anyway, last year I had enough birthday celebrations to last me till this year. Alhamdulillah for good friends and family! Sampai Narita at almost 7am. First time in Tokyo and how do I buy a train card? With a lot of asking (ayam and itik bercakap) and hand gestures. Masuk train Jepun at peak hours and everyone in the train is either sleeping, reading, scrolling their phones or staring into space, all except for a Canadian guy and a Melayu Malaysia yang sama2 ag...

I tried running today. Just 3 km. After more than 2 weeks of inactivity after the fall while hiking at Tabur West . As expected, my legs felt heavy and the hills near home that I used to just run up to felt hard, I had to stop 3/4 of the way before continuing again. Hubs hasn't been running for about a month, what with events organising,  the last few weeks. The coccyx felt ok, no major pain. Tunggu esok and look out for any pain.   Am taking it easy but we decided we have to try and run daily till our trip to Turkey to get at least 15 to 20 km mileage done. Yeay!! Turkey! That's finally happening! Some of us from the runningkakis will be running the 15km at the Istanbul Marathon . A run-cation like our Hong Kong Marathon trip in February and Kuching Marathon in August. I figured why not combine a vacation with running? And Turkey in November will be awesomely...cold? We will be running at a possible start temperature of 12-13 degrees..brrrr... ...

The plan to hike up Mount Irau in Cameron Highlands was mooted by a brother, Anep last March. I've never heard of Irau but we told Anep to make plans. Police permits are needed to climb the highest peak in Cameron Highland. Due to clashing schedules, our climb was delayed from March ti April and finally this month. We didn't give it much thought until our assigned guide, a chap called H created a group whatsapp a few days before the climb. Not only it dawned on me that we're physically unprepared, we are also not ready with the right gears for hiking. I started scouring blogs and websites of hikers to find out what we should prepare. Figured that even if we're not physically prepared at least we're dressed for it! This was the list given by H, as per his whatsapp message, 1- hiking shoe (rubber better) extra socks, waterproof hand glove, poncho and slipper 2- windbreaker or fleece (it's cold outthere) like freezing. Haha 3- trekking pole, wet n dry tissue, a k...

View from our daily bechak (beca) rides The aftermath of the tremor in our room... The pool The room I reckon my life now is in between takes, from one scene to another one and I'm taking this short break between the 2. After a few days break in Medan...am now back home. Waiting for the lil ones to come home from school before my long overdue facial later. And I've not been very good at doing this, writing this. This blog was started for the selfish reason of fulfilling myself and I can't even keep to it...Must try harder.. Medan was alright..the place itself was typically Indonesian. I was looking forward to the break, which I got. I was looking forward to nasi padang, which I got, I was looking forward to the massage, which I got, I hoped I could do some running there, which I did, twice, I wanted to spend time with hubs, which we did and what else is there to it? Syukur, syukur sangat-sangat...Alhamdulillah. We went straight to Brastagi about 2 and h...

This is what travelling does to me...the 5 hours of difference in time left me awake at 4am when I should already be sleeping. And when friends came by at around 8.30am to visit this morning, I just couldn't wake up. Nasib baik subuh prayers tak lepas...Alhamdulillah and thank goodness am still on leave til Monday. We arrived in Mekah after the 6 hours bus journey, all aching and water retentioned from the long journey. We stopped in Bir Ali ( a mosque about 6km from the Haram land) for our miqat (niat) to perform our first umrah. After we checked at the Zam Zam Grand Suites,which is like one of the best hotels in Mekah and dinner at the cafeteria, we walked the 400 meters walk to Baitullah...and nothing could prepare me and maybe all of us for the first glimpse of the Kaabah...it was almost surreal..and immediately most of us shed tears of disbelief and awe at this place that all our life we have prayed upon. And immediately all my doubts of coming here melted along...

Salam...Alhamdulillah, we reached bumi Malaysia at approximately 11.02am this morning. I slept almost the whole journey, hoping to minimise the 5 hours difference in time. Woke up properly just in time for breakfast served at almost 9am. We left Malaysia last Wednesday afternoon, a whole 2 buses of us from the office, some with families in tow, some singles and some with friends. Whatever apprehension I felt when I first decided to take on this journey melts seeing the faces that will join me on this trip. I am quite sure they have mixed feelings as I did especially the first timers. Alhamdulillah I was lucky to be joined by hubs, my eldest 'Aisyah and my first boy Imran. They say when you have made the decision to go there, it is a taqdir from Allah swt. That the doors of the Kaabah is wide opened ready for us. Imran, my son up until 2 days before we pushed off was still saying he didn't want to go, that he's not ready to go..How do you tell a 15 year old that ...

Yup, we are in Melaka already. We are staying in this modest apartment, Garden City, which is ok lar I guess.. Sent dad's wedding hantaran to Kelana Jaya this morning so that the hantaran can be done..Aww...shucks I forgot to take a photo of the cake. My friend Diyan made it for me, fruit cake with white fondant icing and butterflies plus gold coloured fondant ribbon...very simple and classy cake. Tomorrow is the akad nikah (solemnisation of marriage) ceremony. My bro in law will be driving the groom (my fathest thing for him to do is really, to remarry. At least, we are comforted by the fact that InsyaAllah, someone is around to take care of Dad. I can't help to think that we are 'selfish' people who would rather have him to ourselves, but alas like they said 'jodoh, pertemuan ditangan Tuhan'. We went to eat rice and the famous Melaka Assam Pedaas in Kota Laksamana for late lunch at 5pm just now. Asam pedas Johor lagi sedap lahhh!! Hehehe.. Then...

Just thot I post some something on my maiden trip to China; Hangzhou to be exact. I was invited as one of the VIP guests by the production team of Fashion Asia Awards, on behalf of Guangxi TV China. It was a kind of a last minute thing so had a whirlwind of a time getting my visa done and other last minute arrangement...lucky I have Nndar who has a travel agency to advise me on these stuff. If you need a good travel agent, get in touch with her...She's a gem! I arrived in Hangzhou after a 5 hours flight from sunny Malaysia...and upon arriving at around 11pm, I was quite surprised with how cold it was...the drizzle does not help as well. It was less than 10 degrees and for someone yang takut sejuk..it was freezing! There were 7 of us from Malaysia arriving in the same flight. Two of them our renowned designer Carven Ong and also Alex Lim, a hair stylist who owns La Mode Coiffure in Pavillion. They were competing in different categories of awards. And I'm proud to announce t...

The kids checking out the tub.. The many keris on display at the "balairong seri" The reception area Enjoying their rendam session Our room The walk from Pavi Embroidered pillow case... Ehmmm, spent the night with the family at the Royale Chulan Hotel in yesterday. Nak pergi tempat lain, checked and all the hotels are fully booked. I'm lucky that a friend knew a friend in RC so we managed to get 2 connecting rooms there. There are reasons why the hotel is named as such. For one, yeah, it really looked kinda fit for the royals in fact when were there, we saw a few fine lookin wheels with mostly single digit numbers, i guess belonging to some royals. There was even a Humvee parked at the front, tho I couldn't care much for the ugly lookin thing... Back to the hotel, the RC's building looks like an olden style Malay palace and once inside I can't helped but be impressed with its tasteful decor of Chesterfield settees, what looks to me like Chi...

One nite trip to JB is officially over. The drive down was easy in Azah's SX4 which is really a cool car and the all the way chat made the journey seemed shorter...thanks Azah...you're a real pal...I only wish you a lot of happiness. and I must thank you for insisting on the Ice Kacang in JB. You said " I'm in heaven" Yeah, I guess JB ice kacang does that to people. So good to see Mak and Long again...and also Aiman yang pandai nyanyi Twinkle, twinkle little star, Humpty Dumpty, Pussy Cat, pussy cat...yang setiap versenya ditambah "ar" - Twinkle, twinkle little star ar, how are wonder what you are ar....funny!! The gathering with the old girls, was...noisy and wet..because of the rain and Rumah Limas Cafe is not so great when it rains...the good spirits of about 30 women are not dampen...it was a real fun afternoon. My old school pal from Primary 6, Aim who left for Sek Men Sains was also there, which was a triple joy for me...Aim, I'm so glad I...

Mak letih nyah... Mak letih jenjalan kat Bandung hari tu , shopping tak hengat, dari satu factory outlet ke satu factory outlet sampai rasa nak tecabut kaki, nasib baik ada Spa Roger's tempat berurutan yang bila dipusing kepala mak sampai krakkkk...berbunyi2 and kaki rasa lega sikit.... Mak letih gi Pasar Baroe (Baru) Bandung pilih baju batik hubby, baju batik cikgu khairin, kain cotton dan jugak kiriman kain sulam kengkawan yang semuanya kalau nak banding dengan kat KL memanglah cik mur, uolss! Mak letih melayan kerenah Zaim yang mencabar kesabaran dan kengkadang ada jugak terasa nak diwakafkan aje budak itu dengan pemandu angkot kat Bandung tuh... Mak letih nyah, bila Imran kata wallet dia dengan duit raya dia yang nak dekat 300 ratus hengget tu telah berjaya dihilangkan semasa kami berlari-lari anak keluar angkot masa hujan lebat kat Bandung tuh...Anak-anak yang kau bawak duit Mesia tu buat per??? Cuba simpan kat umah...selamat duit tuhhh...tak per la tak der rezeki... ...

Piccas from top to bottom : Budak first time puasa bila nampak makanan, lontong kering, asma rojak, the bazaar, air kathira (akak tu kata kalau tak sedap dia pulang balik duit...memang sedap) Diam tak diam ( eh..eh...pesal macam skrip cerekarama plak ni..) hari ni (28/8/09) dah seminggu kita berpuasa. The past one week has been a breeze.Alhamdulillah..Zaim tried fasting on the second day of Ramadan while we were in JB and managed to complete the whole day of fasting. That's it! Lepas tu dia tak try lagi until yesterday and at around 3.30pm I received a call from hubby suruh I call home sebab Zaim call dia nak mintak bukak puasa sambil menangis..tapi dia tak nak makan sebab takut tak dapat duit raya...hehehe...So I called home and spoke to him and told him " Adik makan lar nanti ayah will still give you duit raya" baru dia lega and said ok..Budak-budak ...apa dia tau? Yang dia tau kalau puasa dapat duit raya.. Giler seronok dapat balik JB for the first day of p...