Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Placing blame

M was telling me yesterday about the death of N’s grandchild.

“Budak tu kene buat orang. Orang buat maknya masa dia mengandung dah tu sampai ke anaknya bila anak tu keluar.”

“Mula-mula baby tu kene apnea. Mereka bawa ke hospital. Hospital check semua kata takde apa-apa, mereka bawa baby tu balik.”

“Lepas 3 hari baby tu meninggal.”

In this instance I feel that its a predetermined thing. Isn’t life and death predetermined by our creator? To blame it on the evil doing of another human being especially if there isn’t any concrete proof?

I am also a firm believer that if Allah does not allow it, it won’t happen. Surely He is the Allmighty and to suggest that another human being has a more superior power over him blasphemous?

But I seldom say these things out. I just let the story flow, nod and take a sip of my tea. I’m not an overly pious person. I just feel that its often way too easy to place blame when we’re experiencing grief. Its not that I deny the existence and the power of witchcraft. Its just that I believe in qadaq and qadar.

Jodoh, maut and rezeki semuanya Allah yang tentukan.

Monday, May 08, 2006

ARGHHHHHHHHHH

Dear friends

I have a dilemma. I have ADSL that works between midnight and 8 am, hours when I am either normally sleeping or doing other stuff. For whatever reason I am unable to login into YM when I can surf. Or I can chat in YM when I cannot surf. Go figure. I apologized if you have sent me msgs on my YM but I havent or didnt reply, thats because my YM logged itself it when I am not at my pc and by the time I am at my PC, the network is no longer available.

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH


Thank you for your understanding.

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Goodbye Lane

A ring on the doorbell.

Lane stood at the door with a plate of cookies.

Hey come on in.

No thanks. Just some good bye cookies. I’m off for good this time round.

Do you have any job lined out yet.

No not yet. I just want to be out there in the free world. Its not that nice writing resumes saying that I’m currently a mad locked up housewife in a compound. I just want to go and clear my head.

And off she went.

Her story is no different from many stories I heard here. Some people just love it or some just go plain crazy. The ones who love it here are those who normally have children and liked the idea of living in a gated community with all sorts of facilities the family can enjoy.

But those looking for freedom to roam about outside, working alongside men and most people normally do in the outside world, well its almost impossible here.

Good bye Lane and good luck. I wish you well and perhaps we’ll bump into each other someday.

Someday.

Friday, May 05, 2006

Pulling my hair out

I've been pulling my hair out in frustration. The net has been largely unpredictable. Somedays I have 10 mins of connection and somedays none. I even woke up at 4 am to surf because its the only time we had the net the other day. Its suppose to be ADSL for goodness sake! Thus I havent been able to read emails, blog hop and more importantly of course surf!

Its amazing how dependent I am on the net these days. Need a recipe? What about the side effects of the medicine I've been prescribed? Whats a home remedy for blocked nose? Google has been my best friend!

So I hope the net is back to stay.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Oil prices went down

Its the buzz. The price of petrol was reduced from 90 cents a litre to 60 cents. Imagine, it normally costs him $105 to pump up his petrol but it cost him only $70 yesterday. How long will this last?

So it confirmed, petrol is cheaper here than water. A bottle of water is still $1.

I haven't written much lately because we've been without the net for ages! Blame it on the weather, the unrealiable internet provider, the phone line that went dead, the techinician who came to repair the line but inadvertently changed the line etc etc etc. Go figure!

And I am still annoyed that not only I can't go to sites that show pictures eg photobucket but now I can't even see the images of the books when I go to Amazon.

I have a few entries swimming in my head and I will write them here for my own future reference:

1. Perception of culture - whats wrong with not having a gender segregated party?

2. Having babies when you're younger vs when you're older - a hot topic indeed on a coffee morning bus

3.Should she get away with it because she is nice?

4. Don't they know how to wait?

Lets hope I will still get internet connection in the time to come.

The hot weather is here to stay. Its been over 40oC for the past 2 weeks. At lunch time today it was 45oC. Yikessss! I wonder how it will be like in August.