Presentation for KLIFF 2004

I thought I would not be involved in preparing any presentation material anymore as we are approaching the end of Y2004.

But suddenly I got SOS call from my partner to help him out in the preparation of his presentation materials for the KLIFF 2004. I was informed that he was 'upgraded' from being a moderator to become one of the speakers for one of the session.

Haiyoo, why this thing always happen when I am bogged down with some other extremely urgent things!!.

I have a love - hate relationship when it comes to preparing for seminar/conference presentation materials - whether for myself or for my partner. Most of the time the invitation would come well 3 - 4 months ahead of the scheduled programme date and give no excuse to decline ot to say that I will be busy or will have some other important engagements in the coming 4 months' time because you just never know whether you will have any assignment in the next four months' time. Sometimes you feel obliged because your expertise or experience is part of the knowledge that God has given to you to share with other fellows. So you said yes and agreed to become a speaker.

Four months down the road, when you are being piled up with all kinds of works/assignments and you are chasing deadlines, suddenly you receive a kind reminder from event coordinator asking about your presentation materials. That's the time when you feel like you want to pull your hair and scream - why the hell I have ever agreed to speak at that conference in the first place!!!.

But since it's not fair to the organiser to withdraw at the very last minute, you soldiered on - stayed up at nights trying to finish the presentation materials and send to the organiser at least a day before your scheduled event. During your session, you tried hard to keep the participants and yourself not to fall asleep.

After the event you just want to go back home feeling satisfied that you have managed the go through the crisis well but at the same time felt that you could have done better if you have more time to prepare(!!!). The same circle will repeat another time, another month.

Deciding what's best

My eldest daughter is entering primary one next year - that's just about a month to go.

As young parents, my Wife and I were sometimes worry whether what we were doing or what we decided would be good or for the best interest of our kids. There is no standard Parental Guide to help you in this area.

So most of the times, while we try to give the best education to our kids, want them to go to the best kindergaten/school, want them to do this and that etc, we always try to understand whether our kids are happy with what they are doing or with what we want them to do.

My first daughter has an interesting character. She is beautiful, petite and has a nice smile but rather quiet compared to her younger sister. She is bright in the school and always eager to go to school. While she never delay in finishing her homeworks on other subjects, she seemed to dislike doing her Abacus homeworks.

I decided to enroll Syakirah to an Abacus class after being informed during a briefing at her school that Abacus would be one of the compulsory subjects for primary Year One beginning next year. Since the classes were to be conducted at the school, I thought it was a good opportunity for my daugther to familiarise herself with the school environment where she would be spending her primary years and at the same time, learned Abacus before the actual school session started.

[However, surprisingly, when I asked my brother and her wife (both are teachers) whether Abacus would be a compulsory subject for Year One next year, the answer given to me was NO].

Lately, I found that she was becoming more and more reluctant to do/finish the homeworks given to her. She refused to do them with her mother and insisted that she would only do the homeworks with me. Most of the time, the works could not be completed before her weekly class.

So last Saturday, I sat quietly with my daugther and asked her whether she still wanted to continue with her Abacus class. As expected, she said no and I agreed. I didn't want to force her to do what she didnot want to do in the first place. She has been doing well during her pre-school since she was four. I guess I do not have to worry too much. I believe that learning for kids must be fun.

Belated Eid Mubarak

I promised in my last post that I will keep my postings short but more frequent. Hopefully I will not fail myself.

This is a belated Eid Mubarak wish to all of you. Maaf Zahir Batin.

I had the privilege of celebrating Aidilfitri one day earlier than in Malaysia because I was in Madinah for the last two days of Ramadhan. Had the chance to perform Eid prayer at the majestic Masjid Nabi before took a flight back to Jeddah at noon. Later that night boarded the plane back to KL. Reached KLIA at about 11.30 a.m. on Sunday.

Just could not describe my feelings when I went out of the arrival hall and were greeted by the sight of my three beautiful daughters wearing baju kurung with white tudungs (even my one and a half year girl was wearing matching blue baju kurung). My boy looked very handsome wearing blue baju melayu and songket sampin. And Wife too looked beautiful that day - you are always beautiful to me my dear.

I felt like I was the happiest and luckiest person in this world. I was happy that my Journey went smoothly and that I was able to perform my Umrah without any problem. Thank you God.

I pray and hope that I will be given another opportunity to visit the Holy Land again soon.

Giving up (almost)

I was thinking of giving up blogging and this blog because I could hardly find time to blog. The thoughts to blog most of the time came when I was busy with something else or when I was away from from my laptop.

Whenever I do have the time, I would spent hours bloghopping or staring blank at the screen and ended up not writing anything. There were also time when my laptop suddenly "hang-ed" and I lost all my post and I got fed up to retype my postings.

Above all, I must admit that I am not a good writer - that's the main reason, I guess. Works and hectic schedules are just excuses.

I have been doing some serious thinking whether I should continue having this blog or just let it die quietly. But suddenly everything changed when I visited Alia's blog and realised that she had put my blog in her bloghopping lists. What a pleasant surprise. An honour in fact.

So because of that I am all fired up to keep this blog going and to do that I resolved that I will keep my posting short and blog more regularly.