An Embarrassing Moment

He mistook another woman for yours truly….

I was wearing a blue tight jeans with a light blue shirt neatly tucked in with a black leather belt and we were out to buy groceries at a supermart nearby. Zul was browsing the fruits section enjoying the fresh smell of mangoes arranged in rows in front of him when I decided to get myself a pack of fresh milk from another section.

As I made my way I heard him saying, “Hey Sweetheart, let's get these, they look fresh and yummy".(Hmmm…..bile nak stop panggil aku s/heart)

 Maybe he didn’t notice I had crossed over to another shelve nearby and thinking I was still beside him, he reached for ‘my’ hand, pulling ‘me’ nearer when a fairly loud voice with a heavy accent startled him, (We don’t speak their language) but I think maybe he means “WTH!!!! Why are you holding my wife’s hand?”

I turned to look at him wide eyes …a hand over my mouth as to stop myself from laughing out loud! He was holding another woman's hand, she too wearing a blue shirt similar mine, but black jeans. Noticing she was not me he pulled back releasing her hand with apologies while she and her husband were glaring at him.

He  apologised again and again,  spoke in English, "Sorry, I thought she my girl friend" I immediately walked towards them and in seconds I was standing beside him smiling to the couple. A bunch of other shoppers were staring at us. Zul then pointing at me and her, both in blue shirt but hers was in darker shade.

It was a genuine mistake by Zul and on realizing it, both of them started laughing. Zul smilingly shook hands with both of them repeatedly saying 'sorry'. She replied in English, “It okay, I blue, she also blue". (Lain macam jer bunyinyer… blue, blue ni)

I guess Zul’s big framed and his much taller in height had stopped him from being hit by her hubby. He is about 5'4" and of a small built.

 If I were her I would have given Zul few flying kicks……

Daunting tasks.....ehemmm.

I have never been very good at cooking.

I was more of a nuisance than a helping hand whenever I am in the kitchen. Mom would be happier for me to be lounging in front of the tv either watching Tom and Jerry or Sesame Street than to be wandering about in 'her' kitchen. This belief that I can do no good or nuisance in the kitchen has long been instilled in my subconscious mind. To further embed this belief, I was away at the age of 12 to a boarding school more than 300km from home with no access to a 'live' kitchen (other than the school canteen and dining hall which access to the kitchen area was equally denied except for staff only), how can you expect one to bloom into a good cook?

When I was in college, I read about this concept of "self fulfilling prophecy" in Psychology 101. Self-fulfilling prophecy is, in the beginning, a statement, a prediction or a false definition, of a certain situation, the person believing this prophecy then evokes certain behavior or alters his or her action which turns the original false conception to become 'true'.

We were on a week break from work  and were staying in hideaway NVB not far from NT for a day while waiting for our family members coming from KL. After two months of o/s work and was fed food cooked by experienced chef daily, I bought a few packs of dried noodles …. this could be a window of opportunity for me to hone my culinary skills since there’s no bibik/mama or buffet menu and non of us knew where to get Muslem halal food here.

Honestly, at that point, I only thought of boiling the noodles and mix them with Prego spaghetti sauce garnish with fresh veges nothing would go wrong while cooking a simple dish. But a  suggestion by Zul, helped pushed me to a new frontier altogether. We went to Vinamilk shop centre to get more fresh veges and other suitable ingredients.

Could it be my next fear factor challenge?!

Hahahahaha…..In times like this, when faced with daunting tasks that could bring tears to my eyes (chopping onions was my greatest fear)......I passed the aprons to Zul and Adel and they happily cooked dinner for  three while i dozed off...... hmmmmmm.

Happy Mother's day.....I luv u mom !!

I didn’t know what to expect from the accommodation bookings and activities schedules when we arrived in HCMC because they were all done by Zul online.. Usually when I travel alone I will just go to Wikitravel and get some important information like how to go to town from the airport the cheapest way and where to get budget stay guesthouse. 

But  when  our  moms and Billi tagged along, Zul will do these things   perfectly !!!  this time with a little bit more information from Komar (who is like a PR here…we were in YNT the second night o/s) and his new friend Ben from Koolred.com, I was a bit more confident and have less butterflies in my stomach. Here we met up with Billi, mine and his mom. Papa arrived two days latter and ordered us to move from GH Saigon where we been staying for two nights to PR Saigon for another 4 nights. ‘Sorry Niy…we have to cancel our stay in Pham Ngu Lao area , where the famous backpackers area is,’ Zul said. What a disappointment for me. Hmmmm……

We took the 152 bus to town. Only 3000VND( RM1.50)

The bus was air-conditioned and very comfy. It was a little bit tricky to locate it as very less people speak English and  it took about 30mnts, in the bad traffic to reach town centre.

HCMC have nice cafes and excellent coffee !!!

Who could resist a mug of  Viet coffee? One of the 1st thing mom did was to try all the coffee they have in Vietnam; whether its the roadside stall or the cafe’s coffee. Yeah...she got to try ‘em all because she just love all the coffee. I wasn’t feeling very well, with starting to get sore throat and had to be careful with whatever I ate and drank, coffee ?   No thanks !!

A day before I went back to my post, mom bought dozens of them back from the Ben Thanh market for some friends back in KL.

                              The traffic – thousands of motorbikes!

Ben, the new friend Zul got to know from Koolred.com picked us up for dinner and we were on a 1 hour bike tour around the city after dinner. 1 hour on bike – I think I lost some celullite on my ass! And I got leg cramps too!! But it was worth it. It was an experience that not many people would experience. It will be different to walk or to take a cab and I wasn’t expecting it at all.

The next morning, Ben picked us up at 8.30 and he brought a friend to join us for breakfast. He brought us to a halal food place which was located in the compound of a mosque. On the next day he took us to  another halal place for lunch, which was located in the compound of another mosque!  Besides Ben there are definitely lots more people who are nice out there!!

A visit to the War Remnant Museum is a must!

He brought me to two museums. One of it was the War Remnant Museum.  After being in there for about 30min, I felt sick. I could feel the pain and sufferings of these people and what they have gone through during the war.

Returning back to my post from HCMC, I brought back new memories, new experience and new friendship. If last year, I met a new friend onboard the flight whom I am still in touch until now, this year I made new friends in HCMC but too bad I didn’t get the chance to find this one particular place, where pictured a luvly lady seated in between banana leaves  the similar one I seen in one of the pix Am took when he was here..

On our final night, we celebrated moms day in advance, a simple dinner together since both of us will be working o/s on Mothers Day…….and I had something nice from Billi and I will share it with all of you on Mother's Day....

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO ALL MOMS

SAYA TAHU SYARAT2NYA

Allahu Rabbi...

bagaimana hendak ku mulakan ‘saya tahu syarat2nya’?

Terlalu banyak yang berlaku dalam tempoh sembilan bulan aku kenal ‘dia’. Assalamualaikum ‘dia’  ... 

seandainya kau melihatku bagaikan pohon yang tidak tumbuh amalannya, tidak berbuah pohonnya, maka jadilah kamu seperti sinar mentari yang selalu memberikanku kebaikan. Umpama cahaya sang mentari yang berfungsi membantuku untuk berdiri teguh dengan akar yang kuat. Semoga aku bisa menjadi pohon yang banyak bermanfaat dan memberikan keberkahan buat orang lain.

Pertama kali melihat fotonya beberapa bulan lalu(die masih seorang gadis cilik berusia 9 tahun) Comel, bermata bulat tapi redup, bibir nipis fotokopi mata dan bibir ayahnya. Sekali lagi terlihat fotonya bulan lepas dia sudah nampak dewasa terserlah keayuan di wajahnya namun bibir masih senipis dulu renungan mata masih seredup dulu saling tak tumpah ukiran wajah ayahnya

TIBA2 ku punya sebuah cita-cita...

dan berharap bukanlah sekadar angan-angan yang menjadi khayalan....dan aku juga faham apa syarat2 ‘dia’….

Pada mulanya terlintas untuk ambil jalan pintas….satu malam, satu perkongsian saat bersamanya mampu menghasilkan seorang lagi Manda seiras dia namun aku faham apa syarat2nya kerana baginya tiada jalan pintas dan tidak akan ada perkongsian saat itu selagi tidak ade ikatan kukuh atas landas syariat. Manda harus ada sejarah perkongsian sah seorang ayah dan ibu…  Saat itu aku bertanya pada diri sendiri mampu kah aku menjadi isteri yang baik sedangkan sejarah silam mencatatkan aku tewas sebagai isteri terbaik buat seorang suami. Namun naluri keibuan tetap kukuh dari hari pertama aku bergelar ibu dan aku tidak akan berfikir dua kali untuk menyemadikan perasaan itu berulang kali walau untuk sepuluh orang  anak lagi…namun dia tetap teguh berpegang pada syarat yang digarisnya dan saya tahu syarat2nya……  .

Satu lagi alternatif....perkongsian contract atas persetujuan bersama iaitu gugur taraf aku sebagai isterinya yang sah apabila aku melahirkan seorang Manda lagi.

Ya.....memang aku tahu syarat2nya.