Have a wonderful birthday to the two of my beloved friends, Tahirah Mohd Nasir (Happy 15th birthday!) and Maryam Balqis (Happy 13th birthday!)

I would also like to wish a happy belated birthday to my dear friend Sofia Sultana who had turned twelve yesterday.

May Allah bless you all and have a great year ahead!

My siblings and I performed at the Maal Hijrah Carnival 1431. The carnival was held at the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Mosque in Shah Alam, Selangor and was organised by the Jabatan Agama Islam Selangor (JAIS) and it goes on for one week.

Our performance was on the 2nd of Muharam (last saturday) or 19th December. According to the schedule, the performance is supposed to start exactly at 2:30 p.m. but it was postponed for a few minutes since there was a thundering storm. We sang 3 songs together:

1- The Khalifah Song

2- Animals Love To Hear Qur’an (written by Dawud Wharnsby Ali)

3- Alhamdulillah (also written by Dawud Wharnsby Ali)

I guess the best part was when Ali made the bird sound at the end of the song animals love to hear Qur’an.

My dad will upload the video on YouTube later but the video is a bit noisy made by the blower of the inflatable tent. I’ll tell you when he does.

WE ARE GOING TO PERFORM AT KARNIVAL MAAL HIJRAH (MAAL HIJRAH CARNIVAL) AT SHAH ALAM TOMORROW!

Where: Dataran Masjid Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, Shah Alam

When: Tomorrow at around 2:00p.m.

My siblings and I are going to perform a few songs together and I hope some of you could come and show us your support . For more information on the occasion, please refer here (CLICK).

Here are some photos of the rehearsal earlier today:

!!!SEE YOU THERE!!!

My dearest sister, Anisah Afifah (or better known at home as Fah or Kafah), had just turned 9 on the 5th December, 2009. This poem is especially written as a birthday gift for Fah .

On the 5th December 2009,

Everybody seems to be very kind,

I do not need to wonder why,

Although it’s suppose to be a surprise.

Because it is my birthday today!

I saw my presents on the floor yesterday,

They were waiting patiently as I had my dinner,

But still, I can always check my calender.

I’ve got a Hello Kitty Jigsaw puzzle,

From mum in a really, really big parcel,

And the beads weaving machine from dad,

Is the best present I’ve ever had.

Don’t be sad Kaman and Kashah too,

I also love my fishes from you,

And thanks for the dresses you gave me, Ali,

I’m really happy and as glad as can be!

What should I make?

Should I draw or paint?

Make a glittering card?

Oh, but that’s hard.

A watercolour painting!

Of the seaside in the evening!

It would remind Sister Arwa

Of her visit to Malaysia.

But I don’t paint that well,

Oh, the flowers from the hotel!

For Aunty Yaman!

Yes, that would be fun.

No, flowers I cannot draw,

Especially those that we saw,

A portrait of Ali for Uncle Osman?

So he can see Ali from Sudan?

The ideas came and away they leave,

I still can’t think of what to give.

After an hour of nothing but waiting,

I finally have thought of something

I guess it’s the best I could come out with,

This piece of poem shall be my gift.

I came across this article from Yahoo! buzz and I wish to share it with all of you.  Apparently on the 1st December, 2009 (two days ago) some people managed to see a ring surrounding the moon. Here is what I read from the article:

Surrounded by trees and a building, the moonlight forms a ring over Macedonia's capital Skopje, in this photo. This sight occurs when high thin clouds (cirrus) containing millions of tiny ice crystals cover much of the sky. Each ice crystal acts like a miniature lens. Because most of the crystals have a similar elongated hexagonal shape, light entering one crystal face and exiting through the opposing face refracts 22 degrees, which corresponds to the radius of the Moon Halo.

How I wish I was able to see it. I just hope that one day I might come across something as beautiful as this glowing ringed moon!

On the 11th October 2009, we had a wonderful picnic with dad’s old friends from his university days at the Southern Illinois University, Carbondale (click here to see their blog).Their special guest was Uncle Osman from Khartoum, Sudan who was on a two weeks trip to Malaysia with his wife, Aunty Yaman and daughter, Sister Arwa. The picnic was held at the Taman Tasik Ampang Hilir, a beautiful lake park which was newly opened to the public two months ago.

We arrived there at 8:00 a.m. It was still early so mum allowed my siblings and I to run to the nearby playground. I spent a long time on the swing (which I love best). I made a huge improvement on the ‘monkey-bars’. Now I could amazingly swing to the fourth bar without falling down the moment I reached out to grab the second bar. I also had a nice chat with Sister Arwa.

After an hour or two at the playground, mum sent Uncle Moslim’s daughter, Hadibah, to inform me that it is time to eat. And through that quick conversation, I knew I had made a new friend. After calling for my brother and sisters, we raced back to the picnic area. Over there I saw Pak Cik Borhan, Uncle Megat, Uncle Moslim, Uncle Raof, Uncle Fauzan and some of those whose names I don’t know. I also met Arif again (refer to ‘Going To Melaka’) who introduced me to his sister Hafsah.

The food was great. Mum cooked (what she called) ‘Italian Styled Pasta’ and Uncle Borhan brought ‘Nasi Lemak’ bought from ‘On The Run’ (which happens to be my favourite). There were also some Malaysian special layered cakes but after a heap plate of pasta and a pack of ‘Nasi Lemak’, I was just too full to eat anything else.

After we were done, I quietly rushed back to the playground to play with my new friends; Uncle Moslims kids, Hadibah (14), Aliah (12) and Ibrahim and Uncle Fauzan’s kids, Arif (9) and Hafsah (5). You couldn’t imagine how packed the small playground was with 10 of us plus a lot more of other kids.

Then, our parents called us back and we snapped photos as a remembrance of our lovely gathering. We all had a great time and I hope that we could meet again some other time.

EID MUBARAK…

…to all muslims and may Allah bless us always.

Ramadhan Mubarak to all muslim readers worldwide. Last year, I wrote a post entitled ‘Bubur Lambuk Kampung Baru’ (please click here to read more). Bubur lambuk is the tastiest food for iftar and the bubur lambuk given away by the Kampung Baru Mosque/Masjid Jamek is the best amongst all. People from all over KL came for the bubur lambuk. And what makes bubur lambuk more special is that bubur lambuk is only available in the holy month of Ramadhan.

This afternoon, my family and I went to Kampung Baru to buy some of Aunty Sham’s tasty bubur lambuk. When dad

called Aunty Sham, she said that she was not at her stall but at the back of the mosque. Mum and I went to meet her at the tent number 8. She voluntered herself as one of the bubur lambuk cooks at the Kampung Baru Mosque for the ‘Majlis Perasmian Bazar Ramadhan’ this evening. There were abundant of bags of bubur lambuk. I guess there would be around a  thousand containers of bubur lambuk to be given away.

So if you are living somewhere near KL, hurry up and get yourself some of the tasty bubur lambuk now!

Over a hundred years ago, my great, great grandfather, Abdullah Al-Yunani came to Kuala Terengganu from China and decided to stay there. He opened a bookstore named Abdullah Al-Yunani or better known to the locals as ‘Keda Buku Pok Loh Yunang’. Ask a person who was brought up in Kuala Terengganu, most of them would know the bookstore and they might even tell you that the shop was where they bought their schoolbooks long, long time ago. [Read what Awang Goneng wrote about it here]

Over a century, the business grew from a simple bookstore selling newspapers, a few kitabs (religious books) and some other books to a fully air-conditioned modern bookstore offering WiFi service. In the 1970s the bookstore was renamed Kedai Buku Ahmad Omar and later to Alam Akademik Sdn Bhd.

My grandfather, Ahmad Omar bought the shophouse more than 30 years ago but was forced to surrender the  land to the state government for only RM200, 000 (because of land acquisition)! Did we agree to such a low price for the freehold prime land right by the very main street of the town? Of course we did not; in fact my grandfather had never ever wanted to sell the shophouse for what ever price for the shophouse means so much to him. But what choice did he has when it came to land acquisition by the state government?

My grandparents complained the matter to the Terengganu Chief Minister (at the time), Tan Sri Wan Mokhtar Ahmad and he promised that the shophouses’ owners will be offered to buy new shophouses at a very special price (as part of the deal) to compensate our lost, as the RM200,000 paid to us was far below the market price at the time. He also promised us that the government will let us stay in the building until they provide us a new place in the area. Trusting that Tan Sri Wan Mokhtar’s words as official promises by the Terengganu state government, my grandfather did not make any further official complain. Furthermore as a strong UMNO supporter, my grandfather trusted the Barisan Nasional state government fully and never ever imagine that UMNO will disown their promises even though it was not made on paper!

My grandfather used to work overseas for the first Malaysian Prime Minister YM Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj as a diplomat with minister’s status and later joined the politics as a state assemblyman and also as the political secretary to the (then) Chief Minister, Tan Sri Ibrahim Fikri. And for the sake of UMNO my grandfather had no choice but to accept the offer without making a legal complain.

On the 19th July, 2009, 34 shopkeepers in Jalan Bandar and Jalan Banggol, Kuala Terengganu (including Alam Akademik) received a notice from the Lembaga Tabung Amanah Warisan Negari Terengganu to vacate the shophouses before 13th August, 2009. [Read about it in my previous posting here] When we questioned the notice and the promises made by the state government years ago at the time we were forced to surrender our land to the state government for a mere RM200,000; they said that they are not responsible of providing us a place to move to and have the right to force us out since the land is now theirs. What happened to all of the sweet promises they made before?

The sad news was that the LTAWNT or the ’supposedly’  heritage board of the state of Terengganu  is planning to demolish the heritage row to widen the road and to build new building in the name of modernisation. Isn’t it odd that the heritage board do not seems to understand the value of heritage? When the other states of Malaysia such as Melaka, Pulau Pinang (Penang) and the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur are proud to restore their heritage buildings, the Terengganu heritage board looked at the heritage building as an eye sore. How sad…..Who can we trust to protect our heritage then? The heritage row is still standing strong and beautiful; and still fit for business. And what about the historical value of the building?

As Uncle Awang Goneng wrote in his blog ‘Kecek Kecek‘, ‘Now they are planning to pull down a row of shophouses in Kedai Payang, buildings that are more than a hundred years old that are still fit for purpose and need, at most, a tender loving touch and a coat of colour. Thus our history can be saved.’

The Terengganu state government had already destroyed lots of heritage  historical buildings to make way for new buildings. They claimed that they are building a modern ‘city’ and they do not want ‘old and shabby’ buildings in the city of Terengganu. If they are trying to say that the shophouses looked old and shabby, think again. It does NOT look shabby at all, in fact its quality is even better than the new ‘modern’ buildings which are facing problems (including those that collapsed) as we can see day after day. The state government should instead use the fund to restore and beautify the heritage row and protect the heritage historical building for its invaluable historical value to the people of Terengganu.

The reason why the government cannot see all these is because they are all money-driven. They are greedy and materialistic, all they think of is money, money, money. [see various comments on Kecek-kecek's Mabuk Kepayang]  And not even one assemblyman nor their representatives (except one from the opposition party) came to visit us. It was reported in the newspaper that the Chief Minister Y.A.B. Dato’ Ahmad bin Said visited some villages and helped them to fix roofs and did all kinds of other things. But why can’t he meet us even once? asked CikguFauzi of MAMPAT (view here on Youtube as reported by http://buletinonline.net/ or as reported by NTV7)

“He is a coward” said one of the shopowners during the many protests held. “Is he afraid of what people may think of him? He knew it was wrong of him to do what he is doing but who cares? He’ll get the money and it’s not him who will suffer… it’s us“. To all those out there who care enough for the heritage and history, please help us to preserve the place. You could ask help from organisations, NGOs or perhaps inform this to a person you know. The least you can do is perhaps to write about it and spread the message. You’ll never know how powerful words can be.

Read news and articles on “Selamatkan Warisan Sejarah Trengganu – Save Our Historical Heritage“