Registration Day for Year 1 at SRK Seksyen 7, Bandar Baru Bangi

Today is the registration day for Ilyas as he is about to start Year 1 at the Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Sekyen 7, Bandar Baru Bangi. Even though the first day of school will be on this Monday, new pupils are required to wear their new uniform today. Ilyas slept late last night (entirely my fault as I had to drag him to the Mines Shopping Complex to watch me playing in the bowling competition) so he was not really in a good mood. He somehow managed to catch his sleep in the classroom during the registration period! After that, all the parents attended a briefing talk by the head teachers while the pupils stay at their respective classes with their class teachers. The programme ended by 12 noon and on our way back Ilyas and Maisarah were treated with ice creams for good behaviour.

My New Full Time Students

This semester I've been given one course to teach, ACT4193 (Current Issues in Accounting). Every student will be allocated a group and each group will be given two topics to present in front of the class. At this moment, out of 50 students, only two are male. One supports Manchester United and another one roots for Liverpool. There goes my hope of seeing all my students passing this course. 

Alumni Sekolah Menengah Bandar Baru Bangi

Photos credit: Mohamad Nazran

This morning I was reminded by Andre to attend the meeting for Sekolah Menengah Bandar Baru Bangi Alumni Association. This is the second meeting held after their first inaugural meeting last year. Since then nothing much has been done. In this meeting we appointed new committee and our first agenda is to formally register our alumni association to the Registrar of Society. In the mean time we will start to get as many ex-students as we can to register with the association. By doing this we can start to organise activities that can benefit our old school and its surrounding communities.

Christmas Lunch

Lunch at Tok's house in Ampang, what a huge turkey!

Breakfast at Kampung Baru

Ilyas, Sulaiman and Idris having roti canai and milo ais

Faculty Sports Day

My first goal, from a tight angle

I logged on to my Facebook this morning when suddenly one of the faculty staff messaged me, ' Are you going to play football this morning?' I didn't know about that because I forgot the check the faculty bulletin. I immediately got dressed and drove to UPM. There are four teams and the format is round robin. In our first match we won 5-3 and I scored a goal. Our next opponent is eventually the overall champion but things could went our way if not because of one major mistake, which is keeping the same goalkeeper. We were immediately behind with two soft goals. In the second half we changed the keeper and I managed to score a solitary goal but the opponent managed to maintain the score until final whistle. In the final match I didn't score any goal but nevertheless we managed to win 3-2. After this there will be several sports to be held throughout this month. I'm only looking forward for the badminton tournament. Time to show off the skill.

Breakfast with the kids

Ilyas with his favourite 'roti canai'

Maisarah with her 'maggi goreng'

Almost every morning Ilyas and Maisarah insisted that we have our breakfast at Restoran Al-Fariz Maju near Section 15 Bandar Baru Bangi due to two reasons: 1) their 'roti canai' is very crispy, and 2) the only 'mamak' restaurant that has WiFi connection, crucial to play Speed Racing on our IPhone and IPod.

Nampak Serupa Tapi Tak Sama

Little Caliphs Prima Saujana

Norita and Nazreen

The founder and the owner of Little Caliphs Bandar Seri Putra

Today is the open day for Little Caliphs Kindergarten at Prima Saujana, Kajang. Joanna's close friend, Norita and her sister, Nazreen decided to venture into the business about a month ago and we helped them by preparing the food for the visitors. Tina and Enol arranged for the tent, tables and chairs. The Little Caliphs founder even came along to welcome the parents and give talk about the program. I think about 10 kids already registered for 2010 January session and I believe more will come once the words about this new place spread around. The house is very big and the rooms are spacious. The toys are new and shiny which definitely will please the kids. They even have their own blog at http://littlecaliphs-kajang.blogspot.com/

Tree on a Truck

Natrah

After Cuci the Musical, I noticed that the next theater performance will be 'Natrah', which is based on a true story about a Dutch girl caught in a furious custodian battle with religious complications. It happened in Singapore in 1950 and the issue was quite controversial at that time. There was a riot and many people were dead and injured. This show is directed by Erma Fatima who just won Best Director award for her telefilm 'Tersasar di Jalanmu' at the Anugerah Skrin 2009 held recently.

I bought four tickets for my parents, Jo and myself. This will be the first time experience for my parents, watching a live theater performance at the Istana Budaya. The show itself was quite good, the performances by the actors were commendable and the transition between scenes was expertly done and smooth. My mom was especially impressed with the huge sets used for the show. Ayah even bought a book about Natrah which was sold in one of the stalls.

Together Again

A wedding in Putrajaya

During the burial of Allahyarham Prof. Badri at the Serdang cemetary, Andre reminded me that this afternoon is a wedding ceremony for Amirah. She is the youngest sister of Allahyarham Firul Ikram, who was our best friend when we were in Sekolah Kebangsaan Serdang and Sekolah Menengah Bandar Baru Bangi. He passed away about 14 years ago. His second brother, Imran also passed away several years ago. His father, Uncle Khalip was from the UPM as well so he knew me quite well. This wedding is the first one among his children so he was obviously very delighted. I met several lecturers from the UPM and the UKM as well during the wedding.

Al Fatihah - Professor Badri Muhammad

I was on my way to a furniture shop this morning when I received a call from my old friend, Andre, telling me that Adam's father has passed away and currently at the UPM mosque waiting to be buried at the Muslim cemetery nearby. I rushed to the mosque and expressed my condolences to Adam. He was my classmate when we were in Sekolah Kebangsaan Serdang. I used to play with him at his house and later on had dinner with his family. Even though his mother is not a Malay, we had Kelantanese dishes complete with its famous sauce, 'budu'. His father, Professor Badri used to teach Chemistry in UPM before he retires several years ago. Before I went to the UK to further my study, I used to saw him walking out of his office during lunch time and there were several occasions when we had chat together on our way to the restaurant. Adam told me that his father was diagnosed with a colon cancer about a month ago. There is simply not enough time to do some chemotherapy and he passed away on Friday in the hospital. This is the third cancer related death I experienced for the past few months.

Anugerah Skrin 2009

Julie received several free tickets to watch a live event of Anugerah Skrin 2009 at Putra World Trade Centre. So I went there with my wife, Tina and Enol. We came early and had dinner at the Secret Recipe restaurant. On our way to the hall, we walked side by side with many beautiful people wearing glittering Arabian nights dresses. Turned out they are the local celebrities but I only recognise one of them, even then his name escapes me. I enjoyed the show especially when Afdlin Shauki is on stage with Fara Fauzana. Their comedic banter continues even during the break, leaving the audience in stitches. After the show, I saw many familiar faces like Ahmad Tarmimi Siregar, Yusuf Haslam, A. Galak and Kartina Aziz. Tina pointed to me several new artists including the one starring in the famous drama Nur Kasih. One thing I noticed is that Farid Kamil is a very tall guy.

Seminar Fakulti 2009

The last time I attended a Seminar Fakulti was in 2004, and I was really looking forward to present a part of my dissertation in this edition. I never missed presenting a paper every time I attend a Seminar Fakulti and I intend to continue this tradition of mine. This time the seminar was held in Avillion Admiral Cove at Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan. At first I want to bring my family along but since Joanna has just started her job, it is impossible for her take a leave. I was disappointed at first but after the first day of seminar, I realised that I would be too busy attending events and paper presentations throughout the whole day that if my family are here, they will be the one who will get bored doing nothing inside the room. My wife suggested that we should take a proper holiday, preferably somewhere nearby like Koh Samui (!).

I presented my paper in the first day and received several valuables comments and feedback. I tried to participate in every paper presentations related to my field. The room is very comfortable and in the evening I managed to play a game of tennis with a colleague of mine. I didn't have a chance to go to the beach or swimming in the pool because there is simply not enough spare time to do that. I heard they will be having the next Seminar Fakulti at one of the resort islands in the East Coast. Time to prepare another paper then!