Honey and lemon.

Salam, good day. Its been a while I didnt share my thoughts here, which is due to my busy schedule which does not permits me to think and write, to snap and show. And I admit, I was a bit lazy too.

But I keep following the current issues. In the footballing world Liverpool has done a very good job against Chelsea in two consecutive matches. However, football was also hit by a tragic death of Gary Speed, Manager of Wales Football Team.

As I remember, Speed is a strong left footer especially during his day with Leeds United which he won the League title in 1992. English football is gonna miss him very much. 

About me, last week my long weekend (Saturday, Sunday & Monday) is ruined by high fever. I was on an overnight stay at the the hospital bed. Followed by two days on my bed at home. Haha, my long weekend has been taken!

Now I'm in the process of recovering, whilst also preparing for a week long assignment abroad. This must be challenging and hectic. Hopefully all comes good to me and to my family. Tawakkal:)  

Sacrifice.

Salam, good day. Selamat Hari Raya Aidiladha to all bruneidaily muslims readers. Brunei Darussalam mark the Aildiladha last Monday, 10 Zulhijjah and now we are in the remaining days of Tasyrik 11, 12 and 13 Zulhijjah. Few buddies of mine were in Mecca and Medinah to perform Haj, I pray for their health and may Allah bless them. Also, I’m yet to have the daging korban *hint*.

Recently I’ve read an article somewhere in our local newspaper which touches on our daily life, I mean some sort of guidance how to live our life in much better way.

Actually I didn’t read the whole article, but just kind of looking at certain points. It came to my interest it was such an excellent article. Somewhere in the middle part of the article ‘…what is the fastest thing in this universe? wind not really, sound not quite…’. Haha,..big questions in my mind. But what is the fastest? The writer wrote ‘…the fastest is the doa, direct to Allah…’. Allahuakbar, I’m touched!

Did we noticed about this before? Did we noticed how closed is Allah to us? Did we noticed Allah is always listening to our doa? Also, did we noticed that we already have enough and few others are living underprivileged?

Prophet Muhammad reported to have said “Doa is the very essence of worship,” while one of Allah’s commands expressed through the Holy Quran is for the muslims to call out to Allah: “And your Lord says: “Call on Me; I will answer your (Prayer)!”

As a human being, we could never escape difficulties and at times we are also suffering, but I believe not as a hard as the underprivileged. Financially, materially or physically this is what we as His servant have to face in our life. But we should keep in mind, Allah would only test his servant up to his ability.

Beside our effort working hard to earn a good living, as muslims we are advised to look back inside the holy Quran. They are many chapters and verses of the Al-Quran which is very helpful for us, Surah Al-Waqiah, ayat 54 of Surah Shaad and ayat 2 & 3 of Surah Ath Thalaaq to name a few (Please refer Tafsir for the full translation).

Prophet Muhammad said, "Whoever recites Surah Al Waqiah at night would never encounter poverty." Prophet Muhammad said, "Surah Al Waqiah is the Surah (Chapter) of Wealth, so recite it and teach it to your children."

This is the best scheme ever offered, no agreement needed nor the guarantor either. It is only the matter of believe:)

First 16 lines of Surah Al Waqiah 

My hand written of Surah Shaad ayat 54

Fun but challenging.

Salam, good day. Hope abiskita stay in good shape and healthy. Of late I ate too much, heavy meal to be exact. This is not good I’m sure *lol*. A friend of mine once said, ‘...eat to live, but don’t live to eat...’. Please keep this in mind as a motivation in order to control our daily diet. Our very own Health Promotional Centre has put continuous effort and campaign in ensuring the rakyat and residences to live a healthy lifestyle.

However, the past few weeks I’m very active with badminton. Compare to football, badminton is much more fun but challenging and of course very sweating. I love serving and smashing!

During my school days, badminton came second to me after football. I still remember during that time me and my brother with couple of friends played badminton almost every night in an open court. It’s hard to play proper badminton before, we can’t afford to pay an indoor court to play in nor can’t we afford to buy a brand new shuttlecock. But only the determination we got, which urges us to play. To tell you more, we can’t even afford to buy a professional badminton racket.

To recall, we went to collect used shuttlecock at Pusat Belia, Menglait Sports Complex, JKR Sports Complex etc. Haha...maybe it sounds embarrassing but this is the only way for us to get a shuttlecock.

The determination has paid off, my brother has represents his school for the national inter-school tournament and emerged as champion, which is somewhere in 1992-1993. He is one of the best in the school back then, it is very pleasing.

During the time, the Indonesian fast hitting men’s double of Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky has been my idol. I look forward to watch them playing in any tournament. In my opinion, they are the best ever men’s double I’ve ever seen. For me, Subagja is an excellent athlete. His power and stamina has been the key to his success.

Talking about my current activity, I played badminton every Friday and Sunday morning for two hours. It is my first comeback after 15 years lay-off! I have two Yonex rackets which I bought in KL in 2005 and another one in 2010 and never been used since iI bought them!

The new addition to my collection, is the Yonex Nanospeed 500 which has cost me a quite of fortune...haha. But keep it this way, to be a good player you need to have a good professional racket (which is expensive), a good pair of shoes and also a good sparring partner.

About the brand new racket, with the tension measured at 70lbs, it’s highly demanding! According to a friend, the stronger the tension the demand is higher. You need to hit stronger compare to a lower tension racket.

These days, few racket brands are on offer such as Li Ning, Gosen, Carlton, Fly Power and Ashaway. Although, a lot to choose from but so far I’m staying loyal with Yonex of Japan. With new line of Yonex brand on me, the shirt, the shoes and the rackets, now I identifies myself as a badminton player:)

My toys, the middle one is brand new and it cost
me a quite of fortune to get one!

I bought the girls Ashaway's junior racket

This guy is working on my Yonex Nanospeed 500,

with the string tension measured at 70lbs.

 This is my 'playground'

This should be okay!

About Abdul Aziz, I'm yet to get him a proper
kopiah hehe 

Kudos! After days of suffering...

I'm sure they've workhard to overcome the problem.

(BT's frontpage on 28 Oct)

Dirty dancing.

Salam, good day. Hope you doing good and living a cheerful life! Firstly, my appologise if this posting sound harsh but it’s not, my appologise if hits you personally since it is just my humble opinions. Which one do you prefer, the workload given to you or something which is not related to your job but would destroy your career? It would destroy your image if not being handle carefully.
What meant destroy here doesn’t mean totally dismissed from the agency, but you are going to be less favourable. For me, I’m more than willing to accept the workload given to me rather than facing those dirty politics.
Of late or maybe for the past few months, the big guns around me has been acted like kids. Gossips, defame and provocations seems like a daily life for certain people. But one should be careful, ready to face the consequences should the truth revealed.
The keyword here is ‘communication’, when the way of spreading messages or telling story done in incorrect style, something bad would happen upon you. Communication is more than talking. It is an essential part of human life, to be exact office life. It is both talking in a manner in which others can understand you, and hearing in a manner in which you can listen and understand others. So many times people claim that they have no communication problem since they are always talking. However, the majority of the time they are talking "at" and not talking "to" the other person. This is resulting in the recipient or the 'not-listening' listener to tune out.
The truth in spreading messages would also changes it's way if there is accompany with a bit of cronyism, nepotisme as well as favouritism. Although different in words, but they are inter related.
This is where the head or a leader plays their part in order to ensure the workplace is free of defamation and only legitimate messages to be share. It ain’t easy being a leader, it ain’t easy!  

Dr. Iqbal Unus, IIIT and Dr. Rafik Beekun wrote: 

"...Leadership is about delegating authority, and a central principle of delegation is that authority must be delegated with appropriate resources,  i.e. the means to accomplish the task one has been delegated with. In the story of Dhul Qarnayn, we are reminded that Allah subhanahu wata’ala is the Sovereign. He delegates authority to us in different degrees. He delegates tasks to us, and accomplishes what He Wills through us. But He will not demand the accomplishment of a delegated task without giving us the proper resources to accomplish it. Allah the Almighty says that he established Dhul Qarnayn in the earth and gave him the means of everything, the resources and abilities that may be needed.  The other side of this coin is that Allah SWT does not demand from us what we do not have the ability to accomplish..."

Allah subhanahu wata'ala quoted in Surah al Baqarah:

"...On no soul does Allah place a burden greater than he can bear..."

So, in human terms, this is a lesson for us when we find ourselves in any position of leadership, that we expect the best from those we delegate tasks to, with two conditions: We do not expect more than we know they are capable of delivering, and we give them the material resources and the training needed to get the job done. 

One of the well known hadith of the Prophet is:

“...Everyone of you is a caretaker, and every caretaker is responsible for what he is caretaker of...”

Being a leader/caretaker, you should know how to handle organisation. Good governance is lead by a leader, a leader who is caring, listening and reacting but not twitting. For me, as a middle man it is best not to join the dirty dancing with them. However I’m happy to give my opinions when being ask and my prayer goes to people around me. Hope all comes good:)

@Hana Ita Ghani (C) & @Salmiah Said (R). 
(C) is a bachelor and (R) is just gained a title a granny!
 Search them on FB!

Not as expected.

Salam, good day. It has been a very long weekend but yet an enjoyable one. To conclude the hectic week is the Manchester Derby at old Trafford in which City defeated United 6-1. In other matches, 9-men Chelsea lose 0-1 to QPR and Arsenal thumped Stoke City to a 3-1 scoreline. Beside those interesting matches, motorsport world is again hit by a tragic accident. Marco Simoncelli of Gresini Honda Team suffered a serious accident wherein he sustained a critical injuries. The race was stopped immediately with the red flag and Simoncelli was transported by ambulance to the circuit medical centre where the medical staff worked to resuscitate him. Despite their efforts, Marco sadly succumbed to his injuries at 4:56pm local time. Everyone involved in MotoGP extends its deepest condolences to Marco’s family, friends and team at this tragic loss. Click here to read more.

Simoncelli's pit garage

Also last week, I attended the official opening of Al-Falaah school in Sungai Akar. His Majesty the Sultan and Yang DiPertuan of Brunei Darussalam has consented to officiate the new complex.

A gift from His Majesty, the complex is the school's first very own building after 15 years in operation. Established in 1995, it was housed temporarily at Jln Jawatan Dalam and Jln Ong Sum Ping before moving to another location at Taman Manggis, Jln Muara in 2003. In 1999, the school opened another branch at Ban 5.

The new building has the capacity to accommodate 600 people and occupies 3.7 acres of land in Kg Sungai Akar, Jalan Kebangsaan. Click here to read more.

Taken during the rehearsal with Year 3 students

This is on the actual day. With me is Mr.Suhaimi Gafar, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Development, in his capacity as the Chairman of the development project/official opening of Al-Falaah school. About this man, he is one very humble man! 

Dinner treat at KFC, on my birthday (25 Zulkaedah). 

Taken yesterday at the National Stadium, sprinting out each other! 

Whilst Aziz trying to catch them!

Happy birthday & happy anniversary.

Salam, good day. 17 October every year is the most remembered in my whole life, as it was the day I was born and also the day I got married in 2003. Not only me but my wife was also born on 17 October. Meaning that I got married on my wife’s and my birthday, what a coincidence! Allah knows better and arranged everything nicely for us. This is where the term qadha’ & qadar shows it relevance.

Alhamdulillah, my Mrs has never been expecting much from me on our special day be it materially or on how big we celebrate. But she is the one who gave more instead, preparing the food and etc. But so far the size of our birthday and anniversary celebration is enough to cater our siblings, nephews, nieces and in-laws. Not more than that.

Talking about 17 October, few friends of mine were also born on the same day as mine. We’ve been reminding each other when the time comes nearer *lol* Also thanks to facebook’s birthday reminder so then we know our friends d.o.b, very nice of you fb! Alhamdulillah:)

  

RTB retirees Mr Amanuddin Mohammad Sum, 

born on 17 October 1954. 

 Mr Allen Shim Fei Yen, 

born on 17 October but I didn't know which year *lol*.

Dr Khairul Anuar Pehin Dato Hasrin, born on 17 October 1977. 

L.O.M.L...my Mrs. She was born on 17 October 1974. About me, let's keep it secret which year I was born hehe... Also celebrating their birthday on the same day as mine, my good friend Mr Andy Zakaria and Mr Kimi Raikkonen (F1 driver). But the thing is, I never took picture with both of them hehe... Alright guys, enjoy your birthday!

  

Not below the red line.

Salam, good day. I did have an eventful week recently and most of it is related to my job assignment. Making the headline at my work place last week is the new ruling on the office attendance. Actually it ain't new, but only now the ruling is to be implemented. What is the ruling? I won't tell it here. At first, there is a mixed opinions or feelings among my colleagues. But for me as a servant I have a very simple opinion, follow the rules and don't mess with the boss. Tawakkal:) 

Ahmad Faez (C) playing for TEAM B.A of Singapore. This pic taken during the Tri-Nations Futsal Champions Cup 2011. Actually the kid's is related to our Singaporean friend. Next to his left is Daud Matarsat.

The kid's prior to their run yesterday at Budiman Walk

The run ended up here 

While me & Mrs ended up here for photo as Abdul Aziz tagged along 

Alright, the man next to my right is YAM DSP Pengiran Anak Haji Mohammad Saifullah, the son of HRH Princess Hajah Umi Kalsum Al-Islam. I didn't meet him for years, we used to be a school mate. During his school days, I still remember YAM being actively involved with religious activities organised by school. He is a very good boy and now he is a very nice man, very humble. This pic taken yesterday at JPCC during the prize presentation for DANA Golf Tournament 2011.

My first time back to playing court after years of lay-off. On my right is Rosli Tuah, RTB retirees. Nowadays badminton has been my first choice, meaning football came to second *lol* But I'm yet to get a proper pair of badminton shoes as well as a new racquet. Enjoyable!

Making some huge skin, soon after Liverpool defeated Everton by 2-0!  

Dinner treat for Sa'adah's 5th birthday on the 20 Sept 

Hi 5! 

Family pic as a tradition