Books, Books And More Books Part 23

Salahudin Ayubi Penakluk Jerusalem, oleh Abdul Latip Talib

Masya'Allah (that is my comment on the book). This is a very good book.

It is Eirfan's actually. I bought books in this series when his B Melayu teacher remarked his karangan is limited in ideas and his sentences are too simple for his age. Thankfully he likes these books and are asking for more.

As usual I read stuff that the kids read - their comics, books, websites, their fbs - just so I can gauge what they are up to and if they are reading suitable materials (and I also read what the kids read so that I dont get lost when we converse and that we are somewhat on the same page) - not just in terms of content, but also dalam tatabahasa, spelling and other important things like that (somehow I sound like a skema mum for a bit here..) I hate books where words are misspelt, inconsistent, bahasa tunggang-langgang. But not this one. You can tell care was taken during writing and by the editor. Printing was of high quality also. Semuanye disusun cantik.

Anyway.

As I said, this book I really like. I suppose it is not too young for someone old like me.. And not too old for someone like Eirfan. Buku ni best sebab it tells about sejarah Islam, namun dicerita dalam gaya yang tak boring (pardon me please for saying this, but I usually find buku Melayu uninteresting. Bukan salah penulis2, tapi salah saya yang tidak begitu gemar membaca buku Melayu - saya yang tak nak berkenalan, maka mana lah nak bercinta.. but I hope to mend my bad habits.)

And history is a boring subject anyway, unless you have a good teacher who can draw your interests. It is all about memorising facts with no visuals or a story line - maybe I should rephrase that, the story is mostly about war. But this novel sejarah paints a very clear picture of the battles, of the wira Salahudin Ayubi pejuang Islam yang berjaya menakluki Jerusalem from the Crusaders after 80 years of the Christians rule of Jerusalem (if you've heard of King Richard aka Richard the Lionheart, then yes, Salahudin defeated him too at the Battle of Hittin).

Seronok baca gagah rupa nya pejuang Islam Kurdish yang berasal dari Iraq ni. . You can borrow this from Eirfan if you like. On a scale of 1 - 10, it is definitely a 10 for young teenagers to get their mind thinking about deen and the serious stuff. And of course for adults too. Bacalah.

ps - after reading this I tapped my son on his shoulder (he is soo busy playing his war game on his laptop) and said yang, orang pergi jihad, pergi fisabilillah. Jadi ke kita main game je kat rumah? He hmmed his response (whatever that means). And I thought, susah hidup anak2 kat pekan ni bila emak mula baca buku jihad..

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Getting Creative

And I hadnt done anything much this long raya holidays. Ziarah friends and family here and there. Cooked my mum's rendang - tasted nothing close like mum's of course. Tried out a new recipe called daging masak hitam - which turned out unsuitable for public consumption..

I have sworn off baking cookies for now, but my sister insisted. So I need to make some, but am putting this off until I can do so no more. On top of that mintak semprit lagi - which I have no clue of making..

I bought stuff for pie tees but no pie tees so far. Bought carrots too - konon nak buat carrot cake - no sign of a carrot cake either..

But I did a couple things I am proud of. I finally finished this kurung for a mother of a bride-to-be. She had asked, dah siap ke baju tu? I replied not yet (the wedding is less than 2 weeks away - she must be anxious!) I tossed and turned over what to do with the kurung as it is pretty colorful and comes with flowers and finally did this. I think it is very-de-pretty. Hope she likes it too.


More pix at my a-glitter aka bling-bling blog here (I know I said I am closing this down; but my own limitation makes me think I need to continue posting photos here.. It's okay if you dont get me, I dont 'get me' myself sometimes.)

Anyway.

While sorting out my kueh raya the same thing came to my mind this time like it did every year - are my containers air tight? I hate taking the kueh in and out of the containers everytime and I also hate having the biskut all masuk angin dan lemau.

I had earlier gotten some pretty decorated bottles made by Haslina at the office (using those plastic bottles yang tudung merah tu she had cleverly transformed them with ribbons and renda). I gave these bottles to my mum and unfortunately do not have any photo to show. But I did a copy cat of Has' creativity and came up with this which I love!


And these.. I wanted something fun.


I was pleased with the results actually. I have more photos here, the same page as above. What did you say - what to do kalau comot? I figured I will get new bottles and decorated them all over again. The key thing is that the biscuits stay fresh for LONG while looking pretty.

Enough of my mundane thoughts. I am actually counting down the last hours of a great long couple of weeks break..

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Selamat Hari Raya

And how time flies. It is already the 4th day of Syawal. I didnt have the window for any blog update at all between here and the previous post. Seriously. But thankfully the company enforced mandatory leave all week this week (yeay..) and I am taking things slow. Very slow in fact.

And how's your last ten of Ramadhan and raya? Blissful. Peaceful. Fruitful. And joyful I hope. We went back to my mum's place this raya. She insisted on having raya at her own home this time. We had celebrated the last couple of raya with her in KL. This time we did all we can so that she can have a raya the same like those she had always prepared for us, nothing less. Biar lah mak rasa seronok raya kat rumah sendiri - berapa kali sangat pun nak beraya dengan mak lagi kat kampung..

I have here some raya photos that I love..

Our home-made ketupat (next raya I can make these myself too); cute Kinah & Safiyyah, nieces; Scrooge! aka Syazwan, nephew; an unbelievable bright red lily in bloom from my mum's garden.

Raya feast in the best wares (Mum: bawak keluar semua pyrex tu - nanti kat akhirat pinggan tu kata dok simpan dalam almari je.. Me: Ye mak!); ayah cu and family; mum (she was seriously tired tapi masih berkeras tak nak baring. She said, hampa semua balik mak pulak nak pergi tido!); bangsal at the back of our house (it looks so kampung. Love it).

We made the rendang in the kawah (I wondered how folks cook on this fire with all the smoke going on in the long ago days.. actually the thought that came to mind was how my mother and late father went through all the rayas cooking everything from lemang, rendang, dodol, wajik on this fire.. kasih nya mak-ayah); Kak Zah and Syadah, sis-in-law & niece; Umar, cucu yang amat comel; and woo-hoo! the gorgeous vehicle on my mum's lawn - to die for!).

If I had the time, I'd love to read in the shades of this bamboo tree in mum's backyard; unlike any previous raya, this year we wore the same color although in diffrent tones (malu le nanti orang kata beli kain sepapan bawak balik buat baju.. I had a HORRENDOUS time looking for material in all the different shades of purple though); Kinah & Syuhaib, niece & nephew; juadah raya sepanjang nye meja..(Mum: kueh raya dah bubuh dalam botol? Kek mana? Wajik dah ada? Sirap dah buat? Tambah lagi lauk2 yang dah habis tu. Letak cawan2 semua nanti orang nak minum senang.. Me: Ye mak! Bila lagi nak melayan mak? (actually these are the questions she asked / her instructions every raya; but not as many this time. Dah tak larat. But old habits die hard, we did what had always been done every raya. She looked and nodded).


This gambar is one of the many I seriously love. Three generations (I wanted to get a photo like this for quite some time..) I was pleased to see mum wore the baju I bought for her (actually I bought that like two years ago - ? - masa nak kenduri Ina / Aing or some other cucu when she said she wanted to wear something new. She was hospitalised instead; langsung tak buat pun baju tu then)

And of course I love this too. I think five is a good number.

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