Lost.....MH370

I may not know you

And

You don't know me

But.... I feel for you

for your lost

Some..... lost their family

Some..... lost their children

Some..... lost their neighbours and friends

I.... I lost whom you lost

I cried for you

I have to admit

I feel sad for you

I understand the hurt

Agony.....

All I can do is to pray for you

May Allah give you the strength

May Allah give you all the courage

You are not alone

Never!

We lost them too

Because we are 

HUMAN

Thank you world for your prayers

Thank you neighbours for your concern and help

And for the effort to save and rescue

Thank you

We hope for the BEST

and 

 Prepare for the WORST

 

A time off....

Being away from your daily routine once in a while is a must. Please try not to wake up every morning and doing the same job over and over again until the day you get shut off. Be fair to yourself. Appreciate yourself. Forget about your routines once in a while. Go out and have tea or a get  together with your close friends. and go travel together!!!

 

 

 

I have a set of friends whom I can call BEST BUDDIES. We meet, we eat and we go trips together. Most of us are neighbours and we really can get along very well. Alhamdulillah. In Islam, the way to know if  that person is reliable of becoming a good friend is by going for a three days trip together. That is when the true color comes out. The real her or him will be known! I experienced with some and I accepted the outcome. I will move on becoming friends and buddies or I just simply leave them be!

 

Right now 2 of my great buddies, neighbours, and friends whom I regarded as my younger sisters are having a five days trip to Hong Kong and Macau. Coincidently, Nora has a friend Anita living here with her husband Shaikh and their three children Ashraf, Sabrina and Jasmin. Of cause they are Malaysian and they have  already been living in this city for five years. Before, they were in Japan. This is an amazing family. Very humble and generous and lively. We were given Sabrina's room and we appreciate it very much. Anita and Nora were Johoreans and classmates! They even worked at the same office and shared clothings! They shared their yesterdays together and when they told us of their past we cannot help but laugh until tears! Best fiends forever!

The place where Anita and family are staying is called Monmouth Villa at Kennedy Road. A nice place indeed. 3 bedrooms for the family. A room for the maid Sofia ( an Indonesian ) plus three toilets, a kitchen and a living room. That unit itself cost them monthly HKD 40K! Maintenance is HKD6K and HKD 4K for the maid! Not cheap isn't it!  The  cost of living here in Hong Kong is one of the highest in the world. A small apartment unit can easily cost HKD Millions! But this city is very clean and safe. You can walk anywhere at anytime without worrying of anything.

Hong Kong is developing rapidly. But surprising, only 30% of the land were developed. They made sure that trees and mountains or hills were spared.  They only developed the land at the foot and should they build buildings in the hills, they will not tear the place apart. They leave the greens alone! That is why to own a property  in this city is not cheap because it is limited!

We have been here since last three days and Anita has taken us to shop where the locals do. Cheaper and better. We even visited Ammar As Siddiq Mosque to have Dim Sum Breakfast . The food is delicious and we planned to hand carry some home for our family to taste. Insyallah. The mosque is a high rise building  with the ladies on the fifth floor and the men in the 4th  floor. The Dim Sum is served in the restaurant on the 6th floor and runs by the mosque. Whatever income from the sales goes back to the mosque. I think the Malaysian mosques should think along this way. Beside a café we can include car wash for the mosques to earn their own income! I must tell my Ustaz regarding this matter. Hopefully he will buy it. When I visited Sabah last year,  one of the mosques did the same and with the money they earned, they can do wonders to upgrade the look of the mosque and so on.

Since the first day we arrived, the weather has been very nice to us. It was 17C in the day time and dropped to 13C in the evening. Lucky we brought along our jackets. Phew. It will be colder when the wind blew. We are not use to this kind of weather but will definitely enjoy while we are here. Back home is very hot and humid. Even with the air condition on, we still sweat!  But  we were told that for the last two days, since we were here, it rained heavily in Kelang Valley. Alhamdulillah. May the water in the dams rise again and ends the water shortage! Not a pretty picture to see you know!



As for today, all three of us, Nora, Yan and I are taking a one hour ferry ride to Macau and will be staying there for a night.  Macau is a place for gamblers but we are not doing that. We just want to visit and see places. Hopefully we still have enough HKD to spend!

 

 

Another vacation...

      Last year in June, along with 4 couples, my husband and I went cruising for the first time after so many years of planning! Finally, all ten of us hopped on the Norwegian Spirit  in Bacelona for 12 days and ended in Venice! Wow! We really had a gala time all the way! We promised each other to cruise together again whenever possible!

Norwegian Spirit

The Grand Mediterranean Cruise.

     Alhamdulillah, our dream came through! This year, we are going cruising again! Yabadabadoooooo....!!! This time to the Scandinavian countries in the Baltics. The countries involved are Copenhagen, Denmark as the port of entry.  Then we move downwards to Port of Warnemunde in Berlin, Germany and then to Talliin, Estonia. Next stop will be two full days in St Petersburg, Russian before proceeding to Helsinki in Finland and then to Stockholm in Sweden. The cruise will end in where we started in Copenhagen.

The Norwegian Star.... our ride to The Baltics.

The route in The Baltics.

     Surprising, this time around more than 40 friends and neighbours are joining us! Can you believe it? Last year only 10 of us! All of our excursions were booked directly online using my credit card but for 40 participants.... totally madness! Anyway, I managed to contact the cruise excursions agent based in St Petersburg  online and felt relief and happy by the way they responded to my 1001 questionaires !! Hahhahahah. Well that is me! They even gave us good discount! Hoorrey!! All the iteneraries which were custom made had to be amended to suit our group.  Like for example, for every ports that we are stopping, I insist on visiting or stop by a Mosque for us to pray. And then, they have to look for Halal Food Restaurant for us to have our meals along the way. With those two additional and amendment in hands, and agreed, I am happy enough! At least I know, I have done my part in negotiating and came up with the result that I hope. Now I just make dua to Allah and hope that all will go well as planned! Insyaallah!

Below are some images of places we are visiting in all the ports.

Port 1: BERLIN, Germany: Some of the places we are visiting such as The Charlottenburg Palace, Kaiser Wilhem Memorial Church, Ku'damm, Kadewe, Tiergarten and Victory Column, Reichstag, Bradenburg Gate, Holocust Memorial , Humboldt University, State Opera House, Unter den Linden, Museum Island and many more. Not forgetting a mosque too.

Humboldt University of Berlin

Holocust Memorial

Shopping

The famous Berlin Wall

Port 2: Talliin, Estonia: Some of the places of interest we are visiting in are The  Talliin University, Freedom Square and Freedom Monument, Kadriorg Park, Presidential Palace, Swan Pond, Song Festival Grounds, Olympic Village, Town hall, Toompea Castle and many more. A visit to a local mosque where convenient.

Town Hall

Swan Pond

Toompea Palace

Port 3: 2 days St Petersburg, Russia. Some of the places we are visiting are as follows. St Petersburg Mosque, Yusupove Palace, Peterhof,Church of Our Savour on the blood,Tsar's Village, Catherine's Palace. Furthermore we will be experiencing  the Subway Ride,tour by boat and Hydrofoil ride.

St Petersburg Mosque.

Hermitage

Peterhof Palace

Hydrofoil Ride

Boat Ride

Subway Ride

    

The participants ages range from 4 years old to 70 years old. As the so called leader, I need to think about the youngest and the eldest especially. But I believe, all will go well because cruising is very relaxing. No hassle and no stress. Most of those who took the cruise are old people. This is because, the ship will sail only when we are sleeping. In the morning, after breakfast we just grab a bottle of water, sunglasse and a small pouch and off to our excursion. There is no need in checking in and out like we have to do if we take the land tour by coach across Europe! Been there and I slept all the way in the 5 to 8 hours journey from one city to another! Spent few hours in that city and at the end of the day you felt so tired and worn out and the process of checking in the hotel started all over again!!! That is not vacation... that is work! It got worst when your tour leader commands you this and that and  gives limited time for anything! Everything is timed! 

Port 4: Helsinki, Finland. Some of the places we are visiting are as follows: Olympic Stadium, Seurasaari Open Air Museum, Havis Amanda,Parliament House, Finlandia Hall and  a local mosque.

Finlandia Hall

Mosque

Port 5: Stockholm, Sweden: Below are some of the place we will visit in this city including a local mosque, Fjallgaten, Vasa Museum, Concert Hall, Grand Hotel, Kungstradgarden, Old Town and so on. 

Royal Armoury

Stortorget

Stockholm Narrowest Alley

             Unlike cruising,  it is totally different. We sleep like babies in a very comfortable bed throughout the night. Furthermore, food and beverages are free flow from most of the restaurants on board. Just make your choice from the menu or see the head of chef or the restaurant manager should you need any proper diet. They will entertain you like kings and queens! As for this voyage, I wrote in to NCL regarding our Muslim food and they responded well. I had mad prior booking for Vegetarian Food, seafood, eggs and alcohol free food and drinks. The minute I check in in Copenhagen, I will have to call for an appointment with the person in charge as told by NCL. Thank you very much for the understanding. 

Now I will have to reconfirm everything and then I can sit and relax until May 27th when we all will depart from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) to Amsterdam and another flight to Copenhagen as our  port of entry. Good luck to all Balticans and enjoy your vacation! Thank you to all Balticans....Che Din Sulaiman, Wan Remlah, DS Ahmad Kabit, DS Halimah Yusof, TS Rahman, PS Rugayah, Dt Ruhani, Rokiah, Dt Othman, Dt Farethah, Dt Noraini, Wahab Bakar, Nor Azizah, Noraini, Capt Nasruddin, Hanisah, Dr MIM, Kamariah, TS Raja Alias, PS Hafsah, Tg Shamsul, Faridah, Dt Ibrahim, Dt Lailee, Tan Boey Kee, Yeik Siew Chai, Dt Kwan, Dt Karen, Suffian,Noorul Azlin, Baby Rayyan, Dick Helmi, Nik, Alif, Areesha, Zubaidah, Sau Hong, Dt Rais, Dtn Rubilah, Dt Zin, Dt Amna, Suzanne, Mrs Lim and  Dt Norma. See you all on board of Nowegian Star!!!