Work and play

This weekend Auntie is in the mood for updating blog.  There are a few events in Auntie's life that are worth blogging about since January this year. One of them is work since especially this year, work has taken a big chunk of Auntie's life. Tapi before Auntie talks about Auntie's work, Auntie nak mention a sad news. One of Auntie's friends passed away Monday two weeks ago (26 July 2010).  On that Monday morning Auntie received a msg fr Kak Nor, that Dr. Suhaimi Shahnon passed away at the Selayang Hospital. When Auntie got the news Auntie was preparing to travel to KL for work and, in between, to join Mommy and Pak Long Ami take Aki and Wan to IJN for check up.  So, Auntie tak sempat nak call K Nor to ask for further cerita.  To this day pun Auntie has not find the right time to talk to Kak Nor but hopefully soon. As some people may have guessed, Suhaimi is the son of National Literary Laureate Shahnon Ahmad. He was an Associate Professor at the School of Management and the Deputy Director at the Centre for Policy Research and International Studies at Auntie's uni.  Auntie mula kenal Suhaimi, his wife, Kak Fadzillah and their 3 girls around the year 1998/99 through Kak Nor. They are kind, humble people and were very easy to be friends with.  In the last few years, kami jarang jumpa except during common meetings at the uni or kadang2 terserempak kat makan places. Their first born, Izni, used to be quite close dengan Auntie and was peramah. Bila dah besar, dia malu-malu sikit, like teenagers normally are.  Auntie also know Cikgu Shahnon personally coz Auntie helped him with some translation work for his book a few years ago.

Suhaimi had been diabetic for a few years but Auntie rasa dia ada a few other complications in the last year or so. He was admitted to Selayang Hospital some time ago due to these problems. Suhaimi is probably only about 4 or 5 yrs older than Auntie. It is very sad to lose a friend at such a relatively young age. Al Fatihah atas pemergian Suhaimi and Auntie doa semoga Kak Fadzillah dan anak2 diberikan kekuatan oleh Allah untuk menghadapi dugaan ini.  In 2006, we lost arwah Bob, another of Auntie's and Ogabang's friend and colleague and a good friend of Suhaimi's and Kak Nor's, too.  Bob also had some complications which were quite similar to Suhaimi and Bob was 46 when he passed away. Bob, even when he was already ill, had gamely agreed to represent Ogabang as ketua rombongan meminang Auntie in 2004.  He knew Auntie's parents because his parent-in-law's home is near Aki and Wan's. He lead the rombongan meminang armed with a few rangkap pantun and took Tokki De who represented Auntie's side with an amount of surprise. Auntie had only good memories about Suhaimi and Bob, two kind, gentle souls and is grateful to have known them. May Allah tempatkan mereka di tempat tertinggi di sisi Nya. Amin.

Auntie was actually going to blog about work when Auntie was reminded about Suhaimi. So, anyway, this year had been way too busy on the work front for Auntie. Much of Auntie's fieldwork for various research started late last year and continue well into this year. One of Auntie's most enjoyable fieldwork is the interview with young people who were participants of the National Service. We had to go to a few places for the interview in the span of 6 months or so but one of the most memorable one is in Rompin because Auntie got to 'balik kampung' (Rompin is Auntie's birthplace) and had some quality time with family members (Aki, Wan, Pak Long Ami and family) and 'extended family members' who were Samantha and "RA" and mamachupan and family. The latter two are Auntie's co-researchers. And in this trip, Ogabang came along so we got some couple time although we also had a really big fight about some really stupid things (but we kissed and made up after a few hours, of course!).  Pada masa yg sama, Ogabang managed to get some work done with his project of the time by recruiting our first 'child labour' in the form of Jijin, who were hired to be a voice over for Ogabang's video project. The video turned out to be very well received. When we get the permission from the 'client' Auntie will put it on the blog, Insya Allah.

Some pictures of the Rompin trip:

Ogabang, the designated driver. Masih happy.

Masih calm. But the lidah is a sign for a storm to come!

Precious cargo no.1

Precious cargo no.2. Aki said to Ogabang: "Ogabang ni drive macam Aingah la (our eccentric uncle)".

Sudah mula tensi. (Gambar tensi not worth taking).

Some nice kampung view- somewhere after Pekan

Nenasi beach

Jalan yg meningkatkan tensi Ogabang especially bila ada lori (selekoh maut di hujung tu).

First night dinner. Only the udang galah were memorable (according to pemakan2 udang).

Did Auntie mention Pak Long and family decided to come along? The rest of the clan couldn't.

Ogabang's nasi goreng and udang galah.  RM60 or 65 sekilo.

Relaxed Wan & Aki

Auntie & Ogabang during peaceful times

Umi penggemar udang. Go for it, Umi!

Pak Long yg kena pau Wan's celebrex selepas makan udang galah. But sure rugi kalau miss kan? Sbb dia tukang bayar. Tenkiu, Pak Long kerana menyokong projek penyelidikan kerajaan Mesia.

Siapa punya leftover, ni? Definitely not Auntie's! (Auntie non-pemakan udang)

The adults after dinner. Ogabang dok baca doa lepas makan ke?

The kids after dinner. "Bila nak balik ni?"

The researchers with the camp facilitators. Thank you, ladies!

Ajmal, kept from boredom with Auntie's phone-TV while Jijin practiced the voice-over.

Pantai Rompin (lupa nama glamour dia): tempat Wan & Aki bercanda dolu-dolu.

Pak Long and Umi membuat cubaan bercanda tapi ada 'handbag' aka Ajmal.

Para penyelidik dan pembantu penyelidik sesudah subuh.

Adakah penyelidikan paranormal part of the deal?

The beautiful sunrise

Sunrise 2

Sunrise 3. After that batteries in Auntie's camera went kong-ed.

Food in Rompin (other than udang galah and lokan) is nothing to 'blog home' about but all in all, the trip had been very successful research mission and bonding times. 

Good night, all!