Salam Aidilfitri

Wishing everyone Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri. Maaf Zahir dan Batin.

Stay safe and don't overeat.

Semua-nya hendak-lah sederhana.

Pandelela Gets Cash Reward and Full Scholarship

Here is someone we should really be proud of -- Olympic bronze medallist and Malaysia's diving queen - Pandelela Rinong.

I'm glad that the government presented her with RM300,00 as a token of their appreciation.-- RM100,000 under the National Sports Council (NSC) prize scheme and RM200,000 worth of Amanah Saham Wawasan shares.
She received a mock cheque from PM Najib at his office in Putrajaya on Friday.

Najib also her awarded a full government scholarship from the Cemerlang Foundation to enable the athlete to pursue a degree of her choice at Universiti Tun Abdul Razak.

According to Bernama, Najib gave an assurance that the government was prepared to provide any assistance she may need to improve her performance for further international success.

The PM asked her :"Are you committed for Rio (2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and what else do you need? Do you have everything?"

The 19-year-old Bidayuh attained 359.20 points in the 10m platform event at the 2012 London Olympics, while Chen Ruolin of China defended her record with 422.30 points and Australian Brittany Broben bagged the silver with 366.50 points.

(source: Bernama)

Also Read THIS

Have You Seen T. Sathiskumar?

Georgetown: The 5-year-old went missing in Permatang Pauh  last Wednesday.
The police had appealed to the  public to keep an eye out for him.
T. Sathiskumar went missing after following his grandfather E.P. Veloomurugan, 46, to a food court in Jalan Permatang Pauh here.
He was travelling with his father, T. Tamil Vanan, 30, in his lorry until they stopped at the food court at 12.30pm.
Tamil Vanan, from Ampang Jajar, Butterworth, was heading towards Bukit Kayu Hitam, Kedah, on his delivery rounds.
At the food court, Sathiskumar disappeared in the crowd and could not be found.
State Criminal Investigation Department chief Senior Assistant Commissioner Mazlan Kesah said the boy weighed 15kg and was 70cm tall.
He was last seen in a pair of green shorts and a T-shirt with a yellow Spiderman hat.
Those with information on Sathiskumar's whereabouts can call Inspector Mohamed Ehsan Abu Bakar at 012-2494002, or the nearest police station.

(The Star)

When Ramadan Nears The End....

..we thank Allah SWT for giving us the strength to carry out our ibadah.

I say it every Ramadan -- time flies so quickly that before we know it, it's the end of puasa and the start of Syawal.

Honestly,  it feels like only yesterday we were thinking of breaking fast on the first day of Ramadan this year, and seeing Ramadan stalls being put up around town.

Now, just one more day. And it is Raya.


These days, I get so melancholic thinking about those days when we were young.

And so many of the people I had known - family and friends - have gone.

This Ramadan alone, several friends have passed away, including a dear one, Wan Julia Hood -- someone I knew in secondary school and in UiTM (then ITM). After graduation we still kept in touch.

She moved to PJ (at least to my neighbourhood in section 16, PJ) in 1971.  She enrolled in Assunta Secondary School.  She was happy to have met (Arwah) Kak Eda and me who were living in the same neighbourhood.

We became friends. Continued to be when we all continued our studies in UiTM.

Later, when we were all married with our own families, we discovered that we were neighbours in Taman Tun Dr Ismail. How nice. Still we hardly ever met up but still never lost touch. The last time we met was at Istana Budaya for "The Secret Life of Nora" late last year.


I was so deeply shocked when I got the news that Julia had  passed away. Couldn't believe it at all. I just stared at the text message on my Blackberry. I felt a little dazed.

I kept repeating "Wan Julia? Wan Julia?"....kept seeing  her sweet face, smiling. Wan Julia was beautiful, outside and inside. She was a mother of seven kids (I think). Six beautiful girls and the youngest, a boy.


Al Fatihah. Al Fatihah....

With each passing year, I seem to think a lot about mortality. This comes with age or aging, I was told. It is natural and it is normal.
Oh..I know. Nothing is permanent in life. We all have to go, one day.

I have no uncles or aunts left on my father's side. The only surviving is my late uncle's (Bapak's youngest brother) widow.


On my mother's side, Mak's  older (and the eldest) and youngest sisters are still living - in Bangsar with her youngest daughter, Ana and, Mak Busu in Taman Tun Dr Ismail with her two older children, respectively.

But Wak Nah (Mak's older sister) is frail and not in good health. It's old age. She's in her late 80s.

Most of my older cousins have passed away.

Now, my siblings and our cousins (our generation) have taken over as the aunts and uncles the young ones look up to, as we did our Arwah2 aunts and uncles.


And to make us all go misty-eyed, my cousin, Ana, informed us during the earlier part of Ramadan, that Wak Nah would like to meet us (Mak's children) all on the second day of Raya.

You know when you get that kind of message, you kind of panic because you think "they know"........

I'm not even going to entertain any morose thoughts. But I feel sad.

So yes. Time flies.

I should stop before I go on and on...

Until then... Salam Aidilfitri..

Mohon ampun dan maaf  zahir batin..

Have a blessed Eid in this glorious month of Syawal.

why do some women allow their partners to abuse their kids. I 've read about these cases far too many times.
This Ipoh case is the latest. Four year-old  J. Pavitra, 4, was pronounced dead on Aug 14 at Klinik 1Malaysia in Kampung Tawas on Tuesday after her mother sent her there for treatment.

The child is a victim of child abuse. her mother and her boyfriend have been arrested. 

And this was another case. 


There had been other cases before these.

So sad.

I'm glad help is pouring in for Susan Lovie Boudville, widow of the late Loga Arumugam of the iconic and evergreen Alleycats, after her Tanjung Bungah home was razed on Aug 6.

There's 1MDB's RM100,000 cash for her, RM50,000 from the Culture Welfare Assistance Fund of the Ministry of Information, Communications and Culture, RM1,000 from the Yang Dipertua Negeri Fire Disaster Relief Fund, RM1,000 each from Tanjung Bungah assemblyman Teh Yee Cheu and Permatang Pauh Umno Youth chief Abdul Aziz Shik Ahmad, and RM500 from the state Welfare Department. Also RM5,000 from Penang chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

Susan is now scouting for a new place. She hopes to find a house in the Tanjung Bungah area.

I'm posting about Susan Lovie Boudville because she is someone I knew in  primary school (Assunta Primary) and through secondary school (Assunta Secondary). She is one of a pair of twins - her twin is Helen.
We used to hang out together and played softball in school. 
 I never knew she was married to Loga. I don't know how I never knew that but I  think it's because we've lost touch for some 25 years. In fact, after secondary school, we took on different paths. But I remember we bumped into each other at Glass Bubble, a discotheque in what was then Jayapuri (now PJ Hilton) Hotel, sometime in the 80s.

Facebook brought us together. Even then I did not know she was ever married to Loga and had two (grown-up) kids with this iconic artiste.

 I was going through FB and as I was scrolling down her wall I read her posting in which she uploaded a love song - one that was "our song" (She and Loga's). That got me.

I had no idea until I read more.

I mean, I love the Alleycats. I know their songs, I've met them. I grieved together with the rest of the country when Loga passed away.

But I never knew the Susan was Loga's other half.

I really feel so stupid....some journo that I am...

To Susan - hang in there.  I pray everything will work out fine..When I'm in Penang, I will surely look you up.

Anger and Ire over Court Ruling On Alleged Rapist

".. public interest would not be served if his client was given a custodial sentence when he had a bright future " - Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Raus Sharif

This must be the first of its kind -- letting an alleged rapist who happens to be a national bowler, go without a custodial sentence because, well, his future is bright.

That doesn't seem right, does it?

Someone despaired in Facebook :"Something's wrong with our judicial system".

I disagree. There's  nothing wrong with our judicial system. The law is there. the punishment is provided for under the criminal procedure code.

But the judges decide. And in this case, it is their decision to allow Noor Afizal Azizan's appeal against the High Court decision to sentence him to five years jail

 

Raus who is Court of Appeal president led the three-man panel in ruling that the jail term be substituted with a bound over for good behaviour for five years.

Read the report HERE.

The social media is raging over this.

I'm remembering the case of a foreigner who was found not guilty for speeding on the wrong side of the KL-Seremban highway. The judge accepted the grounds for his mad driving - a "sleep walking" disorder. Two or three people were killed by his crazed driving.

Sometimes, you wonder .....