Thursday, February 9, 2012

Brrrrrrr Sejukkk !!!


Brrrrr. . .  really, it must be the coldest February ever!!! -9 celcius at the moment with a promise of flurries again. Hopefully the flurries will turn out to be real snow again :D  Last week on Friday, the supposed flurries turned out to be heavy snow I was informed. I was not aware of the heavy snow, I was actually so engrossed in writing my last entry of "Aku Nikahkan DiKau", I didn't know it was snowing!!! By the time I realised it, only light snow still falling. Oh!! I love watching snow fall, the pure white snow crystal somehow gives me warm feeling.

By Saturday night, temperature had gone down to -15 celcius, so glad we were inside, blissfully warm in the comfort of our quilt. And so glad that it was Saturday night and there's no school tomorrow and there's no need to brace the cold, hoorayy !!!

When morning came, the view outside the house was transformed. . . it was so beautifully white, it was magical.


Around our house - on the way to school

By the time I managed to coax DS to come out, it was 11.30 a.m. Luckily the snow still sticked to the trees, a few hours later it would have been blown to the ground by the wind. There were not much snow, only about 10 cm but it was so dry and fine snow. Because of the extreme slightly colder weather (by Holland's standard), snow on the ground still exist and still crisp until today.

Isn't the snow view awsome?? I will try to upload more photos later.


Friday, February 3, 2012

Aku Nikahkan Dikau . . .


Ingat tak cerita yang tergendala tahun lepas tu? Dah 10 bulan cerita tu terperap. Semasa duk mengemas-ngemas gambar2 di dalam komputer ni pagi tadi, terjumpa pulak "folder" peristiwa yang teristimewa tu. Dikala suhu menjunam di luar rumah dengan awan yang mendung yang menjanjikan "flurries", hati ini terasa nyaman bila membelek-belek gambar2 tu, ditambah pulak dengan lagu Dato M Daud Kilau mendayu-dayu perlahan-lahan, tersenyum sorang-sorang. . . .


Direnjis-renjis dipilis
Ditepungilah tawar
Hai beras kunyit ditabur
Disiram si air mawar
Duduk dua sejoli
Atas pelamin berseri
Dihias intan baiduri
Sebagai raja sehari


Pada hari bersejarah itu, rumah kami telah diserikan dengan majlis akad nikah seorang sahabat. Tak pernah terpikir dan tak disangka-sangka yang kami akan menjadi ketua keluarga dan tuan rumah kepada majlis perkahwinan di dalam masa terdekat ni sedangkan anak kami masih kecil, di negara orang pulak tu. Tapi itulah, segalanya ketentuan Ilahi, dah sememangnya jodoh dan perkahwinan itu adalah urusanNya. Kalau di negara orang pun kalau jodohnya dah sampai, terjalin juga hubungan suci ini. Apa yang pasti, dihati ini terasa sangat segalanya urusan Allah SWT, betapa Dia menghendaki majlis ini berjalan walau dengan seadanya tetapi tetap meriah. Perancangan dibuat dalam masa sepuluh hari sahaja, tetapi dengan izin Allah Taala, segala "paperwork" yang diperlukan berjaya diselesaikan dengan lancar disebalik kesibukan DH masyaAllah.

Majlis akad nikah yang sepatutnya dijalankan di masjid dan diikuti dengan kenduri kecil doa selamat, telah menjadi majlis yang penuh rahmat di rumah kami dengan gelak ketawa tetamu, disertai pulak dengan bunga telur dan pelamin "bidang terjun". Sofa rumah yang kusam tu nampak cantik pulak bila dihiasi dengan sarung kusyen dan tabir "bling bling" yang dipinjam dari seorang rakan kerja DH manakala bunga telur tu pula "courtesy" dari Tourism Malaysia :D


Pelamin ringkas
Kek yang secara tak dirancang sedondon pula dengan baju pengantin :D
Katil pengantin. . . 
Aku nikahkan dikau. . . . (rasanya itulah kut Imam tu cakap hehehe. . .)
 
Ia sesungguhnya majlis yang unik kerana pasangan pengantinnya dari Malaysia, dijalankan di Belanda, diakad oleh Imam berketurunan Jawa asalnya dari Surinam, manakala akadnya di dalam bahasa Arab, bacaan takliknya di dalam bahasa Inggeris dan sijil nikahnya pulak di dalam bahasa Belanda, Mashaallah sungguh cantik hitungan Allah Taala.

Tak disangka-sangka, Imam dari Rotterdam ini yang pernah melawat Malaysia pada awal tahun 90 an dulu, terjumpa pulak rakan yang dikunjunginya semasa di Malaysia yang mana dia pernah tinggal selama seminggu di rumah kawannya itu, yang kebetulan menjadi tetamu dan penolong kami di majlis itu, Masyaallah. Maka terjadilah pula adegan berpelukan diantara mereka, adalah juga yang turut mengelap airmata (bukan IA ye. . . )

Betapa cantik aturan Allah Taala (tak perlulah diceritakan kesemuanya ye), segalanya berjalan lancar dan tatkala Imam mengakadkan pasangan, airmataku turut mengalir, syukur Alhamdulillah dan benar-benar terharu kerana semuanya berjalan dengan selamat. IA bukanlah seorang yang sensitif, tak pernah dalam hidup ini menangis di khalayak ramai atau semasa di lapangan terbang ke, tetapi pada hari tu, hati ini benar-benar tersentuh.

Seperti merahmati majlis, cuaca pada awal bulan April itu tersangatlah cantik menjelangnya hari perkahwinan dengan matahari memancar dan suhu naik hingga 20 an celcius. Pada masa yang sama, bunga-bunga tulip di depan dapur juga turut mula mengembang, Mashaallah.


Tulip - sedap mata memandang

Syukur Alhamdulillah kerana Allah Taala telah memberi kami peluang dan ruang untuk membantu pasangan ini mengadakan majlis akad nikah mereka, semuga perkahwinan mereka akan senantiasa dirahmati dan diberkati Allah Taala selalu.




Thursday, February 2, 2012

Dah February?


Subhanallah, it's February already? What have I been doing in the past month? It seems only yesterday that we came back from our most memorable journey and yet now it's already a new month! Yeah, it's been a quiet month with DH travelling around between the Benelux countries. He was back for a day or two then off again for another 5/6 days. This morning he went off to Brussels again for another 5 days, and he just got back from Antwerp on Monday night !!

But I welcome the quiet time that's been granted to me, Alhamdulillah. With him not around, I just cook simple dish for me and DS and sometimes we just ate whatever leftover from the day before. Luckily DS is not fussy. The extra time I have I try to use it in the beneficial way, finishing the one and only required annual report (which somehow took me days to complete due to my IT incompetence ) and trying my best to increase my ibadah. I try to sleep earlier and wake up earlier too, finding solace in the wee hours of the morning.

So our visitors this morning were a welcome change to the quiet period. They were here to accompany DH for the next few days. Thinking that they might be hungry after the long and tiresome flight, I laboriously cooked nasi lemak with sambal udang in the early hours of the morning. To be honest, I hate do not really like to cook sambal here. When I cook sambal, I tend to put the flame on smaller heat and cook for a long time hoping that no one would get stomachache. But then the smell of it simmering really stink the whole house. I could hear DS and DH sneezing and getting restless in their sleep hehehe. . .

But it's worth it, at the end of the meal I was left with an almost empty bowl of sambal.


Sambal udang

Feeling charitable, I even fried goreng pisang and made samosa to go with the breakfast brunch.


Goreng pisang

Samosa

It's my third attempt at making samosa, so I'm getting the hang of wrapping it up. I actually made the filling for the samosa and the dough yesterday for my iftar, but then decided there were too many food and so I just wrapped the dough inside a plastic and left it overnight for this morning for the guests.


By 10 a.m. I was ready, the table was set and the food was placed on warmer to keep them warm, but where are they??? Normally the guests arrive latest by 9 ish regardless of whether they are on KLM or MAS flight.

Visitors

Finally they arrived at 10.30 am. It seemed that there were traffic jam and DH took them on a longer kampung route so they were able to see the less seen Holland's scenic view. By 12 pm, they left for Brussels leaving me in alone again.