Fruitful February

What a tiring yet fruitful week!
Alhamdulillah, praise be to Allah for giving me the chance to breathe one more day.
January has ended, and February comes to say hello.

Last Friday I sent Ima off to the bus station, only to find out that they were having renovation and relocation of the bus terminal. The feeling was great, felt like it was Ramadhan, when I sent her off for Raya break last year. Ima took a week off to lend some hands for her younger sister's wedding. Such a good elder sister. And the wedding is today! I feel guilty for not being able to celebrate with her, even though Terengganu has been always my most longing place to go to.

I had an early Saturday, with all the needed stuff packed, I headed to USM Gelugor for a meeting. This has been my dream campus all the while (but the course that I enrolled is not being taught here!) We had a quick breakfast and started the meeting at the mosque. Such a peaceful morning. Subhanallah. That was my second visit to the mosque after the memorable first one. Although that memorable one did not work out, I still thank Allah for giving me the opportunity to "feel" that.

Nearly noon we headed to our homestay. The traffic was bad. With the upcoming Thaipusam in a few days, lingering around Georgetown on a Saturday afternoon is such a bad idea. Our homestay was a three room apartment located somewhere in Jelutung area. Worth our money, only that there was only one parking available, and there were 3-4 cars of us!

At 1.30pm, we made our way to Dewan Sri Pinang. With the traffic congestion, there was no way we could arrive in time. Rehearsal was planned at 2 pm but we only arrived at 2.40pm! Plus the time we spent to unload all the things from our cars. We prayed Zuhur and headed to the auditorium at the second floor. The were some Chinese culture event going on at the ground floor. Some of the girls had already started preparing the goodie bags. 600 goodie bags to prepare! We placed 2 button badges, a bookmark, a programme book, a bottle of water, a pack of sweets, a pen and two buns (which came later) in the light blue bag.

Our stage backdrop sponsor, Kak Leya came and started her artwork. The backdrop was designed with green and white clothes, which beautifully looked like the pelamin backdrop. Such a simple yet gorgeous decoration. At 5.30pm, we had a short meeting discussing the flow of the event. We could not have a proper full rehearsal though due to the shortage of time and man power. We really hope for the best the next day.

We had some drinks at the Padang Kota stall - coconut shake and left after Maghrib prayer. The funny thing about it is, when I was struggling to find a parking space at the crowded Esplanade, the guys actually asked me to make a quick U turn in the middle of the congested road and return to the Dewan Sri Pinang. They even helped me to control the traffic so that I can make my U turn. Such a friendly move from all of them (whom I regards as my beloved brothers in Islam).

We were still on the road at 9 pm, headed back to the home stay, and the traffic was still very bad. I was amazed...usually the road would have been cleared by this hour, but not that night. Penangites, why don't you just stay at home?

It has been a long time since I stayed overnight with all-girl friends like this. The last one was in June or July at Nurol's house when the four of us attended Seminar Fiqh Wanita at Kuala Lumpur. I missed all these. At my age, I knew that I do not have much chances to do this anymore. Thank you Allah. Perhaps I fell asleep before 2 am and woke up before 5 am. There were about 15 of us in the house with a single bathroom, so waking up early to get ready is a must. We all headed out right after Subuh prayer. The morning was quiet and calm, we reached Dewan Sri Pinang before 7.30am.

Before the participants started coming, we rushed into completing the goodie bags with the two buns, had the registration counter prepared, had our name tag prepared (so last minute), had the photo booth prepared and lastly I headed to the auditorium to greet the participants. We tried our best to place them at the front flat seats, as in seeking knowledge, it is advisable to sit as nearest to the teacher, but there were some groups who prefer to sit at the stairs seat. Human beings...different mind, different taste, whatever.

The event soon began, our Director became the host! It was supposed to be someone else but the individu somehow did not turn up early, and did not turn up during rehearsal too! Anyway, our director/host was always the best! Before the Mufti came, the CEO of MIPP took the opportunity to give his speech about MIPP and the RM5 campaign, "now everyone can sponsor". Sounds familiar? How about," now everyone can fly"? The impact was good, many were care enough and supported the campaign, not just with RM5 but more than that. Alhamdulillah.

Then Penang Mufti, Dr Wan Salim came and delivered his opening and launching speech, and the event began...I considered myself lucky as my role as the protocol committee made me stay in the hall most of the time. Yet, due to my duty, I did miss some of the important points given by the speakers. They were all great speakers with great knowledge and experience - Ustaz Fawwaz Mat Jan, Ustazah Fatimah Syarha, Ustaz PU Shahul Hamid, Mr Shamsudin Kadir, Ustaz Shafi Yusof Gani,Ustaz Haslin Bollywood and Yatt Hamzah. After the lunch break we had a short zikir perfromance by Ustaz Manis. Honestly, I barely knew him before the event. His performance was simple but enough to touch my own heart. If you want entertainment, zikir is enough to entertain your heart. Soothing. Relaxing. Calming.

The final slot was the forum, which started late at almost 10pm. My GCS started to drop after about 15 hours of duty. Fuhh such a long day. Thinking that the next day is a working day made me feel even more tired. I wished that we could have the event on Saturday instead. We left the venue by midnight and I reached home nearly at 1.20am  after sending off Anis to her brother at Masjid Seberang Jaya. Alhamdulillah, a very precious experience indeed.

Of all the slots, I think I enjoyed most the slot involved PU Shahul Hamid. His performance was consistently good throughout his speech. So much difference from the speech he gave at Masjid Batu two months earlier. His points were clear and precise, with appropriate evidence. He even craked some jokes which were very relevant.Thank you ustaz.

On Monday, I went to work as usual, hoping that patients would not turn up that many, but...it turned out to be 90 patients in total per doctor! Later after work, I had to drive an hour and 30 minutes to reach home on a Thaipusam eve.

Such a good start for February. Insya Allah, more good  coming my way.