Unwind

What a luxury to be lazy. No deadlines today and Alman has been sleeping since after his bath at 10am. It is now 3pm and he only woke up once, for about 20 minutes for milk. The cleaning lady has come and left after sucking up all the dust she could imagine there was. She helped pull out a sickly plant from a big pot which I need for repotting an overgrown feng shui plant which Yassin, the gardener, had extracted and spliced into four last Sunday. Three had gone into new pots, and the last one is lying in wait underneath my bushes. So now I have to think of how to get  a new pot and some new soil asap, the thrill of which no one else in the house shares with me.

Alman did not sleep much in the day during the last 2 days when I was away conducting my English workshop in UiTM. Clever boy wanted to spend as much waking hours as possible with his mummy who incidentally caught flu and obtained medical leave, albeit solving the issue of finding a babysitter for Alman for the 2 days.

Training is always draining, but very gratifying. There is something rejuvenating about meeting a new set of young people (well, a few of them were senior staff in age and position but still younger than me) each time during training, seeing their eager faces, hearing their ideas and their laughter. I always tell them at the beginning to be prepared to laugh at themselves and to laugh at each other. Fair enough, that usually set them excited already. And to see their masterpieces posted for scrutiny and correction during the grammar session on sentence construction, though I usually do not disclose the authors. Everybody enjoys snippets of personal information displayed on the board, like what their favourite daily activities are or what they would like to change about themselves if they are given the chance to. I will sometimes catch glimpses of potential writers, those that write from the heart and despite the grammar flaws, they do touch me and these I would read to the class. Like this UiTM group, the participants are usually of varying proficiency levels and this is the slightly delicate part, ie, having to balance the lessons in a way that they would cater to all levels, without leaving anyone bored or lost. While you are doing it, you feel like you have ample energy to go on for days and days, but the moment it is over, even a 2-day stint, you feel like you need a whole day or more to unwind. Well, Alman certainly seems to empathize, being more sleepy and calmer than usual today.

On Friday, 1^st June, Najmi’s family held “kenduri kekah” in Alor Atar, for Alman and his 4-month old cousin, Sara, who is living in Seattle. All of us went, of course and it was a great gathering. Alman cooperated very well, happily sleeping throughout the ceremony, even when the ustaz rubbed dates on his lips. He enjoyed early morning walks in Tok Wan’s garden, falling asleep on the swing. As usual, we were intoxicated with Najmi’s mum’s sinful desserts especially, the blueberry cheesecake! Fortunately, fantastic as she is at baking, she is also very health conscious and keeps the sugar level in her cakes at a minimum…just nice for weight watchers to finish the whole huge piece without feeling suicidal. She may be good for rehabilitating anorexics. I got to learn how to make sushi too from Datin Zaleha as I watched her prepare 2 big platefuls for our dinner before we flew off to KL. I could only help with rolling the rice in and cutting the seaweed wraps, but it’s a start. I’ll be sure to brag about it when I finally get to do the whole thing myself!

We had been very anxious about Alman making the flight as he is barely 2 months old. Well, we did not need to as he slept like the baby he is all the way on the flight to and from Alor Star. Atta boy!!