Shimmering

It was a gorgeous Saturday morning as I ambled my way from bed to get ready for the Saturday morning clinic. I have just returned from Singapore the evening before and could do with a lie in. But this was a Saturday and it would be a riot in store if I start my clinic late.

As I munch through my breakfast, I saw some warm sunshine peeking through the curtains. Got my phone out, and I was blessed with such shimmering sunrise ...

Amazing how even a simple smartphone - a P10 Plus mind you - could capture such beauty ....

Labour Day

After staying low for almost a month, I decided to take my camera out and have a quick meal outside. It was a public holiday and after my ward round I decided to venture out.

I fancied some Arab food. Some kebab. But unfortunately the place were not run by anyone from the Middle East anymore. In fact not a single one of the staff there were Arab. All of them were Bangladeshi. But I assumed that being a Labour Day, the usual workers got their day off!

Any how, the meal was a disaster. Some slices of kebab meat in a pitta bread rolled with some potato fries in them! This lot was really creative!

Leaving the shop unimpressed, I walked around Bukit Bintang quietly, and soon after to started to rain .... Enough for the short outing! Time to get some shelters ...

Mixed Feelings

Idlan joined SSU - Sekolah Sri Utama - back in 2008 in kindergarten. He spent 3 years in pre-school before starting primary school, finishing off with his UPSR last year. He left a couple of weeks after the exam to join the school he is at now.

Irfan also joined as a 4-year-old back in 2010 and will be leaving in September. It looked like we would be completing our 9 year association with the school soon and I was there today to pay for Irfan’s term fees, which would eventually be the last for him. With that fee paid, it meant that this may be the last bit of business I would be doing with the school except for collecting the school bond when Irfan leaves later.

Over the years, it was clear that the school was heading for a decline. They were actually lucky as there were a number of schools nearby that had completely closed over the years. SSU was still surviving, but I fear for their future. The quality of the teachers had deteriorated. They had a number of headmasters recently, with one only just recently resigned. Most of the teachers were local - the last headmaster was Caucasian. With a PhD. I didn’t think that he was a perfect fit from day one.

One of my main gripe was the fact that the school do not have a Parents-Teachers Association. Dissemination of informations had been weak over the years, much to my frustration. And there were no avenue for us to voice our concerns. I did write a letter to the then headmaster when Idlan left, and he did reply back. From the tone of his email, I could sense that he was just as frustrated with the arrangement at the school.

The school Idlan - and later Irfan - would be moving to was way different to Sri Utama. They put a lot of emphasis on parents’ participation, their activities were great and Idlan had definitely moved on from. He was miserable in the last couple of years at Sri Utama. We told the teachers about that but unfortunately they weren’t at all interested.

I still have a soft spot for Sri Utama. It was convenient when we were living in Gombak before. Time has changed and the school had certainly been left behind .... We were still in contact with some of the teachers from yesteryears. They still remembered the two boys, and how they had grown over the years .... I still had the photo of Idlan’s first day at Sri Utama in 2008 framed on the wall at the house in Gombak.

MSH 2017

I only managed to stay a single night of the MSH Meeting this time as I wanted to have some downtime after the trip. For the first time, the meeting was held in JB and it was a resounding success. Most of the participant stayed at the same venue making logistics straightforward.

The venue presented itself with some unique issues. Trying to fit into a medical conference configuration and demand was not straight forward and we ended up having the poster in the main hall while the Pharmaceutical booths hidden away in small little rooms, away from the normal flow of traffic. I ended up only visiting half of them since it was rather difficult to navigate around to visit them all.

There was also a nice auditorium where some of the satellite talks were held. Again, it was not design for free flow of participant, with the delegates ending up entering through next to the main stage - the only entrance - while the speakers were at the rostrum. Not exactly ideal. Then came the temperature control of the venue. It was freezing in there ....

After the meeting, I was told that I would be the organiser for next year's chapter. I planned to hold it somewhere near work and the hotel next door to SJMC looked like an enticing prospect.

Timing would be tight thought with Ramadhan starting mid May. Some of the speakers were reluctant to attend during Easter and the local speakers has local University exams to supervise during the period. I have decided to cut it fine and hold it on the second weekend of May next year, just before Ramadhan.

Best to sort out the venue soon ...

The Weeks After

A couple of weeks had passed since Ba left us. We were still getting ourselves organised in terms of sorting out his paperworks. I had planned to do some paperwork with my Mum next Thursday which should take me the whole afternoon.

All of us were still recovering from the shock of the loss, but were gradually coming to terms. My Mum had been staying with Julia in the past week and I planned to bring her to our apartment in a couple of days. We have yet to decide on our long-term plans. There were a few ideas floated, but we had decided to do a bit of renovation again to our apartment to create a guess room at the expense of my study.

Plenty of our relatives had visited my Mum either at her place or at Julia's. She seemed OK but I was sure come Ramadhan, when she was active at her surau with Ba, she might miss him. At the moment she remained occupied.