Friday Prayers at Orchard

During my recent Singapore overnight stop, I had the chance to visit one of the mosque there for Friday prayers. It was only a 10 minute walk from the hotel we were staying and the timing was just right as we were going towards a lunch recess.

The mosque, called Masjid Al-Falah stood right behind a Holiday Inn hotel in the middle of Orchard Road, the main shopping district in Singapore. It was at a simple building, only marked with some simple letterings. It was already crowded when we arrived, and we got a spot on the upper floors where the Muslimah usually attend.

The toilets and the absolution area was clearly marked and conveniently placed. And this being Singapore, they were spotless.

Impressive. The whole setup was great. The sermon was in Malay and the subject matters were straight to the point and easy to digest. None of the political connotations we were preached to in the mosques in KL. Towards the end of his sermon, the khatib then switched seamlessly into fluent English in summarising his talk.

We could do with some of that back home as the mosque I went to in Gombak had a large Yemeni and Somalian community attending.

Overnight in Singapore

It was a meeting I was invited to in Singapore, and it involved an overnight stay. Initially I was not very keen but I thought I might as well go.

I left after my rounds on a Thursday, flew over reaching Singapore in time for dinner.

Then I had a free morning for myself - enough time to prepare for my talks on a later date. The meeting proper only started on the Friday afternoon after which I had to catch a flight home straight after.

A full day, not really much time to do anything else but to read, sleep and read some more ...

Good thing that the hotel was cosy and there plenty of malls next door. Not that I could afford to shop with the state of Malaysia Ringgit! I was then greeted with a busy Saturday morning clinic as well as a couple of talks to give upon return, not to mention being on call on the Sunday! Happy times!

Found the Dealer

So, the Patchi outlet at Pavilion had moved. Originally on the sixth floor, right by the entrance to Tokyo Street, it had moved to the first second floor on the walkway between Pavilon proper and the new annex.

The new shop appeared bigger but for some reason I felt that it was less visible.

As long as they were still open, I wouldn’t be complaining ...

40 Days

Last weekend Two weekends ago, Julia hosted a kenduri at her place. We had a prayer and Yassin recital to mark 40 days of Ba's passing. We got some of my Uncles and family friends around as well.

Nut sadly since it was a Saturday afternoon, I was late for the occasion. Anita and the boys were there and we later spend the evening in Kajang.

It was nice that so many people came. It was also the last weekend before Ramadan. It had been some time since I have been to Ba's grave. It now time to decide on the tombstone and in the coming weeks, I would be sorting that out.

Alfatihah.

Changes Abound

Following the passing of my Dad, we felt that we could do with an extra bedroom just in case our parents came for a visit and staying overnight. We already had our main bedroom, and one room each for Idlan and Irfan. The other bedroom was used as our study.

Time for a change. Out went the big table, and in came a king-sized bed!

The new bed is in ...It had to be done in stages. The wallpapers were sorted, the curtains would come later in the week and the bathroom attached to this room needed some fixing due to a recent leak. But on the whole, the room is now useable, and Anita had given a hint that I had to take her for some furniture shopping. Guess I’d see how long I could ignore her ....