Sweet Childlike Qualities :-)

*comic strip courtesy of The Muslim Show

Are we ready...

...for year 2020?

Today is the last Friday in 2019

A moment of self reflection...

Inspiring TV Commercial #1

When I watch this commercial, I'm reminded that...

1. Everyone is unique.

2. Just because someone is different and does not conform to the " standard template", it doesn't mean that the person is bad and/or useless.

3. We should always be kind towards other people, even when the person couldn't benefit us in return.

4. Persistence...persistence...persistence :-) Don't give up!

5. Patience is very hard to practice, but is very rewarding in the end.

6. When we give without expecting anything in return, the outcome may surprise us in a good way.

7. Giving is the best gift we can give ourselves.

8. Help may come in various different forms, and sometimes from people or sources we least expected.

9. Love is the universal language that transcends race, colour, creed, and culture.

And a beautiful message towards the end of this commercial:

"People who work out of love, everyone can see their true value." - eventually.

Is there anything that I've missed?

Please always feel free to comment! :-)

What was the most interesting thing happening today?

It's the solar eclipse!

:-)

:-)

Blessings in Disguise

The things that are being held back from us could be blessings in disguise. 

It's a matter of perspective.

#remindingmyself
#sharingiscaring

*comic strip courtesy of The Muslim Show

Some Things May Not Come Easily to Some Others...

Oleh yang demikian, marilah kita elakkan membuat andaian-andaian atau sangkaan-sangkaan tertentu sebelum mengetahui kisah sebenar di sebalik apa yang kita lihat melalui mata kasar kita sahaja.

                                                          *comic strip courtesy of The Muslim Show

Ow! There are Bees in Your Gutter!

Kuman di seberang laut nampak, gajah di depan mata tak nampak...adehhh... 

Semoga kita menjadi manusia yang lebih baik, aamiin

*comic strip courtesy of The Muslim Show

Interesting Facts: Brain vs Dementia

Source: https://www.alz.co.uk/info/early-symptoms

• Dementia incidence continues to increase with age, with dementia incidence doubles every 5 years from ages 65 to 90 years.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3385995/

• Across all regions of the world, dementia disproportionately affects women.
• More women live with dementia than men. The prevalence is higher for women than for men; women are more at risk of developing dementia and the symptoms they live with are more severe.

Source: https://www.alz.co.uk/women-and-dementia

• More women are affected by dementia than men. Worldwide, women with dementia outnumber men 2 to 1. 

• Brain scans tell us that the rate at which brain cells are dying in the brain is faster in women than in men.

Source: https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/blog/why-dementia-different-women

Wounds that Never Show

Be a Strong Yet a Soft Person

Whoever comes to me walking, I will come to him running.

Dear Readers,

This hadith is just so beautiful it never fails to move my heart:

Abu Dharr reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Allah Almighty says: Whoever comes with a good deed will have the reward of ten like it and even more. Whoever comes with an evil deed will be recompensed for one evil deed like it or he will be forgiven. Whoever draws close to me by the length of a hand, I will draw close to him by the length of an arm. Whoever draws close to me the by length of an arm, I will draw close to him by the length of a fathom. Whoever comes to me walking, I will come to him running. Whoever meets me with enough sins to fill the earth, not associating any idols with me, I will meet him with as much forgiveness.”

Source: Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2687

Grade: Sahih (authentic) according to Muslim

It’s good that your thumb got blown off! ;-)

Dear Readers,

I remind myself of a story I once came across some time ago.

It goes something like this:

:-)  :-)  :-)

Two best friends who have grown up since the time when they were little kids – one is now the King and another is an average peasant guy. 

The peasant has a magnificent way of looking at life. The King’s best friend would always call anything as ‘Good’. Anything at all that happens, the peasant would exclaim, “This is good!”

The peasant – the King’s best friend – always looks at things from a perspective that something good is coming out of anything that is happening.

One day, the King and the peasant went out on a hunting trip deep in the woods. The King aimed his rifle and it backfired, and blew the King’s thumb off. His best friend the peasant looked at that and exclaimed “Don’t worry about that, this is good! This is good that your thumb got blown off”.

The King, who was on excruciating pain retorted, “What do you mean this is good, this isn’t good at all!”

The King was so upset and infuriated with his best friend’s reaction to his misfortune, that he threw his best friend into the dungeon, and have the peasant chained to the wall.

The King just left the peasant there.

A year went by and the King went out with his men on a hunting trip. The King got separated from his men and went deeper and deeper into the woods until he was captured by a group of cannibals. The cannibals strapped the King onto a post, piled woods underneath him and was about to light up fire to cook him and eat him, when suddenly they noticed that the King is missing a thumb.

These cannibals happened to be a superstitious group. They believed that it was unhealthy to eat a body that isn’t whole.

So the cannibals got afraid and set the King lose. The King went back to his men. As the King narrated his story to his men, when it suddenly dawned upon him what his best friend had said to him a year ago about him losing his thumb – that it was good that he lost his thumb.

The King, feeling ashamed of himself and of what he had done to his best friend, went down to the dungeon himself to set his best friend free. He rushed down the steep, dark stairways to finally meet his the peasant who was chained on the wall. And the King apologized profusely and sought for his best friend’s forgiveness.

The King shared with his best friend, his encounter with the cannibals and what had happened.

“And you said it was good (that I lost my thumb), which is so true. How could I have been so stupid! I am so, so sorry dear friend. Please forgive me.”

And the King’s best friend, who had been imprisoned unjustly all this while, said to the King,

“Don’t worry, it was good. It’s good that I have been down here since the past year.”

And the King exclaimed, “How can it be good, that you were down here for a year? I am SO sorry that I did this to YOU!”

The peasant replied, “No, really, it’s good. Because if I wasn’t down here, I would have been up there with you (on that hunting trip and got eaten by the cannibals instead)!

:-)  :-)  :-)

So that's the story :-) There is always something good in every situation, even when we do not have the wisdom to comprehend it until perhaps many, many years later!

As long as we keep on reminding each other to keep looking for something good in every situation, learning is always an on-going process - towards becoming better and better :-) (Which is also the reason why we need to choose who we are mingling with, carefully - reminding myself again) ;-)

Biskut Ais Jem Mengimbau Nostalgia Zaman Kanak-kanak yang Menghiburkan :-)

Hai Readers yang budiman sekalian :-)

Hari ni sis terpanggil untuk buat sedikit ulasan tentang biskut ais jem atau nama omputihnya, iced gem biscuits keluaran Khong Guan.

Nama lain bagi biskut ni ialah biskut biji asam. Tak pasti la pula sis apa persamaan biji asam dengan biskut ni ;-) Nak kata rupanya seperti biji asam, sis tak nampak pula keirasannya. Nak kata rasanya masam pun tak juga. Ketika sis kecik-kecik dulu sis cuma panggil biskut ni dengan nama 'biskut aising keras'  atau pun 'biskut gula atas' ;-) Selain itu, nama lain bagi biskut ni ialah biskut butang. Dulu-dulu semasa masih kanak-kanak, sis paling suka makan topping gula kat atas tu saja, badan biskut tu simpan balik dalam tin biskut haha

Rekabentuk bungkusannya begitu memikat dengan penggunaan warna baby blue dan pink sebagai warna latar sebelah atas dan bawah bungkusan secara memanjang dari kiri ke kanan, selain daripada penggunaan warna yang sama untuk tulisan Biskut Ais Jem yang di'offset'kan ke sebelah kiri bagi memberi ruang yang selesa untuk memuatkan gambar biskut-biskut di serata muka hadapan bungkusan. Kedua-dua warna tersebut diharmonikan lagi dengan adanya warna putih di antara keduanya bagi menaikkan lagi warna-warna ceria topping gula pada gambar-gambar biskut ais jem di bungkusan tersebut.

Appealing to one's happy/nostalgic memories is indeed a powerful strategy to boost sales :-)

Sedap dan sungguh menambat hati biskut ni - dengan gula aising berwarna kuning, merah jambu, hijau  dan putih yang ceria, manis dan rapuh; bertakhta di atas biskut tepung gandum comel yang rangup dan lemak-lemak rasanya. Sedar tak sedar habis sepaket biskut ni sekali hadap sahaja! (Sedangkan sis sedang menjalani program diet yang ketat) :-) Begitulah kuatnya pengaruh nostalgia manis zaman kanak-kanak sehingga habis terbabas program dietku :-) 

Dalam banyak-banyak pengeluar biskut ais jem serata Malaysia, setakat ini sis dapati Khong Guan sahaja yang masih mengekalkan rasa biskut ais jem yang asli, yang serupa seperti ketika zaman sis masih kecil dahulu, iaitu dalam era 1980-an :-)

Pernah juga beli biskut ais jem daripada pengeluar dan pengilang yang lain tetapi rasanya tak sama, ada antara mereka yang meng'inovasi'kan resipi topping gula di atas biskut tu menyebabkan rasanya dah lari daripada rasa yang asal.

Biskut Ais Jem keluaran Khong Guan ini boleh didapati di Jaya Grocer pada harga RM2.90 untuk pek bersaiz 110 gram. Sis bagi 5 bintang memandangkan tekstur dan rasanya yang masih kekal tidak berubah hingga ke hari ini walaupun telah melebihi 30 tahun lamanya :-)

Kalau u olls ada terjumpa biskut Ais Jem Khong Guan ni pada harga yang lebih murah di tempat lain, ataupun biskut ais jem jenama berbeza tapi rasa dia sama, roger-roger sis kat sini na ;-)

English Proverbs - Surprise! LoL

Dear Readers,

Recently I discovered that all this while many of us (including me) have been using the "masked" version of several English proverbs, when the actual ones should have been...

 Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.

 The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.

 Jack of all trades, master of none, but better than a master of one.

 Birds of a feather flock together, until the cat comes.

 Great minds think alike, though fools seldom differ.

 The early bird catches the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

image courtesy of Google

See how the meaning changes when we read it in full?

The shorter form of these proverbs that we were used to, have totally different meaning and interpretation altogether!

Do you know of any other English proverbs that have been intentionally or accidentally cut short (hence have their meanings changed)? Let's hear them :-)

The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb

Family does not require blood, it only requires love.

Yep, humans are made of various different nations, cultures and creeds - but that does not mean some of us cannot nurture the kind of bond and values that a family does :-)

Patience & Forgiveness

Dear Readers,

Would you agree with me if I say that the two most difficult virtues to practice in this world are patience and forgiveness, especially when they have something to do with those who have wronged you? 

Does having patience with the people who have wronged you mean that you are condoning their wrongdoing? Does forgiving the wrongdoers who have harmed you mean that you are letting them off the hook and that you are granting them a free pass to evade accountability and to escape punishment for inflicting harm upon you? 

Let's hear your thoughts.

Ke hadapan para pembaca yang budiman sekalian,

Setuju tak kalau saya kata dua perkara yang paling susah nak dipraktikkan di dunia ini ialah sabar dalam menghadapi ujian dan memaafkan, apatah lagi sekiranya ia melibatkan ketidakadilan ke atas diri anda, di mana diri anda diperlakukan secara tidak wajar/tidak patut samasekali?

Adakah sabar dengan manusia yang bersikap tidak wajar, menindas atau menganiayai anda bermakna anda membenarkan, merelakan, pasrah atau redha dengan ketidakadilan/perbuatan tersebut? Adakah memaafkan pesalahlaku bermakna anda merelakan mereka terlepas daripada dipertanggungjawabkan dan adakah mereka akan betul-betul terlepas daripada dihukum atas perbuatan salah mereka tersebut?

Jom kongsi pendapat :-)