Gas.. Oh... Gas..

Kalau nak cita pasal my experience bab nak beli GAS kat Oman ni memang memeritkan! Beli gas kat sini means you kena call penjual gas dan minta dia hantar ke rumah. Sounds easy right?

Last two days, tengah masak tetiba gas habis! Huh.. part ni yang paling meresahkan dan membosankan.. tambahan lagi kalau time tu tengah masak lunch or ada tempahan makanan. Tension.. tension...

Dah banyak kali tergerak hati atau encik suami berpesan suruh beli extra tong gas. Tapi my justification.. buat apa nak ada spare tong gas? Sini tong gas kemain besar, then satu tong gas can last months (depends on berapa kerap masak lah.. ) So kesudahannya tak juga berbeli extra tong gas tu.

Jadi bila time gas habis, mula ah menyesal. Salah sendiri kan?

I've started calling the penjual gas immediately bila gas habis. Masa tu around 9.30am. As expected tak angkat. Ehhh nak call deorang ni kena nengok time. Kalau awal pagi sangat.. tidur lagi ah kut.. kena 10am ke atas. Then kalau dah lepas tengahari panas rembang jangan ah mimpi deorang nak angkat phone juga.. Tidur agaknya.. kena petang2 sikit.. Ini pun bergantung pada nasib ah..

Selalunya akak kena call 3-4 kali baru angkat. Tu baru call, belum lagi nak tunggu deorang datang. Selama akak duk Oman ni ah.. tak pernah ah call penjual gas dan dapat gas cepat. Kalau call deorang, mesti akan cakap.. "I will come after half an hour"

Their "after half an hour" tu bole sampai 3-4 hari. Mana tak tension!! Ni sejak dua hari takde gas. Nasib baik ah we all ada spare electrical cooker yang encik suami beli masa dia 'single' kat sini dulu. So kena ah panjat almari bawa turun cooker tu..

Semalam seharian call dari pagi sampai ke petang, tak angkat. Sms juga. Tak datang juga. Penjual gas ni yang regular akak call bila gas habis. Kalau call yang lain dia tak nak datang lak kawasan kita.. So satu nombor ni je lah yang akak rely on.

Today again this morning I called again. Lucky me he picked up the phone. Tau apa dia jawab? First soalan yang berulang sama tanya walau berpuluh kali call - your address. Lepas dah puas explain dia akan suruh sms jugak.

Then boleh dia cakap yang deorang tak hantar gas kat kawasan rumah akak. Katanya only area "Madinat Qaboos". Naik angin lah akak.. terus akak cakap.. "I always call you and you came before" Jawab dia "NO..NO.. only Madinat Qaboos" Akak bebel lagi.. agaknya dia malas nak layan terus suruh sms address.

Huh.. terhina jap rasa akak.. Madinat Qaboos tu tempat expat omputih.. orang2 kaya duk sana.. kemain eksen dia taknak hantar kat area akak ni - Al Khuwair. Dulu kemain je datang siap ngurat maid akak! Dah tu berjela tanya alamat dan sejak 2 hari lepas akak call.. dia janji nak datang. Ni akak ragu2 dia akan datang.

Hmm.. kalau ah akak dapat jumpa mamat ni.. akak nak cakap kat dia - "Kalau nak memilih sangat tempat mana nak hantar, awal2 cakap lah. Takyah beria minta address. Jangan dah 2-3 hari call baru nak cakap kawasan ini itu. Kalau nak jual gas buat cara orang nak jual gas, takda sapa paksa awak suruh jual gas. Malas! Dulu tak kisah nak hantar mana.. sekarang eksen lak ye,,"

Ok tak? Hahahahha.. Now akak kena ah naik keta round cari lori oren jual gas. Well.. wish me luck and hope I can find one.

Bright SunShiny Day

Rain.. rain.. go away.. come again another day. Well.. I’ve been singing this with my children over our weekend. It was raining continuously as expected for a few days. Oman’s Ministry of Education has asked all the schools in the Sultanate to close the school due to the bad weather conditions for safety reasons.

Last night I got an sms from my elder daughter’s school informing that there is no school today. Hoorayy! But, my two younger children’s school is open as usual. Nabila and Hakeem were not satisfied and asked why do they have to go to school while all the schools in Oman have been asked to closed.

I wish I could answer that. This morning was a quite tough for me to wake them up. Since they had set their mind for not going to school to school this morning, I had already expected, of course, some dramas from them.

Finally, at 6.45am they woke up, which was the unusual case. At this time they normally would be in the car going to school. We went out from the house at 7.15am and luckily managed to reach the school before the bell rang.

And yes.. today the sun shone from morning to the end of the school day - it was such a breezy shiny day and I wish it would continue like this forever!

As usual, I hit to the gym after sending my kids to school. I felt so bad as last week I got to go only once. The worst part is I eat more than I burn the food!

This week I determine to burn more fat! Meanwhile I feel so blessed that the rain came before we hit the sizzling summer.

When It Rains In Oman

When it rains here in Oman specifically Muscat where I live – kucar kacir seketika kehidupan kami di sini..

I’ve been living in Muscat for around 6 years. During the early years we hardly had rains in Oman. When the rains came, it will be a major thing at that time. People will run out to the empty area, laughing taking photos to celebrate the rains. The rains would normally drizzled and last only for less than 5 min.

Year by year we had more rains pouring in Oman. The drastic one that we had was in the year of 2007, which led to Gonu. That was the first disaster that I ever had in my life.

At that time the road and drain system in Oman was not prepared for all of these. The whole country was totally a mess. There were many roads and buildings collapsed and flooded everywhere in the Sultanate.

I was lucky to be staying at the higher residential area. Some of my friends were asked to vacate their house especially those nearby the sea. I probably have to write in another post for the Gonu story itself.. It was a traumatic for all of us here.

Now after almost two years came back for the second time here to Oman, the country has improves a lot. There are lots of new roads and highways. They also have proper drainage system. Though it does not fully fit for the heavy rains like the Tropical Country but it does helps a lot.

This back few days we already had rains in Oman. It started with drizzling for a few min in a day. Things were still under control. Everybody just moaned over the dirty cars. Kotor macam dah keluar dari bendang!

Everybody is still continuing the normal routines as usual. This morning when I woke up from sleep, I still hear rain that had been pouring since last night. It was quite heavy compare to the usual rains we had. The winds were strong too as I could hear it from inside my house.

One thing that popped on my mind – please don’t let anything happen and the road will not be flooded. I still got my children to get ready for school though hoping and thinking that school might be close today.

On the way to school, I got sms informing the school is closed. My kids were screaming happily. On our way back home, we could see the roads have started to pack with cars. There were some areas flooded with water.

Hubby just called me that his office is closing and being advised to leave the office for the safety reasons. As I am typing now, I could hear the winds blow so strong. It still rains on and on.

We are to expect rains and stormy for the next few days here in Oman. The police have asked citizens and residents not to take risk of crossing wadis unless the water level had subsided.

Thank God it is Wednesday today and I got a free holiday today! What a long weekend and hope the weather will be nice to us here in Oman.

It Runs In The Blood

Maybe you’ve read my previous post about my son.. and my today’s story is the continuity about it. Today while walking towards the school hall where my daughter had her netball activity, I saw ADM’s mom. As expected the moment she saw me, she just turned her body back ignoring and pretending like she didn’t see me.

Well.. my reaction was like “do I care whether you gonna say hi to me?”.

A couple of weeks after I reported to the class teacher about the incident, she called me. Yes.. the mother of ADM. I received her phone call while I was getting ready to sleep.

She interrogated me about the incident that I claimed ADM harassed my son. I told her the same thing what I’ve told the class teacher. She was not satisfied and asked me the names of the boys who were there that witnessed the incident.

She even said that how could I believe what the boy (witness) claimed as I was not there during the incident. She then started to raise her unsatisfactory voice to me. She even challenged me to prove that my son being harassed.

Well.. well.. she got the wrong person to argue and fight with.

My answer to her is very simple. First I said, you have to talk to the school and not to me, as this matter now has been the school’s case. If the school (teacher & principal) did not want to disclose the name of the witness, what makes you think that I would too?

I am talking about my SON here and you are too. As much as you believe your son did not do it, as much as that also I believe that my son did not lie to me. Who are you to question me and to prove about my son’s diary or the witness on that day?

I was really irritated at her but still had my sense to act calmly and professionally. She was still not satisfied and repeated again and again claiming that his son was innocent and angry with me for reporting to the school. She said that I should come to her instead.

Ahah! My answer to her – the way you talked and reacted now, shouting at me and I am glad that I went to the school instead of you. I told her again, as a mother you would have the same feeling as mine. What if you were at my place? Would you do the same thing to protect your son? It has been a year, a year that my son has been facing this alone.

I know my son very well and so do you. If you don’t believe that your son would do this that is your choice. But you don’t ask me not to believe my son too. I know my son is a kind-hearted boy and he would never do things to harm people and even lie to me.

So stop talking to me like you were an angel. Whatever your son has done to my son, I would forgive him but whatever you have said about my son –I will never forgive you. What do you feel if I say that your son who was the one that lied all this while. Your son did not just kick or punch my son once but so many times. Will it hurt you to see your son being bullied? Will it hurt your feelings when you know that nobody hears what your son says?

So stop being rude to me. You are the one who called me in the middle of the night and if you are not satisfied with whatever I said, you can always go to the school.

She just then said ok, good-bye and slammed the telephone. Damn.. I felt like to slap and punch her face at that time!

Now I know where does his son gets that bullying and possessive character. Who does she think she is? She thinks she can just call people and demand whatever she wants?

My son told me while he was sitting around with ADM and his friends, ADM’s dad came to them and said hi to everybody except him. My son innocently told me that probably ADM’s dad didn’t notice him as he was the smallest shortest among all in the group. Owh.. my poor boy. My son even told me that ADM told him that his mom doesn’t allow him to talk or be friend with him again.

I just don’t understand why some people will react like this. When come to think of their nationality, don’t blame people if we were to stereotype them as being arrogant, selfish and self centered. I will never stoop down myself as low as them just to prove who I am.

Metallica Concert - Abu Dhabi 2013

Metallica? Yes.. did you hear read that? It is Metallica, the ultimate American heavy metal band. They were in Du Arena Yas Island, Abu Dhabi last Friday, 19 April. Believe it or not.. I was there! Yes.. was there to watch their concert.

I’ve known this band when I was 24 years old. I fell in love with their hit song – Enter Sandman. I then started to listen to all of the songs from the “Black Album” which was released in 1991.

Talking about concerts… Thru out my entire life, I have only been to four concerts. The first one was when I was 8 years old. It was a “Sudirman Konsert” that was held in my hometown, Kedah. Sudirman who was the famous singer at that time and luckily, I got to watched him.  I even got called up to the stage to sing with him! Ahah..  I even got to hold his hand too yeah! Hahahaa..

The second one was Michael Jackson concert. He came to Malaysia in 1996. Even though I just managed to get the cheapest ticket, I still enjoyed his magnificent show. The third concert was the KRU concert. Hey.. I was a big fan of this group. It was in my early 20s at that time and I felt so old, being among the teenagers who were dancing, rapping enjoying the concert but hey… age does not count in this! Hahahha

My fourth one was when I was pregnant for Nabila and it was the Akademi Fantasia I. Gosh.. AF was a phenomenon at that time. Everybody at all level of age was going crazy with these AF singers. Again.. I was among the oldest there but still… age is not a matter in here! 

And here again.. I got to watch the Metallica live concert. Compared to the previous concerts that I have been to, one word I could say for this concert – AWESOME!

We arrived at around 6pm at the Du Arena and saw quite a big crowd waiting in front of the entrance. The gate opened punctually at 7pm and excitedly everybody went in. People started running to the front closer to the stage. Since the show hadn’t started yet, we wondered around to get drinks and t-shirts.

   

At 8.00pm the invited local band “The Eye” started performing their show. They were quite good and played famous heavy metal band’s songs and theirs too. When the band stopped playing at 9.00pm, the crowds sarted screaming for Metallica.

I too who was just relaxing sitting on the grass, started walking finding good spots closer to the stage. Finally at 9.20pm the waiting ended as the first song by Metallica – “Hit the lights” hit the air. Goshh.. I could feel my heart thumping beat-by-beat following the bass rhythm. I could even see each of them very clearly. 

They played 18 songs non-stop for two hours. I didn’t really know all the songs they played and couldn’t sing along but it still didn’t disappoint me. They were so good. Superb! I wonder where they get all the stamina and energy. All the songs were played and sang well. Not to count the tremendous sound systems they had. Awesome and awesome..

As for the crowd, the majority were among my age. Metallica is an evergreen group that founded in 1981 and they are still popular till now. Some of the members of the band were older than me but they were all amazing.

I really enjoyed my night. It was a new experience for me. Frankly I didn’t really know what to expect from this concert. I have never ever been to any famous international artist concert beside Michael Jackson. Shockingly, this was held in one of the Middle East countries.

Whatever it is.. it was an awesome night! Until now I can still feel my heart thumping and rhyming to the songs played in the concert.

Well.. I might not be too old to do anything but not to young to do everything.

Rock Yaww!!