February End

Today is my youngest son's birthday and the whole family was committed to make this a joyous day for our son (except for my second son who is still in JB due to work, only to come back tomorrow). Particularly we are about to leave for umrah, leaving my youngest with my eldest son behind. We took him for a special lunch at the nearby Aeon. 

Just noticed that since we last came to that place, the meal portions have gone smaller and things have gotten much more expensive. However, it was worth the family time. We also bought him a cake just to celebrate.

Just before that, we went to a local optometrist store, to get my glasses tightened up before going for umrah and passed by this "coffee heaven" event at the mall. My other half and son bought some drinks but I decided I had enough from the lunch.

Let me backtrack the past few weeks. My mind was already occupied with the forthcoming umrah trip, but I also had a few more intervening duties checking up on my continuing students' work as well. So I was trying to divide time between the two. For the umrah trip, I need to get myself fitter as the rituals involve a lot of walking. So, I started walk exercising at our local City Park. Initially, I could only walk about one round the park (roughly 1.5km) before getting tired or my back or legs hurt. Gradually, I increase the walk to two, three, four and finally five rounds around the walk covering around 7km (which is about the distance that the ritual needs). 

At some point, even the dogs in the park started to recognise and even accompany our walk.

Bit more confident with my physical strength now. Apart from this physical preparation, we also need to prepare and learn the prayers that go along with the rituals. Our travel agent send us these books to guide us (besides the other books we were reading).

Other concern will be the day itself, how the crowd turns out to be (the news that we got, the crowd is swelling almost like the haj season). We also need to prepare spiritually. We were told of many stories of how we will be tested. Indeed we were tested even before making the trip; all requiring us to be patient and be calm. As the trip draws near, we intensify a little, some of these preparations and we pray that we will get through our umrah rituals without too much difficulty.

We have also received news that my sister Zaizah will be going to Turkey with his husband and team for the humanitarian mission in Turkey. May Allah protect them both and their team and grant them rewards for their sacrifice.