Two-Year-Old Future Muezzin in Action

It is often my job to gather ingredients for the meal from our garden. Our ginger has lately done well enough to allow some occasional harvesting. Considering we use it in virtually every meal I doubt we’ll ever be self-sufficient but it’s nice to eat from your own land when you can.

The mighty coconut palm provides an afternoon’s entertainment. The fronds (Malay: pelapah) dip low enough that the kids can grab them and sling themselves into the air. After an hour or so of swinging the frond is swung out and hangs limply from the trunk. It’ll take a few weeks until the next one has grown to the right size and position for more swinging.

Synopsis of the upcoming sequel to James Cameron’s Avatar:
Sulley continues to grow and mature as a Na’vi. We explore the wondrous beauty of the planet with him and the nuances of Na’vi society. But he begins to see aspects of the Na’vi he never noticed before that trouble him. He notices conflicts within the tribe that he tries to solve. But his solutions are not apt and they are not welcomed. He finds he still cannot communicate in Na’vi the way born Na’vi can, and at night, he dreams in …

Slate has a fantastic, no, wait: terrifying 10-part series on income inequality in the United States.
All my life I’ve heard Latin America described as a failed society (or collection of failed societies) because of its grotesque maldistribution of wealth. Peasants in rags beg for food outside the high walls of opulent villas, and so on. But according to the Central Intelligence Agency (whose patriotism I hesitate to question), income distribution in the United States is more unequal than in Guyana, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, and roughly on par …

Sleepy brown toad sits on a log
A loud lorry passes, making it start
Even though we are far from your eyes
Know that you are close to our heart.
***
Selamat Hari Raya, Eid Mubarak, Maaf Zahir dan Batin.

I got the best birthday present ever yesterday: my wife delivered a healthy baby boy on the 9th of November, my birthday and my uncle’s birthday. His name is Muhammad Imran, born 1.30pm, 3.9kg (that’s a little more than 8 and a half pounds for you non-metric people). We opted for elective C-sec since the baby was transverse and never moved into a head-down position. During the procedure we learned why: the baby’s cord was wrapped around his neck AND wrapped around his leg. …

Eid Mubarak and Selamat Hari Raya one and all.
It was a very busy, very difficult Ramadan for me. I worked three weeks straight without a day off until the Friday before Eid, barely stepping into my neighborhood musallah all month. I lost around five pounds, putting me to my thinnest since I got married, and yet I’m as out of shape as ever – what’s up with that? As always though, the month is filled with its own blessings. On the work front, I got my …

ABIM, the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement, is one of the oldest and strongest Islamic NGOs in Malaysia today. Founded in 1972, ABIM is influential on the national stage in lobbying for Islamic policies. It is the leading component organization in PEMBELA, an Islamic affairs pressure group. But its most recognizable effort on the ground is the Taski ABIM, a preschool and kindergarten operation with hundreds of locations around the country. Here in Kuching, ABIM runs five different branches offering morning and afternoon classes for 4,5 and …

As both of my regular readers are well aware, the major focus of this blog is whatever adorable thing my children happen to be up to at the moment. Nonetheless, I do try to intersperse that with other topics to keep things fresh, and so with that in mind I’d like to share with you this latest bit of news:

Who should come into town but HijabMan, fresh from a posh international wedding photography gig in Penang! Scarcely had he set foot in my house but my children were hopping around with balloon helmets, balloon flowers, balloon swords and balloon dogs (strictly halal). Uncle HijabMan knows how to get in good with the little ones.

Thanks to the largesse of the Malaysian government, I was able to bring my family for a one-month vacation at the end of last year. We brought the whole family, and our maid for good measure, and the nine of us went gallavanting from my brother-in-law’s in Tanjong Malim all the way to the Langkawi Archipelago, with stops all along the way. Believe me, when you travel with six small bladders, you stop All. Along. the Way.
Actually two of my brothers-in-law live in TM now, and …