Halal Convention 2011, Schaumburg

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ
 السلام عليكم

I don’t know why…but my hands are cold to death. Rase sejuuuk je walhal 2 hari lepas Chicago dah naik 80 F. Tiba2 hari ni turun jadi 50 F. It’s all good though. I’ve come into good terms with Chicago's weather. It’s way3 better than British’s weather aite.

Well, so, wassup2. Saturday I had kompang practice. Ustaz found a leader for the kompang group that was kak raja. She’s a PhD student, who will also be performing in Wisc. Midwest Night 2011. Anyway..she came along with 4 other friends from Wisconsin. Started from 5 pm at anty sara’s, it ended until 10 pm. Banyak recreational daripada practicenye. Not to forget, kak raja made us some lempeng pisang..eh ye ke. Ye la. Something like that which was yummy. Alhamdulillah. Walaupun tak pernah terpikir nak mengidam lepat pisang (Ha!!! Lepat pisang! That’s it…), rasa macam terubat rindu kat Malaysia walaupun takde kaitan sangat.

I was soooo happy that I got to meet nadia. After fuhh some time. Rasa mcm lama dah tak jumpa. So, we looked at some past videos, pict, and shared some special vid from youtube :) alhamdulillah. Bro hafiz said I look tensed in the evening. Well…

So, ahad. At 3pm, the Wisconsin buddies came to my place for lunch and had the last practice. Bro hafiz were running late with ustaz along and kompang2. It was fine though..before 5pm, everyone was together and we did our last rehearsal. The moment of truth, at 6.30, after arrival and settling down, we performed. Kami berkompang sepanjang2 nak suruh org masuk ked lm bilik conference tu. Ayy. Ramai org berpusu2. Ade lah kami berpalu2 tak berhenti for 15-20 mins. Huish. Dasat. Untuk rekod saye, dasat lah.

Dalam kereta, on the way to the convention, saye tanye la kak raja. Siapa kawan2 dia yang lain besides kak aisyah. They were boys. Segan…but they were definitely older than me. Barangkali semua PhD students kot. Btw, they only came to teman kak raja and ka aisyah performing. While the convention was running, they went to watch a movie, hang out kat kfc, devon.

Anyway, they were all friendly and funny people. sgt lah. Sorang bro Riz who likes to record himself singing even when he’s sick, then, Bro mat whose wife (writing up her thesis! Yey!) and kids are in Malaysia, inshallah will be joining him pretty soon :) and there’s this bro called Azali. I was like ooo…macam Azali Azlan. And kak raja went, yeah, dia ah yg dapat 21As tu. I asked more, yang skolah kat skola agama Yan kedah? Hak ah. Ooo…rupe2nye. Funny. I couldn’t tell by the least. Quite surreal actually. macam tak percaye pon ade sket. respek2. bro azali sekarang tgh belajar genetics. First I met him was at a taklimat kat UUM sintok 2008. Taklimat utk budak2 SPM yang saye pergi dgn sorang sis saye ni. Hehe. Siap tangkap gambo lagi. One thing that I most remember from one of his tips was, to bring a pen/pencil and a piece of paper/notepad with you always. Especially for add math or whatever, kadang2 Allah bagi ilham at random times..so, cepat2 la jot down. Another one that I remember was, dia cakap, “bila saya belajar, saya berlajar tekun2…tapi bila ada hari yang saya taknak belajar, say tak belajar. Saye rehat”..may I add, saye rehat, kumpul energy, hikangkan segala keletihan dan bagi ada rasa rindu yang membuak2 nak study. itu bukan bermalas2an dh. itu berehat. Yang penting, ketekunan itu kunci kejayaan.

I’m not sure whether there is only one key to success. There are many and also subjective depending on different individuals. But I guess, tekun ni is true for many instances. “Kite tak perlu selalu tekun/serius. Tapi ketekunan/keseriusan dalam berbuat sesuatu perkara tu perlu” rephrasing from only of the bros here.
Hehe. Kelakar.

The convention was about Halal Food. Empat delegates dari Malaysia patut datang sbb Jakim lah one of the hosts and VVIPs malam tu. Namun, takde rezqi pulak. Tiga org delegates stranded kat airport sbb tak dapat visa pelepasan. Allahu Akbar…takpe lah. Sorang, ade, Tan Sri Syed Jalaludin and wife :). Promoting the official brand and company iNFANCA, American muslims can search for the (M) trademark/chop on food products. Inshallah, disahkan Halal :). The company started of 13 years ago…when a physicist met a food biologist, if I’m not mistaken, and decided to open up this company. Alhamdulillah, 13 years and going strong. There, the famous zapin group imported from Purdue, performed and also did the Indon’s tari group.

After the banquet, everyone gathered at Longvalley and we all had a pizza party :) That was nice..
The next night, Monday (yesterday), Tan Sri and wife, anty sara and family, ustaz and family, anty ita and family came over to our place for dinner. The kids were suspended in my room by umi sbb tak habis ngaji lagi. Mereka bawak Quran dari rumah…dan saye supervise je while the rest had dinner together. I was happy…happy je. But a third person came up to me and asked:

what’s the matter?...you look sad..

eh, takde lah anty..happy je.

No2..that’s not you. You don’t look as usual.

Hmmmmmm..well, that’s a bugger. I didn’t intend to appear tensed or sad. deep inside I know I was happy. Very happy actually in general..i had cookies, cupcakes, pengat pisang, met nadia and everyone. Maybe there was a lil bit of wrestling over hormones because it’s time but nothing major. Huhu.

Ah..who cares. I know I’m happy. Allah knows I’m happy :)