My umrah story with a toddler and a baby - Part 3: Ziarah Madinah

Read part 1 of my story here and part 2 of my story here.

Day 3

After breakfast, we begun our 15 minutes journey by bus to Masjid Quba'. Masjid Quba' is Islam's oldest masjid in the world.

It is stated in a hadith: "Whoever makes ablutions at home and then goes and prays in the Mosque of Quba, he will have a reward like that of an 'Umrah."

So we took ablutions at home and perform our solat tahiyatul masjid, solat taubat and solat hajat there. We still have time for sujud syukur and Quran recitation.

Then, we headed to "a mountain which loves us and which we love", Bukit Uhud, the largest mountain in Madinah where the Battle of Uhud once took place.

I think it is so worth it to tell the story about Perang Uhud to your kids prior to your visit to Bukit Uhud so they appreciate the visit. I did some reading about Rasulullah before my Umrah, so every now and then I shared my story with 4yo Khaira. I must have forgotten to tell her that Rasulullah has passed away. She only knew that in Raudhah, and guess what.. she cried so bad sampai mimpi2 as she was soooo excited to meet Rasulullah.

So much love for this messenger of Allah. Rindunyaa..

Afterwards, to Ladang kurma Saidina Uthman, in which his waqaf is still on going up until today. Must be one genius skilful businessman!

We had to rush back because it was about time for Friday prayer. On the way back, we passed by Majlis Qiblatain; or the Mosque of the Two Qiblas. It is the mosque where, after Rasulullah received the command to change the direction of prayer from Jerusalem to Makkah, the entire congregation led by a companion changed direction in prayer.

In Masjid Nabawi, it is common for women to follow for Friday prayer, but not in Masjidil Haraam. So mom joined in while I stayed in hotel with the girls. I figured it would be too long for them to be in the mosque, I could not afford having cranky babies while everyone wanted to focus on their solat.

That night was one sad day for me, I did not want to leave Medina.. It felt so heavy to leave Rasulullah, I cried the whole journey from Medina to Makkah, so unlike me. I miss Rasulullah too much already, it breaks my heart to type this.

Pray for the strength for me to write my Part 4. The journey to Makkah.

The "Methodology" stage

Hello everyoneeeee!! Been super hectic this couple of weeks. just arrived from Kucing, shall blogged about it soon. Of course, after I'm done with my umrah post in Makkah, catching uppp catching upp.. haha.

Right now, I'm preparing for my talk on "How I finish my PhD in 3 years part time"; another invitation to fulfilled. So, I thought of sharing what I did during my Methodology stage :)

1. Focus

First key point of the day is.. focus. How easy does it sound, right? But really, you need to train yourself to focus during this stage. Because we tend to do our experiment in a lab. And my lab, is filled with fun girls and we always have something to talk about.. or something fun to do. What fun things to do in the lab, you asked?

I am very easy to please. Give me an Instagram and credit card and the girls to motivate me to buy, walla! There goes a day worth of research. And I'm so into blogging by the way.. and facebook.. gosh so many distractions ok!

So, what I do.. I imagine myself in a big bubble. The moment I start with my experiments, I shut the whole world away. Slowly but surely, the method works, so my friends began to ignore me the moment they saw me with my PhD toys.

2. Determination

How cliche, right? The above statement. But you know it's really true. Once, I'm stuck for months figuring something up. I did not know if I ever would get out of it. I even drafted a letter to quit my PhD. Aaanddd that's when I cashed in my "in case briefcase and somehow I keep going. Looking back.. really, I would forever regret if I did send out that letter.

3. Publish papers

Excerpt from my thesis

Publish as many papers as you can. That literature review, preliminary results, don't let it go to waste. You need those papers not only to impress your examiners, but also for you to gain more confidence.

Sometimes, we think the preliminary results are not worthy, but it's ok. Just try to get it published anyway. I started my PhD in 2010, and I sent out my preliminary result to an IEEE conference, and I got awarded with best paper award. Imagine if I have not sent it out because I thought it is just "preliminary results", I would have let my work goes to waste.

By the end of my 3 years of PhD; I have published 7 journals and 9 conference papers. Mostly from my preliminary results; so start writing and be confident in your results.


4. Exhibition

Try to participate in any exhibition. I led 2 projects for ITEX using my PhD, one in 2012 and the other in 2013, where I was awarded a gold and a silver respectively.

This is important for you to again, impress the examiner. Secondly to build your name.

When I went for ITEX, I would normally go around, mingle with those in the same field as mine, and distribute my name cards to almost everybody I met. The thing is you want to make people familiar with your name, in case they are one of your future examiners, they will be like, "Yeah.. I've heard her name before" kinda thing. To generate  good first impression to them.

5. Stop

Why is it even a key point? It is because, many times we are not confident enough to stop with our methodology and move on because we think that it is simply not good enough. Not worthy to get a PhD. My advice is, if your examiner said it is PhD material already, supported by a second opinion, in my case; my co-supervisor, stop and start thinking of your thesis.

My umrah story with a toddler and a baby - Part 2: Handling the girls in Masjid Nabawi, Madinah

Read my part 1 story here.

As soon as we arrived in the hotel, we were too tired to do anything and immediately fell asleep.

We stayed in Dallah Taibah hotel, just opposite of the Masjid Nabawi. With 4 bed for all 6 of us including my parents. Very very comfortable, I must say. Location, food, hospitality as well as the services, I would highly recommend.

View from hotel window, you can even see Masjid Nabawi

Day 2

Since the time difference between Madinah and Malaysia is 5 hours, in shaa Allah it is easier for us to wake up for tahajjud. 3am in Madinah means 8am in Malaysia, so we were wide awake by then. Don't miss the opportunity for tahajjud k, friends.

We were excited to perform Subuh in Masjid Nabawi. We arrived half an hour before azan because we were scared that the gate would be closed. But later, we found out that they do not close the gate at all. You can even enter as masbuk.

In Masjid Nabawi, your bags will be checked first as they do not allow bringing in cameras. And they have special praying areas for mommies with kids. But not for daddies with kids though, you can pray in the normal praying area.

With my 4 y.o; the lion is her harness

Since we have 2 girls, Love decided to take care of our 15 months old Aisha and I decided to take care of 4 years old Khaira because they behave better with us.

I must say that it is easier with Aisha as she was still small and clingy. Love carried her during jemaah and the rest of the time, she just sat still in her carrier or at the prayer mat eating her biscuit happily.

With Khaira, she had the tendency to run around the praying area, make new friends and hence make noises. What I did was I talk to her about the ethics in mosque before each prayer. And put her next to me on a prayer mat with her toys and books. Most of the time it worked and she would have her new friends play, colour and read with her. Other times, she would just run around, but never that far.

Btw, you can bring in any toys in the mosque except dolls and guns.

Husband with my 15m.o

These kids tend to get hungry during prayer time. Because in between azan and iqamat would took approximately 15 minutes. I normally arrived around 15 minutes before azan. Let them settle down, had my Solat tahiyatul masjid, solat taubat, solat hajat, sujud syukur and then normally I still have some time to qada' solat before solat fardhu jemaah begun. After jemaah, I would recite some Quran before I left. So altogether, perhaps around half an hour with the kids in the mosque.

I brought lots and variety of snacks I bought from Malaysia. In the mosque, the Arabs love kids and my girls always got some Arabic or Turks snacks to bring home. And they always gave their snacks to the kids in the mosque as well.

Zam zam water is available everywhere in the mosque, so don't worry much about bringing water bottle for your kids. I do bring an empty one for me to fill in with zam zam water at the mosque to drink in the hotel later.

Zam zam water is provided together with the cup, my girls enjoyed the free flow so much

To help handle the girls, we found our Pognae carrier is really useful for our baby and our harness really useful for the toddler.

After Subuh prayer, we were shocked that all the way from Masjid Nabawi to our hotel has turned into Pasar. Jubah was so so cheap as cheap as 10 riyal (about RM11). It opens after Subuh and Asar, we bought 80% of our souvenirs here.

We promised to meet each other in front of gate 25. But we couldn't find each other due to the chaosness of the pasar. My suggestion, just meet your better half at the hotel to avoid confusion.

Then, we had our yummy breakfast and got ready for our visit to Masjid Nabawi with the tour.

With Rayhar, we visited Raudhah and the Baqi' Cemetery.

We were given the opportunity to pray inside Raudhah; me with Khaira, Love with Aisha, Alhamdulillah. Allah swt eases everything as the Arabs love kids a lot so they just let us in. Raudhah used to be the house of Rasulullah saw and later his tomb. So much love for this messenger of Allah swt, I cried so badly everytime I had to leave Raudhah.

The Baqi' Cemetery contains many of Rasulullah's relatives and companions. It's just a walking distance away from Masjid Nabawi.

My visit in Raudhah brought so much tears and sadness. Within that couple of hours, I fell in love with Madinah so much.. I just want to stay there, so close to the man I love with all my heart and yet I've never met before.

Just by remembering it brings so much sadness already. Guess I'll see you in my next post, in shaa Allah.

My umrah story with a toddler and a baby - Part 1: the travelling experience.

As salam everyone!! Sorry for the overdue post, been trying to settle down with the girls' jetlag and my everyday routine. And now I'm back.

So, we (my parents, hubs, both my girls and I) left Malaysia on 13th January, our travel agent is Rayhar and using Saudia Airlines. Departed from KLIA where we needed to be there 3 hours before and a short briefing by our agent before we went into the departure hall.

Flight duration was 9 hours, we left Malaysia at 2pm and arrived at 11 pm Malaysia time (7 pm Madinah's time). Transit for less than an hour in Riyadh.

I prepared everything I could because by far this is the longest flight for the girls (Khaira had 8 hours flight from Japan to Malaysia 2 years back, the longest flight Aisha had was only 3 hours).

What I brought in the flight:
1) Colouring books for each girls with colour pencils
2) Lots of videos in my phone
3) Legos
4) Play Doh
5) Jigsaw puzzles
6) Lots and variety of snacks

What I actually used in the flight:
Just snacks.

Haha! It's ok to be over prepared right!

Turned out the kids were already happy with the movies and games provided by Saudia, they couldn't care less about other things. They were too hungry in between meal time (meal was served twice), so the snacks came in handy. The rest of the time, they just slept all the wayyyy and everyone in the flight was complimenting them, Alhamdulillah, I always said to my husband, they were born traveler like us. We have at least two holidays a year, so I guess they are used to it.

Also, I must highly recommend Saudia, the kids were pampered with other toys and gifts in the flight, they were so happy.

Arrived at Madinah with the airport so packed of people checking out. Alhamdulillah, it took us about one hour and a half to clear, very efficient service I must say. We had it longer in Goldcoast Airport last time, with less people. Their immigration took all 10 fingerprints of ours, I have no fingerprints due to eczema, so I came in prepared with letters from JPN and from my specialists. My first miracle in my Umrah journey came in when for the first time in my life, the device managed to scan my fingerprints in only one attempt (Some of my family members had theirs up to three times although they have no fingerprints problem).

Arrived in Madinah with temperature outside around 17 degrees. Took a bus around half an hour to our hotel.

Happy baby in holiday mode!

Will continue my Madinah story in Part 2.

Read my Part 2 here.

Preparation for Umrah; bringing baby and toddler

Hye everyone!

At the moment, I am soo soo excited, counting the days to be the guest of my Creator.

To breathe the same air and be in the same land where my Prophet used to live.

December has been a month where I cried more than the whole year itself. The month where I have been depressed more than the PhD itself. The month when my beloved Grandmother whom I dearly called 'Mak' passed away.

To be given the opportunity to be in Makkah and Madinah just a month after Mak's passing, I took it as a way Allah swt wants to cheer me up.

So let me just share with you some of our preparation to go there:

Financially
1. Package varies from RM5k to 10k. Ours is around RM7k. RM5k for 4y.o Khaira and RM1k+ for 18m.o Aisha.
2. Overall for adult, would suggest to prepare around RM10k -> RM7k for package, RM500 for documentations (passport, injection, etc), RM1k for clothings, snacks from here and RM1.5k expenses there.

Flight
We are going with Saudi Airlines. Please check where you will be heading first. As far as I know; you have 3 options:
1. Land in Madinah and stay in Madinah first, then from Madinah by bus to Makkah (6 hours) and from Makkah to Jeddah (1 hour) and fly there.
2. Land in Jeddah and stay in Makkah first, then to Madinah and fly back from Madinah.
3. Land in Jeddah, then bus to Madinah, and from Madinah back to Makkah and fly back from Jeddah.

I opt for Option 1 as suggested by Rayhar. First timer is always advised to go to Madinah first and because they said airport in Madinah is more manageable.  I would suggest to avoid Option 3 as it requires twice travelling; Jeddah to Madinah and Madinah back to Makkah.

Hotel
We took a package with Rayhar where our hotel is just around 120m away from masjidil haram, which I think is very convenient when bringing kids along. Make sure the hotel provides at least 3 meals a day; again for convenience.

Documentations
1. Sijil nikah verified by jabatan agama if you're going with your husband and if you are below 45
2. Surat beranak verified by jpn for your kids
3. Visa photo wearing black scarf - RM12 for 4 pieces
4. Passport - now standardized to RM200 for 5 years
5. Acyw-135 vaccination. RM165 per pax. For child below 2, must go to paed and will be evaluated case by case whether or not need the vaccination. If not needed, the paed must produce a letter.

Physically
1. Walk 5km a day as suggested. Need to do it pronto

Mentally
1. Solat taubat and solat hajat may everything will be ease for you.

School holiday activities

So what's Khaira doing at home during this long holiday break?

Basically, before I leave to work, I would give her 5 pages of homework. Be it tracing or maths, but very simple ones. Just to discipline her.

Then, she would play all day and watch TV. Her favourite shows at the moment are Ultraman, Ninja Turtles and Didi and Friends. I bought her lots of arts and crafts stuff as well. Mostly from Toys R Us, I borong so many last Christmas as it got way too cheap. So mommies, YES is nearing.. go grab yours.

I also just discovered that Mr. DIY has so many arts and crafts items for kids with the price of just 10% from what I paid to buy stuff in Toys R Us. For example, I bought this keychain for Khaira to colour below for RM3.90.

At night, she would:
1. Revise 5 surahs.
2. 3 pages of reading. Her current read, and first story book. Now at pg 50.

3. Mengaji plus a line hafazan from the current surah she is at. She is now in her 17th surah.
4. Then, she would do one of these:
   a) spelling on Monday
   b) English reading on Tuesday, Thursday
   c) Maths on Wednesday
   d) Mind games on Friday

All these would take less than half an hour.

As for Aisha, she would play all day and watch TV. At night, 3 minutes or less on flashcards. And.. that's it. Yesterday, I decided to eat first before teaching them as opposed to norm. But just after Maghrib, she took her own book and sat where we usually sit waiting for me.

Hehe.. body clock.

Ya Allah, semoga the Asyikins istiqamah. Ameen.

My taichi story

It has been 4 months since I am actively involved in my Taichi class.

It started off with so many of us, until it became only two Malay ladies in the class. I was, as always the youngest.

My Master, of course was so excited to introduce me here and there. Wanted to bring me to the Grandmaster who came all the way from China, proudly saying that Taichi in Malaysia is multi racial and even attracted the youngsters. My physique obviously made me looked younger. I'm 30, Sifu.. not that young anymore (T_T).

But to be, honest.. I'm not that proud of my Taichi.

I have been in sooo many classes before. I excelled in my Aerobic class, doing okay in my Yoga class, so-so in my Tae-Kwan-Do, BUT Taichi is not something I'm proud of yet.

Taichi differs a lot from other classes I've been into. It is so detailed, and gentle and requires a lot of memorization.

The Introductory class, there were 16 steps. 16 complicated steps to memorize. Just when I thought I am doing okay with the 16 steps, I went to Taichi 103.

What is Taichi 103?

"Ohh.. it is just the extension of the 16 steps," my Sifu said.

Right....

Except that the extension means you add 87 more steps, hence Taichi 103.

16 steps + 87 steps = 103 steps = Taichi 103.

I don't even consider it as extension okay!! It's a whole new thing. *cries*

"How do I memorize all the three steps?" I asked my Taichi class monitor after my last session ended.

"It's like a lab session, you know.." He answered. And his following reply made me cursed myself for asking that stups question. "When we want to test the students on psychomotor, we ask them to do the prelab first. Practice is like doing the prelab. Then only you can master the session."

Okay. I deserved that punch *sigh*

Need more practice after this. Like my Sifu always told me..

"Do not cheat Taichi, or else Taichi will cheat you."

Whatever that means..