Life of loneliness...
It was breaking news. We heard and saw the news broadcasted on national television at midnight.
Hanafy was the first in the household to raise the alarm. He was listening to the radio when the programme he was tuned in to got interupted and the radio station started airing Quran verses instead. Runnig downstairs while asking me to turn the television channel to our local channels, he shouted "...a head of state must have passed away". "The radio stations are only playing Quran verses."
True enough, the by-lines on TV3 announced the passing away of His Highness the Sultan of Johor. We utterred a silent prayer for his soul, Hanafy stayed on to watch the rest of the news while I turned off my laptop and went up to sleep.
Early this morning, just after we prayed subuh, the house phone rang...angrily, I must say. Hanafy turned and asked me to answer the call. I in turn shouted to Raziq to pick up the phone, suspecting my sister-in-law in Singapore calling to speak to him as she normally does on Saturdays. But Hanafy was confident it would be his mum - and why.
Sure enough, Raziq called for daddy to pick up the extension upstairs - opah wants to speak to him urgent. He pushed me to answer on his behalf and I stood my ground...nope, not for me, dear! I can hear his short and abrupt responses to his mum's queries (I guess!) and when he put the receiver down soon after, very smugly turned to me and said, "I told you...she wants to tell us about the Sultan's passing away...she just heard of it on tv." All the way from Singapore. Not that he is family or in any way related to us...but all the way from Singapore? And so early on the morning? Wouldn't we be the first to know of this, you think?
I Thank God for not letting me answer the phone...!
Hanafy was the first in the household to raise the alarm. He was listening to the radio when the programme he was tuned in to got interupted and the radio station started airing Quran verses instead. Runnig downstairs while asking me to turn the television channel to our local channels, he shouted "...a head of state must have passed away". "The radio stations are only playing Quran verses."
True enough, the by-lines on TV3 announced the passing away of His Highness the Sultan of Johor. We utterred a silent prayer for his soul, Hanafy stayed on to watch the rest of the news while I turned off my laptop and went up to sleep.
Early this morning, just after we prayed subuh, the house phone rang...angrily, I must say. Hanafy turned and asked me to answer the call. I in turn shouted to Raziq to pick up the phone, suspecting my sister-in-law in Singapore calling to speak to him as she normally does on Saturdays. But Hanafy was confident it would be his mum - and why.
Sure enough, Raziq called for daddy to pick up the extension upstairs - opah wants to speak to him urgent. He pushed me to answer on his behalf and I stood my ground...nope, not for me, dear! I can hear his short and abrupt responses to his mum's queries (I guess!) and when he put the receiver down soon after, very smugly turned to me and said, "I told you...she wants to tell us about the Sultan's passing away...she just heard of it on tv." All the way from Singapore. Not that he is family or in any way related to us...but all the way from Singapore? And so early on the morning? Wouldn't we be the first to know of this, you think?
I Thank God for not letting me answer the phone...!
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