My First Finger

O Allah! Let me be patient. Amin.

I have just recently came back from an exhausting two-day road trip with my friends. There were nine people altogether. I had loads of fun except for the driving part. I'm not a patient driver, you see. I still need to work on that. If you're reading this entry, please remind me to be patient at all times. Patience is, after all, a virtue. In fact, there are several verses stressing patience. Though there are many, I am most fond of this one:

"...Surely, Allah is with those who are As-Sabirun (the patient)." [8:46]

Who wouldn't want Allah's company? In a way, being patient successfully is a reward in itself. So, that was one thing I've noticed during the trip. It wasn't that I just realised it, but I've always saw this as one of the major things I need to work on. Hey, I'm human! However so, I pray that we are all among those who are As-Sabirun. Amin.

Congratulations Umai!

This is a special shoutout to Umai who started to "really drive" here in Australia. She drove Humairah all the way to Ballina. How cool is that? Humairah drove Humairah (FYI: Humairah is a Hyundai Sedan we drive in Brisbane while Humairah is my dear ukhti). Here's a picture of her victorious drive into the New South Wales border. 

We had a GREAT time. The trip was successful (Alhamdulillah!). Thanks to our organizer/Amirah: Choc. We pushed off a bit late (still human) heading towards Ballina, which is further south than Byron Bay. Here's the funny thing: without the exact whereabouts of the place, we first stopped at the public toilet. Mind you, I was deprived of sleep and uncomfortable, so I got cranky. This was until I saw the lovely view of the river next to us. There I took a few pictures and got my smile back. Then, we headed to the Lighthouse Beach. It was beaautiful. While other went on the rocks at the river bank, Kak Wina and I went to the Beach. Kak Wina, creative as she is, wrote and drew all kinds of things in the sand. In admiration, I took the photos of some as all I wrote on the sand was "Sarah." Talk about creative. Of all Kak Wina's sand-writing, this was my favourite: 

Isn't it nice? Definitely, better than mine. After the Lighthouse Beach, Umai wanted to stop by Lennox Heads, which was really close by actually. There we played a game. Don't exactly know the name of it but it was like Musical Chairs without the music.

Then, it was off to Byron Bay. Subahanallah! It was beautiful. We stopped by a few places, one or two beaches and the so-called famous lighthouse.

We ended the day when it was pretty dark. Since I forgot to transfer the batteries from my Wii remote to my speedlight, I was doomed to set the camera on auto. How sad. But, the last pic of the day did end up quite ok. I was satisfied. 

O yeah. About the title. The next day, we had a boxing-day shopping spree at Harbour Town. After the exhausting retail therapy (yeah, who knew therapy could be tiring?), we head back home at 3 because the car had to be sent by 6. On the way back, while driving slowly, trying to avoid tickets and summonds, etc., a blonde driver drove past me "exhibiting" her middle finger. Nice! It made me so mad! What's wrong with driving slow? Ok, it was kinda my fault because I was in the fast lane. But, show a little courtesy, at least. Oh well, that was "my first finger." Kak Chik and Umai (the only ones awake) saw the wholething and tried to calm me down (THANKS! Love you guys for it!) But, how much could they do? Nothing could help me come back from that (Wow, the trauma!) until I came across Allah's words:

" The good deed and the evil deed cannot be equal. Repel (the evil) with one which is better (i.e. Allah orders the faithful believers to be patient at the time of anger, and to excuse those who treat them badly) then verily he, between whom and you there was enmity, (will become) as though he was a close friend." [41:34]

As usual, Allah comes to the rescue. Thank you Allah!