..1st half of my life..the happier times..

pics from the past............

..pakmat's wedding day..circa 1971..first marriage..I was 26..not very sure what I wanted out of life, but I was damn sure I wanted to marry this lady..she was an English teacher in one of the schools in Kota Bharu..and I was a lowly federal clerk..footloose and fancy free..whilst my bachelor friends were revving it up in swinging Kota Bharu, I got hitched..most of the guests were staff of Land Settlement Office, Kota Bharu..and members of bands Suara Kilat and The Streaks..that she agreed to marry me sent shock waves among family members and friends..I matched her sophistication with the ability to quote from Chaucer and Shakespeare..

..later we were to have 7 children..this pic was taken circa 1977..pakmat was attached to the Terengganu Police Contingent Headquarters, as their Finance Officer..somewhere along the way, I got promoted..in 1977 we had our first 3 children, all girls..Tisa, front right, 24th May, 1972, Lina, half-hidden, left of Tisa, 29th January, 1974 and Ida, on her mother's lap, August 24th, 1976..pakmat on extreme right..

..on a police boat, class PA, visiting all the islands off Trengganu..on her mother's lap is Ida who later married Tom and make England her home..

..on an island off the coast of Terengganu..the boat in the background took us there, class PZ, a police marine boat..in the pic is the late Ahmad Salihin, left, holding his daughter, of RTM, Terengganu, to whom Wan Salman owes the song Kelohan Dara..a hit back in the seventies..

..our 1st son, Faiz, on our maiden trip to Singapore..it was 1984..and she was with our 4th daughter, Afzan..

..Afzan's 6th birthday, attended by Afnan and Anith..

..pakmat's late mother, Hajjah Aminah...of Melaka and Pahang descent..widowed on my birth she never stopped pining for her husband, the late Hamid, my father..

..life has a way of not turning out the way we wanted..but whatever way it turned out, I realised that it is the way God had wanted it to be...there are time I wished I can rewind and turn back the clock..for there are times when I jumped before I looked..and did not grasped what I should..and made decisions that led to regrets..

..on the final count, I may have missed some, lose some..but there are also gains..but whatever it is, it is what God had meant it to be...I have weathered the storm, life's trials and tribulations..

..out of my foolishness, I should think that I am now a little bit wiser..there is some remorse, of course, but I have seen and done most things..been there and done that..and for that, I am thankful..for I know that God, in his greatness, had given me what I deserved..a little bit of longevity that I may repent and be closer to Him..a little bit of bounty, that I may give thanks to Him...and children, that I may enjoy their careless laughter and smiles..and forever sees in them reflections of my youth...que sera sera...