Salam Aidil Fitri

This week is a busy week for me as I have so many things to clear at work before enjoying my one week off for Raya. Perhaps this is why I easily fall asleep right after breaking the fast. Trying to wake up to go do my night training is another challenge by itself. In addition to some sleepless nights, I feel like a zombie now.

Anyway, Raya is coming shortly and with my busy-ness graph going up to the peak, I’d like to take this opportunity to do a short entry, while I still have a little time to spare.

Here are some tips I can think of, when it comes to Raya season:

Safe Driving

1. Don’t drink and drive Batal puasa wei! Unless if you travel at night, you can drink some water or fruit juice to keep your body hydrated. Your brain need to be sharp to focus on the driving. And for those non-Muslim, no alcohol please. If you end up in an accident, you’ll be causing bigger traffic jam. Jangan cari pasal ye!

2. Buckle up dude! Your wind screen and car may be insured, but your head and skull are definitely not.

3. Don’t rush! It’s okay if a car or two squeezed in or overtake in front of you in a traffic jam. The most is that you will only lose few minutes. But if something bad happens, you’ll lose hours. Let’s leave our ‘competitiveness’ spirit to the real triathlon or running races, not when we are driving on the road. Most of us who are used to driving in big cities with traffic jams, we do not realize we’ve actually turned a bit ’kiasu’ when we drive out of the city. It’s okay to be a bit late. It’s Raya time, not a meeting or an interview appointment, right?

4. Don’t tailgate. Whether you are driving slow or fast, observe the distance between the car in front of you. I had an experience having an accident when the car was moving at a mere 20km/hr. How did it happen? I was following the car in front too close (it was in a traffic jam during Raya) that I did not have enough space to brake when the car in front suddenly hit the car in front of it. So, the three of us ended up at the police station and wasted 3 hours there just to settle the police report.

5. Inspect your car condition. Inflate your tires, and also your spare tire. Make sure you have the jack and know how to change the tire in a case of flat (Google up if you don’t know). Check your brake lights, reverse lights, indicator lights (front and back, and sides) and front lights. Also, make your intentions known to other drivers. Put on indicator lights when changing lane or turning.

6. ABS. ABS stands for Anti-lock Braking System. If your car has this, nothing much to worry about. But if you have a car without it, don’t jam or lock the brake when you want to do an emergency stop. If you jerk and jam the brake, your tires will be locked and your car will glide on the road uncontrollably. You can’t steer or maneuver to avoid hitting something in front. Instead, what you should do is to “pump” on the brake repeatedly. This will simulate the ABS system. Some info here as a start. Plenty more on the internet, help yourself.

7. Stay focus! Majority of accidents happen when the driver is distracted. If you need to answer to a phone call, please please please.. use the hands-free kit. The best is not to answer any phone call at all, if you can. And another big sinners are those who read/do text messages, i.e. SMS while driving. Aiyooh, ini paling bahaya dol! I sometimes do this too and I will try my best not to do it anymore.

8. Be considerate. Yeah, we know you own expensive cars and pay huge amount of money for your road taxes. But we are all road users for God’s sake! What makes you think you can give high beams to the car in front of you when he/she is overtaking someone else by being on the third lane of the highways? Especially when YOU are the one who is going faster than the speed limit. I hate this kind of selfish people, really really hate them!

9. Oh, if you have a second car that you will leave at home for few days or a week, you can plug-off the negative terminal of the battery so that when you return back from kampung, your car battery won’t be dried up, i.e. battery gets weak. As a substitute for the safety for not having an alarm system activated (when you plug-off the battery), you can use the steering lock or gear lock. This is optional, as new brand cars have good power management system that the car battery won’t go dry (in terms or its energy) even if the car is idle for few weeks.

10. Don’t forget to recite the ‘doa naik kenderaan’, say ‘Bismillah’ and tawakkal. At the end, our lives are at the hands of the Almighty.

Safety at home

1. Leave the minimum amount of fresh food inside your refrigerator. You never know when black-outs will happen. Imagine coming back from kampung and once you enter your house, you get this pungent smell coming from the kitchen and you have the entire refrigerator to clean up.

2. Throw all rubbish from the bin. You don’t want your house to be a breeding ground for flies, do you?

3. Make sure all doors and windows are securely shut and locked. Also make sure all electrical goods are being unplugged. If you have a timer, you may use it to lit up your house during night times while you are away. Also, don't forget to shut the main water pipe line.

4. Do you know that you can make a report to the police station saying that you won’t be at home for Raya? By doing so, you can ask the police officer to make rounds at your housing area during the holidays. Ask your neighbors to do the same, as the more people reported their home vacancy, the higher the chance that the police will do more rounds at your housing area. Please go and ask at the police station nearby you. I got this info while listening to a tazkirah keselamatan during tarawih given by a police inspector in Bangi.

5. Once again, when you lock the doors and gates, recite ‘Bismillah’ and tawakkal, and pray for the safety of our beloved properties.

Let's choose to be safe!

Last but not least, I would like to take this opportunity to wish every reader a very best of safety during the holiday. My practices during Ramadhan this year is not as good as I first anticipated, and I hope I will live for another Ramadhan next year, insyaAllah.

Thanks again for visiting this blog, I appreciate it very much. I’m happy to read any comments left on this blog too. It makes my little effort to keep on writing, worth it!

Raya picture of 2008

SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI
MAAF ZAHIR DAN BATIN