have a blessed ’id al-fitr. may god accept our fasts and all acts of worship, and forgive us.
god is great, god is great, god is great, there is no deity but god
god is great, god is great, and praise is due to god.
this month is approaching its end. oh my, this is the best ramadan i’ve ever had. the blessings of saints shower this month.
many good things have happened this month. our family getting a car, my wife and son obtaining their pr, me finally (yes, finally!) having my thesis penetrating through the school’s gate (well, almost. i’ll do the administrative errands within the next few days)… should i also include me losing 6 kilos of fat? 
i ask for the intercession of the saints of god and their support. madad…
the title line seems to be a not-so-frequently asked question for me and my wife lately. well, not really. some actually phrase the question more unambiguously, replacing “home” with “indonesia.” but, to all (if not most) people that i know, the word “home” means “indonesia.” while i can accept that, that word doesn’t mean the same… quite literally.
i’ve lived here for about 6.5 years. this already feels home for me, and i’m a legal permanent resident here, and also, legally, i’m considered a foreign resident in indonesia (although i still retain my indonesian citizenship). so, i can call melbourne my home, in all sorts of points of view.
however, i still consider jakarta as my home, like my wife considers sukabumi as her home, and i consider her home as mine, and vice versa. (and daud has currently no choice other than following our definition of home.)
so, am i going home this year? well, i’m already home! 
what’s been happening?
i’ve been busy working. since february this year, i’ve been working as an analyst programmer for linfox armaguard. in addition, i’ve revised my thesis (i know, i know, i already submitted it to the school, but i was required to buff it with more stuffs), and i’ve re-submitted it to the school about two weeks ago. but anyway, i went on with my life, partially…
earlier in 2008 (or was it the end of 2007?), i wrote a new song, “summer rain.” i haven’t got time to record it yet. while on the topic of music, i twisted my right thumb a few months ago. the pain was excruciating. recovering took a while… well, actually, it’s not back 100% yet. i still occasionally feel the pain, although it’s not bad and not hindering me from doing most things, and best of all, it doesn’t make me sad.
my second bro has also taken bay’a to the sultan of saints, through shaykh mustafa haqqani, shaykh nazim’s representative in indonesia. he has also enjoyed the presence of shaykh hisham during the shaykh’s recent visit to indonesia (bahasa indonesia).
my family and i had a nice trip to ruffy and euroa (and unexpectedly, shepparton. more on that later) to fulfill an invitation from shaykh abdul wahid to gather at his house for nisf sha’ban. we also met the sydneysiders there. daud had an accident while we were in euroa. he fell from the chair and it caused a little cut on his lower lip. we ran him to a clinic in shepparton with the help of motaki and amatullah. to our relief, it wasn’t a serious wound. it recovered pretty quickly.
recently, in front of my house, there’s been a white ford fairmont (built in the 90s) parked everyday. big thanks to the big chief and siraaj.
and just yesterday, my wife and son obtained their pr visa. so, the circle is now complete. we’re all permanent residents of australia.
this blog has been rebranded as “al-ishs” and it’s got a new location (yep, see your browser address box, just in case you haven’t noticed that you’ve been redirected). i’ve got a plan for the old location. if god lets me do it, it’ll contain links to all blogs hosted in ishs.info. yes, i’m planning to start a new blog. no, i’m not going to tell you what it is now. i’m not promising anything at this stage, but i’m trying to realise that.
alhamdulillah we had our third anniversary. it feels like yesterday that i’ve been married with my lovely sweetheart. alhamdulillah God…. we’re so happy. hopefully we live happily ever after with our children, dunya and akhirat.
yesterday my sister took bay’at through shaykh hisham… alhamdulillah… i hope my brothers and my parents will take bay’at as well next year amin….
finally, i finished writing my phd thesis. i already submitted it to the school about a week ago, on 18 jan. that means, i’ll get some feedback some time next week, and do (hopefully) only minor fixes, and then finally formally submit it to uni for examination. now once that’s done, i’ll get on with my life.
yesterday, i just finished writing a new song, “dave’s toy.” again, inspired by my son.
i heard from dayang this afternoon that changi village [url now defunct] would close down. i visited the restaurant (i know the people running that place) and saw the announcement that today would be their last day. too bad, it’ll be replaced by a non-halal one, but the good news is that they haven’t given up hope. they intend to open another restaurant again. so, i got myself my favourite dish, mie goreng.
in the past two months, i’ve written two new songs. i just haven’t got the chance to record them and put them online. “morning feeling” was written on 2 march 2007. “solitude” was written on 14 april 2007.