Wham, Bam, Thank you Ma'am!

Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat has given his support to a proposal for misyar marriages to take place between Muslim men and women. These types of marriages, which Nik Abdul Aziz said were allowed in Islam, essentially permit husbands to not have the responsibility of providing for the materialistic needs of wives but just their sexual needs.

He said such marriages were viable if consent had been obtained from the women who were willing to enter into such arrangements. “It is for them to decide if they want their spouses to provide for their sexual needs once a week or once a month,” he said here yesterday.

He was responding to comments by Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, who had rejected a proposal for such marriages to be allowed because it did not meet the needs of a modern society.

The proposal was made earlier by Universiti Malaya’s Islamic Academic Studies lecturer Prof Datuk Dr Mahmud Zuhdi Abdul Majid, who was reported to have said that such marriages could be practised in the country to overcome incidences of vice among Muslim women. He said such marriages could also reduce the growing number of unmarried and divorced women in the country.

Nik Abdul Aziz said the issue of women being insulted by such arrangements did not arise because they had already given their consent. He said a practical step would be for the women to proclaim their consent in writing to avoid any legal problems. Asked if such marriages were encouraged in Kelantan, Nik Abdul Aziz said Islamic laws in the state were the same as anywhere in the world. He declined to comment when asked if misyar went against the Kelantan Islamic Family Enactment.


Hmm...'obviously', individuals who get involved in prostitution are in the business 'cause they're so damn horny and they need sexual gratification for strangers. And 'obviously', the answer to this is to provide an avenue for the women to have all the sex they need from husbands who don't have to provide anything else. This is 'obviously' not an avenue for horny men, as they are doing a duty and no more than that.

I may not be the most knowledgeable person when it comes to Islam and theology, but I know bloody well that marriage involves a little bit more than ensuring orgasms are cumming (pun intended) on a regular basis (unless these Islamic scholars have decided to take up the theory of evolution and be labelled as animals, as only animals meet up every mating season for a fuck and then wander off to lead separated lives).

If orgasms are all that's needed, then why don't they just sanction masturbation? They seem to be sanctioning everything else. Soon it'll be ok to accept bribes and sell the nation, as long as your niat is baik. For fuck's sake...And statements like these, coming from so-called Islamic leaders, are extremeful shameful and places the religion in a bad light.

Storms

The Tempest is a rather fascinating Shakespearean play that is not only funny, but is poignant and filled with mystic elements. The reason it holds a special place in my heart though is probably because this last play that the Bard wrote also happened to be the first play of his that I read and it started a literary journey for me that is still ongoing - the first phrase of Shakespeare that I fell in love with was from this play : Thou art an ass. As a young teenager, I thought it was dreadfully funny.

The Tempest was also the title of the last issue of The Sandman – in the comic, Shakespeare receives his inspiration from the Dream Weaver, and the role of Prospero (the protagonist in the play) is a reflection of Morpheus himself.

So you can imagine my delight when I found out that the RSC will be performing The Tempest in Newcastle come November, and that the veteran Shakespearean actor Patrick Steward (aka Jean-Luc Picard aka Prof X) will be taking the lead role. The best seats were sold out by the time I got to the box office, but the seats that I got in the end were decent enough. I hope.

Other than that, the weekend was spent meeting up with people. Having missed the good citizens of Brighton Grove, it was fun playing catch up as well as delivering all the goodies that were previously asked for. Also managed to catch up with Reemy and update each other on the various ongoings that litter our lives.

It being Ellina’s bday, we decided to catch The Da Vinci Code, the second of the summer blockbusters that I’ve seen (after MI3) which was followed my dinner at Ask. The movie was rather mediocre, with the 2 main characters being rather wooden and lacking in chemistry. The only good performance was given by Sir Ian McKellan, and I’m hoping the next summer blockbuster that I’ll be watching (in which he stars in too) will not be disappointing.

Surprisingly, I met up with Ninie n Shahrin, and finally had the opportunity to meet the hitherto only-heard-of Albi. Somehow we managed to spend about 6 hours or thereabouts just sitting in TGIF and chatting, along with a friend of Ninie’s. I lost count of the number of times that the poor waitress came over to see if we needed anything and I’m pretty sure she was quite happy to see our backs.

Biggest event was Sweetie b’day though and after a week of rather unfortunate mishaps, I was happy for her good news and her happy celebrations. Naturally, I’d have preferred to have been there as well, but I guess I ought to be grateful that I at least managed to spend a couple of weeks back home with her. So here’s wishing Sweetie a very happy birthday and a wonderful and blessed year ahead!

The most loneliest time

It’s been quite a while since I last wrote in this blog of mine. I’ve been understandably been kept busy back home with activities ranging from hanging out with Sweetie, friends and family to eating and sleeping. At the end of the day, I tend to just skim through my e-mail (of which I’ve been guilty of procrastinating in replying) and plop down onto my bed and sleep for the few hours that I do.

The 2 weeks back home just flew by – and I’m now back to the plain and miserable experience that is working life (I was aptly greeted by a slow drizzle upon my arrival in Carlisle). I had loads of fun though, and was lucky enough to be back home during the period that had 2 public hols, thus enabling me to spend more time with Sweetie. She wasn’t able to take any days off, but we made up for that by having lunch everyday and meeting up after her work as well.

This time round, we got up to more activities than the usual hanging out in OU and catching movies (although we did catch MI3 and Poseidon). Sweetie treated us to a day at a health spa which involved a full body massage and body scrub, along with some time in the sauna that left us bone dry. Perhaps she thought I needed a good cleaning, but it was a surprisingly pleasant experience although I did refuse to allow the soles of my feet to be scrubbed since it was too darn ticklish.

We also went up to Genting and spent a night there (with Mumsy tagging along). Caught all the usual rides, along with the new spiderman ride and sat through a rather fascinating magic show. The other show of note that we caught was a classical performance featuring Abdel Rahman El Bacha, an amazingly talented pianist that Sweetie aptly described as having ‘magic fingers’.

Food-wise, I did the natural thing and sampled my usual favourites – from my fav hokkien mee at the Chinese stall near my house to the roti pisang madu that was the last thing I ate prior to take-off. Sweetie and I had the opportunity to taste some lovely peking duck at the PJ Hilton, as they were having a special event. The chef was from Beijing and went at great lengths to ensure we had a good meal, although the poor guy kept apologising for being unable to speak English properly.




Also met loads of people – think I actually managed to meet most of the people I wanted to meet, and a few long-lost folks as well including my Aunty Shanty (who’s about 5 years older only), who I have not met since leaving for England. We used to be very close when we grew up together and I’ll always remember her as the person who bought me my first Sandman trade paperback. It was nice meeting up with her, and this time round I hope we’d continue to keep in touch. And of course, I got to play with FooFoo (our nickname for Sweetie’s little niece) and spent a good amount of bonding and carrying her around.

Naturally, the best bit was the moments spent with Sweetie. When you’re in a long-distance relationship, every single second is worth savouring. The downside is the parting, which is not really such sweet sorrow but just more of the latter. But at least my mission for going home this time round was accomplished (amid tremendous trepidation on my part) and we have the outline of a plan for what to do next.