April is here. Time flew by and we’re already in the second quarter of the year. March had been a rather cold month this year.
Throughout the whole month, we had only a few sunny days when temperature reached 17°C. Most of the other days had maximum temperature below 10°. There was even snow in some mountain areas yesterday.
Even today, the highest temperature was only 9°. Compared to last year, we were already enjoying warm sunny days and managed to get beautiful hanami pictures by the final week of March.
Last week, I went out on a rainy day with a completely wrong outfit. I had under-estimated the rain and put on a long dress with woolly boots. Even with the umbrella, the rain managed to wet my dress and the water from the dress eventually soaked my boots.
After a 10 minute walk to the bus stop, my feet were soaked. I was tempted to cancel the outing and go back home, but I hadn’t been to the meeting (a Quran study circle) for a long time, I had to fight the demons inside myself really hard just to proceed walking and waiting for the bus in the rain.
I knew, if I walked home to change my dress and shoes, I would end up staying home instead. I’m happy I won against the demons. 😊
I spent 2 hours at the Indonesian School in Meguro (there was a farewell party before the study began) and after the meeting ended, had to put back on the wet socks and boots.
I was the only Malaysian there but the Indonesian sisters are always so welcoming, I never feel out of place when I’m with them. Indonesian language is slightly different from Malay, but I usually understand about 80-90% of the conversation.
That night, I posted the picture of the Quran that we were studying that afternoon on my instagram. It was Surah 84, Al-Inshiqaq which describes the rewards for the believers and punishments for the non-believers.
A Japanese follower asked me if I could read the writing. The answer is, yes, I can read the Arabic writing in Quran because they are written with diacritics. Without diacritics, it’s hard to read Arabic because I have only learnt basic Arabic so far. I even gave her the link to website so that she could listen to the recitation of the Arabic verse. She later told me, that was the first time ever that she’d listened to a Quran recitation.
I saw this April A to Z Challenge last week. It would be interesting to participate. Do you think I will succeed if I try to take part in it?
Fragrance in My Garden 
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