Revisited.

Have you ever felt like ditching the plan you made with your friends, because somewhere along planning that outing, either you messed up, or your friends messed up or somebody else messed up? You felt so lazy to get up, to drive, to shower, to dress up, you simply have no mood whatsoever to go out you started making tonnes of excuses why you couldn't make it? But you went anyway, because you didn't want to upset your friend, because you promised your friend that you would turn up, or simply because you love your friend you didn't want to let him/her down. At the end of the day, it was an awesome outing, you had so much fun, you forgot that you almost missed it because of your stupid mood swings.

Fuuuuhhhh...that's a long introduction. You get what I mean, kan?

I had my share last weekend.

I will spare you from all the drama. Long story short, everybody messed up. Most important thing is, despite all the dramas, I managed to go on with the plan, and I had a great time :)

I volunteered for JBM 3, and on Sunday we brought the kids to Petrosains. Oh memories! I used to volunteer there for 3 months last year. I was supposed to help out on Saturday as well, but I had this family gathering in the evening, so I didn't want to rush for it, so I passed on volunteering for that day (I got my surprise party at the gathering!! Will post about it later).

I spent the day mostly with Tira actually, seemed like I volunteered for her, not JBM, haha. I met some of my Petrosains colleagues and good thing they still remember me, even though I was there for just a short while :))) Oh Tira and I me our long lost mutual friend, Pean. She's volunteering there as well, before she flies of to UK for her clinical years. Fate works in some weird ways sometimes. I knew Pean quite well then, compared to Tira, even though Pean was in a different program, and Tira and I were in the same program (all three of us studied at INTEC for our foundation programs).

After Petrosains visit, we headed to the KLCC park to have our packed lunch. While waiting for the food, guess what we did? Camwhoring! Haha what else, meh? Plus we got a nice view of the towers, we just couldn't miss that, right? I'd love it more if it is at night, with all the lights glittering the towers.

There was a little bit of a twist that day. We were supposed to head over to Shah Alam right after lunch for presentation session. But Tira had bought these Skybridge tickets as a gift to her friend who is going to pursue her PhD in Aussie this year. Too bad, her friend and family couldn't make it that day. We couldn't go on any other day because the tickets were fixed for Sunday, at 2 pm. We could easily bypassed the tickets, because they cost only RM3 each, but then Tira had asked Arif, the Petronas engineer guy to get them for her earlier. So macam sayang pulak nak burn macam tu je. So we decided to us the tickets for ourselves :)) And off we went up up and above! 

Actually it was my second time; my first time was when I had my volunteer training session last year. Tira could have gone with somebody else, but because she loves me so much, I just had to follow her :P It was a brief visit - 7-minutes video screening, 40 secs elevator ride up, 15 minutes visit on the bridge, and 40 secs elevator ride down. Btw, the bridge is at Level 41 (Sorry no photos of the sceneries up there, we did took some but Tira didn't send me those). More or less, plus waiting time, it was just a 30-minutes visit. We managed to drive back to Shah Alam, and made it in time for the kids' presentations. Along the way to Shah Alam, we had a heart-to-heart talk; it was so refreshing. Haven't had such a talk with her for such a long time :) Thanks dear for listening :))

JBM ended at 6. Since the place is close to the Les Copaque office (if you don't know what/who Les Copaque does/is, sila tekup muka dengan selimut sekarang! They are Upin Ipin producer lahh!!), we went to the office and snapped a few pictures. Haha. Actually it was Kak Shu's (Tira's friend from MGI) idea, she loves the botak kids to bits; so we had to tag along since Tira was the only one with camera (I brought mine, tapi malas nak ambil gambar huhu). And later, we had quick bites at Geng's Corner, a restaurant owned by Les Copaque, just across their office. Did a quick post-mortem, and it was Maghrib by then, so off we went.

JBM 3 kids with the organizer and volunteers. Form 4 kids of SMK Seksyen 16, Shah Alam.

As decided during the post-mortem, JBM will take a break for a while, as the organizer, Hamidah needs to revise the modules and plan for better JBM next time. However, she will be available as 'penceramah' for JBM if anyone would want to use her service and expertise.

So back to what I said in the intro..

I dreaded waking up that Sunday morning, no, not because of you Tira, because of what happened to the planning and all, and it's not your fault , don't get me wrong okay? It was more of me battling with my moods and questioning my intentions.

But at the end of the day, I had a lot of fun, laughed a lot, talked a lot and helped a little bit :P But I do hope that the kids did gain something out of the two-day program. Now I can't wait to join KULN NY-NJ Summer Camp in Hulu Langat next month :)

Till then, au revoir! 

p/s: Pictures credit to Tira.

Another teaching weekend.

Salam,

Are you ready for another weekend entry from me? *breathe in, breathe out*

Saturday

So I applied for MARA postgraduate scholarship last month. I was born with paranoia as a twin sister, so I always have Plan A and Plan B to almost everything I do. At that time, I hadn't received good news from either Manchester or Nottingham yet. The result was announced two weeks ago and they called me to sit in for this 'Psychometric Test' on May 7 (last Saturday). 

Since I got accepted to Nottingham already, and Alhamdulillah everything looks fine on the sponsor's side, I thought I am already in my comfort zone, that I should just pass the test. But the whole of last week I was contemplating hard, whether to go or not to go. Did I mention 'Paranoia' is my twin sister? Guess what, I went to the test. After all, I had nothing to lose, only to gain. The test was held at Kolej Mara Banting. It's just 20 minutes from my place, so yeah, really I got nothing to lose. Drove myself there, of course with Jane tagging along (obviously Jane had no other choice but to follow) I headed out at 10.15, because Google map told me it's going to take 30 minutes, and I added some in-case-I-got-lost minutes; I told myself I should be there at 11. Luckily no 'sesat' taking place, I arrived at 10.40 and waited under scorching sun. Took the 30 minutes test, which turned out to be just a 'Personality test' with questions like, 'I am a highly motivated person' 'I never gossip' and score yourself from 'Strongly disagree-Disagree-Agree-Strongly Agree'. I actually studied for the test last week, thought it would be something like the Khazanah's Stage 1 Assessment Test I sat in October, in which I failed. 

I wonder how they are going to score the test, let's just wait and see. For all I know, I could have failed this one too -___- *God forbid*

After the test, I went back home and prepared baked macaroni and cream puffs with my sister as potluck for our family gathering later that evening. We told each other 'This is how we honor Mama on Mother's Day, because if Mama was around, she would do all the cooking and we both would just lepak tengok tv' *apa punya anak*

At the end of the night, I had a bloated stomach and a great time catching up with extended family :))))

Sunday

Signed up for Jom Belajar Matematik 2. Athirah picked me up at my aunt's place and off to Shah Alam we went. Most of the kids were from JBM 1, with few new ones. We had additional 'teachers' thanks to Athirah for bringing her MGI colleagues.

I have to say, no matter what drove them to come to the program, I have to salute them for coming. Really, they didn't have to pay that RM2, and spent their Sunday on an educational program, but they did! Kudos to the kids. But I can tell that some of them went to the program, just for the fun of it. The fun of meeting friends, the fun of trying out office gadgets (some of them were really playful with the office telephones, you know how office telephone works with the extension number and all).

I can see improvements in some of them, in terms of Math skills and drive to learn more, but others 'masih di takuk lama'. It gets really frustrating when you expect them to know something, things you've thought them before, but when you ask them the same thing in the next meeting, they cannot give you the right answer. Honestly, I am not really a patient 'teacher'. I expect improvement and success in a short amount of time. But maybe I have to tone down my expectation, because not everyone is the same. O Allah, give me and the kids some light!

p/s: Can't wait for this weekend! Another test on Saturday, followed by Jalan-Jalan Cari Makan episode with the girls, and meeting Aisyah and the rest on Sunday!

Cikgu..Mam..Kak

Salam,

Being a full time worker now, the only days I look forward to are Saturdays and Sundays. That's why you can see me sharing all my weekend plans in this blog because weekends to me are the peak of the week,the time I get to don on my nice weekend clothes, to doll up a little more than usual.

So, what had I been up to last weekend?

I was a Math teacher last weekend. A friend of mine, Hamidah, was the leader of this 'Jom Belajar Matematik' project. She offers free tutoring service at Pusat Makan under BELAMISKIN.ORG. You can google 'BELAMISKIN' and read up about the organization. Back to the project. So Hamidah gives tutoring on Monday nights at the Pusat Makan, and this particular project was held in conjunction with the school holidays. She was looking for volunteers, and I brought along Pao, Tira and Sal to join.

So there we were, being Math teachers to Standard 4-Form 2 kids from Section 16, Shah Alam. Majority of them join Hamidah's Monday nights tuition. Since they come from low-income families, they couldn't afford paid tuition. I don't want to stereotype, but in most cases, we can see chain of problems in low-income families. Parents don't really bother about their children's education, asalkan pergi sekolah, dah cukup. Most of them have at least 5-6 siblings, with only one parent working. They live in flat houses with only 1 room, 2 the most. With siblings that much, and house that small, the environment these kids are in is not conducive for studying. That is why, most of them underperform at school.

One thing I notice about these kids is they lack of motivation. I believe they very well know that education can take them places and do wonders to them and their families, but they just don't have enough motivation to drive them forward. This is where parents play an important role. Parents should always encouraged their kids to do well at school, as only with education they can change the fate of their families.

OK now, seriousness aside. Let me share my fun experience being a 'Math teacher' for two days. I was assigned the group of 8 Form 2 kids. If you asked me which group I would prefer teaching, I'd say all. I seem to have problems connecting to babies and toddlers. I just can't work my charm with them (cey 'charm' la sangat) Other than that, I am fine. The kids in my group are average students, they can do Math, but with a little bit of help. Erm maybe a lot of help. Yang geram sekali, they don't memorize SIFIR. Instead of knowing the sifir by heart, they would list down the numbers on paper e.g 7,14,21,28 and count from top 1,2,3,4 to get 7x4. They also struggle with positive and negative numbers. They just couldn't grasp the concept even after I gave them many examples. 

Apart of all that, I'm grateful that I got the chance to help them. A two-days program can't change much, but hopefully they gained something in that two days. Something is better than nothing, right? Yang comelnya, budak-budak ni panggil ktorg 'Cikgu', even though they know that we are not real teachers. Bangga sekejap jadi cikgu. I got to spend a weekend with my besties, and got to visit Taman Pertanian Shah Alam for the first time. Such a big park it is. Tak habis tour the whole park, though. I might come again later :) Oh oh, we went to I-City. Not too bad, at least for someone who love lights like me. The place was SO CROWDED. Sedih part is, camera cabuk I tak membantu dalam menghasilkan gambar-gambar cun melecun. Nasib ada DSLR Sal. Oh, and we got to visit Section 18 and took a stroll down memory lane. INTEC oh INTEC. Tira and I were singing 'Sandarkan Pada Kenangan' while reminiscing our memories. Great weekend with great company :)

Updates.

The last entry in my deceased blog was on January 11. So what have I been up to from January 11 till today?

Let me check my calendar...Yes I keep a calendar. What? You don't? Uuu that's not good. Girls especially, you HAVE to keep a calendar because of you-know-what. Make sure to mark it every month. You know the doctors favorite question to the ladies, don't ya? OK kalau stakat selsema takkan doctor nak tanya 'Bile last period awak?' What if it's more than a selsema, but less than a pregnancy? Something in between those. MUST.KEEP.A.CALENDAR.

OK I'm digressing. Snap!

I had awesome weeks, when my blog decided to kill itself. Wait, no, I killed it. Too bad, I could have updated my awesome weeks in the blog. Now it's too late, cerita dah basi nyah. But just to name a few:

Gotong royong @ Pondok Penyayang Raudhah, Batu 11 Gombak

Actually I could open up a new entry just for this, tapi takpelah, kasi sneak peek dulu. Tengoklah kalau rajin nanti. So, one fine day, I got a Facebook invitation from Sekreteriat KULN to join this event, organized by Kelab UMNO New South Wales. Masa tu memang sangap gila nak buat community service, sekali peluang datang bergolek depan mata, join je lah even though tak kenal sesape pun. Langsung. Gamble je pegi. Turned out they are a cool bunch of dudes and dudettes, we clicked in an instance. Went there second time the following week untuk pasang tikar getah dan interrogated the penghuni. Nak cerita lebih-lebih pasal PPR, nanti-nantilah ek. Panjang ceritanya.

Hiking @ Broga Hills

More to climbing actually. Come to think of it, what is the difference between hiking and climbing? Malas nak Google. Any help here? Anyways, went climbing the Aussie kids + Bulan and the family(Alina's ex-schoolmate whom I met at Midwest last year).  Semput nyah, tapi best! Great first experience. Kinabalu next? Sile gelak. Memang nak berlawak di situ. Nak tengok sunrise, tapi matahari malu, menyorok belakang awan. Took few pictures of the sun and the cloud and everything in between. Obviously. What else would Nur Adilah be doing?

Subhanallah.
All 3 photos tak pro snapped by me, edited by AzrilAzizi

Aizat Live in Damansara @ Wisma Bentley

Great first experience! Outstanding performance by Aizat. Great company. Great food. Awesome night! 

Tak pasal-pasal jadi Aizoner :D

Mama's home!
But leaving in two days. Sob3. She'll be back for good in July, InsyaALLAH. Kalau nak cerita all the hardships and gossips we as family went through while Mama was there, boleh bukak satu entry baru. I'm gonna spare you guys the drama. Save it for later.

Sons' of Adam Family Day @ Pulai Springs Resort, JB

It's an annual event for family on Ayah's side. I am not sure how long has it been but we have it every year, without fail. We just had one last June. We went to Port Dickson just after I touched down at KLIA. Sungguh semangat. All in all, I had a great time with the big family. Ate like there's no tomorrow, balik-balik family day demam batuk selsema seminggu. Amik kau.

Family trip back to Ipoh kesayangan

See, since I got back last June, I went back to Ipoh maybe two times, sekali bulan puasa and sekali time raya. Sebak doh bila you go back to where you grew up, memang dramatic habis. Walaupun bukan rumah kampung yang ada ayam itik sawah padi ladang getah, but it's still the place I have lived for 23 minus some years. It was a plus, because all five of us went back together. Susah nak dapat tu. Went shopping as family, and later had dinner. Memang dah lama gila tak shopping lima orang complete. Last time maybe time ermm entah lama sangat. 

That's pretty much a whole month worth of update. I am blessed with loving and caring family and friends. Thank you Allah for such beautiful people in my life. I am forever grateful.

p/s: Looking forward to meeting Athirah and Pao in the near future. Miss you girls :(