Homies.

Reminder: Super heavy with pictures entry.

This post is a reminder, to me, and to you girls, to show how far our friendship has gone. 

10 years and counting.

 

Last 16 months were great, amazing, awesome, wonderful, memorable, cheerful, beautiful and [insert any positive adjectives you could think of] because of these people. We did so many new things together. Out of 10 years of friendship, I must say, those 16 months were the best. I am blessed, Alhamdulillah.

October 2010- First roadtrip to Melaka

December 2010 - Bike riding @ Taman Botani Putrajaya

December 2010 - Our first IKEA meatball 

I swear it was a different white top, just the same shawl ;P

January 2011 - Izral's birthday @ Look Out Point, Ampang

Ni je yang ada semua. Blur pun bantailah.

January 2011 - Aizat's concert @ Bentley Music, Damansara

Our first time @ Wondermilk Cafe.

March 2011 - First musical theater; Terima Kasih Cinta @ Istana Budaya

March 2011 - Karaoke session till wee hours @ Wangsa Walk

March 2011 - Breakfast @ Levain

April 2011 - Second musical theater; Lat Kampung Boy @ Istana Budaya

April 2011 - Bee's Bachelorette Party

April 2011 - 12 hours roadtrip to Melaka (we just love Melaka ;P)

May 2011 - Kota Kinabalu, just the two of us :P

 

May 2011 - Bee's Wedding

June 2011 - My surprise birthday celebration @ Chili's KLCC

We were supposed to go to Penang in July, but everyone was busy :( Then came Ramadhan and Syawal. InsyALLAH we'll go to Penang someday.

September 2011 - Yuna's DFP Spotlight @ Dewan Filharmonik Orkestra

Malas beratur amik gambar dgn Yuna, dgn Sharifah Amani pun jadilah.

Last but not least,

September 2011 - My surprise farewell picnic @ City Park Seremban 2

 *

You girls are too kind.

I can never repay whatever you did to me.

I cherish our friendship so much.

Till death do us part.

Thank you mucho!

xoxo

p/s: I miss you all :(

Wordful Wednesday

A new place,  a new beginning.

Sounds cliche, right? But that's the truth, at least to me. I have been waiting for the opportunity to start anew. Last time when I decided to come back to Malaysia a year earlier than I was supposed to, I had my reasons. I wanted to leave that dark life I had in the States, and start a new chapter back home.

Now, I am in a totally new place, I am opening a new chapter of my life book. 

Being in a new place gives you a whole lot of different opportunities for you to play around with. But it all come down to, do you want to be better, or do you want to be worst? 

I choose to be better. InsyaALLAH.

You might ask why do you need a new place, just to better yourself? You can do it anywhere. Judgements, that's what I want to avoid. No, I'm not saying people back home are judgemental. I was the judge. I was being judgemental to myself. Something in me said it's hard, it's not doable. I was the staring eyes to my own self. 

Now that I'm in a new place, those staring eyes are no longer there. I am free to do what I want. The judgemental me is still here, but minus the staring eyes, I feel better about bettering myself, if that make sense.

I promise to myself, this new journey of mine, will not only reward me with the most sought-after title, but it will also bring me closer to my Creator. So when I come home in three years time, I will be the all-rounded person that PhD training should produce, and also a better Muslimah, InsyALLAH.

p/s: Tomorrow marks a month of me being here. Looking forward to the 35 months to come :) 

Do you know that..

1. The Brits also eat kek batik? Had it during our weekly lab group meeting today. Used to promote it as 'Malaysian Brownie' to the Americans. RIT peeps, kek batik tak 'Malaysian' sangat dah lah hehe.

2. The Brits also have pasar malam? Well not really like our own pasar malam. They sell used items, just anything everything. Langsir, baju, buku, carpet, frames, kasut, bags, pinggan mangkuk, make ups, toys just name it. Ada juga benda baru, like sale items they bought long time ago and never worn/used. Got myself two pashminas for 1 pound each. My housemate bought a raincoat for 2 pounds. Good bargain seh. Oh, actually the familiar term would be 'carboot sale' but then the one I went to just now takde cars, tapi sebijik macam pasar malam, ada khemah and meja bagai. Ada snap gambar tapi malas nak transfer pulak. Sambutan amat-amat menggalakkan. Almost everyone either carried a big shopping bag, or a shopping trolley yang mak-mak bawak g pasar. Maksudnya diorang memang pergi dan berniat untuk angkut banyak barang. Wonder if it'll work the same in Malaysia. Baju bajan maybe dah ada la kot, those bazaars kat KL yang fashionista dok jual baju diorang tu, nampak macam laku je.

.

Ni takde kaitan dengan title.

3. Tadi first time start buat lab work after tinggalkan for more than a year. Nervous sampai pegang pipette pun tak betul. And first time jugak deal dengan blood sample. I survived Hybridoma class di mana bunuh mice tetiap minggu adalah rutin, so I should be fine with blood, just this time it's human blood. Grrrrr

4. Ayah is now a pensioner. Pagi-pagi buka laptop baca offline YM message Ayah hantar, it made my day. Ayah wrote,

'Hi baby, sorry tak reply message. Today Ayah officially retire from government service. See you later alligator'

Part 'See you later alligator' yang made my day tu. Penat ajar Mama Ayah cakap these two phrases:

'See you later, alligator' and jawab 'In a while, crocodile'. Mama asyik lupa je. Bila orang cakap dia sengih sengih lupa nak jawab apa. Tak sangka Ayah ingat :))

Selamat berpencen Dadi! Enjoy your retirement...NOT! Ayah landed himself a job with Pharmaniaga. He will be doing some software programming with them, I think. Dari kecik barang kat rumah penuh dengan Pharmaniaga je, dari ubat, sampai towel, pen, t-shirt sampaikan multicooker yang guna untuk masak pun cap Pharmaniaga. Corporate gifts katanya. Tapi harus ke multicooker letak cap Pharmaniaga??

Multicooker 

(gambar hiasan courtesy of Pak cik Google)

Answering the call.

Salam,

Being a minority makes you appreciate things more and teaches you to be grateful.

I'm very happy to know that there is a prayer room in the hospital I'm working at. It's spacious, clean, well-maintened and the best thing is it comes with a proper ablution area. In fact, in all 3 campuses of University of Nottingham, there is at least one Muslim prayer room. I'm yet to find out if they have prayer rooms in the shopping malls, but I kinda doubt that. If they do, MasyaALLAH that's the best thing ever!

Last time, when I was in the States, I used to pray in fitting rooms! That is one of the many experiences I won't forget. We would take a random baju and just go into the fitting room. Of course, we were smart enough to find a departmental store that is less famous, meaning not many people shop there, so people won't question why we used it for a long time. We did have our favorites, you know :P

Another experience that I won't forget is that one time where I had to pray on the stairs! I was on a trip to New York City, I was in Macy's if I'm not mistaken. I'm not sure what happened, either we couldn't locate a fitting room, or it was too crowded in there, but yeah we settled for stairs instead. We took turns, as we needed to 'guard' those who were praying. 

Solat duduk dalam kereta, solat berdiri atas jalan tar kat tepi pintu kereta, solat kat depan Hard Rock Cafe in Georgia bersejadahkan kertas, solat dekat tepi bush dekat Disneyland/Universal Studio-I've experienced all that.

And because performing ablution was very hard i.e sink is too high and people would stare if we put our feet in the sink etc, we normally would jaga our wudhu' for as long as we could. Siapa dapat tahan ken*** paling lama tu, memang champion lah :P

Moral of the story is, be grateful that we live in an Islamic country where we can practice your religion without any difficulties. Also, just because we are majority, does not mean the world revolves around us. Respect the minorities as well.

And most importantly, do not miss solat :) Note to self as well.