Sabar.

Worked 8 hours on SATURDAY. Experiment did not work.

Worked on troubleshooting the problem for 7 hours today.
Did not work.

Most probably have to repeat the whole experiment.


T_______T

Bertabahlah wahai otak, wahai hati, wahai badan.
Allah sedang mengajar kita bersabar.

Happy Women's Day!

Macam kebetulan terfikir nak blog pasal ni and hari ni Hari Wanita Sedunia. Guess what I'm going to write about? 

BEAUTY TIPS!

Haha. Not qualified, I know. But remember this? 'Sampaikanlah walaupun sepotong ayat'. So kalau ada sedikit pun ilmu kita kena share :)

Selain daripada prepare for the wedding day itself, B2B akan prepare herself for the big day, as in jaga all aspects of her beauty yada yada yada. Now that I'm in that phase, barulah terasa oh God kenapa lambat sangat baru nak realize ni kurang, tu terlebih, that shouldn't be there and the list goes on. Kalaulah dari zaman remaja dulu dah sedar at least now just kena maintain je and bukan baru nak start. Ye, sepatutnya bukan baru nak start jaga itu ini bila tahu nak kahwin ye. Kalau tahu setahun awal nak kahwin takpelah juga, buatnya boyfriend kau ajak kahwin bulan depan tak ke terhegeh-hegeh nak pergi spa sana sini, masa tu dah terlambat diknon. And one more thing these beauty regimes bukan nya seminggu dua dah boleh show results, at least kena 3-6 months, itu pun kalau betul-betul jadilah. Another thing, it is too risky to change your beauty regime at the very last minute, especially skin care regime sebab kalau tak sesuai and you have breakouts and all, takut tak sempat je nak betulkan balik. 

So ladies, please start early. Start now! 

Selalunya perempuan ni (me included), especially yang bertudung, kita just fikir nak jaga muka sebab itu je yang nampak. Yang lain tu secondary. But actually semua pun penting and kena jaga. Let me share apa yang kita selalu lupa/abaikan based on my experience (sebab sendiri pun tak amik kisah sangat dulu :P)

1. Nail and cuticle

Malu nak mengaku actually, but for the sake of sharing. Seumur hidup baru pernah buat manicure sekali, itu pun bila kesedaran timbul few days before nak bertunang haritu. Cina yang buat tu pun geleng kepala and cakap, 'Ini banyak keras wo, you kena selalu datang'. Lebih kurang camtu lah ayat dia. 

So at least once a week, rajin-rajinkan lah remove your cuticles and apply nail and cuticle oil untuk mendapatkan jari-jemari yang lembut mulus. luls. Tak perlu pun pergi salon, buat kat rumah pun boleh. Just buy the necessary stuff and tengok Youtube. 

2. Scars and stretch marks

Old acne scars and surgery scars boleh try guna Bio Oil. Untuk stretch marks dekat you-know-where sebab berat fluctuates like crazy, boleh try Palmers Cocoa Butter. Stretch mark ni kadang-kadang kita tak bother pun nak check sebab ingatkan perempuan mengandung je develop stretch marks, tapi sekali sekala cuba examine your whole body. Boleh Google untuk keterangan lebih lanjut mana nak cari stretch mark areas especially for women :P

3. Eye bags

Oh tell me about it! My biggest concern is my eye bags! Dah baca (read:baca, bukan buat :P) macam-macam kat Internet and ada la buat a thing or two, tapi doesn't seem to work. Tegar sungguh eyebags ku ini (or maybe I didn't try hard enough). 

Wash your face with ice cold water in the morning, massage around the eye area, use eye patch, use eye cream, place frozen cucumber slices on the eyes. Dah cuba semua ni tapi give up half way sebab tak nampak kesan. Nampak sangat tak sabar. But you guys yang ada eye bags problem cuba buat those tips above consistently and tell me jadi ke tak okeng.

4. General well-being

Ni paling basic yang semua orang tahu tapi couldn't care less. Untuk luar nampak cantik, it must come from within. Cewah. That's why it's important to take care of your well-being, by eating well, exercising and by looking after your personal hygiene. 

Take fruits and vegetables everyday, UK NHS suggest five 80 grams portions every day. The campaign is called '5 A Day'. *tetiba promote kempen NHS*

Exercise at least 3 times a week. Tak perlu sign up gym membership pun. Buat kat bilik pun boleh. Tengok Youtube sudah. Exercise bukan sebab nak turun berat je tau, untuk yang dah ada ideal weight, buatlah toning exercise pulak. 

Personal hygiene tu faham faham sendirilah eh. Baju laundry elok-elok, cadar tu rajin-rajin tukar, kalau pakai make-up jangan lupa pakai make-up remover, contact lens jangan biar sampai kering yada yada yada. Rumah, bilik, dapur pun kira termasuklah sekali, janganlah muka cun body mantap tapi suami balik rumah ya ampun macam tongkang pecah. hihi

I think that's about it. Ingat, start now! Tambah-tambah dah meningkat usia ni (25 this year waw!) lagi macam-macam kena jaga. Belum cakap pasal supplement, pasal wrinkles, aging oh noooooooooooooo!

Here's to all beautiful ladies out there! :D

Love note.

I'm not gonna lie, my relationship has seen its great and awful days. But what I love about it is how we pick it up again after those awful times. Arguments and disagreements can be good to a relationship if you can manage them well. Alhamdulillah so far we are able to do just that. Every time after a fight, when we finally understand what either of us tried to get across before it started, it's like falling in love all over again. 

Alhamdulillah. 

49 days to go. 

Sunday Monday

52 days to the wedding and here I am enjoying (somewhat) my strawberry yogurt. No, I'm not on diet (as you'd hear a lot of that from B2B), it's just that I caught some bug from my recent trip to Paris and have been having diarrhea for a week now. Well that's how I'd like to think about it, you know, traveler's diarrhea :P So, I have been eating rice porridge, soups, breads, biscuits and yogurts for 7 days.  Of course there were times when I cheated a bit, for example when Kak Hani made lasagna the other day. No matter how sedap your rice porridge is, it can never win over lasagna okay! Milk and milk-related products are a no-no when you are having diarrhea because the enzyme lactase that is needed to breakdown lactose in milk is reduced when you have diarrhea. So you might make the condition worse. Tetiba ade science lesson. Dalam lasagna kan ada cheese, so the morning after tu, lagi keraplah ke toilet hihu.

On a brighter note, 5 more weeks before I board the plane back home. Yippie!

On a not-so-bright note, days leading up to my holiday are gonna be super duper hectic. I don't even remember the last time I Skyped with H to discuss about the wedding. When Mama calls me on Skype these days to talk about the wedding, usually at night before I go to bed, I often have to stop her :( I can't think of anything wedding-ish at such hour because my brain is already tired for working non-stop in the day. 

InshALLAH everything will be fine :D


Sekian bebelan hari ini.


p/s: Oh btw, yogurt consumption is fine because it has the good bacteria that helps fight the bad bacteria that's causing the diarrhea in your intestines.

What's cookin'?: Potato and carrot soup

This simple yet scrumptious soup has got to be everyone's favorite. I learned to make it from my dear housemate and fell in love with it instantly.

You need:
Carrot
Potato
Chicken stock
Shallot
Ground black pepper
Shrimp

Method:

1. Boil carrots and potatoes with chicken stock (I used one Maggi Chicken Cube) with just enough water to cover all the carrots and potatos
2. Cut shallot finely, fry till golden
3. After carrots and potatoes are tender, blend them together with the water
4. Pour the mixture into a pot, and heat it up on the stove
5. Cut shrimps into small pieces and put in the pot
6. Add ground black pepper and salt to taste
*You can adjust the thickness to your own liking

So easy right???

I had it with homemade foccacia bread, which I will share the recipe later :P

Bon appetite!

Passion fruit.

Entry pasal passion ni memang dah sebati dengan Nur Adilah. Kalau tak kat blog, kat Twitter. Membebel lah sorang-sorang pasal passion. Truth is, I think it will bother me until I have found my true passion. Every time I see somebody being/doing so good at something, I can't help to feel a little envious, in a good way of course. Kadang-kadang rasa macam adakah aku tak bersyukur sebab Allah dah kurniakan something for me to do (i.e. do PhD), but still I feel uncontented and envy orang yang buat benda lain yang macam lagi seronok je tengok (i.e. buat business out of the passion/hobby/something they really fond of ). Jumpa plak kat Twitter the other day orang put up that quote above. It got me thinking, 'Am I living the life I'm capable of living?' I felt so small. Rasa macam I haven't contributed enough to my family, my community, those in need, and most importantly myself. 

Erin gave me an article to read not too long ago about how rich people think. I found one that is the most outstanding, almost everyone knows what it is:

'Average people earn money doing things they don't love. Rich people follow their passion.'

Some people they know what their passion is and make a living with it. For example, the ever so famous Vivy Yusof. She knows she's into fashion and boom! there you have it FashionValet. Her right-wing woman Asma' Nasaruddin, the Head Buyer of FashionValet, those cakes she makes are such eye candies! A lovely lady I know from the blogosphere, ShilaShower, she has a day job but at night she is the lady behind those yummy diaper cakes. Another sweet mommy blogger, HanaFedora, who's currently doing her PhD in London (I think it's Imperial College), launched her shawl business L'adorn late last year, juggling between writing her thesis, taking care of her cute baby Wilwil and managing inter-continents business (she's in London but her business is based in Malaysia). What I respect about these ladies is that even though they come from well-off families, they not only have one job, but they are juggling two jobs! I am not sure if Vivy still work with her dad's company but at some point she must have had two jobs.

I am 'tangan bangku' (peribahasa I made up for 'orang takde seni'). So I give up doing arts long time ago. It's always 'tiru' and 'tekap' when it comes to art. I make edible food just enough to stuff my tummy. I can sing in the shower, and that's about it. I don't collect stamps, but I do keep shopping bags. See, I can't think of any passion of mine. Can you consider studying a passion? Am I pursuing my passion? Nah I don't think so. I am pursuing my DREAM because I've always known I want to have a PhD at some point in my life. A passion is something you can't wait to wake up to. There are times when I feel so lazy to wake up because I feel so down that my research is not going anywhere. Having a PhD and later being a lecturer would be my job no.1. But the greedy me wants to have that job no.2. 

But after all, we must believe in Allah's plan. There is a reason Allah put me here today and not baking in an all-pink cafe or signing autographs at a book launch or singing to cute little kids in a kindergarten. I hope one day I can update in here about my other job, other than teaching Immunology to some scientist-to-be in USM. InshaAllah.

To you readers who are currently pursuing your passion, I am still envious of :P (in a good way okay?) and I wish you all the best in your future undertakings. Let's make the world a better place to live no matter what we do, ey?

Till then.

**Updated: It's not about the money, it's not about being rich. Well if the passion comes with money, that's a bonus. Those people I mentioned above, they turned their passion into money, which is good. It's a bonus for them. But in my case, I can't even tell you what I'm passionate about. That's what the entry is all about. 

Portuguese Custard Tart

The other day I saw my friend Hana put up a picture of the tarts on her blog and instantly I said 'I have to make them!' So dayssssss after I saw the picture, I finally made them on Tuesday.

I followed (with some modification of course) this recipe I found online.

3 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp cornflour
400 ml full cream milk (alternatively you can use 230 ml cream and 170 ml full cream milk)
2 tsp vanilla extract (I used less)
Puff pastry sheet

Method:
1. Pre heat oven to 200C (UK Gas Mark 6)
2. Whisk egg yolks and sugar, then add cornflour. Whisk again.
3. Add milk/cream, mix until no clumps
4. Place mixture over medium heat, stir until mixture thickens and comes to boil
5. Remove from heat, add vanilla extract
6. Cover with cling film (to avoid formation of 'skin'), set aside to cool
7. Roll puff pastry sheet, cut into circles, and place into muffin tray
8. Add custard mixture (3/4 full)
9. Bake for 20-25 mins (top turns brown)

They are supposed to look like that okay! I did not burn them :P

Awkward moments.

#1

Just two of you working in the lab. You spin your cells for 5 mins. The other person is working in the laminar flow hood. You really have nothing else to do while waiting for your cells-taking off the labcoat, walking to the office, sit down for 2 mins then it's time, so might as well just wait in the lab. So you look around, and move around. You want to initiate a small talk, but then you hesitate because that other person is really concentrating on his/her experiment, and...the awkward silence fills the lab. 5 mins later, 'Teeeeeeeet', the centrifuge beeps. 'Thank God!'

#2

You are washing your hand in the restroom. Then your supervisor walks out from the toilet stall and start washing her hands as well. You stand beside each other. It gets really awkward, either you make gestures to show that you notice her (smile or say hi or simply nod) or just do nothing because toilet really is an awkward place to be with your supervisor. What more if you know she's sitting in the toilet stall next to you and you start hearing sound..you know..that sound.

#3

Again, two of you are working in the lab, side by side. You rarely talk to this person. You share nothing in common. But then it starts to get really awkward when both of you are doing experiment next to each other for quite sometime, and do not utter a single word to each other. Suddenly comes a third person (Phewwwwww), either to break the silence by talking to either of you, or he/she could just start doing his/her work right away and continues on with the silence. But now the awkwardness is kinda diluted so you don't feel it as much compared to before. 

#4

You have to go on a 30-min bus ride with you supervisor to another hospital because the equipment in your lab is broken, and he is the only person who can operate this alternative equipment. The moment you know it's going to happen you starts to feel fidgety. Deep down you wish that the bus is kinda full so there won't be no two side-by-side seats available. As Plan B, you start making scripts in your mind. You want to avoid having that awkward silence so you think of as much topics to talk to your supervisor about as possible.  But when you get on the bus, the two-seater are the only available seats and because you are to conscious about your list/script, you forget them altogether. And there is no way out but to face the awkwardness.

And guess what, this whole awkwardness may not be a solitary thing after all. That other person might also feel the awkwardness that you feel. So all iz well. :P

Wordless Wednesday

Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay aka ELISA Wood.

ELISA Wood.

Elijah Wood.

Geddit?

A Walk Across the Sun

I stopped reading when I started my PhD. PhD was overwhelming in the beginning and I had a lot to take in. After having to read too many journals in a day, I just lost interest in books when I got home after work.

After sending off my mom through the security gate at Heathrow Airport earlier this month, the '2 for 1' advertisement at WHS Smith caught my attention. Then I saw this book on the front shelf. Read the synopsis at the back of the book and next time I knew, I went deeper into the store where they had a bigger book display. After perusing the shelves for a good 5 mins, I went to the till and got myself two books, and started to read immediately while waiting for my coach back to Nottingham. 'New year resolution', I thought to myself.

**

A Walk Across the Sun, Corban Addison's debut tells the story of misfortune of two sisters post-tsunami in India. They were trafficked to become sex slaves. Also, there is a lawyer who found himself interning with a NGO that work on sexual exploitation in Bombay, away from his comfortable desk at a big law firm in Washington DC. Their stories intertwined and their destinies changed.

A Walk Across the Sun is a bundle of emotions. Anger, sadness, frustration, anxiety, resentment, hope and happiness all wrapped up in one book.

Angry because there was too much of a corruption than my brain could handle, frustrated knowing there is another world beside the one we are living where evil trumps, anxious waiting for the girls to be rescued, sad for the hero who fell short in the rescue attempt, hopeful that the girls would see better days of their lives and happy for just many reasons. I was so glued to the book that every evening I couldn't wait to go home to know what's going to happen next. Parts where he told about the rescuing attempts, I felt the adrenaline rush and immediately sat down instead of lying on my bed. I cried tears of happiness at the end of the book, not a lot of books could do that to me. I grew resentment towards Indian police and its juridical system for the intolerable level of corruption, even though the book is fiction. So.many.emotions. Addison did a great job for his first book. 

What I particularly like about the book is the message it conveys. Books I read before were mostly chick-lits, with trivial take home message. I felt so close to the human trafficking issues than ever before. I used to volunteer with one NGO in Malaysia that work on this cause. Hearing stories about the kids at the centre overwhelmed me, but this book takes it to a whole other level. The most important message of this book lies in the conversation between Dietrich Klein (sex slave trader) and Sita (one of the sisters:

"Klein: Do you know why you are here? You are not here because I enjoy the sale of sex. You are here because men enjoy the purchase of it."

I think it's good for movie adaptation, but then again, usually adaptions aren't nearly as good as the original work. The writer had done an extensive research on this subject to write such a great, well-thought out book, the movie might not do justice.

**

Picking up a great book with no reference whatsoever is definitely a win! I wish to read more books but this book has set a really high benchmark, I'm worried the next one will bore me and then I will stop reading again. We shall see.

If any of you are interested to read about the facts of human trafficking, here are few links provided by the author:

International Justice Mission

Trafficking in Persons Report

The Polaris Project

The CNN Freedom Project

When I read the book and then the links, the similarities took me by surprise. The book is a fiction as true as the reality. This thing is REAL. It's happening outside the book, outside our doors, in an underworld. The stats are so depressing!

I leave you with my favorite quotes from the book.

The cold ones.

Weather is not looking good this week. I have experienced lower temperatures in the States, but I had a very good heating system in my house, and the utility bill was included in rent, so we put it on 24/7. I didn't even know if there was an off button :P So yeah, it was always warm and fuzzy at home.

Here in the UK, the house central heating is basically rubbish. Only boilers in the dining area, living room and one of the attic rooms are working. In the other 3 rooms, the boilers are mere decoration. During cold weather, my room is the coldest of all spaces in the house. The previous owner even nicknamed it 'bilik mayat'.

I always put on sweater and socks at home. It was hard to get used to wearing socks all the time, but now it has become second nature. 

And for added warmth, this is what I do.

Snuggle myself down in my snowman blanket with a radiator!

Let's just hope it won't burn the blanket or me :P

Happy tummy.

I have lovely housemates who love to cook, and to make things better, they are really good at it. They make all the hardcore dishes/food that I would never imagine making here in the UK.

Last Sunday Kak Hani made laksa utara enough to be eaten by 5 people for 3 days. Ha beat that! Not forgetting, she made tonnes of karipap sardin and daging on the same day.

This morning right after Subuh Kak Qamar made laksa johor for lunch. *I'm happily eating it at the moment*

Kak Ieda followed not long after. She made bihun sup daging kambing to be eaten for dinner. *Can't wait to go home to bihun sup now!*

I'm so spoiled!

That's why I have been slacking in the cooking department because 1) they are always ahead of me and 2) whenever they don't feel like cooking, I feel so inferior to cook for everyone being afraid my cooking is not good enough. They have set the benchmark so high okay. -_____-'

Maybe they want to give me a good rest before I start cooking full force come June :P

Karipap 101

I'm certainly not proud to say that my 'kelim karipap' skill is far below average. But I thought I'd share what I call true definition of 'Practice makes perfect' (even though my karipap is still not perfect :P)

There is still hope, I think. HA HA

The chills.

Bila nak kahwin ni soalan yang orang selalu tanya, 'Dah ready ke nak jadi isteri orang?' My usual answer is 'Entahlah'. Sama macam bila nak ambil exam. Sebelum masuk dewan sure ada member tanya, 'Ko dah ready ke?' Serba salah tahu tak nak jawab. Kalau jawab 'Dah ready!' nanti sure kena label 'berlagak'. Kalau jawab 'Weh aku tak ready dowh, semalam half way study aku tertidur, subuh tadi baru jaga'. Lepas tu bila results keluar dapat 95, kawan yang tanya tadi dapat 78 and akan cakap, 'Gila lah kau tak sempat habis study pun 95, aku yang tak tidur semalam dapat B je'. Tak pasal-pasal jadi gila pulak. Ha dah tu kena label 'Nak cover la tu cakap tak habis study padahal genius'. See, serba salah tahu tak??

Truth is, we can never be ready for anything, unless we go through it. Lepas tu baru lah tahu sebenarnya ready ke tak. 

When Mama came to visit the other day, that was one of the things she asked me. My answer was 'No, I am not!' I could list 100 of things that I need brushing up, but even if I practice/find ways to overcome the 100 things, there will be 100 things more on my plate.

I told my mom, before the ceremony, I need to practice my 'siang ikan' skill. Not that I don't know how to siang ikan *defensive mode*, it's just that the ikan I siang is always not pretty (dasyat nya grammar kau). They will turn out clean and edible *of course* but tak sedap mata memandang. Get what I mean?

Another thing of my concern, 'apa nak masak kat rumah mertua nanti?'. My cooking skills are really basic, janji untuk selamat perut sendiri. I call it masakan bujang LOL. Specialty dish pun belum ada. Kalau at least ada satu dua yang terror gila kalau masak confirm sedap, ok lah jugak. Kalau tiba-tiba mak mertua suruh take over the kitchen boleh berpeluh just thinking what to cook, belum start masak lagi. Tambah nervous Harris has a big family, kalau tak sedap mana nak letak muka??

That's just two out of hundreds.

But I guess, mana yang boleh brush up tu, boleh la kan nak start from now.  But as we go along, we will learn how to deal with things and masa tu lah kita jadi ready. There and then. Moral of the story, we can stop asking the areyouready question because no one knows. Instead, kita doakan orang yang nak kahwin tu dapat mengharungi cabaran dan dugaan after kahwin seperti siang ikan depan mak mertua dengan jayanya :P

Joker in the family.

Rosli's family Whatsapp group

Mama: Ma basuh seluar Ayah, seluk poket jumpa sesuatu.
Dila: Duuuuu...iiiiitt
Mama: Jangan terkejut.
Dila: Ape die Ma? Kasi gambar baru saspen (dgn nada tak serious)
Mama: Sampainya hati

*dah start cuak*

Mama sent an image.

Mama sure knows how to crack a joke at 12 in the morning.

Two thousand thirteen.

2012 highlights:

1. Got engaged :)
2. Officially a PhD candidate (after passing my first year assessment)
3. Mama came to visit!

Syukur Alhamdulillah for both the good and bad things that happened in 2012.
I'm looking forward to a greater 2013, inshALLAH.