31st August 2013

Selamat Hari Merdeka, Malaysia! I knew that there was the fireworks competition last night but we didn't go to Putrajaya. I only managed to catch a glimpse of fireworks from the windows of my home, the ones facing towards the hills. Most probably it belongs to some adventurous residences nearby who enjoy shooting fireworks in the sky. A bit past midnight and there I was, already snoring in bed.

Nevertheless, I hope for a blessed and prosperous country without fighting and gruesome acts. I also hope for Malaysians to be true to their roots and never forget our ancestors' sacrifices to ensure the freedom of our country today. Just a beloved, peaceful Malaysia.

Ich Liebe Dich, Daiso

I went to accompany my sister to her college a few days ago to settle some business. After that I decided to go to Aeon Setiawangsa, just for fun. We had nothing to do  in particular so I thought why not we go window shopping. Plus it had been a fairly long time since I went to the shopping complex. The last time I was there was during raya eve in 2010 if I'm not mistaken.

Before that, there's one thing that I could always describe about myself. I love places with little or nobody else present at all. That's really me. I use to get uncomfortable, a little bit panic by people looking around and  looking towards me most importantly and also a bit claustrophobic. Since usually there's not as many people at Aeon Setiawangsa that's why I kind of dig that place. Lol.

I decided to treat my sister Sushi King and also brought back some for the rest of the family. My mom has been craving sushi for a while anyway.

This was on the back of the menu. I thought why not snap the picture of it just in case for my future references. You know, so that I can at least try to fulfill the daily energy requirement and also not accidentally losing any more weight left.

As we stroll in the building, we figured out that finally there's Daiso in town! I've got to admit that I am really a big fan of Daiso! I always feel like I'm Alice whom stuck in Daiso Wonderland. Haha. But seriously, I just can't explain how much love that I have for that place. I even forgot to take pictures in the store. See what I mean? How 'lost' we were in my beloved store? We must have spent at least few hours inside the store!

Anyway, I just know it from the bottom of my heart that one day, when the time comes, I'll shop till I drop in Daiso :)

Bows and Arrows

Through out those years when I studied medicine, I've got to admit that there's a lot more to learn rather than what's written in those thick books. Things to learn but never in the curriculum, such as how to face the world's cruel reality. Or maybe how to deal with people and attitudes. Unfortunately, I never get the chance to sort out the latter.

I've got to admit that it is tiring what we do all day and night. (I'm referring to doctors, paramedics, nurses, and those who work in the field of health.) To save precious lives and all. But for me personally, that's never a reason to develop or unleash that nasty attitude out. Simple things like being just plain lazy, irresponsible, and the nasty habit of throwing tantrum every now and then never really get me. It's obvious since saving lives is the priority, then why should you even be lazy, irresponsible and angry?

From my point of view, there's never a thing that you are so much obligated to do in life, other than religion. There's always a choice between two. And you always get to choose between that two. To be good or bad. To plain simple or crazy. To be hardworking or lazy bums. See what I mean? We all live to improve ourselves. If I could stress it out here, there's always reflections to do for ourselves. To reflect what particular aspects that needed improvisations. Not to reflect all those good deeds that we've done. That would only bring us closer to being cocky and arrogant. I'm never a fan of those two.

Anyway, speaking of people and attitudes, I really hope that one day I can muster all the confidence I have to speak up. Sad to say but I'm not that close to being the one who always speaks her mind. I'd prefer silencing myself because at least that's what I thought can save me. One thing that I've learned though, it's always a safe line when I silence myself out. I won't hurt anybody since there's not even hurtful words to begin with.

But there's only damage to myself afterwards. To be frank, that's what I've been trying to avoid so much. I've had enough emotional breakdowns with people and words. I don't really get it though, how a person can always never bother about those hurtful words. Hmm.

This is merely my two cents. I do find the urge to write about things that often bother my mind but I'm trying my best to let it slip through my fingers. What I'm trying to emphasize is that attitude reflects more about you than what you really thought. Let's just change ourselves to be better than what we used to be.

PD Story

It was our Grandfather's brother's house in Port Dickson whom lives with his wife. We usually went to visit them during the raya month. The thing out this particular house in Port Dickson is that it's always been fun and so far never have it failed to entertain everyone of us! They have a fruits orchard right behind the house and they also breed goats! So right after we arrived and salam with both of them, off we went to the backyard to have our own mini adventure while our parents had their own gossiping session. Haha.

Here we go...

Got to admit that we are a big fan of rambutans! Oh, here's my little brother by the way.

Plucking rambutans again and peeking through the goat's house haha.

There were also lots of durians in their backyard. We even brought a good amount of it back to Kuala Lumpur.

Here I am, pretending to be so amused by the village chicken (ayam kampung) if you get what I mean.

But really, this is just an example of awkward pose.

Feeding the goat! This one here is super friendly compare to the others. I forgot to put up the picture of the baby goat that we chase around. I'll make sure to put it up later.

Yay! A wheelbarrow of the king of fruits!

Kampung boy got caught in action as usual.

And of course, we love selfies.

Rambutans...

More rambutans...

Me and my little sister.

My baby sister. Not so 'baby' anymore since currently she's bigger than me, physically ^__^

I guess that's all that I can give right now. Turns out that there's nothing much to tell huh? By now, I really envy with those who can articulate excellently or at least convey those words on paper, or on the net what we call nowadays. At least, I can turn my boring story into something more interesting. Hmm but this will do for the time being. I'll make sure to improve myself in the future. I just hope that I won't be caught up with the laziness disease. Haha.

An Evening in Port Dickson

We were at Port Dickson last Friday! We start our journey after the Friday prayer around 3 pm and reach Port Dickson around 4+ pm I think (I'm not sure about that). Hmm actually, there's more to blog about Port Dickson but since I still have 13% of Catching Fire to finish up, I need to postpone this one. I am going to finish reading this book as soon as I can, hopefully today so I can write more about Port Dickson.

L-R: Syamim, Fahim, Me, Hajar, Adik

Till hen, bye!

Raya Convoy

On the next morning after I attended the wedding reception, as I said before, sore throat came to greet me. This time around, it's a very nasty one. I had to take a couple of sore throat mints right after I woke up.To make it worst, it became severe through out the day.

This raya convoy was on the 8th Syawal aka 14th August 2013. Since a lot of our uni friends turned up for the wedding reception, we decided to organize a raya convoy. There were 14 of us altogether. And it was fun! Truth be told, I have never ever had this kind of experience like ever. Who would have guessed that this silent, introvert girl would have joined something as big as this huh?

The plan was to go to Shah Alam to the first house at 10 am. Since I woke up a little late than everyone else, we didn't manage to stick to the original plan. Din came to fetch me at 10 am and later we went to fetch Rashid. And since Malay promises are never good, we were only at Shah Alam around 11.30 am. Eiji did a really good job by cooking all the glorious and scrumptious Malaysian cuisines. There's nasi lemak, nasi impit, kuah lodeh, lemang, rendang and endless raya cookies. Lucky that we purposely didn't have any breakfast beforehand.

 L-R: Din, Eiji, Rayyan, Eiji's Dad, Faheem, Anis, Rashid, Me

 Eating time!

 Munching and chewing continues

 The usual family portrait

 Family portrait #2

At Eiji's house, there's Ain who came all the way from Langkawi  and Anis who came all the way from Ipoh. But Anis needed to be somewhere else so we only met her at Eiji's. After sending Anis to the train station, we went to Razan's place at Setia Alam. Unfortunately, we succeeded in getting lost.

 Out of the house going to Setia Alam

Posing with Din's fresh from-the-oven car!

After several highways and turns and toll gates we finally reached Setia Alam. After a few bites, we had the usual photo sessions. Albeit, the numerous pictures this time.

Much bigger crowd this time.

L-R: Suffi, Razan, Ain, Eiji, Fatin, Aimi, Fera, Rashid, Din, Me, Radin, Faheem

 Family portrait #3

These three people got lost on the road! 

*I'll tell the story in the next post

Hmm. This post is getting longer than what I've expected. I think I'm going to break it into several parts if I'm not lazy lah. Till then, good night!

Wedding and Mini Reunion

One of my uni friend got married and his reception was held in Restoran Nelayan Titiwangsa, Jalan Gombak on Wednesday night, 13th August 2013. It was a beautiful wedding indeed. It was an 8 - 11 pm event so most of my other friends were already there as early as 6.30 pm!

Anyway, there's a funny story on the night itself. I thought that there's no itinerary for the reception I guess, so I plan to carpool with my Rashid who lives nearby. But since he's quite preoccupied and was still in Putrajaya by the time it was 8 pm, my parents volunteered to send me to the wedding. My mom said that I looked too pretty to cancel going to wedding last minute -__-'. I'm quite sure that that's never the reason behind it.

Back to the story, since my parents were to send me to the wedding, then only I knew that the restaurant is located at Jalan Gombak. Maybe because they still retain the 'Titiwangsa' as their name, silly me that I thought it was located at Titiwangsa, Kuala Lumpur. Haha. I was fortunate that at least we didn't get lost that night. I arrived at 8.30 pm and that's when the bride and groom arrived! -__-'. It was really awkward to walk behind the groom especially when everybody else was looking towards me and wonder who could that girl behind the bride and groom be.

Hmm. Anyway, it was fun to meet my uni friends again. All of us did wonder whether there'll be any reunion after this. After all most of them will embark the new chapter of life being a full-time houseman by next Monday. Best of luck to everyone including me.

Unfortunately, due to the blaring sound system, I needed to scream my lungs out to talk to everyone otherwise they won't be able to hear what I said. As a result, sore throat paid a visit to me on the next morning -__-

Eid Mubarak

I hope it's not too late to wish Selamat Hari Raya! I know that it's already the 6th day of Syawal but better late than never. This year we went back to both of my parents hometown. The journey started on the first day of Syawal to Ipoh, Perak (my mom's hometown) at 1 pm  but the heavy traffic only allowed us to reach our destination at 5 pm! Oh and this year we decided to drive in two separate cars since the one car can no longer fit us all in anymore. 

When we reached Ipoh, the usual visiting-relatives-and-filling-up-hungry-tummy business resumed. Then we went to Taiping and decided to overnight there. Since we were too tired to continue the balik kampung journey, we decided to stay another night in Ipoh and only went back to Kuala Lumpur on the 3rd day of raya. 

Around 8 am on the 4th day of Syawal, the journey resumed. The destination was Batu Pahat, Johor (my dad's hometown). We visited a few relatives and went back to Kuala Lumpur on the same day! Honestly, I never thought that it is ever achievable to do something like that. Haha. 

Speaking of Hari Raya, I did enjoy mine this year. As I'm not even sure whether I can have my raya leave next year. But anyway, the one boy that sure did enjoy his raya this year is of course my baby brother. I got to admit that it maybe because of he is the smallest among us that he got more duit raya compare to everyone of us. Haha. But he's also able to unleash his inner kampung boy spirit during this festive season. By kampung boy, I mean being mischievous 11 year old boy who talks a lot and never seemed to be low in energy i.e. running around and jumping up and down and of course... play some firecrackers and fireworks.

Yup, this one little boy here.

So yeah, that kind of sums up my 1st week of raya. I purposely forget to put up pictures of me in my baju raya. Hmm maybe some other time. Or maybe just never :p

Unfortunate Event

It's so easy to guess. What else could it be rather than the old faithful car broke down? Yes, the car definitely broke down.yesterday. Luckily I wasn't alone. My mom and I went to fetch my baby sister from a funeral in the evening. Her friend's mom passed away earlier in the morning, Al-fatihah. May God bless her.

It was around 4 or 5 pm when we got to the house to fetch my baby sister and her friend. We sent her friend home then supposedly, we were going to the supermarket to buy ingredients for iftar. Only the path wasn't that smooth. Due to bad traffic and the climbing-hill road, the car was only able to move a few meters since the past few red lights. Oh and not to mention, there were lots of red lights along the way. -__-

I told my mom that the road was never a friendly road for drivers like me. Haha. It's just that the road is too challenging for someone who doesn't like challenge at all like yours truly. Just imagine heavy traffic + red lights + overloaded automobiles + climbing hills? And then it happened. The old car wasn't behaving really well that time. There's a lot of the time my mom reminded me to not let the car die in the middle of the road. I swear I tried my best not to let that happen.

Unfortunately, it did happen. But not because it suddenly died. But because suddenly I realized that it was overheated. That the temperature was over the roof. And that there was nothing we could do but to stop the engine in the middle of the busy road -__-

My mom called my dad while me and my baby sister went blank. Haha. Being a not helping hand at all. Then suddenly some good Samaritan pull over in front of us and asked us what had happened. It was obvious that the car's engine was overheated and there was nothing that any of us can do but to push the car to the side of the road so that at least we were not blocking the traffic and wait for the engine to cool down manually. We thanked both of the guys for helping some stranger like us during time in need. 

"Next time, always remember to check the water level in the engine!" that was what my dad said. Haha. Okay fine, we will.

More Than Halfway There

It's already Thursday! Which means that tomorrow will be the last day for school! Which also means that Hari Raya is merely a week away, God willing. To flashback my Ramadan this year, it was well spent compared to the ones I had when I was back in that tiny little island. 

The first thing is obviously about the preparing food for iftar. I can never deny that those hours fasting sure did make the stomach crave for literally anything. Like that one time when me and my baby brother craved for sugar cane drinks. To my surprise, they don't sell sugar cane drinks in a large bottle in the supermarket here. They only have sugar cane drinks in a small soda can. How will that feed 7 hungry stomachs? So we needed to purchase it at a hawker's stall instead.

Also there's this one time, when we were making kuih for iftar, it seemed like everything should be in shades of rainbow. Like this rainbow kuih puteri mandi and this almost rainbow-fied jelly. My mom also made rainbow kuih lapis. Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of that one. Otherwise, I would have a series of rainbow food already! Haha.

We also started making kuih raya. The picture below should be the filling of pineapple tart cookies. We did made quite a batch of cookies. And we ate them all already. Haha. So much to be called as 'kuih raya'. The kuih itself cannot be kept till raya. I guess the only way to make sure that any cookies can last till 1st Syawal is to bake them right on the night before. But I am not sure myself who among us willing to do that.

Anyway, last Friday, the three of us sisters went to KLCC mosque to join this iftar with orphans event. Hence, the baju kurung. Hmm speaking of clothes, my maxi dress for raya has already done. Hope that it will turn out to be just nice by the time I put it on for raya. I'm not really hoping for something glamorous and all. Just humble and decent will do for me.

Anyway, secretly I sometimes do hope that the three of us have a bit of resemblance. Unfortunately, we look a lot like friends than blood related siblings.