It snowed!!!

I was walking to class today and saw some white, grainy-looking stuff on the side of the pathway. My heart just thumped a bit faster, is that what I think that is?

It was!! Well, it was very light, and not much that you could do with it. But, it was still nice.

Then, when I got back to my room again in the afternoon, I actually saw them falling from the sky. Except that it wasn't exactly the snowflakes falling but slush, a mixture of snow and rain. So it wasn't as pretty. But it gives me hope that maybe I'll get to see and play in the snow this winter. :D

I need to think now whether I should get a snowboot or not. hmmm....

I am feeling...

Bloated.

Really, really bloated.

If it's because of my period, then this is indeed a new symptom for me. It's not that I am not eating. I do eat, a lot now that it's winter :p. But yesterday and today, during dinner, I can't seem to eat coz I am feeling so bloated. Food just could not go in there anymore. I tried exercising, heh, but all it did was make me sleep. And I woke up today, still feeling bloated, aarrghh...

On the good side of it, though, I am eating less for dinner. :)

The feeling of being in love

I downloaded the e-books of the Twilight series a few weeks back and tonight somehow I got hooked on the first book. Most of its fans probably fell in love with the two characters, Edward and Bella, and the extraordinary love story between a normal girl, Bella with Edward, the "vegetarian" vampire (a vampire that does not suck human bloods).

To me, what got me hooked on the book was how the love story between Bella and Edward unfold. The uncertainties that they felt about each other in the initial stage, how they start showing interest to each other, and all the actions and conversations that they had reminds me so much of the early days of my relationship. Reading about them felt like reliving those memories and those feelings again - the butterfly in the stomach, the lightheadedness, the anxiety at every little things and the beautiful contented feeling of knowing you are loved.

A friend once said to me, "being in love can make you feel the happiest, but it can also make you feel the most miserable." How true it was, yet once you've felt the love, you would not want to not feel it again.

I am currently restraining myself from reading the second book. 3 more weeks to go till end of term. Be strong now.


ps: Twilight the movie is coming out in UK cinema on 19th December.

Of being here..

J asked me recently, how do I like living in UK? And my answer was, "Best." Probably not a good answer to your boyfriend who's thousand of miles away from you, heh. But that's me I guess, honest to a fault at times.

"Best" though is very subjective. Another person living my life here now in this godforesaken place may be screaming to go home within a week! In fact, shortly before I came here, a friend of a friend had warned me that I'm going to be living a life of impending boredom here.

But I think it depends on what you look for to make you happy.

And what I wanted to do was to get down from the "merry-go-round of my current life" and just walk in the park or sit down and just read a book. Don't get me wrong, I love my life. Alhamdulillah, things have been great for me. It's just that, it feels too much like, well like a merry-go-round, it just goes round the circle and seems to go nowhere.

Being here, to some degree is quite liberating. It's as though you are charting new path(s) in life. Suddenly you have dreams again. You can choose what you want to be. And you can choose who you want to be.

I like that last part the most i.e. a chance to re-invent myself. It is as close to the opportunity to being "re-born", to put it in an extreme. Whether you emerged a different person is another thing altogether. Probably you will end up being your most comfortable self again. But the possibility of it is just exciting.

I am loving it here for the fact that my life now feels like it has a purpose, a goal. I love the fact that I am learning new things, not only in the classroom, but new things in life itself, and learning new things about myself as well. And I am loving the fact that I get to make changes to myself, improve myself and be a better person, hopefully.

So, yes, I am loving it here. Do I want to stay here for more than a year? Most probably not. But will I get on that merry-go-round again, that remains to be seen.

Of Friends in Friendster..

It has been a long while since I've opened my Friendster account. I've totally forgotten that I had it if not for a friend who mentioned it a few days back. When logging in, I even keyed in the wrong password heh. Berhabuk dah profile ku.

I expected to see nothing new there. But surprise surprise there were some nice messages in my inbox. One was from an ex-housemate whom I had not seen for a quite a while since she moved to Penang after she got married. She now has a two-year old daughter and preggy with a new one. I still remember us hanging out together at home, or going for roti canai together, and hanging at her shop trying out sunglasses haha. I missed my personal optometrist gals.

Another message was from a long, long lost friend. She was my best friend back in my Primary 5. However, when I changed school during my primary 6, We lost contact and haven't heard from each other since. And now, she found me in Friendster! Hopefully, we can keep in touch again after all these years.

There was also a message from a 36 year old guy, nak berkenalan. Hmm....

You know you've settled down in a place....

...when you start feeling comfortable cooking there.


I am very fussy about cooking.

I don't like to cook in a strange kitchen where I don't know how things work and where everything is.

I don't like to cook when I don't have all the ingredients and the tools that I need (or ones that I'm familiar with).

I would rather eat peanut butter and jelly sandwich everyday rather than cook in an unfamiliar kitchen that does not have my full set of items there.

(That's why I was so obsessed with making my kitchen as complete as possible when I first move in into my house previously. Even forgoing the need for a bed, hehe..)

So after a month of collecting bits and pieces, here and there, I am finally at home in my kitchen here. I have all the things that I need now.

I have my own set of Tefal cookware now - a small saucepan with lid, an omelette pan and a mini wok, courtesy of my recent trip to Glasgow. I am soo loving them right now. Makes my cooking so much easier.

I'm also loving my mini rice cooker, which I am also cooking pasta inside it and steaming broccolis.

I have a mini roasting tin for me to bake potatoes and grill salmons.

Everything is so mini, easy to handle and to wash, yet big enough to cook for one or two people.

All of these items will fit nicely in my own kitchen back home.

For now though, I am at home in my kitchen here. :)


ps: I sounded more and more like a housewife now, don't I? :p

My very own cuisine

Walla!! My first Salmon cuisine. My own recipe hokay...:) Well, I modified 2-3 recipes that I found on the net coz it was too complicated, and made it mine. And it tasted really, really good.

Ingredients :

One salmon fillet
Salt and pepper
1/4 Lemon (for the juice and grated zest)
Olive oil
mixed herbs
spaghetti
1/2 green pepper (cut in slices)
1 tomato (cut halved)
1/2 garlic (chopped fine)


Direction :

1. Marinade the salmon with olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon juice, lemon zest and mixed herbs.
2. Pre-heat the oven and the roasting tin at 250degrees
3. Heat some olive oil in the tin
4. Put in the garlic
5. At the same time, boil the pasta until el dente i.e. ready-to-eat state.
5. Once garlic is browning, put in the marinated salmon with all the juice into the tin. Cook until salmon is medium well, about 15mins in the oven
6. Put in the green pepper and tomatoes. Then put in grill for about 5 mins.
7. Put the pasta in the plate, then put the salmon, green pepper and tomatoes on top. And the dish is ready to be served.

An early winter

The weather here has dropped to 0 degrees now, and it's not even November! In fact, some parts of England are already covered in snow! Winter arrived quite early this year. Well, it does goes well with my mood right now.

2 more days, and we're in November. It's now been a month here. I've got 11 more months to go.

Jacket Potato

I made jacket potato today, woohoo...:)

It is my goal that while I'm here, I'm going to not only "brush up" my cooking skills, but also to learn more on western cooking. My short term goals are jacket potato, pastas (trying to learn more than just bolognaise, heh), salads and also salmon dishes. Salmon is quite cheap here and I'm going to eat lots and lots of it. I have one salmon fillet in the fridge right now which I'm still deciding on how to cook it. Looking forward to that.

Anyway, the jacket potato today is a fusion dish..coz the topping is actually - inti karipap, hahaha... I still have some leftovers inti karipap from the weekend do which I'm trying to finish, so what better way than to eat it with the potatoes. :)

It is really good by the way. Top choice for jacket potato topping, hehe..

Feeling worst than ever..

I made a mistake of taking the flu medicine last night...woke up today with my flu much, much worse than before. sigghh....

You see, I've learnt that if I have both runny nose and cough, it is better that I don't take any medicine, and just let the phlegm goes its way through the nose. Once I stopped the runny nose with the medicine, my cough will get worst coz now the phlegm has no where to go, and my lungs have to work extra hard to get rid of it. So, its better to just let it run its course. But of course I'll take the supplements like multivitamins, vitamin c and lots of warm water.

Also had some nose bleed this morning. I wonder if that's normal. It's only one side of the nose though....

A PMS entry

I think I'm having a bad case of PMS. Coupled with a flu, it sure ain't pretty. I just feel like hibernating (which I already am!) and I get riled up easily. Especially with those ppl who just have to share their opinions in class and asking long-winded question. For God's sake, if you have to ask a question, can you at least keep it as concise as possible? And while sharing your opinion do add richness to the lecture, keep it as short as possible as well. Don't start talking non-stop for 10 minutes! We paid highly to come here to listen to the qualified lecturer, not to you!

Friendship Hole

One thing that I really missed in being here is the feeling of togetherness with another person. At different periods in my life, I had always been blessed in having someone close with me, whom I had fun with, laugh with and cried with. Even as a child. My childhood was filled with memories of the times with Yaya, my childhood friend whom I practically grew up with. I think from the time that I became aware of myself, she had already been there with me. We went through the learning process together, from riding a bike, to playing badminton, as well as testing our limits and our rules together. We learnt which rules to break and which rules that can be bend. And which that can really get us into trouble. :) We were the best of friends, yet we were also the best of enemies, always in competition with one another.

We grew apart though when I moved to KL.

In primary 6, I had Dilla as my best friend and in secondary I had Azlin.

The only time that I did not have one was when I was in Perlis. Maybe that's why I wasn't very happy living there, heh.

UTP was just blissed cause we were basically close with almost everyone. And we had fun all the way. But I've learnt that I'm the type that likes to have a deeper and personal relationship with a person. A person that you can share your life with at that particular time. And I had that with Nadia as well as with Didie then.

And later, with Ayu, Nurli, Eta and Elya as well.

I think I am missing that right now. Maybe it's just too early for it, well I have not even been here for more than a month! But that is the hole that I felt in my life right now.

Unfortunately, letting someone in your life is not as easy as it was before.

I am currently loving ....

1. Walker Crisps Salt and Vinegar - this is almost bordering on addiction now hehehe

2. Sainsbury's Ginger Snaps with 35% less fat.

3. White-flesh fresh peaches - sweet, crisp and juicy

4. Warm, self-laundered clothes - I am sooo buying a dryer when I get back to Malaysia

Missing you..

It's now been a little over two weeks since I've been here. And that has been how long since we saw or talked to one another. Luckily, we are living in the mobile age and we are able to still text each other and chat online everyday. And we've started to be more open in Facebook again, which is really great. But hearing about open houses and planned events back home do make me missed him and doing things together as a couple. Hopefully this time away will make our relationship stronger and strengthen the trust in each other.

Plagiarism 101

Today, we had a briefing about Plagiarism. J had already warned me to be careful on this as the UK education system is very strict on proper referencing of others' works. However, after the briefing today, I think their concern on plagiarism is downright paranoid. Seriously. We were given an exercise on how to paraphrase a paragraph so that we are not seen as copying word for word.

The paragraph given was on the difference between outsourcing and contracting. It was basically a general statement on the differences. However, it was actually written by a guy named Brown. So, even after we paraphrase it, we would still need to make the reference to the original author.

The problem that I have with this is that the given paragraph was that it was a pretty general statement. If someone had asked me what is the difference between outsourcing and contracting, I would have answered in my own words something quite similar to what was given. Yet, if I have not read Brown's work and hence did not think of making the reference to his work, I would have been considered to have plagiarise his work. I think it is just absurd.

A penny saved, is a penny earned

One of the major changes that I had to make when coming here is on my spending. I wouldn't consider myself a shopaholic nor am I a big spender. But I do like to buy good stuffs, choose brands that I'm comfortable with even if there are cheaper ones on the shelves. And I really like to spend on good foodstuffs and good restaurants. With my previous salary, I can still indulge in this. But now, with just 200pound per month, I have to really watch what I spend on. Now, it's all about finding the cheapest one for everything, regardless of the brands. I would even browse through a few shops before doing the actual purchase to make sure that I'm getting the best deal for the item. Eating out is such a luxury now. Even for a cup of coffee. So far, I've only eaten out once, and I felt like I'm paying through my nose for it, heh. I guess maybe because in this early days, there are just so many things that you need to buy and you feel that you've been spending a lot. Maybe later once I'm more settled, I can relax a bit on this.

Raya Di Perantauan

Raya this year was almost an uneventful day for me. We called up my sister on Monday night and asked her whether raya ke tak on 30th. She said the masjid that they followed said it will be on 1st. So my parents and I still woke up for sahur on Tueday morning, and still performed our fasting on that day. But later in the morning, I went over to the university for my course briefing, and there I saw one Arab lady in tudung was drinking coffee. And she told me that the mosque in Lancaster had already declared Hari Raya the night before and they even had the solat sunat Aidilfitri at the mosque that morning. I was at first hesitant to break my fast, wasn't sure which to follow. But in the end, since I am going to stay and follow the mosque here, I decided that I should Raya on that day as well. Just as I was about to open my fast, I got a text msg from J, ucap selamat hari raya hehe...I felt like you could read my mind then dear. Scary :p hehe.

Diana pulak, met a Malaysian, Kak Rina when she did her library card registration in the morning. Kak Rina also told Diana that it is already Raya and that some of the seniors are doing Open House that day. So that evening, after all our briefings, Diana and myself decided to just go over to the Open House and introduce ourselves. For our bravery, we get to eat Soto and lontong that day hehe...

And that was our Raya day. Alhamdulillah, though I didn't get to Raya in my hometown this year, I still get to spend the Raya morning with my parents. And for that, it is still a great Raya for me.

First day back to School

I am finally here. Wow. After all these years of thinking, planning and talking about doing my masters in UK, I am finally here. Alhamdulillah. Thank you God for this treasured opportunity, and help me make the most of my time here for me to be a better person in all aspects. Ameen.

*****************************

It is my first day of registration today. With the registration, i get my library card (which essentially is the student ID card), my Lancaster email, my library login id, but most importantly my network ID, yeayy!! Hence, I am now able to have internet connection everywhere I go, including from my own sweet room.

There are about 60 students in my course coming from all parts of the world. It is truly a united nations here. The highest are from India, about 20 of them, next is Greece about 10, 8 from Britain, and others are from Nigeria, Cameroon, Panama, Mexico and Cyprus. There's only 2 from Malaysia, myself and Diana, my now partner in crime hehe...some of them are doing their masters straight from their degree, while most have some work experience. Most of them have quite impressive background, working for consulting firms like Accenture, PwC and Infosys. Some even have their own companies. It will be interesting indeed working with these diversed group of people.

I hope I am going to enjoy the studying environment here. Most importantly, I hope I can cope with all the works given. All the lecturers that we have seen so far keep saying that it is going to be hectic. Hopefully, I'll still have the time to blog. :)

Am here...well not quite yet

After two months of hectic activities, doing all the necesary preparations to come to UK, I am finally here. Alhamdulillah. I am now at my sis place in Oxford, spending the week here with my parents before going over to Lancaster this Sunday to start my new life as a student.

A New Chapter Is About to Begin..

A new chapter in my life shall start in a few more weeks. Countdown starts now ...