Wednesday, September 30, 2009

All my bags are packed, and I'm ready to go...

Well the time is finally here.

So long, farewell...I hate to go and leave this pretty sight.

It's been a great one year. A wonderful dream.
But now it's time to wake up and face the real world again.

Monday, September 21, 2009

The Raya post

This year is my second time celebrating Raya away from my kampung. Last year was the worst, as my Raya was spent in the classroom on my induction day. The bad part was that I didn't even know it was already Raya :p. Luckily there was that Saudi friend of mine who had to 'convinced' me that it was already Raya. That was our salam perkenalan heheh.

This year was a low key event with just us families, an almost complete "ecosystem" with the exception of my brother & co back home. Last time it was all of us in Malaysia, and him in UK. Now terbalik pulak hehehe. I initially looked forward to having just us for Raya. Maybe as I get older, I tend to be more anti-social. I dread going to crowded social events. And Raya can get really crowded. Most of the times, you only get to greet the host with few pleasantaries, eat and then it's hi hi, bye bye and on to the next house. So it has a nice feel to be able to spend Raya just with your immediate families, the ones that love you unconditionally. But upon hearing my brother's voice on pagi Raya, I found myself missing the Raya atmosphere back home. The sound of my dad hurrying everyone early in the morning to for the Eid prayer, the family breakfast before making our Raya rounds, the visits to the most important and closest relatives and of course the variety of foods.

However, there are a few things that I don't miss. I don't miss the hassle of securing my 'balik kampung' ticket and leave. I don't miss the hassle of having to prepare for Raya i.e. Raya clothes, tudung, shoes, handbag, etc. I don't miss having to give duit raya heheh (but my nieces & nephew here dapat la. In pound lagi :p). And most of all, I don't miss the fending off/deflecting of THE question.

It really amazed me how many people seem to really care about my marital status. I don't get how being married will serve anyone else except for my immediate families. Ok, some cousins just wanted an excuse to get together; though isn't Raya was meant to do that already? What sometimes bother me is the insensitivity of some people that pose the question in quite a condensceding way. I say insensitive because I would like to think they don't really meant it that way. But seriously, it's the same as asking a person who has worked 10 years "why aren't you a manager?". It's all about rezeki. Some people have it easy. Some people may get the managerial post within 8 years without doing any credible work at all. Some may work like crazy but it was just not 'written' for them. Similarly about marriage. And about having kids. You have them. Great. Your life is complete. I am happy for you. But don't go and preen over others on it. Though I know my friends who have not been given rezeki anak have it worst.

Heh, a Raya post just gone awry here :p. This part of life in Malaysia is something that I don't look forward to, and I am already bracing myself for the onslaught.

Anyway, today we had some special guests over - The TEKAD family. My friend and her family are off to Durham to start her own Masters journey now. So it's like a selisih di jalanan for us. After a year away from KL, it is nice to see some familiar faces here for Raya. My regret is that I won't get to meet her and hang out with her when I get back nanti. For another year . Wishing you all the best my dear. Enjoy your one year break :)

Hope it is still not too late to wish everyone Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri and Maaf Zahir dan Batin.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Preparing the path...

Right...ok...two more weeks to go before I touchdown to Malaysian soil again. So need to start planning for my Malaysian life again.

So things to do when I go back to Malaysia:

1. Spruce up the house. Hope it will be in a good condition.

2. Apply for the Maybank Ikhwan credit card, the new Islamic credit card. I have cut out my card after realizing how severe the dosa of riba is. It's level is higher than zina, imagine that. Ironically, I'm using an Islamic debit card here in UK :p

3. Get the house connected and wireless. Need some recommendation here for the most reliable ISP. TeaD, any suggestion?

4. Find new tudung, hehehe. After a year of wearing the same ones, I need some fresh look now.

5. Go for manicure and pedicure. Hey, I'm a woman. Enough said :p

6. Enrol myself in Arabic classes. Need to be more serious this time.

7. Enrol in riding classes. Hehehe. Had even bought meself a pair of jodphurs already.

8. Start my weekend breakfast rituals with my close buddies again :)


Hmm....ok, that should keep me busy in the next month or so.

Monday, September 14, 2009

No, am not back in Malaysia. Yet. I'm right now in my second kampung, Oxford, hehehe. My sister is here so is my parents, hence this is my kampung for Raya this year :p

Packing was a horror. I never knew I had accumulated that much stuff in this one year period. Then it was deciding what I should carry with me since the box will only reach Malaysia sometime in November. Hence I ended up with two big bags, which had me almost in tears thinking that I need to carry them all the way to Oxford that Saturday. Yes, I can be a drama queen sometime, particularly when I didn't sleep the whole night :p.

Alhamdulillah though, a blessed soul had offered to give me a ride to the train station that day. So I had someone to carry the bag for me right to the doorstep of the train. And even the connecting train at Wolverhampton was from the same platform, so I don't really have to walk anywhere. All in all it was a bearable journey.

Because of this drama, I didn't have time to really feel sad about leaving Lancaster. I was dreading it for so long that when it actually came, it kinda feel like a natural thing to leave the place that I have called home this past 12 months. I still can't say I look forward to going back, because of so many uncertainties that I foresee waiting for me back home. But it is a journey that I need to make pretty soon. Like two weeks from now.

Hmm....I think I have been writing a lot about gloomy thoughts these past few months, kan? Must have made me sound like a very disturbed soul indeed.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

My last two hours in Lancaster. I'm supposed to write some farewell note to say goodbye to everyone - my coursemates, my Malaysian friends - but right now I am just too tired to do anything. But I don't dare sleep...well still thinking whether I should or not. Sigghh...this is just some mindless ranting. I hate having to pack and leave.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

A goodbye kiss?

The thing about having non-Muslims around you most of the time is the problem of protecting your personal space. These people are very affectionate and touchy2 type. Even the Indians from India, which I know don't practise this culture back home, seemed to have adopted them as well.

So far, I have managed to keep them at arms length. Well, the good thing about wearing hijab is that it confuses them, heheh. Plus of course my mannerism is very controlled when I'm with the boys. So they don't really know to what extent they should be close with me, hence they are more careful and polite. So they don't try to hug me even though I can see they wanted to (out of habit, that is).

But tonight, we had a small gathering among my coursemates. And I was saying goodbye to most of them, esp this one guy who was my groupmate during my second term. While saying goodbye, he came towards me and I thought he wanted to shake hands with me, but suddenly he bent down and was about to kiss me! Out of nowhere I heard myself cried out "Don't kiss me!" Yes, I actually said that out loud. Well, I didn't scream it. But it was loud enough for him to hear it and startled him enough to stop him. Phewww....

The thing is, he's Greek and he's like THE most handsome guy in the class. Heck, I think he's the handsomest and the most attractive guy I've seen in UK so far. And at one time, he seemed to be interested in me. Until somebody let out my age, heh. For some reason everyone thinks that I'm a fresh grad. I guess I'm fortunate to have good genes that made me look younger than my age.

Hopefully there won't be this sort of incident ever again. I don't know if I can scream fast enough next time :p

Sunday, September 6, 2009

What's in a name?

I've been asked by my friend to give her a Muslim name.

I told her I'll give her a range of names that she can choose from. But she insisted that she wanted ME to name her. Treat her like a newborn baby, she said.

I felt honoured. Truly. Good practice as well, heh :p

I saw one that I like just now - Rida.

From my search, it says that it means favoured by God. Fitting don't you think? :D

Now just need to inform her to see whether she likes it as well.

Packing...packing...

Kotak - checked
Masking tape - checked
Vacuum bag - checked
bubble wrap - checked
Newspaper - err have to get more
laundry - done

Sigghhh....it's packing time now. My all time least favourite activity. Right up there with unpacking. I am a homey person. I hate moving. I hate changes. I like to make my nest just as I like it, and then just let things stay just the way they are. Including all the furnitures. Hence why all my furnitures are built-in :p.

Anyway back to packing. I hate it because I need to plan things out carefully. I am not the type that just 'campak' everything into the box. I like to know which box has which of my stuffs so that I can plan for which box to be opened first. And also which box that I can close last.

Complicated eh? Well, I'm a planner at heart. I go by the habit of "begin with the end in mind". I need to see as clearly as possible what is going to happen in front of me before I make the step. There's good and bad to it. Good because it gives me some peace of mind when I embark on something. Bad because, you can become a bit paranoid with things. Coz when you plan things out, you start thinking of all the worst-case scenario as well :p. Also, when things don't go as plan, you can get real cranky as well. Well, ok that could be just me. I remember the last few days before coming over to UK, I got to know that my flight to UK will land in Leeds rather than Heathrow. It was a misunderstanding between Mara and me. I thought since I'm going by MAS, it will go to Heathrow, which is what I want. But Mara thought, since I'm going to Lancaster, the nearest airport will be Leeds, hence they had made arrangement for flight transfer in Netherlands instead. In the end, I got the flight that I want, but it had to be two days later. The changes didn't have major impact to my plans, but the fact it did mess it up had me in a very cranky mood for that whole day. And someone wasn't very pleased with me about it as well. :p
Well, everyone have their quirks. Mine happens to be this one.

So, now I need to start my packing. Need to first figure out where to start from :p

Friday, September 4, 2009

Completion of a Tekad

Went to visit my parents the last two days. Partly to go berbuka puasa with them. And partly as well so that my dad can proofread my work hahaha. Well, he had offered, though I was initially hesitant to give it to him to read for fear that he'll say it doesn't make sense, hehehe. (Trust me, I myself couldn't bear to read my work again for the same fear :p). Oh, and another part is to give me that much needed pressure to actually completed this thing. When I went there, I was still without my conclusion, my abstract and one small section in my analysis. My parents, who had always been very protective of me, got really worried that I'll not be able to finish this dissertation, and this made me feel really guilty pulak. I think they were more relieved than me when I completed the printing and binding, hehehe.

So, today, I submitted the toils of the past three months. I'm happy. Alhamdulillah :)