Safe water

Early last week, we received notice that due to some maintenance work that was carried out, some air had gone into the water pipe, hence the water is not safe for drinking in the current moment and has to be boiled first. Last Friday though, we had an email from the residence college that says that the water is safe once more.

I am still at a loss on how does UK make their pipe water safe for drinking? Why can't the same process be applied in Malaysia???

My personal birthday gift

I have always been fascinated with Scotland; its clan, its cultures, its language. I love reading books that set its scene in Scotland and of Scottish people. When I first got to UK, it has been in my "list of things to do when in UK" to do a roadtrip to Scotland. Alhamdulillah, just before my birthday, I had the chance to do so.

Though my early ambition was to do a roadtrip up to Fort William, we had to make do with just visiting Edinburgh and Oban. But it was enough. Edinburgh was not as per my expectation. I didn't realize how crowded it was there, that the city I think has lost its beauty. Furthermore, I've always been more interested to see the countryside rather than the city. From Edinburgh we cross the whole Scotland from East to the otherside of the country, to the scenic little seaside town of Oban. I got to know about Oban from a friend's facebook album and fell in love with the natural beauty of the place. And Oban did not disappoint me. It was really beautiful. And the drive towards there were also wonderful. We stopped over at Stirling and Loch Lomond on the way and a few other scenic spots to take pictures. But truly, no camera can really capture the beauty of the place.

An old bridge in Stirling, Scotland

Loch Lomond, Scotland

One of many streams that we passed in the journey

View of the Highlands (err I think!)

Loch Long, Scotland

Beautiful Oban, Scotland

Not sure whom the quote is from, but I found it on a colleague's status this morning and I just love it.

"Faith makes everything possible,

Hope makes everything work,

Love makes everything beautiful.

May you have all the three as you begin each day."

090809 - Another milestone

It was the worst of times, it was the best of times.

It was my birthday last Sunday. Quite uneventful one. Decided only in the afternoon that maybe it will be nice to have a small makan2 with some close friends. My Malay friend helped to cook nasi goreng kampung dengan sambal ikan bilis (tetiba mengidam nak makan nasi goreng kampung, heh). Invited my Greek friend and one Indian friend from my course and one of my flatmates whom I am quite close to. My Greek friend brought the cake, and I had birthday wishes in 6 languages that day - English, Malay, Chinese, Greek, Hindi, and Punjabi. :)

I had gone through some worst times these past couple of months, and being human, during these times you start searching for THE path. TeaD, in a way, I could understand what you're going through. But I took a more difficult path than you (I think!) or at least the one less traveled. In my search, I have come to three conclusions:

1. I need to unlearn everything that I had already know and relearn it again
2. To go back to the fundamentals, go to the main source that we know is the most valid of all - the Quran and the Sunnah
3. To trust the ilmu and doa that you are always guided to the right ones.

Hence, based on the above, I no longer hold on to a single mazhab but I aim to beramal with the strongest of the dalil regardless whether it is Shafi'e, Hambali, Maliki or Hanafi. This will take more work for me, coz what I need to do is for each of my deeds, I need to learn and record what is the dalil of it and from whom did it came from. I aim to be able to say that "I am doing this particular act because of this specific dalil". Very ambitious I know, and I don't know yet whether it will be successful, but I think right now this is the safest way for me.

Because of this, I don't believe in having to berguru with ONE specific guru yang mursyid, which is what in Tasawwuf and Tarekat normally hold on to. Why should a person restrict him/herself to the knowledge of one particular guru? Can't we have trust in the knowledge of God that no matter who is teaching it, the truth of the knowledge will be there? It's like when u're learning mathematics, no matter who teaches it and in what language it is being taught, 2+2 will always be 4 and 5 x 2 is always 10. There may be a teacher who might teach it differently, hence why you should have as many teachers as possible so that you get more perspective and you learn more. What you may want to do is be selective of who you take as teachers.

Even so, right now, I have become very paranoid about any Islamic knowledge that I receive or hear. Everything that I get, I hold it at arms' length first and try to find ways to verify and double verify it.

Some people may not agree or even like what I am writing here. But this is my stance at the moment, one that I believe in.

It is the best of times because I have a different awareness about myself right now. Which I think is a good thing and I hope it continues. Hence, the birthday that I had dreaded before, I am embracing it with arms wide open.

ps: My birthday gift to myself this year was a roadtrip to Edinburgh and Oban, which I managed to sneak in between my schedule last week :)

Tagged!

Hasil penangan 'kenyitan mata' Ms B, maka dengan ini saya menjawab "tag"nya dari blog Pencinta Kopi Coklat, heh:

1. Bekas kekasih saya adalah:
*Skip* (Err, adakah perkataan ini perkataan Melayu? :p)

2. Saya sedang mendengar:
Bunyi kipas komputer riba

3. Mungkin saya patut:
Menyambung bacaan ilmiah saya, hmmm

4. Saya suka:
Mendengar ceramah Dr. Asri di Youtube.

5. Sahabat-sahabat baik saya:
adalah mereka yang sentiasa "ada" bersama saya, yang akan ambil kisah sekiranya terjadi apa-apa pada saya

6. Saya tak faham:
kenapa seseorang perlu berpura-pura.

7. Saya kehilangan:
nafsu makan ketika saya bersedih.

8. Ramai yang berkata:
hidup ini sementara, tetapi masih mengejar dunia seakan-akan boleh hidup selamanya. Malangnya, termasuklah saya sendiri.

9. Makna nama saya:
Madu yang dimakan oleh watak kartun Pooh ;)

10. Cinta itu adalah:
rezeki dari Allah, dan setiap pasangan perlu bekerjasama menjaga dan menyuburkannya bersama.

11. Di suatu tempat, seseorang sedang:
membaca jawapan saya ini, hehehe!

12. Saya akan cuba:
Menghabiskan menjawab kesemua tiga puluh soalan pada malam ini, tetapi kemungkinan besar terpaksa berhenti dulu, dan disambung di kemudian hari. :)


*****************
(Sambungan...)

13. Ayat SELAMANYA membawa maksud
Lagu kegemaran saya dari kumpulan Innuendo

14. Telefon bimbit saya:
Telah rosak kerana tenggelam dalam air sungai. Sekarang terpaksa menggunakan telefon pinjam

15. Bila saya terjaga dari tidur:
Saya memasang komputer riba :p

16. Saya paling meluat apabila:
Orang cakap tak serupa bikin dan sangat hipokrit.

17. Pesta/Parti adalah:
Bukan sesuatu yang saya gemari, kecuali jika ianya bersama orang-orang yang rapat dengan saya

18. Haiwan yang paling comel yang saya pernah temui ialah:
Dua ekor anak kambing biri-biri di Mongolia. Berwarna putih bersih dan macam anak anjing. Tersangatlah comel.

19. Peringkat umur yang paling menyeronokkan bagi saya ialah:
Waktu kanak-kanak.

20. Hari ini:
Saya telah pergi ke bandar untuk membeli barang keperluan.

21. Malam ini saya akan:
Menyambung penulisan saya. Diharap idea-idea yang bernas akan lebih banyak keluar pada malam ini, hehe

22. Esok pula saya akan:
Pergi menghadiri Usrah dan jamuan makan :)

23. Saya betul-betul inginkan:
Agar saya dapat menyiapkan sarjana saya ini secepat mungkin :p

24. Ketika saya lihat wajah saya di hadapan cermin pagi ini:
Saya memikirkan untuk keluar cepat pergi ke bandar.

25. Pusat membeli-belah atau arked permainan:
Pusat membeli-belah, terutamanya jika ada jualan murah :D

26. Makanan Barat atau Jepun:
Dua-dua, bergantung kepada selera.

27. Bilik yang terang atau gelap:
Bergantung kepada keperluan :p

28. Makanan segera adalah:
Sedap dan cepat, hehehe.

29. Ayat terakhir yang anda katakan pada seseorang?
"Thank you" kepada penjaga hostel ketika mengambil pakej darinya.

30. Siapa yang anda mahu tag?
TeaD.....muahahaha


Phewww....finally. Penat saya. hehehe.

I just found out my best friend is going to New York.

I wanna gooooooooooooooooo!!!!! :(

Dear Ms B....

I was going to answer Ms B's comment on my previous post, but then I thought, hey, why not I do it as a post instead, so can kill two birds with one stone. Ok tak Ms B? :)

To tell the truth, I have lots of things that I want to blog about, so many things are churning in my head right now. But there's this huge shadow behind me in a form of guilt that is preventing me from using the precious time to blog. You see, while two months have since past since I got my topic for the dissertation, I have yet to write one single word on it. Zero. Not even a title. Heck, I don't even have a Word document with the name Draft v1.0 pun. Teruk tak???? And I have just a little over one month to go! *biting my nails*

Well, to be fair to me though, I was doing my data gathering and research, and at least that is done. Sort of. Heh.

Don't ask me what happen in the last two months. I have no idea where the time go. Sigghh...I miss winter, when time felt like it hardly moved. (I'm a nocturnal person when I study hence why I love the long nights, hehe).

On top of it, I haven't even participated in the summer sale!!!!! Errr ok, that was before Wednesday. To my dear friend Noyarn, guess what??? After complaining to you early Wednesday morning hari tuh, that afternoon jugak I went to town and beli dua baju, dua seluar and dua kasut! Hehehe. Retail therapy, don't you just love it?! :)

But anyway, I had a good two days of studying. I've been going out to the library and management school to study these last two days and it seems to be more effective. Alhamdulillah, there seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel now. So, next week I need to meet my supervisor and will see whether he'll make the light bigger and brighter or put it out altogether :p.

But no worries, will try to steal some time to post some stuffs on the blog nanti. Maybe I'll start writing my dissertation in this blog instead, hehe. ;)


ps to Noyarn: about that problem about commenting in Blogspot, maybe you can checkout Verde's post on it coz she had the same problem and manage to solve it.