Harry Potter & his magic

Are you are one of the millions Harry Potter books reader? Do you have this thinking-of-reading-the-book-again-after-you-watched-the-latest-Harry-Potter syndrome? If you are like me who has not so good memory, you will find that there’s so many interesting plot in the book that screenwriter didn’t include in the movie but you can’t pointed out what plot was that. Then again, every plot in the Harry Potter book series is interesting. So there uneasy feeling in heart that you want to know what is that and you started to think maybe you should read the book again.

I just watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince last night. All I can remember was that in this book, Dumbledore died. I know somebody killed him but I forgot who and there’s a memorial service (the most memorable part in the book) where all magical creatures who loved him came to give him last respect. I remembered this clearly as I was reading it 4 years ago, I cried foolishly in my college room. Lucky for me my roommate was sleeping and when she woke up she was confused why my eyes were puffed out.

Sadly, the movie didn’t include that part and I really wanted to see all the various creatures in one scene. Well, it’s not important to the storyline actually but I couldn’t remember any other part that should be in it. Hehe. What I vaguely remember is that Harry used a lot of Dumbledore’s Pensieve to see the memories collected by Dumbledore. However, in this movie only few were shown.

I don’t want to give review and rate this movie. Overall it’s enjoyable and I can’t wait for another last two movies. Apparently they made 2 movies out of the last book. Wise idea especially when the book itself is thick (though not the thickest) and it’s the finale of the Harry Potter where many important events happened that need to be captured on screen. However, they have to make sure that they capture the battle scene in the Hogwarts beautifully and the revelation of Snape’s secret imaginatively. Sorry if I spoiled the storyline but who ask you not to read the books? Haha.

To tell the truth, if I don’t read the books and I just watched the movies, maybe after first or second movie, I won’t be interested of watching the next sequel. There are so many stories in the book that made the books really interesting. Unlike Lord of the Ring where you can become a fan by just watching the movies without reading the books (it takes me ages to finish those 3 books. Ok, I didn’t finish reading the last book. It consumed a lot of time when you spend most of time looking for meaning of words in dictionary. Hehe.)

Oh, maybe after the last movie, I’ll read all the 7 books back to back. That would be a total of 4224 pages. Wahhh..

For our 5th wedding anniversary

After coming back from Malaysian International Dive Exhibition (MIDE) 2009 last Sunday, I proposed next diving site to my hubby. What else than the most beautiful diving place on earth, Sipadan Island. That plan is for our 5th year wedding anniversary (just hope I’m not pregnant that time) which will be coming soon in another 3.5 years.

Beside Sipadan, Kapalai, Mabul and Si Amil Island which are situated near to each other would be in our plan. And the best part is, we plan to have liveaboard adventure, where we stay on a boat for the whole 6 days and 6 nights of the vacation. So we would go from a spot to another dive spot without leaving the boat at all. And we can maximize number of dives per day without wasting time going back to the shore and travel back to the boat (even though I doubt I can do more than 3 dives per day without shocking my unfit body).

Currently only one boat that I know that offer that services. The boat is called MV Celebes Explorer that offers that kind of diving experience in that area.

Why wait for another 3.5 years you might ask. The reasons being are

1) Our diving skill is not that good yet since we only did 9 dives. To truly enjoy the underwater world, we need to practice, practice and practice until diving become as easy as breathing without asthma. No more nausea feeling every time my throat get dry, can achieve neutral buoyancy easily, no more problems with equalizing my ears, manage to master other kicks and control how to look at the creature at the close range without having to kick them afterwards (coz trying to balance buoyancy back). Hehe.

Beside that, it would be a waste of money going somewhere that expensive and hard to get permit but end up having spend most of the time trying to perfect diving skills instead of enjoying the marvelous nature.

Do you know that you need to get permit to enter Sipadan? This is what I get from someone name Lyndiane in Lowyat.net Forum on May 8, 2009 (lazy to summarize, so I copy & paste):

“Please remember that to u need a permit to go to Sipadan, no one is excluded: divers, non divers, snorkelers, even the Sabah Parks staff themselves have to have a permit to enter Sipadan Island - (I just recently talked to a Sabah Parks staff last week and he confirmed this). Remember that Sipadan is a protected area/marine park hence the strict regulations. The quota of 120/person daily cannot be exceeded in any way. Because of the high number of divers who come all this way to dive Sipadan, PRIORITY is always given to divers instead of non divers because the demand is higher than the supply. Trust me, it is close to impossible to get a permit if you are not a diver. And obviously because of this reason, permits are NOT issued to students who are merely looking to get qualified as a diver. OW courses are ALWAYS conducted on either Mabul Island or Kapalai island. After they have succesfully completed their OWC and are certified, only then will they be allowed to go diving in Sipadan (that is, of course if they get dive permits for Sipadan by then).That is how it works.

PS: All permits to Sipadan has to go through Sabah Parks. They control (and approve) the permits in order to give everyone a fair chance to dive in Sipadan. Remember there are about 12 resorts around the area and only 120 permits available on a daily basis. That means on average one resort can only send 10 people to Sipadan everyday. If you have 30 people staying in your resort, they will have to use the rotating system in order to have everyone dive in Sipadan. Plus, even the resort have no SAY on who gets to dive Sipadan cos like I said, everything is controlled by the Sabah Parks authorities.”

Some advise to book 6 months before your trip. During our trip to Dayang that day, which was early June, my friend said that all permit already fully booked until end of August. Wahh. I book 3.5 years early, boleh?

2) I assumed in another 3.5 years, I be able to have my underwater camera. Right now I have to forget about it as I find out that underwater casing my Lumix LX-3 costs RM2500 the cheapest, which is RM1000 more expensive than the camera itself. WTH? At this moment I regret of not buying Canon G10 coz G10 underwater casing cost only RM800. Remember I was confused which one should I buy before? Now is the time to feel the regrets. Anyway, I’m happy with my LX-3 right now so I won’t complain much here.

3) The price of the 6 days liveaboard package that I checked this morning is RM5+++. So for two persons would be more than RM10k. I assume in the next 3.5 years the price would gone up to at least RM7k per person. So at least we have some time to save our money so that we can go there.

In second thought, shouldn’t we save money for Hajj? Well, that would be next plan. Since we are in this Hajj topic, I really miss going to Mecca and Medina. I promised myself to go there again only when I have a husband next to me and now that I have a husband, when can I have another chance to go with him to do Umrah? Oh no, why every plan needs so much money? =(

Well, that’s the only reasons I can think of. But in any under circumstances that might lead to expedite the plan, I would be happy to go. =)

Oh, I can’t wait for that trip.

For that, everybody please keeps protecting our environment for our future generations. I have signed my pledge to stop eating turtle’s egg (sangat sedap okay!!) at MIDE that day in front of the WWF booth and I’m happy to say I manage to keep that promise until today (even though there’s a lot of challenges I have to face at home). So when is your turn?

Finally I found the one that fit my face, well, sort of

If you know me long enough, you know that I'm not a follower in tudung trend. Some people would follow religiously with the latest tudung fashion whether how you wear it or what the tudung name and style. For me, if it's not suitable for me, then I'm not going to wear it which I end up wearing the same kind of tudung all the time.

The art of wearing tudung is depends on the individual. Most importantly, you have to know your face. Different type of face needs different style of wearing it. If you have round face like me, you might not wear the tudung closely around your face that accentuates your round face. Instead wear something that elongate your face. If your face is oval, you are lucky coz you can wear anything and still looks good.

That's why I only choose wearing the faithful tudung bawal since the day I wore tudung. Occasionally I wear chiffon scarf which I really don't how to wear it until my mom found an anak tudung that save my life. Gave me any tudung, whether chiffon, silk or whatever type of material, I can wear it easily and beautifully without being stress with that anak tudung. Thank God for that anak tudung, I even look better on my wedding reception day unlike on my nikah day where I looked so chubby and rounded face.

Now, the craze of Ekin tudung which originally popularize by Indonesian has hit our shore. I've tried before and all I can see a chubby version of me in front of the mirror. However, the thought of the ease of wearing it and the kind of material that don't need to be ironed are appealing to me. Few weeks ago, my MIL informed me that there are 2 shops that actually have tudung sizes according to your face.

Just now I went with my hubby at one of the Ariani's branch in Bandar Baru Bangi. MIL already warned me that Ariani's is the most expensive and the second expensive one is Hajaba. Since Hajaba at Bandar Baru Bangi hasn't opened, we went to Ariani. They are having a sale until end of July and the price was from RM60 and above. It was quite expensive as expected. But the material was not bad. It was light weighted and cooling too. So, finally I gave in to this new trend and got myself this....

I brought up the middle part and pinned it with a brooch at the side like the way I like it to be when I wore my tudung =)

The fabric design was not so many as I want the one where it is short at the front. Most of the tudung there are the one that has long cover at the front chest. Tried to wear for 10 minutes and it is very cooling just like my favourite bawal.

Next time, I have to bring my mom, as she already mentioned to me about this shop and obviously she'll pay for my purchase. Hehe. With hubby all I get is, "No comment" which loosely translated as "I don't really like it as I still think you look like an Indonesian no matter how expensive that tudung is."

Ps: Do I look ok? Still feel funny about it.. haha

My own laptop sleeve

I've been neglecting this blog of mine for quite some time now. Not because trying to finish my summer reading but starting a new project.

The itch to sew started again when I saw my mom brought out her Singer sewing machine. My mind started thinking what can I sew. Finally I got an idea. How about my own laptop sleeve. With laptop sleeve, I don't have to bring my bulky laptop backpack but still protecting my dear laptop.

So the project began. I found this wonderful site, Sew Mama Sew and it has a tutorial on laptop sleeve. The next night I dragged my mom to the nearest fabric store and got myself 1 metre of fabric for the outside part, 1 metre of lining fabric and some Velcro. But they didn't have fleece fabric. My mom bought a thin sponge fabric but being a perfectionist, I wanted fleece fabric too. Funnily my mother-in-law also involved in the search of fleece fabric. Lastly I found it at sewing item shop at SS14, Subang Jaya. That shop was the shop which supplied all the stuff I need during Kemahiran Hidup project in secondary school. I never thought I can rely to that shop until now.

Then the cutting and sewing session began. Since I already started my internship, I can only saw at night on weekdays. Coz weekends were reserved for dating. The whole process of sewing actually was pretty easy. But being me, I always wanted something extra and add the sponge fabric between the fleece fabric to make it thicker and softer. So the extra effort was needed as it's harder to sew thick layers of fabric. Then on the second last step I broke the needle. I couldn't believe it. I never broke a sewing machine needle before! My mom was cool about it and calmly said, biasa la tu patah jarum. Ok, I'm not that bad anyway. Hehe.

So after 1 week and a half (my plan was to finish it within 1 week.. but well..) I've finished by laptop sleeve! I'm so happy and proud of myself coz people in the house were doubting about my ability to finish it. Not because I don't know how to do it, but I'm famous for hangat-hangat tahi ayam. (I have an unfinished tudung that I'm supposed to sew 'labuci' which I managed to finish 1 side only - in my defend, the pattern required a lot of time and I was bored half way doing it. My mom's defend, 'who ask you to create such a troublesome pattern. I know it would be beautiful if it ever finish but now it's uglier with just one side finished'. Hehe. Buuutt... I did finish sewing the labuci at one of my kebaya - and that took almost a year to finish). Haha.

So this is my laptop sleeve. I forgot to sew something to personalize it. Well, first try after how many years abandoning sewing machine. And it's not that bad, I must say.
My mom gave me C-. What? But she requested one for her laptop. =)

So next project would be a camera case for my camera (after finishing 1 laptop sleeve for my mom) and if I have time, telengkung + sejadah bag.

Oh, IKEA has a lot of pretty and cute pattern for the project. Already bought one pattern for my camera case project.

Bonus picture: Choki playing hide and seek with us on our bed.

Summer Reading

My mission is to read books as many as I can during this summer holiday. This is the list of books I set to be read during this summer.

Starting with light reading which is of course my favourite genre, chick lit and a book that I've finished reading.

Done

1. Remember Me by Sophie Kinsella
Started reading while waiting for my flight in Charlotte Airport and I'm half way through by the time I realized I might missed my flight to KL. It used the usual Kinsella theme where the heroine would be happy at first then issues arise and finally issues resolved. Witty and funny as usual but I think I prefer 'Can You Keep a Secret' beside her Shopaholic series.






2. Austenland by Shannon Hale
Started reading in the flight from Newark to KL. The story is too predictable. The writer seems to copy the storyline of Elizabeth Bennet's love interest from Pride and Prejudice and applied it in modern world. A so-so storyline.









3. Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
This book is a graduation gift from my department to all graduates. Since I volunteered, I received one too (find out it cost RM89.90 at Borders! Thank God I got it free). Wrote by ex-PhD Duke student who is a professor at MIT now and also a visiting professor at Duke. Even though some of the human behaviour that influence decision we made mentioned are already known, he made experiments to prove it which is very interesting. He even made an experiment that involved Duke basketball obsession. Hehe. This is highly recommended book to read. I like it.

Oh, and 2 PADI open water diver manuals. Hehe



In Progress

4. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner










Coming soon

5. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Just bought it last weekend. Might read it after Zainal finish it first.








6. The Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne










If I managed to finish all of these, might read Emotional Intelligence since Mak has it but we'll see how fast I can finish all these (if I cut down my time Facebooking and playing Bejeweled at FB).

I thought I want to read the book that I got in the workshops but I felt that since I already went to the workshop, the content might be the same right. Hehe.

Licensed to dive

I told him few years ago after Perhentian that I'm not going to any island after this for just snorkeling. I want to dive. I want to see the fishes face to face not back of their body.

So 2 weeks ago I fulfilled my promise. In order to really enjoy being deep inside the ocean, I need a license. And I've obtained it. Not 1 but 2. PADI Open Water and PADI Advanced Open Water. Now I have the license to dive as deep as 40 metres and also at night.

The road to that both license was not easy. If people think that the whole week was all play and no work are wrong big time. Days were spent in the water whether confined or open water, skills were thought and tested with few breaks for lunch and tea. Nights were filled with theory parts, knowledge reviews, quizzes and exam (Though it was a fun exam, haha). By Tuesday, all I wanted to do was go home. My legs were aching. Yoko Yoko stopped working on the second day.

But all the hard work was worth it. Every skill learned was going to be used while in the water. I never thought that mask clearing would be so useful. And knowing what to do when your buddy having a leg cramp in the water was very useful especially when you have Zainal as your buddy (Hehe.. but I love you no matter what sayang).

To tell the truth, it's not about physical strength only, it's mentally challenged too. How many times I almost gave up and finished the dive after 5 minutes in to the water. I've experienced from nausea of breathing from mouth (I've learned to deal with it), unable to equalize my ears that feel like exploding everytime I descended deeper during the deep dive and water kept coming into my mask during the night dive that spoilt the whole night experience. But I kept on pushing myself and before I realized, it's time to ascend. Surprisingly I wanted it more.

After 6 dives, I finally felt comfortable in water. I can find the my neutral bouyancy and glide calmly while mesmerizing the beauty of God's creation. I saw green turtle twice, angelfish, starfish, butterflyfish, friendly batfish and wrase fish, different species of soft and hard corals and of course the infamous eel. But no shark this time. Maybe next time.

Dayang Island is a marvellous island that only few know about. The water was crystal clear blue which served as our classroom. It has only one resort which is the one that we stayed on. Electricity only available from 7pm to 7am. I love the simple life we lived. Imagine 6 days without internet, newspaper, TV and all that matter was diving. And of course the food was delicious.

The whole experience would not be wonderful without the people who join the trip. Sporting instructors, helpful divemasters, crazy divers and of course my lovely husband who patiently reserved my favourite toilet cubicle while I getting my toiletries and my buddy underwater and lifetime.

Me and my buddy for life

Thanks to the group that came together whether for Open & Advanced, Rescue Diver or just for leisure dives, the whole experience was priceless.

Dive logged: 9 dives

Dive areas: Teluran (Pulau Aur), Pulau Lang, Rayner's Rock (Pulau Dayang), Teluk Jawa (Pulau Dayang), Dayang Channel (Pulau Dayang) and Dayang Jetty (Pulau Dayang).

Favourite spot: Rayner's Rock
Deepest depth: 21.6 m
Average diving time: 43.3 mins


P/s: Pictures are in my Facebook. Too many to choose and all are my favourites.

27th May is over and let's the fun begin

The old me is back. The one that procrastinates to reply emails, FB messages and hates online chatting. That old me I called it 'Mun in Malaysia and surrounding by her loved ones'. Mun in US, alone, away, lonely and bored was efficient when replying email (well, sort of) and looking forward to chat with someone (well, almost everyone).

Sorry dear friends. =)

Anyway, 27th of May was over. The promise of fun and jalan-jalan will begin today.

Today and tomorrow's agenda will be revolved around GSC where 5 movies have been reserved under our name. My hubby and I are partners in watching movie. So when we stayed apart for 3 months, each of us only watched 1 movie at cinema with our friends. The rest was downloaded or just missed it. Now we are back together, our weekly movie date will be continued again. See, how loyal are we to each other. Nak tengok movie pun kena sama-sama... haha.

Saturday is the day to pack our stuff and attend briefing of the trip.

On Sunday we will heading to Dayang Island for our first scuba diving trip for 6 days. I expect to receive a license at the end of this trip. At least open water if not the advanced one. But so lazy to practice swimming and build my stamina.

And the following week will start my internship for 2 months. *Sigh*