Home is where my heart is

I can see the world outside

I just need to get pass this cold glass

And I'm free

Even though I'm just a bug 

I have feelings

I have dreams 

I yearn to lead my own life... 

               even they hate my existence.

The little girl asked...

A 10-year-old girl: Can I join a trip to Malacca organised by my sekolah agama this coming school holidays? Ustaz and ustazah will join too.

Dad: No, you can't. There will be boys and the teachers won't be able to monitor all of you.

A 10-year old girl: Hmmm... Ok.

A 11-year-old girl: Dad, can I go to the Girls' Scout camping organised by the district Girls' Scout? Only few  girls are chosen from my school.

Dad: No, you can't.

A 11-year-old girl: But why? There would be no boys. It's all girls camping activities.

Dad: The teachers would be able to take care all of you. You might not be safe.

A 11-year-old girl: Hmmmmm... Ok.

A 12-year old girl (still trying her luck): Can I join the camping organised by school at the end of the year? It's for all Standard 6 students after finishing UPSR. Almost everybody is going to go.

Dad: No, you can't. Remember what I said about the boys.

A 12-year-old girl: Hmmmmmmmmm... Ok.

Dad: If you really want to go camping, I'll bring you one day.

That girl refused to join any uniform club at secondary school as she knew she won't be able to go anywhere for any activity.

A 16-year-old girl: My club is having an overnight activities at school this weekend. Can I go? I mean, I have to go coz I'm the secretary of that club. We will stay overnight at school and of course teachers will be there.

Dad: No, you can't. 

A 16-year-old girl: But dad, my teacher made it compulsory to attend this.

Dad: It's ok. I'll fetch you when the activities are over at night and send you first thing in the morning so you don't miss anything. I'll talk to the teachers.

A 16-year-old girl: Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

A 18-year-old: Weeeeeee.... I got a good result for my SPM. I'm going to apply to further my study oversea.

Mom & Dad: *Quietly praying she didn't get it*

A 18-year-old girl: I can't believe I was rejected. All my friends is going away! I work hard for this and yet... T_T

Two years later that girl found out that 'somebody' that knew 'someone' in the committee asked that 'someone' to reject her application. She was furious.

And... At 19-year-old, that girl still hasn't experienced any camping with her dad. One day her dad told her to go any camping she was interested in coz he's quite old to bring her. At that point, that girl felt that she was too old to experience camping for the first time while her friends were seasoned campers. 

A 27-year-old (married, have stayed overseas for 1.5 years and traveled alone more that twice): My husband and I will move out and rent a house near our office by end of this month.

Mom & Dad: *2 weeks of silence treatment to them*

That 27-year-old was accused of being ungrateful by others because she wanted to move out to build her own family with her HUSBAND. 

Suddenly all the bloodbaths, wars and protests across the world in the name of freedom make sense to her. People will do anything for freedom. And she will.

Pray for Japan

Now, every time I felt life is hard, I thought about all the photos of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan and I thank God that Malaysia hasn't been involved in any devastating natural disaster. I remembered all the stories of the brave and resilience Japanese people faced this disaster. How they help each other even though they are not in the best comfort. 

Sometimes I wonder what happened if disaster like this happen in Malaysia? Nauzubillah. But are we ready for disaster management? Are we as brave, as discipline, as tolerance as the Japanese? I hope we are. I still have hope for Malaysian. And I am praying this will not happen to Malaysia.

For now, I stop complaining and start being thankful for everything. I'm sure Allah has His own plan for me.

These are satellite photos before and after the earthquake+tsunami in the area that was hit.

North of Sendai

North of Sendai

Sendai

Source: NY Times

I pray that the nuclear crisis will not be as bad as Chernobyl and will be fixed soon. 

Launching of Discovery Shuttle

Discovery Shuttle has landed yesterday, 9^th March 2011 at 11.57 am EST (12.57am Malaysia time). That would be the end of her 39^th mission (STS 133) and also the last mission before her retirement. She had racked 240 millions kilometers since she started 27 year ago and spend 365 days total in space.

Why I’m so obsessed with this space shuttle? Because I was there in Cape Canaveral, Florida to watch her 38^th mission launched. Mission Discovery STS-131 was launched on April 5 2010, at 6.21 am EST. It was a dream came true for me. Sorry Disney, NASA can make dreams come true too, you know.

I knew there were launchings and landings event in the Kennedy Space Centre (KSC) but I never thought that one day I’ll be witnessing it. We even missed visiting KSC during our Florida trip due to tight budget though it was one of my places that need to visit in US.

It so happened one of my friends in Duke told us about his experience watching the launching of space shuttle and I was hooked. He suggested why don’t we do a road trip to Orlando and watch the next launch. I immediately said yes and recruited few of my friends to join. Recruiting my friends was easy, the hard part was to convince my hubby. He wasn’t thrilled with the idea of driving 8 hours to a same place again when we just visited that place 3 months ago. I convinced him that my friend will drive and we will just pay for petrol and such. Then I excitedly explained to him why this is important to me: the fact that my childhood ambition to be an astronomer, the fact that I always wanted to have a telescope but it’s too expensive for 14 years old, the fact that I love everything about space (except Star Trek) and I can show him evidences of the number of books on astronomy at my home when we come back. Finally he gave in and I told my friend to buy us 2 tickets.

The ticket of the launching usually sold out within hours of opening. In fact in 2010, the tickets were sold out within 1 hour after it was opened to public because the announcement by Obama that the space shuttle program will be discontinued soon. NASA will have to finish up whatever missions for 2010 and they will no more space shuttle program. Besides Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour also will be retired soon. So that was another reason why I should watch this. My friend managed to get the tickets as he bought it within few minutes the online counter opened. I was so happy.

The thing about space shuttle is they really really need to emphasize on the safety of their crew. If they think the date that chose wasn’t suitable due to weather or technical problems, they will postpone. Initially the launched was planned on 18^th March 2010 but it was postponed to April 5 2010. When they postponed the date, all my friends decided they didn’t want to go. Man! I was devastated. I have two options: 1) to abandon the trip and burned my tickets or 2) just proceed with the trip with my hubby. After much deliberation (and the fact that my friends went to DC for cherry blossom also interest me at that time), we decided that we should proceed with the trip (cherry will bloom every year anyway!).

On the April 4, we drove to Orlando. Since hotel in Orlando is cheaper than Titusville (the closest town with hotel), we decided to stay there. Also the Halal food is abundant there. From Orlando to Cape Canaveral took around 30- 45 minutes only. We arrived around 6pm and after checking in, we went for dinner. Immediately after dinner, we slept for few hours coz we planned to drive there at 1 am. Crazy I know, coz the launching only at 6.21am EST. But we wanted to get a good spot & parking.

Upon arriving there, I grabbed my sweater and my orange blanket. Zainal refused to bring his sweater and even food. I forced him to bring some Gatorade, biscuits and bottled water. I know it was in Florida, The Sunshine State but this was at 1 am in the morning and the temperature can drop further. Guess who is right? Guess who has to wear my orange blanket at 3am? Huhu…

The ticket we got entitled us to enter Kennedy Space Center the next day too besides that night itself. There is another ticket, more expensive, where you actually can watch the launching nearer than anybody else. There were shuttle buses that brought these ticket bearers to a place that was closest view you can get to see the space shuttle shot up. That tickets were harder to get coz usually the agents would buy it first and sold it at higher price. Unfortunately, I didn’t buy that ticket. My ticket entitled me to watch it at KSC Visitor Center, which is the next best thing. 

At the Kennedy Space Center, you can felt the atmosphere of excitement. There was a big screen showing the current situation at the launching pad. I saw the astronauts were putting their space suits and get ready since 3am. My husband remarked when seeing that:

Husband: There’s a reason why you are not an astronaut.

Wife: why?

Husband: Coz after all the staff put you in the space suit and get you ready, suddenly you need to go to toilet.

Wife: Hahahahahah…. You are right.

Oh well, I can never be an astronaut anyway. 

We walked around the space center taking photos with the rockets, exhibitions and shopping there while waiting for the launching. The store was so cool! There’s so many stuff I wanted to buy, including the space blanket, but I ended up with a magnet and an envelope. Boring! Then we realized that more people have arrived and we need to reserve a spot for us. I was thinking of reserving a spot on the grass, but morning dew has wet the ground. So we sat at one of the picnic table. We shared that table with a Canadian family who came all the way from Canada.

At rockets garden

With one of the shuttle exhibited there

The crowd

Then the moment has come. 15 minutes before the launch, we could see International Space Station visible like a bright star over the Cape skyline. I thought it was normal practice, but it’s actually a rare occasion. Everybody was ‘oooooohhhhhh’ and ‘aaaaaahhh’ while looking up. I was thinking it was a welcome gesture by the staff in ISS to the Discovery. What a wonderful sight.

Then the countdown began.

"It's time for you to rise to orbit. Good luck and Godspeed," launch director Pete Nickolenko told the astronauts right before liftoff.

"Let's do it!" replied commander Alan Poindexter.

And off they go and the rest is history. Let’s pictures tell my story (after long introduction…hehe) :

The sky in the morning after the launching was unusual but beautiful...

We walked around to exhibitions that we missed (or too tired and sleepy) to go...

See who is wearing the orange blanket.... hehe... Inside one of the space shuttle...

Sleepy & tired & ready to go back

And guess what happened on our way back? 2 hours of not moving traffic congestion to Orlando. ARRRRGGGHHH...