Changing weather

Boston has the most inconsistent weather that I ever lived. I woke up today with -6 degree Celsius and flurries. Weeyoo.. flurries and I thought maybe we can get snow tomorrow. Read the forecast and find out tomorrow the temperature will rise to 10 degree Celsius and heavy raining. What? Such a huge increase from today. Yes, that's the deal that I have to face every day. In one week the weather can be light snow on Sunday (it's already snowing in Fall!) to 14 degrees Celsius on Wednesday. I need the weather to make up her mind!

I was told that Boston's winter was the worst and the fact that it is situated next to the ocean, the wind chill from the ocean that make it unbearable. I can agree with that. If the weather is cold but no wind, I can handle. But once the wind blow, ya Allah, I can feel the chill inside my bones.

Anyway, despite all this, I can't wait to have a proper snow. You know like 5-6 inches kind of snow. Not 1 inch and gone by noon. I might like it for 1-2 days but after that I know I'll be wishing that the snow will be gone soon.

The first 4 months

It has been 4 months since we relocated to New England. It was weird to think that last year at this time, I just moved to KL from Miri. Now I am at different country. It has been a hectic few years for me that I never settled down in one place for more than a year. I have been moving from one place to another and honestly, I kinda like it.

Anyway, 4 months ago, six days after Raya, we arrived here. We were more prepared this time with expectations and preparations beforehand. However, no matter how much you prepared for something, not until you are actually being here, then only you realized that you have to adjust accordingly. That's the fun of it. That's the adventure of moving around. 

Boston is different from Durham. Boston is a big city and one of the most expensive city to stay in US. Durham is just a small city where you can rent a single bedroom apartment with free parking for a third of my current apartment rent with no parking. But, husband receives the same amount of allowance that I received when I was in Durham 5 years ago. This is where the challenge of living in Boston comes. So no car for us, even taking a public train is an optional when we can use a public bus instead (taking a bus is 50 cent cheaper than taking a train).

Though we need to change our lifestyle 180 degrees, I enjoyed living here. The only thing I miss back home is my Subang house. In this 4 months, I have polished my cooking skill since I have to cook everyday now and now I'm proud to say I have roasted 2 whole turkeys. I learned to knit. I started to learn coding again after almost failing the subject during undergraduate years. I met new people. I have times to do some volunteering work now. I have time to go to gym. I finally have time for myself. 

I will be lying if I said that the transition from full-time working woman to full-time homemaker is smooth. I was so depressed for a few weeks. Imagine waking up and realize I don't have to be anywhere. I felt like I didn't do anything productive at home and I realized I no longer earn any money. It was sucks at first. I was a horrible housewife. I'm not a good cook and I don't like doing housework. But husband was very patient with me. Despite his busy schedule and his stress with the workload, he listened to my cries and babbling. He gave me things to do and asked me to join groups so that I can meet new people. After a few weeks, I guess I started to adapt and filled my time with new hobbies.

I know this luxury of time will not last long. I need to find a job soon or maybe start another degree. Whichever that I can get. So for now, I will enjoy my time and use this opportunity to enjoy my new hobbies.

Mellow

I used to be strong and very protective. I won't let anyone mess with what/whom I own/loved.

But now, I have becoming mellow. I watched from afar with tears filled my eyes. I no longer fight and stand for my right.

What happened to me?

Raya oh raya

Ramadhan has left us again and again I felt that I didn't take 100% the advantages of this holy month. Sigh..

Anyway, Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri to all. I tried to capture every moment of this year's Raya as I will spend the next 2 Raya away from home.

Last but not least, my first time lapse video capturing the process of getting a decent family photo.

I'm going to miss my abah, mak, the siblings, nieces and nephews T_T

Inspector Mislan in CSI:Kuala Lumpur

Few months ago while browsing the bookstore, one book caught my eyes. The cover had a huge neon pink wording titled 'Duke'. I took it and realized it's about Duke Expressway murder story and written by local author. Honestly i don't really read fiction books by local authors. I didn't find any author that I like yet but the book summary was interesting and I thought why not. It has been a while since I read a fiction. I paid, came back home and put the book under unread books shelf.

Fast forward to few months after that, as I was looking at my unread books shelf looking for a book to read, I saw this book and immediately started to read. As I read and read, I realized I made a mistake starting reading this book at night. You know why. I can't stop reading it as the story getting more interesting and twisted as the plot moved along. Within less than 24 hours, I finished reading it. The worst part is, I want to read more! I want to investigate with Inspector Mislan and his assistant. So I begged my husband to buy me the first book of this series, 21 Immortals. By 3rd week from the first day I read Inspector Mislan stories, I have finished all of his 3 books including the latest one Utube. 

So what so interesting about this book? The series are about Inspector Mislan, a police officer from Kuala Lumpur Police Special Unit. He is a maverick badass investigation officer who determine to solve all his cases even though he has to face pressure from his superior and politicians in order to close his case. The stories walk us through the procedures what happened when a crime is reported to the police, how CSI and police work together and what are the challenges they faced. What more interesting about this is the fact the stories took Kuala Lumpur and it's surrounding as it's location. The author has injected some local dialect, the reality of Malaysia which filled with bureaucracy and involvement of politicians, the Tan Sris, Datuks in order to close their case. The stories are so near at home, you realized how police is underappreciate and their image is tarnished just because of few bad apples.

Furthermore, the writer, Rozlan Mohd Noor was a police officer for 11 years before he left the forces. He knows all the procedures, the language used and the daily struggle face by the police officer. At the same, i learned a lot about the codes that police use, how they divide themselves into division and the reality of Malaysian police rather than just watching American TV series.

Honestly, these are really good books and I really proud of the author who break the market that full with sappy love stories and finally come put with a book that worth reading. I fully recommended these books to all readers who also like watching CSI TV series and also those who enjoy crime investigation books.

The Inspector Mislan Series by Rozlan Mohd. Noor are available in major bookstores and have 3 series for now: 

1. 21 Immortals

2. Duke

3. Utube

Go get a copy!

Teacher's Day

Today Teacher's Day is celebrated all around the country. During the schooling years, I always look forward to teacher's day celebration at school coz that's mean no classes and we always have class party. Teachers will perform and that's when I realized that my teachers have other talents beside teaching Maths or English.

However, the most memorable teacher's day I ever had was in form 5. As usual for teacher's day, we will buy gifts for teachers that taught us or teachers that we loved. So for that year, I told arwah Pak that let's buy something different. So Pak suggested we gave teachers a mango. Not a normal mango, but a big juicy type of mango. I thought it was a good idea. So I wrapped the mango in a nice thick colorful serviette and tied it with a nice ribbon. 

At school I gave to all the teachers that taught me that year. I didn't get any feedback from them, so I can't say they like or didn't like that gift. But I do hope they opened it fast or else they will get a spoilt mango.

Anyway, that year, we have a substitute teacher that replaced one of our teacher. He was just out of university and I suspected he took the job just for the sake of money. Coz when he entered the class, nobody was paying any attention to him and he didn't even bother to introduce himself. If you asked my ex schoolmate,  nobody seems to remember him. Except me and my best friend. You know why? Coz I have a huge crush on him. I have no idea why, but people say love is blind. Who am I to question what people say. Hehe.

Obviously I have allocated a mango for him. I know it's going to be awkward giving a mango to a teacher and especially that teacher didn't even teach me. This is where the interesting part happened. I was stalking the teacher the whole day trying to find a perfect time to give to him until I saw him eating at the canteen alone. But he was at the teacher's part of the canteen and I didn't have the courage to go to him. At that moment, a junior that I knew walked pass me. Immediately I grabbed him and asked him to pass the mango to that teacher. He a bit naive and clueless so he just did what I asked. From far I saw the teacher was shocked to receive that gift and that clever junior pointed to me when the teacher asked him about the mango. OMG I was so embarrassed and hide behind my best friend and quickly we walked away for that place. As expected, my best friend was teasing me all day about that incident. 

But the sad thing is, I didn't get to say goodbye to that teacher. I was contracted with chickenpox and was quarantined at home for a week. And that time, the teacher left the school. My best friend laughed at me when she knew I was sad not because I'll miss school, but because of a teacher.

Looking back, I don't even understand why I can be so silly sometimes. Haha.. Man, the good old days. 

Japan train experience

It has been a week plus since I started to use KTM Komuter to work again. After I came back from Japan (will blog about it soon), stuck in traffic jam made me agitated and annoyed. In Japan, we used trains (and some buses) for our transportation and they are super-efficient. At some point I become so obsess with trains in Japan and almost thought of starting collecting train model as a hobby. As soon as I started driving back to work on Monday, I felt that I wasted 2 hours every day just to be idled in the middle of road. So I decided to take Komuter to work again. I did it for 1 month when I moved back to KL in December, but decided to drive as I feel more flexible but now I changed my mind again.

It’s hard not to love trains in Japan. It just not about the train itself, it’s about the management of train, the people who use the train, the route and the technology itself. Tokyo has world’s most extensive urban rail network covering over 130 lines, over 2,000 km of operational rail, over 3,500 km of unique daily services and over 1000 stations*. There isn’t a place that you want to go that hasn’t a stop for that. Some places have even 2 or 3 stop to choose from.

The train experience started from the airport itself. From Narita International Airport, we took Narita Express to Shinjuku station. The train has 12 coaches and when we boarded the train, we discovered that the train will uncouple the coaches at Tokyo station and divided to 2 sections for 2 different directions. I was at coach no 8. After arriving at Tokyo station, coach no 1-6 will go to Yokohama and coach 7-12 will go to Shinjuku. And the best part, you don't even notice the process and it was done in less than 5 minutes.

Me in NEX. Very spacious and comfortable

 Before I arrived in Tokyo and was researching and preparing our travel itinerary, I was intimidated by the map of Tokyo subway. The map was not even complete, yet all I see was spiderweb. This is more complicated than New York and Seoul, definitely. But once you are there, it was not complicated at all. Just know your destination station, remember what line and there are maps, board and station master everywhere to help you.

The trusted subway map that we used until we discovered that it is not complete we were trying to go to Mt. Fuji.

Then there are the people who use the train. When we arrived at Shinjuku, we were shocked. There are so many people and everyone is in the rush. Even the old ladies walked faster than me. Those who think these people are not fast enough, run. Yes, they are people running around everywhere. We were lost looking for our connecting line and I was constantly being knocked by the commuters. However, they are not rude. If they knocked you, they’ll apologize. So my husband asked me to move to the wall and we’ll scout the area from the side first. In fact, the train station has signs everywhere telling the commuters to not to rush. If KL Sentral to put that kind of sign, I suggest to put please rush and don't stop in the middle of the way (oh God, why Malaysians you like to stop anyway you like? Like in front of escalators or in the middle of the pathway).

I have nothing but full of praise for the commuters. They clearly followed the instructions and one of their rules is no talking using the hand phone in the train. You won’t find people talking loudly in the phone or to each other and the ambiance was quiet and calm. People either reading their books or play around with their hand phones (with no noise or using headphones). This one incident that happened in front of me where a guy received a phone call and with hush voice talked quickly and ended the conversation. Then came another call and apparently the call was important and needed to be taken. He actually squat down in front of the door while talking quietly so that it will not disturb anybody. While in shikansen (bullet train), they actually walked out of the coach to the space in between the coaches to talk on the phone. You see how they respect everyone. Meanwhile at home, this one time in Komuter, there’s this girl talking to her boyfriend on the phone all the way from Subang to KL Sentral with everyone listening to her. Haih.

Last but not least, the train itself. To tell the truth, if you look from outside, the trains look old and outdated. But as you step inside, you can see that it was properly maintained and was refurbished to new seats. There was one time I thought the train will be slow riding one as it looked old. It looked older than our Komuter. But then, in 15 minutes, we had gone through 8 stops.Another thing is the ticket machine that available in every station can also top up the prepaid card according to any amount that you want. And it also can return the extra money in the card. How cool is that?

And of course there’s shinkansen or bullet train. There have few ranges according to speed. For this trip we took the latest model Nozomi N700 series with a maximum operating speed of 300 km/h (185 mph) from Tokyo to Kyoto. The journey took 2 hours 18 minutes for 463km distance. For comparison purpose, Subang Jaya to Kuala Terengganu using Lebuhraya Pantai Timur is 450km. (Japan’s shinkansen is not the fastest in the world. The current record hold by Shanghai Maglev with its maximum operational speed of 430km/h and average speed of 251kmph). The most challenging moment when I was in the shinkasen was using the toilet. (yes, I need to try the toilet too.. hehe). Though it’s a long distance train, people are using it for their daily trips to work. The train have quick stop at each stations and commuters started to line up before we arrived at the station. In that way, when the train stops, commuters can go out and let people go in quickly.

Source: Shinkansen

My view along the way from Tokyo to Kyoto

The 9 days I was in Japan, I never encountered a late train. If there is a delay, they will inform it. There's one time there was an accident in Kyoto and they announced that the train will be delayed 6 minutes and it's true the train delayed 6 minutes, no less no more. Because of that, we can plan our journey easily as we can depend on the train's accurancy.

However, it is not fair for me to compare it with Komuter only. We have better trains than Komuter like ERL, Putra LRT. But since Komuter is the nearest to my house and I'm taking it daily, I just have to compare it. Macam langit dengan bumi.

I wish once this MRT project finish, we will have better public transport network and I don't have to take Komuter anymore. Hehe

*Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_Greater_Tokyo

Pray for MH370

The first thing I heard when I woke up Saturday morning was the missing flight MH370 news from my husband. I was shocked. Missing airplane is not a normal news in Malaysia, in fact not a normal news globally as commercial airline is one of the safest transportation mode. I know from the countless episodes of Air Crash Investigation documentary that I also saw with my husband, this is a bad news.

Now, after 44 hours of last contact with the air control, nothing is yet to be found by the search and rescue squad. What sadden me most is that the pilot, Captain Zaharie is my friend's father and there are 4 passengers on that flight are my parents' good friends.

Let's pray that MH370 will come back and everyone is safe.

(Pictures from Facebook)

I hope when I wake up tomorrow, there will be good news. Amin.

I forgive you, babe

Few months ago i had a conversation with my friend. The topic mostly about our current lives or more precisely about my life. She kept on asking me questions and commented my answers by hurtful remarks. We are pretty competitive with each other and since I'm in the good mood, I answered her questions jokingly all the way. But this one topic that I really uncomfortable talking to anybody came up and as usual she asked more questions on that. Honestly for this topic, I have standard answer for all the questions until she gave me a really hurtful comment that I was stunned for a moment. Her remark really hit all the right places in my heart and make me wonder if she believe in qada' and qadar at all. Like did she really think that it is solely because of me that sometimes what we planned not materialized. Not because the All Mighty has planned for me.

For  months that sentence kept on playing in my head. I was scared to tell my husband coz my husband has  warned me few times not to be closed to some people that will hurt me. I just can't get that out of my head. I'm so angry, sad and shocked to get that response especially from someone I called a friend.

Until I heard a bad news that happened to her recently. When I calculated the timing, it so happened that the incidents happened in the same month that I had a conversation with her. She never mentioned it at all and me being being, usually I just ignored if people don't want to talk about it.

Then I felt bad for her. She was having a bad time and she needs to make people feel bad about themselves so that she won't so bad about her situation. I thought she must feel that I have a good life that she needed to put me down. Wow, unintentionally she make me feel good. I feel really sorry for her the needs to find flaws and imperfection in my life to make her feel better. 

And for that, I forgive you babe. Thank you for making me appreciate my life more.

I hope you find your happiness within yourself.

6 years and beyond

Just because I skipped the month January from updating this dear blog of mine, I missed one important date to be cherished in this unknown blog. My wedding anniversary. Yup, the 6th year of our marriage.

Wow, how time flies when you are in love. Before we know it, we are celebrating our 10th, 20th, 30th and so on anniversary. Allah has given me a wonderful husband. A husband who always make me happy and InsyaAllah will leads me to jannah. Alhamdulillah.

Thank you Mr Hubby for being the best husband to me. Who cooked our dinner when I arrived home late from office. Who make sure I take care of my health. Who was so panicked when I fell from the staircase and immediately slip-proof our staircase. Who picked and send me to airport without fail the whole 10 months last year. Who always supportive of my career and dream. Who everyday share informative and funny articles with me. The most importantly, who always be by my side in all situation. 

May Allah bless our marriage my dear husband and love you bunch...

Emotional year it was

2014 has arrived 39 days and I haven't updated my blog at all. Aduh, the M disease has eluded me since I finally moved back to KL for good. Yay! I haven't have a chance to recap 2013, which is compulsory for this blog tradition so let's do it now.

2013 was an emotional year where I battled with extreme happiness every Friday and extreme sadness. I'm lucky I have a strong heart, if not my heart will not bear this emotional roller coaster for 10 months. It started in February when I moved to Miri for work leaving my lovely husband and comfy home. Honestly, never in my life I thought I would be weekend wife and I swear I will not do that again, InsyaAllah.

I collected a chunk of air miles points within these 10 months from Air Asia and Malaysia Airlines from the weekly travel MYY-KUL-MYY. At one point, I just cannot bear travel by air anymore. Not only that, I also collected hotel points - Marriott and Starwood when I stayed a month in Miri Marriott and a month in KL Le Meridien. Oh sungguh indah... Haha.. TQ to my company for this generous benefit.

Learned to live in Borneo, ate their food, spoke their language and adopted to their culture.Though we are one country, but we are so different. This makes us unique. And of course make tons of new friends and colleagues.

In term of traveling, we just focused on the South East Asia - we went to Brunei in February, Bangkok in May and Jakarta in September. As usual learning the culture of our neighbours and enjoying little shopping. Brunei is only 30 minutes from Miri, so it's not only 1 trip there but few trips to enjoy the yummy sushi shops that they have there.

I guess 2013 taught me something, going away from home for work is not the same as going away for studies. Don't ask me why, but in my opinion, the road is easier when I was away for studies than working. Maybe Allah smooth the road for those who seeks knowledge than money :p.  "For him who embarks on the path of seeking knowledge, Allah will ease for him the way to paradise." (Related by Muslim).