After the worst winter storm that accumulated a record breaking of 7 feet and paralyzed Boston earlier this year, I would never thought I would be so happy to welcome the first snow of this season. I waited until 2am this morning too catch the glimpse of snow falling down. I love the first few hours of snow. So pure, innocent and mesmerizing.
Many people who survived last winter, talking about snow would end with, please no more snow. I don't mind the weather we are having right now (15 degrees Celcius on Christmas day!). Yes, it was that horrible. I don't want it to happen like previous winter. Just 10" for this year would be nice. Enough snow to go sledding and making snowman. Haha
In the meantime, let's enjoy this 2" snow that we received last night.
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Saturday, October 24, 2015
8 years
Yesterday was 10 Muharram 1437 in Hijrah calendar. It's also known as Ashura Day and also my wedding anniversary in Hijrah date. This year, it fall on Friday. Alhamdulillah, we have reached 8 years milestone in our marriage. Compare to other older couples, we are still young, a lot to learn about each other. There's more coming our ways and so far we have successfully faced it with laughter and sometimes sadness.
Marriage life is not easy, it required a lot of works from both individual and also the environment. What I learned so far about my married life is, it required trust, patience, tolerance, laughter and most importantly, iman. Sometimes things don't work out like we planned, but it doesn't mean it will end our lives. It means that we are destined for other plans. That is why it is important to have iman and patience.
Another thing that I think important is being supportive of each other. I realized that sometimes just because we are comfortable with each other, we tend to be each others biggest critics. It's fine to provide constructive criticism but being a plain jerk or negative all the time is no fun to be around. Just provide your support and if you think their plan is not going to work or require a lot of resources, you can discuss about it. Just don't shut the conversation. Because one day, they will find someone who wants to listen.
This 8 years has brought us all over the places around the world. It was an adventure that I never thought I will be part of but I'm glad I am in that adventure with the right partner.
For now, everyday I pray that our marriage is full of blessing from Allah, strengthen by taqwa, surround by happiness and lasting until end of our life and continue in Jannah. Amiin.
Sunday, October 18, 2015
Waist-to-hip ratio
In my post 3 years ago here, I was worried about the extra fat in my tummy. At that time I was more worried about my appearance rather than the health issue of the problem. Of course I took some action, and managed to reduce at least 10cm of my waistline. It was quite an achievement for me. Then moved to Miri and lacked of my favourite food further helped my mission. Last year I moved to Boston and the scarcity of Halal food has helped me to shred 5kg of my excessive fat. However we went back to Malaysia for 2 months which coincidentally fell during Raya which has contributed to my weight gain.
However, these few days I was feeling sluggish and lethargic and wondering what is wrong with me. Don't get me wrong, I only skipped the gym for few days but I have been walking around few days in this week so I was not dormant. While reading articles in the internet (the abundant wealth of knowledge!), there's an article about the how the distribution of fat can be risky even if someone is in normal weight. The risk of cardiovascular disease of people with normal weight but high percentage of visceral fat - the fat accumulate around the internal organ which can be measured by the waistline - is higher than people with normal weight and normal waistline. In fact they have higher mortality risk with those who is obese based on BMI.
So I took the measuring tape and started measuring the waist-to-hip ratio and looked at the table for the waist-to-hip ratio. Lo and behold, I was at the 'risk' group. MasyaAllah. Now that was the wake up call.
Ok, I really need to cut down my snacks consumption that full of sugar. Tonight I will start my daily ginger-lemongrass-honey drink to regulate my blood circulation and people say can burn fat too.
Wish me luck!
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Morning excercise
I'm not a person who is discipline enough for regular exercise. I always think being in gym is so boring unless I join the group exercise. Until last year. Until I realized how regular exercise has improved my well-being (obviously) and the best of all, it actually almost cure my ankle pain that I have been suffering for 2 years and my back pain. Then I realized how weak my body is and how the muscles are not strong enough to help each other.
I have been using Boston University's huge gym at least once a week. They have one of the best gym, in my opinion. I really like that they combine both swimming pool and gym at one building. With this membership I also can use the Walter Brown Ice Skating area for free. How cool is that?
I am not a morning person, so I decided going to gym in the afternoon. I have been doing that since last year but this month I decided to work out in the morning after I send Zainal to class. I remembered once in Kevin Zahri's class when he was giving lecture during our Be Well program, exercise in the morning is good coz your body still sleeping and you are not aware. How true is that statement. I guess my body is still sleeping today coz I'm been doing more exercise than I usually did. As a result, my hands are still sore, and my legs still feel like jelly. Man, that was good exercise isn't it.
This is so random posting but I need to get this writing momentum start.
I have been using Boston University's huge gym at least once a week. They have one of the best gym, in my opinion. I really like that they combine both swimming pool and gym at one building. With this membership I also can use the Walter Brown Ice Skating area for free. How cool is that?
I am not a morning person, so I decided going to gym in the afternoon. I have been doing that since last year but this month I decided to work out in the morning after I send Zainal to class. I remembered once in Kevin Zahri's class when he was giving lecture during our Be Well program, exercise in the morning is good coz your body still sleeping and you are not aware. How true is that statement. I guess my body is still sleeping today coz I'm been doing more exercise than I usually did. As a result, my hands are still sore, and my legs still feel like jelly. Man, that was good exercise isn't it.
This is so random posting but I need to get this writing momentum start.
Tuesday, April 07, 2015
Congratulations Duke! #foreverduke
5 years ago on the same date and month, I wrote this post. And today, I want to repeat it again:
DUKE UNIVERSITY IS THE CHAMPION OF N.C.A.A. BASKETBALL 2010 2015
It's the fifth winning for Duke. The fact that I'm here again at Uncle Sam's land watching it live, made it so much sweeter. I'm so happy for Duke and Coach K. Well played game and they deserved it.
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| (Source of this picture: from instagram) Tyrus Jones and Grayson Allen were awesome and helped Duke to win this game. Quite disappointing with Okafor performance last night but he was a good player in other games. |
Now that the March Madness is over, I can continue watching my favorite TV series. Hehe
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Snow snow snow everywhere
Late January 2015, we heard that a winter storm is coming to Northeast. It was predicted so bad that we have travel ban and all public transportation stop working. Well, the storm never left Boston. From 26 January to 20 February, Boston has received 96 inches of snow. Every week we heard a storm is coming, and it actually came and disrupt all our plan.
The first storm was Juno and people actually quite excited about it. We went out, walked around the deserted road, jump into the fluffy snow and went sledding on the second day. Then came second, third and fourth (is there fifth storm? I lost count) snow storm and at this point people just want to stop.
Traveling has become a challenge. Bus stops have no proper place to wait. Trains are not running. Walking needs extra caution, you either walk in the snow or slippery ice. Sometimes you have to brave the wind chill. It is essential that you wear water-proof boots.
Now the storm has quietly receded since last weekend. We even got above zero degrees Celsius on Sunday. What a happy day! I hope the weather stays this way and slowly melting the snow. What I can say is that I have never seen so much snow in my life until this 1 month and I think I have enough of it.
Spring, please come faster!
The first storm was Juno and people actually quite excited about it. We went out, walked around the deserted road, jump into the fluffy snow and went sledding on the second day. Then came second, third and fourth (is there fifth storm? I lost count) snow storm and at this point people just want to stop.
Traveling has become a challenge. Bus stops have no proper place to wait. Trains are not running. Walking needs extra caution, you either walk in the snow or slippery ice. Sometimes you have to brave the wind chill. It is essential that you wear water-proof boots.
Now the storm has quietly receded since last weekend. We even got above zero degrees Celsius on Sunday. What a happy day! I hope the weather stays this way and slowly melting the snow. What I can say is that I have never seen so much snow in my life until this 1 month and I think I have enough of it.
Spring, please come faster!
Tuesday, February 03, 2015
How I survive Superbowl XLIX
Even though I don't agree that American football is called football, this sport is big in US and since I am here, I have to accept that is the football, and the football I knew is soccer. Fine. Once a year, two teams will compete to bring home the Superbowl trophy. This year, Superbowl XLIX (it's 49 for non-roman people) was on the 1st of February.
My feeling was neutral about Superbowl, neither too excited about the game nor despised having to hear about it all week long prior to the game. It is hard to avoid when your town team is going to the Superbowl and have a controversy about their balls. And it is also hard to ignore considering the quarterback of your town team is good looking with supermodel as a wife. Hehe
Being non-American and wasn't being exposed to this game until 6 years ago, it is hard for me to really enjoy it. But this year, I managed to enjoy it following with this few easy steps:
1) Understand the game
It is hard to enjoy something if you don't understand what is going on. You will lose interest, and before you know it, you are doing something else. For this reason, try to understand this game. Read about the players and maybe same interesting facts. It is quite hard to understand football by just reading. You need live game and someone to explain that to you to make it easier to understand. This brings us to the second point.
2) Watch it with the right people
It is important to watch it with the right crowd. You don't want to watch with a football fanatic who knew every players' stats, team history, and every single rule in the game. They will hate interruption, will look at you as if you are dumbass not knowing what the sport. You feel intimidate to ask questions and end up still clueless about the game. You also don't want to watch with people who is clueless about the game. Since they can't help you and you can't help them, you'll end up doing something else as both of you don't enjoy the game anymore. What you need is a combination of people who knew at least the basic of the game and some people who as clueless as you. So the people who are not fanatic but knew about the game will explain what happening now without you feeling like a loser since there are other people who don't know. You can ask basic questions and know at least basic rules to enjoy the game. In addition, since the crowd is not fanatic into the game, it is ok to discuss other things during the game. Like Steve Tyler's daughter is Liv Tyler who acted in Armageddon. Or Richard Sherman from Seahawks graduated from Stanford and Tom Brady from UMich and what school one of our friend is going to transfer to.
3) Have some awesome food
This is important. Having awesome food and dessert is important to ensure that we can 1) convince people to come to watch with us 2) avoid unnecessary anger due to empty stomach 3) as a topic when the game started to get boring 4) reason to stay longer until the game end aka endless trip to buffet table. 'Nuff said.
Optional
4) Your town team is playing
It is easy to get excited when you town's team is playing. You see everywhere in the supermarket, train, outside, banners hanging cheering for the team. It is easy to pick a team when watching the Superbowl because it is so obvious who you should cheer for. For me, it is of course New England Patriots. Go Pats!
5) Your team won
Well, it is easy to survive when your team won especially when the ending was so nerve breaking and unexpected.
My feeling was neutral about Superbowl, neither too excited about the game nor despised having to hear about it all week long prior to the game. It is hard to avoid when your town team is going to the Superbowl and have a controversy about their balls. And it is also hard to ignore considering the quarterback of your town team is good looking with supermodel as a wife. Hehe
Being non-American and wasn't being exposed to this game until 6 years ago, it is hard for me to really enjoy it. But this year, I managed to enjoy it following with this few easy steps:
1) Understand the game
It is hard to enjoy something if you don't understand what is going on. You will lose interest, and before you know it, you are doing something else. For this reason, try to understand this game. Read about the players and maybe same interesting facts. It is quite hard to understand football by just reading. You need live game and someone to explain that to you to make it easier to understand. This brings us to the second point.
2) Watch it with the right people
It is important to watch it with the right crowd. You don't want to watch with a football fanatic who knew every players' stats, team history, and every single rule in the game. They will hate interruption, will look at you as if you are dumbass not knowing what the sport. You feel intimidate to ask questions and end up still clueless about the game. You also don't want to watch with people who is clueless about the game. Since they can't help you and you can't help them, you'll end up doing something else as both of you don't enjoy the game anymore. What you need is a combination of people who knew at least the basic of the game and some people who as clueless as you. So the people who are not fanatic but knew about the game will explain what happening now without you feeling like a loser since there are other people who don't know. You can ask basic questions and know at least basic rules to enjoy the game. In addition, since the crowd is not fanatic into the game, it is ok to discuss other things during the game. Like Steve Tyler's daughter is Liv Tyler who acted in Armageddon. Or Richard Sherman from Seahawks graduated from Stanford and Tom Brady from UMich and what school one of our friend is going to transfer to.
3) Have some awesome food
This is important. Having awesome food and dessert is important to ensure that we can 1) convince people to come to watch with us 2) avoid unnecessary anger due to empty stomach 3) as a topic when the game started to get boring 4) reason to stay longer until the game end aka endless trip to buffet table. 'Nuff said.
Optional
4) Your town team is playing
It is easy to get excited when you town's team is playing. You see everywhere in the supermarket, train, outside, banners hanging cheering for the team. It is easy to pick a team when watching the Superbowl because it is so obvious who you should cheer for. For me, it is of course New England Patriots. Go Pats!
5) Your team won
Well, it is easy to survive when your team won especially when the ending was so nerve breaking and unexpected.
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| New England Patriots vs Seattle Seahawks. Pic from here |
Sunday, January 18, 2015
The 7th year
7 years ago at this date, my status changed from single to married. I'm no longer under my dad's protection and his responsibility shifted to another man that promised to take care of me forever. Alhamdulillah I never regret that decision.
It has been a wonderful journey for me as a woman adapting myself to this title. We have been moving so many places and created so many adventures. There is no one that I want to share
these adventures except with him. We will create more adventures in the
future, InsyaAllah and I can't wait to live it.
To the man I married, to the 7th, 17th, 70th and 700th (in the Jannah InsyaAllah) of us.
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Another year, another country
It is already 2 weeks since we started the new year, 2015. Suddenly 2014 seemed so far away. Leaving so many sweet and sour (not bad, just sour-ish) memories. Malaysia was having the worst year of all time creating tragic and sensational news around the world. But my year wasn't that bad.
Started my second month on a new team in Kuala Lumpur, and I learned to take KTM Komuter to work. Was not very happy at first but the convenience of not having to face the traffic congestion weight more than the unpredictable of the Komuter. Then in August, I left the company that I have been there for 3+ years of my career life for 2 years sabbatical.
In 2014 too, I left my home, my town and my country, to return to the Uncle Sam's land. This time around, my other half needs to go to class and I cheer him from behind. Hehe. So new place, new surrounding and new people. I wouldn't say it was easy breezy but at least it was not as hard as 2009 at Durham. However, I'm getting hang of it and started to enjoy my time here.
For traveling, finally we made our Japan trip in spring, enjoying the full bloom of cherry blossom and nice weather in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. Then we tried to tone down our travel until we arrived in US. Then did 1 day trip to Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and New York City throughout fall. I still in love with New York. In December, during the winter break, we flew to Texas and made 10 days covering almost 4000 miles (almost 6500km) road trip around Texas and New Mexico.
It seems like I always moving around, from new home in 2012, to Miri in 2013 and now to Boston in 2014, and I guess moving is no longer a major life event for me. The major life event for me in 2014 is the changes from full-time career wife to a housewife. It is not easy at first, but after a while, I adapted to the changes. I'm not going to enjoy the housewife title for granted as I need to find a job soon or maybe need to start planning my plan B.
And oh yes, I registered and started my company, Zeemoon :)
Started my second month on a new team in Kuala Lumpur, and I learned to take KTM Komuter to work. Was not very happy at first but the convenience of not having to face the traffic congestion weight more than the unpredictable of the Komuter. Then in August, I left the company that I have been there for 3+ years of my career life for 2 years sabbatical.
In 2014 too, I left my home, my town and my country, to return to the Uncle Sam's land. This time around, my other half needs to go to class and I cheer him from behind. Hehe. So new place, new surrounding and new people. I wouldn't say it was easy breezy but at least it was not as hard as 2009 at Durham. However, I'm getting hang of it and started to enjoy my time here.
For traveling, finally we made our Japan trip in spring, enjoying the full bloom of cherry blossom and nice weather in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. Then we tried to tone down our travel until we arrived in US. Then did 1 day trip to Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and New York City throughout fall. I still in love with New York. In December, during the winter break, we flew to Texas and made 10 days covering almost 4000 miles (almost 6500km) road trip around Texas and New Mexico.
It seems like I always moving around, from new home in 2012, to Miri in 2013 and now to Boston in 2014, and I guess moving is no longer a major life event for me. The major life event for me in 2014 is the changes from full-time career wife to a housewife. It is not easy at first, but after a while, I adapted to the changes. I'm not going to enjoy the housewife title for granted as I need to find a job soon or maybe need to start planning my plan B.
And oh yes, I registered and started my company, Zeemoon :)
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