500th and 8th

I can't believe it, but this is my 500th post on this blog. But for 10 years old blog, that is not that much. It's around 50 posts per year or 4.2 posts per month or 1 post per week. That's not bad.

Anyway, for this 500th post, I want to write something special which is my 8th wedding anniversary. I always confused the date of our anniversary. For some reason, I always think it's on 18th January and this year I made that blunder again. At 18th January, I blurted to Zainal that we forgot our anniversary. Zainal looked at me annoyingly and told me that tomorrow is our anniversary. With confidence, I insisted it was on 18th. Finally, he took out our kad kahwin and showed me the real date. Ahhh.. It's on 19th. Come on brain, please remember this important event.

This year we were in San Francisco. Not purely vacation but more to Zainal's networking trip. While he was busy meeting companies in the Bay Area, I was busy exploring SF by myself. Since we were at the SF, we took this opportunity to have the anniversary dinner there. I chose Pacific West. The restaurant was full when we got there, and because Zainal was super hungry, we chose to seat outside as no one wants to sit there. We jokingly said that since we are from Boston where winter temperature is at -2 degree Celsius when we left on Saturday, San Francisco 12 degree Celsius is just a spring time for us. Even the waiter told us to take our time as nobody wants our table. Haha.

It was a fun night. The food was awesome, and it was Asian Fusion. Forgot to take any pictures of the food. The good thing about sitting outside that it was quieter and we able to have a proper conversation without having to shout compare to sitting inside which was packed and noisy. I love having dinner date where we able to talk properly.

I have a wonderful eight years with my husband. I pray that Allah unites us in goodness and grant us Jannah where we continue our marriage there. Amiin

The bird and the duck fly away

I told the bird it's ok if you are busy migrating. I know it's winter and even though you might not need to migrate, but it's great if you decided to.

But my heart said why do you need to migrate? Do you want to leave me? Do you find me boring that you need to migrate to other places? Am I so bad that you don't want me be around you?

I told the bird that I understand you are busy. Give me a call when you back here in spring. We can hang up. I like your song and you always have fun stories to share when you fly away.

But I told the duck that the bird is noisy. Always sing the song that I don't like. So it's good that bird is migrating said the duck. I nodded.

But in my heart I actually like the bird's song. Though the bird's songs in not what I usually listen but I can deal with that. I miss hanging with the bird. I didn't know that before but over time I need to hear songs from the bird.

Well, I guess the bird has flied away. So does the duck. I can't blame them. Winter is coming. But I can still have spring in my heart. I just need to grow my own flowers and sing my own song.

Shouldn't be that hard.

Right?

Goodbye 2015

Here we are welcoming the new year and leaving the old year with many memories. 2015 is the worst year for my blog as I only updated 9 times! A single digit posts in one year. What happened to my new year resolution to write as much as I can.

Anyway, as a whole, 2015 wasn't as bad as my blog. Hehe. 2015 marked one full year I left full-time employment and dedicated myself to the family, my company and charity works. I started volunteering at Cradle to Crayons and Gifford Cat Shelter. I also organized the fundraising for Kelantan flood victims. I enjoyed it so much, and I will continue to do it InsyaAllah.

In terms of traveling, we went to Midwest during spring break covering Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and Wisconsin. It was fun and a good week to escape Boston endless snow storm. We also drove down with few others to Washington DC for Job Fair organized by Education Malaysia during spring and enjoyed Singing Beach at Manchester-by-the-sea, MA.

In summer, we went back to Malaysia coz Zainal got an internship in Microsoft KL. So we got to fast and Raya in Malaysia. Weehooo.. And I managed to have a 1 night trip back to Kelantan with my parents after almost 15 years hasn't gone back to my hometown. I managed to put on 3kgs within than 3 months -_-

Once we were back in Boston, we moved to a different apartment (cheaper but smaller) and got a very good deal second-hand car. Alhamdulillah, now we can move easily and not depending on buses and trains to go everywhere. That also means I'm Zainal's official driver :) Since we have a car, we took this opportunity to explore Massachusetts. We went eating cheap lobster at Rockport and awed the grand Castle Hill mansion at Ipswich. We also went to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We should go to Vermont and Maine after this.

Other than that, I experienced the worst winter that Boston ever experiences and for the first time I saw that amount of snow. I do hope that we will not experience that again this year.

Last but not least, I took this opportunity to study and to get ready for another opportunity for 2016, InsyaAllah if there's rezeki. Looking forward to more productive and unpredictable 2016.