We are only human, but too many errs are way too much to handle, isn't it?

Human sometimes really can test your patience. That's why we are called human at the first place, don't we? These are few things that really pissed me off about human that I've been contacted with:

1. Who thinks that coming to US for my masters degree is like going to vacation. They would said, "How wonderful you got to travel. Oh, I need vacation too." First of all, it's not a vacation. How do you feel to be living alone (these past 1.5 days I'm not alone anymore) with no family and friends yet need to struggle everything from minimal allowance, unpredictable weather to scarce Halal food. Not to mention the stress and pressure of grad school? Though I looked happy posting pictures in FB travelling around the US, that's like 5% of the days that was captured and the other 95% wasn't all sunshine and rainbow. (Got the feeling Disney holiday need to be scraped as budget is not permitting again. Oh well.)
   
2. Someone who complained that they never had enough everything yet they did stuff that surely not for someone who didn't have enough >insert whatever they complain<. For example they said that the money that they get is not enough, yet they went shopping spree like there is no tomorrow. Rasa nak tikam je orang macam ni. Menyampah ok. I don't mind if they rich and have the money to spend, but to complain about not having enough but actually have the money to spend is like what my mom always said "tak syukur nikmat".
   
3. Someone who like to exaggerate every problem that they had. Like wow, their problems were worse than every country in the world problem's combined. And when they survived that problem, they told their success story like they won a Nobel prize without any help of others. Shithead.
   
4. Someone who told the world like they are the best in everything no matter what area or they have the best thing in the world like nobody has what they have. Like when someone they know good in photography, they would be better than that guy and when other people said that he is good in landscaping, suddenly they acclaimed that they are good in landscaping too. WTH?
5. Someone that used the third people (which is someone who is related to the person that they are complaining about) to complain about the other person. For example they have problem with their friends but complained to their mom (!) about that person when they can just talk to their friends. It's their friends btw, why involved parents? That the worst thing I ever encountered at the age of 26. This is not pre-school or primary school ok. So when you have problem with your spouse, you'll complain to your mother-in-law also instead of discuss between both of you? Hah!
   

Ok, I'm in fussy mood right now. Thus this rage leashing post was written. So sometimes I rather be quiet and considered no idea rather than being annoying people that people hate. Thank you.

Ps: Ya Allah, semoga Kau jauhiku dari sikap begini jugak.

Human Bias

Two situations that I have encountered not so recently.

Situation 1

Person X: I couldn't imagine not being close to your own mother. I talked to my mom everyday and we are very close. I pitied her for not being close to her mother. *

Situation 2

Person Y: I couldn't imagine that you have to talk to your mother everyday. It must be suffocated to tell everything to your mom everything. She must felt like she's been controlled.*

Situation 3

Me (thinking): Funny how we evaluated people based on our own bias. We think people are reacting the same way as we feel without we step into their shoes to understand their position. What worse is when we have this bias and we act on trying to 'free' the supposedly 'suppressed' people. For example when the Westerners cried the movement to free the Muslim women who has to cover their body. They said that it's against human right and they should be allowed to flaunt their body which they are restricted from.

First of all, do they think that this Muslim women feel that they are being suppressed as they have to cover all their body? From my opinion, I don't feel like I'm being forced to wear what I'm wearing. I even feel freer than my peers who have to wear sexy clothes just to feel sexy. I felt like they are the victims here as they have to follow the latest fashion, suffer in those tight, short and uncomfortable clothes. You think it's pleasant to wear a tube in the cold fall weather? Now you answer me.

So the conclusion is each life experience gives different impact on different people. Knowing that, we shouldn't made judgment based on our own experiences only. Think deep.


*Not the exact words but the have the same meanings as original. Person X was talking about Person Y and Person Y was talking about Person X.

** For me, I rather have my mom calls me often. Last semester my mom called me everyday but this semester she cut it to once a week since she felt that I'm doing better now. But I love to have her calling me 2-3 times a week.

*** Writing this me made me missed my mom psychology lectures that she loved to give me. Haha. I should take minor in psychology. It's interesting.

Confused

Sometimes some feelings are best left as secrets.

But too many feeling kept inside is not good too.

So what should one do?

Raya 2009

Oh, I was 1 hour late for my 30th Syawal entry. Well, like anybody care kan. I can actually change the posted date but I'm following Duke Honor Code and will not do that. Hehe.

Anyway, I couldn't believe how fast the months go by. One day you were fasting in Ramadhan and now Raya was over.

Well, Raya was not as bad as I thought it would be. Bad by what I meant was like I would cried furiously when talking to my mom or Zainal but I found out that I shred only few tears this year. *Grinned proudly*. Maybe I was expected how it's going to be, so when things happened as what you expected, you more or less knew what to react.

Even though I promised myself not to listen to any Raya songs, but the night before the Raya, during the cooking session in Ainul's house, we opened YouTube and indulged ourselves in happy Raya songs only. At one time, when all the happy songs were done, we switched over to Sinar FM. Haha. That night I tried to call my mom for so many times but no avail which pissed me off that at that moment I feel kind of left out from the family.

The morning of Raya, I didn't go to the Raya prayer as everyone wasbusy with assignments and I thought I should do my assignments too as I have meeting at 2pm (yup, on Raya day). However, surprisingly, when I woke up that morning, the sadness of not Raya at home was actually felt tremendously. I felt so alone and started to shred few tears. I texted Zainal and as usual he replied by asking me to be strong. Immediately I went to take my shower and the sadness feeling gone. Now it was replaced with the panic feeling that I haven't prepared anything for my meeting.

So Malaysians at Raleigh had some potluck that evening and I joined them after my Skype meeting. The 2 hours at the potluck that made me felt like I actually celebrating Raya. Laughter, food and fimiliar faces is what Raya is all about.

Then Raya was forgotten all the way until 3rd October when MSD did a open house at Malaysian Embassy. It was alright. I met a lot of new people and the food was okay I guess. Nothing to shout about. That was the second moment in Syawal that I felt like Raya.

Well, that was how the Raya felt and celebrated this year. No bunga api, not ketupat made from daun kelapa, no mak & abah, no hubby, no brothers, no nieces, no uncles & aunties & cousins & grandmas, only friends and myself.

It's ok, at least I've experienced something new.

Ps: Would love to write more and post some pictures, but project management is calling me, like always.

Crap not crab

When I said this is a crazy semester, I really meant it. I have been camping out until 12am at the MEM computer cluster for 2 days straight now. And 4 days for this week (we took a break on Friday night, if not it would be 5 days straight).

I have presentation tomorrow and Wednesday. I love my groups but this is our last week together for both groups. I hope I get as good as these or better. I hope. Coz group members can make or break you.

I know my postings lately didn't make any sense to anybody except myself. I promised to write about my first raya away family on the 30th Syawal (I hope I don't forget).

When can I find some time to send my job applications ni?

Letih... but the reward after coming home at midnight is having to skype with him even though what I said didn't make any sense to any of us any more due to my brain jammed. I hope time flies faster for him but slower for my finance take home test submission.

I better stop right now because I'm crapping.

Crazy shit

The right bar counting down to the 27th October. I didn't even notice that coz in my head and my heart, I have my personal countdown counter ticking every second.

All my heart wasn't here anymore. Not in class, not at home, not in anywhere that I've been and not in anywhere I would be. It's focused on 27th October at RDU at 6.30pm. Every night before I sleep all I can picture is I'm greeting him at arrival gate. Over and over again. I never get bored and tired.

All I want is the day to come faster. I don't care that I have a mid-term paper to submit that day, I don't care my job search was in stagnant phase and my house in a mess. I want him badly.

Heart can hold the emotions to some extend and after that it just can't take it no more. It want it now and it want it badly. Not only heart but the whole body, every cells, every nerves and every thought wants him badly.

And I hate this project management course that take single hour and day of my life. For some reason I feel nak muntah dengan project management ni. That's remind me I have another meeting tonight. 4 days in the row right now. Crazy shit.

Miss them so much

I missed these 2 favourite guys of mine.

One is coming in a month I hope and the one I'm not sure when I ever gonna see him.


Cepat la datang!

Salam Aidil Fitri

Raya is approaching. First time in my life I celebrate Raya without any family member with me. What sadden me most, this is my second Raya as a wife but my husband is not with me. But nevermind, InsyaAllah next year there will be another Raya for us.

So this year no new baju raya for me. Accidently I'm planning to wear the same baju raya as last year. Well, biarlah. Since no baju raya, so I thought maybe I can buy raya shoes. I saw one last 2 weeks, Aldo has a sale and it's rare that the heel height was perfect for me. But, there's no size for me. They volunteered to order for me but I don't want that the ordered size was not right for me. So I passed. When I think about it, I could just let them ordered and bought it. If it's not ok, I can always return that shoes. Since then, I didn't see any shoes that I like. Yeah, I know, I'm very fussy in buying my shoes. That's why my collection is not as many as normal women would have. Hehe.

Oh, I'm looking forward for dadih that I'm going to cook for Raya. I love dadih and I miss dadih so much. I remember last Ramadhan, I'll buy dadih from bazaar Ramadhan everyday which drive Zainal crazy coz I would asked him to drive to pasar Ramadhan even just for dadih only. That's before I discovered how easy and cheap cooking your own dadih (which is after Raya). So when I knew it, as you can guess, 1/4 of our fridge was filled with dadih. At some point, we have to throw away coz it has turned bad. Huhu.

Lastly, I would like to wish everybody Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri. Maaf Zahir & Batin ye...

The Making of a Great Bed

When I said it's a great bed, it is because I assembled them alone. The steps of assembling it was pretty easy. But when you do it alone with heavy oak that weighs like tonnes, it become very challenging. I had to use a tissue box as a wedge to level the frame so that it would be easily screwed. A good engineer would said that it was one stupid idea as the tissue box managed to hold it for good 5 minutes before it decided that it's too much to handle. Hehe.

The second challenging aspect of this process that deserved a post on his own that I need to finish it before break fast and at that time it was already 7 pm. I managed to finish it on time but the consequences was I have to eat frozen pizza for breakfast and Maggi for sahur.

The pieces that ready to be assembled by the great engineer-not-in-practice. Haha.The finished product. A full size bed. It's a very good deal that I get from Duke librarian that wanted to get rid of this thing from her house. The mattress is still firm and comfortable. It felt like never been used. But don't worry, I'll be using it a lot.

The bed with my new 100% Egyptian cotton and 320 thread count bed sheet. I love white colour bed sheet because it looked so tempting to get on the bed and sleep. The brown comforter match the carpet accidently. Hehe. I'll find a matching duvet cover soon. =)

Credit to William for helping me carried this to my room. And driving U-Haul truck without a license. And showed me how easy to drive a truck. I wish a have a picture of myself driving it. Hehe.

Luahan

I have no time to cook for iftar or sahur. But if I don't cook, I don't eat. I don't want to eat Maggi & frozen pizza like yesterday. But assignments need to send tomorrow.

I wish I had somebody to help me out right now.

Salam Ramadhan

This is not the first time I'm not fasting in Malaysia. But this is the first time I fast alone. Like with no family members or roommates or housemates to share iftar and sahur.

The last 5 days I was strong. I took it as dinner and during sahur I too sleepy to think. But today, my heroic self cracked. I felt so lonely. I wish I was eating with someone. It's impossible to wish that I can break my fast with my husband or family at this time but having someone to eat with would be something possible. Today, even Chuck couldn't take my loneliness away. He always teman me eating my iftar.

Again, this semester, there's no Muslim Malaysian aka Malay in Duke that I knew of. After Dian went back to Malaysia (after I only knew her 2 months before Spring Semester ended), I'm the sole survivor in Duke.

Well, I know I can do this. I'm going to Raleigh tomorrow after 'Night with Industries' event. At least there are a lot of Malaysians someone to break the fast with.

Oh, I wish all my friends Salam Ramadhan Al-Mubarak. May this month bring more goodness in us and chance to us to ibadah more.

Ps: I missed going to terawih with my husband. =( And I missed Bazaar Ramadhan too... but not as much as I missed him.

I wish for this feeling again

With regulator in the mouth, trusting my whole life on this small device and heavy tank behind my back, I slowly let go myself backward into the water. For the moment, everything was very confusing. All I heard was my breathing, with small bubbles in front of me and vast of blue water surround me. I was on my head down and slowly my body turned automatically and my head up again while I resurfaced. Having said that, that's the most beautiful feeling I had.

When everything made sense again, slowly I sank again. This time I was aware of everything around me. The small creatures that I saw on the surface enlarging every few seconds. Within seconds, I was facing them face to face.

As I glided slowly, kicking my legs constantly, I was lost in this magical kingdom. Everything seems surreal; so many colours and so many species. I praised Almighty for this His creations.

Without I knew it, I lost in this beautiful moment. Every single species was my first time. encounter. I awed at their beauty and they finesse. They swam at their own pace and ignored my presence. I felt like I was one of them. At that moment, I never felt so calm in this eerie silence open space. For once I wish I could stay longer and enjoy every minutes of it.

Then the signal that my time in this heaven on earth was up was shown. While I slowly submerged to the surface, I wept sad goodbye to this place. I promised to come again and hopefully they will wait for me without changing any of these.

As I surfaced, large waves pushed me around. Suddenly this whole ocean felt overwhelming and I felt like an ant drowning in a cup of water. I saw my destination and swam with all my energy. But the waves continuously pushing me away. I worked extra hard. In the last few steps to my destination, the tank that I trust my life with has become a liability for me to achieve my destination. I realized that was the real life I was facing throughout all my life and not the magical kingdom that I just left few moments ago.

End of 2nd internship

I ended my 1.5 months internship last Tuesday. This time around was different. Back then when I was in my undergraduate years and first time doing internship, my objectives and view of working world was different. Now with 2 years experience in my pocket, my main objective was completely different.

Strangely I didn't miss anything about this internship. Except free flow of Milo and occasionally free ice-cream. I was parked in Operations department in HQ. I had experience working with production people before and all I can said that they are different species from other departments. In a good or bad way, I won't say. They have to deal with all kind and level of people, machines and expectations. So they have special capabilities to balance and survive in that condition. The capabilities that I haven't mastered yet especially when my natural personalities quite opposite of that capabilities. Maybe I wasn't meant for production.

However, having to witness two different level of manufacturing company; one is the largest pharmaceutical company in Malaysia and one is the largest food manufacturing company in the world was a priceless experience. I only toured one day of the latter's factory to find the huge gap in the management system of the production line. No wonder they are the largest in the world while the other one struggling to stay on top in Malaysia.

This is what I like about internship. You be able to find out what is like to work in a company without actually being commit to work there permanently. You'll get to learn the whole company structures from inside and experience the environment to judge whether you want to work there someday or not. But the downside of it, you'll be bullied around and will not taken seriously.

The experience from my first internship had made me reluctant to work there after I graduated even though my ex-boss asked me to send resume and come for interview on my last semester. But this second internship, I'll be glad to join the company after I end my study. The funny thing I realized while doing this second internship was that at the end of 2nd week of internship, I achieve every objectives that I set before starting it which was so different during the first internship where I wanted to learn everything which sometimes I didn't even know what I wanted to know.

However, there were few things that I really missed when this latest internship ended. I missed the daily commute with my husband, daily lunch and occasional peek from him when he came to 4th floor. I missed his unexpected visit to my desk with nasi lemak or Kit Kat to share with me. I missed the walk to nasi lemak stall every morning for breakfast while talking and sharing stories. This internship was perfect for me. I get to learn new experince at the same time I can spend more time with my husband.

I wish for more time with him but I have to fly again this Thursday.

Not ready

10 more days...

Everything still in chaos.

Still no house to stay.

Don't feel like going back again.

I'm not ready at all.

Then again, was I ever ready before?

My own camera case

Project no 2 done. My own camera case / bag. Actually I really need a camera case since the one that I got for free was terrible. Why? First of all, it has 'Konica' brand in front of it. I don't think Konica produced digital camera. All I can remember about Konica is their 35mm film. Secondly which is the worst one is the free camera case actually shredding and the tiny shredded black thing stuck at my camera. It really pissed me off.

I wanted to buy a new one but I found nothing that I like. They are either too small to fit my camera or too expensive and bulky which I don't like. So after succesfully sewing my own laptop sleeve, I thought why not sewing my own camera case.

After procrastinated about more than 1 week, on one lazy Sunday, I decided to finish up the camera case. I took me around 2 hours to finish it. Introducing my camera bag..

I really like the fabric design that I used it for outside and inside. I bought this fabric at IKEA. This time I only used fleece fabric as middle cushion without addition sponge which made my sewing life so much easier.

What I really really like about this is I can wear it to look like it's a sling bag. So I don't look like a tourist with big bulky camera bag. It's also can be keep in the handbag if I just want to carry the camera without it as it's slim yet thick enough to protect the camera.
However, I forgot to make a zip pocket at the back of the bag. I already bought the zipper and studied how to sew it. But then 1 hour after I finished this bag, then I realized, where the hell is my pocket? Damn. It's ok, I think I'll hand sew it. I want a pocket to put additional memory card and battery (not that I have it, but for future usage).

Finally, my favourite part of this bag....
Personalize with my hubby and my name!! (I put his name in front coz I found out his one is neater than my name. Ceh.)

Anyone want one?

Enjoying now

In life, you have to learn appreciate small things. Things that might not significant to the course of your life but things that complete your life. Small things that will not get mention in your resume, will not be remembered at your wedding or funeral but things that only can be appreciated by you.

These small things will never get noticed in your everyday life when your life is a routine and you take advantage of everything around you. I used to be like that. I took the advantage of used having the loved ones around me, asking for hugs and kisses whenever I want whether from my husband, my mother or my father, having the convenient of buying food anytime I want and asking for any help whenever I want.

Then I made a huge decision in my life. I went to United States of A to further my study. I left everything that I’m familiar with and deal with all new strange and hostile things. From the weather to food, everything needs extra effort. I need to wear layers to be warm, cook my own food, walked around to get to destination and smile a lot more to make friends.

At that time I realized how much I’ve been pampered. I learned to survive with self-motivation and helps of others. I learned that people can help at some extend only but only you alone can make it happened. I learned that sometimes the people who help you can also make you feel bad at yourself at certain point of time. I learned to deal with it alone.

Now, after 2 months back at home, I tried to absorb and enjoy every little thing that I would be missed in less than a month. Like having a person sleeping next to me every night (ok, I must admit this is not little thing I’ll be missed, this is considered a big thing), having some kutuking session with my siblings, enjoy laugh moment with my mom, jumping on bed session with Choki, dinner with my family every night, window shopping with hubby and many mores.

Oh, shit. I can feel that my eyes are getting watery. Please don’t get emotional right now.

I hope my second term back to the Uncle Sam will not as hard as before. I’ll be familiar with the streets, sights and sounds of Durham even though I know I’ll be missing the people in Malaysia. I just need to be strong and busy myself with works (yup, that what I said before but I ended up curling in bed crying) and don’t think so much about good memories in Malaysia (yeah right, easy said than done) while waiting my other half to come maybe in October or November (please be October, please be October, please be October).

I’ll be welcoming new apartment to live in (no more my bedroom, my world), a new car (maybe 2009 Lancer?), new 4 courses (which already regard by others to be busier than Spring semester coz of Project Management), more new friends (as most of the old ones already graduating), new weather (summer!), alone cheap shopping, online shopping and more serious in searching for jobs (ok, I didn’t try to search for jobs at all last semester). And of course, InsyaAllah, road trip at the end of the year! Oh, I want to dive there too. And if money is not a problem, I want to skydive too. So many things to do but not enough money. Haha

Good luck to me! (for my second term)
And I got another 23 days before I’m off again to the far away land.

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.