My dream careers

Since we are on the topic of vocations, let me share with you my dream careers. These professions are so appealing and attractive to me but I doubt that I will be any good at them.

That's why they are only my "dream careers". They are:

1) Playwright

I love watching the theater. So, naturally, I wish I could write a brilliant play myself. One that will be well-received and loved by the audience.

2) Travel & Adventure Host

Someone like Ian Wright who gets to travel around the world from the most popular destinations to the remotest areas; experiencing different cultures and lifestyles ...

3) Novelist

I love reading novels and could only wish that I have the ability to write beautiful prose like my favorite authors.

4) Photographer

I appreciate good photography. I especially like pictures of monuments and breath-taking sceneries.

5) Wedding Planner

I love to plan things and planning a wedding seems so exciting, don't you think?? I have to assert that I wanted to be a wedding planner long before I watched Jennifer Lopez's movie. haha

That's it. My 5 dream careers.
Suddenly, I'm curious to know what my friends' dream careers would be.
Would theirs be as fantastically far-fetched as mine?? Hurm ...
Nak tag, tak nak tag ni?? hehe

Two roads diverged in a wood

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference"

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Can you pinpoint a moment where the whole course of your life changed?

I can.

It was the night when I was filling the UPU form. The one where you had to fill after you have received your SPM result; where you basically have to list down 8 preferences of what and where you want to further your studies.

I stayed up late by myself thinking about my 8 choices. I was seriously clueless about what I wanted to do with my life. Some people knew that they just had to be doctors, or engineers, or accountants. Me? I didn't know what my life's calling is. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I was open to every possibilities ... except perhaps medicine. I'm too lazy to be a medicine student. :p

So, I considered everything that might suit me. Among the courses shortlisted were: Accounting, Chemical Engineering, English Literature (ada ke?? I'm not sure ... can't remember), Actuarial Science (haha!) and of course: TESL.

There are other options too of course but I just can't seem to remember.

Anyway, ranking them from 1-8 came after shortlisting them. It's the most crucial part of the whole process.

After hours of thinking about it, I chose TESL as my first choice. I thought of all the teachers that I've had. Some were terrific, some were less so. But on the whole, all of them have made such a positive impact in my life and I thought: "That must be a very challenging and fulfilling job".

On hindsight, I might have been too idealistic ...

That was three years ago. Now, I'm in my 2nd year of university doing Bachelor of Education (TESOL) at Macquarie University. And I have no regrets whatsoever.

I thank Allah for granting this path of life for me.

The First 8 Days

Right now, it's already 11pm. I should be sleeping in order to wake up for sahur at 3.30am tomorrow. But I am inexplicably gripped by the desire to write something about my first 8 days of Ramadhan here.

It has truly been a roller-coaster ride. I am still sad. Not just because I'm away from my family, it also has to do with the feeling that Ramadhan here doesn't feel like Ramadhan. It sounds confusing, but I'm sure you get what I mean. Back home, you can sense that it's Ramadhan; you can smell, feel, breathe it. Here, you don't really feel how special Ramadhan is.

I am heeding Fatin's advice to not think too much about it. But it's soO difficult!! :(

My first 8 days have their ups and downs. Let's start with the good stuffs:

1) Received my Raya parcel from home. It was a lovely surprise since I was not expecting it for another 2 weeks. The parcel contains: 1 baju kurung + matching tudung + telekung + blouse + Faisal Tehrani's 'Tunggu Teduh Dulu' + a lovely letter from my sis.

2) Bought a pink skirt to go with my new blouse

3) Went to Featherdale Wildlife Park. Got to see animals such as: kangaroo, wombat, tasmanian devil, koala, dingo & emu upclose

4) Ate a lot of good food!! Here is my break of fast food log:
-1st day: lamb curry + ikan goreng + sagu gula melaka + Fatin's cheesecake
-2nd day: ayam panggang + whipped potato
-3rd day: mee kari + begedil + popia
-4th day: nasi goreng ikan masin + telur bungkus + choc chip muffin
-5th day: nasi lemak + kuih cek mek molek [courtesy of Durra, Ana & Tasha]
-6th day: tom yam + puding jagung
-7th day: nasi beryani + lamb curry
-8th day: bihun goreng + puding roti + roti john + coleslaw

I have to thank Nisa for cooking such delicious meals each day. :)

Ok ... now for the bad stuffs:

1) This has been the most unproductive break ever!! 2 weeks void of academic work. It should not be a big deal except that I have a major assigment due on 10th Oct!!

What I have been doing:
- oversleeping
- Bollywood marathon with Harvin & Nisa (Mohabbatein, Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi, etc)
- watching tv excessively (Kill Bill, The Wedding Planner, etc)

2) Had the most horrible headache the other day

3) The sink in my kitchen is blocked! As a result, dirty dishes piled up & we are forced to wash the dishes in front of our house (in full view of bewildered MUV residents) or at Tasha's place. This is only done when there are absolutely no clean dishes left.

The sink is blocked since Friday night. We are told that we can only call a plumber after the weekend and the Labour Day holiday. Until then, cooking and cleaning up are very trying affairs. This is what I called "dugaan bulan Ramadhan"(!)

While waiting for Tuesday, we tried "unblocking" the sink by using a plunger. It didn't work. You should have seen me thrusting the plunger with such determination - I must have looked like a demented person.

+ + +

The mid-term break is over. Have to buck up now. Besides, wouldn't it be a pity to spend the rest of Ramadhan like that??

May the remaining 22 days be more meaningful & dapat dimanfaatkan dengan sebaik-baiknya ... insyaAllah ...

Salam Perantauan

I really love this pic! Thanks to Seng Chee: the photographer extraordinaire!!

L-R: Naya, Majidah, Rosyada, Nisa, Norzi, Zila, Ana Shirin

Duduk: Zaini & Khairil

Ramadhan nostalgia

I feel a bit down. It's my first Ramadhan away from home and I don't like it one bit. After the Maghrib prayer, I called home to wish Mama and Papa "Selamat Menyambut Ramadhan". Then, I called 2 juniors, whom I am close to, to wish them the same thing. I feel worse after calling them. They all talk about the familiar things about celebrating Ramadhan at home; solat terawikh, pasar Ramadhan, sahur at Scud, etc ...

I miss all that right now. At IPBA (my previous college), we break fasted together at the surau. A caterer sent over food everyday and we only needed to pay RM5 per meal. This was a perfect arrangement for those people who don't fancy to go to Kerinchi's Pasar Ramadhan each evening like me. And the menu was so finger-licking good!
Let's see if I can remember a few of them correctly:

- Rendang Ayam

- Ayam Kurma

- Nasi Pelangi

- Ayam Panggang

- Nasi Beryani

Yum yum ... what's more, two kuih-of-the-day, dates, and drinks are also provided. Talk about a real bargain huh?

But it's not just the food that I miss. I also miss the company. It's so much fun breaking fast in a big group like that. We were such a noisy bunch! After eating, we performed the Maghrib prayer together. The space between Maghrib and Isyak was then filled with a short 'tazkirah'. More people would start to stream in during this time. We proceeded with the Isyak prayer as soon as we heard the azan coming from the nearby Masjid Al-Azhar or the IBMM surau (a neighbouring teacher training college). Terawikh prayers are next on the agenda. After Terawikh, it's time for 'moreh'! The menu was just as sumptuous:

- Roti Jala + Kari

- Mee Goreng

- Cakes

- Biscuits

I can't remember the others. But all of them were delicious!

After 'moreh', some people would go back to their hostel, some would stay for Tadarus Al-Quran, and some would either head for Scud or Kafe Blok 4 to lepak-lepak.

Another Ramadhan tradition at IPBA is have 'sahur' at 2am at Scud (where else?). Ramadhan is the only time where Asrama Pantaipuri's curfew is extended until 3am. I'm one of the regular 'sahur' people. I would always order the same thing: Banjo + teh ais. My accomplices were: 'Ainur, Zue, Nada, & Nisa. We had the best of times during the 'sahur' sessions. Gosh, I miss them!

I thought of writing about my fasting experience at IPBA as well as at Tmn Keramat, my hometown. But this post is already quite long. Better save the Keramat story for another day.

Before I end this post, I just want to wish all of my friends "Selamat Berpuasa". Semoga kita dapat manfaatkan bulan Ramadhan ini dengan sebaik-baiknya. Moga Allah ampunkan dosa-dosa dan terima segala ibadah-ibadah kita ... Amin ...

Oh, saya juga nak minta maaf kat kawan-kawan semua atas segala kesalahan yg dibuat sama ada sengaja atau tidak. Selamat Menyambut Ramadhan people!

"To me, you are perfect" -Love Actually-

Firstly, thank you Nisa for giving me something to do this evening :p

After much contemplation, below are the top 10 criteria of my perfect guy:

1) jaga solat ... insyaAllah, selamat dunia akhirat ... hehe

2) org yg suka pegi surau

3) funny ... I love to laugh + I admire witty people

4) tall & athletic

5) good-looking doesn't hurt I guess :p

6) someone who's hard to get; macam Mr. Dracy from Pride & Prejudice ... ehem2

7) not clingy. I like my space.

8) has his own passions + hobbies but shows interest in what I'm doing as well

9) someone who likes me just the way I am

Bak kata Jane Austen: "The sweetest of all creatures, faultless in spite of all her faults"

10) someone who aspires me to be a better person.

"Cinta akan memupuk, meluruskan, meluhurkan, & menumbuhkan mereka menjadi insan sempurna" -Faisal Tehrani-

It's okay to be choosy because:

"It's a funny thing about life. If you refuse to accept anything but the very best, you very often get it" -W. Somerset Maugham-

Itulah prinsip hidup saye :p

Oh, and another one:Dlm Quran kan cakap;
perempuan yg baik utk lelaki yg baik
lelaki yg baik utk perempuan yg baik.

:)

Damia

On Sept 11, 2006, I became a first-time aunt to baby girl Damia!



*wish I was there*

One crazy day

I wasn't feeling well when I woke up today. The weather's so cold and that made my nose runny. But I couldn't sleep in since we needed to start cooking for the "Dikir Mayang" party. The party is held to celebrate Macquarie people's successful Dikir Barat and Ulik Mayang performances in Malaysia Fest.

My house, Unit 31, was in charge of Mee Kari and begedil. Norzi's house was responsible for Soto and beverages. All the girls helped out to prepare the meals. But since I felt a bit weak, I got the easy job of boiling 8 packets of spaghetti with Fatin. Easy enough. (I never was talented in the kitchen)

Anyway, the party was great. I thought I would not enjoy myself since I felt so miserable. But good company always cheers you up :)

After eating the delicious food, everyone just sat around relaxing. Suddenly, someone started singing the Negaraku ... huh? Where did that come from?

From Negaraku, they moved on to other patriotic songs. And after that, songs from the various states in Malaysia. By now, everyone had joined in. Raya songs came next. And after that Dangdut (!) and other Malay songs.

The singing session was then replaced by a photography session. Seng Chee was missing in action. We took the pictures without him. Turned out that he went back to his house to fetch the volleyball. That was to be our next activity.

The rain had stopped. I shouldn't have joined them playing since my cold would only get worse. But I still did.

We played volleyball for a while before switching to "Baling Selipar". By then, more people have joined in. It was while playing "Baling Selipar" that things got a bit out of hand. Friendly rivalry got a lil' bit serious. I have to own my part in it.

I didn't mean to, but I threw the slipper quite hard at Sakinah. It was an instinctive act; not an intentional one. Anyway, I felt quite bad about it. Azan made it worse by saying that I probably dislocated Sakinah's shoulder by whacking her like that. He's kidding of course but I still felt bad because I knew from past experiences that I tend to get too competitive when involved in sports. It's not something that I'm proud of :(

That's why this blog's name is thus. A friend at IPBA, Syida, teasingly said that about me and it got stuck: I'm nice, as well as rotten. huhuhu

Anyway, after that incident, I played nicer. Well ... at least I tried to ..

Right now, I about to go to sleep and as predicted, my cold's gotten worse. Karma at work? :p

Shim's algebra question

It was during a particularly boring lecture that Shim slid a small piece of paper to Jaime and me, who sat right behind him. An algebra question was written on that piece of paper:

2xy = 10 + z
2x + y = 20
x = z + 10

What is y?

I just smiled. It was ages ago since I had done any math question of that nature. All those drillings I did to prepare for SPM has been forgotten. Yet, I was tempted to try my luck. Maybe the question's not so hard. There's no harm in trying is there?

Jaime, on the other hand, was more than gamed. She was really eager to attempt the question.

But before I started to pull a clean sheet of paper out, I asked Shim: "Betul ke soalan ni ada jawapan?"

He replied: "Mestila ade. Aku yang buat sendiri."

Hurm ... that's really promising (!). But I have faith in my friend. heh

Jaime and I tried and tried but we couldn't solve it. After sometime, Shim turned back to face us and said: "Eh, tak siap lagi ke?"

I gave up first. Jaime persisted for a while longer.

After she too had surrendered, Shim started working to give us the answer. I thought I would only take a while. But it took a lot longer than expected.

Jaime and I peeked over Shim's shoulder to see what he was doing. He seemed to be struggling with the question himself. We had to control our urge to laugh. From a small bit of paper that he was using, he had to pull out a larger piece to accommodate the more complex equations he's deriving.

Finally, he turned back once again, and slid us another note. It said:

"Soalan salah. muahaha"

It was a funny incident and it got me thinking about how bad I am in math. I used to be real good at it. But not anymore. My mental arithmetic is particularly embarassing. I guess that's one of the occupational hazards of being a TESL student. You deal with language, not numbers.

That's a pretty solid defence for my poor math ability don't you think?

Sleep is a powerful motivator

I'm supposed to hand in a 750-word assignment today. As expected, I just finished writing it late last night (and prior to writing this post, I have just finished editing it). It's not a difficult assigment. Yet, I kept putting it off.

I think it has to do with the "Week 5 slump". Typically, people are all eager to start the new semester well. We would draw up the usual resolutions to no longer procastinate, to pay 100% attention in lectures, etc. But come week 5, the spirit has somewhat cooled down.

Another example of my weakening resolution is that I didn't manage to read the EDUC265 readings for this week. It's EDUC265 people!!! The subject I'm most diligent in. The subject where Rod Lane is my tutor ... remember??

Anyway, let me get back to the title of the post.

Last night, after writing about 500 words, I went downstairs for a "short" break. Predictably, the break got extended when I switched on the tv and NCIS was on. Oh, I also went downstairs to drink a glass of milk. But, the break also became an unplanned makan session.

See how weak my willpower is? huhuhuhu

Anyway, I somehow managed to bring myself upstairs again to face my unfinished assignment. But it was so hard to concentrate since it was already 10.45pm. I thought I better sleep first and wake up early the next morning to finish it up. Nisa, who's in the next room, sensed my intention. She got me to finish up my assignment by saying:

"Syada, Syada takleh tido lagi. Baru nak pukul 11. Buat kerja dulu. Dah pukul 1, kalo Syada tak siap lagi, baru boleh tido. Kalo Syada tido jugak, Nisa kejutkan sampai bangun"

Pukul 1??? I can't stay up that late. I wanna sleep!!!!

Suddenly, I was gripped with the urgency to finish writing the remaining 250 words. It surprised me how quickly I finish writing them up. SLEEP, not grades it seems, is able to motivate me ..