~Faraway~

Birthday Girl! :D

2011-09-21T15:14:00.000-07:00

It's my birthday today! *sings myself a birthday song* :') I have just turned 22! TWENTY TWO! Woww. How crazy is that!

Today has been fairly bittersweet, to say the least. First to greet me was my family of course! They sent me videos of the little ones saying happy birthday as well! It was such a great start to my birthday, and I was so happy. Thank you! I also would like to say a massive THANK YOUs to everyone who left me birthday greetings through facebook and twitter! You guys have truly made my day! I really mean it!

This is childish, but I was a bit disappointed and disheartened that a lot of the people I always talk to and most close friends of mine have yet to wish me a happy birthday - it was probably the weird change to facebook design and/or they were busy. Oh well.. Apa bulih buat. I woke up quite early this morning to send my niece off to Keele. Then, I had lunch with my sister at a normal malaysian restaurant. She was like "I'd have thought you'd ask me to take you to a fancy restaurant on top of a tower or something!". Naahh.. I wasn't feeling up to it (pasal menyamal. Lol!)

Sending Pijah and Abg Diah off to Keele!

Then, we went back to Bruhall to get my luggage. I was to leave Bruhall today, and it was kind of bittersweet. I had grown really fond of all the staff and officers working there over the year. I met Auntie Hena (sp?), our cook, and she gave me a hug when she found out it was my bday. I went to take picture with my favourite servery combo, Ka Seri and Auntie Mina. While I was taking the picture, I suddenly heard someone's singing a birthday song. It was Farhan, Zimah and Yadi, who were sitting across the room! Awwww.. Then Zimah and Farhan came up to me to greet me personally. I was really touched! I mean, I've only talked to them for a couple of times before, so it was really sweet of them to do that! Yeay, my first live bday song! After that, I checked out of my room and the receptionist, Abg Din, was so kind to me telling me "Selamat Hari Jadi! Good luck with everything! Selamat belayar and jaga diri!". As if that wasn't sweet enough, Auntie Mina gave me a birthday card! I was so close to tears! She was like, "You're my favourite, so I'm gonna miss you! Take care!" D'awwwww... Everyone is soo niiccceee! I thought to myself 'Don't sulk just because some friends forget your birthday, be grateful many people actually remember it!'

And I realise... this has been such a wonderful and blissful birthday! THANK YOU EVERYONE! I LOVE ALL OF YOU! :)

with Auntie mina and Ka Seri!
With Zimah!
Such a lovely place to live!
Off to Reading!
Beautiful pink roses and cute pink teddy from the family!
The unexpected card!

Farewell to the Neuros! :(

2011-09-20T16:21:00.000-07:00

I really hate goodbyes. And this is that time of the year where everyone says their farewells and go on different paths. The crossroad, as some may say. My MSc Neuroscience course is officially over and done with. I met some of them on the 'last day' of uni, after we checked our final grades. Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet (and say bye to..) people I was close to, so that was a shame. As usual, they wanted to end the day in a pub, so I had to decline and be a party pooper. Said my "Goodbye"s and "Good Luck!"s before they leave.

Some of my coursemates I managed to grab for a quick group photo

I didn't want to leave UK before I had a proper hangout session with two of the few people I was very close to in my course, Julie and Seet. Since I promised Julie about a year ago when we just met, that I'd take her to a Malay restaurant to try on some malay food, I asked them out for an early dinner at the Malaysian restaurant called "Melur". My niece had just arrived from Brunei that morning, so I brought her along to the dinner. I really had a wonderful time. Because Seet likes spicy food, we ordered the spiciest lamb dish on the menu - forgot the name but it was like green chilli curry-ish. And boy, was it hot! I am weak against spiciness, so I had to suffer the most. I ordered Ayam Masak Sambal, and that was spicy as well. I didn't eat the Kangkong Belacan, but Julie said that was spicy too. The only 'normal' dish on the table was the Ikan Bakar. MY LIPS WERE BURNING! Seet loved the Lamb, and Julie absolutely loved the fish! Julie mentioned how we "Malays put anchovies in everything!"; because she had Nasi Lemak once before and she thought the whole dish was bizzare saying "there is fried anchovies on one side, then you have the paste, then you have boiled eggs, then you have fried chicken and rice. Everything just seems so random, I don't know in which order I should eat each one!" LOL! We had coffee and cakes at Costa afterwards, and just talked about random things. I just found out from them that apparently UCL is the best university, excluding America, for Neuroscience! How awesome is that!

I remember we talked about Brunei and the government - how privileged we are, how generous our Sultan is, my £88/month BruHall rent haha (Seet: "WHAT! CAN I BE A BRUNEIAN?!", Julie: "Everytime she mentions her rent, I just want to slap her in the face!" LOL!), how peaceful it is there. Julie also gave me a $5 Egyptian bank note, cause I love collecting bank notes from everywhere. In return, I gave her our B$5 bank note, and they both were so amazed by it! Haha. It was really fun! Julie especially. The fact that it is plastic, i.e. untearable, water-proof, that there's a transparent area on the left side of the bill, that there's arabic writing, and the "jawi" - i.e. the existence of Nga (ڠ) and Ga (ݢ) in the jawi spelling of "Ringgit". After we finished eating, both of them accompanied me all the way to Bruhall. Seet had to make a move, but Julie stayed for a bit to perform Isyaa' Jemaah at the surau. After the Isyaa' solat, she came to me all excited talking about the Arabic fluency of the Imam (which was our BSU Ustaz) - claiming it to be "perfect Arabic". I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but Julie learnt Arabic/Egyptian after she converted and moved to Egypt with her hubby. Anyway, she started asking me about how Islam was first brought to Brunei and all this stuff. Ustaz's wife walked past us, so I introduced her to Julie. Then, the Ustaz's wife started talking Egyptian to Julie, which pleasantly surprised her! Afterwards, Julie told me that she was really impressed and "you Bruneians are a special kind." D'awww. Thanks! Haha. We hugged and said our bye-bye. :')

It was a great fun! I could only hope that I'll get to meet all of them again someday! :)

2011-09-16T09:29:00.000-07:00

Always a disappointment.

Selamat Hari Raya!

2011-09-01T04:28:00.000-07:00

Selamat Hari Raya/Eid Mubarak to my family, my friends and every muslims worldwide. May Allah accepts our fast and ibadat during the holy month of Ramadhan, and may He bless us with His grace. I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to everyone for any wrongdoings I may have done towards you.

First day of Syawal was celebrated with solat sunat Hari Raya at BruHall surau, led by Ustaz. After solat, makan2 di dining hall. Beraya to High Comm in the afternoon. Fabulous catering! Nom nom nom nom the wholeee day~

At High Comm:

With TYT, Cikgu Azizan and Cikgu Hasna
With Qiilah

Enjoy the rest of your raya! Don't overeat and over-indulge yourself! =)

Ramsgate and Margate

2011-08-28T03:52:00.000-07:00

The three siblings decided to re-visit places that our parents used to go to 35 years ago! We already visited Brighton a couple of years ago, so this time, we went to Ramsgate, Isle of Tennet. Babah used to live and go to one of the School of English there. He mentioned that he would stroll along the dock, and watched the ferries leave for Europe. So, we traced back his "footsteps" and it seems that even after 35 years, not much has changed. The school he went to has closed down though. Talk about great timing, when we got to the dock, a ferry had just left its port and was sailing towards Europe! Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly the best weather for visiting, with occasional rain and strong wind, so we had to cut the visit short. =(

We also went to Margate. Parents used to go there, as the place is only 3 minutes away from Ramsgate. It's the place you go to to have fun! Seriously, the minute you step out of the station, you have arcades lining up the street to your left and right, and a massive, beautiful beach in front of you. Kaka's SLR was acting up, so we had to take our pictures using bro's iphone. I forgot to take them off him, and he's just flown back to Brunei! So, artinya, nadatah dapat provide pictures. Sorry!

Thesis submitted!

2011-08-25T03:09:00.000-07:00

Alhamdulillah, dissertation submitted on the 15th of August. Hopefully that will go well. Ameen Ameen Ya Rabb! One more hurdle to go = Viva! Eeeekkk. Takuuuttt! Daily routine for the past few days: Wake up, edit thesis, nap, edit thesis, liat tv, sungkai, terawih, edit thesis, sleep. Really glad that Qiilah's staying at BruHall for the summer, at least I have someone I could have sungkai with!

Went to watch Planet of the Apes with bro at Odeon in Bayswater (ridiculously pricey!). The movie was OK. It kinda hit you regarding the ethical issues of using animal models in scientific research. This movie kind of reminds you that animals are also living things with emotions, and some researchers have little regards to this and just use these animals carelessly. If the experiment fails, they die. Big deal, move on to the next specimen. But anyway, the movie itself wasn't spectacular or memorable. I'd give it a 6.8/10.

Ramadhan Mubarak

2011-08-01T10:06:00.002-07:00

Ramadhan Kareem to all the muslims in the world! May Allah's blessings be upon all of us in this holy month and may He guide us in strengthening our iman and cleanse our soul.

Alhamdulillah, my first sahur was with my sister and brother! As much as I wish I was at home with the whole family, it would've been more sad and lonely having sahur alone in my small Bruhall room.

The weather's pretty hot lately, and as expected, I've become super tanned! And sorry for the lack of updates in July, I'm currently caught up with dissertation writing which is going super slow at the moment. Insya-Allah I'll be free after 15th and post what I've missed out. Till then, please make du'a for me~ :)

oh... and Happy 35th Anniversary! :)

People going home

2011-07-30T10:04:00.000-07:00

Everyone's going home... Huuuu... T__T So sad, my BruHall neighbours.. Esah, huda and Fai. The 5th floor crew, I miss you girls! =( My Birmingham babies - Rambo and Chachi! And my Irish sister, Kelly! Juy, the immigrant, pun balik tia jua. Huuhuu.. Sedih.. Now I'll have to spend the next 2 months on my own. Boo..

Sign Language

2011-07-18T10:06:00.000-07:00

Last sign language class (BSL Level 1) at DCAL. When we first started, the class was a lot bigger than this, but many gradually stopped coming due to work commitment. Sad that it's ended, I really really loved it! Now here's hoping I passed my BSL Level 1 exam! *fingers crossed*

Weirdly enough, I found out that Brunei, although once a British colony, uses American sign language?! Guess I'd have to start from scratch then.

HM's Birthday Celebration + Birmingham trip

2011-07-15T10:05:00.000-07:00

For HM's 65th Birthday Celebration (15/7/2011), students and officers in the UK were invited to lunch at the grand Dorchester Hotel. I initially thought there would be performances and speeches, but when we got there, it was just standing around (literally!), eating and mingling. The food was fantastic, although I wasn't able to enjoy it as much cos I was pre-occupied with balancing the plate on one hand, and trying to scoop the bloody chicken fillets and rice into my spoon with the other. Overall, I had a good time; the same could not be said for my feet though. Had I known, I wouldn't have worn heels! Afterwards, we waited for the bus back to Bruhall for nearly an hour out in the cold! To make the matter worse, we had to sit at the very back of the bus cos it was full, and there were these two annoying brats who kept yelling stuffs. We bad-mouthed them in Bruneian of course. Haha! Ahh, the joy of being multi-lingual!

I had Sign Language exam on the 8th of July. It went OK, I suppose. Went straight to Birmingham after the exam and stayed overnight at Jajan's. It was nice catching up with her and Kimin again. As per usual, I annoyed the hell out of Kimin - haha! It was just friendly banter, no venom~ ;) Attended Hajah's graduation the next day! Oh, I miss that girl! So proud to see her in her robe! Got the chance to meet up Lisyah, the bimbo boy, too! And the Langleys and Arif, so it was really great! =)

X-Japan!

2011-06-30T06:17:00.000-07:00

WE! ARE! X! WE! ARE! X! X-JAPAN!!!!

X-Japan is a legendary J-Rock band founded in 1982, and they are seriously one of the best rock bands out there! They started the Visual Kei movement (Gaga is soo 20 years late with her fashion!) Their music is timeless and even with their average age ~45 years old, they are still the coolest men around! They are still rocking like (or even better than) 20-year-olds! Seriously! They lost a member nearly 15 years ago, but replaced him with one of my favourite Jrock guitarist, Sugizo-sama!
They don't even age! Fountain of youth?

So anyway, when I found out they were gonna go on their first european tour which includes LONDON, I freaked out big time! Bought two tickets without hesitation and restlessly waiting for the day to come! The day finally came on the 28th of June! You have no idea how excited I was! The concert starts at 7, and I was planning to queue early. But I could only go there after 3pm cause I had sign language class at Uni. Luckily, the queue was divided according to seating/standing levels (Shepherd's Bush O2 empire has standing level, Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3). Mine was level 3, and the queue for that wasn't that long. Waited four hours in the rain before they finally let us in! At least I got to talk with my fellow X-Japan fans! Bought the X-Japan shirt at the stall and wear it straight away for the concert! The venue was quite small, especially if you consider the usual size of X-Japan's concert venues in Japan! I was like "X-Japan deserves a bigger place than this!" To think they initially planned to play at O2 Islington, which is an even smaller place.. psshh..

The opening band was OK i guess. The drummer was good, but I just couldn't make out what the vocalist was singing! And their head-banging was too hardcore, I was worried they might break their necks! Besides, I just want to see X-JAPAN! That place was bloody hot though! There was like, no ventilation at all!

It took a long time before X-Japan finally appeared! Yoshiki came out first and I JUST... SCREAMEEDD! And the rest of the boys appeared.. well.. everyone just went mental! Is that really X-JAPAN, looking good in their final fantasy-esque costumes, standing there in front of my eyes?! Am I really watching X-Japan live?! Wooooooohoooooo! They started off with Jade and yeah.. I. WENT. CRAZY. Singing + Screaming + Jumping + Head Banging.. you name it. The concert felt so short though, they only played about 9 songs with a long violin solo by Sugizo and a drum/piano solo by Yoshiki. The encore.. my favourite song.. Endless Rain. It was so beautiful~ T___T The concert ended with a playback of X-Japan's Forever Love, which is another favourite of mine. All in all, it was an awesome gig! Toshi's voice was top-notch! Yoshiki jumped into the crowd twice! Sugizo threw water bottles all over the place! Pata was just chilling! and Heath was all cool! Just wished they played a couple more songs. T___T

June Visitors

2011-06-29T06:15:00.000-07:00

Spain Festival in Regent's Park (05.06.2011):

It was pouring heavily that day, so didn't get to enjoy it. It was mainly Spanish Sports stuff though.

Also cut my hair short! Really short! Heeehee.. I'm not someone who takes care (i.e. conditioner, serum, blowdry, etc.) and pay attention to my hair, and my hair was getting really long anyway, so I thought short hair is more convenient!

And also had some visitors over - Peiru (Warwick) and Radhiah (Birmingham) from 8th-10th of June:

Watched X-men: First Class with Rad... and I LOVED IT! It was AMAZING! Wasn't exactly a fan of the original X-men trilogy, but the prequel kicked ass! It's rare to have a good prequel movie, but now you have a prequel that's even better than the original story! The plot was good and the actors were spot-on! Loved it! James McAvoy! :D

June Roadtrip

2011-06-02T06:11:00.000-07:00

Roadtrip from Reading to Stonehenge and Arthur's table with bro n sis (02/06/2011):

Post-Exam..

2011-06-01T15:39:00.000-07:00

Exams done! Yahoooooooo! ^0^v

when we were studying for the last paper as one whole group

To celebrate, I first indulge myself in great classical music. Went to watch the London Philharmonic Orchestra perform Mahler and Brahms. Especially loved Brahms' Symphony No. 4!

Next, had a fabulous night with Legally Blonde the Musical @ Savoy Theatre. It was really great! No wonder it was dubbed "Best Musical of the Year"! I highly recommend it to all musical lovers out there!

Currently in Reading at sister's new apartment. We'll be off for a roadtrip tomorrow! Yeahheee! And back to the lab on friday!

AND HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TO BABAH, ALAI HAMZI and EQAL!!!! ^^ Sorry, couldnt find a picture of you three at the moment! Nanti tah mengupload!

At the end of a storm...

2011-05-20T15:56:00.000-07:00

The last two days had been, quite frankly, disastrous and very bad. I experienced all types of problems in the space of two days, which led to me breaking down in tears and tearing my hair out. Let's see.. Netbook's not working, lost my hard drive containing all my reasearch data, revising a very difficult topic for a difficult exam, problems with research volunteers plus all the stuff that needs to be done (posting someone's parcel, paying my volunteers) etc. As if revising is not bad enough, adding all these other stuff to think about just stressed me out real bad.

I sat for an exam on the 17th and was having another one on the 20th (which was this afternoon). On the 18th (morning), my netbook just couldn't boot up properly anymore (kept showing the blue screen!). As I had already damaged my laptop beyond repair 2 months ago, I have been using that netbook for work, wi-fi and checking journals to read for my exam. Frustrated by how careless and "panas" I am with electronic gadgets, I immediately bought a new one off Amazon. Sasak lah ku. [Stress]

I went to the University Library for wi-fi lah that day cos me no laptop. I printed off all the journals that I needed to read for the exam, and it was like.. what.. 2 inches of piles of 2-sided journal papers. Feehhh... How am I gonna get my head around that much of information??!!! Sekali, I checked my uni email, and my supervisor asked me about the progress of my research (or lack of) and about my participants. Stress tia ku lagi. I can't even.. uggghh.. Whenever I think about participants for my research, I just feel so annoyed. I sent like, literally, a hundred of emails to the relevant people again & again, and how many have I got so far? Only 10 people! The rest don't bother to reply and/or they just don't care at all.

I got home and revised some more. And oh man... The topic was so confusing. I was like, "Whaattt?" while scanning through a journal or a lecture slide. I was surrounded by these piles of papers.. there were papers on the table, the floor, the bed.. And trying to make sense of it all was just hardwork.. Stress level increased by 3-fold. I went down to the study room with Aisyah to prevent myself from being distracted by the TV or the bed. It was so hard trying to piece all the information together to get the bigger picture. Anyway, stresseddddd ouuuutttttt!!

Sekali yesterday morning (19th), while I was taking a break from the stressful revision, I realised my hard drive was missing! My hard drive containing my research data! If my research data is lost, I AM DOOMED! I searched all over my room, turning the room upside down inside out. Couldn't find it! I didn't remember where or when I have seen it last! Recently, I tend to misplace things and forget them. Like the angpau HM gave me, I searched for it for 3 days before finding it under a cluster of hair products in the shelf. Or the remote controller for my TV, which I looked for everywhere in the room (including in the laundry bag), before finding it tucked nicely under my bed sheet. But this hard drive is far more important! My masters research was on it! I think that was the breaking point for me yesterday, thinking I might have screwed my chances with MSc. I felt so useless at that moment. Why is this happening?! Aku whining arah my friends about it, and they were like "We'll help you find it tomorrow, but for now, just focus on your exams!" It's hard to focus when you just lost your research that accounts for half the course. I had back-ups for most of the data on the main computer in tthe lab, but not all.

Sekali sudah tah atu.. I have a parcel that I need to send to Brunei (kana amanahkan by a friend) and also a very delayed payment to a participant. So much things to do! After letting everything out (ie. via crying, screaming and talking to yourself), I washed my face and wrote down things I need to take care of on a sticky note. "There's no point stressing about it, better solve the problems systematically and one-by-one.." I tried to keep the hard drive issue at the back of my mind while I focused on studying and revising for the exam. Stress and nervous, but masih bulih bertahan. I e-mailed my supervisor explaining about the participants issue (not about the hard drive though!). The exam was more important at that point, and finding the hard drive could wait till after the exam.

When I woke up this morning and re-read all the notes I've made, masya-ALLAH, somehow I could understand the topic and macam make sense of it. ALLAH has made it a bit easier for me. :) So this afternoon, after extensive reading and memorising research methods/results, I went in for the exam. Alhamdulillah it was OK. After the exam, I whined to my coursemates about my hard drive and they were really supportive. They accompanied me to the Lost Property department and one of them was like "Don't worry! I have a hunch it's going to be in there! Good luckkk!" And again, Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah, my hard drive was there! Thank you to whoever that turned it in! And when I checked my email, I got a reply from my supervisor saying she will help me find participants. Phewww... I believe that ALLAH was just testing my patience and endurance in the face of adversity. :)
The little bugger!

Went to watch Pirates of the carribean 4 after the exams! To relieve some stress.. Hehehe. The movie was OK = 6.8/10 lah.. The movie was saved by Jack Sparrow and Barbossa. The new characters were not as engaging (Barbossa and Davy Jones ARE much better, cooler, more badass villains than Blackbeard, Penelope Cruz's character wasn't interesting, the religious dude was good-looking but kind of annoying) and the plot was average. *SPOILER* The attack of the mermaids scene was reaalllllyy cool though. Loved that bit. Second bit I loved was Barbossa and Jack trying to find the cups. I LOVE the interaction between Barbossa and Jack! The lovestory between the religious dude and the mermaid was so unnecessary and corny though! I mean seriously, I'd rather listen to Barbossa talking pirate than listen to the religious dude speaking all lovey-dovey and being all sweet. And I think I was the happy one Jack didn't end up with Angelica! Yeahheee.

Ayte, have a nice weekend everybodyyyy!! And sorry for the incoherent post, I'm soo tired right now!

Get enough sleep!

2011-05-13T16:06:00.003-07:00

Alhamdulillah, I sat for two papers today. 3 more to go! I decided to blog just to remind everyone who's sitting for an exam to get enough rest and eat well! I learnt that the hard way today!

I was feeling really nervous and tense yesterday, and studied till about 3 in the morning. I couldn't sleep well because my mind was still working hard and I woke up (or rather woken up) at 6 due to a feeling of sharp pain in my abdomen. So, I got up anyway and surprisingly, I didn't feel sleepy. I went through my notes again before getting ready to leave the house. I arrived at the exam hall a little over 1 hour early with 2 of my coursemates, Julie and Sabaena. So we talked about the lectures and stuff and a couple of my other coursemates came and joined us. Just as we were talking, out of a sudden, the room was spinning so fast around me! And before I knew it, I lost balance and collapsed onto Sabaena's laps (we were sitting on chairs). They became really concerned! My head felt so light and I felt dizzy just by a slight movement of my head. Sabaena, being a medical doctor, checked my pulse and told me to lie down to get blood flowing back to my brain. Julie offered me her water and dates - to provide my body with fluid and glucose. I drank lots of water these past few days and I had my breakfast this morning, so I was sure it wasn't because of my diet.

I fainted once before during my 2nd year undergrad, so I know what I should do to recover from it. But this time it was different, even after lying down and getting some fluid and glucose, my head still felt very light. I then told Sabaena that it could be due to me having only about 3 hour of semi-sleep, and she said it must definitely be that. She told me that I should sleep during the 3hr break we had between our 1st and 2nd paper. I laid down again and cover my eyes from the light. I was really scared! "What if I collapse again in the exam hall? What if I can't sit for the exam?" those thoughts ran through my mind as I was lying there outside the exam hall while my coursemates were discussing about the notes. One of my course tutors, who is known as the not-so-friendly-and-easily-pissed tutor, passed by and Sabaena explained to him about my condition - that I was feeling weak and dizzy due to stress and lack of sleep. He asked whether I had taken any glucose or energy drink to help me, and Sabaena told him I had water and dates. He sounded a bit concerned but he just walked away. I sat back up and tried to move my head in every direction, and the feeling of dizziness was still there but not as bad. About 15 minutes before the exam, many people started gathering outside the exam hall and we were asked to go in by the examiners. Just as I was picking up my stuff, someone nudged me in the back. I turned around to see my course tutor casually handing me a bottle of glucose drink he just bought. I took it and thanked him, and he just walked away again nonchalantly. I was really touched by it. Didn't know he could be such a sweet person! During the exam, as I was so focused trying to write everything down in the space of 1 hour, I sorta forgot about my dizziness. By the end of it, it was only a tad bit still there. Nasib baik inda paning during the exam! =/

We had our 3 hour break. Me, Julie and Sabaena went to the cafeteria to revise for the next paper. I went to rest on the sofa for half an hour, just closing my eyes and clearing my head. After that, I went to join the both of them at the table to revise. As Julie was focusing on a different topic, it was Sabaena whom I discussed (or more like trying to remember) with. I explained a journal paper to her, and she explained the T-C circuit topic that I completely ignored. And all praises to Allah, ngam the topics we discussed about came out as an essay question in the exam! Nasib baik ya explain T-C circuit atu arahku! Phewww... After the exam, I went to hug her! And Julie was like, "I actually remember what you guys were discussing about than what I prepared as my notes!" Yeah, throughout the day, I was feeling rather light-headed and weak, but thank God I managed to go through the exams just fine.

So, the moral of the story is..... GET ENOUGH SLEEP! I know you'd probably say, "i always sleep about 3-4 hours a day during exam period and never got dizzy!" You just never know! I nevveeerrr experienced dizziness before, even during my 3 years of undergrad exam periods. Just make sure to take care of yourselves, OK? Oh, and EAT! I only had a very light dinner last night, which probably explains the stomach pain I experienced. I went to Boots to buy medicine to remove the wind trapped in my tummy. Make sure to eat! eat! eat!

(slow wifi doesn't allow me to upload pictures..)

Exam Schedule

2011-05-08T07:24:00.002-07:00

13/5: Developmental Neurobiology
13/5: Receptors and Synaptic Signalling
17/5: Systems and Circuit Neuroscience
20/5: Cognitive Systems Neuroscience
27/5: MSc Neuroscience Journal Club

Babah and Babu, doakan untuk adih supaya dapat menjawab dengan tenang and dimudahkan the exams for adih nanti. Amin Ya Rabb.

And, HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO BABU! I LOVE YOU VERY MUCH MOMMY! Datangth k England masakkan utk adih. Hehe. Insya-ALLAH will see you again soon (batah eh rasanyaa!!)

Meeting HM

2011-05-08T07:07:00.000-07:00

Event: Junjung Ziarah with His Majesty the Sultan.
Date: 01.05.2011
Venue: Hilton Hotel, Park Lane

Will provide more details (and more pictures!) after I'm done with my exams! For now, just enjoy the pictures, ok babah? Hehe. (Oh, me and the girls were volunteers for the event. We worked from 8 am til about 7.30 pm that day, and I was completely exhausted at the end of it! I couldn't feel my feet after standing and running around in those heels for hours!)

My temporary roommates (Yes, I managed to squeeze in 3 more girls in my small room!):

Take care everyone!

Scotland trip

2011-04-20T06:03:00.000-07:00

Should've made this post weeks ago! Before I start ranting, I just wanna thank everyone for being so sweet and supportive when I had that crazy day (Read previous post!). I was a bit disappointed I couldn't go, but I wasn't completely crushed or anything! Putri (my friend in Aberdeen) even went as far as buying me a new train ticket to Scotland! The day after I missed my flight, Putri called me up. She said she felt bad for me, and so wanted to buy me ticket to Scotland. I insisted I was OK about missing the trip, but Putri's a really stubborn girl. Haiiyaa.. In the end, she bought me a train ticket from London to Edinburgh for the 3rd of April. Thanks so much Pu3! :)

3rd-4th: Edinburgh, Scotland. Stayed overnight at a hostel. We shared the room with another Australian lady. EDINBURGH IS SO B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L! And the Edinburgh castle is one of the most gorgeous castles I've seen! I love how it sits on top of this beautiful rocky cliff/hill, with flowers covering the slope. I repeatedly commented on how "LAWA!" it was, while Mahirah kept replying "It took thousands of slaves working hard on that for years!" Hehe. We wanted to go on this supposedly free ghost tour (because according to PU3, Edinburgh used to be the place for witches and dungeons). We couldn't find one, so we just walked around the city. Lawaaa... and cold!! :) And ada someone went to the toilet like 8 times a day! Oh, and thanks to EDDIE & the boys for taking us out for dinner!

4th: Glasgow, Scotland. We left Edinburgh for Glasgow at 11.30am. Nearly missed the train though because we weren't keeping track of the time. And, it was pouring rain that day! The initial plan was to stay in Glasgow till 7pm before travelling off again to Aberdeen. Unfortunately, we lost our Aberdeen reservation ticket, so we had to purchase new ones. As buying a new train ticket would cost us around ~27 quids each, we went for coach. And of all days, the MegaBus ticket counter just happened to be closed, paksa kami cari internet to buy coach ticket online! Cali lh jua. It took us about ~2hrs to finally get ourselves new coach tickets (thanks to Starbucks internet!). Since the coach leaves at 5:30pm, that only gave us about 3 hours to look around Glasgow! In the end, we just visited their "Modern Art museum" (yg aku nda paham at all! I don't see how any of that is art! And how any of that deserves to be put in a museum!) and had late lunch at an Italian restaurant nearby (nyaman!).

4th-6th Aberdeen, Scotland. Aberdeen is so much fun! It's so beautiful and peaceful too! Well.. I live in London, anywhere but here would feel peaceful! But seriously, you just feel relaxed and carefree when you go there. And I LOVE STONEHAVEN!!!! Me and Mahirah were pretty lucky, because we had PU3's friend, Peter to drive us around Aberdeen. Let's see.. We visited Doonies farm (and while Mahirah and PU3 were happily feeding the sheeps and cows carrots, I stayed a good 3m away because those huge, straight teeth are scaring me! which earned me an "Oh, such a city girl!" from Peter! Haha. At least I was brave enough to stroke the pony's head.. for 2 seconds..). We visited seaside village,Stonehaven (lovely beach and icecream!). We visited the beautiful Dunnotor castle (A stunning ruined castle on cliff top! We had a lovely picnic on top of another cliff facing the castle. We walked down to the coast, and took lots of pictures! That place was just mesmerizing! It wasn't as fun walking back up though!). Lastly, we visited the Crathes castle (a weird looking castle with awkwardly-placed windows, with a huge eccentric garden next to it. Very mysterious place!). That night, we had sushi and spaghetti for dinner!

Zimahhanis, the observer
Yeay! I touched him!

Overlooking Dunnotar Castle

the weird garden

I had a really great time in Scotland! Thanks PU3, MahiMahi, Peter and Jerry! :D

Bad day...

2011-03-29T14:06:00.001-07:00

Today's headline: Worst day of my life physically, mentally n financially.

Recap:

My ireland/scotland trip should have started today, with my 8:50am flight to Belfast. I slept late last night. I woke up a bit late this morning. Got out of the house at nearly 7 am. Took the bus to Liverpool Street but there was construction going on, so I thought this might take a while. I set off the bus and opted for the fast tube instead. Took the tube to Liverpool Street and got there around 7:30am. Then I realised something odd - the express railway says Stransted Airport Express.. and I was supposed to go to Gatwick! "Oh shittt." I called my friend up and she confirmed that Gatwick express is from Victoria station! I could only find the central line, so I went around and asked a lady officer where the circle line is. She told me to go back to where I came from, and I did... But there was no freaking circle line! And the sign is not helpful AT ALL! So I asked another officer, and he pointed me to the right direction which is on the opposite side! Frantically ran to the platform, and nearly got on the wrong tube! Waited for another 10 minutes before the tube to arrive. Finally got to Victoria station at 8:15am. Hopped on the Gatwick Express immediately (which costs me £££).. By the time I arrived at Gatwick, I already missed the flight. So I wandered around the airport on what to do next. I called up Babah to ask whether I should just cancel the trip or buy a new ticket. He told me I should go. So I bought a new ticket to Belfast (£70) which leaves from Stransted Airport at 4:05pm. I checked the details carefully again and again before I actually bought it! I took the Gatwick express (more £££ lost)to go back to Victoria station.

Came back to Victoria at around 11.30am. I decided to have lunch with my Bruhall friends and we agreed to eat out at a malaysian restaurant in Paddington. Checked the bus timetable a couple of times just to make sure I don't mess up again - "Ok cool. Take bus 36 at Bus stop F!" I reminded myself again and again. And I did exactly that. After 15 minutes in the bus, I thought to myself "Hmmmm... Wait a minute. Where in the world are we going?!?! I've never heard of these places!" My instinct told me to get off at the next stop. And I was right, that bus was heading to the opposite direction to where I want to go!!! Oh my GOD!! What the hell is wrong with me? So I crossed the road and took the correct bus! Had lunch with my friends at around 12:30pm and whined. Just when I thought things couldn't get worse. Pffftt.. After that, because I didn't want to miss my second flight too, I left the restaurant early. Sorry girls! So took the tube AGAIN to Liverpool Street. Got on Stransted Express (oh my £££~ T___T). Arrived at Stransted Airport at around 2:45. I felt pleased with myself because I came early this time! "No line at the counter. YES! Everything's going smoothly so far!" I thought. I presented my passport at the counter. She tried typing my name twice, then suddenly she frowned. She typed my name again and again, albeit a bit furiously I was sure the Enter button was gonna break. At that point, I knew something was gonna go wrong AGAIN! She looked at me and said "Your name's not in the system". I gave her my booking reference. She tried that, but gave the same reply. She told me to go check with the information desk. And so I went, praying everything will work out. The lady at the information desk told me the same thing and I gave her my booking reference. She called up another officer, and after a few moments of silence, she looked up to me and said "You booked a ticket for the 29th of APRIL!" I couldn't believe my ears. I just wanna slap myself! What the freaking hell is going on here??!!!! And then she began talking about all these other things - that they couldn't transfer the flight ticket, that I need to buy a NEW ticket, that there's another flight at 7pm... blablabla.. I just gave up. I just covered my face and let out a big sigh. I took my passport and called my dad. He couldn't believe it either! He asked me if I want to take the 7pm flight, and I was like "No.. today has been really bad! I have a bad feeling about this.." And my mom shared the same sentiment, she told me that maybe things weren't going according to plan because something's preventing me from going. Like I wasn't meant to go to Ireland/Scotland.

Or maybe everything is just due to me being stupid and careless..... which is very likely because I AM an idiot. A fact proven again and again.

I felt so defeated at the end of that. I took the Stransted Express back to Liverpool Street (I could hear the £££ disappearing again..) All those tube and train rides since 7am till 4pm came down to nothing but a waste of money. Today has been plain weird and crazy. Nothing worked out! All my journeys were all messed up! Took the wrong tube, missed the flight, took the wrong bus, booked the wrong ticket. I never had so many bad things happen to me in one day! And so I decided not to go ahead with the trip, because I do feel a bit superstitious about the whole thing. And, the money spent today was enough to buy me about 2 months worth of BruHall meals. Anyway, lesson learnt.

Hope you guys have a great easter break!

Paintball n Birthdays

2011-03-04T04:06:00.001-08:00

Hello all..

Apologies for being MIA for a few months. If you are a long-time reader (or lurker) of my blog, you should know by now I am a pro at not updating. And thus, by updating the blog with this post, I advise you not to expect another one coming along, soon after this. =P I've been very busy working on my project (and catching up on my reading!), because exams' in 2 months time, presentation is in July and dissertation deadline is in August. KYAAAAA.. and its already MARCH!! Sooo fast. I woke up at 4 am this morning, and now it's already noon! Nda terasa ehh.. 8 hours gone.. tick tock tick tock tick tock.. Speaking of time reminds me of this anime character, SiegHart, who is like one of the most coolest, kickass character ever! And he controls Time, which just adds to his awesomeness. *I can hear a few "Huh?"s*

Onto the latest awesome things that recently happened in my life... Let's see... I received replies from about 15 people interested in participating in my project.. So that's cool. Now, I need to find dates to do the testings.. I had a peek at the room schedule, and I don't think I'd be able to finish everything by April (just before the exams). T__T Oh well..

Mad Paintball last weekend in Cosford.. My 4th time joining. I was actually a bit reluctant to join this year, because the fee was expensive and most of my friends wouldn't be there (Si razan ganya tinggal). But my brother wanted to join, so I reckoned "why not eh?". It was a lot of fun as always, despite coming in last. Huhu. Kesian. No offense, but the girls in our team pawned the boys big time. :P Seriously, the girls moved forward and went Rambo on everyone, while the boys just stayed behind and hid behind the barrels. Hahaha. "Strategy wah tu.." Yeah yeah, if you say so. :P

with my fellow Milner..

Lunch@Chopstix with brother and the Brummies before balik

Oh and a big thank you to Radhiah and her housemates for letting me stay! :D Went back to London the following day (sunday) and just slept the whole day. Got straight back to work on Monday. *sigh* Oh!! Me and a couple of my BruHall friends (correction: my ONLY BruHall friends... T___T) did a surprise birthday party for another fellow BruHall friend, Aisyah. All of them happened to be my room neighbours by the way. 5th floor for the win!!! Anyway, because Aisyah finished her uni at 8pm, we planned to surprise her during dinner at a nearby restaurant. The plan was to have Huda bring her there to have dinner, and me and the others would pop out of nowhere and surprise her with a cake. Masa d brunei hall, we were waiting for Aisyah and Huda to go up to their rooms (via the lift) to taruh their bags before we sneaked out of the lobby to the restaurant kan.. So we waited next to the lobby arah the mailpost area (Boys wing). And what do you know, ada tia si Aisyah walked in on us (I was holding up the flower and cake)! We were stumbling on our words, trying to make an excuse for standing around there; Aisyah looked at us weird. She told us she came to check her mails, and left. I was sooo sure we got busted (tapi as Aisyah told us later, she didnt notice the flower nor the cake.. either she wasnt paying attention or she was lying.. lol). We went ahead with the plan anyway (even recruiting the waiter), and she definitely looked surprise when we brought in the cake! weeeheeeee~~
Happy belated birthday!! :D

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TO MY SISTER AS WELL! May ALLAH bless and guide all of us always! Amin~ Oh, and apparently I have to go to Birmingham again next weekend for the All-England tournament (awu Babah n Babu, nda bulih miss liat c Taufik main! Biar tia nda pandai manang..). :) Till next time, love you all! xx

A fun week! :)

2010-11-22T05:59:00.000-08:00

I did so many things last week! It was awesome! Handed in my essay on monday (after pulling all-nighters for a couple of days), repaid my sleep debt on tuesday, went to watch a London Philharmonic Orchestra concert at the Royal Festival Hall on wednesday night, met my coursemates again after more than a week on thursday, watched new Harry Potter movie ALONE on friday, participated in the BrUCL 'lost in london' event on saturday.... was supposed to go to a badminton session yesterday, but I was too lazy, so I stayed in my room the whole day!

I'm currently in the Library, making full use of the free and fast wi-fi! Hee. :D

My favourite piece was Strauss's Death and Transfiguration!

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS!

BrUCL committee and volunteers for the event

Also, a big shoutout to miss Ilyani Adlina, who is currently enjoying her time in Brunei! Thank you for the card and chocolate! That was really sweet of you (no pun intended)! :) Rindu u lots, girl! xx

Paintball!!!

2010-11-01T15:45:00.001-07:00

RawrrrrR!! It's already November! Oh my gosh.. how time flies~ Oh, to babah, daylight saving has started, so the time difference turns back to 8 hours. Anyhoo, my body is in all sorts of pain right now. Mostly muscle aches, plus pain from the bruises... wait... did I just say bruises? Yes, ladies and gentleman, B.R.U.I.S.E.S.. aiiggooo.. I went paintballing with some of my coursemates (ok, there was only 11 of us who turned up) yesterday on Sunday. Can I just say, Delta Force paintball site is beyond awesome! There are sooo many paintball... errmm.. locations (they have one with a huge aeroplane, with huts, jungle, etc. etc.) and the objective changes with every match (e.g. protect the president, conquer the castle, grab the flag, etc.).. How cool is that! So, it wasn't only us against each other, but we played against other teams (i.e. other people who went paintballing at the same time as us). And I just wanna say, some of the boys I played against were proper jerks. I was really glad when the marshal took them off the game near the end, because they kept breaking the rules! I mean, they intentionally shoot like crazy at you, even when you were already out of the game! Sasak ku! Byk bruises ku ulih drg. Tapi yeah, my team won every game! yeahheeeee~ Even during the final big game (which was a lot of fun!), the team I was in won! :D Happynyaaa akuuu.. pasal nda pernah manang paintball tournament for the last 3 years.. errkk..

I also had my journal club presentation this afternoon. Alhamdulillah, glad to say it went really well. The presentation itself only took 1 hour (which is shorter that expected). I thought I did rather average, but all my groupmates (and the tutor) kept congratulating me and my presentation partner for giving a great presentation... and one of them even said that was the best one so far. Aku mcm nda pecaya.. Drg atu try to be polite kali saja.. huhuhu. I thought my explanation was rather bad, to be honest. Oh well. At least, that was done and over with. And believe it or not, for someone who usually has anxiety attacks when giving presentation, I actually did not experience any shaky hands, trembling voice, cold hands&feet, nauseous or fast heartrate at all for that one. It kinda surprised me too. Must be the Do'a I kept reciting before the presentation. =)

Oh.. that's me and my presentation partner, Jo. Can't believe we actually went paintballing the day before our presentation. Hahahah. Tapi ingatku masa this one game, where the ojective was to conquer all huts. Skali he was next to me, and we were eyeing this one hut. He asked me if it was empty. Skali aku mcm "I think so. Go take it! GO GO GO!" He ran to the hut... and he got shot several times because there WAS someone inside. Aku meliat dari jauh saja~ ahahha. kesiann.. ku jadikn scapegoat to check if the hut was really empty. :P

Signing

2010-10-29T09:50:00.001-07:00

Just finished the 2nd session of Sign Language. For this one, we learnt about transport and also, how to ask things related to direction. Ahhh.. learning this beautiful language is such a refreshing experience. Makes you appreciate what God has given you, which is five perfect senses.. Masya-ALLAH. We sometimes tend to take everything for granted, and whine about shallow and superficial things.

Alhamdulillah, thank you ALLAH for blessing me with good health and continuous rezeki. :)

On another note, I have officially joined the Sign Language soc, Dance soc (esehh), BrUCL soc (Bruneian society), Badminton soc (I'll make another post on this soon!), Mind soc and the Volunteering soc. Heeeee. I love all of them (altho I have yet to go check out the dance sessions. gulp.)

OHHHH! AND I HAVE FINALLY POSTED ABOUT MY 21st Birthday and Raya (Check the September posts) and also my Graduation (Check the July posts). I will post about my Italy trip next time. Bangas tia... Adiosss.

UCL

2010-10-29T09:43:00.001-07:00

Just a quick update on things at UCL!

Freshers Fayre (went there with my coursemate, Seet. Taken about a month ago.)

The one with the white coat is another coursemate of mine, Julie. She's helping out with this Charity Week cupcakes sale.

Last weekend, me and a transit resident at Brunei Hall - Qiilah (KCL) went to Petrie Museum at UCL. We sort of just stumbled into the place while walking around the campus (sepatutnya we went to UCL to catch this "Know your Universe" festival, but there was literally only a couple of people around, so we decided to ditch it). Anyway, Petrie museum comprises of everything from Ancient Egypt. And for a small place like that, they sure do have a MASSIVE collection of interesting egyptian stuff. We also went shopping @ Westfield.

My room @ BruHall

2010-10-28T09:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry it took me this long to upload some pictures of my very cosy room. I've only just recently finished cleaning it up and unpacking my stuff (after about a month of inhibiting this place!). Haha. My room is on the top floor, and attic-ish. If I look outside my window, I can see the London Eye... and also the moon. :) Perfect location.

Study table.... and also dining? haha. Look at all the food!
My life support.. the Internet USB! and so expensive too.. T_T
My depleting food stock

Beautiful London Eye at night
And I can always watch the sunrise every morning.. :)

Reading

2010-10-18T09:40:00.000-07:00

Kaka's awesome 3-bedroom apartment in Reading. 2 floors (2nd floor - all the bedrooms and toilet & 1st floor - kitchen, dining, toilet and living room & just the main door on ground floor). Some of the facilities there are quite old-school - e.g. the TV provided by the landlord uses sort of like a radio frequency tuner-ish thing to get the signal, I dont know how to explain it... you know mcm radios dulu2 have this analog AM/FM tuner. Cematulah. Yeah. But the rooms are all spacious, and the location is great. It's close to town, there's a bus stop in front of the apartment, etc. etc.

At Reading City Centre, after we had lunch @ Tompompo (sp?):

Being in London...

2010-10-04T02:44:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone back at home!!!

Sorry for the severe lack of updates! I will try to backtrack all the main events for the past 3 months and post them (probably this week). Key events that happened recently - my degree graduation, trip to Italy, my new niece, raya and my first week as a Londoner. So do check this page once in a while for updates!

Ok, so for some of you who may not know where or what I am doing right now - I am currently doing my Master degree in Neuroscience at UCL, London. And because I am living on a rather tight... err.. budget, considering the massive rent prices and transportation in London, I have opted to live in Brunei Hall - where the rent is just out-of-this-world cheap and it's catered!! What more could you ask for? Oh, maybe the internet. But still, with just £90 per MONTH, I am more than grateful with what's been provided. Single room en-suite, baby~~! We're so spoiled by BSU! The receptionists are all very sweet... I havent made friends with any of the BruHall PR (just recently found out about that term!), so I always go straight to my room after Uni/dinner. =S My room still looks like there has been a King Kong going amok in there eventho it's been more than a week. Haha. Bah bah, aku usai my room this week, insya-ALLAH. =P

OH! I just missed my morning lecture! It was an optional lecture, nasib baik juaaaa! No, I did not skip the class! Ok, so the lecture starts at 9.30 - I got out of my place at 8.30, went to the tube station, found out there was a strike so no tube today. I've never taken the bus before so I was kinda lost. Officer pointed to the wrong direction so salah jalan for a while, went to the bus stop, MASSSSIIIVVVEEEEEEEE queue, I missed out on 3-4 buses because they were always full, got on the bus but terminated at Baker Street. So, set off at Baker Street St. and it was the same story. MASSSSSSIIIIIIIVEEEE queue AGAIN but this time I must have missed out on 7 buses! It was so annoying! Because the buses never stopped at the same spot! Sasak ku! After much waiting, FINALLY arrived at UCL at 10.45... errrkk. So here I am at the computer cluster (I mean the postgraduate computer cluster~~ awu, ada specific area JUST for the postgrads!) doing some reading and updating this blog!

Let's just forget about that. Anyway, about my Master. There must be around 40 people in it, which is twice as many as last year for the course! And it has an interesting mixture of nationalities - more than a quarter are brits, some americans, some germans, a couple of dutch, cyprus, greek, iceland, indians, pakistanis, chinese and of course.. A BRUNEIAN! Yes, saya represent Brunei. Haha. The ones I always hang out with are Julie (Iceland), Jane, Seet and this medic teacher. But everyone is just plain hilarious and nice. I love it! And all of us are currenly looking for research projects, so we're like writing to every neuroscientists and neurologists out there in UCL. Haha. I've e-mailed some, mainly those who are working on memory and learning. Hopefully, testuck satu. AMIN YA RABB! =)

There was Freshers Fayre last week, and I must've joined a dozen of societies! HAHAHA. I kinda regretted not doing any activities during my undergrad (But it was partly because I had a crazy schedule), so I plan to make use of this one year as much as possible. As a friend of mine said, comfort zone limits possibilities. I joined all the orcestras socs (not playing for the orchestras! they just subsidise ticket prices to watch orchestra!), dance soc, badminton soc, SIGN LANGUAGE soc which I think is very awesome, and a couple more which I couldn't remember. Seet joined a dozen more than me.. Haha. She joined almost all the martial arts. Oooohh.. of course, not forgetting the BrUCL. Bruneian UCL soc. Had a raya gathering at the president's place last friday - and got the chance to talk to some of the BrUCL members. =)

I cant think of anything else to write. Oh! The weather's pretty gloomy lately, but that's England for ya. Ok, going to do some more reading! Adiosssssss~!

21st Birthday!

2010-09-22T09:34:00.000-07:00

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was my birthday yesterday.. and I just turned 21. errrkkkk.. oh noo.. getting old. Thank you to my girls for the badil. :) Love you girls~!! And also, BIG BIG THANK YOU to my family for the dinner treat @ Emperor's (akhirnya my craving for Sago tercapai~) and also the birthday "surprise". Haha. Nice try, mommy, but next time, make sure you remove all evidence prior to the surprise (i.e. no birthday ribbon in the sink =P). And Keb, you can't act. Hahaha.

Hari Raya! part 2

2010-09-21T06:31:00.000-07:00

Some of the people who came beraya (Full set of pictures on Facebook!):

Raya convoy with the girls! Highlight - Juy and Azimah's pets!:

Raya at Baytul's (I miss this girl! ^_^):

Oh, and they latupkan badil (the girls thought it would be colourful fireworks, tapi banar2 badil) for my birthday! Heeeee. Thank you! :)

Hari Raya!

2010-09-13T09:51:00.000-07:00

SELAMAT HARI RAYA TO EVERYONE!! ONCE AGAIN, I WOULD LIKE TO APOLOGISE TO ANYONE WHO I HAVE OFFENDED, HURT or DONE SOMETHING WRONG TO. I AM REALLY SORRY AND I JUST WANT EVERYONE TO KNOW I WOULD NEVER EVER INTENTIONALLY HURT ANYONE'S FEELINGS. MINTA MAAF BANAR2 ZAHIR & BATIN. AND, ENJOY THIS RAYA (and hopefully all of us wont get too bloated by the end of it!) I SAYANG SEMUAAAAA~~~!!

The HH family, minus Abgkim yg d laut

with my handsome nephews.. :)
and the little princess.. :)

Penanjong cousins
Penanjong cousins
Seria cousins

Graduation

2010-07-15T12:10:00.000-07:00

Alhamdulillah, I am officially a holder of the Bachelors Degree of Medical Science from the University of Birmingham. YEAYYYYYY!! *urges readers to clap*. My graduation was held at the Great Hall on the 15th of July (2.30pm). Me and Ilyani wore purple baju kurungs on the day, and no, it was not intentional to wear the same colour. But luckily, the shades were different. Haha. Met my fellow coursemates again after such a long time, and everyone looked lovely.. and HAPPY! Haha. Some of them didn't turn up for the congregation though, which is kind of sad because there's very low chance that I'm going to see them ever again. Booo. =( Oh, Dean (the post-doc I was working with) graduated on the same day as well - yeah, it took almost a year after actually earning his PhD. My family (Parents, kaka & Bgkim), Ilyani's family, Ka Ckah, Ka Teem, Ka Mizah, Ka Zal, Spol and Mizi were there to celebrate the special day with us! =) Thank you thank you~

Fatin's graduation

2010-06-24T13:12:00.000-07:00

HAPPY GRADUATION to MY HOUSEMATE, FATIN BIMBO~~~!!

Wooohoooo. She looked absolutely gorgeous in her black dress. Ya paling lawa tadi amongst all the international students in my opinion~ :) Her graduation was held in Birmingham Conservatoire Victoria Hall at 2 pm. Me and Razan arrived at the place an hour later. We took lotssss of pictures with the celebrity sampai ia "ngaleh senyum". Her boyfriend and his brother attended her graduation as well. The other boys, Kimin, Spol, Mallie and Lehin (who has just arrived to the UK this morning!) came later. We later went to have our late lunch at Wagamama (my 3rd time in a week?) and I FINALLY got to meet Miss Naili after.... 2 months?!

Cannot wait for mine... Yeahheeee!!! :)

Lunch.. Dinner..

2010-06-21T12:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I went to Lisyah's place to watch the match between Japan and Holland before going off to the city to have lunch with my coursemates, Sweta and Prabha. I was terribly annoyed Japan lost.. but whatever. I'm rooting for Argentina to win anyway. Me and the girls went to Wagamama to eat, and we just talked over food - just a little catch-up time. We talked about what each of us are planning to do next.. and talk about excessive chocolate intake.. and Sweta's housemates. Haha. Good fun. We went shopping for a bit, tried on some wigs before pissing off the salesgirl and then off to Food Fair near Town Hall. Food Food Food~~!!!

Right after that, Dr. Izazi called me up saying she wanted to treat me and Lisyah to dinner before she goes back home to Brunei. So, off I went to Khanum, my favourite Indian restaurant in Birmingham. Thanks Zazizuuu~!! As I haven't seen Zazi for quite a while too, we also did some catching-up.

And this morning, I cooked some food for her, Lisyah and my housemates. She has moved all her stuff to Rad's room - and Lisyah will be responsible in moving all of that plus Rad's stuff to their new house one road away. Good luck dude! Haha. As usual, aku masak kambing.. ahaha.. but since I haven't masak that recipe for a long time, aku lupa taruh garlic and ginger. Errrrrr.. I just threw in some mushroom, brocolli and some potato slices to make it look more.... tasteful? It turned out ok, putting the brocolli in was a good move. Haha.

Bye Bye Dr. Zazi~ See ya in Brunei!!!!!! Hee.

D-Day

2010-06-17T11:47:00.000-07:00

The results were out! Went to Uni at around 12ish noon to check. Surprisingly, I felt really calm from the moment I stepped out of my house.. and even after I found out about my result. Alhamdulillah, I have officially completed my degree and will be graduating next month Insya-ALLAH. My result was not what I desired, and I have to re-sort everything out if I want to further my studies. Nevertheless, All praises be to ALLAH for He knows best. =) After calling and texting some people about it, I went to First Ave with Ilyani because she promised to cook Satay for me!

There are only 6 final year students in Birmingham this year. 3 from UoB (me, Jajan and Ilyani) and 3 from Aston (Shuhir, Hanif and AliSyah). Alisyah's the only one left to know his result. Hanif wouldn't tell us his, and the girls all have the same result! :P Haha. But yeah, congratz to everyone who'll be graduating this summer! p/s: I've spread the Nodame disease to Shuhir!

Killing Lalat

2010-05-28T15:01:00.000-07:00

So Rad discovered there were lalats everywhere in the kitchen, "About 10 bejalan on the door". She tried to find the source, and.... found this green plastic bag on top of our microwave. Rupanya ada raw meat that was left outside the freezer for days, and lots of lalats infesting on it and breeding! All the lalats started coming out and Radhiah and Fatin became Flies-busters for the day amidst all the screaming. Fatin told me to come down and I joined in the "fun". After killing about ~30 flies using my 99p insect killer spray, we decided to clean up our we-know-its-dirty-but-we-are-too-malas-to-clean-it kitchen. While we were at it, I decided to clean our ergghh-looking bathroom as well. During the cleaning campaign, we discovered lots of digusting rotten stuffs that should've been thrown away ages ago. Haishh. Bini2 saja~ Thanks for the lalat experience, "ia telah membuka mata kami" I quote Tiya.

Cleaner than evaaaaaaa~

Birthday shoutouts

2010-05-26T20:21:00.000-07:00

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY TO MY DEAREST NEPHEW, HARIZ HAIQAL (a.k.a Pachi)!!! USYU CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!!!

And also, HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY TO MY DEAR OLD HOUSEMATE - Radhiah Rambo! We managed to surprise her on her bday. Lisyah helped replace her lightbulb and tried to distract her. We barged into her room and surprised her while singing a birthday song~ Barging in was more of me kicking her bedroom door wide open! Haha. Oh, with a knife in my hand. Radhiah shrieked loudly in surprise. Haha. Lisyah complained; saying he was standing behind the door at the time I kicked it open, and luckily it didn't hit him flat on his face. Sorry guys~ I was too excited. Anyway, we bought her a customised chicken doll (we dressed it up and put our voices in) - and call it Cheembo! "Chee-" from its original name 'Cuddly Cheeks'... and "-mbo" because all my housemates have nicknames ending with -bo.

London!

2010-05-21T10:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I went to London for an MSc interview in Neuroscience at UCL. I was accompanied by my two ~~bodyguards~~ awesome friends, Fatin and Lisyah. It was so sweet of them to dangani aku to London just to give me moral support for my interview. You guys had to wake up early for me, so sorry~ AND THANK YOU SO SO MUCH!!!! My train left at 9 am and arrived in London Euston at 11ish am. My interview was at 2pm, I kept reading research papers published by my interviewers and other research papers of interest beforehand just so I could come off as being knowledgeable during the interview. haha. I felt nervous and panic throughout the train journey and when I was touring UCL. But, the interview went really well, ALHAMDULILLAH. =) Our return train's not until 9pm (because it was the cheapest.. huhuhu), so we spent the afternoon having our late lunch at this malaysian restaurant at Trafalgar Sq. and shopping at Westfield.

End of BMedSc!

2010-05-17T09:27:00.000-07:00

DONE DONE DONE! The last and final exam of the whole course! Of the whole 3-year degree! 3 YEARS! IT HAS BEEN 3 YEARS! Sorry for the caps, i'm just feeling ecstatic at the moment. To 'celebrate', me and Ilyani went straight to the city and stuffed ourselves with Wagamama and Druckers cakes. Yum Yum! Of course, we talked about how it just seemed surreal how long we've been here and just how fast time flies. We talked when we first came to the UK, we were pretty much clueless and immature. And look at us now! Before I even know it, here I am with my course all wrapped up and Insya-ALLAH I'll be graduating in 2 months time. Amin Ya Rabb!

Yan Yan: Housemate (2007-2008), Coursemate (2007-2010), Friend (2007-forever)

I still find it hard to believe and it still hasn't quite sink in yet. I went through so much during the course, all the stress, feeling inferior, loneliness, feeling dumb, sleepless nights but also, all the fun, jokes and laughter, the people i've met. Wahhh.. 3 taun. Like ilyani said, "Macam kemarin rasanya". When I recall back all those 3 years worth of memories, it feels like everything that happened was a dream. Ok, dramatic alert! Haha.

Day of my flight to the UK 2007. I cried hard at the airport
Me and my housemates on our way to the Uni. Our first day of Uni!
My first time experiencing Raya overseas and without family
Formation of CMC!

I remember my first year as the most enjoyable, I had lots of fun (workload for first year was massive and my timetable was full, but the pressure on first year performance wasn't overwhelming, thus I was able to go out and have fun more!). Eh yani, ingat ko first time tani k uni to register, we got lost on our way back to Nisa's house. Then, we got locked out for about 2 hours because no one was in. Haha. kesiannn. Selalu lagi tu personality clash with Razan dulu ah. Cali. Nowadays, Razan adores me. hahaha. just kidding. 63 Milner ROCKS! Oh, and we hated our landlord.

In my second year, I somehow became more reserved and a bit of an "anti-social" especially towards my new housemates Radhiah and Fatin. Ntah, I just felt awkward around them at first and took me a while before I finally opened up to them. It also took quite some time before I could warm up to the new Master students. Anti-social nyangku. The most memorable moment during second year was when me, Radhiah and Razan went shopping at Tesco. Hahhahaa.. We had a shopping cart and we wanted to go to the upper floor. We didn't know there was a lift, so we used the escalator. The cart got stuck at the end of the escalator sudah d atas, and so all of us bumped into it and the people behind us pun bumped into us. it caused a major traffic arah escalator tarus. And I nearly tripped too! BARIMALUUU!! Oh oh and also, my second year = Rock Band at Alton. Sifu Kash!

I miss my two Malaysian friends, Halida and Fifie! :'(
Zombie night for kayun's birthday video! Haha. We danced in the middle of the street during a very cold night!
Praha, Czech Republic!
The female drummer! Chalenss..

And now third year... wahhh... haha. Awal2 when I moved in to my new house, there were 2 bodyguards free-loading in our living room. Oklah, not exactly free-loading, they cooked and threw out the garbage bags for us. I hang out more with my housemates and Dr. Izazi this year. Earlier during the year, we spent most of our time just playing games especially Singstar. Then our TV broke, and we stopped chilling out in the living room. kesian. Highlight of this year.. hmmm... Shuffle? hahaha. "Bulih ko shuffle sini ni Nis!" Oh, and also the name-calling (plus funny nicknames)! haha.

Zombie Walk! where i met ozzy osbourne!
These two fill my head with make-up, fashion and kpop stuffs!
MEETING IAN RUSH!

In conclusion, saya sayang Birmingham.

New Camera? GEHHH!

2010-04-28T09:41:00.000-07:00

Salam everyone,

I bought a new DigiCam last week, and it finally arrived today. I have yet to receive my memory card tho. =( You see, there is something wrong with my SLR since the paintball event, so I've been camera-less for about 2 months now. I couldn't find any camera repair shop around here, so I would only be able to get it my SLR fixed in Brunei. Thus, the need to buy a digital camera (finally a camera that is not bulky and easy to carry around!). So, I wasn't exactly just spending my money on unnecessary stuff. AND, thanks to PU3 for showing off her awesome-looking camera (Lumix LX3 if im not mistaken) in her blog, I was tempted to buy the same thing. But I was put off by the price~ mim alif hal. So I opted for a cheaper camera of the same brand, as most of the reviews hailed Lumix over Canon Powershot. At the end, I decided to go with Lumix TZ7, since lots of people commented on how great the camera is.

Heeeeeeee.

Currently listening to a QC talk by fellow bruneian students ('sisters' from other parts of the UK) through Paltalk. =) Mudahan dpt taufik and hidayah darinya.

Project + Wedding

2010-04-26T08:41:00.000-07:00

Yeay! Done! After all the printing fiasco I experienced this morning.. Let me present my precious baby~~~~

Hopefully this 45-page long baby can give me some good marks for my final year! Amin!

Summer is definitely around the corner~ The days when I fall asleep when the sky hasn't completely turned dark and wake up when the sky's already bright. Oh moon, where art thou? Regardless, today is such a lovely day. The weather outside is sunny, but not sizzling hot. I love how the white sakura flower petals (ubiquitous at the uni) fell from its branch and gracefully settle onto the green grass when the gentle wind blows. Lawa~ But yeah, it's getting pretty hot lately. 15-16 degrees. To illustrate how hot it is, here's me currently eating a container of ice cream while my little fan is on.

On a happy note, SELAMAT PENGANTIN BARU to my dearest cousin, Masnur a.k.a Agong. I'm sorry I couldn't be there. Wish I could see you in your wedding dress! Judging from the pictures on fb, I know you looked gorgeous! Semoga your marriage be blessed by ALLAH S.W.T and berkekalan. Amin. =)
Credit to the owner of the picture. Stolen from FB pasal lawa.
And from the many pictures posted on FB and what Babah told me, this boy was quite the ladies' man during the events. Hehe. Si Pachi~ Usyu rinduuu. ;)
Credit to Kaka/Auntie(?) Asnur

Exams in 2 weeks' time! YIKES!

Nodame Cantabile craze..

2010-04-21T16:36:00.001-07:00

I AM CURRENTLY CRAZY FOR NODAME CANTABILE!! Yes, I am wayyyy late. My sister kept telling me what a great series it was, but I kept ignoring her. Sekali hari atu aku bored, so I decided to just watch the first episode.. Can you say, HOOKED? Berabis! I think I finished the 12-episode drama in 2 days. Then I went on to watch their 2-episode drama special. Sekali I found out that they're releasing a 2 part Nodame MOVIES! Wahhhh... SIUUKKKK!! The first part was released in Japan last December and the second one was on the 17th of April. Can't wait for the DVD releaseeee!!! Eeekkk. Gembira Gembira~ Tho, I'm gonna a bit sad after I watch these movies. That will mark the end for the whole Nodame Cantabile era. No more Chiaki-senpai and Nodame~~ They're sooo cute together. ^____^ Ueno Juri and Tamaki Hiroshi couple FTW!

A clip from the first Nodame movie (released last Dec):

I LOVE THE MUSIC IN THE WHOLE NODAME DRAMA, DRAMA SP AND MOVIES! I'M SOOOO GONNA WATCH A SYMPHONY CONCERT AFTER MY EXAMS!

Speaking of exams, I've finally got my finalised exam timetable (wahhh.. panic panic!):
10th May - Stem Cells (3 hours), 13th May - Neuropharm (3 hours),
17th May - Medical Science and Society (1.5 hours)

BBSS BBQ + Girls Dinner

2010-04-18T16:13:00.000-07:00

Had our annual BBSS Easter BBQ on the 10th of April. It wasn't as 'fun' as it could be since a lot of people couldn't come, but had a great time nonetheless. Just couldn't help but compare the relationship between BiBers this year and for the past two years; such an obvious contrast. This year, there wasn't a lot of mingling around, no loud and noisy conversations, some didn't care enough to come to the event, and there wasn't that usual fun lame competitiveness during the games either. I just realised.. we didn't even take a group photo! Oh.. not gonna post any photos since the camerawoman hasn't upload them yet.

2010/11 Committee. 3 of them were not present

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE NEW BBSS COMMITTEE 2010/2011:
President- Kimin, Vice- Rad, Religious Officer- Diyana, Sports- Saifullah, Treasurer- Tiya, PRITO- Arif, Events Coord.- Izzat

On the 14th of April, some of the girls decided to dress up and have 'formal' (fancy?)dinner at The Oriental (Mailbox). Fatin had to leave early for Sheffield and the Rookery girls couldn't come cos they were busy finishing up their assignments. Anyhow, the food was great, but very pricey! I LOVE THAT CHILLI CRAB! Afterwards, we further stuffed ourselves with McFlurry ice cream from McD. Great time, girls! ;)

Housemates =)
Rambo, Nyli, Bimbo, Hanez, Mina n Timbo

Talk + BIA Roadshow

2010-04-12T13:26:00.000-07:00

Attended a motivational talk given by Ustaz Raminey (BSU officer) as well as the BIA UK Roadshow last wednesday (7th April). =)

End of 2nd Semester

2010-03-27T13:10:00.000-07:00

Alhamdulillah. The 10-week research project was finally over. Did a presentation in front of fellow coursemates and supervisors last tuesday (23rd of March). The things left to do: 1)Finishing off dissertation, 2)Revision!.. and then exams in early may.. and insya-ALLAH graduate.. and that will sum up my BSc Medical Science degree. woww.. woww.. I still can't believe I'm so near to the end. How fast time flies. To think this blog is already about three years old. THREE YEARS. woww.. Mudahan saja ALLAH permudahkan my journey. Amin..

Me and Fatin went to this annual Asian Badminton Tournament hosted by Malaysian Society in UoB last weekend (20/3) to support our BBSS players. Happy to say, Shuhir managed to grab the silver medal for Women's Single and Firdaus (Lufbru) for Men's Single. =) Steadyyy~

100th All-England Championship

2010-03-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

Went to AE QF, SF and Finals (12-14th March) again this year. I'd say, this year's tournament was befitting its 100th anniversary! It was magnificent! Last year was rather disappointing and predictable, where the chinese players dominated the tournament. BUT THIS YEAR! It was like rubber sets for almost all matches since the Quarter Finals up till the Finals. That showed how evenly matched the players were. And all the "upsets" i.e. top seeds crashed out of the tournament, was rather refreshing. Taufik vs Gade was awesome! Pity that Taufik lost, but I LOVE THE NEW JAPANESE MS PLAYER! Kenichi Tago? As many people have said, he is like Taufik/Lee Chong Wei 2-in-1. Hope he will continue to have a good run! =D While I was going gaga over Taufik and Hendra Setiawan, Razan was fangirling over Lee Yong Dae for all three days. Haiishh. hahaha. But all in all, it was a really exciting tournament! :)

pressure pressure..

2010-03-17T09:29:00.001-07:00

Week 10 is about to end. And I am still staying in the lab till late just to finish off the remaining experiments. I'm really feeling the pressure and stress at the moment. These past few nights, I couldn't sleep very well *waking up every now and then*. Yesterday, I spent 11 hours working in the lab from 9 am till 8 pm. Although it drained me out, it was hard for me to fall asleep cause my head still hurt so much last night. I think it was because my head was still working though my body was tired. Thinking too much!

It will be over soon... It will be over soon... It will be over soon...

*sigh* *drinks more coffee*

MadPaintball 2010

2010-02-27T02:35:00.000-08:00

Brum Supremacy and Brum Ultimatum:

Happy National Day from Bimbo, Jimbo, Rambo and Timbo:

Pictures stolen from Fatin and Rad

I will give a proper update once I get my camera fixed. Yes, CAMERAKU RUSAK! T_T Couldn't even transfer the pictures using a USB cable! Bh, till then.

Another Lab post

2010-02-24T08:00:00.000-08:00

The mad scientist:

Everything's getting more hectic day by day. Week 10's looming closer = finishing up project, presentation (in front of 40+ people!), deadline for drafts, etc. etc. The 'finishing up project' is the one that scares me most, because looking at the results I have at the moment, I have only got a couple of figures for my dissertation. The thing that frustrates me is that: for the last 2-3 weeks, I worked my butt off from 9ish in the morning till late (sometimes 7pm), and produced a lot of data and graphs. And then my supervisor came along and told me it would make sense to squeeze all those graphs into one figure. I went cold. ALL OF THAT 6 GRAPHS INTO ONE FIGURE?!?!! One figure essentialy meant one result. Please let me cry.. T_T Then, Dee tried to cheer me up by showing a graph from his PhD dissertation. "See these two lines on my graph. That took me a month, and all I got were two lines." Flippin S.C.I.E.N.C.E...

Oh well.. Alhamdulillah for all these 'weird' people in my lab to cheer me up. They're just so random and childish. Dee with his lame, cold jokes.. Bee with her outbursts of loud bimbo-istic craziness.. Yem with his sarcastic, temperemental, swearings/comments..

Oh. Paintball's coming up this weekend! Yeah~ Brum Supremacy and Brum Ultimatum are coming to get ya~! So, that should be fun. Apa lagi. Oh, I attended this talk on the History of Islam last weekend, and it was very... humbling.. and touching.. and inspiring. It reminded me what has been lost (semangat and niat), and what could be undone (start all over again). One of the things that melakat sampai masa ani.. "What is your purpose in life?". Why are we doing the things we're doing? Utk apa? Utk siapa? Whenever I think about it, it kinda sets my mind and my niat (intention) right. What I am supposed to be doing is something that can benefit me in the hereafer. Every little actions can have an effect: it's either Jannah or Jahanam. You choose which one to go to. I hope someone will always be there to remind me of these things. Amin.

Reminder for today to my readers and myself:
"Tidak akan terputus rezeki seseorang selagi dia tidak meninggalkan doa kepada kedua orang tua nya dalam sehari" sabda Rasulullah s.a.w

Bruneiku...

2010-02-23T08:42:00.000-08:00

Happy 26th National Day, my beloved home! May ALLAH protect the people of Brunei and bless us with happiness in this life and the afterlife. Amin~

I talked with one of my office mates, Kassim, about Brunei. As I was telling him all of these wonderful things the Sultan and his government have given, pride and gratitude filled me. I don't care if it has no entertainment, or I quote some jerks from Facebook "the most boring country in the world", for me, Brunei is in-your-face AWESOME~! I could only hope and pray that Brunei will someday be the second Al-Andalus. =)

My lab...

2010-01-18T21:34:00.000-08:00

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SOME GORY PICTURES OF A DEAD MOUSE!!

My hood. Where I will do all the labelling.

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!

Neck area cut open to insert tube
Gut sticking out.. awu idup masih ni..
Dead mouse - that long thing = Small Intestine

Finished at 6 yesterday. Hopefully not today. Jiayou!!

Life in the lab

2010-01-14T10:37:00.000-08:00

First week of lab life is about to end. I wouldn't say I got off to a horrible start. I mean, yes, there has been no progress in my project and we haven't even started anything yet! It's been slow, not only for me, but everyone in my 'office' = a couple of PhD and a post-doc. Why? Because we need stem cells for our individual research, like TONS AND TONS OF 'EM! But the cell cultures in our lab are dying for reasons unknown. In other words, we don't have enough of them, not even for one person.

Today was probably the worst day of the week (or ever). First up, they found out the cells are still dying. It didn't even reach a million cells! Then, when one of the PhD students, Bee, trying to show me labelling, there was some mess-up.. but it turned out good. Then, she tried to show me microscopy, but somehow the images we got were shitty. Finally, our post-doc, Dee, showed me how to inflict injury on a mouse. So basically, he anaesthesised the mouse first so it couldn't feel any pain and then he cut the mouse open (the mouse still alive at this point). He pulled the gut out to show me the anatomy. Just when everything seemed to go well, the mouse suddenly twitched vigorously, showing sign that the anaesthetic has worn off. It looked soooo in pain, I felt so bad. I mean, imagine the mouse thrashing around with its internal organs sticking out. Dee injected some more anaesthetic, but I could clearly see its heartbeat started to slow down and I could see it taking massive, deep breath. Just a few seconds after, it died. Dee got even more annoyed, because we were supposed to inject some cells into the mouse. But, it was a really unpleasant sight. No sweet dreams for me tonight then i guess~ =S

So everybody's frustrated at the mo... except for our main boss (my supervisor) who's all positive and cheerful. We're trying to get cells from other people (who are nice enough to give us some), and I suggested my Stem Cell module tutor. I remembered from a practical I did in my SC module where we had to use some HPC Stem Cells, so my supervisor figured maybe my tutor has some more. So, she called him this afternoon to ask. And... turns out he does! And he even generously give some of them to me (ah well, I was one of the 6 people who chose his module after all~ Haha). So after long hours of nightmare, we received a good news at the end of the day. Oh by the way, did I mention I have to work from 9-5 for the next 9 weeks? Although, I did get home at around quarter to 6 today... and guess what, I'm knackered and I'm starving. Gonna grab some food, chiaozz.

Have a great day everyone!

Juwai in the UK!

2010-01-14T10:27:00.000-08:00

Sorry, im in a hurry. Will update more pics and details later. Chiaoo.

All that snow~

2010-01-06T11:08:00.000-08:00

You probably already know this from the news and everything else. Britain's frozen. It's all white here. I love it and I hate it.

Last night, played snowball fight with housemates, Lisyah and 11A. You really don't want to mess with Tiya and Lisyah. They're crazy. Laughing-like-a-maniac-with-a-huge-snowball-in-their-hands-while-chasing-people crazy.

On the other hand, uni's starting in 5 days. *gulp*

German Market!!

2009-12-13T10:17:00.000-08:00

YEAHEE!!! WINTER BREAKKKKKKKK!!! That was Semester One done! Stem Cells and Neuropharm, I'll see you again in May! Still can't believe I'm already halfway through my final year. FINAL year! That's like 5/6 of my degree done! Now, my research project to look forward to. Hopefully everything will go fine. GANBATTE!!! *Oh, and need to search unis for my *hopefully, AMIN* postgrad degree* Got to meet up with some of the Pershores and Selly Oaks last night at the German Market after ages. Still the same, old, bustling German Market with the exception.. of a Ferris Wheel!

Manchester.. and Yazsmine

2009-12-01T09:52:00.000-08:00

Me and Hajah went to Manchester last friday to meet up with sekuntum bunga~ huahua. Our dear Yazsmine a.k.a Kayun because her birthday falls on the 28th, which was last saturday. HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY KAYUN! And thank you for letting us stay at your house for a couple of days. I've been in the UK for roughly more than 2 years now, but that was the first time I actually "visit" Manchester - go shopping, touring around, etc. Of course, i didn't go to that crappy stadium =X. Anywayyy, i LOVE trafford central! And the food.... ESPECIALLY the food! If only kana belanja.... =P

Trafford Central

Manchester Eye

Celebrating Kayun's Bday

We celebrated Kayun's birthday at this Arab restaurant *forgotten what its called* It was funny cause we had to wait until half past midnight, because Kayun's housemates got stuck in Traffic.. (yes, there was still traffic at that time! Crazy!) and the restaurant was supposed to close at midnight. And, we kajutkan Kayun by having the WAITER (who was a bit lost and seemed unwilling.. lol) surprised her with her birthday cake. It was fun, and we finally got out from there at... 1 AM? Haha. I had a great time there. Thanks Hjh and Kayun! =)

MEMORABILIA 09

2009-11-24T08:56:00.000-08:00

I just had a brilliant sunday! Me and Rad went to this Cosplay convention held in NEC, Birmingham. The stalls and cosplays were good, but what made the day even more superb was the fact that I got to meet a couple of football greats and also some veteran actors!

Stan Collymore
Ian Rush
Supernatural Actors
Anthony Montgomery

The weather's getting a bit chilly. It's definitely windy at the moment! The force of the wind nearly knocked me off my feet when I walked from MedSchool to the train station this morning. Nasib baik jua steady balancing~

Bristol...

2009-11-15T07:58:00.000-08:00

Went to Bristol for the first time!!! To meet up with dear miss i-EENA. SIUK SHOPPING DI BRISTOL!

Shopping at Cobat Circus

Good Luck to Eena in whatever you do~! KEEP IN TOUCH! Hihihi.

Year 3 dinner!

2009-11-06T07:37:00.000-08:00

We had our Year 3 dinner at royal orchid on Wednesday, 3rd of November. Initially, about 50 people planned to come, but only half of that actually showed up due to the massive amount of coursework that was due the next monday. Me and Yani did have second thoughts on whether to go or not, but eventually we did go with Rad tagging along.

Oh! I promised to put up pictures of my new house, so here you go!

Halloween~

2009-11-02T13:50:00.000-08:00

I have finished my stem cells module. Last friday was the last day, and I had my presentation the day before. Presentation was as usual nerve-wracking, and my lecturer said I didn't criticise the journal enough. =( There's a third year dinner tomorrow at a HALAL restaurant, so me and yani are definitely going! Yeapee!
On our way out from our last stem cell lecture =(

Oh! Oh! My DELL has arrived!!! Wooohooo!! I love it! Thank you Bah~ It's a 15.6" Dell Studio and it's PURPLE! Hihihihi. I haven't upgraded it to Windows 7 yet. My NEC is alive, but still with its unpredictable mood swings (It went dead on me while I was typing my essay plan! TWICE!).

Nasib baik i've got two study desks. Please ignore the pink towel. ;P
Watched MJ's This is It with Jajan and Lisyah. GO WATCH IT PEOPLE! SIUKK!

31st October was halloween -- and some of the BBSS peepz (including miss HHHH right here~) joined the zombie walk from cetenary square to most parts of the city! It was brilliant! Basically, there were some makeup artists at the meeting point (which was behind the REP theater). Everybody got their zombie/corpse-ish looks done there, some ripped their clothes and added 'blood stains' on them. I thought the zombies looked pretty wicked to be honest. That pyramid head guy was the best! =D The Zombie walk was amazing! We attacked people, cars, buses, shops.... AND I MET OZZY OSBOURNE! How wicked is that! We finished the walk in front of town hall and somehow ended up raising awareness against Swine Flu vaccine~ Haha! Tapi it was a really great fun, and I don't mind doing it again! Heee.

BBSS Open House

2009-10-26T08:13:00.000-07:00

I just had a great, wonderful weekend! -- not very productive assignment-wise but a few days off wouldn't do me much harm.. or would it? Regardless, I just want to say JUST HOW DID I END UP MEETING THESE CRAZY PEOPLE. Haha. To sum up my weekend = Cosplay, Shuffle, Abracadabra, Sing Star. Dr. Zazi sleptover at my house from friday till sunday, and she's just plain hyper and loud. Haha! Then, a couple of my housemate's friends came over on friday - one of them being a 'Shuffler'. Me, rad n Dr. tried to shuffle, but it was just all over the place~! On saturday, we went to BBSS Raya Open House at 704, Pershore and makan makan makan. Dr. suddenly wanted to buy SingStar, so she did exactly that. So now we got PS3 (Lisyah's) and SingStar (Dr's) downstairs in our living room. Then, we had a badminton session on sunday... Liverpool kicked ManU's ass 2-0.. and I still couldn't believe the twins are still in X-FACTOR! GRRRR! Oh... AND HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY TO FATIN JIYAH~! Heeee.

BBSS Raya Open House (24th Oct):

I just had a lecture on Ethics today. It was really really interesting, especially regarding Stem Cells Research. How some countries are really paranoid and strict on this field (understandably) because they fear some scientists might 'clone' people and also the fact that 'embryos' are human too. I am not against cloning embryos - to me it is just like cloning other cells, except this one could potentially grow into a person. My coursemate rightly said that the public are against this 'cloning' most probably because when they hear the word 'embryo', they immediately think about 'fetus' - when in fact one could argue embryo is just a clump of cells and should not be treated (i.e. given privilege) as a living human. Then, there's another issue of Brain Reconstruction - injecting stem cells in the brain and reconfigure some part of the brain. Some argue it may cause loss of identity and 'soul', but if it cures people, why not? There are more interesting stuff I came across.. like how for this one experiment, the researchers were able to create a bronchus from stem cells. I think, even when we are able to re-create organs from stem cells, they will never function as well as what God has created -- because human body is just too complicated. =) Ok, enough of me rambling on about this.

Take Care everyone.

Forgiving Others

2009-10-23T05:01:00.000-07:00

For the past few weeks, I have heard stories of how some of the people I trusted are not what they seem to be. Or are they? My REAL friends say I trust in people too easily; that I always think everyone is so friendly and close to each other. That many... in reality are just two-faced. I wonder how they do that~ They're nice to you, link arms with you, laugh with you one minute, then once your back is turned... they just talk s**t about you. It's really sad... But then again, as Hajah pointed out, I've only heard one side of the story - it might be true or it might be just another rumour.

After giving the whole thing much thought, it really doesn't matter anymore. There's no point in striking back and get even. I know, when you feel betrayed, you just want to hurt that person more than he/she hurts you. It's human nature. Tapi, revenge is... meaningless and endless. So, I would like to think that even if they did say bad things about me, it was due to like... heat of the moment or slip of the tongue kinda thing. I KNOW they are all nice people deep inside. And I understand it's hard to let go of that anger, and even now, I do still feel kind of bitter. However, I cannot let my friendship with them be ruined because of the story others told me; even if they are true.

In other words, I forgive them. Forgiving is not easy... but it's not that hard either. Just like how I may have done something that have hurt others (maybe without me realizing), I also want to be forgiven.. Don't you? "Hate destroys the one who hates, And everyone suffers the same" - lyrics from a song. Or from this movie "Forgiveness is just giving hate a little room in your heart"

Forgiving is just a way of cleansing your soul. To get rid of all that negative feelings. "Ketika memaafkan, mereka tidak membedakan antara kesalahan besar dan kecil. Seseorang dapat saja sangat menyakiti mereka tanpa sengaja. Akan tetapi, orang-orang beriman tahu bahwa segala sesuatu terjadi menurut kehendak Allah, dan berjalan sesuai takdir tertentu, dan karena itu, mereka berserah diri dengan peristiwa ini, tidak pernah terbelenggu oleh amarah. Tujuan sebenarnya dari memaafkan –sebagaimana segala sesuatu lainnya – haruslah untuk mendapatkan redha ALLAH."Source

Dalam ayat lain Allah berfirman: “…dan hendaklah mereka memaafkan dan berlapang dada. Apakah kamu tidak suka bahwa Allah mengampunimu? Dan Allah Maha Pengampun, Maha Penyayang.” (QS. An Nuur, 24:22)

=) On a happier note, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ABG (24/10) AND KAKA (12/10)!!!

Quick Update

2009-10-19T05:32:00.000-07:00

I kinda feel sad knowing that the fun and interesting Stem Cell module is coming to an end next week. The module is so chill and relaxing, I've never loved a module more! I've got 5 cool coursemates and module co-ordinator, so it's nothing stressful.... so far. But I just feel like kicking myself for not participating much in their conversation. Talk, WOMAN, TALK! Haha. Anyway, I had very weird and funny lapses of dream last night. I woke up like every hour and went back to sleep, and I had different dreams each time. The funniest one I could remember was about me giving a (bad) journal presentation to two of my Stem Cells lecturers.

(Dream)
Presentation. One of them gave me 10 out of 10, while the other one (VERY VERY strict in real life) said "It was rubbish!" and in my head I was going "OH NO! I'M GONNA FAIL!" Then the nice lecturer told me, "Ok, here's the deal. We're gonna give you 'fantastic' for your presentation marks only if you pass your kidney test." And, I was like "Kidney test? To check for alcohol level?" And they said yeah. So I did my kidney test.
(End of Dream)

Is that whack or what? Haha. Kidney test to determine your presentation mark?! LOL! And what's up with 'fantastic' as a mark~ Haha. But I do have to make a journal presentation next week though. Huuuhh. Hope it won't go as bad.... and as weird. Haha. Besides presentation, I have an essay to hand in (Topic: Umbilical Cord Blood Stem Cells as future therapy) first week of November. I have to read lots of research papers for it, and..... NOT EASY! Finding the right journals is one thing, and then reading and trying to understand them and put them into context is another pain in the arse. Can't complain though, that's the world of Medical Research! I'm trying to imagine, if Brunei becomes one of the leading Medical Research Center.. or at least, just be a forefront in the Stem Cells Research. Fuuuhh.. Cool tu. Soon.. I will make that come true. Aiseehh.

I bought a new laptop. My NEC selalu overheats and shuts down at random times. Annoying. So I bought Dell Studio 15. I will probably have it by the end of this month, pasalnya it's customised - colour and programs. Until then, I hope si NEC ani nda tetutup saja. Okkkk... That was a quick update from saya, miss HH~ Miss everyone back in BRUNEIII!!!!!!!!!!! Mwah Mwah~ Take care everybody!

Ice-Breaking Session 2009/2010

2009-10-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

Event: Brunei Birmingham Student Society Ice-Breaking Session 2009/2010.
Venue: 688, Pershore Road (For the last two years, rented by the boys. This year, taken by the post-grads girls)
Time: 7.30-9.00 pm

This year, we probably have 20 new faces in Birmingham. Seven 1st years and the others Post-Grads. Still haven't talked to most of the post-grads, cause most of them live at Pershore Road (all of them are UoB students though, so good luck to them having to walk a loooong way back and forth to Uni!). We basically have two... ermmm.. territories? Bristol Road (or also known as Selly Oak) and Pershore Road. Of course, the former is way much cooler and awesome people live there! Selly Oak for the win peepssss!! Haha. Anyway, during the introduction, I messed mine and ended up embarrassing myself. *sigh* My housemates said afterward, "At least you stood out~" with grins on their faces. Cehhh..

Pictures taken from Fatin Safri's facebook =) :

MJ is my hero!

Happy Raya/Birthday

2009-09-26T09:59:00.000-07:00

21st September 2009
1st day Raya and my 20th Birthday

Selamat Hari Raya or Eid Mubarak to everyone~ Minta Maaf Zahir n Batin. My sincerest apologies to everyone; if I have offended or hurt you in any way, I am really sorry. Halalkan makan and minum saya~ And thank you for all the birthday greetings and presents! I am really touched and grateful for having all these wonderful people around me. I love all of you~ =)

Raya with my girls before balik UK:

Open House at my place:

Nagoya and Tokyo, Japan

2009-09-17T06:56:00.000-07:00

Phewwww.... Home sweet home Brunei. I am so tired.... and dark. My face is totally sunburnt and my skin condition is getting worse. Must be from all that heat and foundation. Aduii. Tired, but i still can't shake off the excitement. Japan was fun! But what I am going to miss most there is their fooddd!!! and also, their way of life. Very friendly, very polite and very clean! Tapi.. FOOD!! and their awesome vending machines!!

11th Sept
From Kyoto to Nagoya, it took us about 2 hours by train, if I remember it correctly. Once there, we were greeted by my sister's Japanese friend, Hide-san. A really nice person~ That morning, he brought us to Nagoya Castle, shrines and just walked around. I was really feeling tired from all the walking, and I guess it showed because apparently Hide-san kept asking my sister if I was alright. I hope he didn't think I was feeling bored. My sister told him I was just feeling tired and I would be genki ('hyper') again once I got fed. Hahaha. Anyway, so I requested that we eat Nagoya's famous dish "Hitsumabushi" for sungkai, and so we did. NYAMANNNNNNN!!!!! Tais liurku plg nahh... Ichiban! And after that, he bought me lots of Japanese chocolates and sweets and also Dorayaki. Haha. Because my sister kept telling him I love Doraemon. Wawawawa. Basically, he kept giving me food.. which I took happily.

The next morning (12th), the three of us visited Nagoya's waterfront. It was raining heavily, so we didn't really go to many places. Hide-san brought us to the street.. err... market? Not really a market, macam that street has lots of shops along it lah. Then, to the arcade. That afternoon, we said our goodbyes and took the Shinkansen train to Tokyooooo~!

(13th Sept)Tokyoooo... In tokyo, we had Keisuke-san and Yumi-san as our guides. Hee. Really really nice people, once again. I thought Yumi-san was a really cool chick. Hehe. As far as I was concerned, the best thing I could remember from Tokyo was FOODDD and also, the fashion. I had the best Ebi Tendon (like Ebi Furai) I've ever tasted, in this restaurant owned by this really old couple. I had takoyaki, ningen-yaki (given to me by Keisuke-san) and also Okonomiyaki for dinner. SEMUA NYAMANNNN!*lapar* First, we went to akihabara - place for the electronic geeks.. as well as Maid Cafes. Haha. Then, to Ginza, Asakusa, Shibuya, Harajuku and lastly, the Nihon Terebi Headquarters in Shimbashi Itchome. It was really tiring, and I had blisters, so imagine walking in pain the whole day~! I didn't get to spend lots of time in Harajuku, cos I was a bit low on money. But fashionnya LAWA BERABIS. Next time~ Next time~

We stayed in Singapore from 14th to 16th to do some shopping (My parents were in Singapore by the time we got there, so yatah... K.O. lah kalau kn shopping with my mom. Mesti strong legs cause you're gonna walk or stand around for hours and hours. Hehehehe. ;P) So, the conclusion - NIPPON GA DAISUKI!

Kyoto, Japan

2009-09-10T09:01:00.000-07:00

Kyoto.. My favourite place of all of Japan (not that I've been to every city there). Why I love Kyoto? The buildings. The environment. Kyoto is basically preserved architecturally, which means lots of palaces, gardens, traditional-looking houses and shrines. Like in Osaka, we spent two nights here in Kyoto. First day, we stayed at Toyoko-Inn Kyoto Shijo. Second day, we switched hotels and stayed at the beautiful traditional-type hotel, Shimizu Ryokan.

On our first day in Kyoto, we visited the Kyoto Imperial Palace, Nijo Castle and also, Toei Uzumasa Eigamura. The latter is "a film set and theme park in one featuring replicas of traditional Japanese buildings used for Samurai Action films" - wiki. Imperial Palace was mostly "Wow~ Beautiful~ Wow~ Breathtaking~", whereas Toei movieland "Cool~ Oh a Samurai! Cool~ Ultraman! Haha~" Both were very interesting and entertaining. After sungkai, we (or rather I) shopped around at the wicked Kyoto 'market'. Cool lah fashion stores dorang ani.

Second day was the most productive in my opinion but also the most tiring. The heat.. fuuhhh. I could hear the Japanese themselves kept saying how "Atsui (Hot)" it was. Gila lah panasnya. The ubiquitous vending machines just made the matter worse. I kept muttering "Tahan. Tahan" to myself. Haha. Memang mencabar. I made a mental note to never go travelling when it's fasting period AND summer. We went to Gion - the Geisha district, Kyō-ō-Gokokuji, Kiyomizu-dera, and some other buildings - their names escape me. I bought lots of traditional gift items in Kyoto, that's for sure. Fan, Mirror, Chopsticks, etc. But it was fun~! Although my sister had to keep up with me sighing and stopping for a rest every.. I don't know.. 15 seconds? haha. sorry.

Next up, Nagoya and Tokyo. Ahhh. I'm going to miss Kyoto. Oh, I forgot to mention that we ate UnaJu again everyday for Sungkai and Sahur. Aiggoo. Ayte, gotta go now.

Osaka, Japan

2009-09-08T06:40:00.000-07:00

Hi y'all. It's been two days since I've arrived here in Japan. Me and my sister departed from Brunei using the Singapore Airline around mid-noon on the 6th and safely landed on the soil of the rising sun - Osaka Airport -around 7ish am on the 7th (with a 10-hour transit in Singapore). Spent my first two days here in Osaka, staying at the Umeda Os Hotel.

Yesterday, we only visited one place - the beautiful Osakajo (Osaka Castle). My feelings being in Japan are both excited and irritated, unfortunately. Irritated because the weather is so blazing hot!! To add to the fact that we mostly travel around the place by foot, i.e. spending most of the time out in the hot sun, we are also FASTING! Hot weather = Thirst. Thirst + Hunger = Very tired. Very Tired + Walking = Annoyed self. Haha. First day was like that. I'm getting used to the environment I guess, so it's all good.

Osaka subway station is a MAZE! Seriously! I don't I will ever NOT get lost in there. Yesterday, when we were just walking around that huge place, we came across an area where there are only restaurants along the corridor. When it was time for sungkai, we went back to the station and spent about an hour looking, but did not encounter a single restaurant! We ended up buying UnaJu (Rice with Eels) at the supermarket. And sushi (which was for our Sahur tadi. Sushi + Maggi. Haha.).

Today, we went to Tenpozan to see the Osaka water front, cause my sister's really interested in Water Front development. We took a ride on the Tempozan Harbor Village Ferris Wheel, to have a better view of the whole Osaka. The scene from up there was beautifuuull~ Then, we visited Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan, one of the largest aquariums in the world, and also the Universal Studios Japan. We didn't enter both places cause the tickets are too mim alif hal. But their fashion..... awesome~! Especially their hairstyles. wawawawa. Lastly, to satisfy my sister's stalking mode - the MAIN reason she came to Osaka; we went to watch Gamba Osaka FC players in their training ground. I had my doubts at first, cause I thought the players would think we're some kind of creepy stalking fangirls. But when we arrived at the training ground, there were lottss of girls with their cameras up and flashing. Hahaha. We went to the only Indonesian Restaurant in Osaka for our sungkai. Expensiveeee~! ^^;; We'll be leaving for Kyoto tomorrow.

Till then. Matta ne~

Bruneiiiiiii...

2009-08-27T08:21:00.001-07:00

Sorry! Sorry! Been gone for more than 2 months! Currently enjoying life here in home sweet home Brunei babyyy~! Came back on the 28th of June, and will be going off to the UK again on the 27th of September. =( Time seems to fly so fast - we're entering the month of September ALREADY! HAIIYYOOO. All is well at the moment. Spending precious time with my family and my girls. Oh, and I'm also in the midst of taking driving lessons. D-DAY = 3rd September. Mudahannnn saja nda teturun bukit~ =S *panic* What else~? Hmmm... Gained 4 kilos sudah ku balik Brunei ani. From 48kg to 52kg. Yeayy~! Tapi puasa ani, gerenti turun balik ni. Hmmmm.

[Pictures are mostly taken from FB. Credit to the owners.]

Family: Shopping, eating out, BRIDEX (yg cool~), playing board games with brothers, and babysitting the little ones. =)

My girls: Hangout, perayaan, Karaoke, birthday, KARAOKE.... We've formed a group = Dang KARAK-Oke... get it? =D But I haven't met Meimei, Zimah, Baytul and Amalie yet!!! HMPH! =(

BiBers = hangout, undergrad briefing, Wani's Treat! Yeay Wani! Hee. =)

NisaZ's birthday surprise + BBQ

2009-06-08T06:23:00.000-07:00

4th June - Her birthday. Badminton -> Starbucks (City) -> SURPRISE~!

5th June - BBQ at Alton sempena her birthday. Highlights: Yani&A., ayam BBQ tegugur, 'lantai! lantai!'(when Abg Abu tried to teach Faeezah to press down the drum pedal), kana challenss Expert, saya succeeded in playing Maps' Drum Expert level!!... Oh, and Fadz as the human slide. Lol~ Also when the boys bullied me semasa I KINDLY helped them mem-BBQ ayam, all because I wore my liverpool jersey. Cehh..

Major Update~!

2009-06-03T12:06:00.000-07:00

A month has come and gone. I'm counting down the days until I go back to home sweet home. Back in the arms of my family. Hee. And meeting my two adorable boys. Speaking of the boys, the older brother (Alai MZi) just turned 3 two days ago while the other one (si Lampoh) just turned 1 two weeks ago. Oh, and also HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY to BABAH (whose birthday was also two days ago). Hehe. Don't worry bah, I still remember your birthday walaupun budak 2 org atu yang get all the attention (....and all the presents). LOL~! A birthday shoutout to my housemate as well - Ka Radhiah a.k.a Miss May. Hope you like the gift. =) Oh! And Happy Advanced Birthday to my dear friend, Ka NisaZ~! Her birthday's tomorrow~!! Yeahhee..

I lost a lot of weight during the exam period. When my mom and my brother came to the UK to visit me and my sister last Easter, I weighed a healthy 52 kg thanks to my mom's cooking (proper 3/4-meals-a-day). Then came the stressful examination days, i.e. 1 or 2 meal(s) per day. Dropped 4 kilos in two weeks. Steady jua tu. Plus, my skin has gotten worse! Haiiyoyoyoo. So right now I'm trying to regain my weight. *Tadi ku check 50kg plg udah~*

Oh a few pictures from my mom/bro's visit to Birmingham & London (31/3 to 22/4). They only came to Birmingham for a couple of days, then spent the rest of their time here staying at my sister's place in London. Finally visited Anfield! Thanks for the belanja bro and Miss Naili Cyrus for the company. Masa di London shopping di High Street Kensington almost everyday~! Haha. Oh, and mom got to play badminton di Birmingham and everyone acknowledged her awesome-ness (...and how I'm really bad at it when compared to her). And bro pun showed off his awesome-ness when he played footie with the rest of the BiB boys (tapi kajar2 main pasal sajuk. kesian. hehe). Oh yeah, there was also ada that day I cried when searching for my mom di London (who went shopping on her own for HOURS with her phone abis battery!). Awu, barimalu.

Babu and Bro @ Bullring, Birmingham
Meeting up with fellow BiBers

w Babu, bro and NisaZ @ City
Naili's Gerrard and MY Alonso
Anfield Bebeh~!
w/ Mommy @ High St. Kensington, London

In front of Royal Albert Hall, London

They went back home on the 22nd of April. BBSS had our annual BBQ on the 15th of April - BBQ, crazy games (we were divided into groups, and seriously apa saja games pun jadi siuk since everyone is dead competitive~) and also general election 09/10.
Former Committee 08/09 with new committee 09/10
My group - Pencuri Talor

RIGHT AFTER my last exam (tuesday last week).. literally right after, me, razan and eri (Razan's malaysian coursemate) went straight to Warwick with the intention to bake cake at eri's friends' house and then go to the Warwick funfair after that. Pokoknya, we got lost due to Eri's awesome sense of direction~ LOL, jk eriiii~ We did somehow arrive at her friends' house tapi nda buat cake *and sambal kawannya NYAMAN GILA~!*. Instead, we had a 'photoshoot'. Adalah tu nanti ku update. The funfair was..... lol. Even the ride yang for kids atu pun buat aku takut and kn muntah. The next day, the three of us went to the city for Sushi and just shopping. Last friday, I went to Bath to meet up with Pei Ru si capi2. Stayed there for about 3 days, and abis duitku di sana atu. Haha. Will post pictures from Bath next time.
That was the ride that scared the hell outta me!
Sushi @ Woktastic w Razan

Razan sprained her ankle AGAIN~!

Tadi me and my housemates decided to go out and have lunch together at Yum Yum. Believe it or not, that was only our SECOND outing together. Nevertheless, I sayang you girls. =) Dawls rock~!

Exam Timetable

2009-05-06T05:50:00.000-07:00

EXAMMMMMM FEVER IS HERE AGAINNNNNNNNN!!

~~11/05/09: Immunology and Haematology~~
~~11/05/09: Infection 2~~ =(
~~14/05/09: Renal and Urinary System~~ =(
~~14/05/09: Endocrinology and Reproduction~~
~~18/05/09: Neuroscience~~
~~20/05/09: Cardiovascular and Respiratory System~~
~~22/05/09: Pharmacology 2~~ =(
~~26/05/09: Molecular Biology~~
~~26/05/09: Cell Biology~~

*EDIT 26/05/09: EXAMS ARE FINALLY OVER! I have to admit, there were a couple of damn difficult papers. Hopefully everything will be OK. If not, it'll be just another hurdle I need to overcome. After all, life is about picking yourself up after every fall. Looking at the bright side, there were also a couple of papers that I thought I did well~ =) Doakan for my success people. AMIN~*

Mudahan saja aku pass with good grades. AMINNNNNN~

Prague - 3rd + 4th (last) day

2009-04-12T15:43:00.000-07:00

Will write something later. Need. to. sleep.

Easter holiday - Praha (Day I & II)

2009-04-08T11:01:00.000-07:00

EASTER HOLIDAYYYYYY!!!!!
Trip: Prague, Czech Republic
Date: 29-03-09 till 01-04-09 (a total of 4 days and 3 nights)
Accomodation: Emma Apartment (Apparently there are 2 "Emma Hotels" in Prague. Before the trip, I did a research about halal places near the OTHER Emma Hotel. Nonetheless, the info i got still proved to be useful~ Hee.) *p/s: Emma Apartment is the BOMB~!*
Transport: Tram (secara tidak jujur)
The tourists: 8 girls (Me, Jajan, NisaZ, Yani, Hajah, Dyana, Nisa Samyun and Ili) and 4 bodyguards (Kimin, Mallie, Mus, Spol)

Note: Most brought along their cameras, so it was kinda expected that my inbox would be filled with hundreds of 'Facebook' messages. Tags and Comments. I think I am the only one who haven't uploaded my photos. 500+ ah, malaslahhh~ Our first day in Prague, we didn't visit places. We arrived late in the evening and we were just looking for food and trying to figure the place out basically. Train tutup. Found out where to buy tram tickets (our favourite kadai runcit there - kadai si nguyen). Pacahkan duit to smaller notes, and I ended up buying a map (or more famously called, Map 50 coruna si Hanez) yg banyak berjasa d masa kami d Prague. Second day in prague - went to Rudolfinum, Charles Bridge, Old Town Square, Powder Gate, Municipal House, Dancing House and National Theatre. I love the Waffle sold at the Old Town Square market. The people there knows Brunei - "Brunei! Wow! Rich Sultan!" - and they were so nice and funny! Heee. I like.

Pictures from Day 1 and 2 [all from Hanez's camera]:
<will repost the pictures soon. Sanak ku mendgr musicnya.>

Oh by the way, I'm currently in London at my sister's place. My mom and brother came over to England last week and will be here for another 2 weeks. Siuukk~ =D

End of Term.

2009-03-27T08:17:00.000-07:00

Just had my pharmacology tutorial. My last tutorial of my 2nd year (hopefully). Less than half of the group turned up - actually, i think less than half of my course mates turned up for their tutorials. But I'm pretty sure a vast majority of them are probably at 'Gun Barrel' (a pub just outside our Guild building) right now. I didn't join, cause... well... Anyway, the point of them going to the pub is not so much of 'celebrating the end of term', but i think because this is probably the last gathering we're gonna have as a YEAR GROUP. End-of-term is rather bittersweet for everyone, whether they want to admit it or not. Next year, everyone's breaking up to do their respective modules. Sad. I may not be closely acquainted to all of them, but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna miss being in one lecture room with those 69 loud and funny people.

Me and Yani in Med Cafe, with some professors sitting besides us
With Sweta and Emma. Sorting out our pharmacology report.

I didn't get to take pictures with my other course mates as I hoped I would. Maybe after exams then. *examsss... wahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!* With 2nd semester done - it's time to invade Prague! HAVE A LOVELY EASTER BREAK EVERYONE~! <3

All-England Open Pictures

2009-03-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

Bought new racket - Nanospeed 100. Cover signed by Tine Rasmussen and Lee Yong Dae.

My dream of meeting Taufik (or any of my favorite players) was not realized during those 3 days of badminton tournament. I was just so unlucky. The others (esp. the 'player-hunters' Mallie and Topek) sanang2 jumpa all these awesome players, on their way out to buy drinks, or when they were walking towards the stadium. I really don't know how they did it. Let's see: They got to meet Taufik (AGAIN! They met him last yr too!), Lin Dan (AGAIN!), Xie Xing Fang, Chandra Wijaya (OMG!!!!!), Korean MD players namely Lee Yong Dae (I got to meet him but didn't get to take pictures with him. Doesn't matter much really), Ko Sung Hyun, Zhang Ning, Zheng Bo, etc. etc. Hmmmpphhh! NOT FAIR~~ *menyamal*

Speaking of the tournament itself, it was kinda disappointing and frustrating for me, because all the players I supported LOST~ China won every single category. Yes, that's right, I do not support any chinese players; just not attracted to their style of play and they've dominated badminton for so long now, it's getting boring. Although I do admit that their Women's Double pairs are untouchable right now. Steaadddyyyy. I find Indonesian badminton more attractive and creative. The way their players seem so calm and do all those tricks and deceptions. Sexy badminton, I would say.

Pictures taken from Superman's and Panda's cameras. Thanks you two~!

With Korean MD - Shin Baek Cheol
With former England WS - Tracey Hallam
With new Indo MD - Bona Septano
With China WD - Yu Yan
With No.1 Women's Single - Tine Rasmussen

I can't believe there's only 2 days left before I'm done with my second year. Time really flies so quickly, sometimes it's scary. p/s: LIVERPOOL ARE AWESOME!

When March comes marching in..

2009-03-16T12:10:00.000-07:00

it seems like i only update this blog once a month now. my parents keep complaining to me about it, my friends couldn't stop nagging.. bah bah.. I think this past month would be the only month where all my weekends had been awesome. Played madpaintball a month ago, watched All-England Badminton Open for 3 days straight from 6-8th of March (Mallie's yet to give me all the pics) and watched Asian Games Badminton at UoB two days ago. Many are gonna attend the famous annual BruNotts Easter Game (you've guessed it. Will be held in Nottingham~) this weekend and Bruneian Cultural Night at Imperial College, London next weekend. Financial constraints are the only thing that's keeping me from going to these events. I think most, if not all, the BiBers will definitely be going to BruNotts at least, since some of us are participating in the tournaments. Sorry, I won't be there to cheer you guys on. T_T Trying to save up money for Sunny Spain, Insya-ALLAH.

Anyhoo, since I haven't got all my pics from the All-England Open yet, I won't be talking much about it. Except that, all my fav. players lost, I met a few players except the one person I want to meet the most (T.H.) *sigh*, bought a new racket, found out that All-England may change venue next year. *cries* Ok, this may sound random, but I'm suddenly craving for Babah's 'Ikan Rebus masak... entah'. Yg kuning kuahnya. Oh! And Liverpool kicked Real Madrid and Manchester United's butts. Like, FOR REAL~! Mwahahahaha. To the Manc boys who kept taunting me the night before the match..... apa ni kalah 4-1 ani~ mwahahahahahhaaha.

So last weekend. Friday night, had Maulud Nabi celebration at 682. Finished class at 5 pm that day, texted Kayun what time they'd start and she replied 'At 6.' Panic, I dashed to my house: sembayang, mandi, tukar baju. Me and my housemates arrived at the 682 at 6.30, skalinya satu jelama pun tidak kelihatan. Even Kayun was still in her apron. The other bruneians who live NEXT door plg last dtg.. around 7.45 pm lagi tu. Janji Melayu~ Before the dzikir, there was a rather 'heated' discussion about 'being a muslim' amongst us. Wouldn't dwell on it. Just found out that Mekah never practice this Maulud Nabi Dzikir Celebration. Hmmm.

Asian Games Badminton at University Of Birmingham, organized by MaSoc (Malaysian Society). Still a bit disorganised (and still couldn't finish the whole tournament on time - Men's Singles final was not played and heard it got postponed) but at least, this year they didn't decide with a coin toss. *thump* The BiBers did very well, tapi sorang2 injured tarus afterwards. Yani forfeited the women's single game due to her back injury. Shuhir won Gold medal in that category. (Shuhir fav. playerku kali udah ah~ *wink*). Mallie/Hajah pair won Silver and Hanif/Shuhir pair won Bronze in the Mixed Double category (with Razan/Uncle Azmi on fourth place). Alif (who came all the way from Scotland)got into the Men's Singles final, but due to postponed date.. might forfeit the game as well. Hopefully not. Sayang tu eh.

More pics on Facebook.

The winners.

The Bruneian Players.
BBSS Players and Supporters

My exam timetable's out today. Will post it soon. Not as bad as last year, but still bad. Huuuu. T_T Ayte, I'm out. Take Care everyone.

Mad Paintball 2009

2009-02-22T15:12:00.001-08:00

21st february 2009. The battle begins... at Cosford Paintball Site.

Brum Ultimatum
Brum Supremacy
Brummies vs Brummies
Me and Miss Naili

Will update with more pics tomorrow. But i have uploaded all pictures in facebook, so feel free to have a look there. Yesterday's event was a success~! Credits to my fellow BBSS friends and everyone who helped and made it enjoyable. Birmingham sent two teams: Brum Supremacy and Brum Ultimatum. I was part of Ultimatum. (Ultimatum cool~!) Supremacy was placed in Division 1 and we in Division 2. Both of us were second-place in our respective divisions, so we got to battle each other for the third and fourth place. Unfortunately for Ultimatum, we lost, but happy for our fellow Brummies~ and my housemates~ (All my housemates were in Supremacy, so I'm pretty sure they're gonna rub it in my face for the next few weeks). I was kinda pissed off because my marker didn't work in that last match and so, I didn't get to shoot anyone before getting eliminated. Thank goodness for PaintBrawl (50 vs 50)~! Siuk, no holding back man~! Yatah all out. Siookkk gila. Since it was like randomly allocated, you got to talk to strangers in the middle of all the shootings.. mcm, everytime you ran to a new hiding place, there were people from other societies who're your teammates for that paintbrawl, yatah mcm "Hi, wassup?" "Hi~ eh ada ko pallets masih?" *gets shot* "Crap!" "Eh~! Lap saja cia, nada ya tau tu."... Haha. Anywayz. Got bruised so badly. I got one on my back pasal c Hajah, my teammate, shot and consequently eliminated me. Hahaha. 3 bruises on my left upper arm from one sheffield dude. 3 on my right arm. Couple of em on each knee and thigh. Haishh..

Nevertheless, it was totally totally wicked~ Congratulations to Kaizoku (Champion), Sheffield Siege (Runner-up) and Brum Supremacy (2nd runner-up)~!

Bah, gotta go sleep now. Take care everyone. =)

Survival..

2009-02-12T10:06:00.000-08:00

Ahh. another assignment week survived without scratch and bruises. Alhamdulillah. I had to hand in my virology report and bacteriology practical write-up this morning. Yes, TWO reports on the same day. And I've got another one to hand in next week - Endocrinology. Haven't started on that one yet, will do soon insya-ALLAH. I wonder how many weeks we have left in this semester. Can't wait. OH! I forgot! I have a group report to prepare for next week as well! *pengsan*

AAAAANNNYYYWAAAYYYY.. I'm feeling excited and anxious for tomorrow. We're gonna have this "Introduction to Year 3" kinda thing for the whole day; module coordinators for year 3 are gonna talk about their respective modules and yada yada. So, basically the MedSci students got to choose 2 modules that they want to do in year 3, and those 2 modules that we choose will determine our degree title. Yes, for us, it won't just be "Bachelor in MedSci"; you can say we will 'specialize' in our studies - for e.g. I'm planning to get "Bachelor in MedSci (Neuroscience)" *Insya-ALLAH, AMIN AMIN*, while Ilyani is considering "Bachelor in MedSci (Pharmacology)". Pokoknyaaaa~ I'm excited to see what each module has to offer. I've already set my eyes on [Neurobiology of the Brain] module, hopefully it'll be good fun. But other modules may pull me away from Neuro. Like pathology. Cam siuk. We'll see lah.

Right, apa lagi random rant ku baik ah~ Emmmmmm. Met up with my personal tutor yesterday. He's the awesomest personal tutor you could ever ask for~! Understanding and wise. Our first meeting last year, he told me to see him as my godfather. And yesterday, he addressed himself as my grandfather. lolol. Makin tua udah. Anyway, talked to him about all my problems and discomfort in uni. We talked for a good 40 minutes. Missed a badminton session with the UB-ers because of that, but I didn't mind. It was really nice talking to him. =D

I just wanna share this one advice he gave me. He told me to hold this motto, "Stick and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" =)

Till next time, take care.

Tournament and Snow..

2009-02-07T05:43:00.000-08:00

Happy Belated Birthday to all three people above. Sorry, i didn't dedicate any post on your birthdays. Not that I forgot, I was just very busy to even update this blog. Now that the stats report, practical reports and group report out of the way (although i have to hand in another virology report next week *cries*), here i am again people. Yes, I'm still alive.

It snowed heavily for the past few days. Started on monday and continued on till yesterday. My curtain's closed, but looks like it is fairly sunny out there today *kes malas mencek*. Which is good. I love/hate snow. Yes, the scenery is very beautiful. But when you have to walk a few miles to uni, you wouldn't even have the time to enjoy the view - you'd be busy trying to keep your balance and not slip. I lost count of how many times i almost fell flat on my behind. Plus, i have runny, congested nose due to the weather. Haishh. Ani udah weekend dpt relek2, nada cia besnow. Dang it.

Uni.. White.
Balik uni
Snow couple~
our backyard

BBSS Intra-society Badminton Tournament (31st Janueary) was a success. Unfortunately, didn't get through the knock-out stages with both my mixed double partners - Spol and Tony. Huuuhuuu. Adakah kerana saya~? T_T But did receive silver medals for women's double with Ilyanizzz~ Yeap, 2nd place! Out of 3. Haha. It was fun! Everything went smoothly according to schedule. Good job Sports officers! =)

Partner 1: Ilyani
Partner 2: Spol
Partner 3: Razorres

Winners.
Silver medalist.
at least we've got one medal each. =)
Rock Band bebeh~!

Till next time. =D Take care people~

Chris Brown..

2009-01-17T07:16:00.000-08:00

Wassup ni~ Cut my hair really short last tuesday. Heeeeeee. Grew tired of having long hair. I wanna try something new, so I took the risk of cutting it really short~ I think this is the shortest haircut I've ever gotten. My sister wanted to cut her hair short, so I reckon she will be really annoyed when she finds out that I did it first. Hehe.

Anyway, went to Chris Brown's concert at NIA~!! And it was off the hook~ Well, for me anyway. It was really really good!! The only complain I have is it was too short. The DJ-ing before the concert started was awesome. The opening act was ok..... those who like Jazz-ish (?) kind of songs would probably like it; i thought it was a bit out of place though since Chris Brown's concert should be about R&B and Hip-Hop. When Chris Brown came out..... "KYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CHRISSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!" That was basically my reaction throughout the concert. I'd never have thought I'd fangirl an artist and I wasn't really a huge CB fan before the concert... But CB was such a great, charismatic performer that even the usually-reserved Yani was fangirl-ing besides me. Haha, nda ja yani?? =D Chris Brown is an awesome dancer too. Siuklah siuk! "Forever-ever-ever~"..."With you with you with you with you~".. His songs have been replaying non-stop in my head and youtube now ever since the concert.

BiB inter-society Badminton Tournament in 2 weeks' time~!!! Yeaappee.. They randomly picked who got to partner who. My partner for Women's Double is Ilyani. My partnerS for Mixed Double are Tony and Spol. Paksa main with two people due to shortage in female participants. Gila, ngaleh ni yoooo~ Anyway, i just want to apologise to my partners pasal aku nda steady main. And my partners ani lagi semua steady, oh man I'm going to cause our downfalls~ T.T Sorryyyy~ *feeling guilty already*

Birthday Post..

2009-01-10T07:04:00.001-08:00

2009... older by a year

2009-01-07T14:45:00.000-08:00

First off, HAPPY NEW YEAR everyoneeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Spent my new year day in London with my sister. I did a little shopping while I was in London..... unfortunately =( Haissh. We went to Bicester Outlet Village in Oxford. We, being me, my sister, Ka Wani and Ka Bilah. It was all mostly 70% off alright... only for the original price to be hundreds of pounds to begin with. Hehe. Malastah ku. The next day, I tagged along with my sister's housemates to go to a shopping mall in London, called Westfield. Bullring gets OWNED in my opinion. Westfield is just totally .... a-w-e-s-o-m-e.
At BICESTER:

At WESTFIELD:

Today, the 7th of January 2009. 3 people I know are officially one year older. Don't get disheartened, age is just a number. The three of you look younger than your age anyways. *kira mengimply dorang tua lah udah. hoho.* So, A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to EZUANA a.k.a Kambeng, KASHFUL and Ka AIN~! Shall I reveal your age here? =P Hehe. Nada wah, I won't. *people, pm me if you want to know. lolol.*

Ezuanaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Hope u have a great birthday -- without me. =( We'll celebrate it together once I get back, ok? June plg tu~ Huhu. I know it's been a difficult time for you recently, but be strong~! Wana jiayouuuuu~! Love you always sista~! <333

And to two of my Uni of Birm seniors. Kash and Ka Ain. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Went to a Japanese restaurant 'Woktastic' this afternoon, for Kash's birthday. After that, headed straight to Pershore Road for his bday 'surprise'. Siuk2 hadiahnya c Kash ah~ Hee. Hope you like the Dawls' gifts.

Gift from Dawls.

Oopss. Now, everybody knows your age~!

After that saya menyinggah k Tiverton, to send KaYun/Eena/Yani's present for Ka Ain (I'll treat you to lunch somewhere, ok? Hee.)-- *Knock Knock* *Someone opens the door* *stares at each other* *memory floods in* *stares at each other*

The person who opened the door: "HANEEEZZZ!!!!"
Me: "FIFAAAAHHH!!!!"

Lerrrrr~ My childhood friend panya~ We haven't seen each other for a year! She's currently studying in Liverpool, and she's visiting Ka Ain since they apparently are cousins. Kami dua2 lagi batah bangang tu arah front door ah. Lol. I guess the both of us were thinking "Eh~ macam c Hanez/Fifah, tapi ndakan ya di sini?" kinda thing.

Secret Santa 2008~

2008-12-27T18:13:00.000-08:00

Boxing day was on the 26th. Since I didn't go last year, I decided to go shopping this year. By the way, boxing day is like THE ultimate shopping day - cause every shop has this massively massive sale. Only on that day. Bought some.... clothes. *gulp* And a new handphone. =D Babah tu suruh~ Haha.

Anyway, 'secret santa' again this year~! Wooohooo. We did it on christmas eve at the boys' house. 688. Last year, my secret santa was Sukri and he gave me BaByliss Hair Dryer + Straightener. Ku pakai masih ni sukri~! Hoho. This year, my secret santa was AliSyah and he gave me this totally totally cute Disney Santa teddy bear - limited edition lagi tu. Thank you Lisyah~! Aku sukaaa~! And Nisa got me as her secret santa.. and I gave her..... hihi.. adelerrr~ put it this way, she loved it sampai menangis ya time mereceive. Haishh, I'm awesome. And Jajan gave me a Tommy Hilfiger Perfume as my belated birthday present~! Awwwwwwwww. Thanks Jan~!

Photos courtesy of Ka Ain, Fadz, Alif, Taufik and me!

Buka present time!
Happy me after buka present!
si Nisa nangis. =)
With Cardiff ers- Nisa and Ili & Durham-er - Kam.. Mcm Deja Vu saja~
with my secret santa~
with the housemates - Radhiah n Jajan. Thanks Jajan for the perfume!
with the hosts~

Everyone with their gifts~ Thank u santa!

Need to go to sleep. Will be off to London soon. Take care, everyone~!

Surprise Birthday Celebration - Jajan.

2008-12-25T10:34:00.000-08:00

On this day, I want to wish a HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY to two of my friends (their birthday was on the 23rd). My very very very close friend, Aziah, who's currently in Brunei and whom I wished I could celebrate her birthday with. And also to my adorable housemate, Razan a.k.a Jajan, who just turned 20 *yes, i want to tell it to the whole world, biar ko~ =P*. May God bless the both of you.

On the 23rd, we surprised her by bringing her bestfriends from Notts over to Birm. Unfortunately, Jajan's sister and her friends (who are currently staying in our place for a few days) were out to the city when we made the surprise celebration.

After that, we headed straight down to Alton Road to play the "Rock Band" game.

Next post: Secret Santa~ Jjang~