Digital Abode of a Ravenclaw

Highlights of 2025

2026-03-12T12:12:00.004+08:00

Assalamualaikum wbt and hello everyone.

I am hit by a pang of nostalgia as I recall all those years of writing in this blog.

2007 till 2026. Such long years. 19 years! Such a bittersweet feeling!

But somehow, I skipped 2021 (not a good year).

And I inadvertently skipped 2025 (a good year! But I forgot to update it here).

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I am active on Instagram @sarahkushairi. But again, I'll try to make it a habit to update this blog at least once a year, LOL.

So, what happened in 2025?

Highlights of 2025

1. I left KKM and got a job as a pharmacy lecturer in an IPTA. I also have a nice, spacious room of my own!

2. I got my debut novel published by Penguin Random House SEA. The title is Jannah is ^NOT Average.

2. I attended Ubud Writers Festival in Bali for my book launch there!

3. I signed another book contract with Karangkraf.

4. I appeared on 'The Malaysian Reserve'.

5. I got a poem published on 'Eksentrika'. I guess I could call myself a poet now?

6. I played the keyboard in a public performance, and I made the arrangements myself.

7. I recited a poem in public, and also for the Gaza Solidarity programme.

8. I volunteered as a tutor with Teach For Malaysia for 10 weeks.

9. I took violin lessons

10. I travelled to Manila, Dubai (not just a short transit), Hanoi, London, Manchester, Liverpool.

And many more!

So that's all. I will update this blog again in 2027, insya Allah.

BTW I hate the AI feature in this blog.

A year later

2024-12-27T20:38:00.002+08:00

Assalamualaikum wbt and hello everyone!

I figure that I must update this blog at least once a year!

So, updates!

1. I graduated with an MSc in Clinical Pharmacy, International Practice and Policy from University College London!

2. I travelled to sooo many places throughout this one year of doing my MSc. Let's list down:

United Kingdom

- London (LOL)

- Brighton

- Bath

- Oxford

- Cambridge

- Canterbury, Kent

- Edinburgh, Scotland

Ireland

- Dublin

Spain

- Malaga (the fourth city in Spain visited after Madrid, Granada and Cordoba)

Portugal

- Lisbon

- Sintra

Italy

- Venice

- Milan

- Lake Como

Switzerland

- St. Moritz

- Zurich

- Interlaken

Belgium

- Brussels

Netherlands

- Amsterdam

France

- Paris

Germany

- Munich

Austria

- Salzburg

- Vienna

Slovakia

- Bratislava

Norway

- Oslo

Denmark

- Copenhagen

Sweden

- Stockholm

3. I self-published a book with Amazon KDP! It's titled Snippets of Travels: Musings and Travelogues across 5 Countries!

4. I met Yasmin Mogahed, DG Noor Hisham Abdullah and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad! I even presented my book to Tun M!

5. I watched three theatres- Spirited Away, Phantom of the Opera and The Lion King.

6. My beloved mother passed away in April 2024.

This blog had been with me since I was 17, and I guess it's appropriate for me to share snippets of my life updates here, at least once a year. It's like I owe this blog something.

Till then, see you in another year! Insya Allah!

A Childhood Dream Turned Reality

2023-10-28T04:54:00.006+08:00

Assalamualaikum wbt and hello everyone.

My last post was a year ago!

I need to make sure that this blog is alive until my last day on Earth, hahaha. I mean, I'm not going to discard 16 years worth of blogging updates down the drain and lose this site just because of inactivities. So, even a yearly update shall suffice.

Just a life update:

I am currently pursuing my MSc in Clinical Pharmacy, International Practice and Policy in University College London, United Kingdom.

I'm not active on blogspot. But you can follow me on instagram @sarahkushairi for more updates. 😊 From there too, you can subscribe to my latest series of newsletter: Saturdays with Sarah: Letters from London 🇬🇧.

It's just unbelievable. This blog had been together with me since I finished my SPM, foundation, degree, PRP, working life and now I'm doing my Masters.

If I read back the thoughts of the 17-18 years old Sarah on this blog, surely she couldn't believe that her childhood dream will finally turn into reality 15-16 years later. 🥹

"Thank you for not giving up on your dreams, future Sarah!" whispered 18 years old Sarah as she reads this blog entry from the past.

Saturdays with Sarah

2022-10-07T20:13:00.001+08:00

Assalamualaikum and hello everyone!

Oh, I haven't been writing on this blog for more than a month!

I actually made a pact with myself to post something here at least once a month but looks like it's probably gonna be once in every 2 months instead, LOL.

Well, I had been doing something great (at least for me) for the past 2 months. The main reason of why I'm not blogging regularly is because...

I have a weekly newsletter called 'Saturdays with Sarah'!

It's a weekly e-newsletter sent to my readers/subscribers every Saturday, hence it's Saturday with Sarah.

To date, I had been consistently posting 9 letters for 9 consecutive Saturday, alhamdulillah!

Tomorrow is going to be my 10th letter, insya Allah.

I had always been inspired by Aida Azlin for her Tuesday Love Letters, and I'm always looking forward towards receiving her letters every Tuesday. Her letters uplift my heart!

Deep inside me, I wanted to write something like what she had written. But something that comes from my heart, with my own way of writing and thinking. Something that comes out of my own opinions and reflections. But alas, I put the idea away, thinking it was too difficult, and I would probably have an endless battle with writer's block anyway. So, forget it!

Also, I have this problem with consistency. In 2021, I made a pact that I would write a blog post every week, on my new wordpress website (which I paid quite a hefty amount of money for). But it only lasted for about 4 letters? 4 weeks? I can't remember. I do know that I didn't really enjoy writing it, LOL.

I must admit that I really want people to read what I had written. Although writing is an act of joy for me, I would like to be validated as a writer. Meaning, I wanted to have readers, who occasionally respond to what I had written. It could boost my morale and motivation to write more and more.

That did not happen with blog posts. Nowadays, nobody really reads blogs anymore. This isn't like in the 2000s' till early 2010s'. We had moved past 2020, ladies and gentlemen!

But I have so much to talk about, so many things to share, I don't want to put my talent to waste. Okay, I would like to acknowledge that I indeed, have a talent in putting words into writing.

So how can I combine my love for writing, my passion and desire to become a writer and gets validated from what I had written- aka actually having readers?

I didn't have any answer for that, and besides, I had too much on my plate already.

Until....I came across two books written by Nurliyana Rahmat, titled 'Healing Careful-liy' and 'Love, Liy'. Her books are a compilation of weekly letters she had written over several years and I am in love with her writings, and the idea of curating a weekly newsletter.

The back of 'Love Liy' states that the letters serve as a safe space for her to share her reflections, be vulnerable and able to express herself freely. The letters are written like journal entries for her to bridge connections with her readers.

And at the end of the book, the writer urges the readers to start writing letters of their owns.

That's it! That's the answer to my question.

So I DM-ed Nurliyana Rahmat and asked her what platform she had used for her letters, and she said that she had been using mailchimp, which is free.

I was nervous at first, but it was a now or never moment! I set up my own template, sent test emails to some of my friends, and alas, I let my intention known to my followers on IG and asked them to leave their emails if they wish to subscribe to my weekly newsletters.

Alhamdulillah, the response was overwhelming! I thought I'd get at most 10 subscribers, LOL, but turns out much more than that. I like the idea of being vulnerable through my letters, as opposed towards being vulnerable on my blog posts or on IG/Stories, where everyone could have free access to my thoughts hahaha.

Only those who care enough to subscribe to my newsletters are the people I can be vulnerable with, because they are so supportive! This small action of subscribing to my letters means so much to me, and I am thankful for their presence in my life.

Thank you , my subscribers!

Some had DM-ed me, saying how they love reading my letters, how my letters resonate with their current states, and so on. Masya Allah, alhamdulillah, I am glad that my letters are beneficial to them.

I write those letters for myself, and I need to share the reflections from the going-ons in my life, which includes my experiences, circumstances, books I read, places I had been to, with the intention to make them feel better. To uplift their spirits. To make them come closer to Allah.

I would like to think of it as a form of dakwah, done in my own way.

Writing these letters had become a weekly routine for me and I feel so much joy in writing them. Sometimes I got an idea of what to write and the words just flow out smoothly. Sometimes I felt like tearing my hair out as I had no idea what to write even when it's already Friday!

But that's the thing. I learn to always show up to write these letters even when I don't feel like it. I have my own subscribers and I must not let them down! I'm not sure how long will I continue to write it, but I would like to write at least 40 letters, insya Allah.

I would consistently pray to Allah after every solat for Him to grant me the ideas of writing the best letters ever, and for Him to help me to write those letters in the best possible way.

On a last note, if you wish to subscribe to my weekly newsletter, just leave your email at the small subscription form on the right panel of this blog.

Please pray that I could write more letters and these letters serve as my legacy, my source of good deeds even after I'm no longer here on this world. Aameen.

The Golden Era of Chinese and Hong Kong Dramas

2022-08-05T13:04:00.005+08:00

Assalamualaikum and hello everyone! Just thinking I should post something on this blog once a week. This is a musing I wrote when I randomly thought about all the Chinese dramas I watched growing up.

So nostalgic!

***

The advent of Korean Wave had led to the infiltration of its dramas, culture, language, just almost everything into countries around the world. But before their dramas and movies made their way into Malaysia, we were once besotted by various Chinese and Hong Kong dramas playing on the TV from the early 90s’ to early 00’s. Those were the golden era of TVB and ATV.

“I couldn’t watch Zhi Wei getting tortured by Rong Mo Mo,” my friend lamented dramatically. We were then 10 years old, living in an era where the television was our primary source of entertainment.

“I was so mad, I felt like jumping into the TV and punch her in the face,” I replied with gusto.

Huan Zhu Ge Ge, or popularly known as ‘My Fair Princess’, had taken the world by storm in the late 90s’. It was first aired in the Cantonese dub at NTV7 in 1999. Even at a young age, I managed to differentiate between the two dubs, Mandarin and Cantonese, although I do not speak in either dialect. The story of how the spunky Xiao Yan Zhi met the demure Zhi Wei, and making their way to the Forbidden City, with romance and adventures along the way, still enticed me to this day.

Then there were the Wuxias turned into heart-pounding dramas like State of Divinity, Legend of Condor Heroes and Storm Riders, where the whole family would sit in front of the TV, our mouths agape as we marvelled over the Kung Fu moves and the ability to fly and fight on water. I wished that I had learned Kung Fu then. I really wanted to fly.

My earliest memory of religiously watching Chinese Dramas every afternoon began in 1997, where both my mom and I were glued to ‘The Good Old Days’ every afternoon. The series is so good that even the previews managed to stop me from my task as I craved to know more about the next episodes.

From then on, I watched every single drama the TV had to offer. I eventually became an ardent fan of Jessica Hsuan, who acted in Golden Faith, Square Pegs, Witness to a Prosecution, the list is endless! Not to forget Dicky Cheung who played comedic characters in Fong Sai Yuk and Journey to the West. Also, I think I still have a crush on Kwong Wah who played the suave saxophonist in ‘I Have a Date with Spring’.

A friend had commented on my interest towards Chinese dramas by saying “You’re a Malay, why are you watching too many Chinese dramas?” to which I replied “What’s wrong with that?”

Chinese dramas exert its positive effects in many ways. One example would be that it unites people from different races and religions in Malaysia, just like how P.Ramlee’s movies did. I clearly remember becoming friends with Rachel and Parvathee, bonded by our loves towards My Fair Princess. We would spend our breaks in between classes, writing fan fictions for each of us to read and comment on, and gushed over Alec Su at that young age. We were just eleven!

Also, through watching the period dramas, I also inadvertently learned about the history and culture of China, where different dynasties were depicted. The Qing dynasty setting in My Fair Princess featured women in elaborate headdress and clogs, while the men each sporting a queue. The Tang, Song and Ming dynasties have its people dressing in similar styles. The Yuan Dynasty was under the governance of Mongol kings Kublai Khan and Genghis Khan, after the fall of the Song Dynasty. A King’s love towards his General’s lover had led to the downfall of the mighty Ming Empire.

When Korean dramas began to make its waves over Malaysia, the TV channels had slowly stopped showing Chinese and Hong Kong dramas. That was when this glorious era had waned, making ways to Winter Sonata and Autumn in My Heart.

The era of watching Chinese dramas had ended for me as well. However, whenever the mood struck, I would play the soundtracks, reminiscing the carefree days where all I cared about was to go home to watch the next episode of Triumph in the Skies with my family, and where my classmates would excitedly chatter about the previous episode of Armed Reaction, anticipating the next one today.

Ah, the good old days!

The Joy of Writing

2022-07-31T18:42:00.002+08:00

Assalamualaikum and Hello everyone.

It’s been a while. A really long while. When I first created this blog almost 15 years ago (Gosh I feel old! This blog is the same age as the Form 3 students taking PT3 this year!), I had fun writing on it. There was this sense of accomplishment, of you writing something out and it appeared on the internet, and people actually read what you had written!

So, I began writing more from my heart, spewing out every feelings and happenings, writing and hitting that publish button for as many as 5 blog posts per day! It was exhilarating! Back then it was only less than 5 people who actually read my blog.

As my blog gained more readers and followers, I began to feel self-conscious over what I think and write. I am that kind of person who loves to speak out on various matters, but the thing is, some of my opinions are not necessarily correct. I got embarrassed over what I had written and slowly deleted some of the posts that I deemed would make people think less of me. What a shame, I should have put them in the drafts mode instead.

But yeah, blogging was therapeutic, enjoyable, fun! Nevertheless, as time gone by, more and more people began to leave the blogging world in pursuit of an app with beautiful photo grids. Many had changed their simple polyphonic phones into smart phones, and of course, the appearance of Instagram is timely. We began spending more time scrolling through the pictures in our phones, reading the captions, and not many have the time to write long blog posts or even read them anymore.

It’s the same with me. The feeling to speak out my mind is still there, but I had chosen to write them on the IG stories and Whatsapp stories instead. There is also that feeling of satisfaction when you could see people viewing your stories (and your words), which no doubt, created that feeling of pride over what you had written. But really, am I writing to satisfy myself, or to satisfy the viewers?

Eventually, I have developed the same feeling I had when I blogged. I feel conscious of the number of people viewing my stories. What if there is a person who disagrees with my opinions, screenshot-ed it and make it viral over the internet? Of course, this is just my anxiety talking.

Just today, I realized that the passion of writing is still there. The yearning to express my feelings, to write about what I think might be interesting. But the best platform for me to do that is through this good old blog. Whereby I don’t have to comply with the word limits, I don’t have to make my IG and whatsapp stories so crowded with my own thoughts and opinions.

This blog will forever be the place where I can write to my heart’s content, from my heart, with hopes that it could touch other people’s hearts. Here, I will not be worried or anxious upon looking at the number of viewers (and who viewed my blog). Here, I am quite safe, as not many people read blogs anymore!

So I decided I must write regularly again, just to organize my thoughts. Even though not many people would read it, it’s okay. I write for myself. I write for my own pleasure. And that, is the true joy of writing. J

In other words, I’m not going to let this blog die! Come on, I had fed and raised this blog for 15 years now! xD

30 is the new 20? And 40 before 40.

2020-02-08T22:04:00.001+08:00

So, it's the year 2020! I remember memorizing all the Wawasan 2020's visions from the Sejarah textbook sentence by sentence, word by word, only that they did not come up in the SPM Sejarah Paper. 😂

The year 2020 means the year I would be turning 30!

Is it for real? The big three-oh?

Just this morning I discovered a strand of silver hair amongst the black ones. I yanked it out and just laughed in disbelief. Aging is inevitable. The melanin had slowly ceased its production, LOL. I remember plucking my mom's silver hair when I was young. Now I have it myself! If I lived well enough until the age of 40, I hope I can just laugh merrily at the mirror while looking at the mounds of silver hair I have on my head.

Instead of lamenting of how old I've become, I actually don't mind turning 30. I'm not that scared of getting old. For me, 30 is the next big adventure. A whole new adventure as a working adult woman. When I was 20, it was an adventure of transitioning from teenagehood to adulthood, figuring out my career pathway and well, trying to make sense of the world and all that it contains, remember all those angsty, emotional feeling of quarter-age syndrome? I've survived that phase! Yaay to me~

Plus, you know. Life in this world is temporary. I seek solace in this fact. Thus I don't really care about silver hair and well, wrinkles on my face (I have one at the corner of my left eye- it has been there since I was 20, LOL). But it doesn't mean I stop caring about my appearance. I still want to look good for my age. I want to age gracefully. Like Audrey Hepburn, Seniwati Sarimah and Zeti Aziz. Like my mom! She looks 10 years younger than her age and I am not exaggerating. Thus I need to take good care of my health. To eat healthily, exercise regularly, religiously apply sunblock and eye cream and try to maintain a positive attitude throughout the day! The last one is really important.

I shall be the best version of myself. That is the best thing of turning 30. It's like a really prime age. You have a stable job and income. You can do whatever you want. You finally accept who you are. You can make your own choice. You own your life and you are responsible for how you live it!

I have this book titled '30 before 30' by Marina Shifrin. It chronicles the author's journey of achieving 30 things before she turns 30. She made that bucket list when she was 20. So she had 10 whole years of achieving those 30 things. But me, I bought it (and got the idea of making the list) when I was 28. HAHA.

But like I said, 30 is the new 20. I can start from now. Making my own list of 40 things to do before I turn 40. I don't want to pressure myself by making sure I achieve all those things. Life is not a series of a list of things you have to do by this and that age. But, why not? Maybe I will learn some important and valuable lessons while trying to complete all those 40 things in my bucket list. Just like Julie Powell when she attempted all 500 plus recipes of Julia Child in 365 days. (I watched Julie and Julia and I love anything by Nora Ephron). I might not achieve all 40 stuff. I might only achieve half of it, or even less. But it's okay. At least I tried. Life is short. You have to try all sorts of things. (NOT THE ONES THAT DESTROY YOURSELF like alcohol, drugs and such).

So yes, why don't you and I make this '40 before 40' list together? Let's make 30 the new 20, 40 the new 30 and so on!

Gonna make the list now!

Snippets of Turkey

2019-11-29T07:38:00.004+08:00

Assalamualaikum and hello all!

I had to force myself to write this as the memories about the trip are slowly diminishing.Writing about this trip had definitely made me relived my memories of Turkey!

So In December 2018, my family and I went for a trip to Turkey, covering Istanbul, Cappadocia, Bursa and Uludag!

I did not make the itinerary for this trip, unlike the previous ones. Don't know why. Perhaps I had gotten tired of making itineraries or perhaps I didn’t really have this much interest to go to Turkey. My parents were the ones who wanted to go to Turkey, actually, so we just tagged along. I thought Turkey is quite boring, but boy was I wrong! It was SO MEMORABLE! One year on, I could still remember all those places that I visited!

I’m not going to blog every single detail about my trip. I can’t really remember the date they built Hagia Sophia, or some historical facts (gasp!).I just want to reflect on my feelings there-those good, wonderful feeling of happiness when you’re in a new country. The feeling of wanderlust. J

Day 1- KL-Jeddah-Istanbul

Our journey started on the 11^th of December 2018, taking a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Jeddah. We had to transit for 6 hours there, before taking another flight from Jeddah to Istanbul. It was my first time taking Saudi Airlines and I have to say that the service was excellent! I love all the in-flight food and entertainment. The majority of the passengers were heading to Jeddah to perform their umrah, and I couldn’t wait but to look at them enviously, praying that one day, I too could be given the chance to go to Makkah. Ameen.

It would have been a perfect, satisfying, comfortable journey if it were not for the fact that I suffered from sore throat the day before departure. The classic Sarah-is-going-to-catch-a-cold/fever warning symptoms are sore throat, followed by bouts of sneezing every few seconds and runny nose. SO ANNOYING!

I kept on swallowing Panadol and Piriton (Forgot to bring Actifed!!!), praying with all my might that my immune system is strong enough to combat this illness. I slept throughout the journey, only waking up when food was served.

Approaching the holy city of Makkah al-Mukarramah

Young Sheldon with Arabic subtitles. xD

The meals were served twice. Plus there’s a tea/coffee time in between.

Then, the 9 hours journey was over, and we found ourselves at the Jeddah Airport, where we were required to stay for a 6 hours transit before taking another flight to Istanbul.

The 6 hours transit would have been bearable if it is not for the fact that the transit area was freaking crowded and uncomfortable with people sleeping on the floor because there wasn’t adequate seats! The Saudi government should improve their infrastructure. They are very rich, right? Surely they could afford to build and provide better facilities in the airport! Also, the transit area has a rather large retail section where they sell duty-free perfumes and stuff. *rolled eyes*. They should tear those down and expand the waiting area. I mean, some of the pilgrims were sleeping on the floor! So kesian!

Of course, the anxious me covered my nose most of the time. It was so crowded, and people were coughing and sneezing. I didn’t want to get sicker. I was so scared of getting the Mers Cov. My immune system was still struggling!

Alas, 6 hours was over. We took a flight to Istanbul, and the in-flight service was as excellent as ever.

Reached Istanbul, and the hotel driver brought us to the Sultanahmet area, which is the best area to stay if you want to walk to the historical places without taking a cab or a tram.

The place was situated in a hilly area. The lanes are so narrow and crowded. The driver could not park directly in front of the hotel, so we had to lug our luggage up the hill, in that drizzling afternoon.

I forgot the name of the hotel. But it’s like a small 3-4 storeys apartment.

You open the door of the room and these are my brothers’ beds.

Climb several steps up to my parents’ queen-sized bed next to my single bed situated next to the heater and window.

We prayed Zuhur+Asar first, then went out to have lunch. The same goes with other countries that I had visited, it took me quite a while to register the fact that I am in another country, thus I did not feel that excited, initially. There’s no “I can’t believe I’m here! Yippee!!! ” sort of things.

The Mausoleum of Sultan Mahmud II and his royal family.

Turkish delights!!!

Found a Turkish restaurant and went inside. I LOVE ALL THE FOOD! Except the Turkish Coffee. Which is so bitter, LOL. Well, coffee is supposed to be bitter, duh!

Then we went out to Serefiye Cistern, an aqueduct. Nothing much in here.

Walked some more, finally, the beautiful sight of Hagia Sophia greeted us from a distance. That was when it struck me “I’m here! And this place is so beautiful, Masya-Allah!” and I got all excited! We only took pictures on the surroundings without going inside, that activity is reserved for tomorrow. My mom got leg cramps because it was so cold! My dad massaged her legs. So sweet! And we had to hold her on each side as she couldn’t walk properly.

This deserves a MEME! Whatcha lookin' at?

So many cats in Istanbul and they are all FAT! My mom's friend said it's because the people there regard the cats as members of their own community. Thus they are very well-fed. None of the cats came to us begging for foods. None of them are skinny. Which makes me laments the conditions of the cats in Malaysia. :(

And we slept early that night (9 pm Istanbul time) and woke up at 3 to 4 in the morning. Still couldn’t recover from the jetlag.

Day 2 Istanbul-Sultanahmet

Woke up for a breakfast at the hotel. I LOVEEEE the food served! A variety of cheese, breads, potatoes, hummus and various condiments.

View from our hotel room. Not much of a view. HAHA.

But at least you can see the Bosphorus Strait.

Then we were ready to explore Sultanahmet area. First destination of the day is the Basilica Cistern, which is similar to Serefiye Cistern except that it is more famous because it appeared in the movie ‘Inferno’ starring Tom Hanks. Built during the reign of Emperor Justinian, It was used as a water storage area. So, another aqueduct.

Medusa upside down, I think?

Wait, this is Medusa with her viper hair.

Then, we moved on to Hagia Sophia, which is just across the road.

I can’t really remember the ticket price. But we got in for 60 liras per person, with a personal so-called tour guide who charged us 100 liras. So in total, it was 400 liras. Well, he did explain almost everything about Hagia Sophia but somehow, I’d rather explore the whole building by myself instead of having to follow him around here and there.

Hagia Sophia is really magnificent. It was once a church during the Byzantium era, and then converted into a mosque when Muhammad al-Fateh conquered Constantinople (old name of Istanbul). It is two-storeys high, and the second storey is where the Empress of Constantinople pray. As I walked towards the second storey-with a series of passages upwards, I couldn’t help but to imagine the royalty of the olden days walking on the same floor to get upstairs.

There are also mosaics featuring Christ, Mary, the emperors and empresses, and also mosaics with the name of Allah, Prophet Muhammad pbuh, and the 4 Khulafa Ar-Rasyidin.

I think this this the mosaics depicting Emperor Justinian and Emperor Constantine on the left and right presenting the Hagia Sophia and the city of Constantinople to Virgin Mary and baby Jesus Christ.

When the tour was over, the tour-guide asked for 500 liras. We were shocked. All of us argued “You said it was 400 liras!” and he said “Okay, 400 liras then,”. It seemed like he was taking the chances of us forgetting what we had promised him earlier. Luckily we remember. Huh!

Then, we moved on to Topkapi Palace. The security to these historical places were quite tight. We had to put our bags over the conveyor belt to be screened, etc. Just like in airport. We later found out that it’s a precautionary measure against terrorists, like those who planned an unsuccessful coup at Thaksim Square a few years back.

Well, you can buy tickets to two separate places- Topkapi Palace and the Harem, or just Topkapi Palace, or just Harem, where the Ottoman sultans’ concubines resided in during the Ottoman Empire.

My parents wanted to go to only Topkapi Palace. Now that when I think of it, why didn’t I go to the Harem too? WHYYY???

The entrance fee for Topkapi Palace is 60 liras, the same with Hagia Sophia. The entrance fee for the Harem is 60 liras too.

The Palace is beautiful and well-kept. There is a section where you couldn’t take photos of the beard of Rasulllah SAW and the robe of Sayyidatina Fatimah RA. But of course, some 'smart' people couldn’t understand the rules or even too illiterate to read, leading to the guards saying ‘NO PHOTOS! NO PHOTOS!’ every single second.

The place where they take ablution.

Walking around the Royal kitchen area.

Bosphorus strait!

The library. Not a real Ottoman there.

It was here that my sneezing got worse and I knew then that my immune system had failed me and I had officially fall sick.

We then had our lunch at the restaurant and ordered some kofte (meatballs) and soup. I love the lentil soup. I could still taste it in my throat until today. So hot, creamy, savoury. Yumss

That green soup there!!!

We then performed our prayer at the Sultanahmet Mosque, also known as the Blue Mosque. Went to take our wudhu at the toilet nearby, as in the toilet, there were several Malaysians (LOL Malaysians are everywhere!) who said that they witnessed someone being pick-pocketed right in front of the toilet. I shuddered upon hearing that and clutched my belongings closely.

I kept on sneezing when I was praying, LOL. Then we went to the Grand Bazaar. It reminds me of ‘Silk Street’ in Beijing, only that the vendors here were nicer and much more polite. Didn’t buy anything there. Just looking around.

Entrance to the Grand Bazaar. See that security barrier there? It's everywhere!

Then, we went to buy simcards as the wifi at the hotel sucks, and also because we need to do a web-check in for our next flight to Cappadocia. OMG, writing about Cappadocia makes me excited!!!

Then I stayed in the room the whole night with my darling brother Haziq, who was such a fine young man who volunteered to stay in the hotel with me while my parents and brother went out to get dinner- chicken kebab omg so nice!! I shivered in the cold winter ambiance-heater sucks! Sneezed, sneezed and sneezed, took PCM, Actifed (somehow I found it somewhere in my bag), vitamins, and when I woke up the next day, I felt better, Alhamdulillah.

Day 3 Kayseri-Cappadocia-Uchisar

Breakfast was as usual, AMAZING! Then the hotel driver sent us to the airport where we waited for our flight- Turkish Airlines to Kayseri Airport.

In the plane, we were served this grilled cheese bread with tomatoes which is so delicious!

Snowy landscape

Arrived there on time, found our driver and got into the mini bus. What bugged us the most was, the driver was waiting for two more groups who had not yet arrived at the airport. So we had to wait for them and my dad got sulky because we almost missed our prayers.

Anyway, we travelled across the highway to get to Cappadocia. You could see remnants of snow on the hills and by the roadside, which made us feel really excited.

The best part of Cappadocia is our CAVE HOTEL located at Uchisar, which is the highest terrain in Cappadocia.

The hotel is the most luxurious and prettiest hotel I had ever stayed in. It’s one of a kind too, since it was carved from a cave. Our suite is so spacious, with my parents room in front, then a short hallway leading to a big area with my bed on one side, and my brothers’ on the other side. There’s a Jacuzzi tab too! My mom got it at an affordable rate for 2 nights, not exceeding RM1000. It’s a bargain for a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

The entrance to our Cave suite. Climb up the stairs.

And it opens to my parents' bedroom.

You pass through the door on the left of this picture, moving along a short passage, and you will find...

My brothers' sleeping area

And mine. So cool right!!!

The view from my bed. On my right is the staircase leading down to...

Our bathroom, with shower and jacuzzi! There's another bathroom at my parents' room, also with jacuzzi.

The only downside is it’s so far from the Cappadocia town, so there isn’t any nightlife. All we did was just exploring around the area (so cold!) and just enjoyed our room! And oh, we booked a one-day Green tour for our activity tomorrow. The receptionist called the tour guide and they will be picking us up tomorrow. There are several kinds of tours- Red, Green and Blue (I think) but I chose the Green Tour because I wanted to go to the Derinkuyuu Underground City.

BTW, the receptionist doesn’t understand English. So we had to use Google Translate to communicate with her.

The only thing missing is the hot air balloons. This picture would have been perfect then!

I read this (the hotel's copy) and vow to go to Konya one day! Insya Allah!

Day 4 Cappadocia

What’s a superb hotel without a superb breakfast?

I think I was answering a query about drug doses. LOL really. The doctors in my ward would ask me anytime, anywhere. Tak sampai hati tak jawab.

Breakfast was super awesome, we had the waiter serving us, we ate lots of breads and cheese.

Then the tour guide picked us up with his van. His name is Azan. There were two other groups there. One is a Singaporean Malay family, another is a couple from India.

Our first destination for the day was the Selime Monastery. You had to climb up the hill to get to the now-defunct monastery. The whole architecture was amazing! He also showed us the structures which supposedly inspired George Lucas’ depiction of Star Wars’ Tatooine.

Then, moving on to Ihlara Valley. This place is so beautiful! You just have to see it by yourself as no words could perfectly describe this place (actually I am too lazy to type out flowery descriptions about this place).

I want to go to New Zealand! #tetiba. This reminds me of one of the paths Frodo, Sam and Gollum took to destroy the One Ring.

Those caves were the Christians' settlements back then.

Then we had our lunch, which is included in the tour package.

Barley grains with cheesy chicken. Of course, my favourite green soup served with lots of bread.

Continued our tour by going to the Derinkuyuu Underground City! It's the place where the Christians hid from the Muslim Arabs during the Arab-Byzantine wars. It could accommodate up to 20,000 people and there were amenities like chapels, schools, storage rooms and kitchens inside. It extends to a depth of 60 metres and believe me, without a tour guide, you would be lost inside this maze of a city. We even crawled down to the place where they stored dead bodies. Wicked!

It was a rather strenuous journey, especially for my mom, as we had to crouch down and climb up numerous series of stairs.

Then, we went to Pigeon Valley while the rest of the group went to take the super expensive Hot Air Balloon rides. RM1000 per person for a 30 minutes ride. Lucky Singaporeans who only had to spent $300 of their money to take the hot air balloon. I mean, I wouldn’t mind spending it on myself, but my parents refused to take the hot air balloons and thus I didn’t want to go up there all by myself. So, yeah. A bit regretful. Maybe one day.

The pigeons nestling in the rock formations.

You could see the hot air balloons!!! And the evil eyes charms hanging from the branches. The Huawei Mate 9 watermark tu sibuk je. Hahaha. It's from my dad's phone.

Nice pictures were all taken by my brother and my father.

Ended our tour with the jewellery factory. Then we went back to the hotel.

Day 5 Yenikapi, Istanbul, Galata

Last day in Cappadocia. Had our last breakfast there and rushed to catch our flight back to Istanbul. This time, my mom booked a hotel near the Yenikapi area. But the hotel was better than the first hotel we stayed in. We met my mother’s high school friend-Angie who is now a teacher in Istanbul there. So Auntie Angie taught us how to take a metro to Galata where she treated us for dinner at a seafood restaurant!

The restaurants under the Galata Bridge. We didn't go to any of it. Instead, we went to the one near to the fish market. Which offers seafood at a more reasonable price!

The old train to Galata

Fresh seafood

Assorted condiments

That’s what I love most about Turkey. The food! Everything is halal, no pork, also cheap. Then I was reminded of how we had to cook in Japan and Australia as it was difficult to find halal foods. And halal foods are expensive too.

We walked around Galata Bridge and took another Metro to the Galata tower area. Then we went back to our hotel. My brothers and I shared a room where we played Snap! Happy Families and Donkey. I won all three games! #powerofa90skiddo

Day 6 Bursa

Took a ferry to Bursa from the Yenikapi Ferry Terminal. Bought our tickets there at the counter. Arrived in Bursa, where we took a cab to our hotel. Checked in to our hotel after we had settled everything, praying, etc. We made our way to the market in Bursa, eating lunch at a restaurant along the way. I had blisters walking several kilometres away from the hotel to that market.

Our sleeping area. Syafiq's first pose.

Parents' sleeping area. Syafiq's second pose. Hahaha.

Chocolate pudding

Kofte. Meatballs.I only finished the meatballs, leaving behind the soggy breads.

Say cheese!

Something happened. I desperately needed to go to the toilet. But no one understands English there. No one knows what a toilet is. So I quickly typed the word 'toilet' on Google Translate and they immediately showed me the way, LOL.

This masjid was built in 1399 and still standing strong!

While waiting for my father and brothers praying at the mosque, my mom and I had the opportunity to taste a creamy hot milk sprinkled with cinnamon drink called Salep!

And we drank lots of tea as well!

Hot tea with two sugar cube by its side. I already put one. One is enough.

I bought several boxes of Turkish delights as souvenirs and my dad bought Walnuts, Hazelnuts and other kinds of nuts. My mom bought spices, and on our way back to our hotel, we tried the oysters squeezed with a bit of lemon. Yummy!

Alhamdulillah tak dapat Dysentery.

Day 7 Uludag

Took a cab to the Teleferik Station at Bursa, it’s a cable car to the Uludag Ski Resort.

Long story cut short, we arrived in the snowy mountain of Uludag! My second time skiing after 4 years and I had forgotten how to do it.

My father, on the other hand, enjoyed himself so much that he kept on failing, and had knee pains that makes it difficult for him to walk properly. My mom kept on scolding him, saying that he’s no longer young, so he should learn how to limit himself.

I got tired of skiing and ate Menemen with my mom.

Another amazing thing that happened there: We experienced a snowfall!

No activities at night because my dad was in pain. So my brother just ordered food from the restaurant and we ate dinner in our hotel room.

Day 8 Sultanahmet, Istanbul

Something adventurous happened.

We checked out of our hotel in Bursa and got into a cab to the Ferry Terminal. But ferry was not available for the day since it the sea was rough, with choppy waves and stormy weather. So how on earth are we going back to Istanbul? Oh yeah, there’s no direct flight from Bursa to Istanbul, BTW.

And….the answer is, we took a bus!

Which is the best decision ever! As we traversed across other towns and cities of Turkey to get to Istanbul.

Bus is super nice!

There's also someone serving you tea and cakes!

The bus stopped at Uskudar. No one could tell us how to get to Istanbul, which is the other side of Bosphorus strait. Like I said, not many people understand English! It was drizzling at the same time. Luckily we met a young Turkish lady, who is the daughter of a mufti in Turkey. She could speak English so it was a relief! She showed us the way until we reached our hotel in Sultanahmet. Thank you!

We checked in to the hotel and ate lunch at the restaurant located in front of it. I can't remember the name of the dish I ate but one thing for sure, there are like 5 pieces of chicken wings with bread and I finished them all. Really delicious! Middle Eastern foods are my absolute favourite! Then we went out to shop for some stuff. We also went to the Grand Bazaar (again) with my parents buying Turkish prayer mats as souvenirs.

This is the one!

Inside the Grand Bazaar

I went to a bookstore in Sultanahmet to search for Elif Shafak’s books. It was freaking expensive! One paperback for 100+ liras? When I returned to Malaysia, I bought all of her books from Kinokuniya, each costing less than RM50. Aunt Angie was right. She told us that the Turks were not into reading, and that books are expensive there!

Went for another shopping trip at the shops near the Hippodrome. The Hippodrome is kind of like the Roman Colosseum, only what remains of it now is just two huge pillars.

One of the two pillars of Hippodrome

Day 9 Spice Bazaar, Galata Tower, and back to Malaysia

Last day in Turkey! Went to the Spice Bazaar, then only took a picture outside Galata Tower as there was a long queue to go inside. Then we ate lunch, checked out of our hotel, and went to the airport.

Inside the Spice Bazaar. It was less crowded than the Grand Bazaar.

Galata Tower

My siblings and I watched ‘Siccin 2’ on the laptop while we’re waiting for our flight. Watching a Turkey horror movie in Turkey. Wicked!

Back to Jeddah for a short transit time, and back to Malaysia!!!

Overall, a very memorable experience! My parents talked about how they want to go to Turkey again. They want to explore the other states and regions of Turkey. I want to go to Konya- also known as the City of Rumi as the great Poet Jalaluddin Rumi once lived and buried there. Then, to Pamukkale, Antalya, and so many more!

That’s all, a blog post long overdue (almost one year!). I’m glad I managed to finish writing about my trip there. Sorry it's not as extensive and not having much details like my Snippets of Western Australia post as I had forgotten every single thing that happened a year ago. I really need to make it a habit to write on my travel journal each time I visited a new country.

And Insya Allah, I will be taking a trip to Egypt this December, then performing my umrah in Makkah and Madinah. I am really looking forward to it. I want to receive the hidayah. I want to improve and strengthen my relationship with Allah and Rasulullah, aameen.

Me and My 'Me Time'!

2019-10-26T21:05:00.004+08:00

Like I said in my previous (now deleted) post, I was rather angry, feeling under the weather, all those negative feelings, you name it.

Amidst all those negativity within me, there was one thing I was looking forward to. Going to KB for a research colloquium this week. Well, it just ended today, and here I am blogging about it.

I was not that excited to go to the colloquium to tell the truth. Mainly because I hate driving from GM to KB. It is an arduous 3-hours journey, with slow vehicles and big, heavy lorries getting on your way, where you have to utilize your mental capacity, calculating the distance vs time taken for you to overtake that super-slow lorry carrying timber in front of you. Plus, it's the monsoon season with extremely heavy downpour that blocked your vision even at 3 in the afternoon.

Instead, I was more looking forward towards having my own 'ME TIME'! That's right, a me-time! Where I can escape from my life in GM, having a short staycation in a 5-stars hotel, staying in the spacious and comfortable room all by myself, enjoying myself, leaving behind all my problems.

In short, I booked a two nights stay at Hotel Perdana, Kota Bharu. The moment I entered the room, I felt so joyful and grateful. I felt so much freedom of having the whole room to myself, where I was free to do whatever I wanted.

I drove to Aeon Mall KB aka my favourite mall in Kelantan since 2016 (The year I started working in Kelantan), ate plenty of sushi in Sushi King, then I went to Popular to buy an English-translated Japanese novel by Yukiko Motoya, titled 'Picnic in the Storm'. It's a collection of short stories which won the Kenzaburo Oe Prize. Then I went to The Body Shop to buy ~~overpriced~~ luxurious body bath gel, shampoo and bath bombs which I will only use on special occasions like these 2 nights stay in the hotel, and because I'm a member and is entitled to a 25% for each item as it's October, my Birthday month. To top it off, I bought my favourite drink- Hot Caramel Macchiato from 'Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf'. I had so many plans for myself tonight. All these, are my treats and gifts to MYSELF for recently surviving such a difficult phase of my life which is 'PMS'. Laugh Out Loud.

Salmon Sashimi is my absolute favourite! I pray to Allah that if I managed to get into Heaven (aameen!), one of my requests is to be able to eat lots of this without getting tired of it. Aameen!

At the hotel, I filled the bathtub with hot water, and put a purple-coloured Rich Plum bath bomb into it, and watched as the once clear water turned lilac. Then I immersed myself into it, feeling very contented and happy. This is the life. This is my me time. The sweet fruity smell of the Strawberry shampoo calmed my nerves, and the floral scent of the British Rose rejuvenated my spirits. LOL this sounds like an advertisement. I made a mental note that in the future, I must have a bathtub in my house.

Then, I put on the fluffy bathrobe and sat on the super comfortable bed with 6 pillows (I took out the extra 2 pillows from the wardrobe), sipping on my now-cold Caramel Macchiato and read my book.

The same cycle of event continued the next day. I had a good night sleep on the second night, dozing off as early as 9 pm.

Now, I'm back to GM, feeling much better than before I came to KB.

I realized that whenever you encountered difficulties in your life, you just need to take a moment to relax, sometimes. You need a time out, you need to be with yourself. Your mind and body deserve a treat! You don't have to go anywhere far or expensive to do that. Well actually, it's up to you. If you feel like you deserve a whole tub of Haagen Dazs Ice Cream for yourself, then you go and do it! You deserve to treat yourself better! You work so hard! You should spend on yourself and your own needs! But of course, do it with caution. I don't recommend impulsive, expensive purchases that made you feel regretful later on. You just need to be with yourself for a moment. Listen to what your mind and body are trying to tell you.

Also, I am happy to find 'Christmas Shopaholic' available on the shelf of 'Popular Bookstore', AEON when I visited it on my last day in KB. No matter what people said about Becky Bloomwood- that she is a bimbo, and that "Sophie Kinsella's novels are mostly fluff!", I don't care. I first read 'Shopaholic and Sister' when I was 16 and I was enchanted by it. 13 years later, I am still one of Sophie Kinsella's biggest fans.

Take my advice. Find your own 'Me-Time'! And work on making your 'Me-Time' a memorable and rejuvenating moment amidst your stressful, hectic life.

From a student to a working adult: My Methods of Handling Stress and Anxiety

2019-10-05T08:31:00.002+08:00

Stress and anxiety relate with each other, the same goes with depression, as there is the existence of the DASS (Depression Anxiety Stress Scale) test, a psychological test that is used to measure your levels of stress, anxiety and depression.

When taking the test, make sure that you are currently not experiencing any recent events that had brought your mood to its lowest point, like, recently failing an exam, having a breakup, etc. These events could usually cause you stress, but not to the point of depression, unless the subject taking this test had endured an extremely traumatic event and having a long time to recover from it. The key is to assess whether you had been experiencing the same feelings consistently for two weeks in a row, without any trigger factors that lead to you feeling so. Ever had the feeling of ‘emptiness’ and ‘sadness’ but you couldn’t figure out what makes you sad?

I once had taken this test when I was having my PMS, and as you can expect, the results showed that I have high levels of stress, anxiety and depression, LOL.

If I had taken the same test today, the results might came out different. I might have a normal levels of stress, anxiety and depression. Because let’s face it, being a woman is difficult. You couldn’t control the levels of hormones in your body. One day you’re feeling over the moon, and another day you got irritated over silly things and felt ready to snap to everyone who seemingly conspired to ruin your day.

But don’t worry. Everyone has their own stress. It’s how you handle those stress that makes all the differences. Remember what Allah said, ‘Allah does not burden a soul beyond that it can bear’ (Al-Baqarah 2:286). So when you experience stress, make it a mantra saying that this feeling is just temporary. With Allah’s help, you can get through this. Also, in the must-watch Japanese drama ‘Jin’, there is this main character who coined up the saying “God gives you challenges so that you could overcome it!” So, try to look at your problems as challenges, and think of ways of how you could get through those tests and challenges.

I watched Nouman Ali Khan’s video titled ‘A Life of Ease’ and he said that life in this world is supposed to be hard. But it’s your level of faith that makes it easy for you to undergo through those hardships. NOT to say that those suffering from depression have low level of faith. Just like any other diseases, the psychiatric diseases is also derived physiologically, with some people having more active receptors, lower levels of serotonins, and etc. When hardships struck them, they couldn’t respond to these hardships as normally as those with normal brain physiological functions could. So they take each problem harder than everyone else. Have pity for them. For us. I’m included in one of those people, being extremely sensitive who takes offence at the slightest remark. I’m trying to improve myself by not caring what people think. I don’t care.

So when I was a student, I was stressed at some points of my life. I got stressed mainly because of my quizzes marks. Even when I had managed to pass my quiz, I still got bummed over the average marks, comparing myself with those high achievers. Thus, there were several things I did to overcome my stress in university.

1. Drinking coffee.

This works, in a way. Placebo effect, I guess. Whenever I got stressed, I would head to the cafeteria and bought a can of coffee, usually a Nescafe Latte. Then I would sit somewhere, taking my time to sip the coffee while gathering my thoughts. I felt better. I was inspired to do this after watching a Japanese drama ‘Hotaru no Hikari’ whereby Hotaru (played by Ayase Haruka) was severely scolded by her boss for a mistake she had made. She drank several cans of beer during lunch (how she managed not to get drunk, I never know) and gave herself a pep talk. Then, she continued doing her job as though nothing happened. Obviously I couldn’t drink beers or any alcoholic drinks so coffee is sufficient for me. LOL.

2. Searching for motivational quranic ayats and tweeting about them.

I remember fearing that I might fail an exam paper after I did rather poorly on the essay parts. Then I went on scouring through the internet hoping that Allah will give me the strength and signs that I will not fail the paper. So I came across this Quranic verse (can’t remember the exact one) and I was really comforted after reading it, knowing that Allah will never inflict unnecessary harms to His believers. I MUST SEARCH FOR THAT QURANIC VERSE ! Then, another deep and meaningful Quranic verse from Surah-Al Baqarah’ verse 155 : “And We Will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient’. This makes me so inspired, knowing that this feeling of fear is a test! He wants to know whether I could overcome it! So, instead, of succumbing to my fear of failing, I believe that there is still hope for me to pass the subject. Thus I studied all night and did really well for my MCQ paper that when the results came out, I passed the subject, Alhamdulillah!

3. Blogging/Writing

I used to blog regularly and frequently when I was a student. Hahaha. Those who know me, know me. I am so glad that I created this blog when I was 17 and that I had never stopped blogging since then. I just regret deleting some of the old entries (because I was embarrassed of them) rather than keeping them in drafts.

4. Going to the mosque and attending usrahs.

My favourite part. The UIA Mosque is just several hundred metres away from my mahallah. Sometimes I walked alone to the mosque for Maghrib prayers, staying until Isyak and reciting the Quran all by myself. Sometimes I cried when reciting the Quran. Thank God nobody I know was around. Haha.

One of the beautiful things about UIA is the existence of usrahs. I miss my weekly usrah sessions whereby we would gather in the mosque or at the park, reciting Quran, reflecting on the meanings of Quranic ayats, and doing other beneficial activities that act as supplements to your soul.

5. Jogging/running.

Again, I love the fact that I could jog comfortably several rounds around the lake in front of my mahallah as there were no guys around. Jogging makes me happy (and healthy!).

6. Called my mother.

She would usually give me pep talks when it comes to academic matters. Because when I was a student, I had no other problems (no boyfriends thus no relationship problems, my lecturers are nice as compared to my nasty FRPs back when I was a PRP, I have friends, etc) other than academic-related problems.

7. Go to the Library and read books.

The Leisure Section at the UIA Kuantan’s Public Library was my favourite place of retreat. I would walk under the hot scorching sun just so I could be with my books, who understand me better than anyone else, LOL.

So that was how I handled stress when I was a student.

Now when I’m a full-grown adult (LOL), I still experience stress, mind you. That stress with the higher-ups, coworkers, KPIs and many others. But whenever I felt sad and angry, I…

1. Tried looking at myself from an outsider’s perspective aka counting your blessings.

Sometimes I compared myself with others. Social media is really bad in that sense. I look at this girl and thought to myself, I wish I’m that pretty. I look at that jet-setting person, and said, I wish I have more time and money to travel. We are always looking up, yearning for something other people have that we often forget to look down and forget that for all the things we currently have are being coveted by the less fortunate people. I have a job with a well-paid salary! I have a car, I have a phone, I have a comfortable place I could call home, I am not suffering from any illnesses, and my parents are still alive and healthy. I have this…I have that…Alhamdulillah for everything. Thus, counting your blessings really help to bring you back up. There are many people who wish to be in my place now. They wouldn’t mind going through the stress I have as long as they have a job and money to pay through their daily expenses (eg FOOD). If you have a place to live, even a phone where you could read this and scroll through your instagram with, then you are really lucky and fortunate.

There is this patient with a tongue cancer in my hospital. Imagine being in her position. If you removed your tongue, you couldn’t taste food or speak. If you chose not to remove it, then it will metastasize and eventually causing death. Be grateful that you have a tongue of which you could taste food with, and speak with. Thus, take good care of your tongue by only saying good things.

2. Watch motivational and inspiring videos from youtube.

I watch Nouman Ali Khan’s lectures, taking notes of the important points from each lecture, I watch videos on minimalism, zero-waste, and self-improvements. I am currently addicted towards videos showing you how to pack for a long trip, folding and fitting everything into a single backpack.

3. Cleaning my room and decluttering.

This is very therapeutic. Whenever I feel upset, I start pulling my bed sheet tautly, arranging my pillows, then moving on to my desk, cupboard, bookshelf and dressing table, arranging and rearranging everything. Then I would vacuum my room, open the windows to air it, and spray the air freshener into my room. Sometimes I would even scrub my bathroom floor and polish the mirrors and sink. Doing these make me feel happier. Having more possession makes your mind cluttered and thus, as you started decluttering your possessions and belongings, you declutter your mind too.

4. Journaling

Before the age of blogspot, instagram, Friendster or what nots, I chose to pour out my wreck-up emotional feelings onto my diaries. Whenever I was dissatisfied with my mom (rebel!), I obviously couldn’t argue with her (because moms are always right, kan?) So I chose to pour it out in my diary. Gosh, I was such an angsty hormonal teenager back then. I wish my future children would be very obedient. And I shall encourage them to vent their anger in their own private diaries too.

Thus, journaling, writing diaries, blogging, these same things, they had been a habit of mine since I was young. Surely I couldn’t pour out everything online, so I chose to write them out into my diaries, and talk to Allah about it.

5. Spending at least 10 minutes every day to make prayers to Allah.

I mean, praying after your 5 obligatory prayers. I was sometimes in a hurry to make prayers after solat. So I dedicated my Subuh and my Maghrib prayers exclusively to pray extensively to Allah. I would ask for so many things, I would pray for so many things, for so many people, I tell him about my feelings, etc, and sometimes, when I least expect it, tears would roll down. Because halfway through your prayer, you feel this immense gratitude that Allah is there to listen to all your melodramas and first-world problems and yet, He never judge you for it. He is As-Sami’ the All-Hearing. So, just pour out your feelings towards Him, do it everyday. If you couldn’t do it in Subuh or Maghrib, then just do it once in Isyak, before you go to bed. Your life will change to a betterment, I can assure you!

So I make it a habit to tell and confide to Allah about my problems. Thus, whenever I am at work, feeling stressed and annoyed, I felt like I couldn’t wait to go home and sit in my room, couldn’t wait to pray to Allah and tell Him about my problems. It’s a nice feeling!

6. Go out with your friends and housemates

Sure, you need time to be alone, but sometimes, it helps to liven up your mood when you go out to have dinner with your friends and housemates. Having great housemates is a blessing, and I thank Allah for that, Alhamdulillah.

7. Taking care of yourself

Meaning, taking care of your health by eating well, skipping sugary drinks and fast food. Then, jogging or running, frequent face massage, making your own home spa in your bathroom, pampering yourself with sheet masks that make your face glow. All these increase the dopamine levels (dopamine: known as the happy hormone. It’s a type of neurotransmitter, actually). You will feel healthier, prettier and thus happier!

8. Reading al-Quran everyday.

During the phase where I chose to recite al-Waqiah every morning and al-Mulk every night (on top of the daily recitation of al-Quran), I definitely felt happier. Al-Waqiah is a surah said to increase providence and sustenance from Allah. The feeling of happiness is also a form of rizq!

9. Going for a short retreat or just come back home.

I really love Jason Mraz’s song ’93 million miles’. ‘Just know, wherever you go, you can always come back home’. Thus I make it a point to drive more than 300 km to my hometown every month as I miss my parents and my siblings, and all the familiarity of home. Money doesn’t matters when it comes to your family. The time you spent for them is simply priceless.

10. Read books

And of course, reading books! Reading had been my first and most favourite hobby. Reading fictions is a good way to reduce your anxiety as some stories could be very inspirational, with strong characters who encourage you to never give up, to move forward, facing boldly whatever challenges life throws at you. I also love reading historical books, knowing that what I’m experiencing now is nothing like what those who had lived during war-torn eras had gone through. It makes me grateful! So, read books! J

I hope all these help you in battling your own stress and anxiety. Just know that every single human in this world had stress, is having stress and is going to experience stress. Don’t look at the social media to seek out the meaning of a perfect life because nobody’s life is perfect. The seemingly perfect people are always choosing the good parts of their lives to be displayed on social media. I mean, who would want to showcase the bad things happening to them for all to know and see, right? As the saying goes, good news are meant to be shared! Not the bad ones, of course.

I pray that you find the strength and courage to find the solutions to your problems. Aameen.

P/S Writing about ways of how to handle stress really helps to alleviate my stress and improve my mood as well!

Doctors and Pharmacists: Rivals or Allies?

2019-09-27T11:38:00.002+08:00

Since time immemorial, the doctors and the pharmacists had always worked together. According to a Greek legend; The God of Healing Ascelpius, had entrusted his apothecary Hyegiea to compound his remedies. In Ancient Egypt, there were two classes of physician-priests; the ones who visited the sick- the doctors, and the one who prepared the remedies- the pharmacists. The separation of duties between herbalists and physicians had also been recognised in the Middle Age in Europe, and in the Ancient Greece and Rome.

The advent and expansion of the medical knowledge and technology in the modern era further separated their roles; doctors-to diagnose, treat and perform medical procedures, pharmacists- trained in giving information and counselling about drugs and devices such as insulin pens and inhalers, preparing drugs (which includes hemotherapy drugs), and dispensing the drugs. In certain sectors, pharmacists are also involved in productions of drugs, drugs regulations, and registration of new drugs, traditional medicines and cosmetics, among others.

In the university, the doctors had been trained mostly in the fields of anatomy, physiology and pathology, with a surface knowledge in pharmacology- the study of drugs.

Pharmacists, on the other hand, had spent 4 years studying pharmacology- the administration, distribution, metabolism and excretion of drugs from the body- pharmacokinetics; and the effects of drugs to the body-pharmacodynamics. To better understand the correlation between diseases and treatments, they also learned anatomy, physiology and pathology, though not to the same extent as the doctors did.

Thus, it is evident that pharmacists and doctors complement each other, and that they are supposed to work together, by merging of the knowledge of pathology and pharmacology, and not by comparing whose job is greater. Surely the doctors can’t be treating patients while doing raids in illegal drug factories at the same time! And surely the pharmacists can’t be doing what the doctors are trained to do too!

At the situation in a private clinic in Malaysia, the doctor will diagnose your illness and you would have to collect the medications from the dispenser, some of which are not properly trained in pharmacology. Thus, you could hear of stories where medications were wrongly labelled and given to the patients.

In the government hospitals and clinics on the other hand, prescriptions will be issued out by the doctors to the patients. The pharmacists will screen the prescriptions, taking notes of the correct patient, drug, dose, route of administration and time/frequency. There were numerous medication errors that were managed to be intercepted by the pharmacists before they reached the patient’s hands, of which without interventions, could lead to fatalities and other serious repercussions.

Throughout the 5 years working as a pharmacist, I had the opportunity to interact with the doctors, specialists and nurses. I had suggested which doses are suitable for a patient with an end stage renal disease, and which medications that could not be given to pregnant ladies. So far, the doctors that I had been working with are very pleasant and cooperative. They too, acknowledged the roles of the pharmacist. Since they know more about disease progression and managements, I would also take the opportunities to ask them about the disease, while they asked me about the effects and actions of drugs.

It is clear that we could learn many things from each other, each sharing our own knowledge for the benefits of the patients. Not because the pharmacists want to become like doctors, and not because the doctors want to become pharmacists.

Since dispensing separation is successfully practiced in the government hospitals and clinics, why can’t the same be implemented among GPs and community pharmacists? The reason why the doctors and pharmacists are at dispute with each other is because there is no mutual understandings on their respective roles, and because the role of pharmacists, who are supposed to handle and dispense drugs, had been taken by the doctors. The pharmacists, on the other hand, proceeded to just suggest and dispense diabetic medications based on the mere reading at the glucometer, without examining more- which is what the doctors are supposed to do. Thus, dispensing separation is crucial, as it allows us to acknowledge each other’s roles, creating synergism and harmonious relationship vital for the well-being of the patients.

Doctors and pharmacists are not supposed to be rivals. We are supposed to be allies, and things like diseases and antimicrobial resistance should be our mutual enemies. :)

UPDATES 30/9/2019:
So I sent this article/essay/whatever you call it to NST and whaddya know, this article got published in their 'Opinions' Section! Woohoo! A dream come true!

I didn't realize my article got published until a friend from another hospital showed me a screenshot of the article with my name and workplace on it. The editor had cut quite a big portion off the original article for ' length and clarity' but the main points are still there.

It was quite surreal, knowing that it got published on a national newspaper. I actually didn't expect to get published as I had gotten so used to rejections, LOL.

Here's the link to the article. They even changed the title. HAHA

https://www.nst.com.my/opinion/letters/2019/09/525682/doctor-pharmacist-conflict

Thanks to my housemate, Dr. Fatimah for this!

Personally, there's no conflict between me and the doctors. I love my doctor friends. My best friend, Malizah is a doctor, the same goes with my very caring and kind housemates, Fatimah and Laila. During foundation years, my close friends were mostly medical students. Even when I'm working now, I am closer to the nurses and doctors than I am with the pharmacists. I don't know why. I feel more comfortable with them. I also believe that we should work together as a team.

I hope this serves as a catalyst for me to write more and just write! I'm actually thinking of publishing my own travel zines, haha.

I would like to say thank you to my family and friends for the support! Thank you to NST for publishing my article. Most of all, thank you to Allah for this opportunity, alhamdulillah.

Towards a Zero Waste, Minimalist Lifestyle!

2019-05-10T23:55:00.003+08:00

A quite number of things had happened to me this year.

First of all, I had been reading a lot of interesting books, and to this date, I had successfully managed to read a total of 22 books of various genres.

Earlier this year, I decided to change my life for the betterment. Less anxiety and getting worried about the unforeseeable future, more towards improving myself in every aspect!

My first recommended book would be 'The Little Book of Ikigai', which is much better than the blue Ikigai book (of which I had forgotten its exact title). I read the former twice, and for the second time, I highlighted and jotted down the important points onto my notebook so that I could refer to it once in a while.

Since then, I had been very interested to know about the good things about Japanese culture (not all eggs are rotten- referring to my previous post about 'The Importance of History') and so, I went on a shopping spree on the online website Kinokuniya, and had bought a number of books pertaining to ways of how to be happy and such.

At the same time, I had been introduced to 'Marie Kondo' from the Netflix series 'Tidying Up with Marie Kondo'. I bought her first book from Kinokuniya website before watching two episodes of the series. I also bought 'Goodbye Things' by Fumio Sasaki from the same website. Reading these books inspired me to declutter my room and it took me several days to do it, of which I was successful! I managed to throw away 5-6 green garbage bags! It felt weird at first, being in a room so bright and sparse. I even felt alone, as I was so used to being surrounded by a lot of things, which might contribute to a mental clutter within me. But I later got used to it. I even loved the spaciousness of my room.

Last December, I came across a video on facebook saying that instead of always opting for the 'Reduce, Reuse and Recycle' options, the first thing you should do is to 'Refuse'. That's right, when you refuse something, there is less demand for it, and when there is less demand, then there will be less production of say...plastics!

That video struck a chord within me, and off I began searching for articles and videos relating to 'saving the environment' until I ventured upon a TedTalk video by Lauren Singer and the word 'zero-waste'. She kept several years of trash in a small mason jar! That's wicked! How on earth did she manage to do that?

Since then, I had followed her on Instagram, and also followed a number of instagram accounts about those who are practising 'zero-waste'.

This 'zero-waste' thing is so refreshing!

I think, minimalism and zero-waste have so much in common. In fact, they coincide with each other, they're practically similar.

The less things you own (minimalism), the less waste you produced!

What I understand about minimalism:

Surviving with what you have. Not wanting more. Compressing everything into one single device. Fumio Sasaki gave the example of 'iPhone'. I don't know, I don't own an iPhone. Still surviving with my less than RM1000 cracked screen Huawei smartphone which is a birthday gift from my parents in 2016. I don't want any new phones. Now that's minimalism, isn't it?

Ideally, your whole belongings should fit into one suitcase (doesn't matter which size, only one, the smaller the better), and that you can bring it everywhere you go.

Less belongings-less tidying up to do, less worried about theft/robbery. It makes you free!

Get the gist, don't you?

What I understand about zero-waste:

First of all, it's impossible to lead a completely zero-waste lifestyle. Like my friend said, when you peed, you already produced a waste product, LOL.

Ever felt guilty of looking at the amount of trash you produced everyday? I know I do.

Ever felt guilty of taking out the trash every 2 days? I do.

Ever felt guilty of looking at the amount of plastic bags you saved just because well...you can do so many things with that plastic bags (like lining your bins thus producing more trash) until those plastic bags kept on accumulating until they disintegrated and could no longer be used? I do.

Zero waste movement is more towards reducing your waste. You do that by substituting with other stuff that do not contain plastics. As plastics take thousands of years to be completely disintegrated and even then, those microparticles would seep into the earth, be released into the sea, making its way into the guts of those marine life, of which those marine life would be consumed by us? We ingested what he had thrown.

First of all, refuse plastic bags at the supermarkets. Bring your own reusable bags.

Use steel/bamboo straws instead of the plastic ones.

Bring your own containers for take-aways.

Sure, sure...Plastics could be recycled. But NOT ALL plastics are recyclable! For example, the cling wraps and other soft plastics. Even biodegradable plastic bags take about 5 years (or more) to biodegrade.

Even the plastic products that are recyclable would be recycled again and again into lesser quality products until they are no longer recyclable!

So, I am trying my best to practise zero waste here in GM. There is no zero-waste shops here. But I bring my grocery bag and steel straws set everywhere I go! I brought my own containers to the canteen and I began to substitute tissue papers with cloths and tea towels!

It's hard, but it's a form of jihad, to save the environment. And Allah looks at your efforts.

How to practise a zero-waste minimalist lifestyle?

It's easier to practice minimalism, I guess.

Stop buying new stuff!

I managed to do that, for a month, LOL. Then I caved in for that red Kate Spade bag.

Okay, no more bags!

Even our Prophet Muhammad s.a.w practised minimalism. I read that he only possessed two cloaks, among others. That's how zuhud he is.

And start by refusing plastic bags! Refuse to use plastic straws. One person could change the world, and that person is you! Just by deciding to use steel straws, you already save a turtle from having a plastic straw stuck into its nose.

A zero-waste, minimalist lifestyle. That's the lifestyle I aspire to achieve, insya Allah.

I'm gonna reread Fumio Sasaki and Marie Kondo's books. This human needs to be consistently and constantly reminded!

The Importance of History

2019-02-16T09:22:00.000+08:00

My friends and fellow (loyal) readers of this blog must have known by now that I am a history buff.

I could talk about a certain subject in history with much passion that it actually brought tears to my eyes (almost!), and that shows that I am so passionate about history. In fact, more than I am passionate about drugs and treatments, LOL.

So, my family and I had the opportunity to visit Penang War Museum in Batu Maung, Pulau Pinang, during the Chinese New Year Holiday.

It was previously a fort built by the British, before the Japanese (forcibly) took over and committed all sorts of atrocities within the fort vicinity, and in the whole Island of Penang, generally.

It is also being hailed as one of the most haunted places in Asia. There had been several documentaries highlighting this fact as of course, the lives of the people who once lived here had been taken so cruelly and mercilessly by the bestial Japanese Army.

I admit that I did feel a bit of a chill when stepping into certain secluded places, i.e where the armies once resided in. But I just prayed a lot, hoping nothing would follow me back home. Guess what, a heavily pregnant Malay lady was also there with her family. How fearless of her! But if I were her, I wouldn't take such chances. Venturing into notoriously haunted places such as this Penang War Museum is definitely not the Top 10 things for a pregnant woman to do. And I don't even know what are those Top 10 things, just making it up, LOL.

People were decapitated here.

House of Pain exhibition

Anyway, amidst all kinds of atrocities that happened during the Japanese Occupation, one of those war crimes- the one that feels so close to my heart is the one about 'Comfort Women'. So-called comfort women who was forced to bring so-called comfort to the Japanese soldiers, by means of providing sexual pleasure from the daybreak to when the night falls. I read somewhere that the comfort stations were opened from 9-10 am until 9 pm.

When I returned home after visiting the War Museum, I began googling about the plight of the comfort women in the countries that were occupied by the Japanese during World War II. I reread certain parts from one of my favourite history books 'The Rape of Nanking' by Iris Chang, and I watched a 2007 documentary titled 'Nanking' on youtube to better understand the situation.

Apparently, the term 'Comfort Women' is originated from the Nanking Massacre, where as many as 20,000 (minimum number) women were raped and killed without mercy when the Japanese Imperial Army successfully seized Nanking City by defeating the Chinese Kuomintang Army. It was called 6 weeks of horror, and provoked all sorts of reactions worldwide. The then Japanese emperor, Emperor Hirohito was concerned about the image of Japan *snort in disbelief* and ordered for the setting ups of 'Comfort stations' to prevent this event from happening again. Women were offered to become comfort women. Some voluntarily- the prostitutes who were treated and paid well, while some, were forcibly taken from their family.

During the Japanese Occupation, several cheap, budget hotels were converted into brothels. One woman would be tied to the bed and was forced to serve (I hate the word serve, Serving is supposed to have the positive, voluntary, obligatory connotations; serving your parents, your country, the people of Malaysia). up to 20 soldiers per day. If they resisted, they would be beaten by the soldiers. Many died because of venereal diseases. Many committed suicide soon after the World War 2 ended.

I saw this perverse picture depicting the Japanese soldiers lining up for their turns to rape, and some peeking through the window to see what is happening inside the room (the rape act). It made me shudder in repulse and sadness.

You can read more about comfort women from the internet. As per the title of this blog post, I would like to talk about what I feel and learned from this event. George Santayana said, those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. This is a very powerful quote.

At school, we learned about history of the country and the world from the subject 'History'. But that was it. We learned that the occupation of our country by foreign powers happened from the year 1511, the year Malaccan Sultanate fell into the hands of the Portuguese. We learned that the Japanese invaded Malaya from the year 1942 until the year 1945- where the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought an end to the torturous 3 years of Japanese Occupation.

But what had we really learned from it? What did we get, other than an A1 for the Sejarah subject in SPM? Did we learn history just for the sake of memorizing all those facts and figures so that we could answer the exam questions?

I do admit that I loved the subject History at school. I still love it now. I never got less than a B for Sejarah throughout my secondary school years, and I got an A1 for this subject for my SPM. But as I looked back to when I was a student, formally learning about the history of our country, I realized that what I did was just memorizing those textbook lines and regurgitating each word and sentence onto the exam sheets. I do think that with the exam-oriented system our country is employing, the facts that we had learned from the teacher did not fully permeate our heart, thus instilling the spirit of patriotism into us, the (then) young generations of Malaysia. Okay, so, one of the 'Faktor Kejatuhan Kesultanan Melayu Melaka' is because of 'something about Bendahara Tun Mutahir was killed because the Sultan liked Tun Fatimah, leading to the appointment of a new, yet old Bendahara Tun Perpatih, if I'm not mistaken', so is this going to come up in the exam? Simply said, we failed to appreciate what we had learned.

What should we actually learn from it?

I did not just read about the Japanese Occupation, I also read about the plight of the Cambodians during the Khmer Rouge regime. I visited the museums in Siem Reap and was told of the events happening to the country back then. I read the book 'First They Killed My Father' as well. Now I feel like booking a ticket to Phnom Penh and Nanjing so that I could go to the Killing Fields and Nanking Massacre Museum.

Reading about the past events that happened in our country and other countries make me feel grateful for what I have now. I have my freedom to do whatever I want, I still have my parents and family with me. I have everything. I could not imagine undergoing the same situations like what our past generations had gone through. I think I would have a breakdown within hours.

During the Nanking Massacre, the pictures and videos of what happened in Nanking were presented to the Great Powers back then (and now), which includes the USA. And yet, no action had been taken. The world was silent. The same goes with what was happening in Malaya and other Asian countries. The world knew, and yet no one helped us. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki happened as a result of retaliation from USA, whereby the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbour a few years before. Imagine if Pearl Harbour didn't get bombed.Get what I mean?

Don't ever depend of foreign powers to help us. They won't interfere, unless they see that there are benefits for them. They won't help without free.

The sad thing is, events such as rape and killings still happened in other countries like in Iraq, Syria and Palestine. Many countries condemned these acts and yet, no one really take actions. "Perhaps it's better for us to mind our own business and not interfere in the matters of others," they might think.

And these countries had many things in common. The number one factor that leads to the suffering of its people- political turmoil and instability. Look what happened in Egypt a few years ago? And a few other Middle Eastern countries? I'm glad the same thing does not happen to Turkey (an unsuccessful coup at Thaksim Square) and in Malaysia (a smooth transition of power). Thus, it is imperative for each country to maintain the political stability and peace, and to be united as one, so that no foreign powers could interfere in the affairs of our country. As the saying goes, 'United We Stand, Divide We Fall'.

As for our country, look at what is happening now. Though not highlighted, crimes are rampant. We heard of stories whereby girls were gang-raped and killed It's sad to think that back then, it was the Japanese soldiers who destroyed the lives of our girls but now, it's our own people who did that! Plus, many young people had become drug addicts, thieves, robbers, murderers. What is happening to us now? Why can't we protect each other? Why can't the guys learn to respect the women, and to protect and defend the women and children? It's because they had never lived through the sufferings like what our ancestors had experienced. They become so relaxed. Everything is provided for them. They only have to pay RM1 to seek treatment at the hospitals and clinics. The government is going to take care of everything anyway. Who cares about the past history of our country?

*sigh*

Let's just pray that our country will keep on prospering and maintain the peace it has always achieved since the day we achieved our independence on 31st August 1957.

And oh, on another note, my facebook account is still deactivated but I decided to reactivate my instagram account because there are so many things I could learn from there (like minimalism, zero waste, history, etc) and what I could conclude is that it's entirely up to you to take the positive things or the negative ones from the social media. It's your choice. It's not the social media faults for making you feel inadequate. It's just you.

With that,thank you for reading!

Plus, 'Snippets of Turkey' blog post is coming up, insya Allah!

A Much-Needed Break

2018-12-28T11:25:00.002+08:00

2019 is coming! A brand new year is approaching again!

In preparation for the upcoming year, I had decided to deactivate my instagram and facebook account. I'm hoping for it to last for at least 1 month, and I would be a lot happier if I could deactivate them forever!

The reasons why I decided to deactivate those social media accounts:

1. I need a break from knowing about what people are up to, and comparing my own life to theirs.

2. I spent too much time scrolling through the feed. Facebook made a statistics of how much time I had spent on facebook- it's on average, 1 hour and 9 minutes a day, which is close to 8 hours a week. 8 hours! I could do other fulfilling and beneficial things in those 8 hours. Imagine if I spent that 1 hour on facebook by writing my novel instead, then you'd find a novel under my name in your local bookstores!

Rather than posting about my thoughts and pictures on Facebook, I had mostly spent my time reading many interesting articles from the pages I subscribed to. Like The Atlantic, Quartz and Book Riot. But it's okay, I can always go to their websites to read.

I wish I could delete whatsapp too. *sigh*

Life was so much simpler and happier back then. I had survived without a smartphone (or even a handphone) and internet when I was a kid. Why am I so attached to both of these devices now? Fear of missing out? Keeping up with the globalization?

I'm going to minimize my time looking at my phone, and switching off the mobile data once I get back from work.

I hope to be more active in blogging too.

Wish me luck!

Overcoming Anxiety

2018-12-28T11:23:00.000+08:00

Written 1 month ago.

Last night, I watched a video by Aida Azlin, one of the women I greatly admire, featuring Sarina Iskandar, also one of the women I look up to, titled ' Social Media Addicts'. Kind of. I couldn't read the full title, LOL.

They talked about how they are social media addicts, and of Sarina Iskandar who had deactivated her instagram for the past two months.

Sarina said that one of the reasons of her doing so is because of her anxiety, and that she is an overthinker. She keeps on comparing herself to others, telling herself that she is '....not doing well enough in your career or personal life', and that when she sees someone who is doing better than she is, she kinds of '.....beat myself up for it,'.

Thus, she said that no one should compare oneself to others.

Aida agrees, saying that people who posted something on social media only posted the highlight reel of that someone's life, and if we compare someone's 'highlight reel' with our '....normal everyday reel,', then '....we'll always feel small,'

First of all, yes. I relate to Sarina's experiences. I know how she feels. I am kind of relieved that someone like her is also struggling with anxiety. Anyone, regardless of his/her family background, is predisposed towards having anxiety. I'm glad I'm not the only one.

Anxiety, how do I define this? The state of being anxious? Overthinker? Over-attached? Oversensitive? Yup, all of that is Me.

I realized that I had put too much expectation on myself from the year I took my SPM, to the moment I entered my foundation years in CFS, two years of it, and the following 4 years after, when I did my degree. I was being too hard on myself, I struggled to keep an 'excellent student' facade in front of my classmates and lecturers, and even though I had never failed any of my papers, I couldn't help comparing my measly average marks with those who had achieved so much more. I tried my best to study but you know, there is a limit to everything. I was so worried about what people might think about me when in fact, they have a lot of other important things to do and think about rather than spending a minute of two thinking about someone who is not that important, someone who is just one of the total of 100 classmates they have! Just like what Aida Azlin had said "You are not that important!"

I kept on comparing myself to this and that person. That was when one of my friends told me

"Sarah, you should not compare yourself to this person. You have many plus points that this person does not possess,"

That cheered me up for a bit, and as I graduated from university, my anxiety came to a halt.

But as I started working, it came back to me again. I had a time adjusting to a new environment. I was overly-sensitive, especially when the FRPs yelled at me in front of everyone. I was overly-attached, nostalgic and melancholy. Instead of focusing on the present, I couldn't help but to yearn for the good old days, those splendid yesteryears spent as a student in a sheltered environment where everyone was treated with kindness and respect. I was constantly anxious. I had been thinking too much. The what-ifs situations. I was so scared of committing medication errors.This state of anxiety is probably one of the reasons why I suffered throughout my PRP year. I was so scared of doing something wrong, that I was too careful, too scared of getting scolded by my FRPs that I did not actually learn that much.

Even until now, I have a hard time adapting to a new environment. When things are going on smoothly, I couldn't help but to fear for the future, anticipating the bad things that are going to happen, preparing myself for it.

I keep on expecting the worst so that I could be prepared for it to come. My sympathetic system is frequently activated, my pulse rate keeps on rocketing, ready for the fight or flight situation. But when that undesirable situation actually happened (which turned out to be not that bad), the overthinker me couldn't really accept the situation that is happening even though I had prepared long ago for it to happen! So much for preparations, huh? What a waste of energy spent worrying about things that have not yet to come.

It doesn't help that the media nowadays often feature news of various despicable crimes like murders, rapes, kidnaps, etc, that I feel unsafe whenever I go out and keep on shooting suspicious looks to every stranger I encounter, particularly men. Once, when I was living by myself for 4 months, I put a knife next to my bed when I sleep. It's just a precautionary measure, though it sounds extreme to others. However, the thought that the possibility of someone breaking and entering my house did not keep me awake at night. So I guess my anxiety is still under control.

Here in GM, we needed to do this health check up, which also includes the state of your mental and emotional well-being. I took the DASS test and after calculating the scores, I found out that I have a mild anxiety, with a rather high pulse rate. The doctor in charge of my ward (also in charge of the Psychiatry clinic) told me to take the Thyroid function test and ECG, to rule out any pathological cause. To further illustrate my anxiety, I kept on running to the lab 4 times a day to check whether my lab results are out, and along the way, googling about thyroid medications and celebrities who suffered from thyroid disease. LOL, I also tried picturing myself living with hyperthyroidism. 😒

Both results came out normal and that was when she finally told me that I might have anxiety disorder. When she broke that news to me, I felt sad, even though I had been prepared for this. See? Worrying about the future wastes your time and energy, as when something you had anticipated long ago to happen actually happens, your acceptance towards that something is still the same as when you found out that it's actually happening right here, right now. Get it? In other words, only worry about something when it actually happens. Only cross the bridge when you get to it.

She asked me whether I need to have an appointment with the psychiatrist for a counselling session? I declined, saying that my anxiety is under control.

It's true. Perhaps I was feeling under the weather when I took the test. Those feeling of anxiety might appear every now and then, and it gets worse during my PMS days. But I have had good night sleeps, and so far, I did not experience any panic attacks. I try not to immerse myself in my turbulent emotions and instead, distract myself from thinking too much about unnecessary things by reading, writing, or just spending time with my friends. After about a day or two, I will feel better. This world is a transient place and thus, everything in it is temporary too, including our emotions and feelings. There's always going to be ups and downs in your life. When good things happen, just enjoy it, don't think of the scary, imminent future that might or might not happen. When you're stuck in an unpleasant situation, don't think too much about it as well. Try to get yourself out of it. Eventually, that too, will pass. Insya Allah! Life is a series of Tests for you to get into Jannah, ameen!

So, yes, I am still learning to control it. I try not to think too much, and I only focus on what I have in hand right now, rather than on the far, unforeseeable future. So far, this method works for me. I also have to tell myself repeatedly that Allah's plan is the BEST PLAN EVER! and that He, being Loving and Merciful, would never inflict unnecessary harms to His servants. So, don't try to think too much. Focus on the good things.

I hope anyone who is struggling with anxiety is able to find his/her way out one day, insya Allah.

Snippets of Western Australia

2018-10-27T18:16:00.001+08:00

Twas the time when I bought return tickets to Perth, Australia without telling my parents; which made them went berserk.👀

But it was worth it!

I had just returned from my 8 days of holiday from Western Australia and just like the previous posts about the countries I travelled to, I figure it would be more convenient for me to compress the whole 8 days trip into one blog post.

So here it is!

First of all, let me briefly explain about the several states of Australia. This head-shaped country, also known as the Land Down Under, is divided into several states- New South Wales, Western Australia, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania.

Perth, the oh-so-peaceful city that I went to with my friends, is located in the state of Western Australia (WA). We did not just venture around Perth City throughout whole 8 days, but rather, we travelled 6 hours down south to Albany, shivering in the cold and occasionally splashed by the salty seawater while witnessing the spectacular geographical formation of the Gap and Natural Bridge. We then moved up to the quiet town of Augusta before passing through Denmark (yes!), Walpole and Dunsborough, relishing my childhood dream of climbing up the lighthouse for the first time after reading Enid Blyton’s ‘At Demons Rock’ when I was eight. We went spelunking in the beautiful Jewel Cave in Margaret River, before heading back to Perth and spending 5 full days there, shopping at the famous Fremantle Market, also learning about the gruesome and bestial crimes committed by the prisoners of the World Heritage Site of Fremantle Prison. We took pictures with the koalas and wombats, fed the kangaroos at Caversham Wildlife Park and (I) went on a book-buying and shopping sprees (them) at the Hay and Murray Streets of Perth CBD.

From Fremantle, we boarded the ferry and crossed the choppy waves of the Indian Ocean to get to Rottnest Island, where we successfully managed to take selfies with the Quokkas there after numerous attempts!

Sounds interesting? Hahaha let’s begin!

Day 1 Perth and Albany

We arrived in Perth at 5.35 am. The local time is the same as Malaysia time. Bought simcards from Opus, collected our car and we were ready for a 6 hours journey to Albany!

The views by the roadside were really stunning. We could see huge fields of Canola, and of sheep grazing at the lush, green, wide expanse of land. Stopped by several gas stations for toilet breaks. There were other small towns with churches, schools and diners along the way to Albany. We were very careful with the speed limits. When it was stated that the speed limit is 80 km/hr, we would be very obedient (as contrast to when we were in Malaysia) and drove at 80 km/hr. 😂

Eventually, we arrived at our hotel in Albany, the Emu Point Hotel. Our room is so comfortable and spacious for the four of us! There is a kitchen, complete with pots, pans and cutlery, of which we first washed using the clay soap. The surrounding was very serene and peaceful. You could see rabbits and hares (can’t differentiate, seriously. Are they actually the same?) hopping around the hotel backyard. Strangely, there were no stray cats. In fact, we had not seen a single cat during our stay in Western Australia.

Our room. My bed is the single one at the end.

Our first destination for the day was The Gap and Natural Bridge, which is a part of Torndirrup National Park. We arrived quite late at about 5 pm, and it was getting dark. Parked our car and when we went out, the wind was so strong, almost blowing us away, with the heavy trickles of seawater from the Southern Ocean splashing over us. Still, the view was, Subhanallah, spectacular! We spent about an hour taking pictures there.

UIA Friends! 💓💗💗

Natural Bridge

The Gap

Got hungry and shared a huge plate of Fish and Chips and kebab at a Turkish restaurant, as the food there are expensive! LOL we tried to be as prudent as possible. And no, we did not bring any food from Malaysia.

Still, we got satiated after eating them, Alhamdulillah. Most of the shops are closed by 5 pm, even big supermarkets like Woolworths and Coles. With the help of Google, we managed to locate a supermarket called IGA, which is closed at 10 pm. Bought a 1kg packet of rice, vegetables, eggs, bread, a carton of mineral water and others as we intended to cook the next day. The workers there were also very friendly! Always happy to help us and showed us what we needed.

Day 2: From Albany to Denmark, Walpole and finally Augusta

Woke up and had breads for breakfast. We packed the fried rice in plastic containers so that we could eat them on our way to Augusta. The rice is the sticky, starchy kind like sushi rice, which makes you feel satiated even after you took a mouthful of rice.

Goodbye Emu Point Hotel!

Who's the most excited of them all? 😎

Thus goodbye Albany, the beautiful, serene town! Our first destination for the day was Greens Pool and Elephant Cove at Denmark, WA.

Greens Pool was so mesmerizing. The weather was really chilly, and yet we caught about 3 Mat and Minah Sallehs swimming across the sea! As for Elephant Cove, the rock formations resemble a herd of elephants.

Greens Pool

Elephant Rocks

Made our way to Valley of the Giants, Walpole. We did not get into the Treetop Walk, a construction whereby you could walk and see from the top of the trees. Instead, we opted for the free 30 minutes tour of the ‘Ancient Empire’, whereby the Tour Guide explained to us about the karri trees, tingle trees and many other trees with the distinctive hollows at their bases. Suddenly regretting not going for the Treetop Walk. I want the experience of walking on treetops!

Reached Augusta at about 4 pm, passing through a really small town of Pemberton. Also, so difficult to find a gas station for a toilet break. Finally found an old toilet located next to a gas station slash diner but as primitive as it looked like, it was rather clean, to my delight! Spotted two kangaroos crossing the road by hopping from one side to the other! Wild kangaroos, checked! The route to Augusta was quite quiet, with only forest on each side of the road (thus explaining the sudden appearance of the kangaroos).

I was tasked to book the accommodation in Augusta and oh, did I mention I was the one in charge of the itinerary? *proud* and oh, I was in charge of the South Korea, Cambodia and Japan itinerary too! I love making itineraries! It gives me a sense of control, LOL. Anyway, Baywatch Manor in Augusta is sooo beautiful! And I found out that the owner was in the same plane as we were from KL to Perth! LOL.

We had to share the bathroom (with 2 shower stalls and 2 toilet cubicles) but since there were not many guests in the house, I had the whole bathroom to myself! Yaay!

One of the first things I discover about this country is that they always minimize the usage of plastic bags. So most Australians would bring their own box or bags to carry their groceries. As for us, we just carried those items on our arms. Haha. In the case of Baywatch Manor, the owner had installed this energy saving switch or something. So the lights in the hall and staircase will only light up if we passed through those areas. Also in the bathroom, to prevent yourself from taking too much of your own sweet time bathing and daydreaming in the shower stalls, thus wasting more electricity and water, there is this switch that will turn off the lights every 30 minutes. So you need to keep the time in check. Or just pressing it again and again. I should have taken a picture of it. Also, the toilet flush. Two options, minimal flushing or maximum flushing to minimize usage of water.

The kitchen is so spacious, it’s like the kitchen in Hell’s Kitchen, only no Ramsay screaming at your ears, Thank God.

We were so hungry and searched for a halal eatery there. Google showed the Blue Ocean Fish and Chips. Went there and I asked the worker what type of oil did they use to fry the fish? And the man, looking quite uncomfortable, said he used the oil from the cow fats, and even took the initiative to show us the bottle of oil. We got disappointed, said thank you and went back to our house, cooking Maggi mee for dinner. LOL. No energy to wait for the rice to cook.

I love this! There's 'WHO', 'WHAT', 'WHEN' and 'WHERE'. Not sure whether there's also 'HOW'.

Day 3- From Augusta to Margaret River, Dunsborough and Perth

The next day, we checked out, and headed out early to our next destination, Hamelin Bay where we could allegedly see the stingrays lapping away on the sea but no, perhaps the super cold weather made the stingrays too cold to come out and play. Still, the view was spectacular. Made our way to the Jewel Cave Tour in Margaret River. There is actually a number of caves, but based on the reviews I read, Jewel Cave Tour is highly recommended. The Australian Tourism is very good in preserving those caves, complete with lightings, staircases and all. (Just checked that Malaysia has our own beautiful caves too! Gotta check them out!)

Little Jellyfishies

Hamelin Bay Beach. LOL excuse my finger at the top edge of this photo

The Jewel Cave is named so not because of the existence of real jewels like diamonds or whatnots, but it is figuratively named so because it is so jewel-like beautiful with the crystal formations of stalactites (up) and stalagmites (below). There was a moment when Rusty the tour guide told us to stay still, not to look at our phones, and he turned off the lights in the cave. It was pitch dark, there was this silence for about one minute that felt so long. He said this was what the cave was like when the explorer first came. Pitch dark. Silence. Every nook and corner unexplored. What If there’s something sinister in it? (LOL I made this up myself). And yet, I admire their determination and courage to explore the cave.

The camel-shaped crystal formation.

Next, off to Sugarloaf Rock and Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse at Dunsborough.

Again, subhanallah, the view of Sugarloaf Rock is so spectacular. I have no idea why is it named Sugarloaf. No explanation given. Still, the name sounds sweet, isn’t it? It is the place where birds came to mate and build their nests there among the crevices of the rock. Took pictures and off to Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse, located about 10 minutes away. In fact, from Sugarloaf Rock, you could see the lighthouse at a far distance.

I couldn't get enough of this beauty! It's like a painting! Captured using my RM800 (or less) 2016's Huawei Phone.

Can you spot the lighthouse? Me neither.

Paid 15 dollars for a tour around the Cape Naturaliste area, where there was a lighthouse, a café with foods we couldn’t eat (obviously) and a maritime museum. Having read Famous Five’s ‘At the Demon Rocks’ countlessly when I was young, I couldn’t help but to contain my excitement of finally entering a lighthouse and climbing up to the top. In my mind, I could imagine the scenes depicted in the book. I did not pay much attention to what the tour guide was saying. I was lost in my own thought, picturing the characters from that beloved series spending their days in the lighthouse.

It was getting late, and we headed north to Perth, passing through Busselton. Oh, we could see lots of kangaroos playing in the field. I guess we were the only ones who were amazed. The Australians had probably gotten used to such sightings.

Went to eat at Ihsan Café, a Malaysian owned café. Bought Nasi Goreng Kampung for 15 AUD which is the most expensive nasi goreng kampong I have ever bought, LOL.

Still, the portion is big. Then, moved on to Spudshed to buy groceries.

Checked in to Perth City Stay Apartment Hotel, which is the biggest accommodation out of the ones in Albany and Augusta, with 2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen, but sadly only one toilet and shower.

But there are washing machine and dryer so we fully utilized both equipment by putting our clothes into the machine each time we returned home from the trip of the day throughout our 5 days stay there. In this post you could see pictures of me recycling the same clothes. Well, you got the answer! HAHA.

Day 4- From Perth to Lancelin and Cervantes

This time, we headed north to Lancelin and Cervantes. I notice that the temperature increased as you went to the northern part of WA, as opposed to the chilly weather down in the south.

Rented two sand boards for the sand boarding activity at the Lancelin Sand Dunes, which in my opinion, is just a collection of hills made of sand, like construction sites or something, LOL.

I was initially scared of sliding down from the top! But well, too much friction between the sand and the board prevented me to slide down rapidly. It’s not a matter of technique, in my opinion. Other factors, especially your weight contributes to how fast you went down.

Enough playing at the Sand Dunes. We arrived there early so there were about 2 groups of people, including us. By the time it was approaching midday, more and more people came to play. Our pants and boots were filled with sand. The same goes with the mats of our car.

So we headed further north to Cervantes, discovering the national heritage site called The Pinnacles, whereby the limestones just emerged from the ground mysteriously, with all shapes and sizes. The exact cause of how it happened is still being debated. We were required to drive along the 4km route.

It was quite a rocky journey, and we stopped here and there to take pictures.

Spot the girl in Baju Kurung, semangat!

Went to the Cervantes town to Lobster Shack, whereby we shared a plate of lobster and rice, plus fish and chips (again!). Oh, it closes at 3 pm by the way. So we couldn't get another order, to the chagrin of our stomachs. Hahaha.

Spent 2 hours journey to return the car in Perth, and we went home, threw our clothes into the washing machine and ate spaghetti for dinner.

Day 5 From Perth to Fremantle

No more car. We had to rely on the public transport. There’s the CAT buses of various colours (Blue, Red, Yellow, Green) where you can hop on and off to get around Perth CBD for free. But they only ran until 7 pm. And there was also the ordinary bus where you’d have to pay for the fares. There’s also the train, which we used to get to Fremantle from City West- the nearest train station to our hotel.

The journey to Fremantle was 30 minutes. Our main purpose here was to visit and shop till we drop at the famous Fremantle Market, which is only opens from Friday to Sunday.

Went to a handmade jewellery store called Coco and Honey. Bought for myself and my sister two silver-plated necklaces with Swarovski stones and freshwater pearls from the very accommodating shop owner. Each costs AUD15. She even gave me a free gift of a silver-plated bangle+Swarovski stones as she said I had been very patient with her, LOL. My friends wanted the same gift too but they didn’t get it. HAHA.

Many shopped at Megabes, a shop owned by a Malaysian. I did my shopping there, my friends shopped a lot, LOL. While waiting for them, I explored the market on my own, and as my stomach was begging to be fed, I settled on a halal kebab shop. Worthy of its price for 10 dollars, It was the best kebab I’ve ever tasted.

Took my own sweet time savouring the kebab and when I returned to Megabes, my friends still have not finished shopping. HAHA.

Went out and saw that Rawi, one of my friends already finished shopping. We crossed the road to sit by the long chair under the shade of the tree, and began eating the fruits we brought from home, while waiting for the other two to finish shopping.

Then walked a bit to Fremantle Prison, a World Heritage Site. Over here, you could choose from 3 tours The Convict Prison, Behind Bars or True Crime or all three .Seeing as the ‘True Crime Tour’ is the next available tour, and that each tour would take 1 and a half hour. And also because I’m this weird person who is always interested to hear stories about gruesome crimes, we decided to join this tour. Did you know that Fremantle Prison also conducts a Night Tour available on Wednesday and Friday night? Too bad that we came there on Sunday. But my friends joked that they would just leave me at the prison for me to join the tour by myself.

So, the tour guide dressed as a prison warden brought us beyond the gates and walls of Fremantle Prison, and began by telling about the ghost of a woman named Martha, who was unjustly accused for killing children. He brought out a picture of Martha and passed it all around to us. And he said you could see Martha’s ghost there- showing to an old front building with tall glass windows. Moving on, he told more stories about the brutal killers.

The place where he told us the story about Martha

Prison Timetable. I wake up earlier and sleep later than the convicts. 💁

The original painting

The remake(?)

The murals

One of them, I can’t remember his name, killed people without reasons. And hid the body by putting a carcass of kangaroo over it, so that people would think the rotten smell came from the decaying kangaroo.

Another one, a guy called Peg Leg is a rapist, but he had great talents in art, painting the walls of the cells with beautiful murals and sceneries.

He told us stories about other criminals, some gruesome, some sad, like, the aboriginal guy who obtained his Masters in Health Science when he was in prison, and died from a heart attack a few hours after he was released.

But two names struck my mind- Sydney Hutton who is a paedophile with mental problems (Of course, ALL paedophiles have mental problems) and the notorious couple David and Catherine Birnie, who kidnapped young women, kept them captive in their house, raped, tortured and killed those girls.

I can conclude that all of the convicts suffered from undiagnosed mental problems as no people in their right minds would commit such acts of bestiality and brutality.

Tour was over. Walked to the Fremantle Fishing Harbour to eat this enormous Seafood Platter at Kailis’ Fish and Chips. There were 4 pieces of batter-fried fish, calamari, shrimps, mussels in delicious tomato condiment and heaps of French Fries. We struggled to finish off the French Fries but as we constantly reminded ourselves that the platter costs more than 50 dollars, we just forced ourselves to shove them down our throats.

What a beautiful sight! Captured using my RM800 (or less) 2016's Huawei Phone

The oh-so-sedap Seafood platter

Walked to E-Shed Market where my friends did more shopping, LOL. Caught a train back to Perth and we stayed in our hotel room for the rest of the night.

Day 6 Caversham and Perth CBD

Kick-started our day by taking the free yellow CAT bus off Wellington Street to Perth Station. It was a rainy day, and we had to run, crossing the road to the bus stop. Bought a train ticket to Bassendean. Saw a guy smoking weed in the train. At least that’s what the Malaysian girl who moved away from him to sit closer to us told me. He looked kind of 'high', and I saw him sniffing something. Weed. The smell was like fresh leaves burning, kind of. I finally know how weed smells like!! Arrived at Bassendean Station, and took a bus to Lord Street. And together with a middle aged Malay Malaysian couple, we had a short walk to a bus stand where the wife called the Caversham Wildlife Park to pick the seven of us at the bus stand.

Went to see the Animal Farm show, which includes how they sheared the wool off the sheep. Also, I had a first-time experience of milking the cow by pressing the udder. There is a technique on how to do that, not easy as it looked, and I must say I do not have this talent. One of the funny things that happened was, when we were waiting for our turns to milk the cow, a huge spray of liquid suddenly littered the floor. Guess what it was? The cow’s urine! LOL! I was laughing out loud, half amused and half relieved that I was standing quite far from the scene.

Shearing the wool of the sheep

Noted.

So difficult okay! Maybe only for me.

The wool of the sheep contains lanolin, which has excellent moisturizing properties!

Then, we got to take pictures with the sheep and goats. You could just hug any of those animals but no, I am scared of animals. LOL

The goat kept on coming towards us! I was hiding behind my friend as I was scared of it! LOL

Animal Farm

I was scared and yet I was smiling from ear to ear until my eyes got all sepet!

The four of us are 28 years old you know.

Next, moving on to the meet and greet session with the wombat, olive python and several other animals.

I have this fear towards snakes and reptiles. Especially snakes. But I kind of forced myself to touch and hold the slithery, scaly skin of the python and just grinned happily at the camera, praying that the moment would pass quickly. I chose to hold the tail, obviously. And it was not limp. It has muscles and it wriggles here and there. Eeww.

Muka kegelian.

Then, I touched the giant lizard which looks so cute. Okay, by now you probably know that the reptile I’m most scared to touch is snakes. Also, there were owls and several other animals.

Moving on to the moment I’ve been waiting for, meeting the koalas! When my grandmother was still around, there was this picture on the cabinet, of her holding a koala to her chest. She looked so happy! Both she and the koala looked so cute! That is one of my favourite pictures of her.

But alas, we’re not allowed to carry the koala and just hug it hard. We’re only allowed to touch the koala legs and took pictures with it while it just carried on eating the shoots and leaves like nobody’s business. Apparently, someone told me that the koalas are predisposed towards getting diseases from the humans. Thus, minimal human contacts are necessary to keep them healthy.

But they’re just so cute!

I want to kidnap one and keep it as a pet!!!

Then, we moved on to feed the kangaroos. I had doubts of feeding the kangaroos directly from my hand as I am scared of animals. But I kind of forced myself to pet the somnolent, inactive kangaroos lying around the vicinity of the kangaroo farm (?) and let them lick and eat from my palm. *shudder*.

Look at my facial expression!

It looks kind of emaciated, to tell the truth.

Right after we finished feeding those kangaroos, we explored the rest of the park before it was time to go back, to which we took the same shuttle bus back to the bus stand.

Green katak

This animal looks unique, kind of like an ostrich?

Our next destinations were Hay Street and Murray Street, which are both popular shopping streets in the Perth Central Business District.

I went to Boffins Books located at Williams Street first, which intersects Hay Street and Murray Street, so all three streets are next to each other. I was so excited as I took an elevator down to the bookshop. Wished I had more time to explore the bookshop. But no, I was there with the only aim of collecting four books I had pre-ordered 3 weeks ago. Those books are by Australian YA Author Sarah Ayoub and Melina Marchetta and trust me, those books are NOT AVAILABLE IN MALAYSIA! Especially Sarah Ayoub’s ‘The Yearbook Committee’! I mean, those books are not even available in Boffins Books, Perth in the first place. I think they had to order those books from Sydney. I had to make a special request to pre-order the books from the website, to which Boffins Books consistently updated me with the book-ordering progress from time to time. Kudos to them! Marvellous service!

I was so happy to get those books.

Then, we went to a very popular pharmacy chain store in Australia- the Chemist Warehouse, where my friends wanted to buy perfumes. I was not that interested in perfumes (until something happened on my last day, carry on) but I found Elizabeth’s Bookshop, a second-hand bookshop that is the original home to blinddatewithabook program! Of course I bought two books! The packaging are so pretty that I forced myself to meticulously unwrap each book revealing ‘The Haunting of Hill House’! - I squealed in delight as I’ve always wanted to read this! And ‘Naomi’s Room’- still haven’t read it.

My friends bought a perfume each I guess. Then, moving on to Hay Street. I needed to go to Pandora as I needed to get a gift for my mother- like I promised her.

So I made my way to Pandora as my friends went to other shops. Over there, there was this cute Asian-Caucasian guy who helped me to pick up and wrap those charms for my mother. I bought three charms for myself (a Koala, a Kangaroo and an Australian flag charms) and two charms for my mother (a Southern Cross and Australian flag charms which according to him, are only available in Australia). So, a perfect souvenir, isn’t it? His name is Tony by the way. He’s training to become a high school teacher and he’s 23. LOL, same age as my younger sister. And how did I know so much in such a short time? xD

You couldn't spot Tony from here. But he was talking to one of his friends- the one in blue blazer.

The Pandora charms are cheaper in Australia, I kid you not! 5 sterling silver charms for less than RM900. Yupp!

My friends spotted me going out of the shop and together, we went to another Chemist Warehouse shop. They bought more perfumes there while I bought myself a Blackmores Vitamin E cream and a tube of Burt’s Bees lip balm.

Thinking of exploring King’s Park and Botanic Gardens after that but it was getting dark and plus, it was raining. So, we headed back home where we had spaghetti for dinner and booked our ferry tickets to Rottnest Island online.

Day 7 Kings Park, Rottnest Island, Fremantle, Bell Tower

Woke up early and took a bus to the Blue Boathouse as we were afraid that it will get crowded later on. Sure enough, there wasn’t a single soul there. We took about 30 minutes to pose for pictures there and whadddya know, two groups of people started coming towards the jetty, patiently or perhaps impatiently waiting for us to finish our photo shoot. LOL.

Then, moving on to Kings Park where we just wandered around and took some pictures. Didn’t have time to go to the Botanic Gardens though. We needed to take the train to Fremantle by 10.30 am so that we could board the ferry to Rottnest Island which departed at 11.30 from B-Shed jetty.

I was sleeping for the first 20 minutes of journey to Rottnest Island, only awakened by the rough waves of the Indian Ocean buoying the ferry up and down.

We arrived in Rottnest Island at 12 pm and went to the Visitor Centre to ask for the staff’s recommendation on which route to take around the island, as we would be taking the next ferry back to Fremantle at 2.30 pm, so we only had two hours to explore the island.

As our main intention was to see and take selfies with the Quokkas, she recommended us to go on a short trail that leads to a number of shops and eateries, where sure enough, we spotted those cute quokkas, as large as a cat, having the hybrid appearance of a rat and a kangaroo. LOL.

Is it a giant rat? Is it a baby kangaroo?

No, it's a QUOKKA!

So vain la you!

We failed to take a selfie with the quokkas, but decided to just walk along the route where a peacock was parading itself, then walking along the beach, where we spotted a big stork by the jetty. Our destination was the Bathurst Lighthouse (Can’t get enough of lighthouses, can’t we?) and we actually wanted to go to The Basin, but due to time constraint, we decided to forgo that mission and instead, turning back, making our way to the jetty and to take selfies with the quokkas, which are sometimes hard to find.

We spotted rows of old quarters belonging to the Australian marines, which had now been converted into chalets and hotels. The sea was blue-ish, the weather sunny, overall, it is a beautiful island. It was said that throughout the entire world, you could only find quokkas in Rottnest Island. Amazing, isn’t it? Just like how koalas and kangaroos are synonymous with Australia.

We spotted some quokkas along the way and successfully took a number of selfies with the quokkas after an uncountable number of attempts! Mission accomplished! Now, it’s time to return to Fremantle. I slept throughout the 30 minutes journey to Fremantle.

Arrived in Fremantle, went to Kailis’ Fish and Chips, ate Fish and Chips (what else?), shared several scoops of gelato ice-cream (we checked that they did not contain any animal-based nor alcohol-based ingredients) that tasted heavenly!

Then my friends went to another shop while I made my way to the Fremantle Post Office, where I wrote and sent a postcard to my friend in Terengganu.

Took pictures at the Fremantle Rainbow Containers, waiting for the bus for 30 minutes at the bus stand, freezing in the cold. Struck a conversation with a very friendly bus driver there, who had been so kind to drop us at the station nearest to the Bell Tower.

Then, we went home and just slept soundly as our heads hit the pillow. That was our last night at the Perth City Stay Apartment.

Day 8 Watertown and Perth CBD

Woke up, packed our stuff, ate breakfast, checked out of the hotel, kept our luggage and belongings in the store room and we made our way to the Watertown Premium Outlet, located across the street. I did not have any intention to buy any more stuff as my bags are densely packed and stuffed (whatever did I buy?) but I bought two children books for my friend, and also Berocca for my parents.

I got a headache and decided to walk back to the hotel and stayed at the lounge while waiting for my friends to finish shopping. Asked the receptionist whether I could play the piano, and she said “Sure, play good songs!” and I gave a mediocre performance of Canon in D.

My friend called me, asking whether I wanted to follow them to Hay Street and I said, yes! Anything to escape this boredom.

So I crossed the street and met them at the Wellington Street Bus Stand, took a CAT bus to Perth Station and walked to the shopping district of Perth CBD. Went into H&M and bought a beautiful winter coat on sale for my upcoming trip to…ahem. It shall not be revealed yet.

I got so happy and my headache disappeared. Really, retail therapy is an EFFECTIVE form of therapy. I suddenly wanted to buy a perfume as well and whaddya know, I bought THREE perfumes from THREE different Chemist Warehouse pharmacies. Those perfumes are really affordable. How on earth could you get the classic purple Anna Sui perfume for less than RM100?

We ate halal Nando’s Chicken in Williams Street. The one in Hay Street is bigger, but it’s not Halal. Then, it was time to return to our hotel, to rearrange our stuff in bag, and then, to make our way to the Perth Airport via bus.

Slept at the Perth Airport for the night, as our flight to Malaysia was at 5.30 am. Arrived in KLIA2 at 12.30 pm and I missed Perth already.

Even at this time of writing, I couldn’t help but to miss the memories made in Perth. I miss everything about it, I miss those road trips with my friends, those shopping sprees, and the nice and friendly people that we met there.

I want to come here again. But there are other countries waiting to be checked off my list! But, who knows, right?

That’s all from me. This 9 pages entry took 8 full weekends to complete, LOL.

Hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading!

Birthday Reflections

2018-10-19T08:50:00.001+08:00

So, I officially turned 28 at 10.54 pm, 14^th of October 2018.

I had rarely blogged nowadays, but I forced myself to write this because birthdays only come once a year and well, I need to write something about it.

Also, I realized that my skills of combining words and constructing sentences had deteriorated due to lack of practice (read: writing).

Okay, first of all, I made it! I turned 28! 10 years ago, I collected my SPM Results- the turning point of my life and for the next 10 years, my life had taken its supposed and destined course. 10 years ago, I never really thought of how my life would be when I turned 28. It had been a turbulent, emotional roller-coaster rides throughout these years, but here I am, I survived, Alhamdulillah!

First of all, I am very grateful with what I have. I have my parents and siblings. I have a well-paid job, and I love my job! Remember those days when I wrote about how I would be better and happier taking other courses like Law, History, and the list goes on? Well, thank God I persevered and carried on taking Pharmacy.

Ever since I started working as a fully-registered pharmacist in GM, I am very glad that I took Pharmacy for my degree and I love my job! Every aspect of it. And I tried to improve and bring positive changes to my everyday tasks.

Also, I am very glad I am not a doctor. LOL. I befriended many doctors here (everyone knows one another in this small district hospital), I’ve witnessed how emotionally and physically tired they are, and what I could say is, huge respect and a big round of applause for the humble doctors who are so selfless and passionate with what they are doing. There are reasons why the society looked up to them.

I learned that the keys to happiness are:

1) Not to compare your life with others. Sometimes you looked at your friends and people on the social media, secretly wishing you have their lives. You looked at your own life and well, you wished your life is better. Which brings to the second key:

2) To be grateful with what you have. Count your own blessings. Try to list down every single blessing that Allah swt had granted you, and you will never be able to do so. Being grateful, anyhow, does not mean that you should be complacent. Wishing your life to be better? Why not work towards getting a better life? Just focus on your own life without comparing other people’s seemingly perfect life.

3) One of the 6 pillars of Iman is ‘Beriman dengan Qada’ dan Qadar’. You may dislike what is good for you and like what is bad for you, but Allah knows best. Perhaps, not getting something is Allah’s way of saving you from harms? Accept whatever that is happening with good grace for Allah has better plans for you. But really, if you can avoid encountering bad things, then do whatever you could to prevent bad things from happening!

4) To put akhirah as your focus. This is a transient world. Whatever hardships and obstacles that you are facing are those series of tests before you could achieve happiness in the hereafter and stay in the Jannah forever, insya Allah. So, focus on loving Allah and Rasulullah s.a.w.

5) To be consistent and disciplined. This is very important. Allah will not help those who do not help themselves. Besides, being consistent and disciplined makes you have control over your life, instead of letting your life drifting away following your desire. It is also a form of jihad. For example, try to pray on time or actually waiting at the prayer mat for the prayer to start, to exercise regularly and eat healthily, and many others.

6) Do not overthink. This also resonates with Key number 3. I’m an anxious person. I worry too much. I must train myself to look at the positive sides of things, not to create unnecessary dramas and conflicts, especially when it comes to relationships with those around me.

Also, I realized that next year, the year I turn 29 (Insya Allah) is the last year of my 20s’. I want to end it with a good note and thus I must start from now. 2 more months until the end of 2018 and I still have time.

But actually, it is never too late to change, either when you’re 30 or 40.

But I don’t want to wait until I’m 30 or 40. I don’t want to waste the precious moments of my youth. I want to read more books, travel more and I must also blog regularly! xD

On another note, the best birthday wish for 7 consecutive years goes to my uncle!

'There was once a silver bat named Charlie. He flew funny. He was the only bat that didn't flap his wings while flying. Instead he glided with the drifts of winds. Other bats were jealous because the winds were never in their favour and they had to flap like crazy to fly. Little did they realise that Charlie was merely using the winds generated from the flappings of all the the other bats! That's why he was always gliding and 'flying' above them. So this year, for your birthday, I wish for you to be blessed with Charlie's wisdom. Wisdom to glide through your hardships with wit, courage and determination, to rise above all your challenges and always be level-headed. Happiest birthday dearest Sarah. And if you spot a gliding bat above you tonight, run away cos that's not Charlie. That's a bat trying to poop on you.'

You can see the past birthday wishes he made for me here

Thank you all for the prayers and wishes for my Birthday. I pray for the same good things to you! And thank you to my parents and my friends for the birthday treats!

Till we meet again in the next post, insya Allah! Stay tuned for my 'Snippets of Western Australia' blog post!

Snippets of Japan

2018-04-22T21:20:00.002+08:00

So my family and I went to Japan in December 2018. It was a very memorable trip and I really miss Japan! So why don't I take a trip down memory lane by recalling everything I could remember about my Japan trip, compressing them into one long blog post while my memory is still fresh?

Okay, let's get started, in no chronological order whatsoever. But the order of places we went to is Tokyo-Kyoto-Hiroshima-Osaka. And we only spent about 30 minutes exploring the train station in Yokohama.

First of all, presenting,

Harry Potter Wizarding World, Universal Studios Japan, Osaka!!!

It is like a dream come true! A disheveled witch bundled up in thick clothes swiftly walked through the Forbidden Forest, where she spotted a blue Ford Anglia laid abandoned on the forest ground. Freezing and yet excited, she finally arrived to her destination, the beautiful and magical village of Hogsmeade, whereby a picturesque view of a castle magnificently perched upon the cliff feasted her unbelieving eyes; Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! After visiting Hogwarts and having the time of her life there, she strolled down the streets of Hogsmeade, watching wizards and witches from various walks of life choosing wands, buying robes and attempting magic. As she sipped her warm Butterbeer , she said to herself, "There is no Place like Home!!!"

My HOME!!!!! *cries dramatically*

That wizard who literally jumped with joy and fell down flat to the ground upon entering Hogsmeade, LOL. I have a video of it, LOL.

The disheveled witch bundled in thick clothing who looked so satisfied sipping her Butterbeer.

It tastes like A&W Rootbeer Float. We tried both the hot and the cold one. The cold one is highly recommended!

Hogsmeade

You could hear the soundtrack from the movie as you stepped in to this place. It was so magical that you felt like crying.A place you had yearned to visit since you were eleven. A dream come true indeed!

Everything is so expensive here! Even the sweets!

This place was really amazing! Even the ladies' toilet was designed to look like the girls' bathroom in the first Harry Potter movie. There's even a Moaning Myrtle sound effect in the toilet, but luckily no sight of her. 😆

I went to Ollivanders and bought myself a wand. There are two types of wands, the interactive ones where you could perform magic at certain locations within the vicinity of the Harry Potter Wizarding World, and the normal resin wand without any magical functions. 😜 For the interactive ones, you could choose between having wands used by the characters from the books- Like Harry Potter wand, Hermione Granger wand, Dumbledore's Elder wand, so forth, or you could choose your own personal and original wand , or shall I say, the wand chooses you!

As for me, I wanted something original. So I just chose one from the shelf, without knowing what kind of wand it is. The wand had chosen me, you see! The worker opened it and said "This wand is from the Hazel wood, it is for those who are intelligent and wise," Okay... even though I'm a Ravenclaw, I do not perceive myself as someone intelligent or wise, but if the wand says so, then, perhaps I actually am, LOL.

Description of the Hazel Wand from the website:

Hazel wood is associated with wisdom, protection and magical skills. Hazel people are often wise beyond their years. They make inspiring teachers, combining creative talent and practical knowledge. Hazel people should be sure they take the time to share their gifts with others.

But the Hazel wand doesn't look nice. It looked a bit plain. I wanted to choose a prettier looking wand, and I chose the Willow wand!

Description of the Willow Wand:

Willow wood has powers of protection, especially against natural disasters. Willow people are strong and flexible; they recover quickly from the unexpected. Willow people should face new challenges confident that each encounter only makes them stronger.

This sounds more like it! The description deeply resonates with me! I need to face new challenges with confidence! 💪

And, I also bought a Hogwarts faux leather bound notebook.

The Map comes with each purchase of interactive wand, and it shows locations in the HP world where you could perform some magic! I posted the videos on my instagram, which is unfortunately, only accssible to friends and families. But maybe I'd post it on youtube to preserve the memories.

So, let's start from the beginning. We went to Universal Studios Japan in Osaka. Bought the tickets beforehand on Klook, arrived there an hour before the opening time, and headed to Harry Potter Wizarding World first!

We literally ran to that place, and thankfully, we only had to wait for half an hour for the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride, which is the best ride out of the two available there- another one is Flight of the Hippogriff, reserved for kids who couldn't experience real, thrilling roller-coaster rides, LOL. I love Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride, only that the language used during that 4D ride is in Japanese.

As I was wearing tudung, I was required to clip my tudung to the lapels of my coat whenever I wanted to go for those extreme rides (thrill-rides enthusiast here!🙋) using the clips they gave me. They're scared that the tudung would fall off during the rides.😂 How very considerate of them! But trust me, the pins that I used to keep my tudung in place are definitely more effective than those crocodile clips. Plus I was wearing a coat to keep it tucked inside!

Due to this regulation, I definitely did not enjoy the Flying Dinosaur ride, which is supposed to be the most thrilling ride at the park! The poncho that I was required to wear (no crocodile clips this time) got pulled to the front by gravity, covering my eyes with its hood throughout the entire ride! And I was sitting at the frontmost row! Which is supposed to be thrilling instead of me pulling the hood up every few seconds so that I could see what was going on in front of me! Pfft!

There isn't any halal eateries in the place so we just fed ourselves with bags of popcorn. And oh, to perform solat, you could go to the Information Centre near the entrance, requesting to pray in one of the meeting rooms there. But you had to take your wudhu at the toilet first.

Nevertheless, I am very proud to say that we had successfully covered TEN rides on that day! We skipped the kiddy rides and we kind of missed the Terminator ride as it was closed at night. For some popular rides, we had to queue for hours (kind of regretting queuing for 2 hours for the Minions Ride), freezing in the cold air. It was freaking cold!

Enough about USJ.

Next, let's talk about Fuji-san. Also known as my true love left in Japan. 💓

The iconic snow-capped mountain looked extremely gorgeous! My camera doesn't do justice to the beauty of this God's creation. You just have to be here to experience it yourself. I wished we could spend more time exploring the places within this area. There are several stations, corresponding to the lakes around Fuji mountain, and Kawaguchi station is the most popular one. There is also Aokigahara station, to which you can go to the Aokigahara forest,, notorious for being the place where people committed suicide. From this picture below you could see the dense Aokigahara forest located at the base of Fuji mountain. One day, I shall explore Aokigahara Forest!

Taking the cable car up the hill and you could see the Kawaguchiko! (Ko=Lake)

We ate Dangos here! Basically made of glutinous flour (mochi-like), served with finely ground nuts and syrup.

And too bad we couldn't climb the Fuji Mountain as the trek is closed during winter. We did witness a guy publicly proposing to his girlfriend with the view of the Fuji Mountain behind them, though, so it's worth a sight. LOL.

Next, to Kyoto. Told you this is not in any chronological order.

One of the most unforgettable memories we had in Japan is on our first day in Kyoto. We boarded the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto, which took about 3 hours of journey. It was raining, and yet we must not waste any moment by just sitting in our room doing nothing. So, to get to the famous Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, we kind of braced through the strong wind, using the umbrellas to shield us, the cold rain soaking my boots and leaving us freezing along the way. I am very grateful that I did not fell sick there. Alhamdulillah.

It was approaching dusk and we could see a number of shrines and.... TOMBS around us as we walked to the Grove 😱, But well, nothing much to be scared of as we were not alone there. The place could get pretty packed, regardless of whether it was raining or not.

So happy even though my feet were soaked.

We had to wait until 7 pm, where the lamps around the place was lit up, transforming the once dark ambiance into this beautiful sight!

The weather was 2 degree celsius and it was raining. Go figure.

After taking pictures, we went out, buying the steaming hot fish-shaped puffs with red beans, matcha and custard fillings. We walked to the Kimono Forest- I did not take any picture there, only a video, then we boarded a bus from Kyoto Station to Gion to search for the place featured in Memoirs of a Geisha movie. While looking, my parents, well... stumbled upon a place where apparently, a meeting of Yakuzas was held, at least according to the both of them who watched My Boss My Hero 😄. They were not joking. They simply said "It looks like a dangerous place with dangerous people in it, like Yakuzas, with those big long black cars" Ohhkayyy....

So we realized that we were at the wrong part of Gion and that we should have looked for Shirakawa Stream instead. By then, it was already late at night, my parents were tired, and we went back to our hotel.

The next morning, we were up and about, made our way to the first destination of the day, the Fushimi Inari, famous for its Torii Gates! Also featured in the Memoirs of a Geisha movie. This place looks so vibrant with its bright orange gates. It could be quite crowded if you arrived late, and almost impossible to take a picture of yourself posing by the gates without anyone photobombing you.

Then to the Kyoto Imperial Museum

I must say that the gardens are more beautiful that the ones at Gyeongbokgung. And best of all, free entrance! Only that they'll check your bags first before entering.

Later in the evening, we decided to head over to Nishiki Market, and to go to Shirakawa, Gion from there.

I stumbled upon a shop that sells kimonos for a cheap price! Those are not second-hand kimonos- as claimed by them. I don't know, they didn't really understand English while we didn't understand Japanese. Nevertheless, I bought a set of black silk kimono- minus the geta for about RM80, which is really a bargain as kimonos are much more expensive as compared to the yukatas! The shop owner was amused when we told her that we wanted to walk to Shirakawa, Gion, wearing the kimonos.

And well, it was quite an exhilarating experience! We (particular me, as I was wearing tudung), received stares from the Japanese as we walked down several streets from Nishiki Market to Shirakawa. They were probably wondering "Where is this girl in tudung going to, in a kimono?" I was rather embarrassed!

This place is so beautiful at night!

And what do you know, we spotted TWO real geishas in Gion. They appeared out of nowhere, and they walked really fast!Spotting real geishas in Gion, how lucky could you get? Not everyone was given the same opportunity. 😃

Done with Kyoto, now moving back to what we did in Tokyo.

We stayed in an apartment in Asakusabashi, which is near the Asakusabashi station, and one station away from the Akihabara station.

Akihabara is dubbed as the Electric (yup, not electronic) Town of Japan as there are many choices of electrical gadgets and appliances sold here. There are also many shops selling action figures and anime stuff. .

My siblings bought One Piece figurines from one of the stores in Akihabara, cheaper than what you found online. There is also a store called Don Quijote, nicknamed Donki. It is about 5 storeys high and that it sells many things from normal everyday clothes to cosplay costumes, 2nd hand LV bags, G-shock watches, cosmetics, and the list goes on. There are many branches of Donki across Japan, but the ones in Tokyo are usually opened 24/7.

We went to the famous Meiji Shrine at Shinjuku on our first day in Tokyo, lugging our bags with us, LOL.

And we went to the Tokyo Imperial Palace Garden on the next day. Entrance is free!

It was late autumn to early winter, thus you could see many trees of these beautiful golden and reddish-brownish-magenta-ish coloured leaves. 💖

We performed our prayers at the beautiful Tokyo Camii, located at Yoyogi Uehara.

Stopped by the Tokyo Station to get to this shop at JR Marenouchi- Traveler's Factory!

I had been wanting to buy this since ages! This leather notebook is produced by the Traveler's Company in Japan and it is a popular notebook used across the world, especially those who embarked in creative journaling. This Tokyo Station version is special in a sense that it is available exclusively at Tokyo Station, Japan. Again, Tokyo Station is the only place in the world where you could get this special edition! The Traveler's Company also produced the Airport TN which is only available at the Narita Airport.

We also went to Shibuya to see the Hachiko Statue and to join in the pedestrians crossing the super busy Shibuya Crossing- dubbed as the busiest intersection in the world. It was really fun! We kept on laughing as we rushed to cross to the other side- my parents included. My brother recorded a video of it. And It wasn't just us. Other people did the same too! Didn't manage to take any pictures there as my phone had ran out of battery. Went to Asakusa at night, and took a really short trip to Yokohama just to utilize our 7 Days JR Pass.😄

That's all about Tokyo. Now moving on to Hiroshima.

We took the shinkansen from Kyoto to Hiroshima. This place is familiar to the history buffs and to those who actually paid attention in history class during Form 3. 😏

In August 1945, the US troops dropped the atomic bomb to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, consequently leading to the surrender of the Imperial Japanese Army. also marking the end of the Japanese Occupation in Asia.

This historical structure is called the Atomic Bomb Dome, located at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. It was a government building back then, and when the bomb was dropped directly above this building, everyone in it perished within seconds.

And it was raining, again. *sobs*.

And oh, we spotted a store selling Kimonos, so I bought one beautiful geta (Japanese clogs) from this store to be paired with my kimono, of which I'm planning to wear during urmm.... Bon Odori Festival, maybe? LOL

Basically that is all about Hiroshima. We could have explored this place longer, had it not been for the non-stop rain and lack of time. We had to catch a shinkansen to go back to Osaka.

Other things about Japan worth mentioning:

I got addicted to this clear Milk Tea!

Japanese Adult Magazines widely sold in the convenient stores, LOL.

Mangas I couldn't read. 😔

ARASHI!!!! This brings back memories. And no, I didn't buy the magazines.

Didn't take pictures of the clean and technologically advanced Japanese toilets. Hahaha. I could vouch that all the toilets that I went to in Japan were really clean! Imagine my disgust upon arriving in KLIA2 to use the loos there. 😖

You could get these for free at the Haneda Airport!

THE END!

My thoughts about Japan:

We stayed for about 8 days in Japan. 4 days and 3 nights in Tokyo, 3 days and 2 nights in Kyoto, and 3 days and 2 nights in Osaka. When we stayed in Tokyo, we really made use of our JR pass and went everywhere using the JR train. There were just too many places to be explored, and that we lacked time to explore every single one of it in just a short period of time. We missed Ebisu, where I wanted to see the Clock Tower at Ebisu Garden Place- featured in Hana Yori Dango, and we missed the fashion town of Harajuku. We didn't even explore Chiba, or going to Tokyo Disneyland/Disneysea.

When we left Tokyo and stayed in Kyoto, I couldn't help but to miss the city vibes of Tokyo. Kyoto is a bit different. Compared to the modern metropolitan of Tokyo, it is more traditional. It mostly offers scenic and historical places of attractions, and that it has a more tranquil environment as compared to Tokyo. Here, we mostly commuted using the ICOCA card, which is like the T-Money or Oyster Card. Kyoto exudes that old city vibe. It was once the capital of Japan, and it will never make anyone forget of this fact as it continues to stand majestically like a retired general who had fought so many wars and still having the air that commands respect from those around him. You could say it's like a matriarch city of Japan. Still, we kind of regretted not exploring more places that Kyoto has to offer. I think I'd have to stay in Kyoto for a month in order to do that! 😉 ~~can't wait for retirement~~

Hiroshima, on the other hand, is a charming, classic town. We got around the city by using trams. So old-school right? And it was our first time taking trams, haha.

As for Osaka, well, we didn't manage to explore much of Osaka. It is a coastal city, and it has similar vibes like that Tokyo. The reason why we went to Osaka is primarily because of the Universal Studios Japan. And the reason why we went to USJ is because of the Harry Potter Wizarding World. 😛

From my traveler's notebook, I retrospectively wrote:

I love this country to bits! The weather, the people, the public transportation system, the culture, the places, and most importantly, I love the fact that I was there with my family! I cherished each moment spent with them, and I desire to do that again and again, insya Allah.

On another hand, I wish for our country to be like Japan, where the government and opposition work together for the sake of the country and its people.
The cleanliness of the public toilets, the hot drinks dispensed by the vending machines, I'm going to miss all that! The same goes with the extremely punctual public transports!

But Japan has its own problems too; too many people- especially the youths are getting homeless because of the high cost of livings.

We met Halim, a Malaysian guy working in Japan. He told us that the standard dress codes for the office workers are black suits, white shirts, neckties, black shoes and black briefcase. Whether you're a CEO or a mere office boy, you'd have to comply with those dress codes. Most of these youths couldn't afford to pay the skyrocketing rents of rooms and houses in Tokyo, so they would have no choice but to live in cardboard houses at the parks; Shinjuku Park is an example of those parks. But they are doing it legally as the government couldn't do anything about it.The government couldn't just give them rumah PPR like in Malaysia, just to put it from our perspective. Thus, the city authority gave them the permission to live at the park from 12 midnight till 6 am. By 6 am, the park must be cleared of any traces of anyone ever living there. During the cold winter season, some of them stayed in cyber cafes, which charged them based on hourly rents, definitely cheaper than paying for the exorbitant one-month rent. So, the next time you go to Japan, and see those smartly-dressed Japanese workers in their suits, take a look whether they're bringing a trolley bag with them. If they do, they're probably homeless. This is not what I said, this is what Halim said.

What touched my heart is that the workers, whether they are just working at the ticketing counters, or as the train conductors, they have a very good attitude, and that they are very respectful to others. I could never forget the sight of one of the cable car workers bowing deeply as as you went up to the hill by the cable car. They simply respect you as their customers!

And when the conductors wanted to see your tickets in the train, they talked with the same polite tone to EVERYONE, without getting tired or fed up for repeating the same sentences over and over again.
"Can I see your ticket please?" (In Japanese)
and when we showed them our tickets, they'd bow and said
"Arigato Gozaimasu!" over and over again to EVERYONE, their faces never stopped smiling.

During rush hours in the morning, there was this one train guy who gave words of encouragements to the Japanese office workers who rushed through the station to catch their trains, clearly pressed for time.

He'd shout
"Ganbatte!" and all those other encouraging words like "Don't give up!" and "You can do it!". Witnessing this beautiful moment touched my heart too. Sometimes you don't need some actions to be translated into languages you could understand. You could just feel it. The universal language that everyone could comprehend.

And whether they are working at the convenient stores or any shops, they are so proud with what they are doing, and they gave the best service that they could offer to their customers.

If only we could be like them in terms of these exemplary behaviors.

Halim also said that in the Japanese elementary school syllabus (age 7-9), more emphasis is given towards moral teachings and on the importance of cleanliness, like respecting other people, cleaning your classrooms, picking up the trash, etc, rather than teaching them purely academic stuff. Thus, the values that had been ingrained in them since they were young would continue to flourish and stay true to them until they become adults. And they would teach the same things to their children, and the cycle would continue until the next generations to come.

If only our Education Minister could create something like this in Malaysia.

Other than that, the Japanese government is also very generous to the civil workers. They'd be given bonus of 2 times a year, and the bonus would come in the form of 3 month salaries! Or was it six?

Again, I wish our government would do the same. 😎

Lastly, I hope Malaysia could take a leaf (or several leaves)out of Japan's book and emerge as a developed country, socially, economically- among others, with citizens of the first-class mindsets, and a higher Ringgit value. 🙆

Snippets of Siem Reap, Cambodia

2018-04-20T15:16:00.002+08:00

Just to relive the memories of my time there, one year ago, with my family.

I have no regrets visiting this country, in fact, I love it so much!

The city is charming, the people are friendly.

The Angkor Wat Complex is worth visiting, it is worth every dollar spent. The only drawback about Cambodia is that they're using the USD as their currency. Pffttt...

So here it goes:

Catching the Sunrise at Angkor Wat, built by Suryavarman II in the 12th century.

"Good morning sunshine, the Earth says Hello!"

The smug looking monkey probably saying

"Draw (take my picture) me like one of your French Girls,"

The carvings on the wall

The long stretch of wall depicting the scenes from the Epic of Ramayana and Mahabharata, as explained by our tour guide, a university student majoring in History.

The 'swimming pool' (LOL) where they carried out their religious rituals.

The library where the members of the royal family received their education. Too bad no more books inside.

The compound.

Imagine the King and his entourage strolling about on this very road.

Moving on to Bayon and Ta Phrom

Bayon at Angkor Thom, built by Jayavarman VII in the late 12th- early 13th century.

Historical edifices

The face of Jayavarman VII, correct me if I'm wrong. It's like the Sphinx.

Moving on to Ta Phrom, where Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was shot.

Ta Phrom, and the iconic tree from Lara Croft's Tomb Raider

The said (Banyan) tree.

Restoration works in progress.

The Angkor Wat and its surrounding complexes are really massive! We almost got lost finding our way out of Ta Phrom, LOL. The place is like a maze, and it was dark inside. I'm happy that I had finally set my foot at this UNESCO World Heritage Site, after reading about it, and looking at its picture from my Sejarah Tingkatan 1 textbook: Kerajaan Agraria dan Maritim. I think Angkor was a Kerajaan Agraria. Hahaha. And I think Puan Rosnah, my Form 1 Sejarah teacher would be proud of me. xD

Another highlight would be cruising on the Tonle Sap (Sap=Lake), witnessing the spectacular view of sunset, and visiting a Floating School there!

One of the many houses in the floating village of Tonle Sap. There is a school, sundry shop and even a police station in this village, all floating on the lake. The villagers lead a simple life here. Having only a house each as their most prized property, these houses would often get destroyed during the erratic monsoon seasons. The lake would become shallow during persistently hot climate and you could just walk with your feet at the bottom of the lake, the water level reaching only up to your waist. Of course, it depends on your height as well!

One of our guides grew up in the Tonle Sap floating village, and he brought us to his school.

Floating School

A real life floating school! Just like in the Thai movie 'Teacher's Diary'!

There were several kids here (the rest already went home) and an elderly teacher. Unfortunately, only two subjects were taught here- the Cambodian and Vietnamese languages. Someone should teach them Math and Science!

One of the classrooms.

With the two children from this school. Some of the kids stayed in the school (as they are orphans) while some went to school in the morning and went home when the school session was over. You could donate rice and some of the necessities to the children of this school by buying them from the sundry shop at this village.

Waiting for the sunset.....

No filter. The view was this picturesque!

Other than that, we went to the War Museum, learning about the sad and tragic history of the Cambodian People. Let's just say that the Cambodians had been oppressed and repressed from the dictatorship of Pol Pot and the horrifying Khmer Rouge regime, and until now, they are still being mentally oppressed by the Vietnam government. Wow, should I even be talking about such sensitive issues here? Wonder why they still have to use the USD currency? They have debts to pay to the USA, as a result from all those spent during the Cambodian Civil War. Again, correct me if I'm wrong.

Listening in full concentration,LOL.

And to the Cambodian Cultural Village and Museum. Did you know that they even have a Malay Champa village here?! There are Malays in Cambodia. After all, our roots could be traced to the same origin. Malaysian Malays, Indonesian Malays, and the list goes on.

Spot one of the actors who wore a baju Melayu with kain pelekat sampin!

Another entertaining show from another village.

The night cultural show about the history of Cambodia. I don't understand a word of the Khmer language, thankfully we have Hady, our tuk-tuk driver to translate to us what's happening in each scene. Like, why is that woman crying in destitution? Or why is everybody suddenly started fighting?

Other than that, we just explored around the town/city of Siem Reap, the night markets, the boring silk museum, sampling authentic Halal Cambodian foods, visiting one of the mosques there and well, my father taught us how to eat the lotus seeds from the lotus pod!

Our tuk-tuk, and the Lotus Pond

Not for those suffering from Trypophobia . It actually tastes good and quite crunchy!!!

Goodbye Cambodia!

Final thoughts: Needless to say, Cambodia enchanted me with its rich culture and history. Being a history buff, it delights me to have been given the opportunity of strolling into the magnificent Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and Ta Phrom, reliving the historical events that I had read and learned from my school days. Other than what I had learned from the textbook, I had also gained new insights on the devastating history of Cambodia and its equally devastating current political situation, told by its citizens. Siem Reap is a relatively safe place to visit. We also had a very helpful and kind tuk-tuk driver who patiently drove us around Siem Reap, helping us to get a taste of the local culture. I'd recommend Hady to anyone who wishes to venture and explore Siem Reap. Do tell me if you want his number, haha.

And that is all from my Angkor Adventure! I shall one day, make a post about my trip to Japan, insya Allah! Don't count too much on it though, LOL.

Melur vs Rajawali

2018-04-19T21:56:00.001+08:00

Originally written in March 2018.

I wasn't feeling well when I arrived home. It's probably due to my immune system fighting against the dormant Hepatitis B virus that was administered to me via the Hepatitis B injection I received a few days earlier. But today, alhamdulillah. it seems that my immune system is strong enough to kick and punch those viruses! I am now up and about and ready to embrace this wonderful less than a week break at home with my family!

So today, I would like to talk about a telefilm I had watched for a total of 3 times so far. It's titled 'Melur vs Rajawali'. I found this by accident on youtube when I was searching for the Late Yasmin Ahmad's Mukhsin. Mukhsin is my most favourite out of all her films and perhaps one day, I shall write a blog post about my favourite Yasmin Ahmad movies (Mukhsin, Muallaf, Talentime)!

This movie was written and directed by al-Jafree Md Yusop and released in 2015, starring Syafie Naswip and Sharifah Amani as the main characters. These two are really good actors! So you know this would be a good film even before you watched it!

Melur vs Rajawali was made for television hence not everyone knows about the existence of this telefilm.

Based on a true experience by the scriptwriter and director himself, the story revolves around Azlan (played by Syafie Naswip), a new transfer student from USA who had to start a new life in Maktab Sains Nasional, of which he befriended a number of quirky, interesting characters (Malek, Shake, Todak) from his dormitory building- Asrama Rajawali there.

On his first day there, he chanced upon a list of 10 most beautiful girls at school which makes him feel curious to know about these supposedly beautiful girls. With the help of Malek, Azlan had eventually met all the girls from the 2nd till 10th place, but he still hasn't met the person who occupied the top spot; Hanna, which is played by Sharifah Amani (who looks really cute and youthful, and very pretty in this movie!).

The List, taken from Melur vs Rajawali Facebook Page

Hanna and Azlan

There are a number of funny incidents and scenarios that happened throughout this movie, leading to the highlight of the story, whereby Malek told of his plan to trespass the girls' dormitory- Blok Melur. Hence the title Melur vs Rajawali. This later leads to undesirable consequences.

I shall not tell you more about the movie or write any spoilers as you'll have to see it by yourself. However, I'm going to tell you about my thoughts regarding this movie, after watching it for 3 times (first by myself, then with my brother and lastly with my parents, all of whom seem to enjoy watching this).

1. I love Shake's character. The tough, gangster-like guy who likes to bully others is actually a really loyal friend.

2. Azlan keeps on holding to 'Panggil aku Kartini Saja', by Pramoedya Ananta Toer throughout the movie. I haven't ready any of his works (He is a famous Indonesian writer) but I do know that he has written more than just 'Panggil aku Kartini Saja'. At one scene, Azlan was about to finish the novel, and on the next scene, it seems like he started reading it from the beginning again. Perhaps he's actually re-reading the book? Is there any specific reason for this? For if there isn't any, the director should have introduced more of Pramoedya Ananta Toer's works in this movie.

3. Shake-Shah relationship. Shake seems to be greatly annoyed and irritated by Shah throughout the movie. And he keeps on bullying Shah in hilarious ways. Shah who looked so manly and macho in appearance is actually fearful of Shake!

4. The movie setting is in the early 1980s', specifically, 1983, as evident by the Takwim Sekolah in the Principal's office. But in some scenes, you could see the year 2014 written on the notice board, LOL.

4. I love the song that is used in the beginning of this movie- 'Here Comes Your Man' by Pixies, a rock band from the 80s;. Very catchy!

5. All the characters, which includes the teachers; they are so quirky! Orang Kiri Cikgu Besar, Cikgu Besar, the Add Maths teacher, the Penyelia Asrama, the Pakcik Guard. They remind me of the characters in Japanese dramas.

6. The depiction about the life of 'Budak Asrama' shown in this movie is rather interesting, since I had never attended any boarding schools.

7. No unnecessary lawak bodoh whatsoever. Which is good!

8. I kind of have a crush on Azlan, who seems like such a nice kid, LOL. Though he had spent a part of his life in the US, he's really good in adapting with his new environment in Malaysia and in making new friends! My parents said he looks like a young Jins Shamsuddin (I was puzzled at first as in my mind, I was thinking of S. Shamsuddin, LOL).

9. Biology Form 4 Textbook that is shown in the film is the new textbook currently used in the secondary school syllabus, not the one that is supposed to be used in the 1980s. Plus, did they learn Biology and Additional Mathematics in English back then?

10. The actors and actresses keep on wearing the same clothes haha. Perhaps they shot those separate scenes on the same day.

11. I don't understand the jargons used by those boys. Cedok? What does it mean? Ambil kesempatan terhadap pelajar perempuan? What did they actually mean? Not understanding this seemingly sexual connotation made me shudder. Plus Malek seems like a pervert who keeps on thinking about girls and how to get into the girls' dormitory. I don't like Malek.

12. The present-day adult Azlan looked nothing like the smartly and neatly dressed teenager Azlan. But why? Azlan was a very smart kid at school (he scored 100% in Add. Math hahaha) so I had expected him to become someone respectable in the future, you know, someone who has a good job, dresses nicely and all. But my dad said perhaps something happened to him over the years. Someone who excelled academically at school might not end up becoming someone successful. This is a possibility.

13. The Pakcik Guard does not age a bit from the year 1980's till the present day. In fact, he looks better than the present-day Azlan. HAHA.

14. Most of all, I love the camaraderie and friendship shown by this group of friends.

15. I just wish the director could show us what actually happened to Shake and the rest. Just like the ending credits of the movie 'Goodbye Boys;. That would make it really meaningful.

I am excited to find out that there is a plan to make a sequel to this entertaining movie. They're just waiting for the sponsors to fund this movie. Hopefully, this movie will be released at the cinema!

Final thoughts: This movie might evoke memories of those who had studied in boarding schools and of those who lived in the 80s'. I don't actually feel like I was transported back to the 80s' when I watched this movie, as the characters looked so modern in appearances. But considering this film was produced with a limited budget, it is good enough for me.

I've always had a soft spot for dramas or movies about school life. I did not really enjoy my school days, to tell the truth. I was so focused on things like co-curricular, how to actually pass my Add Math papers (LOL), tuition classes and on getting straight A1s for SPM that I didn't actually enjoy the process of learning new things, having fun with my friends, actually enjoying my youth. I wasn't exposed to the great Japanese Dramas about school life.

When I watched Nobuta wo Produce, I realized how much I had been missing throughout my 5 years of secondary school. Not to say that I had a terrible time there, not really. My closest friends till now are those whom I met when we were 13, and I love the whole memories of the year 2005- Form 3, PMR year but somehow, I know I should have done more, like creating more fond memories.

Anyway, I make up for that by really enjoying my CFS and University years, juggling between my studies and my social life. 😊

And I should do the same now. When I'm old, I don't want to look back at my career years and remember only bad things about it, like, my PRP year, for example. LOL. I think I had slowly learned to let go of the bad memories of that particular year. I must keep moving forward!

Like I said in my previous post, as important as it is to let go of the past, it is also important to make good memories in the present, and possibly in the future.

Let's create more memories!

Indifferent

2018-02-17T20:01:00.004+08:00

I was really bored. Really, living here could get really boring. Plus, 'summer' is coming to GM. The weekend afternoons were mostly spent in a hot, sweltering room, which is definitely better than the hot, scorching sun outside vigorously baking your skin, with all its harmful UV rays.

The point of boredom had reached its peak when I decided to read back (and occasionally cringed at) my old blog posts and well, what do you know? I never knew that I was that expressive when writing. Nowadays, my mind could not think of a properly constructed sentence. I rarely read books (sad, isn't it), I do not seem to have any excitement towards life. Life is not exceptionally great, and it isn't as devastating as my PRP year either. It's a perfect balance between both spectra, leading to this lackadaisical, indifferent attitude I have towards life now, which is not a good thing.

They said January is the trial month, and the new year resolution only started in February. But, it was different for me. I was really focused on achieving my goals for the year 2018, and everything that I planned to do for the month of January, well, I did them all! Including finishing the Part 1 of Chinese Mandarin course on Memrise! Liu Shi Shi shi hen piaoliang le! Bahaha please excuse me, I had been rewatching Bu Bu Jing Xin. But well, for February, the momentum started to go downwards. I had been spending the most unproductive weekend last week, and I rarely write, I rarely read, I rarely cooked, I skipped my Mandarin lessons and well, how am I going to achieve my goals for the year 2018? Consistency and discipline is the key to success!

I am determined to get back on track once again!

And I decided to write on this blog, LOL. Which is probably the first step to get back in the race against time.

I vow not to put any sad, sob, pathetic, sympathy-inducing stories here. Just like before, this blog shall forever remain as a medium for me to express my thoughts, and to improve my writing skills. Not a medium for me to complaint and rant, as I am now a full-grown, matured adult *ahem*.

Well, I shall think of certain topics to post to this blog. There are some rough ideas in my mind. But, let's see how.

I reckon, since there are less people reading this blog now, I will have more freedom to write!!!

With that, thank you and may you have a nice day!

The Grass is Greener Where You Water It

2018-01-19T21:05:00.002+08:00

Originally written on 23rd December 2017

It had been almost 2 weeks since I returned from my trip to Japan and I still could not move on. Japan had been amazing! It was even more memorable since I got to spend the whole 8 days with my family.

And now, I have returned to this ordinary, mundane life as a ward pharmacist at this particular Multidisciplinary Female Ward at this small district hospital-where-everyone-knows-one another situated at this secluded rural district in Kelantan.

Back to the same, unadventurous routine. I must say that I got bored of joining the ward round, looking at the patient’s medical charts and lab investigations, with nothing much to be intervened other than to ask for a new prescription to be issued as the present one is almost expiring, and occasionally correcting the wrong frequency for Tablet Cephalexin.

And on weekend, there is nothing much to do. No cinemas, no shopping malls, even the library is not opened on Friday, and that I doubt it offers more interesting titles as compared to the existing ones I currently have in my bedroom, carefully selected from the Big Bad Wolf Book Sales.

I scrolled through the instagram feeds and stories of this famous web establishment, and I couldn’t help but to marvel and envy those who were working there. Imagine, getting paid to travel and write about it? Which are the two things I love the most! I want to work for this web company! Even when I was a kid, I wanted to be like Samantha Brown, famous for her Passport to Europe and Passport to Latin America series. I yearned to have adventures like the presenters of Globe Trekker, Megan McCormick, Justine Shapiro and Ian Wright.

But of course, almost 20 years later, here I am, working as someone so much different than what I had dreamed before. I could afford to travel here and then, at least once a year, Alhamdulillah. But to be paid to travel is an entirely different story.

Which leads to me thinking later on, if there comes an opportunity, say, a company offering me a post as a full-time travel writer, and is going to pay me double than what I’m currently earning now, will I leave my job as a pharmacist? Sounds tempting, isn’t it?

And without hesitation, my immediate answer would be,

*drumrolls*

NO.

A big NO.

Of course not.

I am surprised at this answer myself. I had always been yearning to lead a jet-setting life, escaping to different places and having fun without a worry for deadlines, KPI, HPIA, audits, those kind of boring office stuff, or even, worried that I might have dispensed wrong medications to my patients.

Surely if such opportunity comes, I would just grab it without thinking twice?

I guess it shows that I still love my job. No matter how much someone is going to offer me, no matter how interesting that job scope might be, I could never bear to leave my profession as a pharmacist.

This is what they called an unconditional love, isn’t it?

As no matter how average I am as a pharmacist, I still love to read about antibiotics and their spectrum of activities, I still love going to ward rounds, I still love to talk to my patients, I still love listening to case presentations, I love to impart this little knowledge that I have for others to learn from, during those monthly CME sessions.

Plus, I am still finding that satisfaction of becoming a pharmacist, it’s going to be there, someday. I am still waiting for that moment whereby I am at the peak of my career as a pharmacist, and until I reached there, I should never leave my job.

The Chinese adage said ‘In order to enjoy something, you must be good at it’. And that in order to be good at something, you must consistently practice and practice and practise!

My job might look mundane from where you see it. But it is all a matter of having the right perceptions. I have the power to change my insight, to transform something that seems boring to one that is really interesting!

It is all about having the right attitude. And comparing your current job with the jobs of others you wish you had is just useless.

Just like in a relationship, you have to make efforts to ensure there is always love between you and your partner. Life is not entirely good.

The doctor might have wished he had chosen to become a teacher, who could enjoy more holidays and seemingly less workloads. A convenience store worker might have berated herself for not studying hard enough so that she could take Law and become a Lawyer, consequently having a high salary.

The grass is always greener on the other side.

We would always want what we perceived as something good.

We want something from another person’s plate.

And what should we do now?

Just take care of our own patch of grass, and keep on watering it, nurturing it, so that it will stay green, even the greenest out of other patches of grass. Who knows, beautiful stalks of flower might even sprout out from the ground.

I am not saying that you should not step out of your zone to chase after your dreams. If you really think that you really wanted to become a singer, or a fashion designer, then just go for it.

But if you’re thinking to switch your careers after having a rough day at work, and looking at other people’s seemingly fun and easy jobs, wishing you have theirs, then that is an irrational, unrealistic way of thinking.

One thing I learned after venturing into the working adult world is that, everyone has a stress of their own. Every job is stressful. It is how you managed your stress that would determine the outcome, whether you’re happy or not.

For now, I’m going to devise a plan to make my job seems more interesting, and that I’m looking forward to go to work every day.

I just have to water my own patch of grass.

And also, I have to work to fund my travels, LOL.

Thanks for reading!

And oh, before I forget, Happy 10 years of blogging, Sarah! 😊

And Happy 3 years of working as a Pharmacist! 😎😎

Turtle or goldfish?

2017-10-26T20:58:00.002+08:00

I've always been scared of animals. Anything that isn't human. Well to be truthful, human beings are scarier than those seemingly scary animals.

I am so different from my siblings, of which all of them cat lovers, or well, animal lovers. I don't think they are scared of animals as much as I do. I even had to ask my housemate for help when a moth came flying into my room. Pfft... Don't get me even started on snakes or other reptiles *shudder*.

Why am I even scared of them?

They are so scary! And that I'm afraid of getting bitten! (by a moth? yeah right! Hey but it can happen!)

When we were young, my siblings kept cats, a bird and even a pair of terrapins. One of the terrapins died and we had to release the other one to the river as it kept getting bigger without enough space for us to keep it as we were living in a small apartment at that time. And I had never ever, even once, placed the terrapin on my palm because I was scared of getting bitten, LOL. During universities, I was also scared of the white lab mice when we were conducting the experiments. My fearless friend would be the one holding the struggling, wriggling mouse as I injected adrenaline onto its vein..

Well, I'm still scared of animals! Or insects! Except cockroaches. The non-flying ones.

Then just this evening, out of the blue, it seemed like an epiphany. The idea just popped into my head. So many things happened for the past few weeks. I had officially turned 27 *yawn* and Fatin got transferred to Perak leaving me here with my books as companions in GM. I have no one to talk to anymore. Well, I have friends, but we're not that close for me to open up about my feelings. So sometimes I just talked to myself. So sad.

Anyway, I saw this instagram post of my friend placing a cute little terrapin onto her palm and I feel like I need to have a pet. And I feel like having a pet tortoise/turtle/terrapin! The idea is so cool, right? I'm thinking of having just one turtle. The turtle does not need any companion. I am that turtle's companion! And off I went researching about 'having a turtle as a pet'.

There are two things that ticked me off.

1. Turtles can bite. They could get aggressive. And they could bite you, accidentally or not. And they said it hurts immensely!

2. 'Turtles commonly carry the Salmonella bacteria on their outer skin and shell surfaces'. Source: FDA.

Frankly speaking, I'm more scared of Number 1 than Number 2.

I had already been thinking of buying a small aquarium where I can carry it around, with a place for my turtle to bask on. I'm actually thinking of putting it under the care of my colleagues at the hospital any time I went for a long holiday abroad. We could have fun taking care of the turtle together.

And just imagining the turtle walking slowly and languidly, awww, doesn't it look cute?

I just have to replace the water, and buy the liquid to purify the water or something. And I just have to feed it with vegetables. I intend for my turtle to be a vegetarian. But then, what if it really craves for meat and bites my finger instead? 😱 Never mind. I'll buy it a chicken sausage.

I'm going to name it Flecatus. I shall not explain about the origin of this name. It's a secret.

And well, mulling about these two things that made me reconsider to have a turtle as a pet, the idea of keeping a goldfish materialized into my head.

A pair of goldfish. So it won't get lonely. So biased, right?

There are several good things of owning goldfish.

1. Goldfish doesn't bite. Or if it does, it couldn't possibly hurt that much as compared to a turtle bite, right?

2. They are so pretty! I could picture their gold scales gleaming brilliantly in the crystal clear water as they swim merrily within the vicinity of the aquarium.

3. I only have to buy fish food. No need to buy a chicken sausage or vegetables.

4. Keeping fish is regarded as therapeutic. At night, I could put a light in the small aquarium and just stare at it until I doze off.

The minus points are:

1. I need to buy an air pump/water filter. I found out that an air pump is necessary to 'stir' the water, producing more oxygen for the fish to breathe in. But those fishes in the pond of my home doesn't need the air pump 24/7. Perhaps I should only turn on the air pump at night! So that there would be enough oxygen for them in the morning!

2. I couldn't think of any, LOL.

So, it looks like keeping a goldfish is easier!

So, yes! I think I'm going to buy a pair of goldfish! And I'm going to name them Celsius and Fahrenheit! 😎

YAAY!

UPDATE 19/1/2018: I still do not get myself a pet of any sort. LOL

And I'm back!!! Again!

2017-09-27T20:31:00.002+08:00

So, the abode is opened to public once again!

It happened in March this year. I was feeling rather overwhelmed for unknown reasons that I decided that I should take a social media detox. So, I deactivated my twitter, my facebook and even put my blog on private. I created a new Instagram account and only added the people whom I really know and close with.

My Facebook detox had lasted for 4 months, I created a new twitter account and only followed my favourite authors and celebrities. I didn't RANT as frequently as I had before. In fact, I only posted 4 tweets so far, LOL. And this blog, well, the last time I ever written something here was in January, thus I had been on blogging hiatus for almost 8 months! But actually, I had started writing here again this September, but it is only now that I made my blog public again.

During those period of so-called social media detox, I felt happier and calmer. I took up new hobbies of creative journaling, inspired by the many talented people on instagram like @ronnycakes, @jobsjournal and @joychong. I'm still working in GM and it had been more than a year already! I had grown attached to this small town, my work and believe it, my workplace! I had learned a lot of things, went to many workshops, gained many experiences, know more people and I definitely feel happier and less stressed as compared to before.

In March 2017, I went to Siem Reap, Cambodia with my family. We visited the famous Angkor Wat, and the surrounding complexes like Angkor Thom, Ta Phrom and Bayon. We also had the opportunity to cruise around the Tonle Sap on a boat, with splendid view of the sunset and the floating village greeting our eyes. We also visited the boathouse school, just like in the movie 'Teacher's Diary!'. Okay, maybe I should make a blog post dedicated to this experience.

In April 2017, I moved from a small room shared with another tenant (my friend, LOL) located at the first floor of the shophouse, to a proper house with a room of my own. And it's nearer to the hospital. And living in this house, I finally learned how to cook, for real! I now know how to properly tumis all the ingredients, even experimenting with various recipes (and sometimes I just campak-campak) and I'm no longer afraid of exploding oil from the wok/pan, hahaha. So, achievement unlocked! I thought I'd never be able to cook in my entire life!

One of the highlights of the past months is the awesome, surreal experience of becoming the emcee for the Kelantan National Diabetes Updates for Pharmacists in July 2017. It was my first time emceeing for a national event since I left university. I'm glad that it turned out well, alhamdulillah.

With the VIPs and senior pharmacists.I was the only PF UF41 involved as a committee.

With my beloved Rx9 girlfriends and Dr Ilyani, our lecturer from UIA!

Another highlight is that I had written an article which is then published by MIMS Pharmacy, September 2017 Edition. It's officially my first foray into the world of medical journalism!

Front page

First page of my article.

Will I be staying in GM for good?

This is a tricky question. I do like working here, but I fear that I would be too afraid to venture out from this comfort zone. Plus, I need to return to my family, hahaha. I do not have any relatives here. My parents are getting older (not that old, but still...) and I need to spend more time with them and my siblings. And I feel the need to learn more. I had become accustomed to the types of drugs that are only available here (which are not that many) and I am scared of forgetting or not knowing the names and the doses of the other high end drugs.

Unless....this hospital is upgraded into a Hospital Berpakar, and that there is a proper highway built from GM to Ipoh (with phone and internet coverage along the way), then I'll consider working here for a couple more years, haha. But urghh, all the kursus and meetings are usually held in KB, which is too far. With dangerous single-lane roads too!

Never mind, let's not think too much about the future. Let's focus on the present!

Ah, I really miss blogging. I had grown up with this blog so it's impossible to just abandon it and start a new one (I did, but I immediately missed writing here after posting one blog post there, LOL).

That's all from me!

My Hometown Heroes

2017-09-25T22:56:00.002+08:00

Just yesterday, I found out that the film 'Adiwiraku' won the Best Film Category for the 29th Malaysia Film Festival 2017.

I had heard about the story that inspired the making of this film before, as it happened in my hometown of Sungai Petani, Kedah. It tells about the choral speaking team from SMK Pinang Tunggal winning 5th place for the Choral Speaking Competition of the Kuala Muda/Yan District Level! I feel so proud hearing this! I even shared this news on my facebook because I was so excited and elated! Because, SUNGAI PETANI! Why is it such an extraordinary feat? SMK Pinang Tunggal is a rural school where the students generally have low proficiency in the English language. So, it's a remarkable achievement for them to be able to memorize a 15-minutes choral speaking script written in English- as said by the main actress, and agreed everyone, at that. I am one proud Sungai Petani-an!

Nevertheless, a gem discovered in my beloved SP! I just left the story there, not thinking much about it, feeling rather satisfied.

Little did I know that someone out there wasn't going to let this matter at rest, and that someone must have been deeply touched by this story that he decided to make a film out of this, and that this film eventually won Best Film in this year's Malaysia Film Festival!

This film was released on cinema last MARCH! How come I didn't know? Lack of promotions, maybe?

And hence, the moment I found out about the existence of this film, I knew that I must watch it, pronto! Naturally, I searched for it on youtube, LOL. Of course it's not available there, only the trailer. But you know what, the trailer even made me go all emotional! *sobs*.

I must watch it! Or else I could not sleep! I can't even find any legit website selling the original DVD or else I would and must buy it on the spot! I don't even have Astro. And well, after digging further into the wonderful world of Google search results, I found a website where I could stream this movie. DO NOT FOLLOW THIS EXAMPLE. THIS IS C'EST ABOMINABLE!

But I do not have much choices, right? But really, if they released a DVD of this film, then I would buy the ORIGINAL DVD.

And well, here are the thoughts that I jotted down while watching this film. Such a note taker I am!

1. I love the premise of an Indian teacher and a Chinese teacher helping and inspiring the Malay students to excel. This is really touching as I had heard and even encountered a number of racist people and racial issues that later made me lose hope towards the concept of integration and tolerance. I mean, we are all Malaysians, right? Chinese, Indian, Malay, Iban, Kadazan, Dayak, Senoi, we should be helping each other towards success. Let's become successful together!

But of course, God won't help you if you don't help yourself. In this case, the students helped themselves as well!

2. Of both teachers watching the choral speaking video of the students from SIN MIN! SIN MIN? WHAT THE HECK! The reason for this incredulity will be explained later, LOL.

3. Of them recruiting the students to join the choral speaking team, even bribing those students with foods. We need foods! Foods are important!

4. Those beautiful, picturesque scenes of the paddy fields. OMG I miss Kedah so much! *cries while being stuck here surrounded by limestone caves*

Eh wait I just realized we could now put emojis on our blog posts! I had been blogging for almost 10 years already and FINALLY! 😊😊😊

5. The teachers wrote their own choral speaking script! Wow! I remember during my time, we just took any texts from the internet. No wonder we didn't win first place. 😅

Oh, just to tell you that I had been a part of my school's Choral Speaking Team for 2 years (Form 1 and Form 2). We won 2nd and 3rd places only. Never the first. WHY? Perhaps it's due to number 5.

6. The memories of staying back after school almost every day just to practise our Choral Speaking. Even had to do ketuk ketampi each time we stuttered or stammered. Still didn't get first place. Only got aching legs. 💁

7. The amusing scene of Miss Fernando correcting the students' pronunciations. I laughed really hard at this scene. Their Kedahan dialects are too strong!

"SMK Pinang Tunggai,"

"TunggaL!"

"Tunggai!"

"TunggaL!"

8. The background music. So touching. Appropriately inserted in certain scenes to express sadness, happiness, frustration and many other emotions.

9. Okay, I almost cried watching the scene whereby a girl named Kemboja had to work at the Petrol Station to support herself and her ailing father. She opened up the biscuit tin and found out there are only 2 pieces of biscuits left, to which she placed both of those biscuits onto her father's tupperware which has medications in it. *cries*

"Teacher pernah tak tak makan 2-3 hari?" 😧

10. School bag with a big torn and hole in it that the school books just fell out of it. OMG. I had taken my beg sekolah for granted all these while.

11. A girl who took care of her mother with a mental problem, also got constantly beaten by her mentally-unsound mother.

I feel so sad for these kids! I don't know, I felt speechless. I had taken my life for granted all these while. My parents had provided everything I needed when I was at school but you know, you tend to compare yourselves with your friends who could afford to buy expensive novels every week (okay, mostly jealous because of this LOL) and having cool stationery set and complete set of Stabilo gel liners (which you don't really need, actually) and the new Nokia N-Gage and Nokia Express Music (while you only had a Motorola phone without a camera, still, it's polyphonic with coloured screen- a big upgrade from Nokia 3310) when in fact, there are other people who are much less unfortunate than you are! Forget about having stationery or whatnots, those kids don't even have foods to eat! This is the sad reality of life. In the future when I have kids of my own, I would show them this film! (from the original DVD of which I'm going to buy later once they released it, LOL).

12. The day of the choral speaking competition, held in SMK Sungai Pasir. I had been attending various events and competitions held at this school. Back then, SMK Sg. Pasir boasted the biggest and grandest hall so almost all district level competitions were held there, AT THE SCHOOL HALL! And it definitely brought back memories of my school days (which most of them are not good, LOL. I did not enjoy my school life to be truthful).

13. Sin Min choral speaking team appeared once again. What's with them? They won the choral speaking competition for that year and the previous year, is it? During my time, there would only be these 3 schools in the Kuala Muda/Yan district who would dominate the Top 3 places. Convent (my school), Ibrahim (school next door) and Sin Min (another neighboring school). So you can see that we are rivals. The hate triangle relationship.

14. A cameo of this teacher in charge of the Sin Min Choral Speaking Team. She is actually the ex-principal of Convent (not during my time but I've heard about her, LOL).

14. SMK Pinang Tunggal was announced as the fifth place winner for this competition. Not a single mention of who won the Top 3 and I assume, no prize guessing who won the Top 3 in the competition, right? LOL.

End of note.

I love this movie. It's rare that a movie could constantly evoke many sorts of emotions that ran through my mind, heart and eventually my eyes from the beginning till the end. I didn't cry though. I got strong!

YOU should watch this film. I'm not going to promote piracy by giving you the link. You have to find it by yourself, LOL. Or buy the DVD! Good luck!