Hiking up Bukit To'kun (Bukit Mertajam)

Husband and I had been planning to climb (more to jungle trekking, actually) to Pantai Kerachut at Penang National Park for quite some times. So as we decided to go last Sunday, husband made me go for a walk/jog every morning to warm ourselves myself up for the activity since last two weeks, since I have not been exercising for a long time. And my last hiking trip was to Broga Hill, Semenyih - that was in February 2011! Well yeah, good luck for me!

However, we found out that it was raining in Penang on that Saturday evening. I told husband that it was not a good idea to go hiking after the rain. It would be very slippery and all. But since we’ve already made up our mind to go hiking, I Google-d to find any hiking places in Seberang Perai instead and I found out about Bukit Mertajam @ Bukit To’kun. That place is really near to our home and we didn’t even know there’s a hill to climb! So we decided to go there the next day.

Bukit To’kun, or some people call it Bukit Mertajam, is located at Cherok To’kun in Bukit Mertajam. It is part of the Bukit Mertajam Recreational Park where locals bring the children for a picnic and swim by the creek. Bukit To’kun has two paths for hiking – the jungle track and the tar road track. Since it was drizzling before dawn at the area, we had to choose the tar track to avoid the slippery path, again. 

The bookshelf project

When we first moved to our new home, we didn't really fill it up with furnitures and cabinets and extra decorations. We only brought the furnitures we already have, the ones we bought when we were renting in Puchong, Selangor. We were kinda tight on budget as we needed to prioritize i.e. the grill, awning, tiles etc. So after weeks and months, we started to think about decorating our home sweet home. As the books were brought from the old house are  a lot, therefore, one of the important furniture that we need to set up is a bookshelf. And man, nice bookshelves are not that cheap! So we came up with the idea to do it ourselves using old, unused cabinet and shelves.

Basically we have three different cabinet and shelves. One is the green DIY cabinet bought at hypermarket and another two are the IKEA white shelves. Since the study table which would be placed near the cabinet is dark brown in color, we decided to paint our bookshelf dark brown too.

The first casing

I used to be jealous of iPhone users as they got to put nice, cute, pretty casings on their gadgets while I was stuck with boring casing for my old phone. So, since I got myself an iPhone, I kept on looking for nice casing. But I ended up with only a silicon case. I browsed through online shops, took a look at Machines' casing display rack, but still, nothing really caught my eyes. There might be some that I thought were pretty, but just not enough to make me spend for it. Not until about a week ago when I was browsing through Groupon apps, I fall in love at the first sight with an iPhone casing. It's the Marvel's Captain America casing! XD I super super like the casing. The Captain America looks very very cute. 

"Tulang Yee dah hancur..."

Last Friday evening, my cousin Kak Lina updated her status on FB that she was at HUKM sending her daughter Nurin. After few comments and chatting via WeChat, I found out that Nurin broke her hand earlier in the afternoon. Kak Lina said that they were still waiting for the results from the doctor.

Later that night I talk to Nurin on the phone. She was surprisingly not so sad, but happily telling me the story on how she got her hand broken. Apparently, she was excitedly jumping around (not sure why, maybe she was playing with her friends) while waiting for the bus to go to the sekolah agama (evening school). Then her friend told Angah (a.k.a Hilman, her brother) that she fell and felt that her hand was in pain. Hilman told her not to go to school but she went anyway. She went to school, stayed until the school period ended and came back home by bus like she normally does. When the parents came back only they brought her to the hospital as they saw her hand began to swell.

While we were on the phone.

Watch and vote your fave Ramli

So, the Mencari Ramli 2 show has started  airing from 19 April 2013 on TV3 every Friday, 7.30 pm to 8.00 pm with 12 episodes in total. 

I can say that I'm so proud to watch the kids, so young yet so talented in showing their talent in playing football. They really show their spirit and courage to be voted as the best among the best young Malaysian footballers. 

I'm happy to see faces of true Malaysians of all races contesting to be our next Ramli. We have Malays, Chinese and Indian boys - from east and west Malaysia - giving their all on the field to win the chance to attend the two weeks training session at MUSS and a 3-year football scholarship at Frenz United Football Academy, as well as watching Manchester United in action at the glory glory Old Trafford. I think it is also cute to see that there are twin brothers on the show. They could be the next Rafael and Fabio da Silva. Hehe.

The coffee story

We were watching The Voice Top 6 Performance Show while drinking a cup of Nescafe when the conversation of my addiction to caffeine took place. 

Me: Kalau org ada rezeki pregnant, kamu bg tak org minum coffee ke Nescafe hari-hari?

Husband: Sorry la.. Mestilah tak. 

Me: Kalau macam tu kalau org pregnant org tak nak bagitau kamu at least sampai 2 bulan ke atau sampai perut nampak.  Hmmpph!

Husband: Macam mana yg kamu nak sorok tu?

Me: Hmm org sorok la. Kalau period tak datang, ckp la maybe sbb tension buat research. Pastu kalau rasa loya-loya, org pegi toilet cepat2 pegang perut ckp sakit perut ah. Pastu bukak air kuat2. Pastu kuar toilet org ckp ah "org rasa org keracunan makanan laa.." Hahaha. Pastu dah 2 bulan baru buat2 tak sihat, pegi klinik cakap baru tau rupanya pregnant. 

Husband: Banyak la kamu. Hahaha. 

We both laughed. Then the conversation seemed like it ended. But after 10 sec of silence...

Husband: Huhu tak boleh jadi ni. Kena berhati-hati. 

Me: Kenapa?

Husband: Tak leh caya kat kamu. Kamu bkn nye boleh, kang betul2 buat sbb nak minum kopi punya pasal. Hahaha. 

Pppfffttt. 

-____-"

Do you think one will be able to hide a pregnancy from the husband? 

And do you think i'll do that just for the sake of coffee??? Ppfffttt.

My very stupid mistake

Sobsss.

I used to have a Gmail account associated to my old blogshop. I registered this blog account with a Yahoo account. A few years later, Gmail and Blogger merged or something so all must use only Gmail account for log in. I remember linking my Yahoo account with the Gmail-blogsop account. In addition, I also added my Gmail-personal account as my blogs admin. Then, I started to blog with my Gmail-personal account for log in.

But since I closed down the blogshop, I decided to delete the Gmail-blogshop account as well. Eventhough I do not check the email anymore, I just feel like deleting it anyway. And so, without thinking much, I did.

Then only I realize that all the photos embedded in all my blogs posted BEFORE I started blogging with my Gmail-personal account for log-in were uploaded by the Gmail-blogshop account. And all the photos are gone together with the email account.... *sigh* *cry* All the photos were 'kept' online with the email or something like that I don't know how to put it in words,  so there you go... I have hundreds of posts WITHOUT pictures. Just hundreds of photos of an exclamation mark.

(Posted on 20th October 2009)

Yeah... my blog is now full of this. :(

The search of the next Ramli begins

Haven't you heard? TM is looking for the next Ramli!!

Yes? And as a fan of the *ehem*ehem* 20 times champion of the Premier League, Manchester United, I am very excited to know that TM is giving a great opportunity to offer three talented Malaysian a trip to the Manchester United Soccer School, to visit Old Trafford and a three year scholarship to attend Frenz United Football Academy.

The objective of the programme is to provide a platform for young footballers to realize their football dreams. TM also hope to help raising the standards of local young football dreams and get the parents to see the potential in their own children through Mencari Ramli 2, hence will provide a solid support system to the children. Beside that, the programme also aims to encourage the Team Malaysia spirit through this reality show.

Hijrah

Alhamdulillah... syukur for the rezeki given by Allah swt to husband and I from the beginning of 2013. We were given the opportunity to be His guest earlier in February. And now we've moved to a new home - the place we can finally call OUR HOME.

Kita hanya merancang, Tuhan yang menentukan. 

I've never thought I would move out from my lovely city of Kuala Lumpur. Been born and bred in the centre of Kuala Lumpur, I've always thought I would end up settling down there, too. It was like an unwritten rule - those who is going to marry me must be willing to move to KL. Hahaha. Well, that was the plan. But Allah has better plan for me. After 4 months living separately - me in KL while husband was in Penang - I moved to Penang to follow my husband (and my dream *wink*).

To make the decision to move here was not that easy since I am the only child and should take care of my single-mother who is still living and working in KL. But of course, as a wife, the responsibility towards the husband is more than the parent after we're married. After lots of istikharah and discussion with husband, we've decided to got us a place of our own here in Simpang Ampat, Penang earlier this year. And now we've officially moved to our new home.

Last few weeks were hectic weeks. With mum being hospitalized and the moving plan needed to proceed, I thank the in-laws very much for helping us setting up few things necessary before we move our thing. We're still setting up the house, doing this and that. I am so excited to do the gardening since I've never got the chance to do that before. I dont know if the plants will grow up well anyway, but still I have a lot of things in mind I want to plant. :p

So tiring but soooo happpyyyy! :D

Preparing the soil for my so-call garden :p

Will post lots of pictures of my plant (if it ever grow).

New Zealand Working Holiday Visa for Malaysians

Travelling is fun. But what make it less fun for a working-so-hard-and-struggling-to-earn-and-save-money-for-travel person like me is when we need to think of the money we have to spent for travelling.

When I was a teenager, I always thought how nice would it be to go some place, the other side of the world, maybe Italy, Australia, India or Egypt, live there for long enough to learn their culture etc. Well I wasn't a really good student, so studying oversea with scholarship option was totally out of plan. Then I thought, maybe I could just work so hard and save a really huge amount of money and then take a year off to go for a holiday. But well, I don't think this could possibly come true if I don't earn high enough yearly. Or at least not in near future.

But few weeks ago, I came across a scheme that I think is made specially for people like me - the New Zealand Working Holiday Visa for Malaysian. The scheme was introduced by the government of New Zealand to give opportunity for people from several countries in the world including Malaysia, to apply for a working-while-travelling in New Zealand. This scheme enables travelers to visit New Zealand and permitting them to supplement their visit with work.

The visa applied under the New Zealand working holiday visa allows foreign nationals i.e Malaysian to work temporarily in New Zealand for a minimum of 12 months and a maximum of 23 months. This would allow the working traveler to maintain their financial fund while spending their time awing to the beautiful scenery of New Zealand.

However, there are some rules on Malaysian applicants' eligibility set by the New Zealand government as follows:

• You must have a Malaysian passport with at least three months validity after your planned departure from New Zealand
• You must be at least 18 years old and not more than 30 years old
• You may not bring children with you
• You must hold a return ticket or have sufficient funds to purchase such a ticket
• You must have a minimum of NZ$2,250 available funds to meet your living costs while you are in New Zealand
• You must meet New Zealand government's health and character requirements
• Your main intention of the visit to New Zealand is for holiday, working will be the secondary intention
• You have never been approved for a visa under a working holiday scheme before 

A quota of 1150 places are available each year to Malaysian citizens under the New Zealand Working Holiday Visa for Malaysian. The application for 2013/2014 was opened on 22 January 2013 and is already full. The application for 2014/2015 will be opened for interested Malaysians in January 2014. Application for the New Zealand working holiday scheme can be made online through the New Zealand immigration website.

This is such a good offer for those who want to travel to New Zealand, isn't it? Well, if you love traveling, learning other culture, people, food and enjoy viewing beautiful and breathtaking scenery of New Zealand, why don't you give it a thought? Visit mynzworkingholiday.com for more info. You might find one good experience that you will remember for the rest of your life. ;)

My first postcard by Pic Collage

As some of you might know, I love collecting postcards. I always send postcards to myself from places I've been to, and ask friends and families to send me one too when they're travelling. Besides, I join Postcrossing because I think it's a great idea to have us sending and receiving postcards from random people from all over the world.

Sending postcard to myself from Krabi, Thailand

Umrah 1434H

Alhamdulillah .. Allah granted us the opportunity to fly thousands of miles to become guests of His home, Baitullah, once again. The happiness and joy that can't be described. The pounding and nervous feelings still arise, more over when it was nearer to the departure date. I went to the Umrah trip with the two most important person in my life - my mother and my husband - and with my aunt and her family. 

We departed to Jeddah by Saudi Air on Saturday 16 February 2013. We spent three nights in Madinah before we go to Makkah. 

Masjid Quba'

The first and oldest mosque in the world - built by prophet Muhammad s.a.w

One of the hadith on Masjid Quba':

"Prophet Muhammad s.a.w said: Whoever makes ablutions at home and then goes and prays in the Mosque of Quba, he will have a reward like that of an 'Umrah."

(Hadith is reported by Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Al-Nasa'i, Ibn Majah and Hakim al-Nishaburi.)

Blogger for iPhone

I've downloaded the Blogger for iPad for quite some times now but haven't give it a try yet. Now that I'm in the car, so bored waiting for my husband coming back from work so we can go back to parents-in-laws' place, let me try this Blogger for iOS specifically iPhone. Hehe.

Hope this application is useful so I dont have reasons to leave my blog not updated for a long time. Hehe. But reading the reviews of this apps, I think it is not that user friendly. But lets just give it a try and see how it turn out to be. Ok hubby's here! Daaa!

Thank you, 2012

You've been good to me.

There might not be a lot of things happened in my life in 2012 as compared to the others. But that few things that happened in the last one year are the important highlights of my life.

21 April 2012

The day I was conferred the Master of Science (Polymer Engineering).

Alhamdulillah. I am happy to see my mom's happy face during the graduation day. I think maybe she didn't think I could finally graduate after the very long time to finish the thesis and viva plus all the problems I faced during the research study. -__-"


19 October 2012

The day my status changed from Cik to Puan.

We were strangers, became friends.
We shared our laughters and interest and hassle.
We then became a very best of friends.
Thing happens for a reason, they say.
We fall for each other.
Less than a year, we were engaged.
After another 6 months, we tied the knot.
Thank you, Allah, for sending him to be my imam... in solat and in life.


And to end my 2012, I've made one big decision which will affect my future.

I hope I made the right decision. After the istikharah, it is now time for tawakkal.

I'm looking forward to the whole new year.
Bring it on, 2013!