panjang umurnya,

panjangnya umurnya, panjangnya umurnya serta mulia, serta mulia! serta muliaaa..(ehem2, betulkan tune balik, imagine me singing =D)

To my dearest kakak, happy bday! May Allah bless you with His Mercy and Protection.



Sorry for the late post. Been busy like a bee. And I dedicate this clip especially for you. Enjoy the clip. =D Remember those years ait? Chop Kak, baru perasan, 080210, number cantik lagi! =D

Show me that smile again
Don’t waste another minute on your crying
We're nowhere near the end
The best is ready to begin

As long as we got each other
We got the world spinning right in our hands
Baby you and me, we gotta be
The luckiest dreamers who never quit dreaming

As long as we keep on giving
We can take anything that comes our way
Baby, rain or shine, all the time
We got each other, sharing the laughter and love.

'suspect sikit eh?'

My dear readers,

The line has been greatly referenced in our family. We once heard it while watching one of our fav series, and since then, it has become one of the most-quoted line. It was supposed to be 'respect sikit eh'. =P

I wonder how often I usually talk without thinking first. Most of the times, I think I do. Have you ever wondered? I will speak the very first thing that comes to my mind. But another part of my brain will always remember Mak's wise advises, which are 'jaga hati orang' and 'don't belittle others' feelings'.

Well, be careful with our words. They can cut deeply like a knife, through and through. Unless you have known the person you're talking well through, don't simply cakap-lah. Or as Amelia says, it can become an action eh? (Amelia, awat K Afi asyik cite awak je ni? =P)

Well, what else can we do. At the most, masuk telinga kiri, keluar telinga kanan lah nampaknya =D

01022010

My dear readers,

Semalam tarikh sangat cantik. Tapi saya teramatlah sibuk sampaikan tak sempat nk jot anything. Well, belated pun OK lah kan?

Nothing interesting that I'd like to share. Life has been even more hectic. But alhamdulillah able to cope with it. Tapi seandainya boleh import bibik, kan best? =P

As Amelia put it, we the PhD survivors have been desk carrot, and out of my bengong-ness, I mixed up the words, thus carrot potato was my then-version. =P

Well Afi, one day when you reflect back these years, you'd miss it anyway! Sometimes I just would like to be like these kids.



On the other hand, I kinda miss listening to Light & Easy lah. Although driving to and fro from moi working place only takes about 10 mins, but I sometimes take it easy and intentionally drive rilek2 sebab nak dgr station tu lama2. =P And suddenly I remember this song:

Ok, switch back to work!

so long farewell Kat!

One by one, it feels like in a queuing system, first in first out.

Few weeks ago, it was Kat and family's turn to depart.

They got the best farewell gift ever, snow yang sgt lebat!





Before that, Kat ada buat makan2 farewell for us. It was a small reunion for our MMU batch. Hehe. Nice, catching up with others, sharing the keserabutness and most importantly, makan2. =P


Awang was there too! Awang was a bit cranky eh Ainurul, hopefully next time, he'll be in a better mood.




We do miss having you around Kat, forget us not and hopefully Allah will shower you with His Endless blessings.

route to become a scholar.

My dear readers,

2010 bermakna saya memasuki tahun ke-3 pengajian PhD saya. Rata-rata, sememangnya masih banyak lagi yang perlu saya lakukan, tetapi saya positif, semoga boleh disiapkan dalam 1 tahun lagi. Saya pulak sangat seronok dengan data yang baru dapat. Insya Allah semoga ada results yang best nanti.

Bila saya fikir-fikir tentang kesusahan dalam proses PhD ini, saya perlu akui, memang itulah jalannya untuk menjadi seorang yang insya Allah nanti mampu memanfaatkan ilmunya. Sememangnya perlu disiplin dan stamina yang kuat. Bukan sahaja vitamin perlu dimakan, tetapi segala aspek kesihatan memang perlu diambil kira. And doing it far from my loved ones, it is very challenging indeed.

Teringat dulu, selepas habis 2 'short projects', kami perlu pilih topik dan cikgu. Sejak awal lagi saya solat istikharah mintak mudahkan urusan. Semoga Allah beri petunjuk kepada pilihan yang lebih baik. Pada mulanya saya bulat hati pilih seorang lagi, tapi makin lama, nampak jalan memang makin sukar. Cikgu saya sekarang sebenarnya pilihan kedua sebab masa itu, dia masih baru, jadi saya rasa-rasa dia tidak ada pengalaman menyelia pelajar. Saya tidak berani ambil risiko, jadi saya kalau boleh tak nak ambil dia. Tetapi, keputusan saya berubah sekelip mata. Alhamdulillah sekarang saya nampak hikmahnya pilih dia, sedikit demi sedikit. Setiap kali saya nampak hikmah itu, setiap itu saya bersyukur, He is the Best Planner!

Ternyata jalan untuk menjadi seorang yang berilmu memang susah. Tetapi saya selalu fikir tentang ilmuwan Islam yang hebat dulu. Mereka juga punya stamina yang sangat kuat. Haus sentiasa pada ilmu. Mak selalu ingatkan saya, 'Para ulama dulu, banyakkan solat hajat sebelum catat hadis'. Itulah yang mak selalu ingatkan bila saya resah dan 'stucked' dalam satu perkara.

Satu lagi yang saya sentiasa kagum dengan para akademik di sini, mereka ni bak kata pepatah, makin tunduk makin berisi. Very humble. Sememangnya itulah kan, sebab makin banyak kita tahu, kita akan sedar LEBIH BANYAK lagi yang tidak tahu. Sebab tu bila baca satu paper journal tu, beranak pinak paper lain kena baca, sebab tak paham journal yang mula-mula kita baca. =P

Teringat sangat kata-kata seorang ustazah pada saya sebelum saya datang. Kebetulan semalam saya terbaca satu ayat, 'Tidaklah sama antara orang beriman yang duduk tanpa mempunyai uzur dengan orang yang berjihad di jalan Allah dengan harta dan jiwanya. Allah melebihkan darjat orang-orang yang berjihad dengan harta dan jiwanya atas orang-orang yang duduk. Kepada masing-masing, Allah menjanjikan yang baik dan Allah melebihkan orang-orang berjihad atas orang yang duduk, dengan pahala yang besar, beberapa darjat daripadaNya, serta ampunan dan rahmat. Allah Maha Pengampun, Maha Penyayang' 4:95-96

Insya Allah, hujung jalan akan sampai. Life is always about taking risks. May Allah bless the choices that we've made and ease the hurdles that we'll face.

Afi, 110110

half a snow day.

My dear readers,

Alhamdulillah, finally the snow is here and still pouring. Actually malam semalam dah start snowing, as predicted. While I was reading, I couldn't help from peeping through the curtain, just to check, 'dah tinggi ke x?' In fact, some neighbours have started to play and build snowman. K Rozie called before I went to bed and so we planned to take pictures today.

And this morning, I woke up quite early and found myself amazed at the thickness of the snow! Yeay!!


After the kids woke up, we went down..


..took a lot of pictures..








..and tempted K Zizah to join us as her clan were already playing with the snow. Kat and co dah main lebih awal. Previous years, I was in my college, so this time, it was totally a new experience @ my new place, with the new set of people...and I was more 'behaved', tak larat nak snow fighting. =P






Lepas main-main, kitorang jalan sekitar my flat.









After some minutes of walk, the kids started feeling hungry (and the adults too, although we didn't admit it =P).



And so Abg Wan started his car and brought us to Furqan's school and then to my college.


K Rozie suggested to have hot drinks @ the dining hall. But we had lunch instead! =D


Balik2, rest.. and then K Rozie called for hot pisang goreng.. what a blissful day! Ok sekarang sangat berkobar-kobar nak sambung keja! Tata!

Dialog for the day:
Furqan: I think the snow is a bit grumpy
Aunty Afi: No Furqan, the snow has been very kind.

my dearest sister's wedding.

My dear readers,

I've been wanting to scribble something about my adik's special day, and only now I eventually got the time.. well, I'd better do it now, as I'm about to get lost in my own world.

Alhamdulillah, everything went smoothly as planned. Imagine I reached home a week before the wedding, yet we still got many things to do.. The sisters accompanied her for the spa, we stayed up late for the henna session while waiting for K Natrah and co setting up the simple dais, and the list went on and on. But all in all, we really enjoyed the process. With the amount of work left, I still almost could not believe how we all managed to get them done finally.

The nikah was held at our home, slightly after Isyak on 11 Dec 2009. Abah yang nikahkan, so it was a very touching moment for everyone. I particularly like Pak Imam, who has been very informal, punctual yet funny at the same time. Almost everyone loved the food that Mak and Abah have ordered.

semua orang berdebar

alhamdulillah it went well!

all of us

Fahmi's family

The next day, we all had our fav nasi lemak for the breakfast. And for me, that nasi lemak last my whole day. Alynn, the photographer came quite early when Abang and I were busy making sure that the hall was set up accordingly. DJs were already there when we first came, playing some of those Iklim's songs, which have made me giggling to myself. =P

Got to meet many of our relatives, my parents' friends and Dena's friends whom I know... and our new family members. Well, it's true that 'perkahwinan merapatkan dan menyatukan dua keluarga'. And to my dearest Alynn, you've done a great job! We all love your piccies!

Fahmi's family (courtesy of Yume)

it was very difficult to get this family pic taken (courtesy of Yume)

tumpang gembira (courtesy of Yume)

hoho, pengantin lawan toke ya! =P (courtesy of Yume)

hey look who's here! (courtesy of Yume)

with Umi's clan (courtesy of Yume)

Kiki's new play thing

The following week, we went down to Kangkar Pulai, Johor, for Fahmi's side.

the parents

us

Normally bila balik Msia, surely I would 'catch up' with my many fav food. And now, mulalah start risau2 nak lose some of the kgs.. =P

nasi lemak yg baru diketahui kesedapannya di Sri Gombak

a lunch date with Alynn @ Pizza Hut, Pavilion

our usual fav restaurant in Sri Gombak

Abah and pengantin baru

Well, I've now officially lost my bedmate =P but I am very glad that she has found a much better one! =) I pray that you two lead a blissful married life. The journey has just begun, so seize every moment of it! To my dear readers, do pray for this pengantin baru ya. And last but not least, this song is dedicated for you two!

another new year.

My dear readers,

Wow, it has been a very exciting, memorable yet tiring week, but alhamdulillah everything went on well. Maybe I'll scribble something about my adik's wedding later, after Fahmi's side this Saturday.

Tomorrow marks the 1st day of another new year according to Hijr calendar. In less than 2 weeks, we are going to embark into the year 2010. My parents have already got wedding invitations, to be held on some nice date numbers. 010110, in terms of binary numerical, is equivalent to 010102, which is 01 + 01 = 02 in usual numeric format. Oh I like nice numbers anyway.

With the coming new year, be it the hijr or gregorian calendar, I usually will make some resolutions and have some plans-of-actions. And perhaps maybe I will make some check on what I've achieved this year, and definitely thank Allah for making things happened, and take note of what I've failed to achieve, so that I won't repeat the same mistakes, or at least, near to making them. Well, to err is human, kan? soundvision sent some good links, so why not start checking this one out.

Last Sunday, we went to watch Natrah, on its last day of 2-week show. To date, Natrah is my 2nd theatre, my first local show. I really enjoyed it. Everything about the show. Most of all, I got really touched by its script, which has left me thinking of what actually Natrah felt, with all these events happening to her. And most importantly, we need to always pray that the chapters of our lives will have good ending, insya Allah.

With the new addition

And the clock is ticking. I'll return to UK soon. Weather prediction, some snow. With a new year ahead, I must prioritize my list-of-things-to-do. I hope you too!

tiba-tiba spaggeti you rasa masam.

I remembered watching Abang'92 on one of Saturday's nights in TKC. Well, we had a weekly film show, which was normally the most-awaited event of the week. I like watching Abang, then of course, we all enjoyed Abang '92.

And this particular metaphorical phrase is one of my fav. Once read in K Modek's blog (hehe thanks K Modek!), suddenly all those memories lingered in my mind.

Alhamdulillah I finally arrived last night. Letih jugak. Maybe because I couldn't sleep the night before. I couldn't sleep on flight too, unlike my previous journeys, that I could easily doze off. And to make it even worse, last night, I couldn't sleep too. So, that has made a total of 3 nights in a row, that I managed to have some intermittent sleep. So unlike me!

Ok, back to the metaphorical phrase, normally spaggeti tu rasa perfect. Maybe terlebih tomato paste, jadi masam.

welcome to the family!

Ada satu panggilan kecemasan. Disember ni saya pulang sekejap ke Malaysia untuk menyambut ahli keluarga baru =D Insya Allah my youngest is getting hitched to her ex-schoolmate.. Alhamdulillah saya turut tak nak lepaskan peluang nak jumpa adik lelaki baru ni kan.. =P Alhamdulillah dapat green light from cikgu. Yeay finally there is someone to bully. To Fahmi aka adikcik, welcome to the family! Tunggu kepulangan kakcik eh.