Down to Earth

Dear Bloggy,

By tomorrow, I'm off to London for 3 nights then off to Conventry for a day trip and back in Norwich on the 3rd of July.

Time is really moving fast, without realizing left only 2 months for me to complete my disertation. Currently, I'm just on/off with my disertation, making notes and collecting materials as much as I can.

For yesterday, I attended a BBQ party. The party meant to celebrate six people's birthday who borned in June. There were many food from chicken, prawns BBQ marinated with Satay ingredients, Ais Kacang, Pasembor, Fried Rice, Mushroom soup noodles and many more. The best thing was there was CENDOL PULUT! Oh my God, I felt so blessed! After a long time, I was craving for Cendol. Finally, got to eat alot yesterday. I brought back some Cendol and let Wang Wen tried, she loved it.


I ate a lot of this. It is called Cendol, popular desert from Malaysia.


Variety of Malaysian food.


The chicken portions marinated in Satay ingredients were really tasty.

Many people came yesterday, it was kinda get together party too among Malaysians in Norwich. From older people to young ones, were enjoying the afternoon until evening. I came back quite late yesterday, stayed in the party from 3pm to 10pm. Thanks to Yana, one of the hosts who invited me and thanks to Amir for giving me a lift in his car.


A slide shows of pictures taken by myself.

P/S: I already starting to miss Vanita. Can't wait to meet her in London tomorrow!!!

Dear Bloggy,

I'm sad. Yes, I know Vanita will come back here again in September but I will miss my gossiping buddy just next door. huhuhu. Yesterday, all of us, Rita, Lucia, Wang Wen, Chiung Hui, Doris and me made a plan to treat her in a nice restaurant in Norwich before she goes back to Singapore. I asked Vanita to decide either Chinese or Thai food and she favoured Thai food. So, all of us met up in Thai River near the Riverside in Norwich. The restaurant is designed in a boat shape and it's really located at the Riverside. Therefore, you feel like you are on ship when you entered the restaurant. The nicest thing was that, we dominated the whole upper deck. This really gave us privacy to chat and laugh as loud as we can. The food were really good and tasty. Everyone seems to enjoy it very much especially me because I paid the most. I ordered seafood pad prid, tom yam, som tum and jasmine rice.


Some of the food we ordered.


I was enjoying my Thai pudding. Yummy yummy!

My favourite was the special Thai pudding made from banana served with coconut ice cream. The banana pudding reminds me of our Malay traditional desert called "Lepat Pisang". The taste of banana really go with the taste of coconut.


My friends were enjoying themselves too!

The others ordered the famous Thai green curry and Thai noodles. Chiung Hui's dish was the spiciest, I think. I have no idea what he choosed and he seems not to enjoy his food that much.


This picture is so warm. I think I'm going to miss this moment a lot.

P/S: To Vanita, I really hope she enjoys her days here in Norwich especially with us naughty people around. hehehe.

Dear Bloggy,

I'm back home! Finally, get to feel my comfy bed again. Well, I'm not saying that my friend's bed is not comfortable but you know, "home sweet home" so goes "bed sweet bed". You know what I mean.

3 days and 2 nights I was in Newcastle. The reasons I went there were because I wanted to meet my ex-KMYSians and meeting my future collogues from UITM. I have informed Jia Yi, my junior in KMYS that I was coming to visit them last month. It was really fun and lots of things I've experienced when I was travelling alone.

It started on Friday morning, I forced myself to get up very early in the morning to catched the 7.57am train to Petersborough then changed to a train to Glasgow which passed by and stopped at Newcastle. Wah, I was very excited because many months I've been prisoned myself in Norwich and didn't really go anywhere except for last spring, went back home and visited my friends in Liverpool. That was it. So, I reached Newcastle station around 12pm onwards which was on time as stated in the ticket. Once I got down the train I exited from the train station and across the road there is a Subway. I was damn hungry and ordered vegie delite sandwiches. At first, I thought of walking around the city alone but I gave up. Looking at the complicated structure of Newcastle city made me headache. Plus, the weather wasn't that good, dizzling and windy. In the end, I decided to stay in the train station.

This is Newcastle's train station.

It was a bit chilling and I didn't bring my jacket. Great! I texted Jia Yi to inform her that I've arrived safely and thankful she said she was coming back soon from Durham Hospital earlier than expected. I was happy because previously, she told me she might finished her practical at 6pm and I don't have to walk around the city alone! Yay! I waited for Jia Yi for around an hour then she appeared. hehe She couldn't recognize me because of my glasses. LOL ^^

Jia Yi brought me around Newcastle city (please see the pictures). From the historical castle tour to the beach which situated outside the city. We had to take Metro of course. I have no idea why, later that afternoon, it was really sunny and I felt so blessed! Because I got to take good pictures for my own collections. Happy^^

This is me in front of some kinda historical building. I totally forgot the name.

Inisde the castle tower. I had to climb the stairs. Thanks to Jia Yi. Grrr...

Wah!!! I made it! I was at the highest roof and it was nice chill weather.

One of the views I took from the top of the castle.

The shiny windows building is sort of like "Istana Budaya" according to Jia Yi. She said it looks like caterpillar shape.


The Millenium Bridge!The special about this bridge that it'll tilt when the ship pass by.


Me again!


The theatre building. Reminds me of Liverpool.


This place known as monument.One of my favourite shots. Nice eh?


This restaurant called Colman, served traditional fish and chips. I like it. It's situated outside the city.


Introducing Jia Yi, my tour guide and junior from KMYS.


The seaside.


Jia Yi and me in shadows.

Later in the evening, we met the other juniors from KMYS - Adam a.k.a. Caster, Khairi and Muhksin (not from KMYS but KDU) in a Thai restaurant known as THAI SIAM. Yeah, we had thai food for dinner. We ordered two prwan tom yam, all kinda fried rice with different flavours and shared. But Jia Yi was pissed off with the unfresh prawn served and she complaint. She argued with the manager and in the end we got price off for one of the tom yam bowls that we ordered. I think she should become a lawyer rather than a doctor cos she scares off the other three guys who had dinner with us. Funny. After dinner we took more pictures around the Millenium bridge. We waited for the lights to turn on as Jia Yi said it's beautiful. Went back at Jia Yi's place quite early because it was Friday night and we didn't want to risk ourselves to bump into drunken people.

Jia Yi and me on the Millenium Bridge.


The candid Khairi. One of my juniors.

Ok let me just jump into what happened the next day. As I've promised Ikmal that I would meet him at the train station between 11am to 12pm, I decided to take a bus from Jia Yi's place around 11.30am. Jia Yi made me pancake for breakfast, it was delicious and I've started to miss her pancakes. After breakfast, I got ready and catched the number 36 bus as what Jia Yi instructed me to get to the train station. Yup, I got into the bus and after 15 minutes, the bus stopped. I noticed that everyone on the bus got off but I was blurred and still sat on the bus. The bus driver saw me and didn't commented anything until 5 minutes later, more people getting on the bus. The bus moved again and it came back to the place where Jia Yi's house situated. From the driver's mirror, I saw the bus driver was looking at me so I got up to him and said "err...", the driver said "you're lost". I responsed "yes, I think so". The driver comforted me "it's ok. Don't worry, I'll get you another bus". It was very nice of him that he actually stopped another bus for me, his friend's bus and asked his friend to bring me to the station. So lucky to have bumped into these nice people. Finally, I got to the train station and met Ikmal for the first time. Later, Reena came, then Putri and a friend. All of us went to a Muslim restaurant to meet up Dr. Mus, her husband and Sati.

The UITM family gathered. I'm new to them.

We chatted and laughed but most of the time I was quiet as I'm new to them and I was trying to get use to the new people. In fact, most of the time they were talking about past things which I wasn't very familiar. However, I enjoyed the moment and appreacited their stories. In the evening, we were at Kak Intan's house, another UITM family who is doing PHD in Newcastle. She such a sweet lady.

Us in Kak Intan's house.

That day wasn't a good day as it was raining the whole day but I managed to break a record. Stand in cold weather witout wearing my jacket. I couldn't believe my body has a high immunity towards cold. hehe.

The final day, I didn't go anywhere. Well, the night before that, Jia Yi and me were planing to go for shopping but I was very lazy and with the strong wind that whole morning and afternoon, I just felt like staying indoors. Jia Yi scared that I might be bored to death so she called Fang Eng, and we visited her house. James was there too. We chatted and laughed about the KMYS days. How I miss my college days. I just realized that, the family tree of KMYS is quite strong that altough we might not be closed enough to be friends, we will still help each other whenever we can. It's like a tradition.


Fang Eng, me and James.

Later, Jia Yi and me baked Pandan Sponge cake, wah!!! really nice ^^ She baked chicken wings for me and cooked pasta. Basically, I was full for both lunch and breakfast. Really appreciate her care during my stay in Newcastle. I came back to Norwich on the same day. The train delayed. Sigh...as usual. So I was stucked in Grantham for the connecting train back to Norwich. Came back around 1am in the morning. So exausted.

ALright then, this is the longest entry for "Down To Earth". Will update more soon.

Dear Bloggy,

Tomorrow I'm off to Newcastle for 3 days. My schedule these days suddenly becoming very pack with conferences, gathering and appointments. After Newcastle, I'm coming down to London then later Coventry. When I get back to Norwich more conferences and school trip to Kentwell. Sigh...

My disertation? Don't ask. I haven't write anything yet but just read some basic things of my topic and guide book of writing a disertation. This will give me some ideas of how to structuring my presentation in writing so it's kinda a good thing to do before starting to write.

What else, well yesterday evening I went for a party. I've been invited by Gaurav. The party was meant for one of his housemates birthday. It's a suprise party and she didn't know about it of course. So, there was a bit of emotional aura was going on during the party. Vanita and me were almost wanted to cry, touched by the suprise scene too! Anyway, we didn't stay long for dancing because, we were quite tired of the day activities and decided to go to bed early.

Unfortunately, I didn't cos after I came back, Wang Wen excitedly told me that she has solved the visa problem for Chiung Hui and hers. I was happy for her. You see, for some people from other countries they need a visa called Schengan which sometimes maybe very costly to go to any European countries. For Malaysians, we are consider lucky as we don't need to apply this visa.

Alright then, since I'm writing this early in the morning, I really hope my days will turn out well.

Dear Bloggy,

It's 3.44am now. I was sleeing peacefully and had a wonderful dream. Then in my dream I heard the sound of a bell and I looked everywhere for that sound. Suddenly, I accidently woke up and found myself still in my room with a very loud noise. I told myself, "it's impossible, I can't be imagined, at this hour???" I covered myself with my duvey but few seconds after that I gave up because that sound was very irratating. Took my jacket and went out with Doris who happened standing in front of my door to wake me up. We went out together and saw some other people from some other flats outside, were waiting for the security to shut down the fire alarm.

And right now, I couldn't sleep. The good thing is the fire drill has woke me up for the subuh prayer, even better than my alarm clock. hehehe.

Dear Bloggy,

I have no idea what am I doing lately. All I know that my schedule was disorganized for a while probably too happy, enjoying the moment and having known that exam has finished. But I took a week break from studies. So last Sunday, I had a wonderful day. Been invited for Kak Maheran's daughter, Ainan, birthday party and dinner at Dr. Sung's house. Here are some pictures taken during Ainan's birthday party. I bought her a t-shirt from Marks & Spencer. Hopefully will fit her well.


This is the family who organized the party for their beloved daughter, Ainan.


Pretty little kids


The cute Ainan.


Other kids as the guest.

And yesterday, I received a part-time job offer in an agency in town which recruited for assistant in catering industry. Honestly, I have no idea what exactly the job should be but according to the agency, I just need to help in the kitchen and serve food for people. I guess that should be alright for 3 days per week. At the same time, I have started some basic reading for my disertation on European Competition Network. Also, still waiting for feedback from Dr. Michael my supervisor, which really scared me. I really hope to hear some good news about it. huhuhu

Dear Bloggy,

As I have promised my classmates that I was going to make them dinner, so yesterday we had at my flat with the help from my flatmates (Wang Wen, Vanita and Chiung Hui) and Rita. The dinner started at around 7.30pm and lasted around 11pm. There were lots of food we cooked. I made roti jala, lontong and apple crumble. Wang Wen made her chinese and korean meals. Vanita cooked her special indian curry. Chiung Hui made his delicious mash patatoes and Rita with her special dish. Everything was very nice.


The roti jala I made. It was tiring to do it but fun!

And this is Vanita's special Indian chicken curry. It was really delicious and I love it.

My lontong. Supposedly eat with kuah kacang but I don't know how to make one so I replaced with onion sambal which have made Mirko (my classmate)'s face turned red because of the spiciness.

Yummy! Apple crumble. However, Vanita said the apple tasted a little bit bitter yet she loved my crumble. Thanks!

Other food. Alot, right? We couldn't finish all of them.

Introducing the sub-host of the farewell dinner. They are the people who helped me. Thanks guys! Really appreciate.

The guests who are also my classmates (Paul from Thailand, Mirko from Germany and Clara from Taiwan). Guess what? We are the only four who enrolled in LLM International Competition Law and Policy and are known as the experts by some lecturers. LOL ^_^

Us except for Paul who was taking our picture and Vanita who has went to bed.

So thats the end for my entry for today :)

Dear Bloggy,

I'm making an announcement that finally, I've done with my exam! Yay! However, not very satisfy with today's exam on International Sales and Carriage Goods by Sea. I found that one of the sub-question for Carriage Goods by Sea quite difficult and took quite a lot of time for me to think whats the possible solution for the problem. Anyway, what is over is over, just hope for the best. Tawakal saje lah (Cross fingers and pray hard).

I was damn tired today but I managed to make bake pasta for myself and invited Lucia, Wang Wen and Chiung Hui to try my pasta. Yummy!
This my bake pasta. Anyone wants my recipe?

At the same time, Chiung Hui, Wang Wen and me made some discussion about our Europe trip to Spain and now we are planning to add another country into our trip, Portugal. Really can't wait. My job is to look at the cheapest transportation for our trip. Chiung Hui has studied alot about Spain and gave suggestion of the route and I will do the same soon. Now, very exausted.

Later in the evening, we caught Wang Wen to blow her postponed Birthday Candles. Well, actually her birthday was last Sunday but she was so popular that we had to queue in order to celebrate her birtday.


The Birthday Girl


Wang Wen was making a wish! (I wonder what it is hmm...)

So...
As the exam is over, I am going to start my disertation and will also try to start posting my very first entry for my new abandoned blog "Malaysia and Antitrust Law". Wish me luck!

Dear Bloggy,

I'm sad :(
I just came back to bid farewell to Ema. She's moving from her flat in UEA for good and I might not see her next academic years as I'm coming back to Malaysia. We chatted alot just now and felt so nice to have known each other. She gave me a dolphin sculpture (it is cute) and theraphy tea bags (the Hibiscus is one of my favourites!). And I gave her Malaysian calender with Islamic, Chinese and Gregory calculation on it. She likes it. After hugging her, I felt like crying but I controlled myself and just walked away back to my flat.

P/S: Now I don't feel like sending Vanita in the airport cos I'm scared that I might end up with tears. huhuhu

Dear Bloggy,

Previously, I've been tagged by Shadni in LJ to list down 8 things about me. Again, I've been tagged by Ikmal in his wordpress journal. So here goes about myself:




1. I love to SMILE?
-It's true. I have no idea why my face always look like it's smiling when actually I didn't smile. There's one time my friend told me that she saw I was smiling when I'm reading a textbook. I repeat, a textbook not novel or comics. Even, my mom said that when I was sleeping, I smiled. Weird right? Probably, I'm naturally born to smile but have no idea where did I get the smiling genetic from.

2. I like to think.
-I'm a thinker. Sometimes, people said I'm blurr during a conversation when actually I'm not because I was thinking. The thing is I don't know what I'm thinking off. Huh?

3. I love food and cooking.
- To me, food is not only essential things, it's kinda my interest to eat and munch. When I'm bored, has nothing to do at home, I will search for food and eat! Or else I'll cook. I see cooking as part of arts. Sometimes, I look for cooking recipe in internet but I don't actually follow the instructions. In fact, I love to alter the taste and smells according to my instinct. Cool right?

4.I'm clumsy and careless.
-I might look like I'm a peferctionist and a detail person but actually I can be very clumsy and careless. It all depends on my mood and when I'm starving!

5. I'm an observer and sometimes critical.
-I love looking at people and what they are doing. So beware of my eyes when I'm around because when I started to observe you and found something fishy about you, I'll start thinking critically about you. hehe.

6. I don't like to jump into conclusion.
-What I mean by this is that, when someone comes to me and talks about other people, I don't easily influence by her/his statements. I always think first and try to seek the truth under my own eyes. Thats why, my mom always think I'm stubborn, because when she said "no", I want my own reason why is it is a "no".

7. I'm healthy concious.
-This is damn true. I'm always worried about myself physically and mentally. For example, when my skin looks so dry, I will quickly look for solution. When I'm overweight, I will start going for exercise (I don't trust diet cos I love eating). When I'm emotionally unstable, I will look for friends, to make sure I'm fine.etc

8. I'm independant person.
-Yes, I'm a little childlike but I know I'm independant and don't like to be dependant nor I like dependant people. Independant in my point of view means that having my own stand (which is reasonable) etc.

Now I tag another 8 people:

1. Ifan
2. Kelvin
3. Reena
4. Yana
5. Wang Wen
6. Noreen
7. Nadira
8. Vicky

P/S: I just copy and paste the one I've done in LJ (A Piece of Cake) hehehe