Down to Earth

Dear Bloggy,

I'm quite busy at the moment to update my blog. But recently, two important events happened which I will tell you soon after I'm done with my first draft of disertation. So, in the time being, there'll be no updates in this blog.

Dear Bloggy,

I was about to take shower and suddenly I found a box outside my door. Woot?!


"Secret Santa" gift for me huh.


As I guess, it was from Wang Wen. In the kitchen, she was telling me that she was not going to give me any presents nor even card!


Handkerchief which represents Olympic in Beijing.


A spray and I have no idea what it is for because the instructions are all in Chinese.


Bodybutter from body shop.


Finally, a small cute pouch from China. Very cute.

Thanks Wang Wen. That was so surprise LOL.

Dear Bloggy,

Two celebrations I had today. One was for my birthday and the other one was for my successful completion of my LLM course. Alhamdulillah, I have pass all my exams and courseworks. Very happy today.

And later in the evening, my housemates organized a Birthday dinner for me. It was very nice. I'm so tired right now to describe what happened during that evening so I decided to explain by pictures.


These are the people who were very busy in the kitchen.


Wang Wen was preparing my halal chicken for her special Coke Chicken dish. It was really good.


Chiunghui smiled while frying his "kuih bakul" or "nian gao" with wantan skins. It was awesome!


The one who is wearing the red shirt is Doris. It was very hard to take her picture.


Yup, it's me, sitting around trying the Nian Gao while waiting for others to finish their cooking. By the way, I look FAT!!!


It looked simple but nice and complete. For the first time we didn't waste the food. Thanks to the hosts.


For the first time in my whole life I blowed a match not a candle! Hehehe. It was so unique. Good idea Chiunghui!


Beautiful card with birthday messages from everyone!


Special pink card from lovely Kak Jo.



Chiunghui, Nicole, Kak Jo, Birthday Girl, Wang Wen and Doris.

Thank you very much flatmates :)

P/S: How I wish Lucia and Vanita were here.

Dear Bloggy,

Last week, Lucia told me that she planned to move to new accomodation in the UEA Village due to her personal reasons. I have no idea why I was a little bit angry with her. Because I really don't get it, it's like only less than 2 months and she's moving? And besides, since she starts working, we seldom meet each other even in the flat. So, today, she moved out. I didn't help her at all because was still a little upset with her. However, I was even more sad when I found a gift bag hang outside my door with a birthday note.


Notes from Lucia.


My gift! Thanks, Lucia :)

I felt touched and almost wanted to cry. But luckily Ken was around for dinner to cheer me up. He cooked for me and bought me a chocolate cheesecake. I cooked one dish for him too and he liked it!

Anyway, I texted Lucia saying thanks for the gift. I'm going to miss her.

P/S: Quote of the day "When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us" (Alexander Graham Bell)

Dear Bloggy,

I checked my UEA inbox today and received this message:


There is an item of mail in the Post Room, which requires a signature. We
believe that this piece of mail is yours could you please call in to collect
it as soon as possible, you will need to bring this to the attention of the
post room staff and have your campus card with you.

So I rushed to the post room and suprised by a parcel (I knew from who) from Malaysia and a card from Tokyo, Japan. Very touched by these mails. These what I got from the box I unwrapped:


All these in one box?!

I texted him saying thanks, was really touched by the meaning hidden from every gift I got. This what he said:


The socks are meant to keep me warm as my feet are easily cold while the black and white represent the ying and yang which is our symbol. Hehehe.


This one? Sigh... it is a bone for cat. No comment.


The book is a temporary replacement of him so that my life will be simpler when he is not around.


The mouse is a symbolic between us. He said because of the click of the mouse that the two of us get well with each other until today.


And finally this has a message from him. Simple and sweet.

Also, unexpectedly I received a card from my best buddy from Tokyo, Japan.


Hehehe..he sent me a Christmas card or a Birthday card? Confused!

Thank you very much. My eyes were in tears when I got these, too happy ^_^

Dear Bloggy,

It was a wonderful trip to London. Yes, I know I've been to London several times but the nicest thing about the recent trip I had was because I got to meet my friends and spent time with them.

The first two days in London, I met Vanita and put a night in Kawhita and Rob's house, Vanita's best friend. On the first day, we (Lucia, Vanita and me) went to Madame Tussauds, Lucia followed me but just for a day trip and we also went to take the London Eye. I took lots of pictures from above. It was a great sunny day, so everything looked beautiful and cheerful.

My Adventure in Wax Museum.


Us in London Eye.


Vanita, Me and Lucia.


Us enjoying the summer in London.

The next day, Vanita and me went to Oxford street for shopping but it was a short and last minute shopping as she had to catch a flight at 6.30pm. We had lunch together in Dim Sum restaurant at Baker Street. It was lovely! We ordered Ho Fun Seafoods, Che Cheung Fun and two Dim Sums. Oh my God, I can't forget the incredible taste of the Chinese food there. I wish to go there again when I come to London next time. At around 5pm I bid my good bye to Vanita. I felt sad but calm myself, telling myself that I will meet her again anyway. So I decided not to cry. However, I saw Vanita's eyes watery a little, maybe she controlled. Whatever it is, I hope to see her again in September where we are going to have a trip together with Wang Wen and Chiung Hui to Spain and Portugal. Yehaa!

After sending Vanita in Heathrow, I took TUBE to Kak Husna's house in zone 3. I never meet her before so this was my first time. She made me a dinner. Really nice. We chatted alot and I couldn't believe how jovial and friendly she is. I felt very warm talking to her. At around 11pm I met Aimi, my long-lost friend from KMYS and stayed at her place for 2 nights.

We have made plan to go to Tuthankamun exhibition and having a girl's day out together before she comes back home to Malaysia for good. I really miss her and glad to meet her the other day.

And from London, I took an early train to Coventry for an Islamic Conference in Warwick University with Ikmal, my new friend and future collegue.

The conference was good but I don't really agree with their ideas of introducing International Islamic Law course. As far as I have learned International Law, the word "International" has a broad meaning. It means that once we internationalized the law, we have to apply "extraterritoriality" doctrine. And as far as I understand the basic Islamic Laws, we can't differentiate or apply territorial to the Islamic Law even though we have different fatwa for different countries, but the basic must be the same. I think they need to understand what is LAW and what is FATWA too before introducing International Law for Islamic Law. Therefore, I do not think it's reasonable to have International Islamic Law when it will create hassle and confusing people. On the way back to Norwich by train, Xochilt, my lawmate in UEA who happened to attend the conference discussed with me about the discussion held in the conference. I kinda like her opinion regarding the whole idea of introducing the Islamic Law course in Britain. She said, Britain is not an Islamic country, why would we want to introduce an Islamic Law course here when the British can just go to some other countries like Malaysia, Pakistan, Iran or any other Islamic countries to learn the Islamic Law which is much better. Then she further argued that this is all about commercial and making money in the education sector. Wow, I was amazed by her opinion and I agreed with her because we shouldn't commercialized the law that comes from God. However, if the British education sector is really interested in introducing the Islamic Law course, it is a good effort.

By the way, I paid GBP 35 to attend the conference, and I just get a very light lunch and normal refreshment which only cost 10 to 15 pounds and I had to photocopy the papers for the conference, which overall I don't think it's worth it. On the other hand, I met new people and I experienced the feelings sitting in the academics' network, which is a new beginning for me.

P/S: There's no pictures of Aimi and me at the moment as my camera was out of batteries and had to use her camera. So,haven't get the pictures from her.