MindRant 21

Assalamualaikum wbt

Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better. Don’t wish for less problems, wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenges, wish for more wisdom. The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become. Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become. 

Jim Rohn

Che

Assalamualaikum wbt

Sejujurnya aku merasa amat berat nak tulis ni, but, here we go.

Throughout my years in UPM, I must say, that I have been very very very blessed to have been eased in terms of adapting myself in the new environment. When I was in foundation, I have roommates that immediately became close and clingy. When I entered degree, to my surprise, I have my own ex-classmate (of foundation year) as my roommate, thus I need not to make so much effort to adapt myself in degree life and to mingle with others. And she is named Fasihah Shamsuddin. We called her 'Mache' because she literally lives in Machang, Kelantan. Hahaha. Ini semua kerja Zia.

Honestly, in this 4 years time (almost), she has actually been the most supportive, attentive, and the best of friend. She is the most genuine person anyone ever known. She is always herself, all the time. Right from her attitude to her attire, it's all very 'Mache'. You get what I mean right? You know you are very blessed and lucky if you have a friend that can be clingy with, be fun with, but at the same time, always reminding you to be good, be kind, to have good thoughts (the one that I'm not good at), to pray and to remain calm from time to time, and this person, is everything about it. Of course, she never is a perfect person. Everyone have flaws. But, the positive vibes that she has, override the negative one, which is very little. I'm not exaggerating. This is exactly who she is.

She may not know this, but, setiap kali aku balik dari kelas, atau balik dari rumah, atau dari mana-manalah, once sampai je bilik, one thing that I'll look for is her slipper or shoes. Yeah, kinda creepy right? Mohon jangan salah faham. I always love when she is around. It's a kind of calmness and a feel of ease that are indescribable. Now that she has left, for good, aku betul-betul tak tahu how am I going to survive the earlier phase of my final semester next month. It will definitely be very emotional and challenging, but insya Allah, I'll get through it, just because, it will be over somehow. Someone reminded me, "Ini, akan berlalu". And it will, insya Allah.

To this person, terima kasih tidak terhingga untuk segala-galanya. Terima kasih sudi jadi peneman masak, peneman beli makanan, peneman berjalan, 'jogging', hahaaa, sentiasa sudi mendengar dengan setia segala luahan dan cerita aku walaupun kadangkala berulang kali topik yang sama, terima kasih selalu datang event luncheon aku untuk support, sentiasa bagi semangat dan ada waktu susah dan senang, sentiasa tegur bila aku dalam kedaan tak betul, sentiasa ajar aku sangka baik, sentiasa tunjuk contoh yang baik dan macam-macamlah. Mohon maaf pada segala salah silap, terkasar bahasa dan tersilap bicara.

Aku akan rindddduuuuu sangat pergi beli makanan sama-sama, makan kat lantai sambil tengok video, gossip pasal the 'hipsters' (kau faham kan?) hahaha, pergi sewa kereta and berjalan tak ingat dunia, explore tempat-tempat yang kau tak pernah pergi. Aku akan rindu balik je dari kelas nak bercerita apa-apa yang jadi pada haritu, atau sampaikan salam dari ehem ehem. Aku akan rindu nak habiskan sayur-sayur dari makanan kau sebab kau tak suka makan sayur. Aku sure kalau aku tengok orang-orang yang berkaitan ni, atau kalau aku duduk lepak-lepak dengan gengfood nanti, aku akan teringat kau sangat. Maigaddd, macamanalah sem depan ni.

Walau apa pun, inilah dia namanya lumrah kehidupan. Sebuah pertemuan akan pasti ada perpisahan, baik dengan jarak ataupun kematian. Wherever you are, I'll always pray for your good, and please take care. Kalau tak masa ini kita berpisah, nanti di penghujung zaman belajar ni pun, kita akan berpisah juga. In the end, we would all have to deviate to take our own paths and to take the new steps for a new life. Circle kita semua akan berbeza eventually. Thank you for everything! Moga Allah permudahkan segala urusan kau dunia akhirat. Moga Allah ganjari dengan pahala dan belas kasihNya kerana sentiasa menyantuni seorang sahabat. Moga kita terus bersahabat baik, sampai bila-bila, sampai syurga! Aku sayaaaaaaangggg kau sangat, lillah!

"Kita bertemu, untuk bertemu selamanya"

  

Perfect Bouquet

Assalamualaikum wbt

As much as I love roses, but my heart blooms when I see this beautiful bouquet. It is the most perfect combination of my favourite flowers: rose, peonies, and ranunculus, and it's in creamy white! My favourite colour! 

Belongs to etsy.com, found in Pinterest. 

When A Foodie Talks About Arts

Assalamualaikum wbt

One day marina texted me, asking me about my opinion on her designs for her final project and exhibition. She was asking me about her poster design, on how to alter it to make it look balance and all, and my suggestion went something like this.

Oh screw me. Hahahaha. As much as I love designing and arts and everything related, I must be honest that I am not a creative person. Not at all. I can only be good at getting inspired and produce the exact design that I'm inspired with. Hahah. 

You know, when I was little, I had the ambition to become a doctor, and that could make any parents proud and hopeful, until just one day, when I about to finish my high school, I decided to become a graphic designer. Being so close with Marina since childhood and having to share the same interest, we both had even planned to pursue graphic design together, and we applied. We plan, Allah plans too, and His planning is always the best of all. Marina got it, went for interview, and passed it, but I didn't. So right at that moment, our path started to deviate. Maybe because I am not that creative, God forbid me from graphic design and let me be in the food industry instead.

Me and Marina, we both rarely meet up but once we do, we would talk like there is no tomorrow as there are too much things to share all at a time. And often, at the end of the talk, we would went sentimental and always amazed at how much this friendship could last. Meanwhile, I would always added that how I am proud with her pursuing graphic design and excel in it. The fact that she is pursuing what we both love is a kind of happiness to me and is just so exciting as well. It's like, since I don't get the chance, so she is somewhat pursuing it for me too. Get it? hahah. Although I am not in the designing industry as much as I wish for it, Marina would always asks me for opinions on her designs, and that make me feel appreciated. She knows that I love it so much and still, now.

That's why I love you *oopss* hahah, and will always do insya Allah!

"Pray for our life route okay. Hopefully each of our step takes us to something better and bigger." - Marina

Hanan All Grown Up

Assalamualaikum wbt

One day, just before the new year came, Ummi posted in family whatsapp group, saying "Ummi kat sekolah hanan ni. Orientasi dia.". Somewhat like this lah. And yes, it's her secondary school orientation. She is entering a whole new world of a teenager, where ups and downs and emotional rages are a part of the teenage life. Whoah, time definitely passes too fast! I still treated her like a kid you know (most of the time). Can't move on yet. 

Being raised among big sisters, she developed the sense of maturity as she grows up. She didn't even fancy toys when she was little. Mobile and computer games were her best companion instead. She reads encyclopedia and scientific comics, and Nat Geo is one of her favourite channel. Oh beware with her speech and your speech too, she is good at manipulating, backing herself up with lots of reasons which is mostly unreasonable. Hahahahah. Her way of thinking and behaving are way ahead than other kids at the same age. It sometimes annoy us to the point where she takes our jokes seriously, and I mean, most of the time, and we would went " Hanan ni tak funlah!". Yeah, she gets that a lot, from us. Haha. 

At one point, I just thought that maybe, just maybe, instead of continuously saying that "she is not behaving at her age", "she is not fun", "she is too serious" and whatnot, I think I should just treat her like how she want to. The adult way. So that day when she asked me to accompany her to buy a shirt at H&M, I just agreed and followed her, responding to her every opinions on the clothes that she saw, in adult and mature way. The same goes when I was looking for my shoes, and she would go for one shoes to another, giving her opinions based on her sense of fashion. I tried to restrict myself from saying "Hanan ni taste orang tualah!" and appreciate her opinions instead by nodding or responding decently to her. But to be honest, sometimes i just can't help it hahaha. 

But one day I just gone mad when she insisted to buy this RM65 skateboard the other day.  Until today, I regretted to agree with her. I should just play my bossy part and  be the 'everything-no' sister to restrict her from buying it. That day on new year I texted her, asking her to set a resolution: To make effort to play the skateboard as much as you can so that RM65 would not seems like a waste. -_________-

Anyway, Hanan, she is a very clever and bright little girl. I think I should now see her as a lady instead of a girl. Wishing her all the best for her teenage years, and honestly, I kinda worry much about her. She has started to show the rebellious side of her and I just hope that she could rebel appropriately on serious matter, not ridiculous one. But I know that we would all need to face that like it or not. It's just a part of her phase of growing up. We had all been there too right. Phewww! I guess this is just normal for the eldest sister to be in so much worry. My prayers are always with you. insya allah.

Just Do It

Assalamualaikum wbt

This is a very quick one.

Dear beloved Muslims,
Had you come to a point of break down or frustration,
Or you just feel lazy to do your ibadah,
Please wake straight up and JUST DO IT.
Seek forgiveness and ask to keep your iman at its highest position.
Please. I beg you.
You JUST HAVE TO DO IT.
Because one missing prayer, one missing quran recitation,
Can make you vulnerable,
And syaitan can invade you JUST RIGHT AT THAT MOMENT.
So please.

Oojengster Shell Out Feast!

Assalamualaikum wbt

Final exam has already ended finally, and so, in order to celebrate this happiness (as if we had never have final examinations before hahaha), we held an Oojengster's Shell Out Feast!

Yeah, Shell Out has been so famous lately because of its uniqueness of having the dining concept on the table, WITHOUT the plates, forks, spoons and other proper dishware for dining. That is just a very cool and casual way of eating out, especially when they serve seafood, where you need to fold your sleeves up, and get all messy to dig out and enjoy the tender juicy meat inside the shells.

However since the news saying the restaurant does not own a Halal certificate went viral, everybody just freaked out and decided to not go there (plus, the expensive price). I do not know who is the person who started the Shell Out at home, but it also went viral afterwards as it save much more cost, and of course Halal guaranteed. Since then, everybody seems to be trying the Shell Out concept at home, doing it for family events and friends. And we.... decided to try it out too! Hence, the Shell Out Feast at our little college room.

We started all by doing the groceries, buying all the ingredients and of course, the seafood needed.

Before the groceries took place, we have had all the items needed listed down, including the recipes! We allocated a RM20 budget per person, so that's a total of RM160 all together. That seems a lot. Since none of us have the experience of buying seafood on our own, we did our survey to search for the standard prices for the seafood that we wanted to buy. Looking at all all the prices, we freaked out! 

RM20-RM30 per kilo of crab? RM25-RM27 per kilo for squid? So how about prawns? And and, we still have clams to buy okay, don't forget! Oh, and chicken tooooo! Is our budget enough? How much can we get for a kilo? And there you go, the googling and blog readings started. So after some readings on some of the blogger experience having Shell Out at home, it looks like the budget that we had seems to be enough. At that time, we just surrendered and hoped that it will be adequate. We had even be ready to cancel out some items just in case the budget went over the limit.  

Once we started the grocery at Giant, we went straight to the seafood dept. I was hesitated to choose the crab at first. I mean, come on, what do I need to check before choosing the PERFECT crab? Is this okay? How about this one? Uncle in front of me must have been laughing inside while watching me choosing the crab. Huh. But in the end, I just thickened my face, matter no more on the criteria and chose them like a PRO! Bhahaha. I took only 4 pcs while my mind whispering "Cukuplah tu. 4 kerat 2 jadilah 8. Sorang separuh. Yang ni entah-entah dah lebih sekilo.". But then after weighing and pricing, "Eh, RM11 only?". So I immediately asked my friend to get more of it. We added 4-5 pcs after that hahaha. Well, amateur seafood buyer. Full of drama. 

Back to the college, we started to unpack all of the things, separating the veggies and the seafood items. Since the budget seemed to be more than enough, we even got to buy some more items that were not in the list such as the dory fish, some surimi (fishball, crabstick etc), wedges, and more veggies. After the tasks have been delegated, works started to begin! Some were cutting the veggies, the paste ingredients, some were trimming and washing the seafood, the chicken, overall, everybody were working together splendidly!

So here is our menu and rough budget for the Shell Out dining:

Chilli Crab and Squid

Butter Prawn and Clams (Lala)

Dory Sweet and Sour

Tom Yam with Surimis and Veggies

Salad

Buttered Shittake Mushroom

Fried Chicken

Potato wedges

8-9 pcs Ketam Bunga (Medium)  = RM23

1 Whole Chicken = RM10

2 pkts 400g Frozen Peeled Baby Shrimp (because fresh shrimps are not available) = RM23

Approx 900g of Surimi (Fishball, Crab Stick, Seafood Tofu) = RM19

1 pack of Lala =  RM9-RM10

1 pack of 600g Frozen Dory Cube = RM9
5pcs of Squid XL = RM14

All the balance are used for veggies, spices, sauces, wedges and other miscellaneous ingredients.
A total of RM160 for 8 person (or more actually) and there are still leftovers after eating. 

We started the preparation at about 5.00pm, and officially finished all of the cooking by around 8.00pm. After everybody took their shower, we then laid the 'plastic mat' on the floor, pulled out all of the dishes on it, recited the prayer, and started digging in!

Everybody was having a good time eating, chit chatting but still in disbelief that everything was prepared on our own. We were scared at first having the thought that it might gonna be a disaster because we never prepared these kind of dishes on our own. Besides, seafood is quite sensitive in terms of its preparation, the cleaning, the cooking method and so on and we just don't wanna ruin it. So having the dishes all set in front of us, was just a part of the satisfaction. Alhamdulillah. Creditlah sikit come onnn, we never cooked such expensive food and make it delicious hahaaa! 

It was nice to hear compliments from each other on the dishes that have been prepared. A kind of appreciation you know. We were having such a good time together. The fact that this is the last gathering with complete all 8 of us was quite an emotional feeling although none of us really show it to each other. We don't know when are we going to have the chance to gather this way again. Mache and Syu is leaving for their practical soon. So it will be only all 6 of us left, and the most painful part is, I'm going to be left without a roommate after almost 4 years of being with the same person. It's going to be a very tough and challenging final semester and I can no longer go crazy, gossip or spill out all of the emotions to my roommate when there are things go wrong. I'm sorry, I'm just quite sentimental when it comes to this matter. Okaaayyy let's move on! *wipe tears*

Anyway Alhamdulillahhhhhh the plan went very well. Everybody enjoyed the food, enjoyed the talk, enjoyed the laughter, enjoyed having bloated stomach for eating too much hahaha, enjoyed everything! I am very very very grateful, having to be blessed with this kind of friendship and FRIENDS like them. I know myself very much and I really do not deserve all these kindness around me, all these wonderful people around me. May Allah grant each one of you and myself His blessings, His kindness, and shower us all with His unconditional love. It has finally came to the final semester and may we all graduate with flying colours, and most importantly, may we all in the end be united in the paradise. After all, that's our life goals. Amiin, insya Allah.

Hiks. 

Will Not Always Bloom

Assalamualaikum wbt

You know you can learn a lot from a withering flower. 

That as much as it appears so graceful and flawless with its colour and its petals, 

it will in the end wilt, decayed as its fall on the humble earth.

And so do human. 

We will not always bloom.

Time passes, and death shall come and retrieve us to be returned to God. 

Last Paper Syndrome

Assalamualaikum wbt

One more paper. Come on!

Pinterest Inspired. Doodles and sketches since I was so bored. 

I really do not have the mood already as this is the last paper for the final exam. Plus, it's my least favourite subject of the semester, how can anyone expect me to give my all for this? I'm all for Oojengster's Shellout Feast (I'll make post about this hehe), roommate dates and going back home now. That's all in my mind (plus the worry of tomorrow's paper). Sigh

Welcome 2016 with Excitement!

Assalamualaikum wbt

A very hellooo to the first day of 2016 that is going to end just a few more hours. Hah!

My first day has just been wasted with internet browsing almost the whole day. Gaaahh! I even had my lunch in front of the laptop while watching Youtube videos. A 'fried' Mee Sedap and coffee although I already had one in the morning muahahaha. Coffee has always been a very good companion to me. Always faithful. Hiks. 

Few days before, Instagram has been flooded with people posting their best 9 photos of the year, recapping on their countless and best memories that they had, looking at where they are now and amazed at how much they have gone through in a year despite of the ups and downs.

Basically, it's what everybody is going through. 

Unlike any other years before, I didn't felt so sentimental or the need to write a special post, looking back at the past or how much I've been through before entering the new year. I just thought that everyone is having the same feeling more or less. We will go through the hard and easy part. We will eventually rise up after being defeated in a battle. We will eventually heal ourselves after having a break down. Don't we?

Or perhaps this is a sign of maturity? I'm getting old I know. 

Although this new year is not really celebrated in Islam, we cannot deny the fact that we make every single planning and sum up our life achievement based on Masihi calendar. Now everyone deserves to take that as somewhat a 'border' of the present and the past, and use it to make positive changes with the resolution of getting a better ME. If we are not doing any positive progress for ourselves and the people around us, then it is going to be 'JUST ANOTHER YEAR'.   

As for me, I'm very much excited to walk through each day of 366 days in 2016. It's a leap year everybody! So much big things are going to happen this year insya Allah. Graduation, convocation, my first official job and I'm expecting many others. Pheww so nervous! 

So bismillah, may Allah ease and bless our journey, no matter where and when. 

Amiinn.