My Story of Life

Wordless Wednesday #6

2012-02-15T23:56:00.001+08:00

Hansel & Gretel Opera

2012-02-09T19:40:00.003+08:00

Last night was our first time experiencing Scottish Opera. It was awesome!

The title was Hansel & Gretel and I'm pretty sure most people knew this fairy tale from their childhood. The thing that I remembered most about this story is the delicate house made from cookies, sweets and pastries.

So after class yesterday, we headed to Theatre Royal Glasgow which is located at Hope Street not so far from Cineworld. The weather was a bit chilly as usual. The show started at 7.15 pm but we reached there early to collect our tickets. The ticket costs £10 per person (for group + student). So it's like we got double discount.Our seats were at the top balcony and the view was quite good actually. We could see the whole sets and the theatre itself is not very big. Most of the viewers were the elders. You we were like kanak2 sekolah here. Lol

Theatre Royal - Balcony View

Anis met her Scottish Edward

Plot summary:

Hansel and Gretel are getting under their mother's feet and, at the end of her tether, she sends them into the woods to collect strawberries. As darkness falls, they realise they are lost. Terrified, they spend the night on the forest floor. Next morning, to their amazement, they discover a house made of sweets and are soon helping themselves, unaware that are falling straight into a trap set by the fabled Wicked Witch..

- from the leaflet

We were mistaken this show as a theatre performance but instead it was actually an opera. So the scripts were all fully sung by the casts. The sets were simply gorgeous. From the house, to the wood and finally to the candy house. The vocals were terrific as well. But because they sang it in a soprano manner, sometimes we accidentally laughed.. XD

The show finished at 9.20 pm and we had our dinner at Chilli Grill right after that. This restaurant is located at the end of Sauchiehall Street. The food was awesome! I love the buffalo sauce so much! The chicken was good too! But the coleslaw was quite hard. Me no likey~

Half chicken with fries and coleslaw.

What a night. We surely enjoyed it to the max! =)

Alhamdulillah.. Lepas ni boleh fokus siapkan assignment pulak.. XD

Malaysian Night 2012

2012-02-06T06:58:00.003+08:00

After months of waiting, practicing and organising, finally our Malaysian Night event came true. We had a splendid time that night which was so colourful and joyful. I hope everyone enjoyed our shows that night. We brought Malaysia to Glasgow just to eliminate our homesickness feeling towards our home..

The night started off with a video presentation showing the most interesting places to visit in Malaysia and then followed by our national anthem. All guests rose and we sang the national anthem proud-fully. Guest attendance was quite overwhelming with most of the Malaysian came along with a few locals. That's included our beloved lecturers and juniors.

After the welcoming speech by the masters of ceremonies (Anil, Tracy & Kumar), the first performance was a Malay dance. The dance was very graceful and full of lenggang-lenggok. Sangat kemelayuan. The dancers all dressed in purple tops with deep pink scarves. There were 8 dancers in this dance. Alex and Syifaa also got the chance to be on the stage to give a quick welcoming speech.

Soon after the dance, the guests were invited to queue up for dinner. Buffet style dinner. We served a wide variety of food from Malay, Chinese and Indian cuisine. I happened to be in charged of food department so I had to work as a food server. I was assisted by a few others like Anis, Zi Fen and Choo Wei. Malay food consists of tomato rice, ayam masak merah, salad, pajeri nanas and ondeh-ondeh. Chinese food includes the egg fried rice, fried noodles, black pepper chicken, sweet and sour chicken, mixed vegetables and a few desserts while there were a couple of Indian food such as butter chicken and poppadom. There were all so scrumptious and delicious. I hope the locals didn't find them too spicy. Because Ian Towle said that the food was really spicy.. >.<

Choir performance took place right after the guests had finished their meals. The songs performed includes Satu Malaysia and Rasa Sayang. The stage was very happening especially during the solo parts.

The Indian dance was great as well! It was performed in a very energetic way. Well, it was choreographed by a friend from India. No wonder it looked so nice and original! Only 6 people performed this dance. According to them, half of the dancers backed out from the dance a few weeks ago. However, it was still great though.

We had a game session after that. The games department had arranged three games which required participation from the audiences, the Scottish preferably. We had a few rounds of tofu transfering game, skipping ropes and limbo. Three of our lecturers participated in these games. They were so cool and sporting! The winner got their rewards too which was a box of chocolate each.

Since we did not planned for Chinese dance performance, we had replaced it with hip hop instead. We performed Born This Way followed by dance break before it was resumed by Tell Me Your Wish by Girls' Generation. I know it's a K-pop song but it was still nice to perform.. =) I joined the later one. The amount of people joining the hip hop dance was quite a lot compared to the other two dances.

We had our own flash mob as well. It started off with Judas followed by Party Rock Anthem and Bad Romance. Fashion show took place right after the flash mob. I joined both flash mob and fashion show so it was quite rushing for me to get changed. I was a bit sweaty before the fashion show. =.= I wore a light brown baju melayu with samping and I was paired with Bee when doing the catwalk.

The night ended with a round of applause by the audiences and the emcees thanked the guests for coming to this wonderful event before bidding goodbye.

Post Malaysian Night photos:

Of course we had to stay back to clean up the mess after all the guests had left the hall. Towards the end we all sang Pharmacy song which we learned from IMU.

It was a very successful event. Even though only a few locals from our batch turned up, we still got the support from other batches and our juniors likewise. Thank you very much for your help! We really appreciate it. =)

Great job P109! =D

Alhamdulillah, everything went well during the event. There's no accident whatsoever and everything went smoothly..

Kita satu bangsa, kita satu negara, kita satu matlamat ooooo

Kita satu bangsa, kita satu negara, kita satu Malaysia~

*Thanks Sean & Alson for the awesome photos! I couldn't blog without those photos.. =)

Joe's Belated Birthday

2012-02-02T05:57:00.000+08:00

Peristiwa ini berlaku pada Sabtu lepas. Sebenarnya Joe nak buat usrah tengah hari tu, tapi kitorang barge in rumah dia pagi2 pukul 9 untuk buat surprise. Surprise tak surprise, memang surprise kau. Kesian Joe terpaksa bangun awal. Malam tadi pulun buat assignment sampai pukul 4 pagi katanya.

Sampai bilik Joe, kemas2 sikit then potong kek. Syed Faiz beli kek, kitorang bawak cupcakes yang dibuat pada malam sebelum tu. Kenyang jugak breakfast kek ni..

Lepas tu usrah kejap. Tajuk pasal "Ideologi Masa Kini" yang mencakupi nationalism, sekularism, kapitalism, sosialism dan komunism. Topik agak kesejarahan sikit.

Lepas tu sambung selebrasi kat Chilli Cottage. Dekat je, jalan kaki dari rumah Joe. Konsep ala2 Chicken Cottage tapi kat sini ada jual makanan pakistan sekali. Ada kari, kebab dan lain2. Sempat makan pizza je lepas tu terpaksa minta diri untuk praktis nari2 kat Vertigo. Burger pun tapau masuk dalam beg. Alhamdulillah..

Apa2 pun,

Happy Birthday Joe!

Semoga panjang umur, murah rezeki & diberkati dunia dan akhirat.

Bowling Time!

2012-01-29T07:52:00.004+08:00

Last Thursday, after having a mouthful Chinese buffet food at Panda, The Quay, I joined my friends playing bowling at AMF Bowling which is located just across the restaurant. Despite my busyness with assignments and presentation, I still managed to steal some time to have fun with them. Even though we had eaten at Panda last month, this time was quite different. Usually we went for lunch buffet, but today we had evening buffet instead. It's a bit more expensive than lunch, but quite satisfying because the food served was more variable. They served more seafood like prawns and mussels.

We played bowling for about 3 hours from 9.30 pm till 12.30 am. It's like OMG! Played until bored. However, it's quite worthy since we only paid £8 for the whole 3 hours. It's a Thursday special promotion. Sangat berbaloi! You know, it's been a while since I last played bowling. In Malaysia also, I rarely play bowling except once in a blue moon.

Tonight's plan was planned by Alex, Chei Wan, Wanli & Farrah. My flatmates and I only decided to join in the very last minute. We booked two lanes; 4 and 3 pax respectively. First we warmed up for the first two rounds before the games got very serious. The more we played, the tighter the scores be. It was definitely fun especially when we saw Alex accidentally threw the ball backwards. Luckily the ball didn't hit anyone. Lol

Wanli lead the scoreboard with >100 for every sets he played! Terer sangat! I played so-so je. Not so good though.

We finished our games when the staff told us that the place gonna close soon. Macam kena halau gitu. We were kinda the last persons who left the place that night.

What a fun and enjoying night! Sangat puas dapat main bowling without any restrictions and limitations!

Alhamdulillah..

*sorry for the low quality image, I didn't bring my big camera.. XD

Happy Chinese New Year!

2012-01-24T02:44:00.000+08:00

To all my Chinese friends,

Happy Chinese New Year!

Wishing you Happiness, Prosperity and Longevity...

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Thanks to the dedicated photographer for today's CNY photography session. The photos are all nice and we all looked really good in red!

Hanafiah's Birthday

2012-01-23T02:37:00.002+08:00

We celebrated Hanafiah's birthday today. It was really a surprise party since Hanafiah didn't expect we cooked for him. It's quite easy to trick him though.. =p

Not like usual, this party was organised at lunch instead of dinner. Main dish (hailam noodles) were prepared by Chef Wanji while the birthday cake and baked nachos by me. The girls brought additional food such as pizzas and fruit cocktail later. There were also ice cream with cones and carbonated drinks.

We spent approximately less than 2 hours for talking, eating and photographing during this celebration. Hanafiah also expressed his gratitude as he was quite surprised of the celebration because he rarely celebrates his birthday. No worries, we're all here for you. That's what friends are for.

We sang a birthday song while he sliced the cake. This time, I baked the same cake like Fariz's birthday but I changed the icing using a different recipe. A bit more cheesy.

Oh la la~

Harap2 semua kenyang la ye makan2 tadi. Ingatkan tak cukup tadi. Kalau niat dah ada, semua benda Allah permudahkan. Benda tak cukup jadi cukup. Alhamdulillah.. =D

Tomorrow we are going to start a new semester. Wish us the best! =)

By the way,

Happy Birthday Hanafiah!

Semoga dipanjang umur, dimurahkan rezeki dan sentiasa berada dalam lindungan-Nya.

Aminnn~

Seafood Pie

2012-01-21T06:05:00.000+08:00

Seafood pie / Pai Makanan Laut

For Butter Sauce:

- 3 cloves garlic - finely chopped
- 2 tbsp butter
- 6 button mushroom - thinly sliced
- 1 can evaporated milk
- 2 tbsp curry powder
- curry leaves
- 1tsp chicken seasoning
- 5 cili padi - cut into two pieces

Melt the butter in a pan.
Saute the garlic until brown.
Add mushroom and fry for a little while.
Add 1 can of evaporated milk.
Let it simmer for 5 minutes.
Add curry powder and curry leaves.
Add chicken seasoning.
Add cili padi according to taste. Put more if you want it to be spicy.
Let it simmer for 10-15 minutes on a low heat.

For Filling:

- 2 fish fillets
- prawns
- 8 crabsticks
- 3 spring onion
- 1 carrot

Chopped the seafood into bit size.
Dice the carrot.
Slice the spring onion.

For Topping (mashed potato):

- 6 medium size potatoes
- 3 tbsp butter
- milk
- salt
- blackpepper
- mozzarella cheese

Boil the potatoes until soft and mash them in a bowl.
Add butter and milk until you reached the desired consistency.
Season with salt and pepper.

Arrange the filling at the bottom of the baking tray.
Pour in the butter sauce.
Finally, cover the filling with mashed potato.
On top of the mashed potato, add grated mozzarella cheese.
Bake in oven for 40 minutes at 170 degree Celcius.
Serve hot.

Enjoy!

Baking Day

2012-01-21T00:30:00.001+08:00

We had our baking day yesterday. Me with my labmates Alex & Esther. It was just a simple celebration to mark the end of our research lab session. We all came out with different recipes, I made Seafood Pie, Alex made Oatmeal Cookies while Esther was baking a Marble Cake. We did all the baking at Esther's place.

Esther's Marble Cake

My Seafood Pie

Alex's Oatmeal Cookies

The products were unexpectedly very tasty and yummy. We spent so much time talking and joking with each other and we were also joined by the members of the house; Irene and Pay Ying. Sometimes Weei Foong, Audrey, Siew Chui and Kah Lian dropped by.

Black is our theme

I'm going to write the recipe for the seafood pie in another post. Some of my friends had requested me for the recipe. So, I'll write it soon.. =)

Lab Fun

2012-01-19T03:07:00.000+08:00

My research lab session is officially over today. We don't have to go to lab tomorrow as we already finished doing our experiment. Now we only need to do some analysing and interpreting our data for the identification of our compounds. Geoff will do the NMR for us and he will meet us later to discuss about our introduction and draft methods.

Here are the collection of the photos taken during the lab session using my phone.

Chemicals

Apparatuses

TLC & Reflux

Geoff performed a 'magic' show

Filtration & Reflux

Our own 'magic' show.. =p

TLC plates

Infrared Spectoscopy

.....

Visiting other occupants of the lab.. hihihi..

Melting point determination

Esther, me & Alex

I wanna thank all of my lab-mates who helped me a lot. I know I'm very quiet in the lab, didn't really talk much.

I didn't realise how fast time flies. We finished our lab earlier than scheduled. That means many datelines need to be catch up. I only got less than two weeks to prepare for my Pharm Care presentation. Oh my.... One month to write CPP essay.. Oh my.... Two month to write Pharm Care case report.. Oh my....

2006-2012.. Kau Ada?

2012-01-15T01:41:00.000+08:00

Photo collage of me and my so called 'family'.. =)

Best tak? hihihi...

Memulakan perkenalan pada pertengahan tahun 2006 di INTEC Shah Alam semasa pengajian A-Level Medicine. Selepas 2 tahun, kami bersama2 menyambung pelajaran di International Medical University (IMU) Bukit Jalil dalam bidang farmasi selama 2.5 tahun bermula pada 2009 sehingga 2011. Dengan usaha yang jitu dan berkat dari Allah swt kami meneruskan pengajian tahun terakhir di University of Strathclyde, Glasgow dan dijangkan akan graduasi pada pertengahan 2012. InsyaAllah.. Doakan yang terbaik untuk kami semua ye..

=D

Fariz's Burpday

2012-01-13T06:48:00.000+08:00

Before I'll start writing about this topic, let's give a big round of applause to myself because this is my 500th blog post! *clap clap clap!* What an achievement!

Okay, let's start writing.. Yesterday (11.01.12) was Fariz's birthday. Although everyone was quite busy with labs and so on, we still got time to gather and had an awesome dinner, although most of the food was a bit spicy. We had already surprised her with a cake at 12 am that night so I thought a dinner party would be nice to celebrate her birthday properly. This dinner was also a surprise for her. We had to cooperate and act to make sure she didn't know about the party.

Menu for that night were briyani rice (there were two version; one was spicy and one wasn't), madras chicken curry, hot & spicy fried chicken, salads, fritters and of course another birthday cake. This time, my turn to bake. I made a triple layered chocolate and vanilla cake topped with melted chocolate. I baked the cake after I came back from my lab. They said it was yummy.. =d

Here are the photos from the event.. =)

Retis kena banyak gambar sket malam ni.. hehe..

Friends since 2006.. =)

Choc-Vanilla-Choc cake

Food!

To Fariz Lolli_not_licious,

Happy Birthday yang ke XX!

Semoga dipanjang umur, dimurahkan selalu dan joyah2 selalu.. Joyah rules!

I ♥ Souvenirs!

2012-01-08T07:53:00.000+08:00

Just recently, my flatmate, Wanji came back from his solo travel to Prague, Budapest & Vienna. Before he went to travel, I had asked him to buy me something as souvenirs. I gave him certain amount of Pound Sterling (£40) because I expected things are gonna be very expensive in Europe. As usual, I asked him to buy Hard Rock Cafe stuffs. So here are the things that I got!

HRC Prague t-shirt & HRC Budapest pin badge, Budapest & Prague fridge magnets and Austria pin badge.

Close-ups

Honey cake yang sangat sedap! Dijamin halal...

This is from Bella, I asked her to buy me a Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt from Madrid.

Walaupun dua2 design baju aku dah ada, tapi tak kisahlah sebab nama tempat lain2.. Hihihi.. XD

Kalaulah kat Andalusia hari tu boleh singgah Hard Rock Cafe Marbella, mesti boleh tambah koleksi lagi.. hik3..

Thanks for buying me all of these stuffs! Harap tak susahkan korang! =)

Three More!

2012-01-06T00:08:00.000+08:00

Got something in my mailbox today! I got 3 postcards today! =)

One from my friend, Aiman from Japan, one from Lady Fae from Belfast and another from myself which I sent from Fort William.

Thank you my friends! Love u guys~

Wordless Wednesday #5

2012-01-04T21:44:00.003+08:00

@Glasgow

@Malaysia

Koleksi pin badges hasil berjalan ke sana sini.. =)

Imbasan 2011 (Part Two)

2012-01-03T01:25:00.002+08:00

Ok, sekarang sambung untuk second half 2011 pulak ye.. Ceritanya begini...

07 | Julai

First time pergi hiking kat sini. Last pergi hiking ialah masa darjah 6, masa tu panjat gunung Ledang. Memang semput habis la kat Beinn Dubh tu. Dah la cuaca agak menghujankan. Lepas tu kat bawah singgah Loch Lomond. Sejuk... Oh ya, kami panjat bukit ni sehari before bulan Ramadhan tau..

Antara tempat yang dilawati pada bulan Julai ialah Riverside Museum di mana muzium ini memaparkan rangkaian kenderaan2 lama dan baru. Kat luar muzium ni ada kapal besar. Tapi masuk kena bayar. Lepas tu ada jugak ikut ustaz pergi memetik berry di East Yonderton Farm. Tak tau kenapa orang cakap sedap, tapi mostly berry yang dipetik agak masam.. >.<

08 | Ogos

Bulan puasa ni pulak rajin pergi jalan2. Kitorang pergi melawat Kelvingrove Art Gallery dan juga University of Glasgow. Memang cantik bangunan kat sini. Muzium ini agak luas dan banyak artifak yang boleh dilihat, tapi aku masuk kejap je lepas tu mengantuk. Lepak kat kerusi sambil tunggu rakan2 yang lain habiskan tour. Banyak juga ambil gambar kat sini. Kalau boleh semua artifak nak digambarkan..

First time ni sambut raya kat oversea, jauh daripada keluarga tercinta. Hari raya disambut di Victoria Hall bersama warga Malaysia yang lain. Masa ni la result summer semester keluar. Seriauuu.. Tapi syukur alhamdulillah, aku passed. Meriah jugak beraya di perantau, satu pengalaman baru yang tak akan dilupakan. Banyak juga pergi beraya dari rumah ke rumah. Mengekor ustaz je kerja kami.. Hehehe..

09 | September

Bulan September ni merupakan bulan yang paling aku banyak habiskan duit untuk travel. Tapi part yang paling best, ayah dan umi datang melawat aku di UK ni. Yeay!!! Mula2 bawak diorang jalan2 Glasgow & Edinburgh.. Pastu sampailah ke London dan Berlin. Gigih kau berjalan2.. Sangat best! Wanji & Duwe ikut sekali. Meriah sikit.. Lagipun cuti panjang kannn...

Balik dari Berlin, ayah dan umi pun pulang ke Malaysia. Agak sedih, tetapi masih lagi dapat mengawal perasaan. Lepas tu kami bertiga terus menyambung tour ke Bristol di mana kami bermalam di rumah Azri Marican. Esoknya, semasa Azri sibuk di kelas, kami ke Bath untuk berjalan2 di Roman Baths. Tak sempat pergi Stonehenge sebab termiss bas pukul 10 pagi. Takpelah, takde rezeki nak buat macam mana kan.. Di Bristol, Azri bawak kitorang pusing2 city dan juga ke Clifton Suspension Bridge. Tinggi tauuuu... Angin pun kuat gila..

On the way pulang ke Glasgow, kami bermalam satu hari di Manchester. Tempat yang dikunjungi adalah seperti Town Hall dan juga Old Trafford Stadium. Tak masuk stadium tour pun sebab masing2 malas dan tak cukup bajet. Lagipun takde orang yang betul2 minat ManU. Baju Hard Rock pun aku sempat beli. Beli yang murah dan simple je. Wheel of Manchester pun kitorang naik.

Di celah2 travel, kami celebrate birthday Farrah di Glasgow. Ni first time aku buat whole kek. Kek ni pakai resipi red velvet, tapi pakai 3 warna.So aku namakan kek ni multi-coloured velvet cake. Memang padat, makan sikit dah kenyang.

Sebelum semester baru bermula (final year tuuuu), kami bercuti sekali lagi dan kali ini ke Paris. First day pergi Eiffel Tower, second day pergi Disneyland dan hari last jalan2 city. Banyak jugak tempat yang dapat cover kecuali Versailles Palace. Tapi pergi Disneyland memang puas! Bawak balik souvenir banyak juga. Rasanya aku paling banyak borong souvenir dekat Disneyland. Iyela, bukannya nak pergi lagi lepas ni kan. Sekali dah cukup.. Berlaku insiden kehilangan tiket Batobus, maka terpaksa merayap naik Metro sorang2..

10 | Oktober

Autumn pun menjelma dan meninggalkan summer di belakang. Beberapa kali keluar untuk mengambil gambar autumn. Siap pergi kubur lagi untuk test lens baru. Hehehe.. Selain itu, kami pergi ke Victoria Park untuk berpicnic di bawah pohonan kuning. Tapi kat sini tak syok sangat, tak banyak pokok kuning. Tengok gambar2 kawan di Russia agak kejelesan.. Cantik pemandangan kat sana..

Pada bulan ini juga, kami mem'volunteer'kan diri untuk menjadi ahli jawatankuasa KMG Badminton Tournament yang diadakan di Scotstounhill. Siap dapat baju seragam lagi. Aku jadi photographer di sepanjang permainan. Member2 lain jadi linesman dan juga pengira markah.

Birthday Mirah pula disambut secara surprise. Pada mulanya, aku & Anis berlakon konon2nya mengidam makanan Jepun di OKO Express. Lalu kitorang pun ajaklah Mirah, Mirah tertipu. Masa tengah makan2 tu, Aleen dan Bee datang sorok2 bawak kek. Memang Mirah tak perasan. Tengok gambar di bawah, muka sangat gembira dan terharu. Makanan kat OKO ni agak mahal ye, kalau silap pilih akan rasa menyesal. Tapi aku order paling banyak; nasi, sushi & edamame. Puas dan sedap!

Selain itu, kami juga telah menyertai sambutan hari Deepavali yang diadakan di Bombay Blues. Makan buffet indian food. Boleh tahan jugak la, harga berpatutan. Lebih kurang suku batch je yang join. Aku makan 3 round kot. Tak ingatlah. Lepas tu ada sesi bergambar dengan rakan2 batch. =)

Bagi membalas lawatan rakan2 dari Dundee, kini giliran kami pula ke Dundee. Pergi sehari je. Sipot, Fara & Aimi bawak kami jalan2 around Dundee. Dundee ni terletak di tepi laut. So, angin pun agak kuat. Masa baru sampai, diorg bawak kami hiking di Dundee Law. Dari atas boleh nampak bandar Dundee. Yang paling best, makan buffet kat Taza. Sangat murah dan berbaloi! Next time nak pergi lagi.. Katanya kat Dundee ni best kalau pergi memancing.. Mungkin boleh dipertimbangkan.. =)

Sekali lagi, aku pergi ke Edinburgh, kali ini bukan untuk bersiar2 makan angin tetapi untuk menonton Edinburgh Games atau dikenali juga sebagai Malaysian Scottish Games yang dianjurkan warga Malaysia di sana. Ada game badminton, ping pong, basketball, futsal dan macam2 lagi. Ada kafe jual makanan Malaysia lagi tau. Aku try nasi hujan panas dengan ayam masak merah. Sedap jugak! Aku habiskan banyak masa ke hulu ke hilir. Kejap tengok Wanji main futsal, kejap tengok Faiz main badminton.

Di penghujung Oktober merupakan birthday Duwe. Lepas balik dari Edinburgh, kami celebrate ala picnic gitu. Dekat kawasan uni je which is Rottenrow Garden. Kali ni aku buat kek milo. Walaupun agak buruk, tapi sedap ok. Menu lain yang disediakan ialah carbonara, pizza, koktel buah dan sosej masin..

11 | November

Sekali lagi kami outsation untuk menonton Nottingham Games. Kat sini jumpa kawan2 lain dari UK seperti Azery, Ahmad, Akmal dan lain2.. Dah lama jugak la tak jumpa diorang ni. Kami banyak spend masa di Power League untuk menonton futsal sebab Wanji & Achik main kat situ. Tak sempat sangat tengok game lain.

Hari Raya Aidiladha juga disambut di Victoria Hall bersama warga Malaysia di Glasgow. Sambutan ringkas tetapi sedap. Raya Haji pun kami duk tour dari rumah ke rumah untuk menikmati juadah masakan Melayu. Hehe..

12 | Disember

Kejakunan terserlah apabila salji turun buat pertama kalinya pada 4 Disember. Semua orang berpusu2 keluar dari hall untuk bermain dengan salji. Kami main lontar2 snowballs dan juga sliding. Syokkkk wehhhh.... =D

George Square pula dihias dengan dekorasi Krismas. Agak menarik dan berlampu2.. Kami ada la jugak keluar untuk ambil gambar kat situ.

Kak Pah sangat curlast. Oleh sebab itu, kami celebrate birthday dia 2 kali. Mula2 buat surprise masa dia tengah busy berdiskusi tentang IPL. Terperanjat katanya. Lepas tu, sehari kemudian kami celebrate sekali lagi secara proper dan menjemput beberapa kenalan lain juga. Kek surprise aku yang buat, kek tak surprise Mirah yang buat.

Geng trip to Andalusia, Sepanyol. Tapi sayangnya Kak Pah tidak dapat join sebab beliau perlu melayan tetamu yang datang dari Manchester. So 9 orang jela yang join. Trip kali ni kami tak payah plan, kami ikut tour by Perantau Holidays. Best juga travel ramai2 camni. Berbaloi! Bukan pergi satu bandar je, tapi 4 bandar ye. Gibraltar, Sevilla, Cordoba dan Granada. Banyak tempat2 bersejarah di sini especially pada zaman Islam beberapa ratus tahun dahulu. Tour guide kami juga sangat informative dan bermutu. Oleh sebab pergi ke 4 bandar, maka souvenir juga harus dikali 4.. Banyak juga hasil kali ni.. =)

Next birthday ialah birthday Aleen. Kami sambut di rumah je. Masak2 sendiri. Sebenarnya semua ahli geng kami terer je masak. Sedap2 belaka. Jadi secara officialnya, ini merupakan sambutan birthday yang terakhir buat tahun ini. Sambung next year pulak ye. Birthday Fariz bulan Januari ni.. Nak masak apa ye?

Ski trip tanpa ski. Apekah? Dek kerna angin kencang, kami hanya sempat main sledge sahaja. Oh ye, trip kali ni bertiga je dengan Wanji & Anis. Trip jejoyah gitu. 2 orang terpaksa undur diri sebab demam. Kami ke Fort William dan bermain salji di Nevis Range. Dah lama tak nampak salji, so jakun semula. Siap buat snowman lagi, walaupun kecik je.

This was my last trip in 2011. Pada 31 Disember, kami ke Edinburgh untuk bermeeting dengan menteri. Pada pagi itu, kami ke Edinburgh Zoo untuk melihat giant panda. Ada 2 ekor je. Banyak juga binatang dalam zoo ni. Zoo ini pun agak luas dan berbukit. Tapi sangat suka dengan penguin yang banyak! Banyak gila ok! Comel pulak tu! Malam tu ada meeting. Ambil masa dekat 3 jam la jugak.. Then, kami pulang ke Glasgow sebelum perayaan tahun baru. Memang tak plan pun untuk bermalam di Edinburgh. Ada la jugak member yang offer untuk tidur di rumah dia, tapi kami dah beli tiket return. Menolak dengan sopannya..

Anyway,

SELAMAT TAHUN BARU!

Ini imbasan 2011 saya, imbasan anda pula bagaimana?

Imbasan 2011 (Part One)

2012-01-02T23:46:00.001+08:00

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim...

Haaaa, akhirnya sempat jugak siapkan gambar2 untuk disematkan kat dalam post ni. Seperti tahun 2009 dan tahun 2010 yang lalu, tahun 2011 juga tidak ketinggalan untuk dibelogkan tentang aktiviti2 suka dan duka yang berlaku sepanjang tahun. Diam tak diam dah 7 bulan aku menetap di bumi Glasgow yang sejuk ini. Mari kita lihat satu persatu apa yang telah berlaku sejak dari bulan Januari sehinggalah Disember.

01 | Januari

Tahun 2011 dibuka dengan percutian ke Krabi, Thailand. Memang best Krabi ni, nak cari makanan halal pun senang sebab populasi Muslim agak ramai. Seronok2 pun, malang tidak berbau apabila kaki aku terpijak kaca kat tepi pantai lantas tak dapat snorkel dua kali. Alhamdulillah sebelum tu sempat snorkel sekali semasa melompat pulau.

Seperti biasa, geng 7M6 tidak akan lari daripada menyambut birthday ahli2 geng walaupun dah agak belated. Kali ni kitorang gabung birthday Aleen (Dec) dan Fariz (Jan) sekaligus dan sambutan bertempat di Papparich, The Gardens. Sambutan yang ringkas tapi seronok. Main2 cendol dengan Wanji. Hahaha... Bila tengok balik gambar ni, terasa muda pulak.. LOL

02 | Februari

Bulan yang paling bermakna dalam kehidupan kami sekeluarga kerana Allah telah mengurniakan cahaya mata kedua kepada Angah & Kak Kyra. Jadi, bertambahlah ahli keluarga kami lagi seorang. Alhamdulillah.. Bayi comel ini diberi nama Aleeya Imani. Sekarang makin tembam dan comel! Rinduuuu...

Ni gambar kanak2 terbabit yang agak terbaru.. Comel tak? XD

03 | Mac

Di penghujung semester 5 di IMU, kami ditugaskan untuk menghadirikan diri ke hospital untuk membuat attachment selama 3 hari. Bee sama group dengan aku, so agak senang jugak la. Kami ditempatkan di Hospital Tunku Ampuan Rahimah, Klang. Dekat je dengan rumah, everyday drive ke sini. Di hospital, kerja kami tidak lain tidak bukan adalah meng'clerk' patient. Salin semua nota2 penting yang ada di bedhead ticket patient tu.Dapatlah jugak kumpul 4 kes.

Oleh sebab family aku suka jalan2, maka kami pun ke Melaka untuk bersiar2 di kota bersejarah ini. Tahun lepas dah pergi dengan classmates, kali ni dengan family pula. Kami melawat tugu A' Famosa dan juga Stadthuys. Seperti biasa, cendol tidak dilupakan.. Slurrrp~

04 | April

This was the most memorable event in my life. Pergi ke Singapore for the very first time dengan BFFs (Lukman & Emie). Memang best travel dengan diorang. Agak gila2.. Main kat Universal Studio sampai puas. Naik roller coaster sampai cakar2 tangan Lukman, terus melecet. Sorry banyak2! The next day, jalan2 Singapore sampai sakit kaki. Antara tempat yang dilawati ialah Bugis Street, Sentosa Island, Marina Bay dan Orchard Road. Memang best! Memang duit habis banyak kat sini. Tapi tak beli t-shirt Hard Rock sebab kena bajet2 duit.

Dah puas2 berseronok, tibalah masa untuk sesuatu yang lebih berilmiah. Kami sebagai pelajar tajaan JPA diwajibkan untuk menghadiri kursus Biro Tata Negara (BTN) yang dianjurkan Nilai, Negeri Sembilan. Kem ini sangat menarik dan agak santai. Tak sangka BTN boleh jadi best macam ni. Tapi kitorang la peserta yang paling tua, yang lain semua belas2 tahun.Tapi diorang ni memang power!

05 | Mei

Bulan ini merupakan bulan persiapan untuk fly. Sedih sangat bila bulan Mei menjelma. Tapi dalam masa yang sama sedikit gembira. Banyak birthday celebration berlangsung dalam bulan ni. Birthday aku bulan April tapi seperti biasa akan digabungkn dengan birthday Atih yang juga pada bulan April. Tetapi disambut dalam bulan Mei. Makan kat Chilli's, Empire Gallery. Hari tu celebrate dengan BFFs pun dekat Chilli's jugak, tapi kat KLCC.

Masa celebrate dengan kawan, lepas tu pergi ke Seremban untuk bermalam di rumah Lukman. First time tidur sini. Ajak Badd, Emie & Azery sekali. Lepas tu pergi makan kat restoran mak Ida. Makan western. Sedap! Lepas tu auntie belanja tuna sandwich! =)

Lepas tu Kak Pah anjurkan cupcakes party utk 5 orang punya birthday. Bee, Anis, aku, Wanji & Kak Long. Thanks Kak Pah for the cuppies! Sedap tau.. Bulan ni jugak la kitorang busy pergi buat visa kat KL. Lepas buat visa, beli kek birthday untuk Kak Long + Wanji. Celebrate dekat KLCC lagi..

Aku ni memang tak sabar2 nak konvo. Maka, aku pun merajinkan diri untuk ke majlis konvokesyen IMU. Sebenarnya umi yang suruh pergi. Hehehe.. Ni konvo part A je tau, yang betul2 punya konvo insyaAllah bulan Julai 2012. Doakan la kami semua ye.. =)

Selain itu, family aku juga menganjurkan kenduri kesyukuran sempena keterbangan aku ke Scotland nanti. Sedih sangat time ni. Iyela, nak tinggalkan rumah selama setahun. Tapi best tau, umi order seekor kambing panggang. Memang melahap habis la.. Antara rakan2 yang turut melahap ialah Badd, Lukman, Wawa & Emie. Thanks korang sebab datang! Lepas tu kat airport pun korang datang lagi. =)

Percutian family yang terakhir before fly. Kami bercuti di Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. First time sampai sini, sebelum ni pernah pergi Tawau je. Makan seafood kat sini memang sedap dan berbaloi. Ada juga singgah di kaki Gunung Kinabalu untuk ambil angin. Nak panjat memang tak dapatlah kan.. Semputttt~

Tadaaaa! Ni gambar raya yang diambil sebelum raya. Sebab raya nanti aku takde kat Malaysia dah. I miss my family.. cuk.. cuk.. cuk..

06 | Jun

Tibalah masanya untuk aku menyambung pelajaran ke Glasgow. Ni gambar kat airport. Sedih sangat time ni. Kejap dengan family, kejap dengan kawan. Last2 kawan2 duduk dengan family. Senang sikit nak sembang. Haha..

Alhamdulillah, kami semua selamat tiba di Glasgow safe and sound. Agak excited la sebab first time jejakkan kai ke UK ni. Cuaca agak sejuk. Kami disambut dengan hujan renyai2.. First week tu agak busy dengan registration bagai. Dengan uni la.. Dengan NHS la.. Kalau boleh, hari2 nak keluar pergi city explore kedai2 kat situ. Hehe..

Wahh, awal2 lagi kami dah dijemput ke Malaysian Glasgow Family Day. Sangat best sebab tak sangka ramai Malaysian kat sini. Aku main pijak2 belon tapi awal2 lagi dah kalah. Makan pun best, ada BBQ.. Ada sorang akak tu bawak ayam tandoori, memang layannn...

Jalan2 di Pollok Country Park. Oleh sebab pada awal2 semester kami belum lagi busy, maka selalu jugaklah duk google2 tempat mana yang best untuk dilawati di sekitar Glasgow ni. Pollok ni agak besar ye, kitorang habiskan 4-5 jam berjalan kaki di sekitar taman ni. Ada highland cows kat sini. Anjing pun banyak juga.. Asyik duk elak2 anjing2 je.. Mesti omputeh kat sini pelik..

Aku dikunjungi oleh seorang best friend dari Bristol which is Azri Marican. Dia ni memang tak sabar2 nak melawat Glasgow. Dia pernah cakap dia nak tunggu aku ada kat Glasgow dulu baru dia datang. Dah alang2 dia ada, kami pun pergi ke Edinburgh bersama classmates yang lain. First time ni keluar Glasgow. Hehehe.. Best jugak Edinburgh ni, souvenir dia murah2 compare to Glasgow. Entrance ke Edinburgh Castle agak mahal, so kami bergambar di luar je.. Terima kasih Zulaikha sebab bawa kami semua jalan2 dan juga bawak panini yang sedap! =)

Sekian sahaja Imbasan 2011 Part 1 ini.. Part 2 akan disambung di dalam post yang berikutnya sebab panjang sangat nanti.. =)

Imbasan 2011 (Part Two). Klik di sini.

Di Sepanjang Meeting dengan YB

2012-01-02T07:00:00.001+08:00

Selepas keletihan berjalan sakan di Zoo Edinburgh, tibalah giliran untuk bermesyuarat bersama YB Dato' SeriMohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz iaitu Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri. Semua pelajar tajaan JPA dan MARA dijemput untuk menghadiri mesyuarat ini. Walaupun pada mulanya, tiada wakil Glasgow nak pergi oleh sebab kelewatan membalas emel JPA, akhirnya 6 orang berjaya menghadirkan diri at the very last minute. Iyela, JPA hantar emel masa kitorang pergi Spain, of course tak sempat balas. Alhamdulillah JPA emel sekali lagi cakap boleh pergi. So, masa tu terus bincang2 siapa yang nak pergi..

Mesyuarat ini berlangsung di Mosque Kitchen yang terletak berhampiran dengan Edinburgh Mosque di Nicholson Square. Dekat je dengan city, boleh jalan kaki. Tapi oleh sebab terlajak naik bas, maka kami tersesat sampai ke satu tempat yang agak jauh, lalu kami naik teksi pula untuk membetulkan arah.

Wakil Glasgow terdiri daripada aku, Duwe, Kak Pah, Kak Long, Bee dan Elaine. Wah, nama semua nama samaran kan. Meriah budak2 Glasgow ni. Ramai jugak la yang hadir, tengok senarai attendance, ada la dekat 60 orang students. Majoriti dari Edinburgh yang pasti.

Mesyuarat bermula dengan kata-kata aluan dan kemudian sesi soal jawab bersama menteri. Agak rancak juga soalan2 yang ditanya. Mula2 Joash mengorak langkah bertanyakan tentang AUKU. Dekat 2-3 kali jugak la Joash bangun tanya soalan. Lepas tu ada soalan pasal hudud, censorship, pilihanraya, Sabah dan Filipinanya serta gay di Dublin. Motif isu gay pun nak dibincangkan?? Aku pun layan jela, sebab time tu dah sangat lapar, penat dan mengantuk. Mana taknya, berjalan seharian di zoo dan hanya lunch sebutir donat. Tak kenyang tau.. Nak tau isi lanjut pasal meeting ni? Aku pun tak ingat sangat, plus I'm not into politic so much. Tau gitu2 je.. Mungkin boleh tanya pada Kak Pah yang sering konsentrasi semasa meeting.

Selepas bertalu2 soalan ditanyakan, which is 2 jam kemudian, barulah kami dibenarkan makan. Makan secara buffet tapi kena beratur panjang tauuu... Alhamdulillah makanan semua cukup. Banyak juga lauk Pakistan yang disediakan, semuanya sedap2 belaka! Tapi aku makan sekali hadap je. Memang mula2 tu ambil makanan banyak2 terus. Lepas tu tak tambah dah. Sebelum makan tadi ada sesi photography dulu. Mula2 dengan students Edinburgh, lepas tu dengan non-Edinburgh yang ada beberapa kerat je.

Edinburgh

Non-Edinburgh - Glasgow, Aberdeen, Scottish Border, Ireland & Keele

Glasgow

Selepas habis makan2 semua, kami pun berangkat pulang ke Glasgow. Punya la payah nak pergi stesen Edinburgh Waverly sebab jalan ditutup untuk sambutan Hogmanay (New Year). Pastu Kak Pah tanya akak guard macam mana nak pergi stesen tu. Dia cakap kena lalu jalan belakang menuruni tangga spiral yang punyalah tinggi! Nasib baik tak sesat lagi...

Tiba di Glasgow dengan selamat. Dalam tren mula2 semua rancak berborak sambil mengudap2 kerupuk yang Kak Pah bagi. Lepas tu semua tertidur sampai High Street. Naseb baik aku dan Duwe tak tidur sebab takut terlepas stesen.

Balik bilik terus, ingatkan kalau rajin nak keluar semula tengok fireworks. Tetapi apakan daya, dek kerna kepenatan yang amat, sebelum jam 12 aku sudah pun melayari mimpi indah.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Goodbye 2011, welcome 2012!

Mudah-mudahan pada tahun yang baru ini, banyak amalan2 baik dapat dilaksanakan. Kurangkan aktiviti yang melaghakan dan jangan lupa study untuk masa depan.

*sorry gambar tak berapa clear, sebab orang lain yang snapkan.. *tetiba salahkan orang lain kan!* =/

Panda @Edinburgh Zoo

2012-01-02T05:08:00.000+08:00

This trip was totally a very last minute one. We were going to Edinburgh for a meeting with YB Dato' Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department. At first none of us wanted to go to this meeting, but after JPA emailed us for a second time, about 6 of us agreed to go.

In the morning, we planned to visit Edinburgh Zoo since it was a golden opportunity to visit this zoo at this time because of the Giant Panda. The pandas will be here for about a few months only. Actually we had checked the availability on the previous day, but it said that the time slots for panda viewing were all fully booked. I think we were lucky because during the ticket purchasing, the staffs told us that we could go to the 1.45pm slot. Without thinking much, we agreed. The entrance ticket to the zoo is £13 for students (inclusive of panda viewing). The normal price is £15.

We left Glasgow Queen Street on a train at 8.15 am and arrived at Haymarket station about 50 minutes later. The train tickets were very cheap because we got a Groupsave discount where 4 persons paid for 2 only. So we spent about £5.70 for a return journey. That was much cheaper than bus. From the Haymarket station, we took Lothian bus service number 26 to the zoo. Single journey costs about £1.30.

The zoo is very huge and the surface is quite hilly. It was like going on a hiking. We had to walked on hilly roads and also on muddy paths. The first animal that we viewed here was sealion. It was huge, but it spent most of its time swimming underwater. So it was quite rare to see it on the surface. Other animals located near the entrance were flamingos, primates and ostriches. We went further up to the sun bears area. There were two of them. We all got excited when we reached the tigers, jaguars and leopards area. They were fantastic and big.

We continued our journey to the safari-like area where we could see several zebras. I wonder why there are no giraffe and elephant around here. Maybe because of the climate. We sure got a few in National Zoo in Malaysia. Lions, anteaters, foxes and deers could be found around this area as well. The lions were quite fierce. The lion kept on roaring while the lioness was quite scary as well. By the way, the weather for today was a bit chilly with light rain but not as cold as usual.

I loved the penguins. There are many of them here. A lot more than Underwaterworld Langkawi. There are so cute and I felt like wanna kick them. They swim very fast. Some of the penguins were sleeping in standing position but some of them lied down. Then, some of them swam and showed us a bit of a show. Kinda cute and adorable although their place was full with whitish poops. There are a few species of penguins here and they all live together in the same place. One of the species has a very long yellow eyebrows. Looks kinda funny.

Then, it was our time to view the pandas. The queue was quite long when we reached the place. There are two pandas here named Tian Tian and Yang Guang respectively. One of them was sleeping with bamboo while the other one roamed around the glass room. There were so lazy and fat! Rasa nak peluk seekor2.. The guide gave us some info about the pandas; about their habitat, territory, mating and eating habits.

We finished our tour in the zoo with penguin parade. About 5 penguins were assigned to parade around the area with the help of their keepers. They are sure cute and jalan terkedek2... Nak culik seekor bawak balik boleh tak? =)

Before heading out, we dropped by the souvenir shop at the entrance. There was a lot of people in the shop. I managed to buy a magnet, a pin badge, a pen and a panda soft toy.

We took a bus back to the city for our next agenda which was a meeting with the minister and JPA..

This was my first time going to a zoo in UK. What I can say is that there are few differences between this zoo and National Zoo in Malaysia. The animals are different, some animals in Malaysia are not here. More penguins here. Obviously there is no panda in Malaysia. I think the zoo here is cleaner but the smell is barely the same. The entrance fee is of course cheaper in my country. =)

Another Winter Trip Day 2 - Nevis Range

2012-01-02T00:15:00.004+08:00

We had our breakfast at the dining area with the waffle and tuna that I brought from home. I had hot choc plus coffee as my drink. It's very convenient these drinks were provided for free. I think we were the earliest to wake this morning since all of our dorm mates were still in their deep slumber. We got prepared very carefully so that we didn't make any noise. During breakfast, the Spanish guy from our dorm also went down to online and have breakfast. This hostel is sure the best in Scotland. The staff was friendly even though he was a bit drunk.

We checked out the hostel at quarter past nine. We went directly to the same bus station as yesterday to take a bus to Nevis Range. Our plan for today was to play ski and sledge at Nevis Range. We bought two sledges yesterday. We took the 9.40 am Stagecoach bus (service 41) to reach there. It took 20 minutes from Fort William to Nevis Range. The weather was a bit rainy and cold like usual. According to our dorm mate yesterday, he told us that Fort William has the highest rainfall in UK. No wonder it rains everyday.

From Fort William to Nevis Range

We couldn't decided properly what should we play first for today. After discussing for a moment, we decided to play sledge first and later at noon we were planning to go down again to hire the ski equipment. That was our initial plan. The ticket for gondola + full day beginner area is £15. Only Beginner Area was opened today. The journey on the gondola to reach the top of the mountain took 15 minutes. As we were reaching the top, we got excited when seeing the snow there. Iyela, Glasgow dah lama tak snow kan.. Jadi jakun kejap...

As predicted, it was cold up there. Plus the wind was a little bit extreme. Awal2 lagi sledge dah melayang ditiup angin. We walked further up the mountain and saw a couple already started playing with their sledges. Without patience, Wanji played first followed by Anis. I was still busy capturing photos during that time. Then, suddenly Wanji told me that the sledge had cracked after he hit a rock. Ish3... But luckily we could still use it. I played several rounds before the wind went rough. Not just the wind, hail also fall accompanying the wind It was very painful when the ice hit me especially on my face. Sakit sangat, until I couldn't open my eyes properly. Then, I headed into the restaurant to take shelter. At that time, Anis and Wanji were lost in action. I didn't where were they at that time. After a moment, Wanji also went inside the restaurant.

When the wind had resolved a bit, we headed outside again to continue playing with our sledge. We tried different areas but the best was still at our initial place. We had our lunch at the restaurant. I ordered a cup of cappucino.

At 12.30 pm, we were planning to went down to hire the ski equipment for half day. We were so unlucky today because the gondola guy told us that if we went down, we wouldn't be allowed to go up again because of the strong wind. The place was closed for today and they tried to evacuate people as soon as possible. Takde rezeki nak main ski hari ni..

So, after performing our prayer at the gondola station, we went outside for the last time to make snowman. It was just a small snowman and we decorated it with our scarf, specs and beanie. The wind was still blowing strongly outside. After finished playing with our snowman, we took the gondola to go down the mountain. Sedih tau..

We spent the rest of the day touring Fort William. We walked to Ben Nevis Highland Centre to shop for more souvenirs. The shop is very big but I found out the souvenirs were repetitive. It was merely the same with other shops that we went before. I bought a couple of fridge magnets and a badge pin. We also dropped by a charity shop and ended up buying a novel.

We had dinner at Morrisons again. This time we tried different menu which was Vegetable Lasagna. As usual, the food here never failed to impress us. Sedap dan mengenyangkan! =)

Finally, this trip came to an end. We boarded our bus back to Glasgow at 7.10 pm. There were quite a lot people boarded the bus because it was almost full.

After 3 hours, we reached Glasgow. Safe and sound although we still haven't reach our goal to play ski. Gonna have to plan for another trip this year.

Another Winter Trip Day 1 - Fort William

2012-01-01T23:21:00.001+08:00

Just a day after Aleen's birthday party, I went up north to Fort William joined by Wanji and Anis. Yup, only three person travelled together this time, two were down with the fever. So I officially called this trip as 'Trip Jejoyah'. We had booked the bus tickets about a month ago and the price was very reasonably cheap, only £8 for a return journey.

The journey started from Glasgow Buchanan Bus Station and we arrived at Fort William Bus Station in less than 3 hours later. The weather was very bad today since the Met Officer had released a weather warning. Strong wind expected today. The journey to the north was quite challenging, we could heard the strong wind slammed the bus windows. And it was raining heavily too. It was horrible. But alhamdulillah, we safely reached our destination on time.

From Glasgow to Fort William

First, we went to Morrisons to grab some hot chocolate for breakfast with our own food brought from Glasgow. The Cadbury hot choc here was awesome. It was very rich in flavour. After a while when the rain had stopped, we headed outside and walked around the town. The town is quite small though. There are few rows of shops, a museum, hostels, hotels, restaurants and other buildings in the town. We first went into the Information Centre to find out what should we do for today. We bought a few souvenirs here as well. I bought a few postcards and a key chain. The lady suggested us to go to the West Highland Museum and we also asked for a bus route to Nevis Range tomorrow.

After getting sufficient information, we went to the museum but it was closed. Apekah? Info centre yang kurang tepat. Harus dipecat serta merta.. So we just took photos here and there before deciding to find our hostel. The Fort William Backpackers is located up on the hill on Alma Road. We took some time to search for it, and the weather made it more difficult. We managed to find it after phoning the hostel staff. The GPS and google map weren't much helpful.

We waited at the common room while waiting for the reception to opened. The place was very comfortable and warm. We took the chance to eat and pray here before receiving our room keys. Guests were allowed to use the kitchen here. They provide microwave, kitchenware and utensils for us to us. Plus, hot chocolate and coffee are free! Wanji buat 2 kali terus..

At night, we went out to town again hoping to find a place for dinner. At first we found a fish & chip restaurant but the price was totally ridiculous, £6 for fish & chips only. So we walked around first to find other restaurants. We ended up eating at Morrisons again. We tried the fish & chips. It was yummy and the best! The fish fillet was soft and the batter was crunchy. The peas (which I don't usually like) surprisingly tasted like corns. We were all so fulled tonight and very satisfied with the price of £4 including a drink. There was a promotion, 2 meals for £8.. Berbaloi2...

Back in the hostel, we had a chit chat in our room until 11 pm before we snoozed off... Zzzzzz~

Syukur tiada apa2 yang terjadi semasa perjalanan ke Fort William. Angin kencang memang mencemaskan! Dalam otak dah terbayang benda pelik2.. Alhamdulillah.. =)

Aleen's Belated Birthday

2011-12-31T07:33:00.002+08:00

Walaupun post ini agak lambat dan tertangguh, tapi nak tulis jugak. Yela, sempena tahun baru nanti, banyak benda yang nak dibelogkan. Selepas pulang dari Spain, masing2 agak busy dan ada plan sendiri, makanya sambutan birthday untuk Aleen pun ditangguhkan beberapa hari lewat dari jadual yang sebenar. Plus, Aleen sendiri pun tiada di Glasgow pada hari lahir beliau.

Kali ni birthday takde surprise2, tapi secara jemputan gitu. Budak perempuan masak main dishes, budak laki buat kuih sampingan je. Katanya Chef Kak Pah kita masak nasi minyak dengan ayam masak hitam. Hitam tetapi pedas! Aku pulak buat burger Malaysia. Alaaa, burger yang macam donat bulat dan diisi dengan sambal bilis dan timun tu. Tapi oleh sebab ikan bilis dah habis, aku pakai ayam je. Up skettt...

Jamuan bermula selepas Isyak, kira2 jam 8.30 pm camtu. Makanan sudah pun disusun rapi di atas meja semasa aku sampai. Tetamu2 lain seperti Wanli, Idris, Najhan & Dila sudah pun sampai terlebih dahulu.

Seperti biasa, selepas doa makan dibaca oleh birthday girl, kami semua menjamah dengan penuh selera tetapi sedikit kepedasan. Memang berpeluh2 masa makan tu. Menu hari ni selain makanan yang disebut di atas ialah karipap tuna, sambal kacang kuda, muffins, potato wedges, mochi, aiskrim dan minuman berkarbonat. Thanks to Hanafiah sebab bawak air sampai 4 botol.

Lepas tu nyanyi lagu untuk Aleen sambil dia potong kek. Potong sekali je, pastu orang lain sambung makan. Kek kali ini ialah marble cheesecake kot.. Kek coklat yang disalut cheese di atasnya. Sedap dan mengenyangkan.. Kek disambung potong oleh aku. Diorang kata aku terer potong kek. Apekah? Hahaha...

Group photo

Next, ada sesi pemberian hadiah. Aku pun bagi Aleen hadiah yang aku dah balut. Aleen bukak on the spot gitu. Segan I tau... Pastu orang lain posing2 bagi hadiah walaupun dah bagi hadiah awal2 dulu. Posing dengan kotak pun jadilah kan.. Sebagai kenangan gitu..

Comel tak kad buatan sendiri aku? >.<

Alhamdulillah.. Majlis berjalan lancar tanpa sebarang masalah, yang penting semua orang happy.. Next birthday, bulan Januari nanti..

Anyway..

Happy Belated Birthday Aleen!

Moga panjang umur, murah rezeki & happy2 di samping orang tersayang.

Ok, itu sahaja update untuk kali ni.

Next update will be about Fort William & Nevis Range trip.. Ski trip tanpa ski gitu.. =/

Winter Trip Day 4 - Granada

2011-12-24T04:27:00.000+08:00

Today was our last day in Espana. *cry cry*

Sedih woooo, rasa nak jalan2 lagi sampai Madrid & Barcelona, tapi apakan daya takde orang nak plankan.. Hihihi..

Screw this nonsense, back to writing... Our next city would be Granada. Granada is famous for its magical Alhambra, another one of the most important Islamic architecture in the past. Alhambra which means "the red one" is a palace and complex fortress built in the 14th century at the top hill of Assabica, Granada.

Alhambra

As usual, we departed from the hotel right after breakfast in hotel and reached at Alhambra within 5 minutes. Basically, Alhambra is located on the hill just behind our hotel. We were quite early today because there were not so many people at the entrance yet. Atiq gave us a brief explanation about the history of Alhambra before we entered the place. There are a few interesting place to visit inside Alhambra such as Nasrid Palace, Alcazaba, King Carlos Palace and Generalife. The ticket was included in the tour
.

As soon we entered the place, our tour guides guided us directly to Nasrid Palace. Our entrance time to Nasrid Palace was at 11 am and we must be punctual or else we couldn't enter the palace. Along the way, we visited the baths of the Mosque. So while waiting for 11 am, we visited Alcazaba first. It's a huge fortress with castle-like structure made from hard stones. Alcazaba is one of the oldest parts in the Alhambra and the military area of the complex. Inside, we could find the terrace of the Torre del Cubo, the northern wall-walk, the Plaza de las Armas, the terrace of Puerta de las Armas, Torre de la Vela and the Jardin de los Adarves.Every time we wanted to visit a building, the staff scanned our ticket. Hishh, leceh tau! We climbed a few towers here to see the panoramic view of full Granada city. The view indeed was great! We took several photos here before jumping to another towers. The highest tower had a bell on it and a few poles of flags as well.

After camwhoring here and there, we climbed down again to the front of Nasrid Palace. However, we still had about 15 minutes before we could enter the palace. So we rushed to King Carlos Palace which is situated just beside the palace. It is a circular building like a colosseum but it contains a few museums and exhibition hall in it.

At 11 am, we entered the Nasrid Palace at last. Nasrid Palace was constructed with three different palaces which were built in different periods. There were Mexuar Palace, Comares Palace and Palace of the Lions. Nasrid Palace is full with Islamic architecture with the carving of Arabic words. According to our guide, the carving was actually a poetry created by the ruler to praise Allah and the prophet. It's simply amazing. It's good when the real carvings were preserved and we weren't allowed to touch the walls. Kecoh la guard tu, baru tersandar sekejap kat dinding pun terus kena tegur.. However, we were a bit unlucky because the Palace of the Lions was under construction that day. They were repairing the lion fountain at the compound. So, when we took photos, we could the the construction people.. Haishhh... Kacau daun betul.. Here, most of my friends' cameras were out of memory space. So I helped them capturing photos..

Our last destination in Alhambra was Generalife. This palace is located further up the hill and consists of lower gardens, the Palace of the Generalife and the upper gardens. The gardens were amazing, with the trees trimmed forming a maze-like arrangement. I loved the greenery so much! After taking photo of all of these palaces, I found that they all looked merely the same with the square courtyards filled with a long rectangular pond and fountains.

Before heading to our bus, we dropped by the souvenir shop to buy some keepsake. The usual stuffs that I bought would be postcards and magnets. The price was quite pricey though.

Granada City

It's a walking city tour this time. After spending much time walking in Alhambra, now we had to walk again to find lunch, mosque and shops. We got lost for a while but finally managed to find a Moroccan street. This street is full with Moroccan restaurants as well as souvenir shops. We were split into groups so that people didn't have to wait for so long for their food. Kak Mona's troop bought kebab from a restaurant at the end corner of the street. I bought Shawarma (€3.00) and Shish Kebab (€3.50). One for now and one for dinner later. Others bought Royal Kebab and Pita Salmon. I like the Shawarma, it tasted limey like tandoori chicken. Slurrpppp~

There is mosque here. It's very convenient because we could pray here. After we prayed, we continued with our shopping. Since today was our last day, we went all out in buying the souvenirs. Takde berkira-kira dah, beli je apa yang dimahukan. Along the Moroccan street, the souvenirs were more expensive than the ones outside the street. So after buying a few expensive things here, we went outside to the main road. Here, the souvenirs were A LOT more CHEAPER! Fridge magnets and key chains for €1.50! Mencanak-canak perasaan ingin membeli belah. I really bought a lot! Magnets, key chains, snow globes, t-shirt, coasters and more postcards!

For the very first time, we all reached the bus on time which was at 5 pm. This was because we had flights to catch in Malaga Airport which is 2 hours away from Granada. During the journey to Malaga, I had a short nap before En. Fuad, Atiq and Haikal gave the finale speech for the trip. It's quite sad to finish our tour because I really want more. All good things must come to an end. I really missed this tour a lot! =(

Granada mementos

Our flight to London Gatwick was the last one for today. Others who came from East Midland boarded their flight earlier than us. We bid goodbye to each other and seek forgiveness for all our our wrongdoings whether intentional or unintentional.

Last minute souvenirs from Malaga Airport

We spent our night at Gatwick Airport before continuing our journey back to Glasgow on the following day.

********

Feedback:

At first I thought that this tour was quite expensive. £320 for 4 days / 3 nights is quite pricey for students like us. However, as we started the tour, it become more worthy and I think the money was spent reasonably on the transport and accommodations. The hotels weren't the cikai-cikai ones, there were the best so far. I know we had another option to travel on our own with less budgets and we could stay in cheaper hostels, but travelling in a group of 9 or 10 is sure difficult to manage unless we took a travel package like this.

Overall, the accommodations was superb. The hotel are more than 3 stars quality. The breakfast was okay. The transport by coach was also okay, except the public bus in Gibraltar. Me no likey!

This tour covered most of the important historical places. We did missed a few but it way nothing compared to the magical Alhambra and the great Cordoba Mosque. I felt satisfied with the service provided the Perantau Holidays. The staffs were friendly and informative too. Terima Kasih! Thanks a lot! Jazakallahu khair! Gracias! You are the best! =)

I brought back a lot of souvenirs too! 22 fridge magnets, 27 postcards and countable other stuffs as well. Puas hati kau... =p

Basically everything that I brought back from Andalucia.. Adios~

Winter Trip Day 3 - Cordoba

2011-12-23T23:43:00.001+08:00

Flipping itinerary...

Flip..

Flip...

Alright, today I'm gonna write about my third day at Cordoba, Espana. After flipping the itinerary I found out that we didn't actually visit all of the places stated in there. Ermmm.. It's okay, as long as we visited the main attractions in Cordoba which were Cordoba Mosque and Madinah al-Zahrah.

Instead of going to Cordoba Mosque first, we shifted the plan to visit Madinah al-Zahrah first thing in the morning. After breakfast in hotel, we moved to Madinah al-Zahrah which is located about 30 minutes from our hotel. But before that, Wanji and I had a little walk outside the hotel entrance to mail our postcards in the yellow mailbox. Fuhhh, lega dah pos poskad.. Kalau tak, menggagau kat mana nak cari mailbox lagi.. Alhamdulillah jumpa dekat depan hotel. =)

We arrived at Madinah al-Zahrah museum a little bit earlier because it wasn't opened yet. It opened at 10 am and while waiting, we took photos with the olive trees around the museum. There are a few rows of olive trees inside the museum compound although there are a lot more outside the gates. These olives were black and according to Wanji, they taste bitter. Nasib baik aku tak try.. When the museum opened a few minutes later, we entered the white underground building and paid entrance fee (€1.50). Since both of us entered the museum a bit later than other, we roamed around the place first before entering the auditorium for a 15-minute video presentation. The video was about the history of Madinah al-Zahrah and the Caliph who first inspired the building of this fantastic place. Ermm, I'm not so good in telling history. So you can google it yourselves.. The museum exhibits a lot of the remains of Madinah al-Zahrah masterpiece. From the stones, coins, vases and a lot more.

Madinah al-Zahrah is located on the hill just behind the museum. We took the public bus to reach there. It cost €2.10 for a return ticket and the journey took just 5 minutes. It's very sunny today, but the coldness was still there. The sun shone very brightly today until I had to adjust my camera due to the lighting. The original relics of Madinah al-Zahrah is still visible at least with the stone walls and shapes. The arches still maintain their positions. Madinah al-Zahrah used to be a palace for the ruler, which was the Caliph during Islamic era. Other than that, it also accommodated several rows of rooms, four pools and also a mosque at the side.

By noon, we all gathered at the entrance to take the bus down to the parking area at the museum. Our next destination would be Cordoba Mezquita (Cordoba Mosque). It took half an hour to reach the city back. The mosque is located somewhere in the city. We walked across River Genil Bridge to the Cordoba Mosque area. There are a lot of souvenir shops and restaurants surrounding the place. Plus, there are two or three halal restaurants nearby. Our konco2 decided not to follow En. Fuad but instead we asked his permission to eat at other restaurant in order to prevent overcrowded at one place. Moreover, we still had to find place for prayer. En Fuad brought the others to Restaurant El Sultan while 9 of us headed to Restaurante Teteria Hammam.

Restaurante Teteria Hammam is located besides a few souvenir shops and it was quite easy to find. It serves Moroccan food. Although the food was kinda pricey with the price more than €10 for each meal, we still continued to dine in here because we had no other place to go. I believe the other restaurant also sell at the same price. I bought the most expensive food among my other friends which was Roasted Lamb with Honey. Ahh, lantaklah! Janji sedap & berbaloi! Indeed it was! Other meals that we ordered were Halal Chicken Tajine, Pastella Bastilla Fish and and Fish Brick. We spent almost €20 for food. Cuk cuk cuk... At night, there was supposed to be a belly dance performance here. But luckily we didn't come at night. Rosak mata tau nanti. By the way, the waiter was so kind, he allocated us a room upstairs for us to pray. Gracias!

Wanji called En. Fuad to ask where to meet but he didn't answer. When we were busy shopping for souvenir, luckily En. Fuad called him back. He asked us to meet at Cordoba Mosque compound to distribute the tickets. We were the last group (again) to enter the mosque. As soon as we entered the mosque (now church), my heart felt sad. This place used to be a mosque of a great Islamic kingdom, but now the Muslims aren't allowed to pray here anymore. The government had did some modification to the mosque turning it into a church. However, the original Arabic calligraphy inside the mosque was still maintained and preserved.

After finishing our tour inside the mosque, we continued to hop into several souvenir shops very quickly. Grab here, grab there and then paid. The time was not enough as usual. Then we returned to the bus across the bridge to continue our journey to Granada tonight.

The bus journey took more than two hours to reach Granada. Along the way, we had stopped once at the service area for coffee and toilet break. I bought a couple of chocolates and a bottle drink.

Our accommodation for tonight was quite luxurious. The hotel was very modern and beautiful. The hotel name is Macia Real de La Alhambra Hotel which is located at the foot of Alhambra hill. Plus, we got to access free wifi without restriction. Alhamdulillah... *wink wink*

After having dinner with the food we brought from Glasgow which were basically buns and tuna we had a little tour around the hotel to take some photos. A few minutes later, tetttttt my camera died. Cis!

Hasil tangkapan hari ini.. =)

Okay, that's all for the third day. Even though we only visited two places today, but the historical impact was very deep.

Winter Trip Day 2 - Sevilla

2011-12-23T18:47:00.001+08:00

Hola!

Day two gonna be more exciting and tiring at the same time because we had to do a lot of walking. Especially around the Seville (English) or Sevilla (pronounced Seviyya in Spanish) city. Sevilla is the capital city of Andalucia. It is ranked as the fourth largest city in Spain.

Early in the morning, at 7 am we had our breakfast downstairs at the hotel cafeteria. I had a couple slices of toast, a bowl an cereal, fruit juice and a cup of cappuccino. Then, we checked out at 8 am heading to the city centre. Bye bye Holiday Inn! You were so comfy and amazing..)

According to our tour guide, we would be having a slight change in the itinerary. We were going to visit Plaza Espana first. Plaza Espana was historic. It is a semi circle building with great designs. There is one big fountain at the centre of the front compound and there a few bridges crossing the small waterway. Actually, we could hire a boat to tour the place but we had no enough time. I preferred walking on my own to capture photos around the monumental building. What was so interesting about Plaza Espana is that it was used as the filming location for Star Wars II - Attack of the Clones. So, I'm going to download this movie to watch the scene later when I'm back in Glasgow. We were given 45 minutes to spent our time here. Plus, there were a few stalls of souvenir shop where we bought a few fridge magnets as mementos. The magnets were sold at €3 each and 2 for €5. Most of us bought two obviously. =)

Scenes from Star Wars:

We had lunch at Restaurante Petra located at a very narrow street. It's quite common that the street are narrow in Spain. Most buildings were build very close to each other. Since the restaurant was full because we arrived a bit late due to shop hopping, we sat at the table outside the restaurant. We ordered Chicken Shwarma at €4.50. It was the fastest meal to be served compared to rice dishes. I wrote my postcards while waiting for the kebab to be served. The restaurant staffs were so kind, the provide us space for us to pray. As soon as we finished eating and praying, we asked permission from En. Fuad to walk around the city on our own because others still haven't finished eating. So we didn't want to waste time waiting for them.

We hopped from one souvenir shops to another. We could observe a few price differences between them. I bought more postcards, magnets, miniature, decorative plate and snow globes. I think I spent more than €30 buying souvenirs here. Plus, I bought a sheet of stamps for my postcards. Luckily there was one shop selling the stamps because so far, I didn't see any post office nearby. By the way, the weather was still cold today at around 16-18 degree C.

We met the others at Cathedral of Seville and Giralda Tower. Giralda Tower used to be a minaret but was converted to bell tower for the cathedral when the Christian took over Sevilla hundreds years ago. We didn't enter this place, just took photos with the medieval architectures.

Next to the cathedral, there is Real Alcazar. The entrance fee for adult is €7.50, but for students it was just for €2. That's a huge difference so we entered it even though it's quite late already. Real Alcazar like other building that we would visit later are all former Islamic building. It served as the royal palace. The government still maintains the Islamic architecture by preserving the carving and the building itself. On the way out, there is a souvenir shop that we didn't missed to enter. I bought a few postcards, a set of coasters, and a badge. We were the last group that leave the building. En Fuad and Haikal already waited for us outside.

We walked in a fast pace to Plaza De Toros which is located near the riverside. It is a bull fight arena but we had no time to enter it because of time constrain. I really wanted to see the arena though. The tour guide said that the bull fight gonna be forbidden next year because it's too barbaric. To see the bull fight match, the ticket might cost around €100. That's so .......

Along the riverside, we walked towards Torre de Oro (Gold Tower). The tower is located just beside the Guadalquivir river and used to function as a watchtower in the past in order to control access into Sevilla. After taking our group photos here, we headed to Restaurante Halal to buy take-away dinner. I bought Donner Kebab (€3.50) and a can of drink.

After two hours of journey by coach, we finally arrived at Cordoba. Tonight, we would be staying at Eurostars Las Adelfas, Cordoba. Plus, I saw something at the hotel entrance. It's a mailbox! So that night, Wanji and I wrote our postcards and put stamps on them so that we could post it tomorrow morning after breakfast. =)

The hotel was very comfortable and quite cold. The marble floor made the night even colder. I couldn't place my feet on the floor for too long because it was very very cold. One of the things that I like about this hotel was that it provides free wifi. But not too free because after an hour, I couldn't access it anymore. Cis! Cis! Luckily I managed to check in my Foursquare and update my blog through mobile. =)

What I bought as souvenirs today.

- fridge magnets €2.00 - 3.00 each

- key chains €2.50 each

- Giralda Tower miniature €4.00

- deco plate €2.50

- postcards €0.20-0.50 each

- snow globes €2.5

- coasters €4.00 (pack of 6)

Alhamdulillah, second day had passed. It was fun and enjoying buying a lot of souvenirs for myself and for my friends as well. We managed to visit a lot of places today, compared to yesterday and learned more about Islamic history. Tomorrow we were gonna visit Cordoba Mosque and Madinat az-Zahra. Need to restore our energy for tomorrow's agenda.

Adios~

Winter Trip Day 1 - Gibraltar

2011-12-23T08:06:00.003+08:00

Finally, after waiting for more than 2 hours for the photos to finish transferring from SD card to my hard disk, I got the chance to start writing about my recent trip to Andalucia, Spain (Espana in Spanish). I took A LOT of photos and videos during my trio this time. They almost used up all the 16GB space in the card!

For the first time in UK, we did not travel by our own. Instead we joined a travel tour organised by Perantau Holidays. Plus, travelling on our own with 8 others in a group might not be a good idea. That's quite a big number. I still can accept if less than 5 person travel together as it would be more convenient.

This 4 days/3 nights tour package fee was £299 plus £20 for participants who came from Glasgow. It includes return flight tickets, accommodation, transport, entrance fees to Cordoba Mezquita and Alhambra and 3-day breakfast.

Our flight (Easyjet) from Glasgow to Malaga took less than 3 hours. As soon as we touched down, we waited at the arrival area and saw our tour leader En. Fuad waiting for us at there. We were the last group as the other participants from other parts of UK were already waiting for us in the bus. According to En. Fuad, the total number of participants for this tour is 59 pax. Apart from Glasgow, other participants came from Sheffield, Essex and Bristol. Besides En. Fuad, there were two others Perantau Holidays staffs; Atiq and Haikal. Atiq was the one who talk and gave a lot of information about the places that we were going to visit while Haikal was more to an usher-er. By the way, the time difference between UK and Spain is one hour (Spain is one hour earlier than UK).

Our main agenda for the first day was Gibraltar tour. It took two hours from Malaga to Gibraltar via Marbella. I really hoped the bus would stop at Marbella because if that so, we could dropped by Hard Rock Cafe Marbella to buy some t-shirts. =(

Gibraltar used to be a part of Spain but remained as one of UK territory till today. They even used Pound Sterling as their currency and they have their own coins and notes. Gibraltar airport is listed in the Top 5 of the most dangerous airport in the world because the airport track and traffic road cross each other. Seremmmmm~

We had to walked through immigration check point before entering Gibraltar. The weather was cold today but I guess Glasgow is even colder. We waited for the public bus at the bus stop. The bus is free since today is Sunday. The tour bus was not allowed to enter Gibraltar so we had to take public bus to roam around the city. Our first destination was Upper Rock (Rock of Gibraltar). It is a significant landmark in Gibraltar and is a must visit attraction not to be missed out. We ride the cable car (£7.50/pax for group price) up to the Upper Rock. The temperature at 412 metre high was even colder with occasional breeze. Not to be missed, there were a lot of monkeys up there. Don't forget to hide all of your food or they will grab it from you. Other tourists were very busy evading the monkeys. Lari sana, lari sini...

We spent few minutes enjoying the panoramic view created by Allah. Subhanallah, the scenery is very pretty and stunning. Up at the observation area, we could see 3 countries; Gibraltar, Spain and Morocco. Morocco is just 15 km away from Gibraltar. That's quite near. If you wanna use the binocular, it costs £1/€1. Rasa nak lepak kat situ lama2, but the time constrain made us do everything very quickly. Look how time is so jealous with us!

As usual, after taking a lot of photos of the beautiful scenery we attacked the souvenir shop. They sell the usual type of souvenirs including fridge magnets, key chains, postcards, t-shirts and many others. I bought a few postcards and tie pins for my keepsake.

Our next stop was Europa Point. We took the public bus to reach here. Here lies Ibrahim al-Ibrahim mosque (King Fahad bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud mosque) and a white-red Europa Point Lighthouse. We performed our prayer here before continuing taking more photos at the seaside and lighthouse (and the big Europa Point signboard as well). There's an incident occurred here that really consumed much of our time until we had to cancel our plan to Gibraltar town to buy souvenirs. Tsk.. tsk.. tsk..

We reached back the immigration point at dusk. Once we boarded our tour bus, En. Fuad came with the food that we ordered from him at Europa Point. We continued our journey to Algeciras to check in there. It took approximately one hour. Our accommodation for tonight was Holiday Inn Express Algeciras. Atiq and Haikal distributed the food at the hotel lobby. I had Lamb Kebab (£3.20) as my dinner.

Then, off to bed.

Only managed to buy a few postcards and tie pins. Tak sempat beli fridge magnets.. Sedih kan? Cuk cuk cuk...

Alhamdulillah, the first day was okay even though it wasn't as smooth as planned. However, it did teach us about patience. Sabar itu separuh daripada iman..

Wordless Wednesday #4

2011-12-21T13:42:00.001+08:00

Cordoba

Winter Trip Preview

2011-12-20T05:34:00.001+08:00

Hola!

I'm currently on my winter break and our destination for this time is Andalucia, Spain. Andalucia is the southern part of Spain and our tour will includes Gibraltar, Seville, Cordoba and Granada.

Gibraltar tour was quite short. We visited Upper Rock which has a fantastic view. From above the hill, we could see Gibraltar, Spain and also Morocco. Morocco is situated just 15 km away from our point. Gibraltar is actually still under UK because it uses Pound Sterling as their currency.

We just arrived at Cordoba today. We had a tour around Seville during the day. We visited Plaza Espana, Plaza De Toro and other historical sites as well. Seville is one of the main city in Andalucia. I bought quite a lot of souvenirs here.

We are going to visit attractions in Cordoba tomorrow. I'm very looking forward to visit Cordoba Mosque because it holds so many history especially in Islamic world.

Alhamdulillah, so far the trip was okay except there was one particular racism circumstance that occurred yesterday.. :/

See you soon!

*p/s: just finished writing up all the postcards that I will be sent anytime from now...

Cheesy Birthday

2011-12-16T21:15:00.005+08:00

Salam Hari Lahir..

As you have seen in Facebook, my friends and I had just recently celebrated our beloved classmate Cipak's birthday. Her birthday was on Wednesday actually but we had Inter Professional Learning workshop on that day. However, we managed to surprised her with a cake (baked by me and Wanji) at around 12 am. It's a surprised surprise since I didn't tell the girls (except a few) about it earlier. We could hear the girls screamed inside the house because of the surprise.

So that midnight we had a sweet and fattening food. We had the chocolate cake, two tubs of ice creams and cookies. It was just a simple and quick surprise because we did barge into the house during their discussion, so we did not want to hold them for so long. After taking photos and I handed my present to Cipak we headed back to our floor.

As promised, we were having another proper birthday feast for Cipak on Thursday. This time we cooked properly and invited some other friends as well. It took place at the girls house again. The boys prepared mini-burgers. In the house, the girls served macaroni & cheese and baked potatoes. Farrah brought a couple of blue bubble pudding while Anis served us with creme caramel. We got another another cake tonight, I think it was a cheesecake made by Amirah. Faiz and Farrah both brought the same boxes of chocolates. One for Cipak and one to be shared. I think at least four food contained cheese which were mac&cheese, baked potatoes, burgers and cheesecakes. I felt full even though I haven't yet finished my meal. Eating too much cheese could really make your belly full. However, it was fun last night. With the talking, eating and laughing.. =)

Kepada Syifaa'/Cipak/Kak Pah/Rachel Crow??

Selamat Hari Lahir yang ke dua belas.

Semoga panjang umur, murah rezeki dan berjaya dunia & akhirat.

Gambar kenangan:

Wednesday

Thursday

Alhamdulillah.. What a night.. I hope Kak Pah enjoyed the party that we arranged just for her...

Next birthday is coming up in the next few weeks.. Be prepared! =)

Glasgow Christmas Market @St. Enoch Square

2011-12-11T06:03:00.001+08:00

Didn't buy anything here. Just came to take photos. =)

Oh! It's Snowing! Compilation Video

2011-12-08T16:55:00.001+08:00

A compilation of snowy videos that I recorded during the first snow & around Glasgow on Ice, George Square

I'm so loving the snow!

However, recently the snow has been washed away by the rain. The grasses are back to green.
So we couldn't play sliding, sledging and snow fighting anymore.

Plus, the weather is a bit horrible today. With the class cancelled and hurricane is coming..

the rain & the windy

*swoosshhhh swoooshhhh*

Oh! It's Snowing! Fun & Joy

2011-12-05T09:17:00.001+08:00

Oh-em-gee! Just one hour after I wrote a blogpost about our 'jakun'ness about snow, a blizzard dropped by. Okay, itu tipu. Snow were falling down quite heavily after that. Without hesitation, I changed my pants, wore my coat, grabbed my camera and wore my shoes to go outside to enjoy the beautiful moment.

The JBC-ers also went out to cause havoc launching snowball fight and playing slides at the slope in front of JBC. The locals also went out to play snow though a they came bit later. The scenery was a pure beauty. The snow covers the grasses, trees, blocks and the pathways turning them into a white winter wonderland or playground should I say. Really pretty and exciting to see.

Few minutes later, we messed up with the pureness of the white snow turning the grass to dirt. We korek2 the snow turning it into snowball and throw at others. We were sliding by using the shovels which we took from the toilets. This is all seniors' idea. That's quite helping. The locals played hard I see.. They attacked us out of sudden. Revenge is coming okay.. Siap kau! Pasni aku bubuh racun kat dalam snowballs aku.. Hua hua hua...

At first we played in front of JBC, but later when there were to many people there we moved to the back of the block. Haaaa, no ones here. So lucky! We played more sliding here, without the shovel this time. Wetting our butts with the ice cold snow. It was fun, enjoying and memorable moment of my life so far. Plus, tonight we got the chance to see a 'life show'. Cuba teka apa dia?... XD

More photos from tonight JBCers-gone-wild:

Okay, that's for tonight. Let's hope tomorrow will be better InsyaAllah.. =)

Oh! It's Snowing!

2011-12-05T07:11:00.001+08:00

041211

It's a date that should be written in everybody's diary because it marked the falling of the first snow in Glasgow. Eh, bajet semua orang ada diari je kan.. Diari Hatimu ada la.. *terbatuk2 Siti Nurhaliza kalau terbaca ni* Everybody around here especially those who lived in James Blyth Court *including me of course* became so extremely excited *plus jakun!* when the snow poured down today.

The first snow actually fell in the late morning around 11 am but it's very light. As the day progress, more snow came down alternately with rain. Just now *around 10.45 pm* the snow fell down again, with more snows! I could see some of my course mates went out to enjoy the snow. Here are the photos that I captured before it went gone.

Morning

a very light snow with rain

Night

more snow!

*must use flash to see the snow*

However, the snow only lasted for about 10-15 minutes only before it's gone. Kejap je, tak puas.. Tak sempat keluar pun!

Dear Mr ~~Taxi~~ Winter,

Please be nice to us this year. Don't get too rough okay?

Love ya..

Breaking Dawn

2011-12-04T04:54:00.001+08:00

Finally, got the chance to watch The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 movie after breaking free from my hectic university life. Studying for class test really limits my room for entertainment. Since today I was quite free, I went to the cinema with Anis and Fyruz.

The weather wasn't very nice today, with continuous rain all day long. So we had to walk under the rain soaking ourselves to the city centre. We had our lunch at The Bistro which is located near the cinema. We all had double cheeseburgers because it was the easiest food to eat without messing up with our hands. After satisfying our hungry bellies, we headed straight to Cineworld.

The show started at 3 pm, but as usual the 'real' show started about half an hour after because of the commercials and movie trailers. The movie started out with a lot of romantic scenes, especially after the wedding of Edward and Bella. I mean, really really too much! No wonder it's rated as 12A.. As the movie progress, the scenes became more serious towards the end. With the conflict of Jacob and his werewolf pack, Bella getting pregnant and many more. However, the ending was quite sad when Bella died after the labour devastating both Edward and Jacob. We're looking forward to watch the second part which will be released at the end of next year. Lama lagi tuuuu.... :( For me, I have no problem with the storyline since I've read the novel before. So I know what will happen next.

We walked back to our hall in rain again and in the coldness of the night.. Brrrrrr~

Dah lama tak tengok wayang, it feels really good... =)

Snow oh snow.. When will you fall down??

Wordless Wednesday #3

2011-12-01T00:26:00.001+08:00

A Gift From Heart

2011-11-29T06:59:00.001+08:00

Ewaaah, tetiba tajuk post kali ni macam agak emosi dan sentimental sikit. But that's not the point. Tonight I'm going to write about things that have become the norms among my friends *but not all of them* and also myself, which is about gifts and presents. Yeah, this topic might be simple, but not all people could deeply understand it.

Well, for me gifts and presents are all about things that can make the ones who received it feels happy and joy, that includes family and friends. It is undeniable that people will be extremely happy when they received something from you either as gifts or souvenirs, cheap or expensive stuffs, small or big presents and it doesn't really matter what you gave them as long as the intention came from your heart. Not something that you want to boast about. I'm happy when someone gave me something. And I'm happy too when seeing people wore or used stuffs that I gave them. =)

When any of my friends' birthday is coming soon, I will be very excited in searching for the suitable birthday present for he/she/them. Not too perfect, but an ideal gift should be something that they need, they like, or they want. You can ask them directly what they want, but if you want to plan something surprise for them, you can ask from their close friends such as room mates, house mates & 'BFFs' about what they really really want. Sometimes it works well for me, but sometimes it is quite difficult because others might not know what they really wants.

I always have my own budget in buying gifts. If in Malaysia, I keep the budget around RM10-20, but it can go higher if it is for someone special like best friend or ehem ehemm... But here in Scotland, I have to make a new budget since the currency here is ~~quite~~ very high. Maybe under £10 should be ideal. *RM50 kau untuk seorang, matilaaaaa*. If I bought a gift which is way too under the budget, I'll usually add something else like chocolates, cards etc.

Since two of my close friends' birthday are coming soon in December, I already started planning what to buy for them. Yes, it is a very thoughtful of me. *ecece, perasan gila*, despite I will be having a Drug Delivery System class test this Friday. Online sites such as Ebay and Amazon.uk might be helpful if you are lazy to go out for a shopping spree, especially during this raining season *the snow is very shy to fall down early this year, so we have rain instead*. Plus, they might have winter sales coming down soon. Things will get cheaper too! I heard that there is a Christmas market in the city. I still haven't got the chance to see the place.

No need to be so stingy in life. Life is short and you might want to do something good to people around you. If you friends can give you birthday presents, why not you? You could spend hundreds of ringgit or pound to buy gadgets and cool stuffs but you never gave your friends any presents? That's pathetic..Bukankah tangan yang memberi itu lebih baik daripada tangan yang menerima? If I translate it, it will sound like this "giving is better than receiving". Betul tak?

tahun depan nak hadiah best2 boleh tak? =p

By the way, happy studying peeps! Winter breaks is coming in 3 weeks time! =)

InsyaAllah we'll do well in the test if we practice "usaha, doa & tawakkal" well..

Cheers!

Salam Maal Hijrah 1433H

2011-11-27T00:56:00.001+08:00

Salam Maal Hijrah diucapkan kepada family dan rakan2 sekalian..

Semoga tahun ini kita dapat laksanakan beberapa pembaharuan dalam hidup kita serta dapat lebih lagi mendekatkan diri kepada Allah swt..

Satu Muharram Detik Permulaan
Perkiraan Tahun Islam Hijrah
Perpindahan Nabi dan Umat Islam
Dari Kota Makkah ke Kota Madinah

Atas Keyakinan dan Iman Yang Teguh
Kaum Muhajirin dan Ansar Bersatu
Rela Berkorban Harta dan Nyawa
Demi Menegakkan Islam Tercinta

Hijrah Itu Pengorbanan
Hijrah Itu Perjuangan
Hijrah Itu Persaudaraan
Hijrah Membentuk Perpaduan

Oleh Itu Mari Semua
Kita Sambut Maal Hijrah
Tingkatkan Semangat Tegakkan Syiar Islam
Untuk Sepanjang Zaman

Doa Akhir & Awal Tahun

sila klik di sini..

Splendid Saturday #1

2011-11-26T21:39:00.001+08:00

The Japanese album arrived today, while The Boys album arrived few weeks ago.. Great addition to my collection at home... =D

These lovely Pepero are bought from Chung Ying today! Stocks for winter perhaps? XD

*munch munch*

Fabulous Friday #1

2011-11-25T21:27:00.001+08:00

As I checked my mailbox after coming back from the morning class, I found this postcard sent by my traveling friend, Helmi. He had been recently traveled to Seoul, South Korea. Nice is it?

Thank you very much buddy! Next time, send me more postcards ok? =)

Wordless Wednesday #2

2011-11-23T22:46:00.001+08:00

My Lebb

2011-11-22T04:12:00.001+08:00

Baru lepas korek2 gambar kat Lockerz kak Kyra.. and jumpa gambar my lebb yang comel2 ini.. =)

Comel tak my lebb I ni?? hihihi...

Arissa & Imani, uncle rindulah kat korang berdua.. Dah la comel, buatkan uncle lagiii rindu!

Mobile Blogging #1

2011-11-21T04:40:00.001+08:00

Takde mood nak buat apa sekarang. Walaupun intro tak siap lagi, tapi still boleh buang masa lagi.. Insaflah wahai diriku..
Haishh...
*sedang baring atas katil sambil memikirkan banyak perkara & blogging via Galaxy Tab*
Meja dibiarkan tanpa orang...

Paintball

2011-11-20T20:19:00.001+08:00

Despite of our hectic university life, my housemates and I managed to steal some time to play paintball yesterday. We have to do our introduction writing for our research project which need to be submitted within 5 days. Luckily I have started writing a bit so I have less worry about it.

We gathered in front of University of Glasgow at 8.30 am and boarded our bus there. This paintball event was organised by Glasgow University Malaysian Society (GUMS) and they also invite some Strathclyde University students to make the event merrier. However, not so many people joined this event, only 14 of us were in the bus. I think this might be because Stratclyde University Malaysian Society (SUMSOC) had organised the same event few weeks ago so people didn't want to come and play again.

Delta Force Paintball is located somewhere near the Glasgow Airport in Paisley. About 20-30 minutes drive from Glasgow. The game fee is £13 inclusive of 50 paintballs, a suit and a gun. We brought our own lunch for today. 14 of us were sorted into two groups; orange and white. We were mixed with other players as well, mostly locals. There were a lot of kids playing too, but in different teams. Wanji, Duwe, Joe and me were in the orange team.

We started our game at around 10 am up until 3.30 pm. Our first game was kinda difficult. It took place in pyramid setting. Since this was our first game, we were still blur during this game. However, the result turned out to be a draw. Second game was quite interesting. It took place in a forest settings. We played two parts: first attacking and later defending. It's a draw as well. We missed the third game because we had to perform our Dhuhr and Asr prayer plus lunch time. Our team mates said that it's a draw as well. We purchased extra paintballs because the initial 50 weren't enough to last until the final game. Fourth game was in the open space barrel area. This time we won despite having controversy during the first round. The fifth game back in the forest but different area. We had to conquer several huts in order to win. Sadly, we were heavily beaten 5-0. After this game, we cleaned up ourselves to return home. There was a sixth game actually, but we left the locals to play because it's nearly dark.

Well, it was very "paint-full" getting hit by the bullets. Seriously, it was. The bullets gave several bruises on my arms and legs. However, the game was joyful and I did enjoyed playing it. The last time I played paintball was 6 years ago in Perlis.

paintball leftovers..

Back in Glasgow, Nuaim came by and brought rice with several duck dishes. It was yummehhhh... Alhamdulillah... =d

itadakimas~

rice with various duck dishes

Wordless Wednesday #1

2011-11-17T03:20:00.001+08:00

Bubur nasi Kak Pah.

Slurrrppp~

Nottingham Games 2011

2011-11-14T23:49:00.001+08:00

Alright, after Edinburgh Games which was held few weeks ago I joined another trip to Nottingham for Nottingham Games pulak. Reason? Not for sport again, just to hang around taking photos.

Nottingham is situated further down from Glasgow which consumed 6 hours journey by bus. Luckily University of Glasgow and University of Strathclyde had join venture to organise a bus trip together so we could go at a cheaper price. The ticket cost £28 plus £2 membership for Malaysian Society. The fee includes one meal (sandwich and mineral water). This trip was also joined by my housemates Wanji & Duwe, Hanafiah, Aleen, Bee, Kaklong, Najhan and a few of my batchmates and juniors as well. We left Glasgow at around 1.00 am and reached Nottingham at 7.30 am after series of stops along the way. There was a drunk kid in the bus yielding a nasty vomit twice during the journey. Yuxxx~ *sesak nafas*

It was colder in Nottingham to my surprise. Even colder than Glasgow. It's cold and damp. Tonnes of Malaysian came from all over UK and Ireland. The games organised were futsal, netball, badminton, table tennis, basketball and many others. Wanji played 5-side futsal, some of my batchmates played netball while majority of us played nothing. So our first stop after Sport Centre was South Portland building where Malaysia food festival took place. Then we walked through the parks and lakes. We spent most of our times photographing here before we headed to the Power League to watch futsal match.

Power League is located somewhere further. Very far, we walked about 40 min to reach there. Along the way, we dropped by a post office and I bought a few postcards as souvenirs. We reached the league in a tiring mode. We didn't really watch the match, instead we gathered on a very huge field sitting and eating our lunch. Wanji main pun kitorang tak tengok. I bought popiah and shared with Azery. I ate my lunch which were nasi lemak sambal bilis and donuts which I brought all the way from Glasgow.

After Wanji finished his match, we headed back to the campus to perform our prayer. There's a Muslim prayer room in the South Portland building. We had a rest there until dusk. Before that we took a little tour inside the food festival. Many food were served such as nasi ayam, nasi lemak, laksa Sarawak, cendol, satay and kuih-muih. I met Miss Eti who was once a lecturer at INTEC selling food here. We met several IMU students in the prayer room; Karim from Edinburgh, Akmal from Manchester and others. At that time, Aleen, Bee and Kaklong were busy downstairs searching for food.

Night came by. The weather was getting colder. We headed to the Sport Centre because there was a final futsal match. After the game ended, we returned back to our bus and had another 6-hour journey back to Glasgow.

What a day! It was very tiring with the huge amount of walking but at the same time it was fun!

Gallery:

11.11.11

2011-11-12T04:24:00.001+08:00

Kalau kat Korea, 11.11 merupakan sambutan Pepero Day. Apakah itu Pepero? Pepero merupakan biskut batang yang dicelup dengan coklat. Kalau di Malaysia, jenama Rocky memang agak biasa dilihat di kedai2.. Ni kalau Wawa dapat Pepero, memang sesaat habis satu kotak. =p


Inilah Pepero. Nampak sedap tak? Adorable gitu, tapi sayang kot nak makan kalau lawa2 gini..

di Malaysia, inilah pepero...

Oleh sebab hari ni 11.11.11, maka semua orang fikir nak buat hari ini lebih special kan. Ada yang bertunang, ada yang kahwin, ada yang keluar hospital dan macam2 lagi situasi yang menggambarkan kesedapan tarikh 11.11.11 ni. Siap ada yang tukar tarikh anniversary jadi 11.11 gitu. Apekah???

Hari bagi aku biasa je. Tapi sebab nak nampak macam best, hari ni aku dengan Wanji buat donat. Lagipun hari ni ada kuliah dekat SUMSA, maka ustaz pun cadangkan buat potluck. Ni merupakan kali kedua buat donat, first time buat masa Raya Haji hari tu.

Inilah donat kami. Walaupun rupa agak ~~menawan~~ kelam-kabut, tapi teksturnya agak keras ye. Tapi rangup2 gitu.. Sedap jugak sebenarnya.. XD

bersalut coklat

bersalut Oreo

bersalut coklat putih

Bolehlah kan donat ganti pepero.. Sekufu tak??

Okay, itu je nak update untuk kali ni. Nak bersiap2 pergi Nottingham tengah malam ni. Ada Nottingham Games tapi aku tak join apa2 la seperti biasa. Just pergi tangkap2 gambar je.

Wish me safe journey ok...

=)

*p/s : to Helmi, have a safe trip to South Korea ok, I jeles ni.. =p

Photoshoot #3 | Clyde River Bridges

2011-11-11T01:34:00.006+08:00

Yesterday, my housemates and I went out to buy some kitchenware from Bonnypack which is located somewhere across the Clyde River. It wasn't very near, a lot further than Glasgow Central Station and Glasgow Central Mosque. Bonnypack is a cash & carry stores selling a range of stuffs from toys, gifts, kitchenware, electronics, housewares, clothes and many others. We knew this shop from Joe.

Since we knew that we would be crossing over the bridge, so we brought our DSLRs together for photography trip even though the weather was quite gloomy with light shower. I just realised that there are more than 20 bridges which cross the Clyde River connecting both sides. You can see the bridge list in one of the photos below. Plus, the bridges aren't just normal bridges, they were built with great architecture. We only managed to photograph two bridges which were Carlton Place Suspension Bridge and another white bridge.

We only had two bridges because time was a limiting factor that day. We had to rush back to perform our prayer.

Since we went back by assessing Argyll Street, we took the chance to took this bling-bling steel reindeer in front of the WHSmith bookstore. This baby is so amazing, there is one in St Enoch Shopping Mall as well. :)

And look what I bought from Bonnypack! My new baby, Ultimate Optimus Prime. It was surprisingly cheaper compared to its retail price. =)

Surprise Party

2011-11-10T01:48:00.003+08:00

Semalam tetiba je rajin nak buat surprise party. Kalau ada party2, memang selalunya kerja aku la. Orang lain buat tak tau je. Taktaulah sebab apa; malas, tak minat atau tak reti? Lagi2, bila birthday seseorang tu dah dekat, memang semua dok tanya2 aku nak buat apa, nak buat kat mana, bila nak buat bagai.. So kiranya aku memang sukalah organise birthday party ni..

Yela, moto hidup aku kan "Hidup mesti ceria. Menggembirakan orang lain merupakan satu kepuasan"

Tapi semalam lain. Sebab kitorang pun baru tau esok birthday Najhan. Even housemate dia pun baru tau. So aku tanya2 la Idris ada buat surprise party ke tak. Idris pun macam blur2. Malas nak pergi kedai la.. Dah ngantuk la.. Sengal punya Idris, padahal dia paling lapar malam tu. Hahaha...

So aku dan Faiz pergilah ke Sainsbury kat George Street tu, Idris pulak aku suruh kemas rumah. Tutup pukul 10 pm, alhamdulillah sempat lagi pergi beli kek dan muffin untuk small surprise party. Memang small je, target dalam 5-6 orang. Cuaca agak sejuk je, maklumlah dah malam. Winter pun makin menghampiri.

Pukul 12 am, kitorang pun bergerak ke Birkbeck Court dengan membawa makanan, pinggan dan cawan. Dah sampai tu kitorang lepak2 dulu tunggu Hanafiah datang. Duwe pun takde sebab dah tidur. So, ada aku, Wanji, Faiz, Hanafiah & Idris je. Detik paling best, aku dan Hanafiah menyorok belakang langsir. Pastu ada beberapa omputeh lalu kat luar dan nampak kitorang. Pastu dok bising2 mungkin ingat kitorang ni pencuri agaknya. Idris pulak lambat betul panggil Najhan, nak fikir ayat katanya. Pastu rupa2nya Najhan dah tidur, so Idris pun call la dia cakap Hanafiah nak jumpa borak2. Nak borak sangat kan, padahal Hanafiah nyorok belakang langsir ok.

Wanji & Idris

Faiz

Simple menu

Chocolate Cake

Blueberry Muffins

Chocolate Muffins

Layan tengok cerita Batman sebelum kejut Najhan

Pastu SURPRISE! Najhan dengan muka blur2 pun agak terkesima dan malu2 kucing. Pastu Wanji pergi ke tingkap dan tunjuk tanda bagus kat omputeh tu supaya diorang tak suspek aku dan Hanafiah sebagai pencuri. Tak pun mesti ingat kitorang nk commit suicide.. LOL *Kacau daun betul*..

Pastu Najhan potong kek dan kitorang pun menikmati juadah ringkas malam tu. Party yang simple, tapi seronok la. Walaupun baru je kenal diorang ni beberapa minggu lepas. Eh, minggu ke bulan tah?

entrance

Birthday boy potong kek

Hanafiah muka gembira

Yummehh~

kemas2.. kami ingin pulang..

Papepun, Happy birthday to Najhan. Semoga panjang umur, murah rezeki dan berjaya di dunia & akhirat.

Birkbeck Court at night

James Blyth Court at night