cooking disasters!

Yap... it's intentionally and supposed to be a plural! disaster'S' with a capital S...

Hahaha... living abroad forces you to cook... how i wish i was at home... you can just go outside and go to any restaurant; order a dish and eat! God... It's FREEZING! (got sidetracked there... it really is freezing nowadays)

Well anywayz... I think my first cooking disaster would be when i tried cooking 'ayam masak kurma' but hey... all the kuah dried up... which to me, wasn't much of a disaster, but it needed special mentions, cos it was the first dish that i cooked up! yay!

my first real disaster was when i tried cooking roti jala... hahaha... it was kindda hilarious now but was absolutely frustrating at the time... I asked the recipe over the phone; which now i know that my friend just gave partially... firstly, it was too stiff, then too runny... i tried making pancakes with it but it was too runny... to much water! so hey, it went down the drain! ahaks...

my second disaster was probably when i tried making a cheesecake! an amature trying to make a cheesecake?!?!?! yeah, it was ridiculous but hey, i wanted to try... bought all of the ingredients but i think i used a very high temperature on the over so all the biscuit base of the cheesecake was fried to da crust! it was black! hahaha... i kindda laughed but accepted it... it's all hitsuzen... an inevitable that i couldn't run from! just faced it...

so that day, no cheesecakes were made... but to tell ya the truth, the biscuits turned out ok if you scraped off the burnt parts! i bravely ate them all... i was lucky there weren't much to gobble up!

my third cooking disaster was with nasi ayam! hahaha...
everything was ok except for the rice itself... it was not salty and oily enough! LoL... it was like eating yellow rice... tastes the same as ever but coloured yellow... cool in a was or two, but hey... it was a failure!

kay... i think that's all...
need to study for my oral anatomy test this coming friday!
later dudes and dudettes!

Da Dearly Departed...

Is this an orbiturary? nah... it's just a lil' post to show a lil respect to a soul that had just departed our world and have moved on... A lil show of respect from dublin since i wasn't around in malaysia where my friends were and could have shown physical support...

I'm babling too much already. Well, my condolences goes to my very good ex-schoolmate; Muhamad Hafidz Hamidi as his dad just died a few days ago due to complications with his lungs and blood (that's as much as i got to know)...

En Hamidi was really a great guy. I didn't really get to speak to him much but we had lil chats now and then when he sent me and Hafidz to our tuition classes prior to our SPM exam which was... 3 years ago...

I remember him well; always with a kopiah (a white hat for those of you who don't know), always. He carries with him this serene atmosphere everywhere he goes. He's so calm all the time.

May his soul rest in pease and may Allah bestow upon his soul the gift of Jannah... Al-Fatihah...

Hafidz, sorry I wasn't there to give you moral support when you probably most needed it. Just an sms, a freindster message and a call was what i was only capable of from afar... God, it's saddening how little you can do... May allah bestow upon you more courage (you're already a strong person!) to face the saddening truth and to live on! Many more obstacles are ahead...

Sorry for only a lil post to pay a lil respect to you En Hamidi... You'll surely be missed!

And Halim, do your best for your SPM (which will be in a few weeks if I'm not mistaken). I wish you all the best for that...

I'm speechless now...
Owh, I have a lecture in 20 minutes... should be off soon!
Sorry for updating with something sad, but hey, I just thought i needed to type this out for my own sake...

Later dudes and dudettes! Pray for me; I have an oral anatomy test this friday!
You'll probably be hearing something about it soon!

Posts to come;
- cooking disaster!
- card signing!

Mama, Abah, Kakak and Adik; know that I love you guys, now, always, eternaly...
again, later dudes and dudettes...

Homesickness...

Yap... as the title suggest... I am down with homesickness... waaa... mama... abah... kakak... adik... mish you guys so so dearly! Why do i get this rush of emotion all of a sudden? Truthfully, i don't really know... maybe because it was my turn to cook today... but i don't think that was it though... hurm...

But before i got homesick... late last night (when it was 5am malaysian tyme, 10pm irish tyme) i called to chat with mama... how blissful it was to chat with her again... lol... i know... it's not that hard to just call her anytime i felt homesick, but today was kindda the first tyme it really hit me hard on da head... well... i knew mama was up early so i called to chat. We chatted for quite a while... 20 minutes or so... but i had to hang up cos she had to do the ironing and well, her cellphone was running out of battery too...

today even if my primary intention was to ask for my aunts address (which i asked from abah) but mama picked up the phone, which led to more chattering between us; not that i'm complaining... i was actually thankful... LoL... =)

then abah suggested that i just called his skype id, which will let us view each other... I was like, yeah, why not... i am using skype already anyway! so i did get to talk to adik... kakak was like always, so hahaha... we didn't talk much... she just shouted some stuff from the background; defending herself as adik was snitching on her... mish you two lil twerps so much! hahaha...

well then, mama took over the mic again... we talked and talked... she mentioned what happened last weekend and also what's been happening all this while... oh god... i wish we could have talked longer though... hahahaha... my homesickness is quite bad when it does come, doesn't it... =((

well... something new i learnt is that there'll be four weddings that i'll miss in 2009... one is my cousin's, and the other three are my aunt and uncles... my cousin'd getting married in the chinese new year holiday. one of my uncles is getting married during the mid term in march. and the other two weddings will happen around may-june... and i'll still be here in dublin when all of that is happening... boo hoo... but hey, that's life as an oversea student i guess...

i took this road, i'm not regretting it (much... hehehe). But hey... when homesickness comes, there's nothing in the world can compare to your family's warm embrace... i hugged myself with my duvet and kindda did nothing... hahaha... but i thought i should type out a post to pass the tyme and maybe it can take away a lil of my homesickness away... which i think it might have... LoL...

right... signing off...
later days dudes and dudettes!

RoCK CLiMBiNG aNYoNe?!?!?!

Well... maybe not exactly rock... just a wall carved or made to be like rock... but still... anyone for climbing? I, for god knows what reason, joined the climbing and hiking club (even though I'm terrified of heights!) and today was the first ever climbing session...

So after breaking my fast (or having my break/fast) which was only a few gulps of water btw, I headed for Trinity College Dublin which was extremely huge after I entered the main gate... God... and i was supposed to find the sports center at the very end of the college... It was funny, interesting and well, one heck of a new experience venturing into unknown territories... I asked around and finnaly made it to the sports center.

Once I stepped into the climbing hall/room thinggy, I was shocked. It wasn't too high, but high enough to actually throw me all the way back home cos i started to feel scared, terrified even... but heck, i came all the way there... there was some excitement but fear was more dominant inside of me then...

I was a half-an-hour early, so i just sat and watched the preceeding group climb. When it came to our turn, i just took the lil courage that i had left inside of me and walked up to the intructor guy. He taught me how to tie the rope and all but heck, i was too nervous to remember then!

Then the time came... I started climbing... which got harder and scarier as i was higher into the air... God knows how much i weigh... try imagining me falling down and pulling up the anchor (da intructor guy) up! but thankfully, i didn't slip... Yet!

Then all of a sudden, i couldn't find anything to climb and pull myself up with... I slipped and probably dangled for a few seconds. Then my adrenalin probably kicked in and i scrambled for the wall! I tried climbing higher... nearly reaching the top but suddenly, my arm kindda shook like mad. It probably couldn't handle the enormous weight anymore...

"Urm... Could I come down now?!?!?!"

I looked down... terrifying view it was... but then the intructor smiled.

"Yeah sure... just walk yourself down" which would sound awfully weird but thatkfully, i wasn't the first so i knew what he meant! So i kindda slowly walked down.

"Well done, that was great!" Yeah right... thanx...

"I couldn't go up anymore after I fell..." That was all i could master at the time...

So then... I lost all the eagerness to climb some more... So i just sat and watch... Maybe next week might be better? Hopefully... I have to loose some weight to assist my arms in pulling this bags of sand up that wall!

Owh... All that was not much... but something did get me down today... I think today was the first time I actually needed to talk to other people (other than malaysians) alone, amongst canadian and americans mostly...

Only god knows how i felt... It was kindda awkward but when i did get to talk and chat, I stammered! I couldn't get my words out! how awful... and for those who knows me... How pathetic I was, right?!?!?!

So I'm here in my shared room... Pondering on how i can improve my spoken english... So far I can't really see much routes that can be taken... But i have to somehow... I felt embarrasing and pathetic! God help me!

Well, enough rants for today... I need to pray and then read up on the anatomy lesson we'll be having tomorrow! How much better can a medical student's life get? I'll probably find out when more clubs and societies starts to get active!

nyte dude and dudettes! later days...

All You Can It Buffet!

Bonjour to all...

God, today felt like a real rush... literally... I had 2 lectures starting at 8am and guess what tyme i left da apartment?!?!?! 7.53am! LoL... unbelievably, I got into O'Flanagan's LT a few minutes before Dr McGarvey started her lecture on embryology... Which was totally cool... Literally...

Well... that was the whole rush thing over and done with... (my breakfast was a juicy green apple! healthy living la... hahahaha)... da dee da dee da... got off track again...

Well... I played basketball (competitively i might add) today before heading off to the city centre to occupy the few hours we have vacant before friday prayers...

Interestingly today... Jeck saw two guys entering a stall together... hurm... i wonder what they might be doing this early in the day! ahaks! Tusk, tusk... that's Jeck's first encounter of the paranormal in dublin... OR IS IT NORMAL?!?!?! That's something to ponder about... well than... moving on...

Azmi wanted to take us to an all you can eat buffet today... and luckily, we found da restaurant! yay! having fruits fill my stomach for da entire course of living today, i was starving!

we paid our fees and dug in! And to my dismay... I didn't eat as much... waaa... but i might have come close to the 8.99 euros i spent... MIGHT... How did i foget that i can't stuff my self senseless... duh... true, i am big... but my eating capacity is so suprisingly little for my size (which is what Jeck and Che Lim commented when they saw me forcing food down my gut!)

Well anyway... that was that... for any dublinners out there who wants to try da beffet out for themselves... it's called Bella's Pizzaria... On Liffey Street Lower (google it up... it's just a few strides away from the canal!)

I've read my friend's blog about being lonely, feeling a void in oneself... It's true isn't it... peeps do get those feelings once in a while... I remember me having those kind of feelings back at home, in my room... Just dazed and stared blankly into open space... it felt... empty, yeah... so why am i talking about this? I'm not too sure really... just one of those things i like to ramble upon probably...

Owh... and did i mention Eros (our senior) took us out to eat more FOOD around asar tyme! talk about a major houling of food into my gut! hahaha... but thankfully... I was blessed with the motivation to not waste food! hehehe... Should go on a weight-loss diet soon! (i know... i've tried it countless tymes before... did work for a lil span of tyme... but this tyme, it might be different! I'll try again)

Drowsily thinking about sleep doesn't make you want to sleep... thinking of revision does... hahaha... the thought of looking back into my anatomy notes has suddenly made me too lazy to continue typing and makes me think of my comfy bed and how hard it is to wake up and kick the duvet of me in the cold and chilly morning...

nyte2 dudes and dudettes...
(truthfully i dunno what i got from typing this post today... but it's an update what-so-ever...)

Shop till I drop

[Me and Aliff in front of a coach, booked for our convenience!]

So from da flight... we took the coach... me, danial, jeck and aliff were placed near mercer court, and then ipin picked us up to our new apartment! da Swift Hall Apartments! Owh, did i mention the wheel on my 28.3kg bag broke probably due to being chucked around on board da plane? well... try imagining carrying that around.

So we took a cab... mind you, cabs around here are big, huge, and cool. they even have mercedes as cabs! how umbelievable! but anywayz... we stay in one of the rooms in the apartment until we were took out for shopping.

[stephen's green shopping mall]

and imagine how happy i was that we were finnally back on da ground, and better still... we#re going shopping! da shopping malls are great! and i wished i was rich, than i would have shopped even more... 'cos i was fun shopping.

[having fun in stephen's green!]

This was the first day of class... oh no, wait... it was registration day. After registration, we went for more shopping! how lucky i am to live in da city! ahaks! but however lucky it was, i sure do miss jay bee so much! things are cheaper over there! ahaks!

[I don't think I've ever shopped that much... but hey... there's a first for everything!']

and hey... have i mentioned how much fun shopping was? i did eh... well... i'll probably end the stuff about shopping there then...

[Preparing for the first day of lecture! hahaha]

And as the picture says... that was me, having fun in front of the mirror before heading for lectures the same day! hehehe.... with nothing to mould my hair (which i stupidly posted all of them without having at least some in my luggages). but hey... my hair was great anyday without wax nor conditioner! hahahaha... but i don't think i'd like getting caught doing the same thing in malaysia... =P

later dudes!

When the time came...

[my family, except for yunus' dad on the very left]

How happy they looked... lolz... thinking about the moment i stepped onto the escalator leadeing me down was saddening... scary... unimaginable... the thought of parting with my family... especially my mum, dad, lil sis and lil bro (who behaved very2 strangely that very night)...

Love you all so much but thankfully i haven't had those homesickness i've heard about as of yet... there's always the phone... skype... hahaha... but how i wish i was back home... mish you guys so very dearly! well now... i don't deny the fact that i did look happy but boy oh boy, there was eruptions upon eruptions of emotions inside!

I remembered mama asking me;
'So, are you gonna cry?!?!?!' I hugged her and whispered... 'Nah, I'll do that later...' We both smiled... I knew she wanted to cry too but i respect her very much for holding it in, or else i would probably break down too!
(hahaha... now i feel homesick typing all this... eyes waterlogged! emotions... sigh...)

My grandma sobbed, how very cliche... but hey, i needed to keep my cool... I felt like an unemotional robot then... My lil bro still kept hitting me. How sad I felt. God was punishing me... But he owned up to my mum later on that he did not want to let me see him saddened upon my departure. How clever that lil kid is... but i felt so sad then... I wanted to hug him so tightly and cry! But yeah, I did feel like bursting when i steped off the escalator...

In my heart, how i wished everyone would just come down as soon as possible so we could get this over and done with... the drama is driving me nuts and i felt sorry for my own family having to wait there for quite some time just admiring the view from above of us not knowing what else to do whilst waiting for 37 drama episodes to come to an end. But eventually they did. After saying our last farewells for the day, we headed in. I still contacted mama throughout the course of time we were in klia before boarding.

[Gate of Destiny?!?!?! This is one of the terminal gates we were supposed to walk through]

Whilst waiting to board, everyone was on their phone. So what the heck did I do. I took out my phone and called mama! hahaha... But everyone was alright now... no waterlogged eyes already... sish... how they got over that so easily... I met saiful, who was flying off to poland. well... not much happened really...

[My in-flight mates! Shu-shu (leh) n Erni!]

Anyone haven't heard of the expression smooth sailing? well... there was not much smooth flying in our flight! Owh, I forgot to tell you... I accidentally sat in a row that wasn't mine... cynical... i know...

After getting back into my own seat; which was next to leh n shida, i settled down (took of my tie and untucked my shirt! which felt so refreshingly good!) but hey... why wasn't it smooth?!?!?!

Well, every single tyme they serve us food, the flight was one hell of a bumpy ride! my platter of food even floated into the air... which was totally cool and uncool at the same tyme because i had to hold onto it and hoped that it didn't spill. Erni's experience was way cool... but that's her story! hehehehe...

Then on to frankfurt... the prayer room there was way cool... it look majestic even if it was small... truthfully i think it's better than the one in klia (which is in an islamic country mind you...) but the space difference was obvious so klia wins that round!

[muslim's prayer room in at frankfurt airport]

Then we kindda browsed around in the airport waiting for our turn to board aer lingus. The trip was a 2 hour trip, which i slept quite a lot off it... nothing too interesting there... but hey... just wanted to mention aer lingus there! ahaks!

[aer lingus]

Then aloha Dublin! we were greeted by the mara officer and also seniors! took a coach and went to our seperate accomodations!

Later dudes and dudettes!

20th Burfday

OMG!!! OMG!!! OMG!!!

Hahaha... it seems as though it was yesterday i was 16... But time does fly so quickly... I'm 20 already! GOSH! And how else would a guy celebrate his 20th burfday than to have it with a ready-mage boxed cake in a kebab diner! yups! ahaks.

It was sunday... I was out and about shopping in dunnes when i saw a cake that was suitable for vegetarians! what luck that was! while picking it up and admiring how scrumptious it looked, i remembered that tuesday was my burfday! (and how ironic that peeps abroad remembered it earlier than these peeps over here!)

[n affordable scrumptious and yummy looking choco cake!

Emphasize on the word 'affordable' mates!]

So come tuesday, I planned to have my lil' burfday bash at stephen's green... but luck has it that it rained most of the day, so i opt for kebab klub instead since i didn't like the idea of cutting the cake in a soggy place! yucks indeed!

and so... having dissected a cadaver in the morning and lectures in the afternoon, i took off to dunnes after asar with jeck and azmi going ahead to kebab klub for their sinfully delicious garlic and cheese fries...

I invited naim, gembo, and ab hafidz along as well but was totally suprised that my housemate was also there. I didn't invite him because i was thinking of buying somthing to take home for all four of us but since he came, that idea kindda vanished (and think of how much euros i saved! ahaks! stingy old hag!).

Well, we went upstairs with the cake. Then Azmi and Jeck came with the fries along with a chocolate and a colourful rose! I joked around and asked azmi for the rose last week, thank god he took it seriously! hahaha... Now i have a rainbow coloured rose in my room! yay!

['how did you get them like that?'... it's a question the florist usually get!

and her answer... 'we just get them shipped like that from holland!']

They then sang a burfday song... imbarassed me in the process but hey... it was worth it! having your burfday coming up so soon after flying off into a whole new foreign country can be tough... ('lil planning can be done in such a short tyme you know...).

Then aliff and lina came along. so yap, my burfday was kindda fun in da end! Everyone liked the fries, the cake was a lil too sweet and awfully dry! how i miss those #secret recipe' cakes back home...

[everyone there in the pic except for gembo n hafiz!]

waaa... abah, mama, kakak n adik, mish you guys so much n thanx for da wish... it was a few hours early but it made my day! ahaks!

More posts about ireland?!?!?! later dudes... don't have the time yet!