No, not that Adflin Shauki's movie. This entry is about an old friend of mine (10 years, old ke?) whom I have lost contact for ten years (since balik from UK) but we were brought back together by a good samaritan name Sharon Wilson from UTAR. Thank you so much Sharon.
I have been looking for this friend of mine, Kim Sae-Uen, a Korean whom I met during my student days in Sussex. I googled and e-mailed but nothing came up positive. She was my neighbour and fast became a very dear friend of mine. I first saw her during the registration. We happened to register in the same program. The next day she knocked on my studio door to deliver a message from the housing dept. to me. And guess what? She lived just next door! That was the beginning when we became friends. We would often 'lepak' at each other's places and have conversations, sometime until late at night. When she first arrived in Sussex, she was quite lonely as that was the first time she ventured outside Korea. She missed her family so much especially her children. She had just given birth to her second one when she left for England. I can only imagine how she felt having to leave her children behind. But not for long though. Her parents came a few months later with her children and they stayed on in Brighton until she completed her Ph.D. Best kan kalau ada the whole family dengan you during those critical years. Bukan moral support je, duit pung!
Last thursday she called me and I was overwhelmed with joy to hear her voice again. I guess we spent about half an hour talking and reminiscing about our lives in Sussex. We planned to meet up but don't know when. Nevertheless, I promise myself that I would go to Seoul one day and meet this wonderful friend of mine. See you soon my dear friend!
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
So much time and too many things to do...
Last weekend was a long weekend for me. No, did not go anywhere. Dok romah and do things that I did not get to do (well, not really) for the past 3 months sebab ada kelas every saturday. For each saturday yang ada kelas, I get to get cuti ganti. So bertimbunlah cuti ganti yang tak boleh di carry forward to next year. Kena habiskan by 31 Dec. 2008. So I've gone through my diary and decided that I would take one or two days of leave before or after weekends.
It started with last weekend. What did I do? Not much and nothing interesting. Brought home 2 stacks of students assignments which I managed to finish marking one stack last night (Alhamdulillah). I actually have five stacks of assignments and project papers to mark but til now only managed to finish one. Hmmm...bila nak abis ni???
Anyway, buat plan macam-macam nak buat over the weekend - nak cook some nice dishes so that boleh pulangkan pinggan neighbour, nak pi window shoppinglah cari shelves or cabinets to place my stuff yang lama dah dok dalam tong, laundary yang bertimbun, tukar curtain yang sepatutnya dibuat before raya lagi, mark assignment students, complete my proposal, pi tengok wayang etc. - but hanya laundry and marking saja yang dapat dibuat. They rest....
Next weekend is another long one again. Plannya sama tapi tak taule akan materialise or not. Itu pung dah ada plan tambahan.... Takut tak jadi lagi.
Rasa-rasa nak get away for holiday kat mana-mana. Sesekali nak balik KL or Segamat cari ikan baung. Sesekali nak turun pi Melaka sebab teringat fresh mussels masak sambal kat gerai tepi pantai (tak ingat pantai apa). Sesekali nak naik Cameron Highlands. Sudahnya dok kat Jitra le gamaknya... Ada kawan ajak pi makan nasi biryani cung kat Alor Setar this weekend. Students projek "Knowing Kenyalang" ajak to their get together this weekend jugak. Tiba-tiba ada banyak masa but banyak pulak benda yang nak dibuat. Tensi, tensi....
It started with last weekend. What did I do? Not much and nothing interesting. Brought home 2 stacks of students assignments which I managed to finish marking one stack last night (Alhamdulillah). I actually have five stacks of assignments and project papers to mark but til now only managed to finish one. Hmmm...bila nak abis ni???
Anyway, buat plan macam-macam nak buat over the weekend - nak cook some nice dishes so that boleh pulangkan pinggan neighbour, nak pi window shoppinglah cari shelves or cabinets to place my stuff yang lama dah dok dalam tong, laundary yang bertimbun, tukar curtain yang sepatutnya dibuat before raya lagi, mark assignment students, complete my proposal, pi tengok wayang etc. - but hanya laundry and marking saja yang dapat dibuat. They rest....
Next weekend is another long one again. Plannya sama tapi tak taule akan materialise or not. Itu pung dah ada plan tambahan.... Takut tak jadi lagi.
Rasa-rasa nak get away for holiday kat mana-mana. Sesekali nak balik KL or Segamat cari ikan baung. Sesekali nak turun pi Melaka sebab teringat fresh mussels masak sambal kat gerai tepi pantai (tak ingat pantai apa). Sesekali nak naik Cameron Highlands. Sudahnya dok kat Jitra le gamaknya... Ada kawan ajak pi makan nasi biryani cung kat Alor Setar this weekend. Students projek "Knowing Kenyalang" ajak to their get together this weekend jugak. Tiba-tiba ada banyak masa but banyak pulak benda yang nak dibuat. Tensi, tensi....
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
of tomyam and donuts...
Tiba-tiba rasa rajin pulak nak write although the assignments masih tidak bersentuh. I have a proposal to table tomorrow and it is yet to have a title. Huhuhu ketaq...
Anyways, nak ceta sikit about the food that I had in Phuket. (What else to cerita kalau kat blog badak ni??!!!). Of course le nak cari muslim food is a problem. But we are lucky though the morning of our arrival, after tanya kat reception counter, we - my friends and I, went towards the direction given by the guy (with whom we had problem understanding what he said). Jalan-jalan and we came to this one warung. Not much choice. No nasi lemak, or nasi goreng or roti canai or what whatever that we have here. So did not really know what to have sebab kuih-kuih diorang tak berapa nak memberangsangkan. Apparently kat sini pagi-pagi lagi depa serve nasi campur. So no choice. Gipun takut susah nak cari food we decided to have the nasi campur. I was already ketaq - not due to lapar - but the dishes looked so tempting. Gulai ikan/udang with rebung, and those kampung kind of dishes. Apa lagi makan le. Luckily I remember that makanan siam ni selalunya super hot. So I only took sikit je gravy. But unfortunate lah for my friends..... berasap telinga!
Petang, we went to this arab-indian restaurant yang serve awesome tomyam that I had to comeback again the following night. Memang awesome. The hotel food? Pi makan kat Laka Kona 100 times better. Since depa had to serve muslim food, depa amik satu caterer pakistan yang foodnya memang a no no. From the first meal sampailah that served before we left, tak ada apa yang beza. Serupa aje lauknya.
On the way balik to Mesia, I saw one donut outlet kat one of the stops that we made. It was in a shopping mall behind a petrol station. Apa lagi, terus made a quick get-away dengan friends sebab dah jemu dengan makane siam/pakistan. Tak le glamor macam dunkin donut but very creative and cheap giler. I saw this bunny donut that I had to have. Cute giler. The donuts were awesome. Not that sweet compared to dunkin's. After all the bad experience in Phuket, at least there was something interesting to talk about.
Anyways, nak ceta sikit about the food that I had in Phuket. (What else to cerita kalau kat blog badak ni??!!!). Of course le nak cari muslim food is a problem. But we are lucky though the morning of our arrival, after tanya kat reception counter, we - my friends and I, went towards the direction given by the guy (with whom we had problem understanding what he said). Jalan-jalan and we came to this one warung. Not much choice. No nasi lemak, or nasi goreng or roti canai or what whatever that we have here. So did not really know what to have sebab kuih-kuih diorang tak berapa nak memberangsangkan. Apparently kat sini pagi-pagi lagi depa serve nasi campur. So no choice. Gipun takut susah nak cari food we decided to have the nasi campur. I was already ketaq - not due to lapar - but the dishes looked so tempting. Gulai ikan/udang with rebung, and those kampung kind of dishes. Apa lagi makan le. Luckily I remember that makanan siam ni selalunya super hot. So I only took sikit je gravy. But unfortunate lah for my friends..... berasap telinga!
Petang, we went to this arab-indian restaurant yang serve awesome tomyam that I had to comeback again the following night. Memang awesome. The hotel food? Pi makan kat Laka Kona 100 times better. Since depa had to serve muslim food, depa amik satu caterer pakistan yang foodnya memang a no no. From the first meal sampailah that served before we left, tak ada apa yang beza. Serupa aje lauknya.
On the way balik to Mesia, I saw one donut outlet kat one of the stops that we made. It was in a shopping mall behind a petrol station. Apa lagi, terus made a quick get-away dengan friends sebab dah jemu dengan makane siam/pakistan. Tak le glamor macam dunkin donut but very creative and cheap giler. I saw this bunny donut that I had to have. Cute giler. The donuts were awesome. Not that sweet compared to dunkin's. After all the bad experience in Phuket, at least there was something interesting to talk about.
(Waah, wa dah pandai upload gambar... This is the first after so many entries!)
Tolon, tolon...
Hi everyone. It has been a long time since my last entry. When was that? Gosh, right after the raya break and that was about a month ago!
Since then, many have happened. Some interesting ones, some not so interesting, and some were just bad.
Let me go chronologically. A few weeks after the raya break, I was pretty busy with my students' projects which were launched in conjunction with the Communication and Media Festival organised by the communication program, UUM. There were 8 projects all together held during the week. Although they were not fantastically carried out, but I am proud of my students for accepting the challenge that I gave them. Things may not be perfect but they went fairly well. Good work boys and girls. But surely that will not guarantee a super good grades!
Anyways, the week went by not without stress. I had to go home late at night three nights in a row. So tired I wanted so much to take a break, have a good massage and relax at a spa somewhere. A good thing though, my badak friends were having a raya open-house in Penang ( I was also one of the hostesses, by the way). That gives me the chance to get away for a while from the hectic life in Sintok.
The open-house was fun. I got to meet with friends that I seldom meet apart from my badak friends whom I meet frequently. The food? Of course, awesome. Mind you, all badaks are good cooks. So you can be assured that whenever the badaks have a get together, food will always be the best. After the food, there's the karoake session. Tak best kalau tak try out songs yang memang tokle nak tarik suara tapi nak cuba jugak. Balik suma dah hilang suara!
The day after Deepavali, I left for Phuket. I wasn't looking forward to it. No, it was not for holiday. I was asked by my boss to attend a convention on student development. Since I'm a student advisor, she said it would be good for me to go. She said it would be a chance for me to relax and get away from work. Yeah right! It all sounded so glorious. PHUKET. Who wouldn't want to go (except me when I thought of all the work that I had to come back to later!). The thought of seating in a bus for 12 hours already put me off. But it's an order, she said. GOD, it was tiring. My body ached all over due the uncomfortable seat. Tau ajele tidor yang tak berapa nak tidor!
Even worse when we reached the hotel at 6.30am, there was no room for us. We had to wait until 2.00pm to check in. The weather did not help either. It was raining all day. So don't bother about going to the beach! Shopping? Not many nearby places to check out for souvenirs as we did not have the opportunity to wonder around the island. BTW we stayed at Patong. So you can imagine that most of everything is expensive. Nak cari makanan halal pung a big task.
However the convention was okay. Papers presented were quite interesting although ada gak yang wa rasa buang masa dengo. The third day i.e. the day we left Phuket was, how should I put it...TERUK. Never in my life pi conference orang halau kita balik. Takut tak make it to the border (Blackwood Hill) in time, we were asked to leave ASAP. Depa halau sebab takut students couldn't make the exams the next day. Lunch pung kena pack makan atas bas. It was so out-of-mind. Rebut-rebut pung tak dan jugak nak cross over to Mesia. Kena lepak for 5 hours kat Dannok until the gate's opened. HORROR betul. Pitty the students yang nak sit for exams at 9am. Depa carilah tiang lampu to buat revision.
Nak kata pung universiti sendiri tapi nak kena kata gak. Lain kali buatle planning bebetul. Why do you have to go across the border so far away when you can always have it here? Less money spent, less time consumed and so very convenient to many.
Buat rugi duit den ajo pi urut Siam then bisa tulang semulo tiba Mesia. Lani nak kena cari tukang urut semulo.
Tengok kejo yang bertimbun-timbun on my desk lagi le poning palo den. Tolon, tolon....
Since then, many have happened. Some interesting ones, some not so interesting, and some were just bad.
Let me go chronologically. A few weeks after the raya break, I was pretty busy with my students' projects which were launched in conjunction with the Communication and Media Festival organised by the communication program, UUM. There were 8 projects all together held during the week. Although they were not fantastically carried out, but I am proud of my students for accepting the challenge that I gave them. Things may not be perfect but they went fairly well. Good work boys and girls. But surely that will not guarantee a super good grades!
Anyways, the week went by not without stress. I had to go home late at night three nights in a row. So tired I wanted so much to take a break, have a good massage and relax at a spa somewhere. A good thing though, my badak friends were having a raya open-house in Penang ( I was also one of the hostesses, by the way). That gives me the chance to get away for a while from the hectic life in Sintok.
The open-house was fun. I got to meet with friends that I seldom meet apart from my badak friends whom I meet frequently. The food? Of course, awesome. Mind you, all badaks are good cooks. So you can be assured that whenever the badaks have a get together, food will always be the best. After the food, there's the karoake session. Tak best kalau tak try out songs yang memang tokle nak tarik suara tapi nak cuba jugak. Balik suma dah hilang suara!
The day after Deepavali, I left for Phuket. I wasn't looking forward to it. No, it was not for holiday. I was asked by my boss to attend a convention on student development. Since I'm a student advisor, she said it would be good for me to go. She said it would be a chance for me to relax and get away from work. Yeah right! It all sounded so glorious. PHUKET. Who wouldn't want to go (except me when I thought of all the work that I had to come back to later!). The thought of seating in a bus for 12 hours already put me off. But it's an order, she said. GOD, it was tiring. My body ached all over due the uncomfortable seat. Tau ajele tidor yang tak berapa nak tidor!
Even worse when we reached the hotel at 6.30am, there was no room for us. We had to wait until 2.00pm to check in. The weather did not help either. It was raining all day. So don't bother about going to the beach! Shopping? Not many nearby places to check out for souvenirs as we did not have the opportunity to wonder around the island. BTW we stayed at Patong. So you can imagine that most of everything is expensive. Nak cari makanan halal pung a big task.
However the convention was okay. Papers presented were quite interesting although ada gak yang wa rasa buang masa dengo. The third day i.e. the day we left Phuket was, how should I put it...TERUK. Never in my life pi conference orang halau kita balik. Takut tak make it to the border (Blackwood Hill) in time, we were asked to leave ASAP. Depa halau sebab takut students couldn't make the exams the next day. Lunch pung kena pack makan atas bas. It was so out-of-mind. Rebut-rebut pung tak dan jugak nak cross over to Mesia. Kena lepak for 5 hours kat Dannok until the gate's opened. HORROR betul. Pitty the students yang nak sit for exams at 9am. Depa carilah tiang lampu to buat revision.
Nak kata pung universiti sendiri tapi nak kena kata gak. Lain kali buatle planning bebetul. Why do you have to go across the border so far away when you can always have it here? Less money spent, less time consumed and so very convenient to many.
Buat rugi duit den ajo pi urut Siam then bisa tulang semulo tiba Mesia. Lani nak kena cari tukang urut semulo.
Tengok kejo yang bertimbun-timbun on my desk lagi le poning palo den. Tolon, tolon....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)