Life is Good with Good Friends

   I went to meet my friend Wawa when I was in KL.

   I delivered the apple pie I made her.

   Since it was her birthday a few weeks ago, she got the pie pan as a gift. Hehe.


   She treated me to lunch. Yahhu! We had lunch at a food court at Times Square. The food court was interesting, it had stalls selling dishes from different Asian countries like Malaysia (of course!), Thailand, Japan, Korea, China and India, I think.


   This is what I had. Nasi Goreng Tomyam. There wasn't anything particularly Tomyam-my about it, but whatever. It was free!

   Wawa had a Korean lunch. I quite like Kimchi. I don't love it, but I can swallow it. Hehe. The beef was particularly good:

   Wawa also got some sushi. I love sushi!

   I hope we can go out again Wawa! I'll bring you a cake in exchange for  lunch next time!

Trip to KL Part 2: Convo Day!

   I've been tardy. And lazy. I stopped posting a while back and now I'm trying my best to get the mood back. It. Is. Hard. 

  This is what I've been up to while I was gone (from here, anyway)

   1. Attended an interview. Boy am I glad that's over!

   2. Attended two weddings. Two of my best friends are now married. I feel old.

   3. Visited my Tok Aji and Tok Hajjah (my grandparents) up north. 

   4. Baked. A lot. 
   5. Did some translation work (and got paid for them).
   6. Tested for and got my driving license. Alhamdulillah. Yahoo!

   7. Getting bald... I mean bored while waiting for posting results.

   None of the activities are reason enough to have neglected this blog. Anyway, here's the long due Part 2 on my convocation.

   I know not many people read this blog, so I feel rather more comfortable in sharing some extra exciting -now stale- news regarding convocation because I know not many people will read about it. (Weird reason?) I know though, that those who do will be very happy for me.


   1. I was  awarded Best Student for my programme (Teaching English as a Second Language a.k.a. TESL
   2. I was chosen to deliver the valedictorian speech

   It was definitely a day to be remembered! I received an email several weeks before convo day explaining that I'd been selected as a candidate for the speech. So I drafted a speech, wen to the selection session (after getting all 'nerved' up for it), received an email informing that I'd been selected, went to a training session, went to collect my robes etc. This involved a lot of trips from Kelantan to KL and back to Kelantan, and mind you, each bus trip took about nine hours. Nine LOOOONNGGG hours. I'm officially (and have been for quite some time, actually) sick of long bus trips. Sick!


   Finally the big day came.. and ended. It was a happy, happy day and whenever I think about it,  I feel quite dizzy and can't quite believe the rizk Allah gave me. He has been so generous to me, and I feel truly humbled. 

People waiting to go into the hall.

      I don't have any photos of when we were in the hall, and anyway we weren't allowed to take photos. I got to know a few people, other students who received awards, and Masya-Allah, most of them go two to three awards each! I felt quite small in comparison, but I still felt grateful for the honour I was given.


   When it was time for the speech, I walked gingerly up the steps, praying all the way through that I wouldn't stumble.

My friend took this with her phone. Sneaky, hehe.

   Alhamdulillah, it went well. At first I stumbled a bit, and when I was supposed to give a nod of acknowledgement to the rector, I did a sort of awkward jerk instead of giving a graceful nod. I supposed my screws were tightened too tight, haha. 


   It seemed that I managed to make a lot people cry. I remember one of the trainers telling me, "If you can make people cry... well, you'll have made an impact." It was a huge pressure on me. I'm not big on making people cry OR on crying in front of people. Fortunately, I managed not to cry, but when I mentioned my parents, my throat sort of closed up and I had to choke a bit to get my voice through. Whatever happened, I'm glad people like the speech. That was what I prayed for. That the speech would be meaningful, beneficial and would touch people's hearts. Alhamdulillah.


   After the ceremony ended, we went for a special lunch. I couldn't eat, I never can when exciting things happen which is a pity.

That's Im, one of the award winners, and her parents

   And when we finally went out of the hall, there was a  surprise waiting for me!

Thank you Little Siser and Littlest Brother!
That bear is seriously huge! Seriously!

[Sidenote: I wanted to put a picture of Little Sister holding the,m, but she'd kill me. She almost did over the one I put in the last post. Haha.]


   They were so excited in planning what to get me that they only had these for lunch:

Iced Milo & sandwiches

Mushroom soup & garlic bread

   After that, we took photos. Lots and lots of photos. But I shall only post a few ( and be careful no post any that shows my face too clearly hehe).

Glad I made you happy :)

My beautiful friends

Some of my good friends

I particularly like this photo, for some reason

   It was a lovely day. I met so many people, old and new, and believe it or not learned many new things. Alhamdulillah once again.

Trip to KL Part 1: Kelantan-Terengganu

   My laptop is finally... well, usable. It seems that the part which connects the motherboard to the keyboard is damaged, so if I want to get that fixed, I have to get a new motherboard. Which costs around RM200. Gulp. So, for now, I'm using a USB keyboard that Dad bought. It's quite pretty:

(I'll add a photo later]

   Thankfully, I didn't lose any of my data, alhamdulillah (praise be to Allah), so even without a camera I can still post a few updates with the hundreds of photos of things I've baked in the past months. However, in honour of the special occasion that took place two or three weeks ago (yeah, stale), I'm going to post some posts unrelated to baking, though perhaps a cake or two will make their appearance I hope that's okay.


   And what occasion is that? My convocation day! After six years of training, I finally made it. My family was quite excited as at first we weren't sure whether they could make it to IIUM, but alhamdulillah with Big Sister's help they could. Littlest Brother was especially excited about going to KL and to IIUM. Little Sister went too, but Little Brother had to take his PMR and therefore had to stay at home. PMR is quite a big deal, and I felt guilty about leaving him at home all alone to face it, but he was very noble about it and said that Mum and Dad should definitely not miss the occasion. Big Sister had a seminar so she couldn't go, but she lent her camera. Yeeehaaa.


   We had a good journey, which started at 10 a.m. on 8th October 2011 (my convo was on the 10th). First we went to Dungun, Terengganu to pick up Little Sister. I slept most of the way there because I didn't sleep the night before, preparing some... well, stuff to take and to leave for Little Brother. Watch out for it below.


   Terengganu has a lot of beautiful mosques. Below are some pics (sorry they're not great photos). I'm afraid I forgot to note down the names though, I'll do that next time. I've included some explanation on some of the terms for my non-Muslim readers.


   My favourite was this. It's so clean and white and beautiful. I love how it stands out against the blue, blue sky.

This is where the men take their wudhu'.
Taking the wuhu' involves a series of steps in cleansing some parts of the body.
It is compulsory before making the prayer.

This is  the tower where the mu'azzin  makes the azan (call for prayer).
At least that's what they used to do in the old days, I think, so that people can hear you.
I think they use a special room with a microphone and speakers now.
The mu'azzin is the person who makes the call for prayer.

   We also got to see The Crystal Mosque, but didn't get to take a very good photo, so here's one I found on the internet:

   It's very beautiful, but most importantly I hope a lot of people go there to pray. Mosques (or masjid in Malay) are houses for worship, so people should go there to worship Allah, right?


   We finally reached UiTM, the Dungun Campus. My sister is so lucky! They're within walking distance from the beach. It's practically across the road! Imagine being able to look at this everyday:

   I'd like to sit on that seat and just look at the sea, every single day...

   And here is the reason we have to go all the way to Terengganu before going to KL!

Hello, Little Sister!

   We couldn't possibly miss having a picnic by the sea when we're by the sea, so that's what we did. Momsie had packed a meal for us. And I made... cake and cinnamon rolls! The rolls I will write about in another post, but the cake... well, you may remember this monstrosity that I made:

   
   Well, the night before we left I didn't sleep much.I stayed up making the rolls and two DFCCs- one to leave for Little Brother and one to take with us! Unfortunately, a lot of mishaps occurred during the making, which will take too long to talk about, so this is the slightly degraded, disfigured-looking version that we brought along:

   Here is Littlest Brother greedily snacking on it:

   My family just cannot get enough of this cake. If you say the word "Cake" to their face, I can assure you that this is the cake that they will think of, hehe. We kept snacking on it all the way to KL, and while we were picnicking by the beach, we even drew the attention of two little boys, who, quite unashamedly, came up to us and asked for some. Haha. Here they are, I've forgotten their names:

   And here we are digging in:

   And don't forget the cake!!

   And I will now leave you. To make up for the lack of baking chit-chat, here's a few photos of stalls tat sell keropok losong and all sorts of local snacks and delicacies. These shops or stalls can be found all the way by the roads along the beach in Terengganu:

   The shops look more or less the same, don't they?

   Bubbye, Terengganu! We enjoyed visiting you!

   [If you don't mind, I'd like to make a Part 2 for my convocation report! Hehe...]

   p.s. Little Brother managed to finish the whole cake I left for him in three days. All by himself! Well, there was one, tiny slice left, but still...