PuRe HeAd DaMaGeD!

AUD 44 (49 b4 discounted) x 2 adults + AUD 0 for 1 infant = AUD 88. Simple calculation for a great, great, great excursion to the Great Ocean Road (GOR). It’s only one of the astonishing places to visit that can only be viewed thru the internet. But then Allah gave us a golden opportunity to be there and to see it life! Preliminary comment for this excursion? It’s splendid! Well, it all started when Kak Tasha asked me to view our LUPA(La Trobe University Postgraduate Association)’s calendar of activities, and register for the GOR trip. It’s only a couple of weeks b4 the excursion and I initially didn’t envisage of anything else but my literature reviews. In fact, we already had our ‘Jalan2 Cari Mat Salleh’ a week after we arrived at Melbourne. I told Julie ‘bout the trip. Julie? Without any further enquires said ‘JOM AAA, BOSAN AAA ASEK DOK UMAH AJE!’ hmmm…apo laie nak dikato..poie yo la! Furthermore, Kak Diana also agreed to join us. Hence, on the 24^th of March at 6.50 am, the four of us began the trip walked from 185 Albert St under the mild-pour-rain to the Tram and then heading to La Trobe U’s Tram stop. We then join the whole excursion members on the bus just-in-time coz the bus was about to leave the David Myer’s Building. Most of the trip members were Asian; the 10 of us including the youngest passenger in the bus (who else if not KHAIRUNNIESREENA BINTI KHAIRUNNEEZAM?!) comprised ¼ of the proportion. The trip started at 7.30 and premeditated to end at 8.00pm.God! At first I believed that the long hours appeared to be more than enough for us to reach all the key spots. But believe me, more than ½ of the time we consumed with sitting inside the bus itself! Yeah, maybe because of the long distance between Bundoora and GOR-placed between Geelong and Torquay at southeast of Melbourne. However guys, all those great, panoramic, beautiful and outstanding places that we’ve visited in this GOR trip made us felt that we are so fortunate to have this opportunity to see some of Allah’s great creation (beside humankind). Just to name some of the spots—Twelve Apostles, The Crags, The Grotto, Elephant Rock, The Blowhole, London Arch (London Bridge), The Great Ocean Road, and so forth, will be sooooo hard to be deleted from our mind’s Random Access Memory. I really can’t describe all those spots one by one. My suggestion is for sure ‘EXPERIENCE IT YOURSELVES!’. Hehehe… or, why not if you still want to witness some great views of those things… visit http://julieanamangsor.fotopages.com. For my fellow friends far far away there in Malaysia, those who have any intention to experience a kinda same trip, yea…just inform me. I would really wholehearted to assist you on getting a good package for the trip, insya Allah. Until then, seee yaaa!

‘Hey mate…you dropped your stuffs!’, tegur aku kepada seorang Aussie masa shopping barang dapur di Safeway. ‘Thanks!’ jawabnya sambil mengambil sebungkus plastik berisi buah yang jatuh dari trolinya. ‘No worries’…jawabku sambil berlalu pergi. Well, anywhere we go, no matter at what time, and with anybody, we need to show our generosity, bounteousness, and ‘Malaysian good habits’. No colour sentiment; religion and race neither. Syiok gilos knowing that Malaysian r well accepted here, as well as we welcomed our foreigners in our beloved peninsular and Borneo.   

Orait, the topic that I wanna share wif you folks is ‘the standard (of anything) that we think we have is not sometimes the actual standard (again, of anything) that we have based on others opinions’. 

Basically, before I came here for my study, some peculiar questions appeared, e.g. Am I compatible and well-suited enough to study at this level? Initially I thought that there will be a vast changes and alterations on my proposal (In fact, it was a horror / dreadfulness feeling when I stepped into Pauline’s room-my supervisor for our first academic meeting). I always pray that Allah will guides and helps me in any situation occur in the intervening time and in the future. Sabarkanlah aku kalau ada apa2 yang tak dijangka berlaku terhadap studiku. Back to the time when I completed the proposal, I thought that it was so bad and not up to the standard required. But with Allah’s will and his permission, alhamdulillah, Pauline really interested with my proposal and she didn’t want me to think of any changes of other topics. I wanna salute the system of SLAB (now SLAI) implemented by our beloved Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi…because of the system, we as the academics have our own proposal. And because of the proposal, I had been acknowledged by Pauline as miles ahead than I supposedly be. Allahu Jalalah!!!!

I always thought that my knowledge of basic quantitative methodology was damn bad! Back (again) to the time of my conversations with Carlos. I always mentioned to him that I blindly put some statistic methodologies that I think not really appropriate in my proposal. I always said that I will then rely on my supervisor’s opinion on those methods. But, through the discussion with Pauline I found that, yes, nothing’s wrong with the concept of statistic I wanna apply. It’s just that I really need to refurnish and polish back my acquaintances of statistic.

I realised that… tada lah haprak sesangat aku ni (kot). It’s just a matter of melupakan apa yang tak patut dilupakan, dan mengingati apa yang tak patut diingati. Really need to change that applied thought with mengingati apa yang patut diingati dan melupakan apa yang patut dilupakan… Nway, Alhamdulillah, aku, Julie dan Reena semakin dapat membiasakan diri di bumi asing ini, dan bumi asing ini sudah semakin lama semakin mahu dicintai oleh kami, PADI – PENDATANG ASING DENGAN IZIN-berpassport dan bervisa sah dan tidak pernah mendapat tittle PATI…

delapan march dua kosong2 tujuh…

hari ini bila kududuk di sini, di sudut akademik dalam bilik 4×5 meter ini, anak mataku terkebil2 menghabiskan bacaan yang tak seberapa. fokus mata ke skrin notebook, namun fokus minda terbahagi dan tercerna kepada banyak bahagian dan banyak perkara. Selalu kutimang-timangkan di antara dua ungkapan (’lughah’ fil lughatul arabiyyah) yang bukan setakat lughah, tapi mendalam maksudnya. Ramai yang telah melalui saat-saat begini aku yakin. dan ramai yang telah melalui saat-saat begini banyak kali. semakin banyak kali aku melalui saat-saat sebegini (saat mempertimbang dan menimang2), semakin itulah aku diterjah pelbagai perasaan; takut, gentar, yakin, berani, sedih, duka, gembira. saat-saat inilah jua persoalan-persoalan yang tak diambil berat sebelum ini dipersoalkan ke atas batu jembala kepala hotakKU.

Perjuangan ini apakah persediaanku menghadapinya? cukupkah sekadar apa yang telah kulengkapkan? apakah perjuangan ini hanya aku pejuangny? atau adakah sesiapa di belakang memegang panji-panji menyemarakkan semangat perjuangan?

Tanggungjawab ini apakah aku benar-benar bersedia memikul bebanannya? cukupkah sekadar ‘minda sedar’ bahawa diri aku sudah matang memikulnya? berapa beratkah tanggungjawab ini dan apa daya dan kemampuanku untuk meletakkan bebanannya di atas bahuku?

Antara Perjuangan dan Tanggungjawab ini, aku rasakan bahawa kedua2nya perlu kuseimbangkan. Kalau tidak aku tunjukkan teladan yang sebaiknya, masakan isteri dan anakku boleh mendabik dada mengatakan inilah dia ketua keluarga yang bertanggungjawab. Kala aku tidak tunjukkan semangat yang sewajarnya, masakan isteri dan anakku boleh mendabik dada mengatakan inilah pejuang sejati keluarga kami…

…DAN CARILAH APA YANG TELAH DIANUGERAHKAN ALLAH
KEPADAMU KEBAHAGIAAN DI AKHIRAT DAN JANGANLAH
KAMU LUPAKAN NASIB KAMU DI DUNIA. DAN
BERBUAT BAIKLAH KEPADA ORANG LAIN - SEBAGAIMANA
ALLAH TELAH BERBUAT BAIK KEPADA KAMU. DAN
JANGANLAH KAMU BERBUAT KEROSAKAN DI BUMI
KERANA SESUNGGUHNYA ALLAH TIDAK MENYUKAI
ORANG-ORANG YANG MELAKUKAN KEROSAKAN.
(SURAH AL QASHASH - AYAT 77)

http://julieanamangsor.fotopages.com

yea…as a matter of fact, we initially planned to have a lunch on the last day of february.Unfortunately si Penang (Mahazan:our KUIM best student/new member of academic in FKP) declined to join cause of some academic matters. Hence, Kak Tasha decided to defer it to Saturday (tudaiiii…).

This morning the three of us settled everything earlier (laundry, breakfast, Rna’s stuffs, tide-up our ‘big’ room, etc).Suddenly, the rain pour down heavily. Alhamdulillah, it means that we will not going thru’ an ‘under the hot sun’ journey to Kak Tasha’s apartment. (Last week the climate reached until 39 degree celc here in Bundoora!it’s damn hot).

So we took a tram heading to Stop number 60 and hailed Ivanhoe bus in front of La Trobe Medical Centre to Waterdale Road. So, at 2.00 pm we arrived at Kak Tasha’s apmt. And after 30 minutes, Mahazan and the gang (Akmal and Asmah-FST lecturer and Syed-UITM) joined us and together we have a long, unstopable chat and for sure the main objective -LUNCH LAH APA LAGI! it’s undeniable that kak Tasha masak memang sedap. Tak sia-sia dong gua spare some space dalam perut boncit ni untuk rasa masakan kak tasha. Thanks a lot lah kak oiii…nanti, bila rumah kami (still under renovation) dah oke,  kami jemputlah akak and gang2, kita makan kat umah saya plak eh? saya ada sorang chef yang pandai masak gak kat sini (kuheh kuheh…chef sepenuh masa plaks tu). For Mahazan, Akmal, Asmah and Syed, thanks for your the time you spent wif us. At least tak lah boring asyik tengok muka bukan warganegara Malaysia di rumah sewa kami nih…heheheheh… sekali lagi, untuk the organizer a.k.a tuan rumah: WALLAH BEB! MEMANG SUPERB LAH MASAKAN ANDA!

fin: grap some views of the luncheon @ kak tasha’s palace!  visit http://julieanamangsor.fotopages.com