The second week of February

is already here, which equals to less and less time left before the new semester starts..
Time flies so fast I wonder if they take flight on supersonic jets. heh

Jiji and Ain arrived safely in Brisbane yesterday morning -they were the first to be back among others who went back to Malaysia. We then joined the rest of the gang to Abang Dino's housewarming shortly after Zohor (Abang Dino used to live with some of the QUT boys when we were in CLV). It has been some time since the last gathering I attended which involved other Malaysians so it was pleasing to know there are still a lot of them who didn't take the flight home for summer break ;p

Abang Dino's new house is very lovely (with a jacuzzi to boot cehh) & much thanks to everyone who prepared the food, Alhamdulillah *grins*

This week will be spared to make some preparations for our upcoming juniors. Fifty eight of them (double the number of our group members!) are coming this Thursday so might be needing a bit of fixing here and there. We had a cohort meeting with Pavi yesterday morning and another with Ahmad today to finalise things. I don't really know the juniors well, since we weren't from the same college back in Malaysia. One of them was my secondary schoolmate and I think I bumped across some of them during the English Camp in 2008 and but yeah, guess that's just about it. But I'm sure we'll get along well though it'll take some time to remember their names hehe.

Have a good night ;)

summer project

Two-thirds of my summer holidays had already gone by and I'm still in such a mood of everything but to be ready for the new semester. haha.

I worked up on my sewing skills recently. I was looking for a cushion cover for the new bedroom but due to very few choices and a limited budget (ahem), the search was of no avail.
I was after a 'statement cushion' -kind of the 'in' thing among home decor websites nowadays so that's when I decided to just buy calico fabrics and sew it myself.

As it goes, 'live what you love' :)
Without the comfort of sewing machines, I had to sew the cover on my own so it took a lot of time. And for the cushion's fastener I opted for the hidden buttons instead of zippers cause my needlework will certainly crumple it up if I use the latter +.+

and this 'xoxo' is actually from the same piece, I sew them on each side so that I can have two designs in one cover. I know, cheapskate. haha
The material used for to make the heart-shaped patch is felt, which I bought at a very cheap price from a local shop. While the thread is the usual ones from DMC.

She seems to be blending well with her friends :)

Off to bed. ;)

new blogskin

A friend of mine asked me to help design a mini invitation post for a futsal friendly match the admin is organizing for the upcoming cohort, so I thought why not give a go for a new blogskin too as the one I'm currently using is already one year old.

I have been drawn to shades of white lately, thus the base colour of this little newbie.
Please welcome , "every cloud has a whimsical lining" :)
I'm favouring the layout to exude the sense of simplicity so that explains the minimal lines and embellishments.
For everyone who kindly stopped by to view my in:sights:out, I hope it looks cool to your eyes as much as it is to mine hehe
Say tata to "flowers & flutters":


Speaking of clouds, the long hot summer days have finally ceased into continuous drizzles. It's a very good thing really, cause Brisbane should've reached that cooling-off at some point. That being said, my daily routines should mostly be inside the house. Thank goodness Shiha and I managed to have a couple of outings right before the downpour week.

And finally, oo yess, finally, I have put back my blogroll list *exhales deep breath*
If anyone ever stood by the drums to drum-roll this tiny bit of improvement, I bet you must've dreaded the long years of waiting hahaha
I believe I might have missed out some names in the list, I'm still digging up so please drop me yours in case it's not included in the mini blog nation there.

catch ya later ;)

it's already the end of January?

Still can't believe that the whole first month of 2010 had passed by like a blink (seriously!) despite supposedly being one of the most unproductive people compared to my other groupmates.
while most of my friends are busy with their part time jobs and whatnots, i actually spent most of my January inside the house yet i couldn't be bothered with updating the blog =.=

i know it sounded weird to learn that i am following Australian Open (as of yesterday's post) i guess that's one of the consequences of obtaining full authority of the telly since the past few weeks haha. I was a bit disappointed that Justine Henin didn't win the match against Serena last night (my second disappointment after Nadal withdrew from his match against Andy Murray last time) but i guess she deserved the trophy after all. I'm looking forward for tonight's men's final (it's Federer vs Murray) considering that Andy pulled off very interesting techniques while beating Cilic during the semis. He conquered the baselines perfectly! *awed* but yeah, it's the reigning champion that he's facing tonight so that would certainly require tireless effort. For those of you following the match as well (or interested to), it's about to start in five minutes!
happy watching :)

i'm feeling the summer

today is so much fun :))

i know i've been away for quite some time now, will try to update whenever i could.
i'm soo tired i wanna sleep right about now but since it's the womens final of Australian Open tonight, i'm trying my best to keep myself awake.
will get back to you guys soon.
take care :)

29th December 2009

First thing first,
I would like to wish my dearly missed friend Ema another blissful birthday today :)
The more candles, the bigger the wish hehe (just don't leave the biggest one on your wishlist to come from me dah la na ema :p)

Next a quick update on what's happening in my life..
I am moving out of the Campus Living Villages into a new house in Herston Road this Wednesday (which is tomorrow). The place is about 10-15 minutes walking distance (or so i hope) from my uni. It was due to the ever-increasing rental fee that is above the amount provided to us, hence moving out of CLV. Yes it'll be a bit time-consuming to reach the uni as compared to living in CLV, but if the rest of our friends in other unis can cope with that then why couldn't we? (chewah) - And most of us the QUT cohort 5 will still be staying together in Herston so that's a good thing.

The house is a brand new residency in the form of townhouses. I think there are at least 14 townhouses in that location (i'm not sure, will check again) with each houses set to occupy 4-5 tenants. The rent at the new place is slightly cheaper and its price also includes internet access and centralized air-conditioning system, so yeah.

At first there was another choice available in Tait St; slightly farther and was still under construction during the time of inspection but the one in Herston Rd immediately caught my eye the time we arrived there, with its sleek design and the spanking new feel and what not haha

That's the only picture of the place I have at the moment- this one is via the phone camera.

Then there were some problems with the owners of the houses as they planned to sell the place instead of renting it out to us so we decided to settle in Tait St..
Another unforeseen circumstance came up- Tait St is not expected to finish its renovation by the time of lease. So there the rental management company went finding our way back to Herston Rd hehehe.
rajin pulak bercerita kan. heh

All I can say is that I know how hard it is to find such comfy place and to have it available to a large group such as ours, so I have to thank Andi and Nija for their really hard work to have Herston Rd as our lodging for next year.
Shiha, Hanis and I are at the final stage of spring cleaning our house- in fact i think we're by far done with it (or else I won't be able to write this hmm) in CLV before the major move-out tomorrow. And talk about tonnes of goods to be transferred from here tomorrow.. how i wish my brother is still in Brisbane to help me up :p
Let's just pray that the weather will be fine tomorrow and everything goes as smoothly.
Hoping that the internet accessibility there is not of a setback.. I'll be surely in need of the cyber connection in that house now that we're farther away from the uni labs.
Amin & amin! :)

behind my MIAs

Greetings!
Perhaps I should justify my absence all this while.

I went for a fruitpicking job in Cairns (it's in the Tropical North of Queensland) for almost a month.- three and a half week to be exact.
Eight of us stayed at the backpackers in Atherton which is a two hour journey from Cairns city and were assigned to do farm jobs at a lychee farm nearby, owned by an Italian family.

the farm

Yes it is summer in Aussie land and boy how on earth could I settled myself for a farm job you'd ask? Haha. I'd consider myself lucky because us girls - Syafa, Dayana and I were only asked to do plucking and packing of the lychees. That means working under the shed most of the time. The boys were required to pick the lychees from the farm but our employers sure are very considerate people cause they set the picking jobs early in the morning - just in time before the sun comes out. To make the story short, I enjoyed myself while i was there. Yes- the wage is also something to look up to ngehngehngeh but the experience I gained to top it all up, well that's something I'd surely wouldn't get elsewhere :)

during lunchtime

with the owner of the farm, Gug Micieli (he's the one in blue)

Atherton might sort of look like a sleepy town with nothing much to offer, but I'm pretty sure the people there are content with the way they are living. Gug's family for instance, has their own way of living life in that small town (which in some ways different to the way I do). But with all the family members - his mum, dad, aunts, uncles, his wife and kids, his sister and the rest of the family being there with him, I'm sure you'd agree that anywhere is good enough to be your place to live in :)
Now I'm missing my family even more :'(

Cairns is also a spot famous to the tourists and scuba divers for the enchanting Great Barrier Reef (go Google it) but sadly I didn't have the opportunity to go there due to time constraint. I really hope that I can somehow manage to visit the much talked about destination before I return to Malaysia end of next year.

I headed back to Brisbane earlier than the rest of my friends cause I had something as exciting in Brissyland (cewah hahaha) - Mard & Imran came to Brisbane for the second time this year to visit all the places they haven't gone to last Easter.
This time we had another group of Macquarians who came along - my dear roommates back in IPBA Jane and Amirah, Lina, Murni and their friend from Sydney, Arniza.

The Dreamworld that is, the home of Spongebob Squarepants and the rest of the Nickelodeon characters. Oh I should've put the photo with that yellow sponge but I can't remember where I placed it.. and the rides, haih just as thrilling as the ones in Warner Bros' Movieworld therefore I just couldn't let myself succumb to that much fear all over again haha
Shiha couldn't tag along due to some work commitments while Jiji is back in Malaysia. So who knows if I might be coming back to this place sometime hmmm ;)

We also joined the Christmas Lights tour. It is an annual event where residents around town who take part in the Christmas Lights competition adorn their houses with sparkling lights and Christmas-related displays. Just like what i used to see on tv- now right before my eyes :)
all of the decorations were captivating- i was enthralled with such passion the residents have; to have put so much time, money and effort for the competition.

Mira told me that she's been longing to take a picture at this place (it's the city's Cultural Centre; a la Sydney's Circular Quay kot) hehe

So Jane, Mira and the company stayed with us for a week. I'm sorry if we didn't have much offerings for you girls but i hope you enjoyed your stay here. Better still, come again soon!

And since Mard had been talking about a road trip to Ballina, we also organised a convoy to the place. Ballina is situated in New South Wales (where Sydney is situated in) but it is closer to reach from Brisbane itself. So there we went- with Mard, Imran, Shiha, Dayana, Syafa, Nija and the remaining QUT boys.
it was expected to rain that day.. but rain or shine we just don't mind eh rhyming pulak

We stopped at Byron Bay (I've published a post about this breathtaking place some time ago), the Macadamian Castle, a garden maze called 'Amaze n Place' (the most anticipated in my list!), Lennox Head, then back to Byron Bay town all in one day! We had to drop the plan of having a picnic at a nearby waterfall though, as the rain started to pour (as expected) right after we finished the garden maze quest. Nonetheless we still had so much fun with everything else :)
thanks to Mard and Imran for the get-together idea and kudos to the boys for the car-renting matters and driving all the way down to Ballina. We should really have more of this!

Byron Baythe Macadamian Castle

finding our way out ecehMard & Syafa at the maze viewing tower

*the photos without my watermark are taken from Imran. Thanks for the shots!

It was sad to bid goodbyes over and over again this summer. First it was Jiji, then the Mira & Jane clan, then it was Mard & Imran. But I know this means that I have something to look forward to when we meet each other again, InsyaAllah.

So those were my whereabouts all this while.
And now that I have the time to rest a little more than usual and actually take care of myself, let's just hope that I am able to keep this dear blog alive with more updates. Hehe ;)