4 out of 6 and it's only June!!

Woke up late this morning. Yes people, when you are married 6.20 am is considered late ok. Usually woke up at 5.30 am, did some breakfast for hubby cuz he usually leave home around 6 am.

Arrived 10 minutes after 8 at the office. Nasib baik flexible hour. Then, dropped by at admin building to photostate some cert for my PhD application when I suddenly had the hunch to check the pigeon hole. I don't usually like checking the pigeon hole, because I hardly get any mail (sounds like loser gile.. hehe)

Anyways, I saw this giant envelope with my name on it. I thought, "Owh.. the grant I applied the other day. Must be telling me officially that it is accepted". So I took a glance at the letter. And stopped. Looked at the envelope, read my name again. The letter head, read my name again. Ehh.. Betulla it's my name there.. I mean except that the HR calls me "Cik", pfftt..


I captured the first word, "Pensyarah" then I captured some numbers and I smiled. Alhamdulillah. I just got promoted, with double of my current salary.

I emailed my darling boss,

Me: Salam Puan, Saya dah dapat surat tawaran untuk jadi lecturer!!! :)
Boss1: Excellent!!!, Congrats Ikin, welcome to the academic world (At this point, I jumped happily)
Me: Thank you, Puan. Thank you for helping a lot in getting us a place untuk jadi tutor and promoting us for a lecturer. I can’t thank you enough. May Allah bless you and your family always.
Boss1: No problem, you prove yourself well!

How sweeeettt...

Then, I talked to Boss Number 2.

Me: Salam Dr. I just got promoted!!
Boss2: How much is your salary?
Me: (Happily) Double than what I received now!! Yay!
Boss2: Too low! You should call them and asked them to raise it to at least RM???? (whatever I'm receiving now) + another RM 1K. (And the nagging goes on..)
Me: Can't you just be happy for me for one moment? Just one moment. *Laughs*

So yup, I just got promoted..

And about to submit my PhD application today.

It's June. And my to-achieve-list; 4 out of 6 things have been achieved. All praise to Allah SWT. Alhamdulillah.

Updates on my BIG day! -The chaos.

I remembered seeing one video in Youtube from NadrahTheDreamer, The Joys of Wedding Planning. And, there's a caption saying..

"Wedding planning: The living HELL which consumes the peace and sanity of the unsuspecting couple, even haunting them in sleep. If a couple can withstand the stress of planning (without eloping), then they are sure to have a long and happy marriage"

I laughed when I read this. A week before the wedding, I got almost everything ready and I thought, hey.. this is not as bad as they said!

My aqad was in Saturday, reception on Sunday. That same week on Wednesday, I received a phone call from my closest Aunt, sobbing on the phone..

Me: Are you ok? Why are you crying?
Aunt: Kak, Danial (his first son) was admitted to the hospital today. (Pause). H1N1.
Me: OMG!!! Quarantined?
Aunt: Yup, not only Danial. Syabil, Danish and Pak Cik pun (All his sons and hubby). I'm clean.
Me: Whaaattttt? Mak (Grandma, cuz my Aunt stayed with my grandparents) and Atuk?
Aunt: They don't know yet. Waiting for the result.

Then, the whole chaos started. Mum did nothing on Thursday, she cried the whole day. Phone kept on ringing. Grandparents eventually clean. Me? Thank God, I have my bridesmaid, she kept me sane and stayed with me Wednesday and Thursday, helping out with the room.

Thursday.. As the pressure worsen, Mum and Dad caught in an argument. Well, that was not the worse part. In the evening, suddenly there was an overvoltage due to the lightning. Failure with my autogate and some electrical appliances... and the light in my room.. in my bilik pengantin for God's sake!

Friday.. Lampu bilik pengantin still tak ok although we changed the bulb. Called the technician, he said he'll come first thing in the morning tomorrow, and tomorrow is my aqad. The drama continued..

Saturday (The Aqad)..

1) Dad tried to get his car out of the porch, and suddenly we could not start the car. :( Tried jump start, failed. Tried everything else, failed. At last we gave up, so throughout the aqad, the car stucked inside the porch, guest nak masuk rumah pun susah.

2) Before aqad, I should have had my khatam Al-Quran at 9am. I messaged the Ustazah the day before to remind her. But at 9.15am, she had not yet arrived. I gave her a call, she was surprised she thought it was at 10am and told me she did not received my sms. I checked the delivery report, yes i wondered why, "failed". So she came at 10am, and we had to cut it short cuz I was scheduled to have my make up at 12noon.

3) Photographers should arrive at 11am, but until I almost finished doing my make up, they were still not there! Aqad was at 2pm, they came around 1.30pm, acting all innocent. If you followed my previous blog, you would know my photographer.

4) Deco called, they said, "Miss jalan semua tutup, hari ni Hari 1 Malaysia. We cannot do your pelamin in hall tonight. Esok first thing in the morning kita datang." Panicked, but nothing I can do seriously.

5) Later that night, during rehersal (12 midnight), I called my Dad..
Me: Alat merenjis semua I passed to my friend tau, he'll come first thing in the morning tomorrow.
Dad: Ops! I forgot to do the bunga rampai and all the merenjis thingy. How?
Me: What?! You can't ask me how, Dad!! I reminded you hundredth times already!!! I don't know how!
Dad: We don't have daun pandan here!!
Me: Takpela i cari, nanti i ketuk2 la rumah orang cari daun pandan. (dengan sangat frustrated)
Dad: K.. K.. takpe, i tried ask around.

Sunday (The Reception)

1) 8am, my cousin should be in the hall, to monitor the deco and pelamin (also to give them the remaining balance). I woke up at 8 and asked, "Mum, Iwan dah pegi hall?" Mum said, "he just woke up and refused to go". OMG!!!! You're 23 and so irresponsible. Just because you're lazy to wake, you don't want to go! Stups!!

2) Guests should arrived around 11 am, so our cathering should be there latest by 10 am. 11am, our phone continued ringing, "Cathering is still not here! Meja beradap still tak siap. Chair cover pun belum pasang habis" I tried call the catherer, he off his hp! How dare!!! They came at 11.30am, guests were already waiting and my family did not have the time to eat before the guests. Again, you know who my catherer is.

And a lot more chaos.. but as we got to the hall, there's nothing but excitement! Allah is fair, enough said. Alhamdulillah.. :) Aunt and family were released the night before my reception, and they were there in the hall smiling brightly. And for the first time ever, that uncle of mine sang.. and he said "just for this wedding, just for you, I sang this song.."

Moral of the story: You're wise enough to choose what's good and what's not from my entry this time. Don't do the same mistake as I did, please. But whatever it is, kita hanya merancang.

Enjoy these pics!!

During, khatam.

During aqad, sekali lafaz! :)

Our hantaran

During reception, yes, we asked for a white and dark silver pelamin. Not dark blue.

Our hanbok, Korean traditional gown, arrived from Korea two days before the BIG day, and they suited us perfectly!

The two things I love; my make up and my live band!

The beginning of sharing

It's been exactly two weeks since I started to really learn the true meaning of the word "sharing".

Sharing my room, which I've never done that to anyone before, not even during my uni time.

Sharing my family, which is something really major to me.

Sharing the most private part of my life..

And as I was writing this, I realized that all the "my" in my life has now changed to "our", and it really is a turning point of my life right now.

I'm adjusting.. and adapting.. and at the same time, grabbing hard on not to lose myself along the way.

There's a lot a lot that I want to share with all the readers on my wedding experience, but I'm still on a break, I'll be back next Monday to tell it all! The do's and the dont's.

In the mean time, let me share with you my honeymoon pics!

I'm in NST!!

Haha. Just discover this!

A dreamer, doer and thinker..

When i received her message last two days, telling me that she might not be able to make it to ITEX 2010, I chose to not take it seriously. I knew her very well, and she wouldn't miss this important event, she's a wonderwoman.

Then yesterday, I received a short message telling me she "might not be able to make it, please prepare for the presentation." I thought, "Me? A presentation to impress the judges? That's too funny, better asked someone with Doctorate do it." Again, I chose to play dumb.

But later that evening, upon receiving the phone call from her that I started to feel like my world was upside down for a while. I just sat in the car for about 15 minutes with lots of thoughts going through my mind.

She said she's not coming. She was sick. The sickness was quite serious. Googling about her sickness doesn't make me feel better at all. She said she was so down, she did not feel like doing anything. And that there's no other person that is suitable to present the project but me, since I'm local. And she sounded very different from the person we knew, that I cried in the car.

I'm not crying because I need to present. I don't mind presenting. Although I didn't prepare anything. And I have less than 24 hours to prepare. I took that opportunity for me to shine, for me to challenge my intelligence.

I'm crying because I feel helpless. To not able to do anything to help a person who help builds who I am currently; the one you are proud of and even better the one she is proud of.

At night, the stress got even worse. The need to get a gold medal for her, as I see it's the only way for me to make her happy.

And in the morning, after calling to check up on her, and the whole way to KL Convention Centre thinking how dull would it be without her, I eventually got to the hall feeling a sense of emptiness all over me. We used to have so much fun in MTE, where she helped me to shine on my first exhibition, thus steal the gold medal.

Just about I put my phone in the locker, I received a message from her,

"Salam, sorry to put you thru this, but I know you'll be fine. I am trying to distress my nerves at home. Dr said that my nerves too work up and manifestating it on my leg. Anyway tqvm for giving ur best all this while. Tq."

Then, I stood up from where I sit, did my make up a bit, cheered myself up, took the judging criteria's note, go through the flow a few times, and when the judges came, I imagined how she would kill the presentation and impressed the judges, I did just as that.

And when I was done, all my project members ran to me, hugging me, "Impressive! Very confident! OMG they love you, Ikeen, the judges love you!"

I blurred for a while, and I quickly grab the phone, calling the woman who is already a part of me. My mentor. My supervisor. My project leader. My head of department. My inspiration.

This is for you.. And may we get that gold medal and may you recover very soon.

Thank you for everything. I love you, for everything you are. And I am proud to work under your department, a department that you called as the Department of dreamers, doers and thinkers.

The whole facebook generation

All these while, I've always been labelled as the "facebook" generation by my aunts and uncles. I think it's funny for them to call me that because they have facebook themselves. And I don't really see the generation gap between me and my aunts since we are really close with each other despite of our age difference that I would usually forget they are years older than I am.

But today, I suddenly see how it feels like to be in their shoes.

See, my fiance has a beautiful 11 years old niece. I've known her since she was 4. Time flies so fast, that I was really surprised when she added me as a friend in facebook.

And.. when I saw her photos in facebook, I got even more surprised. What the.. Why are you biting your lips like that? No no no, posing like that with that 3 inches heels doesn't make you look like supermodel, you're way too young for that! And please cover your legs from that super mini skirt!!!! And why the heck would you organize such grand slumber party, go study please!Ugh!!

OMG!!!! I sure feel like my aunts.

I surely had enough when I read a comment from an 11 years old boy in her facebook asking about her friend in hot pants with lots of flowers as its design (yes, hot pants!)

11 years old boy ok! How dare!

Suddenly I thought of my niece, Qistina. She is now 9 years old. I wonder if she had a facebook. Or if she is thinking of having one. Please don't add Aunty k, Sayang?

And my nephews. Then, I feel like crying.

I seriously have an issue with facebook for under age now. Gosh, I really have to sort this up before I have my own child. Aunties, please don't browse through my facebook photos, thank you.

Lyx training - the feedback

Was so surprised to see these emails as I opened my outlook just now:

Thank you to Mr.Fairuz, Syed Khalil, Aiman & Ms Nurul Asyikin for organizing and taking the effort to share the knowledge.
I enjoyed your class and appreciate your enthusiasm to share. Thanks Again.

This came from fiance's lecturer, a Ph. Dr.

And another one from a senior lecturer..

Hi Fairuz and gang,

Great workshop! Learnt a few new things! :) If you guys need any help in assisting future workshops, I'd be happy to help. Now that I've completed my studies, got more time at hand to play with Latex...

Would love to have an advance course. I did learn a thing or two in modifying thesis class files and bibliographystyles before. So if you need any help in that area, do ask.

In my own humble opinion, Lyx is a great software for beginners. It doesn’t seem so intimidating for first time users. So this workshop is a great way to let people start on it. As for me, I think I'm stuck in my old ways...haha. I miss the writing...

So anyways, congrats on the successful workshop!

See, now we have followers. ;)