Investment?

I stayed with 6 girls in my lab for PhD. Girl power, y'all!

They were at least 7 years older than me. And ohh.. living their life so lavishly. Like a dream life for me.

So I wonder.. I mean if both Love's and my salaries were to be combined, we are in a category of high income (until you minus all the student loans, car loan and housing loans) and yet where do the money goes?

30% a month to ASB and Tabung Haji with around 7% dividend a year.

Am I happy with it? Oh yes at first. Not anymore when I met these girls.

One of them, the wife of a CFO.. inspired me a lot :)

So I started to study on other investments. I'm not interested in properties, too lazy to monitor. Not working for my dad, the tenant ran away, three months unpaid utility bills and the house was a wreck.

I started small, with gold investment. My choice..

Let me explain a little bit on gold. Bought it when the price was down; which was the lowest by far at that moment. And until today, the price is still going down :( If I sell mine now, I'd lose about 21% already.

Not mentioning how much hassle I went through for my gold purchasing to ensure it was syariah compliance, the worse thing for me is the spread.

Now what is spread?

Spread is the difference between the buying and selling price. And for public gold, around 7% ok. That's a lot. :(

I guess gold investment is not for me.

So I started with something else, which adds RM11k in my account last month. A total of 24% profit for me in less than a month! Rezeki Ibu and Ayah nak pergi umrah :) Alhamdulillah, thank you Allah.

How did I manage to do that? Will share it next entry, in shaa Allah.

Third year anniversary :)

Love had to go to Butterworth on our anniversary.

And a day before our anniversary, I had to attend a conference in Melaka. Lame :(

It was just a couple of days after our long break to Goldcoast, but being a sweetheart, Love took a leave and followed me to Melaka, of course together with Baby K.

But it was a short one. Checked in at Bayview after work on Monday night and check out first thing in the morning the next day.

The celebration was nothing to be remembered about. It was just another day for us.

But there's one thing I learned about on that day, on how much my husband sacrificed for me.. The fact that he postponed his outstation to accompany me to Melaka because he just couldn't bear I'm driving alone to Melaka and had to sleep without Khaira.

That's a big thing for me, because Love is VERY dedicated to work. And to be reminded that Khaira and I are always on top of his list just make my day :)

May we have a better celebration next year.

Minor renovation at Homer!

Little K has been eager of climbing the stairs by herself nowadays.

Being a paranoid mom, it never failed to make my heart skip a beat every time she did that at mom's place.

But at our own, it always a battle. I would never allow her to do so even with micro close supervision.

So, we had a minor renovation at our crib last weekend.

Cost us RM1300 all in.

Should be ready by next Sunday. Can't wait!!! :)

PhD viva?

So there I was, 24 hours before my Viva. My every inch of body feels tense and excited at the same time.

During Zuhur, my friends told me, tomorrow at this hour, we're gonna celebrate your doctorate. Ameen, ya rabbal alamin.

At about 3pm, supervisor called,

"I am very sorry to tell you, it seems like the email sent by COGS to one of the examiner bounced back and he didnt even know your viva is tomorrow. It's very unfortunate, I am sorry."

Numb.

All the weeks that I went home late for my baby, the weekends I sacrificed, the admin works I put on hold, and whaaattttttt???

Then, it all makes sense to me. Allah must asked me to prepare better, Alhamdulillah.

So my Viva has been postponed to 25th June, please extend your du'a for me friends. May I come back on the 25th with the best news of the century, Ameen.

Goldcoast, Australia

Hye everyone!!

Goldcoast has been super fun!!!!!~ I'm energized and recharged, whee!!

Went there for 5 days 4 nights by Air Aisa X with 8.5 hours in flight... With a super active baby girl!! Imagine!!! She was a happy girl in the flight, Alhamdulillah.. but she was awake the whole journey there and kept running in the aisle with a friend she just met. *Pengsan*

Anyhow, the time difference here is 2 hours (8 am Malaysia = 10 am Aussie) and the currency rate is 3.2 (RM 1 = AUD 3.20)

Day 1

We left LCCT at 10.20 am in Malaysia and arrived at 8.20 pm Aussie's time. Stuck 2 hours in immigration and quarantine. Anyhow, we managed to get through everything; rice, sardines, Brahims, Anchovies, Tuna, perencah Maggi, Chicken Maggi, biscuits, even Khaira's formula milk. Alhamdulillah.

And we collected our car that we rented via Cutprice car rentals. The cheapest we found online, cheaper than Budget and Avis. For 4 days = AUD 230 with maximum coverage. Kia Rio Auto together with Khaira's car seat. The service was superb, highly recommended.

I would strongly encourage renting a car because the public transport was really expensive here. Plus the fuel throughout our stay was just AUD 20.

Checked in at Santana Holiday Resort at Monte Carlo Avenue, Surfer's Paradise. It was perfect! A one bedroom apartment with a complete cooking equipments in the kitchen including stove and rice cooker.

Day 2

We booked a Super Pass online for AUD 90 per person to cover three theme parks - Sea World, Movie World, and Wet n Wild with unlimited entry until June.

Firstly, we went to Sea World. Since the food was super expensive here and they allowed outside food in, I cooked Nasi Goreng Sardin with Tuna sandwich for lunch. Nonetheless, the park was super awesome.

Let the pictures do the talking!    

The fish detectives show

Some rides for the kids

Dora the explorer show

Cable car

The dolphin show

Dinasour world

After theme park, we had our tea at Little Fish Market. The best Fish and Chips! And shopped for some fresh fish throughout our stay.

I bought 4 fish fillets (of fish that I never found in Malaysia), 4 big prawns, a handful of calamari and some crab sticks for AUD 30, not bad kann?

Then we went to grocery shopping - onions, veges, milk, chocoloates, etc at Woolworths. Jakun a bit - No cashier ok, self paying machine!!

Wrap up our day after having a homemade dinner of Sefood Tomyam and some Kacang Buncis goreng.

Day 3

Movie World, yo! Here also you can bring in your own food. We packed some rice with ikan masak merah. (I really thought I bought perencah sweet and sour! )

Not a big fan of roller coaster, so I was just baby sitting the kids while Love, BFF Maria and hubby went crazy with all the adventure rides. Ohh did I mention BFF Maria was with us? Wheee!!

I did try one of the rollercoaster and another boring ride though. Their shows were awesome too; Hollywood Stunt Car and The Batman Show. And the parade was fun!!

Again, I'll leave you with the pictures there!

Love's fav ride

Parade

Family rides

At night, we went to the Night market which opens only on Friday and Sunday. But it was boring. So we went for souvenirs hunting instead at the street near the beach.

Ended the day with Brahim's for dinner.

Day 4

Woke up Saturday morning with BFF Qdin at the door!! Yup, he came all the way from Perth - 5 hours journey to spend the weekend with us!

Being all jetlagged, we dragged him to Harbour Town for some shopping. Harbour Town is a factory outlet yg mmg best!! Had our brunch at Ispa Kebab. So many Halal foods in Aussie, even the Nando's here is halal.

After having a home made lunch - Fried bean sprouts with Sardines and some fried anchovies, we went to Kmart. I super love this shop ok! Stuff are so cheap! Khaira's shoes for AUD 4, 3 pairs of beautiful socks for AUD 2 and lingeries are even cheaper!! Went crazy, but almost all shops in Aussie closed at 5pm. So tak puas, and we came back the next day. Grr..

At night, we grabbed some snacks at Woolworths (the potato chips are awesome!), hung out by the beach and at a coffee shop, catching up with BFF Qdin. What a wonderful day.

Ended the day with a home made ikan bakar (man, the fish here is super fresh) and some fried cauliflower while BFF Qdin cherished his night of being single.

Day 5

Check-out time here is at 10am and you just dropped the key, nobody monitored you or anything. Talking about honesty.

Spent the morning by the beach.

Love of my life

 Then, again to Kmart until puas.

And ended our Goldcoast trip playing Mini Golf.

He got hole in one once!

Then, 8.5 hours torture in the flight with bad weather, hehe.

Anyhow, I'm safe at home and Baby K sleeps so peacefully now.

Doakan 5 June ni ok.. PhD viva!

I'll leave you guys with a picture of me and my best friend, hopefully until the end..

And perhaps another best friend in the making?

It was most memorable to me because I got to share it with the three people that shared the ups and downs in my life the most; Love, Maria, and Qdin.

Thank you guys! Much love!

I'm sorry, Nek..

I didn't vote today..

Not the previous ones either.

I didn't know who to vote. I think politics are corrupted. Full stop.

But since Nenek passed away 2 weeks ago, I feel the obligations to vote and it was too late to register already by then..

Cousin sent this picture just now..

With a caption "For you.."

And it breaks my heart to million pieces..

I'm sorry, Nek. I truly am.

Baiti Jannati

Despite of my hectic schedule during thesis writing, I stole a day out of my lab for this..

Of course I was the only one with my laptop on to write my thesis and my friends called me nerd. ;p Anyhow, I thank Allah SWT everyday for my ability to multitask.

The gist of the talk is on parenting and family given by Ustaz Pahrol Juoi. I found the talk very interesting and for that, I would like to take a little time out to share it with all of you.

To recall everything a month after sounds 'wow' kan.. So, I'm gonna share one thing I learned most from the talk.. It's the act of giving in our relationship.

In life, we KNOW that everything we have actually belongs to the Almighty. The husband that we seldom complained about, the kids that we sometimes took for granted, everything belongs to Him. It's the realization that Ustaz Pahrol Juoi keeps repeating in his talk. "Repetition is the mother of knowledge".

So when we know that whatever in life is just a lent, we must appreciate them better. And that whatever we do to them, we must do it for Allah SWT.

The realization actually changed the way I look into my marriage. And for once I can relate to what Saiful Islam always stressed on.. "erti hidup dalam memberi.."

There are times in life where ones can be demanding. I expected for Love's support at the critical time of my phd. He expected me to be the superwife at the critical time of my phd. Life can be demanding.

But after attended the talk,  I realized that I have to stop demanding and start giving. Sometimes we feel like what we give is not appreciated. But it's ok. Because what we did is actually for Allah SWT and He'll give us even more returns in the end.

A simple concept but means a lot to me.

Ask anybody who did his/her phd while being married. It's not easy.. but personally for me, I am truly blessed.