Life was like a box of chocolates.

      " A certain shopkeeper sent his son to learn about the secret of happiness from the wisest man in the world. The lad wandered through the desert for forty days, and finally came upon a beautiful castle, high atop a mountain. It was there that the wise man lived.       "Rather than finding a saintly man, though, our hero, on entering the main room of the castle, saw a hive of activity: tradesmen came and went, people were conversing in the corners, a small orchestra was playing soft music, and there was a table covered with platters of the most delicious food in that part of the world. The wise man conversed with everyone, and the boy had to wait for two hours before it was his turn to be given the man's attention.       "The wise man listened attentively to the boy's explanation of why he had come, but told him that he didn't have time just then to explain the secret of happiness. He suggested that the boy look around the palace and return in two

Happy December 25 th everyone! What a boring day, since there aren’t any public transport that operates on this day, we are left here to rot in our homes with pretty much nothing to do. Oh how I wish for a game of cards or anything at all. All I did was to watch Kungfu Panda 2, and that was pretty much it, for now at least. Things have been pretty frustrating lately, especially with the Internet. For some strange unexplained reason, our broadband seemed to have slowed down eversince we got back from our trip to Amsterdam last week. I have tried almost everything from changing the router, the ADSL cable, as well as the ADSL filter. Heck, I even tried giving the Virgin Media guy a ring yesterday evening, just in case if he could assist me or anything, unfortunately, I was dead wrong. To say that he was not at all helpful might be a bit exaggerating, I’m pretty sure he’s done all he could through the phone. In the end, I am left where I started, with tremendously sluggish Internet

You know how in the previous post I mentioned how nice it would have been if me and my housemates' initial plan to go on a trip so spontaneous, like The Amazing Race spontaneous? Yeah, I got something close to that. On Monday evening as we were so caught up browsing the Net, all of a sudden Munir suggested that we head to Amsterdam, and things went from there. We started looking for affordable flight tickets as well as our accommodation there. Afterwards, we left for the airport straight away that same night to catch our early flight out the next day. To be honest, we did not even know what we were going to do in Amsterdam until we actually arrived at Costa cafe in Stansted that night. The four of us brought out our phones and began to search for more info for our trip. Finally it was decided! We were going to go to the rural part of Holland before we indulge the urban are of it. So we planned to go to Zaanse Schans which is a bit to the North of Amsterdam to see the windmi

Ah finally, it’s the time we have all been waiting for, the winter holidays! Ten weeks of school have finally come to an end. Wow, those grueling ten weeks were very hardcore with never-ending works and responsibilities. To be really honest with you, this year’s first term went by much quicker than last year’s for some strange reason. Well maybe because this time around I get to enjoy myself more, having my own place to stay as well as having a very supportive ‘bestfriend’ alongside of me. And at the moment, for the first three days of my winter holiday I am pretty much jobless. I have done pretty much nothing for the past few days other than playing games, eat, sleep then more game. I played so much that my favourite gun is now up to level 30! Well, at first I was playing so much because I wanted to level up and get the ACR rifle since I’ve been shot so many times using that particular gun, but when I finally got the gun, it turned out to be quite a disappointment! Well maybe it

A friend of mine asked me last night,' I am having a bit of a trouble trying to focus on getting this task done, what do you suggest I do? Should I try to force myself and finish it tonight, or should I take a short break?'. Here's what I told him: If this task is important to you, then I suggest you to take a time out. Because things which you regard as being important to you always have a way to remind you, take your family for example. Sometimes you are so caught up with your work that you have no time to actually give them ring, but that does not mean that your love for them is at all diminished. At times, when you are about to close your eyes at night, your mind will start to ponder about them  how are they doing, or it could be that in the weekend, as you are sitting down in a cafe sipping your coffee all by yourself (like I am right now), you suddenly felt the urge to phone them. So you see, do not be afraid that by distracting yourself and doing other things, your

Last Friday night, me with the rest of  my hosuemates went to the Imperial College orchestra concert courtesy of Kima. She is Hasan's neighbour and they are quite close, we even got the invitation because of her. If it was not for her, we would not even know about it in the first place. Frankly speaking, we are not exactly much of a music lover; personally, the last orchestra performance was in KTJ a couple of years ago. It was fun! Yes, it was a bit lengthy, but I reckon that must be because it has been way too long since I last stepped foot in a performance of such scale. They played so beautifully that even when I did not know the songs, they managed to bring me back in time. I know that this may sound ridiculous to all of you, but I had a vision when I heard them play. It is almost as if I could see myself inside that dream I had in Birmingham last year, my days in SAS, and a few more. So beautiful indeed. I was completely lost. Thanks so much to Kima for having us over!

Elbow- The Night Will Always Win I spent the whole of Friday night playing this game, and I gotta tell you, it was worth it! The game was very awesome indeed! I love how dynamic and flexible the whole game play experience was. I get to choose which ever way I wanted to approach the game, and this will eventually have an effect of the final ending, which I was informed there are four different versions of depending on how the player choose to play the game. This scene was the opening cinematic before the game even get to the opening 'Start Game' screen. I like the song very much. Yes, it is very depressing, but in a way it reminded of how my past shaped me into who I am today. Personally, I like the antagonist, Raul Menendez very much. Yes, you might argue that he is a bit of a lunatic who wants to destroy the world just because of the grudge he holds against the capitalists for all his suffering, particularly when the blood of his beloved sister, the only member of his f

Life is temporary, but death is forever.  A famous quote indeed, which kept coming to back to me this last few weeks. We all know it all too well, the fact that our very existence in itself is temporary. Nothing lasts forever, which means it is only right that we are not to roam this earth forever. Funny how real everything seemed to feel to us while we are living, which was why some even proposed that the life we are living right now is nothing more than just an elaborate dream, the infamous matrix theory. For me, I personally think that however interesting the intuition is behind the matrix theory, it just feel a bit off to think of our lives as being a lie, but then again, nobody would too. Besides, then what is the point of putting our effort in virtually anything, ain't it? It all started around earlier this month with the passing of my friend's mom. Yes, though I must admit that I am not that close to him, but a tragedy always have a place in a man's soul, whet

Last week I held my first ever party, well it was not so much of a party as it was just a house-warming event.  Initially when we had our first ever meeting, we were so overwhelmed by such a long guest list. It never occurred to us that we knew that many people! Finally after much filtering, we agreed to out a cap at 60. Does not sound that much now, does it? But a a bunch of young men who never hosted and be the chef of our own events, we didn't see the hard work coming right at us. At the time, we thought that 60 was a safe number, what more when we have allocated time slots on when to invite which group of people, plus, using some brilliant Maths skills by Nick, we managed to somehow group them all up in a manner by which they would blend in well with the rest of the invited guests, just so that we could avoid any unwanted awkwardness among the guests. I believe many would agree with me when I say that the preparation stage was the hardest of it all. The week before the event

I have been listening to this song for a few months now, but it never occurred to me to actually pick it up as one of my songs of the week, until today finally came and I finally changed my mind. Here  how it goes... Just as any other weeked, I had my video session with Rahimah. We talked and talked till late at night. The fact that she was willing to wake up so early on a Sunday morning really touched me, but I'd never told her that. Then we got to talking about the condition of one of my family members who was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. The day before yesterday my mom texted me saying that her condition was getting worse; at the time, she could not even open her own eyes anymore. The whole family returned home to visit her, including my parents.  I was praying the best for her, though deep down in my gut I knew that her chances are slim. This I knew from younger brother who read the doctor's report as well as the x-ray and stuff when they came down to KL last sum

Why I like this song?:  Yes, I know that I may not look like a Nasyid-song lover, but last night on our way back from the Nadira's house-warming, all of a sudden I heard a tune ringing inside my ears while I was not even wearing my earphones the whole journey! To be even more truthful, I may have never even liked the song before! When Afiq Walid heard that I was listening to this, he quickly told me that it was about the story of life; on how when an individual is borne into the world he is comparable to that of a newly planted seed. Then the song continues on until the seed grows into a tree all the way until it dies. In short, it is a reminder to us all of how brief and full challenging our life is.

Why I like this song?:  This is a very sad song with very deep lyrics. When I first listened to it, I honestly thought that it was a soundtrack from a TV series or a movie because the song was sooo deep and meaningful. It tells a story about a guy who is deeply in love with a girl (as always), but the twist in the plot is when that he secretly sick. He is counting his last days while at the same time he still cares for her. Hence, the title of the song, he wishes that she would find another guy to take his place when he is gone while at the same time the song contains his last words for her. It is a memento he left behind for her when he is gone. Credits to Rahimah for introducing me to this very powerful song!

I should seriously punish myself for being so lazy in updating my blog. It's not that I am that busy that I do not have the time to actually do it, but the truth is, I am just plain lazy to do so. I mean, yeah, with my tablet and my smartphone, I should have been more active. I love my Tuesdays, not only because this is the day when I get to download new episodes of HIMYM as well as Gossip Girl, but particularly because I have no lectures on the day. Okay, maybe in the near future I might have some tutorials to attend, but since all UCL lectures are in two-hours block, an hour of tutorial goes by right before you know it. But they do get pretty boring and sleepy at times too, or maybe that's just me. Second year, time sure flies by so quickly. I can still vividly recall the memories of last year in my head, both the nice and the bad ones. For those of you who might still remember, I for one have a 'special' reason why I despise Sundays so much. Some of you out the

Summer has ended, lectures have already started for us here in UCL. This had been a pretty hectic week for myself as there were much for me to sort out, both academic and non-academic related. To kick things off, there was the internet. We told our landlord that we wanted to use his BT Broadband account just for the month of September, so come last Monday, our flat was left without an internet connection, while the newly subscribed VirginMedia broadband was due to be up and running on Thursday. So yeah, the six of us were left without an internet connection for three days. How was that like? Well, since the six of us were all pretty well adapted to the life with the internet always switched on it was pretty challenging, what more when me and the UCL boys already have our lectures on, so we were in dire need of an internet connection to go to Moodle and download the slides with other reading materials. Come Thursday, I was anxious the entire day, waiting for any sorts of communicati

Why I like this song : Quite frankly, I've heard this song being played on the radio back when I was driving in Malaysia. At the time, I was not so sure who the artist was, but all I know was that she sure could sing. Heck, I even thought that it was either Yuna or one of those young rising stars, you know, this being the era of Najwa Latif and all. Until yesterday when Nick played this song on his lappy. Does this song have anything to do with my mood at present? Well, urmmm I guess so, yeah it does. But given that I only have one more week to spare before the beginning of a new academic  year, I guess I should start warming up and continue with my daily routine last year, and adapt if necessary given that the circumstances have changed now that I am now staying at quite a distance from campus. Missing you.......

Investing in education is one of the main priority of governments all over the world as it is one of the main pillars of development. In recent days, we hear about incidents all over the world attempting to transform educational policies, like in America, particularly in Chicago where teachers held a strike which started off last week, demanding better assessment for teachers and many more, meanwhile on Tuesday, here in the UK it was made known that the infamous GCSE will soon be replaced with the English Baccalaurate in 2017 , finally back at home, our country the release of the preliminary report of the Malaysia Education Blueprint for the period of 2013-2025 received rather mixed reactions all over. So yes, as you can see, this month not only marks the beginning of a new academic year to most of us, rather the air carries with it the essence of global educational overhaul. Countries all over the world have endlesssly work their way over the years to come up with the best possible

Why I like this song: I am pretty sure that this song is familiar to most of you guys out there, but nevertheless, it just suits my mood. To go back to 'merantau' again is never an easy thing to do; if you think that for a guy who left home since he was thirteen years old this should be routine, the truth is, it's not as simple as it looks. Everytime I get on the road, my heart will long for home, thinking about those who I left behind, hoping & praying hard to God to keep them safe. This one's for you...

Alhamdulillah I am now back in London. It all happened so fast that it made me felt so surreal. When we left home yesterday evening, I must confess that I honestly felt as if we were about to head back to Terengganu instead of sending me off back to London, like seriously! Plus, the wait in the KLIA also did not help to calm me down either. At first I was pretty anxious to know whether my luggage will make it pass the check-in guy or not, but once it was done, things began to get emotional. BYE RUMAH~ One last look at the neighbourhood Going to miss the Sun, and dad It all started when I went down the escalator for immigration, you know the infamous goodbye near the McD in KLIA, but this time I decided to take a different escalator to avoid the crowd. I hugged and kissed my parents, shook hands with Amalina and her family, then I'm off.  Boarding pass in hand, so sad, why must go? My last meal, pulut kuning! Yumm!  As I headed to the boardin

Sleeq ft. Najwa Latif - Untuk Dia (Acoustic Version) Why I like this song?: To begin with, I don't even know who Najwa Latif actually is. I've heard of that name long ago, but I've always thought that she must have been one of my friends' sister or something like that. Sorry, but I don't really follow all this VLog or famous bloggers, they just don't appeal to my interest. I started to know this song when I was driving back to my kampung in Kemaman during the Raya holiday. It came up on the radio and it sounded funky to me. Then being a curious bug that I am, I started to look it up on the Internet until I stumbled upon this acoustic version of it. Nice huh~ The lyrics are not so bad, but come on, for a mixed song such as this one, you shouldn't put your hopes too high, eh? Enjoy~ I leave the rest to you.......

My summer is coming to an end in a few days time. Sigh~ I am so not ready to go back yet, but what can I do, it is part of my job and whether I like it or not, I have to do it otherwise. So the question is, did I enjoyed my summer holiday being home for three months? Frankly speaking it has been a blast! I was totally caught off guard with the internship and all. First thing which is to me the most important thing which occurred to me was when I met Rahimah. I met her totally by chance and it all spiraled from there. I never expected that I will be able to care about someone after what happened with, well you know, Sabrina. Oh how destiny works in a mysterious way. She is different from girls I normally met. Different how? Well, you don't expect me to give you all the details do you? I know the circumstances are a bit different between the two of us, but that does not mean it will not work, not until we give it a try? Dia seorang yang matang pemikirannya, sungguhpun dia kuat berg

Two months of internship in the Bank had been an undoubtedly memorable experience for me.  The first few weeks were a bit boring, the fact that I needed some time to adjust and digest the information left me with pretty much nothing to do. It was awkward to be in the working environment when you are too used to being a student. What more when the shift involved a sudden jump into an organization with such a broad scope of work such as the Bank. The job scope is simply too wide, so expect not to know everything, unless you are that good, I personally am not.  Surely I am not at liberty to really discuss what I have been asked to do the two months I am there since this blog is too public. But all I can tell you is it really is a worthwhile experience. Getting used to the routine was tiring at first, but given how fun and exciting the people working there provided me was exactly the push I needed to get me out of bed. If you were to ask Amirul from Legal, he would know how I would k

Earlier today I went to UIA to send my friend off on her registration day. It is a big day for her because it has been years since she left studying and since her family could not accompany her to the registration today, I felt obliged to drive her there. At least she won't have to go through it all alone. This has got to be the earliest I ever woke up on a Sunday! When we got there at 9, there was already a lot of people queuing for registration at the CAC. I found myself smiling thinking that this was supposed to be where I would have been if I hadn't accepted the scholarship from the Bank. Had I decided to do engineering 4 years ago, this will surely be my playground instead of me having to go all the way to London. To be honest with you, I sometimes do wonder how would it be like if I were to say yes to UIA four years ago? Well to begin with, I would have never met this friend of mine in the first place. Second, it would surely be much easier for me since it is so close

Selamat hari raya to everyone! From my family to yours~

We are all very familiar with the phrase, 'happening right underneath one's nose' which translates into an incident that hook place directly in front of us the whole time, yet we missed it. Quite ironic, isn't it? We humans are blessed with dual frontal field of vision, which means we are supposed to have a better, clearer view of what is taking place in front of us, enabling us to judge the distance of two objects more accurately, but unfortunately most of the times, our two eyes still fail us. During the last few weeks this was the lesson I learnt. As I got into the LRT one fine morning, dreading how the heck am I to finish reciting the Quran this Ramadan, what more when I now have to come to work 8 hours a day? My worries was answered when the train stopped at Setiawangsa a guy got in, holding a Quran firmly in his hand. Since I was standing close to him, it became obvious to me that he was actually 'bertasmiq' (rechecking his memory of the Quran). As if th

The first half of Ramadan is behind us, alhamdulillah. Gosh, that sure was quick, fifteen days went by in a flash. How time flies when we pay least attention to it. I know that I haven't been writing much lately, forgive my negligence for it is not that I do not have time to write, nor was I short of ideas, but the thing is, I could not find the right way to actually write it. So finally, here it is. Ramadan this year started off pretty tiring. Yes, I know I am just an intern, but I must really admit, the whole commuting to and fro to work is not that fun. Not when you cannot eat nor drink. Especially drinking though, for those of you who know me well, I have quite a heavy drinking habit. Other than that, being sleep deprivation is something I have become accustomed to over the past few years. Besides, I am famous as the guy who always look and sound sleepy. Even up till today when I go to work, I'll hear people complaining that I look as if I did not shower this morning. LOL

Why I like this song?: Last Wednesday night, as we got home from terawih, I spent some time with my family in front of the tele when this movie was on. I am not a big fan of Malay movies much, not because I look down on them, but they do have quite a high tendency to be repetitive in terms of their plots. But that night, for some strange reason I was too lazy to actually care, so I watched the entire movie until the end while chatting with my family. Oh, did I mentioned that the whole of my dad's family was here that night? Yeah, they came all the way from Kemaman the day before because my aunt was diagnosed with cancer and was referred to HKL for further check-up; but hat is an entirely different story altogether, so let's save that for a bit later. Back to the song~ Yes, the movie really got to me, that I looked up on the Net for it the net day. And yes, as expected I downloaded it and re-watched it last night. I like this song very much, because it's sad. Not that i

It's my birthday! So, happy birthday to me! The night before, I fell asleep right before midnight as I was too tired to actually wait for the clock to strike twelve. All because of the work Neena gave me, but who am I to complain, it comes with the job. Besides, it was just some financial sector liberalisation background check, nothing much. When I woke up so reluctantly today I found myself smiling on my own when I got three texts from three very special people. One was from my elder brother (I think he might have set a reminder on his Nokia phone, but who cares), the other one was from my sister from another mother, Syaza, and lastly, it was from Sabrina. I am way too tired to even walk and get my iPhone to check who actually texted me first, but if I remembered correctly it was Sabrina! So yeay to you! You get a prize! Nah, kidding. But anyway, thanks so much you guys for all the warm wishes! Not just you three, but I do mean ALL of you out there who sent me wishes either via