Wouldn't you love some right about now?

Random? But here I am wearing my favourite pair of socks to kindergarten.

@ Singapore Zoo

The elephant show was the best therefore there aren't any pictures of that because I was too busy enjoying it. The day was pretty fun except for one unfortunate incident where a muslim lady thought it was appropriate to keep shoving her daughters forward, intruding into my personal space, stepping on my toes and then once they pushed past me, they nicely tapped the shoulder of a non muslim woman infront and said 'excuse me'.
I moved the first time around to let her younger daughter through even though she was about 10, and was as tall as me. Then when her taller teenage daughter started shoving me I was not going to move until she asked me to. It's pathetic that children don't say things like 'excuse me' or 'please' anymore because their parents are to busy shoving them forward to teach them manners.
So it's really more of a manners thing but what got me really pissed was that they treated another muslim like crap.

Theme Parks

a few of the crazy rides
that's us, at the bottom of the tower after the crazy drop

gorgeous goldfish, and there were different varieties, some looked really creepy.

Ocean Park was AWESOME like crazy wild rides but the day we went, it was too windy so they closed the cable car rides, the hot air balloon and the biggest roller coaster. But we took all the other rides. At the end of the day, we were wet, cold and shivering, tired from all the walking but extremely pleased.




Hong Kong Disneyland was fun but the queues were not. Parents came up with the brilliant strategy of letting their kids push through the crowds and then they got to cut the line because their kids were at the front of the queue. I didn't mind at first but after awhile it got really annoying.

Hong Kong in pictures and a few words.

@ Hong Kong International Airport

@ Indian restaurant near Islamic Centre. Chicken biryani.

@ Islamic centre. It was a Sunday, and full of Indonesian domestic workers. Tip: make sure you have wudhu beforehand because queuing for the washroom will take you ages.

One of the stops during our half day city tour. Tour guide tried to convince us there was nothing wrong with touching the God of Fortune statue for some luck as well as walking on a bridge that extended your life by 3 years each time you crossed it. My brothers and I just went around taking pictures of the scenery.

@ Hotel Lobby. Room was clean but a little tight. Housekeeping was amazing :)

@ brothers' room. no idea why they took a picture AFTER they messed things up..sheesh, boys :D

@ ferry terminal. Christmas lights were still up, amazing view but this picture doesn't do it any justice.

@ entrance of shopping mall, be prepared to walk alot in malls. they are HUGE.

@ pedestrian crossing, too many people.

nobody says 'excuse me' so be prepared to push or be pushed :b

@ another shopping mall.

ok, to be continued tmr because i am sleepy :)

Playing host to two arab men

Recently, my brother played host to 2 arab men. They had thought that Singapore was a muslim state. Unfortunately, we're secular!
Things were definitely unpleasant when my father decided to treat both of them to dinner in a fancy restaurant. One of them refused to eat because he doubted that the food was halal. Despite showing him the HUGE Halal certificate, he did not want to eat. My father called the manager of the restaurant to explain to the man that the ingredients as well as the preparations for the meal are all halal certified.
He still didn't eat.
I feel pretty insulted that he would think that my father would bring him to a restaurant that was not halal and then to make things worse, lie to him and paste a false halal certificate on the wall.

We might not be living in a muslim majority country, but we are muslims just the same.

Another Chance

Assalam Alaykum.

I passed my exams and I will be entering my third year of university in 2010, in sha Allah if my financial situation works out. Thing is, I made du'a to pass, and I did but now I am learning that passing may not be the best thing for me. Being alone without a mahram wasn't working out very well for myself and now I will talk to my parents about not wanting to go back. But knowing my parents, I know I will be back there next year...

I know I sound terribly confused. At the start I sounded happy that I'm moving into third year but then now, I'm not so sure.

What I do know is that I have to prepare myself for another much tougher year. I don't have much support but I know that I can count on the support that I already have.

On another note, I decided to delete all males on MSN except the ones that I need to discuss school matters with.
I also deleted my facebook account because I got tired of reading status updates and people bitching about each other on that social network.

I'm having a go at memorizing all the short surahs in the Quran. I have little trouble remembering them but when I'm actually praying, I get stuck. But Alhamd lellah, I've found out that saying them out loud helps me remember initially but then I just got to repeat them again and again quietly to myself, until I can say it without counting off on the number of ayats to make sure that I didn't miss any.

To be Whole

Is it wrong to want to be married at 22, when there are uncertainties in my academic future? Is it wrong to want to be a mom?

Is it wrong to feel like being married and having children would make me whole?

Yes, I have priorities. But is it wrong to put marriage and children as the top priority?


fyi, nobody is marrying me. I just feel this way.

Assalam alaykum everyone

Assalam alaykum

I turned 22 a couple of days ago and now I am back home with my family.

I'd like to give a shout out to Skye from Muslimah In Aus for giving me a pleasant surprise by mailing me a whole package full of DVDs with Islamic lectures, nashids and Quran recitations. Thank you Sis!

I haven't been commenting on blogs so I am sorry for that. Just to reply to some comments...

@ Saafir: You're right. Consistent work is needed for success. It's very difficult to succeed if we skip classes all year long and try to make up for it in one week.

@ Almas: You're welcome, hope it helped you in some ways.

@ Malekat: Miss you too, checked your blog for updates regularly!


I keep thinking about my results and how it could possibly have been the last time I'm going to be attending University. But, I tried my best and I never worked harder. I just need to stop worrying and leave it to Allah, for He knows best.

I could be anywhere but I'll still be waiting for Firo.

Last Call

Assalam Alaykum

Final exams are a week away and this is my final attempt. If I fail, I will leave Australia without a degree and bring back a lot of shame and guilt. If I pass, I will stay in Australia and continue being miserable.

Other aspects of life haven't been too great either. Financially, Telstra has decided to bill us weirdly again and I am not willing to spend another 2 hours on the phone and sacrifice my study time.

Hold up.

Study time?? I thought I gave up studying!! I'm confused.

Anyways, I fly home at 2 am, on the day I turn 22. I feel....old.

22 and I have no achievements.

I feel old and sad.

Need all the du'as I can get. Okay, 20 minutes left before Fajr. Then I can pray and hopefully, sleep without feeling guilty for not studying effectively.

Disappearing Acts

Things keep disappearing from my room. Seriously, if you're hiding my stuff, please put them back where you found them because it's not funny. I get obsessed when I can't find my things. Right now, my jaw is clenched and my left eye is twitching because I realised I haven't see my shades since the last week of Ramadhan.
Since, the devil was tied up, I can't even blame it on him! (joke, people)

Anyways, I have searched high and low, I have looked into every single drawer and checked behind every single thing, I can't find it. It's not even tiny. It's like in this bulky box. ARGH.

I'm sure nobody took it but how can I explain its sudden disappearance?

Don't know if I mentioned this before but one time when I was like 3, I went out with my grandparents to a wedding. I was wearing this gold bracelet/ring (? my memory failed me) that my grandma bought for me and it was definitely on my wrist/finger when we left the house. In the cab, grandma realised it was gone but of course I didn't get any scolding since I was like 3. Grandma was upset though.
But, the maid found it when she was sweeping under the bed back at home. Weird eh?

In primary school, whenever I got into fights with my older brother, I would always find my textbooks missing. He was clever, never hiding books that I needed on a daily basis. So, he had all the time in the world for the perfect opportunity to sneakily grab a book and hide it. When it was time to pack my bag before school, I would realise that my Social Studies textbook or my Health Education textbook was missing. I would go bat crazy and start crying.

Luckily for me, my maid is a brilliant woman and she hypothesized that books just don't go missing and I defintely didn't lose them because I am a nerd and nerds treasure their books. She further analysed the situation and looked into all possible factors, finally coming to the conclusion that my brother was the culprit behind my missing books.

We found the books ontop of my wardrobe, in my own room, underneath all the extra bedding material that is stored there.
I got my own sweet revenge when I told my parents about what my brother had done and I even had a witness.

I recently had an argument with my brother. Maybe he used his power of mean-ness and hid my shades and all the other things that have gone missing from my room.

I have an exam on Tuesday but my brain is obsessed with finding my shades. HELP

Eid Update

After 2 years of spending Eid away from my family, I flew home on the eve of Eid to celebrate Eid at home.
I can't say that I've enjoyed it much or that it was definitely better than Eid with friends but I am thankful for the opportunity to spend Eid with my family.

I've semi dislocated (?) my (TMJ) jaw and now the left side of my face is swollen. I vomitted twice and my camera decided that it didn't like any of the 147 pictures I've taken on Eid and deleted them all.

This year, I fasted for 20 days, that's 7 less than the number of days my 6 year old cousin fasted. It just isn't the same not being able to fast for the full month.

How was your Eid?

#1 On the Stupid Things I Have Ever Done List

$400 spent for a ticket to nowhere.

I kid you not.

I tried to cancel and get a refund but apparently, the No Refund policy was in the Terms & Agreement list that I did not read. I happily checked the box. I told the customer service officer straight up that NOBODY ever reads those things and he just laughed and said there was nothing he could do about it.

I hate fine prints, I hate hidden conditions, I hate pop up Terms & Agreement windows that I close without reading.

If you don't already know, I don't feel too happy.

2nd

So my brother appeared on the cover page of the local newspaper yesterday for being one of the top students. A 'C' grade in one unit cost him First Class Honors. (ps. If you saw it, NO I look nothing like him...just fyi (: )

Me?

I'm a poor 2nd best, failure at uni. Damn it. I did better than all my siblings until NOW. Maybe I'm not even 2nd now.

Sibling rivalry? No, its much more than that.

This new environment, home away from home, the only variable...This is what is wrong with me.

I can't do well. I'm adapting, but not really...

BOO!

Here I am, dusting the cobwebs off my blog. I would like to say that I've been very busy, achieving my dreams in this 1 week absence but sadly, all I've achieved is earning the status of CSI Freak, bestowed to me by my best friend (at the moment - hey, friends come and go...I've stopped believing in ever lasting friendships..nah, just messing with ya heads OMG I am ranting!!)

So anyways, my mom's surprise party is ON this Friday and I've been the Master Mind behind this evil plot to SURPRISE her. But the big glitch is that we havent gotten her a present. Imagine all these people coming to the party with their gifts and us 5 kids just smiling nervously and saying "Err, we organised the party?"

Saafir has given me another riddle that has left me feeling completely and utterly useless.

I still havent collected my dress and abaya from the tailor...so no pictures ):

I argued with him again but he's always right(eous) and I'm always wrong.

Uni...I feel like quitting.

Sick Sundays

Fever, Cough, Headache, Nauseous --> Ultimate combo

I feel sick..the lady who took my temperature at the masjid almost didn't let me in because of the H1N1 flu going around. However, she changed her mind because my temperature dropped by 0.6degree Celsius when she took it a second time.

I almost wished she had refused me entry because I had to sit through 3 hours of activities that shouldn't be held in a masjid.

Also, when I walked into the masjid, all the ladies looked me up, down and around (lol). Checking out my dress (brandless), my jeans (Target, yo), toe socks, hijab and absence of bling.


Oh, and another weird thing. They had the ladies sitting infront. I mean, forget about all that equality/feminist thing... I actually prefer sitting behind the men.

Ok, here's a brain teaser...

In a crowded room, where can everyone else sit that you can't?

TRAITOR

One of the worst movies I've ever watched. However, Said Taghmaoui was the reason I watched the movie till the end.

I would say, he's worth a Google Image search LOL

Now back to my MSN debate about abortion. It's pretty intense.

I hate how children born out of wedlock are unfairly treated. Does this problem exist in your community?

It seems that everyone here believes that a child born out of wedlock is destined to turn out bad. I mean, they're refusing to touch the innocent baby because hey, he was born out of wedlock.

No lady, wedlock is not a virus you can catch by touching the baby.

PS. lady, wedlock means marriage

Modesty: Outraged

Today I got molested by accident.

Mom, brother and I had just returned from lunch and we were at the main door to my dad's office. One of the men who works there was standing at the door, holding the door half open, and checking out the ladies at the end of the walkway. So I stood a respectable distance away, infront of my mom.
The man then turned, extending his arms for some unknown reason. He brushed across my whole chest before almost walking into my mom. I did not have time to back away. He immediately apologised, more to me than my mom. Mom had no idea why I was so upset until I told her later. Mom told dad and he blamed us for standing too close.

Yeah, right. Like I knew the idiot was going to turn and extend his arms.

Anyways, I was upset and my friend asked me why. I told my friend about this incident...and what I received was "Did you like it?"

There are too many perverse people around.



on a totally unrelated note,

bebsi
avocoda juice
headache --> take bills
sween flu

Something for you to read

Someone from the travel agency just called home to check with my mom about my elder brother who just returned from umrah yesterday. Apparently, someone from Saudi immigration had called up the travel agency, asking why my brother was still in Saudi today.

Erm, he came home yesterday? Lol.

He bought me an abaya and many awesome scarves. His friend's mom also gave me (okay, my mom) loads of henna and pretty stencils. So now I have a fantastic henna design on my hand.

The housing agent in Perth has suggested a $25 weekly increment to our rent. Apparently, it is effective IMMEDIATELY. So the rent we have previously paid is not enough and we have to cover the shortfall. This is totally rubbish. It's so much more convenient to pay rent monthly but when the agent does something like this, weekly rent sounds a whole lot cheaper. So now, we have to pay maybe an additional $75.
Also, this agent has arranged for a house inspection about 5 times previously. She never showed up. Yesterday she had the nerve to ask me if she could do a house inspection and today she asked if there would be anyone home. Yeah right lady. Last time I stayed home to wait for you and you never turned up.

SP4M

Which part of me looks like I need to 'Add 3 inches' or 'FR33 TRI4L TO INCR34S3 M4NH00D'?

Spam, I hate you.


Other than the fact that I am venting about the daily spam I get regarding my non existent manhood, I would also like to tell you that today is the second time I watched the same movie at the cinemas (night @ the museum 2). It's like my first time watching a movie twice...but the tickets here cost half of that in Australia AND, they serve sweet popcorn. In Australia, I've only come across salty ones and I have a sweet tooth.

Also, Perth's International Airport's Lost and Found department screwed up, big time. I collected a camera on behalf of a friend and the airport staff gave me a wrong (but better) camera. BLAH. now I have to lug that dumb thing back to Australia. That stupid camera caused me loads of trouble...

What's in a name?

Today someone called me Nado and I felt so repelled by it. I was thinking that he had absolutely NO RIGHT to call me that.

No one else had ever called me that except one person. But seriously, NOW, NO ONE calls me that and I don't want anyone else to.

I was thinking of changing my name because every Nadia I know, knows another Nadia. My friend asked if I had a 2nd name and I said no. He was making a contact list...He already had a Nadia on that list so I suggested that he included my surname as well but wait, he already has that too.

My brother says I have a bus port name. The kind where you're in the middle of a crowded bus port and you shout "Nadia!" and ten million girls turn to look at you because you just called them.