The Fantastic Five!

This mini domestic project was brought to you by AMANI, 9 yrs old.

Actually we're SIX siblings but my sole brother is too busy (haaaha) and they're 5 girls in our family.

And excuse that miniscule hand of a child named Anis Amanda, 4 yrs old. She's like that. We learnt to accept.

And whoa my hand's HUGE! Well, err, it's understandable because it's among one to 11 year-old's.

Right?

RIGHT?!

Closing walls and ticking clocks.

Yana has many favourite bands, one of them is Coldplay (mine,

too :D) and while scouring Youtube, she showed this to me.

Simply amazing :)

Two down, five more to go.

While they are happily celebrating their independence and chatting about the shopping excursion, I was exploding my head doing my exams! D: Isk isk isk. Since I went to Sarawak on Friday until Monday (dan mengutuskan titah hari Selasa cuti sendiri) that is the 23rd until 27th, I missed three days of the final exam. Bunyi best eh? Ni amik best kau: Three days = seven papers. uwaaaaaaaaa ~

Takpela, amik ni sebagai cabaran yeaah! Ummi kata kena tengok secara optimistik jugak. Ye betoi cakap Ummi. Bolehla study lebih masa skit dok? Haha :D And today I took the English exam. Originally, I went to Pn. Ellysha accompanied by Alya to discuss ofwhen I could take the exam. I expected and had high hopes she would say next week. After I explained and gave my father's letter (most of it was written by me. haha) to her of my absence and wanting to sit for the test, I said,

"So.. when can I take the test?"

"I have to take care of this class first (the class, form 2, was having an exam) then you come by to my room at 8.30 yeah? Do you have any other exam today?"

"No I don't and it's Chinese now, and then we'd have PJK at 11.15."

"Ok, so you have to be finished by 11.15."

"Err, teacher, can't I take it next week?"

"No, nanti soalan bocor already," she said.

"But I'm a good and an honest student, teacher, I would never ask my friends what came out! Heck I won't even hurt a fly teacher! (takde kaitan pon) I am very honest and incredibly awesome, teacher, I.."

Errr, that might be exaggerated. Haha no lah, I just agreed and spent 30 minutes to study English literature before the exam. 30 minutes! What can one learn in 30 minutes? Well except for "I won't ever go holidaying during the exams again" but what can I do oredi? Except reading the texts in an impossible pace and cramming my head with its contents. Tapi tidak mengapa, ini cabaran yang mesti aku tempuhi! Ceeh cam novel patriotik mana tah..

So Pn Ellysha gave me the two English papers at one time for me to finish. If combined, the time that it would take would be about 3 hours and 45 minutes. I took the exam in about 3 hours. THREEEE hours! Following Amirah's advice, I spent most of my time at the essay. It was pretty rushed and you should've seen my handwriting, it was unreadable! (i hope not la) Or was it like that the whole me-being-a-student time?? No lah. Dok? Moving on. She came to check on me sometimes and expressed her sorry that I couldn't have a longer time to finish it :,) Tapi takpe.. ini cabaran yang mesti aku tempuhi. Asat tiba-tiba patriotik semacam nih? Bulan Ogos dah 2 bulan lepas kan? (takde kaitan pon.)

And she checked on me again and exclaimed that it was already 11.30! The last time I checked Alya's watch (borrow for a while.. heheh) was 11.29 and couldn't bear to see it any longer as I forced my hand and brain to work to finish up the essay. I didn't even get to check anything.. but never mind insyaAllah okay. As I wrote the last words, Pn. Elly said it's okay for me to finish up the essay and that she'd take the PJK exam paper for me. I mean not answering it for me, it's taking the paper in her hand and give it to me from her hand. Caught up already? Good. Moving on. But by the time she came back, I was already finished and could sit for the PJK paper in class.

"Terima kasih eh cikgu. Dan sori sebab menyusahkan,"

"Ala, takpe, baik awak pergi cepat. Takyah risau la, PJK exam boleh lorek je,"

(haha :D)

Alhamdulillah habis pon. I entered the class at 11.40 and was ONLY 25 minutes late. Most of them were already finished -___- haha. So then, five more exams to go! InsyaAllah sukses! Hwaiting!

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”

~ Henry Miller

Salam allo :) Well you people *cricket sounds* well, any of you out there may or may not, probably, or not, by chance noticed that I haven't been blogging for about almost two weeks now, dok? Well, it's because of the curse of the man-eating exams, the finals, actually to be specifically stress-inducing (or sympathy pursuing to us schoolchidren) The exams started off with the Mathematics papers and Biology Paper 3 on Monday 20th and will stress-relief-ly end next Friday. But, tomorrow I won't be sitting for the exam until Monday! MWAHAHAHAHA...!

Well because I'll be going to Sarawak tomorrow, insyaAllah. We (meaning all eight of us) never went overtheseas together before, so we decided to go on a holiday together overtheseas, together. Laut China Selatan, that is. And we booked the flight for MONTHS and decided to set off on 23rd October on non-school-holidays period because of many advantages :) (lu pikirlah sendiri!) Little did we know, it was during my exams -_- My sisters' school distributed a list of holidays and exams for the year early this year, so it's easier to plan anything ahead, but my school doesn't have that kind of luxury.. But, never mind, because, frankly I don't really mind though, really. Really. All in all, I really looked forward for this, especially with my beloved family :)

Alya ordered the gula lada thingies and Ain wanted/recommended a cake, she described chocolate, and she said it was really tasty (I love tasty! :D err, sori jakun sikit) but she didn't remember what it was called but it was not kek lapisla. Gue tau la kek lapis tu ape, dah jadi makanan ruji raya hari tu. Kuikuikuih. So pray for us to depart and arrive safely, insyaAllah. Amin.. Jazakullahu khaira :)

When a pen was set to paper, and the fingers to the keyboard.

Salam allo. Taking a break from such "mind-blowing" studying (haha) and hanging the recently washed curtains, I want to blog about this amazing book I've recently read.

My sister, Yana brought home a Scholastic order brochure from her tuition centre which offers discounted books of Scholastic publications and the price cuts were very tempting. And some books are even discounted to up to 80%! So bought a book for me and for Yana and my friends Hanif and Hanisah ordered a few, as well. And after about three weeks (or more maybe) of agonizing waiting  finally received the books after coming back from Ain's open house!

That night, I missed Nur Kasih because I was quite sleepy and since I usually read to sleep I started on the book, which frankly, exceeds the usual page quota of me falling into sleep. Mwahaha. The following day, I finished it up! If I read it straight to the end from the beginning, it'll probably took about 5 hrs, I think. Nevertheless, it was a very good read. The series are a mix of suspense, philosophy, adventure and romance. It's about err, let me copy paste the plot of the first book, The Hunger Games from wikipedia first. Here you go:

The Hunger Games is a young adult science fiction novel written by bestselling author of The Underland Chronicles, Suzanne Collins. It was originally published in hardcover on September 14, 2008 by Scholastic Press. It is the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy. It introduces sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in a post-apocalyptic world where a powerful government called the Capitol has risen up after several devastating disasters. In the book, the Hunger Games are an annual televised event where the ruthless Capitol randomly selects one boy and one girl from each of the twelve districts, who are then pitted against each other in a game of survival and forced to kill until only one remains.

And this book certainly sparked my readaholism back (which I had lost contact with for a while) and I ended up craving to go to MPH for the sequel, which is Catching Fire. Which is less likely though -___- Besides, I haven't finished a quite a stack of books yet, so I don't think Baba will be all that very pleased if I want to buy another.

Three of the books, Sherlock Holmes, Under Orders and Eragon were from a shop that sells unwanted outdated books or books that don't really sell and costs only RM10 each! I haven't finished them yet - insyaAllah will do sometime. Kisah Nabi-nabi dalam Al-Quran was when I won (don't remember which place though) a Tilawah competition at the masjid when I was in standard 4, which surprises me too because I'm not really that very good x) I've read most of it, although not in order, but insyaAllah I'll finish it up soon. Indiana Jones and The Raiders of The Lost Ark was a birthday gift from Alya and there's actually a story behind it, but nvm ehak.

And the smallest book on top is a classic, Tom Sawyer worth RM2.50 which is another stingy proof of me of buying books. And the second from the top is Sally Nicholl's Ways To Live Forever, I almost finished it, almost, but I wasn't very eager to finish it and I read it in long intervals and Syafiqah, Amalina and Hanisah had borrowed it, so I haven't finished the book until today x) But, Hanisah said it was very touching and she even cried at the last part, so that attracts me enough I think, haha.

So, I can't quite buy another book now. But never mind, there's always the internet. I read some of the sequel (Catching Fire) at scribd.com and it was really good and you felt pity for the lead, which is Katniss Everdeen for the predicaments she has to go through and that no matter what she did, she seems to always hurt someone (in mortality not emotionally -_-) and the story telling leads me to read more, but realizing the finals are haunting upon me, I ended up reading only about a quarter of it. But it was very exciting though :D If only these would be more appealing.

The same in different ways.

Salam, heylo. After reading Amirah's post, I feel inspired to do one too. I haven't been posting up a post about my perspective on life for quite some time. If you've been following my blog since day one *cricket sounds* .. Ok, I know no one does, but if there are out there, you'd know that my blog's about my life, my interests and my perspective (my blog's first motto..) And lately, most are about the first two aspects, but no worries, I haven't isolated my favourite piece to write on! That is, my perspective on life.

Social aspects play an important part in our lives. And sure, we've many other things to worry about such as academics, our career, our current financial status and such, but no matter what we do, social things always be on top of our list. 'Cause I'm pretty sure most of you are more worried about your current rocky relationship with some of your friends than your current unsatisfying grades, right? (which I'm rapidly heading towards to for not studying for the finals right now) Try as we might or how much we deny it, it's true. And relationships not only conclude to that err, special someone, but to God, parents, friends, family, colleagues and such.

And I know that most of us aren't that quite of a social clout to begin with, and had many problems in even starting a conversation with someone (especially with those who you are not that close with) and yeah, to be frank, including me as well. Yeah, I'm a very shy person. But, the weird thing is, I can get along quite swimmingly but not that swimmingly with the ones I just met (but not that often though) and I can even smile at random people that I met in the street! (the mall actually) Well only to little children, adults are a wee bit paranoid. Yeah I'd be too if a complete and total stranger out of thin air suddenly flashed a smile at me. HAHA.

Prophet (peace be upon him), who said: "Allah said: Spend (on charity) O son of Adam, and I shall spend on you." (Hadith Qudsi 11)

Back to the story. But the ones that I do know but not so close with --- I'm HOPELESS. Some people consider socializing a breeze, but for me, a raging tornado might be the right term. HAHA, no laah I'm just kidding. I can't engage in a conversation well, I usually stammer, I often say ridiculous things and all (and insulting once, though I absent-mindedly did without realizing, but still..) Social aspects are important in a human's life and you, dear readers, are human so you'd understand right? RIGHT? See, now I'm saying ridiculous things. haha :P

Maybe I'm trying too hard to get on their good books that I end up stammering and not having a good conversation at all. With family and friends you feel comfortable to converse and have a good one too and you can be anyone 'cause they know who you really are inside. With people that I don't know much, they don't. They'd judge on the spot and set in their minds what kind of person you are.

But then again.. I don't feel about people that way. I don't judge people that I just met and don't know much and set in my mind what kind of person they are. 'Cause everyone is different and I know it's hard to socialize with someone you don't really know (because quite frankly, I'm not a champ on that one either) but I can't help but to have that intuition where they would get me and eat me alive! Err, scratch that. You know, judging me without knowing who I really am and thinking that I'm some kind of snobbish person or something like that. But don't get me wrong about my whole purpose of why I want to be friends with them in the first place. It is NEVER about climbing a ladder up my social status, to get fame and all those things. No, that's NOT me. I really just want to be friends, and sincerely.

Being in good terms with people (while maintaining peace and unity) is very much encouraged in Islam, heck in all religions, with all people, regardless of race and religion and that's what we should be focusing on.

I put a lot of thought about it, and I know that being too much of a paranoid leads me thinking this way. Being in good terms with people (while maintaining peace and unity) is very much encouraged in Islam, heck in all religions, with all people regardless or race and religion and that's what we should be focusing on. We may not have a sea of friends (or any other suitable metaphor that defines big or many) but having good and true ones is all we need, really.

But that doesn't mean that we should scurry away when a person said hello to us or anything :P Although we may not be a master in socializing, being in good terms with them is the most important thing, helping each other out and all and being friends is better. And worrying about what people might judge you is not a really silly thing though, but keep in mind that you know who you really are inside and stick to that.

But the main thing is that i just want to say that we all change for the good and worst.. We're not perfect. Some might accept us for what we are and what we do and,.. some might even not. So don't worry about others,... As long as we are happy... and as long as what we do is right...

- Amirah

Be yourself, and it's all that matters, you know who you really are inside and you don't have to prove yourself to some other person, as long as you're happy with what you're doing and that it is the right thing to do. True friends respect your beliefs and don't care where you came from, what you did and who you are. After all, we are all the same really, though in different ways.

1MALAYSIA

I'm watching you.

I was munching on a kek lapis.

She, a tuna sandwich.

I offered her a bite.

I gestured for her to do the same, too.

She lowered her tuna sandwich.

Giving up is not an option for me.

THEN..

She put her teeny fingers inside her mouth and offered

me a saliva infested lump that used to be bread.

You may win this time, but I assure you, the next time, it will be the other way around.

I'm watching you, Arissa Raheel.

The second, third and fourth.

Salam, allo :)

The finals are coming! In three weeks! Before, three weeks is like a heck of a long time for me (betoi), not to study though but to be doing completely un-getting-better-exam-grades things. Only a week before (or sometimes, the weekend before -__-) would I rekindle my on-off relationship with the books. (but first, let me blog a bit first. hehe.)

But now, it's the finals! And next year insyaAllah I'd be sitting for my SPM examinations. Which is a big deal. I was studying just now (dgn bangganya ceh) and a glance at all the complicated sentences turned me off a little. So I checked on youtube for educational videos (on plasma membrane permeability) and found this:

Facilitated diffusion video

Yeah the first part is a bit ya know, but it was quite entertaining and informative at the same time.

And next week we'd be presenting a err, presentation in Chemistry. So we decided to ponteng on Friday (on the second) to prepare it (ye, we missed the Hari Raya celebration at school :/) at Hazirah's but most of the time is allocated for watching movies. While preparing the presentation, Hazirah announced almost every minute that's left to watch the movie. 30 minutes, 28 minutes... kahkah.

We watched a horror movie "Coming Soon". I was a bit ego-ish at the first part though (silently ego-ish :P) where my friends screamed 'cause I thought that wasn't terrifying at all. But towards the end, it's not that reaaaally terrifying either, just --- errr, alarming. haha. Although most of the time towards the end, my view wasn't really on the screen though. Hehe. So, thanks to Hazirah for providing her house for us to prepare it (and to scream).

Two large pizzas. Compliments from Aishah -- till next Monday

where we've to pay her back -___-

A glimpse.. Haha dont worry, this wasn't a scary part. Or was it? Mwahaha.

No lah just kidding. Or am I? Ok, I'll stop now.

Birthday cards and a box of chocolates for Airina (25th Sept) and Hazirah (1st Oct)! :D

And yesterday (on the third) was my four-year-old sister's concert! It was held at KDU and my family was at awe at all the accommodation the school has got. Nice landscape, elevator, a really cool canteen and all. Whoaa :O And I don't think what I saw was even the half of it. Back to the story, Ummi was very proud of my little sister because well, she's four and it's quite amazing that she could remember all of the dance steps.

And then we head to a Giant hypermarket at I'm-not-sure-where-because-I'm-not-a-very-keen-observer-thus-worrying-if-I-could-be-a-good-driver-when-I-got-my-license where we had lunch at Ummi's favourite restaurant, JM Bariani House which was a pretty hearty meal (even hearty-er to my mom, cause well, it's her favourite restaurant).

Well that's all for the update! Nowwww - back to studying.

"They're afraid of making a fool of themselves."

"Driftwood is a song for the person in your life who has so much potential and, yet, doesn't use it because they're afraid of falling on their backside, you know, they're afraid of making a fool of themselves. But, yet, if they put their minds to it and just threw their plate out the window, they would actually do a lot with it and make themselves happy and other people happy."

- Francis Healy (lead vocals of the AWESOME band, Travis)

Well, I guess each one of us has something to learn from this song. Don't hold back of what you want to obtain the most out of fear and anxiety of what might happen. 'Cause we don't know of it. And we won't until we try. Just hold on, hope for the best and enjoy the ride. Well I guess I should follow my own advice, haha x]