Today I managed to tick few things of my kakniim’s wedding list! All from the comfort of my shorts and T, laptop and few phone calls!
1) The band act.
Sam had recruited his studiomates’ band for the wedding! There will be 5 of them – one on drum, one on bass, two on guitars and the singer. They are soooo nice! They agreed that a drum set may be too intense for a wedding (it’s not a gig!) so they offered to do percussions instead! Yeay! And when I asked for price quotation, his answer was : ‘Aaaa? hmmm…tak kesahlah. Tak payah pon takpe, nak kasi derma ikhlas pon takpe, kasi makan je pon okay dah!’
In short translation : they can do it for free.
Although, obviously we will pay them!
I have also offered to pay for a few jamming session so I could check out if they would be suitable for the event and also, for them to practice before the big day!
2) Sound system.
This is the pricey one. We are still looking at other options but so far the best seem to be A’A sound company, because they have done jobs at the same hall countless times – so we can expect very minimal technical problem. They know where everything is, and how much speakers to use for that hall and all that. And since my sister won’t be having pelamin (dais), my dad agreed to splash out a bit on the sound system. But will still hunt for better deals.
3. Flower/Plants for Hall
My sister wanted a garden-ish theme with lots of trees lining the aisle she will walk through, the entrance and also, the VIP tables. We browsed through mak andam’s blogs, wedding decorator’s blogs and wedding deals but found that it is quite unnecessary to spend RM500 for just an arch of flowers (I actually disagree – I want that arch of flowers!!) ! Plus, my sister prefers more earthy plants than delicate flowers.
So, we decided to rent from DBKL Plant nursery 
I actually have to write ‘surat permohonan’.
Include :
- What kind of event, venue and date/time
-Quantity of flowers needed (50 plants at RM175)
-person in charge + phone no.
I think it might be a good idea to fill up the hall with plants from DBKL and maybe spend a little bit on very beautiful plants/flowers and place them along the aisle to tie the whole place together. That way, it will be a garden, with all the beautiful pieces in the right places to accentuate the wedding space!
4. Gateaux-licious
I have just confirmed our hantaran cake. Single tiered white fondant cake, with cluster of red roses on top and a red ribbon at the bottom.
5. Photography
Sam will be the official wedding photographer, using his nikon d90 and also nikon f3.
For free.
WHAT? WHY?
I was seriously in dilemma for awhile. Haha. It will be better for our budget to get awesome photographer for less, but but but, SAM’S PLAN WAS TO USE PHOTOGRAPHY JOBS TO GET MONEY TO BUY ME AN ENGAGEMENT RING!!
ABANGGG!!
But, anyway. He refused to accept payment.
Grr.
Oh yes, and I am trying SO HARD to get through Stadium Negara office to ask for permission to use their compound for post-wedding photoshoot. The man was not in the office throughout the afternoon. Lunch? Errr, Ramadhan kot?
But yeay! Im happy!
Now to clean the kitchen and cook for dinner.
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I decided to write an entry about Islam everyday this Ramadhan, and it could be on anything at all.
Today I will share the prayer I made when my family broke their fast during maghrib. I looked at them sitting around our dinner table, and am extremely grateful for all the food that is on our table and the space we share.
I prayed that God gives us this peace forever.
Family feud is one of life’s great tragedy. Breaking up family ties for reasons like inheritance money, ego or miscommunication seem more common than it should be. It is when you read unfortunate events of family murdering or hurting one another that you shudder at the possibility of it.
Another thing is the gap between parents and children as they grow older. I notice this is especially so between father and sons. It seems that the older they get, the more formal the relationship is. Male ego is a curious thing. Sometimes, when you flick back through old photo albums, do you get the idea of the lives your parents led before you were brought into the world and how they turn all their love to their children and make you their world – and you start wondering if they did miss the lives before you. And thus, how much more you should appreciate and cherish them.
Oh, also, I read on Facebook somewhere an amazing tip to read the entire 30 juz of the Qur’an in 30 days! Just read 4 pages after each solat, and you will be able to complete 20 pages a day. One juz is about 20 pages – thus after 30 days, you will be able to complete 30 juz!! It is so simple, I can’t believe I couldn’t figure it out myself!! Now to actually execute this ‘simple’ plan!
InsyaAllah, I hope this Ramadhan will bring us a lot of meaningful experiences that will push us towards His path throughout our lives.
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Ruslana Korshunova, born in Kazakhstan with Russian descent. Died at 20 years old after falling from her 9th floor penthouse in Russia. Dubbed ‘Russian Rapunzel’ for that glorious, glorious hair.
SUPER HOT.
I think the photography is just awesome. I love her hair. This post is really just me spending time doing things I enjoy admiring – beautiful women and awesome photography.
Does that sound wrong? Ha ha.
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I found this top from Bluefly while searching for bridemaid’s dress. It looks SO good.
We have decided to opt for this single-tiered fondant cake with cluster of RED roses for hantaran. My sister had ordered a four-tiered cream cakes with black ribbons for her wedding with chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and cappuccino flavor for each of the cake.
The things we managed to tick off today :
- bridesmaid’s garment
- satin to make cushions for hantaran
- Silver casings to put the hantaran in.
- Wires, cellotape, pins and needles for house decoration.
Not bad.
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Bridesmaid’s dress is the most important feature of a wedding. It should complements the bride, make her entourage more beautiful and…uhh, gives a whole new charm to the wedding party!
I am going to have to make one now. A nice long-sleeved dress, that will set off my sister’s beautiful lace dress. So, I am planning on plain dress, no lace, no prints and in a slightly darker shade than my sister off-white with a slight cream glow dress.
And the dress above looks amazing. If you notice, it has a ‘baju kurung’ collar but drops down in a magnificient swish of satin! I think this will be cool. Although, of course I will cut down the trailing bits at the end. OMG! I LOVE IT!
Here’s the second option :
This flowy one looks more suitable for a morning/afternoon reception which we are having. It looks more casual and fun. Maybe this will be better, since I might just die of dehydration from sweating so much in the satin-like gown dress in the first option.
Hmmm. Opinion, please.
update : Ohhh, my mum agreed on the first one (quite possible to do) but she says not to pick any kind of silk/satin that would overwhelm my sister’s lace! Yeay!
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1. Organize wedding for these two awesome people.
2. Making Yusuf fall in love with his moksa/che’sa/acha/macha
3. Cik Abang.
Basically how my days are nowadays. Tomorrow I would have to come out with a playlist for the reception ceremony. Kakniim seem to want light love songs, possibly Malay, but nothing too dramatic. I still need to confirm the band act, performance by cousins, video by Muhsin, and bridesmaid’s garment. And make sure Ayah call the tent people to rent few of those huge iron fans or else people will just melt away in the sun!
Pretty awesome.
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Mountain train in Interlaken, Switzerland.
This post is specially for banis who insisted I update this little space of a blog. A very special, choked-up thank you, with all my heart.
Here goes.
Life has gone a long way since this carefree travel down the train tracks and I cherish all of it very,very much and have decided to take extra time and care to carefully archive the stories. Although, the longer I wait, the more bittersweet it will be. Such are memories. You turn back to the pictures taken and fall back into the green grass that was once your bed.
Travelling and abruptly ending it all with an infinite stop in the last point of the terminal for a long time is taking more toll on me than I thought it will be. My memorabilia from one month worth of travelling is lodged inside a shoe box – along with maps, receipts and magnets. Opening the box and tracing my finger on top of the pieces of treasures I picked up and kept takes extreme effort. Searching for pictures to put inside this post makes my heart swell with longing.
At one point, there was a bit of hope to begin again. I might do my Bar in the UK after all. I still have another year ahead to more heady travels.
It didn’t happen.
Like Odysseus who returned to the arms of Penelope after the long years of travelling and swallowed his longing for the sea deep inside him, I stored the memories and hope inside the shoe box, within the RAM digital memories of SD cards and laptop, buried.
I am not crying, nor regretting. In fact, I feel at peace. I have stepped into the role I have been expected to – to report for duty at SC, to become my sister’s wedding manager and bridesmaid and taking care of household stuff.
And these are the things that matter most now.
My longing to be away again is not forgotten. It will happen again – at one point, it will.
Now, for the wedding reception 
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Woww it’s been awhile!
Things are happening at high speed, there is barely space and time to catch a breath before I submerge into a whole new circle of moving and moving. Like an adrenaline rush, this whole new joy of travelling thrills. Packing, unpacking, washing clothes at the Laundry, change currencies from British Pounds to Euro to Crotian Kuna, cramming stuff into rucksack until the seam is about to burst and wearing the same set of clothes day and again, catch the train, catch the bus, go through the whole 3-hours flight preparation, printing ticket after ticket, travel journal sadly overdued, snapping thousands of pictures in my mere 8GB SD card, lugging Nikon D80 around Europe, hunched back from stone-heavy bag, glowing tan, magnets as souvenirs, new people, new languages, mountains, naked statues, cathedrals, paragliding..PHEW!
I am in love with this.
Uninhibited, homeless, changing travelling stories with random people, on-the-go, trying to spend as little as possible and new air, earth, people and view every single day – but missing the same people the every day. I miss Sam – when I am on the go, it is hardly possible to chat and skype. And it is a loss that I feel most 
To Shamin, I do miss you. Very much.
Here’s to a deep breath for another plunge into globetrotting adventure. Eastern Europe – here I come
It feels rather weird writing my entry from Cardiff.
A whole chapter on London has ended for me. It feels like…this is it. I no longer have an address in the UK and could no longer call myself a Londoner. Not that I ever have, anyway, but still. And leaving behind the chaos of Beaux-Art along with Emir and Imar and my brother at Finsbury Park feels a bit melancholic. Not sad, but I have that homesick feeling at the back of my mind.
Leaving the house in its original condition, albeit slightly bruised.
I will definitely remember the times in Beaux-Arts with fond memories. From the happy times we sing and have terrible jokes to the sheer annoyance of sharing a house with two teenage boys (seriously, you guys don’t know to wipe the counter?). Even at the last moment, after we said farewell and feeling all ‘awwwww’ and sad, and leaving the house with happy thoughts the boys didn’t fail to irritatingly-amuse us by making me and Shaz sort 10 kg worth of shillings on Llyod’s coffee table just because they were too tired to pour it into a change-machine near our house!! We have this whole ‘balang’ of shillings weighing 10kg and Shaz had gotten the boys to carry it to Morrison near our house and dump it into the change-machine where it will be sorted out automatically and the machine will give you notes. They had carried the shillings all the way to a cafe to have breakfast, which is only metres away from Morrison!! They decided not to continue their quest to Morrison cause the shillings were too heavy and came back home with it! So, me and Shaz ended up carrying the 10kg weight, along with our BAGS all the way to Bayswater and then to Oxford Street to Lloyd’s bank and ended up sorting it manually into little plastic bags! Imagine, we spent good hour sorting 10kg worth of shillings that amounted to £60 just because!
Hahaha.
It was actually rather fun, so no hard-feelings.
Really?!
There are lots of things to miss about living in Beaux- Art. The trip to the gym’s shower everyday with Shaz because our shower doesn’t work, the ‘Radio Sumatera’ by Imar and Emir, their obsession with chat-roullete which seriously amused me and Shaz, the singing sessions, the heart-to-heart session, the dinner table family meals, the dodgy moments, birthdays, Imar and Emir serious sadness over one lost football match, sharing good news with each other and all other soppy stuff like that and getting into fights with Emir over everything from causing destruction to his little HALO models by creating earthquakes to teasing the hell out of each other. And really, just the moments we share together – like a family
The End.
Summer is blisteringly hot. Extremely hot. I was slowly melting in the bus.
I realized that I don’t actually have a functional summer wardrobe. Besides few shirts, I have only got loads of awesome t-shirt which of course, must be worn with cardigan!! And I just had to try on my leather vintage shoes.
AAHH! It was hot hot hot!! Cardigan and leather shoes are the summer no-no.
Anyway, a really,really cute guy was promoting this Human Rights magazine outside the library. He asked if I am interested in Human Rights stuff and if I study Human Rights Law. I answered yes. Yes to anything you say, cik abang.
No, I didn’t study Human Rights law. But I did study Public International Law – and that’s almost like Human Rights Law. A very,very BIG almost. I started talking about how his magazine concept would be truly beneficial for my country. And how I want to fight for Human Rights awareness in Malaysia. Well, this I do. But it was said with an extra fervour. Just in case he missed the hint.
The magazine is called New Internationalist. It is basically non-political magazine that strives to bring to public eye the dimension and scope of whatever issue they focus on each month. It’s actually pretty cool. For example, one of the month, they were focusing on world population – and had great and influential thinkers to write for them. Whether it should be sustained for the growth of industry and economy sector or should it be restricted – because our earth cannot support it. They usually get someone from the government to contribute in their issues to explain public policy and how the state see it. Then, they would contrast it with opinions from different school of thoughts and also general information regarding the issue. I think it’s a great way to really get into the depth of something – you have one whole issue covering one single conflict or interest – and by great thinkers!
And they have got lots of other interesting issues. Islamic power in Europe, for example. Another on deportation. And he was telling me about past issues and future issues.
I asked him if he is one of the editors.
He said, laughingly (so cute!!!), “Well, one day I wish I could be. I mean, Trotsky once wrote in the magazine, and clearly I am not exactly the level of anywhere near Trotsky..do you know Trotsky?”
“Trotsky? Yeah, sure I do.” *stare unblinkingly at him*
The magazine is pretty damn smart to put him up to promote. I don’t think anyone minded getting stopped by him at the entrance of the library and waste precious reading time just to talk to him.
Anyway, HI SAM CIK ABANG~ he is nowhere as cute as you, of course!! If you sell the magazine, I would buy ALL of it straight away, no question asked.
Most successful promoter for anything to me >.<
Alright, back to work. The weather has gone lovely now. Bright but not sunny and breeze blowing.
I pray that Allah gives me His Rahmat for this last paper of mine. Amin.
I need to lose weight and gain momentum.