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Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Life Reflections And The Effects of Traveling



I promised myself that I will be writing another entry on my New Zealand trip but I cannot muster any energy right now especially since there is only half an hour left before these candidates finish their exams. 

I have been feeling a little burnout since last year. At first I thought it must be because of the load of work that was piling up and the endless datelines that needed to be met.

As I delve deeper into my heart, I realized something was not making me happy. Instead, with the amount of work I constantly added on my plate, which I foolishly thought was making me happy and busy was actually working against me.

I also felt that there was a part of me missing, almost spiritually but nothing to do with my faith which was thank God quite intact.

But the confusion left me feeling depressed and down for months. I remembered the first withdrawal symptom I had was after coming back from New Zealand. I literally stayed in bed for 6 days giving jetlag as an excuse, when in fact I could not accept that life would return to all the bustling and crazy schedules again. I walked in malls aimlessly and felt that life was kinda empty and meaningless especially surrounded with the demands of materialism back in KL.

I probably never properly recovered from the first withdrawal issue anyway, because I had my second withdrawal symptoms again as soon I came back from Aussie in December last year. It didn't help with the economy being so bad and all. And recently after coming back from performing umrah, I felt the same way again.

There are reasons why I am feeling this way. In all honesty, I am extremely tired and exhausted of practising law. Call it a lack of passion or motivation or whatever, but my interest has really dwindled down more than ever now.

A wise man once said to me (met him through my invigilating exams session), in these 9 years of practise, you must have seen some of the dark things in life and I couldn't agree more.

I'm not saying that being a lawyer is all that bad but it isn't exactly a bed of roses either. How many times have you heard people say to aspiring lawyers to think of another job instead of pursuing law?

Coming back to that wise man, who would have thought he could read my mind. Indeed I have seen how justice is just a saying but never really truly achieved in my short stint of practise. I used to come with tinted lenses but now after being in this field for almost a decade, my eyes are wide open.

I must thank to partly my experience in traveling. If I hadn't travel, I doubt my mind would have expanded its' horizons.

Anyhow over the past year, I have learned on a personal level to be true to myself even if it doesn't make others too pleased or happy. I have learned that I am important and to stop judging myself and to know that how I feel of things in my own life does matter.

I am still learning to let go of people's expectations and instead just focus on my own expectations and Allah's.

I've learned through my travels that there is more to life than just focus on earning money and earning money like tomorrow never ends. I have learned that I don't need to feel important or fulfilled by having a busy schedule from Monday to Sunday but enough just by having a balanced life.

I long to have a job that is more fulfilling than just merely earning money. I want to make a change, I want to make a difference in this world. Is this too much for me to dream?
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Friday, June 10, 2016

Kia Ora Aotearoa 2015

We were having a really prolonged time of haze in Malaysia when we left for New Zealand. After 3 months of inhaling smoked air, the breath of fresh air that greeted us in Auckland made us jump and down, literally.

Can you detect my overly excited face here?
No signs of haze, alhamdulillah
Our first stop was to meet with a friend who was studying in Palmerston North. She picked us up at the airport and booked us a shuttle bus. We received some negative greetings from the driver as soon as he knew that we were Malaysians. The driver apparently had some family in Ipoh, Malaysia and seemed very familiar with the Malaysian political scene, which clearly did not interest us at all (we were trying to have a vacation here dude!)

Later we were dropped at the car rental centre to pick up our rented car. The car was okay considering the price, comfy enough for the four of us. The important thing was that that the car literally took us around New Zealand, both North and South Islands, so thank you car!

My friends at the car rental centre

While I still cannot get over the euphoria of finally being there in New Zealand
We started our trip by of course heading to the supermarket, which later became one of the most favourite part for me throughout the whole trip, so much that sometimes I opted to stay in the car because it became so time consuming for us, hehe.

Being Malaysian especially me (first time visiting an English speaking country as an adult) I became too excited over the array of groceries and food that they have stocked at the supermarket. We went from aisle to aisle and snapped every picture of tomatoes, cheese, oh my God everything!

Adorable little ripe tomatoes
kiwi in Kiwi??
Drooling already...
After stocking our car with all the needed groceries, we headed to Auckland city where we booked our first accommodation. It took us awhile to finally reach there because believe it or not we were stuck in jam, in Auckland. It was as if we brought our KL vibes to Auckland.

Finally we arrived late evening to our small stay where we booked two rooms with a small kitchen area. The building was actually part hostel for uni students and part hostel for visitors like us. It was situated right in the middle of the town of Auckland, where from our window we could see students, and workers rushing to their daily lives.

We settled in and took a few minutes rest before getting ready to have dinner with my friend, Agkillah which I have not met for years. Agki was pursuing her doctorate and she is not even yet 30! Such a genius, that girl!

Later that night, I had one of the yummiest lamb shank ever in my life. It was probably the most expensive meal I paid during the whole duration of the trip but it was worth it. It was good to finally catch up with Agki and sharing stories of our life in the few hours that we had.

We went back contented and slept for the first time after our 11 hours flight (transited in Gold Coast for one night) and arriving in Auckland. What a blessing!

Was nice meeting Agkillah after so many years

The lamb shank I was talking about (lots of halal restaurants in Auckland, peeps!)
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Sunday, June 5, 2016

Daydreaming of New Zealand

Besides the Holy Land, New Zealand was another dream come true.

Ever since visiting New Zealand, I can never seem to take it away from my mind.

Exploring New Zealand was like being in the worldly heaven. One can only imagine what would the real heavens look like, Masha Allah.

With the snow capped mountains and melted snows turns into cascading waterfalls and then becomes rivers of glaciers, such magnificent creation by Allah S.W.T., one can only imagine.

I was not only mesmerized by the beauty of the nature but also the kindness of the people. They are so naturally genuine and kind hearted. It must be the inner peace they feel surrounded by the calming nature all around them.

In short, it's no wonder that New Zealand is named the most beautiful country in the world.

Me here at Lake Pukaki, South Island (my favourite lake in New Zealand)
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Ramadhan 2016

Can you believe it? It's already almost a year since I started this blog and unfortunately I have not been able to really update much on it.

With the will of God, I will do my best to update this blog with my travel stories as much as I can.

I pray that all Muslims will have a blessed Ramadhan and may Allah forgive all our sins and reward us with the highest rewards in this beautiful month.
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