Quiet Time Alone

I must say I have been pretty quiet these past few weeks. I am less interested of social media, and just trying to settle and finish all my cases as quickly as possible. I am also less in contact with friends currently.

July is a busy month for me, besides celebrating Eid for 4 days, I have been then working non-stop ever since. Although I may seem quiet on the internet, truth is I am running around, juggling between my legal work, social work and personal life.

All blessings to Allah, July has seen me taking another step further in my social work. I have been appointed as the officer, sitting together with the main council of an NGO that I am involved in. I really love to be part of that NGO where their mission is to help people for the sake of Allah. Under the same NGO, I am still assisting to run our refugee school Al Ansaar along with another 2-3 other school committees. I am humbly grateful for the trust they have entrusted me with.

July is also the month where we will have the 1st Regional Breastfeeding Week under BIB. Since the conference is only next week, working as part of the said organizing committee has left me quite busy as well.

I am also currently taking my time, thinking and strategizing my next steps in my future career. A few offers and opportunities have cropped up. I am still trying to pull my inner strength out. I know it is there somewhere.

I am currently in the process of convincing myself of the decisions that I am about to make or might have to make. It is not easy especially when it will be a drastic change in my life. Sometimes your dreams do not align with the expectation of others, and it will disappoint them but I have personally learned that I don't have to adhere to the expectation of others except for my mom and the Lord, because at the end of the day it is me living this life.

Hoping that this month will be the beginning of something new and special, Insha Allah.

Read On >>>

Around Auckland 2015

It was our second day in New Zealand. We only had another half a day more to spend in Auckland before having to make a move to Cape Reinga, the most northern part of New Zealand. Read about Cape Reinga here. I will write another entry on Cape Reinga, Insha Allah.

We left early in the morning and headed to the Auckland city. Auckland city is vibrant like any other cities in the world. What sets Auckland apart are a few things. First is of course the weather. Masha Allah, it could be so awkward in Auckland. Trust me when I say you REALLY, REALLY have to read the weather forecast before you head out for the day.

One funny incident happened to me on that particular day. We were coming back from the Auckland tower and noticed it was raining. I was so busy opening my bag and fishing out my raincoat which took almost 1 minute. I was about to don on my raincoat when suddenly I looked up the sky and noticed, there was not even a drop of rain anymore. The rain stopped as quickly as it started. I totally looked silly with my full raincoat on and no rain :)

Another incident about the rain was when while we were walking, just at one moment, rain was drizzling on my head. I took a few steps more, the clouds shifted and it was all sunny again. Subhanallah, what an amazing experience.

Auckland is also a melting port of culture, races and ethnicity.  There are so many Asian races there, that you almost forgot that you are in New Zealand instead of Malaysia. This is due to the number of university students studying in Auckland.

Life is city means everybody is rushing, either for classes or for work. And comparing the behaviour of the people in other parts of New Zealand, where they are calmer and more courteous. City people tend to be more impatient and less courteous. Not everyone of course.

Another funny incident also happened to me while in Auckland. I was paying some stuff I bought in one of the stores in Aucky, (the terms used by most Kiwi's when referring to Auckland), when the kind and sweet cashier told me to fill in a promotional form. I smiled at her and took the form and was about to fill it in when I saw the word 'New Zealand resident's address'. I quickly told her I was unable to fill in the form and told her I was just a tourist, and she immediately looked shocked. She apologetically told me that she thought I was a student. Guess, I looked young huh or probably blended well with the rest?

Auckland also consists of old and new buildings, a balance between globalization and colonial era of England. And with every growth in cities, there must be urban poor people around somewhere. A phenomena quite common in most growing cities :(

Other interesting points to visit in Auckland must be the Auckland sky tower where one can observe the overview scenery of the whole of Auckland. It cost around only 28nzd to observe this spectacular view.

Looks like a scene from CSI Miami right?

Since we had a short stay in Auckland, we didn't have much time to explore other points of interest in Auckland, but do stay tuned to my next entry on 'Why I Fell In Love With Devonport'. Till next time...

Read On >>>

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?

Read On >>>

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!)

Read On >>>

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)

Read On >>>

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.

Read On >>>