Our Travel Adventure

The mission: To drive a Ford Transit, overloaded with boxes of Manchester treasures from Manchester to Guildford to London to Sutton, then continue journey to Dubai and finally to Kampung Baru.


Day 1
In the morning, Hubby and Wong started to load our stuff in the Ford Transit. We left Manchester at 5pm after saying our farewell to Q3 Apartments. We drove for nearly 5 hours from Manchester to Guildford. Hubby was the pilot, while I co-piloted the journey. We arrived at Hawari's and had the best telur sambal dinner ever. Had a good night rest.

Day 2
Left Guildford around noon and faced the London traffic to Euston to drop off Sis Serina and her stuff. Rushed out of London, but got caught up in bad traffic. Managed to arrive in Sutton around 4.30pm. Me & Hubby checked out Sutton and it was so happening. Its definitely the place to stay! We then drove down to Leatherhead via Epsom... oh my God, it was totally a dead town at 7pm... and that's a Saturday night! The decision to stay in Sutton was justified!

Day 3
Had a hearty breakfast and went to Guildford town with Hawari. Many salutes to dear Hawari for having us! Thank you!!!


After our farewell hugs, Hubby & I then rushed off to Gatwick Airport to send off the Ford Transit. At the airport, we had to go through the gruelling security clearence. I almost had to leave my Beanie Pillow coz my hand luggage couldn't fit the restricted size allowance. But, with a little bit of drama, both me and the Beanie pillow got through fine.. hehe

Day 3.5
Arrive in Dubai. Our flight got delayed. Bad news for Hubby, but excellent news for me.... can't let the time go to waste, so I did some serious shopping, hehe. Bought perfume, MAC lipstick, Lancome make-up and Braun Silk Epil set. Boarded the flight to KL with a happy smile :)


Day 4
Arrive in KLIA safely and met up with Papa & Mummy. By 11.30pm, arived in Kg Baru, greeted by our darlings, Boboy & Baby with love.



Mission accomplished!

My drama...

Oh my God, the last few hours of my dissertation due date was so drama. This was what happened:

I was going through the finishing touches of the dissertation and was planning to get it printed by 10pm. But at 7pm, my MacBook Pro suddenly made these awful screeching noises! It went from bad to worse and I can literally feel the keyboards vibrating! Of course, I did panic and had to resort to calling up Wong to come and bring in his laptop instead. Wong, being the gentleman he is came to the rescue. We had to take the trouble to transfer all the files from my laptop to his and install the drivers for the printer.

By the time I was ready to work, it was nearly midnight. I rushed through my last Chapters and started printing 3 copies of 100 pages of writing each. Of course, the occasional re-prints of missing graphs and salah eja made the printing process worst. I worked all night till the sun comes up, as by the time I printed off the last page of my dissertation it was already 7am in the morning.

I then rushed to uni at about 8am, thinking that I might be the first in line to bind the dissertation since the shop opens at 8.30am. Oh my God, was I wrong! There was already a long queue waiting since 7am! I waited in line for 2 hours and finally submitted the finished product at 12noon.

I swear I'm not gonna go through writing a dissertation, nor thesis ever again. I'm so happy now that I can finally stretch out and rest without any worries whatsoever. I'm planning to stay in bed for the rest of the weekend. Its finally over!!!

I'm ALMOST done!!!!

Yesterday night I worked like a mad woman on my last simulation to validate my design. Oh my God, papers and calculations everywhere. My manager came to check on me and when she saw the whole mess, she got convinced to postpone my room inspection. She decided to do mine next week Monday. Thank God for that!

I was left alone the whole of yesterday night, figuring out on the validation and the write-up. Come 3am, I was finishing up the last Chapter and dindn't realise it was already 8am in the morning!

So, obviously today I woke up at 3.30pm and got all the draft printed out for the final editing. I still haven't finished the Abstract, Outline and Conclusion, which I'm still figuring out on what to write.

Most of my friends are done with their dissertation. Some even have handed in! Well, good for them. As for me, there's still work to be done and I'm hoping to maintain this momentum so I can submit this bloody thing, latest on Thursday.

Wish me luck!

Sunny Sunday :)

Its Sunday already and this week has officially passed. Looking back, I realised how much work I've done and the dissertation is almost 80% complete. I have still yet to finish the Conclusion, Abstract and Chapter 9. The rest are just bits and pieces that needs editing. Hmmm... so far so good.

Although tomorrow will be the start of the last week in uni, I'm taking my time and am in no rush. Today was the best- I woke up at 2pm (hey, awal tu tau...) and got myself busy straight away. Unlike other days where I took ages to get out of bed, today seems so calm and refreshing. It was raining the whole of last night and today the sun is shining, nice clear blue skies... I like...

Hubby called and it was nice to talk to him again. Its always nice talking to Hubby on a weekend. He seems to be more relaxed and have more stories to goss about. Weekdays' conversations are usually kept to a minimum because either he was too busy or too tired. Nevertheless, he's always there and calls me everyday, so no qualms or complaints for me!

I just finished cooking lamb curry and ikan goreng for dinner.. yummm... I usually don't cook this much alone, but since today's a nice day, I'm giving myself a treat.

My Sunny Sunday treat! :)

Get well soon, my Baby...

I just got off the phone with Mama. She was busy attending to house chores because this past week, she was caught up taking care of Baby, my other cat. Baby did something wrong (which honestly, I don't blame him if you know the history) and was beaten up. When Mama found him, he was so weak and his back leg got injured. Mama said the wound was quite bad- he lost some fur and skin. He can't even walk properly.

So, Mama had to wash the wounds and put some ointment on it. The worst bit was that Baby was totally traumatised by the incident. He was hiding all the time and Mama had to shield Baby in a basket close to her to make Baby comfortable. He refused to eat and didn't move much. This was a far cry from the Baby we once knew and loved. He was always jumping around with joy and was happy and active all the time.

Poor Baby, I wish I could be there for him. I know he needs as much tender loving care right now. I hope the person responsible realised the pain that Baby is suffering, and find it in his heart that Baby is just a helpless animal who doesn't understand why he's treated so badly.

May God forgive him for what he's done.

A case of bad management...

I didn't write in yesterday because I was having problems with the internet connection (yet again!). It was a good thing in a way as it stopped me from surfing the net, so I can concentrate on my work. As for the dissertation, I'm taking one step at a time, trying my best not to stress myself out like the previous weeks. I work best from late nights to early morning and spent the whole day hybernating.

Anyways, all was going well.. until I got a letter from my apartment's manager insisting us that this weekend will be the final inspections for our rooms. We have to clean it up spotless and make way for the inspections, or dread having our deposits not returned. What??? Apa ni?? THIS weekend?! Of all the days of the month (mind you my tenancy expires on the 15th- 2 weeks left) and they have to do it THIS weekend!

I was dead mad. You see, the undergraduates who opted for a 42 weeks contract, had their final inspections on the last 3 days of their tenancy. Which was fair, as they need to pack up and remove their stuff from the room anyways. But for us, we are paying extra and yet we have to pack-up and clean 2 weeks before our last day here??? Come on! Where's the logic?!!

To add salt to the wound, the management even demanded that next week the buliders will be coming in to re-decorate the place, i.e paint the walls etc... WHILE we are in our apartment. There was this stupid disclaimer note saying that we have to give way to the builders- thus, any mishaps from them (e.g paint or dust on our stuff), will not be entertained, as we were warned.

So, you can imagine what all these crap mean to me- of all the weeks of the year, this 2 weeks will be the most important weeks of my life. It is when you will see the worst sight ever- stressfull me in the middle of the apartment, papers everywhere, printer is printing non-stop, countless coffee mugs on the table and laundry piling like nobody's business..... and suddenly, I have to make way for my manager to come in and pick on every single dust and spots AND then allow some people to come in and paint the house while I work. If a big spot of paint dropped on my dissertation, then ooopsss... too bad- its MY fault.

What the...??? What kind of management is this? The very BAD kind >:(

Mothers know best....

Like a natural instinct, Mama called this morning to ask how I'm doing on the dissertation. Being so busy lately, I haven't actually got the time to call her since I got back. It was such a relief to hear her voice after all I went through these past few weeks.

Surprisingly, Mama could sense that I was under a lot of stress. Its a super-natural thing that she posessed, mind you she has never touched a computer, let alone surfing the net and read my blog! But, she could sense that I was thinking way too much on other "un-urgent" things, and ended up not giving full concentration on my dissertation... "That's why la you stress so much and can never finish your dissertation!", she said.

Being the I'm-always-right daughter, I could have just defended myself... but today, I just kept quiet and admitted that this time, Mama's right! She was lecturing me on why should we all stress ourselves worrying for something that is too distant, but couldn't see the priorities in front of our eyes.... which is true.

I HAVE been busy worrying about other un-urgent matters, especially on looking for a house and housemate in Leatherhead. But like Mama said, this can wait as I will only move there in November. Then, I got all stressed out on the 'moving-house' bit, thinking of all the boxes, packing and shipping. I also got caught up with the thought of the final cleaning inspection for my apartment. The funny thing is, all the above are due way past my dissertationn due date!

Come to think of it, if I don't keep myself busy with the "other" things, I actually have ample time to submit a really good project- a potential distinction if I want.

So, Mama, I thank you and I promise that from today onwards, I will give my 100% on completing my dissertation on time. As for the "other" things, they can just sod-off!

So stressssssed out!!!! Part 2

Its 4am in the morning, and I just finished printing the last few pages. Yes, I did it!!! I finished Chapters 1 to 7. Yippeeeee!!!...

Errr... well, actually "technically" I did it- I just did a skeleton draft on most of the chapters. Anyways, Dr Pasir said he wanted a "draft" right....??? So, I give him a "draft" la.. ehehe

OK, me off to bed now. I hope I can wake up early to see him. I still have 1 more important simulation to finish anyways. So, if I wake up too late, then I won't be able to finish the simulation tomorrow... eiiikkkk! not good.

Good night!!!!.... (actually good morning la..)

So stressssssed out!!!!

Firstly, its 7pm and I didn't finish the chapters for tomorrow yet. I don't think I can. So many things to do and write... But worst of all is that my Microsoft Excel is giving me headaches. It takes so long to do simple stuff like delete or copy or paste. I can't do my plots and had to resort to sis Serina's computer to finish it. Thank God she's back!

I'm still in denial that I will manage to finish my work by the end of today. I can't face failures... I just can't. I think I'll end up having a massive migraine by the end of the day coz I can't concentrate, fearing that I will n ot make it for tomorrow's deadline.

Stress! Stress! Stress!

Sunday blues...

I had 11 hours of sleep last night... was so damn tired of putting my thinking cap to finish the damn Chapter 4. Well, I did complete it and good news, I managed to use up the whole day today to finish Chapter 5 as well, yippeeee!!!!

Though I can't be too comfy, I still have Chapter 6 to finish by the end of tonight... I'm taking a well deserved rest now. My head is so heavy after all the gruelling sentence making, equation deriving and picture importing. Realistically, I do think that I will not be able to finish the whole 10 chapters by Tuesday. But optimistically, I think I can manage to complete 6 chapters by tomorrow night. Dr Pasir won't be too happy though, his validation simulation is not done yet.. which I know he's looking forward to...

OK, I better start closing down my internet for the day, or I won't be finishing Chapter 6.

Bye now...

I have issues with my Microsoft Word >:(

Despite starting work late at 2pm, I managed to "nearly" finish Chapter 4- the most important chapter of all. You see, it has loads of equations (nearly 40) and diagrams and tables, so one would expect that the file will be huge. Of course, being the pro-Apple bitch, I am confident that my MacBook Pro will perform the numerous imports and exports of the .eqn, .jpg and all sorts of files into my Word document.

I was doing fine, in fact it was perfect... until suddenly my Microsoft Word hails a warning that the file is too big to be saved!!! What??? Apa ni?! I tried saving other files on my hard disk and it works fine. Just the bloody Word! So, I had to resort to printing out the document, deleted some equations and diagrams and re-save. Now, I can only work with smaller chunks of the chapter. Of course, it comes with the annoyance of having to re-import the .eqn, .jpg etc.... Issshhhkkk! Not happy >:(

My progress?? Still on Chapter 4. My schedule says today I have to finish up to Chapter 7... Hmmm, 4 chapters to finish today??? Too optimistic and unrealistic... I guess I have to re-schedule (as usual... hehe)

In the meantime, I'm taking a short break to Tesco's to stock up on RedBull and cancer-sticks... From the way its going, I definitely need them to survive...

Dissertation Progress - 4 days to go (???)

"What the...????" you may ask. No, I'm not going crazy until I can't count properly anymore... (though I do admit that I will get insane by the coming weekend)... but, Dr Pasir wants me to submit a full draft to him on Tuesday. Yes, a FULL draft! I have to, he says. No excuses coz he will be away the rest of the week and might not see me until the deadline submission.

So, I spent the whole day in uni yesterday and today doing last minute simulations that he wanted. Too bad I can't get to finish 1 more simulation (which, by the way is the most important one!). I will just have to settle that on Tuesday, but will prepare for it nevertheless.

Last night I was working full speed, coming up with the story board on what to put in my Chapters. I'm so glad I did it coz it gave me a better insight on what to put and how to arrange my writing. The only problem with yours truly is that I am a perfectionist. I suffer the following symptoms:
1) I work too long on a sentence to make it perfect. Ended up exhausted after just 1 paragraph!
2) I procrastinate to choose the perfect time and state of mind to actually start the work. Ended up not starting it at all!
3) I get so worried that my dissertation won't be perfect. Ended up all stressed out and can't concentrate.

Though perfection is good, but it is far too hazardous when you only have 4 days to finish the damn thing! I was going through the internet to get some help and I found this:

"Its better to complete a good enough piece of work ON TIME, rather than procrastinate to dream of the perfect piece that you will never achieve"

So stop wasting time Adita and just do it!!!

Dissertation Progress - 11 days to go

Last night's dinner went well.. ate so much nasi that by midnight, I can't get my eyes to open and my brains to work to continue my work. So, I went to bed early hoping to start the day fresh in the morning.

Errr....no, I woke up at 10.30am today... not happy :(

Since I lost the morning, I'm trying to make the best of the day. I realied that out of 10 chapters that I have to prepare, I'm only confident with 2. I have a full schedule to follow till this weekend and I can't afford to waste time or not follow through it.

My dissertation checklist:

Someone was telling me that i don't have to put in 110% for this since I secured a job anyways, plus the uni can only have a maximum of 2 first class students per year. I know my chances are slim (considering the tough competition with Daphne & Cikia). I have to remind myself that its OK to give-in moderately and don't stress myself too much..... The most important is to get it done!

My full schedule:


If I baik and rajin, I have an extra week of holiday... yahoo! Can watch all the DVDs in the world, hanging about in town or even visit Nina & Ezrul at Glasgow... best nyer!!!

But, if I degil and malas, I have to submit last minute taking the risk of unlimited queue for the binding and have to start packing the whole house without any rest in between! So, no way for DVDs, shopping or holidays.... Eeikkk! No, that's not good..

Dissertation Progress - 12 days to go

I had to skip day 13 coz my internet was down the whole day... not happy >:(

So, in light of no internet amusement, I was quite productive. I realised that I got my dissertation chapters all messed up and re-do most of it. I was writing up from 8pm till 4am in the morning.

So, today I woke up feeling like a zombie, but am really motivated to get this done. Glad I actually sat down properly in my living room last night, re-arranging my chapters, coz now it is much more clear to me on what this project is all about.

The only thing is I have 12 days to submission and I have to submit the first draft to Dr Pasir this Monday (which leaves me about 4.5 days left) I know there's loads more to do and time is short, but I will strive to do my best to get this done on time. Its a lot easier now that I know what Dr Pasir's expecting... Last week, I was totally LOST!

I will do my write-ups till 6pm and then cook a simple dinner for Farhat & Wong who are dropping by later. I hope I still have the energy to continue my write up till late night. Tomorrow I plan to go to uni after lunch to do the extra simulations Dr Smith wanted me to do. Oh my, I can already imagine the stressful week ahead to complete this.

The only good news is that KBR contacted me (at last!) to proceed with my work permit application. Their email was such a relief! I was getting worried coz they were keeping silent for more than a month. Once I get my dissertation out of the way, I have to sit down and find a place to live in Leatherhead soon. Not to mention the packing bit... Oh my God, Hubby is so not gonna enjoy his stay in the UK this time...(Muahahha!)

Dissertation Progress - 14 days to go

Oh my God, its Monday already!!! (Heart beating fast)...
I'm supposed to meet Dr Pasir today (cold sweats appearing)...
and I haven't done ANYTHING!!!!

Packed my laptop and my notes and headed to uni after lunch. It took me quite a while to gather the courage to walk in Dr Pasir's room. But, surprisingly he was all smiles as he greeted me when he saw a glimpse of my shaky hands at his door. I was expecting that he'll just say hi and gave me a quick shot of motivational quotes and it will all be happily ever after.....

errr...NO!

Dr Pasir gave me MORE simulations to do!!! He added that all the things that I've done is just the base of the cake.. now its time to put the most awaited icing bit...

Dr Pasir: "A few more simulations to actually conclude the whole dissertation. Then, it will be complete!!! "

Me: "huh???? apa ni.... I thought all was completed before I went home (???)"

Dr Pasir: "Then you thought wrong... Muahahahaha!!!

Me: (speechless)

Dr Pasir: "..and oh, p.s: I want to see the completed draft first thing Monday morning next week... Muahahahah!!"

OK, the above was slightly exaggerated... but still, MORE WORK?? I rushed home, this time with cold sweats. In a way, its good that I finally feel my panic nerves... but this is horrible- I have 6 days left to complete more simulations AND finish up the write-up!

So, I have been working since 6pm re-arranging and re-doing the whole damn thing to fit in the new simulations. Its gonna be a long week then... Serves me right for being so lazy :(

Dissertation Progress - 15 days to go

I got up at noon, feeling so sluggish and guilty for not finishing yesterday's work as planned. Have decided not to continue with bloody Chapter 4... Skip!... After having brunch, I started Chapter 5 instead - oh my, I realised that there's so much to do within a chapter. I spent an hour just drawing the figures for the calculation!

Anyway, took a break at 6pm and started cooking dinner. After some time, I haven't really got down cooking proper meals. So, since Devina's coming over I decided to cook up something special. I cooked Beef with Oyster sauce and spring onions and Kapitan prawns... (Hehe, I bet Mama will be damn surprised!)


























As usual, had fun with Devina with our usual girly goss, beauty tips and celeb bitchings. It was fun looking at her recent holiday pics. I have always wanted to go to Athens (hint, hint, Hubby... hehe!).

Anyways, time for bed dah. I will visit Dr Pasir tomorrow, hopefully kena marah so I can be more serious with my dissertation write up.

Dissertation Progress - 16 days to go

Starting from today, I will write-up my progress for my dissertation till submission on 4th Sept to the printers. So, bear with me on the daft bloggings from now on. Its the only way for me to monitor & curb my procrastination disease. I will start writing interesting stuff once I get this bloody dissertation submitted!

Progress at 10.45am:
Woke up fairly early at 8am (though I planned to wake up at 6, considering I slept at 10.30pm last night!). Had a hearty nasi breakfast with ayam kapitan. Had my shower and started to move all my work away from my bedroom... I think my bedroom feng-shui is not that good for productivity.

Started editing Chapters 1 & 2. No formal write-ups yet, but at least I've started something. As usual, being the over-compulsive organiser, I have printed out my colourful checklists and schedules to make sure I'm on track. I aim to spend this weekend to finish off the key chapters- Methodology, Results & Discussion so that I can present them to Dr Pasir on Monday.

Progress at 1.45pm:
The weather's not helping in my motivation- it has been raining non-stop since morning. I'm still slow, but making progress. I'm trying to gather the momentum... though I think my attention span is somewhat decreasing now...

Progress at 3.45pm:
Just finished editing Chapter 3. Took a short break when good old friend Kraznee called. Borak for a while. Tried to contact Hubby but to no avail.. Hmmm, where could he be in Malaysia not answering my calls on a happening Saturday night?? >:/

Progress at 5.45pm:
Just got home from my afternoon walk-ercise to Rusholme Blockbuster Video store. I so needed the fresh air. I rented 2 new DVDs and will ONLY watch it AFTER I finish Chapter 4.... Managed to get hold of Hubby on the phone :)

Progress at 6.45pm:
Still at page 1 Chapter 4. Mind goes blank.... (yawn)... still blank.

Progress at 7.00pm:
err.... watching DVD...

Progress at 10.00pm:
OK, feeling guilty after the DVD. Thus, so bersemangat to go back to where I left of earlier- page 1 Chapt 4!

Progress at 10.30pm:
Hmmm... mind goes blank again. Staring at page 1 Chapt 4... (yawn)

Progress at 10.45pm:
zzzzzzz.......

I'm hopelessly useless...

OK, I had loads of fun this morning with the Chevening photoshoot, lunching with the other scholars at a Chinese buffet. After all the talks with them, I got kinda motivated to finish up my dissertation write-up as soon as I reach home.

Unfortunately, when I got home I was tired and decided to chill out by surfing the net. By 3.30pm, I was sleeping like a baby and woke up at 6pm. Feeling like a zombie, I couldn't bring my brain to work to sit down and start my write-up. So what did I do?.. Well, spent the whole 4 hours surfing the net some more! I tell you, the internet is so hazardous! I was going through blogs la, shopping sites la, housing & properties la... if only I there's a research on net surfing, I'm sure I'll score a 1st!!

At the moment, I'm feeling so damn guilty for wasting the whole day not touching anything on the dissertation. I kept telling myself, "Its OK.. its a Friday.. you deserve the break....(yeah rite!)"

I feel so disguistingly useless at the moment. As soon as I opened up my doc file for my dissertation, I just go blank. Even all the large font reminders are not helping at all to curb my procrastination. How ah???

So now I have decided that tonight will be an early night rest for me and I will wake up early tomorrow morning and start fresh. I will try my best to spend the whole weekend finishing up a draft copy to present to Dr Pasir on Monday. This useless laziness have to stop! I have 10 chapters to write and I have only 16 days left to prepare a 40,000 words of write-up.

I'm quite sceptical on whether I can do this. Thus, I need all the luck I can get to survive it!

Manchester Next Top Model?? hehee

I am now at Harold Hankins Building at the University. Me and a group of other Chevening scholars are selected for a photoshoot to grace next year's Chevening annual report. So woke up really early (despite sleeping late last night... no, not doing work, but was watching 2 DVDs... very naughty, I know!), got dressed up, ironed my hair, put on waterproof make-up and quickly rushed through the rain. When I got there, (as usual) I was the overdressed one... Everyone else was in jeans and tees, while yours truly was in a dress and high boots. Oops!

Anyways, we then met the photographer-cum-designer, Paul. You can tell that he's the photographer from the crowd, coz he dressed up so 'colourful' with this huge funky glasses and long dreadlocks hair. He's lembut but kinda cool.

We started to take individual potraits. When my turned came up, Paul was all big smiles..."Aahh... the pretty one! OK, stand here and smile at the camera, please". The photoshoot was like a breeze, coz of course, me being the drama queen, posed effortlessly.. hehe.

OK, got to go now... its time for group photos pulak.. life's so hectic being a model nih... sigh ;)

Sigh... back to work :(

I still can't get over the fact that I'm back in uni and have to start writing up my dissertation. Manchester is surprisingly so quiet- in a way, I kinda miss the hustling and bustling of the crazy undergrads. All that's left now are the nerdy postgrads looking oh-so-depressed on their research preparations. It hasn't hit me yet that I only have 3 weeks left to submit my dissertation.... there's no single panic nerve on me at the moment... and that worries me!

Dr Pasir ain't a big help either as he is away on holiday till next week. If I knew earlier, I will most probably extended my stay in KL. Sigh.. oh well, I better make full use of this week to start something on the write-up and hopefully impress him when he gets back.

I have run out of excuses of not to start the write-up dah... Monday was recovery day, yesterday was cleaning-up and updating blog day... so today definitely has to be 'start-up on dissertation' day.

Its going to be a long day then... back to work now.... (yawn!)