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Monday, December 26, 2011 ♥
|2011 - the year as I see it|

2011
a year full of firsts, a year full of ups and downs and a whirlwind of events.
The one and only post for this year shall make up for my lack of blogging throughout the year.

Definitely started off the year with a bang. Remembered that when the clock struck 12 to mark the start of 2011, we have relatives over at the house and we're sorting out berkats while the makciks were doing up the siren dara. The big brother got married and we have a new addition to the family, Kak Nona and Haris. The very first wedding from the Zain family. Yknow you watch people getting married but when it comes to your own family member, the feeling is overwhelmingly different. I get to see my parents sacrificing almost every weekend trying to make the whole event a smooth sailing one, and the brother becoming the man he is.



On the blessed morning of 1st January 2011 or 01/01/11 at al-mawaddah mosque, is where the nikah ceremonial took place. no photo can hide the teary eyed parents.


the 'sanding' over at our place the following day was graced by a never-ending stream of guests whom my parents welcomed whole-heartedly. and being the adik pengantin was a new title for me.

So after the wedding, the big project was over and I had to look for something to do. Somehow, I chanced upon a tuition centre where I became tutor for a good seven months. On my first day, which was also my probation period, I made a kid in my class cried. but the centre hired me anyway! okay no need to panic, that's the only time I made a kid cried throughout my tutoring days. I've grown to be more tolerant of kids and enjoyed their company over time. one of the best time would be during their post-exams period, where I found myself being closer to the kids. did all sorts of activities with them and even an excursion with them to do longkang fishing. an enjoyable experience it has been.

26 January



Mendaki Club dinner over at Rendezvous Hotel. when girls are too free, we look for events like this to attend!


3 February

visited Universal Studios Singapore on chinese new year with the family and we got to blow kisses with Marilyn Monroe! the impersonator that is. Being me, I totally enjoyed the rides, the adrenaline rush especially for the cylon and human roller coaster, which were way too awesome, that we just had to ride on it thrice. Besides that, I got pulled by the one of the dancers, the one with high jambul in particular in front of Mel's drive-in to dance with them on stage during their performance & had lots of fun singing/dancing to lion sleeps tonight! hahaha one of my tak-tau-malu moments. and had a chocolate bar with our family photo imprinted on it! a fun-filled day definitely that brought out the kid in me. so now apparently the new transformers ride is even more awesome than this, a reason to go back there!

7 February

Haslinda's Bday surprise which turned out be a successful one!

19 February

The Wanted Showcase at movida! had our fangirl moments with Effa and her friend. and the entrance ticket was only the cd, that's all! so it's definitely worth the watch and we stood in the crowd in some kind of moshpit you can call it on the dance floor among screaming girls us included hahaha!

20-23 February

First ever holiday trip with friends solely!


the view from where we had our dinner of the resort's private beach where we spent our time lazing. amazing isn't it.


love this hut that overlooks the beach.

the sandcastle we built (okay a kid can build a better sandcastle than us but we tried!) and our measly attempt in salvaging what's left off it hahaha


on our way to snorkel!

no parents, no teachers, just friends, and we're all girls. excited giler! HAHA So Naf, Effa, Tyra, Ik and Syat head off to a quaint little island offshore of West Malaysia at Pangkor. not very far I'd say but the company was beyond fantastic. funny how on our first day, we got robbed off our keropoks and snacks by a furious naughty monkey that was not even provoked. Naf, Effa and Tyra fled off quickly but my fight-or-flight response was just bad, so I'm not much of a help myself. Hid behind Ik who was poorly holding on the plastic bag full of our foodstuffs but had to let it go so that the monkey would not attack us. we laughed it off, though kinda shocked when heading back to the rooms. Missed the six of us squeezing into a room despite having 2 rooms. the kinda cool touristy bus that fetched us from the ferry to our resort, the blasting of music in the room and watching downloaded movies till late night, the sunset we enjoyed over dinner at the beach. effa panicking when snorkeling cause she thought the strap on the life vest was a water snake and all sorts of nonsense while we're there. I really love you girls!

4 March

just had to mention tyra's birthday celebration (i know your bday is on the 2nd) in particular out of the 11 of us cause it was specifically on the day before A'sresults and we had one another to calm our nerves. I was seriously quietly freaking out and just stayed till late, not wanting the following day to come.

5 March

cake is courtesy of Ik ;D

just had to meet up with the girls once more in the morning at awfully chocolate, (where I get my supply of free chocolate cakes, chocolate ice cream, basically anything chocolate!) before heading off to school. the dreaded trip back to school. A's, I wouldn't say that I'm overjoyed but I'm satisfied. and this is in consideration on how chemistry was such killer that I totally refuse to think about it. I know I have done whatever I wanted to. and this is when I'm at the cross roads, I don't know how many nights I spent not sleeping just thinking over and over again. The next 2 months must have been the longest months ever, waiting for THE letter. at some point of time, I found myself just feeling hopeless, but I'm over that.

1-4 April

Trip to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam with the parents.

the streets of Ho Chi Minh, outside Ben Thanh Market. look at motorcycles parked outside the building, no cars at all.

So the three of us had a kinda spontaneous holiday trip to the city as a form of my post-A's treat. My first thought when we reached was that there're frigging a lot of motorcycles there. there're motorcyclists practically everywhere! visited cu chi tunnel, amazing how the soldiers dug such a deep tunnel to hide themselves during the world war II. and took the boat to mekong delta, which area was previously under the khmer empire. trip there was an eye-opener of different culture different from ours

12 -14 April

These are the days I feel like a parent beaming with pride. went back to anderson after ages to visit the malay dancers and what not Cikgu Asnah and Cikgu Suzy cause it's SYF!

Anderson Malay Dancers who attained Gold for SYF this year, thus the group to redeem itself after getting a Gold with Honors back in 2005 when I was in sec 1. I was actually feeling rather nervous watching them, all three of them, perform as if I was the one dancing! Here's a video of one of their rehearsals. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DAFGT3ni2o&feature=related

NJC Junior High team's turn to perform, really admire those non-malay who took up the cca and they performed with pride. they really make me miss this really tight njc malay dance family.
Watch them here, worth watching I'd say!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcAQO1YxspE

NJC Senior High team's Cerminan Maya item attained them the highest consolation, thus maintaining the Gold With Honours! Their performance was hair-raising kind of great! those who have no idea what contemporary malay dance is, you can start by watching this. They are stunning I dare say, watching it again gives me goosebumps! Cikgu is such a genius to come out with a choreography of such. hat's ore, they;re featured on a tv show on onto, that's how good they are!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwKDR0FUREc&feature=share

so you can guess I watch dance videos during my pastime.


came down with the ASSes, somehow we're always stuck together (malay dance, mldds, exco, getting frustrated over 852) no matter how much we bicker and complained so much on how we really don't like nj. and to add on, Shairah used to be my boarding roommate, classmate and not forgetting compatible hahaha! kudos for putting up with me.

17 April

Run 350. Akmal's, mine and Effa's first 10km running event! my cheap-thrills, training and running buddy :D Both of us have always wanted to take part in some running event ever since after O's but finally we did it after A's!


this photo of our tired faces says it all, it's definitely an accomplishment for us. our timing is just decent but Akmal's 52mins timing is really good.

25 April

Maroon 5 concert! The best concert ever hands down. Adam Levine has such stage presence he makes performance seemed effortless. All I need was my heels so I won't drown in the crowd and have a great time grooving to his songs.

6 May Sleepover at Naf's! ;D

7 May
NIke Goddess 5k Run with running buddy! we were already in the mood to continue running so we signed up for this right after run350.

all sweaty but Nike surprised the runners with gerberas for the first few hundreds and guess what! out off the thousands who too part, we came in 74th position! I'd say not bad for amateur runners.

the finisher's trophy is really pretty!

9 May
Avril Lavigne's Concert!! Finally caught her live and she is real good. what you hear over the radio is what you get! complicated, skater boy, losing grip, love her good ol' songs!

11 May
Birthday present arrived early! THE letter arrived. Super ecstatic and at the same time so grateful when I opened the envelope. and so the course of my life for the next 4 years is kinda decided with that one acceptance letter. my worries was put to rest.

14 May
NJC CCA Colours Award. In the name of representing, malay dance, I was the only one who decked out in any form of traditional costume, my baju kebaya. Kinda honoured that my efforts for the 2 years was recognized.

21 May
What day dyou think this is? teehee





one thing I want to mention is this rainbow cake, just look at the colorful layers, labour of love from the mum and sis. the colours are not according the colors of the rainbow cause they wanted to add a layer of pink instead. awesome isn't it??



A cake from the njc malay dancers or in particular Ms Khoo, the motherly figure in malay dance. I mean, she's the only teacher whom I hugged every time I see, how often dyou go up and hug your teacher. She's one fine teacher.

and this was during NJ Aristal, where I did backstage work as assistant stage managers with Shairah, Eunice and Charm. I'm so used to being on stage, so once in a while it's nice to see how a performance goes about from a backstage point of view. and having to work with all those controller buttons was just cool.



huge cardboard card which Rahs forced me to put on. Haslinda decided to be more racy as compared to the cardboard that says 'Hi I'm Aqilah. Give me a hug It's my 18th birthday' which she made for me last year. they brought me to this Indian place to have briyani served on a real banana leaf. but before that they made me travel all over first. remember looking like a fool smiling over my phone and Shairah instructing me to take x no. of steps forward, then another x no. to the back, right, left wherever saying that I was being watched from wherever she was. things you all made me do! Love y'all!

a cake from the girlfriends! effa or was it naf who piped the cak.? judging from the bad handwriting, it could be either one of you! haha and to add on, a particular embarrassing incident which I don't think the girlfriends would ever forget! why does this always happen to me, I seriously wonder! Definitely one of those things that they would keep reminding/teasing me over and over again every time we meet. but love them anyways!


2nd June
I passed my traffic police test on this very day on my fist try! just imagine how ecstatic I was when I got hold of my license! the first one to pass among the era also teehee! my parents are so cute, they sent me and gave moral support on the morning of the test. haha no longer need to balik kampong to practise driving. and on my very first drive after the test, I just had to mount the kerb and ended up with a punctured tyre on my dad's car. I did raised doubts on how I passed but hey making mistakes is part of the learning process. Alhamdulillah, my driving has since improved.

18-25 June


PERTH, AUSTRALIA HOLIDAY! First time in Australia and the best holiday ever! So I was just super elated. the sis and I had planned up the itinery for the week since it's going to be a self-drive holiday and boy we are good planners, totally made full use of the 7 days we're there. ohh and we had fun winter-clothes shopping just right before the trip. and that photo was Luciano, our lighthouse guide helping me to lower the Australian flag at the end of the day at Geographe Bay while overlooking the sunset. how often dyou get to do that! my flag-raising duty back in primary school was put into good use.

Visited swan bell tower, apparently the biggest musical instrument that is, it's kinda cool to see the humongous bells. My favorite park ever, King's Park where we do what the locals do, sit down there and simply enjoy the scenery of Perth City. The city is pretty laid back. We spent the whole afternoon picnicking at the park. And I love the serene, calm feeling I get while spending our time there.

outside Perth Mint. shops there closes at 5pm, so we visited this museum instead.

these photos of quokkas and swan are credits of Akmal, he should just be a wildlife photographer or smt, just look the quality of the photos he took.

Quokka, this cute tiny creature which looks like hybrid of a rodent and a kangaroo, runs all over Rottnest Island. Found out that this island is one of the few places in the world where you can quokkas, amazing right. They're simply so adorable, they don't run away when you approach them and they look at you with those big, glittery eyes. They're like the cats of the island.


This huge swan is such a darling to the camera, it's huge cause it stood at the height of my shoulders. The swan does not budge when we approached it along a jetty at the river, it even turned turned towards us for Akmal to capture a nice photo of it.

Visited Busselton Jetty, this is not just a jetty like any other, This jetty stretched so far out into the sea that we took this cute red Busselton Jetty Express Train to get from one to another! at some point, it seems like the train was precariously positioned on the jetty, cause there's no barriers so if you open the door of the train, it opens out to sea! Cold wind accompanied by drizzle out in the open sea made it one chilly train ride.


At Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse. first time being inside and on a lighthouse. This lighthouse overlooks the Indian Ocean. The ocean wide view from the parapet is simply breathtaking and I was just taking in every moment we were up there.




And at Lancelin, we went sand boarding! yes, sand boarding in a dessert in the middle of winter. funny as it may sound, we actually did it. cold winds but super sunny weather. I just think Akmal looks better in the sand boarding photos. Going down the sand dunes was just so thrilling! and you can choose the difficulty by simply going over to a steeper sand dune.


spent one whole day Margaret River, which was a 4 hours drive away from Perth. There were acres of farms and vineyards everywhere, and within each farm there's a shop, so we went factory hopping. First stop just had to be the chocolate factory! You get to watch chocolate making in process at the place itself! The shop sells loads of chocolates, there's even a chocolate cafe and even free tasting. I'm in a chocolate paradise. Then we visited cheese factory where we enjoyed free tasting of a wide range of cheeses here too!

cows on the farm of a dairy company. the sheeps on a nearby farm are just too shy. They ran away when we walked towards them.


Adorable Koala bear we saw at Caversham Wildlife Park. This one really looks like a replica of soft toy! They simply look so huggable, but since they're sensitive animals, we can't do that.

Sunset at Fremantle Harbour, where we spent a whole day there. we even visited fremantle prison, which was my first time stepping into the premise of a prison. It may not be serving it purpose anymore, but the visit there was quite a new experience.

26 June
School of Design and Environment (SDE) orientation camp. So this camp marked the start of my uni life. I didn't have enough rest before leaving for the camp. remember landing in Singapore at 5am in the morning and at 8am poof I left for the camp. super shagged but I'm always up for this kind of thing. the camp was super super fun but it could have been better if my mind wasn't floating in lala land throughout.

2-3 July
Ilsa Tari Camp. just had to jump at the chance of getting back into dancing since the start of the year. Remember playing hider and seeker from Running Man on the slope of NUS, and it's definitely a more fun version of hide and seek. some resort to hiding behind coconut trees, just too hilarious. and ever since that camp I've been involved in quite a number of Ilsa's performances, not to mention the big scale production!

11-14 July

Pangeae Orientation Camp. one of the best camps I've ever attended. The company, having evac as on orientation group was just as great! though super exhausted from running around National University of Stairs and all over Singapore, I enjoyed myself thoroughly. I think I'm the most enthu during this particular camp. and the effects of a spinner camera is really cool!

18 July
the last camp, BEMS camp, so I attended 4 camps in total, in my attempt to soak in uni life as much as possible before the semester starts proper.

22 July

Revathy's Birthday surprise and picnic by Botanic Gardens. the surprise was kinda leaked out earlier thanks to me who came late and bumped into the birthday girl before that. epic fail which was kinda hilarious, but it's a great day anyway!

And so from August onwards, it' s been about shuffling between lectures and tutorials and getting my brain to work once more after an eight months break.

11 August


anuual iftar with the favorite girls ♥

30 August


first day of Hari Raya with an expanded family.

one thing I love about living on the ground floor, there's space in front of the house for gatherings and off course to play bunga api.

31 August

with Arabic classmates on the 2nd day of raya in school. One of the modules that I really enjoyed. see the malays planned to wear baju kurungs to school, like it's racial harmony day or something.

Someday during Syawal

The whole of mum's side, I just love this photo!


Jalan rays with kampong melayu nus year 1s who always lepak central forum. first time jalan raya with a mini busload of people, they're just so kecoh!

25 September

Jalan raya with the girlfriends. and we didn't spend time on public transport, thanks to driving license(s). Love how we're all look so colourful without even planning! ohh the friends I hang out with.. 7 years and counting!

1st October


Involved in my first ever production with NUS Ilsa Tari, Contengan Hidup Luahan Tidak Berketepian. It's definitely an experience to be involved in a big scale production. ohh and I kinda like being in my next favorite place, backstage rooms with their bright bulb lights where it can make one feel like a star. Practices that stretched till late night after a long day in school, catching the last train back and looking like a zombie in school the next day paid off. A big thank you to those who come down to support! and look at the big pink bouquet the girls got me, I love it a lot!!

12 October



Mohamed Khair Ashayr is born!

22 October


finally, a complete photo of all the cousins plus their children over dad's side Kak Iszi's wedding.


28 November


post exams shopping as a stess relief with my real estate kakis! then it's off for a day spent lazing at sentosa! it's really funny how we played charades while wading in the waters. I love how convenient it is to get to vivo then sentosa from nus.

25 December
xmas date with loves. happy pills :D

so 2011 has been an eventful year for me, thanks to the long post-As break. well, there are times I wished I had done some things better, things I wished I had a better judgment of. but nevertheless, I take it all in my stride. 2011 has been a good year, shall 2012 be a better one!

credits to my humble strawberry shortcake-a-free-gift-from-northpoint calendar to keep me informed of the lists of major events in my life this year. my verbal diarrhea on blogger which allows me to relive these days while typing it like it just happened yesterday. This definitely not extensive but it's what I'd like to share for now. Akmal's awesome dslr for the really nice photos.

my life feels like an open book now.

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♥chattered @ 11:37 AM