Looking into the future

Life as a high school senior has not been easy. It's only the 3rd week of school but it feels like months already. The hours seem to drag even longer throughout the day. Yet the days seem to move quicker than expected. If that's even possible. Heh.


But my Chinese New Year holidays have been pleasant so far. Went back to Pahang for a kenduri for a newborn in my family (oh yea it seems that there is always a newborn in the family). And then all of us went for a family picnic at a river nearby.


Best giler! The river was a picture of peace and serenity. Just us and the nature.

And I had this long talk with a cousin of mine who is a doctor in HUKM. Asked him about the medical world since medicine is one of my possible choices for the future. He said medicine is not as hard as what most people perceived it to be. As long as you have the passion and the determination for it, anything else won't matter.

Now, that's the question that I have to answer for myself. Do I have the passion and the determination to be 'Dr. Zafirah?'

For now, only time will tell.

We will not go down in Gaza

It's a conflict that does not seem to have a fullstop to it. It's an on-going battle between 2 sides. And this time, the bigger, more powerful side has taken things to the extreme. Killing close to 1000 civilians in the past 3 weeks.

It's the 'Gaza Conflict'. My mum and I attended a campaign 'Save the Palestinians' organized by 127 Malaysian NGOs in Bangsar today. There was a huge turn-out and even former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and the Jazz Queen, Sheila Majid were present to show their support for the Palestinians.

In Tun Mahathir's speech, he mentioned how Malaysians should boycott American and Israelis goods. The boycott will not stop the Gaza conflict or change Americans' policies directly or immediately but it's a beginning of a long struggle. A struggle to oppose those who take advantage of the defenseless and the voiceless. A struggle to oppose those who take the easy way out through violence.

If the Palestinians are deemed as terrorists because they fight back their bullies who have terrorized and occupied their lands unlawfully, what are the Israelis then? One thing for sure, in this day and age, one can easily occupy another country with its might and power but one can never conquer it. Body, mind and soul.

While the Palestinians are struggling to live on, let's not forget them in our prayers. Enough is enough! Take a stand against the big bullies now. Do something.

Because mere silence is the deadliest weapon of mass destruction.

Save them!

Tun Mahathir said, 'Drinking American brands like Coca-Cola is like drinking the blood of the Palestinians'

He might still be a kid, but there is a glimpse of understanding in him for the Palestinians

The youths performing a song, 'Where Has Peace Gone'

Sheila Majid showing her support for the cause

I'm showing my support too =)

Vote now to make war a crime!

Happy 46th Birthday Ibu!!!

When you hit the big 46 age, it's a different world altogether. Just ask your parents (if they're older than 40) and you'll know. Today was my mum's 46th birthday.

Gone were the days where she had loud, top 40 music blaring from the radios at her party. Gone too were the days where she played musical chairs and all those party games. When you're 46 and counting.....it's more about giving than receiving and also modesty.

I bought her an MNG shirt as a birthday gift. Yes, my cool, hip mum still wears MNG at her age.

And she decided to celebrate her birthday at an orphanage near Sungai Buloh. One thing that wasn't gone was her love for magic. There was a clown to entertain and the orphans were excited and happy to see us amid the turbulations of being orphaned and underpriviliged.

To my beloved Ibu, Happy 46th Birthday!!

May you have another glorious, great 46 years to come.

With the birthday woman

How cute!

Pinko, the clown

Cupcakes! Yummy!

My dad and foreign 'brothers' from Central Africa, Bosnia and Palestine

One of the kids from the orphanage

Mahmoud the Pirate and Pinko

Cake time!

Ali presenting a calipraghy art to my mum that took him 5 hours to do

Bubba Bubba!

After 2 months of winning the national championships, the debaters finally had our victory dinner with our teachers. I booked seats at Bubba Gump Shrimp at Curve so last night we stuffed our stomachs with seafoods and more seafoods.

The dinner was actually a gesture of appreciation for Puan Koh and Puan Mag who helped us so much throughout the competition. No money in the world could repay all their efforts and commitment back.

But they very least way we could thank them was through a decent dinner and a bouquet of flowers from us.

US!

The handsome debaters =P

The beautiful debaters =D

With the very youthful, cool teacher, Puan Mag

Puan Koh is taking 6 months leave from school

We'll miss you!

A nomad life

First day of school yesterday was a nuisance. The hall has become our temporary classroom. In the freaking hall! Can you imagine that?? And at 12pm, we would have to move to the canteen because the afternoon session will be occupying the hall.

How nomad can we be? With the rising heat and a paltry small whiteboard, we had to listen to the echoes of the teachers' voices teaching in front. I could barely hear what they said. Hah.

But Puan Ruth promised we will get new, more comfortable classrooms by the end of the week. That better be the case man because we have a major public exam coming up and we can't afford to study in an African-like classroom.

RECAP of my 2008

We're just hours away from 2009. Nothing like the fresh air of a brand new year. This year had been a great, impressive year. The life-altering experiences. The little yet sweet moments that we'll always remember. Or just your normal day-to-day minutes of your life. We have experienced it all.

And here's a recap of my year. My 2008 year. Probably one of the best years of my 16 years of life. Here we go!

JANUARY

- Started Form 4 in a wacky class, 4 Angsana

- Played in the Under-18 DJ's netball team at district level. But as usual, we didn't go to the next round. Though we did win a game.

FEBRUARY

- Hmm..I can't remember anything significant in Feb. Probably just busy with school and all those extra-curricular activities. Things were pretty slow back here.

MARCH

- The Wira debate team prepared ourselves for the Datuk Wira debating championships. Just the beginning of a very loooonnggg journey. Won our first 2 rounds against SMK Tropicana and SMKDU.

- March 8: the general election that pretty much changed Malaysia and Malaysians.

- Started my vocal lessons with a UM lecturer as a preparation for my Turkish competition.

APRIL

- Uhh I don't remember doing anything else other than debating in this month. We made it all the way to the state finals. And we lost! Very devastating but life had to go on.

MAY

- I hit 16 on 11th May. Sweet 16! Had a floral theme party with magician and stuff. Very cute!

- Did an interview with the News Straits Times on my involvement in the Turkish competition.

- Departed for Turkey to join the Turkish Language Olympics for 3 weeks.

JUNE

- Represented Malaysia in the singing competition at the Turkish Olympics. I still can't believe I performed an alien, Turkish song in front of 10000 audiences. A life-altering experience, no doubt!

- Went to the final Osmonds concert in Genting. I'm not a fan, excuse me. But my parents are.

JULY

- Things have slowed down a little bit. Except for one thing....Nostalgia magazine! As an editor of the school mag, Puan Joyce was constantly hunting me down for articles, unedited and edited. Not easy!

AUGUST

- Just when I thought my Turkish days were over, they keep running back after me! Haha. Did a 'music video' for a Turkish TV for their Ramadhan programmes. I can have a singing career there even with my sucky voice. =)

- Avril Lavigne was in town! Went to her concert despite earlier objections from my parents and also from the political parties. She's the BEST DAMN THING!

SEPTEMBER

- Nostalgia was finally in prints! After months and months of hardwork from the Ed Board, we finally managed to get it done. It was a lil too thin this year (no money!) but the mag was still cool.

OCTOBER

- Celebrated the Eid Mubarak in Pahang. But this year was a tad special since my mum brought back her foreign students from Bosnia, Central Africa, Kenya and Palestine. A very colourful Raya, indeed.

- A twist of fate. Remember how the Wira debate team lost at the state finals? Well the state champs pulled out of the competition and OUR debate team were back in the game! So we pushed our books away (despite final exams in the following week) and brainstormed for our caselines.

NOVEMBER

- The whole team flew to Kelantan for the nationals. We debated against 4 schools and wa-llah! We won the national championships! A dream came true for all of us.

- No running away from the exams. We had to sit for the final exams. Don't ask us how we managed to study in time for the exams. But we did it.

DECEMBER

- Time flies. It's already the end of the year.

- I tried to do something fruitful during the holidays. Tried picking up Spanish and French. And now I'm already fluent. Fluent at saying 'How are you?' and 'What's your name', that is. Heh.

- Went to Brunei for a short, family retreat. Nice, quiet country.

- Getting ready for the school year...or not yet.

So that was my year.

A greater year next year, perhaps?