NST interview

I never knew singing was going to be this exhausting. I never knew singing can make me cry. I never knew singing was this painful. It took me 2 months and a few thousand ringgit to find out the real world of singing. I had hours of vocal and turkish lessons again today. 7 hours of classes with minimum breaks in between. Ugghh I was practically slumped dead at the end of the day.

My flight is at 3am on an early Monday morning and I haven't even packed my bags yet!! Grreeaatttt.....
Oh btw, I got interviewed by NST today on the Turkish Language Olympics. Look out for me in the newspapers in the days to come and I might appear in there ;) Some of the questions asked were:

Reporter: So, which category are you joining?
Me : I'm joining the singing category where I will sing a song entitled 'Sahit Olsun'.
Reporter: Ooo.So you have a good voice like the people from Malaysian Idol?
Me : Uuumm.....ok-okla

Reporter: What do you hope to get from this competition?
Me : I hope from my experiences and knowledge I'll get from this competition, I can make
changes not only to myself but also the people around me. Since it is a competition
that promotes peace and multiculturalism, I hope that I can enhance my
understanding of others and learn how to accept other people's differences no matter
what skin colour or religion they are.

Find out more in NST sooner or later, ok? I'm really nervous about this trip. My 1st trip without my parents. A trip filled uncertainties and I have to have the attitude of 'expect the unexpected. 'Interesting, indeed. And scary too! But I will have to do this sooner or later because I can't expect to be with my parents all the time so I should take this as a practice kan?
Take care, peeps!

Signing off to Turkey! See ya!

exams and birthday

Happy 16th Birthday Daryl!!!

Exams week is here!!! And surprisingly enough I don't feel nervous or stressed about it like I usually am when exams are on. Probably because I'm too excited about my Turkish trip which is this Sunday btw, and also probably because I'm not in the momentum of exams so I don't care if I screw my Add maths or Bio for this term. And I'm not even counted for class positions since I'm not sitting for all the exams. So....Bio what???

Some of friends and I celebrated Daryl's birthday today. Well, more of his belated birthday since it was actually yesterday. Bought him a chocolate walnut cake from Secret Recipe and sang him a birthday song in the canteen during reccess. It was Daryl's first surprise cake, I think and he seemed very happy about it. Good thing.

So HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY, DARYL!! This was the guy who taught me how to do Locus, Geometry and all the Maths nonsense prior to PMR until I understood. This was the guy who gave me a book on time management, a candle and a card as a way of him saying sorry. This was the guy who I spent tons of time together on debates be it the class or school debates. And thank you Daryl for the friendship that you offered and still offering me. May God bless!

And all the best to the rest of us who have to endure the pain of sitting on chairs for hours cracking our brains for answers.

sweet 16!

This looks so much like a class photo. LOL!

Oh no! Broken stools during the musical chair

All ready to paaarrttaayyy!!!

Beauties of Sweet 16 =)

The magician with a bird

People of all ages enjoying the magic show

It's singing time!

I'm finally 16! I had my sweet 16 garden party yesterday (11th May) at my grandma's house because she has a much bigger garden than mine. I only invited about 20 friends because I believe in a small but exclusive party. That way all my guests could have fun together and not be divided into cliques. The theme for the party was 'floral' so everyone had to dress up in a floral-like way. The party started with a magic show by a magician my mum found online.

Ok, I know a magic show in the middle of a sweet 16 party didn't sound very...um sixteen. But because my party was attended by people of all ages, from a 67 year old woman (my grandma) to 16 year old girls and guys (my friends) to 3 year old kids (my cousins) I wanted to find something that appealed to everyone so my mum came up with the idea of 'magic show'. And, trust me EVERYONE had a fun time watching the show especially when the magician took out an underwear out of Syamir's pants!


After the show, we had something to eat and then all my friends sat in a circle in the middle of the garden and we sang along to Nunu's strums of guitar. Thanks Nunu for playing my current fave song, 'Stop & Stare'! Calvin also played his version of 'I Hate Physics' song. We walked the childhood lane by playing a game of musical chairs. Alia, Fadzil and Shiqin broke 2 of the stools! Oh my this what happened when big 16 year olds try to play a game of 6 year olds. O.0


Sophia asked me "So Zaf, what is it like being 16 years old today?'" And my reply at that time, "It feels pretty much the same like being 15 yesterday." Of course you would feel pretty much the same if you were to compare today and yesterday. But if I were to compare being 16 yesterday and being 10 six years ago then yea I'd grown up a lot in terms of maturity and umm... physicality.


A big THANK YOU to my friends who took time out to attend my party even though we had exams on the next day. Hope you all had as much fun as I did and thank you for making my Sweet 16 a memorable one :D

excitement and exhaustion

I had 6 hours of lessons yesterday. No, it wasn't the typical Add Maths, Bio etc. kind of lessons. I had 3 hours of vocal lessons with Aunty Sue and another 3 hours of Turkish lessons with my Turkish 'sisters' with minimal breaks between the 6 hours. From 11 am till 5pm and by the end of the lesson, I felt totally exhausted and nauseated. I could throw up all over the floor if I hear anymore Turkish words for the next few days. I mean, Turkish is a beautiful language and everything but after 6 freaking hours of learning, saying and singing the words, I'm sure you'll get sick of it too.

I'm actually going to Turkey in 2 weeks time! Yay!! And I still can't believe I'll be competing with people from 100 over countries around the world in a......singing competition! Haha well there's always a first time for everything so yea I might as well make the best out of this competition 'cause chances like this are hard to come by.

Now, I'm busy preparing for my mid term exams after skipping A LOT of classes but lucky me I'm not going to sit for all the exams 'cause I'll be somewhere else (you know where) so there's no need to study everything....for now.

Nunu made an interesting comment on the chatbox about the recent Wira debate 'one door closed, two doors opened'. We didn't get to represent Selangor in the Wira but like she said other doors opened up for us. WIRA debaters went through a lot of things, both sweet and bitter experiences were tasted together. At the end of the day, we went back with unique friendships and invaluable experiences that will stay with us for the rest of our days. What Nunu said was right. By getting 1st runner up, we didn't totally closed the doors but we get to enter different opened doors.

Ahh yes, another thing. My SWEET 16 is coming up soon. This Sunday actually. So that's another big event I'm looking forward to. Perhaps after my Turkey trip ends, I can get some rest 'cause right now I'm having a burnt out due to excessive work done during debates and also practices for the Turkish Language Olympics.

I can seriously drop dead anytime soon.

so near yet so far

SMKDJ's debate team

In the quarantine room

After the finals

It all started about a month and a half ago. 7 young, hopeful debaters started a journey of continuing DJ's debating legacy with high hopes of bringing back the Wira cup. On 29th of April, 10 of us (me, Jay, Keefe, Daryl, Sophia, Rachel, Calvin, Kevin, Puan Koh and Puan Tan) went to Kuala Selangor for the battle of our lives for Wira debates at the state level, representing Petaling Utama along with 9 other districts in the whole of Selangor.

We went against a school from Gombak district with the motion 'The Heart is More Powerful Than the Brain and we were the Government. Keefe, Jay and I spoke and I would say it was a highly emotionally charged debate. My mind went blank at the opening of my speech. Keefe went berserk and lost his cool. Jay was probably the only one who stayed sane. But the most entertaining part was Keefe's performance. It was the first time ever he was speaking like a mad man, pacing furiously at the opponents like he was ready to bite their heads off. But hey WE WON!! And Jay was the best speaker (YAY!!)



The night of the semi finals and finals, the whole team was busy preparing and tightening up the caselines for the next debate. It was 11 pm and most of us were already sleepy and tired but we still had to discuss our 3rd motion so we decided to go for a walk around the apartment and at the pool. We sang and laughed and probably woke up the whole neighbourhood. Lol yea.



Anyway, the next day was one hell of a day. The day started with an hour of quarantine for the motion 'The Future of the World is in The Hands of the Technologists, Not Naturalists' and we were the opposition and went against a school from Hulu Selangor. The opposing team was good and DJ's debaters for the round (Sophia, Daryl and Keefe) had a tough battle to fight. While waiting for the results, I went out of the room and cried. I cried because I was worried about the team, I was worried that we wouldn't pass through that round. That was the first time ever I cried because of debates......and I wasn't even debating! But we all did our very best and WE WON. Daryl even got the Best Speaker for the tough round. He was so passionate and confident when delivering his speech and I would say that was his best performance. Great job, Daryl!



And with that, we were in the finals. Half a step to becoming the state champion and a step closer to the Wira cup. The motion was 'The Growing Sense of Individualism is the Root Cause of Disintegration of Today's Marriages' and we were the opposition, again and went against Petaling Perdana. Sophia, Daryl and Keefe spoke again. In terms of manner, we won hands down. DJ had the better, more eloquent speakers. We went with a sneakier approach and our opponents couldn't catch that and even the judges were a bit blur and because of that they decided to award the win to our opponent, leaving us as the 1st runner up and destroying our hopes of becoming Selangor state champion.



So near yet so far. We were just half a step away from being the state champion. The whole team worked extremely hard to reach this far. This was the furthest any DJ's debate team ever reached in the last 4 years. We dropped everything to give our best for this debate. Classes being missed, homework being put on hold and exams being forgotten for a moment. But each and everyone of us who were part of the debate team knew we did our best and at the end of the day it all went down to God, luck and fate.

And we didn't go back to PJ empty handed. We went back with dumb looking trophies and certificates. But the most important thing is that we went back with a long-lasting friendship that was forged during our discussions in the library or Bilik Tayangan or the debaters' houses; the invaluable debating experiences and with that we grew up as more mature debaters. This was one of the most exhausting, painful, interesting journeys I had ever been through.

But again the experience and the lessons I got from this journey would be something I'd treasure and remember for the years to come. 20 years down the road, I won't remember my Form 4 mid term exam marks but I would remember that I was part of a great debate team that stayed together through thick and thin and we were just a half step closer to being the state champion in 2008. Yes, we went through hell before we reached the finals.

In the process of preparing for the debates, we were all stressed up.Some of us felt like cutting our wrists. Some of us felt like slithering each other's throats. All of us had our fair amount of emotional outbursts but what doesn't kill you will only make you stronger. We were still a team and we will continue to be a team.

This ain't the end of our journey as debaters. This is just the beginning of our journey. There are more debate championships in the future, be it in DJ or elsewhere. Once a debater, always a debater.

Finally, a big heartfelt THANK YOU to our tireless coaches: Kevin, Puan Koh, John, Puan Mag, Marc and those who were with us through thick and thin. May God bless!

more debates

Yes Nunu my blog's as good as being DEAD. I had been too busy with sooo many stuff that I had lil time to update the blog. Anyway DJ's debate team had another round of debate today in SMK Assunta and we went against SMK Sri Permata with the motion 'Internet enhances global unity'. We were the government and WE WON and officially the champion of Petaling Utara district!!! And Keefe got best speaker too ;)

However, I wouldn't say that today's performance was one of our best. The debate got pretty messy when the opposing team challenged the parameter so we were trying to debate on 2 tiers. We didn't really nail down the other team but I think our caseline was more clear cut and stronger. There was an air of solemnness when the whole team gathered for a 'post mortem' while we discussed on what we should have done until Puan Koh commented on how sad we looked as if we lost the debate.

But hey this whole experience is about learning from your mistakes and as we move on, we will improve ourselves by looking back at our mistakes and try to do much better next time around. And thanks 10000x again to Kevin, Puan Koh, Marc, John, the Form 5 debaters, Adeline, Kalkena and of course my ever so wonderful teammates for working so hard for this team. We're all in this together, peeps!

But for now I have to concentrate on something else that requires more of my attention: my studies! Gotta hit the books!

debates!

I was deprived from my sleep for the last few days. I had to spend my precious holidays by coming to school for brainstormings. I had to rewrite my speeches FIVE times. And all in the name of....debate. And it was 100% worth it! We (me, Jay, Keefe, Rachel, Sophia, Daryl) had our first round of Wira debate competition. And, yes we got through the first 2 stages and we're going for the finals of the zone level :)

First round was against SMK Tropicana. Motion: Peer pressure does more good than harm and we were the opposition. The speakers weren't too bad but I guess their points weren't too strong and solid compared to ours. Oh and I got best speaker title for this round. lol

Next round was against SMK Damansara Utama. Seriously, DJ looks so much like DU. Thanks to Datin. She's on a mission to DU-nise DJ. The school was filled with signs of quotes here and there and DJ is slowly becoming the 'school of signs' like DU. Hah. Anyway their debaters were better than SMK Tropicana. Motion: Media influence is the main cause of juvenile delinquency and we were the opposition....again. DU debaters had the manner but they were lacking in terms of matter. And thus we won. Jay won best speaker too. Yay!

Kevin, John and Puan Koh really helped the team....a lot. I think we would be floating somewhere else with no solid footing if they weren't there to help. John was like 'you guys must bring back the trophy this year. Been awhile since DJ won Wira championship'. And I was like 'err...okaaayy. You're making me even more nervous about this whole thing.' I just hope we can go really far this time.

GO DJ!!!

post elections and vocal lessons

Malaysia is still having its election fever. I have to say yesterday's election results were really shocking. Sure, BN was said to win.....again but with lesser votes. But no one expected BN to lose the 5 states (Perak, Kedah, Selangor, Penang, Kelantan) even the DAP leaders didn't expect they would be forming their own government in Penang. Real shocker, eh? But this shows that democracy really did work this time around and even if there were foul plays here and there (like phantom voters) it was not enough to stop the voters from getting what they wanted all along.

Last night, while I was doing some school work, my dad was upstairs with the TV on and my mum was downstairs with her laptop and both of them were reporting to each other who won what seat, who lost what seat and so I didn't have to sit n front of the TV to know the results because I had my own live political commentary right in my house.

papa: Nor! Shahrizat lost to Nurul Izzah!
ibu: Biar padan muka dia

papa: Yee haa!! Samy Vellu kalah!
ibu: Finally that Samy lost! (jumping with joy)

Yea, so that was basically what happened all night. Haha it was really funny, I tell you. Ok enough with politics cause I'm sick of it. Everywhere I went whether in school, on the internet, in the bus, on the TV everyone was talking about the same damn thing. So let's just take a break from all of it for awhile, shall we?

I started my vocal lessons today. No, I'm not taking the lessons because I want to be a singer. It's just a preparation for my participation in the Turkish Language Olympics cause I'll be singing there. LOL I still can't believe I'm actually going to join a singing competition and sing a song in a totally different language that I'm not exactly used to. So Dr Sue, a soprano singer who is also a lecturer from UM came to my house today to help me with my singing.

God, she rocks! For RM120 an hour (each class 3 hours), she's worth every penny. I learned a lot today. Voice projections, the right breathing techniques when you are singing. And most importantly I learned that you can't be prejudiced towards music. In every melody and lyrics, there is a story behind it. Everyone has different stories to tell and so we have to be open minded and accept whatever kind of music available because after all music is universal.

Happy holidays peeps!

the art of losing

Icy stares gave me fear,
Slight whispers I could hear,
Was it illusion?
Exaggeration?
Or the reality crashing in with frustration?

I could have done better,
No, I should have done better,
But no matter,
Because it's all over.

She caught me off guard,
Not prepared, I ran in with a torn heart,
I lost my steps,
The pattern wasn't synchronized,
The field made me trounced,
Was I being patrionized?

Constant whistles of 'Gerak Kaki!' echoed,
Leaving us beyond frustrated,
5-3 wasn't too bad,
But enough to make us sad.

Sunshine turned to gloomy clouds,
Laughters died down to frowns,
Jokes were replaced with tears,
As we sat together silently,
Wondering if the game was being played fairly.

This is the art of losing,
Badly crafted,
Sadly tasted.


*The above poem was based on the event that happened today.

rombongan cik nik ke zoo negara

the self-proclaimed MR. BOND on a pony ride

with the elephants

rombongan cik nik

with the animal that has almost the same name with me, the zirafah

A post. Finally! I have just returned from Zoo Negara. Yeah, yeah. You probably think I'm too old for zoos but hey, animals know no age boundaries. A visit to the zoo is the first step to see, learn and love the animals. And when we love the animals then only can we provide a better world for them. Today was like my umm....6th time to the zoo? Yea, I think so. It wasn't as exciting to me as it was when I was younger but my cousins were so excited to see the giraffes, elephants, hippos etc.


The zoo looked dead and sad. The animals looked depressed. :( They could have done something better to the zoo (e.g. more big corporations could have sponsored more animals)but the poor condition of the zoo didn't affect the excitement of the younger kids as they could not even tell if the animals are healthily living or dying but that's perfectly fine. We pet the snake, fed the elephants with bananas and my younger cousins went on pony rides.


I guess today's trip was more of a family bonding and an exposure for the little ones to the animal kingdom. They particularly enjoyed the animal show.Here are some pics from the trip :)

a new beginning

School was....school for the past few weeks. It was a little tiring and at times it could get annoying or boring. I'm in 4 Angsana this year and the class's fine. I'm the Pengerusi class and gosh the class could get really noisy sometimes and that will happen when you have Chee Fai, Giri, Thasban and the likes in one class. But it's ok, they keep the class in an upbeat mode.

And I'm sandwiched between Mimi and Ashiqin in the class and there'll be times when I couldn't stop my laughter cause Mimi kept on cracking stupid jokes or say something rather dumb but laughable that I get stomach ache from laughing so badly.

This year is gonna be pretty hectic. Netball training starts next week, inter class debate competitions is in another 2 weeks, Nostalgia stuff gonna start soon too, Turkish classes going on every weekend and on top of it all I have to keep up with the increasing amount of homework given by teachers. Haaaiizzz......

And Form 4 is nothing like Form 3. More homework, harder syllabuses, longer schooling hours etc. But I enjoy a good challenge and let's hope all of us will get through this well. =)

RECAP OF 2007

Tomorrow would be a fresh, new start in most of our lives, a new year, 2008. 2007 had been an amazing year for me. Let's have a little recap on what went on with my life in the year 2007:

JANUARY
- The start of 2007 with fabulous months ahead of me
- Started the schooling year with a new class, 3 Batai
- Played for SMKDJ's Under 15 netball's team at MSSD level
- Ibu's 44th birthday

FEBRUARY
- The pace of 2007 started to speed up a lil and 3 Batai's BM debate team (consisted of me, Daryl and Keefe) won 1st place in the interclass debate
- Departure of ibu to the States, leaving my dad and I at home for the next 4 months but she left her love with us. LOL

MARCH
- The month where I 'fired' my home tutor for being rather......unhelpful on my lessons
- Had a friendship crisis but thankfully everything was fine at the end

APRIL
- Represented school in English debate for the first time at KDU English Debate Competition. Though we didn't clinch any of the top positions, it was good exposure for the team.
- DJ won 1st place in Science Quiz Competition at district level when DJ's team (me, Joel and Luke) managed to stay at the top of the game

MAY
- Geared up for mid term exams and thankfully my grades were up after I joined a tuition centre and not with my ex-tutor
- My maternal grandma was hospitalised because of some heart problems, puttting the family in a 'blue funk' situation
- My 15th birthday!

JUNE
- Mid term holidays!!!
- Enjoyed 2 weeks of June in the East Coast of USA with my parents. One of the most memorable holidays of my life

JULY
- A poem written in BM by me was chosen to represent DJ and won 1st prize at district level

AUGUST
- Busy with PMR trials so there wasn't much to do other than study

SEPTEMBER
- Hmm...can't think of anything worth recaping. Probably busy studying for PMR. Gawd, my life's boring!

OCTOBER
- THE month finally came. From 1st to 5th, most form 3s were brain storming for the big PMR exams
- Eid Mubarak was celebrated by my family in modesty in Pahang. Had a small open house on the 2nd week of Syawal

NOVEMBER
- End year holidays and the end of Form 3!
- And for the holidays, I became a reading teacher to my 7 year old cousin and I'm happy to tell that he's better now compared to when he first started. So my teachings paid off!

DECEMBER
- I joined Turkish classes and will do so for the next 6 months. And the classes are free! And if I'm good enough, I'll be able to go to Turkey next year
- Eid ul-Adha was celebrated in Pahang again and also in a spa resort in Cyberjaya for my family
- And I got 8As for my PMR!

So basically that was how my 2007 went on. With each moment spent, it brought a new experience to me. And hopefully 2008 would be an even greater, happier, more exciting year.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

8 As!!!

The day most 15 year olds in Malaysia had been waiting for finally arrived this morning. The PMR results day! I'd been worried and nervous about today and well honestly I didn't know what to expect from my results. I had high expectations from people around me and if I let them down by not achieving what was targeted...well that would be quite a major disaster for me.

And so the verdict......I got 8 As!!! Alhamdullilah. Finally my hardwork for the year paid off. My friends and I were practically trembling an hour before the results were released. Lol. Hanna and Anis actually cried before they even knew what they got. And finally at around 11 am Puan Tan gave out the results and I would say Bataians did really well this time. And Nunu got 8 As too and oh my, she was really surprised that her shrieks could be heard echoing the entire hall. But it's totally fine seeing as how happy she was.

And so the year 2007 ended with a big bang for me and great congratulations to all of you who did extremely well for your PMR! Hopefully, we'll get to continue this success in the future =)

Hmmm... I'm wondering what should I ask from my parents?

aidil adha, resort and bday treat

Morning of Aidil Adha with Irfie

The night of the feast

The first fish I ever caught!

In the balcony of the resort

The shoes Hanna bought for me!

This week had been the most exciting week of my life ever since holidays started. I was busy with Aidil Adha the last few days. Gosh, was it fun! My grandma held a huge feast or 'kenduri' on Saturday and for the first time in my life I was part of the 'cooking team' that prepared the food for the 100 people who came on that day. And I never did so many work in my life as many as that particular day. From chopping onions to cleaning up the slaughtered meat to entertaining the guests, I did it all. But it was something different for me so it was ok.



So after 5 days in Pahang, my parents and I spent a night at Cyberview Lodge Resort & Spa. And for the 2nd time in my life I went fishing and for the 1st time in my life I actually caught a fish! After fishing at the lake in the resort, I tried my hands at tennis and boy, do i suck badly in it....and right before we left, we went for a dip in the pool.



From the resort, I shot straight to OU to celebrate Nunu's belated birthday. And my dearest Hanna bought me a pair of shoes from Vincci. Thanks a bunch babe! And now let the pics above do the rest of the talking =)

MERHABA!

MERHABA! That would mean 'Hello' in Turkish. I started my first Turkish language class yesterday. It was totally fun! Alparslan and Soats came to my house to teach Najwa and me Turkish and I never thought that learning could ever be this entertaining. This class was actually part of the Turskish Language Olympics. You learn Turkish for 6 months, sit for an exam at the end of that period and if you pass with flying colours, you'll get to go to Turkey for 3 weeks for FREE!



I asked a few of my friends to join along but the response I got was disappointing or rather shocking. When asked to join this class, one of them said, "Sorry, this isn't my thing. No fun in it". Jeez. You didn't even try and you assumed it would not be fun. Well the thing was that I think this friend of mine did not see knowledge seeking as something fun. Yea, I know, I sounded like a total nerd there.



But really, it's interesting to learn something new and fresh about the world, about other people's cultures, heritage, history or language. And many of us don't see that. I learned something about the Turks, they're proud of their motherland, their history particulalyly the Ottoman Empire, their language, their literature, in short, they were proud about anything and everything that had to do with Turkey.

And the Turkish were one of the nicest people I'd ever met. So yea, you should go to Turkey if you possibly can. You'll enjoy it very much like I did 2 years ago. =)

Gule Gule
(Goodbye in Turk)

An evening of movie and cocktails

I just got back from a movie premier of Anthony Hopkins's movie with my mum, 'The World Fastest Indian' which was one of the movies screened in conjunction with Kuala Lumpur Film Festival. There was also a cocktail party afterwards, sponsored by New Zealand High Comission and we got to mingle around with the NZ ambassador and the people from the embassy.

And, no, the movie wasn't about the indian people. Indian, in this movie was actually a motorbike. And Anthony Hopkins's character was based on a true person, Burt Munro, a New Zealand motorcycling legend. So the movie was basically about Burt Munro's attempt to follow his dream of setting a new land speed record with his Indian bike at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

The movie was very philosophical and you could see strong determination in Burt's character when he tried hard to follow his dream of setting the record with his very modest looking bike. And the movie showed a different character of US which I rarely see in other movies.

I'm glad I went to watch the movie. And I have a Turkish language class tomorrow. My first class. Will give you the update soon!

accidents do happen

(The lil guy on the right)

So far my teaching lessons for my cousin is paying off. He can read a bit now after a week after of teaching. His mum told me that she was wearing a T-shirt that said 'Win Some, Win Some' and my cousin pronounced it perfectly without anyone asking him to. So yeah, I'm happy that he could at least read on his own now. But he still needs help with writing and counting and we're working on that.



And my other cousin, Nabil just got out of hospital after he fell off a bed (he was jumping on it like a trampoline) and his head hit the floor real hard. He was admitted to ICU for a night or so. And now he has a swelling brain. Can you imagine that? A swelling brain?FREAKY! He's only 3 years old but he still looks adorable as ever.



His accident reminded me of myself when I was around his age too. I too had a similar accident where my head knocked a cupboard hard and it bled and I couldn't stop vomiting. And I have a small scar just above my right eyebrow to remind me of that frightful accident.



I guess getting your head bruised at the age of 3 really runs in my family. LOL!

RA, the reading teacher

School holidays is here again! What do I have to do this holidays? Teach my illiterate 7 year old cousin how to read and count. Well he isn't exactly illiterate but a bit slow when it comes to reading and counting. He has Thalassemia and been in and out of hospital for bone marrows and blood transfusions for the past 3 or 4 years so there was little time for school.

Now that he's slightly better, he needs a lot of catching up to do with his reading and counting and writing. So as the eldest granddaughter on my dad's side and as the 15 year old who has nothing to do for holidays, it is my duty to be his 'teacher' for the next one and a half month. :)

No, he doesn't call me Miss Zaf. Instead he calls me 'Ra'. Nickname I was stuck for 15 years, given by my cousins and relatives. And by the end of december, we'll see how my cousin progresses. We just started yesterday and he's doing well so far.

Anyone need a reading teacher, I'm here to help. LOL!

what's in a name

I was away from the blogging scene for a few weeks now cause my Jaring connection was cut off cause I exceeded the credit limits. I first wrote this blog to share with people the bits and pieces of my life and also my views and opinions on certain things in life. And my blog URL was and still is victoriousgal.blogspot.com. I know some of you think that I'm a self proclaimed victorious girl with that kind of blog URL.

But let me explain to you why I chose that name. It more or less comes from my name : ZAFIRAH. It's a translation of my name. Zafirah is actually an Arabic name and it means victorious or successful. So that's where I got my blog URL. According to my name I'm victorious but am I really victorious in real life?

Hahaha. I don't think so. I'm just a girl living my life but always try to do my best in whatever I do at the same time. Everyone has a name. Name is a kind of symbolic contract between the society and the individual. By giving a name the society confirms the individual's existence and acknowledges its responsibilities toward that person. The name differentiates a person from others thus, the society will be able to treat the person as someone with needs and feelings different from those of other people.

The sense of personal identity and uniqueness that a name gives us is at the heart of why they are important to us as individuals and to our society as a whole. Although most people know very little about names and about the effects they have on everyday life. As humans with names, we have the need and right to know about the psychological, magical, religious, and ethnic aspects of our names.

Go here to find out the meanings behind your names

"> http://www.babynamescountry.com/

SELAMAT HARI RAYA/EID MUBARAK

SELAMAT HARI RAYA, MAAF ZAHIR DAN BATIN! I hope it's not too late to wish you that. Syawal is for a month anyway. It's still ok to wish you that and it's never too late to seek for forgiveness. Human beings never run away from commititng wrongdoings so here I am seeking forgiveness physically and spiritually from all of you cause I am no different from others. Cause I too commit wrongdoings like other human beings.

My Raya /Eid was celebrated in Pahang. It was fun. We did the normal stuff every year. Went to the mosque on the 1st day of Raya to pray, visited relatives' graves, ate Raya food (lemang, rendang ayam etc.) and caught up with other relatives. And today I had a small Raya open house at my house, of course. Only close friends were invited cause we weren't planning on a big event this year. Here are some pics from my open house:

My guests in my room

Girls being cheeky =)

CAUTION! Posers on the road

Putting up a small performance

=)