the boring autumnal theme

dear daisy,
coffee is a powerful sedative to enable me to write things when ideas are nowhere to find. i am in a coffee shop, waiting for mr.M to arrive and save me from melancholic autumn theme, a sudden drop in temperature and exposure to sunlight cause the chemicals in the brain to tell you that you are depressed. isn't that ironic when we are lied by the chemicals.

i'm 85% done with my writing, soon i'm going to start a new project using combination of synyhetic and natural polymer for the making of hydrogel. writing is so far taking up 4 kgs of my weight, 35% of my black hair and 50% time with my husband. all in all, ph.d is overtaking my life slowly without realizing it.

there is nothing special about being a postgrad, except being underpaid, over educated (some may say geek in only one area), out-of-fashion, out-of-the-world thinking and boring. at times, postgrads are underpaid labor without contract and easily dispose at any time.

for couple of times in a year, postgrads may get chances to attend conferences which many (especially people outside of the academic world) mistakenly identified as free holidays on university expense. many do not know that those so called holidays were actually 'on free interest loan' from us, which often the claim for those expenses take ages to receive.

charity dinner II (extended)

charity dinner II

dear daisy,
the charity drive fund for aizwan's cancer treatment in malaysia had successfully collected a handsome amount of 225 pound in two separate occasions. thanks to friends who participated and supported the good deed brainchild by the smsa committee members. according to the facebook page dedicated to this cause, the final collection thus far is GBP4316.27. praise to Allah and may He grant everyone whose prayers for Aizwan's health and support him in many ways with blessings.

the charity for aizwan is also dedicated to my uncle who is currently in the treatment of cancer, and may people who support this work also pray and have my uncle in thoughts.

the hot choc outing, weston park

dear daisy,
the weather was nice last week, with intermittent rain and sunshine. at least the occasional damp weather did not hamper our joy walking at weston park for a nice treat of GBP1 belgian hot choc, at the cafe. however, the price only from 2.30 p.m onward. there wasn't anything special on that day, but somehow the hot choc thing made the day very special - knowing how hard it is for us to have a free afternoon together.

mr.M is still hasn't recover from the cold, or i must say - his man flu. the flu has caused dramatic changes to his diet, desires and sleeping pattern. for example, he now has three different cereals for his breakfast, the must have cocopops, and then cheerios and cookie crisps. ebay is now his must visit website after soccerbible and sports websites and he wakes up whenever he feels nice. his shoes collection, is now more than three of me combined. i used to make a joke by calling him the male version of emelda marcos. but then again, i think i over exaggerate because in reality, men do love their shoes and often their shoes are more expensive than women.

mr.M thinks i'm stingy when it comes to buy myself an expensive shoes and for that reason, i always let him choose and pay for my shoes. there was a time that he bought me a pair of knee length boot (which i called her my kate beckingsale's pair - because i adore her look and outfit in all her vampire movies), i was to the moon and back! all the way home i sang the song 'are you gonna be my girl by jet' -

so 1, 2, 3, take my hand and come with me
because you look so fine
and i really wanna make you mine.

because you look so fine and i really wanna make you mine.

big black boots,
long brown hair,
she's so sweet
with her get back stare.

because my sing annoyed him so much, maybe that is why i haven't receive any new, nice pair of 'kate beckingsale' again. hehe

another so long and farewell

dear daisy,
another kroto mate is going back to malaysia this week after nearly five years in sheffield. may Allah ease their journeys with His blessings and love.

pictures are courtesy of hanif hamzah, university of sheffield.

epicurean - seafood

dear daisy,
i'm still not free from doing my 'correction' but i do love cooking and walking every saturday morning to the market. i believe that we should support local markets to boost the economy, as capitalism is the real tyrant, making people out of jobs and losing their income. i would like to join those plethora of people at st. paul cathedral

my dearest daisy

farewell Q

farewell to Q, and hope to see you again.

the nice, stupid playground

the masterplan

dear daisy,
good night sheffielders and rise up malaysians. it's a fine night for writing - courtesy of a text book from mr. supervisor while listening to songs from what's the story, morning glory (the best british album in the history after the beatles and spice girls). well, let's not talk about the feud of the brothers but rather enjoy the tranquility of the night - polluted with oasis's sound.

my world lingers with songs from the past, when i was young and stupid, geeky with thick glasses at the stupid, playground chemistry. all of the CDs and songs that played are backwards, as if i'm in my early twenties with string of list from blink 182, secondhand serenade, taking back sunday, mcr and limp bizkit (and those in the same bandwagon). which are outdated and none of them brings ease to my eardrum but pain.

i dream of going to bonjovi concert and sing out loud, 'i'll be there for you' to mr.M the way ashton kutcher did in 'a lot like love' (with guitar and incredible voice). i always think the true way of expressing love is through singing. of all the concerts that i had been to were all by female singers, including celine dion. if i could, one day i will make a trivial question to my grandchild on what is the similarity between siti nurhaliza and me..

.......the answer would be we both went to a celine dion's concert. (at different time and place - she went to the ceasar palace's)

and another trivia, if you think that attending a celine dion concert with your man is going to break the relationship, (from how to lose a guy in 10 days) think again.... surprisingly some men secretly adore and love to listen to celine dion's songs such as.... mr.M.

there is nothing wrong for a man to like celine dion or mariah carey, it was 'how to lose a guy in 10 days' made the misconception of one's masculinity and coolness to not to be associated with girls liking. is it the same thing with mariah carey, that a guy looks obviously gay if spotted listening to mariah carey.

how about beyonce'? does liking or disliking her make us fall into certain category of sexuality ? remember kayne west's rant at taylor swift over beyonce' lost at mtv award 2009. pretty sure his liking at the videoclip was based on beyonce's curvaceous and bootylicious, high heeled and swimming outfit.

anyway let's stop talking nonsense, the masterplan for tonight.. is to finish one part of the correction and then sleep well. ah, i need to buy an expensive eye cream to curb the sag under my eyes.

Q came over for dinner and brought me flowers. what a happy feeling! we had char kuey teow.

friday's lunch at my place.

theme song: in my place, coldplay.

extension from last night dinner cause, people from the nice, stupid playground came for lunch. it was a great meeting, with food from last night. also, andy brought in some lemon cake and mai brought fried chickens from popeyes. never thought that i overcooked, but at least i could share the moment with others. <3

i looove fifty first dates

dear daisy,
thank god it's friday night! even better, tv has a lot of things to offer in order to kill sometime while waiting for mr.M to come home from playing football with friends. i started my potato couching with criminal minds, had a serious crush on dr. spencer reid - and all his rayban collection, even thinking that he looks good on glasses than bare eyes. later, i continued with american x-factor. i love the dramas and the stories behind the scene, sometimes i couldn't believe it myself crying when listening to them singing. as for me, singing is just a hobby and i just love singing in the car, out loud and out of control (o.o.c) with mr.M.

i am now watching fifty first dates for the fiftieth times (i guess?) and i'm just loving it!

charity drive makan makan for ten.

menu: bulgogi, chamchi kinchi chigae, ddokpokki and miyokkuk (seaweed miso soup).
desert: courtesy of miss nina. (dating farid mustafah, not married to noh hujan).