Summer trip at Newcastle :)

In the name of Allah the most Gracious the most Merciful,

I'm going to close my 2010 with this entry. As I promised in previous post, I'm going to share with you our summer trip to Newcastle on the last November. Jeng jeng jeng! =)

Okay, we went to Newcastle separately. They departed from Gold Coast Airport a day earlier than me due to some ticket-booking differences. 

From left: Aziemah, Ras, Ain, Hasanah, Zaira

From left: Aziemah, Ida, Zaira, Ain, Ras

Then they overnighted at Zaira's uncle's house (Erk.. Is the way I've put the apostrophe correct grammatically? Anyone?) for one night. They even managed to visit a kangaroo sanctuary on the next day. And left me behind. So unfair okay. >.<"

Abi, when will we ever relax?

Bismillah,

In this post I want to share one article that really touched me. An article by Productive Muslim.

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I wanted to share a moving story that I once heard and will always remember and cherish for its meanings. It's the story of one of the great Imams of this Ummah, Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal.

His son, Abdullah, asked his father one day, “Abi when will we ever relax?”. His father, one of the greatest revivers of the Sunnah and a role model for all Muslims, looked him in the eye and said, “With the first step we take into Jannah.”

Ya Allah, what a beautiful response!

There are days that come to you and you’re tired, you just want to sleep and relax and "shut off" as they say. Those are the days in which you need to ask yourself a critical question: ‘Where am I going with life?’ If it's towards Allah and for Allah, then regain your strength and continue your work, for Jannah is precious and must be sought. But if you look into your life and realise that it's not towards Allah but towards Dunya, then your tiredness becomes a blessing, for it is a reminder that you need to change direction and renew your purpose in life.

Boxing day in Aussie

Bismillahi rahmani rahim,

Yesterday was a Boxing day. Before this, I never knew there is such a day that you can call as a BOXING day. The first time I heard of this 'boxing' term, I thought that it is a day where all Australians go to the stadium to watch a boxing match. Haha!

Later, I found out from seniors that people used to go shopping like crazy on this particular day. Ape la pulak kaitannye lawan-lawan boxing dengan beli belah ni kan?? So, this is where the 'boxing' term is originated (Source from article).

What is Boxing Day?

Boxing Day is a day the higher classes gave gifts to the lower classes. Before or on December 25th people of similar class would exchange gifts to celebrate the Christmas season. Gifts were not exchanged with the lower class until the next day called Boxing Day. It is also known as St. Stephen’s Day.

Why is the holiday named Boxing Day?

The holiday is named Boxing Day because the tradition of giving gifts of cash, food, clothing and other goods to the less fortunate were placed into boxes for easier transportation. The goods were distributed based on the family needs and their services to the giver

Who celebrates Boxing Day?

Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Britain, and other Commonwealth Countries celebrate Boxing Day on December 26th.

Purpose of Teaching the Origin and History of Boxing Day

Boxing Day officially began in England in the middle of the 19 century under the rule of Queen Victoria. However, many adults and children do not know the true meaning of Boxing Day and its reasons for celebrating. It was a day to thank the community for all their effort throughout the years. The maids, drivers and other service workers were thanked with gifts of food, money, clothing, and other goods. It is important to teach students how they can contribute to society and to understand not all families are able to provide for their families all of the time. As well, the discussion on the origin and history of Boxing Day can open dialogue about less fortunate individuals in the community and how the students can make a difference. Students may do a viable proposal on how their class or a group of students can provide a service or gift to other families or students in the community who are less fortunate.

And now, boxing day I believe is the same thing as Year End Sale (YES) or Mega sale at Malaysia.

Okay, enough babbling about the history of this boxing day.

So last Sunday I went to Direct Factory Outlet (DFO) with friends. As the name itself explains its meaning, DFO is where the branded items are sold at a greatly reduced and cheap price. Then we split, to search for our stuffs. Me and Syazwani walked together as we will be buying almost the same items for our family members.

Okay, the first check point is where Corelle, the famous dinnnerware brand is sold. When I entered that store, almost everyone is Malaysian! Whoa! ;O Nampak sangat la orang Malaysia ni suka beli set pinggan mangkuk kan.. So, one item is done for Syazwani's mother. Alhamdulillah =)

Then we walked to the next store, Fossil.

Syazwani bought one watch for her sister and had adjusted her watch strap. And me? I've bought one already for my brother during my last winter trip to Melbourne. Whilst I've got my Fossil watch from Malaysia, long back before I arrived at Aussie. Haih, bertuah la sape jadi adik aku ni kan? Jam pun nak Aussie mali. Demand tinggi depa ni..

Usia antara masa - Saujana

Muffin and pizza making!

Bismillah,

Yesterday was my first attempt baking the muffins. Yeay! I divided the mixture into 2; one mixture for blueberry and the other mixture was for chocolate chip.

Sis Shuhada and Ayu joined me too, to try on their new recipe. I worked on my muffins and they worked on their pizzas.

Before picture. Nyum nyum!

In the making.

Here is the recipe for roughly 30 of medium sized muffins.

The answer

Bismillah,

So have you manage to answer my quiz in the previous post? :)

"C'mon, give it a try", Vignesh assured me to answer his simple quiz. We were on our way to the lab from the plant room.

"HIV?", I gave him my I-have-no-idea look. Okay HIV sounds like the dumbest answer to his looks-like-simple question.

"Not even SARS??", he replied in disbelieve.

"Why is that? Because it's airbone?", I continued. Okay saya memang lemah ya bab teka-teki ni. Sila la tanya sapa2 yang pernah main teka-teki dengan saya. =.="

"Try to get out of science", he gave me a hint after I literally begged for it. Haha.. But still, I couldn't.

More hint please!

"Right now you have it. Even I have it" he replied.

Hoh! Pulak dah. Penyakit apa yang dia ada, aku pun ada?? Uish, sulit ni!

Then Hannes (a PhD student) walk-passed us. Hannes waved and greeted us.

Then Vignesh told me the answer.

"It's a smile. When you smile at me, I smiled back at you and I will transmit the smile to anyone around me, like Hannes just now" he explained.

Well said Vignesh! Let's smile to brighten other's day. Kan sedekah jugak? =)

(Click the picture to be directed to the original source)

A gift

Dengan nama Allah yg Maha Pengasih lagi Maha Penyayang,

Christmas celebration is just around the corner. Yesterday a woman came into our lab with a present in her hand. I believe she is the person in charge of every lab in our School of Biological Sciences.

By the way, this was not about her, but this was about the present! :) A paper bag of Cadbury chocolate. Okay perhatian ye, Cadbury sini lagi sedap dari Malaysia, lagi pelbagai jenis dan rasa.

The chocolate was truffle-like with fill at the center of it. It has 3 different flavors; hazelnut filling, almond filling and chocolate milk filling. Awesome!

With gloves and lab log book as the background. Tak menyempat!

Owh.. If I can eat in the lab at that moment, I would have finished the whole Cadbury bag by myself!

Okay.. As for today, Vignesh gave me one puzzle to be solved. "What is the MOST contagious disease?"

Moving to Melbourne

Bismillahhi rahmanni rahim,

Some updates: currently my housemates and I are in house-hunting mode. We have put 2 tenant applications and still have few house inspections to be made. Phew! Hope to get the BEST house with the cheapest rent for another 2 years studying at UQ. ;)

No worries as this post is not about me moving to Melbourne  ye kawan2 (as you can see from my previous sentence). SKB lab is the one that's going to move to Melbourne uni (Clayton campus) probably around September next year. As Dr Suresh got his fund from Aussie's government and not from UQ specifically, so it's not a problem to move the lab to Melbourne.

I just knew about this from my previous lab meeting. At Melbourne uni, the lab will doubled from it's current size and they will have their own plant room! Melbourne uni also have stronger expertise in genetic (as Suresh told us) which is an advantage to the SKB lab. 

The thing is, I've already made up my mind to have my honours project from the SKB lab. Sigh. Now I need to find alternative. 

Or...... I might consider doing a transfer credit at Melbourne uni for my final year?? Hehe.. That sounds interesting! Clayton campus pulak tu kn? Da la syurga makanan halal kat sana.. Sisters from Melbourne, please do welcome me. ;p 

Below are pictures of the current SKB lab early in the morning. Saye pelajar contoh ye datang awal2 pagi.. Hee~

My lab coat, no. 4.

Our (me and Vignesh) working area.

The close up of our workbench.

Lots of reagents! Can you spot which one is the highly used Agarose's bottle? Hehe..

The most precioussss (sila sebut macam gollum sebut okay..) babies. Thousands dollar machines.

 The essence of SKB's lab, Arabidopsis thaliana.

 This is where we keep the plants. The percival allow us to manipulate the temperature. Wait till you see the plant room located at the rooftop of Goddard's, it's bigger! 

Maal Hijrah - 1432 hijriyah

Bismillahhi rahmani rahim,

New year for Muslim has arrived. So I choose a song that suits one of my new year resolution. Presenting UNIC - Atas Nama Cinta.

Today My Life Begins - Bruno Mars

Pre April Fool?

In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the Most Merciful,

So last Tuesday I went to the lab just like usual. They (the pHD and master students) started to give me heaps of thing to do. In the lab, I was like the volunteer aka assistant to any one of them that need helps, in exchange of the new skills that I gained.

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Don't limit yourselves, instead open up yourselves to any possibilities.

A skillful and beneficial Muslim is better than pious individual yet have nothing to be offered to the society right? ;)

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Still remember the weekly meeting that I need to attend every Wednesday? Actually, that meeting is where people make presentation based on their project, using the slides and powerpoint.

To cut the story short, that Tuesday morning we were working on cloning. Then out of sudden, Vignesh told me that I need to make a presentation tomorrow morning. He said that presentation will be assessed and the mark goes to my final grade for the summer semester.

I was like, "What?! An assessed presentation? What can I present if I have no result? I just got my project like yesterday!"

With his slumber face he replied, "You know right as a summer research student we need to make a presentation?" And he turned to face Gautham (another summer student) looking for a confirmation nod.

Then he added, "Plus, Dr Suresh just showed the criteria sheet to me and Gautham"

My jaw almost dropped. OMG!! I need to present tomorrow in front of professional researchers and I have yet to prepare a thing??! I don't want to fail my summer course!

"This can't be happening. I'm going to talk to Suresh" I stood and removed my lab coat almost simultaneously (ok exaggerating je disitu..). I walked fast towards the doors when Vignesh yelled my name to stop me. When I turned, all of them were chuckling over my anxious face.

And yes, they just PRANKED me! To be precise, Vignesh did. You are one naughty-master-student. Grrr..

And so the motto of the SKB lab applies here, "The SKB lab; where science is fun" Haih~

The summer lab story

Bismillahhi rahman ni rahim,

This time I'm going to share with you my experience so far with my lab team. My supervisor is Dr Suresh, a geneticist. We call the lab that I'm working in as SKB lab, a short form to my supervisor's name. We shared the lab with Dr Ortiz's team, an evolutionary geneticist. These 2 guys are very kamcheng. Hehe..

So we have students with all sort of education level; pHD, master, honours, undergraduate, and summer research like me. There are 3 summer research students (and counting) currently in that lab. Each one of them are working on different projects, using A. thaliana as model organisms. So we are not using mice ok, nasty~

For this summer research I'm going to work under Vignesh, a master biotechnology student. He is very happy-go-lucky type of a person. I would say he is a very good teacher too. We are going to work on triplet repeat expansion, alternative splicing, RNA etc (sape2 yg belajar genetik or yang seangkatan dgn nye faham la.. hehe..)    

We have a lab meeting twice a week, Monday and Wednesday. The Wednesday meeting is where both Suresh and Ortiz's teams will be gathered in one conference room. So yesterday was my first Wednesday-meeting. We had a presentation done by a pHD student from Ortiz's team. It was about the evolutionary adaption of daisy on changing environment (sape2 yg blajar plant biology masihkah kamu ingat lg topik ni? ;p) The fun part was when Dr Suresh and Dr Ortiz quarrel among themselves over a term that the pHD student used in his presentation.

And hey, they do invite me to the Christmas party organised by the school but I'm not going la. Ntah ade alcohol ke pe ntah lg nanti tak pasal2 je. Heh. But the thing is, they are also planning to have a picnic just for our lab team. =) It will be in a couple of weeks' time. They are planning to play bowl (Australian way of saying bowling ye kawan2..) and cricket too. Owh I  like, I like!   

Salaam - Sami Yusuf

I dream for a day
When there’ll be
No more misery

When there’s no more hunger
No need for shelter
Isn’t there enough to share
Or is that we just don’t care?

We’re here for a day or two

Let me show my way
Salaamu alaik, Salaamu alaik, Salaamu alaikum
I pray for a day
When there’ll be
Justice and unity

Where we put aside our differences
Fighting makes no sense
Just a little faith
To make it a better place

We’re here for a day or two

Let me show my way
Salaamu alaik, Salaamu alaik, Salaamu alaikum
Salaamu alaikum Ya ahlas-salaam, Salamu alaikum
Salaamu alaikum Sayyid al-Kiram, Salaamu alaikum
Let me show my way

Salaamu alaikum, alaikum, alaikum

Afternoon tea by UQ scholarship unit

Bismillah,

Today was very tiring. I have no time to rest and goyang - goyang kaki at home. Alhamdulillah managed to safely arrive from Newcastle yesterday evening. The trip to Newcastle was a success. =) There will be another post for that trip alone insyAllah.

Okay, so today I went to the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) for a seminar regarding on safety induction for working with biological material. It's for my summer research project. This 2-hour seminar is compulsory for anyone who's going to work in PC 2 laboratory. So what is physical containment (PC) ? Click here. The seminar thought us how to appropriately play around with genetically modified organisms. 

Okay done with that. On the evening, I had an afternoon tea organised by UQ scholarship unit. The scholarship recipients come from various expertise. Psychology, economics, IT, engineering, medical, biology, arts etc. Before that we had a wonderful talk presented by Mr Dennis Schatz on how to communicate your research to public.

My team; a 3rd year student doing economics and 1st year student doing IT. Great people! Sorry with the quality of the picture, a bit dark.

Okay guys, I'm going off to bed early tonight. Tomorrow gonna be my 1st official day for my summer semester. Wish me luck! Can't wait to update about the Newcastle trip =D *yawning...*

Missing lovely Hani from Newcastle.

And stunning Ilia. 

Thanks a lot to Newcastle people (including Nadia and Cik Ijat) for the hospitality. Next trip to Newcastle is gonna be for the hot air balloon rides pulak! =)

Muhasabah cinta - edCoustic

Another struggle

Bismillah..

The first entry (and probably the last) for October..

I'm looking forward for my revision week (konon nye). Heaps of assignments have been submitted. Alhamdulillah2. Lots of obstacles have been overcame along the way. And finally, the end of 2nd year is just around the corner! =) Yeay!

So let me sum up all the 'events' for the past 3 weeks of October:

•  Assignmentssssss
• Tutor application has been submitted
• The application for summer research scholarship has been approved! Alhamdullilah.. *saat terbaca email pemberitahuan dr UQ sponsorship unit mlm tu, terus sujud syukur. Ya Allah, ya Allah ingat kan tak ada harapan. Hasil berkat pertolongan dari Kak Syafinaz dan Kak Zatil yang bagi panduan tulis CV malam tu. Amin, amin..*
• Mukhayyam at Sunshine Coast with all the sisters, and got the chance to co-drive this black Audi!

 

 

•  I'm planning for far-distance trip next year, like very far (traveling to other continent perhaps?). Fulus mahu cukup.. So, I'm going to work part time next year. Seniors said that a third-year-student life is not as busy as second year life. InsyAllah2..

Akhir kalam, see you till then next entry! Well, hopefully.. =) Pray for my final!

Saudi National Day Celebration

Bismillah,

Yesterday, there was a Saudi Arabia National Day's celebration. It was the 78th National Day. This event was organised by the Saudi Students Association.

The pamphlet..

They lined up several interesting activities such as folklore dance (using stick and sword), trying their sweet Arabic dishes, have a feel of their traditional attire and have your name spelled in Arabic calligraphy.  

Me putting on the abaya. It was so huge!

The back of the postcard. My name in Arabic letters. I think it's supposed to be 

'shod' instead of 'sin' to really represent the meaning of my name.

The front of the postcard, the picture of The Kingdom Tower.

Locals putting on the Arabic attire.

This guy also performed on that day. Is that kain pelikat?? Yup, it looks like one. 

 The real Pak Arab.. =P

(Disclaimer: All those photos are not mine. It belong to Saudi Students Association, UQ. You can find the picture on picasa. Click here.)

When I looked at the postcard picture, the Kingdom Tower reminds me of one authentic hadith:

Abu Hurairah r.a narrated that the Prophet (peace be upon him) was asked by a man with extremely dark hair and white clothing, "Tell me about the Hour". The Prophet (pbuh) said, "The questioned one is not more knowledgeable about it than the questioner". Then the man said, "Then tell me about the signs". The Prophet (pbuh) replied, "That the slaves girl shall gives birth to her mitress, and that you see barefoot, naked, poor shepherds builds tall buildings. [Sahih Muslim] 

Moga kita semua sentiasa dalam golongan orang beriman hingga hari Kiamat, Amin2..

How do we pray?

Bismillah,

I have just submitted 2 assignments by today. Alhamdulillah, managed to submit by the deadline. =) Okay, this time I want to share my experiences with the readers, things that certainly you will not account for when you are in Malaysia.

So how do we pray over here provided that, there are no surau in every shopping mall or gas station or along the road itself? Well this is how we used to do it:

If we have planned to travel on that day, or even go for a shopping at the city we will prepare ourselves with the wudhu before we go out. Kalau kt Malaysia tak de nyer nak buat camni kn? This is because toilet over here always in a dry condition. Plus, people do not use water for istinjak purposes.

If you simply go to the sink and do the wudhu, the locals will give you a disgusted look as if you already messed up the whole place. To them wet = dirty! Yuks! (they said..) So the challenge is to maintain that wudhu; to not fart and to not touch the opposite sex. And hey! it is also a reward to always be in wudhu state.

Another thing to note is, most of the time we pray with our cloth peeps! =) There's no need to wear that white piece of clothes (telekung la pe lagi...). Because as long as you wear covered piece of cloth and not tight, hijab that thick enough and draw over the bosoms, wear socks and you are good to go! Easy peasy right?

From other point of view, praying without telekung teach you to always wear covered and modest clothes. Telekung is a tradition guys, remember that. I still remember there was one brother said in his sharing session;

"Nak tahu pakaian kite menutup aurat ke tak, tengok bole bawak untuk sembahyang ke tak? Kalau tak bole, tak menutup aurat sepenuhnya lagi la tu"

Ok, we have talk about wudhu, we have talk about the appropriate attire for praying. So now let me share about its location. As I said from the beginning, there is no surau (and please keep in mind that mosques are not everywhere) to perform our prayer. In a matter of fact, we have try all sort of locations! To name a few:

• In an open recreation garden, Melbourne (with people passing by in front of us of course!)
• In the fitting room
• In the parent room (this room is specialised for moms that wish to change their kid's diapers or want to breast fed their baby)
• Behind a tent with no praying mat, touching the damp grass during Fraser Island trip.
• In the discussion room of Biological Science Library (twice when we had an overnight for our assignment)
• At an open parking lot of a gas station (under -3 degree of Sydney morning breeze!)
• In an open garden, Sydney (and it was raining cats and dogs!)
• In the lecture hall (of course it was vacant.. ;p)
• On top of snowy Mount Buller during winter (and it's freaking cold!)

(courtesy picture from Wawa)

It just makes me feel that prayer is meant to be easy and simple! And can be anywhere too!

Be grateful to Allah for this priceless experiences.. =)

And I believe all my friends that study / travel to a non-muslim country experienced the same way too right?

Undefined love..

Be productive

Ok that's me telling myself to be productive! No more postponing things..