Autumn in My Heart, Tasmania

Bismillah,

Again, I'm updating about my holidays. :D Hence my travel log. Nanti bole cerita dekat cucu cicit, masa muda-muda nenek pernah travel sampai mana. Lagi-lagi kalau dah kurang ingatan, atau samar-samar je memori, blog ini sangat membantu. Ewah!

Amaran: Entry kali ni mempunyai banyak gambar. Harap tidak melambatkan browser anda. Kalau lambat jugak nak loading, boleh la baca entry lain dulu sementara menunggu tu. ;p

It was on last Autumn. Boleh consider cerita ni dah basi. Hew hew hew. The trip was between me and Azzah. Any beautiful and sharp pictures in this entry are hers. The rest of the pictures, with some blurry or shaky effect (efek konon nya), those are from my BB camera.

So Tasmania is a small island situated on the south side of Australia. It has two main towns, Hobart and Launceston. We managed to cover both. Alhamdulillah :) 

Our rent car. It was supposed to be a Hyundai Getz but for some reason they

 replaced it with Nissan Micra. 

I can't really recall which places we went first. So the activities I'm about to share won't follow the correct order okay? Let's start.. 

Tasmazia

This place is where you can play hide and seek! The major attraction is the mazes. Referring to their webpage, they claim that they are the largest maze complex in the world. It is divided into three main section; the mazes (8 different mazes with different themes for each), lavender farm and the cubby town. We were a bit disappointed as the lavender were not blooming at that time. It was autumn remember? Owh well. The mazes were enough to make us excited and forgot about the lavender farm! Hehhe

 In the Great Maze, the biggest in Tasmazia. Tinggi tak tinggi maze yang ni. Tetibe rase macam maze dalam Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire.

Another maze. We sort of cheated in reaching the final post as we guide 

each other from higher place. :P  

Finally, the cubby town!

Where cute little house are ^^  

Tinggi kami je rumah-rumah comel ni.

House of Evolution. Like really??!

                                       Mushroom house.                                                               Inverted.

Burny Island

Initially, Burny Island was not in our plan. But everyone we met in Tasmania seems to recommend this Burny Island. So we thought, okay let's give it a try! In the end, we were glad to make the correct decision. ;)

The most recommended place, The Neck!

The scenic look out point from the top view of The Neck. They said it's the meeting of 2 seas. 

Yang sebelah kiri berombak, yang sebelah kanan tenang je. Cantik kan? Cantik kan? :D

View from the driveway. Berkabus-kabus gitu. :') Allahuakhbar Allahuakhbar.

Next pit stop, strawberry farm. Owh, the boysenberry ice cream was delicious!

We went to lots of other places and the last stop was to have a taste of fresh oyster. 

See, I told you the oysters were FRESH. =.=' 

Nasib baik ada lemon. Tapi bila makan, laa boleh terima je..

And it's tradition to leave your testimony if you like the oysters. 

Siap tulis Nurul, Malaysia-UQ lagi. Sebelah kiri tu Azzah punya. Heheh

The oyster, hand made souvenir from Burny Island.

Cadbury Chocolate Factory

Ada bunyi macam melawat Willy Wonka Chocolate factory tak? :p Our visit to chocolate factory was started with a presentation about the history of Cadbury factory. Then, they shared with us the step-by-step on how they make the chocolate and the difference between white, dark and the normal chocolate.  

Shop till you drop! Eh, takde la sampai macam tu. 

It just that, all of the Cadbury products sold here were really cheap. Seriously.

Free chocolates!

Dan lagi sekali, kami tidak lupa meninggalkan jejak. Ours were the last two.

Mount Wellington

Mount Wellington is one of the highest peak located very close with Hobart city. We drove all the way up just to enjoy the scenic view. 

The beautiful view from top of Mount Wellington made you ponder of the great creation of Allah Almighty. You reflect on how small creature you really are if compared to the blue sky and the green nature. Subhanallah Allahuakhbar.

Lepas tu baca doa melihat alam ni dari surah Ali Imran [3:191]:

Tu dia bandar Hobart.

Cataract Gorge

They call it as nature within a city. They still preserve the area as it can act as carbon sink for Launceston city. Remember my BIOL1030 project about Bukit Gasing years ago? It about the same concept too, carbon sink. ;)  

The chairlift, so that you can see the whole area from top. Very panoramic. 

Allah Maha Besar kan? :')

Masa ambil gambar ni Azzah cakap, 'Depan sikit Wana, daun-daun kuning tu kena masuk jugak'. 

Hence the autumn theme. :D

Top view of the bridge.

Tak dapat canopy walk, jambatan gantung ni pun boleh la.

Belakang tu jambatan gantung yang tadi. Assume I'm not in the photo, dah layak buat gambar poskad kan latar belakang dia? Cantik sangat! Thanks to Azzah's Nikon.

The Tassie people

Senyum, tak perlu kata apa-apa. :)

Genetic Society of AustralAsia (GSA) conference

Bismillah,

Having did the summer semester research last 2010 really exposed me with lots of opportunities. Despite of the irresistible feeling to go back to my home country and enjoying the 3 months holiday like others did, I made a decision to stay at Brisbane and did some research project. 

April, 2011

From the network that I have established during the summer break, last April I had been offered by my previous supervior, Dr Suresh in attending this one big event called GSA conference. You can go for FREE by applying for GSA student travel award. This award is being offered to only 10 third year students all around Australia. If you are a success applicant, GSA will sponsor:

1. your return flight ticket (regardless of your check in luggage kgs), 
2. accommodation, 
3. registration fee worth AUD253, 
4. a grand dinner worth AUD60 for student price.  

When I applied for this award, I did not know about this at all! I simply thought,

"What if I just give it a go? Dapat tak dapat, belakang kira. Kalau Allah bagi, dapatlah. Kalau tak dapat tu, tanda takde rezeki. Yang penting dah usaha nak mohon travel award ni"

The application need to come along with a support letter from any GSA community member. So I got mine, and I applied.

(Bila baca surat sokongan dari Dr Suresh kat atas ni, bangga sekejap. Muahahha..)

Dr Suresh even asked if I want to do some poster presentation and looked what have I replied. Berani je kan? ;p

Done with the application process. After that, I waited. It was near to my final exam. So I was not paying so much attention to the dates. Neither hoping much for it. I simply made a prayer, "O' Allah, if by having this travel award it will bring good to my Deen, to me, my study and future, please ease the application. Ameen" Then, I concentrated back on the final exam revision.


June, 2011

They told that, if you are success with the application, please expect to receive an email from them. And the day arrived. But as I expected, I received no email. So I was like, "Fair enough. You are competing with other students around Australia which might be way better than you. Plus, there are only ten places to be filled. Okay then. Allah have something better for you than this".

So I put aside the GSA conference stuff and  focused back on my revision.

Two days after that, I was in the BSL library. It was around 7.20pm. Still doing revision. And suddenly I received an email notification on my BB. When I opened up the email, it started with,

"Congratulation! I'm delighted to tell you that your application for a GSA Student Travel Award to attend the annual GSA conference in Melbourne in July  has been successful"

Alhamdulillah alhamdulillah. Allah knows best, kan? :)

In the email recipient lists, I realised there were students from ANU, Flinders Uni, Monash Uni, UNSW, UNE, Macquarie Uni. And I was UQ representative. ;)

Few days after that, the official letter arrived.

July, 2011

I flew to Melbourne for winter break programs and the GSA conference. On the registration day, I got one thick book summarising the abstract for all presenters and speakers. And also name tag, mixer and dinner tickets, and also exhibition passport.

Sesat sekejap dekat Melbourne University tu sebab bukan tempat kite kan. Penat lah cari Pelham Musolla berdasarkan memori winter 2010, siap guna Google Map bagai cari Pelham Street. Dah 2 hari conference baru perasan. Laaaaa.. Berdiri depan pintu gerbang je dah straight nampak Pelham Musolla. -__-

On the conference day, I made a list of the speakers that I intended to attend. I read through the thick book and scan for any Muslim presenters. Some of them even work at CSIRO! Subhanallah mantap sangat. Proud of them for bringing Islam image to the scientific research field. Macam zaman Abbasiyah dulu :) Next, I  listed anyone who is doing research on plant, my interest.

In the conference room. Some of presenters in this size of conference room were PhD candidate. Dr Suresh got to present in bigger general lecture hall as he was the invited speakers.

And the foods were deliciously awesome! They even got halal sandwiches. Maka makan pun tanpa ragu-ragu. 

The grad dinner. I simply wore my black abaya. I thought the appearance is modest and elegant enough for a dinner like this. And yes, once I stepped into the dining hall, it was as if I were in the Harry Potter dining hall, with Dumbledore standing in front, and being seated according to your homeroom. The long dining table with dim light candle gave you the feeling that you were Hogwarts student. Ewah! :D

Jakun sangat dapat makan dengan cutlery set yang lengkap. Siap tanya labmate nak pakai yang mana dulu. Heheh.. And I was lucky enough to be surrounded by vegetarian and non-alcoholic labmates, and that included Dr Suresh. :) Senang sikit hidup. When the main course arrived, it was meat. Sedih sekejap sebab confirm tak halal, dan Dr Suresh pun tak makan daging. Suddenly, a malay waiter approached me and said,

"I was told that the meat was not halal, so here's your grilled salmon"

He smiled. And I smiled back as a thank you sign. I were very pleased that night to know that such prestigious conference really paying attention to specific needs of every participant. And treat everyone respectfully, regardless of their belief and religion. Bravo! Excited jugak sebab jumpa orang Melayu, serve kite pulak tu. :p

August, 2011

Received a letter from GSA treasurer with a cheque for travel cost reimbursement. Alhamdulillah.

Overall, it was an invaluable experience for me as undergraduate student. 

To friends out there, grab every opportunity that might come to you. Who knows what you could get out of every opportunity that comes by. Make yourself different. It's your choice! Dan jangan lupa tanya Allah jugak. :)

Eid Fest 2011

Bismillah,

This gonna be a quick post. Yesterday, I volunteered for one big event to celebrate the Muslim community in celebrating Eid day. It was held at Mount Gravatt show ground. We set up stall under MECA project. All fund raised will be donated to build up mosque in our area, a proper mosque. But they like to call it as multicultural educational centre of Australia.

 Our stall have various activities!

Such as henna,

Kids face painting,

Fairy floss selling aka cotton candy!

Everyone have their own duty, and we rotated according to the schedule. And guess which task I was assigned to??? Cotton candy, yeay! So we have the cotton candy maker looks like this:

 Okay, this was my first time doing cotton candy. Don't expect much!

First, put one scoop of sugar into the middle of the machine. The electrostatic of the machine will turn the sugar into cotton-like floss.

Then, you take stick and circle the machine with the stick to collect the floss candy.

 We managed to raised AUD1600! Alhamdulillah. :D

At Eid Fest, they also have camel ride and various food stalls.

And I found this; Malaysian food stall! Went crazy over it. Hahah..

 

And I bought myself 2 abaya design and made by Aab collection from UK. Wasimah is one of their distributor at Queensland Australia. It was cheaper to buy directly from their distributor rather than buy online from their webpage. ;) It's a bit pricey but I rather go for its quality. Plus, abaya from Aab collection has a very unique design!

Overall, I love volunteering!