Easter Break Trip With ‘La Familia’

It's only 1 more day before my family and I will start our trip to explore around United Kingdom. I’m so excited because this is our first trip together and I have make an arrangement to travel with them for 2 weeks. I have done the planning and make relevant booking for the purpose of this trip. Definitely it is not easy to do it alone because there are so many things need to take into consideration before make confirmation and pay.

Planning for the trip

Basically there are 7 destinations which I chose for this particular trip such as Liverpool, Stonehenge, Birmingham, Manchester, Stoke-on-trent, London, and Edinburgh. The reason for it because of my father. He wants to explore and feel the originality of the culture, food, scenery, environment and the weather. Even though, he’s been to UK for the past 25 years but he believe all the places has gone through a lot of changes.

London view during night time

Few things which I need to be prepare in terms of the flight, train and bus ticket, accommodation, tourist spots, ‘halal’ food, public transport and etc. Since my parents are not young anymore, I would have to make sure that the hotel is near to the any public transport so we can move around easily.  

Canton Hill a place which is you can enjoy looking to overall view of Edinburgh

I’m really looking forward for this trip as I really missed them badly. Every day, when I woke in the morning, I will started to count the days and wait patiently until the date arrives. Now, while waiting for this trip I have to focus on my study since all the assignments are started to coming in and the deadline are approaching soon. I hope all the arrangement will be done as soon as possible and the trip will run smoothly. The most important things is my family and I will be definitely enjoying ourselves throughout the journey.

All I can do right now is just wait and stay focus J

Festival of Diversity XI – Takdir

This is my first time watching a theatre and I’m so excited about it. It was held at St David’s Hall at Cardiff City Centre on last February. It was a yearly event for our Malaysian Students’ Society of Cardiff University (MSSCF) to organize it.

Earlier performance

Basically, this story revolve on Wong and Farah who are two young love birds in the 1960’s. However, their dreams of ever after are shattered when Farah’s mother discovers their secret affair. Five years from the break up and we’re left wondering what has become of the once poor fishmonger boy. Has he finally found happiness working for the Chin Triad? Or does the thought of Farah still linger? As for the now Dr. Farah, is there still a place in her heart for Wong? Or is there someone else?

Wong and Farah in one of the scene

The Festival of Diversity, Cardiff's very own 'Malaysian Night' or 'M-Night' to many of us, is a massive Malaysian cultural extravaganza, consisting of a full-length musical, followed by a vibrant performance of Dikir Barat. The cast and crew are no more than 130 unpaid amateurs, all working together to mesh Malay, Indian, Chinese and East Malaysian traditions with Western pop culture to create a truly unique experience.

Dikir Barat performance

This year they are hosting the 11th edition of our critically acclaimed event which having drawn over 850 people last year. Overall I’m enjoying myself and satisfied as I can see there were multicultural dances throughout the show. It was an amazing night whereby most of the Malaysian which study at all over United Kingdom had come to Cardiff to watch this yearly show.

Amy, Iyra, Suzanna and myself after the show

Tragedy of MH 370

Malaysian Airlines (MAS) MH 370 supposedly arrived at Beijing at 6.30 am on last 8 March but until now the aircraft has not arrived and in fact went missing. All over the world was shocked because of this news because the aircraft took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on 12.41 pm on the same day. After flying for an hour suddenly it disappeared from the radar.

Boeing 777 - Malaysian Airlines

According to the MAS spokesperson, there are 239 people are on board the missing plane. Out of 239, 227 were passengers and 12 crew members including the pilot and co-pilot. Among the passengers on board are 3 Americans, 154 citizens on China or Taiwan, 38 Malaysians, 6 Australians, 5 Indians, 4 French, and 2 Canadians, Ukrainians and New Zealanders respectively.

 

Search & Rescue Operation

It’s almost 33 days and there is no any object or wreckage which can be connected to MH 370 as for now. But at the moment, Australia and China military ships has detected few signals which might be from the black box in the Southern Indian Ocean. They will need few days to examine and give confirmation regarding this matter. All of us are hoping that they can find the black box as soon as possible as the life span of the battery could hold out for 30 days only and it could be turn off at any time.

Pray for MH 370 drawing done by one of the children

The whole world right now were praying for the safety of all passengers and crew members of MH 370. Hopefully, all the mystery of this tragedy could be untied so that all of us can know what exactly has happened on that particular aircraft.

Pray for MH 370 !!!

If you need latest updates regarding this, kindly please visit http://www.malaysiaairlines.com/my/en/site/mh370.html 

Craving for Lobster

Everyone especially my friend’s keep talking about how good the food at Burger & Lobster Restaurant. Since then, every single day I’m craving for lobster and wondering it's taste. As far as I’m concern, they have five branches all over London which are situated at Soho, Mayfair, City, Knightsbridge, and Farringdon.

Every single restaurant their furnishing is quite nice and cosy which suitable if you want to eat the food while enjoying with your family. Besides that, their service also is quite fast and based on my experience you will get your food within 15-20 minutes after your order bring taken.

Menu

If you wanted to eat there it is advisable for you to book before you come in order to avoid you wanting. Sometimes you have to wait up to an hour just to get seat before you can enjoy the food. In terms of the food, they have varieties of food from lobster, burger and many more. The price for the lobster would be around 25 pound per plate which is quite reasonable to me as lobster is a kind of seafood which is quite expensive.

Grilled Lobster

My comment regarding the food would be the lobster is quite fresh and juicy. The presentation of the food also looks nice and tempting. Eating lobster with garlic sauce is a good combination whereby when you eat it complement with each other. Definitely you will end up eating using your own hands as it is easier to peel and eat the fill. Overall, it is a good experience and in the future I will bring my family members for them to experience the taste of the lobster by themselves.

Happy eating !!!

For more information, kindly please visit http://www.burgerandlobster.com/

Hiking at Snowdonia with my lovely friends

Snowdonia which was situated at North Wales was my next destination before the upcoming Easter break. I went there with another five of my friends and surprisingly all were girls. I departed on Friday night by car and arrived around 1 am on Saturday and we were living in a cute and tiny little cabin. The cabin was very nice, cosy and well equipped with all the necessary things that we need it feels just like home when all of us entered it. 

Nice view with fresh air

On Saturday around 8 am, all of us have to bring our lunch pack which will consume during the journey. Bear in mind the journey had took around 4 hours to climb up and normally two hours to go down. We were full with ardent spirit to start hiking and wanted to reach the peak as soon as possible. 

Lovely friends

We started our hiking from Cader Idris while enjoying the all nature there such as waterfall, beautiful scenery, and we can feel the fresh air. All of us need to go through big rock, grass, land that is muddy, and etc as we were climbing up until reached one pit stop. Unfortunately we were unable to continue to the peak as the weather became worse and at the same time we were surrounded with all the fog around us and heavy rain. 

At a nearby lake

Around 4.00 pm, we decided to go down carefully as the path were quite slippery. We were depending based on the map in my friend's hand phone. Luckily we were not lost as I'm quite worry because as time goes by the sky was getting darker and afraid that we might lose our path/track and as a result might failed to find the right route.

Part of the beautiful scenery

After spending two hours, we were safely arrived at the place where we started our journey. All of us were really tired & exhausted and once we arrived everyone chose to sleep after clean up our self. In fact, we did skipped our dinner and continue to sleep until the next day.

Myself in front of our cabin

On Sunday morning, we check out from the cabin and heading back to Cardiff. But we decided to drop by at Cheshire Oak a brand outlet nearby to Liverpool for a while. We spent almost four hours there and everyone end up to buy something either for themselves or family members. After done with all the shopping, all of us were heading back to Cardiff and we arrived around 8.00 pm on the same day.

The Malaysian Careers Fair ’14

On last 30^th March 2014, I was attending The Malaysian Careers Fair ’14 which was organised by United Kingdom & EireCouncil (UKEC) at Lancaster Hotel, London. There were more than 20 well-established and multinational companies who did participated and gave sponsorship in this particular fair. The companies which has joined such as Shell, Deloitte, Maybank, UEM Group Berhad, Lafarge, Maxis, Pharmaniaga, Pricewaterhousecoopers, Gamuda Berhad, OCBC Bank and etc.

Leaflet for the event

During that day, most of the Malaysian students around United Kingdom and Ireland will definitely going to this event as this is considered as a golden opportunity for them to get to know their potential employer. Some of my friends including myself were also being invited for an interview with few of the companies.

With some of my friends

At the same time, I also got the opportunity to mingle around with other students and representatives from the companies. For those who undergraduates, they can check out for internship opportunities whereas postgraduates students or anyone who has working experiences they can start applying for a full time position.

Met Fareeza who used to be my classmate

I was very delighted because I got the chance to meet my old friends which happened to be working with one of the participated company. It’s been more than two years I haven’t meet her since our last meeting during Raya Open House of my company when I’m working at that time. Both of us managed to catch up and chatting about our life, study, gossiping who’s going to get married soon and many more.

Spring is coming !!!!

Autumn…… winter…… and now spring is coming since I arrived on last September 2013. I was so excited because this is my first time to experience this kind of season. After a long, damp, grey and cold day, now sunshine and pleasant temperatures made my expectations that spring is getting closer and it will last until May.

  

Obviously, when this season just around the corner there will be few things that might change such as the weather, temperature and environment. In terms of the weather whereby it’ starting to be warmer with sunshine throughout the day.  

All the flowers started to blossom slowly and with many kind of colors. All the parks and gardens around Cardiff especially will be very beautiful with all the flowers including in Bute Park and a park near to my school.

I was being told this season is an ideal time to go out and have fun on the Bay. There will be a ferry service operate from Bute Park to Cardiff Bay. It will travels down to River Taff, pass by Millennium Stadium and around the Mermaid Quay.

                             

However, if you can’t afford to go to Amsterdam to enjoy all tulips you can just go to Royal Horticultural Society’s flower show season which will be held at Bute Park on 19 to 21 April. This show will be organize for three days and it will highlights the flowers that bloom in spring and the best in Welsh horticulture including a variety of different daffodils which is one of the national symbols of Wales.

Enjoy the flower and sun :)

Ariana Rose – The Wedding Breaker

Because of Ariana Rose, I will definitely sitting on my chair and switch on the laptop just to watch my favourite drama. I never miss to watch it from the very first until the last episode.  

At first I have been thinking whether this book is in English or Malay because of the title. But, the truth it is a Malay novel and was being converted into a drama and the original of the masterpiece being written by Evelyn Rose. It was last year which I had a chance to read the novel and never thought that there will be a real drama portraying the story. I was so excited when I knew about it and looking forward to watch it.

Ariana Rose drama has become trending in Malaysia

Original novel 

Below are the list of main actor and actress in this drama:

• Keith Foo (Tengku Adam)
• Nur Fathia (Ariana Rose)
• Tasha Shilla (Tengku Juwita)
• Nabila Huda (Lyana)
• Hisyam Hamid (Harith)
• Arja Lee (Ramzul)
• Dato’ Jalaluddin Hassan (Dato’ Wan Jusoh)
• Ziela Jalil (Datin Asra)
• Mustapha Kamal (Tengku Mukhriz)
• Liza Abdullah (Tengku Lisdania)

The story started with a tragic scene whereby Ariana Rose had crashed Tengku Adam Kamil’s wedding with Tengku Juwita. It happened when Ariana stopped the wedding by claiming that she’s being pregnant by Tengku Adam. The story keep moving until the climax scene which Ariana was being raped by Tengku Adam because he was really angry and felt that his name and reputation was already being tarnished because of her. He decided to take revenge against Arianna because of the incident. Slowly the story became more interesting when both of them were fell in love without realized it even though Ariana hate Tengku Adam because of him she lost her virgin.

Teaser for the audience

Of course in any drama will definitely have antagonist characters which in this story it were Lyana and Ramzul. At the same time, there were a few other characters which their function are to make this story more real and give impact to the audience. Congratulations to Raja Ahmad Alaudin, director of this drama who successfully compress all the story lines from the novel into 28 awesome episodes.

I really like the story lines because it really romantic, sweet and touched my lovely heart everytime I watched it. In fact the original soundtrack was really good in terms of their lyrics and rhythms which suits the drama. The story lines expanded by each episode which it started to be more interesting as the story nearly approaching to the end. In addition, all the actor and actress were really have a good package which means not only they have the look but the talent as well which is really important in order to make the story more alive.

OST Ariana Rose by Dayang Nurfaizah

So, I would like to urge all the Malay novel lovers to watch this drama until to the last episode because at the end of it you would not regret it at all. If you want to get more understand regarding the story you can just drop by at any of the bookshop in Malaysia to get a copy of it. Trust me you will be more satisfied when you have finish read it.

Happy reading & watching :)