Finally, finally, finally!

It was my birthday last week, and i couldn't have wished for anything more.

I'm alive, i'm healthy, i have enough time to do the things i like, and i love my job. but best of all, i finally completed my MBA! 6 birthdays ago, i wished for a completed MBA thesis to fall from the sky. Well, it didn't. I had to (somewhat) work my ass off on it, but late last year, the damned thing finally went to the printers and binders. Then on my birthday, i received a letter from the school.



how's that for a birthday, eh?

Spot the error!

Funi @ Adelaide Zoo

Funi @ Adelaide Zoo, originally uploaded by nadi0.

truly the highlight of my day.

Adelaide: 4 days on

Ikea and Harbour Town (the factory outlets) day went well. We even went to Glenelg Beach first to have lunch, and then turned back to do our shopping, all on public transport, dragging the trolley bag around (well deli did). Things I'd never do at home - go to Ikea on public transport although it's quite convenient. hahaha.

The factory outlet was awesome, though I only had two hours to look around. I'll go again this week if i get the chance...Levi's had an offer for buy 2 and get the third one free. I bought 1 pair for $19.90. couldn't think of a reason why i'd need 3 more jeans. hehehe

We stayed in a hotel for the first two nights...since i've booked the room and fully paid for it anyway. The hotel sucked because the wi-fi doesn't reach the room they gave us the the very end of the hall on 3rd floor. The two beds where on wheels and they moved around the wood-floored room like nobody's business. I initially thought that it was an awesome value for $95 a night, but considering the option of staying in my brother's hostel for free, it wasn't. Well, to be fair, it WAS right smack in the middle of the city, 5 minutes walk to almost all the interesting places in the city. I would never stay there again though.

So, on Saturday we chilled out and looked for mobile plans, then went to the Central Market and Chinatown to see what Asian stuff we can find there, should my brother have cravings for Malay food in the near future. Central Market is awesome, with the cheeses, fresh looking fruits and veggies - one stall even had coffee from all over the world and it smelled delicious! After doing all that we went back to the hostel for a rest, and i went for a jog around the neighborhood. Jogging here isn't as tiring, the sun was shining so bright, but the wind cooled the sweat off..so that was nice.

Today is the last day before my brother starts his orientation at uni. We went back to ikea for more stuff, and dragged the stuff along with us to Glenelg Beach for the day. Chilling down by the beach was really nice, but it got windy so we decided to head back up to have a look around. Ended up in this really nice chocolate shop for some frappes, rushed to watch the sunset, but we missed it slightly...not that there was anything special with the sunset anyway, since there's nothing interesting on the horizon. I'm getting really lazy with lugging this D300 around lah. I think i will go back home and get me a smaller dslr body for my next holiday.

After the sunset we went to this Good Life Pizza as recommended by the Lonely Planet. We had the Spencer Gulf Monster Prawns pizza, which was really really good! It was the most expensive dinner we had so far for 38 bucks, but ok-lah, i thought i'd buy my brother a nice meal since he let me bunk in his room for the week.

I'm still not getting the bus fares in this city. I've been riding the bus and tram all weekend for $2.20 a pop, and suddenly tonight, the tram ticket man asked if we wanted normal tickets or student fares, i had to pay $4.20 for mine and my brother $2.20. I guess they just assumed i am a student all this time (woohoo!) But, serious tak paham.

Ok lah, I'm feeling tired from lazing on the beach today. hehe..i'm off.

Tired in Adelaide

Man it's been one hell of a day yesterday. We arrived at 7.15 AM, and took us about an hour to get out of customs. As usual, Malaysian student off to study in foreign country, 1 bag full of clothes that you'll probably not even wear in the next year, and the other bag full of food that you probably won't eat until they're about to expire.

The flight was a short one, 6 hours and 30 minutes departing KLIA at 9.45pm. Of course i couldn't get enough sleep! first 2 hours spent watching the movies, then another 30 minutes eating, an hour of sleep and then they start serving more food and the hustle and bustle of landing started already.

It was tiring but i thought the whole morning was overall lucky for me. The driver who picks up first time students in Adelaide let me hitch a ride with my brother (they initially said that that's not allowed - guardians or travelling partners must travel separately). Then the guy at bro's hostel said i could bunk in with my brother for the length of my stay, if my brother is ok with it. Not having a proper plan pays off in the end. hahaha.

We spent the day doing all the necessary stuff, bank accounts, getting homewares etc. Adelaide city is a pretty small place, you could walk everywhere if you wanted to, which was what we ended up doing, since we only know the buses that go from the hostel into the city. hehee...by 12noon i started having a headache from the lack of sleep. but we pushed on to finish all those things. the sooner i get those things done, the sooner i get to start my holiday!

so far i haven't taken any pictures, gone for any trail walks or anything. and i can't wait! there seems to be a lot of things you could do here...one of which is swimming with dolphins, which i'm contemplating!

anyway, today we're off to the factory outlets and ikea. didn't get to finish shopping for stuff yesterday because shops here close at 5...ni yang boring kan negara2 macam ni. hehe. adios.

Week 9 Day 3

I did it! Took me 10 weeks instead of 9, never thought i'd get here, but here i am. Still not fully covering 5km in 30 minutes, however, it's a hell lot better than sitting on my lazy ass throughout the most of last year. :-)

yay!

Couch to 5K: Week 5 Day 3

Holy moly, i never thought i would get this far. I made it to the third run of Week 5, where i have to jog non-stop for 20 minutes. Only a couple of weeks ago, i hit a major wall trying to run for 5 minutes non-stop. To overcome that wall, i had to get off the treadmill and run at the park so i can make the minor adjustments to my pace. I also had to get a mate to run me through the 5 minutes. Then i started making adjustments to my food intake on my running days...hehe..over tak.

So anyway, today, in woman vs week 5 day 3, woman won! (sorry, i've been watching too much of Man vs. Food lately kekeke.)

Al-Fatihah for Harris...

boner, originally uploaded by nadi0.

...who passed away this morning from a heart attack.

perbalahanku dengan pihak berkuasa - season finale

after over a year, 4 days of wasted annual leave, 4 afternoons spent at the PJ Magistrate Court and several trips to the PJ Traffic Police HQ, my case is finally over today. It was about a traffic offense that became an arrest warrant that I supposedly committed back in August 2007. So today, the police attorney decided to cancel the ticket and warrant, due to the fact that they could not find the ticket in their archives, and also the 2nd police witness was not contactable (or not contacted at all, who cares).

what an absolutely fruitful way to waste time. muahaha.

i haven't been on the treadmill for 3 days now. went for a walk and run at the KJ park yesterday, and only lasted 1km before it started drizzling (the running bit was where i had to run back to the car to avoid getting soaked. hehe..) i'm in week 4 now, i had my 1st day of week 4 sometime mid last week, the drill was to Walk 5 minutes, 2 sets of (jog 3 mins, walk 1.5 min, jog 5 mins, walk 2.5 mins). I set the treadmill incline to 0.5, and cheated the last 5 minute run because it was too hard. I'll have to do it over, maybe slow down the pace so I can finish the whole thing. Feeling quite good since I started exercising regularly again. My usually low blood pressure went into the normal range (~95/70 to 112/72), and my usually high resting heart rate went down from 90 to 74. I'm quite happy about this particular achievement. I haven't lost any weight though, but I guess as long as I feel energetic and well, it doesn't really matter.

ciao.

disoriented

after what i thought was the record breaking finishing work at 11pm on wednesday night, i broke another one by leaving at 4.30am on friday morning. lucky for me, my house is just a few minutes drive away. everytime i feel like complaining, i think about how lucky i've been, that i very rarely have to pull all-nighters for work purposes - although i probably spend 120 nights a year pulling all nighters for my own personal purposes, e.g. edit gambar, watching tv shows, etc etc. hehe.

i came back at 11 am to help them make some last minute changes, printed out the stuff and went home. then i slept. and now i'm wide awake, window shopping on walmart.com.

got a party photoshoot on a putrajaya cruise tomorrow night. should be interesting! just a bit worried that my photos will all be shakey from the boat movement. hmm.

nite

8 weeks to 2010

dang, the older i get, the faster i feel time flies. scary shit.

i need another holiday, pronto. but can't do much with 0.5 day left from my annual leave. can't wait for the long weekends we'll get end of november up to end of the year. Raya Haji, Sultan Selangor's birthday, awal muharram, christmas and new year (awesome, eh?)

been staying late at work these days. tonight was the record, 11pm. and there were still people trying to finish up when i left. kasihan mereka. i want to say i'd like to break the record of coming early for once, but i think i broke that already one day when i arrived at 7.45am (because i didn't sleep the whole night). heheh.

I've also started going on the treadmill again. 3rd attempt at Couch to 5K in a year. My first attempt was late last year, which was interrupted by the Phi Phi island trip. hehe. Then it was interrupted by my apartment terbakar-europe trip-finishing mba paper hoo ha. I started again a couple of weeks ago, in a fitness paranoia streak. I went out and bought that Nike+ sport kit thing, hooked up the sensor on my shoe lace and started running. For some reason that little thing on my shoe is driving my motivation now, although not surprising since I'm a creature of graphs and data. I'm pretty sure that the sensor is clocking more mileage than what i actually cover, since the numbers were pretty off compared to the treadmill. But who cares, i'm just competing against myself, and if that illusion makes me want to do more, more power to me! hehehe..I'm now on week 2, so we'll see if i make it to week 9 this time round.

wokeys, need to try and sleep now for another long day tomorrow.

adios.

Geek Mode

huiyo...3 months has passed by? I think there was a Miss M who dropped a comment a while ago asking why no updates. Busy lah. With work mostly. And sleeping in on the weekend, hence didn't do anything interesting which contributed to the lack of blog updates.

Anyway, today i bought myself a new monitor to replace the 4 year old 19-inch. After 3 hours of meddling around, i finally got the dvi display to work, and hooked up my lcd tv in extended display mode.

tada! now i can watch movies while doing work.

Happy 4th

It was my 4th stem cell transplant anniversary yesterday. Alhamdulillah. I didn't do anything special, just finished some work in the office, and then went to hang out with friends for coffee later that night.

Recent bone marrow test results were good, and blood counts were excellent.

One more hurdle, and hopefully i'll be all set.

missing skopelos

DSC_6339, originally uploaded by nadi0.

i finally got around to looking at my recent travel photos. i have been trying to delay this part where i go through the pictures, delete the really horrible ones, edit the nice ones, etc etc. Partly because work has consumed most of my after-trip life that my nights were mostly spent in a catatonic state in front of the TV, partly because i did not want to get into a state of post-holiday depression looking back at the photos.

i can't wait to get to do this again next year, god willing. with friends, i hope, but alone would also be OK. traveling alone is fun because you could really do whatever you like, arrange and rearrange your plans to your own liking. Of course, you get lonely once in a while, but that's why it's useful to have a friend in the form of a Wi-fi enabled gadget! :-P



One Geek Salad for me please! hahahah

I'm not sure what i really miss about Skopelos actually. Skopelos is undoubtedly beautiful. But I think it was mostly the tranquility, the week-long opportunity to behave like a lost soul with about 3 pairs of clothes and a camera, and only worry about what to eat and what to do, in addition to worrying about not falling off the cliffs.

wictor wictor

Star Trek was awesome!!

among other pronunciations that made me think twice today:

in a conversation with a bank customer service agent:

Agent: can you tell me what 'kaunt-i' you use your card in?
Me: kaunt what?

in a radio ad:

something about the narrator's sister being so feminine, perhaps because she uses 'audipafum Secret' cheh. Maybe that's bahasa baku for Eau de Parfum.

i am home

am home, after the stress of packing and unpacking in London to meet the baggage weight regulations, after the mix up at the check-in counter when i was checked in under a Mr Nadarajan and only realized the mistake at the gate (i got through security and immigration in Heathrow with the wrong boarding pass, mind you), after the 12 hours of darkness in the plane, out to the hot sticky weather of home sweet home.

back to reality.

Back in London

After what felt like forever on the non-reclining seats of EasyJet, i finally arrived at my brother's place.  It's nice and chilly, just the kind of weather i like.

And the speed of the Internet.  Greece was fast, but not this fast.  The song 'ooh baby do you know what that's worth..ooh heaven is a place on earth' is playing in my head right now. hehe.

speedwise, so far Malaysia is still the sayurest of them all.

nite nite!

The end of my greek adventure

I'm back in Athens. Lounging around in the baggage storage area of this backpacker place, because the heat is just too much outside.  At this rate, i might as well be back home, having banana leaf rice at Sri Paandi.

The ferry to Skiathos yesterday went smoothly.  Skiathos is a quaint little island, busier with tourist activities despite being smaller than Skopelos.  I whiled away the time by walking down the streets to see if there's any souvenirs i could bring home.  But then again, all those things, bangles, handbags, scarves, i could get the exact same ones back home in Giant Mall.  So at 7pm, i decided to go and wait for my flight at the airport, and guess what, there was no one there, and the guard said the check-in counters will open at 9.30pm, for the 10pm flight. heheh.  The airport looks like a cowboy town airport.  So i waited lah for 2.5 hours.

I arrived at Athens Backpackers at midnight and went straight to bed.  I went for a last walk mid-morning, looking for souvenirs, but since i am running out of cash, i didn't get anything. haha.  Then it got too hot, so i'm back here just whiling my time away.

Maybe i should just head to the airport and sit around there for the air-conditioning.

Last Day

bugger. time flies eh?  technically tomorrow is my last day, but my ferry leaves for Skiathos at 4.55pm tomorrow, and i'm catching a flight to Athens at 10pm.  One more night in Athens, then i leave for London.

Skopelos Kids - seen fishing at Loutraki

I didn't do much today.  I drove back to Agios Ioannis, and hiked down to the secluded beach for a swim.  When i got hungry i packed up and drove to Agnontas Bay for lunch.  Then i went back to Stafylos Beach, and sat there enjoying the end of the day.  I wanted to wait for the moon to rise above the horizon, but i got lazy and there was nowhere to park on the narrow road, so i went back to the hotel.

Skopelos is awesome.  It's one of my favourite places on earth now.  I love the friendly, but non-intrusive people.  I love the beauty of the terrain, with the pine trees growing right now to the beach.  I love the cats. I love the fact that I chose the perfect time of year to come here.  I wake up every morning with a body ache, maybe from trying to hike up and down to get to the beach with an additional 5 kilos on my back, carrying that fat-ass nikon.

I can't wait to get back to London though. I wish I could skip this one-night-in-Athens bit.  My cash is also running low, and with two days left, i can't be arsed to go to the ATM for more money.

Skopelos Cat - seen basking in the setting sun at Milia Beach

Intimidated by nature.

I drove on an empty winding road today, and worried that the pine trees might suddenly come alive and eat me up.  Then i drove on a dusty winding road in a non-4x4 car, trying to find the highest point of the road, and worried that the car brakes might suddenly not work and i will slip down into oblivion.  I finally went down again to Milia beach to watch the sun set, accompanied by a gang of cats who seem to be quite happy when i arrived.  I got scared by the sound of the waves.  The 1km beach was all mine (and the cats'), but at sunset the soft waves suddenly became harsh, so i quickly packed up my camera and went off (maybe i was imagining things haha).  It reminded me of the day i went on the Great Ocean Road with my brother, when we stood on the beach down the cliff looking up at the first of the 12 Apostles.

The best part of my day was at Glysteri beach, where there were only a couple of old people (naked, eww) and myself (not naked).  I took a dip in the pebbly Greek waters, but the water was still too cold.  And the best view i had while driving was between Agnontas and Stafylos, when the moon was rising above the horizon.  Subhan Allah.

No pictures postings today.  Lazy lah.  The tiredness i would have felt from walking has been replaced by mental fatigue from driving on the Skopelos roads.  Heheh. 2 more days before i have to leave this beautiful island.  In some ways I'm quite glad this adventure is about to end, because i don't think i will be able to cope with the daily adrenaline rush much longer.  And I miss my nephew.