AorM

In the most craziest turn of event (well, not really, I'm just being dramatic), I have to choose between taking Arabic or Mandarin classes instead of English.

I have until Friday to choose.

Arabic or Mandarin?

Raya Babies

The festive season calls for us to meet up with our uncles, aunties, cousins and relatives; and the best of all relatives to meet are usually the little ones. For some reason this Raya, babies seem to be taking the centre stage. They're so much more fun to be with... their tiny hands, their innocent faces and cherubic expressions!

So here they are in photography order:

Over in Johor at my mom's side, we met up with Syabila first, Pak Busu and Mak Busu's youngest hence my cousin. Over here she's helping Safi fold the bedsheet; or rather Safi is trying to teach her. This time, she's more attached to Safi and likes to play with his hair (or lack of it) whenever he carries her.

Syabila

When we went out for the "compulsory relative houses", we met up with the Big-Eyed Baby. I honestly am not so sure of her name but gosh her eyes are so huge and wide ALL the time! I swear I couldn't catch her blinking. Along calls her the Radar Baby. Apart from her eyes, I just cannot resist her cheeks which seems to be so full that they are falling off the sides of her face...

Big-Eyed Baby

Meet Dzilal. Abg Imad and Kak Cah's eye light (Ahmad's version of "Cahaya Mata"). And therefore making him my nephew. He's quiet, inquisitive and is very much blur upon receiving duit raya. Loves football. Extremely doted upon by his grandparents and auntie (kak nisaa'! haha). His rare adorable smiles are heart-melting when you get to catch them! I took about 20 of his pictures, trying to snap one of him laughing. Finally got one:)

Dzilal

Kak Hani and Abg Saif's first girl: Ulfah. The first granddaughter of the first married couple of the first sibling on my grandma's side. Best thing about Ulfah this time is that she is more open:) She's been hiding behind a 5-ringgit duit raya and squealing "Mane Ulfah? Mane Ulfah?"

Ulfah

Over in Perak, I'm not that sure of the our relatives since they're a bit further. So here, we meet up with The Botak Baby: name courtesy of the Botak/Bald Brothers. We didn't get to play much with him but I tell you, his smiles are delicious! I didn't mange to snap a good smiling photograph of him. Oh well, let that image forever etch in my mind; one not to be shared with the world! haha.

Botak Brother Baby

And last but not least: Nur Aisha Sofia (not entirely sure of the spelling), but I know the name because her mother kept calling out her name. Safi and I tried to teach her about colours in her "foam book of things". We did manage to get her to guess a few right. But after that she got quite sleepy and her mom had to take her away:( But man, look at those muscles! Rawr!

Nur Aisya Sofia

But all in all, a very fruitful -baby- raya:) Extremely enjoyable meeting up with them. Ahh, they are the life and joy. A smile cannot help but escape whenever you see their adorable-ness.

"Roses are red

Violets are blue;

Some poems rhyme

This one doesn't."

Area C1 HES Contest!

This is me.

on 16th September 2009

at 530pm

in DELL Building.

during Area c1 Toastmaster's Humorous and Evaluation Speech contest.

And this is me again.

2nd place winner Evaluation Speech Contest: Alia Nadhirah.

and I'm not kidding this time.

2 weeks of nonstop worrying and this weight is finally gone. I think I was awfully calm when I was waiting for my turn (what more me being the final and last speaker). Considering that this is my second time at evaluating someone (the first time was done in a contest too; not at a normal meeting!), people say that I have made a remarkly tremendous leap of improvement. I sort of feel it too in terms of my delivery. But in terms of sorting out the contents and main points, that still needs a lot of practice because I was writing here there and everywhere trying to jot down points.

A thousand thanks goes to:

First and foremost, to Ummi Ayah, Angah, Safi, Syarif, Siraj. Without them I wouldn't have joined toastmasters and I wouldn't have been desensitized to speak up front. They ALL came from Ampang just to watch and support. The Botak Brothers came with a special appearance too and managed to cheer me up and loosened me a lil. Though the continued "We are.... BOTAK BROTHERS!!!" did get to me after a while... Anyhow, thank you Ayah for reminding me how important it is to make an impact in people's lives. And thank you Ummi for motivating and inspiring me all the time. You guys are really the bomb:D

standing from left: Safi, Syarif (the Botak Brothers) and Siraj

sitting from left: Ahmad, ayah, ummi, yours truly

To Alina, Najah, Diba, Cah, Faz, Fifi, Sarah, Sharon, Azra plus everyone in my batch who wished me all the best before the competition (people knew mostly because I was unusually attired during class -which was for the competition- and about half the batch noticed it when Amira 'announced' so and someone squealed "Alia cantik!"). Also to M16 and Alina, Sharon and Aki who celebrated my happiness and congratulated me after the contest. You don't know how much that means to me.

To Megat Zahid, president of ISTC/MMU TC, I know the sacrifice you had to go through just so that I can compete in Area C1. You deserve a shoutout here. Thank you for encouraging me to join even from waaay before. Hope to see you participating in International Speech Contest next April! (prepare to be forcefully volunteered:)) And thank you James for coming just to support me:D

To the contest organizers, most of all to Teng Cheng Foong for making the contest a reality:) My inbox is filled up with emails from her as she perseveres in pulling everything together. The contest was great! And I'm so happy to meet with so many fantastic people! Plus the person I've always wanted to meet: Mama Walia:)

Awesome awesome awesome experience! International Speech Contest April 2010, here I come!

from left: Sree Shanker (Area C1 Governor), Gajendra (3rd place Humorous), Victor (2nd Humorous), Iqbal Ghaffar (1st Humorous AND evaluation), Alia (2nd Evaluation), Dalbir (3rd Evaluation), SK Walia (Chief Judge)

Passion

I like this:

"Passion - So long as you have it burning within you, ever so carefully so as to not burn you out, then it will forever light up the path of your destiny. "

As quoted by: Ahmad Salahuddin

Such deep meaning behind it.

illustrator

Thanks to Hamzah Syahir's diligence, I got to know that my full name came out in the NST today. Well, it's not an article about me. I'm just sort of stealing a lil of my mom's spotlight. Just a little. But still, I am awed.

Moment of pride: The book is also peppered with illustrations by the author's daughter, Alia Nadhirah Ahmad Fakhri.

The article is a review on my mom's book at the parenting section (hmm wonder what hamzah was doing reading this section in the first place. We can all keep wondering:P) The title: Cool Boys Super Sons:)

But anyway, it's not everyday that your name comes out in the news. I shall spend the next few hours or so with a very happy and warm glow inside:)

Thanks again hamzah; btw my dad bought the papers the moment i told him:)

When you're down, look up and see...

Saufiville

Saufiville in Janda Baik is such an amazing place that you will regret it if you don't go there at least once in your life.

Last week we had iftar (mushroom soup, fragrant fried rice, steamboat, sizzling steak, chicken chop etc) at this mesmerizing and breathtaking resort. Since the air was so clean, my dad allowed us to open the top window (can't remember what it's called now).. So my brothers all got to put their head out. The pictures came out especially beautiful. Or at least I think so.

Siraj:)

Safi. With half of Ahmad's face.

My most favourite picture taken throughout the trip:D Mind you, I couldn't look at where I was shooting. I could only lift my hand out of the window and gage where to snap.

Ahmad again:)

Meet Luqman. The 3rd youngest in the Saufiville household. He is the most adorable 5 year old I have met. If he were to participate in Kids say the darnest thing, I'm pretty sure he would have been the star of the show.

Safi, Siraj and Syarif played Hide n Seek with him. (Yes, they're counting to 20 while Safi goes to hide- behind Ahmad). After playing for about 30 minutes with Luqman's energy which never seems to deplete, Siraj asks, "How long more are we gonna play?" and Luqman beams, "We have to play all day long! Forever!"
Luqman calls this a Kimni Tickler. Until Ahmad corrected that it's a Chimney Sweeper. And he repeated it's a Kimni Sweeper.

More of Saufiville.

From Left: Luqman (yes, he's wearing a snorkelling goggle), Siraj, yours truly, Syarif, Ahmad

My second most favourite picture taken during the trip:) Safi looks suave. Almost.

Yes, a trip to Saufiville is not one to be missed.

diagnosis

My hands are frozen. My feet are numb. My neurons are on fire. Or at least they were. It's cooled down a bit more now:)

Today I feel more like a doctor. Well, everyday I am taking small steps to being one. But sometimes, the things that happen make you feel like you're more of a doctor that you were already before. Take for example my first feeling of being a doctor was not when I entered CUCMS but when I received my labcoat. Yes, they really do look suave with aplomb (great coolness and composure under strain- the strain would have to refer to the diagnoses and heavy workload doctors do).

But today I feel more of a doctor for two reasons:

Firstly, we have just finished diagnosing Ms J. A 33-year old clerk with diabetes mellitus. We, all 150 of us (but in groups of four), sat down for 3 and a half hours working out nonstop her hyperglycaemic conditions and her related hypertension and pancrease malfunction. It feels like you're in House's situation; except we're all facing each other and there's no grouchy head of diagnostics to bark sarcasm and call you a moron. After finding out how her chronic renal failure and diabetes type II were due to the abscense of beta cells, we had to stop and discuss with Prof H.

Which brings me to Physiology block. At first I thought it was going to be really stressing and tiring. Apparently Prof said not to listen to the seniors because they're just trying to scare us. Not that any of the seniors scared me- au contraire, they supported me and said that it was going to be great fun~ I'm not sure how it's going to be... so far things are quite smooth. Perhaps we shall see how smooth it goes after I take the first assessment tomorrow. Just by looking at the course policy gave me a myocardium infarction (heart attack) but I really enjoy Prof's classes because he always reminds us that:

1. Stress is self inflicted.
2. Physiology is alive; unlike anatomy which is dead.
3. Any of us who wants to leave or not do medicine can very well walk out because there is no forcing in his classes. Of course, no one has done it though.
   

Secondly, I've just received my stethoscope and tendon hammer. The stethoscope being carribean blue in colour and the tendon hammer being... gray. Stethoscopes are like the symbol of healthcare practicioners. The feeling of Littman's brand of Classic Stethoscope in your hands... It's... quite indescribable really.

These steps, albeit small ones, hopefully in the direction of making a difference and changing the world one smile at a time.

Div P HES

*drum roll*

and the second runner up for the Toastmasters Division P Humorous Speech Contest goes to:

AHMAD SALAHUDDIN!

Aaaaand the first runner up for the Toastmasters Division P Evaluation Speech Contest goes to:

ALIA NADHIRAH!

Not. Lol. I wish!:P If only... if only... Anyways, first runner up for Evaluation speech contest also goes to my brother, Ahmad. I'm just stealing his spotlight. But it IS good for visualizing technique. One day... one day I'll be somewhere up there- like Ahmad and my dad. Let's hope 16th September will be a learning experience for me since I'll be competing at Area C1 Evaluation Speech Contest.

Anyhow, we are super duper proud of you Angah- eventhough you didn't get Champion- first place. But after having won champion at club and area level it really is an achievement (eventhough you say it's not really).

Congratulations again.

You are an inspiration.

Strings

Every Friday, my dad sends me "My Friday Story- Inspirational and Motivating Stories". The email I received this time was exceptionally moving.

Strings

On November 18th, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, came on stage to give a concert at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City.

If you have ever been to a Perlman concert, you know that getting on stage is no personal achievement for him. He was stricken with polio as a child, and so he has braces on both legs and walks with the aid of two cruches. To see him walk across the stage on step at a time, painfully and slowly, is an inspiring sight.

He walks painfully, yet majestically, until he reaches his chair. Then he sits down, slowly, puts his crutches on the floor, undergoes the clasps on his legs, tucks one foot back and extends the other foot forward. Then he bends down and picks up the violin, puts it under his chin, nods to the conductor and proceeds to play.

By now, the audience is used to this ritual. They sit quietly while he makes his way across the stage to his chair. They reamin reverently silent while he undoes the clasps on his legs. THey wait unitl he is ready to play.

But this time, something went wrong. Just as he finished the first few bars, one of the strings on his violin broke. You could hear it snap - it went off like gunfire across the room. There was no mistaking what that sound meant. There was no mistaking what he had to do.

We figured that he would have to get up, put on the clasps again, pick up the crutches and limp his way off stage- to either find another violin or else find another string for this one. But he didn't. Instead, he waited a moment, closed his eyes and then signaled the conductor to beging again.

The orchestra began, and he palyed where he had left off. And he played with such passion and such power and such purity, as they had never heard before.

Of course, anyone knows that it is impossible to play a symphonuc work with just three strings. I know that, and you know that, but that night Itzhak Perlman refused to know that.

You could see him modulating, changing, re-composing the piece in his head. At one point, it sounded like he was detuning the strings to get new sounds from them that they had never made bfore.

When he finished, there was an awesome silence in the room. And then people rose and cheered. There was an extraordinary outburst of applause from every corner of the auditorium. We were all on our feet, screaming and cheering, doing everything we could to show how much we appreciated what he had done.

He smiled, wiped the sweat from his brow, raised his bow to quiet us, and then he said -not boastfully, but in a quiet, pensive, reverent tone- "You know, sometimes it is the artist's task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left."

What a powerful line that is. Perhaps that is the definition of life- not just for artists but for all of us.

Here is a man who has prepared all his life to make music on a violin of four strings, who, all of a sudden, in the middle of a concert, finds himself with only three strings; so he makes music with three strings, and the music he made that night with just three strings was more beautiful, more sacred, more memorably, than any that he had ever made before, when he had four strings.

So perhaps our task in this shaky, fast-changing, bewildering world in which we live... We will need to create msuic at first with all that we have, and then, when that is no longer possible, we weill need to create music with what we have left.

Are you looking for more strings in your life?