kaboom!

and I have changed someone in the household into a rabbit! (Tanjung pulak hilang sejak semalam and I am so upset)

Don't wanna talk about it.

All day meeting with the SBU gang (we planned for a get together soon..Prof Ismail ajak durian party...I pretended to like it sebab semua org excited.hahaha...I don't like durian that it has become a family joke..on both sides..my family and Nik's cos' everyone is crazy about durian.)

CERDAS is still a pauper in comparison with the rest (told Prof Faris..nasib tak negatip..yang lain tu sibuk suruh kita bayar cukai 30% tu..haha..5 years tax-free OK?).A couple of SBUs have joined the millionaires' club. The new Manager dropped by semalam and today and seemed to have lots of ideas already.We can only pray that it would be a good year this year.

Petang : dropped by to listen to a panel discussion on the Arab Spring. Interesting juga.Told them to read Paul Collier's book The Bottom Billion.

A group of visitors from Yogyakarta (funny lot). One thot I was in PR, for passionately promoting IIUM. :))
Topics: Anies Baswedan, impact of reformasi, expanding middle class in Indonesia (yuppies), dev of arts, films and literature.I find it much more interesting having conversations wih Indonesian academics than say Msian academics. Muahaha..jgn marah!

Tersenyum sorang2 berjalan balik ke kulliyyah (the group was teasing me and I nak tergelak over a remark made by one of them :I am proud of IIUM") dan tiba2 Ali Adoun muncul siap bertali leher!

How long has it been? 2008? 2009? (some get-together with the family every now and then but last year, very rare).Biasalah Ali (who'd go..wallahi..no Prof Faridah, no alumni...hahaha) Tadi pun...we were discussing the Arab Spring.I shared with him my thots.He went wallahi ...you are right...wallahi I miss talking with you. :))

And this is how I become a passionate spokesperson of IIUM...

Post Spore trip

Wough, the whole trip was tiring.Midnite flight to KL.I got Nik to pick me up (tak larat nak mengangkut luggage turun naik train to KL Sentral.Lucky besoknya Saturday).

Besoknya: I could barely pick myself up.Rang up my Arabic teacher, telling him I'd be late.Penat woh. Dah la tak sempat buat homework, teacher buat lawak pulak and asked us to buat ayat in Arabic cerita balik lawak dia. I tried buat shortcut...tak jalan.

I thought tahun ni punya conference tak seseronok the first one I attended.Kirp was so kind to introduce me to the conference masa Kanika and team nak present their Krash Pad project (which impressed most at the conference.I had the Msian Deputy High Commisioner, an academic from Melbourne coming to me and wanting more collaborations.Good for the kids at Krash Pad and Kanika and team.We didn't expect the project to snowball like this.Syukurlah)

There were new faces and new sessions which I did enjoy.Marina Mahathir's keynote on Islam and Feminism was good, I thought (dia takda la sentuh benda2 sensitif in her address e.g safe sex pakai condom even for Muslims).

Hani (a new friend, lecturer, film maker, activist) showed us horrific short films about women trafficking and forest brothels in Spore.Rasa nak marah lah bila tengok mcm tu.The law makers bukan nak bertindak.Authorities yang patut protect, buat apa je?

I had to leave early but plan to return for the Broadway show playing till April.Wicked!(nama musical ni)

Back in Singapore

This is my New York of the East. :)

Got in very late tadi (I malas nak kensel class). There's a new boy in town dari England in my Master's class.Orang putih Muslim.He's a History major tapi entah macamana nak join my Renaissance class.Mula2 my students termalu2 but lama2 mcm biasa. Budak Thomas ni pun OK.Byk ilmu dia which we can tap also like the ancient Egyptians dah lama pandai bercukur so Tun Mahathir was wrong to say the Prophet (pbuh) tak bercukur sebab takda gillette masa tu.

Datin Seri Marina Mahathir will be the conference's keynote besok.But I'm looking fwd to attending workshop percuma on management...(I was told I boleh attend percuma....haha..me cheapskate!) Malam kita dine at Swiss restaurant.Jangan jeles....

I'll update my findings.Watch this space.

of IOK and a missing rabbit

The 4 of us: me, Dr. Haja Mohideen, Dr Ismail and Dr Mahmudul shared a panel on IOK and English.I thought it was fun.Mahmud ni kelakar and had everyone in stitches dgn lawak selambanya.

Teja went missing dah 3 hari. I have decided no more pets after this.Tanjung will be given to anyone who wants.Enough heart breaks (every time rabbit mati, every time rabbit hilang).


I'm letting you go, Teja. Fly, good memories!

Poster competition

My Kulliyyah hosts this year's IRIIE and Mei and I submitted a poster.The fun bit was meeting other exhibitors from kulliyyah of sciences.best..kita belajar pasal commercial products mrk dibuat dari pokok sintok.kita siap beli.haha.We also taught them about Literature.

Yang tak tahan bila judges datang interbiu kita.Mcm pi viva. :))

Back in class, we did a session on hellenistic philosophy.Berasap kepala but pretty interesting when the students spoke of their readings on al kindi, ibn sina, ibn khaldun, ikhwan safa and we compared their ideas and influnces on modern thoughts.I think hellenistic philosophy ni over-ratedlah.

I think I'd sleep early tonight...long day,mah.

My Arabic class

CERDAS runs an Arabic class meant for busy people till May,about 60 hours for close to rm2k.I signed up cos was so impressed by the teaching tehniques shown in the corporate video.haha..i'm easily sold,kan?

But I've had 4 classes already and I think I can read and write better now as well as speak a bit walaupun ada masalah lupa.haha

Hari ni teacher bawak one lady from Holland to share with us how she survived the learning.she goes to yemen and stays there for a month annually and does an hour or two daily.sekarang she dtg msia cos the teacher lives in msia now.wow.mike tanya wht do you do for a living.i thot that was a funny question.haha.but jawabannya funnier.lady ni pilot helicopter.we went waaaaaahhhhh....

Today's lesson was very challenging.teacher suruh ambik barang2....sometimes mineral water bawah meja,kunci atas kerusi,bag mike,air mike,kunci khairunnisa.i rasa nak nangislah!then we had to construct sentences verbally.

And masa nilah kawan kita kat Spore jemput I pi conference 3 days all paid for.I said Saturday cannot woh..sayang my arabic class.Thursday and Friday line clear.It'd be good to see friends in Spore again..We'll see how.

The little, little things in life...

You know it's been one stressful experience, kan these last few weeks?

Just when my day was ending yesterday, Mei came to pick up some stuffs from the office.With a nicely wrapped gift for me.

Waaaahhhh...ini yang dikatakan rezeki datang dari arah yang tidak disangka-sangka.
She said Tania and she picked the colour I like.What, the black and white wrapper?

No..the purple leather purse, from Germany ke dik? :))
Waaahhh..thank you so much Mei!

Mei ni PR dia bagussss.She also wrote this:

Because you are so inspiring! Simply the greatest woman of the 21st century!

Haha..I thought I record this cos' it's the little, little things in life that will help cheer you up on bad days. :)

Mei, like most former students (now a colleague) has gone through ups and downs with me through the years (termasuk the recent crazy days in Perth). The purple purse is a tribute for all those years, gamaknya.

Terima kasihlah. We never expect material returns but if our students do well, kita tompang gumbira.