summer holiday in Australia

The family decided to spend its annual vacation in Australia this year.Z and Nik had not been to Sydney so we flew to Sydney and spent a couple of days there before going to my holiday island...Tasmania yg sejak kecil saya berangan nak pi tetapi semasa di Adelaide beberapa tahun tiada masa untuk ke sana.

Alhamdulillah...we also met friends.Sonia, Andrew and anaknya Polina - had Snowy Mountains trout dinner at their place in Coogee (another beautiful beach area).

We loved Bondi.And shopping is expensive di sini.Tak leh kalahkan KLlah.Sonia told me KL would be better any time.But it's Christmas time..banyak barang on sale.

We stayed at Surry Hills and most of the time pakai Uber sbb tak larat nak jalan.Both big nik and small nik enjoyed strolling around the touristic places: Sydney Opera House,Fish Market,Royal Botanical Garden..we had no time for galleries.Temp was 17C whn we got in.Sejuk!

Then it got better.Some Sydney pics.

choc dipped fruits

Sydney Fish Market

Easter eggs from real egg shells ukiran

Polina

dinner as prepared by Andrew

(I just took half of the trout cos' ikannya 

besar sgt)

Witty Andrew and his lovely wife who he accidentally

locked her and Polina out when picking us from Surry Hills

Sweet Polina who loves Malaysia so much

from her Asia-Pac symposium experience in KL

Dr. Sonia Mychak

 at Coogee

ahh..to be free...

 A fascinating book

 Tenang di sini

 My Bondi Pancake

Bondi Beach

Coogee Beach

halal

MoAs and MoUs

Sometimes I have to sit in for my Dean.Sometimes caught off guard to brief visiting delegates from anywhere: OIC, Indonesia, Libya, Tunisia. Then, you'll hear me like an old record, playing the same song.Tapi on good days, I would add new things like recently with the group from Tunisia.They didn't speak any English, I didn't speak any Arabic.Or French.Yang datang semua men (but nice and respectful of what I said). Their uni was older than Al Azhar. But the first uni in Morocco was built by a woman who originally came from Tunisia.And Ibnu Khaldun was Tunisian. So yes, they must be bright people with really good genes. They will return with projects with my Kulliyyah.Prof Mesawi (who acted as their guide and interpreter) will be responsible for this.I love the energy!

Not too long before this, a group of academics from Libya came to visit too.One had worked in the US for a long time, served the previous Libyan government as a Minister and now a consultant to the current government.He spoke English but his friend knew Arabic and French. I told them sebelum ni group Libya pun datang (when I was at Cerdas)but nothing came out of the meeting.Rupa2nya itu group sebelum revolution.I ni mmg blur when it comes to warring countries.Tak terkejar.Kejap perang, kejap tak perang.But we are happy to work with anyone except two days ago in a meeting at MITI, we were told soon the Strategic Trade Act would get to us at the unis.Certain progs (basically science and technology- based) and countries (like North Korea) will be on the authorities' watchlist - adalah pantang larangnya nanti.I asked where were we taking research culture in this country with this kind of control and restraints? Berapa byk laws lagi kita perlu? What has trade to do with education? When research products become trade products, ikut le existing trade law.Apparently the fear of certain knowledge being passed on to terrorists was the real concern.Eik, how do we know our student is a terrorist/not? And I'm sure there's enough surveillance and laws without another law?

I'm just a messenger.My top bosses will handle the matter.Both Ministries should talk to one another actually.Minister to Minister.Then just instruct.But I appreciate them approaching the communities dulu.

End of year

So many good people died this year. Nik's stepbrother Azman died in Perlis at such a young age.Dr Aldila passed away yesterday and I just heard one of my fb friends also died in a car accident (hit and run). Muka ketiga-tiganya sangat bersih dan sentiasa tersenyum. From fb, ucapan takziah mencurah2. How you live is how you die.Semoga bila tiba masanya, people have only good things to say of me walaupun mulut saya tiada insurance.

Macam semalam.I had to speak up when decisions made by my Dean were questioned by big bosses and not so big bosses. Benda2 remeh patut ckp belakang pintu ofis je le.Tak payah nak bising2 in public meeting and I had to stop it by requesting that we focus on REAL issues.Issuesnya publication and research kita bad.Address that.How tu kena muafakat.Penat la kalau pi kerja org asyik nak tunjuk upmanship ni (tak kira le lelaki or wanita).Like do we choose to be here at all? I told my Boss..go to sleep believing that we had given our best.Mmg la we are not totally innocent (for that Boss I dah minta maaf) but hey, life is short - just move on.

Nazir Idris' bday last night. Bukan dia kisah orang kasi hadiah ke hapa.He just wants to play on the ipad.But still adorable. His dad told us a funny story.Pakcik yang jaga rumah anak yatim tu asked him if he could teach English at the orphanage. Khairil asked kenapa pakcik ingat saya boleh ajar English? Pakcik tu cakap: sebab mu nampok international sikit. We laughed mcm nak runtuh rumah. Khairil is half Chinese but sekali pandang mmg mcm orang putih.Khairil said okaaayyy...when do we start? (melawak je tu)

And now earthquake in Acheh.I hope my friends there selamat semuanya.

5*

This came a while ago.Tak sempat nak flaunt.Hard work to reclaim our 5*

Hantu

I woke up with mata merah menyala in the morning. My gusi semua merah.I thought maybe the effect of the homeopathy medicine I took on Saturday but 24 hours effect? Scary.

But the night before I woke up when surah albaqarah ended (around 2 am and again around 4 am).Langsung tak leh tidur.I pasang balik albaqarah and my back against my phone where the verses flowed.My whole body rasa meremang then I felt suffocated.I baca sekuat2nya a'zubillahiminassyaitonnirrojeem.Takda suara keluar except owrg argh macam kena cekik dan tindih. I baca juga dlm kepala dan hati.Albaqarah terus berkumandang.Akhirnya I slept.When I woke up and washed my face in the morning...tengok cermin mata merah.I thought dah kena sakit mata ke.Cuci byk kali with air sejuk.The redness went away.

I told the USM driver what happened to me when he picked me for the viva.He said ada dengaq juga org kena kacau kat situ.My room was really berhadapan dgn bukit berhutan.The energy could be too strong.Mungkin laluan jin pun (hiway mrk).

Nasib satu malam sahaja.Next time I will avoid that rooom.309.Bad feng shui.
Bumped into Harry Aveling while I was going in to the viva room.He had a talk somewhere but he asked if we could catch up after my viva.So after an interesting session at the viva, I pi attended his talk on translation.Interesting juga then he nak tompang I pi airport.His flight was later. Dia tunggu le kat lobby tu sambil I berkemas2 kat bilik hantu tu.

We had time to catch up with news of mutual friends - Nancy is still teaching at West Virginia.I nak email add dia balik. One friend you will not forget.The whole family seronok berkawan dgn Nancy.
Dr Haslinda took us all to lunch at Bumblebees'.Jumpa a new friend who's married to a Spaniard and will be going to Chile to live there for good.Dia tak miss pun Msian food.Haha.Nice people at USM.

Nadia and I pi ronda2 at Georgetown.Ingat nak catch up with the literary festival.Semua dah habis.Ended up lunching at Black Kettle.Mlm tu I dined sorang and managed to chat with Sharifah's mom. Dr Aldila pun nmpk better (visited her at the hospital).Rezeki I jumpa dia dlm keadaan dia sihat.Semoga Allah mudahkan urusan penyembuhan dia.

Hujung minggu bersama para Professor

I'm here in Langkawi menggantikan Dato Wira for IIUM's Council of Professors. The meeting is held at a beautiful place by the beach (I'm practically on the water and it's such a joy to be surrounded by water)

Semalam media wanted to know pendapat para ilmuan ni tentang demo Bersih kuning dan merah ni. Big Boss mengajak semua wakil menyatakan pendirian menolak demo tu.Alamak..I was not warned that this would be done so I refused to join the group (I cannot speak on behalf of all Profs at IIUM..tak dapat mandat pun). Sometimes antara sebab why many Profs distance themselves from Majlis Professor Negara is this - bercakap mcm kita ahli politik.

However, there are really fantastic works done and I hope these will continue.Met some really awesome Profs (but looks like the good ones always get cold storaged or transferred or contracts not renewed). But benih baik campak ke laut jadi pulau, campak ke darat jadi gunung. Begitulah.And I'm glad I bump into them at this meeting.Truly inspiring.

Dato Hamdan (former FOMCA guy) is one funny guy.He was telling us about comments made by one of his friends asking if he takut isteri.He said tunggu..nanti kau jumpa isteri aku kau tau.And the friend saw her catching a huge biawak with her bare hands and according to the proud husband, she tangkap ular macam tu juga.Ular tedung tu she spray dgn Ridsect je sebelum she cut off its head dengan parang. Wough...I want to meet her! Prof Azni and I gelak macam nak rak but we were full of admiration of Datin. He must have loved her so much sebab dia cerita pasal dia in her absence with such pride.

Then there's Prof of Aqua-Culture.I like him sebab dia buat kerja nampak hasil sekelip mata.Impak tinggi not only to the uni he serves but the state he's in.Terasa jauh api dari panggang.I must share the stories with my IIUM friends.

We got our MyRA 5* alhamdulillah. And we got our 4 TRGS. Syukur alhamdulillah, everyone had worked hard. But I'm leaving RMC soonest my tenure ends.It's a stressful job.I need some breathing space from admin work.Research menimbun nak buat ni.