That end of the year post

My calendar stats for 2011:

Offshore Malaysia & living abroad (Vietnam & Oman): 171 days

On land (in Malaysia that is): 194 days

Judging from this, one may think I have no life. There is a little truth to that because I missed out on a lot of birthdays, Eid celebration, weddings, vacations with family, friends gathering etc. But truth been told, I would not miss any chance at all to go to places even when it is a hostile environment. If I were to put aside the fancy perks from all this, I'd say it is worthwhile to be away for awhile from all the madness in a big city. It's different when I'm out there in a middle of the ocean or desert. One may say, what can you do other than staring the sky for some stars or watching the beautiful sunset/sunrise, but let me tell you it is more than meets the eye. It's just more relaxing in a way because I get to escape the city. Maybe because I come from Kuantan, a rather small town in Malaysia and I went to London, Ontario to study...again, a small town in Canada. Escaping the frenzied and overpriced city for awhile is a blessing.

I'm still young (25 years old in 2012!!) with minimal responsibilities. I believe here is the chance for all this. Having said that, my thoughts are heading towards keeping myself grounded, be more independent and take more responsibilities. I feel it's time, for responsibilities, I mean.

Trust me, I think the future is scary!

p/s: le me is bored. le me is at Dubai Airport waiting for my flight to KL

No joke! I am getting chubbier!

Teasing with Dubai

So far, I have nothing big to write. I'm still compiling my Middle Eastern stories, so that's coming up in January. My work (been working in the desert for few weeks now) has just gotten a bit intense for the past couple of weeks with lack of sleep and all. Until now my head is still throbbing from irregular sleeping pattern. Well, there is always panadol for that!

Anyways, some teaser photos. You know by now I'm addicted to editing photos; so here are a few of Dubai pictures. Somehow, of all the great and amazing architecture in Dubai, I'm very deeply amazed by Burj al-Arab. There is something bout this building that captivates me. Maybe it's the luxury feeling, I don't know.

I spent a few hours by the Umm Suqeim beach, reading "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac and just enjoying the view. From this beach, you get an excellent view of the 7-star hotel. I was a loner in Dubai, so photos of me were all from-my-extended-arm-with-the-help-of-my-flip-about-screen. Whats more, I wanted to enjoy the sunset with Burj al-Arab as the background.

Just so you know, some people find it hard to take that I am 24 years old. In my attempt to look more mature, I decided to try this fancy mancy hijab style people are wearing these days. I actually spent some time watching tutorials on how to get it right! Moving from simple & easy tudung bawal to this? It wasn't that life changing, though. I ended up making a complete "OMG" of myself. Sigh. First take, don't wear this style to the beach cause there is this thing called "wind". They like to sweep things out of order.

First of all, I don't think I got it right. Anyways, it looks all good to go back in the hotel. Snap snap a few pics to prove I got it! Well, that's picture bottom right and middle right. At the beach, the wind blew my tudung and it got so messy. I tried to fix it, but com'on the wind WAS blowing WHILE I was fixing my tudung. Go figure! I ended up taking a brooch and pinned the loose end somewhere over my shoulder...The last picture on the top right was the final result. BIG SIGH.

Other than that mishap, I enjoyed my afternoon at the beach :)

(I was hoping there is a ice cream place nearby. boohoo)

Burj al-Arab thru my perspective.

p/s: I used Picasa to edit my photos. Simple software! I love it

Moon eclipse :)

Moon eclipsee! I feel fortunate that I get to see it without any restrictions! Subhanallah!

Aaaaa...the many many happy things bout being in a desert :) My camera is no DSLR (Canon G12 jerr), but I tried my best.

You sure can see the Sun partially covering the Moon.

My favourite shot of the night! I played with the aperture and I got this :)

A sense of what I do here. A drilling rig...

The crew :)

And this is a shot of the Moon that I took back when I was in Canada.

I was using my dad's camera with super awesome lens...I wish I have it now :)

:) Yeayy desert!

2 Blogs

Two things that I would love to do is to have a travel blog and a food blog. All this while my traveling stories are compiled and written here, but I don't feel it is dedicated enough. Meaning to say, I don't share the whole journey. I had this idea back in third year when I was traveling with a friend in Quebec City. Well at that time we were in Chicoutimi and we thought of writing bout the places we went where people hardly travel to. That idea was a hit for few months that we even thought of names for the blog. I came out with "Sidewalk and about" and to tell you how excited I was, I made the header already...2 years ago....tapi the sight of the blog, is not even anywhere close. Big sighh...Maybe this will come true one of these days. I just need to find somebody willing to share this traveling blog with, i.e share their traveling stories and we compile ours in a blog.

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The header I was so excited to do.

Most of the pictures were from that one month trip I had back in Summer 2009.

I don't finish the quote I had there, I just forgot who said it >.<

As for food blog, I've always love cooking and all this while I always take pictures of the food I cooked, either I created that dish or just tried others' recipes. Back in my student days, my food was always the lots-of-veggies-towards-healthy-diet kinda food but now I'm more keen on experimenting local dishes, somehow. If I were to choose my signature dish, it would probably the sherperd pie in which I had "asianized" it. Many had tasted this version I made and so far they all love it. LOL. I think my mee bandung recipe which I got from my mom was good too, but I'm yet a pro in making it. It will be exciting to have such blog, to share what I love and what I've made with others. Hmmmm...maybe one day! But I don't do desserts, though. Hehe.

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The sherperd pie I made back in Canada.

p/s: I'm craving for noodle soup right now...mana nak cari tengah2 desert.

Ticking advice

| and so, I am catching it|

That's engraved at the back of my iPod in which I bought in 2008. Ever since, I never really dig deep to value what I've engraved and somehow these words just slipped by without notice. I do more now and I believe they are strong words. It serves as a reminder to myself that nothing should be taken for granted, let alone letting an opportunity wasted in front of you. Therefore, seize them so that you don't look back at the things you've missed. Three years into it, I still believe in them and any opportunity given or earn is my path to somewhere better because I learn along the way. I am happy that I see things the way I do, but I just need to be more positive about things. That positive mindset will be my forte one day, insya Allah.

Of all the things that I am today, I will never forget how I got here. And I will never forget all the people that helped me get here. I feel blessed. Bless them.

And so, I am catching it. Whatever IT may be.