Thursday, February 24, 2011

Buku kira-kira saya

When I was recording my daily expenses in my note book just now, I suddenly came up with the idea of sharing this with you. For those who are close to me might have known how my everyday expenses will be recorded in my little 'buku belanjawan tahunan'. And I'll try not to miss any single cent in there.

Buku belanjawan 2011

I started doing all the recordings since I was in primary school. Masa tu rekod cara budak-budak la. Mak akan bagi duit poket sebulan sekali. Kalau tak salah RM45/sebulan ~ RM10/seminggu ~ RM2/sehari. Itulah duit tambang bas, itulah duit makan, itulah duit pegi mengaji, itulah duit nak beli jajan. Pendek kata, itulah segala-galanya.

Jadi, pandai-pandailah kau buat bajet sendiri supaya hujung bulan tak payah buat muka kesian mintak duit extra dekat mak. Susah sungguh bagi seorang budak Darjah 5 untuk buat semua tu. Tiap-tiap minggu I akan simpan RM1 supaya hujung bulan boleh beli komik Doraemon yang berharga RM4.20. Ohh, kenangan~~

Kesukaan semua kanak-kanak [photo courtesy]

Masuk sekolah menengah pulak, Mak bagi duit belanja seminggu sekali. Up sikit masa tu. RM15/seminggu ~ RM3/sehari. Sama macam dulu. Itulah segala-galanya. Tambang bas pergi dan balik, duit makan pagi, duit makan tengahari, duit aktiviti petang, duit nak beli getah rambut, duit nak beli Cornetto etc. Pandai-pandailah adjust sendiri.

Tapi masa tu I pengumpul setia novel Sweet Valley Senior Year. Jadi tiap-tiap minggu I akan simpan RM2 untuk beli novel yang berharga RM11.90 dekat Kedai Buku Harfa. Ohh, collection setiap bulan hanya RM8, balance lagi RM3.90 tu I akan buat muka kesian dekat bapak suruh belanja. Mengelat!:p

I have the same collection as above (SVH Senior Year 1-43) [photo courtesy]

Bila masuk UTM, I dah ada duit belanja sendiri, memang kurang sangatlah mintak duit dekat mak. Paling tidak pun hujung semester buat suara kesian dalam telephone, mak pun akan bank in dua tiga ratus. Yahuuuu!! Masa dekat UTM ni la yang I mula buat buku belanjawan secara komprehensif. Takkan tinggal sesen pun. Sungguh tabah merekod!

Masa tu bajet adalah RM50/seminggu. Itupun dah lebih dari cukup. Siap boleh pergi makan dekat KFC atau McD dengan kawan-kawan masa hujung minggu dekat JJ Taman U. Zaman di UTM pulak I kumpul novel dari siri Little Black Dress. Harga novel tu RM19.90 dan I takkan miss satu buku pun setiap bulan.

Salah satu favorite dalam koleksi [photo courtesy]

Sekarang, I ada 2 jenis buku belanjawan. Satu untuk record segala perbelanjaan duit gaji di Malaysia. Nak bayar rumah, kereta, credit card, duit untuk mak dan bapak, savings Tabung Haji. Percaya atau tidak, lepas ditolak semua perbelanjaan kat atas, tinggal lah angka yang tak seberapa dalam akaun CIMB ku. Ohh~~

Perbelanjaan di Malaysia

Lagi satu buku pulak untuk record semua perbelanjaan I dekat sini. My daily expenses. Lebih kurang AUD100/seminggu. Dalam tu lah segala-galanya. Groceries, mangkuk tingkat, lepak-lepak, coffee, beli fries, topup, beli solution contact lense, beli baju Cotton On. Eh,tetiba masuk shopping sekali. hehe. Tapi itulah hakikatnya.

Rekod perbelanjaan harian di sini

Mungkin ada setengah orang akan anggap I ni jenis calculative orangnya. Maybe I am. Tapi I bukan lah jenis yang kedekut untuk berbelanja. I will grab anyting I like, but everything must be recorded. Bukan apa, bila kita rekod, kita dapat trace balik macamana perbelanjaan yang lepas samada keperluan atau nafsu semata-mata. InsyaAllah kita tak akan salah membeli lagi lepas tu..=))

Sunday, February 20, 2011

A story about a teacher with her brilliant students

When I was browsing through some of my notes just now, I suddenly came up with the thought on this matter. Okay, let me explain with the following situation:-

The fourth-graders were having a lesson in arithmetic, and their teacher, Miss A, greeted her students with a very simple question.

"If a man can walk three miles in one hour, how many miles can he walk in four hours?"

So, one of the brightest student of hers, Student B, quickly raised his hand and gave his answer, "12 miles teacher!!"

When Miss A started to smile realizing how lucky she is having Student B in her class, another pupil, Student C popped up his hand.

"Teacher, he might be quite right, but for me, it would depend on how tired he got after the first hour," he answered.

The other pupils burst into laughters. Then Miss A rapped for order.

"I never looked at the problem that way before. I always supposed that man could walk twelve miles in four hours, but Student C might be right. That man may not feel so spunky after the first hour. He may drag his feet. He may slow up."

Right upon her comment, Student D raised his hand. "I think there might be cases where a man tried to walk twelve miles, and he died of heart failure," Student D said.

"Oh my Goodness!!" said the teacher. "I suppose that could happen too."

"Anything could happen in four hours, teacher," said Student C. "We never knew what will happen to us during the few hours ahead. "

"It would indeed," agreed the teacher. "Well children, I think we have learned a great deal about arithmetic today, thanks everybody for your ideas. But remember, in exam, this question still requires 12 miles as the answer." The class ended with all other pupils roared.

Hmm, when I think deeply about this, mathematically speaking, yes, the answer is 12 miles. But in real life situation, it might not be quite right.

We might want something to come out as what it is SUPPOSE to be, but we never knew what is actually waiting for us in future. There might be something comes up that will slow us down, or for the worst case, something that will stop us from doing that forever. Think~ think~

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Dilema gadis bermata sepet

So today I went to my aerobic class again. It was a 1-hour non-stop-penat-nak-mampus aerobic components. Okay, that's not the point. I want to tell you about other thing. When I was in the changing room, right after my shower, I frust gila tengok tempat hair-dryer yang masih kosong. Kene service kalau tak salah.

Hmm, masalah ni. How can I put on my scarf with my wet hair. So I decided to wait for a while and dried my hair MANUALLY. You know, kibas-kibas dengan tangan laju-laju ke kiri ke kanan ke depan ke belakang dengan harapan rambut cepat kering. Kesian kan.

After a while, I saw these two girls from my BodyBurn class. Rasanya awek-awek Korea atau Jepun ni sebab muka comel nak mati. Diorang pun tengah bersiap-siap. I senyum je la sambil borak-borak kosong. TIBA-TIBA, salah sorang bawak keluar hair-dryer. Weeeeee~~~ Ada chance nak mintak pinjam..=))

Lepas diorang dah siap guna hair-dryer hak milik persendirian tu, I pun dengan muka kesiannya pegi la tumpang tanya boleh tak nak pinjam kejap. So I approached one of them, "Hi, excuse me. Do you mind if I borrow your hair-dryer for a little while. I really really need to get my hair dried before I can put my scarf on". Then she said yes. Yahuuuu!!

Lepas dah keringkan rambut sikit-sikit, I pulangkan dekat tuan punya yang comel lote tu, I pun siap-siap la nak pakai tudung. Awek dua orang ni dok ada lagi sambil dok tengok-tengok. Aduhhh, apesal diorang tengok-tengok ni. Aku rosakkan hair-dryer ke? Mati la kalo rosak. Tak dapek den nak ganti hair-dryer kaler bright pink macam tu.

I pun terus je la pakai tudung. Then diorang datang dekat and tanya I kenapa I pakai tudung. I bagitau la I'm a Muslim, and I need to get my hair covered. Tiba-tiba dua-dua tu terus cakap, "Oooooooooo" panjang gila. I tanya la kenapa. One of them said, "I thought you are a Chinese girl. You really look like our Chinese friend. I thought Muslim people only look like the ones from Arabic countries."

Dah sudah. Harap muka je comel. Tapi general knowledge kurang. Taktau ke yang kat China tu raaaaamaiiii Muslim. Ha, kan semua rupa macam I kat situ. Haiyaaaa..

Btw, this is not the first time I was mistakenly approached as a Chinese. Masa kecik-kecik dulu sedih la kalau orang cakap muka macam Cina. Tapi bila dah banyak kali sangat, tak heran dah. hahaha. Mata sepet pun sepet la ye. Bila senyum terus tak nampak mata. hahahaha. Amoi.. amoi.. Nasib kau la ye..

Dua beradik yang bermata sepet. Kalau masuk Burhan, jadi tiga.

Contoh senyum tak nampak mata. Patut la orang konfius Melayu ke Cina. Haha. Lawak~~

Monday, February 14, 2011

When Amirah met ladybirds

Assalamualaikum,

How's life treating you today? Mine is pretty monotonous. Nothing much exciting I could say. Hmm, because of the weather perhaps? Dah berapa hari matahari asyik menyorok belakang awan je. Malu-malu pulak dia nak keluar. Langsung tak ceria hidup I. Haihh.


Hey Amirah, could you please stop blaming the weather for not being so nice to you? Masa panas komplen, now dah sejuk pun lagi nak banyak bunyik. Bersyukurlah deyy.. Apparaaa..

Baiklah, saya tak komplen lagi.. T__T


Hari ni I bergayut dengan mak lama gila. Satu jam suku. And it costed me about AUD165.40. Uii, banyak tu! Takpe, I baru guna separuh dari total AUD650 tu. Tinggal lagi 10hari nak habiskan call credit lagi AUD350. Esok lusa boleh call mak lama-lama lagi. Syoknyaaaa!!


Biasanya, asal tension buat kerja je I akan turun pi duduk bawah pokok mana-mana. Then tepon mak. Bukan mengadu pasal kerja pun. Dengar je mak cerita pasal apa-apa kat rumah, I will feel better. Lepas cakap dengan mak, naik atas sambung buat kerja balik macam takde pape masalah. See how a mother's words can easily ease your fretful feelings. Magic kan? =))

Once upon a time on a very sunny day. And this young lady went crazy seeing these colourful ladybirds on the grass.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Bibik ohh bibik

Hello sweetie pie,

The weather has been a bit dull today making my mood couldn't be any more brighter. Bangun pagi-pagi terus jadi bibik. Kemas rumah apa-apa yang patut. Vacuum sini sana. Tapi sakit tangan akibat bergusti lengan dengan ketulan ais dalam freezer yang super degil taknak tanggal walaupun dah defrost semalaman. Serius sakit gila sekarang. Aduhhh..

Owh, cakap pasal jadi bibik. I forgot to tell you that I started working since yesterday. Erk? Kerja? Yes, I'm not kidding you darling. I kerja jadi part time bibik dekat rumah Susan sekali seminggu. Memandangkan Kak Azean balik Malaysia, so, I la yang ganti tempat dia buat sementara waktu. Nanti bila Kak Azean balik, I tak kerja dah la. Come, let me tell you about my work.

Pukul 10am Susan datang ambik dekat rumah. Dalam pukul 10.30 macam tu I mula kemas dapur. Lepas tu I vacuum satu rumah. Lepas vacuum, terus mop lantai pulak. Sementara nak tunggu lantai kering, I cuci toilet. Lepas siap cuci toilet, bentang balik semua carpet yang ada. Kadang-kadang kena tukar bedsheet, tapi minggu ni Susan cakap tak payah. Dalam pukul 1pm semua kerja dah siap. Susan hantar I balik. See how simple is that?

Kenapa nak kerja? Tak cukup duit ke? No! Not at all. I did this for fun. Really! Spending 2-3hours doing housechores like these really gave me good experiences. And enhancing my cleaning skills at the same time. And of course good pay. Teehee..:p

Owh, nanti dah tua-tua boleh la cerita dekat cucu, "Dulu masa nenek buat PhD dekat Ostolia dulu, nenek penah kerja jadi cleaner. Untung atuk awak dapat cleaner special trained dari Ostolia". kahkahkah. Gila berangan siap ade cucu. Okay tipu. Stop it!

Hmm, jaga budak sudah. Tukang cuci pun sudah. What's next? Gardener perhaps? =))

Sekarang nak berangan jadi tukang kebun bunga tulip..=))

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

My Dream Wedding

Dear diary,

Last night I had a conversation with Mr Bf on when does the right time for us to tie the knot. We don't normally have this discussion in serious before this, really. I mean, there's no specific plan on when, where, how and all other sort of things, as we might just want to go with the flow. But then, last night was different.

We talked about quite a number of things. But two were thoroughly discussed according to our subject of preferences. Possible dates and budgets. Then I realize that this is not a plain conversation we are talking about. This is about marriage. And it demands deep and huge amount of efforts to make it happen. I think I'm not gonna say anything in details over here. Let it just be between me and him and of course The Almighty. We can only plan. Allah SWT will do the rest.

Our Prophet Muhammad SAW considered simple weddings as the best weddings. And the best wedding is that upon which the least trouble and expense is bestowed. When I look about this in depth, marriage in Islam is considered as ibadah and the marriage ceremony itself is considered as a social as well as religious activity. And I would also love to highlight here that Islam advocates simplicity in ceremonies and celebrations. So, these are all the things that you basically need for a marriage:

Primary Requirements
  1. Mutual agreement (Ijab Kabul) by the bride and the groom
  2. Two adult and sane witnesses
  3. Mahr (marriage-gift) to be paid by the groom to the bride
Secondary Requirements
  1. Legal guardian (wali) representing the bride
  2. Written marriage contract
  3. Qadi (a responsible person officiating the marriage ceremony)
  4. Khutba-tun-Nikah to solemnize the marriage

Then, when everything above is ideally done, the marriage banquet (walimah) will follow. The relatives, neighbours, and friends are invited to make them aware of the marriage. Both rich and poor of the family and community are invited to the marriage feast. That's all for a complete wedding.

Hmm, how simple is that right? So, I PERSONALLY hope that my wedding would be as simple as this. Tak perlu bermegah-megah dengan majlis yang besar-besaran. No, no such thing like that. Saya mengharapkan majlis yang ringkas, tapi biarlah sempurna. InsyaAllah.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Baju kelawar pun cantik kan?

Hari ni masuk hari ke 5 yang panas gila taktau nak explain macam mana lagi dah. Tiap tiap hari I kena fikir nak pakai baju apa yang paling selesa dalam cuaca macam ni. I really need to wear something loose and comfy. Rasa macam nak pakai baju kelawar je pegi mana-mana. Berangin je. hahaha. But too bad I dont have any here. Ada siapa-siapa yang baik hati nak pos baju kelawar corak pelangi tak?? I really really need one now.huhu..

Style jugak pakai baju kelawar macam ni kan. Yang penting berangin. [photo courtesy]


Lepas tu teringat pulak baju Kedah yang nenek-nenek suka pakai tu. The material is 100% cotton and it is made very loose with cute and sweet flower prints pattern. Pakai pulak dengan kain batik. Perghhh, lagi berangin. Tapi I pulak yang tak berapa reti nak pakai kain batik. Boleh tu boleh. Cuma paling lama boleh tahan dalam 10menet. Tu pun dah control jalan ayu gila taknak bagi tertanggal.hahaha. After 10minutes, that's it! Sila pergi tukar uniform cepat! Respect gila dekat mak-mak yang pakai kain batik sambil buat kerja rumah laju-laju tanpa perlu risau kain batik tertanggal dan tertinggal kat mana-mana.hahaha..:p


Dekat rumah tok ada banyak.hehe.. [photo courtesy]

Then I finally made up my mind to wear my baju kurung which was long stored underneath my bed. Hmm, not too bad. Baju kurung sangat la selesa dipakai. But then I wish I have more baju kurung which is made from 100% cotton with all the cute flower prints. Can I? No? Okay, enough! Boleh tak jangan berangan benda yang tak wujud kat sini? Bertahan lagi 2 hari je. Then the weather is gonna be back to normal. Hopefully..


Hmm, bila fikir balik, in the end, baju tradisional macam ni jugak yang jadi pilihan I dalam cuaca yang panas menggila macam sekarang ni. Best gila kalau dapat pakai baju kelawar, baju kedah, baju kurung yang corak comel-comel tu. Tapi jangan la pakai baju kelawar lepas tu tepek bedak sejuk penuh muka lepas tu keluar sapu sampah depan rumah. Ohh, yang tu sungguh tak comel. Jangan buat okay!=))

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Exercise? Perlu ke?

Happy first February dear diary!


Pagi tadi masa pack my gym outfits, tiba-tiba terfikir why am I doing this? I mean, kenapa nak kena excercise? Dah la panas sekarang ni, nanti complaint berpeluh la, letih la, lenguh kaki la and bla bla bla. But then, I realize that excercising is one of the ways to make me feel good. Feeling good here means not only for now but hopefully for the future as well.


Btw, appearance in public is somehow quite important am I right? Sebab tu la kita mandi tiap tiap hari (apesal omputih tak mandi pagi pun still nampak macam superstar huh?), then pilih baju apa nak pakai, lepas tu check gigi kot kot ada terlekat cili makan nasik lemak pagi tadi. Ngeri tau kalau baru lepas borak dengan orang, tiba-tiba bila pegi toilet tengok ada cili baik punya landing kat gigi.kahkahkah. Damn you cili!! Spoiling my whole day mood. Euww, macam gegirl la you ni Amirah. Cili pun nak kecoh. Apa daaa! But hey, that's the truth kan? kan?


I'm worry that we have gotten so obsessed with how we look that we no longer care about how we feel. Now think about how your body feels after a workout. Your muscles are warm and flexible, the blood is pumping through your body, providing oxygen and energy. You feel energized, confident, proud of yourself and ready to face the world. Woahhh! Cakap nak hebat je. Tapi tu la hakikatnye perasaan lepas bersukan. Remember that our bodies are made to move, not to sit around all day aka menambah ketebalan lapisan lemak.


Bukan susah pun, buat je cardio workout 20minit sehari. Kat rumah pun boleh buat. Tapi kena bersedia dengan CABARAN tiba tiba nampak drama TV3 la, time tu la rasa nak makan biskut cicah milo la, nak kena angkat baju kat penyidai sebab nak hujan la, dan macam-macam jenis distraction lagi. Sebab tu ada kelebihannya kalau tak buat di rumah, contohnya macam dekat gym. Kiri kanan kau nampak orang dok pulun excercise je, so akan terus bersemangat. But honestly, I pegi maximum 3kali je seminggu. The rest I prefer to do it at home according to my own sweet time.


Sebenarnya kalau terlampau stress dekat office pun I suka pergi excercise. Kadang-kadang rasa sakit urat, sakit sendi, sakit belakang, padahal bukan kerja angkut batu bata pon. Tapi bila duduk diam mengadap komputer terlampau lama, memang terasa darah panas tu rasa naik sampai ke tengkuk. Kalau dah rasa terlampau stress sampai camtu, I will simply get change, sumbat ear phone kat telinga dengar lagu, then terus menapak ke gym. Owh, speaking of which, it's time to get sweat now. Tata!

My messy workspace. Tempat mengundang segala stress.