Good News!

For the past few weeks, I have been worried sick about my passport and birth cert. I sent the 2 important documents to UK border agency but instead of sending it to Nationality Centre, i sent it to department for british citizenship... same place but different postcode. I called tp line bz.. i emailed but they can't divulge that information online... Allah saja yang tahu my sleepless nights thinking mcm mana, bila nak dpt balik, sampai ke docs tu..

And alhamdulillah, 1 month after my postage date, I came home to find a letter from the border agency with my certificate of entitlement to right of abode. I was so happy and bersyukur beyond words. RoA basically means I can enter UK without visa or immigration control, do not need permission to leave and may work and live here without restrictions plus have some privilage of that of British citizens.

And from the letter I got, with RoA when returning to UK you can also enter as 'British/EU passport'.. I find that to be cool as the lines for Brit passport is usually shorter than that of foreign passport..


On another note, my foetus is now 32 weeks this Sunday.. MasyaAllah.. kejap je rasa.. as I nervously await the birth of my baby, I would like to thank Allah for making this journey of that I can sabar and face upon. I've grown stronger and more mature from this experience.. Yes, God knows what we are capable of and to tell you the truth, I never thought I am capable of this. Everybody kept saying "I don't know how you do it" and "I could never do what you're doing".. 'you're pregnant and doing PhD with a child here and hubby in M'sia'.. :) baik my frens or frens of my BIL and family.

Yes i do struggle, especially now i'm entering my 3rd trimester, my cramps esp my legs are getting more frequent.. malam2 i cannot sleep and i wake in the middle of the nite leg cramp and urut sorang2.. I walk a lot.. from this house to the train station, and from Richmond i change to tube station and from there I walk to campus.. it's a 1 1/2 hour journey to go to campus and when i get home I am soooo exhausted. And Yes, I do feel emotional and hormonal and all those things that pregnant women experience..

I'm only human...

But I face it.. and i dont normally show it, my difficulty, my emotions.. i've never regreted doing this or being here.. I know this is the best for me.. prior to this with istikharah and solat hajat and a lot of muhasabah diri, i deal with it as it comes..

i love it when Ross said to Rachel "of course you're unreasonable but you're allowed to be.. cos you're carrying a child".. granted it's TV but I guess itu sebab juga utk ibu mengandung Allah bagi bnyk kelebihan like doa makbul, leniency utk puasa, bnyk pahala, salah satu mati syahid and so on because clearly, this is a difficult and emotional journey.

... but I would not change it for the world..

Aqil's New Slide

In my last post, I mentioned how much Aqil loved the park especially playing with swings and slides. And because of my condition, I can't bring him to the park everyday so if you can't do something, find alternative..

Argos was having a few price cuts and there was GBP5 off a junior slide. Dulu nak beli tp rasa mcm mahal, check dekat e-bay, bid tapi kalah and the price of bid was quite high. So bila ada price slash, minta Abg Yoh drive me to Staines with Aqil and we bought a slide..

Mula2 Aqil was crying, yelah, dia jarang dpt keluar, bila dapat happy sangat sampai lari sana lari sini, tgk2 pergi kejap je utk ambik slide.. Mengamuk la dia.. so lama lepas tu, kami pun assemble the slide and bila dia dah calm down, he went on it..

It was so worth the effort and money..








Being a mum, you need to be creative, so before Aqil gets bored, I got a bit innovative and turned Abg Dy's unused car boot container into a water slide.. mula2 Nat tgk je, lps tu dia pun nak join.. from wearing panty lepas tu ikut Aqil, birthday suit jelah nampaknya.. gambar yg plg tak expose so that dua2 boleh tutup aib sikit.. hehehe..









Mmmm.. I wonder what's our next activity will be.. already got the supplies and kit so watch this space guys :p

First BBQ

Last Saturday Fadhil's wife, Kak Mas came here to visit her hubby so a BBQ was arranged. It's our (Aqil n I) first BBQ here and we just loved it. Teringat zaman2 kecik dulu sll buat BBQ kt our backyard..







Seronok Aqil mkn chicken.. lovely sunny day as well.. K Bib masak laksa Penang, yg lain bw potluck nasi goreng, mihun, roti jala, agar2.. yumm...

Weekend for Aqil

In my last post, I wrote on how I wanted to take Aqil out for an outing. So I called up my longtime friend, Hafizah who's in Notts doing her PhD and told her I wanted to visit. She was more than happy to receive me but in the end, to cut the story short, ticket habis so we ended up at Kareem's instead.

Kareem invited us to go to Westfield with him where besides shopping we brought the kids to play area..suka sangat si Aqil tu.. and then bought lunch and had a picnic at Shepherd's Bush Park.. where Aqil played with slides and swings...

I was so happy Aqil was having fun..

My usual Saturday

Saturday can only mean 1 thing.. laundry day.. usually I will go to campus abt 3-4x a week, and the extra day ddk rumah buat kerja, but i usually end up doing laundry.. tapi if i'm bz like these past few weeks, saturday and sunday is the days i pull my weight through and do my laundry. And because i personally HANDWASH my clothes and Aqil's clothes (even including my bed quilt cover etc), i like to do it in stages.. nak2 dgn perut yg makin besar, letih.. and Aqil yg semakin bijak ragamnya.. hehehe...

Tapi these 2 days, i had a help from the little one. Pagi2 akan mandikan Aqil kt sink bathroom while i sink in and do the laundry at the bath tub.. Aqil pun sibuk nak tolong, so i let him do the transfer of baju into baldi.. itu mmg kerja dia.. tapi this week lain sikit.. lepas dah handwash and letak softener semua, i will angkut the 3 basin turun bawah utk sidai. Aqil pun nak sidai jugak.. This is him in action..










And after a hard day's work..





that's 2 days worth of laundry.. pretty tired for both of us.. esok ingat nak bawak Aqil jalan2.. sian dia, ddk rumah je.. selalu kalau keluar pun bwk pergi kedai je.. yelah, Ummi dia pun bukannya dpt jln2, either beli groceries or pg campus.. so ingat nak bagi dia have fun sikit.. toodles everyone..

Honourable Guests from M'sia

Late thursday evening, dah nak masuk mlm pun, i received an email from my supervisor and also HOD, Prof Majeed. As below..

Visit of the Honourable Minister of Health Malaysia

Dear Prof. Rawaf,

It was indeed a pleasure to be able to speak to your earlier.

As promised, please find attached list below of the delegation who will be attending tomorrow’s briefing:

1. The Honourable Dato’ Sri Liow Tiong Lai

Minister of Health

2. Datin Sri Lee Sun Loo (attendance tbc)

Spouse to the Minister of Health

3. Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Dr. Ismail Merican

Director General of Health

Imagine my shock when i received the email saying the MOH and DG are coming to my dept for a briefing. Prof Salman Rawaf is the Head of the WHO collaboration centre that is based in Imperial. Apparently, several universities bid for this, but Imperial won it so Prof Rawaf, is in Imperial College now.

So, when I arrived that morning, my friend Malar (another PhD student)and myself, the only 2 Malaysians at the dept were so nervous. 3pm the time it was, and Khairul Gadafi, the political secretary came 1st. After that, we went downstairs and greeted the Minister and DG that arrived with their car.

Prof Salman Rawaf gave a very, very good presentation on NHS. Some of the stuff were new to me and basically it's what M'sia can learn from UK's healthcare system. At one point Datuk Seri pointed at me and said "you, what you are witnessing today is history in the making. We are about to change the system in M'sia and you are part of the moment".. :)

Between the briefing we had tea break. Tan Sri was asking me where am i attached, what's my background and my PhD. I told him i'm doing diabetes and behaviour and he was v excited. He said the Ministry could do with people like you.. we are starting up a centre for diabetes and behaviour.. i said ok and smiled.. I introduced him to my supervisor, Prof Majeed. He said diabetes is costing a lot, and nothing much is changing.. and then they had a chat. Tan Sri also mentioned it to the Minister, so at that moment I was v happy because i felt a had a sense of self, that i had potential to be someone who can contribute to the society at large.

After briefing, we brought them to Charing Cross Hospital and also the walk-in-centre. The M'sian delegates gave us presents (mine was a batik selendang) and we also took pictures with them. They left at 6pm and was very, very impressed and happy with the whole mmeting. Tan Sri Ismail and Datuk Seri Liow pesan "belajar baik2, balik nanti contribute to the country ok".. hehehehehe...

They're in here till Saturday and then off to Geneva for the convention..

Hadi dah kahwin..

Congratulations to my bro Hadi yg telah selamat melangsungkan pernikahan kt Melbourne, Australia.. So sad i cannot be there to witness my own brother kahwin, tapi nak travel ke Aussie with my big belly and carry an infant in the same seat for 14 hours, is just not possible..

For those of you yang tak kenal sgt my family, Hadi is the brother immediately after me, we're just 1 year and 24 days apart. Hadilah yg introduce me to football, cricket, rugby etc and selalu teman dia tgk bola, so tht sparked my interest. We both love Man U (who doesn't) since the Bryan Robson days (well, not his early days but dkt2 nak retire).. And then the Eric Cantona era sampailah ke C.Ronaldo time that is today.

To Hadi and Nu, congratulations on ur wedding and semoga banyak2 bersabar with each other. Hopefully i can come to the reception in M'sia next year..