Baby's head is down..

Today went for antenatal visit.. Alhamdulillah everything is well.. Heard baby's heartbeat through doppler (in UK they only scan u for 12th and 22nd week of pregnancy).. bump is growing fine.. but the news of the day for me is the baby's head is down.. MasyaAllah.. masuk 35 weeks dah, i anticipated that the head will position itself that way in 36 weeks onwards.. maknanya sekarang kena easy on the walking and climbing stairs cos surely i'll be breathless.. and harap2 dia stay that way in preparation for normal delivery..

Now i'm nervous..........

Unexpected journey

Last Saturday, I suddenly discovered that I had to have a very important document before i can send them into a public service department. I have been working late the previous night so when i stumble upon this i called my friend Khairizan aka Izan Boy who was in London at the time to pass it to my hubby in M'sia when she goes back the following day.

My plan was to go to London by train, stop at Richmond then take a tube to Hammersmith and bus to Marble Arch (supposed to meet her at Primark).. then somehow, bila sampai kt Richmond, district line was closed for weekend overhaul so i waited for another train to go to Waterloo.. bila sampai, mula2 ingat nak ambik cab, then kat sana, discovered there's a bus to Hammersmith so went on that.. oh god, what a long way to go dgn jam lagi and Aqil fell asleep by then.. in the middle of my journey, Izan said they're off to Edgware Road so masa tu dah rasa tak larat tahap max, ingatkan i just go to her apt in Vauxhalland drop off the documents jelah.. but Allah has a way off making a light in every grey cloud.. tgh2 bus ride, i saw Fulham Broadway station.. checked it out and it goes to Edgware Road, so berhenti the next stop and walked to the station. Alhamdulillah there was lift so senang nak turun but i know Edgware Rd takde that facility (i dont understand why TfL tak nak buat lifts for all their stations).. so mmg berdoa je sepanjang jalan.. when i got there, tangganya tinggi tp rezeki one of the workers was heading downstairs so together we lifted Aqil's pushchair naik stairs.. penat sangat tp Alhamdulillah baby tak ragam..

sampai sana met Izan kat Restaurant Melur.. the 1st things she said to me was "you bawak Aqil, i didn't know.. i thought you came here by yourself".. "you're so strong.. you have my respect".. masa tu rasa nak menitik je air mata.. tak tahulah kenapa.. it's so hard to cry these days but there was something in the warmth of her voice that just touched me..

after lunch (Izan belanja) Aqil and I tagged along Izan and her inlaws for shopping.. they went to Harrods.. dulu i went with my hubby but I didn't like it very much sbb it was crowded and expensive.. but this time I loved it.. tgh sale but being a student, you're on a budget so I just bought 3 items, a Harrods mug, baby carrier bag and a nice bag for me. Izan's MIL and SIL, Zaida was really helpful.. Diaorg la yg tolong jagakan Aqil when i look for stuff.. I was so grateful.. what turned out to be a disastrous journey in the beginning ended up being a nice day..

then we took a cab to Izan's lovely apartment. Tumpang solat n rehat kejap.. then Izan and Zaida had to go for another spot of shopping so she asked me to wait till she comes back.. in the meantime, Aqil and Adriana (who is sooo cute) were enjoying themselves lari2 kt apt tu.. and bila they got back, it was already late so they asked me to stay for the nite.. Segan i told her but she said "don't worry about it, i know what it's like to be pregnant, you need all the attention".. Izan, only Allah can balas everything.. thank you so much..

so the next day as they head to the airport, we head back to Surrey.. i remember thinking it's one of the happy days of my life here.. like my friend once said to me, in every struggle, adalah bahagian kita yang Allah nak bagi..

Update on PhD

Dear Nur

This is to confirm that you have now fulfilled the requirements for MPhil Registration. I have attached a copy of your assessors’ comments for your information and you may wish to take their comments into account when preparing your upgrade report for transfer of registration from MPhil to PhD.

Transfer from MPhil to PhD should take place no earlier than 12 months and normally no later than 15 months after your enrolment date. This means that, according to Registry's records, you should have upgraded to the degree of PhD by 18 April 2010.

Please note that the Division recommends that you upgrade 12 months after your enrolment date.

I have attached information that might prove useful when you are upgrading from MPhil to PhD.



- Alhamdulillah :D -

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..