It’s my Life!

It hv been quite some time i dint update this blog. So, wanna know what happened to myself lately? And yes, last week i’ve been posted to Penang Hospital to work as a pharmacist there. For the first time, i am very excited as the hospital is not so far from my home. So, two of classmates also accepted there, Nasira and Fauziah.

So, we report for duty at 3rd of August and starts working imediately. So of us need to go to open account bank as the hospital only accepted certain bank for paying salaries. So on that very day i start my work as pharmacist with really basic job, doing filling. the first time i thought it was very basic, but after sometimes, i realized that filling drugs from prescription need to comply with certain rules and policy. For drugs that listed as A-list drugs, that is expensive and not so many available in hospital, we can only fill and dispense for 1 month top but non A-list drug like Metformin, we can supply up to 2 months max. Other policies include local purchase and certain drugs can be only prescribed by specialist or consultant physician.

The pharmacy is very hectic, the person doing filling cannot sit for hours! going, running, stagerring everywhere just to find the location of the drugs to be filled. Thank God to the pharmacy assistant students that are very helpful in assisting me finding drugs and doing extamporaneous preparation. Sometimes they AWOL and i have to do the extampraneous preparation myself but most of the they do not do anthing except being tremendously helpful. The FRP and older PRP also very helpful, so, it really helps me getting use and adapt to my work.

Next Monday, The pharmacy service will be extended to 24 hours compare to 16 hours before this and now i have to equip myself for duty calls (in malaysia we say it “on calls” that is grammatically inapropriate) and working for extended hours. Believe me, i’ve chosen this path, i know i’ll survive.

Last week, i’m down with fever that turn out to be a not so serious viral fever but still need to be admitted into the hospital and being warded like 5 nights!

The fever starts when i come back from visiting my relatives in Negri Sembilan on Monday morning and that exact morning the fever caught me and it continue for three days and latter i went to the clinic to see whats up with my non-stop fever. The private clinic doctor suspected me having dengue and later referred me to the hospital for further investigation for confirmation.

In Penang hospital, they put me on drip and took my blood for lab test and came out that my platelet count is low. Then i’ve been hospitalized for having viral infection as my lymphocyte count rise.

So, that is the start of my nightmare the whole week starts on Wednesday until the next Monday. With the drips on me 24/7, the hospital food is not up to my standard and seeing other sick people around me really not my thing. thank god the hospitall stafss is very kind and helpful.

Now, that my health already back on track, i never felt better, thank god againd the hospital nightmare is over. Interesting thing happened during that week, i blood test come out that i’m having dengue negative and the infection is just a typical viral fever that not that harmful and still my housing area got fogged by the insensitive moh fogger.

This school holiday, i’ve been invited to attend like more than 10 wedding receptions. This school holidays where the wedding invitation came from my classmates, friends, family and my seniors when i studied in IIUM.

Kak Hamizah with her hubby

Kak Ina with her hubby

Kak Aina with her very-handsome-bushy-eyebrow hubby. cute couple right?

Love to watch them with their soulmate together on the dais, grinning and smiling and feeling happy just to see many of the invited freinds and realtives came to their reception.

He also get married? unbelievable. haha

Nija and Kak Mahanim

My classmates, Azreen and Kak AC are married together and suprisingly is the my first classmate in IIUM to gat married first. Azreen is such a good friend of mine, he is so open, sporting, so kind and nice, and kak AC is the luckiest women in the world. Mat God bless them and grant them virtous children and grandchildren.

Azreen and Kak AC! so sweet

Buzak is my other classmate that get married last week. i’m so happy for him. his wife, Kak Ti is also previously my classmate during matriculation in Petaling Jaya. Some of my friends and classmates convoying to Kelantan just to watch them get married, came to their reception and have a brief vacation in Kelantan. FYI, Azreen, Kak AC, Buzak and Kak Ti are from Kelantan and i just so proud of them that they have the braveness and ready to discover a new phase of their life by stepping to the reality out there and get married! that’s big and i can say it is 1000 times bigger than entering college. You have got to sacrifice the “bujang” life, add more responsibilty to your life towards wife and your new family, isnt that great?

Buzak and Kak Ti. He looks taller when standing next to Kak Ti.

I’m so sorry cannot attend their wedding especially Azreen’s. Honestly my mom does not allow me to go to Kelantan saying that during this month, there will be a big earthquake underneath the Pacific Ocean that will trigger a tsunami and i will be consumed by the disaster if i go to Kelantan on this very month. Who told her that? i dont know! Suprisingly, two or three days ago, there is an earthquake occur in Tokyo at 5.8 richter scale. OMG, now i’m scared, i didn’t know that one of maternal instinct is detecting earthquake?! As time goes by, technology became more sophisticated and same goes to maternal instinct, that’s weird.

Nazrina’s and Huda’s (my calssmates) wedding is just around the corner  and i will try my best to attend their wedding.

Once my father asked me when will i get married. it is quite discomfort and uneasy to answer such question when actually there is no exact answer for it. i just answered “another 40 years”. Everything in God’s hands, He actually know the accurate and exact answer for this. I pray that i will meet and fall in love with a very nice and good person one day to be my spouse. Maybe that someone I’ve already met six years ago, but who knows what happened. Love cannot be forced, it just came… and it does came just like that.

May God bless all my married friends and i hope they live happily ever after, just like fairy tales…

Let me say something about my life in IIUM and perhaps, i’ve finished my final of the final exam (the ultimate final exam!) and just wait for the job offer to knock on my door. At first, before entering this Kuantan campus that is focused on science and medical field, i have the chance to undergo the foundation for pharmacy program in IIUM Center of Foundation Studies (CFS) of formerly known as IIUM Matriculation Center located in Petaling Jaya, Selangor. And before I get the offer to pursue my foundation in pharmacy in CFS, I studied at MOE Matriculation Center in Penang. Nak dijadikan cerita, I got two offers when I studied there that are engineering oversea study in Korea that need me to register myself in INTEC Shah Alam and also IIUM Foundation in Pharmacy or what I called as Pre-Pharmacy program before entering to bachelor degree.
At that time, I really confuse and indecisive, whether to pursue engineering or pharmacy because both have a quite good career prospects. I seek advice with my mum whether to consider the oversea offer or the pre-pharmacy offer. I kinda expect the answer that she asks me to pursue pharmacy, not because it is local, but because my mum is a lecturer in the pharmacy field and what’s more, she is a registered pharmacist. She detest the engineering offer telling me that the biotech engineering that I’ll choose is not even a real biotechnology course. I’m aware of that, but what can I do? This oversea offer is very irresistible and of course, ada nama sikit. So, after my mum insisting taking pharmacy, I just go with the flow, I just don’t care how I’m gonna regret my future if chose this path but I don’t really want regretting on not accepting my mother insistence.
The first day in CFS is quite not awkward, since I’m a second intake student and some of my schoolmates already there since they are first intake, so they kinda guide me and give me preparatory explanation before I got there. My room, the CFS admin put me on a building different from my schoolmates that are also my close friends. That afternoon, after check in, my Makteh, Pakngah and beloved atuk waited for me to bring them to my hostel room. Only my atuk then followed me climbing the stairs to my room that is located on 4th floor. Bersusah payah aku naik, my atuk suffers even more, the stairs are too steep and each floor is very high, what a hostel!?
When I entered the room, I said “huh, macam dorm skolah je”, where like 7 double decker beds handsomely arranged in that room with space for study desk on its common area. I chose my bed, and then I met someone that is my roomate, that was the first person I converse with (actually atuk yg bnyk tanya), and I still remember the dialogue. He asked my atuk, “Datang dari mana?” my atuk answered, “Dia datang dari Pulau Pinang(refer to me), tapi saya dari negeri Sembilan”. Then atuk asked back, “Dari Penang jugak ke?” He answered, “Tak, saya duduk kat Taman Maluri dekat Cheras, tapi keluarga saya ramai jugak dari Penang”. That is the first conversation in CFS that I remembered and I will always remember through my whole life because it involves one of the most important person in my life. Then I unpack my bag and belongings tiredly since the 4th floor of the building really panting me up!
There, the life of a prepharmacy student of mine already started and in another two years I will start my bachelor degree in pharmacy. The environment living in Petaling Jaya is a real fast pace life, in the first semester I had lots and lots of classes to attend and this is just the beginning and of course more will be coming afterwards. In the first semester, as for me, quite relax, I don’t study well, always went out to Mid Valley Megamall on weekends and copy my friends homework, thanx to Rahman and Saifu for “helping” me to go through all the homeworks and the assignments that suppose to be completed by my own brain. The first semester result came out and it’s just what I expected, I didn’t manage to pass my precalculus subject and got only cukup makan GPA. With all the culture shock when I live in KL, who can resist shopping mall just like 5 minutes away and public transport available like everyplace and everytime? So, the first semester teach me how to divide time for leisure and study even though my priority still leisure until this very time.
Second semester came, the class schedule even tighter this time, no way to go out during weekdays, even during weekends, we have many things and program to be done and attend. For me, second semester is quite tiring, first is because the fasting month is during this time and during the midterm exam, second, we have to move out from our room for renovation and transfer all our belongings to other rooms available. The time to search for another room is hard, I have to survey rooms that is not with engineering students and of course with someone I know and another one, not for for my previous room so that less burden in carrying the stuff from my old room/dorm. Rahman is my closest friend at that time and also my roommate in my previous room, he actually wants to transfer with Rizwan and Azreen in another block of the hostel but rejected bulat2 by Rizwan because he thinks that Rahman’s “piousness” is not even within the same wavelength as his (that’s what I thought).  So Rahman and I stick together to find another room. Later we got our room that is 2 floors underneath our room, can’t remember what room but my previous roommate, Hazriq also chose the same room. We thought that it is just us and Hazriq chose this room, but couple days later, a bunch of engineering students came and occupy that room. With them smoking, (of course nearly all engineering students do smoke at that time), Rahman and I began to regret on having that room that initially occupied by Ijat(Medic IIU), Rahim(Medic, India), Latep(Biotech IIU), Acap(now MAS pilot) and another ICT student-cannot remember-his-name.
This is the dorm/room that our misery started, with the cigarette fumes and the noisiness of the pre-engineering students. One day, Rahim’s mobile phone got stolen, and he suspect nobody in the room but student outside the room, then the second time Rahim’s mobile phone got stolen including Bashar’s(the pre-engineering student), he got really mad including Ijat suspected this thief is within our roommates. I suspect Wira(also pre-engineering) have outside connection to stole and hide the thief when later I asked Rahman to send a provocative SMS to him and unfortunately, he wrongly sent the SMS to Hazriq that lead to fear in Hazriq that he thought everybody in the room is suspecting him could be the potential thief. It’s kinda funny when Hazriq got back from his balik kampung, he quickly show the message to Ijat and defend himself like separuh mati. Me and Rahman really regret about the wrongly sent message and until now, Rahman still could not face Hazriq’s face. Hazriq was my classmate in Kuantan, but still I don’t have the courage to bring up why the “mysterious” message was sent. The truth is, that night, during the stealing, I kinda wake a little moment, because I heard someone walking into our compartment and I remember someone wearing a black short staggering but couldn’t see clearly his face. From my experience, only Hazriq and Wira wore that kind of short when they want to sleep at night. That is why I said to Rahman that both of them would be the suspect but Wira is even highly potential because we don’t know about him and Hazriq have already be our roommates for half year but no stealing happens. I thought that Rahman will send the provocative message that he created to Wira but regrettably, mistakes do happen. It is funny how I can still remember this after 5 years.
The nest semester after that is a short semester where only 2 two subjects we learned that are Physics Lab and Information Technology that need to be completed in less than 3 months. We only have class like 4 times a week and lots and lots of free time. At that time we usually went out to Mid Valley, watch movies, and eat sushi, lepak2 and others. Unfortunately, we still stay with the engineering student even our room is changed, still with that Wira person, that I suspected him mencuri , benci.

In matriculation also I met and made a lot of new friends, starts from my roommates, classmates to my bestest friends, Rahman, Aizat, Firda and Jusrizal. Of course Saifu is not included as a new friend since he is one of my friends since secondary school.

I came across a Hadith (prophet’s sayings and traditions), stated that dogs’ discharge or what ever from it does not necessary to be treated as najis mughalzah,

Narrated Abu Huraira:

The Prophet said, “A man saw a dog eating mud from (the severity of) thirst. So, that man took a shoe (and filled it) with water and kept on pouring the water for the dog till it quenched its thirst. So Allah approved of his deed and made him to enter Paradise.” And narrated Hamza bin ‘Abdullah: My father said. “During the lifetime of Allah’s Apostle, the dogs used to urinate, and pass through the mosques (come and go), nevertheless they never used to sprinkle water on it (urine of the dog.)”

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so, after reading this hadis, is it necessary to samak or not?

It has been quite sometimes i didnt update my blog, this is the continuation of he “ultimate getaway” franchise.

Next important place that we went is Kinabalu Park located near Kundasang, Kundasang is a highland and of course the weather is cool, fresh and very cold at night and about 50 kilometers from Kota Kinabalu. Our hostel in Kinabalu Park called Rock Hostel, this place owned by the company that owned Sutera Harbour Resort and Spa. The room, eventough called as “hostel” but the toilet is very over the top and the room with comfortable mattress, nice view, and handsomely arranged double decker bed. That night we light up the fireplace and we sing and shouting and storytelling loudly because there are no other occupant at that very hostel except us. One of our colleagues, Jiman, cannot bear hearing ghost stories, he will be the one who cabut first before the story being told. His reason; he said he is very imaginative that anything that people said that can be visualized vividly, but though, he admitted he never even met a ghost before and how can he imagine it, from the movies? That movie thing is not even real.

The next day in the morning, kinabalu park is a hell of very cold place, but yet we know that on the summit of Kinabalu Mountain will be much colder. We start our hiking with a massive buffet breakfast. It was served at the Balsam Coffee House or restaurant or whatever and we ate like there is no tomorrow. The guide and the kinabalu park people ask us to fuel up in maximum before we hike to the Laban Rata(that is the stop place before proceed to the summit) because during the hiking, full stomach is essential to conserve more energy. They said six hours needed before we reached Laban Rata for hiking (I didn’t expect that). The Kinabalu Park also fix our lunch in a packaging that we can have our lunch in the middle of hiking. At first, we were of course very excited, with our tongkat, thick clothes(I wore three layers of shirts including my sweater), water bottle, lunch box, footwear, chocolate bar, biscuit, camera and later the park gave us a name card/tag of our trip’s batch and participant number complete with our names.

We started the hike at the Timpohon Gate that is the shortest but toughest way to go to Laban Rata. There is another trail that started at Mesilau where the trail is much lighter in a way there is not much climbing but more walking. We start hiking, the more we sweat, the warmer we felt, all of our layers of clothes later being taken off, we realized that sweat aka water is a very good heat insulator. The first and second kilometer is quite motivating, but the next kilometer is hell! I stopped for rest like hundreds or thousand times where my isotonic water ran out, too lazy to eat my lunch and just depend on the cookie and wafer that I brought earlier. Finally I reached Laban Rata. Embarrassingly, earlier I lead the way but later my friends keep potong me, after one, came another. Laban Rata is a very beautiful place, we practically above the clouds! So beautiful, so lovely and sooo cold! We arrived at the coffee house of the laban rata hostel that is also owned by the sutera harbor resort company.  They provide free coffee and tea and we enjoy the laban rata view from the coffee house balcony while sipping our hot-turn-warm-so-fast tea, you know, the temperature out there is like 10 centigrades. We snap pictures of the view, a lot with multiple poses,  and the good thing is, every snap of the picture is not wasted since all the captured picture, even candid or unprepared, it turn good, all because of the fantastic and realistic view. Later, we were served with buffet dinner before we go to the bed to sleep like 6 hours before starting our journey to the peak of kinabalu mountain at 2 o’clock in the early morning.

That night I just couldn’t sleep, first because I don’t take bath yet since the water heater in the bathroom not functioning, secondly, the heater in our room suddenly working and we are in sticky sweaty condition. Then I went to bathroom to take bath. When I started to open the shower, the cold water running on my body and it feels like every drops of water pinching me, damn cold, and I just ignore the coldness and bath as usual. First time in my life showering with icy cold water and I will never do that again if not necessary.
On two o’clock in the morning we woke up and prepare for climbing to the summit. It was really dark and very cold. The hostel gave us supper buffet for energy to climb up to the summit. Outside it was very cold, I thought it should be less than 10 centigrade. With our jacket, layers of shirt and tracksuit and headlamp, we were given briefing by the guide for dos and don’ts.  2.30am, we started our journey from the hostel, it was dark, we just depend on our headlamp for guidance and just follow the leader in front of us heading  towards at first, I don’t know where. 500 meters later I stopped to catch my breath, the altitude is already high, less oxygen, easily get tired. What pokes me is that when I looked up to the sky, I saw groups and groups of stars like never before. When it is very dark where no bright light around us like in the city, we can see so many stars on the sky. It is just so beautiful, heavenly, wonderful, blissful, divine and magnificent, I said “subhanallah”, it just so brilliant how God created the stars like shining drops of diamonds on a very dark canvas! I nearly cried but suddenly I realized I got to move faster or else I will be late to the summit. The night was very cold, my jacket and three layers of clothes is insufficient, and I stop like millions time just to catch my breath, rest, eat a little bit, drink and brushing my jacket with my hand hoping that more heat would be produce and conserve. I nearly gave up, thinking that this is the stupidest thing I’ve done in my live, after two and a half hours, still the summit is beyond my view and couldn’t imagine whether I could reach the summit on time. The guide earlier briefs us that if 6.30am strikes, either we already reached the summit or not, we need to go down as we need to have out breakfast and checkout on time.

I took a long breath and rest at one point because I think I’ll never reached the summit on time, I’m exhausted, super tired, hungry, and cold. When I’m about to gave up, there come my friend Aklima, also stopped resting at my exact place, we are like very cold and in no time we are hug together, friendly and warm hug. We both very cold, by hugging, I felt a little bit warmer and later I cried because I just cannot do it, its dark, and Aklima did not realize it. She asked me to continue climbing, and I did, we went together, if she stops to rest, I stop for rest. Our water that we brought together when in Laban Rata also already finished. Still, we also stop like a million times before we go for subuh prayer and later met Nene just below one of the highest peak on Kinabalu Summit. Nene refused to continue climbing because no friends with her at that time, and she said she will not enjoy the moment if she is not with friends, so she waited for us, have group hug and later continue climbing to the peak, and we did. We took some pictures, three of us, it was the best moment in my life, also a big moment to Nene’ and Aklima’s life, we finally reached to the highest peak of the summit, and just so happy and joyful and everything. The view from the summit is spectacular, I can see the clouds beneath us, the mountains, the hills, the nearby town, and it is just overwhelming.

Last week as soon as after my graduation dinner, I quickly packed my clothes for a vacation that I think very life changing, to Sabah, the State beneath the Wind. We planned this vacation like six months ago after we finished our final year of the first semester. We got a very good deal on the flight ticket price that is RM200 return.

Out graduation dinner is on 20^th of April and we depart from LCCT KLIA on 22^nd. I’m like packing all the clothes that I had thinking that a week of vacation wouldn’t enough without realizing that I’ve overpacked. At the LCCT KLIA, we met again our friends that we thought we never see again after graduation dinner, 23 of them including friends including Zuhri and Maryam Omar Zaki that gives us “moral” support before we depart to Sabah. We fly with Air Asia and the flight journey took like two and half hours to reach Kota Kinabalu that is the capital of the state of Sabah.

After landed in Sabah, we checked in into our lodging that is X-plorer Backpackers. My first impression was that, this cheapo lodging will get our belongings stolen and no one will responsible for it. My thought is totally wrong, this lodging have very tight security where I leave my cellphone like one in the common area and no one kinda touch it. Additionally, the staffs of the lodging are very2 friendly and helpful. This auntie mat saleh (I think the owner or manager of the lodging) that I always speak English to can actually speaks Bahasa and specifically Bahasa Melayu Sabah.

What I like about this lodging is they offer free wifi service that somehow the ultimate added value a typical hotel does not offer (usually we must pay for the Wi-Fi service). Me, as usual, love to procrastinate and finished my work last minute, I brought my laptop while vacationing. My exam result at that time will be out like next week and I still did not submit my research write up, so free wifi service really helps my write-ups.

We arrived at Kota Kinabalu on evening, after checked in, we enjoy our first sunset in Kota Kinabalu at the jetty. The whether there is just like the peninsula, hot and humid that we were used to. We took pictures like crazy of ourselves on every angle of the sunset showing that we really want to enjoy the rest of the vacation. That night, next to the Philippines’ market, we enjoy a “delightful” and dry seafood. The seafood there is not like we expected, the fish cooked is quite dehydrate, firm(not in a good way) and the squid is quite raw. The first experience eating seafood in KK is not that pleasant but the good thing is, there are other hundreds more seafood restaurant that we can choose there, the good thing is, we are quite optimist in finding other great seafood places.

The second day of the trip, we went to Sabah Museum. We arrived there quite early and the museum will not open for another two hour, we really lost track of time. In peninsular, the subuh prayer usually starts at six but here, in Sabah, its already bright at six and we always late for subuh nearly every day thinking that six o’clock is still early. We arrived at Sabah Museum at 7.30am! and we just stagerring there doing nothing at first at the area of the museum. Luckily, adjacent to the museum, there is a Heritage Village that places variety of houses of the Sabahans’ natives like rumah panjang, rumah Murut, rumah Bajau and all sort of that. A thing that amazes me when we sneak into one of the houses is that, there is a traditional trampoline made from a very flexible thick bamboo in its playing area. I never expected that, I thought that is where the modern rubber trampoline is inspired from. Later, when the museum opened, we enter the museum. The display in the museum explained all about Sabah, from the history of Sabah, the plants, stuffed animal and also ancient artifacts. It’s good to know little2 things about your country, especially when it comes to Sabah and Sarawak that we know very little about it.

That night we survey shopping places, as for me, I like shopping at the very last minute since I got to control my budget a little bit since my money in bank account running low(biasala, akhir2 semester). The Philippines’ market is a great place to bargain for and other shops like Jamilah Trading and Asia City. I don’t know what to buy for souvenir, just bought some simple keychain and hope everybody will like it.

The third day is snorkeling day, we buy our own food to eat at the snorkeling islands, rumors that the food sold at the islands is expensive, so we brought our own egg and sardine sandwich, nasi lemak and roti canai. Everybody is excited to go for snorkeling, well, this is not my first time, and I’ve done it in Tioman Island before. The boat ride was a total roller coaster, since we have lots of enthusiasm during out first step onto the boat, the boat driver kinda playing with us, speed the boat as fast as he can and make turn like a twirl made us think that the boat will turn upside down and sink in any second. We reached Mamutik Island, the place is sooo beautiful but have limited area for snorkeling. Later we discovered that the boat operator also offer banana boat riding and parasailing. we just went for it and its really satisfying!!! superb! during the banana boat riding the operator just tumble us upside down and we just thrown away from the banana boat onto the sea in the middle of nowhere.

Yesterday we depart from LCCT KLIA heading to Sabah. Thank God there is no delays and whatsoever. Some of us arrived late at the airport but still manage to check in the ticket.

Arrived at KK international airport at 1.30pm and check in to a motel called Xplorer Backpackers, sweet, just super duper simple room, the room is very packed as we “sardined” our selves like 6 person per room, some of us 4 and some of us 3. Sharing bathroom, with another and thank god, only me have longest time in shower.

First day, we went to the Jetty to observe sunset, take pictures, eat seafood next to Philipines Market, and stuffed ourselves with large prawn and uncooked squids, yucks!!!

Today is the ultimate final paper of my life in college and soon i will be a pharmacist maybe in the next couple of months.

The ultimate final paper subject is Veterinary pharmacy and the question is quite straight forward and i happily can answer almost all of the question, how lucky i am.

Everybody celebrates their final of the final papers and we just couldnt resist taking pictures even in the exam hall!!!

thank god, another three days, i will be free, free from exam but…. i still didnt do my write up for my research paper.