Flowers for Spy!

30 October 2008

I received a bunch of flowers from Mr. C, my labmate. Don't assume or speculate anything ya...especially Josh. There's nothing going on with me and Mr. C. He's like my younger brother as we are quite close. I was refering to the three of us- Abg John, Mr. C and me. He gave me a new mission to do for him. More like spy work and to dig some 'important' information for him. Hehe! Like Ms Bond I have to be!!

He gave me a bunch of flowers before (19.09.08) for doing something for him. This rich German gentleman always so romantic and love to give flowers to women and other stuffs too....

And as flower lover, I couldn't stop myself from taking a few close shots of the the flowers from different angles! They are not really nice as I'm still learning....

This time, I got orange flowers. I may not be given the flowers for some romantic reason but I don't mind. At least, they made my room loke nicer and lively!

And this flowers filled my room with colors. And also filled my blog with pictures. Better than have both filled with spiderwebs! Right Mr. Josh?? Hehe......

Sunday Lunch at St Edmund's

19 October 2008

I totally forgot to add this entry. It was a nice sunday lunch. I invited a few of my friends to share using my hall points which I've accumulated more than GBP500 in my account! I seldom eat in the hall as I've to go for vegetarian all the time. Not really an interesting option but what choice do I have??

I started today activity with my favourite hobby-climbing! Haha! Ms Fatimah and I climbed an apple tree and picked some for later.

Brian Heap building rear view

St Edmund's apple garden

Ms Fatimah and me on an apple tree. Hehe!

As usual, Mdm Zett is always first in my list and Miss J. As Mr. Hefni was coming from Bath, I invited him too. Ms Fatimah and Ms Aisha from New Hall joined the lunch as well as Mdm Mazlin and Husband, Mr Halian as we (Ms Fatimah, Mdm Mazlin and Halian and me) planned to go to Bar Hill Tesco afterward. Miss J brought Ms Kavi from Imperial College with her. I totally forgot to invite Ms ZZ! I'm truly sorry...will make you the first to be invited the next time!!!

My guests :

Lovely husband and wife-Mr. Hefni and Mdm Zett

Ms Aisha

Another couple-Mdm Mazlin and hubby, Mr Halian; and Ms Fatimah

Mr T had two friends from Oxford visiting. So, the whole bunch of us conquered half of the long table in my hall. Such a huge crowd we were!!

Malaysian faces!!

The food turned out to be tasty eventhough it was vegetarian option. We had quorn with mix vegetables, vegetable soup and dessert. I was really glad as my guests enjoyed the food very much.

Vegetarian option- deep fried quorn with seasonal vegetables; vegetable soup and cake for dessert

We had our own photo session after lunch in the garden in front of my college. It was a very nice day and we played with fallen leaves. See us in our natural and amateur poses!!

All girls picture

Me, Ms Fatimah and Miss J enjoying the leaves!

Today was such a pleasant moment. Well guys and girls....we should do this again!! Abg Den and his friends from "Kota Bharu" had been here before and tasted the food. If you guys feel like having a second round, feel free to come anytime!!

Later, Ms Fatimah, Ms Aisha, Mdm Mazlin, Mr. Halian and I went to New Hall college to kill some time while waiting for the next citi bus to Bar Hill to come. New Hall has a very nice garden with spices plants......

Spice garden

and also grapes trees.

Green grapes.....

and red....

and black ones!

Who could resist a picture with these grapes-Ms Fatimah, me and Ms Aisha.

We were so excited and enjoyed ourselves so much that we forgot about time totally. Resulted in us missing the bus!! Oh...well. Have to plan it for another day....

Final Eid Fitri Gathering

26 October 2008

Uk gained one hour last night. That made it 8 hours different between here and Malaysia.I felt so fresh as I had an hour extra to sleep. Hehe!

But today was not a day to sleep but to cook as I'd to prepare some pecal for today's gathering. I started early around 8 am to cook all the ingredient for pecal. As I'd brought some dried pecal paste from Malaysia, I didn't have to prepare my own peanut sauce.

My not too bad pecal. Even tempeh could be found here with no trouble at all!

Mdm Airina and Mr. Ikhwan house is at Searle Street, Cambridge. They rent a fully furnished one bedroom flat. I went to their house by cycling, together with Mr. T, Mr. Michael and Mr. Chong. We arrived there around 12.30 pm.

Our host prepared some delicious chicken rice (which I felt like having for the past few weeks!), yellow glutinous rice and beef rendang, roti jala and beef curry. So yummy!

Chicken rice set...

Yellow glutinous rice with beef rendang. So tasty!

More food came when more people arrived as it is our culture for everyone to bring something to this kind of gathering. So happening and best!!

Ms ZZ brought baked macaroni

Miss J had improved a lot in cooking. Her bread pudding taste better this time. Good job girl!!

We watched two Malay movie - Zombie Kg Pisang and Evolusi KL Drift. We laughed so much with the first one as the movie was funny. The second one was a bit violence and serious. I noticed that most of us that watch the movies had hidden talent as movie commenters!!

We left Searle Street around 4.45 pm after having our tummy loaded with tasty food. Thank you Mdm Airina and Mr Ikhwan for inviting us. And we were not only talked about today's event but we even discussed about our future Eid Adha gathering in December. So advance laaaa!! Haha!

Me, Mdm Sufee second daughter, Mr. T and Miss J

The majority of us couldn't resist a group photo

Whereas...the rest were soooo deep in friendly conversation!

Makan....and makan..... Nasib baik tak cepat gemuk!


Have to cook more food for tonight gathering in my hall at St Edmunds. Penatnyer....

Slightly after 7 pm, Mr. T and I joined the member of our floor in Norfolk building of St Edmund's for our first gathering. Mr T is quite a cook. He prepared some corn pudding and fish crackers. And me? Just my lazy prawn and mushrooms fried rice. Both the fried rice and fish crackers were gone very fast. Apparently, the people love asian food very much.

This gathering was a nice event as we met and chat to most of the students living on the same floor. And we decided by majority votes to make this as our monthly event!

Most of the students on my floor

Infectious Diseases Meeting London

22 October 2008

I attended an Infectious Diseases Meeting (more like seminar) at British Medical Association (BMA) in London today. The meeting started at 9.00 am and finished at 4.30 pm. I took the train from Cambridge to King's Cross station. It was my first time taking the train here in UK and as I didn't have my rail card yet, I'd to pay GBP30. So expensive la..!

Cambridge train station

I went with my labmate, Claudio and had to really struggle to keep my pace with his speed! He's more that 6 foot tall and has long legs. Just imagine me trying to walk beside him. Frankly, I did more running than walking. Haha! Poor me....

As usual, there was only one of me. No Muslim women around except me and one Muslim guy from Sudan. Abg John and Cludio presented a poster on TB genomics technology. I'm not doing anything with TB but my interest in this is very personal. My sister is very sick and is still recovering from this deadly disease in HKL (based on medical diagnosis).

Seminar room

Main Hall where they served food and also held posters session....

Wonderful court area..

Since we were in London, Abg John and I decided to try the Malaysian food in Malaysia Hall canteen (actual, I mentioned about it to Abg John the day before!). So, we went to this canteen in Queenborough Terrace. It is true that the canteen is a bit tricky to find for non Malaysian as not everyone knows a Malaysian flag. Anyway, this was my first time coming here but I didn't have any trouble at all to find the place as we took a taxi to there. Hehe! Kind of cheating la...

Abg John and I in front of Malaysia Hall

I've read in the website that people keep commenting the Malaysian Hall as serving good and cheap Malaysia food but the canteen look like a school cafe. When I came and saw the canteen for myself, it really looked like a school cafe and what people were saying in the web was all true. Nevertheless..it didn't really matter as we were looking for good food. And I really miss the opportunity to order food in Malay language!!

The layout of Malaysia Hall canteen

Abg John had nasi lemak with beef rendang in Malaysian Hall canteen.


Claudio and I had nasi lemak with fried chicken. The nasi lemak was nice except the anchovies sambal was a bit too hot for Claudio and me. Abg John, as usual had no complaint as he love hot stuff!



We all had teh tarik for drink. Frankly, teh tarik here was not as good as what we had before in Malaysia, especially from Khulafa' or Kedai Kopi in S.Alam. But it would have to do as we had no other choice...


But the sweet cakes that on offer there were very nice. We chose kuih kemboja, bingka ubi, seri muka. Both Abg John and Claudio really love these cakes as they were very tasty and not that sweet.


We left around 15 minutes past 6 pm. Claudio took a tube at Queenway as he was going somewhere in London for a Ballet. Abg John and I took a taxi to Liverpool Street and caught a train to Cambridge.

The day maybe tiring but I had a very nice day. The meeting may be a bit boring as I'm not a medical person but the food was nice especially in Malaysia Hall. And I had two very charming gentlemens with me. Hehe!

Claudio made me promise not to put any of his pictures in my blog. He is a bit shy I think. So, no more pictures of him.....

Not being well....

20 October 2008

I was not really well since last week. To be exact, it started when I came back from a Formal Dinner at New Hall College on Tuesday, 14th 2008. I had and still having this horrible back pain. My right hip felt and still feel so painful. I've been wondering what went wrong with me. And worrried sick that I might have a dreadful disease such as cancer or something....

I had an appointment with my GP today at 3.30 pm and was nervous to see the doctor and find out the truth. Well...everything went well when the GP told me that I've shingles. Thank Allah. I thought I would not live long... Hehe!

This viral disease is painful and all the blisters make you feel itchy and feel like scratching them. Huk!Huk! What a dreadful time. According to Abg John and my fellow labmates, this is common here in UK. Well...I may becoming more like them I guess!

Anyway, for those who don't really know about this disease and want to know more, try this link :

http://www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/23068820/

Picture of shingles rash. Definitely not me as I'm a lot slimmer!

And this was my first time getting drug/medical service from NHS as I've never seen any of the GP here before after being in UK for 18 months!

For those Malaysians who have never had chicken pox before especially pregnant ladies, keep your distance from me as you might be infected. Those who have already had chicken pox, you're immune.

Well....have to suffer this pain for another three weeks I guess....

Second Eid Gathering

18 October 2008

After exchanging emails throughout the week, we decided to have another Eid gathering among close friends (which involved mostly singletons) plus few new faces to be intoduced.

The event started at 12 noon at Mdm Zett's place in Cory House, Northampton Street, Cambridge. I decided to prepare dim sums (wantan dumplings which happen to be one of my favourite food!). I believed this is my second time and effort to make such dish.

My three different types of dim sums : fish, chicken and prawn

Mdm Zett's place is not relly that big. And the crowd that came for this gathering was quite huge that most of the spacious in her living room was occupied. As usual, buffet potluck style. Everyone brought food to add to some prepared by our host...

Mdm Zett, me and Ms ZZ in Mdm Zett's cute little kitchen...

Our tasty main dishes :

Nasi tomato with masak merah chicken, nasi himpit with kuah kacang and rendang, lemang and ofcourse my dim sums.... All these delicious food to feed our hungry tummies.....

Mr. Hefni and Ms Kalsum were very happy helping themselves to the food!

Our yummilicious desserts :

Including the famous layer cake...



And also dodol!

And not to forget, Mr T's signature food to bring to any gathering. What else if not prawn crackers and poppadums!!

Everyone looked and felt happy. We chatted with each other and all kind of interesting topics and information started to pour out through our conversation...

We met the newest members in the Cambridge Malaysian postgraduate society, Mdm Mazlin and Mr Halian, wife and husband. They both were very friendly. Welcome to Cambridge guys!

Mdm Mazlin and Mr. Halian

Happy faces throughout the gathering...

As usual, the usual group picture : Ms ZZ, me, Miss J, Mdm Zett and Ms Kalsum

Me and Miss J enjoyed looking at Mdm Zett's wedding albums, and dreamt about our own. Hehe!

Another group picture but without me! Mdm Airina, Ms Fatimah, Miss J, Ms Kalsum, Ms ZZ, Mdm Zett and Mr Hefni. Where was I???