Already 3 months...

...Hello! It's been a LONG time since I last wrote about the happenings in my life. In my last post, I updated about my transfer to a new school. It is SMK Hillcrest, Taman Seri Gombak. The first month, I was placed in the morning session and taking over another teacher's time table. It took awhile to get the hang of it. First, it was the waking up early in the morning...I am not an early riser. So waking up and driving early in the morning didn't come naturally to me. Especially after almost 3 years of just walking a few metres to get to school, this was not easy for me. Second, was the relearning process. I had to relearn the culture, the students, the system, and it was more complicated than the previous school. Next, was the students. Certainly not easy as now I am teaching more students with a variety of attitudes, abilities, problems etc. After a month teaching the morning session, I was then placed in the afternoon session where I was supposed to be placed initially. Teaching the lower forms, huh? May sound easy to some, but it comes with its own challenges. Younger students seem to be more active. They are definitely more childish, still playing all sort of games and many of them could care less about exams as they just sat for the UPSR. Besides that, the new PBS system that has no exams makes them even more free to think less about studying. Kids being kids could care less about the effects or repercussion they will face in the future if they do not study now. It was quite a challenge for me to instill some interest in studying for them especially when the motivation is not scoring in the exams. I mean, to tell you the truth, when I was a school student myself, I saw learning simply as means for me to do well in exams that is crucial for my future (tertiary education and career). Our immature minds were never exposed to seeing learning as the acquisition of knowledge for the betterment of oneself, while putting exams and career advancement out of the equation. It sort of came in a package. I find that, the younger generation, especially the one I am teaching, is no different. They do not know how to take their studies seriously, let alone think about the purpose of learning for their future. Seeing beyond what's in the nearest future to them is I suppose, almost impossible. Hence, disciplining them in class becomes the hardest task. To top it up, now the teaching periods I have is more than what I was used to. Every day I feel so tired and the last thing I want to do each day is think about school. Seriously. I am also replacing a teacher who is on her maternity leave and picking up where someone else has left off can be quite confusing. All in all, everything takes time. Once everything started to sink in and I began to understand my responsibilities and slowly established a routine, I was beginning to feel fine. Some things just can't be changed so you have to adjust yourself to follow suit with the system. Alhamdulillah, so far I am surviving and already can't wait for the year-end school holidays!!!

Liking the quote. Credit to google ;) Cheers

Hi!!! Writing from my phone. So this post will be short. I have successfully transferred to SMK Hillcrest, Tmn Sei Gombak. Right now I have no idea what to do. Yesterday I was given a few classes to relief, but today so far I have none. Even I wonder why today I do not get any relief class. At the moment no time table yet. In conclusion, I am dead bored here...I'm sure only for now...*yawn*

the long overdue post: MY RECEPTION

We got back around 2 a.m. after we were done with outdoor photo shoot post nikah. By the time I got the make up removed I crawled to bed at about 3ish, ALONE. Mr hubster had to go back - it's a pantang to stay overnight before the majlis bersanding. As nikah was meant to be an intimate affair, so the marriage isn't publicly announced just yet. The majlis bersanding a.k.a wedding reception is the occasion to announce to the world that - this couple is lawfully wedded. Then only could the marriage be consummated - well, according to adat that is. Anyhoots, on Saturday hubby arrived at 12ish and had shower and lunch at my place before we pushed off to the venue of our reception. It was Singgahsana Hotel, Petaling Jaya. We considered many venues during the preparation period and trust me venue selection was the trickiest because wedding is now a fast-growing business and with that many places offer cut-throat quotation for just a decent dinner. The venue we finally settled with was within my parents' budget and it did allow us to cater to a slightly large number of crowd, which was about 500 pax. I would still think that H.O.M.E is the best place for a Malay wedding reception, however given the limited space we had, we decided to take the wedding to a different location. We got to the hotel a bit late, there were family arriving at home, some visitors came to give their well wishes to us, we couldn't say no could we? The rehearsal was supposed to begin at 3.30 but got delayed to 4...I was pretty anxious as I wanted to see if the slideshow we had prepared was working but the technician was not around. It was pretty obvious that the wedding planner was getting pissed, I on the other hand started to worry but still maintained my cool. After waiting for a bit more we started the rehearsal but skipped the slideshow and video session. She gave me her word that she'd make sure it will appear that night. It better did! We were already running late. My make-up artist arrived at 5 and make-up was supposed to start by 5.30 but I hadn't even taken my shower at that time. So I rushed to the bridal suite and got ready for make-up. I put my worries aside, and told myself "What will be, will be! The most important thing is we're married"...My MUA did her magic again and wallah I was transformed from a tired-looking girl to a beautiful, glowing bride! I loved her job, I loved my look. Especially this one! And the best thing was hearing my husband telling me how beautiful his wife looked! Precious! :)) After striking a few poses we were summoned to the waiting room before making our entrance into the banquet hall. My heart was beating fast. I hope nothing goes wrong. Before we knew it, the moment arrived. Slowly we made our way to the bridal dais, all eyes were on us, cameras from every angle, we walked hand in hand, all smiles. That was a moment to remember - this must be how all celebrities on a red carpet feel, only 1000 times better because I am with my husband. I have lived for almost 27 years to finally found the one I want to be with for the rest of my life, InsyaAllah and the best part is he feels the same way too! (Lots of love in my heart) Sitting up there with about 500 pairs of eyes looking at us, we beamed with happiness. "Alhamdulillah", my heart cried. Once all the VIPs gave their blessings to us with just a simple 'bersalaman' session as a replacement to the 'merenjis' ritual, we marched to the high table. My husband was so macho! I love saying that because he likes to think of himself that way and it's not like he isn't anyways! Dinner started but I didn't think I savoured it as much as I should have, hehe, because I was still not settled...not until the whole event was finished. But based on words from our guests, the food was great! That, I was truly happy about. Unfortunately, there were things I was really unhappy about and they were the slideshow and video preview and the sound system! Even thinking about it makes me angry about everything. We paid good money for that night and it's just unfair that we weren't satisfied with all their services. First, the slideshow went crazy...the sound system in particular, same went to the video! They were also supposed to dim the lights! But it continued to be bright the whole time! And my dad's speech wasn't clear, I was so bumped! I was at the brink of tears but thankfully my husband was there. Lesson learnt: WE ARE NOT IN CONTROL OF EVERYTHING. All in all I felt happy actually, and relieved it's all over. Despite the technical problem, I was overjoyed. How blessed I feel to have my family members doing everything they could for my wedding, friends coming near and far for our wedding reception, my BFFs doing their part as the emcee of the night. I couldn't be happier, we couldn't be happier. The slideshow and video were magically beautiful. We loved them, only the presentation didn't do justice to their beauty. We wish to thank our parents, our siblings, aunts & uncles, cousins and their family, our relatives, best friends, close friends, colleagues, family friends, Splendiferous Pictures, Yon Photography, Kak Ina who did our slideshow, Kak Affy for the gorgeous make-up!!! Ah-Ching for the outfits, Jue Eden for the pelamin, of course Ustaz Imran our jurunikah, I still thank Singgahsana BUT they have to work on improving their sound system PRONTO! Below (recently embedded) is our nikah video that many could have missed on our reception dinner. Credit to Spendiferous Pictures, please enjoy...

SDE Video Highlight - Aida + Rafei from Splendiferous Pictures ™ on Vimeo.

Wedding Review

If there's any critic in this world who is hardest on wedding reviews, I think I can be pretty harsh. However, the lesson learnt is: you have VERY LITTLE control over what turns out on your wedding day. I used to have a fairy tale like imagination of every detail of my wedding. This self proclaimed bridezilla thought she got it all figured out, BUT she thought WRONG! There were many lessons learnt as I embarked on this journey of being wedded to my new-found love. Being away from home mostly was the main reason this wedding planning thing was harder to handle. The only time I had was during the year end school holidays, however having to help mama taking care of the household somewhat hindered the process as well. Often times, fatigue got in the way. Here's some things I've got to say about my own wedding day :) It was no Yusry-Lisa, nor was it any near to any VIP's daughter's wedding, nonetheless it remains as the most wonderful memory both Rafei and I share and shall cherish for the rest of our lives. It was not about what we saw and how we looked like, but it was the way the whole experience made us feel - just as what I've always imagined, only a million times better in every sense.
Nikah - 3rd February 2012, Home sweet home, After maghrib
My verdict on:
- My pelamin: NICE :))
- My henna: so pretty...simple and nice
- My room: Wished there were more fresh flowers, wished I had gone to the florist instead!!! But I loved the scent of the room - bunga rampai with a hint of rose water scent and of course the bed sheet was gorgeous!
- My hantaran: Credit to kak Ejah. Happy with the results but again, wished I had gone to the florist to pick out more flowers.
- My outfit: LOVE, LOVE, LOVE...especially the shawl. I was so glad I opted for the simple, demure look. It's understated but elegant still (I hope)
- My make-up: AMAZING
The pit and the peak of NIKAH: The PIT was the delayed start as Friday night's traffic was HELL. So groom's side took some time to gather at Masjid Abu Bakar As-Siddiq SS19. Hence, the ceremony started later than scheduled, but it went on quickly and smoothly :)
The PEAK: Definitely the 'sekali lafaz' made by hero of the day: my husband did it with such confidence and 'machoness'! Kudos sayang!
The moment of truth
mas kahwin from him to me
sarung cincin
the ring we picked
putting on his ring
blissfully wedded couple
kissing me

In Response to someone's post

I read this post on someone's blog I used to follow - as I've just removed her from my reading list, nothing personal...just thought that I've no use following her anymore. Hehehe...I reckon now that my wedding is over and all these wedding craze should end, hehe. Anyways, she wrote about planning for a child. True enough she wrote about being prepared economically and how important it is to enjoy couple time before jumping into parenthood, but a part of me felt like she's missing one point in which we Muslims would phrase it as 'Hikmah disebalik sesuatu'. Sometimes we may think that planning is everything, I wanna have this and that by certain age and my child will have the BEST everything, but how much exactly do we know about everything we have planned? Is our plan really the best? Quoting her friend's story about how 'deprived' her life is at the moment because she had her first child a bit too early than she's 'supposed' to...it made me feel that what's she's heading for is looking at things in the monetary sense. Let's look at the days when our parents raised us. Were we lavished with the most expensive everything? Fast food every other day? The biggest house? A brand new car right after SPM? At least I wasn't. But do I feel like less of a person today because I was raised to understand that money doesn't come easy? A BIG FAT NO! This world now is too crowded with people telling us that we NEED SO MANY THINGS until we get blurred with what we truly need and what we truly just plain want. Yes it's individual choice to live life according to a certain path or value but always remember our creator and always believe that InsyaAllah for everything He grants us with, it's a blessing to us. Do we get it, do we not, it's not our business to question. With lots of doa, hard work and tawakal we'll make it through. It's about putting our life not in our hands, but in HIS. And that, is something I am still working at. Wallahu'alam...Wassalamualaikum w.b.t.

My Bachelorette Party times 2

Yes, I meant to write about this long ago but haven't got the time to sit down and write all the details. I must say I was so touched by the effort shown by all my BFFs for making the event such a special and memorable one for me. Despite whatever glitches, bottom line is I was super duper happy and really felt like a bride-to-be :)) Besides, I got two batches of PARTAYYY!!!
For the first batch, we were all gathered at AmpWalk, Jalan Ampang. There's this beautiful restaurant called Flora Cafe. The ambiance was breathtaking, fit for a wedding. I honestly felt like getting my soon to be groom and tell him, "Sayang, kite kawen kat sini je nak?" hehe, just kidding...it's pretty obvious that it wouldn't fit the amount of guests I have. After we're done with dinner we headed down to Sucasa Service Apartments for our 'slumber party'. Unfortunately we're all tired so the night continued with heartwarming pillow talks and more snacking...that was a good one!
To my surprise there was another special celebration for me, planned about 2 weeks before my wedding!!! OMG, despite my already busy schedule then it was an awesome retreat from such a stressful period for me. My beloved friends had it all planned out at Marmalade, BV2. The place had an energy that I truly loved, it was painted in warm colours and everything looked perfect with the pink balloons my friends bought. Apart from the hearty dishes, we also played a few games. Brilliantly prepared by soulsistah Dilla Karim with the help of all the other soulsistahs of course. We had 'taboo - wedding special version', essay writing of How Rafei met Aida - because I am a teacher I think, hehe,'Don't Forget the Lyrics' - because I LOVE singing and A-Z about wedding game. We had so much fun!!! It was a great party and I truly enjoyed it. I am really grateful to have friends who went to great lengths to make me happy. A big hearty THANK YOU to all of you.

Venue 1: Flora Cafe, Ampwalk Ampang
all of us
RAINBOW cake
at sucasa ampang
Venue 2: Marmalade @BV2
the happy faces
the yummylicious food
the soon-to-be bride
the handmade gift
me: all smiles like 1 happy kid

6 DAYS!!!!!!

See the ticker??? that says it all, hehe...

In less than 2 weeks....

this life will forever change...
I will be a wife to the most wonderful man I know... :)
suddenly it's all in slow motion. when i looked at my friends yesterday, I was holding back my tears. inside i felt it, i only have this moment to celebrate, to live in the present time of being in my singlehood before embarking on journey which i am still clueless about. i've heard lots about it from family, friends, mass media...but i don't know what mine will be like. i am excited, i am nervous, tremendously happy and scared too. it's overwhelming. but, I WANT TO ENJOY IT.
List of things I'll never get to do after this:
- Wake up late whenever and wherever....it's a BIG NO,NO to wake up late at mom in law's hse, I was told. hehehe, rumah mak sendiri boleh diskaun lagi
- Go anywhere at anytime as I please....must always ask permission and plan ahead
- BERMALAS-MALASAN - hehehe, maybe there are days when i still become malas kot
List of things I must do after this:
- Obey him (selagi tidak bertentangan dgn syarak of cos)
- Cook
- Clean
- Take good care of him
- Iron his clothes
- Be with him through good times and bad times
*I intended to write about my lovely bridal shower yesterday but I need the pictures and time to do it...so that the entry will truly capture all the greatness of the celebration.
P/S: Picture used is intended solely for illustration purpose. It is not related to the author in anyway. Thanks google images!