london bridge is falling down

20th july 2009

Today i'll be leaving for London via AirAsia at 1600. Everyone was asking why i hadn't opted for MAS. Unless, someone's paying for me, thank you very much but i'm paying for my own vacation (trying to prove myself independent,somehow) so i chose to fly with AirAsia. At the Departure hall was Elly, Edros and I. It was too hard to leave them, but i am going on holidays, i'm coming back so i shouldn't be too sad, right?

To say the least, it was not a bad flight since it was a no frills, low cost carrier. So what more can you expect than to pay for everything else (comfort kit, entertainment and food). Talking about entertainment, i had all the fave songs in my Sony Mp3 to occupy me throughout my 13hours flight, but i just had to leave it somewhere at my cousins place before leaving. Darn!tBuy then again, I had no complaints, the Nasi Beriyani was good (hopefully my trainer,Gary doesnt read this) and given having a chatty person sitting next to me. It was my bad to have not got his name but i'm sure he was around my dad's age. He was nice. (Uncle whereever u are, it was nice to meet you)

After 5 hours of chatting, and 8 hours of i-don't-know-what (i had trouble sleeping despite being so sleepy, maybe it was the seat,maybe), i arrived at Standsted Airport, London at almost 11pm local time (7am Msia?) which to me looked like our LCCT but i think LCCT is waaaaayyy better. The line before the customs officer was so long and i had just enough time to inform my family about my arrival. Just did't want them to worry since i was travelling alone. But i just had to miss out the fact that i had not update my new number with international roaming. Again, some silly mistake! How am i suppose to inform Daing and Per upon my arrival? Ya Allah, please guide me.

After getting my luggage, i needed to get a bus (Note: Terravision) to Liverpool St. which is practically an hour ride from the airport to town and it only cost around 9pounds to get you there. (Yup its like RM54 in which you can get a return bus ticket to KL, but they say don't convert or you'll end up not eating) On the bus, i slept but only for a while because i was too scared i missed the stop and went to somewhere else. Thank Goodness the pretty Italian girl beside me was nice enough to start a conversation. When we were heat up, we practically conquered the whole bus. Apparently, Margherita de Gennaro was also on vacation with her also 18 yrs old boyfriend. She actually asked me to add her in Facebook! Believe it or not? It was hilarious.

When i arrived at Liverpool St., i was welcomed but my dear old friends Per, Daing and Cheh (i suppose that's his girlfriend cos they make a good couple). So thank goodness for the 2 heroes, they pushed my 23kg luggage back to Daing's place where Cheh made a good cup of Tea and served garlic bread and sambal ikan bilis which i had a few bites and Per practically licked the plates. He must've been very hungry. After a while chatting and i felt like getting some rest before my trip to Paris the next day. Because i was psyched and freezing, i could not sleep. So i went online and updated my Facebook. After a while my eyes were too tired to open, and i really need some shut eyes now.

See you later,in PARIS?!

Happy Shopper!

Kangah and lil Ghazi

Kangah, among all the shoppers of Chomel27 had blogged on her chomel items :) Thanks Kangah!! Check out her blog at http://lovesbylindalatip.blogspot.com/

Her gift as top shopper of the day

Hari Raya Open House

On the 11th of October, the Zubir's had their open house after 4 days of preparation. Believe me, its not a good thing to do when you've been sick throughout. I had to manage the event, from the food to tents and a lovely surprise of door-gifts. I was working harder than usual since we could not find the perfect timing to get everyone on a certain weekend, so bad that Elly was not there during the Open House. (Sorry, but you know we love you girl!)

Kak Zura,Kak Siti and Kak M all glammed up

Bad thing for me, i had to wake up early for tonnes of chores. Picking up the flowers, buy breakfast and kuih-muih for the open house. Kak M, Kak siti and Kak Zura were the earliest. They were the life-savers to help around. And best part was, the guest came right when i was having brunch before i had the chance to shower. Euw!

Nasi Beriyani and associate

The famous cream puff

We had catered the Nasi Beriyani, so there was the full dish inclusive of Ayam Masak Mrah, Daging Masak Hitam, Mutton Kurma, and Dhall. There was also Rojak, Lemang, Ketupat, Rendang, Cakes and Cookies, Fruits, Satay and many more. Masya-Allah, there were so much to eat you just don't know where to start! Believe me, you'll go home so full you wish you could stay longer. We also had our Kak M and her lovely cream puffs. I bet she worked all night. Chai-yok Kak M!

Foong Jr. who said "Assalamualaikum" with a curtsy

Alhamdulillah, the weather was good (not raining at all) and the guest came as expectantly. Enough food for everyone to eat and take home. Guest came in groups which made me feel so relieved as they had a seat too. I hate the fact when there's too many guests with no seat and that neither me nor my family gets a chance to have a chat, you know. It was a joyful day meeting up with family and old friends. Its great to be reunited again!

My St Georges besties, Nurul & Eida

So, to those who attended, THANK YOU SO MUCH for making the effort, hope you had your tummy full and enjoyed the open house.

To family and friends (Kak M, Kak Siti, Kak Zura, Aunty Nini, Kak Elin, Aunty Yati & Acu, just to name a few) who stayed from the beginning till the end, assemblying the tents, arranging chairs, helping with food preparations, everything and anything at all that made us smell of food and sweat; THANKS A MILLION!!!!! Only Allah knows best to reward you with such sincerity and kind-heart. InsyaAllah.

To those who couldnt attend, i only have this entry to serve to you.

With Edros and Darwish

Love, Adura Sayangness.

13th Day of Ramadhan

I started my day early for some shopping. The Zubirs (yes that's my family) entourage at Pavillion. Am so loving it. No hot sun. No dreaded walks. Just perfect!

Traditional Performance at Pavilion

We started with charles&kieth, a shoe boutique. Dead cheap shoes . Well not so, but its definitely worth buying with the crazy comfy soles, who would resist it? The shoes ranges from MYR80 over and i got another gladiator sandals. But the best part was, i came back with mommy dearest and got ourselves more shoes. Yippie!!!

Then we went to Topshop, Pull and Bear, Gap, Guess and madness it was for the five of us (Edros, Elly, Iqmal, and i). It was like a shop-till you-drop competition. Everyone grabbed everything including Papa. Funny buy, he got himself this cardigan from Topshop. Wow, i know. Funny, i think. But he's my daddy cool. While shopping, I've come to realise that Iqmal is now a teenager, he wanted to choose his attire rather than wearing what Mama or anyone chooses for him. Welcome to the club, Mal!

We ended up entering every single shop available, minus the not so interesting ones, of course. Was there from 10 to 5pm. With aching legs and i had to rush for my reunion buka puasa with my YPM friends at Nelayan. Thank God, i made it on time after a 30minute foot reflexology in our hotel room.

The Yellow canaries

Upon arrival, i was so thrilled to meet my loves, Attie and Nad. Nad, we're so sehati-sejiwa. Both of us wore yellow. Maybe the colour for this season but it was cute. Nelayan was so packed with people and i dare you not to drop a sweat with the endless queues for buffets, the delicious food and heat from the steamboat. Look at myself, it was mad alright! My tudung was rebellious as well. (Nelayan had good food but it is best to go during the non-peak season, you'll end up with nothing much but a bad review)

Standing[L-R]: Mummy Ain and Elly

Seated[L-R]: Sue, Nad, Attie, Me and Wani

One by one, my friends starts to show and i was really happy to see each one of them. The thing is they didnt know bout my little surprise and when they knew bout the cupcakes, each of the took back 3boxes per person. That's how lucky they got and how unlucky of those who didnt make it. Overall, endless chats with Attie, Nad, Elly, Sue, Ain and Wani made me come to realise how much i missed college life. Well, let's do more of this okay friends?

BFF's

P/s: Ain i hope your baby loves the choc cupcakes and Sue, hope the cupcakes cheered you up! and to the BFF's, lets wait till ET and Sya and 306 will be reunited again :)

Happiness/less?

I was blog-hopping throught a bestie of mine and saw that she had a question. What is happiness? What made me? Will it last? How i got it and all sorts of question. Indirectly Ada, i'm replying to you. Im not a psychologist, you know that but im definitely human and your friend you've known for almost 24 years now.

So what is happiness? From my search i found that happiness brings different meanings. For someone it might be excitement, passion, exhilaration, fulfillment, freedom, feeling fully alive with inspiration and joy and for another it might be more peaceful, content, capable, hopeful, satisfied, and comfortable feeling. Whatever you call it, it just feels good. Happiness is what you feel when you're NOT feeling; self doubt, depressed, hateful, fearful, worried, unsatisfied, bored, grief, shame, guilt, discontent, anxious, annoyed, angry, irritated, stressed, frustrated, upset, down, sad, envious or jealous.

It depends on which age group we're in too. Are we the baby boomers who thinks being healthy is happiness? Or are we the Gen Xers who needs the extra holidays with the family? Or are we the Gen Yers who need the extra moolah for shopping? It all depends too.

However, happiness is not pleasure although they can appear similar. Pleasure is enjoyment of an outside stimuli. You might find pleasure in buying a new car, or in going on vacation, or having friends over for dinner, or being with the one we love. Pleasure requires an external stimuli for you to experience it. Happiness does not. Some people who seem to have nothing are very happy. Some people who seem to have everything are not. Some jet-setters seem happy while some moral crusaders have become miserable old grouches. Happiness seems very unpredictable, inconsistent, irrational.

Happiness is a belief about yourself and the outside world. You can be doing something you normally experience as pleasurable but not be happy too! Pleasure is born from the external world, happiness is born from the internal workings of our own minds. Happiness is not merely a life lived by accumulating moments of pleasure. On the contrary, happiness is a long lasting enduring enjoyment of life, it is being in love with living.

It is your reward for achieving a good character and personal rational values in life. Some important values are a productive career, romance, friendship and hobbies. Achieving these values requires rationality and takes effort and skill. Two types of skills you can use are thinking skills and valuing skills. Once you learn to have confidence in your own mind and once you discover the virtues that make it possible for you to achieve your values and that make your life worth living, then you will experience the result - an earned pride and a genuine self-esteem. And of course happiness.

If you ask me, in my life i may have found happiness myself. Its always there but like life it has its ups and downs. Its normal to me to be happy and sad in different phases of my life. In my past entries, i may have written my happiness and unhappiness. Well it happens in all of us. At least to me, i may not be Paris Hilton, Victoria Beckham or Blair Waldorf with the whole entourage. I'm definitely just your girl next door but im happy as i am.

Even though i'm lonely at times, without a best friend/sister to tag along with me for shopping, i am happy. Why? Because i have them whenever i go. They're always supporting me in anything i do (Friends, you know who you are, near and far). From relationship problems, to setting up my cupcake booth to anything at all i have my friends to depend on. Although once upon a time i used to hate the fact that i have lesser friends around me nowadays. At least, i have REAL friends.

Happiness is also defined through love. I have found happiness in Mr Boyfy. Even though the normal/ritual disagreements make me sick but he'll always know how to get by and make me smile. He knows when to kiss my forehead, when to hold my hand. He knows when to call back, when to have deep conversations. He knows when im angry, sad and he knows when im happy and hungry. He knows that i love him and i know it too. He knows it and he knows it all. Thats enough for me to be happy.

Happiness is also defined through my family. I'm happy that we're all together in anything, supporting each other's back through thick and thin even though its not as obvious as it should be. I know there's always my family. Happiness was also seen when my brother and i graduated. I saw it in my parent's eyes and thats the best thing ever happened to me. For once, I felt i made them proud. Its pure happiness.

I found happiness when we were in Mekah performing Umrah.

I found happiness when i decided to conceal myself with Hijab.

I found happiness.

But my life is not a 100m sprint. Its a marathon. I'll have to go through as much happiness as well as unhappiness. Till then, let me dream sweet tonight. XOXO

manic monday

june 16th 2008

mad day. eventhough not much papers piled on my table still it was mad. i vowed for retail therapy with Elly for no reasons. yup, no reasons and the next thing i know i had 2 shopping bags with 4 tops and 2 shoes. yup new shoes. red and black. as expected, im wearing the red one today :) sukenye hati!

my red shoes a la sophie ellis bexter

Retail therapy was mainly to shoo away my thoughts away from everything possible or perhaps nothing.. so anyway there was indeed a need to shop.

Oh and there was a joke i had yesterday that so tickled my belly. I called in for an appointment, where? doesnt matter. so when i said i wanted to make an appointment tomorrow at 4.30pm, the person on the other line was like "Okay, your name is Miss....". So i was like "Noradura" and spelt it just in case she got me wrong.

I was like in a Spelling Bee competition, like what Elly said. I was going "N..O..R.."and so on. I believe the line was noisy, which i dont think so cos the lady went "N..O..I..E..D..U..I..E". I'm sorry but what does that spells? I'm like laughing and she was "hello..hello" and i corrected her again stressing the "R" and "A". My goodness.

Then all of us were laughing cos we couldnt figure out what "NOIEDUIE" was. Maybe it is pronounced as"No-ee-do-ee", cute but no thank u.
So that was joke of the day!

Queen Kate?

Oh Noooooooooo!!! Just when the bad news hit (rising of fuel price), Prince William is really getting married. I'm going to mourn over this. Good thing i'm wearing black today. Haha. I know there's probably a few hundred thousand commoners like me (who dreams to be a princess since a little girl) who would want to wed a prince like Prince William. i'm just like any other Prince William's fan, but i adored him since so long that i dont know when.

Prince William and soon-to-be Queen Kate/ Catherine Middleton

Reminiscing those moments when Aqila would be Prince Harry's girlfriend and i'd be who else's la kan? But it's okay William, i have Prince Andrea Casiraghi of Monaco and Prince Caspian (haha!). It's Andrea's gain and your loss. :) Anyways, congratulations on your wedding. Good thing you're not getting married to any Princess but another commoner like Princess Di. (I miss you, Princess Diana)

Prince Andrea Casiraghi of Monaco and (hehe) Prince Caspian

Anyways, Happy 24th birthday to MY Prince Andrea Casiraghi this 8th June.

celine dion's concert! Mr. Boyfy! & Tax Course

13th april 2008
it started with edros and i travelling to K.Lumpur for th long awaited concert of Celine Dion - Taking Chances Concert in KL. okay! i was a wee bit excited as she is a Diva, indeed and i just want to have fun.

The show started 15minutes late and at that particular moment, Edros had to drag me to the toilet which had this bee-line queue. I was like OMG! we're gonna miss the opening and we did. but the toilet place had a great view and it was better off watching it from that spot. okay.. so the concert started with 'i drove all night' and she went on with a couple of hits like 'i'm alive, it's all coming back to me now, i love you' and a few others and she introduced her latest hit ' taking chances' and 'eyes on me' taken from her newly launched album Taking Chances. i was singing to it, i had so much fun and i couldnt be more contented to see her show with the great band (especially the multi-talented guy who played the violin and guitar and so much more) and dancers. they were marvellous. to those who missed it, im sorry but it was effin good! we shared the concert with the King and Queen too. Datuk Siti Nurhaliza n hubby was there. Rossa was there.a lot more indeed!

she didnt sing the ever-so-famous ' my heart will go on' until the very last minute. she came back to the stage after changing her decent clothes. she wore this sparkly top with tights and a mini-cardigan from the start to this beautiful yellow Greek-goddess inspired dress that she changed for the finale act and OMG! she was so good.... i was almost in tears.

14th april 2008
post concert was crazy. we ended up waking up late. We were supposed to get up early and leave by noon. but we ended up having brunch. so you go on figure out what time that will be. i was sympathy with my bro cos he had to drive alone back to Penang since my sis and i had to stay back in KL for my course on the 16th and 17th. but there's nothing i can do as Papa had told Edros to do so cos it'll be an extra cost to fly Elly again down to KL (if she was to follow him back).

it so happens that it was Uncle Ali's birthday. so later that night, the whole family and us (my sis and i) went to this restaurant with great ambience, Carabao. Great food indeed. Price? Reasonable. We had the Mango Fish, Seafood Tomyam, Fried Asparagus, Black Pepper Beef and i had the Soursop and Strawberry ice. Its like ABC, the shaved ice wit soursop and strawberry sauce and some chunks of it. Yummy! Great people. Great Food. Great Ambience. I'm lovin' it!

15th april 2008
we had lontong kering and nasi lemak for breakfast and my favourite kuih koci . super fatty food for an early meal. To my surprise the course im attending had change its venue from PJ Hilton to The Saujana (formerly known as Hyatt Saujana). With the full-battery phone i made some calls. Saujana was full and i was stranded with no place to go since i had booked PJ hilton earlier that week. I made a few calls to hotels in the Subang area and they too were full. i was like WTF!?! but more of 'Astaghfirullah' since i need to practice to be more patient and zip up my mouth for Umrah. I took this picture on flight since i had nothing better to do with some ridiculous ideas in mind. But i think this picture is rather beautiful. Any biddings, AirAsia?

I,then, called in Kak Rina, my cousin and she was so happy to have me n sis at her cosy apartment in Subang, and she, too, was ever-generous too lend her car for me to travel to the course. Problem is... it has been ages since i last drove a stick (Manual car). Laugh on people but at home, all 3 cars are automatic. so dont blame it on me. believe it or not after an hour journey, we arrived at the KL Sentral and as soon as i stepped down to reach for my luggage, i totally felt like i was in Chennai. Y? can u believe it, not to be racist or whatever, these people were shouting their lungs out and pity me i had to past through them while they were doing it. my concern is my ear drums.

At KL Sentral, we met Iqmal, Elly's friend for lunch at McD's cos i was so hungry and we headed to Shah Alam. and there i had my driving class. i had to prepare myself for driving a stick. im confident enough that i'd be able to pull it off and i did in a mere 15minutes. at first, instead of going backwards, i actually went forward and slight hit the bumper. Oops! but after trying to my relief i got the hang of it. Yay! (pat on the back).

So, while waiting for Kak Rina, we had some 4 hours to waste. and i so wanted to get new straps for my not-really old Guess? watch (i had planned to renew it ages ago but procrastination overrules) and so we headed to Pan Global in KL and tadaaa... i had it done in less than 30 minutes (if you do it through Guess? boutique, they'll tell you that it'll take them 2months or so.so next time, get it done yourself!) i got myself a Hot Pink strap to replace the boring brown one, and a lilac strap for the Gold one. at least Papa won't have to worry bout getting me a new watch anytime soon, unless he's just too kind!

then from there i was longing for my Meatballs at the Ikea. so we went there and yes i couldnt resist the Daim cake.then, after lunch we were rushing to fetch Kak Rina from work but i wanted to get Kak Rina and her hubby the infamous Curry Puffs and the Almond biscuits.

~the end~