My First Hurdle

Once in a fortnight people in my reseach group will take turn to give a presentation about their work to the group. My turn came up last Friday. It was my first presentation to the group. All week long I was battling my runny nose. No fever, just watery eyes and runny nose. Pheeww! What a week.

By Wednesday, I have fully prepared my slides. Truthfuly, I have never prepared such an interesting slides *ala2 perasan gitu* , complete with animations (thanks to Power Point workshop which I attended last month). I never like animations before because I always thought that it disturbs the audience attention. So my presentations were always quite bland. However, through the workshop I learned a lot of tricks and ways to make an interesting, understandable and easy to comprehend presentation. I just need to use my own imagination and the tips given in the workshop.

Friday morning, after Subuh prayer, I asked my husband to listen to my presentation. His comment? - You need to pause! And I said, "Yelah.." *sambil menjeling suami*

Come 11.30 on Friday morning, off I went for my presentation. Nervous? Yeah! A little, but I managed not to let my nervousness getting to me. There were some questions from some of the postdocs in my group and Alhamdulillah I managed to answer them. Most importantly my supervisor likes it. However my other supervisor was off to other place that morning so tomorrow I have to represent my presentation again.

Alhamdulillah, life has been good to me so far. To say I enjoy every second of it would be exaggerating -I don't really enjoy the cold weather. I know it's a very early stage but as of now I am happy with my research progress.

Managing My PhD

When I first got to know that I need to complete 60 hours of credit during the first year of my PhD I was quite ovewhelmed. More so that 60 hours will be accumulated through workshops. How many workshops do I have to attend? The word workshop alone makes me cringe inside. Seriously, it is so easy to associate the word workshop with the word boring, isn't it?

Yet, what needs to be needs to be. I later find myself booking for a whole bunch of workshops offered for graduate students. One of the workshops which I booked myself into is Managing My PhD.

I was curious and really want to know how shoud I manage my PhD. I expected the workshop would be very military like where the instructor would tell you what you should do and what you shouldn't do during you PhD.What I didn't expect was the two way communication between the instructor and us, the participants, and the way he made us think and realize what and how we should manage our PhD without him ordering us to do so. Impressive.. very impressive. Plus his laid back style.

One important thing I learned from that workshop is as a student/researcher I need to have a specific goal. Not just any goal. Let say my research is on 'Masakan Melayu' and my goal for this month is to read journals on that topic. So,

Any goal: Read journals on 'Masakan Melayu'
vs.
Specific goal: Read 5 journals on 'Masakan Melayu Pantai Timur' by 1/5/09.
Read 5 journals on 'Masakan Melayu Utara' by 8/5/09
Read 5 journals on 'Masakan Melayu Selatan' by 15/5/09
Read 5 journals on 'Masakan Melayu Moden' by 22/5/09
etc...

Or

Any goal: Try to cook 'Masakan Melayu'
vs.
Specific goal: Try to cook 3 'Masakan Melayu' between 27/4 - 1/5/09 plus details on each ingredients.

Which do you think is more realistic & achievable?

I try to set up monthly goals as well as weekly goals. Daily goal? Nah! I think that's too much for me. Mind you not every goal is completed by its due date but I tried to keep my pace.

Kebun Kami II

Sayur-sayur kami baru disemai. Belum dapat challenge sayur Che'a yg dah montok2 tu.

Ketumbar



Oregano/Marjoram
Spring Onion/Daun Bawang

Daun Kesum
Red Currant

Semaian lili of the valley...

Tak ingat bunga apa. Rasanya mcm bunga keladi kot...

Kebun Kami

Semuanya bermula dengan sepokok 'hyacinth'. Tapi ubi pokok telah dimakan serangga tanpa saya sedari. Sekarang bunga ni dah mati. Sedih jugak. Tapi setiap yg hidup pasti akan mati. Itu pasti.

Sekarang rumah kami dah penuh dengan pokok bunga & sayur. Sepatutnya sekarang dah musim bunga (spring) tp cuaca ni di Newcastle ni kadang-kdang TERsejuk pulak. Waktu siang bolehlah mencapai hingga 17C. Tapi bila malam adakalanya turun sehingga 3C. Makanya terpaksalah pokok-pokok kami duduk dalam rumah ala-ala 'MEM BESAR' gitu. Nasib baik Amran rajin mengangkut pokok-pokok tu ke luar rumah pada waktu siang. Dapatlah depa merasa cahaya matahari.


Kemudian ini. Lupa nama apa.

Kat Malaysia pun ada pokok bunga ni. Kesukaan nenek saya. Bunga Tiga Bulan namanya.

Pokok setawar. Kat Malaysia pun ada tp tak pasti spesis yg sama atau lain.

Pokok ni comel walaupun agak manja. tak boleh terlupa siram, mesti layu. Salah satu cirinya yg saya suka, dia hidup sepanjang tahun.

Pokok campuran.

Tiga puteri yg menunggu masa untuk dipindahkan ke pasu besar.

Puding Roti

Hari ni orang-orang di UK bercuti sempena Good Friday. Apa yang Good Friday pun saya tak tau. Kalau mengikut Wikipedia, Good Friday adalah hari orang-orang Kristian memperingati hari Nabi Isa disalib dan kematiannya di Golgotha. Perlu diingatkan ini adalah mengikut kepercayaan orang-orang Kristian. Kita yang beragama Islam ni tak perlu meraikan mahupun memperingati hari 'Good Friday' ini.

Puding Roti ni saya buat bukanlah bersempena Good Friday. Sebaliknya hari ni Dzun& Khai menjemput kami sarapan pagi di rumah mereka. Takkanlah nak datang tangan kosongkan. Minggu lepas, Dzun buat tiramisu untuk kami sewaktu datang bersarapan pagi di rumah kami. Jadi malam tadi saya& Amran menyediakan puding roti ni untuk kami bawa ke rumah Dzun.

RESEPI PUDING ROTI

PUDING ROTI
Bahan
500ml susu segar
200-300ml double cream
8 bji telur
8 SB gula halus (tambah sukatan sekiranya tidak cukup manis)
4-5 SB serbuk badam
6-8 keping roti
Kismis/prune/anggur/badam panggang ] untuk hiasan

Cara
1-Tuang susu segarke dalam loyang, masukkan gula dan kacau hingga larut.
2-Masukkan telur. Kacau rata.
3-Masukkan cebisan-cebisan roti (tak perlu cebisan halus, 1 keping roti:4-6 cebisan)
4-Masukkan serbuk badam & beberapa cubit garam.
5-Masukkan double cream.
6-Grease bekas & masukkan adunan dalam acuan. Elakkan adunan dari terlalu penuh di dalam bekas.
7-Tabur kismis/anggur/badam panggang di atas adunan.
8-Bakar pada 180 Celcius selama 40 minit.

KUAH KASTAD
Bahan
2 cawan susu segar
gula secukupnya (ikut tahap kemanisan)
1-2 SB tepung kastad

Cara
1-Larutkan tepung kastad & gula di dalam susu segar.
2-Masak di atas api sederhana sehingga mendidih.
3-Angkat dari tungku dapur yg panas itu (untuk mengelakkan campuran menjadi puding kastad pula)
4-Sejukkan

*Nota kaki: Perlu diingatkan seperti kebanyakan resepi-resepi yg saya sediakan, sukatan-sukatan yang digunakan berdasarkan gerak hati (intuition). Jadi gunakanlah gerak hati anda semasa mencuba resepi ini :D

Marilah Menuju Kejayaan..

Sungguh! Rasa besar khilaf diri bila saya melihat gambar-gambar ini (yg saya terima melalui e-mail).

Dan laksanakanlah solat dan tunaikanlah zakat. dan segala kebaikan yang kamu kerjakan untuk dirimu, kamu akan mendapatkannya(pahala) di sisi ALLAH. Sungguh, Allah Maha melihat apa yang kamu kerjakan.

-Al-Baqarah(110)

Dan milik Allah timur dan barat. Ke mana pun kamu menghadap di sanalah wajah ALLAH. Sungguh, ALLAH Maha Luas, Maha Mengetahui.

-Al-Baqarah(115)

Sewaktu di Malaysia, memang mudah untuk mengerjakan solat. Masjid dan surau ada di mana-mana. Cuma yang agak menyedihkan kadang-kadang masjid-masjid dan surau-surau ini dikunci. Heemm.. tak begitu praktikalkan?

Namun, bila berada di luar negara ni, tempat untuk menunaikan solat bukan lagi persoalan bila tiba masanya. Asalkan ada tempat yang bersih, boleh saja.

Alhamdulillah, di Newcastle ni memang banyak masjid. Cuma tak ada tempat solat di pusat-pusat membeli belah. Pernah saya & suami bersolat di bilik menyalin lampin bayi, waktu asar yang singkat tidak membolehkan kami pulang ke rumah untuk bersolat.

Teringat saya waktu belajar di US dulu, saya bersolat di perpustakaan beralaskan kertas surat khabar(waktu tu belum jumpa sejadah kecil). Alhamdulillah di universiti sekarang, ada masjid(saiz surau saja) di dalam universiti. Namun saya baru sekali bersolat di situ kerana jaraknya yang agak jauh dari 'workspace' saya. Lagipun berhampiran dengan 'workspace' saya, ada bilik(workspaces) yang dihuni oleh majoriti pelajar Malaysia. Maka ramailah yang menumpang solat di situ termasuklah saya. Semoga ALLAH memberi ganjaran atas kebaikan mereka.