ASMA HAMID

It's Saturday evening and I'm on the couch with Vagabond playing on the tv. I have spring rolls in the oven to be eaten with the sambal Aisyah made a batch of before she left. I'm deciding whether to steam some buns but I think I've over eaten during lunch. Aisyah's gone home and Laura's moved to her mum's. There were a lot of boxes around the house for a while; it was clear that people were moving out. There are actually still a lot of boxes in the house waiting to be shipped to Malaysia just that the shipping company hasn't texted to come yet. It had been a while since I had a roommate before Aisyah moved in. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be just that there were a lot of things in the room. We had to buy a bedside table and a clothing rack just to keep everything neat. While she was around, the house was sparkling clean because she vacuumed and polished the whole house nearly every day! In addition to that, the plants in the b...

Spending my Sunday at home, I thought it was about time that I start writing about my summer holiday. I took 3 weeks off this year, it got people at work jealous; shocked that I was allowed such a long holiday, bless Gary for approving that. I had an amazing holiday in Croatia, Bosnia and around Southern England with my family. Thanks to Aisyah for being our travel agent, it was a smoother holiday than the one I planned last year.  Our holiday was based on the cheapest flight in and out and so we decided to do Dubrovnik, Sarajevo, Konjic, Mostar and lastly Split. We flew into Croatia via Norwegian Air and out on Scandinavian Airlines. Hakim came a few days before we were due to fly off and he went around  Berkshire with Aisyah while I was at work preparing for my long leave.  Our holiday started with a train into London, meeting up with Zariq for CocoCurry and of course - Yolkin. We then took the train to the airport where we waited for a while until security open...

Expecting Eid this year to be very hambar, I'm surprised it wasn't! The scale of everything was much smaller than last year and though I decided to not take the day off on Eid itself, I did do very Eid things on the weekends that followed. I can't say if it's bad or good but Ramadhan as a whole just felt like a normal month to me just that I was on a diet. Friends and colleagues were astounded with how I was actually able to do it and some was even worried about my health. I had iftar twice at my colleague, Roaa's place. I was so happy to just have been invited over for iftar and she was the sweetest to have invited knowing that I was doing Ramadhan on my own here. I also went to Aisyah's place a few times and went for an iftar-do at her friend's house. Malaysian food would always bring you back home for awhile. The day of Eid itself was uneventful except that I had my braces done on the day! Rest assured, I had Eid food the day before courtesy of my new...

It's been 7 months since I started working but it feels like I just started yesterday. Minus the nervousness of going to work, anxiety of being around people and not knowing anything at all, of course. The first few months had been a journey for me and now that I've gotten through it, I don't really hold back on telling everyone I meet about it! It's very interesting to remember about how just a few months ago, I wouldn't go a single week without crying in the shower. And how I'd think ten thousand times before and after talking to anyone. How I would always be in this bubble of insecurities where I'm always thinking that everything I did was wrong. I wish I knew what had changed so I can tell all of you going through difficult times what it was but I really couldn't pin point it. But for all that matters, I love my life right now. I love the days when I'm able to sleep in for a bit longer in the morning but I also enjoy the days when I...

For all of you who don't know, I went to Zakopane, Poland  again ! Initially, I planned to go somewhere else I've never been to before but seeing as I was 'solo-travelling', I decided to go somewhere I was familiar with. Whilst planning the trip, however, my sister decided to come with me. But guess who cancelled! That aside, I LOVED MY TRIP, so I'm going to share it with all of you. Spending Throughout my trip, I told myself that I wasn't going to restrict my spending and therefore, I bought and did everything I wanted to. What I didn't do, though, was I didn't convert any money and just brought with me whatever my sister had left from her previous trip. Instead, I used my Starling card and paid using my card for almost everything. However, there were two times when I needed to cash out money and for both times, I got unlucky and had to pay a transaction fee thinking that it was a new thing they're doing. BUT, YOU CAN GET ATMs THAT WON...

As some of you may know, I decided to move down south after I was done with uni instead of flying across the world where it's warm and lovely. I can say that I had it easy as I had parents who can afford to support me even though I did not prepare as much as I should have. Therefore, I thought I'd write about my journey of staying so that you can be better prepared if that's what you want to do. This post covers the period after university ended and immediately before I started work. MONEY I was on a 'loan/sponsorship' while I was studying so I had money being transferred into my account until the end of my final year which meant that if you're in the same position as me, from the time term ends and until you get your first pay, you won't have any more money than you already had. Because of this, you need to have saved up enough money, beg your parents to sponsor you or work. I begged my parents. You would need to remember that if you're planni...