adorable old plumber.

our shower is broken.

so today the plumber called in to fix it, and he's this jolly old man that asks you to speak four octaves higher than you usually do, breathes heavily in the cold and wears a sweater that smells like it haven't been washed since june, or something. and he knows this, because he wouldn't let me touch it when i offered to hang it for him (and proceeded to throw it in the bathroom sink).

i don't blame him for being smelly...probably didn't have anybody looking after him at home, as is the general old people generation in this here Ireland.

quotable quotes from the old man, said in his loud booming voice;

'CALL PAT (Patrick = our landlord) AND TELL HIM WE'RE IN THE SHOWER TOGETHER, HAHAHA'

'IS IT TRUE THAT YOU WILL GET MARRIED TO A MAN YOU HAVE NEVER MET BEFORE?'

(on the phone to pakcik Patrick) 'HELLO, PAT. I'M IN THE SHOWER WITH THIS GIRL ATIQAH. WE HAD TO STOP MIDWAY, BECAUSE THE SHOWER IS BROKEN. HAHAHA'

'I HEARD THEIR FATHER WOULD ARRANGE FOR A MAN TO MARRY THEM AND THEY COULDN'T SAY NO'

'DO YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND IN MALAYSIA?'

'DON'T GET MARRIED TO A MAN UNLESS I'VE SEEN HIM FIRST'
'Alright, I'll ring you when I found him'
'HAH HAH HAH, YOU DO THAT ALRIGHT!!'

(I swear to God. This man laughs like he's freakin' Santa. Santa's real, you guys. He's a plumber when Christmas is over)

'YOU HAVE TO FIND A GREAT MAN, TO DESERVE A SWEET GIRL LIKE YOU'
'Aw, you're too kind, sir'
'BUT DON'T GET MARRIED FOR THIS COUPLEA YEARS OKAY?'
'Kay I won't, promise'



Bless him, shouting at me those sentences while semi-hugging me all the way.



Oh one more:

'MIGHT TAKE A COUPLEA DAYS TO REPLACE THIS SHOWER. IT'S ALRIGHT, SHOWERING TOO MUCH IS BAD FOR YOUR SKIN!! REMOVES ALL THE NATURAL OILS FROM YOUR BODY'

hahah. explains a lot right? =P


signing out now.

xoxo
Atiqah

p.s. the sweater I was wearing when he came over is in the laundry basket now. kahkah.

new discovery

i know, i know, this is quite lame...but i went to the H&M in town for the first time tadi (dah dekat setahun kot bukak haha) and baru tau dekat Opera Lane tu ada Topshop/Topman, River Island, Next, H&M, all huge and fancy and shiny ahhhh. All my favourite lines on one street! HOW have i managed to ignore this for about a year??

...oh yeah. there's that thing about being broke. but STILL.

there is a MASSIVE sale going on right now, i'm going again tomorrow to see if i can get any good bargains. i mean, if it's on sale, it's like, i'm SAVING money, right? not spending it?? right???

i bought a cute black vest from H&M, Warehouse have a GORGEOUS grey vest but, yeah. it's Warehouse. the price was triple the H&M vest. FML.

i'm gonna go do a bit more exploring in Next tomorrow, and Debenham's! Debenham's front are all covered with massive 'SALE SALE SALE SALE' signs, you know, the type that has some sort of supernatural gravity, pulling you towards it?

and Monsoon is on an All 70% sale, WHAT. Monsoon is NEVER on an ALL sale, it's always just 30% or something, and the pieces on sale are always the stupid makcik dresses.

OMG.

and i need a pair of boots.

i mean, i need boots. for the rain, and snow.

it's like the universe is saying 'Oh, Atiqah is on a two week break! let's sabotage her wallet and have a random massive sale in the middle of winter for no apparent reason!! that'd be fun!!'


RIP Atiqah's bank account. You'd be sorely missed.

first day of holiday = laundry day!

Heba's birthday was yesterday and i felt bad for finding out when it was already too late to go out, so we're gonna go out today and have a girly nights out. nothing fancy really, just looking at pretty things in shops and then dinner at our favourite Thai food place.

2-week holiday target:

• do everything on the to-do list pasted on my board
• study 4 chapters of pharmacology!
• shed 2kgs

i'll keep you updated!

p.s. i can predict myself spending tons of money on Clinique products, seeing how winter raped my skin. oh noes.

epi rotation's ending!

i have a classmate who goes by the name of Nathan. he's a Canadian. which means he's old. i think he might be 30.

we were working on a group assignment together at the computer lab, telling each other random facts about South Africa statistics and AIDS prevalence and other magical stuff when i received a text. i flipped my phone open and frowned my brows in confusion when i saw that it said;

[from : Nate] 'anything else you want to report?'

i was like 'huh whh..?' and looked at him and he just shrugged it off like he didn't send any shiz to me. then i went on doing my work for about 5 minutes before i got another text that said;

[from : Nate] 'i take that as a no then'

i hit reply and typed;

[from : Atiqah] 'yeah, dad. that's a no'


we went on to do the assignment together via Skype tonight and he kept getting distracted with other things and i was getting slightly annoyed with him.

Nate : remember i'm old - i get distracted easily and my bedtime was like one hour ago - lol
Nate : i can't keep up with you kids - come on :(
Tengku Atique: yeah dad its okay
Nate : lol - thanks -
Nate : ok i'll be here if u need though
Nate : i'll get what i can get done here before i think - WHOA what in the hell are we doing
Tengku Atique: DO THE LAST TWO SLIDES FOR YOUR PART.
Nate : what u want me to put on it ????
Nate : j/k

*pulls hair*

the snow is gone

sometimes when your friend's life screws up really really bad and you're at a loss at what to say because there really isn't a solution for her except time and prayers, you offer them company, you listen to what they had to say, you feed them their favourite food, and you tell silly jokes to make her feel better...at least for one night.

i wish i can offer more help than just that, it makes me feel as if i've failed as a friend.

last night puts a lot of things into perspective.

oh, blog. i'm sorry for being emo. i lav you.

xo
Atiqah.

textage to remember.

'Was out sitting in the snow. Feeling the sun burning on my face. The ice freezing my ass. The wind blowing on my face. Making sure i'm still alive and still have a chance 2 make things right. Realizing I've been praying 4 God 2 make u go away but not wanting u 2 die. Being emo in general.'

Atiqah

100110 : snow di cork!

blog! tengahari tadi snow turun pastu macam biasa semua orang jerit jerit 'KORANG SENOW KORANG SENOW TENGOK TENGOK' kemudian dapat mesej berbunyi lebih kurang 'KORANG SENOW KORANG SENOW TENGOK TENGOK'. begitulah kejakunan kami di Cork. Amin jangan gelak.

kenape kami sgt frantic untuk bagitau orang laen bila snow? sebab selalunya snow dalam lebih kurang 5 minit je kat sini. kalau tido atau tengah gayut dengan cinta hati masa tu, memang telepas. so semua orang sangat concern supaya tiada orang terlepas tengok senow. haha.

tapi hari ni. dari tengahari tadi sampai sekarang, dah 9 jam senow. belakang rumah saya dah putih habis ditutup senow. langit malam hari pada waktu senow lebat adalah sangat mengerikan, sebab dia cerah. ala-ala tengah pukul 8 kat malaysia cantu.

oke ni gambar sebelum cik jannah bising cakap entry selalu takde gambar. hehe.

sunny winter oh sunny winter.

• i slipped on the slippery/icy road quite a few times but fell just once. this iz achievementz.

• i quite like the winter now. it's pretty freaking cold, but hey - it's winter, one can't really complain about things that are meant to be like that. at least there's no rain or snow. that would be epic fail.

• even though people never cease to amaze/confuse/anger me, i suppose i just have to muster more patience and have faith in the human race. after all, it's not like i have an alien race as an option.

• i think the fact that i'm surrounded by so many people but at the same time i'm all alone is rather poetic, in a tragic kind of way.

• after all these years of trying, i still suck at friendship. i just...don't know how to do it right.
  

sayang.
Atiqah.

the start of a new everything.

hey :)

I just got back from the Nice/Monaco trip this afternoon. As fantastic as the trip was, I couldn't help feeling glad to be back in Cork. The Irish will always, always, be the most accomodating and friendly race towards foreigners/Muslims. I feel so welcomed and at home here.

Well the trip started with thick snow in London, in which everyone's flights were delayed.



My Warsaw-Zurich one was delayed as well, causing the gap between the flight and the connecting one (Zurich-Nice) to shrink; we literally ran off the Warsaw-Zurich flight, sprinted across the airport to another gate and ran onto the Zurich-Nice flight. This explains why our checked-in baggages were left in Zurich - it didn't have enough time to transfer to the next flight. So we arrived in a rainy Nice, shivering cold...without dry clothes to change into and without sleeping bags. Despite efforts against it, Atiqah cried herself to sleep that night. Manja gila malas nak layan (boleh ke malas nak layan diri sendiri?).

Anyway the Swiss Air staff delivered our baggages to us and we got them the next day, so all's good from then on alhamdulillah.

here are some picthas of French things for you to see;



flowers sold at the market, pig-shaped manisan yang taktau apebenda, pastry shop...



rental bikes everywhere, and of course, the large variety of French cheese(s?) sold in the size of cakes;



we also went to Monaco. Monaco is basically a syurga dunia of sorts. haha boleh ke describe macam tu? the scenery was absolutely breathtaking, the ocean was a few different shades of blue, the architecture has a classic/modern clash to it, huge casinos are everywhere, and it seemed like everybody who live there drives cars-you-can-never-afford. seriously, like. i have never been to a country where every two cars you see, one belongs to the cars-you-can-never-afford category. there may be a slight exaggeration there, but you know what i mean. oh, we went exploring in a beautiful gua batu kapur as well while we were there.






we also went to Le Lagon De Noel Musee Oceanographic De Monaco - you can guess what it is from the name, right?

I absolutely loved that place and was really pumped to go exploring, because I loved KLCC's Aquaria quite a lot. It was everything I wanted it to be, and more;



these Nemos (I refuse to call them clown fish)...I fell in love with them. I kept going back to their tank and taking pictures and staring - they had me in a trance. I want an aquarium of Nemos one day. I really, really, do.

and then we went up to the musee's rooftop, and subhanallah...the view. the view is nothing short of spectacular. it's one of those rooftops that would fit in a bit too well for scenes of a well-made cheesy romance film. there was the view of the ocean on one side, and the view of Monaco on the other - I can't describe it, you have to see it for yourselves. My camera, however, decided to die right before that (due to my overenthusiasm in taking fish pictures) hence I do not have any photographic aid to this experience. My friends would have them, but I haven't gotten the pictures from them just yet.

we then went to a Christmas market, where we ate the mouthwatering Churros and waffles with chocolate and lots of cream. they have HUGE bottles of Nutella, like REALLY huge ones, lined up at the waffle booths. mmmm.



I also saw this modern day Santa there, chillin' by the multicoloured choo-choo train, texting his friends. The elves, perhaps. He was also black.

As we walked on through the Christmas market, we realized that there was an ice hockey game going on at the ice skating rink, so we sat down and watched that for a bit. I wanted to stay longer, but it was getting late. It felt nostalgic, watching that game. I only just realized that night how much I liked playing hockey and how much I miss it.



Well that's it I guess? the closure of my 2009. I don't have that many things going on in my life to make a list from January to December. I might have if I really think about it...but I'm just not in the right state of mind right now. I'll leave you with these two pictures;



one of me holding two French gelatos smiling in a scary/hungry kinda way, wearing my (hand-me-down) FCUK coat,



and one of Galaxy chocolates renamed into a what is clearly a better name for them. ROFL.

Azam tahun baru saya terlalu private untuk dishare di blog (yang private). Haha. Pura-pura misteri.

2009 closed with a text from Mama saying Pak Teh passed away and me staring at my phone in disbelief because not long before that I was sympathizing for the death of a girl's grandfather.

2010 opened with me having the security in Warsaw airport semi-yelling at me to take off my headscarf, and me struglling to keep my cool. I managed to talk her (in English) into letting me take it off in the private booth (that is blatantly located there for cases like mine tapi dia saja nak gertak budak kecik nama Atiqah) and she, semi-yelling gibberish (by gibberish I mean Polish) to me, grumpily motioned for her female co-workers to scan me in the private room.

Here's to hoping things will get better for this year from this day onwards.

<3

Happy New Year korang.


xoxo
Atiqah