Secret Smile..

Last friday, I met Aisamuddin and his girl, Ira, in KLCC, where I met Basid who’s working in Petronas Tower 1 KLCC. it has been a very long time since i met many of my friends. It has been nearly half a year - 5 months to be exact - since we left UIA the last semester, right? of course, shidah, salina and kak huda had graduated one semester earlier by that time.

I remembered the last day of me there, in kulliyyah of engineering. Ayong first came to me to say goodbye as she is taking the bus to KL and later back to Sabah. that was when the  first tear came to my eyes. my turn to go home, leaving my friends with their final year project presentation, was later that evening, not many hours after Ayong. Inda was there with me, together we met Nadia in the GPCL. I couldnt keep my cheerful face any longer, with a tight hug with each of them in the lab, we cried.. thinking it will never be the same again after this. no more room visiting late at night, talking our hearts out until subuh.. outing planning.. walking around the campus together like a bunch of happy immature kids.. and many more.. no, we couldnt control our sadness and we broke into tears in that privacy of us three. the three of us had never seen ourselves crying like that moment. ‘kirim salam kat basid, ya’ i remember them said. i nodded with tears in my eyes and they left to their lab. After giving basid the message, i sadly headed to my car, to visit Diyana and the others in the college. basid walked me to the car and we said our not last goodbye. i know we will surely meet again - often - but the thought of spending that last day as students gave me a sick feeling. i thought, ‘what will be my excuse to be with him again?’. <sigh> . actually, sasalia and hatina had went home much earlier because their project presentation was over a lot earlier than the rest of us. so is ira, she left a few weeks earlier, right after her final paper. there, in her room, Diyana was waiting for me, sitting on her bed, with red eyes and a a gloomy face. i kissed her cheek as i remembered this first friend of mine in Matrics. we departed in silence, without many words coming out from our trembling lips. Erni was not there, so I couldnt bid her goodbye. i searched for caa and sood in their rooms but it was locked. they must be in the kulliyyah, so i called basid to check them out. yes, they were in their catia lab, having a discussion with their supervisor. so I made a one way round UIA campus to get back to the kulliyyah. i waited for them to finish their session with their lecturer, and then i bid them goodbye. i got to see sood’s fiance whos waiting for her outside the lab. then i met basid, whose lab is just opposite sood and caa’s lab. i said godbye to him again, he walked me to my car again, but this time he asked for the key and sat at the drivers seat, and drove me off to kajang. i was quiet, so was he..

now, most of my friends are working already, the brothers, although not much goodbyes but i heard some news about them from basid. spending my time as a part time lecturer in uia gave me a chance to still meet a few of them - anip, fadzil and faisal, during clearence. anip, particularly, spend more time with me in engineering when he did his research assistant job like me. we went to unim in kl together too a couple of times.

sasalia, tina, diyana and nadia once came with fdz to do their clearence, and we had pizza together that day. erni came a few weeks later to do her clearence. she came to look for me and i sent her to the bus stop, talked and waited for the bus with her. i also got a chance to join nadia and fadzil for a drink in hs cafe - my first time joining them as couples :).. last time it was nadia who joined me and basid, now its my turn joining nadia and fadzil.. hihi.. inda once came from ipoh and i met her and ira in the college. we went to nadia’s house where inda spent her night.

i also met kak huda and abg rusdi at their house in ampang for a raya haji gathering. halim must be happy with his wife and baby girl, amna, who must be 1 year old by now. krul, the last time we met was at his place, makan nasi ayam hainan for lunch, talking about his automobile career life. hes doing good i believe. rizal, i heard he is working somewhere in cyberjaya / putrajaya, but never had the chance to really speak with him. i talked with the most lovable shidah thru phone a few times, and she’s happy with her Pondok Ilmu. i knew she would be an entrepreneur one day - i knew it! i told her and she giggled. arum, i dont know, he’s like ‘lost in his own world’. - arum, if u read this, dont just keep quiet ah, let us know what happened to you.

all my friends are doing great! they are all working, making money for themselves and their family, like REAL grownups - hey, we ARE grownups, arent we? hahaha.. well, at least theres one of us whos married, a few of us are engaged, and most of us are working now.. i guess thats what grouwnups do. well have to wait until one of us buys his / her own home and car.. then, its a REAL GROWNUP THING!!

okay, guys, writing about you really releases some of this ‘missing u guys’ burden. i wish us all the best. do keep in touch, ya!

Love,

Azah

 After AUTOMATION2005 in Taiwan, i had to present in ICOM’05 (International Conference on Mechatronics 2005). In Pan Pacific Hotel, KL, 10 - 12 May 2005. this time the paper was entitled ‘Development of Camera-Based Tracking System for Mobile Robot Navigation’. it features my final year undergraduete project from an application perspective. one comment I recieved was that it was a ‘very good project - simple but sensible’.

in this conference, i met a professor from one of the universities in Canada, asking me if im interested to join him in Canada for a project with quite similar elements as the one i presented in the paper. it was a casual enquiry, and i casually told him ‘we should meet earlier’. i told him about my plans to australia, and he nodded with a sigh and a smile. well, theres always room  for negotiation, though, but it ended just there as i didnt show up the next day of the conference as suggested - i had other things to settle some place else, and my session was the day before, so i had to sacrifice the chance.

my presentation went bumpy in the beginning - the Notebook i was using ran out of battery! but i had a backup on the other notebook on the conference table so i went on. i couldnt play the movie of the project and me in action though, becouse the 2nd notebook did not support it - that’s why i turned to the 1st notebook - which eventually ran out of power in action! it went smooth after that despite my uncured nervousness. at the end of the session, during QnA, they congratulated me on the work, and asked a few questions that i answered confidently according to my understanding. the appearance of my father just before i started, him -  all the way from malacca that day, gave me a rush of motivation.

my Abah, he’s the best!! always there to give me emotional support, inspite of his tight schedule and his 2-3 hours driving distance from Malacca - KL. Im so blessed!

I really have to state my tribute to the other two authors of the paper, my Supervisor, Dr Nazim Mir Nasiri, and my sweetheart, who’s also my project partner, Mr Abdul Basid Shahul Hameed, as their unified contribution with mine finally creates a chance for me to attend these two conferences, presenting to the world the project we are all proud of.

to all my engineering juniors out there, do your best for your final year project. spend enough time to plan and work, and put sufficient scientific aspect, just to strengthen the theoretical part besides making sure the thing actually Works! then you will have a strong project. so, good luck with your final year projects, guys and gals!

       I went to Taiwan 4-8 May 05 to attend a conferrence called AUTOMATION 2005. I presented my final year undergraduate project that has been carefully and elegantly converted into a conference paper. i went happily with my parents. UIA paid the fees. it was my 1st paper presentation and i had to do it overseas.

the conference was held in Hotel National Taichung, the 3rd largest city in Taiwan island after Taipei and Kaoshiung. some events of the conference were held at Natural Science Museum, Taichung.

Very amazingly, my paper was announced the ‘Excellent Paper Award’!! I was stunned when they announced it during the banquet dinner, and i thanked God for the chance and recognition. Dr Nazim was even MORE excited when i broke him the news when we came back.

the other exciting thing during the visit was not me presenting the paper - that was the dreadful  one. I had to go to the restroom twice before my turn comes. but it went okay though, they liked it.

it was the Shopping Spree!! we shopped at SOGO and some other malls in town. my uncle provided enough cash to spend, so we bought a little someting for everyone!! the best buy was a piece of Cheongsam for us girls and a chinese-style shirt for my  brother.

We also tried the public transport to visit Taipei City, 3hrs by bus, at the northern part of the island. (taichung is in the central part of taiwan). if you ask me what is the cultural place we visited, it was the National Palace Museum, where all the heritage of the chinese empire was stored, everything from the original scriptures and paintings, carvings of ivory and bronze, jades of jewelleries, ornaments, utencils, and the personal royal belongings of the many emperors. it was just fascinating.

im saying this - 5days was not enough to explore the whole island. there are many more places that i could only wish to visit, but, minus the conference and the flight days, we had only 1 whole day to really visit the place.

it was a sweet memory though, i felt like the only child at that time (..big grin.. no offence to my little sisters and brothers..)

hmmm… beautiful moments for beautiful times right? god made everything, and we’ve only seen a teeny weeny portion of it. subhanallah..

Life at home is like living in a sanctuary. warm feelings when you wake up in the morning, voices of your loved ones fills the air, routine lay-back jobs awaits you. no classes to teach, materials to prepare, students assignments to mark, (..i do love that job though!..) . tv shows are waiting to be checked out, the family car is waiting to be driven off to the nearest convienience store or the shopping mall, the cinema or straight to the highways. sometimes my mind wonders and stirss as to think of things to do beside the usual laundry, cooking, and late night tv shows, precious chats with my little sisters and my one and only brother.  no worries about waking up late, pocket money, everyday meals, .. only ‘what to do today?’.. please, dont envy me yet! im back to my student life in a few more months, away from my loved ones, so let me cherish these days, ya! there are weeks though that i have to prepare written proposals, scholarship applications, conference papers presentation preparations, slides, labview basic course manuals, slight browsing here and there,.. etc, there are days that i travel across the oceans, sensing God’s precious creations on other sides of the world, snapping pictures of memories while chance, time and life permits.. other than that, im enyoing my life at home..:)