the short wanderer

I finally had my graduation ceremony for my Bachelor's degree around two months ago - it was a pretty much delayed one and I have to admit that half of me wasn't really looking forward to it, but it all went well alhamdulillah. Well, it has been 2 years since I formally graduated, and my family wasn't even here to celebrate it so I felt like it wasn't really anything special, but I'm just still so glad that Kak Fina took some time off to see me walking across the stage on that day; it made me realise that this graduation was not only for me, but for so many other people 'behind the scenes' - the same people who keep on telling me how proud they are of me, while I struggle to find my own self-worth. From the first day I stepped my foot on London ground to this every day, everything still feels surreal. "I think God has given me so much blessings," I told Kak Fina recently. I'm not being ungrateful, but I feel like I'm undeserving of this muc...

I had been eyeing this one book for quite some time. It's the renowned bestselling book ' The Garden of Evening Mists ' written by the much-celebrated Malaysian author, Tan Twan Eng. The setting of the story in the 1900s compelled me to get my eyes on it, and after finding out that the piece had won the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2012 I had no reason not to add it to my 'urgent' wishlist and to my delight, my Secret Santa wonderfully fulfilled that request of mine last Christmas. I was reading the chapter where the main character started reading a translated version of Sakuteiki - the oldest collection of writings on Japanese garden-making - when my mind began to wander and seemed to be more interested in the world of its own; which led me to end up writing here instead of finishing the chapter. It wandered off to a place not at all foreign to me, and in fact, a place I've been missing a bit too much for the past few months. Yugiri - a garden the author kept o...

I don't think it's too much to say that failures are underrated.  Did you know that a professor at MIT offered a course on failure  - because she claimed that, "failure is a more common experience than success"?  And while that is true, in my opinion, more often than not failures render more meaningful lessons than what success can offer. p/s: I am certainly more than aware that I may not be the best person to talk about failures as a life lesson, especially as I'm barely reaching halfway through my life journey - if I'm ever going to live to the age of Prophet Muhammad at the time of his death - but since this post is nothing less than a reminder for myself, I decided to put this post up anyway, after contemplating it for months  😅 In the span of exactly a month - from April 15th to May 15th - I had received the responses to four applications that I have sent in February and March (while I was still in London). The first one was an exception because I went f...

When people found out that I study archaeology, it is common for them to ask, "Archaeology? What do you learn? What are the exciting things about your course?" or "What are some of the things that you like about your degree?" , but I have rarely been asked about 'the other side' of this field (don't worry, I hope it isn't as bad as you thought it would be). Yes, archaeology sounds very adventurous and exciting, but obviously, everything in life comes with a set of challenges - it's a life package that archaeology doesn't seem to have an exception on (and I can say these things now since I'm finally done with three years of undergraduate studies phew)  Disclaimer: The following points are extracted from my personal experience of being in the field for the past three years. I am no expert in this field, and I am merely reflecting on my time as an amateur. I guess it's also safe to say that, this post is probably gonna be more about me ...

I was walking down my memory lane reminding myself of what I had been up to for the past few weeks that I don't even have the time to pour my thoughts on this dusty blog, and I found out that I have been hanging out with quite a number of people, be it for a few hours or a few days, on different occasions and at different places. The good thing is, though it seems like nowadays we're living in a world where getting a WiFi connection is the first thing that comes up to people's mind in a public space, for the past few weeks I don't have to send up a flare up to the sky for some love and devotion in some real life human connections as claimed by Ryan - I can still store some faith in humanity in this 21st century! But the not-so-good thing is, I kinda feel that after Ramadhan left I have been losing my spiritual connection instead. I left for France and Scotland right after our fasting month is over, and putting up (& catching up) with my daily ...

Dah lama sangat rasanya tak menulis, harap-harap masih belum berkarat tulisan aku ni. Kalau tumpul harap-harap masih boleh diasah semula :) Disebabkan kekangan masa yang mungkin juga telah membawa kepada kekangan idea dek si penulis ini tidak mengambil masa untuk mencari hikmah-hikmah setiap perkara yang terjadi dalam hidupnya kebelakangan ini, maka terjawablah persoalan mengapa makin berkurangnya post di blog ini ya huhu Namun syukur ke hadrat Ilahi, dalam kesibukan menjalani kehidupan dunia dan menjalankan tanggungjawab sebagai seorang pelajar universiti, Allah masih menyelitkan pengajaran dalam setiap pengalaman hidup aku yang tak seberapa ni, yang aku rasa perlu aku ambil iktibar sebagai peringatan di kemudian hari. Minggu pertama cuti musim panas tahun ini, aku di Wales (sekali lagi!). Aku meluangkan masa selama seminggu di Snowdonia National Park, mendaki gunung-ganang yang boleh tahan tinggi dan curamnya. Setelah menghabiskan kudrat untuk mendaki selama seminggu, Allah...

Hey guys, how's the new year going ? I hope everyone had a good start of the new season and hopefully things will always be great for all of you as time flies. Yes, time has passed very quickly during the past year too. Little did I realise that I have actually traveled to 22 cities and 8 countries (including England) in the span of a year, yet I didn't write about most of them, huhuhu So this post is not going to be all about my travel experience because that is definitely going to be way too long to compile in one post. I initially wanted to make a summary on all 22 cities I have visited but I realised that it is just ridiculous, hence here's a 'rewind' of 7 cities I have wandered in 2018 in England; the 2018 WandeRewind!! (hmmm this sounds like a start of a new series hoho) 1. Bath, England Roman Baths entrance I went to Bath in January last year. It was a day trip with a group of students from different universities, and I went there with a fri...