Get Away to Swiss Court Holiday Apartment, Damai Laut !

How was the stay at Swiss Court Holiday Apartments, Damai Laut?

AMAZING!

Yeap, that's my cute adorable niece right there

Our highlight: THE SWIMMING POOL !

As a kid, I've always loved going to hotels as part of trips and vacations with the family. And never will I ever miss out on asking my parents if there was going to be a swimming pool wherever we were staying at - but the swimming pool at Swiss Court Holiday Apartment (Damai Laut) was the CHILDHOOD GOALS!!

I obviously don't have to say more than I have to - the pictures says it all! So get this right - if you're staying at the Resort, you get access to the whole swimming pool !

We stayed at Swiss Court Holiday Apartment as the Resort was fully booked over Christmas break - but the Resort was only a minute drive away.....so we had the best of both worlds at discovering the great vacation spot! The Apartment had its own pool; that's when Aisya (my niece) got the chance to play with the unicorn floats - her dream of playing with the Unicorn Float came true ! Nothing makes us all happier than seeing my niece happy. 

Oh oh, us all meant my sister and her family. I forgot to mention who "us all" was referring to. Hehe. Major apologies...

And urm hello - PRIVATE BEACH? YESSSS! 

I've never been to Damai Laut before so I didn't know what to expect. But one thing for sure that caught me off guard was the private beach and how clean it was. 

Additionally, there's a HUGE playground for the kids to enjoy on the beach - AMAZING

Okay so we all know I don't have any kids of my own but we all also know that I really really really love kids so having a place that's child friendly that leaves the kids no chance on having screen time.... was superb.

Okay okay, but who am I if I don't talk about food ?? 

It was soooo goood especially the Christmas Dinner Buffet ! 

We definitely didn't see that one coming. I thought it was just another dinner but the set up, background music, dinner spread, definitely made me feel like I was in another country actually celebrating Christmas. 

Endless salmon spread...

Baked cheese mussels....

Duck confit....

and SUSHI!!!!!

Last but not least (and not forgetting)....

Just look at this bed and try to imagine NOT being tempted to sleep in it.

3 days and 2 nights was great ! But I for sure can imagine staying longer.

Within just 3 days 2 nights, we got ourselves to try out jungle trekking (definitely highly recommended to bring insect repellent) and night fishing.

Other activities included table tennis, karaoke, barbeque, golf course tour, ATV, horse riding, sauna room and so many more !! I personally can imagine staying there for 5 days atleast before I run out of activities to do.

After weeks of work, this was definitely a great retreat. 

No doubt will definitely go to this spot again.

FOR SURE.

Till next time - Happy New Year! 

My First (Honda) Car?!

A year ago at this exact date, I was still struggling through 3 part time jobs, trying to get through uni life and doing as much for the business even when I'm far away from home. I remember the many times I've cried through my struggles but my perserverance and love for adrenaline rush through embracing intensity in life have always pushed me through. 

Last year around December, my mum told me we needed a new car for the business. And she pitched that it should be a Honda since the reselling price is pretty good. 

Not knowing much about purchasing cars, I thought it was a great idea for the business, it meant well that we were growing at a good rate (Alhamdulillah!) 

But I immediately felt nervous, anxious and everything negative accumulated. Yeah sure, its great to know that the business that you and your partner worked on is doing great, but I was a bit concerned about myself. What if I stopped realising the importance of being humble? What if I become one of those people who "can't drive a Proton"? What if I have this 'dream' that I am living a life of luxury that I can afford? What if this decision puts me in a comfort zone which would mean that I'll have less motivation to work harder everyday?

I literally just came back from abroad 3 weeks ago and I would be lying if I didn't say it was a bit overwhelming (cause I thought of staying with my yellow kelisa at least for a little longer)....

But once I got myself buckled in for the drive to bring the car home alone, I place both of my hands together and prayed,


"Ya Allah, protect me, my family and the car and whoever who rides it. Don't make me get too distracted with these 'gifts' in Dunya when I know of the truth is in the world After. Please make me a person who is always humble, and a person who is good not only to my family or the ones I love, but to others. Protect me from the hatred of the world and always make me appreciate/ be grateful for the little things in life, and its struggles"


Here's to more failures to learn from, growth, perseverance, persistence, hard work and achievements in life. Here's to my first car, a Honda BRV.

Should I work in my Final Year in uni?

IF you're a final year or a second/first year student, this post would probably be perfect for you...

Many times I've heard people discussing and pondering over working while being in university. Most of us get concerned with deadlines, time management and commitments. My personal opinion is, YES! You should work, or at least try to. Doesn't matter if you can afford everything you want or you're privileged enough to have parents who give you monthly pocket money etc. 

Working is great for you! (Also probably because apparently I am a bit of a low-key workaholic). 

You get a break, a therapeutic break. 

The jobs I had involved waitressing at a restaurant and serving sandwiches. Some people think they could spend the whole day in the library studying and if they had jobs, that such would not be possible. But the reality is, how many of us spends all day everyday in the library studying with only 30 minutes break as intervals? And okay, if you are nearing your deadlines or exams, you can always ask for leave - noting that you work a part time and not a full time job, so you are entitled to ask for leave.

With regards to having breaks, per say you've spent atleast 5 solid hours working on your assignment in the library, you could then leave for work and take it as a break! And when you come back from work, get yourself all freshen up and you can proceed again on your work.... 

And the best part is, when you're at work, you get engrossed with your job so much that the 4-5 hour shift (or even 8 hour shift) is for you to take a pause from your work and get back to it! I found it really productive for me to come back to studies after taking a break and I'm pretty sure like most of us, we do end up taking hours of breaks.... so why not make money out of it at the same time? If you're lucky, the people at your workplace might even end up being your closest friends and its like spending time with your friends whilst getting paid at the same time! How amazing is that?! 

You save time and money.

Okay, so both jobs I worked were "Food and Beverages" and it was such a blessing! I didn't have to spend time or money to grocery shop as often anymore, neither did I have to spend hours every day to cook and wash the dishes in the kitchen. I constantly had food from each job and by the time I get home from work, all I needed to do was to have a quick shower, a quick nap (if I'm too tired) and straight away get back to studying

You learn time management.

You don't leave things to the last minute. Because you know how busy you'll get within time, you'll start everything earlier and not because you can, but because you have to. And its amazing how having jobs affected my progress in assignments. Most of the time I've already gone through finishing half of my assignment just 2 weeks after they were released....

You educate yourself on the value of money

Seriously, there is nothing more I have to say for this part but only when you start working would you value money, A LOT !

Humility, independent - and character building!

When you're working part time jobs, there will be many incidents when you will do something wrong and you wouldn't get the usual "Everything will be okay" that you get from your parents when things go wrong. It's about admitting to yourself that you've done something wrong and you're liable for it. Having to say sorry to people because customer service is always important even if you're not wrong but your colleague is. Per say when I made a 6-inch subway sandwich wrong, I had to answer directly to the customers and not even have anyone else to back me up for it.... only to realise that these little things actually build up your character. In a way making you more independent.

It's also the many times I had to leave my friends or not attend the many times they hung out, those were the small decisions I had to make - which I feel has contributed to me being more independent. Having to commit to your responsibilities in life while making sacrifices.

Humility comes when you have to work with others, who might not come from the same usual background as most of the people you hang out with, your circle of friends etc. When you have to scrub the floor or clean the tables after someone else. And those are the times you tend to realise your own habits that might be bad but no one ever told you it was wrong. I remembered having to mop the floor and having some ignorant customers coming in, stepping on the wet floor..... URGH. Then it got me thinking, have I ever unintendedly do this to other workers even maybe? Oh especially those who play with their phones endlessly while ordering food, not having to bother looking at the person serving them.... gah the list just goes on, but I became more conscious of my self-being and how I treat others around me

And,
You'll get out of your comfort zone and learn so much more... the list is endless! If it helps, before you make a final decision on deciding not to work a part time job, write a pros and cons list, and weight it out yourself :)


If you're updated with my previous post, I had 3 part time jobs in my final year and alhamdulillah, graduated with a 2:1; the same grade as most of my friends (who did not have any part time jobs). In fact, there are so many other graduates out there who's graduated with a First Class and had jobs throughout university, yet having their own time and time for friends.

If they could do it, why can't you?


(Note: This is obviously based on my personal experience, observation and advice so please don't rely on it completely but please do make a pros & cons list before you make this decision!)

Food Sharing in Basel, Switzerland

With so much food to waste, I'm pretty glad that one of the friends I've made during my stay here in Basel is Josi. She's a mother of two kids working full time, yet she still makes her time to play an important role in helping others as much as she could, especially when it comes to reducing waste.

I've always come across videos on how society have been more conscious on their waste, specifically on decreasing food waste. Never have I thought once I would be able to experience and witness the process of 'food sharing' itself.

It was 9AM when I met with Josi and a few other volunteers at a bakery which had about 3 boxes of bread to waste. And a year ago, they had almost 8 boxes ! Great progress for sure but can you imagine that much is wasted from just one bakery within a few days ?! And that's just one bakery, imagine the many others....... ACCUMULATED!

Anyways, the volunteers were allowed to take as much as they want but with this bakery. The agreement signed with Food Sharing is to have all their food to be taken away and none is to be left behind to waste.

So after the volunteers left, I stayed back with Josi, curious on how she'll handle the excess bread. Oh, oh, I forgot to mention, she's one of the leaders of the Food Sharing group here in Basel. And so apparently just in the town itself, about 30-35 cooperation have joined food sharing and they have about 2-3 sessions every day. The cooperation includes independent grocery stores, bakeries, small supermarkets, restaurants etc; any organization that Food Sharing's capability to handle. So as if for now, the big grocery stores hasn't fully signed up for Food Sharing (i.e. Migros, Coop etc) but some are.

Actually, there was this one time, Josi came with her kids to the playground nearby and gave me some freshly pressed juice which tasted amazing and I asked her where did she get it from, she said it was part of her Food Sharing session the previous night receiving food from a restaurant serving vegetarian buffet!

Anyways, different shop has different agreements. Some would allow you to pick as much as you want, and some like the bakery we went to, requests that you take all the food away with you. If
there's excess food that volunteers choose not to take from the stores, they would bring them to the Food Sharing fridge!

It was about 10-15 minutes walk from the bakery and there were some stuff donated to the Food Sharing fridge from nearby homes or cooperation. Most of the food in the storage would be gone whenever she comes to visit it within a few days. She shares that those who come by for the food are usually pensioners or the ones in need.

There are also some basic (without fridges) Food Sharing storage you can find in some neighbourhood areas but they're usually requested by the residents nearby and is approved by the Health Department. 

To Josi, it was spending only an hour of her Saturday morning to help reduce waste and ultimately providing food to those in need. To me, it was life-changing. It was just an hour but she has no idea how much difference and impact she has made to the world in that one hour. It might have seemed so little, but within that one hour, she (and the team of volunteers) prevented 3 boxes of delicious breads from being wasted, and a starving person finds comfort in the cold with food.

There's still a lot more I wanna find out about this movement but for now.... 

PRETTY AMAZING RIIGHT?!

How I Ended Up with 3 Part Time Jobs

I WAS AT ROCK BOTTOM.

When I lost my scholarship 2 years ago, everything, I mean EVERYTHING changed. I couldn't travel much anymore, couldn't buy my favourite chocolate cereal at Tesco's and a Nutella spread seemed more expensive than I remembered it to be. While my friends could afford the convenience of buying food at our usual "Happy Days"; fast food on campus, I insisted to open a jar of pasta sauce and cook my own food.

(The reason as to why I lost my scholarship has nothing to do with me failing my grades or misbehaving etc. To simplify it, I would probably just say I was a victim of the bad economy)

I cried almost everyday for 2 weeks in my room while my parents fight their way out of me losing my scholarship. Feeling too disappointed and frustrated with myself, I couldn't even bear asking them for money more than I had to. Luckily my dad left me with an emergency credit card just for me to afford my groceries but other than that, I had to find money on my own.

I remember sleeping at 12 AM cooking nasi lemak and waking up at 5AM frying the chicken to be packaged & sold off to my other uni mates. Baking cookies at 1AM in the kitchen because it was convenient to bake then since no one would be awake to use any of the ovens so I had access to all the ovens in the flat. 

Back then in 2nd year, my parents paid for my accommodation still as I lost my scholarship too close to the datelines of my assignments to find a job, adapt to it etc. 

Every time I swiped the credit card to buy groceries of 20-30 pounds, my heart broke. Just converting it and thinking how much I've spent in a month just on groceries, multiplying it by the months etc, swiping the credit card was never a "guilt free" moment for me; even when so many people have convinced me its my parents' responsibility to provide, I just couldn't....

Then, I was determined that on my 3rd year, I wanted to be financially independent. 

Came back for 3rd year and the first thing I did on my first week of arrival was throwing my CVs to all restaurants nearby, applying for jobs online with the SU, Tesco was nearby too so that was an option of job I applied for as well even when the only position they offered was to arrange groceries after 12 midnight. All I could think of was the relief I'd feel just being financially stable again.

First job I got was a Student Ambassador which paid me pretty decent but the hours were not persistent so there could even be a week where I wouldn't get a job with them. Then after bugging Subway twice, I finally got hired as a part timer as a Sandwich Artist (wohooo, here begins my journey of making sandwiches for drunk customers and mixing tonnes of mayonnaise with tuna using gloves that were really impractical).

Suddenly recalled those late night closing shifts where we had to carry trash from the whole day into big dumpsters, mop the floor only to annoyingly have other ignorant customers to cross the lines we put up and step on them, and ugh, the worst was cleaning the toilets.....

Two weeks later, while I was still struggling trying to wrap sandwiches, the manager of the Vietnamese Restaurant came in and said they were just about to call me to offer me a job as a waitress at their workplace. Not being able to deny the opportunity, I went there and tried out for the job. Having to tell them my situation of Visa having a maximum of 20 hours limit etc, they still insisted me to work with them but we had to find a way to work around the system...

Next thing I knew, there were Saturdays where I woke up for work at 6.30 AM and got home late at 12 AM. I remember having only 30 minutes break in between jobs just because of the journey from one job to another took some time. And since the restaurant was nearer to Subway, there were days that I quickly changed and ran for my shift at the restaurant after an 8 hour shift of serving sandwiches. Also, I got myself a 10 pounds bike from a carboot sale to get me from one job to the other quicker! 

Alhamdulillah within time, I could afford to pay my own accommodation and had money aside to enjoy the little luxuries in a student life, like ordering take outs, going out for movies and having my trips to London again. Also, finally got enough money to get Ben & Jerry's in my hands again !

While many people asked me what inspired or motivated me, as much as I wish the answer to that is Steve Jobs or Jack Ma or Vivy Yusof etc, the simplest answer I provided to almost everyone was

"I WAS BROKE"

I know I know, you might say you could have always asked money from your parents or depended on them, but I just couldn't.

I didn't have much time for my friends neither did I have much time for myself. My meals were repetitive too,

"Tuna Subway Sandwich, Tuna Subway Salad, Vegetable Pho, Aubergine fried with Rice, Rice with Vegetable Curry" and as much as I would like to tell you there's more to the list, there isn't. Probably the only thing that is different is the salad/sauce I choose to put in my sandwich or the bread, and sometimes egg fried rice was an option for me at the Vietnamese Restaurant I worked at.

(Incase you were wondering, I didn't turn my diet to be a vegetarian diet... just that the places I worked at weren't serving Halal food so those were the only options left for me)

I reminisced that one day after a 16 hour shift, I got a call from my mum emphasizing how important my studies were and assured me that money is not an issue, that they as parents would be able to provide, and the hours I worked were unnecessary if it affects my degree. Little did they know, after the phone call on my journey back home from work, I poured waterfalls. I knew I put myself up for a challenge. I went through tonnes of coffees; stayed in computer labs, blasted piano pieces in my room while reading notes and catching up with datelines. The constant companion I had with me throughout 3rd year was the adrenaline rush just submitting my assignments and waiting for the results to be released.

Alhamdulillah (praise to Him; the best of planners), my parents and part of my family made their way all the way to the UK to witness my graduation day,

But when I look back today, everything I went through, was hella fun. And everything was worth it. Nevertheless, couldn't have done it without my parents, family and friends support. Everything was, worth it.

Though I'm not so sure today if I wanna go through all of that again..... it was definitely an experience.

Outdoor Cinema Experience in Basel !

It's the last weekend for the Outdoor Cinema Experience in Basel by Allianz and tickets were sold out online.....but we could try to buy tickets still at the door at 7PM and so I queued a pretty long line and was told that I most likely wouldn't be able to get the ticket since there were only 200 tickets left,
But I was thinking,

I'm getting a ticket for one, so what are the chances?!
Got to the ticket booth with adrenaline rush telling myself not to get disappointed and try again tomorrow, and I got it !! There were only 13 tickets left after me, what luck !

And they asked me, "Student ticket? 5CHF"
I was like....."Err yea yea, student ticket!" But we all know I've graduated with my student ID card expired but hey it would've been 10CHF so why not !

It felt like I received treasure after waiting in line for 30 minutes !

(and check out the Ben & Jerry's free ice cream voucher, amazing !!!)

They didn't tear the voucher away from my movie ticket and at the ice cream booth it stated,

"All you can eat" 

So thinking that I could eat more than 1 Ben and Jerry's for free...... how awesome is that?!

got myself another one right after the movie ended wohooooo! But they started collecting the vouchers after so maybe it wasn't meant to be "All you can eat".... oh wells, I've got nothing to complain with getting 2 free B&J's ice cream !

The doors opened at 7PM, and there were other stalls selling alcohol, pizza, drinks and so much more! Getting a bottle of water was 5CHF which I thought was expensive...but they gave us a token that if we recycled at the end of the movie we'd receive 2CHF back, gotta love the recycling culture here :)

"Hidden Figures" was such a good movie though !! Definitely a 10/10, and going to the cinema alone meant that I can sit anywhere with a good seat cause I didn't have to accommodate with anyone else having to sit next to me.... and I got myself the front row seats with those beach-y chairs (dammit, should've taken a picture but you can imagine it)

Also, check out the subtitles... it was in French and German since Basel speaks kinda both though mostly German, which I found to be soooooo cooooooooooool

It was definitely a great experience and would do it all again, Basel has so many things to offer so glad I'm calling this place "home" for the next few months :)