Out of touch

I just cooked some rice without rinsing the grains first and everyone who has ever cooked rice knows that you just cannot skip that step.
I am preoccupied with too many other things to focus my mind on the thing that I am currently doing.
There's the research project outline due next week, I need to call my GP and schedule my visits, notes to be printed, a birthday card to make, I have to think of something savoury to bring for tutorial next week etc
Anyways, Ramadhan is coming. Finally, something to look forward to.

Hope everyone will be able to make the most out of this month and come out of it feeling like a better muslim and gunning for your next Ramadhan.

Eid Update

After 2 years of spending Eid away from my family, I flew home on the eve of Eid to celebrate Eid at home.
I can't say that I've enjoyed it much or that it was definitely better than Eid with friends but I am thankful for the opportunity to spend Eid with my family.

I've semi dislocated (?) my (TMJ) jaw and now the left side of my face is swollen. I vomitted twice and my camera decided that it didn't like any of the 147 pictures I've taken on Eid and deleted them all.

This year, I fasted for 20 days, that's 7 less than the number of days my 6 year old cousin fasted. It just isn't the same not being able to fast for the full month.

How was your Eid?

Food

Assalam alaykum

So, I haven't been studying much. ): Study break is next week so InshaAllah I will catch up on my lectures, labs and tuts.

I made a cheesecake yesterday night. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped...


My hand smells like the marinade I used for my chicken. I'm going to head out to buy some naan later on so that I can eat it with my Kashmiri Butter Chicken.

Also, I'm planning to cook some seafood fried rice tonight InshaAllah.

Ok, I'm gona pray Asr and head to Ikea for some light shopping (:

Hope everyone is looking forward to the weekend as much as I am!

I love the rain but its getting too much.

So, it's been raining pretty much every single day. The bottom of my pants get soaked so I have to change every time I want to pray. Add that to the fact that I have no dryer and..well you get a whole load of dirty clothes.

BUT, my best friend is AWESOMEEEE and lets me use the dryer over there (:

Plane ride was terrible. I sat next to a hunky aussie teenager who thought that I also wanted to listen to his music at 3 in the freaking morning. I didn't get ANY sleep and the food sucked. I've been getting really paranoid lately and now I step off the plane with various aches/stabbing pains in my limbs. DVT anyone?

I havent cooked anything since I came back to Perth, been eating out practically every day ): I dont have much space in the freezer to store any food anyways. I havent even unpacked. Can you believe it? I am clearly not in the right frame of mind. I'm not ready for Uni to start yet. My best friend said "You are so confused" and I said " YES, I am not"....Brilliant ey?

Uni started formally yesterday, with a lab which is crazy. People don't have tutorials til the 2nd week of Uni and we have a 2 hour lab on the first day of the first week of Uni? My name is nowhere to be found on any of the student lists. Great, I am NON existent. The units don't appear in my student account and right now I am living on favours, asking friends to print notes for me because I dont have access to them.

I have to see the Professor later. Oh I just came back from his 8am lecture and needless to say, there will be no skipping of lectures this semester. He has Blue Squares of Death...the squares hides a student's photo and name [OMG my student ID photo ): ] and when he reveals what's hidden under the square, the student has to answer a question. Also a way in which he notes attendance.

By the way, I don't understand his accent. Seriously...

Yesterday I saw him and I scared him away. Funny but kinda sad.

MY TURN

How do you think I did? (:

I had help from my housemate who had her first experience frying anchovies! Then afterwards, she helped me fry the remaining chickens while I did Dzuhr.

So, I just finished cooking a 2nd batch of rice and we have enough chicken to last til dinner tomorrow LOL.

I'm going to send this picture to my parents who doubt my cooking skills and laugh at me when I call my mom to ask her for recipes. Pffft.

Here is what I want to cook tomorrow

NASI LEMAK (:

Rice cooked with coconut cream, fried anchovies, prawn sambal (erm, something like chilli paste?), egg with chopped onions and chillis, deep fried chicken and slices of cucumber.

Unhealthy but really yummy.

Wish me luck, I don't want to burn down the new stove :b I hope my housemates will like it tomorrow once theyve tasted it hehe.

If they dont, I hope they practise being tactful :b

Foto Friday

Because I am bored ): Because I don't want to read about urine production anymore. Because I want to show you what crappy photos I take when my digital camera forgot its own charger in a different continent.

So, for my first Foto Friday, y'all get to see what a potentially amazing cook I am and how I am totally ready to be a part time housewife/ part time doctor :b

The awesomeness that is my cheesecake! (: The crust is soo thick, because that's the way my housemate likes it. The top is soft because my freezer has no space for a cheesecake. All in all, I think its alright. First time making it on my own without a brother to boss around and do all the hard manual labour for me.

This recipe is different because I've had to make a cheesecake without GELATINE. The asian shop near my house does not stock up on halal gelatine *shakes fists at them. I think that also partly contributes to the softness of the cheesecake. Next time, Im going to make an oreo cheesecake. Ive got tons of digestive biscuits leftover. Enough to make crusts for 3 cheesecakes. I hate shopping for groceries. I either buy too much or too little.

Mmm, whatever. I only uploaded this photo so that I can show them to my family when we Skype later.

Of fish and chips and blue polka dots

Today I had dinner with my housemates while watching a scary movie. It was fun but the whole time, I was holding onto my phone expecting a call that never came. After that, we spent about a good 15 minutes playing pranks on each other. They were even ready with a camera, trying to record my spooked out reaction but I was all cool.

Today our stove+ oven came. Someone still has to come fix it because it was just the delivery guy who came. Tomorrow, maybe...we can use them.

Today I was promised lunch and dinner. I ate instant noodles for lunch and thank Allah for wonderful housemates who spent dinner with me.

Today I got ready to go out just to find out that no one was coming to pick me up.

Today I am disappointed.

What will tomorrow bring?

Why I am ):

1) I sleep at odd hours and wake up at even more odd hours.

2) I eat one meal a day.

3) I'm gaining weight (see point above).

4) I cleaned my room a few days back and now all my books are on the floor again.

5) I can't see my bed, too many things on it.

6) I am not Saudi.

7) I am only 21, too young.

8) My friend died, killing herself and her unborn child.

9) My wardrobe is no longer color coded.

10) I have been believing without understanding. Now, the journey towards comprehension starts.

11) I need blender + electric mixer + stove + oven (last 2 coming on Wednesday, inshaAllah).

12) I got trumped by Dina, a girl from Egypt.

13) My family ignored me for MacDs.

14) I have an empty photo frame on my table. It says: Friends, through thick and thin.

I think I don't feel like updating about personal life anymore because that's just one huge mess. Someone convince me otherwise? hah.

Maybe just something useful from now on for everyone.

See y'all when I learn something new that I can share.

XOXO (to the girl readers).

I want to make cheesecake.

So I woke up this morning to wait for the arrival of the carpenter so he can fix our pergola. The carpenter called me yesterday and today at 9am to remind me that he was coming at 10am. I was impressed. I thought, this is one efficient dude.
He came, I opened the door. He looked shocked at my hijab+jumper+PJ combo. I've got the most colorful PJs you can ever imagine. Obviously, the colors didnt go down very well with him.

So he drilled and he hammered, causing the airconditioning panel in my room to fall off. Excellent job mate. After a long period of silence, I decided to check on his progress. The carpenter had disappeared. He fixed the wooden planks and left. He didnt even tell me he was leaving. He also left a mess of wooden splinters everywhere.

Not so efficient after all. I have no idea when he is coming next but hey, Alhamdulillah my 1/2 pergola is now 3/4 pergola (:

Then I went to uni for histo classes.

Oh, my oven and stove are still not replaced. After a barrage of emails, and a few calls, still no progress. Seriously, it's been 3 months since we first informed our agent for the need to replace our non functioning oven and our black smoke producing stove.

Doesn't ANYBODY work around here??!!

Cheesecake in the near future, inshaAllah. Chilled, not baked. This is what my brother and I made last time I was home. Kiwi Lemon cheese cake. I know, we're cool like that. LOL

Meals On Wheels

I am so behind in lectures. Right now, I'm taking a break from typing out notes. It's almost lunchtime too.
I was initially planning to cook fried rice and deep fried chicken wings (ooooh, unhealthy much) but I'm going to stick to seafood olio without the seafood. Haha

I want to buy an abayaaaaaaaaaaaa. Someone buy me one, please.



*update*
maybe olio was a bad idea. I'm having a really itchy throat right now. Why oh why? I have discovered a few expired moisturizers, oh what a waste of money! And with sunblock...it dries my skin even though its supposed to have some moisturizing effects as well. Would it be crazy to put sunblock and then moisturizer? Wait, does it matter which one goes onto your skin first? You can tell I am so bad at taking care of my face. Thank God for non pimply skin.
there is a layer of dust on all my furniture but I am too lazy to clean them at the moment. my brain seems to be very distracted and I can't concentrate on what I am reading. my plan to finish 10 lectures today may not be so successful as I have only done 1. Eeeeek!!! 9 more to go!

oh, oh oh! update about the abaya issue sisters...
Yesterday my housemates and I were talking and we ended up talking about weddings and what each of us would wear. It's cool that all 3 of us wanted to wear nice abayas... I want a white one...I dont mind a lacy trimming..ok whatever, enough dreaming.
ANYWAYS, i related the conversation to another friend of mine and she just blasted me with a "Who the heck do you think you are?? Have you lost your roots??!!"

like geez, take a chill pill sista.

I have not forgotten my roots and I still feel pretty much lost in Australia. Having said that, I think that the abaya is a loose and modest piece of dressing that completes the hijab. Besides, there are some really pretty ones out there... (that I really want *hint hint*). I should have known better than to tell this sister about wanting the abaya as she was the same one who said that only pretty girls need to wear niqab.

say WHAT??!!

so totally whacked. someone knock some sense into this misguided sister lol.

"what is your name?"
"Nadia"
"Oh, you have an arabic name!"
"Ya.. *feels miserable because I already know where this dumb conversation is heading*"
"But...you are not arab. Are you muslim?"
"Ya..."
"Oh...*looks puzzled*"

Okay, not all arabs are muslims and not all muslims are arabs. GET IT IN YOUR HEAD.