Assalam alaykum

It's been awhile. Anyways, I'm using a nifty little gadget that gives me mobile broadband until the internet in my house is connected. Lol I survived 3 weeks with little to no internet access.
University has been a little unexpected. It's tougher and more busy. I haven't cooked anything since I came back to Australia, with the exception of egg but that hardly counts as cooking, no?
My parents are happy about it because they think Imma lose some weight but I left out the part about eating out and snacking on junk.
I have a respiratory OSCE tomorrow and I hope my patient is healthy haha. I don't want to pull the short straw and actually get a sick patient for my first ever OSCE because I'm afraid I won't detect all the signs since I'm new at this. My exam is from 0800 to 0808, yup 8 minutes of fast furious action.
Okay, I gotta go get ready to stain some bacteria we cultured on Tuesday. I hope we don't find E.coli on the finger pad samples because that would be mighty gross. You know what's good about being a girl in hijab? You get away with telling your lab partner that doing a nose swab really isn't good for the image LOL

@ Singapore Zoo

The elephant show was the best therefore there aren't any pictures of that because I was too busy enjoying it. The day was pretty fun except for one unfortunate incident where a muslim lady thought it was appropriate to keep shoving her daughters forward, intruding into my personal space, stepping on my toes and then once they pushed past me, they nicely tapped the shoulder of a non muslim woman infront and said 'excuse me'.
I moved the first time around to let her younger daughter through even though she was about 10, and was as tall as me. Then when her taller teenage daughter started shoving me I was not going to move until she asked me to. It's pathetic that children don't say things like 'excuse me' or 'please' anymore because their parents are to busy shoving them forward to teach them manners.
So it's really more of a manners thing but what got me really pissed was that they treated another muslim like crap.

Theme Parks

a few of the crazy rides
that's us, at the bottom of the tower after the crazy drop

gorgeous goldfish, and there were different varieties, some looked really creepy.

Ocean Park was AWESOME like crazy wild rides but the day we went, it was too windy so they closed the cable car rides, the hot air balloon and the biggest roller coaster. But we took all the other rides. At the end of the day, we were wet, cold and shivering, tired from all the walking but extremely pleased.




Hong Kong Disneyland was fun but the queues were not. Parents came up with the brilliant strategy of letting their kids push through the crowds and then they got to cut the line because their kids were at the front of the queue. I didn't mind at first but after awhile it got really annoying.

Hong Kong in pictures and a few words.

@ Hong Kong International Airport

@ Indian restaurant near Islamic Centre. Chicken biryani.

@ Islamic centre. It was a Sunday, and full of Indonesian domestic workers. Tip: make sure you have wudhu beforehand because queuing for the washroom will take you ages.

One of the stops during our half day city tour. Tour guide tried to convince us there was nothing wrong with touching the God of Fortune statue for some luck as well as walking on a bridge that extended your life by 3 years each time you crossed it. My brothers and I just went around taking pictures of the scenery.

@ Hotel Lobby. Room was clean but a little tight. Housekeeping was amazing :)

@ brothers' room. no idea why they took a picture AFTER they messed things up..sheesh, boys :D

@ ferry terminal. Christmas lights were still up, amazing view but this picture doesn't do it any justice.

@ entrance of shopping mall, be prepared to walk alot in malls. they are HUGE.

@ pedestrian crossing, too many people.

nobody says 'excuse me' so be prepared to push or be pushed :b

@ another shopping mall.

ok, to be continued tmr because i am sleepy :)

Playing host to two arab men

Recently, my brother played host to 2 arab men. They had thought that Singapore was a muslim state. Unfortunately, we're secular!
Things were definitely unpleasant when my father decided to treat both of them to dinner in a fancy restaurant. One of them refused to eat because he doubted that the food was halal. Despite showing him the HUGE Halal certificate, he did not want to eat. My father called the manager of the restaurant to explain to the man that the ingredients as well as the preparations for the meal are all halal certified.
He still didn't eat.
I feel pretty insulted that he would think that my father would bring him to a restaurant that was not halal and then to make things worse, lie to him and paste a false halal certificate on the wall.

We might not be living in a muslim majority country, but we are muslims just the same.

When Race,Religion and Language Collide

Malaysia - A recent court ruling allowed a Catholic newspaper (by Malaysia's Roman Catholic Church) to use the term 'Allah' in its Malay Language edition, overturning a three year government ban on non-Muslims using the term 'Allah' in prayers and religious literature. The ruling ignited a series of arson attacks on churches. The government is appealing the verdict, citing that making the term 'Allah' synonymous with the term 'God' will lead to confusion among Muslims and may cause them to convert to Christianity.

Religious tension caused several government leaders to condemn the attacks as un-Islamic. Church leaders have also stepped up to deliver statements of forgiveness for the arsonists as well as to state that the attacks were done by extremists and do not represent the majority of Muslims in the nation.

(This is starting to read like a newspaper article.)

Firstly, I don't see why the Malay language edition of the newspaper HAS to use the term 'Allah'. When I write in Malay, I use other terms such as 'Tuhan' to represent God. The paper argues that many Arab Christians use the term 'Allah' but isn't Allah an Arabic word? So, wouldn't Arab Christians speak in their native tongue? Or am I wrong to assume that anyone would choose to use a term that they are most comfortable with? Arab Christians speak Arabic and use the term 'Allah'. Malaysian Christians speak Malay and use the term 'Tuhan'. Or not. Is it really that big a deal or am I being ignorant if I say that it's just a word and people should just live without fighting over it? I think I will research on this.

Secondly, I don't like the way the media has been sensationalising the situation in Malaysia. The Church leaders have been shown delivering messages of peace and tolerance to church goers while Muslim leaders have been shown shouting into loudhailers, protesting the ruling and proclaiming the court verdict as an attack against Islam. I am pretty sure that there's a Christian somewhere in Malaysia itching to burn down a mosque, just like there is a Muslim somewhere in Malaysia shaking his head in disgust at the arson attacks. News headlines read 'Another Church Attacked' with pictures of a badly damaged church. However, a few of the churches were hardly damaged and service continued. The same file picture was being used again and again even though it was a different church. Terrible representation.

What do all of you think? Should Malaysians live and let live? Or should they continue to protest until the court ruling is overturned?

* I do not condone any acts of violence nor do I tolerate insults to Islam.

Hong Kong

Assalam alaykum everyone.

2010 started with a divorce, deaths and now a trip to Hong Kong. I'll be taking lots of pictures and maybe if I get a nice one, I might post it up here when I return from my trip.

Roller coaster rides in an abaya is okay, right? :D