Sakinah Abdul Aziz

'Cause there is nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline no matter how many times it's sent away.  - Sarah Kay - The stars almost never shine, and the sky is always bright here. But the best way to chill after work is to spend a couple of days in a week to really lie down and gaze at the night sky despite all that. To distance yourself away from the crowd and to embrace silence and quietude. With the best of company. To walk to a nice park and lay down the mat by the lake, and to eat rich chocolatey cakes and oily, soggy fries. To fill the silence with basic catching up, to deeper conversations about life, to spazzing about the favourite lines and scenes from The Notebook, and back to comfortable silences. To feel the breeze seep into the bones and to enjoy the moment of tranquility with just the wind, the water, and to feel the body so close to nature, while lying on the ground. To watch the silhouette of the trees against the re...

I felt very inspired a few nights ago after I met up with a very close friend who had shared a great deal about her life journey. Her life journey, although cannot be identical to my own, somehow resonates with me. And to see how this person grows after having experienced from one ordeal to another, and now has attained so much joy and peace, only confirm my outlook in life. There will be times when we will be afflicted with trials and tribulations, and that the world may seem bleak, but only through these times, we can actually find strength. Although intuitively, we all know how it really feels when life sucks. We feel we are plummeting into this deep, dark, black hole and everything else will be a downward spiral just when we think that that is the end of it all. The most re-assuring thing is, there is no other way to go because that's the bottomest kiddo. We can only head towards that one direction, and that is to keep going up. And the next re-assuring thing is, only through...

I'm beginning to value my weekends more than ever. You see, when you jump straight from school and do an internship (which pays you just enough to cover your lunch) and experience the time constraints as a result, you really need to hold dear to your weekends. I love the weekends. It's about the only time you can catch up with your loved ones properly and give undivided attention. And most importantly, you can catch up with yourself. It doesn't really have to be anything remarkably adventurous or exciting. It could be a similar itinerary every week but what's important is you love and enjoy every moment spent with whoever you're spending your weekend with. It could be sitting in front of the tv watching Sheldon Cooper's pesky antics. It could be discovering how your sibling has similar music taste as you. It could be jogging around a nice park in attempts to burn some calories to get back in shape. It could be picking up a book that was put away and trying to...

In no particular order: Making someone smile Seeing strangers smile back at you Rolling your tongue over heavily syrup-coated Baklavas from Turkey Basking under the Sun on the Lazy River like a boss Deep conversations 1-to-1 McNuggets Baking something for the first time and then eating your very own product immediately the moment you've done your finishing touches Licking cheese cream frosting from your index finger from a very fine tupperware Watching Bean movie with the sister and laughing away as if it was the first time watching it Taking your time to shop and trying on every single apparel you love as if you own the hours on the clock, on a perfect weekday Roaming Town alone and going anywhere you want to Seeing how your unread, good books are piling up and loving the idea of books waiting on you Spending late nights just talking Getting out from the bed to drag yourself for breakfast dates Heading to the airport not only to send/fetch people, but really to just be at the air...

I think I almost forgot how nice it feels to blog. I haven't been typing much ever since school started this year and that sucks because I totally lost touch with this space. So I'll be slowly revitalizing the energy here. Decided to head down to Coronation Plaza two-leveled Starbucks today. A change of environment is indeed good because at least I could absorb some stuffs unlike yesterday. Totally love the ambience because it was a mix of carefree and studious environment (yeah Singaporean students study anywhere and everywhere). As usual, I had an awesome relationship with my hot chocolate hazelnut and had a nice, warm blueberry muffin. Yep, I realize that tea and cakes can really make my day (: I met with my girlies for ais' birthday celebration. And adhering to the theme, it was small, special and intimate. Oh how I miss girly moments and fun-time. Yes, I do sound like I really spent a great deal amount of time away from these things. In actual fact, I did go to the cen...

I cannot imagine life without girlfriends and the many wonderful things associated with it. Heart-to-heart talks, giggly giggles, genuinity, deep conversations, compassion, having them to relate extremely well with you, being silly together, doing many million girly (or non-girly) things, gossiping (yes this is bad but I am certain every girl does it), story sharing, warm hugs, sleepovers, comfortable silences, squeals, being there for each other NO MATTER WHAT, talking about everything under the Sun knowing they won't EVER judge you, boy talk, boy crushes, celebrity crushes, window shopping, shopping.. uh shopping? It's like there's this bond and camaraderie only girls understand. And I'd say that we should be thankful to have the amazing girls to whom we can do all these with.

So I'm planted in Starbucks at One Fullerton with Aiman because we spontaneously decide to spend our day in starbucks with our laptops, good reads and nice cuppas. Perfect way of spending the day, there's an awesome view of the Integrated Resort, nice jazz music, and my lovely hot chocolate on such a chilly weather. And what made the day perfect is the fact that there are free drinks 5-7 pm! It's the time of the year again, folks. Totally my perfect idea of chilling, am loving the school holidays :D My list of things to watch: 1) The Big Bang Theory 2) HIMYM season 6 3) Gossip Girl 4) GLEE 5) Hana Yori Dango 2 6) My many many movies :D - So the past 2 days have been spent with my lovely girls. Went to watch 500 Days of Summer at Joy's, played Monopoly Deal and spent the evening at TWG, a totally tai-tai way of spending the night. But no doubt, the tea was good, I really think the appreciation of tea is an indication of how people grow up and acting like adults, hmmm. An...

Awesome awesome awesome. Ok as many of you have guessed, my finals were over since last Friday, ending with social psych paper. I rather not talk about how my papers went, but more of how this semester went. I think school as of this year was rather happening (only intermittently of course, but very memorable), since predominantly, it's been filled with school shitloads. Last semester was great as I had numerous outings with ze french peeps and the nusha gang, this semester seems to lack of those since ze french gang flew off to France for exchange. But the best part about this sem is really the joy of learning although Dr Penney's midterm paper was a killer, french 5 seemed a little demanding, and MNO was just full of projects and time-consuming and the many projects and presentations I've had. But they were all awesome! Bottomline is, the equation will always be learning > studying, hands down. It may seem, on the surface, that I'm biased towards my own major, but ...

Modules this semester: - Social Psychology - Paediatric Psychology - Learning and Conditioning - French 5 - Management and Organisation So tomorrow, or rather, later, will be the start of a new semester. Daym, Year 3 sounds so old. I'm feeling pretty apprehensive because some of the psych modules above are rather heavy. I am uber scared for French because this time round it is mostly about French literature which is something new and foreign to me. And that apprehension is futher aggravated upon seeing that my lecturer could be the same one I had 3 semesters ago. Not that he's bad, just that he always has tendencies to call my name whenever I was off-guard or wasn't prepared for answers, like all the time. Do you know how silly that looks? Imagine question marks all over my face while trying my best to form sentences in my head. Ok but thankfully because of him, I bucked up a lot and that probably contributed to why I'm still pursuing this language. So yeah, this is a c...

My job involves keying in data, but what's more important are the details being keyed beneath this no-brainer job. In fact, it's saddening because I have to look through application papers for social assistance and financial help from mostly the broken families, or families with a deceased parent, or children with a parent serving his/her imprisonment, or abandoned kids born out of wedlock and whom their grandparents have to take reponsibilities for. It's even sadder to imagine these young children being exposed to such turmoil at the early stages of their lives. Anyway, before I get too attached to this, my newfound colleague just had me laughing throughout the whole afternoon so much that I had to suppress as much as I can from my usual laughing outbursts. After expressing how saddening some family situations are, she told me that she has seen even sadder cases as she worked in some social assistance centre before. And this was when the joke came in. She explained how she...

Just got back from Faddy's birthday dinner. Happy 20th my longest best friend! (: Hope you like the dinner, our gifts and lastly the cupcakes of which some are squashed which I believe is kinda my fault in an attempt not to be seen by her and the 'escourt' while holding the box of cupcakes. So as Eva and I went down the escalators towards the dhoby ghaut platform, the eyes averted, spotted her escourt. Uh, busted. First instinct: To always run in any situation. In any case the birthday girl won't have to see the birthday planners. Reaction: Quickly turn around and CLIMB up the DESCENDING escalators while everyone else wanted to go down. Result: Failed Reason: Speed of escalator was way faster than personal speed to go against the direction This is lol-worthy yes eva? Why am I always the one doing stupid crazy things in public? And you know what's the worst thing? Faddy actually saw me running away! All this going against the intentioned direction of the moving e...

I just got back from the perfect getaway of the moment yesterday afternoon. Technically I didn't really stay in KL, it's more of staying at Sunway at Sunway hostel in the compounds of the Sunway University campus. How cool huh? Perfect was the word to describe because I ate to my heart's content (someone remind me that gluttony is one of the deadly sins), slept till late, unrushed, carefree and with heaps of laughter. It was just pure fun and it was nice seeing Kiki again, thanks for the accomodation in your room! And all the fun hassle to come in and out of the hostel separately just not to get the security guards suspicious. Haha. So I'm a happy goober. Why? Here's the list of things/places we ate at: Nandos Subway Auntie Anne's Baskin Robbins (nuurun had tons of ice cream) Ichiban Ramen J.co Some bakery Secret Recipe A&W Johnny's Paratha Wrap/Crispy Wrap San Francisco Coffee Restoran Nasi Kandar Jaafar (LOL) Haagen Daaz Manhattan Fish Market Food cour...

Transformers 2 was great, or at least better than I expected it to be. True, the first one is more original, but the second one has a thrilling plot and includes some emotional elements, like how Optimus Prime and Sam died (but didn't really) and these scenes are effing tear-jerker! Anyway, I'm looking forward to The Proposal, Half Blood Prince (!!!) and The Time Traveller's Wife! Anyway I saw Amrit again today, dressed in her usual sleeping gown, along with her mobile phone and cigarette under the void deck, yakking away with god knows who over the phone. Like I see her once a fortnight doing the usual routine and it often amuses me. And when we caught each other within a distance away, she'll always give that "Oh, it's you again, how nice!" look. It's just nice to see someone familiar each time you come back home at night. Maybe we're meant to see each other and talk about something other than school, life on the surface and stuffs. We used to ha...

Thanks Kiki for asking me to go to the zoo, well, since your bro has the free pass LOL. Awesome shizz! Totally love this picture. Kiki and her Mauritius friend., Ummay. Seeing Singapore with her had been fun! Haha. And the fact that I can practise a lil francais with her. And for the courtesy of my love for monkeys, I shall post my favourite picture of the day. My cute little baby baboon! How adorable. Out of all animals, I still love the monkeys, be it chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan, or baboons (: So the whole night, I spent the time at Kiki's place, since there's only the field separating our residences, just playing Boggle. It was a good night for cracking brains towards the expansion of vocabulary. The best part was when Ali (11-year old) stated that he had a word none of us has, and said "Slut! S-L-U-T, slut!", all us gasped and then laughed in unison. So funny! Ok, goodnight for now!

For these past few days I realised that my thumbdrive has gone missing, so this morning I cleaned up my room. You see, for every occasion where disappearing is concerned, it has to be somewhere in the nook and cranny of the house. But I couldn't find it anyway after much cleaning. So just now my dad handed me this SingaporePost envelope since it was addressed to me. And inside was my lost thumbdrive! Whoever who found it and posted it to me must have done his good deed haha! Thankfully. Now I can upload photos I kope-d from Khalilah's camera (: Anyway today I went to Singapore Flyer with Faddy... Thanks KHAI for the tickets! (: The ugly side of Singapore (construction), and the city.

Went to have naan at al-azhar, then spend some time at the Marina Barrage. (: