Words to ponder

Life is too short to wake up with regrets.

So, love the people who treat you right.

Forget about the one’s who don’t.

Believe everything happens for a reason.

If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands.

If it is changes your life, let it.

Nobody said life is would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it.

- anynomous

photo courtesy of Miya

Supervisors:Phd life line?

People said Phd is very much depending on your supervisors, they are like your life line, talian hayat sehinggal berjaya dlm PhD. Btw, I have two active supervisors, A is my main supervisor and B is my associate supervisor, the post doesn't matter as the responsibility ratio is 100% each.

I had a hard time with B when I first came, for me B is less sensitive to an international student like me, she is "very australian" to me and unfriendly although she is a psychologist! A, on the other hand is very understanding, the fact that she's teaching cross cultural psychology and married with a foreinger do help! B almost withdrew from being my supervisor because we had a 'tough' time at first but I admit that B has her own strength in the sense that she gives very fast feedback and she is sharp and she is very particular. Hence, I decided not to withdrew her although I can if I want to, as I thought she is very good. After a while, we can lessen the gap between us and she seemed to understand and sensitive to my ways of doing things. I am happy with our relationship nowadays. On the contrary, I felt very helpless with supervisor A who is always busy most of the time as she secured thousand dollars grants, and always delayed in replying my emails and giving feedback. I was so frustrated recently as she forgot and could not recalled that I submit a 20-pages doc to her before I left for Raya and expected her to read and comments after I got back, that did not happened. I knew that she she can make herself available if I really need to see her, but I do not want to be so pushy and demanding. I am grateful that I can rely on supervisor B and thanks to Allah as I decided to have 2 supervisor instead of one, my life will be miserable if supervisor A is the only one, thanks God.

why? why?

I kept telling myself if I ever had the chance to turn back the clock, I could have gone somewhere else to do my PhD, US perhaps because I am sick of dealing with the red tapes in Australia.

I can list down all the things that make me 'sick' of the way the Australians were doing their work. As I was thinking all the hassles we faced, the issues are all centred around "money'.We were charged $110 when we vacant the previous house because it is a day before the lease ended. But the owner requested us to vacant the house earlier, how could the agent charged us instead? The child care charged my credit card eventhough I've paid cash, and they did not have the record that I've paid cash. The car rental company charged us a day extra claiming we returned the car a day late although we returned it on time. The debt collecter kept hunting us with letter and nasty phone calls claiming we did not pay the gas just because they did not liased with Alinta as our account is zero balance. Well, you see, all these are really taxing on our time. It could be considered miss communication but it tortured your life mentally and physically. You have to double check your statement be it the statement from credit card, the bank, the bills etc. You lost the trust, you might be charged on something unnecessarily, then all the forthcoming phone calls that need to be made, trying to reach relevant people, well....it's a never ending story. My hubby decided to terminate his mobile phone as he was charged unnecessarily stating that he took part in some sort of competition, and been calling a call centre. Well, later we found it was a scam and it is very difficult to get rid because the mobile company can't do anything about it, so, terminate and handle the hassle of having a new mobile number.

Recently I did a 'treasure hunt' trying to locate my registered letter from my sponsor. The letter will come every 3 months and I was expecting it to reach me early October. But after contacting UNIMAS, they confirmed that they had sent the letter in early September and I should have received it in September and not October. So, I ended up ambushing two post offices where we normally received parcel or registered letter and finally after being interrogating by the post office officers, found my registered letter lying in one of the post offices. My question is simple, how come I never received a card or notice stating that I've a registered letter to be collected? It was written on the letter that 2 notices were given in September and the final one in early October. So, did I missed the 2 notices? I have been receiving all my letters as usual, but I did not see any notice from the post office and as I was expecting the letter too, I kept checking my mail box in that manner. well, only Allah knows what happened but my hunch said that the postman simply forgot to leave any notice! Terrible!

After babbling all these, I asked myself, am I such a complainer? Well, I would say NO because what happened above make me 'sick' in the sense that we had a lot of counter check to do and it involves money and money is very precious. As I said earlier on, it tortured you physically and psychologically. Anyhow, I am always bersyukur, rezeki kami di bumi Allah ini, di Australia, semoga semuanya dipermudahkan buat kami dalam menghabiskan sisa sisa di OZ ini, amin.

p/s Thanks Miya for the photo

the come back

salam to all, to whomever care to read...

I felt like to write something today, felt like I have to "talk" and say something, therefore, thinking of my long left blog not dated.

Well...everytime I felt overwhelmed, my blog is always a 'place' to express my feeling, a journal to write my thoughts and overwhelm emotions...

I just got back from a long break for raya and as usual, after the fact, it's a lways a huge back log to be cleared and I have so much to do without knowing where to start and what to do first. Well, again, it is true, worrying is like rocking a chair, it gives you something to dwell with but it brings you no where. So, I should stop worrying and start doing something. But....this time around, another big challenge, I have to move, yes, move house agaiNNNN, so when am I going to do my work. We have to vacant the house by the end of this month, 31st October, greatt....on my birthday, we have to surrender the key, just could not imagine the caotic we are facing now, with 2 more weeks to go, we still could not find a house, we are still 'hunting' for one. Been busy viewing the house here and there hoping to find a nice, cheap and good located house. Well, pray to Allah that we'll find one very soon.

In the mean time, as usual, while facing the roller coaster in life, I always reflects on my hardship, challenges and think about others as well. Thinking that my hurdle is a disaster, others is worst. A house of our friend was broken into last week, he lost 3 laptops, with one just a few days old (brand new), some jewelleries, moneys and etc. Most important part is the laptop where our friend kept all his latest data/theses in that matter. He's supposed to finish in a few months time and all the updated one are in the laptop. May Allah blesses him and family.