A parcel with a letter from home

At 7 this morning, there was a loud knock on the door. Atang got up from bed, and went to answer it. The parcel has arrived, i spoke to my self. Walked into the living room, there laid on the floor, not 1 but 2 parcels, from home. 1 is the long waited parcel from my beloved parents, another is for atang, special goat food. Hah...

Anyway, about the parcel from mak n abah, tak sabar nak bukak. In the box, contain books I have requested, yaya's immunisation record, 2 boxes of cocoa crunch and 1 tub of mr potato, yaya's fav junk food, a supply of curry and kurma powder. Plus a letter from home. Mak n Abah each wrote us a letter. Meleleh la baca surat tu.....sob sob sob. Nie yang rasa rindu sangat kat mesia nie.

Golden Splendor Chinese Restaurant

Hey, came across this ad in the muslim time on Thursday. Rasa seronok pulak. Chinese Halal restaurant at Wollonggaba. So planned a mission to have a family dinner there. But first, we called them up, twice, to verify whether they only serve Halal meat, including in the food preparation. I made the first call. Then Azri made the 2nd called. Double confirmation doesnt hurt right. Satisfied with their answer, we went there for our Saturday night dinner, our first weekend dinner here, our first formal dinner, boleh laaa... if only I found the ad earlier, we could celebrate my birthday there. Little did we know, my family back home were celebrating my Mom's birthday. Sedihnya rasa.....

Anyway, back to the story. We arrived there after isya around 7.20pm, it is not difficult to find the restaurant. Take the Ipswich Rd, towards the PA hospital. The restaurant is just opposite the hospital, next to Buranda Centro.

We ordered a big plate of Char Kuay Teow, a bowl of crab meat soup and a single dish of friend rice plus a pot of chinese tea. The owner is a Chinese couple, from China. We were entertained by the couple only daughter, 7 yr old Olivia, who happen to share the same birth date with yaya.

The food was wonderful, tapi tak bleh challenge kuay teow mutiara tu..... rindunye makanan kat mesia. Anyway, we will surely recommend this restaurant. And we would definately come again, to celebrate our special occasion. Finally, there is some place to go to on special days. Oh yes.... there is another restaurant on our list, Dapur Bali. Yup we have called them up, and it sure is another Halal restaurant.

Tip: when you want to call up to confirm the restaurant only serve Halal food, just ask them whether they serve Halal bacon in their premise. A friend of mine once went to a pizza restaurant who have Halal label on the menu. And written on it the word ' Halal Bacon'.

Our home at Douglas St. St Lucia

As at 19 of March we have sent in 10 applications to rental agents. So far almost 7 applications has been rejected. Bengang jugak la bila dengar news tu. Sometimes the agents called, to inform us that our appointments has been cancelled because" ....there has been an application submitted..." an application submitted!!!. But why when we sent in our application we have to wait for others to submit before they process the applications. Why we are not the only eligible applicant? Why is it we have to wait for others? Why???

So on the 19th, we kinda have a break from house hunting... we have done our best... 10 applications... more than 20 house viewing appointments.... Hours, days are spent looking for a house.... so now we leave it to Allah... Because Allah knows what is best for us.... And He does... because today, when we took our day off of house hunting...without our knowing of coz.. Allah has answered our prayer... but before that let me tell you what happened before we received the good news...

Rewind.. on sat, 17th, we have 4 appointments... The first is at Douglas St, St Lucia... Actually our appointment for this unit is on Monday, 19... But the agent called us on that Sat morning, asking if it is possible for us to come on the Sat. We agreed, and that was the 1st house we saw that day. I fell in love with it immediately... honestly... and I kinda have a hunch that Allah is showing me that this is the house. Although the rent is the max that we can afford ($300 pw), but with a 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom with separate loo, kitchenette, 1 laundry room, spacious living room that could be split into two area, dining area, 2 balconys, 1 store room located at ground floor and 1 garage that could fit in 2 smaller cars... we are more than satisfied. Plus no pet allowed in this unit. So we dont have to worry about dog's hair. So we submitted our application to Ray White (the agent) . Then we have another appointment at Bank St, West End. It is a Queenslander. Very nice, very clean with new paint job, polished timber floor. The rental cost is $250. I like the layout. But I like the Douglas St much better, in terms of space, easy access, location. But we submitted the application anyway, who knows our luck right. We didnt want to miss any chance that we got. Our last viewing is at Barnsley St, West End. It is a nice town house, but far from public transport.

So comes Monday the 19th, as I said before, we kinda take a break from house hunting, and we went to RTD to register the car. A Daihatsu Curoe that we bought on the 14th, from a private seller in Gold Coast, yup we went to Gold Coast to get it. Back to the registration story, because we dont have any permanent address, so we couldnt register the car. But we managed to get our 18+ card done. Then we went straight home. It is 3 something in the afternoon, both of us are exhausted, yaya were sleeping, then my phone ringing. As I was lazy to get it, I just let my voicemail recorded the message. But I couldnt help wondering who it is from, so I dialed the voicemail #, and listened to the message left by Fabio from Ray White...and it is not a bad news... at first I thought it is... but listening carefully...what... our application has been accepted....wow..... and at that second, atang's phone rang.... Guess who's calling, Fabio, and confirming what I have heard before.... We were soooooooo happy....Alhamdullillah..... hey I cried.... Thank you Allah......

So we have live here for 4 weeks now... we have paid 2 times 2 weeks rent.... so see pics taken of our home at http://fazidelias.fotopages.com/
Our bond will last on Sept. But I really hope we could continue living here until I finishes my study. But if the rent increases unreasonably, we have no choice but to move out.

My Birthday (April 5)

I opened my eyes this morning to atang's singing the bufday song. Hah.... today is my bufday, my 31st bufday. But... I didnt feel special today, probably of not feeling well, felt like I am down with a flu. Plus I am meeting my supervisors and team members this afternoon... So the special day just went by without anything 'special'. But we tried to make it feel special, because we dont have many special occasion to celebrate each year, except for birthdays, anniversary and hari raya. The first thing that came to our mind is, is there any Halal bakeries around, to buy a birthday cake. We looked in the islamic finder website, but we couldnt find any bakery around here. To make one is not possible because my kitchen is not yet equip for baking (aarrgghhh I need to get the hand mixer and baking trays one of this day). So we have decided to buy fish n chips from george seafood, and not just the normal fish n chips that we usually get, we want to make it special, so the fish and chips must have something special added to it.

That afternoon, after my meeting with the supervisors and after atang picked up yaya at her school, we went to George's to buy our special fish and chips, for extra special, we added prawns, oysters and calamari to the order....hehehehhe.... And that is definately something. After Asar prayer... we had our early dinner.... the meal was so huge.. we couldnt finish it in one sitting... or actually the meal last until the next day lunch....hahahhahahah.... What a scrumptious dinner we had on my bufday.

And to that...thank you Allah... for letting me enjoy my 31st birthday with my beloved family. And thanks to Atang and Yaya for always be there to support me. sob ... sob

Ebel car rental (March 12) and about house hunting

Today we went to Ebel to rent a car, hyundai getz, for a week. The main reason that we rented it is to get around searching for a house. We have submitted several applications and made several appointments for house viewing. We just hope we could settle down this week. We bought the Brisbane UBD, you need to have it to get around the city. It is easy to understand the directory, I just need 10 minutes to get used of using it.

Oooo several things to point out relating to the house hunting. Now is the peak time, so competition is very high. There are some requirements, based on our experience, that we should aware and expected. 1. You have to go through agenst to find a house. 2. Some descrimination you will be expecting such as, you are Asian, you have a family, you have a children. That were some of the things that we think influence the success of an application, in this case our application. So we have noted down something or tips whilst searching for a house, 1. Dont bring your children along (which it is not possible), 2. Act like you know your way around here. 3. Act like you really like the rented unit, no matter what it rental cost.

And, we were advise that we should expect the rental cost will be higher this year. Initially we were looking for rental unit that will cost less than $250 per week. As it is getting harder to get that kinda price, for 2 bedrooms unit, we decided to increase our budget to max $300 per week, and that is final. With that kinda range, there were a lot of options available, but again we need to remember about that 2 things that I have mentioned above. Yup there are still some discrimination thing around here. I have in mind a few rental agents who are unmistakeable on this. But I wont mention it here. I will take it as an experience that I will never forget.

But the most important is you have to have faith, Allah knows everything you dont know. And Allah surely will give the best for you. And that kept us going.

Check out, and move into Nazir house (March 10)

I am beginning to write our journey here in Brisbane. And it seems I have problem back dating my blog, so I have to put the exact date on the title. Just ignore the posted date at the end of this blog ya.

We checked out today, and moved into Nazir house at Toowong. Start minggu nie, sibuk la carik rumah. So currently our fav. reading are rental brochure, ourbrisbane rental site, property newsletter. Hah, we have collected so many brochures and listed down almost 6 pages of available rented unit. And that is our currenlt obsession.

Luckily we have a place to crash in temporary. Lengkap dgn internet line, kitchenette, washing machine n dryer. Best of all, it is near the Village, the suburb mall. Hah... so dah kenal la ape maksud suburb, lane, terrace, road. Shopping groceries kat sini kat Coles or Woolworth. Kalau nak carik barang2 elektrik, baju, towel etc..kat Kmart.

It is difficult to get around without your own transport, not that public transport here is unrealiable, but because for the sake of yaya, we have to get a car, probably rental, as soon as possible. Eventhough the PPMQ people offer to get us anywhere, but hey, they are students like us, and they have their family to look after. So we decided, we will go our own way, with their advise of coz, and we can move anywhere we wanted to. heheheh.... So tonight we sat down, and plan our budget. If it is OK, probably we will buy a car, so no overhead cost to think about.

My friend is getting married

Hey all... Feeling a bit sleepy after taking a tablet of actifed. But I need to post it. Announcing the matrimony of Syaimak n Ady...hahahhaha... finally the secret is out. Sadly we couldnt be there to witness the wonderous and momerous day. Hope the newly wed would generously share their wedding pics to their 'away on a mission' friends, down under, up in the UK, Euro and somewhere else but Malaysia.





Managed to catch syaimak on the line... our last minute chatting before she becomes 'the wife'. To Syaimak n Ady, azri, yaya n me, wish both of you all the best. Sorry we couldnt be there to congratulate you in person. And the most important is, we are very sorry that we missed your nasi minyak....arrrghhh.... guess i have to cook it here. Can I use margerine instead of ghee..??

Finally.." Kawan dah kawin dah...." who is next..... i wonder......

Arrive in Brisbane (March 7)

Touch down at Brisbane airport one Wednesday morning, 7th of March. It was such a tiring experience, 8 hours of travelling. Fuh.... I felt a bit jetlag... or is that what people meant by jetlag. Feeling a bit wobbly, nausea, couldnt think straight. Luckily I have arranged for airport reception. I couldnt remember that guy's name... anyway he sent us to the Explorer Inns, where we gonna be staying for 3 nights, that means checking out on March 10. It is at the corner of George St. and Turbot St (picture courtesy of Explorer Inn).

The first Malaysian that came and visit us, is Onn, of coz. He brought our lunch for that day, a familiar fast food meal...Nandos.... ahhhhh there is Halal Nandos in the city center, Alhamdullillah. After dropping the lunch, onn brought us to a mobile shop, to get our first mobile no. Still feeling jet lag, I just grab what ever possible and cheaper package that time. I thought I was the only one jetlagging, hah but my beloved husband is having the same thing too. Only yaya enjoyed her first day in the city, she adjusting well and really fast too.

That day the weather was a bit cloudy, and windy. It was raining early in the morning. Walking to queens mall from the explorer inn is a bit difficult, at first, because of the jetlag. It is about 4 blocks from the inn. Check out this link about queens mall http://www.ourbrisbane.com/visitors/shopping/queenstreetcity/#Broadway

I saw that there arent many cars, well comparing to KL. People likes to walk and take public transport to the city. One definate answer, the parking is damn expensive. Most of the parking in the city is just for 1/2 hour. The Brisbane people walks really fast too. I did feel like an alien walking in the city. But people are nice, here and there you can hear greetings and well wishing. So we feel like home immediately.

Oh yes, the first thing that attracted me is the houses here. From the airport, you can see a lot of Queenslander. It is a wooden house, something like kampung house. But with a unique design.

See pictures (source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queenslander_(architecture)) Cantikkan.

Plus, I dont see any linked houses here. You can only find a queenslander or a brick bungalow, or units or aprtments. And the township is well planned.

We stayed at Explorer Inns for 3 nights, and during our staying there, orang-orang PPMQ provide dinner for us. Gratitude to orang-orang PPMQ who not just providing dinner for us, but help us in getting around, locating available house, provide load of information, and sent us to Nazir house after checked out from the motel. Our gratitude to Azizul and family, Shahrizal and family, Syamir and family, Hasbullah and family, Zaini and family, Shamsul, Kak Azah and family, Marlia, Abang Zul and family, Nazrin, Nazri and family and the most important people who made our adjusting in Brisbane is possible are Onn, Kak Zalifah and family, and of course to Nazir and family who let us stayed at his home for almost 2 weeks.

Website PPMQ http://www.ppmq.org/