The Engagement.

"Kak, her father asked me to come and meet him. HOW???!!!!"

Those were the words of my brother. He sounded so panic like as if someone declared war on him. hahahaha... Never seen him in that kind of state before. Someone who was too brave for his own good suddenly felt so nervous and so panic just because he got a call from his than girlfriend's father, asking him to come and meet him at home. Relax la bro. Baru suruh jumpe belom suruh masuk meminang. hehehe...

From just him meeting the dad it became our family meeting the other side's family. Simply because someone was too scared to go by himself. The next thing we know, the mother ask to bring along a ring as tanda. After that it became a big event which leads to lots of discussion and headache and confussion. So to cut the story short, from a small ta'aruf session now it becomes a ta'aruf session plus an engagement. With only one week to the day..everyone starts to get real busy. Getting the things ready. The aunts starts with their baking. Me and my 1st sis starts to hunt for ideas for the gubahan (gift) boxes.

Our trip to geylang to get brother's baju melayu was hilarious. Why?? My brother is someone who WILL NEVER wear PINK. When we were looking for his outfit, as all the shops are closing, we rush into a half close shop and try to look for a suitable grey colour outfit (to match his fiance to be white with flowery pink sequins). Lucky for us the salesman was very nice and helpful. He allows my brother to take his time to choose his outfit and try them. Finally we decided to get the baju melayu with collar and six buttons, three on the left and three on the right. He tried size 's' first. It fitted him well, except that abit singkat la as he is tall. So the salesman pass him a size 'm' PINK in colour for him to try the size and that fitted him perfectly. So Afiq told him "Kalau lu angkat tu gua bayar" in other words my cousin challenge him to buy the pink outfit and if he did cousin gonna pay for it.

AND HE DID. He bought the pink outfit. :)

I still cannot believe he did that. Hahahaha...

The night before the engagement, my 1st sis diya, Azi and myself try to put our creative minds together and decorate the box. Well i did'nt do much actually. hehehehe... Anyway the day we have all been waiting for is finally here. 27th May 2012. The family decided to meet at Asy'syafaa mosque as it is near to the girl's house. So at about 2pm we move out of the mosque. The feelings differ from when it was my sister getting engage. Instead of staying at home and waiting for the guest to arrieved, this time round we are the guest. In 4 cars and 2 vans, we arried at our destination. All so nervous and excited. First boy in the family mah.

Just look at our kecohness. All wait under the block for the daddys to park their vehicles.

It was so hard to convince him to hold and bring the flower. We had to really force him to bring it up. My brother no romantic one hor.

 Ok I'm tired of typing and at a lost of words already...since they say a picture paints a thousand words so i shall let the pictures do the talking la ar... enjoy the next few pictures ok. ;)

    

The Makeup artise at work

The Beutiful Anisah

The Gifts from the girl's side

The gifts from our side

Attack!!!

It was their wedding anniversary too.

 So that sums up the engagement. Oh ya.. beside my parents anniversary it was also Nisa's 20th birthday! Happy Birthday S.I.L to be. :) and to both my brother and Nisa...

Congratulations on your engagement. May Allah bless you both till forever. All the best for your future.

Lots Of Love
      ella

Oblivious Me

There's something that i realized about myself. I can be too damn oblivious to the things around me at times. Not only things but people too. Especially when I'm concentrating on one thing. Like for example when I'm watching the television...my mum (or whoever) will have to probably shout and scream my name before i realized that they are actually talking to me.Very bad huh. But that's me. In my work place..the recent appraisal thing they did, the comment for me was "can be oblivious to her surrounding at times". Nothing new i guess. Back in school, during the Parents Teacher conference, the one feedback that my parents have to hear every year is that i love to day dream in class when the teacher is teaching.

I'm pretty much an observer too. That at times i felt like my brain works 24/7 round the clock without rest. If I'm not day dreaming, the brain will be analyzing whatever the eyes see. The people in the train, the clothes they wear, the kids that run around or playing with the latest gadgets. Semua la. :) So what i am trying to say is that... day dreaming is not really a bad thing la. Where i am now (not that I'm the most successful person around or anything) is partially due to the day dreams that i dreamed. It somehow kept me motivated and sane enough to continue my hopes and ambition in life. Being oblivious has a good and not so good part of it too. :) The good thing is that i can say that I'm very focused at the one thing I do, resulting in me shutting the rest of the world out < = OBLIVIOUS. The bad thing is that... I'm letting the whole female citizen of the world down. Why? Simply because they always say women can MULTITASK. Well sorry ladies...i can't or maybe just most of the times la ar. :)

Anyway..it's gonna be a very busy busy busy weekend for me. Lots of things to settle for the engagement on Sunday. Not mine. My brother's. :) I'm his unpaid P.A. Making sure all is ready. The gubahan and hantaran stuff. Trip to Geylang for his baju melayu and the hantaran boxes. Going to make another trip to Spotlight at PS today for the cloth to lay inside the box and decorating the box later at night. Saturday will be a busy day as well. Gotta pay the floweriest a visit to get the flowers for brother to bring on Sunday.Off to Marriott's office after that to settle stuff for our 'much needed vacation'. Lastly to deliver the self-customized boxes to each of the aunts house for them to place their gubahan. Now do i make a good P.A or what. ;)

Till the next entry....

Lots of Love

    ella 

For My Students

There are several ways to help process the information and to truly understand what we are learning. Sometimes we might be reading the same page for hours but still nothing get in the head. Been there before. The frustration of not being able to get the information in the head is...well frustrating. :) So now as a teacher (and a student too) i try my very best to help my students identify their style of learning. Some are aural learners, some are visual learners, some are kinesthetic learners and some can be a combination of  the two method or all three infact.

Aural Learners
Aural learners are those who learn better when they 'hear' the information. They are more of an audio person. They understand the information better when they listen to it. Like when they hear a friend or teacher explaining the lesson they learn than and there and when they are revising on their own, reading out loud or explaining the whole thing to themselves (in other words "talking to themselves") helps in keeping the information in the head. 

Visual Learners 
Visual learners are those who look at things in a 'big-picture' kindda way. Those mind-maps, flow charts, diagrams will be of a great help to them. They understand better when they are able to view the whole picture of the information given. They need to 'see' to learn. Hence most of the time they'll need lots of papers and colourful pens when revising on their own in order to get the information in the head. :) 

Kinesthetic Learners 
Kinesthetic learners are those who is "to-understand-is-to-do" kindda people. They prefer to get 'physical' when it comes to understanding the information. Getting physical here means that they prefer to be engage. Like to do some hands on activity or to be involved in a play. Basically, to do something with their hands. To feel and be involved with what they are learning. 

For me I'm a mixture of Aural and Visual. :) To ease me in my revision, I'll be very attentive in class when the lecturer is explaining (Aural) and jot down as many notes as i can (Visual: so that i can see the whole picture) and when it comes to revision and preparing for the exams... I'll have all my colourful pens and lots of paper for me to write down or draw out a mind map and than spend time explaining the topic to myself out loud. In short i need to see and hear in order to understand and get the information in my head! :)

Teaching has been an amazing experience for me. I too learned from my kids. But it requires lots of commitment which at this point of time, i cannot give. So i decided to, not stop completely, but to do it as a part time. :) I teach at the mosque every Sunday. Although its just a part time, once a week job, i do take it seriously. At the end of the day, when lesson is over, i would like to make sure that each of them learned something new. It doesn't matter if its from the lesson that i teach or some life lesson. 

Since one of my students came up to me and told me that it's hard for him to memorize the short surahs (I get them to do it every time before i start the lesson) and it will help if he can 'hear' the surah. So i decided to make my trip down to Geylang yesterday to find him a CD for the Juz 30 because i know not all students are the same. Some can memorize it fast, some after a few tries and some, just stare and stare but can never get it right. 

While searching high and low  for the CD, i came across a book from Ustazah Siti Nor Bahyah. Its called " Panduan Mencerdaskan MINDA". Grab it and thought of sharing it with the kids this Sunday. I'll share with you once I've done a postmortem of the book with the kids. Will be back soon insyaAllah. 

My buy yesterday. :)

Lots of love

   ella <3
 

23 and counting

Well oh well.. I've turned 23 just a week ago. It seems like its only yesterday that i was all jittery and excited to turn 16 (sweet sixteen la kan) and now I'm 23!! Gosh..how time flies. So before i go on with my birthday stories (cause its more than one celebration)... 

Welcome to my blog!!!! 

I've created this blog like almost 4 months ago...but couldn't find the nerves to write anything in it. :) I told myself I'll do it soon. I'll blog after my sister's engagement. It passed and still the blog is empty. So finally found the nerves (forced myself la actually) to write something here. Hope you guys (who cares to read my rambling entries) would like it. 

Back to my birthday. its not like any other birthday that i usually had. Like the normal small celebration at home kind. This year round everyone decided to sabo me a little la ar. Like what one of my Charm ones said "Its for all the missed birthday years of celebration". Well.. thank you. Felt soooo bless to be around so many people who cares and love me. :) 

The celebration started at work. My lovely and wonderful colleagues came with a cake (that my sister baked)...and what's so special about this cake, beside that my sister baked it, is that... IT'S PURPLE on the inside! hahahaaha... Its called the red purple velvet cake. It's the best birthday cake ever! 

It might looks like it's brownish black but it's purple. Trust Me.

Than there's another cake waiting at home. So sweet of my brother to actually buy me a cake on his way home from work. Just a small cake cutting celebration at home and running around the house trying to smack each other faces with the cake. My Mum was screaming & saying nanti satu rumah cake you all clean up ar! hehehehe...sorry mummy :) 

The celebration doesn't ends there. On Thursday, my lovely Liea took me to Keppel Bay (1st time there) BLINDFOLDED! Thanks ar friend! Sadly the other charm one is not well so she couldn't join us. I was amazed by the view there. It's just so beautiful there. The big..big boats and the greenery plus the wind...just one word to describe that place...SERENITY.  Makes me want to go on a boat or better still to own one :p Oh..and thanks to Ghaz for sending us home later. 

Blindfolded

Liea & Ella

 

Serenity.... <3

 I've been wanting to watch a soccer match at the Jalan Besar Stadium. So when my dearest brother says that i have to forget about my soccer plans and follow him out on the Saturday i disagree.When my parents decide to be on my brother's side..that's disappointing. So i tried to work out a win- win situation (or i thought i did). Told brother that we'll go out in the morning and watch soccer at night. He was reluctant at first. Insisting that the "event" (not sure what he was talking about at that point of time) will last the whole day. I decided to use a lifeline. I get Azi (the other charm ones) to help me talk my brother out of his crazy plan and guess what???? MY BROTHER AGREE!!! hurrayyyyy!!! - jump for joy- Hence when Saturday came....i was all geared up in RED (Diehard fans mah) ready to do what ever my brother wants to do and than go and watch soccer with him and Azi (who's responsible for getting us the tickets) but.......

they cheat my feelings!!!!!!  

They lied ok! No soccer match! It was a trap to shut me up from rambling about wanting to watch soccer. Sad? Hell i was. But it's ok...they had replaced it with something that i wont forget for the rest of my life. Plus they promised i'll get to watch the next home game :) What did they replace it with???? Watch this....

 I'll let the pictures do the talking for the rest of my entry.  :)

Blindfolded again.

 

The pleasant surprise... My Beautiful niece & Handsome nephew

Alesha Daania

Ayden Danial

They came all the way from Thailand! (now does that explain why i was so shock??)

People that matter most... my mummy & papa, mummy & daddy. <3

My sisters & brother.

Rainbow cake!!

The Shoe..a gift from my siblings. Thanks guys.

My Charm ones who join in the plot... Azi & me.

The PURPLE bracelet. Another gift from my siblings.

My colleagues and their creativity

A charm bracelet from Liea

That's the reason why, i said earlier that it's one of the most unforgettable birthday ever. :)  Feeling blessed to be surrounded by so much love. Thank you all. I love you guys much! xoxo

Lots of love

    ella <3