My Full Week

Kebusy-an melanda. Tu psl lama x update. Ntah la, lately ni mcm x berapa feel nak menulis. Mungkin sindrom tahun 3 sudah totally taking over? Kerja byk. Events and activities pon bole tahan. Hari Khamis ngan Jumaat ni ada Neuro*Arts conference, in conjunction with the Music Festival. Nasib baik lah conference ni satu hari tu venue dia dkt Uni, the next tu masih di Plymouth tp dkt this one conference centre la plak. Aiseh, terpaksa korek duit utk teksi la plak. X pe la, demi ilmu...

Then Jumaat, Sabtu, Ahad ni ada Music Festival. As usual,aku ni x de la directly terlibat pon, performances tahun ni pon drpd lab aku 2 slots je kot. Yg Prof M punya tu byk la, collaborated dgn org2 luar. But this year berazam nak attend more commitedly. For the past 2 years asyik la culas, pegi kjp2 je. Bkn apa, org ada anak kecik (masa tu Aisyah menyusu badan lg) mmg payah la nak commit event2 over the weekend ni kan. Tahun ni aku siap amik cuti from work apa semua, so hopefully dpt la pegi more lectures and concerts. Bagus utk menambahkan ilmu (the lectures) and meluaskan pengalaman (concerts).

Smlm I got the notification ckp that my paper got accepted to be presented (ni bkn yg submit baru2 ni, ni submitted October lps). Pegi ke tidak tu, tgk la mcm mana. Tgh figure out lg. The reviews I received was quite a mixture of extremes, ada yg ckp well written, good conduct of English, citation, blah blah... ada jgk yg kondem, siap ckp 'so what?' lg ngko dkt result aku, amik tu. Ada jgk yg bg kritikan membina suh tmbh2 sana sini sket2, but it being a short paper, mana la aku bole terangkan or bg definisi semua kan. Tp as my ex-SV had once told me, reviewers kat international level ni mmg bole thn dasat pon. So kena kuatkan hati aje la. Debar jg nak present, but bak kata Al (lab mate),'Alah... kita ni postgrad. Biasa lah kalo org pertikaikan. Tahan je muka 15-20 minit kat dpn tu, after that it is all over. Kalo kita ni Professor yg bg key-note speech and then ada org pertikaikan, hah, and then you're in trouble.' (aku paraphrase la, x kan plak Al ckp Melayu heheh). Betul jgk kata mamat ni. So I decided to bask in the moment and bersyukur Alhamdulillah. Cuma at some point kena slot kan some time utk buat corrections pada paper tu la.

Currently busy scripting. Me and my SV dah agreed one this next phase, which is basically hauling all the tests that I've done thus far, and tying it up into one module. Ni sebahagian contribution, ada byk lg yg kena tackle, don't worry, belom nak siap lg. Let me do the worrying, cukup, heheh...

Gamelan practise (once a week ajo) is going on full swing coz we have several gigs lined up for summer. Siap ada kena bercamping lg di Truro ok, excitingnya sbb bole bawak friends, partners, and in my case (and I'm the only one) - husband and kid. Oleh kerna aku termiss satu session tu (masa flu teruk hari tu), aku di assigned kan utk berada di bhg bass ajo, sbb mereka sudah pilih alatan dan prektis lagu baru. Hok aloh... tp x pe la, x stress kepala hotak aku nak menghafal note, dah la aku ni mmg lambat sket pick up banding dgn budak2 lain (undergrads from Bac. of Music), dgn aku ni ala2 tone deaf sket, ascending ke descending pon kdg konfius kalo dah nervous kena tenung dgn cikgu yg garang giler tu, so aku pon redha je lah. Kitaorg sudah prektis satu piece yg kitaorg nak perform which is called 'Manuk Rawa'. Sgt lain okeh dgn Gamelan Malaysia!




Bunyi mcm byk on my plate, but actually as of late I try not to fret too much about life. Aku skang ketagih baca buku2 motivasi. Just last week aku beli dua buku2 self-help yg aku rasa bole aku recommend kat sini. One is 'The Power of Less' by Leo Babauta. Dia ni aku minat sgt, even ada link ke blog dia dlm blog roll aku kalo berminat nak tahu lebih lanjut psl dia. It's about de-cluttering and stripping life into the most minimal, and get the most out of it. Sbb ikut ckp dia la I have tried running once more, kali ni x join gym ke hapa, just run. Free. Of. Charge. And it was the most freeing feeling I have felt for a long, long time, just running in the morning. 25 minutes of ME time. Ye, 25 mins sbb start small, but hopefully kekal. 2 kali seminggu je awal2 ni. Byk nasihat dia yg berguna. Kalo kita cuba minimize kan task at hand, kita pon less stressed. Dia suh bgn awal, etc2... Eh tp kalo ikut ckp dia jgk, x leh blogging awal pg, only after dah siap keja baru bole... alamak dah kantoi.

Buku no 2 by Regina Brett "Life's Little Detours'. Ni pon best sbb author dia bole relate dgn readers psl mmg in life kita sentiasa ada things that don't fit into our plan, but we just have to roll with it. Aku baca satu chapter je sehari (2-3 pg). Setiap chapter tu kupas psl satu moto la, i.e. 'Don't Compare Yourself to Others','Life Is Good', 'Don't Take Yourself too Seriously', etc... Mungkin cukup utk sebulan punya stock kot.Byk jgk aku detect mistakes yg aku dah buat, x psl2 menambahkan stress diri. Seriously recommend utk those in need of a good chicken soup for the soul.

Ok la. That's all for now. Kalo ada masa and duit, invest la in those books. I have a full week ahead, but as the book says, just focus on NOW. Have a good day!