Latest Updates (Part 1)

So many things to update...so many things to recall...and so many things awaiting...:

• Thesis Submission

I am having this mental disease...too occupied with one thing and tend to forget other things... As I was very busy finalising my thesis last year, I had limited time to write my blog. As you know, I aimed for thesis submission latest by August 2011 and guess what? I managed to stick to PLAN B. I submitted by thesis on 18 August 2012....!!!
I knew deep in my heart that I could do it but some instances prior to submission were totally unbearable and those were nerve-wrecking epochs in my life. When I sent the four copies of my thesis for hard-bound covers, the bindery company misplaced one copy and requested one more copy. After numerous phone calls and crying episodes, then the company called back and apologised...it seemed that they had binded two copies of thesis into one hard-bound cover!!!

•  Dealing with new 'occupant' of G.15

This was another nerve-wrecking episode in my PhD journey... As I was struggling to complete my thesis, my peace and quiet moment in my study room was disturbed by a new lady on the block. Fine, this is normal..it's like a cycle in life...Dr Vyonne went out for good, a new occupant will take her place... The previous years, the life in G.15 was fine and enriching. I had two kindred spirit girls as my office-mates: The beautiful Katrina and the Hardworking Yvonne. We enjoyed each other company and we created a conducive environment for work. Unfortunately, this new lady used the room not just for study but for skype with her loved ones in her home country... How could I concentrate on writing my thesis when I could hear this background noises and knowing that the camera was right behind me... Arrrgggghhhhhh!!! The final obstacle at the end of my PhD jounrey.. so, I had done something...accordingly but the results were not pleasant! So, I tripple my efforts to finish what I had to finish: I worked until mid-nite every nite until the day that I submitted my thesis!!!

• Packing...Packing...leaving OZ for good

This was the hardest part because I had to clear my stuff in the office space/room and also cleared our stuff in the rental unit, my Noble Park's house. Sorting out through my HUGE pile of printed journal articles and selecting those that I really wanted for future use was not bad compared to all the packing, scrubbing, and packing some more tasks at home. We stayed in the house for more than three years and we kinda like our household materials... So, it's very difficult for us to carefully select the things that we need to leave behind and those that we need to bring back home... Right now, I still miss some items such as our lesung batu, chopping board, and stainless steel bowls... I hope those items were in good hand and we donated them to Savers and some to Salvos. At the end of our packing activities that lasted for a few months, we shipped three cubic meter of our stuffs in July 2011 and another one cubic meter of our remaining stuff, we used Pack and Send service (Total: 4 cubic meter stuff).

Another hardest thing that we had to do was saying good bye to our friends in Dandenong, Noble Park and Clayton. These friends had become our family members during good times and bad times... So, saying good bye and knowing that we could never have the quality time of  gader-gader again in Malaysia were really tough!!! I miss my Dandy Community folks!!!!

• Departing from Melbourne and heading to KL

We stayed at Abang Hanif and K.Sham's house for the last three days of stay in Melbourne. Then, on 25th August 2012 we said our final good bye to everyone and the city of Melbourne... Till we meet again!