studylog9236

poem.

2009-08-16T16:21:00.001+08:00

I am sick

I am sick of you
for being so talented,
having the brain of Einstein
movement of a lion
performance of Nicol Ann.

But then I realized, the truth

I am sick of myself
for being so stupid,
having the brain of a cow
movement of a sloth
performance of me.

I’m sorry I put the blame on you
because I hate you
when I cannot be like you
no matter how hard I tried to.

T.T hate this poem.

About you

You are nowhere to perfection
either you are a true gentleman,
but having you is important
loving you is essential
being besides you is heaven.

Your eyes illuminate my world
brighter that the sun can do,
a touch of your hand is so warm
that my heart can feel it too,
a hug from you is salvation
healing all of my wound,
words from you are inspiration
a talisman for me to use.

Thanks for everything that you do
only words and success I can give to you,
in return of all the trouble you went through
in raising me to live up to,
I will always love you.

what is it that make it for us so hard to talk to each other and how to breakdown the emotional wall

2009-07-30T00:36:00.003+08:00

Speaking is easy, you just have to open your mouths and pour out all the words that you know but talking is different especially when it involves other party. Imagine yourself as a father travelling through continents to visit your daughter who you have not met for 12 years and you find it difficult to talk to her. This is what happened to Mr. Shi in the short story, a thousand years of good prayer written by Yiyun Li and the movie of the same title directed by Wayne Wang. They chat rarely and most of the conversation occurred during dinner when the father cooks for her daughter.

What is it that makes it hard for us to communicate, to talk to each other, to deliver our feeling, to share our thoughts? Simple enough, it’s just because the other party does not want to respond. No matter how hard we try to persuade them in conversation, they refuse to riposte. It must be heartbreaking when this happened. We can see the effort that Mr Shi put in inducing Yilan to talk but she responded coldly with almost no face expression or body language.

When she was asked by Mr Shi why she was so quiet, Yilan said it was because of her upbringing and the culture she grew up with. She said that she had used to Mr Shi who was a quiet person too before but is it true? Well, this can be applied but we grow up, gain experience and meet others. Yilan herself speaks happily on the phone when she talks to her friend. Thus, it can be concluded that they have problem to communicate just because Yilan choose to be quiet and she was the one who create a barrier of silence between them.

However, we should consider the generation gap too, between Yilan and her father. Moreover, they have been separated for twelve year and this can lead to awkwardness in communicating with each other. Plus, the younger generation have their way of communication and their own way of talking. Not only Mr Shi but other parents nowadays are also facing the same difficulties in communicating with their child due to the generation gap. The older generation perceive thing differently compare to the youngster and this causes clashes of opinions thus sparking conflict in conversation.

Apart from that, Yilan herself is shielding her emotion from Mr Shi. The only way to break this is for her to be brave enough to share her problem, thoughts and feelings with Mr Shi and she managed to do it as what was portrayed in the movie. They reconcile and have a calmer conversation on a park bench in the end before Mr Shi sets off on a train journey.

descriptive language.

2009-04-21T23:04:00.002+08:00

It was two o’clock, I can see that the moon was hiding behind the clouds and stars were gloomy, shielding their bright light. Ina was still on the desk, indulging her restless eyes into the large and thick book of Cutnell & Johnson. I was hoping to continue my study on Acids and Bases but could not bear it anymore. My eyes became so heavy, heavier than the Cutnell and I barely opened it. My mouth was gasping for Oxygen every five seconds. Not to burden myself, I jumped into my soft single bed and grabbed my pillow. Zzzz…

the end. Haha.

I don't think it's a descriptive language.

going back to school

2009-04-12T12:04:00.001+08:00

Hi readers! I went back to Raub, again. A snap decision made by me after the thought provoking and instinct stimulating done by Fairuz on me, who had been pictured of won’t be back to Raub for the next one month. Haha. I already planned to go back on the 25th but because of the extra class on Physics, I have to reschedule it to an earlier date. As normally I sent message to my teacher, informing him that I’ll be back in Raub. Then, he replied and asked me to go to the school on the next day because he wanted to see me. So, as an obedient student I went there yesterday as they were having their replacement on the holidays for the last Chinese New Year.

Gosshhhh!!! I hate my bro. For heaven sake, I don’t know what kind of riding he practised until I can feel that my ex-motorcycle was trembling and shivering as it was suffering from Parkinson. The engine sounds like an old man having tuberculosis disease, non-stop coughing. Luckily I can still ride it faster than an old lady or even the snails. I wish I have an Eveready battery to plug it in the engine so that it can move faster or having a soundproof earphone to protect my ears from the annoying sound of the engine.

I reached my school at 10 with the help of the motorcycle and went straight to the staff room. Surprisingly I met with my friends, Nabitul and Farhana after such a long time. And it is a routine that every time I go to the school, Ustaz will buy me drinks at the canteen. The four of us went to have our breakfast. Suddenly, the image of a skinny, tall and not-that-handsome guy pop up into my mind. I sent him message and after waiting for about 15 minutes, he arrived.

The last time I met him was last Chinese New Year. I think. Is it Amin? I don’t really remember. He was the same guy that I knew. I guess Intec did not harm you much. The only problem that I can see is that you need to put on weight. Stop eating tosai, but some fat and eat. Hakhak.

After having breakfast, we went to have a walk, to look for any development in the school vicinity and they got new hostels which were damn nicely built. Haha. I can recall lots of thing as I was walking down the classes or even when I crossed the bridge to go to the laboratories. I miss my school days. Then, I met with my juniors and Mrs Ho even asked me to motivate them. Reluctantly, I talked to them and I talked crap. Hope that it will motivate them.

The guy he was benevolent, he was cool!

2009-04-07T20:32:00.008+08:00

I was in form one when I first me him and he looks so stern back then. One particular thing that I truly remember about him is that he never grows his hair more than one inch. *Really. Trust me.* The way he walked confidently though he was carrying his out-of-shape tummy and his bald head attached firmly on my brain and until now I can still see the image flashing through my eyes. Well, he is not that out-of-shape actually. It’s a normal thing for a guy in his late 30’s right? Haha…

In 2003, I was the first batch to learn maths and science in English. I found it quit tough at first but this guy made it easy for me. He taught me in a way that I can easily understand those complicated calculations. I was confused with the addition involving negative and positive sign. Then, he drew on the whiteboard the positive and negative signs. He told us to imagine that both are guys an girls, so just paired them up. He crossed out the paired negative and positive signs and reminded us that what were left is the answer. If -2 plus +3, the two -ve signs will pair with the two +ve signs and leave out the one +ve sign. In conclusion, the answer is 1 and I was like, O.O. Ohhhh~ Now I understand. Haha

Learning maths was my priority at that time and it was the reason that I forced myself to get up every morning, preparing myself to school. Frankly speaking, I’m not that good in Maths but I’ll study harder so that I’ll get excellent results in order to please him.

He was cheerful and no doubt zestful while teaching maths. He likes to crack out jokes and sometimes was very playful. Apart from that, he is good in mimicry and I love it whenever he mimicked Mr. Bean. He was so Mr. Bean and I’ll laugh my head off.

Learning maths was exclusive as we did not learn it in the classroom but in another special room. Thus, every time we had maths, we will line up in pairs and walked there. We called it the ‘metal room’ because most of the stuffs in there were made of metals except for the chairs, windows and whiteboard. Haha. That was what I thought. Up till now I still don’t know why they called it the ‘metal room’ and why were we studying only maths in it.

The ‘metal room’ was a sole place for him and he spent most of his time there despite the fact that he had his own table in the staffroom. It was like he own the place because other teachers rarely use it.

He, the guy that I was talking about is my Maths teacher, Abdul Halim Shah but I addressed him as Sir. He taught me Maths for three years and he was the one who first called me ‘Y’. This was because there were two other students who have the same name as me, Nursyafiqah. He came out with the solution of adding our father name whenever he called us and as for me, I am Syafiqah Y. As he found it still confusing, he made it shorter by just calling me Y. He was the only person who addressed me Y before Cha and Sofia called me by the name too.

I became close with him when I was in form two. I don’t know how and why we are close. I mean close in terms of teacher and student. Sometimes I’ll share my problem with him or just talked about the gossips of the day and he’ll tease me whenever he got the chance while I will show him my blur and innocent face. Hakhak…

One occasion involving him that I remember the most was in 2005. It was on the 28th of July and I was celebrating my 15th birthday. That morning we had our Maths class with him and he said to me that he wanted to see me afterward. I thought that he was just playing around setting up a prank on me again and I just ignored him. Then, we had out tuition class during the night. I was the last one along with Hakimah to leave the class. Suddenly, he called out my name and I went to see him. Guess what? He took something out of his bag and gave it to me. It was a birthday present for me. Weeee~ I was delighted and touched as I never expect that he’ll remember my birthday. ^-^

We were still keeping in touch even after I came here, to KBU. Last Chinese New Year I went back to Raub and was so shocked to know that he was warded. I was lucky enough that my friend told me about it. I went to visit him with my best friend Sofia and it was such a journey. At first we went to buy some fruits for him. Then, we went to the hospital but they already discharged him. After that we went to his house but he was no there. I was so stupid that I did not call him first as he was actually at his mother’s house.

I was so happy that after such a long time we got the chance to talk about lots of thing. He lost lots of weight and became so thin after coming back from Mecca. He was totally different from before and I hardly recognised him. However, although he was sick but he was what he was, cheerful and can still teasing people around. I’m happy that he’s back, recovering and lost his weight (haha) but still I’m worried of his condition because he’s not losing his weight normally but because he was sick.

Sofia and I spent hours talking to him. What was funny about the visit was that we forgot to discard the price tag on the fruits we had bought. It was on the next day that we remembered it. It was shameful! How can I forget about it? Luckily that he never mentioned about it, of course he did not want to make us to feel more ashamed. Haha…

The last time I contacted him was last month asking on how he was doing, whether he had put on weight or not. Last 31st of March was his birthday and as usual I sent a birthday MMS. It was weird because he did not reply my message and he never did that. I waited for two days but cannot hold myself anymore so I asked Ustaz Faizal, his colleague regarding Sir Halim’s condition because I felt uneasy about it.

Ustaz told me that Sir was warded to the Kuantan Hospital, undergoing an operation on his eyes. I was shocked and devastated because no one had told me about it and kind of angry as I’m not aware of his condition. I did not really focus on my life and study these four days thinking of him and my sister, who went for treatments in Kelantan. Thankfully that my sister is recovering and showing some improvements; she can walk and pronounce words now. Alhamdulillah.

Sir Halim, he survived the operation and will be back in Raub soon. I wish that I can go back to Raub, pay him and my sister a visit. I can’t wait to see him and I really miss the good old days we spent together. He was like a father to me. I miss him so much.

Sir, thanks for everything, all the words of advice and consolation you gave.
I’ll always pray for you. Hope that we’ll meet soon. ;j

And yes! You are kind and you are cool.
Surely I gonna miss those days we spent together.

Photoshooting in BU

2009-03-24T18:02:00.007+08:00

I spend my last weekend at the student house, precisely at Yana and the gang’s house in order to finish our economics assignment and it was incredibly a tough job to do. Just imagine it as Ms Jesrina gave us two weeks time but we did it just in three days time. Not that we are lazy but there were lots of others assignment to finish first.

All the researching, reconstructing, rephrasing and presenting the data required tremendous effort and persistent from us. We burned the midnight oil until 3 to 4 a.m in the morning so that we can get the best and accurate information. We dig into each web page, read every sentence and interpreted each data. The worst job among all was Yana as she needed to interpret and calculate each data to get the precise unemployment rate in Australia from 2004 to 2008 and she did a really good job on that.

Tired of doing the assignment, we indulged ourselves into one of the movie in my laptop and we slept at four in the morning in order to release the burden accumulating in our brain. Haha. It is undeniable a good movie and do ask Yana if you are curious about it.

Then, on the Saturday evening we went to the skate park at BU to do some photo shooting. Yana, anne and I cycled to the park whereas Imran, Mud and Indera walked there. Mud even sacrificed his football game so that he can be model of the day.

Supposedly Imran was the photographer for that day but eventually we had lots of his pictures compared to others (excluding Mud because he is the model) as I became the photographer replacing him. I don’t mind and I should thank him because I got the chance playing with the camera.

I’m too lazy to edit so these are some of the photos took by me. Unedited.

Mr. not so muscle

please click for a clear view..

another photo, edited

The journey

2009-03-15T20:55:00.005+08:00

First, I have to admit that I’m a bad user of public transportation as living in a small city like Raub requires limited use of public transportation. Moreover, my house is just a walking distance from the town centre and to move around the district I’ll ride my motorcycle or my mom will drive me. For that, I can count using my fingers of how many times I used public transportation. Moving to Bandar Utama forced me to fully utilised rapid KL, taxi, LRT, monorail and KTM which somehow made me more independence now and I’m thankful for that.

It was on 8th of March and it was the first journey that required me to travel out of Selangor for the sake of our documentary. A day ahead, we discussed on the plan of going to Malacca. We will first travel to Pudu, take a bus to Melaka Central and meet the organizer of the Free Hugs Team Malacca there.

Early in the morning, we met up at Centrepoint and took a taxi to LRT Taman Bahagia. From there, we went to LRT Central Market and walked our way to Pudu. It was quit far to walk from the LRT but we had no choice as that was the only way that we know.

It was the first time I arrived at Pudu and the place was terrible as it was crowded and I felt suffocated and I wish that is the last time I’ll be in Pudu. Upon arriving, we went straight to the counter and bought our ticket, the four of us including Leong, Eliza and Ruby. It was written on the ticket that the bus wills departure at 11 a.m. and we still have an hour to go. Since we have not taken our breakfast yet, we went to the cafe to eat.

I was shocked with the way the restaurant owners treated us. They were gathering and forcing us to eat at their restaurant. I never encountered such situation in my life and it was irritating. Then, I chose to sit at one of the table and when I only ordered an orange juice, the owner showed a very reluctant face and asked, “Just orange juice?” At that time, I felt like punching her face. Hahaha~ At least I ordered something which she should be grateful for.

We arrived at Malacca Central at 1.30 p.m and met the organiser -cum-spokesperson of the Free Hugs Team Malacca, Kei Gui Yuan at the A&W restaurant. He was indeed a very good man and cooperated well with us. He tried his best to answer each of our questions.

Apart from Kei, he was also accompanied by his other three members who gave lots of info on Free Hugs to us. We end our interview at 3 p.m and went to have our lunch at the famous Nasi Ayam ball rice. It was delicious and the price was only RM 3.80. Every pieces of the rice that I chewed and swallowed was worth it!

We were lucky that they still have ticket to Pudu at 6 p.m and we arrived at Centrepoint around 9 p.m. It was undeniable a memorable journey for me as it was the first time I travelled such a long journey with my friends. I was hoping to buy some souvenirs but due to limited budget, I don’t. Thanks to Ruby, Eliza and Leong for that memorable journey. I will not forget it.

Love actually love~

2009-02-26T22:30:00.005+08:00

I bet you want to know about what happened to my first love. Well, I live in the real world; my life is not like in the film Kuch Kuch Hota Hai where Kajol finally married to Shah Rukh Khan. (Sorry, I could not think of any better example. Haha) Real life is not like in the movie, the same goes to my first love especially when you fell in love with is your extremely BEST FRIEND.

Typical thought on first love; it is the most wonderful and memorable love story to be happened to you but not for me. There is no doubt that it was memorable but I wasn’t that fortunate. Truthfully, there is nothing wrong if you fall in love with your best buddy but in the future it will raise the most awkward situation if you were rebuffed.

Errr…Am I rebuffed? Theoretically and supposedly, I was rebuffed but practically I’m not. This is because I never asked him for a serious relationship. It is not easy. Like I can confront him and say, “Bro, I love you! Can you be my steady boyfriend?” Puff… I’m committing suicide if I did that.

I want to do it frankly speaking but I don’t have the guts and what was killing me at that time was to know the fact that he was in love with somebody else; a friend of mine. Haisshhhh!!!! And it saddens me further as I only knew about his love story through the gossips airing in the class. He did not tell me about it! I guess there is still a barrier between us.

By the way, it’s not easy to expose you love story to others.

I was jealous, hurt, devastated and felt like someone was squeezing my heart until it explodes. I can’t help myself with such endure in me as I was deeply madly in LOVE with him. :-{ To lessen the burden, I tried to keep a distance from him but I can’t. Every time I tried I’ll ended up sitting by his side and tried to make him to never stop talking to me and some of my friends even noticed this kind out of norm behaviour happened to me. Well, I pretended that there was nothing wrong with my behaviour and played dumb whenever they talked about me falling in love with him.

Everyday, I ‘acted’ normally towards him until I became ‘sick’ of myself trying hardly to hide the feeling which I can’t really tell if he can sense that. Then, he told me that he was offered to a boarding school and he went off.

Through that time, without him by my side, and hardly to contact each other, I carried on with my life and struggling to leave my feelings behind. I don’t know how I did it but my love towards him seemed to fade away and I’m happy with it, to remain our friendship as a friendship; not more than that.

I don’t have any idea if he knows about my feeling towards him but one day, while talking on the phone, suddenly it blurted out of my mouth.

‘Do you know that I used to fall for you?’ I asked him.

Guess what his reaction was.

A) a deep silence
B) change the topic
C) huh?!
D) hung up

None of it as he laughed at me and asked. "Seriously?". I said of course and I think it is the most stupid thing ever happened to me and I told him that it was very hard to know that he had interest in another friend of mine. He just laughed throughout the conversation and later, we decided not to talk about it anymore.

Well, this is not a romantic and happy ending love story because I was in love with him but he was in love with her and at the same time her was in love with the other him who was in love with her too. So, my friend was kind of being rebuffed.

Wow! That’s what I guess made us a good friend cause we’re in the same boat. Haha

I want to hate my first love (not him but my feelings toward him) but I can’t and I don’t have the right to do it because we can’t really choose who we wanna love as love will strike us just like that.

Bro, I hope you're not reading this. Huhu~

Love actually...

2009-02-19T10:49:00.001+08:00

Hello! After the melancholic tone about death written by me last week, I think I should talk about something against it, love perhaps? It is stated in the dictionary that love is a noun which means a strong feeling of deep affection for the family members or a friend. Different people see love differently, so do I. For me, love does not only involves a guy and a girl but among the family and friends too.

Well, reading on how Mud tried to impress his first love reminded me of my own first love. Yes, I used to fall in love, my only love that I was obviously falling for.

I can hear my heart beating harder whenever I’m close to him
Or
How terribly nervous I was whenever I uttered words towards him
I can sense the grieve I had when I desperately missing him
And
I can recall the silly thing I’ve done in front of him
The gesture that actually showed how deeply I was in love with him

Before this, I never really developed my feeling toward guys because I think it is a waste of time and why on earth are you having a love relationship when you can’t even iron your own clothes properly. Well, this is especially for the primary students. For heaven sake, you haven’t mature yet and you already go out for a date at the public library. And it is at the public library! Don’t you have a better place to go? My goodness, Homo sapiens are weird.

I regarded them as weird because I always wondered why students have to have love affair at such a young age. Why? Why? You haven’t reach puberty yet! So, at first it was quit annoying to know that some of my friends did go into this type of relationship. Later, I entered the secondary school and it became a normal thing as many of my friends had this kind of relationship. Thus, I stop pondering on why they have to be an item.

Then, a boy came into my life when I was in form two; he was my long lost friend. We used to study at the same school but not in the same class during the primary years before he was transferred to another school.

He was in other class and we rarely talked to each other. Surprisingly in the following year when we were in form three, he entered my class. It was not a love at first sight and I felt nothing towards him at first.

I was sitting in the first row and he sat right behind me in the class. So, if there were any discussions we will gather as a group and I’ll turned to him for help. At that time, I was actually being gossiped to have a relationship with another student but I did not have any heartfelt on that student.

From time to time, we became closer and closer, a really good friend. I shared everything that I can with him and we even supported the same soccer team, Chelsea. It was the most contentment time of my life to spend times studying, chatting, or playing around with him. I never realize that I like him until I found that it was blissful whenever he talked to me, whenever he looked at me and whenever he teased me. In form four, I was certainly sure that I was in love with him as I can’t take my eyes and my mind off him since then. Sigh! For heaven sake, I was actually fallen in love with my bloody best friend.

Frankly speaking he is not a prince charming that every girl wishes for and maybe that was why I like him. I don’t like typical things or features that everyone looks for. Thus, I opt for something else, the same goes when it comes to music as I prefer Ahmad Jais more than Enrique Iglesias. Haha

Why can’t woman keep a distance of their hearts from the opposite sex? Yes, I fell in love with him, my best buddy. It will be always the girl who falls in love with their best buddy, maybe because if someone cares a lot about them, they melted easily.

Death

2009-02-14T11:07:00.000+08:00

I have to admit that Japanese Story is one of the worst and boring movie that I had ever watched in my life, nothing will be worst than this. Nevertheless, the subject of death do attracts me. I was informed by my friends who watched it earlier that the main male character will eventually died. Throughout the movie, I never expected that he will die just like that. I still cannot believe Hiromitsu died after he jumped into the lake. It happened just like that! It was very shocking of how the team portrayed his death.

And this is somehow a turning point for me; it helps me to ponder upon life, death to be precise. Like what Sandy’s mother said, “Its part of being alive.” Yes. Its part of life as everyone will face it sooner or later and it’s always around us. We have to admit it, people die everyday and even in Australia nowadays, people are dying due to the massive bush fires.

I don’t know how to describe death as I’m still alive. Nonetheless, I’m sure it will be very painful to leave your love one and what you had achieved in life. However, if you do believe in God, I’m sure you’ll be eager to meet Him; if and only if you did good things before your life were taken. Luckily Japanese Story is just a movie and I don’t know what Hiromitsu fate will be as he was unfaithful towards his wife. Haha

The reason I wrote this thing is because I did faced several shocking deaths in my life. The one that I remembered the most was my paternal grandfather. What I can recall about him is his features; he was a wiry skinny old man who smokes a lot with a square face which I inherited and I would say him as a rather typical Kelantanese male. He was suffering from the heart and cancer problem and was hospitalised to the HKB. We left him and went back to Raub after confirming that he was in a stable condition. The next day we received a call saying that he was dead. Everyone was very shock as he was showing a positive sign of recovery but we must accept the fate. It all lies in HIS hand.

The other death that I had to face was my maternal great-grandfather as he died soon after I registered in KBU. It was early in the morning when my mom messaged me about the news. He died suddenly and until now I still don’t know what the reason was as my mom disclosed little information on it to me. I can’t hold my self from crying and my heart was desperately asking me to go back to my hometown. I phoned my mom but she was against the idea of me coming along with them. At that time my mind already came out with a plan of going back to Kelantan but I was asked to stay in Bandar Utama. It was devastating as I did not have the chance to see him for the last time and I went to class as usual as nothing happened. It was hard because I was new here and I can’t really reveal how awful I felt throughout the day.

The recent one was the death of a blogger. I don’t know if he is a famous one but I did read his blog frequently. I don’t know why but his death affected me in a way that I felt lost although I only know him from his writing. I don’t know how and why but from his blog I can sense that he was indeed a good man and it was a heart breaking to know that the world lost him in just a second. What made me more sad was by reading the sidebar on his blog of others updating and reporting upon his death.

This shows that we can’t predict death. It’s all written. Who knows while I’m on my way crossing the road to KBU, I myself might be hit by the car and die.

Well, recalling back on what happened to me, maybe I had understand a bit on what the writer and director of the Japanese Story tried to say. Life is short! You can die out of the blue like Hiromitsu. The same goes to my family members and the blogger. At least, do appreciate your life and enjoy it in a good way.

Sigh~ I’m writing it while people are celebrating love.

Legacy

2009-01-31T00:35:00.000+08:00

Well, I hate reading and the books or novels that I read were the one made compulsory for my study. I hardly buy any novels and I only read the one own by my friends, thanks to them I know what novels are. I can’t bear reading romantic novels thus I opt for something different and I found it last year, the novels written by Ramlee Awang Murshid. I finished his trilogy novels in just a few days but it’s not the novels that I want to talk about because it belongs to my roommate.

I would like to share about a novel that I buy on my own, the only one. It was during the early days when I’m in Bandar Utama. Along with Ruby and Eliza, we went to MPH Bookstore in 1 Utama, searching for something or anything. Because I never buy novel on my own, I’m thinking of buying one but I don’t know what kind of novel I should buy so I walked around the store, surveying each genre including the best-seller shelf. Sadly, none of the books do attract me.

Then, suddenly, my eyes catch a book on the last row of the book shelf; it was brown in colour with a picture of pocket watch on it. I don’t know why but my hand suddenly grabs the book and I started to read the synopsis at the back. I found it rather interesting and made up my mind to buy it. It was the first full novel written by Shahriza Hussein; Legacy.

Yes, from the title itself it tells that the book is related to history which is half of it were facts as he juxtaposed facts and fiction. I love history and I’m good at it, I always score for my history paper. I was born with the good sense of history in my blood. My mind was struggling while reading the books as I needed to differentiate between what were true and what were made up. Shahriza did a splendid job in juxtaposing his writing with the story handed down by his elders.

The novel started with the assassination of J.W.W.W Birch. Mastura , who worked as an interpreter for Sultan Abdullah and Birch was so devastated as she did had a good relationship with Birch. Later, she kept the timepiece belongs to Birch as a talisman throughout her life. She was then, portrayed as an independent woman who was successful in business. Then, it tells the story of her descendant Raja Khatijah and Sharifah Aisyah. Along the way of the story, Shahriza tells the facts about the Perak Treaty, political, social and economic developments of the Malay States and Perak during the British rule, Japanese Occupation and Independence. The novel ended with Raja Khatijah returning the timepiece to the owner of the timepiece, Birch.

At first i found that i must be crazy to buy the book simply because I were attracted by its cover but he did wrote a beautiful novel that worth my penny. I finished the book within 7 hours as I cannot stop myself from reading the books yet I try to read it as slow as I can to savour every page. Shahriza put woman as the main character, independent woman who does not really rely on man but to work with man in order to success. Other than that, he showed how the relationship among the races were built during those days and how they maintained it. The story flow smoothly, I get carried away with the book and I like it.

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