The time of our lives! xD

Oh yeah, did I mention that at school, we had this "Best Friend Circle"? Well, now I'm telling you, we did, and it was awesome! We were in the same class since the 8th Grade (most of us anyway!), till we finished A'levels. And I tell you, when you spend 5 whole years of your life with the same people, you are sure to make an enormous lot of awesome memories!

Shaxu's B'day, July 2009

Addu Trip, April 2011

Whenever we got together, things got so crazy ( we called ourselves the Secret and Sweet at one point! ;) )and we would all laugh till we cried. Heard the Facebook "proverb", "Everything is funnier when you are with your best friends" ? That is so totally us! :D

So the "gang" included me, Musly, Maashy, Maan, Shaxu, Shef, Nuhy, Huly and Aadhu when we were at school. Now since Maan can't hang out with us, it's the above people plus Lym and Luba, who are as much fun! :)

At my place (or somewhere close by) in 2009

Farewell Party Night, July 2011

Maashy's B'day, October 2009

Disaster Preparation Drill, 2010

My surprise B'day organised by my BFFs, October 2009

So, about today, I sent a text to everyone (excluding Shef, since she is in Colombo! Everyone else is in our homeland, Fuvahmulah (Which hasn't happened for over a year!)) asking them whether they were up for a ride since Musly came to Fuvahmulah today. We haven't had a get-together with (ALMOST) everyone here since June 2011, right after we graduated from High School (Mostly because Maashy, Huly and Shazu were in Male', the capital, attending Maldivian National University (MNU), Shef was simply in Male', Musly was in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, attending Sunway University and the rest of us were here in Fuvahmulah, in jobs!)

Everyone else (That is Maashy, Nuhy, Shazu, Luba, Lym) (Musly and Aadhu couldn't make it because they were not feeling well!) came over to my place at around 4.45 pm and we left for Huly's place (Which is very near to Thundi, one of the wonders of Fuvahmulah, which makes it so unique!) in three motorbikes!

The traditional huts in Thundi
Image Credits to: http://www.facebook.com/fuvahmulahmaldives

The beautiflly unique, white sand of Thundi
Imgae Credits to: http://www.facebook.com/fuvahmulahmaldives

When we went there, Huly wasn't home. Apparently she was in a vegetable farm nearby, which is nearer to Thundi. There, we waited for Huly to get her motorbike so we can go visit Musly. Here's what we did meanwhile ;)

Pretending that we had an accident! :P

As you can see, it wasn't that convincing since we were too busy laughing (yeah, that happens! Every time all of us get together, we simply can't stop laughing! ;) ).

And then we got bored of waiting around so we went to Thundi and decided to take some pictures so we can show them to Maashy and Huly and tell them we took pictures without them ;) lol

Oh and I totally forgot to thank the two boys who so kindly took the pictures for us! Thank you guys! (Apparently they graduated with us, but I didn't know them that well. They were friends with Luba and Lym though! :D) And then we decided to be the crazy people we are and took pictures everywhere nearby! :D

The rest of the pictures are below. After having fun taking pictures, we went to Musly's place. There we asked her about her first day in Malay and first day at the university. She told us about how she got lost on her way there, the fun things that happened during a workshop and how she couldn't even correctly pronounce some of the names of her classmates. We then talked and talked about everything, catching up, and laughing harder and harder at the recollection of the stuff that happened before. Finally, we went home at 8 when we started having tummy aches from laughing so much! 

It was one wonderful day which brought back memories of all the fun we had during our school days, along with the reassurance that we would still have so much fun together when we meet up, no matter where, no matter when. Even though some of us are married now (namely Maashy, Maan and Aadhu! ;) ), we still feel like teenagers when we are together, and there is nothing that could replace that feeling! :D

"Let's have the time of our livesLike there's no one else aroundJust throw your hands up highEven when they try to take us down
We'll have the time of our lives'Til the lights burn outLet's laugh until we cryLife is only what you make it nowLet's have the time of our lives"                            -Miley Cyrus-
That is us, my Best Friends Forever, and I!!

December Blessings! (Materialistic, of course!)

It's the last Thursday of December, which, for me has been one of the best months of my life. So much happened and so many memories were made with so many lovely people (Raid, Ahu, Nuzu, Aksam and Een, you guys are all on the list! <3 )
But that's not what this post is about. This post is about the stuff I received from people in December and the stuff I bought on my December shopping spree.

  So the first one is these cute little bangles that I got for my baby sister, Shiuth (Photo below ;) ). The minute I saw them, they reminded me of her! They were just so her that I simply HAD to get them! :D

Next comes the brooches. Many of you might know Nyz Choice on Facebook.If you don't, and if you want to check out the cool things she sells, here's the link (Thanks, Shaha, for the idea ;) ) http://www.facebook.com/nyz.choice?fref=ts

 She has the cutest of brooches which are well within all of our budgets. Because I saw so many beautiful brooches on Facebook, I decided to visit her and see them for myself. One whole wall of her room was stacked with boxes containing thousands of brooches. Since I was only interested in the long ones (I had plenty of short ones ;) ), she gave me about 20 boxes. I sat there for more than half an hour, not being able to decide which ones to buy, because ALL of them were just so beautiful! <3

I know, all of them are steel brooches, colourless. But that is how I like my brooches, thank you very much! ;) But I did buy one with colours, also from Nyz.

Event though my brooches are colourless, I like everything else fully coloured! The more colours in it, the better actually! :D So here are the bracelets that I fell in love with at first sight! Again, from Nyz!

Then there are the bangles that I got from Mausooma Miss, which were equally cute as well!

I saw these cute little bands that I was sure my younger sisters would love just so very much, as they did! Thanks to Nyz, I could make my little sisters very happy! :D

Shiura Mohamed Saeed, Shiu Baby, 1yr

Shirua Mohamed Saeed, Shirukko, 7yrs

Shiau Mohamed Saeed, Shiakko, 12yrs

Now it's the dresses. I got a sudden invitation to attend this wedding party of a friend of Raid and I did not take any party dresses with me  to Male'. With a mere 15 minutes to go before the party began, I rushed off in to the first shop I saw that I liked and grabbed two gold dresses (Gold was the dress code!) and hurried off in to the fitting room to try them on. The first one was OK, so I thought I would decide after wearing the other one as well. When I wore the next one, it felt so right!! I knew instantly that this was the dress I wanted! I had no idea which shawl to buy so I asked for the Sales Girl's opinion and she chose this spotted one. So, here's the dress!

Ps. That isn't the shawl I bought. This shawl is a gift from Mausooma Miss! And I think this goes much better with the dress :D

The next dress I bought, also was during a fashion emergency! It was DNP's anniversary and the dress code was red. I had already worn my red dress the day before so I needed a new one! Rushing off to the shops, this time it took me longer than just two dresses to find the perfect one. It was actually a tie between this red and black, super gorgeous party dress and the official looking, figure-complimenting, yet loose enough for my liking, office dress. Since it was DNP, I chose the office dress. (Raid also favoured the office dress! ;) ) 

The next one is a gift from the older sister I wish I had, Ahu! I never wore such dresses, but Ahu was my insipration to try new things and be as outrageous as I want! So here it is ;)

I swear it looks much better on me than on the hanger! ;)

And it's finally shoes! Mom asked me to buy shoes for my little sisters and here's what I could find, with the help of Raid, ofcourse! :D

Shiuk's shoes, so her, I must add! :D

Shirukko's shoes

This is again a gift from Mausooma miss! It's brown, leathery and sturdy- perfect for this rainy wheather! :D

And finally, the ones I bought for myself! For some reason, I was in the mood for the combination of Gold and Black ;)

Elegant-ness! :D

The ones I bought during the 15 minute shopping for that wedding party!

Last, but not least, my best buy of the month, the amazing, super awesome phone sticker that I love almost as much as pizzas and chocolates (Mostly because it defines me, with all the sparkles and colours!  ;) )

With all these Sparkles, glitter, colours, butterflies, hearts, flowers and everything nice, Adiós for now! :D

YourSingapore (Day 2)

On 24th July 2012, I set foot in Singaporean soil at 0600. As I mentioned in the earlier post, my very first impression of Singapore (the impression being that of the Changi Airport) was super awesome!

There were of course irritatingly long queues  near the Immigration Counter. As I waited in line, I saw the two brothers I had seen in Colombo airport. I sneaked a glance at their passports since I was still curious as to where they were from. I saw "Australia" scrawled in teeny tiny letters in between two kangaroos( that's what it looked like from far, but closer inspection proved otherwise ;) ). One mystery solved :P

Right in front of me in line were a French couple with their daughter of (about) 2. Their nationalities I decided partially by hearing their accent. My guess was confirmed when I caught a glimpse of their passports.

It was almost half past six when I finally cleared Immigration and headed towards the exit. On the way, my eye caught a foreign currency exchange counter. Since all I had on me were American Dollars, I exchanged them for Singapore Dollars.

I then hurried out of the airport to find an airport personnel pointing me to a number 2. I hurried off to the place marked number two and was pleasantly surprised to find a taxi waiting for me there. Talk about efficiency! :D

As the Cabbie drove off, I was stunned into silence by the beautiful scenery unfolding in front of me. It was like I was driving through a park filled with trees. Such was the greenery around me, with the trees forming canopies overhead. The sight of beautiful flowers blooming like colourful dots here and there were so calming to the soul.  And the funniest part was, it wasn't until 7am that the sun rose. (In Maldives, sun rises usually at around 6!)

The cab driver asked me about Maldives and why I was in Singapore. Speeding away from the airport, I was enchanted by the architectural miracles of all shapes and sizes. The driver was an awesome tour guide, he told me about every single significant building we passed.

Singapore Flyer

Esplanade Building

Marina Bay Sands

Gardens By The Bay

It was also fun to stare at the cable cars overhead :D

So I finally reached the hotel I was supposed to stay at, South East Asia Hotel. The nice cab driver gave me his number so that I can contact him if I needed any help. I could tell that he was feeling sympathetic for the young girl who traveled alone all the way from somewhere in the Indian Ocean, and had nobody she could call for help in the country of Singapore. (I was sure I wasn't that helpless, but turned out I  was so wrong!!)

I still had my Dhiraagu (one of the Maldivian telecommunication service providers) sim, but of course that was totally worthless in Singapore, I found out bitterly, later. I dialed the driver's number so that it would be in my call  log. Then I thanked him and dragged my luggage in to the hotel.

Yes, it does look nice, doesn't it? But the lesson of "Not everything that glitters is gold" was learned the hard way when I went in to the hotel. There were already 3 boys of around 20 who were from Italy or somewhere close by, from what I could tell, insisting that they had booked their rooms that day and that the rooms should be available. The elderly lady at what was supposed to be the reception, (which, in reality was just a 3 feet long counter, behind which she sat) told them firmly that the guests check out at 12pm and the rooms would be available only after 3pm unless the reservation was done a day ahead. 

I walked in confidently because a friend of my Dad, Yazydbe has booked my room one day in advance and he had been reassured that my room would be available to me by 8am. I went and told the lady about it and she refused to listen to my side of the story. She repeated the same thing and asked me to come back at 3pm. It was just a little past 7 then. What was I supposed to do for the next 8 hours with myself, all alone, nowhere to go with a heavy handbag, an equally heavy laptop bag and a HUGE luggage bag. (Self pity, I know! But it was that panic-inducing ;) ) The lady was kind enough to let me leave the luggage bag in a storage closet, but offered no further help.

I was at a total loss as to what i should do next. I pulled myself together and decided I should get a Singtel (A telecommunication service provider in Singapore) sim to start with (what little homework I did paid off !). I asked the landlady where I could get a Singtel sim and the answer was 7 Eleven. I asked for directions to the nearest 7 Eleven and went off in the direction pointed out by the lady. I didn't know whether it was the accent or the lack of clarity, but it took me quite some exploring to finally find the place, which was actually right around the corner, literally! 

Just as I was buying the sim card, I got a text from Iko who is Nashidbe's( Another of Dad's awesome friends) younger sister. She lives in Singapore and I was so relieved to hear from her. I inserted my Singtel sim into my phone and messaged her, telling her how the hotel so heartlessly threw me out in to the streets (drama much, huh ;) )! She told me she was a bit busy then and that she'd call me a bit later.

I wasn't so depressed anymore, but I was still starving and dead tired. I then called Raid to get directions for the nearest Starbucks. (Starbucks has free wifi and I wanted to load my google map where I had marked all the closest Subways, McDonald's and other emergency places ;) ). He totally deserves a Noble(or in this case a Shina)prize for the most supportive human being on Earth! It was 3am, but he still called me back, and he stayed up thereafter, giving me directions to all the places that I wanted to go.

I honestly don't know what I would have done if he wasn't there, calling me every two minutes, literally!

 With Raid giving me directions on the phone and me asking random strangers on the street about the landmarks he was talking about, it took me around 15 minutes to find a Starbucks. But luck seemed to be evading me (if you are a huge believer of luck, which I'm not!). My laptop was out of charge and there was no port I could connect the charger to. So I was stuck with a cup of coffee I wasn't such a huge fan of (Don't take it personally, Starbucks! I usually hate coffee! :D )!

Then I decided that I would make the best of the situation and go sightseeing! I had grabbed several maps from the airport and they marked all the cool places I wanted to go to. But I had to get this card thingy, "Singapore Visitor's Pass" which gives me $10 credit and I can travel on any bus or MRT (Singapore Mass Rapid Transit- Singapore metro) more cheaply. 

But I had to wait till 10am for the offices to open so I can get one. 

So while I waited, I decided to grab a bite and thus began the search for a Subway (I am Subway, all the way! :D).And it was waaaay harder than you think it is, mostly because I found it really difficult to understand the Singaporean accent, and Google map, which Raid was checking, was annoyingly misleading. 

For an instance, he told me there was supposed to be a Subway in Bugis Junction. I went there and all I could see was this shopping mall. That was the same response I got from some of the people I asked as well. And I would never have known of the existence of a Subway in the Basement level if a young soul hadn't lead me there herself! 

I'm signing off for tonight leaving you with a picture of my favourite submarine from Subway- personalized tuna Sub. (Best thing about tuna is, it doesn't have to be Halal, so I can eat tuna at any place, without waiting to find out whether the place serves Halal food! :D)

Tuna, Cucumber,  Just a little bit of onion, Extra Cheese, A bit of lettuce

Bon Appetite! xD