May is a good month to fall in love

On my birthday I made pasta arabiatta (with chicken, as I thought the sauce was a bit bland) and pizza. For whatever reasons, the pizza dough seemed a bit uncooked (there's a slightly 'damp' feel to it). Still, three pizzas of mine were all gobbled up. Umi ate lots despite being diabetic. I went easy on salt and anything sugary for the pasta sauce as she also has a mild high blood, but I overdid the parmesan and so that defeated my purpose :p ..upon my return to KL I discovered that my pizza dough actually lacked one important ingredient: time (I managed to prepare another dough before I departed for KL -this particular dough was left alone for much longer- and Helmee said that that one turned OK; sedap). Italian food are way cool. Especially when you know how to make them ;p

I am looking for funds to go to Portugal. That my paper got accepted was a bit hard to believe. I basically wrote it part-time! (a large part of the paper I wrote while I was in Langkawi, as Yat would testify). But that is in the past now. If I don't come up with the funds I won't be able to go. Jasim suggested I asked for zakat money, which is not a bad idea at all (my original idea was to ask for a working holiday visa and work part time in Portugal until I get enough money to return to Malaysia! Haha). Helping out Dr Rozi the other day, she said I'm good at writing and presentation so hopefully I get to go to Portugal and have a blast there presenting my paper! Writing scientific articles can be cool sometimes, especially when you get to go places ;)

I got called up for the cricket team again. This year I managed to get three Bangladeshis and two Pakistanis into the team. I reckon this year's team is a pretty good one, for the fact that I worked much harder this year and still not know whether or not I'll be in the first team (last year, after not touching a cricket ball for roughly nine years and then going for training for less than a week, I still managed to get in the first team). Amongst the sports teams, this team might be the best in terms of academic achievements as we boast six post-grad and two medic students! So far I've learnt the off-spin, the leg-spin and the googley. Not bad for a first-time spinner. Our unofficial coach actually said I've a good spin. I'm still very much inconsistent though so I guess I won't be one of the regular bowlers. Except if spinners are badly needed, in which case our team have only two! But it's great to be playing and learning. I'm really enjoying myself.

I got called up to teach yet again at the PERKIM foster homes. Previously I taught science and maths there. This time around I'll be teaching English (which I never thought I'd enjoy teaching but surprisingly did!). Pian is taller now, and Effa is a bit thinner I think. Aisyah talks more nowadays, I'm so happy for her. Zico is his usual rowdy self, and admittedly the others are basically their old self. I also get to teach the younger students; standard six up to form two. These are remarkable people, these younger students. They're previously from the foster homes in TTDI before they moved to Damansara Utama. I guess they have a slightly different discipline regime there in TTDI as I think that these kids are much more polite and shy then their elder brothers and sisters. I'm having the time of my life, although I am, admittedly, usually a bit tired by the time I get to the foster homes on class nights after a long day in UM. But I guess teaching have a way of perking me up or whatever; after classes i usually feel much more umm..well, perked up :p Maybe everyone should try teaching every once in a while.