i see the light

I have a very important exam this Wednesday.

So, this is more like a blog response to my own previous post which clearly showed my stressful condition. This post was made in reference to at least 5 people. Nope, make it 10.

1. Scrabble

It was Nottingham Malaysian Games (NMG) yesterday and I was the Quartermaster (QM) for Scrabble. It was probably the only game that I would play in NMG since Ultimate Frisbee was never in the list. But of course, there's no way I could play and maintain peace at the same time. So, I became a full-timer QM.

Anyway, I went out of my house early in the morning with a huge bag that contains all the equipments. It was important to note that the bag's handle was broken so I had to lower my body to roll the bag. It was very challenging and I somehow felt like I was in The Amazing Race doing a Road Block. Cami (Syahmi) even said that I looked like a mak cik yang terbongkok-bongkok. 

Well, the game began a bit late and I even mentioned to one of my volunteers that this game is really peaceful. Yeah right, things went into chaos after the first two rounds. Some players began giving their opinions and even bad-mouthing me. On the bright side, they weren't doing ghibah (mengumpat) as I heard those remarks right in front of me. Of course, what else I would do? There's no way I'm going to throw lemon meringue pies into these people's faces. You might think that Scrabble should not be that all challenging. Well, you have to know that these players are highly intellectual people and it's hard for me to convince them to follow the way that I have set up. Oh right, some players even ridiculed me and made a joke about myself. Sigh~

Nevertheless, most of the players were being very polite by suggesting some changes to be made in the future. Some of them courteously asked me to consider changing the way the game system works which I gladly thought about it as they were being very professional. In the end, Scrabble was the last game to finish at Portland D floor and I was really grateful that it has finally ended. 

Firstly, I just want to say to all QMs, you have my utmost respect! Now that I became one, it was truly one of the most stressful jobs to be given to anyone on NMG. It's not that I was being disrespectful to any QMs before. What I'm saying is - you can never appreciate unless you experience it yourself. Thank you Allah for giving me this chance. Hopefully, this would be the only one. Haha. I mean, ni baru Scrabble, belum lg bola, basketball, netball, badminton. I mean if indoor games are already this chaotic, outdoor games are more likely to be more challenging. To all QMs, you can all work in a Microbiology lab and survive! Seriously..

I just want to give a shoutout to all Scrabble volunteers: Dalila Atiqah, Viviene and Dorcas for helping me with Excel, tables, players with difficult behaviour and many more dramas that happened in that small room. At least, takde adegan lempang-melempang. To Akmal Aliff, kalau aku nampak apa dia buat kat kau, argh!!! Well, ape kau expect? Takkan aku nak baling pie kat muka dia kot, haha. At least, aku bagi kau Ferrero Rocher la lepas tu or Maltesers. And then aku bawak kau gi makan burger and minum Shakeaway.

I also want to thank all the Nottingham players: Li Chen, Zhao Wen and Cami for giving me guidance, tips, advices and even to help me calculate to see whether I'm doing the Math correctly. I can vividly remember them standing near the computer to check if I was entering the data correctly along with the volunteers. Thank you so much!

Guess what? I've decided to not get involve in Scrabble in the future. The reason? Just because I'm not up to the standards of the players in that room. Plus, I think I've had enough of Scrabble tiles. Hahaha. 

2. The remaining hours of NMG 

I would like to apologize to a lot of people that I didn't have the time to spend with. The people whom I could only looked from afar but not calling them and say "Hi" or giving salam as I had to be in that room most of the time. Ashraf Zakwan, I saw you walking down the hill when I was in the room. I went to the window thinking that at least, you could see me and it would be alright. But no, it wasn't destined, heh. Also to the people who tried to call me but not being able to reach me, I'm so sorry; as well as those whom I can only talk in less than 5 minutes and that was it. I would also like to apologize to Nazmi (the director of NMG) for not even looking at your face when you entered the room and talked to me. I was sorting out the data during the Swiss phase of the tournament and players were being restless due to my lack of knowledge in Excel until Dalila lended a hand. It was probably the most stressful period of the day. 

Apart from that, I was trying to redeem my past failures in the last 2 years of buying delicious Nasi Lemak. Let's just say I bought 2 of them yesterday and they were superb, alhamdulillah. And that was a redemption. I would also like to thank Cami for accompanying me to roll the broken bag from Portland to my home.

3. The talk that we had during dinner

Cami, you knew better what happened during this period. Thank you for your advices and secrets. It's true, different people have different levels of sensitivity. Ok, I'm not going to elaborate. Cukup sampai sini, heheh. Jangan bagitau orang lain, Cami ;P

4. Cleaning up the disastrous-looking kitchen at night 

Ok, I know...I should be studying. Aku kena score this upcoming paper like seriously. But when I think about it again, takkan nak biarkan dapur camtu. So, me, Faiz Khalid, Hakim Razali and Afif cleaned up the kitchen. I considered going upstairs and listening to the podcasts for the remaining 8 lectures but I decided to help along. I mean, I can clean dishes meticulously (lol, I sounded like someone suffering from OCD and I somehow think I am). And then, Faiz suddenly recited a verse from the Quran...

كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْقِتَالُ

And then, I'm like...wo, wo. That's like one of the verses that struck a chord with me. You should've seen the look on my face, I'm like "Wow". Allah is reminding me of this verse that I had once encountered in KMB when I had a tough time; the verse that frequently run through my mind when I was having difficulty but somehow, I didn't even remember it during this hard time.

Afterwards, we were like completing the verse in harmony (well, sort of). And I smiled when we finished reciting it. 2:216. how could I forget it? Well, you didn't. You were there to remind me. That's why I asked you why you thought about that verse. Although your response was to refer to the leftover chickens.

5. The walk back home after visiting Lutfi

Lut, lut, you made me worried sick. Ok, this is the first time I used this phrase to you, I think. Thank Allah, it wasn't serious :)

So, me, Cami and my housemates were walking home from QMC when we bumped into Bear (Afiq) and the gang. And Bear told me something that made me smile. He said about the reaction that this person had when he got my note. Knowing that I made someone smiled (or happy) makes me happy. So, I looked to the sky and thought, "This was a good week". 

And I told Cami about it and he enlightened me more with his words of wisdom. He said that sometimes, we tend to forget about the things around us. We'd be too focussed on our big problem and forget about the good surrounding around us. Like when you're drinking a cup of tea or coffee. If you drink it in one go, you would've missed the taste and might not be enjoying it. But if you take your time and experience it, you will feel the richness of the taste. And I'm like, "Wow Cami, you should write a blog". Haha. 

It's true. Sometimes, I'd be too focussed and stressed about something (the exam on Wednesday) that I would begin to forget about everything around me. I have a really good support system. It's just that, most of the time, I overlooked them.

Ok, that's all for now. I still have 8 lectures to go but at least, I'm back to being me...