Friday

Routine is:

1. Reluctantly waking up at 6.30am (well 7.00 if you count the snooze) every morning for Subuh, only to find yourself longing for more comfort time underneath the thick blanket until it is already time for class.

2. Eating the same brand of cereal every morning while checking your email account and the timetable. Occasional panic occurs when you are late for lecture and you still have some documents to be printed out.

3. Walking along the same route that you've been using for the past three months to get to class while listening to your iPhone. What's on the playlist? Hundreds of unfamilar indie songs that really makes your mundane routine an interesting experience every time.

4. Looking for a random spot to sit at for the whole duration of the lecture. Depending on the lecture, sometimes there will be something on that piece of paper you wanted to write your lectures notes on. Sometimes there will be random words on it that do not make sense; which could only mean one thing -you're bored and not paying attention.

5. Going back home only to find yourself too tired and unmotivated to do extra reading or anything productive in general. Hunger leads you to scavenge through the almost empty fridge for lunch.

6. Going to bed at around 1.30am. While resting your head on the pillow, you do a little reflection on the events that took place today and wonder how you could make things better for the following day. You download an app to kill some time before dozing off, but you get hooked on the game and decided it is not yet time for sleep. The next thing you know, you're already back at number one.

But life isn't that boring all the time. Not everything is a mundane routine.

1. Sometimes you have friends who are awesome enough to come and visit you in Manchester to have a good time. This will mostly like mean a visit to the holy ground of Manchester football (hint: Old Trafford), the Piccadilly Gardens, Trafford Centre, a round of Laser Quest battle, and even Blackpool like last week. Then you'll take them to visit the pride of the people of Rusholme - the Curry Mile. Half chicken with rice at Zam Zam? Alright. Lamb ribs at Krunchy Fried Chicken? Hell yeah. Qabily Pillow at Afghan? Bring it on. Yeah, your wallet will probably shrink over time, but the good time you have is just priceless.

2. Sometimes your dream of watching live English football matches right before your eyes may come true. As you are seated at the lower tier of the stadium among other enthusiastic fans of the club, you begin to reflect upon those times back in Malaysia when you were just watching matches at mamak stalls or at the comfort of your living room. The feeling is way beyond compare. It gets even better when you're witnessing the demolition of Arsenal right before your eyes. The next thing you know, you're already joining the rest of the home crowd chanting "Go City Go City" all the way to the final blow of the whistle.

3. Sometimes when you make that extra effort for your International Politics tutorial presentation, you may get rewarded for your effort. "It was a really good presentation Alif" doesn't come around quite often these days, hence when it does happen, you can't help but smile all the way back home.

4. You'd be surprised at the prospect of making loads of new friends when you decide to do something different and get out of your comfort zone. Your voluntary work for UNICEF recently has really opened up a whole new horizon which honestly looked pretty bleak previously. And of course you can't curb your enthusiasm for tomorrow's Giving Aids A Face Fashion Show and the peace march called The Wave which will take place in London this Saturday:)

5. Also, sometimes your ears become over sensitive of the occasional knockings on the door. You feel anxious to answer the call, hoping that it's the postman delivering the items that you recently bought online. Oh what joy it brings when it arrives in such an immaculate condition, just like how you imagined it to be.

Like my man Mraz said, It's the little details in the fabric that you sometimes take for granted that actually makes your life colourful.

I'm loving it here in Manchester.
Like a not-so-wise drunken man I met on the bus en route to Piccadilly once said, "This is Manchestaaaaaah!!!"



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Read more