Graduation Day!!

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته and good day!

It is the important event that brought my family together here in London. It is my Graduation Day!!

I have never experienced graduation apart from when I was at school and Darul Quran. So this time, I was so excited especially this graduation is for my masters.

The graduation is held at Royal Albert Hall which made the event even more prestigious. My session was the last one, at 5.30pm, so we had to wait a while and do something else in the mean time. So I decided to take all the ladies to shop at Westfield because it is so near my house.

After Zuhr prayer, we all changed our clothes and get ready to go. I booked two cabs because we have elderlies, so it will be difficult to take the public transport.

As we arrive at the hall, the rest wait at the cafe in gate 12 while my bestie and I went to fetch our robes at the Business Building.

Took the chance to take pictures here.

I entered from gate 11, different from my parents and bestie.

The tickets were pre-booked and arrived weeks before the ceremony.

They put the booklet at our seats.

There's live string orchestra on standby for the background music.

The arrangements and inside the hall made me feel the extravagant of the whole ceremony.

This hall is so big! Our session alone is for more than 1K graduates.

My seat is at the alley which was nice. Made it easy for me to take pics of the stage.

My parents seat was way waaaaay up high. But you can still see me in my bright pink scarf. haha...thanks mum!

The ceremony began with the procession of the top people of the uni and representatives of each course.

The rest of them couldn't get in because I only bought tickets for two which are for my parents. If the tickets are not as expensive, I would've bought tickets for all of them. So they had to wait at the cafe downstairs.

My niece of course couldn't sit still for 2 hours straight. So they went outside. But the wind is so strong.

Just hear the wind blows. 

They pronounced my name as Siti Muhammad Imran. huhu...Aminah is missing. 

The graduation here is super simple. They already gave our certificate posted to our house in Malaysia a month after we finished our masters. For the ceremony, we only need to shake the hands of the uni rep either the president, dean or deputy and head of faculty (nod our head as a sign of respect for my case).

It ended with 'God Save The Queen' song and the exit procession.

We met one of our friends from UIA that did her masters at Imperial the same year as us outside the hall.

Paya, me, Ira.

Inside the hall. It seemed like only Asians (us and some chinese) were busy taking pictures after the ceremony. Lol

Sape la sibuk sebelah tu...(-_-")

When I went to pick up my parents the other day, I saw my old friend, Li Sia when we were here together during our masters. Such a nice surprise, so we promised to meet up during graduation to take pictures. There weren't really any other time because we were both occupied with our families.

The three comrades.

The three comrades with my grandad.

Just me and my beloved grandad.

Me and my mum, because I don't have a pic with her inside the hall.

After the ceremony, we went outside for a brief photo session because we need to return our robes by 8.30pm that night.

The wind is still blowing very strongly. My grandad couldn't stand it, so they waited inside.

These tulips were give by these two awesome and sweet ladies. You girls are sooooo nice!!

They're still single btw, haha...*wink*

BFF 'till jannah insyaAllah..

One of the joy of going to graduation is of course getting to meet your old classmates. 

This is with my good friend Lauren whom I have missed so much.

After the ceremony and all the photo sessions, we went to Westfield for some dinner at the Penang! restaurant. 

After filling our bellies, we went home. It was such a nice event, especially when you are sharing it with your family and loved ones.

I will cherish this moment forever. 

Until next time...

MSc Cert Arrived!

Salam and good day peeps!!

Despite all the drama that's been going on, I received a wonderful surprise. 

DHL came to my house to deliver what seemed to be just a piece of paper, but valuable to the beholder.

My MSc certificate have arrived!!! Alhamdulillah...praise be to Allah. I can't tell how grateful I am to HIM. All the hardships and struggle faced to accomplish this. I am forever grateful.

This accomplishement is for my mother, father, sister, other family members, friends that had always prayed for my success. And to the people that helped me a lot during my MSc course, Dr. Mark and Dr. Dafni. Without whom, I wouldn't be able to achieve this. Last but not least, my comrade in arms, Zahirrah Begum. She was my classmate/roommate during BSc, then classmate in MSc, later on labmate/housemate during PhD. We both have been through a lot. It just made us closer. Let us be successful for the sake of the ummah. 

Until next time...

Bye2 Griffon

Salam and good day readers!!

While I was in London, I stayed at a private studio house that accommodate for postgrad students from London top universities called Gradpad. Gradpad have 3 accommodations in three different locations which are Wood Lane Studios located at White City, Orient House located at Imperial Road and Griffon Studios which located at Clapham Junction.

I stayed at griffon Studios. My mother was the one that chose this place. The studio is located just in front of Clapham Junction train station. My mum chose this because you can take a direct train from Gatwick Airport to Clapham Junction. It is also just one bus to Imperial College London, South Kensington campus.

However, my campus is actually located at Hammersmith Hospital which is further. hahaha...but the commute thought me a lot about London transport which is cool also.

The studio is conveniently located in front of NHS.

My last day here, I felt very sad to leave. This place has it's own good and bad side. The best thing about it is comfort, security and facility. It's very hard to find such quality place that's value for money. The bad side of it is that it's expensive!! Mine is cheaper than my bestie that stayed at Wood Lane studio, but still...

My stay here had been awesome!!

To check out, all we had to do is clean up everything and make sure there's no trash left behind. If there is any trash left, we will be charged £40 which will be deducted from our deposit. Tenants also are encouraged to give away their used stuff that they wouldn't want to take with them where they can leave it at the refuse room. 

They will do an inspection after you've checked out to make sure there are no damage caused by the tenants. There were some issues with my kitchen wall that I couldn't clean it up due to the oil spatter while cooking. 

I was considered lucky that they only deducted £10.80 from my deposit. 

My bestie got charged £60 for her room. Wood Lane studios managed things differently. They will do the checkup when you check-out and they will immediately tell you how much they will deduct. The weird thing is, limescale on the shower door (which is super difficult to clean) will be considered as a deduction and default £30!!!! That's crazy expensive and so unreasonable. The tenants are all students for crying out loud. It's not like they are all rich. I'm so grateful Griffon Studios management is not that cold-hearted. 

I'm gonna miss this place. Just hope I got a good house next time too. 

Until next time...

Postgrad Step-by-step: Medical Checkup

Salam and good day readers!!

I've been writing about a step-by-step guide on furthering your studies starting from applying, finding a sponsor, IELTS exam and visa. Now I want to share about doing the medical checkup.

For MARA scholarship, they require you to do a full medical checkup. The approved medical facilities that MARA will accept are any government hospitals or clinics, KPJ Hospitals and many more. You can refer here for more list. 

I did the first checkup for my master at KPJ Tawakkal, Kuala Lumpur and I did again for my PhD. I love doing my checkups here because there's not a lot of people (there's hardly any), so it won't take a long time. 

To do the medical checkup here, just go to the wellness center on the 6th floor. Usually, sponsors will give a form that the doctor or fellow medical officer need to fill (your name and personal info of course you fill in yourself). Medical checkup usually consist of chest X-ray, blood and urine test. 

The blood and urine test must be taken here at the Laboratory. It's located just beside the wellness center. 

After the phlebotomist drew your blood and you've peed in a cup, go downstairs to here and take the chest X-ray.

The process doesn't take long if there's not a lot of people. If you go very early in the morning, there will be a few others waiting. But if you come around 10am, there will be less people because it's approaching lunch hour. But there is a risk that you might not get your result on the same day if the lab is backed up.

Overall time it'll take around 30 minutes for the chest X-ray to be done and 2 hours for the lab results to come out. After which, they will call you for a preliminary check like eye test, colour blind, your height and weight. The last thing, you will need to see the doctors after they handed all the results. The doctor will check thoroughly here in Tawakkal (I can't speak for other facilities). 

The cost of the medical checkup is RM236 during the last time I went there (2014). 

For students who will be furthering their studies in UK, you need to apply for student visa with the UK Border Agency (UKBA) and this process require a TB test.

TB test is actually just a chest X-ray and a consultation afterwards. However, only a handful of hospitals and clinics that is certified to do this test for the UKBA which are shown below.

You also required to bring a passport photo of yourself (white background).

The fee for the TB test is RM220 at Life Care Medical Diagnostic Centre. 

Until next time...