two minds two voices.: June 2015

Hi everyone! This post is going to be a bit different than the rest cause we’re not going to talk about us; this post is all about YOU, our readers.

We both were talking about our blog recently and we got really curious on who our readers are, what you guys think of our blog and what you guys think about us. I know it has only been a few months since we’ve started this blog but we’ve reached over 3000 views already and we are so overwhelmed by that. We would like to thank each and every one of you for reading our blog, whether you have been following us since day 1 or if you’ve just stumbled upon our blog recently. Thank you so much everyone, we appreciate your support.

However, in order for us to improve in the future, we would like you guys to share your thoughts and opinions on our blog and write it in the comments section below. We know it’s called two minds two voices but we have decided that we want to see more minds and voices come together to make this blog more alive. We also want to know your suggestions on what to blog about because sometimes, we can easily run out of juice. (Especially when we’re hungry.)

Having you to share your thoughts and opinions will make us feel like we know you better! We don’t want our readers to just be a shadow behind the screen cause you have been reading about our lives and now it’s time for us to get to know yours! We feel the need to know our readers personally so we know whom we are writing to, or whom we have been talking to.

Although we want your opinions but negativities are never welcomed. We want our blog to remain positive so you guys, our readers will exit the site feeling positive. We may be like other bloggers who post about their lives but at the end of the day, our aim for this blog is not just to share but also to inspire, and to motivate our readers. Nothing is more heartwarming than knowing we have inspired and motivated people in any way possible.

So to sum up everything, we would like to hear from you, our readers. Your thoughts and your opinion matter to us; Let us get to know each other, not just you getting to know us, but also vice versa. We want to get to know you personally because without you guys, we would just people who write stuff on the Internet.

Feel free to reach out whenever and wherever you like! Whether it’s on the comments section in this blog or even our personal social media! Give us a tweet or anything telling us what you think of our blog. Whether we know you or not, it doesn’t matter! We are always thankful for you guys, we hope you know that and we hope you will continue reading our blog.

Liyana & Sabrina

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I’ve been wanting to write up a post on my trip to Singapore with my mom and my cousin earlier this June but I haven’t gotten around to do so because I was still choosing on which part to talk about. If I talked about the whole thing, this post would be never-ending as I spent 5 days there and I had quite an adventure. My mom went there for a business trip and since my cousin and I were free, we decided to tag along.

Before going to Singapore I was thinking whether I should buy their SIM Card or not because obviously I didn’t want to use my phone data while I was in another country, it would cost me a lot! But then I figured since my cousin has it, I’d just be with her at all time so I won’t actually need it. Though both of our phones were connected to the other phone with the SG SIM card using the phone’s personal hotspot so I still could surf the Internet using that. (If that was confusing; we had 3 phones, one had the SG SIM and two with Brunei SIM card.)

Upon going to Singapore, both my cousin and I listed down which places to visit and when we want to go there. So we went online and found out that every Wednesday, there will be pink dolphins at the underwater world! I am no doubt, a fan of pink so I was ecstatic when we found that out and decided we should just go that day.

Below: Pictures of a pink dolphin I took!

After visiting the ever so adorable pink dolphins, we figured we would go shopping at Vivo City before heading back to our hotel. I went to several shops there but I spent a lot of time at this one particular shop, which was Cotton On. Both my cousin and I knew I would take a while to finish shopping there because I like to go through every section of the store to see if anything captures my eyes. So knowing that, my cousin decided to go to other stores to buy some stuff and we would just meet up somewhere later.

After spending more than half an hour at cotton on, I decided to go to our meet up point but when I reached there I couldn’t find her so I figured she was still shopping at other stores. I wanted to ask her whereabouts but I couldn’t connect to any of the Wi-Fi there so I was just going around, trying to look for her but obviously couldn’t! So I told myself, I’ll just go back to Cotton On and wait for her there BUT as I passed a few shops, I noticed that I was connected to the Wi-Fi! So I quickly checked and I was connected to the personal hotspot so I went back to the few shops to see if my cousin were there and as I passed a sports shop, there she was, picking out jerseys for her brother.

I laughed to myself as I entered the store because I found it so funny on how I managed to find my cousin using that. But then after that I thought, hey, I was connected to the Wi-Fi, I should have just texted her instead of searching for her in every store I passed by. Sigh Bimbo moment right there but no worries, I love living life on the edge. You know what they say, everyday calls for a new adventure, and searching for my cousin like that was definitely a tiny part of it.

So lesson for today is guys, always switch on your hotspot so it would be easier for them to find you or the other way around BUT make sure, if you’re connected to the Wi-Fi, please text them instead of being so adventurous and trying to search for them in every store like how I did. *facepalms

On a side note, I survived going around Singapore thanks to my cousin. She did basically everything; she checked spots on where to go, how to get there, how much money we needed, even before we went to Singapore. I am so thankful and so amazed by her, thank you dear cousin! So here gorgeous, this post is for you.

Sabrina

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Semester break so far has been nothing but thinking ahead for the near future. With my second year of Uni just around the corner and my Discovery Year next year, you can say that my stress level is starting to peak again.

For anyone who doesn't know what Discovery Year is:
The university I go to, UBD, gives students the opportunity to either study or work outside the campus for a year when they reach their third year. Students with a high GPA are given the chance to study abroad fully funded by the university. There are more detailed explanation to this, of course. But this is the gist of it.

Now, in order for me to be sent abroad fully funded by the university, I have to score a GPA of above 4 for next semester alone. This is because the cGPA (total GPA for 3 semesters) has to be 3.8 and above to fully qualify for the Study Abroad Programme.

Last semester was chaotic to say the least, which led to a fall in my grades. To make it up, I have to work extra hard next semester. However, this does not mean I am ready to give up everything I love to do, (i.e. public speaking, etc.)

There has not been a day where I did not doubt myself. I doubted my capabilities. I doubted my ability to make it.

People have been asking where I plan to go for my Discovery Year and I can never give them a straight answer. I always answer them with "It depends on my grades". My answer alone showed that I doubt myself. And if that didn't give it away, I'm sure my facial expression did. To my surprise, I don't remember anyone reacting with sympathy. No one gave me a single look of pity and told me "It's okay, there are other options". Everyone looked at me straight in the eye and said something along the lines of "Why do you always doubt yourself? You'll make it" and "C'mon, you know you can". Although I don't say it to everyone, these encouraging words are what keeps me going. To know that people out there believe in me and what I can do is enough to make me get back up.

Whether I succeed or fail to get my goal in the end is besides the point. The point here is, there are people who believe in me and it just shows that I should at least have an ounce of belief in my abilities too. Maybe then things will work out for the better.

Here's to a better GPA for my third semester!

Liyana

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It's that time of the year again! How blessed we all are to see Ramadhan for another year.

To me, this year felt like it just started. I still remember New Years Day where I celebrated with a nap on the living room couch. Among all the other years, this year takes the cake for the most laid back New Years celebration ever. But compared to any other year as well, even though only half way through, this year has got to be my happiest one yet.

Now, everyone knows being happy comes with it's challenges. The challenges I have faced this year were tough. It made me burst into tears more times than I would like to admit and it made me question my purpose in life a whole lot. However, I overcame them anyway. It was not easy but I did. These challenges led to my achievement in so many things. These achievements will be forever stored and framed in my heart and mind.

The people I've met and spent my time with this year play a huge role in my success and happiness, and for that, I will be forever grateful. Without their love and support, pushing through every obstacle would've been next to impossible.

There are so many wonderful things to be thankful for this Ramadhan and there is no better way to show how grateful I am than to take this holy month as a stepping stone to not only be a better Muslim, but also a better person.

I hope everyone else has about the same idea in mind and I wish you all a very very blessed Ramadhan. May we all see the end of this beautiful month as better people together!

Selamat Berpuasa to all my Muslim friends and family!

Liyana

As mentioned above by Liyana, it's that time of the year again! Syukur Alhamdulillah that we are all still alive and well to welcome this holy month of Ramadhan again.

Ramadhan is probably the month that I have been waiting for every single year, the feeling of Ramadhan to me is just indescribable. Every year I always have goals that I need to achieve during Ramadhan, and sadly, I have yet to cross out any one of them in my list *sigh* but not to worry, I am not giving up as I still can try to achieve them this year.

Completing Taraweh for the whole month has always been one of my goals during Ramadhan. Well I know it's impossible for us ladies, but I'm talking about those days where we can actually perform them. I have never surpassed 10 days or 15 days of Taraweh, and I want to change that. I long for the feeling after completing them for the whole month (or the days we can actually perform them) and if that day comes, I will be sure to write it down in my achievements list!

Reciting the Al-Quraan and actually finishing the whole Juz in this holy month is also one of them. This is a bit hard for me to do because I tend to sleep off my hunger than do anything else but again, inshaAllah, I want to change that. I will try to complete one Juz in a day, if I can. Although I know that is not impossible as I see people do it all the time, even during other months.

Third, would probably be... Me, cooking for Iftar. I am one of those ladies who can only cook simple meals, when I say simple, I mean really simple but I have always wanted to try to cook other food as well. I don't spend much time in the kitchen cooking as how I do in baking because I love to bake! Though, I guess it's time to step up and actually know how to cook real (and yummy) food. Since today is the first day of puasa, I shall try to cook something for Iftar later.. (and I'll be going on youtube to find food that I can cook after this).

On a side note, I have to tell myself to do something productive and beneficial this Ramadhan because I tend to get sad whenever I look back on my pervious years during Ramadhan and knowing I did not do anything that's beneficial that can help others, or to improve in myself when we know that this month is all about that. I am ashamed and I am determined to change that.

So I guess to me Ramadhan is the time to improve myself to be better, not just for now but for the hereafter as well. Although I have to put it out there that I am only human, I make mistakes and sometimes I get side tracked but I am trying my best to be the better version of myself than how I was a year a go.

With that I would like to wish every one of my muslims family and friends a very blessed Ramadhan, and I would also like to apologize for any of my wrongdoings, whether intentionally or otherwise. Let's hope this Ramadhan will help us to better ourselves and let's hope it will be better than the last! InshaAllah.

Sabrina

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*blows off dust on our blog. Shoo dust; we don’t want people to get sick.

So today was kind of an off day for me, as I didn’t have anything to do and knowing that, I told myself to stay up last night and if you are close to me, you would know that I would already be asleep even before the clock strikes twelve. The earliest I could go to bed is at 9 – 9.30; yep, I am that old. I don’t know why though but I get really sleepy at those times and I just have to sleep it off or else I would get a headache. BUT I will not go in detail about how I actually have an old soul because I have another reason for writing this post.

I knew I didn’t have things to do today so I stayed up last night (as mentioned above) and of course knowing my body and my brain, I need at least 6 hours of sleep and I ended up waking up late this morning as well. And let me tell you… I’ve never felt so good in so long! I was SO happy that I got the chance to wake up late and stay in bed the whole morning. I was basically just lazy-ing around and I realized that it’s been a while since I got the chance to do that. I forgot how amazing it felt and so, I told myself that I should do this more often; I should give myself off days like these to recharge. Being busy is fun because you have things to do but having days to just stop and drop everything feels amazing too.

I know people, including myself have no choice but to constantly do our work BUT I feel that we need to step back and smell the flowers. Life is too short to worry about those things all the time, we might feel guilty not doing anything but I know we will be doing ourselves a favor. We shouldn’t be overworking our brain, that precious thing needs rest too and not to mention our body as well.

So even if you’re busy with your work, your revisions (I know most of you guys are going to sit for big exams soon, GOOD LUCK!) and everything else BUT make sure you take a day off! Sleep in, make yourself some tea, read your favorite book, watch your favorite TV shows and just relax! Don’t overwork yourself; don’t stress yourself; stop and look around, time will not wait for you; you have to catch it every single time. You might feel guilty because you’re not doing your work but then it’s ok to just have a day without all that. At the end of the day you will be thankful for giving yourself a chance to breathe, and you will also be more energized to continue your work the next day.

So please just give yourself a day off to relax; you need it, your body needs it, your brain needs it and you definitely deserve it!

Sabrina

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