First post: From Coventry with Love (or NOT!)

Hi all,

Greetings from the land of the...English??

I am writing this in between doing my readings so I expect this is going to take forever... But at least I managed to move my lazy fingers to type out something on this platform.

It has been 1 month and 13 days since our whole family was "sent to Coventry". 

There are a lot of things to share actually because surely a 43-day experience on a foreign land offers new insights at all sorts of levels imaginable. 

Even a mere blank stare at the streets can make you feel, "Damn what have I done to my life??"

I will TRY to make this post as short as possible (by MY standards). Other intricate details will be shared in the subsequent posts, insya Allah. 

Maybe I should just do bullet points:

• I'm glad that my family members and I survive this challenging journey. Moving to a foreign country with a family consisting of 2 small kids has proven to be quite an ordeal. But there's a deep ambivalence about this perception as the source of the ordeal is also your source of SUPPORT. You get what I mean? In simpler words, Yes, kids are not easy; even to bring 'em to the nearest 7 Eleven store in Malaysia can take a careful 1-hour planning. and a husband who is also doing his PhD TOGETHER WITH you is another thick different chapter in my autobiography; BUT they are also the people that you turn to in order to make things right, they will make you feel that all the sacrifice made is all worth it, insya Allah. 
• Ok, so bullet points have proven to be a failure. Coz that was practically a paragraph, huh?

Ok fine. No bullet points. 

Hrm basically you get an idea that my first 1 and a half months here have not been exactly easy. First because of different family factors, and second is -- because the house we are renting is UNFURNISHED. Totally togel like that, you know! But things are better now, and I will share how we cope with this issue later.

AND I have been dealing with lots of self-related issues here too:

1. Am I fit enough for a PhD programme?
2. Why the heck can't I drive here? What are you so afraid about, Azrin???
3. and basically, what the fudge am I doing here? I miss Shah Alam!!! Bring me home!!!

Ok enough of all the negative sides. I will write more on that later. 

Essentially, the positive ones for now are TWO:

1. I have AWESOME supervisors! 
2. My kids are free from any respiratory problems (for now). Fresh clean air and water!!!

Alhamdulillah.

Which I will explain more later too. 

Yes, in the midst of getting to know the UK culture and all, sadly it seems at the moment that the cons outweigh the pros. 

and my 43 days experience so far seems to indicate that New Zealand is a lot better in many sorts of ways. Biased, invalid, and misleading, I know. 

So I will try my best not to make any conclusive judgments first. Let's wait and see. 

In the meantime I will keep on praying (and pray for us too please) that I will fall in love with Coventry as much as I have fallen in love with Gombak, Wellington, and Shah Alam.

Talk more soon. Ciao. 

Salam