Graduation Ball!

Date and time: Friday 16th June 2006, 7pm onwards.
Venue: The Victoria Hotel, Bradford
Occasion: The Biomedical Sciences Graduation Ball!

What a fantastic night and I’m so glad that we decided to go! So pleased that most of the biomed girls turned up, shame about the boys but then that’s their loss. A big thank you to Li and the rest of em' for all their hard work and help in organising the ball and a special thanks to one of my best friends Meera for accompanying me to the ball. I'm definitely gate crashing Meera, Mahria and Zahida’s ball next year as it's a shame that we couldn’t spend our final year together. Although I had a fab time with the rest of the girls, I did have some of those moments where I really missed their company at uni or just having thoughts like that they would have really enjoyed this moment! (Memory: Meera and I in the uni refectory with a pack of cards, lol! God it annoyed the hell out of Mahria!)

Anyway back to the ball, the hall was decorated so nicely and the lecturers were all really relaxed and having a good time! It was nice to see a few familiar faces such as Isabella who had taken a year out to go on a placement. The DJ was great, however the food wasn’t as great as we would have liked. The starter was a posh version of a pizza with goats cheese (urgh!), the main course was either the veggie option of a mushroom risotto (I’ve never actually seen grey food until that night :P) or the non-veg option of halal chicken with a potato thing (the sauce was so rich that I think we were all feeling a bit sick after, lol!) The desert was a chocolate tart (Dark not milk but hey chocolate is chocolate after all, lol). Not meaning to complain but it gives me new meaning to the GGM sketch of wanting the blandest thing on the menu! The food was the only thing that was not quite right but it didn’t spoil the night one bit.

After dinner, the DJ started to get more comfortable, lecturers started to relax… with rather large amounts of alcohol and EVERYONE got up to dance. I think we all had a bit of a giggle when Dr Brinkworth became a bit too inebriated at one stage and began doing some kind of chicken dance, lol! Bless Dr Thornton as she stood by him whilst he did his um...“dancing”! During the dances Marya decided to go up to Professor Tobin to see if he would take a picture with Meera and I, which embarrassed us both to no end. We look so sheepish in the picture! The night was followed by a lot of dancing students and drunken lecturers! Marya did however stop for a rest from dancing and as she put her scarf down on the table, she managed to burn it on the dinky little tea lights set in the middle of the table. I’ve never seen something burn so quickly! Marya was slightly hysterical but the girls managed to calm her down by um… well dancing a little more, lol! The PhD students also managed to set fire to their menu’s and so after that it was decided we should put out all the tea lights. Everyone had a great night, took loads of pictures and soon it was time to go home.

As we got off towards the cars, we saw some of the other biomed people outside. Apparently they had ditched the biomed ball for a party at the students union – shame on you! Anyway Dina and Iffat decided that they would stop off at the uni party to see what was going on whilst me and Meera stopped in the car. I think we might have been slightly overdressed for uni considering the number of looks we got. Finally Dina and Iffat decided to return and we all got home slightly late. Can’t wait till graduation day – hope it’s just as much fun! All in all a top night, from start to finish and a lot of pictures and memories to keep for ever! :)

A perfect quote from one of Dee’s emails…

"Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance!"

…and we most certainly did. So perfect for our night out! :)

The Fallen

I was recently watching a rerun of a channel 4 documentary entitled “The Falling Man”. It was based on the September 11th attacks that took place in the USA in 2001. Although I wasn’t in the USA at the time or connected to anyone involved with the incident; I was actually quite surprised at how upset I got just by watching the documentary. Thoughts about all the people who had died and how their families must have felt at the time.

I had one of those flashback type moments to the day of the incident. September 11th, my 2nd week of life at sixth form… so excited and looking forward to fulfilling so many dreams and ambitions! I remember coming home early because I had a free period (Sorry…err study period) and switched on the TV to watch the lunchtime BBC news. I remember seeing scenes of the planes crashing into the tower and I initially thought that it was some scene from a movie that the public were probably so enraged by that it had made it onto the news. Then I realised that this was a reality and not some movie scene. I remembered the weeks after the incident… awkward to say the least. People were so much quieter and everyone watching and analysing each other, such an uncomfortable atmosphere. People just seemed so unsure of what to say or how to act around each other. Uncomfortable times for everyone in society and not just the followers of Islam. Even though certain things will never be the same again, communities were beginning to forget… well no not forget but forgive or something along those lines.

Unfortunately the London attacks that took place in July 2005 seemed to stir up the hatred and uneasiness again. Today is the anniversary of that unfortunate incident and seeing those same images on the news again was so sad. I can’t imagine how the families of those who died must feel everyday of their lives. Hopefully time will heal and things will begin to improve in the future, inshallah. It’s a shame that because of a few misled people in society, how they have created such unfortunate circumstances, how they have fallen. My love, thoughts and blessings to everyone out there.

Tell me what you want!

At the risk of sounding like I’m having a rant, I still decided to post this. This may sound a little arrogant but throughout my academic life I’ve done well in my exams (mashAllah) and maintained a good academic record. I try and do everything to the best of my ability. I get on well with people, whether as a team member or as the leader. I admit I am a bit of a perfectionist, perhaps bordering on being a bit obsessive at times, lol.

I think back to my first of year of uni and remember how I attended probably about 95% to 98% of all my lectures. I was so afraid I might miss something really important but I’m glad to say that this fear eventually died down in the following years. Over time, I developed my own style of learning that I was comfortable with as did my friends. In contrast, some of my year hardly ever turned up to lectures as they were busy enjoying what the student life had to offer. I guess everyone has their own way of learning and my point is that I’ve always tried to be the best that I can be and I know that there are many others like me.

Bearing that in mind, don’t you just hate when you give something your all and it still isn’t enough! I studied my arse off this work and just missed out on an A grade by a couple of percent! 2%! Now I know how that sounds but my god, I did everything that was expected of me and then some. I think I did more than was required as per usual, but this time I didn’t get the grade that I wanted. I went over and over it in my head and still couldn’t pinpoint where I could have improved! I know how arrogant this probably sounds, but honestly I’m not like that, lol. I’m not even sure why this got to me so much. I’ve calmed down since I received the mark, but I guess I just needed a place to vent so I don’t end up being all crazy about it, lol.

Right I’m done now :)