Ramzan Saga

Ramzan's moon sighted in Palmerston North

• Maybe you're pondering about "what's Ramzan?". Well guys, it's actually the Pakistani slang for Ramadan.
• Till the time of this entry was written, it's already in the middle of the month. About two weeks more to go before it ended.
• Many things happened during this period, where I'm going to write it down for you guys to read.

Dusk of the first Ramzan

Pakistan Independence Day's Ceremony

Me with High Commissioner of Pakistan to New Zealand and one of the Member of the Parliament.

• Like last year, Pakistani Community held an Independence Day ceremony every 14th August, and I was invited as a photographer for that event. Unlike last year, apart from the VVIP invited, I was the only non-Pakistani there in that ceremony.
• I was also involved in the beginning of this ceremony, where I recited holy verses from Quran as the opening of the ceremony. They also made me lead the Maghrib prayer, something that I was really honored for that.
• Eventhough it looks so grand with the presence of Mr. Syed Ibn Abbas, the high commissioner of Pakistan to NZ and also Palmerston North's Mayor, MP and Massey Vice Chancellor, it's not really celebrated as the remembrance to the calamity in Pakistan right now where millions of people were affected by the massive flood. Few fundraising were also launched in this ceremony.
• I would like to say thanks to them for giving me trust and opportunity to get involved with their activities since last year.

VVIP ; From left Mr Syed ibn Abbas, Steve Maharey (Vice Chancellor Massey Uni), Dr Ashraf Choudary (Labour Party MP), Jono Naylor (Mayor Palmerston North) and Ian Lees Galloway (MP Palmerston North).

PKNZ Members.

• Being a photographer gives me a lot of advantages such as, I know lotsa people and vice versa. Most of the Pakistani here know me as well. Even Mr Syed ibn Abbas knew me already from our last meeting. Alhamdulillah.

Pejol's Farewell (15th August).

• After some unfortunate consequences, Pejol (Faizol) had to terminate his study here and had to go back to Malaysia.
• Our hope to him is that he will not give up and try his best with his study back in Malaysia.Maybe his luck is not here in Massey, who knows.

Till our next meeting, mate.

Iftar Jamai'e (23rd August)

• It was Malaysian community turn that day to prepare and serve foods for Iftar at Cook St Islamic Centre, Palmerston North. So me and my friends were there to help the mainly postgraduates for the preparation etc. Alhamdulillah, everything went very well.

Abang2 Postgrads cooking Kurma Ayam

My housemate, Lutfi prepared kuihs.

Foods being served after Maghrib's prayer.

Summer Holidays

• For your information, I will going back to Malaysia this summer. I bought the ticket already for both ways.
• This is the first time I'm using online ticket agent which is webjet.co.nz. To be surprised at first, I got overcharged which then made me called their centre to get the clarification on what's actually happening.
• Alhamdulillah, everything solved smoothly and quickly where I got the refund.
• I will depart from New Zealand on 25th November. This is from Wellington to Auckland, and then to Singapore before arrive at Kuala Lumpur on the following day (Thanks to Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines).
• I will coming back from Malaysia next year on 16th February from KL to Melbourne with Airasia and then to Auckland with Emirates Airlines.
• To be honest, I'm already excited to go home.

Upgraded

• Recently, I made a bid on Trademe for a Tamron lens (17-50mm VC f/2.8). i'm not really serious on this bidding.
• But finally, the seller withdraw this auction and he offer me this lens with my current bid that time which was about half than its RRP price.
• I agreed and I got it yesterday. It's actually a new lens produced by Tamron so far for this model.

First picture I take using this lens.

• And another thing I got yesterday was that my housemate, Lutfi wants to sell his lens to me. It's also Tamron, but different model and type (its Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8) which then I agreed upon.
• So in the mean time, I will sell my other lenses I have so far, probably via Trademe. In the end of this year, I should have Nikon D90 body, a SB600 flashgun, a 17-50mm f/2.8 Tamron lens and a 70-200mm f/2.8 Tamron lens.

TO BE CONTINUED NEXT TIME........