April 2013 was such a busy month for me. Busy is an understatement.....really. I knew what I was getting into, I was prepared mentally but I was not physically fit for those outstations and overseas activities. I am already 54 years old and I have a list of ailments that people do not need to know. But I believe life has to go on regardless of our problems. I told myself if I do not try I would not know what I am capable of.
So early April saw me flying to Langkawi, a historical island off the coast of Kedah. I attended a conference where my three post-grad students presented their papers and I was also an ajE-Bs/jABs Editorial Board Member of the International Scientific Committee. I spent two nights there.
The ACEBs Langkawi 2013 Conference was organized by CEBS/UiTM headed by Prof. Yusof Abbas who sat in the middle flanked by the four keynote speakers.
The event was held at the Holiday Villa Beach & Spa, Langkawi, Malaysia 6-7 April 2013. The whole programme was packed and I did not even had the energy to walk to the beach which is said to be beautiful.
The three papers presented by my students were:
Hafazah Abdul Karim, Diyanah Inani
Azmi
Faculty of
Architecture, Planning and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam
40450, Malaysia
drhafazah@gmail.com,
diyanah_inani@yahoo.com
2.
|
Mohd Riduan Ngesana,
Hafazah Abdul Karimb, Syed Sobri Syed Zubirc
aCentre for Environment-Behaviour
Studies
bCentre for Town and Regional
Planning Studies
cCentre for Architecture Studies
Universiti
Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam 40450, Malaysia
nightcityconcept@gmail.com
|
3. An Assessment on Variable Reliability in Investigating Students’ Living Satisfaction in Private Housing Environment
Muhammad Hilmy
Muslim, Hafazah Abdul Karim,
Faculty
of Architecture, Planning and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam
40000, Malaysia
hilmymuslim89@gmail.com
After coming back for one day of work, I had to go outstation again for seven days. This time I had to drive my car for almost 1250 km around the state of Selangor followed with a busload of 33 students for a site visit. The studio project is the review of the State Structure Plan of Selangor 2013-2035.
Due to to long journey and sometimes driving in isolated rural areas I asked my old school friend Sophiaty to accompany me since she is quite free. So we started driving from UiTM to the districts of Kuala Selangor, Sabak Bernam, Hulu Selangor, Kuala Selangor, Gombak, Hulu Langat, Sepang, Kuala Langat, Klang and then back to Shah Alam. All in all we slept in 5 different hotels.
It was interesting for the students who came from different states, some from East Malaysia to see the different sites of the rural Selangor, agricultural area, plantations, fishing villages, paddy fields, highlands, urban areas, rives, waterfalls, wetlands, historical towns and places etc etc........
.JPG)
Every night I will visit the students' accommodation and hear their reports and their programmes for the next day's activities. Then I will give some briefings and have a Q&A session with them.
.jpeg)
The Selangor site visit was from the 9th to the 15th April. After we came back I was dead tired physically and mentally. But work has to go on.
Then on the 21st April I flew to Melbourne accompanied by my husband (whom I especially requested his presence because I know I am not well and probably might be getting sicker) with a another group of students about hmmmm 30? I forgot exactly, for a study tour which is requirement of their Comparative Planning subject. This was an official academic visit. The students were helped by David Klingberg, a consultant in Melbourne. His help had tremendously benefitted the students in getting important briefings from local authorioties, universities and agenices.
.jpeg)
This is on the second day after I had rested. so we were off to The Melbourne City Council. I was feeling much better in the morning. The students learned a lot from Rob Moore who explained the unique sustainable design of the council building. Later we went to Docklands and it was quite a long walk which made me quite dizzy and sadly I had to skip the afternoon study tour.
.jpeg)
.JPG)
David Klingberg is standing in the middle. He practically arranged the study visits for the students.
When we took off from LCCT KL, I had a blocked nose, sinusitis problem and that caused severe pain in both my ears. And the fact that the plane had to land back in LCCT KL because of navigational system problems, causing the plane to fly around the airspace for 3 hours to finish off their fuel worsen the pain. When we land in Melbourne both my ears had the same severe pain. And that gave me headaches and dizziness for the whole 3 days we were there. Thank God my husband was with me. there were times the dizziness were so bad I cannot accompany the students but David Klingberg was so good to be around with them. If ever David were to read this I wish to say thank you very much for you are such a good and kind person. May God bless you.
If I have more time I will upload more photos from the Selangor Study trip and the Melbourne Study tour. There are so many interesting sites and information to share. Till later.
