France, Summer 1918.

Sergeant Collins was monitoring the war zone, looking out for any signs of the German army. Until he saw something moved, struggling. Nothing was supposed to move on that field. There wasn't even supposed to be anything alive on it.

He grabbed his binoculars and tried to identify this mysterious beast. He thought it was a cow but how did it even end up on this No-man's Land?

He suddenly realised it wasn't a cow. It was actually in fact a horse.

A War Horse. 

* * * * *

I don't normally do movie reviews but this movie is definitely worth mentioning. Yes, I know. This is a pretty old movie (December 2011) but I didn't have the chance to watch it until yesterday because Sayanora exams!

 

First's first; this is by far the best love story that I've ever watched.  It's a story about Joey and Albert, a horse and his boy. They were separated by force due to World War I. As cliché as every other movies, this one is worth watching. What made this movie interesting is because of the different stories of different people that were told throughout Joey's journey during the war.

Don't worry if you're not a movie-goer, War Horse is adapted from a novel by Michael Morpurgo. I haven't read it but it's going to be on my Books-To-Buy List.

 

Heads up for any animals' and horses' lovers out there, make sure you have a box of tissue right next to you because I can assure you that you're gonna cry your eyeballs out. Never have I remembered crying so hard from watching a movie, though I have to make an exception to Hachiko: A Dog's Story. Whoever made that movie, damn, ya tryna dry up all of our tears, man?

It's sad and funny and encouraging. It was one hella of a roller coaster ride of emotion.

Steven Spielberg was really smart with it as he has always been with his other war movies. If you decide to watch this, do watch out for the scene that I mentioned above. From wiping my tears off my cheeks, I ended up laughing like a hyena.

Love, courage, friendship, trust, honour and belief are beautifully molded into this movie. It's not 100% about the horse because it's more about the war, so don't worry if you don't dig into the girly horsey movies because it's not. *Two thumbs up*

PS: Tom Hiddleston and Benedict Cumberbatch are in it. *Winks*

She took the empty cup and cleaned it off while she waited for the water to boil. She picked up a tea sachet, put some sugar in the mug and poured in the hot water. As 3 minutes passed, she handed me that cup of tea. Perfectly brewed with very little effort.

The smell of the tea just lingered in the air that we breathed in. It looked delicious and smelled like it too. And so I took a sip.

I could feel the pupil of my eyes dilated.

Never have I tasted a tea this well done.

From horrid boring mugs, I started buying the cool edgy ones and recently bought the posh English cups. It took me a while to decide on the cups' designs but I am definitely happy with the change.

I can't control myself but to have a cup of tea everyday. Every single day without fail.

I got so excited that I parade my cups and my perfectly brewed tea around.

Little did I know that the cup had a thin line of crack on it. I thought I was sipping the tea away but some of the tea managed to drip without me realising it. Yet, I kept on adding more tea.

Little did I know that not everyone enjoys tea. They knew of the existence. Yes, definitely, but they got sick of the tea.Yet, I moved on.

Little did I know that I might have spilled some of the tea on my friends due to me getting extravagantly excited about it. They were too nice that they kept quiet about it. I'm pretty sure I must have had left a small burn on their skin.  Yet, I continued.

Little did I know that the tea that I have been parading around, wasn't the perfect tea I thought it was. Definitely a good one but there were far better flavours. Yet, I seem to ignore them.

What a fool.

I should have controlled my excitement. It wouldn't have fogged my mind from my surroundings. I would have realised the crack on the cup. I would have enjoyed every single drop of the tea and taste its richness. I would have been a better friend to realise the littlest spill.

I think I need a new cup. Keeping close to the whole English tea cup theme. I need to take better care of the cup and not get all too excited about the tea. But I still need to taste more teas before introducing them to other people. And when I do, I need to explore a better way on recommending them. 

All I hope is that everyone gets to taste it.

"Hati kita ni umpama sebuah cawan. Kita kena isi cawan tu dengan benda. Kalau kosong, nanti berhabuk. Tapi, kalau dah penuh dan kita tuang lagi air, pasti  akan melimpah. So, kita kenalah penuhkan cawan tu with the right amount of things."

It's been gazillion years since I've last updated my blog (that's for 'a few months' in internet language). Before I start, I'd just like you to know that this is pure analogy. Please put aside the fact that Channing is married to the out most beautiful Ms Jenna Dewan-Tatum and have just had a gorgeous blue-eyed baby girl. Thought I'd use Channing as the example since he's 'the hot buzz' right now. I mean, I'm writing this from a girl's point of view. So, if you're a guy reading this, just change Channing with, I don't know, Jennifer Lawrence maybe? LOL.

Let your imagination run wild.

Out of all other prettier and smarter fan-girls, he chose you. There he was, on his knees, with his beautiful green eyes staring back at you, waiting patiently for an answer to slip away from your lips. And there you were, standing in front of him, frozen. (PS: You're trying really hard to not to faint. XP)

Yeah, you've seen his movies. Maybe not all of them but sure. Yeah, you've sometimes stalked him on Instagram, if it pops up in your feed. Yeah, you can't deny he's super gorgeous. Yeah, you might even have had him in your dreams but never in a thousand years that you'd expect to actually meet him in this unexpected situation.

Even if you're not a fan, you just can't afford to say "No".

Imagine this, out of millions of his fans, out of the blue, he chose you. And only you for him to share his life with.

How would you feel?

Have you sunk in this feeling yet? Can you imagine how special you are? How much you stand out from every other human beings in this world?

Out of many other cooler websites, what are the chances of you reading this? What are the chances of you clicking this link?  What are the chances of even doing anything by luck?

"He selects for His mercy whom He wills. And Allah is the possessor of great bounty."

- Al Imran (3:74)

Out of everyone in the world, Allah chose you to understand Islam. Allah chose you to be wherever you are right now. Allah chose you to not go astray even though the many, many mistakes that you've made in life. Allah opened your hearts to allow you to have faith in this beautiful religion. Never once that he turns away from us, the weak flawed human beings. 

So, what are the chances of you embracing Islam?

I'm not sure about you but I'm feeling dem special feels right now.

Embrace it. <3

Alrighty mates. I have another website recommendation. Well, I have to give a huge shout-out to YANG SAFIA ( http://amateuryang.blogspot.co.nz/ ) who showed me how awesome GOOD READS is!

I used to update my book reviews here. Okay, so what a joke. I've only written about like what, two books in this blog? Blehh. Anyways, http://www.goodreads.com/ is super fun coz you get to update your progress on what you're reading, what you've read and also what you want to read. You could look up for the books and make small e-notes on it. Not to mention that you can write comments, you could also post your own opinion and reviews. Plus you would also be able to read other people's thoughts about the books alike and the books you hate. LOL! People could also randomly recommend books that they think you should give it a go by looking at how you rate your books. It'll automatically detect on your favourite genre or plots and even authors. There are discussion boards and random quizzes about the books that you read.

Like how I put only ONE star for this book. It was depressing.

You can add friends from Facebook and etc and you could also follow mini blogs of your favourite authors on the same website.

If you're a book buff, this website is a definite go-go. Look it up and I think you'll enjoy it too. And probably because it's mainly for books, so, I'm somewhat diligent enough to update what I read.

Here's a snapshot on what it looks like.

I've only used it for about five months and I'm lovin' it!

Do ask me any questions about this website and I'd be more than happy to help you with it. You could reach me through Twitter or even on Good Reads: 

http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/14840803-ilyana-khir

OK. So when I first told myself that I was gonna update my blog for at least once a week, I should have realised that it was a HUGE JOKE. Hahah! I'm so like this rabbit. Pfft.

Like legit. It has been more than what, FIVE freakin months? Dang I mustta been that bad. LOL!

So, I do have a lot of stuffs to tell you guys about like how cool Otago is, how much I hated Jakarta (all due respect to Indonesia but the crowd killed me *died*), how Isengaard and Rivendell are sooo beautiful and a whole lot of stuffs.

But before I start off this year, I'd like to wish everyone:

And yes. I'm super aware that it's already February. Yeah, kill me. *puffs*

Okay, don't. I was just kidding. All the best with your new year resolutions. I hope you actually get through it, Inshaa Allah. I hope I achieve mine too. *Squints at weighing scale*

PS: Jokes on you people who thought apocalypse was gonna happen last year. 2013 B*TCHES!! No one knows. Only Allah does. Cheers.