Aidil Adha 2009@ Perth

Hari raya haji this year was on Friday (27 Nov 2009). On that day my hubby need to go to work from 6 am till 9am. So definitely tak leh pegi sembahyang raya. At the same time we have been struggling to finish up with whatever needed before going back for my data collection. It has been 3 (horrible, unhealthy, torturing) weeks for both of us. Very stressful weeks. My first hero plak ada 2 tests on that Friday. My second hero dah demam for about a week. Tinggal lah J Lo yang still "alive and kicking" which eventually boost up the stress level of everyone else in the house!

Around 4 pm my hubby, J Lo and I pegi juga jemputan open house few of our friends. My two heroes were not in the mood and tak nak ikut. Agaknya letih coz diaorang pegi sekolah as usual. This was the first time we all tak celebrate hari raya haji. Well...apa nak buat..life must go on......

Cerita Kehidupan....

On the way back from university my hubby and I met with another international student. He is also doing his PhD here and now in his fourth/ third year (not really sure about this). A very nice guy and devoted muslim.

At first our conversation was more on our PhD but suddenly slowly he declared to us that how he missed his family especially his two children. Dah 3 tahun tak jumpa. He said dia dah terlalu rindu but again money is the main constraint to go back. He need to make a choice either to pay for his flight ticket or to save that money so that he could at least send some money every month back home to his family.

Bila dia bercerita about getirnya kehidupan kat sini and rindunya dia pada anak anak..air mata dia bergenang...hari ini Allah memperlihatkan pada saya kasih sayang seorang lelaki dan rindu seorang ayah...jarang saya berpeluang melihat dan mendengar keluhan jiwa seorang lelaki.
My hubby and I terkedu but keep on reminding him supaya banyak bersabar and berdoa.. well..what else to say...

To me...today Allah mengajar saya lagi tentang kehidupan. Belajar with 3 children and tak ada kerja sampingan membuatkan kehidupan disini begitu sukar. Seringkali juga saya bersedih dan merasa beratnya beban yang ditanggung . Tapi hari ini saya sedar apalah sangat dugaan Allah untuk kami berbanding dgn dugaan yang dihadapi oleh kawan kami tu....Muga saya akan menjadi lebih tabah to go through this journey......Thank you Allah....

Happy anniversary

Tomorrow is our 15th Anniversary....lama tu.........

Memandangkan sekarang ni hidup dalam serba kekurangan....idak le ada celebration besar besaran..kek bertingkat tingkat ke...candle light dinner ke...hadiah yang glamour glamour ke...and memandangkan juga esok my hubby start semula career "floor engineer" untuk tempoh 2 weeks..jadi acara menyelebratekan anniversay dilakukan pada petang tadi...

Acaranya adalah minum teh tarik and makan keow teow goreng(share 1 pinggan makan 2 org ok) ....kah kah kah...ini kalau Dato' K baca blog ni mesti dia "tensen" tahap gaban....dia celebrate anniversary ngan Tok T habih beribu ribu lemon...... itu baru kahwin setahun jagung tuh....heeee

My hubby habis tak sampai pun $25....itupun dah masuk bayar 2 teh tarik sebagai upah to my two heroes jaga J Lo and 1 Bubble Tea untuk rasuah J Lo supaya tak nangis and stay ngan abang abang so that Mama and Papa bole kluar makan berdua...heeee...

Alhamdulillah both of us enjoy the teh tarik session...Dapat peluang borak borak tanpa "gangguan"...cuma topik utama boraknya still our research le...pasal data..pasal supervisors...pasal strategy nak collect data...pasal methodology.....hu hu hu....


Hopefully, lepas 3 tahun ni...kami dapat tukar topik borak kami kepada yang less ilmiah...contoh pasal cincin kat Habib Jewels ke...pasal handbag baru ke....pasal kereta yang kecil cam "smart" tu ke...pasal nak besarkan umah ke...pasal pegi Mekah ke...pasal second honeymoon ke....semuanya contoh aje..tak ada apa apa niat pun......heeeee...

Anyway, thank you for the lovely teh tarik session and also an informative "brainstorming" session...Muga Allah permudahkan segalanya buat kita sekeluarga......

Tunai janji

Dah lama my hubby and I berjanji nak melawat kawan kat Joondalup. Tapi asyik tertangguh le plak. Kebetulan ada barang yang perlu dipulangkan. Last saturday kami pun pegilah ke umah diaorang. Alhamdulillah, sampai je tuan rumah dah siapkan nasi lemak untuk kami sekeluarga. Dengan "ramah"nya kami pun breakfast dgn penuh semangat. Nasib baik le saya dah kenal tuan umah dari zaman dia anak dara lagi. heeee..idak le kekok benar nak bawa batalion saya yang memang le kuat makan. Sedaaap nasi lemak tu.....

Bila dah kenyang diaorang ajak pegi kutip strawberry plak. Best gak nak tengok pokok strawberry kat Ostolia ni. Sebenarnya, saya pernah bekerja sebagai buruh diladang strawberry kat UK masa buat first degree long long time ago.. Jadi ilmu bab bab strawberry and quality strawberry bole tahan gak le...heee.Maklumlah dulu termasuk golongan buruh yang berdidikasi kat ladang le and antara pemegang record kutipan paling cepat and paling banyak....wakaka..Itu cerita dulu...zaman muda...badan pun slim melim..tenaga pun kuat..masa tu semua benda main redah je...

Bezanya ladang kat Ostolia ngan kat UK (dulu la..sekarang tak tau le)..kat Ostolia tempat yang saya pegi tu kecil lah kalau nak compare ngan kat UK dulu. May be lebih tepat kalau kita sebut kebun strawberry. Anyway, seronok gak dapat bagi experience kutip strawbery kat anak anak. Suka diaorang .

Kat UK dulu ladangnya amat la besar. Masih ingat lagi setiap hari kami (all the buruh) akan dibahagikan kepada kumpulan dan area yang perlu kami petik. Kalau nasib tak baik kena lah area yang ada kat cerun bukit sikit..and nak pegi kat situ kami akan dibawa oleh lori yang digunakan untuk bawa kuda..bayangkan lah kami duduk dalam belakang lori tu ramai ramai and kekadang tu najis kuda pun ada lagi. Bab bau tak yah cakap le.

Itulah pengalaman hidup yang saya appreciate sampai ke hari ini. Mengajar saya keperitan untuk hidup ditempat org dan mencari duit poket. Zaman saya buat first degree dulu, saya bergantung sepenuhnya dgn duit biasiswa. Saya bukanlah dari golongan anak anak org kaya..hee..in fact sepanjang pengajian saya dari first degree hingga lah PhD saya diberi biasiswa oleh kerajaan Malaysia... ... tanpa bantuan dari kerajaan tak merasalah budak kampung macam saya untuk belajar di boarding school, buat degree kat UK, berpeluang datang Ostolia masa buat Master and now again in Ostolia...Bertambah bernasib baik semua itu adalah biasiswa dan bukannya pinjaman....Terima Kasih Malaysia!!

Back to our event, lepas kutip strawberry kitaorang dibawa pula untuk acara BBQ.. Sedaaapp and bebudak happy lagi bole berkejaran kat taman. Cantik tempatnya..and ada banyak burung..Enjoy betul bebudak that day. Lewat petang baru le bertolak balik umah and on the way back singgah plak majlis housewarming party . Ini pun best..dapat makan bihun hailam, cokelat kek, rojak buah.... Makan lagi.. Dah malam baru sampai umah... Letih betul tapi bebudak happy sangat. Alhamdulillah Allah pertemukan kami dengan sahabat sahabat yang budiman.. Terima kasih ye kepada tuan tuan rumah yang dah menjemput kami, melayan dgn baik dan menyediakan makanan makanan yang sedap. Muga Allah murahkan rezeki you all semua....

Halloween Disco Party

Last Friday nite my second hero pegi Halloween Disco Party . Sekolah buat. Untuk bebudak PrePrimary (tadika) and Year2 , disco mula pukul 4.30- 6.30; as for Year3- Year7, disco start pukul 6.30-8.30 pm. My second hero pegi yang second slot tu le.

Dia jadi hantu "Grim Reaper". Suruh jadi hantu Melayu saja....jadi la toyol ke, hantu pocong ke...tak nak plak dia...Ramai betul anak anak hantu malam tu. JLo as usual menyibuk nak jadi anak hantu juga. End up JLo pilih untuk jadi "Jason". Cuma JLo jadi hantu kat umah je la coz dia tak dibenarkan masuk disco ..bawah umur....

Moving to the next phase...

To start the second phase of my research, I need to do the pilot study. Have I done any pilot study before? The proud answer is YES. Next question, Do I really understand why I need to do it? Sincerely , NO.

I believed PhD is a whole journey of learning (that is why it sometimes become a very lonely and boring journey in your life). You can successfully grab your Master degree without really understand what you are doing BUT I don't think you could do the same in your PhD. As for me, things become tougher as I got my Master degree more than 10 years ago. Even if I have any knowledge about doing good research it must have been rusted by now.

Actually, this posting is just to brush up my knowledge. To the readers, if you are in the advanced level of doing research, this posting might not benefit you. Just untuk saya memaham apa yang kononnya saya faham and untuk golongan yang "blurrrrr" cam saya...heeee

What is pilot study? It can refer to 2 things. First it could be a " small scale version" done in the preparation for the actual study; second it could also be the pretesting or trying out of a particular research instrument.

Why do we need pilot study?
Many reasons. In short, it could give advance warning about where the actual research could fail. As for me , my pilot study is more on testing the adequacy of my research instruments.

How to check the adequacy of research instruments?
Must check the validity and reliability.

What is validity?
Refer to a degree to which a test measures what it is supposed to measure. 3 types; content validity, construct validity and criterion -related validity.
Content validity- measures the degree to which the test items represent the domain of the trait being measured. Researcher need to identify the overall content of the construct to be measured. Not an easy task, so usually we end up asking the experts in the particular field to identify or evaluate the content of the test/construct to be developed.

Construct validity- concerns the degree to which the test measures the construct it was designed to measure. 2 parts in evaluating construct validity. First, examine the theory underlying the construct. I believed when you reached this stage, you have successfully done this. If not, you won't be able to get your candidacy approval. Second,evaluate the adequacy of the test to measure the construct. Check the convergent( if convergence exists, construct validity is supported) and discriminant validity ( demonstrate that the construct can be differentiate from other similar construct).Usually, researcher use factor analysis with VARIMAX rotation to get these reading.

Criterion -related validity- concern to detect the presence or absence of one or more criteria considered to represent traits/ constructs.

What is reliability?
Concern with the accuracy of the measurements. Refers to the degree to which measures are free from error and yield consistent result. Usually, we need to find the Cronbach Alpha. Rule of thumb, the alpha should be >0.70. If failed to get this result, then we should identify which item/ statement that caused the problem. Should exclude this item and check again on the alpha. If the reading improve, may be we need to make further investigation on this item. May be something wrong with the "translation process" (as I need to translate my questionnaire). Kalau teruk bebenor reading, may be need to think of doing the second pilot study after making all the necessary adjustments.

What to report in the thesis?
1) Detail explanation on how we carry out our pilot study.
2) Provide results of the pilot study:
- descriptive analysis
- explanation on the validity and reliability