xmas gatherings in 2011

Here are some photos of the food I had during this festive season.

Team Xmas Lunch

7 December 2011 @ The Wall

Cracker toy/gift: ‘Magic’ calculator.

Party hat.

Starter: Fine smoked salmon with wild roquette, lemon dressing and granary bread.

Mains: Salmon supreme with crushed new potatoes, minted peas and hollandaise sauce.

Dessert: Jammie Dodger cheesecake with raspberry sauce.

 

Festive Lunch

13 December 2011 @ Relax

Cracker toy/gift: Erm… some kind of plastic clip?

Starter: Creamy mushroom soup with soft bread roll and butter.

Mains: Brie, pesto & cherry tomato filo tart.

Dessert: Fruit cocktail.

 

Accenture Nokia Symbian Services Unit Xmas Dinner

19 December 2011 @ Graziers Hall

Trishaw!

Cracker toy/gift: Spinning top.

Starter: Traditional smoked salmon with chopped dill, capers and a sour cream dressing.

Mains: Herb crusted sirloin of beef, mustard mash, braised red onions, roasted carrots and fine French beans.

Desserts:

1. Dark chocolate and salted caramel tart topped with cranberry orange cream and an orange wafer.
2. Lemon curd tart with clementine fondue and mascarpone.
3. Warm ginger and spiced apple upside down cake with a spiced apple compote and vanilla soured cream.

 

Is your mouth all watery now? Heh.

of g(oogle)mail's dots, capital letters and plus aliases

I just found this out today about Gmail, and I think it's super cool. Heh.

From https://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=10313# :

“Gmail doesn't recognize dots as characters within usernames, you can add or remove the dots from a Gmail address without changing the actual destination address; they'll all go to your inbox, and only yours. In short:

homerjsimpson@gmail.com = hom.er.j.sim.ps.on@gmail.com
homerjsimpson@gmail.com = HOMERJSIMPSON@gmail.com
homerjsimpson@gmail.com = Homer.J.Simpson@gmail.com

All these addresses belong to the same person. You can see this if you try to sign in with your username, but adding or removing a dot from it. You'll still go to your account.”

And as many people may already know, letters in small or large caps does not really matter.

Plus, both @gmail.com and @googlemail.com would go the same email account.

Additionally, from https://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=12096 :

“Gmail doesn't offer traditional aliases, but you can receive messages sent to your.username+any.alias@gmail.com. For example, messages sent to jane.doe+notes@gmail.com are delivered to jane.doe@gmail.com.

You can set up filters to automatically direct these messages to Trash, apply a label or star, skip the inbox, or forward to another email account.”

For example, your email address is supermanbatman@gmail.com. You then sign up to an Asda account for online groceries, so you write down your email as supermanbatman+asda@gmail.com. When Asda sends an email to that address, you will still get it in your supermanbatman@gmail.com email account.

Now why would you want to do that you may ask. Well, just like in the Google help answer above, you can filter emails that are sent to supermanbatman+asda@gmail.com to automatically label them as ‘asda’ or just put them in the Spam or Bin folders.

Apparently, these features have already been in Gmail for several years now. Ain’t that kool yo?

Let me finish this post with examples of different email addresses that will re-direct emails to the same email account.

So, for the email address supermanbatman@gmail.com, all of these are actually the same:

superman.batman@gmail.com
SupermanBatman@gmail.com
supermanbatman@googlemail.com
supermanbatman+robin@gmail.com
SuperMan.BatMan+KryptonGotham@googlemail.com
Su.Pe.Rm.An.Ba.Tm.An@gmail.com
suP.Erm.aNb.At.maN+WonderWoman@gmail.com
SUPERMAN.batman@googlemail.com
Superman.Batman+FlashMartianGreenLantern@gmail.com

I guess that should be enough! Heh.

So what are you waiting for, move to Gmail if you haven’t already done so.

uniting the nation with an aummmm

"i didn't get to watch the match, but from friends' tweets n fb updates, many people now hate fakri but like fadhli. well done harimau!"

I was at work so I couldn't watch the SEA Games Football Final match between Indonesia and Malaysia. We won the previous one so I was hoping that we would win again.

From friends' Facebook updates, it seems that many of my Malaysian friends, including non-football fans, were actually watching the match. These boys sure have united many Malaysians although for just 90 minutes.

Wait, did I write 90 minutes? It actually took longer than that to finish. I was following the match via updates  from www.futbol24.com. Indonesia scored first, then Malaysia equalised. It stayed at 1-1 until the end of 90 minutes. And there were also no goals during extra time.

It then went into penalties. Dup dap dup dap... Updates from futbol24.com wasn't fast enough, and with Twitter, I had to refresh. Then I saw Facebook's ticker thingy. You know that (annoying) thing on your homepage that lets you know what your friends posted or commented in real time?

Well I finally found a good use case for it. People were posting comments etc on what was happening. From "Yes, they missed," to "Stupid kick", and finally "We won!". Woot woot!

And hence my Facebook status and Tweet in the above quote. Heh.

Well done Tigers! All the best for Malaysian football!

legend...lasertag...dary!

On Monday 17 October 2011, I organised a lasertag event at Star Command, Trocadero Centre. It's situated above Piccadilly Circus tube station.

Link to Star Command:
http://ultimatelasertag.co.uk/starcommand/london-laser-tag-prices-and-packages.asp

We had 3 great sessions of lasertag! There were 26 of us, split into 2 teams.

The red team won the first game and the green team won the second game.

After the second game, the Star Command guy asked us whether we wanted to have a free for all for the last game, or still play the team game. There were too many of us for the free for all, so we chose the team game.

And the third and final game was won by... wait for it... the red team! Hurrah!

Team members' individual weapon numbers:

 

Red Team:

1 - Shafiq Shamsuddin

3 - Hilmi Ramlan 

7 - Hanis Hanisab

8 - Mohd Naqiuddin Husri

9 - Fadhli Mustaffa

13 - Shahmir Shamsuddin

14 - Amirah Mohd Zaki

15 - Syafiq Johari

16 - Norsharin Alias

17 - Ameira Tuan

18 - Putri Syaidatul Akma

19 - Nurul Huda Abd Karim

20 - Aby Raja Hafida

Green Team:

1 - Tuan M Kamil

4 - Muhammad Arif

8 - Aina Mohsin

9 - Almaz Azlan

10 - Aisyah Mohd Noor

13 - Ashraf Salim

14 - Puteri Gadis Iwana

15 - Izzu Dean

16 - Zaila Idrus

17 - Woan Chiun Ng

18 - Basir Radzali

19 - Azmi Nik

20 - Shasa Aziz

We were all given individual sheets on our scores and detailing who we shot and who shot us. And I got the most scores on my team. Heh. But Arif, from the green team, got the most points overall.

All in all, it was a very fun event! Will definitely organise another one insyaAllah.

superman cast of characters

Below is an infographic of the cast of characters in Superman and how they relate to the last son of Krypton. Click on the graphic below, and click again on the page to see a full view of the infographic.

DC released it as part of their Superman 101 Digital Comics Sale. Enjoy!

wingardium leviosa

That’s levi-OH-sa, not levi-yo-SAH, okay?

I’ve just watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 yesterday and so finally, I’ve watched all the Harry Potter movies, and read all the books too. My first Harry Potter ‘experience’, if you can call it that, was watching the first movie, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. I have to admit, I didn’t really understand what was going on then and didn’t think it was a very good movie.

So I then read the book to try to understand more and see what the big fuss was all about, and I actually enjoyed it. I watched the movie again and then I understood. It wasn’t a bad movie after all. Having said that, it’s not very good either as movies adapted from novels should be understandable by those who haven’t read the book as well, no?

Anyway, since then, I read all the books first before watching the movies. Well, you couldn’t actually watch some of the movies first then as some of them weren’t even made yet. Heh.

For those of you who don’t know about Harry Potter (*gasp*!), here is a list of all 7 novels:

1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Well, in the US, Book 1 is called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone instead as the Americans don’t understand what philosophers are.

Book 2 introduced us to the first horcrux, Tom Riddle’s diary, although it wasn’t specifically mentioned as one. It was a good book and Movie 2 was rather good as well.

Book 3 was when dementors were mentioned a lot and where Harry met his godfather, Sirius Black. I was actually expecting the dementors to be much larger and more horrific, but they weren’t that big in Movie 3. Well, I guess before watching the movies, we have our own versions on how some of the creatures would look like in our minds.

I liked Book 4 as it contained a lot of action, first the Quidditch World Cup, and then the Tri-Wizard Tournament. I was really disappointed that Movie 4 didn’t show any World Cup action, but just some opening action for the Final. Come on, it’s the World Cup, there should be at least 5 minutes of World Cup Final action in the movie!

I don’t like Book 5 very much as Harry is very very very emotional in that book. He’s angry with everything and everyone. However, in Movie 5, this isn’t shown very much, maybe because you can’t actually know what he’s thinking, or maybe like me, the director didn’t like that Harry was too emotional all the time. *Shrugs*.

Then in Book 6, there wasn’t much excitement I guess. When I read the novel, I felt as if it was just a filler to build up to the finale. However, when I watched Movie 6, it didn’t feel like a filler at all, but a stand-alone movie, and a good one too. Kudos to the director and the writers!

The finale (Book 7) was very good. Movie 7 Part 1 was quite alright, but it was rather slow-paced in my opinion. Part 2 was much better. There were a lot of action and some funny scenes and it was a very good adaptation of the book. Of course, even though they’ve split Book 7 into 2 movies, there are still things that are left out, which may disappoint some people.

That’s the problem with movie adaptations of novels. With the novels, you can know what the characters are thinking and there are more explanations on the events, which help you understand the story better, and enjoy it a lot more. With a movie, you can enjoy the action and special effects, but the storyline must also be enjoyable and understandable. Otherwise, the audience may get lost a little. Unfortunately, not everything can be included in a movie, as it’ll take too long.

Having said that, I really enjoyed the Harry Potter series; novels and movies, and I’m sure I’ll still enjoy them when, not if mind you, I read and watch them again (and again). :)

Note: Please ignore this paragraph if you haven’t watched the final movie. Spoilers ahead! You’ve already watched it? Good! It’s nice watching the cast grow up in the movies, from when they were small in the first movie, to their now mature looks. It was rather funny though, seeing the “19 years later” part. I knew the ending as I’ve read the novels, so nearing the end of the final movie, I was thinking, ‘Who will be playing the kids when they’ve grown up?’. It was a pleasant (and hilarious) surprise to see the same actors playing the same characters, with extra makeup (and special effects?) to make them look older!

On another note, is it just me, or does Seamus Finnigan (Devon Murray) look exactly like Wayne Rooney? If someone were to make a Wayne Rooney movie, Devon Murray should definitely play him!

Anyway, readers out there, please let me know which Harry Potter book and/or movie that you like the best. It would be really good to hear your thoughts (if anybody is reading this post of course). Just drop a comment in the comments link below.

Thanks, and Expecto Patronum!

doctor who and all his companions

Below is an infographic showing all the eleven doctors plus all the companions. Pretty cool, huh. And it was done by the Online Dating Site. Click on the picture for the original source, where you could magnify it. Enjoy!

assassin’s creed 2 and brotherhood

Assassin’s Creed 2 picked up where Assassin’s Creed left off. Desmond Miles is still trapped at Abstergo Industries in 2012. Lucy Stillman, who’s played by Kristen Bell might I add, then helped to break him out.

They escaped to an Assassin safe-house where Desmond met Rebecca, who designed Animus 2.0, and Shaun, who’s played by Danny Wallace who has a column in Shortlist. If you live in central London and use the tube often, you’ll know what Shortlist is.

Desmond uses Animus 2.0 to access the memories of a different ancestor this time, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, who lived in Italy. You get to play as Ezio from when he first learns that he is of the Assassin’s Creed until he becomes a true Assassin.

The developers have indeed greatly improved the shortcomings of the first game, which I’ve already reviewed on this blog.

People complained that the first game was repetitive, now Assassin’s Creed 2 has a more varied gameplay. The first game didn’t have a lot of variety in the fight moves, now the second game has even more weapons and moves. You can even counter an attack by grabbing your opponent’s weapon.

It was annoying that in Assassin’s Creed that Altaïr can’t swim. An assassin that couldn’t swim? Quite ridiculous. I’m not a very good swimmer myself, but I’m not an assassin am I? Well now in the second game, the main protagonist, Ezio Auditore, can swim. Hooray.

Assassin’s Creed 2 is a more open game compared to the first one. Plus, there are many more things that you can do. There are several Codex Pages written by Altaïr. Ezio brings these to his friend, Leonardo da Vinci, to decipher. Some of them are cool new weapons such as a double blade and a hidden gun. There’s even a mission where you need to use Leonardo’s flying craft to get to a certain place.

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is really good as well. The game gets even better. You’re still playing as Ezio, but he’s now a bit older. Villa Auditore in Monteriggioni is destroyed by Cesare, so the setting of Brotherhood is mostly in Rome.

Since Rome is a very large city, you get to ride horses throughout the whole map. In the first 2 games, this isn’t possible; you can only ride horses outside the city walls. The really cool thing about riding these horses is that you can jump to an enemy’s horse and assasinate him with your hidden blade.

The interesting aspect of Brotherhood is that you get to train some citizens to become Assassins. You first save them from guards who are attacking them. You then send them on missions or “contracts” as they are called in the game.

These contracts will increase their experience points and upgrade their level until they finally become Assassins. Once you have your trainees, you can call them anytime they’re available to help you in your fights or just to kill some guards. Lovely.

Leonardo da Vinci is in ACB as well. If you complete all of Leonardo's 4 missions, you'll unlock parachutes that you can use to glide from high towers. There's also a virtual training mode in the game.

Brotherhood is the first in the Assassin’s Creed franchise to have a multiplayer element in it. There is a multiplayer mode that you can play online. I don’t have Xbox Live Gold so I can’t play this feature. Hmm.. maybe I should get it for a few months? Heh.

Both AC2 and ACB have glyphs hidden by Subject 16, who was/is the last Assassin abducted by Abstergo before Desmond. After finding all the glyphs, it will unlock Subject 16’s “The Truth” message. I actually looked for all the glyphs and solved all the puzzles to get the hidden video.

Please don’t play the following clips if you don’t want to know any spoilers. Here’s the “Truth” video from AC2:

After a lot of time playing AC2 and ACB, I just couldn’t be bothered to look for all the glyphs in Brotherhood. So I just searched for “The Truth” for ACB in Youtube:

There are some talking until 00:40. Then there are some uninteresting scenes where Desmond is climbing and running to get somewhere. Just skip to 12:40 for “The Truth”.

You must be thinking “what the-”, aren’t you? Well, you’ll get a similar reaction to the ending of both games as well, especially AC2. I can’t wait for the next instalment. It will be a different ancestor but there has been no confirmed news yet on what location it will be.

I really enjoyed playing both these games. The graphics are beautiful as was the first one. You still get some glitches where Ezio goes through parts of a horse or a bit of the wall once in a while, but I’m willing to close an eye on that as the games have great storylines as well as gameplay.

Bring it on Assassin’s Creed 3!

of market and crumble

It’s been a really long time since I wrote about food in this blog (and quite a while as well since my last update). If you look at the ‘food’ category, there were quite a lot of entries when I first started blogging. I used to make a lot of desserts during uni, but got lazy to make any since then.

Anyway, let’s change the topic slightly for the moment. Don’t worry, it’s still about food. Heh.

Last Saturday, Malaysia Kitchen organised a Malaysian Winter Market at Westfield to promote Malaysian restaurants throughout London. I went there with a few friends to check it out.

It’s a very good initiative as it ‘advertises’ some of the Malaysian restaurants in London. Apparently, there are around 40 Malaysian restaurants in London alone! I must admit I’ve never heard of many of them. My favourite one would be TukDin’s which is in Paddington. The mi bandung and nasi lemak there are amazing! 

Anyway, back to the Malaysian Winter Market. Puji-Puji were making satay beside their stall, so there was quite a long queue there. The chicken satay were quite good. Not as good as Sate Kajang of course, but you can’t complain if you’re here in London.

I also tried some laksa by 54 Pinang and they were not bad as well. We were given discount vouchers for some Malaysian restaurants. I must go to some that I’ve never been to before the vouchers expire!

Afif and Atiqah were staying over at our place. So the next day, I made apple and almond crumble. I actually planned to make it on Saturday, but Halo Reach-ing with Amer  It was a long time since I did any baking. The crumble was quite easy to make actually and it didn’t take a lot of my time. Thanks to Afif for shaking the ingredients together!

Afif, Amer and I ate the crumble with some double cream while playing ‘Glory to Rome’, a really interesting board game. I think it would taste better with vanilla ice cream instead of double cream. The mixture of hot apple crumble plus the cold ice cream would’ve been marvellous!

student march or student riot?

There has been a series of student marches in London recently to protest the increase of the capping of university tuition fees from £3290 to £9000. This is a maximum amount to charge local students. If you’re wondering what this is all about, here’s a good page for some Q&A info. For international students, there are no caps, so it’s hugely expensive to get a degree here in the UK for non-European students.

Anyway, back to the topic. Protests are okay if they are peaceful ones. There was a march at around noon that passed by the office and it was quite peaceful. Some police officers were flanking the march and there were several police vans at the end of it. It caused a little bit of a traffic jam later on but it was quite peaceful.

However, it became worse as the sun went down. Many students were protesting near parliament. When it got a bit out of hand, police started ‘kettling’ to one place in order to control them easier.

Even Prince Charles and Camilla didn’t escape the violence. They were on their way to the Royal Variety Show when protestors chased their car and threw paint on it. They even attempted to smash one of the windows.

This has gone a bit too far. If they want to protest, then please do so, but peacefully, not with violence. It seems that there were some of them who intended to cause problems.

Videos of the march/riot showed that it was a real mess. Protestors vandalised public property and were violent to police, while the police were hitting some protestors with their batons. Click here for a page with many photos of the day.

I’ve always thought protests in the UK were exemplary as they were always peaceful ones. People would march on the streets with their protest banners, and the police will watch over, making sure there were no funny business.

But these student protests are getting out of hand. Too any damages to public property and injuries to people. It’s worse than other countries where the police will just spray water to protestors.

Protests and marches usually will only have a small probability of changing things, but the violence will certainly not help them to achieve their cause.