happy maulidurrasul!

The great prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was born today, the 12th of Rabiul Awal in the Year of the Elephant (direct translation of Tahun Gajah?). In Malaysia, there'll be marches and talks to celebrate, but not (much) here in the UK.

The good news is there's gonna be a Maulid Nabi ceremony/celebration at MSD on Thursday. Details below:

             Date: 12 March 2009
             Time: 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm
             Place: Malaysia Hall

Please do come, and bring your friends along. And of course there'll be food insyaAllah. Yeh that's what I'm talkin' about. =)

Allahumma salli 'ala saiyidina Muhammad.
Wa 'ala ali saiyidina Muhammad.

recycle

We produce a lot of waste and some of them can be recycled or reused, but not many people bother to do it or even think about it. There are also those who want to recycle, but don't know or aren't sure what they can do or where to throw recyclable waste.

Firstly, just separate the stuff you want to recycle in a different bag. It depends on your local authority if you need to separate the materials or not. For me here, it's easy. I just have to put all recyclable waste in one bag because there is a recycling bin outside my flat which is for everything, so I don't need to sort them out myself.

However, there are certain things that you must remember (and do) before you recycle:

1. Empty and rinse off cans, bottles, and plastic containers.
Food waste and liquid remaining in the containers will contaminate the recyclables. If there is contamination, the whole batch of recyclables will not be recycled. Not only will your recycling effort be wasted, others whose waste are in the same batch as yours will be too. Now you don't need to wash them with dishwashing liquid, you just need to rinse them with tap water.

2. Don't recycle paper with grease or food waste on them.
This is also contaminated waste. Unfortunately, there is nothing to be done except to throw them away. *Sob*.

3. Crush cans and squeeze bottles to expel as much air as possible.

4. Remove caps and lids from plastic containers.
Also remove paper clips, staples and plastic envelope windows from paper.

More recycling etiquette can be found here.

Bear in mind that these are the general 'rules' applicable in the UK. It may be slightly different elsewhere. More information can be found in the Recycle Now website, or you could just google it. Don't forget to recycle, folks!

the rescue

We had located where the bad guys took my brother. My two friends created a diversion while I went to save him. He looked tired so I carried him away. Even though I had the ability to run at superspeed, I didn't want to show it to the bad guys so that they won't bother my family anymore. I just ran, not too fast so that they don't know my ability, but not too slow either.

The diversion only distracted them for a while. They saw us running away and immediately chased us. We ran into the woods. I went a different path from those two friends of mine in the hope that I can bring my brother to safety. When we got out of the woods, I thought we had lost them, so I went home. My family was very happy to see us and very glad that my brother was rescued.

Suddenly there were noises outside. Damn it, those bad guys followed us! I was very very angry. I told them to get the hell out of our lives. They wouldn't listen. I could've just used my superstrength to beat them all up, but that would just blow my cover. Instead, I just pushed them back into their car and shouted at them.

Since they wouldn't listen, I had to use my powers. I pushed their car away, pretending that I was exerting all my strength to do so. Another friend came by and he lit a fire and threw it onto the car. I used my heat vision to make the fire spread faster.

The bad guys were now very scared. They promised to never bother my family again and drove their burning car away, out of sight. I thanked my friend and went home to see my brother.

*****************

What drove me mad was that the brother that they kidnapped was the one who died nearly three years ago. Rest in peace, bro! Anyway, it was really cool to have superspeed and superstrength, plus the heat vision. Hmm.. I should've tried flying too. Oh well.

i couldn't believe it actually snowed heavily in central london!

Yes, that's right. It snowed! In central London! This was the most snow I've seen since I've been living in London. It wasn't sleet or the overnight-only snow, but actual long-lasting snow! I'm not sure if that's the correct term to use but I don't care, because it was a lot of snow bebeh. Actually, it was the heaviest snowfall in UK for nearly two decades. Usually when the weather forecast says it's going snow, it actually doesn't, so I didn't have my hopes up when it was forecasted to snow on Sunday night (1st Feb).

wah, all white (i'm not just talking about the roads and cars)

Lo and behold, it actually did snow that night. Quite a lot too, for central London. It was a good thing we went to Satay House for dinner. After eating, it was still snowing outside and since the road outside wasn't busy, we were able to have a good snowfight on the roads, getting our white ammo from the parked cars.

Okay, I thought, let's enjoy the snow now because there won't be any tomorrow. And I'm very glad that I was wrong.

view from my window on monday morning

The next morning, everything was white! Woohoo! I checked the TFL website and found that all the buses were cancelled and most of the tubes were suspended or experiencing delays. I couldn't get to work and couldn't do any work from home. There was nothing else that I could do, but to go to Hyde Park (*smirk*).

the snowman family (cue the adams family tune)

The snow was a few inches deep. I had never seen this much snow in London before and was very glad that I stayed here. The Queens House ladies had already built a snowman with kids when I arrived. I just helped them to build a mini-wall around the snowfamily. Oh and I also helped them 'whiten' their clothes (*another smirk*). By noon, the other final-year students (plus one sesat penultimate-year student of course) had joined us there.

man down, may he rest in peace

The snowfights were fun, but unfortunately one had fallen, all covered in snow. I never thought I could really be in a picture like that. Hehe. How I wish heavy snow would fall again, but that's unlikely, so now I'll revert to that pessimistic view of the weather forecast again. What's that you say, it's predicted to snow next weekend? Lies, all lies!

hypocrisy

When PKR wanted to form the government via 'ship-jumping', it's okay for them, but BN said it was wrong to do so.

However, when BN is the one who formed the new state executive council for Perak, it's suddenly the other way round. BN is oh-so-happy with the situation and PKR is saying it's an abuse of the people's votes.

Such hypocrisy from both sides. Why aren't you guys concentrating on the economy and the people's welfare?! There's a credit crunch for goodness sake!

Note that when I say BN and PKR, I am referring to the politicians and supporters in general. Though I don't usually like generalising, I just cannot help it this time!

bowl swing

Some people are just inconsiderate. Always thinking about themselves only. Well, maybe not always. But it's goddamn annoying. After wasting more than an hour of my time trying to find the best date and seats for everyone, I've somehow been blocked from the bloody ticketmaster website!

On a different note, I've had a haircut today. It's the first one that I've had at a proper barber's in the UK. Before this, my barbers were Helmi and Hanep. Thanks guys.

nokia tube is out

The Nokia 5800 is finally out in the UK. It was launched at Nokia's flagship store in Regent Street. Many crazy people queued hours before the store opened just to be one of the first ones to buy the phone in the UK.

nokia 5800 xpressmusic

Yes, ladies and gentleman, it's a touchscreen phone. Everyone wants to compete with the iPhone now and the 5800 is a worthy contender. Cool phone bebeh!

you's all can, yes?

With all the 'yes we can' and 'change we can believe in', let us hope that the 44th President of the United States live up to expectations. Of course we can't expect everything to happen overnight, but how Obama organised his team throughout the elections and also after he had become the President-elect shows a man who has a plan and knows what he is going to do.

I guess the most important agenda for him right now is the economy, but I think the Gaza issue must be given similar importance as well. Obama didn't comment much on that matter using the excuse that there is only one president at a time, but now that he is president, he should send a clear message on what America's stand is. Are they supporters of the Israel terrorists or against them? Are they as merciless as these terrible zionists or is their message of peace truly sincere?

Hopefully we'll see the changes that people had believed in.

Great speech by the way.

The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

Oh and watch this till the end. Lol.

more the wiser

All smile to the camera. =)

happy january

I haven't updated this blog for ages now. It's not that I have been very busy with work, but it seems that my life has been full of activities these past few weeks, which is of course good because it shows that I have a life after all. Woohoo! Oops, I wouldn't want to celebrate too soon lest I become very occupied with challenging projects at work.

So the last couple of weeks of 2008 were spent with my family. My parents and 3 smallest brothers were here on holiday. Well I guess I can't call one of them small anymore. Fauzan has grown much much taller since I last saw him and his voice has gone a bit deeper. It won't be long before he outgrows his Abang Long. Faizuddin is his usual cheeky self and Faiq is becoming a very cute 3-year old. Yeah, I had a good time with them.

Faiq became easily tired after a walk outside (of course he did, he's just 3 years old!). So while we were sightseeing in Southend, which was where my parents did their A-Levels, they bought a stroller from a second-hand shop. He really liked the stroller and liked to sleep in it too, and Faizuddin also had fun pushing the stroller. My parents didn't bring the stroller back to Malaysia, so now I have a stroller in my flat. Whoever wants to borrow it, just let me know ok.

Then came the hanging out with friends who are still in uni. It was a very pleasant coincidence that I had the day off when they suddenly felt like going bowling and skating. So I joined them. In just one day, we bowled, ate waffles and went skating. During bowling we were separated into 2 lanes and the team who lost had to belanja the winning team. Even though we had a poor start and were conspired against by the pins machine thingy, we (Ahmad, Bone, Nina and I) eventually won. Terima kasih ye belanja, Baya, Aida, Yaa and Belle. Skating was fun too albeit the sakit2 kaki due to the very hard skates. And we also had dinner at Tinseltown the next day.

At New Year's Eve, I thought I wanted to go see the fireworks but it was freezing cold outside, so I invited some friends over for makan2 and maybe you could call it a house-warming session. In theory, the view from my flat which is on the tenth floor faces London Eye directly so we should be able to see the fireworks. However, there's this one building which obstructs the nice view so we could only see the skies being lit up slightly and some few sparks which managed to avoid that fireworks-view-spoiler building. I do apologize to my guests for this. By next year, I will make sure that building won't be there anymore. Muahaha. Well, at least the TV was on that night.

And then I turned 24. Yeayeah. Thanks for the surprise party, girls and guys! I really appreciate the effort. The spaghetti carbonera and karipap were delicious, not forgetting the Chicken Cottage and profi'telos'. And thank you very much for the cards and presents. I like them all. I was actually thinking of writing some wise words because, you know, I am a bit older. Nah... malas la. Hehehe. Anyway, it was a great birthday for me. Plus, playing Cranium at the weekend was very enjoyable too. Like the game said, you'll never believe what your friends are capable of doing. Great fun!

On another note, the strikes by Israel on Gaza are really really saddening. They say that they are reacting due to the attacks by Hamas, but to take it out on such a huge scale without any mercy is inhumane. For goodness sake, those children and innocent people are helpless! Nothing good will come out of this. They'll just incite hatred towards them especially from the Muslim community. How despicable! I do pray that the days to come will bring peace to the victims in Gaza and to all those facing injustice in this world...