Hoorah, I have succeeded in making some kuih raya. I assisted Nina to make these kuih corn flakes yesterday. Leceh jugak nak buat banyak2. Hehe.
Looks like corn flakes cookies. Yum. Takde la sehebat jam tarts or kuih almond london (which I don't think originated from London, but 'London' is used nevertheless as a marketing ploy), but I don't care. Still yum.
Since I'm feeling a little bit hungry now, I just thought that I should put up some photos of food.
Top left: Potato cakes with smoked salmon
The potato cake is a little bit like begedil. The cakes are topped with salmon plus a feather of dill.
Top right: Spaghetti pesto
Chicken and prawns are fried and mixed with pesto and some double cream, then eaten with spaghetti.
Bottom left: Blueberry cheesecake
Using crushed digestive biscuits as the base, soft cheese and double cream as the cake plus blueberry jam and blueberries as the topping, you'll get the blueberry cheesecake above.
Bottom right: Doughnut french toast
French toast with some vanilla extract added to it, coated with caster sugar.
Simple recipes for amateurs like yours truly. Oh I made these before Ramadhan. Hmm.. should I try making kuih raya now?
It's the Hadron Collider - we actually have entered a parallel universe where England are good at football. Its the only possible explanation.
Perpaduan teras kejayaan. A new Merdeka theme for Malaysia's 51st year of independence. And there's a new logo too. Well, I hope that there's still a large amount of perpaduan among the people of Malaysia, especially with all those racist remarks that has been flying around in the country. Okay, let's not talk about that shall we. Too boring (plus menyampah). It's time for something more fun and interesting.
Okay then. A Merdeka Carnival was held on 30 August at the Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre in Hertford, UK. It was organized by the Malaysian community in the UK and also the Malaysian High Commission. Yes, I know that Merdeka falls on the 31st and the organizers know that too, but I'm sure they had their reasons for choosing that date. Anyway, I'm sure glad they chose Saturday instead of Sunday because it was a very nice and sunny day, which is rare here since it's nearly the end of summer. FYI, it was rainy and gloomy on Sunday, so well done, good choice of day!
The initial plan was Nina, Wan Aimran and I were to go to the carnival together. So we went to King's Cross train station at about noon. We were just about to buy our tickets when Aimran saw his cousins, Lia and Wawa somewhere in the queue behind us, and they were also heading to the carnival. The more, the merrier, and cheaper. You can buy group train tickets for 3 or 4 people which are even cheaper than tickets with a youth railcard.
Anyway, the train journey to Hertford North Station took about 40 minutes. There we met Noraini who was all alone crying and sobbing, waiting for the shuttle service to come. Okay, she wasn't crying and sobbing, I just wanted to add a little drama. Hehe, sorry. And then there were six. According to the Merdeka Carnival leaflet, there was a free shuttle service. We thought that the service was a shuttle bus, but apparently there were shuttle cars instead.
When we arrived, there were many people already there. What did you expect? It was already past midday. A lot of Malaysian families were there. And the weather was lovely. There were many stalls selling **drum roll** Malaysian food! What got me excited weren't the ABCs or the nasi lemak, you can get those in many places in the UK, but the roti canai. No, not the frozen ones, but the ones you buy at the mamak's. It's been a long time since I've eaten one of those. The roti canai were expensive, but worth it. I also ate some murtabak and aiskrim Malaysia (I'm not sure what its real name is, but it's the frozen asam ice cream which I ate).
Towards the end, there were some activities held: musical chairs for the kids and tarik tali for the women and another for the men. I must say that there was some intense rivalry during the musical chairs. Those kids were very competitive. Very very competitive. The men's tug of war was tight as well. There was a third round to determine the winner but sad to say that the eventual winners cheated. There was supposed to be 13 men in each team, but during the last round, one team had 14. Haih, tarik tali for fun pun nak main tipu ke?
Cheating aside, it was a very nice day to eat Malaysian food while lepaking on the grass with friends, old and new. Jeff and Hana also came to the event. And we also met friends of our new friends who were also friends of other friends who were friends with some of us and/or some of our friends. Or to put it short (and less confusing), it's a small world.
Happy Merdeka and also happy fasting!
The annual Notting Hill Carnival took place from Sunday 24 to Monday 25 August this year. I just heard of it a couple of days before it took place. I didn't know that there was such a carnival even though it's my fourth year here. Well, this is the first time that I'm staying in the UK during the summer, so I forgive myself. Heh.
Wan Aimran was the one who told me about the event and I planned to meet him there on Monday. I also called a couple of friends from high school, Arin (@ Aghain) and Kat, who I haven't seen for a while to meet up there. Adzmel, who was also staying at Ammir's for a while, went with me to the carnival.
Since I'm not bothered to write about the history of the carnival, here's an excerpt from Wikipedia (click the link to read more):
Notting Hill Carnival is an annual event which takes place on the streets of Notting Hill, London, UK each August, over two days (Sunday and the following bank holiday), since 1965. It is led by members of the Caribbean population, many of whom have lived in the area since the 1950s. The carnival has attracted up to 2 million people in the past, making it the second largest street festival in the world, after Rio. It is also often compared to Karneval der Kulturen in Berlin.
The event was heavily policed. There were a lot of people and so we didn't get to meet Wan Aimran there. Sorry ye! But we did find Arin and Kat, who were there with Afif, also a friend of mine. The carnival was quite good and the parades were very colourful. They really enjoyed themselves parading down the streets wearing their costumes. It was fun.
I do pity the residents there though. They have to put up with all the noise the whole day outside their homes. And most of the shops were boarded up. There must have been some riots of some sorts during the previous years to make the shopkeepers be extra careful. Or maybe the council was providing them with the boards for safety reasons. I don't know.
Anyway, it was a good day to go out and see the colourful parades. Maybe I'll go again next year.
Assassin's Creed is a third-person stealth game by Ubisoft, released near the end of 2007. I didn't buy it then of course. Too expensive. I bought the game second-hand from eBay last month and have already finished it a few weeks ago.
altaïr the assassin
The setting at the start of the game is in a building belonging to Abstergo Industries in September 2012, where scientists Warren Vidic and Lucy Stillman are working on a project. By the way, Lucy was modelled after and voiced by Kristen Bell. You'll play Desmond Miles, whose ancestor was Altaïr ibn La-Ahad, a member of the Hashshashin, an Assassin Brotherhood, during the Third Crusade of the Holy Land.
According to the game, the memories of one's ancestors are hidden inside one's DNA and that's why Desmond, also called Subject 17 to Abstergo, is being held there. The company, which is actually run by the Knights Templar, wants to extract information from Desmond involving his ancestor Altaïr. They can do this using a machine called the Animus, which enables the user to replay the memories of his/her ancestor(s) if (s)he was there him/herself.
So that is actually the premise of the game. You're Desmond who's being held in the machine called the Animus, replaying the memories of his ancestor, Altaïr. Altaïr's objective in the game is to assassinate nine historical figures in the year 1191. According to the game's developers, these assassination targets did die in 1191 but not necessarily murdered. In the game, some historical changes were justified by Warren saying that the historical records were altered by the Knights Templar to deceive anyone studying the past.
hmm.. where's the shopping centre?
Now Altaïr needs to kill these men because according to his leader, Al Mualim, the men are taking advantage of the crusade for their own benefits. Before assassinating them, he needs to gather information of their whereabouts and activities to plan the kill. To do this, you'll need to find informers who'll ask you to help them for information. You'll either have to kill some guards or collect flags within a period of time. Besides that, you'll also need to eavesdrop on some conversations, interrogate some preachers and pickpocket letters or maps. After you collect enough information, you're ready to perform the assassination.
You can also save citizens being harassed by soldiers. After saving them, there'll either be vigilantes in that area who will help you if you are being chased by soldiers or a group of scholars where you can blend yourself into to go past guards. You also need to map the cities that you go to by climbing up tall view points. You can then perform the leap of faith, which is jumping from a very high place and landing in a bunch of hay.
proving he's not afraid (of heights) by performing the leap of faith
Although it gets a bit repetitive, I still enjoyed the game. Its uniqueness is that you can climb up walls and towers and run on rooftops. The movements are quite smooth when you get used to it. If you've played Prince of Persia, then you'll be familiar with some of the moves in Assassin's Creed, since they're produced by the same company and also developed by the same people if I'm not mistaken. Oh and there'll be a new Prince of Persia game which is coming out soon and I'll be looking forward to that.
Okay back to Assassin's Creed. The graphics are beautiful. Of course, most games have really cool and more realistic graphics now that there are the Xbox 360 and PS3. You can really enjoy the view of the cities at the tall tower. Even Dini and Wan Aimran praised the graphics when they saw me play. What a bad host I am, playing video games when there are guests in the house!
take that you scum
The fight moves are okay, but there isn't much variety. You can use a hidden retractable blade to perform assassinations and also a sword or knife in fights. There are combo moves when fighting, which are cool, but sometimes Altaïr and/or his enemies go through walls or a nearby tree or rock when doing these combo moves. But I do like the counter attack moves. They're really neat.
There is something that I quite don't like about the game. Altaïr is a trained assassin, who can climb walls easily and clever at blending in the crowd to get unnoticed, but he can't swim. If he falls into a river or the sea, he'll just drown. Come on la, a well-trained assassin should know how to swim. I can't swim of course but I'm not an assassin am I? Heh.
All in all, it's a good game. The ending is a bit mysterious and I really hope that there'll be a sequence to the game to explain the mystery. And if there is one, I hope that there'll be more combo fight moves and Altaïr/Desmond has learned to swim.
Four years had certainly gone by a bit too fast. One minute I'm stepping into the grounds of Imperial College to start my MEng Electrical and Electronics Engineering degree and the next minute I'm done. Finished. Completed. Another stage has ended in my life and it's time to move on to the next.
Over the years, I have really learned a lot, not just academically. I'm not exactly the same person I was then. I grew up. Matured? Maybe, maybe not. That depends on my mood I suppose. Now I have different perspectives on things. I like to think that my mind is not as narrow as it used to be.
You meet different kinds of people, see different kinds of behaviour, hear different kinds of things that people say regarding the same thing. Everyone has their own opinion, and like Hyree always say (well, maybe not always), there's two sides to a story. Sometimes both sides think they're doing the right thing and it's good if we try to understand both sides' views to solve the problem (if there is one).
I've made many mistakes throughout my life and I do apologize to anyone that I've hurt or offended. These mistakes can make us a better person if we learn from them. We should also learn from other people's mistakes as well. The tricky thing about mistakes is that the person doing them usually doesn't realise that they're doing something wrong. It's so much easier to see the wrong in others and not yourselves. That includes yours truly, and I really hope that if I ever do get out of line, my friends will smack me on the head to bring me back to my senses (not literally of course).
Okay enough blabbering. Alhamdulillah, four years of hard work paid off. Well, maybe not exactly four years. There are lots of chill time as well. Ehe. Anyway, I'm quite happy with what I obtained and I'd like to thank everyone for everything you guys have done; be it the lecturers who taught me, the postgraduate students who shared their knowledge with me, the friends that I studied with, the girlfriend who gave moral support from afar, and lots more. All of you deserve a very big thank you from me.
In October, I'll have a programming refresher course (sponsored by my bakal company), I'm having my graduation ceremony and I'll also be starting work. So until then I have a lot of free time and here are what I'm planning to do:
Work Permit/Visa Application
Since I'm not a UK citizen, I'll need a work permit to work at Symbiosis. The application hasn't yet started because an official document stating that I've finished my degree is needed. This document had just been completed and is on its way to Symbiosis (or maybe has already arrived there). I'll need to wait for further instructions on how to proceed with the application. I hope that all will go well, or else I'll be going back after the convocation and maybe sell ABCs at gerai Seksyen 2, Shah Alam. Heh.
Programming
My job title will be Graduate Software Engineer. What do software engineers do? Programming. Can I do programming? Of course I can. If I can't, I couldn't have got the job, now could I. Am I good at programming? Erm... erm... hmmm. I'll be programming in C/C++. The last time I programmed in that language was in second year, and that's like a million years ago. So even though I'll be going to the refresher course, I still need to revise and remember all the codes, techniques, etc. Berkarat gila ni.
Read Magazines
I've been subscribing to the Time magazine since late last year. A magazine arrives at my house every week and usually I can't finish one before the next one comes. But I normally finish them sooner or later. Well, since my exam period (which was in May), I put the reading on hold. Now I have some catching up to do. I'm currently nearly finishing the July 7 issue. So there's 7 more to go before the next one arrives next week! Oh there are also Reader's Digest magazines lying around the house. Talk about pressure, dude.
Games
Since Pear brought his Xbox 360 home, I can only play games on my laptop, which is still ok. I recently sent my laptop for repairs and they've replaced my LCD cover, so the screen looks new. Best la nak main game. Oh there's still Ammir's Xbox so I can play that as well.
Read Books
Besides the magazines, I have some books that I've bought but just didn't have time to read. Now that I have ample of time, I should be reading these books. Yes, I should.
Watch TV/Series/Movies
Well, no explanations needed here I guess, unless you don't know what a television is. (Hint: It's that black rectangular thing in the picture on the left.)
Football
The new EPL season is finally starting. I can watch Match of the Day every week for the day's highlights. Hurrah! Well I suppose this should be included in the above section since I'll be watching football on TV and not actually playing, but who cares. Anyway, there's no one to play with now.
Part-time Job
Me? Work? Nah, maybe not. Not until the end of October that is. Well, maybe yes. This will depend on my financial situation. Hmm...
Exercise
This is another hard one. Of course you can say that I can obviously do it if I want to. Well, that's what Wan Aimran will say anyway. I can't go to the gym because I'm no longer an Imperial College student. I borrowed a junior's student card but I can't use that because I don't look like him. I can jog around Hyde Park, I can skip, I can workout at home, I can shoot some hoops. Yes, I can do all that, but the question is will I actually do them? And sorry but I won't tell you the answers. Heh.
Cook
It's time to try out new recipes bebeh.
Oh and I also have to repair some damages that I've done. Something I've broken and I'm the only one who can fix it. What am I talking about? Well, that's for me to know and for you to erm... not find out. Heh. Looks like I'll be busy being free then. So, that's all folks. Thanks for reading.
It seems that this blog of mine has sort of become a games review blog. What can I say, I've a lot of free time to play them. Well, when I first started this blog, there were many entries about food, so maybe you could say that I used to like eating but now I like playing games. Hehe. So now I'm not going to write about any video games but I will mention some food. I'm writing about something that I haven't done much this year: traveling.
I'm currently staying at Ammir's apartment in London (thanks Ammir!). Ammir's not here. He's already back in Malaysia after a month traveling around South Africa, Australia and New Zealand with Faizal. Sometimes Pear, Colin and Alvin will stay here as well.
Pear's currently in Leicester and since I haven't been there before, I decided to go there last week for the weekend (that's the weekend before last weekend). It's a small town and the guys there were asking me why I went since there was nothing much to see or do there. But I don't mind, plus I've made some new friends who are either medic students or recently graduated doctors. Boleh la mintak tolong (for free) kalau sakit nanti.
Last weekend, I went there again because I was joining their roadtrip to Peak District. I arrived on Saturday and how lucky I was that they were having a BBQ that night. Delicious. Okay, that's the end of the food part.
wow, i can('t) see klcc from here
Now the traveling part. The next day, Pear, Fidod, Fathi, Fifi, Nazimah, Farah, Sara, Fiza and I went to the Peak District National Park in two cars; one for the guys and the other for the girls. The weather was nice and sunny when we arrived. Everyone were wearing clothes suitable for hiking except for me and Pear. We were wearing baju nak pegi town, but the hike was still enjoyable. The area we were hiking to was Stanage Edge. It's a long line of cliffs made of gritstone.
Once we got to higher ground, the scenery was beautiful. And lots and lots of photos were taken of course. We noticed that in spots where it's nice to take photos (with beautiful scenery plus cool rocks/cliff), there were lots of tahi kambing. Maybe it's their toilet? It must be nice for the sheep, enjoying the view while doing their business. Very strategic locations. Heh.
9 of us hiking and posing all day
We even had a small barbeque up in the hills and played Uno as well. It became hotter during the afternoon and I was slightly sunburned. Padan muka, sapa suruh belagak xnak pakai sunblock. Anyway, we had a nice walk at the hills and cliffs. I didn't feel tired during the hike, but once we were back in our cars and were heading back to Leicester, all the tiredness suddenly came to me. I couldn't keep my eyes open and went straight back to sleep. Kesian gila Fathi because all us other guys were sleeping while he drove the car. Ehe.
Thanks for the trip guys. I had fun. So what's next, the 'Great Backpacking Trip' eh Nazimah and Fiza?
GTA IV is an action-adventure game which was released this year by Rockstar Games. It's a sandbox-style game, meaning that the missions can be completed in a number of different sequences. Of course, any guy out there surely would have either already played the game or want to play it or at least heard of it before, since it's a very male-centric game.
Anyway, I got to play GTA IV after Pear bought a new Xbox 360 which included 2 games: GTA IV and Bad Company. Thanks to Fairuz for his Xbox 360 which I used to play with before Pear's. Oh and thanks to Pear as well for buying the console. Ehe.
i need your car
In the game, Niko Bellic is an Eastern European guy who comes to Liberty City after being persuaded by his cousin Roman who claims he was living a very good life in America. Of course, when Niko gets there, he finds that his cousin was just talking big. Roman's apartment was small and his business wasn't that big either.
So initially, Niko helps Roman with the troubles he had with some contacts, and the game expands from there; Niko is introduced to other characters which he helps to earn money and from these characters, he meets other people and so on.
kaboom
I've finished the storyline missions and I must say that it's very good. Even Colin who doesn't play these games was attracted to the story. In some missions, you need to make a choice and there will be consequences. The ending will depend on what path you choose. I've already played both endings but I won't spoil it to those of you who haven't played it yet.
There are also side missions that you can do in the game. Some of them can help you play the main storyline missions. To complete 100% of the game, you need to finish most of these missions as well because the storyline is only 60% of the game. I'm only on 75% and there's plenty more things to do, such as meeting random people who have little missions of their own, performing stunt jumps, shooting pigeons and plenty more. Oh and there are also the Xbox 360 achievements that I can do. These challenges are spread out all over the islands in Liberty City, so I guess I'll be finishing the game with a laptop nearby showing me where these places are, because it'd take a very long time to try to find them all on my own.
time to put this weapon to good use
The Rockstar team has done a really good job in creating the game. I can't help but be mesmerised by its beautiful graphic, especially when flying over the city in a helicopter. The attention to detail both in the graphics as well as the behaviour of all the elements in the game have made the game truly astounding. Yes, the picture is a bit cartoony but I think they intended to make it that way.
When shooting, the cover system is quite good and the automatic lock on the enemy is cool as well. But you also need to try manual targeting if you want to do plenty of headshots. Muahahaha (gelak jahat). Niko's mobile phone is used to call people (duh!) to initiate some missions, to invite people to go out and so on. You can also restart failed missions by replying messages. This will save you the hassle to go to back to the mission starting point.
catch me if you can
There are a lot more things that can be written about the game, but it's getting long now. I suggest you go read the game reviews (which I suppose most of you would have already done by now). I really like the game but I'm not very happy with the movement of Niko when on foot, which I feel is not very smooth. Other than that, the game's brilliant. So, that's all folks. Now, to finish the game... or maybe not yet because I've already started another game, Assassin's Creed. Heh.
Congratulations to Liyana for successfully graduating from the University of Essex! We now have a qualified accountant in the family.
So she graduated a few months earlier than her big bro. Lambat betul IC punya konvo. Even the results aren't out yet. Hopefully it's good...
Anyway, congrats again sisso!
