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...

sale?

There's no doubt that everyone has heard of that word before. While some people don't take notice of them, there are also those who worship sales anywhere. I'm more towards the ignoring sales group. One, I'm not a shopaholic, and two, I'm a bit cautious with my money (usually). I guess this is due to me not having a lot of money when I was small, and hence the act of saving became a habit to me.

I'm not saying I don't buy anything. Gila ke apa. However, I do think we should always live within our means. So if you're not rich, don't act like one. And if you are rich, then, urm, I guess you can act like one. Just don't forget to pay zakat. And maybe belanja unrich people like me once in a while. Just kidding of course. Well, maybe not.

Currently, there are sales everywhere. And it's not even Boxing Day yet. It's probably due to the credit crunch. The retails want to boost their sales up and hence are forced to cut the down the prices. Even the VAT has been decreased to 15% until the end of 2009. I suppose the 2.5% reduction isn't a huge drop but it's still significant. Every penny counts.

I guess the government reduced the VAT so that people and companies don't suffer so much. Maybe they think that the cut will encourage people to spend and hence 'stimulate' the economy. But it may bring a false sense of reality where people don't feel like the economy is down and merrily spend their money like nothing's wrong. Or maybe they are aware of the current economical situation but want to drown their sorrows by shopping. Oh if you're looking for shoes, go to Clarks at Oxford Street, near Oxford Circus (I tolong promote ni, Kat, hehe).

Many people seem to go shopping online nowadays, and who wouldn't. The discounts are sometimes ridiculous. I've already bought a Prince of Persia game plus some other goodies at a good price. Hehe.

I've been eyeing the Xbox 360 for a long time now and currently the best on offer is from Amazon. If you buy a 60GB one, you can get a free HDMI cable, a selected game for £10, plus an Xbox 360 Wireless Entertainment Pack which contains an Xbox 360 wireless controller and 2 games for only £20. So in total, it would be less than £200! Oh did I mention the free delivery? There's a very high possibility that I'll be buying one anytime soon and I'm gonna choose Star Wars: The Force Unleashed from the list of discounted games. Actually, I would prefer to buy Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 or Gears of War 2, but they're still a bit expensive. I'll just have to be patient.

Arin's Xbox 360 is already here in my flat, but my brothers keep playing with it, so maybe I should buy my own one. Karang rosak pulak Arin punya tu. Hehe, thanks Arin! Ah yes, my parents and 3 smallest brothers are here in the UK. So to those who want me to belanja them, I'm sorry but this month my gaji is for my family (and myself!), unless you're going to give me a birthday present of course. Hmm, just a few more weeks to buy one. And I've already hinted what I want. Haha perasan nya aku, dah la nak benda2 mahal je, ish ish ish.

Well, anyway, it's time for bed. But maybe I should go 'boost the economy' before I go to sleep...

salam aidiladha!

Assalamualaikum. Eid mubarak everyone! May the day be full of barakah for all of us.

I thought Raya Haji will be on Sunday so I didn't take any leave. Turns out that it's on Monday. Oh well, what to do. Woke up a bit earlier than usual to perform the Eid prayers (all alone huhu). Okay, I admit, I didn't wake up that early. I should go to Ustaz Erfino's blog later today to read his khutbah raya.

Oh and don't forget to invite me if there's any makan2. Haha.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Adha!

Allahuakbar Allahuakbar Allahuakbar.
Laailahailallahu wallahuakbar.
Allahuakbar walillahilhamd.

lunch with housemaster

In Kolej Tuanku Ja'afar (KTJ), we stayed in 'houses' and each house had a housemaster and/or housemistress, usually British. I was in the Nadzimuddin house and we had David and Karen Hitchman.

They are currently in the UK and we had lunch with them at Khan's today, which was organised by Chia Wei. Last year they came as well at around this time of the year and Chia Wei also organised the lunch then. Mr and Mrs Hitchman must be really proud of Chia Wei, the boy they've seen growing up has become a man! Hehe.

Anyway, it was nice meeting them again and also seeing my juniors, who have grown taller. Man, when I left KTJ, Ashari was damn small, and now he's freakin' tall, but still as thin as a lidi. Hehe.

The Hitchmans will teach in KTJ for another year and then they'll retire peacefully in Cyprus. And Mrs Hitchman was proudly saying she has a Facebook account, so I'll just wait for her to post the photos there then, and hopefully someone would tag me (or I could just tag myself). Hmm, I should probably search for her account soon then...

nikki acquires symbiosis

I'm too lazy to write, so I've just copied and pasted the news:


Nikki Have Closed The Deal To Buy Symbiosis - The Foundation is Go!

Announced by Nikki CEO at Nikki World this morning was the news that the acquisition of Symbiosis Ltd has been completed, and therefore the plans for the Symbiosis Foundation move away from the theoretical discussions that happened at the Symbiosis Smartphone Show and into reality.

There's no official press release on this process as we write this up, but the announcement has been expected for some time, and indeed Williams was due in post 'from January 1st or such time as the Symbiosis Foundation is ready.' Looks like Williams will be starting 2009 with one of the biggest corporate open source projects of all time as his New Year's resolution.


Nikki Acquires Symbiosis Limited

Nikki today announced that it has completed its offer to acquire Symbiosis Limited. All conditions to Nikki's offer to acquire Symbiosis Limited have been satisfied and it has received valid acceptance of greater than 99.9% of the total Symbiosis shares that Nikki did not already own. Symbiosis is the software company that develops and licenses Symbiosis OS.

The closing of the offer is a fundamental step in the establishment of the Symbiosis Foundation, announced on June 24, 2008 by Nikki, together with AB&C, LP Electrics, Kokorola, NTG Dacima, Sammysong, Sonia Erika, ST-MYZ Wireless, Texco Instruments and Voodefun. More information about the planned foundation can be found at www.symbiosisfoundation.org.

All Symbiosis employees are planned to become Nikki employees on February 1, 2009.

information overload

It's been 3 weeks of training now and 2 more weeks to go before I start doing 'real work', whatever that means. These 5 weeks of training are called the 'bootcamp', and there are 12 of us in the programme. Most of them are like me, fresh from university. Some have finished post-graduate studies and there's one who had just submitted his PhD thesis.

The first day was okay and relaxing. We were given talks about safety, security and the overall structure of the company. The next 4 days were quite full. Seven and a half hours of technical stuff each day. That's a bit too much for me. Even in uni my schedule wasn't as packed as that. Yes, I know, some of you guys have classes all day, so I shouldn't be complaining right? Well I don't care, and I'm not actually complaining, I'm just saying, you know. Heh.

The thing is, I'm a bit slow in understanding stuff (some people would call it blur). I usually need to read it as well to really understand what I'm being taught. So when I'm bombarded with too much information, I can get a bit lost. Sometimes, to my surprise, I really did understand all that technical stuff, but then the next day, I'd forget what I understood. (Please forgive my overuse of the word understand. I've checked the thesaurus, and although apprehend and fathom sound much cooler and intelligent, I can't seem to make good proper sentences to describe the same meaning with those words. That's because I'm not cool and intelligent enough.)

And like Nina, I also have trouble remembering words, especially uncommon ones. Well, I forget normal words as well. So when I'm sitting there listening to the guy teaching us, and he's using words that he just talked about the previous day, which I've forgotten what they mean, it does get a bit confusing. It's a good thing we have a computer on our table, so I can just google the word or use answers.com. Not only do I have trouble remembering words, I also have trouble saying them. However, I can pronounce Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious with no trouble whatsoever. Hmm.. I wonder why.

During the second and third weeks, there were more talks, but less technical stuff. Plus we had to do a lot of practical exercises, which I struggled to do. It was really frustrating seeing other people complete some exercises with ease while I was trying my utmost best to apply what I've learned to the codes in front of me. The instructions were sometimes confusing as well. But alhamdulillah, I got through the first 5 exercises, and there are 5 more to go.

So it has been a full 3 weeks for me, and unlike Hyree, I don't have the liberty to be bored at work, because there's a lot to be done. But there is this game that's quite interesting if you're feeling bored during lunchtime. Try the Antbuster game. I've reached level 70. Go and beat that!

What I do like about the company is its respect towards other religions and races. I wanted to know where the nearest mosque is so that I can pray solat Jumaat, and the Human Resources kindly found a fellow Muslim working there to bring me to the mosque. So if any of you are in the SE1 area, the mosque is at marker A in the map below. Here's its address:

Bait-ul-Aziz Mosque
1 Dickens Square
London SE1 4JL

The mosque is not as big as the Regent's Park Mosque, but it is a standalone building. It has 2 storeys and fits quite a lot of people during the Jumaah prayers. However, the khutbah is given in Arabic, so I don't understand it. I'm not pretending to be religious, but there's this 'emptiness' in me if there's no spiritual/religious reminders every week. Yes, I do feel sleepy sometimes during khutbahs but it's no fun listening when I don't understand a clue of any of the khutbah content. They should at least say some sentences in English so that everyone can understand. I mean, not all Muslims are Arabs you know.

What I don't usually enjoy is the daily commute to work. I use the Jubilee line, which is repaired nearly every weekend. However, despite all the 'repairs' done, it still breaks down at least twice during the weekdays, which had made me arrive late a couple of times. And some people are seriously smelly, even in the morning. X sempat mandi la tu. I just pray that I don't become one of those smelly people some day. The thing with smelly people is sometimes they don't realise that they smell because everyone's kutuk-ing them behind their back and not telling them face to face. So if suddenly I do smell, please let me know!

Anyway, on Thursday, we had a team building day. There was a treasure hunt in the afternoon where we needed to solve some clues and take photos of certain landmarks around London. It was fun because we had the opportunity to go sightseeing while 'socialising/bonding' with our teammates. And in the evening, we went to Chinatown and had dinner there, which was paid by the company of course.

There are 2 more weeks to go and I hope I understand and complete all the exercises on time. There'll be more technical stuff next week (oh no, more jargon!), and at the end of the final week, we need to take the Accredited Symbiosis Developer exam. Maka dengan itu, saya perlu belajar. Wish me luck!