Fire Alarm and the Year of the Rat

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my Chinese friends and readers a prosperous Chinese New Year. To whoever (of course I'm referring to my friends, not the 1 billion plus Chinese in this world) that I unintentionally missed to send a personal wishes, please forgive my carelessness. I was told by a classmate from China that according to Chinese zodiac, the rat is associated as a protector and bringer of material prosperity. Whatever it is, Gong Xi Fa Chai!

I woke very late today because two days in a row, my beautiful sleeps were interrupted by the firm alarm. The funny thing is both happened at about the same time i.e. around 3.30 am and according to the warden the alarm was triggered from the same source i.e. Flat 6!

I'm sure you guys know the procedure when the fire alarm went off. We have to go out from the building and assemble ourself in the parking lot waiting for the security team to check, verify, mitigate and address the situation. After about 10 minutes of battling the cold winter (in the month of February!), we were, then, allowed to return to our room.

But the suffering didn't end there. I was struggling to return to my beautiful sleep both last night and the previous one. But the previous one was even worse because it took me more than 2 hours before I could sleep again. And last night it was less than an hour. Oh God... please, please... don't let it happens again tonight.

I've class on Qualitative Research today and at 3.15 pm, I've a meeting with the Programme Director and Carole (the Fieldtrip Coordinator) on our fieldtrip to Singapore during the Easter Break. Unlike the majority of my classmates, I'm so not looking forward for this fieldtrip because I was expecting to go any African or Latin American countries or Middle Eastern countries at least. But not to my neighbouring country which I can take a four hour bus ride from Kuala Lumpur.

Looking from another perspective, at least I will be getting a free trip to visit my aunts in Singapore. If I'm not mistaken one is in Jurong something something and another one is in Woodland. Well, after the briefing on the proposed agenda and itinerary I think I should give my parents a call to obtain the contact details of Aunty Som and Aunty Sadibah.

Anyway, the trip is about one month's time so I think I better give my attention to my incoming trip to Oxford this Saturday. Yes, guys... I'm going for another trip with the International Society and it's quite reasonable too (18 pound, including a free guided tour!)

Happy holidays to my friends in Malaysia and Singapore. Enjoy your long weekend.

Maklumat Tamat Pengajian Tahun 2008?

I'm sure by now you alreday know how excited I am to find letters or packages from Malaysia in my mailbox. And today I received another letter from my employer's HR department. I thought I was about to read the letter on salary increment or something, but it turned out to be a letter to take note that (the "kami sedia maklum" kind of letter) I will be finishing my postgraduate study this year and in this regard, I need to fill in a form to facilitate my return home in September 2008.

Wow! Time really, really flies very, very fast! In eight months' time I will be heading home, sweet home.

The letter requires me to notify the HR department on the exact date (tarikh sebenar) of the end of my program, plus a letter from the University to verify the said date. I guess they need to start undertake a couple of necessary processes such as approval and clearance for several special allowances, flight booking and job placement.

Wow! I've just started my second semester last week and my final semester will only starts in July, but I have to start prepare myself to go home. That is really, really quick. Don't you think so?

And thank you very, very much for your kind wishes for my exams in May 2008. I don't have exams for my final semester but I need to submit a 15,000-word dissertation. Ya Rabbi... I have yet to pick a topic for this work. Microfinance? Measuring DFIs' performance? MDGs? Like what one of my housemates used to say to me, "Lets do one by one". Yeah... that sounds reasonable to me and first thing, first. I need the letter from the University!


p/s: I'm so glad that Wan has been given the visa to come to UK. See you in London soon!

Birthday, Legacy & Tate

I just came back from my friend's place where I spent my weekend with him and his housemates and the wife of one of his housemate. Well, the prime reason for the get together was to celebrate his BIG birthday last Friday. Yes, he just joined the club, the same club that Etty, Hisyam, Fezal, Mus, Rikke, Izal, Rina and I are currently in. Welcome aboard, bro!

Actually, I don't want to talk about birthday party because it reminds me of how inconsistent I am when it comes to birthday celebration. Although I enjoy throwing birthday parties for my friends, but when it comes to my own, I just dislike the idea of celebrating my birthday. I will try my very best not to be around my family and friends on my birthday so that I won't be getting any surprises on the said day. Nevertheless, I appreciate nice suprises on any other days. Hehehe.

It was easy to run away during my school and college days because my birthday were always during the term breaks or on weekends. But it's not the case anymore. My strategy has changed since I started working. I make sure I will be on leave on my birthday week. Not only that, I will go out from Kuala Lumpur to some places to "hide" from family and friends.

My lame excuse for the past six years is "to be alone and silently remember my late grandpa, Cikgu Jaafar, on this momentous Teacher's Day". I guess now you know the conundrum of I traveling to places in the month of May, alone, annually.

However, this weekend might have changed everything. And I don't think it is worth running away from mine after this.

My friend and I had a meaningful conversation about birthday and life after the dinner. No doubt that we might have spending quality time with family and friends, out of our busy schedule on, let say, holidays or festive seasons. But, directional-wise, all of that are beyond personal level; it could be family or society institution levels.

Birthday is all about me or you, directly. What and how have I or you become the way I am or you are, now. Family and friends are the best keeper of my or yours legacy, aren't they?

While talking about my bank of stories (my collection of stories which I dream might be worth telling to the "world" in various forms or mediums), my friend said this to me, "why don't you write about my story instead?"

"No offence... I don't think I know you too well to write about you."
"In that case, you have to come and celebrate my birthday more often. I see no one but you who I can trust to write a good piece for my memoir"

As I looked into his eyes, he said, "If, and only if, I become the PM."

I'm sure birthday celebration won't be so scary after this. I had great weekend and I'm sure others too. We had delicious dinner, fulfilled Ina's hasrat to see the works of John Singer Sargent at the Tate Britain and of course the pleasure of viewing a film from Germany for our World Cinema agenda.

Happy birthday, Joe (and it is Nora's too). Thank you very, very much for the invitation.

Stop complaining about your hair, Ms. Flockhart!

I'm not on my highest point of my life right, but thank God, not on my lowest point either. But believe me, I just not in my best form at this point of time. Literally.

As you can see from the pictures from the Belfast trip, I'm currently having bad hair. As much as I dislike my hairstyle right now, I'm dying to keep it grows long. Stop laughing, Mus. Okay, okay... I'm very keen to have a similar hairstyle as M. Nasir, Anuar Zain and Jamal Abdillah (I was told that Jamal is having his hair short, is that true?). And based on my previous experiences, a year is too short of time to grow my hair to match theirs' lengths. In case you don't know, in about eight months' time, I've to back to my office, which means go to back to the government servant (or should I say semi-government) haircut.

The reason I dislike my hair is because not only it will awkwardly curl at its end, it kembangs too. Yeah, I come from a family with thick, strong, healthy black hair. Well, at least every male in my family still keep the hair for decades.

Besides bad hair, I'm so unfortunate to be attacked by pimples. Mus called it jerawat nasi and they are all over my face. To add salt to the wound, I've a couple of what I call as "horny pimples" at several noticeable spots. Wait... don't get me wrong. I don't mean horny, horny. I mean when I get excited such as the arrival of Ally McBeal DVDs or excitement to go places, these unwanted things will suddenly appear on my exotic face.

And I don't have my nailclipper with me for almost two weeks now. Oh God... am I becoming like Ally McBeal? Stop laughing, Mus! I'm not vain, okay...

So, Mazlina... I hope this answers your question as why I didn't take close-up pictures of me during my vacation with some of my classmates.

Also, I would like to bid farewell to Fairuz, who will be returning to Cairo to continue his Master degree there. All the best, brother and thank you very, very much for your nasihats. If you're having problem to download the following pictures, don't feel hesitate to let me know so that I could email them to you.

SAOIRSE

There were eight of us. Two from China, namely, Huanu (the group called her the beautiful Chinese girl) and Ming (he is also known as Ginger, I guess it was due to an incident that might happened in their trip to the infamous Crown Bar which I'd to pass due to a minor health reason). These two are in the same Master programme as me while the other five are our classmates in Economic Development and Issues for Development Finance classes. The other two guys are Shamel, which is from Syria and Mohamed, which was born in Sudan but currently live in Canada. We're also accompanied by another three attractive ladies, namely, Sarah (she's from France), Karina (from Poland) and Meseret (an Ethiopian who is currently living in Canada).

We flew on BMIbaby, one of the low cost airlines that flying from Manchester International Airport. I was informed by one of my friends, not many airlines fly from this airport because its fees and taxes are relatively expensive than most of other airports outside London. The fare that I paid for this trip was almost 20% more than my previous flights in December. And, I only got to fly to one city as compared to three cities when I flew end of last year.

As for the accommodation, we picked the Paddy's Palace Belfast, a hostel in Lisburn Road that is a two-minute walk from the Queen's University and the Botanic Garden. The eight of us shared a 12'x12' room with four double decker beds and Shamel was on top of me. Mohamed and Meseret claimed that this was their first time ever in a backpacker hostel.

Belfast is not that different from Dublin and is quite similar to Manchester, in terms of the architectural and ambiance. Nevertheless, I find that Irish people, in general, are better looking than the English. The trip also confirmed that they are friendlier too.

Although Belfast might be associated with a considerate acts of terrorism and mistrust (we were told by our tour guide that Belfast has been enjoying peaceful ambiance for almost a year and a half now) due to the conflict between catholic and protestant christians, I really amazed by one of their initiatives to propagate their belief and agenda. That is, by using mural paintings. I personally think it's a smart and effective too. At least, to tourists like me

Oh yeah... we did go to Derry and the magnificient Giant Causeway, which were outside the city of Belfast. And here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Where's the magic?

This is the fourth time that I missed the annual song competition by TV3 i.e. Anugerah Juara Lagu (AJL). The first three were in 1997, 1998 and 1999. Nevertheless, thanks to the technology I managed to watched it online from my cozy room in Fallowfield.


This year's AJL is supposed to be the one that I'm looking forward to because I like all the songs. Plus, some of my favourite artistes are competing too. All three in the etnik kreatif category are my favourites - Nora, Ramlah Ram and Aishah. I'm also a big fan of Sahri and Lah Ahmad, who are in the balada category and Mawi, Misha Omar and Andi Flop Poppy in the pop rock category. In addition, my favourite composers Azlan Abu Hassan, Lin Li Zhen and Audi Mok are competing with AJL's darlings, namely, M. Nasir and Adnan Abu Hassan.

Unfortunately, after watching it on http://www.tv3.com.my/, I'm far from feeling all satisfied. In fact, I'm very disappointed with most of the performances, especially the heavyweights. Only three performances have had caught my attention and they are Janjiku by Sofaz, Ceritera Cinta by Jaclyn Victor and Lah Ahmad, and Angan dan Sedar by Mawi

The big four, namely, Dato' Siti Nurhaliza, Nora, Ramlah Ram and Aishah gave us the ketinggalan zaman performances. What I mean by ketinggalan zaman is that we've seen these kind of performances so many times in Anugerah Juara Lagu. And vocally, only Dato' Siti Nurhaliza and Nora slightly met the bar, while Ramlah Ram and Aishah sounded very out of place. Is this one of the signs that they are aging? Anyhow, these two singers still remain close to my heart.

Fazli Zainal, Fiq, Sahri and Bob showed promising performances but lack of X factor. Among these four newcomers, I prefer the renditions of Sahri and Fiq. To me, theirs reflected simple singing but full of emotion. I've to admit that I was very worried watching Fazli Zainal belting his heart out for the melancholic song, Harapan. He looked like he was in pain while singing this song by Hazami. On the other hand, Bob looked very relaxed singing Kasih Tercipta. However, his rendition, to me, was lack of feel and weight.

Talking about emotion, for the first time, I really enjoyed listening to Jaclyn Victor's live performance. And thank to Lah Ahmad for a smoothing vocal arrangement. They were both singing harmoniously, full of chemistry and moving too. And of course, Jaclyn Victor sounded very, very good when she sings, rather than screams. You go girl!

Undeniably, Itu Kamu is a good song. The melody is catchy and its musical arrangement is contemporary. Nevertheless, I hardly understand the words that came out from Rich's mouth. If he could polish his vocal a little bit, at least at par with the lead singer of Sofaz, they can be the best performance of the night. Anyhow, congratulations to Estranged and other subsidiary winners and thank you to Ramli M.S. for those beautiful musical arrangements. You're the best!

note: The pictures are taken from www.gua.com.my

Makan-makan, Tazkirah and Football

Thank to Allah, I've safely arrived in Manchester yesterday afternoon after a five-hour journey on coach from London. This time my stay in London was longer than my previous trips. I spent about 11 days at my aunt's place in Brent. And I considered it as a very productive visit. I've managed to attend two tazkirahs, which were facilitated by Ustaz Fairuz - one at Datuk Ali's house and another one at my aunt's place. Datuk Ali, like my uncle (known by Malaysian Londoners as Tok Din), is a good cook. He is now running his own oil and gas company in London after quiting from a senior post in Petronas.

Below are two pictures which I secretly snapped at the said majlis ilmu. Believe me, it was an informal function, with lots of makanan. Before Ustaz Fairuz started his 30-minute tazkirah on one of the 40 hadiths compiled by Imam Nawawi, we had a 15-minute starter; minum-minum and of course the kueh mueh tasting session. The third agenda was the question and answer session. This is my favourite part of the tazkirah because of the eyebrow raising questions asked by pakcik-pakcik and makcik-makcik in this group.

"Ustaz... saya ni, kadang-kadang tu, bila terserempak dengan orang-orang yang jalan hentak-hentak kaki ni, tiba-tiba terfikir... sakit agaknya bumi ini diperbuat sedemikian. Kasihan pula saya kepada bumi dipijak-pijak. Macam mana tu Ustaz?"

"Ustaz... kalau perempuan tu kahwin lagi selepas kematian suami, di syurga nanti dia jumpa suami yang mana?"

"Ustaz... kalau seorang yang sudah tukar jantina, berkahwin dengan orang putih di sini dan kemudiannya mati. Kita yang tahu dia ni asalnya lelaki, perlu ke kita usulkan supaya dia dikebumikan sebagai lelaki?"

After brief discussion about some of these questions, the tazkirah was closed by another makan-makan, which to my standard it was another heavy dinner (they called it supper) at about 10.45 pm. Anyhow, I really enjoyed the two sessions that I've attended while I was in London. Insya-Allah, for the next trips, I will try to ensure that my itinerary will includes this tazkirah on Saturday night. However, Ustaz Fairuz will return to Cairo to start the second year of his Master degree. According to Tok Din, they are currently looking for a new Ustaz. So, if anyone out there interested to facilitate this group, do not hesitate to email me so that I can make the necessary arrrangement to introduce you to them.

On last Sunday, Tok Din, Fauzi and Nurul were kind enough to bring Ustaz Fairuz and I to the Emirates Stadium, the official home for the Arsenal football team. Don't be surprised, this was my first visit to the stadium, which is the third football stadium in UK that I've visited. The first one was, of course, the Old Trafford Stadium and the second one was the Aston Villa stadium in Birmingham.

Tok Din and Fauzi are a big fan of Arsenal while Ustaz Fairuz is a fan of Manchester United. Although Nurul bought herself an Arsenal's jersey, I don't think she is a football fan and I won't surprise if later she gives the jersey to her newly wed husband. And me? Hehehe... let just say, I'm a kaki-bangku.

In terms of design and architecture, I think the Emirates Stadium is more good-looking than the Manchester United stadium in Old Trafford. Nevertheless, the latter is bigger and more commercially driven than the former.

Nurul asked me if I want anything from the Arsenal's merchadise store. Well, I wish she asked me the question somewhere else, like the Hard Rock Cafe! I politely declined her generous offer. Thanks, Nurul. I really appreciate it.






In case you guys were wondering, hehehe... believe me, I really know the players in the poster behind me. Kenapa? Tak percaya ke?