Monday, December 26, 2005

Christmas Cold

I've been anticipating for Christmas day, a day for joy and celebration for the past few days. My voice turned out to be muffled out a little on the Eve of Christmas. I didn't think it would hit me the worse and it did on Christmas day when I came down hard with fever and cold.

Aw, these joint-aches, headaches, and feeling light headed was driving up the walls; and I was coughing up phelgms profusely. It had to be throat infection. Despite all, HF and I tried our very best to put up a very merry little Christmas for ourselves.

I bought us a little Christmas tree and had it in the living room where I placed her present under it. She hasn't done so and I presumed she's going to make a surprise about it 'coz we've been ranting about Santa Clause for the whole night. So I made a joke claiming that I saw 'something' that is not suppose to be there and I know that's my present. Obvious enough, she was playing the denial game with me on that, but I could already see that she's already uncomfortable but still trying to put up a good show. So I'll just wait till Christmas morning.

We roasted duck instead of turkey just to be different from traditions. Both are of the bird species; and it's easier to roast a duck.

On Christmas morning, sure enough there was my present under the tree. I couldn't express how happy I was mainly because my senses have been slightly numbed due to high fever and cold. We stayed indoor for the entire Christmas day. She took care of me and I to her (I tried).

The streets were very quiet and seemed deserted. I suppose many have gone back to be with their families. It has and it is truly a blessing to have both of us for each other. I love her dearly.

Friday, December 16, 2005

Over the Christmas and New Year

It is not uncommon to get asked for your plans over the Christmas as it is holiday season over here. Most people will be going away either back to where their family/relatives are or for a short vacation. All sounds like a perfect plan to find peace and ease away.

I do not have that liberty to enjoy good times like that even if it is Christmas and New Year's holidays. There is much to do. Univ's assignment is piled up on my desk and the deadline is January 10th 2006. Right after, we'll be sitting for our exams.

Come to think of it, there really isn't much time to play around until exams are over. Time to get back to work.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

On the line live

Yesterday (Wednesday) was officially the day when I started dialing out to Arcadia Stores' customers promoting them a product of GE Money. It went on for 40 minutes as a teaser trial for most of our batch are still new and fresh from training and very much still afraid to "go live".

It wasn't really so bad for the first time, however, we got a taste of what we'll be expecting to face as we go along. There were some red-neck customers of whom we classified them as irate customers. Not very welcoming, though. Surprisingly, I managed to pull off one successful sale. My first and only for that evening. Overall sales for the evening totalled three (3).

Today, I made two sales and I'm very happy with it. Our trainer awarded me a bottle of Sainsbury's white wine as recognition. We got a total of eight (8) sales today. Not too bad a figure for beginners and dialing for 2 hours.

As for Vivian, she's been working so hard and her extra hours been wearing her out. It's big sales day for Debenhams yesterday, today, and tomorrow; and she was awarded with 2 bottles of wine for opening the most store card accounts of the day. There's no doubt that she's good at this.

Yesterday's morning, I got a wake up call from Vivian that surprises me as it was not a normal call. She told me to check outside to see for myself a bomb threat that's happened and and around where I live. Found out later that, according to an employee working in Halifax building which is adjacent to Aspect 14 flats, there is a suspicious looking package in the building and just before 10am, the building security called for an emergency evacuation and the bomb squad arrived at the scene by 10:45am. If you see the inset picture, you'll notice police tape lines already set up their perimeter. No one was allowed to go in or out of the perimeter, and I was still in my flat taking this picture on my balcony. I was still quite oblivious as to what was happenning when she called as I just woke up. I therefore did not know how to appreciate the dangers of a bomb threat, which was why I was still able to grab a camera and shoot a scene outside.

It was a false alarm. Nothing happened that day and both building, Halifax and Aspect 14 flats, are still intact. Thank god.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Coffee doesn't raise risk of high blood pressure

Soda might, however...

Relax ladies and, possibly, gentlemen. Have that second cup of coffee. The largest study to date concludes that the caffeine won't raise your risk of high blood pressure.

However, too much soda pop, sugared or diet, might.

Harvard researchers set out to test the idea that a lot of coffee isn't good for your circulation. They followed 155,000 female nurses for 12 years, questioning them regularly about their caffeine-drinking habits and their blood pressure. No connection was found between their coffee intake and a risky rise in blood pressure.

In fact, results went the other way. Women who drank the most coffee seemed to develop some protection against the problem. The investigators continue to look into this possibility.

"A new study concludes that lots of coffee drinking doesn't cause high blood pressure, but soda drinking might. The study was done on women. (Staff photo Rose Lincoln/Harvard News Office)"

Caffeine may not be the reason, however. The researchers found that things went the other way when women drank copious amount of caffeine-containing colas. Sugared or diet, the soft drinks increased their risk of high blood pressure by as much as 44 percent, compared with those who drank very little soda.

Tea drinking produced mixed results. That beverage increased hypertension risk in younger but not older women. The study did not collect information on that warming winter favorite - hot chocolate.

"Given that coffee and other caffeinated beverages are among the most widely consumed in the world, any detrimental effects of caffeine on health could have enormous public health implications," notes Wolfgang Winkelmayer, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "High blood pressure is a silent, but extremely dangerous disease that impacts at least 50 million people in the United States alone."

And the numbers are increasing. That's the bad news because high blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease, stroke, congestive heart failure, and lethal kidney disease. The good news, says Winkelmayer, is that "we can dispel the myth that habitual coffee drinking leads to hypertension in women."

What about men?

Can men also enjoy their daily coffee rituals without fear of upping their risk of heart disease?

"We currently do not know whether these findings also pertain to men," Winkelmayer answers. "The only long-term evidence comes from a recent study of about a thousand men, which found no suggestive association between caffeine intake and an increased risk of hypertension. We are currently investigating this issue. It's a work in progress."

Meanwhile, without any good evidence that they would react differently, men probably shouldn't worry about it.

Winkelmayer worked with colleagues from both Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard School of Public Health on the study. For these researchers, the big surprise was finding a link between consumption of soda and high blood pressure risk.

As they report in the Nov. 9 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, older women, ages 43 to 71 at the start of the study, had the biggest risk of developing high blood pressure. Those who gulped four or more cans or glasses of caffeinated sugared cola each day had a 44 percent greater risk of hypertension compared with those who drank less than one a day.

Things were better for younger women, 26 to 46 years old. Those who sipped four or more cans of sugared colas increased their risk 28 percent compared with those who drank less than a can a day.

Things went even better for diet-soda drinkers. The risk for younger women rose 19 percent. The risk for older women increased 16 percent with four or more cans of diet colas.

Since the researchers found no increased risk of danger with either regular or decaffeinated coffee, they speculate that "it is not caffeine but perhaps some other compound contained in soda-type soft drinks that may be responsible for the increased risk of high blood pressure."

"At present, no biological explanation exists for the association between soda and hypertension," Winkelmayer admits, "therefore, no recommendations about soda drinking can be made."

Women concerned about the effects of drinking soda on their health may want to cut back on the fizzy stuff, but those who believe that life would not be as pleasant without several cups of coffee a day can relax and enjoy the popular beverage.



Article Extracted from: http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/daily/2005/11/08-coffee.html


Monday, November 07, 2005

Sore

I'm down with sore throat again. Yeah, again but compared to the first one last year, this time's not so bad. I looked up at Wikipedia for an article on Bird Flu (a.k.a Avian Influenza) and to my horror, I thought I caught the flu because it's symptoms fits what I had and still having.

Commom flu has the same symptoms and I couldn't get bird flu unless I am a bird. I thought why else would it be called as such. But then the H5N1 strain could infect people and have infected people. I should rule this out. Perhaps I'm just going through a normal phase of the body's immune cycle and should be fine in the next few days.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Halloween Night

We brought back a lot of memories, knowledge and information pertaining to AIESEC, made quite a number of people/friends, and most importantly grown in confidence and self-esteem, at least to me.

I have had some time to reflect on what I actually gained from the conference and contrasted the outcome to a potential situation where I did not attend. I must say I was surprised to see there was really a dramatic positive difference. I owe it big time to the people who ran the entire conference as they have duly inspired me in a lot of ways, especially one of our guest speakers named Marcus Orlovsky... and also because it is AIESEC.

There will be pictures of the Walsall AXIS 2005 in Birmingham as well as last night's Halloween party, where I creatively decorated myself as Darth Maul wannabe (who is a pod racer)

While waiting for the pictures of the conference to be available to me, I'll put up the pictures from last night. It was my first 'dressed up' Halloween party (at Carolyn's place) and thanks to a gentleman who made it possible. He brought with him a complete set of face painting and I had the privilege to them. When asked to guess what I am, most answered Spiderman. It was fun.

I had trouble getting the paint off my face later when I arrived home. The red paint smeared to my hands and the colors still stubborn and for a moment I thought I couldn't face any of my classmates tomorrow. At least, I will be getting stares and glares a lot... perhaps I'll just tell them I got a terrible sun burn in Birmingham! It was really hillarious getting it off... it took me about 45 minutes and felt like ripping my face off like 'The V' (TV series of the 80's).



Vivian dressed up as a cute pinkish bunny sporting a furry bunny tail ball and a bow tie. Since witches carry broomsticks, devils wield trident, fairies magic wand, so I thought I should complete the cute bunny with a piece of huge bright carrot. Creative, huh?

I'm missing my double-sided spear and a black trench coat. I will be better prepared for Halloween next year.

Monday, October 24, 2005

What was missing

It took a while to remember and eventually realize that my life here in the UK compared to the life in Canada was actually different not because of the environment, but because of one very important person that made it all different--my brother.

Andrew came 2 weeks later and we stayed in the same room for one academic year at the University of Saskatchewan's Qu'appelle Hall, Voyager Place. He is also a very good roommate. I missd being with him. After a year at Qu'appelle Hall, we lived separately and I still know that he's in town and I can look him up whenever I want to.

However, ever since I moved to live in Leeds, England, I didn't know until a few weeks back that he was actually the 'factor' that made me feel something was missing and I didn't feel complete. Perhaps I am used to being with him or having him, my big brother, around. The size of the city has to be irrelevant. When you actually know someone in a foreign city, it's going to make a lot of significant difference living in that city.

My cousins are in London and I knew I could look them up some times whenver I would go down. This, as oppose to nobody at all. I thought about it and concluded that I was once very fortunate, but not this time. I have to make it on my own... but now luckily enough, with my lady HF.

I have found both of them.
Can't help recalling the song "You light up my life"

Saturday, October 15, 2005


Pictured here is myself and Kannan, the supervisor of Georgetown restaurant in Leeds. Kannan gave the most tremendous and brilliant night to both Vivian and I and it was unforgetable. I had him invited over to my place after his work to enjoy my birthday cake together. Kannan is from India on a working holiday visit. Posted by Picasa


Vivian and I.

Just love this photo. Posted by Picasa


You won't believe I actually blushed in this photo, which is why I look so, uhh, good? I know I look and feel happy and indeed, I was. Posted by Picasa


Seated in a very elegant and beautiful Malaysian restaurant -- Georgetown -- with piano music in the background, toasting to my birthday with Vivian. That Singapore Sling is a compliment of Kannan, the supervisor of this restaurant who is extermely a brilliant and kind person. Posted by Picasa


I'm the star of the evening! Check me out, it's me birthday! Posted by Picasa


Vivian's platter who begged for a taste of Malaysian's food, I recommended her this savoury fish, a Malay's locale dish. Quite tasty but she couldn't prefer to sink her knife into my beef rendang. ;) Posted by Picasa


My birthday dinner platter, my country's food -- beef rendang -- generousity of Vivian who made the evening ever more beautiful. Posted by Picasa


Wine glasses and a free shot of Singapore Sling cocktail compliments from the supervisor of Georgetown restaurant who made it all possible. Posted by Picasa


My birthday cake, a gift from Louise who runs a successful Chinese restaurant Maxi's. Very delicious! Posted by Picasa


Here are all me friends including my beautiful Vivian beside me. Dorothy shot this photo, so, from left to right: Paul, Alfred, Torstein, myself, and Vivian. Posted by Picasa


Torstein (pronounced as 'toousch-tainn') and myself on my double settee. Posted by Picasa


These are the nicest people I've known during my stay in Kirkstall Brewery on Broad Lane -- a student's accomodation. They were invited by Vivian to surprise me, as it has been a long time since I last saw all of them since I moved into this new premise (background) Posted by Picasa

Sunday, October 09, 2005

Enjoyed many good times

I've been thinking if I should blog as often as before and I gathered that my blogs will, in a way, make more sense if they're recorded down once every short period of absence. This way I get to highlight significant events during the times when I'm not blogging.

To begin with, I recall the most extraordinarily moment I had with HF on my 26th birthday. Months ago when I returned from Canada for a 2.5 weeks visit, HF and I spotted a Malaysian restaurant just in the heart of city centre when we were worming our ways on the streets looking for the office where National Insurance Number can be applied. Georgetown restaurant is adjacent to the office we were looking for. I scrutinizing the menu at the threshold of their entrance, I insisted for a curry puff and that would cost me £3.50 each. I didn't get any as it was too costly. HF promised to bring me here for my birthday.

And the experience on that night was posilutely and absotively a wonderful magical experience for me. The atmosphere inside is one of which that I should never forget to give credit for. To have my home country's food on such an occasion in such a wonderful and perhaps posh place could never ever get any better. Our experience was further enhanced by a mutual friend of ours, Kannan, who works at the restaurant as the supervisor. He gave us a couple of Singapore Sling on his tab, had the chef made a special order for me (made my main course extra spicy/delicious), made special arrangement with the pianist, who perfectly blended in a birthday rhythm for me from 'When I fall in love' when Kannan served us our 'Ice Kacang'. Customers who have already been seated at this time cheered and congratulated me and wished well for me; some clapping their hands. The best of the best of all at that very particular time was the fact that HF was there to commemorate that very day with me. Her calm and peaceful smile emmanating her radiance of happiness during all those very wonderful people, musics, ambience, and warmth. There's a lot of love in the air and that is what I sensed. Desptie all and most importantly, I was able to share my happiness with HF. Without her, that day would be as good as the mysterious voidness in the dark that's full of everything except positive & constructive feelings/emotions.
At the end of the evening, Kannan showed how much he desired to share my moment with me (he can't because he was on duty) with an over generous 15% discount.

We walked back to enjoy a cake specially made for me from an extremely kind friend, Louise, who runs Maxi's Chinese restaurant at "The Light". I helped her to understand some legal issues pertaining to one of her restaurant business in town a couple of weeks ago. I was still with her when she called on to her baker to bake a birthday cake for me. Out of embarrasment I refused but I guess she was already determined to make one as a gift for me. The cake was made up of fruits and it was very delicious. In fact, that cake is my first birthday cake after a very, very long time... say, 18 years? I'm not too sure, but I know my family doesn't really believe in celebrating birthdays. The Georgetown restaurant and the birthday cake has been a complete birthday experience for me.

_________________
I've sold "grandpa" (our car) just this morning for £142.00 to a family from Northants. It's good to know that grandpa is now in good care of another owner.

Our friends came over for an evening of fun. Torstein and Ling, and Asa were here. My finally found classmate Saravanan and his lady friend Jane who are both from Malaysia (one from Kuala Lumpur and the other from Johor Bharu) are a wonderful addition to us all. I just got Settlers of Catan in and managed to convinced all of them that it is a fun game. I'm sure I've got two, if not one, persons addicted to the game on their first try to the game. It's hilarious! It's also a very good game!

Until many good times ahead, I will write again soon. Take care and thanks for finding this site an interesting read.

Saturday, September 17, 2005

A year of everything

Yesterday (or to be exact, 14 September) would mark my stay here in the UK for exactly 365 days. That's a year long. What do I think of it so far? Life is beautiful here with HF.

I haven't been blogging recently and it feels like it's going to take me a year now to blog as frequently as before. HF parents were here a month ago for a 25 days stay and we've been busy doing stuffs together and enjoyed every day every moment. After that, I've been doing a little self study on Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 so that I could video edit the videos we shot when we were in Scotland. It's quite a bit of a learning curve there but I didn't take too long to master it as the the book I got was an easy read and pretty straight forward.

Just got to know that I will be proceeding to Year 2 of LL.B (Hons) Law in the newly relocated Law department--city centre. Clouth Hall. I'm looking forward to it... most likely because there is pretty nothing much to do these few days. I start training with GE Capital for 3 weeks from the beginning of October before I start working for them. Classes will commence at the end of September. So, in the meantime, I'm just waiting for sales of duplicated softwares on eBay, of which I am earning £35.00 for every piece sold inclusive of shipping/handling costs. I've sold about 9 already and still counting. I thought back for a while thinking how upsetting it is for [common] people who just wanted to use professional softwares like Premiere Pro and have to burn a hole in their pocket to pay £599 for a retail version that works exactly just like the one I'm selling.

I am being such a good criminal here. But of course, if I continue to do this for a year, I would have probably end up behind bars with my pockets emptied for more than a year. Truly speaking, greed is every human beings weakness.

Meanwhile, on another matter, HF got time extension on her dissertation from her SPV till early next month. She's been at it day and night trying to write up to the finish line. My hopes and prayers are on her... hoping that every efforts put in there counts and is and will be something useful for some, if not every, academically and commercially sound people out there. I personally believe she's got a wonderful idea on her dissertation.

Until next year. ;)
j/k


The exhaust pipe was completely detached from the muffler (I believe that's what you call it) as the result of years of rusts and corrosion. Even steel have their weaknesses. Driving with a detached exhaust pipe like that is not that fun all the time especially I'd occasionally hear sudden loud explosion "BLAMM!! BOOMM!" or a "BANNG!!" whenever I ease off the acceleration/gas pedal.

Well, I had to replace the entire rotting exhaust system for �69.00. Not worth the money, as there are other parts under and around the car that needs to be fixed up and would total up to �400. We've decided to sell 'Grandpa' (as we'd like to call it) soon for all it's worth. *sob!* Posted by Picasa


To my horror, I finally knew what turned my little old Clio into a sports car. It began to sound very loud from the inside, and even from the outside... which was the reason a patrol car doing their night duties the other night pulled me over along A65 heading west into city centre. It was a long night for me. Posted by Picasa


Going under the Renault Clio 1.2 we bought to actually realize what it is meant or what it is like to be driving a 13 years old car. I'm the 8th person to own this Clio since 1992. There are rusts and corrosions all over. Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, August 24, 2005


HF's dad and me, having a splendid time at the Scarborough beach side. Posted by Picasa


Mmmmhh... chewing on money bone! (pork shank) Posted by Picasa


HF and I on the beach in Scarborough. Had a smashing time there! Posted by Picasa


HF and her family, visiting, and myself in my neighbor's flat. Posted by Picasa


HF, on the Highlands of the Isles of Skye Posted by Picasa

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Scotland

I just came back from Scotland highlands... a 4.5 days road trip. Set out early morning from Leeds and headed north to Glasgow city and from there all the way up to the Isles of Skye and arrived by midnight. It was the craziest thing I've done... driving all day/night. The next day, we checked out the Isles and, although it was cloudy and rainy, the view/surroundings are abso-freaking-lutely mind-bogglingly awesome. I have literally lost count of the number of times I said "oh my god" and the number of times my jaws dropped in awe. good thing both my eyes are still intact. I thought I have seen it all when I travelled to Banff National Park and Whistler Mt. There may be other places that are expectedly better than Isles of Skye, but the latter is a must see (although i still think Banff and Whistler is better as there are more things to do). Just then I realized why this place is called the Isles of Skye. How does it feel if you could 'touch' the skies (not on sea level)?

A day's trip is sufficient and we headed back to rest and prepare for next day's journey -- to meet the mythical monster, Nessie, in Loch Ness upon Inverness. Ever heard of a sea creature/monster that lives in Scotland? We saw the monster... surfacing for air and stayed afloat. it's been domesticated... ;)

Later, we spent a day in Edinburgh and checked out the famous castle there. The month of August also coincides with the Scottish Arts and Culture festival, hence, tonnes of activities on the streets on Edinburgh. From mimes to street performers, art exhibitions to tattooing and shopping to climbing over 250 steps of a tower...etc. all happening at the same time. The city is absolutely vibrant and colorful and it's good to be there. When you should have time and the resources, I would personally recommend anyone to check out Scotland.

Monday, August 15, 2005

this is an audio post - click to play

Sunday, August 14, 2005

this is an audio post - click to play

Friday, August 05, 2005


what-the-****!! Posted by Picasa

Thursday, August 04, 2005


Inside the castle of Nottingham (city centre) which sits on top of a hill, having the advantage of overlooking the entire city's skyline. We are just at the entrance, where we were greeted by the miniature plant that resembles Robin Hood (with his fav toy bow). Posted by Picasa