Happy Birthday Tok Ayah

Maisarah's drawing

Right after we came back from her school, Maisarah asked for a paper and a pen. She then started to draw something on it. I asked her what picture she is drawing. She said its her riding a pony. She likes to tie a ribbon around her pony toy and I can see from the picture she even drew it around the pony's neck.

Hadiff's Birthday Party

Today is Hadiff's birthday party in Lancaster and the theme is 'football'. So four of us went there wearing football shirts of various countries and a certain club. We decided to do the 'Malaysian' colours before going out of the house, stopping by at the sports store to buy Maisarah the new England shirt. She looks very nice wearing it and everybody commented nicely on her dress (or uniform?).

The kids were playing football whilst the adults enjoying the meal. Jo busied herself doing the face painting for the kids. We gave Hadiff a birthday present wrapped in Spiderman paper wrap just like last year. When he received it, he commented, 'It's the same one like last time!' Oh dear, he remembers!

Happy Father's Day

Today Ilyas and Maisarah gave me cards and presents for Father's Day. Ilyas gave me an Old Trafford grass seeds which I will plant in front of our house in Bandar Baru Bangi and Maisarah gave me a new mousepad (The old one is a bit bent anyway). Thank you guys!

Curly Haired Ballet Dancer

Maisarah is waiting before going to her weekly ballet dance class. Umi decided to make her hair curly this time. She looks different, and of course still marvelous as always!

Pictures on the Wall

Honorary Fellow, the name escapes me

Dr. Brian May, CBE, Chancellor of LJMU and former lead guitarist of the rock band Queen

Sir John Moores, CBE, founder of Littlewoods and Everton FC chairman

Today I had to attend the Research Students Induction Course organised by LJMU as a part of my registration process. Most of the participants are first year MPhil/PhD students but I don't mind since some of the sessions are quite useful especially regarding submission and viva voce examination.

The course was held at the Egerton Court, which also houses Office of the Vice Chancellor and Pro Vice Chancellor. I'm quite fascinated with the inside walls because they are filled with graduation pictures from several years ago until recent. I can recognise some of the famous people who graduated from LJMU. I wonder if UPM will do the same on their Pentadbiran building, hmmm highly unlikely.

A Prisoner of Birth

This is the latest novel by Jeffrey Archer and it just arrived today by post. I bought it at Amazon website and it only costs me £5 including postage. I read the first chapter and it was very tempting to finish it straightaway. But I'm going to stop and put this one in the box. I hope I will find time to enjoy it in Malaysia.

Visitors from Lancaster

We met Zul and his family at the car boot sale in Lydiate. Afterwards they came to our house since they never visited our house in Liverpool before. Ilyas and Maisarah were very happy especially Maisarah since she got to play with two 'kakak's. They play football together and then had a little picnic under the big umbrella. All the grownups were inside the house but we can hear them chatting loudly outside. Maybe they are discussing current issues?

Malam Sirih Pulang ke Gagang Lancaster 2009

Today we went to Lancaster University to attend a graduation appreciation event organised by the Malaysian students. Even though I am no longer studying in Lancaster University, they still want to include me since I did finished my Masters and spent the first two years of my Phd there. The theme was 'Retro' so everyone is supposed to dress like hippies or something like that. I decided to wear Manchester United 1999 Champions League winning shirt because I think it is as retro as you could get!

They gave me a Portmeirion mug as a gift and Awa won 5kg of Basmati rice for the lucky draw. I rarely saw Ilyas and Maisarah during the event because they kept getting in and out of the buildings playing with the other children.

Happy Birthday Awa

Awa celebrated his birthday today with a cake specially made by Jo, with a picture of Stig on it.

Tok Ayah in Lancaster

Today we took Tok Ayah to Lancaster to visit the city and the university where I got my Bachelor and Masters degrees. Afterwards, we had dinner at Wan Huzaini's house. Ilyas and Maisarah were happy because they got to play with their old friends like Haziq, Naufal, Nabil and Nurul.

Tok Ayah has a Facebook now

After both my parents in law have their own Facebook accounts, now is the turn of my own father to have his own. Hmmm.. Twitter anyone?

Tok Ayah is here!

Tok Ayah is greeted by his grandchildren at the Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

Friendly Tournament between Kensington Badminton Club and Liverpool Malaysian

Today we have a friendly tournament between Kensington Badminton Club and Liverpool Malaysians. Four men doubles and two women doubles from each team will play against each other. There should be 20 matches altogether but due to time constraints we only managed to finish 16 of them. Our ladies lost all their matches. The men were giving quite a fight and we won 14 sets compared to 13. However if the points are taken into consideration we only have 467 points compared to 507, averaging 17.3 points per set compared to 18.8 points per set for them.

Sham and myself won all our matches but the first match against their first double was quite tough. We won 17-21, 23-21 and 21-19. Maisarah even brought her pom-pom to cheer us all the way.