Visiting friends in Lancaster

A day before my viva voce examination, Awa and I decided to pay a visit to our friends in Lancaster. Our first stop is Bong & Yana's house. Azrul and Nita joined us for the lunch and afterwards we went to the university campus to stop by at Rizal's house. He was busy packing and there were many Malaysians in his house including Tun and Saidatul. After that it's time to go back to Liverpool to prepare for my viva.

Irfan's 1st Birthday

We went to Lancaster today on invitation by Fazrul and Nana to attend their son's birthday party. Ilyas and Maisarah are quite happy to see their old friends. Jo took the opportunity to 'dump' most of our winter clothes in front of the charity shop inside the university. We spent nearly 4 hours in Lancaster before going back to Liverpool and resume our packing for the shipping this coming Monday.

Car model

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!

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.

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.

Lancaster Invitational Football Tournament 2009

LUMSS 'A' in black and LUMSS 'B' in blue

Team Postgraduate

Today we went to Lancaster because Awa and myself are going to play in another football tournament. This time it was organised by the Lancaster University Malaysian Students' Society and there will be 8 teams participating. I played for LUMSS 'B' and Awa for LUMSS 'A'. Both teams lost all of our matches. My team lost to Lancaster University Postgraduate International 0-2, Lancaster University Chinese Society 0-3 and Cheetam Hill, Manchester 0-2. Afterwards we were having our annual Postgraduate vs Undergraduate. Last year the postgraduate team lost narrowly to the undergraduate but this time we easily beaten them with a 4-2 scoreline with Wan Huzaini scoring all the goals. Afterwards we went to have lunch in the Pizzeta Republic restaurant and visited houses of friends. 

Trip to Lancaster

Today we went to Lancaster to accept invitation from Steve Kong for his Chinese New Year open house. Along the way we dropped by Tun's house for a breakfast and also to buy a 20kg Basmati rice from him. Afterwards Ilyas and I went for the haircut as well. Awa went to play football with some other students and in the mean time we went to Preston to buy some meats and groceries. We also visited few other houses for a birthday party and a dinner. We arrived back in Liverpool near midnight. Everyone was exhausted but I can see that Ilyas and Maisarah were the ones that enjoyed most from the trip.

Something Nice

Yesterday my 3 years old daughter and I were sitting right in front of the upper deck of a double decker bus. The bus made a stop on top of the hill and we can see almost the whole of Lancaster. She suddenly remarked, "I can see the whole wide world". I'm quite impressed.

Helping each other

Today I went to the Sainsbury’s and at the checkout counter, there was a man and an old lady in front of me. The cashier asked the man if he has a Nectar card (a reward card) and he replied no. The man then asked the old lady whether she has one. She said yes so the man asked the cashier to use the old lady’s card instead. She said thank you to that man and said how nice of him to do that.

I wondered if anyone in Malaysia has ever experienced that with their Bonuslink or Rewards card.

Moving out

We are supposed to move out from this flat by end of next month but it's better to prepare in advance, right?

Butir Nangka

What was left of it...

Last night I made my first attempt of cooking 'Butir Nangka', a sweet delicacy made from flour and coconut milk. Ilyas and Maisarah were ever willing to help and the end results was quite satisfying!

Can you buy me PS2, please?

After pestering me for a few months (not to forget his grandparents), Ilyas finally got what he wanted, a PS2. He is actually wanted to play an Ultraman game but I'm not sure whether they have it in the UK. The last time he played the game was in Kelantan and the game was in Japanese.

My New Handphone

Last night my wife surprised me with a brand new handphone, a Nokia 5310 XpressMusic to replace my old(?!) Nokia N73. I'm having few software problems with my N73 so my wife seems to think that enough is enough, let her buy me a new one. This new phone comes with its own giant speaker so I'm quite impressed. Time to download all those Search songs!

Back in Lancaster

Just came back to the Lancaster University from Malaysia last night. Loads of pictures need to be uploaded here in this blog but they can wait. I need to finish my research draft first. The submission date is end of this month.

Hadiff's birthday party

Hadiff is having a birthday party today and everyone is invited. The children are having fun playing games and jumping around in the bouncy castle whilst the parents and friends are having BBQ lunch. The weather is a bit cold but everyone is still enjoying themselves.

Ilyas and Hadiff

Chocolate cake with strawberry on top

BBQ chicken

Maisarah playing games with her friends

All the ladies and their children