Back from a Holiday

I was away for nearly two weeks entertaining my mother, two aunties and a cousin who came here for a holiday. We went to London and Holland visiting many interesting places. I took my family to visit Paris including Disneyland and Walt Disney Parks. The remaining pictures are uploaded in my Facebook album.

Down the memory lane Part 2

Found another old photo from one of my friend's Facebook.

68th Annual Tournament Part 2

This morning Wan Huzaini and I are playing in the Gents Doubles Handicap 'A' section under the Lancaster, Morecambe and District Badminton League 68th Annual Tournament. It's a knock out format with a handicap system put in place. This means that every players will be given a handicap in form of points added or deducted and number of serves allowed each turn. For us, we were given a handicap of +5, meaning that we only need to get 10 more points to win a set. Our opponent is ranked first so their handicap is a whopping -8 and 1 serve. This means that they need to get 23 points before they can win a set and can only do so with only one serve each turn. So who do you think will win?

In the end we lost 10-15 and 12-15. Basically we managed to get 12 points from both sets, much better than what we did last Thursday when we got only 4 points. It was a good match and most of the audience are watching how we fight for every point. I guess somehow it's a good way to end this season by playing against the best players in the league.

Fooling around with Umi's glasses

Final standing in the league

So, it's official. We are moving one step higher in the Division Two of Lancaster and Morecambe Badminton League. Last year we were fourth, winning nine and losing nine. This time we managed to win 12 and losing only six. A much better performance I think, partly because Paul was available since the start of the season and there has not been much disruption to the team line-up, unlike last season. Congratulations to the Bailrigg B as well, since they managed to keep their place in the Division 3. Two years ago they got relegated from the same division and they have done well to remain there this time.

2007 standing

2008 standing

68th Annual Tournament

Wan Huzaini and I are participating in the Lancaster, Morecambe and District Badminton League 68th Annual Tournament. We registered for two categories, Gents Doubles Championship and Gents Doubles Handicap 'A'. The first category was held today and we were grouped in the Group 1 with three other doubles. We need to become a group winner or runners-up if we want to proceed to the semi final. In the end, we lost all our matches.

Considering that the other players hail from Division One, I do not have high hope of advancing to the next round but still hoping that we could win a set or two. Our first match was against one of the top seeded doubles (R Parkinson & C Foote) and we duly lost 4-15 and 1-15. In the second match we lost first set 5-15 to M Kearns & A Forrest but were leading 11-6 in the second set. However, they managed to overturn the deficit and won 15-12. Our last match is against another top seeded (B Stephenson & J Mitchell) and this time the defeat was the heaviest as we lost 0-15 and 4-15.

This Sunday morning we will play in other category and it's a knock out format. Since we are playing at the Morecambe College, the place of a car boot sale, I might as well bring my family along. We are scheduled to play in the quarter final and were given a handicap of +5, meaning that we will only need 10 more points to win the set. Our opponent are more likely to be a certain B Stephenson & J Mitchell and they were given a handicap of -8 1hd, meaning that they had to get 23 points to win a set and were given one serve per turn only. Given that we lost easily to them today, I don't expect them to have any problem of getting those 23 points with one serve. But then, who knows, we might get lucky this Sunday.

Karnival Sukan Lancaster 2008

Today is the big day for all Malaysian in the Lancaster as we are having our annual Sports Carnival. Last year we had badminton tournaments for men and ladies, men futsal and 'sukaneka' for kids. This time it is even bigger. We are having the usual 'sukaneka' for kids but the ladies will be competing in futsal and netball tournaments. As for the men, we are having a futsal tournament which includes participation from Islamic Society (2 teams), Chinese Society and University Central Lancashire Malaysian Students Society. We ourselves have two teams to compete in this tournament.

It is a bright but chilly morning and the carnival starts around 9am. I think everyone is enjoying themselves especially when around noon the snow started to fall down! As for the tournament results, the undergraduate ladies won both netball (12-0) and futsal (3-2) by beating their postgraduate sisters. As for the men, Malaysian A only managed to get third placing and Malaysian B in sixth placing. Islamic B won the futsal tournament by winning all their matches.

Afterwards, the undergraduate men asked for a futsal challenge with the postgraduate. Last year they lost 1-5 and they are confident of getting a revenge this time. However, two goals from Wan Huzaini and myself secured yet another victory for postgraduate team even when they managed to get one goal through Sean Chua. Try again next year, kids!

More pictures can be seen in here and here.

Upgrade Presentation

Today is the big day for me. That's what Professor Ken Peasnell has told me when I came accross him in the office corridor. Why? Apparently the office has circulated an e-mail inviting all lecturers and PhD students to attend my 'Upgrade Presentation' at 4pm today. What exactly is an upgrade presentation? Well, when you first registered in the first year, you are not exactly a PhD student. You are in fact an MPhil student and only through an upgrade presentation that you will be confirmed as a PhD student. If you fail this upgrade, you will be required to submit your thesis for an MPhil degree only. So it seems to be an important process towards getting your doctorate and usually this upgrade presentation is a presentation of your first research paper (you are required to complete three research papers for submission as a thesis towards your accounting doctorate programme). The problem is, I haven't got any complete paper yet since I haven't finish downloading all the data and thus no analysis has been done. So why an upgrade now?

It seems that the department are trying to make sure the student do an upgrade far earlier than previously done. Usually the upgrade is done when the student is in the end of the second year or beginning of the third year. In my case, since I have 17 hypotheses and 16 models to test, it will be more than six months before I can come up with a complete paper. Therefore, they think it is better for me to have some sort of proposal presentation to be followed up by an upgrade presentation when I have all the analysis and results. This way, I can get the academician feedback whether my research do contribute to the knowledge in accounting and what I'm going to do for the next six months will not be in vain.

The presentation was webcasted over the internet since our PhD director is currently in Greece and he need to watch me present my research ideas. There were about 15 people in the audience, mostly lecturers in accounting. And I think only two of them did not ask any questions and both of them are PhD students. In the end I got lots of useful feedback and comments which I will take into consideration when I'm starting my data collection and analysis.

A huge applause towards the end indicates that my presentation is a success and my research is a novel idea? Only time will tell, or in this case, in six months time.

Maisarah's Birthday Party

Lancaster Morecambe Badminton League - League Match Eighteen

The ceiling is ridiculously low though..

Tonight is the last match of the season and we are playing away against Bolton-le-Sands A, currently occupying second place in the league. We are currently at third place but any chance of changing place with them is none since they have far more superior points. Not that we fancy to be in the second place though, we would pretty much like to be as it is. Quite comfortable in the second division, in between win-at-all-cost division and easy-win division.

Paul and I started the men doubles as usual and although last time we managed to get a win, this time we only got a split of 12-15 and 15-10. Tim and I repeated what we've done in our previous meeting, we lost both sets. This time we lost 10-15 and 11-15. Brenda called in sick so Eddie got roped in the last minute. We managed to get split with 8-15 and 15-12. In the end we lost 5-13 overall, last time we met them we lost 6-12.

I think we are going to get 3rd placing in the league but Sunnyside C has not play their last match yet so I will put up the league standing once it is finalised.

Drawings by Ilyas

Ayah watching television

Lancaster Open Badminton 2008

Today is the annual badminton tournament organised by the Malaysians who play badminton regularly in Lancaster University. Last year it was participated among the Malaysians only. This time out of 12 players, 7 are Malaysians, 3 are British (2 of them are Chinese in origin) and 1 each from Indonesia and Oman. Last year the format was round robin but this year is a bit different due to a limited supply of shuttlecocks and time constraint. 6 doubles are squaring each other in the Qualifying Round and the winner for each match will be put in the Winners Pool and the losers will be put in the Losers Pool.

Players selection for each double partner and scheduling were done by a random draw. I got to be partnered with Owen Pryce. In the qualifying round we faced Sean Chua & Romzie Rosman (my neighbour) and we finally won in the rubber set 14-21, 21-13 and 21-12.

In the Winners Pool we managed to beat Steve Kong & Awa (my brother) in another rubber set 16-21, 21-15 and 21-9. Our last match is against Wan Huzaini & Wing. They already won both previous matches with straight sets so we know this is going to be a tough match. In the end we managed to beat them 21-11 and 21-18.

The winner of Losers Pool is Sean Chua & Romzie Rosman who managed to beat Khanif & Ali Al-Belushi 21-15, 18-21 and 21-12 and Jason & Don 21-17 and 21-17.

In the end it was a good tournament day for everyone.

Lancaster Morecambe Badminton League - League Match Seventeen

Tonight we are playing against Overton B at home. Last time we managed to beat them 11-7 at their home ground so we are quite confident of getting a win. On top of that Brenda has recovered from her injury so the team is back to its strongest lineup. And so we managed to chalk a 13-5 result.

Paul was late so I started with Tim first. We won first set 15-6 but lost narrowly 13-15 in the second although we were leading 13-8 at one time. The next match with Paul was also shaky in the first set when we lost 12-15 but we managed to recover in the second set and won 15-4. After that Brenda and I mercilessly beaten our opponent 15-7 and 15-3. Looks like she is back with a bang!

Reading an academic paper : The Real Challenge

Lancaster Morecambe Badminton League - League Match Sixteen

With only three matches left in the league, most of the clubs are already confirmed regarding their status for the next season including Bailrigg A. We will be staying in the Division 2 again for the next season, something that I have no doubt since the beginning of this season. However, it will be a close call whether we will be third or fourth in the league. So tonight match against Kirby Lonsdale C, who is currently at the bottom of the league, should provide us an opportunity to get as many points as we can. And indeed we managed to do that, by winning 16-2 overall.

I am a bit dissappointed since Paul and I lost one of our sets. We won the first set easily 15-5. Perhaps too easy since in the second set we didn't push the opponent as hard as we should and they took the advantage by playing superbly, including getting several lucky shots, to eventually winning 17-14. Tim and I didn't repeat that mistake and we won 15-6 and 15-8. And when I partnered with Eddie, we kept our mistakes to the minimum and we managed to get our first win with the score of 15-8 and 15-6.

Last two matches should be an interesting one, against Overton B at home and league leader, Bolton le Sands at away. And then there will be a 6 months break, oh dear....

Down the memory lane

My former uni-mate attached this photo in her Facebook. I think it was taken during Hari Raya celebration in Lancaster University (in the George Fox building) back in 1996 or 1997. Quite nostalgic really, didn't know that I was that skinny!

Lancaster Morecambe Badminton League - League Match Fifteen

Tonight we are playing against Sunnyside C, a very good team in the league. We lost to them 7-11 in our home game this season and with two of our ladies players are currently injured, I am not really hopeful. However, last season we managed to win in our away game even when we lost to them in the home game.

My match with Paul was quite erratic. We were leading 13-0 in the first set but only managed to end it with 13-6 score line. In the second set we were trailing all the time but managed to get a win with 15-13. In my match with Tim we lost first set easily with a score of 7-15 but the scenario was reversed in the second set when we won 15-2. Eddie and I managed to win the first set 15-9 but we surrendered the second set with the score 10-15.

After that I went home early and didn't know the overall result until the next morning. And we won, with an overall score of 10-8. What a close match that was!

Ilyas and Haziq Birthday Party

Ilyas playing slide in Magic Castle

It's party time!

Cutting the cakes together

Birthday boys

Ilyas with his presents, a happy boy!

Two birthday parties in one day for Ilyas

Attending Jake's birthday party at Magic Castle

Ilyas and Louie

Cutting the birthday cake

Today is quite a busy day for Ilyas. He is attending two birthday parties of his friends. I know he had lots of fun because by the time we went home around 5pm, he went straight to bed and fell asleep.

The dumbest ever quiz answers

*found this on the news today

LONDON (Reuters) - Question: What was Gandhi's first name? Contestant's answer: Goosey Goosey. Warning to all those know-alls who shout at the television screen when contestants offer dumb answers to blindingly obvious questions -- one day that could be you.

From regional radio shows to "Who Wants To be a Millionaire?" and "University Challenge," people make fools of themselves -- as internet site http://www.jumpingjacksbar.com/ found in collating some of the worst howlers. Here are leading contenders for the "Dumb Down" gold medal:

Presenter: What happened in Dallas on November 22, 1963?
Contestant: I don't know, I wasn't watching it then

Presenter: Which American actor is married to Nicole Kidman?
Contestant: Forrest Gump

Presenter: In which country is Mount Everest?
Contestant: Er, it's not in Scotland is it?

Presenter: Name a film starring Bob Hoskins that is also the name of a famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci
Contestant: Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Presenter: In which European city was the first opera house opened in 1637?
Contestant: Sydney

Presenter: How long did the Six-Day War between Egypt and Israel last?
Contestant: (after long pause) Fourteen days

Presenter: Where did the D-Day landings take place?
Contestant: (after pause) Pearl Harbor?

Presenter: What is the currency in India
Contestant: Ramadan

Presenter: Johnny Weissmuller died on this day. Which jungle-swinging character clad only in a loin cloth did he play?
Contestant: Jesus

(Editing by Steve Addison)

'Why? Why??'

Again, in contrary to what the above cartoon depicts, I have managed to write 5 pages of Introduction part this morning. No kidding!

'A list, plan or outline of things to be done'

Although my meeting with supervisors today also lasted half an hour (shortest one so far), we managed to discuss many things and continue with what I've already planned beforehand. :)

Lancaster Morecambe Badminton League - League Match Fourteen

After the easy win last week, we are facing Torrisholme A tonight in an away game. We beaten them 11-7 last time in our home game but it won't be easy this time as Brenda is still injured. And I noticed that they have a new men player. Should be interesting.

And what a night it was! Paul and I had a very tough match and we split 15-10, 13-15. It was very tiring and then I had to partner Tim for our second men double match and again the result was a close one. We won both sets 17-15, 15-6 but the truth is that it could goes either way.

After several more mixed double matches, I realised that I need to win my mixed double match with Eddie. We tried our best but still lost both sets 12-15, 10-15. In the end we lost 8-10 overall. If only...

Lancaster Morecambe Badminton League - League Match Thirteen

Since our lost in the cup match, we are no longer playing every week unlike Team B who are still in the cup competition. This week we are playing one of the weakest team in our division, Hest Bank C. Last time we met them we won easily 13:5. Since Brenda had to take a rest due to her wrist injury, this is the perfect opportunity to familiarise myself with my new partner, Eddie.

I had good game in my men doubles matches. Paul and I won 15-5, 15-10, last time we were split. Tim and I also won 15-8, 17-14 although we had a scare during the second set when we were trailing 12-14. We were also split last time when we met them. My first double match with Eddie was shaky in the first set as we lost 9-15 but we regained our confidence and won the second set 15-12. Overall, we won 14:4, not bad at all.

Maisarah

Picture taken by my sister last year.

My revenge is complete!

My third backgammon win

One more win from Three Pointers Tournament and I will take a break. Seriously :)

Majlis Ilmu Lancaster

Currently our 'usrah' programmes amongst the Malaysian men and women have been progressing nicely in each alternate weekends. The ladies have their own blog which is Helwa Lancaster and they are quite active in updating the entries. The men have started their own blog too and it is called Majlis Ilmu Lancaster. Hopefully every note of discussion will be uploaded in this blog so that if anyone unable to attend the programme, they can at least visit the blog and read the points of discussion. Of course it won't be the same like attending by yourself but it is better than nothing.

One down, one more to go

It's revenge time!

Lancaster Morecambe Badminton League - League Match Twelve

After nearly a month break, the league resumes and our first match of 2008 is against the current runners-up, Hest Bank B. We lost 4-14 in the early season and any points against them is actually a bonus. So when Paul and I won our first set 15-7, we thought of doing better than last time we met them, which is to win both sets. Unfortunately, we lost 15-17 in a very tight match. I suffered the same fortune with Tim when we won 15-7 in the first set and lost 13-15 in the second although we were leading 13-9 at one time.

Brenda injured her wrist again and really struggling especially with her backhand. In the first set we lost 11-15 but it was an evenly match. However, she couldn't cope with the pain anymore in the second set and we surrendered the set rather easily, 4-15. I heard that Brenda might had to take a few weeks break so I'm definitely will be playing with a new partner in our next match.

Conquerclub

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.. or in this case... two women. I initially managed to control the whole American continent (North and South). But then my wife (jmaa) attacked Brazil from North Africa and whilst I was busy attending to that, Idlan attacked from Kamchatka. Make you wonder if they are colluding somehow.. hmmm...

First snow of this winter in Lancaster

I was surfing the internet in my living room when my wife called. She was on her way to Stoke with her friends shopping for bone china. She asked whether it is snowing in Lancaster. As I looked outside the window, there is indeed snow falling! I'm a bit excited because last winter there is hardly any snow in this part of region, mainly because it is a coastal area and it's other sides are surrounded by mountains. However, when I checked the Met Office website, the snow is just temporary, at least until early Friday morning. Not enough to build a snowman, I suppose. Still, something to cherish in this long and dull winter.

Moving In and Out

For the past few weeks two new families have arrived from Malaysia. Both the husbands are doing PhD but in the different schools. One is staying on campus while the other one is living off campus. It seems that more and more postgraduate students are coming over to Lancaster. The more the merrier I guess. However, last Saturday, my college neighbour, Asmadi is moving out to live off campus since his former flat had to be vacated to make way for a new development. Lancaster is changing so fast that you will always see new constructions and new structures everywhere across the campus. I'm just hoping that I'd be able to recognise the familiar places of it if I decided to come back for a visit in 10 years time though.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Adha

Ilyas in a Nativity play

Imran as the drummer boy

Ilyas as the traveller

Today Ilyas is participating in his school Nativity play. His friend Imran is also in the play. I almost forgotten about it and went to the school reception last Friday to buy the tickets. Unfortunately there is only one ticket left so this morning my wife went there by herself instead. She took lots of pictures and videos so it is OK then. Better remind myself not to forget the next year's play.

How to Identify An Idiot?

*received this e-mail from a friend :)

How to Identify An Idiot?

(1) He spends twenty minutes looking at an orange juice box because it said, "concentrate".

(2) He puts lipstick on the forehead because he wanted to makeup his mind.

(3) He gets stabbed in a shoot-out.

(4) He sends a fax with a stamp on it.

(5) He tries to drown a fish.

(6) If you gave them a penny for their intelligence, you'd get change.

(7) He trips over a cordless phone.

(8) He takes a ruler to bed to see how long he slept.

(9) At the bottom of the application where it says "Sign Here", he puts "Sagittarius".

(10) He takes 2 hours to watch "60 minutes".

(11) He invents a solar powered flashlight.

(12) He heard that 90% of all crimes occur around the home, so he moves.

(13) He misses the No. 14 Bus, and takes the 7 twice instead.

(14) He takes you to the airport and saw a sign that said, "Airport left", and he turned around and went home.

(15) He got locked in a furniture shop but sleeps on the floor.]

(16) He spends time reading thru the above 15 points and analyses if he is an idiot!!!

Longest name for a place?

*thanks Asmadi for the picture

Sad news

Lancaster Morecambe Badminton League - Cup Match

Tonight (or morning rather) is quite a tragic day for many people. Bailrigg A is playing against Ingleton A at away in a cup match. It's a knockout tournament and Ingleton A is currently in Division One. It's a bit different than a league match format in term that you win the match based on total points rather than total sets. So winning 15-0 will be a big advantage than winning 15-13. And lower ranked team will get an additional points which is known as handicap points.

Paul and I lost both our sets for the first time in this season by the score of 11-15, 12-15. Wan Huzaini, who is playing for the first time in A team, and who will be playing in Ingleton again this Wednesday for B team, is my second double partner and we also lost both our sets 11-15, 9-15. He managed to break his racket this time, the fourth time this year if I'm not mistaken. So it's a tragic day for him. Brenda and I also lost both our sets 12-15, 5-15. Overall we only managed to get 154 points against 258 points won by Ingleton A. Even when we received an additional 80 handicap points, the difference is too great to make any difference. So a tragic day for Bailrig A for being kicked out from the cup tournament.

But nothing compare to what happened to one of the Ingleton A members. As Wan Huzaini and I went inside Brenda's car, we noticed that the time was 11.30pm and the temperature is -2 Celcius. It was very cold and frost started to form on the car's windscreen. We began our journey home along the village and farm little winding roads. The journey was quite long as Ingleton is actually situated in Yorkshire district. Brenda was driving within the speed limit (30mph, although I had a suspicion that she drove a little bit more than that) when we came accros some icy patch on the road. Apparently there was a little stream of water running accross the road and it just went frozen. The car wobbled a bit when we passed through it but when we look further in front we suddenly realised that there is a car lying upside down next to the road. We stopped immediately and Paul's car who was following us also stopped.

Brenda, June and Sue immediately went to that car and to our horror, the driver was one of the Ingleton A ladies player as we found a badminton kit and the score sheet. I think the ladies knew the driver and they suspected that it was Rosie but it was quite dark and they just can't see the driver's face clearly. She was unconscious and therefore did not respond to our call. The driver area was quite crushed and Sue can only reach for her hand. She thought that she can feel a faint pulse. We immediately called the rescue and wait for the help to arrive. There is nothing that we can do except positioning our cars in such a way that other drivers coming into that direction will take an extra care when passing that icy patch on the road.

Two fire engines, an ambulance and several police cars arrived after 10-15 minutes and they immediately went into action. The policeman took our statements and after 10 minutes we are allowed back to our car. On the way back to Brenda's car, I noticed that the firemen have already extracted that driver out of the car but they just laid her down and cover her face with a white cloth. Only then I realised that she is already dead as the paramedics did not try to rush the victim back to their ambulance.

When Brenda started her car again, the time is already 12.30am and the temperature has dipped to -4 Celcius. It was a very slow journey back home and it was a very tragic night.

My second backgammon tournament win

Today I won my second backgammon tournament, another one pointer match. I'm quite pleased with this win. Next target is to win 3-points match tournament. I wonder how long it will take. Hopefully not as long as it took me to win my first tournament (9 months!).

Bulu Tangkis won the B-Active League

Today is the last match day of the B-Active Badminton League organised by the Lancaster University Students' Union. As expected, team Bulu Tangkis 'A' easily defeated Badminton Bads 3-0 to be confirmed as the overall champion whilst Bulu Tangkis 'B' remains second in the league after they beaten Lancaster Lemming with the same score. Full results and final league standing will be published afterwards.

Congratulations to all Bulu Tangkis players! Hopefully we will win this league again next year.

1. Sean Chua (Team 'A' captain) - Malaysia
2. Don (Team 'B' captain) - Malaysia
3. Ken Lee (A) - Malaysia
4. Wan Huzaini (A) - Malaysia
5. Ahmed Razman (A) - Malaysia
6. Ali al-Belushi (A) - Oman
7. Maulana Syuhada (A) - Indonesia
8. Romzie Rosman (B) - Malaysia
9. Steve Kong (B) - Malaysia
10. Owen Pryce (B) - UK
11. Devin Li (B) - China

A visitor from London

Today we are very lucky to receive a visit from Ustaz Erfino (http://erfino.blogspot.com) all the way from London. He is an Education Attache for Malaysian Students Department so we took the opportunity to invite him to give a talk on how to live life in the UK as a Muslim. We had lunch first followed by his talk. After that, we took part in a Q&A on religion and we learnt a lot from him. I took the opportunity to be an unofficial photographer for that occasion and some of the pictures can be seen from my Flickr account as I haven't finish uploading all of them yet.

Xmas play - Mary's Knitting 2nd day

Today is the second day Maisarah is pretending to be an angel in the Xmas play at her preschool. This time she sat at far left of the stage but that has not stopping her from bouncing around and enjoying the show. Afterwards I ordered a DVD recording of both plays. Can't wait.

Xmas play - Mary's Knitting

This evening Maisarah is participating in her first ever play, 'Mary's Knitting' at her preschool. She is supposed to be an angel, just like Ilyas when he's in the play last year. Although much of her part is just sitting around, sometimes she follows the song and clapping hand together. She is definitely enjoying herself. Another performance is to follow this Friday.

Lancaster Morecambe Badminton League - League Match Eleven

Tonight we played against Ingleton B at home. It was our biggest win so far as we won 16-2. I won all my matches easily. With Paul we won 15-7, 15-2 and with Mark we won 15-6, 15-13. Last time we met Ingleton B, Brenda and I split our match. This time we won easily 15-3, 15-1.

Next week will be our first cup match. It's a knockout competition and we will be travelling away to face Ingleton A. Not really looking forward to it.

Sheffield Meadowhall

On the way back from Nottingham we stopped by at Sheffield Meadowhall, another shopping complex like Trafford Centre in Manchester.

Nottingham Sports Meet

This Saturday my family and I went for a little trip down south to Nottingham. Every year, the Malaysian students in Nottingham University hold an annual sports meet participated by Malaysian students all over the UK. I decided to play badminton in mixed double event as they don't have a men double event which is quite puzzling. My partner is Idlan, a former Lancastrian currently lecturing in Essex University. When I first registered, the competition is supposed to be in a round robin format followed by knockout matches starting from quarter-final stage. When we arrived there, we discovered that it will be a knockout match starting from the beginning! Imagine that you had to travel hundred of miles to come here only to play 21 points match which can lasts less than 10 minutes. That's what happened to me and Idlan as we lost our only match 17-21. Bummer...

Afterwards we went to buy lunch at the Portland Building where they have Malaysian Food Festival. Plenty of foods to choose, not unlike 'Pasar Malam' and in the end we bought Nasi Lemak, Cendol, Satay, Murtabak, Taufu Fa, Rojak Buah and various Kuih-Muih. Then we decided to visit Tale of Robin Hood situated near city centre. The kids were having fun and by the time we reach our Travelodge, everyone was pretty exhausted and so we had an early sleep time.