EBay

Just bought a Yu-Gi-Oh GX card album from EBay. So I dedicated this song to myself...

Skuad Harimau Kembali Mengaum!

Malaysia are champions of the Merdeka Tournament again after a lapse of 14 years. Full story here.

Amazing Trick Shot

What is your Brazil name?

My Brazil name is Ahma Da Costa.

My son's Brazil name is Ilyildo.

My daughter's Brazil name is Maisarerto.

And my wife's Brazil name is Akhiano.

What's your? Click here.

New couple in Lancaster University

Last night my wife and I invited a Malaysian couple who had just arrived here a couple of days ago for a dinner in our flat. The husband is going to do a PhD in a Political Science (I think) and the wife will be pursuing Master in Project Management. They don't have any kid yet so concentrating on their study should be no problem. Both of them are PTD (Pegawai Tadbir Diplomatik) officers working under one of the agencies in the Prime Minister Department. Apparently there are 43 different agencies under that one Ministry alone. Now that is something new for me.

Gregorius - NMKY (Finnish YMCA 1979 version)

Village People - YMCA (1978)

Roxette - Crash! Boom! Bang!

Lakeland Maize Maze

Today my family and I went to the Lakeland Maize Maze with three other Malaysian families. It is situated near Lake District. We went to the car boot sales first, of course, and Ilyas managed to buy himself Power Rangers videos and DVDs, a Digimon toy, a Bionicle toy and several Yu-Gi-Oh cards. Sarah got herself few shirts (one of them is a Burberry bought at 50 pence!) and several toys too. My wife got some Kenwood travelling steam iron, a Levis jean and other stuff. I bought myself several DVDs (special edition of Reservoir Dogs and Final Fantasy, and a complete collection of Taken) and a hard cover Hannibal Rising at 1 pound. There were actually two giant car boot sales in that area (Carnforth) but since our inital plan is to visit Lakeland Maze, we had to forego the other one. Maybe next weekend, hehe.

Lakeland Maze itself is an interesting place to visit and bring your family. I've already uploaded several videos in Ilyas and Maisarah YouTube account. Their main attraction is of course their corn maze which is quite huge. Every year they designed a different maze. The first two years were in the shape of a farmer and his dog, and a pig. This year they created a tractor maze and a mini maze in a shape of a corn. We decided to take a mini maze challenge because the main maze will takes about 1 1/2 hours to finish. I think we spent half an hour on a mini maze. At the end of the day, the kids enjoyed themselves to the fullest and that's what important.

A pig maze

A farmer and his dog (sideway)

This year maze, a tractor and a corn

This is the clue, printed on a fridge magnet

Roxette - The Big Love

Badminton - A Dangerous Sport?

We played badminton last night as usual and I was eager to try out the 2GB Memory Stick that Owen lent to me. Turned out it has a capacity of 70 minutes of recording. That's quite a plenty. And what a night it was. Huzaini managed to break his fourth racket, this time by smashing it onto Maulana's head. And the whole thing was recorded and proudly uploaded in the YouTube. And he managed to hit Maulana's head again later on. After he went home, Maulana just realised that his head is actually bleeding. After recent injury to Asmadi and now to Maulana, our badminton session suddenly becomes a battleground. Time to wear a protective headgear?

The racket fits perfectly to Maulana's head... hehe

Ouch!

Exactly at 0:10 Huzaini hit Maulana's head...

followed by breaking his racket at 0:24

and hitting Maulana on the head again at 0:36

Roxette - Joyride

Roxette - Dangerous

New Beginning

I'm busy uploading all the necessary softwares in my recently formatted laptop and creating all favourites links back in my browser. It is fun! Like painting on an empty white canvas.

Roxette - Almost Unreal

Starting All Over Again

Well I sent my laptop to the computer guy in the library and asked them to reformat the whole thing. It's better that way, start clean. It is just plain luck that I have decided several weeks ago to treat my laptop as a transit station rather than a permanent station for all my files. A bit unfortunate though that I didn't managed to transfer my recent files (consisted mostly of pictures and videos taken for the last couple of weeks) into my two separate external hard drives but it could be worse.

On an different note, I just had a discussion with my new co-supervisor and he had plenty to talk about my research questions. He didn't think it was enough and want me to exploit the data for other research questions. I had to ask my main supervisor though about this because we have been working on this one for several months now. This sounds like another reformat. Uh-huh.

Roxette - The Look

Computer Virus

My notebook has been infected by a virus last night. I didn't know what happened really. I just came back from a badminton session and wanted to browse the internet and suddenly there were several pop-up messages that telling me my computer has been infected. I got suspicious and just close all those messages when I realised there are several new shortcuts on my desktop that I didn't recognise. The notebook suddenly crashed and rebooted but when the Windows started again, the usual wallpaper is gone and replaced by a strange warning sign. I immediately disconnected from the Internet and did Ad-Aware scan and Symantec virus scan. Through Ad-Aware I found several Spywares but the computer is running so slow that I had to abandon the Symantec virus scan.

At this moment I'm starting the Symantec virus scan again and if that doesn't resolve the issue, I'm going to bring my notebook to the tech guy.

By the way, I'm writing this using my office computer. Since I did all my work in the office, nothing is lost, plus I had my dissertation backup in my thumbdrive. And I already did a backup for all personal files in my notebook to two separate external hard drive before this virus attack. So if worst case scenario did happened, which is reformatting my notebook back, I will only lose several new pictures and movies of my family, which I think some of them have been already uploaded into our YouTube and Fotopages account.

I think this virus attack happens when you click some of the pop-up messages that appear when you browsing the internet. Will investigate this further.

Roxette - Spending My Time

Helwa Lancaster

The Malaysian ladies in Lancaster have been really active in their 'usrah' and gatherings for the past few few months. They even have their own blog site http://helwa-lancs.blogspot.com which includes several interesting articles and pictures of the members. Well done to them!

Roxette - How Do You Do

R & R

Arghh... please come back soon R & R!

Roxette - It Must Have Been Love

Lancaster City FC (2) FC United of Manchester (1)

What a match!

When we arrived at the Giant Axe Stadium, there were thousands of people in red shirts and scarves and very few in blue (the actual attendance is 2247). I had just started to think that it is becoming like a home match for FC United. Their supporters came with flags and singing songs throughout the match and I was struggling to find any Lancaster City fans. The match itself was also a bit one-sided. FC United were attacking all the time and Lancaster City were realy struggling. Only on certain occasions they managed to make a counter attack and from that they managed to get a lead through a header. And then back to defending until the half time whistle.

In the second half, FC United resumed their attacking mode and only through sheer luck and the inability of FC United strikers to do the finishing did Lancaster City managed to got hold of one goal advantage. The match continued to become a one way traffic affair until several minutes before the final whistle. Some of the supporters have started to went home when suddenly Lancaster City managed to muster a counter attack. The Lancaster City striker found himself face to face with FC United keeper and he kept his cool to slot home the second goal. I was still celebrating when FC United scored a goal which I think came straight from their kickoff. The match became alive yet again and now FC United have doubled their attacks. They got another chance when one of their players executed a bicycle kick shot that was just few inches wide. And then a final whistle came. What a relief and what a joy for Lancaster City fans, including myself. And Ilyas was happy because he can play Transformers toys with Haziq for nearly two hours.
Huzaini, Haziq, Ilyas and me.

The kickoff, Lancaster Castle at the background. Strangely enough, the dugouts were situated away from the Main Stand so the players and the staff had to cross the pitch before the game and during the halftime.

Roxette - Listen To Your Heart

David Beckham scored in his first start for LA Galaxy...

and then he assist Landon Donovan..business as usual

Roxette - Fading Like A Flower

New Freezer

Today I got a new freezer for my flat. Well, not actually new but rather was given by one departing postgraduate. Until now, I have a tiny compartment of freezer in my fridge to stock several weeks supply of frozen chickens and fish. What about icecream then? Well, we just eat them straight away after we bought it.

Now with the new freezer that is the equivalent in size to my current fridge, I've already started to imagine all sort of frozen foods that I can put inside it. Such as chocolate icecream, strawberry icecream, toffee icecream, caramel icecream, vanilla icecream and not forgetting mocha icecream. Seems to be in conflict with my resolve to lose weight though....

Padhyangan 6 - Tenda Biruku (as recommended by Idlan, hehe)

Contract Agreement Part 2

Today I signed the contract agreement with Grant Thornton. Hopefully I will get the data in two weeks time and be extra busy for the next few months.

Dschinghis Khan - Samurai (with altered subtitles of course!)

Books Part 2

Today I received a book from Amazon titled 'The Sword of Attila by Michael Curtis Ford'. Which makes the number of books in my collection that has not been read yet to 44.

No. More. Books.

Hmm.... latest book by Steven Pressfield... 'The Afghan Campaign'... sounds interesting.....

Bok'Teh - Bining

Old vs. New

Today I bought tickets to watch a football match this Saturday. It is a Northern Premier League Division One North match and it is between Lancaster City F.C. and F.C. United of Manchester. Both clubs have their own colourful histories even when one of them just formed in 2005. Lancaster City F.C. was founded in 1905 but recent years saw them relegated two divisions below due to financial difficulties.

F.C. United of Manchester (try reading their name from right to left) was founded by the supporters of Manchester United who decided to create their own football team following the Malcolm Glazer's takeover. They got promoted twice during their first two seasons.

Now both of them are together in the same league and they are going head to head this Saturday. I went to the Giant Axe Stadium office (I saw a pennant, Lancaster City vs Manchester United - 2005 - wow!) and bought tickets for two adults and two kids (Wan Huzaini is going to watch together with his son, Haziq) as I am thinking of bringing my son, Ilyas as well.

The officer must have thought that I'm going to bring my wife and two kids as he said, "Well, I think I will give you a family package, you don't have to pay for the Main Stand Seat (worth £8 altogether!), but don't tell anyone OK". So I only need to pay for the entrance tickets (£6 for adult and £3 for kid) and received a complimentary seating section. They still have a standing and uncovered section, which is no longer allowed in higher divisions. These four tickets are still cheaper than a single ticket I bought when watching Manchester United last year which resulted in 0-0 scoreline. Really looking forward to this game. Stay tuned.

Dschingis Khan - Hadschi Halef Omar (with altered subtitles!)

Batch Reunion

My former MRSM schoolmates are planning a reunion sometime in 2008. I won't be able to attend it because it will means spending close to 2,000 British Pound Sterling just to buy tickets back to Malaysia. But I'm helping them in creating some sort of reunion book, where all the contact details of each and every one of us are collected together with the current pictures. Can't wait to see their faces after 14 years. At the moment six people have already responded so that will leave 251 names to go....

Badminton Stunt

Family Tree Part 2

I have installed the Legacy Family Tree Deluxe 4 on my computer. Tried it once and did not like it. So I bought another geneology software, Family Tree Maker 2006 Deluxe from EBay. It arrives today and I'm going to test it soon. I heard that it can converts my old file into the new one. So hopefully I can recover what I have collected and stored so far in that old file and save me lots of time.

Tunak Tunak Tun (with altered subtitles!)

Body Fat Part 2

Today I went to Boots again to confront that weight machine. It is exactly one month since the shocking revelation that I was in fact overweight. So I braced myself and put some coins into it and waited for the printout.

Some good news first:

1. I managed to reduce my weight from 81.4kg to 79.8kg (a 'whopping' 1.6kg (or 2%) decrease).
2. My B.M.I is currently 26.1, a 0.5 point decrease from 26.6.

err... that's it.

Now for some bad news:

1. I'm still overweight. If my B.M.I is over 25, I am still considered overweight. Rats!
2. My body fat increased from 20.4kg to 20.7kg (from 25.1% to 26%). So it is still between Average and Poor.

I don't understand this. I managed to reduce my overall weight but my body fat is increasing instead. Things that I did over the months are playing badminton three times a week, skipping dinner almost every night, eating less of chocolate and chips and walking around the university whenever I had the chance.

So assuming that I maintain whatever that I am doing so far and if reduction in weight is a linear progression, I should be able to attain my ideal weight in two months time. Plus the Ramadhan is coming. So I will only say this to that weight machine in Boots, "I'll be back!"

Ultimate Warrior! Wuarghhhh!!!!

Contract Agreement

Finally, Grant Thornton has sent a contract agreement to my supervisor. Once it is signed and send to them, they will send the data to us, and I can start crunching them like mad. But when we studied them closely, there is no mention of data exclusivity in the contract as agreed earlier on the phone. Now the university officer is going to look at it and decide whether we can proceed with the signing or do we have to ask Grant Thornton to revise it back. Considering that it took me more than 3 months of calling their people almost every week just for them to send this contract, I don't know whether I will be willing to wait much longer for the data. The wait continues...

The Offspring - Pretty Fly For A White Guy

Coming and Going

Last night my wife and I invited several people to our house for a dinner. Bakri and his family are going back to Malaysia after he successfully defended his thesis during his viva last month. And so is June, who has just finished her Master degree. Several days ago Syarifah Raihan, a UKM staff arrived here to do her Phd in Linguistic and at the moment she is staying in Nana's flat, which is in the same buiding with us. We had our dinner and also had our pictures taken. Hopefully there will be a big reunion in 5 or 10 years time in Malaysia where everyone who has been in Lancaster can gather together just to relive that sort of muhibbah feeling we have at the moment.

Our badminton YouTube page

This is one of the game that I managed to upload at YouTube. You can watch them all at www.youtube.com/lancasterbadminton

This particular match is interesting because Din and I were leading throughout the game but somehow got beaten by Asmadi and Wan Huzaini at the end (This is Part 1, you need to watch the Part 2 to see how frustrated I was). So it does remind you that every single point matters and you'd better make sure your serve is in all the time.

Husband vs. Wife

The Silent Treatment

A man and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment. Suddenly, the man realized that the next day, he would need his wife to wake him at 5:00 AM for an early morning business flight. Not wanting to be the first to break the silence (and LOSE), he wrote on a piece of paper, "Please wake me at 5:00 AM " He left it where he knew she would find it.

The next morning, the man woke up, only to discover it was 9:00 AM and he had missed his flight. Furious, he was about to go and see why his wife hadn't wakened him, when he noticed a piece of paper by the bed. The paper said, "It is 5:00 AM . Wake up."

Men are not equipped for these kinds of contests.

Relatives

A couple drove down a country road for several miles, not saying a word. An earlier discussion had led to an argument and neither of them wanted to concede their position.

As they passed a barnyard of mules, goats, and pigs, the husband asked sarcastically, "Relatives of yours?"

"Yep," the wife replied , " in-laws"

Women's Revenge

"Cash, check or charge?" I asked, after folding items the woman wished to purchase. As she fumbled for her wallet I noticed a remote control for a television set in her purse. "So, do you always carry your TV remote?" I asked.

"No," she replied, " but my husband refused to come shopping with me,and I figured this was the most evil thing I could do to him legally."

Words

A husband read an article to his wife about how many words women use a day. 30,000 to a man's 15,000. The wife replied, "The reason has to be because we have to repeat everything to men...

The husband then turned to his wife and asked, "What?"

Creation

A man said to his wife one day, "I don't know how you can be so stupid and so beautiful all at the same time. The wife responded, "Allow me to explain.

God made me beautiful so you would be attracted to me;

God made me stupid so I would be attracted to you!

Who Does What

A man and his wife were having an argument about who should brew the coffee each morning. The wife said, "You should do it, because you get up first, and then we don't have to wait as long to get our coffee." The husband said, " You are in charge of cooking around here and you should do it, because that is your job, and I can just wait for my coffee."

Wife replies, "No, you should do it, and besides, it is in the Bible that the man should do the coffee." Husband replies, "I can't believe that, show me." So she fetched the Bible, and opened the New Testament and showed him at the top of several pages, that it indeed says ..........."HEBREWS"

And lastly...

God may have created man before woman, but there is always a rough draft before the masterpiece.

***Received it from a female species, but I guess you'd already figured that out, didn't you...

Minmi - Sha Na Na

sekali tengok muka macam Maya Karin

dua kali tengok macam muka Maya Karin

tiga kali tengok muka macam Maya Karin

empat kali tengok macam muka err... Maya Karin

err..lima kali tengok...errmmm muka macam Maya Karin

tapi bukan Maya Karin yer...

Nikmat Dunia

Japanese Transformers with corrupted subtitles (again!)

Blink 182 - All The Small Things

Happy Happy Joy Joy

My daughter Maisarah is happy today because she got a new My Little Pony. Now she has three of them.

My son Ilyas is happy today because he got a Transformers Bumblebee. He is already asking whether we are going again to Toys'R'Us tomorrow. I suspect he is already eyeing another Autobot.

My wife Joanna is happy today because she has her own PC now. Now she doesn't have to wait for her turn to online shopping, err I mean online surfing.

I am happy today because my team, ANSARA Taiping managed to avoid relegation in the Division Two Alumni League. We received a walkover since SAHOCA decided not to play at all. They have committed to another tournament and they don't mind going down to Division Three. Well, we don't mind staying in Division Two either.

Long Rally Part 3

Family Tree

I used to create my family tree using a software bought in Low Yat Plaza. I think it was a Family Tree Creator Deluxe by Mindscape. My geneology database became so big that it covers more than a hundred family members. Unfortunately I lost the CD and as a results I cannot open the file. That was two years ago. Now I'm going to start again, this time I will make sure there will be a hard copy of it. I bought Legacy Family Tree Deluxe 4 over the Amazon and it arrived today. Haven't got time to install it yet. This is going to be a long term project so I'm not going to rush it. Hopefully it will be something that my children can learn about their ancestors.

Indian Thriller with 'revised' subtitles - Especially for Izri ;)

Dschingis Khan - Dschingis Khan (with the altered subtitles!)

Birthday Gift

Today my family and I went to Fleetwood Freeport, a retail park about 30 miles from here. There is a sale at The NEXT and my wife managed to get a few bargains. And when she went to the Wedgwood shop, she found the Wild Strawberry cup collection that she has been looking for. I let her bought them. When we arrived home, her new Sony Ericsson K810i has already arrived. I guess her birthday which is due next month came a little bit early. I don't mind actually, better early than accidentally forgot about it!

Long Rally Part 2

Done that, did that

10 things that happened today:

1. ISS (Internet Something Something) people came to my flat to inspect our internet connection data point. Something is definitely not working and he promised to come back tomorrow morning with some of the repair tools.

2. I renewed my mobile phone contract and got my wife the new Sony Ericsson K810i. It should arrived tomorrow. Her birthday is next month so I guess I'm safe for this year.

3. I called and put my name for dentist registration. Apparently you had to wait for available places before you can go visit the dentist. I'm going to put the whole family into that registration thing.

4. I picked up my Indonesian friend, Maulana from Westmorland General Hospital in Kendal, about 23 miles from here. He got a screw removed from his foot. He broke his leg last year and the doctor had to put some steel and screw to strengthen it. The bone is OK now so I guess the screw already served its purpose.

5. I received 'The Darwin Conspiracy by John Darnton' today from an Amazon seller. Several days ago I received 'Book of the Dead by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child'. I don't think I will be able to read these books this month. There are two books I'm currently reading and the progress is very slow.

6. Got the rental DVDs today, 'My Super Ex-Girlfriend' and 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning'. Probably going to watch them tomorrow.

7. Did some 'adjustments' to my website www.ligaalumni.com. I put State flag beside each team's name. Going to tweak some more tomorrow.

8. Had a two hours session with the badminton club. Had to play doubles with three ladies. Hate it! Cannot smash!

9. Created a YouTube account for my children. You can go visit www.youtube.com/ilyasmaisarah

10. Ate karipaps made by my wife and the children. The most delicious karipaps ever!

Bass Hunter - Boten Anna (with corrupted subtitles of course!)