Curly Maisarah

Umi bought some hair curler from the car boot sale and tried it immediately on Maisarah, but only on the bottom part of her hair. She likes it though. I wonder if she will feel the same if Umi did it on her whole hair.

Car Boot Sale in Lydiate

Today we spent our morning at the car boot sale in Lydiate. Ilyas and Maisarah are quite happy because they got what they were looking for. Maisarah found another pony soft toy and Ilyas bought 2 Bionicle toys and Yu-Gi-Oh cards. I think Umi bought a pair of long pant. Yes, you heard me right, only one pant. Hard to believe, isn't it?

Joke of the day

Ilyas asked his Umi, 'Why was Cinderella so bad at football?'

Umi said, 'Because she wears a skirt?'

Ilyas answered, 'No, because her coach was a pumpkin!'

ha ha ha

Little Pool at the Back Garden

It's a sunny day today and quite warm, so Umi bought a swimming pool for Ilyas and Maisarah. They decided to have a splash around in their favourite place, which is our back garden and they absolutely enjoyed it. Perhaps when Tok Ayah is here, he too can join them in the pool.

Another backgammon win

Won this one but not sure what 'stratified' really means for this kind of format. Looks like a normal straight knock-out competition though.

Little Picnic at the Back Garden

Ilyas and Maisarah are having a school break at the moment and since the day is quite long (sunset at 9.30pm!) they can get easily bored. So today Umi prepared a table complete with the umbrella for them to have their own little picnic at our back garden. After eating the apples they amused themselves by playing with the snails.

Trips to movie and retail park in York

Before we going back to Liverpool, we went to watch 'Bolt' at the Vue cinema in York. They have special promotions during the morning where we only had to pay £3.40 for the four of us! Afterwards we stopped by at the Designer Outlet park to have our lunch. Jo did a little shopping and then off we go!

Trip to York

Ilyas and Maisarah are currently on a school holiday so today we decided to visit the historical city of York and stay for the night since Jo already book a Travelodge room last January. We visited the famous Clifford Tower and other historical buildings surrounding it. We also walked through the city main streets and had picnic in one of the public park there. It was indeed a good day in the sun.

So exhausted!

Ilyas is so tired walking around in the car boot sale at Lydiate that when we came back home, he fell asleep right at the door of our doorstep!

Star of the Week (again!)

Maisarah has been declared as one of the Stars of the Week because 'she is polite and hard working, always very keen to help', as quoted in the nursery newsletter. The last time she is Star of the Week was in early January this year. This time she got a sparkle lipstick as a gift.

Let me tell you a story. No, wait, one's not enough.

Since I'm going to get busier for the next few months, I cannot afford to read a long winding novel because I know I will want to finish it as quick as I can, and this will takes lots of precious time off from me. So I bought this book which is a collection of 26 short stories. So it will be like reading one story a day. Brilliant!

A Conversation With My Daughter

This morning I asked Maisarah, 'Why do the girls wear skirts and the boys wear pants?'

She looked and pointing finger at me and said, 'But you are wearing a skirt'. She is of course referring to me wearing a sarung. And then she continued, 'And Umi is wearing a pant'. And I remember Jo is wearing a pyjama pant during the nighttime.

And I could only smile without saying anything else after that.

Research Student Conference

Entrance to the building

One of the presentations

Posters presentation

Today I went to the Liverpool Innovation Park for the annual Faculty of Businesss and Law Research Student Conference. There are six papers to be presented and mine was one of them. There are also lots of poster presentation prepared by the rest of the research students. Our guest speakers are Gary Millar (former alumnus of Liverpool John Moores University and currently a Councillar for Old Swan, Cabinet Member for Enterprise and Tourism and CEO of Parr Street Studios among others) and Prof. Mark Saunders from Surrey University.

Overall it was quite an informative and beneficial event although I wish I could be given more time to present my research and receive any questions and comments. Due to time constraint I was given 20 minutes to present but I managed to answer three questions posed by the audience.

Three visitors in a day

Yesterday we received visits from three families. Mukhriz and his family (including his parents from Malaysia) came to stop by our house on the way back to Lancaster after visiting Devon. Afterwards in the evening, my former schoolmate Anis and her family came to stay overnight before going back home at Dundee on Sunday morning. They just came back from Norwich but managed to stopped by at Birmingham to visit another schoolmate of ours. Our last visitors are also from Lancaster. Iqmal and his family spent a day sightseeing and shopping in the Liverpool shopping centre.

Ilyas and Maisarah truly enjoyed the evening because there are lots of children for them to play together with.

Champions of England

Champions of the World, Champions of England and by the end of this month, perhaps another trophy in Manchester United already bulging trophy cabinet.

Farmer Ted's Farm Park

Today Maisarah joined her class trip to Farmer Ted's Farm Park. Umi came with her as her official photographer. The bus trip took half an hour to arrive but Maisarah didn't mind as she kept singing along the journey. When they arrived there, Maisarah was quite excited and she spent her time playing with many animals like guinea pigs, sheep, horse, llama and cow. She also joined her friends playing in an indoor playground. On the way back home, she told Umi that she had a lovely day. She also bought a frog toy for Ilyas.

Nack

My first backgammon tournament win in 2009.
My first nack format win.
My 7th tournament wins so far.

Hillsborough Memorial Match

The programme book

Stars in action

Final score

The Kop

Solidarity after the match

Today Awa went to Anfield with his friends to watch a charity match for the Marina Dalglish Appeal, which is trying to raise funds to open a radiotherapy unit. The Liverpool squad consisted of many of their all time legends such as Kenny Dalglish, Ian Rush, Alan Hansen, John Aldridge, Steve McManaman, Mark Lawrenson and few others. Jamie Carragher became the assistant manager for the All Stars team which have Alan Shearer, Teddy Sheringham, Andy Gray, Les Ferdinand and few more others.

I took my family to go shopping at ASDA instead as I promised them that their first stadium experience will be in Theatre of Dreams.

Maisarah with her new bike

Now everyday Maisarah will go back from the school riding her new bike. With a big smile. We bought the bicycle at the car boot sale last Sunday, and it only costs us £5. We then went to the shop to buy its basket and bell, which costs us around £9, nearly double the price of that bike! And she insists that I put Twinkle and Huggle(her new soft toys) inside the basket everytime she rides it from school.

Visitors from Lancaster and Malaysia

Today we received a visit from Arlinah and her family. Arlinah is a Phd student in the Lancaster University and her family came from Malaysia for a holiday. They just came back from Manchester and decided to drop by in Liverpool before going back to Lancaster.