Yesterday we received Raya visits from our friends from Lancaster and Reading. The weather was fine and the children were quite happy to play together especially Maisarah since her former classmate Danial and his big sister, Isha were here also.

Today I bought Ilyas his football kits (which include an England shirt and short, boots, socks, shin pads and a tracksuit). At first I couldn't find a blank England shirt as all that available were Terry, Lampard and Rooney printed at the back. I cannot imagine Ilyas wearing any of those shirts when training in Liverpool FC Academy but luck was on my side when I saw one blank shirt, and it is a long sleeve one too! (Think David Beckham). So when we arrived back home, Ilyas was pretty much excited and so we practised kicking and stopping the ball for half an hour. Tomorrow will be a dribble session.

New Conquerclub Maps

Just as I finished winning all maps in the Conquerclub.com, they put up 3 more new maps! Somehow I don't think this is just a coincidence...hmmm.

The Liverpool FC Academy

I just received this letter today confirming that Ilyas will be attending football courses conducted by the Liverpool FC Academy. He will be starting in two weeks time so I guess I'd better get him some football gears as he haven't got any proper football boots and socks yet. And it's about time to use our back garden as a training pitch. Let's hope this is the beginning of a future David Beckham (!)

In the back garden

City Mogul

Once again I managed to win all the maps on offer in www.conquerclub.com Right now they have 103 maps with one map being withdrawn due to some technical issues. I have also won 400 times so far with a success rate of 23%. The only thing to target now is a gold medal for Terminator setting.

Smile!

My Fifth Tournament Wins

So far I have won Zippy Oner, One Pointer, Three Pointer and Tortoise Threers tournaments. Now to focus on Nack and five pointers tournaments.

Al Fatihah

Today I received news that my former neighbour in Kajang, Iswa Norazwa has passed away. We used to play ping pong together when I was 14 years old and although he is one year younger and quite stocky, I could never managed to beat him. From what I heard, he had trouble breathing for the past few days and it's getting worse today but by the time they rushed him to the hospital it was just a little bit too late.

I can't remember when was the last time I met him, it could well be more than 10 years ago. I heard he's already married but I'm not sure if he had any children or not.

My university mate, Shahrol passed away almost exactly one year ago. He was also 31 years old at that time. I guess good men die young.

New Venue

Last night I played badminton for the first time with Malaysians in Liverpool. They usually had their matches every Wednesday night and they invited me to come along. So Awa and I went to Kensington Community Sports Centre around 8.30pm and we came across several undergraduate students going home after a futsal game (hmm that's a thought). The badminton matches started at 9pm and there were 9 of us and two courts were booked. But it is more like a family outing because there was a couple joining us and several children were also playing next to the courts. And they were using plastic shuttlecocks (shock! horror!). I promptly took out my Sea Lion tube from the bag and put it next to the court. That's much better.

Overall we had pretty decent matches although I can say standards in Lancaster are slightly bit higher than here. But then on the way home, one of the guys told me that they have one Indian guy who used to represent state back home and always winning each and every sports meet organised in the UK and there is another guy who is also quite good but didn't play that night. But that doesn't stop me from wondering who will win if there is a friendly match between Lancaster and Liverpool. Hmmmm.

Raya Visits to Our House

Hafiyy

Nasi Dagang

The men

The ladies

The children

Little Princess - 30 September 2008

Mimpi Balik Machang

This video was forwarded to me by my cousin, A'a. Although it is really an amateur effort but it's quite funny especially when the characters speak in Kelate.

Our home in Liverpool

Master bedroom

The wardrobe has labels for each type of clothing like pyjamas etc

Ilyas and Maisarah's bedroom

Kitchen

Living room

Back garden

Life in Liverpool

Finally I got a broadband connection in my new home today. Tomorrow I'm going to have my first meeting with my new supervisor and we are going to finalise my registration as a PhD student with Liverpool John Moores University. I think I'm going to be working under the new European Centre for Corporate Governance and really looking forward to it. Hopefully I can finish my study in within one year.

Ilyas is already enjoying his new school and making a couple of new friends. Maisarah will be joining him by the end of this month and it's a good thing the school is situated just behind our house.

On the first day of Raya we visited three houses of Malaysians living in Liverpool. Two families even visited our house during the night. Last weekend we went to Lancaster and managed to visit 10 houses organised by 13 families. I think my wife is inviting several of our Lancastrian friends over to our house this coming weekend to extend the celebration of Raya.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri

A New Chapter

Today my family and I will be moving house to Liverpool, a sworn enemy town of Manchester United. The reason is because I'm changing my supervisors. Since I have just applied for the BT landline phone, it will take a couple more days to get the broadband application in process so I will be internetless until next week. Unless if I can borrow my wife's IPhone :)

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.

Street Soccer 2003

My friend Madun posted these pictures on his Facebook album. There were taken when I took several of Lancaster graduates to play in a street soccer tournament organised by my brother during a launch of his street soccer courts. The business is no longer there when people started to play futsal instead (no worries on rains). We didn't win this tournament but it was a great fun. The blue jerseys we wore at that time were the first set I bought for the team, which was called Lancaster United.

Al-Fatihah

Today one of my colleague in the Department of Accounting and Finance, Shamsudin Ismail or Mr Sam as he was fondly known among his friends, passed away after suffering from apparently a stroke attack. He used to teach banking and financial management subjects and has produced several books on these issues. He will be missed by his family and friends.

Since I went to the UK back in 2005, this is the second death amongst our staff, the first one is the demise of Prof. Ishak Omar, who used to play in bowling competitions with me. Life is short.

Hello and Goodbye

Farewell L818 NVV and nice to meet you, Sedgemore.

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.

My fourth backgammon win

Today I won my fourth backgammon tournament. The last time I won was on the 13th January so it was quite a while ago. I'm in another final at the moment, in a Nack tournament. Should be nice if I could win that too!

Happy Birthday Jo

Today is my wife's birthday. I gave her a card and a notebook (paper based, not the electronic one). She likes it so much. Mission accomplished.

Lancaster University friends 1995-1998

The Grizedale gang

Some of the Lancaster pictures taken around 1995-1998 that were uploaded by my friends in the Facebook. How nostalgic!

Supermax: Prison Riot!

There are currently 97 maps in Conquerclub and I have won all of them! Now to get those two gold medals for Standard and Terminator setting.

Skuad BAT website

Finally, my football team, Skuad BAT (Bolasepak ANSARA Taiping) has its own website (www.ahmedrazman.com/skuadbat). It is still under construction though and since the league has just ended (we are Division Two runners-up), we (Madun who is the manager and myself) will be taking our own sweet time to update it. So hopefully by next season everyone will benefit from this site especially the players and the fan.

Ramadhan Mubarak

Selamat menjalani ibadah puasa di bulan Ramadhan 1429 Hijrah. Hari ini Subuh pukul 4.38 pagi dan Maghrib 8.05 malam. :)