pics

last weekend we went to visit a chum of mine from school. he's been over here in the UK about 8 years now, finished his studies n been working for a while. settled down pretty nicely, n misses home, but i don't think he will go home. odd thing is, he says every year they been saying it's time to go back next year...and according to the wife she's heard that every year for the last five.

back where i asked him... to bolehland? and yes i did catch him hesitating...but i'm not against him or any other fellow malaysian who wants to return to do so. but i realised when i came over a few months back, it's one thing to uproot yourself and move to another country on the opposite side of the world, but it's another thing altogether to pack up after spending some time to move back.

why? u miss so many things back home (well i don't miss much .... yet, but that's the usual argument) food, people, places etc. sure u do! but then i miss a lot of places i've been and want to go back to.

why? everything back home also so maju adi (progressed already)... yeah but is it the same? will u be able to fit in back home the way you've been living and earning over here (or anywhere else non-bolehland).

well i donno. i've got pals who have moved back.... n regretted it. some haven't. was i being naughty in asking my friend that question? not really, cos in all fairness, i was just gathering as much feedback as possible, about the emotions and rationale behind making such a decision when the time comes for me to ponder the same scenario. till then.. i'll keep on clicking and typing!

happy thanksgiving all!

gloomy

the outlook... nah .. just the weather outside. seems the last few days have seen some solidly cloudy days, with the occasional shower, and the temperature is dropping steadily. today however it's been pouring ... yes u read it right... not the usual english drizzle and light rain but downpour equivalent to tropical showers back home. and the wind.... wow... it feels like sitting in a car wash during the blow dry cycle with the windows down.... that strong and loud!

but as all gloom there is always light at the end of the tunnel... in this case the weekend. forecast is sunny and with me just coming out of a sore throat and fever slump myself, sunny weather looks to be a good outcome all around!

yeay!!

complete!

hahah broadband finally on! and me is online.. so officially here's the unofficial first blog from here in Stratford!!

well not much to say but Ello there!! :D

more to come!

normal life resumes

yes if relocating is considered normal hehe.. well initial relo was to move across the world, n then the next one is to move into a new place... so now that is done! and after the last couple weeks, it seems life has settled into a normal sort of style...except for the lack of broadband, all else is in place.. and now we're just waiting the arrival of our next home-mate..my wifey's bro is coming up to london as he also just got employed here in London. so it's more normal then ever, as it's the original trio in penang are soon to reconvene!!

at home

so as the semester comes to an end, my wifey needed to look for a new place. luck has it the my bro-in-law also moving here so we can get an aprment together. After a lot of searching n heartache we finally got out own place.

it's furnished with the minimum furniture n appliances, so we manger to clean up n then move in with minimum fuss. our stuff is still in storage, but slowly the place is beginning to resemble our own home.

oh added bonus is a great view, as we are on the 7th floor facing the up n coming olympic grounds. pics soon to follow once we choose n install the broadband.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

happy 33 to me

yes it's another milestone... and this year my wifey took me for a holiday to Hamburg to enjoy an excellent outing with a good friend and his family. we had an excellent time and am even more in love with Hamburg the 2nd time around. now i realise more n more why Balley keeps saying "Hamburg mein perle"

(trying out an app introduced to my by BK Chu. Hope you like it :))

Hamburg Trip 2010 Slideshow: Deepak Sharma’s trip from London, United Kingdom to Hamburg, Germany was created by TripAdvisor. See another Hamburg slideshow. Take your travel photos and make a slideshow for free.

"we all dream of a team of carraghers"....

as the song goes... indeed befitting of the man himself, nay the legend he has become!

it's late and i'm too sleepy to write right now... so here are the pics. commentary and details on the morrow then!

alrite.. here's the updates:

the day started really early and after getting the morning train, was in Liverpool for breakfast at 9.30. spent some time going around the stores in Liverpool One, and decided to get my matchday memorabilia there.

made my way there by bus about 11-ish. more and more people turned up, and at 12.30, they opened the turnstiles into the ground.

after a match which raised GBP 25K for the 23 Foundation (Jamie's charity) they had some presentations, and then the teams took to the ground to warm up.

Dudek was the first to appear, and he was duly given a standing ovation by the crowd.

well, then the whole team were out, and not forgetting Everton too, who had some of their former stars in Lee Carsley, Francis Jeffers (bbooo) etc with their current stars (Arteta, Osmen, Hibbert, to name a few).

but two young uns caught everyones eyes. Jamie's kids were having a good kick-about at the Kop end. the boy, got some good shots, but the gal, well she's got her father's tackling skills, nicking the ball of her brother with some tenacity at times.

a major surprise to all the crowd was the appearance of Reds captain Stevie G, who wasn't expected to turn up (after leading England to beat Bulgaria 4-0 just the previous night in Wembley, and was supposed to be heading to Switzerland for the next match). Together with former Reds Jason McAteer, Gary Mcallister, Danny Murphy, Michael Owen, Emile Heskey, Stephen Warnock, Stephen Wright, Steve Finnan, David Thompson and Luis Garcia, they warmed up with current stars such as Joe Cole, Ryan Babel, Jay Spearing and new boys Paul Konchesky, Jonjo Shelvy, Suso, etc.

so onto the next parts, after the lineup were presented to the crowd, came the normal (to the Kop at least) pregame rituals. the giant flag was passed from one end to the other.... and then passed to the lower terrace where it was passed over ME!! heheh woo was so cool!

then i managed to get a few more pre-match shots of Jerzy thanking the crowd who were singing his song, and then of Carra himself, before putting away the camera to join the Kop in the awesome rendition of You'll Never Walk Alone! i could have just died happy there hehe.

well then it was on to the game! i kept my camera at this stage cos i wanted to enjoy the match! yes hard to imagine but i just had to hehe. luckily i did, cos in the 2nd minute Luis Garcia opened scoring with a beauty from the left!! he looks like he never left. Owen kept getting boos each time he touched the ball, but after about half hour, they turned to cheers (well in most part at least). Stevie was subbed after 10 minutes to be replaced by pal Danny Murphy who had a good game as well. and turns out, ex LFC manager Gerrard Houllier was in sitting next to current boss Roy Hodgson in the dugout!

it was great! and the game was played at mostly good pace, not entirely a friendy with some good tackles going in, and some comedic moments by both sides (Lee Carsley wanting a penalty, but not given, referee gave him a yellow and a smack at the back of his head haha, Macca and Mcateer goofing around, Carra scoring an own goal penalty!) classic. each time Macca had the ball, the crowd would yell "Shooooot!" even though he was in his own half while facing his own goal haha.

it was also cool to see the new guns in action. Joe Cole was superb with his passing, and Babel is fast! towards the end, there were a lot of subs used (a lot of new uns from the academy, and some new signings). Paul Konchesky looks to be able to fit in well on left defence, and new signing Suso looks lethal although he only had like 10 minutes play.

in the end it was a great fun outing, with a good atmosphere, good end result, and good fun day! got back to London by 9 ish, and now can't wait to get to another match! a proper competitive one this time!

first of many

well hopefully at least. i am looking forward to tomorrows day trip out of London, as i'm making my way up north attend a certain match celebrating a certain long serving player of a certain beloved club of mine :D

so although it's a day trip but i am soooo excited, to be able to see some of the greats in action, cheer some past heroes and maybe boo a couple of traitors (yes that's you Owen) :p

all goes to plan then this time tomorrow i should have some pics up yeay!

different

as days pass here, u initially take notice of all the small things here that you wouldn't normally see in everyday life. i mean granted a lot of the things are different like public transport, weather, culture, food etc. but actually these actually lend itself to effect other items.

exhibit a: this stack of books here in the picture. usually at home, you'd have to pay a hefty amount to get a chance to read these 10 books, even if you buy from the second hand/charity/novelty stores.

and how much did i kena, u ask? GBP 9.90. for the whole stack. not each, all!

like sheesh. i know back home we pay extra taxes for foreign books, but u'd think second hand stuff should be at least cheaper but it's much cheaper here. and from what i hear, there are other shops which give em for a cheaper rate.

and one good thing is, with the public transport (tube etc) you have more then enough time to read, and you'll be able to get thru the book faster then usual also heheh.

exhibit b : on my left i present an ordinary glass. wait let me correct myself. it's a McDonald contour glass which at home u get after buying a Contour Meal (Large value meal + Sundae), but here u get it with just a large meal! well it's no biggie, just u know ... you don't need to pay so much eh? (disclaimer here: take it at a 1:1 la)

well, until next time then!

mia

yes i admit! been slacking off major league style... so is this the new layout? nah... just been fiddling around... trying somethings.. see how it looks... but i think i'm back on the bandwagon now? hehehe...

no the blog did not die, no i did not get cutoff from the internet... so give it a few days, but i should have the new and final (i hope) template sorted out!!

in the blue corner....

here's a quick shot of the new heavyweight .. sitting peacefully in the blue corner....the Airbus A 380!

there were a whole lot of planes on display, and some great airshows. To be up close n personal with those engineering marvels, and to hear them roar, scream and screech across the sky while flipping and slicing their way through the clouds was AWESOME! Blowback from the A 380's takeoff and the smell of burnt rubber lingering in the air after it landed .... all this a mere 500 feet away from the crowd!

more pics to follow :)

hhmm trying out diff layouts and settings, but seems the same pic you can't view in the cropped version. So here's the original shot (the cropped version now on Flickr).

have wings, can fly

Yeay.. first official weekend of London starts today (last week was in Glasgow :p) n started off with a get-together with a friendi who was down from Hull.. yes the one and only G made an appearence to meet us , well technically she's down to attend the AR Rahman concert but i guess we'll take it.

After some malaysian food in the city, we proceeded to meet Ling at Planet Hollywood... n she made us our drinks. Lepak-ed(!) there for a bit.. had another round n then cabut back by tube (sigh... no mamak. terus balik about 11 ish).

Tomorrow is promising to be a more fun day!

We're going down to Farnborough to check out the bi-annual airshow. Ooh. many new planes on show, and some old one, with airshows etc to look forward to. (http://www.farnborough.com/Site/Content/Farnborough2010/default.aspx)

Sunday should be a short trip to the RAF Museum for history lesson involving planes again!! Yeay!

phew

finally .. here i am .. after two months of hokey-pokeying around, getting stuff packed, moved, cleared, sold, etc etc; finally here i am ....

where? in a land far away from home . yet close to home as the heart can be. London, England. The motherland if u know what i mean. so what am i doing here? well officially i'm a bum. means me is lookin for some form of employment. unofficially? woohoo loong holiday!

after getting here n meeting the missus (she didn't like the hat :( ) n spending a few days with her, I headed off north to see Glasgow with a close friend. Saw the highlands. Felt the call. And heck, i think i'm gonna be going up there again. it's awesomely beautiful. plain, natural beauty. superb. weather was shite as it was pissing down the day we went on our day trip, but magically, stopped at each stop we were scheduled to make.

To my pals who think i've fallen off the side of the earth.. hang on there. not just yet. just only managed to get somewhat settled and got me back online. so keep tuned folks. I have not forgotten u guys :) Cheers from 10 000 km away :)

what the...

heheh just kidding.. it's been a whirlwind few weeks of packing, cleaning, throwing, sorting... and this is just the clothes in the cupboard....not to mention the remainder of the apartment sigh.... well anyway who am i kidding.

it's full steam ahead now.. and the countdown seems to be blazing across the screen of my days like a mistakenly pulled wire (aka Lost where Sawyer pulls the wire n Sayeed saves em by running away with .. )wait a minute.. i'm digressing here.

so news is out .. the days are getting shorter.. and what do i do ..escape! to the east hahah getaway from the chaos for some RnR before coming home n wiping the apartment floor clean!! well figuratively speaking anyway.

so... hopefully when the smoke clears on June 30th.. i'll be left standing with the keys n access card in hand to pass it over to my landlord. till later...

Plans

since my last post, i had planned to do a bunch of stuff, which needed doing. but i don't know if i'm turning into procrastinator maximus or just can't get my head straight or just can't sit my butt down to do them? hhmmm

wanted to get a new layout for this blog (thanks Chu for the ideas) but kept putting it off, wanted to get some paperwork done, haven't even gotten to em. needed to settle some mechanical gizmos around the house, but my tools are gathering dust. wanted to do some DIY, but i guess it ended up being DDIY.

so where does that leave me? chasing time? don't think so... that seems to be in abundance. organising myself? always thought i was pretty good at that.
lazy? maybe. distracted?



sorry my mind was elsewhere hehe. So..

thinking back, this weekend also brings to close about the last 6 years of my life. it comes in the form of series finales of two long running TV series of which i am a huge fan and ardent follower (more on that in my other blog).

got me a long weekend from today onwards. would i be able to make full use of it? here's to kicking it off with a saying from a very wise man dressed in white and green, with a logo on his chest and a glass helmet to compliment his green wings, "To Infinity... AND Beyond!!"

time

soo many things to do, so little time.. or is it.. or am i just not plannning properly? attention all over the place, can it be called attention then? hehe

well hope it's get clearer in the next few weeks... in the meantime,,, summers already in full swing...yeay!!

2010

wow it's already end of Q1.. literally. boy it's flown by eh... in that short time i've managed to squeeze a trip in to see my wifey in the motherland....with a side trip to Madrid n Lisbon, and then managed to get back into the rhythm of working life... apparently it ain't that easy.

Thoughts about seeking newer pastures, in this case foreign pastures, while the effort has been ongoing, is taking time. So what's next? how much more online applications can i keep sending out before frustration sets in? who knows... hasn't set in yet :p

How long before i get bored of my current job, which is getting a little edgy already? Politicking from across the seas, selective budget restraints and lack of conviction n clarity on this side of the ocean all seems to be slowly building up. Am I already not bothered with my current job? I hope not! I still feel i give more then the required 100%, but is it enough?

time will tell... but then .. it's up to me decide on the time line!

sigh... been like this for the last few WEEKS.... i know it's not as bad as some parts of the world... but for our normal weather.. this ain't!!

this is night weather... and with the tropical humidity to add to the mix! thankfully it rained a couple of nights back, but it's not getting cooler just yet. Meteorological dept says it's gonna be another MONTH .. aarrghh... sick of having 3-5 showers a day! sit in front of the PC at home and i'm sweating within 3 minutes.... com on alredy. RAIN RAIN RAIN!!!

not making enough money

my wifey used to love to listen to THR (local station currently owned by Astro) on weeknights cos they had 4 hours of Hindi/Punjabi songs / request radio program. While i used to get really (really) annoyed at the DJs for all the yapping and the consistently crappy ads... i found the occasional change from the other stations a very welcome switch.

However, couple of weeks back, after i got back from my 2 month period of here, not here, here again, not here... i tuned into THR a few times during weekends to hear..... no Hindi songs. Initially thought i had the days mixed up or some programming reshuffle had happened.. but after a few more attempts....i thought to myself.. hhmm lets google it up.

and this is what i found

well while i was smirking to myself, i was also aghast that there would be nothing else but repeated songs on other stations.
Oddest thing was though, this statement from the radio station itself...

in an SMS response, said it was “not axing the programme as Hindi songs are being played in between (HUH?)

and this one

The simple reason is it is not making money. However, Hindi Power will continue over the airwaves in the East Coast.

what the....

with all the crappy ads they had and still not make enough money? If so cancel altogether la.. why have it on east coast and not west coast? what's the rationale? i donno. Do you?

My guess is, that in a minority race of people in this nation, the even smaller minority in the race have been sidelined with a whallop. Never mind that the appeal for Bollywood music is huge amongst our nation's majority race.

Well for me, i found the best alternative( large thanks to my pal Balley and to my wifey for reminding me haha).
BBC Asian Network

Channel is in English (strong British accents) and mixed regularly with Hindi and Punjabi, 24 hours (instead of 4!! ps:screw you THR) and it's more awesome!!
(only downside is this is online la, so no crusing around town singing along to the latest melody from Mumbai )

movies!

most of u guys now i'm a bit of a movie minded maniac-y individual... so i've decided to add a different outlet for my movie news etc....

so for all me mates who wanna get updates etc on movies, series etc, and wanna share reviews etc please go check it out!

http://ipohwallamoviemania.blogspot.com/

caught!

finally!