My ebay computer

I love small laptops for their portability. However nothings beats a proper PC when it comes to everyday computing, playing games, editing photographs, designing websites and crunching numbers on the SPSS statistical software. I simply hate typing on the cramped tiny keyboard.

Even though I have tried the so called "desktop replacement laptops" said to be fastest growing segment in the portable computer market, I never really liked them. It's kind of funny when you look at the term itself. I mean is it a desktop or laptop?

We were also tired of fighting over the only lap top we have (actually belongs to my wife). It's quite fair as she needs it for her research work. So we finally decided to buy a PC.

When we checked around, we were quite shocked with the prices of PCs here in the UK. They even have insurance for computers. It is not surprising considering that almost everything comes from overseas. I am beginning to really miss Low Yatt plaza.

So in the end we ended up looking on eBay UK, our favourite e-commerce site.

Over a period of 2 weeks starting 16 of November, we bid on and lost and won several items. And yesterday, I have everything I needed.

1. AMD ATHLON 1.3 GHz powered PC (Refurbished) with 256 MB RAM and 40 GB HDD. Price: £47 (the most costly item).

2. A0C 17" CRT monitor (Used). Price: £2.20.

3. BENQ X530 Wireless keyboard and mouse + Misson 2.1 Multimedia speakers (Brand new). Price: £22.01. This was my best deal because the speakers alone costs £17.75 in the market.

4. Internal Wireless PC LAN PCI card Adaptor (brand new). Price: £14.

Of course we need a table to put the computer on:
5. Ikea Mikael Computer Table (Almost new). Price: £4.99.

The total cost: £90.20 (RM640.29 approx.).

Of course, this does not include the cost of petrol. I had picked up most of the stuff from the sellers' homes myself. This had two advantages - 1. I saved on postage charges and 2. It helped me familarise myself with the various roads. While fetching the stuff, I also passed by some very interesting and historical sites. For example, the Temple Ballsall in Fen End, Warwickshire. As the name suggests, it is related to the Knights Templar. Though I wanted to, I couldn't stop by as I had to rush back to Coventry. Maybe later.

Tags: eBay Temple Balsall PC

Not my typical day

A day in my life in the "city of peace and reconciliation" and "The home of Jaguar".

9 O clock in the morning, started out from our house to Birmingham where my wife had a temporary (one day) job as an exam invigilator. She will get £58, which is not really that bad for a day's work.

With the two kids on the back seat, my wife acting as my navigator and using the printout of the route from the AA site, we set off. I hate motorways and used the A45. Maybe not the right choice as the max speed is between 30 and 60 mph only with 40 mph as soon as we enter Birmingham.

We got to the destination right on the dot (10am). However, on the way back, I got lost and drove around quite a bit. Somehow, I found the way back to Poets corner (a landmark I am very familiar with). From there, it was a straight road back to Coventry.

After I got back, cleaned up and fed the kids.

Today was also officially Rahil's first day at her pre-school. Technically, we had been there twice before. We had one trial session last Friday, just to get her used to the new environment and she had loved it. The pre-school is about 8 minutes drive. How we got a place for Rahil there was a nightmare and is another story (post).

Anyway, I was really proud of Rahil today. She acted really mature and when I dropped her off at 12:15pm, she just asked me whether I am coming back to pick her up. I said "Yes!" and she happily went off to play.

Got back home and made Imaan sleep. Fixed myself a quick Nasi Goreng (fried rice) lunch. Watched TV.

Then picked up Rahil at 2:45pm.

blah blah blah

Before I knew it, it was already 5pm. My wife just informed me that she was on the way back with here friends by bus and train.

Cooked dinner and finally got on the net.

My wife got back at 8pm. Had dinner together and I am on the net again and writing this post.

Cheers.

Imaan Turning

Being able to turn around is one of the major landmarks in a baby's development. Imaan sure took his time but he got round to it finally. Now he's a pro.

First time I was able to capture it on camera.

Now we need to be careful where we place him. Never to leave him on the sofa nor near the bed's edge.


Tags: Baby Imaan YouTube

100 percent English or not

I recently watched a fascinating documentary on Channel 4 (13th Nov., 9pm). This show called '100% English' was commissioned by the production company and presented by Andrew Graham-Dixon.

It was a pleasure to watch the expressions of people when they found out they were not "100% English". Reveals that racial issues are not limited to Malaysia but does exist in the UK too.

Carol Manley, an elderly lady looked quite relieved when it was revealed that she didn't have any African blood and she actually said it in her own words, which I think might be considered racist. However, she took it quite well when it was revealed that she had Mongoloid blood too.

There were some visible positive impacts of this study. I noticed a visible change in the attitude of people after they found that they were not ethnically pure after all. On the other hand, some people did not take it so well.

A lady lawyer who campaigns to have the English accepted as a distinct ethnic group was clearly disturbed when her DNA test results was revealed. She was not happy with her newly discovered Romany (Gypsy) origins. Four days later, she was threatening legal action against channel 4.

As Andrew notes:

these tests could be a powerful tool in the fight against racism. It is not just that they prove, once and for all, that any notions of race or racial purity are patently absurd and scientifically wrong. Their power lies in that they prove it by showing people what is in their own blood.

Read the Telegraph report here.

Tags: Channel 4 English Genealogy
UK

Newbie in the UK 2 - Banking

When we came over to the UK, we bought over money in the form of cheques. However, in order to encash them, we needed to open a bank account here.

Our first choice was HSBC as my wife has a credit card account with them in Malaysia.

We never realised that opening a current account here could be such a nightmare. There is so much paperwork involved that we really began to miss Malaysia, where opening an account is so easy. In Malaysia, we only need a minimum opening account and sometimes an introducer.

Over here, as an International student, they want:
- Proof of ID (your Passport).
- Letter from the University proving that you are a student in the UK.
- Proof of the address where you are residing in UK (which can be difficult if you haven't received any bills yet) and even
- Proof of your permanent address in Malaysia.

There was also another area of concern. Banks here will charge you a sum (£5 per month for HSBC) if you don't have a minimum balance of £2000 in your current account. Something quite impossible for us.

It was the same story at Barclays and NatWest. My wife finally checked with the Lloyds bank in our locality. It is just round the corner of the road.

Opening an account was so easy. Just needed the passport and a letter from the University with our UK address on it. We were really relieved after we had encased our cheques as the cash in our pocket was running out. My wife soon received a cheque book and a debit card (the most common form of making payments here in the UK).

Best of all, Lloyds doesn't have any minimum balance requirement.

We were looking far and wide when the solution is there, right at our doorstep.

All I can say is that, the big banks' loss is Lloyds's gain. I am planning to open an account with them myself soon.

Related Posts: Newbie in the UK

Tags: Bank UK Llyods bank

Disappointment with Emirates

As I had mentioned in an earlier post, we discovered that one wheel of our stroller was missing on our Emirates flight to Birmingham from Malaysia. We were really disappointed as the Hauck Esprit Speed Sun pushchair was brand new and the first and only time we had used it was in KLIA - right up to the door of the plane where the Emirates people had taken it away for storage in the cargo compartment.

Anyway, at Birmingham, I had filed a Damaged Luggage Report with OCS, the repair agent for Emirates. I received a letter from OCS after a few days, asking me to call a number. A guy answered and we went through the steps and they told me that they would have someone pick up the stroller. He also asked me the value of the stroller. I answered that it cost me around 60 pounds (after conversion from Malaysian Ringgits) IN Malaysia.

Didn't think much about it then but this was a major mistake as I learnt later. They told me that they would send me a replacement within 7 days.

Days passed by.

A few weeks later I received a letter from OCS telling me that they couldn't repair the buggy and that they will inform Emirates to send us a settlement.

After nearly a month, I received a letter from Emirates along with a claim settlement for 60 pounds. This is when my wife really got mad with me. She was like: "Do you know how much a good stroller costs in the UK?" Actually I didn't and was dismayed when I found out later. On checking around, I found that the cheapest (comparable) strollers cost at least 75 pounds (Mothercare, Maclaren).

Tried talking to the people at Emirates. My wife was really angry and blasted the guy on the other end. Her reasoning was that the right value is the cost of a comparable pushchair here in the UK and not in Malaysia (where it is way cheaper). Unless of course, Emirates provides us a return ticket back to Malaysia to buy a buggy and of course they are not going to do that. but he asked us to file a complaint in writing.

I finally persuaded my wife to just accept the amount. After all, I was the one who told them the amount.

A lesson here. If your airline damages anything and you want to claim for damages, inflate the cost. Keep in mind, that they are not going to pay the hardships costs (Just imagine - In a foreign country, emergency trips to the doctor 45 minutes walk away, with two kids - one weighing 17.5KG and another 8KG, when you don't even have a car and then it starts raining).

As we needed a good pushchair urgently, we looked around on ebay. After a few unsuccessful bids, we finally won a Quinny Zap (2nd hand) for £73/. Drove down to Leicester and collected the pushchair from the seller's house.

Quite happy with our purchase as it is in excellent condition and a new one costs around £150 .

Given below are the pros and cons of the Quinny Zapp.
The positive:
1. Very light weight (only 8.8kg)
2. Very compact when folded. It is after all the smallest folded pushchair in the world (L:69cm/B:27cm)


The negative:
1. Doesn't recline.
2. Doesn't have a carry basket.

Extremely disappointed with Emirate's service. They damaged our brand new expensive pushchair. They failed to give us a replacement within 7 working days as promised. In the end we can't buy a comparable pushchair with the money they are going to give us.

I will be sending the completed claims forms tomorrow.

Tags: Emirates OCS Pushchair Hauck Quinny Zapp

A haircut

"What's so special about having a haircut?" you may ask.

Of late, we have become very careful with the way we spend our money. Of course, we have to be when we are surviving on a meager student scholarship.

Anyway, it's been more than a month since I last cut my hair. Everyone I have been chatting with, using Skype video, has been commenting that "your hair is really long now". I only time I tried keeping my hair long was when I was in school and I am not going to start keeping them long anytime soon.

I had asked around a bit but it seems that everyone I talked to (including my landlord) has someone at home, cut their hair. Evidently, going to a hair saloon is a rare event here. However, I had no choice as my wife doesn't know how to cut my hair. Even if she does, we left our battery operated hair clipper at home in Malaysia.

There are some hair saloons in our locality but they looked quite expensive, so I set off towards Stoney Stanton road where I hoped the barbers would be cheaper. Went into one saloon but it was full and thus it was to another one down the road. It was a no-frills, small outlet with only two chairs. I had my hair cut really short and I was poorer by five pounds (approx. RM 35).

Have to buy a hair cutting kit and then convince my wife to learn how to cut my hair so we can save some.

Tags: Hair cut Barber

Malaysian traffickers luring girls to UK

Malaysians are in the UK news but in a negative way. In the Nov 4 edition of the Times, it was reported that a ruthless gang comprising of Malaysian and Vietnamese traffickers who lured hundreds of women to Britain to work as sex slaves in a £2 million-a-year vice racket were jailed.

...at least one woman was tricked into leaving her family after being offered a sightseeing trip with all expenses paid. In Britain she joined other women servicing up to 50 men a week in luxuriously furnished brothels.

Really shameful.

Read the article here.

Girls! Better think twice before accepting that free trip to the UK.

Tags: Crime Sex slavery

Missing a turn

Last Saturday we decided to pay our friends Fifi and Redza, a visit at their new house near Warwick.

Now, before we go anywhere, we always check out the route using Google maps and the RAC route planner. "Why two maps?", you may ask. Well, sometimes we get two different routes from the different website. However, as they say, not everything goes as planned.

I missed one crucial left turn to a roundabout. Went straight ahead and took a wrong turn on another roundabout, straight into a motorway - the M40 to be more precise. We had to go all the way to Birmingham before we could make a U turn. Moral of the story: if you are at a roundabout and you are not sure, just go round and round a few times before you decide.

We ultimately arrived at their house, safe but more than an hour late. It was nice to meet up with them and their parents, who were there visiting from Malaysia. The last time we had seen them was at their's (and Hardy/Zaza's reception) in Johor.

Their new house looks fabulous and with a huge garden. Redza showed off his new DIY tools, which made me drool. He plans to renovate the house himself. Though I didn't have the chance to look at it, my wife did and according to her, the bathroom, which Redza did up with a friend, looks great.

Imaan was well behaved and he made quite an impression, I think.

Tags: Google Maps RAC route planner

Baby Talk

Imaan saying something. Sounds a lot like he is saying Baba Baba. Now my wife is trying to get him to say Mama.


The quality is not so good as it was taken using my webcam.

Tags: Baby Talk Imaan YouTube

Getting Connected

As regulars might have noticed, I am blogging almost daily now.

Yes! We finally have broadband internet connection. Getting connected was quite easy, the difficult part was selecting the service provider. Consumers here have so many choices, it's crazy. Pity the guys back in Malaysia who have to depend on Streamyx becoming bald after tearing their hair in frustration.

We asked around, checked the comparisions on the web, read the reviews and finally narrowed down our choice to BT, Sky, Talk Talk, NTL and AOL.

The NTL package was particularly attractive - cable TV, telephone and broadband, all for £30 per month. However, a lot of our friends talked us out of it as their experience with the service provider was not so good. Sky and Talk Talk had a long waiting list and we finally settled on AOL. Their Silver package provide download speeds of upto 1Mbps with no limits on downloads (as compared to only 2 gigs for BT). However, what clinched our decision was the fact that they were providing a wireless router for FREE and we quickly signed up online.



About one week later the postman dropped by with a box. Everything we needed to set up a connection was in the pack. It contained:

- a Netgear wireless router
- three DSL filters
- ethernet cable
- line cable
- power supply
- a booklet &
- an installation CD.

Setting up the connection was a breeze. Just followed the steps on the CD.

So far, so good.

Tags: Broadband AOL Wireless router

Coping with my new life and a scare

A lot of people have been asking on how I am coping with my new occupation - as a full time house husband. Yeah! That's what I am right now. I admit that I used to look down on other house husbands when I was working and I take it all back.

As I was washing the dishes a few minutes back, I realised that my life has changed when I was in the middle of singing along with my daughter, her favourite nursery rhyme "1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Once I caught a fish alive".

It's not as bad as it sounds and the transition has not been that difficult. I enjoy the quality time with my kids. However, staying at home all day can be pretty boring. I miss lepaking with friends, drinking teh tarik at the mamak stall right in front of the entrance of my previous organisation in Kedah.

My wife is at the Warwick Arts Centre right now to watch 'Thatcher The Musical' with her friends. I wish I could watch it with her but it's a sacrifice I have to make. Here, in UK with no maids and no parents, we have to take turns to look after the kids. When I go out, she has to stay at home. Most of the time when we do go out, we have to bring both kids along. Had to cancel a few invitations because we couldn't bring the kids along. It is not easy handling the kids. It only takes but one second for disaster to strike.

We had a big scare a few days back. I was with Imaan in the living room and my wife was upstairs. I heard Rahil coming down the stairs - thump, thump. Then it suddenly sounded like a ball bouncing down the stairs. I jumped from the sofa and rushed out to find Rahil lying at the bottom of the stairs crying with blood flowing from her nose. I was like in a trance. At the same time my wife came running down and was hysterical. Seeing her cry, Rahil started crying even harder. I had to cool both of them down and did a quick check to see whether there were any visible injuries on my daughter. Apart from the nose, which had stopped bleeding by then, she looked ok.

As we were rushed out from the house to dive down to our surgery (the clinic), we met a lady who turned out to be the nurse from our surgery dropping by to tell us that she's coming to meet us and check out the house this Friday. She informed us that we should take Rahil to the hospital and not to the surgery. Pure luck.

I didn't know the way to the walk-in hospital but from her directions and by looking at the map, somehow reached there. The nurse asked us a few questions: "Was she knocked out?" "No." "Any bleeding or injuries besides the nose?" "Not that we can see". As she decided that Rahil was OK we had to wait our turn (it was a long queue). She ultimately gave Rahil a clean bill of health.

My wife was really traumatised and she slept the rest of the day. That was really scary and I am thankful to God that nothing worse happened.

What about Rahil? Well she was up and hopping around right after we reached the house.

Related posts:
- EPF for Househusbands
- Househusband

Tags: Househusband children

Newbie in the UK

Most Malaysians who come to UK for the first time have some idea of what to expect here but they are unprepared for a lot of things and sadly, apart from some guidelines provided on the Government websites (which unfortunately doesn't tell you much), there are several things we had to learn on our own - by trial and error. Definitely not a very good idea. They also fail to mention other small but very important details.

So given below is a checklist for UK newbies, with some very important tips:

1. Accommodation: Make sure you have a place to stay before you come here. Malaysians usually put up with a friend for a few weeks and then look for a house or apartment to stay.

This is not advisable but gives an opportunity to shop for good bargains. The Internet does not always give us a lot of important information, such as the distance to the nearest school, shops or safety of the locality. My wife took the opportunity to attend a conference in London and have a quick look around Coventry a month before all of us moved here. The various accommodation provided by the university were a bit too pricey for our liking (around £600) and We were lucky to have friends who helped find and book a house for us (only £400) before we arrived. Most Malaysian families here in Coventry reside in the Foleshill and Stoney Stanton areas. Probably due to the fact that there are a number of Halal shops and 2 mosques in the area.

Nobody told us, but we were informed that we would have to pay a council tax (around £1400 annually). I know! That's an awful lot of money. Fortunately, our land lord informed us that we were exempted from the tax as we are students. We only had to go down to the City council office and fill up a form providing the necessary documents (letter from the University and our passports).

2. Vehicle: The public transport here is really efficient. However, not having a vehicle of our own really restricted our movement, such as going to the car boot sales. You can't tumpang your friends forever. We finally bought a 2nd hand Ford Escort (1.8 litres 16 v) for £700/ Many people look at the price of the car and go: "Wow! That's cheap" but there are several other things (and costs we need to keep in mind). First of all is the car insurance, which in our case came up to £450. We also need to look at the road tax and the MOT. The later refers to the mandatory test of safety and roadworthiness aspects of vehicles in the UK. The MOT test for our car is due in January next year and we are praying that we won't have to replace any parts. It is not just the price of car parts that we have to worry about. It is the service charges, which are worrying.

At first I thought we could rely on public transport but I soon realised the importance of having our own car after getting soaked to the skin in the rain once, while taking the kids to the clinic. This brings me to one of the most important things you need to do when you get here.

3. Registering with a GP: People may find it hard to believe, but so far, from my experience, the health care services in Malaysia are way better. The first problem we faced was trying to find a health centre that would accept us. A few days after we moved into the house, we went to the nearest clinic. They turned us away saying that they didn't have any application forms ("and we can't say for certain whether the doctor would accept your application"). The second one said that they were not taking any more new people. Fed up, I called up the NHS helpline and got a list of clinics (or surgeries) in the area. We finally got one, which were accepting new applications but about 10 minutes drive. The whole process of registering was quite easy. On the positive side, the service is totally free. So far, we have been to the Surgery twice - Once to register and the last one for the kid's vaccination jabs (which should cost us at least RM600 in Malaysia). Both times, we never got to see a doctor. It seems like the nurses handle everything, unlike in Malaysia where the nurses are only supposed to help the doctor.

I think these are the 3 most important things that all Malaysian newbies in UK need to think about. There are more but that's another post.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!