Gaza Protest at University of Warwick

UPDATED: 30 Jan 2009

Had wanted to blog about this earlier but somehow didn't know what to write.

Students here at the University of Warwick have taken over a lecture room (S0.21)in the Social Studies buildings in support of the victims of the conflict in Gaza. They are still there.

Their demands include:

1. Warwick University should suspend all relations with companies which supply the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This includes BAE Systems, MBDA, GE Aviation, QinetiQ and Rolls Royce.
2. That the University donate old computer equipment and textbooks to universities in Palestine, specifically those that were partially destroyed in Gaza during the current Israeli military operation.
3. That the University fund and provide logistical support for a series of talks on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The University authorities has since moved classes scheduled in the room to other alternative rooms.

Check out The Warwick Solidarity Sit-In site for more info.

There were several other protests here in the campus.

A few days back people going to the Library were shocked to see five student protesters covered in white burial shrouds and lying on the ground with red paint covering them. University security moved in and stopped the "theatrical protest" after someone complained. The five second year Theatre students viewed the event as a performance protest.

Israel has collectively punished the Palestinians in Gaza for the actions of the Hamas and left a Humanitarian crisis.

While I am happy that the bombings have stopped but wonder how long the shaky ceasefire in Gaza will last. The recent outbreak of violence is not the first and has been going on for more than 60 years now. Hamas is still there. Israel still hasn't lifted economic blockade.

It's easy for me to sit here in my comfortable chair writing this but I wonder how the people are faring there in concentration camp Gaza.

Police officer injured in incident near our house

This Thursday afternoon I was at home alone and doing some research when there was a knock on the door.

I was shocked to see a police officer at the door. Behind him were a number of police cars with flashing lights and other police officers as well.

Apparently there had been an incident near our house and they had cordoned off the entire street. SO the officer asked me how many stayed in the house, their particulars, the number of cars we had and the registration numbers. I forgot our Volvo's number and had to look for the registration while I left him waiting at the the door. It was strange but I couldn't recall our neighbour's names either. We are not really close and only on a "Hello! You alright!" basis. I got to make an effort to know them better. We were prevented from leaving the area while they conducted their investigation.

I was a bit worried because I had to fetch my kids from school. There was also a tow truck parked right beside my car but when I went out they moved it away and I was able to fetch the kids.

Later on found out that a policeman on the rounds had been questioning some blokes in a black Peugeot 307 when it suddenly drove away injuring the police officer. Read more about the incident on the Coventry Telegraph website: Fleeing car injures police officer in Coventry

Back to cold Coventry

We are finally back in cold Coventry after a few days in London. Did some house hunting, some shopping and a lot of walking.


My sister-in-law had only about two weeks to find a house and we saw some houses. Today I learnt that she has put in an offer for the first house we saw. I guess the parking, easy access to the tube and proximity to the park did the trick.



The shopping was good but personally I prefer Coventry with our small cozy house with cheap rental) the huge garden. We can also park anywhere along the road totally free-of-charge.

Driving in London is a nightmare with traffic jams,the congestion charges and limited parking. Even though the tube are regular and most efficient way to get around the city, they are not exactly cheap and not really child friendly either.

Thrice to Ikea in 2 weeks

I am sure we are the customers that retailers dream about - I mean we went to the Ikea store in Coventry three times in 2 weeks. Not that we have a lot of money to spend but the kids were restless at home and it's freezing cold to go roaming anywhere else. So thinking about a warm place where the kids can play supervised for free, with affordable yet good warm food and maybe grab some bargains at the same time - well the Ikea Coventry store is the only place which ticks yes to all the points above.

Anyway, we were there yesterday - again, to buy the Sultan Sova mattress for our daughter and a new shower curtain. So we left our daughter at Smaland. It's on the third floor near the checkouts. We then went up to the 4th floor where the customer returns are located to return a cup. We had bought it the last time we had been there and later on discovered that it had a chip when we reached home. I didn't think they would but they gave us a refund.

We had gone there to buy the mattress and curtain but along the way some candles went into the trolley, as did a few slippers which were on sale for only 10p a pair, some gift wrappers (49p), a set of glass tumblers, a cup and some items from the bargain corner.

I finally found the 'UK at home' book as I was browsing around for bargains near the checkouts. The book costs £19 but I got it for free thanks to a coupon I had received sometime back and I got a further £10 discount (another coupon) as well.

Took out my daughter from Smaland and we had an early dinner together at the restaurant.

It was a nice day out.

Ikea Coventry sale

Both my wife and I are Ikea fans and we decided to pay the Ikea Coventry store in the city centre a visit yesterday. The Ikea store here celebrates their first birthday and we were expecting some celebrations but were disappointed to find out there weren't any.

I had received a few coupons (for being a loyal Ikea customer) and one of the coupons was for a free copy of their new coffee table book 'UK at Home'. Was quite disappointed when I found out that it was not available in the store and the staff apparently did even know anything about it.

We didn't have anything in mind and had gone there to browse through and grab a bite. However, as it usually happens, we came back with a car boot full of stuff. We didn't buy any furniture but we got some great steals from their bargain corner.

They had cut prices on a number of products. I guess the credit crunch has hit them as well and like other retailers are trying to pull in their customers with bargain offers. The choice of candles was amazing - in various shapes and sizes and with different aromas. My wife grabbed a few. Our house smelt of apples and berries nice last night.

We also grabbed a bite at their restaurant.


Anyway, their winter sale starts tomorrow.

Experience of buying a phone from the 3 Store Coventry

Ever since we arrived in the UK, I have always used prepaid mobile services or 'pay-as-you-go' as it's known here in the UK. I started with O2 and then moved on to Vodafone, followed by Tesco mobile and finally 3. So far, I have been very happy with the service provided by 3.

However, of late I have discovered that I have been reloading quite often and was shocked to discover that we sometimes spent more than £30 a month. This is despite the fact that most of my calls are to my wife who was also on 3 pay-as-you-go service. My wife went ahead and bought a Sony Ericsson K660i from the 3 site. The phone was delivered within a few days and she also received a voucher worth £20 to buy accessories from their website.

I too decided to get a phone for myself and I was still undecided on the phone. One of my friends told me that the stores had some greats refurbished phone which I might be able to get at a discount. So on Monday, I drove over to Coventry city centre and went to the 3 Store there. Unfortunately, according to the salesgirl, they didn't have any refurbished phones. So I went around and had a look at the various phone they had on display. I really want the Nokia N96 but it was way beyond my budget (cheapest deal was £30 per month). I finally went for the Sony Ericsson W595 for a 18 month contract for £17 per month. 3 has this promotion going on where existing members could recommend a friend (or family and both would receive a £30 credit. However, I discovered that I couldn't put my wife as a recommender because she had been with 3 for less than a month. Plus I didn't receive any vouchers.

I was really angry when later on back home, I discovered that I couldn't use Skype with the phone even though it was advertised as Skype compatible. Anyway, I went back to the store next day and the sales people were surprised as well, when they learnt that the phone was not Skype compatible. They were not very happy when I told them that I wanted to change the phone.

I was shocked to learn that unlike buying phones from their website, you were not allowed to return phones bought from their actual stores. However, in my case they were willing to make an exception as they realised that it was their mistake. The main reason I bought the phone was because it was Skype compatible (or so they said).

Gags (the guy who served me) was quite friendly but he seemed to be poorly trained. He told me that I could choose another phone but I won't be able to reduce the amount that I paid per month. The only phone there for £17 per month was the Sony Ericsson K700i. I should have taken only a couple of minutes to complete the whole process but the managers was busy or something. There was no way I was going to come back again and decided to wait until I got mad, raised my voice a bit and told them that I wanted out. The sales guy told me I couldn't and this went on for a while until their manager finally came out.

I finally got the new phone but was dissatisfied with the whole process. It took almost an hour for me to get the phone changed and that shouldn't happen. I am still loyal to 3 but my advice for anybody who want to sign up with 3 - buy it from the online 3 Store.

1. It's fast
2. You can return the phone if you don't like it
3. You get some nice surprises - like a £20 voucher.

Robot at the Arena Park

Went to the Arena Park Shopping centre near our house to buy a new pair of school shoes for my daughter as well as her gym stuff.

We arrived just in time to see this Robot dancing.



My daughter was quite scared and when the robot turned around, bent and gave out a loud robotic "fart" sound, she was not very impressed.

"Naughty Robot" she said.


Robot coming towards us

Malaysian bloggers in Coventry

I am not alone. The list of Malaysian bloggers in Coventry grows higher every day. Some of them like the blogger who goes just by here initial "D" have been blogging for a while but anonymously. She blogs at Pause to reflect.

Some of the bloggers have moved away from Coventry while others like Rosydi are on an extented hiatus to concentrate on their research work.

One of the most prolific bloggers has got to be Ahrasis who started blogging recently and has not one but four blogs:
Forex Profiteer
Daily Digest
Automobile As Easy As 123 and
Malaysia's Politics

His wife has also started her own blog - "Mama Fahim"

The newest to join the blogosphere is Fauzan, our Tech Expert. He was responsible for maintaining the Malaysian Coventry Society site (which is under maintenance at the moment) and he's the guy everyone goes to whenever they have some problems with their gadget, etc. His blog is called "Living in United Kingdom", filled with a number of useful tips.

Several others have shown interest but are concerned about their privacy (solved by blogging anonymously), don't know what to write about (anything under the sun and the moon) or too busy with their research. Blogging is not everyone's cup of tea but it can be a really rewarding and fulfilling experience for some.

Hopefully there should be enough of us to have our own Blogger's meet.

SEO Coventry

SEO is such a big thing right now and everyone is talking about it. For those who are not aware, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. It is one of the key web marketing activities and is defined as:

the process of editing and organizing the content on a webpage or across a website to increase its potential relevance to specific keywords on specific search engines and importantly ensuring that external links to the site are correctly titled and in abundance. Source: Wikipedia.

Anyway, I was wondering whether there are any good companies specialised in SEO in Coventry and was quite surprised to find that in fact, there are none here in Coventry, apart from the National B2B Centre based at the University of Warwick. A search on Google for the search terms "SEO Coventry" also revealed that the companies in the top 5 results are based in Birmingham, London or elsewhere.

At a conference I recently attended, I was talking to some guys and they revealed that they did most of the SEO work in-house but their efforts were not effective and they have to consult some "SEO experts" from time to time, often at a huge cost. I was surprised at the amount that they were paying some of these so called experts.

Definitely puts some ideas into my head. I see a lot of opportunities for a Coventry based company or SEO Expert.

Deregistered from Surgery

My daughter was suffering from an allergy and I called up our Surgery (they call the clinic a surgery here in the UK though I have no Idea why as no surgeries are carried out at all). Imagine my shock when the lady on the line told me that we had been de-registered from the surgery and that our records had been sent to the Coventry Teaching Primary Care Trust.

For a few moments I didn't even know what to say - I was totally speechless. After the initial shock, the anger came. No! I had not joined another surgery nor had I moved my home address. The lady told me that there was nothing she could do and I should talk to the manager next day.

Called up in the morning and had a chat with the manager and she told me that we would have to register again by filling out some forms. She was really helpful and told us that I could still bring my daughter to see the doctor. She told me that I am quite lucky I found out about this by chance. Our names were still in their computer even though we had been deregistered.

I had emailed the Coventry PCT the night before and I received an email reply from them. They found out that our records had been recalled by the Coventry PCT because we had not replied to an immigration check which had required a response. Not responding to the letter results in an auto recall of the medical records from the surgery. I can't recall receiving any letter from the Coventry PCT.

Took my daughter to the surgery today after school and filled up the forms. The doctor saw her and prescribed a cream. Hopefully our names and our records will be back in the surgery soon.

Your postcode and your life span

The Thursday issue of the Coventry Times carried a very interesting report. "..where you live can have a crucial bearing on HOW LONG you live", it said.

I guess I am lucky because I live in Radford where the average life expectancy of Men is the second highest (77.3 years) in the Whole of Coventry after Sherbourne. Earlsdon came out on top with Men and Women live to an average age of 77.2 and 83.5 years respectively.

Foleshill, where most Malaysians reside came out on the bottom, with the average life expectancy of Men and Women were both below the average.

Not surprising that people live longer in the more affluent areas of Coventry. Besides standard of living, genetics does play a role as well. The population in Foleshill is predominantly made up of south Asians and as Dr. Zifhiri points out in the report, they tend to be more prone to type-two diabetes, blood pressure and cholesterol problems.

I wonder whether the lack of green spaces may have something to do with this as well. Unlike Earlsdon, there's not a single nice park in the entire area. A healthy lifestyle is essential of course but the environment does play a big role in your life expectancy as well.

Renting a house in Coventry - tips for Malaysians

Every year, a number of Malaysians contacting me every year enquiring about accommodation here in Coventry. Most of these were from people who were coming over to the UK to pursue a PhD at the University of Warwick. Despite it's name, the University is in Coventry. A lot of people are not even aware that there's a "Malaysian Coventry Society" here.

As I had mentioned in an earlier post of mine, "Newbie in the UK", most Malaysians prefer to live in either the Foleshill or Stoney Stanton area of Coventry. The rent there is unlikely to go down as the demand from families looking for affordable accommodation (read cheap) is quite high. Apart from a few exceptions, the condition of many of the houses are in a bad state of repair with leaking bathrooms, ancient looking decor and tatty and old carpets.

Most Malaysians who thought that they were moving into 3 bedroom houses are surprised to find that the third bedroom fits only a single bed with no room to move. Most end up moving to another house later. Also, if you were seriously thinking of converting one of the rooms into a office or study, you might have to reconsider.

If you are moving to the UK to pursue your PhD, you might want to consider moving into a partly furnished house. The reason is that you are going to be here for at least three years (four in most cases) and usually the furniture provided are of such low quality or old, that by the time you get ready to leave the UK, you would have replaced most of the furniture provided with your own. In the end you are paying for a fully furnished house but the furniture are all yours.

Some of the rental rates are quite high considering the condition of the houses and quality of the furnishings. Maybe it's time we moved away from these localities and looked elsewhere.

A few of my friends have been able to find houses done up to a good quality and nearer the University. They usually have to pay a higher rent but the difference is more than made up by the money saved on transport.

For those planning to come over this year, I think there might be some good news. I have been hearing rumours that rentals were falling in the city but brushed them off as I am aware that some new comers who moved into houses previously occupied by Malaysians had the rents increased. However, a look at Gum tree and accounts of some friends who have been able to secure cheaper rentals, might indicate that rentals are indeed falling. This might be due to the present economy whereby many house owners have entered the rental market instead of selling.

Yesterday evening, I went to take a look at a house for a friend who's moving here soon. It's just a short distance from my house and because the rental was quite low, didn't have high expectations. Imagine my shock when I found a really spacious house with good quality furnishings - for example, two comfy leather sofas, solid wood dining table, display cabinet, etc. Furthermore, every bedroom has a wardrobe fitted and even the smallest bedroom has a double bed with enough room to fit a table in. A lot of Malaysians were amazed when I told them about the house and I can guess, a lot of them are now currently house hunting on the net.

The Hairdresser

Had my hair cut yesterday at my favourite saloon. It's walking distance form my house but I didn't know it was unisex as the place is packed with ladies, until I saw a sign offering discounts on haircuts for gents. There's only one guy there who deals with the guys the rest are all ladies and there's even a special room for the guys.

Anyway, noticed the discount for guys is still on (only £6/). The guy who cut my hair is really friendly and talkative. We got talking and I found out that he's been cutting hair on and off for nearly 46 years. He's been cutting hair even before I was born. However, he told me that he had worked in a car factory for sometime. He lost his job when the factory closed. But he was quite philosophical about it saying that it was part of Coventry's evolution. "It has been reinventing itself over the ages". He told me that the place had been famous for it's watches at one time and for silk at another until industrialisation happened and it became the auto capital of the UK.

No! I forgot to ask his name.

Dinner at My China, Coventry

Last Sunday evening both my wife and I were feeling too lazy to cook and we decided to eat out instead. We went to our favourite Chinese restaurant - my China at Priroy Place, Coventry City Centre.

This was our second visit to the establishment. Charles Lim the friendly proprietor is originally from Malaysia (the World seems like a small place).

They have such a extensive list of food on their menu , it's quite hard to choose. We finally decided upon Crispy Vegetarian Spring Rolls (starters), Malaysian Style Fried Ho Fun, Egg Noodles and Vegetarian 'Ma Po' Tofu with rice. As usual we had Chinese Tea to go along with the food.

Here are some pics. Sorry they aren't that clear as they were taken using my Skypephone and the light was quite dim inside.


Egg Noodles


Malaysian Style Fried Ho Fun


Vegetarian 'Ma Po' Tofu


Rahil trying out chop sticks for the first time and somehow she managed.

Our son refused to get off the stroller and slept through the whole dinner. He only woke up when we got home.

The food was great and reasonably priced. Would definitely be going there again.

April snow in Coventry

Woke up this morning to find our backyard completely white. It had snowed during the night. It's crazy. It's supposed to be end of Spring by now but that's the UK - you can't predict the weather.

Coventry city centre and other updates

It has been a week since I last posted something on this blog. Makes it among the longest. So here's an update. We went to Coventry city centre thrice last week. The weather wasn't that good but we decided the kids needed some exposure and they were getting pretty restless at home during the Easter break.

The first time we went was on a Monday. We took the bus and I guess it was quite an experience for the kids as it was their first time going to the city centre using public transport. We took a family ticket (£6) but later discovered that the kids could go for free and we only had to pay our own (£2.60 each for a day saver).

It was a bank holiday and most of the shops were closed by the time we got to the city centre. It was kind of weird walking through the city with hardly anyone around - that's Coventry for you.





Got to see some parts in the city centre that I have never been to before even though we have been here for more than a year.

We went again by bus again the next day to eat lunch at this Chinese restaurant we had heard about called My China at Priory Place. We were quite surprised to find that we were the only customers - probably due to the fact it was around 2 pm. So we had the restaurant all to ourselves. We later learned that the owner is from Malaysia. The food was great. We would definitely be going there again.

The day after that we went to the city centre - again. This time we drove there and parked at the West Orchard Shopping Centre. After a bit of shopping we went to grab a bite at Nando's. You may not believe it but I have never visited a Nondo's anywhere - not even in Malaysia. It was not quite what I expected. I had imagined it to be just link any another fast food outlet - something like KFC and was not really enthusiastic

Glad to say that I was proven wrong. They have great music - Reggae, Portuguese and a few other languages I couldn't identify. They are child friendly and unlike other fast food outlets, they have a good choice of VEGETARIAN food. The chicken served at Nando's here are Halal. My kids loved their bottomless yogurt icecream and they probably ate a little more than they should have.

Had some friends over yesterday for freshly brewed coffee and pudding. Then later went for a birthday party in the evening to our friend Lisa and Zur's house.

Today had lunch at our friend Nana and Mozard's house. Great food again.

Writing all this has made me hungry and I think I will go and grab myself some supper.

It's snowing

Just wanted to be the first guy in Coventry to blog about it.

Autumn is not even over yet but it's snowing outside. At first we thought it was sleet - due to the fact that BBC weather site told us so. My car already has a thin layer of snow on it.

Coombe park again

We were supposed to go to Liverpool along with our friends Nana, Mozard and their kids last weekend but we cancelled our trip at the last moment because it turned out that the reason we wanted to go - the British musical fireworks championships were in October not this month.

So we decided to pay a visit to nearby Coombe Country Park instead. We had fun and unlike the last time we had visited, the flowers were blooming.

Rahil also rode on a donkey for the first time in her life. She looked cool but I could see her gripping the support on the saddle real tight.

Forest path

Swans

Wild flowers

We had a real scare when Nana's daughter Yana had an accident while playing at a special playground in the park. She slipped and hit herself. She was in real pain and couldn't even walk. All of us were really worried. We rushed to our cars and drove to the NHS walk-in centre in Coventry city centre as fast as we could. We left them there and later learnt that they had to go to the hospital at Walsgrave because the walk-in centre didn't have x-ray facilities.

Was really relieved when we learnt that it was not serious and she didn't break any bones.

Ikea in Coventry

As a long time fan of Ikea, I was really excited when I heard that they were going to open a store here in Coventry. This store on Queen Victoria Road, is the first one to be built in a City centre shopping area. Work started on the site on 15 May last year and is scheduled to open later this year.

The building will be seven storeys high, three of which will be for parking and another three for stores (with a store space of 24,000 square meters).

Ikea's decision to open a store is a boon for Coventry which has seen an exodus of businesses and public services leaving the city in the past few years. The new store is expected to create around 1000 new jobs here.

Right now, they already have a small store open at 2 Croft Road, CV1 3AZ.

Would definitely love to work with them. Since they are recruiting, I thought it would be a good idea to send in an application too. Unfortunately, have been rejected twice.

Guess I will have to send in an application again.

Visit to Coombe country park

Went to Coombe country park yesterday. We had initially planned to have a picnic there and had even packed a nice "nasi lemak" lunch but canceled it because of the cold weather. We started a bit late from the house, as the sun only came out in the afternoon.

Look closely and you will see a monk in the picture.

Coombe country park is in Binley about 5 miles east of Coventry city centre, and set in rural Warwickshire countryside. The post code is CV3 2AB in case you are using a sat nav to get there. Had to make two trips as there was not enough space in my car. It was ok as it took only about 30 minutes to get there and about 20 minutes back home.

We only got to see a bit of the entire 500 acres of beautiful gardens and woodland. We rushed a bit as we had to get back to their office before 5 pm to return the wheelchair we had borrowed for my wife's grandmother. Yes! You can get a wheelchair for a deposit of £5.

I later learnt that the Coombe Hotel was originally a 12th Century Cistercian Abbey. The abbey and the grounds were bought over by the Coventry City Council in 1964 and opened to the public.

For your information, entry is free but you have to pay for the parking - £2 for cars.