6th Anniversary

It's amazing but apparently we have been married or 6 years now. It only feels like it was yesterday we were studying for our economics paper at Starbucks in Bangsar.

How time flies.

We didn't do anything special today. We didn't even give each other any presents. We were happy that we are there for each other.

And I am sitting here and thinking that's not right. It was just like any other day and we spent the morning discussing problems regarding our research. In fact it has been ages since we had a nice time to ourselves.

If any one talks about the "carefree student life" he is obviously not aware what a student with kids, without a scholarship and doing a PhD, goes through. However, we are looking at the promises of a better future and hope is all we have. I am sure all the sacrifices are worth it.

Here's looking forward to many more anniversaries to come.

Am I in the wrong profession

Haven't been able to update this blog that often as would have liked to.

Anyway, quite recetly I had an opportunity to talk to a guy working for an IT firm around here. I was shocked when I found out how much they were earning. The amazing part was not how much they earned but they did so when most of them don't even have a degree. Here I am, having spent a large part of my life in various educational institutions as a student and as an academic with short stints in the corporate sector and non-governmental sector. And what do I expect to get after all this - a place as a lowly paid lecturer in a University.

Even here in the UK, the starting pay for a lecturer is only around £3000 (it varies from University to University and I am taking the higher end). That may seem a lot but considering that in order to have a chance of getting into a University you must have a good bachelor's degree, followed by a Master's degree (not necessary in some cases) and ultimately topped by a PhD. And that's not all - you need to have some teaching experience and some publications, preferably in top ranking academic journals.

I have done most of that and so far I have spent around 9 years studying in various Universities after I left secondary school. I am not even calculating the money I have invested in my education. And I find myself asking this question - For what?

I guess the answer is right in front of me. A thirst for knowledge and books plus the fact that I love sharing what little I know with everyone willing to listen and read (or forced) what I have to say and found out. I guess that's what drives me to blog as well.

What about you? Do you love what you do or do you find yourself question whether you made the right choice?

Selamat Hari Raya 2008

This is the third time we are celebrating Hari Raya here in the UK. However, it's going to be a strange one this time. It's not a holiday which means that my kids will be going to school. My wife has an appointment with her supervisor as well.

This means that we won't be having an open house tomorrow. However, that won't stop us from visiting some of our friends' houses. Looking forward to eating some good home cooked Malaysian food.

Wishing everyone

Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri
Maaf Zahir Batin

Importance of thinking positive

Just finished helping out at our office, packing bags for the new PhD students who are about to start their new life here are the Warwick Business School.

Anyway, this has been a fabulous week. First of all the weather was mostly great - bright and sunny.

The week started of quite slow and I was busy with a temporary web design job. Quite boring as all I had to do create several pages with lots of text and interlink each other but I made some good money.

Then on Thursday I attended the E-Business 2008 conference organised by the National B2B Centre based at The University of Warwick. Learnt a lot of new things which I am already putting into practice. Highlight of the conference was meeting "eMarketing Guru" Dave Chaffey. It is always nice to talk to the author of books you have been using.

Then on Friday, I attended the Introductory Workshop for Tutors in the Humanities, led by Mary Johnson (ex-Head of Learning at the Royal Shakespeare Company). It was an amazing experience. It introduced me to different ways of teaching. Some of the things I learnt included amongst others, the significance of space, movement and vocal quality. We even had to act out a small part from Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Another important thing covered in the course was the issue of self-esteem. Mary used a simple experiment to show the importance of eliminating negative self talk. Saying positive things to ourself can do wonders. In the evening I had the chance to see the effects. I was in a bad mood because of something and I remembered the stuff I had learnt earlier. Eliminating all the negative thought and talking positive to myself improved my mood almost instantaneously.

Yeah! It has been a great week and I hope it gets even better next week.

Working and studying

A quick post from the office. I am helping one of the centres in the University of Warwick, update their website. It's a temporary job but the pay is not that bad. It is but one of the various temporary, part-time and short-term contractual work that I have taken up. I need to work to pay for my fees which has unfortunately increased. It's no wonder that UK Universities love non-EU foreign students.

The only problem is that it is adversely affecting my studies. My research has been left on a back burner. I had planned to complete my PhD in the stipulated three years but that is slowly looking like an unrealistic dream now. Considering the fact that NO ONE has ever completed his/ her PhD degree from the Warwick Business School within 3 years also adds to this possibility.

I don't know how I am not going to manage once the classes start in full swing and I start teaching. And I am supposed to be a full time student with no possibility of converting to part time.

Wonder how I am going to manage. Completing my PhD in time is still my top priority.

My new ride

Found out that fixing my old car won't be worth it. I had never imagined that replacing a blown head gasket would cost me around £500/. I plan to put it up on eBay under "spares or repair". I would be lucky to get a few hundred pounds. However, I plan to remove the new tyres I fitted quite recently and replace them with older ones, remove the car stereo (I already have a buyer) and drain the fuel (I had a full tank when I set out on my journey on the unfortunate day my car broke down.

Anyway, after a few frustrating days of searching for a used car I liked, (read "Buying a used car - my experience 1" and "Buying a used car - my experience with Station Garage") I finally bought a Volvo S40. It won't win any award for good looks nor is it the best in terms of performance but it is still in great condition for it's age and was within our budget. Here's hoping (and praying) that it would not give us any problems.





It is slightly bigger than my old car and as our old car was a hatchback, I have to be careful with side parking and get used to the fact that this car has a boot. The light also comes on automatically when I start the car (even during the day). Initially, I thought that it was a defect until I looked it up on the web and found out that it is a safety feature. YOU CAN'T TURN THE DAMN HEADLIGHTS OFF.

Now that I think of it, I used to get annoyed with the guys who have their car headlights on during the daytime. Now I am one of them.

Ryanair to La Rochelle

I have never flown on Ryanair and we were supposed to fly with them to La Rochelle. I say "supposed to" because we never made it there. I am actually typing this from my house in Coventry. I guess I am lucky because I nearly died today. If it sounds dramatic, it isn't.

We started off around 2pm from our house in Coventry on our way to Standsted airport. As we were about to go off from M6 to A14, I suddenly saw this truck on my left slowing inching towards me. I was in the middle lane and I was well within my lane. The truck continued overtaking the truck in front and was going to hit me. I moved to the right. All this happened in a few seconds and I didn't even have time to horn. I think the driver didn't see me but he actually nudged me into the fast lane. At the speed we were going I almost hit the metallic road divider. Fortunately there wasn't any car in the fast lane or there would have been a major accident today involving our family.

I overtook the truck and gave a few angry bursts of my horn but it just drove away as if nothing had happened. Stopping later along the A14 I actually noticed scratches on the front passenger door meaning it had actually scrapped me. That's not the end of the story. A few miles later I started hearing some noises coming from the engine and experienced a loss of power. I also noticed the temperature gauge rising. Before long smoke started pouring from underneath the car bonnet. The engine died and I used the momentum of the car to pull over to the hard shoulder.


The scratch

Called up the RAC and had a hard time describing our location. Fortunately I suddenly realised we had our TomTom and was able to tell them our rough location. They told us that their roadside recovery vehicle would be with us in about an hour. The place we had stopped was not the ideal of place as it was overgrown and sloping down into some wheat fields. So we took some of the stuff and moved to the parking area about 200 yards away.

The RAC guy arrived about half an hour later and found out that the engine had blown a gasket and the coolant was flowing out the exhaust. He ultimately towed us to the Premier Inn Hotel in Kettering. I had tried calling a few guys but the only one I got through was our landlord. We had hoped that we would be able to reach the airport in time as the flight was at 7:30pm while the RAC guys towed our car back home.

To cut a long story short, with the help of our landlord we finally reached the airport around 7pm and as expected, the Ryanair guys had closed the counter. The next flight was tomorrow same time but we would have to pay £50 pounds each for four of us. We were tempted to take the tickets but that would mean staying at a hotel nearby. The cheapest rates for a hotel nearby was £185 for a family room without breakfast. That was it. We finally decided to go back home.

I never got the chance to fly Ryanair and as for La Rochelle, maybe later one day.

It was tiring and sad but I am glad that we came back home alive. I am also really lucky to have such a great landlord. Thanks for everything Sajad.

Neighbour's house burgled

Today evening we were sitting in the living room entertaining my wife's cousin who had just arrived from Newcastle, when there was a knock on the door. I opened it up to find a cop standing at our doorstep.

Apparently one of our neighbour's house two door's away, had been broken into. I guess it had happened while we were away in Nottingham. The policeman wanted to know whether we had seen anyone acting suspiciously. I replied in the negative and I was shocked to learn that something like this had happened in our neighbourhood, and in fact right next door. The burglars had entered the house though the back door which had been left open. The officer took my name and contact number, not sure why.

Left me wondering whether the burglars had gone around trying the doors of different houses. They might have even tried ours as well. Quite a scary thought even though we don't have anything worth that much in our house. I am definitely going to install one of those motion detector spotlights at the back of our house asap.

DIY metal pent shed

For quite sometime we had been using the second toilet outside as a storeroom but finally decided to get a shed as we need to use the toilet sometimes .

We finally decided on the Yardmaster 6' x 4' Metal Pent Shed. We bought it online and it cost us £119.00 plus a delivery charge of £4.85.

Argos also carries a similar shed and at a slightly lower price but we decided on the product from Tesco because it comes with anchoring fittings and work gloves.

The shed was delivered this Monday and I straight away started on the roof. It took me 45 minutes to assemble it.



Next day, the weather was quite bad and it rained intermittently through out the day. Thank God! my father-in-law who's visiting, was there to help me. We took several breaks and I had to buy a new screwdriver from Wickes and a cordless power screwdriver from Woolworths halfway through the assembly. Wish I had made the decision earlier as we would have got though it much faster.


Without the roof and the front walls.



Now all I need to do is to fix the anchorings and put some grease on the door rollers. My first major DIY project completed successfully.

The shed is not really big and I realised one major disadvantage of buying a metal shed - fixing shelves on the wall is going to be really difficult if not impossible. That means that I am got to look for some metal shelves.

So what do you think?

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.

Weeds or useful plants

Woke up this morning to find the backyard covered by a layer of snow. I know it's crazy. It almost the end of March. It is supposed to be Spring - warm weather, flowers and greenery everywhere.

Anyway, noticed that a lot of weeds had come up in the garden. Among the most prominent are the 'Dandelions', with their bright yellow petals. As I was digging them out, I recalled reading about their medicinal properties in a book. Apparently the leaves can be eaten as well. However, I won't be trying that out any time soon.



Here is what Wikipedia has to say about their uses. Reading about their various medicinal properties makes me wonder whether they can still be termed as "weeds".

Has anyone tried eating Dandelion leaves?

This is my Green Thumb Sunday post for this week.
Join

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Didn't get the job

I was in the middle of class today when I received a call from the Unitemps office. I didn't get the job. It not something that you like to hear on your birthday but there you go.

Felt a bit down because I was extremely confident I would get the job. I was excited even though the job was only a part time and temporary, because I had done the research and felt that I could show them immediate results in just a couple of weeks.

The lady on the line was telling me that the choice had been extremely difficult and that they had a hard time deciding between me and another candidate. That was even more upsetting because then I start thinking that probably I didn't sell myself enough or that maybe I shouldn't have been too honest.

A simple "Sorry! You didn't get the position you applied for" email would have sufficed.

Anyway, that's life. You win some, you lose some.

A taxi ride

Yesterday evening I was attending a seminar on new digital media at the University of Warwick when I received a call from my wife. Our son had a really high temperature and we might have to send him to the drop-in clinic.

I didn't have the car and as a bus ride back would lake too long, decided to take a Taxi. Fortunately there were several parked besides the Rootes building.

The taxi was one of the new generation TX4 built by LTI vehicles based in Coventry. I just realised that it was my first time ever in one of these so called "London Taxis". Quite roomy and comfortable.

The taxi driver was polite and tried to make some small talk but I was not in the mood and he soon got the point I guess.

I don't know why but the journey (which is around 3.9 miles) felt like it took ages. I guess I was worried about my son. It cost me £12.80 for the journey. Though I love the idea of efficient public transport, blah blah blah, it is in situations like this that you makes you realise the advantages of having your own vehicle.

Found out that my son's temperature had gone down and we didn't have to send him to the clinic.

Stealing from Charity

My wife was working late today and I went to pick here up from the campus in the evening. On the way back she wanted to drop by the Tesco nearby and grab a few things. Fortunately I was able to find parking right in front of the store.

Anyway, while I was waited for her in the car, I noticed a suspicious looking fellow in the shadows near a charity shop. There are a couple of charity shops in the vicinity but the one near the Tesco store was a PDSA store.

The guy looked suspicious because he was hanging in the shadows and was looking left and right all the time. Suddenly a small car pulled up right in front. In one fast move the guy quickly grabbed a big plastic bag filled with stuff left by charitable people in front of the shop, jumped into the car and it quickly drove away.

There are a lot of charitable people around and they usually take their used as well as unwanted stuff and leave them outside the charity shops.

Sometime back there was a documentary on TV about some people who go around in a van pinching bags left outside residential homes meant for various charities. I know they are unwanted stuff but it's not right to pinch the stuff as they were meant for the charities. It's totally wrong.

Overpriced rentals in Coventry

Last Saturday, I went to pick up my wife from her friend's house in Nottingham. They live in a 4 bedroom terrace house. It even has a basement. I was so shocked when I learnt that they paid the same monthly rental like us - only£400/ pcm. It's a great location - just opposite a play ground and walking distance from a school and shops.

For the same amount, our friends Mozard and Nana's were able to rent a much bigger house in Birmingham.

Our house is a 3 bedroom house, but now after we have converted one of the small rooms into a walk-in closet and another into a study/ guest room, so in the end, we technically only have one bedroom we use. Yes! The kids sleep with us. I guess the only plus point of our house is the huge backyard at the back - the biggest among all our friends.

Our backyard last Winter.

Of course house rentals depends on the furnishings, presence of garden, parking facilities and of course the location. The thing is that here in Coventry, our house rent is considered cheap. The average for a 3 bedroom fully furnished house is £500 upwards depending on location. All our colleagues tell us that we got ours cheap. However, I should point out that most of them live either in Leamington Spa where rental for a single room is around £300.

I simply can't understand why house rentals are so high here in Coventry. Logically, it should be lower than in Birmingham, which is the 2nd largest city in the UK. Nottingham, even though Coventry has a slightly higher population, is far more prosperous. Probably the population has something to do with it. Going back to basic economics principle of demand and supply and their relation to price.

Of course there are exceptions and some guys did get lucky, like one of our friends who was able to get a 3 bedroom, newly renovated fully furnished house in Foleshill for only £380/ pcm.

Anyone here from Coventry who thinks that house rentals are overpriced?

Home alone with the kids

My wife is in Nottingham attending a course. I drove her to the bed and breakfast where she is staying, yesterday evening. It took me around an hour to reach there from our house in Coventry. So it was me and the two kids. My daughter was a bit upset but the boy didn't seem to notice his mum's absence. She's coming back tomorrow evening. They are not going to their kindergarten tomorrow and I will have the whole day with them.

It kind of feels odd without her in the house though we have had experience working at different places miles apart in the past. We miss you.

Bad start to the year

The New Year is not going well for me. First of all my old computer crashed. Several attempts to restart the computer failed and I had to reformat the hard disk followed by an installation of WIndows XP. Only thing I forgot was that Windows doesn't allow installation of XP on two different computers even though I had the original CD. Worse, I can't get in touch with the guy I bought the computer from.

On Thursday morning, I was on the way back home after seeing of my friends Kryzul, Hardy and Zaza. Was on the A46 when I suddenly heard a loud noise from my exhaust followed by a clanging, thumping sound. Quickly pulled over and discovered that my car silencer (muffler) had come off the exhaust pipe and was just hanging on literally by the thread. I pulled it off, put it in the boot and drove to my favourite workshop.

Yesterday, I learnt that one of my best friends - my old school mate, had passed away last month. I am still coming to terms with the news.

Just praying that it doesn't get worse than this.

Like always I am looking at the bright side. Like how it better the computer crashed now and not later when I might really need it and the fact that I had backed up all the important stuff including my assignment which is due on Monday. I just bought myself a new Dell PC online - I am calling it the PayPerPost PC.

The workshop also did a great job with the car and they only charged me £15 pound for welding the silencer back. Plus he promised that he would help me with my MOT which is coming up soon as well.

The only thing is that I cannot see any bright side on my friend's passing away. Can only hope that he's in a better place and pray that he rests in peace.

Happy New Year wishes

Looking back at last year, I have to say it was quite uneventful - nothing much happened for much of the year. In fact, it was rather boring - Staying at home in front of the computer, most of the time.

That is apart from one thing, which occurred near the end of the year - I started my PhD course with the Warwick Business School, University of Warwick. Best of all, they offered me a scholarship. That pretty much made up for everything.


Wishing all visitors to my blog
an Extremely Eventful and Exciting
and of course,
HAPPY NEW YEAR

Here's looking forward to an eventful

My Boxing day in Coventry

If you are in the UK, I am sure you are aware of the crazy scenes in stores all over the country. Yes! I am talking about the Boxing day sales. I am not really into branded stuff and I didn't join the people flocking to the West Orchard shopping centre nor did we drive up to the Bull Ring in Birmingham.



I did do some shopping though. Drove down to the nearby Go Outdoors store with our friend, Kyrzul who's visiting us. A bit disappointed because I had been expecting lower price cuts but bought some stuff anyway.

We later went to see 'I am Legend' at Odeon - my first time there. The movie was simply amazing. One of the best I have seen in a while, maybe except for Transformers.

Anyway, after the movie as we had about an hour to kill before the next bus (buses ran every hour for Boxing day), so we dropped by Ikea. The store opened on 16th of this month. No! I wasn't there at the opening. It is huge - slightly less in area than the store in Damansara, Malaysia. For your information, the store in Coventry covers 24000 square meters while the Ikea store in Mutiara Damansara is the largest in Asia with a shop floor area of approximately 270000 square feet (25000 square meters). There were some fantastic deals and of course more shopping.

How was your Boxing day?

Christmas cards

My daughter is delighted. She received loads of Christmas cards from her friends and teachers - for the first time in her life.

We didn't receive that many cards. With the advent of email and e-greeting cards, I guess the tradition of sending cards on festive occasions is slowly dying. It may be the environmentally friendly way as well but I sometimes do miss receiving loads of cards during festive occasions.