Warwick winter graduation 2012

It was a dream but we finally did it. Both my wife and I graduated together from the University of Warwick. We both studied for our PhD in Marketing (though in different areas) at the Warwick Business School. My wife started one year early and forced me to catch up with her and I actually completed one month earlier than her.

Moving house advice

One of our friends recently moved back to Malaysia after completing his studies. The small community of Malaysians here all came over and helped moved their stuff which they had spent packing literally over the past month onto the 40 footer container. Even with all the guys, it took almost all morning to get the stuff loaded on and finally we were done.

However, sometimes it is better to use the professionals. I once helped my sister-in-law move house when we realised that there was no way we could dismantle their sofa or bring it down their narrow winding stairs. In the end they called a local mover and it was amazing watching them take the sofa through the window through a system of pulleys down to the guys waiting below. The guy in charge told me that they had carried much heavier items including pianos similarly.

I guess it is best to call in the professionals if you can afford it. For example, another friend was moving house and these guys came in a big truck and had packed up and cleared the house in half a day. Later on my friends told me that none of the furnitures had even a scratch.

However the question is how to find and hire general help for moving. And you are of course concerned - Are they reliable? Are they accountable? I have heard so many horror stories about getting day movers that sometimes risking a slipped disk sounds like a better option.

Four naked Barbies

While cleaning up, my daughter came across her Barbie collection and she was telling me that she's doesn't like playing with dolls any more as "only kids play dolls".



Examining the dolls, I realised that they are all different. Three of them are made in China (all 1999 batch) while the first from left which we bought for her at a car boot sale was made in Indonesia. Update: At first I thought that it was a vintage Barbie from 1966 but later found out that they did not make Barbie in Indonesia in the 1960s.

At Greenwich park Christmas Eve 2012

We were at my sis-in-law's place in Greenwich this Christmas. On Christmas Eve, it was a chilly and cloudy but we were bored cooped up inside the house and decided to visit Greenwich Park.

Running after the squirrel


Leafless trees

At 0 Degrees Longitude - The Prime Meridian.

Auld Lang Syne

According to a recent Daily Mail article, most people do not know the lyrics of the most popular New Year's Eve song Auld Lang Syne.

Written by Scottish poet, Robert Burns, this song is sung by millions across the World.

Well here is the full song (with lyrics) sung by Dougie MacLean on the album Tribute.



Wishing all visitors to Ah Ok Lah a very Happy and Prosperous New Year 2012.

UK Protests : What's the point?

Since the Liberal Democrats formed a coalition government with the Conservatives, there have been so many protests in the UK. Discussing them with some of my friends, we wondered whether there was any point in these protests since they didn't change anything and in several cases, actually resulted in violence, disorder and looting.

Among the major ones were:

2010 UK student protests - 10, 24 and 30 November and 9 December. Peaceful protest that turned violent.

Pension reform protests. Violence breaks out again.

2011 Student tuition fees protests – 9 November. Relatively peaceful this time as compared to last year.

And of course we can't forget the recent riots between 6 and 10 August 2011, which started off as a peaceful march on 6 August 2011 related to the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan by the Metropolitan Police on 4 August 2011 and ended in widespread looting and the death of Five people.

The Occupy London protests are still going on: with tents set up one outside St Paul's Cathedral in Central London and the other in Finsbury Square just to the north.

And it looks like more protests and strikes are on the way - Public sector workers have also decided to go on strike on 30 November over the government’s public sector pension changes.

The question is whether any of these protests had any positive impact.

Whatever sympathy that people had for the students mostly dried up after seeing the images of violence on TV and in the newspapers. The student fees still went up. Mark Duggan is all but forgotten and most people were not even aware that people were protesting outside St Paul's Cathedral until the chancellor followed by the dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London resigned.

My friend tells me that these incidents show that democracy is well and alive in the UK but what's the point if these protests didn't actually achieve anything.

How the Netherlands became a cycling nation

As the following video shows, it did not happen overnight. The people demanded it, the conditions were right and the Government listened to the people.



And now they are providing their expertise to other countries.