Go Dubai

I have been to Dubai but that was only for a few hours in transit on the way to UK. In case you didn't know Dubai is one of the seven emirates (the 2nd largest) that make up the United Arab Emirates(UAE). Dubai city is a vibrant city and is fast emerging as a world business hub.

My architect friend who resides there was telling me of the property boom taking place there. This resulted from it's government's decision to diversify from the traditional oil based economy to one that is service and tourism oriented.

You should check out the newly developing Dubai properties in IMPZ. It stands for Dubai's International Media Production Zone, which seeks to create a unique cluster environment for media production companies from across the world.

The Palm Islands, also referred to as The Palm Dubai and The Palms consists of three largest man-made islands in the world, which are being built on the coast of Dubai. It's an amazing work of engineering.

Sponsored by Dubai venture.

Tags: Dubai IMPZ Palm Islands Property

Change of school

My daughter Rahil will start going to a new play school from Monday. She was in another play school (The Little Hollies) but that was about 10 minutes drive by car. So when we got the call from this school which is just a walk away, saying that they have an opening, we jumped at it. FYI, most schools in the UK have a strict limit to the number of kids per carer.

Rahil is now eligible for 5 free sessions (with each session being 2 and half hours), per week. Before this, we had to pay £6.50 per session.

Had a look at the school last Friday and it was more organised and better equipped than the previous one that Rahil went to. Unfortunately we couldn't get into the school which is just down the road. Hopefully by the end of this year.

Vans for wheelchair users

If you have a friend or relative with a physical disability, which makes him/her a wheelchair user, then you can understand the challenges they face all the time, especially when traveling.

Modifying a vehicle to van to make it accessible to a wheelchair can be really expensive. To enable my wife's grandfather - Atok, who's a wheelchair user, to ride comfortably without getting off his wheel chair, they bought a Naza Ria. It was then modified “MTV Pimp my Ride” style with a hydraulic ramp in the back. Read my posts here and here.

The total cost for modifying the car was quite expensive but it was well worth it because it made life much easier for Atok.

If you have something similar in mind, I recommend you check out this site on handicap equipped vans. They have a number of topics. One discusses whether you should buy a full sized van or a mini van(the latter handling better on the road and getting superior gas mileage but potentially not spacious enough for some users. Another interesting and very important topic is regarding safety. They have provided a link to the NHTSA brochure: Adapting Motor Vehicles for People with Disabilities. Wish I had found this site earlier.

This is a sponsored post.

p.s. Just cam to know that the term "wheelchair-bound" is politically incorrect. The right term is "Wheelchair User".

Tags: Handicap Van Naza Ria Wheelchair user

Hari Raya Aidiladha Gathering

The Malaysian Coventry Society organised a Hari Raya Aidiladha gathering at the Muslim Resource Centre (MRC) today. It was scheduled to start at 9 am but we were late preparing the kids and only got there at 10am. Actually we were fortunate because the guests were only starting to arrive.

It was nice to meet up with the other Malaysians (mostly students) here in Coventry. As usual there were the speeches. We were also introduced to the new committee members. There was a speech by an Ustaz from the Malaysian Students Department. I felt that it was a bit long drawn. Probably because my BM is not really good and maybe because I was really hungry. Hey! I didn't have my breakfast. I was impressed by the fact that he came all the way from London to be with us.

Anyway, the food was great and we enjoyed ourselves.

Tags: Hari Raya Malaysian Coventry Society

Advice for small business owners

It is estimated that over 98% businesses in Europe, N. America, and Japan are small businesses. However they are not that small when you consider that they employ more than 50% of local populations and produce nearly 50% of the countries GNPs and create more than 2/3 of new jobs. This is according to Cullen and Parboteeah, 2005 in their book Multinational Management: A Strategic Approach.

Anyway, I just came across this really interesting site, which provides free advice for small business owners.


One of the posts was regarding the prediction of Home-based Business Trends in 2007. According to the list compiled by Homestead.com, E-Learning will be one the biggest trends.

With advances in new web application tools such as podcasts and video blogs, development costs will decrease.

Small business owners and entrepreneurs in the US might find the post on the impact of tax law changes on their business, particularly useful.

This is a sponsored post.

Tags: Advice Small business

Compostable bottles

It's quite amazing, the interesting stuff we come across at the strangest of places.

A few days back, I found this empty mineral water bottle in our car, where my wife had left it. As I was about to throw it away, noticed the words:

The UK's first compostable bottle.

That got me curious and I sat down and read what it was all about. It turns out that Belu natural mineral water bottles are made from corn and hence can be composted. According to their website, "Belu donates all it's profits to fund clean water projects in the UK and around the world".

That's pretty amazing.

Some funny stuff on the bottle:
"The penguins approve".
"Store in a clean, dry, rabbit free place".

This post was NOT sponsored by Belu.

Tags: Belu Bottle Compostable Mineral water

Finding love online

Have heard a lot of people saying that you can't find love online. I know for a fact that this is not true. You can indeed find your soul mate on the net.

Four of my closest friends found their partner online and got married to them.

Anyway, even if you are not looking for a life partner, found this great site for Online Dating.

What makes this site different from other dating sites?

Well JustSayHi.com is totally free. Yes that's right. you don't have to pay anything to register but still offer you great features as on any paid site.

Signing up is so easy and fast. You provide your email address, date of birth, inform whether you are looking for a man or woman, your country, your postal code and you are done. You can search by age or by distance. Unfortunately, the locations are limited to cities in the US. So if you are a guy in the UK or Malaysia, looking for someone in your area...Sorry!

However, if you are looking for someone in the US, you are in luck.

This is a sponsored post.

Tags: Online dating JustSayHi