Dinner with Friends

Drove to Kenilworth town yesterday with a few friends for the PhD dinner. The venue was Sunam Balti House, an Indian restaurant at 57 Abbey End. My wife stayed back to look after the kids. Thanks Darling.

They had booked for 20 guys but only ten of us turned up, which was good in one way and bad on the other hand. Good because it gave us a chance to interact more but bad because we had to pay more in the end. I thought it was a a little bit on the pricey side but the food was quite good and we had a nice time.

Was about 12:30am when I finally reached home.

The Power of Gâc

Many herbs have been traditionally used throughout the World for medicinal or health purposes. Some herbs need to be cooked or specially prepared before they can be taken internally or applied externally. Some are taken raw without any preparation.

In Asia, traditional herbal medicines are widely used, as are other alternative medicinal practices. Slowly but steadily, these exotic and amazing herbs are gradually been introduced to the people in the West. Many of these herbs which have traditionally been used for ages in the Asian countries have been found to contain nutrients or other useful chemical compounds on testing in laboratories.

Momordica cochinchinensis (Lour.) Spreng., commonly known as 'Gac', is one such plant commonly found in South East Asia, especially in Vietnam. It has been traditionally used as both food and medicine there.


The plant grows as dioecious vines that bear abundant red fruits. The Gac fruit has been found to be rich in lycopene, beta-carotene and other potent antioxidants.

It is now available as a dietary supplement from various sites- mostly pure oil extracted from the 'Gâc' fruit.

Congratulations to Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor

I almost forgot to post this up even though I had written this down earlier.

My congratulations to Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor on becoming the first Malaysian to go into space. Right now he is on the International Space Station.

Read more about Sheikh Muszaphar on Wikipedia.

Hari Raya open house pics

We had an 'open house' - a Malaysian tradition, on the 13th Saturday. We planned to have it from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm but somehow it got extended by a around 2 hours as some of our friends were only able to visit later.

Here are some pics:


Our second Raya in the UK

FOOD



Serunding (squarish plate), Chicken Rendang (yellow bowl), Lamb Rogan, Dhal Curry, Saffron Rice, Pulut Kuning & Nasi Impit (on the silver oval plate), and some different varieties of raya cookies.

Most of the dishes were prepared by my wife. The cookies and serunding were gifts from my in-laws in Malaysia (came by Fedex). The nasi impit was prepared by Nana's family. I only made the Dhal.


Cadbury Cocoa pudding


GUESTS


Rahil and friend











Thanks to everyone who visited our house. Special mention to Nana, Mozard and Family and Min who helped out.

Selamat Hari Raya 07

This is our second Hari Raya here in the UK. We had assumed that it was on Saturday until our friend Amrul called us up and informed us that it was today.

Had to go to the University today as I had a seminar from 1 to 2 pm. This was the first seminar for this term and I was a bit nervous at first. Today was just an "ice breaking" session and it went off quite well. The students came up with some brilliant answers to the scenario we (the tutors) had prepared for them.

In the evening, visited a few of our friends' houses. Tomorrow is our turn - we are having the Hari Raya open house from 11 am to 3 pm. Expect a lot of delicious dishes prepared by a World famous chef - my wife.

BP sponsors the Solar Decathlon

I consider myself quite eco-friendly and am doing my little bit for the environment. We are actively trying to reduce our carbon footprint by taking public transport, recycling, putting up energy saving bulbs and so on. I have realised that it makes economic sense as well. We found that our monthly expenditure has been reduced quite a bit after we implemented the energy saving measures and I think I am fitter as well, with all the walking I do now.

Anyway, I just learnt about the . In partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy, BP is the major sponsor of the 2007 Solar Decathlon. In this bi-annual event, 20 university teams from around the world design, build and operate livable, every-efficient, and completely solar-powered houses.

The teams form a solar village in the National Mall in Washington, D.C. from October 11–19. The contestants run a modern household by only using electricity generated by the sun.

Sponsoring this special event is part of BP’s Commitment to discovering cost effective yet cheap alternative energy sources. They first sponsored the event in 2002 (the first) and again in 2005.

Read the regular updates on the BP Solar Decathlon blog. It should be of interest to anybody who are interested in alternative energy, especially solar energy solutions.

Is the institution of marriage dead?

According to a recent statistics published by the Office of National Statistics, here in the UK, more and more couples are living together without getting married - the number increasing by almost two thirds between 1996 and 2006. At the same time, number of married couple families has dropped.

This may be bad news for the entire society as not being married means that the chances of breaking up are higher. The ones suffering most of the time would be the kids that are the result of such relationships.

Read the full report "Cohabiting is fastest growing family type."