Pregnant schoolgirls

I was quite shocked to read a report in the newspapers today which stated that one in 50 schoolgirls (aged between 13 and 15) in some parts of England and Wales, fall pregnant.

According to critics, this indicates that instead of helping, "more sex education and freely available contraception was backfiring".

I don't think that it's that simple. There are a number of possible other reasons I can think of including the breakdown of the family system, binge drinking, peer pressure, etc.

Guess this is something that the authorities in Malaysia and other countries should think about before they implement "enhanced" sex education and distribution of contraceptives to school children.

Read the Metro report: Schools where 1 in 50 girls fall pregnant

Place to shop for cheap printer inks

If you are like me and print out a lot of stuff, the printer seems to run out of ink so fast. A replacement cartridge doesn't come cheap especially if it's for your colour inkjet. In my case, it's worse because I am using a laser printer.

Well if you are looking for the Lowest prices for inkjet cartridges go on over to Ink and Stuff. The online stores has a great range of inkjet and laser printer cartridges as well other stuff.

All customers get 10% off on their first order. Remember to use the voucher code BZZ11Z at checkout.

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?

Self help hypnosis sessions

As a kid, one of my comic heroes was Mandrake the magician, who like other super heroes, went around doing doing good deeds and fighting villains of all shape and sizes including aliens. He's actually been accepted as the first comic superhero.

When anyone mentions hypnosis, the first thing that comes to mind is Mandrake the Magician. I guess the mere mention of the word can conjure up various images in different people including the funny character in British TV's Little Britain.

The reason I brought up my childhood comic character is because I just came across the Instant-Hypnosis.com (http://www.instant-hypnosis.com). The site is possibly the "World's largest hypnosis site". They offer around 300 hypnosis sessions that can be downloaded instantly. These hypnosis downloads range from self improvement sessions to ones that are designed to help people with addictions and bad habits. I read in the newspapers recently that hypnosis has been successfully used by a lot of people to cure them of their smoking addiction.

Best of all is their " 100% Satisfaction Guarantee". If you are not satisfied with any of their products, you can ask for a complete refund up to 90 days after purchasing your product. They also have multi-purchase discounts and a affiliate program in place as well. Check out the site for more information.

Are foreigners taking away British jobs?

The Labour government is beginning to sound more and more like the Conservatives.

Previously they claimed that 54% of the total 2.1 million jobs created in the last 10 years since 1997, had gone to foreigners. However, there was a lot of commotion when the Statistics Commission revealed that results of a study that showed that in fact, the proportion of new jobs going to foreigners was as high as 81% out of a lower estimated total jobs created (1.7 million).

Now they are thinking of putting up a number of restrictions on immigrants entering the UK including limiting the number of months you can stay on in the UK on a tourist visa from 6 to 3 months. They are also planning to charge a flat levy on "non-domiciled'' residents.

The trouble is that when you say "foreigners", most locals automatically assume this to mean Africans and Asians.

I am not implying that the results of the study is wrong but I won't be surprised if majority of the "foreigners" were actually from EU countries and the East European countries in particular. A solution would be withdrawing from the EU and that is one possibility that is definitely not going to happen.

Another thing that is not clarified are the nature of the jobs created. One of my friends mentioned that the jobs that were taken over by foreigners were probably the menial and hard labour jobs like cleaners and jobs at odd hours, that locals are hesitant to take up. For professional positions, I know that for a foreigner to get a job here in the UK you would either have to be extremely highly qualified or work in a foreign owned company including the MNCs, which usually have a fair employment policy based on merit.

Of course the locals are concerned with the news and this in turn may have led to a negative perception towards foreigners.

One of our friends who's doing a PhD in Birmingham was recalling an incident where a colleague joked about "foreigners like you are taking my jobs".

"It's the opposite. I am actually subsidising your studies here", my friend retorted, which is kind of true in a way as British and EU students pay only about one third of what we foreign students pay for our studies.

Talking about employment, it not all that bad here in the UK as compared to some other countries around the World. In fact the total unemployment has fallen to 1.64 million, the lowest since 1975 (32 years).

Health insurance from BUPA

Like a new comers to the UK, we had the misconception that health care is totally free in the UK. It isn't. Sometimes you may find that you want to go to private specialists and the costs can be prohibitive. I am not saying that the service provided by the NHS is bad, it's just that you may want more exclusive treatment rather that those offered by your GP and if you have problem, do not want to be in queue and wait for months to get an appointment in the local hospital.

That's one of the main reasons that you may want to take out Health insurance here in the UK. BUPA is a global health and care organisation that has been operating for over half a century. They are one of UK's leading provider of private health care insurance and health care services. There are many other companies out there offering cheap health insurance but most of these are "one size fits all" deals that may not be a very good idea as different people have different needs and requirements. Obtain a free health insurance quote by contacting them today. You can choose from five different levels of health insurance cover.

Do check out their Health factsheet which has info on almost every medical condition.