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.
14 June 2008
12 June 2008
Empty Coventry Ikea store
Just got back from Nottingham where I had spent the night together with the wife and kids. Had a wonderful dinner yesterday at our friend Amrul's house. Not many guys like cooking but it's a fact that some of the best cooks are men. Amrul happens to be one of them. He loves cooking. He has a nice kitchen fully furnished with Ikea furniture in the house he's renting. Our small kitchen looks terrible in comparison.
Talking of Ikea, we visited the huge Ikea store here in Coventry on Tuesday. Both my wife and I, are long time Ikea fans and if we had the choice (and money), we would equip the entire house with Ikea furniture and stuff.
Anyway, when we entered the store, we were shocked when we found that there was absolutely no one around - not even the store employees. It was like we had the entire store to ourselves. We did get to see a couple of other customers after a few minutes. But having got used to crowded Ikea stores in Malaysia, it was a big surprise. Made me wonder whether the Coventry store is making any money at all.
We also decided to try out the food here. The food was great and quite cheap. Reminds me of the days in Malaysia when we used to go to the Ikea store for food.
We had wanted to grab a few items but like usual ended up with a whole shopping cart load of items. Looks like more DIY time for me.
Talking of Ikea, we visited the huge Ikea store here in Coventry on Tuesday. Both my wife and I, are long time Ikea fans and if we had the choice (and money), we would equip the entire house with Ikea furniture and stuff.
Anyway, when we entered the store, we were shocked when we found that there was absolutely no one around - not even the store employees. It was like we had the entire store to ourselves. We did get to see a couple of other customers after a few minutes. But having got used to crowded Ikea stores in Malaysia, it was a big surprise. Made me wonder whether the Coventry store is making any money at all.
We also decided to try out the food here. The food was great and quite cheap. Reminds me of the days in Malaysia when we used to go to the Ikea store for food.
We had wanted to grab a few items but like usual ended up with a whole shopping cart load of items. Looks like more DIY time for me.
09 June 2008
MCS BBQ 2008
The Malaysian Coventry Society organised a BBQ party at Draycote Water Country Park last Saturday. We were supposed to bring some kuih-muih (snacks) but we were too lazy too cook and bought some chocolate cakes from Morrisons instead.
Being a vegetarian, there was not much I could eat but it was nice to meet up with other Malaysian families. My daughter made some new friends as well. My son was happily running around and I realised I haven't taken him out to any parks for a while. However, I had a tough time keeping him away from the BBQ fires. He was fascinated with the smoke and the sound of all the sizzling meat.
I had wanted to explore the park before going back home but the heavens opened up and we rushed back home. Maybe some other time.
Here are some pictures:
Being a vegetarian, there was not much I could eat but it was nice to meet up with other Malaysian families. My daughter made some new friends as well. My son was happily running around and I realised I haven't taken him out to any parks for a while. However, I had a tough time keeping him away from the BBQ fires. He was fascinated with the smoke and the sound of all the sizzling meat.
I had wanted to explore the park before going back home but the heavens opened up and we rushed back home. Maybe some other time.
Here are some pictures:
05 June 2008
Fuel prices stink
Fuel prices in Malaysia is set to rise from RM 1.92 ringgit to RM 2.70 (£0.425) a litre while in India it has increased to Rs 47.49 (£0.57) a litre (an increase of almost 5 rupees). Read the report in the International Herald Tribune here. Petrol prices are heavily subsidised in both countries.
Over here in the UK the prices are determined by the market. Got the shock of my life when I saw the prices at the nearby Texaco station near my house this morning - 116.99p. It is the highest since we arrived here in the UK.
As a student here, I am definitely feeling the pinch. As much as I would like to, I simply can't reduce my dependence on the car. I use it to send and pick up my kids from the nursery. We also have use it to go to the University. Of course public transport is always an option but we have to change two buses to get there, taking almost 40 minutes of our precious time and a day saver ticket costs £2.60. In the end, it is cheaper to take the car.
However we are resigned to it as it doesn't look like the fuel prices are not going to come down anytime soon. It might not even come down at all.
Over here in the UK the prices are determined by the market. Got the shock of my life when I saw the prices at the nearby Texaco station near my house this morning - 116.99p. It is the highest since we arrived here in the UK.
As a student here, I am definitely feeling the pinch. As much as I would like to, I simply can't reduce my dependence on the car. I use it to send and pick up my kids from the nursery. We also have use it to go to the University. Of course public transport is always an option but we have to change two buses to get there, taking almost 40 minutes of our precious time and a day saver ticket costs £2.60. In the end, it is cheaper to take the car.
However we are resigned to it as it doesn't look like the fuel prices are not going to come down anytime soon. It might not even come down at all.
01 June 2008
Pink flowers
Noticed a strange plant coming up all over the place. Uprooted most of them and I don't know why, left this one. Quite recently it started flowering - beautiful pink flowers. Like usual, I have no idea what this plant is. Now I am regretting cutting the plants. The amazing thing is that I have no idea where they came from.
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Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.
Join
Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.
The Hairdresser
Had my hair cut yesterday at my favourite saloon. It's walking distance form my house but I didn't know it was unisex as the place is packed with ladies, until I saw a sign offering discounts on haircuts for gents. There's only one guy there who deals with the guys the rest are all ladies and there's even a special room for the guys.
Anyway, noticed the discount for guys is still on (only £6/). The guy who cut my hair is really friendly and talkative. We got talking and I found out that he's been cutting hair on and off for nearly 46 years. He's been cutting hair even before I was born. However, he told me that he had worked in a car factory for sometime. He lost his job when the factory closed. But he was quite philosophical about it saying that it was part of Coventry's evolution. "It has been reinventing itself over the ages". He told me that the place had been famous for it's watches at one time and for silk at another until industrialisation happened and it became the auto capital of the UK.
No! I forgot to ask his name.
Anyway, noticed the discount for guys is still on (only £6/). The guy who cut my hair is really friendly and talkative. We got talking and I found out that he's been cutting hair on and off for nearly 46 years. He's been cutting hair even before I was born. However, he told me that he had worked in a car factory for sometime. He lost his job when the factory closed. But he was quite philosophical about it saying that it was part of Coventry's evolution. "It has been reinventing itself over the ages". He told me that the place had been famous for it's watches at one time and for silk at another until industrialisation happened and it became the auto capital of the UK.
No! I forgot to ask his name.
27 May 2008
Review of Socialspark.com
In case you haven't heard there is a new social marketing network on the web.
SocialSpark is the latest innovation from the same guys who brought you PayPerPost. It is similar to the latter in some respects in that it is an online market place where advertisers and bloggers come together. However, there are several features that makes Socialspark different from PayPerPost, or for that matter, from any other social marketing network on the web. More about that later.
After signing up, you go and add your blogs. In order to do this, I had to add the claim and the itk (IZEA ToolKit) Javascript codes. You can start taking opportunities (sponsored posts) as soon as your blog is verified.
Taking an opportunity was a bit confusing in the beginning but later found out that it was quite easy. After going through the list of opportunities available. A few seconds after you reserved the opportunity, you should receive an email from them informing that you have 12 hours to complete the opp.
I had signed up sometime back but this is my first SocialSpark sponsored post. One of the main reasons I didn't take any oops earlier was that I was scared of being Googlespanked again. For those who are not aware, Googlespank refers to Google (the leader in the web search industry) punishing websites, which they feel have not been complying with their standards, with a big fat PR 0.
Socialspark has done away with this problem by coming out with their own blog ranking system called "real rank", that takes several factors into account including traffic to your site. Furthermore, all posts will have in-post disclosures and all the required links in the sponsored posts will carry the no-follow tag - something that should satisfy Google guidelines and hopefully silence critics of sponsored posts. Other exciting features are the blog analytics and of course the social networking tools.
So if you are a blogger looking for a way to earn some money from your blog, I recommend that you check out SocialSpark.
SocialSpark is the latest innovation from the same guys who brought you PayPerPost. It is similar to the latter in some respects in that it is an online market place where advertisers and bloggers come together. However, there are several features that makes Socialspark different from PayPerPost, or for that matter, from any other social marketing network on the web. More about that later.
After signing up, you go and add your blogs. In order to do this, I had to add the claim and the itk (IZEA ToolKit) Javascript codes. You can start taking opportunities (sponsored posts) as soon as your blog is verified.
Taking an opportunity was a bit confusing in the beginning but later found out that it was quite easy. After going through the list of opportunities available. A few seconds after you reserved the opportunity, you should receive an email from them informing that you have 12 hours to complete the opp.
I had signed up sometime back but this is my first SocialSpark sponsored post. One of the main reasons I didn't take any oops earlier was that I was scared of being Googlespanked again. For those who are not aware, Googlespank refers to Google (the leader in the web search industry) punishing websites, which they feel have not been complying with their standards, with a big fat PR 0.
Socialspark has done away with this problem by coming out with their own blog ranking system called "real rank", that takes several factors into account including traffic to your site. Furthermore, all posts will have in-post disclosures and all the required links in the sponsored posts will carry the no-follow tag - something that should satisfy Google guidelines and hopefully silence critics of sponsored posts. Other exciting features are the blog analytics and of course the social networking tools.
So if you are a blogger looking for a way to earn some money from your blog, I recommend that you check out SocialSpark.
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