MCS BBQ 2009

The Malaysian Coventry Society (MCS) recently held their annual barbecue party at Cryfield Pavillion, University of Warwick on the 4th of July. The weather was great and though the clouds looked threatening at times, it didn't pour down until much later in the evening.

There were games for the whole family and of course loads of great food.

Here are some pics:

























The BBQ party was a great success.

What the hell is Twitter?

It comes as no surprise that so many people are curious about Twitter. After all, it's constantly in the news but I have had so many queries about it, I realised that most people have actually no idea what Twitter is all about.



For those who didn't know, Twitter is a social networking/ micro-blogging service. It's called micro-blogging because you are allowed only to post up to 140 characters which is displayed on your twitter profile and also sent out to your subscribers who are known as "followers".

If you have already set up your Twitter profile but don't seem to have many followers you might want to read "Why people don't follow you on Twitter".

This new phenomena has resulted in whole new set of words, which I guess will soon be included in the Oxford dictionary. These include among others:

• Tweet: A post/ update on Twitter
• Tweeting: To post a tweet on Twitter
• Twitterer: Someone who tweets.
• Tweeps: Friends on Twitter, which I guess is derived from "Peeps".

The reason why it is tweet not twit and tweeting not twitting on Twitter is quite obvious.

One warning though - it's really addictive and sometime back I was tweeting like crazy everyday. In fact, I was the top twitterer in Coventry for quite sometime but I slowed down a bit now and have fallen to the 4th rank according to Twittergrader.

Anyway, follow me on Twitter @admutum

Not a bed of roses all the time

A lot of people reading my blog seems to think we are having a lot of fun here in the UK. In fact, several people back in Malaysia seem to think that doing a PhD in the UK is a big long vacation and we are all having fun here.

I guess it's kind of easy to get that impression looking at the big second hand Mercedes Benz car the students bring back, all the happy photographs posted on Facebook and blogs - of going to Paris, Rome and La Rochelle.

Despite the fact that I blog and twitter constantly, I am actually quite private. I prefer to keep some things to myself. Apart from my wife, I guess no body will ever know the problems we went through and the tears we cried.

Doing a PhD is not easy. We knew that but we still decided to go ahead and enroll for the PhD programmes here at the University of Warwick - both of us, with small kids. My son was just 3 months old when we moved here to the UK. Furthermore I took a huge gamble, resigned from my comfy job and decided to pay for my studies on my own. I didn't know how but we just went ahead. As they say, when there's a will, there is a way.



With God's blessings I received a scholarship for my first year at the Warwick Business School. That was the honeymoon period and the first year passed without any problems. Then the second year came and we found out that I would have to pay for the 2nd year of my studies on my own. Right now the fees is £10,900 for overseas full time students. That does not include other living expenses - food, petrol, insurance, etc.

That was hard - I had to take up several jobs. At one time I was actually working at 4 different places and doing different things including developing web sites and teaching at the University of Warwick. We even had to dig into the little savings we had back in Malaysia. And I had to study, do research and write papers at the same time. That was really hard.

Recently I was informed that I got the studentships for the next year. Praise be to God. I realise that most of our problems were related to money. However, there are other things as well that money can't solve.

I am sure we are not the only ones with a problem. Probably, many others doing a PhD here have it worse. I know of several PhD students whose relationships broke down, spouses passing away, having miscarriages and even mental breakdowns. I sometimes wonder how some of the Malaysian doctoral students managed to get on.

We are nearing the end now but still have a long way to go. We have survived and we will continue to fight as I am sure others have. We are really happy when our older colleagues finally pass out and we learn that they passed their viva without any or minor corrections. Gives some kind of hope to us still trying to find our way through the literature and various theories.

When we were totally stressed out, we took time out, going on family vacations - to rejuvenate our batteries. I guess that kept up sane. We also supported each other and pushed each other when we had to. All the time trying to be optimistic and smile. Having religion does help and though I have always been spiritual, I am more so now. I don't want to get into arguments with Atheists but I know God exists even though I can't explain how.

I am going off on a tangent here and I don't want to put people off from doing a PhD. Just want to say that it's definitely not a bed of roses but it's not something impossible.

First Commentator
Chics

Strawberries

My strawberries are really doing well. 100% organic. It initially started out with 2 plants about two years ago and now I have a whole patch.



This is my

post.

Join
Do visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Visit to Edinburgh castle

Warning: Loads of pictures. May take ages to load on slow connections.

Some pics of Edinburgh castle from our last trip. A visit to Edinburgh will not be complete without a visit to the castle. It's at the Western end of the Royal Mile.


A bit overcast when we visited it. The sun came out later.


There are two statues at the castle gates. The one on the left is that of Robert the Bruce. Have you heard the story about him and the spider and "Try, try, try again". Look it up on Google. Not sure who the other statue is of.




The Argyle Battery


The Scottish Monument from the rear


Brother and sister


My son


Mons Meg, a huge cannon

Just look at the size of the cannon balls


Looking down the turret


Stained glass in St. Margaret's Chapel, the oldest building in Edinburgh castle.




The well


The cannon


Coat of arms


Scottish War Memorial


Gargoyle looking down


Another battery


Outside the castle




Panoramic view from top

Michael Jackson - The King of Pop

I was sending my kids to school today and I was listening to local radio station Mercia. I wasn't paying much attention and I thought I might have misheard when I heard Andy Goulding saying that Michael had passed away.

After dropping off the kids, listening to the radio I learnt that the King of Pop has really passed away. He was just 50 years old.

I used to joke to my students that when we were kids, Michael Jackson was still black. It was true, we grew up listening to ABC, Ben and I'll be there from the Jackson 5 days. I remember break dancing during my school days to the tunes of Billie Jean, Beat it, Thriller and Bad (Yes! I am from that era). It won't be wrong to say that he was a big influence and brought happiness to a lot of people all around the World.



Rest in Peace Michael.

Dr. Mahathir's blog down

Just noticed that Tun Dr. Mahathir's blog - Che Det is no longer up. For those who didn't know Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad was the fourth and longest serving Prime Minister of Malaysia. He held the post for 22 years from 1981 to 2003.

AS someone who likes to keep up to date with the latest development in almost everything, Tun Dr. Mahathir started his blog in 2008 and it became hugely popular soon. He raised some really controversial issues in the blog.

I am not sure why the blog went down. Does anybody have any information?
The website mentions that www.chedet.co.cc is available.

Don't tell me he forgot to renew the domain.

First Commentator
Angel