Black Watch - awesome theatre

Yesterday night went to see the acclaimed National Theatre of Scotland's Black Watch at the Warwick Art's Centre. My wife's friend who's doing a PhD in theatre recommended it. He liked it so much that he watched it five times.

Written by Gregory Burke and directed by John Tiffany, it was indeed a wonderful experience - among the best theatre I have ever experienced in a long time. I say experience because it seemed like we were in the middle of it. Pulsating and high octane right from the start to the end. I was so engrossed that the one hour and 50 minutes just rushed by. It might have something to do with the fact that the actors were so near us. The arrangement of the stage was quite unique with the audience of either side of the stage.

A warning though - there is liberal use of strong language (Hint: four letter words starting with F and C). There are some loud explosions as well - made me jump more than once. The seating was a bit uncomfortable and I had someone's knee on my back and whenever there was an explosion he would jump and give me a light thump on my back with his knee. We were sitting so close that I could almost smell the beer the lady sitting next to me was holding. I guess that was part of the total experience.

Make sure you empty your bladder before hand as there are no intervals and you won't be allowed back in if you decide to go out.

So what was the play all about? Well it's about the famous Scottish regiment of the same name - Black Watch. Tells about the experiences about some soldiers in Iraq and about politics. You also get to learn about the history of the regiment as well.

It was an awesome show. Watch it.

DIY metal pent shed

For quite sometime we had been using the second toilet outside as a storeroom but finally decided to get a shed as we need to use the toilet sometimes .

We finally decided on the Yardmaster 6' x 4' Metal Pent Shed. We bought it online and it cost us £119.00 plus a delivery charge of £4.85.

Argos also carries a similar shed and at a slightly lower price but we decided on the product from Tesco because it comes with anchoring fittings and work gloves.

The shed was delivered this Monday and I straight away started on the roof. It took me 45 minutes to assemble it.



Next day, the weather was quite bad and it rained intermittently through out the day. Thank God! my father-in-law who's visiting, was there to help me. We took several breaks and I had to buy a new screwdriver from Wickes and a cordless power screwdriver from Woolworths halfway through the assembly. Wish I had made the decision earlier as we would have got though it much faster.


Without the roof and the front walls.



Now all I need to do is to fix the anchorings and put some grease on the door rollers. My first major DIY project completed successfully.

The shed is not really big and I realised one major disadvantage of buying a metal shed - fixing shelves on the wall is going to be really difficult if not impossible. That means that I am got to look for some metal shelves.

So what do you think?

Blue Hyacinth

Saw these beautiful blue hyacinths at the local grocer and decided to get some for my garden. One of them finally flowered. Some of the buds fell off while I was planting it. It would have looked much better otherwise.






Join

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Teachers on strike

Saw a number of kids on the street today and was wondering about it. Later learnt that the teachers are on strike. The one -day strike was called by the National Union of teachers to protest against low wages. A number of working parents are fuming mad as they have to take off from work to look after their kids. I wonder what would happen to the kids whose parents are unable to get the day off.

I don't know why but I suddenly felt like listening to one of my old favourite songs - that we used to sing in school.



Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall

Dinner at My China, Coventry

Last Sunday evening both my wife and I were feeling too lazy to cook and we decided to eat out instead. We went to our favourite Chinese restaurant - my China at Priroy Place, Coventry City Centre.

This was our second visit to the establishment. Charles Lim the friendly proprietor is originally from Malaysia (the World seems like a small place).

They have such a extensive list of food on their menu , it's quite hard to choose. We finally decided upon Crispy Vegetarian Spring Rolls (starters), Malaysian Style Fried Ho Fun, Egg Noodles and Vegetarian 'Ma Po' Tofu with rice. As usual we had Chinese Tea to go along with the food.

Here are some pics. Sorry they aren't that clear as they were taken using my Skypephone and the light was quite dim inside.


Egg Noodles


Malaysian Style Fried Ho Fun


Vegetarian 'Ma Po' Tofu


Rahil trying out chop sticks for the first time and somehow she managed.

Our son refused to get off the stroller and slept through the whole dinner. He only woke up when we got home.

The food was great and reasonably priced. Would definitely be going there again.

The cabbage that survived

Some of you might recall my post "Cabbage and caterpillars" that I posted last year showing pics of my cabbage plant infested with caterpillars.

You might be surprised to learn that the cabbage plant is still standing. It survived the caterpillars



the winter


and is now even taller than my son.


A true survivor.


Join

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Night in Nottingham

Spent a night yesterday at the Travelodge in Nottingham city centre. My wife is attending a course at the University of Nottingham and I decided to tag along with the kids. However, I had to come back today morning as I was presenting a paper at the Spring Doctoral Conference here at the University of Wariwck.

I had wanted to try out the 3 USB dongle over there but was so tired out when we finally got there, that I didn't get the chance to test it out. Just chatted with my wife over Skype and the sound quality was OK though the connection did drop once.

Will find out what she thinks about the 3 USB dongle when she comes back tomorrow.


A view of the street from the our room.

Playing with bubbles

Recently bought a bubble machine. The mechanism is quite simple, you fill up the tank with the bubble mix and a fan at the back blows air through of bubble wands turning round. It produces hundreds of bubbles per minute and kids love it.









Definitely beats blowing bubbles yourself.

Where a million dollars does not mean anything

I was reading about the really sad affairs in Zimbabwe in an article on the BBC site and I recall an old National Geographic magazine that I once read. That issue was full of optimism about the country that had just gained independence and had taken on the new name of Zimbabwe (1980) and it's great leader, Robert Mugabe.



Now the country seems to have gone down the drain like so many other African countries. It's amazing that a cup of tea and two glasses of water can cost 204 million Zimbabwe dollars.

One guy can do this to a country.

Read the article: Mugabe's stranglehold on Zimbabwe

3 Dongle dangled

Take a look at what came via the post yesterday.

I am a satisfied 3 Skypephone user and had been thinking about signing up for their mobile broadband service after reading about it. Just imagine my delight when I was offered the opportunity to try it out for FREE for 3 months with absolutely no data restrictions.

The free gifts that came with the "dongle" was completely unexpected. I don't mind - I love free stuff.

Anyway, the dongle is actually a Huawei E169G USB Modem and looks like a bit like a normal USB flash drive.





Before using it, you have to take out the USIM card holder and insert the USIM card. Stick the dongle into one of your laptop's USB ports.



The modem software installs automatically. Once installed, all I have to do is click "Connect" on the pop-up screen and I am done - mobile broadband Internet access.

Over the next three months, I will be testing out the modem from various locations in the UK. Look out for more reviews and technical details on my tech blog Adamok dot net.

Thanks to Sam and the other guys at 3mobilebuzz for giving me the opportunity to try out the modem and of course, the other freebies.

April snow in Coventry

Woke up this morning to find our backyard completely white. It had snowed during the night. It's crazy. It's supposed to be end of Spring by now but that's the UK - you can't predict the weather.

TalkTalk broadband not so bad after all

Just a few posts back I ranted about TalkTalk being the worst broadband provider in the UK. Well, I might be wrong after all.

Last Sunday, at our friend's house in Birmingham, the topic of broadband speeds suddenly came up. My friend is on Virgin broadband. On checking the speed, we found out that their speeds were slightly lower than ours. However, I should point out that their promised maximum speed was only "up to 4 Mb" unlike our "Up to 8 Meg download speeds".

Have any of you guys been able to get up to at least 50% or more of the download speeds promised by your broadband provider?

Flying penguins

A BBC team has found a unique species of penguins.

unlike any penguin...

These penguins can fly and they migrate to warmer climes in winter.

Check out the Penguins video on the BBC site.

BTW, today is April 1st.

Coventry city centre and other updates

It has been a week since I last posted something on this blog. Makes it among the longest. So here's an update. We went to Coventry city centre thrice last week. The weather wasn't that good but we decided the kids needed some exposure and they were getting pretty restless at home during the Easter break.

The first time we went was on a Monday. We took the bus and I guess it was quite an experience for the kids as it was their first time going to the city centre using public transport. We took a family ticket (£6) but later discovered that the kids could go for free and we only had to pay our own (£2.60 each for a day saver).

It was a bank holiday and most of the shops were closed by the time we got to the city centre. It was kind of weird walking through the city with hardly anyone around - that's Coventry for you.





Got to see some parts in the city centre that I have never been to before even though we have been here for more than a year.

We went again by bus again the next day to eat lunch at this Chinese restaurant we had heard about called My China at Priory Place. We were quite surprised to find that we were the only customers - probably due to the fact it was around 2 pm. So we had the restaurant all to ourselves. We later learned that the owner is from Malaysia. The food was great. We would definitely be going there again.

The day after that we went to the city centre - again. This time we drove there and parked at the West Orchard Shopping Centre. After a bit of shopping we went to grab a bite at Nando's. You may not believe it but I have never visited a Nondo's anywhere - not even in Malaysia. It was not quite what I expected. I had imagined it to be just link any another fast food outlet - something like KFC and was not really enthusiastic

Glad to say that I was proven wrong. They have great music - Reggae, Portuguese and a few other languages I couldn't identify. They are child friendly and unlike other fast food outlets, they have a good choice of VEGETARIAN food. The chicken served at Nando's here are Halal. My kids loved their bottomless yogurt icecream and they probably ate a little more than they should have.

Had some friends over yesterday for freshly brewed coffee and pudding. Then later went for a birthday party in the evening to our friend Lisa and Zur's house.

Today had lunch at our friend Nana and Mozard's house. Great food again.

Writing all this has made me hungry and I think I will go and grab myself some supper.

Weeds or useful plants

Woke up this morning to find the backyard covered by a layer of snow. I know it's crazy. It almost the end of March. It is supposed to be Spring - warm weather, flowers and greenery everywhere.

Anyway, noticed that a lot of weeds had come up in the garden. Among the most prominent are the 'Dandelions', with their bright yellow petals. As I was digging them out, I recalled reading about their medicinal properties in a book. Apparently the leaves can be eaten as well. However, I won't be trying that out any time soon.



Here is what Wikipedia has to say about their uses. Reading about their various medicinal properties makes me wonder whether they can still be termed as "weeds".

Has anyone tried eating Dandelion leaves?

This is my Green Thumb Sunday post for this week.
Join

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

I am Adam

Talented artist Emila Yusof created this stylised graphic of my name just for commenting on her blog.



What do you think?

TalkTalk the worst broadband provider in the UK

It's been nearly 3 months since got reconnected to the Internet via internet service provider, TalkTalk after my AOL broadband connect got cut off without any warning.

I was quite happy initially until I realised that our connections speeds were really slow. I complained a few times but the TalkTalk customer service people kept making excuses.

Really regret signing up with this broadband service provider (or should I say Narrowband service provider). I ignored the warning signals - low ratings on various consumer forums, delay in sending me the broadband router, etc. A guy who came to fix our gas even told me "they are crap mate".

I ignored all of them because I was blinded by their amazing offer of "Free Broadband with our Talk2 International Call Plan". Should have remembered the old saying "pay peanuts and you get monkeys".

Really ashamed that I promoted this "free broadband" thing to a few other friends as well as I thought it was a wonderful deal in the beginning. I just hope that they didn't sign up. And I simply don't want to ask lest they blame me.

Just proves my earlier observation that a lot of companies here in the UK are really bad when it comes to customer retention even though they are really good in attracting first time users.

Here are the results of two different broadband speed tests I carried out a few minutes ago:

1.
- Speedtest.net


2.
- Broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk

A little difference there but the fact remains that our broadband speed is not even half of the promised "Up to 8 Meg download speeds".

Really annoyed that I am stuck on a 18 months contract. Wonder whether there is any way I can move to another service provider without getting penalised in any way?

Update 8 Oct 2008 : They have improved their service. Read "Faster broadband speed"

Nicos Nicolaou - toy vending in Cyprus

Entrepreneurs have always fascinated me and I am intrigued with the reasons and factors that made them become "the big Boss" rather than work under other people. What is it that makes them tick?

This is the first of my "Entrepreneur Series" where I will interview entrepreneurs from different countries around the World. My interviews are quite short but they should give us a glimpse at the lives of these entrepreneurs.

Nicos Nicolaou is involved in the toy vending business (amongst other ventures) in Cyprus. Read on ...

------------------
Q1. Can you tell us a bit about your personal background? Where you grew up and live now, education, jobs, etc.

A: I was born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (Africa) and stayed in Bulawayo with my family until the age of 7. However, due to political problems in the country we had to move to Maun, Botswana (Africa). We later moved permanently to Pafos, Cyprus where I presently reside.

I went to an English speaking high school where I studied for 6 O'levels and 1 A'level. Afterwards, I went to college in the capital of Cyprus (Nicosia) where I successfully obtained my Bachelors degree in Hospitality management (in collaboration with Bournemouth University, UK). This is also where I met my wife. From 1998 to 1999, we both studied for our Masters degrees at the University of Warwick (MA in Organisation studies). I later obtained my MBA from the University of Cardiff, Wales in 2000, After graduation, I returned to Cyprus and got a job as a lecturer in a local college.

I later decided to open up my own small business of collectable capsule toys through special vending machines located in playgrounds, luna parks, cinemas and restaurants and started my business in May 2007.

Q2. Why did you decide to open your own business?

Since I was a kid, I liked to use my initiative to create things. For example, I liked to build toy cars or helicopters. I would save up money in order to buy things I really liked. So I guess I was always business oriented.

I decided to open up a toy vending machine business because I felt that there was a great opportunity for success. I believed I had the unique selling proposition of selling "collectable toys". This includes different toy figures (including action figures like Spiderman, Batman, etc). Also, I liked the fact that this business does not take up a lot of time and leaves me free to carry out other ventures. I have to drive around Cyprus only twice a month to refill the machines with toys as well as count the monthly earnings.

Q3. Can you tell us a bit about your company and your future plans?

My company's name is NSN Intelligence. NSN stands for Nicos Spyrou Nicolaou (my initials). The word intelligence was used in order to emphasize the element of "knowledge" behind the company. I am a person who strongly believes in the concept of know-how and how you can use it to maximize your potential. My other business ventures include real estate, educational and gardening services. For more information do visit my website: www.nsnintelligence.com.

My future goals are to futher expand my business by placing more vending machines in ideal locations and also to differentiate by moving into the kiddie ride business. My vision is to see the company grow and develop financially in order to build a company where my children can take over when I retire.
------------------

Thanks a lot for your time Nicos.

Malaysian election results - my comments

Quite a number of people have asked me why I haven't blogged about the recently concluded general elections in Malaysia. This may not be entirely true as I did blog about Jeff Ooi getting elected. Even though I blog about issues I am not happy with from time to time, I prefer to keep politics out of my blog.

That is also the reason I am among the few Malaysian bloggers who you will not see jumping around with joy with the recent results. As I mentioned before, I am really interested to see how it will all work out.

Will the DAP and PAS, two parties with almost totally opposite agendas, get along within the opposition coalition?

How will UMNO and other BN component parties respond to this?

What role is Anwar Ibrahim going to play in this whole drama?

I would definitely like to see the opposition parties fulfilling the promises they made - namely that of eliminating corruption, nepotism and cronysm in the states they control. They have to. Everyone is looking up to them now.

However, I am not sure they can actually do anything about the inflation and rising prices of goods, one of the reasons why a number of people voted for the opposition. This is a Worldwide phenomenon and people here in the UK are complaining about it as well. The already high fuel prices are set to increase even further.

So, I am adopting the "wait and see" policy.

Lets join the Earth Hour Movement

Just wanted to inform my readers about the Earth Hour movement. Join me and millions of other people around the World who will turn off their lights for an hour from 8 to 9 p.m. on March 29.

The movement was initated by WWF to highlight the need for action on global warming.