CIKGU TANs

Viewty Savvy

2010-01-31T22:17:00.002+08:00

My little son is more than 2 yrs old now. Imitates almost everything that I do or say. I would say he is a very fast learner. He recognizes A to Z and 1-10 before 2 years old and pronounce them with perfect pronunciation. I find that very impressive. Not to say we kiasu and force all the alphabets into him but he kind of love books like his other cousins. He demands us to read to him everyday. I'll do the bedtime reading part.

He can quarrel with us now and talk pretty well too. I insist that he will speak Teochew at home but he picks up English from books, internet and church. Dialect is very important as it is the link to our ancestral heritage. I guess the Geordies would agree with me.

Lets see him handing my not so new LG Viewty

Seriously I won't recommend this phone as the reception is VERY poor (indoor). When most people are making phone calls, my Viewty displays 'Emergency call only' and the touchscreen is hopeless in the bright sun light. The FM radio hmmmmmm. have you every use the cheap FM radio from tiong kok? a bit worse than that.

I come, I see, I enjoy

2009-10-20T21:55:00.014+08:00

Obviously there is nothing much to conquer nowadays.

After almost 2 years in Newcastle, we finally went for our first holiday about 3 hours away from Newcastle, in Primrose Valley. Instead of staying in a hotel or a B&B, we stayed in a caravan. I have no expectation on this trip as I've seen cars pulling caravan on the road. It's really small. Will we be able to stay 4 nights in a small caravan?

Lets find out.

I would say the size is beyond my expectation.

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They say 4 person per caravan, but there are 3 rooms enough for 6 person to sleep comfortably.

I took these pictures before we left, so no linen can be seen. This is a self catering, self servicing caravan, so linen have to be collected upon arrival and returned before departure.

So you can see one room for sleeping, one for changing and one for storage.

The living room is huge too.

Equiped with a cheap Tiong Kok TV which the Power switch got stuck on the 3rd day.

The dining area, picture taken using my old Sony.

The kitchen.

Aroung the Perkampungan Kuala Primrose, there are shops which can sustain life even if you come here without bringing any food.

Like most holiday locations throughout the UK, Internet comes with an EXTRA cost. To think about it again, broadband speed in the UK is so much faster than back in my homeland. Why ah? Anyway, this was the perfect moment to use my phone for internet.

Just minutes away from the shops is the beautiful beach.

This picture was taken before departure and it speaks a lot about the weather. It was quite a stormy day with the uprooting wind which shook our caravan since a night before.

We brought Dan Dan for his very first swim. He was excited very excited, so was I. Unfortunately this is the only picture taken as the lifeguard said the manager prohibits photography around the swimming pool because there are lots of kids/toddlers around.

I guess this must be due to the recent case of nursery child pornography in the UK.
Dan didn't enjoy the swim very much, cling on to me at all time. First time mah, so many people some more, so noisy but I ask him if he wanted to go for a swim tomorrow, he said YES.

Another great place for my boy....the playground.

I think he spent almost an hour or more there. While daddy and mummy trying to persuade him to go home. Seriously it was cold out there.
Dan's road sense is very good. Everytime when I drive along the road to the playground, he will say TURN RIGHT, TURN RIGHT just like a SATNAV. The parking is on the right and the playground is on the left side of the road.
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Entertainment
This is another place that is inseparable for Dan. Nice to try on so many bot bot. It's indoor and heated so we took our sweet time for him to try out all that he wants.

Scarborough

We drop by Scarborough twice, first to shop and second time to explore. I would say a full day trip is enough to cover this beautiful town but 1.5 to 2 days would be perfect.
It's located along the Yorkshire shore north or Primrose Valley. On the top of the hill sits the mightly ruin of Castle Scarborough. Climbing up to the castle was not much challenging due to the good foot path and staircase. Dan was asleep half the way up.

From the same spot, you can see the Grand Hotel which is really Grand, like a palace. My camera is perfectly fine, it's just extremely foggy.

Ah halfway to the castle, there are some medieval chairs prepared for Knight of the round round table to rest but the chair was a bit wet.

The view of the castle was spectacular. Hmmm I like that word

From the entrance

And Cikgu Tans is wondering....

why the castle was not open

We used another way down the hill and found a church with a carpark next to it.

From 15-10-2009

Why this carpark is so special that it is worth mentioning? Did that crossed your mind?
Well, seems like the dead are making way for the living to park their car.

Notice the tombstones? Ah another one. I guess 'those' who still park and display were spared from being removed.

The doctor was here.
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Ah need to watch The end of time now.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Harrogate

2009-04-16T05:35:00.014+08:00

My lab was shut down for a few days so that we can all go to attend the Society for General Microbiology Meeting in Harrogate, about 1.5 hours drive south of Newcastle.

From Harrogate

I guess it is not a popular town at all since there is no football club from Harrogate nor an University named after the town. Unlike Cambridge and Oxford, we all know that they are names of English dictionary. I have not much expectation for this town.

We stayed in Cairn Hotel throughout the conference.

From Harrogate

It was dark already when we reach Harrogate but my Cybershot W30 does the trick. Some people said Sony cameras are not good, mine have surely served me well since 3 years ago. Have I mentioned that it bears the rare 'Made in Japan' printed next to the serial number. Perhaps this was the last of the kind and superseded by the 'Made in China' D series (D=disposable).
This hotel is VERY classic, in another word it is very very OLD but well maintained. I like it.

From Harrogate

The best thing of all is this ancient hotel provides FREE WiFi but the signal is limited to the main lobby and some rooms but surely not mine in the 2nd floor. I had a fair use of the rare FREE internet mainly to check emails and to video conference with my darlings back home.

Hah...the Royal Bath...I was expecting to find at least an old swimming pool inside but it is now a posh Chinese Restaurant.

From Harrogate

I love this town, there are not many hoodies around and I felt safe even when I walk out at night. An ideal place for retirement. With a quick walk around town, I think a day trip would be sufficient.

There is a huge park in the heart of Harrogate.

From Harrogate

I took some time 'off' from the conference to tour around town. The conference was poorly organized and the number of participants were perhaps a quarter compared to last year's. What so bad about this conference.

1. FOOD
Come on. 4 dishes but can only pick 2 and there is no 2nd topping. It doesn't taste good either. Deserts are all gone by the time I finish my lunch but plenty of fruits available (not that ripe too). hello!!

While taking some cookies for tea, the waitress said you can only take 1 or else there won't be enough for the rest. WHAT KIND OF BUDGETING SYSTEM are you using???!!!!1 cookie per person ?!!.
Here is the picture of the one person can only take one cookies which I obviously took more than one.

From Harrogate

I think too many people complained about the lack of food for the first day and they come up with some bulking idea for the second day.

From Harrogate

Tasty huh? there were lots of rice and leaf for the second day.

2.COFFEE
This booster is essential to keep people alive during the whole day conference but the coffee is BAD both in the conference center and the hotel. Hmmm. I would describe the taste like a cup of hot water with 1 whole coffee bean in it. Of course with 1 sugar and milk. Who taught you morons to brew such a tasteless coffee anyway? I've even tried the 'freshly' brewed coffee from Starbuck there and it tasted as awful as the rest. Worse, it cost me GBP1.70 for the awful cuppa. Conclusion is there is no good coffee in Harrogate. Can sense my anger? Coffee is my good friend, brewing bad coffee is an insult to my good friend.

3. Conference Center

From Harrogate

This ancient conference center comes with ancient projector which flickers once in a while like the old black and while Charlie Chaplin film. The auditorium's chairs are old and I can tell by the look of the fabric. A handle came off when I pull it for some reason that I can't remember.
As parallel workshops and seminars were run simultaneously, some seminar rooms were so small that some participants were either sitting on the floor or peeping from the entrance. Some rooms were so big for such a small talk until less than 10% of the seats were occupied.

Back to the park. It was very nice.

From Harrogate

An old water well which I initially thought was a tomb.

From Harrogate

Another well inside this chapel like house.

From Harrogate

I like this tree. So I have to step on the grass to take a picture with it.

From Harrogate

The park warden saw me and in my mind, if he scolded me for stepping on the grass, I'd speak mandarin to him and said Me China ni jiang se mek? and perhaps take a snap shot with him. But it was alright to step on the grass and he showed me to another 'nicer' tree which I don't really like.

From Harrogate

Tadaa..the wollen pine or something. This supposed to be one of the oldest species of pine tree which was discovered in South Australia. There are only a few hundred of them left on earth and the city council shipped one over and planted it in here in Harrogate. It was all gated to prevent people from stealing it. Hmmmm it happen here too. There is no sign or anything on this tree to protect it from human harm. So, if you fancy old almost extinct pine tree, you know where to look in the UK.

From Harrogate

Medusa was here.

From Harrogate

Slim flats can be found along this park.

From Harrogate

with Balinese style entrance.

From Harrogate

We went for tea on the second day in The Bettys.

From Harrogate

Bettys tea cost a fortune. a cup can buy you a large box of Yorkshire Tea. Maybe two boxes.

From Harrogate

And they do sell huge Easter Choc Eggs. The big one cost more than GBP20.

From Harrogate

Got pink Easter Pigs too.

From Harrogate

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Seriously I don't think Bettys tea is any more special compared to normal tea bag brew.

The day after April fool

2009-04-03T03:40:00.007+08:00

I just came back from Harrogate for the 2009 Society for General Microbiology Meeting yesterday and I slept from 8pm till 7am the next day. The conference really knocked me out.

Then after a cup of coffee, clean my teeth, empty my bowel and bladder, I went for my final hour driving test with David, my driving instructor.
Cikgu Tan have no license meh? Got...in fact Cikgu Tan have been driving for more than 10 years already. My Malaysian driving license is recognized in the UK for only a year since I arrived. Then, I'll need to get a provisional license (L license), and sit for both the theory and practical test all over again.
Getting the provisional license is the scariest part as I've to post my passport to the DVLA office in Swansea together with other documents. Seems like mailing passport here and there is norm in the UK but I couldn't sleep till I received it back by mail.

I tell you, UK driving test is not easy to pass. Many people have to sit for a few tests before they pass and learning to drive from scratch will cost a bombshell (only the shell, explosives not included).

With vast driving experience, it was not that easy to unlearn and relearn driving. Experience comes with many bad habits which is deeply rooted in my subconscious mind. Initially I was thinking of going for the driving test without any professional lesson but many friends told me British Driving test is very difficult to pass. Many decided to bypass it. So, what the heck, just get an hour or 2 from a local driving instructor just to get the British format right and I ended up with 5 or 6 hours. It's cost me GBP17 per hour but it's all worth it.

During the first lesson, my instructor said I'll surely fail if I go for a driving test just like that. Wai seh, step on the clutch and let the car coast to the red traffic light also cannot, step on the clutch during turning also cannot, after turning let the steering wheel spring back to center also cannot, hai yoh MUST look at the mirror first before signal leh. Eh, turn the steering using one hand also cannot, I thought its cool to turn using one hand. I spent quite some time to learn to use one hand to turn the steering leh, now you want me to use both hands.

Unlearning is surely not that difficult but I must drive with my conscious mind. After driving for more than half an hour or so and my subconscious mind will take over and I'm on the autopilot mode again.

I sat for the theory test on the 18th March which I passed with flying colours. The queue for the theory test was a long 3 weeks. There were 2 sections, 50 multiple choice questions (MCQ) followed by 14 hazard perception clips. The MCQs are straight forward and all the questions and answers can be found in the book but the hazard perception part is not that straight forward. I guess if you are a gamer, you should perform quite well in the hazard perception part, they show you driving clips and you just click the mouse when you see danger developing. It takes a bit of reflex like playing counter strike. I scored 49/50 for the first part and 66/75 for the second. Not bad huh but all the materials in the picture below are essential. Since everything is computerized, I get my results printed minutes after the test ended.

With the pass theory certificate, I quickly log on to the DVLA website and register for the earliest driving practical test which is today.

The examiner said today is a good day as the weather is fantastic. Fantastic in this context means bright and warm or will not die of hypothermia if standing naked in the open air. Not many fantastic days in a year tough. In this fantastic day I passed my driving test with grounded black and white colours. A good score of 13/16. This is not translated into 81%, the number 16 in the ratio is the maximum error that I can make. This is from an experienced driver. I tell you, not easy to pass for the first time.

The cost of having a UK driving license:-
Provisional license GBP30 excluding about GBP10 of return postage
Theory test GBP30
Practical test GBP52? I think so
Practice DVD GBP6 (up to about GBP15)
Driving lessons GBP17 x no of lessons.
Expensive? The license is almost perpetual. Don't have to be renewed every few years except getting your photo changed when you are too old. Furthermore, it is recognized everywhere in the world (I guess).

A big thanks to my driving instructor.

How am I?

2009-02-23T05:46:00.004+08:00

I'm not abandoning my blog. Just taking a holiday from blogging. In actual fact, I do not have much time allocated for blogging nowadays.

I'm officially in my 2nd year of study and schedule is getting more hectic. Seriously, doing a degree by research is quite scary. It's not like doing a secondary school experiment nor a guided undergrad laboratory experiments which one is to prove a given hypothesis right. This one....the hypothesis is just theoretical and the outcome is unknown.

On the other hand, little Tansaurus is mature enough to demand for continuous attention from both of us. If we sit in front of the computer, he will climb us to see what's going on. When I tried to lullaby him to sleep, I dozed off with him and the next thing that I know is it's time to go to school again. I'm smart enough not to bring work back anymore.

This year's winter have been very cold with snow measuring up to 3 inches high (big deal right but for me from a country with perpetual summer, a micrometer thick of snow is big deal). We had massive snow on two separate occasions but funnily almost all snow melted with the day-2 heavy rain. No snowman for me till now. First sight of snow is fun, first time experiencing heavy snow is great, falling down from bike due to black ice is no fun, more and more snow is so irritating, I want to go home.

Little Tansaurus is growing his molar now and he is a real fun for both of us. I'm very impressed with his development. Everyday he discover new skills

From Val09

and everyday we discover a smarter him. Yes, he dig just like daddy.
Kids are curious being. Trying all possibilities, testing all hypothesis, they are great scientists.

From butter baby

Looking at his reflection, he prepares for the experiment

From butter baby

Final check to see if mummy said no. Everything is clear and

From butter baby

he proved that big baby cannot fit into small Kjledsens container.

From butter baby

Due to the harsh weather conditions, we kept warm at home most of the time and we opts to shop in indoor shopping mall like Metrocenter (I think there is only one indoor shopping mall around here) and shying away from the openair city center. As Valentine's Day seems to be a rare warm fine day, we walked down to the city center to do some shopping. We need to buy Little Tansaurus new body suit as he is quite big now for his present one. So we dropped by Primark. While busy looking for a suitable body suit, I put Little tansaurus down so that I can make use of both my hand and he quickly went into hiding.

From Val09

Then hoh, we proceed to Sports World which was on 'closing down sale' ever since we arrived in Newcastle. Very honest of them. I discover that their stocks actually increased a lot. How much is a lot?

From Val09

No space to walk ah. Not easy to chase after him in such a pack area. Did you notice he is not in his pram?
Suddenly he disappeared from visual and I caught him crawling on the floor to reach for a new found 'toy'. Perhaps it is much easier to crawl as there are plenty of space underneath.

From Val09

That's my son.

Stop it ah!

2009-01-05T06:44:00.011+08:00

This is our gorgeous little boy who is more than 11 kg now. Don't mess with him, he bites! Well, he only bites us. You are safe I guess.

My little one is growing up FAST. He can now say a few words in Mandarin, Teochew and English. He understand which is nose, ear, mouth and EYE (ouch) by pointing (and pocking) his index finger after we say the word. Due to some technical difficulty to write in Mandarin and Teochew, I'll only mentioned some of the English words that he can say and I can remember clearly.

Thanks - This happens at least 5 months ago in Hexham where I handed him some toys in the car and he automatically said the word.

Bye - He will wave at me and sometimes utter bye before I go to school.

This - One of his toys were stuck in his toy box and he was whinning. I chickily ask him which one (that he wants) and he point to the musical rocket and say 'this'.

Kiss - This is one of our favourite. However, we will be covered with his saliva after his kisses. Don't mind though.

Stop it - He imitates us. We have now stop telling him 'stop it' as he imitates us very well. Once I scolded him and tell him 'Stop it ah', and he mumble lots of baby language back at me and end with a very clear Stop it ah.

Screaming! He learned to scream after a Hari Raya visit to a friends house last year where someone's daughter was screaming for fun and her parents just let her scream in other people's house. Bo ka si. Dan was playing with them and when we reach home, he started to scream for fun too. Not that simple to silent him....perhaps this is where the 'Stop it' comes in.

That's all about my talkative little lad for now.

Woolies no more

2008-12-29T04:17:00.007+08:00

We had great fun hunting for bargain Easter Eggs this year but next year's Easter will definitely be different. Our good friend old Woolworths is closing down and some branches have already been closed. It's amazing how a 99 years old chain store in the UK can just call it a day.
Anyway, we had lots of fun with the good old Woolies as the local calls it. The closing down sale was genuine.

From Woolworths. Boxing Day 2008

Initially it started with 10% to 20% and ended with a 90% sale. I was there when the sale was 40% to 60% off but nothing much of Woolies were left.

From Woolworths. Boxing Day 2008

Even the display racks were on sale.

From Woolworths. Boxing Day 2008

A friend of mine who went for the final 90% sale said people were basically stuffing 'left overs' into big black rubbish bag and emptied them on the cashier's counter. Perhaps they will be selling them in carboot sale later on.
Seriously, I was thinking of buying myself a Dalek. Cheap mah.

From Woolworths. Boxing Day 2008

We bought quite a lot of books for Dan Dan and he also found a steel bucket for himself.

From Woolworths. Boxing Day 2008

Kids just love buckets, storage boxes and anything that is not an orthodox toy. Bucket and Dan Dan...inseparable. By looking at his face and expression, I bought him the bucket. It's like he have found a great bargain too.

From Woolworths. Boxing Day 2008

Like the Woolies slogan, It's worth it!

All about Malaysia

2008-12-21T04:36:00.004+08:00

Malaya used to be a sleepy British colony of rubber planters and misfits.

Like most colonies, it was a sunny refuge for shady people.

Then, in 1957, it became independent and went back to sleep.

Robert Gore-Langton, Daily Mail, 10^th December 2008

I came across an article in a British Daily and the very first paragraph caught my attention. I love the 3rd line. Initially it sounds like a negative article but read on and it's the slight opposite. Seems like the online version is not entirely the same as the printed version.

Daddy Tan

2008-12-11T22:10:00.008+08:00

update:
I declare that 11th Dec 2008 is the falling down day as another 2 of my friends fell down from their bike too. Walkers were not spared from falling down.

My bike skidded on my way to school this morning. Shish! the ice on the slope was so slippery and while I was making a turn, my back wheels gave way. I landed on my side buttock but luckily I have many layers of winter padding to buffer the fall. Not a single scratch. A lady walked passed me pretending that she didn't see me. Hmmm. I picked up my bike and saw the lady crossing the main road and then she slipped with both her legs sticking up to the sky. She lie there for a while, stood up and turn back and look at me. I'm not alone.
There is a slight damage to the derailleur of my bike but it was OK. This year's winter is really bad, temperature is at a constant 4 degrees and below.

Little Tansaurus is very well now thanks to mummy Tansaurus's care and love. Little Tansaurus is very chatty. He can speak some words that we can make sense of and he is very responsive when I call his name.

Me: Aidan
Tansaurus: Daddy
Me: Aidan
Tansaurus: Daddy
Me: Aidan
Tansaurus: Daddy
Me: Aidan
Tansaurus: Daddy

Then I add our surname in
Me: Aidan Tan
Tansaurus: Daddy Tan
Me: Aidan Tan
Tansaurus: Daddy Tan
Me: Aidan Tan
Tansaurus: Daddy Tan
Me: Aidan Tan
Tansaurus: Daddy Tan
Me: Aidan Tan
Tansaurus: Daddy Tan

Strep throat

2008-12-08T06:00:00.001+08:00

I was absent from the University for 3 days two weeks ago. My sore throat had developed into strep throat. It was bad, really really bad

From strep

so bad that I walked to the General Hospital at 10 pm wednesday night and waited at the emergency ward for nearly 3 hours for a pack of goodie Amoxillin. What really drives me to walk there in the middle of the winter night was my paranoia that my strep throat was developing into scarlet fever as both my hands was full of rashes.
It was raining on my way back and I wasn't prepared for the rain. Anyway, it wasn't heavy and my winter jacket can still handle it. My wife waited for me to reach home before she went to bed. Thanks. I really appreciate that.
I then stuff my dedicated cybershot lens into my mouth and tried to snap the best masterpiece of my throat ulcers (as displayed above). throat photography was a bit tricky. I've to open my mouth to the max and try to orientate the flash so that it doesn't get blocked by my teeth.

Initially I was thinking of going to my GP at Dilston Medical Center but my appointment was on Thursday and it was only tuesday. I can wait, it was only sore throat but.....
It was not the problem of Dilston that the appointment was scheduled 2 days after I walked in to make an appointment, it's the system. I'm lucky to get an appointment 2 days later, some friends get an appointment done a week later. Crazy huh. Fever today, recovered in few days time and then go and visit the doctor the following week and he asked you 'what's the problem?'. You say I was sick last week but OK already.
Anyway, the only thing that I don't like about Dilston is their health visitor never visits. Every family with children supposed to be allocated with one health visitor and they supposed to visit you (your child) at home to see if the house condition is healthy, if they are healthy, if ..... but I've never even seen the shadow of any one of them from Dilston. Blame it on the NHS system? or this center is just incapable of doing anything right. Our previous health visitor from Prospect Medical Center was good. Came to visit promptly, gave us a baby bouncing chair and some goodie toys for little Tansaurus.

With a peace of mind, i took a tablet of Amoxillin and went to bed and hope to get cured when I wake up the following day.

Nope, I didn't even get a good night sleep. Ibuprofen (aspirin) didn't help either. I can't swallow my saliva, every ingestion sent a sharp pain impulse to my brain. the signal was so strong that subconsciously my swallowing mechanism just shut itself. I was drooling in my sleep. Ewwww.
My saliva seems to have thicken itself to provide better lubrication for my throat. It was so thick that when I spit it out, it will leave a strand hanging on my lips all the way down to the sink. Something like the drooling aliens in the Alien stared by Sigourney Weaver.

It was a bit late to cancel my thursday appointment in Dilston since I have visited the hospital, so I just pay my GP a visit. After looking at my ulcers, he asked me to stop amoxillin and change it to penicillin. Actually I do feel that Amoxillin didn't help either. The infection was basically spreading to my ears now. I can feel the bugs clogging up my Eutaschian tube. Extra pain.

Well, the pain continues....I guess Sunday was the day that I woke up without having any sharp pain.

The sequel doesn't end there. I'm having some bad cough right now....a long bad cough.

Discovery Museum

2008-11-25T09:56:00.005+08:00

We parked our car at the Newcastle College on Saturday (1/11/08) and walked to the Discovery Museum (DM).

From UK02.11.08

This place seems to be very far away from our place through the main road but it's is shockingly near when we used the small road. I can basically walked there from home.

From UK02.11.08

This is our very first visit to a museum in Newcastle. There is another museum near to Newcastle University called the Great North Museum which is scheduled to open next March or later. It was open but closed for renovation. The admission to DM is generously free. It's rare to find free admission places to visit in the UK, so the 'FREE' thing is heavily promoted here.

Once inside, we were greeted by a Turbinia, the first steam turbine powered steamship which was built in 1894 and boast to be the fastest ship during that time.

From UK02.11.08

The ground floor of the museum basically shows the chronological evolution of Newcastle from it's ancient time to the modern days. There are replicas of the roman soldiers checking on the lady's armpit hair,

From UK02.11.08

Ancient Cikgu Tan wearing a steel helmet. Gosh, it was heavy and the chain is obviously too short for an adult to try it on.

From UK02.11.08

someone having a heart attack

From UK02.11.08

actually I think this guy was supposed to be stabbed but I took this picture because his face really looks like a cousin of mine in Kuching.

Look at what barbers during the ancient time can do.

From UK02.11.08

These are their gadgets

From UK02.11.08

Cool isn't it.

Hair too long, go and see the barber,
Toothache, go and see the barber,
Gangrenous leg, go and see the barber,
Get shot, go and see the barber,
Deep cut, go and see the barber.

This sounds like the one stop solution center but soon their business was soon taken over by Medics and Dentists.
Can you imagine that you entered a barber shop for a hair cut. While getting your hair cut, the customer next to you is screaming like mad because he is having his leg cut off, another customer waiting for your hair to be done before his bullet can be extracted from his wound. WORSE, the shaving knife that was used to cut the fellow's leg was used for your sideburn. Welcome to Newcastle.
Why not ask your family doctor or dentist to give you a hair cut?

Enough! lets proceed to something else.

From UK02.11.08

The very first version of the double deck tram. I don't think it is a bus....there were too many information here i read none of them except the barber's one just now and the following.

This piece of equipment is very meaningful to my academic life. I find this a privilege to see the actual iron lung which was used to help the bulbar poliomyelitis (respiratory poliomyelitis) patients to breath.

From UK02.11.08

Everyone should be thankful that we have a very good vaccine against polio and it is almost eradicated from most of the face of the earth.
If you are interested to know more about polio, wiki it as it contains lecture quality information.
By the way, the Royal Victoria Infirmary is located adjacent/linked to the Medical School, Newcastle University.

We finished off in a hall dedicated for the mental health. If not mistaken, stats shows that 1 out of 4 people here suffers from some sort of mental illness.
Hah! here is my little Tansaurus kepo trying to read.

From UK02.11.08

We proceed up to the 1st floor by lift and suddenly some mild siren sound was heard. there was a message. Initially we just ignore it because there are many buttons here that you can press to listen to some stories rather than reading them but seems like people started to leave. Aham...the message behind the siren says 'please leave the building immediately, fire have been reported in the building'. Hey! we just reached 1st floor leh. how to bring the pram down the stairs when we can't use the lift anymore. Anyway, I just push the pram down the stairs, of course mummy is holding little Tansaurus.
The people in the UK view fire alarm seriously. Evacuation was smooth. Everybody walked calmly, no running, no pushing, no stampede, no screaming and gathered outside in the assembly area (car park)

From UK02.11.08

People responded differently to the fire alarm, the couple in the middle of the picture was turned on I guess.
Rather than waiting outside, we decided to go to Wing Hong, a chinese grocery shop which sells many familiar food. However among 3 large chinese shops in Newcastle, this one doesn't offer any student discounts. Cash and Carry near to St James Park offers 10% and Tsang offers 5% when student card is produced. I guess Wing Hong is more chinese minded.
Just before we walked away, I can't seems to notice these evacuees.

From UK02.11.08

a closer look.

From UK02.11.08

Wai seh, champion woh, pharoah and the other ancient people also take the chance to come out for some sun shine. See, people here view the fire alarm seriously.

Daddy Tansaurus is ill

2008-11-25T09:37:00.002+08:00

Now I know exactly why little Tansaurus was crying non-stop, rejecting any fluid or solid and not sleeping well at night. Daddy Tansaurus is experiencing the same illness too. Headache, tonsillitis (so bad that swallowing saliva is too painful to describe. I can't recall myself having tonsillitis. I guess this is my very first tonsillitis) hypersensitized pain receptors which a gentle touch on my shoulder is painful. Worse was shivering with fever. I was basically wearing 5 layers of shirts, hiding under the duvet but not a single drop of sweat being secreted.
Now my fever is gone, headache gone, but tonsil getting more painful. Arrrrgh.

This is the common winter disease.

Tough week

2008-11-23T05:34:00.002+08:00

Perhaps I cycled more last week than any other week. My little Tansaurus was ill for the second time in Newcastle. He had his first fever when he was 13 months old but that was just fever. Five ml of Calpol (paracetamol suspension) would solve the problem.
This time was bad. He was basically crying non stop for hours and reject both liquid and solid. He was't sleeping well at night, so do we. To make things worse, he clings on his mom the whole day through. We didn't know what puts him in such agony.
We wished he could just utter a word or two to tell us where is painful.
We wished we were in Kuching where family members can at least help out a bit. Living far far away from other family members isn't great. It means no support at all.
Depression soon kicks in with the winter weather. Well, I could have stayed home the whole day to help to look after him but my University commitment just not allowing me to do so. So, I cycled home to see my darlings during my incubation time. Cycling is healthy but tiring. If someone tells you that you won't sweat when you cycle in cold climate, ask him to try to cycle just from Newcastle University campus to Fenham. Unlike people who stayed in Gosforth or Jesmond, cycling is enjoyable and less tiring because the terrain is relatively even (as long as you know how to manipulate the gears). Fenham on the other hand is on a hill, no gearing knowledge is necessary as I kept them on gear 1 and 1 all the way uphill.

Somehow I have the tendency to stay on a hill. I stayed in Excelsa Apartment in Taman University, Seri Kembangan when I was an undergraduate student but I was riding a Suzuki TZM 150 powered by unleaded petrol but here, I'm cycling a Magna full suspension mountain bike powered by breakfast and lunch driven legs.

After a while, I suspected that little Tansaurus had a throat infection due to the sound of phlegm. No wonder he wasn't eating or drinking. My wife took him to the clinic on the 2nd day of onset but the GP prescribed calpol and ibuprofen AGAIN. Sometimes I just wonder why people have to spend 5 years in the medical school just to sit in a clinic just to prescribe these on the shelf drugs. There should be a short course for someone to become a GP. After all, they prescribe common drugs only. Serious stuff would be referred to the hospital.
Calpol and ibuprofen works for a while but offers reasonable relief to little Tansaurus.

We force him to drink barley and somehow it helps. He is drinking ribena now. Nen nen is still not part of his normal diet. Hmmm. I can feel that he is lighter now. Of course, 3 days without proper diet but I'm just thankful that he is drinking now.

Biotechnology YES 2008

2008-10-26T02:58:00.008+08:00

A day after I turned 3 ONE!, the 3 days Biotechnology YES competition is finally here. My team was among the 5 teams to represent Newcastle University to compete in this prestigious annual event in the regional heat. This is the first time that the regional heat is held in Newcastle. Sad that I don't get a free trip to explore another city in the UK but I realized that it was a privilege to have the competition so near to my darlings. I was home sick on the first day.

The Biotechnology YES (Young Entrepreneurs Scheme) is an innovative competition developed to raise awareness of the commercialisation of bioscience ideas among postgraduate students/postdoctoral scientists. In this competition, we are supposed to come up with a pseudo-company based on a novel idea which need not necessary be real and come up with a business plan to lure investments.

I drove to St James's Park around 8.45am, register myself and proceed to the Macpie Suite

From BTK YES 2008-1

Perhaps St. James is not a Catholic Church. From the Macpie suite, is a magnificent view.

From BTK YES 2008-1

The day one morning was filled with crash courses and workshops by experts regarding the Intellectual property protection, investors, finance etc which we biotechnologists find it quite difficult to digest especially the finance part.
After lunch, we were sent to our respective executive box to develop our masterpiece, the business plan.

From BTK YES 2008-1

Before any stress kicked in, we were sane enough to get our group photo taken.

From BTK YES 2008-1

From Left, me (Finance Director), Khai (Operation & Marketing Director), Mike (Managing Director) although he prefers to be referred as the CEO and Bekir (Scientific Director). We have agreed earlier on on our roles in the company which the name was yet conceived.
Then, I was side tracked to take more photographs of this place because it will cost a fortune to get in here on my own.

From BTK YES 2008-1

Developing a business plan was not that straight forward. See Bekir not listening to the MD while I quietly set my camera to capture this moment.

From BTK YES 2008-1

After a long discussion, our company was borned.

From BTK YES 2008-1

Genosphere Limited. We have developed a revolutionary chemistry which allows the detection and identification of pathogenic bacteria in clinical samples within an hour compared to the current 48 hours. Furthermore, the antibiotic susceptibility tests profile will also be generated simultaneously which allows the clinician to prescribe the correct/effective antibiotics to the respective patient. Sounds cool isn't it. Reducing operational time from 48h to 1h!
we worked very hard till night.

From BTK YES 2008-1

We owe Nestle a big thanks for sponsoring us with almost free flow of KitKat Chunky Mini, Breakaway and Blue Ribbon. Gosh! I've never taken so much KitKat in one day! It's like I can still taste it when I close my mouth.

Everything was worth it. we were taken down to the football ground just before dinner.

From BTK YES 2008-1

This is the NU Manager's seat. It's heated so that the manager doesn't jumped up during the winter match.

From BTK YES 2008-1

Hmmmm see who is the new NU manager.

From BTK YES 2008-1

Not that only, we have the privilege to tour the changing room too.

From BTK YES 2008-1

And the bathroom,

From BTK YES 2008-1

and the NU strategy room.

From BTK YES 2008-1

and this one...massage room? with a huge tank behind me which I guess must be to stew the fellow footballers.

From BTK YES 2008-1

Dinner starts at 8pm or later. I was hungry for real food rather than KitKat and to make things worse, there were only one lift to the dinner hall in the Gallowgate suite. Here is a long traffic jam.

From BTK YES 2008-1

Most participants brought along their Luggages because the hotel that we are going to stay is quite a distance away (10-15 mins walk I guess). So, their luggages took up more space in the lift. Mike, our MD from Newcastle itself brought the largest suitcase among all. It was big enough to bring clothing for a month stay in the Jury's Inn.
Hmmm. they serve us Newcastle United Merlot before the 4 course dinner (they count a cup of fresh filtered coffee is part of the dinner with United Mints)

From BTK YES 2008-1

Half way through the dinner was the elevator pitch whereby each group was given 60 seconds to sell their company idea. The logic is, if you can't get a person to buy your brilliant idea within 60 seconds, you failed. This pitching stuff really dragged on for quite some time. I helped to fetch my teammates to Jury's Inn where we checked in together and Home I go. I drove home to my darlings,just in time to feed my son a bottle of nen nen before putting him to sleep.

From BTK YES 2008-1

I went back to the Jury's Inn the following morning just in time to take my second breakfast with Bekir.

From BTK YES 2008-1

If you ask me how good is Jury's Inn, a 3-star hotel. Hmmm, you can hear people in the toilet next door, but they do provide HI-SPEED BROADBAND which they proudly advertise it everywhere. It sounds so good until you see the fine print somewhere at the lower end at the back of the flyer.
10 mins - 1 pound
1 hour - 10 pounds
24 hours - 20 pounds (if I remember correctly)

Day 2 was more stressful than Day 1. We had 3 case studies whereby 3 speakers who have successfully set-up their company came to gave a talk. Everybody was talking about the Intellectual property and science and the story but none of the talk was helpful to our business plan.
Again, we were sent to our Executive box to finish off with our business plan. Things get quite heated up today. quarrel now and then and normally a mentor will just walked in when things get heated up which give some time for things to cool down again. Mentors are experts in their own field who offers consultancy to us. These are a bunch of helpful people. Lawyers, CEOs, Accountants, etc. However, I believe we have spent too much time talking about the patent stuff. Of all the 6-7 mentors that we have for the 2 days, only one mentor came to help us to get our finance right. Thanks to Andrew E. for your help. I guess finance is the weakest point in every group as participants are all made up from Bio-people. That's what the title of the competition suggests anyway.

From BTK YES 2008-1

whenever we are too stressed up, there will always be a place for us to cool down.

From BTK YES 2008-1

Just go outside the room into the stadium. It was cold...with some strong wind from some unknown storm kicking in. See the yellow light in the field, it is to facilitate photosynthesis because not all part of the field get equal amount of sunlight everyday.

Dinner was serve at the same place and we went back straight away. I suggested to our MD to look for a function room to work on our business plan (which I think the hotel will not do that for free)rather than doing it in the bedroom but I was wrong. They happily opened a function room at the 1st floor for our use. If you never ask, you will never know.

From BTK YES 2008-1

This is the function room that we worked till 2am on Day-3. Bekir treated us with a pint of Carling. I took a good hot shower before bed. somehow I snored that night and woke Bekir up. Poor guy. I forgot to warn him that I snored but anyway, anyone will sleep with loud sound when tired.

Day-3

From BTK YES 2008-1

The sun is up, the day that we all have been waiting for. The catch, winner will go down to London for the finale and national champion go to US for the business plan competition. Oh yeah, with everything paid for.
The competition commenced with 4 parallel streams where each team was to deliver a 20 minutes business plan and another 20 minutes of Q&A.
When this was over, we had lunch at the hotel then proceed to Barista Bar for a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale. Again, the organizers served us wine again before announcing the results.
My team didn't make it to the final but we are proud that 1 team from Newcastle will be in London to make us all proud.

What (I think) went wrong in our business plan.
1. Poor preparation. If we knew the actual requirements, we could have prepared the slides much earlier. Thinking that the 2 days worth of crash courses and workshops helps, it didn't add to what we already know. Anyway, other teams used the similar amount of time to prepare, so this might not be a good reason.
2. Not enough practice. We practiced our presentation once only. At 2am just before sleep. Worse of all, we prepared our own slides and compile it to a master powerpoint file, so it was so obvious that the presentation was created by 4 different people.
3. Unclear product and the science. At the end of the presentation,the judges missed our product.They have no idea what we are selling. Gone case .In cases like this, we were at fault. I thought the idea was clear! we all thought the idea was clear but we are all scientist, the judges were not. Worse, we have an accountant as our judge. The science was too long winded for them to understand.
4. Listen too much. We were warned that mentors tend to give contradicting advices. It is true and mentors were not the judges. Some of our master business strategies were shot down by the judges even though it was a brilliant strategies advised by our mentors. Listen at your own risk. However, one of the rounding up comment by one of the judge was all these will never go wrong in the real life situation because we would have real accountants to do our finance and lawyers for our patents and legal stuffs. What could possibly go wrong.
5. The finance part was average but the accountant wants to see more numbers which we have but not in the slides. Hmmm.
6. Get team mates who will die if they don't participate in the competition. We lost 1 teammate as he went for a conference in Geneva (I don't blame him because the competition date was shifted and clashed with his conference date which was set a long time ago) and we replaced him with another whose supervisor prohibits him from joining a week before the competition. Supervisor's boy. Awww.
7. Bothered too much for real figures. I think we wasted too much time to put in real numbers in our pseudo-business plan. We did our best to do the real market research to get the numbers right but seems like it was not entirely significant to the judges.

If I am given a chance to compete again in Biotech YES, I would
1. complete the presentation slides at least a month before the competition
2. read more about finance and costing. perhaps get some help from some nice accountant lecturers or students in Newcastle University.
3. create a visual product
4. a product that is not novel is OK. even better as I can get hold of proven business strategies. Just have to find from somewhere. It's just a competition.

What I've learned from this competition is just too valuable to be put into words. At least I now know the process of bringing science into the market now and I've make some really good friends especially from my team, Genosphere. Perhaps Genosphere LtD will one day materialized, perhaps not. And we all know that there are 2 types of science, blue sky science which is purely academic and another that can be commercialized.

If you are reading this and you are a post grad student or a post doc in the Biological Field in one of the UK's Universities, I encourage you to participate in the Biotechnology YES 2009 or later.
I do hope that there will be more bloggers in the future Biotechnology YES competition as I was searching blogs for this topic but never found one.

All the best for the Newcastle Team to London in December.

3 ONE!

2008-10-21T16:12:00.001+08:00

Well, I'm 3 ONE! today. So, I declared today as a personal holiday. Didn't go down to Uni, laze at home and then lunch in Wokmania, The Gate. Wokmania is a Chinese Buffet restaurant. Pricing is average, environment is very nice but food is just alright. We still prefer Oriental Buffet in Stowell Street, China Town. Lau Buffet is there too but it lack of choices, don't give student discount during the weekend and was temporary closed down due to food poisoning. If you love monosodium glutamate aka Ajinomoto, try King Buffet in The Metrocenter, Gateshead.

ONE! point one

2008-10-02T04:56:00.011+08:00

Seems like my blogging time is getting more limited nowadays. It's not because of my studies (partly) or my family commitment but my sleeping time is getting ridiculously early. For the past 2 weeks, I've been sleeping as early as 6 plus in the evening (till the next morning) which bypassed my midnight blogging time. Seems like I'm running out of midnight fuel. I can think of a few reasons for the sudden change in my sleeping pattern,
1. the autumn syndrome, the drastic temperature change during the summer/autumn interface might have disturbed my circadian clock. It ultimately trying to put me into a long hibernation! Hey! I've not fatten myself for winter yet.
2. solvent effect. This is because I cycle passed a car paint-spraying workshop which emits lots of nice smelling solvent. I can bypass this route by cycling through Castle Leazes but I would prefer to avoid this 'short-cut' to avoid running over fresh juicy cow dung. I'll just have to find other alternative route then.

OK. back to my son....

Aidan still can't use the walker that we bought him a couple of months ago. He is now walking by himself for more than a month now. Walker supposed to help babies to walk but he seems to do better without it. He used to go reverse with the walker, never forward and then busy licking all the toys on the walker. Then, he learned to 'escape' from the walker. So, the walker is now a white elephant at home.

Other than walking, he climbs too. His favourite place being the dining table. We were a bit worried when he tried to do chin up and started to chew on the table but soon he learned to come down slowly, one leg at a time. Phew.

Dining table is not all, when he was not tall enough to climb the sofa, he will use something as a 'step' before climbing up. He climbs the sofa for 3 reasons. No 1, to reach the curtain. No 2, to reach for mummy's Agatha Christy's book, No 3, to reach for anything new on top of the sofa.

I'm more worried with him pulling the curtains than the other two.

He is a walking biting machine. Just imagine a Tansaurus who just learned how to walk trying to find his very first prey before landing his undeveloped fangs onto its prey. Somehow, mummy is the prey of choice compared to daddy. Although he is armed with only 4 teeth on top and 2 below, it is very painful and sometimes it bleeds too. Surprisingly, he learned to roar too but the things is he doesn't roar when he approach us to deliver a bite. No warning given.

He like many child, he too are champion in rapid tissue pulling. There should be a competition for babies to pull baby wipes out from it's box. Initially it was fun to see him doing it but when he set it to turbo speed. Gosh!

Well, all these might not sound that interesting to some but to us, it's one of the greatest joy in life that we can experience. You will know what I mean when you become a parent.

Do check this post (maybe in late October or the following month) again as I'll upload some more videos into it. Uploading is so slow! So little time to wait.

Cheers.

ONE!

2008-10-01T16:19:00.000+08:00

Today is my boy's 1 year old birthday. It is amazing how time flies.

Amazingly by taking this picture, my Cybershot counter reset itself to DSC00001 after serving us for more than 3 years.

So, on the 1st of Oct, my boy is 1 year old and my Cybershot celebrated for him by turning its counter to No 1 again. What a coincidence.

To take a family photo with a lighted candle in front of our boy is not easy. If you are observant, you will notice us trying to hold his hands still. He is attracted to the light too.

Today, we gave our boy a treat to eat his own Triple Choc Birthday cake. He loves it. Daddy loves it too but not all over my face lah.
and also Pizza, courtesy by Aunty Cecilia. Of course daddy ate the most.
We are really thankful to God for such a great blessing.

to be continued....'cause i'm kind of tired and need to wake up early tomorrow.

A golden day out

2008-09-11T11:00:00.012+08:00

It has been a while since I can sit down and write a post without being troubled by my undone doctorate progress report. Research is always fun and writing a report is never really fun. My students might be able to relate this very well and honestly I understand how it was/is to write a report, but report is the only thing that you can show people that you have done something that you actually understand. Once an experiment is done, it's done. The most important thing is what have you learned from it.

We went to Derwent Walk Country Park (DWCP) a couple of weeks ago. Like the name suggested, we came here for a walk. This park is linked to another park called Derwenthaugh Park (DP). They are located not far from the Metrocentre which boast to be the largest shopping complex in the whole of Europe, not only in the UK alright!. Somehow the North East of England have many big big stuff, the largest Tesco in the whole of Europe is here too in Kingston Park, Newcastle. So, people always say if you have not been to Newcastle, you have not been to the UK/EU. (people=me, since I'm here).
We enter Derwent Walk which the entrance can be found quite easily beside the Blaydon Rugby Club where the weekly Blaydon Carboot Sale is held. Seriously, for a first timer, the entrance into the Park is not straightforward to find. It is very much hidden.

See me and the map below, this is the only map that you will see. Unlike in Malaysia, maps are plentiful in parks just to tell you where you are and what and where to see nice stuff. Here is remember the map and figure out what you want to see.
Derwent Walk Country Park is a long stretch of fine gravel + soil road where we can see many old people walking, young teenagers shouting here and there, some cyclists and lots of horse dung. Their dung can be easily distinguished from cow dung because horse dung looks more like overgrown rabbit droppings measuring 1-2 inches in diameter with lots of grass fibers whereas cow dung tend to be more diarrheoa-like with the fibers splattered all over the ground. Cows tend to shit while walking and leaving a trail of destruction behind but horse tend to do it in a single position i think. You will be able to differentiate these once you are in the UK for a while.

I think DWCP used to be a train track because it is so straight and SO long. If you are a naturalist, you might like the flora here but for a Sarawakian, the flora here is only so so only except that there are wild raspberry growing all over.

I didn't pluck any and put then in my mouth even though it's free due to biohazard and hygiene reason. Read on and you might catch what I meant.

It was actually quite a perfect summer evening indeed for a weekend. Summer in Newcastle is always wet, we rarely have a conducive weekend weather to go around. Most of the nice weather falls during the weekday when I'm locked up in the laboratory trying to do some science that will change mankind. Not as if I don't like it as my sponsor sponsored me all the way here to get my PhD and not on a 3 years holiday scheme.

Along the walk, there is a detour to Eelshaugh Meadow to the right.
And it is interesting to see the no cycling sign next to the junction to the detour. Some kids might just find it testosterone boosting to cycle down from here, especially when there are girls watching. We didn't follow this trail although there was no indication that pram is prohibited from using this trail.
Then just before entering into Derwenthaugh Park, we can see this ancient bridge from a far.
I guess we can walk across this bridge if we just proceed on with the trail but never mind lah. There are so many trails around. Furthermore, there are so many bridges around in the UK to walk. See! a bridge.
Thanks to the 10 sec timer on my camera that I click and run to the middle of the bridge to get our photo taken. I had a good workout as I've repeated the click and run process a couple of times.
A picture of us on the bridge. Dan Dan is obviously more interested in my belt. It's very chewy and you bet it is coated with his saliva. He loves outdoor. Just like his parents.
The wise old people told me that in the 'first world country', people are civilized and they even walk their dog and pick up their shit. I tell you the truth, it's not true! See this!
My wife observed some 'soil' mark on my jeans. I prayed hard that it was just soil and not the you know what and I've tried my best to ignore it until we found a place to sit down and I couldn't help myself to take a light sniff on.... Ewww...It's dog poo poo! Somehow it ended up on my jeans while I walk too. I believe many people in the first world do pick up their dog poo but not here in the north ease. Forget about the picture of my sole with the gold attached.

Just before we exit to find our car, we saw this sign. Apparently the Red Kite (not layang-layang merah) can be found here. The red kite is an eagle-like protected predator bird which was once abundant in England but was hunted down to near-extinction.
Seriously I didn't saw one that day. Like I've said, it was hunted down to near-extinction.
I think the total walk took us about 2 hours. I think lah and it's time to go home. No red kite, a bit of sweat, a golden coat on my jeans and shoes. What a great day out. I really mean a great day out but someone looks like he is not ready to go home yet. On the other hand, daddy looks very happy to go home because he was hungry.
Anyway, this park is a great place to have a workout but I do suggest a better suspension pram to be used here due to the uneven terrain.

2 am

2008-09-06T09:16:00.004+08:00

Now is almost 2.30 am already. My little T-Rex (Tansaurus-Rex) woke up to devour 200 ml of nen nen more than 2 hours ago and then decided it is still hunting time. So here is daddy Tansaurus blogging with baby Tansaurus next to me, chewing on my thermal. He still insist that he wants nen nen. Made him another bottle but he just took a few mouthful in and then refused the rest. However, he still keep asking me nen nen neh?

Well, the nice old wet summer is finally over. The newspaper today quoted that this year's summer was the worst. In fact, summers are getting worse each year with more and more rain.
The sun-baking fiesta is over too. It will be another year before people start to sun bake again. As far as I can remember, there were less than 10 good old warm sunny summer this year. No wonder people have such a high affinity to bake themselves, even by the roadside.
Autumn have made a cold and wet entry into Newcastle. How wet? They describe it as 2 weeks of rain fall within 24 hours. Many places are flooded now. Lucky us that we are staying on top of Arthur's Hill.

Anyone coming to the UK in the next few weeks should equip yourself with water-proof wear.

One Bag of Rice

2008-08-25T06:09:00.003+08:00

This is Aidan and his friend Xiau Chiang in Dilston Medical Center on the 6th of August. Dan Dan was waiting to be weighed by the Health Visitor. As baby weighing in the UK requires him to be
fully unclothed, no picture of him on the weighing machine shall be posted here. He was exactly 10.00kg on the scale. I mean chun chun 10.00kg correct to 2 decimal places.

No wonder our back muscle ache so much nowadays.

Murder I wrote

2008-08-25T05:19:00.008+08:00

Two weeks have passed since 2 Chinese national was found murdered in their rented flat in Newcastle. Many might have read about it in the newspaper world wide and it is just another murder news. For us in Newcastle, the murder case sent a shockwave throughout the community in Fenham (pronounced as fe-nham), especially among the international students.
Why the shockwave? The murder took part just a few streets away from where I stay. It's a street that we walked passed so often! I guess this street is still within the radius of the perkampungan Malaysia, where Malaysian families clusters.
The atmosphere was initially surrounded with fear as there is a murderer wondering around. To make it worse, the initial news somehow hinted that this is Chinese specific. Gosh, where is my Jalur Gemilang? I'm from Malaysia.
The atmosphere was then surrounded with emotions as the initial investigation revealed that these are good people with good qualifications but the more the police dig, the more stories from the other side was revealed. Then the emotion just disappeared. I guess if you are interested, you should read from the BBC website.
Two weeks have passed, I still see the police guarding the flat, investigation is still going on but with no promising lead. Where is Sherlock Holmes when England needed him.

Anyway, I guess the landlord of 8 Croydon Rd. will have a hard time renting his property out.

Nameless shop

2008-08-19T04:04:00.005+08:00

What I don't understand here is this shop has been operating for more than a month now but there is still no sign of the name of the shop. Maybe the tauke took an extreme cost cutting measure.

MukaBuku

2008-08-05T05:34:00.006+08:00

In Malay, Muka=face and Buku=book.
I must admit that I was a facebook skeptic. The first time a friend of mine asked 'Do you have facebook?', I was deeply offended. I thought he was saying my face looks like a book. If mine looks like a book, your must look like a ___.Fair enough, I'm almost 31 years old and still studying. Anyway, I took my cool and analyze the word facebook and instead of bookface, facebook should mean something like an online photo album or another blog site. I switched on my Travelmate and search for ~~faceboob~~ facebook, registered for an account and added a few friends. Soon I realized that these friends are biting my neck, trying to turn me into a vampire, werewolf etc.
Well, all these weird functions put me off facebook for a very long time and I do find the setting quite user unfriendly.

Recently, I gave my facebook account a new life and surely it gave me a new life too. I've managed to find lots of my ex-schoolmates there. Most of them whom I've not met ever since high school. It's great to know that they are successful but most importantly productive. St. Joseph Boleh! Boleh in everything. The not successful one will most probably have no time to facebook anyway.

I think the most enjoyable thing about facebook is to add new friends and the excitement will eventually die off when most of the addable people were added. It turns my facebook less lifely. and create a thirst to add new friends but these should be people that I know rather than adding people that I don't know. I think it becomes a kind of online addiction after a while.

Well, I just hope this MukaBuku will last forever. The very first facebook-like website that I've ever joined a decade ago, E-circle died and all my friend's contact data were lost in the cyberspace.

Poppy in the North East

2008-07-27T05:13:00.009+08:00

On my way back from Netto (The Kuching version of UNACO), I saw this beautiful flower. Being a foreigner in a foreign land, I tend to be quite attentive about the flora here. The seeds look dangerously familiar. Just like the one that I saw in the movie.

If you have never seen this plant before, this is poppy. The one that you can bleed the seed and collect the latex and process it into opium and some other drugs. Newcastle is not an poppy plantation. Poppy is never popular here as people prefers to grow hydroponic cannabis at home. Poppy is a native plant in the European countries and I guess you can find it in many places during summer time.

Here is a poppy plant just outside somebody's house. If this plant is growing in your home compound in Malaysia, death sentence is just around the corner.

Anyway, poppy is not very fertile here. The seed is much smaller than the one in the Golden triangle.

Perhaps this is a harmless species of Poppy....

eEggs The sequel

2008-07-27T04:31:00.005+08:00

It has been months since Easter and we still have one of our treasured Cadbury Easter Egg around. It's time to put an end to the egg but my Dan Dan found it to be a bit too scary. We find it too amusing and the eEgg is now safe again from our appetite.

Cycling to school

2008-07-17T05:33:00.004+08:00

To think about it, it has been more than 10 years since I last cycled. I believe 1996 was the exact year that I put my feet on the pedals because I entered University the following year. During my undergraduate, I've decided to put my hands on the throttle rather than my feet on the pedals. My Suzuki TZM 150 becomes my loyal butt carrier. It was so easy, just sit on it, turn the ignition key, kick start the engine and twist the throttle. No need to pedal like mad. Cycling is a very nostalgic thing to do. I used to cycle in the afternoon with Beng Yong, my buddy who lives perhaps 10 minutes away by bicycle. We had a great time exploring our neighbourhood. That was many years ago.

Anyway, I started to cycle to School on monday. It was a miracle. I just paddle a few rounds and here I go. Wah...so fast, so furious. Before I knew it, I've reached my school. That was easy.
Bicycle theft is considered very serious in Newcastle. I mean very very serious. So, I decided to carry my bike to the 4th floor where my lab is and locked it in an undisclosed location. Usually there is a huge lift that can go from the basement up to the 4th floor but it is currently under repair (until September). Thus, I have to carry it on my shoulder and run up the stairs to the 4th floor. Impress leh. No-lah, I just carry it to the 1st floor and there is a functional lift there that I can take. The British Universities are very functional (make good use of holidays) as summer is a good time to do repair work. The undergrads are having their LONG SUMMER BREAK somewhere but postgrads are still around and have to suffer from the inconvenience due to the maintenance work in the School premises.

Then, it's the time to go home. So, I unlocked my bike and carry it on my shoulder and run down the stairs to the basement (if you believe me) and fueled by the strength of my teenage self, I cycled with all the energy that I have, totally forgotten that I'm way passed teenage life. My quadriceps femoris felt like a car engine running out of fuel. It was really tiring. Too slow, to tiring. Seriously my muscles just refused to follow my command. Then, I realized that I live in Arthur's Hill and the whole way back is going up hill. Gosh, I pushed my bike for a while, cycle for a while, stopped for a drink, then tried to play around with the gears and cycled slowly back home. I think my face was as pale as a...oil of olay model?. Whatever, I was exhausted.

I've learned my lesson well. Start slow. No need to cycle fast fast as if people are watching. Summer holiday lah, not many people around.

Tuesday was better as I've optimized the gear to go up hill, going downhill was all about squeezing the brakes. I cycled back in a more relaxing manner now. Stopped halfway for a drink some more.

Today is good, a bit of muscle soreness but I managed to cycle back without stopping. Got improvement ah. The only thing about cycling is the seat. Sitting down with my body weight on it is like prying my butt into two.
I wish someone can some up with the sofa type bicycle seat.

Fresh food is always plentiful in the city

2008-07-14T07:04:00.005+08:00

I went to the Newcastle City Center last week and guess that I've found in the compound of the Newcastle Civic Center,

Fresh walking Peking ducks

Actually these are migratory water fowl (if not mistaken) which is blamed to spread the bird flu. These Peking ducks are very used to the presence of human, so making a meal out of them should not be very difficult.
People are just paranoid about bird flu because the first bird flu ancestor that caused a pandemic in 1918 aka Spanish flu killed at least 40 million people. This was followed by the Asian flu (1957) and Hong Kong flu (1968) which claimed another 100k and 700k people respectively. Mother nature have a way to keep the human population in check.

Ahah the cholesterol free white meat bunny.
It was interesting to find wild bunnies (there were 3 of them) in the middle of the city center. I guess they must have been eating potato chips to survive and similar to the Peking ducks, the bunnies are used to the presence of human too.

Sleepy head

2008-07-14T06:46:00.004+08:00

Dan Dan seems to like me to piggy back him in the backpack child carrier. As many people have claimed, their kids will just dozed off in the carrier. Dan Dan too.
He is 9.5-month old now and almost weight a standard packet of rice (10kg). Time really flies. Dan Dan is growing up so fast. My Malay friends always commented that Dan Dan is very big and will always ask me if we are feeding him with something special. I just say he have a very good appetite. In actual fact, my wife and I have been feeding him with blended te bak muae (pork porridge). A bit pai seh to tell them the truth. I tell you, the te bak muae is so good that daddy also helped to finish it if Dan Dan cannot finish (so far only once). The taste is truly devine. Nyum nyum.

Mid Blogging Life Crisis

2008-07-14T05:23:00.004+08:00

Must be a long wait to see this posting. I've waited a long time too just to publish this too. Have you bloggers out there written a masterpiece then save it, then think think think and the more you think the more inappropriate the contents become and eventually the masterpiece expired and become pieces and you deleted it. This happens to me quite often. I call this the mid blogging life crisis.

Today is a good day. Not too sunny, not too rainy as it rained most of the weekends. Well, the weather today is just perfect and I drove to Blaydon and bought myself a Newcastle United-Shimano Bicycle. I wonder why Newcastle United also sell bicycle, thought they only kick ball. To think about it, it has been more than 10 years since I last ride a bicycle. I guess I can still ride well kua. Tomorrow then I will know. Gosh, I was wondering how on earth do I squeeze such a big bike into my Fiat Punto until Bakri shows up. Lucky me that he drives a 7 seater and he bought a bicycle too. So my bicycle hitch a ride back home in his car. Phew. Many thanks to him. I guess he won't be reading by blog but as an academician and a scientist, I believe that proper acknowledgment is very important.

By the time I reached home, we were kind of late to attend the Sunday service in our regular church and we decided to pay a nearby Meth...Church a visit (since their service starts 15 minutes later than our regular church). All old churches here have some distinctive architecture and they are just cool. When we approached the church building, there were not many cars around. Maybe petrol is just too expensive and they have decided to walk. Then we went inside to be greeted by a nice old lady. She passed us a hymn book, another book that we didn't use and now I am wondering what book is that and also 2 pieces of paper which we didn't use either.

As you can see, the altar is very cool and the music was played using the ancient built organ. No guitar, no loud banging drums, no violin, no keyboard, no flute, and no to the rest, only the organ was accompanying the hymn. Can you see the organ player high up on the altar? This is indeed a very cool church but I feel sad. Very sad to see that there were merely 10-15 souls around, very very old souls. It's true that many churches in the UK have sold their structures and being converted into other stuff like Break and Breakfast (Essshhh, the place must be surrounded by graveyards), Pubs (they serve virgin Mary, graveyard and if you overdose and die, the graveyard is just outside), restaurants and etc.

To look back, my home church in Kuching is perhaps struggling to build our own church building to cater for a growing church members and yet the churches in the UK are selling off their building. Yes, there are many churches in the UK but not all Church like structures is a church.

What is happening to the Country which used to send their missionaries to Sarawak? The missionaries that set-up and pioneered the early churches and schools in Sarawak, did England send all of their missionaries out and none was left in the UK? Anyway, I thank the missionaries who have dedicatedly and faithfully spread the Gospel in Sarawak and also pioneered many schools there.

Statues

2008-06-28T04:32:00.009+08:00

Newcastle is a city with statues. Every statue was built for a reason and perhaps with a story to tell.
For example,
This clearly tells the story of a war/revolution and trumpet blowing.

Punishment by standing on a pillar. Mr Earl Grey who is standing high up on top of this pillar. He must have stolen some tea leaves which land himself into this high standing position. Seriously, I thought Earl Grey is a kind of tea. Who is this guy anyway. Perhaps not a very important person, so he is still standing there and not being rescued. This place is called the Monument, it's a popular place for people to stage demonstrations.
Then, there is a lady Greek God standing on a pillar next to the Haymarket Metro Station (obviously cannot fly anymore) pointing her donno what at the direction of Newcastle University but nothing seems to happen. Her donno what must have ran out of ammo. Forgot to reload i think.
And a knight with a dragon head on his feet. Who knows the head might still be alive and wollop his ... This guy should be charged in court for causing the extinction of a fairy tail/~~endangered~~ species.
This is not the end, i think this is King George 10 looking towards the city center. Raja mati tinggal tugu, harimau mati tinggal tulang.
Yeeshh, the guy who peels his feet skin. Amazingly this yucky statue is located in the lobby of the Medical School. Actually I think it symbolizes excessive walking. Painful feet like mine or is he removing a corn?

Ahmmm!
Cikgu Kenny didn't want to miss out also.
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See the Sony Digital Camera pouch on his belt. That's an indication that this guy must be a blogger and a Nike Shirt for 'Just wear it'. There is an ongoing story about this guy in Newcastle. A story about his family, his doctorate and his carrier. Anyway he is the only one with full colour.

Direct sales science

2008-06-26T04:43:00.004+08:00

Being in the science field, partially learned friends (not my students) tend to come to me to 'clarify' things. On one occasion, a sukuchabo asked me.
(Disclaimer: The name given might not be real and are used merely for illustration only. It does not represent anybody that is reading my blog. Any resemblance in the conversation below is purely coincidental. It's like my name, I'm not a star in South Park anyway).
Elaine: Is lemon juice acidic or alkaline?
Cikgu: Depends on what kind of science you are talking about.
(When an adult with kids ask me this kind of question, I will normally sense something is not right especially when they are involved in direct selling or taking some weird products. This kind of question is too elementary and lame).
Elaine: What do you think?
Cikgu: Lemon is acidic if you are talking about the real science.
Elaine: Wrong! It's actually alkaline you know.
(She showed me her happy face for correcting me and are basically ready to go for a battle)
Cikgu: Like I said before, it depends on what kind of science that you are talking about. You are absolutely right if you are talking about the direct sales science (which can be based on nothing).

She still think that she was right, let her be. She should have argued with the litmus papers and the pH meter. Well, when a person cannot unlearn, and relearn, then there is no point of education.
Just imagine one day her daughter telling her chemistry teacher that lemon is alkaline. So, lemon juice can neutralize acid-lah, try to take lemon when you have gastric and see what happen. I guess she can still score an A+ in today's education system.
Anyway, there are many informations out there that can be in a form of books, flyers, websites etc that are unreal and purely there to make a profit out from their victims. Absorb and assimilate all informations with caution.

The Jerk

2008-06-23T03:25:00.004+08:00

Well, I'm not telling you that there is a Jerk in my lab or etc but this is the fate of a Jamaican Jerk. They have turned him into a sauce.
If you are a Jerk, stay away from the EU countries or else there will be Malaysian Jerk Sauce, Singaporean Jerk Sauce, Indon Jerk sauce etc. Perhaps there will be ethnic specific sause available.
Let this Jamaican be the first and the last Jerk be turned into a sauce.

Nuclear powered water

2008-06-13T04:56:00.003+08:00

Initially some smart people managed to con people into thinking that water is dirty and need to be filtered to get rid of the suspended solids. Then, they convinced people that the drinking water contains insufficient amount of minerals and sell them stones to be included in the filter system. After that, they realized that people are taking too much minerals and decided to make them drink lab quality distilled water. Since distillation takes up too much electricity, Reverse osmosis machine was born into the commercial market. This was followed by energy water, magnetized water and all sorts of water.
I tell you...all of them are crape. The newest one is the nuclear powered water which suppose to change you. Not only it doesn't detox your body, it mutates your chromosome and make you a mutant. Perhaps taking this nuclear powered water with some spiders will make you a 'lelaki labah-labah' or maybe 'remaja mutan ninja kura-kura'.
This is the water from the Integrated Nuclear Clean-up which contains the radioactive isotope of hydrogen in the water molecule. Waste water from the nuclear reactor.
Do you believe me? It's actually spring water.

Wickedness in Newcastle I

2008-06-13T04:16:00.003+08:00

We went for a stroll at the Nunsmoor Park yesterday to enjoy the chilly Summer air. As usual, the playground was flooded with the Arabs and no locals were to be found. The Arabs were nowhere to be seen during the colder days in Newcastle but when the temperature is up, they will come out. Since, Dan Dan is still too small to play in the playground, we don't have to invade the playground for the moment. Perhaps Newcastle have to most multinational communities coexisting together.
We continue our walk around the park and suddenly I saw.......

What is it? NAILS!!
Lots of nails were scattered all over the walk way. Perhaps someone have accidentally dropped the nails on their way back BUT it was scattered accidentally with a pattern.

Gosh, the nails were lined up standing like a Rambo style booby trap on a junction. There are no wild boar around Newcastle, so this trap cannot be for them.

Anybody who cycled through that trap would have a sudden punctured tyre and the fact that the trap was laid on a T junction would means that the victim would be doing a slight cornering and would fall on the scattered nails. Wicked isn't it. The standing nails measures about an inch long which will be sufficient to penetrate jogging shoes.

Luckily I spotted the nails fast or else the results would be disastrous. Dan Dan's Emmaljunga pram uses tyres with lining which could have been punctured, not to mention our legs.

Gayu Guru Gerai Nyamai

2008-06-10T05:33:00.005+08:00

In the far far away land, there are many types of people but on the first of June, the Dayak matters. Although the Dayaks here don't plant paddy, Gawai or the Harvest Festival was celebrated with no less fun. We had a small gathering in Cecilia's house with two other families. It was really Gawai cum Keamatan although there was no tuak and langkau. If I knew earlier on, I could have fermented some. Maybe I'll make some grape based Tuak for next year's Gawai since grape can be very cheap but there will be no rice Tuak because rice is rather expensive here plus the recent price hike.
Phew...oil price shoots up like the 'Angkasawan', transportation cost escalating, then everything else follows. I would seriously put the blame on Mr Henry Ford. If he didn't invent the thing with 4 wheels, there won't be any problem now. Just imagine me and my family in a sail boat sailing for months from Malaysia to the UK to study. Just imagine I ride a cow to work. Everything back to the basic.

Gayu Guru Gerai Nyamai simply means Happy Gawai (if not mistaken) but I used to think that

Gayu=?

GUru= teacher

Gerai= Stall

Nyamai=delicious

So, by putting the translation together it simply means Gayu sold in a stall owned by a teacher taste delicious.

Soy formula and su do cream

2008-05-27T00:00:00.011+08:00

Today is what the UKan called the BANK HOLIDAY when all the 'Great Banks of England' are not open for business. Big deal right. Yeah, I went to Natwest the other day to check on my Sarachak thing and IT WAS FINALLY SETTLED. I'm glad it is over but the initial intention for me to do so was no longer valid. If you want to invest in anything in the UK, you will be taxed unless you apply to be tax exempted. I was initially looking at a bond which gives quite a good interest but surely it have been closed after so many months of treason by the Natwest people. The economy is bad here but I'll be glad to 'sapu' from the closing down shops if the discount is good.

Well, I still go into the lab to check on the viruses despite the bank holiday and my darlings were waiting for me at the lobby of my School. Anyway, it took me merely 20 minutes to settle my viruses. When I met up with my darlings at the lobby, Dan Dan have poo-ed again. We were a bit indecisive weather to clean him up at home or not as we couldn't find any baby changing place in my School. A bit pai seh to clean him up in the open. Going home is an option but that means we have to walk back down pass my school before going to the city center and it will take lots of time. Then, I figured out to nappy change him at Mark & Spencer (M&S). They have pretty good nappy changing room with free flow of tissue papers. Later, we proceed to the Boots pharmacy in Elson Square to shop for soy formula for Dan Dan to try on as suggested by his Aunty Sylvia. After analyzing different brands and their descriptions, we finally bought the Cow&Gate infasoy formula. I've tried it myself but it didn't taste anything like the ordinary soy milk. Yucks! but it tasted fantastic after adding some Cadbury hot chocolate drink. Anyway, we hope it works to put an end to Dan Dan's 8-day long diarrheoa. After so many days of pooing, he became more energetic and active. I find it really amazing. If I have diarrheoa for a couple of times, I would feel tired and exhausted.

I can recall my longest diarrheoa was in 1998/1999 which lasted a month or more. Lomotil becomes my best friend during that month. I was doing my practical training in a Pathology Laboratory during that time and tried to find if I was infected by some shitting pathogen but all the results came back negative. So, I didn't bother to take any antibiotics. However it finally stopped only after I took some amoxillin (an antibiotic), which is a standard treatment given by a doctor of mine in Kuching.
Just a sidetrack: when I was there, I overheard a Med Lab Tech 'Lecturer' 'teaching' his student that chlorine is alkaline. I told him that chlorine is actually acidic but he being an old stupid arrogant chap who have probably slept through his Form 4 and From 5 turned mad because I have corrected him. Well, I didn't bother to argue with people like this because he might sleep through throughout the argument. It is dangerous to have people with reduced education to educate the next generation. If he was my student, I would make him an out~~side~~ standing student.

We've finally finished off his Drapolene nappy rash cream after almost 8 months and now using a brand that I called sudoku cream (Sudocream) which was introduced by my lab friend. She said it was 'the best' cream that she have ever applied on her kids. If nobody ever recommend Sudocrem to me, I won't even take a look at it, not to say to purchase it as the name is so awful...of all the names, why sudocrem?

Well, the sudokrim is really good. Best selling over here I guess. Drapolene seems to be colourless when applied but Sudocrem leaves a whitish coating giving a 'have been applied' sensation. Highly recommended.

I take my words back. Sudo is no good. After 2 days of using it, Dan Dan's ka cheng rash again. Drapolene is still the best.

Whacco

2008-05-24T07:08:00.008+08:00

Many moons ago, we needed a Taxi and have decided to use the service of Tyne Taxi when they have distributed 2 flyer to our home.

We normally use Fenham Taxi as they are very reliable and punctual but just to give Tyne a try (since there is a Lucky draw and they guarantee the punctuality of their taxi. So, I asked my dear to call them as I can't make any sense out of the local Geordie English (an English dialect, eg. although almost all Malaysians speak Malay, Kelantanese and Sarawakians speak Malay with their own unique accent) through the phone. Some people here speak the Queen's English, mostly Geordie English and I speak the Agong's English.

Dear: I need a Taxi.
Taxi operator: Whacco?
Dear: Huh? I need a Taxi.
Taxi operator: Whacco?
Dear: I need a Taxi!(a little bit annoyed because someone over the phone is calling her a whacco!)
Taxi operator: Whacco! (I guess she must be mad too having to repeat so many times)

Finally my Dear figured out that Whacco=WHERE GO. Everything seems to work out later but the Taxi never arrived. When I called again, the Taxi operator said the Taxi driver accused us of not being there and will not entertain us anymore. Hmmmm. Well, the operator seems to get the address correct but don't know why this have happened.
Anyway, I happily managed to get another taxi company which doesn't call me a whacco.

La Sap Thang gone

2008-05-24T06:23:00.003+08:00

Today, I'm very upset. I took the green Trineken look-alike rubbish bin out into the back yard street for collection before I went to School. When I came back around 2 pm, the bin was gone. Some rubbish bastard have stolen my rubbish bin! If steal the rubbish inside is still ok but not the whole bin. This bin is given for free by the city council and I'm really surprise that anyone would have done this kind of thing....in the UK.

Wah, came home so early..catch snake hah? No lah. Dan Dan is still having diarrheoa after a long 6 days and I've been trying very hard to finished off my Lab work as early as possible and get home early to assist my wife. We have sent Dan Dan's stool specimen to the clinic to be analysed just to be sure it is nothing serious. We sent Dan Dan to the clinic on Wednesday in hope that they will give some remedy but like predicted, the nurse ask us to give him a plenty of fluid to drink. No prescription at all, not even a cream to sooth his aching ass. As he was 9.5kg before his diarrheoa started, I guess he must be about 9.0kg now. With his reduced weight, he can craw very very fast...I guess he must have figured out that being lighter means better mobility.

Although the healthcare in the UK is basically free for certain group of people and subsidized for others like me, seeing a doctor when one is sick is kind of a distant thing to think about. Once you have developed some illness, you need to call and make appointment with the clinic that you have registered with and they will slot you in when there is a space. If you are not registered...do write a will. You will be very lucky to get a place on the day itself and there are times when you will get an appointment a week after (it's either you are dead already or have recovered). Everything is by appointment and you cannot just walk in and wait like in Malaysia. Doctors are paranoid about antibiotics, prescription of antibiotics for simple ailment like sore throat is taboo and should never be mentioned here. I miss our doctors who give away Panadol, antibiotics and cough syrup generously.

HOT HOT HOT

2008-05-12T05:24:00.003+08:00

It has been more than 5 months since we arrived in Newcastle. In this 5 months, we have seen the prices of some goods risen by an average of 10-20% and some remains the same. I guess Kuching will experience a much worse effect of inflation due to the weak currency. With the conversion rate of RM6.3 to GBP1, Malaysians are basically working 6.3 times harder to make end meets compared to the British who works in the UK although their income tax might be significantly higher. Oil prices have soared

and people are complaining that it is expensive. I would be very happy to pay RM1.09/liter of petrol rather than RM2, so I guess petrol is twice as expensive in Malaysia compared to the UK although the Malaysian Petrol is heavily subsidized by the government. Anyway, if the currency value is being kept high, there will be less subsidy. Whose fault is that?
Other than expensive, there are basically no petrol or diesel for sale and the authority is saying 'don't panic' there is no oil shortage here. Tell me about it.

Now might be summer, nobody knows for sure but yesterday marks the highest temperature ever recorded since we arrived. It's 25 degree C based on my Victorinox thermometer. It doesn't sounds like a big deal as some people back in my country sets their air-conditioning thermostat to 25 degree to be on the economical side. It would be cool enough to sleep but not hot. However, bear in mind that the magnitude of the sunshine here is very much different. Yesterday was like driving in Kuching at noon time with the air-cond off and windows tightly shut. It was torturing. Imagine the amount of adjustment that we need to make when we return to Kuching. Dan Dan is sweating in the flat although I felt the temperature was just nice. I can see tiny droplets of sweat forming on his nose. He got my sweating gene for sure.

I midst of the microwaving temperature, we went to the city center and there were many people out with very minimal clothings. Some guys were walking with just a pair of shorts. I guess these people would have been caught by the police if they happen to walk around Kuala Lumpur with just a pair of shorts. They worship the sun very much but for us...umbrella is still our best friend. I believe the UV wavelength here stimulates the skin pigmentation. We can see more freckles emerging on our face just like Archie. I would prefer to cover up a bit. Some ang mo friends say Asians age slower than them. I would imagine the amount of skin damage that they have inflicted on themselves since young. It is very interesting to see students picnicking under the hot sun in their hostel compound.

Have you seen any University's prospectus portraying students sitting on the field having fun or reading a book. It seems to be real over here but me and some of my coursemates back in our undergraduate days tried it but the Malaysian soil is damp and full of insects. Not practical in Malaysia.

I have removed the foot muff from Dan Dan's pram or else his legs would be very hot.

Without the muff means higher visibility for Dan Dan and he seems to be very curious about his surrounding.

We went to JJB sports which is on it's closing down since eons ago but never did. I do think that the economy is quite bad as there are many stores being closed down including some chain highstreet stores. Business Analysts say many big shops are not making money since a few years ago. I guess closing down is the last resort. In another hand, Northern Rock, the sponsor of Newcastle United just rocked off quite a number of its staff in its recent retrenchment exercise. I guess there is a drastic slow down in the world's economy.
OK..back to my blog,
As the sun was so glaring and DNA damaging, we accessorised Dan Dan with an Umbro cap. I was actually looking for one for my dear wife but end up buying for Dan Dan. I remembered packing 2 caps in one of our luggage but I can't find it anywhere when we reached here. Not sure what had happened to them.

Well, Dan Dan surely loves his new cap. He was holding it with style when I put it on him and he didn't take it off.

He is happy....very very happy.

Exploring Newcastle

2008-05-04T05:22:00.008+08:00

Today is a warm day. Warm means we can go out for a walk with the standard Malaysian attire and at the same time we can reduce global warming by switching off our home boiler (heater). We went to the city center in the morning to do some shopping. Guess what, there are many shops in Newcastle selling expired goods for a cheaper price. WoW...this is truly the expression of the first class mentality. I have never thought this would happen in the UK but again, these people were 'penjajah'. Just before we head back home, we heard a loud trumpet and band sound. I thought there was a school band or some big event but you watch for yourself-lah.

Quite a small family outing cum peaceful demonstration. I don't see any water canon around tough. There was one banner saying 'The communist Party of Britain' which caught my eyes. With the hefty tax imposed on almost everything which the UK government call it the Value Added Tax (VAT). This is indeed a communist country in the making.
(Disclaimer: I was an innocent bystander and have not participated in the demonstration in any way).

We walked back home for lunch before heading down town again. We have been walking a lot in Newcastle. Most of our friends are impressed on how we walk. Not on our walking style but the distance that we walk. Our Malaysian friends here will almost certain to drive to town or at least take a bus but we prefer to enjoy the scenery and save on the bus fare which have increased recently. Seriously, Newcastle is a city that anybody with a pair of good legs can walk about. It is a small and compact city.

We walked down hill passing the St James Park which is the Newcastle United Football Stadium

and found the Discovery Museum which I didn't take any photo of because it was not open. I was actually thinking of snapping a picture of it on our way back but we have decided to take a detour somewhere.

Surprisingly we ended up in the Life Science Centre. It is very creative of them to convert the 'f' into a chromosome shape in the picture below.

Here is a bigger picture for the Li'f'e with me of course.

A sculpture showing a pure waste of metal in the shape of a double helix. For science people, they see a supercoiled DNA.

In the middle of the Centre is a book shop selling don't know what.

This building is a bit off as the architecture just cannot match with the modern architecture of the buildings around it.
We didn't go in to the Centre as it wasn't free. It cost something like GBP8 per head. We always think it is better to come when Dan Dan is a bit older to appreciate science. We wouldn't want to pay such a amount of money to enter just to revise what is already in our brain. Maybe this is a better place for the Lodgians to visit rather than the Science Center in Singapore.

Then we walk again passing through the Time Square where the Newcastle train station is. You will see a lady in blue jacket with a white pram in this picture.

That's my wife, walking very fast while I was snapping some pictures of this medieval station.

Do you realized that the UK people are quite poor? The wall of most buildings are left without any layer of cement and paint. They just leave the tiles to be exposed. Cutting corners and they call it an art or architecture.

Hah....now everything makes sense. We have the map of Newcastle in our mind already. It's really a well designed city. Before we knew it,we were in the Northumberland Street where Mark and Spencer is. We came across a bunch of people standing in front of Carphone Warehouse(a mobile phone company) and I thought Carphone Warehouse must be having a promotion at certain time thus these people are waiting to ambush the shop once the promotion starts. We innocently walked passed them and still wonder why these people are in a state of trance until my wife pointed out to me that something is interesting about the statue which was holding a newly launched mobile phone.

Miss Medusa is real...not a stone nor polymer statue. This statue contains real DNA inside.

Heading further down hill is the Black Gate.

there are a North and South look out post inside this building. There is an information board nearby regarding this historical building which clearly says that

Jemma N LVZ Darren R. Perhaps they were like Romeo and Juliet who are as good as dead.
Here are some of the meaningless photoes that I took inside the Black Gate.

And the initial architect was very detailed in his plan. He even created a place specially to accommodate the modern rubbish. The other surrounding area are very clean indeed.

Do you know Genghis Khan, the great Mongolian conqueror? I think he sent his son, Kublai Khan to Newcastle University too. He opened a Mongolian restaurant here near the Quay side, or maybe his descendants opened this restaurant?

The all you can eat wording caught my eyes but the menu indicates a very common Chinese dishes.

Further down the slope is the iconic landmark for Newcastle upon Tyne, the Tyne Bridge which is one of the many bridges that connects Newcastle with Gateshead. To make this simple, Newcastle and Gateshead is separated by river Tyne like how Kuching South and North being separated by the Sarawak River.

The last time we were here was a couple of months ago when Celina came to visit us. We accidentally walked across the Tyne Bridge with the wind blowing like 80 mph. Luckily we were not blown away. Strong wind can be VERY scary here.
Across the river is the 'Siput Babi' building where the theater is.

And the 'award winning Gateshead Millennium Bridge aka the Blinking Eyes as this bridge can move to allow taller ships to navigate through River Tyne.

Here are my darlings.

Dan Dan have outgrown his lying down pram and we have to change it to the sitting type. Not to say he is very long in length but his senses have developed to the level that he wants to see the surrounding. Till now, I believe this Emmaljunga pram is a good investment. I've never used such a well designed pram before. Although it is a bit pricey, the bottom storage compartment is highly generous and the huge diameter of the wheels allows it to climb up to pedestrian walk with relative ease.

See the 'EAT' flags behind me? There was a Food Festival over at the Gateshead. We were hoping for something like the Kuching Festival but there were selling....icecream, stone pizza (baked on a piece of stone! I can sell them Plastic Pizza) and Sushi. I think Pizza rank the lowest in creativity as it is just a piece of round flattened bread with cheese on top plus whatever that you want it to be there, then here comes stone pizza! Come on, you eat the stone meh? If you bake using a pan, becomes pan Pizza. The thing is do you eat the pan? Oh yeah...then the price of flour increases and they came up with thin crust Pizza and sell it at the same price...sometimes more expensive. What a way to overcome inflation.

Can you see a Warcraft like factory just across the Millennium Bridge? That's the BALTIC which is an art exhibition centre. All these are Newcastle's main attractions. So after reading this blog, you don't have to come to Newcastle anymore, everything that you need to see is already here unless you want to experience the Geordie (local native) life style in Newcastle.

What do you think, isn't Newcastle a beauty?

On our way back, we passed by an Outdoor Shop selling all sorts of gadget from camping to mountain climbing. I can't help to have an impression that the safety products are of low quality.

Apparently the mannequin have broken his leg.

I somehow believe that Spring is here already. the sun is bright enough at 4am and still bright at 9pm. A very long daylight here in Newcastle.

Sucking and pumping for a cost

2008-04-16T03:12:00.005+08:00

Newcastle is not spared from inflasion, chicken cost have risen for about GBP1/kg, diesel have soared to nearly GBP1.20/liter, chocolate have.....

Something that nobody in my part of the world would have thought of is the people here are paying for air. I've encountered this very interesting Esso Station near the St. James Park (Newcasltle Football stadium) where you can suck for 4 minutes for just GBP1.

From Air

You can see my almost brand new Regatta Hiking shoes that I bought at Tk-Maxx from the reflexion on the vacuum pump. Regatta is a local brand but one must have guessed that it is made in China. It is fully waterproofed to avoid icy cold water from wetting my feet but it also means that there is no aeration. Kaki busuk, stinks.

Paying for a self service Vacuum is one thing but paying to fill in car tyres with air is absolutely ridiculous.

From Air

Perhaps the wording in the picture is too small, it basically cost you a minimum of 50p to use the pump for 5 minutes, It's not too bad unless you have 5 flat tyres to fill.

Just imagine that we have to pay to pump tyres in Malaysia. This company is heading towards a disaster. Anyway Esso is never a popular petrol station there.

Edinbvrgh

2008-04-11T05:26:00.001+08:00

I went to Edinburgh on the 31st March to attend the 162nd Meeting of the Society for General Microbiology (SGM) which I am now associated with. The journey took less than 2 hours by car and I guess we reached much faster than expected because of our highly experienced expert driver. To my surprise, the road to Edinburgh is a one way road just like the Kuching-Serian road except there was not a single pothole anywhere to be seen. I was expecting a huge superhighway but...nevermind, at least nobody was following the 30MPH speed limit and the Beetles can craw much faster than that. There was a huge trailer truck speeding just behind us and basically the driver was tailgating and we decided to pull over to the roadside to let it pass. Nobody wants a gigantic truck to be tailgating behind as it would mowed down anything in its path if anything happens.

There were plenty of speed traps along the road to catch errant drivers but I'm not sure if there were really that many as you will be notified by a speed trap sign before shooting pass one. The road side was decorated with plantations, cow/sheep field which was undoubtedly beautiful.

We reached Edinburgh about 7pm local time and checked into Edinburgh First (a University of Edinburgh student hostel converted into a hotel during holidays). The first sight was fantastic with the ancient looking Leonard Hall

which brings the atmosphere back to the time of the knights of the round round table. The inside looked spooky though.

We checked into our respective single en-suite room which simply means there is a bathroom attached.

It looked great but the wall partition of the room was made from cheap thin plywood or cement board which allows you to hear what is going on next door (this will let your imagination runs wild). My room might have not be occupied for a long time as it was the 3rd week into the Easter Break and spiders are making a huge trap to trap whoever that is moving in after the break. Perhaps the web will provide a better heat insulation for the room.

The room cost more than 30 pounds per day and surely it is expensive (have to share with spiders).
During my second night there, I let the shower run for a while before I jumped into the shower just to let the hot water equilibrate with the cold. Anybody who just striped naked and jump into the shower without testing the temperature might find themselves hypothermic. To my horror the water pressure just dropped and what was coming out from the shower was merely icy cold winter water (not spring OK) futhermore Edinburgh in Scotland is much colder than Newcastle in England. Luckily I have not went into the shower. So, I decided not to bath until I go back to Newcastle. It would be disastrous if I was inside with hair full of shampoo and the hot water just get cut off. I think this place should be renamed as Edinburgh LAST.
I brought my laptop there too just to check my emails, skyping and also to 'work' but there were no internet connections. When I went to the lobby to ask if there is a wireless internet connection, the young Chinese looking lady said 'YES' for 3 pounds a day but I can only access it in the lobby and in the McIntyre Hall (dining hall). Well, I am not going to pay 3 pounds for that.
Parents who are paying for your kids education in the University of Edinburgh beware. Paying more to stay in the Pollock Hall of residence is expensive, noisy (you can hear people talking from a few rooms away and you are well aware of what's going in along the corridor) and lack of facilities like free internet. You can get free wireless internet connection in most cheap hotels in Malaysia. I guess Malaysia is much better of and generous in terms of communication technology.

Edinburgh LAST was built on the bottom of a hill which my friend called The Arthur's seed.

I almost burst into laughter when I heard her saying this. Sensing my mischievous mind, she then clarified that King Arthur sat on this hill before. The hill is the Arthur's seat. Perhaps he sat here before or perhaps this hill have something to do with his seeds, nobody will ever know.
There are more than one King Arthur and I don't know which one sat on this hill for sure. It's weird how limited are the names of the Kings and Queens of the UK until they have to put a number behind their name. I could have named my son TAN CHENG SIANG II and my grandson TAN CHENG SIANG III.

We had our Ang Mo Style Breakfast in the McIntyre Hall which served bacon, sausages, baked beans cereals salted skipper fish for breakfast for the next 3 days. These are boring food and not taste buds stimulating at all. Yucks for 3 days of Ang Mo breakfast.

The first night in Edinburgh, we went to a Thai Restaurant for dinner.

It was a long draggy dinner and we left after 12 midnight. Amazing. I can't understand a word of the menu as it was written in Thai with a LONG english description of the content. Well, I don't understand the menu at all and I pointed to this...this is John Dory the fish.

I hate it when the menu doesn't speak the same language as me. There are stalls in Kuching with all their menus in Mandarin. As if everybody reads Mandarin. I downed 2 bottles of Chang beer. Apparently it is quite famous here in the UK. Tsing Tao from China is sold at the same rank as Carlsberg and Tiger. In another word, the is no double standard in alcohols in the UK. Beer means beer. You will be surprised that weird cheap beer that are sold in Sarawak like skol, orangebum etc are not any cheaper here.

The second night, we had our dinner in the blonde

after an appetizer of a pint of Guinness

from a pub nearby.

It was brewed in Dublin and the alcohol content is half the one that are sold in Malaysia. A bit light but downing a pint with an empty stomach does makes me feel a bit lighter. You will see that people are smoking outside the pub. This is due to the effective no smoking in the pub policy by the UK government. Seriously no smoking in he pub! and surprisingly the people obeyed the policy. At least you don't get your hair smelling like a cigarette filter after you go home.
I walked back after the dinner as the rest of the group are going to another pub to kill time. It was 9pm and I was tired and needed a good night rest. Furthermore, I miss my darlings back in Newcastle and wanted very much to hear their voice.

The third night, we went to The Castle Arms for dinner by using a Taxi. All taxis here have the unique look.

Great location as it is located just below the hill where the Castle of Edinburgh seats.

The view of the castle just reminds me of the Highland Tower incidence in Malaysia many years back. I was a bit bored and decided to go out for a walk and I found the entrance to the Castle.

Mind you, the entrance fee is 10-12 pound per head. Maybe the fee is dependent on the size of your head.
We went back after 12 midnight as the closing time for all pubs in Scotland is 12 midnight. The pub operators gladly obey the closing time set by the government. How great. So, I managed to snap a picture of Castle Edinburgh before we go back to the 'hotel'. I didn't drink much tough although I wasn't paying for the drinks. I'm kind of proud of myself as I can control my alcohol intake limit now. First time....free drinks some more.

Hey....sounds like I'm enjoying myself...lets go to the serious business, the SGM Meeting. The 162nd SGM meeting was held in the International Edinburgh Convention Center (IECC) which was quite far away from Edinburgh LAST. We have to go there by a double decker bus which is managed by Lothian...Lothian makes me hungry as it reminds me of Lok Thian Restaurant in Kuching. Nyam Nyam but this one cannot eat. The bus fare is a standard 1 pound per ride.

From EdinBvrgh

When we reached the lobby, there was a long dragon queue but the organizers are very efficient and managed to register all of us without much time loss.

From EdinBvrgh

I brought my laptop there too as I've made an assumption that there will be wireless internet connection in such a big professional event and at least in a first world country like the UK. I won't leave my laptop in Edinburgh LAST anyway as the door lock was a bit loose. I was right, there are indeed wireless internet connection. I've tried to log online and it failed. I asked a staff of the IECC but she have no clue about internet. I went to the IECC Business Center and there is a big A4 notice saying that Wireless internet password for 10pounds a day. Worse than Edinburgh LAST. Now this is IECC LAST. So, for Asians coming to the UK...don't be alarmed that internet is scarce and expensive.

This place is filled with people with the same interests, that is their love for Viruses.

I guess almost all virologist in the UK are here with some from overseas like myself.

The first talk that I've attended was slightly interrupted by a Chinese guy behind me as he fell asleep and was snoring gently. Come on, it's the first talk in the morning and he was in his very own dreamland already. This serves as a reminder for myself not to doze off as I wouldn't want people to hear my part of the zzzZZZ story.

The meeting was well organized with highly interesting speakers except a few with poor presentation skills. The scope was almost purely virology and there were seminars conducted by scientists who were involved in the development of some successful vaccines and also the current updates for some interesting viruses like the blue tongue virus. Well, I should skip the rest of the story.

I enjoyed this trip to Edinburgh and I've gained a lot from there. In my title, I've written Edinbvrgh. The correct pronunciation of Edinburgh is when you change the U to a V, Edinbvrgh. It's true, like what is written on the rubbish bin.

and another rubbish bin which looked nicer.

Well, we went back to Newcastle by using an alternative route which passes through many ancient towns. When we reached Newcastle, I was made to believe that Winter is over as it was SO WARM until the next few days which tells a different story.

Sarachak the sequel

2008-04-11T04:58:00.002+08:00

Today is a rainy day and the temperature fits the temperature of SPRING. At least mother nature is getting things right now, for now. I went King George Number donno what Building for my ENglish class just to find that nobody was there and the part of the building was under renovation. So, I went to Natwest again to check on my Tax Exemption stuff which was supposed to the solved a long time ago. They have never contacted me again for this purpose.

To my HORROR, there was no record of my application being approved or not and the lady over the counter who looked very fierce went to checked with her superiors. She said I have requested for a change of address in February and my Malaysian home address was deleted from their system. Following this, I only have a UK address which makes me 'British' and not entitled to apply for International Student Tax Exemption. I kept my cool, I'm not mad at them because I'm no longer in the culture shock. I understand, it's just NatWest. What else can go wrong.

I was so cool that the fierce lady helped me to fill in ALL the forms again. You will rarely get this kind of treatment. Normally, they would just dump the whole stack of forms and say 'Next!'. Then you have to go to a dark little corner to fill in the forms before getting back on the queue again. I think she eventually remembered it was me who have been going to and for to get this stup Tax stuff right. Any human being will feel a bit shy for not getting things right for so many times.

Well, I've put back my Malaysian address into their system and I am legally Malaysian in the eyes of NatWest.

eEggs

2008-04-07T05:51:00.004+08:00

Newcastle was invaded by the eEggs which emits an electromagnetic wave that hypnotize people into buy them at a slaughtering price of 5 pounds each. Fortunately, Malaysian Chinese like myself was spared from being hypnotized by them and after 2 weeks of waiting game, I finally gave in to the eEggs.

I bought them at a recession price of 1 pound each, which is equivalent to a 80% in savings. Well, the eggs are hollow in the middle which make it not worthy of buying but they came with a free mug each which changed my mind. If you want to buy mugs in Newcastle, I guess you are looking at paying about 2 pounds per mug. So 1 pound for a hollow chocolate egg with some freebies and a mug is surely worth it.
There are brands that don't come with free mug like Nestle, so I don't buy them.
There was a Geordie lady taking the second last box of Cadbury Easter Egg from the shelf who told me she needed a new mug. I guess my calculation was right.

I'm kind of glad that I'm not into the season stuff. Out of season items are sold cheap here including branded sports stuff.
For me Cadbury means Cadbury, Toblerone means Toblerone. When I eat them, I am still who I am. So why bother about season?

I was actually thinking of buying them at 50 pence per box but there are other 'Mat Sallehs' who were in the race with me. If I wait any longer, there won't be any Easter Eggs left.

I guess I will display the Easter Eggs on my shelf for a while before I devour them.

Dan Dan doesn't look too interested about the Chocolate Eggs but obviously the older one in the picture is.

It's Winter Again

2008-04-07T05:02:00.003+08:00

Amazingly, it snowed the whole day today. I guess this must be the heaviest snow in the North East of England since I arrived although it might not be the coldest.
I was expecting more snow during the theoretical winter but this is not the case. Spring snows more than winter and the weather fluctuates even more. Since I came back from Edinburgh on Wednesday evening, Newcastle was burning hot at 20 C (I wonder how I can adapt back to the how weather in Malaysia later on) or more and we had to turn down the heating system in our flat. Hmmm, we were glad that winter is finally over bUT....the temperature started to drop since last night with mild rain and followed by heavy snow today. It's cold and depressing because we can't go anywhere but we had a great time playing with our dear son.

I went out for a walk in midst of the heavy snow because I was deprived from snow until I am 30 years old. I'm still a bit...very excited to see snow.

Behind me is the controversial Newcastle General Hospital which the City Council plans to demolish to make way for the new Tesco. Hmmmm, I've no problem with it. Tesco sounds nice to me as this place is a walking distance from where we stay in Fenham. This Hospital is actually considered to be the heart of my PhD as they are supplying me with specimens for my project.

Walking in the snow storm is not actually a very nice experience as the strong wind blows the snow flakes into my jacket and also my nose. The snow flakes are so light and soft the they always get inhaled into my nose. Furthermore, the snow forms an inch thick layer on the pavement which turns into a slippery ice scatting plate when I step on it.

There is always a place to rest when you are too tired of walking.

What about the effect of snow on the blooming plants?

Quite pity them...these daffodils really have their private part frozen up. The plants can't even tell if winter is over or the text book have been wrong all this while.
I guess winter comes after spring in the UK.

Palm Oil

2008-03-30T06:33:00.005+08:00

Since young, I read in the literature that palm oil is the best, then I was taught palm oil is the best and when I started to teach, I tell my students, as someone who is patriotic to the country, I must say Palm oil is the best. Then more research findings is supporting the true benefits of palm oil.

Anyway, no matter how good palm oil is to your health, you will probably not going to find even traces amount of it in the UK, at least you will not find them in Newcastle. People here use non-palm oil based cooking oil. Even the fat used in the coffee-mate and other non-dairy sweeteners are not palm oil based. No wonder it tasted so bad but we have no choice but to use it.

Until recently when I read a magazine published by Boots pharmacy, they are talking about products that boycott the use of palm oil. They claimed that oil palm is the crop that yielded the highest volume of oil per hectare compared to the other oil producing crops but it also destroyed the most area the virgin forest. In a way it is true, in order to plant the oil palm, you need to clear the forest for this purpose and apparently the area of oil palm plantation is growing annually. As usual, the first world countries are barking at Malaysia and Indonesia and trying to tell us what to do with our forest. They even have this Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. I'm not free enough to read their website but I guess the Brits love to sit around the round table just like the ancient dead Knights during King Arthur's time. So they boycott the use of palm oil here. There won't be any Cap Helang, Knife Brand etc but other oils and olive oil can be very cheap.

So much about destroying the Malaysian forest, damage to the environment, death to the orang utans etc. I believe this is not the main issue that palm oil is not use in the UK. Can you name a few palm oil companies in Malaysia? Sime Darby, Guthrie and Golden Hope comes to my mind (their historical names are different from the recent) and these are once British companies left to explore the riches of the Malayan soil even after the end of the British colonization in Malaysia. What happened in the late seventies was what they called the Dawn Raid when the shares of these companies were bought over by the Malaysian Government overnight during Thatcher's time. I guess it must have pissed Thatcher off so much and the no palm oil sentiment is dragging on until today. My point is if these companies were not bought over by the Malaysian Government, will you find Palm oil in the UK?

Anyway...is Palm oil the best oil to be used as a cooking oil? I would say YES and NO. The benefits of Palm oil cannot be enjoyed on its own unless it is blended with other vegetable oils. If you look at all the ingredients on the Palm oil container, you will see most brands are blended type and not pure palm oil. Using pure palm oil as a cooking oil would suggest that you are a diesel engine.
Blended oil at the right ratio will suppose to calibrate your cholesterol level to the optimal level but too much will kill you anyway.

Freezing Easter

2008-03-27T06:22:00.005+08:00

Good Friday and Easter is definitely a freezing weekend for us. Now is suppose to be spring but it snowed quite constantly throughout the weekend. It was freezing cold and certain part of Scotland was covered in snow. Newcastle was considered mild compared to the northern side, thus no Frosty the snowman for me. Hmmmm. I was hoping to make a snowman....a small one will do but the snow will normally melt once they are in contact with the ground.
So, how does snow look like? I would say it look almost identical to the small white polystyrene ball that we use as a decorative snow during Christmas back in Malaysia. It can be very light and when the wind blows, it will roll on the ground. Kind of cool.

I think I should refer them to hail rather than snow as snow flakes are light and will easily get sucked into the nostril. Hail like these doesn't hurt you unless they are powered by strong wind.

Hail is hard enough to make reasonable loud noise when they hit a plastic, wood or hollow metallic structures. The bigger the size of the hail the louder the noise is. So the green dustbin like the Trineken one will turn into a small drum during the hail storm.

That's all about the chilly snowy haily Easter. It was like a switch between Christmas and Easter.

Well, what was Easter all about? Some say Jesus was crucified on Good Friday and resurrected on the 3rd day which is Easter. That's a biblical answer but in the UK, Easter means the invasion of the evil chocolate eggs.
The alien Kinder Eggs will just melt some Kinder lover (you know who you are)

A guy and ah lian also not missing out on the Alien Eggs festival.

And Lindt too. You can see the cut-throat price in this picture

Creamy famous Cadbury...my favourite brand.

It's a big hollow scam egg with the shell thickness less than 5 mm I guess.
This one is totally out of this world.

When did Easter Egg join in the Easter celebration? did Jesus broke the easter Egg and say eat chocolate in remembrance of me? Of course not, did he? Some people say the egg symbolized the new life that Christ had given to us and one of my labmate said the egg symbolized the stone used to close Jesus's tomb (that's a HUGE egg for her) and another person think it symbolized her boyfriend's love to her by buying her chocolate egg(s). I think it's how Chocolate companies slaughter people around here.

Honestly I've never seen so many Choc. Easter eggs in Malaysia before. Maybe it won't sale as good because people are kiam siap (thrifty) there (with the conversion rate of GBP1=RM6.4, people should be more thrifty). Like the thrifty me waiting for Easter to be over and let the price of the eggs to drop to the recession rate before I buy them. The stock market education have taught me one thing, buy when it is low.

Ahah...when did Easter Bunny came from?

Some say Easter falls on Spring time where bunnies are hungry and coming out from their nest to look for carrot to eat. So Easter suppose to be filled with rabbits. The Australian must be quite scared with Easter...they are being overpopulated with rabbits there. Here is my version: It's Jesus's pet. Awwww how sweet. Cute little bunny. Easter eggs might be a nicer symbol of the bunny's droppings as the colour look a bit more alike.

HEY!!!there is a new guy now.
Easter Chicken

Can you find the little guy in the picture above? Well, I'm not sure if you can find Chicken in Israel during that time but I guess must be Jesus's favourite food or pet.
Any idea what Easter Eggs, bunny and chick are, do let me know.
Perhaps next year's Easter will come with chocolate rat, cow, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse,goat, monkey, chicken, pig, dog, all of the Chinese zodiac sign.

Made in China

2008-03-23T07:08:00.004+08:00

Nope...not what you are thinking. I'm genuinely Made in Malaysia, so is Aidan and my wife.

Many would have heard about the current issues regarding the Chinese government and the Tibetans.

As usual, other governments especially from the so called first world countries are protesting against China and blah blah blah. I was thinking if any government is serious about condemning China, then they should boycott ALL Made in China products and ask their businessman to pack and get out from China. Only then, you will see results. Talk only no use.

Even if you as a civilian who are not happy with China, don't just talk, boycott ALL Made in China products Now!. Look at your shoes, your computer, handphones and everything that you have. Check them and if they are Made in China, throw them away with great disgust. Burn them but remember not to use Made in China lighter (and provided it is legal to do so).

Saying Communist is no good. Who is funding China now? Dare you boycott Made in China products.
I have no problems with China products. Just that I can rarely buy anything Made in UK/ England nowadays. When I go shopping in the City Center in Newcastle, I felt like I'm in Beijing. Almost all made in China.

Daddyeeeee

2008-03-16T07:45:00.002+08:00

Yesterday was a memorable day for me. I woke up in the morning, went to the toilet to pee (didn't brush my teeth) and proceed with Alpen's cereal breakfast with fresh British milk. Dan Dan was watching me devouring my breakfast and he kept himself busy by making all sorts of noises. He tried to talk. This has been going on for quite some time now and he even wakes up in the middle of the night and talk loudly.
Suddenly, he said Dad-dyyeee. It wasn't a coincidence. He said it 3 times yesterday. Once I heard that, my heart melted like the ice cream in the Malaysian climate and I quickly picked him up from his bouncing chair which he have almost outgrown and give him a rub on his back. Hmmm. I'm a proud dad.

He still call daddy today. Awww so sweet. I've tried to record him calling 'daddy' on video but it wasn't easy. He is so attracted to my camera or even videocam that he stopped talking and focus his eyes on the camera lens. He loves to have his pictures taken. I believe babies (at least mine) don't just utter meaningless noises. They are actually speaking a structured meaningful language that adults cannot understand.
Why do I say that?
I filmed him talking/making noises and then we watched them together on my Acer Travelmate. He can just said out the 'exact words' that he said in the recording seconds before the part was shown. Big deal...coincidence. I've repeated the same experiment with different recordings and the same phenomenon was repeated. He remembered what he said. He remembered.
I guess their language is the universal human language that was lost after the incidence of the Tower of Babel. Have you ever seen babies or toddlers from different races communicate with one another? I did and they seems to understand one another very well.

When plant rules

2008-03-15T06:18:00.005+08:00

Now is what they call the late winter, early spring. This is the transition period where people and even the plants do not know if it is still winter or spring. A total confusion. Flowers are blooming massively for sure. Here is some picture from the Leazes Park (an equivalent to our Resevoir Park in Kuching where crime happens but no love birds courting here as it is still winter).

It is interesting how these flowers can grow in an organized cluster.
Nah...this is the closed up picture of the unnamed flower. It comes in many colours too.

And this one taken from the yard (graveyard of the oldest Church in Newcastle, St. Andrew).

I can see people cutting daffodils for decoration in church, office, home etc as they are plenty. Some use it as a free gift but I think dafs stink like urine. We received some from undisclosed people and I've placed them in our living room. It sure lightens our living room as we started to smell urine. It cannot be Dan Dan because he is using diapers, it cannot be me as I've checked myself...then the thoughts of rodents came to our mind as we were just told by a Malaysian family who just moved into our street that their previous rented flat in Heaton was infested with rats which came out at night... Could it be RATs?!!! Maybe they have read my bubo post and decided to pay the blogger a visit. Oh no! and we tried to keep our finger crossed for a couple of days until Sin Ee ask me if I smell urine in the living room. Only then I tried to find the source with some sophisticated scent detection device, my nose. I sniffed here, sniffed there sniffed everywhere and lastly I sniffed the dafs... yucks. it was from the lovely dafs. Well, some dogs might have peed on it or it just release its natural urine smell to attract flies which are non-existent in the UK for now. Maybe Daf is a distant family of Rafflesia. See their short form is similar Daf and Raf. They are from the same family.
I didn't throw them away but moved it to the kitchen where the aeration is much better.

The following is purely fictional from my imagination. It should never resemble anyone alive or dead. If it does, you are in big trouble.
Have you ever wonder why human make flowers as gift or decoration? By the way,
DO YOU KNOW WHAT FLOWER IS??!!
It is the plant's sexual organs! Just like your....in your pants or skirts.
I've watched the Planet of the Ape where the monkeys rule over humans. What if one day the plant mutated and took over the world! They might have Valentine's day too and guess what are they going to give to their love one.

Romeo plant,'Darling, I got you a bunch of P***s from the boys outside'.
Juliet plant,'Awww it smell great like urine but it look a bit dehydrated, can you please stuck them in the vast and add some sildenafil to it.'

So the next time people give you a bouquet of flower and your are planning to sniff it, remember the story of the plant. Some people are allergic to pollens...do you know what pollens are? They are the equivalent of sperms.

Fire! Fire!

2008-03-11T05:39:00.003+08:00

Today is a busy day for me. Lots of experiment to conduct but all are within my control. Just I managed to have some time to sit down for lunch, the fire alarm went off. Shhhh...So everybody rushed down the stairs and out into the end of winter environment. It rained today and the sun was glaring, so it wasn't cold outside. Unlike Malaysia, we usually feel cooler after the rain, it is the opposite here.
Just imagine what will happen if the fire alarm went off in an office in Malaysia....people will look at one another and say 'is it real? is it real?, no smoke leh...nevermind lah' and continue with their direct selling activity while at work. There is just no such culture in Malaysia to respond to the fire alarm (I guess the fire alarm went off too many times due to alarm failure rather than a fire drill or a real fire). Opps...many might not have heard of fire drill at all. It is not the same as grill. Babi giling.
Well, the fire engine arrived a few minutes after we all gathered downstairs. The fireman who was driving the engine seems to be a bit blur. Don't know where to go, stop here and there, then he took out a big book and started to read it in the fire engine. I guess he must be new and have to refer to the operating manual.
1. In case of fire.....
2. Step on the brake...
3. Open the door..
4. Get out from the fire engine...
5. watch the building burn....
Just when I was expecting some action, they called it a day and went back. Perhaps the manual said 'The End'. It could be a drill, or someone have triggered the alarm, we have no idea but at least the whole thing wasn't too long or I would have gone to the city center to do some shopping or maybe to go home early to play with my baby.
Mind you, i think it cost the University 3000 pound or more to conduct a fire drill. If you were caught in the building after the evacuation, you will be fined. BUT what if the fireman found you in the building during the fire drill and you just pretend to have inhaled too much imaginary smoke and faint. I guess you will be excused from the fine. After all it is just a drill, a simulation.
Anyway, I do hope that the fire drill culture will be instill in Malaysia. At least you know where to run when the real thing happens.

Mother's Day

2008-03-03T04:58:00.006+08:00

Today is Mother's day...the only day that motherhood is being celebrated in the UK but if one is to travel outside of UK, you might be able to celebrate it for the second time in May. Similarly, shops are selling flowers and gift cards for this money slaughtering occasion. Most of the time, Mother's day is being celebrated by a simple family dinner which most Asian families do every day (maybe a heavier and more toxic meal to make it more special. Cook more oily if you have problem with your mom).

Today's sunday sermon in the Westgate Baptist Church started with a reading of the scripture of 1 Samuel 1. An unknown volunteer (this is because I don't know him) went up to the rostrum on the stage and read the whole of the first chapter. In my mind, I was thinking that I will fall asleep this time but seems like the scripture touches my heart. I'm not sure if I can relate this to you but I'll try.
Pastor Paul mentioned that today is Mother's Day in the UK and rather than making it a must to be fun and great day, he told us that today is also one of the most painful day for many. Some might not even want to go to Church today because it's Mother's Day. He pointed that there are many who have lost their child, having miscarriages, unable to conceive or even those who have lost their mother. Some would have wished that their child was never born or never to have a mom like now. So today is a painful day. It struck me as I have never imagined the other perspective of Mother's day before. Thought of friends who have problems like I've mentioned earlier came to my mind. It is painful and depressing. Not as if little Aidan came instantly and easily, he joined our family as a result of lots of prayer, hope and faith. I do understand the pain to a certain degree.

The writing below is a summary of 1 Samuel 1. You should read the actual scripture as I've rewritten it for the purpose of my blog. As a nice person, I've included a link to a free online bible for your reference.
1 Samuel 1 talks about Elkanah who have 2 wives called Hannah and Penninah. Penninah is the superbreeder of the family and Hannah was barren. The breeder kept provoking Hannah by saying, 'I've kids but you don't have leh' and this goes on for years. You just imagine the kind of mental torture and humiliation that Hannah had to endure.
One day she cannot take it anymore and broke down in the temple of God and prayed, "O LORD Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant's misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life.....".
God heard her prayer and blessed her with a son whom she named Samuel which means 'God heard' as God heard and granted her prayer.
Samuel was never Hannah's as she had dedicated him to the Lord for his Kingdom and Samuel's life was recorded in the same book. Read on by using the same link.
If you have friends with the name Samuel, most probably he is the first child in the family after years of marriage...and guess what, most of Samuel's parents would have prayed the same prayer as Hannah did and God heard them...Prayers work.
God bless all my readers. Love you all.

BUT not all Christian with biblical names will do biblical things. Biblical names simply means that they were extracted from the bible (easy...don't have to crack head to find name for their baby regardless of the meaning). For instance, my Perodua MyVi which was sold off before I came to Newcastle was serviced by Jesus and Jesus work for Perodua as a mechanic. I guess biblical names for newborn must sound a bit glamorous. If you disagree, you can name your child Habakkuk.

Earthquake in Newcastle

2008-02-28T05:57:00.003+08:00

WoW...my wife mentioned to me this morning that there was an earthquake in Newcastle. Deep in my mind, I was thinking "wah, my snore that loud meh". But no, there was really a 5.2 magnitude earthquake in Newcastle today at 1 am. Amazing. I guess BBC wasn't lying as April Fool is far away.

The Tyne bridge was closed but I guess it was due to the 84mph wind. A few lorries were overturned by the wind. The wind was so strong that it pushes me to the side when I walk. If Celina is reading this, the wind was stronger than the last time you came. I have to walk slightly towards the direction of the wind just to walk straight. Adam, a med student who is doing his practical in my lab said his dog was almost blown away by the wind. That's the problem with dogs with big wide ears. I think it's a Spaniard or Stitch.
Anyway, we are all alright and no damage was done here. Everybody in my lab only learned about the quake from the news. I guess 1 am is the time when everybody is deep asleep....

Sarachak

2008-02-23T03:41:00.007+08:00

Once again I am extremely 'satisfied' with the local bank here. As a student, I've to apply to be tax exempted and whenever I fill in and submit the tax exemption form, it will always get bounced back to me. The first time, the bank officer in the Northumberland St. Branch asked me to use my Malaysian address for this purpose and it was rejected. And then the Grey St. Branch called and asked me to fill in another form using my UK address. About 2 weeks later, the Northumberland Branch called me and asked me to refill the annoying form again. I've explained to her what have happened and she suggested me to write both addresses in the UK and Malaysia. Once again, it was rejected because the address did not match the address in their database....again. For the fourth time, the smart bank officer in the Grey Street branch dropped me a letter to ask me to go to the branch. When I reach there, the lady officer who mailed me that letter said "I've destroyed your form. I thought you are not coming". My heart was saying ?#$%&***@. So, that was the 4th time for me to fill the form. Few weeks have gone by quietly and I've received another letter from the Grey Street Branch yesterday.
Guess what...everything was approved....HOORAY!!!!!!!
?#$%&***@..(that didn't happen...I imagined it). The address in my form doesn't match again! My hypothesis is that they must have keyed in my address wrongly into their database. So, I've decided to pay the Grey Street Branch a visit....just to test my hypothesis.
This time, a male officer was on the service counter. Mind you...there is a big notice next to the counter saying that "We will not tolerate any verbal abuse to our staff....." something like that, and threaten to take action against you if you make their staff felt threaten. Now I understand why this notice is necessary.
I told him the whole story and asked him to check their database. Guess what, they have keyed in Sarawak as Sarachak. He advised me to fill in the address column in the form by follow the wrong address just to be safe. Amazing?
Then he started to type something and asked if I've been receiving my bank statement in my UK address. I said "yes" and he said "What you've said just now contradict to what we have in our database. We only have your address in Malaysia".
As if I've lied to the bank or something. I quickly passed him an envelope sent by the bank to my UK address for him to see. He said, "someone might have taken your address from the forms that you've filled previously". I was boiling mad and the winter turned summer in the bank, the temperature is just like lunch time back in Kuching with the sun shining violently on whoever are underneath its mercy. Anyway, I told him nicely like a highly educated scholar (which I am), "In that case, how did I received my debit cards, credit card, pin numbers in Newcastle?". I shoved my bank cards for him to see. He kept quiet as he cannot battle in a tropical climate. This time the British Army surrendered. This people need winter. Too hot, they cannot stand.
Should have told him I commute between Kuching and Newcastle daily. That's how
I manage to receive all the bank cards, etc from the Bank.
I hope this ping pong effect will end now. It has been dragging on for the past 2 months (since last year).
Well, for more added excitement and trill, I highly recommend you to bank with the bank that I bank with. I hereby present to you the National Westminster Bank aka Natwest. The staff there are highly untrainable and arrogant. come on... bank in a developed country with the last class mentality. Shocking but true
I rank it below Bank Simpanan Nasional.

Spring is here?

2008-02-20T07:26:00.003+08:00

I was quite glad to see that flowers are starting to bloom as this marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring.

Even trees are sprouting new leaves.

BUT it all came to an end as I was cheated by the blooming plants. Winter is definely not over yet as February is said to be the coldest month of the year.
See, -3 degree Celcius at around 9am on Monday with the sun shining at its full strength. The temperature was lower on Tuesday and it started to get better on Wednesday just to be replaced by violent wind.

Mind you, the sun's radiation level over in the UK/ northern hemisphere is quite high compared to the sunshine in Malaysia. I guess the ozone must be very depleted here.

Hard water

2008-02-20T06:59:00.006+08:00

When we first arrived in Newcastle about 2 months ago, we found out that our shampoo didn't work, tooth paste didn't work and our facial cleanser don't even produce any lather. Worse in worse, Dan Dan's EnfalacA+ (milk powder) don't even dissolve properly in the British water. The tap water in the UK is hard water. It must have contained a massive amount of Group 2 elements (refer to the Periodic Table). I think the concentration of salt is extremely high, almost to the point of saturation. There is no reason for me to buy mineral water here as we are over supplemented with minerals. Essssh. I'm truly disappointed with the authority here as I don't expect to drink and use hard water in a developed country. It's not going to cost a fortune to soften the water as it only involves a simple high school chemistry.
People say the grass is always greener on the other side but the water is harder too.
See how much mineral accumulated.

Anyway, we managed to buy an ion-exchange water purification system for our drinking water. I don't think any RO machine or distiller can survive such a high concentration of minerals.
Perhaps they kept the high mineral content just to prevent frozen water in the pipe during the 'harsh' winter temperature.

Silent Hill

2008-02-13T06:14:00.000+08:00

The temperature during the winter fluctuates from day to day. Today is warm, I guess the temperature must be around 10 degree or more as I don't even have to zip up my winter jacket.
A couple of days ago, the temperature was consistently high and on the 11/2 morning, the whole of Newcastle was covered in a thick layer of fog. This reminds me of the annual haze in Sarawak where most people blame the people from the country next door for burning up the forest but if you drive slightly further from the city, you will see our own people burning up the bush, forest and even tyres. Sad but true. Sorry that I do not have any supporting pictures here.
Back to the fog. The visibility was reduced to a mere 50m.

In the next picture, you'll see Westgate Primary School emerging from nowhere. This is a very popular school for Malaysians in Newcastle. It's more than a hundred years old but still standing strong. It gives me an impression that Harry and gangs are learning magics inside.

and all of a sudden, we found our church, Westgate Baptist Church.

We have been attending this Church since the second week in Newcastle. The 'Baptist' name makes us feel more homely and the congregation consists of a multinational community. You can find all sorts of skin tone from white to dark. If you want to look like me also can. You can go to this shop below and they will turn you into one of us.

This church is more than 120 years old and was renovated to preserve it. The structure and architecture is very classical ancient church and the high ceiling with a dome makes the acoustic extremely fantastic. I've never heard of such a faultless sound system before.
Something that I like a lot about this church is they provide bibles during the service and when they refer to the bible, they will always tell you which page to turn to rather than you yourself flipping from cover to cover until the service is over. There is no reason for anybody not to be able to find The book of Genesis anymore:-)

The Year of the Buboes

2008-02-13T05:47:00.000+08:00

This year's Chinese New Year marked the end of the Year of the Golden Swine and the beginning of the Year of the Black Rats. The Year of the Golden Swine was the baby boom year for the Chinese.
As many celebrated The year of the rat by displaying the cartoon character of cute rats dressed up in red chinese costume, people here are displaying something different.

Well, it doesn't mean that the rats can just come in and go as they like just because this is the year of the rats. Even the swine doesn't come in to the house as a swine, they came in as pork and stayed in the freezer until further notice.

Small little things in life ....

2008-02-12T06:57:00.000+08:00

I can't really understand this, I miss my son when I'm in the University doing my experiments. I miss him when I'm away from home. I miss him when he is asleep. I miss him even when I'm holding him.
Everyday, I would want to complete my lab work as early as possible so that I can go home to my family. On my way back home, I would imagine how my little treasure is going to greet me, how his expression is etc. I miss my son even tough we are just 10 minutes walk apart. Normally, my wife will bring my little treasure to greet me when I open the door. He would smile when he see me (if his mood is good or with a little au-cha). This is the moment that I look forward each day.
When I'm at home, I tried out all the little tricks that I can imagine just to see my son laugh. It can be a gesture, a sound, or just a simple smile while looking straight into his eyes. I treasure the little achievement in life with my family. Apparently, a weird little phrase just trigger him to laugh but new trick turns old pretty fast and I have to think of other stuff that is funny to him. Perhaps this is something that unleashed the childhood in me again. Some people think I'm immature but how to be mature if I'm still locked in my childhood.

New Year's Eve

2008-02-07T07:30:00.000+08:00

I've started my CNY Eve with my wife waking me up (as usual) and ta daa...breakfast is already served (15 minutes ago). I don't know why I took a generous amount of Cornflakes and Frosted Shreddies with Semi-skimmed fresh milk (it's printed there 'British Milk'. I just wonder what is the origin of the milk) and a cup of Kenco coffee. I've over-filled my stomach with breakfast. Well, people said breakfast is the most important meal of the day. (I used to take a single meal per day when I was working in Lodge School and the tight schedule normally tricked my mind to think that I'm full. I forget to eat when I teach. I guess that was how I maintained my hour-glass figure :-). Just joking. Should be bamboo stick figure.

Then I walked to school. Seriously it's a school, In my University, there are Faculties and within a faculty, there are schools. Like kindi kids, I carried my back-pack and packed lunch and went to school. The temperature today is considered tolerable. just before lunch, I went to the bank to settle something. As a student, I've applied for tax exemption last year and today is the third time I went back to settle the same thing. They claimed that my address did not match the one in their database. I've filled in the same form for at least 3 times now and I hope this is the last time I've to do that. Yeah, I called the bank to activate some of my account stuff quite a while ago, the Geordie operator asked me some verification questions. Yeah...a Malaysian Chinese speaking English to a British Geordie. What a disaster. He asked me for this and that and seems like most of my answer didn't match. Like my mom have changed her name without my knowledge or something. That was a total disaster. I think he had a hard time understanding me and vice versa.

I went home around 5.30 pm and it was still quite bright. My little Aidan had poo poo for 4 times now. If he constipate, I worry, when he poo too many times, I worry even more. Bathed him as usual and had our Newcastle CNY Family Reunion Dinner with my family. Delicious. Then we watched Lost Season 3. Well, there is no CNY holiday here in the UK. I still have a CNY workshop and a CNY English writing class to attend tomorrow.

Anyway. I wish all of my readers a very Happy Chinese New Year. If I've offended you directly or indirectly in person or in any other way, get over it. I don't think CNY is the occasion to ask for forgiveness. Love you all.

Chinese New Year

2008-02-03T06:49:00.000+08:00

It started to snow about 2 days ago, I mean quite constantly. There was no snow during Christmas and Santa was not around too because he was too drunk to fly his reindeer or have crashed onto some tree. There won't be a chimney for him to climb in anyway as most houses are equipped with either a gas or electric boiler for heating. I wonder who came up with this Santa character. I don't think Santa is a good person if he is real. How can anybody who climbs into other peoples chimney be good? and he was up to something else too. In a Christmas song, a kid sang, 'I saw mummy kissing Santa Claus.....'. The rest is up top your own imagination.

Chinese New Year 2008 for my family in Newcastle (NCL) will be a quiet one and perhaps the coldest one. This will be my first time in my life not to celebrate CNY in Kuching with my parents and this will also be the first CNY for little Aidan. I wish I can be back at home to celebrate CNY together in Kuching so that I can bring my little Aidan to collect some AngPows and to show him to my relatives. Oh yeah, Aidan is 4 months old now and he can turn to his side now, grabbing specs, neck skin, scratch anything from his own face to daddy and mummy's face and neck and started to play with water during bathing. Again, I just miss his first 4 months, from his pictures, I can see that his outlook have changed a lot, from skinny to fat and tiny to stout. He started to learn to take power nap like his mother and last night he slept at 1.30 am. I can never take any power nap. My nap is defined as my eyes shut for at least 8 hours with or without snore.

After being abroad, I look back and I really treasure the kind of life and community in Kuching, I'm talking about Kuching especially, not anywhere else in Malaysia. I miss home. While I type, I can feel my tear glands trying to secrete tears and at the same time my brain is telling it to stop. Well, I'm the emotional crying type I guess. The man who cries.
I MISS HOME, I MISS MY PARENTS, GRANDPARENTS, IN-LAWS, SIBLINGS, NIECES, NEPHEWS and OTHER RELATIVES, CLOSE FRIENDS etc.
I also miss my dog (Lucky), my terrapin (Ah Hock), my ....what else did I leave behind anyway...well. I guess I only have 2 pets.
I MISS LAKSA, KOLO MEE and KUEH CHAP. Once I browsed through my digital photo album and I bumped into this

ARRRAAHHHH. It's turning me mad. I can just smell the aroma direct from the LCD from my ACER notebook. It look so real, It smell so real but it's flat when I tried to touch it. I want laksa, I want laksa, I want laksa.....
Maybe the nearest place to taste good laksa is in Belgium, find Yee Wei, find laksa. If only someone is selling the Sarawak Laksa paste in Newcastle...

Karachian hair cut

2008-01-26T05:08:00.000+08:00

Again...after a long long time, I blog again. My blogging time have depleted as I've started my lab work and Dan Dan will usually stick to me until midnight. He is just like me, a night owl. I'm not blaming him for not having enough blogging time as I have a good track record to procrastinate. Anyway, Dan Dan gave papa a break as he fell asleep before 10pm. So, I have no excuse not to blog.

I have my first hair cut in Kamran's barber shop which cost me £4.90, 5 pence cheaper than usual because the barber did not have small change to give me.

Eventhough the barber and I speak English, but surely we don't speak the same language. Even the local 'la kia' here don't even speak the queen's English. It was difficult to tell him how to cut as I've never given any instruction on how to cut my hair in English, and the first razor shivers me. zoooommm. here goes my side hair. Gosh....what would my wife think. Well, there was nothing much I can do now except telling him top not too short. Then, he sprayed my hair with water and combed my hair down on my forehead and start snipping it horizontally...Samo Hung in the making again. Well, Sin Ee had a good laugh when I returned. Shihhh. If you ask me if I'd go back to this barber, sure I will. I guess it's the cheapest that I can find for now.

Then we went to Nunsmoor park just a few minutes away from my flat.

It's a small park but enough for a relaxing evening walk after a Karachian hair cut. The winter daylight is short and we cannot venture out into another park as the sun set quite early.

As walking in a park doesn't generate much stories, I'll post some nice pictures that I took over there. This is a picture of a cool and cold guy. See his new winter jacket.

Thanks to many flat top dustbin provided by the newcastle city council which serves as my tripod.

A close up picture of myself. The cap seems to cover up the new Karachian haircut.

And the karachian haircut. Not too bad actually.

St Aidan

2008-01-18T07:25:00.000+08:00

QUESTION: Why you name your son Aidan hah?
ANSWER: Wa song leh. My son not yours.

Did I adopt this name from someone else's name? Did the name just dropped down from the sky? Did....Blah blah blah.
The truth is my wife chose the name Aidan. Not me. She seems to love the name and..allright, my son will have Aidan added into his birth certificate.

The Ang Mos in Newcastle always ask 2 questions
1. Is he a boy or girl?
People tend to think that Aidan is a girl by his look. Come to think of it, my neighbour in Kuching thought that I was a girl when I was a toddler until she saw me showering the garden plants with my fertilizer. Like father like son.
2. What's his name?
Aidan...then there will be 2 standard responses from them
i. ohh that an English name.
Cool. they can actually differentiate chinese from english. Great. However, there are some Ang Mos asking me. "Cheng, Are you Chinese?"
ii. St Aidan is our local Saint (in Newcastle).
Yeah. sure. they worship Aidan. If you want to know more about St Aidan, google it. maybe I should coin in a new term, blogger it, meaning you search something from other people's blog.

Vac

2008-01-15T02:49:00.001+08:00

14 January 08. Dan Dan had his 2nd vaccination in the UK. I expected him to cry and cry and scream and scream but he just gave a short cry and then act as if nothing had happen before. He went back to sleep. He is my strong boy. 2 jabs, one on each thigh and it was nothing for him.

Too soon to say (direct translation from teochew). After a few hours, he was screaming like ...don't know how to describe. then I suspected that we might be touching the injection site and I removed his pants just to find that one of his injection site was swollen. The needle for that thigh was huge and it was still a bit bleedy. We gave him some paracetamol and the medicine took effect in an hour or two time. Phew... he had no fever. Thank God and mummy's milk.
this is Dilston Medical Center where Dan Dan had his vaccines.

This place is very close to our flat...just a few minutes walk away. Previously we went to Prospect Medical Center which is located maybe 10-15mins away on foot. Prospect is new and beautiful but too far to walk. Dan Dan had his first vaccine in UK here.

Daddy on the other hand registered for 2 English courses. One is a 7 week workshop in writing and another one is a 11 weeks grammar class. I guess this is the right time to polish up my fluent broken English. Initially, I was kind of reluctant to take up these classes but after a week of consideration, I decided to kill my procrastination and lazy self and signed up for it. I believe I need it and it's free. Thanks to my primary school English Teacher, Cikgu Siti Fatimah (if I remember correctly and I will always remember her correctly. I know there are millions of Siti Fatimah out there but I'm not talking about you) in SHS, Sibu who can't really speak English herself, I only started to pick up English when I was transfered to SRB St Joseph after my father's retirement. Why do I bother to learn English? My crappy Josephian classmates laughed at me and I felt bad about it (the spirit of Kia Su is within me). Seriously I don't understand much English then and what I know was to identify cows and bats. This teacher that I've told you about loves to cubit her students. Remember how we used to sit in primary school, in rows. Once she found someone talking in the row, she will ask the whole row of students to line up and she will cubit everyone until bruises came out. Talk in class or not...you get punished for no reason. She breed annually too. I rank her the 2nd lowest in the history of my education. The lowest...I let you guess.

Post Christmas madness

2008-01-06T09:13:00.000+08:00

If you are a Kinder fan, you will envy this.

then

and it only cost

pi kau lau sai

Happy New Year

2008-01-03T07:42:00.000+08:00

sleep and wake-up, sleep and wake-up......and it's more than a month for us in Newcastle. Dan Dan is already 7kg, gaining slightly more than a kg. He's baby hair is almost gone now

and new hair is sprouting but daddy have a bold spot already. The saloon lady back in Kuching did mention this to me and now my wife confirmed it too.

I guess Dr Tan will be a slightly bald man. I hope not too bald. Anyway, that's not important and it is not affecting me at the moment as I can't see the spot myself now.

Perhaps this post will mostly talk what happened last year. We bought a Swedish made Emmaljunga pram (stroller) for Dan Dan. It's cool and I prefer to call it the 4Wheel-Drive as it is much bigger and stout compared to any other prams around.

When I push my 4WD through, other parent will push their pram away to make way for us. Cool. I mean really cool. This pram is expensive. We ebayed it for GBP125. The retail price is up to GBP6xx. Over here, you can't get very far without a pram as most people travels on foot and my baby is quite heavy now. Actually my 30-year old spine can't take much weight anymore. Unlike the glorious days when I can carry a 50kg back pack for a 7days 6 nights expedition to Mount Tahan, Pahang back in 1997 or 98. Newcastle is a compact, well-planned city where most of the city areas are within walking distance or else it will be connected by the public transport system. Parking fee can be expensive in certain area.

My supervisor organized a pre-Christmas lunch at the squash club in south Gosforth on the 22nd of December 07.

As you can see, I'm the only chinese in my lab. Lunch started around 1.30pm until almost 3.30pm. These are some of the goodies that was served.
bun and butter. Once this is served. you will pat on the bun...it is damn hot and to go to the squash club, I have to walk 30 min across the Town Moor ( a huge piece of empty land) in the cold. By the time I reach, my hands are COLD... freezing cold. It felt really nice to pat on the bun before I ate it.

then I had lasagne. (Like to pronouns this in Malay LA-SAG-NE, sounds horrible isn't it.)

And Partridge. This is suppose to be a wild bird with some wild taste. I guess this must be an expensive dish. There can be lead gun pellets inside. Be careful when you chew. I think this dish taste horrible. Don't like it. The wild stuff back home seems nicer. It was just a small little birdie.

On my way back, I dropped by a garage to see some 2nd hand cars. I think the cars here barely survive more than 10 years as the road is spiked with salt to prevent ice formation. At the same time salt water will be all over your car it it will speed up the rusting process. Sad. When I left the garage, my labmates are all gone now leaving me alone.
I walked through town moor alone at 4.00 pm and it was already dark like 7pm in Kuching.

Wind start to blow and the temperature drops drastically. On the way for lunch, the temperature was 2 celcius and on my way back it was 0 celcius.

I make it a point to carry this Swiss Army compass and thermometer with me just to let me know how harsh is the temperature. I'm still quite paranoid about winter. Well, this is my first time abroad in a cold country.
The cold wind are like needles penetrating into my bones. Taking my Thinsulate gloves (you can buy this for 1-2 pounds in the UK) off to take picture makes my fingers felt like I've immersed it into ice cold water for 30 minutes. The further I walk into the moor, the more spooky it was and I was freezing cold. Have you ever freeze some ants or other creatures in the freezer before? this is how they feel initially. Now I understand. The thick Hunt International winter jacket seems useless now. By the way, I think my jacket is quite an antique as nobody wears anything thicker than my jacket that I brought from Malaysia. Maybe you have a question....why on earth did I freeze 'creatures' in the freezer. I had a scorpion pet. I feed it with house lizard. Lizards can be quite active and climb here and there. Being a cold blooded reptile, their metabolism rate is directly proportional (maybe) to their body temperature. So, if you chill them down in the freezer for a few minutes, they becomes very slow. The colder, the slower. This makes it easier for Mr Scorpion to catch them and devour them.
Back to FREEZING.

This is Newcastle Kenny in the middle of the Town Moor. Nothing to do with South Park. Well, I survived and Winter isn't freezing all the time.

No internet connection

2007-12-21T19:15:00.000+08:00

Dear all,

I will not be blogging until maybe 31 DEC 07 as I do not have a private internet connection to my home. It is not that nice to blog in school (University) right.
The banking over the UK is slow and without an active account here, there will not be much thing for you such as phone line, TV, broadband. Basically you are handicaped until your banking account is fully funtional.
I've subscribed to BT phone and broadband and they can only set it up for me on the 31st Dec due to Christmas. So we will be home nice and quiet until 31st.
Well...I have tons of stuff to tell you guys and till then

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL MY FAMILY, LOGDGIANS, FRIENDS and UNKNOWN READERS

By the way...it is weird how the Brits write my name.

CHENG TAN.....where is my SIANG?

Istana Baru

2007-12-07T03:22:00.000+08:00

28th November is surely a mixed day for me. Firstly I'm happy that I am going to UK for my PhD and secondly I'm sad for leaving my parents, In-laws, Lucky the dog and Hock the terapin.
Mom cooked round round for us. I guess it will be a while before I can taste it again.

We went to check in our luggages and to get our boarding pass slightly earlier. Since there had been news about people tampering with luggages, We might as well comdomed our luggages. Mind you, each wrapping cost RM10 but I guess It's worth the money.

Eh...go to UK not overweight meh? Nope. Not overweight at all.

After we took this box out.

which weight 10kg which is equivalent to RM1610 (RM161 per kg) if we want to bring it along.

Going to KLIA is a pain as there were stories about how cold the international terminal is and we put on our thermal underwear from Kuching airport. By the time I reached KLIA I was sweating already. By the time we reached the boarding gate to Amsterdam, I was soaked already. I tell you, it was damn hot in the international terminal. I had to wash myself up in the toilet just to freshen up. Of course I took off my soaked thermal underwear. Please be informed that thermal underwear is not the triange thing with fur that you wear like any underwear but it is more like a long sleeve round neck T-shirt plus tight pants. I used to imagine wearing thermal 'underwear' ehhhh kinky.

The flight to KLIA from Kuching was not smooth. the seat belt sign is almost constantly on and it was very difficult to change diaper in the airplane as the plane was shaking badly (no picture for this). I have to hold Dan Dan tight on his diaper changing board in the toilet and my leg spread to the wall to maintain stability. I didn't manage to change his diaper.
KLIA to Amsterdam took more than 13 hours. The flight was fully booked. Good business heh.
/
Dan Dan have his own bassinet and the international flight bassinet looks more nicer.

The bassinet is nice to look at but if you were little Aidan, would you prefer the bassinet over your parents? I think you have the answer. The bassinet became out place to put stuff, pillow, blankets, rubbish etc. Quite handy. People said you get fed many many times throughtout the journey but we were fed twice only. The plane was delayed for more than 40 minutes to wait for 30 Mat Salleh on connecting flight to Amsterdam... We didn't know much as we quickly fall asleep after a meal. I slept for nearly 6 hours and woke up with a bad headache. I blame the air cond for blowing directly on my head. The atmosphere in the place was very dry. I think I was very dehydrated too.
I felt very nauseated and forced myself to vomit. My stomach is almost empty and there were nothing to be vomitted. Thanks to my years of experience with hang overs (I'm not a alcoholic), I drank lots of tap water and then wrrahhhhh... the shark fin soup came out. I felt nicer after that.
When we touched down in Amsterdam Schipol Airport, we put on our winter jacket as the aerobridge was very cold but again the airport was heated. I was expecting to say Dag to everybody but they can speak English. Dag is the only Dutch that I know of.
Dan Dan had his diaper changed in Schipol airport.

I would say the diaper changing room in KLIA look much better than Schipol.

We used KLM Royal Dutch from Amsterdam to Newcastle. Well, the plane feels like Airasia. There were no proper meal for the 1hour 20 minutes flight. Schihhhh. I miss MAS. At least the stewardess will come and ask if I wanted nasi lemak with chicken or curry fish with noodles.
Ah at last. Landed in Newcastle already. Newcastle airport is a beauty but there was no lift. With the amount of hand luggage, we were the last to get out. There were ups and downs after the aerobridge and I've to make 2 trips to carry our luggage. Initially, I was planning to document this trip extensively but with the amount of luggages and the short transit time, I was not able to take more pictures.
That's my darlings in Newcastle Airport.

This is me outside Newcastle airport. Obviously I am blocking the view but my picture is more important for now.

Do I look sick? I would say the icy cold air had frozen my headache away. I'm serious about this.
I thank Suhaimi for fetching our luggages with his van and Salim for fetching us. We are forever grateful. We have never met one another but over in Newcastle, all Malaysians are family. Salim and Siti hosted us in their flat in Fenham.
That's my darlings outside Salim's house

and that's me outside Salim's house.

Obviously the headache was frozen away by the cold air. Mild headache came back after a while (when it is hotter inside the house)

We were supposed to move into a flat soon after we arrive but apparently the real estate agent died a week before and the actual landlord were nowhere to be found. No agent=no house key.
We had Malaysian cooking for the first 2 days of our stay in Newcastle and moved into our flat at Stanton Street on the 1st of December.
Seriousty I felt like I've landed in Pakistan as Fenham is flooded with Pakistani immigrants. It is a blessing as there are many Pakistani shops selling all sorts of spices.

Yeah who told you that there are no bananas in UK. I think they are from Costa Rica and it cost less than a pound for each bunch. Not that expensive as speculated by some people.

Till I write again.

Nose digging

2007-11-20T22:48:00.001+08:00

Remember about the nose shit removal post?

Doctors and experienced parents would advice to use moist cotton butts to remove nose shit. I was wondering how on earth that I can do that. The hole of baby's nose especially in newborn are relatively small compared to the size of the cotton butt. Digging their nose using the regular cotton butt is like overhauling your car's engine. Look at this

There are smaller cotton butt in the market just for this reason. I guess most of the time, I can just moisten the nose shit and let Aidan remove it by sneezing or sometimes it got suck back inside. Either way it clears the nose passage. The cotton butt on the right shows the successful nose digging with the ....still stuck on the tip.

Vacating

2007-11-20T22:09:00.000+08:00

Again...after a period of dormacy...I....

oh yeah, by the way I've received our VISA to UK.

I woke up feeling like I'm sitting for STPM bio test where my throat felt frozen due to lack of sleep but it was soon melted by a bowl of hot Bormill laksa. I've always remembered my Bio test as it was my last paper in the 1996 STPM exam where I've slept for about 2 hours or less just to swallow the two Biological Sciences book. I guess I have all the time after STPM to sleep but I soon felt lost and restless due to the nothing to do syndrome. I was a pain at home nagging my mom. This goes on for 2 weeks before I decided to work. I found a temporary teaching position in SMK Batu Kawa where I've met many students and some even become my friend now. This is a wonderful school indeed.

Some Penang kia argue that this is called curry bihun. Sai...what do they know about laksa anyway. Different recipe lah.

Then I proceed to my faculty to clear/vacate my office. It was in a mess as I've been trying to clear my stuff.

I've never realized that I've accumulated so much stuff over the short service of 1.5years.
I realized that my back cannot support so much weight anymore and I surrender the boxes to the trolley. Thanks trolley.
Look what I've found!!!

A soap made by my Lodgian students back in 2005 by saponification. SOme part of the soap was crushed and I've to do away with it. I've never dared to use the soap. Scary, there might be plenty of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) left in the soap. I've always enjoyed teaching them. Easy to teach and well diciplined. I miss my students.

Oh yeah...this

is a farewell gift from my 5B 2005 students. I've been wearing it strictly in my office. I wouldn't want my students to see me lecturing with this slipper right. There have been too much wear and tare and I've to let go of it. Many stuff are of great sentimental values to me but there are times when we need to be practical.

And the reminder poster on my office wall

This piece of UK map have kept me focused on my aim to study in the UK. It is like the MLM motivational strategy to keep looking at what you want like a luxury car or home picture to remind you of your aim and purpose in life. To focus further...I'm going to

Vacating my office isn't as easy as I thought. What I planned to be a morning thing turns out to be a full working day.
Good bye to my huge office. Bye for the time being to FMHS.

I'm Back

2007-11-10T20:59:00.000+08:00

I'm back after a week plus of dormancy. I was busy away in KL applying for our VISA to UK.

Most babies only started to pot pot (car ride) after their mother completed their confinement but my little Aidan was pot poting starting the second week of his babyhood. On the second month of his babyhood, he was flying MAS already to KL and he will be flying with us to UK by the end of this month. What a modern baby.

I thank God that Little Aidan had no problem taking off and landing. He was sleeping like a baby as he is suppose to be.

Flying with Aidan is fun. We as his parents were treated not only like first class but GOLD class. We would be the first to board the plane, stewardess dropping by to give toys (it's mine now until Aidan is 18), pillows and blankets. COOL....it's fun to be parents.

After landing, we decided to check if little Aidan had done his big business in high altitude or not and we searched quite a while in KLIA before we found a huge nappy changing room. Phewwww, he did it. It was massive and messy but the nappy changing room is basically equiped with everything that we need to clean him up. Daddy was excited to explore into this new place.

We stayed in room 2701 in 'Siti Tell' MidValley which is located at the 27th floor (the highest is 28th floor). It is a bit costly to stay there but it is extremely convenient for us as we can just shop when we need and walk back to the hotel when Aidan need nen nen or clean up. We save on taxi fares. Taxi don't use meters now.

This stroller was a gift from my father-in-law.

Time was actually too short for us to do any serious shopping and most of the time was lost due to the VISA application process.
So, it's time to come home. I've to be in KL again next week to collect my VISA. Shiihh.

On the flight back to Kuching, we requested for a bassinet for Aidan to try out and for us to familiarize with bassinet on the long hour flight to UK later on. It's quite cool, many passangers were curious with this thing.

See so cute.

Don't play play, got seat belt some more.

So next time if you happen to sit on the front seat of the plane and you were wondering what are the purpose of the four holes on the wall, it's for the bassinet.

Da Vinci

2007-10-29T23:06:00.000+08:00

28th October is just another day for me. Woke up late just to find that most of the chores were already done (10am). Everything turned out well and I've also added a new technology for Aidan's precision temperature bath.

Can't remember how much was this Omron thermometer as I've bought it quite a while ago as a result of some advice from the wise parents.
Bathing little Aidan was routine and easy now as I've 3 weeks of baby bathing experience (can call me a specialist now) but suddenly I smell something. Arrrhhhh. my pants, little Aidan did his big business while I was shampooing him.

Well, the bathing process continued without any disturbance and we proceeded to the drying section and Aidan ambushed me while I was trying to put on a nappy on him.
Do you know what this is?

Is it Icing or fresh cream. From whose's birthday cake? ...want to taste some?

He caught me by surprice with his amazing trajectory projectile. This is not the first time that he did this to me but this is the most artistic design.
I call this design the DaVinci shit.

4-week old

2007-10-29T23:02:00.000+08:00

Today, little Aidan is 4-weeks old. We brought him to Dr Anne for check up and Hepatitis B vaccination.

Time really flies. on the 29th next month, we will all be in Newcastle already.

Farting

2007-10-26T22:18:00.000+08:00

Since 2-3 days ago, little Aidan had been quite windy. He kept farting the whole day long and feeling irritated. Could it be the milk powder? Is it his normal flora trying to establish themselves? Colic? Infection? All sorts of options are clouding our mind. Am I paranoid or is it just a normal parental paranoia syndrome. When he tried to fart, he would push it hard just like passing motion (which he had learned not long ago during his potty training) and this makes him upset and cried quite often except when his grandmas are around.
Babies are great actors, they can be quite hard on their parents but when his grandparents, aunties and uncles are around they would suddenly changed into their innocent cute angelic self. Just amazing. I've told my mom about Aidan's windy stomach and he was very restless the whole day long but when we went to my mom's place just now, not crying also. As if I made up stories to gain attention. He was fast asleep in my mom's place and entering into his own dreamland. He smile once in a while in his sleep to cheer us up. Seriously, his smile gives us a 'heart melting' sensation.
Well, I think he still fart quite frequently and colic quite frequently too. I was thinking of solving this by giving him ENO. Have any of you guys heard about ENO for babies? Just kidding. Ha Ha. Just one of my wierd ideas. If symptom persists, I'll try to give him gripe water. Any other remedies out there?

The beginning

2007-10-25T21:03:00.000+08:00

I would say today is the beginning of a new phase of my life. I'm using up my annual leaves until our departure to Newcastle upon Tyne, UK on the 28th Nov. We'll transit through Amsterdam. You may ask why Amsterdam and not Heathrow airport in London?
Friends whom have transitted through Heathrow gave me lots of reason not to use it. So, I use Amsterdam. Surprisingly, Amsterdam is 20 minutes from Newcastle by flight until
Yee Wei pointed it out to me that the time zone is different and it actually take 1 hour 20 minutes. I thought Kuching to Sibu is about 35 minutes by Fokker (name of the plane, not a foul word) and that is near. I've never thought that there are nearer places connected by air.

So, I think I can be unofficially called a student again before my PhD studentship registration.
COOL. TO BE A STUDENT AGAIN!!!! HOORAY, but I know that PhD is not like my Bachelor degree where I can play Starcraft, Warcraft and Resident Evil the whole night long until the sun goes up and the moon goes down. Sleeping until lunch time before riding my bike to San Jie Mei, Seri Kembangan to meet up with Boon Keat and gangs to asks for Lecture notes. Actually I miss San Jie Mei's food very much. I always boast about how cheap is the food there and I used to take 5 pieces of chicken and a large portion of vege plus a glass of free ice cold plain water and I just have to pay RM2.00. No wonder San Jie Mei wasn't there anymore when I went there a couple of years back. Anybody have any idea where they might have moved? I believe San Jie Mei's cooking have contributed to my constant weight gain throughout my degree.

Well, something similar that I can expect between my BSc, MSc and PhD would be the person who have been giving me lots of encouragement, giving constant reminders of my priorities and also my thesis's co-author/proof-reader. She is my love, my wife. The difference is now we have a son, our decendent, our pride. We will have a great time there.

Back to reality. We need to pack....gosh. MAS gave us 50kg only. Arrrrhhhh. this is crazy. How to bring my stuff there? Little Aidan was given 10kg only because he is just a baby. Baby stuff is A LOT eventhough they are small in size. I'm still in midst of planning what to bring or just buy there. I need some wisdom in doing all these.

Sleeping boyz

2007-10-22T22:57:00.000+08:00

My wife took a candid shot of us this morning. Normally she wakes up early (due to Aidan's nature's call) and I'll sleep like a swine unless awaken by my son. The sound of him crying is still bearable but when I hear the loud sound of him pooing (priak!), I'll jump up to assist my wife.

When I saw this picture, I recalled that I woke up in the same position and I was drooling on someone's pillow. Yikes! Mummy's little pillow. She won't know until she reads our blog :-)

Aidan's appetite have increased tremendously and he is more demanding than yesterday. I believe he really needs the increased amount of milk. He is 3-weeks old and growing but being restless and making noices/crying the whole day really drained mummy's energy. She was exhausted when I came home, you can see from her eyes. Like owl already.

Mummy tired=baby tired, so both of them are fast asleep now. I'm going to join them. TATA.

Weight loss programme

2007-10-22T22:46:00.000+08:00

I'm serious when I mentioned that I loss 5 kg in 2 weeks.

I was 60kg before I went to UPM in 1997. It was heaven for me as I love mamak food and also the food in Bukit Serdang is damn cheap. I basically gain an average of 5kg per year and by the time I graduated in 2000, I was about 77 kg. It wasn't quite a nice experience when I have to buy new slack once in a while and buy the types with rubber spring just in case I expand some more. Anyway, I think I look better with more underlying fat cells rather than just a stick of bamboo.
I maintained my weight quite consistently but it breached 80 kg before. Yesterday I weigh 73kg. All my slacks are now too big.

OWL

2007-10-22T22:19:00.000+08:00

The marketing of MeadJohnson is kind of aggresive. The hospital gave us 1 can of free EnfalacA+, and some other goodies. Everybody love free gifts but the more I look at this more I felt uneasy.

Why must they use the cartoon image of an owl? Owls don't sleep at night. Are they hoping that moms can't sleep well?! What a mean meaning behind this gift.

Aidan's daddy

2007-10-21T21:51:00.000+08:00

Today, Aidan's daddy is 30 years old. Hopefully he will be more mature or else there will be 2 boys in the house and mummy Sin Ee will have a headache.
Well, I don't think I can mature up. Little Aidan is bringing me back to my childhood. When we return from UK, I'll bring him to catch guppy in the drain, dig worms and go fishing, camping etc. So many childhood thing that I want to do with him. Well, Mummy is quite an outdoor person and I guess she will be following us to catch guppy in the drain as well. A happy family outing.

Today I went to church after doing my daily chores as a confinement husband (by the way, we don't hire confinement lady as I think they are overvalued. their fees are something like RM2000 ++ and they are without any formal education or training. Confinement ladies are without a Bac Sc (Hons) Confinement Technology. RM2000 for washing clothings, cooking, bathing the baby, feeding the baby [as if they have breast milk], what else do they do???? Watch Astro? Sleep? bugging you?
If you plan to hire one, have you ask them for a medical report to certify that they are not a chronic carriers of HIV, Hepatitis B/C viruses, herpes etc? or Tuberculosis? They might do more long term harm than good. They are basically untrained.

Emil, Paik See, Siow Wei and Sharon came to visit and we had a good chat as we have not have time to sit down together for a very long time. Seems like many people still do not know that we are going to UK. Anyway, Aidan had lots of presents from his uncle and Aunties.
Aidan had a nose block again. Not common cold but just 2 pieces of nose shit (Pi sai) disturbing his breathing. He gets very irritated by it and kept on crying. I went on line and tried to search for tips on how to remove nose shit and I realized that this the real 'nose shit' vocabulary is not in my brain. Gosh, for the pass 30 years I know in hokkien/teochew is Pi sai, then in BM is tahi hidung, how about in english???!!! Just settle for nose shit but could not find anything. Can anybody give me a clue on what is the correct word for nose shit?
I proceed to do some experiment by inserting moist cotton into his nose and of course he cried at first. I would slap you if you tried to insert anything into my nose. Then he stop crying and tried to push my hand away. I kept on doing it but gave up after a while...Ha shu..he sneezed and his left nose is now clear. Thank God!!!!
My birthday cake is still in the fridge. Nevermind, I'll cut it tomorrow.

Sterilization

2007-10-21T21:34:00.000+08:00

Although heat sterilization is still my number one choice, I am now switching to tablet sterilization.

Although nobody gave me bad remarks on the use of tablet sterilization, I still rinse the bottles with hot water before use just to remove chlorine. I am a lab person and I know how well chlorine can kill germs. It kills almost everything and the Nazis even used it as a chemical weapon during the war.

If I have time and the alertness, I'll still boil sterilize the bottles.

Nen Nen

2007-10-21T21:17:00.000+08:00

WoW....do you know how much is a box of Enfalac A+ 700g? It is RM44.90 retail. It used to be RM41.40 few weeks ago. What happened?!!!
The whole of Kuching seems to be running out of Enfalac A+ for 0-12months as everybody must be looting for the old stock from the shelf. Furthermore, it's baby boom now. Golden porcine year. Yeah, many mothers are lactating too as the maternity bra is running out of stock! Scary isn't it.
A friend of mine manage to find Enfalac A+ from a shop somewhere in Sekama with the old price and I bought all of of them. Like looting. The stock was placed on the top shelf and the taukenio gave me a plastic chair and I have to climb up to get it. Looting!!!
Now I understand why the whole of Kuching seems to be running out of Enfalac A+. People are buying in BULK like it is free or something.

My mom told me that I used to drink S26 and it was RM4 per can of 400g. Now the price of baby milk powder have surely exploded to outerspace.
Everything Boleh..Boleh naik harga.

My baby cot

2007-10-20T21:04:00.000+08:00

Initially I was thinking why baby cots are big..much bigger than the baby himself until Aidan came back home.

Just take a look at the amount of stuff that are placed on the cot itself. Almost full already (it's fuller now).

Can you just imagine that Kenny Tan was sleeping on this baby cot 30 years ago. Exactly 30 years ago because today is my birthday. My daddy designed and made this cot for me. Cool isn't it. My dad was a Colombo scholar to UK and NZ many many years ago and he studied carpentry and automobile there. He became the Principal of Vocational School Kuching before he was transfered to Sibu. He had inspired me to go further in the academic line and if he went for his tertiary education free of charge, I can too although it took me quite a while to get this scholarship to UK.

Back to the baby cot. I hope when I become a grandpa, my grandson will be able to sleep on this historic baby cot.

It's over my bed time

2007-10-20T03:06:00.000+08:00

I came home satisfied because it was Friday. Tired of a week long of work after taking 2 weeks off from work as a confinement husband.
My little Aidan is now more demanding, eat more and s**t more too. I slept quite early and woke up to attend to my baby as he was making noices. No big deal, shee shee only, then I fed him with 60ml of EnfaLacA+, he finished almost all of it and there is a loud farthing sound. Emmm. Big business huh. Clean up and went to bed. Damn tired.
Woke up again at I think 12 plus (didn't use watch anymore as it might hurt my little Aidan when I carry him) Mama feed, then diapers then Papa feed, then diapers then his soft warm yellow solid shot up when I was holding his legs and ended up on my hand (good that it didn't landed on the bed as it will give me more work)....It ended up almost 3am. Well, baby and mummy is fast asleep now and PAPA is very mush awake.
So, started washing the used pureen bottles (surprisingly I still boil them) then cook Maggi Goreng Plus with Batu Kawa meat ball for...breakfast plus a cup of 3 in 1 Nescafe. Shhhh, no mamak stall in Kuching.
Guess what. I'm getting slimmer by 5 kg when Aidan was 2 weeks old. I thought I want to save my fats for UK but seems like it has been put into a better use. My wife is nearing her original weight now. Parenting is a highly exothermic process. Use up lots of energy. Kachang-ma and all other confinement food seems to be not fattening enough.
Good night.

Omelette D-18

2007-10-18T22:17:00.000+08:00

Today, my son is 18 days old...hurray...and I woke up in the morning feeling like I've not slept for the pass 18 days where I basically slept througout the night leaving my wife to attend to our prince. Little Aidan is now pooing more than he used to be. Grown up already mah. His colonal pressure is comparable to mine and the trajectory is just amazing. He shit just like me although I don't shit on the bed. The trajectory ....just amazing.
Well, I started my morning with a cup of hot Nescafe with lots of love from my wife. Then I proceed downstairs with the soiled napkins and let the 5.5kg Samsung washing machine to do the rest. THEN, I sterilized the used baby bottles and let it boil for a while (I wish I have an autoclave machine at home like the one back in the lab) while I prepare red dates plus longan drink for my wife.
I went upstairs and played with my son for a while, dress-up and ready to go to work and....I smell burned plastic smell. That must be my stup neighbour as he always burn plastic in his backyard (I love to do that too when I was young...looking at the plastic melting slowly and then catch fire) Cool isn't it but my neighbour is not as young as me. He is a late bloomer who burns all sorts of rubbish as if Trineken is not serving him. THEN, I RECALLED SOMETHING AND I RAN DOWNSTAIRS and quickly turn off the stove. I've prepared omellettes for breakfast.

I've thrown away the two semi molten Pureen polycarbonate bottles (that is why it is not in the picture)
I thought the Maxim non-stick pan is a goner but cool...this non stick pan is really good. The teflon coated pan doesn't stick to anything at all. Not even molten plastic.

Cool isn't it. We are lucky that it doesn't catch fire. What a dangerous thing to do.
Anyway, the end product is quite artistic. I think I am going to keep it for a while until it is lost in time or someone threw it away.

Apparently, the silicone nipple head from Pigeon is very much heat resistant and remain intact. This is indeed a very inert material.
Well, I've bought 2 new Pureen bottles for Aidan from Everise and 2 new Pigeon nipples from Sims Pharmacy just now. What to do, it's daddy's fault. You spoil it you replace it.
No wonder there are tablet sterilizing tablets in the market to sterilize baby bottles.

Our Baby

2007-10-14T21:30:00.000+08:00

Little Aidan might be small in size but surely his demand for nen-nen is very high. I think he can take up to 90ml of milk now. He is a bit like me in terms of feeding pattern. I used to take food every 2 hours after dinner. He is not much different, he is my boy.

What goes in must come out. High input = high output and apparently there is a leakage. Yucks? Not really. You were once like that too.

So, he is now a bit messy now and its time for a bath. People used to say test the water with your hand before bathing your baby just to make sure the temperature is too high. Don't you think it is a bit silly? How to know if the water is boiling? test it with your hand? I'm kind of educated and I was introduced to an instrument called the thermometer since I was very young. So I QC the bathing water just to make sure the temperature is within my tolerated range.

Well, this is the first time I bath him. The first time I bath a baby. Having a huge palm is a blessing when I hold my baby. I would say it is an optimized surface area for such a purpose. My boy loves it when I bath him. Perhaps the optimized water temperature works. I believe so.

When the bathing process is over, little Aidan must be thoroughly blot dried.

Then the rest is handled over to mummy.

What is better than a good long nap after a warm bath? ZZZZzzzzzZZZ

Little Aidan will be 2-week old tomorrow. Time is running fast. In another week time will be my 30th birthday. 30 years back I was just like my little Aidan. Just like a dream, I'm a dad now. There is an unexplainable feeling in my heart. 30 years had passed.....

Little Kenny

2007-10-11T21:25:00.000+08:00

1st of October 2007 is indeed a great day for Sin Ee and I. Our son Aidan is added into our evergrowing family. The sensation in the Operating Theater is, I would say unexplainable.
The type of joy and happiness that we have never experienced before until I saw my little Aidan coming out from mummy's womb. I'm a dad!!!!
Well, every baby cries and here is a very first crying picture of our son. Kind of artistic like he is singing or something. Perhaps he misses the comfort of the mother's womb.

When he was born, people say he looks like Sin Ee, later people say he looks more like me. Both are correct because Sin Ee and I have the couple look and if Aidan looks like me, he indeed looks like Sin Ee. Do you understand what I am trying to say? Anyway, what do you think?

He was hyperventilating soon after birth and Dr Anne put him under some IV antibiotics for a week. Not something that every parents would expect but this is the best for him. Seeing his little hand pocked with needles really hurts us but seeing that his ventilation rate improves every 1 to 2 hours gives us the joy. Now I understand what is parent's love. I understand how it hurts my parents when I am unwell. I understand now.
Guess what, he have the privilage of occupying cot No1 in the nursery for a week with all the hot nurses attending to him. He is just a baby....a very cute baby.

Here is a photo of Aidan and I. Looks like me leh.

Here is a photo of Aidan and mummy. Looks like mummy leh.

8th of October is another great day for Sin Ee and I. Little Aidan is coming home. 8th of October is the actual day that our parenthood actually began. This is not only a great day for us but a happy day for little Aidan too. I think you can tell from his expression.

Little Aidan is now richer when we decided to drop by my parents place. Little Aidan have 2 Ang Pow from his grandparents. They are very happy.

Now he is home and we started to explore. My wife think that I am a bit paranoid with sterility (germ free) when I started to sterilize the baby cot with 70% ethanol. Well I'm a trained virologist after all.
The next hurdle is to take a formal picture of Aidan for his passport. We tried to search for blue cloth for the background but could not find one and we found a blue shirt. You might be thinking is there any professional photographer in Kuching? or Kenny is just too trifty to get their service. Little Aidan had been sleeping most of the time and we do not know his 'waking' time yet. Furthermore, we need to make a passport for him as soon as possible.

We tried to snap picture of Aidan from all sorts of angle and thanks to our faithful SONY DSC-W30 we had a masterpiece.

Well. that's all for now. Need to attend to my little boy now.

EducationUK

2007-09-22T15:28:00.000+08:00

This is indeed a Golden Porcine year for me eventhough I was born in the year of the snake (I did not force Eve to con Adam into eating the apple).

This year my wife and I will be the Golden Pig parents as my boy will be delivered in early October. Secondly, I've been offered a scholarship to Newcastle University, UK for my PhD in Hepatitis C virus. My wife have been granted a long leave to take care of me and our baby in UK. Its a great chance for her to be a housewife for at least 3 years.

What else can I ask for. This is indeed a very blessed year for me and my wife. I thank God for his Great timing in my life and the Malaysian government for the generous scholarship. Without my beloved government, I won't be able to achieve my dream of pursuing my PhD in the UK.

I know we will enjoy the snow as this December will be cold.

I love Christ and I love Malaysia.
God bless our nation.

Public Exam questions leak

2007-09-06T08:22:00.000+08:00

You might not be shock as leakage in the public examination papers can be considered an annual event(s) and I've heard of it throughout the press since I was a child, nothing had been done by the government to prevent this from recurring.
It was mentioned in a local paper that what the teacher taught the night before during the last minute tuition came out in the next day's exam paper. Cool. How can this be?

Lets hear from my point of view.
1. All exams leaks...name me one exam that you can't find the solution(s) in the textbook or reference book?
When the students are being drilled to do the so called pass year papers, they use their reference book to find the answers and they realized that every year's exam questions are based on the thing called the syllabus which is illustrated in the reference book.

DO YOU CONSIDER THIS A LEAKAGE?
If your teacher is teaching your for years and nothing that he/she taught came out in the exam. You have a big problem.

Sample question: Who discovered the equation E=mc2?

Answer: Find it in your book lah...if can find, then question leak loh. The answer is all over the internet too.

2. Last minute tuition/drilling tend to embed information into the students' mind because consistent revision is never an option to many. Students might not have learn any exam quality information as 'what is taught today is lost the day after'. The brain is like you conputer's RAM.

Primary 6 exam mah. you think so many things to study meh?

So...what do everybody wants? An exam without boundary (what we call from sea to space) that you can't learn from your teacher? or an exam that you have nothing to study about.

Well, what is written here is for fun reading only.

The Patriot

2007-08-28T11:37:00.000+08:00

Is there any reason for us not to have our jalur gemilang? I don't think he was a soldier who stepped on a landmine but rather an paralympic athlete. He was rolling outside the Pusat Belia dan Sukan, Kuching.

The parking space that you must never park

2007-08-28T11:30:00.001+08:00

Well, this picture was taken in the compound of Sarawak General Hospital, where there is no real traffic rules.

There is a yellow line indicating that this is a place that you should not park,
but there is a nicely drawn parking space indicating that this is a valid parking space.
By the way, this car is parking the wrong way.

If you are the traffic police or JPJ enforcement officer, will you 'saman' this guy? Guilty?

Fire! Fire! Fire! in Little Yangon

2007-08-28T11:15:00.000+08:00

The firebell is ringing and this time, the siren is on too saying this is something serious. Normally, the fire bell will be rang once in a while for testing purposes. So, I proceed to unplug my external hard disc and evacuate the building (just in case there is a serious fire or something). I've been keeping my precious work in my external drive so that I won't lost any data if something happened to my office computer.

when I walk down, the staffs and students are supercool, they didn't panicked nor running histerically. They have kept their cool. We have to gather outside the faculty. The fire engine arrived shortly after sending people running hay wire as the engine was speeding and everybody was on the road..'lining up'. No name taken, we had chats outside and then went for breakfast.

This is our first fire drill after 5 years.

Halve the population

2007-08-20T11:21:00.000+08:00

I've suddenly realized that many couple are settling for a 1 kid per family policy as the cost of living is soaring high. Some resorted to the no child policy. We have seen this problem in the lion city and are thinking this is their problem. Think again.

In 1984, Dr Mahathir had declared the [Dasar Kependudukan Malaysia ke arah 70 Juta Penduduk] simply we need to achieve 70 million in population by the year 2100.

In the year 2000, we have about 20 million Malaysians and if I make the following assumptions that

male to female ratio is 1:1
all of them are married
all couples are at their prime years (fertile years)
all couple are having a 1 child policy

Then, the current population will only produce 10 million offsprings and if the same assumptions are made again. It will halve it again. So, we will never achieve that visionary target.

When a couple produces 2 children, they have replaced their number when they die. If they produce 3 or more, they have multiplied.

So it is your call to

have no replacement at all,
halve your number,
replace the number or
multiply.

Genesis 9:7(KJV) And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.

Number is power.

Habitat for Humanity (HfH)

2007-08-01T09:24:00.000+08:00

I've been a volunteer and a Board member for HfH Kuching Affiliate for a year now. You might ask what is Habitat for Humanity all about. Habitat? A natural place to live.
Your are right. You did a good job in your Biology. See education works.

Habitat is a non-profit organization set-up to provide a decent HOME to our target group. It is a partial charitable organization as we do not 'donate' a house to the poor but we built houses by using purely voluntary workforce. We insist for the homeowners to pay back the cost of the house plus a 3% inflation rate (normally they are ask to pay RM100 per month). Each house cost about RM20000 which was almost a 100% hike in the material cost since we first started about 10 years back.
Sound bad huh...ask the poor to pay you back. Why not give it out for free?
In order to turn a house into a home, the house owner need to stand on their own and have authority plus sense of ownership over the house. What is given free is not much appreciated. The monthly repayment will enter into a revolving fund to buy construction materials to build the next house. We have built over 48 houses in Kuching now and will keep building because of this system. Unlike many charitable bodies which build for free and disappear after handling over the house, we follow-up with the homeowner in terms of education, moral support and financial management to help to to make repayment and to ensure that the next generation will be out of the poverty trap.

This is a home that we have build in Batu Kawa, Kuching. Purely a masterpiece work of volunteerism.

What Habitat have contributed to me is
1. Repayment- I've learn that repayment is very important to keep the system running. I've been up to date with my education loan repayment. This is the same concept. The loan repayment will enter a revolving fund which will be used to fund other people's education. If I don't pay back, some younger chaps out there might not be able to enjoy tertiary education in the future. IF you are not doing a good job in paying back your education loan, I advice you to be a bit more responsible. Similarly if our homeowners are not making their repayment, there won't be any fund left to build houses for others.
2. Everybody deserves a decent home to live to be their Habitat.

In Malaysia, we have 3 affliates, namely KL, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu. If you are in Kuching and would like to be a volunteer, would like to make a donation (perhaps you have too many land or cash) you can give your contact to our Habitat office at habit01@pd.jaring.my.
For the time being, you can surf Habitat for Humanity International

Ah Ma again?

2007-07-05T16:30:00.000+08:00

The thunderstorm menace again.
The wooden electric pole seems to be broken and trying to reach out for incoming vehicles.
Further down the road, a cable was pressed down by a fallen tree and it seems to pull this pole violently and broke it. Somehow the extra supporting metal pole is holding it in its position which is very dangerous.
Remember Ah Ma Get Done? Was it just an eclipse?

Ah Ma have Done it

2007-07-05T15:51:00.000+08:00

Wow!!! Penang is hazy, KL flooded, Kuching is @#%$#&* HOT and all of a sudden, there is a over the lunch break thunder storm. It wasn't that scary as the storm finished in less than half an hour. Then, I proceed back to work...
Ah Ma really have done it this time!
Kancil parked "UNDER" the tree. Got cooling effect.

Convertible Honda...I think the owner went to buy TOTO in order to buy new car. Harap harap menanglah.

Errr. there is a Mitsubishi and Proton showroom across the road. Can go and see. Evo also got.

I think nobody was hurt in this incident. I think lah. Didn't go down and see.

HEY!!!!it doesn't end here!!! Further down along Rock Road a huge tree had a big fight with the lamp post and I think the lamp post lost in the fight. See the head on the road? Macam tiang lampu ditampar dahan pokok.

The road from the city was totally blocked by the fallen one and luckily we still have one through road heading down to the city.
Well, this is a mirror image of the incident.

Ah Ma Get Done

2007-07-05T15:22:00.000+08:00

You might think it is just a double ringed rainbow around the Sun....some say it is bad luck OR it's the Sun with 2 wives. OR the chinese version of Armageddon (Ah Ma Get Done) is happening OR there is a UFO hiding near the sun...INVASION!!!. Whatever that you want to believe, you believe. It's just a rare eclipse on the 22nd of June 2007. I took this picture outside CALM, UNIMAS main campus slightly before noon.

If you ask why you don't see the round Sun in the pictures, It's because I didn't take the picture of the Sun. As simple as that. Don't think too much.

If you have a digital camera and have already read the user's manual, you won't take the picture of the direct Sun as it MIGHT 'Burn' the photoreceptor of the camera. Like your eyes also.

Born to Read Corner

2007-06-27T16:21:00.001+08:00

This is the 'Born to Read Corner' in a public health clinic somewhere in Kuching. This is suppose to be a collaborative project with the State Library (Pustaka Negeri Sarawak) to promote reading culture among donno who BUT I don't see any single book here.
This is more like the TAK NAK BACA campaign and indeed this campaign is a success. No wonder you will find all the TAK NAK poster all around the public school and students are telling the teachers TAK NAK belajar, TAK NAK buat kerja, TAK NAK...

Little Yangon flooded

2007-06-21T14:15:00.000+08:00

13th of June. Our little Yangon is flooded AGAIN. Previously, flash flood usually happened during the CNY time but this delayed one is unusual. Luckily the water level wasn't that high. Unlike the recent flood in KL, NO vehicle was drowned here.

Our faculty is powered by mostly expatriate Medical Officers from Myammar where you will find all the Aung, Maung, Myint, Myat etc here. It is kind of hard to pronounce their name correctly with the burmese slang. Pronounciation is definitely not 'sebutan Baku'

DOG TROPHY

2007-05-30T09:48:00.000+08:00

Guli for the eyes, plastic nose, desicated head. Real isn't it.

Spider house NO more

2007-05-30T09:15:00.000+08:00

This is a new species of spider which will only make its web horizontally on the grass (maybe it was there all this while but now it is highly visible due to the morning mist). It is very unlike the conventional spiders which make their web vertically to trap flying insects although some species actually hide in holes or shoes and wait for their prey. Have you ever wonder what is the prey?

See the spider? This is a very contemporary but downward looking web house. The spider actually make an escape route in case of emergency. The back door is ready. What emergency can occur to this spider other than the web house is located by the roadside. Instead of trapping flying insects, is it going to trap falling insects or something?

Well...here is the emergency. No wonder I've not seen this species for the pass 30 years. Small spidey having big appetite.

Web-web no more. Survival...unknown. Somehow the web-web attracted my Lucky dog and all the web-web along the road faced the same fate.