najla and adam

my bro, yasser just emailed the latest photos of his 2 kids. pandai najla pegang adam. she's only 3 years old.

me & my opinion

the hoo haa about my dissertation proposal marking has not settled yet. last friday andrew, the module leader for dissertation, commented that i was being strict with my marks and he suggested that i increased the marks by 10% of which i had done so on tuesday. so, the 10 students under my supervision would get marks between 50-65 (originally 45-60 marks). today i received another email from him, saying that i only increased the marks by 5% and not 10%. tak pandai kira ke ??? kata terrer sangat statistic !! patut la students kat sini tak pandai maths/numeric...

i responded to his email - that i have actually increased the marks by 10% from the original and i believe some of the students didnt really deserve to get that much but should he feels that i was being unfair to the students, i would 'paksa rela' increase the mark further. its just against my principle. i'm entitled to my opinion....

3 weeks to go..

am counting the days... another 3 weeks of teaching in 2007, then 3 weeks xmas/new year break.. yahoo!!! its not so much of not having to teach (thats my job and what i'm paid to do and the main reason for moving to UK) but more of a break from rushing in the morning to prepare packed lunch for aisyah and her daddy. then prepare aliyah, her changing bag and her lunch/dinner box; and hubby drives the kids to mimi's house. aliyah is being looked after by mimi's mom whom we call 'wan' (nenek) mun, 3 full days a week.

i still have 8 days leave from last academic year to finish off before 31st december. so basically, campur dgn public holidays from xmas-new year, i dont have to work at all for 3 weeks from mid dec. lectures will resume on 7th jan. we've made plans to go away for few days. looking forward to that. some of the places/things we hope to see....

miss gadget

aliyah turned 10 months on friday. she loves playing with the remote controls and mobile phones. sekarang pantang terlepas on the floor, she aims for the cd/dvd rack and remote controls. rasa2 nya she will get to walk before her first birthday.

busy weekend

yesterday i attended the university's november award (graduation) ceremony - part of the job as well. award ceremonies are held twice a year - in november (mostly for post grads and stragglers) and in july. it was my first attendance. nostalgic jugak bila pakai robe my former uni (GCU). managed to find blazer & trouser suit on friday to wear to the ceremony. i never owned any suit. selama ni pakai jeans/casual trousers and jumper bila mengajar. nasib baik ada decent pair of shoes to wear. that will be the one and only suit which will be worn for the future occassions....

after the ceremony, i went to tkmaxx. gave myself a treat - bought a big Betty Barclay shoulder bag for work, nak gilir2 dengan back pack Billabong which i've been using for a year now. was looking at luggages as well, for our holiday next year. ada antler, jane shilton, delsey bags, sold at reasonable prices. tunggu la dulu, dont really need them yet.

xmas is 4 weeks away. the shops are buzzing with people doing their xmas shopping. after maghrib we went out to Beeston, to see the lighting up of xmas tree at the town square. we saw the fireworks display on the way to the carpark.

balik from beeston, we became couch potatoes - watched x factor (macam american/malaysian idol), and stand up comedy shows - omid djalili (he's iranian) and my all time favourite - billy connolly aka Big Yin. i started watching him when i was a student. he's from Glasgow and his jokes are about his life and places he's been to. many find his jokes gross with all the four letter words but more often than not, apa dia cakap semua make sense.

'big yin' - courtesy of wikipedia











i've got a list of xmas shopping too, for
a) lauren (aisyah's best friend) and tracy, her mom
b) Gill
c) Ivy and Richard
d) Lesley and Wendy, my subject administrators at work

and also to get birthday presents for tisyia and mimi.

hari ni, we did our lauk and grocery shopping. and we also went to Argos to get my mp3 - at last! bought 1 gb sony mp3 at £35 (after £5 off). hubby has downloaded the songs from cd - il divo, anuar zain, beyonce, kris dayanti. boleh la dengar dalam bus to work.

after this, do my fornightly duty - ironing hubby's work shirts. my clothes do not need ironing - buat habis karan aja kalau nak iron tshirt/jumper/jeans ha!ha!

what a week it was

monday was wet and cold. (see my last posting). the days that followed were a bit of everything - weather wise.... frosty, foggy, rainy, gloomy with some spells of occassional sunshine. the weather certainly affected us last week.

firstly, the kids were not well. both girls caught the cold bug and aliyah was worse off. it was the first time she was feeling poorly - fever, running nose, cough. i didnt get much sleep for 2 nites. aisyah was off from school on wednesday and i was working at home.

then, i had to mark 10 pieces of dissertation proposal - i just hate marking essays.. supervising final year students doing their dissertation is part of the job, but 10 students ??! emmm.... when i finally done marking and handed them over to Andrew, the module leader, he commented that i was stingy with my marks ha!ha! nevertheless, everyone passed. the students have to start working on their dissertation for submission in april 2008.

final straw came on friday morning. i had a lecture at 9am to 2nd year part timers. few students walked into the lecture theatre, 10 minutes late. just when i was into my 3rd slide, i saw 2 guys sitting at the top - one got his lap top out and the other took out his newspaper. thats a total disrespect !! i closed my file, shut down the PC and projector and told the class that i didnt want to waste my time and left the room. it came to my team leader's attention and the 2 guys were called to his room and got the warning. they came to apologise to me later in the afternoon but i think they were not sincere. my colleagues sympathised with me and reckoned i did the right thing to walk out...

TGIF !!

monday blues

its a wet and cold monday, what a day to start the week.

last nite it snowed - YES, snow in November. we didnt realise that it was snowing till Faizal called at 7pm. will we have a white xmas? dunno... suppose most people are hoping for one, maybe to the extent of betting for one!

i only have one lecture today - from 4.30-6.30pm. i'm supposed to be working at home but.. not so rajin today. just managed to prepare lecture notes this morning while Aliyah had her nap, cooked ayam masak merah for dinner, did the washing. later on, take Aliyah to mimi's house
before i take the bus to uni.

driving test

today hubby sat for UK driving license test. i was out at the shops with the kids and when he called me after the test, he said that he didnt make it ... i was quite dissapointed cos kalau nak re-take, he has to take few more classes (at £20 per hour) and pay for the test plus car for the test. anyway, when i got home, he opened the door, flagging his certificate! bad joke ha!ha!



susah jugak nak pass at first sitting. driving lessons and test in UK is so much tougher than in m'sia. mine tunggu dulu - nanti bila cuti ada masa nak belajar baru ambik - kena concentrate.... for time being hubby jadi derebar lah - I mem kat belakang - jaga Aliyah.

keluarga wan ngah

last weekend of syawal, hubby's family members in JB organised 'perjumpaan keluarga Haji Wan Ngah'. it was a big do, held at hubby's cousin's place. we wish we could be there to join the rest of the clan to get to know Haji Wan Ngah's descendants.


they even launced a website which updates what the family members are up to. the video presentation was really good, with photos of arwah wan ngah and his children and grandchildren. just when i thot hubby's dad looked serious (he's a man of protocol)... arwah Wan Ngah looked doubly stricter!! there were few of hubby's photos when he was just a little boy, with his parents and other elderly family members. aisyah said ' daddy, you're famous!!'. looking at Aliyah, we can now confirm that she takes after hubby's side - she looks like arwah Wan Wok whom we addressed as Tok Mak Long.

its good that the younger generation knows their roots. maybe i should start working on 'our family tree' before i'm too old to remember our ancestors.

drawing competition

sometime in july 2007, BBC nottingham organised a drawing competition where the children of nottinghamshire were asked to design a castle of the future which will be seen as the 'icon' of nottingham. aisyah entered the competition at school, alongside her fellow classmates. she showed us her 'artwork' few days ago, presumably after being judged and returned to the school. little did we know she became the runner up in the 4-7 year old category.

earlier tonite, hubby was browsing the net, reading bbc nottingham website when he came across the 'castle competition winners' article. it was a pleasant surprise...when he noticed the name 'Aisyah, Wan'

click on the screenshots to see bigger image

a true MPV (multi purpose vehicle)

last weekend we helped mimi & faizal moving house. they bought a house just opposite Bilborough College, about 1 mile away from us.

friday nite, we removed the back seats and helped moved their book shelf (no pic taken cos it was nite time..macam nak mencuri pulak!). on saturday mimi & faizal rented a van and with help from few malaysian students, they moved all the furniture. on sunday, we helped carry the remaining small stuff.

the kids just loved sitting at the back of the van...

guests from malaysia

its been a while since my last posting. been busy - entertaining our honourable guests from malaysia. Wan Sharwani and Khairiyah (fondly known as Onnair and Kerry) were in Nottingham. onnair was my 'sidekick' for 10 years in our previous company and Kerry was our consultant then, but became one of our close friends and now they are colleagues.

mimi, onnair & kerry at Burton on the Water

onnair and kerry were on working trip in Europe for 1 week and from Paris, they flew to Luton with few of their workmates, rented an MPV and travelled to Liverpool, Manchester, Lake District and the guys dropped them in Nottingham on Monday, 5th Nov on their way to London. mimi & faizal just moved into their newly bought house on Saturday before and since they have not settled in yet, it was best for onnair and kerry to stay with us. while in notts, we provided BBD (bed, breakfast, dinner), mimi & faizal jadi tourist guide, chauffeur and took them shopping at tkmaxx in the city, royal doulton factory outlet in stoke on trent and spent one day sight seeing at the Cotswolds.

hubby and i cooked roast leg of lamb, roast chicken, roast vege complete with mint sauce and plum sauce for dinner on wednesday nite. i made autumn plum cake for dessert. after dinner, we went to mimi's house for coffee and stayed up, gabbing away till 3.30am. hubby and aisyah stayed at home.

they left for London by coach yesterday morning. i've always hated goodbyes... but hope to see them again next year, God willing, when we go back to msia for our summer holiday.

Cream of the Crop

raudah
we are proud to announce that hubby's niece, Raudah is one of the recipients of 2007 Biasiswa Yang Di Pertuan Agong (King's Scholarship). she just arrived from Malaysia last month to pursue her masters and (eventually PhD) at Sheffield University and got news just before hariraya that she won the scholarship and had to go back to Msia to accept the award. she left for msia last monday and due back here this weekend. at least terubat rindu kak rozi and abang madi. if her mak tok ada lagi, she would be very proud of her grand daughter.

kak rozi (raudah's mom/hubby's sister)
we all, apa lagi, taking the opportunity to pesan apa2 yang patut from msia, especially ikan bilis and udang salai from Sarawak. also dah book cake lapis rempah from kak wan/abg yeb (hubby's brother) and kuih tart from Rozi (Raudah's mom).





taken from The Star
Thursday November 1, 2007

King presents scholarships
KUALA LUMPUR: The Yang diPertuan Agong Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin presented scholarships to 12 outstanding Malaysian scholars at Istana Negara yesterday.
Six are for scholars doing their Masters and the others for those pursuing their doctorate in science, technology and law at overseas universities.
Cream of the crop: Tuanku Mizan presenting the scholarship to master’s student Kavitta Sivanandan, 23, from Puchong, at the Istana Negara yesterday. With them is Public Service Department deputy director-general Datuk Ab Khalil Ab Hamid. — Bernama
They will be receiving a cost of living allowance which is 50% higher than the allowance paid to those sponsored by the Public Service Department.
Students pursuing the Masters programme will receive RM230,000 to RM250,000 a year while scholars doing their doctorate will receive RM750,000 a year.
The recipients were Faisal Luqman (Carnegie Mellon University, US), Christine Cheryl Fernandez (University of Manchester, Britain), Low Ley Hian (Melbourne University, Australia), Lam Su Shiung (Cambridge University), Ahmad Hanif Ahmad Baharin (University of Queensland, Australia); Tan Boon Kok (Oxford University), Wong Yong Fei (Oxford University), Tan Kian Tjon (University of Manchester), Wan Norafikah Othman (Universiti Malaya), Kavita Sivanandan (Imperial College, London), Anwarudin Saidu Mohamed (Imperial College) and Raudah Ahmadi (University of Sheffield, Britain).