I have been reading some newspapers and even watching some news on the television. Originally, we understand that the Swine Flu disease comes from pig. However, the news today has reported that humans are affecting pigs with such disease in Canada.

It has also been reported in the news, stating that there is a cure for the Swine Flu.

Caption: star anise (consumable)

Star anise is a dried fruit of a small medium-sized evergreen tree, called Illicium verum. Originally, it belongs to the magnolia family, Illiciaceae Magnoliaceae and grows up to 8m in height (equal to 26.00 ft), and introduced in the europian countries in the seventeenth century. In chinese countries, it is an ingredient in the blend Chinese Five Spices (known as 'Ba-chio' or 'Pak-kok' in chinese).

It smells and tastes really good. Star anise has been used in a tea as a remedy for rheumatism (a disease affecting every possible joints and connective tissues on human body), and the seeds are sometimes chewed after meals to aid digestion. As a warm and moving herb, the star anise will sometimes be used for relieving cold-stagnation. This is why we would find this herb mostly in chinese or indian cuisine.

The Swine flu is a horrific disease since 1918, when it has killed at least 1 million people in Mexico. However, the pig (animal) has been the main source of this disease, and not the pork (a dead pig, turned into food) since the swine virus will die in the temperature above 70 degree celcius (cooking will usually kill all these bacteria). The news have been reporting that the current best cure for the Swine Flu disease is to cook pork with the star anise. It has the ability to kill the Swine flu when affecting our body. Another possible advice to avoid swine flu from affecting you, that is, to stop breathing (or cover your nose and mouth with a cloth) and run as far as possible if someone sneeze or cough around you, lol.

Final year (Middlesex University) students should start doing something after their examinations, for their graduation purpose. The venue of the graduation ceremony will be held at Middlesex University (Hendon Campus) in London, UK, from 6 - 10 July 2009. Here are the procedures:


Caption: entrance of Middlesex University


Caption: an image of Middlesex University, Hendon

Step 1. Fill the forms (for graduation purpose) that the university has delivered to you by postal, and submitting back to them by posting the forms back to them at the address given. In the letter, you may request to purchase additional tickets (every graduation candidate are allowed to purchase only 2 entrance tickets to enter the graduation hall - £ 20.00 each ticket)

Step 2. Date and time of the your graduation ceremony: please look at the graduation ceremony schedule (date and time) by clicking in the links below according to your programmes of studies:

School of Arts and Education

Middlesex University Business School

Institute for Work-Based Learning

School of Engineering and Information Systems

School of Health and Social Sciences

Step 3. Check if your name is listed on the list of graduation 2009: click " HERE " to check your status (graduates who do not receive an invitation from postal by 30 April are requested to inform their School Student Office). Click " HERE " for FAQ.

Step 4. Ordering your gown: click " HERE " to order your hood and gaun online 21 days before your convocation (I am not sure if the same link would allow u to choose graduation picture packages since this process has been changing from time to time. Sometimes, students can only make payment for photo shooting on the graduation day itself).

Step 5. Request a letter for your family / relatives attending your graduation ceremony: please send an email to graduation@mdx.ac.uk Students have been advised by Royal Mail that letters take approximately 2 weeks to reach UK addresses, 4 weeks for addresses in Europe and 8 weeks for the rest of the world. However, they advise students to use their own knowledge of postal times to their home countries.


Caption: the main building


Caption: the £ 17.5 mil Sherperd Library

The below are descriptions of Academic Robe and Colours:

Foundation Certificate/Certificate/Diploma/Advanced Diploma/Diploma Advanced/Certificate of Higher Education
These are identified by a black gown without a hood

HNC//HND
Holders of Higher National Diplomas and Nigher National Certificates of Edexcel will be wearing scarlet hoods lined with dark blue

Foundation Degrees
Those receiving Foundation Degrees will wear a black gown and hood partially lined with red and trimmed with an award colour. The colours are as Bachelors Degrees

Diploma of Higher Education
Those receiving a Diploma of Higher Education will be wearing a black gown and a hood partially lined in red

Bachelors degrees
Those receiving Bachelors degrees will wear a black gown and a hood partially lined with red and trimmed at the top edge with an award colour. These colours are:Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Music - WhiteBachelor of Science - Dark BlueBachelor of Education - GreenBachelor of Laws - Light BlueBachelor of Engineering - Purple

Postgraduate Certificates/Diplomas/CPE/DMS
Those receiving these awards will wear a royal blue gown together with a black hood trimmed at the top edge with powder blue.

Masters degrees
Those receiving Masters degrees will wear a royal blue gown and hood, fully lined in red and trimmed all round with an award colour. The colours are as Bachelors degrees with the addition of yellow for the award of Master of Business Administration.

Master of Engineering graduates will wear a black gown and a hood trimmed with purple.

Master of Fine Arts and Master of Design wear the same as Master of Arts


Master of Professional StudiesDoctor of Professional Studies/Psychotherapy
Those receiving the Master in Professional Studies degree will wear a royal blue gown and black hood lined in red. Those receiving the Doctor of Professional Studies or Doctor of Psychotherapy will wear a scarlet gown with sleeves, front faced in red, with grey bonnet.

Research degrees
Those receiving degrees based on research can be identified as follows:

Bachelor of Philosophy: Black gown with narrow strip of red on front facing.

Master of Philosophy (MPhil): Royal blue gown with a strip of red on front facing.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD): Scarlet gown with the sleeves and front faced in University red.

Honorary Degrees, Doctor of the University/Master of the University
Doctor/Master of the University Honorary degrees are awarded to those who have contributed substantially to public life and who have had or in many cases, still have, a strong connection with Middlesex University. Doctors will wear grey gowns trimmed with University red and a grey hood edged with red. Masters will wear plain grey gowns, grey hoods lined with University red and grey mortar boards.

The picture below is a depiction of the graduation day at Hendon.


Caption: the quadrangle in the main building

Good luck and hope to see you in July 2009!

Been extremely hectic in the past few weeks. Students (a total of 223 students) have been submitting their work to me electronically and I have to submit their results to my supervisor around mid of May :S Their coursework is simple, but their writting makes it difficult for me to understand. There are some friends who have send me some messages, telling me the exams questions that they got in their exams are not difficult. I hope this would makes them feel ease and relax and to do better in the upcoming exam for other modules. I am expecting to see some first class in that case :)

I also know some students will be having their exams from May 01 - 13, 2009. Again, best of luck to you, and hope to see you in your graduation in July 2009. (Please also bring your student ID and some pen for your exams).


Caption: diamond rings in Poh Kong

Anyway, I am getting one day break for myself before continuing to read and write again. Although this is random, but I found it exciting, snapping a picture to share it with everyone. Well, a diamond ring by mean will not represent anything special since you may have seen every female wearing a diamond ring anywhere. What makes me feel special with these diamond rings is, the price of that particular ring. There is this ring (I think 3.5 carat) cost RM 181, 998. I am not familiar with the carat calculations but based on the calculation in google, one carat = 200 milligrams in weight. Again, I would still prefer to invest that RM 163, 998 to buy a property for my wife and investing the remaining RM 18,000 (which sum up in RM181 K) in a diamond ring :)


Caption: the baby named Enoch

In the past few weeks, one of my dad's best friend called him up, telling him his wife gave birth to a child. The baby is a male. Congratulations to both of them. However, his wife ended up staying in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) for several days. Her husband claimed that she has been bleeding for few hours continuously. Due to that, she was sent to the CCU (Coronary Care Unit) later for further monitoring. In brief, the ICU is a specialized departmentin hospitals that provides intensive care medicine. Any patient who was asked to stay in the ICU department is considered as at high risk when their life considered risky at that moment. The CCU is a department in hospitals that will intensively monitor and taking care their patients (normally) with critical heart attacks. He has briefly explained that the lack of blood in her body had caused her heart to suffer.

Their baby is really cute. They name him Enoch (I think). Enock is a name given based on the bible by a father in a Catholic church. His mother gave birth to him in seven months, so he is still at a very weak condition. Thank god his mother's condition is fine, and staying at home now.


Caption: baby and clothings department in a supermarket


Caption: Liz and my sis getting excited with baby clothes

My aunt suggest to buy the baby a hamper. She explained that it would be better to give the couple a baby hamper for their baby. She said the hamper should have some clothes, etc. in which the baby can use them daily. Well, what she said makes sense but guess what, how much should a baby hamper cost usually when a baby's top and bottom itself cost around RM 20+? I can see both Liz and my sister were playing happily with the baby clothes. They seemed excited with jokes and laughter when walking around the baby department. Hmm, probably discussing their future plannings? :O


Caption: puppy doll and I

They offer to snap some pictures for me when we saw this puppy doll. They say it looks like me :( Although I were born in the year of a dog, but how can they say I looked like the puppy doll when I looks much cuter than it :D lol (just kidding). Anyway, we went to other shopping complex since my mom dislike the design of baby hampersin that earlier shopping complex. She plan to buy the baby products (shirt, pants, mugs, etc.) and wrap it externally.


Caption: grandma is posing :)

So, we went to Anakku. Anakku is a very popular company selling baby products and accessories, such as apparel and toiletries, disposable diapers, feeding equipment, toys, accessories and gift sets. The price of their products can be expensive due to brand name (i.e. the same size (40 inch) television selling much more expensive from SONY than Panasonic). The last I heard is that Disney has merged with Anakku in baby products.


Caption: grandma and I

They have spend some money on wrapping the hamper on that night but the outcome from the wrapping does not give me a feeling that the hamper is expensive lol. Probably the ladies working there are not good at wrapping and / or were rushing back home on that night (approximately 10:30 PM).


Caption: aunt performing some live demonstration

My aunt suggest that lady to make a nicer flower with the ribbons (yellow and blue). She said the design of the ribbon flowers were insufficient to attract her lol, and have demonstrated her artwork to the workers over there with their ribbon. She made some really nice flower in less than few minutes. Maybe this is her area of expertise lol.

Student's have been submitting their courseworks to me electronically, and therefore, I am entirely out of time to even post something on blog. This would probably take me a week to update the next post. The next post would be a long and, hopefully an interesting post to you. However, it would consume some time to compose such long post. Therefore, please be patience for the next upcoming post.

I would also like to wish all students ''Best of Luck'' for their examinations starting this week. Fill your exam papers well, and make sure try to write your answers as much as possible, and not leaving the paper blank before submission. Please also remember that lecturers will not penalize your grades, instead giving you additional marks to anything that you have written on the paper, as long as it make sense to him. Please also REMEMBER TO BRING your (1) student ID (2) a few pen (3) pencils (4) liquid paper if necessary, and most importantly, be on time for exam.

For students who are graduating soon (Middlesex University), and whose parents or relatives will be attending their graduation, please send an email to 'graduation@mdx.ac.uk' to request a letters from the school, stating that your relatives will attend your graduation this July. I heard it is difficult to get through the immigration officers in the UK without that particular letter from the university.

Again, work hard for your exams!

Sorry for spending almost a week to compose this post. It is certainly interesting for people who wanted to know more of a lump / something related to medical again. I have been doing much reading to understand critically about lumps on our body, and perhaps more ambitiously, understanding this topic as thorough as possible by asking a real medical doctor with massive questions.

I always assume that it can be really tough to predict a person's future, especially when it comes to their lives. This is why most people would contribute something to other people, such as doing good deeds (i.e. donation, social work, etc). I met both my cousin brother's last night. They were rushing to get home (in a different state called Penang, 3.5-4 hours away from Kuala Lumpur) since they are working over there.

Here is the story. A couple of months ago, my cousin found a round thing somewhere near his belly button. When you touch that round thing, he will feel painful. It is in liquid form, which means upon touching it, you will feel some liquid contined in it. The doctor has identified that the round thing is known as 'abscess' or to be more specific, it is known as the 'abdominal abscess' (somewhere near stomach). So, he went for a 2 weeks operation to remove the abscess.


Caption: abdominal abscess

Recently, he found another 'round thing' somewhere near the previous abscess. I believe that should be another abscess, but we were all worried about him. So I spoke to Dr. Rui (my collegue) again about this to see what he suggests since he is very critical person when it comes to explanation. This is also his area of expertise, so he is the right person to ask. According to Dr. Rui, this so called 'round thing' (i called it as a lump) may have a possibility to one of the following: (1) abscess (2) cyst (3) hernia, and / or (4) tumor. I will explain them 4 very briefly in the latter.


Caption: popular spots where 'round thing' may be discovered

Dr. Rui suggests that this picture (above) has identified some popular spots where most patience will find and / or operate those lumps. Since my cousin brother told us that he found another abscess (he think it should be another abscess) somewhere around to the previous one, immediately, I have asked Dr. Rui to explain it more thoroughly. He asked me the location of the abscess, and if it was located in the abdomen or surface of the skin, and i replied him on the surface of the skin. Therefore, he believe there are 2 possibilities if it is just an abscess: (1) there is a small possibility where the hyperplasia (abnormal way of increasing the number of normal cells in a person's body) caused by the scar after operation, and (2) the abscess is recrudescence. If it is the first possibility (1), then then the wound will normally recover after two or three months time. The second possibility (2) may occur when the doctor has not completely remove the abnormal tissues from the abscess entirely, and due to the recrudescence, my cousin may need to accept the next operation :S The first operation caused him around Rm 4, 000. It is so costly.


Caption: abscess found around a person's neck

Originally, an abscess is something very normal. It is a collection of pus (fluid form of inflamation) formed by infectious tissues in that spot and poluting it by some bacterias. I think abscess is not something critical, since it looks so similar to the pimples. When that particular patient is having fever at that time when he found a lump on his body, then the possibility of him getting an abscess will exceed 80%. The wound do not necessarily need to be treated with antibiotics but definitely require surgical intervention to remove it permanently.


Caption: hernia

Dr. Rui explained hernia as protusion (something jutting out from the body) of an organ. This means some muscles tissues were pushed out from a person's organ (i.e. intestine), making it visible on the person's skin. If you touch it, you can feel it as a round object. If you touch it, you can feel some liquid spontaneously moving around in that section. According to Dr. Rui, most hernia are harmless, although there is always the potential that the hernia will become strangulated. It means if the hernia blocked a person's blood vessel in that part of the intestine, it would be extremely dangerous, and will cause death since the blood flow was disconnected by this hernia - in rare cases, when that person is really unlucky.

Caption: hernia and its location

There are 4 types of hernia; (1) inguinal hernia (2) femoral hernia (3) incisional hernia, and (3) umbilical and paraumbilical hernia. The (1) inguinal hernia is the most common type of hernia, normally in men than women. The intestines push through a weak spot in the inguinal canal. The inguinal canal is a triangular shaped opening between the layers of abdominal muscles near the groin. The (2) femoral hernia looks similar to the inguinal hernia, and always appears in the groin area, developing near the leg crease (around leg area). It occurs in the triangle shaped gap between the inguinal ligaments, the lower side of the pubic bone and the vein. Because of the angle and shape of the pelvis, this type of hernia is more common in females. This type of hernia is the most likely to become strangulated (and causes death when blood vessels were blocked). The (3) is the incisional hernia (also known as a ventral hernia) is when the bowel pushes through an incision made during previous abdominal surgery. The site of an operation is always structurally weaker than the surrounding area, leading to a susceptibility for hernia development. Lastly, the (4) umbilical and paraumbilical hernia are types of hernia is most common in newborn babies. It is caused by a weakness of the abdominal wall in the area around the navel. In some cases these kinds of hernias close naturally but if they do not, they may require surgical repair.

It is advisable to repair the hernia as soon as it was found on a person's body to prevent complication in our organ, and finally causing death. Dr. Rui said that hernia can be easily repaired through surgical and will usually not causing long term changes in a person's life. The surgery session will not take very long, usually a maximum of 2 hours.


Caption: a picture of an operated cyst

The next is the cyst. The cyst picture in the above may look a little gross but that is an actual cyst operated from a person's body. A part from fluid, the cyst is also made from the combination of air pressure and some other materials. Though the abscess and cyst are quite similar in term of the shape of the lump, yet there are some differences between them. Firstly, the nature of them, and most importantly is that the cyst will never produce a painful effect when you press on it. One behaviour of a cyst is that the cyst may have a small possibility to vanish by itself, though most of the time will require surgical to completely removing it.


Caption: cyst

Two main symptoms to distinguish if that is a cyst or hernia, is that cyst usually occur after injuries and / or surgical operation that was regarded as injury. This lump is not very serious and will normally not causing death like hernia. Considering a cyst is not something serious, but definitely require some treatment. Usually a month or two will not caused a cyst to grow. The abscess is possible to grow within the two months time frame. My cousin believe that the current lump was there since a month ago, and therefore, Dr. Rui would suggest not to ignore it as a hernia since he is not feeling painful when he press on the lump with his finger. Yet, hernia can grow in a very short time period, i.e. in few hours time. Usually, hernia / cyst are lumps caused by inborn reason and / or that particular spot infected by viruses/disease.

Definitely, finding an abscess on a person's body is definitely better than than getting one hernia / cyst. Dr. Rui recommend people to get the B-ultrasonic scan rather than just the X-ray scan (X-ray is not reliable at certain time) who found a lump on their body. One main reason is, we should not exclude the possibility of getting a tumor (or cancer) since tumor may have a very small possibility in producing a lump in a person's body, and that is really critical since it may cause death. To read more about tumor and different types of tumor, click HERE to view my previous post that was written on tumor.


Caption: Milo, a chocolate beverage

Finally, this is something extremely humor that I have ever heard in my life. It is regardless to Milo (a type of nutritious chocolate beverage that most people would consume everyday). The story goes like this:

Few days ago, we went to this restaurant and the restaurant manager approached us. As usual, I ordered a herbal drink for myself and a cup of milo for my aunt. The manager said to my aunt "hello aunty, I suggest you to not drink milo" and we asked why. According to him, a person's digestive system will not work appopriately in digestion at age 45 or beyond. Since milo contained cocoa in it, therefore, it is very dangerous for a person beyond age 45 to consume milo anymore. He added "if a person after age 45 continue consuming milo may have a possibility to catch cancer (the growth of tumor) in his body" :O When I reached home, first thing that I do was to asked everyone around me if they have ever heard of consuming milo will cause a person to catch cancer. I think I have not listened to such news before. Therefore, I asked Dr. Rui if this is true, and he goes "my grandparents and I love to drink cocoa beverages since they were young, and he is at age 80 now". He added "I have never listened to such cases in my life before". To ensure that what he said is solid, I called my family doctor to ask him again, and he answered something similar to Dr. Rui, lol. So everyone, do not worry to drink milo even if you turn to an older adult someday.

Originally, the daffodils are not special to me compared to other flowers such as tulips, daisies and lilies, since lots of people might already know what daffodils are. But some friends of mine have suggested to write a post regarding to this flower. They find the daffodils are really special.

Caption: colourful daffodils

Daffodils (also known a defodils in certain countries) are known as wildflowers. This flower could only be found in the European countries, Middle East and in Northern Africa. When time passes, these wildflowers have become so popular and well-recognised as garden plants. I even read some of the histories of the daffodils. In 1601, famous gardeners such as 'Van Sion' has discovered the daffodils, and brought them home to multiply them (increase the number). They have not seen such great flower before! Since 1600-1850, these flowers have been developed in different form.

Caption: Tracy and daffodils in Trentpark (year 2001)

I have also read some books, stating that the spring season will normally excites daffodils to bloom. When these flowers see sunlight, they will start producing some really nice flower scent which makes these flowers special! In places like Trentpark (somewhere in London), the daffodils has become a symbol representing the spring season has arrived. You see the daffodils are dying when the summer season is arriving. Though, usually you may only see white and yellow defodils in Trentpark, but seeing these 2 colors covering the park entirely will enlighten your day. I recalled back in year 2001, when Tracy and I sneaked out from the halls of residence in Trentpark (Gubbay hall, London, UK) at around 4:30 AM. Our aim is to pluck some defodils for its scent. When we saw some securities approaching us, we ran back to our room lol. How naive.

Hopefully the girls in Trentpark will not get mad or upset of me for 'stealing' the photo (below) from their blog :P Okay, this is interesting and important for people who receive defodils.

Caption: my friends who were currently (2009) studying at MDX Trentpark

The defodil is the symbol for unrequited love (means loving someone but that person may not love you back) and / or a new beginning for a relationship, and so, it may not be fortunate to receive defodils on Valentines day. However, one defodil may represent misfortune whist a few represents happiness.

Finally, I am anouncing to have my very own wedding soon, so all my friends are invited for the wedding dinner.

*cough* Just kidding. Of course, I do hope this would be my wedding, though I have not been thinking to have one so soon (currently single but not available :P). My uncle and his wife are planning to have a wedding dinner soon. Before, they have their wedding somewhere in New York. Now, they were planning to organize another wedding dinner for their relatives in Malaysia (organized only for their relatives).


Caption: the place they plan to have their wedding dinner (entrance)


Caption: Emperor Garden restaurant

This restaurant has two stories, which makes it looks more 'grand' compared to other restaurants. As usual, my cousin brothers and sisters, and I were all acting like the barbarians (uncivilised person), running everywhere and snapping loads of photos. Then, I forced my two beloved cousins to stand still so I could snap a few of their photos.


Caption: the ground floor


Caption: my beloved cousin brother and sister

Caption: the entrance of that restaurant

Caption: the entrance of the wedding ballroom (i)

Caption: the entrance of the wedding ballroom (ii)

This 2-storey restaurant has a total of 3 different wedding ballrooms; first with approximately 35 tables, second with 15 tables and the ground floor should has around 12 tables, which bring a total of 62 tables. Coincidently, someone is having their wedding dinner on that night. My aunt pushed me into the middle where people are having their wedding dinner, so I can snap clearer photographs, lol? So, I walked all the way into the middle of the crowd, smiling to everyone as if I am their relative, snapped a few photographs and ran out quickly lol.

Caption: other people's wedding dinner

My uncle planned to book 10 tables (only for their relatives and not friends) for that wedding dinner, and my aunt requested an additional of 3 tables for some really close friends. I am guessing they will increase the amount of tables very soon. I will definitely be the camera man, holding an extremely bulk camera lol, walking around, snapping photographs everywhere for everyone lol. Well, I don't really mind :) Hopefully my hand is fine at that time, to hold such bulk camera for few hours.

Caption: smaller wedding ballroom

Once again, a big and warm congratulations to both my uncle and aunty.

I have been busy lately, mainly due to student's submission of coursework. Most of my friends will send their work to me for final check up before submitting. On the other hand, I have to handle my own writting. Life is getting busier everyday by day and yet, I will still spend some time blogging. I think it is something fun to do, at least a way to relax for me.

Anyway, it is Saturday again! Another weekend, and that means another day to have some fun (a relaxing day). As usual, a few families will gather in my grandparent's home before leaving for dinner and shopping. Mom said she noticed a big fat rat has been running around our home everynight, since 2 months ago, peeing everywhere. How disgusting! So, I went to some walmart over here, planned to buy a metal cage to catch that rat. Surprisingly, the sales person introduced me to buy some rat poison (toxic). He described it as "when the rat eat these poisons, that particular rat will then run everywhere to seek for water, and when that rat drink some water, its intestine will explode". I think a cage will do, since 'destructing' that rat's intestine will not bring me anywhere. It is a SIN for killing living beings, LOL. So I bought a cage, planning to catch that rat and bring it somewhere to release it (that is my initial plan, and might alter depending on the situation, lol). Anyway, earlier today, my mom found that rat, lying dead on the table outside the wet kitchen. It is really gross since its instestines and liver were found hanging outside its stomach. I believe some wild cats that hang around my house had eaten (half of its body) alive.

Caption: a female in squirel in the cage

We set the trap in the morning, around 11:00 AM and heard something caught in the trap at around 6:00 PM. Yay! That should be the big fat rat. Surprisingly, it turned out to be a squirel in that cage lol. I am still wondering, how can a smart and brainy animal like this fall into the trap, over a? bread? Lol. So I tried hard to snap some photo's of this squirel but it just won't allow me. It has been trying very hard to leave the cage by running everywhere so quickly and it is impossible for me to even capture any image of it. So active! So what I do was to hold the edge of the cage, smash it very quickly on the ground for 5-6 times, and leaving it on the ground again. This time, I managed to snap a nice picture of the squirel when it stood still, looking at me. "Cheese" and snapped a photo of it finally, lol. I am just guessing that this little animal must have been thinking of what had happened? Earthquake? Lol. My grandpa explained "the female squirel should have a very stinky smell whilst a male squirel should smells good". Smells good!? Lol. After that, we went to this restaurant in Kepong, with around 12 people on that day and have ordered some really delicious foods.


Caption: foods

Then, we went to this store called 'Harvey Norman' in the shopping complex (in the Ikano powercentre) since my uncle wanted to buy some furnitures. We have been happily taking pictures with our mobile phones while lying down on every single bed to test it out. There is this bed in which I think I am very lucky to be able to lie down on it whilst snapping a picture with it, lol. Why am I saying this? Because this luxurious bed cost RM 69, 999. This is also the first time I have seen such expensive bed. Of course, it is very comfortable. It was impossible for me to identify the material of this bed, but one thing, that is, extremely comfortable. A very good quality bed which I will never spend my money to buy it.

Caption: the RM 69, 999 bed

What I feel really upset is, the sales person who has been serving us. I would not say that he served us, perhaps just walking by us, stopping us in snapping pictures. Well, there is no restriction sign visible to stopped us from snapping any pictures, yes? No, at least not visible for me to read. Let me be a little rude over here. This fat, short and ugly chinese dude, probably in his 40's, warned us to not snap any photographs, with 'animal languages' such as 'shuu'. What is 'shuu'? Treating us as some wild dogs? I remembered reading the human resource management book, stated very clearly that "customers are always right no matter what they do, as long as not harming that store, i.e. stealing, beating up the workers". Well, he is just a staff, showing us such rude attitude and behaviour. I understand that 'maybe' we are not allowed to snap any photographs with a camera, but (1) why showing their customers such attitude, or (2) why can't he explain to us more properly like "excuse me sir, no photo shooting is available in this store, sorry". He even asked 2 security guards to stick near us, guarding everywhere we went, and finally, bringing his manager to the entrance, (somewhere we were standing outside the store at that time), pointing at the small restriction board (probably 30 x 30 CM in size) and saying aloud to his manager, "blind? this is the restriction board". Seriously, what is this? Therefore, I am asking people who are currently reading this post. If you are stepping at my position, how would you respond?

I seriously wanted to file a complaint to the Harvey Norman HQ for such rude attitude, or perhaps filing a critical complaint to some newspaper hotlines, but that would ruin the Harvey Norman's reputation. For few reasons I have not done that finally: (1) for personal reason (2) my 70+ year old grandma who said "I am scared" at that time, and probably she has not seen me with such furious face before? Lol (3) it is very uncivilized to shout at strangers in the middle of the crowd. Therefore, I will ignore this matter for now, until I start feeling uneasy again, and will see what to do at that time (depending on my mood).


Caption: Liz with a hyper-size white cabbage

I wonder why am I feeling so excited every time I see a white cabbage in a shopping complex. My brother said to me that he "will not eat any white cabbage anymore for at least a year from then" so probably this is the reason for me to get excited? Lol. Except, this is an extremely hyper and abnormal size white cabbage. Thanks to Liz for willingly to hold this heavy white cabbage, and for me to snap a picture.

Caption: my collegues who have graduated their PhD

Finally, I wanted to express my heartiest congratulations to them for completing their PhD last summer. Seriously, their gaun and hood (and the color) are definitely attractive. I am still wondering of when will I be able to complete my PhD, and qualified to wear that gaun. Although I would feel envy for their achievements sometimes, but these pictures are definitely worth looking, to motivate me to work harder.

My uncle and I have been testing out with his SLR camera (the one that I have mentioned in some previous posts) and I just realized that there are lots of functions cntained in the camera. Very fun to play with. Though, I do not really dare to play with the camera for several reasons (1) feeling painful in my hand to even try holding the camera properly (2) the camera is too luxurious so if it slips and drop on the floor, and thats it (3) feeling uneasy when you are holding someone's belonging, and when you see a few nasty pair of eyes peeping at you when holding that thing.

I think this is the first time my uncle's wife is taking picture with me. Indeed, she is a very sweet person who always share new jokes with me. I feel enjoyable when speaking to her at all time. If you look at the picture below, our relationship has reach to an extent where we were not really considered close as a family member, but more like a really close friend.


Caption: uncle's wife and I

Liz wanted to be in a photo with us, and since my uncle is willing to snap a few pictures for us on that day, so why not? We end up taking 20+ pictures snapped on that day. But due to to the excessive amount of space required (approximately 7.00 MB per photo), I only managed to save a few images into my pen drive, and here it is.

Caption: the four of us (Liz, mom, grandma and I)

Anyway, a little birthday song for you my dear.

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to Karen

Happy birthday to you!

Today is the 4th of April, 2009. This means 9 years had passed since the day she was born. She was born in New York on April 4th, 2000 and has been staying abroad for 8 years. We bought her a coffee flavour birthday cake on that day (guess she had been reminding us that her birthday is arriving soon, for at least 5 times now). It is something worth celebrating, besides her birthday, since she got her results back from school, and showed us that she managed to score 100% for her Science, 88% for Mathematics, and and 90% for English (she did not tell me the rest of the results).

Caption: Karen is about to make her wish


Caption: Karen is making her birthday wish

Caption: Karen is blowing off the candle lights after making her wish

Caption: a few families taking photo's with the birthday girl

Once again, Happy Birthday to my dearest cousin sister, Karen. Hope you will enjoy this special day and hopefully your wish comes true.