Aduhai....

Petang tadi seperti minggu-minggu yang lain, aku dan 6 lagi ahli kumpulan aku untuk Final Year Project ada Management Meeting dengan dua orang Project Supervisors kami. Satu ungkapan daripada Professor Andrew Forsyth betul-betul membuatkan aku tergamam sejenak :

“…time disappears very quickly now…”

Betul, masa terasa berlalu sangat cepat. Esok dah pun hari Juma’at, hari terakhir persekolahan untuk minggu ni, dan juga minggu terakhir bulan Februari.. dah nak masuk bulan Mac dah… makin menghampiri ke penghujungnya…

Cuak…

Tetapi kadang-kadang gembira…

Cuak sebab memikirkan projek, dan juga study dengan 2 modul yang padat…

Kadang-kadang gembira, bila memikirkan dah nak habis belajar dah… nanti boleh balik Malaysia jumpa orang-orang tersayang yang dirindui…

Aku terkenang satu hadith Nabi yang menyatakan, salah satu tanda-tanda Kiamat itu makin hampir ialah masa yang berlalu sangat cepat…

Adakah ia disebabkan Bumi berputar makin pantas menuju kemusnahannya…?

…atau kita makin disibukkan dengan urusan dunia hingga kita tidak sedar masa itu berlalu dengan pantas…?

Kesibukan dunia… yang menyebabkan kita kadang-kadang alpa untuk bersibuk juga membuat perbekalan ke alam seterusnya…

Astaghfirullahal’azhim… diri ini sering alpa dan terlupa…

GADUH

Sejak dua menjak ni aku kerap menyaksikan pergaduhan di depan mata aku. Peristiwa ketika Manchester Games 2009 pada hari Sabtu lepas merupakan satu insiden yang aku tak sangka ia boleh berlaku. Ketika kejadian, aku sedang duduk-duduk sambil makan di kawasan kaunter Sugden Sports Centre. Takdirnya, aku menoleh ke sebelah kanan secara spontan dan tidak semena-mena aku ternampak melalui dinding kaca, sekumpulan manusia menyerbu keluar dari salah satu pintu kecemasan kebakaran bangunan itu. Pergaduhan berlaku dan aku dapat melihat seorang dari kalangan mereka terjatuh dan disepak oleh beberapa orang yang lain. Tergamam aku dibuatnya..

Peristiwa kedua ialah pergaduhan dua ekor angsa di Plattfiled baru-baru ni. Huhu… walaupun hanya melibatkan dua ekor haiwan, tapi pergaduhan itu memakan masa hampir 3 minit tanpa kedua-duanya mahu mengalah.. aku hanya berdiri berdekatan mereka tanpa mampu berbuat apa-apa… mampu ambil gambar je ... angsa yang tak bergaduh pun aku takut nak hampiri, inikan pula yang sedang hebat bertelingkah…

Peristiwa ketiga berlaku petang tadi ketika aku dalam perjalanan pulang ke rumah. Terdapat sekumpulan manusia yang prihatin sedang berdemonstrasi secara statik di depan BBC tentang isu orang-orang Palestine di Gaza. Aku melintasi mereka dan berhenti lebih kurang 10 meter daripada mereka untuk menunggu bas di perhentian bas berdekatan. Tiba-tiba seorang lelaki yang aku fikirkan perempuan pada mulanya kerana berambut panjang melalui kumpulan ini lalu berhenti di hadapan seorang lelaki berumur 50-an yang sedang mengedarkan satu risalah demo. Lelaki berambut panjang itu marah-marah kepada lelaki tua tersebut.

Beberapa lelaki lain dari kumpulan itu datang ke arah mereka berdua, mungkin untuk meleraikan pergaduhan, tetapi lelaki berambut panjang itu kelihatannya sangat baran. Jadilah pertikaman lidah …1 lawan 4. Aku tidak mendengar butir-butir perdebatan mereka, cuma dapat menyaksikan pergaduhan mulut tu sahaja. Akhirnya lelaki berambut panjang itu beredar, tetapi masih jelas tampak amarah dan ketidak puasan hatinya sambil masih tertoleh-toleh ke belakangnya.

Hmm, pergaduhan antara siapa lagi selepas ini yang bakal aku saksikan pula...?

Plattfield..

Alhamdulillah...talian Internet di rumah dah disambungkan sejak Isnin lepas...cepat 2 hari dari tarikh yang dijangkakan... mekasih BeBox... (",)

Aku gembira melihat keriangan teman-teman serumah apabila aku mengkhabarkan sambungan Internet dah kembali beroperasi di rumah kami petang itu... kembali berseri dan ceria...Tapi bila difikir-fikirkan semula, sebenarnya aku terasa juga kebaikan yang aku lalui sepanjang 4 hari tiada Internet ni:

~rasa produktif bila belajar dengan laptop off...

~lebih banyak masa dimanfaatkan di luar rumah untuk menyiapkan kerja....

~dan juga dapat duduk-duduk berkumpul dan berborak dengan teman serumah....

He... ye lah, bila ada Internet, semua orang lebih suka berada di dalam bilik masing-masing, layan drama ker, tulis blog macam aku ni ker, baca online newspapers atau blog-blog orang lain ker, buat keje sekolah ker, chatting ker... dan sebagainya... takde Internet ni, bila datang rasa bosan tu berkumpul la kami semua yang sama-sama kebosanan ni untuk saling menceriakan hidup masing-masing... kan bersosial sikit tu... he~ Well, technology (most of the times) makes people lazy (prefer to use the escalators rather than the stairs) and anti-social (prefer to be in front of the laptops or PCs for long time rather than going out with friends)... right..?

JALAN-JALAN DI PLATTFIELD

Ahad lepas aku keluar ke taman yang agak besar berdekatan rumah bersama housemateku...saje nak merehatkan minda dan menghirup udara segar... 2 hari berhujung minggu di rumah aje mahu tak tepu...lagipun housemate aku yang baru je tiba di Manchester sebulan yang lepas tak pernah datang lagi ke Plattfield... so saje bawa dia jalan-jalan melihat angsa... =)

Lama betul dah tak ke Plattfield..seingat aku, kali terakhir aku ke sana ialah sebelum balik bercuti musim panas di Malaysia pada 28 Jun 08 dulu... lama dah kan... ? semester I yang lepas langsung tak pergi... biasanya aku ke sana untuk beriadhah, tapi kesibukan semester lepas dan juga dek kerana musim sejuk yang tidak membuatkan aku ingin bermain-main dalam suhu mencapai 3C atau lebih rendah, maka aku sekadar membiarkan sahaja petang-petang hariku berlalu tanpa aktiviti fizikal... ok, betul, tubuh aku dah mengumpulkan toksin yang banyak sehingga hari ini... (-.-)...

Kami berjalan-jalan sambil mengambil gambar......selamba membuat aksi-aksi poyo... berpura-pura seperti pelancong yang baru je sampai dari Malaysia.. hehe...

... Eceh 1...

... Eceh 2...

Snap.. Kak Fiza... (",)

Angsa-angsa putih kelaparan menunggu makanan dari kami.

Tasik di Plattfield dan model-modelnya... (",)

2 ekor angsa sedang bergaduh sebab berebutkan roti kami. Huhu...

This is where Swan Stabillo got it's brand name.. ^_^

Sunset at Plattfield

A view during Winter...

UJIAN ALLAH

Hari ni masuk hari ke-6 aku kurang sihat.. ujian Allah... moga digolongkan dalam kalangan orang-orang yang sabar.. aku memang tak mengamalkan makan ubat kalau kurang sihat atau sakit.. aku hanya mengamalkan makan madu beserta doa iaitu ayat 69 surah An-Nahl ini:

yang bermaksud: " kemudian makan lah dari tiap-tiap macam buah-buahan dan tempuh lah jalan Tuhanmu yang telah dimudahkan bagimu. Dari perut lebah itu keluar minuman (madu) yang bermacam-macam warnanya, di dalamnya terdapat penawar yang menyembuhkan bagi manusia. Sesungguhnya yang demikian itu benar-benar terdapat tanda kebesaran Tuhan bagi orang-orang yang memikirkan."

[ An-Nahl: 69 ]

Selamat beramal... =)

Disconnection

It's really weird to be at home without an Internet connection. Such a silent and boring life. That is what happening at my house currently; no Internet from 19/2 till 25/2/09 due to re-connection process from BeBox after the existing connection has been terminated by last tenant. Unfortunately, the procedure also needs the modem to be returned to BeBox..

I took the responsibility to find a replacement for our home broadband. At first, one of my housemates and I were looking for another Internet provider that is cheaper than BeBox. BeBox costs us £18 per month. The broadband options that we were looking at were Virgin, TalkTalk, Sky, AOL, Orange, O2 and Tiscali.

Tiscali is really promoting a great offer of £14.99 per month for broadband+phone line rental. But there is a very expensive connection and installation fee for a non-BT landline which is £99! To switch from Southern Electric to BT in getting cheaper fee of £30 and then apply the Tiscali broadband, we are required to be with BT for at least 12 month then only we are qualified to apply for Tiscali broadband. Aiseyh... ~

After going through some another options and listing down the pros and cons for each option, we nearly decided to sign up with Virgin which offers £5 for the first 3 months then only £12 per month afterwards. But we need to switch to BT first then only Virgin will be able to connect us to their broadband service. Hey, it seems that BT is dominating all the broadband services, doesn't it?

Although the combination of Virgin broadband+BT phone line rental is cheaper which is only £23 compared to what we currently have now that is £38; but the drawback of this option is that, the whole set-up will take time almost 6 weeks.. ! Oh no~

My housemate suggested that we just re-connect using the same provider that possibly quicker since they already have our home address and the connection cable installed. Although I did not really agree at first (because I want a cheaper one..hu) but we then contacted BeBox to seek advice and get clarification on the process after most of the housemates just wanted a quicker broadband re-connection. I myself can't endure such a 6-week-long period to have Internet back to my house. hu~

The BeBox operator told us that it was fine for us to re-connect using a new account after looking at the compatibility of our home phone landline. What is a big relief for all of us is that the set-up will only take one week rather than 6 weeks if we sign-up to another Internet provider. In addition to that, we do not need to return the modem but can just use the existing one. This really avoids waiting time for a new modem to arrive, plus no more connection cable set-up and installation need to be done.

...and another good news is, we will get free gift of £40 credit to our account after 3 months as well.. ^_^

Making a lot of calls here and there last Wednesday trying to resolve this issue made me falling sick. I had an acute sorethroat and headache that night, continuously until today that also made me worried that this might be a hint for a long fever after this.

My apology to all my friends for not being able to be contacted through YM and email for this period. Silent is my life now...

@ John Ryland Main Library,
Oxford Road,
The University of Manchester

A Gift

Today I received a parcel from somebody...

Guess what's inside..

It's my long dreamt mobile phone Sony Ericsson W910i White Gold... ~~

Thank you so much for the gift.. =)

Another dream

I really wanted a 160Gb or 250Gb-calculator-size-external-harddisk but always had no time to search and buy one... anyone wants to cheer me up by giving me another surprise? (",)

Let me put my address here for those who cares.. =) =)

Miss N Mohd Noor,
18 Deyne Avenue,
Manchester,
M14 5SY,
England,
UK.

p/s: Will be waiting for that somebody... (",)

Presentation and Demo

Alhamdulillah, hari ni telah berlangsungnya sesi pembentangan untuk 4th Year [MEng] Final Group Project. Sesi bermula pada jam 1.10pm dan berakhir tepat 3 jam selepas itu. 3 kumpulan dikumpulkan dalam ruang sebesar bilik darjah untuk membentangkan hasil kerja kumpulan masing-masing sepanjang Semester 1 (Sept 08-Dec 08).

Kumpulan aku mendapat giliran terakhir untuk sesi pembentangan. Kumpulan kami terdiri daripada 7 orang pelajar, tetapi Project Manager kami tidak dapat bersama-sama kami pada hari ini kerana menghadiri sesi temuduga kerja.

Aku meminta seorang rakan untuk merakamkan video sepanjang sesi pembentangan kumpulan kami menggunakan kamera Olympus aku sebelum pembentangan kumpulan kami bermula. Walaupun tidaklah bertujuan untuk membuat rakaman profesional (kerana terlupa bawa tripod dan juga kualiti video yang tidak lah sehebat jika menggunakan videocam/camcoder), tapi cukuplah kami dapat melihat persembahan masing-masing.

Banyak juga soalan-soalan yang diajukan untuk tajuk yang aku bentangkan iaitu tentang aspek "Hardware", terutamanya aspek sensors yang digunakan dalam projek Electric Go-Kart kami. Selamat aku dapat jawab... ~

4th Year [MEng] Electric Go-kart

Selepas hampir 20 minit bersoal jawab, akhirnya sesi itu berakhir dengan mendapat tepukan daripada semua yang hadir. Kami merakamkan gambar kenangan bersama-sama Supervisors dan semua ahli kumpulan yang hadir.

Berdiri di belakang, dari kiri: Prof. Forsyth (Supervisor 1), Owen, Steve, Chris, Ripon, Dr. Nigel (Supervisor 2).

Berdiri di hadapan, dari kiri: Aku, Am.

DEMO

Malam ni aku teruja nak berkongsi sesuatu yang baru sebenarnya. Seperti kakak senior aku yang teruja untuk menunjukkannya pada aku, aku pun betul-betul teruja untuk menunjukkan dan memberitahu orang lain..sebab aku percaya, tak ramai yang dah tahu tentang ini, macam aku dulu..hehe.

Korang tahu tak sebenarnya ada cara khas untuk makan puding gula hangus yang dibeli di kedai (yang siap di pek dalam bekas plastic kecil). Dahulunya aku terus je makan puding tu dari bekasnya selepas mengoyak penutup atas pek tu.. air manisan gula hangus yang terletak paling bawah adalah yang paling akhir dapat dirasa. Patut lah rasa macam tak kena je, rupanya bukan begitu cara makannya.. huhu..

Jadi, mari belajar cara yang betul makan puding gula hangus yang dibeli di kedai.. ^_^

1. Koyakkan penutup atas terlebih dahulu..



2. Ambil piring kecil, tutup permukaan atas pek puding. Kemudian telangkupkan. Sekarang base berada di atas.

3. Perasan tak pelekat di tengah-tengah base tu? Cabut pelekat kecil tu..

4. Tanggalkan pek..



Tadaaa…puding gula hangus siap dihidang di dalam piring dengan air manisannya bersama..


He..selamat mencuba.. =p

Cardiff Trip

I went to Cardiff last weekend alone since my housemate who was expected to go to Cardiff with me had no choice but to go to the Kursus Jati Diri dan Bina Insan MARA after her name was listed as one of the participants.

I was about to cancel the trip actually because I didn't want to go alone. I tried to get a refund from the rail provider the day before departure but I failed. Haven't even thought of changing the travel date to another future date, I assumed myself as not having any other options but to proceed. I departed from Manchester at 6.30pm on last Friday, 30th January.

It took 3 hours and half to reach Cardiff Central train station.

The train arrived 5 minutes earlier than expected. Waiting for me at the station was a friend of a friend that I called her Kak Sue.

On the way heading to her place, she told me that she wouldn't be able to bring me for sightseeing around Cardiff since she had her lab the next day unexpectedly. But she said she would surely pass me to her friends to accompany me during my tour in Cardiff.

Kak Sue called some friends of hers and finally she found suitable persons. Kak Sue said that they invited me to join them cycling the next morning. Wow! That was something that beyond the norm... cycling while touring around Cardiff... ^_^

On Saturday morning, I met my new friends; Mahfuzah and Izzati. We started off at 10.30am and went into Bute Park; the famous wonderful park in the centre of the Cardiff city. Passing through beautiful Taff Trail and Bute Park, we were actually in our exploration to find the shortest way to a hospital where Mahfuzah would be doing clinical attachment for her second year studies in Occupational Theraphy starting 2nd February and onwards.

With new friend, Mahfuzah.

We spent about 1 hour and half to explore the route in that really freezing cold weather. During our journey back home after successfully finding the hospital, we stopped and parked our bicycles somewhere and then heading down to the river bank to take some pictures.

There were some people canoeing in that river. The water was so clear that really attracted me to touch and feel it. It was so cold.... as what I expected.

After snapping some pictures by the river bank, we continued our journey back home. Later, Mahfuzah brought me to see the main building of Cardiff University and the National Museum Cardiff. We planned to go to Cardiff Bay by cycling afterwards but I just couldn't afford to be out any longer due to the weather, so we decided to cancel it and just went home straight away. Mahfuzah kindly invited me to come to her place for dinner that evening. What a warm offer from a new friend~ ^_^

I went to her house at 6pm that evening. Her house is just some hundred metres away from Kak Sue's house. Meeting and talking to Mahfuzah's housemates whose name is Faezah while waiting Mahfuzah preparing the meals, it was surprising to know that Faezah is actually my volleyballmate's friend since they were at Matriks. She said that she has been to Manchester last year and has had some overnights at a married couple's place near to Rusholme whom the husband was my ex-collegemate that I really knew. What a small world...

Mahfuzah actually invited Izzati and her housemate to come along as well, so there were quite a number of people having (special) dinner together that night. We ate while watching Buletin Utama from Faezah's laptop. Hehe, feeling so home.. ^_^

After dining, watching some TV programmes and having fun chit chat with all of them, I excused myself to go back to Kak Sue's house when the clock on the wall showed 10.15pm.

Cardiff Bay

The next morning, Mahfuzah brought me to a Quranic translation class at Darul Isra'; a small mosque where Malaysian students in Cardiff usually have their religion programmes during weekends and term breaks. I made another new friends there and indeed, His plans are always the best plans; He made 3 of them to join and bring me to Cardiff Bay that afternoon- the place that I really wanted to go.

After having our lunch and performing Zuhur prayer at Mahfuzah's place, it happened to be 7 of us going to Cardiff Bay. So we took a 7-seater taxi heading to Cardiff Bay.

It was not a long journey. It only took about 5 minutes by taxi. Although it was freezing cold and windy but the views were amazing. There are a lot of modern buildings resembling the art of human architechtural skills which makes Cardiff Bay so attractive to tourists and even for local people I believe.

At Cardiff Bay with 3 new friends.

We spent almost 1 and half hour touring Cardiff Bay but there were not much that we managed to cover. Although the sun suddenly came out and shone brightly, but it could do nothing to compensate the coldness. We made it a brief tour due to our disabilities to endure the extreme coldness. I think it is more appropriate to go there during the other seasons, not during Winter~ hu..

We went back to Cardiff Central city by bus which only costed £1.20 per person. It was 5 o'clock and I still had another 1 hour and half before heading back to Manchester from Cardiff Central train station.

All in all, it was really nice to spend my weekend there, with some new but friendly companions during my stay in Cardiff. They made me feeling so warmly accepted.. I laught a lot feeling so rejoiced with their entertainment .. what a good remedy and enjoyful moment that I'll never forget... =)

I arrived Manchester Piccadilly train station at 10.10pm, Sunday 1st February 09. Again, I was overjoyed to see that Manchester was snowing heavily that night. What a bless! ^_^

Snowing~ Snowing~

Subhanallah... Alhamdulillah... Allahuakbar... snowfall continued in Manchester until the next day. In fact, almost all parts in England were having heavy snowfalls in the past few days, which was said as the heaviest snow after 18 years.

In front of my house.

Snowy road..

Cute model. Hehe..

White Whitworth Park.

The heavy snowfall after the lecture.

Playing snow with some of MSc friends..


Weee~~~

Ok peeps. It's 2.02am overhere. I better go sleep now. Tomorrow will be the other new day with some works to settle with.. Yes, Final Project..

p/s: It's February already. Another 3 months++ to go to finish my MEng..

Final semester... let's pull up the socks.