Liverpool

The signage indicating the time the train to Liverpool will arrive in Manchestertrain terminal

I am in Liverpool port, 8th July 2010






Why Liverpool? Recently being top 3 city visited by tourist followed by Bath,Oxford, Manchester and York
Well, this is the birthplace of Beatles and you can also visit Liverpool football club.


Xy going through what we can see in Albert dock

A port formally used by migration from Liverpool to the whole new world




Explanation of the sculptor above


XY and me in Albert Dock


This is the port


The sea in front of Albert Dock building




Albert building


We are all in the "Yellow submarine"


The Beatles












Billy Fury, one of the rock and roll star



Along James Street
The street that lead to Albert Dock



Just as a reminded. This is James Street

Medieval building


At the end of Liverpool road leading to Albert Dock



Like Liverpool? Xing Yi ask


Film shooting


in front of Liverpool Train station

Taking a train to Liverpool, nearly 45 minutes

Manchester

On 7th July 2010. Manchester City



Tram tracks




Going through the shopping complex. on the right is Mark and Spencer




central bus terminal


One of Chinatown entrance

notice the bicycle lane marking. Good town planing

Xing Yi leading the way to china town

The Daisy Bank Hall, Dormitory.

Daisy bank hall (7/7/10)
at the main entrance


With me are parents of housemate attending the Convocation

This apartment was shared by 4 students. Each room has got an attached bathroom and toilet and overall estimated size per room is 14 ft by 8ft. Well, very comfortable for a student with internet ready. The boarding fee included electricity, internet, kitchen furnished and dining tools. The only utensils they purchased were cooking pans , bowls, plates and not to forget all the cooking ingredients.



XY cooking in the kitchen and with housemate before meal


XY resting in the early morning




Kitchen area


Dining area

What should we bring for a trip

Traveling in Europe and around UK

During our trip to Paris , we were advised to bring along our confirmed E ticket for when we return back to UK, the Immigration would want to see the proof that we have our return ticket to Malaysia . The reason for this strict checking was because there were so many illegal immigrants coming into UK. Well, my son has shown proof of my visit and also he being genuine UK student.

Well, every items that you get at the store are the same price as Malaysia except for the exchange rate. for example a box of plaster would be 2.25 pound over here and back in Malaysia it is also around MYR 2.00.. but if you consider after the exchange rate the plaster would be MYR 10.75 ( 2.25 x 5 ) . So you cannot visit UK and any Europe countries if you consider the exchange rate.

Medicine

My advise for Malaysia travellers are to bring all medical supply with them. You cannot buy medicine off the counter for every medicine needs a doctor prescription .The doctor consultant fee would likely be expensive excluding medicine

In my case , I took along this items for my trip but still forget to bring a few too

1) Panadol

2) Ducolax. Whenever we arrive at a new place after several hours of flight, we have to within 24 hrs discharge everything from our bowel. This will eventually help our body to adopt to a new environment. If you forget to bring this medicine, buy several oranges and eat them with the pulp might help.

3) Antiseptic cream for cuts etc

4) skin medical cream for rashes

5) Muscular pain cream. Most area to be visit need a lot of walking

6) Gastric tablet. even if you do not have gastric problem, the irregular meals time would cost alot of air in the stomach

7) Full medical check by our local doctor ( cheaper in Malaysia) and PLEASE tell him/her that

you are going for a journey.

Items that I have forgotten

1) Anti fungal cream

2) Callous cream

Foods

1. Coffee :3 in 1

2. Tea : 3 in 1

3. Instant noodle : in case you miss home or get scare of eating bread and maybe the cost of eating fast food like KFC , Mcdonald. The cheapest burgermeal is 4.75 pound ( MYR 22.75 )per set

4. Sweet : since each meals time will be different, advisable to eat something to avoid gastric

Toiletries

1. Tooth brush

2. Tooth paste

3. Shampoo: Like me , I have a very sensitive hair and dandruff will occur in case using the wrong type of .. I forget to bring mine and luckily, my son has it

4. Empty plastic bags : To keep all soil clothing for we might relocating to a new hotel everyday

. For me, we planned to have enough clothing until a certain destination, dropping by a closed friend place and to carry out the laundry work. as recommended by my son, if do not enough clothing ,we could drop by Primark and purchase extra T shirt of 1 pound!!!!. very good idea.

5. Extra bag: This bag must be collapsible. Well as you go through each country once might drop but souvenirs. Overall, you might ending up with a few extra kilos

UK, here I come

Why this trip?

For XY 's graduation. Finally he got it. I am in Manchester now. Yesterday spoken to my son on the University and what was his opinion on his final year .

"Dad, studying in UK is totally different for we have to carry out a lot of research on any topic assigned and that means more library time etc , No spoon feed!".

Costly if you start to converse the currency but the living over here in Manchester is quite ok if you cook at home.

Being here for the last 2 days, I have found out that he would prefer to cook . He would cook big bowl of dishes for dinner and the balance put in the fridge for breakfast!! This means that we were taking 2 meals a day at home and sometime skip lunch for when it was nearly lunch time when we woke up in the morning. Worse scenario, lunch outside during to our trip.

One word, he loves to cook. The weather here is very good, like Genting Highland in Malaysia and better still, it is dry and so not humid as in Malaysia so you do not sweat.

My Journey back to Manchester with him

On 6th July, XY took a flight from KL and waited for me in the airport for an extra 2 hours for he has booked his Penang to KL flight local ly and that was a great saving to him as compare to booking direct to Penang from Manchester both way. My flight was around 5.30pm. W hen I arrived at the airport, I could get out, applicable to Malaysian only, to meet him after getting my both boarding pass for Abu Dha bi and to Manchester from the transit counter.

He was waiting for me at the arrival hall and both of us went straight to departure hall so that he could check in at the Etihad counter. After checking in, we went to KFC to take our dinner for he wanted to try the spicy chicken for he has missed it for so long.

Inside KLIA rainforest

Our Flight

Etihad provided Boeing 777 for the whole journey to Manchester with 2 hours transiting in Abu Dhabi. While we were at the gate waiting for boarding, we were surprised to meet his housemate mum and sister who were also on their way to UK to attend the convocation. Our flight journey took 14 hours with additional 2 hours for transiting in Abu Dhabi from KL to reach Manchester.
Total traveling time : 14 hours


In KLIA, with Janet Mum and sister

Manchester on 7/7/10

The weather was fantastic and XY 's housemate was there waiting for her mum in the airport. XY planned that I should take the local bus. He bought for me a weekly bus ticket and the expiry date would be the day we left for Paris .Well, th e timing was perfect. XY told me that I could see more local livelihood by taking the bus from Airport to his dorm that includes the scenery of Manchester.

Inside the bus terminal, beside Manchester Airport

Janet and mum, me with Xing Yi at the bus terminal

Janet with mum,sister and XY


Walking to the Dorm

The double deck bus that we took to the Dormitory



Janet and family along Daisy Bank road

"Dad, this is the route we will walk to take our bus to class everyday and also to purchase our grocery at the Arab store, the cheapest grocery store so far."
For your info, during our first month in Manchester, we walk to our college almost everyday and eventually I bought a yearly bus ticket for the weather was getting very cold
.

What is life without Iphone

Catastrophic

Recently I found out that the button for my up and down volume came out and I could not find that tap button. I took my Iphone back to Maxis and on further checking by them, they decided to send it back to KL and then to Singapore for further analysis. Before allowing them to take away my Iphone, I went back home immediately to back up all my content. Demanded from Maxis to loan me an Iphone but was rejected for they do not have such service...

I am dead and lost for I need to have an immediate spare phone to communicate with the outside world. Further checking I was informed by the Maxis's technical staff to buy one that can syncs back all my contact from Google which I also back up from my Iphone.

Nokia 1202.

Immediately I went over to a shopping complex beside my office and hunt for a simple replacement unit. Finally bought this simple Nokia phone and immediately ask my colleague to forward me some important contact. I have always been depending on my Iphone on the contact no and I am getting mad for I could not recall any phone no from my dinosaur brain except those of my family and the only phone no I could recalled was that of my eldest sister home n, my wife, site offices and also my SPM no..
I am going back to the primitive world. This phone has all the basic function.
During today meeting with the Local authority, a call came through I do not even know how to lower down the ring volume but only manage to do so by walking out of the room. bad !!!!!. I am really too dependent on the Iphone.

No networking, email ,news scientific calculator ...........

The main reason for me to buy an Iphone was to have immediate access with my youngest son in UK. Anytime I log in into Nimbus , I could see him either in Skype, Live messenger, Facebook and unfortunately not on Oovoo. and start a chat in case I needed to . Now cannot at all.
Communicating with him is total dead except for normal phone call and sms which will be costly since Wifi is not available in my temporary hand phone.
Recently he has gone to Budapest, in Hungary for short holiday. I could not see the local time over there. With Iphone , I have accessed to all the international time and will also know the time difference in relation to Malaysia. Maybe because I do not want to get another type of smart phone like Nokia 71 or 72 or other brand due to problem of understanding another type of hand phone all over again . No point at all for Iphone should be my best companion at this time . Well hope my Iphone could be returned to me soon by Apple agent, Maxis.
One headache problem was I could not event flip through my email when I am on the move. A computer Geek!!! No but just to stay connected with the outside world at ease. Well, the only time I could stay connected is when I return home , home sweet home. to be in front of my desktop computer.

Tanjong Bungah's community

Younger days.

Being born in Penang and a local village boy, I would said that I am very lucky. Well, first you were exposed to multi-national community , Chinese , Malay , Indian, Gukha and not to forget the Australian, RAAF( Royal Australian Air Force), who were here for the International security of South East Asia and also the sudden present of the American Army. And finally ,The Hippies, who were here during the outbreak of the Vietnam war.

The Gukha,



Why they were here I do not know but in my mind , they were well trained military force and ensuring security were their main work. They were the minority and I always remember the special knife that they have, The Kukri.


The kukri

As quoted in Wikipedia:
Gurkhas are best known for their history of bravery and strength in the Indian Army's Gorkha regiments and the British Army's Brigade of Gurkhas. The Gurkhas were designated by British officials as a "Martial Race". "Martial Race" was a designation created by officials of British Indiaself sufficiency, physical strength, resilience, orderliness, the ability to work hard for long periods of time, fighting tenacity and military strategy. The British recruited heavily from these Martial Races for service in the British Indian Army.^[3] to describe "races" (peoples) that were thought to be naturally warlike and aggressive in battle, and to possess qualities of courage, loyalty,

The memory that I have on them was the peculiar way they would kill the chickens and their present in May 13th incident where one of them has to be stationed in front of my father's grocery shop to prevent people from looting after the curfew was lifted, if I could recall. I could be wrong on this.

The American Army

Not much I could recalled was only the sudden present in Penang during the period when they were retreating from the Vietnam war. They would drove the Jeep to Georgetown from Telok Bahang. "The American Army has landed"
They would dropped by my father grocery shop for the some food stuff. My father managed to buy the army biscuit from them. Consuming 2 pieces were enough to fill an empty stomach.

They were given a very special place , a secluded beach where few hikers would go there due to the distance from Telok Bahang .


The American army jeep


The Hippies

How long could their grow? and how dirty they could be. Memory of Woodstock

The RAAF
I was very fond of them for it was from them that I have collected the first set of die cast army model which they throw away during their individual family retreat from Penang.
They would placed them nicely beside the dustbin and being a very young boy, finding these type of toy was like a heavenly gift. How expensive to purchase and I have seen them in certain shops but dare not ask my dad to buy it.
Then there were the comics which I could buy in the local book store and not to forget
the many English novels that they would exchange or sell with the Australian
Even I was given a Christian name, Peter, by them during one of their gathering for they could not pronounce my Chinese name.



The Local Chinese , Malay, Indian community

cont ........................

Do you drink alcohol?

The Construction man always drink.!!!!
(this topic is not intended to offense any construction man out there whose tough works need to be appreciated)

This Chinese New Year is a very interesting one for me for this is the very first time I was bombarded with this questions by my neighbor children.

Questions and Answers.
Q. Is it true that all construction staff drink?
A. Not exactly all but around 90% do it.

Q. Then why do you not drink ???
A. Well, I do now for a simple reason, Medical. To flush out my kidney stone if any are present with beer, tiger beer , as recommended by certain close friends.
Only for a glass after my dinner and not more for my head will start to spin.

Q. You mentioned that you have been traveling due to your job, Iran, Indonesia,
Sarawak ,Thailand .... what make you not picking up this habit?
A. I always ask myself this question. " What is the main purpose of working
oversea?
The answer: To earn enough for your future. It has always been tough when over
there,the work load and homesick too.When you abroad I must make sure that at
all time, I do loose my mind due to the booze but to be always on alert. To return
home safely after each dinner.
Hence, I lied that I am allergy to drinking whenever I attended a dinner. That
really is a good reward to me eventually

Q. Is that the main reason?
A. Yes but mainly to return home to your own bed, not ending up with a (lady) in
another bed and be ready for tomorrow work or events. Nobody will give you
a helping hand if you are in trouble.......HIV!!!!>

Q. You have seen many people getting drunk. What is your opinion?
A. I am not an expert in drinking but I am sure that you should not drink with an
empty stomach. Eat something before drinking. Other then this, the worse is
when your buddy started to give you all sort of drink i.e: beer, wine,brandy and
whisky. You will be mixing them in the stomach and the result will be bad.

Q. I see.....!!
A. Finally to have self determination is very important." No means No". that include
smoking.

I have once consumed too much alcohol and lucky for me my site is quite near so i drove there and upon arrival, my site guard let me in and I took a short nap, nearly an hour. before continuing the rest of my journey home. I recalled that one of the manager did not went home straight but parked his car by the road and took a nap inside the road site drain . Just imagined how smelly when he got home...But then he has his family worrying as to why he has never got home that night.

In another incident, one of my staff just stood still outside the restaurant and pee!!!! Well, the most problematic was when some of my staff have to carry the drunken one
home up the hill through the trekking footpath. Just imagine how heavy and smelly he was when he vomited on the way home.
To some whose family cared for them, show down in the following morning!

Why do they end up like that ????
You see it has to do with the word< Contractor Dinner!!! Even before the start of the dinner, all the contractor will drinking and jeering the staff to drink in empty stomach. When food was served, they would go to each table again to pour alcohol into every available empty glasses. To play smart, keep your glass fill up with Chinese tea and stay cool when persuaded to drink., so sorry I am on medication...blurr.....blurr........ But then not every contractors' dinner were like these. When you were siting with consultant engineers , they would normally drink with control...smart... ah hah! educated section!! . not the rowdy group..... So far all staff were lucky for they reached their home safely with the help of the non drinkers. If ever I were to drink, I would enjoy it in my home for I could just go straight to bed when I start to be feel tipsy. Cheers , now is the time . Happy Chinese New Year to all of you. Kong Xi Fa Chai. ..............you could hear that the youngster at the corner were playing the card game....... .. ...Ha Ha Ha! 23/2/09 Dinner with the Adjuster Tonight I was very lucky to seek some of the reasons why people drink and get drunk from some new guests in the table that I was in. Well he highlighted that mostly this will happen when they drink a different type of drink for example if you are drinking beer then stick with beer and do not drink wine or whiskey later. Normally mixing of the drinks in the stomach will happen when the host comes ushering everyone to drink and by then beer could have been finished and wine and whiskey are only available. He commented that no matter how good a drinker one maybe, he would be drunk at the end of the dinner. Well, as usual ,they were surprised as to why I did not drink tonight? Real reason I was on medication due to my toothache.
What was the reason some people drink? Well, to get rid of problems. Is that so then I am not that type. Well, I remember that when I was having high stress over my job, I could not sleep but to go down to the street and walk until I was really tired. It happen when I was in Singapore and I was lucky to have a policeman who was on beat and he actually accompanied me walking a few blocks and final informing me that my block was over there and and it was late and I should tried to go back to sleep. We really have a good chat when walking through the condo.
There are many ways of getting rid of stress. Another way was to surf the internet until you eyes get heavy for bed and like what I am doing right now is to write my blog. ...............

Obeiliao, trying to be a lecturer!!

Oh mine, he is serious about it!!!
Don't play play for he will burst your eardrum with this giant microphone. watch out!!!

A Song. "When he is coming round the mountain , when he comes..............."

Could it be in the family blood that most of us are borne teachers?
Well, coming from a family of 5 members , excluding my parent, all are teachers ( husband and wife ) except for my eldest brother and me having a different career, a banker and construction project manager. But then ,my eldest brother was also an Editor in MIT for her Sloan Management Review journal for 1974 and 1975...I could still find the copies in the bookshelf upstairs.

Does it really run in the blood? How did I start off this teaching habit?

One fine day, I received a call from my contract manager, Miss Tan M.L. telling me that a group of student from TAR (Tungku Abdul Rahman college ) wish to visit our site and our boss has commented that it could dangerous for them at this time. Miss tan recommended I could give them a pet talk on construction methodology in the our main office lecture studio. Well, I agreed and I have 1 week to prepare my note and lecture. Lucky for me ,on hand at the site, we happened to have a civil engineer trainee ( Ng Yong Kai) from UTM( Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.) who helped me with power point presentation.



Mr. Yong Kai Ng ,fine tuning before the start of the lecture.
He is good in IT too. surprised lah but proven .Coordinate very well in the lecturing time

Sitting down ,I started to gather notes that I have presented to another group of University student earlier with the helped of my Architect, Puan (Miss) Zaida, an Architect graduated from US.
As usual I did a work breakdown structure which I have read through in Microsoft Project.
With that , Mr Ng started tocompile all the lecture notes and placed them in sequence .
and trial run with me before the big doom day!!


Lecture time for TAR on
30/6/09



A short briefing with the students. testing lah
Look carefully ,is his hand shaking?




Handling out the notes ..................................and a few casual words with them



My God! my Technical Engineers and QS staffs are also attending. Looking very serious is IR. Chow & IR Heng. Better shorten the lecture for they could bombard you with further
question!!!! Ha Ha...



Let start the lesson. My heart is pumping fast>>>!!!!!!!! and field photo shot with plans to make it more interesting.



The reward. All of them are not snoring or sleeping and in fact laughter too are heard in the lecture hall.

We make it...........

Other site visit on 24/3/09 by UITM students.
2 buses but not to worry for IR Chow was at site to help out.


Ushering the student together for their safety


Tips on being a good speaker.

1. It is very natural for one to be scared
2. When talking look into the hall and not in front only
3. Make sure to add some jovial note here and there.
4. Always remember, for every trial speech make, one will gain to have more
confidence
5. Grab the chance to speak if given in order to be outspoken.
6. Whatever you can think of to make the speaker and floor audience laugh? .........
7. Good or bad comments are highly appreciated .
8. Brain storming of the events after completing it.

The Proof read.

Proof read:
Means : To read a book or articles before it is published in order to find and mark mistakes that need to be corrected

How good is your English Language?

To some of my colleagues, my English seems to be good but they do not know I always line up at the very last in my whole family. Let me tell you a short story of what happen to me . Since young I do not have the interest to study and as such my life should not end as a full time plantation boy, I started to concentrate on my education and .....not so late for me to turn over a new leave for the warning came from my eldest Boon in his letter to my late father on time. At that time, my brother was studying in MIT( Massachusetts Institute of Technology) wrote a strong letter to my Dad asking him to draw me out from the plantation work and concentrate in my study. Why did he know that I have a language problem. Well, shame to say that for every letter my mum and dad asked to reply for them to my brother, all the letters would be send back to me and all my mistakes would be proof read. Just imagine the cost of the extra postage sending them back to me. Well, being a brother ,he was not worry about that cost for his action are well justified.

To me, I was very surprised to receive each time a letter from my brother, thicker than you could imagine. Opening them , I would feel sad for I did not know why I could not improve my English. Well, till today, I still have problem as commented by my eldest sister.

Now ,Now, why they are good and I am bad in my English? Let find the root cause

Could it be this? The story goes...
During our younger days , my 2nd elder brother would always buy back some comics for example Superman , Green Lantern, Spiderman and not to forget my sister with her Mill& Boons story books and we would all look at comics only upstairs when my dad and mum were not around. Just imagined when she was there , we would hid them underneath their bed ( not for the M&B for there are no pictures in them) . Even then my English was not better for one day, my 2nd elder brother was called by his teacher , Miss Lim, to the staff room to complain and also ask why my English was so bad. Well, she was very kind and she was wondering why I have that problem and my brother does have not it

I started to improve my English from that day and managed to get a credit in MCE. Lucky for me, I have got a place in a Technical college as this was my sister recommendation to my parent. He is better in practical and not a scholar>>>!!! . Till today. I appreciated and thank to bottom of my heart to my eldest sister for guiding me into the right career , Civil Engineering.

Time goes by very fast and finally my Eldest brother graduated and returned to KL, transferred back from NY by his bank. Staying with them , I realized that they spend most of the time reading and would flip their head up just to watch the TV when hearing some special news from it. As usual, my brother would said to me in one of the night that I should pick something to read other than my technical books.

Just before I forget, he was also the one that encouraged me to take up computer studies. I did immediately but unfortunately I have to do it in Thailand. Anyway, when I was back to Penang constructing Hotel Equatorial, I went to Perkim Goon to study computer programming .

I remember this words from him. PT, do you know that MIT help to save cost for a project by using computer." as from that day , I took up Autocad lesson in Thai language and bought my own additonally computer chip to be places into the company computer in order to run Autoccad version 11 ( if I am not mistaken)

Now being a blogger, I would still have to correct my mistakes and I am very happy for I have found my proof reader, my sister. Thank sister...........



Reading my blog articles and editing them , very Serious lah


And even refer to a dictionary to prove the existence of a word......Serious teacher...

As for my sons, I do not know how they fair in their English and I presumed that XY will be better for he always carry a dictionary to class during school hour for his reference and finally lost it before graduating from CL. Just for better English , I decided to buy an updated dictionary ,Collins cobuild Advanced Dictionary.