Summer Rain

It’s summer and the longest day has gone by – 21st of June. Summer in London can be good but yesterday we had an unexpectedly heavy showers, with HAIL. Yes – in the middle of summer, this can happen in London. Well, we were under a tree in regent’s park having our picnic with the Serbians and this rain just started pouring. The funny thing was that it was totally dry when we got out of the tube station at E&C!

Transfer Exam

So, I finally finished my transfer exam! Phew – passing this should be a relieve. Unfortunately, I am feeling more stressed and excited at the amount of work ahead. Preparing for the presentation was easy, but cutting it down to 30 minutes was difficult. Having practiced it so that it lasts 30-40 minutes, I was shocked that I finished in less than 25 minutes. But, I was glad that they was a good turnout to the presentation and interesting questions that were raised. The best part was that the examiners seem pretty nice – has a chat and constructive feedback about the work going forward.

Presentations are not too bad afterall, is it? Especially being a GTA that teaches UGs how to give a good presentation…

Kayaking Adventure

We went kayaking down Jurassic Coast, Weymouth on Saturday. Thankfully the weather was good, clear skies(with white clouds, not grey), sunny and breezy day – perfect for kayaking. Well, the 3-hour drive was a bit long but the scenery was worth it. So, kayak we did – accompanied by an instructor (quite the ‘comel’). 2.5-3 hours of kayaking is no easy business – easpecially because we can’t stop. Anytime we stop, we will be pushed back by the waves which is in the opposite direction on the way out. Jurassic Coast is known for  many fossil discoveries as well as the rock formation along the coast. Unfortunately, coordinating the kayak with your partner and navigating at the same time is a bit of a multitask that we did not particularly have a good look at the rock formation.

Halfway through, we stopped behind some rocks to get away from the waves and were given some chocs and water to endure the next part of the journey – the hard bit. There’s a door like structure that we were meant to kayak through. Unfortunately, the wind was too strong causing our kayak to capsize! So Fei and me we trown off our boat – interesting experience that I’m glad it happened! A bit refreshing to continue our journey. The instructore, Tony was awesome in that he managed to get us both on board again. The journey back to the shore was very rough with high waves – but we managed to get back without capsizing again!

We hiked up the hill and manage to get a good view of the water form the top – really like Mild Seven advertisement that I used to see when I was young!

Maths Quiz

This is a simple quiz taken from Radzian’s blog . Do have a go!

This is a mathematical challenge, and it’s been said that: If you’re an engineer, you should be able to solve it in (under) three minutes (more like 30 seconds), if you’re an architect, in three hours; if you’re a doctor, in six hours; if you’re an accountant, in three months and if you’re a lawyer, probably never. What is the missing number in this logical series? 1, 2, 6, 42, 1806, ____??? Good luck !

Sister Act – the musical

The 48-hours tube strike can be said as a blessing in disguise, at least for my two friends and me – as we got free tickets to watch Sister Act at the London Palladium. The seats were not great – but can’t complain for the free tickets! It is a newly opened musical in London, based on the popular movie released in 1992. I remember that I used to watch that movie over and over again as the music was good. Albeit difference songs, the adaption was well played by all the characters. Delores was really superb – matching the act of Whoopi Goldberg herself. Funny, witty and entertaining are words to describe this musical – a must watch for all the muscial fans out there!

Malaysia being mentioned in Popular Movies/TV Series

I was just watching Seinfeld the other day when they mentioned that someone had bought a paid of glasses from Malaysia. It was a pleasant surprise to have people mention your country – especially in the 90s when Malaysia was not really on the map. This was in Seinfeld Season 6, Episode 13(The Scofflaw).

Then I remembered Zoolander, with Ben Stiller acting as a male model wanting to kill the Prime Minister of Malaysia. A few times Malaysia was mentioned, but the name twisted to be Micronasia and something else. That I felt, was quite offensive to be honest! I guess the scriptwriters might have thought that ofending 26 million people is ok. Out of there, how many will actually watch the movie? To be fair, Malaysians are huge fans of American movie. However, from the 26m, only half might even think of watching (the rest either being too young or too old). Of that half, half might actually watch it. Of that, half or more would be watching a pirated version – how to complain. Technically only about 3.25 million would actually bother to watch it in the cinema/but the dvd, giving them the right to be outraged by it.

It is good that Malaysia is being mentioned in these shows. However, it is also important that we put ourselves on the map and for that we need an image. A holiday destination is a good start. For instance, Malaysia is often mentioned in  Bollywood and tamil movies as somewhere modern yet exotic. And this definitely helps with the tourism industry. The world needs to know what we are good for something – and these positive attributes in movies will help, especially since the twin towers that put us on the map will fade off when Burj Dubai(highest tower in the world) becomes fully operational and draws all the attention.