# Temporary closure

Temporary non-activity due to final exams in progress. Will be back after 8 May.

Hehe... Sneak preview - Will be going to Santorini Island with a bunch of friends right after exam from 2nd May to 8 May. Very looking forward to the trip!

I just can't sit still thinking of the trip!

# Yassar Halim

When we was having a stroll along Green Lanes, we passed by the groceries shop that we buy our foodstuff from - Yassar Halim. It sells normal groceries such as vegetables, meat, fruits, and it has its own bakery which makes a variety of cakes, breads and Turkish delicacies. I enjoy shopping there for its large diverse variety of vegetables available at cheap price, its fast and efficient service, as well as for the yummy cakes which I like to have as dessert. ^_^

The picture below shows the shop - the green one is where they sell their groceries, the white one is their bakery. Notice the extra bit of white shop on the right side? That's their extension of bakery.Yassar Halim

When we saw a newspaper cutting stuck to the front window of the shop...

We exclaimed a big "WOW"!!!

Yassar Halim, the very place we get our groceries, is considered as one of the "100 Shops to Visity Before You Die"!!! It ranked along with shops like NikeTown, HMV and Selfridges in Oxford Street, Apple store in Regent Street, etc... Boy, were we proud!

I like the idea of Evening Standard campaigning for small shops, against the giant supermarket chains which always kill all the local business with their megamarkets and unfair price wars. An obvious example would be Tesco, who has not only infiltrated most markets in UK, but expanding overseas into Asian markets. In my own small hometown Sungai Petani, the arrival of Tesco practically killed many of the small groceries stores - they simply couldn't compete with the low-price goods and large-variety-store of Tesco. It is quite sad actually, especially many of the storekeepers are either our friends or relatives.


I don't despise mega stores or chains, but it is some unfair competition to put small shops with giant stores side by side to compete. Well, free market allows the survival of the fittest, but it ignores the softer side of the society - the local culture, the community, the tradition.

For developing urban area with expanding population, it may be all right to put in new mega stores to cater to the growing population demand for a variety of goods and services. But for small towns with dwindling population and small local community, putting a mega store would just saturate the market and squeeze out all the small competitors. Free market competition argument is just not right here, due to the different market setting and sizes.



On the softer side, I personally think that local culture and tradition is important to preserve the local identity of the community. It is those small shops that we always have closer bonds with - we know the owners well, and we chit chat about our lives and take care of one another within the neighbourhood. Doing daily groceries is some enjoyment, having the chance to communicate with our neighbours and friends. In big mega chain stores, such kind of interaction is far less, the services might be more efficient and fast, but do we actually know, and care about those army of workers in the store? Or rather, we just hastily do our weekly shopping and speed off to cater to our much-more-important-things-to-do?

... Perhaps, my thinking has been more old-fashioned.
... Perhaps this is just the thinking of a small-town girl, who has yet to embraced the big-city mindset of not bothering about any other people, but solely minding your own business. But sometimes I do wonder, how do city people feel happy in such kind of environment?

# Happy Easter!

It's the time of the year again...

HAPPY EASTER!!!

# Canary Wharf

This is is London's traditional financial centre, The Square Mile, Canary Wharf. These three buildings are the three tallest buildings in UK - One Canada Square, HSBC Tower, and Citigroup Centre. Although not as impressive as US's skyscrapers, these are considered some "WOWs" for UK.

I have been to Canary Wharf a few times to visit friends, and I could always feel a difference between the place and the Central London.

Central London is full of people and activities, and lots of buildings scattered everywhere. People are rushing, crowds are shoving, street-sellers are shouting out prices of their goods, shops are busy, shopping streets are packed full of crowd, weather was crappy as usual traffic was haphazard...

Canary Wharf is full of tall buildings, and lots of working people wearing suits, carrying solemn looks. The place is spacious, and cleanliness is maintained. I like the cleanliness, but somehow, I feel some feelings of emptiness when I was there a few times.

I don't know how to describe it, the place seems perfect and nice, well-planned and well-maintained, but it lacks of a feel of... life. I know it's somewhat a crazy notion, but that's the feeling that the environment gave me.

Just like these statues, the place feel the lack of "Living Qi"

Perhaps it is due to the fact that the whole place is such a concrete jungle that the "Qi" that it exudes is that kind of cold, metal "Qi".

The "metals"...

Perhaps it is because the city garden is man-made landscaped that it look too fake.

Perhaps it is due to the fact that the place is only full of working people, looking serious and rushing for work during weekdays; and become lifeless during weekend when nobody is around.

Some French-style open air cafe. Only difference was the seats in France were full, here most are empty.

Perhaps it is because I have been too used to living in places in London like Wood Green or Whitechapel which are so pack full of activities, street markets, all kinds of people (different races, different backgrounds, different social classes), where almost everyday we can hear police siren going off or see police cars zooming past. (Hmm... it's starting to sound a bit like the dodgy end of London now...)

Perhaps I'm a bit too particular about places, but I prefer a place which there are some communities and people and activities, where we can observe life going on, than a place which are clean and beautiful and well maintained, but somehow you just don't feel you belong there in someway.

Canary Wharf is really nice and clean and meets all the requirement of proper town-planning. I enjoyed my leisure strolls with friends at the place, I enjoyed the calm feeling I have with the quiet surrounding. But somehow, I just can't feel I can actually belong the the place like that.

More photos taken in Canary Wharf.

# From P2S to DSLR?

I remembered that about two years ago, I have pondered about changing my camera from point-to-shoot to DSLR. I have found interest in photography, and has always envied the people with proper canggih camera which can do wonders to the shots.

At that time, I was still having my BenQ DC2300, an extremely simple, basic digital camera.

This baby, BenQ DC2300, which is now out of production, was my first ever camera, also, the first ever digital camera. It was a gift from daddy, he bought it for me in PC Fair, before I leave home to study in UK. I still remembered his words, "Take photos and send back to us ya, especially photos with you inside!" Thinking back, I just felt so grateful to have such a loving daddy who has brought me up with love, care, encouragement and support...

BenQ has been with me for a few years, despite its lack of functions, I still love it very much. It is, after all, the first digital camera for me to explore the world of photography. During my first year in university, I brought it almost anywhere I go. I realized that since having a camera, I have started to notice simple, beautiful moments that should be captured and kept as memories.

Simple moment like this...

While having BenQ, I have been eyeing greedily with the various new cameras that my friends have. I still remembered I have been laughed at most of the time for having the most out-dated cameras in the market, hehe, but that made me more passionate to brush up my photography skills to compensate the technical weakness. And I have told myself, one day I'm gonna save enough money to buy a proper DSLR.

After some time, my passion somehow died down a bit, maybe due to there is no photography buddy whom I can share interest with, nor can I find any "sifu" to learn more proper skills. I'm really lucky to have bumped into JY and Ozzy, who are good in photography, and much more committed and avid photographer than myself. Made me feel shameful for being so slack. :-)

Both of them have helpfully taught me more about photography, and with their encouragement, I am starting to ponder again to get a DSLR. My Yangyang has been very sweet to offer to buy one for me,*muaks*, and now we are looking into a few models.

Anyway, I have been looking at a few entry-level DSLR, suggested by friends, for example Canon EOS 400D, Nikon d40 and Sony Alpha. I have looked into reviews from various sources to compare and choose the one which would be (hopefully) more suitable for my use as a hobbyist. For some unknown reason, I am attracted to Nikon d40, probably due to its affordable price, or some unexplainable attraction it has on me. Hehe.

Would it be D40 for me? I wonder...

Anyone with any recommendation or hands-on review on DSLR? I am a beginner switching from P2S to DSLR, and would not be going too deep into really expensive hi-specs ones. Currently I'm more inclined to D40, but would be glad to hear any other opinions and suggestions. :-)

DSLR, here I come!

# Unviewable?

As I am writing this post, I am having problems viewing all of the blogs which are under Blogger account. All blog page under blogspot.com just turned out blank when I entered the page. Wonder whether this happens to anyone else...

Drop a comment if you are experiencing the same problem. I have enable forwarding of the comments to my email. Hope I can solve this web-viewing problem soon...

*UPDATE*
My blog! My blog is back to me! Yay!!!

For more than a week, my ISP somehow (for unknown reason) blocked me from viewing all Blogger blogs. I have had to use some anonymous free proxy service to surf blogs. More inconveniently, the anonymous service somehow blocked me from logging in to comment on blogs. I am so glad when today, suddenly, I can access to blogs with just a click to the direct link. YAY!!!

Pray pray the ISP doesn't throw tantrum again...

*UPDATE 2*(09/03/2007)
Nooooo!!! Stupid ISP blocked Bloggers blogs again!!! Now I can't comment on blogs again!!! Noooooo!!!

# Pancake Day!

20th February 2007 is the Pancake Day! (Also known as Shrove Tuesday)

Shrove Tuesday is commonly used in UK, Ireland and Australia. The day comes after Collop Monday and before Ash Wednesday, where the Lent season begins.

So why are pancakes associated with the day signifying the start of the Lent?

There is an explanation that there is a 40-days period of Lent of fasting, during which only plain food may be eaten. Food considered "rich" like eggs, milk and sugar are disposed before the fasting starts. So, a way to use up these perishable goods is to make pancakes and doughnuts, which in a way gives people a minor celebratory feast before the pain fast starts.

According to wikipedia, the word "shrove" is a past tense of "shrive", its meaning is to obtain absolution for our sins by confessing and doing penance. Shrove Tuesday gets its name from the shriving that Anglo-Saxon Christians were expected to receive immediately before Lent.For a non-christian like me, Pancake Day have a different meaning... It means, YUMMY!!!

My housemate made some salty pancakes, in which she added onions and peppers and other stuffs. They taste yummy, it's a totally different taste from the traditional ones.

I prefer the sweet ones, so I took out all my long-neglected flour (hope it is still useable) and eggs and sugar and everything...
and after 15 minutes... they're done!

As I squeezed the honey all over my pancakes, I can't help taking a closer look at these beauties...

And an even closer look...

I like to stack the pancakes up, and cut them in layers. It saves space and time too. Here I come, pancakes!

# Piggy Year!

It's piggy year! It's my year! I have survived through the second cycle of Chinese almanac! Yay!

There is a lot of confusion and debate on whether 2007 is a "Fire Pig" year or a "Golden Pig" year. Many confused "Red Pig" with "Golden Pig" as well. Checking with I-Ching shows this year is indeed a "Fire Pig" year, yet many mainstream media keep promoting the "Golden Pig", and even major banks went all out with their golden-pig-savings-account, blah blah... After all, "Golden" pig sure sounds better than some "fire" piggy. Now let's see what these people say when the real "Golden" pig comes...

Even before CNY arrives, sweet Sharon made us some wonderful cookies, like Almond Rosettes, Almond Melting Moments, CNY Peanut Cookies, and White Choclate Chip Cookies... She is so good in baking, her peanut cookies are one of the best I have had! I can't help remembering another time when she made us extra-chocolatey brownies which made me go crazy for days!

As CNY was creeping near, everyone was busy doing food shopping, card shopping, gift shopping, etc etc. I felt the pain when buying the expensive chinese new year card in Chinatown, oh how I miss the beautiful yet cheap cards in Malaysia!

The various shops in Chinatown really went all out to get business during Chinese New Year. As usual, the "Prosperous" symbolical items are up for grabs. Besides the normal crystal trees, "Fuk Lok Shao", miniature Shaolin monks etc, there was also a lot of "GOLDEN" pigs in ALL shops. Suddenly piggy banks are collectible items...

Some street hawkers set up their stalls along the streets too, posing competition to the shop sellers. There was a myriad of CNY decoration items, and the "Redness" all around could really blind people sometimes.

More redness overload...

The dragon decided to join the celebration too...

For me, it is always nice to have a walk in Chinatown London during the festive season. You get to see the lantern display, the bustling of crowd, some friendly westerners wishing us Happy New Year... I particularly like to have a stroll during the night, where all the lights displays were switched on.

And there are these same old three huge tanglungs which are always hung on the three gates at the three entrances to the main street of Chinatown.

I stopped to give a pat to the stone lions guarding the street too, it's new year after all.

There are also some other things which were must-do's during CNY.
Like buying egg tarts from Kowloon...

And having a good meal of Dim Sum with a bunch of good friends!

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!
HAPPY PIG YEAR TO ME!

# Challenge

I should have put up my Chinese New Year post, but I have been slacking and procrastinating...

So for the time being, I should put up a challenge for anyone who is interested to try out.

The challenge is:
Listen to this song. Listen till the end.
Do not pause, do not fast-forward, do not switch to other songs.
See how long you can suppress your laughter.

Remember, you must listen till the end. :-)

# Phew...

Did a class presentation today, and realized I felt so nervous when talking in front. I was quite surprised actually, as I don't normally feel nervous during other times of presentations. Fumbled a lot and did a lot of mistakes, but I'm glad that it was finally over.

Felt a bit like that

Feedbacks from friends were very helpful. I sounded too fierce, like YY described, "sounds like a primary school who teach with a serious face". Haha, perhaps I have been too used to teaching in class already. I wonder whether I have been like this when teaching last time, but somehow the students still bullied me. =_=!!!

I think JY's comment was very true, he said that I sounded fierce because I felt scared, and by "intimidating" the audience, I alleviate my fear. It's good to have someone giving constructive comments. I will improve myself in future presentations, especially in BNM where there are listless of presentations coming up...

Another thing I realized from this presentation is that strangely, I feel much more at ease giving presentations to a much larger group of strangers, than to friends I know. Maybe with friends, we have been hanging out everyday, and it felt so awkward to have to stand in front of all of them to speak... It certainly feels much more comfortable sitting in smaller circle, talking crap discussing homework and etc..

Anyway, I think this presentation has given me a good lesson. I certainly need to learn to overcome the anxiety, and I need to relax and smile.

Smile, and the world smile with you.

# Snow again!

It snowed again! And this time, it's proper heavy snow - in fact, the heaviest snow I have ever witnessed during my four-year stay in London. There has been lots of "publicity" for this long awaited snow, from BBC weather forecast to tabloid newspaper to betting agency. I have been excited waiting for the snow to come.

Despite proclaiming loudly that I will wake up early to see the snow, my housemate had to literally drag me out of my bed to wake me up. *shame*. I pulled apart my curtains and saw this...

I took a closer look and saw this!

IT IS SNOWING!!! I mean, I have seen fallen snow before, I have also seen snow falling before, but those were all out of London! In London, I have not seen a proper snowing before. I got caught in a hail before, but not snow. The snow I saw in London are always on the ground, and they look more icey than snowy.

We immediately put on all our jackets and ran out to greet the snow. It is falling! Falling!

And remembering my family has been complaining that I always take too many photos without me actually INSIDE the photos, I decided to be good once in a while and post this half-awake-YD-with-snow-falling-onto-her-head photo to let my loved ones back home know I am healthy and happy here. :-)


And while we have been frolicking in snow and trying to catch snowflakes with out tongues, there were some neighbours trying to clear away the layers of snow from their car. I wonder what they were thinking about us chattering excitedly and taking pictures of everything.


As the snow gets heavier, Ray took out his umbrella while I was still prancing about in the snow. I took the opportunity to take a shot of his dazed look while looking at my hyperactive behaviour.


No, we didn't make snow angels on the ground. It's way too dirty to do that in London street. I decided that I must at least leave some footprints in the snow to commemorate this rare event. So I chose a clean patch of snow-covered corner... and started walking backwards to make the footprints! kekekeke...


Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

# Fav artwork

There are many ways we can interpret the drawing...
But for me, this drawing meant a lot to me, and I felt very touched at the bottom of my heart.

Explanation:

This is a drawing by a person who loves sea very much.
He has been sailing a lot in earlier times, but later his direction of life changed.
He loves the underwater world - the fantasy, the fascinating creatures in the water.
But he has fear as well, fear of the sinking of ship, and death in the sea.
He fears the loneliness under the dark sea too,
so he has his loved one, a piggy, by his side to stay by him.

Further explanation:
The piggy represents his loved one's chinese almanac. ;-)
FMC is a side advertisement for his current company.

# Snow!

Thanks Panda for his concern on my safety during the storm. I'm all warm and safe. Interestingly, I did not realize the severity of the storm until reading the news, despite being out almost the whole day. It was the last day of our examination, probably we were too excited to notice the storm, although we did feel the extremely strong wind on the street.

The news and weather forecast reported of sudden drop of temperature and forecasted snow. For once, UK's weather forecast seemed to be sufficiently accurate - the temperature dropped, and the snow came, except that it came late. ;-)

When I parted the curtains in the morning, I was pleasantly surprised with the snow-covered backyard. It did not feel that cold yet, but it seemed it has been snowing since midnight. Here are some pictures...

Our backyard. The fluffy tree with snow all over looks kind of cute to me. Beside it is the tool shed.

More snow-covered houses and yards.

Chimney!

After the initial excitement over seeing snow, I dragged myself back to the unpleasant reality - it would be another day with mass disruption on transport system. And unfortunately enough, I would be using all three of the main transport system to travel to school - bus, tube, and train.

Grrwwww... Blame the Met office, yea. ^_^

# Ponzi Scheme

(For general public reading, I will not use technical financial terms. I shall explain it in generic language so the explanation may be too simplistic to explain the complicated model.)

For my friends and family whom I care so much...

There is a kind of scheme with a very noble idea. A group of people pool their funds together and any member who needs the fund borrow from it. The borrower repay the loan with interest, and the members who lend get the interest. What is very attractive is the fund offers 20% interest rate return.

To ensure all members behave well and to safeguard the fund, there is a moderator who is very responsible and reliable. There is no documents, no regulations, no black-and-white in all transactions, because everything is done on "Trust". A very noble idea and a very wonderful way to help people and get help from others. In chinese language, it is called "作伙"

For friends who are considering to join a money scheme/ "mutual help fund pooling", think twice, or more than that.

• Do you know who is borrowing the money?
• Do you know who is contributing money?
• Do you know what business the borrower is doing?
• Do you know how the business is generating money?
• Do you know how the money cashflow is moving about?
• How the money is coming into the fund and how they are going out? Do the cash inflows and outflows balance? If not, who compensate for the difference?

Think about how much you can trust.

• We can argue that everything is based on "Trust", and leave the fund management to a person who is "trustable", without proper license or any regulations controlling him.

• But who are these people that you trust? And who are they trusting, is it beyond your control?

• Can you trust so many strangers? I can trust my family, and the good friend I know, but do I trust the friend of the friend (of the friend...etc) that my friend trust?

Think about how workable and feasible is this scheme

• You are promised 20% interest payback.

• We must bear in mind that money will not appear from nowhere, so this 20% interest must come from somebody else money.

• So where does that money come from? From the person who borrow the money from the fund, rite?

• Think from the perspective of that person, if you are the borrower, would you want to borrow at 20% interest? or you would rather borrow from your own family, friends or even the bank which offer loan at <10%?

• So will you actually borrow from the fund? If you think you won't, do you think others will want to do that?

• If nobody borrow, where does your 20% interest come from? From new people who join the fund - let's use the new fund to pay the old member's profit. How long can this chain go on before it collapse?

Ok, let's assume there is really somebody who need the money so much that he is willing to borrow at 20% interest. He borrowed the money, do his whatever business.

Here are three scenarios:

1) His business is bad. He loses money, and face difficulty to repay the loan.

• If he can't repay the loan, where does your 20% interest come from?

• To sustain your return, the fund must get more new people to join, so that the new money can be used to pay your interest.

• So now who pay the new people's interest? Do we hope that more people will take up loan, and hopefully (still) their business is good and they repay the loan? or do we hope more people will join so that our money can be repaid?
  

• Do we have too many hopes? Do we just pass on our problem to "other people" and hope we are the earlier ones and lucky ones?

2) His business is ok. it is generating income, but he still faces many start-up costs and cannot repay in time.

• If he temporarily can't repay the loan, you have to wait longer to get your interest. But how long can you wait?
  

• What if you need the money now? Who pay for your money?

• Again, since no money is coming into the fund, but money needs to go out to pay you. So, it needs more new people to join and sustain the fund.

• How long can this go on? What if everyone demands to get their money back now, where does the money come from to pay all the 20% interest + capital amount?

3) His business is successful. He earn large profits. He repays his loan promptly as promised.

• So now everyone is happy. The borrower earns profit and is so good-hearted to pay back high interest loan. Perhaps next time he would look for proper loan with lower interest from the banks, since his business is successful now.

• The investors are happy too, we all get our 20% interest and we have helped people. Hurray.

• But if this really works, don't you think ALL the financial transactions nowadays will be at this interest rate?

• Don't you think this method will be so popular that everyone will follow, and everyone trust everyone? Everything based on promise and trust?

• Lovely ideal world. It would be so wonderful if the real world is like that.

Think about the amount of risk you are taking by trusting so many people.

• All it takes is a SINGLE person who cheats, or fails his obligation --> and everything falls apart.

• All it takes is a simultaneous withrawal of all the members --> and the fund will collapse.

• All it takes is a HIGH investment return (20%) --> to make our hearts tempted by greed, and believe as a small investor, we can earn 20% compared to the most successful investor in the world who earn <10%>

• All it takes is a promise of TRUST --> to convince ourselves the world is perfect and the person whom the person we trust, is trustable.

• All it takes is a hope that other people will pay for our profits --> to make us hopeful that we are the lucky ones and it is others who get cheated.

Think about how realistic the deal is

• When a good deal seems too good to be true and interestingly not many people in the market is doing it to profit, think again.

• Everything comes with a price. Money does not grow out of nowhere.

There are still A LOT of aspects to think about, which I leave you to think and explore. Explore the scheme from the perspective of all different people - the investors, the borrowers, the moderator. Is it workable?

Actually, there has been a lot of research and studies done about such scams, and all world's financial regulations forbid such practice because it eventually harms the investors. There is a name for such schemes, called "Ponzi scheme".

For further investigation and for history, some key words to google for are:
Ponzi scheme, high yield investment program, pyramid scheme, scam

# 2007 arrives...

... with an exam to face immediately.

What a way to start a new year! I'm extremely dissatisfied with our school for torturing us like that - beginning a new term with a major exam to look forward to. Bah...

Four subjects to go through, two exemptions to be aimed for... I would just put in whatever last-minute effort and keep my fingers crossed...

Good luck to myself and I shall become more dormant until 18 Jan. :-(

My new year wish? Peace in heart and wisdom in mind to face whatever that comes. ^_^

# Merry Christmas!

Ah... It's the time of the year again! It has been kind of a "tradition" thing for me to do a pre-christmas post about the christmas decor around London. As my old posts have some problems of loading the photos, I will just give the source of my pictures here: 2005, 2004

Let's start off with a dream-like picture with people standing right beside some penguins, dancing lights and another person holding an orb... Any idea where they are?

No, it's not some dreamland far far away, but these people are taking pictures in a GIANT glass ball! The snow effect is created by small paper pieces being swirled around by a strong blower. Tempted as I was, I didn't go into the giant glass ball anyway because the queue is long and they charged 5 pounds per person! And people just took picture in the glass ball, and left. No chance of having some fun inside. Commercialized christmas...

Let's go somewhere else and have a look at the decor around London, shall we?

We passed by some Santa Grotto... I wonder whether I have been nice or naughty? Hmm... I can't help recommending this site for us to have some laughs on the photos of little children being scared of Santa, the one who write our behaviour report each year and decided our rewards...

And of course, I made a wish at the wishing well. The wish? Secret... ;-)

One of the place I like to go during christmas season is the Covent Garden, no, not the crowdy part, but the less crowdy part with little shops selling all sorts of christmas items. Here is a view of the Apple Market.

And actually, one of the main reason I like going to Covent Garden is because there are always some music school students playing instruments at one of the corners there. (the corner is the left hand bottom corner in the picture below) I like the string quartet particularly... I like to listen to them and wait hopefully for them to play my favourite song - Pachelbel Canon in D.

(smile sheepishly... Yea I know it's kind of lame but I just can't help LOVING Pachelbel Canon in D! Don't care if the cello part is lousy or if the song haunts Rob Paravonian!)

There will be also lots of fun fair being set up around London, the most prominent places are of course in Leicester Square and Covent Garden. I think (I don't quite remember) I have put up some post about the funfair last year, so I will save the space for this year. Here is one of the pictures - the merry-go-round!

Shopping for christmas presents are never easy, but the effort is worthwhile when you see the person smile!

Ooops, I think Santa left his sleigh unattended. Mountains of presents!!! Hope he didn't get a parking ticket for that.

Ok, let's stop by to have some mulled wine. After all, christmas is not complete without any wine, rite?

And christmas is definitely not complete without a TREE!

But for many children, christmas would not be complete without DISNEY!

Have a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR folks!

(I will be gone for a few days for christmas till new year in friend's house. So I will be temporarily away from the blogsphere... So here's wishing my dear friends here a very happy christmas!)