Bangun awal hari ni - or rather, decided not to go back to bed lepas solat Subuh. Sebaliknya, siap-siap untuk ke bandar.Semalam spec aku cabut lagi screwnya. Entahla apsal.. banyak kali betul spec-spec aku ni mengalami cedera parah semenjak dua menjak sampai ke UK ni. Mungkin juga masalah osteoporosis.

Anyway, kedai yang aku target dapat membuat repair dengan murah tu tutup hari ni. Pikir empat-lima belas kali, I decided to go to another optician ; albeit also independent. Malangnya spec aku yang agak baru sikit tu tak dapat direpair. Yang lama tu boleh la. Semuanya masalah screw dan saiz yang tak ada.

So I am now left with only one pair of glasses. Thankfully, yang ni takdelah longgar jadi tak payahlah aku nak bersnow-cap dalam bilik sebab nak make sure spec tu tak slide off my nose. Tapi still aku takde backup pair kalau-kalau spec yang ni buat hal time aku bersukan ke apa ke.

Balik dari bandar, ke opis sekejap, lepas tu jenguk orang sakit kurang sihat kat Fylde. Then balik ke opis - hajatnya nak sambung buat kerja tapi tak jadi gak. Last-last balik ke bilik, tengok TV. Ada Blind Date - show ni ntah apa-apa sebenarnya, tapi it brings back memories of a childhood spent in Durham. Dah nak masuk 20 tahun rupanya Cilla Black tu jadi host Blind Date ; dah nak bersara dah pun.

Lepas Blind Date, ada Ant and Dec punya show baru! Haah.. Ant and Dec ni memang favourite presenters aku. Maybe some of you might remember them as PJ and Duncan yang nyanyi lagu Eternal Love dan Let's Get Ready to Rhumble in the mid 1990's. Anyway, diorang ni memang best friend and part of the appeal is that diorang saling pangkah memangkah each other on TV, as friends do. Dulu they used to present SM:tv Live on ITV pagi-pagi Sabtu, tapi sekarang nampknya mereka semakin laku on prime time TV.

Dah balik Lancaster ni, kena lah start kerja balik. Sekarang kat opis dah ada roomate. Mamat 2nd year, buat PhD in Finance, dari Taiwan. Masalah sikit sekarang sebab data point dalam bilik ada satu ajer. Kata orang ISS, dia nak install data point lagi satu kat dalam bilik kami, tapi pada aku, baik guna hub ajer. Senang sikit. Tapi mungkin ada cons hub yang aku kurang arif.

Petang tadi dah gi jumpa supervisor aku.. kiranya secara am dia bersetuju dengan general idea aku untuk tengok board of directors and its operations di US dan di UK, especially post-Enron dan World.Com; so sekarang nak kena baca dan baca lagi. Nampaknya, projek biasa bertapa di library, sepertimana yang aku buat masa aku mula-mula start dissertation masters aku, akan bermula semula. Bila dah ada hala tuju ni, rasa macam confident dan bersemangat sikit nak buat kerja.

Second day kat London, we got off to quite a late start. Mainly because, aku rasa, masing-masing memang pancit sebab the whole day on the town hari Rabu tu. On my part, it was motivated by the nice, warm atmosphere in the room as opposed to the biting cold outside. Tapi there was quite a few things on the agenda that we had to see to; some serious sightseeing, and some errands to run as well.

Akhirnya, after not-so-much deliberation, we decided to go to Madame Tussaud's, which is directly outside the Baker Street Tube Station. Before aku turun kat Baker Street tu, terfikir gak ada sesuatu yang significant pasal Baker Street ni. Once dah keluar baru aku sedar - allegedly Sherlock Holmes duduk kat 221B Baker Street (and Dangermouse lived in a red pillar box outside his house). Ada pun statue besar Sherlock Holmes kat luar Baker Street Tube Station tu.

Masuk ke Madame Tussaud's, start la bergambar ala-ala tak ingat. Felt a bit disconcerting at first, tengok semua wax models that were somewhat realistic. Morgan Freeman's eyes, for instance, were piercing even if they were fake! After a while I got used to all the displays, although ada gak sekali dua aku ingat patung tu orang. One of the pictures...

Cepat angkat tangan saper kenal Ant and Dec nie?

There are a few more (obviously) but I haven't scaled quite a few down to size. I'll put up a link as and when they become available.

I cut short my trip to Madame Tussaud's - after taking a few more silly pictures :

Headed off to Walthamstow to see Gijoe and his wife Kak Syawal; this time pergi sorang, so aku tinggal Cik Kieli dengan Zieha kat Madame Tussaud's - then headed back into the city center at around 1630. Nearly froze waiting outside the Oxford Circus Tube Station until it was decided a warmer climate in NikeTown was a little bit more appropriate. Bila semua orang dah ada, tengok jam pun dah lain macam - our train was at 1830 and it didn't seem too likely that we would be able to catch this one. Made a few calls and we decided to catch the 1925 instead.

Rushing balik ke flat Cik Kieli, dan by 1900 were on the road (run?) to Euston station. By hook or by crook, memang kami kena dapatkan train tu sebab that was the last train out to Lancaster for the day. Mula-mula nampak macam penuh ajer train tu; tapi mostly day-commuters between London and Milton Keynes, so by the time the train reached Tamworth it was virtually empty pun. Arrived in Lancater at 2315 approximately. 3 days, 2 nights, very well spent!

Akhir kata, terima kasih kepada Zieha sebab sanggup ajer diheret ke London, terima kasih kepada Cik Kieli untuk a roof over our heads, terima kasih Rabi'ah kerana temankan kitorang hari pertama, terima kasih Zuraida and housemates menerima kunjungan kitorang malam-malam pun, dan tak lupa kepada Gijoe dan family.

(Seperti biasa, hover the mouse over the pictures for captions!)

Bangun pagi dan solat subuh seperti biasa pada hari kedua di London. Walaupun terasa agak sejuk, bilik Cik Kieli selesa sekali dan memang boleh menyebabkan masalah tidur 'macam tak ingat' dan lantas boleh menyebabkan segala plan jalan-jalan tergendala. Akhirnya, bila semua orang dah decide nak bangun, aku tergerak nak suruh Cik Kieli tengok kat luar tingkap dia.. Jeng jeng jeng! Snow yang amat sangatlah lebatnya...

Snow dari bilik Cik Kieli

Masing-masing excited yang amat. I've always said that snow reduces my IQ from a 25 year-old to a 5 year-old in seconds, and this time was no different. Dah start terlompat-lompat dalam bilik.. 'Nak main snow, nak main snow!' Kami cepat-cepat bersiap untuk keluar dan bergambar. Yang bestnya, kat belakang asrama Cik Kieli ni ada park, jadi takdelah jauh kitorang perlu bergerak untuk mencari tempat yang hebat untuk bergambar. So apa lagi? Memanglah kitorang bergambar sakan..

Mengikut perancangan asal, pagi ni aku ngan Zieha nak ke Madame Tussaud's, and Cik Kieli nak ke school sebab ada meeting. Nak jadi cerita, meeting Cik Kieli cancel, tapi dia tetap ada appointment dengan member dia. So aku dengan Zieha decided nak tour central London in the snow dulu. Naik tube, pergi ke Trafalgar Square. Kemudian berjalan menyusuri Westminster ke arah Downing Street, the Queen's Guards and onto the banks of the River Thames.

When I was 9 years old and growing up in England, my dad bought me a Ladybird book entitled 'A guide to London'. I have read that book from cover to cover many times over, looking at the attractions in central London. Some 16 odd years later, I finally saw Big Ben and the House of Parliament in real life; covered in snow to boot!

Lepas penat bergambar dan playing tourist, we decided to take a short break - cari Starbucks dan minum kopi. Then we headed back to Gray's Inn Road for Zuhur prayers and preparing for phase 2 of our assault on London. This time, with Cik Kieli in tow.

We started off with messing about in the park (again) - this time dua orang warga Lancaster yang tak pernah jumpa snow di utara telah pun membina seorang snowman di London.

Then we headed into London again - Cik Kieli tak nak melepaskan peluang mengambil gambar di depan Big Ben yang masih ada remnants of snow on it. We then headed towards the Tower of London and London Bridge; it was getting dark quite fast and the lighting for pictures weren't as good as before.

Next on the agenda was food - London is quite well known among Malaysian students for it's Halal Nando's in Bayswater, so we headed that way. Kemudian sebagai penutup acara, we took a few buses to Kensal Rise to visit some friends. Arrived back at Gray's Inn Road approximately 10.30pm, and I voluntarily retired early - knackered!

Di park belakang bilik Cik Kieli

My mood was tempered slightly with the findings of ricin in a London flat over the past few days. It is quite worrying for me that so much terror was present in the very streets I was walking in. We were waiting for the tube at Earl's Court when I saw a brother boarding the train with us - he was bearded and wore a serban; all of a sudden I felt apprehensive. Then I quickly istighfared; for a moment I had fallen to the stereotypical views of the western media about terrorism, where as first and foremost he was a Muslim brother and from all aspects of my life, my religion comes first.

Setelah berhempas pulas membaca buku (among other things) for the past few weeks, I decided to take a short break in London. Oleh kerana accommodation dah ada, mangsa jalan-jalan pun dah ada... aku tak berapa keberatan la nak ke mari.

Naik train dari Lancaster jam 10 pagi. On time train tu... macam kagum la pulak sekejap. Tapi kekaguman tu memang sekejap; sebab bila sampai Wigan, ada overhead cable failure. Maka terhentilah perjalanan selama 2 jam. Baik-baik planning nak sampai jam 1, sampai jam 3. Walaupun begitu, sakit hati tu tak adalah sangat; tak terasa tension pun.. even though mamat yang duduk belakang aku tu dah maki-maki train service.

Train system di UK terkenal dengan ketidak-cekapannya. Ada delays, banyak high profile crash, dan in general, tak efficient. Mungkin bagi orang UK yang dah biasa semua benda on time. Bagi aku OK aje. Dari naik bas, aku prefer naik train. Lagi satu orang UK ni memang susah pun nak memuji kehebatan sesuatu / seseorang, tapi bila dah nak kutuk, memang laju ajer.

Hari ni baca pasal executive compensation - dalam erti kata lain, wang yang dibayar kepada top managers dan board of directors di sesebuah syarikat. Biasanya semua orang memang tahu, mereka-mereka ni memang di bayar wang yang sangat lumayan. Di Malaysia, tak silap aku, secara kasarnya, minimum bayaran kepada seorang ahli lembaga pengarah sekitar RM30,000 setahun. Itu kalau duduk di satu board. Kalau jadi Board of Directors company lain.. campur lagi dengan gaji sendiri.. memang lumayan!

Menarik satu kajian dibuat di US dan UK, perihal correlation antara pay and performance of these top executives. Kiranya, kalau macam kita lah kan, naik turun gaji ikut prestasi. Kalau prestasi baik, tinggilah kenaikkan gajinya. Kalau kurang baik, kuranglah kenaikkannya. Sebenarnya kita tak pernah dengar majikan potong gaji (di peringkat eksekutif dan ke atas), tetapi hakikatnya, apabila kenaikkan gaji kita kurang daripada the effective rate of inflation - sebenarnya gaji tu 'terpotong' dari segi purchasing power. So kalau harga barang naik 3-4% setiap tahun, dan gaji kita naik 2-3% sahaja, itu maknanya secara tak langsung, gaji kita dipotong.

Anyway, berbalik kepada soalan asal.. kajian tu membuahkan satu findings yang menarik - correlation antara company performance dan the payments made out to top executives begitu lemah. Jadi, irregardless of company tu untung ke rugi ke.. gaji orang boss-boss ni naik dan terus naik. Ini aku tak nafikan memang berlaku. Aku kaji Marks and Spencer masa buat dissertation masters aku - jelas di situ yang Marks and Spencer memang menjunam harga saham dan profit diorang, tapi kenaikkan above the rate of inflation tetap berlaku kepada top management di company tu.

Apa aku buat weekend ni ek? On Saturday morning aku study sambil-sambil menonton SM:tv dan Cd:uk - dua favourite Saturday morning show aku. SM:tv dah hambar sebab Ant and Dec dah tak ada.. tapi Brian tu ok lah.. walaupun dia gay dan lembik. Camne-camne pun, aku tetap miss Ant, Dec and Cat dalam Chums. Jam 12 tengahari aku ke office, sebab dah janji dengan Angah yang aku nak masuk webchat. Since dah ada webcam ni.. aku nak sangat-sangat tengok Nadia.. dah lama dah tak tengok dia. Ini rupanya dia sekarang...

Petang tu, sesampainya saja ke bilik, ada jemputan ke Bardsea untuk makan nasi lemak. Sebenarnya, jemputan tu untuk paginye, tapi ada sedikit delay nampaknya. Apa-apa pun, dapat jugak makan nasi lemak ; baru 2nd time since sampai UK. Balik bilik dah about 9pm; sambung study. Target nak habiskan chapter before nak tweak website sikit.

Hari tu aku pergi ke bandar, aku jumpa program Xara Webstyle 2.0 for free kat magazine cover. Aku pernah pakai program ni nak buat NavBar untuk aku nyer website before this, tapi limited design sebab aku pakai pirated / demo copy. Jadi bila ada yang free full program ni.. laju la aku beli. Jadi jauh di sudut hati tu timbul kemahuan nak tweak website. Tapi disiplin.. baca buku dulu.. last last sampai tidur tak habis lagi chapter yang dibaca.

Hari Ahad, aku bangun awal sikit sebab janji dengan adik-adik nak masuk webchat sekali lagi. Sebab diorang dah beli microphone Dengan jelasnya memang Farah yang banyak reki webcam semua di rumah. Ingatkan sape nak bercakap dulu.. rupa-rupanya Abah. Heheh.. lepas tu bertukar ganti.. semua nak bercakap, termasuk lah Nadia sekali.

Time tu jugak aku bersyukur yang amat kepada kemajuan teknlogi. Abe bersin di dapur rumah aku, sampai ke UK aku dengar. Muka mak, abah, adik-adik.. semua aku dapat tengok in real time. Semua benda di dalam rumah diorang tunjuk, selagi termampu kudrat webcam tu. Termasuklah pintu toilet bawah, kasut baru mama, kereta control baru Farah, baju raya Nadia.... memang terubat rindu sedikit sebanyak!