We went to view the house that we plan to rent beginning this summer this morning. First up, the location was superb. The house is off Scotforth Road, which is one of the main roads in Lancaster, and specifically, it was only a minute's walk from the house to the main road itself. Across the main road was a Florists, a newsagents, a computer shop [Yes!], a DVD / Video rental shop [Double Yes!] and a Launderette. And the bus stop was not too far away. Things were looking good.

We approached the house, which was on a cul-de-sac [which means, literally, a road with a dead end]. From the outside it wasn't overly impressive - the front bit was unkempt - but as we walked in, we fell in love. The house has three large bedrooms - and a small one which is about the size of a room at Grizedale, I guess - that serves as a guest room. So actually we were getting four rooms for the price of three! The decor and ambiance had a warm, fuzzy, home feeling to it. The kitchen was modern and well-equipped; the all-important washing machine, and there even was room out back for a shed and perhaps some laundry drying space [if the sun ever decides to shine].

To our dismay, though, a few other people also wanted the house; and it was up to Trevor the Landlord to make his mind up. We were quite keen on the house, though - and pretty much would have been quite depressed if we didn't get it, but Alhamdulillah, we did! For me, it wasn't the house as much as was the location - bus stop 50 metres away from my front door, shops all round, plus it being in a very good area that academics tend to live in. I won't be the one with the car, so I'd rather have an alternative means of transport [i.e. the bus].

My first ever PC was an Atari 800XL, but the one on which I've played the most games on was my Amstrad CPC 464. So imagine my delight and joy when I found out about emulators! I knew about console emulators, but only recently did I find out that most of the computer systems of the 80's, namely Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and the Amiga, to name but three, could also be emulated on a normal 32-bit Windows machine.

My colleague Paolo taught me something useful. As PhD students, we tend to print a lot of journal articles, ranging from those that are 20 pages long to those that go way beyond 100 pages long. So if we were to print 100 pages, imagine the amount of paper! It's a good thing we are on a free printing budget.

Anyway, Paolo's taught me how to print two pages on one piece of paper. Yes, you technophobes out there would already have figured this out, but hey, I am unsophisticated in ways of printing; and I offer these pages of mine to educate the masses as well as to be an outlet for ranting and screaming. I do suspect it depends on the type of printer you have more than anything else - we use HP Laserjets at Lancaster; and I suppose so does most of the rest of the world.

So here's my step by step tutorial:

1. Go to File: Print. This demo is based on MS Word, although I normally use this function in Adobe Acrobat [.pdf files]. It seems to work with most, if not all, applications - Excel, Access, Word etc.

2. Once you get the menu below, choose 'Properties', in the top right hand corner.

3. On the screen below, go to the lower left hand-side part of the pop-up, and choose 'Documents Optionsn Page'. Toggle to make it read '2' Pages per Sheet. You can actually go up to 16 pages per piece of paper, although I doubt how much you are able to read if you were to do so.

4. Click OK, and print your document.

Got the phone bill yesterday. Alhamdulillah, the amount is manageable, for once! I'm on a 750 Free Minutes Off Peak Tariff; which translates into pretty heavy duty Peak Hours Tariff. In the first month or so I wasn't quite aware of this, and my bills came up to a whopping £48. Tried to cut down for the next month, but I sent too many SMSes and still ended up with a bill that was over £30. This month, having found alternative ways to make peak phone calls [thank you, Management School] and cutting down the SMSes to the bare minimum, costs have come crashing down.

Most people tend to think that students from overseas are filthy rich. Local [British] students think we are all sponsored by our parents who have three Jaguars, a Beemer and a few Ferraris locked up in the back garage, hence having money flowing out of our ears. People back home think we are well off because the average postgraduate secures approximately £500 a month, which translates into approximately RM3000, depending on the exchange rate.

Fact: Most Malaysian students abroad are on scholarship - either by the government or one of the main corporate bodies - which is how they can afford to be here in the first place. And even for the self-sponsored students I know - not many have money pouring out every orifice.

Fact: £500 is measly. A sandwich costs £2, on average. A proper meal in a restaurant costs £7 per person, on average. A big mac [not that it is Halal, but I'm putting it here as a common basis of comparison] costs £2.99, I think. So the purchasing power of £1 is really not that much different from the purchasing power of RM1. Therefore imagine having to live on RM500 back home. Rich? I don't think so. Did I mention that room rental takes up a significant proportion of that £500?

Which is why a few of us are considering moving off-campus come summer. We've done the maths, and it comes out a lot cheaper. Given that the money Lancaster pays me is fixed; it would be beneficial for us to minimise living costs as the cost of on-campus housing increases. We're looking at a house in Scotforth, about 2 miles from the Uni, on Saturday. The description sounds lovely. It's on the main road, and buses go past it at least every 15 minutes. I hope we like the house, and the house likes us too.

Alhamdulillah, rezeki murah tengah hari ni. Ada orang hantar makanan special masa lunch - ada murtabak, roti canai, kuah kari dan SADIN! Aku dengan maju jayanya polish everything yang ada.. nasib baik officemate Jeffrey takde dua hari ni - ke London jumpa kawan dia. Puaslah aku melantak dalam office. Lepas tu terus bukak tingkap sikit sebab takut ada kesan-kesan.. hehe.

Sebenarnya, roti canai & murtabak tu yang segera.. bukanlah authentic ada orang putar kat rumah pagi ni. Tapi bagi aku, yang dah sekian lama tak menjamah, suatu perubahan dalam rutin makanan harian aku yang ntah apa-apa... bak kata flat mate aku, aku ni tiap-tiap hari makan ikan yang digrill berkuahkan kari [Yes Ramzi, kari aubergine yang ko suka sangat tu... ]

Today is one of THOSE days. Days when I look walk out of my room and venture into what seems like sunshine, only to be greeted by gusts of wind that is both biting and chilling. And on days like these, I wonder what got into me that made me leave sunny, tropical, 30-degrees-Celcius-everyday Malaysia for the unpredictable, dreary, gloomy weather of Britain in general, and Lancaster in particular.

As much as I would like to attribute it to a moment of madness, it isn't my common sense [ or rather, the lack of it] that is to blame. There are fetching, endearing attributes to this wet, almost-coastal town that made me want to come back here after being away for only a year. This is my second time round in Lancaster, after being here two years ago doing my Masters degree. When I was deciding as to where to go for my PhD, I figured Lancaster was really the obvious choice, at least for me.

For one thing, I enjoy being part of the education system that is in place in the UK. Okay, perhaps not so much the oft-criticised structure or the fees [perhaps now is a good time to note that even with top-up fees, international students still pay almost 100% more than home students, if not more!], but more so the spirit of the quest for knowledge. There seems to be a laidback, relaxed attitude - and I mean this in a good way - about being at university. People are here for an education in both the academic and non-academic aspects. There is no pressured, dog-eat-dog, rat race feel towards getting top grades or having to be the best all the time; at the end of the day everyone knows social skills, extra-curricular activities and generally having a 'life' at university add up just as much to getting a good job as do top grades - and so there seems to be a lot of balance. As a research student, I find that there is a more developed research culture as well; and that was one of the reasons why I chose to come back here.

But all that, one can find at any established university within the UK, or even the US. Why Lancaster though? This may seem bizarre to some, but I chose Lancaster because it is a quiet town [okay, city] without much going on; and it is a 'city' that thrives on student life. Which means the people who actually live here are used to having people of different race and culture living amongst them. Racial tolerance is very important to me. Being Asian and a Muslim, the past year or so hasn't been the most kind for us living in the West. Stereotypes are in abundance, and the US has begun racial profiling.

But in Lancaster, I feel safe. In the total year and a little bit that I've lived here, I have only been subjected to racial abuse once - and that was in Preston, which, at that time, still not a city, hence the small-mindedness of the folk living there then, one presumes. I have not yet been refused service, scorned upon or being made fun of for what I wear [I adhere to a moderate Muslim code of dress]; and that means a lot to me. Generally, even if people may have their own personal sentiments, to date they keep it to themselves, as I I play sports, and to date, I have yet to be refused from representing the university because of my attire [and no, it is not chess or scrabble that I play]. To a certain extent, dare I say it, there seems to be more tolerance here, in some respects, then back home - and that does really leave me with a liberalised feeling.

Something that most students tend to complain about Lancaster is the relative lacking of nightspots or places for a good night out. That doesn't bother me much; I don't drink and I don't like clubbing, so the lack of things like that don't make much of a difference to me. A good night out for me and a group of friends is a nice meal somewhere followed by a movie, bowling or laser quest; all of which are available either in town or the nearby glorious seaside resort of Morecambe. One could say bigger cities like Manchester, Glasgow or London would offer all of the above plus more; but then big cities don't offer me solitude and racial tolerance.

Having said all that, though, there isn't much difference between what the average British student gets up to, and what his Malaysian peer does. Malaysia, with a little over 50% Muslim population, probably do not share the drinking culture that we observe here; but the general idea of hanging out with your mates into the morning hours is still much applied. If British students hang out at pubs and drink beer, Malaysian students tend to hang out at roadside stalls and open-air restaurants, some of which are open 24 hours a day, and drink tea! Mind you, this is a special kind of tea, called teh tarik in Malay and has no direct literal English translation. Apart from not ending up drunk and smashed, the 'hang-out' concept is much applied; and it is perhaps this aspect of Malaysian student life that I do miss sometimes, given the lack of non-alcoholic hang-out places around.

Probably the only other minor gripe that I have is that apart from Christmas time, shops close too early! If, back home, I could still venture out after work and do some serious shopping till, say, 9pm, it is not possible to do that here. So unless I do my shopping on Saturday, when it seems the whole of Lancaster, Morecambe and Kirkby Lonsdale decide to converge on the city centre, there isn't much chance for me to do so on a normal, 9-5 working day. Not that I should be thinking about shopping, because I should be focusing on the studying.

Never have been I been so cynical about democracy than over this past weekend. A record breaking war protest march was held in London, Glasgow and various other locations within the country [albeit to a smaller scale]. It was estimated that over 2 million people took to the streets in the UK; making their voices heard. But what say those who heard it? Something to the tune of, "At least these people live in a country where their voices CAN be heard". Apparently, democracy also allows those in power the choice not to hear what the masses are screaming at them.

What, then, is the point? Perhaps those who chose to march have now eased their conscience by saying, "Hey.. we tried.."; and justifiably so. But what difference does it make? [On a personal note, I did have plans to attend the protest, only to be hindered by some unforeseen circumstance]. As a child and a teenager I yearned for the opportunity to make a difference - it seems that unless I am miraculously elected as the President of the United States, any minor effort that I make would not as much cause a ripple in the fabric.

Perhaps if this war does go ahead, after it all, we can put Saddam Hussein, Tony Blair and George Bush on trial at the Hague for the committing the crime that led to lives - and innocence - lost.

As is evident - I managed to mess about with the layout; and it seems like it works. If you find any weird, broken links, drop me a line and I'll fix it. Tonight was a mixed nights of sorts - finished the department's intranet website and also prepared a quotation for the claim for payment. Quite impressed with it, if I may say so myself. The design is simplified - some Javascript to spruce do the expandable menus; apart from that majorly just working with frames and making sure they work.

Mengikut perancangan awal, nak masak awal sikit hari ni sebab kata salah seorang housemate aku, dia ada dinner party malam ni, start jam 8.30. Aku menjenguk ke dapur jam 6 ptg, diorang dah conquer dah dapurnya.Yang tak sedapnya, main ikut suka ajer gunapakai periuk belanga orang. Setakat aku ada kat situ tadi, diorang memang cakap tak pakai la aku punya; tapi member aku yang Singaporean tu bengang gak sebab yang guna periuk dia tu.. diorang masak daging khinzir. Member aku tu agama dia Hindu, tapi selain dari daging lembu, khinzir pun dia tak sentuh gak. Aku cuak gak ni; kalau aku nampak diorang pakai periuk atau pinggan mangkuk aku.. jawabnya beli baru la esok. Memang la boleh samak; tapi aku masih kurang selesa makan dalam pinggan bekas khinzir.

So I ended up going to South End Stores; initially to pick up some cough linctus - they ran out [which is a good indication of the current state of health of Lancaster University students at the moment] so I trudged all the way to Spar. Alang-alang tu, belilah something to eat at Popeye's since I was technically 'locked' out of my kitchen. Terserempak dengan Jas - cerita kat dia nasibku yang malang dan dapat jemputan dinner di Bardsea; tapi seganlah - banyak sungguh hari menempek kat atas sana, malu lah plak dah aku nie. Patutnya aku yang tua, aku yang masak etc. Ini terbalik. Lagipun, kan saya ni pemalu.. kan kan kan?

Alang-alang dah sampai South End Stores tu, aku sewa DVD satu - Mike Basset England Manager. Apa yang menarik? Sebab movie ni dia buat style documentary dengan Martin Bashir - who, of late, has been in the news regarding THE Michael Jackson interview.Not a bad movie all in all; takdelah menarik sangat tapi kelakar and a satirical look at the world of football management.

All in all, the weekend has been kind. Spent most of yesterday cooking for the Malaysian Soc Aidiladha / GongXi Raya do at Cartmel SCR. Was 'roped' in by the Bardsea gang to help them with the rice. Not as hard as last time, this - just plain rice, with extensive use of the rice cooker [and Kak Aiza's massive pot].

The whole thing started at about 6pm; dressed to the sevens (didn't quite reach the nines) and generally had a good time. The menu was superb; for one there was daging bakar and air asam; something I thought I would have needed to wait some 3 years before I could ever get round to having some!

Slept over last night and trudged back to Graduate at 10am - only to find that the boiler was broken. Cold water = no shower = blerghh.