The Next 3 Weeks

I have finally finished my gruelling nights oncall and for once, I recovered nicely from the day-night body clock mess up. In fact, last night I successfully slept at 12 midnight. (The trick was: reading a book! Haha, works everytime).

Now, my parents are scheduled to arrive in around 2 hours. Our plans for the next couple of days are:

Tonight
Probably just resting as my parents may be jet lagged. If they are asleep & Over the Hedge is showing late (e.g. 12 midnight), I may sneak out and watch it (alone, as usual, unfortunately).

Tomorrow (1/7/6)
Stratford-upon-Avon and probably Warwick Castle but this time, we're going to the inside.

2/7/6
Fly to Ireland at 1pm.

3/7/6
Attend my brother's Dentistry graduation.

4/7/6
This I'm most looking forward to: Travelling around Northern Ireland. We're planning to see the Giant's Causeway, the Roman Ruins and Dunluce Castle. All in one day, I doubt it but hopefully we'll be able to visit most of the places.

5/7/6
Return to England at 8pm. During the day we'll see Belfast the city.
My parents will be staying in Ireland until the 12th, but I'm still on leave. If I don't manage to see Over the Hedge before today I'll see it on the 6th ;)

10-14 July
Working, unfortunately. However, these will be the only 5 days I'll be able to see my workmates before I leave the firm. So I'm planning to make the most of it. I've heard rumblings that the team is planning a dinner too. Can't wait!

14/7 - 15/7
Visiting Nottingham

16/7/6 onwards
London, Essex and Reading. Kenakelayan, if you're free during this time we're hoping to give you a visit (Insya Allah & if you're not too busy at the time:T ).

20/7/6
My parents' flight back to Malaysia.
I start nights oncall (again!!!) for one week.

As long as there is internet access, my laptop is working and I still have the energy - I'm planning to post at least pictures every day. Take care everyone!

 

Over the Hedge, can't wait to watch it!

Seems to be a week for movies on this blog, Over the Hedge by Dreamworks is out today. I SOOOOOOOO want to see it, but my parents from Malaysia are arriving here in just a 2 hours now. I guess I'll have to postphone it until next week when they're still in Ireland... Or sneak out LATE tonight ;)

Transformers Movie Teaser Trailer Out

Transformers movie (Directed by Michael Bay) trailer is finally out, 4 days early! Take a look.

Hmm, they don't call them teaser trailers for nothing eh?

Congrats Uncle De!!

DS Lite
Originally uploaded by pabuk.

Uncle De called me earlier saying that he's bought a Nintendo DS Lite, and because we're in the UK, we have the black version:p

Congratulations Uncle De!! So far he's bought only one game - New Super Mario Bros.

I'm looking forward to the MMS to post on my blog & impressions Uncle De. Always happy when someone buys a new toy/gadget.

ps
Uncle De is how old again? oh, i see "for Emyr".

Web Based Applications

Heard of portable apps? Well, try web based applications for the ultimate in portability. In fact, as long as the computer you're working on has internet access, you don't need to carry anything at all. There are already web applications for Word, calendar, lists, invoices, bookmarks and pictures to name a few.
Link via Lifehacker

What's New: del.icio.us Tag Cloud

New to my blog as of today is the del.icio.us tag cloud (that's the thing you guys could see on my sidebar, right at the bottom). The tag cloud is basically links to everything I find interesting on the Internet separated into various categories.

Del.icio.us is an online bookmarking service, a way for you can access your bookmarks no matter which computer or browser you use. I constantly get frustrated at work that I could not access the bookmarks on my PC at home and del.icio.us is a great solution. The best features of del.icio.us are excellent blog integration and also the ability to access other people's bookmarks and tags.

Link

How to put a del.icio.us tag cloud on your blog:

1. Create an account
2. Sign in to your del.icio.us account
3. Go here
4. Then cut and paste the code to your blog. Easy.

Also, here's a link to a del.icio.us Firefox plugin. Uploading bookmarks is then just a click away (if you're using Firefox that is).
ps
As of now, the tag cloud only represents links I find interesting on the net. In the future I may use a tag cloud to categorize entries on my blog. I may even put up two clouds - one for the links and one for the categories.

hehehe, canggih tak bie??
(I bet you kata nampak berterabur)

pps
Better than digg, Uncle De

Web Magazine: Uncrate

Dude! I just discovered uncrate, a web magazine for guys who are gadget inclined. Features gadgets, cars, clothes and ... cribs??? (no seriously, baby cribs).

There is also an uncrate for for women, you know, for the rest of us:)

Link

Wanting: The Firefox Ogio Messenger Bag

I'm currently using a boring Targus bag for my Vaio but this bag looks so cool! It's a Firefox branded backpack with a padded up to 17" laptop compartment. $60.
Link
Seriously, I want this!! (but my birthday is still ages away ... HINTTTTTTTTT)

Tux: Free Linux Magazine

How cool is Open Source. Tux, a Linux magazine, is free to subscibe to and download. I'm definitely signing up for an account. Tux offers the latest news in the Linux and Open Source world. Linux and Open Source = FreeDom. (hmm, just got an inspiration for my next blog name. Except it sounds like a tampon brand!!)

Tux Magazine (or click picture)

Astronomy: Relative Sizes

Wow
Literally puts things into perspective, eh?

Teaser Trailer for Spiderman 3

More

OMG, can't wait!!!

Late for Work!

Shock, horror: I woke up at 8.59pm tonight and I was supposed to start nights oncall at 9pm! I went to sleep at 10am, so I had 11 hours of sleep! I missed all my prayers throughout the day, I didn't get to eat any food at all and unfortunately no shower as I literally had only 1 minute to get ready. I rushed to work after a lightning quick tooth brush, shave, wash and change (not to mention enough perfume to drown everyone in the hospital).

And I was only 5 minutes late to work (the hospital is 3 minutes away from my accommodation). Talk about speed.

:) LOL. What a way to start the night. Now, I AM SO HUNGRY!!! I have been without food for 17 hours ;(

It's not looking too busy at the moment so I may nip back to the accommodation and cook some pasta (poor flatmates, I hope the sound of me in the kitchen wouldn't wake them).

Penultimate Nights Oncall

picture: Illinoisraptorcenter.org

Yup, it's that time again: high caffeine intake, reduced sunlight exposure, and towards the end - stress and fatigue. It's the time when normal life is taken over by three basic activities: work-eat-sleep and repeat x 4. So far though, it hasn't been too bad. In fact it started with lots of laughter (at my expense) when I accidentally called this SSHO (the one that has been teasing me before) by the name of the person she has been teasing me on! To make matters worse, while the PRHO was handing over cases to me, the SSHO was making funny faces that I ended up bursting in an uncontrollable fit of laughter infront of the puzzled PRHO. How embarrassing!

Moving to another topic, at the end of this oncall my parents are finally arriving and that is something I am extremely looking forward to. I'm looking forward to all the travelling and hopefully if the places we're going to have internet access (for example I'm sure my brother in Ireland has broadband), I'll attempt to update the blog at least with pictures of our adventures (while my parents sleep with jet lag).

On another note, I am lightly considering starting a (new/) different blog. Like how some people have more than one blog to differentiate between their interests and personal stories, I feel like separating posts that some people may consider extremely boring and technical (like Linux, software and GIMP tutorials) and posts that are relatively personal and lighter. Some people are already doing so, and I may just follow suit.

I'm still letting the idea percolate in my subconscious, but if I do start a new blog it'd be with Wordpress. The templates look professional and I love the idea of being able to tag blogs into different categories. I would also open the blog to other contributors and I'm already thinking of O-K and Exdua (aka Uncle De) to submit articles whenever they feel so inclined. I would also open the blog to anyone at all in our current circle to contribute (by current circle I mean whoever who reads this blog and other blogs I link to). What do you guys think?

ps
DITH, again I'm blaming you for this (I'm referring to your comment in the previous post, below).

If I do start a new blog, I'd no longer hold back on the technical (read: geek) levels.

Today: Strawberry Picking in Nottingham

Again, I'm not much for telling in great detail on what we've been doing today. I'm sure Mama S arah will cover that in her blog. However, I am one for sharing pictures and here are two pictures I'd like to share.

Today we "went strawberry picking" except that the strawberries were not on a farm. Infact, they were planted in Auntie De's mother's (who we affectionate call Auntie "We") back garden. According to Auntie We, all the strawberries came from a single plant, bought at a car-boot sale. They surprisingly grew well and they were very tasty!

Above: I love this picture. Using GIMP, this picture was cropped, and I blurred the background using gaussian blur. I also enhanced the picture with an unsharp mask and applied a selective contrast mask to reduce highlights in the foreground.

Above: Our harvest. This picture was originally perfectly in focus. To detract viewer's attention from the boring background and foreground, using GIMP I added gaussian blur AND motion blur. The trick is, using alpha mask I was able to select manually what to sharpen and what to blur ;) Also, I used a subtle vignette effect to darken the background & foreground.

ps
Sad isn't it? instead of talking about the subject of the pictures I'm talking about GIMP techniques! However, I'm expecting Mama Sarah to tell the story so I'm merely taking a different angle to the same experience.

Last week in summary

Reading

• SUSE Linux 10 Bible
• Earthsea Quartet

Watching

• (Anime) Yakitate Japan (Final few episode's)
• (Anime) Black Cat
• (TV) House -- So goooood!!
• (Movie) Ultraviolet - hesitantly recommended for the stylish presentation and fight scenes. Avoid if you hate paper thin, derivative plots.
• (Movie) V for Vendetta - recommended. Clever and thought provoking.
  

Listening

• Ojisan no Tokei (Ken Hirai)
• Hitomi o tojite (Ken Hirai)
  

Playing
• With my new SUSE 10.1 installation, muahahaha!
  

Wanting

• (PS2) Guitar Hero
• (Hardware) a new 200Gb Hard disk
  

Currently

• Suffering from terrible hayfever
• Drowsy from loratidine
• Extremely tired from the week long oncalls
• Drinking Twinning's English Breakfast Tea

Mood
Depressed. I've just realised I only have around one and a half months before ending this current job and before the end I have around 2 weeks of leave and 2 weeks of night oncalls. Minus weekends that leaves only 5 days or so to spend with my friends before going our seperate ways. Infact I already had to say goodbye to a few good friends at work.
(that's why I wasn't really in the mood for blogging recently and I was blogging "heartlessly").

On the flip side, I'm eagerly awaiting my parents' arrival on the 30th. We have plans for trips to lots of places and I can't wait to share our adventures on the blog.

Other things to add
I have recently done something I should have done at least 6 months ago and ideally YEARS ago - cancel my sattelite TV subscription. Our family has simply stopped watching (broadcast) TV. The kids only watch their favourite Pixar DVDs on constant repeat and MS and I have favoured reading (, eating, blogging) and travelling over TV. In retrospect, we haven't really properly watched TV for over 6 months! The sattelite subscription is gone, and we're not even missing it (should have followed OK's advise 2 years ago and cancelled it then).

Site: Open Source Windows

A site with a very nice collection of links to free open source software for Windows. A simple yet pretty site.
Link

This is another site with a more comprehensive list.

DontClick.IT - Concept on how to navigate a page without clicking the mouse

High concept flash webpage on how a site could be navigated without clicking the mouse. Very interesting and echoes the future desktop I posted on earlier.

Link
(just remember not to click that mouse!)

Opera 9 is out

Opera, the excellent, free but non Open Source web browser alternative to Firefox was recently upgraded to version 9 with a slew of new cutting edge features to better compete with IE7 and Firefox 2.0.

Features:

• Widgets (*rolls eyes upwards*)
• Bittorrent support. An external Bittorrent client is no longer needed to participate in torrenting.
• Thumbnail previews. Hovering your mouse over a tab would give a preview of the web page it contains.
• Site preferences. This is a very good feature: allow or deny cookies, pop-ups and scripting on a site-to-site basis.

Bear in mind that Opera is the first Windows browser to fully comply with the Acid2 test (yup, not even Firefox is fully compliant). Opera has been reviewed to be extremely fast, requiring little memory, and overall excellent.

Personally, I do not care much about the Widgets features as so far I'm already using Yahoo's excellent Widget Engine (aka Konfabulator) and also shutting down Google's Desktop's attempt to populate my desktop with its Gadgets.

However, I do love the fact that Opera installs nicely in SUSE Linux, and is currently my browser of choice in Linux(*).

Footnotes:

• Another review of Opera: Link
• Download: Link
• Features Overview: Link
• and yet another review: Link
• 30 days to becoming an Opera Lover: Link

*The epiphany I came to about using Linux is that Linux is more about the philosophy and principle of Open Source. Linux is about freedom from draconian licensing laws and restricted use and distribution. Many Linux users would abandon commercial software for their open source equivalent. The example here is Opera vs Firefox. So, the fact that I stated I prefer Opera over Firefox in Linux would make many feel like throwing stones!

GIMP: Vignetting

This post is inspired by this photo (clicking the image will bring you to the author's Flickr page) and this post on Digital Photography School.

What a stunning picture! The horse seems to be frozen mid-flight, and there is a sense of speed. Look closer and you'll notice that there is a halo effect around the horse which further makes the horse stand out from the background.

Using GIMP, I also strived to the same with this originally drab picture of Sarah:

Steps:
1. Correct levels, enhance sharpness etc of the image.
2. Duplicate the layer to create a copy.
3. On the top layer: add a layer mask.
4. Again on the top layer: lasso around the subject and choose a HIGH value for feathering.
5. Invert selection.
6. Paint black into the selection.
Now on the bottom layer (i.e the background layer):
7. Gaussian blur the picture for a depth of field effect.
8. Now, again manipulating levels: darken the picture.
That's it!

Here is the end result:

Any comments or suggestions? (I'm looking mostly at Ikelah here :) The original tutorial could be found here at Gimpguru.org.

ps.
I'm currently on the start of my holiday, and for some unknown reason I'm heavy on the geeky postings. I've been spending the holiday so far catching up on reading on Linux and delving deeper into SUSE Linux, learning GIMP by following tutorials, and finishing books I'm currently reading. No wonder the geek scale(tm) is off the charts!

pps.
We're not travelling much this time as my parents are coming soon (in a week's time), so I suppose we're saving energy for our travels with them.

Picasa for Linux

A few months ago while first trying out SUSE Linux, I mentioned that I was missing a few Windows only applications; like iTunes and Picasa. Well, now that my SUSE is again up and running, I have fallen in love with the iTunes alternative Amarok media player (Amarok is able to monitor and add files real time into the library, a feature sorely missing from iTunes) and for an alternative to Picasa I'm using, um, Picasa! Yup, Picasa was recently released for Linux.

I managed to download and install Picasa without any problems on SUSE. However, running it is a different story. I find the computer would constantly freeze and shut down! (is it just me, or is Linux supposed crash as well?) Anyway, Linux Picasa is still in Beta so bugs are abound.

Can't wait for a full working version.

Link: Picasa for Linux

Snacksby

What a good idea! Snacksby is a cooking site where you enter whatever ingredients there are in your pantry, and Snacksby will "Macgyver" a recipe. Clever! (I also like the title for Snacksby: "Like Macgyver, but for food". Hilarious!)
via Lifehacker

Next Generation Desktop

Video on a design concept of future desktop. Interesting design, incorporating physics, touch screen and pretty graphics. But I'm not that convinced it's better! Looks more cluttered than current desktop designs. Cool and cute though.

via
Gizmodo
TechEBlog

Gun Kata

I have been watching the movie Ultraviolet recently and I was so happy to see the return of "Gun Kata", first seen in the movie Equilibrium. I was discussing this with Uncle De and I was surprised he didn't know what Gun Kata mean! I suspect many people don't as well thus this post.

Gun Kata is a firearm based martial arts with emphasis on two principles: shooting the enemy as efficiently as possible, and avoiding return fire.

"Through analysis of thousands of recorded gunfights, the Cleric has determined that the geometric distribution of antagonists in any gun battle is a statistically-predictable element. The Gun Kata treats the gun as a total weapon, each fluid position representing a maximum kill zone, inflicting maximum damage on the maximum number of opponents, while keeping the defender clear of the statistically-traditional trajectories of return fire. By the rote mastery of this art, your firing efficiency will rise by no less than 120%. The difference of a 63% increased lethal proficiency makes the master of the Gun Katas an adversary not to be taken lightly."

Gun Kata in action:



By the way Equilibrium is a good movie, worth watching especially for the Gun Katas.

ps
Sorry for this geeky, slightly sad post.

What's New?

Although probably subtle, I've actually made a few changes to the blog Itchiness. Here is a list of the changes I made and links on how to do them yourselves if you also use Blogger:

1. Archives drop down menu
In my sidebar, the archives link for postings from previous months is now in a drop down menu. Hopefully this will make the sidebar less cluttered.
Tutorial 1 : How to put my archive links in a menu?
Tutorial 2 : Reverse sort archive links while using drop-down menu

2. A "Previous Post" Link
The permalink of articles on my blog now has a "previous post" link (A feature present in Xanga that I have always wanted for Blogger)
Tutorial: A previous post link

3. Categories
Although still in trial (read Beta form), I now have a "Categories" section in my sidebar where I try to group articles of common topics into categories. It is still very rough at the edges though. Adding tags and categories to articles is a feature present in Wordpress and I also would really like to see a feature like this incorporated into Blogger (please!)
Tutorial 1: How to put "Category" in your Blogger Page
Tutorial 2: Blogger Tags and Categories: How To

Finally, I would like to credit Ikelah for actually giving me the idea for all these changes. How? He recently changed the template of his blog and the new template looks extremely nice. He commented that he got the link for the template from my blog, which immediately reminded me that I previously posted something on Blogger Templates and Hacks. Thanks for reminding me of the article Ikelah!

*Update*
I've now put several of my links, namely my "Favourite Podcasts" and "Recommended Downloads", into drop down menus again to reduce clutter.
Tutorial: Drop down menu
This site will code it for you: Code for drop down menu

Argh! Can't get this tune out of my mind!!

I just cannot help humming to "Life is a Highway" by Rascal Flatts from the OST of Pixar and Disney's upcoming movie "Cars". What a nice driving song! Another good song on the OST is Sheryl Crow's "Real Gone". I am feverishly awaiting this movie to be out in the cinemas. In the meantime, I'll watch the trailers.
(Click pictures to jump to the trailers. psst! the HD trailer looks AMAZING.)

Type More Efficiently Using the Dvorak Layout

The QWERTY layout on most computers and typewriters were actually designed to, believe it or not, slow down typing. There is actually a better layout of keys for typing more efficiently (and possibly quickly) called the "Dvorak Keyboard". The layout of keys on a Dvorak keyboard places the most used keys in typing words on the middle row, termed the "home keys". On this row is all the vowels and some of the most used consonants. Before confusing you much further, I'll stop and I'll now link to this fascinating read on the history and benefits of the Dvorak keyboard: the Dvorak Zine. It links to a comic strip which explains the Dvorak keyboard extremely well, it even converted me! (you can also click the picture above).

Here's another secret: you don't need to buy a new keyboard. The ability to type Dvorak is already built into Windows (or Linux & Mac). All needed is just to activate it under the control panel -> add languages -> English (Dvorak Keyboard). The comic strip above explains in detail.

If you're now also convinced to use Dvorak, all we need to do is detrain ourselves from QWERTY and take lessons & practise. Tuition is free thanks to the lovely internet:

Link to free Dvorak Tutors

From now on I'll be slowly learning Dvorak, if you do to, please let me know how you fare.

The Canal Basin

I'm sure Mama Sarah will soon post an entry on our adventures today, so to read about it just head on over to her blog (link on my sidebar ->)

So I suppose I'll just post up pictures I like from today at the Canal Basin.

Sarah looking cautiously for bees

Low perspective (this picture was actually a mistake, the camera was supposed to focus on MS in the background), but I don't think the picture turned out too bad.

1-2-3 throw!

I kid you not: this picture was entirely taken by ........ Sarah!

... and if you think that was a fluke, this picture was also taken by the 2 year old (she's the only one not in the picture).

Lunch afterwards. Amar was making funny faces making us all laugh.

Amar and I

I normally would think many times before putting my picture up on the blog, but seeing this picture expertly taken by Mama Sarah I just couldn't resist. Especially because I feel it's always been pictures of Sarah on the blog.

(Needless to say, heavily GIMPed.)

New Banner (again)

Enthralled seeing DITH's new banner and profile picture, then asked by Auntie De to do a Summer banner for my blog, AND critisised by MS about the old banner, today I set out to make a new one.

Finding inspiration was the most difficult bit.

Anyway, hope the new banner is okay. Picture taken only today (story coming soon) and heavily GIMPed. Enjoy!

Warwick Castle

This weekend has brought us to Warwick Castle. The castle is only a 12 minute drive from our town, and it has been our first time there.

The city Warwick is akin to Stratford-upon-Avon; ancient, peaceful, cultural, beautiful and extremely serene. So serene, infact, that it made me think what a nice place it'd be for (my) retirement. Away from the hustle and bustle of larger cities, with expertly landscaped gardens and parks and historic architecture, Warwick seemed the ideal place for us to unwind, especially after my extremely busy oncall week.

Arriving at the castle, we were surprised by the carpark which seemed to be located in the middle of a small forest. The "forest" turned out to be the castle's surrounding garden, decorated with beautiful summery flowers of many colours and gigantic trees which seemed to be as old as the castle itself. From the carpark to the castle was a journey itself, a 10 minute trek through the garden. Some visitors were even eating pack lunches and holding picnics outside the castle gates.

At the castle gates, we were shocked. Not only because the tour guides and staff were dressed in medieval clothes (pictured below), but especially seeing the entrance prices. Entry for an adult costs £16 and children £10. That would make the total cost for our small party a hefty £52. We were close to entering the castle grounds, but my mother sent a text saying that my parents would like to visit the castle too when they come and visit in just around 10 days time. So our visit to Warwick Castle is postponed.

Our sense of adventure undeterred, we headed for the town centre for lunch. We discovered a Japanese Restaurant called Shihan and made our minds to eat there. Our lunch was sushi, salmon teriyaki, and MS ordered a yakisoba. Overall, we were happy with Shihan's spacious and well planned interiors. The sushi was also delicious. I particularly like sampling different kinds of fish, not just regular tuna and salmon. Among today's were salmon roe and seabass. The picture I used for the blog's new banner was taken in Shihan.

However, they're also a few things we'd like to criticise about the restaurant. I think the teriyaki and especially the yakisoba were not particularly special (especially for the price). The yakisoba in Wagamama tastes multiple times better and is cheaper. Infact, I would say the yakisoba is probably even less delicious (or, at most, equal) to Tenkaichi in Cardiff, and the yakisoba in Tenkaichi is extremely good value. I was definitely disappointed with the main course. The service was also slow.

Even so, we had a great time in Warwick, especially visiting Warwick castle. Can't wait to go into the Castle grounds next time with my parents!

Notes
1. The ideal place where I would reside for my retirement should:

• be quiet, peaceful and not a busy or industrial city.
• however, be quite near a city, say, within at most 1 hour (for shopping;).
• have a Japanese restaurant and shop
  
• ideally be near the beach
• have a HUGE library
• or bookstore, like Borders
• have a comfortable cafe, for me to spend evenings reading books
• have a nice park and/or garden

hmm anything else?

2. Warwick is such an ancient city that even I was made to think of my retirement!

3. If you guys are wondering how come we're always eating out, even I am starting to think the same. Mental note for next month: save money!

4. Picture of MS is for all the readers who were curious to see her and for her long lost friends, especially Sherin. However, I intentionally chose a picture taken from great distance (and the size of the picture is really small, hehehe;)

5. Goodness, this blog is fast becoming a blog about food and travel isn't it? Well, I'm sorry to any readers who'd like to read about anything different. I am myself confused on what to write about in my blog. In the end I've decided to write about anything that holds my interest at the time of writing.

Learn foreign languages with open source software

An article on Newsforge recommending several free and open source software for that extra edge in learning languages.
Link

Little One and I

Nothing better after a looooooong oncall than to grab a magazine, sit back, relax and enjoy a warm mug of Caramel Machiatto with the little one. Sarah's enjoying her Citrus Frappucino. (Mama Sarah and Amar took a rain check).

New Browser: Flock Beta

How exciting! A new browser to rival Firefox has finally been released in Beta (for Windows).

Features:
Drag and drop photo sharing. Photos dropped in Flock could be shared and subscribed by people.
Built in RSS support.
Built in search engines. Includes the ability to search favourites, history and as-you-type.
Built in blogging tools (think Performancing for Firefox).
"Star" bookmarks to tag, catagorise and organise favourite links.

Sounds like an interesting and feature packed browser. Definitely would be interesting to try. Do leave a comment if any of you have any experiences to share (and I'll post mine once I've given Flock a spin).
Learn more & download

Gloves

Yesterday, the Critical Care consultant was asked to review a very poorly patient in the Medical Admissions Unit. Before examining the patient, he was looking for a pair of gloves.

Obviously frustated from not finding a pair his size he exclaimed, "Only small and medium?? Hmmph, show's the size of physicians!" and stormed away. Burn!! Critical Care - 01, Physicans - 00.

Okay, I understand he's frustrated, but why did he have to look at me while saying it??

This reminded me of a friend I was working with in Morriston Hospital, Wales.

She was helping me examining a patient, and we couldn't find any gloves nearby. She found a pair right at the opposite end of the ward and shouted at the top of her voice,

"MYNN, WHAT SIZE ARE YOU, SMALL??"

Needless to say, all the doctors, nurses and even some of the patients spontaneously burst in laughter.

...and I was left burning red.

ps
any suggestions for clever/witty/funny rhetorts against the Critical Care consultant?

Not about me this time: Nostalgic Trip to Cardiff

This weekend Uncle and Auntie De completed their 2 week tour around the UK starting from Wrexham, to Southampton, Coventry, Stratford Upon Avon, Essex, Cardiff then finally back to Wrexham. They seemed to really enjoy themselves, especially in Cardiff. The inbox of my phone today has been completely spammed from Auntie De's picture messages so I decided to pay Uncle and Auntie De a tribute and post her pictures on a tabblo:

See my Tabblo>

Pictures
Top: The new Borders & Starbucks in Llantrisant, where Uncle & Auntie De used to stay. Show's how much Llantrisant has changed.

Tenkaichi:
A Japanese noodle bar where we often rendesvous. We all have our favourites. Uncle De loves the bento box (so do I), but my favourite is the Sea Food Ramen. Mmmmmm.

The singing guy:
We used to always see this guy singing at the town centre. And he's still singing it seems.

House:
Our house, full of memories .... sigh. Sarah was brought up there. And friends used to visit EVERY weekend. For finals, we met up there for our study group.

Bottom:
Poor, tired Safiya. Hope she enjoyed visiting the place where Auntie De carried Emyr.

Looks fun!! Wish we were there too!

Linux At Last!!

Finally, after several months of research I am finally 100% successful at installing OpenSUSE Linux on this computer! Muahaha:)

I am extremely happy. Infact, currently I am trying out the system: I'm writing this post with Performancing in Firefox but using Linux. At the same time I'm listening to mp3s using Amarok and just now playing DivX on a my Windows partitions worked without a hitch.

Yes!!

I've installed OpenSUSE on a 20Gb partition, and left Windows files untouched on two 80GB partitions and one 20Gb containing the Windows installation. Unlike last time I had absolutely no problems with Suse 10.1 and mostly no 200Gb data loss.

:) Next I just want to tweak the system until I'm happy with the settings.

ps
I recently bought SUSE Linux 10 Bible by Justin Davies et al. Published by Wiley 2005. I was reading this until 1am in the morning (despite being oncall).