At The Studio

Didnt really sleep last night.. went to bed (on the floor actually, Pet's on the bed) at 6.30am this morning, suppossed to wake up at 8.30 but ended up waking up at 9.50am thanks to the construction guy next door bashing up the window of my neighbour. Would be really pissed at him if its any other day but today I really have to wake up to present my work for the crit, and there's actually hardly any. Most of the times I am of the few who did the work the very last minute, but this time I find myself in the majority of last-minute.com guys in my studio. I think up till yesterday afternoon nearly half of my classmates didnt have any idea what are they presenting today, and worked it all through last night. Some of us walked into the studio like zombies today, knackered. There's a few individual work, group work, assignments and essays running at the same time this week and we really don't have time to do it - well not all of it at the same time. I hope I could present the work today, get it done or else I have to do it on Friday obstucting my efforts for the other courseworks. I'm tired.

Malas + Letih

Haih. Baru balik keje kol 4 pagi. Karang kelas lak kol 9 sampai 4 petang . Letih.

What Did I Say?

N868AVA - Its inner power yet to be unleashed

Hummm...as I said yesterday, got the new car today. A second car overnight, how interesting is that? Not exacly new, but new to me and relatively new to the one I had before (well, I still HAVE it now, but not for long). Its a 1996 Rover 214 Si, with 72,000 mileage and I got it for £500. I think its a good deal. A really good deal indeed. Nothing's wrong with the car apart from it needs replacement of its temperature sensor and some tweaking with the lower-level blower (heating, fan). The blower works fine at 3 and 4 level settings, but the lower settings at 1 or 2 it just didn't work. Its not a biggie considering how good the car looks, the interior, the better-sounding stereo, the engine with its low mileage despite the age, the power steering (I haven't got it in my last car), central locking with remote (yeaaaahhhhh), sunroof, 5 doors (the old one has 3 doors) and the fact that I got if for only £500. I could deal with it. The handling's really good (yeah its got power steering), the clutches fine and soft, and its got a 1.4 litre petrol engine (petrol's cheaper here than others - NOT relative to Malaysia) which is an optimum engine size for me right now - not too much power and certainly not less. Went to the car wash straightaway after eating lunch and came back home. Well, I don't think I could say more about the car because I just got it less than 4 hours ago, so we'll see how good this one is.

Comment on the picture : Thats Dug in the car, right after a car wash. As you can see that's my favourite spot for pictures, when and where else can I get a shining and clean car than after a good wash? Anybody had an itch in their head saying "where did I see this car before?" You are certainly right. It about the same model as Wahab's but his is maroon and this one is bright red. Oh and he's got a 2.0 diesel engine as opposed to my 1.4 petrol one. And I AM persuaded to buy this car because of his. I admit that.

Goodbye, You Served Me Well

L256HUD - in its prime

Well, went to the garage today to find out that the car's gotta be scrapped. Quick. The head gasket's blown, leaving the engine oil mixed up with the cooling water from the radiator. Thats why the temperature gone up so high, well over the red line. Basically to repair it costs around £400 with no certainty that it'll be fixed by then. The mechanic told me its advisible to swap the entire engine, which new used engine costs around £220 and hearing it I thought "yeah I could live with that". Not before he told me the total price with other parts and labour costs which brings the total to around £600. Well, to be frank I think its not worth the hassle and I'm better off buying a new one instead. Doing some serious car hunting now and there's a few that caught my eye, and there's a big fat chance of me getting a new car before next week. And now its Saturday night.

In general I think the car has served me well for nearly one and a half since I bought it on 21 April 2004. To be exact my life's changed with the car's presence. Haha as you can tell I'm getting cheesy at this moment, but its my first car and i think I'm entitled to be all emotional about it. Before I owned the car, I used to have to wait for the friggin unreliable Number 4 bus in the coldness of winter, the only service that passed by my home in my first year. Its so unreliable I have to wait on average around one and a half hours before the bus showed up and sometimes it even came smiling with the "No Service" sign on its forehead. Couldn't stand it anymore by April, I bought the car in Chippenham and drove it on the motorway straight to Cardiff - not even stopping by in Bristol although its on the way.

Spent some money on the car maintaining it, changed the tyres (£100), alternator (£200), clutch and water pump (£400) and usual minor car-maintaining procedures. But the inevitable has happened and the car is dying on me now. Although its not new when I got it, I bought it with with my own hard-earned money, its my first car and I loved it, it gets me to places but I guess its time for me to move on. I'll have to let it go. Ecehhhhhhh...

Long Time No See (updated)

Been quite some time since the last entry. Life's dull lately without anything interesting in it. Last weekend we went to Cardiff for Piala Putra - a football match which is held there this year.

We ( Me Dug and Pet) supposedly went to the game just to see people there, not to watch the game and then go to Brigend which is a factory outlet shopping centre 20 minutes from Cardiff. Supposedly its only a day trip (yeahhh like it always do - hehe). Ended up staying in Cardiff for the nite and went to Brigend the next day. Lenoq cooked his Tomyam Campur that nite which I craved since I tasted it last year. Pet missed the tomyam because he had to go back to Bristol to work that nite, but he managed to come back the next day on Sunday to go shopping with us. Didn't buy anything there but Dug and Pet bought good bargain stuffs like £5 Nike shoes.

This coming weekend I'm trying to stay at home and do some uni work. Been accumulating those and now I just found out that I have to submit 3 assignments and essays, on top of a studio design project by the 15th December which is just 2 weeks away from now. Might not see new entries by then. We'll see.

Update on Friday night (pagi buta) : did stay at home, didnt go to work, ended up sleeping as early as 9pm, woke up at 12 midnight and watched movies and Desperate Housewives the whole nite - couldnt say there's progress on my uni works' part. Its 5.53am now. Ouh - and gotta wake up early tomorrow. Gotta go repair my car - the heating's not working and the temp going up through the roof. Maybe about time.

November Snow

Thought this would worth an entry. Been up since 3.30am this morning, feeling nice and warm inside my room without noticing its snowing outside! Had a peek through the curtain this morning after taking a bath, checking the weather to prepare myself for an early class (yes people I'm going to class this morning), only to realise its whites all over the place. Probably not as thick as you might hope, but hell its November and its already snowing! The first year when I came here it snowed about 3 times, the first in early January. I think its twice on the second year and now? The first snow in November! Whooaaa hows this winter gonna be..difficult to say. Just really glad i bought the car one and a half years back. My saviour.

Story of My Life

Starts somewhere along here..those early days 5 years ago =)

Full Time Worker, Part Time Student?

Wondering what am I doing now in UK..am I actually a full time employee or a student? Can't really tell the difference now although as stated in my visa I'm a student but I've missed some classes (SOME?) but been going to work nearly every nite of the week - not weekends wohoooo! Even been called money grabber by my collegues - the nightcrews at B&Q because I stayed at work up to 7 in the morning when I'm supposed to work only until 3. My room's a mess, can't really find time to clean it up and fortunately my illegal roommates are cleaning up my laundries. Thats the good thing about it. Thanks Pet and Izman.

Missed all classes this week (its Wednesday now!) and a group meeting as well. Have to be at work again tonite until 3 and I got a class at 8.30 tomorrow morning. How bad is it? Sigh.

For those many people who asked is it me who's on the coconut tree on the background picture, yes, thats me, my dad took the picture when I'm about 10 or 11 years old climbing the coconut tree in Pantai Merdeka, Kedah when we're on a camping trip called Kem Bina Semangat - something like OBS for teachers-to-be (my dad's a lecturer in Maktab Perguruan Sultan Abdul Halim, Sungai Petani). Missed those days canoeing in the sea, mountain climbing, jungle trekking n abseilling with my dad. Think i'll join him for another trip before I'm getting married in August (for those of you who still doesn't know hehe - I'm taken.)

Oh and another good thing - Dug is cooking Nasi Padprik downstairs =)