The pot noodles boy

We make friends everyday and we will never know when they will go. In the process of making friends, there is always disappointments, disagreements, expectations, arguments, and so on. But only through all these it makes us a true friend! Do you experience this before? This is my friend, Jackey Man the pot noodles boy. He was also my colleague. He is a Hongkese born Aberdonian. Basically means, born in Hong Kong but grown up in Aberdeen, Scotland. He left Hong Kong at the age of 2 or 3.

He left IDS to further his studies at Edinburgh for Master in "Energy". Wow...sounds great. Anyway, this is for his own good. I asked him if he is coming back to IDS but that's not going to happen. He will be doing engineering stuff at oil and gas company, in other words...no more programming! 

I still remember when I first met him in Aberdeen, he was sitting right in front of a computer and figuring out what is happening to his code(computer terms - code debugging). Sitting really near to his monitor and pointing his finger on the monitor. I was surprised when he minimized his windows program and saw this particular picture as his desktop background.

Wow...It really brought me into laughter. How on earth a guy in his 20's would put up this kind of picture as his desktop background wallpaper? He must be kidding me, but that's the fact. This particular teddy bear dressed up by human is actually one of the kid's show in Aberdeen and its name is "Bungle" - yeah, I remember its name. It's cute, isn't it?

He is a person who is very confident with what he is doing and I find it quite difficult to convince him into something, especially programming. I wouldn't say he is ego but more to a very high self esteemed person. Most of the time we argue about how we want to write the code and he is a person that never let anyone touches his code - trust me. 

I really cherish all of the moments that we spent together, especially the trip to Edinburgh. We were in the same project, "EIKOS" is the project code name. Lately, before he left...he involves in our main product, D2 and I think I really tried my best to help him to get his work done. This is the thing that I never regret of doing. I am really satisfied out of it because I had really help him with all of my strength, my knowledge, and my will. See, you will never know when is your friend leaving you. So make sure when your friend needs your help, make it as if this is the last time you are going to help him.

Ok, probably you still can't figure out why he was given a nickname Jackey the pot noodles boy. Can you imagine what he was having for almost every of his lunch?

Exactly, these are the pot noodles that he had gathered for the past two years with IDS. This is not counted those he had thrown away. Of course he didn't build this fort by himself, but his colleague(William) did it during his second last day with IDS. The above photos are taken at Aberdeen's office. Now you know how he gets his nickname ;)

Alright, that's all for the pot noodles boy story. Jackey, all of us in IDS really miss your presence and I will be the one who misses the arguments with you! Hope you will do fine in your Master and I know you will! Take good care of yourself and remember to keep in touch :) May God bless you in everything you do. Friends forever~

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Christmas Season '06

My friend kept asking me of how's Christmas at Aberdeen, UK and what's the different with Malaysia's version. Personally think it's not so happening at Aberdeen compared to Malaysia. Is that a lie ? Well, try to find out later on. So what's the different of having Christmas at Aberdeen and at Malaysia ? Let's see...

A Black Christmas tree in a window ? why black ? This year, there will be also a movie coming up "Black Christmas" which is the remake of the same movie in the year 1974...will it be a Black Christmas for all of us ? nahhh...don't believe it

Some decorations of Santa Claus

performance on stage ?

The best thing at Aberdeen, UK is to see people wearing kilts and playing bagpipe songs. This time I see them in group and the song they play is really cool ! I was stamping my feet while listening them playing.

me and Christmas tree in one of the biggest shopping center of Aberdeen.

Any idea what's this guy doing in that balloon ? Basically, he was doing strip tease dancing inside that balloon with the music on of course. I was supposed to take another picture of what he did to the balloon but my digicam shouted at me "Not Enough Memory", arrrkk !? @.@!? Ok lah, tell you what he did to the balloon at the end. He requested the crowd to count down from 10. He hide himself in the balloon for the last 3 seconds; everyone kept silent after counting. Suddenly he blew up the balloon with a needle I suppose and he was in the Santa Claus costume. Everyone claps hand and walk away after that. hhmm, interesting.

Lighting decorations along Union Street (Main street of Aberdeen)

Btw, IRN-BRU is Aberdonian's No. 1 favorite drinks ! It taste just like Orange Fanta.

Since it will be my final 3 days at Aberdeen, better get my claims ready ! Once got back to Malaysia, I will claim until my company bankrupt get all my money back ! *tik tik tak tak* (pressing calculator).

So, how's Christmas at Aberdeen ? Judge 'em yourself. cheers !

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YiEn@u's trip extended !

My manager took away my passport required me to stay longer to assist them in another project. So, my actual return date would be on 20th of December. 5 days away from Christmas ! Hope to see some snow by then. I need to get down to London Heathrow by 18th and overnight at London Heathrow airport because my flight from London to Kuala Lumpur is on 19th, 10:50 a.m.

Geezzzz...the weather is getting colder and colder. Wait a minute, my trip has been extended so which mean I have extra time here and why not go for a vacation at Edinburgh ! Hey, let's do it ! Come on, Paul...let's plan it out and rock the world ! It's Christmas season, let's do some shopping ;) yo~!

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St. Andrew Day

30th of November is an St. Andrew Day for Scotland and it's being celebrated all around the world. Want to know some history of Scotland ? The flag of Scotland is actually representing the Cross of St. Andrew who was a fisherman in Galilee(now part of Israel) along with his elder brother Simon Peter (Saint Peter). Both became followers (apostles) of Jesus Christ, founder of the Christian religion. Fooohh...related to Christianity in a way.

Anyway, St. Andrew is said to have been responsible for spreading the tenets of the Christian religion through Asia Minor and Greece. Tradition suggests that St. Andrew was put to death by the Romans in Patras, Southern Greece by being pinned to a cross (crucified). The diagonal shape of this cross is said to be the basis for the Cross of St. Andrew which appears on the Scottish Flag. The following shows the Cross of St. Andrew in Scotland flag.

Scotland flag(represents the Cross of St. Andrew).

Since everyone is celebrating St. Andrew day, my manager invited me and my colleagues to his house for a so-called party. He promised me to cook haggis ! oohhh...my irresistible haggis ! ...and only beers allow for that night. Just joking, we had coffee and cakes after the meals :p

Some photos to share...

Hhmmm...good Tennents, it tastes great ! though I am not a drinker but I am sort of fallen in love with Tennents.
Paul and William, say "cheese"~ kar chiak !

After looking at the photo of my own, I was on diet for 2 days and I "was" back to normal for another 3 days . Sigh...

Foods...

on your mark, get set...Go !!

Haggis !! yeay, mission completed.

That's about it folks ! Cheers everybody !

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Yo!

I went to a fish & chips shop(oh man, I told you I am crazy over it !) and bought my dinner before I got back to my apartment. There was an Indian worker serving me. Below are our conversation...

Yientau :	Can I have fish & chips, take away, please.
Indian :	5 minutes, is that ok ?
Yientau :	sure, no problem
	...after 10 minutes of deep frying fresh fish & chips(stomach start making noise) - I thought he said 5 minutes ?? @.@ !?
Indian :	Sir, you want salt or vinegar ?
Yientau :	Salt, please
Indian :	Salt only ?
Yientau :	Yeah, please...(didn't I just say it ? hhmm, he wasn't paying attention)
Indian :	So, where are you from ?
Yientau :	Malaysia ! (proudly shamefully announced)
Indian :	Malaysia !?
	...both hesitate for 60 2 seconds...
Yientau :	...(did I say anything wrong? Oh man, I think he hates Malaysian)
Indian :	I am also from Malaysia...
Yientau :	*shocked - What !?* Oh! really ?(eye brows raised). How long have you been here ?
Indian :	Yeah, I settled down here with a Scottish woman and I work here(obviously!).
Yientau :	That's great ! So how do you find Aberdeen ?
Indian :	Arrhh, I don't like the food here. They are all fattening, not healthy(pointing to my food - what the...) and expensive. So, what are you doing here? working ? or studying ?
Yientau :	Yeah, basically the food here is expensive and I didn't ask you about the food !. I am actually having my business trip here, am working as a programmer for an Oil industry. Anyway, nice to meet you here. Alright, $4.10 pounds here.
Indian :	Cheers man, hope you enjoy your trip !
Yientau :	Yeah, sure. Cheers man !

Went back to Apartment but not so happy caused by "the impact" of his words saying the food that I bought is fat and unhealthy...(Yeah I know, I don't take it everyday what) when I am about to start to enjoy my food, I just realized that I had forgotten to take my receipt ! Oh my...I can't claim from my company if I don't have the receipt :( It's all that Indian's fault ! @#$%&*\@#&$#~!! Anyway, that Indian makes me feel like I am one step nearer to my country ;p I am not alone ! I wonder how many Malaysian actually settled down at UK - should be a lot.

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What's good about oversea ?

Did you ever wonder if overseas moon is always rounder than what you can see from your hometown ? Well, from what I had learned so far; the answer is "Yes !" Still don't believe ? Look at the picture after the jump...

Wooooo...it's so much rounder and brighter ! What's went wrong ? Isn't it the same moon from the same Universe ? I know you still can't believe it but I just took a photo of it as a prove ! Yeah, I know it sounds crap :p Take it easy, dude ! Hhhmmm...some food review from Aberdeen, show time !

This is Italian B.M.T and I bought 'em from a food store called SubWay. It cost me $3.79 pounds(~RM26.53) and don't ask me what is B.M.T cause I have no idea what it is ! It comes with Italian ham, cheese, and salad with mayonnaise. I accompanied 'em with brown bread and it tastes so nice. I feel like I am floating on the sky during my first bite of it. Sorry, a bit too exaggerate. How nice if we have this at Kuching, Sarawak ! SubWay is a regular place where students at Aberdeen comes in to buy their own lunch after school. Btw, I have just learned that at Aberdeen, there is no such thing as Lunch. They have only Breakfast, Dinner and Supper which is no different with our Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. Just that they use a different "terminology". So, every time my colleague asked me "what do you want for your dinner ?" I would give them a strange face ---> (._.?) since it's still GMT 12:00pm. Then at later on, I realized that they are trying to say "Lunch". They won't be saying, "What are you doing ?" but they say "What are you doing just now ?". I thought they meant "just now" and I were asking them back "Just now ? (._.?) oohh, there are a lot of things I did just now, which one ?" What the...I mean it's so freaking confusing ! I can tell you, their pronunciations are very different from how we actually pronounce. Take for example the word "man". We used to pronounce as "men"(am I not right ?) but they pronounce as "man". @.@! what !?

Hey hey hey !!! Mr. KFC, how come Aberdeen's zinger burger is larger and tastier than Malaysia's zinger !? This is so...not fair ! Their bun has more sesame seeds on top ! and it's more spongy ! You need to visit Malaysia's KFC and do some QC ! uurrrgghh...

Oooohh...this is a nice one. How can I resist ?! It's called cheese and chip doner. Did you see the cheese in the middle of the food ? Yum ! I bought it from a kebab shop and it cost me $3 pounds(~RM21). It was very filling and tasty ! The doner is so fresh and juicy. Doner basically is a grilled lamb.

...and this is Aberdeen nation favored takeaway food. It's the undeniable fresh and juicy fish & chips ! The cost for a fish & chips ranges from $3.50 ~ $4.50 pounds. Alright, this is chips and not fries. French fries is slightly thinner and longer than chips. Most of the time I can't finish it by myself but I let the dustbin to have a bit since they are so hungry outside the cold weather(insane). You must have it while they are still hot, trust me. You can have 'em together with some lime on it. Fooohhh...it makes my day. Lately I am crazy over fish & chips and hope to have it almost everyday. Did I just said everyday ? *puke* My colleague told me there is one shop that actually show you the fish before they deep fry the fish for your order. Just imagine how fresh the fish is and I am sure you are swallowing your saliva ! Muahahhaa ! !

There is one more food I haven't try yet. It's called haggis. I have had to try this before I fly back to Malaysia ! Hahaha...my face is as round as the moon now. That's the whole purpose I put that moon picture in this post ! Kekeke...

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London or Edinburgh ?

It's GMT 10:30 pm and I am suppose to sleep by then. Anyway, feel like want to blog something. This would be my third week at Aberdeen, UK. So far so good and quite happy with the life here. I cook by myself, I wash my own dish, I wash my own clothes, I walk to office every morning and had a good time with my colleagues here. They can be so serious and they can joke with you without boundary. Sometimes I find it hard to get their joke. Probably overseas joke is much more harsher than Asian's joke. I would say quite different from the way I used to joke(obviously). At times, I felt offended when they joke with me by saying "Go back to Malaysia", "Your cheap and nasty Malaysian code". I am fine with the first few times when they speak about it. But, too much of it might just spoiled a cup of coffee in the morning !

Work here is always busy and changes here and there. I always believe a program or simply a software, can only written by one person. If you ask me why, I will tell you - "too many cook spoiled the soup" ! Too many opinions and too many disagreement on everything. This might just slow down the software development cycle. Oh man, I was wondering how "efficient" it was during my University whenever I had a group assignment ! Geeezzz...that won't work out, trust me ! It always turn out to be only one person doing codings, the other one do documentation and the rest of it waiting for the marks to be announced from Lecturer. But, did you ever wonder why we need to have at least 2 person writing a software ? Well, simply because if that freak or geek quit, there is at least another backup. So, in the context of an IT Company, you just can't have only one programmer doing a development.

Anyway, too much of craps. My manager were asking me for a favor to stay another one more extra week. Well, just one week and I think this is fair enough for both party. Still waiting for his reply. So my return is not being confirmed yet. My colleagues planned to visit Edinburgh together with me next week. I was wondering shall I just spend on Edinburgh and forget about the London trip or do it next time. They said it would be expensive to spend in London and advise me to visit Edinburgh instead. Not too sure of how things would turn out to be but they tried to convince me by all mean. Will see how then ;p

Last Friday was my disastrous week, was it a Friday the 13th ? It was about GMT 7:00 o'clock in the evening. I was so tired and stressed out . I went to my colleague's room(Paul) to have a short chit chat. My another colleague(Jackey) who actually work at the same room with me, came in to Paul's room 5 minutes after me. We were planning to watch movie after this and all of us agreed. When Jackey and I planned to go back to our room, we found out the door locked by itself ! noob, eh ! All of my stuff was inside the room, my laptop, my clothes, office key and same goes to Jackey. He is even worst, his handphone, wallet, and house key were inside the room. I was d*mn lucky where my apartment key was with me inside my jean. I would be sleeping in the office if I don't have that key ! There is nothing we can do because none of us has the key and not even our manager. Cool stuff ! So, at the end we went for a movie and went home.

I was supposed to be in the office to do support over the weekend(which mean next day) and yet my key was inside the room. My manager was so angry over this matter and he was so freaking furious ! He was at Spain at that time and scolded my colleague for not doing anything since I need to be in for support over the weekend. I felt so sorry to my colleague since they got scolded because of me :( I would again, take this opportunity to extend my apologies and hope you guys don't put 'em in heart, cheers guys ! I also hope this matter won't affect our manager's impression towards you guys.

Anyway, those are the past tense ! My main concern now is to visit London or Edinburgh ! Suggestions please ~! Let's plan together for this coming trip and chill it out loud ! oweoweo !

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Just my 2 pounds

At UK, they have 2 pounds in the form of coin and it comes to my surprise that their 2 pounds is so unique ! It's silver in the middle but gold at the edge of the coin. The "main page"(probably too much into computers stuff) or simply the face of the coin is the image of Queen Elizabeth II and it's written on the coin's edge "ELIZABETH II DEI GRA REG FID DEF". I need someone to decode it ! What's that mean !?

The back of the coin is printed with symbols and I need a decoder as well. Probably those symbols do really mean something. Da Vinci Code ? Ok, I had gone too far.

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Apartment @ Aberdeen

After a couple days of nomad~ism from one Hotel to another, finally I had settled down in an apartment. It's an apartment that my manager rent for me and I am supposed to stay in this apartment by last Monday. Well, the previous tenant was not able to move out of the apartment on time, so it wasn't my manager's fault. Alright, what is past is past. Let's see what we have here ;)

Let the photos "talk"...

The door where I came in. There's a phone for me to talk if someone pressed my door bell and wanted to talk with me.

Store room...layered rack

There is only one bedroom, master bedroom. There is a radiator beside my bed to keep me warm during night time. So, it's quite warm and comfy during my sleep.

Bed for two person...

A sliding door wardrobe with mirror

Bathroom with bathtub

A place for me to hang my towel, face towel and panties !

There is a radiator underneath it, so my towel and panties get dry easily...

Ok, this is the one that controls my radiator and hot water from tape

radiator in kitchen...and yeah, it's everywhere. There is one also in the living room.

Let's see what I have in the kitchen...a washing machine, sink...

pots, frying pan, kitchen utensils...

erm...don't really know what you call this. Is it something like extractor fan ? I need to turn this on while I am cooking, to let the smoke out from the kitchen.

Toaster, water boiler ...

Food supplies, probably need to go shopping already...

...spoon, fork, knife...

Knife, chopping board...

Big plates, small plates, cups, bowls...

Oven...haven't got a chance to use it...

Fridge ! one of the most important thing in this apartment !

dining table ? it's being folded into half. That's the place where I eat and do my work...

Living room...Hi, come in and have a seat ;)

Yeah, it has almost everything I need; BUT still lack of one thing. Yeah, just one thing. Don't you think so ? Want some clue ? What did I say to kill a programmer(or simply yientau) ? YiEnT@u just can't move on without it !!!! aarrrgghh....

Still can't figure it out ? Ok, fill in the following blanks. If still can't figure that out, please go to the toilet and say "I am retarded" repetitively for 100 times(just joking) :p

characters available are : E T I R N T N E

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

enjoy !

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