2°59' N 101°40' E

IKEA

2009-12-01T09:00:00.000+08:00

We went to IKEA on Sunday to stock up for Christmas and to make sure to get julmust this year. They seem to bring home less things for every year. I assume it is because they haven’t managed to sell those other things very well the previous years. So what they added for this season is more herring than usual, pepparkakor in Christmassy tins, dough to make your own pepparkakor, Christmas crisp bread (that’s a bit of a tongue twister), and of course the julmust (though this year they got Nygårds rather then Apotekarens, but hey its better than having Coca-Cola with the Christmas food). So no rödkål (red cabbage), mustard or cheese this year. I am not that great fan of the rödkål, but it is nice to have something not fatty, vegetable and that I don’t have to cook from scratch, on the table. I mean I most likely have to make my own mustard already.

Sick!

2009-12-01T08:50:00.001+08:00

It’s the poor little boy that is not well again. He hasn’t got much of a fewer anymore but it his breathing that causes the problem. It is really bad and he keep making loads of noise when breathing, but as he actually manage to sleep fairly well the last night it must be getting better even though it still sounds quite bad. The older kids had there bout earlier so they are basically well now. I am getting better as well, not getting any fewer or so but a fairly bad throat ache and after 6 hours of lecturing on Thursday not very much of the glorious voice left, but the it is almost back to normal now. Just a sore throat left, but I don’t want another set of antibiotics. I had at least 3 different doses of antibiotics this semester and think that is enough. If it continues like this next semester too, I will seriously consider dropping the PhD for health reasons.

Saffron!

2009-12-01T08:49:00.000+08:00

Finally found Saffron on Saturday and compared to the prices in Sweden it was darn cheap, but even so what am I supposed to do with 10 g or so (the amount was not stated but by the amount in the pack it was at least 10 g) of saffron I just need a gram or so of saffron. Actually I don’t know how much saffron I need as it says 2 packs in my recipe. But if it was 2 packs like the one I saw on Saturday it would be unhealthy. So is one pack in Sweden half a gram or one gram? Anyway on Sunday I found a gram pack instead for RM 9 which is 25% of the price of the 10g pack but I don’t think I would be able to use it all so it would probably be a waste. So it will be lussebullsbak over the weekend. I think I will use half the batch for traditional ones and the other half to make round buns with raisin, dates and sunflower seed, to get some variation. It will also be some pepparkakor made over the weekend and possibly some making of mustard too. So it will be a busy weekend.

Thunderstruck

2009-12-01T08:48:00.000+08:00

Might be a nice song, but it’s definitely not nice when it happens to your computer. The power surge went in via the modem and the network connection and melted some chips on the motherboard and killed the modem on the way as well. So no internet or computing at home. Now I just have to figure out what computer I should get, which will probably take a while as I always have problem to make up my mind. Laptop or desktop, cheapest possible one with 2Gb Ram or a fancier one? That will probably take all of December to figure out.

Golf!

2009-08-07T08:17:00.000+08:00

Better not take any chances that criminality might be hereditary.

You have to think like a toddler!

2009-08-03T16:38:00.000+08:00

I was not very succesful in getting Adam to eat his chicken the other day.
So I told him he better eat the food if he want to grow and be strong.
The reply;
"I am strong look I can lift the chair"
So he started lifting the chair to show how strong, which didn't make him eat any faster.

Talented daughter?

2009-07-31T16:03:00.002+08:00

I came down to the living room where Aida and Adam was hunched over a book of animals with the tame printed below each animal.
Approaching them I heard:

D-O-G dog

C-O-W cow

And I was thinking, wow she can already read.

Then came.
C-A-L-F donkey.

So she now the letters and can get them right, but for the full word she didn't read she looked at the picture and I must admit it was quite a big eared donkey looking calf.

This is definetely not Denmark!

2009-04-22T13:56:00.000+08:00

Ha ha!

Just read that the Danish government has decided to increase the price of chocolate and carbonated drinks to make the Danish healthier!
That’s quite for from the case in Malaysia were we have subventionated sugar. The government is actually chipping in a couple of sen per kg of sugar.

And it is just so utterly ridiculous as it is a luxury item.

Nobody needs it what so ever! It is just there for indulgence.

Snitching!

2009-04-22T13:42:00.000+08:00

Nope I haven't started playing quidditch.

I was doing invigilation today and sometimes we have to send students out of the exam hall. Today I succeeded in getting the chief invigilator kicked out of the hall.

All of it actually started early in the morning with me going to work. First I had a car squeezing in in front of me even though his lane was disappearing and there were no gap in front of me. But still he wanted to squeeze in after the car he previously had before him in his lane. So he horned me to give him space, which I in the end did as I had had enough of stupid Malaysian drivers. Just after that the road splits to left while the main road continues through a traffic light. To shorten their time in queue some people like to go in the furthest right lane as long as possible. So I start slowing down for the traffic light as it is red. And I get horned again because the lady behind, who wants to go left from the right lane, thinks I am driving too slowly compared to the left lane. That made me very annoyed and I kept grumbling for some km afterwards about Malaysians, their driving and their use of the horn when they are in err. I just can’t take it being horned when I abide by the rules. I understand it when some get alarmed if I happen to do something stupid or wrong but using the horn when you are the one stupid and wrong?

I still reached work in a happy mode; it might have been thanks to the lovely “The number of the beast” by Iron Maiden in the stereo or me just being in a good mood. Actually it is very seldom I am grumpy for a long time. I usually explode and than right away go back to a more normal mode.

One of the jobs during the invigilation is to collect the attendance slips and check that they are allowed to sit for the exam and that they are the one that are supposed to sit for the exam. It turned that some didn’t have the proofs for being allowed to sit for the exam and some others didn’t have their identification. Two weeks ago I had to sit for a one hour meeting iterating how important it is to abide by the rules during invigilation. My own faculty head reiterated all I heard at the faculty meeting. And when I point this out to the chief invigilator he sort of commented that it wasn’t that serious to be bothered about. Actually it is not that important for this particular parts and I just made a note of contacting the exam department to get the lecturer for the course to come and vouch for the persons that didn’t have any identification.
When everything has settled down and we were one hour into the three hour exam a guy arrives and comes and sits down at his place. And I tell him that he has to leave the exam hall as he is one hour late and the latest he could arrive is passed by half an hour. But he says that the chief invigilator said it was OK. And sure enough the chief invigilator is coming with exam set for him and I try to state the point but I got ignored.

That mad me totally pissed of, so I brought all my papers and stuff and left the hall. The major reason of course is that I had had enough of law being for the day, but also that I didn’t find the chief invigilator reasonable. So I stormed away fuming, straight to the exam department were I declared that either they do something about this or I won’t do any invigilation. I don’t think that my demands really had anything to do with the actual outcome as they were the one who called the meeting about the importance of following the rules. But sure enough the head of the department was not happy, she called the chief invigilators superior, which sound even more pissed off. And I ended up with walking with the newly appointed chief invigilator to the exam hall and see the old one being asked to go to his boss. And the student who was late got sent out of the exam hall.
So I managed to get rid of both the student and the chief invigilator in one go.

If I wasn’t annoyed with the guy to start with and had those experiences earlier in the morning I think I would have taken more time to convince the chief invigilator than run off to snitch on him. So I feel slightly sorry for him, but just slightly. I mean he might be deaf and have hard to hear what was said during that meeting.

If IKEA made cars?

2009-04-20T16:00:00.002+08:00

The dark side!

2009-04-20T15:57:00.001+08:00

It is sad but true that I am starting to approach the dark side of the force. My coffee is getting darker and darker as I started to dislike the sweat and creamy I used to make and the only coffee I was willing to drink. But it started to get un-tasty after half a cup or so and I ended up throwing away the rest. So I have been cutting down on the sugar and creamer and the coffee is getting darker and darker.

May the force be with me!

Aydeen 1 month

2009-04-18T20:46:00.002+08:00

So the little boy is 1 month.

Try to check his weight and using the bath room scale I got his weight to be 5.7 kg. Quite an impressive weight for a 1 month old. The other parents at Aida's concert (see below) were quite surprised, especially those with babies as Aydeen were the sam size as a 3- and a 4-month-old baby. No wonder I we get so tired backs. Though it is the same amount Adam increased his weight with in the first month.

18/4

2009-04-18T20:27:00.006+08:00

It has been a busy day. Aida’s music class had a small concert and it had a bring and share lunch. There is probably a proper English term for it, but I don’t know it. So I had to start cooking quite early in the morning. So I started the preparations already just after 6. Though that was not the intention, I just happened to wake up at 5:30 and couldn’t go back to sleep. So I started poured boiling water on the tomatoes, had my breakfast and then I sat down to peal the tomatoes, onions, garlic and carrots, while watching M*A*S*H. As nobody else was up I could for one whatever I wanted without having somebody complaining.
After I finished chopping the veggies I could afford a little break so I tried to bring the kids to the play ground. I was just 50% successful as Adam didn’t want to come if Mamma didn’t follow. So we stayed just for a short while as Aida was not as interested of playing without her brother.
Back at home I started the cooking and it got hot even though I cooked outside, because the sun started rising and the cooking area is facing east. So a little sweaty I worked through the frying of the mince meat and the condensing of the tomatoes to a thick and lovely sauce. It is usually quite hard to get good tomatoes in this country, which usually makes the sauce slightly or in some cases very sour. When you usually buy your red tomatoes, seem like a bit of a joke, it’s not very many red tomatoes to actually be found. This time, or actually last Friday, I ventured into one of the night markets (pasar malam) that are so common in Malaysia and found some lovely red tomatoes. Maybe I should try looking for tomatoes at the night markets more often or just resign and by tinned ones, which will cost me four times as much as the fresh tomatoes, but at least I can be sure they taste nice. The sauce Bolognese turned out absolutely smashing, as good if not better then the one I got in a good Italian restaurant.
After that a quick shower and then try to get everybody in the car, which took a little while and in the middle of the rush I managed to forget to bring the camcorder, dang. But the camera was packed at least.
And here are some examples of that.

The whole goup singing Pa-pa-pa-parade. I didn't managed to get any good pictures of Aida's solo performances. though.

Then we came to the eating and people loved my sauce and wanted to know the recipe. Though at least of half the secret of getting a good sauce is in the tomatoes. Above is Adam in full party costume.

Norida had problem with the little one. He has started to be a little colicky so after I got Aida and Adam to sleep I relieved Norida form the duty of carrying Aydeen. I walked around with him for a short while and than he gave a loud burp and settled in. So all I had to do was to put him down and off he went to sleep.
I finally got time to rest, with a bit of formula one qualifying and a cup of tea and some buns, before the kids woke up and demanded a visit to the playground. Adam had to have Mamma this time as well so Norida had to follow. She and Aydeen didn’t stay very long though, as Aydeen worked as a mosquito magnet. Adam got a bit annoyed as the grass were quite long and full of seeds, which got stuck in his clothes which makes it very itchy. So we didn’t stay very long either. But we did some swinging.

Wrong address?

2009-04-03T12:32:00.001+08:00

Realised that the address of this blog is outdated. It should be wnaaa now that we are five in the family.

Baking thoughts!

2009-04-03T12:30:00.001+08:00

I start having a trend of baking every weekend. Of course it all started with not enjoying the food at the canteen at my new workplace, which made start using the bread machine to get my bread. The bread available is not really fit for using as lunch sandwich base. It is so white and airy any GI fan would cry just looking at it. The whole meal bread works but even bread machine bread tastes loads better and you know what you get. Or rather you know that you don’t have to eat. No potassium propionate (anti mold agent, and the smell of it is horrible), emulsifiers and other things that you don’t need in a bread.
So, that’s how I started being a regular baker. But sometimes a find recipes that will give you roll’s instead of bread so I follow the recipe and makes rolls instead. Of course this means firing up the oven, which is relying on a gas burner in the bottom. Hence I will end up with very pale bread, except in the bottom of the roll, though the paleness is what catches your eye.
I like to be efficient, so I keep thinking if I heat up the oven for one thing I might as well bake something nice to have for the afternoon tea as well. And this is the point were the fun starts; going through my recipes or maybe searching the internet to find something interesting to do. Last weekend that was not the case as I had an urge for SEMLA. But what should I do this weekend. I still have some baking marzipan left that I have to finish, so I will start from there finding something nice with that. Actually I already have something interesting to do with it; marzipan rolls, you fill your cinnamon roll with marzipan instead. I just feel it is a little bit boring as I made the cinnamon rolls last weekend. But if I don’t find anything else, that will be my choice. There is one boring part about making cinnamon buns in this country and that is the inability to find pearl sugar to sprinkle the top of the bun with.

Weekend 28/3

2009-03-29T21:05:00.011+08:00

The weekend started with the celebration of Adam's 3rd birthday on Friday. He got the chocolate cake he had ordered. Brownie-type layers, with a fudge filling and a chocolate cream cover. It was yummy, but it gave me an urge for nut cakes for some reason.

Aida didn't want to be in the picture.

Me with my two boys.

Adam with his favourite present. Though admittingly he just got soft presents and the RC car. To he was quite excited about the clothes and than he came to the last present and opened it and raised his arms in the air. So it was easy to see, which was his favourite.

Been busy baking this weekend or week rather as I started with Adam's cake. Anyway I need more bread for my sandwiches for work. But we new we gonna have visitors to admire the new arrival. And as it was waffle day on Wednesday I thought that was I good choices. And for sure Aida didn't complain. Though this time around we served it with whipping cream and jam. Last weekend we had them with ice cream. After preparing the waffle batter we started preparing two doughs. One for bread and one for buns and semlas. That took some kneeding and I got I tired arm. Than we started making waffles, which turned out really nice. Followed by the semla-buns and the cinnamon buns, which also turned out fine. At least as long as you omit the fact that they looked lik pau. My gas oven is just heating from below, so everything is very pale. The buns for sandwiches turned out fine in the end too. When I put them into the oven I remembered that I forgotten to put yeast into the dough. So I had to knead all the bun's into one dough again and dissolve the yeast in some water and than start all over again. Still fine in the end though.

Aida didn't like the semlas though so she had waffles on Stunday as well. Adam wanted just the Semla bun so thats what he got. This is how Aida looks after eating waffles with cream.

The baking actually continued on Sunday. I made to lovely pizzas. Yum yum.

What to do in hospitals when you are not sick!

2009-03-24T09:13:00.004+08:00

Poor kids!

2009-03-23T11:07:00.002+08:00

I feel sorry for my kids.
The youngest one is stuck within 1 m from his oxygen supply in the hospital so he hardly get much motion.
The other two haven't seen there brother yet, they can hardly see their mother as they are not allowed to enter the NICU. An their father keep going back and forth between them and their brother.
Adam is not complaining very much.
Aida complains, but you can reason with her so she is OK.
But still feel sorry for all of them.

Funny girl!

2009-03-23T11:01:00.003+08:00

We were going to sleep on Saturday and I told Aida she should go and pee. She calimed she didn't have to because she didn't feel anything and she hadn't drunk any water lately just had a caramel.
So I told her she didn't have to pee as long as she went and sat on the toilet.
That she agreed to, so off she went and started peeing!
So I heard that as well as hearing somebody saying:
"It's water in the caramels?"
Nice conclusion huh.
So she came back and told her brother.
"You have to go to toi-toi, it's water in caramels!"

Aydeen pix

2009-03-23T08:32:00.010+08:00

The first picture of the little boy. Allready in NICU because of low glucose levels. So he is around two hours old. I couldn't attend the ceasarean and they didn't have any waiting area. So I didn't het any update until Noirda was back. So they kept feeding him and pricking his heel to check the glucose level to see it was OK.

Next time I saw him he had breating aparatus, ecg electrodes, blood pressure metre, and oxygen level meter and was all stuck in his bed. That was a bit scary.
Basically didn't get the gluccose levels up so he got an IV tube for that.
Than he started to have problem breathing hence all the equipment plus antibiotics cause they suspected an infection to cause the breathing problem. Talk about fast baby 4 hours and allready an infection.

And how he is now. Still getting some oxygen boost and still having the electrodes and stuff but he got a normal bed and the infection seem to be gone. Just have slightly irregular respiratory rate (he keep breathing more than 80 times a minute sometimes and the doctors don't like that)

Oh, yeah, that is not really all. He got a bit of jaundice (dunno the spelling) so he is under the UV light to help his liver.
His mother is quite OK just sore.

Pix II

2009-03-10T12:52:00.004+08:00

Pappa's little helper. Especially when it comes to cleaning the bowl afterwards.

Breakfast at the Mamak stall. Roti canai and teh tarik.

The answer to what will happen if you use too much face powder.

Chinese new year gathering at my mother in laws home town.

Pool time again!

Visiting a hot spring facility.

That's why the water is a bit murky.

A lesson to be lernt!

2009-03-06T10:23:00.000+08:00

Unfortunately it will be a darn bugger to get the people who need to learn the lesson to get it.
Anyway I was driving home yesterday and a silver Mercedes jumped into my lane just ahead of me, as my lane seemed faster. The driver kept being a bit jerky going back into is original lane depending on what he thought looked faster. And this is a fairly common behavior in Malaysia. Anyway the Mercedes etched its way away from me, by a couple of cars and I lost sight of it. (As there are more people doing like that and you have to watch out, especially if the driver gets the idea that a two meter gap could fit their new BMW.)
Back to my story. After 5 km and traveling through a congested area I got overtaken by the Mercedes again. I assume he got more stuck in the congestion than I did.
So the same thing happens again and the driver manages to get a bit of a head on me before, he chooses another lane and I catch up and overtake again.
Not long after I got again squeezed by, by the Mercedes followed by a lady in Kenari and I thought that it was the last I would see of the Mercedes.
Nope, around 5 km later, with me constantly staying in one lane following the flow of the traffic I again get overtaken by the Mercedes and shortly afterwards followed by the Kenari.
So the conclusion is: You don’t make much time jumping between the lanes, but you are much more likely to cause an accident.
I admit that the Mercedes and Kenari were driving fairly carefully. If you are a more ruthless driver you may actually make some time, but I have a story about that too,
Around half a year ago I was driving home along the same road and I actually got overtaken by a Myvi at more or less the same place as I got passed by the Mercedes and Kenari and the guy really keep pushing it. So he move fairly quickly away from me and I think to myself; “Plonkers like that shouldn’t be on the road”.)
I admit, he stayed on the road but I hardly think redesigning the front of his car against a Toyota made him reach his destination faster compared to if he had driven more carefully.
I wish more people in Malaysia realized that the fastest way to reach a place (this is on average of course) is to follow the flow of the traffic and the traffic laws.
But it seems it is worth reaching the office 5 minutes earlier on most days and than be stuck in congestion once or twice a month.
And when they find congestion the Malaysians flock to it like flies and trying there best to make it as bad as possible so as many as possible can experience it.
I have been stuck in congestions that may originally been caused by an accident, but due to the stupid driving the congestion is conserved.

I am getting old!

2009-03-04T10:17:00.000+08:00

The three signs:

I need a midday nap not to be too tired in the evening.

My knees are so stiff they would make my father look like a man of uttermost flexibility.

I forgot the third sign, but off course that is a sign as well: forgetfulness.

Dang II!

2009-03-02T11:32:00.000+08:00

Sometimes you realize you are not the sharpest tool in the shed.

My wife likes puzzles so she have some where you get a front picture of, usually at least, a surprised person and the motif of the puzzle itself is what that person sees. They are quite fun to do actually.
Anyway, they are called WASGIJ, and I been wondering why?

I had some vague ideas like; being a fun name or being a Dutch or other foreign word. But on Friday it came to me, it is JIGSAW backwards or maybe “backwords” he he.

It can’t be more than seven or eight years since my wife bought the first one, so I am little bit slower than Norida who figured it out already when she bought it.
So it is not hard to guess who have the PhD in our family.

Dang I!

2009-03-02T11:24:00.000+08:00

Stupid Eurosport didsn't show either 30km for women or 50 km for man!

At least the Swedish didn't do very well anyway. But I was still annoyed on Saturday.

It was almost as bad as when I sat down to watch the mass start at the world championships in biathlon. And the rain got so bad it disrupted the satellite signal so all I could see was a black screen with one yellow do on. And it happened when the leader was about to shoot for the first time. So I sat there staring at the black screen grumpily for 10-15 min. And behold the rain slowed down and the biathlon came back on in the middle of the third shoot and the Helen managed to snatch a bronze. So the grumpiness disappeared.

Shame on me!

2008-09-19T09:47:00.002+08:00

Just 90% on the quiz "What do you know about Islam".

I missed how many days does the Eid al-fitr celebration last. I thought it was 2 days as that are the number of holidays they have in Malaysia. So I learnt something today, it is 3 days. I can't say you notice it in Malaysia. The celebration seem to last all shawal. Mostly with open houses over the weekends.

OS XV

2008-08-22T08:27:00.002+08:00

Silver in equestrian for Rolf-Göran Bengtsson. And I didn't watch. I were too tired.
Wissman was last in the 400m final. It is good just to be there though.
Jörgen Persson ready for quarter final in the table tennis. I couldn't watch his round of 16 game as they didn't show any table tennis what so ever. And that is eventhough they had channels just showing reruns. And I can't follow his quarter final today either as I have to be in a class room in the afternoon. So I will miss the final in K1 1000m with Markus Oskarsson as well and unless the traffic is good I might miss Carolina Klüfts long jumping as well.

Kina 45-16-22
USA 29-34-32
UK 17-12-11
----
Danmark 2-1-3
----
Norge 1-3-2
----
Finland 1-1-1
----
Sverige 0-4-1
----
Malaysia 0-1-0
----
Island 0-0-0

Iceland still have a chance as they are in the semi final in Handball. Go Iceland go. (It would be nice both for Iceland and I don't like Spain in handball)

OS XIV

2008-08-21T14:58:00.000+08:00

At least you can trust some one. Löw missed out as usual and came home with a bronze.

Not a good day for Malaysia, unless the taekwondo women get a second chance they really ended up at the bottom.

Javelin and High jump final on Saturday for Arvidsson and Green respectively.

Jörgen Persson seem to be up to a revival beating the worl no 13 4-1. Samsonov tonight. I am probably not lucky enough to be able to see it as a chinese play at the same time. But you never know as it is BBC. Hopefully they favour a all European match, including the best european (Samsonov).

Wissman tonight, yeah.

OS XIII

2008-08-20T15:46:00.000+08:00

Sweden in gold position in Star boat sailing.
I don't think they will win.
I don't know how many gold candidates we had before the last olympics and we usually ended up with a bronze and if we were lucky it was complimented by a silver as well. So looking att the face of history and how well this olympics has been going, we will get a bronze or a silver tomorrow.

Canoer seemed OK. At least he is in the final, which I won't be able to follow. Dang.

OS XII

2008-08-20T08:33:00.002+08:00

Johan Wissman the Swedish of the day. In the olympic final on 400m.
Two canoer's ready for the semi final.
The Swedish star boat is still in the lead as there were no race yesterday.
Sweden is out of the handball medal race.
Stefan Holm got another olympic fourth place.

Usain Bolt is the high-light of the day or night actually.

OS XI

2008-08-19T12:12:00.000+08:00

Similar fortunes for Sweden and China yesterday.
Both our big hopes crashed out of the short hurdles.

From Chinese paper:
“Nightmare for China as Liu Xiang quits heat.”

I can report that the papers in Sweden is not happy about loosing one of our biggest gold medal hopes. But a nightmare, nope.
Though if you put it in perspective, it is a much greater night mare for Sweden than China.
We might have 5 possibilities of actually getting a gold and some of them already failed.
China has already got 39 golds and got quite some chances left as well. What difference does one injured hurdles runner do in that perspective.

So I don’t feel any sympathy with the Chinese people what so ever, but a great deal for Liu Xiang and Susanna Kallur.

Phelps, great but not the greatest.

2008-08-18T13:07:00.002+08:00

14 gold is darn impressive, but I would still not rank him the number one.

I would hold Carl Lewis and probably Al Oerter ahead. There might be others as well

But winning the same event in 4 consecutive olympic games and together with the 4 golds in 1984 is hard to surpass. Phelps would have to come back in London to surpass Lewis.

But for sure he's ahead of Steven Redgrave and other team eventers and Jesse Owens.

OS X

2008-08-18T08:54:00.002+08:00

Sweden got another medal over the weekend. Silver in the tennis double for men after 19-17 in the last set of the semifinal. They were a little behind in the final and had to settle for silver.

Malaysia got their first medal since Sydney, by getting the silver in men's badminton. And he was even further away from gold than the Swedish were in tennis.

I also got to watch Susanna Kallur doing OK in the 100 m hurdles, Thörnblad miss in the high jump, Bolt impress in 100m (most impressive sprint since 1996), Swedish swimmers get last in their races, Phelps get is 7th and 8th medal, Norway beat Romania in women's final (they will,-play Sweden in the quarter final) and quite a bit more.

Today I am looking forward to watch Mustafa Mohammed in 3000m steeple chase and Kallur's semi final.

Kina 35-13-13
USA 19-21-25
UK 11-6-8
-----
Danmark 2-0-3
-----
Norge 1-2-1
----
Finland 1-1-1
----
Sverige 0-3-0
----
Malaysia 0-1-0
----
Island 0-0-0

68 countries with medals.

Pix

2008-08-18T08:36:00.010+08:00

This is how we spent the weekend. Me "taking care" of the children while Norida is working.

Aida, Adam and their cousins.

Adam with his cousin.

Adam at the play ground by our house. If you look closely you can see that he's wearing a Arsenal shirt. First of all, it is his pohpoh that bought, I am innocent, but I don't totally mind. I am not sure what I would have done if it had been a Chelsea shirt. I don't think Pohpoh is a Arsenal fan, but you never know, and bought the set as she liked the colour.

Warm up for the second family day.

Preparing for candy gathering. The most candies win. I don't have any pictures from later in the gathering as Adam started crying and I had to take care of them. Norida had to pull them forward to even make them take part in the gathering.

The weekend afterwards at the other family day, both started crying. I took care of Adam trying to help him so we picked up 7-8 candies and he was satisfied with that. So he went over to a chair to sit down and eat his candy. He was nice enough to give half of the candy to me. The candy he didn't want himself.

One of the events on the family day. Run around with a palm log between your legs. And we lost as well.

Aida playing by the beach at the family day.

Adam and his freshest cousin.

OS IX

2008-08-15T08:23:00.003+08:00

So we got our third medal, and how happy he got:

Listening to some of the games on radio it seems like an awfully weird sport.

What else happened yesterday.

Federer out in quarter final. I think his dominance is over, but he can still win grand slam titles? And he still got a chance in double as well.

Aspelin/Johansson in semi this afternoon.

Lee Chong Wei in semi 18:30.

Actually Malaysia has a medal chance in archery 10:56.

The handball team has their last chance to qualify for the final stage 14:00.

Quarter final Germany-Sweden 21:00. It's about time Sweden beat the German ladies.

Good luck to all.

And Denmark finally got their first medal.

OS VIII

2008-08-14T12:54:00.000+08:00

Good results in the morning.
LEE Chong Wei in semi final badminton tomorrow.
Nathalie Larsson in final in skeet (15:00).
Stefan Nystrand last in final, but he tried at least.
Still chance for medals in wrestling.
More later.

OS VII

2008-08-14T08:39:00.002+08:00

Yay, another medal, in cycling again. Gustav Larsson managed to win a silver in the individual time trial event.
Seem to be the only good news from last evening. Magnus Pettersson out in archery. Emma Samuelsson out in fencing quarter final, though nobody expected her to win. And the table tennis team is out as well. The Malaysian badminton players failed and just have one player left in the men's single tournament.
He is in quarter final at 11:30. Good luck!
Oh, the Swedish double pair in tennis reached the quarter final. So good luck to Apelin/Johansson in their match as well. Dunno the time though.

Sweden's biggest medal chances today is Stefan Nystrand in 100m freestyle swimming (5% chance max), Ara Abrahamian in wrestling and possibly Nathalie Larsson in skeet shooting.

Kina 17-5-5
USA 10-8-11
S. Korea 6-6-1
----
Finland 1-0-1
----
Sverige 0-2-0
----
Norge 0-1-0
----
50 countries with medals
---

OS VI

2008-08-13T17:01:00.000+08:00

It looked quite dull yesterday, but it sort of picked up in the evening by Sweden beating Canada in football. I didn’t get to watch it though.
Then it was followed by Stefan Nystrand qualifying for 100m freestyle swimming final. Anything better than his qualifying place of five is OK.
The table tennis team lost, as expected, to South Korea.
Emma Samuelsson have beaten the odds and qualified for the quarter final in fencing, were she will face the world number one. Goof luck
Lassi Karhonen also beating the odds and winning is semi. A medal would really be a bonus. The final is on Friday or Saturday.
Some mixed fortunes for Malaysia, as on archer missed out when it in the last round but one left in the round of 16 and another coming up later. And Magnus Pettersson is still left as well.
We lost to South Korea in handball though, but that was not unexpected though.
And Phelps has managed to be the most successful Olympic athlete ever, with 11gold, and still aiming for 8 gold in Beijing, which would bring him up to 14 gold. That would probably be unbeatable, unless he continue and compete in London.

OS V

2008-08-12T13:27:00.002+08:00

Dang, one of Swedens greatest medal hopes failed. Not by a great margin but still. At least the Malaysian badminton players are doing well.

Kina 10-3-3
USA 6-6-8
Sykorea 5-5-0
--------
Finland 1-0-1
-------
Sverige 0-1-0
Norge 0-1-0
-------
40 countries with medals
-------
Danmark 0-0-0
Island 0-0-0
Malaysia 0-0-0

Weekends 2-3/8 & 9-10/8

2008-08-12T10:21:00.000+08:00

The weekends have been busy lately and they will continue to be so for some more weeks. The previous two weeks have been occupied by family days at Norida’s work. The weekend 2-3/8 was for her department and weekend 9-10/8 was for her faculty.
The department one were located near Port Dickson and a over night stay. It started with a barbecue on Saturday evening and games on Sunday morning. Our group did well and won the competition. Aida and Adam kept enjoying their time by the beach and kept playing in the sand. Pictures later. A nice and enjoyable weekend, though I had problem with my tummy and Adam had a bit of fever, so he wasn’t as active as usual.
The faculty day started with some happening on Friday, which the kids and I skipped. We joined in on Saturday competing in some of the events. I did OK in golf, but the kids are definitely not very competitive, except when they just have each other.
There were a game were you are supposed to gather candies on a blanket and most candies win. Adam and Aida started crying when it was too crowded. Adam got satisfied when he got a hand full of candy. After that he just got his candy and went away to eat his candy. Aida competed in a relay as well, where you were supposed to carry water in a sponge and squeeze the water into a bottle. And the most water wins.
Sunday was supposed to be relaxing, but we got visitors so that went out the window. It turned out to be a pleasant day and the kids enjoyed having three of their cousins around.

OS IV

2008-08-11T16:31:00.002+08:00

Finland really got it together in the shooting.

Kina 7-3-0
USA 3-4-5
S.Korea 3-2-0
-------
Finland 1-0-1
-------
Sverige 0-1-0
Norge 0-1-0
-------
Danmark 0-0-0
Island 0-0-0
Malaysia 0-0-0

Realised two things. You put the medal tally in order you achieved the medals, hence Sweden ahead of Norway and that I forgot Iceland of the nordic countries. I thought that was a bit unfair to start with as they are so small, but found out that they are in shared 108 place in the over all summer olympics tally with a silver and two bronze. And as they were sharing it with Malaysia I just had to include them in the list

OS III

2008-08-11T10:36:00.003+08:00

Norway caught up all ready. Congartulations to Oen.

Kina 6-2-0
Sydkorea 3-2-0
USA 2-2-4
---------

Norge 0-1-0

Sverige 0-1-0
Danmark 0-0-0
Finland 0-0-0
Malaysia 0-0-0

OS II

2008-08-11T08:27:00.004+08:00

It was a busy weekend so I didn't really have time to watch very much from the Olympics.
I didn't watch anything what so ever on Saturday, but noted afterwards a loss for Sweden in Handball and a win in football.
4 pm yesterday was the time when had time to watch the Olympics again. So I sat down zapping between archery and cycling, both for women. But as it started raining at the archery stadium as well, cycling got my undivided attention (TV wise, at home I kept running around still).
And that turned out extremely nice as Sweden got their first medal. A silver by the cyclist Emma Johansson. Hurra for Emma!

Kina 6-2-0
Sydkorea 3-2-0
USA 2-2-4
---------
Sverige 0-1-0
Danmark 0-0-0
Finland 0-0-0
Malaysia 0-0-0
Norge 0-0-0

Though Malaysia have their best chances in badminton and archery. So they may catch up all ready today. And Norway is even more likely to catch up as Oen is in the final of the 100m breast stroke.

I will have to follow the swimming on the Swedish radio and on the internet, as it starts at 10:00 local time. So I have to work.

OS I

2008-08-07T16:34:00.001+08:00

Jay, the Olympic Games has started (sort of).

Dang, Sweden lost the game against China.

I watched the beginning and the end, which meant that I managed to catch the Chinese goals that the Swedish defenders offered the Chinese. Not a convincing start even though, I still assume Sweden will scramble through as long as they are not as generous as they were against China. I must mention that I got a pleasant surprise from the fact that the quality of women’s’ football have improved since I last watched it. I don’t think I have time to watch the next game against Argentina though.

I think Sweden will do a 2-3-4 and end up with 9 medals.

Teaholic?

2008-07-31T16:08:00.000+08:00

I am sitting at work having the third mug of tea of the day. And the reason that it is only three is because I had coffee with my breakfast.
I am not a true teaholic though as I don't have an urge to have the tea. It just happens that the air conditioner at work is sat to "darn cold", which means that you need a hot drink to survive a prolonged period of time in front of the computer. And as tea is the only hot drink I can stand drinking a full mug of it doesn't leave me much of a choice.

Felxible?

2008-06-30T09:17:00.000+08:00

Driving to work today made me think about a comment from one of my wife’s colleagues. He claimed it was stressful to drive in Australia because the drivers there were not as flexible as the Malaysian.
So today when I was driving on a stretch of road where the road splits into two and you know 1.5km in advance a split is coming up. Still there are drivers who want to wait with changing lane to the last 20m before the split. This means I have to be flexible, brake and let them in just so they can save 10 seconds on their driving time. And on top of that it always makes my heart stop and my tummy cramped. Anyway I am not writing to complain about the driving itself, but the comment above, which is unique by the way.

So, just by looking at the above example of me driving to work (I could give at least 5 examples more of my ride to work) who benefited from the flexibility?
Yup, the guy (or girl) who was driving selfishly!

So, who has a reason to be happy about flexible driving?
Yup, the guy (or girl) who was driving selfishly!

So isn’t the logical assumption that people who praise the flexibility of Malaysian drivers are those who benefit the most from the flexible driving.

So the next time I hear somebody praising the flexibility of driving in Malaysia I can’t help thinking that that person is a
SELFISH PRICK!

Being poor?

2008-06-09T09:44:00.000+08:00

Being poor is not to have little,
it is to yearn for a lot

UK-Sweden

2008-04-17T08:38:00.003+08:00

We got it cleared to go for some training in Sheffield as part of our twinning program with them.
So I will spend a week in UK and than take a flight to Sweden and spend some time at "home".
I can't say I am looking forward to it. I think is due to some general dislike of travelling, especially by air. And than I go and buy a ticket to Sweden flying with a "small" brazilian built aeroplane. This will give me a chance to fly with yet another plane at least.

Car thoughts I

2008-04-17T08:29:00.002+08:00

Driving in Malaysia make me think of Shrek, were Donkey says "She is just as nasty as you are" or something like that. This is with reference to the fact that female drivers seem to be just as bad as the male drivers.

Got the Bat-mobile behind me today. It should be B.A.T mobile in this case as it was a delivery car for British American Tobacco.

Seeing one of my old students park a fairly new car I straight away come to think of a line from a Swedish TV-series.
"Det man inte har i huvudet får man ha på banken"
Which would be translated to something like; "If you don't have it in your head you better have it in the bank". A let you guess if it is a top student or not.

Pix I

2008-04-04T14:38:00.010+08:00

Party boy cutting cake at home!

Birthday boy at the nursery.

Birthday boy with some pressies.

Cute kids in the nice pants in front of Mamma's flowers.

Adam resting on Norida (If you lies down for a rest at home, you will have a boy on top of you and after a while a girl as well)

Ostrich feeding (trying at least they didn't eat anything).

Aida trying the transportation at a agri park.

Adam in a cart.

Kids I

2008-04-03T11:49:00.002+08:00

Just a quick update on the kids.

Adam seem to turn in to a really whining plonker. It make me consider the idea of having a third one. I couldn't stand another one like that. Though it doesn't seem totally unique as one of the visitors on Sunday had some spurts of whining loudly as well. The question is would the whining increase or decrease if he got a second sibling to compete with. I usually tries to ignore him unless I know his sister have done something bad to him.
Taking care of them make me feel like a referee sometimes, telling them to shut up. At least I wont have a full Emirates stadium or Anfield Road having opinions about my ruling.

Aida is much more easy going, as long as she's not quarreling with her bro. She might whine about the way you treat her but not as loudly or persistent as her brother. So if we ever go for a third one he/she would hopefully turn about more like her sister.

Weekend 29-30/3

2008-04-03T11:34:00.003+08:00

Another weekend has come and gone. Norida was attending seminars over the weekend. So I was home alone with the kids. Not too bad but their whining (understatement) about each other can make you go nuts (which I do sometimes).
We also had a little gathering with some friends to celebrate the little boy. We served up Mee Bandung, Mee-Hoon and 2 cakes for the celebration. Everything tasted really nice. The first cake were a plain butter cake filled with raspberry jam and vanilla butter cream and covered with whipping cream and bananas. The other one was a chocolate butter cake that didn't turn out that well. Mainly because I just managed to put 1tsp instead of 1tbsp of baking powder, so it got a bit dense, which wouldn't have been a problem if it hadn't got dry as well. It is a shame as I managed to make a smashingly good chocolate cream to fill and cover it with. Oh, well have to give it another try sometime and make the chocolate cream justice with a yummy, juicy chocolate cake.
I also made some bran muffins that tasted too much of baking soda and should need some spices in as well and most importantly our oven turned the bottom of the muffins...hrm.. slightly dark (looked like a cm of charcoal on the worst hit ones, though some were more or less perfect).
I can't say I am awfully happy with the gas oven. I miss having a good electrical oven. Though I would probably bake too much if I had one. And that wouldn't be good for my wifes waistline.

Picture updates later!

Sandwitches?

2008-03-27T13:05:00.002+08:00

I have been having sandwiches with sourcream on for the last week and today I actually read what it says on the packing. "Sour cream jadajada complements loads of things and lastly... sandwitches"
Sandwitches....sounds like a crossing between something from Harry Potter and Spiderman.

Adam 2!

2008-03-27T12:54:00.004+08:00

Happy Birthday little boy!

So the little whining plonker has turned two. I hope he enjoys the cake I baked for him (they're having it at the nursery). Butter cake filled with custard and raspberry jam and topped with whipping cream and sliced peaches. Looked really good and I amanged to make the cake base without it getting burnt. Which is always a bit of a trick with a bottom burner gas oven. Gonna make more cakes for the weekend, when some friends come by to celebrate him. The plan for the moment is to make one similiar cake, blackberry and custard filling with cream and smartiesa as topping and one chcolate cake. But that might change many times before Sunday.

Anyway Adam got a parking house from us and LEGO from his grandparents, we will see what more things he will get this afternoon. A parcel from Sweden has arrived here as well.

Happy Birthday again!

Glad Påsk, Happy Easter and so on.....

2008-03-21T10:04:00.002+08:00

Hope you will have a Happy Easter. I will be working so I will not bother that much. I would get the kids Easter eggs, if a knew where to find them. Don't remember seeing anything in the stores. It's certainly not like in UK or Sweden. In Sweden they consume 1kg of candy per person over Easter. Or rather that is how much candy that is sold for Easter. It should be possible to eat 1kg, if you get all of the Easter weekend to do it in. After all I managed to finish my 400g After Eight box I got under the Christmas tree before the end of the day some Christmases.

I will have some eggs for breakfast tomorrow and maybe get some chocolate as well but that’s how Eastery it going to get, I think

Not very much updates lately. I have been busy, didn't think there were anything to write and I just couldn’t be bothered.
The kids are doing quite well. No major colds or other diseases. They spent last week as home as their Poh-Poh (maternal grand-mother) were here.
Abang Lim (my oldest brother in law) and his family stayed over night when leaving for Sabah (via KLIA) and afternoon coming back.
So I got kitchen duty on both times. I made waffles for the stop by supper and Tom-Yum and Sauce Bolognese for the stop by before going home.
Shah (another brother in law) with wife with round tummy (another cousin for Aida and Adam) came to pick up his kids as school started on Monday and Poh-Poh had to stay longer. I made a really yummy cake as I wanted to finish off the whipping cream left over after the waffles.
I made a Swedish type sponge cake ("sockerkaka") as base with raspberry yam and custard in between and sliced peaces as decoration.

Ignorance

2008-03-14T15:28:00.000+08:00

Laws of ignorance:

Order of ignorance State of mind
0 Lack of ignorance You know something
1 Lack of knowledge You don't know something
2 Lack of awareness You don't know that you don't know something
3 Lack of process You don't know an efficient way to find out that you don't
know that you don't know something.

So:
How to you pronounce the name of the capital of Kentucky: "Loo-EE-ville" or
"Loo-ISS-ville"

What level do you think you are?

If you picked either one you're at level 2.

Doesn't look that good anymore

2008-02-27T10:58:00.001+08:00

1 HV 71 50 30 9 11 2 164-116 101
2 Modo 50 26 4 20 4 142-136 86
3 Färjesta 50 22 11 17 3 152-138 80
4 Linköpin 50 18 18 14 7 147-139 79
5 Timrå 50 21 8 21 5 123-124 76
6 Djurgård 50 20 12 18 2 133-127 74
7 Frölunda 50 21 9 20 2 144-142 74
8 Skelleft 50 16 14 20 2 123-133 64
9 Södertäl 50 16 12 22 2 113-119 62
10 Luleå 50 15 13 22 2 131-153 60
11 Mora 50 15 12 23 2 118-142 59
12 Brynäs 50 15 8 27 4 141-162 57

Terenganu pictures

2008-02-21T10:38:00.011+08:00

Weekend 16-17/2

2008-02-21T10:28:00.002+08:00

We went with Noridas class to the agri park D-Paradise in Melaka. Aida was warm in the morning so we weren'r really sure how to do. We gave her paracetamol that helped so we went along as planned.
D-Paradise had loads of different fruits grwoing of which some were for testing. Yummy.
Aida was quite well when we were there, playing with the students and running around. But she seemed to lose a bit of steam in the end and didn't want to eat very much for lunch.
When we were done we made the continuing trip to Muar and as soon as we reached there Aida got her heat back and were just laying on the floor watching TV.
When she been laying all afternoon and started shivering we decided to bring her to a klinik to have her checked. Her throat were badly swollen and a bit of fever so she got the usual stuff, antibiotics, "phlem thinner", cough syrup and paracetamol.
She kept whining all night and feeling warm so Norida was up most of the night wiping her with a wet cloth. Poor them.
Aida was a little bit better in the mroning and was up a little bit more.
We left after zuhur and reached home around 16:30 and then she had enough energy to request a visit to the playground. But dark clouds swooped in so they turned back again.

Terenganu 10/2

2008-02-14T08:47:00.002+08:00

The last day in Terenganu. Though we left at 9 so it was not much of a day.
I had loads of pancakes for breakfast and than we went sea-shell looking and playing in the sand.
We reached home somewhat after 21. That include three stops for Terenganu things (Handycraft and Keropok) shopping, petrol fill up, tummy fill up I (lunch), praying, tummy fill up II (dinner). Also slowing us down was very long queues for the toll boths. It not enough with paying for the roads you have to spend an hour to wait to actually pay as well.
But we reach home safely and the house were as we left it so why complain too much.

Terenganu 9/2

2008-02-14T08:27:00.003+08:00

An even better sleep and we were ready for a trip to the state museum of Terenganu, boasting that it is the biggest in Malaysia. It just went to show that size isn't everything. They had loads of space but not that much to look at.
After that we took a bus to do the trip to the Islamic cultural area and the crystal Masjid and never left the bus as it was not ready yet.
After that we went for lunch and finished off with ice-cream goreng (fried ice-cream) that was so so as I am not fond of cheap chocolate ice-cream.
Norida wanted to do some more clothes shopping, but it is impossible with both the kids, which would mean I would have to stay somewhere and watch them. So I stayed in the hotel room with Adam watching Harry Potter and having a nap.
Aida followed Norida shopping.
When Adam and me woken up, the girls come back and we had our afternoon tea with keropok lengkor we all set out for kite flying, playing in the sand and swimming.
That was great fun, Adam really enjoyed playing in the sand and Aida was really enjoying flying kite.
The surprise of the day came when we went for the pool and Adam jumped into me and really started splashing around. Beforehand he always been reserved about pooling, but now he fully enjoyed himself. We didn't stay in for too long as all of us (at least me and Adam) started shivering. So up we went for a hot shower and then off for dinner.
We went for a seafood restaurant, were we had to wait forever for the food. But the food was nice at least and we all were satisfied afterwards.
It was almost 22 before we all were tucked into bed and I was still feeling a little bit cold after the swim.

Terenganu 8/2

2008-02-13T09:03:00.000+08:00

I had a terrible sleep. For being a four star hotel the pillows really sucked. We all got up and went for our breakfast buffet. The buffet were a I wide selection so we got nicely stuffed. After that we set out to visit the town market, to buy clothes and stuff. Actually Norida went shopping clothes and the kids and I ate the stuff we bought. It turned out they really like tamarind. So they finished half of the bag we got. On the way back Norida picked up some lunch and at the hotel we tried to put Adam to sleep for his midday nap so we could have a full afternoon. The afternoon was spent looking for a boat boulder, that wasn't open, before we went for ice-cream on the beach. The wind kept blowing from the sea at a nice breezy speed, which made it ideal for kite flying. So we bought one with Tiggr and Pooh. Aida wouldn't let anybody else use the kite. So Adam and me played in the sand instead. The kids had been talking about swimming so we went back to the hotel and changed so they could have a go at it. Aida loved it and Adam was reserved as usual. I decided to try the South China Sea. It was great fun standing in the waves as I didn't dared to go swimming anyway. Two or three people drowned at a beach further south in Terenganu the day before. We had another dinner out and this time it was the kids who hit the jackpot with a lovely mee chicken soup. We were later on that day as we didn't reach our room until after 21. So we got a later sleep.

Terenganu 7/2

2008-02-13T08:50:00.000+08:00

If I known how long time it took to get there, I would have stayed at home instead.
A four day trip and the first day were spent going there and the last day spent going home, which left two days there. Not worth that hustle at all.

7/2
We set off at 9 and arrived at 18. After lunch break, praying break, and a snack break.
We got a room on the tenth floor, a little bit too high if you ask me.
When we reached our floor the kids saw the swimming pool and got really excited.
Then we went to our room, which Norida explained wouldn't have a sea-view and just a double bed, which is a little bit annoying when traveling with kids. Oh by the way the kids were really patiently sitting in their car seats throughout the trip.
Anyway when we got into the room it had sea-view and two single beds and were one of the bigger rooms on our floor (unless you booked a suite).
It was nice, we could here the waves beating against beach. Very nice and relaxing.
Aida looked out at the sea and said "I don't want to swim in that pool!". Certainly made my day.
We were all hungry so we went out for dinner. I was the most satisfied as my Tom-Yam was really yummy.
After the dinner we went home showered and prepared for bed. So just after 21 we were all nicely tucked in in bed.
All of us were asleep by 22 lullabyed to sleep by the waves.

Visit Terenganu 2008???

2008-02-13T08:43:00.000+08:00

It is a Visit Terenganu year, so we had to there. Actually the trip has been planned for a while.
Going there made it look like it they were in preparation for a Visit Terenganu 2009 year rather than the event being held this year. They've been building miniature Masjids (Mosques) and a full size Crystal Masjid, which were officially opened by the king on the 8th of February.
Was it ready? Nope!
Could you have a good look? Nope!
Did the road look like a crappy version of the road to my parents in laws house? Yap!
So my advice is. Don't Visit Terenganu 2008. Visit Terenganu 2009 or maybe not at all as it takes forever to get there.

Dogs!

2008-01-28T11:08:00.000+08:00

Dogs in Malaysia are really annoying or as the true meaning of that would read: Malaysians are not good to take care of their dog. And even those who take good care of their dog are annoying.

I went to the Surau on Thursday night. When I cycled through the play ground I almost bumped into a chinese man letting his dog playing there. Obviously taking care of his dog, but what the **** is he doing in the playground?
When I cam back there were a indian man with two dogs in the playround. Ttttttt, Malaysian and dogs are not a good combination huh.

Anyway I cycled on and a dog, that is supposed to live down the street but is always out running along the street, got is eyes on me and got the idea it would be nice to chase me so he started doing that. I was definetely not in the mood for being chased so I turned around aiming my bike at the dog and started chasing him instead. The bloody coward sodded of yelping. His owner should take better care of him and not just letting him room freely like that.

DIY weekend.

2008-01-25T09:07:00.000+08:00

Got plenty of DIY to do this weekend.

I have a big bunch of shelves to hang, maybe a cabinet too, a curtain to hang, cables to fix, sink to fix, put the finishing touch for the fan, maybe some pictures to hang as well and a big cabinet or two to move.

That should keep me occupied I think. I'll try to do it on Saturday so I can relax and watch tennis on Sunday. Might be hard as I have a wedding reception to attend as well. It's a greet and eat event so it should be fairly fast though. Ipp, that might be at the time for the women's (or is it ladies) final. I've checked it, it's women's, they are just ladies at Wimbledon.

Tennis tonight?

2008-01-25T09:02:00.000+08:00

Federer against Djokovic start at 16:30 (or rather at the earliest). So if Federer plays his wonder play the game will be finished before I reach home, though Djokovic have been playing well so it should be on, unless I am caught up in congestion.

Anyway I can always watch the final on Sunday. It will be at midday I think, so it is not like 5 years ago, when Johansson was in the final. I had been working a 12 hour shift and came home and turned on the TV at 06:00 to watch the end of Johansson's win.
It was definitely worth watching, but it's nicer not watching tennis at 6.

Bah!

2008-01-24T09:51:00.000+08:00

Been at work for 1.5 hours and the only work I done is to sort some paper.

My tummy was still feeling upset so I thought I would calm it down with Coca-Cola. So I went to the vending machine to get a nice ice cold Cola.

Was it ice-cold? Nope, my work space feels colder than that drink.

Did it calm down my tummy? Nope, I refuse to drink warm coke.

Did I get pissed off? Sure did and that did not help my tummy either.

Do I feel like doing any work at all today? Nope, but I guess I have to.

Afrosport?

2008-01-24T08:54:00.000+08:00

I turned on Eurosport news yesterday to get the result from the European championships in handball.
And I got a 15min serving of African football instead. How can a channel call eurosport miss giving results from a European championships, in one of the most world spread team sport and show African football instead?

So time to change the name or what?

Jag orkar inte meeeer!!!!

2008-01-24T08:44:00.000+08:00

Two hours of torture every day is too much! By two hours to be prcise.

I am writing about the traffic or the lack of it. Driving to and from (or frame and tabacco) is equal to congestion and my body have started to protest against the treatment it receives.
After 2 minutes of driving you start feeling a pressure in your tummy and chest followed by some odd sensations in the legs. I got out to fill in petrol after half the ride and realized that my legs were trembling. And as I sit writing this, 20 minutes after reaching work, my tummy is still upset and my arms feel week. And it is definitely not a comfort to know that in 8 hours time the ride at home awaits me. I wish I could afford going to my boss and hand in my resignation.

An additional note: Oddly enough I didn't have any problem yesterday while out in traffic or stuck in a congestion. Though the traffic was not half as bad as it is "frame and tabacco" from work.

Praying in what direction?

2008-01-22T14:29:00.001+08:00

They have two Suraus (praying places) at my wokplace (actually it's four, two each for male and female).
The opinion of the direction of the Kiblah varies almost 90° between the extremes.
So the kiblah arrow keep shifting back and forth depending who been there last.

Quite amusing actually. But a quick look at the sun should help you rule out some of the directions as ridicoulus.

Crash Test Dummy?

2008-01-22T14:14:00.000+08:00

Tired, with the head aching and in a bad mood you tend to get a little bit careless. So the tree where I parked the car got too close to the car. So the car got a broken bumper, grill and a bit bent bonnet.
Blimey the bumper is just plastic filled with some plastic foam. I actually don't have any reference to how other cars are build, but something tells me that a Volvo would be slightly sturdier. I wish I bought the Volvo 240 from Abang Lim. I would definitely felt safer in that. Or maybe I should try to get the mini from Pak Long, still European quality even though it is not as safe as a Volvo.

Weekend 19-20/1

2008-01-21T13:20:00.000+08:00

Didn't do very much at all over the weekend.

The usual shopping, visiting playgrounds and some cycling/walking with the kids.

We got a wall fan for our bedroom so we don't have to use the air conditioner as soon as we want to be in the bedroom.

Pyjama time!

2008-01-21T13:15:00.000+08:00

Aida usually exit the shower first so she can go and get the clothes for herself and for Adam.

She usually try to match their clothes. So they will have similiar colours whenever possible. Even if she can't match them she will still choose the pyjama for Adam.

Metal head?

2008-01-18T16:07:00.000+08:00

My ears are purely fed with metal for the moment. Oops thats not true. I was lsitening to Tom Lehrer this morning, but that's the only exception.

So the Favourites for the moment are:

Stained class by Judas Priest
Danzig by Danzig
Pretty Hate Machine by Nine Inch Nails
Ride the Lightning by Metallica
Best of Motörhead

I had forgotten how good Motörhead and Danzig are. Motörhead really rocks.

So CD's I will buy when I manage to find them in the store. It might actually be quite a task as metal is not as common here.

Judas Priest- Sad wings of destiny Judas Priest hasn't disapointed me so far and that one is supposed to be really good.

Ozzy Should get one of his CD's in collaboration with Randy Rhoads.

Nursery news

2008-01-18T14:40:00.000+08:00

Adam has been moved to the two years and above nursery evethough he wont be two until March. He is so developed and big so he is more suited for the other nursery.

Aida wasn't too happy though and wanted him to go back to his old one.

Adam is happy as he got an extra child minder as he start asking for Aida if he can't find any of the child minders. He never wants his sister for comfort at home though.

Brynäs II

2008-01-18T09:20:00.000+08:00

Last year i was able to post the table with Brynäs at the top (and then it could just go downwards and sure it did).

This time the finally managed to climb into a qualifying spot for the cup part of the tournament.

Hopefully they will stay there for the rest of the season (actually it is enough if the are in that spot when the that part of the season is finished)

1 HV 71 38 22 7 9 1 120- 93 74

2 Färjesta 37 18 7 12 1 117-100 62

3 Linköpin 38 14 14 10 5 113- 98 61

4 Timrå 38 17 6 15 4 97- 95 61

5 Modo 36 18 2 16 2 95- 95 58

6 Frölunda 37 16 5 16 2 104-105 55

7 Djurgård 38 15 6 17 1 97-105 52

8 Brynäs 38 14 6 18 3 113-113 51

9 Skelleft 38 13 9 16 1 91-102 49

10 Södertäl 38 14 6 18 0 87- 89 48

11 Luleå 38 12 8 18 1 96-112 45

12 Mora 38 11 8 19 1 88-111 42

BBC news 16/1-2008!

2008-01-16T08:43:00.000+08:00

Not a complain, but rather a wonder.

I keep getting a daily email from BBC and today it read on the sports part (1 of 3 "news")

Kallur to race in Irish Indoors
Derval O'Rourke's rivals at the Irish Indoor Championships later this month will include Swedish star Jenny Kallur.

Either she is a bigger star then I actually have realized or the athletics news are very few for the moment. I wonder why BBC always have to have three headlines for the athletics (and motor sport and formula 1) when some parts of the year there are not very many news to report. I mean what happen in athletics in November, unless somebody got caught for taking illegal substances.

Weekend 12-13 Jan

2008-01-16T08:36:00.000+08:00

We did the usual shopping on Saturday. In the afternoon we went to Sut's house for some DIY (she miss a man in her house ;-) ). I had to fix some things and it was quite a nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon actually. Nothing difficult but kept your hands working, which was nice for a change.

On Sunday we went to the National Zoo. We didn't finish all of it as it started raining, but we did the majority at least. Adam really liked the cows or at least their Malaysian cousins. He spent the longest time at that part. I think Aida was most fond of the lion.

We went out for some cycling in the afternoon and I still haven't got Aida a helmet. Bad parents!

Birthday celebration!

2008-01-16T08:29:00.000+08:00

I got a nice and relaxing birthday and a teapot for present. So we have real tea for breakfast now. Instead of bagged tea.

For lunch we went to Pizza Hut. Norida and me had pizza and the kids shared a pasta. Really nice but still miss real Pizzas and not the pan version. To be honest I had one the day before, but that were a seafood pizza with salmon that wasn't to my liking at all.

We did some shopping and went home for some relaxing before we had my last treat ICE-CREAM. I finally got my Magnum. It's more than 2 years since I last had one. Yummy

Happy Awal muharram and have a nice holiday!

2008-01-09T08:31:00.000+08:00

So it is Awal Muharram tomorrow, which means I have holiday tomorrow, yeah. As I am 11321 days old today, it also mean that tomorrow is my 31st birthday. So I will really try to enjoy it and relax.

RTM II

2008-01-09T08:25:00.000+08:00

This time at least the facts are not wrong.

The news were that Chelsea want to buy Nicholas Anelka, which RTM described as:
"the French, France international striker"
If he is French how can he be a international striker for anything else than France or if he is playing for France he surely must be French.

What I got from Metal Santa!

2008-01-09T08:23:00.000+08:00

I got Painkiller by Judas Priest, No world order by Gamma Ray and Metal Heart by Accept. And after listening to them for the last week I can tell you that Painkiller is by far the best CD of those three. So thanks Magdalena for the pressie.

More work or maybe not?

2008-01-08T16:06:00.000+08:00

Hooray (Warning Irony) got another course to deal with. This time I got a full weeks notice but I don't have any time to prepare anything because I have a course on Wednesday and Friday and Thursday is a public holiday.
So my duties so far are:
Mass and Energy Balances (Full)
Unit operations (Full)
Process control (mentoring and Final exam writing)
Chemical process principles (Full)
Chemical engineering science (Test writing)
Final year project (Co-supervising)
Applied Chemical engineering (Co-supervising labs and computer work)

Man, am I busy? Probably not!

Aida!!!

2008-01-08T10:22:00.000+08:00

We thought the kids needed some air on Saturday afternoon so we took them out for a walk in the neighbourhood. Actually Aida was cycling. She zoom around at the car porch at such a speed she obviously needed a bigger cycling field.
She really enjoyed the freedom even if it caused some shouting. If I had a good pair of running shoes I might run with her. It might actually be a good idea to get a pair of jogging shoes to run when she's cycling. I can use some of the money I got for Christmas. The only problem is that Adam would be jealous not getting out with his sister.

On Sunday I was hanging some shelves at the back of the house and Aida came and asked if she could go cycling. I told her to and do assuming she would zoom around the car as usual. A minute later Norida cam and asked where is Aida. Because the gate was open and no Aida on the car park. So we ran out on the street to look for her. Norida found her just outside the back of the house. So she obviously asked if she could cycle on the road but I never understood that. The big problem however is that she managed to reach the remote control to open the gate. Better put that in a better position.

Sakit Kaki

2008-01-07T10:11:00.000+08:00

I should be working but I have to whine a bit first.

My foot hurt, as you would have understood if you are proficient in Malaysian, and it is all thanks to the Brats. Down with the Brats! Aida left her Brat doll on the floor and my foot made a hard impact on the doll. So now am I walking with a nice limp, except when climbing stairs. I hit the area just in front of the heel so when using the stairs I just use the front of the foot.

Time to do some work. Yay Unit operations.

Aaaaah New Week

2008-01-07T09:14:00.000+08:00

Another week at work and I am still damn tired from travelling and kids not sleeping well at night. Actually they are now. Their problem went away after 3 days.

Got another last minute course to deal with. Dang. Unit operations. Got less than a week for preparation before first lecture. At least better than last semester were I got less than 24hours notice. So at least it is improving.

I don't have the energy and especially not the time to back date the trip to Sweden. It was great, but no snow. And we miss our family terribly. I will however make some sort of picture diary for the trip, but that might be a while.

At least this week started better then the previous as it didn't take 2.5hr to reach work.

Happy New Year, Gott Nytt År and so on.

2008-01-03T12:08:00.000+08:00

I don't have any resolutions for the new year. I don't think I have ever given any, but there are some things I'd like to achive.

Start doing more excercise. Lost it totally when moving house and work place. No carrying 15kg Aida up and down four stairs and no walking 15min to Masjid.
Become more patient.
Learn some malay so I can talk more with my Malay family.
Enjoy life more.

Singapore and back again!

2007-12-03T10:00:00.000+08:00

I went with Norida, to Singapore for her convocation ceremony.

We started out on Thursday, dropping off the kids at their grandparents house as they were not allowed at the ceremony.
We set out from Muar after resting for an hour or so. We felt a bit sad leaving the kids. We haven't been without them since we got them, at least not both of them at the same time.

We reached Johor Bahru, were our hotel were, around six. So we checked in and went out to check out the shopping complex that were part of the hotel building. They didn't really have that much of interest and not any really tempting place for dinner. So we went out instead and had an OK dinner before we went back to our hotel for a rest and to call the kids. They had done everything they were supposed to have done.
I was really darn tired so I slept before 10 o'clock.

On Friday we got up at normal time and were out of the hotel by 8. Went to a "restaurant" and had breakfast (Nasi Lemak and Teh tarik), before we got a cab to go to the customs check in Malaysia. It took 5 minutes or so, before we could get on the bus and go to Singapore. The customs in Singapore took a "little" bit longer, but we finally got through so we could continue to the MRT (rail based public transport) by the bus. We used the MRT to get into the central of Singapore before we had to change to another bus to get us to NUS and their cultural centre where the convocation were held. As we had found the centre our next target were to to find somewhere to eat, with out damaging the wallet to badly. We ended up having rice in the engineering cafeteria. Not too bad actually.
Then we went back to the place for the convocation and started the waiting. Norida got the robe after a while so we went around taking pictures of her (and some of me).
The convocation were not that long as is was just around 50 graduates around. The major part was spent on presenting the 5 honorary doctorates.
After the convocation there were afternoon high tea (or whatever it is called) that were quite nice, but a bit salty and kept me fulll for the rest of the day.
When we were done at the convocation we went to have a look at Singapore and their Harbour front and I must write that Singapore is not a fun place unless you want to do shopping or go to Sentosa Island. As I haven't bothered with either of those two I haven't really enjoyed Singapore as a tourist place.
After we got bored with the Harbour front, we started to head back to JB and Malaysia, but we got stuck in the queue a kilometer or two away from the customs, so we got off the bus and started walking. It took longer time to get through the customs compared to walking there. The queue at the busstop to get taken to Malaysia seemd awfully long so we continued walking to Malysia. The side walks are nicer in Malaysia so the walking got more comfortable halfway across the bridge. The customs in Malaysia were fairly smooth and then we got into a cab to go back to the hotel. We did some chocolate shopping before we retreated to our room to get some rest after the walking.

We left JB on Saturday after some visits to Noridas relatives before we finally could see our cuddly kids again. :-)
They were happy to see us, partly because their cousins had left so they were home with just their Poh-Poh.

On Sunday all of us (including Poh-Poh) left go back to housey. It was a quite drive without any raining. Which is unusual, you might be able to beat the traffic, but I always seem to end up in a rainstorm going home from Muar.

Adam 12!

2007-11-28T09:09:00.000+08:00

Realised that Adam has got his 12th tooth on Sunday, probably popped up some days earlier.

He has finally got all 4 teeth in the middle in his bottom jaw.

Snow!

2007-11-28T08:46:00.000+08:00

I forgot to tell what they really predicted about the weather.

Basically, stating there will be a usual December weather.

Cold and not so cold mixed and with a possibility for snow or rain depending on the temperature. So not much of a prognosis if you read all article, unless you stay in northern Sweden where the snow will stay after the coming weekend snowing.

My parents are not so I guess have just have to do as usual, wait and see.

Swedish news are not very much better!

2007-11-28T08:36:00.000+08:00

I had just finished complaining about the RTM, when I opened Aftonbladet (Swedish newspaper) that put out the news:
"Where to expect a White Christmas" (in Sweden that is)

So you start reading the article:
Ligger snön vit där du bor så blir det en vit jul.
Det spår SMHI i långtidsprognoset.
What it says is if the snow has come down where you stay, then you will have a white Christmas. You don't have to be Einstein to figure that out right.
Anyway, that's what the Swedish Meteorological institute predicts and I am pretty darn sure they gonna be right this time. I know everybody is complaining about the meteorological institutes and that they never get it right, but this is ridiculous. I mean how general statements do you have to make to get it right?

RTM s****s!!!!

2007-11-28T08:24:00.000+08:00

RTM (Radio TV Malaysia) as you can see from the name is the national broadcasting network in Malaysia. I try to listen to their news at 8:00 just to hear if something has happened that I could be interested in. And usually they just deliver statements from the politicians that would go without stating in the first place.

Anyway, the reason they really s**k will follow now.

There isn't a single UEFA Champions league round they can get all the results right.
Today "PSV was held to a goal less draw in Moscow against CSKA Moscow". The result in the rest of the world would be that PSV won 0-1 in Moscow.

And on the 24th of October "Celtic continued their good start of the campaign by beating Benfica". They lost 1-0 in Portugal.

How hard can it be to double check the results????

Mmmmm food

2007-11-26T15:48:00.000+08:00

Thinking about Swedish food make me hungry.

So this is what I want to have when I come home.

Rotmos (Mashed Rutabag/Swede).
Fiskgratäng (Gratined fish)
Lutfisk (Rehydrated dried fish)
Ärtsoppa (Pea soup)
Soppa med klimp (Soup with sort of dumplings)
Lax mousse (Salmon mousse)
Dillkött (Beef in a dill sauce)
PyttiPanna
Swedish rye bread or rather Swedish bread would be enough oh oh oh and Burkbröd (Mamma make a wonderful bread that you bake in a tin aaaaaah)

I will add more when I remeber anything more.

Almost well!

2007-11-26T15:39:00.000+08:00

I returned to work again after one day of rest. I am not sure the rest, that wasn't that much anyway, really made much difference, but I am sure feeling better. Tummy almost OK, a bit of dry cough, almost no head ache and just a bit of dizzyness left. I should be well enough for the trip to Sweden.
It is less than two weeks to take off and I am going to Singapore on Friday for my wifes convocation. So we are busy. Both of us have to finish off all work before we go off as the new classes will start more or less right away when we get back.

What I look forward the most to in Sweden;
1. Family
2. Winter
3. Food
4. The nature
5. Christmas (don't really care very much about it, just didn't come up with anything better)

What I dread most about going to Sweden.
The darn flying would fill a top ten list.

Happy Birthday Mamma!

2007-11-24T09:00:00.000+08:00

Have a Happy Birtday!

Will call you when I get back from work.

Uh

2007-11-24T08:52:00.000+08:00

Wednesday sucked big time. I started vomiting, Aida started vomiting and Adam continued vomiting. Great day huh. Luckily Poh-poh (Mor-Mor) is and was here to take care of the kids so I could spend the day in coma as I slept from when I came back from the doc until 13:00. Then I was up for an hour praying and eating and than back into the coma for another two hours and still felt like I could do with a nap after that.
Had to go to the doc again on Thursday as the darn doc just gave a one day MC and I certainly didn't have the energy to work (I spent the day sleeping again).
Today is Saturday and I worked yesterday and still feeling bad. Would have needed at least another day of MC.
Kids are almost recovered as well. Adam was OK already on Thursday and Aida and me were bloated with gas on Thursday night and Friday. Our tummies feel fairly OK now at least.
At work today too, to have a course for a computer programming for engineering modelling. It is interesting but I am just too tired to enjoy it totally.

Going home!

2007-11-20T12:41:00.000+08:00

Adam is better so he has been released from hospital and is coming home today. So his tummy must have stabilised, maybe it was the rice water mummy made for him or he was just getting better anyway. It will be good to have him home again.

It is also less than 20 days til we go back to Sweden. I am curious to find out if it actually feels colder indoors in Sweden compared to my workplace. I think it is actually colder in Sweden but you don't get darn cold air blown on so it will probably appear warmer....brrrrrrrr it is cold here.

Oh wonder how it is in Sweden. Hold on.

It's 3°C with slight wind and no rain or snow.

A slight difference from 30°C and a some showers.

We all keep hoping for snow when we go back. Even Aida keep asking for snow, not that I am sure she know what it really is. She has actually been experiencing snow already, but she was just 3 months old then. But she is going with her mother and that usually means that it will snow. So lets hope for the best.

Weekend 17-18/11

2007-11-19T13:45:00.000+08:00

Adam is in hospital again. He started having a slight diarrhea yesterday morning and then it kept getting worse. After his midday nap it was basically liquid so when I went up to get him I could see it leaking from his nappy. So I got a T-shirt to cover the bottom part of the nappy. That turned out to be a big mistake as his nappy was full of liquid shit and lifting him caused the nappy to overflow, so it started leaking really badly. So we had to shower while Norida cleaned the floors upstairs. When all of us were ready we set off for the clinic, where we got the verdict food poisoning. Just when he exited the doc’s office he started puking as well, so he got loads of medicine.
He seemed happier afterwards, so we thought that might be it. More or less everything that caused him to feel bed was out. We drove around for a short while, but before we reached home he started puking again and at home he just kept laying on the floor mixing resting with sleeping, totally knackered.
Norida was worried so she decided to bring him to hospital as he couldn’t even keep his milk down. So that’s were he is now, admitted until he get better, which might take a while as a kid has been there for with similar tummy problem since Tuesday.
Mummy is here to make it a two-shift caring. Mummy will do the daytime so Norida can work and Norida will do the out of office hours.

Aida seems quite OK and my throat and tummy is getting better though I sound like a Rod Stweart clone.

Managed to bake and should definitely do that more often, so nice and so fresh mmmmm and it doesn’t taste of Potassium Propionate and doesn’t contain any other crap.

Friday again!

2007-11-16T14:56:00.000+08:00

I was quite surprised when I logged in and found out that I last updated this blog on 11 Oct, I didn't remember blogging that recently.

All family is not well, I got a terrible sore throat and a annoying gastric problem, the kids have basically got a cold and Norida is feeling weird!!

I don't have very much to write I just don't feel for start marking the 40 tests that my Physics student did yesterday.

We has open house last weekend. I cooked a big pot of some sort of chicken bolognese, baked 3 batches of brownies and 80 cupcakes. Norida ordered Nasi Kerabu. Looked like some sort of European convention at the house, two half-Swiss boys, playing with a half English girl and my little half swedes. So loads of halflings at our house.
We got plenty of food left over, luckily our friends were nice enough to bring quite a bit with them home or I would still be eating pasta and nasi kerabu. Some brownies are still left, even though they helped with that as well. We cut them really small as they are so filling, so it is like eating some yummy chocolate candy. I think there are some cupcakes left in the freezer as well.

I definitely have to bake this weekend. It is mostly because I been planning it for so long but also because I bought half a kg of dry yeast last week. I should be able to make more than hundred loaves of bread using my usual recipe on the baking machine. So I better start baking before it decays.