Manic

It has been manic. That is all I can say. Many things have taken place as of late and many things I have to juggle as well. I am not too sure where to begin - but I am enjoying life as it is for now. I have been meeting some very interesting people lately as well - that has added a bit of colour to my life really. I would call that I have a routine interesting life now, rather than the life in a suitcase (not much traveling these days, phewww).

+ Rozita, you asked for sunset in Dun Laoghaire the other day - and this is especially for you OK.

My long stay in Dublin since May is not all fine and dandy - I was so gobsmacked when Itamar told me that he is leaving. That was a shock to me. He told me and Paul 2 weeks back when we had dinner at Cafe Bar Deli, on George's St. It was a shocking news to me. I told a few friends, that I have felt the loss really - I excused myself early that night for I wanted to take some time to digest the news. To the uninitiated, I am keeping a very small circle of friends in Dublin, and I must admit - Itamar is one of the closest few. I confide in him almost about anything and vice versa. He is heading to Canada, if all goes well with his plan. It will be change for me, but I will try to bear with it.

+ Casino Marino - Casino is located at Marino, just off the Malahide Road and only 3 miles north of the centre of Dublin. It was designed by Sir William Chambers as a pleasure house for James Caulfield, 1st Earl of Charlemont. It is one of the finest 18th century neo-classical buildings in Europe. The Casino, meaning "small house", surprisingly contains a total of 16 finely decorated rooms. I went to check it out with Itamar, Lucas and his brother who was here to visit

On a more not-too-sad news, I am off to London for this upcoming long bank holiday weekend (02-04 Aug). The main reason (1) Rozai (my close mad friend is in London working for a week on the Malaysia Fest, I will take loads of pics) (2) to spend time with Stephen and Shani (from Cape Town), (3) to meet with Steven and possibly Ganesh (my Perdana days). I am not sure that all the plans will work out. I wanted to watch Phantom Musical with Rozai, but she said she can't leave the other colleague behind as she is not well-versed with the prices of the articles and stuff. I have already told Rozai that whatever over-the-top price Batik that they can't sell, she must hand them over to me for FREE. She's agreed.

Next week (08-11 Aug), Luke and Zul from Brussels would be coming to Dublin and stay with me for a few days over the weekend. I am so excited. I am not sure where to bring them, but I am all excited the idea of Luke coming over and, to be able to meet Zul (uh how common is that name, hehe). I am all panicking now, as the place that I live in now is really tiny, but I am sure they do not mind.

+My friend, Mark showed me this OLD original wall of Dublin - those days when Dublin was this enclosed city and this is the remains of the early Dublin city. Well you can only see the cathedral here. I will take Luke and Zul to this place when they are here next week...

The weekend after that (18 Aug-early Sept), Faris will come over to Dublin, to celebrate "the end" of his PhD life in Newcastle. So, that would be great as well. He would spend 3 weeks over here. That will take us into Ramadhan really and right after that I will head home (yeah, back to Malaysia at the end of Sept). I will spend 5 weeks in Malaysia and I am already planning for a small get-away (perhaps to a touristy spot in South East Asia - Vietnam may be?). I am not sure about this, but I am planning. I hope it will work out. By the way, Matthias and Vibeke are planning to be in Malaysia in Oct 2008 as well... After I am back from holiday, that is already Nov and, 2008 is fast waving goodbye to all of us.

That techie in me.

+ This pic was taken at the Dun Laoghaire Fun Fair yesterday - I took this using the mobile phone camera, bluetoothed it to my laptop and uploaded it to my blog. Sweet stuff about technologies

5:15 pm - I am in a taxi now, leaving the office and I am updating my blog - I can't believe it myself. Yes, I purchased my mobile broadband USB modem over the weekend. I like it since the new proposition by Three (the operator), has prepaid option. So here I am in the car, accessing the internet and updating my blog.

+The trend: 'Data traffic - Distribution across consumer, business and mobile segments'. We can deduce, with CAGR at 96%, mobile data access is fast becoming the preferred medium for Internet or IP activities. Source: Cisco, 2008.

I am kind of new to this whole experience, although I have travelled the world promoting to operators this kind of application will ensure quickwins when they launch their super-fast mobile network. But, on the other side of the coin - is the propensity of people to pay for the service. Mobile broadband is generally still expensive (the device as well as the rates per Gb etc, it seems so farfetched to get the whole idea of Gb relayed to end users). However, the idea of convenience is not something other technologies can bring such as, what I am doing now - updating blog on the go. I have absolute faith that, as the technology matures, competition mounts which leads to price drops - this kind of offering will have its place (See the projection above).

+ The 'dongle' or USB modem (mobile broadband), inserted into the USB port of the laptop - and surf away!
Source of image: http://technical-itch.co.uk/

Call me a nerd or something, I know deep down inside of me, the nerd has long died. I used to want to be seen and to use the new generation of PDAs i.e Palm III and I gave up when they updated the technology every so often and my pocket could not agree with it. But now, I am a practical person. I embrace new technologies when they bring convenience to me and suits my lifestyle - hence the mobile broadband. The fact that I do travel a lot, having an ADSL is not a good choice for me, hence prepaid mobile broadband is perfect.

+ Another one of Dun Laoghaire fun fair

I can now sit in the garden and surf away, or even do my work. Yes, I am not a big fan of doing work outside office hour (which, my former boss translates that into poor time management, hence you can't finish your work within office hour). To me this has given me freedom and convenience. A few mins ago, my taxi driver asked me "Where exactly in Dun Laoghaire do you live?". And I quickly said "Oh let me go to Google Maps and show you where!" Isn't that magic? Anyway, the whole truth to the story is that, when he asked me that, I replied "Don't you have GPS?" He was quiet momentarily and I offered the search using Google Maps right after! :)

Anyway, whilst technologies bring lots of good stuff, I still believe in the power to choose i.e. I will not want to have Blackberry for example. I do not want to be contacted 24/7! I want that space still. I want that space where I can be on my own, spending the time with no distraction - esp from work. And when I read the article that some airlines would implement roaming in the sky using satellite - I guess I will be one of the many to oppose. I do not really see the needs for that. We have to have some respect over fellow passengers who may be tired and need to have a good rest and the last thing we want to do is to irritate them with some can-wait mobile phone calls. And to business travellers, do you really want to swap business strategies and ideas when you are not aware who are sitting around you?

Kegigihan tangga kemajuan - hah tu dia...

Hari Ahad - cuaca begitu baik sekali. Aku pun bangun agak awal - 8AM. Walaupun aku tidur lewat malam tadi. Pergi tengok Mamma Mia dengan Paul dan Itamar. That was great - I am glad lagu ABBA kegemaran aku dimainkan secara penuh dalam tu (The Winner Takes It All). Lepas movie at 10.00PM, diorang pi D* Club, aku tak pi sebab aku tak nak stay up dan aku nak main skuasy spt biasa kat UCD.

So hari ni aku texted Barry - yg menyatakan aku boleh main, walaupun aku tak le sesehat mana lagi. So, 12.15 tghari aku dah tercongok kat depan tu. Barry lambat by 10 mins kot, sbb kawan dia dalam kesusahan katanya. Sbb hilang wallet malam tadi dll. Biasa la depa ni, kalau dah keluar malam tu, sah-sah keesokan harinya tak ingat apa yang berlaku.

* UCD Sports Centre *




Barry menang. Aku rasa aku bagi kemenangan mudah. Sbb aku bukan 100% pulih dari demam, dan dia belom 100% pulih dari larian 5KM dia pada hari Sabtu tu. So sama-sama la. Tapi aku rasa, aku boleh aje kalahkan dia kalau aku nak.

Lepas balik dari UCD, aku pun jalan-jalan kat Dun Laoghaire - cari buku baru. Sbb aku dah abiskan Reluctant Fundamentalist. Best buku ni. Aku cadang nak buat review. Tapi tengok la - as I said the book was so engaging and the twist at the end came as an unexpected surprise to conclude the roller-coaster reading - hah tu dia. Nanti la aku cerita sedikit sebanyak. But I enjoyed it, tremendously. I am now looking for Anderson Cooper Biography. Tak jumpa tadi. Nanti la aku order kat Amazon. Entah kenapa aku nak baca biography pulak. (But before that, aku kena abiskan Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold - rasa macam berat aje, tengok la macam mana - it is indeed a literature...erghhh)

OK nak cerita ni - sekarang berita utama... Bersemangat aku nak bercerita ni. Aku memang la bakal dpt award calon gigih 2008/09. Hari ni aku bakar sate ayam, for dinner. Jangan tak tau - dalam 25 cucuk sate aku bakar. Aku dah perap ayam tu semalam lagi - lepas balik Mamma Mia. Jadi diperturunkan la gambar-gambar berkenaan yang aku ambik tadi. Memang best. Siap dengan nasi impit dll. Dan of course, aku invite Ramz dari rumah sebelah. Dia terperanjat sebab tak sangka aku sanggup buat, susah payah. Siap beli lidi lagi, dan bakar, perap dari 2.00 AM malam semalam. So akhirnya, inilah hasilnya.








Lepas makan, kami pi jalan-jalan tepi laut. Ramz tunjukkan phone baru dia - memang malatop la :) Samsung Touch-screen katanya. So menarik tertarik da bomb. So kami jalan-jalan for close to 1 hr and then balik. Bila balik, aku pun dah rasa nak rebah. Ramz pun dah nak rebah dan balik ke rumah dia.

Summer flu can be nasty

I am feeling a bit under the weather. It has been almost the whole week. Yes, it is summer time now, but we must endure there atypical summer rains here in Ireland. By the sound and look of it, it will last till the end of July. I went to the medical centre yesterday – granted with 2-day medical leave.

+ Source of pic: http://lunapath.net/

I am still trying to finish the book – Reluctant Fundamentalist. It is engaging indeed - the least to say. Hopefully I can finish that soon so that I can move on to others. I am heading for a busy week next week. Project with customer, M is about to start. After a limbo of scope changing and prioritisation, finally we will embark on it – for real. This is something I don’t understand – there’s a part of them saying “This is crucial, we must start now”. But how things have been delayed, exhibits completely otherwise.

I will need to juggle 2 projects. Over the course of 2 months, there is an interest for local market unit to get me involved in IMS project – fixed mobile convergent for another local customer, E. From what I could gather, this will take ages since it is a big investment on customer side and the signals on general poor economic performance for the rest of the year may trigger customer to be more prudent and to tighten their operational spending - no new expenditure, minimise new incremental cost or upgrades, maximise existing network assets etc. This will impact this project of course. I am already on board (and bored?) – but I want to inject some business part to the project to strengthen the buy-in process. Let’s see what I can do.

On social front – things have been going on as the way it has been last week. Last night I got a text from Barry – asking for squash this Sunday. I really want to be well by Sunday so that I can sweat it out again. My tennis-elbow reappeared. That concerns me. It will be there for some time. Nursing injury with the tendon tissue is not easy – but I will wear the band to support the muscle every time I do sports.

Finally, as of last night I finished vetting and editing Faris’s PhD thesis – it was long, technical and complicated I must say. It reminded me so much of my thesis in 2006 – how fond I was to start working at 10pm and ended up at 7am in the morning, the next day. I like working under pressure, doing analysis, doing analysis etc. I like the process and making sense out of many observations. Perhaps PhD is my next step – I don’t think so. Only if I were to find a reason why I should do it, I will do it. As for now – I am content.

Insomnia Coffee & PhD-thesis vetting

Here I am - in Insomnia Coffee right smack in the city - reading and vetting pages of doc. It's PhD thesis of Faris that I need to vet. I was not procrastinating over the weekend. Everything was planned out for Sunday and tennis final was the centre of it all. Oh my, that was the best of tennis played between Nadal and Federer on Sunday. Least that I could imagine it would take me from 2 - 9 pm at night. The match was suspended a couple of times - due to English summer rains. Anyway, to cut the whole lot short, I am ecstatic that Nadal won. I am not his No 1 fan, but it is long overdue for him and he has it to stop Federer. Federer deserved to win, to chart the history as much as Nadal.

+ That is me

+ Itamar (left) and Paul have been gems of the day for taking shots of the matches

I was also battling with my adrenaline and nerves on Saturday. I played in the squash tournament. I was up as the first to play against Damien. Damn he is good - he could switch hands. Right - left - right again. That was amazing. I could gawk in awe. But I managed to steal some 7 points before walking out as loser. There were four of us and we played each individual twice. I managed to win 2/6. The sweetest and sweatiest thing - I managed to stop Damien from winning his 6th match. Now, I could well claim that I knew how Nadal felt yesterday, except I did not see any reason for me to climb some walls and partitions to hug my loved ones :)

+ Barry and me in action - he is so fit, damn it.

+ Barry and Sean in the court - Sean is so unpredictably good. Anyway, that morning had got up early to train Specialympic Team

+ Barry and Sean (at the back), and that is my hand I guess, asking whether Barry won that game and Barry unsmilingy replied - No! Hehe

I am not at work today - I am feeling a bit under the weather. I was too exposed to nasty Irish rain. I am indeed in town now. I need to get my cold/flu ointment. But above and beyond that, I need to get a nice pair of squash shoes - which again - I failed to find. That sounds like I will go for another trip of shopping this weekend. Before that, I must battle my way to finish the workdays before Friday comes!

Fulfilling weekend - a hectic week

Writing needs continuity and discipline - I am not sure I possess any of the traits. I guess I have a fluctuating trend in writing. When I am back in Dublin, things are more routine – the way I want it to be. I am bathed with plans – and all the plans are pretty much routine and will bore people to their bones.

The weekend that had just passed – it was indeed tense. After feeling disappointed with the fact that my meeting in London was cancelled at the 11th hour, I was headed for a weekend of uncertainties. I like my weekend. It is not that long, but enough to recover from the hectic week. Last weekend – went out with Paul and Liam to D – a club in Dublin. It was indeed great. I got along very well with Liam – he spent some good years trying to make it to Hollywood, as writer or something. He is loads of fun. He’s a friend of Paul. When he started mentioning the club M in Hollywood – it reminded me the years when I spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley and, LA included. It feels like, as if it has only been yesterday (Yes, Silicon Valley is far up North in San Francisco, San Jose and Palo Alto – but I made a point to travel down to LA, since it’s close by anyway).

Sunday, was a lot more hectic. I played the weekly squash with Barry. I was so ready to take on the world title – of grunting – away from Sharapova. It was intense squash. Having Barry being super competitive, did not help. He is so fit – he runs marathon, and does all sort of sports. I started really bad – I was defeated by 11-1 I think. It crashed my confidence. It was indeed very intense. I managed to make a come-back and that’s when I realized I did grunt too much (I had to text Barry to say sorry, he said, he grunts a lot too – on the court). In the end, I took away the trophy with pride – with 3-1 win against Barry. We will do the squash again this week. It looks like it will be my Sunday ritual, now.

Right after squash, I was headed home and changed and made some sandwiches – heading to Malahide right after that. Ramz and I, we have been wanting to check out the castle for some time. It is really nice castle. But to our dismay, there was Neil Young concert going on, on that day. Finally, we checked out the town of Malahide – which is rather beautiful really. And then, I was headed home to watch Euro2008 final and baking beef lasagne at the same time!

As for this week, from the look of it - will yet be another hectic week.

- Monday – I was in town, watching Wanted with Ramz (I don’t want to get into reviewing this, it was enjoyable anyway... It was great fun),
- Yesterday (Tues) – again I was out with Itamar at Lemon Café (he wanted some advice on stuff),
- Tonight (Wed) – tennis with Aileen (girl from office), here in Dun Laoghaire
- Thursday – dinner at Korean Place with Claudine/Paul,
- Friday – outing with office mates to Market Bar,
- Saturday – an invite for tennis tournament (which I have declined). Updated: Barry invited me to be in Squash Tournament on the same day, and I said YES. So I would enter squash tournament this Sat.
- Sunday – squash/tennis - perhaps with Aileen.

And I must catch up on my reading!