I am really looking forward to the servicing and MOT-ing of my car tomorrow. Well, that will be the first service and MOT since I bought the car back in July 2008. A whole seven months and I have never driven a car for that long time until a service is needed. When I was working in Malaysia, I had to service the car I was driving about every 4 months and the shortest being 2 months.

At the moment, I know nothing about the condition of my car but I will, after tomorrow. I am taking it to one of the main Ford dealers thinking that it would be better handled. Part of the reason is also the promotion that ends tomorrow. Next time, I believe that I will be looking for independent garages unless main Ford dealers have better offers.

The main difference between independent garages and main dealers is the equipment. Main dealers normally have proper car lifts, better knowledge on specific type of cars, better time management and most definitely, the parts they provide will be the certified ones. Indeed, the charges are sometimes shocking but I believe that it is kind of worth it if you can afford it. Independent garages rely on trust and the relationship but you never know that you might find a good deal with the main dealers.

While I was in Malaysia, my mum always told us (siblings) not to eat too full, just 80% would be good enough. Well, that is quite true because the feeling of eating too full is so uncomfortable. Since I am making my own meals most of the time now, I choose to eat a reasonable portion of food and a mixture of fruits and yogurt after each meal. After, the meals that I am making for myself are certainly not as good as what Mee prepared for me in the past. Hence, the fruits and yogurt are there to provide me a good balance of diet.

The fruits that I normally consume are apples, nectarines, bananas, grapes and any other fruits that are on promotion. Have you heard of mulberry? Hmmm… not the fashion Mulberry. I have only heard of blackberry, cranberry, blueberry and raspberry but not mulberry. Apparently, Mulberry trees can be easily grown in European countries as well as US. However, I find none the supermarkets around this area. Anyway, I do not really keen on berries kind of things but I must say that they are expensive. Mee likes them though especially strawberry.

When I first bought my car, Mee accompanied me to collect it. At that time, there was this huge blackberry tree, full of blackberries of course, at the back of the garage. Mee almost plucked all the blackberries but I stopped her as we did not know the source of it. If allowed, I believe Mee would have taken the whole tree home. If Mee and I got a backyard of our own, Mee will most probably grow some berry trees.

I was quite busy this morning, having to rush a report and then trying to clear some of my tasks. I met a lot of other colleagues and talked a lot too as I needed to understand the things that they are trying to do as well as the things that they are doing now. Yesterday, I sent an email to obtain some feedback from ILP users. ILP stands for individual learning plans. However, I have received negative feedback and hopefully, as more feedback coming in, I will be able to evaluate the usability of the ILP system.

Currently, the customer service department is looking forward to receive payments from students and thus, I need to understand the hardware needed as well as what they need to achieve at the end of the day. Surprisingly, I met some of my old ‘friends’; good old electronic cash registers. After all, I used to work as an ECR support. The ECRs that we have here are mid-end Casio ECR. However, they are just using it for collecting cash which only uses 20% of what the ECRs are capable of.

Well, I was quite enjoying the talking to other staffs but at the same time, I felt familiar yet strange. Familiar because I was doing similar things all the time during all my previous works and in fact, I really miss doing support. Strange because I have not been doing this that frequent. Indeed, I also work as a support now but most of the problems can be solved by sitting in front of my computer.

Sometimes, I thought that my life is pretty straightforward. Sleep, eat, work and play. There are not many activities going on and sport is on my waiting list. I felt that life is less exciting but more demanding compared to study’s life. Well, you may say that youth was what I got during my study years but that was just a small part of the reasons. A lot of people that I know (around the same age as me or older than me) are still very active in every way but not the same way as before; more clubbing, meeting friends, get to know more friends, travel and the likes.

These days, whenever I speak to my friends, we are always talking about work, work and work. It seems like we have less in common and all we can talk about is only about work. Imagine that we studied about 10 different subjects during our secondary school years and we could talk at least 10 different topics including daily life. Thus, we never ran out of topics.

Right now, my brain is just focused on work. A simple mathematical calculation often takes about 5 – 10 seconds longer than I could calculate when I was younger. Hence, I always tell myself as well as people that I know that we should always find other activities to keep us active, just active in any way. Sports improve our reflexes and games improve our thinking rather than sitting in the office everyday, looking at the screen with a blinking cursor.

For those who like sports like chess, this 5 minutes mystery maybe for you. It looks like it is very suitable for students at any stage as it improves rational thinking but to me, it is suitable for anyone who understands English. However, it depends on personal interest though. This 5minutesmystery was featured on ABC news and mysteries will be published on every Monday and Friday for you to take the chance to climb up the top sleuth. If you think you are up for it, you can even submit your own mysteries. There is also a forum for all the mystery solvers to discuss and exchange ideas.

Well, 5 minutes mystery is one of the many sites that I would go into everyday and keep my mind busy.

Two of our housemates are moving at the end of this month. They are husband and wife and they live in the room directly above us. Hopefully, our landlord will rent it out to only one person instead of two to replace the husband and wife. In fact, the room was designated for one person but the husband insisted on having his wife to live together. Since the landlord agreed, Mee and I have numerous bad experiences with them both as they are making too much noise; footsteps, opening and closing drawers and constantly dropping things on the floor.

Hence, we hope that the misery will end as they move out and we will pray for an understanding new tenant to move in.

Talking about them moving out, I wonder if I will be at home to bid farewell to them. My car’s MOT is due on the 1st of March 2009 and I have already booked a service and MOT appointment for the 28th February 2009 at 0900. Our landlord will be expecting them to clear the room by 1200.

Mee has very much influence in almost everything that I bought as well as things that I will be buying. Situation is the same for her where she will always consult me before buying anything. Erm… not unless I am going to buy something to surprise her.

When I have something to buy in my mind, I will always look for information on the internet especially the price. First, I will study reviews of the product and look for any other similar product within the same category. Second, the price is important as it is the most crucial piece of information to persuade Mee. Finally, price alone is not enough, so I have to make comparisons between websites as well as high street prices. One thing that could skip the last two steps is if the product was on sale.

Sometimes, I find the three steps to be troublesome especially when I only want to buy things that are not expensive. However, this is an excellent way to evaluate a product and making sure that I get the right product at a reasonable price.

Since I have decided to build a new computer system a.k.a. home theatre personal computer HTPC (even though I will attached it to a computer monitor and use it to play computer games), I have been doing some extensive search on the computer components that I will be using. In Malaysia, most probably I will be making trips to Low Yat Plaza where the hardware prices are unbelievable. However, comparing the prices using the price sheets with very small font size from different shops in Low Yat Plaza is not always a nice experience. Those who have been to Low Yat Plaza should know what I am talking about.

Here in UK, a search on the internet will give you the prices from major internet stores as well as high street shops. It is not enough to just buy from the best price of all. The reputation of the internet stores is equally important. Until now, I have only bought things from Dixons, Amazon, Play.com and carefully selected Amazon marketplace.

However, I have to look elsewhere if I were going to buy computer components at bargain prices. Most of the internet stores where I can get cheaper prices do not have good reviews from their customers. Even the internet stores that I mentioned above do not score really well from all the customers’ reviews. Interestingly, Buy.com is hand is the one internet store that has most of the customers impressed. One particular product that I have to mention is the Antec Multimedia Station Premier Deluxe IR Receiver and Remote. What a long name! But it will be the ultimate component to complete my dream HTPC machine.

Gosh! How I wish that I could order it straightaway because I have done all the three steps mentioned above. Oops!!! It should be four steps and the last step is going through the all three steps with Mee.