More photos coming in February 28, 2007

Salam sumer,

To make things easier, sebab citer dalam ni hanya utk kaum keluarga terdekat; so semua photos yg ingin dikongsi utk public boleh didapati di http://www.flickr.com/photos/shereen_ma Please make it useful. Blh send the links kat sesape yg nak tgk.. like mak Mizi, Mak Long + Pak Long Pahang, Mak Yah, Mak Su n bla bla..

Dah hampir 2 bulan di sini.. well.. 6 weeks to be exact. Dah buat akaun bank, dah dapat rumah sampai Julai 2007, dah ada best friends (Amy + Azhar), dah terer la jugak pakai public transport. Tiap-tiap minggu kitorang akan keluar naik bas N supertram ke city utk beli barang basah n keperluan rumah. Sumer kuat makan kat sini sebab sejuk. Dan lepas tu balik sakit kaki le.. masing2x bawak 5 kilo dalam beg. Huihh.. jalan berbukit kat sini.. penat betul.

Apa yang belum buat lagi?.. Belum masuk broadband, belum ada telefon post paid(cheaper dari prepaid) and mizi pun belum dapat kerja. Last week dia ada pi satu interview, dia kata nak call Jumaat. Pastu Jumaat dia call, tapi sebab bangun lambat sikit; tak sempat jawab call tu. So peluang tu terlepas la gitu.. apa nak buat?

Research lak oklah.. masih dalam proses membaca. And kalau ada rezeki hujung Mac akan present paper/ try to make contribution for publication. Dan hujung April/May akan hantar 1st chapter theses. Hee.. that’s soon huh?

Pagi ni, lepas hantar Hazeeq pi sekolah, cikgu dia tegur I. ‘Excuse me Shereen, I want to talk a little bit about Hazeeq. Dis he learn English in previous school in Malaysia? He seems to read a lot of English book and he’s done quite amazingly compared to the others. But, he didn’t understand what the stories are about, which I thought might come later on. Anyway, he’s shy and doesn’t talk much in the class though he can read quite well. I’m impressed.’ Huargghhh.. satu recognition tu.. So, Suraya and Ija, and adik2x yg akan ada anak tu, rajin2x la temankan babies membaca before tidur. As Malaysians, we are a champion in long-hours work. Those are times to be spent with the children .. really spend, I mean.. the quality time.

Hopefully everything else akan smooth, especially harap sgt Mizi dapat kerja soon. Salam.

How to set a keybord mapping for Linux February 14, 2007

In Linux environment, right click –> Open terminal –> type ’setxkbmap gb’ –> ENTER

++ setxkbmap gb (for great britain)
++ setxkbmap us (for US).. bla.. bla..

Anyway.. yesterday I was introduced to a shebang line : #!. Yep.. it looks like what it sounds.

Sebulan di Sheffield February 12, 2007

 

Date : 11 Februari 2007

Venue : Study room, Ruth Square

Assalamualaikum semua,

I harap semuanya sihat. Thanks a lot Pait n Ayah – call Kak Long few times last week. And yes – Kak Long dengar citer Ija pregnant ek?.. Congratulations – and take care. Banyaklah doa – kalau perkara baik tu insyaAllah Tuhan akan mudahkan.

Masa tulis blog ni, hari Ahad. Jam 11.30 malam dan semua dah tidur. Penat.. baru balik dari rumah kawan – Amy n Azhar. Depa undergrad final year – very nice and friendly. Depa saja jemput datang rumah makan2x. Sedap pulak si Amy tu masak. Very rare nak jumpa kawan yang cepat ngan ngan kita and these are few of them. I guess depa tu memang jenis yang cepat mesra ngan semua org pun. Banyaklah tips about survival in City Centre yang kitorang dapat. Mizi masak cucur kodok as buah tangan. Also jumpa uncle and auntie yang melawat anak depa yang belajar kat Sheffield. Seronoklah Hazeeq sebab rasa cam suasana Malaysia sket jap bila kumpul gitu ramai2x. Bila Uncle n Auntie tu nak balik, tetiba Hazeeq nak ikut lak – nak balik Malaysia katanya. I guess Hazeeq miss Atok n Ibu Uwan.. few times dia mengadu nak makan mee Uwan n nak pegi rumah Kakak Piqah. Huu.. haru. Dahlah Ibu n Ayah dia kat sini masih pulun nak belajar masak cam org Malaysia masak. Hehe..

Dah pindah ke rumah baru – rasa lega sangat. Sebelum ni kat Tinsley, barang masih banyak dok dlm beg tu sebab dah tahu dok sementara kat situ. Rumah baru ni pun tak tahu apa cerita. Katanya July nanti baru finalise whether University nak jual atau kitorang masih boleh dok lagi kat sini. Kalau tengok newspaper kat sini.. sekarang market yang paling baik utk jual rumah sebab harga rumah booming like 100%. And lately memang ada few University’s house yang dijual. Isk.. walaupun rumah ni kecil, tapi rasanya cukup selesa utk kitorang family kecik ni. Harap sangat tak perlu pindah for the rest 3 years. And kalau pindah jugak.. redha jelah. Cam yang pernah I alamai sebelum ni, semua tu ada hikmahnya. Apapun, u all doakanlah yang baik je utk kitorang, ek?

Ohh.. kitorang pindah dgn luggage yang besar2x and sewa minibus yang kitorang sewa last time. Bila call beberapa kawan utk saje bgtau khabar, depa rasa bersalah pulak tak tolong. Tapi kitorang ok.. sebab mmg kena naik minibus pun – byk sgt barangnya! Isk.. tapi mmg suka sungguhlah kat rumah ni. Cuma satu je masalah sket – dah beberapa kali today masa memasak.. alarm tu berbunyi sebab smoke detector. Hmm.. ni kena banyak belajar masak jgn menggoreng nih.

Ada few things learnt from Amy/Azhar tadi :

1. Nak resepi – google from Hani Liza & Mesra.net
2. Utk dapat medical benefit – submit form HC1 obtained from Boots and post.

Semalam and kelmarin snow kat sini. Nampak macam cantik, tapi tak seronok. Susah nak berjalan.. asyik nak tergelincir je. Akhirnya semalam each of us – I, Mizi n Hazeeq beli boots kat Shoe Zone. Memang mahal tapi nak buat camana – dah tak sabar nak tunggu Car Boot, and mungkin dah tak de peluang nak pergi lagi sampai we decided to buy a car – tak de duit nak beli sebenarnya J.

Progress in research?.. Prof Willet datang bertanya khabar at least once every week. I think he’s watching my progress very closely and he does that with every students of his.. that’s why depa boleh finish in 3 years time. Tak pelah.. I suka pun sebab I perlukan banyak guidance dia. Dah sebulan dok sini – dah 2 kali pi library. Kira ok lah tu kan?.. I pinjam few books utk Chemoinformatics. Kelas Chemoinformatics 2 last week mmg banyak benefit. It’s a really good class for introduction. Dr Val Gillet is the coordinator for the course. Starting next week pula akan start lab untuk Perl. Buku yang I th baca :

1. An Intro to Chemoinformatics, Leach, A.R. & Gillet, V. J
2. Evolutionary Algorithms in Molecular Design, Clark, D.E.

Last week Hazeeq demam. At around 12, I dapat call drpd sekolah suruh ambil dia kat sekolah “coz he’s having a lot of shivering and now he’s sleeping at the back of the class”, kata cikgu dia. So I rushed to his school and pick him up. Kat sini nak dapat medical attention mmg kena appointment and queue 1 week. So, kena jadik doctor sendirilah. Petua kat sini (Nita yang bagi) – ambil Neurofen + CalPol utk 4 kali and lepas tu baru bagi CalPol je if demam dia masih ada sikit. Alhamdulillah dia dah ok. And Mizi pun demam hari tu-sehari in fact. It’s the snow, I guess – terperanjat sket.

Hmm.. bestnya. Starting tomorrow I akan jalan kaki 15 mins je to my dept(since Hazeeq mid term holiday) and pastu bila balik pun baru nak masuk malam(maghrib masuk kul 4.30pm kat sini). Next month, Aryati from UTM nak mai sini bawah Prof Willet gaks. Bestlah.. ada kawan yang boleh ajak gi makan, solat n discuss pasal study. Kalau mat saleh semua, tak seronok jugak. Last week, depa bawak I pi satu tempat makan ala bar. Depa serve arak la – tapi definitely I tak ambil(jgn bimbang ek?) I order soft drink and makan tuna + sweet corn served with baguette. Oklah.. Cuma depa cakap laju sgt – kengkadang susah nak paham apa depa cakap – tetiba semua org gelak pulak. I pun senyum jelah. Anyway, depa semua mmg best.

2nd week at Tinsley February 5, 2007

 

This is our 2^nd week in Tinsley. We still haven’t got any car of our own. We went to see Hazeeq’s school on Tuesday and then went to ASDA. The school environment was friendly and encouraging. We decided to send Hazeeq to school on the very next day. We have been to the City few times now and to ASDA(macam Carrefour) by bus. So many things we bought for the house and that night, we arrived at home 10.30 pm! Here in UK it’s really late. Most of the shops here close at 6pm. Only ASDA and Tesco open 24 hours Mon-Fri.

Starting Wednesday, Hazeeq and I walked together to City Centre using tram. After taking my bath and perform Subuh, I will wake Mizi and Hazeeq up. Mizi will go down and make breakfast and I will prepare Hazeeq and myself for school (yes, both of us are students now). Both of us take our lunch pack to school. We have to go out at 7.30am(end of Subuh here) and take the tram to City Centre. At West Street, we would wait for a bus to go to Broomhill where the school situated. We went in and say hi to the Head teacher and she showed me around to his classroom. All the children were warm and friendly. Hazeeq at an instance loves the school. The school is quite far from my U but it’s the best nearest. Another school which is only walking distance from my dept is less encouraging, since their performance in Science and Math is below National average. And we have to bear in mind that syllabus in Malaysia is said to be tougher compared to here. Anyway, his school starts at 8.50am. We are always earlier 5 mins or 10 which gives us more time to chill and read books together before the class start. Then I would walk down the hill (since Hazeeq is not with me), all the way to my dept for another 20-30 mins.

Mizi will pick him up at 3pm everyday. Sometimes we will have lunch together and sometimes I would go back with them (or at later time alone). They usually arrive at the U at 4pm and I would stay till 5.30 to go back after Maghrib.

Arrive at home, I usually cook dinner and eat together. Then, we went to sleep.

Hazeeq really loves the school. Today (Friday) they were taught of number ‘4’ but Hazeeq boasted to 100! The parents are friendly to us and so as the teacher. On the first day, we left him until 12pm. Then, 2nd day we took him at 1. And full day till 3 on the 3^rd day. His teacher said he’s doing fine. Everyday it’s not difficult to wake him up in the morning, knowing he’s going to the school. But I can sense that it makes him tired – we went out at 7.30am and walked for 2km to the station. Then, take another bus up the hill. And take the same journey home. Pity him. He always fell asleep on the tram on the way back. Usually he will arrive at home at 6pm. No appropriate sleeping hour in between. And he works as hard as an adult. Anyway, he doesn’t complain much.

Me and my research? I have a second supervisor – Dr John Holliday. He’s an Irish and very good in technical part. He’s nice too and have helped me a lot sorting things out for my RTP(Research Training Programme). Ohh.. I read chapter 2 now on “Introduction to Chemoinformatics”. I meet Prof Willet once every week to discuss about my reading. He’s such a nice person. At first, I was a bit down because so many things that I have to catch up on Chemistry – being a one who just got 7 in last SPM! But he put everything simpler. He showed me how much similar is this field to text retrieval. But the thing is – I’m not even an expert in text retrieval! Oh my.. but I’m progressing. I just have to do it constantly and pray to Allah to make things easier for me.. I might get lucky enough to finish my PhD in three years time.

Next week, I would start the RTP classes. I would have Chemoinformatics II class on Monday at 2 – 4pm and the lab will be on Tuesday at 9-11am. Apart from that, they need me to do some project involving Java (haven’t learnt this) and make a presentation due in April 2007. Erkk.. I should be presenting a paper and 1 chapter of my theses should be finished by then. That is so soon, huh? But this is how it works.. should I want to finish in time.. I have to follow the schedule. Beside Chemoinformatics II, I also take a Research Seminar class, which means that I need to turn in for some seminar whenever available.