The Part Time Engineer

Roman (Rosmah) Hairdo

2011-07-15T05:32:00.000-07:00

Before coming back to Malaysia, I embarked on yet another road trip with a few friends. This time we drove to Bath, Somerset, Stonehenge, and Salisbury, all in one day! I'll write about the road trip soon! In the mean time, when we were at Bath, we visited the Roman Baths. Most of the original structure is gone by now. All that is left is the centre bath and some remnants. Upon entry, you will

Simple Joys of Being Home

2011-07-12T04:37:00.000-07:00

It has been slightly more than a week since I'm back, 1 week plus a few hours to be exact. I have a lot of overdue posts in my mind but I still haven't found the right inspiration to put them in words. But slowly and surely I'll write them one of these days! Okay, what are the simple joys of being home? I'll keep this short and sweet :) #1 Sleep The fact that you can sleep without having to

Easter Road Trip

2011-06-25T06:54:00.000-07:00

Last Easter, my friend and I had a road trip to The Jurassic Coast. That's where dinosaurs used to live. Just kidding. It's a World Heritage Site near Dorset, south of England. One of the main attraction of the Jurassic Coast is the Durdle Door. It's a limestone arch as a result of millions of years of nature's activity. We drove down to West Lulworth to catch a glimpse of this majestic

Spot the Angry Bird Contest

2011-06-23T09:40:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I was at Hyde Park to spot some Angry Birds, or in other words I was there to witness the annual London World Naked Bike Ride. Last year was a coincidence, this year I went there because I was bored of studying. Ok, that's just an excuse. There was actually another event happening on that day itself. The Queen was having her official birthday parade but this group of people have

Under the Weather

2011-06-06T09:51:00.000-07:00

People who know me well would know that I hate it when it rains. Last week, it rained so badly in London that rain back in Malaysia would pale in comparison. Okay, that's a bit exaggerating but it's a bit unusual to get rain that heavy here. It was forecasted that there will be a heatwave in London starting end of last week. But I guess the weather forecast is wrong again (as usual). It has

Sohai Singing Bai Goh

2011-05-16T12:11:00.000-07:00

The word "sohai". It's pronounced as "so + high" but it has nothing to do with anything very high up. It's a famous word used extensively among Malaysians and Singaporeans. So what does it mean actually? Does it even mean anything? In the words of Harith Iskander, "It doesn't mean ANYTHING but it says EVERYTHING." By the way, Harith Iskander is a Malaysian stand-up comedian. You can search for

National Doughnut Week

2011-05-13T16:42:00.000-07:00

Today is the last day of National Doughnut Week. What is National Doughnut Week, you might ask? National Doughnut Week is held from the 7th to the 14th of May every year. It's to raise money for The Children's Fund. Throughout this week, proceeds from doughnut sales from participating bakeries across the UK will be channeled to this fund. You can grab yourself a doughnut or two from Imperial's

Mulu National Park

2011-05-10T15:29:00.000-07:00

Few days ago, I read an article about the "10 Natural Wonders of the World" on Yahoo! Travel and I was really proud when I learned that Gunung Mulu National Park is among the top 10. Mulu is situated in Sarawak and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is home to the famous Sarawak Chamber, which is the largest in the world - large enough to house St Peter’s Basilica in Rome (I'm going

You Raise Me Up

2011-05-07T17:31:00.000-07:00

I would like to make a quick shout-out to all mothers out there, especially to my mum. Happy Mother's Day! Today is your day! Get your husband, children, grandchildren to bring you out and have some fun! Song song song song, jin jia song! Celebrate while you can, because at the rate religious extremism is escalating in Malaysia, you never when another mufti will come out and issue a fatwa

Learning Hokkien

2011-05-05T08:06:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is Bai Goh. To be perfectly honest, I didn't expect to receive so much attention from my Hokkien version of Rebecca's Friday. If I had known that it would be so widely circulated, I would have at least put aside my books (I was doing my homework halfway when I decided to cover the song!), set my hair right, worn a nicer shirt (the shirt I'm wearing is the exact same one that I always

Friday Hokkien Style

2011-05-02T01:50:00.000-07:00

There's no doubt that Rebecca Black's Friday is awful but you got to admit that the song is quite catchy. It gets stuck in your head after a while. Rebecca must be very happy now for successfully influencing so many people to cover her ridiculously insane song. There's a Chinese version - 星期五 A Malay version - Jumaat, Jumaat done by this Singaporean girl. There's even a multilingual one done

Royal Wedding

2011-04-29T14:34:00.000-07:00

I'm proud to say that I was part of the royal celebration to commemorate the wedding of Prince Williams and Kate Middleton today. This is actually my second time witnessing a royal wedding. The first time was at Sweden when the princess got married on the national day of Sweden. It was forecasted that there will be a thunder storm for the day but thankfully BBC weather was wrong this time. Or

Driving in the UK

2011-04-27T02:52:00.000-07:00

I just came back from a road trip to the south of England with a few of my friends. It's a well-deserved 2-day break to take my mind off all my revision and to catch up with friends. We didn't go to Salisbury in the end due to time constrain but the main destinations were West Lulworth, Weymouth, Portland and Golden Cap. I'll talk more about these places soon but in the mean time you can check

Royal Rabbit Card

2011-04-21T15:19:00.000-07:00

If you're living in London, you can't survive without an Oyster Card. You need this to get on the Tube and the bus. It's significantly cheaper (but still very expensive) compared to buying tickets over the counter. As you all might have heard, the royal wedding between Prince Williams of Wales and Miss Kate Middleton will be held next Friday. In order to commemorate such an auspicious day,

The Ghost Rider

2011-04-20T12:45:00.000-07:00

I'm sure most of you have watched or at least heard of the movie "Ghost Rider" before. I'm saying this because I see this car outside my house almost everyday. That's right, I think there's a ghost rider in my neighbourhood! Finally, I managed to catch a glimpse of the rider in the vehicle today! Wait a minute, the rider looks awefuly familiar. Let me get a close-up shot of him. I know

We are on The Star!

2011-04-17T16:47:00.000-07:00

Just to share with you my excitement, Imperial College Malaysian Night was featured on The Star yesterday! My committee and I have worked very hard since last summer last year to put up a great show. It took up lots of time and effort (that's why I was so busy over the last few months!) but the end product was just beyond description. Here's the extract from The Star. THE cold wintry night did

The Part Time Engineer is One Year Old!

2011-04-15T14:53:00.000-07:00

The Part Time Engineer is officially One Year Old! Exactly one year ago, on the 15th of April 2010, I started this blog. To be exact, I started writing one week earlier but due to unforeseen circumstances, I was forced to transfer to this address. I am doing a double-whooper today because coincidentally, this will be the 100th post as well! It's not that great of a feat, I know. I mean, 100

Golden Rules of Politics

2011-04-15T02:36:00.000-07:00

There are 3 golden rules of politics in Malaysia: #1 "Politics is when you say you are going to do one thing while intending to do another. Then you do neither what you said nor what you intended." - Saddam Hussein #2 "Don't trust anybody." - Stone Cold Steve Austin #3 "Don't get caught with your pants down." - Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek HAPPY VOTING PEOPLE OF SARAWAK!

Battle of the Sexists

2011-04-08T03:48:00.000-07:00

As a proud Malaysian, I feel really ashamed when Malaysia hits international news for the wrong reasons. Just last week, Bung "The Leaking" Mokhtar stated that women are not only bad at the wheel, but aggressive as well! "... when you honk at them, they get agitated with some even showing hand gestures to other drivers." And when his remarks got into the news, he claimed that he was misquoted (

Food for Thought

2011-04-07T10:22:00.000-07:00

I've just attended a function at Awana Restaurant. Awana is a Michelin Recommended Malaysian Restaurant in London. It's actually not that expensive. You can get an account at TopTable and get 50% off you bills. You can choose from a range of starters, mains and desserts. I was invited because the boss needs some entertainment for the afternoon. Since he has received lots of good feedback

Shahrizat Twitted About ME!

2011-04-06T03:59:00.000-07:00

Carrying on from yesterday's theme about some of the interesting figures I've met/interacted over the past one year, allow me to introduce to you Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil. She's the current Minister of Women, Family and Community Development in the Malaysian cabinet. Datuk Shahrizat was in London at that time when we had our Malaysian Night. So we decided to invite her over to watch our

Tony Fernandes Reads My Email!

2011-04-05T03:18:00.000-07:00

Being the president of Imperial College Malaysian Society over the past one year has given me great opportunities to network with many corporate leaders and politicians. Opportunities don't come knocking on your door everyday. Most of the time you have to create them for yourself. I had a rare opportunity to interact with Dato Tony Fernandes, CEO of AirAsia group a few months back. Our society

Happy Belated April Fools' Day

2011-04-04T03:10:00.000-07:00

I noticed that Malaysian political leaders (and some muftis) have come up with quite a few good April Fools' Jokes, albeit that they are one day late. These are the headlines that I came across on the 2nd of April, which is one day after April Fools' Day. Firstly, we have our PM, Dato Seri Najib Razak proclaiming boldly that BN will regain Penang in the next General Election. Then a few days

Hasrunni: Olympics has Elements of Greek Mythology

2011-04-03T07:38:00.000-07:00

KUALA LUMPUR: The Olympic Games originates from a series of athletic competitions held for in honour of Zeus, who in Greek mythology is regarded as the "Father of Gods and men", insists KL mufti Tan Sri Hasrunni Zakaria. Hasrunni also said that the logo of the upcoming London Olympics spelt out the word "ZION". “I requested some cultural officers to do research and they came out with the

Roller Coaster Hunter!

2011-04-02T03:59:00.000-07:00

*I do not own any of these photos. I was too busy having fun that I didn't bother to take out my camera. Most of these photos are from the official website and some from my friends on Facebook* I had one of the most awesome and fun-filled (and insane) day ever in the UK two weeks ago. The Malaysian Society of Imperial College organised a trip to Thorpe Park (well actually I organised it to be