Winter 2016 : Ethical Trading Initiatives

I took Work and Employment in Global Economy course. It taught me a lot about globalisation, labour, private standards and global production network. I wrote a lot of essays on private standards, Ethical Trading Initiaties (ETI) in the UK and Fairtrade.

One day I came home and I saw Nazreen’s homework on ETI! It is good for them to understand about ethical trading from early stage and raise the awareness to choose the right products from the supermarket shelves. 

I, on the other hand, only being exposed to this pretty late, during my Masters ;p 

Winter 2016 : More fruits!

One week supply of fruits for the family. I don’t keep snacks in the house. If you need something to eat in between meals, you take fruit. 

Winter 2016 : Coca dates drink

Blend together low fat milk, cocoa powder, banana, dates and oats.

Delicious!

Enough to keep them full for a couple of hours before dinner. It is already dark at 5pm and they keep asking when they could have their dinner.

Winter 2016 : Leisure Library @ Cheetham Hill

When they have new home-learning projects, this is how our Saturday looks like.

Nabil is working on a project on Ancient Egypt pyramid.

Nazreen is working on a River Nile project.

Mama has a lot of critical essays to complete, but equally excited to start the new projects with them haha #ohmypriority

Winter 2016 : Meet yellow planteen from South Africa

Hi!

Our goreng pisang, pengat pisang dan kek pisang came from South Africa.

Winter 2016 : Convenient online shopping for Papa's birthday!

I ordered some stuff from eBay and get them to send to Argos for me to pick later. Since I am in the campus most of the time and my husband is busy running errands and managing the kids, so we might not be home when the Royal Mail guy came.

It is truly convenient to be able to choose where to pick up the stuff we bought online, at our own time. I chose Argos at the Manchester Fort Shopping Park as I also ordered some perfume and men’s stuff for my husband at online Boots store. Argos have allocated special collection point for eBay orders.

I told my husband that I just need a while to pick up some stuff at Boots (and pray hard that we will not follow). He decided to wait in the car as it was cold outside. I emptied my backpack earlier and put the books at the backseat. He didn’t notice. I glad I did that because the boxes are massive!

That night, we blew some balloons for papa while he was sleeping, then we surprised him with a loud birthday song and showered him with a lot of birthday presents and kisses!!

Winter 2016 : Housewife Pillowcases

I snapped this photo and share it with my friends who are housewives, telling them they are so special that B&Q is selling these for them. I hope it make their day. 

Winter 2016 : Venue Fly Trap

Everytime we went to B&Q (a one-stop centre for DIY supplies to complete your home and garden projects), we keep contemplating whether we should buy these for the kids because we have no fly (& no mosquito, no insect, nothing) at home. 

The plant might starve to death.

Nope, we didnt buy it at all. We just let them interact with the plant at B&Q.

Winter 2016 : Oxford Road is changing…

Cant wait to go there again and see the new Oxford Road.

When we were in Manchester, there were road works everywhere for upgrading, constructing bicycle lanes and tramlines. Going home could be a challenge sometimes with changing bus stops (they closed the bus stop for weeks and you have to wait somewhere else) and road diversion (sometimes you felt like you took a wrong bus because it took a different, longer route). 

There were even constructions going on in our campus next to me school building!

I took photos on the progress on regular basis. However, it was not completed until the day I left Manchester.

However, they have everything in order in term of safety features for pedestrian, notices at bus stops and road signs.

Winter 2016 : -10c? Nahhh….

When I saw this on the net, I just don’t think Manchester will get another round of snow.

Winter 2016 : Nazmi at abangs' school

Lost and found boxes at the school hall.

Winter 2016 : Meet large popo from Brazil

Hello!

at Worldwide Cheetham Hill

Winter 2016 : iSnaps

Print the photos yourself from the smartphone or thumbdrive.

Winter 2016 : New Smithfield Market, our playground on Sundays

One of the huge car boot sale areas near Manchester.

We came here almost every weekend to look for unique/cheap/free furniture/toys/anything. I look for books sold for 50p each :)

Gloomy winter.

Winter 2016 : Crazy schedule

Whenever I feel like missing my student life because I have so much to do at the office, I look back at my 2016 planner to remind me that I should be grateful instead that I am back to work.

Nowadays, when I go home, I dont have to stay awake to read academic journals and write critical essays after cleaning my kitchen :) 

...meet me in december...

Yes, we are back in Malaysia.
I am working on some major events.
Will continue the updates (yes, from winter 2016) later.

Winter 2016 : Critical Reading workshop

I registered online for a Critical Reading workshop offered at My Learning Essentials. They have 3-4 interesting courses/workshop/seminar everyday, held in AGLC. It is free. You could just walk-in.

This was my first time. Once I walked-in, one lady, a facilitator, asked me to swipe my student card at the reader on the table to record my attendance. Then, she asked me to find my seat, anywhere and help myself with cookies and drinks (there is a coffee machine and various types of cookies at the corner of the room). I took two packets of chocolate chip cookies and I made myself a hot chocolate.

The workshop went well. They taught us theories, followed by a few individual and group exercises. The first exercise was for us to identify the main argument and evidences in a few academic articles. 

I love the facts that this exercise uses laminated A4s. We could jot down our thoughts, underline the arguments and circle the main points using a whiteboard marker, which, could be wipe-off and recycle afterwards.

Then, there was a group exercise.

We didnt know each other but we got along very well in one hour! 

At the end of the workshop, the facilitator requested to take a photograph of my graphic note.

And after the workshop ended, the facilitators went around the classroom with iPads, for us to fill in the online evaluation form. I love the hi-tech part of the workshop - the swipe part for registration, the online evaluation part, as well as the delicious cookies and free drinks :)

Winter 2016 : Allotment

My BIL requested photos of allotments around Manchester. We stopped by at a few allotments but since we visited them in the winter, there is nothing much to be seen. However, this is a really nice spot for socialising. I would love to live in this beautiful neighbourhood and involve in this kind of community project!

Winter 2016 : Go out, do something different and starts fresh!

That particular week, I felt like not leaving the house on Saturday morning because I have four essays to complete. But I changed my mind. I had a memorable chat with a PhD candidate, Jason, in the previous week while waiting for my sons (and Jason was waiting for his 5 children) at the supplementary school. His advise is kinda stick in my head. He said going out regularly (and not stuck in front of the laptop 247) is the best way to make him write faster. He will recharge by doing something different and start fresh afterward.

So, I followed his advise. I went out to send my kids to the supplementary school, had a good Malaysian breakfast with my husband and other Malaysians from areas around Manchester, chatting, laughing in between and totally forgot about the essays. But, when all ladies heading to their yoga class.... I just cant sit there and doing nothing.

Soon I found myself walking to the library in the next building and start writing my essays! (oh yes I have the laptop with me all the times)

LOL. Well, at least I went out, I did something different in the morning and guess what? The idea was flowing really fast! 

After the school ended, we went to visit my friend Juliana, who just delivered a baby girl earlier that week. Kids were pretty occupied with the toys.

Winter 2016 : More Alan Gilbert Learning Commons

A lot of essays to complete!
Argh.

Winter 2016 : More spring rolls

Our favourite snack.
The kids love it with (1) cheddar; or (2) scramble egg fillings.
Easy.

Winter 2016 : Storm G H

It stands for Gertrude and Henry.

Gertrude was on January 29 and Henry was on February 1-2. 

Scotland and Northern England was the most impacted by Gertrude (school closure, travel disruptions) but we can still feel the strong wind in Manchester. 

Henry? Horrid Henry. Northeast of England was deeply impacted with flood, fallen trees and overturned vehicles. Here, our storm windows were rattling like crazy at night. The wind was so strong. I cant imagine how people at the impacted areas put up with stronger wind, more than 100 miles per hour!

Poor man! I am glad that he is okay.

I have seen a few people blown off their feet due to the gust (sudden rush of wind) around my campus. There were times that I have to hold onto the wall or a bollard or my friend during the gust. It was so sudden and you can easily lose control, most of the time I felt like falling to the ground. Well, maybe because my backpack was so heavy. 

I still remember the time when me and my friends were walking from one lecture venue to the other in a chill winter afternoon. As the wind picked up, we have to walk backward or sideways all the way to the building because walking towards the wind was hard.

I am going to miss Manchester for this. Never in my life, I walk backward to attend any lecture. 

This is a snippet from Euronews to show you how it was like when the wind picked up.

Great article on wind (here)

Winter 2016 : ABC UK - Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch

Nazran borrowed this book from the library. The ABC to Z refer to everything unique about the UK, for example, A is for Arthur (as in the King Arthur), B for Beetles (the band), G for the Giant Causeway (in the Northern Ireland). For each letter, I will find some videos (about King Arthur, the Beetles, etc) and watched them together with Nazran so he can learn more about the UK. Night time is loooong in the winter so we read a lot to kill time.

When he arrive at the letter L, he said he cant pronounce the word. I asked him to try harder (I was washing the dishes and I didnt look at the book). He tried but still, he said it was too hard. I asked him to spell it. He did but I stopped him halfway because I think he was not making any sense. Until I look at the page.... then I understand his struggle.

 

Cool, isnt it?! Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch is a large village in the Wales. It means - Parish [church] of [St.] Mary (Llanfair) [in] Hollow (pwll) of the White Hazel [township] (gwyn gyll) near (go ger) the rapid whirlpool (y chwyrn drobwll) [and] the parish [church] of [St.] Tysilio (Llantysilio) with a red cave ([a]g ogo[f] goch) (Wikipedia). It is the longest place name in the UK and one of the longest in the world :)

Now, let's learn how to pronounce it!

It is surprising how much you can learn from a simple book of ABC!!!

Winter 2016 : Insect mosaic

We went to a charity event at a local school and came across this gigantic display of insect mosaic a la Christopher Marley created by a bunch of students. Marley used to be scared of bugs but now he is creating a wonderful artworks using colourful bugs.

Winter 2016 : THE BIRTHDAY PARTY

30 January 2016.
A day after the Storm Gertrude.

We were chatting with my parent via Skype when the guests started to arrive. My sons were so happy to see other kids came to their party. New friends in Manchester! They loves the cakes (of course!) and the M&Ms disappeared long before the whole cake finished, as I expected. haha.

 

We had a really fun art and craft sessions. I didnt mind seeing our living room like this as long as the kids were having fun and the guests were enjoying themselves, helping the kids to do some artworks.

My neighbour (who is also my junior in IIUM), a PhD candidate, was struggling to meet a submission deadline that day, therefore, she couldnt make it to the party. I asked her if she could send over her kids to my house and let them stay here until Maghrib so she could focus on her writing. I truly understand what she went through and that was the least I could do to help. And she did! 

It was good to see Naufal & Aesyah really enjoying themselves with crafts and the loud & colourful party poppers :) The kids made these, toilet roll ninjas (in our case, they were actually kitchen rolls cut into two) and straw sculptures.

I had so much fun baking, cooking and entertaining the guests! It is a good break from my study. Cleaning up that evening was a breeze.

I read the news online and surprisingly we are expecting Storm Henry the next day!

Winter 2016 : Planning for a Birthday Party for Nabil, Nazran and Nazmi

It was January 2016 and finally I had a free time (and extra money) for our sons' birthday party. Nabil and Nazran was born in December and Nazmi was born in February. First, to get things going, I designed the birthday invite. I just invited a few close friends.

It is going to be Nabil's 10th birthday, Nazran's 7th and Nazmi's 3rd. Good age combination. Those numbers (10, 7, 3) fit into the BIR7HDAY C3LEBRAT10N!!

On Friday, January 29, the day we welcomed Storm Gertrude to the UK, after sending off the kids to school, we went to get some presents for them and ingredients for the main menu and desserts.(Northern UK was the most impacted, but we still get the strong wind)

The night before, after they went to bed, we hung the birthday bunting, pump some balloons and wrap their presents. We keep a few blankets ready to cover everything should any one of them came down to get some water (they did that sometimes, in the middle of the night). 

They will get the light sabers they were asking for quite sometimes, books, stationery and some cool clothes. None of them knew we planned this party. We cant wait to see their faces in the morning! Waking up to the house full of balloons :)

The next morning, YUP, as we expected, they were cheering and laughing and running around the house in joy once they went downstairs and saw all the deco. As I was preparing the chicken rice, they helped me to spread the chocolate topping on the cake I baked the night before and topped it with a few packs of M&M. 

25% of the M&M went into their mouth but I just pretended that I didnt see a thing.

It is officially begin!

What? The intense blogging to keep up with the changing seasons.

I am glad that autumn 2016 will starts on September 22, so I still have time to complete the whole entry (winter-spring-summer) before the summer ends.

I have submitted my dissertation and finally I have a couple of hours everyday to update on our experience in the UK before we go back to Malaysia soon. I need to do this for my sons. This is the only place they could recall good memories from their childhood.

Stay tune.