UK Panoramas

Here are some more shots from our UK holiday (Click each one for a much wider version!)

Inside Windsor Castle

View of the Docklands from the Observatory at Greenwich

The family walking in St. James Park, near Buckingham Palace

Stonehenge

View of the Serpentine in Hyde Park

The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square and Nelson's Column

Ever since I had my dSLR, my interests have been piqued by the concept of panoramas. To me it's mind boggling while insanely beautiful; it's eccentric and mystifying (the latter describes immersive, or VR panoramas). To that end, I invested in an ultra wide angle lens, a Sigma 10-22mm. That lens sort of got me started due to very wide angle shots, with the only problem that pictures were warped near the edge of the field of view. The quality is very very good and I loved the pictures that came out of Istanbul.

So, I next tried another technique : the multiple panning shot technique using my normal zoom lens - and used software to digitally blend and merge the pictures into one continuous panorama. My poison of choice is Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0; it's a cool piece of software, but you do need a serious kit to run it fast (mine takes forever to complete tasks on a 3 yo Tosh). While preparing for this post, I also found this website that have these amazing immersive VR panoramas. I'll probably try doing that when I invest in a proper tripod and rotating head... I hope I can find a printer in Malaysia to print some of these; I'd love to mount them on my walls one day!

Of Tahmiah and Samak

View of the Burj Fateh from the Friendship Hall

Well it's the 2nd last working day before the 4Es embark on our holiday! Why 2nd last? Because I'll still be coming on Sunday morning for half a day of work.

Today Ckn tak larat nak masak lunch, pity her, since she has a few more of her MBA assignments to submit. At 12pm I went out to look for a driver to take me to any of the restaurants in Riyahd area.. Unfortunately, and this is nearly everyday, all the drivers have dissapeared. The office is running on a skeleton crew, and all the drivers have dissapeared...

So I thought - should I go starving waiting for the phantom drivers or should I find an alternative? I decided on the latter. I upped and walked about 10 mins to the Friendship Hall, which is west of the office, to have some 'Kusairi' (A cheap Egyptian dish, which is a bowl of various pasta shapes, topped with a nice sour onion sauce + shata) at the roadside restaurant.

It wasn't too hot; in fact it was nice and windy. The only thing is, no one was selling Kusairi today...Crap-usairi! I don't dig Sudanese Fuul, so I opted for the Tahmiah sandwich instead. Tahmiah is exactly like vade from back home - they stuff it in a bun (aish) with chili paste (shata), and sesame seed sauce (tahmiah), and it costs 1 pound (cheap, in any language!). I washed it all down with Pasgianos - it's only available in Sudan, but it tastes exactly like the cough syrup you can get in clinics back home; you know the kind in plastic bottles that them addicts like soo much...errr...

Today's lunch - scrumptious!

It was a pleasant lunch, and after finishing 20 mins later, I walked back. Only this time, it was a little hotter. I stopped to take some pics of the friendship hall, but all I got on me was my crappy Palm Treo cam, so I couldn't post nice pics - maybe next time!

Baking Therapy

Ezal's frankfurter rolls

I told Ckn yesterday that I wanted to bake frankfurter rolls...and she gave me the usual 'we'll see...' look. Can't blame her coz I've always shared my intention of cooking this or that, but never got around it! so to surprise her, I really did my best this time.

I woke up early (well 8.30 on a Friday is early) and set about my task. I got the recipe while browsing to a website called Visual Recipes. We can't get these rolls in Sudan, and I really missed having them. I was determined to do this all by myself - and to my surprise, I did. When Ckn later joined me, she did point out that my yeast was expired and that the risk of that was that the dough would not rise...fortunately it did! I managed to yield 14 pieces (only had 7 franks in the fridge). Even Ehsan got in the act and helped roll out the dough - well, at least in his own special way!

Well, I finished the last roll at dinner; we had plenty of samplers today - Ckn, Devin (my colleague who was over to discuss her wedding montage), Nazri and Mahadir (our neighbours who joined us for lunch). They were polite enough to say that the rolls were good.

hehe and I agreed!

Al Karaoke fi Khartoum

What have the Alleycats, Lionel Richie, Anuar Zain, and the incomparable Sudirman all have in common? They are all here in Khartoum!! Not physically, mind (that would be silly), but their songs are karaoke-d here.

Thanks to our friends who have a well equipped karaoke system in their appartment, we've been able to let some pressure off by singing. We'd always go just the two of us (and sometimes some of our friends tag along!), and our sessions will be on a Friday afternoon (single staff frequent the place at night). We have a whale of a time! But we really owe them as we are sort of intruding; but they insist on us crashing their place and even carry a tune or two themselves.

Ckn's permanent playlist includes : Amy Search's 'Tiada Lagi', the whole Alleycats catalogue, and some Rahim Maarof's 'Cinta Kristal'. Ezal's playlist covers : Zainal Abidin, Alleycats as well and Lionel Richie - no Elton John 'Sacrifice' here, unfortunately!. We're quite 'competitive' when it comes to hogging the mic but we recently discovered some nice duets that helps reduce the hogging!

Good to have a choice of activities here in Khartoum then eh?

Ezal striking a pose near the massage chair, while Ckn is picking her next song. Our host, Azizan is so impressed with my singing that he had to sit down...

Coldplay : Viva la Vida!

Can't wait for this album - which is Coldplay's 4th. Between me and my brother Fyan, we have all their previous records (and I think we have at least 2 of their debut effort, Parachutes!). I've listened to their first 2 singles - Violet Hill and Viva La Vida.

So what do I think? For me, it's like their previous efforts - I need multiple listens to firm up an opinion...so far, I still think I still prefer X&Y, A Rush of Blood to the Head and lastly Parachutes ahead of this one...we'll see... and Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends!

Baba - look ... Star Star!!

Found this Japanese website that turns your pics into really cool turn-of 19th century pics!

The morning started normally. I left the room when Ehsan pointed excitedly to the back of my Nike T-Shirt, and shouted ' Star Star!!' . I knew my T-Shirt had a shoe print motif on the back and as I was still half asleep, I just shrugged and smiled at him and said 'yes, baju baba ada Star!!'. Ehsan gave me an 'okaayyy' look and moved on.

I prepared banana pancakes for breakfast, and then sat down with Ckn to tuck in. Meanwhile, our lil pear saw us sitting down, and ambled towards us. Erica is now in the habit of playing peek-a-boo behind my chair when I'm at the dining table, but this time it was a little different.

She snuck round me and proceeded to pick off something from my T-shirt - lo and behold, it was Ehsan's 'Star' - in fact, it was a honey Star cereal piece stuck to my T-Shirt. Erica, being the darling that she is, non-chalantly picked up the Star and proceeded to munch on it, much to our disgust! ... well we didn't stop her anyway...!

Ahh, what a story to jump start my blogging episode once more!!

Au Revoir dear Friends

We just came back from a lovely supper with our friends Razman and his wife Dila. So what's the occasion? Unfortunately our dear friends are going to leave Khartoum soon.

We first got to know them back when we first arrived on these shores. They were a lovely couple, and somehow we clicked. I guess we've had each of our families over for dinner/meals several times now, including a breakfast they invited me to when Ckn was in KL awaiting Erica's arrival.

We wish them all the best back in KL, and God willing, we'll meet up again for some 'teh kangkang' again! (OK the actual term should be 'teh cangkung' but my BM is BAD)

A decade with PETRONAS

Well it's a month old, but last December 16th, I celebrated the end of 10 years working with Petronas. I couldn't believe it's been that long; why, I still look like I'm barely 20! But yes, a full decade has passed since my first day in the workforce. I haven't really thought of what I have accomplished so far - have I've been successful? has my contribution touched anyone along the way? how would the past decade influence the next one? What has time told me then?

I think I can start on what has NOT changed : I still love computer games (playing them, however, is another thing. Just can't find the time!). I still like to bedazzle everyone who cares to listen with irrelevant but interesting general knowledge (example : Black pudding is the same as Haggis!). I can still survive on bread and chili sauce (this is true since 1981, so no contest there...)

Being that this is a recap of a decade with my employer, I'd like to recall some of the memorable events that have happened, and how it has changed me:

1997 - It's reporting day, and we have a bunch of forms to fill in. One form that intrigued me was a 'next-of-kin' form; who would get whatever that is owed to me from Petronas, in the case of my untimely demise... I remember putting my dad's name (hehe made sense at the time).. until Mama found out and gave me hell!! so I divided my 'value' between the two ;-)

1997 - Ah yes the 'internal rotation policy'. When first touring Petronas, I agreed to join my first department on the strength of what they showed me; selling jet-fuel to airlines... but when i reported to duty, the head said 'Ezal, in here we believe in rotation... hence, you'll be doing the butt-worst shittiest job first... (my words!)'. So what was the job then? collecting hutang from government accounts...**groan

1998 - Part of History. I was involved in this project to produce fleet cards, and one of the pilot customers was the Ministry of Finance. I'm proud to have created the first 100 accounts, including one of a certain Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim... I remembered regaling this fact to my peers! However, 2 short months later, I got a letter asking for that particular account to be terminated... I've always wondered if it had anything to do with that person's 'sacking' from the government (Sept 1998 - go figure!). I still have that termination letter in my personal files somewhere.

1999 - Blank. You know, I honestly can't remember what happened throughout 1999. Must have been an interesting year then!

2002-3-4 - Being Pissed. Petronas decides to revise the employee grading system, and somehow I fell in a crack. Honestly speaking, this wasn't a good time in my career. I saw my juniors being promoted before me. I was fuming because colleagues who did not move or try anything new get promoted just because they were in a 'stable' job, while I was in projects (oooh If I would only name names!). You can say that from this point onwards, my faith in the system was shaken. Before this I considered myself a soldier who would take a bullet for Petronas. Well, I'm 'glad' to say that this is no longer the case. I try to rebuild my optimism (which I am usually), but I'm more cynical nowadays. I went to a lot of people sharing my pains, but I learnt that one can only depend on ones' self. This was the period that I noticed some changes; I became picky in choosing friends. I 'patted myself on the back' in public more often, I was more critical of my colleagues and bosses, I became arrogant (when needed). It was painful, and against my principles, but I just couldn't let this hurt me anymore.

2004-5 - Remembering Bosses. Since we spend so much time at work, it's only natural that some of our values gets influenced by our colleagues. I guess things started to improve when I had some tremendous support from 2 sets of bosses; the first set (both men) helped me rebuild my confidence and help me shine in my department, and the second set (both ladies, who replaced the earlier set of bosses) helped me shape my perspective...and ultimately, helped me to move from my 'comfort zone'. I don't think I would have done anything drastic, were it not for these 4 people. I remembered a conversation I had at the end of 2005; I told my boss that I'd like to move to Sudan, and that when I have gathered enough experience, I would someday return to my old department...and she said 'No Ezal, once you've seen the world you won't come back ever again'.. somehow those words are still with me; was it a warning? or was it something deeper?

2006-7 - Making the Leap. Sudan. The country of opportunity and challenges. At this stage of my career, I am happy, really. I put my money on the challenges I'm facing; to my totally new set of friends and colleagues, and to the environment. The biggest impact on my career now is the opportunities that I've had to meet Petronas' top management all the way up to the President; to get to hear from them of their aspirations (and BS!) and better yet, for me to tell them (respectfully) of what I felt of the organisation.

So here's a cup of hot chocolate for the next 10 years! I hope that I have 'umur panjang' to see it through; as a great employee, and personally, as a great husband and father.

I believe, time will tell all...

you are Tagged

Wow - so much time has passed since my last post - so many things to tell, but so many things to do!! hehehe guess I'll just take 5 minutes to do this post before leaving for home today - 'Thanks' to my wife for tagging me...

1. Name one person who made you laugh last night?
Ckn

2. What were you doing at 0800?
Waiting for my driver to take me to work - it was quite pleasant as winter has come to Sudan

3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago?
Still going thru all the emails left untouched over the past 3 weeks holiday - then I chatted with Ckn and Alena

4. What happened to you in 2006?
The biggest thing is, of course, our move to Sudan... hehe and conceiving lil' pear. Next week will be our 2 year anniversary moving out here to this continent

5. What was the last thing you said out loud?
OK Thanks - to Hj Zul my colleague for helping me with something - his office is down the hall so I just shouted!

6. How many beverages did you have today?
Hmmm... 1 mug of Love Tea (fruit mix bought in Istanbul), 2 mugs of Nescafe gold blend, a bottle of Moya (hehe mineral water in loghatul arabiya)

7. What color is your hairbrush?
White - but I just use my hands currently

8. What was the last thing you paid for?
A 5 Gallon bottle of water and SDG 50 worth of top up credits for Ckn. If I can choose, I wished I had just paid for a nice big juicy Big Mac...!

9. Where were you last night?
At home! all of us slept at 7.30pm because of the jet lag!! Then all of us were up by 5am...groan

10. What color is your front door?
Dark brown.. Same as Ckn's answer (I wonder why??). Same as the door to my home in Kota Damansara and my parent's home in Sg Buloh

11. Where do you keep your change?
In a small copper cup near the door

12. What’s the weather like today?
Sunny, windy and really pleasant

13. What’s the best ice-cream flavor?
i just love chocolate and vanilla and banana (I don't care I love them all!)

14. What excites you?
hmmm...I'm a guy, so I'd like to say - gadgets and gizmos!!

15. Do you want to cut your hair?
Sure, when it gets long! I experienced my first visit to a proper salon in the last 2 weeks - no mamak haircut for me then!

16. Are you over the age of 25?
unfortunately...NO !

17. Do you talk a lot?
I do - especially If it's on something I'm really passionate about... and it depends on the company ... mostly I talk very fast , and like my reading, I sometimes even skip words when I talk

18. Do you watch the O.C.?
Nope - but I downloaded its god-awful soundtrack song - ... CALIFFORNIAAA!!

19. Do you know anyone named Steven?
HAHAHA - This is partly why I wanted to do this tag - YES I know a Steven - he was the dude who cut my hair at the aforementioned salon! I also like to watch Steven Segal (kill me now)

20. Do you make up your own words?
Don't think so - but I like to piss Ckn off by saying supercalifragilisticaspialidocious!

21. Are you a jealous person?
Yes - but my wife doesn't think so... ;-)

22. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘A’
Arman and Alena (one of each sex)

23. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘K’.
Had to do a search on my Palm - Nope I don't have any

24. Who’s the first person on your received call list?
Sayang (code word for Ckn)

25. What does the last text message you received say?
"Hantar kat rumah aku..." from my friend who volunteered to carry something back to Sudan for Ckn

26. Do you chew on your straw?
Nope

27. Do you have curly hair?
Well... No - wavy yes

28. Where’s the next place you’re going to?
We're planning to visit the pyramid ruins of Meroe!! maybe over the long weekend in Sudan starting on Wednesday (still thinking of Malaysia though...)

29. Who’s the rudest person in your life?
I'm an optimist - I can't name anyone (in public)

30. What was the last thing you ate?
Lunch - nasi, sayur kobis and a fish curry/rendang kuah mix that dear Ckn sent - I finished it all!

31. Will you get married in the future?
Nope - I'll stay married!

32.What’s the best movie you’ve seen in the past 2 weeks?
Hmm - the only time i could watch a movie was on the way back home on the flight - it was the Invasion with Nicole Kidman. Ok-ish. On the way back I watched Rescue Dawn, with Christian Bale. Ok-ish too. I also half-watched Mukhsin with Ckn - pretty lame, save for the last parts which were sad...

33. Is there anyone you like right now?
The kids - coz they make me laugh and mad at the same time. Ckn - for pretty much the same reasons too!!

34. When was the last time you did the dishes?
trick question!

35. Are you currently depressed?
Nope! Malaysia-holiday after-glow...

36. Did you cry today?
No - alhamdullillah, no need to do so

37. Why did you answer and post this?
Well it's kickstarting my blogging engine - and STEVEN!! heheh

38. Tag 5 people who would do this survey.
Firhan - Radzi - Arman - Alena - The boy who lives down the lane - and Azrul

p/s this took me 33 minutes to complete...

The Adventures of Sharkboy and Dugongman

I had to work last Saturday - it was a long day and I was really tired. On the way back, Ckn asked me if I could bring Ehsan out for a swim. We were supposed to go the day before, but we had guests over for dinner, but we were tied up with something, and Ehsan was sleeping in the afternoon anyway.

Reaching home, and after a 15 minute breather, we left for the pool (it would be another 15 minute drive back to where I just came, as the pool is in the hotel, next to the office). Just me and my son; mano-e-mano! I can tell he was really excited and well prepared - he brought along his backpack (with Spiderman and his handy-dandy notebook stowed away...) and he had his bright green slippers. I asked Ckn to pack his brand new Floaties too (best to test them!)

Arriving at the hotel, and before you can finish saying 'swimming pool' (34 times), Ehsan was out of his clothes and in his trunks, his arms waving about awkwardly through the inflated Floaties. It was already 5 and the sun had gone behind the building, so the pool was in a shade (not good : it was cooler). I was a bit apprehensive; this would be the first time we tested the Floaties, and he seemed a bit too excited.

The moment Ehsan hit the water, his instincts (and his muscles) reacted perfectly with the Floaties - he was bobbing up and down on his own! He was actually moving both arms and legs - and he was floating! And swimming forward. I felt so proud! Ehsan doesn't need his 'trainer floating vest' anymore! He did, however, got so excited and constantly talked to me (I presume to tell me he can swim!), that he sucked in water... his gag reflex worked, and I let him 'cough' a little, and tried to explain to him that we had to control our breathing!

So we spent half an hour bobbing from one (short) end of the pool to the other. He managed to find his balance and lifted his toes out of the water. All the while, if he felt scared or tired, he'd grab my arm and rest himself on my thighs; and he'd be off again as quickly as he came!

I wish I could have taken pictures or a video, but since it was just the two of us, it'll just have to wait. Being the over optimist, Ehsan was soon complaining about the Floaties, and wanted them off. So I obliged... Apparently, he was prepared to swim like baba! So I let him...he did his normal waving of the arms, and promptly sunk! He was gasping, but it was nothing a good hug and a pat on the back couldn't make better.

Good things always come to an end, and poor Ehsan was soon shivering. I quickly took him back to our chairs and wrapped a towel over him, with another over his head. Hugging him close, I rubbed his back and rocked him gently. Ehsan just stayed there; unmoving and quiet. I was concerned that he was feint and unresponsive, but after 5 minutes, he looked up and beamed me a smile! All's fine then! I already decided that we'd take our shower at home so that Ehsan wouldn't get cold again.

Before we left, Ehsan had his bottle on a nearby deck chair. I sat on one myself and looking up I felt tranquil and content; and not tired as before. I guess Ehsan helped 'wash' all that away with his newly found swimming prowess, and I'm glad we had some time alone with him.

Greeting Cards from the Past Part Deux

Well we've just come back from the penultimate Hari Raya open house at one of our housing blocks (just One more major open house to go next week) - it was a blast, considering they bought 30kg of frozen sea critters (read : udang!) to the party.

Trust me, having udang in Khartoum is _a big thing_, as it's really a luxury item here! One kg of frozen udang from the Red Sea easily costs USD 20; that's about RM67 (thank God the USD is slipping...). And we're not talking about udang galah - this is the normal medium sized white udang... (I did say having udang is big right?)

Anyway I didn't have any udang - I had Erica strapped on me tonight, so I decided to keep my mitts - and Erica's hair - clear of sea critter keratins (skin). But they had nasi impit and kuah kacang, which is a favourite of mine (sour grapes la...). So the party wasn't have bad...except them udang!! Note to self - remind Hamidi and Nadzifah's husband to send in pics of Erica strapped to baba!

So what better way then to spend the rest of the evening posting on my blog. Ah yes, continuing with my online greeting card portfolio...

bla bla bla, October 2004. I mouse-drew this on my computer, free hand. It was a birthday card for my brother Firhan; I forget the gift... I do admit in not having skills at drawing. I think I can manipulate images (remember this?) and I'm a wizard at scanning (who isn't?), but I suck at creating hand (or mouse) drawn images from scratch. Which is a perfect lead in to...

Cat on window sill Hari Raya card, November 2004. This was our first properly done Hari Raya card (..I have a nagging feeling that this _wasn't_ the first I created but since I no longer have the earlier files, this will have to do). Hand drawn to boot! I had just bought a handy Wacom art tablet - which uses a Stylus (read : non-working pen thingy) and was dabbling in art! I thought the image was nicely created, if I say so myself. I did bring the tablet to Sudan; but have yet to find the _time_ to use it (frankly speaking - I haven't used it in, oh...3 years)




Jemputan Rumah Terbuka, November 2005. Back to normal designing then. This was a simple invitation card created for our first open house with our lil' tyke Ehsan. The picture was of a tea plantation in Cameron Highlands. Notice the lame posing by moi!





Happy Birthday Amir, January 2006. I created this card (and one more) to put on presents for our friend's kids' birthdays. This one reads Amir, who is our dear friends Ramzul and Diana's eldest son. We couldn't attend the birthday party because...we were leaving for Sudan! So, even in the hustle and bustle of our mobilisation, I managed one more card ...for the road!








EidMubarak, October 2006. This is one of my favourite designs, especially for the use of green and brown as the base colours. That's it really...except that I should have put a star near the crescent, but then jadi macam flag Pakistan pulak...






Kadeer's Card, October 2007. My colleague Kader was commenting on the design of a presentation I made, and asked if I could design a card for him to send to his friends. I took the photo of the Masjid Besides the Nile (sorry I haven't a clue of its name!) last July when I was on the Nile cruise.








Mohon Ampun dan Maaf, October 2007. And we come full circle...our latest Hari Raya greeting card, and one that had all 4Es in. Earlier, I posted a teaser card to celebrate the arrival of Ramadan. I thought that this cut & paste design was nicely complemented with a collage for our family pictures - taken recently since Erica 'returned' to Sudan.




There you have it; bits of ERH, represented on greeting cards .... and here's to more cards to come!

Greeting Cards from the Past

It's now a tradition for me to produce greeting cards for special events and holidays. I do try to be as original as possible, but usually i try to ape what's currently 'in'! While preparing for our greeting card for this year's Eid, Ckn suggested that I showcase our previous years' cards.

I'm not a trained graphics artist. My earliest experience with computer graphics was in Secondary school, when I was a member of the school's computer club (geek alert!). I made this lame program which drew an outline of Michael Jackson (imagine his Smooth criminal pose...) accompanied with his music (can't remember which), at which time the outline ...changed colours. Did I mention it looked lame??

The only regret I have is that nearly all of my work before 2003 was lost due to a hard disk crash...so please; make sure you back up, back up and back up again!

Thank You card, November 2003. This was complementing Ckn's idea to give away kuih raya to our closest friends and families. I felt that the packaging needed a card so I created this one - it was printed and attached with a ribbon.

Firdaus and Sy Hisham Wedding, January 2004. I made a simple card to attach to our wedding gift to my cousin Firdaus, when she got married.

May your love shine forever, February 2004. Continuing the flower theme, I created a simple generic design; If I recall, a few of Ckn's friends were getting married during that time so we could easily reuse the design .

Happy Birthday Mama, July 2004. For mama's birthday I wanted to create a simple design (hehe and something I can complete in 10 minutes since I forgot to do the design earlier!)

To be continued...

blogging the miniblog

I've decided to separate my posts about Istanbul into a new miniblog so that I can continue rambling here, and taking time (read : procrastrinate...) on posting entries about our holiday to Istanbul. And since Ckn has started her updates on Istanbul, this miniblog will allow me to write on the more technical aspects of the holiday; who knows it may provide some hints for your trip to Turkey!

So I hope you can just click on the icon that says '4Es in Istanbul miniblog' on the top righthand column, and it should open up my posts on Istanbul. Hope you like it!

p/s - I've also been uploading more pictures into Flickr - so you should be able to see more pictures in the rotating Flickr badge on the sidebar, rather than the picture of me at Pizza hut or the Sudanese Toilet that I just patronised...

Painting a Nu Face

baba tak nak tido ke? ok Ehsan sleep for you

Ckn was commenting the other day that my blog looked, well... blah... I had just recently changed the look of the blog (in July?), and to me it was serviceable. But after looking hard at it, I guess she had a point; It was dull. Colourless. Sterile. My postings would usually focus as much on the pictures I post as well as the actual blog, and somehow my old template just didn't bring the pictures to life.

So here you have it - it's still blah (!) I guess, as it's not animated and there are no moving parts to speak off. Maybe if I'd bother doing php, flash thingamijig, then maybe I can inject some life into this blog. Since I like to work with my photos (i.e. touching up all the bad-out-of-focus pics...believe me - there are a lot! still learning to be photog...haha) then this template will allow me quickly change the theme of ezalman_too, by changing the background picture once in a while (with thanks to Photobucket).

The bad news is that I had to revert to classic blogger templates, so I've had to do more hard-coding (wooo) than my previous template. But as I am lazy-assed to find out more about how to customise it, I'll just stick with this.

In the end, I guess the main focus ought to be the posts anyway (why else would I start a blog??) and not the template, which is a means to an end (and it should be a beautiful end as well as entertaining...). I hope Ckn likes it; if she asks me to help update hers, I'll jump right in!

(yes it's 3am...just waiting for Sahur)

4Es Cup Cake Ventures (un)Ltd.

Cup cakes to die for!

There have been several things that I have aways longed to do with my life; for example, I wanted to go to outer space, but the Malaysian Astronaut program came 25 years too late... and I don't think Malaysians would have approved of an overweight, short sighted paper pusher representing them as the first Malaysian in space! So that dream of mine was confined to watching Star Wars and Battlefield : Earth (ask my brother - it's the worst movie we've seen!)

I also had dreams to become a cook - I don't know why, perhaps it was a cool way to be creative and it sounded more alluring then being an accountant! Well, I recently managed to realise that dream and another grown-up longing of becoming an entrepenuer! Don't get me wrong, I've been cooking for a long time now. I made a killer masak asam pedas when I was at Kent, and my tiramisu was legendary (i.e. its no longer being made, hence it becoming 'legend'). But I've never (knowingly) sold anything before!


The Tiny Cup Cakes being set by Ckn (not pictured - me working the hand mixer before!)

So the story goes; Last Thursday, I promised Ckn that I would help her bake some tiny cup cakes for iftar. We started with gusto after I got back from work at 4pm. Using a recipe our neighbour in Sg Buloh gave Ckn, we managed to produce a batch of the lil' scrumptious tidbits. It wasn't too difficult; but I was made to understand that cake making was not to be taken lightly, that it was a delicate process and that the wrong timing of ingredients going in or doing something too much will spoil the batter.


...now open wide for some uncooked batter!

We were fasting and someone had to be the batter tester! So Ehsan and Erica helped out; Ehsan with the cleaning (i.e. licking the mixer attachments clean! Hey that was supposed to be my job!) and Erica with the 'batter quality Assurance' test.

Erica's not into food yet, but she liked what we were putting in her mouth, I guess. She was squirming, asking for more, but we stopped at just giving her a taste as the batter had raw eggs in it. Don't want lil Erica to fall sick now do we!

We had our first taste at iftar...and we loved it! I just looked at Ckn and she did the same - we both had the same thought, that we had to share this with the world (you can say it was a Eureka! moment...)

After much soul searching (30mins or less only!) we both decided to go into business to 'bring the goods to the market'. The timing couldn't have been better as there was a Petronita ramadan bazaar the next day, on Friday. We agreed that the costs of producing a batch of 16 packs was minimal (each pack had 5 cup cakes), while the proceeds from the endeavour would be substantial! Ckn would be in charge of the coupon selling for the whole bazaar, so the cup cake marketing would be my responsibilities! yipee... Finally, an opportunity to become a businessman presents itself!


My 'muka welfare marketing gimmick' and I at the bazaar ramadan

As this was as much a business as it was a learning experience, I told Ckn that we should have a little fun; so I decided to take pictures of all the people who bought our cup cakes. I got some odd looks from the others selling their wares at the bazaar, but I was on a roll (of course I wouldn't have considered this if I had a few hundred customers la).


The lucky few who went to bed satisfied (hmmm!)

The bazaar started at 4.30pm and I had my tupperware opened and ready by 4.40pm. Nobody gave the goods a second look for the first few minutes (maybe because we didn't put signages..DUH!) so I resorted to telling (nay, shouting to!) the patrons about the cup cakes and how scrumptious and cheap they were. Once the crowd rushed in at 5.00pm, my cup cakes literally became... hot cakes!

Throughout the event, Ehsan was not really himself; we thought he would have fun running around making friends - but it was a hot evening, and he managed to have missed his afternoon nap earlier, so fatigue and grogginess was sinking in. He spent most of the time sitting beside me. Ckn bought some lin chee kang to cool him down, and when I left the bazaar later, he cried himself to sleep in the car! Such was his tiredness that he slept soundly till the morning (so it was a restful night for Ckn!). However, he did take a liking to one of the patron's cutey daughter; and Ehsan took a picture of her himself :


Cute little Nur Ain, thru the eyes of Ehsan

All in all, we made a profit of SDG 13 or about RM22; not bad huh? The only problem was that we spent more than SDG 70 (RM120) to buy food for ourselves...! (well it was for 2 days - and _it is_ Sudan!) I now know the feeling of making ones own money and can appreciate how tough it is for people to have to do this on a daily basis. We're still deciding whether we will continue selling the cakes at this week's bazaar... but I'd like to quote Mr Gooding Jr from Jerry Mcguire '...Show me the moneeey!'

Celebrating 4 Memorable Years...

...and one more thing about that nose

Ehsan and Ezalman, separated by 30 years

Having done the previous post and including a photo of a pre-schooler Ezalman, I noticed something startlingly similar between me and my son Ehsan. I just can't place it, but the feeling is so strong... but what is it I wonder?

i Google u

Ezalman, circa 1970s, not suspecting he would make a splash on the internet in the future!

I like to do this several times in a year - checking up on me! I always tell people that I have a unique name (for example, I am the only 'Ezalman' in Petronas, where I work - which is cool as there are about 30,000 employees now!). However, my 'uniqueness' is humbled once the population size increases exponentially (...try 6 billion people).

What this means exactly is thus : Short of checking phone directories the world over, I wanted to see what kind of digital footprint yours truly has on the web; and the main way to find out is to google my moniker and see what comes out...


The first link that arises is this : a profile for a Mr Ezalman Thambi Lee. I can see he's some kind of university lecturer or tutor. Never met the guy, but he seems to be getting more hits than me! Well he has students opening up his page all the time (sour grapes!)

Discounting appearances from this blog, I found to my horror, that my name only comes up as number 3 in the list, and that is from a website that had my contact details. The website in question is called Oil Financier . I enrolled in this online reality life simulation game when I first came to Sudan to learn about oil & gas industry financing. So I became a J.R. Ewing and tried to make my fortune prospecting for oil! Needless to say, I lost everything (I never had)...

When I first run the google search, it says that there are 109 hits, and somewhere at the end of the 1st page of Ezalman-related sites, I find this one. Now before you investigate further, bear in mind this question : what is the connection? I guess a webcrawler must have picked up the 'mini' reference and automatically added me into the site!

People who know me know that I like to play with computers, so I was amazed to find that my name is represented in this favourite pastime too! Ezalman cooler systems is a line of cooler systems that are used by overclockers to keep their souped-up PC's temperature in check. I know that there is a line of Korea-made headphones called Zalman, so I guess this would have come from the same hole...

So far so good - only one site making the connection. But there must be related sites with my name on it right? Right! Next I found that my name appeared on my sibling's farious Friendster and Blogspot websites : There was a link on my sis's website and a comment I left last year on my brother's friendster page . I also found a mention on my cousin's wife's personal blog too! That's nice...

Lastly, after 2 or 3 more pages of gibberish links (I think it was French, with a smitten of Ezalmans thrown in here and there), I decided to check out what would be at the end of the google search. Somehow my old University of Kent at Canterbury email address has survived all of a decade in cyberspace! I used this email address from 1994-1997 during my more formative years studying. Don't know if it's still active?

There you go. I'm glad that I am able to find my name on the web! Does it amount to much? No, I guess not, but this is my tiny contribution to the global fabric that is the internet...

Father and Son Grows Moustache

I have my brother, Firhan, to thank for this video. He gave me the Logitech webcam before I left for Sudan...and here is my favourite outcome (the others show me in bad light!)



I've downloaded this video onto my PSP and most nights, I watch it before I turn in...missing you, son!

When You're alone You talk to Yourself

I've got so much to write about - imagine if you can : getting your friend (who just returned from a 6-month trek to Egypt - walking backwards) updated on your going-ons; in the least amount of time possible...indeed such a trek would take considerably longer than 6 months, I gather...

Well - since my last update, I've had the privilege of travelling - some locations in Sudan, and some, in other places around the world. I'm glad to remind myself that a MAJOR change is coming to my family unit. We also recivered from a near-near death experience for my son Ehsan (touch wood) - don't worry we're fine!

I'm currently alone in Sudan, but it'll be for such a short period - 7 months **trembling** My wife wife and son are back home because we're expecting a baby soon! numero duo! isnaini!

Arab-a-day (ha I have, like 200 days to update huh!) - food:

1. Kisrah - light pancakes (like putu mayam/tosai) to eat with...
2. Tagaliah - minced meat and okra savoury sauce, like bolognaise, which can also be dipped with...
3. Tahmiah - wade!!