Manchester

We went to Manchester during the Christmas/New Year holidays. It's quite an overdue trip considering that Manchester has been one of our must-visit destinations in the UK. Some may guess it's because of Manchester United, but actually there's a more important reason than that. You see....Manchester is where one of our alma-maters is.

Manchester has changed a lot since 15 years ago. 3 days there brought us to the city centre and the old favourite, Arndale shopping centre; the new, the in the middle of nowhere, Trafford Centre; and the good Old Trafford.

Apart from journeys along memory lanes - which would mean nothing to others, the tour of Old Trafford was one of the most exciting; especially for the 2 little Manchester United fans. The tour was overall quite interesting and well conducted. The tour includes access to the pitch-side, the tunnel, players' changing room, the museum among others.

Apart from the sights and tours, meals at the famous curry mile were definitely worthwhile. Extremely nice meat and rice dishes of Afghani origin. Heavenly......

New Year

Assalamualaikum.

Selamat tahun baru hijrah; Selamat tahun baru masihi; both belated this year.....the excuse is, my fingers are frozen.

London is freezing....well, was freezing. It's now thawed and the snowman in our backyard has melted. It's quite a treat to be seeing the green grass in our backyard after weeks of snow turned it white...the perfect pitch for snow-fights.

It's Snow-time

It snowed in London. Started last week on Wednesday and then followed by a heavy fall on Thursday night leaving our backyard white and a perfect place for snowfight.

Perception and Reality

Some say perception is reality.
Some say perception is more important than reality.
Some say perception is more important than truth.

Nobody is an island, the saying goes.
We all live in our own networks of families, friends, colleagues, acquaintances and communities.
Therefore we are highly affected and impacted by those around us.
and in our own ways we are also affecting those around us.  yes, we are affecting the world around us.

I've met people who are so engrossed with managing perception that the truth no longer matter to them.
It's how people perceive them and their action (or inaction) that dictates their lives.  Or at least how they perceive people will perceive them and their action (or inaction).  Usually, the lives of such people are characterised by highly charismatic and effective facades that over time tend to disintegrate into total opposite models which lack integrity, consistently inconsistent and deviously troublesome.

Unfortunately, to these people, truth and principles means nothing.  While truth allows for simpler and more consistent living, it's never seen as important at all.  In fact, truth and concept of being truthful are often seen as inconvenient burden and hindrance to achieving ones aims in life.

Doesn't truth matter?  Doesn't it matter most?

Speak the truth even if it's painful.  Not matter what.
Honesty is the best policy.
If you tell the truth, then you don't have to remember anything....
Among others....these are reminder of the value of upholding the truth vs managing perception.

Our favourite weekend breakfast

We have been going to the same place on either Saturday or Sunday for breakfast or brunch for the past 5-6 weeks. Yup, without fail.

The kids started to get interested in it when their friends at school told them about a Halal Subway outlet in Edgware Road. Edgware Road is a major road in central London close to Marble Arch that is full of of Arabs. It's been like that since 12 years ago and have only gotten more popular among the middle-easterns since then.

Anyhow, since they found out about it, they've been asking us to take them there. While Edgware Road is less than 30 mins drive away, but the thought of finding a parking there just was just unappealing.

It was during one of those 'traffic jam' at Cricklewood that we noticed a halal sign on the Subway Outlet there. Interesting indeed as it's a lot shorter drive and finding a parking space would not be like trying to balance a pail full of water on your head while walking on a tight-rope, wearing a greasy pairs of oversized slippers (a.k.a. impossible). We decided to go there on one of the weekends and the rest as they say, is history. We were there this morning as well.

What we like about the place is the interior is very bright and family friend, service is done with a smile and the food is good. The cost for a meal for 5 is also not bad at around 25 pounds. Subway has been opening fully halal outlets since 2007 and I think it's a great idea and it makes economic sense in a diversed metropolitan like London. We have also seen another Halal Subway in Bayswater.

I guess, this weekly visit will stop one day but we will continue to go there on and off AND if you were to visit us here, insya-Allah you'll get to enjoy a halal sub in London as well. Promise!

Reading & I

I love books.

I can't recall the last time I was not reading a book (as in finishing a book, but not holding and reading it 24/7).  It seems that at any point in time, I will have at least one, usually 2 and sometimes 3 books that I am reading.  Most of the time I will have 2 reading materials that I am in the process of finishing.  These are on top of daily newspaper, internet etc.

I just love to read.  I find it wasteful, mixed with a sense of emptiness and bored otherwise.  Of course, this is on top of another favourite past-time activity of mine which is thinking.  My sweetheart always says that I think too much...too much to my own detriment, but it's something that I can't really help.  I digressed.

Reading....I love reading all kinds of books.  Usually I have a mix of fiction and non-fiction therefore the 2 materials always. For fiction I tend to read by author.  If I find an author's work to be good, I tend to look up his/her other works and most of the times ended up reading all of them.

From a small kid, my mum used to tell me that it's very difficult to find me not having something to read, from comics in newspapers to story-books. Authors that I still remember are Othman Puteh, Enid Blyton and Tamar Jalis (specific Genre in the mid-eighties).
Apart from these, my favourite of all was Gila-Gila. I do remember reading Gila-Gila when I was 5 years old and I still remember buying them every fortnight into my teens.  Basically from Dan, Din, Don and From Taiping With Love to International Blues Club and Aku Budak Minang.

Apart from Gila-Gila, I started to read English books and especially the Reader's Digest with the honourable intention of improving my English.  Very quickly, I started to read English novels and with them I got acquainted with authors like James Clavell, Frederick Forsyth, Sidney Sheldon, Isaac Asimov, Jeffrey Archer, Stephen King, Robert Ludlum, Mario Puzo, Tolkien, Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie and many more (it was before John Grisham's time then I guess though he was not that far behind too).  I still enjoy fiction until now and since then a lot more have been added to the list.

Non-fiction also started to enter my life in the late teen years and amongst these, self-development books are my favourite.  I read both popular authors and also islamic books.  Foremost amongst these are 'Apa Ertinya Saya Menganut Islam' by Fathi Yakan and 'Petunjuk Sepanjang Jalan' by Syed Qutb.  They opened up my eyes and mind to something I had always taken for granted previously and I have to say that they shaped my perception of live quite significantly since.  I absorbed Covey's '7 Habits' in early 90's (my 1st copy was in 1991 to be exact) at about the same time I was reading 'Seed of Greatness' and 'Win Win' by Denis Waitley.  Thinking back, these are probably the first 3 self-development books that I had read.

From there I started to get interested in business books and business thinkings.  From Iacoca to Jack Welch.  From One Minute Manager to the 500+ pages Managers Handbook.  One of my favourite leadership books is 'The Leadership Engine' by Noel Tichy.

I slowly moved to include biographies and auto-biographies.  Read Bill Gates and Richard Branson where after reading them, my perception of the two men changed completely in the opposite (I used to admire one and hate the other; after reading their biographies the subject of my admiration and 'hatred' changed).

The 'hardest' book for me to read is actually 'My Experiment with Truth' by Mahatma Gandhi.  It's Gandhi's authobiography and I have to admit that his honesty in the book is so painful that it simply took me months to read it and to date, I have not finished it.  I may pick it up again one day.

Lately, I have been picking up the latest must reads and while I enjoyed Tipping Point and Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell I am still not convinced and so far haven't felt any strong inclination to pick up Blink.  Yup, I read the later books first. 

Whenever I am asked to choose my favourite book, I always struggle because most that I've read are great but if I have to choose then 'Taipan' by James Clavell and 'Ar-Raheeq al-Makthum' are my favourites.  Books that I've read and re-read many times.

Currently, I am reading the Black Swan and re-reading Apa Ertinya Saya Menganut Islam.  This is on top of my daily 2 pages of the translation of the Quran.  I remember asking myself - 'When was the last time I've read the Quran cover to cover (a lot) in a language that I understand (never)' a few years ago.......thus the reason for the daily read.

L.I.G.

LEARN, IMPROVE, GO.

A tip given to me by a respected colleague.  It was during a chat about work and career progression.
I am the type of person who gets quickly bored with my job (as you could tell from earlier postings) and L.I.G. is a strategy he said I can employ.

It's an interesting concept but also very important is to avoid being a rolling stone that gather no moss.  So, balance is key here as in everything else.

But I like it.  For someone who is most comfortable with changes, it's a good acronym (and more concept of course) to remember.

Right & Wrong

When do you know that you are right?
How do you know that you are right?
How do you make sure that when you think you are right, you are not wrong?
How do you make sure that when you are wrong, you will know that you are wrong therefore you can correct yourself?
Does it matter whether you are right or wrong?
Does it matter whether others think you are right or wrong?
Do you want to be right?

What am I thinking about?
To me being right is about having the certainty that you are 'right'.
But that brings me to the definition of 'right'.

Typing "define:right" in the Earth Database gives a list of items of which the relevant ones are;

• correct: free from error; especially conforming to fact or truth; 
• in conformance with justice or law or morality; 

With the above (which are acceptable to me) in mind, knowledge of right and wrong is therefore critical.  This knowledge must however be of facts that have been verified; i.e. 'Truth'.

Assuming therefore that you have knowledge of the truth and you are doing what's right then you are not doing that bad.  You can start thinking that you are right.

Great 1st step....

Good Night

Subhanallah
Alhamdulillah
Lailahaillallah
Allahuakbar

Foremost on my mind today

I guess it's the same thing...about life.

Since January-09, while I won't say that the war has ended (despite what others have declared), at least the obscene bombardment have ceased.  May the innocent civillians have peaceful sleep for a while (mark my words).

Over here in the UK, I've been observing a lot of things I had missed over the last dozen of years or so since I had been here.  Interestingly though, I also observed things that I thought I would miss but they turned out to be different that what my memory used to tell me.  Did they change or was my memory faulty or have I changed?  Or the combination of all 3?  Or is this the manifestation of the 'good old days syndrome'?

One thing for sure though, I quite enjoy being back in London.  The city seems to have managed to stay the same while at the same time changed quite a bit (there must be a term for that - will let you know if I figure that out).  Met some old friends.  Set some targets to achieve.  Places to go.  Things to do...... quite a lot to do.