Renting a house - the only option for now.

Sometimes I find that many from the Baby Boomer generation are quite clueless with some of the issues that the current generation face.

Quite recently I was having a chat with an uncle and he was shocked when he learnt that we were paying RM2000/pm as rent for our house. He asked why I did not buy a house instead. The house I stay in has a market price of about RM1 Mil. Paying about RM2000pm, I can only afford a 2+1 condo costing about RM400K in the outskirts of the city with a down payment of around RM40K + extra charges around RM20K upfront for lawyer's fees, etc.

I guess most of them do not realise this because many of them already have a house which they bought a long time ago when owning a landed property was not a dream but something you could achieve with a bit of hard work.

Now, if I wanted to buy a landed property around PJ, I would have to cough up around RM6K every month for nearly 25 years. More than half my salary and I will be probably be retired long way before the end of 25 years.

In other words, I can only dream of a house in Kelana Jaya, PJ. So renting is the only option for now unless I come by some good fortune.

Found this great link which asks you: "Are You Financially Ready To Buy A House In Malaysia?"

Why I like vintage watches?

This was a question in Quora which made me think about the watches I collect.

I cannot really explain but there is a certain charm about old watches - even the cheaper ones. It depends on your taste but I like the hand winding steel watches with doomed plastic crystals. I also like the unique and eccentric watches like the Tissot stone watches and brands that do not exist anymore like Favre Leuba and old Indian HMT watches. I like reading about their history and sometimes wonder about the guy who once used the watch to tell time.

When I was a kid, my father used to wear a cheap solar powered Bular watch and I really liked it. It is now in my collection with the crystal all cracked but I really like it because of the sentimental value.

I have also noticed that there is a nostalgia among people for everything vintage or classic and have noticed the classic Casio gold digital watches on the wrists of a number of stylish millennials. Of course, the watchmakers have realised this phenomenon and many including Seiko, Omega, Tudor, Tag Heur among others have all recently reintroduced many of their old designs, of course with a modern take.

Coming back to the question, different people like vintage watches for different reasons. Many collect them as investments, some collect them for aesthetic reasons, others for sentimental reasons, etc.

Just another day

Yes! It is that day of the year again - my birthday. Just plan to have a small family get together.

Nice to see a personalised Google Doodle.

Back in Malaysia 1: Housing and Driving

After eight years in the UK, we packed our bags and moved back to Malaysia. It has been slightly more than a month now and our years in the UK already feels like a dream.

Our first priority was to find a place to live. The first few weeks were pretty hectic. We were in my in-laws and lived out of our suitcases until we finally found a house to rent nearby after looking at several condominiums and houses. The agents wanted to know all kind of personal information, namely our ethnicity, our occupation, number of kids, etc., etc. Apparently, several landlords will not rent out their places to people of a particular ethnicity. This was something shocking as we did expect this in multi-ethnic Malaysia. We did not have this kind of issues a few years ago. Maybe an area of research interest for my sociologist friends. Compared with our small house back in Coventry, the house is massive and some rooms are still empty. Unlike other Malaysians, we did not bring back furniture and have to buy everything new.

Skyscrapers have come up everywhere. New highways and flyovers as well. I now need a sat-nav while driving as I am not familiar with some of the roads any more. Some of our favourite hang-out places have disappeared or have moved while others have not changed at all.

Talking about driving, it may be my imagination and years of driving in the UK but the drivers now seem to be more aggressive here and will break the traffic rules if they can get away with it. I have a huge issue with people who simply do not use their side indications while changing lanes or cutting into your lanes. One of my friends told me that a lot of drivers are so selfish that they speed up when you indicate to change lanes or move in from a side road. I do a lot of defensive driving now and will give way to other drivers, sometimes annoying my wife a lot. May be I am more mature now and I just want to take it easy and get to my destination and home safe.

Noticed a lot of foreign auto brands on the roads - I may be mistaken but seems to be more Toyotas and Hondas on the roads as compared to Proton cars now. And every 2nd car is a Perodua Myvi - the most popular model for now. Also seems like there are a lot of luxury brands - mostly older model Mercedes. But the fact is that there are lot of cars on the roads. I noticed that some houses have 5 cars parked out in the front. We have 2 in front of ours - my dad's car which I am using and my wife's new car, which we just got day-before-yesterday. Until the public transport improves, I guess more and more people will be using their own cars. A trip from my in-laws house to our house just 7 minutes away, can sometimes take up to half-an-hour. Definitely cannot rely on the estimated times given by my sat-nav.

Anyway, that was in brief about the housing and driving issues we faced. I will be blogging more about life here in Malaysia.

Donate to my Movember Page

Last Update: 3 December 2013

I have never had a moustache my whole life, partly due (maybe mostly) to genetic reasons. I have attempted in the past but gave up after a few days growth or non-growth of face stubble.

Anyway, I am finally trying to grow some hair on top of my upper lip - for a good cause. It is the time of the year again - it's Movember and I am helping raise some money - all in the name of Men's health.

Please donate generously. CLICK HERE TO DONATE

Thanks

Add caption

Pics charting my progress:

Week 1: Clean Shaven

Week 2: Got some stubble. My daughter tell me that it looks horrible

Week 3: Not much difference. I think that's about as much as it will grow

End of Week 4. That's as far as it goes.

Thanks to everyone who supported me.

Avatars

My avatar...

Thanks to my sis Diana.
I think she really captured my personality - though I am more of a PC person. I hate laptops.

Crazy about notebooks

No! I am not referring to the new generation of small laptops but the original thing. I am a big fan of Moleskine notebooks and sketchbooks and a couple of days ago I was really excited when I noticed a few in the clearance section in TK Maxx nearby and they were really having a clearance - around £5 each (normal price is between £8 -£15). I found out sometime back that these notebooks have quite a following and having tried one myself, I have to say I am hooked. I should have grabbed them then but unfortunately I didn't.

Anyway, I thought I will treat myself for Father's day today and went back to the store to see if they were still there but they were, of course, gone. However, I noticed some notebooks which looked quite similar but without an elastic band around the notebook. I have never heard of the brand 'Il Firino' (I can't even find their website) but these 'made in Italy' genuine leather bound journals looked fantastic. The acid free paper feels and looks great as well. I have no idea what kind of leather it is but I am sure they were ethically taken from the animals. I am vegetarian but unlike some people, I do not really mind leather products - is that an oxymoron.

I also bought a teNeues notebook with a black cover (I do not think it is leather) with red & white Zebra print design inside for my daughter. It has alternative lined and blank page and a great gift for my daughter who like to write and sketch as well. The best part is that both cost me only £3 each - a real steal. There were a few more and I might go back again to grab the remainder.

This happens to me all the time - I go out to buy something and end up buying something else - and regretting but fortunately today was an exception. I ended up with something even better.

First interview on Radio 2

You can listen to the recoding of the Annie Othen show here. I do sound nervous and I was.

I talked to my wife soon afterwards, and her first comment was "Why didn't she refer to you as Dr. Mutum while Annie referred to the other participant as Dr Joan Harvey".

I didn't even realise it that time and I don't think it's a big deal.

Thanks Ez, I know you are proud of me.

First interview on Radio

I was just on the BBC Coventry & Warwickshire's Annie Othen Show. I was asked my opinion on whether I thought whether some businesses  are taking advantage of the Jubilee and Olympics celebrations to hike up prices of their products. A great experience.

Warwick winter graduation 2012

It was a dream but we finally did it. Both my wife and I graduated together from the University of Warwick. We both studied for our PhD in Marketing (though in different areas) at the Warwick Business School. My wife started one year early and forced me to catch up with her and I actually completed one month earlier than her.

New job, Coventry and the auto industry

In case you are wondering what I am going on about. read on and you will understand.

Last week I joined Coventry University Business School as a lecturer in marketing and advertising. I got the job finally after 6 interviews and hundreds of rejections. We are really delighted that I got into Coventry University as it means that we do not have to relocate to another city in the UK. Furthermore, I have always wanted to remain in academia as a lecturer.

I also joined at the right time as Coventry University is growing massively with new buildings and facilities. Its ranking has gone up to 53rd overall in the Sunday Times University Guide 2012 - a huge jump of 30 places from the last time. I was really happy to learn that the University is now ranked higher than some of the other Universities that rejected me.

I have grown to love Coventry and am learning a lot about it's history. Car buffs will definitely be aware that Coventry was once the auto capital of the UK and my office is located at the William Morris building, named after the founder of the Morris car company. The building dates from 1916 and they used to have their engine manufacturing facilities here.

Going around the building, I was trying to find traces of the former building and suddenly I noticed that near my office are the remains of the old bannister on the stairs with fine detailed carvings. They are carvings of bulls. Not sure whether they mean anything.





Will try to find some more traces of the old building.

8th Blogoversary

It has been 8 long years since I first started blogging on ah ok lah in 2003. What first started out as a place on the web to voice out and share my thoughts, emotions and events ended up changing my life completely. From a hobby it became my source of income and also my area of specialisation.

I received a scholarship to do a PhD  in marketing at the Warwick Business School my research looks at the relationship between interactivity and attitudes towards blogs and towards advertising on blogs. I now blog on several blogs and even have been invited to speak about blogging to different audiences including a presentation on teaching with blogs to some academics at the University of Warwick.

Some say blogging is addictive - in my case it has been therapeutic. Other people play golf, or video games or do yoga. In my case, blogging helped me whenever I was stressed. It has definitely helped me with my writing skills in a language which is not my mother tongue.

I have come a long way - from someone who used to enjoy reading blogs to someone who is now considered an expert on blogging.

Why do I blog?

Flying kite at Memorial Park Coventry

Recently we went to the Memorial park in Coventry as the kids were quite restless at home and my daughter wanted to try out the kite her mum had bought for her.

Unfortunately there was not much wind that day apart from the occasional gusts and we couldn't really get the kite up high. Still we all had fun.

Will definitely be going again when it is a bit more windy.

Another autism guide

A few days back we had our son's six month review. This was to evaluate whether his school is suitable for him. We had fought hard to get a place in this school which is actually the only Mainstream school in Coventry to have a special autism unit attached with it. The places are limited but we were able to get our son in. We did not want to send him to a general special school which are not really focussed on children with autism.

Anyway, we have realised that because of our son, our research on autism has actually exceeded that of our own PhD research (based on the number of files and books we have in the house).

I will be carrying a list of blogs and resources on the net on autism with my readers. This is the first of the series.

While going through the net, I came across the autism guide for parents. This is an informative blog with short posts that I think will assist parents of autistic children. There are several posts and one of the posts talks about 'how parent's cope with autistic children". I can definitely relate to some of the stuff written down there. I wish other parents with neurotypical children understand what we have to go through.

Join us in our journey with our son Imaan as well.

In front of my PC with Coke

WARNING: Depressing post ahead. Though it ends on an optimistic note.

Today has been a rather stressful day. It might have something to do with the fact that my son was vomiting all night (he's much better today) or I went to bed at 5 am in the morning or maybe that it's cold, everything is covered with snow and gloomy outside. It might also have something to do with the fact that I had a discussion about our finances with the wife (and ir does not really look good) and that I still have another chapter of my PhD thesis to complete.

My wife has gone to help a friend who's leaving the UK soon to pack. My son is taking a nap and my daughter is busy in her imaginary World. I am now in front of my PC with a class of Coca Cola Zero and I do feel much better.



No! Coca Cola did not pay me to write this post.

Snow, snow and more snow. I want to go skiing.

There was chaos on Coventry's roads today. It started snowing yesterday and in the morning we woke up to find everything covered in snow.

I had some work at the University of Warwick and had to drive very carefully. I have no idea why but it seems that the City council had not gritted only the main roads and it was a bit scary when my tyres started spinning a couple of times in the side roads. However, it was OK on the main roads.

The funny thing was that it was bright and sunny today. Despite the sun, it was still freezing cold and waling to the main Scarman road building from my office through the snow, my feet and hands were getting really cold it actually felt painful. As I walked in the snow I was thinking of the body warmers I had come across on Handwarmers.net. These warmers are small packs which are air activated – which means they become warm on being exposed to air. I had brought some body warmers from Malaysia but the heat lasted only about half and hours and I was not really sure how environmentally friendly they were. On the other hand, the handwarmers available on Handwarmers.net can keep you warm for around 10 hours and furthermore, they are totally safe and environmentally friendly. If you are looking for foot warmers, do check out www.FootWarmers.org

Anyway, I was thinking it has been quite some time since we last went on a holiday and decided that once I submit my thesis, we will go on a family holiday and fulfil one of the things on my to–do list, which is to learn Skiing. A friend told me that the ski resorts in France are fabulous this time of the year. Can’t wait to submit my thesis.

Icy wonderland

The whole of Coventry was covered with a layer of ice two weeks ago and it's still there in some parts. the trees and plants looked like they had been painted over with white paint.







It was beautiful but COLD.

According to the forecasts, winds from the arctic are going to bring more snow and accompanying freezing temperatures. brrrrrr.

I do miss Malaysia.

Charity run

My son Imaan was 3 years old when he was diagnosed with Autism even though we have had our suspicions when he was 1 years old and his development was slow.

As you can imagine, we were totally devastated and the doctors didn't help much when they told us that autism was a life long condition and we would have to live with it. We went through periods of denial, self-pity, and sadness and finally, acceptance. Fortunately, we are not the type to mop around and just accept what so called "experts" have to say. We did our own research and found out about various alternative therapies.

Among the various things we did, the one that made the maximum difference was the Son-Rise programme. Unlike other therapies, the Son-Rise programme is home based and is parent-directed where parents are seen as the child’s best resource unlike other therapies (such as ABA). After depending around a year on the services provided (or not) by the Government here, we didn't see any difference. However, since we started the Son-Rise programme, he has been toilet trained, improved his diet and went from no speech to speaking sentences.

Unfortunately, the Son-Rise programme and theother therapies are not covered by the NHS and we had to literally fork out thousands from our own pocket that we are almost bankrupt now.

We estimate that it will cost us around £20,000 to do a full time Son-Rise programme at home. This cost does not include his special diet, supplements and cost of private doctor consultations and tests. However, my son is the priority and if he loses his diagnosis of Autism and is able to go to a mainstream school, socialise and have friends like all other neurotypical kids, it would be worth it.

Anyway, a lot of amazing people are helping us fundraise for our son. One of them is my sister-in-law, Eju, who is running two races in support of my son.
The first one will be the Wimbledon Audi 10K race this Sunday on the 17th Oct 2010 at 9:00am. Here's the location: Wimbledon Rugby Club, Beverley Meads, Barham Road, Copse Hill, Wimbledon, SW20 0ET

Please come along to support and/ or donate. For more information visit the fundraising page on the special blog that documents our journey with our son.

My special day

It was my birthday a few days back. Normally I don't make a big deal out of it and usually celebrate it with my wife and kids but this time my sis-in-law and her family joined us. She brought along a lovely cake as well.








We we supposed to go tho the Afghan restaurant in Stoney Stanton but it was closed and we decided to have our lunch at Nando's in the City Centre instead.







Thanks for the delicious cake Eju and Muz.

The cat that came to visit

Sometime back we had to take care of our friend's cat while they went on vacation to Rome. I was a bit apprehensive as my kids never had any pets. I am more of a dog person  and have never had any cats in my life but in the end it turned out ok. The cat actually liked me would come purring and rubbing her side on my legs.


Moreover it was toilet trained and really well behaved. All I had to do was clean the litter and feed her.

My kids loved the cat and my son was fascinated but he probably thought it was a moving teddy bear and tried to hug it and the cat never came near him after that. Ultimately our friends came back and she went back with them. 
It was a nice experience but would I ever keep a cat.Not right now but maybe in the future when we have a bigger house and the kids are big enough to clean the litter ;-)

Hey! Get off my table.