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It has been many months since the last time I had the time and motivation to produce something here. Now time is more scarce. I used to work alone; no one to report to, nobody reported to me. Now I have a `boss', and seven subordinates of several managerial levels. I no longer have the luxury of managing my own time. From 8.30 in the morning until 5.30 in the evening, my time is strictly for `other people'.

Since the last time, I have moved. I have changed continent, hemisphere, weather, culture, and myriad other things. I have come home.

Hopefully, I will be able to find my time to write here. Or find something worth sharing and put it here.

Tea in the sun

I was bored and tired, so I went to make a cup of tea.

The common room was just about 2 minutes walk away. At this time of the day, nothing beats a good cup of `arabic-style' tea - two spoonful of sugar, and a teabag left in the mug. Gave it a little stir, and voila! I had intended to enjoy my tea there, but later I changed my mind and walked downstairs to the main door. It was sunny outside, something we appreciate very much these days. So there I went, taking a seat on the flower bench just outside the entrance, with a mug in hand, bathing in the sun. Do this back home and you will be called crazy...

Astigmatism

We almost cancelled the appointment.

In fact, I did call the centre to cancel the appointment, which was supposed to be on the following day, the 4th. of April. The main reason was that we thought it would not be successful - Aisyah would be very agitated every time she saw any `checking equipment'. We had a hard time to calm her down when we went for our eye checks at Specsavers the other day. About a month before that, she had a swollen cheek, and when the doctor tried to examine her, she screamed as loudly as she could, as if she was being forcefully taken away from us! It did not go well at all. And now, we were supposed to take her for her eye check! We really thought it would not go well again, and we would only be wasting the hospital's time, hence the call to the appointment centre.

I explained the reason to the person receiving the call, and she replied that she would pass the note to the relevant department. Less than 10 minutes after putting down the phone, it rang again and my wife picked it up. It was from the office of the orthoptist, where the appointment was supposed to be. The lady had called about the cancelled appointment, and this time my wife had to explain what we thought. The lady on the other side then persuaded us not to cancel the eye check, and she managed to convince us that they had long experience with all sorts of children behaviour and the meeting would be fine.

We took her word for it and brought Aisyah to the orthoptist. We sure glad we did.

It was first detected that Aisyah had some sort of problem during an eye examination at her school. The only report we got from her was about `playing pirate' with a nurse, apparently referring to the method of the examination where one eye is covered at one time. Then we received a letter from the hospital about the appointment, stating that further check was needed. Before that, it never occurred to us that her vision was not normal. She had never shown any indication of that. To us, she had always been `perfect'.

On the way to the hospital, we gradually tried to build up her confidence, in anticipation of her probable reaction. We had no idea whether it would work, but we tried anyway. When we arrived there and told to wait until called, she was still fine and happily looking at pictures in the magazine. So far so good.

Finally, we were called into the orthoptist's room. The orthoptist was a lady, who simply was amazing. From the time we step in, she made Aisyah feel very comfortable, and she managed to do all the checks without any agitation at all on the part of Aisyah! We were so thankful, and we made sure we let her know that. She confirmed that there was a problem with Aisyah's right eye, and after another series of check by an optician in the next room, we got the results. Aisyah has astigmatism in her right eye. It would need to be corrected by glasses, so that it would not get worse.

Aisyah wearing glasses? Hmm, that is yet to be seen.

Proud moment

It takes Singapore to provide a `proud moment' for the UK aviation sector.

This is in reference to the inaugural flight of the superJumbo A380 from Singapore to Heathrow today (March 18th). The airliner's wings are made at Broughton in North Wales and at Filton in Bristol. The Rolls Royce engines are built at Derby. Thus, that sector has reasons to be proud of the first flight, though SIA has been flying the aircraft from Singapore to Sydney since October last year.

There is also a possibility, probably greater than half, that the rubber from which the landing gear is made of, comes from one of our own `ladang getah', or one of the thousands of `kebun kecil getah' scattered all over the country...

The paradox of diet sweeteners

To lose weight, forget the diet drink.

That' the message from the latest studies on the effect of sugar on body weight. Well, in this case, it's rats' body weight. The studies, carried out at the Purdue University, Indiana, had rats given yogurts sweetened with either sucrose or saccharin. Throughout the studies, unrestricted supply of rat food as well as water were also made available.

After five weeks, rats which were on the saccharin diet, had gained more weight than the others. The researchers also found that by giving the sucrose-fed rats high-calorie chocolate, they (the rats, of course) eat less afterwards.

The explanation? Well, the researchers conclude that animals, just like human being, use cues such as sweetness, to predict satisfaction over food. The body normally understands that more sweetness means more calories, so that understanding is used to automatically regulate food intake. With saccharin and the like, sweetness does not necessarily come with calories. With this inconsistencies, the body can't regulate.

Anyhow, some parties have already come up with arguments to dispute these findings. That is just expected, isn't it?

Fight fire, anyone?

Firefighters are attacked while on duty.

Funny? No, as that is what happening throughout the UK, as reported by the Fire Brigades Union. The culprits are of course, teenagers. The Brigades receive on average of 40 attacks a week. The attacks involve things like bricks, stones, woods and knives. And the trend has been on the increase, with the latest figure at 15% over 2006-2007 period. The Union's secretary general was quoted as saying that "...In some areas attacking fire crews has become a recreational activity, with very serious consequences,.."

Any mentally healthy citizen would be wondering why would you attack fire fighters, who, in the first place are in the area to help stop a fire from spreading, and at the same time probably save lives. Well, I don't have the answer. Neither do the Fire Brigades. They just want more protection, in the form of Government-funded national strategy. In the meantime, fire fighters in the Tyne and Wear has been given `spit-kits' to collect DNA of those spitting at them.