Photo Sharing: 41

Yes, i've been neglecting my blog recently due to unforeseen circumstances like laziness and travelling, but yeah, it's been a while since i've babbled.

That's a picture from the top of Alcazaba, which is edited using Aperture for effects and colour tones. I went to Andalusia, Spain for winter travelling recently, and if I have the time, I'll blog about it.  I love the weather there in Spain, its hot and toasty, especially in Malaga. It's been an overwhelming experience, and made my mind wonder off away from work and studies.

During the month of December i've been through a lot of stuffs; like submitting my group project report, assignments and what nots. I've been leading a miserable life- probably because I miss home a lot. It's been such a relief to hear that my mom is finally "cured" from cancer. Just take a lot of rest mom, you need it.

Being away from home is tough, not seeing your loved ones. I admit that at home I don't really feel the presence of family- as most of the time i'll be in my room or away with my friends but now I know how hard it is knowing that you're here strapped off from love and warmth. No matter what, family always come first in everything that we do. I can't wait to finish my studies and get a decent job to serve my family as they used to care and love me as a child.

Waiting for the Summer time to come. I miss home and family.

PM Najib Comic

I hold no copyrights for these comics but have a read and i'm pretty sure you'll laugh- or at least smile by reading some of these quirky short comics..=P

It reflects some of our daily routine/news/political happenings in Malaysia. Get your daily dose of giggles! Tell me which one is your favourite. Lols!

Oh god how I miss Malaysia...hahah!!!

Upgrading your old 32 bit windows to windows 8 64 bit.

A simple question: Could you upgrade your 32 bit windows xp/vista/7/8 to 64 bit windows 8?

The answer is absolutely YES.

***************

I'm a cheapskate.

Errr..kind of, really.

Anyways, i've recently bought a desktop pc as my aging 3 years macbook is running out of space (even my external hard drive is full too and getting another hard drive was not worth the money) and getting slower day by day. Also, battery is a problem as it wont last an hour with wifi on and the audio jack is broken- so yeah, a valid reason to buy one.

I bought a desktop without installing an OS and it costs me roughly £350. Adding the new windows 8 OS would cost me another £85 and that's almost a quarter of the cost of my physical new desktop- I had to find another cheaper option.

Here's what I did. (If you already have an OS- original/jack sparrow on your desktop/laptop, you could skip to step 3)

1. I bought a 32 bit windows xp professional software from ebay (costs me £17.50-you could buy yours from any retail shops or participating outlets).

2. Installed 32 bit windows xp- installation didn't take long, a mere 15 mins and everything was ready. As my desktop has 16gb physical ram, 32 bit windows registered only 3.25 ram- (one of the reasons why you should upgrade to 64 bit if you intend to upgrade your ram; 64 bit fully utilizes your ram)

3. Went to microsoft store and bought windows 8 pro upgrade. (£24.99)

Ok, here's the important bit. When i've bought windows 8, I installed the OS and windows upgrade assistant will prompt for the 32 bit installation instead of 64 bit. (I had windows 8 32 bit running on my desktop before I remove it)

If you want the 64 bit installation, you have to find a computer which has a 64 bit operating system because windows upgrade assistant will give you the installer according to the bit of the OS installed.

4. I used my friends desktop, who had a windows 7 64 bit professional installed and I opened my email account. I opened the microsoft email and jot down my windows 8 key and clicked on the button where it says "If you need to download Windows, write down your new product key and enter it here"

5. Downloaded the 64 bit windows 8 installer and clicked on Install By Creating Media. I clicked on the USB flash drive. I used my 16gb kingston pendrive and you need atleast 8gb if you want your pendrive to be a "bootable drive". Using this method is also the easiest, as you won't be using any .iso converters and image.

After installing the windows 8 installer to your newly "bootable drive", you are now one step closer in upgrading your windows.

Back up all your files (use an external drive, etc)- as doing this would ultimately remove everything inside your previous OS, because this is termed as a "clean" installation.

Once you're ready, kiss your laptop/desktop and tell her that you loved her and it's time to move on.

The previous image shows how does your pendrive looks like when the installer has been installed in your bootable drive.

6. Inserted the bootable drive to my desktop and restarted my OS, when the BIOS start up appeared, I pressed F12 to prompt the bios setup. Found my bootable drive, pressed it and there would be a windows 8 installer popping out.

(That's the 64 bit installer by the way) and just follow the instruction given. Installing windows 8 this way would remove everything previously installed in your laptop/desktop. So be prepared and don't be hasty when doing this sort of stuff.

Andddddd that's it! I hope you guys enjoy my simple tutorial. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask, I'll try my best to answer them if I could.



P:S// Nothing feels more satisfying than doing a custom installation and save £40. Feels like a bawse mangggggggggg.

First Champions League Experience

I've always wanted to watch a champions league match- it's one of my dreams as a kid to see top elite clubs battle it out for europe's top prize- the champions league trophy.

As much as I want to see my favorite team, Liverpool in the champions league, I don't see that coming yet unless they buy some world class players to bolster their position in the league; but I guess, a match between the reigning English champions, Manchester City and the Spanish champions, Real Madrid would suffice.

A dream came true indeed. Now let's hope that Real Madrid win this. (Sad thing that i'm sitting on the Manchester City fan area..but oh well)

Hala Madrid!!! Hahah!

Kinaara- The Best Halal Buffet In Sheffield!

I love food. Everyone loves food! After sending my design project group report on Tuesday, me and my friends celebrated the occasion with eating out at possibly one of the best Halal buffet in Sheffield- Kinaara~!

It costs £11.50 a person to enjoy the scrumptious buffet meal in which there are 3 selective cuisines to choose from, Indian, Chinese and Thai. I'm a sucker when it comes to Indian foods..I absolutely love them! Especially that mutton curry and beef embroiled in thick soy sauce...ahhh..delicious!

There are lots of food being offered such as chicken lemon grass, fried chicken wings, tom yam, curry, spring rolls, kebabs, dhal, roti, naan's, pilau/briyani rice, etc. For dessert, there's a choice of fruit cocktails and ice cream. Unfortunately you have to pay for your drinks and we ordered unlimited supplies of tap water for free..haha.

I ate 3 big meals which consists of mutton, beef, chicken and more meat and 2 small cups of icecream. I was totally bloated and it was totally money well spent! If you guys are thinking of breaking fast, this would be a good place to eat as they also have a small room where you could pray.

If you're in Sheffield, come and visit Kinaara and try all of their mouth watering meals. Just take the 52 bus (on going to WoodHouse) and stop exactly at Kinaara (just take a look at your left and be aware of your location). If you're at the city centre, it'll probably take around 15mins to reach there.

Bring your friends along and enjoy an indulging, belly quenching and tongue challenging food quest at Kinaara! I really recommend you guys trying the beef with mushroom soy sauce..it's a must!

P:S//And oh, try not to order mango lassi or any yoghurt drinks while at Kinaara, it would make you full much faster. Lols.

:)

Nottingham Malaysian Games 2012

It's been a month since i've last updated! I'm soooo sorry guys! I've been busy lately- 3rd year in my course and there's been tons of assignments, projects, essays and what nots. I really wanted to post a few stuffs back in Malaysia but i've got no internet connection and i've been using my digi prepaid internet which is shitty as fuck. To open my facebook account it takes me around 15mins to load.

So yeah, i'll talk about that later, but now, let's talk about one of the biggest Malaysian event in the UK- the Nottingham Malaysian Games 2012!

It's my second time to enjoy such an event. This year, two new games (if im not mistaken) were added- squash and snooker and around  5000 Malaysian students from 50 universities attended; Malaysians everywhere!

I didn't participate in any of the games as i've always enjoyed watching the games instead of taking part. Probably i'll try to join in the games in my final year. Me and my friends took an early bus at 5.30am and reached Nottingham at 7.30am. There were lots of Malaysians and after meeting some old friends, we went to the Malaysian food festival- located at Portland Building and Great Hall of Nottingham's university.

One thing i've noticed at the food festival is that the food is pretty expensive! I was shocked to see that the prices of Nasi Lemak, Nasi Kerabu, etc to be £4.50 and the price of one cucuk of satay costs you a pound. Now that's inflation. I've also noticed that the apam balik now costs you £3. 50 pence more compared to last year. Everything is getting expensive now and I've been told that all of the foods catered in the festival is provided by restaurants instead of students- hence the price hike. Nevertheless I bought Nasi Kerabu with mutton and the apam balik, which was delicious. Dah datang jauh rugi lah tak beli. Haha.

Right, before I forget, during the food festival, there were sooooo many people inside the building! In fact, me and my friends had to queue in such a long line and had to brush shoulder to shoulder with other people to get around. Plus, I remembered a guy shouting that you could only buy a maximum of 2 bungkus of nasi lemak..haha.

After munching some delicious foods we went to watch some of the games and as always, football is the place where spectators shout, scream and yell to show utter support for their teams. I have to say that i've been impressed by the transportation provided for the event and the volunteers are very helpful indeed. The main event of the games was the football finals between Sheffield and Manchester university, where both of the teams have some distinct past and the match didn't disappoint- everyone enjoyed it and the goal celebrations were very cheeky indeed. Congratulations to Sheffield in defending the gold medal and trophy- battering Manchester 4-0. A worthy mention to the Belfast team as well, for securing 4th as this was their first involvement in the games. Birmingham uni scored a beauty for the 3rd goal.

Here's some of the blurry pics during the entire games- enjoy!

Thanks Nottingham University for making this day a blast! Kudo's for everyone! See you guys in Nott's game 2013!

Meanwhile..

The end for a lovely weekend. Reality strikes tomorrow with a class at 9am. Have a great week ahead! :)

Raya 2012!!

I could see some spiderwebs on this blog.

It's been weeeeeeeks since i've updated and a lot of my friends and cousins were asking me why didn't i update my blog like I used to last time? Well, long story short- I was lazy and busy. Jusssttttt a lil bit busy and more to laziness.

I'm back in Kuching now after spending a week for Hari Raya. My 2 months summer holiday in Sheffield has been a blast. Right after the exams I went to Italy, earned myself pocket money enough to get me own PS3, some furnitures for my room and of course my ticket back home. Not only that, I've experienced a few parades in Sheffield- like the Tramlines and Olympics Torch Relay. My roadtrip with my friends from Sheffield to Oxford, Cardiff and all the way to St.Ives was the highlight of the holiday and probably i'll write about it after this post- that is, if im not that "busy" today. Lols.

Before heading to Malaysia, me and my friends went to Anfield to watch Liverpool against Bayer Leverkuson and on my flight back home to Malaysia from Dubai, I managed to take some pictures with our national team squad. They played 3 friendly games in Austria which they lost 2, and drew 1. One thing that I've realized when I step out from that Emirates plane from Manchester to Dubai was how hot Dubai was- even in its airport. Belum gik sampe Malaysia dah rasa panas..sampe2 klia nang confirmlah berpeluh.

You guys know what, in my opinion, KLIA is the best airport there is. You could seat anywhere you want, free wifi connection (although you can't surf youtube), 24 hours food restaurants and of course plugs everywhere to charge your laptop or handphones.

Right, enough of me talking some crap- how was your Raya?

Mine was splendid. There's no other place to enjoy Hari Raya with your loved ones- your close friends and family, all together in this joyous celebration. It's the only time where you could visit and catch up with what's going on and get served with delicious food such as satay, laksa sarawak, nasi briyani, ayam masak kurma, daging masak hitam and endless refills of carbonated or juice drinks-

FOR FREEEEE.

And best of all, after filling your stomach with so many kinds of delicacies, you'll get a special colourful packet that contains money! a.k.a duit raya!! (datang rumah datuk/YB kalau nasib baik dapat RM50..wakakaka)

Not only you get to eat free food, but you get paid to eat!

Nothing beats celebrating Hari Raya in Malaysia. Nothing.

=p.

So far since the 1st day of Raya until yesterday (26th of August) i've been to a lot of open houses served by my family, teachers and friends. We get to laugh, chat, and enjoy our time together as I used to remember during my younger days.

I have another 3 weeks of holidays left. 3 weeks to indulge Malaysian and my favourite Sarawakian dish- Laksa and Kolok!!!

Continuing What I've Left Behind

That picture, above, is the sole reason (apart from the olympics and work) why I am currently away from blogging this past few weeks. I know I have been blogging a lot less lately but I'll always find time to get in touch with everyone and update with you guys as soon as possible.

You know, I always wanted a PS3 ever since secondary school but it was bloody expensive and I don't have the money to buy those original games. PS3 games can be pirated nowadays but the true fun of playing with a console, such as PS3 is its ability to play online with others (which you can't if you play pirated games) in the rest of the world. I don't have much games with me at the moment as I'm still collecting and searching for a few deals on PS3 games.

I bought it for £120 and it's the 160gb hardrive version (roughly RM600) on ebay in which the seller only used the PS3 for a mere 3 hours ever since he bought it (I've got my salary already so this is a present for myself for completing my 2nd year for my master course). So it's like new anyways and I got a few games from him. RM600 for a nearly new PS3 is bloody cheap! And original games here are cheap too and is constantly on sale everywhere.

Here, most of my friends have atleast a PS3 or an XBOX 360 in their house. I finally got one, and will keep me company when there's rain outside of Sheffield. I've been away from console gaming ever since my PS2 broke down after my PMR..which was like, 6 years ago, probably.

Right, now where's my controller..God Of War is calling for me name.

Ramadhan!!

Hi guys! How's your Ramadhan so far?

 For me, it's been a tough few days as i'm trying to get used with fasting for more than 12 hours..i mean, 18 hours to be exact. Normal routines such as work, playing tennis and occasional cooking for my housemates have kept me busy as well as serving myself a plate of implementing good deeds for Ramadhan such as sadaqah, reciting the Quran and visiting the mosque as frequent as I could.

I've been missing home lately and there's nothing much to do here in Sheffield anyways. The weather is getting normal now with rain getting less and less each day- we see more of the sun now.

I wonder how's it like in Malaysia now. With all the glorious food stalls lining up for everyone- foods such as satay, laksa, kebabs, roti and ikan bakar just waiting to be served during iftar.

One thing that i've learnt in these few days of Ramadhan in the UK, i'll always be grateful with the mosque in Malaysia as their are more spacious, comfortable and yet, it's not filled up as I see here in Sheffield.

Just sharing a few thoughts out of my mind. So how's your Ramadhan so far? Time flies so fast now and in just 3 weeks it'll be Eid, hehe. Like a status of a friend of mine read-

"Baru sehari puasa dah main lagu raya..aduh2"

;)