My 7 modes of moods

Mode 1: The angelic mood after a nice relaxing sauna bath

Mode 2: The excitement mood over a nonsense joke

Mode 3: The normal innocent mood @72 heart beats per minute

Mode 4: The fulfillment mood after a nice meal

Mode 5: The schizophrenic mood after 2 pines of beer

Mode 6: The swearing mood which includes p*, f*, s* words

Mode 7: The demonic mood exceeding superheated zone

21 more days...Malaysia here I come

It’s been awhile I have not updated my modest little blog. This is my sixth month in UK and my journey for the first part of my training overseas will end soon.

Valuable lessons have been learnt from the on-job training and not forgetting the external professional training that I had in England. After returning to Malaysia, these will serve as the source to start my real job.

It’s been a good experience to know the Scottish people and able to live and see the lifestyle of Scottish people. Golf is synonym to Scotland, a game which is played by Scottish from all ages, rich and normal. The first competitive golf championship was born in Prestwick. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to try out golf myself.

Experiencing the first snowfall in Scotland is another life experience that I’ll always remember. My colleagues and I had some crazy ideas dealing with this once in a lifetime experience.

Scotland is gifted with its magnificent nature such as the lochs (lakes) and mountainous ridges. Seeing Loch Ness, Loch Lomond, Glencoe and few other nature spots have been fabulous experience. Needless to mention, the history and legacy left behind by people from yesteryears which still evident until today such as castles, monuments and ancient ruins.

Staying in UK will not be complete without paying visits to England. Going to the home of the Kopite is another not to be missed experience. You’ll never walk alone. Nevertheless, other places such as London, Manchester, Leeds, Blackpool, Hertfordshire, York are worth to visit. There are other nice places which I didn’t mention here but still worth every second to see.

Looking back to the time when I wished goodbye to my wife is still fresh like yesterday. She is so anxious waiting for my return. Same applies to me. She has been living alone while carrying our precious baby girl in her womb. It’s has been a hard time for her especially for the past few months and now as her due date is getting closer, she will need more support mentally and emotionally from me. Honey, I’ll see you in 21 days time. I miss you a lot here.

My first baked pasta and garlic baguette

Today is my first time doing cooking in Scotland. With our Design Engineer cum Chef going off for 1 week course starting today, it’s time to be more independent to fulfill the eating desire.

Since Samson also not around today for skiing trip, only myself was available to do something about the food for tonight and lunch tomorrow. It wasn’t an easy way to get all the ingredients. Instead of 5 minutes drive to the familiar grocery store, I took the opportunity to walk while enjoying the fine sunny day and the nice sea breeze. Guess what, it took me 35 minutes for one way to reach the destination, shopped for all the necessities for tonight’s meal for 10 minutes and walked back again for another 35 minutes. It was a good sweaty walk although my legs sore a bit.

With our kind Rudy leaving his legacy to us before he left to the airport, I tried my best to follow the recipe in preparing my first meal here, the garlic baguette and the baked pasta. The following pictures showed the result of my delicacy after all the sweaty walk mixed with some sneezing, smelly stains and heat coming from the oven.

Looking at the following pictures. I guess not too bad for a start, don’t you think so?

Baked pasta (L) and garlic baguette (R)

Close-up on baked pasta

Close-up on the garlic baguette before been slicing

Unusual snow in Troon

Samson posing for next top model audition

Coming to Scotland during winter time is totally a new experience for me. I am expecting snow covered ground but that's totally out of the reality. Due to its location near the sea, temperature in Troon is normally higher and is not expected to be imparted with snow.

Is this how silent night looks like in UK?

Due to global warming, unexpected snow caught everyone in excitement last week. Kids built snowman with their parents, dogs were seen chasing the snow while me and Samson were building snowman's shit and swallowing the snow. Last Sunday's snow was the heaviest and might be the last one for this winter as the temperature is expected to rise in following weeks to welcome the rise of spring.

Rudy and his awesome winter fashion

Playing snow in front of the house for awhile was fun but to stay for a long time in the open space makes my stomach shivering from inside. My lips started to get dry and peel off slowly. The blood veins under the skin seem to appear obviously red.

The dawn of following day

Holding the snow and taking some snapshots reminded me of various Christmas songs that describe the mood of winter. This might be the only chance of a lifetime. Thus, I really enjoy myself.

My version of winter sonata

The Scottish heritage (Part I)

Since arriving here in Scotland, plenty of places have been discovered through my 5 senses. So far, Glasgow, Stirling, Edinburgh, Loch Ness, Loch Lochy, Glencoe and Loch Lomond have been explored with traveling mileage reaching 600km conquering part of the east, north and centre Scotland. Although Scotland's weather has been extreme and unpredictable, we thank God that during our planned trips, the weather seems to be friendly to us. Since I'm a nature and historical enthusiast, my main focus is on the nostalgic, historical and nature theme.

The National William Wallace Monument is still standing strongly, reminds me of the Battle of Stirling in which the mighty English cavaliers, footmen, spearmen and archers were humiliated by Wallace and the hungry Scottish seeking for the freedom of Scotland.

Wallace sword

National William Wallace Monument

The Falkirk Wheel is another magnificent masterpiece of modern engineering that connects two ancient canals built on different level, which used to serve Scottish in ancient days.

Falkirk Wheel in Stirling

The ancient buildings along Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle bring my imagination further back to medieval time, where citizens chanted on the name of the ruler as he passed by the Royal Mile.

along Royal Mile

in front of Edinburgh Castle

Scotland is blessed with the large lakes known as Loch surrounded by beautiful view of mountain ranges and pine forests.

part of Loch Ness, where the myth of Nessie stays until today

Urquhart Castle overseeing Loch Ness

Loch Lochy

Loch Lomond

even the geese also were relaxing like us

Of course, not forgetting the first experience showered by snow flakes, and playing with snowballs. Its amazing and awesome.

A weekend in Glasgow

It was a gloomy Saturday morning, I’m so eager to pay a visit in Glasgow for the first time. So, together with Rudy and Samson, we drove to the city of Glasgow in the morning. Weather is gloomy and it’s expected to rain as forecasted on TV. In UK, weather forecast is very precise but we didn’t care so much.

We parked our Picasso in Partick, in the suburb of Glasgow. Then I found this little signboard which caught my attention.

We walked from Partick to the University of Glasgow which took us 15 minutes. This university has been around for a few hundred years but its magnificent building architecture is still standing solidly as it is. The following casts consist of Samson the "skinny scatman", Gideon the "Chubby jackass" and Rudy the "Big Chef".

Weather turn out to be the main obstacle of the day. After strolling around the university, we were pinched by rain which went on for the whole day. But the walk has to continue. But I was lucky wearing the right jacket, which is made of water resistant material. So we stopped at a “eat all you can” Chinese buffet restaurant, to re-energize our body. At £6.49, we had our stomach filled with buffet from Asian cuisine including Malaysian food.

After that, we braved ourselves in the rain to some of the lively lanes in Glasgow, somewhere like Bukit Bintang where most shops are offering major price slashing on their items. I didn’t hesitate to buy for myself a pair of hiking shoes at a modest price of £21.

We came to know a grocery shop owned by a Malaysian guy, who has been a UK citizen now. There we got a lot of Malaysian products from spices to sauces. Although I didn’t manage to utilize my camera due to the bad weather, it was a fruitful day.

Its eating time

It’s been a few days now, and the feeling of homesick is thickening in my heart but at least the food that we ate and prepared here in the house kitchen help to restrain the homesick syndrome from my mind.

The following meal was what we ate for dinner tonight, the baked pasta and the salad. Rudy prepared the baked pasta while I prepared the salad. Even my wife or any of my family members or friends has never eaten my salad before.

Rudy with his baked pasta recipe

My salad

Our meal ready for consumption