I adopt a polar bear, will you?

I must say I am an animal lover. In most occasions, I feel they are much more innocent than human beings. I am normally upset when I see animals are suffering. Lately an advert on Sky attracted me. It was about to adopt a polar bear for only £3 a month. So I did check their website WWF. It is interesting and the amount of money is affordable for me. So I decided to donate £3 a month for these amazing creatures.

Basically, I have an old noodle bowl into which I put the 1P and 2p change after coming back from shopping. When it is nearly full, I go to supermarket where coin star machines exist. It counts automatically and I choose the instruction to donate for UNICEF and WWF in nearly equal amount. It is my regular thing. Cash amount is not too much, maybe £ 6-7 in total. But I think something is better than nothing.

Adopting an endangered animal is one of the best ways to protect it, and the whole species. You'll be providing help to an animal in great danger of extinction, and making a connection that lasts.

You can adopt from as little as £3 a month and we'll send you an animal adoption pack which includes:

• A gorgeous soft toy of your animal
• A fact booklet about your adopted species
• A print of your adopted animal
• A greetings card
• WWF's tips on reducing your own environmental impact
• 3 issues of Insight magazine, with updates on your adopted species

Please visit WWF @ http://www.wwf.org.uk/index.cfm

Thank you for adopting the

Thank you so much for adopting the for £3 per month. With your help we can continue to protect s and their habitats. Your donation will also help fund other essential WWF conservation work around the world. We'll send the adoption pack within 3 working days but please allow up to 10 working days for delivery to your specified address. This pack contains a personalised adoption certificate, a print of the animal and a soft toy. It will also include a fascinating fact booklet about the adopted species, practical tips on how to live a 'greener' lifestyle, a greetings card and WWF screensavers.

We will also send you a copy of Insight within the next few months, to keep you up to date on the work that WWF is doing to protect s and other conservation projects. Insight will be sent out three times a year.

Would you like to adopt another animal?

Have you considered becoming a member of WWF?

Worried about your impact on the environment? The way we use the planet's resources makes up our ecological footprint. Measuring yours takes less than five minutes and could set you on a life-changing journey. Try our Footprint Calculator

If you have any queries about your new WWF adoption, please contact our hotline on +44 (0)1483 426333 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm) or e-mail supporterrelations@wwf.org.uk quoting this reference number: W000162-169-080809.

My wishes

H ours of happy times with friends and family
A bundant time for relaxation
P rosperity
P lenty of love when you need it the most
Y outhful excitement at lifes simple pleasures

N ights of restful slumber (you know - dont' worry be happy)
E verything you need
W ishing you love and light

Y ears and years of good health
E njoyment and mirth
A angels to watch over you
R embrances of a happy years!

~ Author Unknown to me ~

My wishes especially go to

Khine, Nik, Becky, Joan, Delanne, Mitchelle, Elaine, Salar, Sumi, Gemma, Saund, May, KOM and Ma Mi

World's CCTV capital

Today is Boxing day, so most shops are closed. But a few shops are trying to clear unsold items with so-called discount prices. For example, I bought a pair of discount shoes (£55) from Jones bootmaker. It's original price was £85. In fact, people are talking about Boxing day discounts much more than actually it happens.

Well, today I popped in Canary Wharf which is business and shopping complex in East London area and bought above shoes. I took a couple of photos as my hobby.



You may notice a CCTV in the photo. The news papers claimed that everyday, average Londoners are filmed by CCTVs for over 200 times on the street, on the bus, on the tube, in the stores and so on. In public places, your activities may be recorded from different angles all the time as millions of CCTVs are working 24/7 across the UK. If you parked your car on the double yellow lines or restricted area, nobody does not seem to be care. You would be happy as no police man and no traffic warden disturbed you. But you will get a £60 penalty notice in next few days. You car has been framed by local council CCTV. Definitely.

So a lobby of people have a concern about a matter of privacy issue. But the number of CCTVs has been increasing all the time across Britain, especially after 7/7 terrorist attack in London. Since then, all London buses have got CCTVs. In fact, I also fixed a couple of hidden security cameras at my place. One is for my car and one is for the main door. But these are not CCTV. I record only when I need.


This is the view from Poplar rail station. HSBC tower, Bank of America building and Canary Wharf tower. I just took this photo in time before ?changing ownership after credit crunch. In fact, whoever the ownership is, those buildings sprang up by means of British tax payer's money, I think.


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Moved to a new place

Lately, I moved to south west England from West Yorkshire. It is Dorset. For me, I haven't got a chance to explore it. Struggling with new job, new environment and new people. Everything is different here. Many doctors start working from 8:30 AM till 6-7 PM. (9-5 is normal working hours if we don't have any on-call duty).

Basically, I can live in Yorkshire while working in a very friendly and flexible atmosphere. But after sometime, I felt really bored. So started checking to move somewhere else. I found this post which is really exciting. Chest medicine. So I applied and attended an interview. I was offered the post. I took it. As a consequence, the tiring business starts running despite salary is only £1000 different a year. But it is only 130 miles away from London, my fav place.





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Some thing about Dorset

British system and British people

It is claimed that Britain is one of the best countries in terms of making and implementing a good system. Take the example for British road signs .

Well, each action has its own reason. Clearly new British systems and laws have been emerging as these are required for British people. On the undergrounds, people are kept reminding by tube workers "Mind the gap" "Mind the gap" in addition to showing such signs on the pavements. Something these made me annoyed with the thought that what kind of idiots need such repeated reminders. Similarly, on the pedestrian crossing, you can see "Look Right" "Look Left". What does that mean? Obviously, a considerable number of travellers are unable to look after themselves or lazy to check both sides, ending up in unnecessarily injuries and even deaths. As a result, those signs have to be printed.

A couple of months previously, I saw a 76 year old man who came in with the broken bones and bruises to the hospital after a fall. It happened while walking in the dim light after he went out with his wife at 10:30 PM. (in my old country , people with such age have been around with supportive children and grand children all the time). While his stay in hospital, unfortunately he contracted chest infection. Later, antibiotic induced diarrhoea happened and died after 4 weeks duration of suffering. Of course, there is a debatable wide issue about hospital acquired infection. But if that man with such age did not go out in the late evening, he would not have suffered such consequences.

It is very difficult to restrict the freedom of people in the democratic countries. But I suspect new law or system needs to be imposed to prevent similar events, such as "Old people no going out after what time without what precaution" . A few months ago, the government has already tried to introduce a curfew for some age group of youngsters in some parts of a city not to go out in the evening after a serial events of knife crimes and killings.

Related posts:

• How effective is priority seating signage?
• Forbidden London

Who am I?

Sometime Britain is confusing with different names and usages. For example, many people from far east would not be so clear between the UK, Great Britain, Britain and England. Basically, the United Kingdom is mainly formed by four countries, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Some books say Britain usually refers the main island, but in case of Great Britain, more territories, that is, Northern Ireland, Channels Islands and the Isle of Man are added (Ref: Life in the United Kingdom).

But more logical approach of explanation according to a web site is that the UK means a combination of 4 countries. The Great Britain means England, Wales and Scotland. Britain means England and Wales. The name Britain was derived from Britannia. Romans who ruled and introduced the civilization in the British islands during approximately 55BC and 400AD named it "Britannia Major". "Britannia Minor" was in France.

According to the book (Life in the UK), if Scots and Welsh are asked "What is your citizenship", they will answer "British". and if asked "What is your nationality", they will reply "Scottish" and "Welsh". For the native-born English people, they will answer "British" to both questions.

I ask myself what my citizenship is and what my nationality is.

No kiss, no cold sores and no dementia?

Could a kiss result in dementia?

The majority of people would answer "No".

But according to the latest research in Britain, cold sores, mainly transmitted by kissing, link to Alzheimer's disease, a progressive disabling and irreversible memory problem, which is the second commonest form of dementia. The DNA structure of the HSV-1, a virus causing cold sores, is found in the brains died of Alzheimer's dementia. As this finding is based on a small research , more works are still in need to confirm the discovery.

At this point, we should have an awareness of cold sore, I think. What is cold sore?

Some facts are as follow:

• -a very common illness caused by herpes simplex virus type 1
  
• -characterized by groups of fluid-filled blisters on and around the lips
  
• -transmitted by close body contact, mainly kissing (involvement of private part if having oral sex with infected partner)
• -tender and painful
• -reactivation (recurrence) happened when body resistance falls (as virus could stay inside the body for a long time or for life long )
• -Zovirax cold sore cream helps to some extent

More detail on Netdoctor

Cross-sex friendship and its outcome

I came across this interesting sociology topic, cross-sex friendship and I learnt a bit more.

What is cross-sex friendship? It is having a friend of the opposite sex, that is, a man has a female friend and a woman has a male friend.

Cross sex friendship is historically rare in many societies while partnership is better acceptable model. There have been many social territories where such kind of relationship has been prohibited on the ground of religion, tradition and culture. Even though there is no such restriction, many people would not need an opposite sex as a friend. For example, a man with a full of family commitment would not pay attention too much on his old and new friends.

On the other hand, there have been a few societies in which cross-sex friendship is well accepted as part of a social life. In this point, it can be seen that there is less discrimination between genders, treating both sex as the same.

It is suggested that it is a sort of social freedom. But it would bring some drawbacks. For example, cross-sex friendship could ruin the existing partnership or even harm the marriage life. It would force to stop a potential long term partnership. It is also inevitable that members of society often presume a sexual involvement. Further more, it is not uncommon that there is a possibility of the existence of sexual tension. Some believe that cross-sex friendship occasionally acts as a start of adultery.

However, having a friend of the opposite sex would have some benefits. Basically, one can get an emotional support which is not available from the same sex friend. Besides, it would be a very useful approach for someone who is meticulously choosing his or her future partner. That friendship could be transformed into a partnership at any time if circumstances are right.

To conclude, cross-sex friendship is one of the social models despite its variable incidence depending on individual person and society. Some one would create this relationship for one or more purposes. But it can be said that it would be an unacceptable condition if someone claim “it is just a friendship" in order to cover up what is actually happening.

Any educated argument, Welcome

Further readings

1. Cross-sex friendship in adulthood
   
2. Cross-sex friendship by Michael Monsour
3. The effect of gender role orientation on same- and cross-sex friendship formation

Referene

1. Cross-sex friendship Wikipedia

UK Job cut diary

UK Job losses on google map.

With a global economic downturn, we can hear the bad news of job market on a daily basis. My concern is £ to Kyats ex-change rate going down from well over K 2000 previously to K 1780/ £ yesterday. I came across the following list of job losses on Telegraph.co.uk which revealed that British companies have announced the loss of 31,184 jobs in the past two months.

December 4 2008 - 1,000 jobs :

• Nomura, the Japanese broker,1000

December 3 2008 - 794 jobs:

• GlaxoSmithKline 200,
• Experian, the company that runs credit checks, 300
• JA Magson, the toy and stationary distributor, 200
• Pinnacle Entertainment 94

December 2 2008 - 817 jobs

• Glasgow-based Bowie Castlebank Group, 817

December 1 2008 - 2,000 jobs

• Aston Martin 600
• Halfords 200
• HSBC 500
• Investment bank Credit Suisse 650

November 28 2008 - 800 jobs

• The Independent newspaper 100
• Aon Corporation 700

November 20 2008 - 590 jobs

• Rolls-Royce 140
• BAE Systems 200
• AstraZeneca 250

November 19 2008 - 900 jobs

• Insulation and roofing materials group SIG 900

November 18 2008 - 90 jobs

• Denis O'Brien, a major shareholder in Independent News & Media, 90

November 17 2008 - 1,815 jobs

• Global banking giant Citigroup 1500
• Avis Europe 315

November 13 2008 - 6,398 jobs

• JCB 398
• Telecoms giant BT 6000

November 11 2008 - 5,320 jobs

• Virgin Media 2200
• GlaxoSmithKline 6200
• Yellow Pages directories firm 1300
• Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey 1000
• Technology firm Psion 200

November 10 2008 - 800 jobs

• Cable & Wireless 700
• Dairy Crest, which manufactures Cathedral City cheese among its many products 100

November 8 2008 - 700 jobs

• Babcock Marine 300
• Corus, the steelmaker, 400

October 28 2008 - 500 jobs

• Credit Suisse 500

October 23 2008 - 6,060 jobs

• Goldman Sachs 6000
• Rightmove 60

October 14 2008 - 600 jobs

• Cadbury 600

October 3 2008 - 2,000 jobs

• Swiss bank UBS 2000

Full details on Telegraph.co.uk

First snow for this season

I think my blog has changed to a photo album gradually as these days almost all of my posts have got photos. But I have to post again as this morning I saw some snow outside. This is the first snow in west Yorkshire for this winter in my knowledge. We rarely see snow in London area. Maybe 1-2 days a year.


My car has also been covered with snow.


A small snow sweeper in progress inside parking place

Today's supper

This evening I intended to eat bacon sandwich. For some reason, Bacon was in the freezer. I could not wait to defrost it. So I had to eat fried egg sandwich like this. With mushroom soup. Spread was flora as usual. I know deep fried foods are not so healthy. But I like British breakfast very much. 5 items meal from hospital restaurant with one bacon, one sausage, one hush brown, one black pudding, mushroom and beans are my once a week routine.



After meal, I tidied up my things on the basin cabinet. Now all are well organized like this.

Austin and Erin

This year's Strictly come dancing is finishing in 1 month. For me, I do like Austin and Erin. I vote them. But difficult to say which couple will win. Lisa Snowdon & Brendan Cole and Tom Chambers & Camilla are also good. But I don't think Rachel and Vincent. Some people may not like Vincent who kissed former S-club 7 star frequently during the show.

Austin and Erin - Strictly Come Dancing 2008 Round 8 - BBC One


Austin and Erin's Paso Doble - Strictly Come Dancing 2008 Round 11 - BBC One

Leeds

After hectic on-call nights, today I' am free. I read something in the morning. Afternoon, I could not keep staying inside any more. So I drove and chose nearby Leeds to visit. Leeds is a big city only 20 miles from my place. Basically, west Yorkshire was England's top industrialised place until most factories moved to China and other oversea destinations where cheap labourers available . It is a well developed area and big cities like Manchester, Sheffield, Bradford and Leeds are not far from each other within 1 hour drive.


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I went to Kirkstall Abbey, which is 2-3 miles away from Leeds town centre. When I checked with wikipedia, it is described as follow.

Kirkstall Abbey is a ruined Cistercian monastery in the western outskirts of Leeds in Yorkshire, set in grounds which are now a public park on the north bank of the River Aire. It was founded c.1152 and was over seventy five years in construction. It was closed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries under the auspices of Henry VIII. The ruins have been painted by artists such as J.M.W. Turner.

Kirkstall Abbey, Leeds

Fogging afternoon in Leeds Kirkstall Abbey park

From there, I headed for Leeds town centre where Tom tom instructed me to drive in counter-flow of traffic. It also kept asking me to turn into close roads. Bugger!. I remember it also confused in central London.

I saw a sea of people in town centre. A full range of age groups, from teenagers to elderly people with wheel chairs. Wondering if the UK is in actual economic recession? Maybe its early phase? They must be Christmas shoppers. I bought a Cross ball pen with rubber grip and a Red Herring shirt from Debenhams.

It had been nearly 2 hours walking around at town centre, from one shop to another. So I was starved. Fancy a meatball baguette and a cup of latte. Unfortunately, I lost my way and took nearly half an hour to find out the shop. As a result, I had to pay parking fee £8 for over 2 hour (2 hours and 20 minutes actually). Charges are 1 hour £2.80, 2 hours 5.20 and 4 hours £8. On my way home, it was not too much traffics. Some photos are here.

X-mas lights ont he street

Taxis and buses in Leeds. London Buses are red, you know

X-mas shoppers. Air temperature was 2 degree C

Inside Victoria quarter shopping mall

Some more photos are available in my album. Better view with slide show.

Sick cars

I rarely look outside. I don't know it's raining or sunny. Basically I'm not so interested in weather and climate change which is not affecting my daily life. For example, in the morning (08:20), I go down and catch the hospital shuttle bus to go to work. Its stop is 30 seconds walk from my accommodation. During the weekends, I drive and do shopping. My fav place is Sainsbury store which is in town centre. The parking place is just above the store. I just need to use a lift to go down. For other places, more or less the same.

Well today, I am to work at night. So I was resting at day time. So I just checked outside, spending a few minutes. The photo shows what I saw from my windows.

Sick cars. No more space after 08:30 AM

The whole parking place had been filled with staff and visitor cars. (One of them is mine, I am afraid). I should see a natural beauty with rabbits running on the lawn and parrots eating fruits on the top of the trees as I was in Surrey area. But now it is just a disgusting view. Authorities are trying to restrict the use of cars, which is good. In fact, cars are moving sets of sofa. On the roads, 90% cars have only one person who is a motorist. Remaining 3-4 seats are empty all the time. Traffic congestion is everywhere. Air and noise pollutions are inevitable because of them. I feel the government needs to do more effective measures to use alternative transports, instead of driving cars with empty seats.

Cambridge visit

Today, I popped in Cambridge town centre while I was around there for a business purpose. I saw a crowd of shoppers, among them some are Chinese students and those with eastern-European accents. I am sharing some photos.



A dog with a body warmer accompanying his owner, who is a street entertainer


Christmas decoration inside Grand Arcade shopping building


An angel flying. I love it.


A pink laptop at John Lewis electronic section. Young girls might like it. Not for women over 30, I suppose :)


Again, a red laptop for who? For me I like bamboo laptop. It's absolutely green. Those laptops have been introduced in Britain lately.




You may check some of today's Cambridge photos here.

CV and Résumé

After a conversation with a friend of mine from Singapore, a former British colonial piece of land in south east Asia peninsula, I learnt that they use the word Resume', instead of CV. Well, as we all know Resume' is an American English and Curriculum vitae is British English. But none of them are originally from America or Britain. Curriculum vitae is Latin meaning "course of life" and résumé is French meaning "summary".

Basically, dictionaries describe that CV is equal to Resumé. But according to my friend who arrived in Singapore lately and was applying for a job, it was advised that the short account of education, previous experience and jobs should be written in the way of Resume, not in the way of CV. That statement made me a bit confused. So I did a quick research. I found out the relevant information on wiki as below.

A résumé more often has a free-form organizational style and is used for seeking employment in the private sector, whereas a curriculum vitae has a more standardized look and format for the purpose of seeking positions in academic or educational institutions. Another difference is that a résumé tends to be more descriptive and tailored for a specific purpose or target audience, whereas a curriculum vitae tends to be organized in a way that presents data about one's self in a compact fashion, with a clear chronology. For example, a résumé may begin with a statement about a personal goal, followed by a list of most significant accomplishments or characteristics in order of significance, while a curriculum vitae often includes complete and unembellished lists of data such as educational institutions attended, degrees received, positions held, professional affiliations, publications authored, etc. A résumé may or may not be represented by the person as a complete history of themselves without omission, whereas a curriculum vitae usually implies that there are no omissions, and in particular, no temporal gaps.

According to that information, it is slightly different in CV and résumé in terms of presentations.

Moreover, the required facts in a CV would differ from one industry to another, one country to another. In some countries, putting photo together with CV is preferable. In some places, personal details are mandatory. But when I apply the job in England, I don't need to include my date of birth, gender and ethnicity in my CV. They can't take such facts into account in the consideration process for a post. The short listing panel can not discriminate against the race, age and sex. It's against the law. But the human resource department will keep those facts confidentially.

Quantum of Solace at O2

Basically I am not a 007 fan although gangsters films are in my collection. But I watched James Bond movies as an entertainment. Quantum of Solace has been on cinema for few weeks. Last time, I checked at Leicester square Odeon, all tickets had been sold out for the whole day. It was Saturday fortnight ago I think.
Yesterday I went to nearby O2 dome which is an entertainment complex, in which The Vue cinema forms part of it. Not too many people in the cinema. So no seat number required on the ticket. We could sit where ever we wanted. I bought my ticket from the machine. No need to enter PIN. I enjoyed movie while having popcorn with coca cola. (No pepsi available what I prefer). This 007 film is just average to me, but entertaining. At least I can talk about its good and bad things with my colleagues at work.


It was previously called Millennium dome located in south east London. Now it is O2 dome.


Aerial view


I took this picture last year.


The VUE


Area map



Ticket machine

A Rail Trip

I have never been beyond Bournemouth in south east England before. Yesterday, I went to Dorchester by train as I had an appointment. It was 6 hours trip in total from my work place in west Yorkshire. I bought a return ticket online for £115 in advance which was a standard one. After collecting the ticket at the station, I was waiting for 16:30 train. Well I left work a bit early. I saw many secondary students putting on different ancient costumes, waiting to go back to nearby towns. I overheard that they participated in a show " Romeo and Juliet " at their school. From Yorkshire to London, I took the National Express train line which has got power source for laptop and wifi access. I arrived the King Cross station at about 19:20, from where I took the tube to Waterloo. Too much crowded in Waterloo as usual. I quickly bought my supper which were a baguette and a cup of black Kenco. And then I took South West train to Dorset. My destination was DCH, Dorset County Hospital. It was mid night when I got to my over-night accommodation provided by hospital.


My route


My Kenco. Fortunately, no person next to me.


A gentle man working while travelling


I was also revising Jason's Driver 2


On south west train


Hospital guide


Parking tariff at DCH

The Internet, the greatest time waster?

Apparently, I have been addicted to the internet as I visit websites without any particular reason once I come back from my work, spending over 5-6 hours a day. My laptop has been on 24/7. I never switch off my device as I hate Vista taking sometime when it is struggling with loading and shutting down. Having to live without internet access at home for about a couple of weeks meant I had got too much time to read books and to go out with real friends. It happened last month when I switched to a new service provider and I had to wait for sometime. Being offline has made me realized how much time I wasted on the internet.

I think about what I normally do online. First, I open Fire Fox, its homepage is Google. I click News. I scan if any interesting news. At that point, Twitterfox from right bottom corner shows up new tweets. I read the headings quickly. With the aid of Twitterfeed, we can know which blogger has posted new item. I click the link and open the blog pages. Well, It is a bit hard for me to read a long Burmese post with too much oriental philosophy. Just my weak point. They are good. So I close it and jump to another blogs. I would leave some comments if I want to do so. (My fav blogs are on Bravenet.com)

After blog surfing business finished, I would quickly visit some Burmese news media like Hittaing, Kitpyaing and Rebound 88. Basically they post bad news of Burma. Disappointing. Oh yes! you may say there is no good news in Burma. I have no idea at all. For instance, news of many thousands of Burmese living and settling in Singapore is good news, isn't it? But they might claim Burma has been a victim of brain drain. Ok can you say a brain trained inside Burma can be a good brain at all? Doesn't it need any further upgrade? Is there any world class higher education centre in Burma? What class of Brain can be built by those universities. Be realistic. If you have achieved a quality brain, you can help your people anytime you want whenever you live.

Ok, let's move on. While surfing from one place to another, my contacts from Yahoo, gtalk, MSN and VZO might say hi, hiya, hullo, @, ~, #, ^ and so on. I would reply and enjoy chatting from a few minutes to over night :) , making me too much tired in the next morning. I am weak.

At the same time, I would be busy with checking new posts and photos and leaving rubbish comments on facebook where I have got nearly 100 friends, all of them I never meet in actual word. How stupid I am.

Moreover, I have been running some community and academic websites. I don't earn any penny for them. But I am a hobbyist. So I enjoy updating things and changing templates. As I am crazy in photography despite having only a basic idea how to take a picture, I would be busy with editing and uploading photos I take whenever I go.

Someone said long ago(maybe a famous author) hobby is one's weak point. I would say many hobbies, many weak points. I am sure I need to cut down my time wasting on the internet. I work average 57 hours a week. When I calculate, I sleep about 40 hours a week and I surf the webs about 50 hours a week. That means it is only 21 hours left for other things, like cooking, showering, reading and going out.

Of course, I essentially need to use the internet for some purposes such as holiday package, shopping, booking tickets and on-line course. But I just leant that I have been wandering on the net without destination. The majority of knowledge obtained from those websites is not directly useful for my life and career. I believe I desperately need a detox for this internet addiction.

Do I need Google G1 phone?

Technology is advancing quickly. At the same time, Google's power is rising among the internet users, now starts to invade the field of mobile phone. In the UK, iPhone was introduced a few years previously and it is available on O2 net work. Now T mobile has launched G1 Google phone. For me, receiving a couple of calls a day is my way of mobile phone usage. Of course, I would take photos some time for my blog. Not more than that. To surf the webs, the internet access is everywhere at work. At home, I have got a cable. When I drive, I use Tom Tom. No mobile phone integrated Sat Nav needed for the time being. For pda, I have got HP iPAQ.

Maybe, I would consider iPhone if it comes with a better build-in camera resolution. Do I need all in one device? Maybe, later, not now. The same thing for Google phone. For the time being, I don't need it for the time being.


on my way to London

Any way , here is a review about G1 Google phone on Times online.

My first impression when the G1 was released was that it was not going to be a iPhone killer, and further use of the first ever “Google phone” confirmed my suspicions. Still, it is clearly a smartphone in the same class as Apple’s iconic product. Despite a few niggles, it is quite impressive.

The main difference between the G1 and its competitors is the slide-out qwerty keyboard. This is a useful addition for anyone frustrated with tapping an unresponsive pane of glass. The keyboard buttons are quite small, though, so fast typing is not really possible. But it is more like using a BlackBerry than an iPhone.

Another useful addition is the “trackball”. You can use the touchscreen to scroll through webpages and click on icons, as with other similar devices, but every once in a while the links are two small for a big fat thumb to select easily. Faced with this problem on the iPhone, you can zoom in and out using the clever “pinch” motion on the touchscreen, but the G1’s zoom is much less cool and clunkier to use. The trackball is a neat way around that problem: when the touchscreen becomes frustrating, you can use the trackball instead. As with any device, the more you use it, the easier it becomes to navigate through web pages and documents.
Full article::

My supper today

Just sharing. This is my supper. I didn't want to buy any food after coming back from work this evening. So I grilled gammon what I bought 1 week ago. I fried vegetables. I had got 2 cans of lager. Later I found out Baguette that I made this morning. I intended to eat it at lunch time. But a pharmaceutical company provided free lunch at meeting. So no chance to tough it.



This morning, inside the shuttle bus.

I live in a hospital accommodation. I work at another hospital which is 5 miles away. 2 hospitals are in a same NHS trust and half an hourly shuttle bus running. Here, parking place is difficult. Moreover, they discourage to use own cars because of traffic problem and air pollution. So we use this bus to commute even though we all have our own cars. Nice. Comfortable.


2 drivers chatting. They all are nice. I took this pic while sitting in the bus.



This is not our usual bus. For some reason, the hospital buses in a shortage or broke down this morning. so they rented this bus for today. In the evening, I saw our regular bus.

Long Island

Rebecca taught me how to make Long Island cocktail. I'm just sharing. It's fantastic. Both girls and boys can have it. Ingredients are :

• 1 part Tequila
• 1 part gin
• 1 part whiskey
• 1 part white rum
• 1 part vodka
• 1 oz sugar syrup
• Coca-Cola
• Orange juice or lime juice

Combine and mix all ingredients in a collins glass and serve. You need ice cubes as well :)

Enjoy!

Various brands of Tequila

Some more drinks are here.

Long Island Iced Tea
Mountain Breeze
Adios Motherfucker
Fat Frog
Grateful Dead
Tokyo Tea
Red Death
Baltimore Zoo
Walk Me Down (Sweet Jesus)
Adios Motherfucker #3
Hurricane
Red Devil
Key West Cooler
Texas Tea
Blue Motorcycle
Vesper
Irish Trash Can
Blue MotherFucker #2
Long Beach Cocktail
Long Beach Iced Tea
Call a Cab
Long Island Tea
Tokyo Ice Tea
Cornwall-Nash
Cape Cod Islander

Black Opal
Swimming Pool
Boston Ice Tea
Georgia Peach Iced Tea
Fucked on the Floor
Raspberry Long Island Ice Tea
Green Demon
Greek Sex On The Beach
Flying Kangaroo
Hurricane Sunrise
Brass Monkey
Kansas City Ice Water
Dale's Long Island Iced Tea
Absolut Stress
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Counsellor or Consul?

Basically, I rarely need to use my Myanmar passport as it is not so useful apart from visiting Burma. For ID purpose, I use my UK driving license. When I go to Europe and the States, I use my British passport. Myanmar passport is a pain. The holder will face a difficulty from obtaining a visa to travelling across the world. (an example)

Yesterday, we were talking about immigration matters with a friend of mine, leading to check my Myanmar passport again. At that point, I noticed that on the passport renewal page, stamp showed this passport is hereby renewed to be valid until xx.xx.xxxx.

signed by
Wai Lwin Than
Counsellor
Myanmar Embassy, London


My Myanmar passport renewal page

Counsellor? Not consul? I was wondering how a counsellor relates with a matter of passport renewal, instead of giving an advice to his own people living in Britain. I was a bit confused with that English usage. So I did check with dictionaries.

• Longman dictionary:

counsellor: someone whose job is to help and support people with problems

• Oxford dictionary

counsellor:
1. a person who has been trained to advise people with problems, especailly personal peroblems
2. (AmE, Iris E) a lawyer
3. (AmE) a person who is in charge of young people at a summer camp

• The free online dictionary (www.thefreedictionary.com/counsellor )

coun·sel·or also coun·sel·lor (kouns-lr, -slr)
n.
1. A person who gives counsel; an adviser.
2. An attorney, especially a trial lawyer.
3. A person who supervises young people at a summer camp.

When I checked my first time visa issued by British embassy, Yangon, the official's post was Pro-consul.

So I did search word "consul" in dictionaries. Here is the result.

• Longman dictionary

consul: a government official who is sent to live in a foreign city in order to help people from his or her own country who are living or staying there.

• Oxford distionary

consul: (N)a government official who is the representative of his or her country in a foreign city: the British consul in Miami

consular: (Adj) consular officials

• Online free dictionary (www.thefreedictionary.com/consul)

con·sul (knsl)
n. Abbr. Con. or Cons.
1. An official appointed by a government to reside in a foreign country and represent his or her government's commercial interests and assist its citizens there. See Usage Note at council.
2. Either of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, elected for a term of one year.
3. Any of the three chief magistrates of the French Republic from 1799 to 1804.



My Myanmar and British passport. legal to keep both in the UK.

After all, I was not clear about the role of Burmese embassy official. He is an advisor for Burmese people living in Britain, according to his title on the stamp. Moreover, he was able to authorise to renew a Myanmar passport, according to what he had done on my passport. It's interesting isn't it. If he has been doing those 2 jobs, what would be the role of Myanmar consul in London. Is there any Myanmar consul in Britain? I am sure, last time, U Nay Win was the Myanmar ambassador for the UK. During ambassador Dr Kyaw Win's era, he had to take responsibility of 2 embassies, Britain and Canada.

By the way, Myanmar embassy in London's Green Park is not bad and their service is straight forward while I have been hearing a noise from Myanmar embassies from Japan and Singapore .

My holiday, Harrods soup, Dabenham shirts and Suhsi bar

You may know this week I am on holidays, that means free from seeing dying people. I am in London. Nice weather outside just before chilly and gloomy winter coming, so I went out with my friend yesterday late afternoon. Our destination was uncertain until we were on Jubilee line.

Later we decided to go to Harrods where we had so called "the best soup in London", costing us £16.20 total. It reminds me 21st street rice porridge from Yangon China town. Interestingly, the taste was more or less the same.


Chicken soup £8.20

The Harrods looks like a museum for me, rather than a super store, crowded with European tourists who were taking photos and doing window shopping. Basically many items are for super rich people, despite a full range of consumer products available, ranging from vegetables, perfumes, designer's clothes to electronics and furnitures. I also saw the Harrods financial service.


Harrods at Knight bridge, London


A shoulder bag with price tag £1750



Dodi and Diana memorial on the lower ground floor (You may be aware that Harrods' owner's son Dodi was a lover of Diana. They are killed in fatal car crash in France. It's a tragedy)


Some vegetables available in Harrods. Ma Mi will like it.

From there, we took the tube to the Bond street, going to Dabenham store, the place where I normally buy Thomas Nash shirts. Nice ones with reasonable price. A few year back, I found out that that brand is good for me. Other brands I buy are Maine and Redherring. Fortunately, from blue cross, size 16 Thomas Nash shirts were for only £5 . Their original price was £22. £30 Redherring was only £10. I just took the opportunity.

After that, we walked along the busy Oxford street where we felt hungry. So we popped into a sushi bar at off Oxford street . Sushi pots were on conveyor belt. We also ordered a bottle of Chardonnay. Bill showed £44 at the end. My friend expressed that I was thinking again and again to buy a shirt, chasing a final discount, but for food, I spend too much with ease. I have no idea. It just happens.


Moving Sushi