100 Things We Don't Know About

This article can be accessed through the link at the bottom. I have picked out 15 items of interest to me to share with you:

1. The UK's first mobile phone call was made 20 years ago this year, when Ernie Wise rang the Vodafone head office, which was then above a curry shop in Newbury.

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2. Mohammed is now one of the 20 most popular names for boys born in England and Wales.

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3. While it's an offence to drop litter on the pavement, it's not an offence to throw it over someone's garden wall.

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4. Baboons can tell the difference between English and French. Zoo keepers at Port Lympne wild animal park in Kent are having to learn French to communicate with the baboons which had been transferred from Paris zoo.

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5. One in 10 Europeans is allegedly conceived in an Ikea bed.

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6. Bosses at Madame Tussauds spent £10,000 separating the models of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston when they separated. It was the first time the museum had two people's waxworks joined together.

7. If all the Smarties eaten in one year were laid end to end it would equal almost 63,380 miles, more than two-and-a-half times around the Earth's equator.

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8. The = sign was invented by 16th Century Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde, who was fed up with writing "is equal to" in his equations. He chose the two lines because "noe 2 thynges can be moare equalle".

9. In America it's possible to subpoena a dog.

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10. Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has only been in an English pub once, to buy his wife cigarettes.

11. The name Lego came from two Danish words "leg godt", meaning "play well". It also means "I put together" in Latin.

12. The average employee spends 14 working days a year on personal e-mails, phone calls and web browsing, outside official breaks, according to employment analysts Captor.

13. Cyclist Lance Armstrong's heart is almost a third larger than the average man's.

14. Nasa boss Michael Griffin has seven university degrees: a bachelor's degree, a PhD, and five masters degrees.

15. Tactically, the best Monopoly properties to buy are the orange ones: Vine Street, Marlborough Street and Bow Street.
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For full list please go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4566526.stm

Johan dari Aber

Think Before You Speak

An Air Asia aircraft was on late flight and about to land at Bandung's Airport. The co-pilot initiated the landing procedure while the Indian pilot flicked the switch on the microphone and started his announcement " We will be landing in Bandung shortly..blah..blah..blah..have a pleasant stay in Bandung" the usual stuff lah. He the flicked the switch and turned to his co pilot and continued the conversation: " and the first thing I am going to do when I land is to have a pint of beer and then make passionate love to the new long leg Indian stewardess who joined us last week"

Unfortunately, due to technical malfunction, the conversation was heard through the entire cabin. A visibly embarrassed long legged Indian stewardess rushed to the cockpit to warn the pilot and in her haste stumbled down on the aisle.

An elderly Australian lady who was there said softly "Now, young lady, no need to rush. I clearly heard him say that he was going to have his beer first"

By Murphy's Law, if anything can goes wrong, it will one day goes wrong.

Kalau mau cakap kalu, pandang belakang lah...
( Before you speak look around you..)

Johan dari Aber

Golf, US Masters 2009

Funny game golf is. Having played the game I found that the game is very complex to master so the best I can do is “play to muster”. It has so many variables covering your stance, grip, ball placement, lie of the ball (whether sloping, flat, in the sand, plugged), choice of club, natural weather condition (windy, hot, humid, raining, sunny) and everything else that can affect your game – that social golfer like me will never be able to master. However, golf has taught me many things:

• Be Focused. You need tremendous amount of focus to play this game. There are so many distractions that it is very difficult to focus. If you can focus playing golf you can focus on anything.
• Be accurate in counting. Make sure you know how to count from 1 to 10 accurately. Because golf scoring is by number of strokes you need to score accurately by hole, otherwise it’s tantamount to cheating. Since it’s a gentleman’s game you don’t want to be caught cheating (even though accidental). Maximum par score is 5, therefore score up to 10 is most probable. You don’t normally need to go beyond 10.
• See the big picture. Between the tee box and the green there are many obstacles such as hazards, trees and bushes, water, bunker etc that make it difficult for golfer. Therefore you must not only see the fairway and the pin but everything-else in the vicinity as it all adds up to the game.
• Need to plan. Planning is the essential part of golf. If you don’t plan it will hurt your game. To plan for rain, have an umbrella or rain jacket ready. Plan for extra balls so that when on a bad day you have enough balls to play. Plan to have enough $$ in your wallet just in case you have a leaky day.
• Measure your capability, strength and weakness. Don' t try to do what other people do. Most important don't try to do a "Tiger". It's only good on TV.
• Never underrate yourself. I have seen more clowns on golf courses than in anywhere else in sports. The game itself is funny; imagine chasing small white ball all over the 7 KM of the golf course, braving the sun and the rain. Sometimes we have a bad day, so accept it with jest.

I am a 20 handicapper and don’t seem to improve. My main weakness I believed is not having consistent swing and also that my grip is weak. However I got by and on my good day I can be intimidating as well. In most instances I will do well on hole no 1 for someone to start questioning my handicap. But most of the time..ok lahhh

The last lesson is enjoy your game. The day you don’t enjoy your game is the day you should quit. Six hours on the golf course and the clubhouse is a chore if you don’t enjoy yourself.

My prediction for this 2009 US Masters is Anthony Kim...Good Luck AK and hoping to see you donning the green jacket on Sunday.

Johan dari Aber

Cancer - 6 Letter Word That We Dread

2 weeks ago I met Fareh for lunch, an acquaintance from a tank project in 2007. I have not met Fareh for sometime because I left my previous employer in 2008 and the present company has no dealing with his company.

During lunch I learned that Fareh had blood cancer and in the last 6 months had successfully undergone treatment. He appears healthy and I would not have suspected anything if he had not talked about it. He is not yet considered a cancer survivor until further medical test after 12 months to see if there is any relapse. I learned from him cancer facts that I want to share:

• That - cancer is not easy to detect even with regular screening. Very often cancer is detected at advance stage.
• That - sudden loss of weight and being tired is a sign that something is not right with our body and reason enough to alarm us to go for medical check up.
• That- chemotherapy is a painful process. Patient undergoing chemotherapy will feel very tired as though they ran in marathon. This is the result of the good blood cells working overtime to fight the chemo as it will also kill the good cells. The same effect when somebody run marathon.
• That - the older the patient is, the more difficult it is to survive cancer as it is energy sapping and very demanding on oneself. Therefore the resilient to fight cancer is phenomenal.
• That - family support is crucial when fighting cancer as it’s too much for one person to take. There needs to be a lot of hope and high desire to live, one can’t ever give up to live.
• That - balance diet can reduce the probability of cancer. Eat more fruits and vegetables (but ensure that it is chemical free, therefore avoid buying fruits from China - as advised by Fareh).
• That - regular exercise helps in suppressing cancer cells.

Fareh, I wish you full recovery and that you will live a long life.

This song reminds me of how vulnerable we are when death come calling and that it's a part of our life that we can't deny

Johan dari Aber

Johan dari Aber- How it began

Long time ago I was offered a place to do A-level at a place called Aberystwyth. At the time we do not have internet searches and the best I could do was to locate it in the Encyclopaedia Britannica which I happened to have a copy at home ( being a “kampong” family my late father had the foresight to invest in 2 encyclopaedias, the Britannica and World of Knowledge – If I remembers right)

Guess what, I couldn’t find Aberystwyth.

Then I tried the World Atlas and found it located in mid Wales and bingo. ..that’s where I will be heading.

Aberystwyth (earlier I had difficulty spelling the name) was a small resort town facing the Cardigan Bay. To reach Aberrystwyth ( Aber) by train you come through Birmingham and it’s impossible to miss the place as Aber is the very last station..literally as the train need to back out of the station the other way to return to Birmingham.

The shops were along North Parade and had stores such as Tesco, Virgin Record (selling vinyls- here was the first time I saw “single” discs, the sales of what determined the singles chart, Currys (selling not briani or masala but audio equipment) and other outlets that I have long forgotten. It also had banks such as National Westminster and Barclays towards the end of the street.

After Baclays towards LLanbadan Fawr, if you turn left it will take you to the sea front or the pier. I have forgotten the street but it had stores such as WH Smith (bookstore) and Woolworth. The beach is mainly covered by pebbles and stones and normally very windy. We would spend a lot of time at the amusement park at the pier playing space invaders, pinball machine and one arm bandit. Aber did not have much choice for entertainment but for those who like slow pace of life it's a great place to stay.

We once landed a fish fishing at the seafront and we immediately have it grilled and it was the best fish I have ever tasted.

At the end of the beach there was a hill and the view from the top was breathtaking. We regularly climbed the hill at weekend and often see para gliders launching themselves from the top of the hill.

Towards the other end there was a castle which was very well preserved. I have forgotten the history of the castle but we always took a walk in the castle as it was near our house, No 8 Vulcan Street.

The way I understand it, not many Malaysian students went to Aber for studies (probably less than 200 to-date). Aber has a university called University College Wales, Abertsywyth which offered mainly art courses and there was also an Agriculture College next to our college in LLanbadan.

I had a great time in Aber and the Welsh were very nice people. Then they still speak Welsh and the elderly were very friendly and always good to us, the foreign students.

I still remember some of the signboards, “Dim Mssmygu” - which means “No Smoking”, Cymru- Wales, Dim Pacio- “No Parking”

To the others Jaflus, Azam, Ainul, Ramlan, Azhari, Rosli, Azmi, Roslan, Rahim, Azlan, Azizul, Kamarudin, Yaakob, Halim and Tahir (note that we were all boys), all of us have done the college proud by breaking the A level results with straight A’s and few of us were mentioned in the local newspaper (sadly we do not have a copy)

To the 2 private students, G and Nora, thanks for filling up where the boys couldn’t...

To the Phd brothers and their families, Najib, Zaini, Zainal, Osman, Wahab and others, thanks for inviting us for big “makan” every now and then, and their small children that we used to carry around in our arms must have now be grown up adults

To our beloved lecturer Ms Thomas (maths), Andrew (maths), Morris (Physics), Evans (Principal), thanks for taking us in and for being great mentors

To Mr Keele the house owner of 8 Vulcan Street, hope that you received back the house in good shape.

To our friend Phil Robin from Chadon, Eggesford in Devon, hope you still eat “sambal belacan” and “ikan masin”

With all the great memories of Aber behind me, I intend to go back one day to see how the place has changed (hopefully with my family) and till then I am.......

Johan dari Aber