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| Friday, 22-May-2009 21:16 |
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Lille, France
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Lille is a city in northern France..It is the fourth largest metropolitan in France after Paris, Lyon and Marseille. Traveling to Lille is about 11/2 hr via Eurostar.. from here (Lille) to Brussels is another hour as Lille is situated on the Deule River, near France's border with Belgium.
Lille has been named the 2004 Culture Capital of Europe (no wonder they are having the conference here....culture..culture..). It has many interesting place to visit such as Bois de Bologne (largest park in the city), Lille Grand Palais (located in central of Lille with lots of eye catching piece of architecture), Lille Opera (showing variety of performance throughout the year), Old Stock Exchange (the most historic building in the city) and many more (i hardly remember all the places by now actually... )
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| Friday, 22-May-2009 14:14 |
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Day trip to Brussels
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Brussels is not far from Lille..its about 1 hr journey via train. I've been here once with my family and nothing change after several years...It is still the same Brussels...famous with chocolate (yummie), waffle (still yummie) and the Manikin Piss statue is still there (hmm..i think last time it was in gold and now is black? maybe i should get my facts right first..heheh..)
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| Friday, 22-May-2009 13:50 |
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Immigration, Consumption and Markets Conference
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Lisa, Me and Soren
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In front of the Faculty
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Bee and Me
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I was excited when my supervisor asked me to attend a conference in Lille, France last month. Not because of the opportunity to attend an international conference but being able to travel outside UK was the most exciting part..haha..
The conference i attended titled 'Immigration, Consumption and Markets' and was held on 18-19 May at University Lille 2, France. The conference was participated by academicians in consumer behaviour field specifically dealing with the immigrants consumption and markets. Papers presented included on ethnic buying and brands, food consumption, religion evolvements, migrations and markets. Since my research is on British Muslims consumption in UK, i found this conference is sooo useful and informative.
When I was there, I had the opportunity to meet all the 'famous' authors in my field ..such as Lisa Penaloza (those doing research on acculturation definitely know her), Soren, Bonsu, Eric, Andrew and Podoshen. They have produced excellent paper in my field and i must say that i cited most of their work in my thesis. I thought they wouldnt bother to have a small talk with the PhD students like me but I was wrong, they are sooo friendly and humble with their work. I still remember what Penaloza told me..'I'm so excited to have a look at your work!' but i missed the opportunity to show my framework to her to at least get some idea however, I managed to show my work to Andrew and Podoshen and they gave constructive comments..If i may quote Podoshen's comment 'Ooh..i can see this model is working' and I was like 'Yeay! hooraayyy'...hahahah...but everyone was supportive and willing to give ideas and suggestions on my work. I felt inspired by them ..PhD is no longer a lonely journey...
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| Sunday, 19-Apr-2009 18:24 |
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Walk for Orphans Challenge
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Recently, I took part in an event organised by the Islamic Relief Wales (Islamic Relief is an international relief and development organisation working for the long term development of the world's poorest nations) held in Cardiff (at the Blackweir Park..). In the beginning, I had no idea where's Blackweir Park was..I ended up, googling and googling to find out the map and at last my fren (Mariam) told me that the place is just opposite of my hall !! haha...how ignorant am i!
Anyway....
The event was called as ' Cycle/Walk for Orphans Challenge' and was carried out to help out the orphans around the world. There were three categories; the Bronze Challenge (1 hour walk...more kind of enjoying the scenery and sunny weather..heheh..), the Silver Challenge (20 km cycling) and the Gold Challenge (40 km cycling) . I've decided to take part in the first challenge, the Bronze Challenge (well, considering I'm still new in this 'athletic' arena..hahahah).
On that day, the weather was sunny and Alhamdulillah many came to show their support for this event. It's fun though the walk was only for an hour. ..hehe..and hopefully, I can consider myself for another challenge next yr...insya Allah.
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| Tuesday, 7-Apr-2009 12:01 |
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My new Miamor...Fakhri Irsyadi
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Taddaa...introducing my new Miamor...Fakhri Irsyadi. Born on 31 March 2009 ..Now, i have 4 heroes! Yeay!!
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| Sunday, 15-Mar-2009 13:20 |
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Prague, Czech Republic
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Prague Castle
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Inside Prague Castle (Old Royal Palace)
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In front of The Story of Prague Castle
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Myself and frens went to Prague, Czech Republic. The country is one of the European members and it is 2 hrs journey from UK (obviously by flight..hehe..). We were told that Prague has many nice places to visit from Old Town, New Town, Jewish Quarter, Prague Castle, and Little Quarter. Only five? well, at least you have to spend 2-3 hours at each place...
Getting around Prague is not that complicated especially for the tourist. The transportation is superb (the best and the most efficient i've experienced so far) that makes my life easy when i was there...hehe...the bus stop is just few steps from our hotel, tram station is just across the hotel and metro station is just 4 tram stops. We really had no problem getting around Prague.....
We started our journey from the top (Prague Castle), then Old Town, Jewish Quarter, Little Quarter and New Town. Each place has its own attraction ...emm...so many places to tell now actually but check out this site to know the details ..http://www.myczechrepublic.com/ ... and for those who loves crystal, your eyes wont stop blinking looking at the crystal...hehe.. one thing interesting about Prague is that most of the shops have the same price for the same goods (probably coz they were under communist system before and everybody must get the same profit maybe)...
i don't mind going there again but this time with a bigger bag (so, i can load all my shopping stuffs) and plenty of food (foods are cheap (seriously) but all in their language)... overall, i give ****...
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| Sunday, 8-Mar-2009 10:05 |
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Slimbridge and Burton on the Water (II)
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After spending almost 3 hours wif the birds and ducks n etc (heheh), we went to Burton on the Water...its about 1 hr drive from Slimbridge. This place is also known as the 'Little Venice', probably because it has little bridge which looks like the one in Venice (hmm...should go to Venice then..) ..this small village has many small shops that sell souvenir, perfumes in cute little tiny bottles, chocolates and etc...worth going if you wanna have a taste of 'English Village' environment..
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| Sunday, 8-Mar-2009 09:50 |
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Slimbridge and Burton on the Water (I)
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My school organised a trip to Slimbridge and Burton on the Water last weekend. OK.....Firstly, this entry is about the trip to Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) in Slimbridge..WWT is a leading UK conservation organisation saving wetlands for wildlife and people across the world. The place is about 11/2 hr from Cardiff and i think the place is known as Slimbridge because we passed by roads and bridges which are slim..hehe...
According to information given to the visitors, WWT is the only UK charity with a national network of nine specialist wetland visitor centres. With over 60 years experience of wetland conservation, WWT is committed to the protection of wetlands and all that depend on them for survival. I've never seen so many types of birds, ducks, and flamingos...i do know there are different types of birds but i cannot distinguish which is which..hehehe ..this place protect the birds from being harm and etc as some of the species are threaten or nearly threaten...some of the birds names that i can recalled including Mute Swan, Mandarin Duck, Hawaiian Goose, Richardson's Canada Goose and many more.. I have lots of pix but i just upload some ...enjoice;)...next entry : Burton on the Water..
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| Wednesday, 4-Feb-2009 19:19 |
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Postgraduate Dinner 2009
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I was supposed to do this entry first before the 'snow' entry...hehe....anyway, i had my Postgraduate Dinner this year at Aberdare Hall, Cardiff last week (29 Jan). A bit 'low profile' dinner for this year compared last year and not many came ...maybe everyone was busy wif their research n stuff...whatever it is, thanks to CARBS for having this dinner...
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| Wednesday, 4-Feb-2009 18:54 |
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Snow jua akhirnye..;)
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UK was hit by snow (at last!) last 2dys... Quite excited coz since i came here , this is the first i really enjoy the snow (jakun..hehe..)...My fren Niza came here to say goodbye to me before she leaves UK for good next wk..So, we went to Swansea n the snow was even better there !! As we step out fr the train station, the road was fully covered by snow n we hardly walk n practically all shops were closed...but we managed to go near the sea (windy n colddd) and made our snow 'boy' instead of snowman..hehe..
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(tapi tak sesedap roast chicken and potato bread yg u all missed ari tuh kan,kan,kan?he!he!)
