BBCheats!

Britain was shocked to learn that there has been serious breaches in TV phone-ins competition. "Editorial breaches" has been found in at least 6 shows, which includes Comic Relief and Children in Need. On numerous occassions prizes for the phone-ins have been awarded to members of the production teams. On other occassions, fictitious winners have been created.

To repair the damages to its reputation, BBC has suspended all its radio and TV phone-ins competition.

It will take a while for BBC to regain our trust on how it is using our TV license money.

Knowing the culture of this country, some heads will definitely roll in the next few days.

Nat's Ordeal

Nat was arrested under OSA for 4 days. The following is the excerpt of his statement on his detention.

From the moment I was arrested until about 11 pm, I was not allowed to speak to anyone I knew, or inform anybody of my whereabouts.

I later learnt that this caused an immense and completely avoidable amount of stress and anxiety amongst my loved ones.

...

I was eventually made to understand that I was arrested in connection to accusations made on the internet regarding Datuk Johari Baharum.

The connection to me was based on a comment made on my blog that was made by an anonymous commentor on the 10th of Februrary, 2007.

It was prepostorous of the police to suspect me of publishing these accusations based on documents protected by the Official Secrets Act that were supposedly in my posessesion. There is absolutely nothing even remotely resembling proof to substantiate such claims.

...

Throughout my detention, the police employed various questioning strategies in what struck me strongly as a concerted attempt to make me admit to things that I had not done.

One of the officers questioning me that evening who refused to identify himself threatened to slap me and throw me across the room.

...

Despite my repeated appeals to the police officers accompanying me to court to be produced before the magistrate for the remand hearing, they absolutely refused to notify my family or, more importantly, my lawyers that I was to be produced in court.

This caused in me a great deal of undue stress because I feared that I would be forced to face the magistrate without any legal representation.

...

On Saturday itself, a senior officer employed physical means in an attempt to intimidate me into answering their questions. This included shoving me into a chair while I was standing handcuffed.

All other attempts to pressure and coerce me into providing information under adverse conditions failed. Finally, on Monday, I was allowed to see my family, who conveyed to me fresh advice from my lawyer regarding what information I could provide.

The police never looked like they had a real case against him. Furthermore, they have adopted an arrest first investigate later tactic. The manner of his arrest has been condemned by the Malaysian Bar Council president Ambiga Sreenevasan.

Read the full statement here.

Very Good Way of Spending Weekend

After weeks of disappointing weather, finally there was enough sun for our first picnic outing in the park.

We've chosen Green Park as I've yet to set foot on this park. Many Londeners had the same idea too. We brought some food and drinks (including hot coffee from home), right after watching Harry Potter - The Order of the Phoenix. The film was quite disappointing. I'm no big Potter fan and only read the first book out of the six so far, yet I could sense that the storyline has been cut short a lot. Some plots had been altered slightly too. Cho Chang was never part of the film even though there is a lot more of her in the books.

Anyway, back to the picnic. We brought along a rug too, so that we could lie down comfortably. Would be great if we had brought along things like frisbee, tennis balls so that we could play games. But perhaps games will be more fun if there are more participants. Perhaps another picnic friends. Anyway, having a picnic in the park is really relaxing and it's probably the cheapest way to spend the weekend.

After picnic we visited the new O2 - formerly known as Millennium Dome. It's full of restaurants and cafés. There's a big O2 Arena right in the middle of the Dome which can play host to concerts, boxing matches, etc. The event last night was World Championship Boxing between Amir Khan and Willie Limond. There is also a Vue Cineplex which occupies 2 floors, with 11 screens, with screen 11 the biggest in London. Judging from the number of visitors, it seems like the Dome's fortune has finally changed for the better.

Free Nat Now

Nathaniel Tan (aka Nat), an information bereau staff of KeAdilan has been remanded yesterday without proper justification by the police. His family and friends failed to locate him initially as the police initially refused to provide information about his arrest.

I am not a supporter of KeAdilan. But the way that he was arrested is too fishy. Imagine that could be you or me.

Relaxing Trip to Plymouth

Johanna and I made a trip to Plymouth last weekend. It has been raining for the past 3 weeks in London. We hope to get some sun there.

We took off on Friday night on a National Express coach and arrived at 6am in the morning.

After checking in to Holiday Inn, we managed few hours of sleep before making a start. It was sunny indeed. We found out from the locals that the weather there has not been any better than London's for the past few weeks, so we were very lucky to be there on a sunny day.

The beachfront of this city is nice, especially with a hill right by the beach, which means we could look out far into the sea and the surrounding areas. We had a stroll along the coast before taking a cruise to the naval base. There are quite a number of warships along the way. Johanna had the chance to try out the famous Cornish ice cream too.







After the cruise we headed to Barbican, the cool part of the city, for lunch. Food is exceptionally cheap at Plymouth. We visited the Plymouth Aquarium after lunch. Despite being the biggest in UK, this aquarium is nowhere near the aquariums in KL or Singapore, probably due to its age.







We had a slow walk back to the hotel and had a pleasant time dipping in the swimming pool before enjoying ourselves in the steam room.

Dinner was served at the penthouse of the 11-storey hotel which provide great view of the sea. But the food was really disappointing.

***

We woke up early next morning for breakfast at the penthouse again. I took off to the beach for some photos after breakfast and was fortunate enough to see a big submarine being escorted back to the naval base.







We checked out around noon and walked around the inner part of the city. There was nothing much to see. We ended up at a square with a big screen watching Wimbledon final with the locals.



After having lunch at a new mall right on top of the bus station, we departed for London.

More photos here.

Xian & Niki @ Home

Since we moved in to this place, we've been inviting friends/family over for lunch or dinner. It has been quite a while since we moved in but due to various reasons we have not had Xian & Niki over at our place.

One Friday evening (29 June), Xian & Niki finally made it. It was a simple dinner - chicken breast and grilled lamb, due to time constraint. We had ice cream and pudding for dessert as well.

Both of them are starting new jobs this month. All the best!

Brian & Cherlyn in London

It was nearly a small meet up for Vialentino & Community members in London, but it was not to be.

Netcat & Meowsou was here on Thursday night, on their honeymoon to Europe. But we couldn't meet up as they only arrived late at their hotel which was only 2 miles away from my place.

But then, on the weekend we had Brian and Cherlyn a.k.a. BrianLulu over at our place. It was Cherlyn's first proper visit to London. Johanna and I took them to city centre first for some shopping. But before that we brought them to NCR restaurant - the only Malaysian restaurant in London Chinatown for lunch. The food there is really good and authentic. Never failed to make us feel more at home.

Prawn mee, better known as Hokkien mee in Penang

After lunch, Brian's sister Belle, joined us. She's in London on holiday working visa. We walked around Piccadilly and then towards Oxford Street via Regent Street. Plenty of shops but also a bit of rain. Johanna also spent some time at Laura Ashley checking out some clothes.

We proceed to Harrods after that, briefly walking through a few sections as the place is too big. We made our way to Westminster after that. It was too late to walk to Buckingham Palace and St. James's Park, so we gave it a miss. We decided to make our way to Tower Bridge instead. There was no District/Circle line running between Whitechapel and Earls Court so we had to take Jubilee line to Bermondsey and change to a bus from there. Unfortunately, I brought them onto the wrong bus and we ended up back in town. So I brought them for dinner at Jade Garden instead.

After dinner, I decided to bring them back to Tower Bridge. I know Brian is yearning for some good photography and he had not manage much on that cloudy and rainy day. At last we arrived at Tower Bridge on a bus from Liverpool Street. We walked across the bridge to the South bank. The night view of the bridge from there is splendid. We managed a few photos before calling it a day.


Tower Bridge @ night

The next day I made them English breakfast. We then proceed to Canary Wharf. The weather was equally as bad as the day before, cloudy and wet. I brought them to Lotus Floating restaurant for a late dim sum lunch before Brian & Cherlyn departed for Swindon, dropping off Belle in North East London on the way.




Outside Lotus Floating restaurant

Swordfish Steak Finally!

One thing I dearly missed in my stay in London this time is the great range of fresh seafood offered by the Angel Sainsbury's - e.g. baby octopus, squid, skate wings, salmon, cod, tuna, large prawns, oysters, mussels and swordfish!

I still remember my first visit to Browns in Angel during my previous stay in London, can't remember with who though. I chanced upon swordfish steak in the menu and decided to give it a go. Yummy! Ever since I've been buying swordfish from Sainsbury's in Angel and grill it the way Browns does it.

But that was when I live near to Angel. Not all Sainsbury's have such wide range of seafood.

This time around, my nearest supermarket is a huge Tesco, which is just opposite my flat. But it has a lousy range of seafood - only readily packaged or frozen ones, and there is not much of variety. Angel's Sainsbury's is too far away while the Sainsbury's in Stratford is small and lousy. Billingsgate market is only one mile away but I'm too lazy to wake up very early in the morning to get there.

Then came the Waitrose in Canary Wharf. Johanna and I walked into it on one lazy Sunday while we were at Canary Wharf, which is slightly more than one mile away from our flat. We were looking for a gift for Niki, who is having her early birthday celebration on Monday (25th June). It was then I discovered that this Waitrose has a great range of seafood just like the Sainsbury's in Angel. I immediately had something in mind.

Till now I have yet to introduce swordfish to Johanna. The last time when we were at Browns with Matthias and Lisi between London Bridge and Bermondsey, swordfish was not on the menu.

Since I would be attending Niki's birthday celebration at the Narrow - a gastropub owned by the 3-Michelin star Scottish chef Gordon Ramsey, Johanna would need to eat dinner on her own as she would only reach home around nine or ten. I quietly went back to the Waitrose in Canary Wharf and bought a piece of swordfish and other necessary ingredients to fix a dinner for her. I also bought some sushi for her. Since I wouldn't be there that often, I also bought a piece of skate wings for our dinner sometime that week.

Before I went out for Niki's birthday dinner, I quickly grill the swordfish the way I used to do it. I managed to nick a bit of the juicy flesh before going out. The cooking wasn't that good though. More practice needed after such a long absense of swordfish in my life.

Jo's dinner that night


Swordfish steak with grounded coriander seed and black pepper

Anyway, that was how happy I am to rediscover my long lost favourite fish. It is the same feeling I had in KL for cod. Despite the urge, the price has always put me off. But not so in London as cod is a frequent feature on our dinner table.

Anyway, before everything gets too fishy, I better stop writing about fish for now.

England - Scotland Trip (Day 6)

The final day of our trip.

We visited the city of York for a while before driving down South to Stratford.

The obvious place to visit in Stratford is Shakespear's house. Stratford is a very beautiful town.





We concluded our trip by visiting Oxford. We walked around Magdalene College for a while before I took my brother to Christ Church - where the dining hall in Harry Potter is filmed. Unfortunately it was too late and the place was already closed for viewing.





We finally reached Bow at 10pm. Jo and I were very exhausted after a gruelling 2,000-mile drive in 6 days. But it was definitely worth the effort!

More photos here, here and here.

England - Scotland Trip (Day 5)

This is my second time to Edinburgh. The first visit was quite brief.

Jo and I allowed ourselves some rest today as we would be staying at Edinburgh until evening.

Based on my limited knowledge of Edinburgh, I decided to bring everyone to Princes Street, where Scott Monument is. We were greeted by a kilt-wearing man blowing the bagpipe.

My parents were impressed with this city. It probably explained the huge number of pensioners in this town.

We went to the famous Edinburgh Castle after walking through a few streets in the town. Other than the castle, the High Street which leads to the castle was also quite interesting, with many shops and café around.



After few hours of sightseeing, we helped ourselves with a buffet lunch at Jimmy Chung's. My dad was extremely delighted to be able to eat Chinese food again.



After the late lunch I drove around the city before driving down to York.



By the time we reached there, it was already past 10pm.

More photos here.

England - Scotland Trip (Day 4)

We woke up to very lovely weather in Broadford.

Isle of Skye is the most important destination for me in this whole trip, and how great it was to finally enjoy a cloudless and sunny day.

The only unfortunate part is Johanna and me found out that we had quite a lot of itchy bite marks left by the notorious Scottish midges, which entered our room through the open window.

View outside our hostel

We set of to the biggest town on the island - Portree, immediately after lunch. On the way, we stopped at a few spots to enjoy the great sceneries.


Yet another pose by Jih Xian

We arrived at Portree around an hour later. After parking the Previa, we went to the port for some photos of the sea and the buildings along the coast.


By the port of Portree

We set off towards the Nothern part of the island after that. All the way we could see the breathtaking sceneries of the sea. It was my first time seeing the Atlantic Ocean. We stopped by at a small museum to take some photos before driving back to Portree again for lunch. We had decided to try out some Scottish seafood at a local fish and chip restaurant. However, most of us didn't quite like the food.


A very small museum

We left Isle of Skye after lunch to set off for Edinburgh. It was a long drive. We had to cancel our trip to Inverness due to time constraint.





On the way we went past Loch Ness and drove along it for quite some time. No sign of Nessie. Loch Ness is huge but we didn't come across any nice scenery all the way, quite a let down judging from the popularity of this huge lake.

By the time we reached our youth hostel accomodation it was already past 10pm.

Click here for more photos.