Letters From The Equator

what’s in my bag / flickrversary, originally uploaded by superlocal.

3 suitcases. 60kg.
1 knapsack.
1 camera bag.
1 ladies’ handbag.

I’m not sure I can fit the September issue of Topgear. I heard it’s got a review of the latest Ford RS (300bhp in a 2L engine?!).

I’m going to miss my GHM family. I’ll miss the children I teach on Fridays and Saturdays. They’re such fun and I really learn from them as much as I am teaching.

I know kids are intelligent. I don’t speak baby talk like “do you want to mum-mum”. A friend-couple’s 15 month old baby loves to press buttons - remote controls, ATMs, keyboards, you name it. He’s not supposed to, and he knows it. At 15 months, he can distinguish what’s right and wrong, and learns discipline and obedience.

Kids are intelligent, bright, and have such potential. But they need all the help they can get to be the best that they can be. So let’s give it up for children. They’re a blessing in our often cold and convoluted world.

Anyway, the children grabbed a whole bunch of stuff we wanted to give away. Decorative cups, led flashlight, clothes, sandals, coasters, journals, little knick knacks.

I’m reminded of an article I wrote recently about giving. Sometimes I wonder how we justify how much we own and how much we lose. But really - there’s no point about it. If you own something that you don’t enjoy - is that really owning? If you give away something that cost you more money but means more to someone else, who really deserves to own it more?

Giving helps break down those boundaries. And I know money isn’t always part of that equation. Because money comes and goes. Relationships shouldn’t.

And that’s the thing I’ll miss most - my family and friends. I’ll miss the boardgames, the conversations and the fun stuff we do together. I’m hoping the future will be brighter, and that there’ll be more chances to meet then.

So that’s my hope, that the future will be brighter. That there will be more hope for all of us. That I’ll have good things to report to everyone.

Our flight leaves tomorrow night at 8pm. I’ll need the rest I can get now.

Dance till your feet can’t touch the ground, originally uploaded by Sara Crowe?!.

LL got up this morning and checked on the VFS website and it said our application was ready to be picked up. We weren’t sure what to expect, but I’m glad we arrived just in time before the visa processing centre closed.

We got it.

They gave us a stay period of up to Jan 2010, so that leaves us room for me to finish my thesis, apply for a post-study visa extension, and numerous other things.

It’s hard to believe, but it’s on. The adventure starts now. With packing (ugh), goodbyes (sob), and new hellos. The UK weather is bad, apparently. But I like it gloomy like that. Weird. Maybe I’ll hate it after a year. Who knows.

I had a wonderful dinner with my mom, just us two, and we had a long evening of exchanging words about expectations, family, and the past. Mum’s a UCL alumni, who graduated with her Masters in the 80s. I feel a sense of reverence in the lineage. She had always dreamed of living overseas, or studying abroad. And she loves London. I want for her to live vicariously through me, if that’s possible.

Today, yet another kin - my uncle. It was a delightful coincidence that he was in town, and he gave LL and I a treat at a Mexican restaurant nearby. We talked about life, and that it was necessary to go through the relative difficulties and gain new experiences from it. He’s partly speaking from his own journey, but much of it can be applied to mine. We’re both ambitious and self driven, and I guess that work ethic is one thing that’s always been true in the family.

Agh,.. I need to pack.

I just got two emails in this format below, which I did not before when our visa got rejected. Does this mean that our visas have been approved? We were thinking approvals take longer to process, and so far this round has been a longer waiting period. Let’s hope it’s gone through okay. And let’s hope Lee Lian got approval to work as well. Watch this space on Friday.

A decision has now been made on your UK visa application. Your documents should be ready for collection from the Visa Application Centre in 3 working days time, unless you have opted to have them delivered to you by courier.

I just got done watching Episode 1 of TopGear’s Season 5. It was entertaining, no doubt - it’s got great storytelling, visuals, and of course, cars. But while I was watching it, I couldn’t help but ignore this nagging feeling at the back of my mind that the time spent watching the show wasn’t ever going to come back.

I know, it’s stupid.

It’s not going to make a difference that I watch one or twenty TopGear episodes. It’s how I manage my time. And my previous post already reveals signs that I haven’t been doing much good with my time, and the fact that I’m blogging about it at 2.30am in the morning is absolute proof that I have no control of my life whatsoever, apart from anxiously waiting for that UK visa.

It’s the same effect as someone watching TV in the 80s. I’ve not gone any further than I intended.

Sure, I’m one step closer to a dream job, travel opportunities, settling down… but there are no real guarantees. I have no idea if I’ll succeed, let alone find what I want - simply because I haven’t got much of a clue how to get there.

I have the same basic formula that makes sense. Get in, apply for a job, do my best, and hope to win. I don’t have a magic formula.

The only thing I have is motivation. Not from myself, of course. But from all the junk I’ve consumed over the last 29 years of my life. I’ve somehow managed to piece together that it’s the right thing to do.

Here’s what I’ve been consuming over the last year:

• The World is Flat, by Thomas L. Friedman
• The Art of the Start (ChangeThis edition), Guy Kawasaki
• A whole bunch of stuff from Seth Godin
• The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell
• TopGear
• BusinessWeek.com
• Wired
• Usability blogs and books
• Brazen Careerist and stuff from Penelope Trunk
• FreelanceSwitch
• T3 and Stuff magazine, but they don’t count

From this, I can summarize all the motivational sources that led to my decision to go to the UK and pursue a user experience career.

• Cars (preferrably nice and affordable)
• Design, innovation and startups (big topic these days)
• Where work sucks less
• Great user experience

It’s like saying, I am what I consume. So if you want to end up in Japan, read tons of manga, learn Japanese, drive a Nissan, etc.

From what I’ve been reading, of course it’s the right thing to do. Of course innovation is important. Of course the world is flat. Of course user experience will revolutionize computing. And it would be great if everyone’s doing the same thing, singing the same praises, and having a good time together.

But they’re not.

There’s no revolution. No great ideas. No great destination. No news. Nothing. People talk about what’s on telly. The Olympics. Michael Phelps. Or games they’ve been playing. Or movies they’ve been watching. They go to the same places to eat. They talk about the same jobs they’ve been having. They mull over stuff they don’t have. And I wouldn’t be able to prove them wrong. That’s just life.

But you know, it really makes me feel out of place. And I hate that. Because I’m not like that at all.

The reason why I hate it is because I want to feel a sense of belonging. I want to share something in common with someone else. I want to really have something to talk about. But I don’t. Nothing that comes out of my mouth makes much sense to other people around me. It only makes sense to me.

My decision to go to UK is a final attempt at finding out if I’m normal. Because I want to be normal. I don’t want to be the geek, or the outcast, or the “guru”, or the inspiring guy anymore. I just want to be normal. I want to just do my own thing, and not have to convince anyone that I’m right or wrong. And I don’t want to change myself to get there.

Maybe I’ll find it, maybe I won’t. But it’s worth an attempt, and it’s worth the story I get to tell my grandchildren.

• Don’t take time too seriously. People who take time too seriously are wasting their lives.
• Untidyness is just a state of mind. No one’s looking anyway.
• Don’t do other people’s work. Besides, you don’t get paid much.
• Maximize comfort. Your ass was made to enjoy sitting, and your back made for resting.
• Whatever will happen will happen. Be a spectator.
• Excuses are real and practical reasons. It is also your own personal state of mind.
• Boredom is only temporary. Move from one insignificant thing to another.
• Yes, you can get away with free or little. Breathing air is free, and so are a lot of things.
• Plans are overrated.
• You can always say sorry.
• Losing isn’t a bad thing.
• Sugar exists.
• Defer everything.
• … to be continued, whenever

Visa Re-application and farewell

We have resubmitted our application to the British high commission. We scrutinized (scrutinised) our application until we had no practical reason to reject us, but they still might. Fingers crossed, we put it in anyway.

The last time, it took the high commission 3 days to give us a result. “That’s really fast”, we thought, only to realize we got rejected. So maybe if they took the full 5 days to process, we might stand a better chance at getting an approval. After all, they need more time to process an approval instead of a rejection.

The visa really is the last mile in this transition process. We’ve sold both cars (yes including the Alfa), sold the apartment, sold some big ticket items (furniture), quit our jobs, told our friends, had our farewell gatherings, blew our cakes… but we don’t have a visa yet. God forbid that it should stay that way.

Thanks to everyone who attended our small farewell gathering. Maybe we should set up a virtual farewell gathering on Facebook or something. Especially since KP has just signed up for it. That’s somewhat an achievement in its own right.

Dell and Vista

Vista, Vista, Vista, Vista… versus OS X
uploaded by six steps ?

After I quit my job, I had to remain laptopless for a few days. I just received my Dell m1330 a few days ago, and I’m very happy with it. After 2.5 years using a Toshiba, I don’t think I’ll ever go back. Dell’s affordable, convenient, and sound products and services make it a natural choice. I had to skip the Macbook this time. Maybe later when money is not an issue.

I didn’t have a choice for non-Vista, but I think that after using it for awhile, I can live with it. I turned off the sidebar, downgraded my visual effects, and stuck to “classic” mode, which trumps performance over visuals. I kinda like that the “search” bar acts as a mini command-line tool. I can launch ‘cmd’ and other global .exes with it. I like how when I type “f-i” into the search bar, Filezilla comes up under “Programs” on the menu.

Yes, usability has improved on Vista. Some of their million dollar investments has paid off. I’m happy that they gave me an option to switch to classic mode for the Control Panel view. I’m still not quite sure I like how Vista wants me to switch views for the Windows Explorer, but I like that it’s more feature-rich now.

Alfa-less now

Alfa Romeo 146 uploaded by Pierpaolo.

I managed to sell my Alfa 146 after weeks of waiting, phone calls, and publishing ads. The ad on Motor Trader caught the eye of a vetenarian who lives in Dungun, Terengganu. When he called me, I wasn’t quite sure he was a genuine buyer. He spoke in a very northern, colloquial dialect that was not easy to make out.

Turned out that he once owned a 97 Fiat Tempra, which is the 146’s close cousin. It did not survive a head-on collission with an ox (wild deer in the US, dumb ox in Malaysia), but the vet swears on Italian engineering after walking out without a scratch. He made the effort to drive all way to see the car, and made a 2nd trip to process the name transfer. I’m happy with the price, and he’s happy with the car.

The 146 had a lot of soul, and even despite its minor shortcomings, was worth every ringgit I spent on it. It has a look only a Alfisti would love, and I’m proud to have been a part of the club. In the UK, they are selling the Alfa MiTo, the Fiat 500 Abarth and the Fiat Punto Abarth - all tempting propositions, but I won’t be driving cars for at least a year.

Our UK visa application got rejected yesterday, on the grounds of insufficient proof of sponsorship. We made a mistake and misunderstood what the application form was trying to say. I guess it didn’t help that our situation was relatively unique. We should have gone to see the British Council for help from the start. It would have saved us time and money.

But that’s the thing - we did what we felt was best at the time. I guess it’s all part of the learning process. I sometimes think lessons learnt from mistakes like this are invaluable, even though it hurts.

We’ll be reapplying very soon. No time to lose. Just hurts that we’ll have to pay the fees again, which we of course, wanted to avoid. Appeals take far too long. Why is this so!?

life, originally uploaded by pstarr.

I finally got my acceptance letter from UCL in the mail. Which means I finally got my visa application in today. This means that I am one step closer to getting a visa. There are two requirements left to pray for:

1. student visa accepted
2. student dependent allowed to work while I’m studying

We’re planning to push our departure date to early September. There’s still a lot of stuff left to do, and we need to pace ourselves a little bit better. Extra time will help us to do that.

There is an orientation I plan to attend that’s scheduled on 13 Sept. They’ll tell me where all the toilets are, how to open a bank account, where to go if I can’t speak English well enough to save my life, etc.

There’s a lesson to be learnt here.

When you’re aiming for something big and you have no clue how to get there, there really is no clue how you’ll get there. Don’t bother trying to figure everything out. Just get going.

Anyway, I’ve sold the sofa and art table. So now I’m officially sofa-less. Goodbye trusty Ektorp. You served us well.

There are lots more going for sale. Please check out the spreadsheet in the previous post.

I also still have a lovely italian car, if anyone wants that.

I’m selling all my furniture and other odd ends. Have a look at them here, and let me know if you’re interested in anything.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pBqnXkxfy3GM1swt3Y7LRDA&hl=en

View the photos here:

http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?act=ST&f=11&t=760176&st=0#entry19057737

Thanks!

Note to Self, by Alex Ostrowski, originally uploaded by Kate_A.

Check facts and details before posting a car ad to thousands of people.