Cheap Bulbs

It's recession in the UK. GDP growth for the fourth quarter 2008 shrunk more that what analysts forecast. A 1.5% drop from the previous quarter, the biggest contraction since 1980. Analysts were predicting -1.2%. Pound & stocks fell in tandem.

A good time to go running to Robert Dyas & stock your house up with 10 for £1.00 energy saving bulbs. Its looking grimmmm ...

Merry Keris Mas

Last week I received a (chain) mail advising against wishing friends "Selamat Hari Nata.. or Merry Christma..". Note that the email did not even finish the words. It's like in Harry Potter, "he whose name shall not be mentioned" kind of thing. A bit difficult for me coz most of my friends & those I do business with over here in this part of the world, are Christians - be it Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Protestant, Mormon etc. Banyak ek? Well before you say anything Islam has pretty much the same thing - Sunni, Shiites, Ahmadiyah, Ismailis .. etc.

What is Christmas anyway? Well, in its current spirit, it is celebrating the birth of Jesus. For Christians - the birth of god/son of god .. whatever. For Muslims I suppose we can celebrate it too as Maulidurrasul. Isa is a messenger spreading the same thing right? Islam. Actually, come to think of it, we should celebrate it if we are among the believers. That's what one of the most recited doa in any of our functions says:

2:285 Rasul telah beriman kepada Al Quran yang diturunkan kepadanya dari Tuhannya, demikian pula orang-orang yang beriman. Semuanya beriman kepada Allah, malaikat-malaikat-Nya, kitab-kitab-Nya dan rasul-rasul-Nya. (Mereka mengatakan): "Kami tidak membeda-bedakan antara seseorangpun dari rasul-rasul-Nya", dan mereka mengatakan: "Kami dengar dan kami taat." (Mereka berdoa): "Ampunilah kami ya Tuhan kami dan kepada Engkaulah tempat kembali."

Anyway, digressing again. Christmas can be broken into 2 words: Christ & Mas.
Christ came from the Orthodox Greek Kristos which means Messiah or the Annointed One.
Mas came from Mass. So it basically means Messiah Mass or Perhimpunan Untuk Utusan. Pretty harmless I would say, language wise.

BTW, Jesus wasn't born on December 25th. God knows when.

Oh, and the same person has previously sent me pics of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran showing him in humbling poses (partly to compare him with Pak Lah). Well, just check out what this role model wrote (look at the 1st line) in his blog.

I know I'm pretty merry today. Spending an off day with family. Ciao.

Red Handed

I think I'm gonna add another label, K .. short for knowledge. For anything that's like info or sewaktu dengannya.

Today I dropped by the National Gallery for a quick dart through those precious artworks with Gavin - a fund manager turned tourist guide. While admiring one of the art, can't remember which artist but it was showing his house & garden with vast land going into the horizon. In the picture there was a poacher (illegal hunter) with a gun eyeing some ducks.

Now, the knowledge that I got today is the figure of speech "caught red handed".
This comes from the fact that a person is proven a poacher when he is caught with his hand red (bloodied) from the shot animal.