I've finally got around to buying some cutlery for use in the kitchen. I've also bought lots of food during the weekend, so I'm stocked up for the week. It seems I'll be spending a bit more time in the kitchen now - near the oven, microwave, sink and maybe the dining table as well.

From now on, the kitchen isn't only going to be a place where I stumble into my flat mates - it will be where I make my grub. Food, here I come!

The Muslims around the world are looking up for the moon to see if tomorrow is the 1st of Ramadan... While in the depths of the Indian ocean, in the scattered islands of the Maldives the Muslim populace silently wait looking up at their "moon" (better known locally as ---moon) to see if tomorrow is Ramadan or not.

I remember this particular "moon sighting" event back from the days I slogged for the President's Office with a diminutive salary but unique job title of "Web Developer". It was the first Eid during my time at the PO and as always I had to work late. Then around evening, I receive a press release from the "Press Unit" for publication on the President's Office website. I read the press release and just stood there in utter shock. Here with me was the press release regarding the moon sighting event that would be held that night and yes - the outcome of this colourful, televised/broadcasted live ceremony as well! There written in detail was the events of the ceremony complete with snips from any speeches. This was better than astrology. This was living the future right then and there.

Are even religious events and holy days rigged? Are they preset and predetermined for political benefit? I snapped out a fake reality and burst out of another bubble - I knew better from then on. I watched in amusement as whole events - with no exemptions for the holy - be planned and orchestrated with brilliant precision. I watched as everyone was hoarded in rooms and halls, dressed in their best attire and silently be made a fool of themselves. Oh well, just another exciting tale from my days at PO...

Anyway, let me steal a few lines from http://www.moonsighting.com/ regarding the start of Ramadan:

"Sighting Possibilities for Ramadan 1426
Ramadan: The Astronomical New Moon is on Monday October 3, 2005 at 10:28 Universal Time. Looking at the visibilty curve one can understand that the moon is in the Southern Hemisphere. The moon is about 15 hours old and being too low on the horizon for North America will set in 14 min. after sunset on west coast. It cannot be seen in North America nor anywhere East of USA October 3. On October 4, it will be visible in most of the world except most of Asia and Europe, where it will be 24 to 31 hours old and less than 2 degrees above the horizon, still not visible. In Europe and most of Asia, it cannot be seen until October 5, when it will be 48 to 55 hours old. Accordingly, the first day of Ramadan will be on Wednesday, October 5, 2005 for North America and most of the world, except most of Asia and Europe, Insha-Allah."

TTFN.

It's the weekend finally and I get to sleep a little (a lot?) longer. I woke up today to the sound of my Pocket PC declaring that it was the first of Ramazan. I am not sure how it came up with that announcement but today certainly is not the first of Ramazan - I should get around to reconfiguring Pocket Islam for the correct dates and location.

Past week has had many ups and downs. I finally got my luggage back about 3 days ago - yes, after 4 long days of waiting empty handed. It was such a relief to get all my gear back intact and totally made my day. Sadly, however, one of mom's kulhikaajaa packets had burst open and spread all over my clothes and I ended up vacuuming the clothes and the room. The airline isn't offering any compensation though and hasn't responded to my emails. Anyway, I don't think I'll fly Qatar Airways from now on.

On the same day, my girlfriend of 4 years came online after successfully avoiding me for almost a month to kindly declare that after a long period of reflection and thought, she didn't think we should continue the relationship anymore. Interestingly I wasn't surprised or hurt or depressed - I guess I had gone through all the scenarios in the weeks she avoided me. She has her own problems - studies, family, work and all of the rest of lifes confusing blessings to worry about. Well, I am free and single now... so, girls: let the flirting begin!

The enrolment, modules selection, health registration and all the other miscellaneous registration processes have also been dealth with during last week. I will be doing modules on cybernetics, maths, electronics, internet, software engineering and programming for the next year. Studies begin Monday and I am quite looking forward to it. Hopefully this will tickle my mind more than work has for the oh-so-many years. My tutor is a Dr. X. Hong specialising in cybernetics and seems to be a nice person. Well, I hope she is. She is supposed to be monitoring my academic and personal performance throughout the year and I surely don't want to be in her bad books when I need some favour or exemption.

My flat mates are a nice bunch. Everyone seems to get along with each other fine. Everyone's been nice to me and quite helpful too. Sadly, the cat has got my tongue so I end up keeping quiet most of the time. I have yet to figure out this introvertedness in me - maybe it's intimidation, maybe insecurity or maybe boredom. I have always considered myself to be an extrovert, confident and talkative but then again I think I've always taken a while to warm up to new people and not just foriegners.

Enough of my mundane blabbing for the time being. Tata.

[Trring triing]
Hello, this is Jaa. I'm away right now, please leave a message at the beep.
[Beep!]

Hey ya! I'm calling in from Reading (UK) from the (dis)comforts of my room in a university accomodation hall. I flew in to Gatwick via Doha from the Maldives on Qatar Airways. The trip was bothersome and the planes were really a disappointment, really. The wait at Doha was terrible more so contributed by the horrible airport itself. The fellow at the boarding gate took a clean 5 minutes looking at my passport. At first I thought he had something in his eye and was using my passport as mirror - he surely had it up close to his eyes! Then he started eyeing me up and let me go after ages of waiting and getting wierd looks from fellow passengers. Just as I thought the hassle was over, the fellow came over as I was sitting the boarding lounge and took away my passport for another 15 minutes, all without a mention of what was up. Later he came back with it and was courteous enough to let me know there was something "abnormal" about my passport. Oh well, the Maldivian government issued the passport so I should let them know there is something abnormal with their passports...

On arrival to Gatwick, Qatar Airways had managed to loose my luggage somewhere - hopefully not into a deep ocean. I continued my journey to Reading -minus my luggage- on a train on which I kept falling in and out of some wierd reality. Maybe the lack of sleep the previous night contributed to this yet again "abnormal" event. I took a cab from Reading Railway Station to my accomodation hall. Ofcourse, this was no easy feat when I kept feeling wierd realities mixup with each other but I finally stumbled into some university representatives that pointed in me the correct direction and rid me of using my intellectual faculties at all.

The accomodation hall is quite wicked and I love it. The building is quite new, modern looking and beautifuly decoured. (Coolest of all, all access to building areas including my room are controlled by RFID cards). There are 7 other tenants in the flat block I am in. All of them British and none of them study any science. Oh yes, there are girls too and some(one?) quite yummmyyyy delicious too.... sigh.

It is the fresher's week now and lots of stuff happening. The enrolment stuff and faculty and course introductions going on as well as lots of fun social activities. While I am trying not to be anti-social, I don't think I'm making much progress in being sociable. My eyes are bloodshot from continuous wear of contact lens - part induced by the lack of spectacles and lens cleaning solution with me.

I'd post some pictures but I don't have the camera cable either. Oh well I guess I shall continue wearing the same clothes for a little more while too! All these thanks to Qatar Airways. These airline buggers have been crawling at the speed of snails. They are being really really careless and have not located my luggage still.

On a slightly more optimistic cheerful note, I am liking it here. I really am. I guess I'll have to wait for uni studies to start to make a solid comment though.

Toodles.