Wot-e-va

Le me see....first it was watching 1st seededRoger Federer winning his 15th Grand Slam at Wimbledon by defeating a long time underdog and one time grand slam champion Andy Roddick in 5-set "thriller". Well Fed already made a new record now as far as winning tennis grand slam is concerned. He now topped the all-time great with Peter Sampras now holding the second place winning 14 grand slams. We also seen Rafael Nadal dropping himself out of the Wimbledon tournament due to knee injury and has now become the 2nd seed. As for women's single, Serena Williams beat her sister Venus in straight set, and they both teamed up to win another winning trophy in women's double.

Last month, it was a bit of jetsetting and out and about for me. 1st week of June, i was in Pahang, stayed at Legend Hotel Cherating with parents and youngest sis, went to Pekan to see some relatives and went for the 1st time to Kemaman, well all that was my 1st ever driving trip to pekan and kemaman. Surprisingly, Kemaman was really getting better and modern and we had very nice terengganu luncheon at Warung Aziz Satta at kuala kemaman.

A week after that, I flew to South Korea attending 2nd MFC symposium at Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, GIST. It is situated in Gwangju province,south west of S.Korea and it is about an hour from Gwangju City. Before we went back to malaysia, we managed to spend just a day at Seoul for some bit of shopping, well, brooches mostly. Korean people are very nice and helpful, most of them. My colleague, Puan Shahrom and I had a good time there, and I felt at home in korea in no time. There were a lot of churches everywhere and apparently christianity has become like the 1st religion there. On our way to Seoul from Jeongsan train station, Gwangju, we passed along churches after churches and even a few cathedrals too. They also have one big cathedral in Seoul city itself and just one masjid.

2 weeks later, I went to Bandung with half of the department members to attend a seminar and MOU meeting with Institut Teknologi Bandung, ITB in Bandung, Indonesia. That was my 3rd time visit to bandung and we still took time to do some few more shoppings at Pasar Baru, a 7-storey clothing and household market as well as at the factory outlets.

This month marked another turn of the year and i celebrated with my 2 other nephews also born in the same month. Whats more significant is that I received quite a number of well-wishes on my Facebook site. Thats really something. I also got treated with a birthday lunch with another colleague of mine who was also my senior in KISAS and a cousin to Pak Adib, Wan Fariza.

Else, this is already the 3rd week of Semester 1 2009-2010. Lotsa things to do.

Oh yes, we also received visit from our collaborator from Lincoln Venture Ltd, New Zealand, Dr. Neil Pasco who then gave a one day seminar on bioelectrochemistry and single culture microbial fuel cell.

Pictures of the above mentioned events will be posted later.

Double rainbows en route to Rod Laver Arena

Somewhere.................. over the rainbows.......

I love Eva Cassidy's "Over the Rainbow" rendition, kinda classic, melodious, soulful....

So before I continue my little photoblog on double rainbows that I get to witness in the heart of Melbourne last year's September (on the 26th September 2007, Wednesday to be exact), one fine spring evening, I'd like to invite you to click on the youtube videoclip of Eva Cassidy live performance as the musical background.

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I just finished the Chemeca2007 conference at Sofitel Melbourne, packed all my stuff, and still had some few hours to kill before I got into the shuttlebus all the way to Tullamarine Airport. I called the concierge and the porter came and collected my luggage and kept them all tagged at the concierge counter as soon as I checked out.

The weather was fine, not too cold, not too warm, little bit sunny and dry. There I was, making my way downtown, walking fast, faces passed into St.Kilda Street heading towards Rod Laver Arena, the Australian Open tennis grand slam stadium. It is like my second favourite grand slam arena next to Wimbledon ( London SW19). The New York's Flushing Meadows falls third follows by Paris' Roland Garros in the fourth place. Anyways, as I was walking down the street, I saw rainbows....ok that is so Mariah Carey's looney talk (pre-emancipation of mimi album), but yeah there it was, two beautiful rainbows, one to the left and another one stretched out its arch to the right of my path. I was mesmerized by this awesome phenomena, something I have never seen in my life before. Two rainbows side by side! That must be like another quirky australian thingy i thought. It's like seeing a kid's drawing or some funny abstract canvass painting but it was real. Never would i ever thought that rainbows can exist in double at the same time (technically speaking would be: simultaneous visualization).

#1. Sofitel Melbourne, the brownish tower, interlinked with the Telstra tower right behind the Herald Sun greyish silver tower from Exhibition Street view

I stood there, marvelling God's natural phenomenon that took place right before my eyes. I so much wished that I had a better digicam or a more sophisticated digicamcorder model that would let me shoot those scenes for as long as i was standing there. But nope, i was still using (and still am) my old faithful fuji FinePix E550 , 6 Megapixel digicam.

#2. Left view . The bottom stadium is the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) not far from Rod Laver Arena

#3. left view

#4. Still on the left view

#5. Fading rainbow on the left view

#6. Double rainbow : one to the left view and another one goes to the right view



#7. I'm still trying to capture the other twin/mirror image rainbow on the right view but the direct sunlight coming from my right side was so glaring

The last 2 pictures were not that sharp enough but if you look carefully, you will see the end points of each rainbow. The right one had to "penetrate" through the blanket of woolly looking cloud before it appeared in a more defined shape. However, what you have seen in the #6 and #7 pictures were just a small portion of what i saw as the sun shone brightly from the right view. Consequently, my camera could not get a good shot of the right rainbow. I probably did exclaim " what a beauoooody" in Steve Irwin's style, but I was glad I didnt say it out loud (on the pretext of displaying some aussie accent mockery)....and followed by "Subhanallah" (All glory to Allah), praise the lord!



It was almost dusk, the twilight zone that was. And i was there on the bridge, watching as the rainbows slowly ebbed away, fading into the sky as the night fell.



And not very long after that, I quickened my path towards the Rod Laver Arena. During that time, the grand slam tour has faced the final curtain as the final of the tour legs ended in early September 2007 in Flushing Meadows. Roger Federer won three grand slams and lost one to Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros (and so does Pete Sampras, who has never had the opportunity of lifting the Roland Garros cup throughout his professional career).



As I wrote this, the Australian Open 2008 is now in day 5 which saw big names and former champions Amelie Mauresmo, Marat Safin and Andy Roddick threw in the towels as their battle have come to an end.


(Someday, I wish that I will be able to get my chance to watch the games L.I.V.E at Rod Laver Arena and especially Wimbledon. Angan-angan yang akan menjadi kenyataan inshallah)

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A little but totally ROTFLMAO videoclip: White and Nerdy by Weird Al Yankovic.

Enjoy!

The Swiss Guy has done it again at Australian Open 2007

Even though Fernando Gonzalez has fought brilliantly, he was still outsmarted by Roger Federer, who has emerged as the champion of the Single Men match today in Melbourne. I dunno what kinda mantra or prayers these two great tennis players would normally silently chant to stay focus and spirited, or what kinda motivation that drove them to be the winner, all i can say here is it all boils down to the mind power. It is without a doubt that these two lads had to brave themselves in order to go through the matches, playing in front of each of their opponent's supporting team and thousands of spectators with high expectations. I must congratulate Fernando for continuing his brilliant performance despite on the lower winning odds. Of all the matches he has ever played against Roger, he has yet to win any.

And I am thoroughly enjoyed myself watching them playing on the Astro channel star sport 82.



This is the first ever final match in a grand slam that Fernando (pic above) has ever played in his life. He definitely is getting better and better each year. Some said that his strong motivation and inspiration comes from his blonde girlfriend who has been watching most of his games except the SF and final. He played fast and has gone more powerful than ever. Such a showmanship was quite unforgettable especially the moment he beat another tournament favourite, Rafael Nadal on a straight set.




Yet, Roger (pic above) also has his own master plan and one of them would be to place himself in the top echelon of the great tennis players in the history. Today marked his 10th Grand Slam winning, and 4 short of Pete Sampras record of 14. The latter has never won Rolland Garros and so does Roger. This French Open in June has so far empowered Rafael Nadal's position as the consecutive king of the clay court.




Holding the Australian Open trophy for the third time in his life (previous ones were in 2004, 2006. Roger lost to Marat Safin in the SF stage in 2005). With that, he is now a regular winner in Melbourne and the 1st player to win a Grand Slam this year.





Off he goes, aiming for more victory in this year's remaining 3 Grand Slams. Roger Federer is leaving the court carrying his Wilson racquets in the bag,the championship trophy, a fat cheque and a heart full of pride.

To Andy Roddick, better luck next time. You were such a one man show guy with all that shouting, cursing, mumblings that had me laugh. Not just that, you also like to pull your shirt up to wipe those excess sweat off your face while exposing your nice torso. Although you have lost to Federer in the SF match, you have entertained us with your superb tennis skills and a lot of perseverance. At least you did win against him previously at the Kooyong Classic here in Melbourne.