Saturday, July 23, 2005

Why Tube Relief 2005?

We know the reason for Tube Relief 2005: (as stated in Geoff's website)

i) Charity. People often do this and raise a few pounds & pennies. This time everyone gets sponsored in aid of the bomb relief charity and we really go for it. Let's get thousands of pounds this time.

ii) Defiance. Solidarity. Togetherness. We are not afraid, and we well get back on the tube - the whole tube - and prove that we are more than happy to ride it. We will do the thing that we do best - ride around the tube system.

On Thursday 7th July 2005, at least 50 people died in the worst terrorist attack ever to happen in London. As well as the dead, there are horrific injuries and people who will be mentally scarred and unable to travel on London public transport system (tube and buses) ever again. For those that have no other means of transport, they had no choice but to travel by public transport but accompanied by fear !

Personally, as a person that working in the Built Environment area and concentrating specifically at sustainability, this matter really tore my heart apart..

Some people almost forgotten on how useful and sustainable public transport is, those whom especially always had a bad principal of using their private cars just to go to a convenience store that located few metres away from their house (those in America, especially, with their 4X4!). Public transports are there for a reason! It helps in reducing Carbon Emissions (especially now when the world is force to do something to reduce all type of pollutions due to climate change).

In this post, I would like to take the opportunity to say how I envy London public transport for giving a positive example, not only to other cities in England (such as Brighton), but also other countries where public transport wasn't really put into practice yet (such as Indonesia).

Supporting Tube Relief 2005 will help us in putting the broken pieces back and giving people their confidence back in using public transport that will help in minimising the environmental impact!

Your donation, no matter how small (or big), will help tremendously. We need your support. To donate online, please visit us on:

http://www.justgiving.com/londonblogger/

Support Tube Relief 2005, Support our environment.

Monday, July 18, 2005

Tube Relief 2005

Jonathan and I will be attempting 'Tube Relief 2005' next month. If you would like to sponsor us, please click on the button below:



Please visit Geoff's Not Afraid site for details.

Friday, July 08, 2005

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Review


Before I posted anything, for those of you that haven't finish your sixth Harry Potter book, I kindly ask you to look away, now!



DUMBLEDORE is dead!! (I've warned you to look away..though..) I won't expect it in the first place (I thought it might be Snape) but reading it along the way, Rowling had unmistakenly given the 'soft clue' that Dumbledore is whom people will talk about later on.


Now, I won't praise myself of finishing the whole book as fast as other people. Well, in fact, I am a slow reader and like to enjoy my reading slowly. I bet, if you wanting to find out what happen, you might already found out about it from other faster reader, anyway! ;) That's why you'd probably know how annoyed I was when my other half had gone Harry Potter mad "marathon" and finished reading it in one night (or one and a half day?? I can't even be bothered to remember when he finished it). What makes me gone ballistic is the fact that he can't shut his mouth and try to give me clue on what will happen!

Anyway, some people might say that the sixth book is the best so far, unfortunately, I find it less interesting than all the previous one. I find that the tension in the sixth book had been built up very slowly, and in fact, am quite surprise that there is no twist and everything has been put very straight forward. It's a shame that the details of the story has been 'diverted' to other less important feature, which makes it as though the sixth book has been 'purposely' made thick just for the sake of making it 'thick' (to put salt into the injury, the sixth book is, in fact, 161 pages less than the Order of the Phoenix - eventhough I won't really point this out as something negative as total pages can't actually prove how good and enjoyable a story book can be).

Other discussion that is 'at large' at the moment is about whether Snape truly killed Dumbledore or it's pretentious. Opinions gathered mostly said that Dumbledore will be back on the final book (am pretty sure of this) either because he 'pretend to die' or as a "memory".

But, back to the point as whether Snape is actually truly killed Dumbledore, I myself will look at it from the bright side that Snape is still actually Dumbledore's man or at least killed Dumbledore as being asked by agreement beforehand with Dumbledore (remember how Dumbledore made Harry promised to keep forcing the poison down Dumbledore's throat in the cave?). Some people say that Dumbledore's last word "Please" is just a plea to Snape to spare his life, in fact, I thought it's more of a plea to assure Snape to attack him, his 'scared expression' as described in the sixth book, I will say more towards scared expression of Snape backing away rather than killed him. Well, this is just my theory, though. The truthness of this will only be reveal..in one more year, unfortunately! So, I might be wrong, but I'll put my brain temporary at this theory, just to keep me happy for a year ;) There, I said it.

London Blast - the Day After

I might not call myself as a Londoner (as am travelling to London only every weekend or twice a month for work related matter) but am glad and proud to say Good Job for Londoner no matter who they are; the key public sector staff or civilians. Their calmness and professionalism in dealing with this terrible ordeal, something that really need to be look up for!

Deepest condolence for those who were affected by the blast..

Thursday, July 07, 2005

London Blast

Four explosions confirmed had taken place in London today - three in the tubes, one in number 30 bus- (between Edgware Road and liverpool street tube stations, between russel square and king's cross tube stations, at Edgware road station, on bus at Tavistock Square). All public transport has been put to halt and mobile phone network (especially one located in London) might be clogged up as emergency purposes has been prioritised. Stay alert, tune in to radios and TV, but don't panic .


Source: BBC NEWS/ In Pictures/ London Blast

For a full update, please refer to: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4659331.stm

An update:

15.26pm, News Conference by London Metropolitan Police state that 4 explosions across London central with more than 33 fatalities had occured today.

emergency hotline number for the London blast: +(44) (0) 870 1566 344