What do they know?

Hi again. there is nothing much to put in this latest post, since we are busy with the study. However, trying not to disappoint our blog reader out there, we try to put something at least so that everybody have something to read and see. Here is some of the latest update about me and my family. If you think this post is little bit boring, just send us yr comment. Trust me, yr comment will surely cheer us up a lot (at least we know that we aren't talking to ourselves)!

My wife Sal, she has already got a temporary pc to work on and a permanent workstation at NICTA. She's still waiting for the notebook though. The spec of the notebook is quite advance and its pink! About her research progress, well I think she is in good condition. Her supervisor helps her a lot. She knows what to do, what to read, and what to write. Imagine all that is done in just a month here...

For me, I'm still struggling to find a topic and area of research. I've been doing so much reading on the area of Parallel programming and multi-core processing, as well as the real-time scheduling, however at the end i've had to give up thinking about that since the area is beyond my capability...duh! Right now, after get consulted with my supervisor, he suggested me to read and try to get a problem on the area of "program analysis". Well, I only know that it is the program that analyze the behavior of the programming. So if somebody can help me with that, I'm so pleased to hear from you.

Our kids, we assume that they are always excited to be here. Both of us trying to give them everything so that they will always happy and enjoy living in such a different environment from what they've used to. Iman is looking forward to go to Kindy early next year. And so we are doing the best we can to prepare him for that matter...language, making friends.. and whats important, the school fees. AUD4500.00 per year is a lot of money since he will not be sponsored by anybody, except FAMA. However, whatever happens, we will make sure that they will experience the best education ever and will become somebody in the future, insyaAllah!

Salfarina's current vs ex-Supervisor...

Hi again...

This time entry is going to be all about my research supervisors (sv). The first one is Prof. Ross Jeffery who is known as the manager of the project and is widely recognized researcher in empirical software engineering as the head of the ESE research group at NICTA, Australian Technology Park at Redfern. He is also a Professor at the School of Computer Science (CSE), UNSW.

The second one is actually my main sv and appear to be my favorite sv (see picture). His name is Dr. Paul Bannerman and currently an active researcher in business IT related management and Knowledge Management of course.

The third one is actually my co-sv, Dr. Mark Staples. All I can say is that I m fortunate to get to know them and to work with them..

Last Saturday (18/11/07) we were very lucky to have our very first guess, PM Hasan Selamat (Assoc. Prof) from UPM who is also my head of dept and happened to be my ex-sv during my master studies. What really touches us was that his willingness to visit us in Sydney when he was supposed to go straight to Melbourne to attend the APMC 2007 on 19th morning. Thank you very much, Prof! Your presence had cheered us up...especially my kids who had been calling him ATOK ;-) during his overnight stay at our place in Sydney.

"Place to stay and a car to ride"

After just a couple of days staying at Malaysia Hall, finally we managed to find a place to stay. The rent is quite expensive though, but to us it is still worth renting. So, to families and friends who are thinking about coming to Sydney, this is the place where we are staying, well for at least the first 6 months since the lease contract is only for that period of time. Come and join us, all of you are always welcomed!!!

Unit 7, Block 31, Doncaster Avenue, Kensington, NSW 2033, AUSTRALIA.

The rent has actually limits our expenses where eating outside is a preferably to be avoided ;-) But thats not a problem... Everybody knows Sal is a good cook... emmm yum yum yum!!!

After the end of this period, we are thinking about moving to other place that can offer cheaper rent such as in Eastlakes, Alexandria, Mascott or maybe Redfern. But it will all depends on the availability next year.

Ohh... we also managed to get ourselves a car. We bought it for a price of AUD3000. Its a Mazda 626 Estate Wagon with 7-seater. Easier for us to travel especially when family members or friends come to visit since according to the law here, seat belt is compulsory even for the back passenger. Now, traveling is not a problem for us.

The car is in good condition even though it was manufactured back in 1991. Who cares as long as it can drives us to wherever we want to...

Since we already have a "place to stay and a car to ride", there's no more excuse to delay the studying process!!!

Sydney: My first impression...

As soon as we step our feet at Sydney airport, we experienced windy and breezy climate. Just a couple of minutes after checking out our luggages Faizah (fellow from UPM), Kak Ruhaya, Abg Azlan (President of Malaysian Postgraduate Student Association, NSW (MyPSA)) and his wife Kak Zurin arrived to welcome us all to Sydney and drove us to the Sydney Malaysia Hall. We were lucky to be able to borrow Abg Din and Kak Khaz car since they weren't at Sydney at that time. The whole family went to celebrate Idul Fitri away at their home town in Malaysia. Many many thanks to everybody that have kindly lend their helps and spared their time assisting me and my family on our very first day in Sydney.

The Aussies are very friendly, but too straight forward, i guess. Not like we Malaysian, we kind of always has this "bunga-bunga" when we want to talk to someone or give remarks. One thing that I noticed, the people here really abide with the law and so well mannered at what they are doing. Things that you cannot see so often in Malaysia.

Even though my first impression about Australia is a thumb up, deep down in my heart, Malaysia is still the best country ever.

Hujan emas di negeri orang
Hujan batu di negeri sendiri
Lebih baik di negeri sendiri...

At this point, there are many things to be done. Looking for a house, car, seeing supervisor, finding a school for Iman Raziq (he's turning 5 years old next year and is required to enter school by this age), touring around UNSW... So many things to do and so many time to spend. Hopefully everything will be settled as soon as possible so that we can begin our studies with no worries!.

Happy and sad...

16th October 2007, the date my family and I got into the MAS airplane and flew to Sydney, Australia. We will spend around 4 years here doing our PhDs at the University of New South Wales. Happy and sad, deeply immersed down in our hearts.

Happy since finally, we'll get the chance to gain knowledge from outside Malaysia... to experience things that others won't... We've done our undergrad studies and Master level at UPM, guess now is our time to see beyond Malaysia.

Sad because we have to leave our family back in Malaysia for four years. Sad because we have to leave our friends back in UPM, especially Farid, Azri, Azlan, ET, Noris, Zaihisma... Sad because we know that there will be no Hari Raya celebration like what we used to have in Malaysia... Only God knows how much we're going to miss all that.

Family at the airport

Friends - Farid, Dila, Azlan n wife

NEW COMERS

Finally, a new chapter is created! People said blogger is a person who always "syok sendiri". They just write anything that come out from their mind/heart. For me, blogging is a way to express my true feeling towards anything. It is like a medium for me and my family to honestly describe how we greatly, truly n deeply miss Malaysia...