First ever summer trip to Oulu

I went to Oulu many times before. So many times that I lost count :) But I never went there in a proper summer; either in winter, or in autumn or in spring. This is the first time I am going in summer :)

We, Sharmin and me, have decided to visit Oulu in this summer couple of months back. Mohsin also showed interest when he heard about it. So finally we are going as a three persons team. I am going to leave office after an hour and will go to Helsinki train station straight from here. It's going to be a 6 hours' long train journey. Ahhh!!! Like Sheldon and Gagan I love trains :)

We will stay in Gagan's place 3 days and after that Mohsin will come back to Espoo and We four (Me, Sharmin, Gagan and Shanila) will go to a summer cottage near Kuopio. We will stay there 3 more days and then will come back to Espoo next Friday.

There are many plans for this coming week. For sure we will have lots of fun. I will try to give update when I come back :)



Programming Solution

Sailing among Espoo archipelago

I have had my first sailing experience yesterday among the archipelago in Espoo. It was one my colleagues, Seppo's sailing boat we took. We started from Kivenlahti and sailed around the Baltic sea for a bit over 2 hours.

On Tuesday morning we got an email from Seppo asking us about going for a sailing afternoon in his boat on the very next day. It was a very short notice because you cannot be sure about the weather in Finland several days before. Well, it was early enough for me and I decided to go. Few of our other teammates were also interested, so we were finally 5 in total - Seppo, Jarmo, Aulis, Mika and me. The primary plan was to sail for a while, stop in one of the islands, have a barbecue and then come back to Kivenlahti.

I was very excited about the trip since I heard about it. The next day I went to work with jeans and T-shirt, took my baseball cap and sunglasses with me. We left office around 16:00 and went to the harbor in Kivenlahti where Seppo keeps his boat. It was a very sunny and warm afternoon. Within 10 minutes we started the boat.

At the beginning the boat was running by engine. After around 15 minutes we were far enough from the harbor to get enough wind to put the sail on. Jarmo was with the wheel. Seppo stopped the engine and put the sail on while me, Mika and Aulis were helping him. He can handle it by himself but we were interested to participate in the activities :)

When the sail is up the boat was running with a speed of 5.5 knot. Sometimes there was heavy wind and the boat was really leaning on one side, almost felt like it's going to flip over, but the captain (Seppo) assured me that it's normal. So no need to worry because it wont flip over very easily.

After around half an hour of sailing Jarmo told me that I can take the wheel and try to control the boat. I was excited; bit afraid at the same time because I have no prior experience. But they assured me it would be fine. So I took the wheel and it was very thrilling when a heavy wind hits the sails for the first time. It felt like something is pushing the boat in one side but you have to do jig-jag movement to keep the boat in steady position and pace. Of course Seppo and Jarmo was assisting me continuously.

There were many boats passing by and all of them waved at us. It's a custom while sailing. I learned the proper way of waving :P Also, some good piece of information like boats who are sailing always get the priority over boats running by engine. So if you wanna get priority turn off the engine and put up the sail. Of course you need proper wind support :)

When we were thinking to stop in some island, suddenly, the weather became gloomy and we noticed few drops of rain. One part of the sky was really dark, so the sea may get a bit risky. So we decided to come back without stopping anywhere. We turn back and headed to Kivenlahti. At the time of return we didn't get good wind support. As a result, we had to rely on the engine several times. To be honest, it's much more fun with sail than with the engine :) I was with the wheel until we came very close to the harbor again. Seppo took the wheel from me to moor the boat.

It started raining when we came back to shore. It was a right decision to come back at that time but of course it would be interesting to stop in one of the islands. However, it was a spectacular experience for me - I had great fun, enjoyed it to the fullest. Additionally, it increased my fascination for boat to next level :)

Here goes some pictures of the day:

Kivenlahti harbor

This is Seppo's boat. He is already on board. Jarmo and Mika is on their way

Me with Aulis on the front side of the boat

Leaving the harbor

The boat is running with engine. Jarmo is with the wheel.

View of archipelago

Far enough from harbor to get the wind. Time to turn off the engine and put the sail on :)

The first sail is up

Both the sails are up and catching nice wind

Me with the wheel :P

The crew, except from the captain. He was busy taking this picture :P

Came back to harbor again

Programming Solution

Relaxing trip to Stockholm

Last week Sharmin and me had a trip to Stockholm. It was again a boat trip with Vikingline. The main reason for this trip was to apply for machine readable passport for both of us. There is no Bangladeshi embassy in Finland. From Finland, the nearest embassy of Bangladesh is in Stockholm, Sweden. Since applicant's biometric information is needed for MRP we had to go there in person. Another reason of visit was to go to my cousin's home. They have been living there for almost 30 years. My cousin was eager to meet Sharmin and that is why we decided to give a visit and stay in their place

Our appointment in the embassy was on Tuesday, 11 June, 2013. We started our boat trip from Helsinki on Sunday afternoon with Vikingline Mariella. The weather was extremely nice. This is the first time for me to stay on the deck for hours. We had dinner in the restaurant. Also had a nice sleep at night since the sea was calm.

We reached Stockholm the next morning. My cousin's husband came to the harbor to fetch us. We reached their home, had a nice lunch and gossiped with my nephew, Mugdho. Unfortunately Sharmin was having breathing problem due to the cat they have. I didn't know she has a cat allergy. Anyway, we had to visit the doctor in the afternoon. We also roam around Stockholm downtown after that.

The next morning we went to the embassy of Bangladesh and submitted our application forms. Mugdho was accompanying us. We went to a Thai restaurant for lunch. The food was really delicious there. After the lunch we went to see the Vasa Museum. I liked this museum, specially the ship was spectacular. It felt like I was standing in front of The Black Pearl from Pirates of the Caribbean :P We spent half a day there.

On Wednesday afternoon we took the return boat. It was the same boat as previous. This time the weather was even nicer. We spent several hours on the deck and saw the sunset in the sea. Had dinner in the restaurant and enjoyed the music in the dance hall. The next morning we took buffet breakfast in the boat. It was a nice breakfast with so many different kinds of dishes. This trip was a done in a relax way - we didn't go to many places and we didn't run at all. At the end, it felt like a nice holiday trip :)

Here are few pictures:

 On the deck on the way to Stockholm

 Lunch time :)

 Ship Vasa

 Near Stockholm downtown

 Beside a lake in Fastra Strand

 Me, same place :)

 Sunset from deck, on the way to Helsinki

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Finn-Bangla cricket tournament, 2013

Cricket is not a popular sport in Finland. However, it's extremely popular in our country, Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi immigrant here in Finland are very much eager to play cricket but it's only possible during summer which is unpleasantly short. Still few enthusiastic people wanted to have a tournament among different cities in Finland. As a result, the first ever Finn-Bangla tournament took place in Tampere in 2012.

In the first tournament 4 cities participated - Tampere, Espoo, Pietarsaari & Jyväskylä. Espoo became the champion beating Tampere in the final. This year also people were interested and Espoo organized the second Finn-Bangla cricket tournament which took place in Olari (inside Espoo) on 8 June, 2013.

This year the idea was not just having the cricket game rather having some other activities so that most of the people can participate and enjoy the event. It was a whole day event with over 150 people. The weather didn't betray us, it was a bright sunny day. We arranged several events, such as musical pillow passing, spoon-marble race, mina-bazar (small fair where they sell their homemade snacks) for the ladies. For guys we arranged basketball and 100 m race. There were also race for kids. At the end of the day there were raffle draw, prizes for all the events and dinner. Aside from above mentioned activities there were 4 cricket matches. This time Tampere won the trophy beating Pietarsaari in the final. Espoo lost to Pietarsaari in their first match and secured 3rd place by winning against Helsinki.

The day was packed with many events and activities. Finally everything went well. We could execute everything how we planned. At the end of the event people were giving positive feedback and expressing their gratitude to us for organizing such a colorful event. I was part of the organizing committee, so I felt good and all the hardships I went through before the program were paid off :)

Here are some pictures from that day:

 Tent, organizers' corner

 Team Tampere

 Team Pietarsaari

 Team Espoo

Bowler in action


 
Batsman in action

 

 Part of the organizers

 Twin :)

 Small fair by the ladies. There were many delicious foods.

 Beginning of marble race

 100 m sprint

 Fastest runner among us

 Medals

 Tournament trophy

 Prize giving ceremony

 Tournament winner, Tampere :)

Programming Solution

Glow golf

I have experienced indoor glow golf lately. It was a cheap offer from flamingo and I grabbed it. I also asked Wali and Muna if they are interested to go and they said yes. So we four people(me, Sharmin, Wali and Muna) went to experience it for the first time :)

The place is quite far from our home. Good that Wali took his car and we just jumped in :) It was near Vantaa airport. We reached there on time, well before noon. We started right away. There were 15 obstacles of different types and different difficulty levels. It took us 1.5 hours to finish all of them. Looks like my golf precision is better than others, so I won. Sharmin was next to me, then Wali and then Muna. The most important thing is everybody liked it :)

We also had lunch in Hesburger after the game. It was also a very nice day, bright and sunny. A long drive, playing golf and dining out made it a perfect weekend day :)

Here are couple of pictures in front of the golf place:

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Flying kites

I watched a video yesterday. It's an interview of one of my favorite celebrities in Bangladeshi showbiz, Humayun Faridi. He passed away one year back. In the video, he has been talking about many things. The good thing about the interview is it was done very casually. They were eating, walking in a park and finally at the end Humayun Faridi was flying kite which reminds me of my childhood.

I used to fly kites in my childhood. Every afternoon I used to go to our rooftop just to compete with other kite flyers in our area. My elder brother was an expert about kite stuff. I learned a lot from him. He also helped me in several occasions to prepare the string properly. The process is called manja(মাঞ্জা) which makes the string strong and sharp to cut others :) There are so many interesting terms related to kite flying. I will provide the list later someday at the bottom of this post. Some of those are really funny :P

While watching the video clip yesterday I was thinking will I be able to fly kites ever again? I really enjoy it but will there be chance again to do it by my own? It made me sad knowing that may be that time will never come again in my life when I will fly kite and shout with joy while cutting others' :(

Here goes the interview:





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I am hoping for our den

I was in a restaurant(Mamma Rosa) in Helsinki downtown, having dinner with my colleagues, when I saw the mail. It was a mail from Shaikat vi coming with a shocking news. He had a surgery in his belly 2 weeks back to get rid of the blockage in his bowel but just yesterday the hospital informed him that he is diagnosed with a blood cancer. The type of blood cancer is probably: lymphoma, though the details are not revealed yet. I couldn't believed the text while reading it; am I reading it right? I read couple of times more, still couldn't believe it. Then I got a text from Wali asking me to go to his home. Sharmin was already there. They didn't tell me about it because they didn't want me to disappoint at that point. They thought I haven't seen the news yet. But my smart phone really did its job and provided me this unexpected shocking news :(

I went to Wali's home after dinner. All of them were sad. From the eyes I knew that Sharmin and Muna already cried for some time. Wali was a bit silent than usual. What could they do? Their dearest Shaikat vi has got this disease ;-(

I usually don't show my emotion in front of other people. And at that moment I didn't want to make the situation worse, so I talked to them in a light mood. Even talked about other things also. May be after an hour we left and returned home. On the way back home I was feeling so bad. Couldn't talk to Sharmin. When I came home I just changed my cloths and went to bed. Sharmin put off the light and came to me. She sensed it quite well that I was fighting to hide my emotion. She did hold me tightly and right at that moment I couldn't hold it anymore. I cried out and my body was trembling. I don't know how long I cried. When I was stable again I found Sharmin is already sleeping.

I couldn't sleep. There were so many snapshots of memories coming to my mind. So many things about dear Shaikat vi. I remember the very first days when I came to Finland in August 2008. I met him on the very first day. I still remember his smiling face and friendliness on that day. I remember finalizing our(me and Rajit vi) study plan sitting in his room. He was suggesting us what course should we take. He told us to include some fozul(very easy) courses along with the good ones to make the path easier but efficient. I remember crossing frozen lake with him by walking in winter. Also exchanging smile seeing a half-naked girl in the street in summer. I remember playing with him - table tennis, football, cricket, badminton, volleyball and so on. Lots of memories with him personally being so close. Once I showed him how wrong he ties his shoe-lace and that's why it gets loose easily. Badal vi was also supporting me and showing Shaikat vi's fault. Shaikat vi didn't like it. He got a bit angry and said that it's his choice how he ties it. The next day he came to my room in the university and admitted that he checked again when he got back home and figured it out that he had been doing it wrong for years. That is Shaikat vi - doesn't have pride and has not problem to admit own mistake.

I remember the 9 months, I was working in my department in the university. Most of the days I used to take lunch with Shaikat vi and almost everyday used to have coffee with him in the afternoon. I remember countless times visiting his home in weekend morning to have breakfast with him. When he moved to Kirkkonummi near my home I was so happy. During his stay in Kirkkonummi we had really nice time. Even if I moved out from Kirkkonummi in January 2012, we were in constant contact with each other.

I remember, among all my senior brothers in Finland, I told him first my decision about getting married in Finland. He didn't like the idea, he was trying to convince me to go to Bangladesh and share the event with my family. Somehow I didn't have that option at that time and I was rigid about it. Even though he didn't want me to arrange the event in Finland he gave me all kinds of support when time comes, just like an elder brother. From the mosque, he was the one to call Sharmin's father to ask about his permission in this marriage.

In the middle of last year Shaikat vi moved to Tampere for his wife's masters. At that time we knew it was only for a year and he is coming back to Helsinki. Just couple of months back I was talking to him over the phone and he said they are trying to find a home in Espoo, preferably near our home. I became so happy again knowing that it would be great to have him near us. He said, with laughter, that he would like to make his home as our den, meaning we would have most of our occasions, gatherings, events in his place. It's like a headquarter. I laughed as well. All of these memories started coming to my mind yesterday.

Today I heard they found Shaikat vi's disease in a very early stage. The success rate of cure from this stage is very high in Finland. It's obviously a very good news for all of us. But regardless of this information I am eagerly looking forward to have our headquarter in Shaikat vi's home, somewhere in Espoo, from the middle of this year, just the way he was telling me. We will gather there for different cultural and traditional occasions - to celebrate, to enjoy. We will go there when we are bored during dark cold winter and have a chit-chat. We will go there just to have a cup of coffee in the middle of the night. Even if there is no reason we will still go there and spend hours by gossiping. That is our den and I am desperately hoping for it.



Programming Solution

New year, 2013

Another year just passed and we stepped on 2013. One year back I wrote about the new year resolution for 2012 here. I couldn't accomplish two of those wishes - I still couldn't wrap up my masters and I couldn't manage to do skating and skiing last year :( Now I have to add those two wishes for this year as well as add some new:

3. I will loose my body weight and will remain below 70 kg.

4. I will get my driving license.

5. I will buy our own car.

6. I will arrange a summer trip along with Sharmin.

These are all in my mind for the time being. Let's check it at the end of 2013 :)



Programming Solution

A hectic journey of 52 hours

I have reached home on 11 December. Yes, we were supposed to be here one day earlier but weather betrayed us badly. My 22 hours journey turned to be a 52 hours one.

There was heavy(it didn't look heavy to me but they said so) snowfall in Copenhagen, and thus my flight was delayed by 15 hours. Eventually I missed my next flight, Istanbul-Dhaka. Unfortunately there is only one flight operates between Istanbul and Dhaka a day. So I was delayed by a full day. At the end that last flight was delayed by 5 hours. As a result it took 52 hours in total.

In Copenhagen airport it was totally uncertain whether the flight will get clearance or not. We have been going back and forth through the immigration gate quite many times. Once we even boarded and were inside the plane for two hours and then they informed us that the airport didn't give clearance to fly. So we had to leave the plane and returned to terminal again.

After 15 hours of waiting finally we could fly for Istanbul. It was around 6:00 in the morning in Istanbul when we reached there. We contacted Turkish airways office and they provided us Hotel for the day because the next flight to Dhaka is at 21:30. Both of us, Sharmin and me, had to take Turkish visa to get out of the airport. It cost us 40 euros. The hotel was nice and we had all three meals, breakfast, lunch & dinner. We also had proper rest which we needed badly. We slept the whole day. In the afternoon walking around a bit.

As I said, the last flight was also delayed, by 5 hours. We almost got business class seat for the last flight but our luck didn't favor us that much at the end. Finally we reached Dhaka around 14:00 on 11 December. It was hartal day in Dhaka but we could manage a car and reached home quite fast as the roads were not busy at all.

There was surprise for Sharmin in my home. This is the first time she visited our home. My parents and sisters in law received her with sweet from the main door. When we entered into our bedroom we found the room decorated with rose petals. Our names were written on the bed. Special thanks to Rafid for doing such hard work for us.

This is not a relaxing vacation for us. We have been running from the beginning. Right now it's almost done. Now we are a bit relaxed. May be I will give update about the whole visit later in some other post :)

Learning:

• Keep some cash in your wallet
• Behave well at check-in desks, you might get a seat in business class :)
• Keep a light blanket in your cabin luggage, you may need to sleep in the airport
• Use all your food voucher provided by the airways before running out of time 

Outside our hotel in Istanbul

Near hotel reception

Our bedroom at my home in Dhaka

Programming Solution

Visiting home after two years :)

In December 2010 I visited my home last time. It's exactly 2 years back. Now after 2 years I am visiting my home again on Sunday, 09.12.2012. This time it is very special because I am going with my wife for the first time. My family never met her before. Overseas phone calls were the only means to talk to each other. This time my wife, Sharmin, is going to meet my family :)

I have bought the ticket months back. This time our route will be Helsinki-Copenhagen-Istanbul-Dhaka-Istanbul-Copenhagen-Helsinki. The first flight to Copenhagen will be at 06:55, pretty early in the morning. I had no other way but to take the taxi to go to the airport on time. It's a Blue1 flight from Helsinki-Copenhagen. From Copenhagen we will take Turkish airways all throughout to Dhaka. Returning back will just be the other way around.

Necessary preparation has been taken already. Tonight we are going to pack our luggage. Looks like things are in place nicely and we are not in a hurry or in a panic situation. If everything goes well, in 3 days from now, we will be in Dhaka in my parents' place having evening tea with snacks exactly at this time of the day :)

We will stay 1 month in Bangladesh. We have to visit different places this time. Hopefully everything will go smoothly without any problem. For sure we will be quite busy but obviously will have fun as well. We are very excited about the trip and this is going to be a very memorable trip for both of us :)



Programming Solution

Horrible flu after a long time

I have been suffering from flu for last 3 days. I don't know what kinda flu this is but for sure it's not a good one. I had excessive pain in my body muscles and when the fever comes it's very high. The first two days were really horrible for me. Several times the temperature went over 39.5 degree celsius. I don't remember when was the last time I had such a high temperature fever. From today I am feeling better though my muscles are still aching.

The good thing about this flu is I have got extremely good care from my wife, Sharmin :) She has been with me always. From Sunday morning she was trying to comfort me all possible ways she can. She was preparing hot soup, giving me sponge bath from time to time, pouring water on my head several times at night when the temperature went so high. She didn't even go to school yesterday. In fact, she didn't leave me alone for a moment while I am sick :) May be I am spoiled enough and now I demand things like tea with ginger or hot soup or coffee whenever I want :P

Also my other friends from here and my parents and brother from Bangladesh were calling me from time to time to know about my status. Feeling good to have so much attention :D May be it's not so bad to be attacked by this kinda virus once a year at least to get other people's care, specially from close ones :)



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Bowling evening

Last Thursday I have played bowling in Finland for the first time. It was arranged by the tenant committee where I live. It was very close, 15 minutes walk, from my home. The place is called "Gr8 Bowling"

They reserved an hour from 19:00-20:00. I came from work and didn't have time at all to change or rest. I had to run because they were going to start walking from our place around 18:30. Me and Sharmin joined them at scheduled time. We went there by walking. We were around 24 people and they reserved 6 lanes. So 4 persons are going to play in each lane. Drishty vi and Topi apu were already there and they put our names on lane#6. So we started right after going there.

Our performance was really bad. There was no doubt that all four of us suck at bowling. But we enjoyed a lot for an hour :) Drishty vi was the most scoring one among us. After him it was me, then Sharmin and then Topi apu. After playing for an hour our biceps were a bit sore but it was nothing compared to our enjoyment.

The bowling evening followed by dinner in Roadhouse restaurant. Both Sharmin and me took beef steak with french fries and salad. It was a nice evening, lot of entertainment, but free of cost :D

Programming Solution

Laser tag for the first time :)

Last weekend I have experienced laser tag first time in my life. I have been thinking about it for several months now. I almost went to it a month ago but then I decided to go after Eid celebration because my friends, Gagan and Shanila, were coming from Oulu to spend their Eid with us. It was the very next day after Eid, Saturday, when we, me and Sharmin, went to Megazone along with Gagan and Shanila to have our first laser tag experience. For the record, none of us have done it before.

Here I wanna give update about the Eid as well :) Friday was Eid-ul-adha here in Finland. We had a wonderful Eid this time. Gagan and Shanila came to our home on Thursday night. We already had all the preparation for the next day. So it was just gossiping and relaxing at night. We woke up very early next morning and prepared to go to Eid prayer in Hakaniemi. It was extremely cold and surprisingly there was first snowfall of the year in the morning. From the prayer we came to Drishti vi's home to have lunch. There were many other people. We didn't stay very long. We came back home because some of our friends are coming to our place in the evening. There were 15 people in our home in that evening. We played xbox kinect games, lot of gossiping, bonanza and for sure lot of delicious food :P The guests left around midnight and we felt that we were a bit too much tired. But we have plan to go to Megazone the next day, so we went to bed pretty soon.

On Saturday morning we called Megazone and reserved our time at 16:00. We spent the afternoon in Helsinki down town - roaming around, seeing the Rock church and so on. We were supposed to be present in Megazone at 15:45 but we managed to reach there at 15:55. Reason? We got lost after getting off from the bus and it took 10 minutes more than we thought.

At the beginning they gave us instruction in English. Since we are really inexperienced we paid high attention to the instruction. Me and Sharmin were excited from the morning but I saw the excitement also in the faces of my fellow friends when they wore the jackets - with the gun they look like combat soldiers :)

We belonged to the RED team. There were two other teams - Blue and Green. Each team consists of 10 players. We talked with other teammates before the game started. Some guys were appointed to protect the base; me and Gagan belonged to the attacking troop. We were trying really hard to destroy opponent's base. I took part in three of the "base-destroying" operations. The length of the game is 22 minutes. When came out of the battlefield we figured out that RED team won. We were giving hi5 to each other. Amazingly I found that I was ranked 5 among all the players of 3 teams combined :-O They gave us individual score cards where I found that Javelin(that was my nick name in the game :P) shoot 561 shots and killed 160 times. The accuracy was 31%. That was the highest among four of us.

It was really a nice experience for me. Also for my friends because all four of us enjoyed it to the fullest. We agreed that we have to do it again sometime. I would like to do it soon. When is that? :-S

Here is one video of the place: 

Programming Solution

Nice birthday celebration

There was a nice birthday celebration on 30 September midnight. It was my birthday and I couldn't manage to give update about it earlier. Today I determined to write about it :)

It was 29 September afternoon when I sensed that there is some preparation going on for my birthday. Even if it was raining Sharmin went to super market to buy flowers for me. Mohsin came to our home in the morning. It was afternoon when Wali and Muna showed up. By this time already,  I have got special birthday gift from Gagan - Xbox 360 with Kinect :D We played some kinect games and got some sweat :P In the evening Sharmin started to prepare the cake. She came up with a nice heart shape black forest cake at the end :) In the evening I was asked to cook biriyani. It's a bit funny that I had to cook the main dish on my birthday eve, I didn't mind though. You know I love cooking :P

At midnight Sharmin got ready, she wore a nice green shari. I also wore a panjabi of green side to match with her shari :) At first I got the gift package from Sharmin. Before cutting the cake I had to open the gift box. I got a winter shoe, a box of chocolate, a board game, a nice birthday card with Sharmin's nice handwriting, a light having egg shell on top it with a nice picture on it drawn by Sharmin and finally the most nice gift - scrapbook. I liked the scrapbook most because it reflects the most important highlights of our lives for the last year. It was nicely made with nice drawing and texts :) My friends wanted to see the scrapbook. It is very personal but we showed them invoking some censorship :P After looking at all the gifts I had to blow up the candles and cut the cake. The cake was delicious. Then we played board games and gossiped for a long time.

It was my first birthday after I got married. The celebration was executed nicely. Thanks goes to Sharmin to make the day so special. She planned everything and made it happen. Thank you soooooooooooooooo much dear >:D< :-*

Here goes few snapshots of the moments:

Preparation of the cake :)

The cake is ready :)

 

Me and Sharmin together in dinner table, very casual :)

 At midnight, opening the gift box

 The art on egg shell

 Blowing the candles

 Time to eat the cake :D

 Me with Wali and Muna

Me with Wali and Mohsin

Programming Solution

Got new mobile phone

I just got a new mobile phone from my office. It's a Sony Xperia Acro S. I have been waiting for this phone for over a month now. Finally I got it today. What a nice start of weekend :)

My previous mobile's touch screen stopped working last month. I returned the phone to our secretary and my manager told me that I can order a new phone. Our secretary provided me a list of few android based handset. I already knew that a new Sony model is coming in August. So I kept my patience and decided to wait for it. It was released in Asia in the first week of August but it took some time to come to Europe. Last week our secretary informed me that this phone is available to order now. I took the offer right away. At first I thought it wouldn't take more than 3 days but it took a week since it was coming from Sweden.

There are mainly three reason for choosing this phone. Aside from the smart look and high processing capability this handset i) is water and dust resistance which is totally new feature for a mobile handset, ii) has a scratch resistance shatter proof glass (scratch resistance is not new but shatter proof is something new in mobile phone) and iii) has a very powerful camera (12.1 mega pixel and HD video of 1080p). I am not going to tell about other features since you can find those in several other mobile phones. If you wanna check the full specification go here.

For last one month I have been using a very old Nokia phone which comes with button keypad and you can do very basic thing like making call and sending text with it. I was eagerly waiting to taste the new Sony Android phone. However I haven't missed smart phone much for this period. My 25 minutes long bus journey in the morning became more visual - I see more, hear more and also I observe my surrounding more. I hope the new phone will make my life easier but won't help me to turn into a zombie in the street with an earphone on always :)

Programming Solution