Posted by hatim
Tue, 11 Mar 2008 09:32:00 GMT
I went home to Abbottabad this weekend to help out my Dad with some construction work. Apprently the quality of constuction of our house roof was of bad quality. The architect of the house had not concieved that this house would witness alot of snow in the winters as it did this year. The whole roof had started leaking and the carpet in my room had gone all wet. So my dad decided to redo the roof. First he got hold of a roof treatment company which makes the roofs impenetrable to water. Then the tougher part was to cement all the roof, We called up 25 day labrours. First thing in the monrning before they even start working is that they ask for breakfast. I ran to the local Tandoor to get 35 naans for them to be served with tea. Then they started their work.
I was amzaed to see how these guys worked. They had formed their specialities. One guy operated the machine, other guys poured in sand, cement and crushed rockes to form concrete. Few other people formed a supply chain and one mason did the actual filling. The whole roof was done in a matter of 4 hours. There was one hitch when it started raining in the middle of it, but it only lasted about 15 minutes. I will post few snaps of the construction work here.
Posted in LifeLog | Tags abbottabad, home | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Mon, 18 Feb 2008 08:04:00 GMT
I was suppose to leave for home on Saturday afternoon and I knew that it would be a mess. Every time its election season in Pakistan there is always a shortage of transport. I went to Daweoo bus station hoping to get a seat on chance. I was not surprised to see the station full of passengers. I knew that I wont be able to get any thing by midnight. So I decided to sit out for Saturday. I went back to my house and stayed there for the night. I spent the night browsing and watching TV. I am thinking of proposing an advanced ticketing system to Sammi Daweeo, this is just a though experiment for now but it may turn into a reality. I was thinking of ticketing which involves electronic displays and National ID card numbers (or perhaps cell phone number based). I got the last bus going out next day. Needless to say that its preety hectic to travel on Bu sin Pakistan, even if its Daweoo.
Posted in LifeLog | Tags elections, travel | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Wed, 30 Jan 2008 05:58:00 GMT
Normally I would not be celebrating my birthday as such. But this time it was different. I woke up and decided to stop and the bakery before going to office. Bought two small cakes and thought to get done with giving a small feast to my office mates. I came in and gave the cakes to the cook who works at my office.
At around 11:15 my office manager said we are having a party. I thought it was strange that I had brought just two small cakes, perhaps some thing else is going on as well. When I went upstairs I saw a big cake (along with two small ones). Over there was written "Happy 25th Birthday, Shahzada Hatim". Now I was surprised. I didn't realize that my Dad secretly sent the cake and some edibles to my office. We had a small office party. Here are some pics of that party.
Click here for more pics
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Posted by hatim
Wed, 09 Jan 2008 08:28:00 GMT
My uncle who was in recovery from bypass has finally been discharged from the hospital. He had a rough ride while in recovery. Apparently some water accumated around one of his lung and it was very hard for him to breathe. It took some time for the doctors to figure out what was wrong with him and finally they did a small procedure to drain out the excessive water (which came out to alarmingly near one and a quater liter).
He is still recovering from the operation and has grown considerably weak. It is just a reminder that we are all what we eat, and one must take care of one's diet to be in best of health.
Posted in LifeLog | Tags Family | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Fri, 04 Jan 2008 08:22:00 GMT
Today I recieved my IELTS results, and I was astonished to see how I had performed. I was expectin an overall score of 8, where as I got a 7. The most surprising result was of my speaking test , 6.5/9.0. Apparently my english is more sound in familiar situation and my communication may cause misunderstandings in some scenarios (according to IELTS band ratings). I think I need to bush up on my sentence structure. Effective communication skills teach that content of a sentence is more important than in which accent it is delivered (provided one does not just butcher the language with a thick accent). I also need to make my accent more neutral, because people who are used to british accent may find it hard to understand my slightly mid western american accent (which I picked up while my stay in Nebraska). Let me add one more goal to 43 things, ie speak flawless english.
Posted in LifeLog | Tags exam, ielts | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Wed, 26 Dec 2007 08:26:00 GMT
My uncle and all his immmediate family were in town this Sunday. He got admitted in to AFIC in prepration of his heart bypass operation. I had previously heard the word bypass, but never knew what it really meant. It involves cutting veins from some other part of the body and planting them near heart where blockages are present. It is a very delicate procedure. The operation was successful, but recovery is still progressing. Hopefully it would be all fine. All of my cousins including one who lives in UK have come to town and are staying at our place. AFIC (armed forced institute of cardiology)is probably the best hospital in Pakistan, dealing with heart patients.
Posted in LifeLog | Tags bypass, Family | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Thu, 13 Dec 2007 08:23:00 GMT
I happened to give my IELTS speaking test today. It happened in one of the various Motels on club road in Islamabad. There were atleast a dozen people over there along with me for their tests. It seems alot of people are planning to go for higher education and employment opportunities in first world countires (where IELTS is a very basic requirement). I think the test was easy, although I probably could have answered few questions slightly better. But this has nothing to do with my english speaking skils. It's because of my crazy thought patttern when I am speaking on general topics ;)
Posted in LifeLog | Tags exam, ielts | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Sat, 01 Dec 2007 20:28:00 GMT
My Dad decided to be generous to me and give me Honda Civic for my useage ,although I doubt it will be the case as things unfold. Even if he is not using it in the future, I would probably be not able to afford such a fuel expensive car. But in any case we are planning to get the Civic converted on CNG. One concern that I had was that since this car is automatic transmission, it will losse its performance edge. But come to think of it, other than the extra pounds of CNG kit which sits in the trunk, the car will run about the same if it is run on fuel.
So on my way back from GIKI early morning last thursday I brought in the Civic. I have to admit, you don't know what kind of piece of trash you are driving, unless you get to drive some thing better. Lets hope I get rid of the Suzuki soon.
I will post pics of CNG conversion. We are planning to use the kit of our <sarcasm>beloved</sarcasm> Vox Wagon (aka Foxy)
Posted in LifeLog | Tags car | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Fri, 30 Nov 2007 14:38:00 GMT
This Wednesday I took off from my office and I went to GIKI after a gap of one year. That place is still the same but atleast I am not there any more :). I travelled via the Peshawer motorway for the first time. It took me and my (Dad's) driver unexpectedly longer to reach GIKI (about 2:15 hours) so I guess the older route is much shorther. I went straight to the Accounts office to get some of the money ,which GIKI owed me (aroud 7000Rs), back. Unfortunately for me this task is still incomplete as there still need to be few signatures on the file. I later gave that file to Harry ( a batch 12 buddy of mine who is a TA in Math department).
Later I had the chance to meet few of my teachers, I went to see my Dean who was pleased to know that I am working hard (or atleast pretending to be :). One of other highlights of my trip was that I finally got my degree. I some how decided to not go on my convocation (on which my parents were disappointed, but at that time I just didn't want to go). So there was a small moment where I felt like a graduate (I have yet to ever wear a gown and throw a cap, I hope I will be able to do this one day from some other place).
I also met a kid cousin of mine who happens to be in GIKI freshman year. I didn't get the time to go to Hostels. Later I and my driver went to Abbottabad through scary route of Sri Kot at night. Thankfully we reached my family home safely and in time. (This is another thing taht I got some minor scolding from my mom when she came to know that I came vai the mountains)
Posted in LifeLog | Tags giki, trip | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by hatim
Mon, 26 Nov 2007 06:17:00 GMT
After staying downstairs for almost one year and with a vacant room upstairs in our rented house I was finally persuaded by my dad to move upstairs. Its a bigger room with more cloth hanging space and bigger bathroom. I will try to post pictures of it tomorrow (hopefully after tidying it up).
[Edit, Post Pics]
Posted in LifeLog | Tags islamabad, living | no comments | no trackbacks
