Jemputan Kenduri Kahwin Anak Dato' Dr Roslan

Sukacita dimaklumkan bahawa ahli Alumni Blackpool Tech, sahabat kita Y.Bhg. Dato’ Dr Roslan Taha, akan mengadakan kenduri kahwin anak lelaki beliau in 3 months time.

Sehubungan itu, beliau dengan hormatnya ingin mempersilakan semua tuan/puan warga Blackpool Tech Alumni suami/isteri sekeluarga ke majlis perkahwinan tersebut seperti berikut:

Tarikh    :               24 September 2011 (Sabtu)

Masa       :               8 malam

Tempat  :               Klana Resort, Seremban

Menurut Dato’ Dr Roslan, kad masih belum siap lagi (on the way). Tetapi beliau mohon supaya semua  kita untuk block our diaries. And please also confirm (tentatively) your attendance either through this blog or di Facebook X-Blackpool group.

Datang, jangan tak datang!!

Boleh kita sambung sembang about Blackpool days.

Sekian dimaklumkan.

Remember Fine Fare?

Saya masih ingat lagi semasa baru sampai di Blackpool dahulu para seniors telah memberi tunjuk ajar on how to survive di negara asing - more specifically, how to live in Blackpool.

Kami beruntung kerana mendapat seniors yang rata-rata sangat baik hati dan prihatin. Roslan, Roshid, Majid, etc. etc. thank you so much.

Kami ditunjuk bagaimana hendak menaiki bas ke College. Di mana untuk membeli pakaian panas, membuka akaun bank di Barclays Bispham, dan yang lebih penting lagi, di mana untuk membeli bekalan makanan.

Untuk membeli makanan, awal-awal lagi saya dan beberapa rakan telah dibawa ke Fine Fare di Talbot Rd. Kenapa Fine Fare? Ini adalah kerana hanya di Fine Fare sahajalah kita boleh membeli beras dalam kampit yang besar-besar untuk memenuhi selera perut Melayu kita.

Selain dari itu, Fine Fare juga menjual pelbagai barang keperluan under one roof dan harganya sangatlah berpatutan. The other reason is of course kerana ia terletak bersebalahan stesen bas di Talbot Road. Easy transportation.

Semasa melawat Blackpool baru-baru ni saya dapati supermarket kesayangan kita tu dah diganti dengan operator lain. Syarikat Fine Fare dengar cerita dah bungkus!

Tetapi satu lagi tempat tumpuan kita untuk membeli barang masak masih lagi berdiri teguh. Malah ianya sekarang lebih cantik dan bersih dari dulu - masih ingat lagi Abingdon St. Market?

The car park above Fine Fare

Fine Fare back then

Gambar terbaru bangunan ex-Fine Fare

Gambar terbaru Abingdon St. Market

Kampong Blackpool revisited

Salam semua.

Weekend ni saya agak sibuk sikit. Petang ni nak kena pergi keroje la pulak. Hai...ingatkan dah makin tuan ni bolehlah rileks sikit. Tapi nampaknya...

Jadi untuk habuan kawan-kawan semua, minggu ni saya ambil jalan mudah. Saya nak jemput (kalau sudi la) tuan/puan untuk tengok  suatu catatan lama di blog saya sahaja.

Ianya berkenaan pengalaman "balik kampong" saya ke Blackpool pada Disember lepas.

Sila klik di sini untuk membacanya. TQ.
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The Blackpool beach

Beautiful sunset at Blackpool beach near the North Pier. Photo taken during recent visit to Blackpool last December

One of my favourite places in Blackpool is without a doubt the beach. Blackpool boasts a long beach and beautiful beach.

Nothing like our Semenanjung east coast beaches, of course. More like Port Dickson, I would say, air agak keruh. Cuma it is not as muddy as PD.

When the tide is out, you have over a kilometer of flat clean sandy beach to walk to the sea. You can see seagulls swirling above, whilst shells and starfish litter the beach after a storm.

The sunset is absolutely stunning. As a budding shutterbug masa tu, it was a frequent photographic subject of mine.

But come winter, the storms that thunder in from the Irish Sea could scare the hell out of you.

I wonder if anybody else finds the beach as interesting as me. May be some of us boys would find it especially a convenient place to hang out during the summer untuk “cuci mata”?

But the sisters? Dia orang semua takut air. I bet - during their whole two-year stay in Blackpool, none of them ever set foot on the beach and got their feet wet in the cold water.

Arrival in Blackpool

The Marlowe Hotel call card which I recieved from the B&B owner 32 years ago. This is where I first put up upon arriving in Blackpool

I arrived in Blackpool by coach from London on a chilly September afternoon in 1979. We took the coach from London and stopped over at Woking to drop some other students there first before proceeding north-west to Blackpool.

If memory serves me right, there were fifteen of us. Our first stop was the College at Ashfield Road to report to the Overseas Students Coordinator. From there some of us were taken to a hotel (bed& breakfast) called the Marlowe Hotel, at No. 12, Pleasant Street.

We stayed there for a couple of nights at before we could move into our own rented flats yang dicarikan oleh the College officers.

Saya tinggal di No. 4 CheltenhamRd.  bersama Safie, Hussein dan Farouk. College pilih rumah ini kerana dari sini mudah untuk ambil bas ke college. Apparently, as I discovered during the recent gathering, some of our super-seniors pun tinggal di Shafstbury Ave. juga.

Jalan kaki pergi sekolah

Yours truly, Khalid dan Majid on the way balik ke rumah di Nobreck dari Kolej

Masa di Blackpool saya tinggal di Norbreck bersama Ghani, Hamidin, dan Shaari. Sebelumtu some seniors were there: Rashid, Majid, dan ??

Bagi sesiapa yang tak tahu, tempat ini lebih atas lagi (ke utara) dari Bispham. To be exact, it is located in Thornton-Cleveleys.

Group yang tinggal di sini semuanya berfikiran praktikal dan berjimat cermat - some would say kedekut, tapi takpalah tu apa dia orang nak kata. Dengan tinggal di Norbreck ni, kami tak perlu naik bas untuk ke kolej. Cuma jalan kaki aje.

Dari rumah ke kolej hanya 15 minit by foot. Tapi time peak winter bila mana angin ribut dari Irish Sea membadai pantai Blackpool, it can take us 20 to 25 minutes! Masa tu barulah rasa menyesal pulak duduk di Nobreck ni. Perjalanan pergi-balik dari kolej ibarat macam trekking trip ke North Pole!

But all in all, it was a nice place to stay. Macam-macam jenis kedai ada berdekatan dengan rumah - fish & chips, Spar convenient stuore, grocer, post office.  Bila nak pergi town centre atau ziarah kawan-kawan di Hodgson Road atau Warbreck Hill, the tram station is just down the road.

The walking trip to and from college is also a pleasant walk (apart from winter time). So what more can you ask for?

My study table at Nobreck

Ini gambar meja belajar saya kat rumah di Nobreck. Berterabur!

Biasala tu. Bukan apa, saja nak bagi nampak sibuk dan rajin belajar sebab nak tangkap gambar nak pos balik kat Emak. Biar Emak hati sejuk dan kata "amboi.....rajinnya budak Ji ni belajar".

You will notice a few things quite familiar. Ada buku teks Positive Economics. Dave Swan lecturer kita masa tu. Good teacher. At least sekarang dah faham apa maksud "status quo". Hehe ingat lagi dak?

And of course yang penuh atas meja tu adalah buku Physics. Ni kes tengah buat homework Mr. Speight la ni. Many will recall Mr Speight adalah cikgu yang sangat garang. "You must be daft" adalah favourite words dia.

Ramai orang geram kat dia tetapi tak boleh nak kutuk-kutuk dalam Bahasa Melayu sebab orang tua tu pandai B.M. He was a soldier kat Malaya dulu. Camana boleh end up ajar Fiziks pun tak tau la.

Bila time nak kena hand in homework dia, semua pulun nak kena bagi siap. Kekadang bila tak dapat solve soalan tu panic juga la dibuatnya. Thus the sign "Don't panic!" kat tepi kiri meja tu.

Tapi sekali sekala ada juga saya dapat 'A' from Mr Speight. Satunya bagus dia ni ialah dia tak lokek nak puji kalau kita bagus.So kembang hidung la sekejap bila kena puji melambung.

Blackpool Reunion - 16 April 2011

just look at the transformations...

 Dari kiri: Saad Abas, Mohd Halimi Abdul Hamid, Mohd Nor Aizudin Mansor, Ahmad Mohd Said, Dato' Dr Roslan Taha

 Abdul Ghani Shaaban

 Mohd Noor Azudin Mansor

 Mohd Halimi Abdul Hamid

 Saad Abas

 Dari kiri: Saad Abas, Mohd Halimi Abdul Hamid, Ahmad Mohd Said, Abdul Ghani Shaaban, Mohd Noor Azudin Mansor, Dato' Dr Roslan Taha

 Mejar Khalid Hamzah

 Jamilol Nasir Saad

 Dari kiri: Dr Salwani Mohd Daud, Nor Azizan aka Intan

 Dr Zaha Rina Zahari

Zaidi Deris

Prof Dr Arip Kasmo

Azizi Ahmad Termizi

 Mat Noji

 Zainil Fadzillah

 Amaran Abu Bakar

 Engku Azman Tuan Mat

 Noraida Nordin dan Zainil Fadzillah

 Ahmad Mohd Said

 Khairol Bariyah

 Belakang - Berdiri dari kiri:Mohd Noor Azudin,Dato' Dr Roslan Taha,Mat Noji,Abd Ghani,Ahmad Mohd Said, Zaidi, Tuan Yaacob, Mejar Khalid

Tengah-Berdiri dari kiri: Saad Abas, Amaran, Azizi, Mohd Halimi, Engku Azman,Jamilol, Prof Dr Arip Kasmo

Duduk dari kiri: Dr Salwani, Dr Zaha Rina, Noraida, Zainil, Khairol Bariyah

Waah! Its our own blog la.. :D



The Northern Pier. Closed for the winter break. Photo taken during the peak of the winter season last December. So you can imagine the coldness, kan?



Salam to all Blackpooleans (or is it Blackpoodlians, or Blackpudlians?). Whatever.

Syukur alhamdulillah kita telah dapat bertemu kembali di Hospital Bersalin Pusrawi Hotel Putra last weekend.

Tujuan utama reunion pastinya untuk rekindle our friendship dan mengeratkan lagi silaturrahim antara kita – malah, mungkin sampai berbesan?

Besides reunions (can be costly, dan sesat nak cari hotel!) dan FB (its free tapi kena buka selalu) Alumni Blackpool Tech ini merupakan satu lagi wadah untuk kita mengeratkan lagi persahabatan through sharing of experiences of our Blackpool days.

Remember: this is our blog. So feel free to write and contribute. Kalau boleh, do attach some photos (so get those old photos out and scan them now!).

Nak tulis apa? Anything and everything pun boleh (but don’t publish your thesis here la..).

You may want to share with us:

·         your college/class experience

·         Blackpool home experience

·         stories of travels in UK & Europe

·         usrah & gatherings stories

·         your thoughts & experience of the Blackpool town

·         university life

·         or, even your current professional life etc.

Life becomes richer and fuller because of our experiences and memories of them.

So let’s freshen our memories of the good old days and share our stories.

Terima kasih.

P.S.

Invitations will be sent to all Brothers  & Sisters via email to become contributors/authors for this blog. Bila terima invitation, just follow the instructions that come with it. Then you can start writing.

( T. Yaacob, cepat email me the full email address list. Ramai dah nak start mencoret cerita masing-masing nih)
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Our first reunion after 30 years!!!

After much cajoling, persuasion, and FB-ing, finally a group  of grey-haired and fast-ageing ex-students of Blackpool College of Technology and Art had their first reunion after leaving Blackpool. In fact, its been thirty years since most of them last met.

The first few minutes were spent coyly surveying and scanning their long-lost friends for signs of wrinkles and grey hair. Next, they started comparing the size of their ever-growing belly paunches. Once the ice was broken, there were jokes and laughter all around as people reminisce and chatted to catch up on lost time.

My, how time flies!

It seemed like it was just a short time ago when I used to take the tram from Norbreck to  the Gynn Square to visit Khalid and Hasni at 34 Hodgson Road. And, whenever I think about it, I can still feel the tiredness of the laborious but necessary trip to Preston to buy ayam, daging and coconut creams.

Sedar tak sedar, all of us who turned up at the reunion were well into our fifties.  Well, almost all of us. Me, I'm still fourty-nine until this coming May. So I guess I can stake my claim to be the youngest : )

Thank you to Tuan Yaacob and Salwa for initiating the meeting.

We are a lucky group of people to have been chosen to go to UK and ended up in glitzy Blackpool. All the memories and experience - yang pahit dan yang manis - helped to turn us into what we are today.

And we are even luckier for the fact that we are able to have the reunion and to continue sharing our experiences and memories with like-minded friends.

Semoga hubungan sillaturrahim terus kukuh, insyaAllah.

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