al-Ishs

two days ago, i passed my hazard perception test.

i’ll do my driving test in the next two months.

what’s been happening?

i’ve been busy working. since february this year, i’ve been working as an analyst programmer for linfox armaguard. in addition, i’ve revised my thesis (i know, i know, i already submitted it to the school, but i was required to buff it with more stuffs), and i’ve re-submitted it to the school about two weeks ago. but anyway, i went on with my life, partially…

earlier in 2008 (or was it the end of 2007?), i wrote a new song, “summer rain.” i haven’t got time to record it yet. while on the topic of music, i twisted my right thumb a few months ago. the pain was excruciating. recovering took a while… well, actually, it’s not back 100% yet. i still occasionally feel the pain, although it’s not bad and not hindering me from doing most things, and best of all, it doesn’t make me sad.

my second bro has also taken bay’a to the sultan of saints, through shaykh mustafa haqqani, shaykh nazim’s representative in indonesia. he has also enjoyed the presence of shaykh hisham during the shaykh’s recent visit to indonesia (bahasa indonesia).

my family and i had a nice trip to ruffy and euroa (and unexpectedly, shepparton. more on that later) to fulfill an invitation from shaykh abdul wahid to gather at his house for nisf sha’ban. we also met the sydneysiders there. daud had an accident while we were in euroa. he fell from the chair and it caused a little cut on his lower lip. we ran him to a clinic in shepparton with the help of motaki and amatullah. to our relief, it wasn’t a serious wound. it recovered pretty quickly.

recently, in front of my house, there’s been a white ford fairmont (built in the 90s) parked everyday. big thanks to the big chief and siraaj.

and just yesterday, my wife and son obtained their pr visa. so, the circle is now complete. we’re all permanent residents of australia.

i’ve spent my last 5 years in melbourne. those who have lived there and used its public transportation system must be familiar with the zoning system. if you don’t belong to this cohort of people, here’s a brief explanation.

areas in melbourne belong to at least a zone. some belong to two adjacent zones. for example, see the melbourne train map [pdf]. the stations with a yellow line only belong to zone 1 only. the ones with a blue line only belong to zone 2 only. the ones with both belong to both zones. for example, the flinders street station (see the city loop) belongs to zone 1, the upfield station (in the north) belongs to zone 2, the sunshine station (in the west) belongs to both zone 1+2. to travel in zone 1 areas, one needs a zone 1 ticket. to travel in zone 2 areas, one needs a zone 2 ticket. to travel in the overlapped area, one can choose to use a zone 1 or 2 ticket. to travel from a zone 1 only area to a zone 2 only area or vice versa, one needs a zone 1+2 ticket. however, if one travels from a zone 1 area to an overlapped area, only a zone 1 ticket is needed. similarly for zone 2.

the zones where one travels determine the price of the ticket. a full fare daily zone 1 only ticket currently costs $6.10. a full fare daily zone 2 only ticket costs $4.30. a full fare daily zone 1+2 ticket costs $9.70 (if travelling on monday to friday after 9 am, an off-peak ticket is available at full fare for $9.00). now here comes the weirdness. suppose abraham travels from williamstown (refer to the williamstown line in the south) to glenroy (refer to the broadmeadows line in the north) and david from murrumbeena to clayton (for both, refer to the pakenham line in southeast). see that abraham travels far farther than david, yet he spends less. if both take a taxi, abraham has to spend much more than david.

hmmm…