Yesterday i was stopped by the London Metropolitan Police. A stop and search under the terrorism act, they say.Funny thing was, this is the SECOND time i've been stopped. At the same place. More or less the same time.

Does this look like a terrorist to you?



No rightttt?

Then they searched my bags and i think they found these things:



Let's see..a prayer mat, a qiblah compass, Macroeconomics textbook, external hard drive, my pencil case and the camera. Nothing dangerous there, i presume. Except maybe the prayer mat and the compass. Yes, that makes me a fundamentalist. Satisfied now?

What's wrong with being a fundamentalist anyways?? As a well known blogger currently residing in God-knows-where says, being fundamentalist means you uphold the fundamentals of Islam, which really makes you a better person and not some terrorist killing civilians.

But then, they didn't really accuse me of anything, so no need for emo-ing. It was just a harmless stop-and-search, one officer searched my bag and the other did small talk. No good cop bad cop routine here.

Then they issued me two pieces of paper:





Let me see..stop and search code H & J...so its Terrorism s.44(1) & 44(2).

Once again i searched credible sources (Wikipedia, again). Terrorism Act 2000, if you want to search for it. But particularly this section:

Section 44 powers (stop and search)
The most commonly encountered use of the Act was outlined in Section 44 which enables the police and the Home Secretary to define any area in the country as well as a time period wherein they could stop and search any vehicle or person, and seize "articles of a kind which could be used in connection with terrorism". Unlike other stop and search powers that the police can use, Section 44 does not require the police to have "reasonable suspicion" that an offence has been committed, to search an individual.

In January 2010 the stop-and-search powers granted under Section 44 were ruled illegal by the European Court of Human Rights. .

So it's ruled illegal! But that's ok, we can do whatever we like, we're gonna catch those terrorists mate. And they happen to look suspiciously foreign, maybe Muslim (i don't know how Muslims look like) and preferably Middle Eastern. 'No reasonable suspicion' my a**e.

Paranoid.

If you don't want people to come bomb your country, don't go make some fantasy tales about WMDs and bomb their place.

Made beautiful to humans what they covet

This conversation happened one day in the evening, when i was trying to get some sleep and it so happened that my roommate was trying to get some sleep too, cause when i sleep at night he's never home but when i wake up, he's sleeping and when i come back from classes, he's still asleep. (This conversation was me on my bed, him on his bed, in case you get any pervert ideas)

Me: Where do you go at night?

R: Clubs..

Me: Owh..which clubs did you go to?

R: *bleeped out for security purposes* and i come back at 4 in the morning.

Me: You come back by bus?

R: Yeah, we go by tube, and then come back by bus. Its fun, but its a really bad habit...missed their classes..that's why im asleep when you come back..

Me: *Lies there pondering*

So you go to clubs. You realise its a bad habit, missing classes, sleeping all day, etc. So why do it at all?

Ok, its fun, is that justification for missing out on paid-for education and missing out on what could be a productive day? And sleeping through Fajr prayers, that's even more severe.

Shocker

Have you touched anything and suddenly you feel electrocuted? Erm, maybe that wasn't the right word. Have you ever had an electric shock touching normal stuff like a gate or your brother?

I have. Lots and lots of times.

While opening the gate at my house. While touching the car door. Touching the metal grids of a Tesco trolley. Accidentally bumping into my brother at One Utama in front of Rotiboy, i think.

I realised this phenomena whilst washing dishes after eating a 1 pound pizza bought at 1.30 pm at Iceland, sprinkled with sausages.

Figure 2: Hand touched the sink

Figure 3: Hand pulls away from shock impact

I tried searching it out on credible academic sources (Wikipedia) and typed out 'electric shock while touching normal stuff' on Google,but the closest i got to it was 'static electricity', which is "usually caused when certain materials are rubbed against each other, like wool on plastic or the soles of shoes on carpet. The process causes electrons to be pulled from the surface of one material and relocated on the surface of the other material.
A static shock occurs when the surface of the second material, negatively charged with electrons, touches a positively-charged conductor, or vice-versa', whatever that is.

Why do these things happen to me? Or do all of you get it too? Maybe i'm an attractive material that pulls electrons easily. heheh.

L'Parc Disneyland

If you go to only one place in France, make sure its Disneyland Paris.

Why?

Because you'll feel like a kid again XD

Unfortunately, we went during winter, so it was effing freezing.

Fortunately, we got a student discount for the tickets. 42 euros for 2 parks isn't a bad thing.

Unfortunately,our legs were already falling off by the time we got on anything.



But it was seriously cool. Have you ever been on a roller coaster that starts off like a rocket? or a roller coaster that plays Aerosmith while you scream? No?

Then you definitely definitely need to visit Disneyland.



And it made me feel like a kid again, just like it made me feel like a kid 13 years ago..*sob2* :)

In paris, you could get a lot of free stuff if you know where to look. And fortunately for me, free stuff found me instead of the other way round. :))

1st of all, if you're a student and you happen to bring along a passport, the Mona Lisa and all the treasures of the Louvre can be admired for 0 euros.

And its also free to enter Notre Dame, although you won't see Quasimodo anywhere. Maybe you have to pay to see him.

And of course, the French aren't so greedy as to charge you for taking pictures of the Eiffel tower and the Arc du Triomphe. Although at le tour eiffel there are lots and lots of souvenir sellers, keychains dangling from their whole arm. Tip: if they don't give you a good price, run away. They'll be selling stuff for peanuts.

So that constitutes the whole of my 2nd day in Paris, and covers pretty much all of the famous attractions. Check.

transport?

That can also be free. I got a metro pass for zones 1-3, so the marginal cost of 1 more journey is? Yes, 0. But don't fret if you lost your ticket or you didn't buy any, the Paris train system is perfect for people like you, and I meant that in a good way :) 1stly, there is nobody guarding the ticket gates. 2ndly, you only need a ticket to go in,while the exit is just a door you push, unlike the cheat-proof london underground. What we did when one of us damaged his ticket was:

- leaving the ticket behind for the next person, after you pass thru the gates.
- pushing the exit door open so that person can come through

We're naughty naughty children.

And lastly, eurostar gives out tonnes of free stuff, and that's like winning the lottery. But that's a story for later ;)