Beijing (part 3)

24052007 (0030)

On the next day we went to Tianmen Square.. i dunno y i wore skirt..heheh... i think mb some screw of my head already loose... :p

but i'm so glad when entered the forbidden city its quite warm.. mb its becoz the palace is surroundings with a lot of buildings

After that we went to Forbidden City.The magnificent Forbidden City is the largest and the best-preserved Imperial Palace complex in the world. It has 9,999 rooms.. wah la.. soo big.. Betty said even d palace is big there is no toilet or bathroom.. ei yuu.. :p

the right picture is love tree.. which the emperor n empress take picture b4 they married.. Betty said whoever couple take pic in front the tree their relationship will last 4ever..

unfortunately i dont hv 1, so i take d tree's pic only.. heehehe.. :p

u see.. flower.. ahahha.. n u see my sign peace? :p...

my mom n her friends.. after few minutes walking.. hehhe... i hold my mom's hand wherever i go... (n_n)v

nyum nyum.. i think is yam.. its quite sweet.. n feel like korean.. hahhaha.. watched k-drama too much.. WARNING!! dont watch k-drama too many.. or u'll b like me.. to much imagine.. :p

me, mom n Betty b4 we went to

airport.. she so cute..:)

telephone booth.. my mom said it look like mandarin orange.. hehhe...

last but not least, me, my mom n stewardess.. i remembered when my age around 17 i wanna b stewardess.. but unfortunately my head easy to feel dizzy so i give up d profession..

if i become stewardess rite now, i think i'll know how to use make-up.. hehhe... nvm.. i'm d simple 1.. n i know how to make up with simple step.. :P

wut can i say bout dis trip.. i'm prefer my trip to Guangzhou compare to Beijing.. the salesgirl quite harsh.. geez.. n they know ur currency.. can u believe my mom's friend can bargain d bag's price from RMB1200 to RMB80?? u see they so clever.. n u must so clever too bargain..

we not having prob with language.. coz many of them know how to use english compare to Guangzhou.. n sometimes ur language too.. wah la.. so tere.. :p

on d way to Malaysia the plane suddenly shaking for few seconds.. erk.. dunno wut to said on dat time.. Alhamdulilah.. nutting happen.. n then my head start to dizzy again..

hurm.. wut to write..

i think i hv to stop now...

sorry 4 my broken grammar.. :P

c ya guys.. n take good care of ur health..

wanna eat durian.. nyum nyum... nitemOrn (n_n)v

Beijing (part 2)

23052007 (2240)

hi guys!! no update for few weeks.. geez.. so lazy.. hehhe

well.. i'll try make simple report from my trip to beijing...

dis pic i took around 0530.. compare to Malaysia, 530am it still dark here.. :)

bread 4 my breakfast..love it so much.. it taste like cream cheese.. nyum nyum...

i reached at beijing airport around 0630.. d airport's computer server down for 30minutes.. mb becoz there r too many ppl..wut i can say d airport staff not friendly compare to Guangzhou.. :(

we went 2 bfast at chinese muslim restaurant.. they served nasi lemak.. quite salty but still its taste like nasi lemak just quite plain.. :p

we stayed at Ai Hua Hotel 4 dis trip..

Then tomorrow we go to Great Wall.. i already set my mind to climb until d pit stop on d top at GW.. i thought it's easy..

dis pic taken b4 i start walk to GW..

my mom said to me that she cant walk to d top.. so i told my mom that i'll go by myself... n here my pit stop.. :P u guys see me rite? i already make circle to my pic.. hehhe...

i was afraid with high so.. i cant realise my dream.. uwaaaaaaaa.. n i cant b hero.. hhuhu.. Betty (my tourist guide) said if u can walk at least until the 3rd pit stop u're hero...

u know wut there r old women around 72years old in my group, she walked until the 3rd.. geez.. she already set on her mind.. but i saw many old ppl walked slowly to reach d top.. the weather so windy n cold...

i saw flowers.. dunno whether cherry blossom or wut.. i only saw only dis flower tree in my trip.. n only pink color.. beijing just hv d spring season n when my trip its already windy...

me n my mom.. dunno wut d word say.. hehhe.. :p its quite frustrated coz i dont hv many pictures taken with my mom..

then we went to summer palace.. u will surprise when u come to this palace.. there a lots of rocks.. on Ming Dynasty the emperor loved to collect rocks..

Pair of lions are often seen outside of Chinese buildings. This one is a male. How can you tell? It is because his foot is on a ball that symbolizes either man's power over the world or that men always want to play ball! n the female lion always has her foot on a small baby.

Psst.. da lion quite scary.. (n_~)

d left pic is d profile bout d right picture.. d stone's name is Blue Iris Stone (Qingzhi Xiu) aka Stone of the Wastrel..This is the largest stone decoration in any Chinese garden.. the stone make the emperor become bankruptcy.. coz to moved the stone it takes a lot money to spent.. n Betty said who take pic with this stone it will make some1 hv financial difficulties... n Lim (my other tourist guide) said but if u already no hv money it'll b other round.. hehe.. but i know it was joke

i'm not take any photo of blue iris stone.. i copy d pic from other web.. huhhu.. dunno y... quite scary if some bad happen.. but.. as long we work hard, insya-Allah nutting happen... :)

continue to part 3.. (n_n)v

Yusuf Islam aka Cat Stevens

01052007 (2215)

2day i like to post bout Yusuf Islam aka Cat Stevens.. i watched his bio in tv bout last year.. i like his voice.. so gentle.. :)

Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou on 21 July 1948 in London) performed as Cat Stevens from 1966 to 1978. He is an English musician, singer-songwriter, educator, philanthropist and prominent convert to Islam.

Under the name Cat Stevens he has sold over 60 million albums around the world since the late 1960s. His albums Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat were both certified by the RIAA as having achieved Triple Platinum status in the United States (three million sales each); his album Catch Bull at Four sold half a million copies in the first two weeks of release and was Billboard's number-one LP for three consecutive weeks. His songwriting has also earned him two ASCAP songwriting awards (for "The First Cut Is the Deepest," which has been a hit single for four different artists.)

At the height of his fame, Stevens decided to become a convert to Islam in 1977 and in 1978 adopted the name Yusuf Islam, leaving his music career to devote himself to educational and philanthropic causes in the Muslim community. In 2006 he returned to pop music, with his first album of new pop songs in 28 years, entitled An Other Cup. He has been given several awards for his work in promoting peace in the world, including the 2004 Man for Peace award and the 2007 Mediterranean Prize for Peace. He lives with his wife, Fauzia Mubarak Ali and five children in London and spends part of each year in Dubai.

Early life (1948 - 1965)

Steven Georgiou was the third child of a Greek-Cypriot father (Stavros Georgiou) and a Swedish mother (Ingrid Wickman). The family lived above Moulin Rouge, the restaurant that his parents operated on Shaftesbury Avenue, a few steps from Piccadilly Circus in the Soho area of London. His whole family worked in the restaurant.

Although his father was Greek Orthodox and his mother a Baptist, Steven was sent to a Catholic school, St. Joseph Roman Catholic Primary School in Macklin Street.
When Steven was about eight years old, his parents divorced, but both continued to run the restaurant and live above it. At age 12, Steven, who already played piano, began to play guitar and write songs. A few years later his mother returned with him to Gävle, Sweden, where he started developing his drawing skills, influenced by his uncle Hugo, a painter.

At age 16, he left school and was accepted, then later dismissed from, Hammersmith Art School. Although he enjoyed art — his later record albums would feature his original artwork on the covers — Steven wanted to establish a musical career. It was during this period he was first influenced by folk music.

Musical Career (1966 - 1978)

He began to perform his songs in coffee houses and pubs. Thinking that his Greek name might not be memorable as a stage name - "I couldn't imagine anyone going to the record store and asking for that Stephen Demetre Georgiou album. And in England, and I was sure in America, they loved animals."- he started calling himself Cat Stevens, reportedly chosen because a girlfriend said he had eyes like a cat.

In 1966, at age 18, he impressed manager/producer Mike Hurst (formerly of British vocal group The Springfields) with his songs and Hurst arranged for him to record a demo and then helped him get a record deal; the first singles, "I Love My Dog" and "Matthew and Son" (the title song from his debut album, released in the beginning of 1967) reached Britain's Top 10, and the album Matthew and Son itself began charting.

Over the next two years, Stevens recorded and toured - with artists ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Engelbert Humperdinck - and Cat Stevens was considered a teen pop sensation, placing several single releases in the British pop music charts. Some of that success was attributed to the pirate radio station Wonderful Radio London which played his records. (In August 1967, he went on the air with other recording artists who had benefited from the pirate station to mourn its closure.)

His December 1967 album New Masters failed to chart in the United Kingdom; but the album is now most notable for his song "The First Cut Is the Deepest" which has become an international hit for P.P. Arnold, Rod Stewart and Sheryl Crow, and has won several song-writing awards.
Stevens was living a fast-moving pop-star life and in early 1968 at the age of nineteen, he became very ill with tuberculosis. During several months in the hospital and a year of convalescence, Stevens began to question aspects of his life, took up meditation, read about other religions and became a vegetarian.

In that time, as part of his spiritual awakening and questioning, he wrote as many as 40 songs which were much more introspective than his previous work. Many of those songs were to appear on his albums in years to come.

Conversion to Islam

When Stevens nearly drowned in an accident in Malibu in 1975, he reports having pleaded with God to save him. Stevens described the event in a VH1 interview some years later: "I suddenly held myself and I said, 'Oh God! If you save me, I'll work for you.'" The near-death experience intensified his long-held quest for spiritual truth. He had looked into Buddhism "Zen and I Ching, numerology, tarot cards and astrology",but when his brother David gave him a copy of the Qur'an, Stevens began to find peace with himself and began his transition to Islam.

He formally converted to the Islamic faith in 1977 and took the name Yusuf Islam in 1978, saying that he "always loved the name Joseph" and was particularly drawn to the story of Joseph in the Qur'an.
He made his last musical appearance at The Year of The Child concert in Wembley Stadium, on November 22, 1979.

An Other Cup (2006)

In March 2006, Billboard magazine reported Yusuf Islam had finished recording his first all new pop album since 1978. The album, An Other Cup, was released internationally in November 2006 on his own label, Ya Records (distributed by Polydor Records in the UK and internationally by Atlantic Records) — the 40th anniversary of his first album, Matthew and Son. A single was simultaneously released from the album, called "Heaven/Where True Love Goes".

The album was produced with Rick Nowels, who has worked with Dido and Rod Stewart and the artist is listed as "Yusuf", with a cover label identifying him as "the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens". The artwork on the album is credited to Yoriyos. Yusuf Islam wrote all of the songs except "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", and recorded it in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

Speaking about the album, David Joseph, co-president of Polydor, said: "Yusuf is one of the most unique artists the UK has ever produced. The new album is sensational and will prove to be one of the biggest musical highlights of the year. His voice and melody are totally timeless."

Yusuf is actively promoting this album, appearing on radio and television and in print interviews. He was interviewed by the BBC in November 2006 and is quoted as saying, "It's me, so it's going to sound like that of course ... This is the real thing." ... "When my son brought the guitar back into the house, you know, that was the turning point. It opened a flood of, of new ideas and music which I think a lot of people would connect with."

Asked in a November 2006 Billboard magazine interview about why the artist is credited as "Yusuf" rather than "Yusuf Islam", he said, "Because 'Islam' doesn't have to be sloganized. The second name is like the official tag, but you call a friend by their first name. It's more intimate, and to me that's the message of this record."

As for why the sleeve says "the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens", he responded, "That's the tag with which most people are familiar; for recognition purposes I'm not averse to that. For a lot of people, it reminds them of something they want to hold on to. That name is part of my history and a lot of the things I dreamt about as Cat Stevens have come true as Yusuf Islam."

And speaking on CBS Sunday Morning in December 2006, Yusuf Islam said, "You know, the cup is there to be filled... with whatever you want to fill it with. For those people looking for Cat Stevens, they'll probably find him in this record. If you want to find Yusuf, go a bit deeper, you'll find him."

On the 29th of April 2007, BBC1 broadcast a unique concert given at the Porchester Hall by Yusuf as part of BBC Sessions, his first live performance in London in 28 years (the last being the UNICEF Year of the Child concert in 1979.)

Awards

Cat Stevens was nominated to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005, but not voted in.

-On 10 November 2004, Yusuf Islam was presented with a Man for Peace award by the private foundation of former USSR president Mikhail Gorbachev, for his 'dedication to promote peace, the reconciliation of people and to condemn terrorism'; the ceremony was held in Rome, Italy and attended by five Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

-A year later, on 4 November 2005, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Gloucestershire for services to education and humanitarian relief.

- In October 2003 he received the World Social Award for "humanitarian relief work helping children and victims of war".

- On 20 October 2005, Yusuf Islam was named ASCAP's Songwriter of the Year and received Song of the Year honours for "The First Cut Is the Deepest", at a special presentation in London. At the ceremony, The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) honoured the top British writer and publisher members of the UK's Performing Rights Society.

- On 11 October 2006, Yusuf Islam was named Songwriter of the Year for the second year running and received another award for the same song "The First Cut Is the Deepest".

- On 4 January 2007, Yusuf Islam was awarded the Mediterranean Prize for Peace in Naples, Italy. He received the award "as a result of the work he has done to increase peace in the world".

On 25 March 2007, he received the German ECHO "special award for life achievements as musician and ambassador between cultures" in Berlin

credit to wikipedia

when i watched bout him during the interview, he said that when he was teenage, he involved with drugs..woman.. n all lot bad stuff... when u popular sometimes u cant control urself..

but after he convert he changed to different person.. from bad to better person.. Alhamdulilah.. hopefully a lot peoples will follow his step.. amin.. :)

hopefully u guys enjoy during reading bout Yusuf Islam... :)

sweet dreams guys... (>.<)

i'll post bout my trip some other time..

nitemOrn guys...