What does Subhi mean ?

It depends on what language you’re using.

In Arabic/Turkish/Urdu:

Subhi صبحي
Can also be spelt as Sobhi, Subhie or Sobhie
Means “My early morning” or “My Morning“
This name is used for males.

Hindi/Hindu:
Subhi
Means “Lucky“
This name is used for females.

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Refurbishing a bathroom, how much will it cost?

A question often asked on forums on the internet with no clear answer. An example of those is “I got a quote for £4500!!!! is that expensive??”

A typical answer would be, how much work is involved, which doesn’t really answer the question.

I have attempted to work out how much refurbishing my bathroom at home will cost. I wanted expensive stuff. Grohe or Hansgrohe taps, concealed units and all sorts of stuff. If you don’t know what a concealed unit is, I will answer it later in this post.

The plan of attack:

Know what you’re dealing with. Bathrooms are the most expensive rooms in the house per square foot/meter. FACT!

Get a measuring tape and start drawing a plan of your bathroom.

This is what I came up with.

Plain floor plan

I wanted floor to ceiling tiles for that luxury look and feel. This gives me an idea of how much tiles I will need.

Next, I discounted the areas that will not be needed to be tiled. This included the door, the window, the area behind the bath tub.

The bathtub calculations may seem a little bit odd, but my bathtub is connected to the wall at 2 points in a corner so there is 2 wall areas to discount in addition to the floor tiles I will not need to cover.

Next I worked out the totals I need, I also included an extra margin for tiles breakage, areas I needed to cover but forgot to calculate etc. The last thing you want is to go back to the tiles shop to find that they’re sold out of the tiles you need!

Now I worked out the costs of the tiles, I assumed that I will pay £20 per square meter.

Now we have something to work with.

from this we can work out the grout and adhesive we need and plywood required for the floor.

Now keep in mind, this is tiling only! Now we need the bathroom furniture (Toilet, bathtub, taps etc)

I got a quote from a local supplier for £1100 for all the furniture, this can vary depending on what you want etc. I wanted German solid taps like the ones you get in airports and posh hotels, quality costs money!

This is the situation so far:

Now I need to decide which bits need a plumber and which bits I can do myself!

Hope this has been helpful to someone. Attached is the Excel spreadsheet I have used to work this out.

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• A project is one small step for the project sponsor, one giant leap for the project manager. 
• Good project management is not so much knowing what to do and when, as knowing what excuses to give and when. 
• If everything is going exactly to plan, something somewhere is going massively wrong. 
• Everyone asks for a strong project manager — when they get him they don’t want him. 
• Overtime is a figment of the naïve project manager’s imagination. 
• Quantitative project management is for predicting cost and schedule overruns well in advance. 
• Good project managers know when not to manage a project. 
• All project managers face problems on Monday mornings — good project managers are working on next Monday’s problems. 
• For a project manager, overruns are as certain as death and taxes. 
• If there were no problem people there’d be no need for people who solve problems. 
• Some projects finish on time in spite of project management best practices. 
• Good project managers admit mistakes: that’s why you so rarely meet a good project manager. 
• Fast — cheap — good: you can have any two. 
• There is such a thing as an unrealistic timescale. 
• The more ridiculous the deadline the more money will be wasted trying to meet it. 
• The first 90% of a project takes 90% of the time, the last 10% takes the other 90%. 
• The project would not have been started if the truth had been told about the cost and timescale. 
• To estimate a project, work out how long it would take one person to do it then multiply that by the number of people on the project.
• Never underestimate the ability of senior management to buy a bad idea and fail to buy a good idea. 
• The most successful project managers have perfected the skill of being comfortable, about being uncomfortable. 
• When the weight of the project paperwork equals the weight of the project itself, the project can be considered complete.
• If it happens once it’s ignorance, if it happens twice it’s neglect, if it happens three times it’s policy. 
• You can build a reputation on what you’re going to do.

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This little command will trim the first 27 characters of files in the directory you’re in.

It also assumes that your files are no longer than 99 characters in length.

Adjust to suit.

ls | awk '{print "mv "$1 " " substr($1, 27, 99)}'|sh

If you want to test remove the bit of the command I highlighted in red.

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Since I had few domains to setup separate Google Apps accounts for (http://www.google.com/a/), and their associated DNS settings I thought it might be a good idea to post something about all the DNS settings you would need to get the maximum out of your Google Apps account.

Essentials :

Mail (MX Records)

From: http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=33352

in bind speak this would be :

subhi.com.        1800    IN    MX    10 aspmx3.googlemail.com.
subhi.com.        1800    IN    MX    1 aspmx.l.google.com.
subhi.com.        1800    IN    MX    5 alt1.aspmx.l.google.com.
subhi.com.        1800    IN    MX    5 alt2.aspmx.l.google.com.
subhi.com.        1800    IN    MX    10 aspmx2.googlemail.com.

in tinydns settings this translates to:

@subhi.com::aspmx.l.google.com.:1:1800
@subhi.com::alt1.aspmx.l.google.com.:5:1800
@subhi.com::alt2.aspmx.l.google.com.:5:1800
@subhi.com::aspmx2.googlemail.com.:10:1800
@subhi.com::aspmx3.googlemail.com.:10:1800

You should replace subhi.com with your own domain name obviously.

Spam Protection (Nice to have)

SPF Records

Original Article : http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=178723

You will need to create a TXT record with the following details:

v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all

In Bind speak this means

subhi.com.        1800    IN    TXT    “v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all”

and in Tinydns this translate to

:subhi.com:16:\043v\075spf1\040include\072\137spf.google.com\040\176all:1800

DKIM / Domain Key signing

This is where it gets complicated. You’ll need to generate DKIM record first, use that in your DNS records then enable DKIM signing.

Original article : http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=174124

now you need to follow the instructions on the link above to generate it, once you do that you’ll need to copy it to your DNS server.

in Bind, my key looks like

google._domainkey.subhi.com. 86400 IN    TXT    “v=DKIM1\; k=rsa\;p=MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQC89Rc4EoP8h7c0yg57AJff5nlh2dJuhY2uaUj6WIwgt6h/EYKx+/eIBQcbnn8ZTRQsbEn2pS3VUsMwy0l83N3L7h+08mo5JFWDRfL/ZZ9GhOzUAlKoCKIKAaJ2ACMILfzzV/uYiV8N38Qc2+Oigw56dV62dTQNEQvmgzVZXg5fiwIDRRRRR”

(I have changed the key slightly here )

and in TinyDNS

:google._domainkey.subhi.com:16:\352v\075DKIM1\073\040k\075rsa\073\040p\075MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQC89Rc4EoP8h7c0yg57AJff5nlh2dJuhY2uaUj6WIwgt6h\057EYKx\053\057eIBQcbnn8ZTRQsbEn2pS3VUsMwy0l83N3L7h\05308mo5JFWDRfL\057ZZ9GhOzUAlKoCKIKAaJ2ACMILfzzV\057uYiV8N38Qc2\053Oigw56dV62dTQNEQvmgzVZXg5fiwIDRRRRR:86400

I did an AXFR from bind to tinydns so I am sorry I can’t help you with escaping those special characters.

Chat

To get chat working you’ll need SVR records.

The instructions are on http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=34143

in Bind:

_xmpp-server._tcp.gmail.com. IN SRV 5 0 5269 xmpp-server.l.google.com.
_xmpp-server._tcp.gmail.com. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server1.l.google.com.
_xmpp-server._tcp.gmail.com. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server2.l.google.com.
_xmpp-server._tcp.gmail.com. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server3.l.google.com.
_xmpp-server._tcp.gmail.com. IN SRV 20 0 5269 xmpp-server4.l.google.com.

I am sorry I don’t have these settings in tinydns to paste here.

I hope this helps someone in the future when they’re setting up their domain with Google Apps.

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Get out, seriously, get out, spend as little time as possible there.

It made it to the top of my world’s worst airport terminals list, beating JFK Jet blue terminal hands down.

You’re out of luck if you want something to eat in T1, your only choice is Costa coffee. If you have plenty of time (90+ minutes) you can do the following:

Locate the spoke from the central bit that’ll take you to gate 41. Now what that sign doesn’t tell you, is that gate 41 is in T3.

T3 is 20 minutes walk away, you’ll need to clear security again, so give yourself extra time, there is no security to clear on the way back.

So think about it this way, 20+20 min for going there and back, add 10 mins for faffing about, 20 mins for security, you get the idea, it doesn’t leave you much time for food.

Choices are:

• Burger King
• Some kind of Chinese/Oriental offering
• Cafe
• Steak House

The food court is located on the upper level, the escalators are behind the perfume counters.

Free wifi (And computers) are provided but over subscribed in T1 main hub point and after the duty free in T3.

So as I said, minimise your time there and get the **** out.

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I’ve done a stupid thing. I have booked a flight from T5 to Edinburgh, that’s not the problem though. The problem is it leaves 65 minutes after my first flight arrives into T1 !!

So„„ T1 to T5 in 65 minutes on airside… Is it doable? The minimum “legal connection” is 90 minutes according to BAA.com

I took bets from friends I was travelling with on the incoming flight , 75% were betting I won’t make it.  Below is the story of madness and mayhem.

I arrived into T1 on BMI (Hand luggage only) from an international flight, so I am classified as non-sterile, meaning I have to clear security again on arrival.

One more hurdle was that I needed to be at security 35 minutes before departure (T5 rules!)

I then Realised that I forgot to take into account the 35 minutes barrier, this meant I no longer had 65 minutes, I now have 30 minutes to get from T1 to T5 barrier check.

Here it goes

T1 -> Run -> Flight connections -> Bus -> run -> flight connections -> 35 minutes cut off check at T5 -> Passport control -> 35 minutes cut off check -> security -> T5 Departure!

The plane arrived at gate 55 in T1, the worst possible starting point, the furthest away gate in the terminal from flight connections!

Plane lands

T minus 35 minutes

Door opens. Countdown started.

T minus 30 minutes

Run towards flight connections, with 2 bags and a spare wheel around my waist it’s not so easy.

T minus 23 minutes

Arrive at T1 passport control, it’s not what I need, valuable time wasted asking someone who did not know, I need to get to T5

T minus 21 minutes

At the bus stop, waiting for the bus to T5.

T minus 18 minutes

Bus arrives, driver says he plans to wait for 5 more minutes. !!!!!!

The bus leaves after the drivers looks inside the terminal and seeing no-one was there (It’s a BA strike day)!

T minus 5 minutes

Bus arrives at T5, run upstairs towards flight connections.

T minus 2 minutes

Arrive at first 35 minutes cut-off check.Clear!

Arrive at passport control. Clear!

T minus zero minutes

Arrive at second 35 minutes cut-off check. Clear!

The sprint is over, I can take my time walking to the escalators that will take me to security.…..

5 minutes later I was in T5 departures.

I have made it.

I arrived as the plane was boarding, 10 minutes later I was on board.

Moral of the story:

If it says 90 minutes, it will need 90 minutes.

I only made it because I was lucky that everything was working in my favour, The bus left 5 minutes early. BA being on strike meant the number of passengers was very low and there were no queues at the cut-off checkpoints, passport controls or security and I had my boarding pass printed which meant I did not need to check in at Heathrow.

If you’re thinking about doing it, don’t!

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Missed the turn and paid the price, 19 miles round trip just to get back where I was.

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So here I am in Lusaka, trying to get my daily fix of the interweb.

The easiest way to get access on limited basis is to buy a local mobile phone sim card, from the many many places that sell them around the city. I opted for a Zain SIM card (www.zm.zain.com) but you have a choice of 2 other networks MTN and Zamtel.

The cost of the sim card is 5,000 kwacha (approx £0.70 or $1 USD). Add to that around 10,000 Kwacha for startup credit to get you going.

The costs for a pay-as-you-go setup is a fixed 1,600 ZMK per meg which can add up very quickly, but using a phone on android you can control the usage much better than using it on the computer. I was switching the mobile internet on every 2–3 hours to get the emails and check on bits and pieces. I end up spending around 10,000 ZMK per day on average usage.

The network syncs to Edge but I am told they have 3G too but I suspect the sim I have is limited as it’s cheap and probably isn’t designed for 3G.

The APN settings are:

Internet Settings
Account Name = Zain Internet
Home Page: http://www.google.com
IP Address = none (leave blank)
Port = none (leave blank)
Username = none (leave blank)
Password = none (leave blank)
Access Point Name (APN) = internet

For further information you can always check Zain’s own website

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My sister is getting married in Lusaka in Zambia. Below is a quick list of airlines and how you can get to Zambia from Europe and the Middle East.

FLIGHTS

Flying to Lusaka Airport (IATA Airport code: LUN)

Direct flights from Europe:

British Airways from London Heathrow (LHR). Every Wednesday, Friday, Sunday.

A comprehensive list is on:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lusaka_International_Airport#Airlines_and_destinations

Indirect flights:

Your options are generally connecting in Johannesburg, as most of the flights from Lusaka end up in Johannesburg.

Flights to Johannesburg are very frequent, with most airlines operating daily.

Airfrance: Paris

British Airways: London
Cathay Pacific: Hong Kong
Delta Air Lines: Atlanta
EgyptAir: Cairo
Emirates: Dubai
Etihad Airways: Abu Dhabi
Iberia: Madrid
KLM: Amsterdam
Lufthansa: Frankfurt
Qatar Airways: Doha
Saudi Arabian Airlines: Jeddah
South African Airways: Accra, Blantyre, Buenos Aires-Ezeiza, Dakar, Dar es Salaam, Entebbe, Frankfurt, Harare, Hong Kong, Kinshasa, Lagos, Lilongwe, Livingstone, London-Heathrow, Luanda, Lubumbashi, Lusaka, Maputo, Mauritius, Mumbai, Munich, New York-JFK, Perth, São Paulo-Guarulhos, Victoria Falls, Washington-Dulles, Windhoek
Swiss International Air Lines: Zürich
TAP Portugal: Lisbon, Maputo
Turkish Airlines: Istanbul-Atatürk
Virgin Atlantic: London-Heathrow

Then you can connect to one of the many daily flights from Johanessburg on South African Airlines, Zambezi Airways, or Air Namibia.

Kayak.com, expedia.com/co.uk and opodo.com are good places to buy the tickets from.

VISA

This website will tell you if you need a visa or not, and the cost of the visa.

http://www.zambiaimmigration.gov.zm/zims/VISA_FEES.aspx

Things to do in Zambia

Zambia is famous for Victoria falls, one of the largest falls of the world.

Safaris are great way of experiencing the wildlife in Africa.

and Plenty more, but I haven’t finished my research yet

Hope this helps, if you have anything to add or questions, please do give me a shout.

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