Tuesday, February 17, 2009

A Day In Penang


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Walking along with 'Spongebob' at a 'pasar malam' in Cheroktokun (not sure about the spelling - can someone correct me if I'm wrong, thanks).
"Jatuh la saham kamu jalan dengan 'natang' tu", said my brother in law.
"Haha, takper kalau jatuh pun skit ajer, I still got plenty"

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Ouchhh, I scratched my sister car. It's not my fault but some crazy Penang driver did it.
Luckily it is not too visible but I still need to sent it to the workshop to do some minor 'touch up'.

P/s Spending or should I say wasting my Valentine day with my brother & a faulty radiator.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Last Day in Pondok Cabe

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I'm supposed to stay there till the job is done but there is some other job still pending back in Kuala Lumpur. So, they cut short my trip in here.

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Waiting for my plane. One thing good in here is that the foods are super-duper cheap. Just eat till your heart content.

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Not a good view from here but I got the seat near the emergency door (more legroom), so no complaining from me.

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'Makan' time again. I'm definitely accumulating weight day by day.

P/s Just solved a 'major' problem here in the office (I hope).

Monday, February 9, 2009

Main Mode of Transportation

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Ojek

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The 'Blue Bird' Taxi. Very reliable.

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Angkut or as we know it in here as 'bas mini'. Sometimes, we can get 'free entertainment' inside it.

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'Margo City'. The stuffs in here are really cheap but too bad I didn't bring a lot of rupiah.

P/s I'm about to depart to Kuala Lumpur.

The Cobbler

Nothing much to say but in here (Jakarta), for every half an hour, various type of peoples will come and sell stuff right in front of the doorstep ranging from vegetables seller, mee goreng seller complete with their portable gas cooker plus wok, cobbler, dry or wet food sellers, anything, just name it can be bought without leaving the house. Talk about convenience.

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VW Combi

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Waiting for the shoes the get fixed.

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A 'good' way to waste time & money (BTW, that's not me).

P/s I'm in Penang right now. Need to unwind a little bit before I go to Kuantan tomorrow morning.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Driving In Jakarta

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There is even a Giant hypermarket here in Jakarta, talk about Malaysian achievement.

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Most of the roads in Jakarta looked like this (minus the on in the city).

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'Macet total'. This is what I've to endure every single day when I'm off to work and back.

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For a 17 km journey, it took us nearly an hour to get there.

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The way the peoples drive and ride in here are really different when compared to peoples in Malaysia or Australia but by now I got used to it already.

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The vehicle, a Kia Caren with a 1.8 litre engine and comes with a manual transmission, sweet (I loves driving manual car).

P/s Better to lay low, it's not the right time yet...

Monday, February 2, 2009

Tragedy Strike

29 January 2009. What happen on that day really left me scared and speechless. I will definitely remember it for the rest of my life. Words really could not apprehend the whole situation. Please read the newspaper article below to know what actually happen on that faithful day.

KNKT probes helicopter crash site in Pondok Cabe

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 01/29/2009 2:02 PM | Jakarta

Crashed Chopper: Investigators examine the Super-Puma helicopter destroyed when it crashed at Pondok Cabe airfield in Tangerang, Banten, on Thursday. The crash early Thursday killed two technicians. The pilot and an on-board technician both survived. Antara/Prasetyo Utomo

Crashed Chopper: Investigators examine the Super-Puma helicopter destroyed when it crashed at Pondok Cabe airfield in Tangerang, Banten, on Thursday. The crash early Thursday killed two technicians. The pilot and an on-board technician both survived. Antara/Prasetyo Utomo

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Commission (KNKT) have arrived at Pondok Cabe airfield in Tangerang to investigate the helicopter crash that killed two technicians earlier Thursday. The crash site, located in front of Pelita Air's service hangar, was cordoned off and under police guard. Journalists were not allowed to enter the area. The bodies of the victims, Ahmad Suparja (25) and Sri Setyobudi (42) were taken to Fatmawati Hospital in South Jakarta. The pilot of the twin engine Super-Puma helicopter, Rohman Hadi (50), and a technician who was inside the chopper, HM Hardi (52), survived, but were still suffering from shock. South Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Chairul Anwar said at the crash site the police had yet to figure out the chronology of the incident. "What we know so far is they were doing a routine maintenance check. They started up the engine and the pilot began to lift the chopper when it suddenly collapsed," Chairul told journalists, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com. He said the helicopter's blades had sliced through the two technicians. "It's quite severe, they were cut in two," he said. (dre)

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I was there when it happen. I heard a loud 'bang' and then suddenly there was a commotion.

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I saw peoples running outside shouting "Super Puma jatuh, Super Puma jatuh"
This is the furthest that I can go. I really am not brave enough to go any further.

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The main rotor blade of the helicopter slices into the two technicians situated nearby. You can see clearly the bodies of the two of them. One of them is decapitated and the head flung almost 100m from the accident location.

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Not sure who this is but later on some minister show up to know the matter first hand.

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The area is being cordon until further notices.

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Rains. Grieving time for everyone.

P/s Al-Fatihah to the both of them.

What I'm Feeling Right Now

I'm Here To Work, Not To Libur

Been in Jakarta for more than a week and all that I can say is that I'm beginning to love my country more despite some minor hiccups here and there. The cost of living, foods, necessity are really cheap in here but despite of that, I'm starting to get some headache when I'm trying to do my job properly in there. Too many red tape needed before anything goes through. Now, I'm back in KL to do some desk job while trying to solve some problems that occurred while I'm gone. Hrmmm.

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Back to basic.

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I need to open up my aviation book again.

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Strip naked.

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'Baling-baling' or propeller as being known in here.

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I'm still under training in here.

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The Indonesian Police 'Sky Truck'.

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Air Force One, The Indonesian President's aircraft. Actually, this is a restricted area and no photos are allowed but being me, I just snapped it anyway (make sure that the coast is clear beforehand).

P/s Something bad happened here.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

I'm So Lucky That I'm In Here

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Heat wave.

Record-breaking heat scorches southern Australia - Taken from Malaysian Insider website.

MELBOURNE, Jan 31 — Southern Australia suffered yesterday from a record-breaking heat wave that has threatened rural towns with wildfires and sent ambulance crews after heat-stressed patients.

Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city recorded its third consecutive day of temperatures above 43 degrees Celsius for the first time since 1855, when record-keeping began, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

The temperature in Melbourne topped 45.1°C yesterday ahead of a cooler change that might even bring some thunder showers, the bureau said.

Adelaide, the other major city on the south coast, is expected to match its longest heat wave in a century by Monday, with six consecutive days exceeding 40°C. The heat there buckled train and tram lines.

The high temperatures have afflicted tennis players and spectators alike this week at the Australian Open in Melbourne, where men's No. 3 seed Novak Djokovic retired ill from a game on Tuesday after heat-related complaints.

The retractable roofs on Rod Laver Arena have been closed at least parts of the last three days.

There was controversy on Wednesday when they closed the roof during the match between Serena Williams and Svetlana Kutzetsova. The Russian had won the first set, but the break gave Williams time to recover and she rallied to win.

Players complained that it felt like their feet were burning right through their shoes. A bunch of moths that have annoyed the players were basically sizzling and dying within seconds of landing on the broiling court surface.

Melbourne is the capital of Victoria state, where three rural towns were under threat from wildfires spreading quickly in the furnace-like conditions, Country Fire Authority deputy chief fire officer Geoff Conway said.

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Richard Carlyon said firefighters will have to wait for rain to dampen the tinder-dry conditions.

State ambulance service chief Greg Sassella said more crews to help people affected by the heat were available yesterday, a day after 1,305 emergency cases were logged — more than double the normal load.

Ambulance services in Adelaide and Melbourne said they were not aware of any deaths caused by the heat. — AP

P/s I'm not going to miss Melbourne right now.