Malaysia Day roti bakar & black tea

Roti bakar and hot black tea make for a good combination on a cold and rain-drenched morning of Malaysia Day. Time to leave the kopitiam as the rain at the market has petered down to a drizzle. 

Selamat Hari Malaysia
Happy Malaysia Day

Cameron Highlands Holiday

Brinchang, Cameron Highlands. 4/8/2012 to 6/8/2012

Spent three wonderful days and two nights with relatives in Brinchang, Cameron Highlands. Altogether there were 9 persons in the group. Including myself the others were my wife, daughter, Nicholas, Chin, Mei, Tuck Man and his wife and daughter.

We stayed in an apartment building located on a hill in Brinchang called Parkland Apartment. From the balcony of our room we could enjoy the beautiful view of the surrounding buildings and landscape. The views in the morning at sunrise and in the evening at sunset were spectacular.

On Sat we went up the hill resort via the old Tapah road and came down on Sun by way of the Simpang Pulai-Cameron Highlands highway.

The most memorable vist was to the Boh plantation at Sungai Palas. From the Tea Centre at the top of the hill we could see acres and acres of rolling hills covered with tea shrubs as far as the eye can see. To get to the Tea Centre we had to drive through a narrow and winding track with many sharp hairpin bends constructed along the hill sides. At certain sections the track was so narrow that it can only accommodate one vehicle.

Over steamboat dinner on Sat we also had the opportunity to watch on a giant TV screen the exciting match between DLCW and Lin Dan for the badminton Olympic gold medal being played in London.

Monday was the last day of our stay. Before departing the hill resort we spent the morning taking pictures at the Smokehouse and later buying strawberries and vegetables at the Kea Farm farmers' market.

Langkawi holiday

My company sports club is organising a 3D/2N tour of Langkawi in June and a form is being passed around for those who are interest to sign up. After returning from Phuket, Thailand just 2 days ago I'm in no mood to go on another holiday so soon after.

"Jaws" T-shirt

Donned this silly but funny "Jaws" cartoon T-shirt that I bought for some laughs just to remember my family vacation in Phuket

Phuket tour

Wed 9/5/2012. Last sip of hot cappuccino at KL LCCT before boarding the Air Asia plane to Phuket,Thailand with my family. What followed after this drink was an extraordinary adventure (eating, hiking, boating, shopping, sightseeing and walking) that awaited us upon checking in at the hotel in this Andaman Sea Thai island territory.

Catching the morning Air Asia flight to Macau from KL LCCT

Thur 5.30am. KL LCCT international departure lounge. Sending my son and his girlfriend off for their holidays in Macau. Even at such an early hour the airport was a hive of human and commercial activities.

Air Asia is actively promoting self check-in as evident by the presence of so many self-check signage and kiosks around the terminal with a corresponding reduction in the number of manual check-in counters. I saw many weary travelers sleeping on the benches. Some even slept on the floor beside their luggage.

8 hours to renew our international passports

Federal Territory Day Public Holiday Wed 1/2/2012. Kajang Immigration Department

I and my wife spent more than 8 hours from 8.30am to 5.00pm at the packed immigration office building in Kajang to renew our expiring international passports.

For the first 4 hours we were standing on our feet waiting in a long queue outside the entrance to get into the processing area for our applications to be checked and accepted. And the second 4 hours were spent sitting down on the benches waiting for the various stages of our applications to be processed. By the time we stood before the checking counter our legs had turned numb and stiff and our knees were hurting from the four hours of standing.

The immigration officers were doing their work professionally though.

The long processing and waiting time was caused by just too many people either applying for new passports or renewing expired ones. On this day, I believe that there were more than 400 applicants because my number was 1328 and my wife's 1335. This means that there were already more than 300 people in front of us when we joined the long queue at 8.30am. After more than 400 numbers were given out the officers had to bar the late comers from coming in.

The big crowd was due to the public holiday in KL. KL folks and Selangor people like myself who work in KL took advantage of the holiday in KL to renew their expiring passports in the various state immigration offices outside KL.

Sipping white coffee

On my way back to my Kajang home from a meeting in KL I stopped by the Saujana Impian Pappa Rich Cafe for a drink. This cafe is located about 2 km from my residence.

I have heard so much negative comments about this cafe from my family members that I was curious to find out what it is all about.

The built-up area is large compared to typical cafes like Old Town. The cafe also provides free wifi service. The menu is a fusion of western and local cuisine, similar to what Old Town is offering.

Pricing wise I must say that it is similar, if not even lower than what you will pay for similar fare in Old Town. For example other than the 10% service charge there is no government tax to pay. Old Town imposes both service charge and government tax on the customer.

The ambiance and the decor are quite comfortable and relaxing. The cafe appears well patronised. Even in the hot afternoon sun, I noticed a sizable group of customers eating there.

I ordered a cup of non-sweet Ipoh White coffee which I must say tastes better than Old Town White Coffee. The bill for the coffee including service charge is RM3.50. The Chinese woman cashier who accepted my payment appears to be the lady boss as she is the only personnel there not wearing a house uniform.

50 sen postal rate until CNY

50 sen postal rate until CNY

Pos Malaysia will offer the flat rate of 50 sen for mailing CNY cards to all parts of the country.

However the offer is for cards weighing not more than 50 grams and the offer ends on Jan 31. Pos Malaysia advises that consumers should not send the cards later than Jan 17 to ensure the cards reach their destinations by Jan 21.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year 2012, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everybody. May there be peace on earth.

Bentong trip on 11/12/2011

Together with Anna, Richard and Angie spent the whole day with relatives in Bentong. The main purpose of the visit was to take a look at a new housing estate under construction at the outskirt of the town with the view of buying a unit for retirement.

Phase 1 of Taman Anggerik which is currently under construction consists of single storey terrace, double storey terrace and single storey semi-dee houses. Anna likes to spend her retirement years in Bentong. I was told that all the phase 1 units have been sold out. So now have to wait for the developer to start phase 2 before booking a unit. I am looking at the 4-room single storey type.

While in the town the wives visited a beauty centre for eye brow embroidery beauty treatment. It is more like tatooing. I was not impressed with the outcome of the beauty treatment. The dark eye brows superimposed on aging and wrinkled faces loos ridiculous. However the beautician assured us that in a few days time the black colouring will fade a bit.

New is not necessary the better

The old generation MS DOS
operating system

Today the management replaced my old faithful desktop pc with a Dell. The new sleek and shiny pc running on Windows XP Service Pack 3 is supposed to be better and faster than the previous one running on Windows XP Service Pack 2.

Ever heard of the golden oldies? I always think that new is not necessary better than old. This is not to say that every thing new is bad and all old things are good. It all depends on the circumstances.

The mother of all horrors hit me the moment I tried to run my old faithful DOS-based reinforced concrete beam design program with the Dell. I was able to run only 50% of the program before it crashed repeatedly. I had no problem running this piece of software before on Windows Service Pack 1 and 2. Apparently this piece of software is no longer compatible with Windows Service Pack 3 operating system.

Even the the expert from the IT department didn't know how to fix the problem despite adjusting the pc, beam program and cpu settings many times. Shaking his head all he could say was that there was an incompatibility problem between the DOS-based engineering design software and the newer Windows Service Pack 3 operating system powering the Dell.

Nowadays modern Windows based engineering design programs are sophisticated 3D finite-element softwares that can combine CAD drawing with engineering design. However, for simple and one-off beam analysis and design using such tools is an overkill and an extravagant use of computing resource. Unlike the younger generation of engineers who have never experienced any operating system other than Windows this oldie who was weaned on the DOS operating system of a by-gone era has never gotten to like these modern state-of-art sophisticated 3-D design softwares.

In comparison to the modern CAD-based engineering analysis and design software, this old DOS-based program that I have been using for more than 20 years has none of the bells and whistles of its modern counterpart. Its graphics are rather bland, simplistic and unappealing, typical of the old generation of code-based software written for the MS DOS operating system. However it is very fast and easy to operate and perfectly does the job it was designed to do. It does not even require a mouse to operate other than tapping on the keyboard, In fact I have used this piece of software, which you can even run on a floppy to design structural beam elements for many high rise buildings. Over the years because of its speed and user friendliness I have gotten very fond of this old software and simply can't do without it.

Next week I'm sure going to pester the management to reinstate the previous pc with the old operating system on my desk. Other engineers can have the new Dell if they wish. If the program can't run on Windows Service Pack 3, I am quite certain that it will also conflict with Windows Vista and the latest Windows 7 operating system.

Serai Saujana Condo, Subang

Main Entrance Canopy

Mon 1/18/01 Balinese Themed Condo with an Attitude

Site inspection for CF certification by the authorities. Went to the site at 10am. However the government inspectors from MPSA (Majlis Perbandaran Shah Alam)had yet to show up. By that time the contractor was ordering the workers to spruce up the place for the official inspection.

Finally the entourage from MPSA made their grand entrance in two cars at 11am. After the short briefing and light refreshments we splitted into three parties for the inspection. I tagged along with one of the group. My presence was quite redundant as the inspectors were more interested in the architectural matters rather than the structure. The whole inspection took more than an hour to complete as there are more than one hundred units in the two blocks of 13 storey condominium.

The two storey penthouses on the top floor are huge and luxuriously finished. They resemble bungalows in the sky more than apartments. With a price tag of more than RM1 million each only the super rich people can afford to live there. All the penthouses open to the fabulous golf course of the Saujana Country & Golf Club. In all my time attending site meetings I have never had the opportunity to go up to the top-most floor to view the penthouses.

The inspection didn't go quite as well as expected. There are some non-compliance building setback problems. Anyway that is left to the architect and the client to entangle the settle with the authorities.

Working on Sat

Yesterday Sat I forced myself go to the office to work. I had to complete some work assignment in preparation for Mon' s project meeting in Rawang. Lately, one thing that strikes me most when I come in for Sat work is that I am almost the only guy in my section working on a Sat.

Why is that so? Am I overworking myself to death chasing so many project datelines while others have no work to do? Or perhaps other people are so efficient that they can complete their work without having to come in over the weekend?

Sometimes I could not help but envy the junior staff. Without having to deal with demanding clients directly there is little pressure and demands on their time other than to complete the work given to them. On the other hand with so many jobs in hand I have to multi-task and juggle the often conflicting job pressures with little time to catch my breath

Quiet gratitude and satisfaction of a job well done.

1. 

After weeks of frustration and tension finally delivered the 5 sets roof truss appraisal reports to the client. When I handed the report personally to the client's general manager I could see him flashing a big grin and his face lighted up instantly. Obviously he was also pressured incessantly by JKR to submit the reports.

Preparing the report was really a frustrating chore. First I had to wait for the contractor to mark up all the existing trusses and rafters on a piece of paper. With the contractor's sketches I had to get the draughtsman to transform the raw data into a CAD drawing. The previous draughtsman had left the company and the thankless and frustrating task of teaching the new guy the ropes in the shortest time sent my blood pressure soring into space many times.

Then I had to wait for the anti-termite specialist to come on board and to inspect the trusses. After inspecting the trusses the anti-termite inspector took some time to produce a report. Then I had to send the report back for the anti-termite specialist to sign. While all these obstacles were running their course in the background I had to figure out what to write and how to present the report. I have never written a roof truss appraisal report before in my life.

With so many challenges, the contractor, JKR and my employer were breathing down my neck for the report, as if I could magically create it with a snap of my fingers.

It was only after the general manager had accepted the documents from me that I felt a overwhelming sense of relief, satisfaction and gratitude coursing through my consciousness.

I am glad that despite the intense pressure and obstacles the strong desire to keep going forwards no matter the outcome finally paid off. What I have learned from this experience and so many before is that when things get rough, you need to exercise strong courage, belief in oneself and boundless patience to carry the day.

Early start to work

Yesterday daughter almost showed up late on her first day of work at the government veterinary office in PJ. All because she followed me in my car to work in the morning rush hour. Even when we left the house at 6.45am. others were on the road even earlier than us. The traffic crawl at Cheras delayed our arrival at the Mihaja LRT station.

This morning we decided to get up at 5.45am to prepare for the drive to KL. After washing up and breakfast we left the house at 6.20am. When we were on the road, it was still quite dark. Already a long stream of vehicles were heading towards the city. To my surprise we arrived at the Mihaja LRT station at 7.00am. After Mihaja I and daughter went separate ways: i took the LRT to Masjid Jamek LRT station, while she transited at Masjid Jamek to PJ via the Kelana Jaya line. She messaged me later on my cellphone that she had arrived at her work place before 8am.

After disembarking at Masjid Jamek at 7.30am, and with about one hour to kill I adjourned to the nearby mamak stall for the morning coffee and newspaper reading. It has been a long time since I found time to enjoy a cup of beverage before clocking in at the office. This morning's leisure coffee and newspaper time was a pleasant relief from the daily grind of rushing to the office.

After work at about 5.30pm. I and daughter met up again at Masjid Jamek LRT station for the ride to Mihaja. Being weary from work, I asked daughter to take over the wheels. She has improved a lot on her driving skills since the last time I allowed her to drive the My Vi. At least she didn't panic and stalled the car like in the past. So while she was at the wheel I was confident enough to take a nap during the trip from KL to Kajang. Maybe all the driving in KT has turned her into a competent driver.

Labour Day holiday

Today is Labour day, a public holiday. Planned to watch a movie at TGV Cheras Selatan but it didn't happen. By the time I and Anna arrived at Jusco Cheras Selatan saw the car park full of cars. It seems that everybody is out having a good time at the local shopping mall. Not wanting to spend one hour looking for a parking space, decided to go to Tesco to buy the weeks groceries instead.

Ministeral visit to the old court house

On my way to the Miyazu plant at Tg Malim, Noreen of Spaz called to remind me to attend the afternoon's meeting as the minister was scheduled to visit the building site at 4pm.

Told Noreen that I was on my way to Tg Malim and was uncertain if I could return to KL on time to attend the meeting. Told her to get in touch with Mdm Tan so that a representative from ZL can be in attendance at the ministeral visit.

I was considering turning back and aborting the Tg Malim meeting, but finally decided to press on with the visit to the Miyazu plant.

Found out later that Noreen did contact Mdm Tan. Mdm Tan sent KK Ng to represent ZL at the ministeral visit.