Thursday, February 24, 2005

Meguir


Here too...final results are very very good with Meguir!!!

Loads of hard work here

Close Up of Mr Shiny!

Side View

New Ride in Town!

Monday, February 21, 2005

Band of Liqour Dogs...

Care to have a Brandy?

brandy
Yeap, that's her, Brandy, shy and reserved and very manja...

Or you prefer Whisky on the rock?

whisky
This is Whisky, Brandy's Brother. Sibling rivalry has made both of them unable to withstand the sight of each other..both of them are 12 years old, that is a blardy 84 years old in human age equivalent....

and this is the Scottish Stout, Murphy

wassup buster
this small bugger thinks he is the bigger boss of the 3 dogs...should had seen how he peed when either one come into the house...

My Baby Cousin...

gosh...

she is the epidome of cuteness is all about.

9 months old and i let her wear my Oakley Splice...and was trying to figure out what was it and tilted her head upwards when i took this pic.

ultrababe

and here she is...all drolling!!!

big eye

family taking care of her (she stays with us, parents take back only during weekend)...and well, she is like a fmily to us all!!!

Friday, February 18, 2005

My Fav Songs...

Wifey got her new ride on Valentine's Day...

And the car comes with a MP3 Player...and guessed who is incharge for the songs collection.

big mistake actually...especially she asking me to compile songs for her...according to my taste...

here is my list, some of them, and happens to be in my Top 10 (in no particular order)

1. Come On Eileen - Dexy Midnight Runner (for the obvious reason that this song has the same pronounciation as my wife's name)

2. Jefferson Starship - Nothing Gonna Stop Us Now (OST from the movie, Manniquien)

3. Michael Jackson - Ben (This song was one of the better song from him, when he was still with Jackson Five)

4. Murray Head - One Night In Bangkok (This was my first Disco song when i was growing up, the Bus uncle will blast this song in those huge cassete tape everyday!!!err..how long ago? when i was like 8 years old!)

5. Four Tops - Sugar Pie Honey Bunch ( yes la...i wasn't born still...)

6. Everything from Ol Blue Eye especially - L.O.V.E (Hey, Ol Frank could very well play his songs for the rest of my life)

7. Everything from Elvis A. Presley - No particular fav here, but i dig all his songs, ask me to sing any of them ( i think i'm Elvis reincarnate)

8. OST from American Grafitti - Coming of age movie with young Harisson Ford in it. Loads of top band/singers during that era...can't go wrong with this!

9. OST from Grease - yes, the original Grease... John Yoyota gyrating with Olivia Newton John, that boy could sing!

10. Everything from Paul Anka - The dude that sing Oh! Carol, Diana, Calender Girl, Put Your head on my shoulder, sealed with a kiss...

ok.

now, for those that do not know what i'm talking about, chances are, you're born in the mid till late 80's and grew up on Mariah Carey Musicbox Album.

;-)

or else...welcome to the CLUB!

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Namibia In Memories

It's been almost 2 years since i stepped into Namibia and spent like 2 months there fixing up the whole waste water treatment plant for a malaysian based company operating from Namibia.

This garment factory churns out garments for the US/UK market under the brand name like guess?, nike and the like...

here are some photoblogs, remembering those hard 60 days, where my return tickets was cancelled like 6 times, before my flight back home was confirmed.

Namibia Airport
Airport, i spent 4 hours waiting there, because no one came to pick me up...the size is only slightly larger than our Sg Besi Airforce Airbase...hey, whereelse could a 737 stop right infront of the immigration check point?

namibia landscape
i actually only took this pic when i was leaving the country for good. it's barren.

Me Welding at Balancing tank
My first day at work there, had to do it myself and weld the 12 inch stainless steel piping for the air blowers to the balancing tank... it was almost a one man show...now i'm even wondering how i even got it done...

Namibia Parliment
My day off, so i went to the capital, Windhoek (pronounced as Vin-Took), here is a pic of their Parliment. Namibia was colonised by the French, Germans and later was given to UK. They are part of the Commonwealth country. So, it is not surprising to see natives with loads of mixed parentage...

namibia home ministry
Their Home Ministry department. This city is almost dead, even on Sunday. High level of poverty makes even owning a vehicle a luxury. There is a very big gap between the rich and the poor.

AIDS day march
This was to commemorate World Aids Day. Taken from a restaurant where i was enjoying my big piece of steak which cost me like RM5 incl a beer... AIDS in Namibia is at 25% in the city and up to 50% in the Trans-Gobi desert highway...which is made up mostly of dirt road anyway.

me and lady at market
What better way to get to know the local than to visit them at their place of trade? i got a whole bag of beaded necklace made from bones and stones for like RM20...no kidding...

Abroginies
Then there were a bunch of abroginies doing some culture show, topless...but of course, it is pretty normal for them people to see it, unlike me...what? topless in the city? the only other time i saw it was when i went to hike up Gunung Tahan, along the riverbanks....

beer!!!
And of course...after 2 months there, and making loads of friends with the Malaysians there, i've learnt to guzzle down 5-8 bottles of beer (Castle Lager), which cost like RM 1.25/bottle. Heineken was the most expensive at RM1.75/bottle....this pic showed the amount of beers drank by 3 people....

So..there you go...a lil on the trip, long overdue, as i only found the pics in my home pc like a week ago..thought all the pics were gone after my office got broken in and all PC stolen.

Cheers!
*hic*

Monday, February 14, 2005

Work related blog

As promised:

This one is in Melaka, near Jonker Street.

Technically, this work is pretty challenging as space was a big issue. I had to design and build one Pumping Station (this is a very high tech term to describe a place where shit will come in and be pumped to the Sewage Trreatment Plant, or STP) with space constraint and still had to comply with the local authority's specification and the Drainage Department Specifications as well.

The structural engineer has years of experiences in handling and building structures on/in marine clay (this meant soil condition that is so bad, some less experienced contractor will over design, and thus, spent unnessasary monies just to get it done).

This pic shows the site, prior to be doing some soil investigation:

Site  View from Entrance

When all the soil investigation and ensuring that we won't be digging into anyone's grave are done, it is time to call in *reinforcements* in the form of piling...not police or yakuzas or the local triad gang la...

The engineer designed and decided to use spun piling, basically, it is interlocking of length and length of reinforced round shaped with hole in the middle concrete that will be driven by those piling machines deep into the ground. Nope, we didn't unearth any lost city, unlike the one found in johor.

spun piling in progress

We used 30 length of 20 meters spun piles and 30 length of 10 meters spun pile, each 400mm in diameter to create a *shoring* effect (think of those anchor that popeye would throw around after cans of spinach) to secure the strcuture that would be then casted.

Here is the holes left after the piles are completely driven into the ground. We didn't manage to *pile to set* (ie pile until the pile can't go in anymore) as we've driven into 18 meters of the ground. Marine clay has a characteristic that allows the whole pile to be able to withstand and the co-efficient of the drag would prevent the piles from *floating* upwards.

spun piling done

Here it is, looked like someone planted the whole place with mines and ready to blow it all up. Muahahahahah....

spun piling done at 18m

The piling was done in a circular shape with a diameter of 7 meter. That is how big this Pumping Station will be.

Next on the line is of course, moving in workers to do formworks, before the concrete are poured in to cast the walls. Will not get into the technicality of this process, as i believe it is more fun to keep tech talk to the minimal and let all of you be awed by what these people could do in 10 days....

formwork in progress

Then, we pour in those concrete and it looked like this:

sg melaka

sg melaka2

Each wall is 8 feet high, except the first wall which is 4 feet, and we worked our way down, digging and making more form works until the whole completed substructure looked like this:

sg melaka 3

and the picture above tells you that the structure is 16feet deep...try falling into it...or even worse still, imagine falling into that amount of shit...LOL...

The site is currently not handed over abck to me yet, as the piping contractor has not completed their pipe jacking across the river. Once that is compelted, i'll have the site back, and will proceed to build the middle wall that will separate the shit portion and the pump portion. ;-)

Meanwhile, here is some better res pics of the other site in Melaka, ie the KUTKM in Durian Tunggal, so, for those that is studying there, heads up, and be proud that you knew the dirty bugger than designed, and built this shit treatment place for your University College. ;-)

Blower room:
blowers

Secondry Screen Chamber (Remember where i found the fish???):
secondary screen chamber area

Sludge Scraper, where all gunks and slimes will be scrape off :
Sludge Scraper
You could see the control room at the far right corner and my SLK (Small Lil Kancil) on the mid left area...

Water fall at the other end, NOT!:
Sludge Scraper pumps

Aeration tank, where shit will be disintergrated and be known as sludge:
Melaka Aeration Tank
And no, you are not allowed to do swimming laps here, unless you are the Swamp Thing.

So, there you go, i will upload, and update, whenever i can. Today i could because i was duped to come to work, whereelse the office is only gonna be working starting tomolo!!!

Sunday, February 13, 2005

In Memoriam of the late Low Guan Hock.

My uncle (Mum's younger brother) passed away on the second day of Chinese New Year.

He succumbed to SLE, or better known as Lupus.

My Aunt, (mum's younger sister), die of this 10 years ago, when this disease was relatively new and unknown of.

I managed to see him one last time on New Year's eve, it was a huge contrast, there i was, in the High Dependency Ward in Selayang Hospital, and as one peers out of the window, there were fireworks being shot into the sky. It was like some war zone out there.

The last i saw him, i know he was fighting his own war. Being hooked up in numerous IV machines with multiple needles/syringes being inserted into his neck's arteries (this is because the arms are too swollen by now that finding any veins are virtually impossible).

He was on 100% Oxygen, this meant that his respiratory system is virtually down.

Blood pressure was at the all time low of 68/38, that is very low. Heartrate was at a constant range of 108-112 that's almost 70% of his max heart rate, it is like he is running a 10km run the whole time.

Because od SLE, his own body immune system has attacked, and destroyed his liver and kidney, requiring dialysis everyday. He was infected with Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C. Had an operation that he never recovered 2 weeks ago, because of a bleeding in his stomach (if he do not go thru the operation, he will bleed to death).

So, there you go. In all his 47 years of life, he worked hard to support his family. Not having even the Form 5 equivalent of SPM/O-Level did not stop him from rising from a peon to what he was now.

Just unfortunate, that his wife, and children did not give him the funeral he deserves. the last respect he deserves. Which i find outright disgusted.

It was a sombre new year for my mum's family. Being brought up in a very very close family enviroment, where everyone goes all out just to help each other (there were 10 siblings in the family, now, 8 more are alive, my mum is the second eldest).

His passing has definately came as a blow to my granma (she's 80), and she is still upset, that his son, wasn't given a last proper honour in his life.

I'll live to tell his story, when i got the time and strength to write, and brave through the emotions, of which, i find myself succumbing to even as i write this.

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

seen this?

kinda scary..but this froggy was sleeping on one of those stainless steel bin at site...must be making himself cosy...

he's camoflouging itself against the wall and silver bin...that is why it appear white.

i can confirm that it is still alive as i later poke it with a stick, but got too excited to snap another pic when it turned green as it dissappeared into the grass...

DSCF0037

here is a close up...

DSCF0038

Monday, February 07, 2005

Go on, make my day...

As usual, my writing in the blog is getting rarer...doesn't help with loads of things to take care of.

Life.

work.

relationship.

properties.

self tourturing activities.

Been busy with life. a good thing i reckon. but not when there is so much things at hand, and everyone is in superb holiday mood (either bad or good). Been at Melaka like every other day. travelling either in the early morning, so that i could be back in office by lunch, or be off by lunch, and back again before my evening run/training with the guys.

Some say i'm a sucker for pain. Yeah, i sorta agree with them.

There has been really loads of exciting and stressful things been happening in my life, and my family lately.

I shalt never forget how it is like to be in the lawyer's office from 3.30pm till 8pm, just to settle some problem my dad had with his business. Never thought i would be begging my dad to let go of everything, so that everyone could have their life back.

i shalt not forget it as well, when my boss, offered to pay for my wedding next year, as he know i've exhausted all my means, and all my reserves just to bail my dad out from whatever it is.

It was no fun.

ah well, at least i still got my running and cycling and now, rugby to take care of those stress.

And i shalt not forget just how much a woman that i've married, gave so much in her life, just to see and make sure that i could get out of all the problems in my life.

i love her. no two ways about it. heck, there shouldn't be any way at all...she's everything. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G.

Oh ya, my Rugby team is having a good run in the current Selangor League. After 2 weekends, we sorta managed to win both games played on both sundays.

The first match against D'Montel, we won 22 - 05.

Today, we won 41-7.

Lets hope that the winning streaks carry on until the end of the season.

Oh ya, i have a blue balck eye-lid from today's game, some stud marks on my right butt and one each on my foot and calf...pretty cool eh?

king of pain? you bet.