Cars Hate Me

It might be a wee bit early for me to have a new blog. But considering my mishaps and ill-fortunes in the last 48 hours, the silent, evil call of exerting my frustration on the virtual world of digital age is just simply too much to resist. And since I have the spare time (not actually spare, but just a few minutes to kill), I guess I might as well succumb to the waning sounds of persuasion that my heart ravages upon me.

It all started in the beautiful Sunday morning. After all, it had rained the night before to a temperature that soothes the senses of your body. Plus I have the plesent company of my old boys in the 'hood' = budak Parit Buntaq. So that morning, I was going to leave to my fiancee's house, as we were planning to go to her uncle's place. After all, he's one of the officers in the Perak Islamic Department, and will be helping out in her registration to be married to your truly. And so, after warm 'goodbye's and 'see ya later's, I was already going to head out for an hour's journey.

As soon as I backed up the car to leave my friend's house, DANG IT! The right front tyre was stuck in the mud. Apparently the rain did not just made a number on me, but on the soil as well. I had known that the soil in front of his hourse is slightly soft, but this was wayyyyyyyyy past 'slightly'. And so, after a few presses on the gas pedal to rev up the car, all I had accomplished is sinking the tyre further deep towards the Earth. A couple more revs, and the front spoiler would be grazing against the road tar, and I'm pretty sure that will not bode well with my soon-to-be-wife. In fact, she called asking for my current whereabouts, since I'm supposed to be there at 10am. Guess I'll be late.......big time

Time for some creative solutions. Therefore, I used the car jack (which in fact was the first time that the jack was used ever since she bought the car), and tilted the car up in order to fill the void on the ground with rocks. Not only that, we even had a sack placed underneath the tyre in order to prevent it from slipping. As I went back into the car, all I could do is pray thatmy efforts were not in vain.

Well, one could only hope. And with that, the left front tyre is now the one that's slipping. Hence, we have to do the exact same thing all over again to the left tyre. And guess what.......after that, the right tyre slipped again. Oh well, back to square one, it seems.

So, for the third time (and the second time for the right tyre), we jacked up the car and put more rocks underneath it. Unfortunately again, to go against nature, it is just a losing battle, and the right tyre is still slipping. And by then, we're just simply our of energy to tango with the car jack for a fourth dance.

Thank God (or should I smack my friend in the forehead for his late ideas), my friend finally called his friend nearby, and he is available. So, with his car's help, and his trusty rope, we managed to pull the car out of the muddy ditch. And all they asked is that I pay for the car wash for his car, as his car was tainted with muddy soil as he was being a good Samaritan in getting my car out from the mud.

 This was after the first jack. It was way deeper at first

 

 After the 3rd wrestle, we finally gave up

 So, I finally reached my fiancee house at 3pm - a 5 hour delay. But they knew about the situation, and they are totally supportive with my condition and state at the time.

Owh, did the title say 'CARS' with an 's'? That means the story didn't end there...

On our way back to KL on Monday, it began to pour heavily from Ipoh onwards. And believe it, when it poured, it really did a number on us. However, I don't think it was us that really got it. Somewhere after Tapah, I was just being overtaken by an Avanza (at least I think it was an Avanza), and then came the next suspending moments.

Just about 200m after the guy had overtook me, suddenly his car spun real bad. I think he did a 2 3/4 turns on the road. And there I was, looking at the guy mimicing a spinning top. My fiancee was definitely in a state of frenzy. And frankly, so was I. But in things like this, you just have to keep your cool, or you'll end up just like him......or worse. So, here I was, gently stepping on the brakes, while steadily swerve my steering wheel slightly to the left. Praise be to God, he didn't spun onto my lane, and he didn't hit the road dividers. And from the looks of the other cars behind me, I believe that everyone made it with a breeze. Had the guy spun off course, things might turn out to be rather ugly. Sorry guys, no pictures this time. Hey! I may be an aggresive driver, but I ain't a stupid one.

And so, my memories with cars this weekend was certainly not all sweet and roses, but all in all, I;m just glad that I reached my home safe, unscratched and unharmed.

Fins ara

One Step Closer

Funny that I'm blogging from a restaurant, and not from the usual comfort that my desk at home offers to my rather enormous rectum. But considering the fact that my home is actually 350km away from my current position, I'll just have to make do with the cold, hard steel chair that I am sitting on right now.

Let's see......what should I write now....

Well, my readers will just have to make do with my 'oh-so-usual' weekly report. After all, yours truly has had a rather normal week, much like most of the weeks that I have been going through in my past 31 years. Well, here goes...

Had a second barbeque at my cousin's house in Shah Alam last Saturday. Well, it wasn't much, and not many were invited. Just the ones that assisted her in packing her stuff the week before - something I forgot to blogged about. My cousin had moved to her new house in Shah Alam. Well, she had already moved a few months back. But some of her stuff was still in Putrajaya.So, some dedicated cousin, including 'the-ever-so-helpful' me. So, as a token of appreciation, she held a barbeque at her place......again. Since I was in the 'zone' of having a tango with the barbeque grill, I didn't have the time in capturing the moments of me and the grill. But you get the picture, right? After all, it doesn't vary much from the first barbeque.

This week I have been devoting myself in preparing to be someone's husband. I went to the Pej Agama Islam Daerah (PAID) Hulu Langat and applied to get married. Something that you guys from Selangor might want to read about, should you intend to do the same in the near future. Well, in not dissapointing you, here's what you need to do in order to get married (Guys only. Not sure about the girls, since my fiancee is going to register in Perak)

• Go for your pre-marriage course.
• Get the forms from PAID, or just download it from the website (just Google it, and it's there)
• If your IC is not from Selangor, get the form of residentship (you must have stayed at least 4 months in Selangor). Find a witness and his photocopied IC, and verify it at any Penghulu, Ketua Kampung, JKKK Chairman that is available at your place
• Take the HIV screening test. It's free, and only can be done at government clinics. But first make sure the days that these clinics are conducting the test. For Bangi, it is on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. In Kajang, it's on Wednesdays and Fridays.
• Get the supporting documents, and bring two witnesses to your local 'jurunikah', or PAID if there's none at your place, and sign in front of the appropriate personnel.
• Wait one more day, and 'presto', your letter of approval will be issued to you.

Now, all that's left is for my beloved fiancee to do the almost exact same thing in her place in Perak. Hence, that's where I am right now. On Monday, she'll be applying to get married, and we're one step closer into the wacky, wacky world of marriage. Owh, did I say wacky? It might be wacky, but it's something that I'll be ever more than delighted to be a part of.

Sorry......no picture in this week's news.

Zbogom

Really Busy, Busy, Busy Week

By far, this is one of the busiest week that I've been in since I started working in UKM. It took all the strength that I could muster in making through the day. Physically, and mentally, I'm just plain beat. The the bad news is, it'll only a downhill fall from here onwards.

At least, I could take a breather by writing things up in my blog. It gives me some soothing sensation towards my already cramped up brain here. But as much as I want to write and complaint about how busy I am in here, I'll just have to make do with making a summary of what I did, just like my usually busy blog entries.

Well, here goes.

• Have to study on the new Agilent Function Analyzer which we got last month.
• Write up a paper for my congress in Langkawi in December. And it's still not finished yet.....sigh
• Marking logbooks for students' industrial training.
• Teaching a class and a lab.
• Chair 3 final year project presentations.
• Reviewing 2 of my colleagues papers (also for the Langkawi congress).
• Attended a funeral of one of my colleagues who passed away on Tuesday (Al-Fatihah for En Ali)
• Drafting the final exam question paper, which will be held on 17th October.
• Monitoring my department's publication by verifying the papers that they have entered in the system.

And with that, sports fans, will not be the end. I still have a tall stack of lab reports, itching to be tainted with red ink. Plus I still need to grade another final paper which had been done earlier. Let's put it this way, I can't take a day off, even if I wanted to. And that, is the story of my week, and my month.

Till all are one...... (quoted from Rodimus Prime from Transformers: The Movie)

Jaws, Crocs and Cats

As I mentioned in my last post, this is the one where I'll be talking about my trip to Surabaya. It's been a while since I left the muddy soil of Malaysia, and I really had a rejuvinating yet meaningful trip, even though it was on official business.

However, this blog will go futher beyond that. As the week goes by, I had some nice events that I just feel like keeping in a digital form. Hence, forgive me if this blog will be a rather lengthy one.

The idea for this trip had sparked becaused of the ROBOCON competition that we participated in. Since my boss has an ambititous target (becoming national champs), that it is only fitting that we go to out counterpart in Indonesia who has never lost in the competition there. Hence, on Sunday last week, we hopped on a Boeing 737 and haul butts till we touched down in Surabaya.

If you like to know, the mascot of Surabaya is actually a crocodile and a shark. Probably the 'Baya' in Surabaya means crocodile. Well, they have more than one statues symbolizing the animals that represent this city. I wonder if all the big cities in Indonesia have multiple statues as they have here in Surabaya. Guys who have been around there, care to share some info with me?

This one was taken right in front of my hotel

First thing we did there? Went for dinner at KFC. I was really hoping to have some local delicacies there. But then, majority rules, right? In my case actually, bosses rules. So, all 14 of us went for a nearby KFC, which is only a 5 minute walk from our hotel.

The next day was our trip to Politeknik Elektronika Negeri Surabaya (PENS). There, we get to see their 'robot culture' among the staff and students. And believe me, I was really amazed on how they could create electronic wonders from piles of scrap. Here in Malaysia, people are spending hunderds of ringgit on robot kits for students in universities and schools. Yet here, they managed to do it with 'junks' that we might throw away. Imagine, the front tyres of the robot kit is only made from roll-over deodorants. That's right, sports fans. ROLL-OVER DEODORANTS. Kinda wonder what other junks that we can use to make robots. Probably Arnold in Terminator will be made from clothes hangers and aerosol cans if the film is made in Indonesia.

See the rollers there?

Not only that, but PENS are also involved in a military robot project with the government. Unfortunately, we're are not allowed to take pictures there. But the end result really put me in awe. But then, they are an electronics institution of higher learning. While we're only a small department in a multi-disciplinary university. I don't think that we'll have a big funding as they are getting.

Fortunately, robots are not the only thing we were able to do there. Found out that there an attraction nearby, the 'Monumen Kapal Selam'. And the good thing is, it's only 10 minutes away from our hotel. So, we spent some time in the steel belly of a 1958 diesel submarine on the dry lands of Surabaya.

Going up....or down, anyone?

Ensign, babe alert at 1 o'clock

In the battle of the bellies, I lose.....big time

We finally got to indulge ourselves with local cuisines that Surabaya had to offer. Among them were Nasi Goreng Jawa, Fuyung Hai (never knew what it was until the next day), Es Teller and Es Campur. But as nice as these meals did in stimulating my taste buds, I'd go for my very own Malaysian food.......anytime, anyday.

Finally reached Negaraku on Thursday night and took the Friday off. Had planned to go back to my mom's that very morning. But my brother wanted to tagged along for the ride. So I had to wait for him before we headed south, which was at 8.30pm actually. Therefore I spent my holiday by working at the office. pretty lame, huh?

Wish that I had a restful weekend, but that didn't turned out to be. Had only one day in kampung, and on Sunday morning (5.30am to be exact), I was already driving my brother back to KLIA for his flight back to Miri. Then I have been busy with work ever since. But that didn't stop me from blowing off some steam in between the harsh environment of desk jobs.

On Tuesday, I went with my buddies to Royale Chulan to see Alleycats performing there. And boy, weren't they the legends. Since 1970 til now, the group certainly has the charisma in being one of the top performers in Malaysia. It was not my first time watching their gig, as my first one was in 2007 in Shah Alam. But this time around, David (ops.....he's a Datuk now) came down and talked to me. Not just a simple 'hi' and 'bye' chat, but a real nice conversation. In fact, when I requested a song, he insisted that I went up the stage to sing with him. Obviously, i declined. Hehehe. Well, it was mainly because of stage fright, and the fact that I have a terrible sore throat and cough. However, after their show ended at 1am plus, Datuk David played his charm and as a result, I will be there again. And this time, I won't miss out the oppurtinity of being up the stage with the legendary Alleycats. But that has yet to happen, and I really, really do hope that it will.....soon.

Alongside Datuk David

Anyway, just now marked another chapter in my house here in Kajang. My housemate has finisheh his last paper for his degree. And on Tuesday he'll be reporting for duty at TNB Melaka. My landlord was kind enough to throw a farewell party for him, and he even asked that my fiancee to come and enjoy the cheerful, yet saddenning occasion.

Although he didn't get to go back to his old office in JB (his family is there), but he is hopeful that when he gets his engineer's post, he'll be back to his wife and kids later on. To Fadhil, you have made an impact be being the most senior member of out small 'community', and that you absence here will be greatly missed. Thank you for the 4 years that you have spent with me, Kamarul, Zaman, Khairul and Haizal. We wish for all the good things waiting ahead of you.

Tomorrow morning my mom will be on a flight to Jogjakarta with her siblings for a holiday trip. I'll be picking her up from at airport on Wednesday, hence I'll be taking a leave on that day. Have a safe trip, mom. Enjoy your stay there in Indonesia.

Nakemiin