Seatbelts for Motocycle

Check out the rider on the red motorcycle. He used a long piece of cloth to secure his small son and daughter. Human innovativeness.

My Mom's Batam Trip.

Two boxes of instant noodle and plastic bag full of fish ball crackers. This is what greeted me when I opened my front door.

My mom' s company organised a shopping trip to Batam island. Early today, my mom leave the house with a big empty bag. Naturally I expected my mom to come back home a bag full of clothings and lady acessories. Not this ...

Hhmmm....well I definitely foresee instant noodle meals for next few weeks...

You seen THE COW, and take a look at this.....

You may have seen the cardboard cows in open fields in Singapore last year (visit my blog entry date 19 May 2007). How about cardboard pigs along the roads. Not a pretty as the cow. But it does give me a good reason to risk my life and took a picture..Oik Oik!!!!

The story about the Flanges

these are the items that spoilt my day yesterday. This is a blind flange which I customised it by creating a threaded hole in the centre.

Threaded holes are holes that enable you to screw in things with threads. Something like screws to the screw holes. Anyway, My customer need a British Standard threads but my kind supplier gave me an American Standard thread.

In visual, its a small problem but technically its not. So today I will spent my day supervising my supplier rework on the holes and sent the flanges back to Sembawang Shipyard.

Sigh..Times like this, remind me the importance of managing the holes in our life...

A day in Sembawang Shipyard

Picture taken at 2100hrs in Sembawang project office. I waiting for the shipyard guys to remove my flanges from a ship ballast tanks.

I started my afternoon with an urgent delivery to Sembawang Shipyard. It was my first visit and supposed to look for West Yard Gate 3. The old street directory wasn't much help as I accidentally drove into a drug rehabilitation centre.

10 mins later, I happily drove past the gate gantry when a question hit me." Which store do I need to sent to? Damnzzzz!!!" I started to drove around aimlessly, entering restricted areas and against the flow of traffic looking for answers. Its useless to asked around, because they would said," Here got many stores, what store you want?" or give me a blank face when I mentioned the store keeper name.

40 mins later, I decided to return to my office when I saw a building, an area behind the gantry which I entered just now. Feeling tired, sweaty and disheartened, I give it the last try. "Guess what!!! I found it!!!! Its was so close to gate and here I am driving to every corner." After the transaction, I drove back smiling. I am so happy.

At 1830 hrs , I received a call from the one of the engineers.complaining that the instruments cant fit into my flanges because the hole was too small. Wah!!! My mood dropped!!

Anyway, here I am waiting for my flanges...........

Biggest communication error......

I went to Malacca yesterday and had planned this trip a week ago. I had told my colleagues, family and friends one week in advance. And I also broadcast my intentions in the Facebook just before I left. But I forgot to mentioned it my fiancee..

I just find it hard to believe that I forgot to inform her...I remembered telling her about the trip but I just could not pinpoint the location and time. Its very upsetting but its already happened. I will remember this and it will never happen again.

Mistakes are to be corrected and to be learned.

The night the things goes wrong....

Its all started when I reach Larkin bus depot, in JB. It was 16.45 and I was desperate. All the buses to Malacca were fully booked. A young chap approached me and told me that he got a a bus ticket to Ayer Keroh( Malacca). Although it was double the normal rate, but I took it.

I was told to aboard a bus that was labelled,"JB - KL". My gut feeling does not feel good, so I stayed alert but followed the instruction. Fortunately the bus was the luxury type and well maintained, at least I got my money. During the trip, I finally learned that the driver will not detour to Malacca, but I would be alighted in the middle of the highway near the Ayer Keroh Plaza Tol.

Its was already dark when I reached my destination. Afraid to get hit by incoming traffic on the road shoulder, I walked along the grassy slope towards the Plaza tol. I hoped to be greeted by Osman, but received a call from him that he would be late for an hour because of a flat tyre. With no chairs to sit and dont want to dirty my jeans, I stood all the way reading my book.

While waiting, my face and neck started to itch and its got worse by the minute. I rushed to the toilet but cant see anything from the mirror. The first thought was to reached the Quranic verse.

By the time Osman came, The face and neck already swollen and its spreading to my arm. Once I reched home, I quickly showered and applied some oilment.

God will, everytime turned back to normal in the morning. Phew!!!

Signing my Autograph...For CNY2008

Its the time of the year again, when I need to autograph the Chinese New Year cards..

Fortunately, I manage to avoid doing this for the Christmas Cards because of my reservist.

And luckily the company dont practice giving cards for Hari Raya and Deepavali.

Anyway somebody suggested it, and I rejected it.

Girls smoothing in public transport..

Nowadays, spotting a female couple holding hands is not big deals....But seeing one actually kissing and getting touchy with one another is a different thing altogether ( in red) . And it happened in the crowded train station or traintion. Being polite, I tried to moved away Anyway I dont wished to be caught staring. I could see the aunties and makciks rolling their eyes away..

I still can accept same female relationship but not the male counter part. EErrrr!!!!!

I just get fightened and odd when I see one. Maybe I am guy and have a lot of guy friends....And I have good imagination, which sometimes goes out of hand....

Maybe I should learn to accept the homosexual. Even the Great wizard Dumbledore is a gay.

A meeting with a multi millionaire.

How often do you get a chance to exchange ideas with a multi millionaire in a room. Lucky me..I had my chance.

Frankly, I was starstruck. I am not sure why. But every word that came out from him feel like gold to me.

After I left the room, I feel so positively charge. I feel like I can do anything. Wow!!!

Let me share with you what I learn from this simple man.

Lesson One.We imagine my mind is like a piece of land. Negative thoughts are weeds. If you don't tends the land, will a mango tree grows on its own? NO!!! But weeds do...The weeds will grow and grow. So its important that we take care of our brain. by inputting positives and useful info. Only a positive brain will lead to a positive action and lead to success.

Protest in Batam

I never seen a traffic jam in Batam Island before. And today I managed to see one. More surprisingly, the jam was not caused by cars but by people carrying banners and picket signs. I was like," AAwwww crap, not a protest," And fortunately its not..

It was a Olympic torch relay. I was like," WHAT!!, Olympic torch relay in Batam?!!" Go figure.

A woman was almost squashed by my father.

My Dad was driving his lorry , minding his own business. When suddenly, he saw a flashes of red in his right side mirror, he quickly jammed the brakes. He got down from the lorry and was welcomed by a shocking sight. A lady stuck to a motorcycle that had skidded under his lorry.

You can imagine what happen to the lady if my dad did not jammed the brake. Go to the photo album to check out the position of the motorcycle.

One of my biggest mistake for 2007

2007 is fairly a good year for me. My team almost hit our SGD 5 million target. During this period, we found and trusted a valve company to supply 80% of our valves. Our trust is merely based on a good looking paperwork and good paint job. No valve test, factory inspection or third party recommendation.

Just like a well timed bomb, the trust exploded into tiny pieces on week 50. Two weeks before end of the year. All the valves have installation-issues and 60% of the valves have stem leakage.

We cut the story short. Our customer cancelled all the existing and future orders worth hundreds thousands dollars. The management had to force the supplier to refund the payment. It was hell.

Cutting the story shorter, I was on reservist. I came back on time to see the valve testing

Happy New Hijrah Year!!!!!

Its 1429H today..Well its a good day to do a self reflection on your ibadah.

When I was in the mosque just now, a question came across my mind. Why am I spending so much effort to understand Greek and Roman legends and Empire? So what if Kronos eat Zeus alive to prevent himself getting killed by Zeus. Or Zeus created Man out of clay but prevent fire out of fear of being forgotten. And how the great Roman Empire was defeated by their own system.

I believe its a good time for me to change and learn about our Prophet Muhammad s. a. w than reading about Zeus and his gangs.. Right pple???

A hotel owner who loves English Premier League.

I went for a working trip to Batam today.It was a sales conference in one of the many hotels on the island. I was an hour earlier, thanks to the timezone. I did a little exploring and had an interesting discovery. Each room door has a small tablet, with an EPL team names on it, at its side. Go to the photo album to see the pictures that I taken.

Infested rubbish bin

This may look like an ordinary rubbish bin. BUT BEWARE!! Its infested with mosquitoes. I found out when I threw an empty Yakult bottle. A swarm of mosquitoes rose from inside and start to attack me. Fortunately, I managed to make an Aikido move and dash to the lift before they got their bearing.

This public nuisance must be eliminated. I came down with reinforcement and the rest is history.

The elderly that abused his privilege in the bus.

For Singaporean, we are taught and reminded repeatedly to give our seat to Elderly and pregnant lady in the public transport.

Today I met a old man who dont deserved such privilege. The first thing he did after boarding the bus with his wife was to stare at an Indian lady with her baby and her stroller, who were sitting on the first row. He started to demand the seat in chinese but was ignored by the indian lady.

Angrily, he walked to the second row and demanded his seat from a malay lady. After seeing what happened to the indian lady in front, malay lady ignored him also. Fuming, he seated on the third row, which was empty since the beginning.He grumble loudly in chinese till the point where the malay lady turned back and shouted," Aku pun sakit jugaklah"

Served him right!!!

Broke my nails

I just opened the door and suddenly feel a sharp pain on my finger. This the first time i get this kind of mishap..So unbelievable...Probably serve me right for not keeping my nails short.

Anyway, that's the knob that eat my nail...I do a reactment to show you guys how a simple action of door opening can be resulted in a bloody mishap...

So be careful when you open a door... the knob could be haunted and hungry for your blood.

This is just bloody...

Feel the Synergy for 2008.

I have;

• My water bottle filled up.
• My table and desktop calender ready.
• Mr Apu ready.
• Phone ready.
• Cactus ready
• Mouse ready

And I got two new colleagues joining our Sales team...

Wohoooo!!!!!