Reminiscence

Been 2 months in Singapore, so far i have been doing irrelevant jobs, attending induction courses or any ground courses you can think of. Just a few weeks ago, i have been given the opportunity to visit SIA Engineering hangar and later, the more interesting one; SATS Kitchen where the airlines catered food is prepared. It was pretty enlightening to see how various mouth-watering food were being cooked, how food sanitation were kept, be it an economy class food, the business class or the first class food. The last event was to visit a mock-up cabin where cabin crews are *obviously* being trained to serve the food and to manage the passengers. Unfortunately, it's only expected that no photography were allowed in these area so i could not provide you guys with any pictures of those. Sorry!

Last Saturday itself, i've been to the Night Safari , and although we came as early as we could (the safari opens at 7.30pm daily), we ended up starting our actual journey at around 8.30pm due dinner and owing to a huge amount of visitors, delaying our ticket purchase and eventually the tram ride itself. Overall, it was a fun and entertaining experience especially the "Creatures of the Night" performance but personally i felt that the night duration was too short to truly enjoy the entire collection of animals in the safari. Although the safari's official closing time is at 12midnight, i felt that our walk were kinda rushed and we found that many walking path were already blocked off by 11.30pm and we were told to return to the entrance due to the approaching closing hour and therefore not risking ourselves getting locked inside and spend the night over with the lions and hyenas :P. As for the photos, there aren't many being taken because most of the scenes are very dark and our camera were of very limited use, but i'll post them when i get them soon. If you are interested to visit the night safari, i would suggest visiting it during the weekdays as you will get more out of your visit. You can click here for more information as well.

Finally, it has come to my attention that i have left out my OBS journey at Day 11 and that i should finish whatever i began, no matter how long it takes :P Again, i'll provide you with the link to all my previous OBS entries in case you felt lost after reading Day 12.

Day : I | II | III | IV | V | VI| VII | VIII| IX| X & XI

Day 12 (Sailing expedition - Day 3)

Yesterday's night was horrible. We were told to sleep on the boat there were 15 of us, as opposed to the ship capacity of 10 people. Of course, it was nice to be able to watch the stars all night but trust me, the sleeping experience was nothing close to it. It was so cramped and i could only sleep on a narrow bench with no space to roll or rest my arm. I folded my arm to sleep and found out it was tangled the next morning. It was so much pain just trying to stretch and straighten my arm again. Boat was rocky like hell and i thought we were hit by a tsunami in a few occasion, where i felt like i was about to be thrown overboard. Almost everyone had a bad sleep that night including myself. One couldn't even sleep at all. I felt sorry for him. Body aching all over, stupid sea breeze that was so damn cold and yet you get a very damp and sticky sensation after you were hit by it. Fking uncomfortable if you get what i mean.

I have never wished the time to move anymore slower than this since the beginning of this course but the time really seemed to h ave halted on this boat. Just this boat. It's an agony to wait just for the morning to arrive.

Ahhhh...morning came! I'm saved!

To add salt to the wound, today was even worse than yesterday. It was totally windless for the whole day. In the end we rowed all the way back under the scorching sun for 4 hours. I think i had a first-degree burnt myself.

Rowing the sailboat again...sigh..

Reached the campground at around 1pm and by the time we finished washing the equipments/rapes and the boats, it was already 3pm. So no lunch for us, everyone was so damn hungry yet we were only left with the spare ration we had for the expedition yesterday. Well, crappy lunch is better than nothing at all.

Back home finally!



Cleaning up !

and best of all a FRESH shower!!!

To add even more salt to the wound, we had to run again in the evening, 5.5km. I gave up, and i walked almost half of the distance and only slowly jog for the rest. In my mind, i was thinking about 3 things:

1. Dinner
2. Dinner and;
3. Dinner

briefing for the next 2 days activity; solo camp!

Dinner came and again it was great as usual. I ate so much that i got bloated soon after. There were a briefing later that night about our next expedition starting tomorrow which is the solo camp! Woohooo! 3 days 2 nights again!

Days Left : 9
Mood : Tired

My Newborn "Baby" Nokia N97

What else can i say? Love it so very very very very very muchieee <3!! (what a geek)

Spontaneous post

Got my new baby n97 and a new mobile broadband subscription, i decided not to waste it. Randomly snapped a photo and posted it from my phone to try this new method out. Well, more are coming soon :-)

Bahasa Melayu Malaysia

Saya sedang berbaring memandang siling putih dan kipas yang berputar-putar apabila tertibanya saya terfikir bahawa saya sudah pun menggunakan Bahasa Malaysia untuk lebih dari satu dekad (sebenarnya hampir dua dekad). Walaupun sedemikian, saya tidak dapat ingat bilanya kali terakhir saya telah menulis esei dalam Bahasa Malaysia. Oleh itu, saya terfikir idea yang "bernas" sekali untuk mengepos mesej ini dalam bahasa kebangsaan hanya untuk keseronokan dan menguji penulisan diri saya sekali lagi.

Bahasa Malaysia; saya tidak memahami mengapa orang ramai berasa hairan apabila saya bertutur dalam bahasa ini dengan rakan-rakan sebaya saya sewaktu saya belajar di sekolah. Saya boleh dikatakan agak fasih berbahasa Malaysia dan juga sentiasa mendapat prestasi yang lebih baik dalam matapelajaran Bahasa Malaysia berbanding dengan rakan-rakan Melayu saya yang lain. Ya, saya bertutur dalam Bahasa Malaysia dengan rakan-rakan saya yang berbangsa Cina walaupun kami sebenarnya boleh memilih untuk berinteraksi dalam bahasa Cina. Saya tidak pernah berasa keberatan atau segan apabila berbuat sedemikian tetapi dari pandangan orang lain, mereka mesti berfikiran bahawa saya (dan rakan-rakan saya) mempunyai masalah otak. "Mengapa orang Cina tidak mahu bertutur dalam Bahasa Cina?". Dari pandangan saya, apa masalahnya bertutur dalam Bahasa Malaysia antara orang Cina? Saya berbangsa Malaysia dan menggunakan Bahasa Malaysia. Masalah? Saya rasa tidak. Masalah sebenar ialah caranya orang berfikir. Saya tidak pernah berasa pelik apabila melihat orang India bertutur dalam Bahasa Malaysia antara satu sama lain. Saya rasa ia adalah amat biasa. Saya masih ingat seorang kawan Cina saya yang selalu bertutur dalam Bahasa Malaysia dan enggan sama sekali bertutur dalam Bahasa Cina walaupun dipaksa untuk berbuat demikian sehingga saya berfikiran bahawa dia tidak tahu Bahasa Cina langsung. Hanya setahun atau dua yang lalu saya baru mendapati bahawa dia sebenarnya mengetahui lebih banyak dialek Cina daripada saya. Betapa malunya saya kerana memandang rendah dia sebelum ini.

7 tahun telah pun berlalu sejak saya berkomunikasi dalam Bahasa Malaysia dengan rakan-rakan sebangsa saya. Ini bukannya kerana saya berasa malu untuk bertutur dalam bahasa ini, tetapi ini adalah kerana kehidupan saya sewaktu di universiti telah melatih saya untuk bertutur dalam kebanyakan Bahasa Inggeris dan mungkin Bahasa Cina sekali sekala. Sehingga sekarang, saya masih mendapati orang ramai masih tidak berubah. Contoh yang paling baik ialah bila saya bermain permainan on-line bersama kawan kawan saya di mana kita mempunyai tabiat untuk mengetaip Bahasa Malaysia dicampur dengan Bahasa Inggeris apabila berbual. Saya berasa sangat tersinggung kerana hampir setiap kali kami berbuat demikian, mesti ada pemain lain yang membalas "you malay?". Saya akan membalas "Nop, i'm chinese". Kemudian mereka akan tanya, "wtf? chinese also speak malay?" atau ayat ayat lain yang memberi makna yang lebih kurang sama. Pada pandangan saya, apa salahnya berbual dalam Bahasa Malaysia? Adakah saya melanggar undang-undang apabila berbuat begitu? Kalau tidak, apakah masalah mereka?

Saya mesti mengaku, sejak dari hari saya berhenti sekolah menengah, saya tidak pernah mendengar sepatah perkataan Bahasa Malaysia pun yang bertukaran antara dua orang Cina, kecuali saya dan rakan-rakan saya sekali sekala. Saya tidak tahu sama ada ini adalah perkara yang biasa, ataupun ini adalah kerana orang masih berfikiran bahawa Orang Cina tidak patut bertutur dalam Bahasa Malaysia sesama sendiri. Ataupun adakah ini bermakna bahawa saya luar biasa?

Walau apa pun yang berlaku, saya masih berbangga mempelajari bahasa yang unik ini kerana saya tahu bahawa ini adalah lagi satu bahasa yang bukannya dapat difahami atau dipelajari sewenang-wenangnya oleh orang asing. Diharap, sesiapa yang membaca pos ini, akan mengambil masa seketika untuk memikirkan sama ada apa yang telah dikatakan oleh saya adalah benar :) Have a good day. Oooppss...salam sejahtera, dan terima kasih kerana mendengar repekan saya.


P/S - Translasi boleh dibuat atas permintaan :P Translation is available upon request :P

Farewell Jandakot

I find it funny how fast people could change their mind. One moment ago i was dying to go to Jandakot, and the next thing i knew is that i could not wait to come back home again. I am pretty sure this is a normal occurrence and it happens to everyone else. I have finally completed my training in Jandakot (after 11 months) and graduated with a Commercial Pilot License with Instrument Rating (CPL/IR). In a layman term, it means that i could use my license to ferry passenger commercially and to fly blind by solely depending on the aircraft instrument.

Returning from ultra dry air in Australia which resulted in myself getting static shocked very frequently to now humid "sticky" weather in Singapore, i honestly do not know which one i prefer more. As of now, i am in waiting....or rather queing up for my jet training in Brisbane and until then, i'll be sitting idle *again* most of the time, probably doing some ground duties here and there. So , if somebody asked "What would i miss the most from Australia?" I would proudly say :

10. Good ol' Call of Duty 4 fragfest with Course 131.
9. Kangaroos and Quokkas (I call it mini kangaroos)!
8. Sunday's lunch and apple strudels!
7. Dry, cool air (minus those stupid static shocks and summer)
6. Indian food (gawd...can't believe i actually mentioned this :P)
5. Friends and some instructors :)
4. Randomly barging into people's room when bored.
3. Farting on somebody's bed
2. PASTA!! Spaghetti Carbonara..mmm..Fetucinne Ciao Italiaaaaaaa!!! woohooooo
1. Landing in a Cessna 172.

Having said that, i'm sure the list would not be complete without the opposite isn't it? So here's the stuff that i would not miss:

10. My car
9. Getting poked on the side (Yes, you know who you are :P)
8. Catered food (except sunday lunch)
7. Accomodation crapnet
6. Landing in a max crosswind of 20kts (36km/hr) at night (trust me it's not even remotely fun)
5. Exam, tests, and the likes...
4. Certain people
3. Summer
2. Getting fcked (not physically) for no apparent reason.
1. Myself

I know it's pretty lame, but yea..that sums up pretty much all of them. Here's some photos from few of my last flights to the unplanned destination called Rottnest Island before i came back (and not without dramas). It was fun while it lasted though.

And to close this post, of course the photos that were taken on my last day in Jandakot :)

It's a customary for all cadets who completed their training to sound and sign the *poor* gong (Notice the cracks and big hole in the center after countless of headbutt on the gong)

Then, some photos shooting sessions...

Followed by a few handshakes here and there..

Left : and finally being chauffeured to the airport Right: My personal chauffeur :)

I'm inside the plane! I think..

Farewell Jandakot.... ;(