Flying~Soaring through Dreams

New Toy!!!

2012-01-13T02:02:00.005+08:00

Finally!! Guess what???? It's the Asus Transformer Prime!!! Been waiting for it like forevarrrrrr, first it's that stupid dumb Samsung Tab 10.1 that took forever to be released, then Tab 8.9, also taking its own sweet time..oh well, luckily i didn't buy any of those crap earlier...

No, i did not buy the keyboard dock because i did not find the need for it now, and it's like frikin $199. What a rip-off. Oh well, i'm not getting it, so it's not a big deal.

Verdict? I'M SO LOVIN' IT !!! (sounds familiar? :P)

Resurrection

2012-01-07T03:38:00.007+08:00

I have totally forgotten about my own blog until i met somebody important in my life, and this important person reminded me that i still do in fact, have personal memories engraved somewhere among the interwebs and suggested that i should consider returning 'home'.

And so, i returned 'home'; a home that ever threatens to crumble into pieces at the slightest disturbance, I felt hesitant...even felt a little strange and awkward. But before i knew it, i've finish reading each and every of the entry in this blog as if it was written by anyone else but me. It was so strangely captivating i could not believe it was actually me who wrote them not very long time ago.

In another word? Yes!!! I am still alive and kicking and most importantly.... I am back once again!! but only for god knows how long. =)

Malacca Gathering (Part 2)

2010-10-07T20:33:00.033+08:00

where were we again?

Oh yessss, after treating ourselves to the delightful desserts, we've decided that we were officially hungry again and before we knew it, we were already standing in front of the satay celup shop. Oh mai....look at those crowds! Why were there so damn many people wherever we went?

Then, we have yet another late arrival from our final guest, karat.

Karat arrived in style

Without wasting much time, CK and the rest went ahead and try to hunt for an empty table, actually two, to be able to accommodate all of us, yes amongst those crowds. I simply stayed outside until they found the tables which was the only important matter to me :P Surprisingly, it didn't take all that long. I wonder why, i guess it must have something to do with that fishy charm of his :S.

First table secured in no time followed by the second one on the right almost immediately. 101% efficient!

I believe what happened after that were pretty much self explanatory, as we went all out on the various type of satay (poor satay sticks) and also not forgetting the ever-taste-like-sarsaparilla (Sarsi soft drink) "liang cha". But hey, i found those drinks addictive though. Weird.

Filtering out oil layer from the top of the satay gravy for a so called "healthier" meal, LOL!

Going to the fridge to choose from a wide range of selections...

Okay, maybe there's not much choosing after all, we pretty much took everything that we saw alright.

Left : Even wondered what those cutesy cutesy green balls are? Right : They magically unfolds into spinach!

The sarsi-taste-like liang cha i was talking about.

Left : Looks like somebody's gonna puke. :P
Right : I have absolutely no idea what that was, pig ear? Pig tongue? Something like that. Jeeez...

Soon enough, we became so full that the very same noob who came up with the oil-filtering idea in the first place started playing with the gravy. Yes, the next bunch of customers were going to appreciate that. Thank you very much.

Ok, we are now full. At least that's what i thought. At this point, i did not know what was our next destination so i just kind of followed the rest. After a short drive, we parked and came to this one very dark alley (it was night already by then) and i must say that i have no idea of what they could actually find in a place like this. But let's take a look at the picture see if for yourself!

What were these people doing here at this time? Still not clear???

YESS!! IT'S THE LA-LAS AND SI-HAM PARADISE!

Not for me though, i hate lalas and siham, so i gave it a pass. So did a few other guys who felt that they already had enough for the night.

Left : and surprisingly, this noob were still able to go full force on the poor sihams. Right: I also saw this ho-chiak seal of approval from 8TV, didn't really know how it ended up there though.

After that, we went for short boat trip along the Malacca River also known as Malacca Cruise. The camera did not perform a very good job under low lightning condition here but overall it was a fun experience and it's good to take a break after eating so much.

After the boat ride, we proceeded to our final destination for one last dessert for the night. Actually this shop was also very famous for its duck noodles but too bad we were a little bit overloaded tonight so nobody mentioned anything about the noodles at all. What a waste =/

Holy sh!t, even it's crowded here!

And, that's all for first day folks..........
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WTFFF??!!

Yes, they (including me) just did not want to end the night without giving this famous char siew rice one last go. So here we went! Yet another moderate to heavy meal which truly marked the end of the food hunting itinerary for the first day. Phew!

-Day 2-

The very next day were just, let's put it this way; we tried to make the best out of remaining time here on Malacca to eat whatever that we might have left out the day before. We woke up early in the morning for a sumptuous dim-sum meal! Again, it was crowded like hell. Why were people like this everywhere? :P

Then, we paid a visit to Tan Kim Hock shop famous for its dodol, rubbing oils and some other stuff that i'm not really interested in. We also had some cendols there and it was pretty awesome. I had a durian cendol myself!

Without realizing it, noon has arrived and it's time for our lunch before returning home. This time we went back to a tiny food court we used to patronized a lot during our uni days due to the awesome curry and fried chicken rice that can be found there. We were glad that those stalls were still alive and kicking even after 5 years since we last came.

It was after lunch that we finally parted our way, wishing each other well and i was sure we will return one day for another round of food chomping frenzy. Although it was only a short reunion, i must say i had a blast and i was especially happy that the Legendary Cao Cui King still held to his championship belt even after so many years. That alone gave us good laugh and totally made our day. =)

Until then buddies, let's meet up again somewhere in the near future!

and lastly but not least, here's a totally random pic of my BELOVED MAO!

1 month overdue...Malacca gathering

2010-08-19T21:11:00.073+08:00

Yes, this post was meant to be published like 1 month ago as it marked one the most memorable event in my life (it was delayed due to of some person 'you-know-who' being lazy lah :P); the gathering of my old uni buddies. This plan has been suggested long ago by our gang boss ah gene. Alas, many difficulties had arises back then where we have to deal with our hectic working and life schedule. However, after much compromises from each and everyone of us, we finally came to a conclusion that this much awaited and needed gathering shall be held in Malacca on the July 10th, where everything began, although it will be only a one short day trip.

Make no mistake, this is in no way an easy plan, since we have buddies from far up north (Penang), Central (KL, Selangor) and all the way to far south (Singapore in my case) to meet in the place which happened to be the middle point of both extremes just for a single day trip. Thanks to everyone who made an effort to make yourself available on that day. This trip mostly re-visited all the good stuff in Malacca where we used to study in, namely the food so there will be plenty of photos depicting foods so let's get going.

Since i'm departing from Singapore, i'll focus the story primarily from my point of view. I departed Singapore in the morning at around 7am int he hope to arrive in JB on time around 10am where my friend Ong Bak will pick me up and drive back to Malacca. On the other end, bagene and the penangites had departed somewhere around 5am. We had agreed to meet up in a old familiar place in Malacca, EP around 12pm for lunch.

It turned out that Ong bak, which was accompanied by his girlfriend, didn't feel so well so i had to be the driver instead, pffft. Well, since i had the power on the pedal, i practically flew all the back driving at an average speed of 140km/hr. lol! We reached our meeting place EP, a little ahead of schedule at around 11.45am only to receive a call from our Northern friends saying that they have just arrived in KL to pick up a few other friends on their way before continuing the journey. Wtf? Does that means they will be arriving late? No matter.

We waited until 12.30pm when we finally gave up waiting because we were hungry like nuts and wanted to eat the good ol' chicken rice balls which was well known of being sold out even before lunch time even starts. Not wanting to take the chance, we went ahead to find the shop in the hope that they are still open for business. I guess lady luck is on our side this time, because it was indeed still open although we had to wait like 10mins before we were able to find an empty table and settle down. It was packed as with people as usual.

Soon enough, we all became so full and is ready to go and meet with the late comers :P Surprisingly, we also received a call from them saying that they have just arrived and were waiting for us but of course, little did they know that we abandoned them for the rice ballzzz! And we decided to keep that to ourselves for now. Hey, it's not like we were at fault now, you guys were the one who came late :P

Left: Boss in the center Right: That smart looking guy looks like some sort of gangster member

Left : gh3yliam 'infamous' bicep v2.0 test by curious onlookers Right : I'm always the one who do the stupid posing

Left : Me and boss (the 'gene' duo btw), again trying to act funny Right : Our 'xiao zhi' otherwise known as emo-king

From left : "Cao cui" king, xiao-zhi, xiao-zhi's gf, gh3yliam, my brother Ernest

Left: That's my new baby, Galaxy S btw! Right: Tard hiding his face.

Left: Ong bak seems like he wanted to eat those biceps so badly Right : Guys, get ready for a group shot

Left: Woi, i kena block la, wtf ! Right: Groupshot 3rd attempt - Now this is much better :D

Also to recap, from the left : mafia member, tard, caocui king, boss (bagene), my brother, me, ongbak, xiao-zhi aka emoking, gh3yliam, sookwee (ongbak's gf).

Without wasting too much time, we went for a second round of lunch, since I almost forgot that the rest did not have their lunch yet due to their late arrival. This time we choose a good old tiny stall by the side of the road where we had very simple maggi goreng noodles, fried bee-hoon and some desserts! Yummie!

Guess what, we were suddenly interrupted when everyone shifted their attention to the arrival of our VIP, the oldest and most original Malacca native yet, Kian Way!! A guy known for his intelligence and kindness when comes to sharing his trusty solutions to our unending assignments during uni time :P. (Actually, we were just copying his work and then added our own flavors to the solutions to prevent cloning detection, pretty smart eh?)

Preeeeseennnnntttttttinggggg Kian Way! (as he march gracefully marches towards us)

After a few hand shakes and pats in the back, we resumed our mission, which was to find the location of our accommodation for the night. Don't worry, our boss had already settled everything in advance, all there's left to do was to locate the place.

Left: Boss holding the key to the location of our stay for the night Right : Hmm, do we have a map here? Or at least a compass? How do we read this thing?

Left : Worry not! Let me find it on google earth with my ultimate 3G mobile internet (only to find out there wasn't any 3G network in the area and the net was slow like shit)
Right : Example of two non-contributing member. Still fooling around. Haih.. :P

Of course, we managed to find the place in the end, and in contrary to my expectation, this place looked rather isolated and worn down at least from outside to be honest. However, i must say that the interior unit was pretty decent! We quickly picked and setup our rooms while one noob even went to bed for a nap right away. So much for a gathering. C'mon we have an entire day ahead of us!

Left : Yeah, now that's the noob i'm talking about.

We rested a bit, played a few rounds of card games with of course some stakes involved to make things more interesting. It was pretty hilarious to see the overconfident xiao-zhi losing his money like no tomorrow when the luck did not side with him :P Steady yea! Me? Well, I lost a little, but hey, afterall it was the fun part that counts right? Ahahahah!

Left : xiao-zhi, simply epic LOL!

After the short break, we were ready to go again. This time we went to Jonker Walk to burn off our calories from our lunch earlier.

Then we went to this little shop very well famous for its cendol and its heavily coated "gula
melaka" topping or Malacca's sweet syrup. As usual, the place is crowded like hell. I ordered myself a durian-cendol and it's frikin' awesome!

Right: Boss - Are you guys ready for some awesomeness?

Left : I have absolutely no idea what are these old junks doing here. It's part of the decorations :S I guess it added to the mood.

While we were eating, we were greeted by yet another very good friend of ours and this guy is even more legendary compared to our VIP earlier. Introducingggg............... CKKKKK!!!! in bright yellooowww!!

The ever cheerful CK! See those smile? Man, it's just simply not him without those smiles!

We continue walking around the dessert break and had some good talk and laugh and before we knew it, we were starting to get hungry again and will be heading to our next destination for dinner soon, le "Satay Celup!"

to be continued....

Mini Reunion

2010-06-19T03:23:00.011+08:00

Went back KL last week, met and had real good fun with some old high school friends, went for movies marathon (which i regretted, because it was so damn tiring even after the first movie) of Karate-Kid and A-Team; A-Team being the much superior one. Then had a late night BKT (Bak Kut Teh) at this one shop near Chow Kit which was just as awesome as it was 5 years ago.

The very next night, went out again to chill out at The Laundry @ The Curve, had some drinks & snacks, chit chat and caught the Argentina vs Nigeria opening match. Don't get me wrong, i am not usually into soccer and stuff, but World Cups had always been exceptional and somehow, i think i have a thing for World Cup :P

After the match, we went to another food court in Kota Damansara yet again, for another round of yum cha. This time in a better environment, unlike The Laundry which was so noisy with music blasting and cheers we literally had to yell to be able to hear each other.

Seriously, (BKT + Drinks + World Cup)xTalking Rubbish = Best combos ever! What more can i ask for? Thanks guys and ladiesss! I definitely am looking forward to this sort of gathering again! =)

Feelings and doubt

2010-05-11T10:17:00.020+08:00

Are "feelings" really that short-lived these days? Or was it simply overrated? For a start, it could have confirmed my doubts because i thought i was overreacting initially. Have anything you said or done ever been real before? Or was it all just an act? Why are you doing this? Did the past 1 month means anything to you, at all? There were just too much mysteries surrounding you that i can't help but continue to wonder.

During this past short month, i might have acted a little bit cold at times, acted like i didn't care, might have seemingly ignored things you said that i had, in actual, engraved in my heart. It hurts.. you know, for not being able to return these feelings freely; not because i did not want to, but because i resisted. You could say that i think too much, but seriously, i don't care. If possible, I just wanted to take away all your burdens so that you do not have a single worry for the rest of your life.

Honestly, I was amazed, how could one mere month left a mark like that in me, although it wasn't as deep as i feared it would be, fortunately; but still enough for me to stop and think, to pen my thought which i don't usually do. Everything that i did, i did for a reason; I just wanted to know if you really like me for who i am, and not because of what i do or say. You know, i don't want to be just another guy who happened to pass through in your life.

However, it just get harder to resist the more and the longer i know you. In another word, i can't help but keep liking you more and more. It may sounds stupid to you, but personally i think this is the only way answer certain things that i needed to know, if there was any. Indeed, it did prove something, which i was still hoping that it'll turn out to be wrong one day.

Sure, you are not perfect in many ways. But, so am I. Don't get me wrong, but these flaws are what making you so unique and attractive i find it hard not to like. If you ask me, i'd rather want you to keep them than trying to be somebody you are not. We are human; human make mistakes, there's no stopping to it, but....as long as we are willing to learn from it, it will never be the end of the world.

It was so close, yet so far away. I had a few plans in mind. I was starting to think that you'd make a good partner and i do seriously think that you have everything it takes to be someone who could settle down one day, as opposed to what you might have thought of yourself. I genuinely would like to start that journey with you. Sadly, it didn't happen. Maybe there were simply too much incompatibilities between us.

Or maybe, nothing has even started at all in the first place...

All in all, the best word to describe the experiences that I've had when we were "together" would be.....to put it simply, priceless. Maybe not as much to you as it was to me. For me, it's an another eyes opener after so long and for that, i am eternally grateful for your presence in my life, even though it's only temporary. May you find "the one" soon and live the life that you have always wanted, i knew you would. Remember to always cherish what you have, because when it's gone you'd wish that you could turn back time.

I do really hope that you read this, although it's very unlikely. Because if you do, it only means that another doubt of mine has been disproved.

Regardless, don't work too hard and remember to always take good care of yourself!

*Hugs*

and remember to drink enough water as well =)

Roccat Kave

2010-05-03T12:08:00.007+08:00

Roccat Kave, a German products, such a rarity here in Singapore...shame, i spent so much time looking for this monster but to avail. Finally, i got this from Malaysia for about..RM300 i think. To put it simply, you will NEVER get a better 5.1 surround headphone than Kave at this kind of price, heck, or even at a higher price for that matter. Nuff said. No time for a review, but trust me, you can hardly go wrong with this pair of ~~babies~~ monsters, from its build quality to sound quality, i must say it's a technological marvel :)

OBS Day XIII

2010-04-25T01:50:00.015+08:00

Here's my next journal entry for my OBS, and this time it's on the Day 13 which was also the first day of my solo camp. So keep in mind that the photos are rather limited for these few days as we were not allowed to carry anything else apart from the necessities which happened to be, insufficient as well. The reason why these photos exist was because of some alien spy who took our picture discreetly and then tried to abduct us at night.

Day 13 - Solo Camp Day 1

Today, morning run was cancelled as not to wear us out for the solo camp later. Great news! Best morning ever. After breakfast, we finalized our packing stuff and moved out to each assigned camp spot.

Stuff that's allowed to be brought to the camp. Yea, it's pretty limited, oh minus the torchlight. Don't know which idiot wrote that :P

The pattern of the camp site choice were such that, everyone were kind of laid out in a continuous line separated probably about 50m away from each other. Yea, it's not that far but at night, you won't feel that way. Worst of all, i was placed at the end of the line which means there wouldn't be anybody after me. Geez..creepy.

Getting excited about going soloooooo!

We were given very limited range survival items and the only source of light during the night time was a piece of candles and few matches (yea, only few, like less than 10 pieces), which i am using now to write this journal. I supposed the candle could last for 2-3 hours of continuous burning but i have to put it out soon since i had already used half of it and i had to save the rest for tomorrow's night! and oh!, torchlight was a prohibited item in case you were wondering why was i being so dumb. I have a long night ahead of me and i don't really know what to do.

I do not have a freaking watch since it's confiscated as well. However, i would guess that it's around 8pm now. Heck, maybe i should just sleep, save the troubles, save the candles. WHOOPS! I've already used more than half of the candle now. Better blow it out! Ciao!

Individual solo tent pic that was taken by the above mentioned alien spy. and if you are wondering where is mine, good news! i'm keeping it until my next entry because it's somewhat..embarassing. LOL! As you can see, some are pretty well done though, damn you people with experience and brain.

Days Left : 8
Mood : Relaxed

Rewind (Continued..)

2010-03-27T11:25:00.006+08:00

-19 years ago-

7 years old - Primary 1

Just when i was about to get comfy with my kindergarten life, things got changed again. However, it's for the worse. I had a new school, and it was no longer around the corner of the next street. All my friends which i had worked so hard to gain their trust were gone. I was introduced to something new, something i didn't like; school buses. New uniform, new shoes, new books. I was back to square one. Everything seems so strange to me.

Of course, once again i was accompanied by my mum to the school on my first day. I was shocked to see that the school was so much bigger, even the class itself was 'huge', there were even more people. As usual, i started showing the usual sign, threatening to make a 'scene' if my she were to leave me. I was in the class, there were so much chatter, and yet, i was focused only on one thing; my mum outside overlooking through the windows, smiling as usual and waving at me, hinting that i was going to be alright.

I wasn't. And for that moment, i thought i was the only person in the entire class who cried like there were no tomorrow. Everybody stared at me, and it didn't helped. My mum came in, and consoled me, i insisted that she stayed. She said that i would make new friends and that she couldn't be there for me the entire days. It took a little convincing before i finally sort of settled down, yet still on the verge of bursting into tears if i were upset, like a ticking timebomb.

Eventually, she left. First lesson this time was coloring lesson. I confidently whipped out my shining new Staedtler Luna 12 color pencils. There was a coloring book, and i kind of painted everything in brown, the chairs, cupboard, the skies, cloud, and even the people. I didn't quite understand why but i thought i was having some sort of mental breakdown. My teacher walked past through me, surprised and told me that it could more colorful than that, and that i should try to seek for help from my friends.

I turned to my side, there was this another kid who was painting effortlessly with his brand new Luna color pencils as well, only that it was a 36 color set! Wow, i thought! That's a lot of colors, i looked again at my own Luna 12, feeling slightly inferior now, not so confident anymore. I could already felt that the time bomb is ticking quicker. I was green with envy. I asked if i could use some of his color pencils (which i didn't have) to help with my coloring. Guess what? He refused! That's it! I exploded, almost literally. What an arrogant piece of $@#()$*!)@$*.

Win

Lose

It was pretty chaotic for a while, with my classroom teacher trying to calm me down. My mum wasn't there anymore. I was pretty sure that arrogant brat felt really guilty after what he did to me, and decided to lend me a hand in the end. At the end of the day, we became friends :)

Rewind

2010-03-24T00:34:00.014+08:00

All of a sudden, my mind drifted back to my good old childhood days. While i tried to recall as many of those fond (and some not so fond) memories as possible, without realizing it, i found that I'm smiling to myself as those thought filled my mind thinking how sweet yet silly it really was back then.

-20 years ago-

6 years old - Kindergarten

Oh no, today is the day i have to leave and be away from home for the very first time for school. I do not like this at all, not even one bit! How far was my school then, one would ask? Well, it is just at one of those houses in the next street around the corner. Yes, it's just some 10mins walk away, maybe 5. My mum even promised to send me to the school that morning and would be back on time to pick me up at noon, not one minute late! Still, i am not convinced, my body and my feet felt heavy as i dragged myself onto the back of the bicycle, ready to be "chauffeured" to the school by my mum. Even the brand spanking new uniform feels like everything else except comfortable.

Will i be able to make new friends?

Will i see ever my mum again?

Can i ever go home again?

What if....?

All these thought flooded my already stressed out little brain. I started to sob as i entered through the gate, refused to let go of my mum. She reassured me, but it only made the situation worse. I started to cry, wanting to be pampered and told that everything is gonna be alright. After a few pushes, i finally gave in.

I saw many other cheerful kids who were around my age at that time. Everybody seems to have their own circle of friends, except me. I felt really left out since i was kind of shy and do not usually approach other kids to make friends. I remember very vividly that my very first "lesson" was clay shaping, also more fondly known as the plasticine class. That's when i would loosened up a little bit and became less paranoid because it was a so fun i wish every period would be the same. Of course, it wasn't.

I finally made some friends towards the end of first day and to my surprise, i found that the boys and the girls had their respective groups and does not really get along with each other. This was when the infamous "hmph, i don wan fren you" threat was first encountered. I often find myself getting distracted and depressed after getting those remarks and soon i found myself working really hard to gain recognition and acceptance from the others. I was worried that nobody wanted to befriend me, and that i would end up being left alone. Everything seems.... so fragile. There were even once that i went and literally beg them not "outcast" me and yes, i cried when they refused to listen to my plead. It went on for a few days when they finally "accepted" me into their group. Yes, it might sounds trivial now, but trust me, it wasn't the case for me, or any other kids of my age for that matter. It was that bad :(

Of course, eventually i grew adapted to the new environment and since then, there have been so many events (most of which i couldn't remember) took place. The sport day, ABC classes, the mandarin classes with homeworks involving unending repetition of chinese characters writing, math,recess time (where i brought sandwiches made by my mum in a little squarish tupperwares, it was pretty decent), occasionally envious of other who got better homemade breakfast.

While i've enjoyed the better most of my kindergarten days, i must say that the thing that I had always look forward to the most everyday was for my mum to show up, smiling at the gate to fetch me home. I would always charge at her energetically like a mad bull whenever i see her. Best of all, she had never failed to show up on time! Early, sometimes. Late, never once.

to be continued...

Four Hungry Mobs (one noob) vs Manhattan Fish Market

2010-02-27T19:54:00.004+08:00

People say that a hungry mob is an angry mob. However, there were four of us and yet none of us were angry as far as i can see (albeit a bit pissed off that our food came a little "late"). This was what happened when 4 hungry mobs (i'm one of them) stormed into The Manhattan Fish Market. Well, I can only say that i felt sorry for the fish, squids, prawns and mushiesss and even the lemons.

Before...

2x Manhattan's Fisherman Fried Platter

15mins later...
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after....

Seriously, i swore there's nothing more satisfying than this. Omnomnomnomnomnomnmnnom...

and the cost???

Totally made my day!

2010-01-30T15:12:00.009+08:00

Yes, a very random video which i found in the scrapyard (was shot during good old uni days when we had nothing better to do and decided to pull some pranks on one of our beloved housemate) and is at least 4 years old now. But hey, it totally made my day watching this! Simply priceless!

Location : Home
Time : Unknown

Credits goes to :
gh3yliam (Cameraman/Producer)
Myself (Co-producer)
"Mother"(Victim)

p/s - if the Victim happened to drop by and see this, i hope you'll accept it with an open mind. Otherwise, please let me know to have it removed if it offended you in any way:P

See ya' later flying, Hello ground duties

2010-01-03T15:03:00.014+08:00

Been to and back from Maroochydore (MCY), or more fondly known as the Sunshine Coast, it marked the end of the training in Australia and i am finally back to Singapore again for good. During the 3 months i was in MCY, i have been taught how to fly a jet (specifically a Learjet 45), yes a huge leap from the GA Cessna 172 where the speeds are mostly quadrupled in all areas. Hey, but that's also where the excitement is :) I find the learning curve is pretty steep initially despite having 2 crew members now in the cockpit to help each other out. It did eventually flatten out however and i find it much easier to fly. I even managed to fly to a higher altitude than anyone have ever been (yes, that's including commercial pilots) at a whopping 47,000 ft. Others who could have flown higher than this are probably the military pilots and of course, the astronauts :P

Recorded at 47,000ft!

Can't see what is happening?=================> Here, let me make it easy for you :P

Ye, the Earth does seems rounder at an altitude, especially this high! Also notice how the sky color gradient changes from light blue and becoming darker above, i'm hitting outer space soon! lol!

Okay, back to reality, as of now, i'm doing crappy job in office, miles away from the skies, nuff said :( and it's going to continue for a while.

Also, im cutting my blog short and try to split it into smaller parts instead of a big chunk of updates and changing style into a more casual way, i hope!

Reminiscence

2009-07-19T15:56:00.021+08:00

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

2009-07-07T17:36:00.014+08:00

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

Spontaneous post

2009-07-07T17:03:00.000+08:00

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

2009-06-09T04:17:00.009+08:00

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

2009-05-18T22:59:00.013+08:00

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.... ;(

The Man Rules

2009-04-21T13:22:00.007+08:00

Just a moment ago, i received this forwarded mail from a friend and while i do not fancy forwarded mails (dismissing most of them as spams), i gave this a try anyway. To my surprise, what i found out was totally hilarious but at the same time absolutely true. Maybe some of you guys/gals have read this before but i felt the need to post this again anyway. Enjoy! And to ladies who read these, i would suggest you to take a moment to consider those points instead of just brushing it aside :) Feel free to forward this to as many people as possible mwahaha!

The Man Rules
At last a guy has taken the time to write this all down

Finally, the guys' side of the story.

We always hear "the rules"
From the female side.

Now here are the rules from the male side.

These are our rules!
Please note. these are all numbered "1"
ON PURPOSE!

1. Men are NOT mind readers.

1. Learn to work the toilet seat.
You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down.
We need it up, you need it down.
You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

1. Sunday sports. It's like the full moon
or the changing of the tides.
Let it be.

1. Crying is blackmail.

1. Ask for what you want.
Let us be clear on this one:
Subtle hints do not work!
Strong hints do not work!
Obvious hints do not work!
Just say it!

1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do.
Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument.
In fact, all comments become Null and void after 7 Days.

1. If you think you're fat, you probably are.
Don't ask us.

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one

1. You can either ask us to do something
Or tell us how you want it done.
Not both.
If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself..

1. Whenever possible, Please say whatever you have to say during commercials.

1. Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and neither do we.

1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings.
Peach, for example, is a fruit, not A color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

1. If it itches, it will be scratched.
We do that.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say "nothing," We will act like nothing's wrong.
We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle..

1. If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, Expect an answer you don't want to hear.

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine. Really.

1. Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as baseball or motor sports

1. You have enough clothes.

1. You have too many shoes.

1. I am in shape. Round IS a shape!

1. Thank you for reading this.
Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight;

But did you know men really don't mind that? It's like camping.

Dusty......dusty.......blog

2009-03-28T21:51:00.027+08:00

Yes, i know i know. It's been a while since i last updated my blog. My sincere apologies for being missing for such a long time and don't worry, this time i will not give any excuses to defend myself :P

I actually opened my blog, and rummaged through each and every post and trace it all the way back to my very first post, and i even felt nostalgic for a while (not my style). I simply couldn't believe such a long time has passed and the fact that i have just cleared my solo 5 months ago according to my previous post. Today, i am already at the near of completion of my training course.

The 21 man who came here together last year, had begun to leave..one by one...and more often than not, we find ourselves sending yet another person off as they completed the training course here in Jandakot. Yes, it's a mixture of both joy and a little bit of sadness occasion. Whenever it happens, i often feel a little sour and my heart sears having the thought of parting our ways...at least for a while. As of today, we are down to 13 person, 8 of which who have already obtained their CPL/IR and the rest are closing in obtaining them, including me.

Personally, i can be said to be a rather lucky person as i was the last person who arrived here in Jandakot, and yet i am going to complete my training slightly sooner than the rest of my course buddies due to the fact that i was selected to be in a course which exempted me from requirement to fly multi-engine aircraft and hence, shortened my training duration by about 3 months.

Having that said, i am highly hopeful that i will be able to finally complete my training in less than a month from today, and also to try to keep my blog updated again at least once every 2 weeks.

Below are some randoms snapshots over the past 9 months months which i find memorable and i hope you guys too will feel the same :) Not forget to mention a huge thanks to Bennie for supplying these photos.

First arrival, initiation day.

When the dinner still tasted 'good' :9

Discovering few of our neighbours

Ahhh..good ol' Master Woo and his classic 'Drunken Sleep', Jimmy's No.1 rival

First discovery of Fremantle Harbour and..

its awesome Fish n' Chip and Baskin Robbins ice-cream..mmmm

Indian food at its finest

Wow, that's some $$$$ there

Discovery of Utopia, a Bubble Milk Tea haven.

Mykonos Greek food restaurant.

Greek's food, looks frikin' awesome right? Yes, so were the price.

Kel, you should just go act in any porn movies.

Left: Oi, the camera is over here Right: MYKONOSSSS

Ahhh, fresh oyster......i swear i almost died eating that. Ask Bennie

More Indian food, my gawd..enough already!

Red Bull Air Race fever

X'mas celebration, and our very own pornstar Kel.

Indonesian food from Bintang, while it doesn't seems proper as a human food, it actually tasted not bad at all

Left : Fire truck that arrived within 5mins when the false fire alarm triggered inadvertently.
Right : Shah and his favourite Sunkist orange juice. He could finish the whole bottle all by himself

Viva Ciao Italia! An ever crowded restaurant. Excellent food!

Korean BBQ.

Indian fooo...ARGHHHH..ok i'll shut up.

Whoops

Finally but not least, here's 2 shots of my crappy landing video, a day landing and a night one. The third one is a IMC aka "Blind" flight through clouds with breathtaking scenery. Enjoy!

First Anniversary

2008-10-01T11:48:00.004+08:00

Apart from the news that i just cleared my second solo today, i would like to wish everyone a Happy First C132 Anniversary. It's the very same day today last year that we first embarked on this extraordinary journey together. Since then, so much have happened and even though now many of us are progressing at a different pace, our bond are still strong and i hope it'll last for as far as i can see :) Love you guys(not in the wrong way kay?)and rock on C132!

First Solo

2008-09-21T01:47:00.013+08:00

The 3-month waiting has finally came to an end when i cleared my solo flight a few days ago on 16/09/08. Solo flight was only authorized when the instructor was satisfied that i was able to carry out any flight alone safely. That was the 18th hour of my flying since i came here so i was actually lagging behind quite badly already now. I had a fairly good starts with flying lessons before i had an instructor change because he was leaving. That was when things started to go downhill as i was told by the new instructor that i was experiencing a lot of problem and struggling hard to fly the plane, which led to repetition of sorties (flight lessons) over and over again. I was left stumped and seriously demotivated over the next one month period because of this, had nightmares and actually thought that this would be the end of my career if i don't move my ass and fix the mess. Of course, it's easier said than done. I never expect the learning curve to be this steep. Fortunately, i had another instructor change and this time i felt that everything is finally beginning to move towards the right direction again, which eventually led to my first solo. While the first solo itself wasn't perfect, i was pretty satisfied with my flying and is hoping that i would continue to improve (or at least maintaining it) over time. Having said that, here's some snapshot of me and the baby in which i flew through my first solo :)

Oh, we also had a BBQ party last month for no apparent reason. I guess they did just for the heck of it. It was fun and there's lots of food :D mmmm..

The main BBQ pit..err... stove..

Mmmm...carnivores will be really happy when they see this

Obviously,the BBQ pit was not huge enough for everyone, so these peeps opt to cook those meats their own way

And finally, yesterday we had a paintball warfare thanks to whoever that took an initiative to organize this event. There were many newbies among us including me but we have loads of fun fighting against the other course, which apparently was more experienced than us :P The game itself was a blast having 18(3 of which were ladies :))vs 15 firing at each other. As expected, we got thrashed and many times i was caught off guard and shot at point blank (ouch!) because i was too busy talking to another person during the gun-fight. Yeah, i know that wasn't very smart of me. Serve me right eh? Anyway it's because of this that i learnt a valuable lesson from the game; let the gun do the talking, not your mouth. Everyone started off with approximately 200 bullets round, and to be honest, i thought it was a huge amount of bullets. However, half way into game, i realized that those bullets are only sufficient to start getting you into the game. Before you know it, you will run out of bullets and become a free-frag target. Yay! Kudos to Ted for being the last man standing and also the one who took the most hit for nothing :P Mwahaha.. It's pretty painful getting shot alright.. enough to leave marks on your body for days.

Entrance and advertisement :P

Registration counter and ammo distribution.

Are we going into some sort of bio-chemical war? Because it certainly seems that way to me..

Marching into battlefield

Left: Testing out the guns Right: My comrade, we vowed to cover each other asses.

Team 132 a.k.a newbie team a.k.a team-waiting-to-be-thrashed ole!

Left: Oi! Sleeping behind the mask? Right: "Looks like this is the end, we are out of bullets..it's been an honor fighting alongside with you"

Meaningless pose..

At the end of the day...and lastly but not least,

A big OUCH!

I'm certainly looking forward to the next paintball event again :D

1 month down, how many more to go?

2008-07-30T00:47:00.019+08:00

7-8? Or even 9? I really don't know. The thing is, there has not been much happening during the last one month and therefore i could not find much thing to post about. It's the peak of winter and the weather has been pretty shitty all the time, with tiny windows of clear day every now and then, it's like striking a jackpot to be able to fly on those days. I am now like on my 7th hour of flying even after 1 1/2 month being here, that's like average of flying once a week. I guess there's nothing much can be done except sitting ducks, rant, whine, sleep, eat, sleep, sleep, and finally, now i have decided to update the progress of my OBS at Day 10 and 11. I have almost forgotten about it until i accidentally came across photos depicting sweet (and some not so sweet) moments i've had during the good ol' OBS day. It's been only 9 months since then and yet it felt like ages ago to me.

Day 10 ( Sailing Expedition - Day 1)

Done my morning ritual as usual; run, basic exercises, etc. Blisters weren't so painful anymore, so...yay!!

After breakfast, we went directly to the meeting court to prepare our sail. We were further introduced to a bunch of sailing equipments which looked rather bizzare although some of them are pretty common stuffs, like torchlights, lightstick (those stick that emit lights when you break it, commonly seen in concerts), etc. The most important part was the ropes to be tied to the sail. I was actually overwhelmed by the number of ropes required to sail just a small cutter ship. I think there were at least more than 10 pieces of ropes (we call it "sheets", i don't know why) with variety of diameter and length to just operate the boat. Then, there were these at least 10 other ropes for misc. purposes like securing stuff on the boats, boxes, barrels, and some are for capsize recovery purposes.

Left : Whoa, what are these stuffs? Right : Mummieee , my tummy hurts :(

After we left the jetty, we were briefed in details about the purpose and usages of each sails. There were 3 sails if i did not understood wrongly. The main one is called the main sail for obvious reason. It is the largest and covered the largest surface area of the sails which helps to propel the boat forward in presence of wind. The other 2 smaller one is called 'mizen' and 'jib' respectively. One at the tail and the other one at the head of the boat which is responsible for directional control of the boat. The we were explained various sailing terms that i could hardly comprehend or remember at all. In fact, 'port' and 'starboard" were few of them and i could not even remember which one means 'left' and vice-versa.

Whole lecture wasted about 1.5 hours under burning sun directly above our head, but when we were actually ready to depart, storm hit and pretty much fucked us up. Perfect timing. We had to abandon the boat immediatelyy and head back into the OBS ground immediately to wait for the heavy rain to subside. And when it FINALLY did, it was already 4pm and that really screwed up our initial plan to sail to the intended first campsite as we couldn't make it in time before nightfall. In the end, we headed to the nearer campsite instead which is actually the old OBS campground which is kind of abandoned, about 2km away.

Left: You see those storm coming? Right : Imagine what's gonna happen if we're in the boat.

Everyone did not want to miss the opportunity to take a nap and wished that the rain never stop :P

We even had our nice unscheduled lunch when the storm broke out.

"Best" of all, there were totally no wind at all after storm. It was dead still, silence as if the world has stopped spinning so we had to row the friking boat instead. It's so fucking ridiculous and tiring because it was really damn heavy. Still, we had no choice. How can we row something that is not even meant to be rowed?

Hey, why the hell would we need a sail if there's no wind?

Yeah, row the goddam boat, ROW!

Believe me or not, he was actually trying to fish with this puny little string with a hook made out something i couldn't quite remember and some bread crumbs as the bait. I laughed my ass off but hey, he did actually almost caught the fish but the hook wasn't strong enough to sustain the force of the struggling fish. I actually stopped laughing at my own foolishness at this point.

Light sticks up just before nightfall, so that no one would accidentally ram into our ship while we were asleep

Old OBS Campground, pretty much abandoned but for some reason, the lights are still up. Pretty scary huh?

Went to sleep early that night since there were nothing else left to do and especially that the first day plan went haywire. That is one day wasted already now, there's only 2 more days left. Hopefully, with no unwanted incident again.

Days Left : 11
Mood : Pissed Off

Day 11 ( Sailing Expedition - Day 2)

Woke up at 7.30am today, whole body aching because i have been sleeping on a hard tarmac road, instead of sand or grasses. Without wasting too much time, we boarded the sail boat again, rehearsing whatever we have been teached the day before. Still very confusing and most of the time i found myself stood dumbfounded because i did not know what am i supposed to do.

Everything seems nicer in the morning

The wind was very still during our launching stage due to the geographical area and a bad day. We ended up woring further into a so called "more open" sea so we could catch more wind with some luck. Indeed, the prediction was correct and we were able to draw some wind by then, albeit a little light. At least we were moving at a snail pace. Nothing could be worse than rowing the damn boat, trust me! Oh yea, we also had a special version of morning dip by jumping off the boat into the sea.

Sun ray pierced directly through my skin throughout the noon and sunblock lotion seems to be least effective at most. With some luck, if the sunlight is blocked by the sail however, a shade is created and i would occasionally find myself hiding under it if the shade favor me. Everything was moving at such a slow pace that everyone including me soon felt sleepy. Of course, we weren't allowed to sleep. Few times, those who were caught asleep were poured over with a pail full of sea water. FUN! Their reactions were....simply put..priceless. That's when everyone became alert again, but not for long. Haha! The process was then repeated.

Later in the evening, when we were about 3/4 to our destination, the wind grew increasingly wild and strong due to an approaching storm. That was when the actual excitement finally begins. Everybody had their own role to play and must react as fast as possible to ever changing behavior of the wind. Otherwise, we would end up being pushed away really quickly in the wrong direction or in the worst cast scenario, it would topple the boat over resulting in a capsize. Trust me, capsizing a sailboat is not even as remotely fun as it did on a kayak. We did not want that to happen. We could see lightning bearing unusually heavy rain heading towards us from afar. Probably 30 minutes away. Soon, everyone seems to understand their roles better and there were less confusion among us. I found that the speed of the boat went from a snail pace to one matching a speedboat. Yes, that was how strong the wind was. Everyone was high on spirit, cheering, and screaming about.

High spirit moment!

Noticed how everyone leaned to the port side of the boat? The wind was so strong it was trying to flip the boat to the starboard so everyone had to balance it.

When we were approaching the destination, it began to rain cats and dogs and it was so cold all of us were freezing on the boat. However, we were still busy maneuvering the boat so no one has the time to put on their rain coats over. Too bad...but that is what improving the fun factor :P Finally, this is what i would call an actual sailing, not rowing the boat like slaves and idiots.

Ah paradise....No..not for us...unfortunately

We anchored down our boats near the shore and the rain eventually stopped. We moved up to the beach and were told to prepare for an evening run. WTF? I thought there will be no running during expedition away from OBS ground?! Anyway, i was exempted due to my blisters condition so it was all good.

How can someone be still so energetic after what we've been through for the day?

I guess that's the end of my story for Day 2 sailing expedition because it's dinner time soon! Oh yea, on a final note..we were told that we won't be setting up any tents for tonight. Why? Hoho...because we were going to sleep on the boat itself!! Nitey nite to myself!

Days Left : 10
Mood : Satisfied/Relaxed

The Jandakot Story

2008-06-28T16:03:00.018+08:00

I landed safely in Jandakot Airport on hmm.. June 13th, just 15mins past midnight and 2 of my buddies were waiting already at the arrival gate to pick us up. It was like around 15C that night and it wasn't as cold as i had expected for a winter. Maybe it's just the beginning. Anyway, it took like about 20mins driving back to the college's accomodation

Since then, it has been slightly more than 2 weeks already since i arrived here and i really do have a lot of catching up to do. Winter by itself already added salt to the wound if you get what i mean. There were bad weathers every now and then but i think that i am pretty lucky to have flown a few times despite such an unforgiving weather. I even landed by myself (with assistance of course) on second flight, it was a mess though but with such an awesome instructor, he made it such that everything seems like a breeze to me. Pretty frightening though. I guess it'll take time for me to get used to it, like everyone else around here said.

Move on to the place i stay, a very humble yet perfectly equipped apartment that's designed such that it actually looks more like an hotel. From hot shower, kitchen, laundries machines, cooking utensils, to gym, tennis court, basketball court, pool table, dart board etc. Awesomeness. Best of all, the college is just right across the road and it's less than a minute walk. Very convenient eh? Overall, this place is pretty isolated since it's in the outskirt of the city area and more importantly for us to fly, we need to stay far away from housing area due to noise concern.

Overview of my accomodation. Dam nice right?

Hallway, my room, and some idiot took my photo in the dining hall :P

Ping ping pong pong. They thought they are some pros..chhh :P

"Parking bay" of aircrafts seasoned with...a rainbow. How lucky!

I had an opportunity to visit Fremantle last week, a fairly small eastern coastal town which was so different compared to the place i'm staying in right now. While striding around, i randomly snap some photo for your viewing pleasure that you don't usually find it somewhere else. At least not the place where i came from. All in all, the scenery here was breathtaking and the locals here are really, really friendly beyond what i have ever seen in my entire life.

Dude, that guy was going to put a sword down his throat, literally. No joke.

Just a few days ago, we had a blast with the other course in a 5v5 Call of Duty 4 match in a LAN party. Cool eh? Everyone just whipped out their latest (or not so latest) laptop and gathered at the auditorium where they pit their skills against each other. It's WAR my comrades. Unfortunately, we got pretty much thrashed in our first few games since we are newbies but i believe we are catching up to our senior's standard very soon! Wahahaha!

Setting up the games and network connection.

Very serious faces. It's war. Don't play play.

Left : Oh noes! I'm dyinggg halpppp! Right : One of the pros

P/S-More players are always welcomed. Whoever that's interested to join the fun, feel free to look for one of these faces above so you can make an arrangement with them :P See you in battlefield!

I think that pretty much wrapped up everything that has happened in the past few weeks. Will keep you guys posted. Ciaoz!

Jandakot Here I Come!

2008-06-12T10:58:00.003+08:00

The daunting wait has come to an end when i was told that by my visa would be ready in a few hours. After getting stucked here for over a month, i can finally move on and do something more meaningful. As i am typing now, my stuffs have been fully packed including my gigantic 22" monitor and i actually ran out of space while stuffing my belongings together. To my relief, i saw some unused bag laying around so i took and made full use of it. My flight to Jandakot would depart in about 7 hours from now, and it'll take another 5 hours to reach. ETA would be around midnight and i hope they'll be somebody waiting to give us a much needed warm welcome (I heard it's kind freezing there at the moment) :D Here i come 132! Finally we are a complete course again! Woohoo!

Also, depending on my internet connection there which is supposedly to suck to the max, i might or might not be able to update my blog so soon. I guess i'll just have to wait and see. Till' then, see you guys and myself again later!

To those who might want to contact me, I still could be reach by SG line at any time since it would be kept active in addition to my Aus line which i would be getting later. So feel free to send me an SMS! Try not to call me though, else i'll be broke :P

Frustration and Sadness

2008-05-24T14:59:00.004+08:00

Tentative date of departure for Jandakot, Perth : 02/05/2008. Sounds good!

It's like end of the month already now? Yes, i'm still stucked in Singapore. More importantly, what the heck am i doing here? First of all, some stupid new Australian visa application regulations required us to submit our so called "Certificate of Good Conduct". What crap was that anyway? It wasn't like this before. We complied with it nevertheless, filled up tons of useless and seemingly unnecessary forms, like what's your siblings name, how old are they, what are they doing currently, what's their education level, heck..is that even relevant to what i am applying for? 16 of us submitted the visa application form around the same time, but only 14 of us got cleared the very next 2-3 days (Yes, they are in Perth now). Me? It's been 2 weeks now and still counting. No news whatsoever, i'm just sitting around idling like nuts now. Everyone kept asking me why am i still around and stuff, and i grew tired of answering them. Is it because they are still processing my application? Did i filled up something wrong in the form and thus get rejected? Or did they lost my application altogether? Any clue at all? How long further do i have to remain here? Everyone has started flying and i am going to be soo lag out and falling behind when i get there...1-2 months later? Fuck this shit.

On a separate news, i would like to announce that our beloved college 17-years-old-pet dog, Ah Girl, was involved in an accident recently and had since passed away peacefully(I hope). I was not there when it happened , and i really couldn't believe the news at all. Let's just say that I saw her with my very own eyes and she was happily following me in the morning wandering around, and the next thing i heard was that, she already passed away in the evening. In any case, RIP Ah Girl.

Ah Girl : In loving memory - 21st May 2008

Flight Simulator Session & OBS Day IX!

2008-05-11T02:58:00.015+08:00

Small updates, just a few weeks ago, all of us was blessed with the opportunity to visit one of the ever fully-booked simulator session in STC. We managed to get a hold of a few slots available on the Boeing 777-200 simulator and guess what? It's all done from 12am, yes MIDNIGHT all the way to 6am in the morning. That's how limited the slots availability were. Crazy eh? Here are some of the photos i managed to take and all of em are quite dark due to the bad lighting but i hope you guys were able to enjoy it. I knew i did :P Compared to the real simulator with all the full sound, lights, motion it will no doubt put all the computer simulator games out there to shame including the infamous so called Motion Master in Genting Highland. Graphic was definitely top notch and being quite an advanced computer user myself, i knew where those graphic qualities really stand. It's just soooo damned real that it can be very scary at times especially when you screwed something up while flying. Imagine those emergency alarm and red warning lights popping up and stuff...Geeeze.And i'm very sure the central procession unit of these sims do actually possess some serious processing power to be trifled with. Oh, i crashed landed once wahahah! But that's because somebody sabotaged my aircraft during the finals and right before the touchdown. LOL. All in all, the simulator session were nothing more than to let us have a feel of what we are going to do in the future. I really can't wait to get into this room again soon!

Oh, and it seems like it's been a while since i've last told the Tale of OBS due to many unforeseen circumstances and i shall return to my story telling once again. Just for the note, for those who have not been following and wish to keep track of what has been happening since Day 1, i'll make it easier for you guys to keep track of my journey by following the links provided below. Enjoy!

Day : I | II | III | IV | V | VI| VII | VIII

Day 9

Today, i was exempted from the morning run again to allow my blisters to heal a little bit more. Went for breakfast after doing the timekeeping for those who ran. We departed for the mainland sharp at 8.30am, subsequently switched to a air-conditioned bus and finally reached the destination, "Red Cross Home for the Disabled" for the second time at around 9.45am.

It had been a busy day even though there's really nothing special happened except that it did felt like a REAL resting day after doing so much for the past week. WHAT?! It's been more than a week already since i came? Gosh..that was quick.

We cleaned the compound area according to plan, met with some of the residents, smashing up some unwanted furniture into smaller pieces so that it could be easily dumped away. No...no burning is allowed. Was quite tiresome but as a furniture demolition division leader, i simply assigned the job to my underlings while i 'oversee' the progression. Yeah, very convenient right? :P

Left : Rubbish collector team Right : Sewer system cleaning team

Left : Slacking off Right : The fierce lumberjack is back with vengeance

We even uprooted a perfectly healthy tree upon request of the administrative office of course. It was no easy task i can assure you. Have you tried pulling out a perfectly healthy tooth out of mouth? I know it's a bad comparison, but yes, that's how tough it was. Coincidentally, the tree which we were uprooting was also an ant nest. Hence in the process of pulling out the trees, we also battled with swarming ants in an infinite number. These fearless soldiers just kept coming at you no matter how many nuclear bombs aka Insecticide Spray you dropped onto their bases. We practically wasted almost whole can of the insecticide spray just to get rid most of the soldiers and we still get bitten like nuts everywhere. I bet those ants were really furious that we attacked their nest. I'm sorry, we had no choice but to obey to our superior :(

Left : Ivan chewing sugar canes found in the wild Right : I'm sure he robbed the scooter from the less fortunate one

Left : Awww...banana... Right : Leaving silly mark at the back of a bench. 132 represent our batch.

Oh, we also did some light but terrible painting to brighten the surround environment up for the residents who spend their time most of the time in the garden. We were also told to clear up the bushes, drainage system and basically everything that could lead to mosquitoes breeding for obvious reason.

These bluish theme seems just sooo.....wrong...

At the end of the day, all of us get nothing in return except for sense of satisfaction deep within us because we could at least contribute something to the community.

Thanks to everyone who participated!

Went back at around 3pm and reached 'home' at about 4 plus. Evening run of 8km distance was still on, but i was told not to run again. Mwahaha! What a day!

Night briefing was an interesting one. It was a bout our preparation for the next expedition which would be the cutter sailing expedition. Cool eh?! We were explained the basic operation and control of a sailing boat and is expected to perform it the next day. Best of all, it will be another 3 days 2 night away from the dreaded camp again! It's going to be funnnnn!!! Weeeee......

Briefing and preparation!

Mood : Excited/Sleepy
Days Left : 12

Back...Bigger!! Badder!!!!

2008-05-09T21:23:00.014+08:00

Hmm..let me see...Whoa... Is it May already? And it felt like it was only 2 weeks ago since my last update on my blog. Boooo! *busy shielding myself from massive rotten eggs and tomatoes bombardment* Okay....Okay!! The fact is...well...err.. nevermind , it's the same old excuse all over.... Busy, lazy...all those stuff you know? Boooo!!!!! *more eggs and tomatoes* Anyway, i'm back again this time and hopefully i would have the time to update the blog more frequently (instead of every 2 months :P) because the ATPL exam is finally over! With over 99.99% passing rate, this is quite an achievement even for the college history. So cheers!!!!

So here's the scene from the ATPL exam day which lasted 3 days continuously with no break whatsoever (except lunch break) and it's where our 4 months worth of efforts and studies put to ultimate test. The instructors even mentioned that this would be the last time we would ever need to study that hard in our entire life. I think it's quite true as i already had enough of my 5 years uni life.

Good ol' Burger King...mmm....BK Whopper...

Chillin' out at Coffee Bean @ Changi Terminal 2 before entering exam hall.

Oooookay...maybe not all are chillin' out. LOL!

Same old shit exam venue...Zzzzz

Guess what, right after the final day of exam, i went ahead and bought a beloved new desktop computer altogether with a fking awesome 22" Monitor (cost me about $1.8k) ! Man, you can't go wrong with that! I'd desperately need this to kill my boredom when i'm in Australia for the next 9 months. As usual, nothing to shout about...but still, i wanted to shout about it. Haha!

Left : Power supply unit, Heatsink+Fan, and my beloved tomatoes comforter! Weeee...
Right : Awesome graphic card in a oversized-good-for-nothing-packaging (It looks cool though)

Left : Naked graphic card..mmm..Sexxxyy
Right : 2x2Gb RAM, Motherboard, and C2D E8400 Processor. Yummy!!

Left : Naked motherboard! Not as sexy as the graphic card though. *Geek*
Right : and finally...a fully assembled PC (No casing though :P)

Ok, enough of this topic :P I know it's a turn off for many of you (except geeks maybe). Let 's see what do we have next...oh...the most awaited customary initiation party. Instead of being initiated aka bullied like we once suffered many months ago mentioned in this post, being the most senior members in the college and more importantly, having passed the ATPL exam, had granted us the power to initiate (aka bash) one of the junior batches as to release our steam after having worked so hard in the past few months. Wahahaha... It was a fun party for everyone...really!

Left : Waterbombssss warrr! It's show time! Right : Hi Ah Ger! Are you here for celebration too? :D

Eat Eat Eat Eat Eat Eat Eat

Eh, curi flirting ye?

Syokness!

Left : OUCH! Right : Mmm..Icy cold waterr....

Viva la Batch 136! All the best to you guys and see you all in Jandakot soon!

The aftermath....

As of now, i am still waiting for the departure to Perth thanks to their dumb new visa requirement causing at least 2 weeks delay to all of us. Officially, our job here(studying) is over and basically doing nothing everyday only waiting for news to move on. Unofficially, we still have to do some typical office boy duties every day because the college is afraid that we might become lazy very soon if we are not given something to do. Haha! No big deal though. Could be fun once in a while, haha! Jamming the paper shredder machine anyone? :P

PRIAAOWWWW! TABBYYYYYYYYYYYYY

2008-03-07T17:29:00.010+08:00

Garrrgh..im going nuts...i know these are totally unrelated but i really cannot tahan already!! WTF! Introducing my ever beloved cat, TABBY! It's belongs to my sister actually :P Anyway here goes Tabby, the multi-personality cat! To those who's interested to take a glance, pat, touch, squeeze, feel, carry, play with, feed on, ~~bully~~, ~~abuse~~, ~~study~~ him, feel free to visit his personal Showroom daily(except Sunday) at:

Venue : Somewhere in Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

Time : Strictly 1-2pm (because he's sleeping during the rest of the time)

Entrance Fee : $10

For further information please contact Hotline 1-800-888-TABBY.

Hmm...this tastes....nice..... (Greedy Tabby)

Curious Tabby

Weeee..playful Tabby!

Target's in sight, get em' boys! (Dead-serious Tabby)

What? (Sarcastic Tabby)

Who dares disturb my sleep? (Annoyed tabby)

Bodyless Tabby.

Aww...i am just going to melt just by looking at those pics. Won't you?

Woof, damned dog! Stay away from me!

*Wind blows* Ahh...that feels great....

Air-cond + Bed + Comforter = Heaven

Okay, i am done releasing my stress for today. Until next time! :D

The clock continues to tick...

2008-02-25T00:22:00.028+08:00

While it won't be long now before our ATPL tests arrive, I found that the chance of updating the blog is becoming rarer as well. Study schedules are becoming more and more hectic, of course with some room for relaxation as usual :P College 'trial' test is coming up in about a month or so. So much revision to be done. Doh! Anyway, the past few weeks has been quite happening and that's exactly reason why i made my decision now to update the blog on 12.30midnight :P

Firstly i have been lucky to be the few last persons to have left the college after working hour to be able to witness a bunch of awesome people came with some very unique cars you do not normally find on the road. Best of all, they brought 2 hot models along with them for some car magazines photo shooting. Unfortunately, i could not get a frontal shot of those hot chicks because they were so busy with their mascaras that i chose to start snapping photos of those cars instead. Note that i'm not an automobile fanatic and therefore i do not know much about them others than to appreciate their beauty and knowing their name. Ok, let's show off the photos!

My fav! Peugeot 207 GTI

Renault Megane R26

and...Volvo C30!

Right they day after, guess what?? We went for the celebration of Ben's newborn baby's Nathanael (is that how it's spelled?)1 month anniversary! Yay! I still think he should name him Bennie Jr. though, i think it's cuter wahahhaa! Anyway, congrats and thanks for the food, too bad i was not able to snap a photo of the cutey because i was afraid that the camera flash trigger might just give Bennie Jr. a shock of his life. Anyway, i still got some all other non-baby related photos coming up!

On the opponent corner, introducinnggg....

Mafia boss and Terminator model T-2000 (hired from year 2073)...

The Mafia's underlings......

....and the Paparazzi!!!

All set to invade Ben's house! Bwahahaa!

From the victim's corner...!!

Left : Dad in class! Right : Meet the parents!

Left:Where are you looking my dear? Right:Lovely view from windows

Left: What the hell am i doing? Right: Why is this picture even here in the first place?

Our official 'gay' couples!!!

'Main agenda' of the day! Yummmm...

Left : Looking so sneaky eh? Right : Yea, that's the way!

And just last Thursday, we were blessed with the opportunity to visit the Singapore's Air Show held at the Changi's brand new exhibition centre for the very first time in the country. I must say that i have not seen so many REAL aircrafts in a single day in my entire life. With the new Airbus A380 being the most prominent of all, I felt myself being so tiny by just standing next to it. There were just too many of other to name, civilian, commercial and military aircrafts alike so i think i would just let the photos do the talking :D.

Departing from Seletar

For the actual air footage of the aircrafts demo, however, was...er... actually i kinda took quite a lot of videos but it turned out that the the aircrafts remained outside of the view most of the time because it was so bright outside and i couldn't see crap of where i am shooting with my camera. The show itself was nothing short of spectacular though, it was a shame i was not able to put my recording to use :( and worst of all, i had a very very bad sun burnt after watching the entire air show under the scorching sun for almost 2 hours. Oh, and i was wearing sunglasses as well. Guess what happened? Scroll down for the answer .....

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A RACOON!! WAHAHAHAH!

Lesson learnt :
1. Never look down on sun radiation. You should either apply sunblock or..
2. Not applying anything but don't bother to wear any sunglasses at all.

Alright, i guess that's all for now folks...my OBS Day 9 will be postponed to next post as this update was already quite huge by itself. You may now laugh to your heart content! Until next time then! *The clock continues to tick*