Status Update

18th October 2008, this is a special day. It's a day that I declare to public, I'm changing me marital status from single to married! This day, I have a strange feeling that, what am I thinking about? There are something circulate around my brain, or it is just a blank, and yet I think of nothing to write in here.

Me, and my love one, have decided our engagement on this date. There are a lot of things to be done in near future, like we have to shop for wedding dress, a special date for the ceremony, what to prepare for our friends and a lot more to do... All I want to do is to make it simple, no dinner will be hosted, maybe just a small party.

Think about it again,what is my future going to be? This is going to affect the rest of my life. I am getting ready to be more matured and be more organized, in order to do my best for our future. Work hard, financial planning, family plan and etc... A lot a lot of things keep circulating...

Ready To Move On

13rd October 2008, everyone is working as usual, nothing special on this date, but I am on leave, not working, why??? I am going out with my love one, to shop for clothes and dresses, check out the engagement rings and etc... To get ready for our engagement.

I can't imagine that I spend more than RM3100 in a day, and I've never done this for 7 years, haha... Well well... So long as she is happy with it, and it means for us, that would be okay with me. Moreover I am ready to accept this day will come by and I have the budget and plan for it.

Mt.Kinabalu Day 2

This was a very interesting day, it's the day we hiked Mt.Kinabalu. We were informed by Abdul that we will be picked up at 7:30am, travel to M.Kinabalu site office for 2 hours, to submit our registration and payments. We had 2 tour guides too. I woke up at 6:30am, to get ready my stuffs. When I opened my eyes, I was surprised that why was the sky so bright? Did I wake up late??? And I quickly looked at my watch, it shown 6:30am, I couldn't believe that and ran to the living hall to check the time again, and Yes! It was!!! Surprise to see the sun raised at 6:30am! Wao....

After washed up, I had few pieces of bread and coffee. And then I went to 7-eleven to buy some chocolate bars, top up my mobile phones' prepaid credit, and got back to my lodge, made sure everything was ready in my bag, and waited for the van to pick us up.

Here we go...

Everyone was ready...

Along the way to Mt.Kinabalu site office, there was nothing much special, maybe we were still yet fully woke up from sleep, because we all used to sleep late during weekend specially on Sunday, everyone was quiet sitting in the car, we went through some small villages, both side with trees. When we were reaching, we saw this not far away from us... It's the Mt.Kinabalu!

Mt. Kinabalu

Main entrance, RM3.00 per head. Included in the package.

Registration office.

Our bags, sticks, pack-lunch for each person that was ready at here.

Map and milestones.

We got our admission card and ready to go!

Selamat Mendaki! Happy Hiking!

Records.

We were hiking via Timpohon Gate.

This looked good, way down only...

After this area, the journey was getting tough.

Way up...

Rest area.

Description board.

Our lunch, egg, bread with cheese, fried chicken small piece, water, soft drink and etc.

Way up with rocks.

Squirrel was waiting for foods.

Kuan and Lyne.

Mist attacked!

Toilet

You see!?

I took 5 minutes nap at here.

Sign-board for direction.

Pity our guide, he was helping us to carry the bag, but of cause it's not free, Rm7.00 per kilogram.

After 5 kilometers.

Still way up, if your leg could handle this after 4 hours hiking?

Nice view... Reaching at hut soon. Mist and water on Mt.Kinabalu.

Next day we would climb on it, without trees/plants but a rope.

First hut we met.

Look at the ground level! So far away!!!

It's just so grand! The power of nature!

Yeah! I did it on time!

Restaurant for dinner. 11.3'c. Foods were served from 5:00pm to 7:00 pm. Better caught up here before 5:00pm.

Oh no... I was so hungry to look at the foods!

All would settle dinner at here, and we could see that, no many people as fast as we did, as we started at 11am! Usually people started at 9:00am, took about average 5 hours to reach at here. Haha...

Waterfalls every where.

After dinner, we checked in our room at Laban Rata. Room No.7.

Double deckers in the room. It's quite cold.

After we checked-in at here, I did a quick clean up, and went to bed at 6:45pm. I was having headache as well, I tried to catch up some sleeps, tried to sleep early because we got to wake up at 2:00am. Weather was not good too, it was raining. Guides told us that, we got to have good luck else we would not be able to climb to the peak if the rain didn't stop. It's very dangerous to hike in rain, as water fell everywhere, slippery on the surface. What could I say then? I laid on bed, think of my dearest who was working in Kuala Lumpur, wished that she was doing well, sent her an sms and then slept, wished for good luck.

Mt.Kinabalu Day 1

6th September 2008, I was on a taxi to LCCT, checking-in at AirAsia terminal, taking-off for Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Here I came, Mt.Kinabalu.

Early morning at 6:45am, there were a lot of people getting on board.

Sabah gate welcome me "Selamat Datang" :)

Due to my works before I went for vacation, I didn't plan my trip at all, all I did was just calling a taxi, sent me to LCCT for Kota Kinabalu, that's all. When I touched down in Kota Kinabalu, I was with my friends, I didn't know what I could I do, but first of all, I got back to the agent, AbdulKhan Yusof, to settle the payment, checked out the arrangement and our lodge to stay, to get ready for the hiking on next day.

After that, we were hungry and time to hunt for lunch. One of our member, Kuan, was telling us, there was a nice curry noodle nearby and therefore we walked to the shop.

Yee Fung, the restaurant.

Laksa, beef noodle, chicken rice, yum-yum...

Curry noodle that I tried... Slurp!

We had another half day to spend at there, what should we do? There were some nice islands to hang out with, we decided to go to Manukan Island. Harbour was not far away, we walked for another 10 to 15 minutes to reach at the harbour, caught up to the counter for some information and got into the speed-boat.

It's not a good idea to sit here for drinks under the hot sun.

Ships were parking to send visitors to islands.

Departing for Manukan Island.

Reached at Manukan Island, this water is so clear, I could see the fishes in the water, just as nice as Redang Island in Peninsular Malaysia.

People were getting out from the boat.

Walked to the beach.

Few restaurants were opening for business. Tables and seats were all around the places, to serve the best to visitors. No doubt they did a good job at here, to promote tourism.

Fun ride was offered here, with having this toy, visitors can ride this so called "Scuba-do" in the water, have fun with fishes while riding...

The beach was so peaceful, strong wind blown and felt good. I personally felt that, 1 thing not so nice about this island was the sand, it's not so fine as compare to Redang Island's one, but overall, It's glad to be here to rest my mind :)

x x x x x

I got this map from my agent, I found out that this place was just nice enough for us to walk around. There were a lot of shops, banks, restaurants and others convenient to us. Lodges were all over the place, Sunday market was not far away from he lodge I stayed and it's an ideal location. When I walked along the street, the people at there were nice, good manners and patient, their life was much more relaxing as compare to Kuala Lumpur, they drive patiently, would not pressure the road users around them, put on the signal when they wanted to cross and etc..., all these just impressed me much.

My Car's Radiator

Days before 20th July 2008, my car was having a problem. When I was speeding on long journey, my car engine was getting hot than what it used to be. It shot up about 2 bars higher.

Engine heating is a serious problem to every car and it's always a panic job to work with, because you have to trace all the cooling system parts like hoses, thermostat, cooling fan and etc...

First attempt I was taking out the hoses to clean up, found out the wall of the inner hose was having rusty stain, and so I used hard brush to clean them up. There was another U-shape hose connected with intake manifold, inside this hose, there was a valve with a small hole, keeping/blocking the rusty dirt at a side, I didn't understand why there was a valve in the hose, maybe it was used to control the amount of water to circulate around that area, somehow I'd cleaned up everything and gave a try. The result was getting slightly better, just an extra bar higher than usual.

The result was not what I expected, and for second attempt, I decided to check on the thermostat, it looked good, but why it was heating up? And so I decided to change the radiator.

Before I took out the parts, I did a flush to the cooling system, since I was going to change the radiator. After flushing was done, I took out the parts I washed all of them again.

Upper hose was clean enough, just like new, keke.....


The front was having more space now.


This radiator could not be helped anymore... If I was going to restore it, it's going to waste my time and money.


New radiator.


Toyota long life coolant claimed to be good coolant for car, because it's anti-rust and protecting the radiator.

After everything was ready, I assembled everything back into the engine bay, filled up with the coolant and distilled water, and gave a test run again. It looked good again.

I drove my car on a express way and speed again, the problem had gone! Hahaa... Everything was working as usual. I felt happy to achieve this, because I did this with having a lot of reading about cooling system and DIY projects on net, as well as reading my Proton workshop manual.

I hoped this solution will last as longer as possible... :)

I Try To Wake Up Here

I have been hibernating for long long time, busy with my works, my hobbies and my leisure and etc... All these keep my brain working. When I have time, I'll try to rest, don't think about any thing else, just rest.

Today after lunch, I am thinking "What's next?", I prepare for what I have to do after lunch, nothing in my mind yet. So I think I better come back here to have a look, maybe let me backdate a bit...

I'm Just Speechless

I work for more than 8 hours per day, just to make things work, make sure the works are done accordingly, with error free and no mistake, no people complain about it, and submit them on time.

When I am involved in managerial functions, things work differently. There are a lot of interruptions, some people complain about team mates' jobs, same unfalse errors happen again and again, new team mates are not being instructed clearly, hardware failure and etc... All just come to me, and what can I do? I have to spend time to think, how should I address all these issues to the team mates if they are wrong. Some people may accept it, some people will never admit, some people may not bother.

I love coding, it's challenging, and it makes me happier than receiving complaints from different people. Recently I have no time to do coding, when I'm back to my piece of code, I think "How can I focus...???". So? I have to spend longer time, not at my work place, but at home, to continue with my coding.

I don't receive complaints from family members or girlfriend, but they may make mistakes again and again, they give up easily and never try again and again, they have nothing in priority in their mind, hardly see the principle and discipline. Family members are close to me, no doubt I would have higher hope on them, as compare to colleagues. Am I asking too much? Or Am I just too serious? Or I am angry? I have no idea, I am just disappointed, I'm speechless...