Swordie Bloggie

I’m crossing my fingers right now… I really hope my Nike Utility Duffel Bag will reach me before 14 October 2011… I need it for my cloths and stuffs for photomarathon… and for my gym after that…

About Nike Utility Duffel Bag (Black)

Cool bag designed to be carried with the handles/shoulder strap as duffle, with the straps as a backpack or single strap as a cross-body bag.

Large main compartment with zippered hang pocket.

This duffle has a large end pocket that’s ideal for wet/dry storage.

Also has a small end pocket and zippered front pocket.

Water-resistant Tarpaulin bottom. Tough 600 denier polyester.

Size: 25″ x 13″ x 11″

After the exciting 6 hours journey on 24th August at Kalabakan road, we decided not to return with that road to Kota Kinabalu… furthermore the weather was cloudy and raining. We returned on 26th August through the common old road which is much longer… I think about 600KM or so and more hilly paths where it will pass Mount Kinabalu.

We reach Tawau around 4pm on 24th, and booked into Heritage Hotel. And this is the first time I have to change room. Before we went out around 6pm for dinner and ‘work’, I checked the windows to make sure it is locked, and it was not… and I can’t lock it. The latch is locked but not hooked… I decided to report it later when I come back coz need to rush for dinner… ‘buka puasa’ actually since my two colleagues are fasting for the Ramadan. But we were only back to the hotel around 10pm something… coz after dinner we actually went to install and configure the server and troubleshoot the network that night at our branch office so that we will not be rushing the next day… after all we are still excited with the journey I guess… and it is ‘puasa’ month, easier to work at night.

I called the room service and reported the window problem, and they sent two maintenance guys. They tried and said, they can’t unlock it coz they don’t have the key and the person in charge of the key has gone home for the day. The other guy assure me nothing will happen… it’s safe he said. I scolded him… I asked him what happen if someone kill me tonight?… the other guy was more professional and said, they will find a solution, they need to talk to the manager or something and they left. A few minutes later, the reception called and inform they can’t unlock the window, and the only way is for me to change room… So change room from 312 to 212 . . . Continue Reading »

On 24th August 2011, I went to Tawau for official duties… for the second time this year. The last one was on 10th May. As usual, we travelled by land… with our office four wheel drive the Toyota Fortuner 2.5D.

Although I can use airplane to Tawau, I prefer to travel by land coz I can enjoy the scenery along the 400km journey. Furthermore time is on our side if we use our own vehicle… we don’t have to rush… we can drive slow or fast… We can stop anywhere we like to relieve ourselves.

Not like travelling by air, have to be on time to catch the flight… I really hate it when the schedule is tight… that’s why I usually take flight in the afternoon if I have to fly… coz I hate getting ready early in the morning. Travelling for official duty and non official like travelling for Las Vegas holidays are two completely different loads… yes loads… for official, the loads like the garments must be neat and well taken care… but for holiday, I can simply chunk my cloths into the luggage without worrying if they get crumple or not… . . . Continue Reading »

Went to Sandakan on Monday and back to KK on Wednesday. I was quite tired with the journey and furthermore I was in the paintball field the whole day on Saturday and Sunday. Journey from KK to Sandakan started around 9.00am by road… I prefer to travel by road coz it will give me opportunity to reflect life… err… you know to see what and how are life along the road… it was a long journey, about 300KM.

But I was very sleepy throughout the journey… I wish we were travelling with RV instead of the double-cabin Nissan Frontier… or could be much comfortable if we were using the Toyota Fortuner which unfortunately involved with an accident two weeks ago… not by us, but by some other department who borrowed it…

And our journey was a bit weird this time coz there are so many vehicles seems to be ‘makan jalan’… you know, they drive till over to the opposite lane… I hate it when people do that… there is one corner where all three of us inside was a bit frightened by a big bus which was speeding and overshoot its corner and entered into the opposite lane… our lane… lucky nothing happen… even with rv insurance I don’t think anyone want something bad to happen… was really happy to be back safe…

On Wednesday, I did not come back by road but by air… for the first time I use the MASWings.. MASWings is owned by MAS by the way. And this is the second time I use a plane with propeller… the fist time was somewhere in early 90s using Fokker plane. This time the plane is the newer kind of plane with propeller… the ATR 72-500. Lucky a friend in Sandakan advice me to take the back seat… I was wondering why… coz the door is at the back. When I checked in, I asked for back seat, and I was given seat 18C… and the plane only has 18 rows… cool…

Inside the plane, when the announcement asked us to pay attention to the screen infront for the safety demo and instruction, I was waiting for a screen… a single big screen to come down from the roof in front… but how wrong I was… I never imagine this plane is more advance than the Boeing 737 or Airbus 320… the screen actually LCD screens above the passengers on every two rows on both sides…

OK, have to stop here… next need to write about the just concluded SPL’s 1st Leg…

Started my journey around Sabah this morning. My colleague, Azemie, picked me around 8.40 am and proceeded to pick another colleague, Disney. We had our breakfast at Papar food court… which I called it Pasar Makan… the one in front of Papar Milemewa supermarket.

We reach Tawau just before 5.00 pm and went straight to the hotel. We saw a few more colleague at the hotel’s lobby. I booked my room last week… I got my non-smoking room… the receptionist use my credit card for verification… I asked how much?… she said RM600… emm… OK…

Took out our bags from the car and let the hotel staff to deliver the bags to our respective room. My room is  quite big… but unfortunately it has no mini-fridge. Then found out the bathroom door can’t completely close… the door knob somehow stuck… I slammed the door… and it closed… meaning I have to slam the bathroom door every time I need to close it for the next 3 or 5 days… depends… I might check-out on Wednesday…

We had our dinner at one of the seafood eating place… emmm… not sure what the place name… eaten there a few times already… it is near the library and next to the bus station…

Tomorrow, there are few numbers of  activities outlined by our branch here…. and on Tuesday too… OK, that’s all for now… need to rest…

For the past one week or so, I was like super busy and super tired… and it’s not over yet… work at office are piling with dateline… end of year chaos… everything must be completed… dateline on this date… dateline on that date… and at the same time systems, network, computers and printers are giving nerve wrecking pressure sometimes… probably they are overused at this time, that’s why somehow they also get over-burned…

With all the chaos, I still manage to join the Operation Nexus last Sunday… you can say it was the biggest woodsball game so far held here… 120 woodsballer divided into two teams… the good guys US Black Water and the terrorist Kurdistan Workers Party… but I’m not in any of the team… I was there to take photos… At the end of the day, I was completely exhausted and knockdown… coz on Saturday, I was also under the sun for our Ministry sports event.

But today, Friday, our office had an early Christmas lunch at Promenade Hotel… the food are OK… I was not really hungry… so did not really eat… there are 16 of us, but lucky we did get a good discount… no, we did not use home everything coupons or any Christmas vouchers or discount coupons… but because of one of our staff daughter is working there… so she gave us loads of discounts…

And this Sunday, I will be going east-coast for work… probably will be covering Tawau, Semporna, Lahad Datu, Sandakan, Ranau… another Journey Around Sabah trip for one week…

Starting tomorrow, I will going around the state in my Journey Around Sabah… to do official works. I will start with the northern route first… starting from Kota Kinabalu to Tuaran to Kota Belud to Kota Marudu to Pitas to Kudat and to Simpang Mangayau… errr… the last one is not an official site to visit… But will be taking an opportunity to visit the place… again…

It’s a lot of stations to visit in a short period… Tuesday to Thursday… so most probably I will not be visiting some of the stations… I will adjust my journey accordingly… accordingly at every station… it all depending on how long I will be at one station…

My journey this time is going to be a bit pack compared to my previous journey in 2008… coz during that year, I started my journey around September… but this time, it is at the end of October… and there are loads of work in the office right now waiting to be completed before the year end… The work load has show it sign… suddenly this morning I feel pain on my nose… you know, pain deep inside the nose skin… and a little reddish bulging… yeah… an acne products at work on my nose… This thing always appears every time after I eat roasted peanuts… I actually ate a packets of roasted peanuts provided by the Malaysia Airlines… yea, flew to KL two weeks ago… anyways, need to go sleep soon… need to be fit for my journey tomorrow, and to make sure no more ‘jerawat’ popping up…

Yesterday, went to gym to burn some fat then had a large amount of bak-kut-teh to recover back the burned fat Have not been to gym for many many years… man… the food is so nice after sweating out… had 3 plates of rice and two large bowl of bak-kut-teh

It is 7.30 am and I’m still packing for my trip to Tawau… working trip from today till Friday… have to go troubleshoot some network problem there…

Every time going outstation to the east coast side like Tawau or Sandakan, the first thing that will come across in everybody mind is seafood… yes load of sea foods… and they are damm cheap down there…

Yesterday, colleague over there called and promised to feed us with sea foods till we vomit… man… need to take appetite suppressant pills… ok, need to stop here… have to get ready for the trip…

Last Wednesday, 19 August 2009, I went to our branch office in Sandakan to fix their network. Their network has been acting weird since it was struck by lightning.

We, me and two colleagues, took the road instead of flying to Sandakan. I’m getting fade up flying because you have to stick to the flight schedule and you can’t carry many gears on board.

By driving, time is in your control and able to carry more gears… and of course mobility.

I was looking forward to the journey since my last journey was at the end of last year… by road too

I feel very fresh when we left Sandakan on that morning. The journey is about 400km and will take about 6 hours. Depending on traffic volume, the journey can be reduced to 4 hours.

There are many big lorries and buses travelling along the Kota Kinabalu – Sandakan road, so most of the time if there are convoys of lorries or buses, we have to tail along… especially when overtaking is hard and climbing hills.

During the journey, we did not stop anyway and we travel at moderate speed… we don’t want to rush… rushing is dangerous.

Since we did not stop anyway, we skipped our lunch and immediately checked into Kesington Hotel at Bandar Maju, Sandakan, around 4.00 PM.

We were so hungry… after unloading our gears into our rooms, we went out for food. We end up eating at Pizza Hut… lame… After our late lunch, we went back to our room and try to have a short rest before dinner.

I joined a few friends for dinner around 8.00 pm… seafood dinner. Here, the seafood is damm bloody cheap… you can eat prawn, fish, etc… as much as you can… you can have anything from the sea… you name it… they have it… and they are bloody cheap… like 50% cheaper than Kota Kinabalu!!!… and they are also damm bloody fresh… the taste of fresh seafood is heavenly… it just so good to chew… better than the Japanese food at Usagi in Karamunsing…

Anyway, came back yesterday and arrived home around 5.00 pm… usually I don’t feel tired when travelling… but I was so tired yesterday… I took a short nap before I went to the MCSE class around 6.30 PM…

Usually I will stay alert during my journey while snapping photos from inside the vehicle… in fact I sleep enough the night before… even took two packets of 3in1 Nescafe… I actually don’t take coffee… only tea… but I took it anyway, but still I feel so tired during the journey… Maybe I should have taken stronger coffee like Capresso… but every time I take coffee, my pee will smell like coffee after that that’s why I don’t like coffee.

The short nap I had before class was enough for me to attend the class and continue with movie… District 9… around 9.50 PM last night

Anyway, gonna get some more rest today… or do more other stuff…

When we reach Singapore on the 3rd March 2009, the rain has stopped. It was a 4 hours journey… because we have to transit at Kuching International Airport.

Our original flight was MH631 departing from Kota Kinabalu international Airport with ETD at 11.10 AM and ETA is 14.15 PM. Unfortunately the flight was cancel which I believe was caused by low passengers.

Our flight was changed to MH637 with ETD at 9.05 AM and ETA is 12.35 PM… damm… that’s terrible because I have to get ready early morning… luckily I manage to get to the airport on time coz I was almost stuck at the Lintas traffic jam chaos around 7 AM.

I stayed at the Hotel Grand Central in Orchard Road area. The hotel is not bad although there is no temperature controller for the air cond. The room gets a bit warm for a while sometimes so there is no need for heated blanket. Probably the room has a sensors or something to bring up or down the temperature automatically.

Eating is no problem coz there are plenty stalls and shops around the area to eat. Right below the hotel, there is a row of stalls which operate until 3 or 4 AM or probably longer. And next to the hotel is Concorde Hotel & Shopping Mall. There are other hotels next to our hotel.

Changi Airport emigration check.

Hotel internet service is through wired and no WiFi, but I did not bother coz I did not bring my notebook. I end up using my hand phone to surf the web. It was cool using Maxis coz it works with SingTel very well. But the ugly part, Maxis said, I can use the Maxis.Data roaming for SG$10.50 per Megabytes… shoot tats KILLING man!!! But luckily, with Maxis I can hook to any SingTel hotspots for free. My room can get a weak SingTel WiFi signal… but good enough to do surfing throughout my stay in Singapore

So hungry… my first meal at one of the stall below the hotel.

SingTel building view form hotel room.

The Concorde Hotel & Shopping Mall below the hotel.