Swordie Bloggie

August was the busiest month… not busy of work but family affairs and personal stuff. I’ve taken 5 days leave in August alone… that is way too much than usual…

During the month of August, there were two family wedding receptions… first was my brother’s on the 8th and then my cousin’s on the 29th.

For my brother’s wedding reception, I guess there was no choice but to be fully involved… 😛 all the way up to the stage.

And lucky it was only reception since they have married in church last year outside the country…

As for my cousin’s, involved for the hall preparations… you know… carry chairs… carry tables… more on physical kind of work… and during the reception which started at 6pm, I turn myself as a bar tender… a bar tender who doesn’t know how to take liqour 😛

Well it was fun handling the alcohol when you yourself don’t like to drink it… Me, brothers and cousins was handling the hard liquor and drinking water… and other brothers and cousins handle the beer… handling the beer is much more easier than handling the hard liquor and the drinking water… the request for the drinking water was non-stop… way before the reception started because we need to provide drinking water to everyone especially to those fasting for their breaking fast at around 6.30pm.

Then there are also futsal games… which I have not played… either I watch only or never go at all… friends must be mad at me… 😛 they have started using their new futsal shoe… but mine, it still wrapped in plastic and kept inside the refrigerator… 😆 Then there are birthday parties… 😛

 
Updating facebook… 😀

Wokay… now, it’s time to recover… there are many works to be done… in the office and home… but because I took so many leave… I feel like not going back to work… I just feel lazy… I just don’t feel like working… I don’t like waking up early in the morning… I wish I strike the jackpot and don’t have to go to work any more… just travel around the world… eat… and sleep… 😛

The futsal match last week will not be the last one… there will be more match to come.

And this time I might not only taking photos… but will be in the photo kicking ball 😀

They need more players since it is a fast game, they change players many times… no one can stay inside the field the whole 60 minutes.

It a very tiring and exhausting game…

So yesterday evening after we had our dinner at Usagi, Karamunsing… before we proceeded to our MCSE class, we stop by at the BATA shoe shop. We was here last Monday surveying shoe for futsal… and they do have three models for futsal.

I bought a pair of black Power futsal shoe for RM60.00… it is not made of leather like the Dansko shoes… that is why it is cheap… but the shoe do look like made of leather but it is not… it is made of PU and it’s light. They said it is better to have it light so that I can run faster… 😛 But I don’t think I’m going to run much… well, hopefully I can use the shoe and sweat with it 😀 I have not do any heavy exercise for quite sometime… my last golfing was more than six months ago… my golf shoe is getting rotten already… 😛

Eating too much oily food usually causes acne. But I feel that eating a lot of seafood don’t cause the skin oily… especially the face 😛

Lately, I’ve been eating a lot of seafood… especially fish and it seem seafood is good for the health… but of course some said too much seafood especially the prawns causes gout or high blood…

Well, taking seafood is much better than meaty type of food… but the best will be taking vegetables only 😀 because vegetables usually don’t have oil… but of course unless it is cooked with loads of oil… with less oil, oily skin problem can be avoided and there will be no need for any acne treatments… unless you take lots of fried peanuts… yes, fried causes acne.. it happen to me every time I take fried peanuts… 😛

On our journey back from Sandakan last Friday, we stop at Kinabalu National Park, Kundasang, at the foot of Mount Kinabalu… the highest mountain in South East Asia.

Late last year, we also stop here for lunch… from Sandakan too 😀

A lot of complains has been posted on the net about the high price someone need to pay to climb the mountain.

To climb the mountain, each climber need to fork out about USD$200… for one night stay at the foot of the mountain on the first day, one night stay at the middle of the mountain on the second night and another night at the foot of the mountain on the third day.

Those from other countries might not feel the pinch… but for the local, that is too much. But mind you, most climbers are sportsman or adventurers… they are not businessman… so the USD$200 also quite heavy to them… and they still have to pay for the other nights stay here… and their travel expenses too. That is why there are so many outcries on the net by the climbers about the hefty climbing fees.

Anyway, that is one story… here is another story… the price of the foods at the cafe at the foot of the mountain. Each person need to fork out RM50.00 nett for the buffet food. If I remember correctly, late last year it was about RM48.00 nett… emm… if the price keep on increasing… soon it will hit RM100 😛

According to some details I heard before… the operator is targeting international customers… and they emphasize on high quality and standard… 😛

But come on… there are locals too who wants to enjoy our very own mountain… don’t tell me they going to do international background check to every one every time some one step their foot here… so that they can charge higher rate to the international visitors or climbers…

But I don’t think so… I don’t see any rate different between the local and international… and the food is jus so so… nothing special… options for the buffet are not much too… and I see most of the climbers don’t eat much coz they are athletes…

But me and colleagues of course whack the food as much as we can… but still it’s not worth RM50 I guess…

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My journey to Sandakan last Wednesday was wonderful except for one… I purposely… yes purposely leave behind my camcorder’s charger.

Well, I fully charge the camcorder the night before and I was thinking… why do I need to bring along the camcorder charger?… I’m not going to take videos… I just want to take photos…

So I went to Sandakan without my camcorder’s charger…

Along the journey, as usual I just snap photos while on the move… but there are times I feel like taking video… but I just let it pass… 🙁 But at the end, I pass the video camcorder to my colleague sitting at the back seat to take video but I warn him to be ‘stingy’ on the battery…

On the next day, while doing the network troubleshooting, I tried to capture some of our works… to have prove how ‘slow’ the network is, but… but… the battery is like already half… damm… at the end, I can’t document our whole work in video… only some important part… that one also not all captured… so at the end, the videos have no ‘story’… 😛

So the lesson… if carrying battery operated devices like… digital cameras, camcorders, hand phones, etc… don’t leave behind the chargers… no matter what… you never know how much you gonna need it latter…

For the past two weeks, our office was trying to clean up and rearranging the office. There were zillions of old stuff and junks… one might wonder how it came into this situation…

Well, when you are dealing with maintenance… especially IT maintenance… sometimes it is very hard just to throw away junks… the junks might not be usable anymore, but there are important parts inside it which can be used as spare parts.

And spare parts… especially for old junks are very hard to find… u  might not even able to buy it… coz it might no longer in the market… or no longer in production… obsolete… extinct… dinosaur…

So here we are, trying to use the 5S system… you know the Japanese’s 5S… Seiri, Seiso, Seiketsu & Shitsuke… translate that into English… well some say it is… Sort, Set, Shine, Standardize & Sustain… or… Sort, Systematize, Shining, Standardize & Self-Discipline.

I manage to run away from doing the ‘gotong-royong’ last week, starting from Wednesday because I went outstation to Sandakan until Friday 😆

But looking at the whole situation… I think we do not have enough office furniture like cabinets or drawers to keep all this old stuffs and junks… that’s why we end up just piling it up into the store room until there is no more space… it was not arrange properly, so they occupied more space.

Well, hopefully we can sustain or self-discipline our self doing this 5S thingy… 😀

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Last night, 22 August 2009, I went for futsal match at Suria Indoor Soccer Centre located at Jeselton Point, Kota Kinabalu. It was  a match between the Weekdays and Weekend MCSE class… I did not play but just take photos… 😀

Check out the Futsal 1 Album 😀

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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…

It’s not that hard to deal with Air Asia… manage to change my brother’s air travel without hassle.

I went to Kota Kinabalu International Airport’s Terminal 2 around 11.00am yesterday. I called a friend to find out if he has any contact in AirAsia… he said got, so we met at the airport.

But once we were there, found out all his contacts are either not working or not on morning shift… 😛

Anyway, I approached the sales counter… there were two counters… still entertaining a customer each.

Then it was my turn, but since I don’t have my brother’s details… and his wife… I have to call their hotel in Indonesia to get the details… and at the end after like 20 minutes… I created a long queue… 😆

I cancelled their Wednesday flight and bought them a new flight for that day… because buying a new air fare is much cheaper then getting penalty for changing flight 😛

They fly out from Indonesia through Bandara International Minangkabau Airport at 2.50pm heading Kuala Lumpur International Airport… mission accomplished… 😀

Tomorrow I have a rescue mission… My sister just received my brother’s SMS from Indonesia… I have to help to reschedule my brother’s flight, Air Asia flight, from Padang Indonesia to Kuala Lumpur. They supposed to fly back to KL on Wednesday but there was an underwater earthquake in Indonesia.

The underwater earthquake hit at 2:38 p.m. (0738 GMT) Sunday, 16 August 2009, and had a preliminary magnitude of 7.0. It was centered about 65 miles (110 kilometers) west-southwest of Padang on Sumatra Island at a depth of 32 miles (51 kilometers).

The good news is there are no immediate reports of injuries or damage and there was no tsunami warning issued.

The problem is they can’t change their flight in Padang since there is no Air Asia office there. And tomorrow, it seems to be public holiday for Indonesia… their independent day or something like that…

He went to Padang with his wife for vacation since Friday. Why must people choose Indonesia for vacations?… Can’t they choose other vacations like Vegas vacations instead?

I hope I can change their flight tomorrow without hassle… I will have to go to Kota Kinabalu International Airport’s Terminal Two at Tanjung Aru early morning to do the reschedule…