Visitation at the Villages

(Happened on Sat, 3o Dec) Off we go to the villages to make our presence felt. The malay colleagues in my company and Petronas contributed monies to buy 13 cows to be given to the respective villages near our project site here.

Saw some people loading their truck with a few goats. The goats will actually stay put and won't jump off the truck.

9 of them cramped into a Pajero. Incredible!

3 Toyota Landcruisers (with 5 passengers each) and 1 Mitsubishi Pajero (the incredible one).

All the men in the village came out to greet us.

Group photo in the first village.

You can't miss me and neither can the Sudanese people.....they will say to me...Chinese? Chinese? To the Sudanese, Chinese comes from China only.

I will be missing from lots of the pictures as I prefer taking the scenario as I wanted to let you feel what it's like. And for some group pictures, no point for me to stand among them as you won't find me there too.....too small.

The first village was expecting us and they came out in full force to welcome us.

More pictures to come................................

Tags: Journal, Life, Diary, Hari Raya Haji, Eid Mubarak, Travel, Village

Year 2006

Things that you didn't know in the past 12 months - BBC News
But it makes no difference in my life even though I didn't know about it ..... hehehe

Lots of people will do the countdown at the night clubs, street parties, clubbing areas, hotels, restaurants.....many will be at their church masses, worship services reflecting back on God's provision and blessings or needing guidance for the year to come or asked why certain events happened. And I'm at the desert .....hahaha

Someone had asked me this question 'What's your new year resolution?". I responded "To be a better person". But the reply was 'It's so vague!'

As for me, this better person is so encompassing. It covers every single aspect of my life. Need to improve on many things in my life. I don't think that I have a few matters to look into only. Plenty of them. Just waiting for this project to complete now. To me, wherever I am, I'll leave it to God to take care of it but not to the point that I don't care at all.

For the coming year, I still have many dreams that I want to achieve. What are your dreams like?

In the world, there were sadness, defeats, demoralisation, betrayals, lies, wars and so forth......but there were triumphs, victories, joy, gladness, hope, dreams too ......... in spite of all this many people still have their dreams intact. I know of a group of people whose dreams are neverending. Is your dream strong enough to carry you through? Write your dreams on a piece of paper and put an achivable date beside it. It works and better still write down 100 of it........you'll never know where God can bring you. Try it!

If you don't write it down, then it's just a flash in the pan....it comes and it goes. And a person without a dream won't be able to progress much in life....their life will stay stagnant or status quo. They will leave their daily life as it is and as the years before. Why change it when you are comfortable with your current life. That applies to your work too in whatever profession.

A good life is the enemy of a great life.

A man with a dream will not be denied.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!

Tags: Journal, Life, Diary, Dream

Where to Wash a Luxury Car

How much would you pay for a car wash? A company called Miracle Detail may be one of the most expensive car washes in the world. It costs £5,000 (US$9,198) for his Pinnacle car wash. It's the service Rod Stewart uses to polish up his Ferrari Enzo (left pic).

The 61-step process includes multiple washes, pampering with gentle towels and even the use of a depth gauge that lets the owner, Paul Dalton, measure the paint thickness so he can smooth out the scratches without messing up the finish. He waxes with a special kind of Zymöl wax that costs £7,000 a tube and Dalton keeps in a safe in his fridge. It is made with 73% carnauba wax from the Brazilian rainforest and just a few tablespoons work on the whole car. His website has a photo gallery full of the super glossy results.
Tags: Luxury, Lifestyle, Miracle Detail, Paul Dalton, Zymol Wax, Carnauba Wax, Car Wash

The Meaning of Hari Raya Aidiladha

Aidiladha is also commonly known as Hari Raya Korban or Hari Raya Haji in Malaysia.

Celebrated about two months after Hari Raya Aidilfitri, it marks the end of the haj pilgrimage period (about two weeks).

Aidiladha also commemorates the sacrifices made by the Prophet Ibrahim (hence the word 'korban,' which means sacrifice in Arabic), who demonstrated immense faith when he was put to the test by God. Prophet Ibrahim was commanded to offer his son Ismail up for sacrifice, and though it grieved him greatly, he made ready to perform the task. However, as he was about to strike his son, God stopped him and revealed that it was a trial. Ismail's life was spared, and a ram was sacrificed in his place. In similarity with the Bible, that was in reference to Abraham and his son Isaac found in the book of Genesis, Chapter 22.

As such, during Aidiladha, the sacrifice of four-legged animals such as lambs, goats, cows, bulls and camels is performed. The slaughter of the animal is done after the congregational prayer in the morning of Aidiladha and thereafter, it will be distributed.

One third of the meat is given to the individual who made the sacrifice, while the rest is given to the poor and deserving people in the community. Making the sacrifice (korban) is not a compulsory religious duty, but an obligations for those who are able to afford it. The rest of the day is celebrated by visiting relatives and friends. This is one of the cows' meat kept for our own consumption. They will be cooking rendang daging for Saturday's breakfast, a type of curry flavoured beef meat (dry style).My muslim colleagues from Malaysia and the Petronas staff based at the project site made a contribution to buy 13 cows and will be distributed to a few villages. Each village will await for our arrival before slaugthering the cow. The festival began on Saturday in this region plus the Middle East area. As for Malaysia, it falls on Sunday. On Friday night, Malaysians from my company celebrated together with the Petronas staff by having a BBQ night. They BBQ some of the beef and lamb meat for the night.

To be continued .......

Tags: Festival, Hari Raya Aidiladha, Eid Mubarak, Haj Pilgrimage, Journal, Life, Diary, Sacrifice

Borat / Red Eye - movie review

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan - starring Sacha Baron Cohen, Kenneth Davitian, Luenell, Pamela Anderson & Pat Haggerty. It's about this Kazakhstan famous TV presentor who is about to venture to USA to film a documentary about life in USA. A great big send off was given in his honour. His programme was to interview people in the New York City but while staying in his hotel room, he noticed a fabulous lady in bikini suit and he fell in love with her immediately. That TV series was Baywatch and it was Pamela Anderson that he loved.

He changed his programme to embark on a trip across USA from east to west (Los Angeles) to search for his loved one. The movie depicted his experience and life as he communicated and travelled along the main route to the west. Lots of sick jokes but some of the jokes were too much and it's meant to demean certain type of people on this earth. It's just a move but some people are very sensitive.

It's a real comedy, good laugh and in the end, he found out that his the lady of his life was not a pure lady after all. As pornography materials were easily found, he saw a sex scene with her in it. From then on, he lost his motivation. He lost a lot of money in his quest to look for Pamela Anderson. Eventually, he still wanted to meet her and found her having a autograph session for the release of a book. He frightened Pamela out of her life by chasing after her throughout the big supermarket. Borat did managed to catch a plane back according to his original schedule and found that life in his hometown back in Kazakhstan is still the best place with all his close friends.
This movie is banned in Malaysia, I supposed.

Red Eye - starring Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy & Brian Cox. Meeting up with people in the airport, with common interest and same flight schedule will generate lots of chit chats due to curiosity on each other's travel. As Rachel was boarding an airplane back to her workplace/place of stay, she met with this guy who so happened to be sitting besides her in the airplane. She later found that the man was following her and warned not to raise the alarm as her dad's life is in danger if she disobey his advise. She was instructed to change the room made available for the Deputy Secretary for the Homeland Secuirty to a higher floor penthouse.

This person is to be a target of a group of killers who were out fishing nearby. Only way for her to commute to the hotel to change the room is via the on-flight phone system. She tried to delay the call by faking it & hoping to pass info on the toilet's mirror but to no avail. It was a real tense situation in the movie. Upon landing the plane, she made a quick exit by stabbing her flight torturer with a pen on his throat area. She ran out to the airport lounge area and managed to steal a car and drove as quick as possible back to her house. Along the way, she made frantic call to her assistant to get the occupants out of the penthouse. Meantime, after noticing that the penthouse was occupied by security personnels in the penthouse, a guided missile was launched from the fishing boat straight to the seaside hotel blasting the whole penthouse away. All were safe in the nick of time.

Upon arriving her home, she noticed that a BMW outside her house was not occupied. She noticed a man about to intrude her house and she rammed her against that poor guy against her front door. Killed on the spot and her flight torturer made his way to her house in time too. Playing hide & seek and merry-go-round all the time for quite some time. This is the part where is everyone was quiet and worried for her too...............ending??? It's a good movie....watch it!
Tags: Movie, Review, Cinema, Borat, Red Eye, Sacha Baron Cohen, Pamela Anderson, Rachel McAdams, Comedy, Thriller

Oil Plant Visit

This is where our temporary offices and temporary accommodation are located. All these temporary facilities will be removed upon completion of the oil plant which is in the background. This is one of the most important piece in the oil processing plant, it's the Fire Water Tank where its pipings are in red colour.

This was taken below pipe rack where it holds a number of oil pipes. At the end of the pipe rack is the connected to the export pipeline to be pumped up to Port Sudan for export purposes.

This is an emergency shower/washing area in case of any exposure to chemicals or oil during course of work. Not supposed to have such situation but it's built to attend to emergencies only.
The white coloured cabins at the far end is where my office/accomodation are located (refer to the 1st pic)

Part of the oil processing plant

The crude oil tanks

At the far end (blur vision) are the main operating base camp (blue colour) where eventually the owner of the plant will house their accommodation, offices, recreation, mosque & restaurant etc

This is our lunch taken at the restaurant located at the operation base camp

This is not an explosion of the plant but was trying to take a night view of the plant. As the road was very bumpy, this was the end result.....hehehe

Tags: Oil Processing Plant, Journal, Life, Diary

High Tea

High Tea - no, it's not the afternoon high tea that has a buffet range of food being served in hotels. It's more of those Chinese Tea which is of high quality.
Tea makers in China has a plan to promote its range of chinese teas in China and overseas where they are marketing a luxury niche brand, Lun Dao.
Lun Dao’s prices, has a price range from 10,000 to 20,000 yuan (US$1,282 to US$2,564) for 500 grammes of premium tea. This is a very high price to pay but what made it so special. The tea makes said that the price reflected its high quality and the cultural tradition that came with it. This Lun Dao tea is being marketed by Sichuan Emei Mountain Zhuyeqing Tea Co Ltd.

The tea leaves are being cultivated at a pure and fertile ecological tea garden on Emei Mountain in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province, where the best soil is located. The company claims that each 500-gramme package of Lun Dao tea is handpicked from 5 million fresh tea sprouts grown in highland tea gardens. On average, the output is only about two tonnes annually. The scarcity of the produce made the tea leaves more sought after. Another business ploy?

Tags: Lun Dao, Emei Mountain, Tea Leaves, Chinese Tea, Tea Maker, Luxury, Niche, Sichuan Province