Tunnel Not So Smart After All

Upon reading the news article "Smart Tunnel closed indefinitely", it was shocking to me. One being that I'm a regular user which would cut down my time spent in traffic jam, to and from office.

Secondly, it would cause major traffic jam again during peak hours at Jalan Sungai Besi, Jalan Chan Sow Lin, Jalan Tun Razak and the domino effect it would have on other roads leading to it.

I found that the Smart Tunnel operator should disclose the real issue behind the closure as the reason stated (which was - used to divert floodwaters to prevent flooding in the city centre) in the news article cannot be accepted at all.

The Smart Tunnel was built with three levels with the lowest level being used to divert excessive rain water to a retention pond near my residential area before being released to a nearby Kerayong river.

Unless the lowest level couldn't accommodate the excessive rain water, the upper two levels would be used for rain water diversion too.

I doubt at my highest level that both the traffic levels would be used for the diversion exercise as any flooding of those two levels would cause extensive damage to all fixtures and fittings, electrical wirings, cameras and signboards, etc.

Even if it was true, why closed indefinitely? Closed during heavy downpour or few hours after that would be well understood but still closed even 12 hours after the heavy downpour?

Or was the real reason being that the Smart Tunnel operator dare not guarantee the road users' safety if the lowest level was used for rain water diversion while heavy traffic were still on-going at the above two levels???????

Related posts:-
* Malaysia's SMART Tunnel
* Rain Water's Not Free in Malaysia
Tags: Smart Tunnel, Rain Water, Traffic Jam, Heavy Downpour

Medical Leave Due to Thigh Injury

My left thigh injury has acute pain since yesterday night which could be due to the excessive movements during the Easter weekend.

No choice but to see doctor this morning. As the clinic was located at the shoplots area where available car park was a rare case, I had to limp all the way to the clinic.

On the way, bumped into my car mechanic and a restaurant owner where I have to explained my situation as they saw me limping.

Was prescribed two types of tablets mainly for pain relief. Doctor also identified which of my leg's muscle which was in real stress - the Sartorius muscle. This muscle is one of the longest muscle in our anatomy which stretches from the hip bone till the knee. Need to have proper rest for it this time.

Thereafter, walked over to Restaurant Jalal Yusof for my brunch and ate two roti telur with a glass of teh tarik. If the government still insist that inflation is under control, that meal of mine cost RM4.40.

Late in the afternoon, I remembered that the Streamyx Combo promotion would end by end of the month, a few days left. Since I was at home might as well do it today as they are opened for business during the weekdays only.

Quickly hopped into my car and drove to the nearby TM Point Taman Desa shop to register for it. Don't care whether they would stare at a limping man but I would be saving a lot with such package. I signed up for the RM60 per month package which has unlimited broadband access, free rental for fixed phone line and a ADSL modem router.

This package would see me having a 384kbps / 128 kbps internet speed. If not mistaken, South Korea and USA are having an internet speed of 1GBps and mine would be a joke for them.

While waiting for the lady to submit my application online, I could hear the thunderstorm and see those trees being blown from all directions. My my ....... the system faltered when I was there. The lady told me to come back again tomorrow morning. I told her that I was just an employee like her and we just can't take leave as we want. Reluntantly have to call her supervisor to get the application submitted. Waited for more than 35 minutes to get my broadband service. Can you imagine that?

Took this picture when I got back to my condo and you could see the dark clouds forming. BTW, there was no rainbow in between the two towers at the bottom right as it was my phone camera's flash.
Tags: Medical Leave, Thigh Injury, Sartorius Muscle, Restaurant Jalal Yusof, Roti Telur, Teh Tarik, Streamyx Combo, TM Point, Unlimited Broadband, Internet Speed, ADSL Modem Router, Thunderstorm

Easter Day Celebration

This was after we had set the necessary music equipments up right early on Sunday morning at the International Youth Centre hall.

Quick rehearsals were required for certain performances to ensure familiarity with the new hall / stage area.

The Easter celebration began with the Chinese Church's presentation which was superb when they rendered their songs.

The morning service continued with Pastor Ben Ranis and Pastor Esther Lee leading the congregation into worship.
Part of the crowd that were worshipping during the worship time. An estimated crowd of 500 attended the Easter service.
The youth team presented their drama with a good moral behind it. The old lady in the drama had to pretend that she has died in order to get her three sons to come back to visit her. The three sons were so frightened with the "resurrected" mother who told them that it was the only way for her to see her three sons.

Have you been visiting your folks lately? What the old folks need is your time and not your Astro or materials stuff that you could provide.

The Easter service went on with another dance performance that has children as young as 5 years old.
Our Nigerian sisters came in with their dance movements. Always admired the way they shake their bodies, really natural. Even our Malaysian ladies were in awe of it.

These were the people that came up for prayers
seeking God to heal their sicknesses.

Our Nigerian brothers and sisters had their own presentation belting out three songs (or was it two? sorry guys).
The finale song entitled "Song of Ezekiel" was the last performance of the Easter service.
Was supposed to be one of the flag bearers but due to my thigh injury, unable to perform the dance this round.

Tags: Easter Day, Easter Service, International Youth Centre, Chinese Church, God

Coated Snacks in Johor Baru

Singaporeans and Johoreans had been warned to be extra careful of what you put into your mouth. Crispy snacks like the pisang goreng or fried banana and keledek or fried sweet potato (local snacks which I liked too) were said to have been made more crispy not through the proper cooking method. How have they done it? Rumoured that plastic straws or bottles were thrown into the boiling oil before frying those snacks. The Consumers Association of Penang would be launching an investigation into such claims. How true is it?

Reading: Scare over 'coated' snacks - New Straits Times

Tags: Coated Snacks, Goreng Pisang, Keledek, Crispy Snacks, Consumers Association of Penang, Plastic Straw, Plastic Bottle

It’s A Tag...

Received this tag from Yipguseng and this was something similar to Viral Tags.
~~Begin Copy~~
This is the easy way and the fastest way to:-
1. Make your Authority Technorati explode.
2. Increase your Google Page Rank.
3. Get more traffic to your blog.
4. Makes more new friends.

Rules:-
1. Start copy from “Begin Copy” until “End Copy” to your blog.
2. Put your own blog name and link.
3. Tag your friends as much as you can.

1. Picturing of Life
2. Juliana’s Site
3. Hazel-My Life, My Hope, My Future
4. Jeanne-The Callalily Space
5. Shower Your Children With Love - The Right Way
6. Life’s a journey, not a destination
7. Simple Life
8. Life is beautiful; Life is love
9. This is a miracle…
10. Project Heavy Traffic
11. UTOPIA
12. Boonage
13. Life's Happenings
~~End Copy~~

Now the passing part…i will tag this to the few people i met during the Pajama Party!
1. Curryegg
2. Skyler
3. Liyin
4. Yvonne Lee
5. Akira
6. Ione
Tags: Viral Tags, Tag, Blog Rank, Technorati, Matrix, SERP, Google Page Rank, Blog Traffic

Weekend Life in Kuala Lumpur

This morning, Poslaju, a national courier company, delivered this Apacer USB flash drive to my home courtesy of Citibank Malaysia under a credit card promotion. Thanks!

Went for a late breakfast and needs to be in church to move the music equipments over to the International Youth Centre hall located at Bandar Tun Razak for my church's Easter service tomorrow morning.

Was supposed to be at church by 3pm but the heavy thunderstorm was too much. Went in my friend's car and traffic was overwhelming at the Middle Ring Road with flash floods happening on both sides of the road.

Loaded the keyboards, mic stands, percussion set, wirings only into 1 van.

Forgotten about taking photos.

After setting up the necessary equipments, it was about 5pm and the weather was still bad. I'm sure there would be some places that would be flooded by now. Went back to church to see other teams having their last practises for tomorrow's service. Two groups of dance teams and the youth team (drama) were there.

Few of us came to my housing area and dropped by at Tasty Recipe restaurant and ordered our dinner. I ordered a Curry Fish Fillet and finished it off with two places of white rice. Everybody seems to be full until someone mentioned "Why not we go for durian?"

Well, my stomach has some remaining spaces left just for the durian. We hopped over to the durian stall just over my condo's perimeter brickwall.
Our lady friend from Hong Kong just wanted to show this big durian to her friends back in Hong Kong.










The stall owner was opening the durian for us and we just dug in finishing off five durians, right after a heavy dinner. How not to grow fat?














Out of five durians, only two were nice with the other three not up to our standards.

Until today, I still wonder why westerners couldn't cope with the durian smell. Westerners considered the smell as real pong.

In Malaysia, the durian is not allowed to be brought into hotels or airports due to westerners' smell sensitivity......hehe. It's true!

Cost - a friend treated us to it. Should have eaten more if we knew it.




The nice yellow juicy durian.
Tags: Kuala Lumpur, Poslaju, Apacer, USB Flash Drive, Citibank Malaysia, International Youth Centre, Easter Service, Bandar Tun Razak, Middle Ring Road, Tasty Recipe, Durian

Good Friday

Love this man

No one falls in love by choice, it is by CHANCE.

No one stays in love by chance, it is by WORK.

And no one falls out of love by chance, it is by CHOICE. He did something for you, now do something for him. Spread his word. Matthew 10:32 'Whoever acknowledges Me before men, I will acknowledge him before My Father in heaven. But whoever disowns Me before men, I will disown him before My Father in heaven.
Tags: Good Friday, Jesus, Father in Heaven, Christianity