Thursday, December 25, 2008

Christmas Community Lunch for 1,000

Exactly one year ago, we embarked on a five christmas dramas that zapped our strength away. One year later, our church, Praise City Church, decided to do something different.

Why not do something for the community? The last I heard from the organising people (didn't contribute this round as I was away in Sudan) was invitations should be sent out to old folks homes & orphanages and bring the people for our Christmas celebration.

We had been doing various stuff (that was also done with much stamina and zeal) for our own church members' eyes all these years and we ventured to try something not done before .............. a big challenge.

Out comes the idea of the Christmas Community Lunch. The target was to bring in 1,000 people for the function.

Praise God that we obtained approvals from the Royal Malaysian Police and City Hall Council as we would be having the event on the frontage road and the empty land facing our church.

Every church members did their best and everyone put in their efforts in getting various issues settled, arranged and organised.

All in all, we managed to sell all the 1,000 tickets - 100 tables that is. We want people to feel happy during this year end festive season. Those who will be attending the function at 11am (later on), will be part of the church's history.

Maybe one day we can try feed the 5,000????

I was at a relative's christmas party in Bandar Sri Damansara and went to church after the dinner.

Lots of people were there to arrange all the tables/chairs and decorate the outdoor stage.

The guys & girls who were decorating and preparing the outdoor stage were really enjoying themselves ...... their laughter fills the air.

Altogether there were 28 big white tents that covered all the 100 tables along the stretch of road.

Can't show much with the lack of light but it was a long stretch of tables.

The church entrance, for once, was empty as the event will be held outside.

This Nigerian brother was doing the dirty work where nobody would know. He scooped water out of the sitting area so that people will have a clean place to sit tomorrow morning.

Well done brother ....... your tough work is not in vain at all.

What did I do? I ensured that his unnoticed work didn't go unnoticed by taking this picture that took quite long as light was so dim and with a mere camera phone .......... took quite long to find the right moment of lighting from passing cars' headlights.

Final planning / instructions / things to look out for tomorrow morning by the core group.

All the supervisors supervising each other's work sitting down ............. no wonder it took us till midnight to finish our work.
Tags: Praise City Church, Christmas 2008, Christmas Community Lunch, Christmas Celebration

Dark Night (Not Related to Batman)

Saturday morning breakfast for my Sudanese colleagues .... lamb dish with the white french loaf. The guy in black shirt is a Filipino nationality and he seems to be enjoying the most.

Sudanese people have their breakfast around 11am, lunch at 3pm-4pm and dinner at 9pm.

Out of a sudden, electricity was discontinued around 5pm .... common situation in Sudan. In no time, we went out to start our generator.

As it's winter season, it's not really that hot compared to being in the office.










Failed attempts in getting the generator started. We 'sacked' the first fella. Next guy volunteered his 'expertise'.

Apparently, the generator's battery seems to be quite weak to kick start.











Nazril suggested to bring in our Mitsubishi Pajero's battery to be connected to the generator's battery, something like to jump start. Amin was the supervisor.

It was not a simple process as we borrowed the jump start cable from a car workshop serviced /operated by a few Malaysian chinese car mechanics. The journey to and back from workshop was about 20 to 30 minutes.






Such power generator is a common thing in a garden's compound or set up just outside the main gate. One of the most saleable products in Sudan as power failure is very very very common in Sudan.

When electricity kicked in around 8pm plus, our house caretaker switched off the generator. Phew!!!! at last.

Managed to prepare our dinner and not to our surprise, the electricity was cut off again ....... gone in the midst of our dinner.

How to start our generator now .... the car workship has closed by now.

We just need to go down to get it started as we have missed few English Premier League football matches that were played earlier and not willing to miss another one.

Our caretaker's friend that was around decided to bring out our car's battery again and tried to jump start our generator with a makeshift cable ............ so thin and we did say that it could backfire and short circuit something along the way.

They decided to proceed saying mafi mushkilla (no problem).

We decided to strategise everyone's strength and weakness and got two smokers to continue smoking as we need those second hand smoke to 'kill' the mosquitoes that were feasting on us.

True enough, there was big spark when our two Sudanese friends tried their luck. They were shocked!

Somehow ............. somehow ....... that one big spark did provide a small heartbeat into the generator's battery.

The generator started without a fuss and the next thing we worried about was was there enough diesel for the generator to burn throughout the night.

Final check ............... all accepted .... but we still missed our football matches as the electricity generated was too much for our cable TV's decoder. It short circuited and malfunctioned on us! No more TV for us.

Life in Sudan is very unpredictable. We fight fire everyday that comes from different directions that can't be detected ............ hehe
Tags: Electricity, Power Generator, Cable TV, Short Circuit

Monday, December 22, 2008

Error in Blogger

* The problems faced in blog editing have been resolved!!!!
Adjusting to time zone difference now. Will be updating real soon.
---------------------------------------

I can't load any pictures or link up to any websites, can't do my tags as all the buttons in between the Link and this box have disappeared.

Can't even label my blog post ........

Can't edit any websites links or load any pictures for previous blog posts ....... what happened?

Kept showing 'Error on page' at the bottom of my laptop screen !!?!?!?!??!?!

It happened from Saturday till late Sunday night. Good thing I'm making my way back to KL on Monday night from Khartoum. On Monday, I'll be tied down with meetings till late afternoon before I check into the airport around 5pm plus for my 8.05pm flight to KL via Dubai. ETA Tuesday afternoon.

Managed to read about that internet connection was down in a number of Asian countries, spreading across to Africa and Mediterranean Sea area.

Merry Christmas ....... Cheers!

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Malaysian Warship Battles Somali Pirates

The KD Indera Sakti Malaysian warship went face to face with a small group of Somali pirates at the Gulf of Aden on 17 Dec 2008.

The Royal Malaysian Navy warship despatched two helicopters to save a Chinese ship, MV Zhen Hua 4 which is owned by China Communications Construction Company Ltd, from being hijacked upon receiving distress calls from the International Maritime Bureau. Just a number of shots were fired at the pirates and they flee as fast as possible back to Somalia shore.

Chinese crews were defending against the pirates prior to the arrival of the helicopters. They defended by throwing molotov cocktails at those pirates and when they knew they can't defend anymore, they locked themselves in unpenetratable rooms. By that time the Malaysian helicopters have arrived.

More pictures of the hijacking incident in Mail Online.

The Malaysian warhship do not have enough support and if they do, they would have bomb the pirates out of the face of this earth. United Nations Security Council just approved unanimously that will allow foreign militaries to conduct sea, land and air attacks on the pirates' bases on the Somalia coast. I'm sure other warships will be ready now to chase after those pirates with this UN licence to 'kill'.

Well done our Royal Malaysian Navy. Three cheers to you!
Tags: Royal Malaysian Navy, International Maritime Bureau, MV Zhen Hua 4, China Communications Construction Company Ltd, Somalia, Somali Pirates, KD Indera Sakti, Gulf of Aden, United Nations Security Council

Friday, December 19, 2008

All Malaysians To Attend Course Prior to Marriage

Muslim friends in Malaysia must go through a pre-nuptial course before they can get married. The courses are organised by the respective State Islamic Religious Department.

Non-muslims are not required to attend such course. I know that churches do have their pre-marriage counselling in preparing each couple-to-be on the expectancy of a marriage and what is a marriage. I would say it's useful and normally the church pastors or a church elder will conduct such courses, free of charge of course.

Out of a sudden, a memorandum has now been submitted to the government calling for all non-muslims to attend such compulsory marriage courses before they are allowed to get married. This is on compulsion???? Why compulsory now? Which organisation or groups are calling for it?

If the government somehow agrees with the memorandum, will a church's pre-marriage counselling be counted / accepted? Who's authorised to conduct such courses? Will such courses be organised by government agencies such as National Population and Family Planning Board only at no charges to the public?

I really hope that no cronies will benefit indirectly on organising such courses at the expense of the public (referring to the non-muslims now since the memorandum is referring to non-muslims) paying for it. Actually there's more to gain in attending such courses but I really hope that it would not be manipulated for selected people's pockets.

In future, make sure you keep your certificate of attendance of the marriage course in a safe deposit box because if it's lost, you can't say your vows on that big day of yours ........ haha

Reading: Memo on marriage courses for non-Muslims - Star
Tags: Pre-Nuptial Course, Pre-Marriage Counselling, Marriage Course, Marriage, State Islamic Religious Department, National Population and Family Planning Board

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Viable Legoland Park in Malaysia?

The secret is out at last ........................ no Disneyland at Bandar Nusajaya of Iskandar Malaysia area.

Iskandar Malaysia managed to rope in Legoland to set up an entertainment park. It was rumoured that there will be two theme parks, with one being the anchor and the other is the secondary park. Nobody knows except for those in the top management .......... maybe they are in a blur too. Maybe Legoland is all we get after all.

When will we get to see it? Construction will begin in year 2010 and will be opened to the public in 2013. Long way to go man. The construction of Legoland will be at a cost of RM750 million (US$214 million).

Hopefully the Legoland operator, Merlin Entertainment Group, will be able to manage the park and draw many tourists to Malaysia. MEG is the world's second largest theme park operators ..... now that's a good start.

The Legoland will have 40 interactive rides but mainly catered for families with kids up to 12 years old. No adults' rides? Then will the operator of Tokyo Disneyland, OLC Group, get their wish to construct a theme park at this Bandar Nusajaya? I hope so.

Malaysia's Legoland will be targetting around 1 to 2 million visitors per annum which is a far cry from 15 million visitors targetted by Singapore's Integrated Resorts, namely Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World.

With worldwide financial institutions feeling the credit crunch, the funding is not going to be easy. Looks like the government of Malaysia is willing to provide a RM500 million loan to the joint owners, MEG (20% interest) and Iskandar Investment Berhad (80% interest). Will this be a viable investment by the joint owners?

(Picture sourced from Star)
Tags: Disneyland, Bandar Nusajaya, Iskandar Malaysia, Legoland, Merlin Entertainment Group, Tokyo Disneyland, OLC Group, Iskandar Investment Berhad, Theme Park

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Guaranteed Seats in Public Buses

Going to Putrajaya, the Federal Administrative Capital which houses majority of the government agencies, is quite smooth nowadays.

You can get there by cars, bikes, bicycles (if safe), public buses, taxis and also the high speed ERL train.

The public buses serving Putrajaya area is currently operated by Nadi Putra, owned by Pengangkutan Awam Putrajaya Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Putrajaya Corporation, of which is a government agency under the Ministry of Federal Territories.

Just back in June 2008 after the ridiculous petrol price hike, Putrajaya Corporation was of the view that many people would be opting for public transportation to cut down cost of living.

They estimated that 9,300 passengers are hopping into their buses daily and believed that it would grow tremendously. At that point of time, there were 55 buses already. With 9,300 passengers and 55 buses plying the routes, the ratio is 169 passengers per bus per day. A bus could fit in 40 passengers and that works out to be 4 bus loads of people per day. You are definitely guaranteed a seat in a public bus for sure.

That was in June 2008. Six months down the road in December 2008, there are 70 buses now and say there was an increase of 10% bus passengers which works out to 10,230 passengers daily.

With 10,230 passengers and 70 buses plying the routes, the ratio is 146 passengers per bus per day. That is less than 4 bus loads of people per day. Some passengers could even lie down and sleep.

But the Ministry of Federal Territories thinks that you are not comfortable enough and they are very thoughtful of you.

They think that the ratio of passenger per bus should be even much lower. In order to achieve a much lower ratio, they have decided to purchase another 104 buses at a cost of RM70 million (RM673,076 per bus) over the next two years. 70 buses plus 104 buses = 174 buses.

Say another increase of 10% bus passengers which will have 11,253 passengers daily. With 174 buses plying the routes, the ratio will be down to 65 passengers per bus per day. You only require 1.5 buses to fit the 65 passengers per day.

Even though Nadi Putra is making a loss of RM1 million per annum, the passengers' comfort is their highest concern of all. Well done! This is what I call priority customer service. You won't find it anywhere in the world.

Reading: Not enough passenger volume - Star
Tags: Public Bus, Putrajaya, Federal Administrative Capital, Nadi Putra, Pengangkutan Awam Putrajaya Sdn Bhd, Putrajaya Corporation, Ministry of Federal Territories

Pattaya International Fireworks Festival

Pattaya is definitely firing up its presence internationally. Covid19 has hit many nations really hard and Pattaya wasn't exempted from ...