Piranha Fishes for Lunch

When we arrived, we were requested to take our seats at this wonderfully made timber table and chairs. We saw that smoky stuff and thought otherwise.

That smoke was there to deter houseflies. But I think I'll faint before the smoke will have any effect on those houseflies.

The team members that I worked with for our assignments in Sudan.

The sight of a beautiful 'beach'.

This restaurant was set up by a lady owner for over a number of years now.

Here comes our food.

Plenty of deep fried piranha fishes. That's what our Sudanese said. They mentioned that this piranha specie is different from the ones found in the Amazon river.








Just look at the servings.
















I think I ate about 5 fishes. Really tasty and there's no murky taste in the fish meat.










Just when we were about to finish those fishes on the table, another plate of fishes was served again. There was about another 10 ....... too much of it already.













And then they brought fruits. I was wondering how many people was the restaurant owner expecting for this table.














After finishing our lunch, we went for a short walk out to the 'beach'.

This 'beach' is the White Nile that flows from Kenya in the south. This is actually a river bank where we are standing on. The width of this river at this point could be about 5 solid kilometres. This is what I call a river.

During the raining season, the river could be as near as the blue building on the left.

Many people from the city will come over here for family gatherings.

Tags: Piranha Fish, White Nile

A Business Scam Within Malaysia?

Received this email today from a Cik Adilah Farah binti Affendi at affendi009k@msn.com but it was written in my national Malay language.
---------------------------------------
Kepada Tuan,

Saya memohon maaf andainya menganggu ketenangan anda. Saya amat gembira utk berkongsi satu perkara mustahak bersama anda dan biar saya perkenalkan diri saya. Nama saya Cik Adilah Farah binti Affendi, kerakyatan Malaysia, berumur 32 dan bekerja di United Kingdom dengan syarikat Crystal Blues inc. UK. Syarikat kami menjalankan urusan impot dan espot serta juga pengedaran dan pembelian barangan kimia berjenama agro dan agro allied.

Bermula dari Januari 2008 kami telah memperkenalan barangan yang bernama silicon OIL XXQZVB yang mana pengunaan sepenuhnya untuk perkapalan yang sebelum ini dikeluarkan dari negara korea utara, cuba dan Venecuela.Larangan pengimpotan ke atas barangan ini telah dikeluarkan oleh negara british. Setelah membuat kajian melalui wakil kami di Malaysia kami mendapati peluang untuk mendapatkan pengimpotan yg baru disana.

Pegawai kami akan ke Malaysia untuk membuat perbincangan mengenai perkara tersebut dan saya memberi sepenuh kepercayaan terhadapnya kerana Malaysia ialah sebuah negara yang hanya membuka peluang perkerjaan melalui kerakyatan sahaja. Harga yang di tetapkan di Malaysia untuk 1 kotak Silicon Oil USD$4,500.00 tapi pihak syarikat akan membayar sebanyak USD$6,700.00 seperti yang telah di sebut harga oleh pegawai kami.

Dari kepercayaan penuh yang di beri oleh pegawai kami kepada saya untuk mencari wakil yang sesuai untuk mendapatkan bekalan yang sepatutnya dan segala urusan bila pegawai kami tiba di Malaysia. Pasaran yang telah di tetapkan paling kurang 20 caton setiap kali pengimpotan dibuat.

Semoga mendapat kerjasama. Saya juga akan memberi keterangan mengenai wakil yang telah dilantik untuk pengetahuan anda dan semua keterangan mengenai diri anda kepada Pegawai kami untuk membuat pertimbangan yang sewajarnya dan kami juga akan mencadangkan keuntungan perjanjian sebanyak 40/60 sebagai permulaan.

Ini bermakna anda akan mendapat 60% dan lebihan semasa ialah 40%.

Yang Benar,
Adilah.
---------------------------------------

* Firstly, this email proposal was badly written with so many spelling mistakes.
* Secondly, in this era of hi-tech, you can't even find the name of Crystal Blues Inc being mentioned anywhere in the world in all searches.
* If the British has decided to ban imports of the Silicon Oil from North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela, what makes it permissible for us as Malaysians to import it?
* If it was permissible to do so, I reckon that the Malaysian authorities should investigate this proposal.
* The lure of buying the products at US$4,500 and getting to sell it at US$6,700, with a profit margin of 48% or US$2,200 (RM7,700) per carton is really tempting. Imagine getting to order / trade 20 cartons for an estimated high profit of US$44,000 (RM154,000) and your share of profits would be US$26,400 (RM92,400) at your first try.
* At this of economic uncertainties, many people would be fooled to take up this ludicrous offer.

Another blogger, The Sensintrovert, received the same email today from the same Adilah but from a different email address at adilah_farah00k@yahoo.co.uk.

Hopefully Malaysians won't be duped by this Adilah and with the two blogposts being done by me and The Sensintrovert would alert the others.
Tags: Adilah Farah Binti Affendi, Crystal Blues Inc, Agro, Agro Allied, Silicon Oil XXQZVB

Latest Recruits for Office Security

Well, the residence that we guys occupy was burglarised recently (just before I was there). The burglars came between 5am to 6.30am. One of the guys woke up early and went downstairs (which is our office) to send some emails back to KL colleagues.

The burglars climbed up with the help of some cables up to our balcony. The best thing is just right in front of the balcony, our house caretaker was sleeping guarding the garden compound.
Footsteps seen on the balcony floor (we don't open this door at all or clean this spot and the dust collected on the balcony was a good give away). They managed to break in by breaking the door knob.
There were four rooms upstairs. One was a temporary storeroom. One bedroom has no occupant. Another bedroom was occupied but the door needs a good push to open it so we presumed the burglars might have thought it was locked from inside.

The remaining room was occupied by the colleague who went downstairs and another fella who was in deep sleep. They went into the room and took his two mobiles (one of it was a iphone touch) and some money from his wallet that was on a table. The other colleague (who was downstairs) lost some money that was taken from his wallet too.

We suspect that due to the dust that was stucked on their shoes or feet (maybe one was not wearing anything as they saw footprints with toes on the floor), the burglars walked downstairs. Maybe they were suprised with a colleague who was working downstairs and they escaped via the balcony again. Good thing that someone was downstairs because if there weren't anyone there, a few laptops would be gone as well.

Because of this security breach, the colleague who slept in the 'locked' room decided to beef up the house security. Too expensive to install house alarms. One of their intelligent ideas was to recruit additional security.

We got two original breed of the German Sheperds. When I heard that, I was saying that even the house occupants could be at risk of being bitten (especially when I arrive).
Then I found out that it was only two little fellas. My my my .......... I really laughed out loud. If the burglars were to come back again, I hope they won't take away my two German Sheperds away. The one of the left is Leo and the other one is Kujo.

Managed to get them to remember my smell in my recent trip to Sudan. I would say that Leo is the 'cuter' puppy. They are about three months old now. Both are brothers and their mom was a former police dog. We source for the best hehehe ........

Guys, what does their father works as? Police dog too?
Tags: German Sheperd, Burglar, Police Dog

Champions League Atmosphere in Khartoum

On Wednesday, where the Champions League finals between Man Utd vs Barcelona was to be played in Rome, we were invited to Petronas headquarters to watch the match live over there.

Malaysians from all walks of life were there. The Petronas management has put up a huge screen. What a good staff welfare planning.

They switched off the surrounding lights and my colleague's camera couldn't capture quite good. Moreover, there are fine dust all over his lens.

The match had just started and some people (including me and colleagues) were still eating roti telur, roti canai with free flow teh tarik.

That's the big screen and there are quite a number of people. Who do they support?

Let me tell you ...... almost all of them are Liverpool-Chelsea-Arsenal-turned-Barcelona-fan for the night.

Those sourish fellas just cannot bear Man Utd winning another trophy. During the two seasons where Chelsea was the English Premier League champions, me and my friends who are Man Utd don't feel that way till you have to belittle Man Utd day in day out.

Till today, you can still read comments in my or friends' Facebooks (those who are Man Utd fans) where they are still receiving sourish comments from the Liverpool-Chelsea-Arsenal clan. Hahaha ........ they are so cute. They just can't face the fact.

This was half-time break and everyone rushed to get another cup of drink.

Sad night indeed where Man Utd was beaten 2-0 by Barcelona.

Barcelona really well and Man Utd was no where near their usual. Man Utd could still beat a lower ranked EPL team on their not so good day but playing against Barcelona in a such a final is just not the same.

Just have to wait for the next season to watch those exciting matches again and renew the Liverpool-Chelsea-Arsenal rivalry again.

Thanks to Petronas for that wonderful night.
Tags: Champions League Finals, Man Utd, Manchester United, Barcelona, Petronas

RON97 and RON92

Extracted the following article from Paul Tan's blog.

You might have seen numbers like RON97 and RON92 at your neighbourhood petrol station. Fuel with a RON97 rating is more expensive, RM1.92 per liter at time of writing with the lower RON92 rating going for RM1.88.

Have you ever wondered what they mean? Why is RON97 more expensive than RON92, and can you use RON92 to save on fuel costs?

Let’s have a discussion. What petrol do you use regularly, and why do you like your choice of petrol? Or are they all the same to you?

RON97, RON92, who is this RON person?
You might have seen numbers like RON97 and RON92 at your neighbourhood petrol station. Fuel with a RON97 rating is more expensive, RM1.92 per liter at time of writing with the lower RON92 rating going for RM1.88. Have you ever wondered what they mean? Why is RON97 more expensive than RON92, and can you use RON92 to save on fuel costs?

RON stands for Research Octane Number, a rating used to measure a fuels knocking resistance in spark-ignition internal combustion engines. Before we attempt to understand this mumbo jumbo, we have to know what knocking is. Knocking is what happens when parts or all of the air-fuel mixture prematurely ignites before the flame from the spark plug can reach it. This can be caused by ignition timing that is too early or engine overheating, where the heat from the cylinder itself causes the mixture to combust before the spark plug can burn the mixture. This causes a decrease in performance and might also harm the engine.

It is a misunderstanding to think that RON97 fuels produce more power than RON92 fuels, even more so with the fact that in reality a higher RON number means the fuel burns less easily! RON refers to the ability of the fuel to resist knocking and nothing else.

By pumping the RON97 into a car which engine only requires the RON92, all you're going to get is an emptier wallet which hardly counts for performance gains via weight reduction!

Engines are designed to have a minimum RON rating for its fuel. Do check your service manual for the minimum RON rating that it requires. For engines that require a minimum of RON92, you might as well pump RON92 fuel and save abit of money since RON92 is cheaper by 4 cents per liter. Another common minimum RON rating is RON95, but since we do not have RON95 fuel in our market, we have to use RON97 fuel for the engine. These engines normally have higher compression ratios, like the one found in the Satria GTI so it needs higher knock resistance to withstand higher compression.

If you find that your engine can use RON92 petrol and decide to save abit of money, do check out if a petrol stations RON92 petrol is leaded or unleaded. All RON97 petrol is unleaded, but some RON92 petrol might be leaded although this is very very rare. Buy me a teh tarik with the money you save, thanks!
Tags: RON97, RON92, RON, Research Octane Number, Unleaded Petrol

Best CEO in Henan Province

Guess who's the best CEO in Henan Province of China?

The current person in charge of the Shaolim Temple is Shi Yong Xin, being the head abbot cum CEO too. He has been instrumental in bringing the Shaolin culture to the tourists and able to develop a good tourism development.

Under Shi's leadership, the Shaolin name has become a brand itself and has set up modern marketing strategies, international performance tours and online merchandising.

But some tourists or locals are critical of the tourism development plan. They said that the temple is linking itself to money or profit nowadays where this sacred place was known to be for prayer and meditation, by the locals or the monks. Now, tourists would have to buy tickets to enter the Shaolin Temple and in order to see some kung fu, tourists have to buy tickets for the performance.

Shi's team said that such moves in the modern day is necessary to preserve Shaolin kung fu and culture. They did mention that even movies are highlighting about Shaolin or kungfu such as Shaolin Soccer, Kungfu Hustle and Kung Fu Panda.

So, why not Shi and his management team ...... wonder who are in the management team?

For Shi's hardwork and perseverance since he joined them 20 years ago, he was rewarded with a car worthed US$125,000. That's really a CEO standard.

Reading: Shaolin Abbot fights back against critics - China Economic Net
Reading: Buddhism Inc. in Capitalist China - abc News

Tags: Shaolin Abbot, Shaolin Temple, Kung Fu, Martial Arts, Henan Province, Shi Yong Xin, Shaolin Culture

City in Danger?

Another email came in depicting terrifying situation where crime almost happened. This time at a shopping centre car park.

----------------------------------
I would like to share a life saving incident that all our loved ones needs to be aware.

Last Saturday, 11th April 2009, my girlfriend and I were in Mid Valley “The Gardens” for a movie. We finished around 8.40pm. I had parked my car just right above the ‘GSC Signature Cinema’ on the 5th floor. As we were getting into our car, we realized that the parking fee had not been paid. We decided to stop by the Auto pay station on the lower parking level to do the payment.

We drove 2 floors down and couldn't locate the Auto Pay Station. We decided to park our car at 2nd floor wondering if there should be a pay station in the mall at the lobby area. My girlfriend decided to wait in the car as she was on the phone. I was walking into the mall looking for an Auto Pay Station, failing to find one, I decided to walk 1 floor down. About minutes time, my girlfriend called me on my mobile phone and she sounded terrified. She was shouting for help. She told me that there is a guy who is trying to get into the car. The guy was trying to get into the car very calmly, pretending getting into his own car. He failed to open and refuses to continue trying as he noticed that she was on the phone calling for help. Luckily, she had locked the door just right after I got out earlier. I run up as quickly as possible to reach her.

The moment I reached to the parking area, I saw the guy walking away slowly from the car. He was walking towards the ramp heading to the upper level. As I ran up the ramp, though I could still see him I realized that I was running away from my car again. It could be teamwork just to divert my presence from my car. I got back to my girlfriend quickly to calm her down.

We made an official report to the Mid Valley security management to investigate on the CCTV. It was a lesson learned for us to be more careful in the parking zones. I’m happy that my girlfriend is still here with me today. Please be watchful in parking zones.

Tips that we should be aware - Never leave valuable items or your family members alone in the car at parking location.

Thank you.

Kind regards,
Remmy Anderson
Tags: The Gardens, Gardens Car Park, GSC Signature Cinema, Auto Pay Station, CCTV, Mid Valley Security