Eat, Eat & Eat

There were three birthday celebrations every other day within the week. Stomach grew much more ..... sigh due to non-stop eating.

One of the birthdays .......... we were treated to a buffet dinner at Rotana Hotel in Khartoum. Whacked the food as usual.

You don't get to eat such quality food in Khartoum unless you are willing to pay for it. These are the Khartoum office colleagues.










Everyone just loves to pose for the cameras.











The dessert area. Most of the food items here were too sweet for Malaysian tastebuds. But Fairuz likes sweetness ............














I took the mixed fruits served in a bowl. Grabbed the cup that looks weird with its fillings (the one on the right).

It was really awful. Caramel top with sugar and cinnamon mixed with it. The white stuff is sweet milk???!?!?! Too sweet for me.

They have finished their food but I was still enjoying mine.

They ordered coffee and tea ..... no no have to leave space for my dessert.

Yeah, the big boss on the right, the birthday boy. His treat! The bill came up to around 1,600 Sudanese Dinar (240 SDG = US$100).









The next day, it was Stephanie's, our project secretary, birthday.















Both Nazril and Aditya were trying to hide the plastic plate that was full of food initially. We had pasta and murtabak chicken for our lunch .......... stomach grew a little bit again.













This three fellas were awaiting to attack the table with food as the front two guys are blocking them.










One of the colleagues, Abeir, who is supposed to be on diet.















Alan, who wants to be on diet but fails everyday.

Don't worry, there's always tomorrow to start all over again.

Tags: Rotana Hotel, Buffet Dinner, Pasta, Murtabak Chicken

Killer Fish in Malaysian Lake?

Star newspaper reported that a giant fish may be the cause for the death of two men at Kenyir Lake in Terengganu recently.
This giant fish on the left is the suspect killer fish now (pic obtained from Mega Fishing Thailand). This fish is known as Aparaima Gigas or Kenyir monster as mentioned by the locals.

Apparently, a man on a fishing may have fell of a boat and drowned. The boat could be bumped by the giant fish till the man fell into the lake.

A man who saw the situation jumped in to rescue but disappeared into the lake ?!?!?!?!?!???!!?

Such aparaima gigas could grow up to 5 meters and weighh about 200kg. Just imagine the size of it.

Or could this be a similar case like the Loch Ness monster in Scotland? Always mentioned in the media or sighted by locals/tourists but could never be found.

Or the death of the two men was just a hoax to draw more tourists to Kenyir Lake itself. You'll never know what people could do just to get their business up and running again.

Reading: Giant fish sightings in Kenyir Lake - Star
Tags: Aparaima Gigas, Kenyir Lake, Kenyir Monster, Giant Fish, Killer Fish

Gadgets Used for Muscle Toning

When I was not travelling from mid 2007 to mid 2008, I joined a gym. Thereafter, didn't renew the membership as I knew I would be travelling frequently.

When in Sudan, we are just not willing to sign up for the gym membership as it was too expensive in our opinion. Could easily end up paying more than RM200 per month here.

What's our alternatives then? Bright ideas from colleagues. They took some industrial nuts and bolts and did some taping on it and out came our own dumb bells.

Really proud of it.

You could say that this might be an enlarged picture.
Proof that this dumb bell is really large and heavy. It more than three times the length of my big watch.

Don't know the weight but easily more than 10kg per dumb bell as it's solid metal.
Spare dumb bells ................... those days there were lots of us staying together. These dumb bells were being transferred from one room to another.

Nowadays, I'm the only one still using it for my muscle toning. At times, lazy to do it. A gym is still a better place, anytime.

Want to bring back to Malaysia also cannot, as it will be definitely overweight.
Tags: Dumb Bells, Muscle Toning, Gym

Weird DBKL Ruling

Got the key to my new house and had thought of extending the 1st floor (back portion of the house). Just found out that according to the DBKL local council plans, the 1st floor wall cannot be less than 10 feet from the middle point of the back lane (as shown in the pic below).
Asked a friend of mine on the rationale of it and he said it's due to fire safety. But I told him that I could still do the full extension provided I submit my application with an architect's drawings. So, what's the fire safety issue all about? If I follow DBKL's plan I cannot extend but submit architect's plan, I can extend ??!?!?!?!?!?! Weird, isn't it?

When I told the DBKL officer that that my new house's backlane is about 10 feet to 12 feet wide, the officer said that in order for me to extend the 1st floor and still meet DBKL's ruling, my backlane has to be at least 20 feet wide. Where in the world that you can find a backlane that's 20 feet wide nowadays. It's already a bonus to find a backlane of 10 feet wide.

Do you know what? Many of those houses at my area have extended just what I have intended fully .......... without getting DBKL's approval. Now, will DBKL pay them an annual visit to penalise them or ask for 'something' in order to close an eye or ask the houseowners to tear down those illegal extension or submit architect's plans and pay penalty for breaching the rules?

There goes my planning. Have to abandon the idea of 1st floor back extension due to time constraint. Reason is because I have to source for an architect, get new drawings done, expensive fees, submission of plans to DBKL, approval which may take a minimum of 3 months (if lucky and they don't try to be funny with us) ..... just too much to handle.

I checked with a professional structural engineer and he confirmed that many of DBKL, MPSJ and MPPJ's extension plans / guidelines are different from the standard national Uniform By-Law 1984 . He said that each local council has their own rules / guidelines, each department within the local council has their own stuff again and when it comes to the last line of officers, they have their own individual understanding or interpretation ................. what nonsense! When will we progress as a nation like that?

When you check DBKL's website, the plan for the 1st floor extension therein is different from the pre-approved plan that you can obtain from DBKL counter. Tell me about consistency.

I have just gotten the DBKL approval for my backyard extension (ground floor) and front main door extension. Just can't wait to get back to KL to finalise the renovation ideas with the renovation contractor and negotiate on the costs of doing so. Will be hiring an Interior Designer ("ID") at the same time. This ID lady will be my project manager and could monitor / co-ordinate my renovation / interior design works when I'm travelling overseas.

Target to move in by end of the year.
Tags: House Renovation, Backyard Extension, DBKL, MPSJ, MPPJ

Tenaga Nasional Electricity Outage

Be warned .................... your house will be out of electricity before you know it.

Tenaga Nasional Berhad ("TNB"), the national electricity provider has announced that a number of electricity outage will happen in Kuala Lumpur from 10pm, 3 July 2009 onwards till 31 July 2009 (ranging from 6 hours to 13 hour).

Reason: To carry out maintenance works or upgrade its services.

As TNB did not specify which exact roads that are served by sub-stations, please make the necessary preparations for each day just in case. If you're planning to use candles, please be vigilant to the risks of fire.

For further information and clarification, you can contact 24 hours TNB CareLine at telephone: 15454.
Tags: Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Electricity Supply, Electricity Outage, Kuala Lumpur

No Future With Future Graduates

What is Malaysia's future with the graduates from local universities joining the workforce in the future?

After reading the following news you judge it for yourself:-

- Lecturer sacked because she failed students
Islamic Science University of Malaysia has decided to sack a lecturer after she has failed to give sympathy marks to a number of her students. Those students failed of course. The university thinks that with that number of failures, news will get out that the university is lousy and can't produce graduates and this might affect future student applications.

In this case, passing such students even though they don't deserve it is practically telling all the university students that you don't have to work for it as you'll be presented whether you deserve it or not.

Will this help the students in the future? Definitely not! The university couldn't care less about their future but more of its own future or reputation to survive the competitive education industry.

- Lecturer demands for sex & money for passing marks
A lecturer took advantage on a master's degree student by telling her that if you want to pass your papers, you have to sleep with me.

When that proposal failed, he requested for money instead, RM800. Is that lecturer really that desperate for money?

What if the student has agreed on the sex proposal or the money? The student would be passed on that basis but not on merit instead. What does it hold for Malaysia's future workforce then?

The good news is that the student reported it to the authorities and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission has brought the lecturer in for questioning.

Have a good guess which private university is it in Cyberjaya? There are three located within that vicinity.

Reading: Out goes the lecturer - Star
Reading: MACC nabs lecturer who demanded sex and money to pass students - Star
Tags: Malaysian Education, University Graduate, University Lecturer, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Islamic Science University of Malaysia, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, Cyberjaya

Airlines Banned From European Airspace

The European Commission ("EC") has updated a list of airlines banned from flying into the European Union's ("EU") member countries for safety concern. Meaning to say EU is afraid that one of these airlines may crash in EU's land????

How does EC assess these airlines? The EC is very careful with such blacklisting and issued a legal notice to cover themselves:-

LEGAL NOTICE
The civil aviation authorities of Member States of the European Community are only able to inspect aircraft of airlines that operate flights to and from Community airports; and in view of the random nature of such inspections, it is not possible to check all aircraft that land at each Community airport. The fact that an airline is not included in the Community list does not, therefore, automatically mean that it meets the applicable safety standards.

Where an airline which is currently included in the Community list deems itself to be in conformity with the necessary technical elements and requirements prescribed by the applicable international safety standards, it may request the Commission to commence the procedure for its removal from the list.

The airlines that have been blacklisted could be read in List of airlines banned within the EU.
Tags: Travel, Airlines Banned, Blacklisted Airlines, European Commission, European Union, EU, European Community, Civil Aviation