World Champions!!

Two trophies are already in the bag for this season!!

Let's recall again the competitions/silverware that MU is vying for this season 2008/9:
1. FA Community Shield (against Portsmouth, Aug 10) - Won
2. UEFA Super Cup (against Zenit St. Petersburg of Russia, Aug 29) - Lost
3. Club World Cup (against LDU, Dec 21) - Won!!
4. FA Cup
5. English Premier League
6. Champions League

Hoooray!!! Champions of England, Champions of Europe and now Champions of the World?!!

Manchester United - best football team in the world!!

10 years before independence

Very interesting discovery over the internet yesterday. Embedded here for your viewing pleasure. By the way, this documentary shows that we Malaysians cannot take the historical accounts in history textbooks as it is, because clearly they are written and narrated such a way to favour a certain race and the ruling government. Be wise and continue to unearth (very unbecoming word from a geoscience guy like me!) the historical FACTS of this country.

Here it is:

Sepuluh Tahun Sebelum Merdeka from fahmi reza on Vimeo.

Back to winning ways

Man Utd thumped Stoke City 5-0!! And ARS lost to Aston Villa... kakakakaaa....

Gentle reminder to tikus montok: MU also thumped Hull City, to which ARS had lost too!!

Another photo stolen!!!

Nehh..... this site is just borrowing one of my photos taken in Copenhagen back in March. I must admit this has been done professionally... they actually sent an email asking for my consent, to which I oblige (since i'm a nice guy) ^_^

Site 3



I'm suprised because the picture actually taken using SE750i camera phone, hence the resolution is actually quite low...

Feel like winning a jackpot!!

Wow... such an amazing feeling! The day that I've hoped for more than a year has finally arrived.
Apa yang kecoh sangat lar?

Da big boss in my company asked me to 'take over' this babe la... KIA Sportage 2007 version, 2.0L, 16-valve DOHC CVVT, 140 hp @ 6000 rpm, 136 lb-ft @ 4,500 rpm with BOTH 5-speed manual and 4-speed Steptronic automatic transmission. Company car. Period. Well... not quite.... still got more things to say here in my blog corner... ^_^

Note: Censored number plate to ensure confidentiality...err...i mean privacy.

My dream car is actually Nissan X-Trail (so humble eh!) but since I laid my eyes on this car and personally have driven it in 'special' occasions in the past, I've always hope that some day (more like some time in October last year) I can drive this car around on a daily basis... to work and jalan-jalan.

Heheheee... I am actually grinning from ear to ear right now as I'm writing this posting. What a privilege... I don't have to tighten my belly to pay huge deposit for this car or to pay ridiculously big installments monthly or to feed it with litres of fossil fuel every other day and spend lots of $$ to maintain it... cos all of these will be taken care by the company!! Best of all is that da big boss ask me to sell my own car cos I told him there is only one parking bay allocated to me at my apartment area...

A quick check on its popularity and reliability in the SUV market over the internet, KIA Sportage ranked no. 8 in the world and suprisingly Honda CRV topped the list with best overall ratings. But one statistic caught my attention about the KIA Sportage, which is the safety rating, i.e. 9.7 out of 10! Why you may ask? I think the 6 air bags enclosed within the car may have helped in the crash test. 'Safe' cars are good for family man like myself... as I can now feel safer with my kid travelling in the car.

No, I didn't beg da big boss for this, although I did ask about company cars prior joining this company last year. And of course I know everything comes with a price. I know I will have to work twice as hard from now on to generate more income for the company. Hope me and my team can sail through the recession (or depression!) period which could just happen in the months to come. According to a common belief and as a famous scenario in get-rich-scheme books, there will be some kind of economic turnmoil every 10-12 years cycle and by taking 1997 into consideration, next year would be the 'last year' that it could probably surface, yet again. But this time I expect myself to be hit by the so-called recession period, since now I am now the breadwinner of the family. Time to save up and send more company invoices out to chase for money!!

Love ur ABC

Stole these words of wisdom and encouragement from somewhere...

Avoid negative sources, people, places, things and habits. Believe in urself. Consider things from every angle. Don't give up, and don't give in. Enjoy life today; yesterday is gone, and tomorrow may never come. Family and friends are hidden treasures; seek them and enjoy their riches. Give more than u planned to give. Hang on to ur dreams. Ignore those who try to discourage u. Just do it. Keen on trying; no matter how hard it seems; it will get easier. Love urself first and most. Make it happen. Never lie, cheat or steal; always strike a fair deal. Open ur eyes and see things as they really are. Practice makes perfect. Quitters never win, and winner never quit. Read, study and learn about everything important in ur life. Stop procrastinating. Take control of ur own destiny. Understand urself in order to better understand others. Visualize it. Want it more than anything. eXcel at doing ur best. You can do anything you set out to do. Zero in on your target and go for it.

Very good eh?!!

My photos were stolen!!

Nah... they are not stolen, but 'borrowed'. Nothing for me to lose, only to gain more traffic to my flickr site... ^_^

Site 1

Site 2

Turn your PSP into a GPS navigator

No more comments about politics in the country at the moment and I've turned my attention to something else....

I first heard about this about 3 weeks ago when my wife told me a colleague had a PSP with a GPS capability. So I went surfing on www looking for verification and was truly excited... that the GPS thingy is real and it's already in the world (at least within the geeks' world) for 2 years already. Was damn excited because I've always wanted to have a 'mobile' gadget with maps in it (satellite, street maps etc.) and with GPS I can see where I am and directs me to the place I want to be. And it's better to bring this mobile thingy with gps capability along than large printed maps or books (e.g. Klang Valley road maps).

Mobile devices like phones & pda have usually small display screens... so not that shiok I think for navigation. I've not explored the iphone but I guess it's difficult to fix or lock-on to the GPS satellites if you don't have an external GPS antenna attached to your device (any). Another issue could be the accuracy and speed as I've discovered that it takes longer time at a lesser accuracy to lock-on to the satellites if you have a built-in thingy instead of the external ones.

So ok, enough of introduction and now here's a brief tutorial on how to turn your PSP into a GPS navigator like mine:

1. Buy a PSP, if you do not have one already. Go to Low Yat, plenty of choice. Compare, bargain and specify for a customized firmware (this is more like operating system for the PSP), so that you can play downloadable games from www (via file sharing e.g. torrent). My firmware is 3.90 M33 and it gives me a lot flexibility in customizing my PSP. Price: RM 550-770, depending on your accessories and add-ons.

2. Get a GPS receiver, mine is PSP-290, made in Japan. No manual comes with it and the text on the neat packaging box is all in Japanese. Get this gadget in Low Yat or online. Have had a bad experience with online purchase before, so I decided to buy this on the spot in Low Yat. Price: RM 200+. Very easy to hook-up to the PSP.

3. Download Map This! application. Look up in the www for more info, but believe me, you wouldn't want to read hundred of threads in forums and spend hours (like me) just to get started. Un-rar it after downloading it from deniska.dcemu.co.uk, copy the folder into your PSP (e.g. E:\PSP\Game\mapViewer), where 'E' is presumably the drive of your memory stick duo (after hooking-up your PSP to your PC/laptop via USB, or via a USB card reader).

4. Run the Map This! on your PSP and you'll discover a default map, i.e. New York City or something. But since you are in Malaysia, you'll need local maps (of course!).

5. Download Global Map Download Tool (GMDL), the current version is 5.08b. You can use this to download various maps over the www. Not very stable, freezes most of the time if you have large downloads (>20MB)... even MS Windows or Internet Explorer crashes from time to time wat!! Before download you need to specify your map area (aerial/satellite, road/street or hybrid etc.), zoom resolution and the destination folder for the download. Create a folder with any name you want but importantly put an underscore (_) at the beginning of your file name (e.g. _Damansara.street.maps), else Map This! would not be able to access the maps' folder. Copy the maps' folder to your PSP\Game\mapViewer\maps folder and if everything is alright, Map This! will display the name of your folder (in the 'select map' menu) just after the startup of this pocket mapViewer application. The bigger your storage card you have on your PSP, the more detailed or larger maps you can store and use.

Here are some snap shots on my PSP with the GPS:

Tips: It should just take you 1-2 days to get all these up and running, else you'll have to search for more info on the www (tutorials on youtube) or just leave a comment here and I'll get back to you with some answers.

Happy geeking and tweaking!!

Stupid Stumid

According to Stumid, the reporter was held because she was believed to be under threat and NOT A THREAT to the national security. What a pile of bull shit.... then why use ASI? Who authorises the use of it in the first place? If it is the police as he claimed, then we the people are troubled a lot because the country are really in police state!! You dun need to slap someone with ASI just to interrogate somebody. This Stumid think we, the ppl of this bolehland are stupid? Bengap betul si Stumid ni... cilakak betul!!

Released!!

Got the news that the reporter was released. Apa hal dengan kerajaan ni ar? Pundek betul lar... boleh suka-suka tangkap orang lepas tu kasi lepas suka-suka... lepaskan RPK dan Teresa Kok jugak la si baruah Belasan Natiunal!! (ditujukan khas kepada si Bodowi, Stumid dan kroni-kroninya!). Wow... what a nice feeling after saying these in bahasa... what damaging can it be to you when someone of different race or culture mock or scold you in your own native tongue? Hurtful? That's exactly my point.

But there's one moral story behind the expedite release of the reporter: Makkal Sakti!!

You see people, the government is nothing, I repeat, NOTHING without its people. Any more unwarranted arrest would undermined the governments' credibility even further down the hole/point of no return. Bloody fools!!! Don't get the fear into you... that's what the natiunal's policies are doing to us...to 'silent' the majority i.e. the level and clear headed ppl which can distinguish what is right and what is not. So let's stand together now as citizens of bolehland, speak up and be counted!! (of course do it discretionally la... pakai otak sikit la brader!).

Let's stop talking about our indulgence for food and hobbies etc. (nothing that really matters as compared to the direction or where the country is heading right now, thanks to the apartheid-based policies laid down by Mahatiao and his disciples in this country). Let's start barking on REAL issues at this point of time and capitalize on momentum of 'wave of change' started by the opposition in this country. I hope too see a bigger political tsunami in the country and wash out the shallow-minded, racist and not-so-smart politicians (believe me, these group of ppl are small, i.e. minnows) and reduce the racists' down to their knees.... for the country's sake!! Like a saying I once read, this is my country, I'm born here. But do I want to be marginalised or die because of political hegemony and obscurantist doctrine - NO WAY man!!!

p/s: thanks to the national education system, i can maki hamun in so-called native language of bolehland and mother-tongue of some... go figure.

Here's my spectacular signal for 'dissent':
http://www.malaysiakini.com/ - news and views that matters

p/p/s: 916 or 920 may not happen after all, but who cares? What really matter is the cause and effect of the promise... will eventually prevail in the next GE (13, auspicious number for some?), I hope. If I'm still around that is.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here in ahchongs' blog are entirely his and do not represent his normal or rightful views as the author's postings may be influenced and swayed from time to time by his emotions & thoughts that are greatly disturbed by the political circus caused by a bunch of colour-sensitive beruk in the country, cimpanzee-gorilla public shows and not forgetting the sentiments of the rightful citizens in this blessed bolehland (as enshrined in the Federal Constitution). With the use of this blog you have agreed to indemnify the author from any ridiculous legal actions like the one directed at RPK, the freedom blogger of bolehland.

Outraged!! Totally unacceptable!!

I'm so outraged by the turn of events lately in the country. I've been keeping mum of all the ugly things that are happening in this country and the news about the reporter who reported the fugly's racist' remarks is arrested under an act that was promulgated and targeted at the communists that were once a menace in the country. This is like an act of victimised the person who get bullied and not the person who bullies the victim!! Clearly this is a desperate move by the racist party who are filled with a bunch mamaks and rojak parentage who called themselves the 'sons of the soil'. Self-denial mentality and what can I say about this? Tahi kerbau (sounds better than lembu) @ Bull shit!!! I have no qualms if you are one of these: Negrito, Jakun, Semang, Jahut, Orang Laut, Orang Darat, Senoi or from other fractions from the REAL NATIVES of this bolehland.

The news that got me really ticked off is the arrest of MP Teresa Kok. Clearly one bloody racist toyol had made seditious liar about her and fan this sentiment over the internet. I think losers like him are mis-using the internet, just like RPK fanning the freedom of speech over this alternative medium. The difference is, ppl like toyol is abusing this freedom to spread slander and malicious accusations to gain mileage in their political run-ins. You should be well aware that the racist' party's general election is coming and do you ever notice in your life time that the ppl from this particular party (undoubtedly the PARTY instigated the worst racial riot in the country) kept playing the racial cards when big events like the party's general election draw near? Unsolicited hate messages that fan racial sentiments are usually aired in their speeches, it doesn't matter if it is addressed to one particular race only (like claimed by Mr Fugly in the recent by-election)...it is still seditious so to speak!!

I urge you, fellow citizens of Bolehland, to speak up. It's no longer pays to be the silent majority. Unless you want your children and the future generations of this beautiful country (except the racist's party and its cohorts) to remain 2nd or 3rd etc. class citizens forever and enventually end up like in our neighbouring country in the far south where you have to change your name to appear more 'cimalsI'. How long do you want to be the dumb submissive dhimmi? And while we are bickering among ourselves about the righfullnes of citizenship of this country, the real immigrants from our neighboring countries are having a jolly time taking a back seat, cooly residing and enjoying the riches and resources in this country. And they are smart... they know how to access the 'special' lane to access more riches in the country: marry the locals-you know what I'm talking about!! Didn't you noticed that most of the controversial politicians in the country have mixed blood parentage? Arab (Stumid) , Jawa (Toyol), Tamil (Mahatiao), Turki (the one wielding the weapon in the racist' party AGM?) etc. I think this bunch of monkeys are very much confused of their background... and the only logical way for them to hold on and seize power is through initimidating and instilling fear amongst the rightful citizens in the country. And of course, pretend like their parents or grandparents or great grandparents are 100% home grown descendants of this country. Bull shit.

A member of UN Human Rights Council konon. What a joke. My hope in the future of the country is sliding even more now after listening to the disturbing news about the unwarranted arrests. Actual perpretator and liars got away and innocent parties get persecuted.

Time to update my CV and join the outgoing 'brain drain' masses? Open your eyes my friends, look far and sincerely tell me, do you see the light at the end of the tunnel?

Now...lets the goal feast begin!!

Finally!!! After weeks of speculation and remarks by Sir Alex Ferguson (he'd actually jumped the gun when he said he's confident of signing Berbatov), this striker @ goal getting machine have finally landed at OT, but a higher price, of course!! He could have been signed much earlier at a lower price should Mr Alex kept his mouth zipped!

Now that we have more firepower...yayy.. what more can I say...err...more goals by ManUtd? I'm sure it will be pretty soon that MU will start to fire all cylinders in the run-up to the EPL, we can blatantly say to Arsingh Winger and his 'gonners' bye bye... keep on dreaming on winning the Barclay's EPL title... hahahahaha!!!!!

Ah, let's recall again the competitions/silverware that MU is vying for this season 2008/9:
1. FA Community Shield (against Portsmouth, Aug 10) - Won
2. UEFA Super Cup (against Zenit St. Petersburg of Russia, Aug 29) - Lost
3. Intercontinental Cup
4. FA Cup
5. English Premier League
6. Champions League

Too bad MU lost the UEFA Super Cup... it could have been another addition to the REAL REDS' congested trophy collection. But hey... Zenit is already somewhere in the middle of the Russian league, whereas MU just played two league games prior to the match.... so it's like having a 100m sprinter to race with a 400m runner. MU players hate loosing... and believe me they will bounce back even stronger and determined after this... and we have another goal scoring machine (new #9) coming into the first team... and some more Ronaldo is making a comeback end of this month. Hmm...sounds like things will get rosier for MU and there is good prospect of getting double double again this season... yayyyy!!! Or perhaps a good treble (FA, EPL & Champions League) again?

One more thing, did you notice how MU played in the 2nd half against Zenit at Monaco last week? Yeah...you would have notice if you are a die-hard fan of the club.... it's the never-say-die attitude of the players to get even or to make a comeback in the game. This never-say-die attitude was the ultimate THING that actually attracted me to this club in 1994. I had been a Liverpool fan in the 80s... but as the LIV players aged over the years, they are replaced by new players who do not actually play to the 'tune' of the team in the 80s (those were the days of John Aldridge, Ian Rush, Grobellar, John Barnes etc.). I must say the LIV team of the 90s onwards looses its sparkle lar... nothing fancy in their game eh.

Chelsea? Looks formidable on paper, but somehow after seeing their match against Wigan, I doubt they will have it easy against other team in the table. Pls remember, this is only the first season with a new coach and new playmaker (Deco)... but can they survive the hectic scheduling of League Cup, FA Cup, Champions League and Barcalys' EPL all in a season? Hahahaha... I doubt they can sapu all four trophies...but let's see how far can they go this season.

Gunners? Gooners? I think 'Gonners' will suit them best. Unless they change their arrogant coach, there's a very un-likelihood they will be 'Champions of England' and 'Kings of Europe' this season, next season etc. (dulu, sekarang dan selamanya).

BALANCE SHEET OF LIFE .........AN ACCOUNTANT'S POEM

A very good poem!!

---------------------

Our Birth is our Opening Balance!
Our Death is our Closing Balance!
Our Prejudiced Views are our Liabilities
Our Creative Ideas are our Assets

Heart is our Current Asset
Soul is our Fixed Asset
Brain is our Fixed Deposit
Thinking is our Current Account

Achievements are our Capital
Character & Morals, our Stock-in-Trade
Friends are our General Reserves
Values & Behaviour are our Goodwill

Patience is our Interest Earned
Love is our Dividend
Children are our Bonus Issues
Education is Brands / Patents

Knowledge is our Investment
Experience is our Premium Account
The Aim is to Tally the Balance Sheet Accurately.
The Goal is to get the Best Presented Accounts Award.

Some very Good and Very bad things ....
The most destructive habit....... ......... ........Worry
The greatest Joy......... ......... ......... ......Giving
The greatest loss.......Loss of self-respect

The most satisfying work........ .......Helping others
The ugliest personality trait....... .......Selfishness
The most endangered species..... ....Dedicated leaders
Our greatest natural resource.... ......... ...Our youth

The greatest 'shot in the arm'.. ...Encouragement
The greatest problem to overcome.... ......... .....Fear
The most effective sleeping pill....... Peace of mind
The most crippling failure disease..... ........Excuses

The most powerful force in life........ .......... ..Love
The most dangerous act...... ..A gossip
The world's most incredible computer.... ....The brain
The worst thing to be without..... ......... ..... Hope

The deadliest weapon...... ......... ........The tongue
The two most power-filled words....... ......... 'I Can'
The greatest asset....... .......... ......... ......Faith
The most worthless emotion.... ......... ....Self- pity

The most beautiful attire...... ......... ..........SMILE!
The most prized possession.. ......... ......Integrity
The most powerful channel of communication. .....Prayer
The most contagious spirit...... ......... ......Enthusiasm

Life ends; when you stop Dreaming,
Hope ends; when you stop Believing,
Love ends; when you stop Caring,
And Friendship ends; when you stop Sharing...!!!

Obscurantist doctrine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_153_of_the_Constitution_of_Malaysia

Self-explanatory. Read through this, and imagine where this country is heading to in 10, 20 years time.

Good headstart to new season - 2008/09

FA Community Shield (against Portsmouth, Aug 10). Won.

Five more to go. Period.

EPL 2008/09!!

Yippiieeeeee... it will be another 2 weeks or so for the new EPL season to kick-off.... can't wait to see MU in action again!! Ah... no more boring Saturdays or Sundays by then.... how nice... slouching on my long sofa bed with some peanuts on one hand and the other hand holding a cold beer.... that's what I call living a good life!

Chelsea was around town last week... so? I can't be bothered to see them playing at the lousy stadium... unlike years ago when MU came to Bukit Jalil stadium (bigger and newer mar)... pack habis!!

Hmmm... Chelsea's coach claimed he has got all the players he need to sapu 4 trophies in one season... CAN or NOT?? That's pretty arrogant for someone who has not tasted the rivalry in English football, nor this person has the experience to rotate players to accomodate the super pack fixtures in December (during Christmas and New Year period) or Feb/Mac/April period where there will be finals i.e. FA Cup, Champions League and the run-ups to the closing of the prestigious Barclays' EPL .

A message to Chelsea's coach: Why not try to win three trophies first, at least try to be on par with MU whom are winners of the unprecedented treble in 1999?

Ah but then again, MU can surpassed Chelsea's 4 targets, as MU will be in the running for:
1. FA Community Shield (against Portsmouth, Aug 10)
2. UEFA Super Cup (against Zenit St. Petersburg of Russia, Aug 29)
3. Intercontinental Cup
4. FA Cup
5. English Premier League
6. Champions League

Altogether 6 possible trophies... wuuuuhooo... hard to believe MU can sapu all of them. But I believe they can... IF they have the hunger for more silverwares. I think if Berbatov is added into the first team, I'm sure MU will win at least 2 trophies this coming season. Glory, glory Man Utd!!

Danish terms

undersoegelse = examination
samlet = summary
tykkelse = thickness
bilag = appendix/annex
mappen = portfolios
Bemærkninger = remark
sten = stone
grus = gravel
ler = clay
modellen = the model

MSDS-women

Self-explanatory

Disclaimer for scientific reports

Limitations

The conclusions presented in this report are professional opinions based solely upon visual observations of the subject property and vicinity, on our interpretation of the available historical information and other data provided by (your source), and on our evaluation of the sampling and analytical results described in this report. They are intended exclusively for the purpose outlined herein and at the site location indicated. This report is intended for the sole use by (your client). The scope of services performed in execution of this investigation may not be appropriate to satisfy the needs of other users, and any use or re-use of this document or the findings, conclusions, or recommendations presented herein is at sole risk of said user.

Opinions and recommendations presented herein apply to site conditions existing at the time of our investigation and those reasonably foreseeable. They cannot necessarily apply to site changes of which (your company) is not aware and has not had the opportunity to evaluate. Subsurface conditions, including groundwater level and contaminant concentration may change with time.

There is no investigation that is thorough enough to preclude the presence of materials on the site, which presently, or in the future, may be considered hazardous. Some variations in subsurface conditions across a site cannot be fully defined by investigation. Hence, although the sampling targeted suspected sources of contaminants, it is possible that the measurements and values obtained from sampling and testing during the investigation may not represent the extreme conditions that exist within the subject property.

The scope of services performed is that which (your client) agreed to in light of its needs and considerations.

MU Frenzy

If you are not a fan of MU, I would suggest you give this posting a skip, else the videos would be painful for you to watch!!

Kings of Europe 2007/08



Champions of England 2007/08


Man United 7 - AS Roma 1

Nice video compilation... enjoy!!

Greener pasture

Migraine... err... I mean migrating.

Yeah, I am contemplating on whether to embark on this... as it seemed that the country is going nowhere (stagnant) but perhaps backwards in the years to come, judging by the things are going in the country and national issues that are affecting us, the not-so-privilege citizens whom are born in the country that is blessed with abundant natural resources and stability (geologically, meterologically etc.). Being born in this country doesn't guarantee my basic rights as a citizen to have a level playing field in education, employment opportunity or materialistic gain (e.g. property, automobiles). Of course in here I can't disclose them as explicit as I have it clearly 'worded' in my mind, as I would not risk myself or my family to intimidation, harassment or even being thrown in jail for saying things that are considered 'sensitive'. If you are resident of this country long enough, you will know what actually I'm trying to say here.

Gloomy prospect in the future for the country if things are the same as now, as far I can see la. I'm worried for my offspring, and the future generations of the not-so-privilege citizen would suffer the most. Can't seem to see the light at the end of the tunnel at this moment.

If even in my own country I am still considered the descendants of migrants, might as well go to another country as migrant and feed on the bigger economic cake there? Two or three within my group of contacts has emigrated, and I'm contemplating on whether I should take the big decision to migrate like them.

Is there still hope for this country?

Mind games

If someone put you in the bad light and make you feel like you are the devil in the company by he himself acting as a 'victim' and 'seemed' to be victimised by you, how would you react to this play-acting? One more thing, this bugger is much more senior in the company and has lots of connection (upright, sideways and downright).

Should you just keep quiet and let him have his way? Or should you retort by reporting to the higher management and make a fool of yourself as you cannot explicitly prove it?

As the big boss in the company, how would you react if you find two key personnel in your company feuding on who shall take responsibility on certain tasks that were already clearly defined and documented in their scope of work?

As a responsible person, should you just close one eye and let bad things happen only to find out later that you could intervene/manage it from the beginning? What if the other person somehow knows that you'll intervene and hence let you do all the troubleshooting for him?

I say it is damn bloody unfair and its clearly a one-sided affair.

What say you?

It's complicated

I have a friend, and he's entangled in an office conflict.

He resigned from a reputable MNC firm and joined his former boss' company, which coincidentally his first company since graduating from university. He was reluctant to jump ship at first, knowing the fact that his former supervisor would feel displaced if my friend make a comeback to the office. But he was reassured that he'll be given a different role and poised to 'lead' a new division of the company to do consultancy jobs. So he leaped on, without any tangible backup.... and practically burned the 'bridge' behind him when he chose not to be interviewed by his management during his exit from the MNC firm.

In the 'new' office, there are two 'heads'. So when my friend hopped in, he's the third head. The 'old' head was my friend's former supervisor, when he was a fresh grad... junior staff. And the 2nd head, Snr Project Manager is super envious (based on body language, spoken words & actions) of my friend, and very kiasu.

Hmm... for ease of reference, I would now refer my friend as 'dragon', 2nd head as 'dog' and the old head as 'pig'.

Dragon, dog and pig are all reporting to the CEO. Being an old staff and as an act of face saving, the pig managed to convinced the CEO to promote him as an 'adviser', having served his capacity as a general manager in the past few years with directorship status in hand. But pig poured all out to the dragon last year, saying that he had lost his dignity if he decided to take up the contract agreement (strip his directorship status, but all benefits remained) with a validity period of one year. Meaning, the pig now is on yearly contract, and he kept bragging about how the CEO pleaded with him to stay and sign 5 years contract, to which the pig said he refused (sure or not I do not know lar... ar but then why the CEO only offered him one year contract instead of 2 or 3 or 5 years before he said no?). Anyway, the pig seemed to forget about his talk to dragon (when dragon came to talk to the CEO about his offer) about saving his dignity when he chose to accept the one year contract with the company last year. Talking about going on freelance and team up with the company's competitor in Johor konon... but in the end he would rather eat his words rather than leaving the company with dignity (as he said earlier about not signing the contract which strips off his directorship status) and work his butt off outside. The pig asked the dragon whether he should stay, and the dragon said 'why not' because pig has still school going kids to feed... and he's way over the retirement age already (married late). The dragon still has respect for the pig, because after all, the pig was his first mentor in his working life after graduation from university. But the pig took the dragon on a ride during a task which the dragon was involved. In one assignment, the dragon was looking for some suitable pictures for the company's powerpoint presentation and he pointed out some photos to match a theme of the presentation, to which the pig said those photos are not related to the theme. So the dragon left out the said theme, only to be queried by the CEO. And when the dragon said there were no photos to show, the CEO said the pig can point out some photos to the dragon, and the pig nodded. What??!! Earlier the pig said none to the dragon, but now it's the other way around. Obviously the dragon has been made to look like a liar or fool in front of the CEO because of the pig and now the dragon would never believe what the pig says anymore! So now the pig is on the 'watch out' list of the dragon.

The 2nd head @ the dog took over pig's status as director, as well as his shares in the company. Knowing the company has not been performing under the pig, the CEO had recalled the dog back into the company, promising him 'carrots' in order to train him to take over pig's tasks and responsibilities. The dog is shallow minded and always assess things from a short-term perspective. The dog has said to the dragon before, that he would do ANYTHING for money. So after listening to the dog, the dragon knows he cannot afford to belittle the dog; hence the dog now is the 2nd person on dragon's watch out list. Well, I guess when the dog decided to rejoin the company, little that the dog knows that it is hard to overturn a company and make it a profitable one if the management doesn't change. For change to happen, the management must first change first right?!!

The plot begins when the dog came to know that the dragon, a new comer into the fold, was offered directorship... not only one...but two, including a newly formed company. And although the dragon has half working experience under his belt compared to the dog, his knowledge on the technical and know-hows are much greater. That include report writing, utilising softwares, costing, management and using techie gadgets etc.

To be continued........

Historic milestone for geologists in Malaysia

It has been confirmed!

16/7/08, Wednesday at 11.43am.

That the much and long awaited bill has been passed in the Parliament... Geologist Bill 2008. Indeed this is a significant event for fellow geologists in the country, particularly those who are involved in jobs 'on-land', e.g. engineering geologist, site geologist etc.

Without the bill, geologists play second fiddle to engineers in the country, particularly those in the engineering field. Eh... who knows the ground better ar... engineer or geologist? Of course geologist la! Duh! How can someone (non-geologist) sign or certify a report that is prepared by geologist? And why geological input are put aside as far as anything on the ground is concerned? Imagine this: Moderately to highly weathered argillite ROCK (undergoing physical and chemical weathering, degrade and decompose over time), but when drilled into and sampled, it is described as sandy SILT (can't say clayey SILT according to BS 5930 konon). Hoho... that's a huge mistake... 'rock mass' now being classified as 'hard soil' (N=50). Another example: Drilled 3m into rock and borehole terminated, because one would think the rock is actually 'bedrock' ('continuous' laterally), but in actual fact, the rock is actually a huge boulder sitting on residual soil and the actual bedrock is 10m deeper. But because geological input is 'missing', piling was executed and terminated at the boulder level, but strangely, pile lengths are too short at some points.... why? Wrong interpreted 'bedrock' depth lar! So, the project cost will balloon up and based on the current price of steel bars, the profit margin of the project may be lost even before its completion!

Some people never learned. Even tragedies like landslides that caused the lost of lives and properties can't seem to change the mindset of policy makers or some engineers that some geological input would have stopped these tragedies from happening. A good example I can think of right now is the rockfall at Bukit Lanjan. Although I don't recall someone being killed in the rockfall event, I did remember the hardships (super traffic jams) that the road (or rather highway) closure that had caused.... affecting thousand of motorists on daily basis for more than half a year. A simple rock slope stability after the blasting of the rock slopes could have stopped this rockfall from occurring. A daylighting joint that provides the sliding plane for the blocky rocks could have identified and mitigating measures such as removing the 'loose' blocks of rocks could have been carried out.... and surely the rockfall incident could have been avoided. But I wonder whose money was spent on cleaning up on the mess there? I hope it is not the tax payers' monies. An act of God konon... very irresponsible statement by the minister when asked about the likely cause(s) of the rockfall.

Sinkholes. Settlement. Subsidence. Is your area affected by these? If the answer is yes, your place could have been:
i) a mining area in the past (mining going below ground surface)
ii) a soft ground being backfilled and insufficiently compacted or lack of foundation works
iii) an area that is underlain by karstic limestone (meaning some cavities or voids within the limestone)

Frankly speaking, I'm not a super expert. But if you see significant signs that like any of the above, best is to contact the geological survey department to find out the 'history' of the land. So before you buy a land, why not ask the advice of geologist first before committing yourself to sign the sales and purchase agreement? He/She could have save you lots of money repairing the possible defects on your property... but how to monetize the run-around and time lost in the getting the repair being carried out or identifying the real problem? And peace of mind? That's priceless....

So why not learn more about the profession and let us contribute something to the society in return? But please, we are just humans and we can't see 'through' the ground or hills okay... if we can do that, we would have been super rich, being able to locate primary tin, gold or economical ores/deposits in the subsurface!!!

And being a young chap like me that holds two professional affiliations at one time is not very common eh.... so must salute me when you see me... hehehehe.... just joking here ok.

Anyway... boss, if you are reading this, I need a pay rise. I'm not greedy lar... 50% increase pun jadi lar ... this is to keep myself from being caught up in the high cost of living due the ballooning inflation rate that is predicted to go over 8% this year...


Remediated cut slope (with retaining wall) somewhere along the 'new' east-west highway... between Karak and Kuantan. Judging by the shape of the failure, it looks like a circular landslip. But who cares? Cut the slope and repair later wat... toll payers' are paying for the repair, the contractor and engineers will be laughing all the way to the bank...

Bug reporter for hire!

If you are a software developer and you would like to collate feedbacks about potential bugs (bug reporting) or gather constructive comments on how to improve certain aspects of your new applications, do drop me an email at tkurus@gmail.com.

I've always like to explore new software/applications.... and some of the ones that I'm familiar with are, but not limited to:
RESIX Plus, AGI EarthImager 2D, RES2DINV, FIRSTPIX, REFRACTION, Aarhus Workbench, Visual MODFLOW, Surfer & Rockworks.

There are more applications in addition to the above, but these are the ones that I am most familiar with. I would say most of them are related to 'geoscience' and 'modelling'.

Why me?

I have strong analytical skills, with some background in programming. It is usual the case where I've always try to 'push' new applications to its limits.... forcing it to produce bugs/errors such as these:

More bugs discovery meaning less complaints from potential clients/users. So why not try me out today?

Geophysical training programme

Participated in a geophysical training programme since last Monday, courtesy of Danida. We had a visiting professor from Aarhus Universitet of Denmark to share Denmark's technology and knowledge in multi-electrode profilling (resistivity survey). We managed to carry out 4 resistivity profiles, with an accumulated distance of 1.7km over 2 locations. The first location is within a prominent golf course in Kuala Lumpur territory, and the second, on a vacant land somewhere in Lembah Beringin (exact location is not disclosed, don't want to get sued).

This week's training module is a follow-up training that we first had in Denmark, back in March this year. Being exposed to 2D resistivity in the past, this training module is more like an affirmation for me, because I've already have had some basics back in uni days and extensive experience using this technique for groundwater exploration in Perak . But this training module is an added knowledge to me because a relatively new array, i.e. gradient array is being adopted for the acquisition of field resisitivity data. Apparently this array is a rojak between dipole-dipole, Wenner, Schlumberger etc. arrays, and widely used in Denmark for subsurface imaging. But I've always pondered if this widely used array in Denmark can be successfully applied here, on our terrain. The reason being is, in Denmark, the land is generally flat and underlain predominantly by sediments. And here on our terrain the geology is a complex one, we have all sorts of rock and formations - igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, you name it. And there is also limited papers describing the usage of the gradient array on tropical land like Malaysia, where we experience more vigorous weathering.

I was wrong eh... the signal over noise ratio for gradient array was so impressive that a profile conducted profile over electrical cables doesn't seemed to be affected that much and there weren't many negative readings as compared to other array that I've used before, e.g. pole-dipole (forward or reverse) and dipole-dipole. And looking at the pseudosection derived from the gradient arrangement, I think this array is the best to apply when you're carrying out a resistivity survey. But the downside is, over a profile of 400m long, the depth of penetration that you can expect is between 40-60m below ground surface, which is kind of shallow for 'our' standard. A quick look at the pseudosection that I've generated using the data acquired in Perak last year indicate that penetration depths were generally greater, whereby for pole-dipole and dipole-dipole arrays, the penetration depths are generally 90-100m and 50-70m, respectively.
But anyway, it's an eye opener for everybody because this is one rare opportunity where we actually have had a visiting professor from Denmark to teach us and share his knowledge on resistivity survey.

Working in Brunei

8 - 11/8/06

Site 1


This was the first ever site that I've worked on in Brunei Darussalam. Pretty interesting site where soil, sediment, groundwater and surface water are required to be sampled. And this was my first site that I had actually used a Van Dorn sampler for surface water sampling, and improvised a method for sampling soft sediments at the bottom of a pond. Completed all soil/sediment/gw/sw samplings with the help of colleagues in the record time... of three working days!! But it was pretty scary on the boat when we were carrying out the sw sampling and sediment sampling since we can't see the bottom and the overgrown underwater weeds keep 'grabbing' our equipments that were lowered down into the pond for probing/measurements.

Well, for the samplings within the pond area, the initial idea was to build platforms to 'reach' out to the sampling points.... but then again it will be very expensive (materials priced in BND) and building 4 or 5 platforms will be too time consuming. And we are a bunch of environmental sampling experts and not foundation engineers, where we need to calculate the proper strength of the materials and structure (platform) before we could actually put our weight on it. And then there was also an idea to build a pontoon... but then again, it won't be as stable as a boat. So since I am the de facto project manager of this site (and my colleague chose to be in charge over the 2nd site), we decided to go on a boat with peddlers, to carry out the sediment and sw sampling. For the sediment sampling, we tried using Ekman grab/dredge/bucket, but the soft sediments 'disappears' before we could lift the sampler out from the surface of the pond, and that warrants for plan B. But what's the plan B? No such plan.... heck... so in the first day of sediment sampling, we failed to retrieve sufficient sample... not even in decent volumes to fit into a single soil jar!

Pondered hard overnight over the predicament (sediment sampling), and suddenly the sampling mechanism of 'geotube' and obtaining undisturbed sample via Mazier sampling (from experience working at KL Pavillion site for 6 over months) came into the picture and voila... I took my chances and ordered 4-5 nos of 3m lengths of 1.5" dia uPVC pipe the following day, got on the boat, used a handheld GPS to get to the sampling points, whacked the short uPVC into the sediment 'beds', cap them (liken to close the tip of a straw to retain the liquid inside), pull them up, cap and seal the bottom. The next step is to drain out the water column inside the uPVC, else the water will mix the sediment up and it will be an impossible task to differentiate the sediment at the top surface and the required sample at 0.5m below it. So I took a small drill (that was mean for riveting) and drill some holes within the water column in the uPVC pipe, but very near to the top surface of the sediments, for draining the water out from the pipe. Mind you, this wasn't an easy task because the pipes aren't transparent, so I had to rely solely on my sound judgment. So after the draining task, the next step is to remove the sediment samples from the pipe... easy except for one... the rest is just like laying logs in the toilet bowl, if you know what I mean ;-p

GW sampling - easy lar, same as soil sampling. Surface water sampling is a bit tricky, because we're in the boat somewhere in the pond area... windy at times and it would be an arduous task to attempt rinsing or decontaminate the sampler after each sampling (at three different depths, if my memory didn't fail me lar). And some more challenging because there were so many bottles to fill up i.e. preserved and unpreserved plastic bottles (for testing of metals and inorganics, I think), glass 500ml and amber 1L bottle (more bottles for duplicate).

Drilling and installing monitoring well is somewhat challenging, since the site is predominantly underlain by silty fine SAND with high water table. And mind you, we did not engage a drilling contractor for this job (PM quoted less to build bridge with the client). But with Makkal Sakti of few Filipinos, we managed to pull this through and wrap up all the work by the third day.

Paintballing - a masculine sport?

Had the first paintball outing with friends last week at a place near Kemensah waterfall. This place is called Isi Rimba camp... sorry, I have no GPS co-ordinate for this place. But roughly, this camp is located to the north of the National Zoo in Hulu Kelang. Paid RM 70 for 100 paintballs and the rental of some gadgets.

Face masks is a must for the game, no safety vests provided but military style baju were provided to the girls only (double-standard lar!). The gadget for shooting the paintballs are called markers, and not guns. The paintballs that are loaded into a compartment above the frame of the so-called markers, are rounded paint-infilled membrane-like balls that has roughly the diameter of 10 sen, which can only break if you squash them hard. So being a first timer, I was trying hard to break them by throwing at friends.... but to no avail lar. And then I saw a pressure gauge on the marker, and the little arrow in the gauge indicate 800 psi!! Wow... that is almost 4 times the pressure of the tires of the car I'm driving (car tires are about 220 psi, so you know now)... no wonder it won't break if you just throw them. So dun pray pray ar, this marker can shoot up to 800 psi powered balls, be careful not to shoot your friends at point blank, else they'll end up having rounded bruises on their skin!!

Out of 3 rounds, I've ended up the first to be shot in my team for 2 consecutive rounds. I was shot at my head (in the first) and butt (in the second round). In the first round, I was shot by someone who is supposed to be dead after being first shot by me. To my amazement, the paintball didn't break and I ended up standing like a dummy and being a target in return. I think I've actually undermine this friend's aiming because despite knowing that she was shooting towards my direction, I was so engrossed shooting at one guy in her team... more or less I was being trigger-happy lar, but unfortunately I got shot first. Hehehee... so shiok shooting at people and suddenly... ketepapp... kena my face mask and I'm out already from the game that have barely just started a couple of minutes. Apparently during the 2nd round, I went to the opposition's side too fast that I didn't notice someone on my left (about 8 o' clock direction, to be precise). I'm not giving an excuse but honestly, with the face mask that you're supposed to wear, you'll have blind spots on your left and right.

Tips for successful paintballing:
1. Use fog-free face masks;
2. Have skinny girls in your team, they are good at eluding shots and difficult to shoot at;
3. Have plump or overweight (sorry tikus!) people in your team, because fats underneath their skin can be good absorbers (the paintball won't break, just bounce off them... seriously!!);
4. If your opposition shoots to your left, meaning you can attack on their right;
5. Most successful shots are diagonal ones, so do not think that you can easily shoot straight to someone hiding behind the obstacles... might as well save your limited 'bullets' to use them to your best advantage; and
6. It's always better to attack in numbers.

Traveling to India

India site (sometime in 2006)
MIDC, Taloja Industrial Area
District Raigad, Taluka Panvel
Maharashtra 410208, India

This was my first oversea stint with a MNC that is headquatered in US. Being a newcomer in the company, I was fortunate that a 'senior' from Singapore office will be there to mentor me. I remembered being happy as this was my first trip to India, but I was kinda reluctant later on because my son was just a few weeks old and I will be away for at least 2 weeks. Fortunately for me, I have found a baby sitter in PJ through a recommendation of an ex-colleague of mine in that company. This aunty and her husband takes very good care of my son when I was not around, treating him like their own grandson (still no grandchildren at that time). Wife has got a driving license but she has no confidence in driving my manual transmission car in metropolitan city like KL where there are many impatient, inconsiderate and notorious drivers on the road.

Ok, coming back to the India trip. The flight from KL to Mumbai took about 5 hours and again, this was the longest flight I've ever had, the longest being flights from KUL-KK-Tawau, which took more than 2.5 hours. One thing I took noticed about is the uniform of the steward and stewardess in the plane... and of course the 'smell', if you know what I mean. Not much of entertainment in the flight as long as I remember, but the journey back home via 777 was much better, as there is a personal LCD screen in front of my seat where I can choose a variety of entertainment, from music clips, movies and past tv shows.

I took an afternoon flight to Mumbai, and reached at the airport there quite late in the evening. I was on the lookout for Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol...but no signs of them or other bollywood actors/actresses that I know. And there wasn't any poster or signboard depicting their picture pun. At the airport, my colleague and I booked a taxi to take us to Panvel area where our hotel is located. Being on a vehicle in India for the first time can be a scary thing. I thought Malaysian drivers are notorious, obviously I have not been to India where the drivers are super notorious! Err... I don't mean all drivers are like that but the way they drive on the road i.e. swerve from one side to another, going into the lane of the opposite direction knowing that vehicles are coming over and honking practically all the way to get through busy streets.. were just too much for me... I remembered I've got a bad headache. Being on a busy street in Mumbai can be chaotic.... betul-betul kecoh because seems like every vehicle is honking... even the back of lorries it's writen "pls honk".

Hotel where I stayed was kinda comfy, but I'm not a fan of jasmine flower or its smell lar. Pity me... I can't stand the smell and yet every morning somebody will put some fresh jasmine flowers on my coffee table. The smell to me is repulsive lar...but after a few days I've kinda immune to the smell already. The hotel room was clean but the water from the toilet smells really strong...of chlorine. I guess the sanitation of water is important in India, since there could be a possibility that the source is tapped from the subsurface (groundwater).

Food was very spicy, and because I have a sensitive stomach, I couldn't help but to start each day in the morning in the toilet...getting rid of 'stuff 'my system. Roti canai was very common... but it is called paratha here in India. There are so many types of paratha, but the best I've tasted was the one with lots of onion and with some potatoes and minced meat in it... can't remember what it was called back then already... more than two years since my trip back then. Even at this time when I'm blogging about my trip to India, some things like the name of the hotel or which direction I took to my project site all seemed to have lost in my memory box. But I still remember the beer I took though... Kingfisher. There are two types of beer...the common one is the one with 4% alcohol and the other being the stronger brew i.e 8%. The stronger one was darker in colour and I remembered seeing stars after walloping the third bottle at my last day at the hotel. Eating was not much of a problem, since there is a restaurant in the hotel, and being a foreigner and barely understand the native language there (Hindi), I was not that adventurous to walk out from the hotel and look for food along the street or at the nearby town. TV was boring, as most of the channels were showing Indian programmes... nothing like the ones back home.

Going to the site and coming back to the hotel was easy, as we have a driver pre-arranged from the hotel and it wasn't that expensive to hire one, as long I can remember. For lunch, either we pack from the hotel or we ask someone to tapau for us. Eating food from stalls along the street is not recommended by another colleague of mine, who has travelled extensively to India, and being someone who has a sensitive stomach, I would rather have same lunch set (fried rice) everyday rather than batlling the pain over the toilet bowl.

The site was just like another construction site back home, but it's kinda different here because there weren't any Indonesian or Bangladehis, but mostly the lower caste Indian citizens. It is a reality here in India that people are still differentiated by the caste rankings. In general the higher 'class' of people here speaks Hindi, but the labourers on-site were speaking either in Telegu or Tamil.. sorry I can't tell the difference lar. So to get things going for us, we need a supervisor that communicates both in Hindi and Telegu/Tamil. And it was a sorry sight at the place where I was working, as I can see children as young as 2-3 years old walking around barefoot and picking up things from the construction site, something that they can play with. Older childrens and some adults were seen taking shower on-site, using piston-like pump to extract gw from the ground. Older children, perhaps in their teens were seen helping their parents (including women) carrying things like steel bars, bricks and crusher runs. Unlike back at home, construction work here is very labour-intensive and the labourers here are super underpaid, overworked and underfed.

It took us 3 days to see the first completion of the monitoring well, whereby it was the first time that I see a drilling machine is powered by human touch (using the leg to control the 'drop' speed of a metal bailer via pulley, sorry no picture to illustrate this). Cannot tahan already with the slow progress of the drilling work, we bombarded the dilling supervisor, asking him to bring in a proper drilling machine and people (some of them wearing singlets, either barefoot or wearing slipers!) to do the job. And I was being pushy and impatient towards the drilling contractor because I missed home and my newborn son so much lar... So it took a while before drilling company (based in Delhi, but sub it to another drilling contractor based in Mumbai) proposed to use a hand auger to do the drilling work. Skeptical we were, because there were so many construction refuse and hard material at the first point that we took three days to complete it using a half man-half machine to drill. We took our chances and we were suprised that the drilling was damn fast that we completed the second well in barely in a day! Wow... talking about labour power!! So barely in a week after the first point, we wrapped up our work there and headed home after about 1.5 weeks there in India.

Looking for ice or dried ice (for the cooler boxes which contained the samples) is a challenging task in India. Sorry, there's no convenience store like 7-11 or store alike, and the coffeeshops are very reluctant to sell their ice to us. Luckily our driver was very understanding and he suggested that we hunt for ice-cream man, of which we did found one and he directed us to the place where he bought blocks of ice for his own use. So after doing a bit of searching, we did manage to find one ice seller and suprisingly, he got chunks of ice on his tricycle, covering them with gunny sack! It was damn hot in the afternoon, and I can see the ice is melting away and water drips like rain. The driver became our interpreter and asked for some small chunks of ice. The ice seller took a small block, put on the kerb by the roadside and chops it into small chunks. And that was when I pondered what would happen if the coffeeshops got the ice from this man, wrapping the ice with gunny sack and chops the ice on the roadside, and later ended up in your cold drink. Eww... imagine the fibres from the gunny sack and dirt from the roadside melekat to the ice... sure sakit perut wan!!

So after 1.5 weeks in Panvel area, before we headed home the following day, we took a short ride to nearest town 'with a shopping complex', somewhere in Thane area. Bought some Punjab baju and dupatta for my wife and mom, and bought a toy train for my son. Only bought Basmati rice for myself, although I was actually eyeing on some gemstones and rock from India. Expensive they were, so I had decided not buy those but took back some 'souvenirs' from the site for remembrance (basalt and some minerals infilled within the vesicles).

Come to think of it now, I am grateful for being given the chance to travel to India, at least I can see what it is like to live & work in another country. Got diarrhea for 2-3 days after getting home, I wonder why.

Bukit Gasing

Let's hike Bukit Gasing before unscrupulous developers clear the green areas!!

Bukit Gasing is underlain by Kenny Hill formation, consisting of phyllite and quartzite (being the metamorphic equivalent of shale and sandstone).

I came to know a couple of days ago that the best trail to take at Bukit Gasing is the one at the south. Hmm... don't know when I will have the chance to go there lar... :-]

Work & travel in Philippines

11/6/07 - 13/6/07
Makati, Quezon City and Ortigas Center, Pasig City.

First timer in Philippines, settled for a 3 star hotel in Makati area, part of Metro Manila. Known as the financial capital of the Philippines (Ph), it was at Makati that I really had a good look at the jeepneys on the road, very similar to mini buses (like the one we have in KL in 70s, 80s and early 90s) in terms of its modus operandi.

But there's no button to press to signal the driver if you want to get down... all you have to do is flick your finger to the 'ceiling' of the jeepney or say 'para', which means 'get down'. And it can be quite congested in it at times, 20 or more can be squeezed in one jeepney...but I've seen somewhere there were 4 or more people hanging dangerously at the back of the jeepney!! Fuyooh.... too bad no photo of that to show here.

One more thing that impresses me is that the driver is also the conductor who collects the money from the passengers. And if you are seated right at the back, just be assured that the person sitting or standing (hardly straight because of the height of the vehicle) next to you will pass the money to the driver. Well, you'll get to see the jeepneys all over Philippines... except for some rural areas where tricycles (like taxi) are available for hire. Well, apart from Makati, I had the opportunity to visit Quezon City...but still no signs of balut though...



Attended a permit training by Ph's O&G company at a contractor's office building in Quezon City. Believe it or not, at the top floor there is some space for the workers to have lepak and some recreational activities ...there's table tennis table, carrom & dartboard etc. There is also a prayer room, as shown in the picture on the left.







Feeling proud after the training and endorsed as a permit issuer after passing my exams with flying colours (96%), little that I know of the hardships and challenges that awaits me in the next few days of my work in Ph.... of which I will be sharing with you in a short while... read on if you have the time...















Captured the above photo in Pasig City when I was somewhere near my company's local office, staying up quite late to work on an ESA report for a PJ site back home, in which I have just completed the site work about a week earlier. I had to juggle my time between working on the report (deadline in a week's time) and preparing all the documents and cross-checking the field supplies that I will need for my sites here in Ph. My preparation for the work in Ph didn't go on smoothly as I have thought earlier as the project manager in charge didn't communicate with me properly (cilakak betul!) on the order of which site I need to tackle first (different from the one given on paper), in view of lack of field supplies (well covers, slotted pipes, sampling jars/containers etc.). Because of that, I had to wait for 2-3 days before embarking on my first site for drilling. And since I had to wait for the lab results to complete my report for the PJ site, I offered myself (duh!) to do PI over the weekend. Wat a mistake... I should have kept quiet and make full use of my time in Manila to travel around. Anyway, I did manage to travel around with a driver arranged by the company, but to do PI on designated sites only and the following is the chronological order of my site visits.

14/6/07
Calauan & Nagcarlan, Laguna and San Jose, Batangas.

All 3 sites in one day's work!! Reached back to the hotel very late... how do I know I was very late? Cos there were so many chickens on the streets already... serious!! The sad thing is, my dear colleague Pillay is leaving to the north of Manila the next day, so I won't be seeing him for another 2 weeks the least.

15/6/07
Guinobatan & Pio Duran, Albay and Milaor, Camarines Sur.

Got up early to catch a flight to Legazpi airport from Manila (took off from the newer airport and had to pay airport tax for nothing!), carried out 3 PIs (more like 2.5) in a day within Bicol region before call it a day in Naga City.

Photo above: Quick shot towards Mt Mayon, after Legazpi airport

The first site was at Guinobatan. On my way to this small town I had the privilege to see the magnificent Mt Mayon, which was last seen blurting out pyroclastic materials back in January 2007. At Guinobatan the pyroclastic materials can be seen easily along the road side and on river banks. While I was walking around to do the PI, I came across two people squatting by the road side and there were many empty water containers surrounding them. I came closer and that's when I realized that they were pumping groundwater into the empty containers. I was so impressed by the quality of the groundwater that I cupped a mouthful of water and.... nope I didn't drink it... I just smelled the water.

At Guinobatan town I took the opportunity to ask some people at the municipal office about the next site located in Pio Duran, but I was apprehensive about going there after I was advised not to go there out of safety reasons. My driver said it's ok since I'm going there in the afternoon, but it is not advisable to go there in the evening or night because that's when the New People's Army (NPA) will come down from the nearby jungle to get their daily necessities. Being a foreigner, I was worried about my safety and I decided to call the project manager (Pm) to ask him whether I should proceed with the plan or not. He said he didn't know about the security concern at the Pio Duran site, but he said it should be ok. His assurance wasn't enough, so I told the driver that I might give this site a skip, and hence reduce my tambang. He then approached one of the locals there and somehow he got to know where owner of the station at Pio Duran. I agreed to meet with the owner (staying in one of the town after Guinobatan, forgot liao...)as I have to do some interview to get some details on the station's set-ups.

Met the owner's sisters and brother, very nice and hospitable family, they even offered me lunch, which I'd politely declined. I told them about my concern about visiting their station, but they reassured me that it is quite safe to be there in the day time. Soon after the interview, I left for Pio Duran, which took me about one hour over hilly, winding and bumpy road into some forested area to which I have no idea where I was. I saw a lot of wooden house along the way...very similar like the orang asli houses seen along the road to Fraser's Hill. I reached the town area sometime after noon and I was reluctant to get down at first because they were so many people staring at the van where I was sitting in. And I was still apprehensive thinking that I might be a kidnap victim of NPA, just like the kidnapping case in Sipadan whereby the people there were caught by MILF. I finally got down after 5 minutes and went straight to the station to do my work. After a while I felt quite safe after all the stares disappeared and walk around the town, in the vicinity of the station. Apparently the Pio Duran is a fishing village and things were pretty cheap here.

Next site: Milaor. Called the owner days earlier to inform about my arrival to the station for PI, she said ok but she wasn't around when I was there. The person in charge could hardly speak English, and she wasn't informed of my coming and purpose of my visit, and that made her very unresponsive and stubborn during the interview. At first I sensed she wasn't comfortable with me, so I asked my driver to be the translator. And yet she was reluctant to cooperate in giving the information that I need. I lost my cool when she talked rudely to my driver and didn't have the courtesy to look at him or me when we were talking to her. Not getting much info from her after much persuasion, I decided not to waste time on that bit** and started to look around the station for answers. I saw three well covers within the vicinity of the station and this discovery made my PI easier la... but I was damn hairan why this station was included in the project. Since all the wells were done in the past by my company, why didn't they do some checking first before sending people out to do the PI? What a waste of time and resource!! And when I informed the Pm about the existing wells, he suggested that I take the groundwater samples, to which I asked him how. Excuse me, how many people would bring along bailers, sampling containers and cooler box etc. to carry out PI? NONE, right? Bodoh punye Pm!

Mentally and physically drained after the 3rd site (all in a day's work), I instructed the driver to the nearest place where I can find a decent hotel. So he suggested Naga City because he's quite familiar with the road and he knew there's a couple of nice hotels there. So there I was at Naga City, overnight in Bicol Region for the first time.






















16/6/07
Naga City

Because the 17/6/07 is a Sunday and I'm not required to attend to any urgent site yet i.e. for drilling, the Pm told me two days earlier that it is not necessary for me to fly back to Manila (already pre-planned by him before I left for Legazpi the day earlier... and I remembered he said something like the air ticket was expensive.... cilakak betul!).

On my second day in Naga City, I am supposed to take a bus back to Manila, but unfortunately I missed the earliest bus. So I'm practically stuck in Bicol region! Well, apparently there were only two time slots for buses that leaves for Manila... I think it's at 6am and 6pm... and the traveling time is 10 hours!!! And because I had to work late finishing my report (yeah, lab results for the PJ site came out so soon that I hardly have the time to look at them and compile for my report) the night before, in which I had to practically stayed up until 4 or 5am! Barely had 2 hours of sleep, I got up, took shower, had breakfast, pack my stuff and was at the reception counter to check out. That was when I discovered I missed the first bus to Manila. I was advised by the receptionist to take the morning bus the following day (17/6/07) instead of taking the evening bus on the same day (16/6/07), whereby I could be reaching Manila around 4 am the following day. So when the receptionist told me about the two (only) time slots for buses to leave for Manila I was actually stunned and lost for words la... firstly because I didn't expect there's only 2 trips to Manila from this so-called city... and secondly because I don't have much Pesos with me. Thank God this hotel accept credit cards as payment (including payment for room service... makan in the room shiok mar... can baring and watch TV) so I don't mind staying over for another night here.

I was very lucky to manage the report (PJ site) that night and the following morning itself (had to rush for the report in view of my hectic schedule the following weeks) because my prodigal murid was so kind to stay up with me to receive my comments and make amendments to the report accordingly. Hah... lucky we are in the IT era... so communicating and exchanging work items although we are miles apart is not a problem lar... can use MSN messenger mar!! But in such a small town, there is barely internet access (sorry no cyber cafe here, very ulu indeed for a city!)... so I had to ask to use the hotel's office to access the internet. I think my charm actually helped me in getting me what I want (internet access la...)...*cough*..... * cough*....

Anyway at the Naga city I was compelled to walk around the hotel area and found a shoe shop. Bought a pair of sandals and that's it... my only 'purchased' souvenir from Naga. Went jalan-jalan a bit but there's nothing much to see except for an old church and a small park with a mini-memorial park located opposite of the church. What caught my attention was a figurine of Jesus lying in a see-through coffin in the church itself.... I snapped some photos, so check them out at flickr.

Got back to my hotel room before noon and started to work on my ESA and PI reports (six altogether!) after I had some baboy and rice for lunch in via room service. By the way, in the Philippines, I practically eat pork everyday.... yum yum... ;-)

17/6/07
Naga City & Makati City

Got up early the next morning so that I won't miss the morning bus again. Took for the first time a motorised tricycle all by myself (a hotel staff flagged one and told him I needed to go to the bus station and at the same time asked for the tambang). At the bus station I went from one counter to the next, hopping around from one end to another, either because the person at the counter doesn't understand English or because I wasn't sure which bus company would offer the least traveling time i.e. limited transit stops. Slightly confused and tired of carrying my luggage bag around, I settled for one decent looking bus to somewhere I can't remember but got mentioned 'Manila' and man... the 10 hours journey became 12 hours because of the mini-stops in between. Mak oi... bontot & tulang belakang sakit la... small bus...not much of space to move around... and certain routes the road conditions were bad... so bumpy.... no air-cond some more... man.. that was the longest bus ride of my life!! But getting on the bus wasn't much of a problem, the only problem is I didn't know where to stop in Manila... it's a metropolitan city and the bus driver just stopped me at a road side somewhere in Manila when I told him I wanted to go to my hotel in Makati. He doesn't speak much English, so were the people close to where I had this conversation with the driver. So I had to take my chance to get down since the bus was going somewhere which doesn't ring a bell to me at all. Got down from the bus, took my luggage from the bag compartment, walked to the nearest bus stop and flag down a couple of taxis, but all refused to use meter to go to Makati (I am short of cash, remember?). I think I waited for more than 20 mins before finally I flagged down one taxi driver who was obliged to take me in (using meter of course!). The journey was less than 15 mins and I was back at the hotel...phheewww... what a long day and I was relieved that I finally manged to find my way back to the hotel. But why do I have to go through all these troubles? Shouldn't the Pm make all the necessary traveling and accommodation arrangements for me? I was in forgiving spirit at that time, so I wasn't upset with him, yet.

18/6/07
Ortigas Centre, Pasig City & Makati City

Was back in Ph's office to await for the 'go-ahead' signal from the Pm to proceed to the first site for drilling. Got some stash of cash for the next few days. Here at Ph's office there is one dedicated person to do all the packing and checking of field supplies, but I felt he was a bit biased towards me when the things I had asked, readily available the week before, were given to others. In another words, he gave higher priority to others, although I made the request for field supplies the week before. Fine... maybe it's just my luck... so be it...I just can't wait to finish all the sites entrusted to me so that I can rush home to see my young son. Well, it was that day itself that I had found out that I will be going to my first site in Bulacan the following day. No mention about any changes to the original plan (in order of priority) for the sites... yet. Passed 4 out of the 6 PI reports to Ph's personnel for their documentation, hutang another 2 reports because I didn't manage to work on it the day before... too exhausted because of the traveling.

19/6/07 - 21/6/07
Sapang Palay, San Jose del Monte, Bulacan Province

Took a taxi (arranged by office) and the driver asked me where to stop in Bulacan. I was quite bemused that since he was arranged by the office, why didn't the Pm mention to him specifically where I needed to go in Bulacan? So anyway I took out my schedule which was given by the Pm (the same schedule that was used in a meeting with the contractor the week before) and told him that I wanted to check in to a hotel nearest to the first site on the list, which is Marilao (within the Bulacan province). So he gave me few options and I instructed him to take me to a hotel with resort in its name ('Grotto'... sounds like a nice place lar...not too far from Tungko market where I noticed there is a Jollibee outlet). So when we were there, he asked for money which I was obliged to give but wait a minute... isn't he suppose to take me to the site where I'll be working on? How am I suppose to meet the drilling contractor? Because it appeared that he has done his job and get paid already ('Bulacan' was the agreed place, little that I know that both Marilao and another site Sapang Palay in located within this large province), so he left the hotel area so swiftly that I didn't manage to ask him to take me to the Marilao site after checking-in at the hotel. The hotel rate was expensive, but the taxi had already left, I have no choice but to settle there (the taxi driver's info on the hotel rates was inaccurate). I paid the deposit and asked the person on the counter how to go to Marilao, and he didn't understand English, so I was referred to someone else. And I was told that there is no direct transport to Marilao, no taxis on the road unless they come from the city as I have came with earlier. And I was also told I'm quite far away from Marilao. I kinda panicked and called the Pm right away and told him the situation and the predicament I was facing at that time. But that was when he admitted that he instructed the taxi driver to Bulacan, but nearer to Sapang Palay (SP), which was the 2nd site on my list!!! I questioned him, but the excuse he gave was, he 'thought' we understood each other because lack of slotted pipes, I am required to go to SP first considering that we may not encounter groundwater at shallow depth (so just need to go to max 8m before terminating the dry borehole) there, unlike Marilao (predicted to have gw at shallow depth). PKMK betul .... I was so upset that I screwed him on the phone but I cooled down after he apologised to me. But when I asked him about the transport arrangement for me to go the 2nd site, he said I have to arrange it by myself. I told him I do not know where exactly I am at the present moment and he asked me to ask around (he doesn't know this place either) how to get to the 2nd site, which I did after asking so many ppl who can barely understand what I'm saying. I have to take a jeepney (jeep) across the street opposite the hotel, stop at a small jeep terminal and take another jeep to SP. Getting on the jeeps wasn't much of a problem (except for some knocks on the head because of the ceiling of the jeep) but getting down where you are supposed to be is a big, big problem if you don't know where the place is. So at the jeep terminal I managed to get a jeep, but I had problem communicating with the driver in asking him to tell me where to get down. I told him specifically that I wanted to get down at Sapang Palay's Shell Petrol Station. At one corner which appeared to me like a 'town' area, I asked him whether I can find the Shell station and he said yes. I got down from the jeep, look around, walk around a little bit but couldn't spot the station. I asked quite a number of ppl next to a 'jeep' stop, but all geleng kepala. I had almost lost hope, when there was this lady approached me and said she heard of me asking where I wanted to go and she offered me to take me viz jeepney. Her intended stop is right after the place where I had wanted to go and while in jeepney she also advised me how much I need to pay for the tambang and how to signal to the driver that I want to get down. Finally I was at the 2nd site, and the drilling contractor wasn't there yet as agreed the week before. The next few days when I was working there, I commuted daily from the site to the hotel and vice-versa via jeeps, carrying my bag with field supplies and PID. The 2nd day wasn't that bad, because I know where to get down and how much I need to pay for the ride. The earliest jeep was around 5am and the latest is around 8pm. There was one day I worked late (around 9pm I think) and missed the last jeep. I had no choice but to take a bus through some barangay areas (believe me, all these 'villages' look the same in the dark) to get to the jeep terminal. I was lucky because I managed to get on to the last jeep to head back to my hotel. All the workers stayed overnight at the station, sleeping on the pavement (first night) but slept in the quarter's room (belonged to the station) on the 2nd night. Because I instructed them to work so late on the 2nd day to keep up with our schedule (miss my son so badly already that time), they have no time to cook, so I offered them to buy dinner. And it was then I discovered that meat such as chicken or baboy is something luxurious to them...it is not something that they eat everyday. Located on a slope, there was no sign of water table (maybe hard to discern due to insufficient lighting), so we had to go to the max 8m into the stiff and hard heterogeneous colluvial deposit... using dry flight augering method some more... issh...it was really tough for the drillers and co. But I salute them for their professionalism, as there wasn't any dissent towards my instructions (unlike contractors back at home....sikit2 tak boleh masuk la... susah la....keras la...). The 2nd day was easier, as I have discovered the 1st bore was filled with water up to between 2 to 3m below ground surface. Based on my experience I know this is not the real water table but merely surface run-off. This discovery made our lives easier now that we don't need to drill another two 8m borehole to move on to another site. On the third day we completed the third well and moved to the 2nd site in Marilao (also in Bulacan province). Since I have no transport and the drillers have only one vehicle that is the drilling truck itself, I had no choice but to tumpang the truck. It was bumpy at times, but I enjoyed the view of the surroundings when I was sitting in it.

21/6/07 - 22/6/07
Marilao, Bulacan Province

Reached on the 2nd half of the day after SP site, started working after 2 hours rest. Practically easy site with ample working space, high water table, soft formation and hardly any hard stuff in the subsurface. Within that 2 hours I took the drilling supervisor with me to hunt down a hotel, riding around on a tricycle. The ride wasn't cheap, and the hotel rates weren't cheap either. Almost got frustrated and things got worse when it drizzled when my luggage bag was still at the back of the tricycle, uncovered. And because the 'driver' took a wrong turn, we ended up on a area whereby the roads are submerged with polluted river water (high BOD, COD etc., and smells of sewerage too... yuck!). Like I said earlier, the water table was high and I suspected some place will be submerged with water when the tide is high (not too far from a river that leads to the sea). So after 1 hour or so I finally settled down in a 'motel', ordered room service for myself and my guide (drilling supervisor) and the motel staff who carried my luggage to the room turned on the TV and smiling cheekily when he turned on the porn channel. Yeap...you read that right... porn channel!! Ahhh.... that explains why there is short hourly rates for the rooms there...1 hr....3 hours... etc... go figure!!

So after lunch, we worked late (8.30 - 9pm I think) to complete 2 wells. Moved on to the third one the following day, but encountered 2 concrete slabs, in which we thought the 2nd one to be a part of an old UST (PI done by sister company, but information not relayed to me by the Pm or the Ph's office staffs). I took the risk of asking the driller to penetrate it through and thank God it wasn't an old tank (spark sikit...kabooomm!!). Later in the afternoon, we proceeded to Angat, the last site within Bulacan province.

22/6/07 - 23/6/07
Angat, Bulacan Province

Another problematic site, reason being the owner was already informed about the purpose of our visit for assessment and yet reluctant to give us the 'go-ahead' to proceed, stating safety reasons. My guts tell me that she doesn't trust a foreigner like myself, although I have told her that I have completed 2 sites prior to this and no incident has occurred under my close supervision. After much persuasion and getting the regional engineer (in charge of her station) to explain to her again of our visit and assessment, she finally obliged to allow us to work, but with the condition that we must work at night after the station's operation hours only (11pm to 4 or 5am, if I'm not mistaken). I told her that's not quite possible because we have a tight schedule to follow and furthermore it's quite hard to see at night (based on our experience at the first site in SP). Then when she finally agreed for us to work in the day time, but she want to have a say where we can or cannot drill, to which I politely protest, saying that the designated locations for drilling is my purview and I told her to do that we have to consider the groundwater flow direction, safety aspects and sightings of surface contaminations. But I assured her that I will get her 'go-ahead' signal first before commence drilling on any point within the station's area. Unlike all the stations where I've worked with, this station is narrow in width and it was very challenging to drill with the big truck-mounted rig that was deployed to the site. Also at this moment, I did not have the privilege to see the information from the PI study, carried out by our sister company, so I do not know where is roughly the pipelines and the USTs. Judging by the presence of overhead transmission lines, pavements, reinstated tarmac and manhole covers at the station, I had to guess the safe points to drill, of which I could only envisage two within the station area. I took the courtesy to show the owner of the first point, to which she said yes. Ok, after 2-3 hours of drilling at this point, an old man came over to the driller and asked him to stop. Then the old man came to me and said in English: I want to know why are you drilling on my land? Oh man... I was so stunned and got pissed at the station owner for not informing me that the point where we are drilling, is actually a lease land to the station. And legally the old man owned that small strip of land within the station area. I had to apologise to the old man and explain to him the purpose of drilling and our assessment, to which I emphasize a lot on soil and groundwater assessment to see if there's any leakage within the station. As a dentist, he was very fluent in English and understood every word I said, and he finally agreed in principal (verbally) to let us do our work. And because of this hoo hoo haha thingy, I forgot that I have yet to look for a hotel and time was running out because it was getting dark already. Somehow there was a man came to the station and offered me a place across the street. It's more like a summer house in a sense that the owner will only come back once every blue moon to stay there. Already dead tired because of the traveling in the truck, the work at the station and psychological challenges that I had to endure on that day, I decided to take the offer although it is quite expensive by Ph's hotel standards. This guy who offered me the place, saw my weary face and asked if he can drive me (I have no transportation remember?) to the town for dinner. Without any hesitation I said yes. And he had to skip his weekly parish meeting in order to accompany us longer for the dinner. Not only that, he offered me Ph's breakfast at this house in the following morning... walau... how nice this good Samaritan ar!! In a way I feel blessed to meet this person but at the same time I feel kinda depressed pondering about all the difficulties that I faced so far in my course of work in Ph. Permitting, transportation and accommodation arrangements were the main setbacks that I faced here, besides having an uncaring Pm who only thinks of cutting down expenses and have weak management skills and can't make decision at critical moments. So on the following day, I had the best Ph's breakfast at the Samaritan's house; typical Ph's breakfast consisting of coffee, fried eggs and corned beef. Later, after the completion of my 2nd point, I called the Pm to inform him the status and suggested to him that we need a smaller rig to carry out further drilling due to 'safe' space constraint. He said it is not possible to do that because all other rigs already mobilise to other sites, but he said he will keep me informed on that matter. I had to wait long for his answer and tried calling him again, but to no avail. So I called up his deputy and explained the whole scenario and he advised me to move on to another site. So there I was, relieved as I would no longer want to take the risk of being there, drilling dangerously within a narrowly built station. Next stop: Tanay in Rizal Province. But before that, I had spent another night at Makati.

23/6/07 - 24/6/07
Tanay, Rizal Province

Was excited about this trip to Tanay, as apparently this town is located not too far from Laguna lake, reportedly the largest lake in Philippines. As I was traveling with the drilling team on its old truck mounted rig, I had a good view of the surroundings as we travel because of its height. The route to the Tanay site took more than 2 hours from Metro Manila because the road was narrow, winding and pretty hilly.... kinda tough on a old junkie like the one that I'd traveled on. And when you've reached the Rizal province, you'll get the chance to see the magnificent lake... like the shot you can see here. Interestingly, this province is the birthplace of Ph's national hero, José Rizal. Hmm... what a breathtaking view.... :-)

The Tanay site was pretty straight forward, high water table and easy to drill into with wide working spaces. Completed the site in 1.5 days, and I stayed overnight in 'apartel'... yeah...... a-p-a-r-t-e-l. I think it's a marriage between apartment and motel. Heck, such a lousy place but charging like a 3 or 4 star hotel. I was totally miserable when I was there... the water was cold (no water heater), the room smells, the floor was rough and the tv reception was bad. But one thing that I will remember about this place is that I was actually offered an escort girl via a 'bell boy' who actually brought another set of towels which I've already have in my room. He asked me if I like girls, to which I said yes (ehem... no naughty thoughts here ok!). But seeing his response (his command of English was barely understandable), I've got this strange feeling that he might have thought that I would like to have one girl to accompany me for the night or have some 'happy-happy' moments in my room. I was quick to say 'No' and then 'Not tonight', but he seemed to be confused. Then he asked me again if I like girls, to which again I said yes. I told him I'm tired, but he doesn't seemed to get it. He was damn persistent that he made the hand signals... copulating signs. OMG, this was my first time seeing and having a bapak ayam knocking on my door for 'room service'. I said one more 'No' at his face and resorted to slam the room door..... as I was already weary after hours of traveling on the truck mounted rig.... and we actually started to drill less than 2 hours after reaching the site. So by the time I reached my room, it was already pitch dark and my stomach was craving for solid food.

Pity the drillers... I was pushing them real hard... this was the fourth site within a week and I showed no mercy when I said I wanted to finish the site the following day. The reason why I was so pushy? Because I had missed my son so much (he's less than one year at that time) and all I have in mind is to finish all the sites allocated to me (5-7 sites) within 14 days. Kinda selfish but I have a tight schedule to follow too (given by Pm). So the next day we managed to complete the 2nd and 3rd point before lunch time, and moved to the next site in Nagcarlan, a town in Laguna Province. But before leaving the apartel with my luggage, I had a misunderstanding and arguement with a woman guarding the apartel, whereby I was asked to pay more since I'm checking out late. Actually she was quite friendly the day before when I asked about the room rates. Apparently there are two rates that I can take i.e. 12 hours or 24 hours. Since it was already late in the afternoon, I told her that I will be leaving early in the morning to work, leaving only my luggage behind, therefore it is not necessary to take the 24 hours one. She said ok for me to leave the luggage in the room and take the 12 hours rate as I told her that I will be coming back in the afternoon (before 12) to pick up my luggage and take a shower. Didn't suspect anything until the following day when I came back to the apartel to take my room key. Another guy was at the counter, unaware of the 'understanding' that I have made with the woman. He insisted that I pay more, to which I said no, insisting on him to check with the woman first. I've got my room key, had a quick cold shower and grab my luggage. And by the time I was at the reception counter to return the key, the woman was there and claimed that I misunderstood her and I retorted by saying she was the one misunderstood me. I told her, if she wouldn't have said ok to my request the day before, I would have paid in full for the 24 hours one. She was silent when I said this and gave me the fieriest stare I've ever had in years, but I was unmoved and insisted that she misunderstood me. Looking on outside of the apartel area were some people and when she noted there more people were looking at our direction, she finally gave in. I shook my head in regret (pretending only lar) when I put the keys on her palm and walked off through the main gate without looking back. And now as I'm writing this, I am wondering if all this boils down to the fact that I didn't use their special 'room service', to which they had desperately wanted me to. Cilakak betul!!

24/6/07 - 25/6/07
Nagcarlan & Calauan, Laguna and Calamba

Reaching Nagcarlan late in the afternoon from Tanay, I had limited time to look for a suitable place to call it a night. Apparently there is no hotel, motel or apartel in Nagcarlan and I had to rasuah the drilling supervisor to take me to the nearest town, i.e. Los Banos. Traveling on my own would have been a nightmare, as we have to take a jeepney to the town, asked for direction to the nearest hotel, take a tricycle from the jeepney terminal to the nearest hotel. Lucky the drilling supervisor was with me, and I offered to belanja him dinner via room delivery. Dead tired already, lucky got room service.. err... delivery. We ordered some food and ate like pigs. Seeing him so kesian, I offered him my room towel so that he could take a bath before making his way back to the site in Nagcarlan (yeap, it is common for the drilling team to stay overnight at the station). The room was in sorry state...no tv, no wardrobe, no hanger, smelly, stuffy, no window except for a small one in the toilet, no toilet seat, 'stains' all over the bedsheet and pillows (yuck!)... and paling teruk were the stains on the walls.... including chewing gums! Double yuck! Just like other nights I was dead tired already when I step into my room and it wasn't difficult for me to knock off for the night. Like the previous day in Tanay, I had cold shower (super chill water) in the morning before checking-out.... no damn water heater in this place lar! Took my heavy luggage and got the hotel staff to flag down a jeepney that passes through Nagacarlan town.

My luggage was so huge that it looked kinda out-of-place in the jeepney...but what to do... my Pm was so stingy that he didn't get a driver to drive me around the sites that I have to attend to. Thank God I wasn't lost (since the S.Palay misadventure) or getting mugged or anything like that when I travel alone in barangay areas.

We started drilling only the following day as requested by the drillers, with the condition that we finish all three points on the same day. After getting the go-ahead from the owner who lives next to the station, we proceeded with drilling, completed the first one and was about to go down approximately 1 - 2m at the second point when trouble comes. Two man claimed to be from the municipal office came to check on us and ordered the driller to stop drilling. The reason? They said we needed a construction permit to drill within the station, to which I said ridiculous lar, firstly because we are drilling on a private property to which the local municipal got no say and secondly, we are not doing any construction works. I called the Pm and he said it's better not to cause any 'problem' with the local municipal and advised me to move out to another site in Laguna province. Cilakak betul... all this permitting thing should be done earlier rightfully the owner with the assistance of our client (O&G company) and I don't need to be on the receiving end of this 'problem'. On one hand I felt disappointed for not being able to finish off this site as planned, but on the other hand I was happy because I can cancel out this site from my list! I managed to call the owner to explain our stand before we moved out but she actually asked me to wait for her return to which I said we can't wait because of the tight schedule we have and told her that my Pm instructed me to move out another site while waiting for our client to sort this permitting issue with the local municipal first. So we moved to another site in Calauan (also within the Laguna province) but apparently the news about the permitting issue reached there first before us.

At Calauan site the owner's wife said we can't do drilling at the station unless we have the letter from municipal to allow us to do so. But the owner was furious as he can't understand why a permission is needed as the drilling works will be on his land, and not the municipal's land. And moreover, he already agreed in principal to allow us to drill during the PI that I had carried out the week before. I called the Pm again to inform him of the situation and he had the same advise again: move out from there as it will take 2-3 days to 'settle' the permitting issue with the local town council. So I explained to the owner of our stand (to move out until the permitting issue is settled by our client) and I said there's no point of creating trouble with the local town council as it would affect him. By this time I've received a long distance call from my Pm back home to say that I will be needed for new Brunei jobs soon.

Calauan was the last site in Laguna province on my list, and as I have yet to receive the go-ahead for a site in San Jose (Batangas), I've got the permission from the Ph's office to head back to Manila. So we traveled back to Manila on the truck mounted rig via Calamba City. At Calamba, we were grounded for more than 2 hours because of a 'truck ban' for heavy vehicles leading to Manila. Because there were so many trucks and heavy machineries after the 'curfew' hours (9 or 10pm, forgot liao), we were stuck in a jam for more than an hour, and because there is no air-cond in our truck, we have to inhale smoke and dirt (dust, CO etc.) from the nearby vehicles. And I remembered I only reached my hotel room in Makati after midnight.

The following day I was in Ph's office in Ortigas, only to find out that a flight to KL has been arranged for me the day after next. Well, that's how I spent my two weeks in Philippines, and I only managed to buy the infamous pasalubong at the Ninoy Aquino airport. Ah... forgot about eating the balut...

Distances to Manila:
Makati, Metro Manila - 3km
Quezon - 6km
Pasig, Metro Manila - 11km
Marilao, Bulacan - 22km
San Jose, Bulacan - 42km
Angat, Bulacan - 52km
Tanay, Rizal - 53km
Calamba, Laguna - 52km
Los Banos, Laguna - 62km
Calauan, Laguna - 74km
Nagcarlan, Laguna - 102km
San Jose, Batangas - 96km
Legaspi - 550km