Jack Jack’s bla bla blog

    I’ve worked in HLB for 4 years, 4 memorable years. It’s time for me to take a big leap and try out a new job. It really takes a lot of courage to leave behind such a good environment and good colleagues. But still, you have to do what you have to do, right? I need more to sustain my newly formed family, if you get what I mean… hehe…

    I’ve landed in OCBC Bank. Well, it’s actually e2Power, a subsidiary of OCBC group. Started my new job on 28/8/2007. I have been on the field for 1 month now, so far so good. Good leader, good colleague, and good environment. 1 thing that I need to get used to is the EXTRA workload! Maybe I’m used to the easier life in HLB, or maybe not easy but at least I’m experienced enough to handle everything. Life is a lot tougher here at OCBC. The workload only seems to increase, never decrease. It’s hard to leave the office on time… usually around 7 - 8pm. I know it sound perfectly normal to some, but then again, I’m used to go back home at 5.45pm! Haha… Lazy me.

    I really learned a lot here, considering I’m doing something new. I’m trying hard to learn up AS/400 RPG programming. It’s really killing me! Maybe my brain is getting old, or maybe it’s the system that is too old for me. Very hard to tell… Now talk about my history. I started off in the 80’s with DOS batch and BASIC, just fill up my curiosity towards computer. Then I move up and started to explore every single thing I can find out about Windows. I’m the top scorer for C++ programming in my class during college. I’ve also learned visual basic. All seems so easy. I’ve even learn by myself the Matlab programming, the professional tools for complex mathematics programming. When I started my working life at HLB, I’ve learned about AIX, Linux, DB2, and Java. All without any help or training, only some basic command reference. But now, RPG seems so hard to me… why…

    Well, life goes on… so is the work. Just have to cope with it. Sure hope that everything goes well, that’s for me and you!

Yesterday afternoon, 22/7/2006, big wind and rain hit KL. I was in a car that time. Suddenly the sound of falling rain seems too loud to be normal. When I look closely, it’s actually raining ice! Beads of ice falling down from the sky. It’s strange that in such a hot place that never ever snow (except in Genting First World), ice actually falls from the sky.
I know this is not something new, but the last time this phenomenon happens, I’m not here to see it… Too bad I don’t have my camera with me that time. Else can take some photos…

I am here to tell you a story that has leave a permanent mark in my life. A story so unreal, that some will say I’m crazy. But for 4 person, it has changed their life… forever.
It all started 2 months back, when me and my friends went for a trip to Lang Tengah. We have decided to drive there ourselves just to make the trip more exciting. It indeed was exciting. In fact, it was fill with so much fun that suddenly one of us just have a spark in his mind, "Hey, let’s go around Malaysia by car!". It was a fun idea, a great idea, an idea so irresistible, that none of us can forget about it.
So we started to plan for this trip, we named it "Ekspidisi Semenanjung". This name itself was so great that it has raised the burning desire in all of us. As we plan further, we found out that fixing a date for the trip is harder than we thought. Some of us can’t take day off as they like. No, we will not let that obstacle dampen the momentum in us. So we ended up planning a 2 day 1 night trip.
We have split our trip into 2 parts, that is Ekspidisi Semenanjung Jejakan Utara and Ekspidisi Semenanjung Jejakan Selatan. Jejakan Utara will consist of 7 states and Selatan will consist of 5 states. You must be wondering, how can anyone drive across 7 states in 2 days? Well, that’s the challenge we will be taking.

The date has been fixed, 2nd June 2006. The last headcount we did ended with a disappointing 4. It is sad that our group of 8 can’t go all together, but on the other hand, 4 is just nice to fit a car. Mr. Lim has agreed to sponsor us his Ferrari. Who can resist that, right?

The time has come, Benny and Jun has reach KL. 4 of us has come together, to start the journey of a lifetime. We officially started our ekspidisi at 12:00am, heading towards Kuantan highway. To our surprise, karak highway was in a mess!

We reach Kuantan at around 4am. We went to Kuantan beach before we continue our journey to Terengganu. To our surprise, the classical merdeka car was there! Parking just by the roadside.

By the time we reach Kuala Terengganu, the time was just right for breakfast! We went to little Chinatown for a nice kueyteow soup. Satisfying indeed. Off we go towards Kelantan! Along the way, I saw a road sign that reads "Tasik Kenyir 34KM". How can we resist that? So we make an unexpected stop at the famous Tasik Kenyir. Beautiful scenery indeed.

By the time we reach Kelantan, it’s already 3:30pm. This is the first time I have stepped into Kelantan. It’s a stop and see most of the way to Kota Bharu. It’s 6:30pm, everyone was too hungry to do anything else. Disappointingly we didn’t find any nasi kerabu or local food. We ended up looking for Jalan Kebun Sultan where there’s a lot of Chinese stall there. The food is only moderate. Anyway, we still enjoy it since we’re starving! After the grand feast, we know that we were way behind time. Initial plan is to reach Perlis by midnight and stay there for a night. According to various sources, from Kelantan to Perlis is a 8 hours drive. So we have decided to go to have a look at Thailand-Malaysia border since we’re already there. Before we start our journey to the border, we went for a nice bath in a nice hotel. Haha…

Upon reaching Rantau Panjang, we noticed a lot of Thai registered car and bike around. What we will never believe, if we didn’t see it with our own eyes, is how easy is it to travel across country! Believe it or not, to travel to Thailand, all you need is RM1 and you’ll get there in a minute flat! No passport required.
OK, we have seen enough of Sungai Golok, it’s now 1:30am and time to continue our journey to Kedah. We heard that the road leading to Kedah is dangerous due to lots of animal crossing. We found out that it’s really true!

It took us 6 hours to reach Sungai Petani since our vision dropped to 4 meter due to heavy fog and winding road. Yes, that’s right, it’s time for breakfast. Satisfying breakfast we have.

After filling up our gigantic tummy, we head towards Perlis. This was the first time I stepped into Perlis too. Not much to see since Kangar is a very small and peaceful place. Kangar seems like a nice place to stay. We head north to Padang Besar. Along the road, we stopped by Gua Kelam. We didn’t get to see much there because it started to rain few minutes after we have arrived.

So we have reached Padang Besar, what’s next? We actually went into the duty free complex and do a little shopping.
By this time, all of us has only 1 look, the look of a cellphone beeping "battery low". It’s the 37th hour of our ekspidisi. Time to head back to Penang.

We had a ride on a ferry into Penang. This is the first time on a ferry for some of us. Don’t worry Benny and Jun, I didn’t mention name in here. haha…
We had our best meal so far. Penang rojak, char kuey teow, intestine porridge, fried oyster, chee cheong fun, etc. We went to a few places just to snap a few photos.

Time is running out. It’s already 9pm. We have better head south to Ipoh. By the time we reach Ipoh, taugeh chic hor fun have already close for the day. So we settle for some fried meehoon and chic feet. Not bad though. The time is 12:40am. Yes, way behind schedule. So we start our journey back to KL. By the time we reach KL, it’s already 3am.

This is a true story, of 4 person, travel across 7 states in 51 hours.
I have only 2 words to describe this trip, tired and satisfied. This has been the most adventurous trip for all of us. Surely looking forward for the next chapter, Ekspidisi Semenanjung Jejakan Selatan!

These two days I’ve been flying my chopper around with my heng dai Alvin. We have both bought a chopper (cheap China brand of course…) to play around with.

It is really hard to control at first, but once you master the control, it’s actually easy. We have gone through dozens of crash landing and days of training, at last, we still can’t fly it well…

It rains for awhile these two days, so it’s quite hard for us to fly our chopper. We have to wait until the rain stops and then wait until the wind slows down. Really boring but excited while waiting.

Anyway, today is not a good day for my friend though. His chopper crash landed and the head cover broke a little. Small matter actually. But that doesn’t end there… suddenly his chopper started to turn like a merry-go-round. Seems like the back rotor blade malfunction. After post mortem, we ruled out that it’s the circuit board malfunction. Sad case…

Don’t worry my friend, those hurdles and obstacles will not break our spirit and determination. We shall wait until the chopper come out from bengkel, then we will try again and again to bring this little chopper up into the sky!

NOW EVERYONE CAN FLY!