Detour Worth Taking

Today I am going to work as usual. But the WhatsApp group is full of chatter about an accident in Kampung Nyiur, Paka which caused a long traffic jam.

Long queue at Durian Mentangau junction

As I am nearing Durian Mentangau, the traffic jam has worsen. After a quick consideration, I have decided to take alternative route via Durian Mentangau, taking a left turn into FELDA Kerteh 2 and 3, then took Jalan Santong to Paka and then arrived in PCOGD.

The distance is 25 km longer (normal distance is 25 km) and the travel time is 10 minutes longer than the usual (normal travel time is 30 minutes). It is not a bad thing either as I do not know how long will I stuck in the traffic congestion if I decided to wait and take the normal route.

Moreover, I get to drive in quite scenic route which has a lot of bends along the way. This is perfect condition to drive my car which is equipped with adjustable suspension and grippy AD08R rubbers providing phenomenal bites when attacking those corners.

Entering FELDA settlement really brings back the memory of my hometown in FELDA Sungai Kelamah, Negeri Sembilan. They looks just the same! I hope my atuk and uwan are doing well at the kampung.

Entering FELDA Kerteh 2 area

After 40 minutes and 50 km of driving, I have safely arrived in PCOGD at around 0850 hrs. Time to get back to work!

Sydney 2012

I was lucky to be in the technical team for Kerteh-wide Digital Trunked Radio System (DTRS) Expansion Project. The team were attending factory acceptance test (FAT) for Digital Microwave Radio (DMR) at Longreach office in Sydney, Australia.

I went there for one week that is from 26/6/2012 until 1/7/2012. The purpose of FAT is to test the equipment thoroughly before they will be brought into Malaysia to be installed in 5 sites around Kemaman and Dungun area to provide digital radio coverage in all PETRONAS facilities in Kerteh area.

I will let the pictures tell the rest :) - Reminder: not sorted chronologically

 At Cockle Bay Wharf

 Hard Rock Cafe Sydney

 Youth Hotel in Sydney is a great place to make new friends :P

 Business Class comfort

Being a Business Class traveller, you will be well fed and well-entertained

 Arrived in Sydney International Airport

 Sydney at nite

 Morning view from my room

 Light traffic in the morning

Train - our main mode of transport while in Sydney

 

 The technical team

 Testing the Outdoor Unit (ODU)

 Error generator

 The Longreach IR+ Indoor Unit (IDU)

Night walk

 

 Sydney Opera House at night

Harbour bridge

 

 Lobster for lunch, anyone?

Dinner in Malaysian restaurant

 

 Pisang goreng with ice-cream

The team with Longreach management

 

 Aborigine

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Harbour

Sour Turkish delight!

RM100 Take All

I found the fisherman selling these lobsters while having lunch at Jeti Kuala Paka today. RM100 and it is all yours. Too bad my rumah bujang do not have proper kitchen. Else, I will surely buy it. Bargain!

Lobstersssss

Symbian Belle Update for My Nokia N8

The long awaited Symbian Belle update is finally available yesterday! Without much hesitation, I quickly hooked-up my Nokia N8 to my PC, launch Nokia Suite and update the smart phone from Symbian Anna to Symbian Belle. In 30 minutes, the installation completed.

Update completed

My first impression, Symbian Belle offers many improvements over Symbian Anna with intuitive, vibrant and sleeker user interface (UI). It is like migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7 where u need some time to get used to the new UI but it is worth it. Another thing worth noting is you can add up to 6 homescreens compared to Symbian Anna with only 4 homescreens.

Symbian Belle new homescreen

Another important improvement in Symbian Belle is we can control the connection (Mobile Data, WiFi and Bluetooth) incoming and outcoming of the phone easily via drop down menu. Just tap on the data connection and it will switch on and off like toggle switch. This is very useful especially if we want to turn of data connection while roaming to avoid bill shock. So convenient.

Controlling the way your phone connects to the outside world is much easier now

The only irk I found is I need to reinstall all my apps after Belle update, however data in mass storage (E:/) and SD card (F:/) are not touched. Nokia Suite will backup your old Symbian Anna in C: to new folder in E:/Nokia_Belle folder

Currently, Symbian Belle update is available for all Nokia phones running on Symbian like C6-01, C7-00, E6-00, E7-00, X7-00 and N8-00. You may check if your phone are ready to receive the update (some product code is not ready for update yet) here.

Motorola Subscriber Training

I have attended Motorola Subscriber Training held in Motorola's Customer Solution Center (CSC) in Bayan Lepas Industrial area, Penang starting from 17th until 21st October 2011. This training is jointly organized by Motorola Solutions and Axis Technology Resources for expansion project of Kerteh Wide Digital Trunked Radio System in Kerteh. I was there representing my company I worked for to learn more about Dimetra System that are currently being used in my workplace for plant-wide communication.

The participants

The 5-day course cover the Dimetra system, the infrastructure, the features of the digital trunked radio system and also their mobile radio terminals, namely MTP850Ex portable radio and MTM800e mobile radio used in vehicles. The training is also attended by representatives from other operating units (OPU's) that will be adopting the new digital trunked radio system (DTRS) in Kerteh.

Receiving certificate of participation from Motorola and Axis

I learnt a lot from this course that surely helped me to carry out my daily task as Safety System Engineer in my workplace. All of us were provided with sufficient manuals and workbook to help us understanding course delivery better.

The whole stack of manuals for system and mobile terminal

During a week stay in Penang, I stayed in Eastin Hotel Penang. It is located near to Queensbay Mall and facing Jerejak Island. Motorola CSC is located 4 kms away from the hotel and I must say the hotel's location is very strategic.

View from my room at Eastin Hotel

On the last day in Penang, I also went to Bukit Bendera. The last time I went here was when I was 10 years old. Bukit Bendera has changed since then with the new train which is more comfortable (supposedly, but the air-condition was faulty so it was like in moving sauna) and faster. To ride the train, RM8 ticket is imposed to the local tourist, while for foreign tourist, they have to pay RM30. The journey uphill only took 10 minutes. It was raining when I reached the hill top so I here are few pictures that I managed to take before the heavy downpour.

The entrance, the weather is already overcast

The train railway

The new and faster hill train

I also met some of my friend in UTP. I went to Kulim with Fitri who are currently working at 2nd Penang Bridge Project to meet Huda and Dalila. Both of them are working as engineers in Silterra and Intel Kulim respectively. We had our dinner in Monrod Kulim and the food is not so disappointing. I also met with my classmate in SDAR, Kamek at Padang Kota Lama. He is currently sitting for final exam for his medical degree and good luck to him!

With Fitri, soon he will come to work in Kerteh

Dalila and Huda from Kulim

All in all, my trip to Penang was very fun and informative. I will surely come again for holiday! :)