My Second Ramadhan

Time flies very fast; it has been a year since I started working in this beach town Kerteh, Terengganu. I still remember I reported into one of the petrochemical plant owned by our very own NOC in the final week of Ramadhan. The challenge was substantial, being thrown into new place alone with limited amount of money and was struggling to adapt to the new atmosphere and culture.

Bazar Ramadhan Kerteh

Today, here I am, still here and manage to make myself live comfortably although the environment is very different from my hometown, Banting. I hear and speak the different dialect, learning to eat local food and starting to enjoy it, slowly accepting the different culture and norms of the locals; I find myself being slowly assimilated into the laidback lifestyle of sleepy town Kerteh.

I bet the Flying Squad uses this to fly

However, the story is different when I step into the office. The workload had started to get bigger day by day, but thankfully, I have a bunch of supportive colleagues and bosses that always ready to offer assistance when I need it. I started to get immersed and stressful at work, but thanks to this sleepy town, I can de-stress once I call it a day in my office although a lonely life will greet me once I am home. Somehow, I can accept the calmness of this town as tranquilizer that keep me calm after stressful day at work.

The patrons flocking the small Ramadhan Bazaar

Ramadhan come again, and this is my second time fasting far from home. Truthfully, I still miss my mom’s cooking but here I have to celebrate this blissful month alone most of the time. The bazaar is not as big as one found in Banting. The food choices are limited and the price is exorbitantly expensive. Yet, it provides me with a whole new perspective about the Ramadhan in the East Coast, not literally. Most obvious thing is I can see a lot of people wearing coveralls with various colours that drop by to get some food for breaking fast. Yes, they are just like me, petrochemical plants workers and contractors from the nearby petrochemical plant complex in Kerteh. Somewhat I feel that we are like the Teletubbies wearing coverall with different colours. That is the most obvious thing that I cannot see in Banting. At least I know that I am not alone, most of them are like me, celebrating the month of Ramadhan far from family.

Standard drink with local distinct taste

Rotating chickens

I hope I can improve myself to be a better person in this year’s Ramadhan. I will fight my way to survive in this town; it slowly becomes my second home where I could rely on should I need a tranquil retreat. This town teaches me how to adapt to changes fast, being dynamic and inculcates a good working culture. To my family, I hope all of you are fine there and I am doing very fine here. Nonetheless, I still miss all of you days and nights; I look forward to see all of you and celebrate Hari Raya together. Happy fasting and I pray that all of you are blessed in this month.

TakBolehBlah 20000 km Maintenance

TakBolehBlah in Banting before servicing

This month, TakBolehBlah had travelled 20000 km since I bought it in December 2010. So, I have done some periodic maintenance on the car. Also, I have changed some parts from stock to better parts to improve the performance of the car. Here are the details on the parts and servicing activity for your reference:

Eneos Pro-Racing 5W40 Fully Synthetic Oil (bought online in LYN forum, RM160)

K&N Drop-in Air Filter P/N: 33-2539 (bought online in LYN forum, RM240 - self installed)

NGK Iridium IX P/N: TR6IX (bought online in LYN forum, RM135 - self installed)

For oil change, it was done in Pusat Service EON Banting and I bring my own Eneos oil (as per above) and they charged me RM64 which includes:

• Original Proton oil filter
• Coolant
• Halogen bulb (my right fog light burnt and need to be replaced)
• Labour charge (RM20)

For self installation, here are the tools I've used:

Satria Neo CPS SP4H engine bay

To change K&N drop-in air filter, I've used a Philips tip screw driver to unscrew the air box. To replace spark plugs, I've used a 8 mm T-wrench to open up the red cam valley cover and 16 mm spark plug T-wrench to remove and install the spark plugs:

8 mm T-wrench

16 mm spark plug T-wrench

Hope the reader can gain some knowledge on basic car maintenance and what are the tools needed. Cheers~

Scam Alert!

I admit that my blog is quite dull, boring, and infrequently updated. The reason being I will not write just for the sake of blog postings count resulting in copy-and-paste post. And, my intention of blogging is to share my opinion and information to my fellow readers and followers (if any :P).

To spice up this blog a little bit, I have decided to expand my writing and information sharing horizon to expose the reader about scam through SMS. I will post the number (screw you, scammer!) and the content by retyping the SMS exactly like I received on my phone. No screen capture like you can do with your IPhone 5 (I know a screen capture is more authentic) since I am just using cheapo not-so-dumb phone. Again, my intention is to share with all of you as world today is full of scams. I hope with this information, we can shield ourselves from this fraud.

For starters, I have 2 SMS containing scam (I have not deleted them, still in my inbox) to share with you. Sometimes, these short messages are good for the LOLz. Stay safe online, and do not get fooled.

SMS #1

Date: 9 June 2011
From: +60126291222

:-)TAHNIAH ! Anda dipilih Pekerja-rumah Asiacom dpt gaji RM4000! Hantar borang dgn poslaju hari ni. TIADA JUAL/BELI PRODUK ,Barang sampai rumah dlm 3 hari!Syarikat Asiacom dijamin 100% lebih 11 tahun, tiada unsur penipuan! www.333.my

SMS #2

Date: 13 June 2011
From: +60176359852

Slm. Maaf m'gangu. BeRITA BAIK! PERINTI$ d cari bg Biz Baru b'taraf GMP &Halal. POTEN$i RM640-RM4,480/hr..wow! BUKTI & Testimoni> www.beautyrich.biz (Pn Ila, PJ)

Thinking of Another Reason for Not Texting While Driving?

Before I move on further, let us list down the reasons why we should not text/sending SMS while driving:

Reason #1 : It is punishable by law

Reason #2 : It can lead to accident

I believe these are the most popular reason to deter people from texting while driving. Now, I want you to consider this case as another reason for not to text while driving:

You are an executive of an old, aging factory in the East Coast of Malaysia. Besides your colleague at work, you are also have friends outside that have totally different background from your work colleague. Your work colleague sees you as someone who is serious and meticulous but your friend sees you as someone who is joyful, love to talk cock, and have garden in your heart (dalam hati ada taman). So, it seems that you have to sides of you by communicating in different lingo between these two group of friends. You were texting with your friend and at the same time you are also texting your colleague on work matters. You are an avid and dexterous texting-while-driving person and accidentally you've sent the message that is supposed to be sent to your friend (hence the different, informal lingo) to your work colleague. You did not realize that until you reached the office and your work colleague make fun of you for sending the wrong message to the wrong person, accidentally of course. And you can hardly survive the day at the office due to your mistake.

So, for Reason 3#:

Do not text while driving as you may send the wrong text message to the wrong recipient. You will end up exposing the other side of you the person that you don't want. It is as shameful as died in accident due to sending text message while driving.