post exam

The curtain for this semester come to a close, funnily am still at campus, hoping and literally praying that I can make at least some progress on my thesis. But hopefully this is the last semester break I will be spending here. As much as I am going to miss E-1-B, been here for 4 years, somehow the feeling of attachment will grow. Thick and thin, a lot of happy and sad memories are all stored here.

I remember someone asked me, "hey what year are you in now?"  at that time I was in my second year, not giving much to the alpha,beta etc year thing, I replied " epsilon"...  and the person asked "wow how can u survive so long here?!" Lynda, the person was you. And now you are going for internship next semester.

After the finals paper, I start to doubt myself if next semester  will be my last semester. The paper is quite tough even if the coursework mark is quite OK. 2 weeks of exams and also Chinese New Year passed by so fast, and here come this 2 weeks of so called semester break. Next, the new semester. The wait for the finals result is not quite the nicest of experience. What I have learn for this past 2 weeks is, life is quite unpredictable.

I witness 2 person laptop was stole, one person's father passed away, another person's mother woke up from a coma, and my plans are hanging on a thin thread because of the finals. It shows that our life is fragile, even if we have tons of wonderful plans, but the outcome or the implementation might be different. Maybe for the better or maybe for the worst.

                       "The chicken doesn't know the egg will hatch or be an omelette" - 3 idiots

13 weeks all we have

13 weeks, looking at the academic calender its all the time I have in MMU. The first time I got the offer letter, I was not ecstatic to say the very least, somehow my parents stood their ground and won't budge. After a blink of an eye its already almost time to say goodbye. Begin with the wrong steps, I hope to end it with the right one.

So Chinese New Year almost come to an end. Being always with the 'whats next' attitude, I have several plans to do after ending my study here. I planned to sent in the job applications after Chinese New Year, somehow, let it be the lack of courage to figure out the unknown , waiting for other opportunity, whatever it is, I felt reluctant to submit my applications. Although I have my preference, I learn not to rule out any possibilities, thus leaving me currently in a limbo, lost. At the same time, I just wanna enjoy and appreciate the moment I have left here, thus having a 'whats next' attitude does not go down well.

Having finals right after the Chinese New Year is just horrible timing to be honest. But is there any use really in complaining? I cut short my holiday and flew back early even though my paper is way at the end of the exam period. This year, a picture of a man is up upon a request of my grandma. The man is her late husband, my late grandpa. She requested me to put up his picture, I remember the picture. Its the one that I held during the funeral and also on the way back from the crematorium. She also asked me to look at certain papers, whether if its still useful. Upon the pile of papers, I stumble upon grandpa's dead cert. Its been 8 years since he left us.Even though I can hardly speak to him due to my poor command of Cantonese, I always remember how he asked me to seat next to him to watch badminton or WWF RAW!

After he left us, mom really step up to the plate. Her attention diverted grandma, until today. Not failing to call her every night, even if we are on vacation. Although there is a point where I felt why she is not bothering bout me, or help me, but that feeling is just because I was bitter about not being enrolled in the flying school. I did confront her, but I guess I disappoint her when I did that. She felt that I was big enough to be independent, thus she pays more attention on grandma and also other cousins that need her attention. Now I do start to understand her more, and I know when the time comes, her attention will be on my cousins. Her aim is to help them especially with their educations for a better future.

Its her birthday on the 19th and also my last paper. I hope to give her a dean's list as a gift. If that fails, I hope she don't mind a late gift with the degree cert. This what's motivate me. Happy early birthday mom.  

Happy Chinese New Year

I see a similarities between Christmas and also CNY, because both also come down to the fundamental of gathering our loved ones together. Last Christmas I knew it will probably the last one most of my friends in MMU will shared together. Although some might still keep in touch but how many will still make time from busy working life is still unknown. Thus last Christmas I spend some time with few of my closest friend in MMU other than my time with my close family.

For CNY, its more to a broader spectrum for me. This time it involve the immediate family, grandparents, aunty, uncles. Not knowing what will next year bring, I am not too sure if this will be the last time that I will take the car down to hometown. 

Talking about hometown, I am not sure what to answer when people asked me that. Some will refer hometown as the place that they born, some is their kampung or where their grandparents are, and some will refer it as home, where their parents and siblings are. But for me, all of these are different places.

So let me rephrase is that this time am going back kampung, where my grandparents or to be more accurate where my grandmas are. But it will be like a drive back memory lane because I will passed by Kuala Krai where I was born and raise till standard 4 before I arrive at Wakaf Bahru where my grandmas are. 

CNY is a lot different already now compared to before. The uhm... is no longer there. Yes I do still anticipate the eve dinner or reunion dinner and then come the first day of the lunar new year, where MOST of the ang pau are collected, then what? It will b a boring spiral where everyone just watch Astro Wah Lai Thoi? 

Moving a lot and staying far have kept me away from mingling with my cousins, and of course the language barrier and the same time with the age gap. As for the older cousin, some already are married and some will go to their friends place for new year visiting, but the younger one, let just say its a bit worrying looking at their trend. Am I being too old and not cool to groove with the young ones? or I see a bleak future for them. I wish I could communicate with them, try and make them understand the importance of education. And with education, it could help their family or at least improve the living of their parents. To be brutally honest, some of my uncles work like hard, doing job that physically demanding, but as age is catching up, how long more can they carry on? I wish my little cousins could understand this. Most of them are either in middle of secondary school or finishing primary school. It never too late to clean up their act and try to improve their grades. Although I am not the best qualified to talk about grades, however I feel getting themself enroll in higher education should be a priority and right now I feel I am the closest that could relate to them. But translating this into a manner that they would understand it seems like almost impossible.

My pre CNY celebration with friends however is  not so bad. Before going back hometown for some, and for me going to continue my FYP part 2, I took or we all took a break from all that project to have some outing to Istana Budaya to watch Mahathir the Musical 2. 

Us with the Director

The girls with their hero

Northen good looks meet East Coast beauty

Yes the 'purposely fall' right Jansen?

 A musical about one of the great leader in the region regardless what is your political point of view is, his contribution is something that nobody can ever deny. Although just 5 of us watching this, I feel its a good thing because all can communicate without any being left out. It was a good night, except for the after effect of the Petai and Ikan Bakar, which is a story for another day. Happy Chinese New Year everyone, may the prosperous luck and abundance of joy hop into your life this new year. 

kenduri!

The first day of the year, lot of people are getting married due to the date of 1.1.11, a meaningful date probably saying that your are the one for me. I have an exciting news too that I received, where one of my close buddy, Amar is planning get engage to his girl friend later this year.

The first thought that come to my mind is, CONGRATULATIONS! as growing up with him since primary although we only get closer in secondary school, we always have a healthy competition to motivate each other, from exams to sports.Good time we have is during form 1 and 2 period where almost every day we played badminton right after school till late evening with another 2 friends of ours, and he used to be my partner. Now we do miss our favorite sport, badminton. 

Throughout the years although we went separate ways as he is studying in UKM and doing IT, and am in MMU doing engineering. We do still keep in touch to hang out, and of course sometimes its understandable that both are busy with our own thing.

Seeing him with his current girlfriend, I know that my friend here is really into this girl compared to other girls he dated before. In my opinion age is not really a matter when it comes to wedding or love. What matters most is the mutual feeling, and to be realistic, financial independence is also key.  Some will marry 10-20 years their senior, some dated for 10 years, and married for 6 months and break up. 

So instead of doubting a good news like a wedding, by asking question ' hey don't you think you are too young?' Am going into this, with the attitude of 'I am your man if you need anything'. He is my friend and I got his back. Congrats! Can't wait to dawn my Baju Melayu and KENDURI! and of course my role of sort of best man in the wedding need to be study, as this is a different culture.

misconceptiton

I went to a wedding today at Komplek Tabung Haji. It was my mom's colleague holding a wedding for her children. Anyways, there are only a handful of non-muslim. A lady asked, what is the population of the non over in Kelantan? Probably around 6-7 % of the total I assume.

There have been a few moment in past few days questioning about Kelantan. So here is to separate the fact and fiction.

1. There IS a CHINA-town. An area where they sell chinese food, and there is a CHINESE MARKET, where they sell non-halal goods like pork.
2. There are NO gender segregation at school during my time. Similar to the school I attended in KL, we seat the same way, mix boys and girls in class and also at the canteen.
3. Female CAN wear anything they one including shorts. Especially the non muslim. People will look or stare maybe because you are hot.

This is the top 3 thing I got asked most. Especially in the mix gender interaction. The misconception that people there follow extreme islamic law is totally false. Of course boys and girls can interact, however of course there are boundaries too. Which is also logical to prevent in-moral activities. For example my friend Amar went to the town and another friend of ours, a girl bring him around town in her bike. They travel without any problems.

Kelantan don't really have a tourist attraction in my point of view or any main one, also there are not much of working opportunity, thats why sometimes you can see there are lots of Kelantanese around KL. And when they met, regardless the race, most are like brothers and sisters.

It don't have 2 Tesco,not a Maju Jaya state, no. It certainly not. But its home for us Kelantanese. Comfort zone. Good food and also peaceful place to be. I am looking forward to spend a few days there for CNY, but certainly won't be a place for me to consider to get a job. Being proud of being a Kelantanese is one thing, but at same time we are also realistic. I wish there a little bit more development there, but at the same time I don't really want anything to change over there. 

A decade

How to start leh?Should say its been the longer hiatus I been away from blogging.  I could not find a better post than the previous one, but I got the urged to blog this time. Maybe is not the most appropriate of time as its just 6 a.m and people like Kok Jin just going to sleep, I know I have slides to do and need to compile it with the group a few hours more. 

As this semester coming to a close, certainly feels like a blink of an eye. Soon I have to say goodbye to everyone as everyone will walk their own  path. Knowing this, it makes me appreciates the moment more. Yes I know I'll be busy with my FYP even before the start, I anticipate it and it won't be a walk in the park. But I can say I am the lucky one. Having 2 supervisors, yes sometimes you get double the scrutiny, double the work, double of everything, and in between the double critics, there also be double benefit for me to improve on my work. Travelling up and down to Melaka every Friday, and trying to make time for the family on Sunday, is not cheap if you count the cost, but it feels rewarding when you feel you have a balanced between, work and personal life, although sometimes you just need time for yourself.

So 2011 came, and its a beginning of a new decade and end of another one. A decade ago my friend asked me which girl should he choose, a senior or the girl similar age to us. Am glad that I told him to choose the one with similar age to us. They are together ever since. This decade probably one of the most memorable and also I could remember most, the sweet memories of high school, and memories of university, where I leave the nest and time to fly. 

But the previous decade when I was 0-10 years old, certainly played a role in building my foundation. Yes I still remember the park that I played in and the nanny who took care of me. I wish I could see her again as I would visit her every time I went back for CNY, but news is, she left town to go back to her hometown in Segamat. I can proudly say I am a Kelantanese, without hesitance when people asked where is my hometown. There is really nothing bad about brought up in an Islamic state. If ask any of my friends they would know I am a pro-government, however I think we can take a look at Kelantan if we really want to achieve 1 Malaysia. I really miss the integration between races. Here in KL, sometimes being expose too much or having too many opinion on things, have it bad side. Back there, we just accept. My house over there is just less than 50m from the mosque, what ever time they pray, we just accept it. As a quote from the song Hijau "Apakah gunanya kematangan fikiran?, bila di jiwa kita masih lagi muda dan mentah"

But the most significant one should be the move to KL. It is just the 5 of us. Through hard time, through good time, it is just 5 of us. Nobody really did help, that makes us stronger.Raising 3 children in a metropolitan like KL is not really easy. There are lots of influence and lots of things can go wrong. Mixing with the wrong crowd, and its hard to make a U turn. I witness it myself when I see my friends today. Some I am still wondering why? Why did they not join me here.Money? There is always PTPTN. Deep down inside I just feel like it is just about the fame of joining private collage, which unfortunately they did not enroll either. But there is only So much you can do. I remember bringing them to cyberjaya open day. Ask the lecturer about the courses for them, and purchasing the form for them. 

Witnessing how hard my family struggle, I understand the situation, its hard to digest watching the play station at the game shop in mid valley. I want it, but I know my parents can't afford it. Yes I want that Nike shirt, but Nike is not cheap.There is always limitation, and if I asked for more, I am not sure if I would get it, but at the same time I know I will hurt my parents feeling because they could not afford it. To put things in perspective, Rm 10 can buy lunch for the whole family in Kelantan, over in KL, it can't even get you a Prosperity set. So with the same salary, imagine living in KL with 3 children that is growing.

But today although we are just slightly better, people look at us differently. I don't really like that. If you say you come from a small town, I could relate, if you say you are broke, I could relate.If you say you are rich I can't relate but I have richer friends. All the success of the family I should say its owed to my parents. 

This year is the year for me to work, I would like to follow my parents footstep, and leave the nest. Although the grass is not always greener on the other side, but there are whole lots of experience to gain from, for good or for bad.

What will this decade have installed for me? Work? Travel? Marriage? Kids? Only way to conclude this is,

'We propose, God dispose'

Alpha,Bravo,Tango

(Insert, Triumph in the sky theme song)

Date: 4th December 2010
Weather forecast: Slightly cloudy with temperature at 30 degree celcius 
Time: 0800
Venue: Lapangan Terbang Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah, Subang.

At 0715, depart to airport. Receive a SMS from Alice stated that the ground crew is all set for the flight at 0800. Punctuality is very important generally for everyone as it is a good habit to have, but is one of the main criteria in being a pilot, especially a commercial airline pilot. As delay means lost of time, which translate into lost of revenue.

Arrived in time at the D'nest Aviation Hangar. It was a private hanger. There are also a few private jets, which own by local tycoons ( ask me in personal, later kata defamation). Pictures of those jets are not allowed.

The weather is one of my main concern as bad weather means cancellation of the flight. However the control tower will decide on how bad is the weather

While having a pre-flight briefing, it drizzles. I fear for the worst. But the word from the control tower still is not out

Finally the flight is ready after a complete routine check. Some of the checks are, the fuel level, check if the flaps are operating perfectly. It seems smaller than I imagine. But this is the size of a two seater Cessna. Together with me in the flight is Capt.Bernand.

Was a bit nervous for the first time stepping into the aircraft. A certain procedure that I need to follow. Left leg to the support near the tyre, and right leg onto the cockpit. And I have to put on the headset before putting on the seat harness. It's a bit noisy once the engine is one. However, you hardly hear anything once the headset is on. You can only hear air traffic controller talking from the control tower and of course the person beside you talking through the mic.

Off we go to the taxing to the main runway.One thing that is unique about an aircraft is that on land, all the movement is controlled by foot. By using the heel and the toe. Both foot will be on the pedal. To Turn left, the left pedal will be pressed and same goes to the right. To break, press down the pedal using the heel. To start the engine also is a bit different than the car. As airplane have two spark plugs. Thus first have to switch on the first then the second one then both. This flexibility is a safety feature. In case one of the spark plug is not working especially on air, there are still another one to ensure the aircraft can continue to fly or at least make an emergency landing. From the image, also notice that there are some water splash due to the rain. There are no windscreen. The water will automatically blow to the side due to the speed of the aircraft.

The aircraft have two identical yoke (or the steering wheel in cars). It will move exactly the same as the other one. There are also a few things that always need to keep an eye one, like the speed, the altitude meter. There is also an instrument to guide the pilot to return to the airport in case of poor visibility. Notice the orange-ish display together with the knob. Each airport have its own code, which will act as a navigator for the pilot to return to the airport. Thus, trusting the instrument is also important in being a pilot.The red button at the yoke is NOT to fire missile. It is to communicate with the control tower.

"Falcon one requesting for take off on runway 33", everything goes wow from that moment on. However my heart sank a bit when our flight plan have changed towards Selangor/ Shah Alam side instead of the KL town side due to the bad weather in KL. While waiting to take off, we have to wait for this Firefly aircraft to take off first.

The take off is like no commercial airline take off. It was so smooth you are not taken a back to your seats. The speed during take off was about 70-80 km/h. This is when we are climbing around 2000 feet and still climbing to 5000.

Then the moment that I've been waiting for arrived. "You have control" said my co-pilot. "I have control" I replied.Travelling around 80-90 knots, or around 300 km/h it seems quite slow inside the cockpit. Until I see another aircraft which was quite fast. According to my co-pilot, thats approximately similar speed that we are travelling in. The yoke was quite sensitive, and I was advice to hold it gently like holding a baby. I was flying the aircraft, finally. This is what I wanted all this while ever since small. The feeling was amazing. Although its not long till we have to turn back, as we almost reach Kuala Selangor/ Teluk Intan area. I did the right hand turn onto the cloud and in no time

Shah Alam stadium.

"Falcon one, requesting for landing, runway 33, left turn" The landing again was amazing. Don't feel a thing. Was a smooth landing. Sadly that's the end of my adventure up in the air for the day.

 Thats it for the day. Thank you for flying with Air....

Was greeted by

Good job Capt.