Wanna see Kampungkai BOTAK?

Jason: eh Chris, join me cut botak head
Me: huh? What’s the occasion?
Jason: botak for charity *sends me a link www.petertan.com/blog
Me: oh Peter Tan, yea I read bout him in TheStar few weeks back, blogger.

So, it seems there are now 5 bloggers, INCLUDING A FEMALE shaving their head to help Peter raise RM5000 for HOSPICE. And Jason aka my buddy aka my ex-roommate aka makan buddy is one of the soon-to-be BOTAK HEAD bloggers. Knowing that I was from a Chinese school for 11 years, Jason knew that it wasn’t a problem for me, cos Chinese school students always have crew cut hairstyle!

But hey, I’ve done the shortest crew cut, but I have yet to try out BOTAK wey! BOTAK is no hair rite? Just the shiny scalp and I always tease at ppl who have shiny scalps cos they apply some layer of oil I think? Man… now Jason is kacau-ing me to do it.

I dunno. I’ve yet to make my decision. Can any1 tell me by when I have to decide? I’d like to show some support to Peter, but the thought of going back to class, and the whole campus talking bout it, it’s scary! But then it’s for charity, so why should I be shy of? However… I’m still hesitating hahaha! Help me!



My kind lil blogger friend – showed some support by drawing me a very cute and funny cartoon pic. It says BOLD CHRIS DUCKIE.

Derhhh??? Since when did Kampungkai turn into Kampungduck?! Hahaha… Then, after some scolding and teasing, she drew me a new pic, tadaaaa! BOLD CHRIS CHICKIE! Cute huh?



My mum is fine with me going BOTAK, cos she loves to see me in short hair. Even though my hair is only 1 inch long after a hair cut, she’ll say “Why still so long? Next time cut shorter”… tak faham. So perhaps after shaving, she’ll have nothing to say but to sayang and rub my shiny, squeaky scalp?

Mum did suggest that those taking part in shaving should do it together in a saloon/barber which will sponsor the cut. Well, at least I feel braver with friends around too ya? Hm.. til now, I can’t make up my mind. It ain’t hard to shave my head, cos 11 years of crew cut is nothing to me, but it’s the aftermath that scares me. I really respect Peter Tan for what he’s doing. His hair is like 100x the length of mine!

It's not that i'm unwilling to do it, i love doing charity, just unsure bout the hair haha! Maybe some words of encouragement from u all will help?

Juicing for Health

It's Sunday! today, i dun need to feel sad for going back to hostel, cos i'm having 10 days of hols, yeay yeay! woke up at 11am, after a really tiring trip up to cameron highlands with MAS buddies (will blog when i get the pics). Walked down from my bedroom to the kitchen to look for FOOD, and not surprised to find the same food on the table - fried kuey teow, mee+meehoon soup, mee+meehoon curry, and wantan mee. Then i saw this piece of A4 paper with fruit magnets on it securing it to the freezer. It reads...

JUICING FOR HEALTH
Miracle Fruit and Vegetable Juice

Ingredients:
Fresh Vegetables and Fruit
1. Celery - 2 long stalks
2. Cucumber - 1/4 of a cucumber
3. Green Pepper (Capsicum) - 1/2 of a large capsicum
4. Bitter Gourd - 1/4 of a bitter gourd
5. Green Apple (Granny Smith) - 1 pce

Preperation and Consumption Instructions:
1. Wash all fresh ingredients thoroughly and put them through a juicer to make into juice.
2. Drink the juice first thing in the morning with an empty stomach one house before breakfast.
3. Do not add sugar or other flavouring ingredients.
4. All juice must be condumed within 15 minutes of juicing.

Remedy for and to control and regulate:
1. Blood pressure
2. Cholesterol
3. Blood sugar
4. Lover and gall bladder function
5. Gastric problem
6. Constipation
7. Lung problem
8. Gum disease
9. Kidney problem
10. Under nourishment
11. Obesity
12. Cold sweat
13. Frequent urination
14. Insomnia
15. Rashes
16. Piles
17. Tumor
18. Eye disease
19. Gall stone
20. Arthritis
21. Muscle / tendon inflammation
22. Amnesia
24. Cyclothyme
25. Common cold

Hearing my ransacking of bowls and spoons in the kitchen, mum shouted from her favourite lazy chair in the living room "drink the glass of juice in the fridge". But after reading the ingredients on the paper (celery + bitter gourd + capsicum) i was wondering whether the juice inside the friedge is the juice i read about and how on earth will the smell of these celery bitter gourd.......be? After running through my food department in my brain, my brain hanged because the taste just cannot be fused together! ewwwww!

Knowing that i cannot run away from mum's order, i put my nose near the glass of dark green juice and took a short smell of it. Verdict: SO GREEN! (uek uek uek) Still having the thought of not being able to run away from mum, i opened my 'elephant glue' glued mouth and had a sip of the slimy thing.... sip sip sip, hey, ain't that bad! it's sweet!

walked out to the living room...
mum: so how does it taste?
me: not bad, but it's very green
mum: it's good! it maintains body figure too!
me: oh really? i'll finish it!
mum: *shocked to hear that i'll drink it *haha!

after bout 30 minutes of bfast and paper reading, finally i went to wash up. For your info, only on Sundays i eat b4 i brush my teeth in the morning haha! gross? Then, during CAKE MAKING SESSION, i think i mixed too much water into the the dough, so walaaaaa! WATERFALL in the toilet bowl! it must be the juice that was so so so fiberous that purged and cleaned the whole system. As for now, i feel so light and clean, both outside and the inside! u gotta try it!

Here's a link to a successful slimming program by Mama2jojo, she lost 3 kg in 4 days!!!!
hey Mama2jojo, u must be standing in front of the mirror alot now ya? your husband must be drooling of how hot u r, congrats!

TAME Batch 60 - 3 Eagle

I’ve been thinking, why is everything in the aviation industry so expensive? Isn’t it the same as any other transport industry? Aircraft Engineers are like automobile engineers/mechanics, Pilots are like taxi drivers, cabin crews are like erm… waitresses/bar tenders/chefs/doctors/negotiators/psychiatrist/bus conductor? Hahaha… Kidding guys! To all my respect, all of u, including me, has our own professionalism in what we’re doing.

When the son of the family is interested in joining the flying courier, parents will transform into Ultraman and show an ‘X’, continued by a single word answer ‘NO’ because it’s DANGEROUS. However, when the daughter of the family is interested in joining the nicely bunned hair, sweet looking (tight fitting) kebaya courier, parents do not transform into anything, but proudly supports the princess’ decision with a smile. WHY?! Both are in the same airplane, in the same situation, facing the same danger, it’s not like only Pilots will die and cabin crews will survive if the plane crashes? (touch wood!) haha… Isn’t it ironic?


me me me!

Finally, after 15 months of studies, I got a pic of myself in uniform. (thanx to friend's new camera phone) Mainly because we dun really bother bout snapping pics in uniform, as we’ll be spending the rest of our working life in it and seeing each other every day. Besides, none of us have a digicam, we are poor, no kidding. I realized that 95% of my mates are from average families, including me of course, and we don’t take extra pocket money from our parents anymore, but just survive on the RM450 (RM400 for year 1) that MAS is giving us monthly. Definition of surviving on my own - Exception to living at home and eating at home, everything else is on my own. With the ever increasing petrol price and the never ending toll collection in KL, savings is really tight. =( Nevertheless, we guys now know how to spell independent, and know that money doesn’t fall from the sky.


Playful boys...

Let me tell u more bout aviation, IF u are interested haha! Some people might find it boring, but it will never happen to me, I’m a hardcore aviation guy hahaha! So what do u know bout us? Very simple, we have a screwed up life. No day no night. We work odd hours, believe me. There’s a change in the working system now in KLIA, I’m not sure how it goes now, but the previous system that I know is like this: 12 hours shift, 2 shifts a day, 7am-7pm or 7pm-7am. Let me give u an example:

Monday : 7am – 7pm
Tuesday : 7am – 7pm
Wednesday : Rest
Thursday : 7pm – 7am
Friday : 7pm – 7am
Saturday : Rest
Sunday : 7am – 7pm
Monday : 7am – 7pm

For Aircraft Engineers, it’s something like this. There'll be 48 hours for u to change your day into night and vice versa. (If any1 from MAS is reading this and I’m wrong, pls correct me,i’m still an amatuer) So it doesn’t matter whether it’s Saturday or Sunday, as long as it’s your shift, then work! Same goes to CNY, Raya, Deepavali or Xmas. U gotta understand that KLIA is running 24 hours a day, so those guys who work at night are actually preparing your flight that u board early in the morning, as for night flights, the morning shift guys will be backing u up. So what do we do to prepare your flight? I’ve written some on a previous article ‘Triumph On The Ground – Aircraft Engineers’ if u wana know in detail. But basically, just some pre-flight checks, walking around the plane, visually checking for faults, ensuring all safety procedures or precautions are strictly followed and minor stuff.

For the past 3 months, if not mistaken, there were 7-8 cases of aircraft crashes in the world. It’s scary to you, but it’s worst to me. I have a heavy responsibility to hold on to, not now but when I start work. Even though I’m still studying, but those MAS people have been brainwashing us, pressuring us, telling us how great the responsibility is. We’ve watched many aircraft crashes on video, and after the video session, everyone walks out of the room quietly, emotionless.


TAME 60 - 3 Eagle

So, I’m Batch 60 of MAS’ Trainee Aircraft Maintenance Engineer. 3 Eagle means that I’m in semester 3, in the class named after an airplane manufacturer – Eagle. Since MAS was establish till today, the staff number for LAEs is around 1800-2000, meaning to say that there are only 1800-2000 LAEs who have graduated for the past 30-40 years, that’s very limited. I’m not trying to show off or being proud of myself, but just wanna let u know more bout us in the aviation industry. When I was younger, I didn’t even know who to go to to get these information and get to know more bout aviation. Now that I’m in this line, I wish to share my interest and knowledge to every1, hope it’s ok.


In a 2-seater Cessna 182


The old junk of RMAF- Skyhawk


Servicing the turbine engine on a HS125

Having a Mum as a Teacher

It has been raining daily for the past week. I’m glad that the rain has return to land after having a lawatan sambil belajar to the clouds. Now that they know that land is a better place to be in, I shall forgive them. I missed the sound of the rain, where it hits the awning of houses, splatters on the wet road, and flows forcefully down the gutters of the roof. It’s the only sound that can make me sleep like a log. Tonight will be a comfy night for me to cuddle under the blanket ZZzzzZzZZZzzzz…….

Have u ever thought how would it be like to have your parent(s) as a teacher? My mum is a teacher. She used to say “If I weren’t a teacher, you wouldn’t be the good son of mine now”. Why, I ask. “cos teachers work ½ day only, and I can go home and take care of my children for the next half day, rather than leaving u to the babysitter for 12 hours/day” Hmm, she has a point here. Nowadays office parents leave home at 7 and reach home at 7, leaving 7-10pm for them to enjoy what is called a Family. The child will feel insecure and feels LOA – Lack Of Attention. And for this, I’m truly grateful that my mum is a teacher, and I was never neglected haha!

This reminds me of a conversation I had with a Captain (pilot). Captain “Good, good! It’s better to be a LAE – License Aircraft Engineer than a Pilot. No doubt that Pilots get good pay, I have no complaints about it, but is life all about money? There was once when I came home after a 2 weeks international flight. The moment I stepped foot into the house, my son hid behind her mother and whispered “who’s that man?” The happiness of getting home to see my son and wife turned into a heartache right after those words. The next day, I requested the MAS flight management to base me back in Kuching to fly domestic flights, so that I can go home everyday.” Can u imagine how sad that is?

Tonight’s dinner was no difference. Having a teacher at home means tones of school stories to listen to while chewing your food. And normally I would answer WAH or REALLY or YER or Y LIKE THAT WAN or NO COMMENT. So what was tonight’s story about? It seems that she saw upon an English test paper while walking around class. The paper was prepared by the dis trict educa tion dept, and she was shock to see how bad the grammer was.

ie: He have big ears, he have long trunk, what is he called? (my answer: REALLY?)

Do u see the mistake? Obvious? Shouldn’t it be ‘It has big ears, is has a long trunk, what animal is it called?’ Eventually, mum got sick of reading the paper (she might throw out if she continues reading) and passed it on to another teacher who in the end threw out too. (nah.. just exaggerating)

The funny thing is that nowadays no parents complain anymore. But I think all feedbacks/complains/suggestions are turned into masuk kiri keluar kanan ears nowadays, so parents feel tired wasting their saliva and petrol.

Then, mum told me and dad about the time when English was introduced to teach the subjects Math and Science in primary school. And it came out in the papers, I’m not sure whether u heard of it. It was a Math paper.

ie: 10 push 3 equals _____?

Do u know what’s wrong in THIS math question? Duh….. (my answer: NO COMMENT) And when the teacher who set the Q was questioned, the teacher answered that it is not the language that is important, but the answer that is important. (duhhhhh????) Next funny joke, my mum heard with her own pair of ears. It was a standard 5 English teacher asking another teacher….

Eh, what car do u wear?

Hhahhahahhahhhahha! Man… I was laughing like a donkey and then changing into a hyena after that. I can’t believe this! Haha… I pity those standard 5 kids. I guess tuition comes to help. But come to think of it, no point going for language tuitions ya? It all comes to conversation, the more u speak, the better u r in the language. As the proverb says : Practice makes perfect.

During her days when she was PK2( Penolong Kanan 2) aka H.E.M (Hal Ehwal Murid), it was really stressful especially being a PK2 in a primary school. U know la, kids fall down and bleed, who is the 1st person to see? PK2. Then, when kids fight with each other, who is the 1st person the pengawas bring these boys to? PK2. What about when class teacher is so fedup with the student, who does the teacher bring the student to? PK2. When it’s raining and the kid missed his bus, who sends him home? PK2. And here’s the best part, when kids pee or bomb in their trousers, who is the 1st person to see? PK2. As for the pee and bomb problem, my mum pulled out my old primary school uniform from the cupboard and brought to school for those pee & bomb uncontrollable kids. There goes my uniform.

My mum has been a teacher since 1971, so by now she has taught for 34 years, full of experience. She has taught in High school, Convent school, Primary school… except tamil school and private school. She’s superb in geography, if not mistaken, she taught geography for around 20 years. Cough cough, that’s y the son’s geography and sense of direction is excellent. (shy)

Currently she’s on contract teaching. It means that u have reached 55 years of age, and the government allows u to extend 2 more years to teach. The DOE finally feels that the country is lack of good teachers. Personally, I think that these original knowledge givers are lesser by day. So what I can say is that, be grateful to your teachers. Who are we without them? If not for the caning and scolding, are we who we are today? And I’m really angry with those parents who scold and even come to the extend of suing the teachers for caning or pulling their child’s ear. PEOPLE WITH NO SENSE OF GRATITUDE.

Thank you mum, for being my teacher and also my mum.

Kampung Kuantan Fireflies

Hello lo! I'm back from hibernating for the past 3 months, thousands of apologies for that. Why have i been gone? 1 stupid & unforgivable excuse, I can't find time hahaha... (i'm really busy with studies, the freaking aeroplane is so huge and complicated, argh!)

My bday just passed 1.5 weeks ago, quickly wish me happy belated birthday, quick quick! else it will be obsolete after 2 weeks.(it's on 19th sept! i dunwan presents anymore, i want $$$) Hey, I'm listening to 'Wake Me up When September Ends' now, and i just realised that it's 30th sept with 40 minutes to go. Should i wake the Greenday singers up at the strike of 12? U have their hp number?

Since my bday fell on the 1st day of my Final Exam (mid-sept is the famous time for holidays and exams, why why why?!), my coursemates and i had to celebrate my bday a lil later. So, we decided to do something stupid. And we did something stupid. We drove 125km(250km to and fro) up north from Sepang to Kuala Selangor, spending 2 hours on each journey, RM14.60 in total for toll and RM30 on fuel. Purpose of trip? EAT CHEAP SEAFOOD!

Reached Kuala Selangor fishing village at 7pm and our tummies were making sounds that could cover my car's radio speakers. ish... no patience at all! Marathoned out of the car, 100metre sprint from the car to the restaurant, and played musical chair at the table (we were trying to grab the best sit nearest to the river bank ma hehe :p)

Ordered 6 dishes. (Please do direct translation in mandarin ya, i dunno what are the names of the dishes in english.)
1. Meat crab - milk oil tyle
2. Ghost fish - bbq style (stingray!)
3. Sotong - fried with flour style
4. O jian - selangor style (they made it like a pizza and cut into 8 pieces)
5. a type of bamboo-like clams, pop out straight up form mud, what's it called? - spicy chilli style
6. Kailan vegetable.

The bill came up to RM87.40! 4 of us shared. Only RM22/person. UNBELIEVABLE CHEAP for seafood, dun u think so?! As the proverb says: A full stomach is a happy stomach. Happily and slowly we walked back to the car and started yawning as the a/c was turned on. Life is wonderful.

Next destination, Fireflies watching! yeay! 5 years ago i camped in Taman Alam, some 10km away form this Kampung Kuantan Firefly sanctuary. It was beautiful. There's no other words to explain, but just beautiful. Whole stretch of mangrove swamp along the stream was twinkling, every single tree was twinkling, every firefly was burning their arse! haha! But 5 years later of today, why so few left? where has this electricity generating insect migrate to? Now, i can only rate it as 'quite beautiful laaaa'.


Life jackets are provided. Imagine those lil lights twinkling, beautiful?

It is one of two places in the world, the other being along the Amazon River in Brazil, where millions of fireflies can be seen to flash their arses. The location along the Kampung Kuantan is special because it is easily accessible whereas the one along the Amazon is not.

Bought the RM10 adult tics and walked to the jetty where the boatman awaits us. With such pitch-black darkness, i would have done a walk-in dive if it wasn't for the boat operators giving directions. Safely sitted on the sampan, facing forward, i was agitated when i heard a motor running at the back of the sampan. isn't it suppose to be quiet and they should use oars to row the boat instead? No wonder the fireflies are dying off! Though it was a motor that only generated 10km/h speed, but the sound is just too much. Can't they do some modification to the motor, put some silencer or just row the boat?

Anyway, as we fought up river, I looked to the distance and saw a flicker of light. As we got closer, the lights grew brighter. It looks as if someone strung a handful of tiny white Christmas tree lights on the trees along the river. Flickering on and off.


When it is so dark, the fireflies take the shine.

Some parts of the river was dark, without a trace of any fireflies, and a few trees were infested by millions of them. And after reading from an internet souce, it says that "At low tide, the fireflies are more spread out and during high tide, they gather. This is because if they fall into the river, the flies will die." i guess it was high tide when i visited.

According to researches, the lights, which the male fireflies produce, are brighter than those of the female species. When the males find a mate, they begin to blink in unison whis is called synchronicity. The males flash within 1/30th of a second of each other whilst the females do not flash as frequently nor as flamboyantly as the males.

The mangrove tree is a type of oak tree that grows abundantly on Sungai Selangor. These trees thrive in a humid climate and swampy surroundings. The fireflies survive by sucking out the nectar produced by these trees.

It will be wise if u wore long trousers, and a thin sweater for the girls, because the boat ride is quite chilly with the sea breeze blowing non stop. Long trousers is to prevent mosquito bites. Personally, i dun think u should bring any mosquito repellent, cos the smell might contribute to the lessening of fireflies in Kuala Selangor. So, let's protect this beautiful creature! For those lazy asses, get up and drive to kampung kuantan to watch the fireflies b4 they extinct in front of your eyes!

p/s: sorry for such small pics. i didn't bring camera, so i got it from the net.