KLIA East , Airasia & Rakyat!

There is one fact in the whole new Labu Airport saga.........the current LCCT is overcrowded.

If you were a passenger using LCCT before then you have to agree with me that a bigger LCCT would be much more comfortable for all of us and im sure AA staff can work mroe efficiently.

I opine that the big furores over the new plan to build another airport in Labu is because of 2 things,

1. Its Sime darby!

After the IJN episode, no one will believe in SD anymore, they can say whatever they want but we know that they are up to no good! I wonder why all out of sudden SD involves in all major deals in our country? I hope someone will tell us whose hidden hands are behind SD in all these projects.

2. Wasteage

May i know who was the moron who did the KLIA master plan???? We were told that the expansion will cost double because of the peat soil. I wonder whether they only found out about that yesterday??? Didnt you take into consideration the soil condition when you draw up the plan? Didnt you expect that it will be an expansion? We should get the planner to asnwer the question publicly.

Then how about LCCT, after so many millions spent to build it, now we are going to abandon it ....another white elephant?

In short i agree that AA needs a bigger airport to operate but i hate the hidden hands behind the whole deal! It should be a simple & straight forward business deal, not a political game!

The whole deal stinks!

Promise,promise and promise......

It has been the most hectic CNY preparation i ever had, it is really taxing...not just to the pocket but mentally as well.

My sofa was supposed to arrived this morning but 2 days ago the company called and said it will be delayed to 23 January 2009. I was really pissed off.......i am the type of person who hold you to your words. When you dont keep your words, you dont deserve any respect from me because you did not respect me in the first place. Whats the difference between a person who lied with a person who doesn't keep their words? If there is any difference........i cant see it.

I asked the sales representative countless times whether they can deliver before CNY, she said not to worry, any delivery will be before 21-1-09....the latest!!!! Are you sure??? Yes,....confirm, 100% sure.

Then they called and told me they were sorry they cant deliver because the lorry was full.........hello!!!! How it became my problem??? Why you didnt put my sofa up on the lorry first???

The other girl said "...Ohhh....its CNY lah......"

Fren......you just knew its CNY???? Didnt you know CNY on 26-1-09 when you promised me?????

Then 1 more said ..."oh, your sofa has arrived in HQ but the lorry was not there...."

Sensing that they are getting more desperate by giving all those ridiculous excuses, i asked what are they going to do?"

"Sir, no point for us to promise you on 21/1/09 if we cant deliver it!"

Thats exactly my point, why in the world you promised me in the first place if you cant deliver??? Now you told me this...........wtf!!!! Pardon my language!

Anyway i managed to keep my cool throughout the conversation, i think i didnt raised my voice except towards a smart aleck who gave the lorry excuse!!!!!!

To cut the story short....they promised me to deliver it on 22/1/09 between 10-11 am. I am keeping my fingers crossed...............for my sake and theirs too!

The Art of Buying a Sofa...or the lack of it

This is 2009 and my first project is to replace my old sofa!

Step 1 : Budget

I started by setting a budget so that i know what to look for and make sure that i dont burn a hole in my pocket.

Step 2 : Material

Mainly it is between fabric or leather. I chose fabric because in our Malaysia weather, it will be sticky if you sit on a sofa without air-cond switched on.

Step 3 : Look for best deals

Hahaha.......cant go wronglah. I have all the newspaper cuttings on furniture promotions from Rozel to Lorenzo, from Kedai Perabut Ah Aw to Kedai Perabut Ahlee.

Step 4 : Ask for feedbacks & recommendations

This is important as your friends or relatives who has purchased their sofa has gone through all the checks and surveys, by asking them, you actually cut down most of the hard work. Anyway please make sure you ask the ones that actually like you or else he/she will give you the wrong information.

Step 5 : Visit the short listed shops

If you must know, you cant actually trust your people 100%, so you must check it our the furniture yourself. So I visited all the shops that in town to check out the furniture myself, you need to see the real thing mah to decide. To see whether the sofa comfortable or not, the material ok or not, the colour pleases your eyes or not. You must also check the sofa seats got spring or not.

Step 6 : Buy it!!!!

Easy right???? WRONG!!!!!

Buying sofa is damn complicated, confusing and definitely time consuming!

There are so many designs in the market...from L shape to U shape, from contemporary to English style. Every shop owners will tell you conflicting information, Kedai Perabut Aw will tell you fabric is good and when you reached Kedai Perabut Ahlee, she will say leather is good, easier to maintain. All the promotions published is the newspapers came with fine prints......you need to buy X dollar of other things before you can buy this sofa at this dirt cheap price.

The worst mistake you can make is to ask your relatives, they will tell all your aunties, ahmah, ah poh, ah ku, ah sam,neighbours next door.......that you are buying sofas. whenever one of them met you, they will ask "when your sofa is coming" or said 'wah....rich hoh now? can buy new sofa huh?'...even my newspaper guy knew that i was buying a sofa.

The second biggest mistake i made was bringing Ms. Indecisive-but-want-to-decide. After numerous visits to so many shops until the shop owners also didnt want to entertain us or know us by name, she still could not decide! Do you know that most of the sofas are tailor made nowadays, so the shop needs at least 2 weeks to deliver to you. I always thought it was cash and carry! At last she decided on the Lorenzo models.....damn, RM 4,000++, half leather....but the worst thing was the day she decided, Lorenzo has stopped taking order because they cant guarantee they can deliver before CNY! Haiiii....back to square one!

Adoiii......CNY is just around the corner........looks like i better start cleaning my old sofalah...sigh!!!!

Christmas in Lawas

This is sort of a belated Christmas posting.....dedicated to Ms TMK...

Lawas is a small town strategically located between Kota Kinabalu, Labuan & Brunei, therefore this town is quite developed. Majority of the people are Lun Bawangs who are staunch Christians, so Christmas meant more than Santa or presents for these folks.

I went to a village called Kampung Long Tuan to celebrate my 2008 Christmas. This village is about an hour away from Lawas town, the road to the junction of the village was tarred but the road from the junction to the village was not that good, so it was a bumpy ride thereon.

Church services started days before Cristmas on daily basis, i went there on Christmas eve for a service.

The Pastor used bahasa Lun Bawang and sometimes Bahasa Malaysia to preach so non Lun bawang can actually understand the sermon. Besides that, there were presentations put on by the village youths which i think was quite impressive.

Since the road back to the place we stayed was quite dark and slippery, we went home before the countdown. On top of that, we need to be in church again the next morning for Christmas service. The young ones also were too sleepy to celebrate Christmas countdown.

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On Christmas day, we went again to the church which was located about 500 meters from the village.

Since the service started early in the morning, many just brought their breakfast with them to the Christmas service.

This is the Christmas theme which meant ' Christmas is God's gift for mankind". By any chance it was wrongly interpreted, please let me know!

The Lawas MP, YB Datuk Henry Sum Agung also attended the service. What impressed me most was the YB arrived much earlier that many of the villagers and actually stayed until the service ended. For the record, he also attended the Christmas eve service. The YB was very friendly and approachable, no big hoohaa on his arrivals. The Peninsular YBs shld learn a thing or two from YB Henry!

While there were many fans.....stand fans, wall fans but its still hot & humid in the church due to too many people, youngs ones needed additional fans.

Some even left with less clothes after the service.

After the service, the youths will just hopped on any vehicle to the village where all the houses were.

The houses in Long Tuan were huge, i was told this village was one of the most successful & properous villages in Lawas. The people were really blessed there. I believe they reaped what they sowed!

I knew that Sarawak layer cakes were famous for the taste but i never knew that they can make an art out of it, the cake was so nice that i just put a piece in my hand and admired it, too nice to eat!

In short, it has been an eye opening for me celebrating Christmas in Lawas in 2008, the people were very friendly, from their YB to the ordinary folks. The food and cakes were finger-licking-good! It was sort of a faith renewing trip for me when i saw these God fearing people love & faith towards God, its just refreshing!

Kota Kinabalu to Lawas

The trip from KK to Lawas took me around 3-4 hours, the road condition throughout the journey was very good. The same can't be said about our car, the old Iswara was without air-condition.....so we sweat and sweat and sweat in hot and humid Sabah's weather! This must be my most torturous trip.....lost a bag then being ferried in a 'sauna'....haiiii!

Most of the houses along the road were on stilt, i was told in the older days the area was flooded so building a house on a stilt was the best way to avoid any problem. Now there was no flood....but people still build their house on stilt.......maybe they got used to climb the steps to enter their house!!!

Beaufort is town located right in the middle between KK and Lawas so i was really looking forward to see any landmarks or signs that we have reached the town. What a relief when i saw this roundabout.

There was nothing much can be said about Beaufort, it is a small town, its a stop over town, people travel from Lawas or Brunei to KK and return normally will stop at this town for a drink and a loo break! After Beaufort, the next small town would be Sipitang which is located mid way to Lawas.

Sipitang is even smaller than Beaufort. It is a coastal town, you can actually take speedboat from Sipitang to Labuan, Limbang and Brunei. When we reached here, i was like a roasted pig........given up complaining and missed my old waja at home!!

Dont bother to go to Sipitang police station if you are in town as they were away........

It was a roughly 1-2 hours drive from Sipitang to Lawas. If you are from peninsular or non Sabahan/Sarawakian, you need to stop at the border between Sabah and Sarawak for immigration clearance. I know you are a Malaysian but you are not Sabahan nor Sarawakian....so you need to get immigration clearance. Dont try to be smart aleck and skip the check point, you will have difficulty if you meet any problem in Sarawak or if you want to go to Brunei or Labuan from Lawas. The chekcpoint was at Sindumin, its on Sabah's side, so it means that you are exiting Sabah!

If you dont know, Lawas is in Sarawak. So to get to Lawas, we first exited Sabah then enter Sarawak, after a 5 minutes drive through another immigration checkpoint at Merapok. Get your passport stamped and Welcome to Sarawak!

It took less than an hour from Merapok to Lawas. When you see this then you are in Lawas!

Lawas Airport

p/s: The above was a brief info the route i took from KK to Lawas, if by any chance you are going there and need some info, dont hesitate to email me. I will write about Christmas in Lawas next....i hope!

Only in Kota Kinabalu

Before we left for Lawas, we made a stop in KK town for lunch, during my brief tour after my lunch, i saw many interesting characters and things that i believe can be seen only in KK. Don't agree? Check this out:

In my home town, if there is any directional signboard to a toilet, it will show either you need to take a left or right turn, but in KK, it even showed you how far...to the last meter! I really salute the officers who spent time to measure how many meters to the nearest toilet. So if you have an urgent 'business' to settle while in KK, you know how fast you need to run! If you can run as fast as Usain Bolt who holds the 100m world record at 9.69s......then you need less than 5 seconds to the below toilet.

I don't know about you but all the canteen food i had ever tasted were like.......hmmm...canteen food......tasteless, no ingredients except a lot of taugeh, pale looking.........not really those type of food you crave for lah. Anyway i noticed that in KK, the people there are so creative....they can make even canteen food to become fastfood!!!! So next time you are in KK......no Mcdonald, no KFC....go for 'The Canteen Fastfood'

If you always wanted to become an actor/actress but your budget don't allow you to be in Bollywood or Hollywood, not to worry, you can take cheap Airasia ticket to KK ( be prepared to lose your bag though) as you can try your luck in KK;

OK, if you are in KK but your bag is somewhere else thanks to Airasia, not to worry, look up for this lady, she surely can help you to do up your hair and make-ups. Sure cantik one!!!!

Jokes aside, Kota Kinabalu is really an interesting city, the people are really friendly! If you are planning for a holiday, do consider KK!

p/s: My friend, Ms. Tak-mau-kasi kept bugging me to write about my Lawas trip. So i will write about it lah in my next posting to please her.....and to keep her quiet..i hope!

Rear seat belt.......to fasten or not?

Boy oh boy.......effective 1 January 2009, whether you like it or not, you need to fasten the rear seat belt, or else you will be summoned! The authority said that the public have been given ample time to adapt and it is our fault if they are still being stubborn and refuse to buckle up behind!

Until June 2009, you will be fined RM 300 if you are caught not fastening your belt at the back, after that it will be RM 2000 or a year jail or both!!!! Wow, the authority really means business this time.

If the authority is THIS serious towards Mat Rempit, many of us would just kept quiet and respect whatever the authority wants us to do! Sadly, it is not the case, after so long the authority still has no clue on how to handle the Mat Rempits, giving every excuse that they can think of! The Mat Rempits still rule the road, we are still at their mercy! What the authority does?????? Closed one eye !!!!!

Please correct me if i am wrong, i understand that buses are exempted from this ruling! I really don't know what type of study the authority did but the last time i checked, many fatals accidents invloved buses. If the intention is to save life, why buses are exempted from this ruling?????

Talking about buses, wouldn't it nice if the authority take time out and drives along the North-South Highway and see how fast our buses can go! Wouldn't it better the ever-so-busy enforcement officer spend their time stopping and fining those buses for speeding instead?

I am sure the new ruling was placed with noble intention but the problem here is whether the authority set their priority right???? RM 2000 for not buckling up behind but kept quiet about Mat Rempits really annoyed many people! There are so many bus drivers with numerous summonses still driving on the road but our enforcement officers are busy summoning us for not buckling up behind????

Ok, I will buckle up behind ( i dont have RM 2,000 to spare) but Dear Authority, tell us what are you going to do with Mat Rempits???? What are you going to do speeding buses??? What are you going to do with those bus drivers who have being summmoned times and again???? Please tell us, please!

New Year Wishes

Happy 2009!!! I wish to thank to those nice people who sent me the best wishes on the new year's eve. I tried to send wishes through sms to as many people i could but to those who did not receive, treat this as a belated wishes lah!

I want to share a sms that i received which i think is very interesting and funny!

Read below:

"May you be as handsome as your mother think,

As rich as your children believe,

and may you have as many women as your wife suspects,

I wish that you may have the courage of David,

The meekness of Joseph,

The faithfulness of Moses,

The obedience of Abraham,

The wisdom of Solomon,

...and the penis of Goliath!!!!!"

Cute huh?

Once again, may all your wishes come true!