Conquering Mount Kinabalu

It has been 2 days after the tiring but fun trip to Mount Kinabalu and Poring Hot Spring

I’d say…the trip with newly-acquaintance-friends was fun and adventurous…I had a great time getting to know new faces and new jokes…bunyi macam singa si Kuai consider joke terbaru juga..haha..you’re one hell of a girl Kuai…I don’t know how long one can survive if you were to join a hunting trip at night…haha….unique yet special..

First Day (12th Feb 2009)
First day…everyone was nervous…or was it only me? because I’m a very shy person ba...I kind of arrived earlier than expected and had to wait over 2 hours…no worries though…I wasn’t mad and nor saddened by that…not a biggie…understandable ba Kuai, Zi and Defoo yang ‘main tapuk-tapuk’ di atas bukit…haha…then ada lagi rakaman video durang di dalam kereta...haha..Earlier I had already collected the rooms’ keys (Liwagu Rest House) but I wasn’t feeling good about entering the room without the others….so I waited la kenen dengan tabah until the blue coloured Viva arrived…that early evening about 7pm, I think…we had our dinner at the nearby restaurant, opposite the junction to Kinabalu Park…if I wasn’t mistaken, it’s called Pinarata…and had a nice small ice-breaking chat…I was with Kuai, Zi, Lumis, Pinny, Bopp, Defoo and Gidong at the same table whilst the others…Mamai, Sumpitz, Gurangak, Dogoes, Tom, Nokurogia and Kupi at another table next to us (click their names to get more updates and pictures)….right after dinner, the entire members went up to the Liwagu Rest House and had a nice warm shower in the darkness…another ice breaking afterwards where each of us had to introduce ourselves to the members...then the climax of the night was a bottle of Chivas courtesy of Gurangak along with fun game of cards…

Second Day (13th Feb 2009)
As early as 6am..I woke up and washed my face...went down to the Raflesia Restaurant to have my breakfast...I was so hungry and I couldn’t bare any longer to throw some shit out of my ass….terkimut-kimut terkena air sejuk...haha…the bathroom door in our room can not be locked even closed ba..hehe..nanti terbangun orang dengar hembusan nafas dari belakang…haha…I had a decent breakfast buffet…fried rice+egg+waffle+bread+orange juice…then another cup of hot coffee with the others at the Liwagu Rest House before we spent another an hour waiting for the bus to transport us to the Timpohon Gate as well as an arrangement for porters to carry some others stuffs to our next stop at the mid-top of Mount Kinabalu….several group pictures were taken and at around 9:20am we off to the Timpohon Gate then began our journey up to Laban Rata stop…we left the Tompohon Gate at around 9:40am that morning…I was with Mamai, Tom, Sumpitz leading the way up but later after the 4th hut…there were only me and Sumpitz struggling to reach Laban Rata stop..Mamai and Tom arrived and had their lunch at Laban Rata Café about 20 minutes earlier than me and Sumpitz…if I wasn’t mistaken it was already 30 minutes past 2pm…four of us then went to the rest house where we were planned to stay/rest….had our rest/sleep whilst waiting the others to arrive…and finally at about 6pm, everyone was there resting and some chatting about about their journey up from Timpohon Gate…spent the whole night inside the rest house to get enough rest before another challenge to the Low’s Peak of Mount Kinabalu at 2:30am….Kuai Love introduced us with her friend ‘L’ and she was kind enough to prepare a decent breakfast for us (Me, Mamai, Defoo, Kuai, Zi, Tom and Nokurogia)..Thanks kio L…hehe..ada apple and orange lagi..haha…

Third Day (14th Feb 2009)
We walked from Laban Rata at about 2:30am slowly making our way up to the peak….climbing up the rocky mountain using ready made rope and several staircase to heaven was difficult enough…it was to me…and I’m pretty sure most of the members felt the same tiredness as me…except for Mamai who always looked strong..maintaininng his step towards the peak…there were me, Mamai and Dogoes when we reached the Sayat-Sayat Gate and when it was already 1km from the Low’s Peak….Dogoes was already way behind us, leaving me trying to keep up with Mamai’s pace…I failed and he left me when it was about 500m way up to the Low’s Peak…Mamai was the first to reach the Low’s Peak at about 5:20am that morning, followed by me and Dogoes couple of minutes later…then came Defoo, Sumpitz and Gurangak….Kuai was the first woman in the group to reach the Low’s Peak though…. too bad Pinny, Zi and Kopi didn’t make it to the top…at least you ladies tried kan…there’s always next time…Thanked God for the good weather we had during the whole trip up Mount Kinabalu…we were given a clear sky…bright moon and stars…calm night without any strong wind at all…..

To be continued….

I'm taking a break..

Hi chaps....I think I haven't visited my blog as often as I should these past few days...frankly speaking I was tied up with works and I wasn't feeling like penning down anything yet...Chinese New Year...Chap Goh Mei...I had them celebrated with dear friends...hung out,chatting and drinking...not much though as I was trying to reduce the amount of alcohol consumption for a rare trip to Mount Kinabalu...yes, most of you might have heard it from other fellow bloggers, especially from Lumis's blog where she introduces most of the coming-to-be-newly-acquintance-friends....I'm about to have another trip back to Sabah today at around 10:15 am from Penang International Airport...I was in Sabah a month ago and again..I'm going back to Sabah for a short+packed schedule....I wouldn't dare to say that I've prepped myself for this trip as I had just finished packing my stuff into my bag..I have not had any special gears (glove, ski-mask, torch light and etc) ready or anything....I was supposed to get them ready last weekend but I wasn't feeling like doing it...it becomes habit to me now and then...sometimes, I might change my mind about any trip at the very last minute..it happened once although I had bought the flight ticket for that particular trip...be it scary or wasting...I just don't care if I don't feel like doing it...

Still, this trip to Mount Kinabalu..I really don't know if it was my heart who agreed to join or was it just a desire to once again to feel/live the beauty of nature...I know it's going to be a fun trip and I'm hoping a good weather during the whole trip...last year, I told myself that I'm going to use this particular moment at a particular location above the sea-level to re-evalute my life..re-evalute things that had happened...things that I should be looking at or needing more attention in my present life...I just don't know how would it be but I do know that I truly need a break from workplace...I have not had any of my-moment at workplace since my return in early January...I was continuesly busy and pressured....good thing was, I wasn't even once felt stressed like most people would have, my mind is just tired...it sounds to me that I'm complaining huh...that's this crap that I've been trying to tell to myself over and over again to not ever fall off the track and just keep it up to my best...

It's now 6:25am..I'm not planning to sleep until I boarded the plane back to Sabah..there, I'll have over 2 hours of rest if I may....will be arriving in KK around noon and heading back to Ranau...spending time with my parents before the actual trip on the 12th Feb...I might try to look for all the 'missing' gears later in Ranau...well, this is not my first trip to Mount Kinabalu and there was once (2nd trip) I went up to the highest peak in SEA without any proper gears (not even a torch light..I kind of used my friend as a torch to light our way up as he had his torch light and we ended up as the first two human to arrive at the peak at dawn that day..still, arriving early was not a very good idea as we had to wait for others before we could walk our way down...silap sikit mati kesejukan menunggu..haha)....have the management installed any lights along the track? How would that be like?Would it still be adventerous?

I believe most Sabahan have not climbed the Mount Kinabalu..understandable la if you have a health complication but for those who haven't done it and you don't have any health issue...I would highly recommend to not to miss the chance to conquer the highest peak in SEA...I told my Tech Director about this trip and he's interested to know more about Mount Kinabalu...he's an out-door type of guy...cycling, rock climbing, kayaking, jungle tracking and conquering mountains around Europe...and he was kind of shocked to know the height of Mount Kinabalu (he has never climbed as high as Mount Kinabalu..)

A'ight peeps..I'm going to take a bath now and get ready before Jew wakes up....later guys!

I'm just trying to be a low profile..

There are so many excuses given for not getting yourself in front of a camera....being a low profile among others will do but that does not guaranty your secret is safe...just a little more careful with flash might help...a dilemma for our heroes flashmen/women out there..please understand....huhu..

Have a great day and 'our heroes' are out there among us....

Another pain-in-the-ass "Roll-Out"

This project has been ongoing for the past 2 years...last year I had sacrificed much of my own time staying late (as late as 16 hours working straight with the help of cigarettes) and now it all started again...I was the one who wrote the entire test plans and now I'm using them against the "roll-out" release version that we had planned for this particular customer....still, we've not been given a full contract agreement although we had worked and fulfilled their requirements and this could worth possibly AUS$1.3 million to the company for at least 2 years of contract...

Today,I came in the office....bear in mind my manager is on 2 weeks leave and for that reason our Tech Director become so hyper tracing and reviewing all works performed by me, my manager and one particular senior developer in the UK....to my surprise, mistakes that were not meant to be mine become mine...."missed update" issue...I was pissed off but looking further at the issues, I realized there was no point to be mad at and as the only resident expert in Malaysia that they can rely on at this stage, I responded to the blame by making a phone call and explained the details professionally to the Tech Director...I'm left alone to deal and response to these issues to our Business Dev Manager in Aus, Tech Director and of course our CEO in the loop.....

I couldn't give better answer to the late update of the current "roll-out" version status although I had one particular reason where it was already been planned that another 'hot fix' will be deployed later on Monday (UK time which I was not in the office to confirm the fix) I explained what I've found and what I personally think needing further investigation..thankfully, the Tech Director was alright with my action...well, I'm doing what had been told and I didn't expect this would happened...today I've spent almost an hour documenting my findings and passed it over to them...then opened several more HITS issues as record of faults...the Tech Director has reviewed them and allocated me to work with the senior developer for another 'hot fix' ASAP...

Few minutes ago, I checked my web mail and read the emails received from the Tech Director...I'm a little relieved reading his response to my documented findings...still, there seems to have several HITS issues left not being updated and they are now becoming my next task, tomorrow to investigate then update them accordingly....noting down these tasks and time I might need to spend on investigation, I would not dare to say I would be able to complete them within 8 working hours.....I'm talking about a massive data as big as 9 G byte (SQL) needing investigation to why and where it went wrong to show wrong output..from where those extra outputs coming and to why they're not being output correctly...I provide the inputs and the senior developer would use these inputs for his fixes.....is this another re-play of last year? Challenge comes with prize and hopefully I can get that prize again if I could pull this off well although I now had 4 not-so-good-working-weeks......Thanked God though....

I think I've been complaining since my return.....forgive me....

Jan-Feb transition dinner...

How was your weekend?

Today's the first day of the month of February..On satuday, me and Jew worked together replacing the 'dawai rambat' at the gate to a new set 'dawai rambat' (dawai rambat ba tu kan nama dia kalau di sabah...yang kadang-kadang kena guna untuk BBQ tu..)The previous one was badly damaged by dogs (From the mother; Tankerina until her son; Biggy) Husky (the Siberian Husky - now named Husky sebab kurang bengong sudah) is getting bigger and soon, he will need to start doing his job guarding the front yard and Biggy at backyard...I don't know what would happen if he sees any female dog...he's already a horny dog..making the 'anjakan' move to other people's leg...

The gate is looking good now...earlier that day when me and Jew went out looking for hardware shop to buy the 'dawai rambat'..Jew proposed to do a BBQ or BBQ-steamboat...So, we decided to do a BBQ-Steamboat..the last time we had BBQ-Steamboat was back in 2007 during Jew's birthday celebration...around 7pm, me and Jew went out again to the near by Tesco Hypermarket buying all the food as well as a pack of 16 cans beer....with 2 amateur cooks doing the preparation..it didn't take longer than 30 minutes for us to start enjoying the food...well I was the first because I prepared a boiled cockle....too bad that there was no 'sambal' because Tesco run out of chilies..huhu..Jew prepared Tom Yam soup and another frying pan was used for BBQ'ing.....hehe...we began enjoying the food and I tell you...It was a nice decent dinner and it causes us to forget that we have beers.....the first beer can we had was so delicious....haha...this was after several non-stop eating...perhaps due to the combination of hot-spicy Tom Yam soup and hot-crispy BBQ....the food we had were; chicken wings (fried), slice chicken, meat and chicken ball, sausage, cherry tomato, mushroom, mee-hoon and of course my cockle (Jew does not eat cockle..)

Looking at the foods on the table, we were thinking...the food we had were actually enough for atleast 5 persons...now there only me and Jew....earlier at the Tesco, I was like....looking at the items inside the basket, I thought macam inda cukup kenen...thankfully several of the foods we were looking for already finished...Jew phoned his cousin and invited him to come to the house (We thought his cousin were in KL) he came and joined us...chatting, cooking and drinking....several hours then, me and Jew went out again buying another 9 bottles of beer....then Joel returned home as he had just finished his jamming session with his band....even with 4 persons, still there have several more foods being kept in the refrigerator...and today Jew cooked a fried mee-hoon+slice chicken+sausage+meet & chicken ball+vegetable....the only food that we managed to finish last night were the Tom Yam soup and my cockle..apparently, I'm the only person who eats cockle..not even Joel nor Jew's cousin, John...John is actually looking after his cholesterol level and cockle has a high level of cholesterol indeed....

Woke up today..nothing to do other than cleaning the space we had BBQ-Steamboat last night...and now resting...tomorrow is Monday already..hope you guys had a great weekend..the CNY mood is still on the air I believe....