For One Night Only

just now, the local guys called me to watch football enthusiastically. i was busy waiting for my burger so i politely declined. then i saw more and more people going into the cafe to watch football. i wondered, "what big game was this?"

Man Utd vs Arsenal? Chelsea vs Liverpool? FA cup? international friendly?

boyyy was i wrong. well, technically it was FA cup final. but kelantan vs selangor. my jaw nearly hit the ground. this was all the hype about? i am one who does not watch msian football. i don't think i've even watched a full malaysian game. and i used to think nobody did as well. so much for patriotism.

now this annoying KRU song is playing in my head, "fanatik, fanatik, fanaaatikkk"... coz only kelantans are so supportive and die hard fans for their state team. kelantan fans actually make an effort to go and watch them live. usually, stadiums are dead empty. this week, bus tickets to kl were sold out, and those wanna buy standby tickets have to pay rm20 extra. all because the game is in kl.

few weeks back, fans burnt a van outside the stadium after they lost a match. and here i thought this only happens in europe. tanah air dah cukup drama tapi tak pernah perasan, nak pandang jauh apasal?

ok i take some of it back. i do watch malaysian football a bit. just to see the red company's advertisements all around the stadium :P

*******

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i just watched the hugh jackman and beyonce's opening of the 2009 Oscars on youtube. damn it was good! the songs were awesome. hugh jackman can sing. especially caught my attention when they broke into the grease number. coz i've seen grease quite a few times :P

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hugh jackman singing "for one night only" was quite odd though. c'mon wolverine doing disco? but mamma mia with the stepping was cool. ok nothing creative, but musicals are just feel-good to watch, don't you agree?

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then beyonce started etta james's, she turned around and gave the look of innocence and alluring smile...

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"At last, my love has come along...", she sang to me.

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then i sang to her, "i've got chills, they're multiplying. and i'm losing control. i better shape up. coz you need a man. and in my heart is set on you!".

The tat

the long road out of kb...

this picture actually looks like a detective's head facing to the left. can you see the top hat, hook nose, and sharp chin? or is it just me? oh well...

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we call our aircrafts by their registrations. its like their names. aircraft registrations in msia start with 9M (pronounced as Niner Mike), followed by three alphabets. but most of our aircraft have ascending (?) alphabets, for example it could be 9M-AAA, 9M-AAB, 9M-AAC etc etc... so we would simply call them by their last alphabet like alpha, bravo, charlie (aviation terminology for A, B, C (and U would be uniform)).

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then there is the exceptions. like 9M-TAT. since that makes out a syllabus, we simply call it "tat".

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the other night, only 9M-APU and 9M-TAT were being used. the engineer wasn't sure. and a conversation took place like this:

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him: malam nie, Uniform dengan TAT flying?

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me: ahhh yes. TAT dan apu (i pronounced as apoo, like the owner of kwik-e mart in the simpsons)

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him: apooo dengan panTAT eh?!

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doesn't the clouds look fake. like a passageway to heaven?

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btw, that's panTAT fyi.

After Dark

yesterday while i was cutting my nails, i remembered being given one of the most random senseless advices in my life. it was back in form 1, one of my classmates comes up to me, really out of the blue and says,

"don't share nail clippers. very harmful. a lot of bacteria and germs. your nails can rot and drop off if you share nail clippers".

righttt. how do you react to such helpful advice? with a "oooo-really?-yesss ah" expression of course. but its much harder to do, cause the "wth"-look would be painted really deep into your face to change it.

and as random as that advice was, i have just realized this post is also very random. it's ok, got a picture. (no words to say, so maybe picture will help :P)

flying at night was always more scenic for me. love the sight of taking off from klia (as a passenger of course), then seeing the highway lights and the whole kl city lighted up. ignore the light pollution and all. its much nicer to see, for me at least.

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finally started night flying properly, and realized kb looks wayyy better at night than during the day. that's the heart of kb up there. it actually looks like a town at night. another 3hours of night flying to go! let's see how everything goes...

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*******

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i guess it's not the way you always planned it.

looks like you're heading for a crash landing.

that's just the way it looks from where i'm standing.

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-Schuyler Fisk's "from where i'm standing"-

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(its just a song. i have absolutely no intention of the second line. its just a nice song)

SimulatorS

some simulator (not to be confused with stimulator, even though the stick looks like it may bring some joy, but its entirely for controlling the aircraft and not pleasure) pics:

the diamond-42 simulator cockpit. whenever i go there to take pics, it's always off. hence, a bit dull. anyways, i'm not doing sim on it. instead...

the seneca simulator which i'm doing. feels like a boeing 737 cockpit with the instrutors' pilot jackets hanging just behind the chairs.

for your information, these simulators shown do not move, instead the screen pictures move to provide visual reference. and no, still not done with single engine. lil more than 30hours to go...

a lil more information, multi engine aircrafts these days are designed so that even if there is an engine failure, the aircraft is controlable and capable of making a safe landing. so simulators are used to practise these emergencies since its unsafe to actually shut down an engine in flight in real life. simulators provide the closest to the real thing. and its not easy.

*******

the foreigner went to town for a meal. after his sumptuous meal, he called the waiter for the bill. you know how locally the waiter just comes and asks what you ordered then randomly spills out an outrageous figure for your meal? well the waiter asked him what he ate.

unsure of what its called coz he's not from around here, he said "nasi kangkang". if only i was there, i would have laughed my butt off. dang!

Snake In Piece

i'm sure you guys have heard of the movie "snakes on a plane".

today, i saw a friggin dead snake on the runway. i was flying with a batchmate, he was the pilot in command, and i was his co-pilot. and the airplane i fly, only has a door on my seat. so my captain says as we taxied onto the runway:

"kb tower, this is APAC X, we have visual with the FOD(foreign object damage) on runway. its a...DEAD SNAKE".

tower replies: "copied. can you please remove it?"

me frantic, but captain replies: "affirmative. will remove it".

of course he can't leave the aircraft cause he is pilot in command. and turns to me. a friggin snake. where the hell am i gonna throw it?! with my bare hands? do i look like an undertaker? or even remotely like tarzan?

somehow i embraced myself, opened the door and rushed out. the carcass (which i wasn't sure was alive or dead yet), was dead center of the runway. probably got run over by a boeing or airbus, or maybe even more sadder by a pathetic diamond-40 or piper-warrior while it tried to slither its way across to greener grass. well they did say, the grass is greener on the other side, but nobody talked about the journey to the other side now did they? unfortunately it never made its destination. instead it lay upside down, kena lanyak.

as i got off the runway, it felt kinda cool standing there. the runway is a very restricted area, don't think many have touched foot there before, and its pretty huge (though i should know this by now). but the snake still freaked me out. what if it was just playing dead? and suddenly goes "BOOOH!" as i picked its tail up? you know, a snake with humour perhaps? it doesn't help that i ain't much of a reptile person either.

i quickly took it up by the tail and swirled it across the side of the runway like a discus throw hoping it was the side of the runway it wanted to go in the first place. last wishes kinda thing so it may rest in peace? i've a real kind soul, i know.

i just regret not taking a picture on the runway. don't think i'll get an opportunity like this again. oh well, its an experience nonetheless!