Kekapal Terbang

I'm an avid enthusiast on aviation, or for that matter anything that flies. I'm still wondering whether the buraaq was actually a biological living creature that could fly or could it be a mechanical flying machine. What about the real engineering and design technical specifications of Prophet Sulaiman's flying throne? Anyway in this short note, I would like to share some of the airplanes and the airlines that I have been flying with (among others) ...

Late 1980s:

• Boeing 737-200 MAS:  Subang to Changi. The first time I’ve ever been in an aeroplane, just 20-year old, after getting a Government Scholarship to study Aeronautical Engineering in Glasgow University. I saw my dearest mother crying when sending me to the Departure Hall. I was feeling really excited for the adventures to come.

• Boeing 747-200 British Airways: Changi to London Heathrow. Sitting beside me throughout the 13 odd hours journey was a lovely girl on her way to Herriot Watt University to study Actuarial Science or what not.

• McDonnell Douglas DC-10 British Airways: London Heathrow to Glasgow Abbotsinch. Welcome to Scotland.

• Ilyushyin Il-76TD Aeroflot: London Heathrow to Subang via Moscow Domodedovo International Airport to & fro. Bloody hell, this civil variant of a multi-purpose 4-engined strategic airlifter really scared me, especially the stewards and stewardess were like shrewd Soviet era Red Army. This aircraft also has a lower glass cockpit. Anyway, this is the cheapest way back home during summer holidays, back then.

1990s:

• British Aerospace Jetstream 41: Glasgow Prestwick Airport, round and round, during my aerospace engineering Year 3 practical lab. Rasa nak muntah jek ... actually I did.

• Boeing 747-200 PIA: London Heathrow to Subang via Jinnah International Airport Karachi. That ‘via’ thing lasted for four months, during my epic  ‘چار مہینے’ sabbatical journey.

• Boeing 737-300 MAS: Subang (still Subang ...) to Changi. Many times company trip to the Red Dot City.

• Fokker50 MAS to some destinations within the peninsula.

• de Havilland Canada Dash 7  Berjaya Air, on and off trip to Kerteh before going to offshore.

• Eurocopter AS365N2 Dauphin, Sikorsky S76C and many more scary helicopters rides from MHS during my offshore days. 

Eurocopter Dauphin

Sikorsky S76C

2000s:

• Boeing 737-400 MAS: KLIA to Changi. Sometimes instead of MAS we used to also to commute to Singapore using SQ.

• Airbus 330-200 MAS: KLIA to KK. I had the pleasure of working as the project manager for six months in Sipitang Sabah, every two three week I travel back to KL. Not after transit for a day usually at the comfortable Sutera Habour Hotel. 

• Airbus 330-300 MAS: KLIA to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport Jakarta. Couple of times I went to Jakarta on business trip.

• Airbus 330-200 MAS: KLIA to Juanda International Airport Surabaya.

• Boeing 747-400 MAS: KLIA to Los Angeles International Airport (a.k.a. LAX or Tom Bradley). An epic journey to the US.

• Boeing 757-200 US Airways: LAX to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Visiting Honeywell HPS HQ previously in Phoenix.

• Boeing 737-400 Continental: Phoenix to Houston George Bush Airport. Onto Houston the oil town of the US. Until now, I sometimes cracked my lame 'dad jokes' to my kids saying that "I'm going to Houston", whenever my kids asked me where I'm going.

• Boeing 777-200 MAS: KLIA to Amsterdam Schipol. Back to Amsterdam after 20 odd years. Went on to Amersfoort, Zaanse Schans and Rotterdam.

• Boeing 737-400 Luftansa: Schipol to Frankfurt

• Boeing 757-200 United: LAX to Houston. Another trip the US. Visited NASA Johnson Space Centre in Houston and Universal Studio in LA.

• Boeing 777-200 MAS: KLIA to Narita. Cool Tokyo and its Disneyland Theme Park as well. Onto Yokohama.
• Airbus A330-300 MAS: KLIA to Indra Gandhi International Airport. Visited Taj Mahal.
• Few more trips to Japan and India ...

2010s:

• Boeing 777-200 MAS: KLIA to Istanbul Ataturk. What a beautiful city.
• Boeing 737-400 Turkish: Istanbul to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

• Boeing 777-200 MAS: KLIA to HK International Airport. Cuti-cuti HK with family.
• ATR72 Firefly: Subang to Changi

• Airbus A320-200 AirAsia: LCCT to KK

• Boeing 777-200 MAS: KLIA to CDG Paris. Ahh, Mona Lisa at the Louvre.
• Airbus 340-300 Gulf Air: KLIA to Muharraq Bahrain International Airport.

• Airbus A330-200 Gulf Air: Bahrain to Dubai. Welcome to Dubai Mall and the really tall Burj Khalifa.

• Airbus 340-300 Emirates: KLIA to Dubai

• Airbus A380-800 Emirates: Dubai to CDG Paris. How about Euro Disneyland for a change?

• A few more trips to Istanbul via Boeing 777-200 MAS with wife and company trips.
• Airbus A380-800 Emirates again ... I had an Italian Job in Milano (Milan), onto Venezia Santa Lucia (Venice) and the scenic Lago di Como (Lake Como)
• Airbus A380-800 MAS to Paris with wife and daughter. Onto UK via channel tunnel Eurostar, and back to Glasgow after 25 years, via Lake District and Stoke-on-Trent.

• Airbus A330-300 AirAsiaX from KLIA to Sydney for a job interview, would you believe it? I even had a chance to play cricket with the local Aussie team. Anyway the flight sucks.

• Airbus A330-300 MAS from KLIA to Sydney. This was so much better.
• Boeing 737-300 AirAsia from KLIA to Jakarta, few times on business and leisure.

• ATR72 Malindo from Subang Skypark to Kuala Terengganu, many times as I'm currently doing the KT MRO project.

• Boeing 787 Dreamliner JAL from KLIA to Narita, and another Dreamliner to Nagoya.

• Boeing 737-800 Malindo to Lahore, the Fort, Badshahi Mosque, Anarkali Bazaar, Sheesh Mahal (the real thing, not the restaurant) etc.

• Admal Cessna 172 round and round Kuala Lumpur.

• North Americas Tour of 2019 - I was doing an intercontinental round trip marathon flights of 41,263 km from KUL-DOH-ORD-YYC-IAH-DOH-KUL for some meetings with the oil & gas people in Canada and the US as well as attending the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston. Taking Qatar's Boeing 777 (300 & 200) and United's Boeing 737-800. The distance travelled was more than Earth's circumference around the equator which is 40,075 km, just like what al Biruni has calculated in his Codex Masudicus written in 1037.

Qatar 777-300

United 737-800

• Tokyo (and Fuji-san) with Wife and Kids cruising the Boeing 777-300 Cathay Pacific from KLIA to Narita via Hong Kong.

1. 2022 AirAsia: KLIA-Changi-KLIA Airbus A320neo
2. 2022 AirAsia: KLIA-KKIA-KLIA Airbus 330-300
3. 2022 Turkish: KLIA-Istanbul-KLIA Boeing 777-300
4. 2022 Saudia: KLIA-Madinah, Jeddah-KLIA Boeing 787-9
5. 2023 Saudia: KLIA-Jeddah-Rome, Frankfurt-Jeddah-KLIA Boeing 787-9
6. 2024 Saudia: KLIA-Jeddah-KLIA Boeing 787-9

My Dream Airplanes:

• Antonov An-225 Mriya (Dream). Saw this the first time during the Farnborough Air Show in the UK.

• Airbus A400M (TUDM already purchased 4 units)

• Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor VTOL, STOL (you name it)

the walking dead

We are very familiar with zombies, even though we have not actually met one. From the movies and tv shows we knew that these zombies appear to be alive but they are physically dead.

The word zombi was originally taken from a French Haitian folklore of which dead bodies were reanimated through various methods, most commonly magic. Nowadays however, the so called fictional phenomenon of zombies were normally as a result from some type of infection or from radiation, mental diseases, viruses, scientific accidents, and others.

The body of a zombi appears to be in a continuous state of decay. They seem to have no purpose of life except for insatiable  hunger to eat and craving for human flesh especially the brain. There seems to be no cure for these conditions, and the only way to eliminate them is to destroy them altogether.

However, in reality the real zombies or the walking dead among us are the ones who does not remember his Creator.

It is narrated that the Prophet said, “The similitude of someone who remembers his Lord and someone who does not is like that of the living and the dead.” 

Those who don't remember his Lord are indeed the real zombies in this world.

Allah knows best.

pelayaran hidup a.k.a. kapal kristal

hidup ini bagaikan

suatu pelayaran

mengharung gelora

dan tenang lautan

kekadang singgah

di pelabuhan

di pelabuhan sepi

di pelabuhan rindu

di pelabuhan teduh

seteduh hatimu

Alor Star

2011

STAR ... yang aku kenal

aku yang mengisi zaman remajaku
yang  penuh berliku-liku ini
di sebalik pagar berkawat
di antara bangunan konkrit
akan suatu hari nanti menginginkan
agar pita kehidupan di kala ini
dimainkan semula

di sebalik pagar berkawat
aku belajar mengenai kehidupan
di antara bangunan konkrit
aku menangisi kesalan yang tercetus

akan segala peristiwa
yang manis buat dikenang
pahit bila kurasakan
akan tetap bersemadi
di sebalik pagar berkawat
di antara bangunan konkrit
dan di dalam hati ini

Perintis 1983
Sekolah Tuanku Abdul Rahman

Legasi STAR 2009

Majalah Perintis 1983

beautiful math equation ... joke

Sembunyi

kadang kalanya
perlu juga kita
melarikan diri 
barang sebentar
dari hiruk pikuk
dunia yang 'mandin' (mundane)

sejak dari dulu
tempat biasanya
aku bersembunyi
tentunya di ruangan
toko2 buku yang besar
atau di sudut2 sunyi
di perpustakaan2

di situ pastinya aku 
akan kembali tenang
kembali bersemangat
bila dikelilingi ribuan
buku2 yang tersusun
rapi di rak2 yang kemas  

O'Coffee Cafe
Kinokuniya
Mac 2017

Mitchell Library

University Library

Reading Room

Kenangan lalu di:

1. Mitchell Library, Glasgow
2. University Library, Glasgow University
3. Reading Room, Glasgow University 

hey my soul ...

hey my soul

I see you do not want Heaven 

these desires are empty 

my heart is happy 

you are a drop of water 

in the water pouch 

hey soul

even if you do not fight

you will die one day 

now the dove of death is near 

whatever you want

he will give you, my soul

Abdullah ibn Rawahah

The Battle of Mu'tah

poetry, my life

There are many statues in Ashgabat, one of it is this guy, Karacaoğlan a 16th century poet whose poetry stemmed out of nature, love, longing for home, and death. Maybe Ashgabat is a city of love after all. He is said to have a big heart (like yours truly), and fell in love with women and wrote poetry about them (right) ...

Doa dan Harapan di Sebalik Tembok Maya

teruskanlah hidup ini

dengan penuh tabah

jika rintangan ditemui

yakini itu suatu hikmah

dari mana entah

datang dia mewarna 

aku pula perlukah

tidak menghiraukannya ? 

tembok maya ini 

kurasakan mapan

untuk kau kusapai 

secara berdepan

kalau goyah (seperti aku)

dahuluikanlah masa

agar nanti resah 

bakal tidak menyiksa

di saat dan ketika ini

ku panjat doa harapan 

agar gigih kau hadapi 

hari-hari kehadapan

apa jua memagari

langkauinya dengan sabar

jaga diri mu srikandi

semoga berjiwa besar

At the Crossroad

It will be a really big one tomorrow. 

It will be like any other day, but this time it will be a day of a new beginning of life, if there is still ... God willing, at the crossroad. It's when you have to decide on the remaining days if any. Try to make the best effort for a firmer commitment on which path should one follow.

Looking back at the after-years, I have done many things. Some, I really am truly proud of. A few, I rather not mention them. Many were extremely exciting and adventurous. While others were inadvertently cliché.

Honestly, right now I felt the longing for Mutheera, the sweet smelling breeze in Paradise.

With all the shortcomings within me, I still have the desire wanting to answer the callings of the dark-eyed damsels, even though I'm such a unworthy slave of Almighty Allah. 

I'm begging for the Mercy and Kindness of Almighty Allah to grant His forgiveness for all my wrongdoings and all my untold sins that I've committed as well as all my disobediences to His commandments and all my ignorance to emulate the best examples shown by His Rasul s.a.w. And for all the times that I knowingly or unknowingly strayed from the straight path.

May Allah save me from all the calamities in this mortal world and in the Hereafter.

Amin.

Kebarangkalian

Kebarangkalian peristiwa E ialah: 



Fungsi kebarangkalian f(x) antara 0 dan 1 bagi setiap nilai x di dalam sampel ruang Ω, dan jumlah f(x) di atas semua nilai x di dalam sampel ruang Ω adalah bersamaan dengan 1. Oleh itu, setiap peristiwa boleh didefinisikan sebagai subset E dari sampel Ω. 

Jadi, kebarangkalian untuk keseluruhan sampel ruang ialah 1, dan kebarangkalian untuk sifar peristiwa ialah 0.

Apakah kebarangkaliannya sesuatu pertemuan itu berpeluang merubah segalanya ?

Kata Cournot, "Bukanlah sesuatu yang ganjil kalau peluang itu suatu kebetulan. Malah di sebaliknya, peluang inilah akan bakal mencetus banyak lagi kesempatan-kesempatan menarik yang lain."

Jadilah kamu seorang sahabat yang setia.

Semoga berjiwa besar.

Co-Authoring, Anyone ?

When I was fourteen years old, I remembered putting ‘writer’ in the first column, followed by ‘professional cricketer’ in the second column. Finally, an ‘engineer’ in the third column in the school report card, of which my late dad quickly upon seeing admonished me by saying that ‘penulis tak boleh cari makan nak’.

Here I am, decades later eagerly wanting to prove him wrong, not out of disrespect, but actually wanting to emulate him and his brother (my uncle). I have seen my dear dad’s draft with a title ‘Laungan Merdeka’ when I was really small, maybe seven or eight years old. I’m not sure whether the draft has made it to publication or not. Whereas my uncle Md. Akhir Leman, wrote a short prolific novel ‘Bahagia Sesudah Derita’, of which the copy is available even in the library of Glasgow University, some 11,000 km away.

Maybe, I could start my long lost passion by co-authoring a book, maybe with a friend (wink, wink). By the way, most of the famous authors did just that. Alexander Dumas did it, as he had a whole team of authors writing for him all the time. Even Tom Clancy famous for espionage thriller novels regularly hire co-authors.

Ketika Usia 21 Tahun

1988, usiaku mencecah dua puluh satu tahun. Ketika itu aku sedang menuntut di sebuah universiti usang berusia lebih separuh millennia di sebuah bandar purba yang dingin di negara Scotland. Universiti itu ditubuhkan pada tahun 1451, di ketika zaman keagungan dan kemuncak Kesultanan Melaka. Beratus-ratus tahun kemudian sehingga kini, universiti itu masih gah menerajui peradaban ilmu dan teknologi. Walhal, kegemilangan Kerajaan Melaka bertahan cuma sebelas dekad, sebelum dunia Melayu dihancur musnah oleh penjajah-penjajah Barat secara bergilir-gilir.

Di universiti, aku memilih bidang jurus kejuruteraan aeroangkasa. Memang sejak dari kecil, aku amat terpesona dengan pesawat terbang. Mungkin aku terpengaruh dengan cerita-cerita Abbas ibnu Firnas seorang cendikiawan pelbagai bidang ilmu yang khabarnya menjadi penerbang pertama menggunakan glider di zaman Khalifah Muhammad I di Cordoba, seribu tahun lebih awal dari cubaan Wright bersaudara di Amerika Syarikat.

Di dalam bidang aeroangkasa aku dapat mempelajari ilmu pembuatan dan perekaciptaan pesawat terbang dan pesawat angkasa. Ilmu penerbangan mampu mengolah rahsia yang menjadi penyebab sesuatu objek itu boleh bergerak di ruang angkasa tanpa memerlukan sebarang sokongan dari permukaan bumi. Ianya suatu cabang ilmu sains roket yang menyelidik daya pengangkat aerodinamik dan dapat mencongak daya tujahan serta mendalami kajian tentang pergerakan balistik.

Kesimpulannya, kejuruteraan aeroangkasa bukanlah suatu jurusan yang mudah. Sehinggakan ungkapan kolokial 'that's not rocket science' atau 'itu bukan sains roket' sudah sebati dalam bahasa bicara seharian bila kita berdepan dengan sesuatu keadaan yang begitu logik dan mudah difahami serta bukan terlalu sukar.

Mundar laju ke tahun 2017, tanggal 6 Februari, Ameerul Ahwaz anak sulungku menyambut hari ulangtahunnya yang ke 21. Dia seorang anak yang baik dan mendengar kata ibu dan ayah. Dia dikurniakan Allah swt tubuh fizikal yang sempurna dan berwajah agak tampan. Sekarang, dia masih menuntut di sebuah universiti Scotland yang bercawangan di Putrajaya di dalam bidang kejuruteraan petroleum. Mungkin bidangnya  bukan sains roket, tapi tentunya bukan dari sesuatu yang kolokial.

When I was 15 (some selective memories …)

27 July 2016

When I was 15 years old, the year was 1982. I was in Form 3A at one of the prestigious  boarding school in Malaysia i.e. Sekolah Tuanku Abdul Rahman (STAR) in Ipoh. When you were in Form 3, basically you have already survived the ‘torturous' year of joining the STAR ‘house system’, where every boy since Form 2 will join their boarding hostels which are named after colours Green, Blue, Black, Red, White and Yellow, together with other seniors students of Form 3, 4 and 5. Being the most junior among the hostel residents, most if not all of the cleaning and tidying up chores in the hostels will be done exclusively by the Form 2 students, which sometimes can be a bit torturous for the faint hearted.

The year was 1982, Tun Mahathir (Tun M) was just a year in his premiership. It was about seven months earlier i.e. on the 1st January 1982, Tun M changed the time of Semenanjung Malaysia to be 30 minutes ahead and hence matching the time of East Malaysia. Tun M leadership and thinking was so far ahead of time (unlike the current kleptocrats, who only thought of bankrupting the nation) until even Singapore elected to follow suit and change its timing.

At 15, I was beginning to understand things. I understood that I have my strengths and weaknesses. Let's start with weaknesses first. I came from a kampung, albeit not coming from a well to do family. Even though my dad was a teacher, probably because I was the sixth of the family and maybe my older siblings required more attention than me, and I was a bit more independent, then I felt that I was left out to do things on my own. Imagine, that the Biasiswa Kecil Persekutuan III (BKP III) which entitled me for a RM30 per month pocket money from the government, was used to pay my school fees. What about new clothes, what about sport shoes, what about other things that a 15 year old boy at a boarding school needs, like a new pair of glasses. What about exercise books now that SRP is coming. Off course, extra tuition class was out of question.

No problem, I said to myself. It’s not a problem. It should not be a problem. I knew that I was smart enough, and having other smart people around helped me a lot. Just using textbooks (skim pinjaman buku teks, to be exact) and by studying together with groups of friends, I managed to get 7As in my SRP (as a result of too much of lingo dwindling via Dewan Sastera that got my BM a 'C') and becoming among the top 20 in my batch, and even entitled me to be considered as a recipient of PETRONAS scholar (that’s another story). This small success gave me a lot of confidence in the coming years. 

At school you have to be active in sports and co-curricular activities. When I was in Form 2, I was with the U-14 school hockey team. Maybe because I was not so good at it, the coach normally put me as a reserved, i.e. coming only during the second half of the game. When I was 15, at Form 3 which was also termed as ‘the senior of the juniors’, I said to myself that I just cannot let this to happen. I needed some glory to myself and cannot be just playing as a second fiddle. I also cannot see myself to play rugby where STAR is famous for, as I had a very bad eyesight and had to wear glasses all the time. I can’t play football as I’m totally ‘kaki bangku’. I can run a bit, but not good enough to represent school, even though I did represent my White House.

So I quit hockey, and I joined the school cricket team. For whatever reason, the school cricket team is only joined by boys who don’t know how to play other sports. Maybe that’s true in some sense, but who cares. I thought that, maybe I can change things. Maybe do something small, but doing it great. I quickly find myself at ease with cricket. It’s actually more than a game. It teaches you about life, about camaraderie, about sportsmanship, and mostly about being a gentleman. Most importantly, cricket is played in the Commonwealth countries like the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Maybe, if I play cricket now, I could play it later if I managed to further my study in those countries. 

From then onwards, I make it a point that I wanted to go overseas and further my study and try to get the government scholarship and play cricket as well. This also means that I have to be good both in my study and cricket. Being an ex hockey player, I naturally can hit the ball. However, hitting a ball with cricket bat is totally different than with a hockey stick, which one tends to hit the ball across. Whereas, in cricket the batsman is encouraged to hit the ball with a straight bat as crossing the bat might cause the ball to go up resulting it to be caught and you are out. Moreover, the chances of missing the ball and getting out via LBW (leg before wicket) are much higher. When I was 15, I was made the U-15 Cricket Captain, and lead the school team to play with other schools in Perak.

STAR U-15 Cricket Team
Yours truly, the Captain, front row 2nd from the right

I can hit the ball quite hard, however I’m not quite a patient guy. Normally I bat at number 6 or 7 position which is normally reserved for an all rounder, i.e. for those who can bat and bowl. However, when comes to bowling the cricket ball, that was my real passion. Normally I was the opening bowler pair and bowl quite viciously. As my stature is not tall, my bowling style was more in the swinging action rather than hitting the deck. If the ball has some shine on it, I could make it swing and deceived the batsman. In a cricket match, normally I will take 2 to 3 wickets at a regular basis and at a very economical rate. I was good enough to be absorbed in the School U-20 Cricket Team, when I was 15. The team went on to secure runners up position in the coveted  inter-SBP Datuk Hamzah Abu Samah cup in 1982. A year later I was already in the Perak U-16 Cricket team playing at the national level tournament in Kuala Lumpur.

When I was 15, I realised that a boy needs to have friends other than boys. I have none. Nevertheless, I had an on-and-off long distance mail relationship with my primary schoolmate. She was also in a boarding school somewhere in Seremban. To be honest, she was my first childhood crush. She was very beautiful and sweet. This on-and-off letter writings were nothing special. It wont be another five years later when I actually had the opportunity to meet her at a KFC restaurant in Sitiawan, before I went to UK and she went to US (that’s another story). There were also one or two other pen pal friends once in while. Mostly we wrote about boring stuffs  about the coming SRP and exchanging cyclostyled exam papers.

When I was 15, there were some good songs playing on the radio. Songs like ‘Who Can It Be Now’ by Men At Works, and ‘Waiting A Girl Like You’ by Foreigner as well as ‘Rosanna’ by Toto were some of the memorable songs that you could asked the music shop to record them onto a personalised cassette tape. There were other songs like ‘Hard To Say I’m Sorry’ by Chicago, ‘Physical’ by Olivia Newton-John and the Rocky theme song ‘Eye of the Tiger’ by Survivor that could move the heart of a 15 year old boy. There were some memorable Malay songs as well.

When I was 15, beside studying for SRP and playing cricket for school, I was also in the Cadet Corps. I was not really keen to be the best but I was good enough to be part of the squad. Every Saturday morning the squad will practice marching at the basketball court as well as the nearby PLAW (territorial army) camp. We were given cadet corps uniform and marching boots and green felt baret. Joining the cadet corps have instilled a good sense of discipline within me, in addition to ensure that I could walk properly like a man should walk. Previously, when I was in Form 2, my squad and I attended a 2 week camp at PLAW where we learnt everything about the army life including marching, shooting live bullets with the SLR rifles, eating our rations as well as dinner at the mess hall, having our hair shortened and sleeping less as we have to wake up really early in the morning.

When I was 15, whenever there’s a school holiday I will either went on a school trip or went back to my kampung in Lekir, Sitiawan. Normally, I will clean up the big wooden house everyday, sweeping the dust and cobwebs, and wiping the window panes, mopping the  'tikar getah' as well as ensuring that the house courtyard was free from falling leaves. I enjoyed reading and have read all that can be read in the house, especially the 24 volumes of Grolier encyclopaedia and all the older Time and Newsweek magazines as well as all the Dewan Bahasa, Dewan Sastera and Dewan Masyarakat back issues. I sometimes rode my bicycle to visit my late grandaunt Opah Ngah who lived alone. She was having a bit of mental health condition, but she was very nice to me. I remembered that I sometimes did my study in her house.

When I was 15, I did many things that a boy of that age could do. Today 15 years ago on 27th July 2001 my son Waseem Akram was born in this world. He is experiencing an autistic syndrome which severely stops him from having the ability to do what I did when I was 15. In addition to his severe autistic condition, he is also enduring nephrotic syndrome, a condition where his kidney losing protein which could lead to edema. Imagine a 15 year old boy who is living in his own world, could not talk properly or walk normally and suffering a serious kidney problem and had to continuously take prescribed steroids to control his conditions. He spends his days streaming video clips on Youtube, talking gibberish mostly to himself and watching favourite cartoon shows on tv. However, he is indeed an ‘anak syurga’. He smells like a baby, and everything about him is pure and untainted.

All praise to Almighty Allah for giving me Waseem Akram. He is indeed a blessing to me and my family. Even though he was not like me when I was 15, but he is what he is and all of us already accepted that.

May Almighty Allah saves us all and grant us His infinite Mercy and Kindness. Amin.

back to aviation

About 25 years ago, sometime in the mild Summer of '91, I received my degree from the University of Glasgow (GU). That was after I spend four tough years enduring the harsh weather of Scotland and the  even tougher aeronautical engineering courses which includes the study of aerodynamics, propulsion, flight mechanics, lots of maths and computing ...

When I came back to Malaysia (after spending four months sabbatical in India and Pakistan ... well that's another story) I was not able to find a suitable job in the aviation industry to my likings. However, there were two related offers actually, one came from the national carrier for a 4 year apprentice job with a meagre RM400 a month perks. There other was an opportunity to serve the air force, of which my late mom had some reservations.

Later, I was  offered a RM1500 a month job as an Instrument Engineer in early 1992, and thus my long career in oil & gas industry started and lasted for some 23 odd years.

Now in 2016, my career is making a complete 180 degree wingover manoeuvre. I'm currently assisting my former GU classmate in his aviation company, and my aeronautical journey starts again ...

Some Random Photo Stories: Sydney's Journey

In Australia the cowboys are known as jackaroos ... jack & kangaroos perhaps 

Among the few heavenly food for me are fresh oysters. My personal record of eating them was two dozen in one go.
These one I bought it from Sydney Fish Market.

Howzat !!! I was in the cricket museum in Kingsgrove.

When the weather was cooler, it's always great to have a wonderful and tasty hot bread especially with the company of your loved ones.

Monkey business at the Sydney Opera House

Panoramic view of Sydney downtown skyline

I managed to play cricket with one of the local club and even got one sweet wicket

Going Down Under

Today is my second day in Sydney, attending a job interview as well as enjoying summer at Bondi Beach ....

Rintihan Hati

Malam sunyi terdengar

Sayup sayup lagu yang merdu

Menghias malam yang sedang hening

Melukiskan cinta hidupku

Dengan tidak kusangka

Airmata menitis membasah

Tersentuh dalam hatiku ini

Terharu pada kisah itu

Hari demi hari kutempuhi

Mengharap belas kasihanmu

Walau dikau selalu tak peduli

Ku mengharapkan cintamu

Dengarlah rintihan malam

Semuga dikau selalu bersamaku

Pada hamba yang kini berduka

Dari cubaan dugaan dunia

- Othman Hamzah

p/s:
I was a lonely young boy, growing up in a kampong. this song was my companion, among others

Berhenti Sejenak

Menyelusuri kehidupan 
yang sebegini lama

yang penuh dihiasi peristiwa 
dan berbagai kembara

Harus rasanya diri ini 
berhenti sejenak

untuk mengenang kembali 
dan cuba untuk menghitung 

Di manakah sebenarnya diri ini
dan ke manakah pula 
seterusnya harus diarah
destinasi ini

Kesan Kejatuhan Harga Minyak Mentah Sedunia ...

Saya mula bekerja di MMHE Pasir Gudang pada tahun 1992 dan kemudiannya berpindah ke berberapa syarikat seperti Foxboro, Honeywell, Yokogawa dan lain-lain, kesemuanya di dalam industri minyak dan gas. Dengan kejatuhan harga komoditi petroleum ke tahap paling rendah kepada kurang dari $30 setong menyebabkan saya tidak lagi mempunyai masa depan dan kerjaya di dalam industri ini. Sekurang-kurangnya untuk jangka masa 3 tahun lagi. Pihak PETRONAS baru sahaja mengumumkan pengurangan sebanyak RM50 billion di dalam perbelanjaan capex dan opex mereka.

Sejak akhir-akhir ini saya mula menulis sebegini:

Dear Sirs/Madam,

I'm looking for job opportunity in _____ . I have an extensive experience in the Oil & Gas Process Automation Control business. A graduate from the University of Glasgow with B.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering and an Executive MBA from UiTM Malaysia.

I'm an energetic and dedicated Senior Management Executive with over 24 years’ experience in management, operations, business development, sales and marketing. 

My experience across engineering services, maintenance services, technology services, consulting services, facilities management and business optimisation solutions in oil & gas. I have proven management and business development track record in revenue and profitability growth, people management and business strategy development.

In addition, I also have experienced in working with diverse groups of technical, business development, sales and operational personnel. As well as a confident and clear communicator, with skills developed through years of interacting at organisational levels. 

I'm hoping that I could contribute to your organisation with my years of experience ...