missin' Suby...badly.

..suby on hoist..


..the boys working on the engine..


..part of the engine..

photos from the weekend

...down to business, that's my serious face, keke..


...having a coffee break...

thanks to Rosie Sis for tha' photos.

tha' Finals update

Sunday, it's the finals for the Honda PS2 F1 challenge. Weird, I didn't really want to attend this event but I had the time so I gave it a shot. In total there were 8 contestants and everyone was told to be on time and wear the black t-shirt that was provided by the organizers. 6 out of the 8 people wore the shirt and the judges stressed on the rules and regulations. But they left the decision to us for a fair decision to allow those without the t-shirt to race or not. So I raised my hand to let them drive and so did another guy. In the end it was the majority that won, 4 to 2.

The event got on the way and this time they made it a little harder by setting up Monaco as the race circuit and under wet weather too. I noticed that alot of the computer assistance was still turned on, which made it a little easier to drive. To win you have to obtain the Fastest lap out of the 3 laps that are provided.

In the end I finished 1st and got 1x F1 Grandstand ticket for 3 days worth about RM1700. But the win was by Disqualification. It so happens that one of the competitors who didn't bring the t-shirt was the one who had the fastest time and knows the game inside out and he plays it almost everyday. Mind you he was 4 seconds faster than my time, I was the fastest of the lot that has never played this game before. Lol. A special thank you to Erik, i think that was his name for defaulting the prize to me. It's kinda sad, to get this kind of win but rules are rules and I voted against the rule to allow him to play without the shirt. Thanks again Erik.

....and an end to one eventful weekend.

A Fine Saturday

Here we were, at Manila Place having an American breakfast and chatting away. 2 close gal-friends accompanied me :) . Waking up early on a weekend isn't very hard if you're used to it. Lol. I know a lot of people who would rather sleep the day away. But thank you for you company, it's truly one of those rare occasions to meet up with friend, at least for me.

Then we headed to QBM to just hang out. While walking I saw this Honda F1 Road Show and they set up this F1 game on the PS2. "Free Entry" I heard and god-sis asked me to take part for fun, which I did. The game they had on was F1 2006 and using a BAR-HONDA F1 car on the Sepang Malaysia track. I found out that this was actually a qualifying run for the finals on Sunday afternoon and the grand prize was tickets to watch F1 Malaysia in April. The sad part of the whole gaming thing is that they actually had steering wheels that we can't turn. Contestants had to use the small controller that is built on the freaking small steering wheel.

The game was easy enough to play. I was expecting more of a challenge but the game had some sort of auto braking thing on, so it was a breeze. I definitely had fun and the adrenaline reminded me of my one and only passion, Driving. With suby down and out for the moment I'm starting to get this feeling that my days aren't so meaningful anymore. That's my addiction to speed, it's a problem but I love it! muahahahaahahahahahhahahhahahhahaha!

Updates 2moro!

..electronic doors..

There are pros and cons when you utilize electronic locks on doors that require a electronic card to open. Pros would include better security even when there is a power outage. Cons would be when you didn't bring or loose the damn card.

That's what happened to me this whole week. After my episode in KL I left my badge in the car, and being on a hoist that is 20 feet in the air and loads of other cars blocking, there isn't alot of choice. So what does this mean?

Missing badge Episode 1 :
I work the early shift where most of the world is still sleeping. So one morning I was at the main entrance and no one was there to open it. Thank god a colleague showed up :)

Missing badge Episode 2:
While walking to the canteen I knew I was missing something. Oh yea a badge. Usually you'd have lots of people walking through the canteen but I guess at 8:30am you'd better not expect a whole lot. So I waited till someone did open the door.

Missing badge Episode 3:
My company subsidies food electronically with a bar code strip. Again I don't have that and am forced to use cash :(

Missing badge Episode 4:
Logging in and out of work, we use a fingerprint system that also requires the badge.

Oh well, I'll wait for the badge. Muhaha.

Bridge to Terabithia

Forget what you've seen in the trailers. This movie has a very powerful meaning behind the storyline and isn't what everyone expected. But overall the movie was enjoyable and if you really open your mind and understand it, it'll all boil down to one important thing in life.

Thanks to Rosie sis for inviting me for the movie. I enjoyed the company from dinner, having Edzil, Ian and the rest of the gang was one interesting night.

Andy's Movie-O-Meter : 7/10

Wes Borland was in Town :O

For those who don't know who Wes Borland is, he was the guitarist in the band Limp Bizkit. He was the most unique Guitarist I've ever read about. Not many people are like this, daring to take the step outside their comfort zone and being different from everyone else. He has solo projects ever since he left the Bizkit band. The latest project called Black Light Burns isn't too bad, I would say if you liked NIN then you'd definately dig his new stuff. All in a great guitarist.

Too bad I didn't have a chance to meet up with him. We were in the same State on the same days, but I just didn't get that chance to even see him. But Edwin did...grr. Lol.

Here's a photo of him in Limp Bizkit:


Here's another photo of him Now:

BMW 325

This is the BMW that I had a chance to drive. Let me first say that it's my first time driving a BMW and I was quite impressed with the drive ability of the car. I won't go into the details but it's just a great driving car.

One of the best movies this year, a great movie to start off the year towards more goodies to come.

I would say "Not a movie for your girlfriend" unless they like the gore and built muscular warriors. The quality of the show is just fantastic and the choreography was a whole new thing, flying limbs and the aggression, through the roof.

Watched it with Ian, Jiannin and Nigel in KL. It's the first time I have watched a movie in KL and I must say GSC's new seat design with space is comfy.

Andy's Movie-O-Meter : 9/10

tha' Driver Selection -update-

Well bad news people. I didn't quite make it past the 2nd interview session. Although I know I did well at the driving session. The people who were selected weren't actually good drivers. Made me think why I didn't get selected. I have a hunch that its something that happened behind the scenes that some of us aren't aware about. At least Sifu and Hammy made it through. I hope they go all the way.

I'm back on the island now. Took the 8am bus from 1-U called Aeroline, I'm actually impressed with their presentation and customer service crew. From the time I bought the ticket till I arrived they were pleasant to deal with and talk to. www.aeroline.com.my

Moving forward, I might just have another chance to do Driver Training for some other company without the political issues. I just hope I can get it :)

A bad Suby week

It seems to be a bad week for the Subys. Even Sifu's suby is acting up and giving some headaches. The car just decided to stall when you least expect it and when troubleshooting it just doesn't want to fault!. But we've traced it down to a cable or two that is causing it to stall and sometimes not start at all.

But here's another experience, sifu and I were heading to Ikea and heading down from the LDP. Just before the TV3 broadcast center the car just stalled and we coasted to a stop at the side of the road. Managed to make sure the zone we stopped in was safe enough for us to get out and diagnose the problem. Alas no matter how hard we tried it just didn't want to start. Left the car at that area and managed to get a guard at the nearby office area to keep a look out for it until the tow truck arrived. In between the car stalling and getting help from the guard, we decided to have dinner at 1-Utama and just do a little window shopping at Eneos, then we headed back home to shower and after a mamak session with Adrian and Ah Wai.

The next morning around 9:30am we headed back onsite and the tow truck also arrived at the same time. Car was loaded in 15 mins and was unloaded at the workshop 20 mins later. Spend the whole day assisting them and trying to figure out what the hell is causing the problem, we only narrowed it down to some loose wires.


Sifu's Suby on the Flat Bed

tha' Driver Selection

Woke up at 7am to get ready for the Driver Selection at Sepang. Thank You very much for the ride Joe. His BMW was comfy for the whole journey. Some familiar faces at the selection but we're all friends. So there were like about 21 people i think. The briefing session started at 9am and lasted 15mins before we were told to go to the test area, it was located at one of the car parks.

There were like 11 units of the brand new 325i. Every car had 2 people and we would take turns in the car to practice and be evaluated. I must say that the whole session is excellent. Instructions were clearly mentioned and all the examples of what is expected in the test was also highlighted to all of us. I will refrain from mentioning what we did since I had to sign a clause regarding these tests and trainings.

After that session came a short interview session with the trainers. I don't think I did well cause I fumbled alot haha.

Too bad I didn't have a camera and I forgot that my damn phone also had a camera :( gah!. So no photos to show.

I have a bad feeling about this..

Have you ever had that nagging feeling that the day is just not going right...or maybe you might feel it's going to perfect. It's just one of those days for me.

So work was good nothing too dramatic happened, calls were good, customers were surprisingly great even the home ones. I've never felt that relaxed for quite a while now. Maybe it's also because I'm on long leave and here I am in KL again for the 2nd round of the Driving thingy. Felt good that I made it past the 1st round but I usually consider myself lucky.

Anyways I decided to take a drive down to KL since I'll be here for a while. This is when things started to get kinda weird. First off, I forgot to publish a report at work, that i suddenly remembered just before the Juru toll. Felt kinda bad that my colleague had to do the extra work :( 1 hour and 20 mins into the journey and while I was driving uphill, Suby suddenly had a weird smell coming from the engine, then slight knocking, then a different smell, what's worst is the thermal gauge was nearly at HOT!. All this and I was driving uphill towards the Tunnel and there wasn't any place to stop, the next 2-3 kilometers was downhill. So I managed to ease and nurse till I saw an emergency lane, then everything went silent. Suby just died on me and there was smoke coming out from the hood. I was asking myself, what did i do wrong? Popped the hood to help cool down the engine, it was definitely overheating. About 5 mins, the Plus Highway Patrol assisted me by putting some cones to alert other cars. Then they left, since they couldn't do much anyways. After about 45 mins a tow truck guy known as Basri came over to help me out. Telling as much as possible about what could be damaged. But the best part is that he offered to help me tow the car on a Flat Bed truck for RM500. That's pretty darn good in a situation like this. Then I made some phone calls and decided to go for it.

It just felt weird. The day just felt too perfect, hard to believe but I wasn't even pushing the car! All I wanted was to drive at a normal pace and make it to KL with 1 full tank from Penang. It just goes to show that anything can happen and it just did.


Suby on the Flat Bed Tow Truck.

**I know Basri the tow truck guy would most probably never read my blog, i want to say thank you anyways. A kind hearted Malaysian.**