full ahead both engines!

hi again,this is a title of a song, popular during the "swing" period, by glenn miller. the slow music reminds me of people strolling along the riverbank at the boat quay in singapore. when we are at sea, we always wonder what other people are doing ashore. must be nice to be there( this is like the grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side case).

people ashore are also fascinated by ships passing by their shoreline, particularly when there is a passenger ship nearby. hustle and bustle of everyday life onboard may never be replicated anywhere.

what am i mumbling again today. i am just writing without direction.chatted with my old friend, telling old stories that might evoke memories.

yesterday saw a big day for malaysia. the first Right hand drive peugeot 206 to be assembled in south east asia. however, it is badged as a naza 206 bestari, but we know that she is a true blue french car, the best selling 206. it even outsold Volkswagen golf in germany, go figure!

but the craze does not continue in this region. maybe the previous importer lack of commitment or failure to improve the brand position inthe market, the list can go on and on. maybe the 206 might continue what the 405 have impacted the malaysian market then.

my love affair with the french automobile started when i tested one of my friend’s 405. wow!, that was the first word that came out of my mouth. the speed bumps seems to be non-existent at all with this car. it corners flatly without any drama, holding on to the intended line even though  faced with severe road undulations.

no other car comes close to that, that is what a lot of motorjournalist called: the black art of french suspension tuning. only automobiles that are manufactured by PSA (peugeot and citroen)group and renault have this kind of feeling never replicated by any other manufacturer. they even produced their own shock absorbers, while other car manufacturers get from suppliers.

we’ll continue again later.

  after the long steady course which may take days to the next waypoint;i.e from kepulauan sabang,sumatra to south of sri lanka, we may have to alter the ship’s course at the waypoint. either broad or small alterations, we have to do it because at that point of the voyage, the course have been laid until the destination. an alteration of course will result to another steady course, until the next waypoint.

we may wonder where is our destination really. after a long steady relationship, the graph seems to be too steady. no excitement or decline, just flat all the way. have we reached the ultimate thing in life: happiness? so far, there are no such scale to measure happiness. does anyone  come with a "richter" or "geiger" equivalent?

maybe i can devise a scale: "happiness at zulfa scale 5" or put nurul(my schoolmate) for instance(don’t be angry with me). just like tremors at the richter scale 3. but then, on what datum do we measure happiness? there is no such thing existed. maybe the power of human mind still does not reach the level to measure it. after all, a lot of things are yet to be discovered.

maybe some day, one crazy professor will come up with this device to measure happiness. nevertheless, we have to be contented and stay happy all the time. on what scale is your happiness to day?

  what does it means? well we know that the earth shape is spherical. the true north lies at the north pole, that is called geographical north. our magnetic compass will show magnetic north, which does not coincide with the geographical north. as far as i can remember, magnetic north is located somewhere in Canada, let me see if i am correct.

the earth’s magnetic field varies according to location. this is due to the fact that some soil have more iron or ferrous material that might store magnetism. in the nautical studies, this is called variation, we’ll come to that later.

since the ship is made up mostly of ferrous material: iron, steel, etc, it will have tendencies to store magnetic forces, whether it is permanent or temporary(soft iron magnetism). this is called deviation.

when both variation and deviation are applied to the magnetic compass reading, will result to true compass reading. a ship is as worthy as her compass, one degree of error  will result in big deviation from the intended course. this is again very crucial.

to gain the trueness of the compasses is quite a hard and highly technical job. a ship is composed of many grades of iron or steel that may result in a lot of deviation. permanent and soft iron correctors are put into places and calculated to gain the lowest margin of error. we must swing the compass in order to get the "deviation curve".

we can’t assess a human’s deviation since there are no hard and fast rule on how to extract them. there are neither "flinder’s bar" nor "soft iron sphere" to play with! how to assess other people’s truthfulness? track record or past experience? reference points?

since there are no reference or "people for dummies" or "complete idiot’s guide for other people" , it remains a mystery for a person to assess whether another person is really sincere or are there any ulterior motives.  sincerity, truthfullness and  frankness are not a respected virtues  nowadays. why it is so?

we can see a lot of  people that used all available means,putting aside ethics and professionalism, successful by being the opposite of those mentioned virtues. people respected them for being successful, now matter how they gained it. nice facade! but substance? people like superficial things.

how to know whether a person is truthful? sincere? you can comment if you like or when you have an opinion about it. the truth might be very bitter. but it is better to be clear from the beginning!

this is a song about sincerity or being true

jujurlah padaku, bila kau tak lagi suka, tinggalkanlah aku, bila tak mungkin bersama,jauhi diriku,lupakanlah aku, selamanya……         jujur : radja

translated to english:

be truthful to me,when you ceased to be near,just leave me,when its impossible to be together,keep a distance from me, just forget me, forever……..(i hope it rhymes well like the original version)

twilight is the period when the sun is at an angle which refraction of the atmosphere  will permit the light to be seen from a chosen location. so,twilight is a period between light and darkness. twilight are divided into 3 categories: civil twilight, nautical twilight and astronomical twilight. 6 degrees of angle separates them and can be calculated from the almanac.

our subuh prayer time are calculated from the almanac to predict the twilight time and thus, what is the imsa’ time too.  as normal people see(pls don’t take me as abnormal), twilight zone is between sunset and end of light visible, total darkness, isya’ time. approximately 1 hour 20 minutes. it returns again during sunrise, but in reverse order.

my good friend of mine have been telling me a very interesting story. it have nothing to do with twilight or  twilight zone, but who cares. he got a friend who is very,very "stingy" (pls god forgive me for writing this).  he keeps lamenting to me about this friend who he knew for 20+ odd years(that was not a short period!). i wonder how he kept this guy as a friend!!!????

this friend of his is so stingy(stinginess scale is 10 out of 10 stars, he claimed to me) when this guy is out together for a drink or night out with. his avoiding tactics of going to the washroom at the billing time is predictable, almost at all times. this is despite he(the stingy guy) is earning 5 figure salaries!

in this life , we value friendship so much that a cup of tea or a roti canai won’t make us poorer. friendship is about give and take, willing giver,willing taker. but if you tend to always on the "take" part, the friend who is on the "give" part might be reluctant to be "giving " for the whole of their lives.

please think about it. it is not about money,status, what u drive or what post you held, as friends normally we take everybody on a level ground. we don’t count your money! it is your good fortune or wealth, is good for us too, to boost our morale!  my parents once reminded me, today you give people one, one day 10 people might give you 10 things, just for being grateful. it is not the value of the things they give, it is the thought that counts!

a point to ponder to his stingy friend, think it over and he is re-evaluating the friendship.we’d rather lose a lover than a friend…………..

tide is affected by movement of the earth in relation to the sun and moon.when you see the change of tide, ebb or flood, you can see what time of the day it will occur, mostly four times a day. this is what we call semi-diurnal variation of tide.

depth of the water depends mostly on movement of tide. at times, it is very CRUCIAL(my indian lecturer just love this word) and utmost important to calculate tide as accurate as possible. a ship might not leave berth in case the tide is low(happy crew if it is  home port), or might not enter harbour if the tide is insufficient, provided the draught is deep.

depth of our pockets also correspond to the movement of the earth in relation to the sun and moon. how it is related? you see that at the tme of the new moon, most people just being paid their monthly salary. to the sun? let me explain. because of the gregorian calendar that we follow. instead of lunar year as per the hijrah calendar, gregorian calendar follow solar year, meaning that earth rotate around the orbit in 365 1/4 day. annual bonus that is,if you got what i mean.

so depth of tide and pocket correspond to the sun and moon. what happens during lowest astronomical tide(LAT). this is when tide is at the lowest ever recorded. this is when the sun is at furthest(aphelion) to us and moon is also at the furthest (apogee)to us. experienced LAT in the pocket when all hope seem futile. no money, no honey.. arrrrgghhh. what is happening to me??????maybe god wants to show us something?

lucky i got some colleague who are willing to help, thanks a lot! you know who you are. i’ll remember all of you for the rest of my life. when the tide is at the lowest, you know where! a friend in need is a friend indeed. that is what friends are for. then we’ll know who is our "fair weather" friends or "bad weather" friends!

sounds familiar? that is  the title of a novel by alexander kent .nice read, about life at sea during the sailing ship era. that was when the great british empire ruled the seven seas and 3/4 of the world, then. now? montserrat,gibraltar,isle of man,jersey islands?nobody knows where is it. the only significant dependencies of the once great empire are only australia and new zealand.

today, came across two of my old colleagues from my days in MRSM. haven’t met them since 1989: that was 17 years ago.cheers to you hazia and nurul! do keep in touch. really that long.  i never figured out why time passed by so fast when we expect it to be slow and so slow when we expect it to be fast(you know when!). examination, appointment with the dentist, accompanying your wife shopping(hehehe),taking your kids to playground,etc.

the true datum of how fast time passed by is by seeing my parents and my kids. my father have changed from a strong, sturdy man when i last remembered him(that was 17 years ago) to a frail looking man now. my eldest daughter is already in std one. and the most significant answer to my wondering is when girls calling me "pakcik" or "uncle".i am not that old anyway!

anyway, at what age we are or at what state of tune, we should enjoy everything while it lasts and make the most out of it. after all, it won’t repeat again, whether good or bad times. and to all my dear beloved friends, particularly singles(or available), you have to know the basic fundamentals.

for a man, the basic fundamentals of women is that you have to do a little bit of work before you reach their heart. the moment  you reached their heart,stir her  soul, you know then. just play  "up where we belong" song from "an officer and a gentleman".

for a woman, the way to a man’s heart is through the stomach (chinese proverb), remember this, once your "sambal tumis" is on par with his mother’s, you got it right. just give your best shot!

to glory we steer then!

the process of discharging the cargo may come to an end. all the paperworks have been signed and countersigned, ready to be delivered to their respective receivers. the ship is then prepared for departure, departure report filled and recorded, all the conditions met and everything shipshape. just prepare to let go all the mooring lines.

this is one of the most dreaded moment for anybody, time to leave! whenever anything started, it will eventually come to an end. whether there is a good endings, bad endings,happy endings or sad endings, it will all depends to the prevailing  circumstances and conditions.

when a relationship fails, the ending might not be a good one.by ending anything in bad terms, we might carry the burden of it forever. guilt feeling might end us being inferior, all the time. or feeeling everything will fail before it even started. became a pessimist? no doubt.

why we would want to carry that feeling for the whole of our life? run away from it? you can run ,but you can never hide. the solution is to face it! face it like a gentleman(if you are one), face it like a lady(to be politically correct). better to discuss about it and preferably end it in good terms. whenever you are in doubt whether the situation exists, just take it as the case and act accordingly. everything can be solved if you talked to the right party. just ready to let go if there is grave and  imminent danger lurking! 

when all the mooring lines are made fast, it is time to get down to business. a merchant ship earns her money from her freight, the owner of the cargo is the paymaster. the ship is then secured to the berth, irrespective to any outside forces acting upon her, she will be there securely until departure.

in a human relationship, whenever "all lines are made fast", means that the bond have developed. you can go into a room full of people, but you may be only attracted to a certain number of people.why? animal magnetism perhaps. i do wonder why. people of different characters will react differently to people who may have something in common with them.

this bond is sometimes not understood even to a person who is close to you,i.e you spouse. that is why people do clique together, compatibilty plays the part. even brothers and sister won’t be aligned if their character and compatibility are different.

life is hard, knowing people is hard, understanding them is harder. a friend will be relieved if another friend open up and talk about their problems. it is also more relieving if somebody else shares their view of how to tackle or solve  the problems.do open up to your friends whenever you are "in irons". they might have a solution.  friends will be friends, right till the end!

first line ashore marked the time of the first mooring line to be attached to shore bollard; officially means that the ship have arrived at the berth. this is very crucial for the calculation of demurrage and despatch(if any).

in our life, it is symbolically means that the first handshake, or any other means of greetings, depends on the culture or background of the person involved. this is to mark the time of two individuals got acquainted with one another or with a group of people.

some people cherish this moment because it is a turning point in their life: new job,new friends, life partner, new society, the list will also go on and on. whatever it is, just remember that these new acquaintances might be your friend for life, a close confidant,business partner or your spouse!

just treat them the way you treat others, without prejudice preferably. if you are a very cautious and suspicious person, if can’t help it, just refer to your friend ,perhaps they are more familiar. just remember, your close friend used to be a stranger as well!