full ahead both engines!

engineering feat by human is as vast as the eyes can see. i am lucky to be one of the fortunate people to transit from the red sea to the mediteranean sea through the suez canal. indeed ,the canal was an engineering feat when it was built in the early 1900’s.

what makes it possible to connect the two seas are the lakes in between them, lake timsah and great bitter lake. the ships transitting both end are bound in convoy, northbound and southbound. the northbound convoy entering from red sea and gulf of suez. from the chart we can see the historical mount musa: jabal musa, which i can’t differentiate any. this is because the coastline is just rocky mountains and no vegetation. talk about durian plantation to those people.

oil platforms are built right in the middle of the suez gulf and there is a traffic separation scheme dividing the traffic. arrival at suez(or suweis) ,vessel needed to anchor just waiting for the orders for the convoy.

anchor aweigh entering the convoy. normally the tankers are destined to be at the rear of the convoy. we will start at daybreak because the northbound convoy will anchor at great bitter lake awaiting the southbound convoy to pass. the traffic is one way only.

the canal transit takes total about 12 hours before arriving at port said. along the canal,maintenance works are always being carried out to maintain the depth, remember that the canal runs through total sand. there are army outpost everywhere along the canal. this is because egypt used to be at war with israel : the six day war to get the control of the canal. to be continued

i am back again. last friday 20 october was the day i went for the annual malaysian balik kampung trip: aidilfitri. called my brother and sister on the way back. we are heading to our grandmother’s house in pantai remis.lucky i was just entering the GCE(guthrie corridor expressway). i decided to give the PLUS north south highway a miss this time. exited at the sg buloh interchange and straight to tanjung karang via tennamaram estate, batang berjuntai.

my sister was experiencing "super traffic jam" ,going at the rate of 20kmh at some stretch in the NS plus highway. lucky for me. the road all the way to tanjung karang and sabak bernam was as smooth as silk. we even had the chance to buy some last minute tapioca chips(kerepek ubi),kuih siput(i dont know the name in english=shell crackers perhaps) by the roadside near sungai besar. enjoyed the scenery. even the children enjoyed it too.

questions like: abah, diaorg letak kereta bawah rumah?(dad, they parked the car below the house).you might not encounter this question if following the NS highway,because what you see is the same as the stretch in any highway: palm oil plantantion. i got the same feeling when i was in united arab emirates, on a trip from dubai to fujairah ,instead of palm oil, they planted palm dates along the highway,same view as in malaysia. perak and selangor people are known to build houses on stilts, high enough for us to park the cars, hang the laundry if it’s raining.even there is a nice "pangkin" bench for loafing(lepak2) and enjoying the afternoon breeze.

if following the boring NS highway, there is no such view. lucky for them, daddy is taking the coastal road ruote. so much for the view of paddy field: there ,your rice came from, followed by ooooooooo from the kids. at least i have shown my kids the process of going back to perak from a different perspective. all the way , we are doing 90-100kmh. no traffic jams, no build up. very nice. arrived at pantai remis at 1815 and still have extra time to relax. break our fast later on. unlucky for my friends who are still on the road at 40kmh. sorry for them. they are  still a long way home to alor star, kedah.

i would like to wish selamat hari raya aidilfitri to all my friends. have a nice and safe long holiday and trips getting to and back from your respective hometown.may happiness blessed upon all of you.

interesting topics to come out in ramadhan. about buttercup( farmcows too). my friends have came with incomprehensible terminology , which both have misunderstood. lets name them s and d

i knew both of them to have a very vast vocabulary. suddenly ends at buttercup. buttercup is a type of flower. which another friend(s) said is related to pangkau!(sounds like). d was dazzled by, what the hell is pangkau anyway? s keep on saying pangkau, until the description of the pangkau itself.

to make the matters worse, s told d that pangkau is used to make cakes. d still dazzled. finally, came up with conclusion. what is pangkau? s describes pangkau, which is deduced to farmcows: a brand of butter.

yesterday night was a history in the making. we played  belantara song for the first time. some of the people in the jam studio went blank, what song is that, some remembered.  that song is without an intro. just direct entry and continue until the solo part. our lead guitar, fakhrul and drummer kamarul seems play along to this song very quickly. when i mooted the idea of playing the band’s song, fakhrul came up with pelangi dan nafiri, seconded by kamarul. we agreed last week to play this number.

pelangi dan nafiri

lihat alam sekitar
yang mencabar mata
akalmu yang sempurna
ciptaan yang esa

pancaindera dikurnia
kenalilah warna
pelangi indah berspektra
timbulkan nirwana

awan perak bergantungan
hanya menunggu masa panggilan tuhan….

selamilah hatimu
persoalan penuh jitu
batas perjanjian mu
satu demi satu

dosa noda kelabu
buktikan dikau perlu
agar tujuan duniamu
merdu bak perindu

neraca imbangan amalmu
titian penentu nasibmu….wohohoho….

mari dekatkan hatimu….
mari sujudkan jasadmu….
mari dekatkan hatimu…
mari sujudkan jasadmu…
kau lah yang satu…….

solo

jasadmu meronta dengan dosamu
janjimu menjunjung titah yang satu
jasadmu meronta dengan dosamu
janjimu menjunjung titah yang satu…….

what an inappropriate title. today is also a story cum review of another car. interesting stories again. this time is the story of peugeot 407 evente. that is two generations from my humble 405. a long distance affair with the 407.

lucky for who that can afford the 407. it is finished with the finest plastics now, not like the old crumbling plastics of the previous 2 generation, particularly the gtx version. the switches might not have the solid tactile feel of teutonic cars, but still gives confident of its solidity. styling wise, it is the manufacturer’s departure from the usual pininfarina collaboration, this car was developed in house. the pininfarina lines that existed with the 405 and 406 is still faintly there, just to remind us of the family resemblance.

it is quite a long time since peugeot have coveted the title of "european car of the year" last won by 307. peugeot have won the prestigious title 3 times, that was 504 in 1969, 405 in 1988 and 307 in 2002. this 407 competes in the family car segment: ford mondeo, being the forerunner in europe as the main competitor.

since peugeot have created cars with very fine suspension system that will absorb an earthquake, it is a continuity that they will attached to. this is one of the first in the series to feature the double wishbone suspension system all round. the 405 still uses the traditional trailing arm/torsion bar system while 406 used multilink single wishbone type. this is where the difference between the 3 generations. we have to omit 404 because it is a rear wheel drive configuration.

the 407 suspension may not be superior when driven over severely undulated roads, but sure corners flatly. considering the 407 are heavier than 406, surely heavier than 405. it can be felt when accelerating. 405 feel the fastest because it is so. 407 kerb weight is 1435kg, 406 1365kg and 405 the lightest at 1135kg.all are powered by 2liter engine which the 407 will get the least power to weight ratio of the trio.

what is the advantage of the newest peugeot is styling. the 406 was never a proper replacement for 405(as most journalist stated), so the 407 opens new dimension in styling. it looks more of an italian car than a french car. the 407 was being the most well endowed with pretty much the same gadgets with cars a price bracket above. that what makes french car value for money, they might not fetch german or swedish saloon car prices, but look out at the specification list, they are there at a lower cost to the buyer. plus that floaty-yet-controllable feel of the chassis and suspension.

did a fast run to johor baru and back. fuel economy was not the forte of 407 when compared to the older generations. maybe all other 2liter cars consumes as much as their weight grew. we average 10km/ltr for shah alam to pasir gudang, senai back to shah alam,averaging 160kmh on the highway.maybe it will do 14km/l when pushing at 120kmh. the engine is the same EW10j4 unit as found in 307SW, 807, citroen C5,C8 and fiat ulysse. strong midrange ,as used to be the same with the previous series, XU10 series engines.

the 407 is very stable on the highway, giving a good fell when running at constant high speed. corners can be taken at the same speed  as going straight. no drama, no fault. only  lack the same feeling with 405 when face upon bumpy section of roads in pasir gudang. the engine response is fast and the 4 speed auto gearbox seems not enough. the owner’s manual stated 6 speed auto is also offered(in other markets).

the 407 proves to be a very comfortable long distance tourer.no body ache and also no strain to the joints. only setback is the leg space for the rear pass
enger. this is continuity from the 406, people complained about the lack of space. 405, even though smaller car, have the biggest interior of all 3. my friend did the measurement with a measuring tape.

to conclude, peugeot seems to forget to make cars as they  used to make before. maybe they are running away from that too-much-character-and-flair-french-car image and getting into mainstream all-saloons-are-equal-to-toyota-camry school of thought. maybe the magic have been diminished in the entry of electronics everywhere. well, we cannot shun the technology. it is essential to make  safer and more efficient car(heavier???).

for the coming ramadhan months, the government and the people are anticipiting mass exodus of the masses. balik kampung! people flocked to the highway, north,south ,east and west to be with their family.this is the time when we see spouses, both from the end of the country contemplating to get to whose parents home first.

speaking of mass exodus, as always, the rate of traffic accidents rises. does this coincides with the abundant usage of self-raising flour in the malaysian household? let us see. in the developing and developed world, this is the malaysian achievement that will be hard to follow even by the world’s superpower: traffic accident rate.

in my entire life, the accident rate have never dropped. why? some of th excuses is the amount of registered vehicles swollen exponentially. figure that with the amount of road available for all of us who have to share it. the road are still the same. it is also stated that our country have one of the most efficient road system in the world( that was in the media, not my own words).

considering we have one of the most efficient road system, also the best road condition in the region, why does the rate of traffic accident are still ranked very high compared to other country?the hardware are already being focussed. let me see the other hardware which is the transport that make up the road users.

our roads are crowded with cars, mostly fromthe local manufacturers. why? because this is what people can afford(as apparently told by the powers to be). so far, we have yet to see the minimum safety standards being implemented by our own manufacturers. i have seen cars with 10 airbags but the price to pay is very high, way beyond our normal malaysian drivers. not to say that cars with 10 airbags will save lives, but as far as readiness is concerned, it is a researched category by the euro NCAP that people in cars with 10 airbags survivability rate will be higher than cars with no airbags at all. so, why not eliminate all those useless bodykits and big wheels and substitute it with better safety equipment, plus better built passenger cells.

last but not least, the software, which is the human factor. i know all of you have seen a kancil trying to play catch up with a 7 series BMW. remember kancil driver, your whole car is equal to the 7 series crumple zone. but then , why people in kancil and souped-up wiras and satria always trying to show something which is not worth anything? the power factor, that is.

from the last thousand years of human civilisations, people have known to be very power savvy. people who can’t afford big cars will still afford to power up their small cars. it doesn’t cost small though, they might spent rm30,000 to soup-up their rides. for that amount, they can get a secondhand 5 series. the real thing!. still a mystery yeah?

human beings are very funny. their behaviour can get even a university professor’s mind boggled.imagine a person buying a new satria 1.3, replaced the engine and everything just to make it look like a satria gti. why don’t they buy the satria gti in the first place? even some kids with rich father done it before. if i was the kid, i would haggle my father to get me a real gti, perhaps a VW golf GTI or the 206 GTI.unlucky me, my father is not that rich.

last but not least, these are the cars that crowd up the traffic accident statistics year by year. i have seen a BMW doing 200kmh easily.they are designed to do that.  a satria trying to keep up.they are not designed to do that. why don’t they ‘play’ with their own peers?they just wanted to show the BMW driver that they are equal as the BMW rides. wait till you see them hit the back of a truck or roll over a banked road.

i think education plays an important  role in human factor. all cars are not made equal. that is why the cost of  research and developement  for those expensive cars are higher and takes longer time.you may wonder why european cars life cycle are longer than the other counterparts, namely japanese, koreans and particularly malaysian. because the european union emphasizes on safety factor first, then aesthetics and styling. now you may wonder why our cars can’t even penetrate their market. just compare the renault espace(above) offset head on collision test with kia carnival(below). also compare renault megane(above) with honda civic(above megane).

just be very careful with driving during the festive season. it is very sad to see a would-be bride (nearly there) died in a crumpled kancil. that is a waste in human resource, potential leaders maybe. also a waste to see a family members demise during the festive season.we are wasting millions of ringgits just upgrading our road system, but at the same time the rate of accident still increasing. our government must also educate our people on safety, which is of paramount importance. safety is expensive, but a human life is more than that.

speed kills? not really. by reducing speed limits, we are making people more complacent, taking things for granted at a slower pace. be realistic.

what is safe speed? according to the international convention for preventing collisions at sea, rule 6 : safe speed

every vessel shall proceed at a safe speed so that she can take proper and effective action to avoid collision and be stopped within a distance appropriate to the prevailing circumstances and conditions.
in determing safe speed, the following factors shall be among those taken into account:

(a)by all vessels:
1) the state of visibility
2)the traffic density including the concentration of fishing vessels or any other vessels
3)the manouevrability of the vessel, with special refernce to stopping distance and turning circle in the prevailing conditions
4)at night, the presence of background lights such as from shore lights or the backscatter from her own lights
5)the state of wind,sea and current and the proximity of navigational hazards
6) the draft in relations to the available depth of water.

we see that the statistics of malaysian registered ships involved in collision are smaller compared to malaysian registered road transport. why? adherence to the rules and regulations that is. that is what to be bear in mind, always.

hadiah harijadi

malam ini ku sendiri lagi
lilin didepan terbiar sepi
sayang di mana kau menghilang
majlis sunyi tanpa dikau disisi

kasih bukalah pintu hati
dikau meracun hati sanubari
kad harijadi yang putih berseri
membisikkan kau akan pergi

ch:
sempena hari lahirku
kau musnahkan cinta
sempena hari lahirku
kau hancurkan  cinta

sempena hari lahirku
kau hancurkan permata
kau musnahkan kasih asmara…..

kasih
apakah aku yang masih dikau sangsi
kehadiranmu meracunkan emosi
atau egomu mencengkam kudisisi…..

airmata                -belantara

nafas terhenti seketika,tertutup pintu bicara,
bagai sembilu sejuta menghiris di dada…

sekujur tubuhmu kaku, diselimut putih salju,
ratu ku terlena membisu, panggilan yang satu…

tiada senyum tiada tawa, tiada lagi segalanya,

hanya kenangan bersama, mengusik di jiwa………

ch:
airmata,
mengiringi pemergian,

tidurlah sayang,
doa cintaku iringkan,

semadilah cinta kita,
agar subur senantiasa,

bersama di hatimu,
dihatiku…………….

hi again. i am seeking solace by reminiscing my good old days , past glories. at least i got something good to hold on to. now i would like to talk about this band. not so famous like search or wings, but the followers, like me,  are still in their trails and their songs will still be ringing in our mind.

their first album debut in 1987, self titled. the album was a fresh sound apart from other rock artistes at that time. maybe their mentality was different. really different as i found out that they are undergraduates in US universities.no wonder they sounded so different from others, without the rosy-melancholic-love-songs-lyrics or very-sad-pound-me-with-wooden-hammer type of lyrics.if you have the opportunity, try listening to dewi. very nice upbeat,progressive rock type of song. jentera pemusnah, perintah berkurung was the heavier type.

then came the second album, serikandi di sisi. the music is more mature than before and their composition are better. i even made some silkscreen t-shirt printing for my school’s art class project. the song serikandi itself is a nice slow number. i like the song airmata, depicting  demise of a lover, which notes a dying love afterall. or they just don’t exist after all, true love?

the last album was infiniti. that was when i started as cadet . i wonder where is belantara now. did browse through their site, but not really updated. i wish they are compiling more materials for their forthcoming album.  nice to hear their type of rock again.