There was a power interruption in Likas which started around 4.15 in the afternoon. By 6 something I was feeling a little concerned, so I called Sabah Electricity Sendirian Berhad’s (SESB) hotline number, or what I thought it was: 15454. The lady said need to call 088-282249. When I called that number, another lady said need to call 088-515000. The guy at the other end said there’s a problem (fire?) at a substation (?) near Giant Kolombong, and power “should be up soon”.

While waiting for the power to be back, I watched the screen on crimson mounts, and pondered that it would’ve been prudent for SESB to have a One Stop phone line, i.e. no need to pass me around. And they should’ve also put up information on outages lasting longer than 2 hours at their website or FB page (both none).

By 6.30pm it became apparent that there’s something wrong with our building’s electricity supply – ours was the only building in the neighbourhood without power. I called SESB again immediately – at that time I wasn’t sure if it was our substation or the building itself having issues.

To SESB’s credit, they came back to me within the hour, and power was restored by 7.30pm.

While waiting for them, I had time to do 3km run around the stadium’s lake before dashing back to doublecheck on the Yellow Monster, which is my term of endearment for the generator.

When I finally reached home at 8.30pm, I had to dash out again to purchase my daughter’s stationeries.

Dinner and shower was definitely later than normal that day.

As shared by Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili on Facebook: the following photo was taken on his way to visit to Kg Gana, Kota Marudu (Northern Sabah) in his constituency recently. This road leads to Kg Tagibang, Ranau. Coupled with rain, it makes for a challenging road trip:

Have you seen a dirtier government vehicle?

The good news is that this would soon be a thing of the past as it’s scheduled to be sealed by 2014.

Update 27 January 2013

The best explanation I think is that this phenomenon signifies a change in season i.e. from rainy to dry.

———————-
23 January 2013

This morning, there’s mist / fog around Penampang. This rather rare occurence happens like once every few years.

Can any experts give their views as to how this phenomenon came to be?

The following photo was taken by Bop Juanis around 7am:

If one’s Golden Eagle Coin fell off in this situation, one’d have a hard time locating it.

londoncabs.co.uk compiled a list of “10 countries that have some of the worst drivers imaginable. These are taxis that you may be better off avoiding if you want to have a positive and uplifting transportation experience.”

At the top of the list are Kuala Lumpur taxi drivers, who

…are well known for overcharging clients and detouring. Even though they are supposed to charge by the meter, many drivers refuse from doing so. The best advice is to simply wait for another vehicle if the driver resists from using the taximeter. Cars in Kuala Lumpur can often be rather old and in poor condition.

The rest of the top 10: Rome, Bangkok, Paris, New York, Mumbai, Zurich, Cairo, Shanghai, and Moscow.

Meanwhile, ratestogo.com, in its 2009 list of “The Worst Cities in the World to Hail a Taxi“, listed Kuala Lumpur at third, behind Phnom Penh and Jakarta, with the following description:

We thought big oil was bad in the US. In Kuala Lumpur most of the taxi companies are somehow affiliated with one politician or another, all of which are greedy, rude, or simply unethical. Even if you can get a taxi you won’t have the luxury of a working meter and there’s no guarantee you’ll make it out of the cab having paid a fair price. No use calling the authorities, either – they’re not usually around.

The rest of the top 10: Mexico City, Bangkok, Moscow, Sao Paulo, Manila, New York.

Therefore, it could very well be true, since Phnom Penh and Jakarta didn’t even make londoncab’s list.

In Malaysia, as of the time of writing, there are 79,571 registered taxi drivers, around 33,000 of them in Klang Valley.

In an attempt to improve this situation, the Tourism Ministry organised the Tourism Taxi Ambassadors (Duta Teksi Pelancongan) program in March 2012, involving 3,000 budget, 500 executive, and 500 limousine taxi drivers, where they underwent a one-day course on Malaysia’s tourism industry plus a dialogue session with the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD).

A list of Kuala Lumpur taxi drivers who’d undergone the course is available at the Tourism Ministry’s website – perhaps next time you take a taxi, get one from the list.

In the past 20 years.

Definition:
- “Malaysian”: a Malaysian citizen;
- “Gruesome”: extreme violence caused the deaths;
- “Prominent”: well-known figure in corporate or political circles.

31st March 2006: Joseph Chan Sum Foo, 45, general manager of a property development company Abad Naluri Sdn Bhd, who was killed instantly when he was struck on the head by a helicopter’s whirling rotor blades.

31st December 2005: One of Malaysia’s brightest and youngest corporate figures Dr Liew Boon-Horng, 35, was killed when an iron mould weighing almost two tonnes fell on his car from one of the two condominium-cum-office blocks under construction along Jalan Sri Hartamas, KL. I believe some of us have seen gruesome photos distributed via email of the incident.

12 July 2004: a Bell 206 Hornbill Skyways helicopter crashed at Mount Murud, killing Sarawak’s Assistant State Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department Dr Judson Tagal, contractor Datuk Marcus Raja, Sarawak Electricity Supply Corporation (SESCo) CEO Roger Wong, SESCo northern Sarawak manager Ling Kian Ho, SESCo engineer Jason Eng, Padawan Municipal Council chairman Lawrence Th’ng and pilot Capt Samsuddin Hassim.

2 March 1997: the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of DRB-HICOM Group of Malaysia, Tan Sri Yahaya Ahmad and his wife Rohana Othman were killed in a helicopter crash near Kuala Lipis, Pahang while on their way to visit his ailing mother, Mandak Omar in Marang, Terengganu. He was famously known as Malaysia’s “Car Czar”.

July 1993: Datuk Mazlan Idris, the state assemblyman for Batu Talam, Pahang murdered by the infamous Mona Fandey and his cohorts, his body found chopped into 18 parts.

List of winnings of more than RM45 million, in order of amount won:

January 2012: a retiree from Selangor in his seventies won RM57.18 million in the Supreme Toto 6/58 jackpot

April 2011: 16 Sabahans friends between 30 and 50 years of age won RM47.97 million. Ticket purchased at Beverly Hill outlet.

September 2010: a “50-something businessman in Selangor” won RM47.82 million at Sports Toto’s Supreme TOTO 6/58.

11 November 2012: a 50-something Sabahan who is involved in the construction business won RM47.53 million in the Supreme Toto 6/58, draw 3789/12. Ticket purchased at Kampong Air outlet. Interestingly, he was reported to be too busy to pick up his winnings immediately, and only did so 10 days after the results came out. His winning number was from one of the Lucky Pick tickets displayed at the sales counter.

So Sabahans have won 2 of the 4 biggest SportsToto jackpots – are Sabahans luckier, or are they simply the biggest gamblers in the country?

The odds of winning the Supreme Toto 6/58 is 1 in 40,475,358.

As I wrote earlier, the following has a higher chance of happening:
- killed by a lightning striket (1 in 1 million);
- being elected the US president (1 in 10 million – if you’re an American);
- being canonized i.e. have Saint in front of your name (1 in 20 million);
- becoming an astronaut (1 in 13 million);

Thankfully, it’s still less likely that a meteor will land on my house (a 1 in 182 trillion chance).

Update 23 November 2012

2 window panels were moved to Marian Church of Our Lady Lourdes in Klang on 20th November 2012 – now nobody can claim that the image was created via trade printing.

Video of the removal process (the window pane’s bigger than I expected):

I was around the area, but didn’t fancy braving the guaranteed traffic jams and massive crowds.

Some explanation for the image:

- erosion from the recent monsoon rains caused paint to leech from the walls and caused the image to form on the window pane as it drips down
- cascading watermark stains

Perhaps the most famous “Mary appearing on glass” is that of the “Clearwater Virgin” of 1996 (?), where an image of Mary appeared in the glass façade of a finance building in Clearwater, Florida, USA and attracted widespread media attention, drawing a million visitors over the next several years. Upon examination, a local chemist suggested the stain was produced by water deposits combined with weathering, yielding a chemical reaction like that often seen on old bottles, perhaps due to the action of the water sprinkler. In 2004 the glass panels were broken by a vandal.

——————–
12 November 2012

First reported Saturday 10th November 2012.

Appeared on one of the hospital’s windows.

- best time to view: early morning.
- have grown clearer since then.

Images taken around 12.15pm on Sunday 11th November:

[Image source]

Those Who Saw Her: Apparitions of Mary

[Image source]

Marian Apparitions

This news has even made one of the world’s top tabloids on Sunday.

According to The Globe Shopper Index 2012 report, for the Asia Pacific region, Kuala Lumpur is the second best shopping city.

25 cities were judged in 5 categories: shops, culture & climate, hotels & transport, affordability, convenience.

The report spoke highly of Kuala Lumpur:

Read the rest of this entry »

According to a World Bank and the International Finance Corporation report entitled Doing Business 2013: Smarter Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises published today, Malaysia is ranked as the world’s:

- 12th most business-friendly country (overall ranking)

We also did well in some of the subcriterias:
- 1st in ease of getting credit
- 4th in protection of investors

However, in some of the other subcriterias we have a lot of work to do:
- 96th in dealing with construction permits
- 49th in resolving insolvency
- 33rd in enforcing contracts

This is the country’s best performance since rankings were established in 2005. In the last 2 years, Malaysia had secured the 23rd and 18th placings.

Even more hearteningly, Malaysia is ranked even higher than more advanced countries like Sweden (13th), Taiwan (16th), Germany (20th), Japan (24th) and Switzerland (28th).

World Bank Country Director for Malaysia Annette Dixon said:

I commend Malaysia for its ongoing efforts to reduce the costs of doing business. This will help the private sector drive growth, especially if Malaysia can build on its success by continuing to tackle long-term challenges, such as improving the quality of education.

World Bank Senior Economist for Malaysia Frederico Gil Sander said:

I commend the country for continuing to improve the quality of domestic regulations. This has great potential to energise the private sector when combined with stepped-up implementation of strategic reform initiatives especially the liberalisation of the services sector and the enforcement of Malaysia’s new competition law.

The top 12:
1 Singapore, which has topped the rankings for the seventh consecutive year.
2 Hong Kong SAR, China
3 New Zealand
4 USA
5 Denmark
6 Norway
7 United Kingdom
8 Korea
9 Georgia
10 Australia
11 Finland
12 Malaysia

Source
The Star

Futsal – valiant effort, but no medals

Carrom - ditto

Badminton - 28-29 September 2012

1st round: 5-0 Desa Plus, 4-1 SDB
Quarterfinals: 3-2 SDB (yes, we faced them again due to a quirk in the rules)
Semifinals: 3-2 Sabah Credit Corporation (SCC)
Final: 2-3 MOF (although technically I think it should’ve been 1-3, as we’ve already lost the officers’, women’s doubles and veteran’s categories when the mixed doubles match was being played, hence that could’ve affected the outcome [we won that match 2-1]. The open category was thus not played.)

Therefore, this was an improvement on 2010 when we won bronze. If I remember correctly, JPKN’s record in MOF Sports Carnival (badminton): 2010 – bronze; 2008 – bronze; 2006 – silver.

My observations during the JPKN vs MOF final:

- officers’ category: we are not too far behind: but then the hard part is: need to start to have a regular training regimen;
- veterans’ category: very tough: MOF have 2 extremely good veterans: Alex/Kassim simply couldn’t match their accuracy, speed, aggression;
- mixed doubles’ category: 50-50, as I mentioned earlier, we won that match 2-1 (Yussop/Jennifer) but the MOF pair already knew that they’d won the gold medal anyway;
- women’s doubles category: another very tough category: unless we can find a way to contain the top female player in MOF, there’s no way we’re going to win this category;
- open category: I think we’re slightly behind; however, on a plus point, we have a pool of good young players, so the future looks bright, we need to build on big-match temperament.

Warisan Harta won bronze when they beat SCC.

MOF as usual blanked everybody on their way to the final.

Bowling - 7th October 2012

JPKN came good this time, winning gold: David, Ridzuan (also scored highest), Durahman (surely his last participation, as he clocked out for the last time on Friday – due for retirement), Justina.

Darts

We failed to get to the podium this time (last time it was gold).

Ping pong (table tennis)

Bronze (last time it was silver). Beat SCC 3-1, then lost to perennial powerhouses MOF 0-3 & Warisan Harta (Borneo Housing) 0-3, then defeated Yayasan Usaha Maju (YUM) 4-0 to snatch bronze. In the final, Warisan Harta overwhelmed MOF 3-0, the most interesting match being the veterans’ category which was a closely fought 3-2.

Pool

Silver, narrowly lost 2-3 to Warisan Harta in the final.