For A Hospital, You Aren't Quite Hospitable...

Gee, and you thought that I’m just being catchy by playing around the words ‘hospital’ and ‘hospitable’. Catchy title aside, there is something which I should highlight, and let this be a lesson for improvement. Think of it as a note from a concerned citizen (you guys should be lucky that I did not put this up on ‘Aduan Rakyat’ or something.

Just a quick recap; my dad was admitted for 22 days in a government hospital (which by the end of this note might explain the title). Another thing, the source of this note that I’m about to type would be my mum’s conversation with pretty much all the visitors during CNY (family friends, cousins), so it may be inaccurate someway or another, but it’s the gist that’s important. So it was his last day (I was at work that day, sorry Papa) when the doctor finally gave him the good news, ‘Awak dah boleh balik’ at about 11am, if I’m not mistaken. There are still some paperwork needed to be done, but other than that he’s good to go. So my mum pun start la bersiap-siap, kemas2 all personal belongings of my dad. They then waited at the sofa where they put the TV.

About 12pm or so, my mum mentioned she saw the nurses and the hospital staff started to kemas-kemas my dad’s bed. They then thought, ‘Oh ni dah start kemas2 ni, siap2 untuk org lain nak masuk la ni’. Very efficient indeed. My dad was also served lunch, but then since his bed is already made ‘unavailable’ for him to lepak2, he ended up having lunch by the TV. My mum thought that it won’t take long before everything is all set.

She was wrong.

Come 5pm, she approached the front desk of the ward, asking the status of my dad’s discharge. After some time after being told that you can leave, you wonder if indeed you can leave. The feedback obtained was ‘Pakcik dah boleh keluar, tunggu sekejap ye.’ My dad started to feel uneasy, but still maintaining his cool. You can’t afford to burst into flames if you’re just that weak. So they waited, waited, and waited some more....

Until 8pm, the staffs ended their day shift and the night shift nurses arrived. Again, my mum and dad asked them ‘Boleh keluar ke tak nih?’, adding a more serious tone to it. They receive the same answer, ‘Pakcik tunggu dulu ye’. My dad at that moment got grumpier (for God’s sake, you made him waited for what 8 hours only to settle his discharge papers, it’s only fair that he didn’t burst sooner!)

9pm; it is inevitable. My dad started shouting at the staffs ‘Saya ni boleh keluar ke tak ni?! Kalau tak boleh cakap la tak boleh! Apsal lama sangat ni!’ (I was not there, so I’m not sure of the exact words, which again..not that important). Long story short, after about 9 hours of waiting, barulah all those paperwork settled. Fail la government hospital when it comes to this small2 things. Memang fail abis.

The story does not end there. My dad is still weak to walk on his own, so my mum asked for a wheelchair’ Their response? ‘Boleh pakcik nak pinjam wheelchair, tapi nanti lepas turun, tolong bawak naik balik wheelchair ke tingkat 7 ye’. WHAT THE FUCK? Sorry about the caps lock, but I was just furious about the way they responded. So my sister then terpaksa la push the wheelchair on her own to the 7th floor, while my mum and my dad waited in the car.

Again, I wish to emphasize here, when it comes to the human factor, government hospital memang fail. FAIL ABIS LAH SENANG CERITA!. Upon hearing that story, I can’t help myself but thinking ‘I won’t go to a government hospital for my treatment. I’ll invest in some medical insurance or something, but I’ll want a decent, proper treatment with utmost respect, warmth. For crying out loud, when you’re sick, the last thing you want to have is to have people pissing you off. So, please lah, just because you’re the government hospital does not mean you can treat sick people like crap...Sort out your work process la, sort out your manpower and resources. Don’t let us consumers pay the price of dissatisfaction amongst the staff which leads to the sucky treatments

So yeah, to the staff of Pusat Perubatan Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, on behalf of my papa, I thank you for your hospitality (it is both a sincere thanks and a sarcasm)

Let There Be Light

As I’m listening to a few songs I just downloaded (for quite a few times now), as I am repeating the words over and over again my head, my heart is just intrigued to express something, that I thought I should just write it down...loosely said, it pretty much sums up my thoughts that I need to clear up in the air.

As my brain activity is sorting out my thoughts properly to connect what I’m trying to say, let me just state the obvious first and foremost. These songs share one thing in common; the crazy little thing called love and relationship. As I was in what you called a ‘zaman gelap’, and I’m still currently sorting out my life (relationship wise), I’m still figuring out what’s in stored for me in the future. I’m not trying to be specific of what I’m feeling nor I’m trying to be vague, so here it goes (feel free to not read this, I don’t care).

One song sung by a brilliant band is portraying the message ‘I want you, could it not be any more obvious’ basically. Come what may; silly or erratic arguments, difference in opinion and what not. In the end, when you have that loving feeling to someone, it will not simply fade away, time after time. People may have said that they are moving forward (pinjam tagline Toyota kejap) but when thoughts of that special person came and go like a warm breeze, he or she will be an absolute terrible liar to even consider it as moving forward . I for one will definitely be devastated knowing that the special person I care about are with someone else. Words may not have my strong forte, but I think my actions spoke clearly of my intentions; always have, always will.

Then there are this two new songs, one sung by a WAG, and another, a duet from two reality show contestants. Both talk about the hardships in a relationship, on how love isn’t an everyday picnic or a walk in the park. That it may not go as what we’ve planned, that it may not be rainbows and butterflies. That it will take patience, compromise and trust (not to mention a lot of learning!) to make it work. Sometimes we take things for granted and ended up regretting it when it’s gone. I’m not saying it’s ok to take for granted (just to be clear), but it’s in our genes to sometimes forget what matters. Mistakes are just means of saying that we are indeed human. Everyone isn’t perfect, but together we can achieve a balance stronger than anything. If something’s worth having, it is definitely worth fighting for.

Lastly is a song recommended for download by a family member. I was not excited about the music, but then when I listened to the words carefully, I thought ‘man she’s right’. Love doesn’t come cheap. You have to earn love. You got to go what you got to do. Let her know that you’re really serious about...you know, getting serious with her. I was especially shocked when I heard one of the verses in the song ‘What you gonna do if someone convinces me, to believe that he can do it better’, and I asked myself that very same question. I’ve got no answer to put it in words, but my heart saddens to even have a thought about that...I sincerely hope that I will never have to find out the answer to that question...

Whatever happens happened, which I think has a reason. It has been written. I may have done mistakes which I’m not proud of. I may have done things which I shouldn’t. I may be wrong, I may be right for my actions. This might also be a wake up call for me, to get things straightened out before it’s too late...In the end, I only hope and pray for one thing. Whatever it is that I’m embarking on, whatever signals being transmitted and vice versa, please...let there be light on the other side of the tunnel. I’m not putting my hopes up just yet, but yeah...let there be light...it’s just not cool anymore to be in the dark...

I hope I’m being vague enough. I may have used the wrong words and phrases, and my sentences may jumble up and sounded silly or wrong, and I apologize should this post came out offensive...oh btw, the songs I listened too were ‘Just Say Yes’, ‘Fight For This Love’, ‘The Art Of Love’, and ‘Put It In A Love Song’ (great songs btw, not to be listened during unstable mental state or an emotional meltdown). Till the next post, mm-kayy..

Apparently Sometimes You Got Discredited For Being Too Good...Geeee

To those who are unaware of my whereabouts, I was in Kota Kinabalu last week for a conference on Maintenance Management System. The setting could not be any better; awesome place to visit, huge hotel room (minus the lousy view for the room that I got, unlike some other people I know who managed to get the one with sea view!), great and fun atmosphere, warm company, etc2.

Anyway, throughout the 2 day conference there was a session whereby OPUs (operating units) presented their so called 'best practices' with hope that it could be adopted and practiced elsewhere. While some presentations are quite interesting, some of them...not so much. I would rather consider them as 'good practices'. The ideas are OK, doable..for me it just doesn't have that 'wowww, that's just awesome, I can't believe I didn't think of that' factor. Our reliability manager, one of the delegates from our side, presented our best practice on preventive maintenance compliance. Nothing special or out of the ordinary, just yet to be practiced by others (at least that is what I've been told, kalau salah tu salah la kan)

Long story short, there was an award for the best presentation, and we didn't win. Well, sad aside, we accepted our defeat (cewahh)..maybe next year luck will be on our side. Of course after that we were discussing on why we didn't win, so on and so forth...well in the end, so be it, right?

Today I received a mail from the reliability manager asking for feedbacks from all managers and end users regarding the best practice. And get this, he said that based on the feedback received by the Engineering Managers Panel (basically the head of engineering from all OPUs, of whom became the judge for the presentations), apparently our best practice was too advance for other OPUs. TOO ADVANCE! (pardon the uppercase). It took me a while to digest this before I came to realization. So apparently we got punished and discredited for being too good in what we do? Is that the reason why we did not win the presentation? We ran too fast when others might just started walking?

Gee, apparently you do learn something new in life everyday...

The Most Panic Moment In My Life Yet...

It's been a while since my last entry, and what I'm about to write about is the recent happening in my life; it induced the greatest panic attack yet...

My dad went for his regular medical check-up about two weeks ago. Being a diabetic and a regular visitor to hospitals, one would not expect nothing out of the ordinary. Come the afternoon, my mum called him only to find out that he was asked to be warded. Apparently the doctor found that there might be some issues concerning his kidneys. Yet to be certain, the doctors want Papa to stay in the hospital for a couple of days. He was being himself, curious and angry (sort of). 'Papa sihat jah, bakpo nok suruh masuk spita pulok.'

Days passed by, and the doctor performed and endoscopy, just to check on the internals. It was then confirmed that his kidney may cause some complications. He was then brought to the High Dependency Ward (HDW) just so that the doctors can look at it better. The general ward is not exactly the best place for you to get proper diagnosis.

On the way to HDW, this is what my mom told me. He was babbling about how slow the staffs here work. Arriving at the HDW, the staffs set up his bed and all that, and my eldest bro asked my mum to wait outside for a bit. Then when their ready, my mum entered the room for like 15 minutes when then, my dad's heartbeat dropped suddenly to like 20-ish BPM. Slowly getting unconscious, my bro immediately ordered my mum and sister to get out from HDW while he tried to work something out with the nurses, while waiting for the on-call doctor. Next thing you know, he was brought immediately to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

My sister called me at around 6:30pm-ish, 18 Jan. That time I just arrived home from work for like 10 minutes. She was sobbing, asking me to come back home as Papa was doing not so good. I was in total state of shock after hearing that. I got dressed up, rushed into the car leaving my laptop behind and rushed back home. I was driving like crazy speed freak..doing 160, 170 with the right signals on, 'chilok' left and right of the highway. My mind was empty, I can't think straight, the only sound heard was from the high rev engine. That moment I could only think of the worst thing that could happen. 'Please let me arrive on time', 'Papa, please hold on longer'...that was what I thought of (along those lines). To make things worst, I took the wrong junction after the Sg Besi toll plaza to end up God knows where. I can no longer think straight, I can only think of getting home to re-route myself. Long story short, I arrived safely in HUKM.

Fast walking towards the 2nd floor, I was panting, clueless of what's going on. Then I saw my mum. She was calm, managed to put a smile on her face. I know she's trying to be strong, as I should too. After a while, the nurse let us go inside for a while to see Papa. I went in with my sister in law, and I don't like what I saw. It's not that I don't like it, it's just sad and unbearable for me to watch Papa as he is at the moment. His face was all bloated (sembab), unconscious with his eyes open, under full blast life support, tears coming out of his eyes. My sister in law was crying, asking Papa to stay strong. That moment was the saddest I've ever experienced yet.

Back outside, the mood was extremely gloomy. You can perhaps here a pin drop to break the silence. A few were reading Yassin, some are still sobbing. In the end, we only prayed that he will get better. Since his kidneys were not good, he had to undergo dialysis for the first 24 hours. We headed home at 1am, hoping and praying for the best...

Come the 2nd day, he was still intubated but the other stuffs were slowly removed, still unconscious. Come the 3rd day he was semi conscious, able to react which indicates he's conscious, tried to talk but he was just still weak. But come the 4th day, all smiles can be seen from each and everyone of us. He gained full consciousness, and is able to talk.

As of today, he has undergone some physiotherapy to strengthen his lungs, as he is still dependent on oxygen mask to breathe. He is no longer in the ICU, but he is yet to be discharged. Let's hope that he will be, soon. He planned to treat the nurses for makan2 once he got discharged; typical sign of him being himself, which is a good thing because that means he's getting better...

There were some fond memories being on leave to be in the hospital. There's the annoying apek in the HDW which makes constant noise of 'Haiyoooo...Hoiii', then there's the constant annoucement to 'Sila Cuti Tangan Anda' when you entered and exited the ICU, annoying nurse, the togetherness of all the family members, not to mention the great Kelantanese eatery which is just fantastic.

I'm actually not a good story teller, so I'll stop here. I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to all beloved family and friends. You know who you are, who has called and sent SMSes wishing nothing but the best. It may be nothing much, but in the darkest hour of your life, those wishes lifted my spirit up. To all staffs of HUKM, only Allah can bless you for what you've done. You have been nothing short of wonderful.

Welcome To The Family, MacBook Pro:)

Yes, as you have read in my previous post, my car got hit by another car on my way back home, and I'm in need of some serious cheering up. Well, this certainly made my weekend. I have just purchased a 13.3 inch Apple MacBook Pro. Yippie! I made my purchase at Machines, OU. Their sales and technical team have been wonderful, and transactions have been zippy. I got the 4GB RAM upgrade, and I think it is a worthy addition. The looks are just gorgeous (as what you've expect from an Apple), sturdy construction; it just reflects that cool factor. Plus it's quite thin too. I've compared side by side with my Asus laptop which its LCD has failed me, and it is significantly thinner:)

Pressing the on switch at the top right corner, I could not help but feel excited. Ya-haa! it's my first Apple computer. I've always been a Windows user (for better and for worse) and I think perhaps it's a good time to try out a totally different OS. I just love the little detail, like the illuminated keyboard, pressing the keys just feel great. The only problem I have at the moment is the edges are rather rough to the skin, I think. Well, so far so good! The things that I like so far: 1) Logging in and shutting down is just super quick, unlike Windows which just take too damn long (not to forget sometimes it just crashes). 2) Then there's the interfacing aspects of Mac which are very user friendly. 3) The battery life is long (I know, it's still new and all, but come on! 5, 6 hours on a single charge for typical use like surfing, music. That has got to be something. 4) Energy saving (the light just dims when you're inactive for like 2 minutes).5) This is my favourite! The trackpad is just awesome. The trackpad acts as a button, you can have multiple finger gestures for different stuff (my favourite will be the 2 finger gesture for scrolling down web pages, documents, lists, etc2). It is unbelievably awesome!

Oh, before I forgot, I just found out the most awesome thing ever! My HTC TD2 acts as a wireless modem via Bluetooth, and I can access the internet using the Internet Sharing option. Super super cool feature. As long as there's EDGE or 3G signal, I can simply turn on BT and tadaa! Internet wherever you are, wherever you go.

It is still to early to say on the software aspects, since I haven't transfered any of my media. Plus I haven't tested the work capability of iWork (I may need to install Office for Mac, we'll see), but so far I like what I've bought. Very much! I'm posting this on MBP as we speak, hihi. Till the next post! Oh yeah, check out some photos below:)

PS: I just checked the battery. 20% left, but it's good for about 1 hour of computing.:)

Thank God It's Friday...Not This Week For Me

People who work love Fridays. It marks the end of the workweek. Everyone's looking forward to spending quality time in the weekends doing something they enjoy doing. I was looking forward to have a nice time relaxing and chilling out after an exhausting work week, with the plant start up and all. Well, if it's not meant to be, it's not meant to be.

I was heading home from Ayer Keroh at about 6-ish. I was in the PLUS highway northbound to KL, when somewhere in Pedas, the rain starts to fall. Then it started to get really heavy (wiper no.2 la). I was doing around 90, 100kmh. Plus, the cars starting to pile up, you know, typical rush hour for the weekends. As I reach just after Seremban's R&R (km 275.5, according to what I wrote in my police report), the car in front of me suddenly braked. My quick reflexes triggered me to push the break hard enough, I managed to slow my car and avoid hitting the car in front. Unfortunately (hear comes the sad part), the car behind me could not brake on time and then, Bang! hits my rear bumper. I was shocked my mind just could not process what just happened. I drove my car for further 5 meters and then stopped. It was raining and I was like, damnnn..accident plak dah, and I put on the hazard lights and head out to check my car. Aiyoo, bumper sudah kemek. I grabbed my mobile phone and snapped the picture of my rear bumper, took photos of the car which banged me (btw, it's a white Proton Wira, registration no WMS 1467). Funny enough (although really it's not), there's 5 Series BMW got banged by another car (I think it's a Hyundai). The BMW, driven by a Chinese chap had minor bruises on his rear bumper, but his exhaust almost fell down! We then took our car to the side, chatted about what happened, what to do and all that, and this guy suddenly showed up to ask us to head to Seremban police station report about this. Later I found out that the dude was working for a workshop (kira macam runner la, siap ngan tow truck ready). Damn, they were quick to the scene (more about them later on).

So with my bruised bumper, not properly closed boot and with my hazard lights on, we headed to the nearest police station. Somehow I lost track of the convoy and took my own way to the nearest police station, which led me to IPD Sepang. There, upon asking me where the incident took place, they insist that the location is under Seremban's jurisdiction, so I need to head there to report. I was like 'Geez, takleh ke buat kat sini je?' I was hungry, soaking wet, so want to pee, not to mention fuckin' pissed! So I made my way, driving to Seremban at 60kmh (the last thing I want right now is to have my boot flying off my car, leaving me behind). At about 10:30 ish, I reached Seremban's police station. I parked my car outside the station, headed inside when a bunch of these runners I talked about earlier, starts asking me if 'abang dah ada workshop dah?', while at the same time handing over their business cards. I was like 'do they smell opportunity, do they have insider info of what's going on'? I head inside to find out they are about 20 people reporting of accidents! It was 10:45 when I took my queue number, and only called on at 12:30am! My god, this is just horrible! While sitting, standing, pacing around the station, I observed these so-called runners teaching victims how to write their report', explaining what to do next, bla3, even hanging around with a few of the officers. Haha, talked about networking for your business.

So then comes my number. I sat down, gave my IC and license number and the police lady took my statement. I waited for a while when another officer asked me to show my car, took some photos. The incident investigator then asked me to head home and wait for his call. By the time it all finished, it is already 2am. I head back to KL, doing 60, 80kmh and reach home at 2:45. I'm so starved and I can barely open my eyes....What..a...day it has been.

Some photos after this. I need some serious cheering up. I know! I'll get my 13.3" Macbook Pro today! Sighhh...

When it happened...
The banger...

The morning afterAnother view
My statement...

MG3 & HPU2 Turnaround 2009: Ramblings

This is like my first post for 2010, and it's been about what, a month since my last post. Before I go any further, I just want to wish everyone 'Happy New Year'. I would like to quote from my sms sent to mass recipients, 'Cheers to a good 2010. May this new year bring many opportunities your way; to explore every joy of life, turning dreams into reality, and all efforts into great accomplishments.' I wish nothing but the best to everyone including myself for this year. May all your dreams, wishes (and past unfulfilled resolutions) come true.

Enough intro. So, I've been busy over last month. As you have read in my previous posts, the refinery I'm working at is having its turnaround (TA in short, basically a routine major shutdown). A lot has happened within this time span. I am currently relaxing within the comforts of my own home, after gruelling hours spent working. I'll try my best to share what went on and all that, just so that you guys have a feel.

The TA begins with the handover of the plant from the Operations team to the TA team, which is on December 3rd, according to my Twitter. The plant comprises of equipments such as distillations columns, heat exchangers, pressure vessels, relief valves, furnaces, and many more, the size is just massive! I was given the responsibility to supervise the works for pressure vessels. Basically the works will be done by the contractor, and it is my responsibility to ensure everything goes well, within the require time frame, and ensure work execution was done safely. Pressure vessel works started with the equipment isolation (to make sure no hydrocarbon enters the vessel before entry), opening of the manhole, pre-cleaning inspection, cleaning, full inspection, inspection by Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH; more about them later), manhole closing and de-isolation, and I think it applies pretty much the same for other equipments. Some of the equipments operate in high pressure (to give you an idea, there's a picture of the size of the bolts and nuts used to seal the manhole and contain the vessel), and there are some which is located in high elevation, so heavy lifting is required to remove some parts (as you can see later, the cranes used are just like the Transformers)

The stud bolts used at of the pressure vessels. Huge!The 400T crane used for the heavy lifting. There are 2 of these, and a smaller one

The TA is also the time you can see inspection works carried out in a bigger scale. Basically for an equipment to operate, it must have a CF (Certificate of Fitness). You need to know how good/or bad your equipment is after operating for a certain period of time. Parameters checked include corrosion rates, signs of deterioration, hairline cracks, weldin intergrity, and many more. The inspectors always have the coolest gadgets! They have infra red, ultrasonic, CCTV, boroscope. You name it, they have it! They are like the CSI of engineering. I happened to witness some of the inspection works carried out, such as CCTV, Ultrasonic Thickness Scanning (UTS), and it was a great experience.

TA challenges are totally a different ball game. You'll never know what to expect till you actually see it. We've encountered this coke substance (solidified, hardened carbon deposits) stucked at a few of our heat exchangers, then I've experienced pyrophoric material first hand (stuff that auto ignites when exposed to air). We've had issues with heat exchanger leaks during hydrostatic tests, seized bolts till it requires flame cutting, unprecedented thinning in one of our heat exchangers; problems are encountered one after another. Not to mention the weather has not always been on our side (what do you expect, it's the time of the year, the monsoon season). It kinda slowed down our progress a little bit. We're a bit off-schedule, but heck; work must be completed at all costs!

Throughout this TA, I was on a journey to explore my true mental and emotional limits. The contractors just like pushing our buttons, and sometimes they just get into your cracking nerves. By the final week, I think my mind works differently than my body (basically dah weng la). My bosses almost got into a fist fight, mind you because of these emotional stresses! That is how tensed all of us are. I even followed one of my colleagues for a full body massage (haha, not to be shared in this post, next one perhaps?:p)

I lost track of what to write next. Ahaa, let's talk a bit about the DOSH fellas. They basically are the ones who determined whether these equipments are fit to run. They're from the G, so yeah, they got the power. What I found out is that all of them are relatively young (the one I escorted is just a year older than me!), lack of experience, mostly a diploma holder. But from what I heard (biasala, office gossip), they demand! They had new bags, uniform, shoes each day they come for the visit, escorted by their entourages, dining VIP style, came and go whenever they feel like it, banyak lagi la. Hahaha, hopefully this stays here.

I lost ideas of what to write. Will update soon of any. Have a good weekend!