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!