Japan Trip (26-12-09) Tokyo

For so many years I don't have a chance to vacation together with my family abroad. I think this year would be a very nice and blessed year for me as I was given the opportunity to holiday together with my family in Japan. Initially, I don't have the mood to go holiday but since this year is my last in my school so decided to use the 'benefit' again!

I planned to go Japan for the second time , it is because my family has not been to that country before and I love that country very much . From the fact that , it has the vast variety of different experience to explore and also the money can't buy feeling of being a country which is an ideal clean country . Clean is the terms of everything you see would be a few times physically cleaner than Malaysian's places . One of the unbelievable facts is that the workers in the public toilet would use a white cloth to wipe the toilet bowl after washing it . Even the temple's roof , the workers would climb up till the top to remove the leaves using hands . In Malaysia , I don't think so it is the way we do it .
Plus, the shop workers will be very polite to entertain the customers .

I was lost once I got off from 浜松ちょ Station after taking the Keisei Skyliner from Narita Airport (terminal 2) because we exit from the north exit which lead us to 大門 station. We managed to ask the way to our hotel but my limitation in Japanese makes me difficult to communication . Most Japanese don't speak English , so i have to talk to them in japanese but my vocabulary are limited so when they talked to me with the deeper meaning ,I was confused . Not all the Japanese remember the direction well even the police but they are extremely helpful I showed them the address and phone number , they called the hotel for me and tell me the exact direction i supposed to go . An old man who helped us initially was very kind to us , show us the way to the police station and tell the police what situation we faced , not only that he was willing to spend us the money to take the taxi . But we refused.The hotel was 2 traffic lights away but with many luggages we didn't manage to reach there on time so we took a taxi . That was the first time I took taxi in Japan.

The Smile Hotel which is situated 10 minutes walk from 浜松ちょstation (South exit) . The hotel room was big enough for us . And we like most is the automated toilet bowl which we can hardly find here in Malaysia. Not a single hand movement to clean except the button on the controller .

After we settled everything , we started our tour in Tokyo , 1st up was the Odaiba is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, Japan, across the Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo. It was initially built for defensive purposes in the 1850s, dramatically expanded during the late 20th century as a seaport district, and has developed since the 1990s as a major commercial, residential and leisure area.
We went to the Hinode Pier to take a 30 minutes ferry to Odaiba Island. Ferry stopped us at Odaiba Seaside Park . From there we went to Aqua City shopping center, Panasonic Center, Toyota MEGA WEB, Venus Fort, Shinkiba Station .


Rainbow Bridge(Day)


Rainbow Bridge (Night)


New Launch !! Super Mario Bros Wii


Technology tried out in Panasonic Center


Toyota MEGA WEB

Pineapple Fried Rice

I was in Tesco Mutiara Damansara the other day to buy some groceries . I bought a small pineapple for a few ringgit with a plan to cook a plate of Jelly using the pure pineapple cubes from the whole pineapple (refer to my pineapple jelly photo below ). But later i found out that the pineapple was hard to de-skin so I decided to scope out the fillings and use the remaining pineapple skin to hold my pineapple fried rice.



Here is the recipe:
2 tablespoon of dried shrimp
5 tablespoon of cooking oil
3 cloves chopped garlic
3 tablespoon of sambal ( can interchange with 2 tablespoon ofcurry powder)
1 cups of pineapple cubes
100 g of chicken cubes
3 cups of cooked rice

Instruction:
-Heat the pan and place the cooking oil into the pan for 1 minutes
-Place the dried shrimp and garlic until golden colour
-Put the chicken and sambal and stir fried until cooked
-Finally pour the cooked rice into the pan and fried for a further 2 minutes .


Pineapple Jelly

A taste of Working Life

Inside 'torque box'.

Change Hangar and Line again,we have been changing from one place to the other for 2 times already . Now I am at MAS hangar 3 Line 8 , currently there is a third party aircraft with the registration num G-MKBA which is belongs to MK airlines in UK .



MK Airlines is a cargo airline registered in the United Kingdom and providing worldwide freight operations. Its main base is Ostend-Bruges International Airport, Belgium, with hubs at Luxembourg-Findel International Airport, Kent International Airport, Kotoka International Airport, Accra and OR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg.[1]. Other routes operated by MK Airlines Ltd include, MFM (Macau), LFW (LOME) and ALA (Alamaty).

It operates services throughout the world linking Africa and the rest of the world. MK Airlines' Commercial, Flight and Ground Operations, Technical, Finance and Administration teams are all based at their UK base in Upper Hartfield, East Sussex.

MK Airlines Limited holds a United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority Type A Operating Licence permitting it to carry passengers, cargo and mail on aircraft with 20 or more seats.


Aft and Bulk cargo compartment of B747-200.

This aircraft is undergoing C check .I was assigned at Aft Cargo Compartment (from STA1480 )and Bulk cargo Compartment ( till STA2100 ), (ATA Chapter 25 , 53) . Although the place is confined and always hot inside as though you are in a sauna room. Hahaha that means I did sauna for a week ,Non Stop Em emm..

I always equipped myself with barrier cream , latex ,cotton gloves , ear butt , mask before I start work in the morning . The break time is kind of short if I compared to the usual time given in my training school.

In my zone, we need to open the floor panel (hold the floor), remove,install the actuator(control the movement in the cargo container using the automated system) ,remove, install Blanket (the blanket is made from fibre glass which can reduce the weight of the aircraft and protect the wall,floor).


Glossary:
STA=station

AMM=Aircraft Maintenance Manual

C check= This is performed approximately every 12–18 months or a specific amount of actual Flight Hours(FH) as defined by the manufacturer. This maintenance check puts the aircraft out of service and requires plenty of space - usually at a hangar at a maintenance base. The schedule of occurrence has many factors and components as has been described, and thus varies by aircraft category and type.

Aircraft registration num= An aircraft registration is a unique alphanumeric string that identifies an aircraft, in similar fashion to a licence plate on an automobile .
G , stand for UK registration. 9M , stand for Malaysia registration.


Blankets already 'sticked onto the metal parts.



Climbed inside the ‘torque box’.

Basic Stew Recipe + Mash Topping

Basic Stew

I stumbled upon a piece of recipe from a book from Jamie Oliver (Ministry of Food ) . The way of cooking is somehow similar with the vegetarian Shepherd Pie (see at the end of the entry).

Here are the ingredients :

2 stick of celery
2 medium onions
2 carrots
2 tomatoes
olive oil
6 tablespoons of tomato puree ( Spaghetti 's sauce also applicable)

Meat:
(Chicken and White wine)
5 stalks of Thyme fresh leaves (from Tesco's vegetable section)
300 g mined Chicken
7 tablespoon of White wine

Instruction:
-Preheat oven to 350 F/180C
-Trim the ends off celery and roughly chop the sticks
-Peel and roughly chop the onions
-Peel carrots, slice lengthways and roughly chop
-Roughly cut tomatoes
-Put a pot on medium heat
-Put all vegetables and your chosen herb into the pan with 2 lugs of olive oil ,fry for 10 minutes.
- Put few grinds of pepper and salt sparingly .
-Add a splash of water if it looks a bit dry .
- Remove the stalks of herbs .

For your mash topping:
2 palm size potatoes
3 tablespoon of butter
salt and freshly ground black pepper
a sprig of fresh thyme

Instruction:
-Preheat oven to 375F/190C.
-Peel the potatoes ,cut them in half and boil for 10 minutes.
-Drain in colander and return them to the pan.
-Add butter and pinch of salt and pepper.
-Mash until smooth and creamy .

-Roughly top the stew with the mashed potato-don't worry about it being smooth and even .
-Pick a few thyme leaves off the stalk and lightly push into the potato.
-Cook in oven for 25 minutes .

Previously,I have tried

Vegetarian style Shepherd Pie
I have made a vegetarian style of Shepherd Pie from a very simple ingredients .

Baked Mushroom with Mince Meat

I remember once when I watched a TV show , the host was demonstrating the ways to cook some small and easy stuff for teatime .

Here are the ingredients:
200 g of chicken meat
3 tablespoon of leas and perin sauce
8 fresh white button mushrooms
1 tablespoon of butter
2 diced 5 cm long carrot

Instruction:
-Preheat oven to 350 F/180C
-Make 8 fifty cents coin size meatballs with a mix of leas and perin sauce.
-Apply butter on the mushroom and bake for 5 minutes .Drain excess water away on tray.

- Flip the mushrooms over.

-Insert the meat on top of the mushrooms.Carrot is put between meat and mushroom.
-Bake for 10 minutes .

Bye Bye Nike + Welcome RunKeeper

I got a replacement for the expensive Nike + device which track your exercise while you are running. It is called the RunKeeper which is application for iphone . I like this application because of its GPS function, total journey , speed of your exercise along with the time spent and how it compares with previous runs, all on a Google Map. Not only that you don't need a separate device for tracking and recording your exercise. Nevertheless, it can guide you throughout the whole exercise by giving you real-time voice prompt . You can program them before you set out, and the audio cues will coach you through your workout.

Every time you complete a run you can see how far you went (to the best of the phone's tracking capabilities), along with the time spent and how it compares with previous runs, all on a Google Map.

I tried it during my morning exercise in Botanical Gardens ,Penang. It really works. I like it very much .



While running I set it with my favorite iPod playlist to start up automatically when i start tracking a new RunKeeper activity.

Phew... What a relief

As I was about to pack my stuffs going back Penang for my Raya holiday , I get a green light to try for the last flight to Penang which is MH 1149 . I was doubt about the chances of getting a flight to Penang . As far as I know , the frequency of flight to Penang is very high compared to Kuching . My friends had told me that he had to sleep in the airport for 1 night before he can go back Kuching because of flight overbooked and also no empty seat available. I never try my luck in KLIA to secure a seat near to Hari Raya. Last 2 years , I remember took off from my studies for a few days before coming back for holiday .

Once arrived at KLIA , I straight away went to the ticketing office at the Arrival Hall to print my e ticket . There were about 8 people in before me so I decided to put my name on the stand-by list at the Departure Hall first . After knowing that there were 4 people before me on the stand-by list ,I knew that what am I supposed to do.Plus, the MH 1149 was over-booked , the booking was around 148 people but the flight accomodate up to 144 passengers.

After I took my ticket , I went to the Flight Operation Office which is on the next building . I went across using a link bridge but I was not permitted to enter because I don't have the staff card to swipe . I pressed for the security and I was ushered by a security personnel from the entrance to the Flight Operation Office .

Once I was there , the place was like in the TVB Drama Triumph in the Skies . The pilots were there to attend the briefing before departure ,big LCD monitors showing the flight operation data. I was told to went into the office to ask for a Jump seat .

A jump seat (or jumpseat), officially known as an auxiliary crew station, is a seat in an aircraft cockpit for individuals not operating the aircraft. These might include training pilots, off-duty crew in transition to another airport (see deadheading), government officials (such as Federal Aviation Administration staff), or other airline staff.

My identity was verified by the Flight Op staff . I saw some of the staffs were busying checking the flight schedules and also the local weather of a place etc. Finally after 20 minutes of waiting , I was given a Jump seat by the captain of the flight MH1149 .


I went to the ticket counter in Departure Hall to get my boarding pass . After that , I went straight to Gate A4 . I was waiting for my turn to get on the plane, but my name was called over the P.A. system . The operation staff told me that the Captain had cancelled my Jump seat . And I asked him for the reason and he told me reason which was not acceptable (from my point of view) . How can this be happened to me?

I supposed to get on the last flight of the day to go back Penang and then I was stuck. Without any option available , I expected the worst which is 'sleep in the airport'.
After some confusion over at the desk which is next to the gate entrance , the staffs were sorting out the no-show passengers and calculate the total amount of passengers inside the aircraft .

No-show: A no-show is a passenger who fails to board the plane either because he/she has not fulfiled check-in procedures within designated time limit,or because he/she does not holdpropertravel documents.A no-show passenger may request a change of the flight or a refund of the ticket.If the no-show passenger wants to fly a Carrier's subsequent flight,the Carrier shall change the flight in accordance with its relevant regulations. If the no-show passenger requests a change of the Carrier or a refund of the ticket,50%of the ticket fare will be assessed as a no-show charge.

I over-heard that there were two Uganda nationality were stopped by the immigration who were supposed to be on the flight. Therefore , their seats were empty and I was given a seat 17 C which is an aisle seat . Phew.....What a relief.