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12/20/2008 An-jing Li-arDoes my new uniform manage to manifest itself as an outfit for anjing liar (engineer!
It won't stimulate your fantasy towards uniforms for sure!
The tailor made me the ladies' cut wo! 11/8/2008 Bonus in jeopardy 2008
I think my bosses sure suffer headache whenever they think of me…
People always advise: don't fight with the boss. I guess I never learn....
Boss 1: You said you are very busy nowadays, but I heard you already went jogging at 6pm the other day. Me: I wanna emphasize, I’m not free at all. I’ve done the calculation, instead of falling sick & suffering for migraine and go for MC so often, might as well I go off from work earlier for exercise. Boss 1: I’m just kidding, don’t worry! Me: It’s not funny, boss.
Me: Boss, do you understand what I’m trying to highlight in my email? Boss 2: Yea, I know! You are trying to be sarcarstic! Me: …… Boss 2: Boss 1 and I think that you must be very free. Me: Trust me, I’m not free at all. Instead of keeping silent about this issue, I choose to voice out. Boss 2: Yea, I know! We are just kidding! Me: It’s not funny, boss. 9/11/2008 Men & women at work!Instead of having a discussion in the office comfortably, my colleagues (I had to follow, reluctantly…
5/13/2008 Greeting from Sg Siput“走在铁路旁 I’ll just have to borrow a guitar somewhere then I think I can really make another MTV for this song sung by 锦绣二重唱.
I’ve been expelled to this small little town which is notorious for Samy Vellu since May 6th to work on a brand new project.
So, friends, feel free to pay me a visit if you all do pass by, I heard the “烧肉” here is damn nice! 4/9/2008 Blunder at workI was showing my boss an organization chart.
He then cracked up, “This statement doesn’t sound right…”
Rupa-rupanya I abbreviated “xxx in association with yyy” to “xxx in ass. with yyy” due to space constraint. 4/3/2008 Gonna miss all of you!I would like to dedicate this blog to all those at PZKR.
April 2nd marked the end of my secondment. I really feel heavy to leave the firm: leaving behind the laughter and joy, and the warmth as well! How often you get to have this kind of treatment: knowing that you are unhappy, 4 “ma lat lou” bring you for dinner and while trying to cheer you up, they offer all sorts of advices?
Hopefully you guys will on and off miss my "不好笑咯！”or "有po甘ge树？”or even "apa lu mau?"
I nicknamed almost everyone at my department! (except the bosses) This is my sifu, Ms. Lye Lama (to rhyme with Dalai Lama)... hehe
Espirit de corps!!! We all use the same brand of bottle! Same volume some more! It's so obvious to tell which one is the black sheep, rite?
Some of them like to append messages to my "post-it-corner"
With papa!
Yum sheng session on new year eve!
At annual dinner: old cucumber standing; seated from left: oyster, tbhan, lim ah pek
With PCC and tbhan
You, you and you! I know you are reading my blog! 10/5/2007 Sigh heavily....The company’s sending me for secondment to a consultant firm to pick up design skills about drainage/hydrology. I was supposed to report myself to the consultant firm on Oct 1st but the date has been deferred to a week later because I wanted to join the how-to-draw-shit-in-3D training. Due
to some hidden agendas, I wish to further postpone the secondment for another
one month. So I tried to negotiate with my boss:- Me:
Boss, I have a request… 8/16/2007 New officeSo, I’ve been transferred back to design and technical department in HQ.
My "Atria View" cubicle
The vicinity: The advantage of sitting near to the door=I can cabut real fast and without having to alert anyone; The disadvantage: Just imagine I'm dozing off, then my boss enters from the door...
Working in HQ is just hell and it’s something out of my comfort zone. I really need to learn liking it.
I’ve already lost touch about theories and designing for 1 solid year and now that I really have to catch up. I don’t quite like the working atmosphere here. People here are less friendly… Even overly friendly people like me also appear to be aloof here, because there is so much work! Once I reach the office, I’ll just bury myself in work. Working OT is of norm.
When I was based at site office, I had bosses and subcons to treat me to lunch. I miss longer lunch hours at SMART very much too. Not to mention, my site allowance has been revoked. This made my miserable paycheck became even more miserable.
Besides, I’m too LOUD to be placed here! (Haha! 6/11/2007 PrideEven though I'm just a K-le-fe for the project, I do feel a sense of pride (Please have patience in reading
 ) :-Taken from http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/6/3/focus/17723392&sec=focus ~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~. Tunnelling their way to the big league BY LEONG SHEN-LI From scepticism to admiration – tunnel specialist Dr Martin Herrenknecht's involvement in the SMART project has made him take his hat off to the beginners who have made it to the champions' league. WHEN tunnel specialist Dr Martin Herrenknecht first heard about a Malaysian company wanting to create about 10km of tunnel that would serve two purposes – for road traffic and flood water diversion – he was highly sceptical. Not only had he not heard of the company undertaking the project, Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel (SMART), he likened the exercise to a beginner learning to drive with an F1 car. Dr Herrenknecht should know, after all, he is the managing director and chairman of Herrenknecht AG, the southern Germany-based company which he founded. He has supplied tunnel-boring machines for many of the world's major tunnelling projects for the past 35 years and is certainly an authority on tunnelling. “The job was going to be handled by a Malaysian company which did not have a lot of experience in this field. We were not talking about the more renowned European or American companies. Of course, I was sceptical,” the 64-year-old mechanical engineer said. Dr Herrenknecht was taken aback when Malaysia Mining Corporation and Gamuda Bhd, the joint venture partners for the RM1.9bil project, wanted a tunnel boring machine that was 13m in diameter, which is certainly on the large side. “One usually starts with smaller machines. After gaining the experience, you move on to bigger machines. But for SMART, it was like a person learning to drive with an F1 car,” he said. He, however, knew that MMC-Gamuda was serious about going ahead with the job when they brought him to meet then Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. “They also understood the risks involved in the project but still pushed on. Many would have decided not to go ahead,” he said. All this took place in 2002 and recently, when met after the opening of the road tunnel portion of SMART on May 14, Dr Herrenknecht was all smiles and praises. “They have successfully completed a project that belongs to the champions' league,” he added. The SMART project is indeed among the champions of civil engineering projects, not just because of its scale but also its concept. It involved digging a tunnel of about 10km between Kampung Berembang in Ampang and Sungai Besi to the south of Kuala Lumpur. The tunnel will allow access water from the upstream in the Klang River to be diverted directly to a huge lake in Sungai Besi, thus preventing flooding in the city centre near the Masjid Jamek area. What makes it so special is that part of the tunnel is also used for road traffic, the first tunnel in the world to have a dual purpose. The idea was so unique that SMART was even featured on Discovery Channel's Extreme Engineering programme last year. As it is expected that the tunnel will only be used for flood water diversion once or twice a year, the dual-use would allow the this piece of infrastructure to be optimised. While the project concept created a lot of interest worldwide, Dr Herrenknecht was more concerned about the soil conditions which his machines had to deal with. Kuala Lumpur is built on a huge karstic limestone formation and such conditions usually cause a lot of headaches for people doing tunnelling work. Limestone formations have extensive underground caverns, streams, vertical drops and pinnacles and these often cause interruptions and delays, or other more serious problems with the tunnel boring machines. The tunnel alignment also required the machines to negotiate fairly sharp bends, making the work more challenging. Furthermore, tunnelling was carried out beneath the water table. This required the machines to be handled in such a manner that it would not cause the water table to fall. If that happened, the soil above, and any building on it, would start to subside and collapse. “Because of such conditions, I have to say that it was one of the most challenging projects I have ever dealt with. The experience gained from SMART will certainly be useful for me when dealing with karstic conditions in the future,” he said. Coming from a person who has sold over 450 tunnel boring machines for major projects (and over 1,000 smaller ones for minor jobs), and whose machines are currently digging tunnels through the Alps in Switzerland and under the Yangtze River in Shanghai, such words do carry weight.
Dr Herrenknecht said it was “excellent technical knowledge, flexibility and good management” which brought MMC-Gamuda success. One particular trait which Dr Herrenknecht singled out was the ability for the project managers and machine operators to quickly overcome problems. “Most of the time, people having long-drawn discussions before moving in to solve the problem. With SMART, the priority was to quickly get on the ground to overcome the problem,” he said. He said what MMC-Gamuda had achieved for the SMART project was nothing short of amazing. “It was a very steep learning curve but they have certainly made it. They have gained the experience to handle any kind of tunnelling projects, both in Malaysia and worldwide,” he said. MMC-Gamuda initially contracted the operation of one of its two tunnel boring machines for the project to a German company while operating the other itself so that it could learn from the foreign expert. Ironically, MMC-Gamuda's machine was digging an average of 12m per day, compared with 7m by the other machine. The best record achieved by MMC-Gamuda's machine was 29m per day. In the end, there were some problems with the foreign contractor. MMC-Gamuda took over the second tunnelling machine and completed the job themselves. These achievements would come in very useful in the future where, Dr Herrenknecht said, more tunnels would be built. “Everywhere in the world, more and more tunnels are needed, especially when cities grow bigger. They will need public transport, more roads, better water supply and sewerage systems. You will need tunnels for all of them,” he said. In Malaysia, several projects involving tunnels have been announced. The most major to date is the RM3bil Pahang-Selangor Raw Water Transfer project involving the construction of a 45km tunnel through the Main Range. Raw water, sourced from Pahang, will be channelled through the tunnel to a water treatment plant in Hulu Langat, Selangor, where it will be treated and supplied to households in the Klang Valley. While the project sounds massive, Dr Herrenknecht said the soil condition for the tunnel might be easier to handle than that for SMART because of its consistent granite formation. Fresh from the SMART project and another project in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, where they constructed a portion of the tunnel for the city's underground railway project, it is not surprising that Gamuda is interested. “Given the hugely difficult ground conditions which Gamuda overcame with success in the SMART project, I believe the water transfer tunnel will be fairly straightforward for them.” Despite playing a part in so many major tunnels in the world, Dr Herrenknecht said he remembers the uniqueness of each one of them. “When I see or go through these tunnels, I always remember the difficulties that they caused. I also remember the people whom I worked with for that particular project, and how we looked out for each other because ultimately, we all share that one goal of getting the tunnel completed. “Each tunnel has its own story,” he said. With the SMART project and many more projects to come, it may just surprise Dr Herrenknecht how many of his stories could come from Malaysia. ~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~. 4/10/2007 2 seconds of fameAnother milestone for my SMART project: The breakthrough of the North TBM, TUAH. I gained few seconds of fame on TV3 prime news telecasted on 2 April 2007. Spot me!
The following narration done by my colleague during the breakthrough really made my day: The breakthrough is just like the childbirth. Now, we are witnessing the rupture of the amniotic sac (“breaking of water”, splashes of water coming out). Okay, expel! Harder! Expel harder! Lina Teoh as one of the crew of National Geographic was doing filming there as well. I looked so short standing next to her… 4/3/2007 I'm not grumbling...Saturday, 4pm, at my office...   Nope, no consultants..... and look at my department....
People claim that 4pm is the least productive time of the day. While I’d like to assert that 4pm on Saturday is the least of the least productive time of the week. Why on earth that I need to work full day on Saturday?! 3/28/2007 U may boo2/20/2007 TBM (Tunnel Boring Machine)To be able to get involved in SMART (Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel) project has always been a dream of mine, considering it as one of the internationally acclaimed mega projects in Malaysia.
I’ve heard some much about the tunnel boring machine (TBM) and have been looking forward to get on board one day:- “It is known that the tunnel boring machine is the most advanced and cost effective method used in the construction of tunnel in Europe.” (Extracted from www.smarttunnel.com.my) But when I have the chance to really visit the TBM, I was slightly disappointed… I know it’s too much to compare the TBM with Star Trek, but I was expecting more futuristic features on the machine ler…
I have to take locomotive to reach the TBM. 想太多了…
We looked like general workers only...
He looks so cool, compared to the both of us above... 1/17/2007 A little bit of updateToo busy to write a lengthy blog entry… If you all ever wonder what I am doing all this while as an M & E (miscellaneous and economical) engineer at SMART project, well just click on the following link:- http://www.water.gov.my/project/smart/a_progress.htm Those nicely captured progress photos and carefully selected captions appeared in the Status Report from July 2006 onwards are my masterpieces. I bet you all never know I have so much sense of photography! And don’t get me wrong, being a professional photographer is just part of my scopes of work… 10/21/2006 Call me ME, Miscellaneous Engineer – Part 3Another miscellaneous scope of work of mine is to prepare shop drawing for gantries before sending them for fabrication. “What is shop drawing?” I asked this question when my senior gave me the assignment. What I manage to capture is that, shop drawing is not a construction drawing, neither an as-built drawing. It is the drawing prepared to be referred by site people and to ease the construction (I know this is a vain explanation…) in brief, what I need to do is propose the dimensions of the left and right vertical posts as well as the dimension of the horizontal girder according to the finished road level. I was instructed to go on duty at night time on 16 Oct 2006, there would be a gantry-launching. I needed to be there during the launching, so that they could put the blame on me in case if the gantry instead of looking like this:- 
It looked like either one of these:-
“@#$%^&*! Who’s the idiot preparing the shop drawing?” “Neh! Samantha loh!” As asserted by Squashy Boy, working at night is not bad after all. Instead of having scorching sun, I had romantic moonlight.
What a romantic night...Yawn.... I also had companion from those macho safety officers.
My initial intention was to give these 2 macho guys a macho shot, but end up they looked like skeleton-alive or invisible man pulak... The steps 1) Delivery of gantry to site.
2) Erecting vertical posts at left and right sides
Firework? No, it's welding work for the plate.
One side done. 3) Fixing the horizontal girder
It's done! 9/28/2006 Call me ME, Miscellaneous Engineer – Part 2Life is getting more interesting and more adventurous (ironically) by days being a ME, MISCELLANEOUS ENGINEER. One of the miscellaneous scopes of work is to go take site photos. Let me show you all the fun and games:- 
Well, in order for me to snap this photo, I scurried across the road (afraid kena knock by car/s coming down from the ramp at high speed), then I needed to do hurdling a bit (to jump over the guard rail) and finally stood at the median to snap the photo. 
Thank God, that I do not have to cross this road with so heavy traffic and snap the photo I want. 
Because I have DIGICAM, what I need to do is just to ZOOM. 
To get another job done, I first have to cross the road. Next, I have to stand within the limited space of the road curb to snap this following photo: 
The funniest (again, ironically) part, was to tahan the kind of sight thrown by those who drove passing by, “Why? The scenery here very nice to snap meh?” 
While making every endeavor to cope with my scope of work, I try to put in creativity in my daily ME job as well. See, I took this photo at such an angle that the gantry looked so grand right? Impressed or not? 
Well, this got nothing to do with my work, just found the signage very cute in terms of height… |
) based at site?
) drove all the way to the site with issue to be ironed out and did brainstorming in the middle of a road with live traffic and under scorching sun.....
) Hopefully I’ll pick up the feminineness by osmosis here in HQ....
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