they are in the final

germany vs turkey Result: (3 - 2)
bastian schweinsteiger 25th
miroslav klose 79th
philipp lahm 90th

germany is in the final! wowowoooooooo.... although they were said to put up a lame show on the match against turkey, i am definitive they will win euro 2008. i'm still a fan of miroslav klose. he's great and cute. unfortunately he's already taken. here's a picture of this wife and son, isn't the boy a cutie pie.
the kloses have a twin sons but the other son is nowhere in sight.

melanau wedding

a melanau marriage requires some traditional rites that are rather interesting. i will only tell what happened on the bride's side. the man's relatives will come to the house his love to ask for the hand of the lady's hand formally. the man's side will bring gifts of genuine gold worth rm50. it can be any form be it bracellet, necklace, ring or even nugget. then the gift will be handed over to be agreed among invited elders that it is acceptable. the gold will be wrapped in a pink cloth and put on an ancient china like plate. the plate is inherited through the female members of the family. in the picture below you can see the gold wrapped on the plate, bronze treasure (i think it's called tepak sirih in malay) and a long knife which has gold rings attached at the handle.
the more the number of the rings, the higher rank the owner has. in this case, there are nine rings which indicate middle class rank. i was told the highest rank is 12 which is where melanau families like abangs and dayangs is. for instance, the current tyt of sarawak Tun Datuk Patinggi Abang Haji Muhammad Salahuddin.

later on, further negotiation will take on until the ceremony ends

tension at workplace

i was rather angry with one of my colleague. she likes to ask questions and then double check my answers for accuracy. why didn't she check first before asking?? i looked bad when my answers were wrong. i tried to avoid from answering her but she looked at my direction so i was obliged to talk to her. i really hate that. i think the next time, i would not give her an answer. i would check first before answering her. yeah, maybe it's my mistake for trying to be clever when i am not. i must double check before answering. hhhmmppphhhhhhhh......

kuching... and others.

i think i was the last person to realize that the airport in kuching has changed into a sparkly huge building very similar to klia. it's like a mini klia.



i booked a ticket on the 2.45pm flight to kl from kuching. i reached kuching from sibu at 12pm on airasia. it was a huge surprise that an airasia flight actually arrived 30 minutes before actual time. this fact was announced proudly by the stewardess after we touched down. what's the big deal? it cannot hide the fact that the airline 'stole' money from passengers who were 'made' to miss their flights.
upon getting into the airport, i rushed to the standby ticket counter hoping to catch an earlier flight to kl. however it was not meant to be as there was a long waiting list and i was like, the 11th person. so i checked in early and sat myself somewhere neat coffee bean. good thing i have my laptop with me. got into the coffeebean network to access the web.
so i managed to check on my virtual pup on facebook. she's doing good and getting well trained. :)

a trip to kanowit

my sis went to kanowit to register her marriage with the church. we accompanied her to the bishop's house located not far from the town. we arrived at a small building. it was reminiscent to the one i remembered in limbang where i used to lived. the surrounding looked dim and sombre. one couldn't help but talking softly when inside.


saw this huge poster of saints, one for each 365 days in a year. it is an interesting collection of famous saints in the cathoic church.


a picture of the mighty rejang river.

mumblings

he's going. what am i going to do? something need to be done.

tips on saving petrol

got this email. good information. wouldn't do any harm if heeded.



I don't know what you guys are paying for petrol....
But here in Durban We are also paying higher, up to R7.35 per litre.
But my line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money's worth for every litre.

Here at the Marian Hill Pipeline where I work in Durban, we deliver about 4 million litres in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline.
One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and petrol, LRP and Unleaded.
We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 litres.

Only buy or fill up your car or bike in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold.
Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground.
The colder the ground the more dense the fuel, when it gets warmer petrol expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening....your litre is not exactly a litre. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the petrol, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role.
A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business.
But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.

When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode.
If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high.
In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapours that are created while you are pumping.
All hoses at the pump have a vapour return.
If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapour.
Those vapours are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less worth for your money.

One of the most important tips is to fill up when your tank is HALF FULL.
The reason for this is, the more fuel you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space.
petrol evaporates faster than you can imagine.
Petroleum storage tanks have an internal floating roof.
This roof serves as zero clearance between the petrol and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation.
Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every litre is actually the exact amount.

Another reminder, if there is a fuel truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy, DO NOT fill up--most likely the petrol/diesel is being stirred up as the fuel is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.

Hope this will help you get the most value for your money.

DO SHARE THESE TIPS WITH OTHERS!

Steve Caines