Talking about budget airline

•July 10, 2009 • 2 Comments

My recent two trips around Australia has been good. Thanks to budget airlines that made my trip possible. People tend to be sceptical about budget airlines and always tend to compare with commercial airline.

When the comparison failed, phrases like, “…this is my first and last trip…”, “…I’ll never fly with XXX airline anymore…” are often heard.

To me, as long it can take me from “A” to “B”, I’m fine with it. For poor students like us, that’s the only practical way that we can travel. I’m sure most students can agree with me on this statement :P .

How can one even start the comparison? You get what you pay for.

Today, I want to talk about Tiger Airway. Tiger Airway is a Singapore based budget airline that have a base in Melbourne.

So far, my flights with Tiger Airways has been good so far. The longest delay I had was 30 minutes, which is not too bad. What I found amusing was how “budget” Tiger Airways can be. Let the pictures do the talking.

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That’s the toilet at the Baggage Collection area. To me, it looks like a cargo container being modified to a toilet. But the toilet is clean. No worries.

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Yes. This is where you collect your baggage. And yes, that’s the normal road. They just build a roof over the “road” and put the baggage carousel. That’s what I called “budget”.

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However, I thought the idea is cool. Behind the fence, you can actually see the staff putting your luggage on the carousel. At least you know whether they throw your luggage or handle it with care :D

Anyway, I will still fly with Tiger if their fare is cheap. At times their fare can be 50-60% cheaper than the remaining budget airlines flying the same destination at the same time. To me, when flying budget airlines, make your expectation as LOW as possible.  In that way, you will somehow feel that your flight can be a pleasant one. :)

Shorter Post

•June 30, 2009 • Leave a Comment

I know it has been ages since I last blogged. Apart from the short weekend escape to Adelaide where you can read it in Flora’s blog HERE and HERE, I’m pretty occupied with final exam preparation (I’m not setting the exam but sitting for the exam), and rushing my PhD conversion/confirmation report.

Thank God, everything’s over; I finished my exam where I dated Lyapunov for almost a week. First draft of the conversion/confirmation report is also done. Waiting for comments from my supervisor.

And yes….off to Gold Coast tomorrow for a week (1 July – 8 July) to get meself afresh before resuming my work. Cheers

Another reason why Air Asia rocks (for me)

•May 26, 2009 • Leave a Comment

We all know that Formula 1 merchandise/apparels are expensive in general. For a F1 fan like me, the excitement to get a hand on the team’s T-Shirt is just indescribable. I do have some collections of Minardi, BMW and Jaguar. Some of those shirts, I won from contest and some that I bought, I do have to think it through really a lot before putting hands down to get hold of these shirts, cause it’s just too pricey.

When Air Asia announced its partnership with Williams F1 team, I’m so excited, because I know one day, there would be Williams-AirAsia merchandise on sale. And not only that, it would be at a reasonable price. And I was right :)

Welcome to Red Megastore Air Asia. (Particularly, AT&T Williams F1 Merchandise)

NOTE: I’m not advertising for Air Asia.

I just want to tell the F1 fans (particularly Williams die-hard fan sinces Mansell, Hill, Villeneuve time), that you can own this Williams F1 shirt for a very reasonable price. Of course, I had got myself the T-Shirt, and the cap and recently the Polo T, which I bought straight away the moment it was out :P

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For the price of RM39-49++ (++ means delivery), I thought these apparels are cheap compared to the one I saw here in Melbourne, Australia. The F1 shirts sold here ranges from AUD 50-90. I just can’t buy it. It’s just way beyond my budget. But with AirAsia, it’s possible now. I should add to their slogan….”Now everybody can own a piece of F1 shirt” :P

So F1 fans….for the pride of yourself, log on to redmegastore now!

Good deal home

•May 22, 2009 • 1 Comment

Managed to get a very good deal to go home. That would be my first time home after 27 months.

Yes, I’m talking about Air Asia recent MYR 0.00 fare. Praise God, that we managed to secure that fare home for Chinese New Year till after Cap Goh Meh.

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So all in all, for the return tickets for both of us cost us AUD 300.00 (approx. MYR 810.00).

My mates!

•May 12, 2009 • 1 Comment

I’m working on developing a simplified mathematical model to describe the behaviour of a river system.  With the model, controller can be designed to adjust the appropriate release of water to the designated user so that water loss can be minimised. That’s the basic idea.

Working with hydraulic system means I get to know some ‘mates’ in this area.

Introducing, Barré de Saint Venant.

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The Saint Venant equations best describe the one-dimensional hydraulic flow under certain assumptions.

Next, I present to you, Claude-Louis Navier and George Gabriel Stoke.

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C L Navier

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G G Stoke

The Navier-Stoke equations, which can describe the three-dimensional hydraulic flow under certain assumptions is credited to them.

These are my mates that I will be working with :P

I see snow…

•May 4, 2009 • 1 Comment

I was just telling Flora that I hope to see snow as I have never seen one before. I told her that this year Melbourne could have snow in winter considering Victoria had had the hottest summer in its history, the coldest winter in its history may just seem realistic.

And, snow did come to Victoria pretty early this year (now is mid-autumn). Mount Buller, one of the place where Victorians go to enjoy winter sports had snow. In addition, one of the cell group member suggested that we go there for a day trip and I quickly answered yes.

Mount Buller management gave special rate to enjoy winter activities. When I said special rate, it’s really special. Everything inclusive unlimited ski lift and equipments rental for the whole day cost us less than AUD 50 (~RM 135) per person. Initially, our (Flora and I) plan is just to see snow. Since our friend came with the purpose of skiing and snow boarding, we decided, why not. Honestly, we especially me are not prepared for ski at all. I’ve never seen snow needless to say to ski!!! But I did it anyway. Thanks to Jason for short tutorial.

First lesson in skiing is normally to learn how to stop. Well, I sort of did learn to stop quite well…..by falling. I think I fell at least 6 times. Thank God the snow is soft and it didn’t hurt that much as you fall. Being a beginner, I think I’m pretty optimistic to take the ski lift all the way to the top of the hill and tried to ski down. As soon as I disembark from the lift, I skied and fall…..HAHA. To cut the whole story short, at the end of the day, I ski only at gentle slope and walked down hill at steep slope, cause I can’t even stand still at steep slope.

It was an experience. And here’s the pictures…

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Ski lift.

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Posing

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Ready..set..go...not

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This is at the bottom of the hill. Took me almost 2 hours to get fall down

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The weather is superb.

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The village nearby the skiing area I

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The village nearby the skiing area II

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Skiing area at the back of me….

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Snow….

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Group photo: From left, me, Flora, Wen Li and Jason

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Consultant

•April 22, 2009 • Leave a Comment

We encounter lots of “consultants” in our daily lives.

For examples, Business Consultant, Engineering Consultant, Medical Consultant, Academic Consultant etc.

Had a chat with someone recently and found out that the word “consultant” is pretty amusing in some sense.

Here’s how he defined CONSULTANT……. They CON and inSULT you blaTANTly……

How convenient….. :P

Immaturity?

•March 25, 2009 • Leave a Comment

I came across a blog about someone who had just obtained the STPM’s (equivalent to A-Level) result and deciding on which course to pursue for undergraduate.

This blogger blogged about all sorts of “interesting” courses name such as…

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This blogger was giving his two cents in regards to the name of the courses above. For him who is not in the academic line, I totally understand his “lamentation” as stated in the blog.

What strikes me the most was the comments commented to this post. Here are the comments… (PARDON THE LANGUAGE)

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For these (I presumed) students (i.e. Chindiana & pilocarpine), Bachelor of Technology with Education (Home Skills) is about milking goat and making cheese. Two thoughts came to my mind upon reading that comments. (1) They are making fun of such a noble job which is totally rude and (2) They are really immature.

Thanks to the “Anonymous” who tried to clarify things.

But then came Chicken saying studying that course for 4 years is a waste of time and he got an “A” in Home Skills subject. What Chicken may forget is that his/hers teacher that taught him/her Home Skills spent that 4 years studying that course so that he/she can get “A” in the subjects. Does getting “A” in Home Skills mean that you are already an expert? Grow up! Learning is a process that never ends. It only ends when you stop learning.

It’s sad to see these thoughts from these younger generations. And this is my piece of lamentation….

NOTE: I applaud this blogger for considering doing Bachelor of Education for we do need good teachers to teach the young Malaysians.

White board mania

•March 10, 2009 • 3 Comments

Never knew that scribbling equations and ideas on white board can be that fun and addictive. Now I understand why every researchers have a white board in their room.

Here’s a picture of my scribble on the white board (or wall to be exact) in my office, of which the work I’m working on.

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Now I am tempted to get myself a white board so that I can do my scribbling at home……

Shorter Post

•March 3, 2009 • Leave a Comment

Flora gave me a duck face -_- for naming the title “Short Post”. Hence, I called it “Shorter Post” :P

Extremely stressed and just to post something.