A bridge connecting two Tanjungs

Tanjung is a Malay word that means the piece of coastal land that juts to the sea or any body of water. A cape. There are a number of well-known tanjungs or capes in Malaysia. Tanjung Rhu in Langkawi and Cape Rachado in Port Dickson are two that come to mind.

The title of today's post refers to two tanjungs in Johor that are not that well-known. This time last week, I had the opportunity to visit a project site where a new bridge is being built. The bridge (and its associated highway) is being constructed to connect the Port of Tanjung Pelepas on the east to the Tanjung Bin Petrochemical Hub on the west. The crossing spans Sungai Pulai, one of the significant rivers in the state. The river has its beginning at the foot of the similarly named Gunung Pulai and flows southward to the Johor Straits. The district of Johor Bahru is on the eastern bank while Pontian district is on the west. By the way, pulai is the name of a tree species and it has lent its name to many places throughout the country. But I digress.

The visit was made possible because the Chief Resident Engineer of the project is a friend. Furthermore, a joint-venture partner of the construction firm is a former employer. Since retiring from active project-related work plus further travel restrictions under MCO, I had gotten slightly bored being cooped up at home. When my CRE friend arranged for an unofficial tour of his worksite following the relaxation of inter-district travel, I jumped at the chance. It was a long-awaited opportunity to don construction safety gear, re-live the experience of spending a few hours under the hot sun and learn something new about bridge-building technology. Retirement does not mean a stop to the learning process.

The Sungai Pulai Bridge and its approach roads on either side have a total length of 7.5 kilometres. There are actually three bridges being built; the main bridge spanning Sg Pulai itself and two smaller bridges spanning Sg Boh and its tributary. Apart from linking two large developments on either side, the bridge would be open to the public and hence significantly cut the traveling time from Johor Bahru to the southern region of Pontian district. The bridge would carry a two-lane dual carriageway road that, as at the point of writing, would be toll-free. To allow for navigation, the central river channel has a clearance of 100 metres wide and 25 metres high.

At the time of our visit last week, the central span box girders of the main bridge were in progress of being cast. It would take another month or two before the central piers would be connected. Overall, I would expect the bridge to be fully open in under two-years time. Hopefully no further disruptions due to the covid-19 pandemic.

I am hoping to make another visit to the project towards the final stages of construction. Not to waste any opportunity to keep abreast of construction technology, especially with a project so close to home.

Thank you to CRE Ir. Shahrudin Muhayat and his team for a day well-spent.

Overall plan view of project displayed on a large signboard

View of central piers while crossing river by boat

Looking southwards from top of central pier. PTP quay cranes on the left

CRE on left hosting his two retired engineer friends

Changing my photo-sharing platform

In the early years of the new millennium when the world-wide-web was still a teenager, digital photography was becoming more affordable to the general public. In 2003 I bought my first digital camera, a Nikon Coolpix that had a 3.2-megapixel resolution, which was considered a sufficiently high specs at the time. It was a simple point-n-shoot compact and cost upwards of RM1k, a princely sum which had taken me a few months to save up. The dSLR was still out of my range.

With the ease and popularity of taking digital pictures, photo-sharing websites came into existence on the internet. The most popular platform at that time was Flickr. Many photos shared on Flickr were taken by serious photographers who were possibly professionals too. The high standard of digital pics somewhat scared me a little so I opted to upload my photos on a different site called Photobucket.

I am not sure how many photos I saved to Photobucket. I can't remember my login password and I'm not sure if the photos are still there. A bit of online checking reveals that Photobucket still exists but of course, at a much smaller scale than what it used to be. They have not deleted any old photographs so there is a possibility that I may be able to view what I had uploaded. I just need to explore how to do so.

With the advent of picture-taking capability on smartphones, the convenience of sharing the photos directly from the phone meant the emergence of new photo-sharing apps catered principally for the mobile market. In September 2015, I signed up on EyeEm, which I blogged about here -> Social Networking for Photographers. I uploaded quite a number of photos to that platform, mostly good quality shots taken on my dSLR. After a few years with EyeEm, my interest waned and I decided to deregister. I'm not sure what happened to the photos that I had shared. Are they deleted or does EyeEm have rights to use them? Who knows, it is probably in the terms and conditions (small print) which most of us do not read and simply tick 'accept' when we signed up.

Apart from photo-sharing sites, I also created a photo-blog using Blogger. It was called Oldstock's Images and a link was available on a sidebar on this blog. The objective was to display some of my photos which I think are worth sharing. Just pictures and a short caption. Brief or no write-up.

I have decided to shut down that blog too. I have not updated it since March 2017 and it hardly has any traffic. A total of 46 pics in 20 posts were on that blog with the first photos uploaded in May 2010. The last pic was a sunset shot taken at Lumut, Perak in March 2017. Perhaps I'll share them again on a different platform in future, who knows.

I am now on Instagram... yes, I know, only now, you ask? Have been on IG since December of 2020, so still very much a newbie. Although initially set up as a photo-sharing app, I note that many people use Instagram for marketing and commercial purposes. I do not have such intentions, so the number of followers or activity ranking is not important to me. What I do appreciate is the huge number of quality photographs on varying subject matter that can be viewed.

How long will I last as an Instagram user? We shall see...

Lumut sunset captured on Sony Xperia mobile phone

Another departure to the life hereafter

It has been a few weeks of sad news. My nephew passed away about two weeks ago (see previous post). Yesterday 3rd March 2021, I was notified in our K79 alumni WhatsApp group that one of our brothers has departed.

Bhadarul Baharain Sulaiman was good friend from our MCE 1979 batch at MRSM Kuantan. When we parted ways after the final exams in 1979, I lost touch with many of my fellow batchmates. Bhad and I re-connected via social media and we met up again for the first time since our student days at a reunion in 2010. Since then, we would meet again occasionally, normally at the wedding receptions of the children of our large MRSM Kuantan alumni family. Once in a while, Bhad would have some business in Johor Bahru and he would always let us know that he is in town. I and a few other K79 friends would then join him for lunch or dinner. Such meet-ups would almost always end up as hour-long sessions of chat and banter. Full of fun, light-hearted ribbing and humour.

The last time I met Bhad in person was in December 2019 at the wedding reception of the son of our MRSM Kuantan senior in Petaling Jaya. I was in Shah Alam on another matter and had contacted my fellow K79 friend Syed Idrus to ask if he was going to the wedding alone or with his wife. If he was going alone, I'd like to hitch a ride. Syed wasn't sure at first but he later called back saying that we can go together in his car. As it turned out, on the way to the Dewan Sivik MBPJ, Syed picked up two other K79 friends, Bhad Sulaiman and Harun Aminulrashid. Of course, there was not a silent moment in the car as four high-school friends shared jokes and stories.

The Covid-19 pandemic which began in February of last year meant that we never had the chance to meet again. Some friends in Klang Valley did however manage to arrange makan2 sessions with him during the few times when the MCO restrictions were relaxed.

Bhad Sulaiman was a very kind-hearted and generous man. Between the time I reconnected with him in 2010 until yesterday, the Almighty granted me about ten years of renewed friendship. It was a privilege. I miss him already. The K79 Departed List now has a new name added to it. Thirteen of our brothers and sisters have left ahead of us.

Innalillahi wainna ilaihi roji'un. Farewell, my brother. May Allah swt place your soul among the soliheen.

Pic taken in Sept 2010 at a K79 reunion. Bhad is standing 2nd from left. I'm next to him in the middle

Pic taken in Dec 2019. L to R : Oldstock (K79), Bhad (K79), Ahmad Azlan (K78 bapa pengantin), Dzul Fadzilah (K80), Syed Idrus (K79), Harun (K79)

Life is short. Make full use of it as best you can...

It was early morning Friday last week 19 February when the call came in on my wife's mobile. I was outside in our small garden, just about to connect the hose to water my plants. From the opening greetings that I overheard my wife say on her phone, I knew that it was her younger brother on the other end.

The initial greetings then changed to serious tones and my wife started crying. My brother-in-law had called to inform us that one of our nephews has been invited by the Almighty. I could guess which nephew he meant. I had seen a Facebook post from this nephew's wife the day before about him being warded at the ICU in a hospital in Muar.

Ahmad Rifaiee Zaid was the eldest son of one of the elder brothers on my better half's side. His father, Hj Zaid Md Amin, had passed away two years earlier. At that time, we had the opportunity to visit the father when he was in a hospital in Kluang. This time, the Covid-19 restrictions did not allow us to visit the son before he left us.

After my wife had calmed down a bit, she obtained some information with regards to the burial process. The deceased was still at Muar hospital where the cleansing and shrouding process would be carried out before sending to his home in Tangkak. My wife then made a few phone calls to her other siblings to ensure that all close relatives are informed. We then made preparations to travel to Tangkak, roughly a two-hour drive away. But before we could start our journey, a police permit is required for inter-district travel.

Modern-day technology has allowed the death certificate to be quickly shared via whatsapp. I printed a copy of the certificate and together with copies of our identity cards, applied for the travel permit at our local police station. After answering a few basic questions, the approval was stamped on our application form. It was almost 11am when we entered the N-S highway and headed north. My wife was told that the burial would be held after Jumu'ah prayers. I was fairly confident we would reach Tangkak in time.

We exited the highway at the Bukit Gambir interchange. There was a police roadblock just after the toll plaza. The police officer on duty had a look at our travel permit and let us pass without question. When we arrived at our nephew's home, the deceased was already there and I was just in time to join the solat jenazah. Understandably, the mood was sad and sombre. There were tears and embraces even though the latter is highly discouraged under the SOP social-distancing guidelines. How can I not hug my other nephews (siblings of the deceased) who have just lost their eldest brother? The departure of Ahmad Rifaiee was quite unexpected although he had a history of hospital treatments. His previous admissions were due to gastrointestinal complications but he had always recovered. He had always been in cheerful mood and made light of his illness.

I got along very well with Ahmad Rifaiee. He had a joyful demeanour and a healthy dose of humour. He was a foodie like I am. We would regularly exchange information on where the best eating spots are. I miss him already.

The official COD mentioned on the certificate is Acute Coronary Syndrome. I assume that his heart did not obtain the required amount of blood due to internal bleeding caused by the gastrointestinal disorders.

Ahmad Rifaiee Zaid was 41-years old. He leaves behind a wife and five children. His eldest, Nurul Syuhada is presently taking the long-delayed SPM 2020 examinations. I could not imagine how the stress and sadness are affecting her right now.

Innalilahi wainna ilaihi roji'un. May Allah swt bless your soul and place you among the soliheen.

Our nephew on the right. Pic taken last year when he treated us to mee bandung at a local stall in Tangkak

On time delivery

There is no doubt that the Movement Control Order (MCO) enforced by the government to control the spread of the coronavirus is causing hardship to many people. It has been extensively argued that such a measure is necessary, otherwise more deaths due to covid-19 would occur and the increasing numbers of infected cases place a huge strain on healthcare facilities.

I do not doubt that our medical frontliners are most affected by the rising number of cases in this so-called 3rd wave. However, I do have reservations about the effectiveness of the MCO in its various forms (RMCO, EMCO etc). My main grouse is the lack of consistency in issuing the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) that the public and businesses have to adhere to. I would have thought that after a year of tackling the pandemic, the government authorities would have had some expertise in deciding what can or cannot be done.

I have previously written about how the pandemic is affecting my son who runs a food stall operation (Hard times during the Covid-19 pandemic). When MCO 2.0 was enforced a few weeks ago, dine-in at restaurants and food outlets were not permitted. All restaurants and food stalls had to rely on takeaway and delivery sales only. This meant that sales income reduced drastically. The dine-in only restriction has since been lifted a few days ago, but according to my son, the number of walk-in customers is still very low.

Apart from dine-in customers, my son's business is also registered on Foodpanda. In addition to this online delivery platform, he also takes phone orders for COD delivery within selected areas of Johor Bahru using ad-hoc runners. When his normal ad-hoc guy could not make it for whatever reason, I become the replacement delivery guy. To date, I have made four (4) deliveries. Three deliveries were within 10km from the outlet at Dataran Larkin while one was to a customer who lived outside the 10km limit. Technically speaking, this was against SOP rules. In fact, I just found out that the practice of cash-on-delivery (COD) for sending food by individuals (as opposed to the registered riders of Foodpanda, Grab Food etc) require a police permit. Failure to have one means the risk of being compounded to the value of RM1000.

My son's food stall business is really a very small enterprise. The money he makes barely covers his costs. In these very tough times, I have to help him out in any way that I can. Even to the extent of being an unregistered delivery guy and doing so at some risk. I sincerely hope MCO 2.0 would not be extended. There has to be a way in which the government can balance the need for economic activity against the risk of further disease outbreak.

While I'm on the subject, the photo below is the MCO Menu of Warong Noodle. Prices shown are not inclusive of delivery charges, which are very reasonable for customers located within a 10km radius of Dataran Larkin. Only RM5 per delivery, irrespective of the quantity of purchase, subject to the carrying capacity of the dispatcher. Thanks :-)

Menu for self pick-up. Delivery available for selected areas at nominal charge