HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY TWIN GIRLS

 24 APRIL 2009 Midday of Friday.

Happy 3rd anniversary...!!!

JAMBO !!! Welcome to Amboseli Safari Park..

But the big cats were afraid to come out to greet me..

RAIN IN CHENGDU

My airline started operating into this beautiful city of CHENGDU somewhere in Nov 2011. I was rostered somewhere in Feb 2012, and here are some of the pictures that I took while walking around the city under the umbrella.

 This is the entrance to the old city of Chengdu, whereby the building are well preserved and appeared very old.

I like this bonsai, look beautiful when arranged in a big pot along the road of the ancient buildings.

 Not forgotten, the bicycle shop. I found Merida and Giant shops nearby the hotel that we stayed. The price, hmm not bad, in fact I was very interested to buy the Giant XCT below but they did not accept credit card. So a big saving for me....

 The muslim restaurant, situated just on the right side of the hotel. many choices but, hmmm nothing compare to Malasian food.

The city of Chengdu, pretty clean and safe.

JEDDAH FLIGHT

19 Feb 2012. It was an honour to me for being called up to operate Abu Dhabi to Jeddah flight on the Airbus A330-200. Most of the passengers were from India, Pakistan, Egypt, Morrocon and Jordan. Mostly already in Ihram, going straight to the holy city of Mecca for the Umrah. Well, rather than doing nothing on my standby day in Abu Dhabi, I might as well do this flight.

As some passengers were going straight for the Umrah in Mecca, they must say out the "Niat" at the correct point, called the MIQAT. Up in the air, the plane will not be flying exactly over the Miqat point but will be passing abeam the designated Miqat point as lay out in the chart. According to the Saudi aviation law, all carriers flying into Jeddah must make announcements ,30 minutes and 5 minute before crossing the abeam Miqat point so that the passengers will not miss it.

The abeam Miqat points are indicated on the aerial chart for Jeddah airport and the flight crew are to monitor the time passing over that points, according to the route followed and make the compulsory announcements.

My flight was following the G782 airways so the nearest Miqat is THAT ERG. The point of crossing is indicated by ABM THAT ERG, on the 053 radial from JDW VOR, 67 NM.

What I did, stored the ABM THAT ERG point on the Flight Management Computer using the place/bearing/distance data. In this case, JDW/053/67

Then I inserted the point that I nominate MIQAT into the flight plan and then I have the point ABM MIQAT shown on the screen, with the time over that point. So Miqat crossing announcement based on that timing.

I did some calculation as well to point the exact position of KAABA, as shown on the display unit below.

Aerial view of Jeddah City, from 2000 feet above.

Final to land at Jeddah International Airport.

PUTRAJAYA INTERPARK FUN RIDE

26 Feb 12, flew back to KUL just to join this ride, very interesting awesome ride indeed.

This is the starting point, 18 of us from Fasa 1L Bandar Tasik kesuma Bicycle Club pushed off as early as 0630 ,not to miss the fun.

All gear up for the ride.

Our team jersey caught the attention of Fed Territory Mister and Chairman of Putrajaya.

Half way through the 35km ride, tired? naahh

My next toy... Coming soon.

CUTI CUTI SOFIA, BULGARIA

Welcome to Sofia, Bulgaria. This time, on vacation, after being tired of watching the city from above . Almost every time flying to Europe, flying over this place, the capital of Bulgaria, former Russian, located about slightly over an hour flight from Istanbul. Me and wife with 2 daughters set course from Abu Dhabi on 11 Jan early morning, via Istanbul using Turkish Airline. Smooth journey, no problem on connecting flight at Istanbul, visa on arrival granted at Sofia. Bulgaria joined EU since 1997 so we Malaysian can stay there for 90 days.

Nice sun shine weather on arrival day, temperature around 3 deg C, rented a car at the airport but without GPS as I wanted. Navigating around the city is a big problem because all the signboards and the road signs written in their language, look like Russian to me.

Got lost for about 2 hours trying to navigate to our booked apartment, called the reception, asked my present location for him to guide us and tell me how to pronounce those words...

So finally we drove to a prominent building and he came to pick us up from there..

We rented this Volkswagen Polo for 3 days, awesome new car.

But, left hand drive with manual transmission !! Oh my.. double trouble. but after a few hours, got a hand on it.

Rented apartment, view from behind, 180 Euro for 3 nights.. consider cheap.

Big and clean living room, my kids love to run around.

Wifey and the youngest, in front of the apartment.

Drove around the city and also the sub urban.. afraid to go far away with the road condition like this... slippery, skidded few times.

Nice view.

They love playing with the snow, surprisingly my small kids can stand the cold weather.

At the lobby of the apartment.

Last pose from my Arianna, will come back some days when she grow big enough for the ski...