The trip up North ... Sg. Petani & Ipoh

Boss: Yo, you're going Sg. Petani this Thursday, OK?
Me: Sure, no problem

A few hours later,
Boss: OK, slave, since its not a problem, you're going tomorrow
Me: (Act cool) Sure, no problem...... (gulp)

And so, on a cool Wednesday morning, my tech and I were diving up North. After picking him up at his house at eight in the morning, we stopped by for some petrol. Luckily, we did that because my Boss called up and he needed some tracing tool for the other technician. Since I had one, I notified the remaining tech to come look for us. If we did not linger about at the petrol station, we would have to make a U-turn at the highway which means loss of time and money.

Anyway, by the time we left, we were an hour late which is not a good sign. The reason is, we're going to Sg. Petani (just slightly after Penang) to install a PABX system and we need as much time as possible since this is going to be a day trip. Its a last minute thing since the PABX was ordered from the Main Contractor and not the customer and they are handing the site over to them on the 17th of April. By the time we reached the place, it was just slightly after two in the afternoon.

Did I mention that the Sun up here in the North is hot?

Yes, its hot! Its the kind of hot where the Sun just shines and shines and there is no wind. And not only that, the place is overrun with a lot of labourers trying to complete their job. And the same scene was repeated inside the office.

And this is the worst part:

There is no electricity in the office!

Yeah, there is no electricity in the office. This means, no fans, no air-cons, no nothing. Luckily, since the whole place is literally filled with glass, lighting was not a problem. And thank goodness, the wall which was meant to be used to mount the PABX was fibreboard and not concrete so we do not have to worry about using a power drill. After one and a half hours in the sauna, we managed to mount the PABX, re-wire all the wrong cabling and mount other equipment (as a favour) left by other vendors.

Now, this is not the worst part. The worst part, I realised, was, in the heat.

As we were all inside the building, everyone practically sweated buckets. It was fine until the occasional wind then blew into the place. Yep, you guessed it, I caught a cold since my whole body was sweating. Now I realised why my Geography teacher said that in the Desert, the hotter it went, the more layers of clothes the Nomads wore because they could catch a cold. It did not make sense at thattime, but it did now.

After we said our farewell, it was time to go South to Ipoh. By my calculations, we would be there by about six in the evening, were everyone has left. But it was not a problem for us since we called ahead and made sure someone was there to open the door for us.

And this place does have electricity! The reason we were there was because of the fact that our customer who wished to occupy this place found out that there is no proper Telekoms junction box and so, they would not be able to get their telephone lines in time. The Telekoms people told them that in order for them to get the junction box properly set up, it would take at least three months. Not a good idea since this is a one month project.

This is where we came in, to rescue the situation. Our job is to mount a temporary junction box for all parties concerned. Just a ten minute job and everyone is happy.

By the time we left for KL, my nose was already running, and blocking the nostrils. Not only that, I felt as if my throat was constricting. So, I have the cold or flu or whatever it is. Still, I managed to get us back in one piece but I felt like as if I had been driving for weeks. And not only that, when I got home, Kaelynn had a fever. Haih.

When we arrived, the concrete was being poured from a crane
And with the low roofing, you can bet that its very hot inside

I have never seen this before but its used to "smoothen" the concrete
But its no different from those floor polishers I used to work with

Here we go. Installing the PABX system
While we sweated and worked hard....

So did the rest who were outside

After one and a half hours, its done!

While on our way to Ipoh, I had to take this photo.
It looked like an Atomic Bomb has gone off. I could
not stop the van as we're short of time

Here in Ipoh, my tech was fixing the temporary junction box

We had also told the contractor not to terminate the cables as
we will go it ourselves. They usually connect using the wrong
cable pairs and this waste our time reconnecting them again

Did you see the cows walking past? By the time I
set the tripod up, they were gone. Dammit

OK, so I missed the cows and I
wanted to take more photos

I don't know why I took these shots but I think it has something
to do with the fact that I did not go to the toilet earlier on since
we were rushing all the way to Ipoh