A pathetic attempt at blogging: December 2004

Satellite Picture of Aceh - b4 and after

In these photos released Thursday, Dec 30, 2004 by DigitalGlobe, the shoreline of Banda Aceh in Indonesia, is shown on June 23, above and Dec 28, 2004 below, after the tsunami attack.
(AP Photo/DigitalGlobe)

You can download more satellite pics of the b4 and after tsunamis from DigitalGlobe.

Bandwidth exceeded

Due to the higher then normal visitors who dropped by here for images of tsunami in Penang, my photobucket account has exceeded 1500 Megabytes of bandwidth early this morning. All the images which were directly linked to photobucket were disabled for 6 hours. I set up another account and shifted only the tsunami pics. Other non tsunami related pics will only be linked up in the next few weeks.

Message From Bangladesh

I received the following email from of my company's business partners in Bangladesh...
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Dear Sir

During 2004 every moment every corner of the world there is only one discussion that is what would be happened on 2005. The more we are approaching the more scarring feelings we are having from business circle up to the politician. For only one reason that is we are entering the new era that is a globalization.

Keeping the havoc of the impact of globalization in mind, sudden catastrophe by the nature at the end of the year i.e. earthquake the biggest disaster of this century. On the eve of the new year this is the biggest blow that the people of this region have witnessed. Let us pray for the departed soul.

Yet to be believed in old saying that fortune will follow from the sudden demise of soul. Let's hope 2005 will bring for all of us the prosperity and happiness.

May Allah be with all of us.

Best rgds,
Anwar
======================

Death toll near 120,000

The death toll surpassed 119,000 five minutes ago. More than 80,000 are from Indonesia. Learn about tsunami here.

The power of blogging. Read how local bloggers in Malaysia provide quick information on Sunday's catastrophe. Click here for the article from The Star.

Customer missing?

This morning I went to see my company's legal representative to inquire on some trademark issues. When I reached her office, one of the Sales Manager was already in a middle of a nervy discussion with her. I could make up bits and pieces of what they were conversing about.

1> Probably a few of the Sales Manager's customers who had visited the company last week is missing.
2> The customers told him they were going island hopping in Thailand... high possibility in Phuket.
3> One of the customer's father sent an email to him asking if he has heard from his son.

The Sales manager was advised to check with the immigration department and also the airlines by the legal rep to see if his customers names have been registered in their records to know their wherabouts.

I didn't ask the Sales Manager what the discussion was about but he seemed worried and immediately dashed off to make several calls.

Tsunami...Oh Tsunami

For readers who can't get enough of Sunday's tsunamis, this is the blog with images and video clips you wouldn't wanna miss.

I was just wondering... they have names for typhoons and hurricanes. Do they have names for tsunamis?

Road dividers in Tanjung Tokong Road were swept away.

It left a mess.

Video Clip of Tsunami in Penang

Download clip. Password is 123.

The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog

The SEA-EAT blog for short, The South East Asian Earthquake and Tsunami Blog provides news and information about resources, aid, donations and volunteer efforts.

Please pass this url around. http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com/

Tsunami in Penang - Trail of Destruction

The following pics were sent to me by a friend.

IN THE BEGINNING: The waves starting to crest due to the shallow waters. Pix by NST Online reader JB who was at the scene.

FIRST WAVE: The waves crashing onto the retaining wall of the E&O hotel in Penang. Pix by NST Online reader JB

SIGNS OF DANGER: Breaking waves churning up the silt along the shoreline.Pix by NST Online reader JB

RELENTLESS: Waves pounding the shores. Pix by NST Online reader JB

STRUGGLING TO STAY AFLOAT: Two fishing boats caught in the torrent of waves. Pix by NST Online reader JB

GOD HELP THEM: Two boats, one already swallowed by the waves. The other is trying to stay afloat. Pix by NST Online reader JB.

Waves starting to flood the Gurney Drive area. Pix by NST Online reader JB

OVER NOW: The shoreline after being hit by the waves resulting from the quake in Sumatra. Pix by NST Online reader JB

GONE: Water receding from the Gurney Drive shoreline. Pix by NST Online reader JB

The Day After Tomorrow

2 days have passed since the earthquake in Northern Sumatra. I have still been receiving loads of pictures of the tsunami in Penang, particularly the ones in Gurney Drive as well as pics showing families devastated by the biggest natural disaster in Malaysia. I will not post pics from the latter as a gesture of respect for the victims. Source: Unknown.

They have no idea how strong the waves.

A Proton Wira covered in mud from the sea.

Another Wira suffered the same fate.

A Proton Iswara after a mud bath.

Cars were shifted by the strong waves which hit Gurney Drive, Penang.

From another angle.

Tsunami left the Gurney Drive roundabout with mud and water.

The trail of a natural disaster.

They couldn't believe it.

More Pics of Tsunami in Gurney Drive, Penang

Interesting pics showing the waves came from the sea and hit right onto Gurney Drive in front of Gurney Plaza main entrance. Source: Unknown.

There was no tide at first....

Waves approaching and fast.

The entrance to Gurney Plaza facing Gurney Drive after the tsunami.

More pics can be found here by Allen Lim and here by Forest Ang.

Get the latest from Jeff Ooi's Screenshots.

Messages from concerned customers

Some customers showed their concern by sending us emails. Here are a few. 1st email.
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Dear Friends,

Heard about the bad news. Just wanted to say hi to you all and make sure if you're all ok? Seems all region had effected by different ways , what about penang? İs there any damage in penang? I feel really sorry for the people got effected by the earthquake & tsunami. Hope anyone you know is not among them. As I heard, The huge weaves came till africa, and caused death of people even.

Take care and stay safe!
======================

2nd email - I think this person is more concern about the ports and shipments!
======================
Glad to hear that you all are safe & sound. We had lived a big earthquake in Turkey 5 years ago, and we all know what does it mean well. May the God bless them.

Glad to hear that your factory running as normal. What about the ports? Will your shipments will be effected? Hope it'll not be effecting your biz badly.

b. rgds.
======================

3rd email
======================
Dear KS Tang,

I have heart of the terrible tidal wave you had there.
I hope you all are alright. Is there anything I can do from here, just let me know. I am very sorry for you.
I hope you have a good end of the year, in spite of the tragedy.
Please let me know you are all well and safe.

The best wishes,
======================

Gurney Drive - The Aftermath

Some pics I received today. Source: Unknown

Iranian customers

I talked to two Iranian customers who were in my office today about yesterday's earthquake. Bam, in Southern Iran was hit by an earthquake registering a magnitude of 6.3 in May last year. The 2 Iranian customers had arrived Penang last Friday night and stayed on the 20th floor in Cititel in Penang road. They felt the aftershocks around 9am yesterday morning and could not believed what they had just experienced even though Iran is prone to earthquakes.

According to them, they felt the tremor for about 45 seconds which was a very long one compared to only a few seconds (5 to 10 seconds) in Iran. They had to evacuate the hotel for a while before being allowed in again.

Panic at work

Traffic was pretty smooth flowing when I crossed the Penang Bridge to work this morning. The sea looked calm even though eastern and south eastern parts of Penang Island was spared from the tsunami.

Then at approximately 9am I received an sms from a friend which read "Do not go to seaside or cross the Penang bridge between 7pm to 8pm. EARTHQUAKE may happen again... fr ASTRO News Pls. inform others"

Other colleagues also received the same sms and many people were saying the bridge will be closed from 5:00pm onwards as another tremor is expected later in the day. Some said the bridge will be closed starting from 3:00pm and will stay close until 3:00am the next morning. I tried to call Penang Bridge Office to verify the info but the line was engaged. Then when one of my colleague managed to get thru, the Penang Bridge Management said this is untrue but they may decide close the bridge depending on weather conditions. That was not convincing. I then received calls from several relatives asking me to leave the office in the mainland as early as possible just in case Penang Bridge is closed.

After lunch time, I learnt that the ferry service from Butterworth to Penang had stopped. A few companies in Penang Island (Fairchild Semiconductor and ITW Meritex) had given permission to their staff staying in the mainland area to leave office to head home in case Penang Bridge is closed down.

Just found out that the sms earlier was not true and I left office a few minutes after five.

From Northern Sumatra to Sri Lanka ... to East Africa

ABC news reported that the effects of tsunami had gone to as far as as East Arfica.

Penang Bridge Okay?

Earlier in the evening news on TV3, I saw our Works Minister, Dato Seri Samy Vellu announced that the Penang Bridge is okay and not affected. So many people using the bridge each day. I hope he is right about it.

53 dead from tidal waves in Malaysia

Read the latest from The Star.

Two fishing boats washed ashore at the Jalan Tanjung Tokong by a tidal waves which hit coastal areas of Penang.--STARpic

Pic taken from Chelsea's Yard.

Check out more pics from 5xmom.

5th largest since 1900

CNN reported that this morning's earthquake which hit Aceh in Northern Sumatra is the 5th largest since 1900. The latest - in Malaysia, 15 people were reported killed, 10 in Penang and 5 in Kedah.

Six killed, 15 injured after tidal waves hit Penang

The Star report as at 3:30pm.

I hear sirens from ambulance the past 2 hours near my house in Tanjung Bungah. Anything to do with the earthquake this morning?

My bed was shaking so badly ...

... for about 5 to 10 seconds this morning I thought I was having a hang over from too much alcohol the night before - Christmas Day. But it could not have been due to the drinking. I was home the whole day yesterday. Only went out for dinner with my family. So I figured it ain't no hang over. Looked at the electronic alarm clock and it read approx 9am ... went back to sleep.

Apparantly, a massive earthquake had hit the Acheh area in Indonesia resulting in tremors in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. I only found out while browing through one of my favourite blogs, Always Wow.

This morning's tremor was the 2nd I experienced in my life. The 1st tremor hit Penang about 10 years ago when I was in Form 4 in secondary school. The form 6 students in the 1st and 2nd floor of the school all came running down while the form 4 students in the ground floor merely stayed put in their classes. I dare not think what will happen if the building were to collapse.

I think there was another one a couple of years back but I didn't feel that one.

My electronic clock... opps looks like one of the buttons on the left side dropped off because of the tremor. My location: Tanjung Bungah, Penang.

Anyway, according to the US Geological Survey Website, "At least 9 people killed, buildings collapsed and telephone service disrupted at Banda Aceh. Buildings destroyed or damaged at Ko Lanta, Thailand by a tsunami. Tsunamis observed on the coasts of Sri Lanka, Sumatra and Thailand. Felt widely in northern Sumatra. Felt in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand."

Here is another report from CNN - Asia quake leaves many feared dead.

Markets owned by suckers like me

As sales suckers in the company I work, we are given different markets to manage. I have worked in some very interesting markets. The following are some markets sales suckers like myself have worked with and under my responsibility to name a few...

1. South America
2. India
3. United Arab Emirates and Middle East
4. Spain
5. Vietnam
6. Turkey
7. Russia
8. Germany
9. Switzerland
10. Norway
11. Sweden ....

See the pattern? Getting a feelin' of White Christmas from the Scandinavian region? Ho ho ho... Merry Christmas to everyone reading.

Work, work and more work

Been so tied up with work for the past two weeks - especially the last few days. Earlier this week, I was informed by my manager that I will be taking care of the Indian market. This assignment is pretty challenging for me as the other manager who was supposed to expand business in India did totally the opposite. Apa lah! The multi million dollar monthly sales from this market 2 years ago is now close to zero. I was assigned to revive back this market and to maintain sales to a reputable level. Pretty exciting stuff I must say.

Already a few days working on it and half dead now, I had to endure 2 terrible customers. Both are strict vegetarian and worse... damn fussy! They think Malaysia is like India, where you can simply ask anyone to do anything for them. You know in India, there are so many people just waiting for work to be given to them. It's so different here... everyone is so occupied with their own job.

By taking up India, I am giving up Vietnam business which I have been working for about 2 years now. Vietnam business is so much easier to do. So now I got plenty to do and am all tied up with Bollywood type of requests from my many Indian customers!

I love u

I received this email a couple of days ago but was so buzy with work and I didn't have any chance to update my blog. This is an interesting one. It goes to show how sweet a guy can be when he's in lurrrrrve!! Here's the email I got .... read on

========
If I were the girl, I'll say YES !!!

That guy made such an BIG act by giving chocolates to all the girls
living in those blocks of the University student apartments and asked them to turn on or off the lights at 8pm that night ...

Wow, is it marvellous ???!!!! You can see the "I Love U" shape lights
on!!! Then, there came over hundreds of students coming to see this "unexpected beautiful & touching" scene !!!
========

Hong Kong - here I come... again

After a contemplating over the weekend, I have decided to book a 5D 4N trip to HK from 21st to 25th Jan next month. I was not able to get thru to the Cathay Pacific office in Penang after dialing and redialing the whole morning and afternoon. Those CX people must be sleeping.

Fed up, I called Holiday Tours instead. I asked for Wendy to make my booking. Wendy had previously prepared my last booking to HK in August through my company secretary. It was a breeze and my booking was done in less than 5 minutes.

Unfortunately, CX flight to HK from Penang is fully booked on 21st Jan so I had to postpone my trip one day later but still being waitlisted on 21st.

Her desk

My gf's desk. She got better phone and newer calculator compared to mine. New IBM LCD mon for her. I am still using the old and bulky CRT in office.

Christmas gift

Received another funny email this morning.

Dear Friends,
Let me know your sizes. Christmas is tight this year. I've learned to make bedroom slippers out of maxi pads: You need four maxis to make a pair. Two of them get laid out flat, for the foot part. The other two wrap around the toe area to form the top. Tape or glue each side of the top pieces to the bottom of the foot part. Decorate the tops with whatever you desire, silk flowers, etc.
These slippers are soft and Hygienic; Non-slip grip strips on the soles; Built in deodorant feature keeps feet smelling fresh; No more bending over to mop up spills; Disposable and biodegradable; Environmentally safe; Three convenient sizes: Regular, Light day, and Get out the Sand Bags.

Happiest of holidays........

Martha Stewart

My office workspace

This pic is taken to show you how messy my office table is. On the left is the PC with some notes pasted on the CPU. You can also see pieces of notes in between the keys on the keyboard. Then you see my very old phone, calendar and calculator. On the right, you can see more papers tucked into a file holder. Very untidy isn't it?