iafm proton saga blm

i learned a new word today - iafm a.k.a intake air fuel module.

recently, my proton saga blm began to make this irritating knocking sound so i went to the mechanics to check it out. the first mechanic i went to told me to flush my engine with an engine flush and cleaner - specifically, a product by würth. but the thing is, i have to use it a few kilometers before the next service and leave the engine running for about 20 minutes before changing the engine oil. my car was serviced like 3 days ago. tak berbaloi. lagipun the mechanic said, maybe akan hilang bunyi tu. maybe is the key word. not good enough. so i asked him to give me an absolute answer. how do i make the noise disappear? his answer, replace a part of the engine (sorry, can't remember what part) for rm1k++. but that's not the exact figure though because he has only done it for mazda cars. not proton. okay.. never mind.

the next day, a colleague proposed that i should try asking other mechanics and compare answers. hm.. good idea. but where exaxctly should i go? he suggested a mechanic nearby the proton service centre. then it hit me. proton service centre kan ada! around 7 minutes drive je pun. haihh. why didn't i know that? padahal dah 8 months kerja around this area. so off i went to the proton service centre.

and that is when i learned this so called new word. iafm. the mechanic said i can get it replaced for rm200++ not including labour charge. two different answers from two different mechanics. but i am placing my bet on the second mechanic though. because he works at the proton service centre and my car is a proton. duh! but anyways, since i now know what seems to be causing the problem, i decided not to place my order yet. i need to do some research first.

and.. the second mechanic may be right! google told me that other proton saga blm owners have had the same problems as mine. i consider myself fortunate to not have it replaced sooner. some owners reported having it replaced at less than 10k km mileage. my mileage is now at 160k++ km, 2009 edition. so maybe the proton r&d team did make some improvements on the iafm they installed previously. err.. thanks?

proton still has a long way to go.. *bittersweet emotion*

related links:
^ my car makes noises similar to this video.

housing loans

i have been house hunting these past few weeks. mainly in the area of cameron highlands and kulim. secretly, rasa macam susah je nak bayar monthly installments as the house prices are going up ridiculously. and tiba-tiba dapat tahu, zeti umum tempoh housing loan akan dipendekkan from 40 years to 30 years. *sighs*

anyway, after a few visits to a few banks such as ambank, maybank and cimb, so far i've learnt that if you want to buy a second-hand home, you have to know the lot number, address etc. kesimpulannya, nak senang, mintak je salinan geran from the home owner. the banks will also need other information such as how much you will be buying the house for and if the house been renovated. after that, the banks will send a penilai hartanah to sum up how much the house is really worth. from there on, the bank will then decide how much they will actually lend you.

and kalau nak jimat duit, of course you have to compare interest rates between various banks. so far, ambank offered me with the lowest interest rate at 4.2%. whilst maybank and cimb both offered 4.4%. i also asked about the pr1ma scheme that the government is currently offering for malaysians. turns out that to be eligible, first and foremost you have to work in the private sector. alas! :(

jurutera awam j41 interview overview

if i get an offer to attend a job interview, the first thing i would do is google it up. not sure if it applies to everyone, but it applies to me.. and i am very thankful to those people who manage to write and discuss about their experience going through their job interview for a specific post at a specific company. so this blog post is lebih kurang like giving back lah to the people who are googling a day or two before their job interview for the jurutera awam j41 post. ;)

quite recently, i went for an interview for jurutera awam j41. i went berpakaian formal (suit). no baju kurung. the reason was because kali ni it was my second time getting interviewed for the post. the 1st time i got interviewed, orang spa tu tegur kenapa pakai baju kurung? tak nampak macam orang yang capable of going to construction site. point taken.

the interview went on for about 20 minutes and i was interviewed by two officers - a jabatan kerja raya (jkr) representative and a kementerian kerja raya (kkr) representative. usually you would get interviewed by a representative from suruhanjaya perkhidmatan awam (spa) but i guess the spa representative couldn't make it on that day.

anyway, the questions were more or less like:
1. apa yang mencabar bila jadi a female engineer and how do you handle it?
2. kalau kontraktor tak dengar cakap kita kat site, what would you do?
3. the terengganu stadium roof collapse. whose fault was it? why?
4. rasuah. how would you face it? if someone offers you a bribe, what would you do? what if it was just a festive hamper?
5. what do you take into account when you want to design a building foundation? how do you design a building foundation?
6. name the types of pavement you know?
7. why do you want this job? why should i hire you?
8. do you plan on furthering your studies?
9. how often do you go to your construction site?

yup, that's all that i can remember. i'm not going to blab about how you should talk, sit and communicate though. the preparing-for-a-job-interview sites has covered all that. hehe. good luck! :)

certificate of completion and compliance (ccc)

basically, kalau buat projek kerajaan, we don't have ccc in our contract. ada cpc je yang dikeluarkan oleh s.o. tapi i have this one project di mana client dia insist nak ccc so apa nak buat kan? the client is always right. buat ajelah prosedur nak dapatkan ccc tu walaupun macam tak perlu. disebabkan my project is categorized as konvensional perunding, the architect consultant is in charge with the liaison dengan mpsp. what i've learnt today is the process of obtaining the ccc:

step 1

complete kan borang g1 - g21 and send it to mpsp for comments/kelulusan.

step 2

do step 1 sampai mpsp tak komen apa-apa and proceed to step 3.

step 3

the architect kena beli borang f (borang perakuan siap dan pematuhan) yang ada serial number lembaga arkitek malaysia and thus kena complete that borang and seterusnya address it to the so with salinan kepada mpsp

step 4

mpsp akan keluarkan the ccc kepada architect untuk edarkan kepada stakeholders.

bandung escapade

okay, first impression of bandung? i really dislike the taxi drivers. they are mostly rude, ok. but despite of that, i find bandung a very interesting place to visit. it is definitely an eye opening experience for me. here's my itinerary for the short trip:

day 1

• flight departs from penang to bandung.
• arrived around midnight local time (i think).

bandara husein sastranegara bandung airport

• took the cab to the hotel (rp.40,000.00) and after paying the taxi driver, boleh pulak dia kata tak ada change untuk rp.100,000.00? i mean, come on la.. we were like the very last customer.. takkan tak ada change kan. you have been working since this morning, dude. so lepas i did a very mean looking face, tiba-tiba boleh pulak keluar the change from his pockets? arghh. tension.

 day 2

• breakfast at the hotel. by the way, we stayed at amaris hotel cihampelas. the hotel was pleasant enough and the food was okay.
• walked through the streets of bandung to pasar baru. prior to our trip, i did some research and printed out maps from google maps. oh, how i love google to pieces!

 we found a railway station on the way to pasar baru

 a train passing by

children walking on railway tracks - very dangerous indeed!

• shopped at pasar baru. the main reason for our trip was apparently shopping for textiles untuk the upcoming raya. haha.
• took a cab back to the hotel. tak jadi nak walk back sebab shopping and borong banyak sangat. got cheated by the taxi driver yang refuse to turn on the cab meter. malas nak bergaduh, so kitorang bayar je lah rp.40,000.00 kat dia.
• good thing that bila kitorang sampai hotel, we saw a bluebird cab. apa lagi.. cepat-cepat booking for our next trip.
• lepas tinggalkan hasil barangan shopping at our hotel room, we took off with the bluebird cab (yang apparently jujur menggunakan meter) to saung angklung udjo to catch a cultural angklung performance. memang berbaloi ok. way off berbaloi than the tangkuban perahu, i tell you.

 

a man making ends meet, i guess

the bluebird cab meter

toilet cubicles at the saung angklung udjo - architectural awesomeness!

the admission ticket and brochure for the angklung performance show

• after the show ended, we asked the receptionist at the ticket counter if she could please call us a cab yang menggunakan meter. the staff at saung angklung udjo - very helpful and friendly.. kudos!
• then we headed to our next stop, paris van java. nice place but definitely has changed since my last visit. we ate at katjapiring. the food was not something i'm used to tapi boleh la tahan.

 katjapiring

 the meal we had at katjapiring

• lepas habis ronda-ronda kat paris van java, we headed back to our hotel by foot. experiencing bandung through the streets is way better walking than taking a cab. we stopped by at the shops/stalls along jl.cihampelas and bought some souvenirs t-shirts. 

hollow steel grating - very different from the normal steel gratings in malaysia

they use bamboo scaffolds, we use steel

food stalls like these were very typical in bandung

 

• kepenatan yang amat, sampai hotel terus tertido and accidentally skipped dinner. we were planning to go to sierra cafe and lounge. shucks!

day 3

• hotel check out time was at 12.00pm but our flight wasn't until 5.00pm so we extended our stay and headed to the famously known rumah mode factory outlet. i love this place. setiap kali dapat gaji bulanan, kalau boleh nak shopping kat sini je. hehe.

 

rumah mode factory outlet

• lepas spending quite some time kat rumah mode, we headed to jl.cihampelas shopping area and lagi sekali stopped by the stalls/shops to buy souvenir t-shirts.
• bila sampai hotel, cepat-cepat pack barang and check out. we asked the receptionist at the hotel to call us a cab yang pakai meter. the cab yang arrive to pick us up apparently tak nak pakai meter. he wanted to charge us rp.50,000.00 and we decided to get out and ask for another taxi tapi tiba-tiba taxi driver tu naik angin and membebel and tak bagi kitorang keluar. lepas tu we told him that dari airport ke hotel pun rp.40,000.00, how come he's charging us more? then dengan muka tak puas hati, dia pun setuju rp.40,000.00. personally i think we could have gotten rp.20,000.00 sebab bukannya jauh sangat airport tu. saung angklung lagi jauh and we were only charged rp.30,000.00 pakai meter. you could tell the taxi driver memang tak puas hati tak dapat rp.50,000.00 because he was revving his car up and bawak laju-laju and rapat-rapat dengan the vehicles in front. frankly, i don't care. kalau accident pun, he'll be the one to pay for the damages. and we'll get to the airport lagi cepat anyway bila you drive macamtu. haha. padan muka. bodoh.

so anyway, to wrap my bandung escapade, i love the fact that i can shop there till i drop. but i really do dislike most of the taxi drivers. bad attitude and very dishonest.

countdown to my bandung trip

i've been to bandung before during my university days under sife but sadly i don't really remember the trip. maybe it's due to the fact that masa tu tak ada camera untuk tangkap pictures kot. so anyway, i will be going to bandung again - yay! i will be boarding the air asia on the night of the 26th via penang international airport. happy holidays! :)

ptd exams overview

well i did post about going to the ptd examinations a couple of days back (click here). so today i will write about on how it went. this post is not intended to give any soalan bocor whatsoever but more like a reminder on how i should prepare next time when going for the ptd exams. not that i am losing faith already thinking that i did not pass the exams.. but i don't really like hoping and berharap gila-gila. after all, it's not an easy set of exams. many of my friends tried and failed already.

the exams consisted of five sections. section a-e. here's what got me confused. at the back of the surat panggilan, it says ada penaksiran personaliti. okay.. i am not sure about other pusat peperiksaan but i didn't do the penaksiran personaliti at all. err.. did the pengawas forget to edar the question paper? hm..

anyways, here's what i make of the sections yang kena jawab masa exam tu:

1. seksyen a - pengetahuan am mengenai malaysia dan alam sekeliling. ok this section really tests you on whether you have been reading the newspapers and watching the news. it is mostly about malaysia. so kalau rasa-rasa macam tak boleh jawab tu, nampak sangat tak berapa nak patriotik terhadap negara. hehe. soalan dia meliputi dari dasar-dasar pembangunan negara dan peranan kerajaan to the names of alatan muzik used by the bumiputeras in sabah and sarawak. dia even ada tanya pasal past nobel prize winners. some of the questions yang still linger in my head ialah siapa yang berhak menggubal parlimen malaysia? apa jenis nobel prize yang anwar sadat berjaya perolehi? apa peranan risda dan mardi? masa kejatuhan ekonomi amerika syarikat tahun 2008, negara mana muflis? apa tugas bank negara? fuiyoo.. gempak kan soalan dia? :)
2. seksyen b - daya menyelesaikan masalah. section ni macam ok jugaklah. prior to taking this paper, you have to make sure dah buat latihan tubi kuiz matematik and iq test ok. this paper was like war in your brain. rasa macam a few of my dead brain cells popped and triggered the kesan berdenyut-denyut kat kepala. i wished i could have used my calculator. it would have been more easier daripada conteng-conteng kertas buat kira-kira. if you're a graduate of kumon, rasanya boleh pass dengan flying colours kot. it's basically simple maths which you have to solve in 1 minute per question.
3. seksyen c - pengertian dan kefahaman terhadap esei-esei. this was yang paling simple for me. two malay language essays and two english essays. jawab soalan berdasarkan isi dalam essays tu. macam kacang saje. what a breeze after a brain cracking session for section b!
4. seksyen d - esei bahasa melayu. soalan dia revolve around isu semasa yang hangat diperkatakan in malaysia. again, this section pun tests you on whether you have been reading the newspapers and watching the news. dia bagi tiga pilihan tajuk to write about and you only need to write about one topic. i only remember two of the topic options though. the first one, pemimpin muda yang berfikiran positif dan proaktif adalah penting bagi tujuan pembangunan negara. bincangkan. and the other question was about pengurangan pemberian subsidi kerajaan kepada rakyat. bincangkan. i was stunned with the topic options when i first read the question paper. i actually spent about 15 minutes deciding on which topic to bincangkan about. what a bummer.. because truthfully, i couldn't care less if i miss the day's news. teruk kan? i need to ambil tahu more next time though. maybe i can list that as one of my new year's resolutions for next year. hmm. :P
5. seksyen e - esei bahasa inggeris. finally.. more like my turf!truthfully speaking, i dread writing in full malay language more than writing in full english. i have no idea why considering that i am a malaysian. maybe it's because i was brought up in england during my childhood days? i talk in malay language most of the time but when i am disturbed or in a not-so-good-mood, i suddenly rave in english - in writing mostly. okay, back to the main topic of discussion, section e is very similar to section d except that it's in english. same three topic options to choose from where you choose one to discuss on. the questions were about consumer rights, social networking and a smile is worth a thousand words. i chose the last topic as it was a very general topic and there's lots to write about.

all in all, it was a tiring day for my brain. the last time i took a full day exam was during my final year exam in uni. my saluran darah kat otak tu dah berdenyut-denyut pun by the time i finished the ptd exams. what an experience. 

*** tips to take note: (a) read the newspapers and watch the news to be able to answer section a, d and e. whilst for section b, (b) make sure you only spend a maximum of 1 minute for each question. latihan tubi matematik is a must.

*** other misc. tips: (a) calculators are not allowed, (b) make sure to bring along 2b pencils, pens and erasers with you, (c) masa isi borang omr tu, isi cepat-cepat sebab the allocated time yang dia bagi untuk isi memang sangat singkat. takut makan masa nak jawab soalan exam pulak nanti.