After waiting and waiting and waiting, the results are in. Both failed miserably! Both of the courier company failed to deliver the item on 24th, instead Nationwide delivered the document on 28th and SkyNet only managed to do it on 29th.

Was very disappointed with nationwide as I know that they managed to send my item on time (next day delivery!), but have not been doing so for the last few times. Their excuse was that the delivery truck to Jitra was late on the 24th so that they couldn't send it out on time.

However SkyNet's excuse for not delivering on time is stupider I think.

Shipment Problem 3 Date: 29 Dec 09 9:49 am Problem Code: PC005 Created By: JTR Comments: CONSIGNEE NOT AT HOME/OFFICE. DELIVERY WILL BE RE-ATTEMPTED Delivery has been attempted, the consignee was not present / company closed. Delivery will be re-attempted on 30 Dec 09

I mean come on this is an office, you can't say that they are not there. So many ppl inside and you say "company closed"?.

I might need to look at other avenues. PosLaju's claim that they can deliver documents/parcels the next day before 10 am in UUM sounds pretty good right now. Perhaps I'll use them the next time I have to send something to UUM. The hard part is the fact that PosLaju's (Machang) cut off is 12.30pm as opposed to Nationwide, you can go as late as 6pm. Though the lady at Machang Post Office did say that I can go to KB's Post Office as their cut off time is much later.

Conclusion, courier services to UUM is miserable (Nationwide and SkyNet). However it can't be said to represent both company's as a whole. Maybe I'll redo this experiment with another destination? However next delivery maybe I'll try PosLaju.

After hearing all the good words about both courier companies and the fact that I also use both a lot to send my documents and also to receive them. In fact when I was in Gua Musang, they would personally deliver parcels to me at night as they already know I won't be available in the day, that's what we call personalized service

So to decide once and for all, which is the best courier company for my need. Today I sent 2 identical parcels containing 2 identical items to the same destination. Both was posted at 2.15 to 2.30pm.

I have checked and found out that the destination UUM Sintok are not on the ODA (Outskirt Delivery Area) list of Nationwide, but was unable to find Skynet's ODA list. Although one seller in Lelong claims UUM is ODA for Skynet. So based on that we can say that they have the almost the same level of playing field as Skynet's has the nearest branch at Jitra while Nationwide's nearest branch is at Alor Setar. So that would even out the fact that Skynet might have UUM on its ODA list while Nationwide doesn't.

Now what we need to do is wait for the item to arrive, the question is when???? and who will be first?

Till the conclusion

Went to Johor Bahru to visit my parents, they are currently living there with my sister. Managed to spent a few days there.

On the way there, took the shorter route and arrived in 10 hours... meaning that we took to the hills and there was nothing but greens all the way there. Slept like a baby when I got there... haven't had to drive long distances for quite a while Our holiday there was not filled with sight seeing, but more like trying to cover as many shopping places as possible. 1st day there, we went to the biggest AEON in Southeast Asia, AEON Tebrau City..... and it was big... but couldn't really explore the place as I brought along my parents and they were already tired after 1 round. But I did manage to make a pit stop to one of the bookshops and got 3 books... hehe

Second day, my wife wanted to see this famous place that made tableware, she learned about it from her friend, it was 80km from JB so we left early. The interesting bit about this place is that not only they make tableware under their own name, but they also produces for other brands, the few brands that I found was from UK and France. Forgot the name of the place is Claytan and its located in Ayer Hitam. My wife bought a set of for our home. Quite a nice set if I may say so.

In the afternoon we went out again and found our way to The Zon Duty Free, eventhough it says that it is duty free I can't see any real differences for the price, even when looking at perfumes I think the price is almost the same as other places, then we got out and went ahead to Johor second biggest Aeon, hehe AEON Bukit Indah, they had a Crocs outlet over there, I bought a pair of shoes there, a model that they didn't have in Kelantan, enticed by the promotion my wife bought one as well... hahah, she also went ahead and bought some clothes for herself.

The day after we went to Larkin's wet market and bought some Nasi Beriyani spices and also bought some coffee. Then went to buy some clothes for the daughter at Danga City Mall..

I think JB has more shopping complexes per 10km radius than any other city in Malaysia, I mean come on, make a turn anywhere and you get to see another complex. I was told this was to cater to Singaporean shopping habits. Never mind as long as the price is cheap hehe

On the way back we used the scenic route, the wife wanted to see some beaches, so went back via the coastal towns, we got home after almost 12 hours on the road, the trip back was really more tiring than the way there.

Tiring but definitely satisfying, managed to visit my parents, had a chance to go shopping and just a little bit of sight seeing. It was a fruitful trip Now on to other things that I left hanging to go on a holiday hehehe

Adieu

Had a whole episode of gps craze when I was in Jerek, mainly due to my obsession of thinking of places to travel to. Contributed some tracklogs to malsingmaps and then masmaps, then it went down a notch especially after I got married and the split of malsingmaps to malfreemaps.

Now its back up again, but in another form. Now at my current school, I'm the go-to guy if u want to ask anything about GPS. My colleague at school bought a new gps unit by the name of Lark, it came with iGO installed but the seller told him that it could also use garmin. So I was left with the task of finding out how to install it, after 3 days of tinkering with it, I have managed to make Garmin run on it, but the way to turn it on is still not ideal as there is too many steps to turn it on. What would be cool if turning it on only involves one button!

So that's my latest craze, and it only have fueled me to again get my dream gadget, a CarPC....

So till next time, adieu

p/s: infos about how to install garmin on a wince devices are available at gpspassion.com and gpsunderground.com, I will not entertain questions about it as I'm no expert.

Alhamdulillah after 3 months of talking on the phone, face to face meeting with various Telekom personnel and numerous excuses on why my phone is not connected.. finally I have my phone and my internet connection again.

Details on the ordeal? 13 July 2009 went to Tanah Merah TMPoint to arrange for transfer of my phone from Gua Musang to Machang. Yes Machang is so backwater that it only have a service office just like Gua Musang. 30th July after complaining to TM that they were very slow on installing the phone the contractor came. Installed the phone just fine but was stumped as they said that the Cabinet was out of order. They say that only TM personnel can fix it as they are not authorized to do so.

Waited till next week. Got nothing, lodged a phone complaint. Nothing again for a month or so then got a phone call from Telekom KB, informing me that the Cabinet was damaged that they had to get parts and that required a lot of bureaucratic work.

Then they informed me that it was done. Waited some more. Nothing again. Went down to Machang's service office, complained about the connection problem. They said that they will have a look into it. I made multiple phone complaints until finally a person from KB called me and properly introduced himself and gave his phone number and said that he will follow through with me until my connection is up. Informed me that the thing is going to take longer as they are upgrading the system in my area and my application is put on hold until they finish. So I waited some more, that took another a month more until finally a lady called asking where exactly is my house. Saying that my problem was somebody put the wrong cabinet for my application. I waited some more then a man called yesterday asking where my house is again around early morning. Then later on he called to inform that my phone is now connected and told me my new numbers. Then in the afternoon a lady called to check on whether my connection is ok or not. Told her they was some buzzing and informed her to connect my streamyx ASAP.

Today got another call from another lady asking whether I made a request to install streamyx whether it was a new application or what. Got home this afternoon and checked that the line was still not on. Left the modem on autoconnect mode and after dinner checked the lights and noticed that the LED for ADSL was steady and that meant I had connection!. So here I am rejoicing my connectivity but be damned I just registered for Celcom BB just last week! another 50 ringgit per month But then again I'm cutting the internet at my mom's house, nobody really use it anyway

On another note, my laptop which was sent for repairs (vga controller was going bonkers) was just received on Sunday.. that makes it 37 days without my precious laptop

So expect more entry from me real soon heheh

Adieu

Went for a short trip to KT on saturday, wife has family over there. So we went for a last shot Hari Raya visit since it is still Syawal.

Pushed off very early and arrived in KT at 10 am.. just in time for a late breakfast... Kak Ming (wife's cousin) prepared a table full of food.. Nasi Dagang, Popiah, Lopak Tike and lots more.... Really loved the Nasi Dagang.... was told it was the nasi dagang from Chendering.. Spent the rest of the morning at her house... Wife and family simply had loads of fun catching up... (padahal selalu je jumpa)...

Highlight of the day was Alya doing a bit of catwalk wearing Kak Ming's high heel That really did provide us with a bit of laugh.

In the afternoon, wife and MIL wanted to shop for batik so we went to a boutique owned by my wife's best friend... Enira's Batik, located at Bazar Warisan. They had a catching up session while browsing through the batiks at the store. MIL and wife definitely was fascinated with the new batik design... digital batiks... very exclusive as it was. They really did have a field day. Both of them bought enough batik that the owner just had to smile.

Then on the way back we made a few stop... one at Keropok Lekor BTB, currently this is the place to buy Keropok Lekor. Then made one more stop near Penarek to buy some deep fried delicacies... Ikan, Udang and Sotong Celup Tepung... simply delish!

Overall it was a good trip.... and will be making it again if time permits..

Adieu

It has been quite a while since I last wrote an entry on the website. This is due to a lot of reasons.

Number one reason being the fact that I am very busy at the moment with the new school and all. I have been appointed as the "S/U Headcount". I thought I would be done with all those odd jobs after I changed school, I thought wrong!.

Number two is a bigger one actually. I have been here for 3 months and my internet connection has not been restored! Telekom Malaysia have been giving me a lot of reasons for the delay. First it was due to workload on part of the installation contractor, that delayed the installation by 2 weeks, after they installed the line they found out that the DB is faulty. That took a month to be fixed as they had to get the ppl at KB to approve the replacement parts. Then they upgraded the local interchange and my installation has been put on hold so that they don't need to install it twice (they say la)

TM has kindly appointed for me a contact person whom I can call anytime of the day since his number at the office is set to automatically transfer the call to his cellphone... He has promised that my phoneline will be finally setup next week... that's tomorrow, and he's also coming over to Machang to see what's the delay.

So, I guess that could explain why I'm neglecting the blog :P currently I'm using my phone as a broadband modem to check on my emails and fb but the connection rate is terrible over here plus my bills are wayyyy higher... how much higher? Celcom gave me a RM600 discount for last month's bill... lu pikir la sendiri! hehehe lucky that caused the bill to go negative heheeh

So till I feel the next urge to write comes along..... adieu