Festivals for a Site Engineer

Talk about luck. Just when I thought that work will slow down a little, especially after we nailed two huge tenders recently, I got friggin transferred to site. Don’t get me wrong, I’m completely happy with working on a project site. I’ve been longing to build something, …anything for so long (instead of getting cooped up in the office doing paper work). But no, they transferred me to a project where we have to fucking complete all the works by 19-October, no excuses.

So here I am, working my ass off as a friggin 'Site Engineer' on Awal Muharram (the Islamic New Year), while the rest of my colleagues in the god-damned office, enjoy a 3 day weekend off. Here, in this site we work what I call a triple seven shift, 7am to 7pm, 7 days a week, no fucking Fridays, no fucking holidays.

There you have it, my life for now. Don’t even know how I can celebrate Durga Puja with Anu (it’s her biggest festival), or Jayden’s Birthday which is coming up real soon. …Guess, it’ll be a working celebration, pity the family.

OK, here’re some temples for the occasion… I don’t think I’ll be writing much till we friggin finish the job… Enjoy!


A temple in the Mahabalipuram group of monuments, Tamil Nadu, India – this is the Ganesha Ratha (says Google Map, OK?)


Arjuna’s Penance


A closer view of Arjuna’s Penance, Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu


The rock cut temple beside Arjuna’s Penance


Carvings in the temple


Krishna’s Butter Ball – don’t ask me why they named it that, OK?


Papa, son & some rocks






The Trimurti Cave, Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu, India

This is the second year in a row that I did a Durga Puja post with Mahabalipuram as the setting. What to do? Drastic time calls for drastic measures. Have a joyful puja to those celebrating this. Signing off, till easier times.

The New Global Village

World Avenue, Global Village, 2015, Dubai

Work sucks! Working after a holiday is a pain for me, however short that holiday is. Doesn’t matter whether we went anywhere or not. Does this happen to everyone?

Anyway, taking advantage of the lull in work before things start picking up again, here’s a quick update.

I’m fine. Everyone’s fine. The mysterious black spot on my big toenail that I discovered in Feb has finally grown out for me to trim it away! Turned out to be just a bloody blood clot, not friggin cancer, hahah! Good thing I chickened out of that biopsy.

Apart from that, things are super boring. Nothing’s happened or happening. Justin’s restarted school, Year 2. He’s learnt how to cycle and swim 10m during the summer (nope, the triathlon is still a long way ahead). He’s started learning karate at a dojo that opened recently on the ground floor of our building. He’s also learning Mandarin from a Chinese Learning Centre (and so am I, indirectly, when helping him do his friggin homework!).

Jayden’s still not speaking, except Mama (Mommy), Papa, Ah-ah (also means Papa, when he’s cheeky), Oe-Oe (Koko – Hokkien for big bro), Ahhhh… (water), Um or Ugm (eat), Ts-Ts (wee-wee), Mm-Mm (poo-poo), Bhoo (blue), and the Hokkien words for fish (Bhóo for Hóo) and button (Buwa for Liuwa)! He’s fit and maintaining his weight below 10kg (and we’re trying to force feed him to put on weight!) He’s winning so far. He's been at 8 - 9 kg for the past 8 months!

And we’ve still managed to spend a ton of money, despite not going anywhere for the entire summer! I’ve also bought a guitar for Justin. Now if only I can learn to play it from watching YouTube, I’d be able to pass on the lessons to Justin!!! (Great ideas from a cheapskate, huh?)

And that’s about it. Now back to the topic of staging Expos (see last post). I don’t think Dubai has any problem staging Expo Dubai 2020! After all, Dubai already has something of an expo permanently in the city, Global Village! Last year (or was it the year before that???), Global Village underwent a major face-lift! Here’re pictures of the new improved Global Village (…and here’s a link to the old Global Village before the revamp). Another place for you to spend your hard-earned cash. In Dubai, there’s no shortage of places like that! Good luck (on saving money in Dubai)!


Anu & Karishma in front of the all new Global Village Main Entrance




More views of the Main Entrance Complex, Global Village, Dubai


World Avenue, Dubai Global Village lined with replicas of some famous world landmarks – seen here are a Japanese Temple, the Taj Mahal, and a weird tree decorated with faces (no, I have no idea where that's from??)


The Main Cultural Stage, Global Village – Doesn’t look anything like a village to me. I dunno why people here are so fascinated with the word ‘village’?! I’d have named it Global City, or Town, or Park, something like that…


The Egypt Pavilion (the one with the imposing mosque on it), across the canal. The canal is the only thing that bears some resemblance to the old Global Village before the revamp


The all new China Pavilion


The India Pavilion


A tiger at the India Pavilion


The Africa Pavilion


The Japan Pavilion


The Thailand Pavilion


And the kid’s favourite of ‘em all, the Palace of Entertainment, the new improved amusement park at Global Village – that’s where a lot of your hard-earned cash will go (these Dubai developers are smart, OK?)

Expo Milano 2015

Today is the culmination of a lot of the hard work put in at the office for the past few hectic weeks. 3 tender submissions in one day, today, and 2 others in the last few days! Whew!

Here’s another quick picture post. The brain’s too tired to think of what to write. But before I forget, here’s to wishing all those celebrating Raya, Selamat Hari Raya! Have a blessed Eid Al Adha! I’m off for the next few days for the Eid holidays, hehe!


Pavilion Zero, at the Expo Milano 2015

Here’re some photos of the Universal Expo held in Milan last year. Universal Expos are held every 5 years. In 2010, it was in Shanghai, China. The next Expo will be in Dubai in 2020! That’s one of the reasons why I wanted to see how a World Expo is like. We're building so many things here in Dubai in preparation for Expo Dubai 2020.

Our visit to Italy last year was a late addition to our original tour plan. We had planned to only visit the Alps, with Switzerland as the main destination (Switzerland has always been Anu’s dream destination). And then we checked the weather forecast. And it said that the weather would suck for the entire friggin Alps area. So I checked the map, and Voila! Milan’s just a short distance south from the Swiss border, and what’s more, there’s a World Expo in progress! So here we come, Milano!


Justin & Mommy at a grape & wine stall?


Yours truly, posing with some vegetables

Expo Milano 2015 is a food themed Expo. Its theme was ‘Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life’. That’s why everything (well, almost) at Expo Milano looked like something related to food! Every expo has a theme. The 2010 Expo Shanghai’s theme was ‘Better City – Better Life’. Expo Dubai 2020’s main theme would be ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’.

Here’re photos of some individual country pavilions. There’re just too many pavilions to visit, let alone photograph. And the queues were just amazing. I’d never have guessed there’d be so many visitors!


Justin at the China Pavilion


The Japan Pavilion, with a sake barrel headed monster! I’d be dead drunk if my head was like that!


The Korea Pavilion – No, they could spell. It’s just that Korea is spelt Corea in Italian


Anu waiting outside the Malaysia Pavilion, while Justin & Papa went inside (it was the only one we went in) – Just look at the queue behind!


The Thailand Pavilion


Anu at the UK Pavilion


The Czech Pavilion with a Car-Bird …or is that a Bird-Car?? What the heck! What’s this got to do with food anyway?


Pavilion of the United Arab Emirates – I have no idea what this is. Doesn’t look like food to me. Looks more like some scene from the movie ‘127 Hours’, or if your mind is dirty (like mine is), like some bump of a supermodel in a white thong!


That’s what you’ll become if you eat too much Italian food – At least the food in Italy gives you choices. In the German parts of Europe, the only food commonly available are bread, cheese and cold cuts. Have only that for a week, and you know what a paradise Italy can be when it comes to food!




Inside Pavilion Zero, Expo Milano – looks like some humongous Chinese Herb Shop with drawers stacked right up to the roof!


Our factory-styled hotel, Residence Rho Fiera, some 5 – 10 minutes walking distance from the entrance of the Expo Milano Site, right after a downpour. We had to wait for the rain to stop to start our visit to the Expo. That black Opel Zafira parked in front was our trusty rented car for our Europe Trip


Weird statues and buildings at Expo Milano, Rho Fiera, Milan, Italy – Now the sun is up! Maybe the rain was a blessing in disguise, made it cooler for us to visit. We’d not have seen this nice a sun if Anu & I hadn’t had this misunderstanding on where we’d meet up after we split. It took us an hour to find each other again. What a waste of time! Try imagining Anu’s face!

…Oh, some great news just came in about those tenders today. I think it’s time for a celebration at the company! Whoopee!

Wanna Adopt a Spire?

If you do, there’re a ton of church spires up for adoption in Milan! Yeah, really. The Milan Duomo (Cathedral) is running an ‘Adopt a Spire’ campaign, offering donors to have their names carved on the walls, or the gargoyles, or something like that on that famous church! Cool, huh? But you’d have to cough up like 100K Euros! Hell, if somebody gave me that sort of money, I’d tattoo his name on my butt!


The Spires of the Milan Duomo, Milan, Italy


A closer view of the elaborate spires - like something from an alien space-craft!

Here’s another picture post. Looks like my busy work schedule will continue into September. No, it’s not a bad sign. Quite the reverse, it’s actually good! Good to know that I’ll still have a job, hehe.

Continuing on Italy, here’s our one evening out in the city of Milan. And in Milan, it’s near impossible to miss the Milan Duomo. Heck, it’s the main landmark of Milan! This humongous thing of a church sits right smack in the middle of the city, facing a huge square, thronging with people, and pigeons. It has a hundred plus spires, topped with statues, projecting upwards from the cathedral, like a porcupine. And it’s absolutely fabulous. With only one evening in Milan, and that too, a Sunday evening, where else would we be, but hang around the Duomo like all the other tourists? So here’s what we did, in pictures.


Roaming the roofs of the Milan Duomo, one of the highlights I’d say


Sculptures on the spires


More statues on spires! Maybe if you donate enough, they’d make a statue of you and place it on top of a spire huh? If I were a rich man (make that an ULTRA-rich man), I’d donate a ton of money in the name of a cat or a dog, and ask them to put the statue of it on top! That’d be cool!






Views of Milan City from the roof of the Milan Duomo


Milan Cathedral (Duomo di Milano), Milan, Lombardy, Italy






The immense interiors of the cathedral


Inside the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the fabulously ornate shopping mall beside the Duomo


Corso Vittorio Emanuele II adorned with the flags of the world. Heck, what’s a Malaysian flag doing in Milan?? Hehe, we were in Milan when Expo Milano 2015 was on!


What’s a visit to Italy, without having a gelato or 2, huh?

Here’s a note on the recent earthquake in Central Italy. When so many bad things happen in the world, news like an earthquake here, and an earthquake there loses its prominence, despite the devastating effects to the people who are affected. Whatever the disaster or the incident, if you or your loved ones are affected, the incident takes on a whole new meaning. Oh Lord, comfort and strengthen those who have lost someone or something. Bless the souls of those who have departed, and continue to keep us all protected against harm, sickness and evil. Thank You Lord. Amen.