Misdirected mail

This morning just before leaving for work, there was a letter in my mailbox. It was quite odd, because usually the postman arrives around noon. Most definitely, the postman does not send letters that early.

The thought that came to mind almost immediately is that in all probability, this letter was sent to another address (probably one of my neighbour's). This neighbour (whoever he or she is) probably put the letter into my mailbox on his/her way to work. I am very grateful for this neighbourly act.

However, I am a bit saddened for two reasons.

First, the date on the stamp is 22nd July. That was 15 days ago. As far as I know, the mail service in the country only takes two to three days to arrive at its destination. Did the person who got my mail keep it for almost two weeks? Or did the mail itself arrive late?

Second, I found the envelope opened. Who opened my letter up? Could it have been an honest mistake? Or was it the act of someone curious? Whatever the reason may be, I find this worrying. Fortunately the contents which included a letter, a few documents that I needed to sign and a cheque were left intact (at least I think there was nothing missing).

I was a bit upset over this in the morning. Not only the letter (which I have been waiting for since early July) arrived late, its private contents were, most probably, irresponsibly scrutinised by someone.

I have to say that I am grateful that the letter is finally in my hands. But this is an episode that has left me rather suspicious.

Whispers

Those of us who use Yahoo Messenger (YM) would certainly be familiar with the notification sound when our contacts come online or goes offline. The sound is akin to a whisper (for lack of a better way to describe it). It sounds like "Psssttt..." or something like that. This is actually the default sound for YM which one can actually change if one chooses to. I never changed the default setting simply because I didn't think that it'd make much difference.

Several months ago, my wife was at my office. She was marking her exam scripts while I was doing my work in front of my trusted laptop. Then I had to leave the room to attend to some matters on the administrative floor. When I came back, my wife asked me whether I have an automated air freshener in the room. You know, the one that would spray air freshener at certain intervals. I said, no. When I inquired her reason for asking, she said that she heard the sound of something similar to an automated air freshener.

I didn't respond because she could just be imagining things. Then I had to leave the room again, this time for a discussion on Level 2. About 15 minutes into the discussion, I received a text message from my wife saying that she has left the office building. When I met her later, she told me that she kept hearing the "whispering" sounds when I left the room. To hear whispers when no one is around was certainly too much for her to take. Strangely enough, these whispers were conspicuously absent when I was around.

Now, bear in mind that this incident takes place one day after a staff who was working late said that he saw "a shadowy figure" lurking in the background on his floor (Level 1). The staff rushed out of the office into the elevator, and he could hear "footsteps" chasing him down the stairs. He could also smell some sort of fragrance during the incident.

With that incident happening the day before, I did not want to speculate on the whispers that my wife heard. For days and weeks that followed, I have been staying back late for work, and I didn't hear any whispers in my room. That certainly got me puzzled.

Puzzled, that is, until two days ago.

I was at the office late at night with Rohaizad working on the book "Ke Arah Umat Hadhari". I was just outside my room when I heard a "whispering" sound. At first, the sound took me by surprise. But upon rationalising things, I realised that the sound was very familiar. I rushed into my room, stood in front of my laptop, and I started laughing when I realised what the whispers were.

It was the sound of one of my YM contacts going offline. All this while, I hear the same sound when I am in front of the laptop. So, the sound comes at the same time as the text notification of someone coming online or going offline. As such, my mind did not register anything peculiar or odd. Only when I was not in front of my laptop that I realise that the sound can be mistaken for someone whispering.

When my wife heard the whispers, she was not in front of the laptop. To her, it was like someone was whispering to her.

I told my wife what the whispering sound actually was. She nodded, but I don't think she is totally convinced. After all, the incident involving my staff on Level 1 is still unexplained until this very day.

Lost forever

My whole working life revolves around writing. I started writing seriously around 1997. And I have dabbled in academic, journalistic and creative writing.

I have written more than 150 articles for newspapers, magazines and academic journals - both local and international.

I have written more than 100 academic working papers - both local and international.

I have written two novels published in 2007 and 2008.

I have written three unpublished short stories.

I have written a script for a television drama which won second place in a national script writing competition in 2007.

I have written a master's thesis.

I am currently writing a memoir - Fikri's to be exact, entitled "Echoes of My Heart". The writing process is nearly completed.

I am currently writing two novels. Both are halfway done.

I am also currently writing my doctorate thesis. The introduction and literature review have been completed.

And all these are stored in my laptop and backed up in my pendrive.

Last week, my laptop crashed, and apparently there is no way to retrieve the files. Yesterday, I lost my pendrive containing all those I listed above plus some other equally important files. The pendrive must have been lost while I was outside the office. I retraced my tracks to no avail.

More than ten years worth of work gone just like that. God knows how many hours and sleepless nights were spent writing all those things. Heck, the thrust of what I do for a living is writing. And they are all gone.

Doubtless I have some of those lost in hard copies or stored online in websites. I can retrieve those easily or scanned them again. It will take time, but it is something doable.

But those that have yet to be published and those that I did not have hard copies (because the writing process is still on-going) - they are lost... forever.

Fikri's memoir. The two novels. The three short stories. The television script. My PhD thesis.

Imagine having to rewrite those that cannot be retrieved. I have no choice but to rewrite these, but the end result will be different. The rewriting process will be more difficult. And I have no idea when I can begin because currently I am just not so in the mood to redo what I have done.

Ten years of work now gone.

I feel like a big part of me is lost forever.

And now... the door that wouldn't unlock

Level 3 continues to be problematic. If you don't believe me, read this, this, this, this, this and this.

I was out for a meeting earlier this afternoon. As usual, I'd lock the door to my room. When I came back to the office around 2 o'clock, I was not able to unlock my door. Apparently the keyhole got pushed inside, and one of the screws fell off rendering the lock useless. I had to call the contractor who did the job many moons ago. He arrived one and a half hour later.

The problem was fixed after half an hour. But all in all, I wasted two hours just because I couldn't enter my room.

Mystery of the growing sandals

What is it with me and mysterious incidents?

I went to the masjid for my Maghrib prayer. I left my sandals at one of the entrance. After the prayer, I got out and slipped into my sandals. Then I realised, my sandals are two size bigger than they should be. I wear Size 6. The sandals that I left the masjid with are Size 8.

Weird (or as a dear friend likes to spell it, wierd)!

I entered the masjid using an entrance that is rarely used. So there were not that many shoes/sandals/slippers left at that particular entrance. (Interestingly, this entrance is not the usual one that I would use). When I left, my sandals were exactly where they were supposed to be, but strangely enough, the size was wrong. Same sandals, same design, same brand... but different size?

How could it be?

Either my sandals grew in size, or a more logical explanation that I can think of is that someone else uses the same kind of sandals (only with a bigger size), and entered the masjid using the same rarely used entrance, and mistakenly left wearing my sandals.

But what are the odds of that happening? Pretty much slim, I would say.

Source of the problems

I know I have been silent for quite a while. During this period, quite a bit has happened. One of which, we finally nailed down the "culprit" behind the problems that we have been facing at the office.

And the source of most of the woes is the roof.

The inaccessible entrance was due to rainwater from the roof sipping into the electronic chip of the entrance system.

The Level 3 blackout took place because of rainwater from the roof sipping into the electrical wiring.

The flooded floor was - you guessed it - because water from the tank on the roof overflooded and caused flooding on the building.

The shattered glass incident was due to the way the roof of the building was designed. The weight of the roof was in actual effect forced on the walls of the building inside. This resulted in increased pressure on the glass wall. It was a matter of time before any of the glass shattered.

The leaking ceiling in the Executive Chairman's office was just another testament of the shoddy workmanship of the building in particular the roof.

We have appointed a professional engineer to assess and come up with a report of the shoddy roof. Once we obtain the full report, we will forward a formal complaint to the developer. Should our complaint falls on deaf ears, we will resort to other means to ensure that the roof is repaired.

I spoke to some of the other tenants here. And some of them too are facing problems with the roof. I guess the problem is not unique only to our building. Nonetheless, I feel that the developer should not brush off the problem, as it is their responsibility to ensure that the building was built as it should be according to the plans.

With regards to the so-called "mysteries", as Tigger always say at the end of each episode of "My Friends Tigger and Pooh", "This mystery is history."

And now... leaking ceiling

Adding to the list of woes besetting Level 3 of my office is the newly-found leak on the ceiling in the Executive Chairman's office. When the contractor was called in, he found other leaks on the ceiling.

I wonder, what's next?

Shattered glass picture

As promised, here's the picture of the shattered slab of glass (courtesy of my colleague, En Mat Zailani).

And now... shattered glass

The way my office is designed is such that all the rooms for senior executives have glass walls. This is, according to the boss, to allow for a "transparent" working environment.

I don't have a problem with that policy. However, never in my mind would I ever imagine that one of the glass walls would shatter. But this is exactly what happened yesterday afternoon. Shortly after I left the office to run some errands outside, my colleagues on the second floor heard a sound akin to an explosion. They rushed up to the third floor where my office is located, and to their horror, found one of the glass walls of the room next to mine shattered into a million pieces.

The wall is still standing as I write this entry, but instead of a clean slab of glass, it is now broken into a million pieces, just waiting to crumble. The contractor has been contacted, and he said that there could be a few reasons that caused the glass to shatter. One reason is due to heat. Another reason could be because someone smashed or tried to smash the glass.

The first reason I find to be illogical, because if that was the cause, then all the glass walls in the office would shatter as well. Why only one of the glass walls? Or is this the first of the shattering of other glass walls? If so, then it is certainly cause for worry.

The second reason is unacceptable because I am the only occupant on the third floor at the moment. I certainly did not smash the wall, nor did anybody else. When I leave the office, I would lock the door. Only a handful has access to the third floor which is secured by a security camera. If anyone smashes the glass wall, it would be picked up by the camera.

The contractor did offer a third possible cause. And that is the glass wall had a small crack when they fitted it. That crack was like a time bomb waiting to explode. Many months later, the crack finally shattered the whole glass. I am more inclined towards this explanation. It is more logical and acceptable.

It is certainly strange because the third floor has been problematic many times over. I have blogged about the problems besetting the third floor before. The list of strange and sometimes unexplained occurrences at the office are listed below:

• Flooded floor
  
• Missing watch turning up at the office
  
• Missing electricity supply
  
• Blackout on Level 3
  
• Inaccessible entrance

And all these happened this year since we moved into the new office. While I believe that each occurrence has a logical and scientific explanation, there are those here at the office who offer a more supernatural explanation.

Whatever it is, I hope that these problems would not recur. Not only are these problems causing a headache, some incidents like this shattered glass incident could result in unwanted accidents and may cause injury if one is not careful.

[I will post the picture of the shattered glass wall as soon as I can].

Access denied

Level 3 of my office is proving to be problematic.

Yesterday's electricity outage was resolved today. Apparently, the wiring of one of the air-conditioning units was faulty. When someone switched on any of the lights or air-conditioners, that particular air-conditioning unit would switch on by itself. This was caused by a short circuit in the wiring, and thus resulting the electrical overload that brought about yesterday's blackout.

And when I thought one problem was solved, out came another problem.

After the electrical problem was taken care of, I remained in my office to do my work. At around noon, I had to go down to the Ground Floor to take care of some matters. I left Level 3 by swiping the access card to unlock the door.

When I returned to Level 3, I swiped my access card again, this time to enter the office. Unfortunately, the device could not read my access card. Nor could it read any of the other access cards used by the other staff members. This problem had actually happened before, and both times it occurred right after an electrical supply problem.

We had to call in the subcontractor who undertook the security aspects of the office. When they came in at about 3 p.m., they restored the programming of the security access device. When further tests were done, they told me that the problem was caused by a faulty chip in the device.

With all these problems on Level 3, I wonder what will happen next?

In the dark

I was out of the office for the whole morning. Since I am the only regular occupant of Level 3 (the other is my boss who comes in only when he's in Kuala Lumpur), I have to unlock the doors, as well as switching on the lights and air-conditioner every time I arrive. [And switching them off and locking everything up before I leave].

I only arrived back at the office just after 2 p.m., and as usual I would do all the above. I went into my room, switched on my computer, and just as I was about to settle down, the electricity supply suddenly went off. I heard a "weird" sound just before everything went dark.

I notified my staff of the problem asking them to check what went wrong. I was literally in the dark for a good ten minutes or so. My staff checked the fuse box and noticed that one of the switches had kicked in. So most probably there was an electrical overload at Level 3. My staff switched on the master supply to Level 3 just as my boss arrived. Coincidentally, I went out to take care of some matters at the Ground Floor. And shortly after, the supply was again cut off by the fuse box. According to my boss, he noticed a spark.

We didn't dare to switch on the main supply again for fear of an electrical short circuit or worse still, an electrical fire. We had called the electrician, but he'll only be coming tomorrow morning. Till the problem is solved, I won't be able to operate from my office. I hope the electrician could identify what caused the fuse switch to kick in. Hopefully, it isn't anything serious or major.

Sigh.

I have actually lost track of how many times problems have struck my office rendering me helpless. The new office seems to be problematic from day one. Talk about poor workmanship on the part of the contractor and his subcontractors.

And if the current problem persists, I may just have to work from home tomorrow. Fortunately, my home is just a three-minute walk away.

Case of the missing electricity

Occasionally, weird things happen.

On Wednesday, no one was at the office. I was out attending meetings, the big boss has his things to attend to in Johor, while the rest of the staff were sent for a routine team-building course, this time in Hulu Langat. That Wednesday afternoon, there was a thunderstorm. When I got back to the office around 6.30 p.m., I noticed that power was out. I suspected that our four-storey office could have been hit by lightning, therefore causing a short circuit, hence the circuit breaker kicked in causing the blackout. I called the officer in charge of administration, informing her about the blackout, and she told me that she'll get someone to check things out the next day.

On Thursday, when everyone came in, there was still no light. The circuit breaker did not kick in as I had thought. By 9 a.m., our electrical technicians and building contractor arrived, doing several checks, and found nothing wrong. There was electricity from the complex's main supply into the electrical meter, but somehow there was no electricity going into the office from the meter. One hour later, things remained very much the same. And so, it was decided that all staff were to go home (as we couldn't do anything at the office without electricity), but the working day will have to be replaced on one of the coming Saturdays.

I went home to complete some work that needed to be done. But since my home is very near to the office, I was able to check on things from time to time. By mid-day, a lot more checks were done, and still the mystery couldn't be solved. TNB was called in, and they did checks on the supply to the office, and found nothing wrong. The technicians checked the wiring in the office (all four levels), and found nothing wrong. By the end of the afternoon, everyone was scratching their heads.

My final visit to the office yesterday was at 9.45 p.m. When I got there, my colleague was still there, along with our electrical technicians and building contractor, as well as technicians from TNB. At around 10 p.m., one of the technicians from TNB finally noticed the problem. And the problem was due to a mistake done by the developer's electrical contractor.

Apparently, all this while, we have been paying the electricity bills for the unit next to us (which happens to be vacant). No wonder our bills only amounted to about RM10 all these months. And because of this, our electricity usage was billed to the vacant unit. Since no one occupies the next unit, no one paid for the bills. Because no one was paying, so TNB (following its procedures) cut off the electricity supply.

No one realised this because the labelling at the meters were all mixed-up. The problem was simple, but to get the solution was a herculean task. TNB was kind enough to restore the power supply to our office, as this was not our fault. The developer has been informed and will have to rectify the problem. And the situation returned to normal at about 10.15 p.m.

This is certainly one incident to be remembered: The case of the missing electricity.

Like I remarked at the beginning, occasionally weird things happen. Fortunately, we didn't have to call in Fox Mulder out of retirement.

Who watches the watch?

Sometimes I think I may be losing my mind. Consider the following that happened to me yesterday.

I had some errands to do around the vicinity of Bangsar yesterday afternoon. So, for the Zuhur prayer, I went to Masjid Abu Bakar As-Siddiq. As usual, I would take off my watch when performing the ablution or wudhu'. My habit would be to put the watch inside the left pocket of my trousers - which is also where I place all my keys and believe it or not, thumbdrives. After finishing with the ablution, I went to the prayer hall to perform the Zuhur prayer.

After that is done, I would usually put on my watch again. When I searched for my watch, I couldn't find it in my pocket. Of course, I didn't actually empty my pocket to search for it. That's why at that point in time I didn't think much about not finding my watch. I thought to myself, perhaps it got tangled with all the stuff in the pocket.

When I finished my errands in Bangsar, I went straight home. When I emptied my pocket, my watch is nowhere to be found. Keys - check. Thumbdrives - check. Watch - not there. I was puzzled. I could have sworn I took off my watch and put it in my pocket. I was quite down to say the least. That watch was special as it was a wedding gift from my seafaring brother.

Nonetheless, I didn't give up. Later that evening, I returned to my office to make sure everything is locked up. And I took that opportunity to check whether I actually left my watch at the office. And no watch to be found. Oh, well. I have more or less resigned to the fact that the watch that my brother gave me is now history.

This morning, as usual, I came to the office. After the usual routine of checking and replying my e-mails, glancing through the things I need to get done today, a few phone calls, and other mundane stuff, I suddenly caught a glimpse of something shiny on my table. Lo and behold, it's the watch that I was looking for all afternoon the day before.

I thought that I had my watch with me when I went to Bangsar. I rarely take off my watch at the office, but did I do that yesterday? And like I said before, I remembered taking off my watch when performing the ablution, but did that not happen? Was I imagining things? Am I becoming forgetful? Why didn't I see the watch when I returned to the office yesterday evening?

Really, there are not that many explanations as to what happened.

One, I took off my watch at the office before leaving for Bangsar. It was there on the table all along, and I probably just missed it when I searched for it yesterday evening. But if this was the case, why is it that I cannot shake the image of myself taking the watch off when performing the ablution? The image is so vivid and very real.

Two, I had my watch on with me all the time. I took it off at the masjid as I thought, but most probably misplaced it. That is why I couldn't find it in my pocket or in my office. But if this was the case, who - or what - put it on my table this morning?

Creepy, isn't it?

For possibility number one to happen, that would mean that I have been forgetful or perhaps imagining things. Maybe I forgot to distinguish between reality and fantasy. Having said that, I am worried that similar incidents like this may repeat itself again.

For possibility number two to take place, that would mean that I am reading and writing too many metaphysical stories. It sounded like a scene right out of The X-Files or a page out of a Stephen King's novel. I shudder the thought that what took place was actually this second possibility.

Perhaps, as a dear friend casually reminded me some time last week, I really should take a break. I have not been on holiday in the real sense of the word in years. Maybe that's all that I need.

But why can't I shake off that theme from The X-Files from my ears?

Agony of waiting

While the staff of Yayasan Ilmuwan has settled down (more or less) at the new office, I am still stuck at the old office. It has been three weeks since they moved. Despite reassurance from the contractor, work on Level 3 is still not completed, made worse by the unexpected leakage that occurred recently. All the damage carpet, floorboards and ceiling had to be replaced - and this only prolonged the agony of waiting.

It is most unproductive to have to operate from two premises, ridiculous even. I'm giving them till the end of the week. Come Monday, I will move in - whether my office is fully ready or not.

Dampened spirit

Talk about a damped (damned?) start to the day.

I was supposed to have a meeting at 10 a.m. at Angkasapuri. But my routine dictates that I stop by the office first. Initially I wanted to go straight to the old office, but then I changed my mind by stopping by the new office (where everyone is aside from me... but that's another story).

When I got to the office, one of my staff said that the second level was wet as water was dripping from the ceiling. When I heard that, blood rushed up my head. If water is dripping from the ceiling of Level 2, that means it must be coming from Level 3, which means that Level 3 must be drenched like crazy.

Level 3, by the way, is where my office is situated. I have not yet moved into the new office because renovation is still on-going. But I have already sent most of my books there. There are about 10 boxes of books that was put on the floor in my room.

Imagine my horror when I see water pouring down the roof of Level 3 soaking the new carpet, new floor boards and new furniture. The damage went all the way into my room, and soaked quite a number of my books. It's deja vu all over again as something similar had happened before at the old office.

I lost my mood to work upon seeing the damage done to my books and the office. I immediately made a phone call informing that I was giving the meeting a miss. Even if I did attend the meeting, my mind wouldn't be there.

One of the staff offered to remove the books to a dry place. Another staff started making phone calls. The contractor who is doing the renovation also came by to assess the damage. But most definitely, this is something that the developer of the building will have to take responsibility. My staff are taking care of all that.

At the moment, I am saddened because one of my most valuable possessions - my books - are already damaged. You could say that these books are my life. Just imagine my feelings upon seeing the state the books are in.

What a day..., and I still have to fly to Kuala Terengganu later this afternoon. *sigh*

Forget-me-not

I can't believe that I totally forgot to read the news today. I'll make a quick dash on the Internet afterwards to find out what happened in the last 24 hours or so.

Actually, this was not the only thing I forgot today. This morning at about 7.30 a.m., I received a text message from my radio producer reminding me that I have a slot to fill this morning over at IKIM.fm. I rushed to the office, prepared some material and then dashed off to IKIM at Jalan Duta for the programme which is aired live at 10.30 a.m.

It has been a long but productive day today. I left the office relatively early today at 9.30 p.m. But when I got down from the office, I forgot where I parked my car!

It almost became an unsolved mystery. Talk about a bad case of forgetfulness.

Mystery of Zul-Qarnain

This Monday morning started with a YM chat with Izza Aripin. She was telling me that she watched two movies over the weekend, one on King Arthur and another on Alexander the Great. I will not touch on King Arthur in today's blog entry (I'll let Izza do that in her blog entry). Rather I'll touch on the other king, Alexander the Great.

Many people have often asked who was this Alexander the Great? Was he Iskandar Zul-Qarnain, the king mentioned in the Quran?

Some people believe that Alexander and Iskandar were one and the same, i.e. the king who was known in many cultures as "Iskandar Zul-Qarnain" or "Iskandar Kumara" or "Alexander the Great." This king was known as "Zul-Qarnain" because he wore a head piece with two horns. "Zul-Qarnain" means "two horns." Those who agree that Alexander was Iskandar make a linkage to their names. Iskandar is actually al-Sikandar in Arabic, which is equivalent to Alexander in Greek. There are also some arguments that are put forward to show that Iskandar Zul-Qarnain was the cousin of Nabi Khidir a.s.

Now, there are also those who believe that Alexander and Iskandar were two different people. They note that the characters attributed to Alexander and Iskandar were very different. They also note that the conquest led by Alexander was from the West to the East, while Iskandar was from the East to the West. Those who hold to this view say that Iskandar Zul-Qarnain in actuality was the Persian Emperor, Cyrus.

Something of interest: Even the Indians have a legend on Iskandar Zul-Qarnain. The legend depicts a Hindu God with two horns called "Skanda." You can read more about this here but read it with a pinch of salt.

Trying to figure out whether Alexander was the same person as Iskandar is an interesting topic for discussion, and an endless one at that. I will not go into this, but I'd like to share with everyone that it is the verses in the Quran on Iskandar Zul-Qarnain that piqued my interest to look at Islam and science.

They said: "O Zul-Qarnain! The Gog and Magog (people) do great mischief on earth: Shall we then render thee tribute in order that thou mightest erect a barrier between us and them?" He said: "(The power) in which my Lord has established me is better (than tribute): Help me therefore with strength (and labour): I will erect a strong barrier between you and them. Bring me blocks of iron." At length, when he had filled up the space between the two steep mountain-sides, he said, "Blow (with your bellows)." Then, when he had made it (red) as fire, he said: "Bring me, that I may pour over it, molten lead." Thus were they made powerless to scale it or to dig through it.

[Surah al-Kahfi (18): 94-97]

There have been discussions as to where the barrier that blocked the movement of Gog and Magog (Ya'juj and Ma'juj) is located. This is what got me interested in Islam and science. I studied chemistry, and one of the things that I learnt is that if you combine two metal elements, you will get an alloy. An alloy's characteristic is stronger compared to a metal element.

That is essentially what Iskandar Zul-Qarnain did. He combined liquified iron with molten lead. Iron and lead are both metal elements. When combined, these two metal elements would form an alloy. I realised this about 10 years ago. It is then I knew that there are many more secrets in the Quran waiting for us to discover, and that is why I looked into the issue of Islam and science.

Anyway, coming back to Iskandar Zul-Qarnain, if you're looking for the barrier that blocked Ya'juj and Ma'juj, go look for an alloy barrier.

The haunting

The unexplained happened...

I was doodling away with the intention of adding a few more links to my blog. Then to my horror, the whole sidebar went crazy, as if hit by an earthquake. Since I am lost with HTML codes, I desperately waited for Ned Akechi to be online at YM. It was weird when his YM seemed to be offline when he is virtually online 24-7.

Fortunately, Sezzy got online soon after. I sent a YM message to her... and she managed to get in touch with Ned. Apparently his YM was having some problems. Sezzy had to act as the messenger between Ned and I. I YMed her and she GTalked Ned my message. Told Ned the problem and asked his favour to find out what was wrong.

Then, I remembered... I have Ned's phone number... might as well call him. And called him, I did. But lo and behold, the reception was bad... very bad. And we got cut off, as if something didn't want us to communicate.

So, it's back to square one. I had to rely on Sezzy to be the mediator and messenger. Funny, when I think about it. I'm in KL, YMed Sezzy who's in JB, who then passed the message using GTalk to Ned who is in Tronoh. Physically impossible to do, but thank goodness for the ICT age...

Ned took a look at the HTML codings... couldn't figure out what was wrong initially. But later, he "seemingly" fixed the problem. We refreshed the blog... and everything looks brilliant... for about 3 minutes. After that, the sidebar went crazy again...

So, from KL, I YMed Sezzy who's in JB to find out what was wrong, who then cut and pasted my message using GTalk to Ned who's in Tronoh. Ned who's in Tronoh then replied to Sezzy using GTalk saying that he's baffled, and Sezzy who's in JB cut and pasted Ned's message to me in KL by using YM.

See how tedious things turned out? [Note to self: Must install GoogleTalk]. You get the idea...

Anyhow, we came to the silly conclusion that my blog must be haunted or something, since nothing was wrong with the HTML coding. At this point, we were contemplating of calling the Ghostbusters or the Ghost Whisperer, although Mulder might serve just fine.

*Ahem*

In any case, the ever-illustrious and creative Ned Akechi decided to change the template for my blog. And of course, at this point in time, messages were being typed and cut and pasted and forwarded from KL to JB to Tronoh, and back again from Tronoh to JB to KL. [Imagine if we have to physically drive our car to do this].

The result? This new look for TeropongSkop. Hope you all like it.

A special thanks and appreciation to Ned Akechi and Sezzy who were involved in this rescue mission.

And the lessons learnt?

1. Must install GoogleTalk
2. Must learn at least basic HTML.
3. Next time I want to change something fundamental, get an expert to do it.

Have a nice weekend.

Move along... there's nothing to see here

Just arrived in KL after nearly a 6-hour drive along the PLUS Highway. The drive is normally between 4.5 to 5 hours. But today, it's just like when it is during the festive holidays. Starting from Tapah all the way to Rawang... the volume of traffic was big. The traffic volume was not the real culprit though.

The problem was that along several stretches of the highway, traffic was crawling for no apparent reason. Somewhere after the Sungkai exit, there was no accident. Only a bus with a flat tyre on the other side of the highway. Somewhere after the Lembah Beringin exit, there was no roadblock. Only a car that stopped in the emergency lane, also with a flat tyre. And at several other places, there was nothing there to see anyway, and yet the traffic was painfully slow. And this coming from someone who doesn't exceed the speed limit.

Weird, isn't it? No valid reason for traffic to crawl on the highway. And yet, it crawls. And suddenly, I hear the sound of the X-Files tune ringing in my ears...