The Adventure of Lutfi : Part 2

In the first week of my Practical, we were asked to retag the bats. Take em out from their old jar, jot down their info and transfer into a new jar containing 75% alcohol. Then there's this National Seminar on Protected Areas. where scientists were gathered to present their papers. We did the painting for fences, toilet and the parking lines. Clean up the rooms. Setting up the venue. Registration. Everything, u name it. I, a so-called IIUM student, even given the task to recite du'a for the opening ceremony, an hour before it started! so ad-hoc. Luckily I could mix some Malay in the du'a :p

The second week, we went for an inventory at Tembat Forest Reserve, Tasik Kenyir, Terengganu. Yepyep! A field trip! A fun one too! I love the small creatures rather than the big ones. So, I volunteered to do entomology or the study of insects. I learnt how to use scoop and light traps to catch insects, and to preserve them using ethyl acetate. The most important thing is to pin them on the board neatly and beautifully. There were so many types of insects with various shapes and colors. They were amazing!

I went to Jenderak Selatan (also in Pahang) for Wild Gaur (Seladang) observation. Finally got to see and touch a real Seladang! They were created wearing white socks :p
Went into the Krau forest a few times for frogging and for set up of traps. Frogging was done at night. When will I ever have another chance to walk inside the forest at night! Cool!
Got involved in programmes with high school students. Really had fun with them!
The only boring things were the databases. Damn. Yes, they're important. But yes again, they were indeed boring. U'll even got bored watching others doing it.

The best was the setting up for Jungle River Ecology Program at Merapoh, one of the main entrance into Taman Negara. All 14 IKB's practical students went there, accompanied by 6 'sempoi' staffs went there. Oh, 2 practical students from Elephant Conservation Centre also joined us. We did night observation, looking for nocturnal animals. We did sample plotting - plot a 200mx200m sampling area with smaller 20mx20m quadrants in it. In other words, 100 small squares in a big square. We exprienced tubing! - Sit on a big tyre tube and float along the river for about more than 1km. Now that's a real new experience! Another wonderful experience was the trail mapping - We walked a trail, plot the stations, take bearings at each turn, measure the trail's length, record down the animal signs and tracks, plus the prominent plants and herbs. We made a map of the trail from the information gathered! Hell yeah! uhuk2...Alhamdulillah :) ... We also went to the Kelah sanctuary, feed them, up close and personal! Got up onto the observation tower and had a mesmerizing view of the Taman Negara, plus the Gunung Tahan!

Well, those are some of my working experience, summarized version :) Dunno what's wrong, but can't upload the pics. Next time, perhaps (^_^)V

The Adventure of Lutfi: Part 1

I think I want to do a few entries regarding my industrial training or some people call it practical training. This will be the first one. It was a great experience, one of the best I had in my life! The experience, the place, the people i met and the priceless friendship bonded between me and other practical trainees.

All four of us - Fauzan, Ati, Kak Sofie, and me of course - agreed to meet in UIA so that we can go to our practical place together. We need to register on 12th April. And yes, Ati and Kak Sofie have the cars - a Kancil and a Satria, Fauzan and I need transportations, they can't drive 'em (yet), so we were the drivers. That's one of the reasons. But I guess even if we had our own transportations, it would be best if we went there together :)

Ok, let's start the journey from my hometown, Kuala Terengganu. It was 10th April. I didn't have to pack much since most of my stuffs were still in UIA. But I did carry with me a big bag, or is it called luggage bag? nevermind, u get what i mean, rite? If u still don't understand, it's a bag - period.

My 5th bro and his spouse were also there at home. And they're also going back to KL at the same night, only a little bit late. My bus was at 9pm. or was it 10pm? bad memory :p Not wanting to waste my ticket, I still got myself on that bus instead of going back with my bro.

So, there I was, in that bus. Sutera. I sat on the right column of the seatings, near the window too. The bus was half an hour late! Even worse, something wrong with the door it couldn't close properly. It also stopped at a few places to pick up people. It stopped to fix the damn door too. I started to wonder what the heck is wrong with this bus. I think the bus began its REAL journey to KL around 11pm. But the weirdest part, the most unusual part is, I can't sleep! I've tried my hardest to sleep, called Mr. Sandman so many times, but failed miserably! :p You know, usually I'd be in deep slumber, at most, half an hour after a bus moves (My closest friends would know this for a fact :p). That night, it was already 2-3 hours after the tyre started to roll, and I wasn't even sleepy!

The bus was moving fast. Tapi nak kata laju sgt pun tak jugak, biasa la kan. It's a straight road. And suddenly there's a detour to the left due to some stupid construction that didn't put any notice. They did put notice, but only exactly at the detour! So, the bus driver did what any other sane driver in the world would do. Brake!!! I could hear the sound of the tyre-road friction! I thought to myself:"Wow...this is so cool...takkan bas ni nak accident kut..." then again:"nah...tak mungkin lah." The bus slowed down already. So it's safe. Soon after that, GEDEGANG!!! The bus i was on got hit from behind. My bus swirved to the left, off the road... yes...off the road...

Off the road...I said to myself:"ok..." A split second after that, it started to turn upside down from its left side. I quickly reach my hands out to the front seat and grab it (teruja jugak dgn reflex saya sniri). I said to myself again:"Wow!...this is so cool!" As a matter of fact, I was smiling at that time :) On second thought:"bas ni jatuh dalam gaung ke....hmm...don't care if I do die..". If it was meant for me to die in such a tragedy, then die I will. There's nothing else I could but to hold on tightly to the front seat.

Luckily, the bus stopped turning after about 120 degree. And I was hanging on the front seat, the right side of the front seat. My feet didn't touch any ground. I chose to keep hanging since I might fall down on other people down there. Hey, the guy beside me wasn't in his place anymore! Regardless of other people's situation, that's one of the sweetest moment in my life. And again, I said to myself:"Wow, this is soo cool!... Sooo cool!! (I really couldn't stop saying it)...Oh, lupa plak...Alhamdulillah selamat..." Memang teruja gila masa tu. Ingat nak kata Alhamdulillah coz terlibat dgn kemalangan, but I thought it won't be fair for others who might get serious injury. But seriously, I was grateful.

Then, somebody told me to come down. Dah turun tu baru nampak sikit macam mana keadaannya. I was like in my own world up there hanging :p And of coz, a lot of people were panic. Heard a lot of screaming too, not because they are hurt, but just because the're panic. So I stood there for a while, watching the scenery. Then I sat down on the place where u put the bags on the bus, continue enjoying the show. I know it's rude to say that I was enjoying the show. It's actually like when u're really amaze with something, u just stood there, amazed. I sat there and thought to myself:"Wow...I'm in a real bus accident...me...here...bus accident...I can't believe this...it actually happens...to me...at last!" (Remember the entry about me putting a hole on the 'cadar'...haha...yes, that's what i'm talking about!)

I was in my own world again, until a woman called me and asked me to help her get her bag out. Even cooler, I went out through the windscreen!! Can you believe that?! Well, I don't know whether it broke coz of the accident or somebody simply broke it.

Another bus, transnational, was in front of my bus, but unlike my bus, it's still on its tyres. The area was actually near mangrove. I even stepped in the mud. And I just washed my shoes 2 days before. Darn. Luckily there are few parts of solid ground. The place where we fell, it's about 5 metres down from the road. From the bus driver, I was told that the Transnational didn't manage to brake and hit our bus. I looked around, nobody seemed to got hurt. Most of them looked fine. And there's nothing much I can help either. I really looked around to help but really couldn't find any...I wonder why myself. This is an accident. There must be someone who needed help. But seriously, everyone looked fine. Everybody was asking:"Where are we?" I asked the same question too. Last2 dapat tau ada dekat2 dengan Dungun.

Then I called my mom to tell her i'm safe. I really felt guarded that night, by The One up there. Everything went smooth though I was in an accident. Didn't even got myself a scratch! And my bro was on his way back to KL too. Called him to pick me up! Then the ambulance and bomba arrived. They sure were fast. Kagum2. Then, orang2 yang dah takde apa2 disuruh naik ke jalan besar. Even called 'her' and have a chat while waiting for my bro :p My bro datang siap amik2 gambar lagi. Cam datang trip plak.

Nobody in my bus got serious injury. Unfortunately for the Transnational's they seem to have more injury than us, although from the looks of our buses, the Sutera seemed to be more seriously damaged. Cakap kat orang ramai yg datang tengok kat situ, saya penumpang bas Sutera tu. Mata dia terbeliak macam tak percaya. Haha. Then off we go, to KL. The next day, met with others and we started our journey to Institut Kepelbagaian Biologi, Lanchang, Pahang!

Read newspapers few days after, at my practical place (^_^)V, I was glad that nobody died in that tragedy :) Alhamdulillah...

Why the heck does Lutfi blogs?

I haven't updated my blog for quite some times now. Was it 3 months? Yep yep, 3 months. If you included my last two entries into account, then another month or two should be added. I was busy? yes. I wasn't in a good mood? true. But hey, don't take it literally. Coz I'm always in a good mood (^_^)v It's just that I wasn't in the mood for blogging.

Within these months, a set of question popped up in my mind - why blog? what's the purpose of me blogging? Why am I exposing myself, my life, to others?

I know that the reason for some people to blog is to convey their opinions to others.That's what bloggers normally blog for. Some others use blogs as their diaries, jotting down every ups and downs, with tears of sadness and happiness as well. Their grandchildren might be reading their entries 50 years later :)

But of course, some people say that if you're a great person, you should be blogging about bigger issues, global problems, at least a country-level issues. Yes, it is true. too.

So, again, why am I blogging? You know, if I, myself, asked myself, or if i being asked that question by others, then my answer would be 'I, myself, do not know why'. Or maybe the answer would be 'I just feel like doing it, just for the sake of doing it' All the reasons could come later. Whether it is a way for me to convey my ideas, or it is my diaryor whether it is totally a waste of time, I don't care.

Nonetheless, I do hope my readers out there somewhere got a small chunk of benefit, if not more, from what i wrote here, in this humble blog of mine - Scandals in Lutfi's Life. At least, I am sharing my life with you as a friend. There you go, i finally have the answer for my question previously. I blog so that I can share my life with my friends! Thank you for stopping by, friends :) And of course, I will have another update soon! Soon...but not very soon... :p

LIFE IS GREAT!!