Airbus Delivery Centre @ Toulouse Airport

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The Airbus Delivery Centre is where aircraft which are ready for customer final inspection and testing are parked. It is quite remote from the aircraft production facility. The delivery centre is designed and built like a small airport. In fact it’s larger than all but the largest airports in Malaysia!

These are some pictures of the delivery centre model found in the lobby of the building itself. The largest “terminal” is used very high profile deliveries such as the delivery of the first aircraft to a customer. This is typically when the Senior management and VVIPs are present for the handover ceremony. The curved viewing hall affords a great view of the finished product. This terminal also houses immigration and customs facilities so customers may depart directly form the facility after taking possesion of their aircraft.

For subsequent deliveries, the customer aircraft are positioned in the other 3 terminals  (round in shape) connected to the main one. Each of these smaller terminals can handle up to 4 aircraft at any one time. Customers are normally provided with 2 offices each on the first floor of the terminal whilst their respective Airbus representative offices are on the ground floor closest to the aircraft. This means each customer’s office overlooks his own aircraft.

In total the Airbus Delivery Centre can handle up to 13 aircraft at any one time. This makes a lot bigger than most airports in Malaysia.

As most of my work involves paperwork, I am usually in in the terminal building shuffling between main office and the office given to the Malaysian Department Of Civil Aviation surveyors. Above is the view of the aircraft I and the team of 10 other people are here to deliver back to Malaysia Airlines.

The next day whilst sitting in the same office, I caught my first live view of the A380. It was taxing ever so slowly so i was able to take a few snaps of it with my Iphone camera. It really is huge. I hope I get a chance to get up close to it while I am here. Unfortunately the A380 production facility is way over the other side of the airport and put of view from the delivery centre. In fact new Airbus A380’s are delivered to their customers in Hamburg facility where Airbus has built a 2nd such delivery centre.

The Toulouse facility outs the A380 together and then flies it to the hanburg facility where the interior finishing and external painting are done before handing over each finished aircraft to their customers.

The picture above was taken as our team were leaving the facility for the hotel at the end of the first day. It’s the picture of the delivery centre and if you’ll look to the left of the picture you can catch a glimpse of the first A380 ever built.

It was about 8 p.m when we finally pulled up at the hotel but as it was nearly summer, there was still lots of daylight left and I managed to snap this picture of the hotel I was staying at.

First day in Toulouse

I finally arrived in Toulouse yesterday at Noon, 18 hours after leaving KLIA. Arriving in Toulouse our small entourage was greeted by an Airbus staff who took us directly to our hotel. Adagio Parthenon is actually an apartment hotel near the centre of Toulouse and 30 minutes drive from the airport and Airbus production facility.

The hotel reception is actually on the 9th floor. I was checked into room 1206 which faces the city. The apartment has a living room and a kitchenette. The brown sofa you see in the living room folds out into a bed which can sleep another 2 persons. The separate bedroom is small but very comfortable. The apartment is also equipped with a decent  internet connection but no wifi.

Above is the view of  Toulouse from the apartment. As you can see the city has no tall buildings. Most of the buildings in this part of the city are apartments and about 4 to 5 stories high. It is because of this that I have a commanding view of the city. By contrast, if this was Hong Kong, I’d be surrounded by tall buildings and my view limited to a few hundred metres if not just metres.

After a brief rest and a shower, we went out for lunch. En. Kamal of the DCA took us to a Kebab restaurant nearby the hotel. Here  you can have your lanb kebab with cheese or plain nan and/or fries. I ordered a kebab with plain nan bread and fries. Total cost was Euro 5.70 with a bottle of water . They don’t give you a plate. The fries comes wrapped together with the meat in the nan bread.

After lunch we took a walk around the city. Toulouse is a very old city and it shows in the buildings. The architechture is gothic. presently we entered a square in the middle of the city where we came by a mime performing for money.

All his belongings are in the trolley which doubles up as a pedestal. I watched him for a good 5 minutes before moving on. What you’ll notice immediately about Toulouse are the people sitting around the square, public parks and sidewalk cafes. It was 3.30 p.m on a weekday and it seems that nobody was working!

Today, I’ll be going to Airbus Industrie at the airport.

First Time in First

I’ve been in the airline business for nearly 22 years and work in two countries for two different companies but never have I had the privilege of flying in first class.
Tonight will mark a few firsts for me. It’ll be the first time I fly in first class and also the first time I am traveling to pick up a brand new aircraft from a production plant.
I am heading for the Airbus Factory in Toulouse, France via Amsterdam.
Firs class travel is a whole world of difference from economy. Before I even get a chance to sit I am asked if I wish to have a drink.
Earlier on I had the chance to use the first class lounge operated by the airline in the airport. It was superb. Ok they have closed the air raft doors and we are about to push back so I’ll have to continue this post when I arrive in about a day’s time.

Two “Egg”traordinary

Never count your chicken until the are hatched, so goes the old saying. I saw this on Yahoo today and thought it was really bizarre. Nature really is unpredictable.

I wonder if both the eggs would have hatched and how the chicks would have looked like. I guess we would never know now.

A Good Lesson to Remember

Since coming back from my holiday in Hong Kong I have been a little slack in updating my blog. I admit being too caught up with work. I have taken loads of pictures, had lots of ideas but never got down to writing.

Then today a friend and colleague of mine emailed me a story which I thought was very appropriate not only for restarting my posts but for the times we live in.

The Money is yours but the resources belong to the Society

Germany is a highly industrialized country. It produces top brands like Benz, BMW, Siemens etc. The nuclear reactor pump is made in a small town in this country.
In such a country, many will think its people lead a luxurious life. At least that was my impression before my study trip.

When I arrived at Hamburg, my colleagues who work in Hamburg arranged a welcome party for me in a restaurant. As we walked into the restaurant, we noticed that a lot of tables were empty. There was a table where a young couple was having their meal. There were only two dishes and two cans of  beer on the table. I wondered if such simple meal could be romantic, and  whether the girl will leave this stingy guy.

There were a few old ladies on another table. When a dish is served, the waiter would distribute the food for them, and they would finish every bit of the food on their plates.

We did not pay much attention to them, as we were looking forward to the dishes we ordered. As we were hungry, our local colleague ordered more food for us.

As the restaurant was quiet, the food came quite fast. Since there were other activities arranged for us, we did not spend much time dining. When we left, there was still about one third of unconsumed food on the table.

When we were leaving the restaurant, we heard someone calling us. We noticed the old ladies in the restaurant were talking about us to the restaurant owner. When they spoke to us in English, we understood that they were unhappy about us wasting so much food. We immediately felt that  they were really being too busybody.

“We paid for our food, it is none of your business how much food we left behind,” my colleague Gui told the old ladies.

The old ladies were furious. One of them immediately took her hand phone out and made a call to someone. After a while, a man in uniform from the Social Security organization arrived. Upon knowing  what the dispute was, he issued us a 50 Mark fine.

We all kept quiet. The local colleague took out a 50 Mark note and repeatedly apologized to the officer.

The officer told us in a stern voice, “ORDER WHAT YOU CAN CONSUME, MONEY IS YOURS BUT RESOURCES BELONG TO THE SOCIETY. THERE ARE MANY OTHERS IN THE WORLD WHO ARE FACING SHORTAGE OF RESOURCES. YOU HAVE  NO REASON TO WASTE RESOURCES.´”

Our face turned red. We all agreed with him in our hearts. The mindset of people of this rich country put all of us to shame. WE REALLY NEED TO REFLECT ON THIS. We are from  country which is not very rich in resources. To save face, we order large quantity and also waste food when we give others a treat. THIS LESSON TAUGHT US A LESSON TO THINK SERIOUSLY ABOUT CHANGING OUR BAD HABITS.

My colleague Photostatted the fine ticket and gave a copy to each of us as a souvenir. All of us kept it and pasted on our wall to remind us that we shall never be wasteful.

-end-

I really do not know who wrote this story but it is so true of Malaysians nowadays. We indulge in expensive buffet dinners, hardly finishing the food on our plates before going for seconds and thirds. We leave our engines running while waiting for someone to arrive. We do not bother to report a leaking tap or broken toilets.

“Waste Not, Want Not”, goes the famous Engilsh Idiom. The meaning goes somewhat like this, “if you are not wasteful (of food, resources, money etc), you’ll probably not end up lacking the same”

Hong Kong . . . .

It’s been 6 years since I left this wonderful city and now I am back again. This time  for a relatively short 8 day holiday with plans to meet up with old friends, shopping and least but not last, to do a bit of hiking. Not known to many people, Hong Kong is actually a great place for outdoor sporting activities and of these I love hiking the most.

The pictures above shows you two different faces of Hong Kong. One is of the district of Mongkok, probably the heart of the shopping district and another the the coutryside as seen from a hiking trail on Lantau Island. I loved them both.

After I started this blog I had wanted to write about Hong Kong but I thought it would have been inappropriate as I was no longer livng in this city that never sleeps. Yes I can attest to this, the city or at least what the world understands as Hong Kong never sleeps. I could find food, entertaiment and transport any time of day. I could find busses to take me from the Airport where I worked to my home which was in North New Territories even at 3 a.m in the morning.

Now that I am back, I thought I would start writng about Hong Kong and my experiences while I was staying here. This post will be the start of my Hong Kong series.

White Water Rafting Part 1

Can anybody guess what I was doing here (again) today? It started off as a rainy Sunday and remained that way throughout the day. A great day if you planned on getting soaking wet!

The full story and more pictures later.

Ok so where was I?

Sunday morning saw us driving off North to toward the sleepy town of Kuala Kubu Baru. I wasn’t doing the driving but the navigating . . . withthe help of a GPS unit. I decided we would bypass the town of Rawang and use a little known route which is supposed to be scenic. Well, it wasn’t really but still it was much faster and offered some interesting views. The rain had by this time eased into a drizzle and Beadon decided to open the sunroof. for the rest of the journey. It was really nice to get a blast of cool wet wind in your face. really woke me up that.

This town was once one of  the main stopovers on the route from Kuala Lumpur to Ipoh. Nowadays the town is a sleepy hollow except for weekends  holiday makers on the way to Fraser’s Hill stopover to have some breakfast. It’s also a meeting point for those who have come here to do some white water rafting. There were scant few restaurants open in this town on a Sunday. We found two that were open, one a modern mamak style restaurant which you normally find in the Klang Valley and the other a Malay restaurant across the road. Beadon decided to go for the quaint Malay restaurant. It so happens that this restaurant is also owned by the couple En. Piee and Kak Ros, who runs the outdoor adventure company that is taking us white water rafting today. The nasi lemak here is simple but very taste. Almost like homemade. After paying our bills we headed on foot to the post office where Piee was already waiting. Apart from our group of 18 he had another 34 people who had paid him to take them white water rafting, making it a total of 52! We waited for half an hour for the whole group to arrive but by 9.45 there were still some who had not made it.

I told Piee that i would take my group on ahead to see the river from the bridge nearby the starting or drop in point. he okayed it and off we went.

The rain had picked up again by the time we reached the bridge but that did not stop some of us form leaving our cars and having a peak at the river. As expected it looked terrifyingly dangerous from way up here. After a brief stop we headed to the drop in point and waited for the rest of the group.

 

Surprise find on Guthrie Highway

Early this morning found me on a flyover overlooking the Guthrie Highway in Shah Alam. I was supposed to meet up with Arnaiz and Beadon at 7 a.m at the Bulit Jelutong Golf Club for a ride on the Guthrie Highway but it turns out that they were a little late or I was early. Since I had already parked my car and got my bicycle ready, I decided to ride out to the highway and see if i can take a few good pictures. The Iphone’s camera is generally quite good but doesn’t perform quite well in low lighting condition as was this morning. The sky was overcast and looked like it was goigng to rain again. It’s been at least 6 to 8 months since I last rode this route on my bicycle and I was really doubtful I could make the 42 or so kilometres.

I was right, I was not physically prepared for this ride. I wonder who designed this highway? The Guthrie Highway is far from flat. There is hardly a stretch which isn’t hilly. But with perseverance and pain, I maanged to reach the abandoned flyover at the northern end of the highway.

While I waited for my two riding companions to arrive (yes I made it to the end first woohoo!) I enjoyed my mini snickers bar which I had brought along. It was well that i brought them along as I was feeling rather hungry. Soon Arnaiz showed up and not long after Beadon joined us. After a short rest we made our way back.

That was when we came across a surprise find. As we were cycling back south, a highway patrol officer overtook us on his motorbike with sirens flashing. i had thought there was a nasty accident up ahead. Then a few minutes later we came across the officer, his bike parked to one side of the motorbike lane, lights still flashing.

As we passed, I saw that he was standing over a dead wild boar. it was still intact but obviously dead. I turned around to take some pictures and my friends did the same.  It must have been trying to cross the highway sometime during the night when it was hit by a motor vehicle. I guess it had tried  to find it’s way back to the palm oil estate bordering the highway when it succumbed to it’s injuries. Beadon told me these creatures were very tough and it takes a lot to bring one down. He must be right as there were no signs of trauma to the carcass except for a bruise on it’s right forelimb.

Arnaiz lamented the lack of a knife. Hahaha, as if he wasn’t looking much like a pig himself lately without the need to consume one! We had a chat withthe officer who was soon joined by his colleagues driving a pickup truck. Since they were all Muslims, none of them touched the boar. One of us asked how they would dispose of the carcass and they said they had called a few friends who would do the needful! Ha, too bad guys, someone has got dibs on this one. I wonder how much this boar would fetch on the market?

With the wild boar pictures taken, we continued our journey back to our cars.

Bukit Putih

With a little planning, Tzy Wen, Han Kiat and I found ourselves at the foot of Bukit Putih in Cheras at 7 a.m. The plan was to hike up to the top of Bukit Putih. I had found this hiking trail while trolling the internet for hiking routes around Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Only after taking the first few pictures during the hike did I realise that i made the wrong choice of lenses. With the canopy of trees blocking out whatever sunlight there was on the rather gloomy morning,, the lens I selected for the hike was not fast enough. So i apologize for the blurry pictures I will be posting here.

Bukit Putih is located smack in the middle of a housing estate in Cheras, a large suburb of Kuala Lumpur!  It offers hikers a 2 hour hike a waterfall or so I read from the internet. We were about to find out. More on the hike later.

I have yet to sleep since returning form the hike at noon. So it’s time for some well earned rest.

Sunday @ Kota Damansara

Hooked on cycling once again, I decided to ask Tzy Wen to accompany me for a bicycle ride and surprisingly he said yes! For those of you who know him, Tzy Wen is normally a very busy person with lots of things to do and places to go. So early this morning I found myself in front of his house with my bicycles (Tzy Wen does not own a bicycle …yet).

We had decided we would do a short ride to Kota Damansara and have breakfast at the McDonald’s there. We nearly did not make it out of his housing estate as the tube I replaced earlier on explode3d with a big bang, the result of improper installation by yours truly. Having no other tube, we had to repair the original tube which had suffered a puncture. some 20 minutes later, we were off.

Hungry, Tzy Wen decided that breakfast was first on the agenda. While I guarded the bikes, he went in and bought the both of us a light breakfast.

At first I suggested we head for a bicycle shop I knew of to buy some spare tubes just in case the bicycles suffered another puncture. But we found the shop had since closed for good. We then headed for the centre of the new Kota Damansara township on our bicycles and found it quite busy for a Sunday morning. So we decided to head on home. On the way there Tzy Wen lead us to a part of Kota Damansara where people used to fly remote controlled aircraft on the weekends. No more open field’s there, instead there were  new buildings, including the sprawling Segi College and many new apartments and factories.

While cycling past one of the new apartments we noticed a lake that wasn’t there before. We decided to investigate. That’s the beauty of being on a bicycle, it allows you access to almost any place you wish to go. There was a jogging path around the lake which afforded us an easy ride.

Here you can see a raised platform or jetty built on the lake. We found a few men fishing from it. A few gazebos built on the platform afforded some seating and shelter from the weather. Tzy Wen said that it would make a great place for a barbecue but also noted a lack of barbecue pits.

Toward the other side of the lake was a new development comprising 3 storey luxury homes. We later Googled it and found that each design had 7 rooms and 7 baths and cost a whopping RM 4 million! definitely out of my league. What would I do with 7 rooms and 7 baths anyway?

By the end of our ride we had covered almost 30 kilometres. Thanks for the company and breakfast Tzy Wen. Let’s try to do this again next weekend.