“Red On! Stand By The Door!”

Paradrop from a C-130H

It was one very early January morning in 1989. I was the first jumper in my “stick.” The rear ramp of the DHC-4 Caribou had opened, and I could see the Strait of Malacca as the aircraft banked left sharply, aligning itself with the Alor Setar airport’s runway.

I looked below. The houses suddenly looked small from 1,000 feet. I have travelled the world in airplanes prior to that, but on that day, I was watching the houses without the protection of an aircraft’s fuselage.

“Periksa kelengkapan! (Check equipment!)” shouted the Jumpmaster. So we checked our equipment while screaming out the name of each item: topi keledar (helmet), Capewell (Capewell release system), penyangkuk dada (chest hook), penyangkuk cadangan (reserve chute hook), tangkai cadangan (reserve chute ripcord), penyangkuk kaki (thigh fastener), ikatan tengah pack (middle pack tie) – this is when we check the middle pack tie of the jumper in front…on this occassion I was silent because I was front most; tali statik terkait (static line hooked).

The “traffic lights” (jump lights near the ramp door) were still out. Then we had to say out that our equipment was ready and we were ready to be dropped. Three minutes out, the Jumpaster shouted out the final jump brief above the din of the Caribou’s engines:

“Dengar sini semua sekali! Lampu merah berdiri di pintu, lampu hijau keluar pesawat! Keluar dalam keadaan compact! Kira Satu Ribu, Dua Ribu, Tiga Ribu, CHECK! Sekiranya payung tak kembang atau payung kembang tak baik, pandang, pegang dan tarik tangkai cadangan! Tarik rigging line di sisi, ambil kedudukan mendarat, mendarat dengan selamat, lapor kepada DZSO (Drop Zone Safety Officer). Sekiranya payung kembang dengan baik, buat pemeriksaan sekeliling. Ambil kedudukan para! 150 kaki, menghadap angin! 30 kaki ambik kedudukan mendarat! Mendarat di atas 5 titik pendaratan! Buat HR and D (Harness Release and Dragging) dengan pantas, lapor kepada DZSO.”

Once the aircraft has stabilised, and it is on the jump run, the Jumpmaster shouts out the final command:

“Lampu merah berdiri di pintu! Lampu hijau keluar pesawat! Sesiapa yang enggan terjun akan dihadapkan ke Mahkamah Tentera! (On the red, stand by the door! On the green, exit the aircraft! If you refuse to jump, you will be brought before a Courts Martial!)”

Then the traffic light’s Red came on.

“Berdiri di pintu!” came the command.

I edged two steps with my right hand holding onto the static line, my left hand by the side of my reserve chute. The whole world looked awfully huge and things below were so small. I could make out the motorcycle lights of kampung folks going out to work, or to the market. I stole a look at the traffic light, dreading the moment it would turn green.

Then the inevitable happened. The light turned green. The Caribou’s rear ramp wasn’t big, as compared to the ones on the C-130H, but I remember I took six steps to walk to the edge, and I had an assisted exit – the Jumpmaster kicked me out of the aircraft.

I remember I did not count. I just closed my eyes. Bad! My intestines were all left inside the aircraft and I was falling at a rate of 100 feet per second. Three seconds later I heard the flutter of the ripstop nylon canopy and took a deep breath.

I did 51 more of those static line jumps, the last was on January 3rd 1993 at what is now the RMAF Base, Gong Kedak. Dislocated my shoulder once, injured my elbows twice, twisted my ankles after a hard landing on the tarmac, before I advanced to do freefall jumps. I’ve jumped with mortar boards, M-16A4 (predecessor of the M-4 Bushmaster), the Steyr AUGA1.

In total I have 642 jumps including my freefall jumps and the jump at the North Pole, but excluding my BASE jumps as I cannot log them onto my freefall log book.

Yes, I am missing those days when I was still in uniform. Had I not listened to my ex, I could have been a Lieutenant Colonel by now. Then again, had I not listened to her, I wouldn’t have been able to meet all the wonderful friends I have made along the way since leaving the service.

Time to don white uniform now…with white shoes.

Posting Yang Ke 1694

Apa ni bil telefon tinggi?

Kadangkala aku berasa hairan apa yang difikirkan oleh Jejaka Kepala Batas yang gambarnya tertera di atas.

Mungkin gambar di atas membayangkan beliau begitu risau dengan bil telefon yang semakin meningkat. Atau mungkin kertas di hadapannya itu adalah kad laporan sikap budak berkulit hitam yang biasa dilihatnya bermain-main dengan cucunya…kebiasaannya apabila dengan kehadiran para paparazzi dan papa orang lain juga asalkan mereka memegang kamera.

Bukan senang Jejaka Kepala Batas ini hendak mengharungi hidup sebagai seorang memanda menteri yang mempunyai kurang dari 2/3 kuasa optimanya. Kalau mengikut lumrah Ultraman Dyna, sekiranya tidak berhati-hati maka lampu merah di dadanya akan berkelip sambil mengeluarkan bunyi yang amat annoying sebab belum dapat dikalahkan seterunya, dah kena TAKE FIVE selama 3 minit untuk commercial break untuk ambik nafas dan memberi masa untuk lampu merah kembali bertukar menjadi biru. Belum sempat berehat sejenak, kalau dulu beliau dapat memberi tumpuan penuh kepada kerja, kini terpaksa juga beraksi di ranjang.

Kilang baru la katakan.

Mungkin juga kena makan pil biru untuk mempercepatkan nyalaan lampu biru tersebut.

Pil biru
Ini boleh kasi hilang itu bunyi NI NOR NI NOR NI NOR dan lampu tukar dari merah ke biru semula

Ketatnya baju ni...
“Bro, lu rasa wa nampak gemuk tak pakai baju ni? Lu story tau! Jangan tak story sama wa!”

Adakah itu menjadi punca kemelut politik yang ada dinihari? Mungkin beliau hilang tumpuan terhadap keperluan pentadbiran hinggakan beliau memberi kebebasan kepada budak berkulit hitam yang tidak menyokong HINDRAF itu untuk mempercatur dan mempertaruhkan masa hadapan rakyat.

Disebabkan kealpaannya itu, maka Jejaka Kepala Batas kini dihadapi dengan lebih banyak kemelut politik terutamanya dalam parti KERIS yang diterajuinya.

Nasib baik beliau adalah merupakan Presiden parti tersebut. Dan sebagai Presiden, cara yang paling baik untuk beliau tangani kemelut politik ini adalah dengan cara yang biasa beliau ambil untuk menyelesaikan masalah-masalah lain:

Tidur
“Tidoq lagi baguih…lepaih ni kena tukaq nama jadi GUS DUR (baGUS tiDUR)”

Redeem

Mabul Island

I was going through my photo albums and looked at the Sipadan pics. I remember I still have several free dive trips to redeem but I still don’t know when to redeem them. And the Perhentian guys have been pestering me to go and dive there. It’s been half a year since my last visit to the Perhentians. How fast time flies.

If it weren’t for this one week job that I have to do, I would have made plans to go to either Perhentian or Redang. I really need to go up that way for a change. Now it’s almost impossible, with only one weekend free in April. Second weekend I have to go for a technical dive trip to the Dutch subs and HMS Banka. End of the month I will be going on the liveaboard trip to the Gyoshin Maru and the Nichi Asu Maru wrecks, followed by another technical trip to the HMS Repulse the following week. Mid May I will be going up north for a weekend. I will definitely have to attend another course in June in preparation for an even deeper dive in October.

And I really need to spend 6 days in Sipadan to redeem my free trip there. And the December muck-dive trip there sounds very interesting. It is time I get a wet attachment macro lens for that trip.

And strobes…

It’s Always Like That

It has always been that way. Always avoiding each other for fear of hurting one another, fear of getting hurt more than how we were hurt then. The easiest is always to say with hindsight that it would have been better for us to have been together from then on; but maybe we would not appreciate each other as we do now.

We were always heading in the same direction, but were on different track of pain; we were always close to each other but were always far apart. We were always talking to each other, but it was always in silence. We were always crying together, but always alone.

It is time to stopped being sad, be on the same track, head the same direction

It’s time to walk this little path of life, on the last leg of its little journey.

It’s time to be happy together. Time to discover.

Where Malayan Sailors Died

Sadly I do not have photos of the British minesweeper, HMS Banka. She was sunk by Japanese torpedo action during the opening phase of the Second World War in the Pacific theater.

Names of local sailors like Abdullah bin Badrom, Arshad Bin Ambi, Din bin Ali, Junid Bin Isa, Adnan Bin Hahran, Madar Bin Bakong, Minsuri Bin Malik, Jantan Bin Repin, are now etched on a name list on the HMS Banka memorial in Liverpool, England.

She now rests in waters between 55 meters to 60 meters deep.

I will be away working underwater from the 31st March until 6th April. I plan to go on a 6-men trip to the HMS Banka on the 11th April, to return on the 13th. It would be a good practise for me before I go to the wreck of the battlecruiser HMS Repulse end of April.

Apart from the HMS Banka, we will also be diving the Dutch submarines, the O-16 and the K-17. Both were lost to mines off Tioman on the same day the HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse sank.

Sadly, I do not have pictures of the HMS Banka, but below are pics of the O-16 and K-17.

Dutch sub O-16
The O-16

The hatch of the O-16 now
The hatch of the O-16 now

O-16 conning tower
The conning tower of the O-16 wrapped in fishing nets

Dutch sub K-XVII
Dutch submarine K-17 (K-XVII)

Deck gun of the K-XVII
Deck gun of the K-17

Down the hatch
Looking down the hatch of the K-17

Kau Nak Apa Wahai Betina Berambut Perang?

Mocha - MOR-KA, bukan MOR-CHA, bahalol

Melayu bodoh.

Dalam pemikiran aku sambil aku memandu selepas makan tengahari tadi, aku tak akan kahwin dengan perempuan melayu lagi. Kalau perempuan melayu pun, janganlah beliau berfikir dan mempunyai sikap seperti seorang perempuan melayu.

Aku sedang berhenti dalam suatu kesesakan lalulintas berhampiran tempat Yummy Baby menimba rezeki apabila sebuah motorsikal yang begitu ghairah mencilok apabila si bahalol ini terpaksa menekan brek kecemasan. Akibatnya, cermin sisinya terhantuk sedikit di belakang kereta ku menyebabkan cerminnya itu berderai. Dengan muka bengis si bahalol ini memberhentikan motorsikalnya di sisi pintu aku sambil memandang aku dengan marah. Lantas aku membuka cerminku sambil bertanya dalam nada paling sesuai dan mimik muka yang paling afdhal dari Shafie Afdal, “OI BUTOH! APAHAL TENGOK? DAH LANGGAR ORANG MENGAKU AJELAH SALAH! DASAR MAK MAIN DENGAN BABI DAPAT ANAK SIAL MACAM NI.” Dengan segera si bahalol yang kononnya nak tunjuk betapa rempitnya beliau, terus memecut dari situ tanpa memandang beakang.

Aku memang sinis hari ini. Sinis dan bengis.

Nasib baik aku baru sudah makan tengahari dalam suasana gembira. Kalau tidak, memang aku kerjakan si bahalol tu.

Lantas aku pun tuju ke Uptown. Melihat keadaan cuaca hari ini, walaupun ada seseorang itu mempunyai tahap kelembapan yang amat tinggi pada hari ni, namun suhu di luar menunjukkan 36 darjah Celcius, panas terik, kering kontang, aku pun menghantar kereta aku untuk dibasuh setelah pagi tadi aku terlihat kereta aku hampir berwarna perang dan tidak lagi hitam. Setelah meninggalkan kereta aku di tempat cuci kereta, aku menapak menuju ke Kedai Kopi Bintang Duit. Di sini ada wifi, maka tak perlu aku gunakan 3G card aku sepertimana aku gunakan komputer riba aku setiap kali aku terperangkap dalam kesesakan lalulintas.

Sedang aku beratur, aku terlihat sebuah tubuh mungil di hadapanku; memakai skirt yang pendek, berambut perang, berdada besar sambil memakai baju yang menampakkan lurah dendamnya. Dalam tangannya adalah sebuah tas tangan Salvatore Ferragamo, dan dia bertutur dalam Bahasa Inggeris yang caca-merba tetapi dengan slang yang boleh menyebabkan orang tua berumur 90 tahun beraksi di atas ranjang seperti seekor kaldai yang amat horny.

“What would you like to have, ma’am?” tanya gadis 80 kilo di belakang counter.

“Can you give my furr-riend heer a Larr-tay and I want a More-Char,” jawabnya dengan penuh kematsallehannya.

“I’m sorry, you want more what?” tanya gadis 80 kilo dengan penuh kehairanan.

More-Char, you know? More-Char? It’s derr on your mer-new derr!” jawabnya gadis berambut perang sambil menunjuk ke arah papan tanda harga yang terletak di dinding belakang counter tersebut. Gadis 80 kilo berpaling ke arah papan tersebut tapi mukanya masih menunjukkan seribu tanda soal.

“Adik, dia nak Mocha!” sahutku kepada gadis 80 kilo.

“Oh! Mocha,” sambut gadis 80 kilo sambil menahan tawanya. Gadis berambut perang pandang ke arahku seperti seekor kucing kelaparan melihat seekor cicak, dengan mulutnya yang dicebik.

“Puki lu la cakap tak betul nak marah orang,” fikirku dalam kepala sambil senyum kepada gadis 80 kilo. “Buang masa dan kederat aku aje melayan perempuan seperti ini.”

Walau bagaimanapun, untuk membantu Dewan Bahasa dan Puaka, PERANG IALAH PAY-RUNG…BUKAN PURR-RUNG, okay?

Idus Martiae

Mort de Cesar

The Ides of March has come and gone
hanging on to friends is an attempt forlorn
as much as you want them all to stay
the Day of Treachery lives on today

Caesar had called for the Senate to meet
when came a Seer on his own two feet
a great peril he forewarned Caesar
but the latter only scoffed at the Seer

“Beware O Caesar, a murder is being planned
by members of the Senate whose anger has been fanned”
Caesar dismissed this talk of terror
“Nobody dares to harm the Emperor”

The die is cast, the scene was set
in the theater of Pompeii with the Senate he met
the stabbings followed with emotions razed
none hurt Caesar more than a best friend’s knife raised

“Et tu, Brute? Is this what you want?”
As the X-Files saying goes “Trust No One”

5.13am

It’s 5.13am.

Still sniffling.

One glass of Sangria and a glass of Margarita Lime…and I am still wide awake.

Here comes the Xanax as the clincher.

Yeah, I love you too, Baby. You’re fast asleep!

I better sleep now. Have to go and pick up my meds and go for lunch after.

And I Love You So

And I love you so,
The people ask me how,
How Ive lived till now,
I tell them I dont know!

I guess they understand,
How lonely life has been,
But life began again,
The day you took my hand!

And yes, I know,
How lonely life can be,
The shadows follow me,
And the night wont set me free!

But I dont let . . .
The evening get me down,
Now that youre around,
Me!

And you love me too,
Your thoughts are just for me,
You set my spirit free,
Im happy that you do!

The book of life is brief,
And once a page is read,
All but love is dead,
That is my belief!