Inane ramblings

Royal Brunei 747-400 flying circuit over Miri. They've been doing this on and off for quite some time. Apparently, they're practicing over here because Miri Airport airspace is so sparse.

So two years on, the flyover's been built, fuel prices skyrocketed, crime skyrocketed but where is our faceless clocktower?

Here it is: Unchanged since Day 1 when I first reported on it.

They even said in order to 'preserve' the clocktower landmark, they actually built the flyover AROUND the clocktower.

Preservation of old landmarks is all good except.. what use is to preserve it if you don't even keep it working and let its sorry state to view to the public and tourists? And what good is preservation to one small clocktower when all those really old buildings in Old Town are totally torn down to be built up instead of the more logical approach of just renovating them?

About 6-8 cars were reported missing last night alone (10th June 2008). Not sure of the exact figures but it was around that.

My parents' car was also stolen.

In fact, we had sort of expected this to occur - this says a lot about the crime problems in Miri. It's not that we think it 'only happens to someone else' but we expected it to occur. Th problem is just 'when'?

Few days back, a friend's friend's Perdana was also stolen, but he was lucky as the police managed to spot it and get it back. It's interesting to know how they stole the cars - they simply drilled through the key hole, open the door and - if the car had a gear shift lock - using a hammer or heavy object, hit it hard enough so the lock mechanism breaks, but makes it drivable.

Steering locks are a deterrent but if they really wanted the car they'd be able to get past it anyhow (looking at the above example, a gearshift lock didn't work).

Petrol will be RM2.70 a litre at midnight tonight The new price of petrol is RM2.70 per litre beginning midnight tonight, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced just a moment ago. The 78 sen hike or 40 per cent increase is still below the antiticpated RM4 per litre price projected earlier and among the cheapest in Asia.

Diesel prices increased by RM1 per liter, and petrol by RM0.78. It sucks to be a diesel owner now.

Oh by the way - transportation vehicles usually run on diesel. So that means, we shall await the effects of the huge jump in diesel prices to be reflected in the prices of goods. Will this be the price hike 'tsunami' everyone's been anticipating?

The weather had been an oven lately just right after the high winds. This lasted several days and thankfully it started to rain intermittently (just as I had the car washed! It had to happen!) and it poured a lot last night.

This morning, we're finally getting breezey winds! And no haze!