Beautiful.Mind.Life

This is what you will at least expect to get when you come to any Middle Eastern country in July.

This was taken at 3 o’clock in the evening. It was actually starting to cool down. Between 12-2 in the afternoon, the figure could go all the way up to 55. Cooked!

PS: Takpe, neraka lagi panas…

I had a great time visiting this Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan mosque. Acclaimed as the third largest mosque in the world, this building is exquisite, inside out.

A picture says a thousand words. I have 15 pictures here, so that wraps up a 15000 words, the longest post ever in this blog. =)

Feast your eyes!

The white/gold walkway.

Ablution center. There are 6 centers. Fully air conditioned.

Preliminary praying hall. Just next to the main hall. Note the ceiling. Hand made.

The main hall, snapped from the first entrance door on the right corner of the mosque.

Stepping on the RM 4 million Persian/Egyptian carpet, handcrafted by 2000 people, and covers the area of 6 fo0tball fields combined.

The Mimbar, with Asma Ul-Husna wall behind it. Another exquisite handcraft.

Beautiful columns (I lost count of how many of these), with a flower-patterned spotlight.

Another preliminary praying hall. This chandelier is probably second biggest in the world, as the biggest ones are inside the main hall. Four of them, that costs about RM 14 million.

The main entrance (South end), taken from the main hall. See how bright the sunshine is? it was 46 DegC.

Gold-plated bronze date trees. There are hundreds of these columns.

With Saleem, in front of the real date tree. I was never a date fan, but the ones we picked freshly from the tree tasted way, way better than what we usually have during Ramadhan in Malaysia. Sweet and juicy.

Lunch fiesta! Thank you, Saleem, for the Lebanese treat. Bila mau kurus ini macam……

As I said in previous post, I always hate classrooms. Today, the training took place only in the classroom, to wrap up all the practicals we did the previous days in presentation slides. Ahhhh….

Sleepy, sleepy me. Kelas Bahasa Melayu kat koleq yang diajar oleh Penolong Kanan HEM pun aku belasah tido, apatah lagi training ni.

Anyway, we also had CPR training today, the only practical we did, for about half an hour. It was an excellent projection by the trainer. Now I know exactly what to do if a water accident happen.

Learning aid. Dummies, of course.

CPR. DRABC is the key!

Spooky, isn’t it?

This too. Spooooooookyyyyyyyy!!!!

We started the day with a brief classroom session by Naleena. I was damn sleepy (FYI, I always hate classroom sessions) but this instructor is pretty good of keeping us awake with her lousy joke and an awkward repetition of “No problem!”.

A tiring day I must say. Enam kali kena rejam dalam air. Ikan pun boleh pengsan ini macam.

Enjoy the pictures, folks!

Tighten seat belts, secure loose items, deploy EBS, remove window seal.

Brace! Activate EBS.

Notice the difference? Yeap, the ‘chopper’ is upside down now.

Head count. Ade yang lemas? Fortunately, no. Nice!

I’m done. Your turn, guys. I’m off to the cafeteria. Hahahaha…

PS: I hate that yellow North Sea suit. Waterproof la sangat…

PPS: EBS = Emergency Breathing System

Registration started at 0830, and we gathered in groups an headed to different classes. Mine is classroom 3, with purple color code. Purple?

Introduction and facility briefing received, we started the day with the pool. Same ‘ol, same ‘ol. It was good, but nowhere near fun. Training has never been fun for me, except the one I had in Phitsanulok, three years ago. Well, I guess it’s all depending on the trainer himself.

We wrapped up the day with fire fighting and smoke house escape. Again, same ‘ol same ‘ol. CO2, dry powder, water, bla bla bla. To add pepper on the rotten pizza, the shine of the bright evening sun was burning deep into the skin. Humid and hot day, with fire and smoke training? They shouldn’t get along together, should they?

Waiting for the shuttle. Look at the wall pewter art. Just brilliant.

The training barge. Yup, it’s all in the barge, except the fire fighting yard.

There’s no option but to have lunch in this silly restaurant. The food? Perhaps Royal Canine tastes better.

Fire fighting. Guess who’s the clown in bottom right picture. Answer’s below.

Yours truly. And the clown. Hahaha. No offense, dude!