Rants

Because of the unexpected power disruption last 27th this month, messages are circulating around the internet and social sites that there are notices for a Bintulu interruption tomorrow Sunday (30th June) from 9am to 5pm.

The disruption last Thursday caused a state-wide power failure around 4.30 in the afternoon until 9pm for some parts and 11pm for other parts of town. The power disruption is said to be caused by a trip in the Bintulu power station.

The 27th June disruption also caused MiriResortCity.com to go down for that period of time.

Because this new notice involves Bintulu power station, there is a chance it might affect Miri, so while we're unsure, it would be wise to take some precautions.

WARNING: This may or may not be the case - businesses in Miri have not received the notice from Sarawak Energy, so this post is just an advisory and is not to be taken as a notice of things to come - it may well not happen.

MAB to close inner lane at Miri Airport

MIRI: Malaysian Airports Bhd (MAB) Miri has issued a notice that the inner lane at Miri Airport will be closed to the public from tomorrow (Oct 22).

MAB announced in a notice that due to safety reasons, the inner lane at Miri Airport would be closed to the public (to drop off or pick up passengers) except to ambulances, fire engines, police, airport taxis, and VIPs (with prior approval from
airport authority).

Source

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My take:

What was puzzling is that this lane had actually closed yesterday (20th October), not 22nd October. I know, I was there.

I highly disapprove of this move.

Was there a particularly good reason to close the inner lane? What was the reason? Is it to facilitate VIPs? What other reason? For safety? From safety risk? Roof collapse? If so, then why allow ambulances and taxis, police and even VIPs?

The airport originally had a VIP TERMINAL. After the redesign, now it only has a VIP Lounge. This is a poor design, as that would mean if this was true that it was due to facilitate VIPs, then the whole airport would have to be basically shut down just for them. You don't see LAX or JFK airport shutting down just because the President of United States wants to land there, the public continues to use the airport, the President just uses the VIP terminal..

Back to the Miri Airport. The outer lane is too small for use, it will be congested. It's not rocket science; you have two lanes, and you cut down one lane,you're left with one. That's 50% drop in efficiency. On top of that the airport is built for the public (that's us) to load & unload passengers and their baggage using the inner lane, so closing the lane not only causes inconvenience to the public, it is a totally unfair move to the public.

To top it of; it's the rainy season. Without use of the roof, they are willing to want to inconvenience the public to walk and move pick up their baggage in the rain by disallowing the use of the inner lane roof?

Also, and this is the most important : what are we paying the airport tax for?

This happened to me lately; I just got into the multi-story carpark, didn't even park, got a phone call to do something and so I had to go out - this all happened within a minute, but I still get charged for "parking" in the multistory carpark. Seriously? They didn't even have the 15 minutes buffer like in shopping complexes.

So this got me thinking; here's some tricks to parking in Miri. I think I got it all sorted out:

1. Wait by your car in a parking spot. As the parking attendants come by, just wave to them. You will not get charged for PARKING. Just think of it like using the Force in Star Wars, except that you need to be by your vehicle all the time. As you would expect, this works EXTREMELY WELL if you park directly in front of your place of work where you will be always by your vehicle. This is the trick to forever free parking.

2. Put up your wipers. This apparently indicates that you will be parking for a while, so this lets you off the hook too (not guaranteed to work, but that is a 50% thing)

3. Wait till it rains. Free parking for all!

4. Use a coupon like you should. But park like an asshat taking up 2 spaces. This should be worth it because you DON'T get a fine. After all, taking up 2 spaces for the price of one, right? Win. Because they don't fine you for parking like a dimwit.

5. Drive into the multi-story carpark. Don't get a ticket and tell them you are just going in there to wait for children to come after school. Because the multi-story carpark shades you from the sun and is an awesome place to be. Then PARK INSIDE there until your children comes along, and then leave. Cost? Free! There is a school near the multi-story car park and I see parents do this all the time. They just enter and go out for free. Totally different scenario than the one I experienced above.

Things you shouldn't do:

1. Park properly and THEN walk over to buy a parking coupon. Because this will guarantee you will get a fine when you come back with the coupon in your hand. What you SHOULD do is, park your car blocking half the road in front of the parking coupon hut and then buy the coupon. No, seriously.

2. Park properly, and then get the date / time wrong, it's a common occurance. So now your fine will cost MORE than those who didn't leave a coupon, because you just wasted a coupon, sucker.

3. Go into the multi-story carpark, get a ticket, don't park, and then get out again. Because no matter what, just by driving into the multi-story carpark infers you have parked. Don't try to explain. Ticket, entered, and therefore, parked. A fee shall be incurred.

History repeats itself since June, as of around late morning yesterday, the API (Air Pollutant Index) for the Industrial Training Institute (ILP) in Miri stood at 236, which was 73 point-jump from the previous day from the API of 163 recorded at 11am on Sunday. The monitoring station is located near the fires which started on Friday.

A good API reading is from 0-50, moderate (51-100), unhealthy (101-200), very unhealthy (201-299) and hazardous from 300 and above. The rest of the country enjoyed normal or low moderate air quality readings.

"The air quality in Miri's Kuala Baram district has worsened to very unhealthy levels in just a day due to raging wildfires, making it the only area in the country with such poor readings.

This is the first time that very unhealthy readings have been recorded in the area and in the country since June. Miri town itself recorded low moderate air quality readings."

Source