Inter Professional Bodies (IPB) Games 2012 - Pool

The continuing saga of the IPB Games 2012 (the futsal competition was covered in a post on 13 May 2012).

After the first two events (futsal and darts), the Surveyors led (by virtue of 2 second places) followed by the lawyers and the accountants (each had one first place and one last place!) The third event, Pool, took place this afternoon at Bowlrama.

The game was 9 Ball Pool ...

... race to 3 in the round-robbin portion this afternoon, followed by the semi-finals and final tomorrow.

Bowlrama, located at the Hilltop area, had sufficient pool tables for this event. But on normal days, many of the players tend to smoke.

This event was under the charge of the Architects, their "Captain" gave a briefing before the networking snacks and refreshment session prior to the start of the competition.

The players enjoyed themselves (Doctors vs Engineers) ...

... "Just pot that green 6-ball, and leave the cue ball nicely on the brown 7-ball for me!".

Hey, the referee was a paid professional! The players in red are the mixed double team for the Accountants. We won 3-2 both against the Doctors and the Engineers; courtesy of both deciding matches won by our mixed double team.

UPDATE 24 June 2012, After the semi-finals and final match, the overall winner were the Accountants (Yay!). The Engineers came second. The third and fourth placing was still being decided by the mixed double match (when I left the venue) between the Surveyors and the Architects!

Staff Co-operative AGM

This morning I attended the 2012 AGM for the staff Co-operative at a company I used to work for. Attendance was 500+, a very good turnout.

As the photos taken were of many of my old friends (not that interesting to the general public), I put up only this one above. As this was the 22nd AGM, many of us (including myself) joined the longest line; for the retired and those who had resigned.

Oil Palm New Development Area and A Matured Estate

On Thursday and Friday I was on a visit to an oil palm new development project and also made a visit to a matured oil palm estate. This allowed me to show some of the different aspects. The photo above showed the land clearing and major infrastructure works completed.
 

A view of the terraces planted with oil palm seedlings.

 The photo of the matured oil palm estate showed what the area above will look like in the future.

Any errors made in the new development phase will bear consequences to be suffered for the next 20+ years of the matured oil palm estate. The photo showed the result when the terraces were constructed before the road. The poor harvester will not be able to put the harvested Fresh Fruit Bunch (FFB) by the roadside. You can compare the second photo (above) where the roads were constructed first then the terraces were constructed; avoiding these hanging terraces.

From the second photo (above), the correct planting distance between the palms during the development phase will prevent these "too-closely planted" palms. The overlap will reduce photosynthesis and reduce the yield from these palms (again for the next 20+ years unless the one in the middle is cut down).

 

This palm has many FFB to ripen and be harvested in the coming months ...

The FFB are the female flowers after pollination from the pollen from the male flowers. This is a male flower (already old but still with some pollen). Pollination is now done by weevils (a foreign insect brought into Malaysia).

Some harvested FFB (FFB size can be estimated compared to the truck tyre).

Some cut fruits showed the palm oil (in the yellow mesocarp) and the palm kernel oil (in the white palm kernel). The oil extraction process for the 2 oils are different. The 2 oils also have different properties. The palm kernel oil is very similar to coconut oil.
 

This old palm frond allowed me to try taking a photo with Bokeh (object is clear with a blurred background). The Lumix FZ35 is said to be not very easy to achieve the Bokeh effect.