By: Sumathi T S Singham (Communications Division)

Our station colleagues celebrated Merdeka. Check out their photos:

Our colleagues in Melbourne celebrated Merdeka by getting their colleagues to answer quiz. Prizes were given away. 

They shared their views on What MH means to them.

What Malaysian Hospitality means to me?

In conjunction with our Merdeka celebration, Los Angeles airport keeps our flag flying high during check-in operations on 31 August 2009.

Malaysia Flag flying high at Los Angeles International Airport

MH celebration in Brisbane

Brisbane's team posted "What MH means to me" banner on their MH Bulletin Board 

By: Mavis Walker (Malaysia Airlines Customer)

Photo of Donald & Mavis Walker taken by John Walker

On June 9th 2009 my son, daughter-in-law and I flew on your aircraft MH 130 No. RC7VWJ from Auckland - Kuala Lumpur where we transferred Airbus A330 for our flight to Istanbul.

On our return to Auckland from Amsterdam, we flew Malaysia MH17 to Kuala Lumpur where we then joined Malaysia Flight 131 for Auckland.

These were most enjoyable and comfortable flights and we send our thanks and appreciation and thanks to the cabin crews on these flights for their attention, coutesy and kindness not forgetting those delicious meals.

I would like to send a special "thank you" to a cabin crew member by the christian name of Donald for all his kindness.

I congratulate Malaysia Airlines for the great service they give.

My family and I wish you all the best for a bright and prosperous future.

Yours respectfully,

Mavis Walker

PS - It is one of my big regrets that because of my age 98 years in August I am not likely to be travelling overseas in the future but I will recommend to all fly Malaysia Airlines.

By: Christopher Lim Kim Huat (Inflight Services, Cabin Crew Line Operations) 

It was last year in October that we all had the opportunity to visit a vineyard in Aukland. For those of you who are visiting Auckland, you must visit Villa Maria Estate. It is a whole different experience visiting a vineyard and seeing the big space of land has a very calming effect.

Pic of me and Ian

Shot of wine platter

Table setting of wine tasting

It was a cool 15 degrees morning as I waited at the lobby of Citylife hotel awaiting for a cab organised by Villa Maria to take me to their vineyard in Auckland. I had called Rebecca Poynter (whom I later learned was the Marketing Manager of Villa Maria) a day earlier to enquire about the visit graciously organised by Mr Tan. Originally, I was to make my own way to the vineyard, but through some wheeling and dealing by Mr Tan, Villa Maria agreed to organise a cab to take me to their vineyard on their cost.

Thank God for that!!! When the cab arrived at Villa Maria (a 30 minute drive from the City Centre ) I took a glimpse at the fare; it was a whopping NZD 68.80!!! That was one way!!

When I arrived, Ian Clarke (whom later I found out was the Export Manager of Villa Maria) immediately came out to receive me. I was surprised at first that he knew who I was, when it dawned upon me I was the only Asian there!!

The vineyard was beautiful; all around the cellar door reception area you can see vineyards grown. There is something about having so much green around you; fatigue, jet lag all seem to melt away in such an environment.

The first thing Ian did was to take me to his office to have a look around. He had a nice little office to himself and it was filled to the ceiling with books on wines and maps!! It was what you would call an organised mess!! It was obvious he was very passionate about his job as he brought out stuff about Villa Maria for me to take home with me.

Then, it was on to the familiarisation tour of Villa Maria!! Villa Maria's cellar door has a function room that could cater to 500-600 guest at any one time. They have done car launches here, unveiling the New Zealand Olympics uniforms of 2008, amongst other functions. When I was there, they were also planning to hold a concert in the vineyard!! Guess who will be performing? Simply Red!! Singing in a vineyard!! Fancy that!!

Ian then took me to see how the wine was made in Villa Maria. All the wines from the vineyards are fermented and aged on the site. The process starts when the grapes are crushed gently in a big machine called the “crusher stemmer “. The  juices are then  fermented in huge vats.  Checks are done by a team of people to ensure the wine is properly fermenting and the correct amount of tannins is extracted from the grapes. When the wine reaches the desired colour and fermentation, the juice is separated from the pulp and skins in a machine called the “ membrane press”. Then, depending on the desired wine the maker wishes to make, the juice is either aged in barrels to create an oaky note or in stainless steel vats. 

There is a section where the barrels are filled from the steel vats, and are moved to another section to be aged.The barrels used to age their wines are actually imported from France whole, ie. all assembled. The barrels are disposed after using 4 to 5 years. The entire area is always kept cold; the temperature of the fermentation area was at around 11 degrees to my estimation. During the process of aging, from time to time the barrels are topped up with wine as about 3% of the wine evaporates over time.

When the wine is mature, it is transferred into a refridgerated tank with temperatures of -3 degrees celcius. This is to remove the crystals that were formed during the fermentation  (called tartrates), that if bottled, would form inside the bottles. Consumers looking at these crystals would perceive the wine to be off; in actual fact it is not. So for purely aesthetic reasons, the crystals are removed from the wine through this process. Further final filtration is done to remove minute particles from the wine before it is finally bottled.

The heat generated through this refridgeration is channelled out and reused to  warm the wines when need be; wine is heated to 18-20 degrees celcius before bottling to compensate for expansion and contraction in the bottle. The system is expensive, however its done to ease the pollution in the environment. Over time the cost is offset. In Villa Maria they practise as much recycling and environmentally  friendly processes as possible. The storm water from the carpark and the roads are filtered before it is channelled back  to the lake in front of the winery.

Cars used around the vineyard are the hybrid types (Toyota Prius). Although expensive, it helps to reduce gas emissions around the vineyards to 90%. All the grape waste is either used to make feed or placed in a compost for fertilizer purposes. Very socially responsible vineyard!!!

Bottling of all the vineyards owned by Villa Maria is done here. They boast of the most modern and sophisticated bottling system in New Zealand!!

Then it was time to do a bit of wine tasting!! I had the opportunity to try a cross section of their wines. Private bins are their highest volume of wine followed by Reserve, Cellar Selection and their most premium category Single vineyard.

The Private Bin I had was

a Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough 2008,

Reserve was a Sauvignon Blanc from Wairau Valley, Marlborough 2008, Reserve Chardonnay from Hawkes Bay 2006,

Cellar Selection blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon from Hawkes Bay 2006,

Cellar Selection Pinot Noir from Marlborough 2007,

Single Vineyard Pinot Noir from Seddon Vineyard in Marlborough 2006.

In the first  round of swirling, sniffing and summarizing the wines I could distinctly differentiate and notice the difference between the wines. But as I continued sniffing and sipping it all start to become a blur. Moral of the story? Wine is a drink that you take your time to savour and appreciate the hard work and time it has taken to make. When given a selection of wine to taste, take your time, munch on something from time to time then proceed to the next wine.

By the way, all the wines were lovely and would most definitely be suitable for pairing with our Asian and Western cuisines on board. Ian brought out the spit buckets but really it would have been an injustice to the wine and the wine makers had i spit out the wine. So i did the polite thing and swallowed every sip!! I think Ian appreciated that I did so!!

It was then time to go back; honestly, Ian was incredibly gracious to have come over on a Saturday to take me around as Villa Maria could have easily plonked me in a wine tour. Instead, they sent their export manager cum wine maker cum wine judge to take me on a personal tour and also sit with me to guide me through the wines that I was tasting!! I found out later that Ian had a good working relation with Mr Tan and hence he took time off to make sure i was taken care of. He even personally sent me back (another NZD 68.80 saved!!) !!

By: Jamila A Mohamed Faritullah Khan (Inflight Services, Cabin Crew Line Operations)

Flipping through my album earlier, my eyes stopped at this one particular photo taken when I was in Auckland. Actually, it was not in Auckland… it was in Rotorua. It was, my photo taken by a colleague, milking a cow! Doesn't this look great?

This was one of the few crazy things that I did when I first went to Auckland as a cabin crew. It happened when Malaysia Airlines started its direct flight operations to Auckland. Due to the low frequencies of the flights at that time, we were lucky to have four days in the city of Auckland. Although earlier Malaysia Airlines used to fly to Auckland, it was with a stopover in Brisbane. And as a crew, due to the flying hours, we have to step down in Brisbane and later operate a shuttle flight to Auckland where we were only able to see the Auckland International Airport.

As Auckland itself had nothing much to offer, and determined to make full use of the four days that we had, seven of us, including my co-pilot rented a four-wheel drive and drove down to Rotorua. Along the way, we made a few stops, to the Glow-worm cave and to meet some new friends.

Later, the rising steam from cracks, pathways and the distinctive scent of sulphur welcomed us to the thermal active area in Rotorua. It was truly an amazing and wonderful experience which I could not simply put into words.

Now, Malaysia Airlines flies 5 times weekly to Auckland. Wouldn't you want to experience it yourself?