Excuse Me

This week has been one of the hottest week in Victoria for nearly 100 years! So, it's not unexpected for people's temper and impatience to be off the charts.

Even in the intense heat, I've been working for long hours this week just to get my stuffs back on schedule and clearing my backlogs. Thankfully our office is A/C-ed but pity my colleagues on 1st floor because the A/C wasn't working!

This week, I had 2 bitches came in and spoilt my mood. Both of them are from the mainland if you know what I mean! Bloody annoying! I'll mark them as "DO NOT RENEW", don't worry! They're just bloody ungrateful selfish bitches who cares about no one but their own good.

I Kept making the same mistake in giving apartments to very pushy students sometimes. A few I've rejected, somehow just missed out a few! They are a real pain in the butt. Enough is enough. Next pushy tenant, their applications go straight to the bin!

Luckily I've a few nice tenants as well, that helps break it even! Otherwise, I'll be tossing them out of my office!

By the way, for most of you applicants out there, here is a news about MiCasa8, 131 Pelham Street: Due to the delay of the buildings and some owners in returning essential documents, we'll have some cheaper apartments becoming available soon! So put in your application (again I stressed: complete application) quick! The cheaper apartments will be given 1st priority to those who applied, not for those who are just enquiring but have not applied! Plus, don't be a bitch or an asshole!

It's Hot!

This week has been hell for Victoria. The hottest week in over 100+ years! With the mercury topping 40+ Celsius for a few consecutive days! Tomorrow is another expected 43 Celsius! I've posted about this in my previous blog entry too

Just check the forecast for the week ahead, the lowest expected temperature is 31 Celsius! And worse of all, I don't see any rain coming!

How well is Melbournians coping with this historical moments? Not very well.

• Hundreds and hundreds of public transport cancellations. Sources
  
• Statewide blackouts affecting over 100,000 homes & businesses! Sources
• Computer servers failing due to heat
• Water storage drops even more
  

I think all the working A/C in Victoria is running at near full speed at the moment, which also means bad news for the electricity company as this will cause the generator to overload. But what else can we do? We can hardly survive! Pity the elderly now~

The heat in my house (upstairs) is unbearable! I walked upstairs to change cloth just now, and I can feel the heat piercing through my skins and the dry air just dries my lungs out! Even the cold tap water feels warm! Hard to believe eh?

What can we do to minimise the impact on us at the moment? Here're some suggestions:

• Drink plenty of water, doesn't matter if you need to piss every 10 minutes!
• Stay indoors with A/C, like shopping centres, cinemas
• Stay calm, getting impatience increases "heat"
• Avoid rigorous exercise
• Avoid smoking
• Shut your house into total darkness

Guess we still have to suffer for another week! For those who hasn't come back to Melbourne, lucky you!!!

Reunion Dinner

One of the most important dinner in Chinese culture, the 30th Night Reunion dinner. Normally, family members from all over the place would gather in one location (where possible) to have reunion and dinner together. This is probably the only day of the 365 days throughout the year they can put aside their busy lifestyles and be with families.
Most Chinese would worship their ancestors prior to having dinner but for Chinese Christians, we normally just use this opportunity to be family members. In my case, we couldn't have any reunion dinner with our immediate family members because my parents are in Limbang (probably 9000km away) and my brother is in Perth!So we had a small reunion dinner with my intermediate family members (the Yap's) and few friends. After dinner, we played scrabble, in fact played twice! I was the runner up for the 1st game then emerged champion in the 2nd game! Maybe everyone's already tired by then!Throughout the night we had the CCTV Chinese New Year shows on. Creating the atmosphere so to speak! Some jokes in the sketch show is quite funny though! I understand from my friends in China, most people just stayed at home to watch this show instead of going out or go visiting friends!

Since most of us are Mahjong idiots, we didn't play mahjong. We played Big 2 (Chor Dai Di) instead. By the time we finished, it's already 12.45am! Luckily it is public holiday on Monday! Not because of CNY but Aust Day.

Happy Bull Year!

Wishing you all a very prosperous new year ahead! Let's all bull ahead into 2009 defying all odds and emerge as the victors!

VIC Vacancy Rates

Sources: REIV
Date: 23/01/2009

REIV CEO Enzo Raimondo said that the REIV December rental vacancy report showed that 2008 ended the way it started for renters with the vacancy rate at around 1% for most of the year.

Mr Raimondo said the Melbourne rental vacancy rate for December was 1.2 per cent, up slightly from November when it was 1.1 per cent.

"With interest rates dropping substantially over the past few months and house price growth slowing should make conditions easier for renters who are contemplating the move to buying a home.

"REIV research shows that within Melbourne area, the inner city was once again the most difficult place to find a rental property with a vacancy rate of 1 per cent for property within 10km of the CBD.

With the rental market so tight, people are fighting their ways into securing an apartment. Some offered higher rents, rents paid 6 months or 1 year in advance, etc.

Depending on areas, some people are left out. For example, in the CBD and inner city (<2km), most locals are losing to the international students in terms of renting. However, anything over 2km, it seems the locals still has more advantage over international students.

A few reasons to it. One of them is because International students can push the rent higher and willing to do so, which increases the yield of return for the investment properties. In the suburbs, landlords are more mindful of their properties so they wish to be better rental reference tenants in there. International students mostly do not have a rental reference yet.

In fact, we noticed quite a number of International students coming back to apply to stay in Student Accomodation this year. Mostly 2nd, 3rd and Masters students. Have not seen much of the 1st years, probably because they didn't know how tight the market is!

Box Hill CNY Festival

Just went to have a look at the CNY festival in Box Hill, which was expecting about 60,000 people this time. Surely enough, there were quite a lot of people! We can hardly walk through the crowds!

Surely, the Council used Whitehorse Road instead of just Main Street which has created more space but it's still quite lacking. There were plenty of prams around as well. Not sure why they bother to bring their babies to such events? The babies wouldn't know anything? It's creating lots of "traffic" problems too!

Only went there around 7+pm as both of us were tired after whole day's work. Didn't get to see the actual opening ceremony or lion dance. But no regrets as I think we wouldn't be able to see anything anyway!

The food stalls were not as many as expected and most of them are selling roughly the same items. So, a bit disappointed in the food varieties. It's basically very frusfrating to even buy something to eat as we all know Chinese doesn't really have the habits of queueing up! It's the survival of the fittest, or should say survival of the selfish?

Creative game thought by a church to raise awareness of Christianity

Going Down Further?

Bank Negara Malaysia cut the interest rates few days ago, will the RBA do the same as well on 3rd Feb? It seems more likely than not, the question should be "how much will RBA cut this time?".

Worldwide economy is struggling and nobody is excepted including the ever denying Malaysia :) USA, China, Europe, etc.

Some are predicting a cut of 100pts though I'm thinking probably around the 75 pts are more likely. No matter what, it's a good Easter present for all of those who are in debts! Not so good news for those holding cash on variable interest rates.

Now the question is, what can we do? Our assets are shrinking by the day. Our superannuation funds lost about 20% alone in 2008! What used to be our best shield for retirement has become one of the worst performers!

Some might say as long as we have cash, it should be allright. True in some sense but only if you're living in one area and not travelling or interacting with the outside world. With AUD devaluation recently, we're probably 30% poorer than what we were a year ago. So unless you're on a island with no outside connection, you're affected no matter what.

Governments around the world has been encouraging people to continue spending to boost the economy. I don't know about you but I wouldn't. I rather spend wisely on necessity, not desires. I've heard Governments giving cash for people to spend, which is silly I think! Why don't the government spend it themselves in improving infrastructures or facilities? As long as the money is moving, it's OK for the economy!

So, the message is clear: Buckle up, people! It's going to be a bumpy ride!

Almighty Boleh-Land

Just a few weeks ago, our country leaders have been bragging about how M'sia is not and will not be affected by the so-called Global Recession like any other countries that people have nothing much to worry about.

Just go on with your life, so to speak. Continue to spend on domestic & local products to boost our economy.

Saw a news today that Bank Negara has cut the interest rate by 75 pts.

The central bank said it had reduced the overnight policy rate (OPR) from 3.25% to 2.5% and reduced the SRR from 3.5% to 2% effective Feb 1.

“With the heightened downside risks to growth, the magnitude of the reductions in the OPR and the SRR are aimed to be pre-emptive in providing a more supportive monetary environment for the domestic economy,” it said in a statement. Other points in the statement included:

> Urgent implementation of policy measures crucial to ensure positive growth.

> Inflation continued to decelerate to 4.4% in December. Deceleration expected to continue with weaker demand and lower imported inflation.

> The Malaysian banking system remains fundamentally sound.

> Focus is to ensure access to credit to all sectors of the economy. Source

Now, how confident are the investors towards Malaysia? See below....Source
Anyway, the still "quite new" government in Penang is launching free WiFi projects throughout the whole state, thanks to their Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng. However, some certain quarters are protesting it! Gosh~

What were they really afraid of? Radiation or long exposure to WiFi! Alamak!

“If WiFi is harmful, the first two people to get fried by radiation would be Jelutong MP Jeff Ooi and myself as we work up to 12 hours a day at our offices on Komtar’s 28th floor where there are four hotspots.

“We are exposed to WiFi 24 hours a day as we have wireless facilities at home and although I might look old, do I look un­­healthy?” Lim asked.

He added that Wei Chuan Beng, group managing director of public-listed company Red­tone, who is initiating the state WiFi project, said 25 hotspots would be set up by the end of February and the number would grow to 300 by March next year. Sources

Boleh Land is really Boleh Land!~!

Impossible is Nothing!

Micasa8 Update

For all those curious prospective tenants of MiCasa8, here are some updates for you people.

1. Building is not finished yet, expecting 28th Jan 09 for level 1-6 and 4th Feb 09 for level 7-12.
   
   
2. Laundry is expected to be fully completed on the 11th Feb 09.
   
   
3. Level 1-9 are totally full with 3 exceptions on level 1 (West facing).
   
   
4. Cheapest rent is now $305pw from level 10 onwards.
   
   
5. No more 6 months leases, only up to Jan/Feb 2010.
   
   
6. Utilities included is only gas. You pay for Electricity (on avg roughly $50/mth), water usage($20/qtr). Optional Internet connection is about $50-90/mth with no long term contracts
   
   
7. There're no actual photos of the apartment yet, only artist impression ones. For actual photos, please refer to my earlier blog posting.
   

As Chinese New Year is coming, things have sort of slowed down a bit with students returning to their home country to celebrate it with their loved ones. Things are expected to pick up 1 week after CNY.

With less than 40 apartments available, the building should be full by mid Feb or end of Feb latest.

Those interested, please apply ASAP to avoid missing out. Go to http://www.s-h-a.com.au

Some tips to be successful in your application:

1. Submit only complete application forms, meaning everything is filled out (filled more is better than filled less) including parental guarantee (yes, even if you're over 18).
   
   
2. Attach all relevant documents like copy of your passport, student card or CoE, and bank statements.
   
   
3. Indicate your preferred apartment or at least set your rental budget.
   
   
4. Specify your preferred start date, though the latest you can start is 10th Feb 09 at the moment.
   
   
5. Write clearly, best if your fill it in your computer then print it out.
   

112 - Emergency Number

UNMARKED POLICE CAR WARNING!

This number actually exists here in Australia . Read this and then send it to all your friends! I never even knew about being able to dial the number 112 feature! This actually happened to someone's daughter.

Lauren was 19 yrs old and in university. This story takes place over the Christmas/New Year's holiday break.

It was the Saturday before New Year's and it was about 1pm in the afternoon, and Lauren was driving to visit a friend. An UNMARKED police car pulled up behind her and put his lights on.

Lauren's parents have 4 children (high school and university age) and have always told them never to pull over for an unmarked car on the side of the road, but rather wait until they get to a petrol station, etc. So Lauren had actually listened to her parents' advice, and promptly phoned the number 112 on her mobile phone to tell the police dispatcher that she would not pull over right away. She proceeded to tell the dispatcher that there was an unmarked police car with a flashing red light on his rooftop behind her. The dispatcher checked to see if there was a police car where she was, and there wasn't, and he told her to keep driving, remain calm and that he had back-up already on the way.

Ten minutes later 4 cop cars surrounded her and the unmarked car behind her. One policeman went to her side and the others surrounded the car behind. They pulled the guy from the car and tackled him to the ground. The man was a convicted rapist and wanted for other crimes.

I never knew that bit of advice, but especially for a woman alone in a car, you should not pull over for an unmarked car. Apparently police have to respect your right to keep going to a 'safe' place.

You obviously need to make some signals that you acknowledge them i.e., put on your hazard lights, or call No. 112 like Lauren did. Too bad the mobile phone companies don't give you this little bit of wonderful information.

112 IS THE NUMBER TO RING IF YOU CANNOT GET SERVICE ON YOUR MOBILE

IT'S LIKE 000.

====================================================================
My colleague sent me the forward email. Not sure how accurate it is though!

Labu Airport - Need or Wish?

Source from Che Det - Dr M
Dated: 17/1/09

1. Air Asia has done well to explain the justification for the so-called KLIA-East in Labu.

2. Not having the facilities and personnel I can only give my very unprofessional view on the justification:

a) Passenger Capacity

I must congratulate Air Asia on its very remarkable success. By 2014 it will handle 26 million passengers. Present terminal at KLIA is handling about 25 million passengers.

KLIA is planned to handle 125 million passengers. It has 25,000 acres of land to build another terminal and four satellites. It can even duplicate these terminals and satellites. But Air Asia wants low-cost terminals with no aero-bridge, no luxury interiors. This is not a problem for KLIA.

There is enough space in the 25,000 acres of reserved land to build the low-cost terminal to accommodate the 60 million Air Asia passengers in the distant future. MAHB (Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad) can do this. (Incidentally Putrajaya has only 10,000 acres of land). However, by 2014 the total number of Air Asia passengers would only be 27 million. Accommodating this number should be no big deal for MAHB.

b) Runway capacity

By 2014 Air Asia will have 77 aircrafts. LCCT capacity will still be for 33 aircrafts. Does Air Asia expect all its aircrafts to be on the ground in LCCT all the time?

Usually some would be in the air and many would be at other airports. Expanding the parking area would not be too difficult. There would still be enough land at KLIA.

As for the runways Times Online reports that Heathrow will now build its third runway to be completed in 2020. Presently Heathrow has only two runways and it still handles almost 70 million passengers.

As stated above, KLIA can build another three runways to handle 125 million passengers. If passengers and aircrafts increase to more than presently handled by Heathrow, a third runway can quickly be built.

If KLIA LCCT is not connected by rail and bus, the thing to do is to provide all these. Extension to the Express Rail Link line can be built. Terrain is no problem. We have sliced through higher hills to build roads.

If the waiting time for taxis has increased due to the huge airport layout (I don't understand this), whatever solution for this problem is proposed for Labu, the same solution can also be applied to KLIA LCCT.

c) Number of Gates

Since Air Asia will not be using the main terminal why should the small number of gates there be of concern to Air Asia?

If Air Asia will be putting more than 55 Gates at Labu to cater for its large number of aircrafts and movements, why cannot LCCT at KLIA be expanded to have maybe 100 Gates to avoid any shortages? Will Labu be provided with 100 Gates? If so, when? Again, why be bothered about KLIA Terminal being equipped with aero-bridges etc when Air Asia does not want to use it?

3. The comparison with Dubai and Jackson Atlanta International Airport is misleading.

4. The picture shows four runways (no indication which airport). Multiple runways is common but they are operated by one airport with one control tower. The picture and the layout does not suggest separate towers for different runways. You cannot have multiple runways close to each other but controlled by different towers.

5. Perhaps Air Asia can show documents that separations between different airport runways of 2km are permissible. Is there any example of two major airports operating separately but located 2km from each other? I don't know. Please enlighten me.

6. The problem prompting the idea of a new airport is the allegedly high charges by MAHB for the use of LCCT by Air Asia. MAHB is owned by Khazanah and it is believed Khazanah has a stake in Air Asia. Both are therefore GLCs. The Government can tell them to negotiate fair charges. Or is it the Government that wants this airport at Labu for reasons other than need?

7. Or is it that Sime Darby now wants to go into airport business?

Year Of The Ox

Time certainly flies in 2009 compared to 2008. It's already past mid-Jan already! Woo Hoo! In a few more days, the year of the Ox will takes over! Cows are going to moo moo here, moo moo there! As mentioned before in my previous post located here, there'll be a grand celebration in Box Hill on the coming 24th between 3pm to 3am 25th Jan. Guess we'll be walking there, don't think parking is the easiest thing for that day. Sad thing is I'm working that day 9-5.30pm!! Argh!! Should have given us the long weekend! :S

Some of the highlights for the celebration:

Come and enjoy Chinese food, performances and the creative talents of the Box Hill Chinese community. The fun will commence in the afternoon with entertainment over two stages, rides and up to a 100 food and handcraft stalls throughout the Box Hill Mall. A feature of the festival will be the lion and dragon dancers on the main stage, and a Choi Sun parade, with representation of the Chinese God of Financial Fortune. Sources here

Not only that, this year the Chinese New Year coincides with Australian Day on the 26th Jan so the Whitehorse council will have a firework & concert celebration as well. Kylie Minogue will be there too (not that I'm a fan of her :P)

The concert, to be held on the lawn in front of the Soundshell at the Whitehorse Civic Centre in Nunawading, on Monday 26 January 2009 commences at 6pm and features tributes to two of Melbourne’s most renowned musical talents and icons – John Farnham and Kylie Minogue. Sources here

Double celebration to start the 1st holidays of 2009! Not bad! Would be a good opportunity to play with our new Digital SLR camera! :D

Imbalance

Gone are the days when I used to spent like 15-25 hours per week for church stuffs. Nowadays, I barely spend 2 hours per week on it. From Jesus freak to a lukewarm Sunday believer. That's the big change when compared 2009 with 2008. Well, at least this is what others see in me. Gotta admit, haven't been participating much as of December 2008. Is this the end of Shawnism? Honestly, still far from it :)

Anyway, this week alone I've been working like mad. Finishing around 6.30pm on average every day, today finished at 7.30pm. Not like I'm getting paid a cent for it! Must be really dumb to do so. At least I got rid of nearly 1000 emails that hit my inbox causing other mails to bounce whenever people tried to email me.

Hopefully my life will back to normal soon. Didn't even have time to blog at all!

By the way, for those applying for Micasa8, all of level 1-8 are full now. You'll be looking at $300pw from level 9 onwards. Good luck people!

All By Myself

When I was young
I never needed anyone
And making love was just for fun.....whoops! Not quite!

Anyway for some of you who die hard Celine Dion fans, you'll know which song this is.

My brother just left Melbourne tonight and heading to Perth to be reunited with his wife. Felt a bit awkward or reluctant, hard to describe. After all, he's my brother and we have been staying together for about 8 years in Melbourne together. Not that we are super close or anything, so tonight wasn't such a special night. No farewell dinner, no exchanging gifts, etc.

Yuen Li just cooked prawns & eggplants for the 3 of us. Not really a special farewell dinner though! :P Anyway, I'm going to miss the seafood my brother used to always cook! Guess the only time I can enjoy it next time would be in Perth! His wife would be very lucky to have all the seafood but unlucky not to have any meats!

After more than a quarter of a century together, it's time to be with our own families. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do!

Anyway, all the best to my brother & his family. Keep in touch always!

Stop The Traffik

Went to Crossway again today for the Sunday service at 11am. Guess who is the speaker today? Steve Chalke, yes it's him! It's almost unbelievable to see him in person in such a personal way. For most of us from the Chinese background, we wouldn't have a clue of who is this Steve Chalke. Maybe we know Steve Jobs from Apple more. Here're some brief info about Steve Chalke from Wikipedia:

Steve Chalke (MBE, UN.GIFT Special Advisor on Community Action against Human Trafficking) is a prominent, and often outspoken, Christian leader and social activist based in the UK, and an ordained Baptist minister. He is best known as the founder of Oasis Trust and Church.co.uk. He is the author of numerous books and articles as well as a regular presenter and contributor on television and radio programmes. In 2004 he was awarded an MBE for his services to social inclusion by the Queen.^[1]

He was raising awareness for us about human trafficking. He's really a good speaker, perhaps one of the best I've listened to so far. You don't feel tired listening to him, in fact, you're hoping that time would slow down for him to speak more. Stop The Traffik is one of the organisations that he founded.

One of the good points that he made was about how the church has been made redundant by the governments around the world in terms of "providing the service" to the people. The government has been getting all the professionals to replace most of the works that churches have started. However, government today are struggling to cope or keep up the service and are looking to give back some of it to the churches. Well, this particularly happens in London where he's from. The point is, churches are not made to be confined by the 4 walls, we as Christians should be out there in field providing love and service to the needy. Without that, we are not doing what God has told us to do. Felt so relief that the message he brought today was the same message I've been trying to convey to my fellow church members though I think I'm not as influential as Steve, so my message went to deaf ears! :P

I felt more and more burdened as the days gone by. I think I've told some of you that I was going to plan to start an organisation or movement myself if our church didn't have a change of pastor in 2009. Now that we have a new pastor, the burden is still great in my heart. Not sure whether I'm capable to start a ministry on my own or with a few friends at the moment. Most likely I'll be joining an organisation very soon and start to get involved in the field rather than sitting in churches playing bible quiz! Perhaps will be looking more into the International Students fields. Not 100% sure yet! Hoping some of our church members will have the same burden & passion!

One of the reasons for my blog is also to raise awareness to my church members as well as my blog readers. Since I've about 1200-1500 visitors on average each month, I sure hope the message will get to you all.

Now, let's look at some of the information about human trafficking.

A definition:

“Trafficking in human beings” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.

• At least 12.3 million people are victims of forced labour worldwide. Of these 2.4 million are as a result of human trafficking. A global alliance against forced labor, International Labour Organisation, 2005
  
  
• 600,000-800,000 men, women and children trafficked across international borders each year. Approximately 80 per cent are women and girls. Up to 50% are minors. US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2005
  
  
• An estimated 1.2 million children trafficked each year. UNICEF UK Child Trafficking Information sheet, January 2003
  
  
• The majority of trafficked victims arguably come from the poorest countries and poorest strata of the national population. A global alliance against forced labor, International Labour Organisation, 2005
  
  
• Trafficking is the fastest growing means by which people are caught in the trap of slavery. Anti-Slavery
  
  
• Human trafficking is the third largest source of income for organised crime, exceeded only by arms and drugs trafficking. UN office on drugs and crime
  
  
• It is the fastest growing form of international crime, already generating 7 billion dollars per year in criminal proceeds. There are even reports that some trafficking groups are switching their cargo from drugs to human beings, in a search of high profits at lower risk. UN office on drugs and crime
  
  
• People are trafficked into prostitution, begging, forced labour, military service, domestic service, forced illegal adoption, forced marriage etc.
  
  
• Types of recruitment; include abduction, false agreement with parents, sold by parents, runaways, travel with family, orphans sold from street or institutions.

Plus, an event not to be missed if you are in Melbourne!

Australia's Largest Chocolate Fondue Party!
January the 18th 10.30am-12.30pm

Federation Square, Melbourne

Everyday thousands of trafficked children are forced to work in the cocoa industry. This must stop.

Come and learn more about the trafficking occurring in cocoa production and enjoy in some Fairtrade chocolate fondue!

My Days In 2009

So 2009 has started, not exactly with a Bang but rather slowly. It's not something unexpected, well as you know, I'm in Melbourne! Duh~!

Anyway, been enjoying my morning & evening peak hour drive as there're a lot less cars off the roads. The main reasons are there're no kids going to school and some companies are still closed for holidays! My normal 45 minutes run from home using suburban roads would just take me about 30 minutes these days. If I took the freeway, I just needed 20 minutes while if normal days, it'd be over 1 hour! How nice is it if everyday is like today :)

I guess that's one of the consequences of Victorian Govt who miscalculated or predicted the growth numbers for Melbourne. Migration just totally overloaded Melbourne causing traffic jams, water shortages, inflation, etc! How about removing 50,000 cars off the roads each morning? Everyone would be happier than before. Shorter travelling time to work means more productivity and increase efficiency. Employers should start to consider starting their staffs on different times like 8.30am or 9.30am to avoid everyone cramming to start at 9am.

Anyway, work has been busy for the last 3 days. Monday was basically playing catch up with about 400 emails and processing some applications. When I just got into my office, most of my colleagues are already there. I guess they're caught by surprise of how light traffic were. I was there 20 minutes earlier! I also got my new Ipod Nano when I came in. The delivery came during the holidays. Tuesday, started to ring some landlords and introduced myself. Also informing them of their apartments' new tenant. Something different as well today, I got an Ipod to listen to! Woohoo! So basically, everyday I'm doing almost the same thing now. Checking emails, calling landlords & tenants, answering enquiries. I think my phone calls are 50% of my company's calls these 2 days.

On Wednesdays, I'll be signing a few students to the apartment. I've arranged about 8-9 students to come each day to sign their leases. Say 1 student needs 30 minutes, that's about 270 minutes (4.5 hours) alone doing sign ups! Imagine I have to repeat the same thing over & over again! Probably get RSI on my mouth after this month! I got 210 apartments to fill. *gulps*
Oh by the way, got quite a bit of debt to clear on my credit card this month too! My rents have also increased with my brother moving out. Argh.....bad timing

SHE @ Penang

Just saw on the news that SHE was performing a show in Penang few days ago. Not bad! This wouldn't be possible a PAS ruled state. Good to see the Penang Government are being open minded in this field. The KT by-election is just around the corner, will PAS dominate the by-election like how PKR dominated in Permatang Pauh? It's hard to say as PAS would normally not get much support from non-muslims. Hmm...let's wait and see.

By the way, Lim Guan Eng, the Penang Chief Minister was there too! He was invited to dance along but he cheekily refused. Shy? heheh

Found 2 clips of the SHE concert:
Part 1


Part 2


Source: Sin Chew

Love Matters - 幸福万岁

Found this from Jack Neo's blog. His new movie coming out soon! Title is Love Matters - 幸福万岁

Trailer here->


For those Singaporean movies fans, this one seems good! Be on a lookout for it!

A Cop, So What?

Recently, Malaysia was hit with the headline news of a cop who got attacked in his own house. What made it more amusing was he wasn't an ordinary constable or lance corporal, he was the Tawau Acting Police Chief Superintendent! Very pangkat one you know! If he has retired, then can understand why nobody is scared of him anymore but that's not the case.

How much more proofs do we need for those politicians or police "head" to know that Malaysia isn't as safe as they hoped! No civilians are safe on the streets or their houses, no children are safe playing in playgrounds, not even policemen are safe outside their police station!

KOTA KINABALU: A massive manhunt is underway for five men who broke into the home of Tawau acting police chief Supt Ramli Ali Mat (pic) before stabbing him early Saturday.

Supt Ramli was alone at his Taman Ria 5 house in this Sabah east coast district when the intruders broke in at about 2am. He was stabbed once in the left abdomen after he challenged the intruders. Despite his injury, he managed to alert the Tawau district police headquarters on his walkie-talkie.

Police rushed to the house and Supt Ramli was taken to the Tawau General Hospital and admitted into the intensive care unit there. More

Now that the police are on a manhunt for the culprit, it certainly doesn't seems to be a good news for him. All the district's police force will be on a lookout for him!

It's not something unexpected as we would normally advise our friends not to offend the authorities, especially cops! They can all come right at you for whatever reasons! Suspect this lah, suspect that lah, held arrest for 24 hours lah, bla bla. They can be very "personal" if you know what I mean.

In this case, is this an emotional personal revenge against the culprit or is it the police are waking up to enforce law & order? Well, unfortunately, the first option seems more realistic! You can imagine all the angry faces now scolding bad words like Cilaka! Kurang ajar! Budak sial! etc etc. They are looking for a revenge for their big brother (dai lou). For most people, police are just gangsters with license.

Some people asked me, what can we do? I say we need smart policemen. Come to think of it, with the current situation or environment, smart people wouldn't want to be a policeman!

When will PDRM or M'sian Govt realise this problem and start solving a simple crisis faced by their people? Major reformation & restructure is needed here.

When Enough Is Not Enough

About 1.5 months ago, I mentioned about the Target155 for curbing the water consumption by Melbournians. Now, we all know Melbournians and in fact, Australians are very generous and very eco-minded. However, I didn't expect fellow Melbournians to be sucessful in achieving that target of 155 litres per person per day mark! We not only hit the target but we fared much better than expected. The current average for us is 149 litres per person! From 165L to 149L in "trial" period, we gotta give ourselves a round of applause~!

However, it seems that greediness (can't think of other nicer words) is again in us. Look at

Recent rainfall and cooler days mean Melbourne households should be consuming much less water than they have been, water utilities say. Recent weather has helped keep water consumption down, with average water use at 149 litres per person a day, just under the target of 155 litres.

But Yarra Valley Water managing director Tony Kelly said Victoria remained in severe drought and people needed to cut their water use even more.

"Given the amount of rainfall and cooler days, I would expect to see much lower consumption, Getting water use down really low now will hold us in good stead when the hot summer really hits." Mr Kelly said.

Obviously, he's not the best motivator in Melbourne! Instead of congratulating fellow Melbournians for their efforts, he went to rub it in saying we could have done better? Sure, we thank God for opening the Heaven's gate for the rains but if we are not conscious enough ourselves, would it make much difference? It never seems that we are doing enough, we are always not as good as they expected :)

Anyway, instead of keep asking us to cut down on our usage, etc. They should be doing more to help minimised the consequences. Instead of asking Melbournians to install rain water tanks and get rebates, why don't the Government install it for us for FREE? After all, the "costs" for the Government will be even larger if Victoria really runs out of water.

How about the industry or commercial sector which I believed uses more water than residentials. Maybe Government should increase water tax on them? Oh wait, the economy is struggling, Governments are bailing some of the big fish out! They can't impose more tax on them! So, the extra costs will be passed on to residential consumers because we can survive the recession and there'd be homeless programs to keep us in our houses! :P

By the way, we should save water and start drinking beer. That way, we can save water and help boost the economy by spending on beers! ;)

Affordable Sharks

Just came back from my short trip to Hepburn Springs after spending 3 days 2 nights there. Lovely small town. Yuen Li wanted to go back there again @.@~~

Anyway, been catching up on the news and saw this nice article:

THE number of man-eating sharks in Australian waters is growing, according to experts, who blame the surging numbers on a ban on killing the predators.

Marine biologist Adam Smith said initial research and accounts from fishermen and divers pointed to a rise in the number of sharks in Australian waters."Nobody is fishing for the great white, it has no human predators and commercial fisherman are telling us they're seeing an increase in numbers," he said. Mr Peake also warned that increasing contact between great whites and humans could occur as many of the shark's traditional food sources, including salmon species, are more aggressively fished. More

Wow~ Will the Aust Govt relax their laws on those predators? If so, we could see a price drop in Shark's Fin soup! My favourite soup of all time! It has been to expensive to drink for me, only able to drink it during special occasions.

Let's wait and see for the good news!