Tea Break

EPL 2009/2010 Season

2009-08-15T09:50:00.004+10:00

Finally can get rid of the football withdrawal syndrome.

This season will be extra special as I've joined a virtual league. It's an invitation from a colleague at work. 3 of us are in this league together with a few other friends of my colleague. It's going to be exciting.

I've also joined football tipping. This is my prediction for week 1's action.

My take on the policy reversion of Teaching Science and Mathematics in English

2009-07-13T21:17:00.020+10:00

My first opinion which appeared in Malaysiakini. The title was changed to Back to the future for math and science

The Teaching of Science and Mathematics in English (Pengajaran Dan Pembelajaran Sains Dan Matematik dalam Bahasa Inggeris) or PPSMI has been a hot topic in Malaysian politics in recent months. It ended with the Government announcing that the education policy, brainchild of former Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir some 6 years ago will be abolished within the next 3 years. From 2012 onwards, it will be 'back to the future', where the teaching of science and mathematics in primary schools will revert back to Bahasa Melayu for national schools and Chinese and Tamil in vernacular schools while Bahasa Melayu will be used in secondary schools.

It is difficult to gather whether this is what the majority of Malaysians really want. PPSMI has been strongly challenged by GAPENA (Gabungan Penulis Nasional) and Chinese Educationists since its commencement. The key justifications are the status of Bahasa Melayu as the national language, the ability of students from rural areas in taking up the challenge and the preservation of ethnic and cultural identities. There are also statistics to indicate that students from rural areas have been coping poorly with science and mathematics since the implementation of PPSMI.

Based on my understanding, the statistics definitely hold a lot of truth for smaller towns and kampungs where the command of English is generally poor. Students did badly because they are not able to understand the instructions or text written in English. As we are all aware, the standard of English in Malaysia has deteriorated over time. The introduction of PPSMI was done in a haste, without considering the steps to improve the level of English or to train teachers with higher capability in the language. It is also a well known fact that the teaching profession has become very unattractive in recent years that it is difficult to attract capable teachers into the education system. In fact, many teachers from the younger generation have very poor command of English themselves. It is no surprise that they were not able to deliver.

Back to the abolishment of PPSMI. Is the Government taking the right steps? Is this merely a tactic of a Government which is under immense pressure due to its weakening support base? It is debatable. But the fact is, most parents with better education background or those who are from more urbanised areas are likely to be disappointed. It feels like a step backwards. Their children could adapt quite easily to the change in medium of instruction. In fact learning science and mathematics has become easier as there are plenty of resources, be it printed material such as books or electronic material such as the Internet where they could take advantage of.

Those who are against PPSMI often cite the ability of countries such as Japan, China, Germany and France to be advanced in science and mathematics despite not learning them in English. However they missed the point entirely. The 4 countries above have ample of scientific and mathematical resources in their own languages. In fact, they are also major contributors to the development of science and mathematics.

In my opinion, it is better for Malaysian students to learn science and mathematics in English from the practical point of view as it will meet their future needs in this globalised era. However, it is difficult to implement it in the earlier years of primary schools as most students will be faced with the challenge of learning new languages. Hence it may be desired to teach science and mathematics in mother tongue from Standard 1 to Standard 3 or even up to Standard 6 and then switch to English later on. This will allow them the time to build up good foundation in English at the same time not compromising their ability to learn science and mathematics.

It will be interesting to see whether the Government will really revert to the old policy as 2012 is still more than 2 years away and that may be after the next general elections. Whatever it is, I hope that the interest of the future generations will be taken at heart. The Government should consult the views of those who are involved in education as they will have a better feel of the issue instead of letting emotions rule the day. Let us not change education policies at whim and without proper research and planning.

Glory Glory Man United!

2009-05-17T00:55:00.007+10:00

Despite not playing well against Arsenal today, we've clinched our 18th title, equaling Liverpool's record. Finally found a response to this dated photo (1993) below.

Well done United! We've been great this season. The only blemish is the FA Cup where we were a bit unfortunate in the semi-final.

Next up - back to back UEFA Champions League. We'll have to play a lot better than today though.

Glory glory Man united,
Glory glory Man united,
Glory glory Man united,
As the reds go marching on on on!

Sad Day in Perak

2009-05-07T23:48:00.012+10:00

Whatever happened in Perak, I still hope that rule of law and constitution are being respected.

However, what happened today shows that we are fast becoming a lawless state and it is sad that police were also part of it by invading the State Assembly.

Arresting people for merely wearing black is soooo unreasonable. In a democratic country like Malaysia, don't we even have a right to express our disagreement or disapproval?

Dear Sultan Azlan Shah, please let the people decide on who they want instead of letting all the power-crazy politicians inflict more and more pain to Perakians. Perak has been nearly 20 years of my life. I would like to see peace and stability returning.

Perak Speaker V. Sivakumar forcibly dragged out of the Assembly by some"official" who later installed Ganesan as the "new" Speaker - which part of the law has such provisions?

Hee Yit Fong - Victory? Wonder who will have the last laugh? The winner should be Perakians, not politicians

回忆中学时代的歌曲

2009-04-29T21:23:00.002+10:00

我一向来都比较喜欢小调(minor key)的歌曲。但是小调歌曲经常都被用来表达悲伤的情感。对我来说歌曲的旋律比歌词重要。

Youtube真棒。几乎每一首歌都可以搜索。回忆过去的歌曲真是易如反掌。

其中一首最喜欢的歌曲是优客李林的认错。林志炫和他那高亢、優美的歌聲及流暢的真假音轉換。。。

另一首是周华健的不愿一个人。

優客李林 - 認錯

周華健 - 不願一個人

Photoshop Tutorial - Stars Effect

2009-04-17T01:17:00.003+10:00

This tutorial is called Dancing with the Stars.

Photoshop Tutorial - How to make your photo more interesting

2009-04-15T23:56:00.002+10:00

Yet another tutorial I've completed. This one is on how to make a photo more interesting.

The original photo

The finished product

Photoshop Tutorial - James Bond Logo

2009-04-15T19:24:00.001+10:00

I'm really enjoying myself with these Photoshop tutorials. This one is a reproduction of the James Bond logo.

Photoshop Tutorial - Luminosity Effect

2009-04-15T14:22:00.003+10:00

This luminosity effect is amazing. The tutorial could be found here.

Photoshop Tutorial - Comic Book Effect

2009-04-15T02:00:00.007+10:00

As usual, during exam season I'll learn a lot of unrelated stuff, the latest is this Photoshop tutorial on transforming photos into comic book style.

Please click to view full image.

Second update...

Chicken a la carte

2009-04-10T15:26:00.002+10:00

Forgotten people feeding on forgotten food.

6 Years since the first touch...

2009-04-08T22:39:00.008+10:00

In a glimpse of an eye it's already 6 years since I reached out my hand to hold Johanna's on 8 April 2003. We were strolling at KLCC then. Read more at Johanna's blog on how we first met and how the relationship developed. She actually thought I am a Malay when we first met.

While we may have aged a little, our love is still as strong as the day we started. Thank you for giving me the best 6 years of my life Baby. I'm looking forward for more in the many years ahead.

I've created a Facebook Album to celebrate the 6 years.

学如逆水行舟，不进则退

2009-03-30T09:52:00.003+11:00

游览一位朋友的部落格之后，恍然发现自己的中文水平已经倒退很多。

自从离开中学后，除了报刊之外，都很少阅读其他中文读物。

真的有点遗憾。

学如逆水行舟，不进则退。希望还有机会挽回。

Local Sentiments

2009-02-23T11:21:00.002+11:00

What I gathered from local news and local views in Penang and Parit Buntar, Perak.

Many are unhappy and strongly disagree with the Sultan's decision on the Perak turmoil - many are wishing for an election to show BN how big they'll lose this time around.
MACC's hypocrisy - unusual disclosure of their investigations, very quick and efficient when it comes to opposition parties, impossible when it comes to BN and its bedfellows - police, judges, etc.
Chinese school to suffer because they invite opposition to fund raising event - It's sad to know that there are circulars that disallow all Malaysian schools from inviting Pakatan politicians, with threats of withdrawing government funds. Government funds is treated as BN funds and political tool when it should be used impartially on the education of our future generation.
Elizabeth Wong scandal - Sad to know that it receives so much more coverage than all the corruption cases combined. While the debate on privacy and public morality of politicians is valid to certain extent, we are not practising the same standards when it comes to corruption. Her private life has no direct impact on her role; corruption, on the other hand is directly affecting the role of a politician. In Malaysia, corruption seem to be halal. Any revelations is quickly swept under the carpet.
Labu LCCT - Maybe I can understand why Tony wanted his own airport. I flew in from Melbourne in Air Asia X. The airport terminal is OK on the inside. However, once we went past the exit, we thought we've landed in Africa! No joke. There was no proper signage to direct us to public transport. Touts were all over the place, offering taxi trips to KLIA for RM45 when it is just on the other side of the airport. After asking around, we managed to get on to a bus for just RM3. The bus is ill-equipped for travellers as there is no space of baggage. The driver and attendant are not in uniforms. The ride was scary especially when the bus is negotiating corners. We were so relieved to arrive at KLIA in the end. There was no proper sign at the terminal to show that we have arrived in KLIA. We saw a few foreign tourists struggling to understand where they were, so we offered our help, while feeling embarrassed about the condition of the current LCCT and the crappy services provided from there to KLIA. MAHB is definitely ripping Air Asia off for LCCT.

Back in Malaysia

2009-02-23T11:04:00.003+11:00

Johanna and I arrived back in Malaysia on Friday evening. We were greeted at Penang Airport by my excited parents and brother. We started stuffing ourselves with all the Malaysian food we've missed in the last 14 months - Penang laksa, char koay teow, or chean (fried oysters with eggs), Penang Hokkien mee, rojak (fruits version), char siew (pork buns), lor mai kai (chicken glutinous rice), or koay (yam cake), tau foo fa (sweet soy pudding), Penang chendol, etc.

After spending two nights there we came back to my hometown. We bought a walking aid for my auntie who has serious knee problems. Hopefully she'll get used to using it.

Lompat Lagi

2009-02-07T13:04:00.002+11:00

Tun Dr M has a very funny entry in his blog on the Perak turmoil which ended with "He he he!". He he he!

1. Sandiwara di Perak masih menggelikan hati. Ada lompat keluar kandang, ada lompat masuk kandang.

2. Duli Yang Maha Mulia Sultan sudah bertitah.

3. Tetapi Menteri Besar Pakatan tidak hendak berhenti jadi MB. Pejabatnya sudah dikosongkan oleh Polis.

4. Apakah Polis akan usung MB dan campak dia keluar? Tentu tidak kerana tiada peruntukan undang-undang yang mengizinkannya.

5. Pakatan boleh adakan Kerajaan minoriti. Demokrasi mengizinkan.

6. Tetapi kerajaan minoriti lemah. Dia boleh ditumbang dengan undi tidak percaya oleh majoriti ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri, kalau Dewan bersidang. Mungkin Pakatan tak mahu ada persidangan.

7. Siapakah yang berhak mengadakan persidangan? Bolehkah puak majoriti paksa Kerajaan minoriti adakan persidangan khas untuk undi tak percaya?

8. Jika tidak dapat paksa Kerajaan minoriti mengadakan persidangan mereka boleh ambil bermacam-macam tindakan untuk merosakkan negeri Perak. Apakah yang boleh dibuat kepada kerajaan minoriti jika ia kekalkan dirinya dan terus merosakkan negeri? Keadaan seperti ini masih kelabu; tak ada peruntukan undang-undang setakat yang saya tahu.

9. Mungkin pegawai tidak akan patuh kepada kerajaan minoriti ini. Tetapi pegawai profesional perlu akur akan perintah Kerajaan yang halal.

10. Kita hanya boleh pandang dan lihat sandiwara yang sedang berterusan. Anwar akan dapat banyak pengajaran daripada sandiwara ini kerana dialah yang beria-ia sangat untuk ada lompat katak yang terbesar pada September 16. Oh! Silap, September 24. Oh! Silap lagi.

11. Amat menggelikan hati mendengar telatah Anwar berkenaan Nasarudin Hashim (ADUN Bota) masuk PKR dan keluar daripada PKR.

12. Lompat masuk (perangkap) boleh tapi lompat keluar tak sah!! He, he, he!

Frogs - The aftermath

2009-02-06T00:02:00.006+11:00

I'm no expert in law, but that doesn't stop me from thinking and asking myself a few questions regarding the Perak turmoil.

3 individuals have brought down the government voted in by the people. Is this fair?
Did the people voted for these individuals in 308 or they voted for the party?
What are the conditions for granting the dissolution of the state assembly?
What if PKR managed to woo a few BN ADUNs to crossover in the next few weeks or months? How many times are we going to change the government?

This crossover thingy is a PKR's (Anwar's) game. I don't think PAS and DAP actually support it. Now it has backfired big time. When is Anwar going to learn to be patient?

Personally I think we should have an anti-hopping law. In my opinion it is very unfair for an ADUN to switch sides without getting a fresh mandate, especially when it involves the change in government.

Further comments on our outgoing PM's quote in the Star:

Datuk Seri Abdullah has told Pakatan Rakyat to accept Barisan’s rule in Perak. “They should accept it just as we had accepted results of the general election,” he said.

How can the Perak turmoil be compared to what happened in 308? In 308, it was the rakyat who voted, what happened now is the caused by the decision of only 3 individuals.

Is that too complicated for him to grasp?

Anyway, hope the new BN government have learnt their lesson from 308. But the way they seize the government is definitely not a good start.

What we did on Chinese New Year Eve and Chinese New Year Day

2009-02-05T22:54:00.011+11:00

We've made a spontaneous trip to the mountains on Chinese New Year Eve since we didn't have any reunion dinner to attend.

Our plan is to do canoeing in one of the National Parks in Victoria. We set off to Bright, a town in the middle of the Alpine National Park and Buffalo National Park in the morning. It took us more than 4 hours to get there. Since it was a spontaneous trip, we didn't made any arrangement for accommodation. We were told by the staff at Bright's information centre that the hotels in surrounding areas have been fully booked except for a hotel at Myrtleford, which is the other direction from where we were heading. In the end we've decided to take the risk. I managed to call up a motel from an advertisement in a tourist brochure and booked a room.

View Larger Map

Dinner Plain is located on Mt Hotham, which is part of the Alpine National Park.

On the way, we have to pass through the Mt Hotham summit. The area is full of ski resorts and chair lifts which were not in operation. There was hardly any sign of life around. I think this place is only popular in winter.

On top of Mt Hotham

We arrived at Dinner Plain around 5pm. The motel is located in a very nice and peaceful village. We were elated that our motel turned out to be very nice.

Rundells

The lobby

Dinner Plain village

We've decided to view the sunset on top of Mt Hotham based on the recommendation by a local shopkeeper. But before that we took dinner at a pizza joint there.

The sunset was really breathtaking. We could see 360 degrees of the whole mountain range, each layer with its own hue.

The next morning, we had a very nice breakfast at the motel. It is probably the best we've had. We could really taste the difference in the quality of the food served.

After the great breakfast we headed off to Mt Buffalo. We were excited to get to Lake Catini where we planned to do canoeing. However, when we arrived there, there was no one in charge even though the canoes were there, without the paddle. I tried calling the phone numbers on the sign board but in vain. We had to give up canoeing and continued our journey to Horn, the summit of Mt Buffalo. We parked our car and started to follow the 1.5km track to the top. The view was equally breathtaking.

It was a great trip indeed even though not the usual way of spending Chinese New Year Eve and Chinese New Year.

For more photos, please visit my Flickr.

Frogs

2009-02-05T00:03:00.012+11:00

What say you?

It all started with Anwar's 916... Nothing much has happened thus far despite a lot dare and scare.

Perak (I consider myself a 1/2 Perakian 1/2 Penangite) has been in the news in the last few days:

One Perak BN ADUN defected to Pakatan
Two Perak Pakatan ADUN, who are facing corruption charges, defected to BN (maybe with the hope of saving their skins). BN may now wrest back Perak from Pakatan. But how can BN stoop so low to accept tainted frogs?
The Perak BN ADUN who defected has now defected again (within days!) - since Pakatan may no longer be in power
How much money is involved? According to Najib - zilch (No money is involved)
Considering that many BN won seats have majority of less than 1,000 votes, if an election were to be called in Perak today, how much is Pakatan/BN going to win/lose?
If BN were to wrest power, almost all ADUN will be from UMNO. What is MCA, Gerakan, MIC and other BN component parties' views?
What if there are more frogs hopping around from either side in the next few weeks or months? Are we going to see a change in government every few weeks or months?
The ball is now in Sultan Azlan Shah's (my most respected Sultan) court. I'm sure he'll make a wise decision for all Perakians
There are rumours that many ADUN from Pakatan states are being lured by millions to crossover by BN - Are we going to see more frogs and more dramatic changes in the coming months?

It's all about money and positions. Who is standing for the rakyat when Malaysia and the whole world is facing economy crisis and job losses?

Flemington Race Course

2009-02-03T22:04:00.004+11:00

24 January 2009

After sightseeing in Beaumaris, we decided to visit Footscray and Maribyrnong.

Footscray is a "Vietnamesetown" famous for its market with a lot of cheap and good food. Since it was quite late by that time, the town is almost dead.

We continued our journey to Maribyrnong just to look around since one of my colleague is living there. I saw the sign to Flemington and got a bit excited since that is the home to Melbourne Cup, the annual international horse racing event. So we went there and I managed a few shots of the place. From the stands, the scenery is great as we can see Melbourne's skyline all the way.

Ricketts Point, Beaumaris

2009-02-03T21:49:00.004+11:00

24 January 2009

After leaving the Chinese New Year Carnival at Box Hill, we decided to go to Sandringham, which is south of Melbourne. We ended up on a beach a few kilometres further down in another town called Beaumaris.

The beach is very quiet and peaceful. I took the opportunity to take some shots while Johanna waited for me in the car.

I particularly love the shots taken in the glaring Australian sun's direction. The photos came out almost colourless.

I was surprised to see swans in the sea

A pelican with a few other big birds

More photos at my Flickr.

Chinese New Year Carnival at Box Hill

2009-02-03T20:14:00.005+11:00

Saturday, 24 January 2009

Johanna and I drove to Box Hill on the Saturday before Chinese New Year to have a look at the Chinese New Year Carnival over there. We had witness the Vietnamese one at Richmond one week ago and was expecting something bigger and better as Box Hill is literally a "Chinatown", where the whole town is full of Chinese - from the people to the shops, etc.

However, to our disappointment, the carnival wasn't that great. Other than some stalls selling food, there wasn't much to see. We left after only one hour.

Police force entertaining the crowd

Lamb satay - most likely from Xin Jiang

More photos at my Flickr.

新年快樂万事如意

2009-01-25T00:58:00.002+11:00

Happy Chinese New Year to all Chinese friends and readers of this blog.

The 4 characters in the Chinese couplet above reads - nian nian you yu, meaning abundance year by year.

Melbourne Zoo

2009-01-14T21:34:00.006+11:00

Johanna's friend Leanne invited us to her birthday celebration in Melbourne Zoo - picnic style. It was partly because of this that I rushed to purchase the EF18-200mm as a zoom lens is good for taking photos of animals which are usually to far away for normal cameras and lens.

Johanna with birthday girl Leanne

Leanne and boyfriend Cody

Leanne's friend Loan and her cute baby girl

Beautiful day, but very hot!

Lion - unfortunately had to take through the fence

Johanna with her new Canon SX110IS - her Christmas gift from me

Bear searching for something in the water

A smaller bear

My favourite subject - the peacock

The head of a giant tortoise - he's huge

Meerkat is very good in posing for photos

A cute little boy on a merry go round

Nice flower - I realise that my lens is no sharp enough for good macros. Johanna's SX110IS (has 0cm macro) can take better macros even though it's a consumer camera.

No title

A group of hungry little penguins waiting to be fed

Little penguins running towards their food

The brown bird does not belong to the zoo. It's a smart bird that will pick up any fish that is dropped on the ground. Little penguins do not pick up their food once they drop it.

Ah... finally managed to get one fish

Happy little penguin after being fed - shaking his bum while walking

They may look small, but they are also worried about the state of Australia's economy. Just in case no more fish.

This very charming bird broke one of its wings 6 years ago, causing it to lose the ability to fly. Poor thing.

Once again, I'm not happy enough with the quality of macro shots produced by EFS18-200mm

Photographer photographed

New addition to the zoo

Very colourful mandrill. It has an equally colourful butt. Check this out.

Elvis or John Travolta?

Pelican spreading its wings

Giraffes munching

Never know flowers can grown in multi level fashion

Nice butt

Zebra grazing

More photos at my Flickr.

I've learnt something important from shooting the animals. First, don't be stingy with ISO. Animals can move really fast. Coupled with zoom, it is going to be difficult to freeze their action. I thought hundredth of a second is good enough. Many photos turned out not sharp enough in the end.

Many animals are either behind fence, cage or glass in Melbourne Zoo. We also missed out on the snow leopard and tiger, the former sleeping, the latter nowhere to be seen. I hope to visit Werribee Zoo next. It's more of safari style. But wonder if my zoom lens is good enough. Itching to get EFS100-400mm.

Yet Another New Toy

2009-01-11T09:59:00.006+11:00

I'm very happy to purchase my 2nd new toy within a month. This time around it's the Canon EFS20-180mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens. After going from shop to shop, I've finally managed to track down one which is still sold at the old price (before Aussie Dollar crashed against the US Dollar).

So excited that I immediately went out to test it out at Port Melbourne. Johanna also came along to test out her Christmas pressie - Canon Powershot SX110 IS.

Port Melbourne Tram Stop

The benefit of this lens is I'll most likely need to carry only this lens along for travels. The downside is of course the lower quality output to compromise such large range in focal length. Also the maximum aperture is only f3.5 and f5.6 respectively at f3.5 and f5.6, doubt that I could take good photos indoors and under low light condition. However, having a 11x zoom is something that I've been missing since the demise of my Canon Powershot S2 which has a 12x zoom.

Here are some of the shots I've taken at Port Melbourne with particular focus on the 11x zoom.

Taken at 18mm

200mm version of the photo above. Still very sharp.

Taken at 18mm

200mm version of the photo above. Try spotting for the Campari logo in the 18mm version.

Taken at 18mm

35mm version of the photo above. Wish the partially cut out bird is not there (right most).

Taken at 18mm

200mm version of the photo above. Try spotting the birds in the 18mm version.

200mm f/5.6. I like the bokeh effect produced.

Nice apartments at Port Melbourne. Reminds us of Glenelg in Adelaide

I was shocked to see the lines on the ground at first. Thought the barrel distortion is so bad. Luckily the lines are really like that.

Tram to Port Melbourne - 109

I've already had my next toy in mind - EFS 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM. Maybe in a few months time.

Dining @ Nobu

2009-01-10T23:28:00.004+11:00

Moses, Charis, Johanna and I dined at Nobu, located in Crown Plaza, on 27th December. Nobu is a Japanese restaurant serving Japanese food with a modern touch. It has branches in a number of major cities in the World.

Overall, the food there is not bad. The food is more of fusion than traditional Japanese. However, the serving is a bit small for the hefty price.

Crispy Oyster with Wasabi and Caviar

Beef Fillet Tataki

Black Cod with Miso

Soft Shell Crab Kara

Abalone in Light Garlic Sauce

Beef Toban Yaki

Ocean Trout - Fusion Recipe

2009-01-03T19:37:00.011+11:00

The long weekend has rekindled my interest in trying out new recipes. Since the urge came suddenly, I had to make do with whatever ingredients I have in the fridge and kitchen to cook the piece of ocean trout I bought yesterday. I've decided on an East meet West style. Since I'm also on a learning curve on my new EF18mm lens, I thought it would be a good idea to mix both of my hobbies together.

I'm quite happy with the final result - both the taste of the food and the result from the lens. Thought I could share the recipe with everyone.

Ocean Trout with Chinese Sauce

Ingredients

250g of ocean trout fillet, preferably with skin on one side (should work well with salmon, barramundi or snapper)
1/2 teaspoon of crushed sea salt
1 tablespoon of corn flour
4 tablespoon of olive oil (2 for frying the trout, 2 for
2 teaspoon of water

The sauce

1 inch (2.5 cm) piece of fresh root ginger
2 spring onions
half a clove of garlic
2 small chilli (cili padi)
1/8 cup of fresh coriander leaves
white pepper to taste
2 tablespoon Shaosing wine (Chinese brown rice wine)
2 teaspoon of Maggi seasoning sauce
1 tablespoon of fish sauce
2 tablespoon of sesame oil
1/2 cup of water

The side

1/2 cup of mashed potato powder, otherwise make mashed potato from scratch
2 teaspoon of salted butter

Directions

Preparing the serving plate and side

Spread olive oil onto the plate in a circle, one inch away from the edge of the plate
Place mashed potato in the middle of the plate, in the shape of the fish fillet. This will serve as the base to put on the fish fillet

Preparing the sauce

Chop garlic, chilli and coriander leaves finely
Chop the green parts of the spring onions finely
Chop ginger into thin strips
Place chopped chilli, spring onions and coriander leaves into a small bowl
Add white pepper, Shaosing wine, fish sauce, Maggi seasoning sauce and sesame oil to the bowl
Add water to the bowl and stir

Frying the trout fillet

Rub sea salt on trout fillet evenly
Mix water to corn flour and rub onto the trout fillet
Heat up grill pan with olive oil
Fry trout fillet on both sides for a few minutes until golden brown
Place the trout fillet on top of the mashed potato, skinless side facing up

Heating the sauce

Heat up a small saucepan with sesame oil
Fry ginger and garlic until slightly golden
Pour the sauce mix into the pan and stir gently for one minute
Pour the sauce onto the fish fillet, letting it flow gently, creating a smaller brown colour circle within the yellow colour circle created by the olive oil (see photo below)
Garnish with a few coriander leaves

Hope you enjoy the recipe. Feedback welcomed.

Happy New Year 2009

2009-01-01T01:02:00.010+11:00

Shot with EF50mm f/1.8 II at the 9.15pm fireworks at Melbourne CBD

2008 has finally come to a close. Feels like Johanna and I have just been in Melbourne for a while but it has already been more than one year.

It has been a great year especially at work. Our lifestyle here is also a lot more relaxing. Actuarial exam wise, I wish I had done better, but I'm content with the only pass nevertheless. Hobby wise, web developing may be coming to an end soon as I've stop upgrading myself for some time, while in photography, I have not managed to allocate more time to unleash the power of my EOS 30D. Nothing really bad, other than missing my parents occasionally.

Looking back at our old photos with Johanna, we've suddenly realised how much we've aged and 'grown'. Hence my first resolution in 2009 is to reduce my increasing waistline by making use of the parks around our apartment. Ironically I've only walked/jogged around the Albert Park lake thrice thus far. Hopefully I'll make better progress in actuarial exams in 2009.

Blast From the Past

--- 2003 ---

Singapore with Johnson & Yve and Brian & Cherlyn

--- 2004 ---

Pool outing at Hartamas with Via & Community

Singapore

--- 2005 ---

Shazrul & Teratai's engagement

BMW 3 Series Launch

BMW 3 Series Launch

Jeff's birthday at Ceylon Hill Cafe with Sayf, Shazrul, Ozzy and Wan

Yew Khuen & Jo-Ann's wedding

Johnson & Yve's wedding

--- 2006 ---

Photography trip with Ozzy at FRIM - Photo by Ozzy

With Moses and Charis in Sydney

Visiting Whitstable with Xian, Niki and Hazreen

--- 2007 ---

Having Matthias and Lisi at our London apartment

Visiting Old Trafford with Ozzy

Chinese New Year lunch with Hong Lim & Whuan Ting, Yi Duan and Yee Yung

Keukenhof Tulip Garden in Netherlands

Edinburgh

--- 2008 ---

A very late Christmas dinner with AIG Life colleagues and spouses from actuarial department

Cascade Brewery, Tasmania with Moses and Charis

At home with Johanna on 2009 New Year's eve

My New Toy

2008-12-31T19:29:00.009+11:00

Johanna got me the first lens for my Canon EOS 30D (other than the kit lens) for Christmas.

It is good for shooting portraits and under low light conditions. But so far I have not managed to get any volunteers for portraits.

So far I'm amazed with the sharpness and the ability to take shots under low light conditions without needing a tripod.

The new EF50mm f/1.8 II shot with EFS18-55mm

Ornaments on our Christmas trees

A swan at Albert Park late during sunset

More swans at Albert Park late during sunset. The focus is unfortunately not on the swans.

Rare scene at the usually busy Queens Road. Amazing that this photo can be taken without needing a tripod.

Christmas bauble

DOF may be too shallow

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T13:03:00.010+11:00

Christmas Day Dinner with Alex and Hui Min

Christmas Eve Family Dinner

Youtube is down?

2008-11-10T23:48:00.003+11:00

Surprised to find Youtube down... This is the error message.

500 Internal Server Error

Sorry, something went wrong.

A team of highly trained monkeys has been dispatched to deal with this situation. Please report this incident to customer service.

Also, please include the following information in your error report:

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Think

2008-11-09T22:02:00.000+11:00

Comedian George Carlin’s viewpoint and the message that comes with it seem so appropriate.

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Highways, but narrower viewpoints.

We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less.

We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time.

We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.

We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life.

We've added years to life not life to years.

We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbour.

We conquered outer space but not inner space.

We've done larger things, but not better things.We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.

We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.

We write more, but learn less.

We plan more, but accomplish less.

We've learned to rush, but not to wait.

We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships.

These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes.

These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.

It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom.

A time when technology can bring this message to you, and you have a choice of either sharing this insight or just ignore it.

Just take a moment and THINK about it.

Congratulations President Obama

2008-11-05T18:40:00.004+11:00

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Senator Obama's victory may be even beyond Martin Luther King's dream.

I wonder whether I could see Malaysia's version in my lifetime?

Credit to John McCain. He is such an honourable man - he refrained from making cheap shots at his opponent, even to the extent of defending him from harsh and over-the-board attacks by some Republican supporters. Other than his old age and the unfortunate timing of the economy crisis, and to certain extent George Bush's unpopularity, his biggest mistake is to choose Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Altantuya Case

2008-11-04T13:08:00.005+11:00

After the acquittal of Abdul Razak Baginda, many questions remain with regards to the Altantuya murder case. I don't think the public will be satisfied until these questions are answered. To focus on the two policemen alone will leave many questions unanswered, i.e. justice will not be served.

Why did Altantuya make the fateful visit to Malaysia in the first place?
Who ordered the murder? There must be a motive behind the murder and it is likely that the policemen are under the orders of one or more than one influential figures.
How did the murderers acquire the military explosives that were used in the murder?
Why are important witnesses such as the private investigator not examined in detail?
Where is this key witness right now? How and why did he go missing?
Was any investigations conducted on other statutory declarations?

I personally hope that the judiciary system in Malaysia is not so weak that we can allow one to escape with murder.

Ballarat - Sovereign Hill

2008-11-02T22:21:00.002+11:00

On the day we got back from our Tassie trip, we drove straight to Ballarat from the airport to visit Sovereign Hill - an outdoor museum on the gold rush in Victoria in mid 1800s.

Gold was discovered in Australia since early 1800s. However, the gold rush only began in 1851 when gold was discovered in Ballarat, Victoria. It is through this gold rush that Melbourne had prospered.

The story begins...

Other than the Europeans (especially English), Chinese were also one of the early participants in the Gold Rush. I never knew Chinese were also one of the early settlers in Australia (since 1854).

Trying our luck... but in vain. This method is popular in mining alluvial gold.

Tents occupied by Chinese miners. There were also Chinese shops and temples.

This gold bar is worth around A$150,000. Wow!

The same bar of gold being smelted

When alluvial gold ran out, underground mining began

Gold nuggets embedded

Underground tunnel in a gold mine

Mining town - with abundance of wealth

Gold nugget

On the way back to Melbourne, we chanced upon Kryal Castle in Ballarat. Don't know what is the history though.

More photos of Sovereign Hill here.

Tasmanian Trip Videos

2008-10-30T23:49:00.009+11:00

Video of the wildlife conservation park at Tasman Peninsular. Johanna did some editing using iMovie on her Macbook.

Devonport - Lucky enough to capture the smallest rainbow I've ever seen.

Echidna

River cruise along Tamar River and Cataract Gorge

Happy Deepavali

2008-10-26T23:33:00.001+11:00

Inniya Deepavali Valzhtukkal :)

Tasmanian Trip

2008-10-26T09:33:00.003+11:00

I've been too busy to blog about my Tassie trip from 5 - 11 October with Johanna, Moses and Charis.

It was great apart from a few days of bad weather.

Just a quick summary...

We landed at Hobart and travelled to a wildlife park in Tasman Peninsular to visit the Tasmanian Devil, a strange kind of marsupial only found in that region.

There were also some kangaroos there, and the surprising thing is there were not separated from the visitors, meaning we could get really close to them.

The wildlife park also housed other Australian animals and birds, such as possums, a huge eagle, parrots and kookaburra.

The second day we went around Hobart, first to the Cadbury chocolate factory then to the top of Mount Wellington to get a good view of the whole city. Unfortunately, it started snowing on our way up. By the time we got to the summit, the whole place was so foggy that we couldn't see anything.

Our next stop was Cascade Brewery, one of the oldest breweries in Tasmania. Of course, the session wouldn't be complete without tasting the products.

We spent the rest of the evening touring Salamanca Place in Hobart - a historic area with art markets, cafes, restaurants.

The next day we started driving to the West part of Tasmania. The roads were quite windy. On the way we could see some snow-capped mountains. However, it started pouring when we arrived at Strahan. There was nothing much to see there - quite a disappointment after a long drive.

On the 4th day we drove to Cradle Mountain. It is supposed to be one of the most scenic places in Tasmania, with lakes and snow-capped mountains in the background. However, the weather was really bad. Once again the fog prevented us from getting a good view. Disappointed, we left for Devonport after that. Deprived of Asian food for the first 3 days, all of us were happy to ate at a Chinese restaurant that evening. After dinner, we went to a small beach to look at penguins coming ashore.

The next day, we visited another chocolate factory - this time a small one called House of Anvers. Then we drove to Beauty Point to visit the Seahorse World and Platypus House. Seahorse World is a place dedicated to seahorse preservation and conservation. They also housed some other sea creatures. The memorable part for me is getting clamped by a big hermit crab, ouch! On top of platypus, the Platypus House also has Echidnas, a porcupine look-a-like animal.

We drove to Bridport after lunch. Bridport is a very small town with a nice beach.

The next day, we drove to Launceston, the second largest city in Tasmania after Hobart. Launceston is a beautiful town with a lot of heritage buildings. We visited the popular Cataract Gorge and took a cruise along the Tamar River. That sort of rounded up the trip as we flew back to Melbourne the next morning.

More photos at my Flickr

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri

2008-09-30T18:22:00.001+10:00

If the PM had only thrown away caution, not chances...

2008-09-21T15:44:00.005+10:00

I quite agree with this analysis from the Malaysian Insider. Too bad Pak Lah's days are numbered if what I've read from some UMNO insider blogs are true. Don't think there is much he could do now. He'll probably be remembered as a very weak leader. I think most people will not blame or associate him to all the controversies during his premiership as he is merely seen as a pawn to all the warlords within his own party. His credibility has also been largely undermined by Tun Mahathir, who seem to be part of UMNO's many controversies and internal fighting since Tunku's days.

If the PM had only thrown away caution, not chances...

SEPT 20 — A couple of days after the March 8 general elections, a calm Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi sat down with some supporters and his inner circle in Sri Perdana to survey the new political landscape and weigh the prime minister’s options going forward.

Those familiar with the meeting recalled that a confetti of ideas were tossed around on how to regain the initiative from the Anwar Ibrahim-led opposition and to hold off Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and other critics within Umno baying for Abdullah’s blood.

One idea got some traction – the notion that Abdullah had to throw caution to the wind and reform the various institutions in the country.

He had to care less of what his party thought and focus solely on what Malaysians wanted. If he followed this strategy, he would be so popular with Malaysians that his party will not dare to move against him.

Even the downside was attractive – the idea that he would be remembered as a Malaysian Mikhail Gorbachev who lost his power and position doing the right thing.

That seems like sound advice which Abdullah should have followed.

Instead, after appointing Datuk Zaid Ibrahim as the de facto law minister and making some loud noises about reforms, he retreated to his usual patch, worried that he was upsetting the Umno warlords.

Every decision seemed to hang on this outcome – how would Umno react? If there was a remote chance that the party would object to a policy or decision, he postponed making it.

That is why the Judicial Appointment Commission and the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission are waiting to be rescued from limbo.

Ironically, today he is paying the price for being subservient to his party. They have their knives out for him, wanting him to step down as party president much earlier that the mid-2010 transition deadline.

And here is a double dose of irony: Their big beef with Abdullah is that he has not done much since Election 2008.

There is no cavalry of non-party members rushing to put up a human shield around him and protect him from the charge of the Umno rank-and-file.

They believe that he has been given several chances to make good his promise of changing Malaysia, and has not been able to deliver.

Worse yet, they believe that because of his unwillingness to upset Umno warlords, party officials have become more arrogant and insensitive to the feelings of non-Malays, and Malaysia has become a less inclusive country.

That is why Datuk Ahmad Ismail was recalcitrant about his description of Malaysian Chinese as immigrants and squatters.

That is why the late Datuk Zakaria Deros was willing to break every law in the book to build a huge mansion in Klang.

That is why Datuk Seri Khir Toyo was unrepentant about ordering the demolition of a Hindu temple in Selangor a week before Deepavali last year.

So today, Abdullah finds himself in an odd situation: weak inside and outside his party.

And yet it could have been so different if he had followed the strategy of throwing caution to the wind and trying to outflank his party.

In theory at least, his popularity among Malaysians would have been so strong that it would not have been easy for the likes of Dr Mahathir and Tan Sri Muhyddin Yassin to whip up hatred for him among the party rank and file.

In theory at least, he would have been remembered as a great Malaysian who put the principles of multi-racialism, justice, fairness and integrity above everything else.

But for that strategy of outflanking the party to have succeeded, the PM would have had to become a risk taker overnight, someone not afraid of going against convention and the herd.

Perhaps that was asking too much of a man who had become a prisoner to what his party thought.

Little Gordon

2008-09-19T09:08:00.012+10:00

Came across these...

Gordon Ramsey's clips as a kid, full of the usual F-word.

Nah... Actually these are 3 advertisements clips with a young boy imitating Gordon. Very good imitation indeed. Apparently Gordon's son got upset after seeing these clips, thinking that his dad had been so rude to his granny as a little boy. Trying to imagine Gordon explaining it to his son. "Looks like me, sounds like me, but it's not me." Even he was convinced that the little boy's imitation of him is jolly good.

Having said that, I'm against profanity.

Please do not watch the clips if you will feel offended. Recommended to 18 and above only. Hmm... but the actor is a little boy!

Alternative video links could be found at http://www.littlegordon.com

ExitReality

2008-09-19T09:08:00.003+10:00

The latest buzz on the Internet - ExitReality allows you to explore the World Wide Web in 3D, but with a lot of pain...

The plus points

It allows you to browse the World Wide Web in 3D, something like browsing the Internet in Sim City. You can see the avatars of your friends in your own customisable virtual world. Websites will be shown in a different manner, e.g. Flickr becomes some sort of gallery, Youtube is shown as a cinema. Visually it's more interesting than the 2D browsing currently.

The bad points

Even with 2GB worth of RAM on board and a 20Mbps connection, the 3D virtual world is slow to load, even with only one tab, not to mention doing multiple tab browsing. It also caused my browsers to crash (both Firefox 3 and IE7). Despite having some visual advantage, browsing becomes a painfully slow process. I may be wrong on this, but ExitReality also makes IE it's default browser. Whenever I try to exit to 2D on Firefox, it launches IE instead. I've verified that the default browser on my PC is Firefox.

It's touted as the future of the web. But before we have more RAM and bandwidth, I don't see it going anywhere.

Bail outs

2008-09-18T20:25:00.013+10:00

The US government, being the leader of the market capitalism ideology has done the unthinkable in the last few months - bailing out big private companies. The ideology that has been used to demonised socialism is now seen as a fraud by some. When it comes to big capital, losses are absorbed by the public while profits remained private.

Despite the US government agreeing to provide a $85bn loan facility to AIG in return of 80% of its equity, a number of key Republican politicians have voiced out their disapproval over such action. In their opinion, the Congress should at least be consulted and taxpayers monies should not be used to fund failing corporate giants that put greed before responsibility. They are strongly against using tax payers dollars to bail out private companies and are furious that the US government is sending out inconsistent messages by refusing to save Lehman Brothers. They also question the discretion of which companies get rescued and which ones not.

However, those who worked out the AIG rescue package have defended their position, stating that "AIG is too big to fail" and that failure of AIG will have too serious an impact on America's financial system. Furthermore, they argued that AIG has quality assets as most of their subsidiaries are profitable and desirable. If AIG was allowed to file for Chapter 11, these profitable units within AIG would have been sold at a far lower value in the fire sale. The loan would allow AIG time to sell of some of its business units at more reasonable prices. They argued that the tax payers will benefit from the profits generated by AIG eventually.

Many signs are pointing to the failing of American capitalism and profit system. Very soon the credit-worthiness of US Treasury Bonds may come into question.

From the Wall Street Journal: Some investors are even betting they may profit from weighing the unthinkable question: "Could the US government default?"

Too much greed is bad.

Kickdefella Arrested

2008-09-18T20:25:00.004+10:00

Sheih aka Kickdefella was arrested by police most likely because he started an online campaign to turn the Jalur Gemilang upside down as a sign that Malaysia is distress. While I don't see the benefit of doing this (upside down flag), I certainly think the police (and whoever is behind them) is over-reacting.

Having said that, I'm sure many would agree that Malaysia is indeed in distress with all the political uncertainties, high inflation, slowing economy and the police's judgement getting worse day by day. How long can we cope with the weak leadership? Titanic is going to sink no matter how you rearrange the furniture.

I hope Sheih and others who have been irrationally detained under ISA will be released soon. We need more justice in Malaysia.

Bleak Outlook in World Financial Markets

2008-09-15T12:06:00.012+10:00

Latest: Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy - 5 hours after I started this post. At the same time, an equally shocking news - Bank of America has agreed to buy troubled investment bank Merill Lynch for $50bn.

This is quite sad to read

Lehman's dying hours

Keeping track of AIG's price
Last traded $7.12 only at 10.12AM EST

The latest news on Lehman Brothers and AIG are really worrying. Looks like the subprime mortgage crisis is going to claim a few more scalps.

Rumours have been spreading that Lehman Brothers, a 150-year old financial services firm, mainly in investment banking, has been on life support for the past few months and finally the company is not able to contain all the bad news from reaching the market. Despite putting the company up for sale, so far no companies have been willing to reach into their pockets. Looks like Lehman Brothers is going to go down the path of Bear Stearns.

Meanwhile, the holding company of my employer - AIG has also been having a bad time in recent months. It's share price has plunged from $70 around one year ago to a low of $11 as of last week. It is the only insurance company to suffer top 10 losses from the subprime crisis thus far, due to its large CDO exposure. AIG needs to shore up its balance sheet in light of the huge losses it has suffered in the last 3 quarters and is facing a possible credit downgrade by rating agencies. Any credit downgrading is likely to add on a lot more pressure to the company.

Testing times ahead for the financial markets...

JIM KECAM PENAHANAN AHLI POLITIK, WARTAWAN DAN PENULIS BLOG DI BAWAH AKTA KESELAMATAN DALAM NEGERI (ISA)

2008-09-14T22:15:00.000+10:00

Well said...

KENYATAAN MEDIA
Pertubuhan Jamaah Islah Malaysia
14 September 2008

JIM KECAM PENAHANAN AHLI POLITIK, WARTAWAN DAN PENULIS BLOG DI BAWAH AKTA KESELAMATAN DALAM NEGERI (ISA)

Pertubuhan Jamaah Islah Malaysia (JIM) mengecam undang-undang tanpa bicara seperti Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri (ISA) dan penggunaannya ke atas Ahli Parlimen Seputeh yang juga Ahli Majlis Mesyuarat Kerajaan Negeri Selangor, Teresa Kok, wartawan akhbar Sin Chew Daily Tan Hoon Cheng dan pengendali laman blog Raja Petra Kamaruddin.

JIM ingin menegaskan bahawa prinsip keadilan amatlah penting dalam perundangan. ISA menyalahi prinsip keadilan kerana mereka yang ditahan dinafikan hak untuk “tidak bersalah sehingga disabitkan kesalahannya”, dinafikan hak bela diri, dinafikan khidmat guaman dan boleh ditahan selama-lamanya tanpa dihadapkan ke mahkamah.

Walaupun wartawan Tan Hoon Cheng kemudiannya telah dibebaskan selepas 16 jam ditahan, namun JIM mempersoalkan penahanan tersebut atas kononnya untuk melindungi beliau daripada ancaman ke atas keselamatan beliau. Ini menurut Menteri Dalam Negeri, Syed Hamid Albar dalam sidang akhbar di Ibupejabat Polis Bukit Aman pada 13 September 2008. Bukankah suatu yang amat pelik apabila seseorang ditahan di bawah ISA untuk menyelamatkan beliau daripada ancaman keselamatan sedangkan lazimnya seseorang ditahan kerana beliau dituduh memudaratkan keselamatan negara?

Apakah dengan ini wartawan tersebut perlu berterima kasih kepada Kerajaan atau sepatutnya menyaman Kerajaan kerana merampas hak kebebasan beliau sebagai warganegara dengan alasan yang tidak munasabah langsung?

Perbuatan menuduh tanpa sebarang bukti adalah perbuatan yang haram dari sudut Syariah, kerana ianya sendiri merupakan sebab utama kepada keadaan huru-hara di kalangan masayarakat yang hilangnya kepercayaan antara satu sama lain.

Firman Allah s.w.t. dalam surah Al-Hujurat ayat 6, penyebaran perkhabaran dan maklumat yang tidak sahih lagi meragukan menyebabkan berlakunya pertimbangan yang tidak adil, lantaran mengundang kepada musibah fitnah yang melanda masyarakat.

Riwayat hadith Ibnu Majah dan Abu Dawud menyebutkan bahawa kadi yang menetapkan hukuman kepada seseorang bedasarkan sumber-sumber bukti yang tidak benar akan dicampakkan ke dalam api neraka sewajarnya cukup menjadi pengajaran bagi kerajaan untuk mengutamakan prinsip keadilan Islam yang rasional berbanding dengan sentimen-sentimen perkauman yang rapuh dalam menjaga kemaslahatan masyarakat.

JIM mengesyorkan mana-mana pihak yang terkesan dengan sebaran awam yang dianggap menghina Islam supaya tampil proaktif dalam memberikan penjelasan yang bernas terhadap isu-isu yang dibahaskan. Islam tertegak di atas nas dan dalil Al-Quran dan Sunnah yang jelas. Tuntutan untuk mengemukakan hujah-hujah Islam secara berhikmah dan beradab sudah termaktub di dalam riwayat hadith-hadith yang sahih.

JIM memandang penahanan wartawan Tan Hoon Cheng seolah-olah beliau bertanggungjawab ke atas kontroversi kenyataan perkauman Ahmad Ismail sebagai tidak wajar kerana Ahmad Ismail dan pengikut beliau sendiri yang sengaja memberikan provokasi perkauman tanpa sebarang kawalan emosi di hadapan wartawan-wartawan.

Penahanan Ahli Parlimen Seputeh, Teresa Kok pula merupakan satu ketidakadilan kerana dakwaan bekas Menteri Besar Selangor keatasnya telah dinafikan sekeras-kerasnya. Malah, masjid di Damansara yang dikatakan disuruh perlahankan bunyi azannya telah memberi penjelasan bahawa azan tidak berbunyi dengan kuat kerana alat pembesar suara azannya mengalami kesulitan teknikal, bukannya kerana ditentang penduduk bukan Islam.

Penduduk bukan Islam di kawasan perumahan sekitar sebuah masjid di Puchong pula dilaporkan hanya memohon supaya diperlahankan penggunaan pembesar suara untuk majlis kuliah bacaan ayat al-Quran, bukannya azan itu sendiri.

JIM berpendirian jelas bahawa apa juga alasan yang dinyatakan kerajaan atas episod penahanan terbaru ini samada sebagai “pencetus polemik ketakutan” atau “pencetus kegawatan”, ianya seharusnya boleh ditangani dengan pelbagai akta lain yang sedia ada.

Tindakan menggertak dan menangkap blogger, wartawan, para pengkritik dasar kerajaan khususnya dari kalangan parti pembangkang tanpa hujah yang konkrit hanya akan mengundang kemusykilan rakyat terhadap motif dan keikhlasan kerajaan dalam melaksanakan perubahan pasca Pilihan raya Umum ke-12 terutamanya dalam konteks lanskap politik negara kini. Tindakan ini hanyalah mengesahkan lagi bahwa ISA digunakan untuk tujuan politik parti pemerintah.

JIM amat kesal dengan tindakan parti politik pemerintah yang sanggup memainkan isu sensitif seperti perkauman dan agama demi untuk menutup pelbagai kelemahan kepimpinan sedia ada. Sebaliknya, adalah lebih baik pihak kerajaan berusaha menyelesaikan pelbagai kemelut yang terjadi di dalam negara sekarang ini tanpa menggadaikan suasana keamanan yang sedia ada. Hentikan politik perkauman, fitnah dan tuduh menuduh tanpa bukti lagi tanpa bicara dan kembalilah kepada Syariat Islam.

JIM menggesa Kerajaan untuk membebaskan Teresa Kok, Raja Petra dan tahanan-tahanan ISA yang lain dengan serta merta atau dakwa mereka di mahkamah. Nasib tahanan yang ditahan dalam tempoh yang lama sehingga 7 tahun juga perlu dibela.

Sebagai anggota aktif gabungan Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA (GMI), JIM menyeru rakyat yang prihatin untuk turut tampil membantah ISA dan penahanan berhubungnya melalui program-program yang dianjurkan oleh GMI. Dalam tuntutan keadilan dan kebenaran, tidak ada batasan agama, kaum atau budaya.

Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh
Timbalan Presiden

中秋节快乐 Happy Mid-Autumn (Mooncake) Festival

2008-09-14T19:15:00.004+10:00

Johanna and I visited the famous Victoria Market today as there was a small Mooncake Festival celebration over there.

It was our first time visiting the market while it is open. We were amazed by the size of the market, selling all range of goods from food to clothes, etc.

For Mooncake Festival, a small stage was set up with a few rows of stalls as well. The stalls were selling things like Chinese teapots, satay (wonder if satay is originally Chinese? Since I just found out that there is wayang kulit in Chinese culture, from the movie To Live), mooncakes and even services such as fortune telling. There was also a booth where some people were making lanterns, the standard type with 6 circles. Surprisingly, only one stall was selling mooncakes and surprise surprise it was handled by a colleague of mine Michelle Tay from Finance Department, together with her partner. We bought a box of mooncakes from them. Can't wait to taste them. Yum... Also bought some bak quah (jerky), yet another favourite of mine.

While we were there, there was wushu performance on the stage - ironically performed by a few Mat Sallehs. Later one there was also a gu zheng (chinese harp) performance by a group of ladies (see video below).

Satay (not as nice as the authentic Malaysian one)

Lantern making - very few people left as it was near the end of the celebration

Some of the stalls

ISA: MCA should stand for justice

2008-09-14T10:45:00.006+10:00

If the press reports were true, I'm very disappointed with MCA, even though I do not support the party. By only helping to secure the release of reporter Tan Hoon Cheng and not raising anything on Teresa Kok and Raja Petra Kamaruddin's ISA detention, MCA has shown that it is not capable to standing up for justice for all Malaysians. It certainly will not earn them brownie points from most of the rakyat. Teresa Kok is clearly innocent from all the information we could gather from press, Internet, etc. It is the usual culprit - Utusan Malaysia that is inciting racial tension and seem to get away with it over and over again. RPK's case may be more complicated, but Malaysia has its own legal system and we should use our own legal system to determine his fate rather than resorting to an unreasonable detention, unless the government is worried about him revealing all their skeletons in the closet.

The original ISA is never meant for cases like this. If it's used against terrorists or communists, then it could be justified as they may pose immediate threat to the country and we can't afford to wait for legal judgements to be made.

Whatever lame excuses Syed Hamid Albar is using to defend the government - blaming the police for the detention, claiming the reporter incited racial tension, majority of rakyat is mature enough to see through all the lies and deceit. Instructions to use ISA needs to come from above and is not within the police's powers. The lame excuses only makes the government and Malaysia looks extremely and increasingly stupid in the eyes of the world.

As for stoking racial tension, I can only see Ahmad Ismail and Khir Toyo doing it. UMNO is only trying to scare honest people into reporting their misdeeds. What a shame!

Q&A with Syed Hamid Albar
(don't know whether to laugh or cry)

Q: Is Ahmad Ismail above the law?

A: He has been punished so far as the party as concerned. At the same time there is a report against Ahmad Ismail and we are investigating it. I don’t think we treat politicians differently. We have taken action. That politician has been suspended three years by the party. He lose all his position. At the same time there is a report of sedition.

Why arrest the reporter when you can call her up for questioning?

Whatever action that we take, there will be questions asked. The whole thing was started by her, it is best that we talk to her. If she is a threat, she would be brought in under Section 73 for 60 days. She would be held. When we have questioned her and we are satisfied with her answers, we just release her. I don’t think we are being unfair nor have we mistreated her.

What do you mean by ‘she started the whole thing’?

If you are going to analyse (what I say), I’d be appearing before a defence counsel. Let me say that the (news) report was made by her. Therefore just now when I introduced the subject, I said that we don’t want hearsay information. That information is from her and it was published. (Since) it was published, it is best that we get to the bottom of it by getting the information from her.

In the whole context, it was the overall incident and the subsequent follow up debates on the matter that started the polemic and created fear (among the public). I think we had acted professionally and after one day we had released her. I think that is a very good cause of action.

Why couldn’t the police just ask her to come in for questioning?

When the police feel it is best to bring the person in under the ISA, they will do so. The most important thing is not to exercise unfairness. When they find what they wanted and realise that she is not a security threat and she is not disturbing public order, they release her immediately.

That is why it is not an exercise on the part of the minister to hold the person under Section 8 which is two years (detention) straight away. The police feel that they should handle it and avoid any misunderstanding.

Do you as a minister feel that the ISA arrests were justified?

I’m a minister and politician. If I start to interfere, people will say I have a political motive. I cannot interfere with the police.

Would there be more arrests? People are saying that this is a mini-Operasi Lalang.

Really? Let me know if there are more (arrests). You shouldn’t ask me. We have done the arrests and so far there is no other arrests.

Is this part of a crackdown to stop Anwar Ibrahim from taking power?

If you look at the whole thing, there is no logic at all for it (ISA arrests) to be related to Sept 16. Sept 16 is a political move. They (PKR) have sent people to Taiwan. If they are successful, they can replace the government, then go ahead. It has nothing to do with the arrests which has to do with public order.

No to Abuse of ISA!

2008-09-13T13:45:00.009+10:00

The latest ISA Detention of Sin Chew journalist, Tan Hoon Cheng, MP Teresa Kok and popular blogger, Raja Petra Kamaruddin is really over the board. ISA is now a tool to silence political opponents and innocent people who speak of the truth while the people who should really be punished are only given a slap on the wrist or left to roam free.

Any sane and rationale Malaysian will weep for our free-falling country.

Is the government going to crackdown on the freedom of speech to the extent that we have to communicate secretly using mooncakes?

It's embarrassing that we need to involve foreigners to restore justice in our country.

Read what Wong Chun Wai has to say about the foreigners' views of Malaysia in the Forbes Global CEO Conference.

Inside the lying brain

2008-08-29T10:31:00.005+10:00

It's a good sign that our so called mainstream media is getting bolder in voicing their views. No matter how much pressure is given by the current corrupt and increasingly oppressive government, sooner or later some brave and righteous editors are going to get fed up with all the hidden hands. There are always indirect ways of sending the message across if the direct way is thwarted.

The Star published this article - Inside the lying brain today, which reflects upon the recent events leading up to the Permatang Pauh by-election.

On the other hand, MCMC has violated one of our government's commitment in the MSC Bills of Guarantee not to censor the Internet by requesting all Malaysian ISPs to block Malaysia Today website. If Malaysia Today is accused of spreading lies, then many other UMNO websites and blogs should be censored as well. Who should be the judge? Definitely not a few individuals from a certain party that have their own vested interest. The latest move is yet another desperate attempt of an out-of-touch government trying to prevent more exposures of their corrupt practices. After all, the Internet community in Malaysia is mature enough to make their own judgements. This move is likely to further rattle the confidence of many foreign investors. It also shows the naivety of the current government in the cyberworld as bypassing such block or censorship is extremely easy. Just to prove the case, Malaysia Today is now accessible through an alternative address http://mt.harapanmalaysia.com.

Merdeka

2008-08-27T09:20:00.004+10:00

Our Independence Day is only less than one week away but so far I haven't seen any celebration plans in the press. The politicians must be too busy clinging on to power or trying to siege power.

The focus for the past few weeks had been on Permatang Pauh by-election. It was reported that around RM6 million of 'goodies' have been handed out, money which could have been better spent for better planned development projects amid the high inflation suffered by the rakyat.

The by-election has probably brought out the worst of some of our politicians - slandering, bribing, lust for power and wealth and worst of all, trying to out-swear one another in the name of religion.

With the state of the government since 8 March 2008, change is imminent. The rakyat can no longer tolerate the intolerance, arrogance, greed, corruption and whatever-it-takes kind of attitude of some of our incumbent leaders. Their personal agendas have compromised the development and the welfare of the nation.

Perhaps, we should celebrate Merdeka by making the big CHANGE. The opposition should be given a chance in light of the stage 3 cancer suffered by the BN government. Fair competition is the only way to encourage hard work and discipline. This applies to both the ruling government and the opposition, whether BN or PR. It is the rakyat who will benefit in the long run.

Merdeka!

Jogging in Albert Park

2008-08-22T22:11:00.005+10:00

While on study leave last Thursday, I agreed to jog in Albert Park with Johanna around noon time. She has started jogging since recovering from her numbness three weeks ago. One round around the Albert Park lake is roughly 5km.

Assuming I was going to catch up with her eventually, she started first while I was still reading my notes at home. I went out a while later. It has been quite some time since I last exercise. As for running or jogging, the last I remember was doing a 5km run in Taman Tasik Perdana a few years ago.

The moment I got out of the house in sweater and track pants, I regretted not wearing a jacket as it was so chilly and windy. Winter seems to last forever this year. In fact this week is colder than all the previous weeks even though we're supposed to be heading into spring by now.

I started strongly but stopped after 1km to take some photos with my phone. From then on, I walked a bit, ran a bit and stopped a bit to take more photos. The weather was getting worse. The wind grew stronger and it started to drizzle. By the time I covered half the distance, it started pouring. I had to shelter outside a club house. By that time I was still around 1km behind Johanna. We resume after the rain and I did not manage to catch up with her - the hare didn't manage to win the race. Ha ha, not really. I think Johanna ran quite fast and I was probably the tortoise of the day. The cross country training from KTJ days has deserted me. Nevertheless, it's a good exercise session. Hope I would do more in the future.

We had a great lunch at Oriental Tea House after that. Yummy!

Gloomy view of Melbourne CBD from Albert Park

Two of the many black swans in Albert Park

i-Dola and Jean-i

2008-08-01T20:48:00.004+10:00

According to the Star, in 3 months' time, Malaysians will be able to buy cheap laptops and PC - i-Dola and Jean-i at basement price, made in Africa.

Three months from now, Malaysians will be able to buy the i-Dola laptop and Jean-i personal computer (PC) at basement prices.
Mimos is now ready to licence the production of the Malaysian computer codenamed Mak Cik, which it took two years to develop. The laptop and PC are named after the Prime Minister and his wife.

I don't know whether to pity or to laugh at Pak Lah and his wife for lending their names to these cheap machines that come without hard disks. They will operate from thumb drives. Err... I think these machines need bigger ~~brains~~ capacity...

One blog reader even suggested the feature i-Snooze. Don't worry I'm sure this is the most reliable feature on the laptops.

Sodomised Nation

2008-07-28T22:00:00.001+10:00

I've been too busy to blog lately... But too many 'sodomies' have taken place in my beloved country that I can't resist blogging a bit about them.

First, the rakyat were 'sodomised' by the uncaring government to bear an overnight 40% increase in price of petrol... while billions of of Malaysia's riches have gone into the pockets of certain politicians over the years.

While the rakyat is suffering, the controversial Menteri Besar of Terengganu, who nearly did not make it to his current position, 'sodomised' the rakyat again by purchasing 16 Mercedez C-Class for his Exco, claiming that it is cheaper than servicing the existing fleet of Proton Perdana. The DPM was unhappy but then the PM was satisfied with the explanation, before his usual flip-flop to bar the Exco from using the cars and reserve them from foreign dignitaries. I wonder how many foreign dignitaries visit Terengganu in a year as there are 16 C-Class in waiting.

Then there is Sodomy Part 2, a sequel made 10 years later, minus the black eye. But I think they forgot to hire the sodomy expert - MM as a consultant... In the end, the police could not even force the doctor to doctor the medical report, and now the poor honest fellow and his family is on the run...

At the same time, UMNO is also trying hard to main belakang with some members of PAS. But Nik Aziz is wise enough to put everything to an end by challenging UMNO to dissolve itself and form one Islamic party together with PAS.

Sigh... Where is the country heading? In difficult times like this, the government should do more to help the rakyat cope with rising prices. Instead the politicians are busy fighting between themselves for power and wealth. By 2010, we might already become a pariah state at the rate we are falling.

Elephant Rampage

2008-07-05T20:46:00.004+10:00

Gajah sama gajah bergaduh, pelanduk mati di tengah.

So many gajahs fighting one another these days... Pity the palanduks that have to bear the stampede. The gajahs don't seem to realise or care that the hutan is already on fire...

What has become of Malaysia ~~Today~~ today?

P.S. I Love You

2008-06-21T12:55:00.003+10:00

This movie came out at the end of last year, but we only managed to watched it yesterday.

It's about a young widow (Hilary Swank) discovers that her late husband (Gerard Butler) has left her 10 messages after his death from brain tumour, with the intention to help her ease the pain and start a new life.

A very touching movie indeed, especially for young married couple.

A very good promotion of the beautiful Emerald Isle too.

Another touching YouTube video of the movie.

Mind-controlled Prosthetic Robot Arm

2008-05-30T21:15:00.002+10:00

This mind-controlled prosthetic robot arm is amazing!

Europe Champions Again!!!

2008-05-22T07:46:00.006+10:00

We've won it!!! Again!!!

What a dramatic game! Drogba sent off for ~~slapping~~ poking Vidic in front of the referee and linesmen in the dying moments of normal time. Giggs was so close to scoring only to be denied by Terry near the goal line. Ronaldo then missed his penalty in the shoot-out. I've had a feeling he would miss even before he stepped up. Then Terry, with van der Sar diving the wrong way, his would-have-been-winning-penalty looked like it was destined to hit the net until it missed in the last few moments. Very likely due to a slip.

It's sweeter that it's against Roman's millions this time. We definitely deserve it as we've not lost a single game in Champions League this season.

Fergie has also broken his penalty shoot-out jinx for big games.

"The first penalty shoot-out I've ever won in a big game. I think there was a bit of fate about it. We were fantastic in the first half and could have been three up but then they scored a lucky goal. They were better in the second half. I'm delighted for everyone. It's an amazing achievement. We deserve it."
Man Utd boss Sir Alex Ferguson

Conie Talbot

2008-05-21T21:47:00.003+10:00

Johanna found another great version of Whitney. This time it's 6-year old Conie Talbot who performed in UK's You've got Talent. Which version do you prefer?

Charice Pempengeco

2008-05-20T21:57:00.001+10:00

Johanna found this video on YouTube. This girl can really sing!

Anticipating another great night

2008-05-13T22:13:00.002+10:00

May 21 2008, Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow

Hope the same kind of euphoria will be coming soon.

Manchester United vs Bayern Munich, 1999 UCL Final

Bayern Munich was just 3 minutes away from lifting the UCL trophy when Teddy and Ole scored one each in stoppage time to win the game 2 - 1

Juventus vs Manchester United, 1999 UCL Semi-Final 2nd Leg
United was 2 - 0 down in the first 11 minutes of the game playing away but managed to make a miraculous come back and won 3 - 2

Manchester United vs Arsenal, 1999 FA Cup Semi-Final Replay
Becks scored early. Bergkamp equalised for the Gunners in the middle of the 2nd half. And then Captain Keano was sent off for the 2nd yellow card. Bergkamp's penalty was saved by Schmeichel on the 90th minute! Giggs did a solo run from before the half-way line to score the most amazing goal in extra time.

Route to yet another EPL Title

2008-05-12T01:46:00.010+10:00

I'm watching United edging towards the finishing line live... from HT.

Half Time 1 - 0. Ronaldo with yet another goal! His 31st in EPL this season.

80th minute 2 - 0. Giggsy scores! My favourite player since early 90s. He equals Sir Bobby Charlton's appearance record for United in this match. Wonder if this would be his final season with United. Sigh. Will miss him.

92nd minute 2 - 0 FT. It's over! We're the Champions again. Well done to all the players and congrats to Giggsy for equaling Sir Bobby Charlton's record. He should break it in our next match against the Roman Army, likely without Terry after he suffered a serious injury today.

Just found out that Chelski didn't manage to win. Double bonus. Avram Grant's play-off dream or complaint about goal difference are immaterial. His exit is imminent. Even if they have won the title today, the trophy in London is a replica. The real deal is at the JJB Stadium.

Just noticed on the replay that van der Sar has run all the way to the other end to celebrate. He must be really quick on his feet!

Man City, the only team to beat us both legs, hammered 8 - 1 by Middlesborough? Maybe the season is too 'Thaksin' for them. Sven is most likely to go.

And Giggs lift the trophy!!!

Good night!

Koay Teow Th'ng

2008-05-11T11:52:00.006+10:00

I finally learnt how to make one of my favourite Malaysian soup dish. Th'ng is soup in Hokkien or Teochew.

Johanna had made this successfully a few times in the last few months. Since she is busy lately I just asked her for the recipe and made it myself. Yum!

Let me tell you about 'brain drain'

2008-05-09T22:36:00.004+10:00

From Malaysiakini. Well written. Find it hard to disagree with this guy. Everyone would like to have a sense of belonging in his/her own country. Ironically sometimes one feels more treasured by others.

Let me tell you about 'brain drain'
Kin Kok Low | May 9, 08 4:54pm

I was born in 1949 in Penang when the white men were still the colonial masters of Malaya. During that time there were only two types of people - the British who were the imperial masters and Malayans of different ethnic backgrounds who were the 'ruled'. We called the British ‘Sir’ or ‘Tuan’ - in our own country! My dad worked for Sime Darby (owned by the British then). He was 'exploited' by the boss. He retired after 35 years with the company with very little savings.

I grew up in a slum area in Penang (Dato Keramat Road). Next to our slum was a Malay kampung. We little boys knew we (the Chinese and Malays) were different. But not that much different. We played football, flew kites and catched peacock fish together. We had our little boys fight but our parents never come out with a parang or kung fu knives to kill each other. A few days later we again played tops or badminton together.

To cut the story short, I was fortunate to attend my secondary education at the Penang Free School, passed my HSC and given a state scholarship (the chief minister that time was Dr Lim Chong Yew) to study economics at the University of Malaya. My second day at UM was May 13, 1969. Suddenly, we (Malay and Chinese students) found we were very different. We became suspicious of each other. We gathered in ethnic groups. My childhood friend, Adenan was a clerk working for the HSBC bank. But we were still friends. Our naive minds could not understand why the Malays and Chinese could not live together like Adenan and me.

I graduated and did not take up teaching as required by my scholarship. But I paid back the scholarship money to the government. I joined Malayawata and later in 1975 the Chase Manhattan Bank. During this period I saw the impact of the NEP, the separation of Malaysians based on race, religion, colour and political affiliation. It pained me to see all these. I was a fifth-generation of Chinese Malaysian. My roots were in Malaysia. Malaysia was the country I was brought up and thought I had a future in.

China was not an option for me. I was poor like my Malay friend in Dato Keramat Road. Why discriminate based on race? Why not discriminate bases on social class? There are rich and poor Malays. Likewise there are rich and poor non-Malays. Why can a rich Malay kid receive support (scholarship, allowed to go to university) while a poor non-Malay kid is not given the opportunity? I was born a Malaysian and Malaysia was my country. There was no other country.

I got married and have two wonderful children. Both my wife and I had very successful careers. By 1989, we could experience the intensity of the separation of the races with the onslaught of the NEP. I still have many Malay and Indian friends. In 1989 we decided - for the sake of our children - that we need to go out to have a look at other countries. China was not in our mind as a place we wanted to emigrate. We came to Australia. We all like it.

The good thing about Australia is that when you first meet the immigration officer he says, ‘Welcome to Australia’. The customs officer did not hustle us. We looked at some of the schools for our children. The teachers welcomed our children even though we had not registered them. We went to the government departments and people lined up. There is no ‘cutting the line’. All are served irrespective of their race and the government officer even smiles!

We returned to Malaysia and applied for Australian permanent residency. In 1992, my wife and I left our two very wonderful jobs and with our teenaged children, emigrated to Australia. The first year was a struggle for me as I could not find job. In 1992, Australia had the recession it needed to have. I subsequently found a job and career. Our kids went to school, to university (both received scholarships) and both are now successful bankers. I am still working at 59. I work for a US company.

For our Australian operations we have a country manager who is a French Australian, a general manager who is Anglo Saxon Australian and a finance manager who is an Indian from South Africa. I am the human resources manager and I am ethnically, Chinese. I have an American and a white Australian reporting to me. We have more than 20 different ethnic groups working in our company. We are very different culturally, religiously and socially. But when we come to work we work for one company in one country.

Why do I want to tell my story? Because this is the same story of many qualified, experienced Malaysians now living in Australia, New Zealand, the US, the UK, Singapore and even China. Malaysia is losing very talented people. Talent which is short supply in the world.

As an economist once said, ‘It is better to have 30% of 1,000 than 90% of 200'.

Weekend with Janet & Duane and Alex

2008-05-07T22:38:00.003+10:00

We had Janet & Duane over at our place for dinner for the second time. They are shifting to their new home at Waverley Park, which is close to 30km from where we are right now. So we have to treasure their last few weekends at St Kilda Road. We also invited our housemate, Alex along.

Johanna is quite busy with exams so I had agreed to cook. I had decided to learn how to make spaghetti marinara and scallop for starters. Alex had made some lovely chocolate brownies for dessert. We also had some white wine to accompany the food. I wasn't that satisfied with the starter and main course I made. Still a lot of room to improve. But it was a great experience to learn something new as I've been lazy to learn new recipes for quite some time.

We ended up watching "Twin Towers" after dinner. I've run out of good movies to watch and decided to watch this movie I've acquired quite a while ago. It turned out to be quite boring. Nevertheless, I hope Janet, Duane and Alex enjoyed the evening.

Scallop in white wine sauce and cream and mozzarella cheese

Cooking in process

Spaghetti marinara

Chocolate brownies

More photos here.

Stand-up Comedians

2008-05-07T21:21:00.007+10:00

I've missed Brian Conley's antics in Brian Conley's Show since the end of my undergrad days. Not only he is a great stand up comedian, he is also a great singer. For some unknown reason to me and probably to many of his fans all over the world, he has not appeared on TV for quite some time. I was so eager to watch his show that when I got back to London again in September 2006. I looked up the TV program with the hope of chancing upon his name, but in vain. However, he stood in for Paul O'Grady in one episode of Paul O'Grady Show when Paul was ill. I was really delighted to watch him again. But then Paul O'Grady Show is no Brian Conley Show.

Not only until yesterday, when I was surfing aimlessly the Internet that I realise that I can look up for him in YouTube. Now I can watch Brian Conley anytime I want.

Recently, I've been introduced to another stand up comedian - Russell Peters. He is also very funny, especially in mimicking the way people from certain race or country talk and behave.

It's great to watch stand up comedy once in a while. They really help us to loosen up especially during stressful times. It's good to laugh at ourselves once in a while.

More of Brian Conley here.

More of Russell Peters here.

Deal or No Deal (UK version)

2008-05-07T20:56:00.001+10:00

Probably the most interesting version of Deal or No Deal with the Banker on the phone with the host after each round. Don't really know whether Noel Edmonds made everything up about the 'Banker' or someone is really talking to him on the other end of the phone.

I watched this every afternoon in the first few months of my MSc in London.

The following episode is for Comic Relief (Red Nose Day) with Catherine Tate as Nan. Funny!

Ginger Legend

2008-04-30T21:38:00.002+10:00

I LOVE YOU SCHOLESY. YOU GINGER LEGEND. HAVE A BIT OF THAT BARCELONA.

It was a thrilling semi-final against Barcelona. In the end we defended well and had more penetrating attack. I didn't regret waking up at 5am to watch the match.

I'm sure Scholesy will be very happy to be playing in the Final as he missed the 1999 Final due to suspension.

Beautiful Canberra

2008-04-15T00:06:00.003+10:00

Johanna and I flew to Canberra over the weekend to celebrate her brother - Moses' birthday. It was actually the idea of his girlfriend - Charis.

We arrived early in the morning by the new budget airline - Tiger Airways. It is really a budget airline compared to Virgin Blue - warehouse-like terminal, without proper walkway to the plane, very little leg room even though it's a brand new Airbus A320.

We were picked up by Moses, Charis and their "Chisel-Stone" friend Jonathan who is kind enough to allow us to use his car throughout the weekend.

The first place we visited was the War Memorial, which is also a museum. Johanna and I had visited it 2 years ago during our one-week holiday in Australia. But we didn't manage to visit the memorial itself as we ran out of time.

The War Memorial

The price of war

Reliving World War I

Vietnam War

Then we had picnic somewhere nearby. Moses, Charis and Jonathan had made some chap che (Korean food) for everyone.

After lunch, we visited Australia National University (ANU), where Moses, Charis and Jonathan is studying. Moses' office is right opposite his student accomodation, nearer than from my apartment to my workplace. The office is really nice - with air conditioning, big workstation, nice view outside the window and even a lazy chair!

Moses' student accomodation

ANU is so beautiful in autumn, with abundance of trees with leaves in different hues - red, orange, yellow and green.

We then visited Charis' accomodation which is about 5 minutes' drive away. Her place is very nice. We were then brought around the university, including a visit to Jacky Chan Science Centre - named after Jacky Chan because he donated to the university.

On the way to Charis' place

Jacky Chan Science Centre

Later in the evening we celebrated Moses' birthday at Hog's Breath - a steak restaurant, together with Moses' friends. After a sumptious dinner, we proceed to the famous Pankcake Parlour Restaurant for cake cutting.

Hog's Breath

The Pancake Parlour

The next day, we visited auntie Esther - Johanna and Moses' aunt. We had lunch together before watching TV together. She was very happy that we helped her to set up digital channels on her Samsung Digital TV as not only she gets better quality screen but also more channels.

We hurried back to Charis' place to cook dinner before catching our flight back to Melbourne.

It was really a great trip. Canberra and ANU is so beautiful in autumn. Wish Melbourne is also like that.

More photos of the scenic ANU...

To view more photos, click here.

Studying in office

2008-03-29T19:59:00.003+11:00

I am finding it so difficult to concentrate on my preparation for actuarial exams at home. The temptations to switch on my laptop and read news from my Netvibes, play Scrabulous with strangers from Facebook prove to be too much to handle. Or rather, it's the urge to avoid studying at all cost.

So, I had to come up with a desperate measure - study in my office over the weekend. And it worked. I studied for 5 hours continuously, a feat yet to be done thus far for this year's April exams preparation. Going there again tomorrow and hope to do 7 hours tomorrow.

Took the opportunity to snap a photo of my workstation with my handphone.

Bloomberg mystery

2008-03-27T21:06:00.005+11:00

Can anyone who is using Bloomberg tell me why the historical AUD/USD exchange rates on 26 March and 20 March are different? The only difference between the two screenshots below are the date of the screen generation - one on 26 March and the other on 27 March. Both are from the same source (NY). The impact of using these rates can be quite serious for a multi billion dollar fund. I've never used Bloomberg before and these screenshots are provided to me from colleagues from AIG (AIA) Malaysia and Hong Kong respectively.

Click to view the whole screenshot

Scrabble & Scrabulous

2008-03-25T23:58:00.002+11:00

I've been hooked to both Scrabulous and Scrabble on Facebook lately. Scrabble is still in beta.

If you love the word game too, let's have a game.

It's time of the year where I'm going through the agony of studying for actuarial exams. This is the time where I play a lot of scrabble, surf the net a lot, watch more TV than usual, read news and refresh my Gmail every few minutes. Do you have this habit too?

Kurang ajar betul

2008-03-25T23:44:00.002+11:00

Who are these penderhaka in Terengganu?

Photos from KLpos.com

United trashed Liverpool 3 - 0

2008-03-25T19:00:00.002+11:00

It was my first football match for a long long time, maybe 4 months?

Even though the screen was only a few inches wide - I watched it over the Internet, United's form on the day was more than enough to bring me a lot of joy. Whether Mascherano's red card was justified were irrelevant. United controlled the game well and fully deserved the victory. I think Rafa's days at Anfield are numbered.

Meanwhile, in London, Arsenal's young boys seem to have crumbled under the pressure. A few draws in a row is good enough for United to overtook the leaderboard. The loss to Chelsea is akin to a nail in the coffin for the Gunners.

Yoohoo!

Can your baby do this?

2008-03-24T18:59:00.001+11:00

Interesting Updates from Terengganu

2008-03-24T13:12:00.003+11:00

Malaysian politics have reached a new height. This time around we see UMNO taking on the King.

To be fair, the Sultan of Terengganu (our King at the moment) should not have appointed the Menteri Besar of his choice without consulting the winning party, according to the constitution. However, the Sultan has the prerogative to reject any candidate which is deemed unsuitable. The Sultan should have rejected Idris Jusoh and asked for an alternative candidate to be submitted instead. The Sultan must have strong valid reasons to reject Idris. UMNO, on the other hand, must have ~~millions~~ billions of reasons to stick with Idris. I'm sure it has something to do with "where has all the oil revenue gone?" since Terengganu is blessed with oil fields.

Ever since the huge defeats suffered by Barisan Nasional in the General Election, a lot of drama have unfolded, e.g. in Perlis. The monarchs have chosen to be more vocal about the affairs of their states and people. UMNO, on the other hand has been very bold to challenge the monarchs head on. It's too early to tell what will be the outcome. Within UMNO, there must be a lot of plots behind the scene by various opposing parties despite most leaders still trying to show their 'support' to their 'naked emperor'. Crisis is always an opportunity. The next few days/weeks are going to be very interesting.

UMNO Biadap?

2008-03-23T20:09:00.006+11:00

When DAP did it, Utusan was quick to front page 'DAP Biadap'. Now, what about UMNO? Can't stand this sort of double standard by Utusan Malaysia!

A letter to Lim Kit Siang from Md Asmawi Md Nor says it all. Please read the context here and here. Also, interesting hypothesis on the whole issue.

Letters
by Md Asmawi Md Nor

Saya bersetuju bahawa Saudara telah tersilap dalam isu majlis angkat sumpah MB Perak tetapi saya juga sangat hormat apabila Saudara dengan cepat menyedari kesilapan tersebut dan dengan segera memperbetulkannya dan melakukan tindakan yang tepat dengan memohon maaf kepada pihak istana secara peribadi. Tahniah atas tindakan anda tersebut.

Nah, sekarang Terengganu pula menghadapi isu yang sama dimana 23 Adun dengan segera mengumumkan untuk memboikot majlis angkat sumpah MB Terengganu yang dijangka akan diadakan esok sebaik sahaja ayam tambatan mereka Idris Jusoh tidak terpilih sebagai MB. Seperti biasa, media UMNO Utusan Malaysia akan bersikap ‘double-standard’ dalam menanggani isu ini. Maksud saya secara spesifik ialah bila mana Saudara mengeluarkan statement dalam isu MB Perak dulu, Utusan Malaysia dengan segera dan ‘bold’ terus dengan muka depan “DAP Biadap’, dan dikuti dengan pelbagai rentetan propaganda dan provokasi lagi. Saya sebagai rakyat Terengganu mahukan perkara yang sama kali ini dilakukan oleh Utusan Malaysia dalam menanggani isu 23 Adun yang biadap ini termasuk Idris Jusoh. Tajuk yang perlu keluar dimuka depan mereka sekurang-kurangnya ‘23 Adun Biadap’. Mereka semua juga perlu memohon maaf seperti mana yang Saudara lakukan dahulu.

Saya amat berharap Saudara dapat memantau isu ini dengan diberi perhatian istimewa agar UMNO khasnya sedar jangan hanya pandai melihat orang lain biadap tetapi mereka sendiri boleh bersikap biadap dan bertindak sesuka hati mereka. Macamlah negara ini tiada undang-undang.

Sekian,

Flickr Marathon

2008-03-21T22:06:00.003+11:00

Ever since I lost my high bandwidth broadband connection in London last year, I haven't been updating my Flickr.

Hence the first task I've aimed to complete when we finally got our high bandwidth broadband is to upload all the photos since October last year - probably around 6GB of them. It's good that upload is not counted towards my monthly bandwidth usage of 50GB.

Anyway, finally completed all the uploads moments ago. Please visit my Flickr for the updates.

Our Apartment

2008-03-17T22:48:00.004+11:00

Finally got all the furniture delivered and set up. Now this place truly feels like home. Wish I have a wider lense to shoot these photos.

Living room

Master Bedroom

Study

View from outside

F1 weekend

2008-03-17T22:17:00.006+11:00

It was such a sweltering weekend, with the mercury reaching 39 Celcius! Coupled with the crowd and the amount of fuel burnt from so many racing events over the weekend, the temperature around Albert Park must be more than 40 degrees. Not to mention the noise from different type of cars racing on the track - there were many different races taking place since Thursday, such as Formula Ford and GT. But the loudest of them all is the F1 car, only to be outdone by fighter jets exhibition prior to flag off. The most surprising event is perhaps the advertisement by Qantas - a 747 plan hovering slowly right above the park. What a sight. Too bad I didn't manage to capture this would be priceless photo.

As for photos for the F1 action, dissapointingly I've got none from my 2nd floor apartment as the organisers have made every effort to ensure very limited viewing from outside the park. The residents living on high-rise apartments were exceptions. They must have enjoyed the race from their balcony.

Johanna and I have to catch the race from TV screen, but with the loud engine noise coming live from the park. Exciting and eventful race indeed as only a handful of cars finishing the maiden race. Perhaps it's due to the withdrawal of traction control? Ferrari had quite some misfortune this weekend. Hope they can make it up next weekend in Sepang.

Our apartment is the tiny red dot on the track map

Some roads were closed, to be used as entrance to Albert Park

Merchandise stalls

Managed to take this from our apartment. The cars were way too fast though.

Fighter jet exhibition, right above our apartment

Helicopter making live telecast of the race

Proper Internet Connection Finally!

2008-03-17T22:01:00.002+11:00

I am so elated now! Finally got a proper Internet connection at home. It has been more than 5 months since I lost my broadband connection in London.

I'm currently on a 30+20GB (peak+off-peak) plan which only count uploads. Hope the connection will remain good all the time.

Woohoo!

Guests at home

2008-03-14T21:27:00.003+11:00

I invited my colleagues Chit Wai and Daren over after work last Friday.

Chit Wai is from Penang while Daren is from Sabah.

I prepared some lamb chops to cook during lunch time. I started cooking upon arriving back from work while Chit Wai and Daren were in the living room.

Unfortunately, the lamb chops I made that evening was something I would rather forget for a long time. Since I'm not experienced with red meat, I still don't know whether I undercooked the meat or the quality of the meat was not good as the lamb was very chewy. The aubergine sides I tried to make for the first time also tasted bland and dry. It turned out very different from the one I've made for Duane few weeks ago. I felt really bad that my guests have to finish the dinner.

Anyway, after dinner, we watched Mr and Mrs Smith on TV while chatting. Dessert was chocolate chip ice-cream. Good that it was not made by me.

Actuarial Department Dinner

2008-03-14T20:28:00.006+11:00

It was probably the latest Christmas dinner ever - 6 March. But I would be the last one to complain as I would not have been part of it if it was held earlier.

My department had the dinner at the same place as the previous year - a restaurant in Southbank called Number 8. Our partner/spouse was invited too, so I brougth Johanna along. Initially she was quite reluctant to go as she has been through quite a few actuarial gatherings and just didn't enjoy the things we talk about - work, actuarial exams, studying for exams, etc.

This dinner turned out to be very different. We sat right next to Tim Chambers and his wife. Tim is the head of my department, also the Chief Actuary of the company. It was my first time really sitting down and have a good chat with him as he has been very busy since I joined. On my other side is my colleague Chit Wai, who is also from Penang. He has helped me a lot to settle down at work since I joined on 29 January. The dinner conversations turned out to be very interesting. Tim told us about his interesting experience in London (he originated from there) and Toronto and why he moved to Melbourne.

Chit Wai was very nice to send Jo and I to the dinner and back home too. He also fetch my other colleague, Anh and his wife to the dinner.

Many thanks to Elena for organising the great dinner and bringing along her camera so that we have something to remember by.

From left: Johanna, Tim, Tim's wife, James (my manager), Stephen, Elena, Daren, Anh's wife, Anh, Chit Wai and myself.

Cooking

2008-03-14T19:15:00.000+11:00

I've been a very lucky guy lately. Not only I work so near home, I get to eat lunch at home too since Johanna is not working.

She has been downloading many recipes from the Internet. Most of them turned out very good and I have been enjoying my lunches and dinners at home - sweet and sour chicken, kong pou chicken, chili chicken, tom yum soup, black pepper beef, tangy sauce chikcen, etc. Top that off with her favourite ginseng soup. Yum!

The only downside is I get fewer chance to cook. Also, she only cooks Malaysian/Chinese dishes as she don't quite like Western food. Hence I have to make use of the very few precious opportunity to warm up my grill pan. The Scanpan titanium wok and grill pan we bought on Boxing Day last year are really impressive. However, my cooking has been less than impressive lately. Perhaps it is something that requires a lot of practice. And practices are difficult to come by ever since Johanna rules the kitchen.

The very few things I've cooked since last month...

My usual grilled chicken, with grilled broccoli and tomato, substituting ground coriander with steak spice

Swordfish with grilled asparagus and tomato. Johanna said not nice.

Tuna with grilled asparagus and tomato.

F1 begins...

2008-03-13T18:23:00.003+11:00

Albert Park has been closed to public since last weekend.

The new F1 season finally announced its arrival today - and a loud one it is. However, the noise are mostly made by some GT cars on the race track, as what I could see from my apartment. Maybe a GT race is going on. Only once during the day I could hear the distinctive engine noise from an F1 car while in the office. It was a lot louder than the GT cars. Will need to endure that from tomorrow onwards until the race is over. Too bad there are too many trees blocking the view of the race track from my apartment. Otherwise it'll be a great experience watching F1 from home since the track is merely 200m away.

It'll definitely be a hot race, at least the weather - have been close to 40C for the part few days and expecting to be above 35C for the next few. So hot!

The former Minister who thinks bloggers syok sendiri

2008-03-10T19:14:00.003+11:00

Funny bits from the interview with Dr. Mahathir... On our former Information Minister who thinks bloggers merely syok sendiri.

Can you comment on Zam (Zainuddin Maidin)?

Mahathir: He won or lost? Oh, he lost. Well, the way he was campaigning was really funny, telling people to look at his face and how it doesn't change. But I think that a face that doesn't change can be very boring. Sometimes you must laugh, sometimes you must cry.

He was telling everybody "Ini muka tak bertukar, tak bertukar". Who is interested in his ‘wajar’? If he was Britney Spears, then….

Managing the burden of victory

2008-03-10T19:00:00.001+11:00

A great article written by former Bar Council President. Taken from Malaysiakini. Opposition also has to keep its promise and deliver, above all to avoid internal fighting and work harder to form a more united coalition that represents Malaysians regardless of race and religion.

Managing the burden of victory

Yeo Yang Poh

The 8th day of March 2008 was a milestone in Malaysian history, and the 9th witnessed a new dawn.

For half a century, Malaysians - for reasons both real and imagined - have got accustomed to living under a political monopoly, believing and fearing that any substantial change would be detrimental to their own interest. It was, in part, an indoctrinated fear.

That psychological shackle of fear has now been broken.

The Barisan Nasional (BN and predecessor Alliance), having ruled since Independence, is naturally wondering why its iron-fisted monopoly has been so suddenly and unexpectedly breached. For the sake of moving the nation forward, this inquiry, if it can be carried out with brutal and painful frankness, will be a meaningful one.

The reasons for this moment of truth are multiple and complex, almost too numerous to list. But I suggest that they include the following factors.

(a) There is no denying that the coalition formula was necessary for the attainment of independence. The spirit of working together, as equal partners, was both admirable and essential. Equal, that is, though not in terms of numbers, but in terms of rights and responsibilities. However, over the years, the gradual erosion of this spirit, brought about by the greed for power and wealth, has betrayed the essence of the coalition formula, and turned it from a winning formula into an oppressive one.

(b) To maintain power and control, it became expedient to arrange politics according to race, in order to divide and rule, first along racial lines, and then along religious ones. The coalition became equal only in the payment of lip service. It was increasingly difficult to convince the affected persons that this was a partnership of equals, while their representatives were compelled to continue insisting that it was one.

(c) The preoccupation of the ruling elite in pursuing personal power and wealth, fuelled by an unbroken string of successes no matter how audacious their conduct, had entrenched a culture of ignoring the genuine needs and wishes of the people. The citizens’ voices of appeal grew louder and louder, but were met with either with a deaf ear or insincere promises that were repeatedly broken. Those who dared to turn up the volume of their complaints were harshly dealt with. But the people could not be fooled forever. Carrots delivered just before each election might have worked for a while, but could not work indefinitely. And the people could not be cowed forever.

(d) For decades Malaysians with genuine grouses or who wished to offer solutions for societal problems were paternally told: ‘If you want something (that ought to be yours in the first place), come and work within the system’. That might have been acceptable if the system in fact works. For most, the experience of working within the system soon became one of ‘begging the system’, with small successes and huge frustrations. Is it surprising, then, that a time came when the people said that enough is enough?

(e) A system of this nature allows sycophants and leaders with personal agenda to thrive, while those who wish to reveal the truth and improve the lot of the people are at best ignored and at worst persecuted. Such is the perfect recipe for an eventual downfall.

(f) This phenomena, and many others, manufactured a host of fatal problems such as endemic corruption, depletion of national resources, inequity in the distribution of resources, abuse of power, and the like; in short, it spawned an unfair society. It was only a matter of time before simmering discontent acquired an erupting force.

(g) Arrogance on the part of the ruling elite (again because of their unbroken record of successes and the fear tactics that they had no reservations about using) made them blind to the repeated warnings that things were about to boil over. The use of threats, splashed on the front pages of newspapers in the days leading to the election, sickened many, and probably backfired. Some of those threats had clear racial undertones. Malaysians surprised the BN by rising above the racial divide (such as in Penang and Klang). The BN had underestimated the growing maturity of the electorate.

There are of course many more reasons and causes than these. If the BN wants to regain lost ground, it has to pay sincere heed to frank advice, and remedy its serious shortcomings.

Victory of the people

Now that the political monopoly has been broken in a number of states, and the future prospect of breaking the same at the federal level has become an attainable goal rather than a dream, the opposition (now the ruling party in five states) has a mountain of work ahead. So much hope is pinned on their shoulders.

Among the most important things that its leaders must do are:

(i) Never to forget, not even in their sleep, that their much-improved victory is not their victory, but the victory of the people; thus they must serve the people with humility and dedication; they should be proud, not of their success, but of the people who have enabled them to succeed;

(ii) To quickly learn the ropes of governing, although teething problems are inevitable; be transparent and frank with the people, and remedy any errors as soon as these are discovered - while the people expect perfect honesty, they will be forgiving about imperfections in the execution of tasks, when things are done transparently;

(iii) To identify and divide tasks into various categories: those that require urgent attention, short-term goals, long-term policies, and so on; set timelines for each task, though not cast in stone, and make every effort to keep to them; engage or employ the right people for the right jobs and outsource if need be;

(iv) Pay immediate attention to the most burning issues, such as the economy, poverty, equitable distribution of resources and opportunities, security, etc.

(v) Set up effective oversight mechanisms immediately, especially in relation to financial matters, the processing and granting of permits and contracts, and corruption in the public sector; this must include strict monitoring of the members of the Opposition themselves, to ensure that no corruption or cronyism is practised;

(vi) Set up an effective mechanism to receive and address complaints from the public; and

(vii) Ensure that there is no in-fighting among leaders, for this will quickly destroy the faith that Malaysians have placed in them by giving them this unprecedented opportunity.

The challenge for the opposition in the coming months and years is a huge one. There will be many more ways to fail in this challenge than to succeed.

The parties have to be always vigilant, honest and humble. Their members will not be exempt from frequent visits by the demons of human weaknesses.

But the same people who have put them there can as easily reverse the decision if they should betray the faith. Checks and balances are essential for any system of government.

Whatever their political persuasions may be, Malaysians will benefit from the change. Let us all get down to hard, honest work.

Perak MB

2008-03-10T10:50:00.003+11:00

According to this article in Sin Chew Daily, the Perak constitution does not allow a non-Malay to hold the position of Menteri Besar unless permission is granted by Sultan of Perak.

As a result, despite being the biggest winners in the Perak state elections, DAP will have to allow PKR or PAS to nominate a Malay candidate as the new MB, since all its candidates are Chinese, unless they wish to request for special permission by the Sultan.

The latest election marked a new dawn for Malaysia. I hope the opposition parties, whether PKR, DAP or PAS will be sincere in dismantling race-based politics in the coming years. They have surprised us with their performance in this election. Let them take up the challenge of creating one identity for Malaysians. Many Malaysians think it is difficult but many countries have managed to do so, hence it is not impossible.

Wind of change

2008-03-09T11:53:00.006+11:00

The wind of change was a lot stronger than I thought. Opposition has managed deny BN of 2/3 majority and gained control of 5 states - Kelantan, Penang, Perak, Selangor and Kedah, compared to only 1 in the previous general election. Not only they have managed to win, they have won it with a handsome margin. Similar results were also obtained in parliamentary seats, with Opposition nearly clean sweeping KL.

I was quite skeptical that this election is going to make too much of a change as the mainstream media is usually biased against the opposition due to the hidden hands of Barisan Nasional. It's good to know that we do not blog in vain.

Khalid Ibrahim is likely to be the next Menteri Besar of Selangor, Lim Guan Eng the new Chief Minister of Penang, while the MB for Perak, Kedah and Kelantan has yet to be announced.

I hope this will teach the 4th floor boys a good lesson for their arrogance and ignorance. Malaysians have finally realised that they could make a difference at the ballot box.

Election jokes

2008-03-08T21:30:00.002+11:00

Got these from Malaysiakini website. The first one is really funny!

(1) Barisan has announced that its new national symbol is the Condom, because it accurately reflects the government stance. A condom allows for inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pricks and gives us a sense of security while we're actually being screwed!

(2) Pak Lah and Samy Vellu were in a helicopter looking down Kuala Lumpur. Pak Lah said, "Samy, if I throw two RM100 notes down, two people will be happy."

Not wanting to be outdone, Samy said, "If I throw 200 RM1 notes, 200 people will be happy."

The pilot heard the conversation and said, "If I throw the two of you down, 27 million Malaysians will be happy."

(3) Three guys were arguing as to what race Adam and Eve were. The Malay guy said they must be Malay as they are so good looking. The Chinese guy said that they must be Chinese as they are so calm even with a snake.

The Indian guy said that they must be Malaysian-Indian as they have no shelter, no clothes, no money, share one apple, advised by a snake who told them that they are living in paradise!

(4) Pak Lah, Najib, Shahrizat and Anwar were sitting in a KTM train heading up to Penang for campaigning. Near Ipoh, the train goes through a tunnel and it gets completely dark.

Suddenly there is a kissing sound and then a slap!

The train comes out of the tunnel. Shahrizat and Pak Lah are sitting there looking perplexed.

Najib is bent over holding his face, which is red from an apparent slap.

All of them remain diplomatic and nobody says anything.

Pak Lah is thinking: "These guys are all crazy after Shahrizat. Najib must have tried to kiss her in the tunnel. Very proper that she slapped him."

Shahrizat is thinking: "Najib must have moved to kiss me, but kissed Pak Lah instead and got slapped."

Najib is thinking: "Damn it, Pak Lah must have tried to kiss Shahrizat, she thought it was me and slapped me instead."

Anwar is thinking: "If this train goes through another tunnel, I could make another kissing sound and slap Najib again."

(5) Barisan wins the election. To celebrate, they decide to send more angkasawan to space. Najib calls together a group of Umnoputra cosmonauts.

Saudara saudara sekalian, we successfully sent our man Muzaffar to space using tax payers' money the last time. Since we have more than enough tax payers' money, the Cabinet has decided that you will all now fly to the sun.

But Datuk, we will be burnt to crisp.

Jangan takut, the Barisan government has thought of everything ... you will fly at night!

(6) Today's election brings to mind the old Northern Ireland election slogan - "VOTE EARLY AND VOTE OFTEN"

DAP Ceramah in Penang

2008-03-08T10:29:00.002+11:00

I could never imagine such a big crowd at DAP's ceramah in Penang (estimated between 20,000 to 30,000). Wonder what are the sizes of DAP's ceramahs in PJ? Some of my relatives went to listen to Tony Pua.

No more indelible ink?

2008-03-05T07:40:00.004+11:00

Election Commission has cancelled the use of indelible ink on polling day citing public order and security reasons.

After such a huge debate and spending so much of taxpayers' money on the indelible ink, the rules are suddenly changed on the 11th hour.

???

Motorola 'bribed' to stay on

2008-03-04T07:45:00.006+11:00

As a Penangite, I have been disappointed with its development for the past decade. Without sufficient effort in restoration and maintenance, George Town is living only in its past glory.

Quite a number of international companies which have operations in the Bayan Lepas Industrial Zone have pulled out of Penang for cheaper options in China. As the whole country is struggling to move up the value-chain, this is not surprising.

But I would never imagine the state government and federal government will stoop so low to offer 'bribes' to Motorola to stay on. The RM1 billion comes from the federal government coffers, meaning taxpayers' money. A highly confidential, 3-page letter dated 3 December last year, signed by CM Dr Koh Tsu Koon was sent to the PM seeking for 'help'.

In return of RM1 billion, Motorola agreed to invest RM350 million in the state last Tuesday. You do the maths.

A panic RM1 billion gamble to avoid bad press in the running up to general election? Do you think Motorola is the only company?

Even if it's done in the excuse of protecting jobs, how can this sort of arrangement be sustainable in the long run. Multinationals will probably come to Malaysia for free money.

Warkah untuk PM

2008-03-03T19:45:00.005+11:00

In response to the Warkah untuk PM website launched by the Deputy PM.

Dear PM,

I would like to raise my concern on the crime rates in the country. I've been worried for my parents (who are in their golden age) lately as they have been victims of a two counts of theft within 3 weeks.

On the 2nd day of Chinese New Year, a thief attempted to break in to their house. He failed to do so, but managed to fish my father's wallet from one of the rooms through the window. The thief managed to withdraw a significant sum of money from 2 of his bank accounts. My father was deeply disappointed with the inspector who handled his case. He showed no interest in investigating the case at all. Imagine how many more people who are going to fall victim to this thief?

Sometime last week, my brother lost his bicycle from within the house compound. A theif has climbed into the compound to steal it at around 5am. My mum have been unable to sleep in peace due to these two events, combined with many other crimes suffered by the neighbours.

Everyday they hear of many other crimes in their housing area. The worst one involved a man who was robbed by Mat Rempits. He didn't have enough money on him and hence he phoned his son. His son was killed in a road accident on the way to help his father. There are many other cases of robberies and theft in the neighbourhood, a lot of them involving motorcycle gangs. As a result, residence in the area has paid a team every month to patrol the area, since there is not enough police presence. Despite this, the number of cases is still increasing. Many are living in fear.

Few months ago, my mother-in-law was robbed of her handbag in broad daylight. Not too long ago, one thief tried to steal my cousin's motorcycle but was caught. The most disappointing part is the police were reluctant to take action on the thief. Instead they tried to inconvenient my cousin by requiring him to leave his motorcycle at the police station for a few weeks in order to prosecute the thief.

My neighbours in PJ have also been victims of crime. Thieves have broken into the house of my left neighbour, ransacking the whole place while they are at work. The crime was committed at around noon time. A gang of motorcyclists attempted to steal the car of my opposite neighbour's friend in the middle of the night. Luckily my other neighbour woke up and raised the alert. Even so, the gang came back a few times to try their luck. Right before this year's Chinese New Year, my right neighbour's house was broken into while they are sleeping.

The list goes on... But the worst thing is the attitude of the policemen in handling criminal cases. Most of them have the tidak apa attitude. You promised IPCMC few years ago to improve the police force but until today nothing has been done while the crime rates have increased to a worrying level. Your son-in-law even open endorse Mat Rempits for his political gain.

This is just one of the many promises you've made to Malaysians after the last election. Please tell the rakyat why you deserve our votes for failing to fulfill most of the promises you have made?

You said you have big ears. But you have chosen not to listen to the grouses of many Malaysians in the past few months.

How can you convince me that this warkah is going to be read? How can you convince me that even if you have read this warkah, you are going to act on it? To me Warkah untuk PM is just another political gimmick, just like the newly tarred roads, new schools, etc. I can only hope that nothing more serious will happen to the people I love while you sleep on your job.

Lousy customer services

2008-02-28T08:19:00.006+11:00

Johanna & I have moved in to this house since 7 February.

Ever since, we still have the following unresolved problems.

Faulty bed - no holes were drilled on one of the piece where there were supposed to be 3
No Internet broadband yet due to the delay in the provider in contacting us
LCD TV that can't seem to change source to PC Input so that I can connect my laptop to it

Faulty Bed

We bought the bed from a Fantastic Furniture. The furniture are definitely good in terms of look and price. They are all made in Malaysia. Unfortunately, the quality is quite poor - not only the material but how the pieces are packaged. The quality of the material is of course expected given the price. But the packaging is somewhat disappointing. One piece of our bed is suppose to have 3 holes drilled into it but the holes are missing. Two other holes on two other pieces are in the wrong order. It took the furniture shop more than one week to send over a staff to inspect the pieces and until now we haven't heard from them about delivering us the replacement. The reason given was 'stock has yet to arrive from Sydney'.

Internet Broadband

Internet is always a priority for us. We were quite appalled to find out the in Australia, broadband packages start off with around 400MB of monthly bandwidth, some with maximum of only 2GB! For a 400MB 'deal', the cost is $30 per month. This is really outrageous! Not even enough to check e-mail and read news.

The first day after we moved in, I immediately registered for one of the rare high bandwidth services provided by iiNET. The product is an award-winning product called Naked DSL, meaning I won't need to register for a separate phone line as iiNET will not require me to do so. After the registration, the only thing I received so far is an e-mail with my customer ID stating that my service will be provided within the next 10 to 20 days. Ever since I haven't heard from them and it has already been more than 15 days after my registration. The logical thing is to call them up. And so I tried only to be greeted by the automated service informing me that they are suffering from higher than usual number of calls and I can expect to be connected in 30 minutes, no matter what time of the day I called (attempts so far, 8am, 1am, 1pm). Right now I don't even know whether this company will really contact me, other than sending me their monthly newsletter. Because of this I have not been updating my Flickr for a long time as one upload will be more than 1GB usually. Jo & I are depending on our mobile broadband service provided by 3 with only 2GB monthly limit. So far 3's service has been good, both for phone and Internet, unlike Optus where we need to wait for more than 30 minutes to get connected to the customer service only to end up with a rude, unhelpful Indian with a difficult to understand accent on the other end.

LCD TV

We've bought a Samsung LA32R81BD TV on the 11th. I was so excited to connect it to my Dell 640m laptops. But after more than 2 weeks posting my problem on Internet forums, calling support, I still can't choose the PC Input in the source list of my TV even though my laptop can detect the TV as a monitor. It is also extremely difficult to contact Samsung customer service. My first e-mail (with product serial number) was ignored, the second one was replied but telling me to call the support helpline. Of course the reason I e-mailed them is because it is impossible to get through to them by calling the helpline. Eventually I managed to get through one morning by calling at 8.30am when the helpline starts operating, only to be told to contact one of the service agents. I tried calling the number provided to the service agent and the whole process of being put on hold started again. In the end I had to give up again. The worst thing is while being kept on hold, this message kept on being repeated.

We know your time is valuable. We will try our very best to connect you shortly.

Just get more people in the call centre! This applies to all other Australian customer service we've experienced except for 3. But 3 is not perfect either. In my latest phone + mobile broadband bill, I was charged more than $300 for cancellation fee, i.e. breaking my mobile broadband contract. I never cancel my contract in the first place. In fact I'm using the service now to post this blog. The good thing is it's not difficult to call them. I was told that their IT systems is F-up and many people have reported the same problem. Sigh.

No doubt it is very relaxing to work in this lovely country. But everyone is probably relaxing too much to provide good services.

From this experience I've learnt to appreciate Malaysia's tele customer service. It is so easy to call Maybank, Maxis and even Astro. In the past Astro has poor reputation for being uncontactable. But they've come a long way ever since.

Finally moved in!

2008-02-12T23:13:00.003+11:00

Updated: Managed to take some photos yesterday. The frustrating thing is our faulty bed has not been replaced!

After more than 2 months putting up in Janet's and Duane's place in Melbourne, Johanna and I have finally found our own apartment, right opposite Albert Park. We are really grateful to Janet and Duane for their generosity in allowing us to share their great apartment.

Our new place is an apartment within a heritage building built in 1930s. But the apartment has been nicely refurbished. It is only 300m away from my workplace (AIG Life) along St Kilda Road. Come March, I may be able to watch the Australian Gran Prix from my window if the organisers do not put up high barriers around Albert Park. The apartment is very spacious, with 2 bedrooms.

We got our keys last Wednesday evening. The weekend before that we have booked our furniture so that they could be delivered within the week itself. Last weekend we bought electrical appliances, including an LCD TV and a fridge. We've rented a car so that we could buy other household items as well. Despite the hefty amount spent, it was great to shop for all these together with Jo. It is a part of marriage which I haven't experienced before as I've got my home in Malaysia before getting married.

The furniture arrived on Thursday and ever since we've been busy fixing them up. Both of us really enjoyed the DIY experience. Unfortunately, there was some defect on a piece of wood for our bed. Apparently, three holes are missing from it. We are still waiting for the furniture shop to come over to inspect and replace the faulty piece. Otherwise, everything has been put in place. We've also cooked our first meal over the weekend.

More pictures to follow soon.

Shooting Melbourne

2008-02-04T23:15:00.000+11:00

Some of the photos I've taken lately.

CBD from Southbank

Eureka Tower, the tallest building in Melbourne

Yarra River with CBD on the far side

Rod Laver Arena on the day of the Final between Djokovic and Tsonga

2nd Trip to Adelaide

2008-01-21T11:14:00.000+11:00

Johanna is attending a 2-week workshop in Adelaide. As I was still trying my luck with jobs in the past few weeks, she was suppose to go to Adelaide on her own.

She flew off on 13 January. On 15 January, I've decided to accept the job offer from AIG Life in Melbourne and will start work on the 29th. Hence I flew to Adelaide on Friday the 18th to join Johanna in Adelaide.

It's probably the last holiday before I get back to work. Life has been great since I stepped out of work since 16 September 2006. We spent the whole weekend watching Australian Open, playing table tennis and pool at our YHA accomodation, strolling along the Rundle Mall (shopping area) and catching Miss Saigon which was showing at the Festival Centre.

The match between Fedex and Tipsarevic was really tense - no one would expect the 49th ranked player to win more than a handful of games. Instead he stretched Federer to the limit and nearly caused the biggest upset. It's probably good for the sport as Federer has been disposing his opponents too easily all this while, too predictable.

Miss Saigon

Miss Saigon is the first musical I've watched in my life - Theatre Royal in London 1999, right before the London performance closed down. I've always wanted to bring Johanna to watch this musical but it was not in London during our stay there last year. We watched Puccini's Madam Butterfly instead, which Miss Saigon was based on. Alain Boublil and Claude Michel Schönberg was inspired by this photo of a woman giving up her child at Saigon airport in the hope of a new life in America, meeting her dad that she has never seen (ex-GI during Vietnam war).

The version we watched is slightly different from the one I've watched in London. According to Wikipedia, this is a scaled down version to suit smaller theatres so that the musical can be shown worldwide. The most notable prop missing is the helicopter, which was replaced by projected 3D video. I thought the "Engineer" - played by Leo Tavarro Valdez, a Philipino, was great.

To me, the best part of Miss Saigon is its potrayal of the undending miseries caused by wars - the poor children conceived in brothels or rape cases, who may never know their fathers.

War isn't over when it ends
Some pictures never leave your mind
They are the faces of the children
The ones we left behind

Adelaide via Great Ocean Road

2008-01-21T10:03:00.001+11:00

This post is one month late...

I followed Johanna to visit her University in Adelaide for the first time on 15th December (last month). We've decided to drive all the way from Melbourne, via the famous Great Ocean Road. And what a drive that was - greeted by great sceneries of the ocean, beaches and magnificent cliffs. The outbound journey was more than 1,000km. We stopped over at Port Fairy to break the journey into two. We took a shorter way back to Melbourne (around 700km). We were very lucky to be given a brand new Subaru ~~Spectra~~ Impreza by Europcar.

Great Ocean Road

12 Apostles

Adelaide is a great city, a lot better than my expectations. Not only there is the great Glenelg beach for those who love the sea, there are also hills and valleys. We visited Barossa Valley, the home to many South Australian wineries. The city itself is very well planned, with a grid-like CBD (Central Business District) like any other Australian capital cities. For the whole week, we stayed in YHA Adelaide, which is very new, neat and clean.

YHA Adelaide

We were quite surprised to see the common room filled with IKEA furniture, complete with brand new wooden flooring.

Glenelg Beach

Along the beach are luxurious villas, restaurants and apartments.

Barossa Valley

Gawler, Tanunda, Nuriootpa, Angaston, etc. are homes to many early European settlers, mainly Lutherians. Wine making has been the main activity since the early days of Barossa Valley. Barossa was supposed to be spelt as Barrosa. The mistake was not rectified since.

Borossa Villa, house to 30,000 roses

Penfolds winery

A popular cafe in Angaston

Working in the vineyards

Adelaide City

The city has a nice botanical garden, a great shopping street, an average-sized zoo and a few museums. The summer is hot, very dry and very glaring - very high UV index.

A view of the Nothern Terrace

3 little pigs along Rundle Mall, the shopping street of Adelaide

Adelaide Zoo

I took a 2-hour tour of the zoo while Johanna was visiting her PhD Supervisor. Disappointingly, most animals were sleeping or hiding in the shades due to the hot weather.

Penguins swimming in the heat

UniSA

Johanna's university's Mawson Lake campus. The main campus is at the Northern Terrace of the CBD.

Happy New Year 2008

2008-01-02T08:26:00.000+11:00

Due to limited bandwidth, I've avoided blogging recently.

2007 had been an interesting year for me and Johanna. Our stay in London had been really great. Despite not gaining as many exams as expected for my actuarial profession, it still feels great to have cleared 3 more papers in one year.

2008 is a year of new challenges as I'm still looking for a new job and settling down in Australia - either Sydney or Melbourne depending on the job offer I'll be getting. The weather in Melbourne had been extremly hot and dry for the past few weeks. On New Year's eve, it touched 42C, the hottest weather I've ever experienced in my whole life. On New Year's Day it touched 41C. The hot weather is worsen by the irritating bush flies which feed on sweat. Makes me miss British weather a lot, even though it is cloudy and rainy most of the time. At least the temperature and humidity is bearable and British summers are great (not the 2007 one though).

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope there will be more tolerence and less violence worldwide.