Busy weeks ahead

Counting down to my departure from London... Time really flies.

Many outstanding tasks before I leave.

• Complete my MSC project
  
• Learn VBA in the process
• Learn ASP.NET and AJAX - something which is difficult to do while working full time
  
• Sit for actuarial exam on 2 October
  
• Make full use of my Canon 30D around London
• Enjoy 'summer' which has arrived rather late
• Cancel all services
• Pack and ship back our stuff
• Visit Brian & Cherlyn in Swindon
• ...
  

It's going to be a busy period, but hopefully a fulfilling one.

Sad to leave London yet again. But there's always next time.

US Current Account Deficit

There has been a lot of focus on US subprime sector lately. I think the more worrying trend is the US current account deficit which is growing substantially over the years. the Americans are having great lives at the expense of the whole world, and the good times may be coming to an end soon.

Excerpts from The McKinsey Quarterly...

At $857 billion and still growing

• The US current-account deficit could continue to grow for at least five years.
• A major depreciation of the dollar could eliminate the deficit during that period, but in fact, such an adjustment would probably be gradual.
• At any pace, the dollar’s depreciation would trigger significant changes in global trade and savings.
• Governments, business leaders, and investors should prepare for the potential effects on operations and investment priorities.

Two views of the future

• Continued growth of the US current-account deficit - the deficit will balloon to $1.6 trillion... The US is likely, over the next 5 years, to retain some unique advantages that help service a large foreign debt. Most obviously, it is denominated in the country's own currency, the dollar, eliminating the risk of ballooning payments resulting from currency swings... United States has historically earned higher returns on its foreign assets than it has paid to overseas investors. One consequence is that the US net foreign debt today is significantly smaller than the sum of past current-account deficits. If this pattern continues, interest payments on the large external debt resulting from an even larger current-account deficit would be relatively low, at less than 1% of GDP.
  
• Elimination of US current-account deficit - ... 30% depreciation of the dollar from its January 2007 levels would fully balance the US current account by 2012. A smaller decline - of 20 to 25 percent from January 2007 levels - would reduce the deficit to roughly 2 to 3 percent of GDP, respectively, which many economists feel is sustainable.
  

The authors predict that the adjustment is more likely to be gradual than abrupt, i.e. something between the two extreme scenario.

Read more here and start moving your $$$ away from dollars or currencies heavily linked to dollars - Malaysian ringgit?

Merdeka!

This post will be up here until 31st August. For other updates please read below this post.

I'm raising Jalur Gemilang here since I can't do it in Malaysia.

Let's hope that the Golden Jubilee of our country's independence is not merely flying flags, throwing parties or doing countdowns. There is still a lot to be done to achieve national unity and facing up to the challenges of the ever globalised world.

Merdeka!

Paris

4 days immersed in the grandeur of Paris - the museums, palaces, monuments and boulevards... The only thing lacking is the matching blue sky for good photography. The only difficulty (a big one) is to communicate with the Parisians. Paris is more beautiful than London due to its straight and wide boulevards and grand buildings and monuments, not forgetting the unique Eiffel Tower. From the Louvre to Paris Opera to the Pantheon, everything is built to perfection, to the finest detail. The Parisian cafès provide a very relaxing feel to this City of Light.

All these, of course will not be complete without the company of Johanna.

Relaxing in the park


Inside the Pantheon


Notre Dame de Paris


The Louvre Museum


Sacre Couer on Monmarte


Moulin Rouge


Eiffel Tower


The Louvre by night


Inside the majestic Paris Opera


Some fancy cars competition going on?


Cruising along River Seine


Tour de France winner at Champs-Élysées

More photos here.

BBCheats!

Britain was shocked to learn that there has been serious breaches in TV phone-ins competition. "Editorial breaches" has been found in at least 6 shows, which includes Comic Relief and Children in Need. On numerous occassions prizes for the phone-ins have been awarded to members of the production teams. On other occassions, fictitious winners have been created.

To repair the damages to its reputation, BBC has suspended all its radio and TV phone-ins competition.

It will take a while for BBC to regain our trust on how it is using our TV license money.

Knowing the culture of this country, some heads will definitely roll in the next few days.

Nat's Ordeal

Nat was arrested under OSA for 4 days. The following is the excerpt of his statement on his detention.

From the moment I was arrested until about 11 pm, I was not allowed to speak to anyone I knew, or inform anybody of my whereabouts.

I later learnt that this caused an immense and completely avoidable amount of stress and anxiety amongst my loved ones.

...

I was eventually made to understand that I was arrested in connection to accusations made on the internet regarding Datuk Johari Baharum.

The connection to me was based on a comment made on my blog that was made by an anonymous commentor on the 10th of Februrary, 2007.

It was prepostorous of the police to suspect me of publishing these accusations based on documents protected by the Official Secrets Act that were supposedly in my posessesion. There is absolutely nothing even remotely resembling proof to substantiate such claims.

...

Throughout my detention, the police employed various questioning strategies in what struck me strongly as a concerted attempt to make me admit to things that I had not done.

One of the officers questioning me that evening who refused to identify himself threatened to slap me and throw me across the room.

...

Despite my repeated appeals to the police officers accompanying me to court to be produced before the magistrate for the remand hearing, they absolutely refused to notify my family or, more importantly, my lawyers that I was to be produced in court.

This caused in me a great deal of undue stress because I feared that I would be forced to face the magistrate without any legal representation.

...

On Saturday itself, a senior officer employed physical means in an attempt to intimidate me into answering their questions. This included shoving me into a chair while I was standing handcuffed.

All other attempts to pressure and coerce me into providing information under adverse conditions failed. Finally, on Monday, I was allowed to see my family, who conveyed to me fresh advice from my lawyer regarding what information I could provide.

The police never looked like they had a real case against him. Furthermore, they have adopted an arrest first investigate later tactic. The manner of his arrest has been condemned by the Malaysian Bar Council president Ambiga Sreenevasan.

Read the full statement here.

Very Good Way of Spending Weekend

After weeks of disappointing weather, finally there was enough sun for our first picnic outing in the park.

We've chosen Green Park as I've yet to set foot on this park. Many Londeners had the same idea too. We brought some food and drinks (including hot coffee from home), right after watching Harry Potter - The Order of the Phoenix. The film was quite disappointing. I'm no big Potter fan and only read the first book out of the six so far, yet I could sense that the storyline has been cut short a lot. Some plots had been altered slightly too. Cho Chang was never part of the film even though there is a lot more of her in the books.

Anyway, back to the picnic. We brought along a rug too, so that we could lie down comfortably. Would be great if we had brought along things like frisbee, tennis balls so that we could play games. But perhaps games will be more fun if there are more participants. Perhaps another picnic friends. Anyway, having a picnic in the park is really relaxing and it's probably the cheapest way to spend the weekend.

After picnic we visited the new O2 - formerly known as Millennium Dome. It's full of restaurants and cafés. There's a big O2 Arena right in the middle of the Dome which can play host to concerts, boxing matches, etc. The event last night was World Championship Boxing between Amir Khan and Willie Limond. There is also a Vue Cineplex which occupies 2 floors, with 11 screens, with screen 11 the biggest in London. Judging from the number of visitors, it seems like the Dome's fortune has finally changed for the better.

Free Nat Now

Nathaniel Tan (aka Nat), an information bereau staff of KeAdilan has been remanded yesterday without proper justification by the police. His family and friends failed to locate him initially as the police initially refused to provide information about his arrest.

I am not a supporter of KeAdilan. But the way that he was arrested is too fishy. Imagine that could be you or me.

Relaxing Trip to Plymouth

Johanna and I made a trip to Plymouth last weekend. It has been raining for the past 3 weeks in London. We hope to get some sun there.

We took off on Friday night on a National Express coach and arrived at 6am in the morning.

After checking in to Holiday Inn, we managed few hours of sleep before making a start. It was sunny indeed. We found out from the locals that the weather there has not been any better than London's for the past few weeks, so we were very lucky to be there on a sunny day.

The beachfront of this city is nice, especially with a hill right by the beach, which means we could look out far into the sea and the surrounding areas. We had a stroll along the coast before taking a cruise to the naval base. There are quite a number of warships along the way. Johanna had the chance to try out the famous Cornish ice cream too.







After the cruise we headed to Barbican, the cool part of the city, for lunch. Food is exceptionally cheap at Plymouth. We visited the Plymouth Aquarium after lunch. Despite being the biggest in UK, this aquarium is nowhere near the aquariums in KL or Singapore, probably due to its age.







We had a slow walk back to the hotel and had a pleasant time dipping in the swimming pool before enjoying ourselves in the steam room.

Dinner was served at the penthouse of the 11-storey hotel which provide great view of the sea. But the food was really disappointing.

***

We woke up early next morning for breakfast at the penthouse again. I took off to the beach for some photos after breakfast and was fortunate enough to see a big submarine being escorted back to the naval base.







We checked out around noon and walked around the inner part of the city. There was nothing much to see. We ended up at a square with a big screen watching Wimbledon final with the locals.



After having lunch at a new mall right on top of the bus station, we departed for London.

More photos here.

Xian & Niki @ Home

Since we moved in to this place, we've been inviting friends/family over for lunch or dinner. It has been quite a while since we moved in but due to various reasons we have not had Xian & Niki over at our place.

One Friday evening (29 June), Xian & Niki finally made it. It was a simple dinner - chicken breast and grilled lamb, due to time constraint. We had ice cream and pudding for dessert as well.

Both of them are starting new jobs this month. All the best!