Pyjamas party, clubbing style!

Pyjamas party at ground floor common room of Howitt Hall

Best budddies !!

(Upper row: Katikh, Jia Yang, Francesco)

(Lower row: Kevin, Davyn, Chieh Ai, me and Amanda)

Clubbing at Melbourne

Host Scheme Night at Queensbridge Hotel, along Swanston Street.

Suzzane Tham (left) and Zax (right)

Junaidi (left), Suzzane, Nicole (with the panjang hand)

Weenee Tay, Nicole Chee, Kai Ling and Yee Mei (Left to right)

I'll try to get all the pictures from them, i forgot/to busy to snap pictures during the night. Yea it was great, not to say super nice but above average the atmosphere.

Greetings from Aussie!

Greetings from the land of the Kangaroos and wallabies and koalas. Everythings fine so far. Not really ready to update anything yet. Well just met a fireman from Sydney, NSW who lead about 50 firefighters to Monash, Clayton for lunch and dinner at Monash, Halls Cafe. I believe Monash was doing some charity work for the Bush fire victims. They'll be heading up the mountains to battle the raging flames tomorrow. Best of luck mates! Bring down hell's flame!! Premier John Brumby and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, all the best from me to you on handling the flaming issue.

Australian Bush Fire Disaster

May the bush fire in Southern Australia comes to an end quick. Too much of lives loss, and I'm heading there in two (2) days time!!! Hope the blowing wind will subside to reduce the fire spreading across Victoria State.

Funny day.

Long day today. Many happenings occurred today, especially the political landscape in Perak. It was a dawn of a total new era for Malaysian politics again. The support is now directly shine towards Pakatan Rakyat. Without a doubt, the recent political turmoil or so-called master-minded strategy adopted by Barisan Nasional was a suicide mission. Three assemblyman quite PKR and insist of becoming independents, despite several calls for them to reconsider their ouster. Regardless, Barisan National now commands the majority of the State Assembly. Legitimately adhering to the Constitution, Barisan Nasional is indeed the ruling state government of Perak, however the forced resignation of Mr. Nizar as Mentri Besar wasn't included in the Constitution, therefore amount to illegitimacy by an objective view. Yet, it is of no reason for me to go against the royal decree, because Sultan Azlan Shah had made the move which he was bounded to make. Am I insulting the Sultan by addressing him, "he". Sorry, this is a democratic country, and we're just practicing Constitutional Monarchy which support the Westminster Parliament ways of administrating this country. What I meant was, even though the people of Perak (also known as Perakians) requested dissolution of the State Government to trigger a state election to re-elect Pakatan Rakyat with a much larger majority, it would be futile with the current condition. Obviously, Barisan Nasional commands the majority, therefore one of them must be the Mentri Besar. The State Assembly can't be dissolve without a proper and legitimate reason. The Sultan can't dissolve the State Assembly just because the people wants it. No where in the Constitution was stated anything about switching political parties while being elected, therefore amounted to void if simply accusing it to be illegal. There was precedence of this matter many years back and the Sultan was just taking the same equal steps. Pakatan Rakyat can't amend the Constitution unless it commands two-third of the majority of the Parliament. The only method to confront this problem is by hoping the two defected state assemblyman will be acquitted with corruption charges, therefore forcing them to resign instantaneously, ultimately requiring a by-election for the two places. No doubt Pakatan will win hands down. Making the numbers to rise to 30 against Barisan's 28 and one independent that supports Barisan. With that, the newly installed Mentri Besar, Mr Nizar (presumably) could request a dissolution of the State Government for a state election which guarantees a wholesome victory for the Pakatan Rakyat, thus finishing Barisan of from Perak.

Anyway, it was a great day today. Went to Adrian's house at 9.30 a.m. to gamble. Among those attend: Hsiao Yinn (for obvious reason), Ross, Ji Yung and Eve Lyn. Overall winner, Ji Yung reaping RM20 and Eve Lyn, not sure amount. I loss nearly RM12. I think Hsiao Yinn loss the most. After that we went to USJ9, Restaurant Nirvana to have some banana leaf rice. Here the picture is below:

After lunch, Hsiao Yinn headed to work, Eve back home, Ji Yung class, Ross didn't join us for lunch, while me and Adrian headed to Pyramid for a movie: The Pink Panther 2. Worth watching.

The Jackass of The Century

Simple strategy to trick complex minds, unfortunately, flawed by numerous angles. I had a good laugh at the future Prime Minister. In fact, I believe he had let go the urge to even be the 6th Prime Minister of Malaysia, but that's not the only thing he will loose, more to come. He knew this move is a suicide mission, however it will still grant him sufficient time to turn the nation upside down. Continuing raping the country's wealth. Everyone is able to read his moves, no point writing it here. It's understood by all who speaks Bahasa Melayu. We're not dumb for the fact. Just remember the Trojan Horse strategy applied by the Greeks to bring down the Trojan Wall.

Howitt Halls of Residence

I am officially allocated to Howitt Halls of Residence.

About Howitt Hall
Howitt Hall is a thriving community that attracts residents from around the world. Howitt Hall’s main aim is to foster the development of a residential community that is harmonious, respectful and provides a safe, friendly and inclusive environment for all residents of the Hall.
The Hall is named after Alfred Howitt (1830-1908), a scholar who is best known for having led the search for Burke and Wills. To pay homage to Alfred Howitt’s search for Burke and Willis the Halls mascot is a camel.

In 2009, Howitt Hall will be focused on “enhancing the student experience” through a range of different programs and events aimed at assisting Howitt residents make the most out of the stay at Howitt Hall.

Rooms and Facilities
Howitt Hall provides 198 student accommodation rooms spread over 12 floors. The upper floors provide panoramic views of Port Phillip Bay and the Melbourne City Skyline. Each floor provides single room bedroom accommodation with a computer network and telephone connection points. Each of the floors also has a fully equipped kitchen, bathrooms and a laundry with washing, drying and ironing facilities.Howitt Hall has two large common rooms, one with a full-sized projection TV screen (with Foxtel), a Poolroom, Games Room, Music Room (with piano), Computer/Study Room and a secure undercover area for bicycles. The Hall also houses a photocopier and vending machines that can be accessed by Howitt Hall residents 24 hours a day. Barbecue facilities are also available all year round either in the garden area or brick-paved courtyard.

The design of the Hall allows provision for the accommodation of graduate students by way of offering some areas and/or floors predominantly catering for graduate accommodation. A number of bedrooms (subject to availability) are also available with private en-suite bathrooms.
In addition Howitt Hall maintains a thriving Social Society (known as Howitt Hall Society or HHS). HHS is active in organising a variety of social events throughout the year.
Howitt Hall is a fantastic place to live. For more information about Howitt Hall please access the Howitt Hall Residents Website.

2009 Howitt Hall Residential Support Team
College Head: Ms Tracey MierDeputy College Head: Ms Ashleigh BarriSenior Resident Advisor: Mr Shannon Price

All RST members live onsite in Howitt Hall. The RST’s purpose is to provide onsite and ongoing advice and support to all residents by way of pastoral care, academic support programs, sporting, social and cultural events.

Howitt Hall Residents Home Page
The Howitt Hall home pages are personal pages published by the various residents of the Hall. The ideas and information expressed on them have not been approved or authorised by the Halls of Residence either explicitly or impliedly. In no event shall the Halls of Residence or Monash University be liable for any damages whatsoever resulting from any action arising in connection with the use of this information or its publication, including any action for infringement of copyright or defamation.

(Extracted from Monash website: http://www.mrs.monash.edu.au/on-campus/clayton/howitt-hall.html )

"Employees are their best asset". Sure anot?

The Chinese New Year celebration is coming to an end. To be precise it's exactly after the fifteenth (15) day, where the thread withholding the world's economy lies hanging, snap or no snap is depending on the magnitude of the consumers' reaction overall since the sub-prime mortgage crisis that mushroomed crisis everywhere across the globe. China's demand for products would shrink further into the abysmally at higher pace as the biggest celebration for them comes to an end. Unfortunately, ill news begins to spread even before the Chinese New Year celebration ended, companies laying off thousands of their employees, and we're talking about huge companies, such as Caterpillar Inc (22, 110 jobs) , Macy Inc (7000 jobs that were equivalent to 4% of their workforce) , etc. It was a massive execution of working employee, literally speaking. In fact is this how these companies treat their employees after admitting that "employees are their best asset"? Short-term solution for the long-term effects to curb expenses in a "cash is king" competitive business environment. True, but only for the current particular moment. Decisions are valid and only looked right at the moment it was decided and not after it. The war on Iraq, decision by former US President, George W. Bush was right only at that moment he signed the declaration of war against terrorism. It was essential to protect the sovereignty of the United States at that time, but unfortunately the war dragged for too long and that was the mistake of the war people identified and criticised. It would be the very same situation that we would be facing in the foreseeable future. Employees are trained to function the way they are, specifically looking at the front line employees (i.e. welders, factory workers, salesman, etc.). It took years to train this people up and laying off them would come a price. If the company is lucky, the dismissed employees could be relocated again and rehired but what are the chances of rehiring them if the period of retrenchment are undefined in this trouble economic conditions. As I say short-term positive solution for a long-term negative effect. Considering that we have not take into account on the social cost it would bring. The Malaysia economic growth is mainly spurred by the manufacturing industry for electrical and electronic products that are also run by a high percentage of foreign workers. Unfortunately the US consumer are our biggest, in fact the world biggest consumer, and further worsen by their slashing on product consumption in light of their sub-prime mortgage crisis which generated massive foreclosure continuing to trigger a lower demand for our electrical and electronic products. You definitely can't expect them to continue supporting our economy when their domestic economy is facing extinction. This ultimately manifest into a halt in production due to overbuilding figures of inventories held in the producers accounts. Nothing goes out, therefore nothing is build in. With no production, employees are not hooked up with their jobs, and employers are facing a hard time to pay their salaries due to the severe amount of incoming revenues resulted from the drop of sales and also deferred payment by debtors. Employers are forced into either liquidation/ receivership or retrench their employees to save cash for the future since no production is on at the moment. And that was how it begins. The next part of the cycle would be social cost (i.e. thieving). Most companies do not self-hire workers into their comradeship. They would prefer to sub-contract out to other contractors that hire workers. In these way, it would be easier for them to control their accounts because requirements such as EPF, SOCSO and Income Tax would not be a hassle for them. So the company would not need to retrench workers and pay for compensation as required by our Malaysian Employment Law, for they need only to terminate the contract. But it would be another question whether the contractors would search for other clients to employ their workers or return them, foreign workers to their homeland (i.e. Indonesia) or worse leave them here. The third choice would be a jeopardy to us because this is where social cost would rise. Our federal government purpose is to safe guard the well being of domestic workers with distribution of EPF, SOCSO, retraining programme, etc. Therefore lay off foreign workers are left with nothing especially if their contractors that brought them here does not pay them compensation or return them back to their homeland. Double jeopardy for our country. In the end everyone looses. How can corporate figures declare that employees are their best asset if they could be dismissed with such ease. Hypocritical!

Above that, could the Prime Minister in waiting, Najib Tun Razak, accelerate the introduction of the second stimulus plan or better known as second pump-priming exercise and also fully utilise the first stimulus plan. At the moment only 70% of the first stimulus plan is executed. We're running in a fiscal deficit, every move MUST be scrutinise. Perhaps he didn't notice the impact of the impending recession for the Asian market. China can't hold on long by providing a buffer zone for us, sooner or later China and even India's economy will be destroyed if no other Asian countries reinforces their buying power. HURRY UP, bring out the big guns!!

Chinese New Year 2009

Chinese New Year 2009

A combination of pictures from paternal (Thum) and maternal (Tan) sides.

Tai Pak and Pat Leong

Jon Chu

Yes, I did let go firecrackers at my house!

David Tan

Typical mahjong la at maternal grandma's house

Yee Pak and Kai ma. The fellar with the DSLR camera at the end, yea that's my brother. and the small kid is my nephew.

Yee Pak

Tai Pak. Every year without fail, he'll be the first to taste the dried pork at the clock strike 12pm.

Cecelia Thum and her son.

Ah Koo


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Farewell party

Participants: Wei Liang, Gun, Chick, Jenny, Joey, Kar Kien, Lam, Kee Siang, Chen Siang, me, Li Ter, Melissa, Wilson, Wei Jin, Vern Sheng, Jessica, Ian and Lam's other two (2) friends

Venue: TGIF, The Curve

Time: Late evening

Buddies of mine
(Wei Liang, Gun, Chick, Joey and Jenny)

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Reason for joy: Wei Liang's 20th Birthday Celebration

Venue: Wei Liang's house

Time, Date: 11.59 pm, 20th January 2009

Participants: Wei Liang, Wei Liang's mom, me, Li Ter, Chen Siang, Lam, Kee Siang, Gun