Great Ocean Road April 11th 2009

10th April 2009, 9pm
Venue: Edmund's place, opposite Rusden.
Activities: Having fun with some games and shots of Cointreau (Other words means drinking session)
Host: Edmund Pun
People: Me, Khoa from Vietnam, Yi Wei, Ee Teng, Hong Zhao, Matthew, Jia Chen, Mae Eve & Brandon Chan.

I went home to Howitt Hall at 12am, 11th April 2009 cause the got to go Great Ocean Road on the 11th April itself. According to Edmund, they went back arnd 3am. So I went home, slept at 2am, woke up at 4am, prepare breakfast, walked to Richardson Hall, and waited for the rest at 6am. 2 hours of sleep but still energetic. LoL.

11th April 2009

Venue: Great Ocean Road

Time: 6am-11pm.

People: Me, Lloyd Chee, Aun Shiang, Wei Ning, Kirin, Sarah Kew, Ignatius Lau, Aric Ng, David Koay &Pauh Seng Wah.

Woke up at 4am, meet them at Richardson Hall at 6am. Then introduced ourselves to Aun Shiang because she'll be fetching us there. Yes she has a car. And we get to know a new friend. So she make two (2) trips to Clayton Train Station. Me, Lloyd Chee, David Koay, Pauh Seng Wah, and Kirin took the first train and in the end somehow we met the rest in the same train again on the way to Melbourne Central Station. Weird I know. Hang around the Melbourne City waiting for the bus. We're following a tour to the Great Ocean Road.

The sign board even tells you the time it takes from here to the nearest toilet (i.e. 2 minutes)

Melbourne Tram.

Fucking Ignatius hand. Focus the picture nice already, he swayed his hand in randomly. Wtf.

Check it out! Melbourne got teach Wing Chun Kung Fu man. Ip Man, haha.

On the way in the bus, travelling along the Great Ocean Road.

Below pictures are along the coast while we're travelling in the bus. Waves were pretty strong.

Bus made a side stop, to catch a glimpse of koala bear. Nothing facinating. Top picture: one is sitting on top of the tree- left side. Look carefully.

This one was sleeping on a short tree. So short that we can even touch it. It was sleeping so we didn't dare to touch it, later it get wild.

Second Stimulus Plan + Cash rate cut = Saving the economy?

Australian Federal government executed their second stimulus package, so all working Australian earning below $AUD 80,000 per annum will receive a payment of $AUD 900 as part of the stimulus plan to reimburse tax payers as the Australian economy is riding through a recession period. The base for such a generous act is to put back the economy back to it's place by freeing cash for consumers to spent. As usual Federal Opposition leader, Malcom Turnbull hits back at the Rudd government for using the same method which doesn't spur any growth similar to the previous stimulus package. Mr. Turnbull stated 85% of the population whom had received the previous reimbursement from the first stimulus plan did not spent but rather save their money in the bank to earn interest. Conservatism and low confidence with the market performance, everyone is taking a defensive stand. "Cash is king" era, that's what it's called and it HAS to be spent and monitored under a very tight regime. Splurging unwisely comes with serious consequences which might force an individual running towards bankruptcy and a nation, fattening up their deficit.

7th April 2009

Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) announce a 25 basis point cut from the benchmark cash rate, bringing it to 3% for loans. The four major banks, namely The Commonwealth Bank, ANZ Bank, Westpac Bank and The National Australian Bank (NAB) is thinking what are the further impacts to their lending rate, "Is it too low?". Retailers welcome the Federal government's move.

The announcement of rate cut was to reinforce the effect of the first stimulus package. Hopefully consumer confidence would rebuilt back.

7th April 2009, 5.15pm Australian time
NAB refuse to follow suit the 0.25% cut on the cash rate. So now what happens? Die or adapt?





Out from all the hypes of activity in the trading house, my very own floor has a very happy floor mate, named Romain Tanti. Reason for his joy is because his girlfriend is coming to visit him and she's arriving tonight, direct flight from France I think. So he's out at the airport waiting for her tonight. Haha happy dude. Cheers my friend and have a good time!

I bet he's going to drink like hell tonight, haha. French-ies past time, sipping wine, or beer. Whichever they can find first. ahah

Freezer in the room!!!

walauuuu.....temperature is 12 degrees. what the HELL!!! Freezing in my room sial. autumn only ok!!!

Great Ocean Road

Day light saving officially over, hence all clocks are switch back by an hour. In simplified terms, people living in Australia gain an hour extra for today (5th April 2009) making it 25 hours in a day, only for today. Weekends is almost up, and here come week 6 of lectures. F***, time flies like crazy. Another eight (8) more weeks to finals. Can't catch up with my readings, need to pick up the pace in order to aligned with the lectures. Assignments also haven't start and right after Easter break, every week got assignment to hand up. Well anyway, today's weather is cold, around 19 degrees in the afternoon and now 15 degrees; humidity: 64%; wind speed: 46.3 kph; wind direction: 200 degrees SSW & rainfall: 0.2mm. Night should be around 14-13 degrees. My room also freezing already. Sooner or later must wear socks in the room also. Tomorrow weather forecast said shower during the afternoon, damn my class starts at 1pm. Must go to Caulfield earlier than usual to miss the rain. Company reporting murdering me, Cost Info is bloody boring, CommBank text book is totally useless, and Financial Modelling tutor can go eat shit.

Anyway, on the 11/04/2009

Heading to Great Ocean Road, located in the state of Souther Australia for a day trip. Paid $AUD 45 for it. Would be my official Easter holiday vacation. Then come back, straight to assignments and catch-up with readings, tutorials and online lecture listening. It would definitely be a worthwhile vacation. Scenaries lining up for me to see man. For a trip, scenaries is a MUST for me. That's why I selected Great Ocean Road and not Yarra Valley & Dandenong Ranges. Moreover the latter cost more ($AUD130 X 2.5-exchange rate to ringgit) wherelse the former only ($AUD45 X 2.5-exchange rate to ringgit) the stories of the scenic view of Great Ocean Road just keeps on tingling in my mind.

Views from the internet of Great Ocean road:

The all time famous 12 Apostoles Stones.

Looking forward to it, coming Saturday, wohooo!!!

End of Badawi-ism

Special thanks to the 5th Prime Minster of Malaysia, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for providing the avenue to the rakyat to have an open and independent sight of the word democracy. His failure at administrating/governing the nation has facilitated the ongrowing growth of awareness in relation to human rights and proper disclosure of government facts. It may be harsh, however to root out the rotten apples should be done swiftly to avoid a plague from getting out of control. Nevertheless, an antitode for one man, may be a posion for another.

Financial Crisis Generation. What is there left for us?

"I hope that I could still attend school, as my parents had just loss their jobs" ;

"I hope the government would pump more money into the economy to revive it" ;

"Would there still be a home for us?" ;

"Would there be food on the table for tomorrow?"



Words OF the children OF the world. (I didn't make this up, I really saw and heard it on television at Howitt Hall Level 10 kitchen)



People born between the year 1983-1993 will be the most affected group in this millennium, amid the global financial crisis (GFC). No doubt that the Financial Crisis Generation, as it is called will be the Generation Y people in the future. Which includes you and me, for most of those reading this; as I assume, falls under this category of categorisation. The adverse effect of such crisis knows no bound in the destruction of the future human capital resources. THE STAR newspaper reported a week ago, that there is a significant drop in the demand for medical services that had forced private doctors to compete with government doctors for overtime work. Even the human necessity to survive was no spared, as medical professions are well known to have a secured job. Who can survive without falling ill in their whole life?



The world financial system is crumbling. Centuries of building the financial structure begins to crack from it's very core. Securitisation market pressed an immediate halt since the sub-prime mortgage crisis that started in the year 2007. Money market was frozen during the mid of 2008. Mortgagees/Families lost their homes to banks. Banks retrieved near valueless homes from foreclosures. Banks are afraid to lend to other banks, as well to finance companies that needed those funds. Bankruptcy mushrooming everywhere. The financial cycle of boom and recession occur at least once in the period of ten (10) years (With the recent one for Malaysia is the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis), however don't you all think that this time the recession was more of an onslaught at the maximum degree. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) had reported 2 days ago that Australia had finally succumbed to recession. Negative growth for two (2) consecutive quarter, unemployment would probably soared to 10% by end of the year. By the time it reaches 10%, riots would be everywhere, demanding for the government to settle it, which could probably cause a whole nation fall towards anarchy. I'm not exaggerating it. Imagine if there is no food, would you still sit quietly at home, if there is "home"?




I had personally seen the impact which is just in front of my eyes everyday. Whenever I ride the bus, most probably at a high percentage rate the person next to me is doing his master. In other words he/she is continuing his/her studies right after finishing their degree while waiting for the GFC to calm down. There is no point of finding jobs as it is extremely rare for an opportunity to present itself at such critical times. What are the odds of a company now which most probably would be fighting for survivability to hire more employees? It's no longer HIRE but FIRE! Be glad when your parents return home complaining about their jobs. At least there is still work at hand to do.



In the near foreseeable future, not a single soul can predict the movement of the crisis. As said initially, the medical profession had begun to follow suit other jobs in the world to bow to the crisis, so whats next? Would there be scrap left for us doing our degree(s) now?





What is there left for us?


The movement of protest has already begun within central London, to strike/attract major attention from the G20 summit (The London Summit 2009). President Obama (USA), Prime Minister Brown (UK), Prime Minister Aso (Japan), President Hu (China), Prime Minister Rudd (Australia), President Yudhoyono (Indonesia), President Lee (South Korea), Prime Minister Berlusconi (Italy); President Medvedev (Russian Federation) and the rest as well will be there to be watched by us, the general people of the world. Either they are there pretending just to get the chance of wearing smart tuxedo or their in for a rough ride trying to find the antidote.




(If you have any comment please do not hesitate to comment. It is a very much argumentative issue that is sprouting ferociously in the financial world currently)



Have a great day.







Pictures from new phone would be out later. Quality of it is extremely bad compare to N95.

New toy, LG U990

Got myself a secondary hand phone. LG U990. Switched my number from prepaid to postpaid which comes with a hand phone set (First hand) but with the guarantee that I'll be using from a sole service provider which is "THREE". I think I don't loose nor gain anything. Fair deal. However great it can NEVER take the place of my N95 man. Camera for LG U990 is also 5 mega pixel but my N95 is 5 Mega Pixel on top of a Carl Zeiss Optics Tessar lense, while LGU990 is a Schneider KREUZNACH lense.

Anyway I'll be switching different hand phone set whenever I want cause I have two (2) sets now (N95 and LG U990). Aha ha. Coincidentally the LG U990 is also black. Will post the pictures up. Will also show a sharp contrast from Nokia product with LG product. Prime example of a monopoliser of quality. LG is the champion in electrical housewares, while NOKIA is sole specialist in hand phone making industry.