Transportation

"A car is a luxury and not a necessity."

People should start thinking whether they can afford to own a car before making the purchase. Recently, a lot of people has taken the opportunity to purchase a car due to the various promotions and of course stretch the hire purchase loan to 9 years! What they did not consider is that a car requires routine maintenance and petrol. Petrol price, as we all know, is not fixed and may increase from time to time. And then what happens? These people as usual will start complaining, condemning the price increase that has put additional burden onto their monthly expenses.

Think about this before you buy or start complaining when petrol price increase.

1. Who ask you to buy a car if you barely can afford it now?
2. What makes you think the price of the petrol will remain the same?
3. Why did you go and take a 9 year loan? Can your car last that long?
4. How about the routine maintenance?
5. Finally, where are you going to find the additional income to support your car?

Stick to a motorbike, bus or other various public transportation if you cannot afford.

Ethnicity, Religion and Culture

Three different words with three different meanings... slowly fusing into a single word with a single meaning.
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Guess which one is it fusing into?

Feeling sorry...

for the state of our country's unity. Normally, I would refrain from speaking on anything related to politics as that is not really my area of interest but lately, things are not getting any better. Each time, there is a meeting of certain groups of people, calls for the non-majority people to go home, go away or go to a neighbouring get louder and louder.

The question here is; are they doing this for the sake of getting short term support? or they truly meant it? Aren't we all (after 50 years of independence) Malaysians? Aren't we all, majority or not, arrived in Malaysia from other parts of the world? Aren't we all, considered as immigrants?

I admit my forefathers are from China but would I go back there? The answer is HELL NO! Why? Malaysia is my country - my home, the place where I was born, brought up and will most probably die and buried.

For those who keep asking us to go back, think for a minute, YOU are also not from here, your forefathers and their fathers (just like mine) came here to seek an opportunity. Why not co-exist harmoniously like how they have enjoyed in the past?

On that note, don't you think unity should come from within you and not from wearing a certain band that is so publicly advertised nowadays? WE don't need a stupid rubber based band to show our unity!

Bak Good Teh

(NON HALAL)

Raise your hands if you are a pork lover like me :) I would like to recommend this particular place in Centrepoint, Bandar Utama - old wing that helps me get my weekly dosage of pork goodness in me.

The place is called "Bak Good Teh" serves the ever famous Bak Kut Teh (BKT), yes the same BKT the Singaporeans are trying to claim that they created it first. Wrong! We, Hokkiens, in Malaysia (back then, Malaya or Tanah Melayu) created it first!

The soup is 'kau' enough and the meat is tender and yummy-licious. A typical bowl would have mixed meat, spare parts, mushrooms and tau foo pok. And price for it is pretty reasonable, about RM12 - 13 with a glass of ice chinese tea. Rice served is either white or 'oily' rice (yau fan).

Try it out the next time you are there!

Plastic money: a blessing or a curse? (Part II)

Having a credit card can be very convenient but most people take this convenience for granted to a certain extent that they do not realise that they are spending money that they do not have now. With that kind of mentality, it could only spell trouble as well as the beginning of a life long of debts that you will take months (even years to clear).

What has prompted me to start writing about credit card is a bill of a friend that I accidentally saw a few weeks back. What shocked me is that although his credit limit was only RM 3k, the outstanding balance owed to the bank was actually RM4.6k!! You may ask, where the heck did that additional RM 1.6k come from? Simple answer: first the bank charges you for spending over your available limit - RMxxx, then due to the fact my friend did not pay his bills promptly, bank charged another RMxxx and finally he does not settle his bill fully leaving a balance to be charged a small interest (according to him!), the interest charged is actually not small at all, its 18% p.a. Even higher than mortgage interest!!

You may automatically assume that this friend of mine has just graduated and just got his credit card, hence the tendency to use the card more than he should. But that is untrue, he has been working for a while now and graduated eons back. This is indeed a worrying trend that I observed from working adults today. They have the concept of "swipe first, pay later" all wrong! It is supposed to be "swipe first, pay later... with money that you have"

Fellow readers (though there isnt much of you out there), do not fall into this "trap". Debts are hard to settle, looking for the money to settle the debts are even more difficult.

Be prudent! Spend within your means. Consult help if you think your spending is spiraling out of control.

Getting hitched: an expensive affair!

What happened to those days when our parents got married under a shoestring budget? Dinner with close family members and friends, no need to spend lavishly on wedding banquets, photo taking and everything else that you may need in a 'modern' wedding today.

Today, in the 21st century, all of the above is no longer applicable, if you want to get married, you have to be at least moderately rich to hold a simple decent wedding reception. Why am I saying that? More will be reveal in the months to come.

This will be the beginning of a series to discuss the wants, needs, musts, frustrations of holding a wedding of about 500 pax.

Malaysia... Tanahairku

Malaysia.... my homeland. A shot of Kuala Lumpur Twin Towers from Mandarin Oriental side. Taken using Nokia N80.