After 1 good year....

Recalling this post that I blogged a year ago.

Pressure, Anxiety and Excitement

To sum up, I was saying that something real big had happened in my life and I have to stop fooling around with my future. But I yet to disclose what with 'big stuff' that was happening.

Haha, who wan to know my untold story anyway ?

Nonetheless, I feel like to share my story here. Maybe some of my concerned friend would love to know.

So here it goes.

Just exactly one year back. My parents did one of the toughest decision in their life. They decided to buy
a house !

"0_o , ahhh cheh.... I thought wat tim. Buy a house nia ? What so bombastic about it? " 

Ish, I do know that everyone buy house nowadays... what so big deal anyway ?

Let put that this way, my scenario was like a small time clerk buying a Lamborghini Gallard o. That very day after my parents secretly hand over the downpayment for that house, my mom can't wait a second longer to tell me about it.

She said they have bought a house.  Frankly, I am not happy with the decision. I am living in a big family. Stay in a double storey terraces which owned by my grandma. Though there are 10 peoples living in there (my father family, my uncle family and grandma) and it get a little congested, but I love the warm and noise of people around.

10 years back, my parents did bought a house too. They bought a small apartment at some place. I was so sad when thinking of leaving this comfortable home. Why should we move to a small apartment when there is a decent house to live ? and one of its side have a great Chinese Cemetery view !

Anyway, the apartment project get a lot of problem and hence it failed to deliver the keys to buyer. It was a bad news for my parents and they resorted to cancel the purchase and sue the contractor.

I am silently happy about it as I wish to stay in this house with my grandma longer. 10 years later... which is now. The history get repeated.

I am expecting a condo at the best. I knew how much my father's earning and my mom was a housewife. So, buying a condo might be my father most stretched limit.

But I am wrong !! They bought a big house. A 3 storey-link house in a highly guarded community at Selayang. And it was cost RM 868,000 back then. (Some might think I am over-reacted as RM 868,000 is not a big money to you. Sadly it is big to me)

I am stunned for moment. Of course I am happy when I fantasizing how fun to stay in such a big house designed with contemporary design



and walking around without fear of criminals in that highly guarded community.

Best of all is that I could enjoy the swimming pool and gym everyday !

But it take just a while to hit me back to reality. How could my father able to pay for this ?

With his current earning left only little saving every month after paying 2 car's installment, daily necessities, insurances, his transport, eatery and all sort of inevitable expenses.. how could my father pay for this ?

And how did my father get loan approval of RM 650,000 in the first place ? Bank ain't stupid, my father was 53 years old a year back which near to retiree. My father own no assets (house, land and etc), my mom is a full time housewife and his 3 kids were still in study.

Mystery unsolved when my mom said, a rubber estate owned by my deceased grandpa get sold with a good price and the money was divided fairly between the sibling. Well, let not disclose the amount. hahaha

And with that, the Bank approved my father's loan. But still, RM 650,000 of loan ain't a small money. So, we need 17 years to repay it back.

This is where, I start being serious on my future. Obviously my father could not work for another 17 years to pay the loan. Soon, it will be me and my younger bro who will take over this burden. When the house was completed, it will cost us RM4,500 per month of loan repay.

What !! given that my father was still working when I come out to corporate world and with my brother still stuck inside university doing his degree, how much could I contribute with my fresh grad salary ?

Hence, my father's early retiree plan flush down the drain. He said he has to work until my brother and me stabilize in our career. But, why my parents wanted to stress themselves this way ?

Why don't just continue to live in this old house and spend their retiree money to travel wherever they want? 

My mom always want to live in a family that only belong to hers. I am not putting this in a bad way, but I believe every women want to have a house that belong to her family. My mom's sacrifice a lot in this old house. She had to give up her job instead of my aunt in order to take care of my ailing grandma. She took care of my aunt's daughter to earn some side income and she cook all the meals everyday to serve the family of 10.

It have been like this for almost 10 years now. My mom said, how she miss the old time when she could work happily with her friends and worry less of house's affair as my grandma was still capable of handling the house that time. Now she is determined, to own a house only belong to her family.

My mom was being a too nice person for too long thus benefiting my aunty and uncle (who was living with us with their two daughter) to worry less about the house agenda because they only need to worry about their work at daylight, and get to eat a sumptuous dinner cooked by my mom when return. Even their daughter homework were monitor by my mom and she will make sure they finish everything right after they return from school.

But I knew my aunt and uncle are not a bad person. They are very nice instead. But sometime people tend to take thing for granted. It is unfair for my mom to stay in the loop for any longer because my mom is getting older. She had serve this big family for 10 good years. And I believe she deserve something better for her remaining years ahead.

Though moving out from this family might cause unthinkable consequences to my aunt and uncle, but enough is enough. My grandma had recovered from her ailing condition thanks to my mom's care. And now I believe it is time for some one to take up the responsibility.

10 years back, I am still stupidly naive. I can't see the hardness that my mom had to endure all this while. I just think about myself. How I dislike small apartment, how I going to miss my grandma, and how I going to miss about everything !

Now, I am all matured. I knew what is the best and to do. And so, I am fully support my parents decision. Though I am tied up to the loan, but I am more than willing to pay for it !

Because this house will make my mom happy =]

How can I mess up with my future anymore ?  

I must quickly come out to working world and excel there ! So that I could earn a decent salary to pay off the house debt and release my father from further burden and responsibility. I guess I will have very little happy hour after work in the future hahaha... money will be very tight.

But again, if this house could make my mom happy, it is freaking worth it !!!!

Hatyai - Thailand 2011

Two weeks back, I went to Hatyai - Thailand with my family. This was my second times having a trip to Thailand.

And both of em gave me a totally different experience and story ! My first Thailand trip was going to Betong - Thailand as covered in

http://holim88.blogspot.com/2010/12/trip-to-betong-thailand-2010-day-1.html

http://holim88.blogspot.com/2010/12/trip-to-betong-thailand-2010-day-2.html

The participant of this trips consist of me, my sister , brother, my mom and

WHOLE BUNCH OF AUNTIESSSSSSSS !!!!

Oh yes, you guess it right. This is a totally aunties trips with 95% of em are female. 87% above are above 50 years ago.

In other word, I have joined a follow a tour group to Thailand. Not my usual backpacker style.

10 hours of bus ride was a real suffer. I always have problem sleeping in bus. Maybe I not use to sleep in sitting position. Nonetheless I survived through the journey.

As a matter of fact. I am anti ala tour-group + tour guide style all the while. Now that I have joined one, it got me assure that my anti-ness feeling is correct.

Hear me say, following a tour group is a BIG NO FUN !

While we (the passenger) so eager to see the uniqueness in Thailand, the tour guide only interested on their fat commission.

3days 1 night trip to Hatyai, is all about shopping shopping and bloody shopping.

I guess those aunties were really enjoying it. But we youngster don't. I myself have went to Betong as backpacker. And I do notice the difference.

We brought 10 thousand Baht to there which is equivalent to RM 1,000. Well, most of the money was spent by mom.. hahahaha

Those place that they brought us to shop, was bloody expensive / not cheap at the least. Given a short time on each stop, we have no choice to travel on our own. Most of the time in Hatyai was going indoor to shop.

Buy biscuits, seaweed, dry cuttle fish and all sort of stuffs which you can find in Malaysia. But those aunties still buy buy and buy in bulk. As it seem it was so cheap. Trust me, it is expensive !

Foods there, was expensive too. Because I think even the tour guide even earn commission from them.

Chicken rice cost RM5 and Tomyam Meehun cost RM4. Erm, actually the price is around like that in Malaysia. But since we were in Thailand. I expect cheaper than that as those foods were really way cheaper in Betong.

Furthermore, the foods were.... meh. What to do, when you follow a tour guide, you have no choice but to eat whatever they bring you to.

At one particular time, they actually being considerate to bring us some place nice for sightseeing. At least there are something I can be looking forward to.

Mermaid Beach. Nothing special particularly except for its famous roasted eggs.

and a mermaid statue

 

and we stay there for 45 minutes. Good also as the sun was really bright that time. From what I see, Thai people are very environment caring. The beach was so clean even though it is a famous picnic spots. Shame to our Malaysian culture. Port Dickson, Melaka and Klang  beachs were a disgrace.

To my surprise, the tour guide brought us to wet market ! I did not expect that because it might bring no commission to them. Well I guess they are still quite considerate sometime. 

Whatnot, I have done some photo-viewing in internet about this Wet market. And found that most of the tourists love to take photo from this spot. I was standing on a bridge. 

Finally the tour guide brought us back to a hotel in Hatyai main city which I forget it name. Very lively indeed. But I did not take any photos on those... hmm wondering why.

Anyway, we rest a while before going out to sight-seeing again. This time we went to the stainless steel tower ! Hope I get it right.

And it cost us RM15 per pax to go there. Nothing special, just a tower with a lot of stainless steel inside and with some monks chanting prayer.

Personally I think there is no entry fees required to visit this place. But the tour guide asked RM15 from us before hence saying that she will arrange a van to us. So in total we paying RM165 because got 11 people per van for the driver to bring us there which cost less than 15minutes.

Hmm, nothing fun to say more. So we back to Malaysia the next morning. Speaking of passing through kastam, it is another funny aunties story. They were so nervous that their shopping goods will somehow get confiscated. All their faces were green and nervous. The tour-guide keep on calming them down. I was like ... 0_o in the bus. 

"Auntiesss, you buy vegetables, fruits and foods nia ma... you think you buy gun and bomb meh" I think like that. I have no idea why they were this nervous.

Another funny stuffs was. Those aunties insist to show-hand their money before going back. As my brother said, those aunties see the Thai Bath like a voucher.. have expiry date one... cannot change back to MYR one. So must finish it !!!

And stop by Alor Setar to visit a muzium.

Auntiess.... auntiess.... auntiess.....

Photos above were so fascinating. It were all drawing ! Masterpiece by 60 great artists. 

Journey back to Malaysia was even a greater suffering when aunties decided to sing karaoke in bus. 

Imagine.... Speakers directly above and beside you with volume turn so loud... and aunties start to sing all their lung out

You know how oldie songs can be so high pitch and semangat. now imagine the sound of lorry honking directly into your ear for 2-3 hours like that.

There was a bloody hell aunty whose profession is a tai-kam-cheh. She sang most of the songs... and I bloody hate her. Her voice is so high pitch and with her run-out-of-tune buffalo voice, it almost got me crazy.

I was thinking to grab her mike and break it. Apparently I did not. And long story short... after long endurance... finally I get to home.

To sum up my story.. I do not hate Hatyai even though I sound like I hate it. I hate tour-guided trip. It is suck for us the free soul teenagers who are eager to explore a totally new worlds.

I guess that is what we called age gaps. Apparently my mom enjoy it. But I don't. Nonetheless, I having precious time with my family at Thailand.

So, I am not satisfy with my trip to Hatyai and looking forward to come back some other day. Of course, with a big bagpack on my back and with fellow good buddies we will conqured every interesting spot of Hatyai can offer.

BERSIH 2.0

What else should I say more ?

None =)

Most of my friends in social network society have said it all.

To my amaze, out of sudden everyone becoming so concern with our country. News sharing were everywhere !

So, I will skip the summary part of Bersih 2.0 because I am pretty sure you got it cover ;-)

Anyway, Kudos to Rakyat as they are the real winner for this and let wait with further anxiety for the upcoming results.

This is the best video of BERSIH 2.0 in my opinion.

Ah ! One more things... it is good that many of us finally awaken from slumber and realize how ugly our government can be.

But complaining and bitching ain't solve shits... So

Meanwhile Ambiga fight for a clean election, YOU 

go register as voter !!!! MOVE IT

Oh, Holim the broken tape so annoying !

Ever wonder why am I so into Politic ?

I guess most of the youngster at my age especially friends around me are still care less about what happening in our country.

And this Holim keep on posting political news on FB day in and day out instead of posting funny posts, nice photos or spamming nonsenses at other wall's update.

He is just like a broken tape !!!! damn I should block Holim from tainting my fb wall.

I guess this is what happen. My wall receive less update than last time.

Well, I have a reason for this. And let me clarified. I am neither a member of any political parties. I am just like you, a normal citizen of Malaysia.

But why am I hurting myself by allowing anger, hatred and disappointment to ruin my day as I keep updating myself on recent political news?

Why am I taking all the trouble or even risk being label as anti-government by constant sharing news on FB that is not favorable to government ?

For most of you guys, you just want to live 'peacefully' and hence care less on our country. And any matter concern with politic is deem as chaos and might get yourself into trouble without any beneficial in return.

Me too, I want to live in peace. But have you ever ask yourself. Who pay for your peace ?

Why other people have to do the scarification and you doing nothing to earn the peace and rights that you are enjoying right now freely ?

"Nobody asked them to sacrifice wor, I think life is good now and I think their doing is pointless and idiot"

If they are nobody keeping an eyes on government, how much you do think is the petrol price now ? how much you need to pay for your foods ? same goes to electricity bills, waters and miscellaneous. But I guess it still not concern you much because

Your parents are paying for it ! 

Don't you still miss the old time when one pack of nasi lemak just cost Rm0.60 ? One plate of WantonMee Rm2.50 ? and Roti Canai RM0.50 ?

What is the price now ?

Because our country is handle by incompetent leaders who are so tainted with corruption, hence our government can't longer afford to maintain the price of the foods serve on our table. Money is keep on drying out from national coffer into their pockets. The spending is exceeding the money going in which result an increasing national debt.

Oh Damn ! I am saying boring stuffs again. If I am going down with more details, will you stop reading my post ???

Nevertheless, I am pretty sure all of you can see yourselves. Ask your mums how much it cost to cook a decent dinner ? you will shocked.

"Ish, I don't see a big problem here wor, though all the price is hike, but my pocket money increase as well. So my money is still enough to spend hehehe"

That is self-fish. Our parents get to work harder and harder just to give us a decent and worry less life. How many days your parents have to work? how many hours daily that they have to grind in their office?

For my scenario, my father at the age of 54 just bought a decent size house which cost RM868,000 !
Of all his life, he only can afford to buy a house at this age and then have to pay monthly installment for the next 17years.

My pap said, "Sons, house is getting more expensive by days, normal house like that already cost this much, how could you afford to buy one in future ? (*Mind you, our salary do not increase faster than the price hike). That why we buy this down for your future." And hence my father are bringing a new burdern on his shoulder for extra 17 years.

And to pay that, he said he will have to work until he can't anymore. I am really touched and sad in the same time as he can't stop working though his age had reach retirement stage. Why is the house price in our country is so high ? People in USA can pay off their house debt with 3years of salary but in Malaysia, we need 25year+ worth of salary to pay off !

In future, all of us will become a parents. And only at that time, you will start complaining on the government. Guess what, if things can start to change and get better 10-15 years ago, life will be much easier. You start to regret and only complain complain and more complain. And only could get yourself a Kondo that cost Million LMAO. Here goes your retiree money.


"Nah, I am not intend to fight for a better Malaysia lah. Why not just migrate to other country where opportunities are wider ? Ooooh I love Aussie !! Weeee"

Talk is easy and cheap folks. I wish to migrate too. But with our screwed up education systems, which country will recognize us ? I am a student of University Malaya . You know, in Malaysia this Uni name can still get me some respect and recognition. But other than Malaysia, my cert is not worth more than a piece of toilet paper. Try bring your cert to Singapore and see how they respond.

They are looking down on us !

Unless you are a Malaysian studying in Singapore University, chances for you to get recognition from a first class country with our shitty cert.... is shitty slim.

Lol, you are a graduate from local university and dreaming to excel out there ? Good luck folks, but you will have a very hard time to start with. First you will work as cheap labor and must have the capabilities to endure discrimination from locals. Second, you must somehow prove you are better than those locals that come out from a University that ranked 30 in World with your shitty cert that ranked... .erm 200 ?

Only than, you will have a real good life over there ;-)

"But what can I do ? I am chicken shit... I scared my parents will upset with me putting headband and carrying banner to join protest"

No worry guys. I am a chicken shit too. But smaller and less smellier compare to you. I dare not to join protest even though I want to. Because I do not want to upset my parents.

But there are plenty of stuffs you can do ! The chicken shit way ;-)

Just concern more on our country by read up news from various channel. Best if you can balance yourself between pro-government news and pro-opposition news so that you can judge yourself. And share it out via social network that I am sure you are pro with it. Tell your friends what is happening and voice your opinion and concern.

Believe me, A lot of chicken shits gather together will cause a large enormous POOPS that will be so bloody stink and powerful.

Do your part fellow chicken shits, and I will do mine too =)