Financial Management

Today is the last day of my long holiday (almost two weeks). I'm preparing to go to work for my night shift :( . It will also be the first day that my wife will need to look after our daughter alone. :( . Hope everything will run smoothly.

On the long holiday, we've taken our 2 months+ daughter to various places eg: UTM Skudai, Punggai Beach Resort (near Desaru), Kuala Pilah and Ipoh. Most of them was due to wedding receptions.

After considering several alternatives, we've decided to hire a maid to look after our daughter. It's not cheap. Initial payment is more or less like a downpayment to low/medium cost home. What made it more difficult is that we've just bought a property. Thus, more need of money.

It's on a time like this that I need to do something that I don't really enjoy. Collect money from people who owed me.

I've got several friends who have been regular borrower with me. This is since I've just started working, and then got married and then got a daughter. It's almost will be the same person who will borrow.

Generally, there are two types of borrower:

Case A: Mr. A contacted me saying he need money urgently and promised to pay me back on 20th of the month. On 20th he said he can't pay it due to some problem. I later found out that it's a genuine problem.

Case B: Mr. B contacted me saying he need money urgently and promised to pay me back on 20th of the month. On 20th of the month, there's no word from him. It's only when I contacted him on the 2oth of the following month that he paid me back. On top of that, I've also found out that he just spent lavishly buying present for his girlfriend and bought the latest handphone on the market.

I'm lending money due to my believe that we should help our relatives/friends when they're in need because we'll never know when our time will come. I've got absolutely no problem with Case A. But I'm truly disappointed when I've encountered Case B. For me, that's not urgent case.

I believe that there's no problem if you want to get into debt. But make sure it's a good debt and you make it first priority to pay your debt. Be it a study loan, car loan, housing loan, FAMA (Father and Mother) loan, borrow from friend/relative, etc.

I've already had several bad experience lending money to friends. I've already considered them as bad debt and they've already been in my blacklist. Regarding the person in Case B, he's still not in my blacklist since he had already paid his debt to me.

Under normal circumstances, I'll not really bother about this issue. But this is not normal, I'm in need of money and I don't really like to borrow from others.

I think I should start post something about financial management since I noticed that it's usually the same type of people who are having problem with financial.

Till then, see ya.

Reunion

After almost 2 months living alone like a bachelor which reminded me of my live during my studying day years back, now my wife is back. It was due to her confinement period.

This time, we have additional member who will live together with us. Our daughter! Yippy! Hope she likes it here. Her mother doesn't really enjoy staying here. Hihi.

I can't wait to eat all the dishes that my wife will cook for me. Yummers!

Updates

Hello all,

There were a lot of things happened since I've last updated my blog. To write it conventionally will consume a lot of my precious time. So I'll do it Tun Dr. M style:

1. I'm now a dad to a lovely daughter.
2. I've added Canon 50mm 1.8 to my DSLR setup and I think that will be enough for now (I hope).
3. I've enrolled for 10 sessions golfing classes. Found out that it's not that easy to play golf and have a new-found respect for all those professional golfers. After all the 10 classes finish, it could be a long time until I'll play it again due to various reasons.
4. I've been tentatively offered to be promoted. The catch is that it will be a full time night shift position. More on this later as it is not confirm yet.
5. I've started to invest in real-estate.
6. Alhamdulillah.

District 9

District 9 is a really cool movie. Not since 300 and Perfume - The Story of a Murderer that I've enjoyed a low-key movie so much. I'm not sure how big is the advertisement for the movie outside, but here in my home country, the ads were below mediocre. I'm even tempted to update my blog because of it. Haha. Not sure if there will be a sequel to it, but I hope if there is, it will not be a disappointment.

By the way, not long after my previous post, I've been given the backup team lead role. By some weird turn-of-event, the role finally fell to me. As my team lead is currently on vacation in the UK for two weeks, I'm currently the acting team lead for my team. I would say so far so good. If not for my shift working hour, I might consider to really have a go for the role for a long term target ;p.

Ok that's all for now, Happy Fasting to all muslims in the world.

Management or technical??

I just went for my performance review with my team lead. He informed that he want to promote me to backup team lead at the expense of the current one whom is 2 years my senior at work and relatively new to the role himself.

I replied bluntly saying to give the current BTL more time to improve and I prefer more technical role rather than management role.

I hope it's not a wrong move.

Petrol Kiosk

I've found out that Esso On the Run have a cool meals. For rm2.50, you can have a hot dog. It's not as good as Subway but for me, it's on par with 1901 plus way cheaper. Western food is also a steal at rm7.++.

I've just noticed that there's a promotion at Petronas kiosk where you can spend rm30 for your petrol and you can buy their Transformers promo t-shirt for RM10. Sadly, I've been to two kiosk now and both of them have sold-out their black t-shirt. If any of you know which kiosk still have those cool black t-shirt let me know or better, buy for me. :). Don't worry. I'll pay. I want both of them. Autobots and Decepticons.

Roll out!!

New hobby(pocket-burner)?

Finally. I've done it. Yes, I can't believe that I've spent close to 4k just for a camera. Never before have I imagine that I'll use more than 1k just for a camera let alone 4k. Ok, the camera itself is not 4k, but after adding all the "necessary" add-ons, that was how it came to that price. It's almost 5 days now since I've bought it. So far so good. Only that, learning to fully utilize the camera function and the technique is harder than what I'm doing for my career. Haha.

I've spent a lot of time studying on how to use the DSLR. It's fricking addictive! At this rate, I'll never complete my CCNP. Hopefully I'll be good at dividing my time and will never lost interest to keep studying for my CCNP as I believe it will be a good stepping stone to further enhance my career (and salary!). Next target, a telephoto lens.

Oh no, what about the stroller, car seat, play-pen, etc. for my soon-to-be-born baby? Guess my wife need to start forking out her money too. Wakaka

By the way, it is a Canon Eos 500d Kit. Check it out here

Recession? What recession?

Last Wednesday, I've accompanied my wife to Putrajaya as she's having some sort of job-related interview there. After that, I've decided to go to Island & Peninsular (I&P) sales office to have a look at the offer that they've for one of their housing project in Kinrara. Seri Idaman to be exact. Check it out here. It was launched last month and it's already sold out. Arghhh, just when I've found out the right place, looks like someone else did, and much earlier. Recession? What recession?

Chelsea won FA cup last night. At least they've got silverware. Haha. With goals coming from regular aging scorer, Lampard and Drogba, I wonder what'll happen 2-3 years from now without younger players. At least, Essien and Mikel Obi still young with Mancienne showing potential. Now what we need is a prodigy striker.

Yesterday, I went out with my wife to my colleague wedding reception and then straightaway to One Utama. We did some shopping for our soon-to-be newborn. As a last minute kind of person, I don't really fancy buying stuff so early but when I think that later, in the later stage of my wife pregnancy, she might get tired easily and I'll have to do the shopping alone, I decided to have a go. Haha.

One thing that I've learned, baby stuff is not that cheap although it's much smaller. Take baby car seat for example. Recaro baby car seat is almost as expensive as the full-size seat. Well, I'll not buy Recaro anyway. I don't want to spoiled my child. Haha.

Oh yes, I've decided, I'll buy a DSLR camera. Now to decide, Nikon or Canon. Lol

Waist wasted

Last weekend, finally after i don't know how many days/weeks/months, I'm going out with my wife. Yeah, it's been a long time due to the preggy thingy (nausea, vomitting, etc.).

We went to my office-mate wedding's reception at MATRADE nearby Jalan Duta. Quite happening I would say.

The next day, we went to Mid Valley and shopping like crazy. Jusco had sale at the exhibition level.

What caught me off-guard was the size of my pants now. Arghh damn it. 1 and a half years ago, it was 32. Last year it was 34. Now?? Haha. Let's just say, it has increase exponentially.

This is what you get when you live/work sedentarily in IT line happily without real pressure. At this rate, I'll need to buy new pants every year.

Unstoppable Barca?

Chelsea drew a lot of criticism for it's hard-line defensive tactic against the all-attacking Barcelona at the Nou Camp.

Well yesterday "El Clasico" prove the point. You just cant fight fire with fire against the attacking prowess of Eto, Messi and Henry. The Madritistas was humiliated to the core.

In that sense, Guus Hiddink is really a genius. That's why, Chelsea is the only team that's able to get a clean sheet at Nou Camp(yes, with a number of yellow cards). It's a compliment to Barca really. In their current form, a 0-0 was a really good result.

Now, let's see what he's up to for the 2nd leg at Stamford Brigde. What a mouth-watering fixture!

Selesema Babi

"Selesema babi" or also popularly translated as Swine flu in Malaysia, is making headlines lately resulting from several deaths in Mexico.

The last similar outbreak that we had in this region was bird flu/Avian flu.

I'm not going to write about what caused the disease or how to prevent it etc. You can find it in abundant on the net.

What intrigued me was the selection of the name for the disease. Here in Malaysia, pork/pig is translated to "babi". Babi is also use as a swearing word here. eg: "Babi la ko" which can bore similar meaning such as "f**k you". Which I think, prompted the popular use of the word "Khinzir" in the 90's , which is, of course, literally the same as Babi.

Surprisingly, the English news here choose to called it as Swine flu. Why not Pig flu (by the way, there're countries that called it Pig Flu and Swine does mean pig/hog/boar) ? My point here is that, who in Malaysia decides to collectively call it as Swine Flu (not pig flu) and "Selesema Babi (not "Selesema Khinzir").

Yeah I know it's really trivial thing. What can I do? It's those sleepless night again. Haha. Sigh.

Cravings??

Lately, as the title above suggest, I've been craving for a lot of things. Luckily, I'm very particular/meticulous when it comes to buying things. I'll always research/compare for different store/price/brand and list down all the pros and cons before I commit to buy. Yes, it's time consuming, but it have a lot of benefits. One of the advantage is that, in the end I'll not buy it. Haha.

Ok below is the list of the things that I'm craving right now:

1) DSLR Camera
2) Head Unit (CD Player) for my wife's car (Yes, I'm married ;p).
3 ) Video game console
4) Home theater system
5) House??

For example, even if I'm going only for item number 1, there's still a lot of things that I'll need to decide, eg: brand (Nikon or Canon), model (Nikon D80, Canon Eos450d (or wait for eos500d)), budget (below 2k? below 3k? below 3.5k?), package (body only? kit? buy separate lenses?). Whatever it is, DSLR is surely an expensive past time activity. My wife is pregnant right now and I want to capture the special moment with a special camera (yes I know, I need to improve my photography skill first).

Oh yes, that might be the reason? So far, my wife never craves for any weird things. Is it because of this that I'm craving for all those things? Time will tell. Haha

Go Chelsea!!

Pheww...what a pulsating match. Credits to Liverpool. They really got my nerve. Haha. Chelsea surely need to improve a lot for the next mouth watering encounter with the hot favourite, Barca.

Go Go Go !

Zoo Empire

I often buy a lot of breakfast cereals for my family (yeah right, it's only me and my wife ;p). Current favorites are Koko Crunch and Honey Stars. Right now they're giving free games with every purchase of the box. You can get different kind of games.

The wrapping of the game's CD looks really crappy I feel like throwing it all together with the cereal box but I've just put it inside my TV cabinet drawer just in case. Boy, how I don't know what it will do to me.

Out of boredom, when you have found out that ASTRO is repeating all it programs again and you don't have Internet access at home (thanks TM, what a great service!) than you remember about the CD that you've got for free. Let's try it out, there's nothing to lose.

Turn out that it took almost all of my off-day time. Haha. I guess that it has been too long since I last play computer games that even free game will do but to be fair, it's not that crappy. It reminded me of those old-school sim game like sim city, sim tower, etc. The game that I'm playing is called Zoo Empire

For a glimpse of the game, check it out on the link below:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/zooempire/index.html

How to get it? You can just go to any nearby store and buy a box of Nestle (if I'm not mistaken) breakfast cereal with a CD in front of it. Not only you can get free CD games, you also can eat the breakfast cereal (or should it be the other way around?).

Internet access

TMNET SUXXXXXX BIG TIME...this is the longest period since 1999 where I don't have Internet at home. TMNET YOU SUXXXX...ARGHHHHHHHH!!!!. I've been trying to get Streamyx connection into my house since Dec 2008 and I've only managed to get the phone line on March 2009. That's the phone connection only ok, not the broadband itself. Now I need to pay for the rental on the phone line which I'll never use.

Now I'm trying P1 WiMAX. First impression? I'm very impressed at the moment. Although my place is not really in the coverage area and I'm getting weak signal, the speed is damn fast. Eg: Youtube will not buffer at all. Direct http download super fast compared to Streamyx. Streamyx user will notice that lately, Streamyx is slower than pregnant Tapir. I've got until this Friday to test whether I want to proceed with P1. I'm signing for rm99 24months contract. I don't want to commit for that long for crappy service. Who knows after the trial period over, service will be like crap. But so far so good.

Wait a minute, I'll still need to pay the monthly rental for the phone line that I've never use because there's 12 months contract. Ah who cares, I dont give a damn. DARN YOU STREAMYX/TMNET!!