22-12 a special day to remember

Special indeed it was.

Another greeting card!

I am sooo happy receiving this greeting card. Thank you Jonathan Cosgrove!! It was a pleasure working with you through the Honours Committee too =)

Wedding getaway

I was really impressed with how the bride and groom left their wedding. Many congratulations to Thean and Doris!

First Baking Experience

Thanks to all my friends whom has given me great advice in baking.

After a failure of three times...

Everything except the strawberry here has been made by me!

Admiration for my Future Employer

Not everyday you receive things like these. I am pretty sure this cements my loyalty towards them. =)

Truly, truly unique company. (Did not receive such warmness in my last internship; despite their firm being one of the so-called "best places to work", they sure do not care as much about their employees)

Finance Honours

A new chapter in life has begun, whilst the old has ended.

I hope to remember the best memories in time to come of my 4-year excellent, awesome degree.

Bloody hell its done

No actually it is God's blessing. :-)

Hayfever?

First time I got hayfever in my life.

Runny nose.

Red-ish eyes.

But thank God I am now all better =)

The near perfect gaming laptop

You gotta love the big screen, jet fighter style design, super quiet cooling system, awesome 5870 ATI Radeon graphics card, intel i7 quad-core processor, 8GB RAM and most of all, the turbo boost button on the top left of the laptop :P

Melbourne Marathon

Inspirational running 10km especially when batman was running with me.

Anada

My parents are over from Malaysia. We decided to try a new restaurant suggested by Molly. The restaurant's owner is a chef who used to be with Movida. I am impressed by his creativity of his dishes as he did not actually copied much from Movida. Anada is Anada.

Great food!

Thesis land

"When you're an honours student, you are constantly being challenged. You hit thesis road blocks, detours and pitstops. Amidst it all, never forget though, to pass is easy but to achieve a high standard, that is what makes you you"

Joshua Ng, Honours in Finance 2010

Withdrawal Symptoms

Even though you have not won since 2002, I still cherish the moments when you did, short but magical.

Favourite Food

You are my favourite, missing you already...

Delicious Food

Been a long time since I ate you. Perhaps 1.5 years ago?

Exam marking: A good experience

Corporate Finance exam students you be assured I was very fair in my marking!

The Best of Movida

Hand filleted Cantabrian Artisan anchovy on crouton with smoked tomato sorbet.

Yummy.

Two Deaths in One Time

Today I received a call from my Dad letting me know that my Uncle (Dad's brother) had passed away a few days ago due to a heart attack and suffering from alot of other diseases and he was already on dialysis treatment.

He also told me that my dog, Willie, at home in KL had breast cancer and should be put to sleep soon to end his suffering.

Unforgettable sad moment for me.

We experience more deaths as we get older.

My passion for whales

I saw a documentary at ted.com by Brian Skerry about how our underwater population is dying because of human activity.

One day, I will make the effort to save our underwater population as it is something I have always been passionate about.

Dinner with Jeff Borland

Dinner with the great man! May you not forget us when you go to Harvard! Come back soon Jeff!

Missing the holidays

It seemed like a long time ago, but the goodness of it is still there.

Missing the escape, care-free times of when a group of friends venture out into a new place, an activity most people know as a 'road trip'.

God's blessings

I once said to God that if I managed to get a specific job, that I would actually go to church for the whole year every Sunday without skipping a service at all(except of course if I can't help it).

Turns out it came true =) God hears our prayers.

Canoeing in Melbourne

Recently Amanda had her farewell in a park in Kew. I didn't realise there was the opportunity to canoe there, but once I did, was very excited at it!

It is actually my first time canoe-ing in my life, and it was a good experience. There were 3 people in each canoe and it was a tiring, but fun process similar to that of kayaking.

It was a great farewell for Amanda, and I hope that our paths will cross again someday! I would definitely be one of the investors in your sure to come cheesecake cafe in the near future.

Refreshing hols

Everyone loves holidays, for sure. Only a workaholic won't.

This Easter hols has been nothing short of fun. Especially the memorable Fotoholics camps. I absolutely love it!

The camp was an experience to remember, I managed to make new friends, enjoyed new sceneries and took some amazing shots with my compact camera.

Most importantly, I found out that road trips in Australia can actually be really enjoyable and fun. This road trip, to a certain extent, changed my mind about not working in Australia but I actually now want to work in Australia, at least for a bit before I decide again.

This country is beautiful in terms of the natural scenery and the people are too. For a newcomer, it just takes a bit of time to adjust oneself to the culture here in Australia.

I also managed to go on a day trip to Williamstown with Peiyee, Jolene and KK(a new friend). What an awesome experience it is too.

Now I have 6 more weeks before exam 'break' starts. I miss holidays already and am wishing that it was here again. Could there be enough time to plan another road trip before exam starts? I hope so!

For now, it is just an idea, and like any idea requires people and enough interest to support it. Next week also promises to be exciting with an interview on Monday, poker as usual and my good friend's graduation at Monash!

Easter break!

Time at university has just been hectic the last few weeks. I believe almost every student at university have been busy with assignments, mid-sems, study catch ups and last but not least job-hunting.

The same goes for myself. But at last, after 5 weeks of busy-ness, things have slowed down a bit and it is time for another Easter break holiday.

This Easter break to me will be about catching up with old friends, catching up on studies and completing some assignments that will be due very soon.

So far, it has been nothing short of fun and productivity. I have managed to almost complete my Research Methods in Finance assignment 1 as well as managed to go on a day-trip to Williamstown.

I think the Honours year is great for a number of reasons: Firstly, we are part of a small group of students and we can actually be good friends with each other. Secondly, the subjects are challenging and I guess I prefer challenging work, all else equal.

I am excited to actually begin my Research thesis which is going to be about Optimal Capital Structure in an Imperfectly Competitive Environment with Asymmetric Information. Quite a mouthful isn't it? I will understand what it feels like to be writing a thesis and conducting research!

I always believed that I am a good thinker and can direct my strengths towards the research area this year. I feel great just doing that. Hopefully the rest of this break goes on well!

Third and fourth week of uni

If anyone tells you that honours year is very busy, they are really right!

So far my blog has been somewhat neglected due to semester subjects, working on thesis, tutoring, applying for jobs and what not.

It's been somewhat of mixed feelings so far. I've had ups and downs, it's been new but so far it's been a challenging semester. I actually have to come up with a research topic real soon but so far have not had that much progress yet!

I have also been busy applying for jobs and looking at interviews. So far no luck yet but I have a feeling that this will be quite lengthy process actually!

I recently had the MUOSS Night Market event and it was really awesome being able to see a lot of my friends there as well as getting to try the different foods there. It's truly one event which I wouldn't miss!

Also catching up with friends have been more successful this year as I have actually made more effort to catch up with different friends as compared to last year. I find that it's really good to keep in touch with friends, as you never know how grateful you will be in the future to have a friend like them!

It's back to work for me now, but I have also been slacking off a little, hope I will be more hardworking in the time to come and appreciate my time wisely.

Second week of uni

This has indeed been yet another busy week for me. Honours year has just been demanding in a lot of aspects!

This week tutes have finally started and I experienced what it feels like to be a corporate finance tutor. I understand now how it feels to be a corpfi tutor. Pretty tiring to teach but an awesome feeling in some ways.

This week has been full of job applications as well as preparing for my honours year. Honours is actually quite a busy year as you had to juggle 4 subjects at once as well as focus on finding a topic for my research essay due at the end of the year. Nonetheless, I want to make this an enjoyable year where I can have fun, find a job as well as do well in my honours year.

We celebrated ZeYing's birthday on Thursday this week where we had a small surprise for her. Most importantly, she was half surprised and it was a good time for all of us. We had a few laughs and enjoyed the potluck food that everyone brought for that night.

I had my first pool competition on Friday, where I was playing as part of the Melbourne Uni Pool Club Social League. It was quite fun, but I lost the match. I still enjoyed the experience and look forward to become a better pool player in the future.

Saturday was quite a busy day for me as well as I was out the whole day. I went to witness the Flash Mob Dance at Federation Square, caught up with Tim, Budiaman and Tu, then at night went to play Mahjong at ZeYing's house. I sleptover at Li Hong's place because the next day I had the Run for the Kids Marathon happening. Suffice to say, it was a great experience running just 5km and I am definitely going to join the 10km or 21km event in the Melbourne Marathon happening later this year.

As I look forward, I know that I have a lot to look forward to, and I can't wait to experience this year! To a good week ahead. Cheers.

First Week of Honours Year

It has been a very eventful first week back to uni! I can't believe that when I look back to Monday from today, it seemed like a very long time ago!

Every day of the week has been basically getting used to my new lifestyle and also catching up with different friends! It has been good to finally meet up with different people again and catching up with them all over.

Honours classes has been very different. Now instead of having 2 lectures and 1 tute, we have 3 lectures and no tutes at all. The new format is actually not that like-able and people tend to doze off by the 2nd hour. It is very hard to continually listen to someone speak continuously for 3 hours, try doing that anytime and you will definitely need to be very interested in the subject to stay awake!

It's back to tutor meetings and tutoring again. I just had my first intro micro class last Friday which has been pretty interesting. There was one class, where we played the 2 truths and 1 lie game, and one guy whom was from China and looked drenched wet because of the rain, said "I am from the triads, I hate speaking English and I am new in Melbourne". Everyone was OMG and was laughing away because it just seemed so far-fetched. It turns out that the lie was that he was new in Melbourne. Some people were gasping, that was the most interesting experience yet!

I find myself going back to the Honours Lab and the Lab on Level 1 of the Old Ecom building a lot lately. You can use free computers there and there is not a lot of people. It is always good to see friends there including Adhi, Fei and Chloe, where we can all catch up. This year at uni my friend Yen Min is not around, which makes uni very different! I used to share a work office with her in the Old Ecom building up on level 5, and used to seeing her everyday! How different it is now.

ZeYng, Agnes and Yvonne also had a surprise party for me on Thursday night which was very touching! It is good to have good friends like them where they actually took a lot of effort organising the surprise for me. They told me it was a housewarming party but ended up to be a surprise party for both Kien Loon and myself. And they gave me a muffin book to make muffins! How nice, I need to learn to make muffins now, which is so difficult!

Yesterday which was Saturday was the most interesting. I was supposed to meet up with Chan for lunch, go to MASCA bbq and go for moomba at night. At least that was the plan. But right after my lunch with Chan, as I was on the city circle tram going towards flagstaff gardens, it started hailing! Because of that, I didn't dare leave the city circle tram and was basically stuck on the tram for the whole day! Moomba got cancelled because of the hail today. I ended up going to ZeYing's house and we learnt to play Mahjong there, and at night we went to Old Town Kopitiam Mamak for dinner. What a different day it turned out to be!

All in all, I enjoyed my week thoroughly and immensely. I can't wait for the second week of uni, where a lot of different stuffs are coming up. Till later!

The Last Day of Holiday

It has been a great two weeks so far, with a lot happening and much progress happening too. You know it is a great week when you feel that time has flown by quickly and when you look back at the events, you can't recall every event!

Yesterday night I attended Mel's 21st birthday party and it was nothing short of awesome! It's the kind of birthday party that has everything - good food, great speeches, new people to meet, fun games and more. I cherish the fact that I have a friend like Mel whom I have met and known for around 4 years already. Friendships in Melbourne are starting to grow older and more valuable of course, especially since this is my 4th year in Melbourne already.

Today is the last day of my short 2 week holiday before uni reopens its doors again! This coming sem will be very different to the last 3 years. It will be the beginning of research year. For those of you who have not done research before, I reckon it will be a pretty challenging year from the likes of it, but, do not be afraid as nothing is impossible for us!

I wonder sometimes what this year will bring for me, I am more unsure about this year compared to the same time 1 year ago. I will of course need to ask God for help in guiding me this year. Some people has said that Honours year will be the best year of their lives, but would it? I will find out for myself pretty soon. So to the last holiday of 2009-2010 summer, I bid you goodbye and may a great sem ahead start!

Finance Honours Retreat

Today I have just had the longest day I have had in a looooong time.

Why you ask?

I just came home from the Finance Honours Retreat!

Where you ask? *must be thinking of somewhere cool*

The Melbourne Museum!

*gasps*

*That is a lame place.*

It is quite a cool place actually. It was held at a specific venue inside the Melbourne Museum, better known as the TreeTop.

It was a cosy place, well decorated and airconditioned, I cannot complain much. We were well treated with many delicious sandwiches and coffee/orange juice to come with it. I must've had like 4 meals today.

But the whole day started at 8.45am and it just ended at 11.15am, what a long day! I am happy, however, that it is finally over.

Throughout the whole day we were briefed about what we should expect throughout the year, about managing our expectations, preparing early for the research essay and what we need to successfully pass the honours year. I was starting to think that my year of relaxation isn't going to turn out that relaxing after all!

It was good, however, to meet alot of new friends and connect back with old friends whom I wasn't that close to before. It seems that this year the honours batch is like 27 guys and 3 girls, which is quite biased towards guys! Some say that honours year will be the best year of our lives, and I will definitely look forward to it! It is a wholly different environment with the classes now going to be very small and everyone is alot closer to each other. I feel I am beginning to be closer to some of them already!

We had quite a good dinner with all the staff from the Department of Finance, Li-Ren Yu the winner of last year's Finance Honours Medal and also my head-tutor for CorpFi and people from Macquarie Capital. We were served a 3 course meal (which was not bad!) and had a lovely time chatting with all the people on my table. They specially set up tables for us in front of a museum gallery to make it special, and indeed it was! They also gave us CabCharge cards to taxi our way home after the event, how nice.

This is the first time I have been treated so nicely by the Department of Finance, as a student you have got to feel special! I think I will remember this day for a long time to come. Definitely when honours is nearing an end, I will always remember the beginning, the beginning that was the Finance Honours Retreat. =)

Celebrating my 22nd on the 22nd at No.22

Recently there has been a lot of potlucks happening. For those not familiar with the term potluck, it means that everyone has to bring a dish enough for 1 person and if everyone does the same, then we will have quite an interesting dinner indeed with many dishes.

The first potluck recently was at Jolene's place's rooftop which was quite interesting! We had a lovely steamboat there on the rooftop and had fun making new friends including Seok, who is a 3rd year medical student this year! It was good to catch up with old friends too including PeiYee, Jolene and Marina.

Then came my 22nd birthday party on the 22nd of February at my apartment whose number is 22. It was interesting day, a lot things happening and I felt really, really happy celebrating with all my friends, getting to try a lot of different food and finally opening presents at the end.



I sort of invited everyone on my facebook to my birthday this year which was ridiculous because I have almost 1,000 facebook friends. But I knew that a major proportion of those friends are actually overseas, so I was just kindly extending the invite to friends overseas even though I knew they couldn't make it. I was expecting about 40 people to attend and finally about 45 people attended. I am happy for that.

It was potluck style as you already know, and everyone brought interesting dishes to the party! To add to the incentive, I sort of provided prizes for the top 2 dishes of the night and the prize for chocolate shavings from Koko Black. It was in my opinion the best product of Koko Black where all you had to do was mix them with hot milk, stir and there you have it, a nice cup of hot chocolate!

The two dishes that won were firstly a dumplings dish made by Ling, where in one of those many dumplings there were a 5cent coin where the person who ate that would be considered 'lucky'! What an interesting dish, no doubt it won! Secondly, it was the herbal chicken dish made by PeiYee, Jolene and Marina. They had literally 'steamed' the chicken the whole day and the result: a juicy, tender, aroma-full chicken which was delicious!

There were 2 other dishes as well which in my opinion deserved mention: Budi's strawberry dish which says 'Happy Birthday' with the strawberries was very unique and wow-ing, albeit it didn't taste as good as it looked! And finally Amanda's apricot cheesecake dish which was restaurant quality and possibly the most delicious dish of the night! She should really open her cafe one day.

I was very glad that a lot of my good friends made it that night, at least those in Melbourne. Too bad the birthday party wasn't complete without 2 people there: Chan Jun Kai and Rhun Kiet Chuah whom are both my good friends and whom are both in Malaysia at that time.

It was a very busy time for me as the host, I had to organise everything, made sure people were settling in, but it was all worth it in the end. We had fun playing some card games, poker, even managed to play sparklers outside.



To list out all the wonderful presents that my friends gave me, here it is: 3 books (2 of which are the same!), chocolate cigars, a wallet, a Westfield gift card, a box of chocolates from Max Brenner, a deluxe poker set and an iPhone case! But the most wonderful present of all would be the cards I got from each one of you, that is the most treasured present of all and I would keep it for many years to come!

This was the first birthday I had in my apartment in Melbourne in a long time. I remember the first time I celebrated a similar birthday was 4 years ago when I was doing VCE Year 12. How fast time has passed since then! I cannot believe that now I am already in my 4th year of uni doing Honours. God has blessed me abundantly since then and I am eternally grateful for all the wonderful friends that I have. Thanks so much guys for making this a memorable birthday and hope I can be a better friend to you all in 2010! =)

The 22nd on the 22nd only happens once in my lifetime and it has been a memorable one!

Victoria Night Market

It was my first time coming to the Victoria Night Market even though I had been in Melbourne for the past 4 years. The reason? I guess I only travelled around Melb for sight-seeing when my parents are around, seldom I go out with friends sight-seeing. Usually me going out with friends would be for dinner/lunch reasons.

Also the Victoria Night Market is only open during summer (needless to say they are closed during the freezing winter) and this would be the time when I have just arrived back from KL and would be busy settling errands!

It was a good experience going there! Went there with Jolene, Pei Yee and Marina(Jolene's housemate). The night market is just like the Festival of Nations at my uni multiplied by about 4 times. There were just tonnes of restaurants around, selling all sorts of different food types and also all sorts of goodies, ranging from funny hats to posters.

It is, however, very different to the night market experience in Malaysia. In KL, you have a lot of illegal stuff and usually no/little beer would be in sight. In Melb, you have no illegal stuff at all and there are tonnes of Aussies around drinking beer. What a different sight! Which one do I prefer more? Hard to say. I never really enjoyed going to the night market in Malaysia alot. I mean yes it's interesting going once, but after that, it is usually the same. I guess the same goes for Melb.

We had some sort of Roti Canai from one of the stalls which was good. And also listened to some guy singing oldie songs. It was a refreshing experience really. One of the good ways to celebrate a good holiday night, instead of just being at home. I would definitely recommend the night market to friends wishing to go in the future. Actually, this coming Wednesday would be the last time it is open before next summer, so I'd recommend you go fast! :)

CNY 2010 in Melbourne

I haven't actually really celebrated Chinese New Year in the time since I have started studying in Melbourne. When I made the move to Melbourne, it seems that my ang pows are becoming less and the CNY spirit is not as vibrant as it used to be.

There are a few reasons, one being that all my relatives are in Malaysia (most of them) and so there are not people to visit or celebrate with family in Melbourne. Also, Melbourne is a western city, and so CNY is not as main event as it is in Malaysia.

Nevertheless, that did not stop me from celebrating this year in Little Bourke St. Jolene, Pei Yee, Yip and myself managed to organise something for ourselves on CNY day itself. We went to the city, to Little Bourke St at quite early in the morning, around 10am, and saw the amazing display of fire-crackers, lion dancing and martial arts there.

They were really good and prepared. There was one act where the lions had to go on top of poles and perform their tricks there, which was really dangerous. One lion fell to the ground, injuring itself in the process, which I felt was really unlucky for them, but luckily it was not as bad as I thought it was because the lion stood up again and somewhat continued what it was doing, albeit in a milder manner.

After the initial celebration, we headed to A1 Cafe for some lunch. There we tried the delicious dishes that comes with egg chiffon. Talking about it now actually makes me hungry already, since I have just woken up and have not yet had any food. I love the food at A1 Cafe, it is very delicious and always keeps customers coming back for more.

After lunch, we walked around Russel St and Little Bourke St to see all the stores that were set up just for the CNY celebrations. It was a refreshing experience and I love the joyful mode of that event. The fire-crackers were very loud too causing me to be abit deaf after the event, but it wasn't that big an impact. It was a good Sunday and it was good to see some traditional Chinese events. At least the CNY spirit is there which I thoroughly enjoy.

Last Day of my Internship

So, finally, after 11 weeks it has came to an end.

My internship has been a great experience and has taught me a lot of things, especially about myself and what I am capable at and what not I am capable at.

If there were two things I have identified about myself which are weaknesses, then it would be:
i) Active listening
ii) The ability to answer questions in a balanced way

I believe I was always lacking those two character traits, but had not actually been aware of it. I really, really thank my buddy Chris who actually has a rare ability to read human beings well as the feedback he gave me was spot on.

I also realised that I am very capable of picking new ideas up easily and I am definitely an analytical person. To a certain extent, I also believe that I am sociable and am able to interact well with other people, at least in a professional way.

People tend to comment about me as someone who is also passionate about the work that I do. They can see high conviction in my ideas and that I tend to be excited and enthusiastic about new ideas. I guess in a way I am aware of that just that I didn't know to what extent that had an effect or impression on other people, but it is good to know now!

I have learnt a lot throughout the 11 weeks and have built lasting friendships (I hope) throughout the time there. I made new friends with my colleagues and especially my fellow interns, Shaun and Dom, and also including the interns in the other division. I can say that I have walked out of the place having a deep knowledge of how Asset Management works and how it feels like working there.

I have also got exposure as to what it feels like working in a high pressured environment and being given the responsibility of a full-time graduate because I felt as an intern there, the work I was given was comparable to that of an entry level graduate.

After finishing work at the place, I definitely feel sentimental towards it and had actually spent a day reflecting what I have learnt/done throughout my internship. It will be a good memory in years to come and I hope that I will takeway key lessons from the experience.

I want to actually start working full-time soon and probably would not be doing any more internships. It has been a great experience so far and having done 3 internships in total, I understand what it feels like to be an intern! Hopefully I will be able to communicate my experience to future interns whom would be someday working under me.

My New Apple iPhone 3Gs

I am usually bored when I am on the bus travelling home as well as unsatisfied at my inability to type up proper emails whilst I was on the go. I felt I also needed more entertainment as I was constantly travelling and could do with some games to pass the time.

So I decided to get...

*Drum rolls*

The new iPhone 3Gs!!

This new black, shiny phone is slick as ever, and so far, I am 100% happy with it!

Comparing my old phone to the iPhone...



I have never been a Steve Job's apple fan, but ever since getting the iPhone, I have to say that Steve Jobs is freaking awesome to be able to think of something like the iPhone. It is testimony to how he thinks independently of the crowd and pursue something that is truly unique.

Even the box that came with the iPhone is as slick as ever, it was black and shiny. It reminded you of the time you bought something previous and expensive.



Talking about marketing, there is no one better than Jobs at marketing.

He basically knows what the consumer wants, and gives them exactly that.

Sometimes he even knows what the consumers wants even if the consumer doesn't know that they want that, is that pro enough?

He makes sure that his products are shiny and full of quality and convincing enough for the customer to buy it.



When you get an iPhone, a whole new realm of possiblities open to you.

It is not just a phone by itself, it is 4 things in one:

i) an internet communicator with excellent email capabilities

ii) an iPod for your music, videos

iii) an app device where you can install any of the 140,000 apps online

iv) a Phone with conference calling too



My favourite part of the phone is the apps.

You basically have all sorts of apps which covers almost everything imaginable.

You have an app for the weather, an app for stocks, an app for games, an app for learning chinese, and an app to play guitar hero, just to name a few.





I guess what is best about the iPhone is that it is completely touchscreen.

The screen can adjust itself to whatever application it is using, hence making the phone very versatile.

Many people likes to argue that a Blackberry is better because of the email capability and faster typing. I disagree though, because most good Blackberries have plastic keypads, and I believe the future is mainly touchscreen: you can actually learn to type even faster on an iPhone than a blackberry.

Also, email is not everything.

One awesome part of the iPhone is the iPod.

You can watch videos you download off iTunes here.



You also get to surf through your music in Cover Flow format, where they show all the albums you have on a screen just like the one below.



Going through some of the apps in the iPhone, I am very, very happy now with what I have.

I also know that I can always easily expand my app universe by just going to the App Store to download more. There are free Apps and also Apps that charge, but the cost is just a few dollars.

Basically the iPhone has two stores which are very easily accessible, the iTunes store where you can go to download music/videos and the App store where you can go to download Apps.

Here is an MSN Messenger app on the iPhone, just one of many.



The iPhone has an awesome GPS system, where you can not only get directions to the place you want to go, you can see which direction you are facing!! Awesomeness.



Here is the iTunes store look, easily accessible on the iPhone.



The iPhone also has a Compass app, which I think is quite cool as you can see which direction you are facing. Looks good as well.



The iPhone is not called the king of all phones for nothing.

It brings the word "convenience" to a whole new level.

Other phones have been trying to catch up with it ever since the iPhone's inception, but have unsuccessfully tried.

The most unique feature of the iPhone is that it has everything in one.

The only concern I have about the iPhone is that you will basically need to recharge your iPhone everyday if you use it constantly. But that is not a problem for me as I basically do that everyday anyway.

If you want the best iPhone, there is always going to be improvements, so don't wait to get an iPhone. The iPhone 3Gs is already very good as it is.

I recommend getting it.

Kelvin's Farewell

This whole week has been quite sad, because my good friend Kelvin Chuah Rhun Kiet is leaving Australia.

After much trying to persuade his supervisor to let him stay on to either do honours or masters, it is fate that he has to go back to Malaysia and work this year.

To make it a good farewell, we gave him a little present.



Organised by mua, my idea was to get him a shirt of Australia then get everyone to sign on it, so that he will remember all of us and that the shirt will become priceless in 10 years to come.



Besides the shirt, we also got him a portable keyboard and a digital photo frame to remember us all as a farewell present.

Kelvin also organised a farewell at his place that night where about 20 or more people came, and was themed as a potluck event. I didn't know what to bring and in the end I just got a pack of 6 VB beer which I am sure those who drank it appreciated it!

The food that night was awesome as well, there were many different Malaysian delicacies as well as pizza and a very, very nice cheesecake that Amanda had made!



We also played a game trying to name everyone who was present that night, so I will try it once again - Kim Chew, Germaine, Su Mei, Amanda, Qin Yao, Liyana, Farouq, Amira, Asiah, DaWei, Wei Na, Tu, Monique, KuChai, Su Yan, Ee Jen, Victoria, Geok Lin and finally Kelvin! Not forgetting myself too.

I guess in a way it was memorable because it was Kelvin's farewell, the guy whom seems to know everyone and also my good buddy.

This year will be pretty different, I have to say, without Kelvin around. Our lives revolves a lot around each other indirectly and also directly. To just mention a few, we joined clubs together, study together, manage Kenjisan Investments together, play poker together, drink and hang out together, and last but not least his house is like the place I always go to if I wanted to stay over in the city at night.

Thanks for being a great friend, and I am sure that our friendship has a long way more to go.

Cheers for it to last forever!

More good news flowing part 2

Yesterday night was one of the most exciting nights ever. My CFA results finally got released at 1am in the morning.

I was, of course, highly excited at this news. To be honest, I couldn't really sleep the whole night.

I actually planned to wake up at 6am and check results, but then when half-asleep I realised it was 1am, I woke up, turned on all the lights, turned on my computer and started checking for results. Alas, the servers were too busy and I went back to lie on the bed half-asleep.

Sometime around 4am, I woke up again too excited for my results, and checked results again. Finally, I could access it!

And I found out that I passed! Hallelujah!

This is the best news ever, all that hard work studying throughout the semester, all the sacrifices I had to make for CFA, it was all worth it with this pass.

I really, really thank God for such a wonderful experience. I found out that, in times of real need, we all turn to God.

CFA has been a wonderful experience, and I am confident it will be so in the future as well. This was just level 1, and I still have level 2 and level 3 to go.

Yea!

More good news flowing

More good news seems to be flowing to me this month and last. Thanks be to God.

Last morning, I just opened up my uni email to have a check whilst I was at work. My eyes opened wide when I saw the title "Scholarship Offer".

Opening the email, I got the great news that I have been offered a Commerce Honours Scholarship offer worth $5000, paid in two instalments in May and October.

That is just great news!

It is actually my first scholarship ever, period.

So you can imagine how happy I was. The first person I actually told was someone at work just because I saw him first. But after that I started telling a few of my good friends, and promised them that a treat would be on me!

Who wouldn't be happy at such news?

Who wouldn't be happy at such a string of news? First I got 2 subject prize awards which gave me money, and now suddenly more money.

Previously I was worried that I could not manage to pay off all my uni fees on my own and might need to ask Dad for some help. But this time around, I managed to do it!

And then later on in the same day, I got the news that I had been offered an interview for a tutoring position for the subject Corporate Finance, the subject at which I got one of the subject prizes for.

Does good news come this often? I seriously doubt so. It was probably because of God's gift and what we sow, we reap in later periods.

I have not expected this, and would not change my expectations in the future.

At least, for now, I am glad. =)

A very surprising award

Today I opened yet another mail from university...

Surprise surprise.

I got another subject prize!!

I am very happy with that, however, this time I am sharing the subject prize with 4 other people.

Not that I mind, because I got the membership for the Economic Society of Australia as a result! This is for the subject Macroeconomics. =)

I cannot believe that God has blessed me so much! 2 subject prizes in a semester is something I have NOT dreamt of.

Can the future be better than this?

We shall see.

At the present, I really thank God for all His blessing onto me. I feel that all good things come from Him.

Australian Open 2010

Today I woke up with a call by Kelvin at 8am and he was asking me if I wanted to go watch the Aust Open exhibition charity match for only 10 bucks. I was so sleepy, and I just told him an immediate no and later hung off the phone.

5 mins later my brain was working again, and I quickly came to my senses, called him back and off we went to the Aust Open exhibition match!



It was an exciting event for all of us, Kelvin also managed to invite a lot of people as well. I did my bit as well and managed to invite Li Hong and her friend along. I think this was an event nobody should miss!

It was a long queue outside but we finally managed to get inside the Rod Laver Arena after a wait that didn't seem that long, but actually took quite long. It was because we had so many lovely friends whom we could just chat with and time would really fly.

Inside the Rod Laver Arena, we watched as 16,000 people filled the stadium and we waited excitingly for all the star players to come.



The star players that came to the event were people like Nadal, Federer, Hewitt, Roddick, Serena Williams, Djokavic (I hope I got his name right!) and a few others whom were pros but I didnt know their names!

The whole event itself was quite funny, as they tried to put on a tennis show for us and entertain us with their matches (which was real of course), but every tennis pro was given a microphone next to their mouth and they could chat to each other and the whole audience could hear them. Some of them have a really good sense of humour and managed to crack up many jokes.

The crowd and us were enjoying it alot!

The matches were soon underway, and we managed to see some real pro tennis shots. It was amazing really, as Nadal managed to one time serve up to 200 km per hour, which I reckon is really fast!



We also got to see a lot of Federer's awesome moves and why he is the greatest tennis player yet.

All of them were really fit and fast on their feet and just knew what to do at the right time.



Overall, the experience was wonderful and I had a great Sunday out!

The whole event lasted just a little over 1 hour and 30 minutes. Too bad it didn't last longer like a real tennis event.

All this just for 10 bucks, it was the best 10 bucks I ever spent! Looking forward to more bargains like this in the future. Have to thank Kelvin for this.