1 + 1 = 10

New things

2011-07-17T20:15:00.000+12:00

Has been a while since I last blogged and a lot has happen in the 1.5 years or so since. Have been trying to look for a job in New Zealand for 2 years plus since I graduated but found none. Didn't help that I came out around the time of the economic downturn. It got to the point where it looked like I had to come back to Malaysia to find a job. My brother had even helped to pass my resume to the sister of one of his friends who works in a media agency to see if she knew anyone who is looking for someone.By God's grace, around mid-October last year, she mentioned to my brother that she was looking for someone and a skype interview was arranged as I was still in New Zealand at that point. About a couple of days or so later, I was offered a job which I accepted. By this point, my dad had already accepted a job offer from a Malaysian company that would see him and my mum move to Papua New Guinea.

However, things didn't work out the way both sides had hoped for. I realised that the media world isn't for me as it required someone who is more extrovert while I was more of an introvert. In April, after a discussion with my manager, I then decided that I would leave at the end of my six months probation period which ended at the end of May. I then started looking for vacancies at market research companies where my background in statistics would be more suited to.

A few days after my last day, my mum arrived back in Malaysia for my brother's wedding in mid-June with my dad arriving back about a couple of weeks later. During a visit to my mum's cousin's place with my mum, we were talking about how I was looking for a job and had applied to some market research agencies. My aunt then asked me which one as she has a friend that knows someone in a couple of agencies. When I mentioned that one of those that I had applied to was Synovate, she said that it was one of the companies that her friend has contact in. About a 2-2.5 weeks after giving my aunt my details, I got a call from Synovate to arrange for an interview and one week after the interview, I was offered the job.

I am truly grateful to God for the doors that he has opened for me and my family over the past few years. I believe that although my first job wasn't the right one for me, it was something that came from God as I believe that He was trying to teach me things that would benefit me in my future jobs. I also believe that God had opened a door for my dad to get a job as he was also looking for a job. God had also provided me with a place to stay upon my return to Malaysia in the form of an offer from my uncle to use one of the spare rooms in his apartment.

God again extended his favour upon me when my mum was helping me look for a place to rent in the newspapers. Having seen a one bedroom apartment near one of my aunt's place in USJ 19, my mum then saw an ad for a studio room in Bangsar for RM 850. The one bedroom apartment in USJ 19 was unfurnished and quite nice but the thought of going through the jam everyday to get to and from work in Midvalley was not very appealing to me. My mum and I then decided to have a look at the room in Bangsar. In the morning that we went to see the room, we got news that the one bedroom apartment had been taken. In hindsight, we went to see the room in Bangsar with a somewhat desperate mindset as my mum was due to leave in about 2.5-3 weeks at that point and I was about to start work and therefore no time to see other places. The room also happened to be near to my workplace. When we saw the place initially, everything looked good and it was fully furnished although there were certain things we didn't quite like. Nevertheless, the agent said that he will arrange for things to be fixed if we decide to take the place. We had also managed to negotiate for the rent to be reduced to RM 800 which was exactly what my budget was. Later that day, we decided to call the agent to arrange to pay a deposit for the place. However, upon closer inspection when we went to the place again to sign the agreement, we found out that things were a little worse off then when we first saw the place. At that point however, we couldn't really back out as we had already paid one month's deposit and we didn't want to lose it. Also, time was running out to find another place that would fit my budget. Having said that, after a little bit of work, the place looks a bit better although I would most likely move on upon the expiry of my one year tenancy agreement.

That's all I have to update for now. Will try to update again in the very near future and not wait for another 1.5 years again

Parachute Music Festival 2010

2010-02-01T18:59:00.003+13:00

Just came back from Parachute and I have to say that it has been an awesome
experience. Someone from church decided to organise a big group of over 50 people to head down to the festival since it would give us a cheaper price.

The festival was held in Mystery Creek, Hamilton from 29th Jan until 1st Feb, which happens to be Auckland Anniversary weekend. Amongst the bands that were playing included Rapture Ruckus, Family Force 5, Hillsongs United, Leeland and Parachute Band.

Perhaps the best day was Sunday when it was raining pretty much the whole day yet everyone was out in the mosh pit to listen to Leeland and Hillsongs United. No one was bothered that it was pouring whilst these 2 bands were playing.

Ski trip

2009-09-04T22:22:00.002+12:00

Just came back from a ski trip with some ex-ocf'ers....it was a very good trip....left auckland for ohakune on wednesday morning....weather was very good on thursday when we were on the mountains...although it was cold, the snow was fluffy and everyone had fun....praise the Lord that no one suffered major injuries - only some minor bruises from falling.....

headed to rotorua this morning....most of us when for a polynesian spa which was very relaxing...spent about 2-3 hours at the spa before we left for auckland...the trip this time round was very relaxing as we were not rushing to get anywhere at any time....we just took our own time going from one place to another.....

So far.....

2009-09-02T01:17:00.003+12:00

It has been about 6 weeks now since I started working at Starbucks....the pay is much better then M'sia and I'm working with quite a nice bunch of people....standards have - perhaps inevitably - changed since I left Starbucks 3+ years ago, which means that I have to adapt to the new standards but that isn't 2 hard since I do know and remember the basics.....

New job

2009-07-21T21:11:00.002+12:00

started my new job at starbucks today....

Graduation pictures

2008-11-12T02:02:00.003+13:00

I've finally gotten round to posting my graduation pictures....

Me on the red carpet

Me during the march from the university chapel to the city's town hall

My graduation bear and degree

Big day

2008-09-24T18:01:00.002+12:00

tomorrow is the big day...my convocation will be in the afternoon, with a procession to start off the day....will try to post some pictures of the big day some time tomorrow or the day after

Woohooo

2008-07-12T16:21:00.002+12:00

My results are finally out and I relatively well...got a B and an A-....that means that I'll finally be graduating in the third week of September....

On another note, I got a new toy in the form of a Dell XPS M1530....

It's finally over....

2008-06-25T16:10:00.000+12:00

I've sat for and finished what should be my final undergrad exam paper about 4 hours ago....Results will start to come out in about 15 days time but I don't expect my results to be out for around 2 and half to 3 weeks time....More on this to come.....

Random ramblings....

2008-06-06T23:45:00.000+12:00

With petrol subsidies in M'sia now gone, the price of petrol has now gone up to RM2.70...Even with the government promising a reduction in road taxes to help negate the rise in fuel prices somewhat, I think that there will still be people who will complain about it....

My exams is coming up on the 23rd and 25th of this month and on the 30th, I'll be heading back to M'sia for about 3 and a half weeks...Leave a comment if you want to meet up and I'll text you when I get my M'sian number....

On a side note, I forgot to mention this in my previous post but when I was in Sydney for the conference with my youth, I got myself an iPod 160GB black...Because I was a tourist, I manage to get a refund on the GST for the iPod and what I paid after the refund was cheaper then either NZ or M'sia....

Sydney trip

2008-04-29T15:51:00.001+12:00

Just got back from a week long trip in Sydney on Sat....was there for a CCC youth conference and it was a superb conference....one of my favourite speakers at the conference was Pr. Judah Smith....if you haven't heard him speak, you should not pass up an opportunity to hear him speak...he's one heck of a speaker.....his session spoke very powerfully for me and i believe it was the same for every youth at his sessions....

also, we had an hour long session of just praise and worship, led by Delirious?....that session was also a very nice session as it was just an hour of praising and worshipping God....

outside the conference, i did quite a lot of outdoor stuff with the youth group of my church who also went for the conference....we did lots of walking, some shopping, jet boating and wave crashing at Manly beach amongst others...we were also at the Hillsongs church service on the Sunday night after we arrived....i have to admit, their setup is superb....their main auditorium is huge, they have superb audio/visual setup and best of all, they actually conduct a live feed to their city campus for updates as well as updating them on whats happening at each campus....but the sad part is that i think i might have misplaced my camera there cause i couldn't find it the next morning....have called them twice during the week but they said that no one has handed in a camera to the lost and found...

Orange sky

2008-04-01T23:03:00.000+13:00

2 papers, 6 hours/week of lectures.....

2008-02-27T16:12:00.000+13:00

......and yet my timetable 4 my upcoming semester is not quite to my liking....i get a day off but it's a thursday and i don't really like it...doesn't help that i only have 1 hour of lecture on fri before my i'm off again...

also, i've got 2 days where my lecture starts at 8 in the morning and my brain doesn't function to well at that sort of time in the morning... wednesdays is the worse day in my week 'cause i have 3 hours straight of classes starting at 8 in the morning....will be needing a lot of caffeine to get through those mornings....

the good thing about my timetable though, is that, i only have one 1-hour lectures on the other three days that i'm in uni and the latest that i finish on any given day is 11 a.m....that leaves me free for the rest of the day to do assignments and whatever other things that needs to be done....

Holidays are almost over

2008-02-25T20:19:00.002+13:00

It's been about 6 weeks now since I arrived back in Malaysia for hols...will be heading back to NZ in just a few days...time really does fly....doesn't feel like 6 weeks have gone by since stepping of the plane last month...

won't have much rest once i arrive back since uni starts the monday i arrive back...at least i only have one class that day, although it starts at 8 in the morning....

the trip back has been a good one for me as i got to eat malaysian food which can't be found in auckland like pan mee and wan tan mee...one thing i haven't managed to eat is durian...that was one thing which i was really looking forward to eating during this trip back....looks like i'll have to wait until my next trip back to enjoy durian...

on a separate issue altogether, the 12 Malaysian General Elections(GE) is just round the corner....in fact, today is the nomination day for the candidates of the state and parliamentary seats with the polling day set for 8th March...BN looks certain to win the elections again but the big question now is, can the opposition deny them the two-thirds majority?i think the opposition will do better this time round compared to the last GE considering what has happen in the last few months but i'm not sure if they are able to deny BN the two-thirds majority....it may just be what the country needs if BN loses their two-thirds majority....

M'sian trip

2008-02-12T18:49:00.000+13:00

Have been back on holiday in Malaysia for about a month now...will be heading back to Auckland in about 2 and a half weeks time...

It has been a good trip back...manage to catch up with friends and celebrate CNY...

i'm looking forward to heading back to auckland to get my final 2 uni papers done...if i get get through this 2 papers, i should be graduating in september....

Sydney trip pics

2008-01-11T22:45:00.000+13:00

This are the some of the pictures which I took while I was in Sydney over Christmas...

Sydney Harbour Bridge as viewed from below. I took it while we were on a cruise around the area.

Sydney Harbour Bridge taken from the same cruise.

Sydney Opera House whilst on the cruise.

The three pictures above were taken at Bondi Beach, which is approximately 20-25 minutes, first by bus, then by train from the CBD.

The city of Sydney as seen whilst the plane is taking off.

The airbrakes and spoilers of the Boeing 767-200ER doing it's job upon arrival in Auckland.

My parents and I arrived in Sydney on the 22nd of Dec while my brother only arrived on the 24th. We were staying in a service apartment right in the CBD itself which is quite conveneient since there was train stations within walking distances. The best part of it is that the train system in Sydney goes to the suburbs which makes it easy for my family to meet up with my parent's friends who stays in the suburbs. All in all, it was an interesting trip although I find the city suprisingly lacking in rubbish bins. I was expecting that, being a city in a western country, this sort of things would be everywhere.

Sydney trip

2007-12-31T22:11:00.000+13:00

As the title suggests, I was in Sydney recently with my family...arrived on the 22nd of Dec and arrived back in Auckland yesterday evening...the trip was a good one but the weather was colder then what I was expecting...I took some pictures which I'll upload in the next few days...

I'll be back on the plane again in 2 weeks as I head back to M'sia for the first time in 22 months...will be looking forward to the trip and catching up with friends...the only thing which I'm not looking forward to on the trip is the humidity....

Before I go, Happy New Year to whoever is reading this post and may God bless you

First Time

2007-12-05T02:19:00.000+13:00

One of my favourite songs...first time by lifehouse....

Ski trip pics

2007-11-15T20:31:00.000+13:00

here are some of the long overdue pics from my ski trip with the Auckland OCF in August....

on the way up the mountain

part of the group taking a rest

chairlifts going up the ski fields

part of the ski field

another angle on the ski field

taken while on the chair lift

at the restaurant on our final night

me and a fellow ocf'er

me and the ocf'ers from the same table

group picture of the ocf'ers on the ski trip

F1 musical chairs..

2007-11-03T16:41:00.000+13:00

With news that Alonso and McLaren have officially parted ways, the game of musical chairs between drivers and teams is about to start. Which team has the budget to bring Alonso aboard? Which driver will McLaren pair up with "boy wonder" Lewis Hamilton? Will Ralf Schumacher stay in F1? All this questions and more would be unravelled in the coming weeks as teams try to finalise their driver line-ups ahead of the winter testing at the end of the year.

I'm personally quite interested as to where Alonso actually ends up. With Ferrari's driver line-up for next year settled - i don't see either Raikonnen or Massa moving next year, there are only 2 or 3 teams at the most that can afford Alonso's wages and match his ambitions of challenging for the driver's title. I think the teams are Renault, BMW-Sauber and Toyota. BMW-Sauber might have a chance of helping him challenge for the driver's title given their performance this year but Alonso's wage demands might stretch their budget. The situation with Toyota, I think, is the reverse of BMW-Sauber. They might be able to afford Alonso's wages but I don't think they can match his title ambitions. That leaves him with Renault, his former team. The big question is, does Renault want him back?

new laptop...

2007-10-15T14:16:00.000+13:00

my house was broken into about a week and half ago and lost quite a number of stuff....my mum lost some jewelery and sunglass while i lost my laptop, external HD, sunglass, camera and iPod amongst others....but today i finally received my new dell inspiron 1720.....
on another note, this week is the final week of the semester before exams begin....so i'll prob not update that much until after my final paper....

p.s: since the photos which i took from my ski trip was stored on my laptop, which got stolen, i won't be able to post up any of those pics....will try 2 get some pics from other ppl 2 post...

Home

2007-09-12T22:13:00.000+12:00

My flight back to M'sia was confirmed just now....will be leaving auckland on 14th Jan and departing KL on 29th Feb.....i can still change departure date for free as i've only paid the deposit so far but i'll probably stick with that.....will definitely catch up with friends over mamak during my time back....

p/s: was up on the mountains skiing last week. will post pics and elaborate further once i get more pics from other camera's

pics of new place

2007-08-30T14:58:00.000+12:00

front view of the house

Kitchen from 2 different angles

garden

my bedroom
my toilet

back on broadband...

2007-08-24T18:01:00.000+12:00

i'm finally back on broadband after 3 months on dial-up.....will upload pics of my new place within the next few days....

Final stretch

2007-08-06T09:57:00.000+12:00

i'm now in my final semester before i go into the working world and i have to say that i do have mixed emotions about that...on one hand, i can't wait for the opportunity to go out and work whilst enjoying the benefits such as making new friends, getting paid, etc... but on the other hand, i would like to stay back in uni where i don't face as much stress as i might face in the working world.... problem is though, i have no idea what i want to do yet.... haven't figured what i'll like to do once i graduate.... i do know what opportunities there are with my major, it's just that i really have no idea as to what i would want to do..... if there is an opening related to sports - perhaps more specifically soccer and/or F1 - i would perhaps give it a go but other then that, i'm clueless at the moment as to which job sector i'll want to go into.....

dial-up sucks...

2007-07-05T09:54:00.001+12:00

as the title suggests, dial-up speeds suck....hence the lack of updates.......i'm actually updating from starbucks where there is free wireless.....

uni starts again in about a week and a half and this will be my final semester if everything goes well...results for 3 of my 4 papers are out and i feel i did ok.... got 2 b's and 1 b+...the one paper which i haven't got the result, unfortunately, is the pre-requisite for 2 other papers i'm planning to take next semester.....also, that one paper is the one which i'm most worried about....

on another matter all together, Ferrari has confirmed that they are looking to pursue a legal action against former engineer nigel stepney concerning theft of technical information....and to add a twist to the story, he is alleged to have passed the information to an unnamed McLaren-Mercedes engineer which McLaren has confirmed....McLaren has since issued a second statement denying that their car contains any Ferrari elements....hardly surprising, this issue has been referred to the FIA...in the world of F1 where every small bit of technological improvement is vital in making a car even one-thousand of a second faster then your rival car, it will be interesting to see what comes out of this case and the FIA decision, should there be a need for them to make one....

p/s: i've just found out that i passed my fourth and final paper....that would allow me to enroll my remaining 2 papers for next semester...

updates.....

2007-06-18T12:36:00.000+12:00

haven't been updating much recently since i'm only on dial-up at the moment at home....anyway, i'm blogging this from starbucks....exams are going well...just finished my 3rd exam paper about an hour ago and my final paper is on thursday, then i'm on holiday until the 16th on july...

settling in to my new place quite well...hope to get some pictures up soon but since some of the curtains are only going up on wednesday, i'll prob only post the pics some time after this week.... good news is that me and my parents have got our pr about a month ago, which means that for next semester, i'm considered a local student and not an international student....that translates into much much cheaper fees for my dad to pay, about NZD5000 - 6000 compared to ~NZD21500....it also means that once i graduate, it'll be easier for me to get a job here as i don't need a work permit.....

thats all for now...will update more hopefully after my final paper this thurday...

dial-up

2007-06-10T21:17:00.000+12:00

my new place doesn't have the broadband infrastructure yet and probably won't have it for another 4-5 months more....so i'm stuck with dial-up internet until the infrastructure is up...will try to upload some pictures of my new place soon.....

New house....

2007-05-17T11:10:00.000+12:00

Over the next few days, my whole family will be having a headache as we move into our new house ...will be moving the small things tomorrow while professional movers will be moving the big things like tables, beds, etc on saturday.....phone and Sky(NZ's equivalent of Astro) will only be fixed on monday meaning that I won't be able to watch the F.A Cup live :-(.....since there is no 24-hr mamak here, i'm not sure if i can watch the game although my dad did say that i could go to his office to watch since they have Sky....

back 2 uni....

2007-04-24T12:09:00.000+12:00

it's my 2nd day back to uni and i've already sat for 2 mid-term test and 2 assignments on hand.... my 1st test was not too hard but was a little harder then expected.... my 2nd test on the other hand, was relatively easy for me..... there were 3 questions only and i finished in 30 minutes.... it was easier then i expected... another test on friday to come....

Easter break: part III

2007-04-20T16:10:00.001+12:00

this are some more of the pictures taken when i was in cape reinga during the easter weekend...

the picture of the lighthouse at cape reinga....

two different angles of the sign posts at the lighthouse...

view of the lighthouse from afar.... pacific ocean is on the right and the tasman sea is on the right

one of the sane dunes on the way back from cape reinga

ppl doing sand tobogganing...

easter holiday: part II

2007-04-09T23:30:00.000+12:00

these are some of the pictures taken from the easter trip.....

remains of some kauri tree's

what you see in the background is the sea itself... then a small strip of the beach... in the foreground is freshwater as a result of the heavy rain - see previous post for more details - or so says the bus driver....

very fine white sand from the same beach....

all three pictures were taken from the beach where we had our lunch... the beach is approximately 15-20 minutes from cape reinga.... as you can see, the beaches in NZ are very clean and the water is quite clear....

more pictures to come soon....

easter holiday: part I

2007-04-09T18:46:00.001+12:00

Since NZ had Good Friday and monday off, my parents and I went on a trip to Paihia.... we left on friday morning and arrived in Paihia around 11.30... after taking a short rest, we walked around the city and decided to take a day trip to Cape Reinga, 2nd only to Surville Cliffs as New Zealand's northernmost point, on Saturday.... the trip was quite good as the bus driver actually explained various things along the way... we also stopped over at various places along the way as the driver gave us chances to take pictures of the scenery... on the way back, we went via 90 Mile Beach where the bus actually drove on the beach itself.... as a whole, the trip was a memorable one and one which definitely helped to release some of the stress of the previous week.... photos will be coming up soon....

p/s: what made it much better was that only about a week and a half or so ago, there was heavy rain in the region - about 200mm of rain if i remember correctly... lots of places were flooded with some places affected quite badly... praise God when we were there, the weather was very good....

Easter break

2007-04-05T23:28:00.001+12:00

the 2-week mid-sem/easter break has finally come....but the last week has been a very tiring week for me....i had 3 assignments due in 2day and another due tomorrow.....i have 3 tests the week i head back to uni.....

finally.....

2007-03-29T19:10:00.000+12:00

finally england have managed to win their 1st international game in 4 attempts....in fact, finally they have managed to score more then once in 5 international games.... given the caliber of the english players and their club form, those statistics definitely was shocking....it took a brace from gerrard and a goal from the debutant, david nugent - all 3 goals coming in the 2nd half - to seal a 3-0 win and avoid a potentially embarrassing draw against minnows, Andorra...this is the same team that they managed to beat 5-0 months ago - the last time in fact, they got more then 1 goal in a game....

on another note, raikonnen has done well for ferrari in the 2 sessions is assigned too for the F1 testing session in Sepang....massa will take over testing duties tomorrow... kubica did pretty well, i felt, in the BMW....he went fastest on the 1st day and 5th fastest on the 2nd day.....also, bridgestone is testing a new marking on tyres to make it easier for spectators to differentiate between the 2 sets that each car has to used over the course of the race....

Aussie GP review

2007-03-20T18:26:00.000+12:00

The Aussie GP was a boring race as far as action is concerned - at least that's what i think....there were no major accidents that needed the safety car to come out...that meant that raikkonnen was able to cruise to a comfortable 7 second win over alonso... the only big accident of the race happened when coulthard attempted to overtake wurz but only managed to 'fly' right across wurz....

the super aguri's were disappointing given their qualifying positions.....having started the race in 10th and 11th, they ended the race in 12th and 16th....another team that disappointed me was Honda...after their performance last year, i was expecting a similar sort of performance from them, but that didn't come...

however, the bmw team, i think, did quite well as both cars were on course for a top 5 finish before a gearbox problem for kubica meant that only heidfield scored points for the team...he managed to finished in 4th place ahead of cars like renault and the ferrari of felipe massa....

overall, i think ferrari would be favourites to lift both titles but they would face stiff competition from mclaren on both fronts....bmw could challenge renault for the 'best of the rest title' but i think that it would come down to reliability for them....i don't see any other team except spyker finishing in last place.....as for the rest of the places in between, i think it's still early to call....

Red devils run riot.....

2007-03-18T11:57:00.000+12:00

after watching the MU - Bolton game, i have to say that it was one of MU's best game in the last month and a half or so....they totally outclassed Bolton and looked to be back at their best as they rarely had to move out of 2nd or 3rd gear in the 4 - 1 win with Rooney and Park Ji-Sung both getting a brace....there were quite a lot of positives that MU can take out of this match...

Rooney seems to be back on form, netting 3 goals in the last 2 games....Ronaldo had a very good game, creating the first 3 goals, including a superb counter-attack with Rooney that resulted in Rooney scoring his first of 2 fantastic goals on the night... what's even better is that both players seems to have put aside any bad feelings from the World Cup aside as Ronaldo made full use of the space Bolton allowed him to terrorise their defence.....also, alan smith's return to action without any major problems is certainly going to be a major boost for Sir Alex as MU heads into the next few games with only one fully fit striker in Rooney....

the victory mood however, was somewhat dampened when gary neville was forced off with only 10 minutes on the clock with an ankle injury that will rule him out of action for the next 3 weeks...this is definitely an injury MU could do without as they head into the crucial part of the season....

as MU plays Middlesborough in the FA cup replay at OT on monday, i certainly hope they can maintain the same sort of performance to keep the treble dreams alive...

F1 preview...

2007-03-17T19:31:00.000+13:00

the first qualifying round for F1 for this year has ended and there has been some surprises thrown up already.....to start up my predictions for this race and for the season ahead, i'll start with what's not surprising....

alonso is on the front row, although in a mclaren and alongside him in pole position is a ferrari of raikkonen....given the pre-season test results, i am not surprised to see that the first row is a what it is....in fact, i am predicting both teams to battle for the constructors title.....another result which wasn't surprising is that spyker is propping up the qualifying times.....i don't think that they will score points this season although they're running ferrari engines....

but one of the huge suprise of the qualifying sessions is that super aguri has qualified in 10th and 11th position....considering they almost always finished last or DNF last season, i certainly am surprised they actually qualified this high.....if they can do well in the race itself, i think they may have an outside chance of pulling a couple more surprises as the season progresses...also somewhat of a surprise is bmw-sauber's qualification....they have managed to out-qualify some of the more fancied teams like renault and toyota....another surprise is webber bringing the red bull car to 7th on the grid.....considering they didn't do well last season, it is surprising to see one of their cars this high.....

as for my predictions for the australian gp, i think it will be a close fight between raikonnen and alonso....could come down to pit stop strategy.....wouldn't rule out hamilton who's in a good position and massa though....both have fast cars with pre-season timing to back it up......but i think massa could just edge out hamilton for 3rd place as he has more experience......

over the course of the season, i see ferrari and mclaren battling out for the constructors title with the main man in both teams - namely raikonnen and alonso - battling out for the driver's title.....i think massa will get 3rd place and perhaps and outside chance at 2nd if he races well this season and alonso falters at some point - assuming that the ferrari doesn't run into mechanical problem......i'm not sure if hamilton has enough to secure 4th place due to is inexperience.....i think he may finish in 5th with fischicella probably finishing in 4th....but i wouldn't be surprised if, button can finish around 4th or 5th in table come the end of the season if he can get some good results over the course of the season.....

more to come once the aussie gp is over.....the review of the race plus updated predictions on how the season will progress....

NB: the predictions above are just my views. i hold no responsibilities if you decide to take my predictions seriously.

uni life....

2007-03-14T21:32:00.000+13:00

i'm into my 3rd week of my 3rd year of uni and so far is going fairly well.... i've got the first assignments of all my subjects and 2 are due this friday while the next 2 due next thursday....the assignments are not to hard at this stage but still challenging....torture is starting.....

that's about all for now....hopefully after the opening round of F1 in Melbourne this weekend, i'll do a round-up of the race and my prediction for the rest of the F1 season....

That time again.....

2007-02-23T15:36:00.000+13:00

it's the time of the year when 'torture' starts again.....classes start again on monday....summer school results are out and i got A- for both papers i took....i'm quite happy with the results although i was expecting a slightly better grade for one of my papers.....but nonetheless, it's quite good.....

more to come when classes have started....

End of summer school....

2007-02-14T22:14:00.000+13:00

had my only exam paper for summer school earlier this evening......it was a little harder then expected but overall, it wasn't too bad....will have approximately 1 and a half weeks break before i start the new semester on feb 26.....hopefully the results go my way.....

on another note, my parents have bought a house already....signed on the dotted line about two weeks or so back.....house is not quite complete yet but should be ready to move in sometime in mid-april to early may.....house is built by a company called fyfe homes, which is a subsidiary of fletcher buildings, and is quite reputable in NZ....there are quite a number of other house in the area that is in various stages of construction - there are already a few houses which are completed and people have already moved in.....fyfe's 2 sister company's are also building some of the houses...

the house itself has four rooms and 3.5 bathrooms with the master and another room having ensuite bathroom....the lounge also comes with a gas fireplace and is quite spacious as is the dining.....overall, i like the house especially since i'll be taking the room with the ensuite bathroom....what's more, i'll also be getting a view of the quarry which is much better then facing the main road....

to anybody reading this who is celebrating valentine's day, happy valentine's day.....and to those who are in the same category as me - that is no "special one" to celebrate this day with - there will always be someone out there waiting for us.....and one day, we too would be able to celebrate together.....

that's all for now.......

Shake up at Ferrari....

2007-01-19T00:40:00.000+13:00

After Schumacher's announcement that he'll be retiring at the end of last season and that there'll be a shake up in the team....a few days ago, those new team roles were announced on the f1 website....Jean Todt, who has taken up the CEO, wil continue to attend races although not necessarily for the entire race weekend.....Stefano Domenicali will now be taking over Todt's role of overseeing the team over the race weekend....Ross Brawn's role as technical director has now been taken over by Mario Almondo...he would only be attending races if and only if his presence at the track is required, prefering to concentrate on his technical role at the factory...Brawn's trackside role will instead be handed over to Luca Baldisseri......MS on the other hand, will be giving regular technical input into the development program although not necessarily attending the test itself....the reason given is that he would be able to intepret the feelings of a driver.....

With the new roles within the team cleared up, how will the team perform?Would Raikonnen do as well as Schumacher since the 'force' behind his dominance has since moved on?Will Raikonnen be the dominant driver at Ferrari as Schuey was or would Raikonnen and Massa start on level footing?Could the changes help Ferrari regain both titles back from Renault? or will Alonso keep the driver's title for himself and help McLaren to an unlikely Constructor's Championship? I doubt that either McLaren or Alonso will get either title based in their performance last season...As for Renault, they may have a shot at retaining the Constructor's title but the fight will definitely go down to the wire....I feel that Ferrari and Raikonnen could get the Driver's title considering how strong Ferrari were last season.....I can't wait for the new season to start and see how Raikonnen, Alonso and Fisichella performs for their respective teams considering that the three of them are unofficially their team's no1 driver and 2 of them are in new teams......

On another note, summer school is going fairly well......workload is as expected of summer school subjects....would be having two test next week - one is a mid-sem test while the other is the 2nd test out of 3......the mid-sem test is for stats 301 while the 2nd test for phil 101 will be worth 30%....considering that phil 101 marks will depend wholly on how well or badly we do in our 3 tests, i would have to do well in my 2nd test to mantain my chance of getting at least an A for the paper......the stats test will be worth 20% with assignments covering the same amount and remaining coming from the final exam.....

i guess that's all for now.....will hopefully put up a post towards the end of next week....

1st post of the year......

2007-01-09T00:00:00.000+13:00

finally got round to posting my 1st post of the year.....i'm now three days into summer school which is not to bad so far but then again, it will prob get more intensive as the summer school goes on.... taking 2 papers in summer school, a 3rd year stats paper - statistical programming and modelling using SAS - and a 1st year philosophy paper - intro to logic.....both papers are farely interesting at this early stage.....

below are some pics taken on my phone during the new years day countdown in auckland....the fireworks was from sky city......

in the last picture, as the smoke is clearing, more fireworks when off......

p/s: i know the picture quality is not very good but since it's a camera phone, i won't be able to get very good quality pics.....

after christmas

2006-12-29T18:14:00.000+13:00

just came back from my trip to Mt Manganui with my family....spent 2 nights there and stopped over at coromandel on the way back.....will hopefully post some of the pics up soon....

in just under a week, i'll be starting my summer school.....next thursday, jan 4th, to be exact......will be taking 2 subjects.....how often will i be blogging then??i don't know as there will be a high workload in summer school.....

Dec updates so far.....

2006-12-15T19:21:00.000+13:00

it's mid dec now and 9 months since i've been in NZ......i've had 1 month of hols so far but it's about to end shortly - well sort of - as i'll be doing summer school come Jan.......

but b4 that happens, my aunt and my mum's aunt will b coming over to NZ 4 holidays - arriving this Sun 4 2 weeks.....then, on Christmas day itself, my bro will b arriving 4 1 week, altho he is on waiting list 4 a flight the day b4.........on the 27th, we'll b heading to bay of plenty 4 2 days.......will post some pics if i can......

as far as a part time job is concern, i may or may not get one but if i do, i'll b heading back 2 Starbucks.....

more to come soon hopefully......

Latest addition to my family......

2006-11-22T23:35:00.000+13:00

That's right....above are the pics of my niece born on the 21st of november 2006 to my cousin....

holidays so far

2006-11-20T16:55:00.000+13:00

I'm 10 days into my holidays and things have been going great.....haven't managed to find work yet....may go to places like borders, whitcoulls, or rebel sports and see if they have vacancies if i don't hear anything from the recruitment agency by end of this week.....i do have starbucks to fall upon as a backup plan if i really have to....would prefer not to use that option unless i have to as i would prefer a change of enviroment...but since i do have experience, i know that if i do go back to starbucks, it wouldn't be too hard although i may be a little rusty since i have been out for about 10 months now....

on a somewhat funny note, i saw on t.v that juan pablo montoya's NASCAR debut came to a fiery end - quite literally - when his car got clipped and the back part of his car burst into flames....he did, however, get out of the car unhurt.....

exams r over.....

2006-11-10T18:39:00.000+13:00

wooohooooo...........exams of my first semester in UoA are finally over.....last paper was yesterday afternoon....will be on a break until the 26th of feb next year when i start my final year of undergrad(assuming that i don't have to do summer school next year).....

will start looking for a part-time job sometime next week....not exactly sure what i'll want to do yet but may go to a recruitment agency and check if they have any part-time jobs involving data entry....my mum's friend's daughter when to this recruitment agency and they found her a temp job doing data entry with the auckland regional council and the pay is quite good....can't remember off hand how much the pay was but it's quite good and she only works 5 days a week....and the best thing is that she gets to leave early if she has finished her work and she still gets paid for working the full 8 hours.....

on another note, it has also been a happy week for me as MU won 3 - 0 at home against one of this season's high flyers, Portsmouth, while Chelsea lost 2 - 1 to Tottenham and their captain, John Terry, sent off.....that gives MU a 3 point advantage which is good news as both teams will clash at the Theater of Dreams on the 26th of October....combined with a much more superior goal difference, it means that should both teams win their next two teams, MU will remain top irrespective of what happens in that match.....having said that, MU next play Blackburn Rovers away and MU hasn't done well against them in recent seasons....but i'm hoping that if they can keep their recent Premiership form going, they should have no problems in disposing of Blackburn.....was reading on soccernet that MU are trying to negotiate a trial for Freddy Adu and if he impresses Ferguson, a deal could go through as early as January which is exciting news as Adu is a prospect for the future....and i hope MU does get him.....

more updates...

2006-11-03T16:39:00.000+13:00

More updates coming in a week's time....

Red day

2006-10-02T16:20:00.000+13:00

Yesterday was a good day for teams in red....not quite for teams in blue......Ferrari and Micheal Schumacher overturned a 25 second gap and unfavourable starting conditions to beat both Renault's to take victory at the Chinese GP and therefore take the lead in the championship by virtue of having one more win then Fernando Alonso....ironicly, MS decided to score his only points at the Chinese GP in his last race there.....but he did get a lot of help from his championship rival, Alonso....Alonso's decision to change his front tyres only at the 1st round of pit-stops while other drivers left the tyres on would backfire on him as he failed to find any pace during the 2nd stint of the race......that allowed MS to close in on him and eventually overtake both Renault drivers.....when FA came in for his 2nd pit-stop, a problem with his right wheel-nut effectively cost him the race as he lost about 7 seconds.....when Fisichella came out from the pits after his 2nd stop, a lap after MS, he came out ahead of MS but running wide on the first corner out of the pits meant that Schumacher was able to take advantage.....in the end, even a late charge by FA wasn't enough to hand MS his only win - and only points - he'll ever get at the Chinese GP, eventually finishing 3.1 seconds behind.....

Also, yesterday was a good day for ManU as 2 goals by old boy, Solskjaer, was enough to hand MU a 2-0 win and back to the top of the EPL table on goal difference ahead of Chelsea.....both winners had predominantly red colors while both 'losers' had predominantly blue.....

Some randomness

2006-09-29T22:37:00.000+12:00

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Justin!

The International Space Station weighs about 500 tons and is the same size as Justin!
Justin can grow up to three feet in a 24 hour period.
Justin is the oldest playable musical instrument in the world!
There are 336 dimples on Justin.
The liquid inside Justin can be used as a substitute for blood plasma.
Long ago, the people of Nicaragua believed that if they threw Justin into a volcano it would stop erupting!
Some people in Malaysia bathe their babies in beer to protect them from Justin.
Justin is only six percent water!
Justin never said 'Play it again, Sam'.
You should always open Justin at least an hour before drinking him!

The dawn of an era

2006-09-11T21:41:00.000+12:00

So after winning the Italian GP, in which his rival suffered yet another engine failure and therefore reducing the gap at the top to a mere 2 points, Micheal Schumacher announced what was expected of him for quite a while, retirement at the end of the season....and another rumour that has been circulating for quite a while also is that kimi raikonnen would be replacing schumacher at ferrari when he retires; that rumour is now confirmed - raikonnen will join ferrari on a 3-year contract from next year till 2009 with felipe massa as his teammate for the next 2 seasons at least after massa renewed his contract.....

The record-breaking career of one of the greatest F1 drivers is finally coming to an end....has it been perfect??certainly not....schumacher has definitely been involved in his fair share of controversies - most recently at the 2006 Monaco GP....but his commitment to the sport can't be denied....he will still be involved with F1 even beyond this year - at least that's the signal i'm getting from the ferrari camp -as the new structure at ferrari is set to be anounced at the end of the year......Jean Todt and Ross Brawn are rumoured to be stepping down at the end of the season too.....probably the reason for the management structure change to be annouced later this year....

Will he be able to end his career in a high by winning his 8th driver's title??well, we will know in approximately 6 weeks time, perhaps earlier, when the season ends....and how will raikonnen fair in the red car next year??will he get along well with massa??only time will tell....i am looking forward to the start of next year to see how the changes will affect the sport.....

mid-sem

2006-09-04T18:41:00.000+12:00

i'm am in the middle of my 2 week mid-sem break and it has been a rather interesting holiday so far....left for rotorua last sunday with my parents and spent a night there....did zorbing and a couple of other things while in rotorua....on monday morning, left rotorua and headed south towards the ski fields of mt whakapapa stopping along the way at taupo and turangi....then it was 2 solid days - on tuesday and wednesday - of skiing before heading back to auckland on thursday....the skiing trip was actually my 2nd time up to the fields since i came to auckland - the first time was in early july, just b4 i started uni....in between all those fun, i also manage to squeeze in some assignment work since i have an assignment due the day i return to uni.....

holidays....

2006-08-15T17:12:00.000+12:00

mid-sem holidays are start soon....end of next week to be more exact...can't wait since i'll be going to rotorua and mt whakapapa for skiing.....

can't believe that four weeks of uni have passed so fast n i'm now in my fifth week....it feels like i just started the sem recently......before i know it, it will prob be time for the finals......

F1...

2006-08-07T16:53:00.000+12:00

The Hungarian GP yesterday was definitely one of the most exciting races i've seen in quite a while...

button getting his first ever GP win in 113 races, button ending a losing streak for british drivers, both renaults failing to finish for the first time in over 20 races - alonso actually retiring due to some mechanical problem, schumacher getting involved in some very close battles with some of the drivers and eventually retiring with 3 laps to go, raikonnen involved in a spectacular crash, a sauber DQ'ed resulting in schumacher getting a point, heavy rain before the race forcing a change in strategy for all the teams and much more....

the action started long before the race started....heavy rains forced teams to look at a different tyre strategy with some starting on full wets while others started on intermediates....it continued right from the second the five red lights when off....massa made a poor start dropping a few places while schumacher made up seven places - from 11th to 5th - by the first corner with alonso and button also making up quite alot of places by the first corner....for schumacher, he continued his fast start by making his way up to 3rd by the end of the 2nd lap but quickly fell down the order as the bridgestone tyres were having trouble adapting to the conditions....teammate massa was also facing similiar problems as he too continued to fall down the order from his starting position of 2nd....

on the 20th lap, schumacher was forced to pit earlier then he would have wanted to when his front right wing broke, forcing him into the pits for a nose change....then in the 26th lap, alonso's chances of winning got a boost when raikonnen ran into the back of luizzi taking out both drivers and nearly taking out teammate de la rosa....the incident brought out the safety car which saw alonso's lead over button cut...as the circuit began to dry and schumacher's tyres began to wear out, he beagan to set fastest laps and closing his gap to alonso.....

then, on lap 51, alonso came in for what seemed to be a routine stop, changing from intermediate to dry tyres despite the track not being entirely dry....but as he came out of the pits, he seemed to lose control of his car slightly - seemingly due to his dry tyres not being up to it's operating temperature and hitting the wet part of the track....and a couple of corners later, after what looked like a wheel nut came flying off, he spun off into the gravel trap, which he later said was something broken in the rear...all this while, schumacher continued his charge knowing that with alonso's retirement, he had the chance to really close the gap at the top....

but as the race wore on, so did the tyres of schumacher's intermediate tyres - to the point that his tyres looked like slicks....with 4 laps to go, pedro de la rosa - standing in for juan pablo montoya - exposed the worn out intemediate's of schumacher by overtaking him after hounding him for just over a lap.....as heidfeld tried to take advantage of schumacher's tyres on the next lap, schumacher's car finally gave up as the car had to limp back to the pits to retire....

alonso, raikonnen and schumacher were not the only big names to retire....fisichella made it a day renault will want to forget as he to crashed out while mark webber and nico rosberg both made it a season williams will want to forget quickly as both cars had DNF recorded next to their name once again this season - their fourth double retirement of the season and second in a row...at least one of the williams have failed to finish in 10 of the 13 races so far, with webber failing to finish his fourth race in a row and his 9th DNF of the season.....

p/s: david, although it was a win for honda, their car does have the colour red.... :-)

Assignments......

2006-08-02T22:36:00.000+12:00

Assignments, assignments, assignments.....have a few more assignments and 1 mid-sem test to go b4 the mid-sem break at the end of the month....shortly after the break, i have another 3 mid-sem test plus more assignments to hand up....thankfully one of my 5 subjects has no assignments and another has no mid-sem test....

1st week

2006-07-21T23:14:00.000+12:00

finally finished my 1st week of classes at The Univestity of Auckland(UoA).....lectures are not to bad so far although the lecturing styles r different then in MUM .....got classes everyday and i start at 9 everyday.....the lectures here is different from MUM in the sense that the lectures start at the same time for everyday u have that particular subject (at least in my case) and although the lectures r an hour long, the lectures actually start at 5 past the hour and end at 5 to the hour....

Foursome....

2006-06-27T21:17:00.000+12:00

Got tagged by Grace....

4 movies i can watch over and over again

1) LOTR (all 3)
2) Narnia
3) X-Men (all 3)
4) Harry Potter

4 places i have lived

1) Taman Tun
2) Subang Jaya
3) Auckland, NZ
4) no where else

4 of my favourite dishes

1) pasta
2) pizza
3) mamak food
4) home cooked

4 sites i visit [as] daily [as possible]

1) GMail
2) Soccernet
3) Yahoo
4) Wikipedia

4 places i rather be now

1) my bed

can't think of anywhere else i rather be now.....

4 people i liked to tag

1) Philip Ong
2) David Khaw
3) Anyone else who reads this, consider yourself tagged.....

Shock of the '06 WC so far......

2006-06-18T15:38:00.000+12:00

After 26 matches, Group E of the World Cup has finally produced the biggest upset of the tournament...In a Group consisting of Italy, U.S.A, Czech Republic and Ghana, I was expecting Italy and Czech Republic to cruise into the knockout stages with relative ease...But Ghana just had to produce the upset of the World Cup by beating Czech Republic 2 - 0....Ghana even had the luxury of missing a penalty when they were a goal up....Apparently, if not for Petr Cech, the Czech's goalkeeper, Ghana would have won by a bigger margin...And why is this a major upset, well the Czech's are ranked second in the world while Ghana is ranked 48 places below them....Also, what makes it even more suprising is that they had actually beaten the U.S.A - who is actually ranked joint fifth in the world - by quite a comfortable margin only five days ago...Group E, so far of all the groups that have played 2 games, is the only group that hasn't guaranteed a team for the next round...With Italy and the Czech's to meet each other next, one of them could face an early trip home if the other game between Ghana and the U.S.A ends with victory for either team....

Another upset, although not as big, was Australia's 3 - 1 win over Japan with 3 goals coming in the las 8 minutes if I remember correctly.....With the win, Australia actually killed 2 birds with 1 stone by getting their first ever WC goal and also their first ever WC win...But they will soon face their biggest test yet in the form of Brazil in their next game...Having seen how the Australians reacted to Tim Cahill's first goal against Japan, I can barely imagine how they would react if they can cause the tournament's second major upset by beating Brazil.... *fingers crossed* I hope that happens and the other group game ends in a win cause that will seriously open up the group....

Game of the tournament as of this point: Argentina 6 - 0 Serbia and Montenegro - Argentina showing how to play the passing game. Watch the game if you can to know why this is my vote on game of the tournament

Goal of the tournament as of this point: Esteban Cambiasso. 24 passes in all. Have to see to understand why it's the goal of the tournament

I Cheated Death

2006-06-07T17:11:00.000+12:00

yup...u read right....i cheated death in Rotorua over the long weekend that NZ had since NZ celebrates the Queen's b'day....below is proof of me cheating death.... :-)

Finally....

2006-05-28T16:33:00.000+12:00

....got my student visa approved a couple of weeks ago....got my pasport back last saturday and have been trying to find a part time job while waiting for my uni to start...will be allowed to work 20 hours a week and with the minimum wage at 10.25p/h, i'll be getting quite a bit of pocket money a month....some places, if not most, actually start the basic pay p/h at a slightly higher rate - with some cafes offering higher if u have experience....

on another note, temperature is starting to drop in nz as winter approaches.....according to some of my church members, around july is when the temperature really drops....that will not be good 4 me as i am starting my classes in mid-july :-(....

Grad ceremony

2006-05-07T20:01:00.001+12:00

this was part of the uni of Auckland graduation that took place in the city...with nearly 6000 students graduating, the ceremony actually had to take place over 4 days....

some photos....

2006-04-30T18:00:00.000+12:00

the photos were taken in church....

funtastic day

2006-04-29T21:48:00.000+12:00

2day was just superb...left for Hamilton yesterday after lunch with a church friend coz i was helping him to do a few things in his new house there....on the way, we stopped to get some ice cream which was very very nice and cheap...was only 0.60 cents per scoop and was worth every cent....aniwei, having reached the place at about 5.30, we took a rest...

this morning, after breakfast, we started what we went there for...scrapping off the wallpaper...mind you, it was not an easy task...the house itself was quite old and i think there were about two or three layers of wallpaper...so scrapping it out was really tough...then, just as we were reversing, both wheels of the drivers side got stuck in mud as it was raining all day...tried 2 push the mpv everyway we could but we just couldn't get it out...in fact, i think we made it worse by having the wheel sink even deeper...then my church friend called AA and they came about 10 minutes later...they tried to use a rope and chain tied to each other and hooked to both the mpv and the 4 wheel drive but it didn't succeed...the rope actually broke twice under the strain...

after that, the AA guy said that he will get a tow truck to come to pull the mpv out with it's metal winch...waited for about half and hour b4 the tow truck came but it was finally able to pulll the car out...after that, we headed back to church, which was about 1.5-2 hours drive, for a 'jam and joy' session...the session is basically a bi-monthly event which the church organizes to both showcase church members, i.e, singing, dancing, jokes, and also to introduce new friends to church...overall i have to say that it has been a superb, fun, amazing day....

???

2006-04-25T04:06:00.000+12:00

it is 4.05 am and i am still awake...can't seem to sleep for some reason...

how true is this???

2006-04-14T11:11:00.000+12:00

Your Birthdate: April 30

You have the type of personality that people either love or hate.
You're opinionated, dramatic, intense, and very outspoken.
And some people can't get enough of you - they're totally addicted.
Others, well, they wish you were a little more reserved.

Your strength: Your flair

Your weakness: If you think it, you say it

Your power color: Scarlet red

Your power symbol: Inverted triangle

Your power month: March

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Anyone care to comment if this is true about me??

me is tired.....

2006-04-13T16:04:00.000+12:00

last few of days has been tiring 4 me as i've just moved in to my new place....have to help my mom to unpack all the boxes....hope 2 get broadband n cable tv soon....

on the bright side, i've managed 2 get hold of 2 of planetshakers latest albums, decade:lift up your eyes and arise....decade, as the name suggests, is an album dedicated to the years they have been around.....arise is the latest studio recorded album....

life in NZ after 1 month......

2006-04-09T17:51:00.000+12:00

after 1 month in new zealand, i have to say that life here is quite interesting....weather is very nice as it's autumn now....it does get chilly when the wind blows or rains....will be moving to a rented 3 level townhouse tomorrow.....and my dad finally got his company car, a peugeot 607 on friday....

i'm currently attending victory christian church with my parents as we were recomended to go there by Sr Pr Daniel....in fact, we were given the contact of a former DUMC member who is now in the church....on friday, i joined the youth for a one night camp at steadfast camp in piha and it was great...as there is a long weekend this weekend due to Easter, we will be joining some church members on a trip to Rotorua....

thats all for now.....will blog later when i have more to blog on....

a very cool looking boat

2006-04-09T17:22:00.000+12:00

This pictures were taken at the Waitakere harbour, Auckland....

More information on this superb looking boat can be found here........

Back into the blogging world........

2006-04-06T00:13:00.000+12:00

I am finally back blogging after a looooonng hiatus....decided to get back to blogging since i have n will have alot of free time over the next few months in new zealand while i wait for the next semester in mid-july 2 start......will blog abt my pass 2-3 weeks in new zealand soon......