Beautiful Weather

A beautiful Sunday morning here in Melbourne. The cherry blossom tree in front of me has started blossoming signally the end of winter and the dawn of spring. Trees afar are dancing in the breeze with birds trying to find their balance in the swaying branches. It is a perfect end to a week that was wrecked havoc by storm at the beginning. 

As expected, people are coming out from their home in this good weather. There are people strolling in the park to soak up their much needed Vitamin D from the sun. The Premier Daniel Andrews was quite worry that there might be huge crowd at the beach later today as Melbourne is still in the middle of a hard lock down.

Pandemic aside, there are indeed no shortfall of good things around us, we just have to constantly look for it. Don't waste what is available to us, put them to good use and ensure that we are consistently growing physically, mentally and spiritually.

Melbourne Lockdown - Heritage Buildings

Whether it is in the day or at night, heritage buildings around Melbourne remain majestic during lockdown.

Well Said Tun M

Whether you like him or not, what Tun Mahathir said today does make sense and he has managed to summarize the current complicated situation of Malaysian politics into very clear perspective. Extract below from his FB page:

1. The political state of the confused country is getting more confused by the action taken by some parties. Many have lost their way and are willing to do anything just to get support.

2. Bersatu which was originally formed to bring down Najib has now becomes a party that fight to bring Najib and the National Barisan (BN) back to life.

3. Then out of the blue a Bersatu Leader became the Prime Minister of the Perikatan Nasional Party which doesn't even exist.

4. Hope that the Perikatan Nasional becomes a joint party of three parties which are Bersatu, PAS and UMNO will not come true. UMNO claims that its members are only allowed to support Bersatu to topple the Pakatan Harapan (PH) Government. And yet Bersatu leaders conspire to this evil plan whole heartedly.

5. Now Bersatu and Perikatan Nasional (PN) depends on UMNO. If UMNO people don't support it, the alliance will fall. The irony is if UMNO doesn't support them they themselves will also fall. That's why UMNO has to support.

6. But there are still 5 UMNO people who may be found guilty (one was already found guilty ad is currently waiting for the appeal process to run its course) cannot remain as representatives of the people. If they lose their positions as representatives of the people, Bersatu and PN will fall.

7. To avoid this from happening, the Prime Minister needs to look for replacement. So Bersatu dropped its original principle as a party that fights for the Malays and has now opened its membership to all races. Is the name of PPBM still relevant then? This is the fourth time Bersatu has broke its promises.

8. Now Bersatu decides to join Muafakat. But Muafakat is an alliance of Islamic Malay parties. While Bersatu's is now multi-racial party. What will happen to Muafakat? Is it still fighting for Malay and Islam??

9. UMNO is said to have broken into three. There are factions that disagree with Bersatu joining Muafakat. As well as PAS. Some agree, some are not.

10. Among the parties that support the government, some believe in winning the election some don't like to have the election.

11. Prime Minister is afraid to lose his position if he loses 6 chairs. Looking for a replacement. But from where? Maybe from Keadilan. But the cost is high.

12. Comes Pejuang. Bersatu lost its grassroots. Many leaders but few people to be led. It has become an empty party. Grassroots have moved to Pejuang.

13. In the upcoming general election, Bersatu will not get support from UMNO and PAS, nor from PH.

14. Bersatu may be disbanded and joins UMNO. This will most likely be the end of the stolen party.

15. This is a headache for Muhyiddin. There's nowhere he can turn to.

16. Looking for pain. Pain is what he will get.

Source: Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad Facebook Page

Melbourne Lockdown - Bridges

There are bridges connecting Melbourne CBD with Southbank, all with its own unique design.

Melbourne Lockdown - Federation Square

Right across the road from Flinders Street Train Station is another icon of Melbourne - Federation Square or Fed Square as the Aussie likes to call it. It is a popular gathering space with public performances and exhibition. The place is so popular that it was once a target of a terrorist attack! Thank GOD that the police preempted the plan and caught the culprits before they have the chance to do any serious harm to the public. One could only imagine what would happen if a bomb were to explode in a jam packed public place!

Another victim of Covid-19, Fed Square is empty day and night.

Melbourne Lockdown - Train Stations

Melbourne Stage 4 Lockdown has resulted the city became a ghost town overnight. This post is the first of a series to celebrate the uniqueness of this great Australian city.

The most iconic building that represent Melbourne, The Flinders Street Train Station was the busiest train station in Australia. Its majestic architecture reminds us of the significant role it plays for the city.

The empty Southern Cross Station only further exaggerate its grandness.

The New Normal Sunday

In the past, I'll be getting ready to drive 20 minutes from home to attend the 10.30am service at church. I'll be turn on radio via wifi to listen to my favourite Malaysian radio station 988 while driving. This time is also my favourite segment which the DJ broadcasts all the classic old songs from the 80s and 90s.

Fast forward to today when the whole of Melbourne is still in Stage 4 Restriction Lock Down, I'm sitting at home eating my breakfast, typing these words, watching the rain drops dripping from the leaked gutter above me and of course still listening to my favourite station, currently playing the classic from Anita Mui. I'll be attending online worship in a short while.

How life has changed overnight due to Covid-19. Churches are empty and everyone is worshiping from home. At least there is no more excuse not to go to church on Sunday! Well there is always some people managed to come up with creative excuse every now and then.

All the GOD fearing Christians believe that the universe's every moves is being pre-planned by the Great Almighty. Therefore let's take this opportunity of more time that is made available to us during this pandemic and ponder upon this question: 'What is GOD's plan in all this?"

The excuse of not attending church is now being taken away from us as we can worship through internet from home. Unless someone come up with a lame excuse that his/ her computer broke down every Sunday morning! So no more excuse and we have to face GOD out in the open now. If anything, I think we now have the rare opportunity of being frank with ourselves and sincerely get to know GOD during this trying times. Ask Him what He wants from you out of this pandemic. There must be a reason why we suddenly have so much time at our disposal.

For me, the message I get is that I need to share my spiritual experience and that's why I'm writing this post now. We have to allocate this time fully to GOD. There are so many ways we can do that. We can sing and worship Him, we can fully immerse ourselves in the Bible, we can listen to sermon online, we can express our gratitude by listing all the good things around us on a piece of paper, we can refrain from having a bad feeling to anyone during this time and so much more. It is really not much to ask considering that we only reserve one Sunday morning to Him. If all the above is too hard for you, then at least stop thinking about your work, hobbies or entertainment during this time. Just find yourself a nice and quiet place to sit down and meditate. Use this precious moment to calm yourself down and just enjoy the wonderful experience while meditate to focus on GOD.

Don't waste this free time that is now available to us. Use it wisely. Don't ask what you want, ask what He wants instead. Happy Worship!

Gratitude On A Rainy Day

The Covid-19 pandemic has wrecked havoc to the global supply chain. Every corners of the world are experiencing shortage of PPE and other essential items that we used to take for granted. To make matter worse, people rushed to the supermarkets and started hoarding products like toilet papers, pasta and other food supplies. Here in Australia, the government has to constantly reminds the people that supplies are sufficient and advise not to hoard unnecessarily. Seriously, are you going to do your business in the toilets several times a day that you need to stock up one year of supply?

To further complicate the problems we all face, one thing ironically has no shortage during this unprecedented times; that is negativity. We are bombarded with negative news several times a day on a daily basis. People complain about conspiracy theories, reluctant to wear masks, unwilling to isolate etc.

We should instead cultivate the habit of being grateful of what we have. It has been raining the whole day since the morning. Melbourne temperature plunges to below 10 degrees celsius. It is currently sitting at 8 degrees but felt more like 3 degrees when the wind blows. However, I'm grateful that I'm able to stay indoor with my heater on full blast (not that I have a choice to go out during Stage 4 Lockdown anyway). Feel great that I can sit down, quiet my mind and write this block while it is wet and cold outside. Satisfied that I can take a sip of my hot coffee while enjoying the rest of the afternoon.

There are many things around us that we can be grateful of. Start counting our blessing.

The Cost of Migrating

In the past I never have the slightest idea to migrate to another country. After graduating from Australia, I came back to Penang straight away eager to contribute to my country. Asia was booming back in the 90s with mega projects sprouting out all over the place. As a young architectural student, it is not difficult to understand why I hoped to work in one of those projects compared to designing single houses in Australia. 

I had big dream back then before the brutal reality hit me in the face. First, it was the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 that brought the entire construction industry to its knees. Suddenly all potential architectural projects were put on hold. I couldn't find job for 2 whole months. Managed to land a temporary job as an intern with merely RM750/ month; even the security guard earned more than me.

I continued to work my way up and did spent the most part of my early career in Penang, a total of 13 years to be exact. The first time that I thought about migrating was when one of my colleague asked me this question: "Don't you ever thought of going back (referring to Australia)?" That question was the seed that planted in my head that eventually grew into a full fledged plan to migrate to Australia.

Many reasons that contributed to this decision to leave my home to move to a foreign land. To cut the story short, just simply says that the grass always looks greener when you admired it from afar. I was ecstatic when my Permanent Residence Visa was granted in 2011 and can't wait to start my new life in Perth! The prospect of a new life with better career, bigger house, cleaner air, first world environment filled up my tiny little head and I was confident that life will now change for the better.

But is migrating to a foreign country going to solve all the problems that I thought I was facing at the time? Below was I said on 4^th September 2012, just 2 months after I moved to Perth:

“Isn't it a fantastic idea to migrate to a foreign country and start a new life? Most people will have this same intention especially when they feel that their future in their home country is bleak. The idea does sound great especially when you think that you will be treated equally, have greater opportunity and better quality of life in your new found home. 

However, when you actually take action and start your new life in a foreign land, you have to be mentally prepared for challenges and hardships initially. After all everything has to begin from zero again. You need to adapt to the new climate, culture, lifestyle and work environment. You also have to start establishing your new social network from scratch.   

The top 2 challenges you will be facing when migrating to a new country is to find a job and a place to stay. You could send hundreds of job application online but you won't be getting anywhere unless anyone respond to you. It is indeed tough especially when you know no one in this new land and hard to get a reference from anybody. It is the same when looking for a place to stay; the landlord or real estate agent will only entertain you if you have reference. This almost become mission impossible when you know no one in this place!

Nobody would ever want to leave their home; the place where you were born and grew up in. You will always be emotionally attached to your home no matter where you go. Everybody thought that migration is an enjoyment of life but in actual fact it is one of the greatest sacrifice one can ever make in life.”

Reality is always different from what we think. Yes, I did land myself onto the Lucky Country but things were not as lucky as I thought. I have to first find a place to stay. I thought it shouldn't be an issue right as long as I have the money to pay for rental. WRONG! Renting a place to stay in Australia is not as simple as having the means to pay for rental. You have to be in a long list of potential tenants competing against each other to be accepted by the landlord. Some of the criteria that he/ she will look at is your job, how many people in your family, whether you have a pet or not, basically they want to know your lifestyle as well before they decided to rent you their property.

Then came the next big challenge which is to find a job. Again, I thought it shouldn't be a problem for me as I have more than a decade of works experience back in Malaysia. WRONG AGAIN! For a new migrant, I was considered as having zero 'local experience' in Australia. Hence it is almost close to impossible to even find one job to start with. How can any person has local experience if he can't get hired because he has no local experience. It's really a culture shock to me.

I did manage to work in a few jobs for the first three years but they were all not stable. Getting in and out of job every now and then in the beginning was not a good start for a new life in a foreign land. It was indeed very stressful and I even got depressed at one stage.

It was not after the fourth year that things started turning for better. This is now my eighth year of living in Australia and am glad to say that life has become more stable now. But the first four years really took a toll on both my physical and mental health.

Migrating to a new country is not for the faint hearted. While the monetary cost is manageable, the other intangible costs such as your mental health are not so easily quantifiable. While Australia is a lot better than Malaysia in various aspects of life that one aspires to, living here is no walk in the park. It comes at a huge cost. The question is whether it is worth it. I shall explore this in another post.

Let's not get too stressful folks, Happy Friday!

Lessons I Learnt From Covid-19

Year 2020 is indeed an extraordinary year. A lot of unexpected events have happened. It was supposed to be the year when Malaysia celebrates the achievement of Vision 2020, but we all know that it didn't realized. We then witnessed the sudden change of government early of the year. Most significantly of all, the world was hit by unprecedented crisis known as Covid-19.

A lot of us have never experience World War I & II in our lifetime. Covid-19 will be the closest experience one can get of living through a war zone liked world. The modern world that we all live in likes to categorize things into different classes. First World Nations vs. Third World Countries; Rich vs. Poor; Democracy vs. Communism etc. One powerful message that this pandemic conveyed to us is that we are all the same after all, we are all vulnerable regardless of your wealth; age or physical fitness. Everyone citizens on earth is still grappling with this pandemic as I am typing these words. No, the virus doesn't discriminate, only human did.

During the period of lock down, I thank GOD for my health and have the rare opportunity to slow down and did some serious thinking. I have come up with a four key points for myself which I think are the real importance stuff in life:

1. Refocus on GOD instead of myself.

Don't you agree that nowadays everyone is only interested in themselves. Just look at all the postings on social medias. It's all about looking at me, like me, me, me and more me. Honestly, who do you focus at every time look at a group photo? Yourself of course! Our over emphasis on ourselves is the main reason why so many people are suffering from anxiety and depression today. Just let it go, look at ourselves in GOD's eye. Focus on Him, we are too small to deserve such attention.

 

2. It's time to stop wasting more time on worry for no obvious reason.

I'm one of those who always worry about anything. I worry about how others will judge my work. I worry about whether my health will deteriorate over (Of course it will! We can't stop the natural process of aging so stop worrying!). I worry about whether I'll still have a job tomorrow (This is universal worry of lots of people especially in this uncertain times). All our worries have one thing in common, they are things that are yet to happen, they are incidents that we imagine in our heads for the future, in other words, they have not happened yet. That day may never come, so why worry? We only have control of the PRESENT which we should be grateful that it is a gift from GOD (See the link here? PRESENT = GIFT).

3. Eat healthy and exercise regularly.

It's hard not to be tempted by all the wonderful food available especially when you grow up in Penang, the de facto Food Capital of Malaysia (some say Asia too). But seriously, if we keep on satisfying just our tongues and neglect about our bodies, our bodies will give up on us.

4. Constantly asking myself this question: 'What really matters in life?' My answer to the question is: 'GOD, Health & Family.'

When you put this in perspective, you will realize that we wasted too much time on things that don't really matter. Just think about it, what are some of the things that you are proud of doing today? Isn't it scary when the answer echoes back in your mind is 'NONE'? 

Start claiming back your life. This pandemic shows us that this has now become the most urgent thing to do!

The News That People Want To Hear?

As I about to enjoy a cup of hot coffee after reluctantly woke up from this cold winter morning, when my eyeballs were still struggling to reveal themselves from the warm embrace of my eyelids, one particular news headline attracted my instant attention. My eye were wide opened by now. No, I wasn't surprise with the news, I was more shocked by why this same news over and over again, it started to sounds like a broken record.

The headline reads: "Waste of police resources, says IGP as Bukit Aman probes new sodomy allegation". Really? I mean sodomy AGAIN!!??? Come on lah! Be more creative lah Malaysian politicians. Can't you come up with something new? Alright, alright, before we get too agitated, let's explore further what the report says.

Apparently Bukit Aman has received a Statutory Declaration (SD) alleging that a prominent opposition politician committed sodomy. Seems like it is a trend now to issue Statutory Declaration freely. SD may become more easily accessible than masks! Anyway, the Malaysian Police Chief Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador said that he is sick of such matters. I have to agree with him, I'm sure we are all sick of this, not because there are many such allegation, but the fact that Malaysian politics can get to such low level, it is like watching a low budget movie being played before you over and over again even though you did not purchase a ticket to watch them!

It is reported that the SD contains explicit details which the man claimed that the indecent activities occurred four times in 2013. What? I heard you shout 2013!? Are you sure this guy is not hallucinating about some fantasy he has in his mind? I'm sure everyone is curious to know who this person is, further details of the incidents, how this will play out in the political scenes etc. 

Can you see what is happening here? A piece of paper from someone has already managed to arouse such curiosity in our minds. Is this the best distraction strategy or not? Why these types of scandals kept being recycled over and over again? Is it really because those who made the allegations are not creative? No. I think the problem lies in us, the ordinary Malaysians who read the news. We joked about news like these, we speculate on conspiracy theories like how we talk about our favourite TV series on Netflix. 

The reason that this type of news still sells is because we are all not mature enough. Our principle are not strong enough to instantly reject this type of nonsense. The politicians are manipulating how we think and make decision. It is time that this be reverse. The Rakyat should determine the future of this country. We should send out the message that we are not interested in this type of stupid dramas. We want progress for this country. All the politicians that we voted for should concentrate on doing their job, not wasting time spying on other people's bedrooms. We should tell them that, no, this is not good enough, we are not buying that, come up with something better otherwise you are fired! 

Just ask yourself this, do you want your daily news headlines to be covered with sodomy cases or constructive vision of how the country would progress.