Our Elderly

Old Chinese saying, elderly is precious.  They have got experience, they know about life and they survive all the ups and downs that life threw onto them.  Surviving life for so long should gain our respects for them in addition to the fact that they are the elderly i.e. parents and/or grandparents.  

From my observation, however, being the elderly in the family is such a dilemma.  For Chinese, normally parents stay with their son and family.  Normally they get their own room.  If it's double storey house, downstair small room normally would be their choice of room.  Climbing up stairs would be too burdening to the knees and hips.  

They get their own ROOM.  Imagine that.  They need to 'compress' everything that they have worked on, their precious belongings into that small room.  The room ends up being so packed that the ventilation is not ideal, hence, leading to many health issues.  High blood pressure is the most common example.  

Worse is yet to come in my opinion.  When their son has family, he too has his own set of rules at home.  Being parents, they are no longer the leaders of the family.  Now they're under the son's family rule, which they have to obey.  Imagine that.  It's like you are being stripped off your personality that you have built your entire life.  Honestly, elderly under this situation will be depressed and didn't know how to live a life anymore.  Imagine the stress they are under.  At least that's my opinion.  

There is one Chinese saying, that elderly behaves like child.  Yes, I agree that our brain cells do die everyday.  When we get old, we definitely will not be as sharp as when we were young.  My question is, who speeds up the process of this 'reversal' of the 'growing' process?  

Growing old is not an easy process.  To be filial and respectful to our elderly is not as simple as giving them a shelter and a bed and money to spend.  We need to reach out to their hearts in order to make them happy and not feeling lonely.  I'm sure in one way they are scared and worried about death and to be departed with the world they are so used to and people they love.  

So, I beg all who read this article, think again how you treat your elderly.  Look inside your own heart and reach out to others.

Tears are flowing down my eyes uncontrollably writing this last sentence.  I wish my parents will live long enough.  I'm not ready yet.  Just like I wasn't ready for my 2 sisters.  

Miri & My Life !!!

It's been full 2 years since I came back to Miri.  At the beginning, I was so busy with work.  Subsequently, my second sister fell sick, we were all under such stress only those who experienced it could imagine.  And she passed away eventually.  I was depressed again.

Well, could it be good to be depressed?  My opinion is, it could be, unless you yourself realised that you are depressed.  I guess I'm just glad that I'm not stupid.  So what I did?  I started to explore life again after 4 years of 'immobility', explore Miri, explore many many things.  I don't want to stay depressed.  My life is too precious for that.  I knew it by losing 2 beloved sisters and also I nearly lost my life because of supernatural 'matter'.  Maybe I was a bit exaggerating, but it was the truth.  

I met new friends.  We learn from each other, see life in different perspective.  In my life, there are many 'hole' that I need to fill up (things that I need to learn in case you don't  understand).  Through friends, I slowly fill the holes up and make me a better man day by day.  I'm not aiming to become a Saint, but at least I can live a noble life with dignity at my own expectation.  

I promise, I'll live a good life, live it my way.  Like I always say, life is too short, live to the fullest.  I really wish I can do it, walk the talk man !!! 

My Crazy Family

Everybody in my family has bad temper.  My dad and my brother they are the same type.  They are like the volcano.  They can erupt anytime, without warning, and eruption can be as bad as the worst that mankind ever recorded.  My dad now is a bit mellowed down, as he's almost reaching 70 right now.  I hope life shows him how to calm down at this age.  My dad has high expectation on his children too.  It's very stressful.

My mum nags all the time, same like all other mothers.  She does complain a lot, and same as with all other housewife (Chinese got a nickname for them: Yellow Face Aunt), she stops kids from playing; don't jump, don't climb, sit properly, eat, don't talk, don't become spider, don't play with water, don't don't don't don't don't. Things that she says are all about don't.  Some would say she's being too negative.  In addition, she is extremely blur too.  Her classic: put rice at one side of the container, and put the soup on the other side, they won't mix.  Common mum, the container doesn't have divider.  Hahaha.  She gets into my nerve sometimes when I stay at home too much.  My temper would flare and she's driving me nuts sometimes.  

I don't really have much things to say to my brother.  We have a totally opposite perception of life.  The time when he went crazy and screaming when his two boys didn't do or reacted slowly to his instruction, I couldn't bear watching.  I left and went out to Merdeka Mall for a fresh air.  I pity his children, who is under stress since young age.  I foresee that they would be very rebellious in their teenage years.  I hope I'm wrong.  

My only sister left, is the same.  Hot temper and extremely blur, inherited from my mum I guess.  Things that she and my mum do, sometimes it's just unbelievable.  Classic from my sister: one time when her children made her mad, she threw her hard disk onto the ground and broke it.  She regretted so much, because she lost many of her memorable photos stored in that hard disk.  Well, think before you act then.  My late eldest sister told us once, when you're extremely angry, but give yourself one second before you act.  Your action will be definitely different.  I miss her wisdom.

I'm actually the only one that doesn't get angry easily, when I was living alone.  When I moved back to Miri, I think I became one of them.  Damn.  I really don't like myself that much right now.  

Life is very simple.  I don't know why people live such difficult life.  Anger is not healthy to human being's body.  Smile is.  Wonder why people don't smile more often.

My new life perception: Time is running out.  Enjoy it while you can.  Be simple.  I learned from my late second sister.  

Lastly, I love my family.  I love who they are.  I hope they continue to drive me nuts, for long time to come.  

Malaysia Airlines - Bad Manner

I just called Malaysia Airlines phone line wanting to check on my flight booking if the payment has been made, since the internet line was cut off while transaction was still on-going.

The phone persons of Malaysia Airlines have been rude, more so for ladies than men, since few years ago.  Before that the ladies sound very sweet and men were polite.  Nowadays the ladies are rude and have no manner.  For example, before I could finish my sentence, they already hung up on me.  Today this incident happened again.  This bad attitude of their phone persons just pisses me off.  

Malaysia Airlines should improve their service quality as they are the image of the country.  More often then not the tourists' first encounter with Malaysia is to deal with Malaysia Airlines for flight arrangement to visit this lovely country.  If the service quality continues to be such a 'bitchy non-educated no manner' style, slowly it will hurt the tourist industry, hence, the growth of the economy.

I would prefer to take Air Asia if their service continues to be this bad.  

Go Bald

For Sarawak Children Cancer Society !!! 

I hope fund raised for this activity will help ease children with cancer and their family financially.  I do pray for all of them and hope they will survive and recover.  

It is never easy to lose someone we love so dearly in our lives.  I think it's more difficult for parents to lose their children, their flesh and bones.  

My thoughts go out to all parents who have lost their children, especially my parents, and for children who have lost their parents and siblings.

Here, I respect my sister-in-law to have gone bald as well.  It's a touching scene when she was holding her baby girl while their long pretty hair were being 'mowed away'.

Wish for a better tomorrow. 

Rented A House

On 15th May 2013, I successfully rented out my house in Kuching.  It's at Tabuan Laru, a prime and popular area.  Again, www.mudah.my is the advertising source of my rental advertisement. This website saves me one month rental that normally should be paid to properties agent.  Best is that it is free.

Though the monthly rental is less than the monthly loan repayment, it is still a huge relief financially.  Right now, I only need to pay RM800 per month to cover the loan of this house.  

I really feel good of handling property matters.  Hopefully I can have more successful stories to tell about properties in the future.

Expanding Waistline

While I was looking for something last night, I saw a tailor measuring tape.  It's been a really long time since I last used it.  Well, when I lived alone in KL, I used to use it to measure my waistline.  Basically I was very free at home, nothing much to do.  Hahaha !!! 

So when I saw it last night, old habit dies hard.  Naturally I took it and measure my waistline loh.  Guess what?  I nearly got an heart attack.  Hahaha !!!  

It's been a long time ago that I last measure my own waistline.  I remembered the last time I was still below 34 inches.  Last night, it reached the mark of 35.5 inches.  Walau, in one year I gained at least 1.5 inches of my waistline.  Damnnnnnn......  

Red alert !!!  Need to exercise starting from today.  

Target of this year:  Slim down is the utmost priority now.  Health is more important ;-)

End of the year target:  Waistline 33 inches or smaller (:-P)

Number of Days Since Departure of My Sisters

It's unbelievable.  How could time just passed by so cruelly.  Everything happened like yesterday.  

My late eldest sister, 903 days.  My late second elder sister, 30 days.

it's still hard for me to believe that I have lost 2 of my most beloved sisters in such a short span of time.  It's hard to swallow this.  They are the nicest and kind-hearted young  beautiful ladies.  How could their lives have been taken away so cruelly.  

Unfortunately, fact is fact.  There is no copy and paste, edit or whatsoever for live.  What has happened, happened, like it or not.  There is no turning back.  What we, those who have been left behind can do is to go on with our lives, live a happier and better lives, smile more, don't blame ourselves of what had happened, be appreciative and thankful of the family members that are still around.  

When I was younger, I always had worries about the things I will regret when I die.  Right now, I accept the fact that we are living in an imperfect world.  I always live my life as best as I can.  Ya, there's some thoughts about what I can do better, what if this, what if that.  For sure there will be regrets in life.  Heart broken or not, nothing much we can do with what has happened.  

How can we deal with our ordeals in life?  In my opinion at this moment, finding the peace within ourselves is important.  I think I begin to see the lights.  I hope I find it one day, before I stop breathing.  

Wish you all live happily till the end :-)

爸爸的放不下

今晚爸对六伯说，“我什么都放得下，就是放不下我的三凤。”

听了很心酸，也很心灰。

人，无论如何，都是偏心的。

Second Time Winning Lottery Prize

17 April 2013 must be a lucky day.  I strike lottery for the second time in my life.  Hurray !!! 

Magnum special prize !!! 

Well, didn't win much.  Enough to buy myself a nice watch with functions of compass, altitude, temperature and pressure, low tide and high tide.  A watch full of functions I always wanted for long time, but didn't really want to spend money on watch, which to me is such a waste of money :-P

Any enough money for a full medical checkup !!!  That's very important right now at this stage of my life.

Anyway, it's a start.  Wish for more 'success' cases in the future.  Winning a first prize jackpot will be a lifetime dream come true.

Wuahahahahaha !!! 

Gardening, Farming & Why?

When I bought my house in Miri, the criteria was that it has to have a big empty land, so that my parents and I can do some gardening work.  On top of that, I plan was to plant some vegetables for own consumption instead of buying vegetables full of pesticides / herbicides.

I still have a vivid memory of using all the tools such as hoe (锄头) for farming and plantation.  I'm from a farming background back in the late 80s and early 90s.

Little do I realise that it's been about 20 years since the last time I did farming.  It just feel like it was yesterday.  When I picked up those tools, I felt like I was handling them with my legs.  I didn't feel comfortable using them anymore.  Well, at the beginning of course.  It brings back such great memories though.

Time flies.  We had a great time back then.  We were a happy family even though we were poor.  Now, I have 2 less sisters.  I really miss them very much.  Such a tragic that I still cannot believe it actually happened to nicest people like my 2 sisters.  

That brings another questions.  What's the purpose of living?  Why do we have to live through all the pain?  

Tell me, wise people who read this article, please !!! 

Liew KC the Great's Quotes 1

Life is short. Take it easy. Make a wise choice to be happy !!!

Take care of your health. We are nothing without it.

Everything happens for the best reason.  We may not know why it happens, one day when we possess the wisdom, we will.

Don't spend all your money, even for investment purpose.  Keep some cash for emergency use.

Invest in something that has faster growing rate that inflation rate.  We will be richer day by day.  Otherwise, we become poorer and poorer.  Can you imagine if you live to 80 years old? 

Do exercise and be healthy physically.  We never know when we need it to survive.  Jogging and lift some weight at least. 

Don't be a couch potato.  It only leads you to disaster.

Take things easy in life, but don't overlook details.  These details can save your life one day.  Be smart.

Read more.  Replenish your knowledge.  We human beings are designed to improve continuously.  When we stop learning, we are basically a breathing dead human.

Be sure of what you want in life.  Right now you may not know.  Please be sure you search for it constantly. 

Be nice to your parents.  Be nice to your family.  Be nice to everybody who loves you.  When they are gone, you will have nothing.

Control your temper.  It's difficult to mend a wound when you create one.

Speak up.  Nobody will know what is in your mind if you don't.

Work hard, play hard.  Life is too short to f*** around and waste time do nothing.  Writing a blog with nonsense quotes one of them? 

Hahaha !!!

Have a great day all. 

Inflated Properties

It's an understatement to say that the properties in the market are all selling at a very inflated value.  It's a scary thing now.  Imagine, medium income group of having RM5000.00 salary per month is hardl able to afford to buy a house now. 

In Miri, a semi-detached double storey house with land size of 8 point costs above RM550k, depending on its location.  The price would go up as high as RM1 Million at the center of town.  That's crazy price.  Income group of RM10,000.00 per month would find it tight with the properties at this inflated values. 

Furthermore, bank valuation of the properties is always lower than the market value.  Consequently, the downpayment that the buyer needs to come up with is substantial, as the buyer needs to pay the different of the house selling price and the home loan amount.  For example, selling price of a house is RM600k, bank value is only RM550k.  The buyer gets only 90% of the bank value for the home loan approved, which is RM495k.  This means that the buyer has to come up with cash value of RM105k as down payment for the house he wants to buy.  For a middle income group, that's a significant amount of cash money.  Ask around, how many people actually has that sum of money in hand? 

However, on the other hand, properties price keeps coming up.  It maybe slowing down soon, but surely doesn't seem like it will come down anytime soon.  Well, unless a cycle of economic crisis hit the world again? 

Furthermore, general election will happen in 2013.  Will that affect the price of properties?  Is it a wise choice to invest in properties at this moment? 

In my opinion, there are many types of properties in the market.  Some are really overpriced but some are still selling at reasonable price. 

Do a proper and thorough survey, study the market at that area and its surrounding, what's the future development of the area and also the neighbourhood, is it a good area to live?  For invest to rent, what's the rental value and is this a popular area for rent?

Make a wise choice before investing in properties.  :-D