Matfoo’s Weblog

Today is the last day in 2007. Here I am rounding up what’s happening in the final two weeks on the year.

Week: 17-Dec-07 to 23-Dec-07

This beginning of the week is spent mostly on house moving and completing our shopping list. We rented a Ute, which I blogged about and driving for the first time in Melbourne is one of the scariest thing to do. Plan to move in by Sunday (23-Dec-07) but due to some plans popping up in conjunction with Christmas, we decided to only move in on Boxing Day.

Showers were expected in Melbourne at the end of the week and it did shower though creating one of the coldest day in Melbourne in summer with the temperature reaching 11 degree Celsius on Saturday (22-Dec-07) night. Again, God blessed us with Christmas dinner in Eric’s house in Point Cook on Saturday. On Sunday, we visited Melbourne’s largest shopping complex in Chadstone. Lots of people there doing last minute shopping. We didn’t buy anything though, merely window shopping.

On 23-Dec-07, we visited the Ivanhoe Boulevard. This place is where most of the houses in that area put up the most beautiful and creative Christmas light decoration around their house and garden. Some of the decoration was superb and very elaborate.

Week: 24-Dec-07 to 30-Dec-07

Christmas Eve was spent dinner with friends coming all the way from Malaysia. Spent some time chit chatting and catching up with things happening back home. FYI, our friends came to Melbourne to attend their brother’s convocation. The dinner was pot bless type and I made roasted chicken wing and dessert.

On Christmas day itself, we attended Richmond AOG church for Christmas service and enjoyed really much the worship and Christmas message. The service was very short (about 50 minutes) as the senior pastor wants more family time among congregation members. Richmond AOG is a very big church of almost 500-600 worshipers (if I’m not mistaken) and very diverse congregations from the Asians, Australians and Africans all gathered to worship the Lord. Then, came the Christmas Night dinner at Flora’s cousin’s friend’s place. I must say this is the “biggest” Christmas dinner I ever attended. Flora’s cousin’s friend loves to cook and he designed several dish to be served for dinner. Imagine 4 entrees of chicken salad, potato salad, deep fried squid and japanese soba with clam were served. The entrees itself already made most of us 60% full already. Then came 3 main courses – Salmon, Steak and Crayfish! The crayfish has the size of almost my arm! Reaching the steak, most of us were almost 99% full already. Can you imagine the amount of food being served? Good thing there’s only 1 dessert.

On Boxing Day, crazy sales are happening all over Victoria. As we decided to move on this day, our moving plan were halted again. There are plans to go Lilydale on 27-Dec-07 hence postponed our move again. Been surveying the sales on Boxing Day as I have yet to found my TV set.

27-Dec-07, we went to Lilydale for a visit. There’s a man made lake there and some park for people to picnic and relax. Then, made our way to Marysville a small town normally will be crowded during winter for skiing activities. Finally made our way up to Lake Mountain a skiing resort. So when you go to a skiing resort during summer you’ll get…….NOTHING. ) Yup, the place was closed. I’ll shall come again nearing winter. After the trip, we finally moved to our new place. After several days of delay we finally move in to our place. We basically have everything except the Internet.

28-Dec-07. Went to post office to pick up our modem. Here in Australia, once you signed up for Internet, the ISP will post you the modem for you to DIY the connection. Since we moved in late night on 27-Dec-07, we unpack everything today. Setup the internet and viola, we can go online.

29-Dec-07. Did some more shopping on things we missed our or forget to buy.

30-Dec-07. Attended Richmond AOG again. The message was superb as the senior pastor and the wife together preach as a team to conclude 2007 and looking forward to 2008. Again, we were blessed with a coffee table by Eric again. So, went all the way to Point Cook to pick it up and this time by train. No more Ute. Reaching dinner, my family friend who are in Melbourne, call us up to join them for dinner. Again, we were blessed with nice food, FooChow style. Why? The uncle and auntie have their first grandchild and decided to have a dinner in conjunction too with their youngest daughter’s birthday. How? The confinement lady was brought all the way to Melbourne from Sibu and cooked all the FooChow dish. We had Fried Ba Gui (White Fruit), Char Chu Mien (Fried Noodle FooChow style), Sweet sour fish, Mixed vegetables, Stew Pork with Man Tou. Wow….all those food from home. Really missed it. In addition, God is really so good to us. Uncle and aunt said they have lots of winter clothing to give away, so we need not buy. Same goes with quilt and the coolest thing is they have unused bike. Thank you Lord for your blessings. I can’t thank You enough Lord.

31 Dec 07

Here’s what I’ve found about the mobile phone usage and their Telco in both Malaysia and Australia.

PLUS: I would say that call rates in Malaysia is kind of cheap compared to the call rates in Australia. In Malaysia (for postpaid), a call would cost you roughly about RM 0.25/min. It could be cheaper now but let’s make that an average. I’m not too sure about prepaid, for I have not used prepaid before in Malaysia. Say, one would call a person for 4 minutes, you pay RM 1.00. For prepaid in Malaysia, one RM 30.00 prepaid card gives you RM 30.00 worth of credit (with bonus SMS etc). In addition, when one wants to use prepaid in Malaysia, you can choose the number you like on the starter kit, pay and voila. You can easily remember the number you like from your selection.

MINUS: The downside of Malaysian Telco though is, when you signed up for a plan, you seldom get free mobile phone*. And even if you do get one, the phones are like “?????” or from yesteryears. And you don’t get many choices anyway.

MINUS: When I first came to Melbourne and pickup a prepaid card, I was wowed by the amount of credit they give you. An AUD 30.00 prepaid card consists of roughly AUD 150.00 worth of credit with 30 days of expiry. Wow! I pay AUD 30.00 and get AUD 150.00 worth of credit. Cool! But when I read further on about the pricing, hhhmmm….. there’s no free meal after all. In Australia, the call rates are pretty expensive (even you earn their money). In Australia, (for both prepaid and postpaid), a call would cost you roughly about AUD 0.35/30s (or equivalent of 0.70/min) + AUD 0.25 flagfall. Flag fall means every time you make a call (even the call reach the voice of the recipient), you have to pay the “make call charge”.  Say one would call a person for 4 minutes, you pay AUD 2.80 + AUD 0.25 = AUD 3.05. If you convert that to Malaysian Ringgit, that would cost about RM 9.00. Even when you retrieve your voice mail, you still need to pay for it. So, friends, please don’t leave me any voice message alright. When comes to registering prepaid phone, you can’t choose the number you like and pay and voila. You have to follow the instruction on the booklet of the starter kit and call the operator of the Telco to register yourself. Then, they will SMS you the phone number to your phone. Then, you can start using the phone. It took both my wife and I few days to remember our mobile number.

PLUS: But the plus side of Australian Telco is that, when you subscribe to their plan. You’ll get free cool mobile phone*. And the mobile phones are quite up to date mobile phone and not from yesteryears. The downside though, not all the brand of the mobile phones are available. The plans here are pretty much like prepaid with the only exception that once your credit finish, you can still make call with standard rates apply whereas for prepaid, you have to search hi-low for a place to buy recharge card once your credit finishes or expires, whichever comes first. And another coolest thing, even if you change Telco operator, you get to keep your number. How cool is that!

FINALE: Well, I’m so much tempted by the cool phones that I decided to subscribe to a plan. When I first arrived I was using prepaid card from Telco A but after the cool phone from Telco B tempted me, so I gave in and subscribe to the plan and I get to keep my number from the prepaid of Telco A. Cool right! In the end, the cool phone I got is a blue color Sony Ericsson Z610i. Want to know what it looks like? Google it yea!

* Terms and conditions apply

Or at least Ford Ranger type…

And to our shocking when we received the ute……it’s a Toyota Hilux modified back and it looks like a truck!

The driving part was easy but the hardest part was parking as the back of the ute is long and wide. We realised it when we made our way to Ikea to buy our stuffs and when we tried to park the ute……things got pretty scary. Finally after several attempt of parking and with Flora guiding me, we finally parked the ute with the back of the ute protruding quite our a bit. And that was my first incident of my FIRST heart exercise.

After shopping, comes the part where Flora needs to navigate me from Ikea back to her cousin’s place to pick up some more stuffs to bring to our new home. And mind you…..driving in Melbourne is one of the hardest thing to do! Driving alone is simple as Malaysian drive on the same side as Australian. The hard part was the TRAFFIC LIGHT!!!!!! In Melbourne, the traffic light system is really really weird and confusing. To sum up, I think there are 4 types of traffic light.

1 – The traffic light where there are clear indication for you to go straight and turn right.

2 – The traffic light where you have one go straight light and turn right you have to drive to the centre of the road and wait for clear traffic to turn right, and you are not allowed to go straight if you miss the correct lane.

3 – The traffic light where you have one go straight light and turn right when the traffic is clear.

4 – The traffic light where you turn right from the left lane a.k.a HOOK TURN.

The concept of hook turn can be seen here in this website. It can be found mostly in the heart of Melbourne city.

I managed to do one hook turn without getting honked….thank God for that. And because of 2- and 3- traffic lights, a very simple journey from Flora’s cousin’s house to our place took us a very big detour. And the journey to our friend’s house to take the bed was quite alright as we traveled on highway (they stayed in Point Cook, a far west suburb, on the way to Avalon Airport (not the main airport) which is about 30 minutes from the city).

Everything went on quite alright after that. The finally and I would say the biggest heart exercise came at the end of the day. Going back to Flora’s cousin’s house to call it a day and finding a parking gave me one of the scariest moment of my life. The allocated parking at Flora’s cousin’s house are rested on a slope. And all the parkings are between pillars. Basically two car park between pillars. So you can imagine how tricky to park especially you have a ute! One more thing to add. The parking is a one way down hill slope from the entrance.

To make thing worse, someone parked at our allocated parking and hence, we need to reverse our the ute. The gradient of the slope is soooo steep that I can’t reverse the ute! The ute’s handbrake wasn’t working that well and I tried 3 times but the ute just wouldn’t reverse. SEVENTH, EIGHTH and NINTH heart exercise. Instead each time the ute get closer and closer to the end of the road which is a brick wall. So, we decided to call Flora’s cousin to help us and thank God that He finally managed to reverse the ute safely out and we all three decided is best to park the ute outside the house the apartment unit along the road.

After much analysis, we finally realised that the reasons I can’t reverse out was because it was raining and the slippery condition of the road made the reverse extremely difficult and mainly I have no experience in handling a ute!

Anyway, the whole thing ended well. I was quite shaken actually but still manageable. We managed to return the truck in one piece the next day. Praise God for His protection. It was indeed a day that my heart exercise the most….literally.

It is my 3rd week in Melbourne and I think I would rather do updates weekly (unless some interesting I found between the week). Borrowed the term and idea from Clement.

I officially registered last week (I was on 5 days of MC) and this week is the real official week of me studying/working in the office. My office is superbly big. Will upload the picture once is ready. 15-20 postgraduate students are allocated in this room. My office is cold (air con is directly above me) and cold (everyone to themselves with very little interaction). The workstation given to me is a Dell, P4 with 230GB harddisk! Flat panel LCD monitor and a cabinet with locks and keys. Office is with a tiny but very clean pantry with access to drinking water, fridge and microwave.

Had a very long and deep discussions with my research supervisor on what can be done. After the discussions, oh…boy…. lots of things to read and do. A very interesting project and more importantly beneficial to the farmers in Melbourne for we will try to control and channel the water usage properly to them (hopefully).

Thursday is the blessed day of the week where God blesses us with a place to stay. Finally! After almost 3 weeks searching ups and downs the Internet and going here and there to inspect houses, we finally got one which is very close to the university. Although the rent is increased slightly, we decided to take it for that’s the only real estate agent that contacted us and that place is the nearest to the university. The place is really nice and surrounded by PARKS!!! That’s why is called Park Street. Out of the house windows from all corners, we can see trees, greens, parks and etc. Tram and train stop is just nearby. A 10-minutes tram ride will get me to the university. A 40-minutes walk also can do and not to mention a 15-minutes bicycle ride also can do. Coles and K-Mart (equivalent to Malaysian TESCO and Carrefour) are 5 minutes walk away. Basically the place is really strategic to everywhere. So, we couldn’t praise God enough. Although the whole unit is small, it is sufficiently cozy and warm.

That lead us to buy furnitures and stuffs to our new house. Therefore, we spent the whole weekend surveying prices and stuffs to buy. And yes…..IKEA is one of the cheapest place to shop for furniture in Australia. I’m not joking. IKEA is really one of the cheapest place. This is totally the opposite in Malaysia where IKEA is considered quite higher end products. So furniture wise, yes, IKEA has settled it. For electrical goods, we searched Internet for the best bargains and finally, Harvey Norman gave us the best deal.

Thank God also for Eric that he has a spare queen size bed and he gave it to us. So, we saved on mattress and bed already. So, will have to rent a ute (is actually pickup truck) to bring it over to our place. So, basically everything is much pretty in place. Just have to make essential arrangement and pay the money (You can refer to my wife’s blog on this)

So, that pretty much sums up the weekly bulletin from 10 Dec to 16 Dec. Sadly Liverpool lost to MU but at least they won convincingly over Marseilles to qualify to the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League. Team Malaysia A1 didn’t do well as they were forced to retire in both races due to accident. Another setback and hopefully the team can do better in Taupo after the New Year.

Praise God that my penalty for late re-enrollment is waived. That means I need not to pay AUD 250.

Thanks to the department EE director who helped me and fight for me.

Hallelujah!

Yup. The title says it all. The grass is not always greener on the other side. Yesterday, I received a postal mail saying that I was penalised for late re-enrollment for next academic year in University of Melbourne.  According to the mail, the period of re-enrollment was from 15 Oct 07 to 24 Nov 07. I only went to the university to enroll on 26 Nov 07 which is two days past the re-enrollment period. Then I was told that they extended the re-enrollment period to 30 Nov 07. And NO ONE in the student administration department in the university told me about re-enrollment and they are “smart” enough to enroll me in 2007 academic year whereas the re-enrollment for 2008 academic year has passed on 24 Nov 07. Can you believe how smart these people work?

And to add to my woe, I was still asked to pay for the late re-enrollment penalty of AUD 250! I went to my faculty director and he was quite shocked with the situation. It seems like the departments in the university seldom “talk” to each other and hence creating all these nonsense. I thought these kind of situation only happened back at home and wasn’t really expecting these kind of scenario to exist.

Now? My faculty director will try his best to help me get the penalty waived. The fact that he can’t guarantee it made me felt very upset. But, I am all grateful that my faculty director is so helpful to fight for me.

On my way back home from the university after all these issues, I saw something which I was quite shocked. Australian school children (in their school uniform) littering just like that. They bought some toys, unwrap it and then threw the wrappers on the floor and just walked off although the dustbin is nearby. Again, I thought I would see this kind of mentality back at home and wasn’t really expecting this kind of thing here.

Grass is greener on the other side? NOT for now and so far for me!

Here’s what have happened after 2 full weeks in Melbourne.

1. I have started reading some literature for my work. Looking at my progress, I would say I am progressing extremely slow. In addition, due to my “hospitalisation” (details at point 7), I was given 5 days of sick leave. So I have to work from home for the time being.

2. I have not found a place to stay yet. Praise God that He provides me with this temporary accommodation. Praise God too that He let us found one nice place which we have lodge in our application. I prayed that God will give this to us.

3. Got my Australian bank account all set up with internet banking and got my Australian Tax File Number as well.

4. Have almost all my university’s email accounts setup. Apparently once you setup the email account you would three email account (i.e. student, postgrad and EE) for Electrical & Electronics (EE) Engineering student. Still waiting for one more (the EE account) to be fully ready to be used as the EE department requires all their student to use that.

5. Met my former 1993 Junior Methodist Youth Fellowship (JMYF) vice-president. And she is in Melbourne! Attending the same church as I am! What a small world. After 14 years! She was in her last term as JMYFers and I was just starting my JMYF. We both attended Camberwell Methodist Church.

6. Flora and I got to know how to do groceries shopping already for the price of approximately AUD 35 per week. We budgeted AUD 50 per week and praise God that we are able to save AUD 15 per week. AUD 35 per week to feed both of us for 7 breakfasts, 6 lunches and 7 dinners.

7. I got to experience Australian public hospital system. I was admitted to hospital for 9 hours due to my knee pain. Went in at 7am and was discharged at 4pm. They waiting was slow but the service of the doctors and nurses was very very good. They did all the necessaries thing to check what’s wrong with my knee (in Malaysia, the doctors won’t do these procedures). Took my blood, knee fluid and X-ray. First diagnostic was thought to be bacteria infection as the knee fluid was quite yellowish. But after detailed inspection from the blood test and the knee fluid, it was…..GOUT again! I was quite upset but really happy at least I know what’s wrong with me. So, they discharged me and gave me prescription of gout medication. And I was really expecting a bomb price to pay. Praise God for the insurance coverage I have as a student, all these….. I need to pay AUD 9 only for the medicine. Praise the Lord.

8. I have almost mastered the public transport system in Melbourne. From tram to train with a Melway in hand, travelling in Melbourne would be a piece of cake. I have yet to try the bus. I guess it wouldn’t be a problem though.

9. I have come to realise that the rental and space condition in Malaysia is really good compared to Melbourne. The rentals in Melbourne are generally expensive and the space is like really really small. I would say my Cyberia house rent of 900 sq ft is considered big and cheap by Melbourne standard. That kinda of space would cost me about AUD 400-450 per week. depending on which suburb you live in (i.e. how close your apartment to the city or how prime is your area) .For a month, you do the maths.

10. I still hate flies. I can’t wait for autumn to come where the flies will gradually disappear.

Today, 1 Dec 07 is the first day of summer is Australia. Temperature today is still in the low side, (17-20 degree Celsius). Is not hot yet. I heard it will be hotter pretty soon. Currently very tired of house inspection to find a suitable house for us to stay. Up to this point – NIL. Feeling slightly frustrated but what can be done. I trust that the Lord will provide the best for us.

I’ll be starting my work/studies on Monday (3 Dec 07). Is going to be challenging and exciting road ahead. Discussed some of the possible research area with my supervisor that can be ventured into. With Kevin Rudd appointed the Malaysian-born Penny Wong as the new Minister of Climate Change and Water in Australia means our project will be dealing mostly under her ministry.

That’s all for now. And one more thing….. I HATE FLIES even more. The flies in Melbourne is really annoying.