When Life Faces Hurdles

Hubby faced his hurdle in 2007. Our family budget was tight since 2001 when he enrolled in Sabah Theology College. In fact, I resigned from my work in2000 because I want to take care of my children myself instead of putting them in the care of others. They were 7 and 4 years old. 

Hubby also resigned from his work a few months after my resignation because he didn't want to be transferred to work in KL, and his father promised him that his family run biscuit business can bring him at least RM4000 monthly. Thinking that if he put more time to organize and to run the biscuit business, he would be generating more than what his father was making. Not knowing that his father was too optimistic in his estimation, the work was actually laborious, and earning was far below RM4000. 

I brought along 2 sons to visit hubby in Tawau. There he was, working together with the Indonesians ladies, sweating, tiring and having to deliver the biscuits to the shops and to canteen in palm oil plantation. He was quiet in church life, maintaining a Sunday church goer only. His father would object to the changes he made with the workers and the work process. Hubby would rest at night but his father felt that he should cut the labels and other works so that the workers only need to focus on biscuit making in the day time. I felt sorry for my hubby. There was no quality in his life and I strongly felt that this type of life wasn't for us.  There must be something better as we were both professional!

Knowing his calling since young, I encouraged him to do his seminary study, and I prayed to return to work for three years, with salary income of RM4000. God answered my prayer! I got a job with my first interview and the offer was what I asked for. I was further convinced that there was no mistake in choosing this path. Praise God for that, not only he gave me a job with the offer I asked for, this was the assurance from God that hubby should do his seminary study in preparing himself to serve God!

When he graduated in end 2003, he started to involve himself in a social work together with 2 other ladies who requested him to set up a social welfare organisation. One lady had her burden in hospital visitation, while the other needed an umbrella to carry on mental illness care. Hubby is successful as a pioneer in many areas, this is his gift from God. He led the association for 3 years successfully, until people were jealous of him, and wanted to overthrow him. I felt this was ironic when you are spending the prime of your year to do good with not so well-paid income, there are people who do not appreciate. Christians were sinners, and are still sinners, until when we see God face to face.

Anyway, I still think the three years were great because of the needs who were attended. In year 2007 and 2008, hubby helped out his brother in an independent church. The church was like china-men run company. We left the church. Hubby started to look for job opportunity. Being the man in the family, he was hard-working. He started to make biscuits again in the house, and sold them to coffee shops and titbits shops. He lost weight because he did everything manually and on his own. In 2010, his previous colleague offered him a job in KL. He flew over. In 2011, he came back because he wanted to be with us, and we needed him in the house. The boys were 18 and 15. They needed a father in the house, as boys would want a father to be in the house. 

I can see that we were financially very tight for the past 10 years, I taught my children to be thoughtful and responsible of their spending. They are very careful with their spending even now. Now that hubby and I are both 51 and 50, God is giving us what we didn't save for our children's education. My elder son has just got his entry into tertiary in Taiwan. I am preparing RM80K for him. My younger son will be further his study in less than 3 years. God has given us enough for my elder son. Hubby continues to serve God in the way God wants him to. We realize that in good or bad, never give up on God. Continue to trust God that He did not forget about you.

Praise be with our Lord!

Neil Armstrong and Moon Worshipping

Neil Amstrong. First person to walk on the moon in July 1969.  I was eight years old.  Read about him in my Chinese textbook in primary school. I even had a t-shirt that printed his famous saying "That's one small step for a man, one giant step for mankind".

I still remember my mother would look for the moon on 中秋节 (mid-autumn festival or mooncake festival). She would prepare a foldable table facing the moon and served on it were mooncake, peanuts, chinese tea, small yam and 菱角. She would give my brother and I a few stick of incense and asked us to worship the moon. Then, after this handsome astronaut had set his foot on the moon, my father teased my mother that Apollo had been to the moon and saw no 嫦娥，吴刚 and 玉兔.

That was a beautiful story, not only the children believed, the adults also believed that we could sometimes figured out the shaped of a man chopping a tree on the moon, and next to him were a lady wearing the 古装 together with her rabbit.

The American spoiled our 童话故事。ha.

Cooking For The Family

Hubby is out-station in Tawau these few days. He will be back on Sunday evening.

My sister and I jogged at the park near Taman Perdana this morning. Returning from exercise, my 2 boys were still sleeping. Today is Hari Kebangsaan, no school today.

I finally made kuih dadar (pandan pancake with coconut filling). That was delicious. I wanted to make for so long, but didn't get the mood doing that. I like the grated coconut sweetened with gula melaka, and the fragrant pandan flavoured pancake. Every ingredient is fresh.

I bought a grated coconut at Borneon for RM1.80. Using my wok, add some water and gula melaka, simmer until the syrup thickened. Add in grated coconut and mix well with the syrup. Let cool. I keep in freezer if I have no time to make the pancake.

From my back yard, I plucked a few pandan leaves, cut them shorter, and blend with some water. The pandan flavoured juice extracted is green in colour. Use it for making batter for the pancake.

Since I do not have non-stick frying pan, I use my all-purpose wok for the pancake. The first few did not come out good enough for me to roll the coconut fillings, so I sprinkled the grated coconut on top. My son said they taste good as well.

Breakfast was delicious. Buying good kuih dadar from the market is not easy. The pandan flavour is either not strong enough or artificially coloured, and the coconut normally is not juicy because the hawkers usually squeeze some santan away so that the grated coconut can last longer. Nothing is better than to cook my own food.

Last night I cooked spaghetti because my elder son missed my spaghetti.  We went out together in the afternoon to buy the ingredients.  Couldn't get hold of parmesan cheese powder at Bake With Me. Anyway, three of us enjoyed that last night. I still have some pasta in the fridge. Wonder whether I can fry the leftover pasta like mee and meehoon.

On average, I spend about three hours everyday on cooking the 3 meals.  I told my hubby that if not because of my love for them, and the joy of a mother's heart to see her children enjoying her cooking, I wouldn't be bother to spend so much time and effort to cook.

My husband told me that when he was young, he remembered his mother having to cook for the whole family including his 4 uncles and 6 aunties and his 6 siblings. Not only that, his grandma and aunties sometimes would complain about the food and left with washings undone.  That was unbearable. If I were to live such life, I think I would leave the house.  Glad that Chinese are not so traditional anymore. 

Urban Young Are Full Of Debts

According to Shi Hua Chinese newspaper on 6/7/12, the consumer survey revealed that more than half of the young people working in the city are heavily indebted. The monthly payments to service debts with his take-home income is more than 30%.  37% of them do not have sufficient income to cover their expenses. 

Majority of this group are between 24 to 29 years old, degree holder, and their income is between RM2000 to RM3000. The main debts are housing loan, car loan, personal loan, study loan and insurance. Though heavily indebted, most of these interviewed are happy with the lifestyle they are having.

72% of them are employees, 10% has part-time jobs, 9.1% under contract, 5.2% are self-employed and 3.6% are jobless.

After 30 yrs old, most would have increased income, more mature in handling their finances, and thus can reduce their debts.

Interesting to find out that degree holders of the young have more debts than those without. This probably due to higher expectation when they purchase their house and cars.

Malay has the highest debt, followed by Indian and Chinese.

 

As for emergency saving, 14.6% do not have any, 20.2% can last one month, 16.4% can last 2 months, 13.8% 3 months and 4.7% 4 months.

 

Smartphone-do we need it?

Should I need a smartphone? My sons requested a smartphone to themselves. I hesitate. Perhaps they should have one when their peers are having, or should they wait till the price comes down? Why do the youngsters need smartphones? At their age, most probably be used for facebook, playing online games, taking photos, download music, and just because everyone is having a smartphone?

It is interesting to come across an article concluded from a survey by MSC Malaysia and Universiti Sains Malaysia regarding "Consumer Behaviors toward Usage of Smartphone in Malaysia" in 2011.
 
1814 users were surveyed. 65% of this group were of age 17 to 26. 20% were of age 27 to 36. There is a joke going round, when your children are using iPhone, the parents are doing i-Paid.

40% of the interviewers are secondary leavers and 47% are degree holders. From here, education doesn't associate with users. Occupations also do not relate to tendency of using smartphone.

What makes a smartphone smart? Its' application software. Honestly speaking, in Malaysia, the features of smartphone could not be fully utilized. You can't have access to WIFI everywhere you go. Commercially, it is at its infant stage. Using a smartphone is expensive for those below 27 when their earning power is none or low. Having a notebook and a normal handphone is sufficient to get their social life moving. After all, notebook and handphone allow them to do what they need, download music, online games, facebook, youtube, internet browsing. They don't need GPS and a calendar on-hand.

My conclusion is, wait till the price has come down, the trend is there, but we do not want to be the pioneer users.

Proton Persona

Owning a car is expensive in Malaysia. When we needed a new car 5 years ago, we opted Malaysia National Car because it is the cheapest among all, in fact, not cheap for such poor quality car. I always feel that buying a car is not worth the money but with our poor transport system, it is hard to live without one. Kancil is too small and we think a small car is dangerous in an accident.  Not only it is hard for other drivers to see your car, the damage would be very bad if hit by another car. My hubby thought Myvi is too feminine, normally driven by ladies and retirees. But I notice that young people prefer Myvi over Kancil nowadays.

My Proton Persona engine became noisy in less than a year after driven for less than 10k. The same complaints go for other protons owners. We pay RM529 every monthly for a tenure of 9 years. We chose to pay 9 years because we were very tight on our budget 5 years ago. The basic model was RM49,775 excluding insurance. Simple interest was 3.99%, and annual percentage rate was 7.15%. We loaned RM42K. The mileage is only about 10k annually because everywhere I need to go is so near.

Other than the monthly installment of RM529, I spend about RM200 monthly for petrol. One liter of Primax 95 is RM1.9. I hardly pay parking because the car attendants are no way to be found. I don't know where they disappear to. After one week, the fine for late payment is 10 times, and I end up not paying. I hope DBKK can work out a better system. There is no toll in Kota Kinabalu because there is no 'highway'.

Mind you, maintaining my proton persona is not easy for my income size of about RM3000. Last month I spent RM202 for general maintenance. I also got them to repair the power window for both front window and back window. The power window on the driver's side had failed 3 times. Luckily I have the extended 5 years warranty and another month be expiring. The new protons will have the power window under warranty for life. I think the power window of protons must be of very poor quality that Proton has to give life warranty.

After general maintenance at Permaisaba, Eon's authorized service center in Jalan Bundusan, hubby found the car a bit too noisy. The technician concluded that timing belt needed to be changed because the rubber has lengthened and the teeth of the belt do not fit in the groove. I don't understand but just paid RM504 for the repair. Then, I noticed when I reversed and turned right, the tyre seemed to have some unusual noise. I got my hubby to do alignment at Bintang Ramai in Kolombong, and the boss informed that the noise came from faulty absorber and mounting. When you change absorber, you have to change left and right together. That cost me RM490 after discount just for the parts. Labour and tyre alignment cost me RM100. That's a lot of money for Persona repair, adding petrol and monthly repayment is above RM2000. How to survive for people having smaller income than me?

I hope Malaysia government can be more responsible for the welfare of Malaysian. Since the infrastructure of  our transport system is poor, the government should sell national cars at an affordable price to Malaysians. According to a newspaper report, our young people living in the city are in heavy debts paying for hire purchase, housing loan, personal loan, education loan and insurance. 37% of our young people do not have sufficient income to meet their expenses. This is sad....

Inner Healing

Heard over I-FM radio about a dying man who did wrong to his family that caused broken relationship. His wife and children refused to care about him when he had cancer. He had no way to turn to but to welfare home. A young social worker was kind enough to give him plenty of attention despite his bad attitude and smelly tumor. Eventually he was touched by the young man and requested to go home just once more. The young man arranged the trip. The dying man, in his bedroom, sitting on the wheelchair, with the door opened, started to pour out how sorry he was to hurt his family. His wife and children were in another rooms with doors opened as well. Believing that they had heard his apology, he left leaving behind a letter for his wife.

The next day, the man passed away in his sleep. The social worker shared that when we can't solve our problems or conflicts externally, solve them internally. Very often external things or people were just beyond our control. Time can't be wind back. When we face such situation, it is important for us to settle these problems internally. Chinese said 放下，放开. Christians would ask for God's forgiveness.  Some people will do good hoping to contra out the bads they did. No matter how, I believe one day we have to pay back the 'bads' that we did when we do them knowingly.