Decisions, decisions, decisions

Am looking forward to my holiday trip back to NZ at the end of May but I have a big decision to make in the next day or so. With my leave being approved, the only thing left is my ticket. As of right now, MAS has an online fare of RM 2965 compared to their usual online fare of RM 3600+. Emirates on the other hand had a fare of RM 2846 at the MATTA fair. Emirates goes via Melbourne with a long transit time - around 6 hours + - while MAS is a direct flight. It may seem to be a straight forward decision to go with MAS; however, I do have frequent flyer miles with Emirates and they occasionally have promo fares to Auckland that see's the price drop to around RM 2600. Also, with the long transit time in Melbourne, I would have the opportunity to exit the airport and have dinner with a couple of friends. Add to that, a couple of friends have said that MAS service is not that great.

Aaaaahhhhhhhh.....Do I want to risk it and hope that Emirates will offer another promo fare to Auckland or do I go ahead with the MAS flight??????????????

Random ramblings....

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....

Holidays are almost over

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

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

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

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

Ski trip pics

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

Easter break: part III

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

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

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....

holidays so far

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.....

holidays....

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......