A boost for Penang : B Braun to invest RM300m more in Penang plants

At a time when manufacturers in almost all sectors are cutting back due to the global slump, German healthcare group B Braun Medical Industries Sdn Bhd (BMI) is bucking the trend. Yesterday, it announced a RM300 million plant expansion plan in Penang to be undertaken over three years.

BMI chairman Dr LG Braun said the additional investment was aimed at meeting demand from the growing healthcare market, in line with its multi-faceted growth master plan over the next 15 to 20 years.

For the expansion project, BMI, which currently has six plants in Penang, acquired a 9,000 sq metre site from the state government fronting one of its facilities in Lebuh Sungai Tiram in Bayan Lepas.

Since the company came to Penang 37 years ago, it has invested over RM1 billion here and created 4,700 jobs. Today, the firm's Penang operation is one of BMI's largest manufacturing sites ouside Europe.

The Penang operations boast production plants for medical devices such as injection needles, shielded intravenous catheters, surgical blades and instruments, sutures, intravenous solutions and administration sets.

Braun said the company, being in the resilient healthcare sector, was relatively shielded from the global financial crisis.

Movie Review: Inkheart

I might not be the best to do a review for this movie, however as I do not often patron cinema for movies, guessed I will just pen a few words based on my own judgement.

In my mind before watching this movie, I assumed that this is a adventure, triller or action movie with lots of suspence scene and exciting moments. However, much to my disappointment, it wasn't really up to what I have though about. The storyline was just so so, nothing really special. The cast, led by Brandon Fraser ( I hoped I got his spelling correct ) was relatively unknown to me and I must admit apart from the leading male actor, I do not know any other stars in the movie (pls pardon me).

The movie was around 1:45 hours, and with a happy ending. I do not have any special memory of the movie as I felt it was just a normal movie. Perhaps the settings and casts were good, but the storyline definitely needs to improve a lot!

ps: At the night of the very same night, I watch another movie in my laptop, Superman Returns and I must say this was a much better movie, seriously worth my 2:30 hours watching it :)

My first time ever...Cinema experience...

Well, I bet you will mostly got confused with my header if you didnt carry on reading this. Or maybe you will make a rough guess that I'm visiting Cinema for the very first time. Well, it's not what you think. The story that I want to share with all of you about the my first ever experience of viewing a movie in an almost empty cinema.

First of all, I booked for another movie through internet but upon telling my friends that I'm watching that movie (name not to be mention...give some face la), some told me it's better to download that movie instead of watching it in the cinema while another friend recommended me to this movie partly due to the sound effect is much better in cinema. We arrived at the counter at around 11am, decided to change the movie after discussed with my beloved sweet gf. While we were selecting the movie, I noticed that the seats are quite empty for the 1210pm movie slot and there were only 5 reserved seats so far. Nevertheless, we didn't care much and just proceed with the purchase.

After that, we went down to Kim Gary for our lunch. My gf didn't really have any idea on what to have for lunch, so I just suggested this place since we never dine there before. We are consider lucky to be arrived early coz after we finished the orders, the restaurant's tables are almost fully filled compared to us being table no.3 when we arrived. I have already finished my meal when my gf's meal haven't even arrived even though other tables with the same order have already been served...Finally after 2 times of enquiries, the meal finally arrived much to our relief...phew!

It was left only about 10 minutes when we left the restaurant, so we proceed to the cinema, checked in and went to ease ourself in the toilet before taking our seats. There were already 5 people in the cinema and I assumed they also just arrived not long before us. I thought we are 'early' to be no.6 and no.7. However when the movie finally started, there were no other people to be seen. So me and my gf were considered to be in an almost empty cinema. It was as if I booked the whole cinema just for 2 of us...hahahhaha. Such a wierd feeling watching the movie with only 7 of us...I bet I will never experience a second time of such incident before though I did learned to never rules out anything, simply before anything is possible in this world... :)

Malaysians optimistic on job security...Is it really so???

This is done based on the survey, but that was based on 2008 result versus 2007....Much have changed since then, now everyday you can also hear news about factories or company laying off people. Again I would like to repeat, it's considered very good to have a job right now, so hold on tight. Below are the report from The Star 28th Jan 2009:

Malaysian employees are more optimistic of job security compared with workers in other Asian economies, according to a study by Towers Perrin-ISR.

Towers Perrin-ISR consultant Dr Jens Ballendowitsch said that despite a significant drop of five percentage points in Malaysians’ confidence level on employment security last year versus 2007, Malaysians were still very optimistic compared with employees in Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, China, Japan and South Korea.

The Towers Perrin-ISR database, which contains opinions of more than 300,000 employees, shows 71% of the Malaysian workforce is optimistic on employment security.

“This reflects the highest level of confidence in the region,” he said. “Only 41% of the workforce in Japan and 44% in South Korea have positive opinions in this respect.”

In Singapore, the figure is 66%, Hong Kong 60% and China 64%.

He said the high level of Malaysian employees’ optimism might be a positive indicator for local businesses.

Solar Eclipse on 1st Day of CNY...

It was a hot sunny day on the first day of Chinese New Year @ 26th January 2009. Well, this is typically CNY weather since it's sure very hot during CNY every year all this while. The only thing special this year is the happening of the solar eclipse stated from 4+pm until 7+pm. I remembered the last time I witnessed this event was when I was very small, maybe still in primary school. Those days, I used the film negatives and folded them up into 12 layers to looked through it for the eclipse. However, this time the sun is not so bright, so we use a pail of water to reflect the sun and then wear a dark sunglasses to look into the water through reflection. At around 510pm, I can only see a quarter of the sun being covered. After that, the skies became very cloudy and that concluded our eclipse adventure this time. Still I'm happy and satisfied to have the chance to witness a solar eclipse again :) Wonder when is going to be the next eclipse happening again and perhaps my lucky 3rd time??? ...

Happy Chinese New Year + Gong Xi Fa Cai !!!

It's the year of the Ox...Happy Chinese New Year to all readers out there from Endless Horizon. Please pardon me for the late wishes since it's already the 3rd day of the CNY as I have valid reasons. First of all, it's Chinese New Year and i'm quite busy helping out my family with housework and all the cny stuff. Secondly, my modem adapter somehow got KOed and I do not have access to the internet for a good 4-5 days. Currently I'm using my temporary multivolt adapter. Hopefully it will last until I get a new one :)

So how was your CNY so far? Received many ang pows? Or have given out many for those of you who are married? Whichever category you falls into, my best wish for you out there is to have a good, smooth, happy and healthy life ahead in the year of Ox. Take care and all the best...Enjoy the remaining 13 days of CNY! Woohoo!!!

Thumbs down for Happy :(

Happy yesterday improved its voice tariff plan, announcing Happy Hour during which customers can make extra long calls for just 99 sen, while enjoying a much reduced rate for short calls.

In a statement yesterday, it said the new plan promised better savings on calls of all durations.

Well, in my statement, this are VERY BAD changes.
Previously, I can use my Happy to call any network and talk for the maximum of 45 mins for only 99 sen. Even though the lines are bad or can even cut-off by itself, I can still live with it. However, with this new tariff plan, the 45 mins for 99 sen is only applicable for calls made by Happy to Happy network and furthermore it's only from 9am to 5pm. Calls made to other network will be 99 sen for ONLY 15 minutes starting from 22 Jan 2009. After the 15 mins time period, every additional minute will be charged at 33 sen. This really sucks big time. Thank god my Happy is gonna finish its credit soon and I'm not gonna top up on use it anymore after this.
BOOOOO Happy !!!

Intel after all is still an US company

Any great man after all is still human. The same goes to any company. When the financial crisis swept across Asia especially in Penang, Malaysia, Intel Corp was supposed to be one of the toughest to stand up against the whatever shutdown, VSS, retrenchment or reallocation. But after one by one US companies announcing their plans for shutdown or downsizing its work force, Intel is finally joining the crowd. After all, they are also just another US company.

Intel Corp’s corporate affairs manager in Penang Loo Cheng Cheng said the two affected facilities, the PG6 and PG7 plants, where manufacturing takes place, were the company’s older and smaller plants. I had a few words with in friends who are currently working in PG7. From what I heard, there will be a few plans moving forward with the plant closure decision. Ongoing projects that will continue will be reallocate to Kulim most likely since top management would like to consolidate everything under the same project in a same site. Furthermore, they want to utilise the new building in Kulim. Those employee working on projects that have been cancelled will be either be reallocate to Kulim or redeploy to other plants in Penang. There will be no retrenchment as a result of these plant closure as announced. How true is it will be remains to be seem.

My oh my, I have quite a few friends affected because of this and I really hope that they will be impacted to the minimum level. Looking at the trend now, the best is to hold on and I mean HOLD REALLY TIGHT to your job....good luck and pray hard for the crisis to be over soon or at least change to the better days...

Mr Obama to President Obama

Did anyone of you watch his inauguration speech? What about his swearing in ceremony or his dance with the First Lady? Man, President Obama was like a superstar. Millions of US citizens came out celebrating the new era of the first black American president. Some when to witness live while many glued to their TV set for the live coverage.

Everyone was paying attention and looking forward for this historic day. The whole world is watching and waiting to see how President Obama can help the current economy crisis. News reported that many US people took leave yesterday to watch the telecast...Let's hope for a better change for a better world. A better America for all...

Tennis Australian Open 2009 19th Jan to 1st Feb

Australian Open, the first tennis grand slam of the year, is currently underway at Melbourne Park. The first slam of the year is on it's 4th day today and so far I must say there hasn't been any major upset happening. The 5th day will be headlined by the 3rd round clash between world no.2 Roger Federer vs former champion Marat Safin. It's the repeat of the 2005 Australian Open Semi Finals.

On paper, this should be an exciting match since both players posted comfortable wins in their respective 2nd round win. I'm putting my hopes on my idol Federer to equal the all time slam record of 14 currently held by Pete Sampras and pray that he won't let me down.
Hometown hero Leyton Hewitt is no more in the play after his opening round lost. So who will it be? One of the top 4 of Nadal, Federer, Djokovic or Murray? Or somebody else that might just crash the party...What about the women's championship? One of the Williams sister? Or will Jelena Jankovic will finally land her first slam as no.1 of the world? Stay tune and find out...we have 1+ more weeks to go...

Oh no.....e-Blogger please help...

For the 2nd day, my blog wouldn't load up normally, causing me unable to post correctly or attach any pictures. It keeps on showing that my page have been successfully loaded but with error. What's happening? Admin please do something...

What a traffic day....Monday 19th Jan 2009

Today as usual it was not an easy day to wake up after the long weekend. To be frank, I had a very nice weekend last week, being able to spent time at home resting, with my families and especially lots of nice quality time with my gal, of course some sports and exercise and helping mom with the CNY cookies. It was a very fruitful weekend indeed.

Since school just started few weeks back, it has been very jam every weekday morning nowadays even though I get off to work very at 645am, simply because it was about the same time parents and school buses dropping off the students to study at school. On my way to work at Bayan Lepas, there was massive jam at the GreenLane Convent school there. As expected, I knew something must have happened. True to my sixth sense (more like common sense), there were a 3 car collisions there. No wonder so damn jam.

(skip the work and office part, since Monday is always Monday blues...)

During lunch time, we went out quite on time today since my boss was complaining hungry already (else, we always went to lunch wayyyy later than everybody else in the company). We went Sunshine Market and the traffic was ok, except for the hot hot sun. After lunch, it was really sleepy, luckily went to hear some eye-protection briefing before continue my testing and development work.

I went off around 645pm, and on my way back, it was hell of a jam coz again it's about the same time as evening school dismissal time. There were an accident at the Batu Lanchang lane (imagine it was such a torturing going past there during that time and now accident pulak!!!) and then another one at Jalan Ayer Itam (in front of Chung Ling secondary school). Wow...so many accident today...

Now, my blog browser is having some problem, that's why I was not able to arrange my post nicely or attach any pictures...haih. Did some surfing for today, and after this, gonna make my daily report to my dear gal gal and hopefully tonight can have some good rest...see ya!

Oil falls to near US$36 in Asia Monday

The Star 19th Jan 2009:

Oil prices fell to near $36 a barrel Monday in Asia as investors eyed a slew of U.S. corporate earnings this week for signs of weakening consumer demand amid the worst recession in decades.

Light, sweet crude for February delivery was down 44 cents at $36.07 a barrel by late afternoon in Singapore in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The contract, which expires on Tuesday, rose $1.11 on Friday to settle at $36.51. The March contract was trading at $42.40 a barrel.

Investors expect to glean more insight into the extent of the current downturn when hundreds of companies report fourth quarter results this week, including heavyweights Google Inc., US Bancorp, General Electric Co., Microsoft Corp. and Johnson & Johnson.

Investors are bracing for bad numbers after banking giant Citigroup on Friday said it lost $8.29 billion in the fourth quarter and that it was splitting in two to help restore profits.

Concern that a recession in developed countries may be worse than previously expected - and that it's eating away at demand for oil - has sent crude prices down about 30 percent from $50.47 a barrel earlier this month and down about 75 percent from $147.27 in July.

Your luck in year 2009 (based on geomancer Master Tan Khoon Yong)

I got this from one of the forwarded email. It may not be accurate or as a reference since they are so many self-proclaimed master out there predicting the 12 animal signs fortune. You can just take note of what you read and judge on your own....

Oxford University: Top 10 irritants

RESEARCHERS at Oxford University recently compiled a list of the top 10 irritating expressions.
Heading it was “at the end of the day”, which was followed in second place by the phrase “fairly unique”.
In third place was the tautological statement “I personally”.
Also making the top 10 is the grammatically incorrect “shouldn’t of”, instead of “shouldn’t have”.

The top 10 most irritating phrases:
1) At the end of the day
2) Fairly unique
3) I personally
4) At this moment in time
5) With all due respect
6) Absolutely
7) It’s a nightmare
8) Shouldn’t of
9) 24/7
10) It’s not rocket science

Haha...I personally do not have good sense on words especially when hearing people blurped out these words....so this is one thing good for me as I won't be feeling uneasy when comes with these phrases. Do you? So if you do, make sure you know how to control your temper, because the person that says these out might just be another person like me who doesn't really have the intention to irritate you....please pardon us...

Penang Government steps in to help retrenched workers

Wow....economy downturn really hit Penang hard....many factories are cutting down it's employee size and there's a lot of retrentchment and VSS going around. What a bad timing given that it's only 1+ weeks away from Chinese New Year :( Now the Penang State government has stepped in to help those affected by the retrenchment. Haizzzz...

The Edge 14th Jan 2009:

The Penang state government has activated the employment and retraining mechanism with an initial allocation of RM10 million to spearhead efforts to help retrenched workers regain employment.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng chairs the special committee, with InvestPenang Bhd executive committee chairman Datuk Lee Kah Choon as its works commissioner, assisted by InvestPenang general manager Wan Zailena Noordin.
Lim said Penang would be the first state in the country to initiate the mechanism in preparation for possible retrenchments during the current economic downturn.
He said the committee would coordinate with the industries to garner feedback on the situation.
“We do not want to wait until people come to us looking for jobs. Instead, we will work with the industries to find out first-hand if there are going to be any layoffs and then take the appropriates steps,” Lim said.
“Massive layoffs may not happen, but we are not going to wait till it happens before acting.
“We want to ensure every level of employment, be it professionals or labourers, are able to seek re-employment or be retrained so they can find other jobs,” Lim said at a press conference attended by Lee, and deputy chief ministers Mohd Fairuz Khairudin and P Ramasamy.

SHOCKER: Seagate replaced it's CEO and COO

Wow, this really comes as a surprise for my ex-employer. I knew that business is bad at this financial crisis moment and orders and volume have dropped drastically, but it's not only Seagate is affected. In fact all US companies in the electronics sectors are suffering due to the global financial meltdown. I still got keep in touch with some of my ex-colleagues and have been told that the volumes and productions have gone down by a lot, but this is very much expected and there's no sign at all that both the CEO and COO are gonna be relieved their duties. The CEO, Bill Watkins was bullish at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last Friday and he was mourning about the worse Dec month Seagate is going through. According to him, VR and retrenchment were to be announced soon (latest by the end of Jan 09). However, no hints were given by him during the interview held at the show that he, as well as COO Dave Wickersham were part of the layoff. Below were the reports of the surprise announcement of the Seagate restructuring taken from Tech Trader Daily:

In a stunning development in the disk-drive business, Seagate (STX) this morning announced that its board has ousted Bill Watkins as President and CEO, and replaced him with Stephen Luczo, the company’s chairman.

In a filing with the SEC, the company also said it will cut about 10% of its U.S. workforce as part of a restructuring program to be detailed later this month. Seagate said that the restructuring will impact a broad range of departments, including R&D, and comes in response to the current economic environment.

The company said Watkins will be advising Luczo in order to ensure a smooth transition, and will confer over the next week to determine what role if any Watkins will have at the company going forward.

The company also disclosed that David Wickersham as resigned as president and chief operating officer, effective today. He will be replaced by Robert Whitmore, the chief technology officer at the company.

Let's hope that the new management and board of directors can work together to bring Seagate back up to the sustainable level. At this moment, they still haven't announce their global strategy of Seagate in other part of the world in terms of cost saving (VSS, layoff, hiring, pay cut, shutdown and etc...) and there are many rumours flying around regarding what Penang Seagate employee will be getting. Let's hope my friends and ex-colleague there can go through this difficult period with not much b ad impact.

In fact, many companies in the Bayan Lepas free trade zone are not doing good. For example, Spansion production will be shutting down for the month of January from what I heard from my boss, my own company will be shutting down 1 week during CNY, Bosch just gave out letters to 40 of it's employees telling them to stop work for 3 months (with half months pay every month) and many more companies are taking measures to survive in these difficult times... :(

Ferrari unveils Ferrari F60

Wow...Ferrari are one the front runners this year in terms of unveiling their new car for the new seasons. The car for the 2009 seasons is named F60 and speaking at the launching, last season's championship runners up Fellipe Massa described the car as 'cute'.

Well, to me 'cute' or not is not important. What is more important is that the car is more reliable than last year in order to mount the serious challenge to snatch back the driver's championship crown from McLaren's Lewis Hamilton. Let's hope that Kimi's bad luck is the thing in the past and he can be back to his back to recapture the crown which once belongs to him back in 2007 and Massa keep up the good work just like last year.

Of course I hope that there will be no more dirty play towards the championship and in every races which happens in the very last race of the racing calendar even though McLaren wouldn't admit it and Toyota simply blamed it on the tyre and weather....shame shame...

US President Bush's Farewell Dinner Party

This picture is damn funny. I got it from one of the forwarded mails from my gf. It's showing that all the people attending the farewell dinner party needs to remove their shoes in the wake of the shoe throwing incident last month in Iraq where outgoing President Bush narrowly avoided being hit by shoes throwed by an unidentified Iraq journalist TWICE.... I must admit this old man does have some skills and speed in moving out of the way...haha. Have a nice laugh to start off the day...

KFC promotion : 15% off Zinger Tower meal

I think I do not have to say more. The header of this post says it all. Yup, KFC is having promotion again for their Zinger Tower. Attached above it's the online voucher that will entitled you for a 15% off to the Zinger Tower Combo meal. Terms and condition can be obtain from the online voucher. So hopefully those KFC and Zinger lovers out there can take this promotion opportunity and enjoy the discount meal :) You do not have to thank me as I'm just sharing this out to everyone. Enjoy...

I saw a meteor star !!!

This happened few days back last week (to be exact it was Thurs night last week) but it's my first time experience so that's why I would like to share it out. I was as usual calling and chatting with my love after waited patiently for her tv series to finished at around 930pm. While we were talking, I was outside my house compound walking around and chatting happily. Then suddenly I saw 1 bright star travelling fast across the dark dark skies. It was moving fast but I could see it clearly among the leaves of my house's rambutan trees because it was dark at that time and the really bright light of it.

Immediately I told my dear about it. She then ask me to faster make a wish. For a moment after that, both of us went silence as we were making our wishes :) I really hope that these wishes will become reality. After all, this is the first time I had the chance to witness the incident and people always says first time will be more lucky... We continued our phone conversation after that happily knewing that we were really lucky :) (the pictures attached is not the one I witness, just for the purpose of displaying :p)

ICAP ICAP !!!

This stock in KLSE main board "ICAP" was highly recommended by my investment siffu and his siffu very very much. They always said that buy this stock for say 20-25 years as long term investment. Everytime I asked him what is the best price to buy, he will always give me a consistent reply:

"When you see it's low, just buy and slowly accumulate. If you buy this round at higher price, your next round buying price at lower will for sure lower down your average buying price."

Convincing enough? Hehe. Anyway, here's the latest Q2 report by them. Looking at it, sounds good? So is it really a time for me to enter? I'm still wondering...

icapital.biz Bhd, a close-ended fund, posted an 88% jump in its net profit to RM14.74 million in the second quarter ended Nov 30, 2008 (2QFY09) from a year earlier, as it booked more income from the disposal of securities.

The profit translates to an earnings per share of 10.53 sen, up from 5.6 sen in 2Q08.

Revenue for the quarter increased 71.2% to RM15.94 million from RM9.31 million previously.

In its statement to Bursa Malaysia, icapital.biz said it made a gain of RM14.38 million from the disposal of securities for RM22.55 million. The cost of securities was RM8.17 million.

“The gain came very substantially from the sale of VADS,” it said.

The company had cash and cash equivalents totalling RM75.56 million as of November 2008, up from RM49.17 million a year earlier.

icapital.biz’s net asset value (NAV) per share, a better measure of the close-ended fund’s performance, decreased by 24% to RM1.49 at Nov 30, 2008 from RM1.95 at the end of FY08, and down 15% against RM1.75 in 1QFY09.

Race to secure new LCCT ... wah...i'm puzzled !!!

From The Edge Daily 9th Jan 2009:

The race to secure the new permanent low-cost carrier terminal (LCCT) has started. Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) has finalised its master plan for a new LCCT near the existing main terminal in Sepang, while AirAsia yesterday came out with more details on its proposed terminal in Labu, Negri Sembilan.

Sources said MAHB would submit its master plan to the government soon. The irony is AirAsia is part of the steering committee that finalised and approved the airport operator’s master plan, according to a source.

“The government and AirAsia are aware of the master plan, which has been finalised and approved by the steering committee. It will be submitted to the government soon,” the source said.

“In the 16 months when the master plan was being worked out, AirAsia, which is part of the steering committee, did not raise any issue on the plan. So why are issues raised outside the meeting now?” the source said.

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat said yesterday the government had not made a decision on MAHB’s proposed new LCCT.

Meanwhile, AirAsia group chief executive officer Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes said yesterday the carrier would finalise the funding for its own proposed LCCT, named KLIA East@Labu, by April. The cost of the LCCT, excluding land cost, is estimated at RM1.6 billion.

The budget carrier is partnering Sime Darby Bhd to build the Labu terminal. On Monday, Sime Darby obtained the government’s nod to proceed with the project.

Auspicious Day to start work in 2009 after Chinese New Year...

Chinese New Year is just 3 weeks away. In 3 weeks time we are going to enter the year of the Ox. So how are you doing and planning for your CNY holidays back to hometown? For me, I don't really have much to plan since I'm staying at my hometown and my company will be shutting down for the whole week during that week. I believe many companies will also do the same since now the economy impact is really hitting us in Asia. After the CNY holiday, which is the day to best start ur work? The chart above shows the prediction based on your animal signs. It's up to you to believe it :) If you are auspicious, then try to avoid the day termed Worst in bold. Or better still, consult experts to find ways to prevent something bad happening to you if you really have to start on on the "Worst" day... Good luck then...

Malaysians 5th as digital media consumers

Malaysians rank fifth among 52 countries for being hooked to digital media for entertainment.

The survey by research firm The Nielsen Company showed Malaysians ranked third globally in terms of those who spent more than 20 hours a week watching streamed or downloaded content from the Internet.

It found that 53% of Malaysians played movie, video, audio or game content online in the past month, while 41% downloaded the same content from the Internet.

The findings are part of the biannual Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey, which reached 26,000 online users including 500 Malaysians.

“For Malaysia, broadband penetration is only at 18%, but with the Government’s push to High Speed Broadband via fibre optics by 2010, we can expect the country to continue its climb up the media consumption ladder,” said Nielsen Malaysia Consumer Group managing director Paul Richmond.

The survey also found that respondents from emerging nations were heavier media users compared with those from developed countries.

So you tell me, with all the electronics and gadgets, kids nowadays have less outdoor activities and more unhealthy lifestyle...Hope all the parents are listening and reading this...

Air Asia Festive Season Promotion is back...

Yup...you read the headlines right! The AirAsia promotion is on again. This round, they are offering tickets as low as rm9 per way to all it's destination. Of course rm9 per way is only for local domestic destination. Still a good bargain if you are planning for a last minute vacation. However, with the current economy situation in the country, I doubt this promotion will be a big hit. Nevertheless, it's a bargain for those frequent traveller plus this round there will be no more fuel surcharge. Booking period starts yesterday 5th Jan until 18 Jan (next Sun) and travelling period will be from 9 Feb to 30 Jun. I'm still hoping for them to have promotion for the year end...then I will be able to complete my booking....haha! Good luck and happy travelling!

Spamming Stats in Malaysia

Further article post from The Star regarding the spamming in Malaysia....really really scary....so make sure you take all the safety precautions especially if you are using shared computers...the best way I would suggest is....if ever you need to attached your email for any products or online sign up thing, the best is you create a email account from any web-based free site (Yahoo!, GMail, Hotmail etc.) and provide them this email address, separate from your real email which has your friend list and official stuff....just my 2 cents :)

Spamming across the Web

A few good tips from The Star yesterday as when we are doing our internet banking nowadays, which has become more and more popular among us. Even me myself was not spared. Currently I did all my credit card payments using internet banking as well as my utility bills. And for the 1st time ever, I even bought cinema tickets through GSC's e-payment yesterday...so this piece of article comes as a reminder for all of us at a good time! (very handy all the time I should say)

A true less taxing year? New Tax Exemptions for 2008

Amid the gloomy economic climate, taxpayers will still have a reason to smile when filing their 2008 tax returns.

Employees will enjoy more goodies in the form of new tax exemptions for a host of things, as announced in the Budget 2009.

Taxpayers who receive petrol, parking and travelling allowances can now claim tax relief of up to RM6,000 a year.

Parents can also claim up to RM2,400 a year for childcare fees, while exemptions are also provided for telephone and handphone, pager, Personal Data Assistant (PDA) and Internet subscriptions.

Those claiming for medical benefits could also enjoy tax relief for maternity expenses and buying and seeking traditional medicines and services respectively. They include ayurvedic and acupuncture treatments.

In welcoming the implementation of the additional tax exemptions, Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) said some of the additional exemptions would help ease the financial burden of employees.

The Star 1st Jan 09

EPF to buy prime govt land in Klang Valley?

The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is keen to buy some government-owned prime land in the Klang Valley if the price is fair according to the deputy chief executive officer of investment.

It was reported that in November Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had announced that the Government wanted to develop its land in several strategic locations in the city, including about 204 acres near Jalan Cochrane, Kuala Lumpur.

The report also said property consultants had valued the land near Jalan Cochrane at RM100 to RM200 psf. They said the high commercial value was due to its prime location.

The EPF’s strategy was always looking at long-term investments in order to give higher returns to its members, he said, adding: “We are dealing with pensioners’ money. Of course we have to be careful with the risks involved in any investment. If we need to wait, we will wait until the right time to invest.”

Of the current RM330bil of funds it was managing now, he said 2% would be allocated for property investment.

Better do proper research and get expert advise on this kind of investment. It's because they are dealing with our old days saving. Many people including me are depending on this fund for our old day usage.

Happy New Year 2009!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009 to everyone out there!!!

The time has come...2008 is gone and it's officially 2009 now. It's 1st of January 2009 !!!

I know it's a tough and challenging year ahead, but hopefully it will be a better year for you out there compared to 2008. May your wish comes true in 2009 and targets can be accomplish by the year end...Smooth smooth and good year yea !!!

Following are some pictures captured during the countdown celebration across the world. Can you guess where are these places? (No prize for correct guesses though :p)