Two weeks down and it hasn’t been a great holiday for me. Probably it’s because I face as much tension at home than at work.

Julea’s been really stressed up lately. With a paper to re-sit and problems at work, only thing she looks forward everyday is to come back to a happy home but that too was not possible. It’s hard for me to see her like this but then again, what can I do? Been trying to cheer her up but the stress level is too immense.

I know Julea, she could care less about career and friends. What she care most is her family and she always put them first. She knows that her family will always be there for her all the time.

I hate to admit it but I’m beginning to see that she’s right. I have a lot of friends from school and college days. I had my fair share of happy times with friends during my younger days. But as we move into our adulthood, things changed.

I see less of my friends and spend more time with my family. Well, Julea is my family now. I’m home with her more than I’m out with my friends. That’s not because I just wanna stay home with her all the time, well I do, but it’s also partly because my friends have their own agendas and have learned to carry on with their plans without me.

My friends are out partying now and how I wish I could join them. But Julea now needs me most and I shall be around with her all the time. My good friends will understand. Some friends don’t even bother.

I really need to learn how to balance my priorities between friends and family. Although I hate to see my friend unhappy, I also hate to see my family sad.

Ok, the government decided to ‘help’ us by reducing the fuel price by 15 cents. According to the government, thr brought forward their “floating” price mechanism for fuel after considering the drop in global oil prices over the past few weeks as well as higher inflation in July.

Now we all know the reason why the government decided to revise the petrol price subsidy just days before August 26.

Let’s see when will the price go up next.

Here’s the list of petrol prices in Malaysia since 1990’s.

before the 90’s - RM 0.89
1990 - RM 1.10 (increased RM 0.21)
01/10/2000 - RM 1.20 (increased RM 0.10)
20/10/2001 - RM 1.30 (increased RM 0.10)
01/05/2002 - RM 1.32 (increased RM 0.02)
31/10/2002 - RM 1.33 (increased RM 0.01)
01/03/2003 - RM 1.35 (increased RM 0.02)
01/05/2004 - RM 1.37 (increased RM 0.02)
01/10/2004 - RM 1.42 (increased RM 0.05)
05/05/2005 - RM 1.52 (increased RM 0.10)
31/07/2005 - RM 1.62 (increased RM 0.10)
28/02/2006 - RM 1.92 (increased RM 0.30)
05/06/2008 - RM 2.70 (increased RM 0.78)
23/08/2008 - RM 2.55 (decreased RM 0.15)

Do you ever feel like your government is screwing your arse? High fuel prices, high toll prices and high car prices thanks to the 300% tax. Sometime I feel so What What….sigh

One down and four more to go. I can’t wait for the coming weekend. Monday was quite a breeze and it was rather an eventful day for us in office.

President realised that most of us do not acquire the the proper skills to give good public speeches. so he invited a few Toastmasters over to give us a little glimpse of what Toastmaster is all about and how it can benefit us and the confederation.

I’m very much aware what Toastmasters are all about. I’ve been wanting to join Toastmasters for quite some time, but as usual, procrastination kicks in and soon everything was forgotten.

The Toastmasters gave a very brief yet detailed presentation to us. They even explained to all of us that there are actually many different types of Toastmasters clubs formed in Malaysia and around the world. Besides the english speaking clubs, they have mandarin speaking clubs too.

This kinda gave me a silly idea

Now why should I join them when I can form my very own club. An all hokkien speaking Toastmasters club! I’ll even called it the Yumsengmasters Club! Yeah, that’s what I’ll probably do, LOL.

I suspect the founder of Toastmasters club International knows very little of the Malaysian Chinese community and how good are they in public speaking. Especially during a typical Chinese wedding dinner, after a few rounds down the hall and a couple of drinks, everyone in the hall can be a very good public speaker!

Heck, we can even sing very well too!

To some, today is just another day.

To the chinese community all over the whole, the 8th August 2008, or rather 08.08.08, is the most auspicious day in our lifetime. We’ll probably won’t leave long enough in this date again, ever! You’ll probably see a lot of chinese couples getting married today.  I’m sure some chinese business owner may choose this auspicious date to start their new business and some moving into new houses.

The number ‘8′ is a very auspicious number to the chinese community. ‘8′ or pa in mandarin, patt in cantonese, making a similar sound of fa and fatt which brings the meaning of prosperity in chinese. Hence, today is indeed a very special day because the more 8s you have in a day, the better it is, so to speak.

That is why, the Beijing Olympic 2008 starts today. Gonna be home watching the grand opening ceremony. I’m sure it will be an extravagant event as the host country, China spent a lot of money and effort into organising the world greatest sports event.

Oh, will be having some primary school friends coming over my place for a small BBQ session. It’s time to catch up with the good old days.

It’s the 8th of August 2008 and it’s a Friday.  Have a great weekend everybody!