Like a baby

I have always wondered why we have to continuously pat a baby for him/her to fall asleep. Wouldn't it make the baby become more aware instead of falling asleep with all that constant patting. Well, last night I got my answer... first hand. I wanted to sleep early since I have to rush to work early this morning. Hubby came home ard 10 and wanted to go out for a drink, which I obliged. Dengan penuh pandainye, I ordered Cappucino, which obviously contains caffeine so naturally for me, I couldn't fall asleep easily when we got home. I tossed and turned in front of the TV (hubby was watching it) and found it difficult to fall asleep (normally I will just turn off no matter how loud the tv is). So hubby, the sweet guy that he is, patted me to sleep... I dozed off in less than 5 mins...

Sepang - Johor - Brunei

I realised I have been MIA from the blogosphere for awhile despite so much happenings in my life this month. As I previously mentioned before, Dec'10-Jan'11 has been a busy period for us. I attended department's regional AMD at Golden Palm Tree Gold Coast, Sepang mid month (15-16 Jan 2011). I had very low expectation based on reviews my colleague read online. Turns out the place was not bad at all. The room was spacious, the environment relaxing and the view was okay. I had nothing much to complain except when I went back to my room for the first time at ard 10pm+ after dinner, I found out the room was already occupied. Lucky there was no one inside. So I had to go back to the reception and get another room.

On the 20th, it was a (Thaipusam) public holiday for most of us. Hubby and I woke up quite late with so many things to do. We had to attend a nikah ceremony in JB at 9pm and started our journey from Nilai only at approximately 6.30pm. Naturally, we had to maximise Inspira's speeding capability and I am so thankful that we made it on time! Safely! That was even after a short stop at Linggi for Hazmi to take a shower and detoured to the nearest Petronas since we ran out of Petrol + toilet break. That said I filled in RM85 worth of RON97 petrol for that journey, which was fully utilised. Filled in RM90 petrol for the journey back but we still had more than 1/4 tank when we reached Bangi the day after (average speed back was 110km/h). Shows how much petrol the car can consume when you press the pedal. Good thing I took Friday off because hubby was not feeling too well that night so we checked in at Kozi Hotel in Danga Bay.

Final trip for this month was Brunei 22-24th Jan 2011. Sabah trip got postponed/cancelled... Thank God. I cannot continue living off suitcases like this while I still have to go to work on daily basis. I nearly regretted my decision to go to Brunei as a holiday destination as most people say there was nothing there to see. Well, I am glad I did. True enough, there was not many tourist attractions there. But we got to see a lot. For once, the people there are still very friendly, like we once were. They truly respect their Sultan, which is also their ruler, unlike ours where PM is the one calling the shots. Their petrol is OH SO CHEAP at 50+sens compared to our RM2.40/litre. Their cost of living (food etc) is not as expensive as ours. Their traffic was very clear, thus less stress. The downside is that they are not as developed as KL. It looks like a small town, like Alor Setar perhaps. Not many things for locals to do. We went to 2 malls. Went to watch a movie. There was a bowling alley. And that's it. For tourist like us, we went for a boat ride around Kampung Ayer. Tasted their Nasi Katok, bought from Pasar Malam near our hotel but to me it was normal. It was like plain rice + sambal (4 variaties to choose from) and a small piece of fried chicken. It was cheap though. Only BND1.

So that was it. I shall declare a hiatus in our travelling schedule from now on so that I shall START concentrating on my studies. Looking at a longer intervals between blog posts, I suppose.

More ASB loan?

I am rather meticulous when it comes to money (rather is an understatement). I currently *manage* Setapak Indah bills, Bangi bills, telephone bills for all 4 of us (mummy, abg, hubby & myself) and my own credit cards + loan payments on monthly basis. If you have been following my blog last year, you should have known that I took quite a big chunk of ASB loan (big chunk for MY standard). Now that dividend for last year has been declared and paid, I am quite settled with that for the time being i.e. I have enough funds put aside to cover one year of installments so I don't have to worry about that for now.

So I started digging for other debt that we have to settle and found hubby's PTPTN loan. He has around 26K+ outstanding and has never REALLY bothered to consistently pay for it. I said REALLY because he kept saying he will pay it when he has extra funds but you now how expenses never really end. He does pay sometimes but it's so inconsistent that it barely covers the interest/admin fee portion. So I made new year resolution to pay that loan consistently this year. Of course, hubby argued why would I be paying for it when it is HIS loan. Whatever hubby. Your money, my money, your loan, my loan. I ask money from you whenever I'm broke anyway... (which is often =p)

Taking into account 26K+ loan with 3% interest annually and monthly payment of RM200, it's gonna take yearsss for the loan to be settled. (Where's my financial calculator?) Definitely MORE THAN 10 years. So I told myself, I need to shorten it so that we can move on to other things later. So my target now is to shorten it to 3 years within managable monthly commitment. How? I know about this ASB loan paying interest portion only for some first few years. The catch is the interest rate for this package is higher than the normal ones. If I take that loan paying the interest portion only, I can use ASB's annual dividend to settle hubby's PTPTN. In 3 years time, I would be way ahead of the PTPTN payment and will be left with insignificant amount of debt left. Oh I also plan to prematurely cancel the ASB loan, of course pay the penalty fee, before I have to start paying for the principal. So my mission now is to hunt down an RHB ASB loan sales person. Don't know whether I have enough limit left under my name. I worry if I use hubby's name, he will later want to use the dividend for other stuff than to pay his PTPTN loan. Haha. Well, not really. I just find it a hassle to manage things that are not under my name. I will always have to drag these people along whenever I need to do any transaction. Anyway, that is my mission now. Apart from chasing my car dealer to quickly clear my neo's loan, that is!