Summary of Last Week's Events

It's Sunday. The weekend is as good as over. I've been wanting to update my blog about the happenings of last week but somehow could never get my brain around to typing out proper sentences. Too tired. Anyway here's a brief recap of what has happened last week and what's on my mind.

Mummy's scope
Mummy went for her first stomach scope. It was quite scary as she didn't know what to expect and with the prevalence of cancer everywhere we didn't know what to expect from the results. She decided to go for the scope because of the recent happenings with her elder sister. My cousin insisted that she do a scope, with his friend Dr Ranjeev as the incidence of cancer in her family seems rather high. She initially did a Helicobacter pylori test and it came out negative. However when the scope was done the doctor decided to do a biopsy to check for abnormalities. Thank God from the scope everything seemed normal except that she had a few stomach ulcers that explained why she would get hungry so fast. As for the biopsy, everything was ok according to the doctor but he was surprised to find that there is presence of Helicobacter pylori in her stomach. He said that this was the first time he has encountered a blow test (which is supposedly 98% accurate) negative only to show up positive in the biopsy. Anyway, he put her on some combination of antibiotics to kill the H pylori and some medication for the ulcers for 2 weeks. Apparently the super potent antibiotics may cause nausea and super discomfort but thank God, so far mummy is feeling like normal. All in all we are all glad that there's nothing serious with mummy.

Fuel Price Increase
The price of petrol has gone up by 41%!! Apparently the government can no longer afford to subsidize fuel. I personally think that yes, we cannot expect subsidies forever but I think the government should not have suddenly increase fuel prices so drastically for the following reasons :
1) They promised not to do a fuel price adjustment before the election and I guess those that voted for the ruling coalition have been duped once again.
2) We are a net exporters of petroleum. Don't compare the rates we pay with those of Singapore and Thailand. How about comparing our fuel prices to that of Brunei and UAE? Just imagine you own a restaurant and then telling your wife and children who've helped you build the business "too bad I can't give you a discount on the food, pay full price" Ridiculous!!
3) As usual I don't think the government has fully thought through the impact of the increase especially when the country is already facing crazy price increases with basic necessities such as rice, chicken, cooking oil at historically high prices. Businesses will suffer, unemployment will increase, government tax collection will be reduced, the already high crime rate will further increase and the overall consumer sentiment will be even worse than after the shocking elections. The economy will be faced by stagflation.

Personally I am already feeling the pinch. My full tank used to be RM120, with the increase I will be paying RM50 more for a full tank. I'm more prudent in my spending, becoming rather tight fisted with money, driving less and thinking of selling my car. Anyone interested in buying a 4year old 2.5T XC90? Time to buy a MYVI.

Electricity for Businesses to increase by 26%
As mentioned everything is going up. With the fuel increase the government has also decided to increase electricity by 16% for households and 26% for businesses. Rice price has gone up by more than 100% chicken has gone up by 40%, logistic cost will go up with the fuel increase. All in all this all translates to a super double whammy for us. We can't pass on the increase to consumers through price adjustments as consumer spending has already dropped and all our costs have increased. So at the end of the day we are squeezed both from bottom and top. Anyone interested in buying the business? I'll stay on as an employee :)

Kung Fu Panda
This was the highlight of the week. Kim gave Hubbs and I premier tickets for the movie. It has been a year since we've stepped into a cinema and we are truly thankful that Kim gave us the tickets to get us off our butts to do something different in a long while. It was a nice break to the depressing events of the week. The movie was hilarious. "Po"- the panda, reminded me of Elmo. They are both motivated by food and will do anything for food :) It's so ironic that when we had to pay for movie tickets I would watch a cinema movie at least once in 2 months. Now even with a GSC VIP pass that entitles me to 2 free movie passes anytime, any movie I've never used it. So Thank You so much, Kim for the invite!! Note to Hubbs if you're reading this - we need to make an effort to watch Indiana Jones ok?

Boom Gate Situation
This is a follow up from my previous post. Last Friday the residents of my area had a meeting with the developers. It didn't start off too well because there was this silly guy (a resident) that was totally disrespectful towards our Committee chairperson. Both were fighting to speak first and another resident got involved by shouting asking the guy to shut up and it nearly escalated to a fist fight. I guess that wasn't too great considering the residents were supposed to be united on this matter. Thank God for cooler heads prevailing in the room to calm the situation. It's rather unfortunate to see residents fighting. Anyway, when the meeting finally got started, I felt that we were rather gentle towards the developers considering we were misled and duped by them. No one actually grilled them that badly that was until one silly developer's representative had the audacity to say that we should not be complaining as we have made a lot of money out of the place. He truly opened a can of "whoop-ass". As usual, the developer did not admit that they are at fault but rather they were working with MBPJ on a "goodwill" basis when the plans were approved. It was hillarious when one resident asked how much the "goodwill" cost. Anyway the residents repeatedly asked that the developers commit and acknowledge in writing their responsibility in ensuring that the boom gate issue is resolved favorably. As expected none of the representatives dared to agree. Nevertheless, the residents set a dateline for them by next Friday to get the letter or else we will demonstrate in front of the developers office and begin legal proceedings. I doubt they will produce the letter so look out for us in the Star metro ok? (The chief editor of The Star lives here as well)

So that's it for last week. Please pray with me that the coming week will be better and that God will grant Boss and I the wisdom and ability to face the challenges and uncertainties ahead.