Why makes friends?

I presumed that each and every one of us have a lots of friend. Have we ever wonder or refresh our selves how we meet them the first time? I am sure it will be an interesting topic to discuss this issue with your best friends or new met friend. I have few fresh memory which i recalled in meeting my friends here in Adelaide.

Firstly, i met one great old couple who are the owner of our first home unit in Adelaide. They were so lovely and kind. They have more than five kids and enjoying they life as the land lord of more than two units here in Adelaide. Since then we became friend even though that we are no longer staying in their unit. So my first experience making friends in Adelaide was when i am looking for place to stay.

The second experience was when my children got lost in some of the units around my area. The home units in Adelaide happened to be in more or less the same design and colour so this scenario makes it complicated for my children and even me myself to identified our own unit especially late in the evening. My children have been playing around our unit for quite some times until one day, i dont hear any noise from them playing outside the unit. It was so quite and peaceful, but after half an hour someone come in knocking on our door bringing bridget (our 2 years old daughter). He was sending her back; he worried that my daughter might play near the road. I was so supprise how my daugther manage to go that far; while her brothers do not even care about they sister. But that event turned to be another blessing in disguise. He became my good friend in Adelaide.

The third experience was when other people children want to make friend with my children. I have three energetic kids and it happens that most of the family here in Adelaide like to have not more than two kids or some even happy with one kid. So what happen when they have one kid? they dont have anyone to play with. In my neigbourhood, there is one family from phillipine that have one daughter. She wanted to make friend with my children but afraid to do so by her self. So her mother came to our house and introduced herself to us; getting to know each other then the daugther came in and play with my children. And after some times, everyday the girl will come and play in our house.

The fourth experience of making new friends was in any parties. One of the party was my supervisor welcoming party. He invited all the master students including us (Phd students). In the party, i met a lot of international students. We exchange information about our country and talk about life in Adelaide etc. The other party was the girl from phillipine birthday party. She invited my children and of course us to come to her birthday party. I met a lot of her parent friend in that party. And i got new good friend which leads me to a new and affordable unit near they house. What happen next? i moved to that unit this december, and able to save my rent money around AUD90/week.

So here i am with my new neighbour which i met from the birthday party. My children have more friends to play with, ample space to play with them, and great memory for me making friends here in Adelaide. I conclude simply that making new friends leads you to other friends, and you would not know what to expect next. It might be blessing in disguise after all. So dont stop making friends.

What money and knowledge mean in our family?

This busy world has been stressful for most working parent. This world urge us to work more than other things. What matter the most is how much money we earn at the end of each month. We even have this skill of planning called budgeting. We do budgeting to cope with our expenses every month, and that's how we live our life in this world.

The early trade was much more complex than this. We call this trade as Barter System. In those early days, we exchange what ever we have to get something back. For instance, we trade one chicken with three fish or may be more than three. This barter system cause a lot of confusion for the trades; how to measure things? So their introduce money to measure and value things. But in those days, if someone steal their chicken it was not a big crime compare with someone who steal money today. Why? simply chicken can be reproduce by the farmer or by anyone who earn chicken but can we produce money by our own? Nope, we look for money.

Apart from that, in the early days, family with lots of land considered to be rich family (their land can produce agriculture products such as livestock and crops), but if you have lots of land today, you're not considered rich cause some people might come and rent your land and get more money than what you earned from the land rent. Unless, you a wise enough to manage and plan your property.Singapore is not a big country yet it is only a small island but how come their are better than Malaysia? we have vast land and area to produce agriculture products compare to Singapore. What they do? they buy our agriculture products and process it into processed food. Simply they have knowledge and idea to transform raw food into processed food.


So what matter the most your money or your knowledge? My personal opinion is knowledge. That's why people talk about intelectual property - your idea might bring you a fortune than your own property. But where can we get this knowledge? knowledge can come from different sources such as owned experience, other experience, experiments results and etc. We know geography when people discover something, we understand math when we or someone else experiment the formula (1+1=2), we learned psychology when people observed other people. Generally, we get knowledge from experience and this experience come from memory of doing things.

When we miscalculate our budget, we got broke and this is bad memory for us. It is our first lesson to do our budget precisely or to have discipline in our spending. When we decide to rent our house to someone else, we think that this action will stipulates more money for us from rent. But when that person don't pay their rent then we regret the decision. This what we call the process of learning ; the process of acquire the knowledge through experience. This knowledge that come from our own memory. The power of remembering things. Before we sit for exam we need to memorize something (the knowledge). So if we have the money and knowledge then what? then we remind ourselves, we referesh our memory. What is the best memory we remember when we try to get the money or achieve the knowledge?

So my friend, keep our knowledge close to us or precisely keep our memory fresh at all time. When we work hard for money, we will remember how hard we work to archieve some amount of money. But when we spend our time with our family and kids, we will remember good and bad memory with them. And eventhough there are bad memory with our family and kids, the good memory will always makes us smile. Simply, we can look for money when in distress but can we look for other family when our real family is gone. What left for us is our memory with them. Money come and go. family will also come and go, but when they go (die) they will never come back.

Day light Saving in Australia

It was my first year in Adelaide; and everything is still new for me. Not knowing what will happen and what will change.

Yet, in this daylight saving, we are supposed to change our time (adding one hour earlier). So instead of knowing the fact that people in Adelaide has changed their watch etc, I and my family still living one hour behind at least for three days.....

It's funny ; how we think we were early and the first to arrived in one place but at the end was the late comer. I remember going to church early in the morning to celebrate our 8 wedding anniversary on 7 Oct 2008; the mass were supposed to start at 7.00 am in the morning.

With much joy and excitement , all of us including my little girl when to Announciation Church in Hectorville. We arrived approximately 6.45am and seated in front. After we waited for 20 minutes; we thought that the priest may be over sleep or woke up late, we decided to go back home without realizing the exact time was 7.45am. (so much for judging people)...

It was funny yet memorable experience especially when it happened on special occasion such as wedding annivesary. Interesting to live here in Adelaide ; we just don't know what will happen next.

SMART ARSED ANSWER OF THE YEAR 2007

1st Place
A teacher at a polytechnic college reminded her pupils of tomorrow's final exam. 'Now listen to me, I won't tolerate any excuses for you not being here tomorrow. I might consider a nuclear attack or a serious personal injury, illness, or a death in your immediate family, but that's it, no other excuses whatsoever!' A smart-arsed guy at the back of the room raised his hand and asked, 'What would happen if I came in tomorrow suffering from complete and utter sexual exhaustion?' The entire class was reduced to laughter and sniggering. When silence was restored, the teacher smiled knowingly at the student, shook her head and sweetly said, 'Well, I suppose you'd have to write with your other hand'.

2nd Place
A lorry driver was driving along on a country road. A sign came up that read ' Low Bridge Ahead.' Before he realised it, the bridge was directly ahead and he got stuck under it. Cars are backed up for miles. Finally, a police car comes up. The policeman got out of his car and walked to the lorry's cab And said to the driver, 'Got stuck, eh?' The lorry driver said, 'No, I was delivering this bridge and ran out of petrol!'

3rd Place
The policeman got out of his car and approached the boy racer he stopped for speeding. 'I've been waiting for you all day,' the bobby said. The kid replied, 'Yes, well I got here as fast as I could.' When the policeman finally stopped laughing, he sent the kid on his way without a ticket.

4th Place
A lady was picking through the frozen turkeys at a branch of Sainsbury's but she couldn't find one big enough for her family. She asked a passing assistant, 'Do these turkeys get any bigger?' The assistant replied, ' I'm afraid not, they're dead.'

5th Place
A flight attendant was stationed at the departure gate to check tickets. As a man approached, she extended her hand for the ticket and he opened his trench coat and flashed her. Without blinking an eyelid she said, 'Sir, I need to see your ticket not your stub.'

The last one is a worthy winner. 6th Place
It was mealtime during a flight on a British Airways plane: 'Would you like dinner?' the flight attendant asked the man seated in the front row. 'What are my choices?' the man asked. 'Yes or no,' she replied.

(contribute by qion-r)

My children and The Wiggle

My kids love Wiggle very much... they just fantastic and amazing group of music.

One day, my eldest son (Dawson) pose a very good question "daddy, since we are in Australia, do we have the chance to meet the Wiggle?"... i never though of that before coming to Australia. "well, Dawson you have to be a very good boy if you want to see the Wiggle; they don't like bad boy for sure." i told him and it was a classic response i presume.

Recently, Greg (Yellow Wiggle) was not able to continue his show due to health problem and he was replace by Sam. I like Greg very much; he has beautiful soft and clear voice. For sure, he can't be replace by anyone, without him, the Wiggle will not be the same again.
Dawson and Daniel also complain about this recent change; but then what can we do, this is the business world. Thanks and Farewell Greg ; welcome Sam.