My Re-flectionz

This posting is taken from an email by Bro Rahmat Bayudi (rbayudi@gmail.com). It is written mixed in English and Malay.

Just remembered I could rekindle old stories


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rahmat Bayudi <rbayudi@gmail.com>
Date: 09-May-2005 12:22


Khas untuk peserta program Derma 'Sayur' [I think subsidi tak berapa sesuai].

Pantun pembuka:

Pisang emas dibawak berterab(e)r
Masak sebiji boleh buat kek nanti
Kalau janji nak ke Camberwell dan Fawkner
Tentu Tuan (Puan) akan mengerti

Weekend yang baru sudah, giliran saya (dan beloved wife - who insisted
on tagging along) to help kak Sal and Abg Tio (our Greek brother)
collect, transfer and upload vegetables and fruits into his Van and
our wagon. It was the first time we did it as family, and it was kinda
fun. We arrived about 4.40 just in time, after having a late lunch at
Habib's Cafe (not Jewel) Coburg. (Good for takeaway but not
recommended to eat it - from experience). Abg Tio was waiting at the
entrance.

Nevertheless, Abg Tio, for the first time, talked to me in longer
words and sentences (biasanya hello how are you je), saying they have
been in this operation for more than seven years. He described the
Camberwell fresh food market. Most of the operators there were
Muslims, therefore the arrangement. Otherwise, like in other markets,
these food goes to waste. There is also a Christian Lebanese who
donated their stuff to a nunnery nearby. So all and all, the kindest
of intention. The market is really clean, far removed from other
markets I have seen (never mind Pasar Section 17 PJ or Pasar
Selayang).

He also told me that their son who used to work at the market, no
longer do so because of the nearing VCE exams. Perhaps the more reason
that they need help with the task. I think they are generally happy
with the assistance we are providing.

Yes they spent the WHOLE of Saturday afternoon, in the last SEVEN
years or so, in Camberwell market. (definitely longer than Kak Sab or
Dr Lin stint in the Sunday version of Camberwell market). Later of
course, they will be at home receiving visitors who will take these
food home and redistributed accordingly.

One of us will probably spend ONE Saturday afternoon at the market
every TWO months. That's not too bad. So, keep volunteering!

So we went about the task of collecting and transferring of the
products. Everyone we met gave SALAM to us, it was vey nice. Their
little girl, Nor (something) was also there helping out with opening
van doors and collectiong fruits. Kak Sal seems to know everyone in
the market, talking and greeting them.

By about 5.20pm, we were done. Ka Sal sent in for the last time to
thank her friends in the market. Off we went.

On the way back, we would normally took the Burke St, Manningham St,
Lower Heidelberg, Banksia St and Bell St. That was the route I took in
my previous trip (with Azhar, Istas and Arief I think, .. help can't
remember the other one, sorry!). This time I followed Abg Tio using
Maroondah Hwy (Whitehorse Road), into Heidelberg, and into Albert St,
before turning into Bell St. My old route was probably faster, less
traffic light, just as scenic. We had to do that last time because
their old VAN had an accident, couldn't be used. Now they have a brand
new Toyota Hiace Van.

We arrived at Kak Sal's house by 6.00pm and unloaded the boxes. Arief
(& family incl. children) arrived, as he promised, few minutes later
(I did expect him to 'terpacak' at Percy St by 6pm though - like his
hockey stick.) Nik (& family incl. children) arrived slightly later,
was probably still finding his ways around Fawkner.

There were also other visitors who arrived to pick up the goodies.
Mostly Din's friends. Those who arrived early may benefit if there is
not enough things to go around - they get to choose! So seronoklah..
Those on 'duty' jugak may have the privilege to get things that will
othewise be difficult to distribute without 'kerat-mengerat').

Distribution was done swiftly and loaded into the distributing cars.
(Our wagon, Arief's sedan and Nik's wagon - copycat of ours, only
different colour.. he he).

Kak Sal sempat masak a 'pasta pie thing', with mozarella cheese, siap
dengan Parmesan cheese garnish (yang bau macam setokin tu).

We ate, talked and left around 8pm.

Technical (for those on duty):
Collection in Camberwell.
Out trip: From Coburg to Camberwell, 45km; Camberwell to Fawkner:
55km. Fawkner to Coburg, 15km.
Arrive before 430pm is highly recommended. Get best parking spot,
right in front of the entry way.
After arriving at Kak Sal's, help with distribution.

Distributor [from Fawkner]
Arrive at Kak Sal's place 6pm. Help downloading (not pirated software
- vegetable!) Start distributing immediately into organised boxes
(this is still an issue!!) **
By 645pm should complete, unless stay for socialising and makan-makan.
If you bring children, bring warm clothing etc (winter time).

Key concept (for distributors)
We help inform our friends who receive these donations that we thank
Allah and appreciate the effort taken by Kak Sal and family to
organise all these, as well as people helping them out in
distribution, al least by thanks, doa and well wishes.

Recommendation:
The next trip, perhaps we would take photographs, kenang-kenangan.
Those funny experience yang Fuzan kabo tu, boleh kita tahu jugak kan.
Masuk album, amacam Arief?
Pakai kasut yang sesuai untuk ke Market - not high heels for ladies
(and gents). Prepare kena sembur dengan air (unintentionally) when the
floor is being cleaned. But don't wear raincoat, nanti 'overdressed'
pulak.
Leave your handbag in the car, hidden sensibly (from experience).

** Boxes: Amacam geng, kita beli plastic box yang stacks up to.
Ceritanya macam ni. Availability of cardbox box tu bergantung kepada
market situation. Yang recyclebale definitely styrofoam box. For our
prupose, these are difficult to clean. I still think an identifiable
box per family is a good idea (since kotak suratkhabar idea tu tak
berapa 'berkat'!! he he).

I suggets we collect an amount of money from those receiving donation
of vegies, to buy these boxes, containers. To be fair, those who help
out (in the rota system) can be excepted or given discount, since they
(including me la) had also contributed financially interms of fuel and
other hidden expenditures. Amacam?

Note:
Special thanks to Dr Lin (Dr Azman's) and family for minding our
children (Raed and Raiman) during our recent trip to Camberwell and
Fawkner. Thank you.

Pantun penutup:

Nasi Lemak si kacang goreng
Sayang selasih hamba tak makan
Petang petang Sabtu dok mengiring
Sampai rumah seronok kerjakan


[Sorry, panjang message ni. Tengah berlatih indegenous ethnography
within hermenautical research approach. ]

--
Rahmat Bayudi
PhD Candidate, Sustainable Environments, University Melbourne
Visiting Researcher, Centre for Design, RMIT University, Melbourne
Lecturer DS45, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur [on leave]

~Re-flectionz of my mind~

Recently, I met a few postgrad students and doctors who had just came to Melbourne either for studies or specialist training and heard of the problem of getting the right information in Malaysia prior coming to Melbourne. It was a surprise because currently there are more that 30 postgrads, either with their families or not, presently studying in Melbourne.

Most of them are government sponsored students supervised by the Public Services Dept (JPA). As such, JPA should have at least some contact information to be given to the candidates coming to Melbourne so that they can get the right information from existing students in Melbourne. Through this networking, future students would be able to access latest information about living in Melbourne, how to rent a house, which school, child care services, how much is the school fees (for paying students' dependants) etc.

In view of this, here are some tips for those coming to Melbourne for the first time:

• Information sourcing.

1. Surf the Victoria Malaysian Postgraduate Group (VMPG) at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vmpg/
   
2. Email to vmpg-owner@yahoogroups.com, the group owner will do their best to provide the right information
3. Surf your uni website
4. Surf http://www.msdaustralia.org.au/ which is the Malaysian Students Department in Australia.
   
5. You can email me as well at ariefamron@gmail.com

• Accommodation - temporary and permanent

1. For temporary accomodation you can try the Malaysian Hall. Surf http://www.msdaustralia.org.au/ and search for the hall's link. Email the hall officer early to book a place. There are peak and non peak season so there's no guarantee that you'll get place.
2. If you fail to get a place at the hall, do email the VMPG owner for assistance.
3. The process to acquire an accomodation in Melbourne can be a nightmare but not hopeless totally. Lucky ones managed to get a place within just 3 days of arriving in Melbourne. But others, such as in my case took over 40 days to get a flat here.
4. Rates in the city is very expensive and may start as low as AUD 1000 per month. Students bringing their family and kids must understand that a 1 bedroom house/flat/unit is not suitable for you. So, a 2 bedroom accomodation is acceptable.
5. Do not rush in getting the accommodation.
6. To get a flavour of the real estate environment, please surf http://www.realestate.com.au/
7. Monthly rents is = [ Weekly rate x 52 weeks ] / 12
8. Virtual map of Melbourne here

• Driving and mobile phones

1. Malaysian students can drive in Victoria indefinitely as long as they are international student. Providing that they have the English translation of their licenses and their licenses are still valid. So, those coming for their Phd, it is recommended that you renew your licence to more than 3 years.

2. Mobile phones from Malaysia is compatible in Australia and there are many options to choose from. In Australia, there are benefits if you are using the same service provider with your friends such as free calls and sms. So, do not rush. You can email the VMPG owner or myself for further advice.

• Food

1. Halal food is abundance in various parts of Melbourne such as Coburg, Brunswick, Dandenong, Fawkner and Footscray.

• Schooling (will continue...if you want further information please email me at ariefamron@gmail.com)
  

In in my semester break right now and taking the full opportunity to be with the family. So I took to a day trip to the ski resort of Mount Buller some 300 km plus from Melbourne. Then our family friend invited us to Warnambool to catch a sight of the humpback whales over there. The journey was also a day trip passing through the magnificent Great Ocean Road passing the 12 Apostles at Port Campbell. I'll talk about my trip in another clean sheet.

One semester has passed form me at the University of Melbourne for the Master of Knowledge Management and today, 7 July 2005 is the day I'll get my exam result. I was both excited and scared... So I logged on to the uni's student information system to check my result. Opps... something was wrong. I was barred from seeing my result. The system stated that I still have an outstanding miscellaneous fee of $892! How can this be? Could it be that the Bank has missed a payment? Impossible. BNM has always been a good paymaster. So I called the student admin to check it out.

I guess good management is hard to find these days and the student admin is where such this is really lacking. I was told that the officer in charge of sponsored student would give me a call later that day. It was 2:15pm then. He didn't call.

Next morning at 11am I called student admin again. Once again, I was denied to speak to the officer in charge and was told to wait for his call later today. He didn't call. I was really upset by now. At 3:45 pm, I called them back. To my disbelief, I was told that the officer in charge is a VERY BUSY MAN. Right, the busiest man on earth. The next instruction was really absurd, I was told not to call the student admin again and I was to wait for the officer to call me. That's it. I've had enough of this utter nonsense. I'm going there myself on Monday.

Monday, was at the student admin office around 9:30 am. I was then given a copy of an invoice stating that the Bank (my sponsor, Bank Negara Malaysia @ Central Bank of Malaysia) has yet to pay my overseas student health cover (OSHC) and a subject fee. This is absurd as I already receive the OHSC. Furthermore, the Bank has always been an excellent paymaster. Something smells bad!

So I called the Bank in KL and explain them on my situation. I also asked them whether they receive any invoice on the outstanding fees recently. They replied no. No additional invoices. In fact they have paid the uni for all of the Bank's sponsored students which all 3 of them are with Melbourne Uni. I asked them to call the student admin to get some clarification on this matter. After signing off with the Bank I went back home for lunch.

5 pm Melbourne time, I called the Bank for any development. Indeed there was. It was a shocking relevation. It seems that the uni has been asking for the wrong thing from the Bank to pay. It was actually the Amenities and Services Fees (ASF) that was unpaid. But the ASF is only $ 389 per full time student, how can it be $ 892. The uni explained that the Bank didn't pay ASF for all its sponsored students, 2 for Master and 1 Phd student. And all that amount was charged to 1 student, ME! Why me alone and whay can't the uni simply segregate the ASF to each individual student and invoiced it to the Bank in that manner? Why invoicing the Bank as OSHC fees and subject fees where it should have been ASF? In any business transaction no one will pay if the invoice was wrongly asking payment for the wrong reason.

The Bank has agreed to pay and asked the Uni to redo its invoice and state the right item it. Oh no, the Uni refuse to accept its mistake and refuse to change the invoice to state the ASF for 3 students. Unbelievable! Totally unbelievable! The Bank agrees to pay eventhough the invoice was wrong. I guess this will not go well with the management back home, I'm sure that the Bank would be extra carefull with invoices that they'll be receiving from Melbourne University in the future.

The lessons that I've learned from this incident was that it doesn't make a person or institution lose its value by accepting that they had done a mistake. By accepting that a mistake was done, then t should be taken as lesson learnt. This experience should be used as guidelines or indicator for improvement in the existing systems of doing things.

~Re-flectionz of my mind~

Mind mapping was introduced to me in 1990/1 during my secondary schooling days back in SDAR, Seremban. It was part of the school 'optional' preparation program for the Malaysia Certificate of Education in short SPM or MCE. I can still recall my amazement towards mind mapping that I immediately fell in love with it. In fact the guys that was with me in that program was mind mapping crazy.

As any other learning tools, usually the tool would fade away after a few months but not with this mapping stuff. My friends and I simply got stuck with it. The ultimate testament was that all of us did managed to score better than we expected to do so.

Since then it was to be my study tool throughout my uni days. Now, since I'm back studying, I've found that mind mapping is still the tool to use. In fact thanks to the technological capability that us human was bestowed, mind mapping now is easier via mind mapping software.

I've managed to get one for free from http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page. It's called Free Mind. Kudos to its developer not ony for developing the wonderful software but sharing it for free as well.

Common' give it a try...

~Re-flectionz of my mind~

This week has been quite an interesting one. First a couple of Malaysian families just arrived in Melbourne during its cold winter season to start a new life. The first one a doctor from the KL Hospital and his family and another a lecturer from UIA and her family, a Phd candidate with Monash at Berwick

Berwick, hmmm I've been there once. I took my wife and kids there to check out the Kids Market held at its county hall. Its a nice area with beautiful landscape. It reminded me of the Salem High Country advertisement a few years back in Malaysia. So I took the lecturer's family on a house hunt in Berwick. it was a tough one indeed. The rentals in Berwick seems to be on the high end. Even the primary school is in a posh housing estate facing the Eastern Freeway. To me its a reflection of Damansara Heights facing the Kerinchi Link.

At one of the real estate agencies, I asked the lady about the housing market in Berwick. I was surprised to hear that the small town is one of the favourite areas for Melbournians to stay now. No wonder the number of houses that is affordable to us Malaysian students are very limited.

In my mind, Berwick would be a nice place to stay, especially if one is going to settle down. However, the support system for students especially us Muslims from Malaysia is not established yet. Issues about masjid and halal meat supply is a great concern if one is going to stay there.

Nevertheless, we applied for 3 houses and now it is the waiting game.

Today, Dr Azman and family would be leaving Ozzie's soil. By now he and his family would be a quarter way through their journey back to Malaysia. I met him and his family first in November last year. It was my first outing with Malaysians in Melbourne which we called Kg Victoria. It was 8 months ago. As such it is true that they say time flies. I'd better take note of this and remind myself about time!

Time, I'm always at lost... Dear Allah, please give me the strength to keep up with time and at times that I fall behind, give me the courage to continue the chase, Amin

~Re-flectionz of my mind~

Been wanting to this a long time but couldn't get myself to make a move. Finally its here. my own place... to paint the reflection of my own mind. It's like talking to my ownself, yeah... they said that Pieces 'people' are introvert. Maybe it's true in my case.

Ahh well, if got some plans for this nice space they called BLOG. Firstly its a KM agenda thingy, then its my passion for good 'ol' field hockey and most importantly family stuff. Well, it's quite late here in Melbourne. Plus, need to rest after my weekly hockey training (it's winter in Melbourne).

good nite my friends where ever you R

Me and myself 

Reflectionz