Happy New Year 2010

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May you get a clean bill of health from your dentist, your cardiologist, your gastro-enterologist, your urologist, your proctologist, your podiatrist and your psychiatrist.

May your hair, your teeth, your face-lift, your abs and your stocks not fall; and may your blood pressure, your triglycerides, your cholesterol, your white blood count and your mortgage interest not rise.

May New Year's Eve find you seated around the table, together with your beloved family and cherished friends. May you find the food better, the environment quieter, the cost much cheaper, and the pleasure much more fulfilling than anything else you might ordinarily do that night.

May what you see in the mirror delight you, and what others see in you delight them. May someone love you enough to forgive your faults, be blind to your blemishes, and tell the world about your virtues.

May the telemarketers wait to make their sales calls until you finish dinner, may the commercials on TV not be louder than the program you have been watching, and may your check book and your budget balance - and include generous amounts for charity.

May you remember to say "I love you" at least once a day to your spouse, your child, your parent, your siblings; but not to your secretary, your nurse, your masseuse, your hairdresser or your tennis instructor.

And may we live in a world at peace and with the awareness of God's love in every sunset, every flower's unfolding petals, every baby's smile, every lover's kiss, and every wonderful, astonishing, miraculous beat of our heart.

** The above new year wishes are extract from http://www.llerrah.com/

A Memorable Christmas

This year’s Christmas is the most memorable one that I’ve had in my life. I don’t celebrate Christmas in Malaysia and most of the time I’ll be working on this day too so I don’t really know how they celebrate Christmas and to me is just like another holiday or rest day.


Christmas is one of the most important holidays in Australia. I was quite honored to be invited to a Christmas lunch from one of my colleague’s mother. His mother’s house was so beautiful and it was the most beautiful house that I’ve seen since I’ve came to Australia. It was a good experience for me to attend a traditional Christmas lunch.

The guests who have been invited to the lunch will bring their present to the host’s house and placed at the Christmas tree. The host will serves the guests with some drinks. After a short chat, we’ll start to exchange presents from the Christmas tree. All the presents will have the names written on it. We’ll then, unwrapped our present and throw the wrappers on the center of the living room. When everyone has done, the owner will collect the wrappers away.

The host will invite all the guests to the dining table. At the dining table, there will be a small gift boxes for everyone. The first to be served is a seafood appetizer, then came the main course of turkey, pork crackling, vege and bread. The last will be one of their traditional dessert, pavlova. It has 3 different sections with strawberry, chocolate and pepper mint as topping. This dessert is the best that I’ve had and it’s actually made from egg white. After the lunch, we’ll have some games before we left.

Besides the lunch, I’ve received 5 Christmas presents. The first one is a Christmas card with one hundred dollar in it from my boss, a magnet photo frame from one of my colleague at the farm, a dvd about the greatest horse in Australia from my colleague at the racetrack, a set of grooming items (shower gel, anti-perspirant and body spray) from one of the trackrider and a packed of cookies from my landlord. It’s a wonderful Christmas experience for me.

My New Location

My new location is at Pakenham. It's about 62kms south of Melbourne City and it's about 85kms south from my previous accommodation. My landlord is a lady in her early 30s and her name is Mary. She is doing pet minding business. So, the current place that I’m staying has many pets around. There are 2 dogs, 2 cats, 2 frogs and 4 lizards. Besides my landlord, there is another tenant lived in that house. He is a male in his early 40s, is a technician and his name is Douglas. So there are 3 of us and 10 pets lived in that house.

The distance between the place where I stay and the place where I work is approximately 2 kms, so my mode of transport at the meantime will be a bicycle. Initially, I intended to buy a secondhand bike but Douglas said he can lend me the bike which he has bought sometimes ago. He doesn’t need the bike anymore because he has already bought a car and the bike has been kept in the store for many months. Well, he is the third good people.

My new place is actually somewhere at the top of the hills. Have a look at the pictures, you will find the hills is insane. The hill was so steep, you can’t ride up the hill with the bike. To travel from where I stayed to my working place is like riding a rollercoaster, you will passed through many small hills, up down up down up down. Going to work took me about 20 minutes and coming back from work took me about 35 minutes because when travelling to work I need to travel up the hills twice whereas I come back, I need to travel up the hills 4 times. On top of that it’s after a long day of tiring work and it makes the travelling more tougher.

My landlord was a very nice person, she will drive me to the supermarket every weekend so that I can but some foods and other necessary daily stuffs. If I want to go to the train station, she usually offered to give me a lift when possible because travelling to the train station is even further than my working place. She is the fourth good people. Although there is a public bus available just about 15 minutes walked down the hill but it’s an hour between every trip. For example, if you missed this trip you’ll have to wait for another hour before another bus arrives.

The main entrance.

The drive way.

The side door which can go to the back yard.

The back yard.

My bedroom.

The bicycle that I use to travel to work.

The "insane" hill from the top view.

View from the foot of the hill.

The side view.

The Power of Amitabha Buddha

After practicing the ‘Buddha Recitation’ for probably a week or two, things started to change. I’ve finally found a trainer who is willing to try me and said she will trial me for one week with pay. The location of the trainer and the place where I lived is approximately 73kms, so the only solution for me to go for the trial is to rent a car because I need to start work at 6am. Renting a car in Melbourne is not that expensive but if you add up the petrol and the toll fees, it’s like a big bomb to me. I’ve rented a car (automatic 1.6cc) which includes insurance for 1 week and it’s cost me A$31.90 per day.

Just 2 days of trial, the trainer told me that she needs somebody which is more experienced, that means I’ve failed the trial. At the end of the trial period she did not pay me as she had promised earlier and that’s was a very great blow to me because I’ve spent so much money on the transportation and can’t secure a job.

Although I’m very upset but life’s still need to go on, so I continue with my phone calls to the trainers. Most of them prefer someone with experienced. They keep on saying they want someone with experienced but without giving the new people a chance, how are they going to gain experienced!!!

Two of my fellow classmates advise me to work for free for a couple of weeks first to gain some experience before change to other stables. After giving much taught, I decided to adopt their suggestion. Since I’m going to work for free, I’m going to work for someone who has good horsemanship skills. Then I recalled there are 2 trainers which my teacher has mentioned before. The 2 trainers are Julien Welsh (approx. 80 horses in training) and Rick Harrison (approx. 20 horses in training). Both of them are located in the same suburbs, called Pakenham. I gave them a called and they said I can have a work experienced at their placed so I decided to move to Pakenham which is approximately 85kms from Lalor where I’m staying at the moment.

After searching for a couple of days at the website, I’ve finally found a room which is quite cheap. It’s A$120 per week includes bills. My previous landlord offered to help me to move my stuff with her wagon to my new place for free without charges (85kms). This is the first good people which I’ve met since I came to Australia.

I was in a dilemma to whom should I work for, but in the end I choose to work for Julien Welsh as he has more horses, probably I can learn more from him. So, I went for an interview on Friday and he asked me to start work on Saturday. At the end of the day, he gave me A$100 as pay for the day and said to me “Hey mate, nobody works for Julien Welsh for free” “You can start work on next Monday”. He told me that he was very pleased with my work and attitude so he decided to give me a chance. And that’s a very good compliment and a boost on my confidence. To me, he’s like an angel descended from heaven to help me. This is the second good people that I’ve met. There are more to come in my next chapter.

Miserable Moment @ Melbourne

Wow…! It’s been awhile since I last updated my blog. Yup….I’m quite busy for the month of November. I wonder where should I start for my very first article in December.

Well, after my completion of Certificate III in Racing in July, I’ve been searching for jobs in the racing industry and I need to get a job as soon as possible because there are some assignments which need me to work in the racing industry. It’s part of the criteria in Certificate IV in Racing and this Cert IV start from August until end of November.

During the month of August, September and October, I was in a state of depression, feeling anxious, worried, upset, lost of confidence, disappointed, lost of direction and many more in which I can’t describe in words. I guess these three months are probably the most dreadful experience in my life. Imagine that the racing industry being the third largest employer in Australia and yet I can’t find a job. I’ve make more than 300 calls to more than 150 trainers, sent out emails and nobody wants to employ me.

I’ve started to think, am I doing the right thing? I’ve come all the way to Australia, left my family, wife and son in Malaysia, the money and time that I’ve spent to pursue my dream, and this is what I got in return. My teacher at NMIT couldn’t do much to help me either. I’m beginning to go ‘crazy’ at one stage. Being alone in a foreign country without help is horrible.

My student visa will expire next March and there is still some time available but probably won’t be able to complete my Certificate IV in Racing because the course end at November. And I may end up only having the Certificate III in Racing but I talk to myself, even though it’s just a Certificate III, I still want to try to the very end, keep on searching for jobs. Hopefully to gain some experience during the remaining months. It’s sounds like I’m going to die……hahaha. I told myself, “no matter how hard it is, I still need to hold on til the very end”, however, it's easier said than done, my taught are wondering and I can’t keep my mind concentrate and focus. I taught of giving-up.

At this moment, one of my good friends encourages me to persevere. He said to me “we do our best and leave the rest to god” and he asked me do I believe in ‘karma’? Suddenly this word struck me like a lightning and I recalled the teaching of the Pure Land Buddhism. It is also known as “Buddha Recitation”. So I went to their website and downloaded the mp3 chanting of Amitabha Buddha. By listening or chanting the buddha’s name, it can actually calm our mind and help us to concentrate and at the same time purifies our karma. With my mind being able to concentrate, focusing and calm, I was able to overcome my stress and keep moving ahead with a positive taught.

I’m really grateful to my good friend for the words that he said to me. He is a friend which I get to know when I was in the sales line back in Malaysia. His name is Alton Wong and he is a businessman-cum-army officer. He is a 2nd lieutenant in rank in the Malaysia army and also a counselor for new recruit in the Malaysia army. Thank you very much Alton.