Qing Ming 2011

Time really flies; it is Qing Ming again. The festival falls on the 15th day after the Spring Equinox (usually 4, 5 or 6th April). This year it falls on the same calender day as last year; 5th April 2011. But as usual we went early; this time two sundays prior (for convenience).

I posted on the event last year, so I did not take any further photos apart from the panorama above. This is only a small portion of the Chinese Cemetery at Mile 5½ Jalan Tuaran.

What was unusual about this cemetery was that The Fire Department had its Head Office located in the midst of the cemetery!

I did hear some talk of the staff's unhappiness when they moved in (many years ago); I suppose they are used to the situation now.

Chinese Temple Gods Go Walk-About!

On the way home yesterday (after attending the Strongman contest), I was caught in a long traffic jam.

It was caused by a long procession of chinese-looking temple gods and shrines.

I didn't know what the occasion was, but was happy enough for the photographic opportunity (although only from inside the car as I drove past).

It was properly organised; with police escorts, ambulance in attendance, and a truck serving bottled water. Was the half-dressed guy a priest?

There was even a dragon on a truck! I couldn't get to the front of the procession before they turned left at The Secretariat Building; I believed they went to the Peak Nam Tong Temple (Posting of 28 May 2010).

I found out today that the occasion was officially "The Gods went for a Walk-About in The City".

Strongman Sabah 2011

The Strongman Sabah (Orang Kuat Sabah) 2011 is being held in Kota Kinabalu (26 & 27 March 2011). It was supposedly organised by Casero Events; but their website says "Being updated" LOL.

Since it was being held on the road beneath The Star City Conference Events Centre, I did not have high expectations ...

... which turned out to be as I feared.

It was not as if they did not have sponsors! The City Hall of Kota Kinabalu, Celcom, 100 Plus were sponsors. They even had entries from the Singapore Strongmen.

While they checked the tyre ...

... a lady was singing. The PA system was so poor that I could not hear them announce who she was, what she was singing, the name of the next competitor ...

... but anyway, I think he was READY ...

... off he went.

The tyre was REALLY HEAVY ...

... but some of the competitors did not find the tyre event difficult.

Due to the rainy weather today, some cleaning up in between competitors was required.

The usual T-shirts and caps were on sale. I was not impressed enough to buy one (also as I am rather skinny and weak-looking, wearing a Strongman T-shirt might be "looking for trouble").

There were a number of spectators (standing only). I hope they will be able to improve the event in future (perhaps hold it at the City Square with proper spectator seating).

If you are interested you can still see the events on the second day (tomorrow 27 March 2011). I would rather watch the TV live broadcast of the Formula 1 race at Melbourne, Australia.

Latest Figures For Household Debts in Malaysia

I did a posting on 21 October 2010 on the Household Debts in Malaysia.

Today I read a report in Malaysia Insider that gave some details on the breakdown of the debts. I did not see these figures in the Bernama reports or in the BNM official releases. Upon asking, the reporter informed me (isn't the internet wonderful) that those figures were given in the slides shown by BNM. Accordingly, the breakdown percentages for the household debts in Malaysia were:

1. Housing loans (45%)
2. Car loans (20%)
3. Personal loans (15%)
4. Credit card balances (5%)
5. Shares (5%)
6. Others (10%)
   

Thes percentages looked very "rounded-up" - to the nearest 5%?

The figure for total housing loans was reported as 45% of the total. From BNM website (Item 1.18), an excel spreadsheet gave the total housing loans at 31 December 2010 at RM227.758 billion. This would make the total Household Debts at 31 December 2010 RM506 billion. But the BNM table (Item 1.20) gave the Total Household Debts at 31 December 2010 at RM489.174 billion.

Put it another way, taking the total (from BNM Item 1.20 spreadsheet) of RM489.174 billion, then RM227.758 billion would be 46.56%.

In any case, a general idea of the RM amounts (using the given percentages and the RM489.174 billion total) of the various categories are:

1. Housing loans (RM220 billion)
2. Car loans (RM98 billion)
3. Personal loans (RM74 billion)
4. Credit Card balances (RM25 billion)
5. Shares (RM25 billion)
6. Others (RM50 billion)
   

I will update if better figures become available.

Supermoon Tonight

Tonight's Full Moon is a "Supermoon". The moon is 221,565 miles from earth (the closest since March 1993).

Unfortunately in Kota Kinabalu, it is totally overcast (satellite weather image from Koichi University website for 8pm 19 March 2011).


So the moon could only be seen through the clouds. It is said to be 14% bigger (apparent size) and 30% brighter than normal. A proper photo of the moon tonight can be seen at www.space.com.

Chocolate Factory - Kota Kinabalu

A new place opened for business in Kota Kinabalu; it's called Chocolate Factory.

What's unusual about that? ... It said "Life Music Food"

It is the latest pub in town. I confess I have not been frequenting the nightspots ... but I have not heard of Connor's Stout. Its by Carlsberg. I wonder if its anyway comparable to the Genuine Article (Guinness Anchor - Hey that makes a good slogan?).

Ruffled Fan Palm

A nice palm growing in the inner courtyard was fruiting. By the wonders of modern technology (Google images on the internet), I think it's a Ruffled Fan Palm (Licuala grandis). It is an understorey plant; ie it does not need direct sunlight and should be placed in the shade and protected from the wind.

Cunard Queen Elizabeth At Kota Kinabalu

Passing by the Kota Kinabalu old port, I saw a big cruise ship parked there. It was the Cunard Lines Queen Elizabeth.

The Queen Elizabeth is the newest liner by Cunard, launched in October 2010 by Queen Elizabeth II.

It was on its maiden World Cruise (5 Jan 2011 to 19 April 2011). The ship is 90,900 mt, with 2,068 passenger capacity, crew of 996, and is 964.5 feet in length (per Cunard's website). You can even see out of the bridge via the webcam (right now its showing a view of sepangar bay in the distance)

It totally dwarfed the warehouse at the old port. From the itinerary, the last port of call was Freemantle (Australia) and after the 1-day in Kota Kinabalu, the next port of call is Hong Kong.

From comments on the internet, there was criticism on the "boxy" rear-end. But it was pointed out that this design gave extra rooms generating USD4 million revenue annually.

The next world cruise (107 days) departs Southampton Jan 2012.

From the Cunard website, the cheapest fare is USD23,327.75, while the uber-luxury fare is USD83,327.78. Using the cheapest fare, the daily cost works out at USD218 per day, which isn't bad considering its all in (provided you can spare USD23,327.75).

28th Malaysian Chinese Cultural Festival 2011

The Federation of Chinese Associations Sabah (mainly by The Youth Wing) organised the 28th Malaysia(n) Chinese Cultural Festival. It was held on the evening of 5 March 2011 at the 1Borneo Hypermall central atrium.

Although called a festival and as a national level event (there was the word Malaysia in the event title), I did not see anything else apart from the show.

Although there was a large crowd, I wondered what was the purpose of holding this event. If it was to promote awareness (or celebration) of the chinese culture amongst the malaysian chinese; shouldn't the show be attended by the young (eg students) and held in a proper venue (eg YS hall)?

There was a whole bunch of pretty women ...

playing traditional musical instruments ...

... and dancing with hats.

Then came a very versatile gentleman who played a chinese mandolin (pipa or liuqin?) ...

... and then a gourd flute (hulusi?) ...

... then the chinese violin (erhu?) ...

... then moved to a "not usually a musical instrument" cup ...

... followed by a musical saw ...

... chinese beatboxing (?) ...

... percussion from an empty water container; all these in addition to singing a song!!!

Then the pretty women came back with TRANSPARENT umbrellas; I doubt those are traditional(!) and neither are those costumes. It all looked more like a night club act?

Do you think she's mimeing the playing of that musical instrument? No microphone lah!

Then came the Tai Chi and Kung Fu guys (it looked like the more senior bros were in front)...

... this guy in the second row looked very serious ...

... and had very good form (in contrast to the substandard stuff from the junior bros with their praying mantis, drunken boxing ...) ...

... eldest bro showed an exciting set with a horse whip (our chinese Indiana Jones!).

We had dinner at the Nyonya House (with the rickshaw in front). Food was good, but service was very poor; we were kept waiting for each of the next dish; then they forgot to cook one of the dishes; then under-cooked that one in their rush to get it to us before we could cancel it. All in all, disappointing.