Insight into ZhaoMing

When narcissism struck...

-ZhaoMing-

When SPM examination (supposedly equivalent to O-Level though I have miserable doubts about it) was over, I had realised that I would most likely further my studies elsewhere other than my own hometown. It turned out to be true. I resolved and believed that what I was going to learn after that point were not merely knowledge from the lifeless book, but about life. Till now, I still hold true to that belief.

Life is simple, but it ain't easy. There's still so much more to learn.

A few days ago, I received a letter from INTEC regarding the re-registration for the new semester.
Well, it did not contain my End-of-Semester results, but just some usual "Pekeliling" and details.
Then, there's a section which demands every student to pay RM85.00 to Bendahari UiTM via Bank Islam. The bill could be printed from INTEC's web portal after 17 Disember according to the letter.
But, I was just too free that I would not mind to take a look at my bill before 17. I was kind of startled to find that I had bill amounting to RM7960.00. Luckily, PSD is paying that. That's certainly a huge figure for one semester of A-Levels......
....in one regular plus inextraordinary public institution of higher learning.
You may argue that INTEC is special in terms of its students who consists of scholars, but it's still an IPTA alright. And IPTA usually charges that amount of money for Degree programmes. It is also worth noting that INTI and various other colleges provide free A-Levels studies for those who obtain 10 A's and above in SPM. Therefore, if one deserves to be in INTEC, what probably is the need for PSD to foot the students' astronomical A-Levels bill when we can get it free elsewhere. Perhaps it is a mean to regulate our economy... but I see it as a non-sensible one. It's just so cruel of INTEC to "rob" PSD of that amount of money on a yearly basis. If one day all our institutions of higher learning were to fail and be at the threshold of bankruptcy, INTEC will certainly be the last man standing due to the generous yearly funding by the government.

That's not the end of my grudge...

After 17 Disember which is a couple of days ago, I happily printed out the bill and went to Bank Islam to pay my re-registration fee of RM85.00. It's just so tedious and troublesome... I had to fill in a form and waited for more than one hour before I was served by the officer. I dug out exactly RM85 from my pocket just to find out that an additional commission fee of RM1 had to be charged. I just couldn't believe my ears when the officer told me so.... In fact, I was rather taken aback by that. As far as I am concerned, all IPTA students have to pay their registration fee via Bank Islam at an extra cost of RM1 as well. Imagine this.... The bank earns RM1 per head. And there are supposedly thousands and thousands of IPTA students. To make it simple, Bank Islam earns quite a fortune by basically doing nothing. Easy money...yeah, that's what they used to call it... Now, there's this new subtle term of "regulating the country's economy".
We never learn to improve, don't we?
Malaysians as a whole have a nasty habit of finding the easier way out in almost everything.
Forgive me for this harsh statement of generalisation. No one is victimised in this matter but everyone does hold a sure responsibility.

With the return of Jei to KT, it only means more outings... Had spent an evening playing badminton and indulged myself in football matches at D' Village. Took some beer, but not to the extent of drunken as I was the driver. Yeah... I'm back. After several days of 'meditation' in DOTA sessions, I'm finally back. Come to think of it.. It's just a couple of weeks before I have to resume my final semester (Semester 4) in INTEC.

Oh gross... :S

Anyway, I am going to play golf tomorrow evening and my night schedule is confirmed full. Envious of me..? You should. Haha. It seems that I forgot to take my "post-exam-syndrome" medication again.

Till then, ciaozzz......

Hitting the sack at practically 3.ooam everyday has definitely taken its toll on me... Tonight, I will go to bed early. :S

Many friends are back....... Good news. Will not have trouble of finding people to hang around with for the remaining holidays. :)

Haven't touched my books at all since the last End of Semester examination. @_@

Lost track of time and just realised that 3 weeks of holidays have passed. T_T

Have just finished watching
X-Men 1
X-Men 2
X-Men 3
Species 1

Have watched Bleach till episode 50, Heroes 2nd Season till episode 7. Oh my, oh my...

Feng Shui master believes that a harmonic balance between "ying" and "yang" is extremely essential. I am a strong believer of it too. Therefore, I am reading "Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows". Just started yesterday... To date, I have only reached Chapter Four due to numerous distractions. A few philosophical books are on the to-read list as well.

*sigh* I am thrashing myself very much during this break. Hope that my mind will be quite in the readiness to resolve and accept the upcoming challenges in my last semester. What I am doing right now certainly do not seem to bode well with my EDEXCEL external examination. All these madness will come to an end soon enough... erm... most probably in 3-week time if everything is going on smoothly according to schedule. ^_^!!!

“You know, that old Christmas story about the man who wanted to buy a present for his wife, and he sold the only thing of value he owned – his father’s pocket watch – to buy her a hair clip for her long beautiful hair. Meanwhile, the wife cut her hair and sold it in order to earn enough money to buy gold chain for the man’s watch.”

“It’s beautiful and so romantic in a bittersweet sort of way,” Hermione said, smiling sadly.

-Adapted from “Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows”- [the fake one :P]

You will never "find" time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.

-Charles Buxton, English Author (1823-1871)-

It had happened again...
This morning when I woke up.

The same spot, same time, same person, same eye...

What is happening to me???
No, you are wrong... I am far away from being psychotic.
I suspect it's some evil work of "déjà vu"...
Will keep a close eye on it.

Well anyway, with that swollen eye, I can hardly open it either.

As a small kid, I was constantly in a state of high spirit... Wanting to gain everything in my sight, I learned calligraphy for a few years and arts for numerous months. Both masters or 'sifus' in their respective fields are utmost talented and I would have had quite an achievement in both if I were not that inconsistent and insouciant.

I had jumped from one thing to another with little achievement in anything at all. Guess my maths was bad back then (and probably now as well). How on earth could I gain "profit" if I kept on changing my "products"?

Guess I was and am a lousy writer. How an excellent piece of "composition" can be written if the "theme" is constantly on a shift? I was being naive back then. There's no doubt about it.

Regrets... Looking back, my sorrows can only be founded on it.

Similar to a rolling stone, that was me. Now, that stone has no where to fall anymore. It lays at the hillside... static and silent.

Dear moss,
Worry not...;
Please do grow gracefully on the stone;
For he has made the choice of his life;
To lie here for as long as he can;
With perseverance;
And a little sense of dignity;
So that life can once again exist on it.

-ZhaoMing-

WAL-MART's YEARLY IMPORT FROM CHINA IS ABOUT 10 PER CENT OF USA's.
WAL-MART's ECONOMY OR BUYING POWER IS EQUIVALENT TO MALAYSIA's.
FOR YEARS, THE GOVERNMENT HAD TRIED TO STOP THIS GIANT COMPANY FROM ENTERING MALAYSIA's MARKET, BUT WE CAN'T HOLD IT FOR LONG.
WAL-MART IS COMING SOON... I WONDER CAN DOING-WELL MARTS, SUCH AS MYDIN, JUSCO OR GIANT, COPE WITH THIS CALLOUS TORRENT.
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Most importantly, can we not just grumble but learn the way Wal-Mart climbed the ladder of success... the way it fully utilises technology... and the way it handles business.
This should serve as an awakening call for all local businessmen. It's time for a change.

Had watched....
Alien 1
Alien 2
Alien 3
Alien 4
Heroes Season 2
Wild Hogs
Ghost Rider
End of Days
Constantine
Bleach 1-...... AND THE LIST GOES ON.
Everyone, please wish me GAMBATE and all the best ya.

Well, that's post-exam syndrome obviously... Geez.. :-)

A 12-year-old student died after the recent Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah results.
Not too long ago, a student of a university took her own life for a similar reason, but after a while, the attention faded.
What's going on with the Asians? Since when do we learn the Japanese suicidal style...? Is the way of reducing stress really constructed on the correct basis, rightfully and lawfully? Or it is just a game of mere ill mental health among students...?
Certainly, now is not the time to point fingers at anyone. However, if the blame game did start, the first one to be hit should well be the education system itself.
Our education system has become too examination-orientated. I can understand how stressful it is because one's future depends on how well one performs during the examination though I personally doubt both are closely related. Should one fall sick, one may not perform well even though one may have had ample preparation.
Should we use examination results as the sole yardstick to measure a student's success in life? Why are we so wedded or disillusioned to the idea that everyone has to achieve something to be someone?
Every child is special in his or her own way. He or she may not be the smartest student in his school or the most talented sportsman,but if the child has an excellent character, that is by itself worth much more than any number of distinctions. There is no need to compare or compete.
There just needs to be a change in perspective in the way we view success and failure.
As the saying goes, "the difference between a stumbling block and a stepping stone is the way we view it".
More importantly, we need to realise that it is the process, not the result, that matters most. How much a child learns and grows from his educational experiences is far more important than what he gets in examinations.

By AUDREY EDWARDS

PUTRAJAYA: Newly-qualified doctors will have to undergo two years' compulsory housemanship from next year.

Currently, they only have to do a year of housemanship.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek, who announced the Cabinet decision yesterday, said the move was considered important to increase the knowledge, skills and experience of graduate medical officers.

“This will improve the quality of services and healthcare standards,” he said.

A rotation system of four months in six departments will be implemented. With the newest inclusion being the accident and emergency department, the rest are medical, paediatric, general surgery, orthopaedic, obstetrics and gynaecology.

“We have observed that in the past few years, about three to five per cent of graduate medical officers do not get full registration because they have weaknesses in knowledge or skills,” he told reporters before chairing his ministry’s post-Cabinet meeting.

“We cannot let this continue. We hope the move is seen as a positive one by future graduates and we are confident the rakyat (people) will support us.”

After the two-year housemanship, the doctors would have to serve their three years' compulsory service with the Government or its agencies, he said.

Dr Chua said the ministry would apply to the Government to place them under the U43 grade upon completing the two years' housemanship compared to the current U41. The U43 pay scale is RM500 more than U41.

He said the doctors would be able to pursue their specialist courses or Master’s after serving two years' compulsory service compared to the current situation whereby they can only apply to further their studies after three years.

About 1,200 local medical students graduate annually.

Dr Chua also announced the Cabinet’s decision to disallow the future setting up of private cord blood banks because while it was a new service with huge potential to treat specific diseases, there were still ethical issues to be scrutinised.

He said the existing centres would have to apply for a licence from the ministry within the next two months and would be registered under the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 1998.

This is the last day of my attachment. No hard feelings or anything... Just mere enlightenment into the career as a medical practitioner.

1. went to a lecture on diabetic retinopathy in the auditorium
2. the lecture was attended by most of the MO's and specialists
3. learned that laser treatment can never improve one's vision, but it serves to retard the deterioration of the eye due to this disease. (in some cases, the patient's vision deteriorated after undergoing treatment with laser - [50/50 chances of successful treatment])
4. got an introduction to the wireless monitoring system which has just been implemented in the hospital. It will ease the work of the hospital staffs whereby they do not have to go bed-to-bed to collect the patients' data. There is a centralised wireless system in every ward. Guess the people have begun to make good use of technology. A good sign....
5. spent the whole morning in the A&E (Accident and Emergency) ward
6. learnt from one of the MO's about certain medical terms.... such as ORTHOPNOEA ( Thanks 'anonymous' for that piece of info. Appreciate it very much. :-) ) which is a term used to describe a patient having difficulties to sleep while lying flat. For instance, this term is applied when the patient complains that he or she can only sleep with 3 or more pillows
   
7. the MO also told us that in history taking, we will record what a patient says in a layman-style of writing, such as shortness of breath or its abbreviation, "SOB". However, in the examination report, we should use the medical term to discribe this symptom... The medical term starts with a "T"... (haha, should anyone know what the real term is, please do tell me yah.. Couldn't catch properly what the doc had said) - [Now, I have the answer thanks to Joo Ken. It is tachypnoea.]
8. feeling tired after doing some work is termed as decreased in effort tolerance
   
9. I also learned how to stitch up a wound. It's easy really... just three knots will do, but we need to make sure the wound is really clean first to avoid possible infections and to have good stitching skills, sufficient practice is a must
   
10. something struck me real deep today... When I was standing at the entrance of the hospital, an old man suddenly approached me and asked me why was I so relaxed... Shouldn't I be working? I replied that I was going back. Then, I noticed that my white cloak was in my hand... It was the cloak which deceived the man's eyes. And again, the man asked what time am I going to start working tomorrow. Haha, my white lab cloak is certainly a perfect deception... Do I really look so much like a doc? There had been patients who approached and asked me questions... Come on lah... I really don't have any decent knowledge in the medical field. My look can really con people, but it is really a good thing that people tend to think that I am a qualified and registered MO :P

A boring day....
Went to Ward 8
Practically, it caters for aged women.. So, not much of learning could be made, but the need for patience was dire.

• met Christine Tan at the Terengganu airport... Didn't see her around since graduating from high school. She is currently studying in SEDAYA college, majoring in piano and minoring in guitar. A musician she will be. :-)
  
• went to the pharmacy department beside the pathology sector
• visited the various satellites at different floors
  
• learnt that generally, the med from the internal store can last for 9 months, whilst med from external store can last for 6 months only although the separate pure products can last for years before mixing
• that is the main place where private clinics shop for certain drugs
  
• they are short of pharmacists to prepare and mix the drugs
• we were told that the pharmacists' usual field of job consists of monitoring the drug in the patients' blood (using centrifugation technique), preparing specific cancer drugs (using precise aseptic techniques under the laminar flow) and aiding the nutritionists in preparing food for the premature infants which are short of certain nutrients
  
• had a casual talk with the Head of Department of Pharmacy on several issues... The recognition of higher institution of learnings in Japan, Taiwan, Russia and India by Lembaga Akreditasi Negara and Lembaga Farmasi and also the approval of certain drugs, which are still not in the Health Ministry list, by Dato' Dr. Ismail Merican, the Director-General of Malaysian Medical Council, were some of the important topics mentioned by her
• she said that drugs which are not in the list usually need 1 month for approval by the Ministry of Health
• there was a instance where a Terengganu girl was prescribed a drug containing the ingredients of Viagra by IJN (Institut Jantung Negara) as a pharmacological treatment for heart
• the girl subsequently tried to ask for supply from the Terengganu hospital, but they did not have it as it is not in the drug list approved by the Ministry. The hospital requested approval from the Ministry, but was turned down as according to the authority, the drug was not specified for treating heart diseases. Fortunately, there was an undisclosed source of med for the poor girl, who was in dire need for the drug. The hospital management then told the girl to inform IJN to supply the drug to her directly in the future. Again, unnecessary red tape or bureaucracy had almost caused a life. This phenomenon is certainly all too common nowadays
• met many International Medical University (IMU) seniors
• learn about the "Grading System" in government sectors. According to the officers, MO's nowadays will start off with the grade of UD41, whilst pharmacists start off with U41
• a lecturer (Dr. Lua) from Universiti Darul Iman, who was formerly teaching in UiTM, came to promote postgraduate studies for pharmacists. The catch? The university is just across the road...just a walking distance from the hospital. In front of your door it is, according to Dr. Lua. Thus, it will be of very much convenience for the pharmacists to further their postgraduate studies
  
• attended the "Erectile Dysfunction" and "Smoking Cessation" presentation by two of the housemen. The "ED" thingie was not as interesting as expected due to the lack of a good command of English and presenting skills by the housemen. Honestly, Joash or anyone from INTEC with a sound command of English can do a whole lot better than them
• however, the presentation did catch my attention during a heated question-bombarding sessions from 3 fellow Chinese pharmacists. Well, they certainly asked good questions and criticised cleverly with some ingredients of sarcasm
• learnt about Prostaglandin E (ALPROSTADIL) inhibitor and recalled back on phosphodiesterase and cytochrome
  
• "Penile Implant", which is still a new treatment for ED, is not available in Malaysia yet due to its astronomical cost and the lack of surgeons with necessary surgery skills to implant the device
  
• it is also worth noting that one of the pharmacists asked the presenter why Viagra (sildenafil), Levitra (vardenafil) and Cialis (tadalafil) should not be used with alpha blockers
  
• all in all, I had a better insight into the career as pharmacists and the way they work behind the stage though it has little relation with my future occupation

-ZhaoMing-

My 4-day hospital attachment (or rather exposure programme) started yesterday...
The location : Hospital Sultanah Nur Zahirah [HSNZ]

1st day

• went to the admin department
• waited for one hour plus before the officer from Unit Latihan posted us to our respective wards
• found out that the officer-in-charge is my former maths teacher's husband
• also found out that he is related to Zulfadli, a coursemate of mine in INTEC
• this is such a small world :-)
  
• basically, we had spent our entire morning at the paediatric ward and eventually called it a day
• lessons learnt :
1. medical officers (MO) are not rich as informed and reminded by Dr. Rahsdan [that was the first thing he told us when we first met :P]
2. preclinical years are both stressful and hectic
3. the ward is like a chess board. MO's and nurses are the chess pieces; the specialists are the players who move the chess pieces on the board to their likings
   
4. MO's work hard around the clock....going from one bed to another of the entire ward, asking the patients questions, referring to their medical history and diagnosing them with possible illnesses
5. and guess what? The diagnosis is a premature one. They will then have to follow the specialist for another round around the ward, explaining to the specialist about the patients' various conditions
6. the specialist listened briefly to the MO's, asked a few questions to the patients. And there and then, the MO's stand to be either harshly corrected or given a comforting nod by the specialist
   
7. TADA...!And the job of a specialist is officially done after that. The specialist reached for her handbag, gave us a quick glance and said, "My job is done here. But the MO's still have obligations to fulfill. They need to complete their report, do an overall review and carry out every single thing which was instructed by me." OMG, doc slavery will be an issue in decades to come... yeah...considering my personal opinion that the newer generations of docs might be pampered to an even greater extent
8. Dr. Rahsdan told us to learn to categorise things in our medical studies later.... for instance, pharmocological and non-pharmacological. This can be applied too in answering the questions later. According to him, techniques of answering questions are utmost important
   
9. though tired of his job, Dr. Rahsdan, a medical graduate from University of Malaya (UM),still put great efforts in cracking cold jokes (really cold) and convincing us to continue pursuing our far-reached dream to become a doctor... The evil reason behind his encouragement? We can help to lessen his workload. *swt* zzzZ...
   
10. to a certain degree, I think MO's need to have durable legs and strong backs if we consider the hours spent beside the patients' beds. FIY, I had almost broken mine. Thanks god my femurs and backbone are still intact
11. oh yeah, and another thing... one of the housemen, who seemed very anxious, revealed to us that what she learned in Russia is totally different from what is required in the local hospital and that she needs to really struggle now
12. wonder whether Malaysian Medical Council had looked into this issue thoroughly... Really pity the houseman for this. Imagine studying overseas for years and come back with nothing, but the must to start everything for all over again
13. paediatric ward is different from other wards in terms of the time spent on attending to the youngr patients. Blood-taking, for instance, is much easier with adults than children. And, the questioning is directed towards the parents, which sometimes becomes extremely troublesome as they might be unsure of their own child's conditions
    

Okay... Guess that's all for the 1st day. FYI, we are stationed in the pharmacy department on the 2nd day, medical on the 3rd and emergency on the 4th.

-ZhaoMing-

The horrendous one-week-plus End of Semester examination had come to an end at last, and so was the gala feasting trip in Melaka. But, the days at home has just started... And it did start off well.
:-)

TALKING about interpretations, I am reminded of the interesting case of the housewife in Chukai, Terengganu, who told police she went to bed about 5am on Oct 11 after making preparations for Hari Raya Aidilfitri. Her husband had gone to work.

About an hour after she went to bed, she felt the warmth of a man beside her and they made love. Later, when her husband walked in and asked her about the man who had walked out of their room, she said it was a case of mistaken identity. She lodged a report that she had been raped and police picked up a colleague of the husband who had been staying with them.

She had thought the man who had shared the bed with her was her husband. She had, it seems, interpretated it wrongly.

The police are working on their own interpretation of the events that transpired.

Then there is the case of the 14-year-old from Mersing who spent the night at her boyfriend's house on Oct 10.

After returning from a stroll with a girlfriend, they went to her boyfriend's house at 11 pm. The boyfriend's family allowed the girls to sleep in the hall.

When everyone had gone to sleep, the boyfriend invited her into his room. The girl, it appears, misinterpreted his intentions and went in. The next morning, she lodged a rape report against him.

Another classic case of interpretation is when leaders cry. Now, in Malaysia, it has become the fashion, especially for men, to cry in public.

When a leader of a country cries while delivering a speech, some see it as a sign of weakness but others see it as an indication that beneath that tough exterior there is a soft heart.

A policeman being offered a RM50 note by a driver whom he had stopped on the road may feel he should not insult the driver by refusing this kind gesture. The ACA will have a different interpretation, of course.

Words and intentions can often be misinterpretated. For instance, if I were to see someone floating on cloud nine, I could say : "Look, he's gay". But within the space of a second, people will send various interpretations of the word "gay" into orbit.

I could call someone who behaves like a child "childish" or "childlike". One is an insult, the other can be a term of endearment. Again, interpretation. Which is why, I guess, we should be careful about what we say and do.

It's both rather amazing and annoying that such few words of mine can cause what an extreme turmoil and havoc in people's mind. Yeah, you have succeeded. My emotion is totally stirred at the moment, but not for long. Should I feel proud that people really do take account of every word which I had written or spoken of? Or should misery overcome me? My apology to all (if there is any) who feel they were insulted or rather victimised by what I had written here. Well, I can't please everyone, can I? If I can't win a game, I won't participate in it. The same applies here... If I can't make every single man happy, I will not be bothered to do so.

Ultimately, we are responsible for the way we interpret people's words and intentions and events.

Fritjof Capra (1982)

"Our progress, then, has been largely a rational and intellectual affair, and this one-sided evolution has now rached a highly alaraming stage, a situation so paradoxical that it borders insanity. We can control the soft landings of space craft on distant planets, but we are unable to control the polluting fumes emanating from our cars and factories. We propose Utopian communities in gigantic space colonies, results of overemphasizing our 'yang', or masculine side - rational knowledge, analysis, expansion - and neglecting our 'ying' or feminine side - intuitive, wisdom, synthesis and ecological awareness."

It is usual that I blog when I am hardworking. And, yes, today I am pretty hardworking.

Despite waking up at 11 o' clock in the morning and sleeping from 12.30pm to 3pm, I am hardwoking. I actually took the trouble to open my Malaysian University English Test (MUET) module to complete my long-pending essay assignments. I actually checked my mail inbox for chemistry notes from Puan Zuraida. I actually set up a what-to-do list for my holidays. (There are more than 10 items though... Now, I feel that I am rather ambitious.)

Next week, I will have my MUET speaking test, chemistry 6A lab practical and ethics test. Guess what am I doing now? You are right.... Sitting on the sofa with my faithful laptop, blogging on some meretricious issues after an arduous DOTA session. Will this sum up to something? Ahha, you are right again! I am going to endure a terrible migraine when I crawl out from my bed tomorrow.

"I am halfway through my holidays, yet not much have been done. Well, I am not going to live in this kind of emptiness anymore. Tomorrow will certainly be a better day!"
I have had this monologue going on in me since the first day of holiday. Feel very glad that at long last, I have the opportunity to shout this real loud in my blog. To all my friends out there... don't freak out as I am really very busy. Yeah, busy with my food and laptop.

Really, I am serious... (Trying very hard to make a frowning expression, but to no avail), I will rise and complete my mountain of assignments. So, stop pressuring me ya o' Ming Zhao.


"The river is long, the river is wide;
as the days go by, I have wasted my life."
-ZhaoMing-

To Eu Jeen,
So long old friend... We have known each other since kindergarden. There are so many stories to tell....too many to squeeze into one post. Perhaps I will blog about it from time to time. Good luck for your future undertakings in the University of Michigan (UMICH). Well, I am still stucked here in INTEC. Haha.... But I guess there are pros and cons. When's your next holiday, dude? I think you prefer staying in the States during the holidays. lolz... as the cost of flight ticket is rather astronomical. Simple economic sense I would say... Oh no, I am sounding like Shou Lee. Lolz..... Well, old friend.... You have proven yourself a good challenger and competitor in all possible terms. That's the spirit of students from Sekolah Menengah Chung Hwa Wei Sin (SMCHWS), right? You had carried well your duties as the Vice Captain of the school, Drum Major of Pancaragam Swadaya 2004/2005 and most importantly, as a friend. I don't think the juniors can do any better. Sorry for not being able to be at the airport that day as I was having my IELTS trial exam.

To Shwu Jing,
You have silently carved a name in the our heart. And, in the same way, you had silently left us for Canada. Good luck to you too, o' our favourite class monitor. Without realising it, you had carried the heavy burden as a class monitor for such long years. No complaints uttered by you though sometimes, we could be very demanding and rebellious. I can still vividly remember the day you were elected as our class monitor...and since then, the position is specially reserved for you. hahaha......! Felt so glad to have you as our class monitor. You will always be our favourite class monitor yeah.... In my memories, there's no days spent with other class monitor but you which is worth cherishing for a very, very long time to come.

I do not wish to sound nostalgic here as I am leaving KT for Shah Alam in 11-hour time. Haiz...... Will miss KT awfully lot.

Anyhow, bon voyage to these two good friends of mine......

-ZhaoMing-

To all souls, L-O-V-E is everywhere around you...
You just need to look for it in the right place.

Happy Birthday to all bloggers, young and old, as today is Blogger's eight birthday...! It is such a remarkable day to celebrate as many have been achieved by the avid bloggers over these past eight years. Much tears were shed, laughters cracked, critics bombarded, praises forwarded, opinions raised and news circulated in their blogs. Well, it seems to me that blogging will survive the tides of modernisation for a long time to come.

Enough written about Bloggers.

Yeah, time really flies... That's what intrigues me very much. :-) Unrealisingly, I have already become the one of the seniors in A-Level Medicine. Surviving in International Education Centre (INTEC) for one year is not easy... Haha, maybe I sound too dramatic, but there's some truth in it. Really. Even Sun Quan agrees with me about this.

Now, I am having my Mid-Semester III holidays. Will be back to INTEC the day after tomorrow. Kind of worried here... Haven't touched my books for my entire one-week long holiday. *sigh* But, one good thing is that I have mastered the skills to do everything at the eleventh hour. Hehe..... That's the way it is....... When we are desperate and the exams are drawing near, we tend to unleash our own unique, superb inner ability to study intensively. At least this is what I believe and hold true for my two semesters. Anyway, I have a strange feeling that Semester III will be a totally different ball game. Whatever awaits me, I will persevere till the end.

Before the start of my holiday, I had sit for Biology, Chemistry, Statistics and IELTS Trial tests.... No idea of what the result will turn out to be. Good or bad, I am prepared to face it. Have been feasting on numerous sumptuous meals these few days. Hope I will be able to suit myself to the not-so-nice food in Seksyen 18.

Well, I have also spent lots of time with my family and beloved.... hehe.... as predicted by Yea Kee. Will surely appreciate the time spent with my other half oo, right or not Dear??? Haha.... DENISE TOH WANN JUNN, if you are reading this.... a thousand thanks to your grandma ya for the drink. Kaka..... You see, I did mention your name. And pronounced it loudly too.... See the colour and size of the character?

Hehe... Signing off..... I am waiting for Dear to set up your own blog ya..., so that I can keep in touch with all your daily activities, that is if you are so hardworking enough to update your blog everyday. :P I guess you would rather sleep than wasting your time in front of the computer screen blogging. :P!

-ZhaoMing, your dearest pig....!-

!!!
I actually got all five A's for my Semester II (Jan - Jun 2007).....
Getting an "A" for my PAL201 a.k.a. English is indeed miraculous. (if you take into account of the hassle and stress every student went through in the End of Semester II examination for English)
The letter just arrived at my house today...., the first day of my Mid Semester III holidays... Well, that's certainly another miracle whish is worth cherishing. In fact, I was taken aback when I first viewed my results.
Now, I am practically hunting for a decent camera or rather scanner to show you all my result slip.
If the results are indeed true and not some meretricious tricks which mind can play on one, then I would like to extend my humblest 'thank you' and appreciation to my previous English lecturer for it and give myself a pat on my shoulder. It had really made my day.
However, if the results are some sort of mistakes which are caused by the fragile standardised online system implemented in INTEC, namely the CMS system which is still in its infant stage, then surely, I curse it though it does not agitate me as much as what is experienced by Mrs. Yap.
Anyway, just hope that my future, real IELTS band will turn out to be a good one.
Will post the result slip soon.... But if it is a confirmed fake result, then I shall just keep it in my shelf for years to come....well..., as a reminiscence. :-)

Shwu Jing and Pei Yi

Group Photo

Gim Hui and Me

Me and Shwu Jing

Haha... The A&W worker was bad at photographing

The Pale Faces @_@

The day before yesterday was a Friday too. And actually, on that day, I had planned to attend Daniel Lee's concert, which was held in my younger sister's school. However, a twist of mood forced me to change my mind. I decided to be a home-stayer and enjoy the final few days with my family before going to Shah Alam. Besides that, what's the fun when most of my friends had gone back to KL to continue their studies. Lolzz... If I were to go to that concert, I believe right now, I will have another interesting material to write about.. :S

p/s : Gim Hui... I broke the promise. Hehe... But I do not consider numbness in hand, tenderness to vomit and stomache ache as embarrassments. :P

And this is Johnson...! Haha. Sorry dude, don't want to waste any pics... Probably next time I will do a 'before' and 'after' ya. Then, we help the cosmetic company to promote their product. :-)

Huh.... What the heck!!! Study means study? No toilet???

Messy Mess......

Ever Heard of CHICKEN FRENZY???

bet you don't....

I don't understand what it is about either... Just know this "unholy" and unhygienic frenzy involves processing and cooking of chicken....erm... beside the drain!

I REPEAT.... It was done beside the D-R-A-I-N !!!

This RM2000++ proposal was suprisingly approved by INTEC

HAHA... And it was held in Cendana!

Ewh.... There's no other place to do the washing and processing???!

The rest is left to all readers to imagine and elaborate. I didn't even dare to take one piece of chicken that day although I had paid for it.

^_^"

My second semester seemed to be quite a swift one due to numerous festive holidays. Guess I will not be that fortunate in the coming third semester (Joo Ken said that semester 3 is slightly more hectic than semester 2), but I still keep my fingers crossed. Though semester 2 was very short, there were many unforgettable experience, unlike semester 1. Semester 2 was a real good one as it enabled me to identify friends and foes plus all the current backstabbers and potential backstabbers. This is of dire importance because I will certainly know when there is a need to watch out my back from these masked assassins. Just like the culture of “defensive medicine” which is hotly debated, most of the time, I believe that it is better to be ‘safe than sorry’. Johnson, for instance, had experienced a sharp, piercing pain from the words of a backstabber who is supposedly to be his friend. Well, there is nothing for sure in this world and this is a life-long journey of learning.

The classes, which were taught by Puan Mimi, got involved in a fantastic biology presentation, namely “MSS presentation”. :P It was indeed memorable to see future doctors and pharmacists debating. And not to mention, Charles who shot out schematic questions to Johnson which did not fail to stun almost everyone in the hall. Imagine having to answer questions such as “Can you give me four reasons why …….” in a bio presentation? Four reasons translate to four marks. This seemed crystal clear to me. Fuyoh…! Once a scholar, always a scholar I would say. At this point, it’s the time to reveal something about my roles in the presentation. I was in-charged of explaining the methods of male contraceptive method and above all, free condom samples were given out to the badge of excited students in the hall. zzzzZZZZZ… Alright, I know that was unorthodox, but I strongly believed that it would bring better understanding about sex to the audience…. (Well, at least Suhaila did believe so. It was her idea after all.) This yearly presentation was successfully ended with Kien Seng’s melodious vocal armed with his loyal guitar. Opps…. Yah.., Johnson and Charles did sing too. Hehz…. And it followed by a wonderful birthday song for our all-favourite Puan Mimi! I would like also to thank Puan Mimi for her cute Patrick (Spongbob’s best friend) doll… haha… or rather her children. Puan Mimi, I will definitely remember "Structure and Function" in my future medicine studies. Copyright reserved to Puan Mimi!

I was down with fever for almost a week. The doctor diagnosed me with suspected dengue. I had missed many important lessons due to that. Luckily, my blood report turned out to be dengue negative. No significant drop in platelet counts… Ya, the number of platelets is one of the solid indicator for dengue. However, that doctor in Subang charged me RM112.00 for that. Erhem…. Quite reasonable la… That’s the money to earn for someone who has studied laboriously for five long years plus years of housemanship. In addition to another hole in my pocket, I broke my iPod charger wire and it was not warranted. It costed me another RM100++. :S

The first part of the Engliah Speaking Test was fabulous. I talked about the Seven Wonders of the World. But the second was T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E. I was still having fever when I was interviewed by the lecturer. At first, it turned out to be fine. She just asked simple questions which made me feel very at ease. Then, out of a sudden, a tough and complicated question, which required serious thinking, was bombarded to me. My mind spinned 360° at the speed of 360km/h. Time was ticking fast and there was a deep silence. Not wanting her to wait any longer, I managed to provide a simple answer in that kind of desperate situation. As simple as it was, it saved my neck. However, I was definitely penalized for the inevitable pause. Listening test was wonderful as the radio was positioned right on my desk… Could perfectly grasp every word in the conversation. :-) Just got one wrong.

In INTEC, I was very much attracted to a plastic plate with the printed saying of “Procrastination is the thief of time.” Attracted to this wise saying is one thing….adhering to it is another. That’s the problem with me. I realised that I was in deep trouble when the study leave week started. Seven days to go, yet there were tonnes of notes to cover. In addition to my misery, my flight back to Kuala Terengganu was cancelled due to an unforeseen blackout at the KT airport. Duh…. That was the first time the situation put me in such excruciating despair. I had never experienced something as absurd as that before. Well, as the attendants at the counter were not sure whether there would be any available flight back early next morning, I decided that enough risk had been taken and therefore, bought a bus ticket back to my hometown. And guess what….. It was the last ticket!!! I should consider myself lucky in such misfortune condition huh.. There gone one day of my study leave.

Back at home, I became almost insane with my books. I was in total indulgence (drowned!!!) with the river of knowledge flowing from Biology to Chemistry. No time for Mathematics and Statistics lah.. Haha… But manage to cover those during my exam period. The End of Semester 2 exam was D-I-S-A-S-T-R-O-U-S!!! Imagine having six solid papers in one day. It was certainly fast and furious. I don’t know why, but the exam this time seemed extremely packed. Last time, in their second semester exam, our seniors had the privilege to sit the papers for a duration of two-week time. However, much to our animosity, we had to complete all those papers, with an addition of a topic about kidney, in four days time. “FULAMAK!” said Melven. “What the hell?!” said Zhao Ming. “真的是太赶了啦(Zhen De Shi Tai Gan Le La),” said Sun Quan. “神经了(Shen Jing Liao),” said Jane. “我要疯了(Wo Yao Feng Le)!!!” Johnson gave an abnormal grin. “Must control myself already. No more DOTA for one week,” said Andrew. As predicted, hahaha… these were some of the scholars’ expression.

I felt that Semester 2 was my most take-for-granted sem. The common topic tests, especially for Biology, was much taken for granted. Vow not to repeat this in my third and fourth semester. In Sem 2, all my Bio papers were marked by Puan Rita, our A-Level Medicine Core Person. My papers in that semester were certainly destined to be marked by Puan Rita. Hope she would have mercy on my End of Sem papers, Unit 5 particularly, because I knew I did rather badly for that unit. Erhem!!! My excuse, this time, is having not enough time to be fully prepared. :P Sad to say, through historical data (previous papers marked by her) and conversation with her students did not seem promising for me to secure an ‘A’ for my Bio. How ever it is going to be, wish there’s still a fragile ‘A’ for my Core Mathematics and Statistics. Approximately three weeks ago, Yan Ning a.k.a Johnson texted me, saying that my Bio marks was the same as his. He also said that Radzi got perfect score for his Biology Unit 1. (the questions were totally adapted from EDEXCEL Biology January Paper 2007 punya pasal lah… :-( Huhuhu, should have got hold of the papers). An ‘A’ for Biology seems not quite right.. I really did screw up the papers, didn’t I? Anyway, I am still looking forward to seeing my result slip with my bare eyes before I were to believe it. I think I did quite well for my ethics though had a last minute study and studies were hampered by idiotic tasks. This would not have happened if I were a little bit more of a bad guy. I think I have had enough of disappointment. So, in the near future, Zhao Ming will not be the uttermost kind soul who is willing to do all things for his buddy. Heard I got an ‘A’ for Chemistry too, but a not-too-extraordinary ‘B’ for my English. Lucky me that English was not counted for the scoring system of 15. So, basically, if nothing goes wrong, I got a perfect score of 15 for my Semester 2, hopefully.

Semester 2 was also not poor with numerous achievements, though not academically. Hehe.. Managed to win dota matches with Andrew. This brilliant guy had indeed turned into a dota fanatic. Kudos to Andrew! I went shopping in Midvalley, Sunway Pyramid and Pusat Kompleks Negeri Selangor (PKNS) as usual. Jane, Jeremy and I met a taxi driver, who is a hardcore “Bah Kut Teh” lover like us, and he eventually becomes our private driver. Hehz….. Erm.. Sun Quan found his true love.. Oppss… Sorry, this should be my own review. Hehe. Stayed in Petaling Jaya (PJ) for my Wesak holidays.. (Special thanks to Uncle Bee Kuan and his family who were kind enough to put me up in their house for a few days :-) ) I did learn new things from Uncle Bee Kuan, such as the so-called “salesman talk” and the history of PJ.

O yea…, before I forget, on the last day of examination, I were so stressed out that I decided to go to Bintang Walk with my friends (Zhi Hui, PC, Hooi Li, Johnson, Jing How and Charles). Yeah, I was totally wrecked and had really forgotten about Jayvian and Gim Hui's birthday and their presents. Sorry ya Gim Hui! Sorry ya Jayvian! We spent the whole night there, experiencing the night life in Bukit Bintang. I didn’t sleep for 30 hours because I slept at 12am at the previous night. However, it was worth it as I took my first Irish coffee that night. Its taste was simply fabulous. Pure-blended coffee with an irresistible taste of alcohol. :P Don’t be jealous ya.. We watched Spiderman 3 at the cinema that night. Hooi Li and Zhi Hui were so darn enthusiastic to go clubbing. Haha…. Well, along Sem 2, I watched “The Three Hundred”, “Spirits of the Victims” and “Spiderman 3” in cinema. They were all worth a watch. Besides that, I watched “SAW”, “Borat”, “Jackass”, “Lord of the Rings”, “Curse of the Ring”, “I know what you did last summer”, “I still know what you did last summer”, “I always know what u did last summer” and the all freakingly disgusting “Hostel”! Mark my words,“Hostel” was certainly inhumane and bizarre. I hadn’t seen anything like it.

That’s all I think for Semester 2. A wonderful post on Pesta Pantai coming soon.. Be patient ya. Miss you all.

"He who knows enough is enough will always
have enough."

'If you want to make a man happy, add not to his riches but take away his desires.'

-Epicurus, a Greek philosopher-

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of life's
longing for itself
'They come through you but not from you.
And though they are with you yet the
belong not to you.
You may give them your love
but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You mat strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.'

-Khalil Gibran-

'Lord, save me from my friends. I know how to defend myself against my enemies.'

As you See - so you Feel
As you Feel - so you Think
As you Think - so you Will
As you Will - so you Act

'Life is uncertain,' says the Buddha, 'but death is certain.'

Eureka!

Not easy reading...

THE book cost $2 million at auction, but large sections are unreadable.

Some of its 348 pages are torn or missing and others are covered with sprawling purple patches of mildew. Sooty edges and water stains indicate a close escape from a fire.

"This manuscript is, by far, the worst of any manuscript I've ever seen," said William Noel, curator of manuscripts for the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, where it now resides. "It's a book that is on its last legs."

The sheepskin parchment originally contained a 10th century Greek text, which was erased by a 13th century scribe who replaced it with prayers. Seven hundred years later, a forger painted gilded pictures of the Evangelists on top of the faded words.

Underneath it all, however, is an exceptional treasure — the oldest surviving copy of works by the ancient Greek mathematician and engineer Archimedes of Syracuse, who lived in the 3rd century BC.

About 80% of the text had been transcribed and translated in the 1910s after it was rediscovered in an Istanbul monastery, but since then much of it became unreadable again because of deterioration.

Fully deciphering its mysteries has had to wait for advanced technologies, some of which had never been applied to ancient manuscripts.

The unusual cast of detectives includes not only the imaging specialists who helped photograph the Dead Sea Scrolls, but also a Stanford University physicist who studies trace metals in spinach with a particle accelerator.

Together, they have been carrying out one of the most remarkable "salvage jobs" in the history of codicology, the study of ancient manuscripts.

Archimedes, it turns out, is only one secret of the text.

AMONG the mathematicians of antiquity, Archimedes was one of the greatest and most cunning.

He was one of the earliest to devise ways to calculate the area beneath curves and was the first to prove that a circle's circumference and diameter are related by the constant pi. He developed the Archimedes Screw to lift water and invented deadly devices, such as the Claw of Archimedes, which was designed to grapple enemy warships.

Archimedes died in 212 BC, when Syracuse was sacked by the Romans. Legend holds that he was drawing figures in the sand. "Don't disturb my circles," he supposedly told the soldier who killed him.

Knowledge of Archimedes' work is derived from three books.

Codex A, transcribed around the 9th century, contained seven major treatises in Greek. Codex B, created around the same time, had at least one additional work by Archimedes and survived only in Latin translation.

Codex C has been an enigma.

It was originally copied down in 10th century Constantinople, now known as Istanbul. Three centuries later, the manuscript was in Palestine. By then, it was no longer a precious vestige of ancient learning but an obscure text that could be put to better use as a prayer book.

A scribe began by unbinding the pages. He washed them with citrus juice or milk and sanded them with a pumice stone. He cut the sheets in half, turned them 90 degrees and stitched the new book down the middle.

The scribe wrote prayers over the blank pages. Codex C had become a "palimpsest" — a recycled book.

The book eventually was brought back to Constantinople, where it sat until the 1890s, when a Greek scholar wrote down a fragment of erased text that he was able to read.

That fragment was brought to the attention of Danish philologist Johan Ludvig Heiberg in 1906, then the foremost authority on Archimedes. Armed with a magnifying glass, he translated everything he could read, publishing his work in 1910.

The palimpsest disappeared amid the chaos of World War I, only resurfacing in 1998, when a French family named Guersan offered it for auction at Christie's in New York. An anonymous book collector paid $2 million and deposited it at the Walters Art Museum for conservation.

Mold had attacked much of the manuscript, and four forged paintings of the Evangelists made in the 20th century covered some of its most important pages.

"That was our worst nightmare," said Abigail Quandt, senior conservator of rare books and manuscripts at the Walters Art Museum.

ROGER L. Easton Jr., a 56-year-old imaging specialist at the Rochester Institute of Technology, had just come off his success revealing hidden text in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Christie's had commissioned him to make ultraviolet images of the palimpsest for the auction catalog, and now he offered his help to the museum.

Easton and his colleagues began their work in 2000. They tinkered with different methods for capturing the image with the ultraviolet light, which makes the parchment glow more whitish.

They then merged those images with another set taken under a tungsten light, which enhanced the reddish hue of the Archimedes text. The resulting "pseudocolor" image made it easier to distinguish the black prayer book writing from the burnt sienna words of Archimedes.

Using this painstaking method, Easton and his team took two years to uncover another 15% of the text.

They were stymied in penetrating the rest.

Two more years passed before Stanford physicist Uwe Bergmann, 43, read a magazine article about the Archimedes palimpsest that mentioned it had originally been written with iron gall ink.

One of Bergmann's projects at Stanford was investigating the process of photosynthesis in plants by using the synchrotron X-rays to image small clusters of manganese atoms in spinach.

"Why not find traces of iron in an ancient book?" he asked.

Bergmann sent an e-mail to the Walters Art Museum, and the museum agreed to a test.

Bergmann set up the palimpsest experiment at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory. Spread over an area the size of a football field, the synchrotron is part of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, a Department of Energy facility set in the foothills of Menlo Park.

The synchrotron hurls electrons at near light speed, forcing them to give off X-rays as they veer around bends. That X-ray beam is channeled away into the laboratories.

Bergmann figured the powerful and precise beam could be used to make iron molecules fluoresce, thus allowing him with a sensitive-enough detector to pick up even the faintest traces of ink.

Bergmann first had to determine the exposure time. Too much time and the powerful synchrotron X-ray could damage the parchment. Then, they adjusted the intensity of the beam, which could be so strong that it blinded the detectors that picked up the glow from the iron gall ink.

After two years of refining their technique, Bergmann and his colleagues began the laborious process of imaging the palimpsest this summer.

Each side of a page, mounted in frame that moved in front of the beam, took 12 hours to record. The machines processed the pages continuously for two weeks.

Beneath a moldy, torn painting of St. John emerged two layers of writing.

On the edge of the first page, they saw a signature dated April 14, 1229: "By the hand of presbyter Ioannes Myronas."

It was the name of the priest who had erased Archimedes.

IN an office near Memorial Church at Stanford, Reviel Netz flicked off the lights. Netz, a slight 38-year-old with dark hair, leaned close to the screen of his laptop.

Bergmann's X-ray work had produced a black-and-white picture of a page from "The Method of Mechanical Theorems," a text found only in the palimpsest.

One phrase — "let them be arranged so they balance on point theta" — had already been translated by Heiberg, although he had had to guess about the word "on," which was unreadable.

Netz, a professor of classics, looked at the X-ray image and nodded. He smiled.

The actual word was "around."

"That's not trivial," he said, explaining that the change altered the meaning of Archimedes' calculations involving an object's center of gravity.

The X-ray image also revealed a section of "The Method" that had been hidden from Heiberg in the fold between pages. It contained part of a discussion on how to calculate the area inside a parabola using a new way of thinking about infinity, Netz said. It appeared to be an early attempt at calculus — nearly 2,000 years before Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz invented the field.

The discoveries may seem small, but they are significant in the understanding of ancient mathematics, Netz said.

One passage he studied several years ago involved the innumerable slices and lines that could be made from a triangular prism similar to a wedge of cheese. Netz said the passage, which was unreadable to Heiberg, showed that Archimedes was grappling with the concept of infinity long before other mathematicians.

For Netz, a specialist in ancient mathematics and cognitive history, the chance to decipher the palimpsest "is the fulfillment of an incredible dream," he said.

One of his biggest breakthroughs involves a quirky part of the palimpsest called the "Stomachion," which literally means "Belly-Teaser."

Stomachions were children's games in which 14 geometrical shapes were rearranged to create new shapes. Heiberg translated fragments of the manuscript but paid little attention to it, thinking it was just a game.

Netz saw a deeper significance. Archimedes asked a more restricted question in his "Stomachion": How many different ways could you combine the 14 triangles to make a square?

Netz believes the fragments address an area of mathematics known as combinatorics that scholars have only recently believed interested the Greeks.

For all the high-tech efforts, there are still gaps remaining in the Archimedes text, perhaps 2%, Netz guessed.

AMONG the jumbled fragments are clues that perhaps the deepest secrets are yet to be found.

A century ago, Heiberg copied down two lines that he couldn't identify. They began: "The youngest had been abroad for so long that the sisters wouldn't even know who was who."

The passage was not Archimedes.

In 2002, scholars were able to cross-reference the quote. It came from "Against Timandros," written by a 4th century BC Athenian orator named Hyperides.

Although Hyperides is little-known now, contemporaries frequently compared him to Demosthenes, an acknowledged master of oratory.

No complete versions exist of "Against Timandros," which Hyperides had written as part of a lawsuit over an inheritance, said Judson Herrman, a classicist at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania.

Further study determined there were 20 pages of Hyperides in the palimpsest, including a previously unknown text called "Against Diondas."

The palimpsest, it turns out, took parchment from seven texts, including what are believed to be a commentary on Aristotle's "On the Soul" and a group of biographies of the saints, plus two still unidentified texts.

The works are even more difficult to discern than the Archimedes because the ink is different and the pages more thoroughly scrubbed.

"I have been cursing all morning," Herrman said of his work on a few lines of Hyperides.

The scientists aren't giving up.

Easton's team recently began experimenting with precisely tuned light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, to illuminate the text. The team also is using angled light to detect the outlines of letters etched in the parchment by the acid in the ink.

The team made progress on a few pages, but it may take decades — or longer — before technologies are developed that can unveil all the texts.

"We'll probably leave something for future scientists to work on," Netz said.

The writer can be contacted at jia-rui.chong@latimes.com



Taken from http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-archimedes26dec26,1,4486745,full.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=1&cset=true

-Saturday June 23, 2007-
Penang malls sold for over RM1bil

By DAVID TAN

PENANG: Three upmarket shopping malls in Penang – Gurney Plaza, Queensbay Mall and Island Plaza – have recently been sold for over RM1bil.

Sources told StarBiz that Gurney Plaza and Island Plaza had been sold to a US insurance group based in Singapore.

“Gurney Plaza has been sold for about RM700mil,” a source said. It is not known how much Island Plaza went for.

“As for Queensbay Mall, it was sold to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) for about RM400mil,” the source said.

Gurney Plaza was owned by Etika Cekap, while Queensbay Mall and Island Plaza were owned respectively by CP Land and the Belleview Group.

Queensbay Mall which was sold for about RM400mil

Gurney Plaza, which opened in 2001, has over 70,000 sq m of floor space, while Queensbay Mall, which began operations last year, has a built-up area of about 232,257 sq m.

Buyers usually use yield calculation to determine the price of shopping malls.

“This method looks at the yield that can be generated yearly from rentals,” the source said. “Based on rentals, upmarket shopping malls on the island can generate yields of about 8% a year.”

Current market rentals for ground-floor retail lots range from RM15 to RM25 per sq ft, depending on the size and location of the units.

Local and overseas investors, such as those from the United States, Australia and China, started taking an interest in commercial properties in Kuala Lumpur about two years ago.

“In the past two years, real estate investment trust companies have bought several shopping malls in the Klang Valley.

“They are now turning their attention to Penang, as the island has new, trendy and upmarket shopping malls and affordably priced commercial centres,” the source said.

He said that in Singapore, a prime commercial property could easily fetch RM5,000 per sq ft or more.

“A similar property in Kuala Lumpur or Penang is priced between RM600 and RM1,000 per sq ft,” the source said.

Taken from http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/6/23/business/18100855&sec=business