What a Hell of a Year! :)

Hello, 2015.

I was relieved to finally get 2014 over and done with. It has been a year of many shocks and surprises, with plenty of growth filtering in through the cracks after the pressure is gone.

The not-so-good:

1. For the first time in my life I did not have stable employment.
2. Obi, an abandoned dog that my friend Cyn adopted from our old office, died in February.
3.  Snoopy, the dog I adopted from a friend in 2008 died in early April. Cried for weeks. He was like a child to me. 
4. My grandmother had a terrible stroke in late April.
5. I injured my knee while lifting my grandmother in the hospital (guess I wasn't as strong as I thought I was hahaha).
6. Had to limp for almost a month. Also swore off stairs.
7. Had the worst job interview in human history with a Japanese company director (my friends had no sympathy; they found it comedy gold instead hahaha).
8. Had a tenant from hell who only paid outstanding rent and utilities after my lawyer sent a letter.
9. Had to shut down our company when my friend and partner decided to pursue another opportunity.
10. Had to leave my beloved apartment and PJ to move for a new job.
11. Was so homesick the first month I was in KK.
12. Missing Unifi, my friends and old haunts in PJ (hello, dearest darling IKEA! Oh how I've missed you!).

 The good:

1. Quit a draining job. I was losing sleep, weight and even hair!
2. Because I was "unemployed", I could come home to see my family for the first time in almost a year.
3. Became a freelance writer, a long-life dream finally realised.
4. Started a company with my best friend; it was good while it lasted.
5. Learned how to sew using the sewing machine.
6. Became a part-time tailor after learning how to sew.
7. Tailored my own four-panel floor-length heavy brocade curtains. Woot!
8. Sewed a green toga from scratch for a company dinner.
9. Got hired for the job of a lifetime: doing communications for a global non-profit.
10. Moved across the South China Sea for the new job with almost nothing in my pockets and without a home too. #crazy
11. Stayed at a backpackers' hostel for the first time while looking at houses in KK.
12. Started working out again after getting clearance from my doc for the stupid knee.
13. Trained self to like oatmeal for breakfast (it tastes better cooked than kept overnight in fridge).
14. Trained self to eat HUGE salads for lunch almost every day.
15. Hosted a junk-food-free Christmas for the family.

I was also single for most of the year but I can't say that it's a good or a bad thing hahaha. I did feel lonely sometimes but it's better to be single than be in a relationship that doesn't make you happy, no?

So what's next for 2015?

1. Fix my finances

My finances got derailed because I was unemployed for four months last year. I aim to pay off my credit card debt this year and sell off my house in Kuching. 

2. Run!

I want to clock at least 10 mins/km this year. Still contemplating running in the 10km run at Borneo International Marathon because I have a work trip that ends a day before the run. 

Before Christmas derailed me (excuses!) I was actually training three times a week. Now I want to do six, because I don't think I am pushing my body enough. 

3. Me, myself, and the Island of the Gods

An overdue solo trip! Looking forward to a week of culinary delights, sescapes, drinks at sundown, and also arts and crafts.

4. Get ready to go to school

I'd like to get my Master's degree (finally eh?) sometime in 2017 via a scholarship. 

Just four goals this year, which perhaps is a tad unambitious compared to the year I turned 30, when I had 30 goals (and actually achieved 18, I think).

I hope 2015 will be kinder to all of us :)

The Geek Goddess

Snippets of Sabah So Far

It's my twelfth day here in Sabah. I flew to Kota Kinabalu on my birthday last month (because the cheapest Air Asia ticket was on that day hahaha), so I had about a week to hunt for a place to stay before I started work on 2nd September.

I promised to write about Sabah so tada! But no pictures because le Internet is le horrible.

Anyway here goes:

Pre-departure

Some of my friends thought I was nuts to pack up and leave without getting long-term accommodation. There were also others who thought I was brave to uproot myself and start fresh in an unfamiliar territory. The general consensus: they all thought I was crazy. With friends like these.... T_T

I've always been the "Why not?" kind of person when it comes to amazing opportunities, which has usually worked out pretty well in the past, and so I found myself saying yes to being based in Kota Kinabalu for a dream career in a non-profit organisation.

As for accommodation, I also had been searching for apartments even before I bought my flight ticket, but the search was frustrating due to a few factors:

1. I didn't know Sabah's real estate scene at all.

My budget and expectations were unrealistic as I expected Kota Kinabalu and the surrounding suburbs to mirror the real estate rates of Kuching. Turns out even dodgy-looking unfurnished studio/one-room apartments in a flood-prone area (flash floods are a huge problem here) require almost RM3000 upfront. If you include the cost of purchasing the bare minimum furnishings, that could push the costs even much higher. I wanted to really know a place before I was ready to part with an arm and a leg. 

2. I didn't know Sabah at all, including transportation and traffic conditions. 

According to my friends, places that are located within the 5km radius from my office can have varying travel time due to road works etc. Factor in flash floods after heavy rain and you'll take forever to get moving.

3. I still needed to be there in person.

My lovely Sabahan friends offered to help me view the apartments but ultimately it would be up to me to decide how I feel about the unit, the location and other factors. So I might as well be there myself.

I didn't have a family or a permanent place to stay in PJ/KL, so I had to pack up everything and move out within three weeks after getting the job offer. I sold my furniture to friends and neighbours, packed up most of my belongings in my car for storage at a friend's house, while the rest I mailed ahead of me, and took with me on the flight.

There were many farewell and birthday get togethers with friends when they found out that I was leaving. Some of them I had to turn down because I was really running out of time to do everything. I hope to make it up to them the next time I come to PJ/KL.

The night before I left, I managed to squeeze in a farewell dinner with some ex-colleagues and a last minute furniture sale to a neighbour, so it was a given that the day of my departure was utter madness. :

3am - finished packing

4.30am - finished loading stuff into the car and drove a heavily-laden car SLOWLY

5am - reached a friend's house and showered there

6.45am - reached another friend's to drop the car and went to the airport in hers

10.20am - up up and away

I didn't sleep at all the night before, so I dozed off a few times in my friend's car. Sleeping in the flight proved to be futile because there was an enfant terrible sitting in the row in front of me, who was spoiled rotten by her stupid parents and grandparents. She kept screaming for attention (I want my toy! I want a hug! I want to sit here! I want to sit there! I want this! I want that!) and in my head I was throwing that mollycoddled child off the plane over and over again.

If we insist on giving people tests before they drive on the road, why can't we insist on tests before people reproduce and inflict their spoiled offspring onto the unsuspecting public? Not everyone is fit for parenthood and misbehaving kids in public are usually a sign of lazy/bad parenting.  

Temporary accommodation

A few days before my flight, I booked a single room at a backpackers' hostel called PODs. It's my first time staying at a backpacker's hostel and a lot of my friends marvelled at this fact hahaha. They're located in Api-Api Centre, and the staff were super friendly. I got to know the lovely owner named Maria, who made a hilarious effort to introduce me to some of her staff as "someone who works in WTF". The rest of us in the lounge almost died laughing hahaha.

My spacious room at PODs cost RM38/night and came with a mattress and the bedding, an IKEA wardrobe (I'm a recovering IKEA addict haha I have an IKEA radar in my head), free WiFi and simple self-service breakfast in the lounge. There are four communal showers (two showers with water heater) and my room comes with centralised air-conditioning AND also a ceiling fan.

There are plenty of cabs waiting outside of PODs and the Wawasan bus terminal which supplies buses to the outskirts of Kota Kinabalu is just a 5-min walk away. Across the road is also a hugely popular mall called Centrepoint.

I usually have trouble sleeping in a new place but I was so tired that I slept soundly on my first night at PODs. In my opinion, if you're travelling alone or as a couple and you just need a clean, convenient, and safe place to stay, PODs is the best hostel to stay in Kota Kinabalu. 

Long-term accommodation

Based on my experience, it's best to call the advertiser the same day the rental ad goes up because good places get snapped up really fast. I mainly went online to search for apartments such as on Mudah.my, iProperty and Propwall.

My initial plan was to get an unfurnished studio/one-room apartment where it's easy to get a bus. My budget was RM600-RM700/month, with my max figure capped at RM800/month (this was my rent for a 3-bedroom unfurnished apartment in the dodgy end of Damansara Perdana). 

To my horror, I discovered that unfurnished studio/one-room apartments here can go really high, as minimum as RM900/month! So I had to get my head out of the clouds, come down to earth and rent a furnished master room instead. I found it in a house located in Kepayan Ridge, where the bus terminal, cab stand, and so many shops are within walking distance. There's even a mall within 15 minutes of walking from the house.  

Driving around

I also rented a car for the first three days of my stay. It was immensely helpful in my real estate search because I ended up checking out places like Likas, Penampang, Kepayan, Putatan and Sepanggar. The rates differ according to car model, including whether it's an automatic or manual transmission. 

For the first two days I rented an automatic Perodua Kenari for RM80/day. I wanted either a Perodua Viva or a Kenari because their back seats can fully recline and would be helpful in transporting stuff.

On my third day I couldn't extend the Kenari rental because it was already booked by the next customer, so the guy rented out an old manual Perodua Kancil to me at only RM50/day. I ended up parking it most of the day because it was such torture driving it:

1. The air-conditioning was temperamental. So sometimes I had to roll down the windows because it wasn't working.

2. The windows were sometimes jammed.

3. The speedometer didn't work haha if I ever got pulled over for speeding that would be my excuse! 

4. After parking,  I sometimes had to turn on the ignition a few times before the car roared back to life.

5. The steering wheel wasn't a power steering one. Nice workout for your arms (not!)

I had never driven in Kota Kinabalu or its surrounding areas before, so I relied a lot on Waze, Google Maps, and a paper map. I also called friends when I wasn't sure of a place. For the most part it was easy driving here because most drivers drive at a leisurely pace, are quite patient and polite too. It rained every afternoon that I was driving but I didn't see any road accidents nor heard anyone honking when traffic wasn't moving. 

Getting around by cab

The airport cab from Terminal 2 (which is the low-cost carrier terminal) to Centrepoint costs RM30. As for getting cabs to go around the Kota Kinabalu city or its suburbs...PLEASE DON'T GET INTO ONE.

I discovered one day that cabs here are daylight robbers-on-wheels. I was late for work and had missed the 7am bus (I say 7am but it actually leaves whenever the bus is full wtf), so I took a cab from Kepayan Ridge to Centrepoint. It was about 5km and we were stationary for maybe 3 minutes in the entire journey. The cab driver quoted me RM13 without the meter but I insisted on turning the meter on so that I have something to compare to. The final fare? 

RM15!

Getting around by bus

Buses are plenty here and you can find those going to the suburbs on the outskirts of Kota Kinabalu in front of Marina Court (the Wawasan Terminal nearby is currently renovated). Long-distance buses are located at other terminals.

From Kepayan Ridge I take the 14, 14A and 14B orange-white bus to Marina Court (which is 5 mins' walk from my office) and the fare is RM1.30 (about ten times cheaper than a cab fare). Based on my observation (read: long wait at the Kepayan Ridge bus terminal), one bus leaves approximately every hour.

The buses here will only depart once it is full or almost full, and most of them are old and have no air-conditioning. You pay the fare to the driver when you get off. The good thing about buses here is that the drivers are generally careful and do not drive fast like the mad bus drivers in KL do (those in KL probably have nine lives, who knows). Also, unlike in KL and PJ where no one gets off the bus even if they're blocking your exit, people here will get off to give you way before boarding the bus again.

Healthcare

Private generic clinics can cost an arm and a leg here, even if you only have a normal fever. The cheapest quote I got from a colleague was minimum RM60 per visit. As for dentists, a visit will set you back at least RM150.

There's a multi-department centre called Urban Transformation Centre in Sembulan where Malaysians pay as little as RM2 to see a medical assistant (supposedly there are no GPs at the clinic) or even a dentist at its 1Malaysia clinic. You can also renew your driver's license at the post office, renew your passport at the immigration department, or even pay your Streamyx bills at the TMPoint branch here. Parking is free and it's easy to get buses here too. Very convenient.

Mobile coverage 

I'm not sure about other telcos but DiGi's coverage in Kota Kinabalu and its surrounding areas is HORRENDOUS. I was lost on my way back from 1Borneo and almost drove to Menggatal because Waze couldn't get a signal BECAUSE DiGi HAD NO SIGNAL DURING THE RAIN.

DiGi consistently fails to provide service the moment the skies pour down here. Every time it rains, without fail, I will not have a signal on my phone. Even on a sunny day, I sometimes can't load a webpage on my laptop that is tethered to my phone. 

The moment my contract with DiGi ends in July 2015, I will be switching to another telco unless DiGi's coverage improves.

Internet connection

If you're used to high-speed Unifi and you suddenly have to move to Sabah, please try to wean yourself off this luxury. Mourn if you must, because if you're like me (I need to be plugged in every day), you'll be so bloody frustrated when you get here.

There are areas covered by Unifi in Sabah but they're very few and far in between. My housing area is not covered by Unifi yet so I had to switch to Streamyx (which is slightly better than good old dial-up connection of yesteryears wtf) or risk being fined RM500 because I still have a contract with Unifi till next year.

I've surrendered my Unifi paraphernalia to TMPoint and while I wait for the good folks at Streamyx to come over, I have to rely on my wretched DiGi connection to surf the net.

Language

Try to speak Malay anywhere you go in Sabah, as Sabahan Malay is widely spoken here. It is almost similar to the official Malay language, but has a different twang and plenty of unique words in it. There are many Sabahans I've met on the streets who can speak English decently, so I suspect switching back to speaking mainly in Sabahan Malay is either a force of habit or they're not confident enough to speak fully in English.

I used to speak Sabahan Malay fluently when I was in uni because I had a lot of Sabahan friends, but I've gone rusty from not practising it over the years. For the first few days here, I spoke mainly in English and that got me really a lot of stares hahaha. I felt like a coconut whenever that happened (read: dark-skinned on the outside but ang moh on the inside ahaha)

I'm doing better now though. Speaking a language is like riding a bicycle; you'll get back into the groove once you practise it again.

The end

So that's it for now. I'm super tired from walking around the past two days in an effort to get back to running. Did a lot of stairs today and my recovering knee, which I injured in May this year (while lifting my grandma haha), surprisingly took it well. 

Likas Bay and Perdana Park in Tanjung Aru are two lovely places for jogs because you get to see the sea as you huff and puff in the cold salty breeze. I'm looking forward to my first 5K run after three years on the side lines, which will happen in two weeks' time in Likas Bay.

Good night!

The Geek Goddess

Gratitude52 Week #4: Raving About Real Estate

When I was 25, I bought the house that I grew up in from my parents. It was probably the scariest thing I ever did. I remember the loan officer looking quite amused because I read every.single.word in the loan agreement before I even signed a single page. He said that he had never seen a customer do that in his entire career. Little did he know that I was scared shitless that I would be signing my life away with this purchase.

I bought it partly to reduce the burden of paying two mortgages on my parents (they already moved to a new place at that time), and also because I thought I was ready to settle down and start a family. It was also because I didn't know any other reliable method to invest what little money I had. I still don't.

Turns out, Life had other plans for me. The long-term relationship I was in had died, while I was stuck with a house I bought for a life that I didn't even have. Hmmm.

It isn't easy owning a property on a single income, particularly when your income is just a bag of peanuts. My hometown had and still has lower than the national salary average, so I didn't make much at that time. Being an impressionable young adult, I did feel envious of friends who could go shopping and travelling while I had to set aside a third of my income for my mortgage installments.  

Fast forward to five years later, the same group of friends I had envied before are now complaining about how they can't afford houses these days.

Do I feel smug? Slightly. I am, after all, just a human being.

But I do want to be grateful that I had the opportunity to purchase a house that I could afford, albeit barely, and that the opportunity proved to be a wise decision. I was fortunate that my parents didn't care much about profits when they sold the house to me. I was also unbelievably lucky that the bank approved my home loan, despite me being young and unmarried.

The area where my house is located is booming now, with new roads and townships built nearby, and if I were to sell it today, I could probably net a little profit. My house is my nest egg, for times when I need a lot of money (e.g. start a business or continue my studies). I wouldn't recommend selling your house to finance your wedding though. A wedding is not an investment. Your marriage is.

Most people think of properties as a way to invest, but not many realise that owning a property will cost you more than just paying off the loan installments. You'll need to pay local property tax every year, and you also need to pay to maintain the house in a good condition. Electrical wirings have to be checked and/or replaced every ten years, for example. But it is worth it, especially if you can double or even triple your initial investment in just a few years' time.

Interest rates are low right now compared to five years before, at least in my bank. My loan has 4.75% interest (BLR was 6.75% at the time of the purchase) while these days, most banks offer 4.2% (current BLR is 6.6%). 

So if you're asking my opinion about the right time to buy, the time is NOW.

The Geek Goddess

P/S: Please consult your financial consultants or institutions before investing in anything. This post only serves as an opinion piece and cannot be used to support your decision to invest. I will not be held liable for any losses you may incur after reading this blog.