Last weekend was a bit of a whirlwind one for us. It started however, in a pretty mundane manner. After the usual housekeeping matters we went to look at a couple of houses. These have been on the list and since technically we still haven’t got a binding deal for 87 Vicki Street, we went to see these properties. One in Forest Hill was already sold. It was however, a unit in a development of 6 and it looked pretty run down. We went to the other one in Blackburn, on Malabar Road. It was a smallish 2 bedroom weatherboard home. Inside, it was beautifully renovated with fantastic finishing and the kitchen in particular was nice. I must say however that the one in 87 Vicki Street is much better. This property on Malabar Road was for auction that same day so we hung around to see what sort of price it would fetch. It was sold for what can be considered an obscene price for a property of this nature, so our fears about current property market were further confirmed.
After that auction we dropped kiddo off for her class, after which we went to 87 Vicki Street to meet up with the agent. To our (pleasant) surprise, there was a stream of very interested parties inspecting the property and several were keen enough to want to make offers. It was listed as an auction property so these people were a little upset when told that the property is already under offer. We sympathised with them but we too have been in this situation before and I feel bad about this but we were a little elated to now be on the other side of things. We confirmed matters with the agent, collected some paperwork and left to pick kiddo up.
We drove straight to J & J’s housewarming in Wantirna South. News travelled fast and when we got there our friends were more excited than us, with our new acquisition! It was J & J’s afternoon so I tried hard not to steal that away from them but the fact that this was a party of Christians and our new house would be so close to Koorong, the well known Christian bookstore, meant that it was an instant talking point which continued till Sunday afternoon when we were at another church friend’s house for a thanksgiving lunch. Meanwhile, after we left J & J’s place, we had kiddo’s Saturday night church program to attend to, which started at 5pm. Theresa cooked some pasta for them – I had to have the leftovers for lunch yesterday!
Abortion – abort the idea
Recently the Victorian state government under new Premier John Brumby proposed to decriminalise abortion. It isn’t actually his proposal so much as it is his party’s plan which was sitting dormant for a while and has recently been brought to the front burner. As you can imagine, this long-festering all-time favourite election issue continues to stoke deep seated emotions. There will always be clever and progressive sounding arguments. It would seem perfectly normal, liberal and progressive to allow a woman to exercise her freedom of choice on issues affecting her most. Like I said in an earlier piece (see Gay Church piece below) all the considerations must be subject to what God has said on the matter. That has to take precedence. In this instance, the sanctity of life demands we do not consider aborting a child unless it is necessary to save the mother’s life. I appreciate the complexities arising from every point and every conceivable circumstance but we must not allow ourselves the danger of allowing those complexities to colour this very simple principle. I am not saying the decision involved is a simple matter. It never is. Having faith in God however means trusting Him to deliver the outcome whatever that may be. We have to trust that outcome is the best not because it is the one we like the most or because it works for us, but because it is one based on obedience. There is a lot in the phrase “trust and obey”. It takes so much faith to obey, especially in circumstances with so far-reaching repercussions. If we truly believe He is our loving heavenly Father, we have to trust that He would take care of things (such as the mother’s and the child’s welfare) in ways which would truly be best for the all concerned. To borrow the language of an anti-smoking ad campaign, it is hard to trust Him. It is even harder not to.
Malaysia turning 50
This Friday Malaysia celebrates its 50th anniversary as an independent nation. A few days ago, a regular of Malaysian news feeder emailed to say the mood around town does not reflect that of a golden jubilee year. Many have been distressed over recent happenings which illustrate the rapid deterioration of public institutions. Like me, many think this is a culmination of a trend which started so long ago. It guess the germinating events likely predate Mahathir but there would be compelling arguments for the view that Mahathir was a very effective catalyst which exacerbated the decline. He stifled dissenting voices, rigged rules to suit his agenda, castrated the judiciary, subjugated the cabinet, bossed the reserve bank, manipulated the police and generally ran the country with a free hand, more akin to acting as an all powerful president like a third world despot than as a prime minister. While he may have genuine interest of the country at heart, by destroying these institutions, he paved the way for incompetent administrators who are interested only in plundering, more than governing. So when you now have an ineffectual replacement for a prime minister, you have groups taking advantage to milk the country the best they can. Alright, I had promised to stop knocking Malaysia so I will not go on along this vein. My point is – the country has been primed for a subdued 50th anniversary celebration. Those who see its problems see little or no cause for celebrations. These are not my sentiments, but those who still live and work there. Sure there are a few who have not been affected and appear to still enjoy living and working there. They are however, mostly of the younger group, have no children and live their lives in either the city or big towns and usually have well to do parents. Those who own and run their business, have children, or have extensive interactions with business or government leaders tend to have a bleaker view of things. I’m told nonetheless, that traffic continues to be bad. It is in fact worse than normal days so a sense of celebrations still prevail. Perhaps traffic woes are all too easily engineered – just close off a few roads, position a few traffic cops to direct traffic is a certain pattern and voila you’d have massive traffic jams. I don’t know therefore if traffic jams are any indication of the scale of celebrations and therefore a reflection of the hunky dory state of affairs. I don’t know – I am just too remote to gauge if the doom and gloom quarters have any cause for their sentiments, or whether the merry makers do. Continue praying for Malaysia, I guess.
Three years on
We have now been living in Melbourne for almost 3 years. I recall this time 3 years ago, when I had submitted my resignation to my CEO. The company had been going through some turmoil in the form of numerous resignations from key personnel. The group CEO was every bit a raging bull with a temper so fiery and volatile it was liable to erupt at any moment and it often did. Many had resigned because they could no longer come into work each day wondering if they were to be the target for these bloodletting sessions. That place was being torn up by a single person. This was crazy because that person was the single largest individual shareholder and he was the CEO of the group. This group has now merged with a government owned investment banking group and this merger attracted a lot of heat. I’m just relieved I am no longer the general counsel there as I would have been hard pressed from all sides. Anyway, when I submitted my resignation, it was obviously for the reason that we had decided to move here. It wasn’t for the same reason the others resigned. It didn’t matter to me however, what the others thought was the reason. I have had enough of the situation in Malaysia. The main protagonist causing so much angst in Malaysia at the moment had just joined that company then as a director of corporate finance. Through a couple of exchanges I had with him, he made remarks which suggested nothing in Malaysia was going to change. Here was this supposedly highly educated (Oxbridge) and liberal young leader purportedly offering substance to the government. Yet he sounded every bit as disconnected with what plagued Malaysia, as his UMNO colleagues. His remarks set me off into acceleration mode to leave the country. We finally left in October 2004. Theresa and I arrived, she left after a week to take care of kiddo, and I stayed on to get things ready for when the family eventually got here. After 2-3 weeks, I found a school to register kiddo in, leased a house near that school and set about furnishing it. I got a car and when the house was equipped with the basic requirements, I returned to Malaysia to finish the packing there. We pushed ahead with efforts to sell our house in Klang, found home for our furniture and appliances and Roy our dog (he’s with my mother now) and mailed boxes of personal effects to our leased property in Melbourne (these arrived between 6-8 weeks later).
Our initial weeks were exciting but also very challenging. Kiddo went to school, Theresa found a job and I found one too, a couple of months later. The rest of my experiences, like the good book says, are in the annals. Don’t be smart. Annals. Except that in my case, that means this extremely dry journal.
Almost 3 years later, we have settled down so much more. I don’t know how we could have gotten where we have, except by God’s grace. He closed doors when He knew I wasn’t ready to step through them, and opened them only when He knew I was. He truly has been a loving heavenly Father.
What this means is that going forward from hereon in, the real work begins. The settling period is now behind us. The work to fulfil the purpose for which we were put here (both in the sense of being in this world and in Melbourne in particular) has to now begin. We have some ideas (not yet clear) as to what this work is. One thing we are determined to do is to assist anyone who wants to follow this path. Already, there are a couple of families we have been helping in a soft sense. We have extended our offer to provide tangible assistance. Having completed this first cycle of our new life, it is time to help others with theirs.
Ante 