Maid is a Rare Commodity

No longer available

The ubiquitous maid seen about two decades ago is fast becoming a rarity in Malaysia.

It is not really an issue of wages per se but more of availability.

No More at your beck and call

Not only are they asking for more money but the alleged mistreatment that has been taking place in Malaysia has been a factor why the Indonesian government is reluctant to send them over here.

Almost double to triple

Today there are more jobs in Indonesia and they pay well too.

Again compared to Malaysia, Indonesian maids get paid better in Singapore , Hong Kong and in the Middle-east.

So, Malaysians must now bite the bullet and pay for local part-time help and forget of having that  luxury of a live-in maid at their beck and call.

Cat Burglar in Paris

See Paris under the Moonlight

The French animated movie, Academy award nominee, "Cat in Paris" has a double entendre. 

They are playing with the word. "cat".

One you really have a cat named Dino who catches lizards for her owner, the girl who doesn't speak since the death of her daddy and the other, a real cat burglar called Nico who scaled the roof-tops of Gay Paree to steal from the rich and wealthy.

As you have it, the girl, Zoe is the daughter of a police inspector of Paris who husband was killed by Castro, a villain after art pieces.

The usual cat and mouse and finally you have the sweet ending when Nico marries into Zoe's family.

For Dino, life goes on...... the true cat of Paris.

Watchable fare with French audio and English sub titles.

Sabah -A Pandora's Box?

Pandora's Costly Curiosity

Once up a time, a long time ago, Zeus gave his daughter  Pandora, a box with strict instructions never ever to open it.

The ever-curious Pandora opened the box. Out flew every kind of disease and sickness, hate and envy, and all the bad things that people had never experienced before. Pandora slammed the lid closed, but it was too late. All the bad things were already out of the box. They flew away, out into the world.

Diseases and Evil Escape

So, is Sabah now embroiled with the Pandora box phenomenon?

Opening the Floodgates?

So far, two high ranking MPs have resigned from the BN. A third is going the same way. Speculation is that it will be another local leader who is a senator.  

As damage control, DPM Muhyiddin came to persuade the two MPs who had resigned but to no avail.

Kingmaker or Spoiler?

Pakatan is claiming a massive pendulum swing will come its way when more defections take place. They are predicting a domino effect. Is it too early to be gleefully happy at this turn of events? What if this is another red herring like many before?

Remember this is the Wild, Wild East. Things have happened and people can be traded on and off like in a pasar tamu.

Will he be more successful than Pandora?

PM Najib is coming by to the Land Below the Wind on 11 August with his RCI terms for investigating into illegals having Mycards and voting rights.

Can he gel UMNO and BN once more?

Will Najib be too late? Has the UMNO machinery ran its full course in Sabah with Musa at the helm?

Or will  it be as a blogger predicts, the two former MPs will come back into BN's fold when they are appeased with gifts to return.

Another Red Herring?

This is a very important juncture in time for Sabahans and Malaysians in general.

Will Najib be a Pandora that can take back all that which has escaped from the box?

Will Najib be that reformer for Sabah?

I would love to see this as PM Najib moves up the ante in the coming days.

Japanese Food Outing for the Family

Delightful Welcome

Yes, on 4th August we went to the PJ Hilton to have Japanese food.

As it was Buffet night, there were two shifts at the Genji Restaurant.

We chose the earlier shift from 6 pm to 8 pm.

A sampling 

Food was real fresh.

We started with sashimi. It was oysters galore, meguru, salmon, octopus and what not and we ate them with relish accompanied by wasabi-soya dips.

Then, I ate the delicious unagi and the palate lilting miso soup and cawan mushi.

Another filling

We also had the fried stuff of beef cubes, fried salmon and chicken. For tempura I had pumpkin, okra and brinjal.

Then I went for saba fish and salmon head.  A lot of collagen in that head! Edamame  and cheese cake was nice to chew on as an interval item.

Amazing unagi

After a plate of fruits of grapes,dragon fruit,rock melon and papaya, I had my filling of matcha ice-cream and vanilla as well.

Good food. Cost us each RM89++.

Still at the old-rate!

Battle Royale-Chong Wei-Lin Dan

Chong Wei Goes Ga-ga after beating Chen Long

Yes, after 4 years, the twain meets once more.

This time at the London Olympics.

Will it be a repeat winning for Lin Dan or will Chong Wei finally wrestle the gold from China.

Let us see the duo once more in action tomorrow.

Dining out with Linda and Benny

Malaysian Delights Al Fresco Style

We had the pleasure of playing host to Linda and Benny at our infamous slow shop.

We called it so because food is served agonizingly late (and slow) after you have made your order.

The food is good or I must have got used to it .

I have been eating here since my daughter and son was about knee height when they had to sit on two chairs placed one atop the other for height.

Linda is home to Malaysia for a week. She lives in Perth with her son and husband.

Benny drove home to Penang with his sister,  Linda and so before she flew home again, he thought it was most opportune that we do dinner.

They gave us a box of organic berries from Perth and Benny gave us the ubiquitous tau sah peah from the Mutiara Timor island.


We had a onioned fried chicken, baby french beans, clay-pot tofu, mixed vegetables and  pork belly fried with aromatic salt fish; and chased it down with a pot of Chinese tea.

We exchanged plenty of stories as dinner went along and it was a refreshing time away for the daily chores and drudgery.

We spent RM77 for the meal and RM7 for the tea.

Good  quality times.

Must have more of it.

YTL Power to be privatised?

Bye Bye Bursa KL?

Analysts have done a study and they believe that YTL Power will likely be taken private by the Yeoh family.

Just like in the case of YTL Cement, it will be through a paper swap with YTL Corp.

Power Generation

This article written by Liz Lee of the On-line STAR tells the likely story and benefits of the privatisation move.


The likely privatisation of YTL Power Bhd signals positive gains for the Yeoh family, although YTL Corp shareholders would also enjoy a windfall from it.

If YTL Power were delisted through a share swap like in the case of YTL Cement last February, and analysts believed management would use the same method, the Yeoh family would be able to preserve the cashflow and stakeholding in the conglomerate.

“When they delisted YTL Cement, there was not a lot of cash outflow because it was done through a share swap,” an analyst said. He added that since the price-earnings ratio was higher for YTL Corp, management would issue less YTL Corp shares for the swap, which would be “beneficial to the Yeoh family as their equity stake would not be diluted.”

Under the same circumstances, he said the privatisation would also mean a windfall “more so for YTL Corp shareholders than YTL Power shareholders.”

“While YTL Power shareholders will be switching from lower to a higher-value stock, their stake will get diluted with less shares in YTL Corp,” he said.

As to why YTL Power is the potential candidate, he said that delisting the power subsidiary was most strategic as the privatisation of other subsidiaries would not “make an impact” on the parent company.

“The other subsidiaries only have market capitalisation of about RM1bil to RM2bil compared with the approximately RM20bil market capitalisation of YTL Corp, so if they were delisted, the move would not add much earnings to YTL Corp,” he explained.

To recap, a report revealed that Tan Sri Francis Yeoh intended to delist more listed subsidiaries under YTL Corp to distribute more cash and dividends to shareholders.

Although he did not specify which listed company was likely to be taken off the market, analysts covering the conglomerate said it would be “most sensible to privatise YTL Power as it is the most cash-rich.”

ECM Libra analyst Benjamin Lee noted: “Once privatised, the Yeoh family would have full access to YTL Power's earnings and dividends.” The family currently has 55% stake in YTL Corp.

And although he believed that the management would only offer a slight premium for the share swap, “at the end of the day, the Yeoh family will try to create a win-win situation for their shareholders.”

“If privatised, I would increase my valuation of YTL Corp's share price as I see more upside and market will react positively,” he said.

However, he said some analysts thought that it might not be that easy to take YTL Power private as the management might have to issue more shares than intended and it would depend on shareholders' approval.

He explained that the nature of the power business would guarantee margins of profit which in turn contribute to dividend payouts, in line with the management's intention to step up dividend remunerations.

He added that YTL Power alone had issued RM680mil worth of dividend payout while all of YTL Corp's subsidiaries had collectively issued more than RM1bil dividend in the last financial year.

YTL Corp's other subsidiaries include YTL Land and Development Bhd, YTL E-Solutions Bhd and Starhill Reit Bhd.

As for Yeoh's reported intention to acquire assets overseas, an analyst said it was difficult to speculate at this point as there was no indication yet.

However, he believed that any company or asset Yeoh took over or acquired would be utilities based.

“Based on track record, they have been pretty good on the merger and acquisition front as they have added value to their acquisition of Wessex Water in the UK and Power Seraya in Singapore.”

So, are they giving the promised YTL Power warrants out for 20 sen or giving YTL Corp shareholders more shares at an equivalent trade-off value instead?

This, we must see.