Trouble trouble ...

Sorry for the half year hiatus. It has been a busy half year as well.

There has been legal trouble for me recently. It was made known to me that the time-share that I had will be giving some legal trouble. Let me elaborate.

About 4 years ago, I undertook a time-share contract to lease some holiday accomodation, so that I could let my parents enjoy an overseas holiday without worrying too much about accommodation. The same company, that contracted the time-share arrangement, would contact me a year later to offer me a different arrangement for my monthly charges once my installments were paid off. I was paying a monthly instalment for the initial time-share lease. This arrangement allowed me to book an accomodation on their catalogue for a continuous period of up to 7 days each time, and a maximum of 2 times in a 2 year period. The new arrangement they are offering will fix the monthly conservancy charges for me to a maximum of 99USD a year for the next 30 years upon paying up the time-share. However, I lost some arrangements that are favorable to me which I cannot remeber. However I took on the new arrangement because the old arrangment will place me at the mercy of the time-share company adjusting the monthly conservancy at their whims and fancy.

This new arrangement places an additional extra burden on my monthly installments. I also thought I will be placed in a more favorable legal position. 6 months later, another company contacted me to offer me a liquidation package for my time-share. Let me eleborate. This company offers liquidation services for a foreign company called Great Eastern Trust, UK. They offer to liquidate the time-share contract for a fee, and to exonerate any legal implications from the time-share contract from me. This, to me at that time, was a God-send. I took it up immediately. I thought this would be the journey towards the end. Another event hit me just a year later. Axial Management has wounded up. Great Eastern Trust has farmed out the liquidation to another few companies. One of the companies has contacted me and offered me another arrangment.

This new arrangment will set me back another few thousands again!!!! In exchange, the liquidation date will be moved nearer. Legally, they will ensure that my contract will be compliant to UK and local laws for liquidation, as well as to return my original time-share "investment" to me. The total amount from the start of the time-share "investment" till now has ballooned from about SGD9k to almost SGD38k.

All these legal problems arriving from the contract is making me so emotional now, because of the money I poured in and the time I spent in all these offices listening to slick salespersons selling their companies' wares. It is such a heartache such companies exist in Singapore, in my opinion, to fleece poor consumers who are in a legally binding agreement, unable to extricate themselves without spending humongous amounts to extract themselves from legal nightmare.

I have no confidence in Singapore's legal scene helping me at all. The legal profession and courts are quite stacked against individuals without moolah. In this time, I really wish a saviour would appear to save me, but each saviour would pile on more burden on me in exchange for my legal reprieval. I am really jaded. I am thinking of looking up CASE Singapore after trying a last time with the liquidation company now handling my case. I am just sad at the state of affairs some people go through to enrich themselves.

Sunday after sunday

Just back from church not long ago...

Today's homily is about what the church meant. As the Father mentioned, the church meant us, ordinary people who make up the numbers. As such we should not be mentioning the church as some distant object, but as something that is really close to us.

What is most awesome about this week's homily is about how Jesus entrusted to Peter the keys to the gates of heaven. Not literally the keys to heaven's gates but the powers to act on Jesus' behalf whilst on earth. As christians, we should believe in God and Jesus, not through our own set of rules and beliefs but through the universal church's truth, which Jesus has revealed to us through the popes and the clergy. While many will dispute about how the church has not been perfect and that the men who govern the church are not sinless, the point is that they have been selected to lead the church, and are placed in those positions, through no coincidence, by the hand of God. How shallow are we to question the decision of God when we cannot even fathom his infinite wisdom. That is not to say we should allow men to hoodwink us or ride roughshod over us in the name of God, but that God has given us enough wisdom for us to recognise how authentic a message is through another person's words.

Enough said, I think I'm not making sense anymore ... Today's homily is awesome! All thanks to Father Richards Ambrose.

Reality check

There is still one year more.

One more year ... so another one year more to do a stock take on my life ...

The figures are quite depressing... I'm already 30. Can't even make a major financial decision without troubling my parents ... am I on the right track? My dad has been having problems accepting that his son has got to serve people onboard, well ... till recently, he still harbours hope that I will apply to become a pilot... Think will give that a miss... another missed opportunity ...

I harbour desires to live in melbourne, so i can't do 2 things at one time, i have to let the pilot decision go. I must convince myself that I am not abandoning everything here, in order to live my life in melbourne .. am I that selfish that I have to leave my parents here in singapore?

Well we all have but one life, and there is no time to deliberate too long on things ... sometimes we have to do what we have to do, to get to where we are right now. I admit i do harbour selfish thoughts of protecting myself in any decision. I dun think anyone will do that for me. Who will take care of me better than myself? Of course that is not to say that i will do everything at the expense of all others for myself.. I don't think i would be terribly wrong cos only if I am able to care for myself, do I have the ability to care for others ..

Moved...

I have decided to consolidate my blogs to friendster one. Pls visit http://www.friendster.com/andoryu for more information. Thanks!

Brisbane, Gold Coast

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the long break in postings. As mentioned, I was plagued by lack of space on Yahoo! Photos. I would like to shift my travelogue to my friendster blog, so this blog will be closed really soon ... This may be the last few postings. My photos will still be on Yahoo! Photos, available for public download and display, but if u need updates, do check back on my Yahoo! photos every week for new photos. I will be taking down some of the earlier photos as well.

Anyways, I will share some of the photos i took when i went over to Brisbane & the Gold Coast. Beautiful place in summer, worth going at least once. :)

It takes about an hour and a half to reach the Gold Coast from Central Station taking the Gold Coast Train & costs about A$19.90 both ways. U can do lots of tanning over at the Gold Coast. It is a stretch of beach 40km long, with the Surfer's Paradise being the most famous. Stop at Nerang station and take the Bus number 745. The bus driver will prompt you where to stop. Very friendly people ... Australians.

Photos

Christchurch none the better

Hi everyone, after a long break, i'm back with some posts on Christchurch.

Christchurch is the largest city in South Island, New Zealand. It is also the international port of call for the Canterbury region of New Zealand. Only about half a million inhabitants, it is rathe small by international standards, but the number of activities that you can do over here are astounding. There are skiing, mountain hiking, dolphin and whale watching, sky diving, bungee jumping etc etc. Lots of natural activities to do.

I have pictures to share too, but unfortunately, Yahoo! photos doesn't seem to be able to upload all my photos, so these are the ones that I managed to upload for everyone's viewing pleasure.

Christchurch Photos

Till then. :)

Abu Dhabi & Christmas

Hi All,

I left for Abu Dhabi on Christmas Eve. The second time I'm spending Christmas overseas. Abu Dhabi is a really neat place. Liberal like Dubai, but i guess less intimidating. It does not have such a great reputation as Dubai, but it has all the amenities that Dubai has, and it is less crowded. A beautiful waterfront, with well manicured lawns & beautiful landscaping. I visited the local wholesale market to purchase dates, Two shopping malls: Marina Mall & Abu Dhabi Mall.

Besides that, we headed inland to Abu Dhabi's second city, Al Ain. It is an ancient city located at an oasis that is shared by Al Ain, U.A.E. & Al Buraymi, Oman. It is a pity I did not manage to cross the border to Oman as it is still quite a distance away from Al Ain. A visit to Al Ain will not be complete without ascending the highest peak of the U.A.E., Jebel Hafeet or Mount Hafeet. It is about 1300m and very windy at the top of the mountain. Pictures that I will post will tell the story.

Anyway, The photos are here.

Here's wishing everyone a Happy New Year!!