Lodger vs Tenant : Students BEWARE

Dear Students, especially international student who are not familiar with the term 'lodger' here are a few facts to consider before signing a 'Lodgers' Agreement'

1. You DON'T have exclusive possession to your room. Meaning you DON'T have your own PRIVACY. Your landlord can come and go as he or she pleases.

2. Your Landlord lives in with you.

3. The Landlord can make up rules as she likes!

4. Being a Lodger you barely have any law protecting you.

What you SHOULD be doing if you are a lodger is:

1. Get your landlord to sign a contract that has a clause of you are entitled to your room and your privacy

2. REMEMBER you may not have exclusive possession to the room BUT you still have your proprietary rights. Your landlord should not be going through your things!

3. Verbal agreement IS legally Binding

4. NEVER let your landlord push you around, what you have is a LEGAL RELATIONSHIP you are not required to be their friend.

Personally, after going through the experience of having a horrific landlord, My personal advice is to NEVER sign a LODGERS AGREEMENT. Its the worst contract you can get yourself into. If you are living in with a Landlord the best will be to sign a tenancy agreement. That way you are much more protected by the law just in case your landlord turns out to be a horrible monster in disguise.

Not only don't I have a lock on my door, my landlord comes in as she pleases and recently she removed my property from under my bed. Now I am going through the trouble of getting a solicitor which is ABSURD as a student I am here to get my degree not go through this hassle. She has GBP 800 of my money and I desperately need it back.

PLEASE DON'T let what happened to me happen to any of you who out there. NEVER EVER sign a Lodgers Agreement with your Landlord. If you read this post, tell others about the content. Support the International Community around us, we only have each other here.

N

Good Byes

I had to say goodbye for more times than I would have liked, but everyone can say that. No matter how many times we do it, even for the greater good it still stinks. Though we will never forget what we've given up, we owe it to ourselves to keep moving forward. What we can't do is live our lives being afraid of the next good bye. Chances are, they are not going to stop. The trick is to recognise when a goodbye could be a good thing and a chance to start again.

Its not easy to start over knowing that you have a past that will continue to linger at the back of your mind, be it a failure, a mistake or even a broken relationship. People resort to suicide, anti-depressants just to suppress these memories in the hope of moving on.

I once lived in the shadow of my past, but life brought me a new perspective. My biggest failure in life was loosing my self-esteem for absorbing what people have to say, making my-self feel miserable when people gave me sh*t, missing that A and watch my dream of getting into the university I want evaporate in thin air, watch my mother's disappointment because of my failure. . It hit me hard, but this was one 'goodbye' i wanted to say. Saying Goodbye to my low-self esteem, to the hell-hole Kolej Tuanku Ja'afar which never did bring any good to me, saying good-bye to the horrible back biting, torture which gave me the lesson of how evil one can be.

I had the chance to start again in University of Exeter.

Being in the University of Exeter I had a few goodbyes to say that really hurt. First was to my close friend Nathaniel who left to travel the world and the other who decided to move to a different university. And dear friends who graduated after their final year. Every goodbye I bid came with a beautiful memory for me to keep.I am pretty sure Big Guy upstairs has more adventures installed for each and every one of us. Sit back enjoy the ride and learn a thing or two on the way.

Coming on to the final year of University, I realised how much I have grown both physically and mentally, although i will only be starting my 3rd year soon. It hit me hard that this year will fly by and the hardest goodbye ever will be uttered then. I will have to bid goodbye to the dearest friends I ever had and whom i might not see again in life. Graduation day will be filled with tears of both joy and sadness. These friends of mine are like family to me and I will have to start all over again from scratch to built my career and pursue my education.

Looking at the amount of Good byes I will have to bid and how much it has changed my life, I am grateful for it as each end means a new beginning a new opportunity and one more beautiful memory. Cliché as it might sound, it is has very much of truth in it.. Life is Full of Expectations :)

Malaysia :) or MALAYSIA!!! :o

Today I got the chance to see the perspective of Malaysia in the eye of foreigners.
I was shocked!!! Well a couple of my friends were working on a project in Malaysia on the culture and business opportunities in Malaysia. Well in my opinion Malaysia is a WONDERFUL place to do business. Filled with multi-cultural society who lives in peace and harmony together.

Well from their point of view, Malaysia sounded like a country that has pure evil in it. It is portrayed as a country filled with ethnocentric-ism, riots every where and people disrespecting the culture of one- another by burning down religious centers. However I am at no position to deny that fact because it did happen.

Its an act of just a handful of citizens not the whole 25 million people that we have! In fact, the majority of us completely disagree with the act of violence which is shown in this small group of people. However such an act has caused such a big impact in the eye of the foreigner that it becomes difficult for us Malaysians to explain what is going on.

All the holidays we have equals to a hindrance in production?? Well I don't think so, provided we make the allocation of how much to produce a month and do what ever it takes to meet the target, how are those holidays hindrance to production?

We are multi- cultured and we do have a reasonably good work ethics and a strong drive towards success. Behalf of all the other Malaysians, I do belief that having a couple more holidays will not be a jam in production in fact in increases once utility that the quality of work put it is definitely better than a country where the people are put to work at a constant basis

My fellow Malaysians, you are responsible in carrying the good name of our country. Why do you degrade it so badly?? Are you ill treated in Malaysia?? Have you not got the opportunity like others?? Be grateful, be proud of your country, be proud of your heritage.

Malaysia Truly Asia

Projek Kalsom 16

Projek Kalsom 2010
5 days in Terengganu was amazing as I have gained priceless experiences and amazing friends. The preparation for PK was all well organised to a certain extend. It is an event; flaws were bound to happen nevertheless it was amazingly successful. The motivational course for the 16 years old high school student was what hit me the most.
The whole project started by us giving motivational talks to groups of form three and form 5 students of SMK SETIU, it was a cluster school and a boarding school. During the one to one session I was assigned with a group of 10 boys, ten very cheerful and chatty boys with high potential to succeed in life. What got to me was their lack in ambition and drives to succeed. The merely wanted to take over what their father do and be fishermen, and farmers. One or two wanted to be a teacher and another wanted to be a driver for big shots. First I was startled then I realise these children don’t have any exposure. Put them in small groups and the will rant all they want but if you get them to speak in public they will all shy away. They are very immature and very ignorant of life after their village life. Their major problem was speaking English. These children can read and write English very well but when it came to speaking and communicating they just don’t. After spending some time with them and getting them to tell me their problems and difficulties, the reason they don’t speak the language is due to peer pressure.
The next group we met were the projects participants. They had the same problem as well, ENGLISH! It was sad at the same time I was disappointed with the mindset of these kids that were very much influenced by peer pressure. I realised that I needed to do something to change this. I have to make at the very least 10% of 200 participant realise peer pressure is nothing and they can overcome it and be successful. For a start all the modules that I have written were meant to be conducted in English and our facilitators were very strict in using English during every discussion. Still it was difficult to get the children to talk and start a discussion. One of the girl cried when she was ask to speak in English in front of a group of ten! That was when i decided this needed a whole new approach. Telling them and encouraging them to speak English alone will not help.
I started of the second day of the module by dispersing them of to be with their own group and went personally to each group to give them a somewhat pep talk. Where I mentioned about how hard life is for their parents and how as a child they were responsible to change that and give them a better life in the future. It was a rather emotional talk where some of them started to cry. I managed to complete at least 15 groups in two days and was crossing my fingers to see good results. The last day of the project the groups were suppose to present their business plans ( one of the module ) to the VIPs present and I was very impressed at the fact that they tried their level best to speak English. Even when a few participants were invited to give a recap of what they have gained from the camp the spoke in English. I was satisfied. Extremely satisfied, that we managed to make a difference.
At the end of the camp when everyone was saying goodbye quite a few participants came up to me to thank me and what touched me the most was every single one who came up to me spoke in ENGLISH!!! I knew then that what i always believed in was right. You can change anybody’s mind set all you have to know is how  It was a beautiful and rewarding experience. Now i am looking for a way to help change our Indian community as I know there are plenty of them out there in out skirted areas who have the same mind-sets as these children here in Terengganu. I want to make a difference in their lives. Or to the very least expose them to what is out there in the Real World that they are missing out on.
Salam Kalsom and start making a difference 

When Boredom Attacks

In the UK

Reached Heathrow at 3.oopm London time, and i was excited enough to reach the Great Britain, lined up at the clearing for student line and that was when i realised i missed Malaysia. The staff at the counter was not as friendly, the people were not really bothered and the way they address people gave me a shock, "oi, would you get outta there maite" I had an immediate reflection of what it will be like in Malaysia, the malaysian staff woulkd definitely say " Im sorry you are not allowed to be in here sir," Funny how we start appreciating things when we dont have themn or far away from them.
How much i appreciate Malaysian food, people and especially the weather. Yes the weather! Its extremely cold and how much i hate the rain.It rains but it never stops. How annoying is that. This post is going to be about Malaysia in the eye of englishmen here in the UK.

For a start my landlords thinks that we Malaysian live on tree.He was surprised when i told him most Malaysians use their hand to eat, he wondered if the food would spill all around us if we used our hands. He even came to the assumption that we have never seen fork and spoon. More than 50 years of independence I am proud of how my country has evolved from a third world country to a developing nation where we have national structure and buildings and landscape that has been well known globaly. I have seen the picture of the Malaysian Petronas Twin Tower in a few magazines here in the UK, and these people admire the structure but what they are not aware if is that that structure is located in Malaysia. People here know Thailand, Singapore but not Malaysia. When i show them pictures of Twin Tower and the beautiful Putrajaya... they are definitely amazed and they definitely would want to visit the country.
Apart from the structure the diversity of the culture that we have in our country seem to really attract their interest and attention, English people here are awed at how such diversity can be found in a small country like malaysia and the language advantage that we have is simply incredible. A greece student told me that the Malaysians can literally communicate with any part of the world due to the advantage in language. I never thought i did have that much fun telling another person about my country.

I was waiting for my inferiority complex to vanish before i post this post... and yes they have vanished.. students in Malaysia are very much better experienced and have a wholesome education compare to those in UK. Admiration for our not so perfect education has increased but only in a minimal level. Well for starters students from Malaysian have more to put on their CV'c compared to the locals here. Well maybe i am only referring to a certain level of student from Malaysia, nevertheless i am still proud.

Finally the moment i set foot on Malaysia i want roti canai and teh tarik =)

Merdeka

It has been 52 years since we got our independence, I was watching the news earlier with my family and suddenly a thought striked me. I reaslised how lucky we are to be able to stay in this country. There was a flood in Penang and the victims were placed at a mosque for shelter, regardless of race all of them took shelter in the mosque. It is something unique that you don't get to see very much in other countries. I am very sure of that.
I have been here all my life, well thats because my grandmother took the trouble to come all the way from India to Malaya ( then). She found her way to a Malay kampung, Dungun Kuala Terengganu not knowing how to speak anything but Malayalam. She was the only Indian in the area yet she was not alone. The villagers there were really nice and they did not discriminate her, instead they helped her, gave her a job and a place to stay till she got her own. Seriously in todays world how many of you would let a totally unknown foreigner in your home, give them shelter and look up for a job for them?
My guess is no... non of you reading this right now would ever do that. People before did that, my mother and father both grew up in a Malay kampung and they have no problem. My dad use to tell me that he eats at his friends and they eat at his place. They have no issues because respect is something that is nutured in us Malaysians.
Looking at life in India, i thank god my grand parents came down here to Malaysia, looking at the floor of my house, the television i am watching, why even this desktop that i am using to blog, how lucky I am to be able to enjoy all these when my relatives in India have the ground as their floor.
The Indians and Chinese claim that the government is not fair, they should get more of what they don't get... personally i really wish that people who make such claims go back to their history books or atleast reflect back on their roots. We agreed on it years ago on the quota sytem and the bumiputeras' privilleges, what is the problem now? Aren't the Indians and Chinnese getting jobs in the government sectors? Aren't they running their own bussinesses? Are they not getting scholarships to study? Are they judge with a different set of law? Are they not getting education? Were they ever deprived of education? Look at the "Kolej Komuniti" around us, its shared with everyone, and that is only one example. Half of you reading this will be thinking this is BTN talk. To be honest with you take a second and think about it, is it the government that are depriving us of our rights or is it our people who are greedy and take the portion of the pie all for themself without distributing it equally? Whose fault is it exactly?
Well this post of mine is to appreciate all we have here in Malaysia, i honestly believe that i can NEVER find another country like Malaysia.
This whole " 1 Malaysia" campaign has actually got me thinking, there is alot more to it than sitting down and looking at its flaws. Look at the boons of it, look at how united we are, throw racism away as it gets you no where. Learn to appreciate our sorroundings, count our blessings.
We have been working together for such a long time, we have been proving to people that we are harmonious people. Why break that now
I know expats who disses our country on how bad is it. Well if its so bad why do they bother applying for a PR in our country? Those people love our country but they don't want to admit it. I know expats who diss our country but they end up buying property and applying for a PR here. They silently acknowledge the beauty of this country yet they never admit it.
Malaysians out there, when another person disses your country, please do not just agree blindly with them just because they are whites. Its a Malaysian disease that they love to suck up to the whites. Trust me the more you suck up to them the more they diss us. Stand up for what you belief. Stand up for Malaysia.
My suggestion for those of you who are reading this and saying " what rubbish is this" go get a history book and read it, you will soon come to realise how lucky you are. Live life happily together.

Whew this is like im just throwing all my thoughts all at once, but yeah thats whats going trough my mind now... =)

The Problem With Our Indian Community

The Malaysian Indian community make up about 7% of the population in Malaysia. These Indians have been fellow residents of Malaya ever since the British Colonial era. The Chinese descendant were brought in the same time as ours were brought in to Malaya. The Chinese community on the whole are obviously doing way better than the Indian community in Malaysia in the current era. Who can deny that. Will our Indian community ever reach to their level of success and achievement we see today?
I am certainly not denying the fact that there are a handful of us whohas achieved a certain level in their life to be claim themselves successful people.
Look at Mr Anandha Krishnan for example. He takes the second spot of Top Ten Richest Person In Malaysia. Mr Tony Fernandez, CEO of Air Asia who brought the low budget airline company up to a level that it is able to shake the Malaysian Airlines control of Malaysian flight market and now Air Asia is competing at global standards. However comments and further details regarding successful Indian will have to stop here as my interest is more on the problem that we Indians face yesterday, today and tommorrow as well if actions are not taken to solve the issuse.
This article is based on observation and understanding of the Indian community around my age group ( 17-30). Ask them if they have a problem in achieving something they start blaming the government, the environment, their peers, teachers, why even parents but they NEVER blame themselves when the fact is that is where the root of the problem is.
The main problem with us is that we have this very deadly disease. Its known as the KPC virus or better known as "kay poh chi." Yes you heard me right, our people are such nosy people that they rather spent their time taking extra interest in other people's personal affair rather than their own. It's true, very true indeed. If those of you reading this realise you fall in that category, Thank God! Now that you know its time to get up and make a change
The next problem faced by our community is that one Indian is always ever ready to bring another Indian down. We do not compete to be sucessful istead we cut other people down along the way of us reaching our success. Have you ever seen such cruel people before? This is why the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Personally, I don't see what is wrong for you to help another Indian. There are two ways to see these things.
1. You help the poor
2. You help your friends or relations
There are people who only help the poor but refuse to acknowledge the success or refuse to help their own peers by degrading them of putting it in layments term bitching about your friends are all bunch of hypocrites. You people are trying to be nice and all angelic on the outside, but in the inside you guys are nothing but a two-faced, two-timing person. You are not all that bad, Cheers for you for helping the poor (regardless wheter you are sincere or not) and Shame on You All for bitching about your peers ( which includes your colleagues).
Now that i have unveiled two of the main problem faced by our people let me tell you the third, as i have mentioned we love spreading the blame around. Blaming the government, the people, our friends. etc. What we need is a change take a look at ourselves in the mirror and realise what is wrong with us. Take a look at ourselves and take time to point out our own flaws. "Unnmai sonnal Kasakum" or truth is bitter as most of us Indians are familliar with this term. Learn to swallow the truth and you will understand what i meant by u can make a difference because then you would be busy correcting you own flaws rather then bitching and analysing other people's flaws. This again has alot to do with being nosy.
As someone very close to me has told me, Never Forget Your Roots. Which is very true. To be honest to those who think speaking tamil is a disgrace you should happily go flush your face in a toilet bowl. Its a disgrace that you are not speaking the language. I shall stop talking about our roots here as that is a whole other post.

To those who are offended by reading this post, GOOD which means you know that you fall in one of those category and its time for a change. I have every right to talk about my fellow Indian community as I am an Indian my self and i do realise i have flaws of my own to correct. So do me a favour and go correct your flaws while i correct mine.

note: This is not a racist article and anything that appears to be racist my deepest apologies as it must be my inability to put it in proper language.

Of all the times in The World...

Preview

I had to sprain my ankle....at the season where i really need to exercise...haizzz...its really frustrating...

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<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqR4P7AMf382rVVXImqIo2dnb6F3jOF88Hm2QmtDZ94mX2cEGK79kxXJMXqaVsI1Ce6CJd9bkemN1QO20aA1V7RI-mH4Vuf3uCQXk9ubrmiHzIfN6AqkUBZbRQzjIEw-73Go89qav0b-6a/s1600-h/burn.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 96px; height: 129px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqR4P7AMf382rVVXImqIo2dnb6F3jOF88Hm2QmtDZ94mX2cEGK79kxXJMXqaVsI1Ce6CJd9bkemN1QO20aA1V7RI-mH4Vuf3uCQXk9ubrmiHzIfN6AqkUBZbRQzjIEw-73Go89qav0b-6a/s320/burn.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343371757720539042" border="0" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS8CofM6BEtVwz4sw8dLuuT2PN4zySLLx3PW2w-z0syuh12zvOoBBPwhsxAKhEM3lJ0-wbMGE5Rr46YWXlh36XdEm-5urCf3xyudvMIJP2Qkn3LqBqW0nOlyKQ7VBRiyc2Oa60k1V8I91x/s1600-h/bowl.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 124px; height: 93px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS8CofM6BEtVwz4sw8dLuuT2PN4zySLLx3PW2w-z0syuh12zvOoBBPwhsxAKhEM3lJ0-wbMGE5Rr46YWXlh36XdEm-5urCf3xyudvMIJP2Qkn3LqBqW0nOlyKQ7VBRiyc2Oa60k1V8I91x/s320/bowl.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343371280511759922" border="0" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnNO-p9Q-Em6aHLVRrH78GfjqsXqomqWi6cmNRVFxSiHgRSwHlNLJs7tgpTq2FX9t2S03TMQ2GV7GSRxBlAPe-RM0BkvEJMKOSfhxuGTksVCQdV_PKPdYM1j7dk8zImFk448CjVAL6gole/s1600-h/fon.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 121px; height: 127px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnNO-p9Q-Em6aHLVRrH78GfjqsXqomqWi6cmNRVFxSiHgRSwHlNLJs7tgpTq2FX9t2S03TMQ2GV7GSRxBlAPe-RM0BkvEJMKOSfhxuGTksVCQdV_PKPdYM1j7dk8zImFk448CjVAL6gole/s320/fon.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343371024511262146" border="0" /></a> <div>I had to sprain my ankle....at the season where i really need to exercise...haizzz...its really frustrating...</div> <div> </div> <div>I am going to grow into a GREAT BIG PIG and my dress is not going to fit...damn it! </div> <div> </div> <div>Dun ask me how i screwed up my ankle cause its really dumb...twice on the field and in my room and i ada hati wanna jog today mrng....lol~ neways the gud part is... i will finally sit and study... good for me!! hahahhaha...</div> <div> </div> <div>I am not going to finish this post today... too lazy to type~ and not enuough to publish.... Woo HOo More complaints~ Well I AM A GENIUS!!! there can be no one better than me Well let the story begin.... I was on the phone with my mom, and she was doing the usual...nagging... and i was doing the unusual washing my bowl... Guess what was next.... weeeeee.....plop* My phone dropped in to the bowl filled with water... I was like...oh shit!!!! oh shit!!!! And the next thing i did was ... here comes the star intelligence... i put it in the FREAKING MICROWAVE.... KABOOOOOOOMMMMMM*..... nah it didn't explode it just came out smelling like fire works... 1st thing 1st thank god my sim card still works <yes i="" didnt="" take="" that="" out=""> my battery smells<> and my camera was like smoky~ Told amma on MSN and she the first thing she asked was " WHERE YOU PUT YOUR BRAINS??!!" Which was a very good question as it got me wondering as well where I put it~... oh well...whats done is done~ what can i do... </yes></div> <div> </div>

I am going to grow into a GREAT BIG PIG and my dress is not going to fit...damn it!

Dun ask me how i screwed up my ankle cause its really dumb...twice on the field and in my room and i ada hati wanna jog today mrng....lol~ neways the gud part is... i will finally sit and study... good for me!! hahahhaha...

I am not going to finish this post today... too lazy to type~ and not enuough to publish....

Woo HOo More complaints~

Well I AM A GENIUS!!! there can be no one better than me

Well let the story begin....

I was on the phone with my mom, and she was doing the usual...nagging... and i was doing the unusual washing my bowl...
Guess what was next....

weeeeee.....plop*

My phone dropped in to the bowl filled with water...

I was like...oh shit!!!! oh shit!!!!

And the next thing i did was ...

here comes the star intelligence...

i put it in the FREAKING MICROWAVE....

KABOOOOOOOMMMMMM*.....

nah it didn't explode it just came out smelling like fire works...
1st thing 1st thank god my sim card still works
my battery smells<>
and my camera was like smoky~

Told amma on MSN and she the first thing she asked was " WHERE YOU PUT YOUR BRAINS??!!"

Which was a very good question as it got me wondering as well where I put it~...

oh well...whats done is done~ what can i do...

ART WORKS!!