Australian Interest Rates and me...

The thing about living in Australia is that - it is the great Australian Dream to own your own home. Its the mentality of "why should I pay for someone else's mortgage when I can pay my own". But then again, BF had this mentality as well so perhaps its a Caucasian thing. It is not normal in Asia to own your own property until you are well in your 30's whereelse over here, you see ppl as young as 21 getting onto the property ladder, something that still amazes me as lets be honest, at 21, I was still in uni and definitely not equipped with the tools to manage my own money ..what else thinking of getting into such a big debt to my name. Saying that though, the Gen-Y's and Gen-X's in Australia are complaining that it is getting harder to get onto the market. The median house price is Melbourne is currently around $500,000 and gets more expensive as you get closer to the CBD. I currently live 18km's from the CBD and this is actually considered close considering that any suburb within 90km's from the CBD is still considered Melbourne these days.

Yes, buying a home is no piece of cake in Melbourne.

The Australian property market unlike the other developed countries namely US and UK had a slight property dip in late 2008, early 2009 before it picked up again and then just went from strength to strength. It is the only country where the interest rate never went down lower than 2% and the official RBA rate is currently is at 4.5% and the Bank rates is anywhere between 6.5% to 7.2%! Talk about being slugged and there are talks of at least 3 to 4 more rate hikes within the next few months. On top of that, we've got really exorbitant stamp duty taxes (both Govt and state) on top. *Ouch*!

I mean, living in the city, buying OR renting really means you have the smaller apartment or less space (unless of course you are right loaded which means there would not be a problem buying into the property market in the 1st place!). At the end of the day, it is a lifestyle choice.

More on my chain of thoughts when it comes to property buying later.

Masterchef - Home style

What's for dinner tonight?

Home cooked chili with rice and garlic bread.

Updates ...

I feel guilty sometimes that I don't spend time to blog more often.

Don't get me wrong, I use the Net enough for work purposes, and I also read other peoples blog and I often wonder " Where do they find the time????"

Maybe it is all about priorities?

Anyways, moving on - things have been pretty hectic social wise for me, with working full time, my quiet weekends are now filled with catching up with friends and "date nights" as BF and I try to find quality time and catch up on what is going on with work and all that. Its been good actually. Friday nights are usually reserved for date nights, it is usually dinner and a movie but yesterday was going out with some friends to catch Russell Peters and then some drinks at Richmond - its nice to be living in Melbourne, even if I am living in the 'burbs... hehehe.

Last weekend was a blurry haze, went for dinner at a mate's - she has a lovely 2 bedder apartment in Southbank and we later adjourned to Collingwood, and the 2 boys basically polished off a bottle of Small Batch in an hr and a half! Good fun with great company - but this will have to stop at some point.. or does it? :)

Haven't been taking too many pics these days, a small clutch does not make a handy camera keeper so on the few occasions when I do, I take snaps of food! Doesn't help that BF is no cam-whore ... the pics above was taken from the Meat & Wine Co, in Southbank before we headed for a mate's bday in the city.

Anyways, just thought I'll get something before old age strikes me and I forget! Happy Weekend!

p/s: I started this entry on Wed and only finished today..lol

Life is short

I received some really sad news on Friday night.

A colleague of mine from back in KL had passed away -and from the news I've been getting, no one saw it coming.

She was only 39 - and leaves behind a young son of 2 and a loving husband.

She has battled breast cancer and was in fact suppose to have been cured, and the whole family had just come back from Europe where her husband comes from.

F.J.K - May you rest in peace. You will be remembered.