Kelly's 1st birthday!

Celebrated Kelly's 1st birthday at our home! We had close to 40 friends and family over and it was a good fellowship! Hope everyone enjoyed the food and thanks for taking the time to drop by! Just some of the pics I took:



























So Kelly played that traditional "what kinda girl would Kelly be? game and she ended up going for the money! Good girl!
After that, she went for the rest of the food stuff and handphone. Well, money can buy those can't they?

Some photos turned to HDR

The Taj Mahal converted to HDR
This was taken from the back of my house.
This was taken in Taman Tun Park

HDR of the 12 apostles in Australia

Putrajaya for Hot Air Baloon

Phtotshoot in Putrajaya turned out well except for the Hot Air Baloons! There was only one baloon and they were charging RM10 for each person if you want to go up 100 feet in the air! What a ripper! Rip off that is! Gas prices gone up issit?









Cheerleaders!

Australia slashes immigration as recession looms‏

CANBERRA, March 16 – Australia will cut immigration for the first time in a decade, with recession looming and unemployment rising sharply, Immigration Minister Chris Evans said on Monday.

“We’re going to cut it from 133,500 to 115,000, so that’s about a 14 per cent cut,” Evans told state radio. “We don’t want people coming in who are going to compete with Australians for limited jobs.”

Australia’s jobless rate spiked to 5.2 per cent from 4.8 per cent last month with the biggest impact felt by full-time workers. The centre-left government expects unemployment to reach 7 per cent by mid-2010, although some economists fear it could go as high as 10 per cent.

Evans, who removed hairdressers and cooks off Australia’s critical occupation shortage list at Christmas, said he was now adding foreign bricklayers, plumbers, carpenters and electricians from the list that guides skilled migration intake.

Further cuts were likely in the May 12 budget, local media said, leaving only health occupations, engineering and information technology skills as needed skills.

“What we’ll look to do is run a smaller programme and keep the capacity to make sure we can bring in any labour we might need as the year develops,” Evans said.

Australia is a nation of immigrants and has been enjoying a boom in new arrivals for the past decade to help meet labour shortages as a China-fuelled mining boom drove unemployment rates to 30-year lows.

But six of Australia’s major trading partners are now in recession and economic growth has stalled. The country moved a step closer to recession this month with the first contraction in eight years and the economy shrinking by 0.5 per cent.

The government hopes its recently announced A$42 billion ($27.5 billion) stimulus package, including cash handouts and infrastructure spending, will help the economy weather a downturn.

But the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the government needed to be wary of tinkering with immigration, as many skilled areas still faced a shortage of workers.

“We would have preferred a status quo position,” chamber Chief Executive Peter Anderson said.

About one in four of Australia’s 21 million people were born overseas, and Australia has been actively trying to attract skilled workers, with immigration fairs targeting university graduates and people with trades in Europe, Britain and India.

Australia’s planned immigration intake has increased every year since 1997, although the number actually settling in Australia fell by about 20,000 in 2001-02.

Australia has accepted nearly 7 million immigrants since the end of World War Two. – Reuters

Err..ok! We come over and we still have to buy your food, buy your products, spend money on schools and facilities, contribute to super and all and even pay taxes! Doesn't that count for something?

School holidays but...

Jamie starts her school holidays today! Only problem is that she is having a fever just like mummy 3 days ago. Its hard to know what they go through because they are constantly crying and they can't explain what is wrong with them. We just know 39.8C is pretty darn high and if it doesn't come down, its a trip to the doctors! I did all I could and toweled her to keep her temp down. She slept after her medicine and when she woke up, all she could say was "I wanna watch tv!" So, I guess she's fine now!

Bad weather

The storm that crashed my pc. Burned through my motherboard and modem! Aarrrgh!