End of my audit career

Happy Malaysia Day to everyone. =)

Actually what is the difference between Independence day and Malaysia day? Based on Wikipedia, Independence day is to commemorate the independence of the Federation of Malaya from British colonial rule in 1957 while Malaysia day is to commemorate the establishment of the Malaysian federation in 1963.

Don't mind the difference, nothing beats a Friday holiday. I am asked to work, but I am at home trying to think back the past three years when I am with KPMG. I wanted to draft my 'farewell email' to the my department.

I just finished talking with my sister, who is looking for job after graduated in UK and my girlfriend who is asking me to pay a summons I got during my Australia trip. As mentioned in my previous post, the trip has already cost me more than RM10k.


Ha-ha. Infringement notice from Australia

I am just gonna talk a little bit about my recent trip to Australia. I always wanted a vacation to commemorate my 3 years work with KPMG. Europe is out of my budget. 1 year ago, AirAsia was having promotion, so I bought the flight ticket to Australia.

Like I said in my previous post after my July 2010 Langkawi trip, I was looking forward to travel. But, the planning for this trip is a bit tough because it is a four person, two weeks, three different places, winter trip and there are a lot of things to be considered, mainly on the price.

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Regardless of that, we arrived at Gold Coast, Australia on the 26th of July. To be honest, I think the AirAsia's aircraft was alright, the purchased meal was fine, but the 8 hours plus flight was awful as I didn't manage to rest well. I don't want to sound like I am stereotyping, but my mind was saying 'this is an AirAsia budget aircraft and you won't be able to sleep or rest well on it'.

We checked into the Silverton apartment and had a short walk at the Surfer paradise and Harbour town. Some shops, cafes, and etc.

The 2 bedroom apartment unit located on the 15 floor (which is the highest floor) was amazing. It has 180 degree balcony overlooking the Surfer paradise of Gold Coast.

The next morning, we spent our day at the Movie world. We just sit back and relax the shows there. We visited the Aussie Farm, Paradise country on our last day in Gold Coast.


Hello Sydney; Good bye Gold Coast.

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On arrival, we had prawn, squish, lobster, oyster, salmon and etc for lunch at the Sydney Fish Market. We then visited the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We took a ferry ride to Darling harbour and had pork rib at the Hurricane's grill for dinner and pancakes at the Pancakes On The Rocks for supper.


Beautiful. Beauty of the Sydney Harbour hasn't faded at all since I left 3 years ago.

The next morning, we woke up early to catch the 2 hours train to the Blue Mountains. The view up there is incredible. We bushwalked the Three Sisters Walk. We ride the Skywalk and bushwalked again to the Katoomba Falls. After a long day, we headed back to Sydney city for Korean dinner. My friend, Ta Seng came and brought me to Mamak and Taiwan desert for supper.


The famous three sisters. Blue mountain is a really nice place to bushwalk.

On our last day in Sydney, we shopped at the Paddy's market. We then went onto one of the Sydney buses and visited the Rock. There were a lot of stalls offering variety of coffee and chocolate at the Coffee and Chocolate festival. We walked through the Rock market which is awesome. They sell amazing handcraft souvenir. We crossed the Sydney Harbour Bridge via the pedestrian walkway and wrapped up the day by window-shopping at the Pitt Street.



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After 6 days in Australia, on the 7th day, we arrived at Melbourne. We headed to the Federation Square to gather information and make some bookings. We hopped onto the Tourist bus which brings you around the city of Melbourne and had a walk in the city of Melbourne.



6.35am next morning, we took a coach to the Mt Buller. Up there, we do a little bit of skiing, tobogganing, food, and chilling.

Next day, we rented a Ford Fiesta and drove the Great Ocean Road and visited the Twelve Apostles. The 243KM stretch of road along the south-eastern coast of Australia was an amazing drive. The drive was beautiful.



Finally, on our last day, we returned to Melbourne city and visited the Queen Victoria Market.

To sum it up, more than RM10k spent, 3 different places, more than 18 hours of flight time, it is tiringly fun.

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Well. As I planned, I have resigned from my current job.

I joined KPMG on 1 July 2008 as an Audit Assistant and was promoted to Senior Associate and was later promoted to Assistant Manager.

I don't mind sharing. My salary has been revised and increased 4 times, 20%, 15%, 24% and 22% respectively.

During the past three years, I have earned a total of RM117,725 from basis pay and RM11,069 from bonus. 1.5 month for second half of 2008, 1.5 month for whole year of 2009, 1.75 month for whole year of 2010.

On average, I am paid RM3,389 a month. It is pitifully low.

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Finally, my niece, Yarona is back to Malaysia last month.



See you guy.

Love,

EARN