General Motors

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/business/30auto.html?hp

Today, the White House pushed out General Motor's CEO Rick Wagoner and said that GM has not done aggresive enough in its restructuring and cost cutting plan. The administration is giving GM 60 days to present a cost cutting plan and will provide taxpayer assistance to keep it afloat during that time. It also says bankruptcy is still an option. 

Fair enough ...

But will GM really survive? The answer is ... I doubt it. It has absorbed $17.4 billions along with Chrysler since December 2008. Amazing... four months to burn that kind of money. It can be used perhaps to wipe out poverty in this world, instead of building cars that noone wanted to buy. We all know that GM cars are all shit and not reliabe. Plus, it has been asking for another $16 billion to keep it going. Aside from this, the company is still burdened by around $20 billions in pension and heath care. Considering that the US government decide to bail it out with $36 billions, the money will be spent just to keep the company from going under. It still wouldn't repair its problems underneath that had rotten for tens of years. 

Here's the report 'Determination of Viability Summary' from US Treasury department that led to its decision. It painted a very bleak future for the company. My opinion, on economic sense alone, GM would not survive. However, this would drive an even higher unemployment number. US government will still need to do something. We'll see. Only time will tell...

 

... it is important to recognize that a great deal more progress needs to be made, and that GM’s plan is based on

fairly optimistic assumptions that will be challenging in the absence of a more aggressive restructuring.

• The plan contemplates that each of its restructuring initiatives will continue well into the future, in some cases until 2014, before they are complete.

o The slow pace at which this turnaround is progressing undermines the Company’s ability to compete against large, highly capable and well-funded competitors. GM’s plan forecasts it to catch up to (and, in some cases, surpass) its competitors’ current performance metrics; however, its key competitors are constantly working to improve as well, potentially leaving GM further behind over time.

• Given the slow pace of the turnaround, the assumptions in GM’s business plan are too optimistic.

o Market Share

􀂃 GM has been losing market share slowly to its competitors for decades. In 1980, GM’s US market share was 45%; in 1990, GM’s US share was 36%, in 2000, its share was 29%. In 2008, its share was 22%. In short, GM has been losing 0.7% per year for the last 30 years.

• Yet, in its forecast, GM assumes a much slower rate of decline, 0.3% per year until 2014, even though it is reducing fleet sales and shuttering brands which represent a loss of 1.8% market share, of which only a fraction will be retained. Management’s plan to achieve this is driven by a reduction in nameplates and an ensuing increase in marketing spend per nameplate.

• Furthermore, in the current plan, GM has retained too many unprofitable nameplates that tarnish its brands, distract the focus of its management team, demand increasingly scarce marketing dollars and are a lingering drag on consumer perception, market share and margin.

o Price

􀂃 In 2006 and 2007, GM North America achieved a 30.4% contribution margin. Then, the plan assumes, despite a severely distressed market, that margins increase to 30.8% in 2009 and 30.7% in 2010. These figures remain at 30.9% in 2013 and 30.3% in 2014, despite GM’s plan to increase its focus on passenger cars and crossovers, which have traditionally earned lower margins.

􀂃 Fundamentally, the lingering consumer perception is that GM makes lower- quality cars (despite meaningful improvements in the last few years), which in turn leads to greater discounting, which harms GM’s price realizations and depresses profitability. These lower price points are an important impediment to enhanced GM profitability and need to be reversed over time in order for GM to bring its margins into line with its best-in-class peers.

o Brands/dealers

􀂃 GM has been successfully pruning unprofitable or underperforming dealers for several years. However, its current pace will leave it with too many such dealers for a long period of time while requiring significant closure costs that its competitors will not incur. These underperforming dealers create a drag on the overall brand equity of GM and hurt the prospects of the many stronger dealers who could help GM drive incremental sales.

o Europe

􀂃 GM’s European operations have experienced negative results for at least the last decade with a sharp decline in market share from 12.9% to 9.3% between 1995 and 2008, leaving the Company with high fixed costs and low capacity utilization.

􀂃 The European business is seeking additional capital beyond the funds requested from the Treasury. These funds have not been allocated and thus represent a risk to the viability of GM’s current plan.

o Product mix and CAFE compliance

􀂃 GM earns a disproportionate share of its profits from high-margin trucks and SUVs and is thus vulnerable to energy cost-driven shifts in consumer demand. For example, of its top 20 profit contributors in 2008, only nine were cars.

􀂃 GM is at least one generation behind Toyota on advanced, “green” powertrain development. In an attempt to leapfrog Toyota, GM has devoted significant resources to the Chevy Volt. While the Volt holds promise, it is currently projected to be much more expensive than its gasoline-fueled peers and will likely need substantial reductions in manufacturing cost in order to become

commercially viable

􀂃 Absent the successful introduction of a number of new-generation nameplates, as described in the Company’s plan, GM’s product portfolio is more vulnerable to CAFE standard increases than the portfolios of many of its competitors (although GM is in compliance today with current

standards). Many of its products fail to meet the minimum threshold on fuel economy and rank in the bottom quartile of fuel economy achievement.

o Legacy liabilities – cash costs

􀂃 As GM moves through its forecast period, its cash needs associated with legacy liabilities grow, reaching approximately $6 billion per year in 2013 and 2014. To meet this cash outflow, GM needs to sell 900,000 additional cars per year, creating a difficult burden that leaves it fighting to maximize volume rather than return on investment.

• Even under the Company’s optimistic assumptions, the Company remains breakeven, at best, on a free cash flow basis throughout the projection period, thus failing the fundamental test of viability.

o Under its own plan, GM generates $14.5bn of negative free cash flow over its 6 year forecast period. Even in 2014, on its own assumptions, GM generates negative free cash flow after servicing legacy obligations.

o Given the highly challenging current market, the Company is already behind plan in its overall volume expectations and market share for calendar year 2009.

o Since the Company has built a plan with little margin for error, even slight swings in its assumptions produce significant and ongoing negative cash flows. For example, a 1% share miss in overall global sales, all else being equal, in 2014 would lead to a $2 billion cash flow reduction in that year.

In short, while the Company has made meaningful progress in its turnaround plan over the last few years, the progress has been far too slow, allowing the Company to continue to lag the best-in-class competitors. Furthermore, even if the projected plan is achieved, the cash flow forecast is quite modest, leaving the Company little margin for error in what will be a very difficult turnaround. As a result, the President’s Designee has found that General Motors’ plan is not viable as it is currently structured. However, given the improvements that have been made to date, and the path on which these improvements place GM, we believe that there could be a viable business within GM if the Company and its stakeholders engage in a substantially more aggressive restructuring plan

Some things that had happened...

I haven't blogged in a while. I don't know why, sometimes the passion to blog just come and go. I suppose!

First, a few things have happened since I blogged. 

United States elected in 2008 the first black president-elect Barack Obama, whose speeches are truly inspirational. Here's the inauguration speeches: 

Before that, the world had sweated over the possibility of having an Alaskan cute but stupid hockey mom - Sarah Palin - as its vice president 

Credit crisis swept over the world. The big financial institutions had been brought down to its knees. Lehman Brothers is now gone. Merrill Lynch bought by Bank of America, who is now in trouble itself. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/business/09magic.html http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/business/08split.html?_r=1 Citigroup once the biggest bank in the world by market capitalization is now smaller than ANZ - the smallest of the big 4 Australian banks. Amazing isn't it? 

The whole credit crisis started mainly because of greed. I couldnt possibly think of what else. The banks got creative during the US residential property boom period and created a credit derivatives instrument called CDO (Collateralized debt obligation). It basically made up from a pool of mortgages which are then subdivided into tranches based on its credit quality. The worst quality is sub-prime mortgage, which basically means that the mortgagee has a questionable credit rating, but is still able to get the mortgage anyway. Sub-prime carries the highest risk, but in a world of finance, higher risk means higher returns ;-). So all goes well during the US property boom, but when things turn sour, it all falls apart goddamn quick. All institutions that carry CDO, continues to bleed. 

One of the biggest insurance company in the world, AIG created a product that insures the CDO itself. It earns so much money during the property boom, and noone at the time really thought that things would go down south. AIG had been bailed out by the US government, and there is a recent public outcry that it paid millions in bonuses to its employees, by using taxpayer money!!! At first I thought how stupid were these people to do that, but you gotta look at the things from a different perspective as well, and here is one: http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/dear-aig-i-quit/?scp=2&sq=AIG&st=Search

November 2, 2005

Cleaning Up
After the Tsunami,
An Aceh Surprise:
Good Government

Indonesia's Yudhoyono Tackles
Legendary Corruption
In $6 Billion Rebuilding

Suspicious Midnight Meeting

By PETER FRITSCH
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia—The tsunami story of fisherman Zamzami is sadly familiar: A black wave taller than the coastal coconut trees swallowed his home, his wife and five of his six children, none ever to be seen again.

Less familiar is what the 47-year-old says is beginning to go right in his life. Government bureaucrats not only let him move back to the coast but asked his advice on where to build a new dike to best protect the handful of survivors scraping out a living in his village.

"They asked us what we know and what we wanted," says Zamzami, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name. "It's taken time to do the talking, but now we think they are doing the job right."

As Indonesia's massive reconstruction effort here begins to hit its stride, the nation is trying to build something more enduring amid the ruins of the tsunami-ravaged northern tip of Sumatra: a model for good, clean government that listens to its people.

That sounds simple, but it's not what most foresaw for the war-torn region after 60-foot waves killed at least 130,000 and left homeless many multiples more last December. Predictions then were dire. Disease would kill thousands more; the military would seize the opportunity to crush the region's separatist rebels once and for all; and politicians in Jakarta would contrive ways to siphon off some of the billions of dollars in foreign aid and impose unworkable solutions from afar.

The story of Aceh is turning out to be something quite different. It's still early in the rebuilding process and signs of devastation are everywhere, with thousands of people still living in tents. But relief efforts have stabilized the region's health. Peace between the rebel Free Aceh Movement and the government is holding and stands its best chance in nearly three decades of bloody confrontation. The corruption synonymous with business as usual here has yet to appear.

The fact that this is happening in one of the most conservative Muslim regions in the world's most populous Islamic nation is encouraging to those who feared the tsunami would deepen the appeal of radical Islam among the dispossessed. Indonesia has suffered numerous terrorist attacks since 9/11, most recently the Oct. 1 suicide bombings on the resort island of Bali, which killed 23.

"One of the positives coming out of this tragedy is that this government is doing things right," says William M. Frej, director for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Jakarta. "There is a strong focus on transparency and accountability."

For that, most give credit to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia's first directly elected leader. The former general, who had earlier led efforts to get the military out of politics, took office just weeks before the Dec. 26 catastrophe. He swept to victory on a platform of honest and open government.

After the initial shock of the tragedy sank in, Mr. Yudhoyono correctly identified his biggest long-term problem: how to spend nearly $6 billion in pledged aid, a tantalizing blank check in a country notorious for corruption. To squander the goodwill of the international community now would be to negate his mandate and invite negative comparisons with the cronyism of former dictator Suharto.

Casting around for ideas, Mr. Yudhoyono did something unusual for an Indonesian politician. He went outside the cozy club of Jakarta's political class, consulting Southeast Asia's elder statesman, Lee Kuan Yew. The fastidious founder of modern Singapore stressed the importance of a professional reconstruction effort. He also suggested Mr. Yudhoyono consider working with management consultants to design the right framework, mentioning the name of McKinsey & Co., according to several people familiar with the matter.

In early February, Mr. Yudhoyono sat down with McKinsey consultant Adam Schwarz, an American based in Singapore. The president knew Mr. Schwarz from his previous work as a journalist in Jakarta when he had written about Mr. Yudhoyono's reform efforts as a general.

That initial contact evolved into an intense and unpublicized behind-the-scenes collaboration. A dozen McKinsey consultants, working without pay, have crafted a reconstruction and recovery plan stressing competitive bidding and community involvement. People familiar with the project value the amount of consulting donated by McKinsey thus far at around $5 million.

Key to the effort was the creation in April of the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency for Aceh and Nias, or BRR as it is known by its Indonesian name, a cabinet-level ministry reporting directly to the president. The BRR oversees the distribution of government reconstruction funds and helps coordinate the projects of donors like the World Bank.

The BRR, as drawn up by McKinsey and others, is free of many of the bureaucratic back alleys where corruption thrives here. By law, its accounts are open to public scrutiny. Its employees must sign anticorruption contracts and aren't subject to the meager civil-service pay scale—a fact resented by peers in other ministries.

Even its offices are different. Unlike the typical cavernous Indonesian ministry full of idlers smoking clove cigarettes, the agency's Aceh headquarters is in a converted middle-class home. Buzzing with activity—and relentless tropical flies—it has the feel of a transplanted Silicon Valley startup. Twenty-something McKinsey consultants tap on laptops set up in the foyer as locals come and go to daily prayers. Lunch is self-serve, spooned out from crocks set out on a table in the middle of the office. Seating is informal; most grab a spot of empty floor.

The informality belies the agency's power. Crucially, the law establishing the BRR enables the bulk of funds to go from donor nations and nongovernment organizations straight to contractors through a competitive bidding and tender process. That keeps cash off the government budget and away from ministries in Jakarta, where they could be bogged down in bureaucratic tussles or, worse, simply disappear.

The BRR's direct control of the roughly $850 million in aid that does pass through government accounts ensured there would be plenty of powerful politicians angling to head the agency.

Instead, Mr. Yudhoyono chose 58-year-old Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, a Stanford-educated engineer and former minister of mines known for his activism on anticorruption matters. The semi-retired Mr. Kuntoro was not an obvious choice. He eschews the Javanese ceremony and politesse that infuses politics here.

Old-line politicians opposed Mr. Kuntoro for the same reason representatives of McKinsey and donor nations wanted him: impatience and a reputation for incorruptibility. Mr. Kuntoro offers a typically blunt response when asked how he responds to ministers unhappy to lose control of reconstruction projects and the distribution of aid dollars. "I tell them that's your problem," Mr. Kuntoro says. "You don't like it, tough."

Such talk implies Mr. Yudhoyono's strong backing. That has made it difficult for often venal bureaucrats and lawmakers to twist the agency's arm. But it hasn't stopped them from trying.

In early June, a group of legislators tasked with approving the BRR's budget invited a group of senior agency officials to a midnight meeting at room 2080 of Jakarta's Sahid Jaya hotel, according to people at the BRR. Some BRR officials worried that they would be pressured to divert contracts to friends of the legislators. Invited to the impromptu meeting, Mr. Kuntoro says he waited outside the hotel "because I can't always control my temper."

As it turned out, people familiar with the matter say, the lawmakers wanted the BRR to support a contract for a tsunami early-warning system they claimed was being pushed by Kusmayanto Kadiman, Minister for Research and Technology.

Before long, Mr. Kuntoro says he got a cellphone text message from a deputy relaying the legislators' request. "I called [Mr. Kusmayanto] and threatened to make [the legislators' claims] public," said Mr. Kuntoro.

He said Mr. Kusmayanto pledged his cooperation and the matter ended there. Mr. Kusmayanto declined to comment on the incident and referred questions to Idwan Suhardi, assistant to the Deputy Minister for Research and Technology. Mr. Suhardi said: "The state ministry for research and technology has never given any recommendation or favor to any particular company or institution, domestic or foreign, related to the development of tsunami early warning system."

Whatever the case, the incident helped serve notice on those who would seek favors from the BRR that the agency wasn't playing by the old rules.

"Look, we Indonesians are famous for corruption," says Mr. Kuntoro. "We have to get this right."

Getting it right has also meant going slow—often subjecting the government to criticism as reconstruction projects wait to get off the ground. It has taken time to create transparent procedures and competitive bids for contracts; more time to hire auditors to look over the BRR's shoulder; and yet more time to do the thankless work of sorting out things like land titles across such a vast area in which many land owners are dead.

"Could [the reconstruction] have been done any faster and been done well? No," says Michael Whiting, head of the United Nations Joint Logistics Centre in Aceh and a veteran of relief operations in Bosnia and Kosovo. He says the BRR is effectively helping the more than 120 international aid organizations working in the region cut through bureaucratic red tape, adding: "They actually have taken the time to get a good plan, which is more than I can say for other places I've worked."

That doesn't mean the BRR has acted as swiftly as it could have, a point Mr. Kuntoro is quick to concede. Jan Egeland, the U.N.'s top emergency relief coordinator, recently cited the failure to build permanent housing in Aceh. Some 67,500 people in Aceh still live in tent camps.

To walk the coastal plain of the provincial capital Banda Aceh today is a surreal experience. Need is everywhere and activity seemingly nowhere. Roads are ruts strewn with giant tree trunks. There are families in tents and flimsy wooden structures for whom days are consumed just fetching water. Cranes, backhoes and dump trucks are conspicuous by their absence. The devastation, stretching far beyond where the eye can see, suggests the conundrum of just where to begin.

Then there is paperwork. Eddy Purwanto, a BRR deputy director, says it has taken seven weeks for the BRR to award a government contract that might have taken just a week in another ministry. That, he says, is simply because bids are no longer being rigged.

Time lost to competitive bidding is, however, proving to be money saved. In the case of one $35 million contract for irrigation and flood-control systems in Aceh, even the highest bid came in at only 80% of the government's own estimate for the project's actual cost.

In Banda Aceh, the push to curtail corruption is turning off local bureaucrats, causing further delays. To address that, the BRR boosted salaries for local government officials overseeing reconstruction projects by over 20 times normal scale to as much as $2,000 per month.

Still, the BRR is having a hard time finding project managers. It turns out local officials can make even more money when bribes are involved. "It's taken two months to find some project managers," says Sudirman Said, another deputy director at the BRR. "Usually, finding a bureaucrat to oversee a contract is a piece of cake."

The biggest cultural shock to the system has been the BRR's willingness to give local residents a say in what comes next—a component of the reconstruction blueprint pushed by McKinsey. Local wishes have long been subordinate to Indonesia's post-colonial obsession with holding a farflung archipelago together as a nation.

Juaini, 50 years old, lost all five of her children to the tsunami. She says she has been surprised to see the likes of Mr. Kuntoro himself inspecting new homes built to the specifications of her neighbors in the village of Deah Baro on the outskirts of Banda Aceh. "He's not like the other [government] officials saying they listen to you but then forget," she says. "People like me can talk to him easily, openly."

The theme of local self-determination also characterizes Aceh's new peace agreement—a key strut of the rebuilding process. The government has agreed to let the province elect its own leaders and will even let the rebels contest elections as a political party, something that sticks in the craw of Jakarta hardliners.

The army, a powerful presence in Aceh frequently criticized for human-rights abuses, likewise remains distrustful of the rebels and those who would work with them. Its generals bristle when Mr. Kuntoro says he'll happily rebuild rebel areas and welcome them on his reconstruction team. "The army sends intelligence guys [to spy on BRR's office], but I don't care," he says. "We have nothing to hide."

The BRR's reconstruction efforts will go smoother if the peace holds. Many are confident it will, despite false starts in the past. "We are really sure both sides are committed," says Jaakko Okansen, a military adviser to the Aceh Monitoring Mission, an unarmed group from the European Union and five Southeast Asian nations that is overseeing the region's disarmament. "Not a single time has either side broken its word."

Like the peace process, the reconstruction effort will last for years and is certain to have its share of disappointments. But as the rebuilding contracts begin to flow in earnest, those on the ground see a lot that is encouraging.

"We're satisfied with the work so far," says Zainul Arifin, a descendant of the former king of Aceh. "At least we have a roadmap for where we are going."

Awkward

Have you ever got invited to a function, went and came back with a very gloomy feeling?

I just got invited to a friend's birthday party. Birthday is supposed to be a cheery, joyous occasion, but I came back feeling really bad. I haven't seen this friend of mine for a long long time, and we used to work together. I was really tired, but decided to go to her birthday at night anyway. Went there, sat down, recognized around half of the people in the table (who used to work in the same company). But I got the feeling that aside from my friend and three other people, noone is really interested in knowing or chatting with me. 

I found out as well at the time that another friend who came to this party as well has gotten married as recent as 2 weeks ago. I didn't get the invite, nor anyone has told me about it. I instantly felt that I don't belong to this circle of people and it was a mistake coming here. In my boredom, I did a little chit chat with the guy sitting next to me. He worked at the same place i did, but never worked together in the same project. I do saw him several times around the office while passing through the kitchen for example. It's not a huge office anyway. In the middle of the conversation however, he paused, apologized and asked how I met the birthday girl. I gathered he had no clue that I worked at the same company as him and the birthday girl. 

As the night progresses, things seem to get worse. For whatever reason, I found myself sitting in the middle of three girls that I didn't know previously. They were hotly chatting about some fucking trips around europe and africa, totally ignoring me who sat in the middle. I felt really awkward and seriously, none of them actually glanced at me once while they were chatting. 

I went to the party in a happy but tired mood, and left with sad and really lonely feeling. I felt depressed thinking that if i suddenly dissapear, would anyone notice?

Indo Idol

YouTube.com has been one of my favourite sites. Its great to be able to look up some old music clips or even to follow something that you have missed.

Recently, I was trying to catch up on the idol show at my homeland, Indonesia. The talent pool was great, and here are two exceptional contestants in my opinion. They are placed in 3rd and 4th respectively.

This is a girl named Gea. Quite pretty :-), she is from Bandung. Bandung has produced a number of exceptional singer in the past and she didn't dissapoint at all. Singing an English song titled 'Because of You' (No! not Kelly Clarkson's!)



The next one I think is the single best performance in the whole show. The judges in the end said it was phenomenal, perfect and very moving. Sang by a guy from Papua New Guinea, Nobo. Weird name for an Indonesian huh, but who knows.. he is from Papua, Nobo may be very common name there. He sang a Indonesian song titled 'Sedih tak berujung' which translates as 'Endless sorrow'

Trash talk

I have been a fan of Martina Hingis - the tennis player for some time now. She made a come back this year from her 3-year 'hiatus' due to knee injuries. She is now older, more mature, and still plays very good tennis! I am very happy she is back.

I saw a post in a forum today, which reminded me of something. In the past, Hingis like to trash talk her opponents. It's just Hingis.. it's classic. Nowadays, the trash talk is less, I guess because she is older now. But in the past ... phew!

Here is a sample. It was between Hingis and Serena Williams at US Open 1999.

You just gotta smile at this.

New bag?

Something funny happened when I walked into my lecture tonight.

I was late to my lecture as usual :-) I spotted a seat between a girl and a guy. I visibly recognized the girl to be my friend as I walked in, and the guy as my friend as well. I was thinking, great!, I can sit between two people that I know.

As I was trying to pull out the chair, the guy's bag was in the way. He tried to move it. It was a shiny leather bag. Then in my lowered voice, I said, "Hey nice bag. New eh??', because I never seen my friend bring that bag before.

Then I looked at his face . . . and I don't know who he is! He is not my friend!
When I walked in, I thought he was the friend that I know since he looks very similar from the back.

He looked suprised as well. His eyes were very big staring back at me.

... so embarrasing.

Unlucky

I always hate the public transport in Sydney. It doesn't matter what it is, train or bus, it never come on time. It either comes too early, or too late, but never on time.

I had an interesting morning today. My bus was about 5 minutes late, which was still OK to Sydney 'standard'. It was then the usual pick-up drop off routine, until it reached the freeway. The usual 3-lane was reduced into 2-lane, which caused the traffic to crawl. At the time, I knew I'm going to be late to work maybe 10 minutes compared to my usual time.

I was so happy when the bus finally freed from the 2-lane part of the freeway. Hooray! Not long after ... BAM! I don't know what it was, but it appeared the bus had hit something... I don't know, I don't care... until the bus slowed and stopped. Awww... this is great! Announcement then came from the driver, I couldnt really heard it since I was at the far back of the bus. We waited for about 10 minutes in the middle of freeway!

I was late by half an hour.

Then anothing thing happened. I went inside the lift, pressed the button to level 43. Someone else pressed 42 and 49. I had a quick look, yeah 43 is pressed.
The lift stopped at 42, then it went all the way up to 49. What the f***!?

It's like some kind of force prevented me to come to the office today!

Fine dining

I just went dining at Kingsley Steakhouse at Bridge St (forgot the name, i will find out soon) with my current work colleagues. It was to welcome me to the team (How nice!), and to celebrate a colleague's coming marriage.

The food was very good. It has been a while that I have eaten so much.

Pre-Entree:
- Sliced bread with butter.
I know this sounds normal, but the special thing is the bread came out fresh and warm! Mmmmm ...

Entree:
- Salt & pepper calamari (french style!, not chinese style)
- Deep friend camembert cheese with jam (naughty but delicious)
- Kilpatrick Oysters -> semi-cooked oysters with bacon topping (double trouble!)

Main:
- Medium-cooked Angus rib-eye steak served with french fries, green vegetables, garlic mushrooms and worcestershire. It was very good, nicely cooked.

One of us had a really big steak, I can't recall the name of the cut now. It was huge, I think it has to be about 400 - 500g of meat there! But it wasn't the largest cut there though. If you are a big-eater, 1kg steak is available in the menu. Whoa! I went for quality instead of quantity. :-)

Dessert:
- Warm chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream.

By the time we had our main, all of us were really full, but we pushed for dessert (he he he, company's paying ;-P), but it was a total satisfaction when it came out. It took about 15 mins wait, but it was worth it. It was pretty small serving, but it was really nice, crunchy crust on the outside, oozing chocolate sauce in the middle and soft in between.

Mmmmmmmmmmm... so yummy.