Here's My Story

Surgery was scheduled at 12 pm but could be postponed to after 2pm due to packed schedule. I was asked to fast from 5am onward @@ The reason, given by a nurse in response to my question, was to prevent food from possibly entering the lungs if I was under GA. Even if I chose RA, there might be a chance that GA be administered due to circumstances. So I was woken up just after 4.30am to have a cup of Milo and 6 pieces of biscuits @@. I hardly slept till then. Fortunately, I managed to sleep before 7am for more than 3 hours. I changed into the surgical gown before wheeled out of the ward after 11am. Waited at common area of the operating theatre (OT) for over an hour, waiting for the orthopedic surgeon, before brought into the OT itself. Preparation started at about 12.25pm, including injection of anaesthesia around the spine. I was alarmed right after the antibiotic injection: I shivered a lot, felt like fainting and had slight fastric pain. Later on, I learned that my blood pressure dro...

As requested, I was admitted a day before the scheduled surgery . Ban drove me there (thank you, honey!). Before admission, they tested me for Covid-19 using rapid antigent test. Took them about an hour to inform me of the result (negative). Ban and I had early lunch and chilled in the car while waiting. This hospital didn't have a proper cafeteria and so I showed Ban where we could have chap fan. I thought it would be useful for him to know of this coffeeshop for him to get food when he visits me the following days (but that didn't happen, as stated later). At the admission lounge, after checking and getting me to sign some forms, they gave me a zipped bag containing a face towel, small bottles of body wash and hair shampoo, a tube of toothpaste, a toothbrush, and a comb. No bath towel though. Then came the bad news: no vistors allowed :( However, at the ward, a nurse told me that a carer could accompany me but had to do the Covid-19 test  and then stuck with me until I'm ...

Here are the average dividend yields on cost for shares that have paid out dividends: Share counters (7 of them) with no dividend yields just means that I have yet to receive at least a year's worth of dividends from these companies.  The overall dividend yield on cost weighted by invested amount is 4.8%, excluding the 7 share counters mentioned above.   There are 15 share counters with dividend yield (on cost) less than 5% (number of consecutive years of this low yield in bracket): Boustead (4) CapLand Int (1) ComfortDelgro (2) iFAST (3) Keppel Corp (6) Mapletree Com (2) Nordic (3) OCBC (2) Parkway (2) SATS (7) SGX (2) SIA Engineering (4) SG O&G (2) UOB (4) SingPost is excluded as I'm maintaining minimal exposure to this counter as speculative investment. I should really sell Keppel Corp and SATS, realised the losses and reinvest the proceeds into better companies. Six to seven years of waiting is long enough. Here is the average cost of each share counter compared to ...

Can't believe Covid-19 is still around a year later . I thought it would be gone by June last year @@   Initiated position in (all recommended by The Smart Investor):   (1) Ascendas REIT " ...the largest listed business space and industrial REIT on the Singapore Stock Exchange. ...The REIT has properties in four main regions: Singapore, Australia, the US and the UK/Europe. " Reasons to buy: Diversified portfolio of properties and tenants Long-term leases with favourable characteristics A long track record of growth Active capital recycling, redevelopments and AEI Pipeline of properties from sponsor   (2) Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust " Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust (SGX: BUOU), or FLCT, is a REIT that owns 103 industrial and commercial properties worth around S$6.8 billion as of 30 June 2021.   These properties are diversified across five countries: Singapore, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and the UK. " Reasons to buy: Diversified por...

Received this email from the Actuaries Institute earlier this month: ...... 😂

Jang JaeYoung: Do you even know my name?! You'd better! Chu SangWoo: Efficient minds tend to delete worthless information.   - Semantic Error, web novel written by Jeo SuRi, illustrated by Kim Angy 😂

I'm playing this pen&paper rpg game with a bunch of friends, run by a friend who's a long-time fan of the tv series. I quite like the game system and the way it's run. Also, with these bunch of friends, there's a lot of time spent simply catching up and jesting around, which may be a turn off for some people. I can't remember the last time I didn't laugh during a session :) Recently, here's what transpired in Discord channel while the session was ongoing: Me: So the party is split? Player A: Like a banana. Player B: Leave my banana alone, Player A. Player C: Get a protein shake later. Me: I chope the chocolate ice-cream. Player A: Yer banana is too ripe...it produces cheese. GM: Alright guys, is this a Dr Who session or a hentai session? All: 😂

MRI results: (sorry for the blurriness) Here's some information from the orthopedic as a response to my questions (from me, sisters and Ban), during the follow-up appointment : X-ra y couldn't 'see' cartilage and hence the differing prognosis. Left leg: just need to strengthen muscles around it. If no surgery, then the pain may worsen. The meniscal tear would worsen until there's excrutiating pain. Surgery lasts an hour. Grade 1 & 2: treated by 'smoothing' it. Grade 3 & 4:  treated by nanofracture into bone to release blood and marrow to form fibro cartilage. Need to stay two nights at hospital i.e. before and after surgery. Booo. Hate needle. Crutches for 4-6 weeks. No cast needed. Pain post-surgery is not bad since this surgery involves only two small incisions (arthroscopy). Can resume walking, driving, sports between 3 to 6 weeks. Definition of full recovery: pain is minimised, can jog, brisk walk but avoid sports like badminton, football. Fibro ...

Still no change after 6 more weeks i.e. 3 months in total. As planned, MRI was ordered. That took 40 minutes of lying still and not move, especially my right leg. I did take the chance to take a nap but after a while, I changed my mind because I didn't want to unintentionally move my leg while sleeping :D The orthopedic said he would call me to let me know the results. Nearly a week later, I called his office instead. After a reminder from his nurse, he called me and told me the bad news: seems like there was no more cartilage around the relevant areas and there was also a meniscus tear. 😭 He then scheduled an appointment 8 days later for him to go through the MRI results with me and discuss the next step, although I had already consented to undergoing arthroscopic nanofracture surgery. It will take 6 - 8 months to fully recover, with physiotherapy post-surgery. 😭 Hope it'll be successful! 

Elevanth Crusade. This time, I truly wanted the target kingdom i.e. the Kingdom of Perm, as it was just next to my realm. Also, my vassal king (think it was only the King of Chernigov) lost to them at least twice. Poor him. I know I can take the stance of getting the title for myself as back up plan but as always, I checked the other option: was there any dynastic member who was parent of a vassal king? Since the list of my vassal kings/queens was too long, I used the filter instead to search for non-ruler adult dynastic member, sorted from the oldest first. Then I notice my wife somewhere at the top: she was already 70 years old. I kept forgetting that she was of the same dynasty. Our oldest son would inherit both of realms. Excellent. The crusade ended pretty quickly i.e. at around only 50% warscore. Last I checked, I was ahead in contribution at 56%, with the nearest competition, a duke, at 8%. Although newly 'freed' Perm's succession law was Agnatic-Cognatic Primogenitu...