Here's My Story

Salmon on diet?

2012-01-27T14:49:00.000+08:00

Usually people love salmon sushi/sashimi because of its smooth texture, which is actually due to the fat in the fish (healthy fatty acids, mind you) - the ubiquitous white stripes. The best part is its belly. So smooth.

However, for some, like Ban, they may prefer as least fat as possible. Hence, the salmon sushi/sashimi I dislike most is also the one he likes better. I present you Sushi King's special lean salmon!

Look, there's just no fat! I suspect they rear their own salmons and make them swim up river lots of time. Maybe use riverbed stones as dumbells. Perhaps use their fins to do push ups.

By the way, all Sushi King's outlets I've been to served such salsmon sushi/sashimi. It's the only restaurant chain I know that served such salmon. Even those sold at Jaya Jusco and Jaya Grocer has the normal looking fat.

In truth, if I'm not mistaken, there are parts of salmon that has virtually no fat and is normally used as top-up to salmon don and sometimes used in maki. They are cheaper than the fatty parts.

Cheapskate Sushi King? *shrug*

Discharged

2012-01-24T17:07:00.000+08:00

Good news! Ban was discharged from hospital on Sunday but surprisingly with a low platlet count of only 74! I remember that even at 95, the doctor still advised me to stay on and I was finally discharged with a count of just over 140 (the cut off is 150).

The discrepancy is likely due to the difference in the rate of decline in platlet. The decrease rate was shallow for Ban i.e. from 75 to 74, whereas mine continued on its steep decline with the final step from 60 to 30.

The other reason of which Ban thought of was that the doctor wanted to discharge him just before Chinese New Year hehe.

He's now seriously considering getting netting down at his place. Who should we approach for such job?

Dengue strikes again!

2012-01-21T15:11:00.000+08:00

Remember I had dengue last month? It's quite likely that I was infected at Ban's place (regular fogging here) and poor Ban now is infected :( He was hospitalised a few days ago. Hopefully he would be discharged soon.

I feel a little guilty because I'm the one who wants the window (the huge one at the balcony) open during the day. I usually open it once I'm awake in the morning and close it by 5.30pm. As per Ban's suggestion, I've found out on the internet that mozzies are most active around dawn and dusk. Perhaps I should close the window even earlier e.g. 4.30pm and also when it rains as I noticed that there are more of them then.

We've been using mosquito repellents and now thinking of using the electric version. Any recommendation?

Daily sudoku

2012-01-18T16:21:00.000+08:00

One of the activities I do regularly is completing sudoku puzzle, usually on a daily basis. After trying out various online sudoku puzzles, I'm now settled on completing the puzzles on www.sudoku.org.uk. In fact, I did read more than half of the techniques desribed there.

The interface looks like this:

The puzzles, as expected, have different grades of difficulty: M, G, T, D. I've yet to find out which is the easiest and which is the hardest. Each day has a new puzzle which may be of any grade, though I noticed that grade M is the most common.

I took note of the time of completion as a challenge for me. If I use the "check now" function (so far, if I did use it, I used it only once per game) to check where I've gone wrong, then there's a penalty of 1 minute.

Here's my performance so far for grade M puzzles:

As you can see, there's a wide range of outcome. The longest time is about 3 times of the shortes time taken. I sometimes think that the latter is a fluke :)

Supreme being

2012-01-15T11:35:00.001+08:00

A bouquet of stars, M45, The Pléiades, originally uploaded by Trois_Merlettes.

Do I follow a certain religious faith? Well, none of the established ones. Instead of focussing on religion, I focus on the omnipresent and omnipotent "supreme being".

Not sure since when, but surely it has been more than a decade, I have independently formed an opinion about the supreme being. The concept is very simple: I believe there's a supreme being who looks after everyone here, whom I can either pray directly to Him anywhere, anytime (without accessories) or via the various gods/deities existing today (which means I have no qualms going to a place of worship and pray).

Everyday I pray for good health and happiness for my family, friends and me. Hope it's working.

Pen & paper RPG

2012-01-12T13:19:00.001+08:00

I've always encouraged Ban to go out and socialise more especially since he much prefers to be at home and can stay at home for weeks without seeing anyone. So I'm so glad that he is now in two pen & paper RPG groups, though one of them may be already dead due to a horrendous episode recently.

I, on the other hand, have also been trying to arrest the decline of my mental agility. So I asked whether I could join in a group. The potential benefits for me are as follows:

Socialise with new people and thus exchange ideas etc
Learning new game, which requires imagination/creativity, It also widens my interests (hopefully)
Yet another game Ban and I can play together

Ban recently bought the game manual for Ironclaw, an anthropomorphic fantasy role-play, and is now forming a group. So far, there are 3 players (including me), with Ban as the game host.

Last night, Ban went through with me the character creation process, of which I learned other things relating to the process. The thing the strikes me most is that the game does away with the concept of hit points, which is truly unheard of.

I'm feeling excited and at the same time anxious about playing this game. Hope it'll be fun!

PS: I should read the book tonight!

Health + Wealth = Happiness

2012-01-09T14:47:00.000+08:00

I knew about this cliche/saying since I was young but I didn't think much about it. After having lived more than merely 3 decades, I came to realise that it's true.

I don't think anyone would dispute good health but I suspect most people associate it specifically with good physical health and neglect mental health. The latter is equally important and perhaps is harder to handle than physical health. It's not merely absence of, say, depression that indicates good mental health but also good mental agility and cognitive function where each one requires lots of effort in different areas.

Achieving and maintaining good health takes lots of effort. There is simply no short-cut to it. The best way to go about it is to incorporate it into your regular schedule so that it's part of your routine - pretty much the same way you'll treat eating and drinking as something necessary.

It doesn't feel good when you're sick, does it? It takes effort to get well. It takes even more effort to look after others who are sick, especially babies and parents. I believed that looking after parents is more difficult than children because you usually can get the latter to do what you know is good for their health but it's more difficult to do so with the former.

As for wealth, while there are some who pursue this exclusively, others just neglect it by thinking that they can live on love and such. Yes, money isn't everything but it sure helps in lots of things, I would say. It sure will help in maintaining good health e.g. getting the best doctors (often found in private sector) and have wider option of treatment, be it for physical or mental health. There is no need to anguish over its cost.

Money is also very useful in not only helping yourself but also your loved ones especially when they're in financial hardship. Naturally, like all things, it can be misused/abused. For example, sheltering your children, with money, from the harsh reality of the world does nothing good for their development. Being arrogant simply because you're rich is another example.

So let's all strive for good health, accumulation and wise use of wealth and ultimately achieve great happiness!

Sick baby

2012-01-05T15:10:00.000+08:00

My poor nephew. The 5-month old baby is having symptoms of food poisoning. First, it was vomitting. Now it's diarrhea and fever. The good news is that the vomitting has stopped and so he's able to drink some milk and electrolyte, as otherwise would need to bring him to hospital.

I'm sure that any child who's sick would cause his parents some heartache but it's worse when he is just a baby, who cannot use words to communicate to his parents about where his discomfort is coming from. So all we can do is to just carry him and say soothing things to comfort him as much as possible.

Hopefully he'll get well soon.

One end to another

2012-01-03T11:07:00.000+08:00

The disinterest I felt when I had dengue fever continued for more than a week until Ban introduced me to this game:

Atlantica Online.

Since we finished playing (one run) Magicka and Borderlands, we've been searching for another game whereby we can play multiplayer, on top of whatever single player games we've been playing respectively.

Atlantica Online is an MMORPG and it's free. We're balked at paying subscription fee hehe. The one and only time I subscribed to play an MMORPG was Everquest. I had lots of fun but it just took lots of my leisure time.

I'm grateful that Ban introduced me to Atlantica Online because finally I could shake off the disinterest feeling. In fact, I am also now back to reading my Actuary magazines, the investment book The Intelligent Investor and the book on psychology How To Think Straight About Psychology.

However, after playing it for a couple of days I was beginning to have some dejavu: it felt like the early days of Everquest where I didn't have restful sleep and my mind was occupied with the game almost all the time!

I told Ban about it and I now going to cease playing the game each day after dinner onward so that I have hours to do other things and properly wind down for sleep. I'll still at least read e-mails, FB and do a sudoku puzzle in the morning. We don't even talk about the game at night any more :) Coincidentally, on New Year's Eve, we went for a dinner potluck gathering at a friend's place and that night I slept well.

It's all about balance, ya? :)

Better year ahead!

2011-12-31T11:03:00.000+08:00

2011 has been a roller-coaster for me, with the second half being much more challenging than the first half...or maybe just that my memory of the first half is blurry now hehe.

Anyway, some of the notable events/incidents I can remember are:

Bought secondhand Myvi and drive around PJ, Seremban and occasionally KL. Driving skill improved...I think.
Tutoring my student, who failed his Math exam before, to an A for his UPSR. Was a little stressed when his performance dipped in between
Went to OZ with Ban during the cold April/May period. Really shouldn't go anywhere near winter, no matter how low the airfare is
Went to OZ again for a record of 1 month in Oct/Nov, chiefly to help my sister. Overall, it was great but admittedly I did miss Ban :)
My grandfather passed away in August. Wasn't as emotional for the mourners compared to the death of my grandmother. My guess is that his death had been expected for some time (for more than a year) and so everyone had time to come to terms with his eventual passing
Birth of my nephew, the latest cutie-pie of our extended family
Read many more books compared to when I was working, which is great!
Significant changes to my stock investment portfolio. Been lucky to have a relatively small realised loss that's easily offset by a large amount of dividend received thus far. Stopped accumulating. Priority now is to built up an emergency fund that can last me for a year and at the same time, to read investment book to begin investing properly (rather than relying on superficial research and other people's analysis)
My assets are too heavily skewed towards property and so am now selling one of them in Seremban and hopefully there's a buyer soon! Twice, I agonised over whether should sell the one in Singapore and twice I decided not to, after thinking hard about it for a few days. Really hope the rental fee will remain more or less stable during these expected trying years
Dengue fever. One week of boring stay at the hospital. Wasn't helped by the fact that the iv drip needle was inserted incorrectly and thus caused pain and swelling to my left hand. They didn't switch to my right hand, despite my parents and I voicing our concern about the pain occuring each time I move my hand
Ever since the dengue fever, I just have no mood to do anything, including routine stuff e.g. reading news, investment, books, playing computer games. I suspect I'm still weak from the illness and also due to lack of exercise. I'm forcing myself to at least do the routine stuff and also to meet people. Gradually getting back into the exercise routine

Here's wishing everyone a much better year ahead!

The Windmill Station

2011-12-28T21:27:00.000+08:00

On Christmas, I had dinner with my family at The Windmill Station at S2 Seremban. We had a horrible start because there was confusion over the directions my dad received from the restaurant. It took us an hour to go there! Much later on, when it was all over, my brother-in-law confirmed that it was indeed quite easy to get there from Jaya Jusco. For certain, I will want to have him in my car next time we're going there hehe.

Windmill serves Western meals at prices that are generally cheaper than other Western restaurants. For example, Fish n Chip costs only RM9.80 nett (there weren't any sales tax and service charge). For some of the dishes, like those shown below, there is set meal deal for each of them which costs about RM3 more whereby you get a small bowl of soup (it was mushroom soup that night) and a glass of cold drink (from a short list of selection, I believed).

Hot n Spicy Fish

Grilled Chicken

Gordon Blue

Special Mixed

I had the Hot n Spicy Fish, which was not spicy at all. I'm not sure whether it was a mistake or not. My sister, who had a taste, too concluded it wasn't spicy but merely a little pepperish. In any case, it was oily: there was oil residual clearly underneath the piece of dory fish. The flour crumbled too easily. The taste was so-so only.

We shared a plate of chicken wings and a small basket of onion rings. The former was not too bad but nothing to shout about, whereas the latter, though taste-wise was ok, was obviously oily. Again, I'm not sure whether normally they're supposed to be like that or whether the restaurant was rushing to cook because of the crowd.

I had a taste of Gordon Blue, which was mildly interesting to me and I would try that if I'm there next time. I didn't try anything else but everyone else loved their meals. So I guess you should just avoid the fish :)

Not sure whether there is a Windmill restaurant in PJ/KL but apparently there are 3 of them in Melaka, of which I did sight one at Klebang Kecil/Besar on the left on the way to town.

Books 2011

2011-12-25T11:29:00.000+08:00

On top of the Actuary magazine I read each month, here are the books I read this year:

The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown
The Towers of Midnight - Robert Jordan/ Brandon Sanderson
Stone of Tears - Terry Goodkind
Blood of the Fold - Terry Goodkind
Temple of the Winds - Terry Goodkind
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins

These are the books I've started reading but haven't finished (with the first one my current priority):

The Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham, revised edition updated with commentary by Jason Zweig
Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes - Edith Hamilton
How to Think Straight about Psychology - Keith E. Stanovich
The World Affairs Companion: the essential one-volume guide to global issues - Gerald Segal

I'm fairly certain I have left out one or two books.

My baby

2011-12-22T12:08:00.000+08:00

Each time I go away for more than a week, I'll get Ban's help to water my baby, the money plant. My poor baby has shrunk a lot for reasons unknown to me :( So the latest thing I did was to trim off the excessively long scrawny stem, making the pot much less crowded and hope that more leaves will grow than die.

I have a reminder in my phone that will alert me every Sunday at 1.45 pm to water my baby. So, when I'm away, I would text Ban to do it, which he said he would always do it the moment he read the sms. I would also ask about how it's doing and usually Ban would say they look the same.

This time, after I've been away for about 2 weeks...

Me: Hey honey, I thought you said my plant look the same

Ban: They do

Me: Come here and look at this *Pointed to a dried up leave and another leave that has turned completely yellow* See those? That's not good. It means they are dying

Ban: Oh, is it? I always thought it's natural for them to do so
Me: ......

Dengue, then malaise

2011-12-19T00:28:00.000+08:00

I've been missing in action due to a few days of high fever and subsequent hospitalisation. It was one of the most boring mind numbing things I've ever done.

I just didn't have mood to do anything. It didn't help that that they stick the iv needle right next to my wrist and thus the slightest movement was painful. Even after I complained a few times, I was assured that that I wasn't used to it. A nurse even called me a baby! It was a few days later that another nurse astutely observed that my left hand was swollen and thus quickly got a doctor to shift the needle to the right hand and nowhere next to the wrist either. What a world of difference it made.

Everyday, I was given medication injected directly into my blood stream - once around 8am and another time around 8pm. Thereafter, I would fall asleep. Each day, I just looked forward to the result of my platlet count. Such a dull period.

After exactly a week of being in hospital, I was finally discharged. Thank goodness! I'm beginning to wonder why there are no more people going crazy and jumping down from a hospital building.

However, the malaise continues at home. I have no desire to watch any particular tv, read papers, read books, eat anything, drink anything. Everyday I'm just going through the motion just to live yet another day. So strange lah.

I'm now racking my brain to come up with reasons/excuses for me to get back to KL (to be with Ban) after my mum is discharged, scheduled to be on Tuesday. Any ideas?

Growth stock selection

2011-12-13T16:16:00.000+08:00

The reader will understand from these instances why we regard growth stocks as a whole as too uncertain and risky a vehicle for the defensive investor. Of course, wonders can be accomplished with the right individual selections, bought at the right levels, and later sold after a huge rise and before the probable decline. But the average investor can no more expect to accomplish this than to find money growing on trees.

- Benjamin Graham, in the book "The Intelligent Investor"

The wonders of KL

2011-12-10T00:30:00.000+08:00

Stucked in a 4km traffic jam for 40 mins. Then spent 50 mins to find a parking bay at Pavilion through 5 storeys of car park. Hours later, spent another 20 mins trying to get out of the car park.

Also, on a separate occassion, the delayed (so typical!) commuter train to Seremban was so packed that I couldn't get on it. Same story for the next yet-another-delayed train, which arrived about half an hour later. Frustrated and ended not going back to Seremban that day.

Don't you just love KL?

Inflation

2011-12-07T17:13:00.000+08:00

Americans are getting stronger. Twenty years ago, it took two people to carry ten dollars' worth of groceries. Today, a five-year-old can do it.

- Henny Youngman

Insomnia 2

2011-12-04T15:13:00.000+08:00

Following on from my previous post, on that day itself (Thursday), I already felt tired just past 8pm. Ban pointed out that this wasn't unusual since I didn't have enough proper sleep.

Instead of sleeping, I decided to stay up so as not to ruin further my sleeping/waking pattern. Also, I decided to do some yoga exercise to sweat it out and to properly stretch and relax my body, in the hope I could sleep better that night.

At 9pm, I did yoga for about half an hour, with about 5 mins of relaxation. Although the latter didn't work as usual (my mind was wandering all over the place!), the yoga exercise was great. I didn't do much upside down poses (where the pelvis is elevated above the heart and not necessarily directly vertically above) as I had blocked nose but I stretched my legs a lot and did a few twisting poses. The great news is that I finally did a difficult pose (sorry, I forgot its name) which I have been trying from time to time. Yay!

I went to bed just past 12am and probably fell asleep within half an hour. This time, fortunately, I had proper sleep for about 6 hours. I suddenly woke up just before 6.30am and just couldn't sleep any more. Similarly, I slept for about 6 hours on Friday night and no more. However on Friday night, it was 6.5 hours. I wish it was enough but it wasn't as I was still tired. Just couldn't sleep any more.

Hopefully my sleeping hours will normalise soon. *cross fingers*

Insomnia

2011-12-01T06:40:00.000+08:00

It's been a while since I couldn't sleep throughout the night, not due to problem with the stomach/digestive track. Probably more than 2 years? *shrug*

On Monday night, I slept just before 12.30am (early Tuesday morning) but prematurely woke up before 6am. Tried sleeping again but ended up just tossing and turning until about 8am. Had breakfast, surfed net and then back to bed at around 9am. Couldn't sleep and so permanently woke up at about 11.20am.

Managed to nap at around 5.45pm but had to wake up at 7.15pm for dinner. Stayed up till midnight, which is my usual bedtime. Couldn't sleep throughout the night, although I was very tired. In fact, so tired that I had restless leg syndrome.

Inevitably, during these sleepless periods hunger pangs occurred. Drank milk. Had bread. Once past 6am, I had breakfast.

Not sure why this happened. I did the usual relaxation/meditation/stretching exercise before sleep. Made sure I wasn't hungry.

Troubled Qantas A380

2011-11-28T21:36:00.000+08:00

On my way back to KL from Canberra, I took a Qantas flight from Melbourne to Singapore, scheduled to depart at 5pm local time. The domestic flight from Canberra to Melbourne, on the puny Qantaslink plane, went smoothly and so I had more than 2 hours to laze around the airport. Boarding time was at 4.20pm.

Around 4pm, there was an announcement that the flight is delayed. Since the plane was just right outside, we could see some (presumably) engineers working on the plane. The new departure time was 6pm, with boarding time at 5.30pm. I just shrugged and continue reading the free newspapers.

Unfortunately, at about 5pm, there was yet another delay - this time to 7pm. Goodness, that meant the plane was scheduled to touch down in Singapore only at about 11.45pm (local time). I was feeling bad for my friends who would need to stay up till then (I was going to stay over at their place). I groaned and silent said, "You gotta be kidding".

To give them some credits, Qantas gave out a AUD20 F&B voucher to each passenger to be used in the airport, which was great since dinner was going to be late. However, everyone had the same idea and so all eateries had long queue. By the time I was served, it was just 10 mins away from the scheduled boarding time of 6.30pm. So I ate only a small sandwich and drank a bottle of orange juice and bought a bottle of mineral water to bring onto the plane. The flight on British Airway on the way from Singapore to Sydney did serve water but in the standard paper cup.

It turned out that the boarding time was delayed by about 15 mins. Once on board, we were informed that the plane could depart only after the engineers had gotten some documents signed. That took a good half an hour! Goodness gracious. I rolled my eyes once again.

The bad luck continued in Singapore: once it touched down, the auxiliary power wasn't functioning. Apparently it was needed to get the plane to the parking bay. Fortunately, everything else was working. So that added another half an hour of delay.By the time I entered the airport terminal, it was already 1am. I reached my friends' place at about 1.45am, feeling so embarrassed about being so late (compared to the scheduled touch down at 9.45pm).

On the bright side, I managed to watch the movies Green Lantern and Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Ban didn't want to watch either) and the entire 4th season of Big Bang Theory, except for the last 7 mins when I had to disembark. Unlike previous experience where it was switched off during take-off and landing, the entertainment set was functioning from the time I boarded the plane till the time I disembarked. Oh, and remember the bottle of mineral water I bought? Turned out that instead of serving in paper cups, they freely gave bottles of mineral water. Goodie!

The plane was very new, with nice comfortable seat (unlike previous experience where my tail bone would hurt) and toilet taps that had sensors. It was only later on that I realised it an A380 plane - a first for me.

Spring Oct11 in Canberra

2011-11-25T11:12:00.000+08:00

When I'm in Australia, I will inevitably discover some interesting subjects for me to take photo of. This is especially true for the spring season. There's something about flowers of varying colours and birds busy finding food (especially for their ever hungry chicks!). So alive.

Manja Chilli?

2011-11-22T13:55:00.000+08:00

Incongruent, isn't it?

Success by student

2011-11-19T14:26:00.000+08:00

My student, whom I've tutored in Math, has gotten his Primary 6 national exam results on Thursday. The great news is that he has gotten A in Math! Woot! It feels great to be able to help others to succeed.

The immediate action I'm taking now is to help him with basic math techniques e.g. multiplication of numbers that are multiples of 10s, approximation method to help in division. I've already suggested this be done in 2 or 3 sessions free of charge.

I've also made clear to his mum, who is my sister's godsister, that there is no obligation to continue with me if there is another tutor who is better for him. I'm all for him getting the right help.

Simple joy

2011-11-16T17:12:00.000+08:00

One fine cool afternoon, after a bout of heavy rain, I swept and mopped the floor. It was quite pleasant as I hardly sweated. Also, my laptop was playing music CDs, after making sure Ban was fine with that (he was working on his PhD).

Then a particular Gloria Estefan song came on that prompted me to have a slow casual dance with Ban, who gamely acquiesced to my whimsical request :)

I felt so joyful dancing with him for these few minutes. I was smiling all the while :) Simple bliss.

Mother-in-law

2011-11-13T15:00:00.000+08:00

Found this advertisement in a community newsletter in Canberra:

Didn't know mother-in-laws are that...'resourceful' :P

Home grown organic vegetable

2011-11-10T14:58:00.000+08:00

Had the privilege to eat organic bok choy, grown without fetiliser and pesticide by my sister in Australia. As shown above, it was in a bowl of spicy seafood ramen with fish tofu. Yum!

Unfortunately, the cucumber seedlings were kept being eaten by slugs. Any idea of how to solve the problem without resorting to chemical warfare?

Googling kills discussion and more

2011-11-07T07:56:00.000+08:00

Sometimes when I asked someone a question (usually in reference to what that person said), I was immediately given a two-word response: "Google it."

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for putting information online as it helps to disseminate knowledge as widely as possible and, for those who use internet, as easy as possible.

However, for some people, it has some adverse effects. It makes them lazy to engage in lively discussions. They basically has outsourced their memory retrieval and social skill to Google! This is bad because:

(1) they're not exercising their brains and thus accelerate the decline of their cognitive functions. Yes, googling enables them to gather vast amount of knowledge but that is not enough to keep your mind active and healthy. You need to also exercise the ability to retrieve and use them.

(2) it reduces social interactions. Discussion is one of the main ways of social interactions. In the past, people can spend considerably time discussing a variety topic, being exposed to difference point of view and information. This is good for all parties involved as they're exercising their brains in a variety of ways. If this is nipped at the bud, then they'll be reduced to essentially talking about inane things all the time.

(3) it may affect their ability to work. As with any skill/function, the less you use it, the more you lose it.

I'm not saying that people should discuss until their voices are hoarse. Just don't give up at the beginning and so easily.

What's love?

2011-11-04T10:38:00.000+08:00

Love isn't about taking what you want; it's about wanting happiness for the one you love.

- Kahlan Amnell in the book "Temple of the Winds" of the "The Sword of Truth" series

Switching geographical positions

2011-11-01T08:29:00.000+08:00

When I was working in Singapore, Nothamsap was studying in Sydney. We met a couple of times in Singapore and once in KL (when I was visiting Ban regularly) but thereafter, it was like fate playing a cruel game with our schedule :)

For example, when I moved back to Malaysia, he then moved to Singapore, looking for work. In September, I was in Singapore for a week and so contacted him. However, he was flying back to Sydney.

Latest example is best illustrated by this sms dialogue:

Me: Hey Nothamsap. I'm in Canberra.

Nothamsap: I am flying to Malaysia today hahaha.

Me: Lol. Are you avoiding me? ;) We keep switching geographical positions!

Nothamsap: I know! How long are you going be in Canberra for?

Me: Until Nov 12.

Nothamsap: I am coming back on the 11th!!! Omg.

Me: :D You just changed your arrival date, didn't you? You sux ;)

Nothamsap: Hahaha no, I didn't. Aiyo. We should arrange it next time.

Me: Yes, we should! Perhaps when we next meet, we may be toothless and chew on soft boneless chicken meat :D

Nothamsap: Haha not that long! Probably soon, who knows.

Devil in the details?

2011-10-29T07:59:00.000+08:00

Everyone is impatiently awaiting the details but it's not the devil that's in the details, it's all of hell.

- Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Europe's long-awaited master plan to fix the eurozone debt crisis

Psychology

2011-10-26T03:58:00.000+08:00

Psychology is often the bearer of the "bad tidings" that comfortable folks belief do not stand up to the cold light of day. Perhaps it is not surprising that many people would like not only to ignore the message but also to do away with the messenger.

- Keith E. Stanovich in the book "How To Think Straight About Psychology"

Gay or not gay?

2011-10-23T10:25:00.000+08:00

For those who are thinking hard about whether they are gay or not, my advice is to look out for any telltale signs in the past.

For example, if you regularly find yourself in situations where your friends remark aloud, "Oh wow, look at that hot chick across the street." while at the same time, you silently thought, "Omg, look at that gorgeous guy next to her.", then please seriously (re)consider your (homo)sexuality.

Shares investment Oct 11 Part 2

2011-10-20T18:05:00.000+08:00

Here's an update of historical average dividend yields of shares I own:

Please note there's a change to the calculation method compared to that in my previous post:

1) Dividend yield = dividend amount / cost of shares
(2) Annualised dividend yield = sum of dividend yields pro-rated to a year

Shares investment Oct 11 Part 1

2011-10-17T17:59:00.000+08:00

It's been an 'exciting' (read: nerve-wrecking) period these few months. Share markets globally plunged, eked out some gains and then plunged again. Rinse and repeat.

I took the opportunity to add some shares to my modest portfolio:

(1) Boustead Singapore Limited. Although I did some cursory research about the company, chiefly about its operations, geographical reach and its profitability, I admit that I rely quite heavily on someone else's analysis. I like the business strategy, its diversified nature and, of course, its past performance. While keeping the amount invested in this company low, I'll keep an eye on any news and analysis of the company

(2) CapitaRetailChina Trust: I've always wanted to invest in REIT that owns good shopping malls. Problem is that I am only familiar with malls in Singapore. After speaking with some friends who just recently moved from China, after years living there, I decided to invest a nominal sum in this trust. So far, REITs created by Capitaland consist of good quality assets and appear to be well-managed, although their dividend yiels are typically lower than its peers but that's alright if one consider them to be the blue-chip version of their industry

(3) SPDR STI ETF: This is mainly to obtain capital gain as I'm convinced that market will move much higher within 2 years. This conviction comes from research by others as well as from my days of investing in unit trusts. Note that this ETF is denoted in SGD and thus I do not need to take into account of losses due to currency exchange rates (more on this later)

(4) Added more to CapitaCommercial Trust and Suntec Reit when the price dropped by more than 20% relative to my average purchase price.

On the other hand, I have sold the following:

(a) DBXT MSCI Asia ex-Japan ETF 10: Mainly because I decided that I didn't want the extra trouble of taking into account of the movement between SGD and USD (the share is denoted in USD)

(b) DBXT MSCI Emerging Markets ETF 10: Same reason as (a)

(c) DBXT MSCI World TRN ETF 10: Same reason as (a)

(d) Cityspring Infrastructure Trust: It has excellent investment moat but unfortunately, it has been making losses in recent years (and yet the entity managing it is making profit!). More importantly, the trustee-manager chooses to emphasise on cash earnings and thus appear to brush off the losses. Cash earnings do not take into account the capital expendicture that eventually would be needed e.g. for repairs, replacement of parts. Many investors have dumped this share because of this stance. At last, I joined them too.

(e) First Ship Lease Trust: The management either has no plan or doesn't want to announce a plan on how to reduce its debts, especially those with LTV covenants of which they had some difficulties with previously. Also, there is still no news on how they're going to deal with repayment of loan due in about 6 months time. Hence, I've decided to exit this counter despite its historical dividend yield of about 11%.

(f) Pacific Shipping Trust: I actually like this trust, despite its share denominated in USD. The management has a clear plan to reduce debts and thus it is no surprise that its share price has been steadily increasing. Unfortunately, its sponsor Pacific International Lines Pte Ltd, who is also the main shareholder, wants to delist it, subject to regulator's and shareholders' approval. They would need just 75% to delist the trust and highly likely they'll achieve it given that they had over 59% and likely more now as it seems that they've been buying from share market too. The offer price is excellent compared to my purchase price. Though I loathe to sell such well-managed trust (historical dividend yield of about 10%), I do not wish to be in the position of the remaining 25% and thinking of how to sell my shares privately (since it would be delisted).

So far, I've made a realised loss of just over 1% but I'm conforted by the fact that the dividends I've received thus far is about 9 times of the amount of losses. Phew!

EasyBits Go

2011-10-14T22:12:00.000+08:00

Please don't install this programme. Why? It's a pain to uninstall it. Firstly, it doesn't have a folder in the programme list for you to open and select 'Uninstall'. Secondly, if you try to uninstall it via 'Control Panel', it would appear to have been uninstalled instantly but it is still there.

Even if you choose not to install it, there have been reports that it would still be installed (what the?!). Where on earth did it come from? It rides on Skype.

There's a detailed account of how to manually uninstall it here. However, I find it difficult to (1) discern the corresponding jargon for Vista (the instruction is for XP) and (2) to find the specific items (likely due to the overprotectie nature of Vista).

I tried using the removal application by the game publisher but I when I executed it, nothing happen. Later, I got it to work but running it as administrator (damn Vista!).

Windshield wipers

2011-10-11T11:52:00.000+08:00

Ban regularly teases me for putting up all my car's windshield wipers, especially the back, by saying that other drivers find that strange and so purposely try to park close to my car :)

Well, I'm not the only one:

I also notice that the car has shades up at the front side of the car (but not back), similar to how I handle mine.

Mantle of rule

2011-10-08T18:59:00.000+08:00

It's right for the mantle of rule to be heavy, Richard, but you can't let it crush you.

- Kahlan Amnell to Richard Rahl/Cypher in the book "Blood of the Fold" of the "The Sword of Truth" series

To share or not to share

2011-10-05T09:38:00.000+08:00

Someone on my gtalk friend's list had the status "Studying for exam". So naturally, I asked him what exam it was. Shockingly, he reacted in a angry manner, lamenting why people kept asking him that. Duh.

Another time, a friend's status indicated she had some problems. I was concern and so asked her about it. I was reprimanded for being a busybody. Duh.

It's unpleasant and grossly unfair to be angry with people who are concerned about you. If you don't wish people to ask you about your status update, don't display them at all. Keep it private.

Progress

2011-10-02T11:11:00.000+08:00

On my recent trip to Singapore, I took the opportunity to come out to a rather good friend, whom I befriended during my university days. He was someone I used to have a crush on but thankfully I moved on. In fact, at one point, he did suspect but I denied it at that time.

I wanted him to meet Ban and so I came out to him over the phone. Remarkably and thankfully he took it extremely well: "Of course I'm ok with it. You're my good friend." Due to the sheer amount of news we exchanged, I totally forgot to ask him whether he had any questions to ask me pertaining to my homosexuality. Oh well, perhaps next time.

Rain on stock exchange

2011-09-29T11:10:00.000+08:00

Read this broadcast few days ago:

Philippines Stock Exchange : Trading is suspended today due to weather conditions. For more details, please refer to www.pse.com.ph

Huh? Are they trading out in the open or what?

Haze from Indonesia

2011-09-26T17:40:00.000+08:00

Haze in Malaysia and Singapore is usually attributed to forest fire in Indonesia caused by slash-and-burn method.

Here's a novel idea for the victims: impose a 'haze tax' on all goods imported from Indonesia. Besides working as a deterrent, it is also a way for the countries to recoup the cost of providing healthcare to those affected by the haze (notably children and old folks).

Naturally, there are lots of details that can be discussed and implemented e.g.

Exemption can be given to companies and their suppliers, collectively, that have been independently verified not practicing the slash-and-burn or any any practices that result in haze.
Impose the tax each time the haze season starts and end it when it's obvious the haze is not coming back for sometime

The first point's inspiration comes from the H1N1 epidemic years ago where Singapore sent team of experts to check and verify, on a state by state basis, chicken farms in Malaysia to be H1N1 free and thus allowing eggs to continue to be imported by Singapore. As for putting to condition on the suppliers of the exporting company, there is precedent in the Western countries where MNCs abide by and impose on the downstream suppliers certain conditions relating to child labour.

What do you think?

Stuff on the net

2011-09-23T13:05:00.000+08:00

Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

- Abraham Lincoln

2nd Anniversary

2011-09-20T16:25:00.000+08:00

Happy 2nd Anniversay, honey! I've been very happy to be with you these past two years and hope for many more years to come. Thanks for making me feel very loved and making me laugh every single day :) Hope you feel likewise.

Muack!

Underinsurance

2011-09-18T11:34:00.000+08:00

This is a simple but good commentary on why people in Singapore are underinsured, which is highly likely the case in Malaysia too since the insurance industry is also dominated by insurance agents and the structure of agents' compensation is similar.

Coincidentally, one of the questions I recently asked an insurance agent was whether she herself was buying the insurance product she was trying to sell to my sister, of which the answer was affirmative. You can try asking that too but please don't make it obvious to the agent that you will not buy the product if he/she doesn't buy it. If the agent doesn't plan to buy it, ask why and judge whether the reasons are sound or not.

On a side note, I find it a little disconcerting that the agents I've spoken with recently either provided misleading information (whether the agent was misinformed or not, I don't know) or didn't provide important information until I asked for them. All these would have gone unnoticed by my family because either they do not know what information to ask for or are inexperience to notice something is amiss. It's scary.

Wrapping

2011-09-15T09:56:00.000+08:00

Verna shook her head. 'No.' She looked up into the other's eyes. 'No, the thorn was to discover that appearance was all that ever mattered, and that what was inside' - she tapped the side of her head - 'didn't hold any meaning for him, only its wrapping.'

- Verna to Phoebe in "Blood of the Fold"

CPF Nomination Risk

2011-09-12T13:23:00.000+08:00

Found this article by Martin Lee:

As a followup to this story about missing CPF money, my colleague Wilfred emailed the CPF board to confirm their policy regarding the confidentiality of nominees. This is what he received:

As the Board is under a duty to CPF members to maintain the confidentiality of the information belonging to our CPF members hence we do not release confidential information of a deceased’s CPF nomination.
The information of the deceased’s beneficiaries is confidential to the next beneficiary(ies). Therefore, the beneficiaries will not be identified with each other as we will contact the deceased’s beneficiary(ies) directly.

This is a very serious loophole. What is there to prevent a rogue agent at CPF board from making a fake nomination and making off with someone else’s money? Dead man tell no tales and without knowing where the money went to, it is even harder for the deceased next of kin to detect such a fraud.

This is dangerous. CPF Board should make this process similar to a will i.e. the 'executor' of the will can reveal the content to interested parties.

What's wrong with her?

2011-09-09T20:07:00.000+08:00

I recently read in newspaper about an Indonesian maid who managed to dodge execution in Saudi Arabia. I tried to find it online but to no avail and so please bear in mind that the details may be inaccurate.

Seems that she was sentenced to death for killing a relative of her employer who allegedly tried to rape her. The family of the victim was willing to forgo that punishment for a huge amount of compensation. So the Indonesian government and the Indoensian public raised fund for her.

It seems that it was more than needed. So when she was back at her village in Indonesia, apparently she spent the excess money on jewelries, house repairs and other things. She was viewed to be spluging money in the village and thus was scorned by the villagers.

When asked (presumably by a journalist) whether she would consider using the excess money to fund legal fees for the remaining 23 Indonesian maids waiting for trials in Saudi Arabia (a popular suggestion in Twitter), her response was one of incredulity: "Why should I help them? I don't know them" or something to that effect.

Excuse me, if everyone thinks the same way you do, then you wouldn't have had help in the first place, right? Seriously, what's wrong with her?

Grand Slam in equatorial region?

2011-09-06T15:29:00.000+08:00

Recently I watched a US Open tennis match on tv where a woman tennis player was trying very hard to close out an energy sapping match (over 2 hours at that time) and at one point, she seems to be retching.

The commentators attributed her physcial ailment to the heat and humidity, which it seems are 'higher' than usual at that time. I was thinking of temperature along the line of maybe at least 35 degree celcius but I was surprised to hear later from them that the temperature was a mere 28 degree celcius (considered coolish in Malaysia and Singapore) and the humidity level was only 60% (whereas normal humidity level in Malaysia and Singapore is easily 70%).

Of course the length of the match matters. When I played tennis (singles, not doubles) for even half and hour in Malaysia or Singapore, I was already panting and needing a break. However, in US Open, bear in mind that they have a few minutes break after every 2 or 3 points and a much longer break after a set.

Hmmm I wonder whether this could be one reason there's no Grand Slam championship in the equatorial region? Players will be dropping like flies.

PS: My first guess of why there's no such championship in the region is the prize money :)

'Status update'

2011-09-03T07:53:00.001+08:00

On Facebook as well as when using gtalk and yahoo messenger, one can insert a remark about one's current 'status' from simple status such as "Busy", "Away" and "Available" to multi-words/sentences status such as "It's Friday!", "Yay! Got it! :)" and "I can't go back to sleep after feeding the dog early in the morning. Argh!"

Who can see the your status? Well, generally it would be anyone whom you added to your list of 'friends'. Some of them would contact you via messages (instant or normal) or comments regarding your status. The reasons they do so are varied: it could be because they're concerned, curious or just a social thing to do. It is just a normal reaction.

Yet, there are some who react to such messages/comments in a curious (at times, outrightly negative) manner. Examples (from mild to outrageous cases):

Status: "Wow! Such a long queue". Comment: "Where is this?". Respond: "Somewhere in KL". It can go on and on in similar fashion with respect to the same status. Why so coy? Is this a tactic to get people more interested? It's ok to do this once a while but it's annoying once this becomes a habit.
Status: "I feel sad". Comment: "Oh, what happen?". Respond: "None of your businss". Huh? If you don't even want those on your list of friends to ask you, then don't put up such update. It's common sense"
Status: "Studying for exam". Comment: "So what exam are you studying for?" Respond: "Why do people keep asking me this? I'm fed up answering such questions!" Then don't bloody hell put it in your status! Goodness.

It's just so strange lah.

What do you think? Have you encountered such behaviour or perhaps you yourself exhibit such behaviour?

Recurring dream themes

2011-08-31T21:52:00.001+08:00

I've realised long ago (and it's still true till today) that my dreams have some recurring themes:

Late for class/exam
Forget to bring something important to school
Can't find my timetable to determine the next class and its venue
Running away from something I fear, usually either something supernatural like vampires or monsters/dinosaurs but could be humans too e.g. assassins

Except for the last one, noticed a similar thread for the rest? :)

As for the last one, oftentimes I got tired of running away in my dreams and I would simply stood still, bracing for the 'attack'. My pulse quickened while waiting for the impact of the attack but it usually never materialise. Either the assailants simply vanished or they just lost interest in me.

How about you? Any recurring theme for your dreams?

Budgeting & Saving

2011-08-28T00:23:00.000+08:00

Oftentimes I hear people lamenting about their impotency at saving money. So, when my (then) colleague in Singapore lamented the same thing, I demonstrated to him, in about 5 mins, that he could actually save nearly 50% of his gross salary if he wanted too. He appeared to be truly amazed by this fact.

How did I do it? Just purely by budgeting. Here's a more elaborated example: assume a gross salary of S$2,500.

Food
Breakfast: bread with some bread spread, with a loaf of bread lasting for 4 days (i.e. a little more than 3 slices per day). Generous budgeting of S$3 every 4 days i.e. about S$24 per month. You probably can have soft-boiled egg every now and then.
Lunch and dinner: mixed rice for one of these meals and noodle or anything about S$5/S$6 for the other meal, with possibly one drink for one of these meals. Budget of S$10 per day i.e. S$310 per month
Luxury food: Treat yourself to some nicer food, with budget of S$25 per meal, once a week i.e. S$100 per month

Lodging
Current rent for a room, not too close to city centre and yet possibly not too far too, is about S$500 - S$800 per month. Generous budget of S$650 per month.

Transport
Take MRT or bus or a combo. Budget of S$1.40 per trip i.e. S$2.80 per day. Further budget for taxi ride of S$10 per ride and 4 times per month. Total budget for transport is about S$127.

Internet
Budget of S$50 can get you a decent broadband, with broadband speed of at least 6Mbps unlimited.

Mobile phone
Actually, S$28 is more than enough. That's the cost for about every 50 days for a particular type of prepaid plan that's available from all the major telcos of which I could never get to finish the credit for local calls/sms. I ended rolling over local credit worth over S$300!. Even if this info is outdated, I believed a budget of S$45 per month is more than sufficient.

Taxes
Based purely on gross monthly salary of S$2,500, instalment for income tax is S$15 per month. Note that the inland revenue authority in Singapore allows payment to be instalment over 12 months interest free.

Entertainment
Budget of S$32 per month enables you to watch a movie each week for 4 weeks a month, if you get one of those credit cards that enables you to purchase movie ticket at S$8. Even at the original price of S$10, you still get to watch 3 movies a week.

Buffer
A buffer is for those unexpected expenses e.g. your parents are down and you bore all their expenses while they there are there. Budget of S$200 per month.

Net income = gross salary less total expenses.

Based on this budget, net income is over S$900, which is nearly 40% of the gross salary of S$2,500.

That's a lot. In a year, you would have saved over S$10,000.

Some of the reasons, I observed, why some people seem incapable at saving are as follows:

They're spending beyond their means. Enough said.
They're spending within their means but barely, mainly because they want the best of everything. They just got to have the latest iPhone, take taxi everywhere, have meals of at least S$10 per meal, the best internet and mobile phone packages etc.
They want to save more but fail to budget and hence have nothing to adhere to.
They have a budget but simply fail to adhere to it.
They have a budget and try to adhere to it but only try to put aside what's left of their salary at the end of the month after having spent on everything else.

On the last point above, for people who have come up with a budget (similar to the above example) and really want to save, one effective way is to "pay yourself" first the moment you get your salary. For example, in the example above, the net income is about S$947 a month. So, once salary is received, immediately set aside this amount in another account (or invest it straightaway) separate from the account you used to pay for expenses.

Another cause of failure to follow the budget is the lack of monitoring and feedback process. Expenses should be recorded (preferably on a daily basis lest you forget) using the same categories as the budget (with a useful additional category of "Misc"). Then examine these on a monthly basis to determine the difference between actual expendicture and budget. Reflect on the reasons for any significant discrepancy and take appropriate actions e.g. more discipline approach, budget's too optimistic, more categories to facilitate monitoring etc.

In such task and any other important tasts, it's important to have this monitoring and feedback loop as part of the control cycle: (1) defining the problem (e.g. not saving enough), (2) developing solution (e.g. create a budget) and (3) monitoring and feedback (e.g. record actual expenses and examine them against budget), which then goes back to (1).

Purpose of having children

2011-08-25T00:31:00.000+08:00

Friend: Do you know that I was conceived as an insurance for my family?

Me: Huh? What do you mean?

Friend: Well, my elder brother was the only child for sometime until one day, he was nearly knocked down by a car. My grandmother then insisted that my father have another son. Hence me!

Me: What?! *laugh*

Although it seems rather funny at that time, it is actually rather sad.

I personally know of people whom parents view them as 'investment' e.g. they are born and bred with the sole purpose of looking after their carers (I don't view them as 'parents') once they're mature in future. Oftentimes this is demanded.

For goodness sake, please don't do this to your children. It's hurtful and I'm pretty sure they would rather not be born than to suffer this. Parents should just do their best in raising their children and if they turn out right and treat you well, then it's a bonus. If not, then you've done your best and move on.

2011 economic doldrums

2011-08-22T01:30:00.000+08:00

Until last year, policymakers could always produce a new rabbit from their hat to reflate asset prices and trigger economic recovery. Fiscal stimulus, near-zero interest rates, two rounds of "quantitative easing", ring-fencing of bad debt, and trillions of dollars in bailouts and liquidity provision for banks and financial institutions: Officials tried them all. Now they have run out of rabbits.

- Noriel Roubini, in his commentary "Is capitalism doomed?"

Australia's politic is a joke?

2011-08-19T12:15:00.000+08:00

The topic was what Sis requested for me to talk about. Well, I honestly don't know much about Australia's politic but I do have some points to make.

The strangest thing about Australia's politic is the election cycle: it is a mere 3 years. What on earth can one party hope to achieve in 3 years? The first 0.5 year is honey moon. The 3rd year is spent on preparing for election. That leaves only 1.5 years to do real work.

How much can be accomplished in 1.5 years that will hopefully leaves such a good impression on the voters and encourage them to re-elect that party again? Remember, any major project involves lots of work such as establishing objectives (this could be argued for months!), committees, draft bills, debates, redrafts, debates, posturing, gazette, implementation. Also, how about its effect? Will the effect of any major project be felt in time for the next election?

Such short election cycle probably encourages the government to just try to come up with short-term wins or populist or tinkering with the easy stuff or any of the above. Tough choices which are theoretically correct but are either unpopular or of which results will only be known beyond the cycle (or both) are probably the last thing the government wants to do. Some actions that are effective to combat certain scenario of inflation (vaguely recalling my Economics lectures) take years to have the desired effect.

Yet popular choices are not necessarily good for the country. Hopefully the more knowledgeable voters are, the likely it is that the right choices are taken.

N.B: I'm wondering how the carbon tax will play out? I'm pretty sure it'll be implemented but I'm more keen on seeing its effects.

Yummy soy sauce chicken

2011-08-17T22:12:00.000+08:00

Although I knew that most likely it would be the same price as last time (now that I think about it, why did I ever except the price to be lower?), I couldn't resist to buy the soy sauce chicken drumstick a few days ago:

Yup, it is still RM5. I now suspect that the drumstick was counted as equivalent to 2 portions of meat. What do you think?

Data Execution Prevention (DEP) error

2011-08-14T17:30:00.000+08:00

Recently, I've purchased the game King's Bounty: The Legend, which is like the rpg version of Heroes of Might and Magic. Recommended for fans of the latter.

Anyway, after playing it for some time, I began experiencing frequent crashes. The error message stated that my laptop's DEP closed the programme for security reason blah blah blah.

At first, it wasn't a big deal as I diligently saved the game often but it came to a point where it crashed within 10 mins of loading/reloading a saved game.

Googling time
It seems to be a problem shared by quite a number of people with most of them having in common the following:

Windows Vista (such a troublesome Windows!)
Nvidia graphic card

It's very disappointing that the game's developer didn't release a patch to fix this (unlike the developer of the free MMORPG Trickster).

I have tried the following suggestions but didn't work:
(1) Turned off the sound of the game
(2) Disable Nvidia display driver service
(3) (2) + change from "automatic" to "manual" for startup Nvidia programmes
(4) Turned off DEP (risky, in my opinion)
(5) Update Nvidia graphic card's driver

Phew, finally something works!
Finally, what did work was (i) rolling back the graphic card's driver as far back as possible and (ii) immediately installing the latest driver. It was a variant of a suggestion made by someone who successfully solved the problem buy uninstalling all different versions of the driver and installing the latest one after that.

I did not undo option (3) above but my gut feel is that it didn't matter.

I spent about 4 hours of so trying to troubleshoot this problem. I hope this helps someone out there.

Facebook and robbers

2011-08-11T11:49:00.001+08:00

To all those who love to advertise where they are or where they are going via Facebook:

Robbers Checked Facebook Status Updates To See When People Weren’t Home

Three robbers in New Hampshire are suspected of using Facebook to find status updates of people who wouldn't be home. It was a pretty genius strategy actually, they scored $200,000 worth of goods until they got caught.

Apparently, the robbers checked Facebook to see who would be out of their house at a certain time of the day. It obviously helped because the police say that the robbers managed to break into 50 homes and took items like monitors, watches, motorcycle helmets (?), and fireworks (not to mention the cold hard cash above). No word whether they were social network-savvy enough to use Foursquare as a "research tool" too.

Source:
http://gizmodo.com/5636025/robbers-used-facebook-to-see-when-people-werent-home
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/burglars-picked-houses-based-on-facebook-updates/

I know this is old news but it's likely still be applicable now.

Soft toys chilling out

2011-08-08T10:49:00.000+08:00

Saw this at Damansara Damai. Made me smile.

Italy

2011-08-05T13:35:00.000+08:00

Italy does, of course, face issues of political strife and corruption. (And in other news, the sun rose again this morning...)

- Andrew Lilico, in his article 'Italy unlikely to default'.

Another help for health

2011-08-02T14:10:00.000+08:00

Here's something I recently discovere that helps with my pseudo-sinusitis: heat pack placed on eyes covering the area right below the eyes. This idea came about when I came across a heat pack in Daiso that was shaped such that it seem to fit just snugly on the eyes and avoiding the nose.

So I tried it at night before sleep when I felt the pressure around that area. It worked well, even when the pressure was bad enough to cause slight headache. I slept well.

Thanks to my sister who lend me her heat pack, although I initially borrowed it for my hand :)

Fountain and autumn

2011-07-30T16:13:00.000+08:00

During my last trip to Canberra, I made the effort to capture the feel of autumn there. Here are some photos taken at Civic (which is like the town centre of Canberra):

They look quite nice to me, although I still don't like the cold weather then :)

In the same trip, I also manage to take a photo of the tall fountain at Lake Burley Griffin:

Another bread

2011-07-27T14:23:00.003+08:00

Yay! I discovered another bread that works just as well as the Hailam bread when it comes to my delicate stomach: it's French bread i.e. the long baguette.

What happened was that I asked Ban a favour to buy Hailam bread for me. Unsurprisingly, there wasn't any stocked at the Jaya Grocer nearby. Ban then bought the French bread, believing that there wasn't milk in it (is that the reason, Ban?). In any case, I believed he can eat it if I couldn't.

So good news is that I have another alternative. The downside is that the French bread is more expensive. Oh well.

Car wash: man and machine

2011-07-24T14:16:00.000+08:00

Until recently, I have never gone through the experience of having a car washed by that multi-brush machine typically found at a petrol kiosk,

To my surprise, there was substantial manual work involved: the high-pressure jet spray of water (to wash away the bird shit, which is the main reason I took my car to wash this time), the soaping of the car and then at the end, the drying of the car. I had always thought that everything was done during the time in the 'small tunnel'.

However, it appears that handwash is a little cleaner and detailed from my experience (a total of 2 times hehe). Perhaps that's why handwash is a little more expensive?

What's your experience?

"Traditional" curry chicken

2011-07-21T19:32:00.000+08:00

This time, since Ban was not here, I cooked it closer to my usual style. The differences, compared to previously, are:

Chicken thigh, with skin on, though I didn't eat most of the skin
White onion
A tad more oil
Curry leaves (finally found some)
No sugar added

It was still hardly spicy lol. I'm now even more inclined to believe that this is due to the brand of curry powder. It was a little oilier than I like it to be but no more oilier than that sold outside.

Snake? Lizard?

2011-07-18T18:55:00.000+08:00

My sister's sons found this in their backyard and alerted us to it (thank goodness they did that rather trying to "get to know it" or something):

I've never seen such snake before, be it in books, on tv or at the zoo. It was short and its head looked too huge for its body - like a stumpy snake or (scary) lizard without legs. Any idea what is it?

Price vs Income

2011-07-15T18:51:00.002+08:00

One of the most persistent myths in Australian politics has been that providing
household assistance undermines the effect of imposing a carbon price. If the
prices of carbon-intensive products rise by$10 and you give me $10 in
assistance, aren’t we back where we started?

If there were only one product in the world, the answer would be yes. If
there’s only one thing I can buy, you can be sure that’s where every dollar in
my wallet is going to go. Soif you put the price of that product up and
increase my income, I’ll carry on exactly as before.

Yet the one-product world is a far cry from the vast plethora of options facing
modern consumers, who can spend on anything from a ballet lesson to a
bunch of bananas, a train fare to a television. And here’s the insight from
modern economics: when you have choices, changing relative prices changes behaviour.

......

......

In understanding how carbon pricing works, there’s no more critical
distinction than the difference between prices and incomes.

- Andrew Leigh in the article "The price is right for consumer shift"

Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle

2011-07-12T17:49:00.000+08:00

There are lots of 'local' food in Singapore that can also be commonly found in Malaysia and vice versa, though they may not be cooked the exactly the same way e.g. wantan mee, fried carrot cake, satay, roti canai, ayam ponteh etc.

However, it's not the case for Singapore's Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle. This is a common noodle dish in Singapore but could never be found in Malaysia...until now (apologies for the gimpy photo quality):

It was found in the Food Republic food court at Pavilion. Food Republic is owned by Breadtalk, a Singaporean company. Food Republic has a number of food courts in Singapore. Though the design at Pavilion is quite typical of a Food Republic food court, it is more spacious.

Some observations about the noodle dish:

It had 4 medium-sized prawns, few slices of squid, some egg and beansprout
The noodle was either the Korean potato noodle (chapchae) or something similiar i.e. translucent and smooth, unlike the one in Singapore where 2 types of noodle are used i.e. yellow and white
It tasted the same as that in Singapore
The sambal was different: it was watery and not as spicy but tasted ok
The serving size was similar to the any noodle dish in a typical 'tai chau' place. Hence, at the price of RM7.50, it's about RM1-1.50 more expensive

Inverted pyramid

2011-07-09T11:20:00.000+08:00

Historically, as country modernises, families have fewer children while retirees live longer. This gradually changes the typical pyramid-shaped population demography to an inverted one. This raises serious concerns on many financing problems such as health and pension, among others.

For various reasons, families choose to have fewer children (fewer than 2 on average) that causes this shrinking population, while everyone generally lives longer beyond retirement.

Among the measures countries have been doing to cope or improve this situation are to provide incentives to have more children, attract new citizens from overseas and to extend retirement age (but only effective if older workers can still get employment).

Here's a radical idea: what if the states pay to get ovaries and sperms and hire surrogate mothers (or use whatever futuristic device) to have their (the state's) own children? The states then act as parents to these children until they are adults (age 18 or 21).

Of course there is a host of issues associated with this but it's an interesting idea, isn't it? Perhaps it'll be made into a movie :)

Umbrella

2011-07-06T12:39:00.000+08:00

It's amazing what can happen when you want to flick raindrops off an umbrella:

Home loan as leverage

2011-07-03T12:04:00.076+08:00

Let's say someone has the cash to pay fully for a house. Assuming that he's not risk averse and just interested in generating good investment rate of return, should he pay fully or get a home loan and invest the rest of cash in, say, shares? If further assuming that there's little fluctuation in interest rate and investment rate of return on share price, then the answer is pretty obvious.

However, from my experience, not many people realise this. Hence, I set out the example below to show the answer.

Setting
Cash = $400,000
House price = $400,000
House price appreciation = 10% p.a.
Rental yield = 4% p.a.
Share price appreciation = 7% p.a.

Option 1
Use cash to buy house. Rent received is invested in shares.

b.o.y = beginning of year

Investment value at the end of 10 years = $1,395,072
Investment rate of return = 13.3% p.a.

Option 2
Use 10% cash and 90% home loan (over 10 years) to buy house. Rent received is invested in shares. Shares are liquidated if needed to pay the loan instalment.

Home loan interest rate = 5% p.a.
Yearly instalment = $46,622

e.o.y = end of year

Investment value at the end of 10 years = $1,459,101
Investment rate of return = 13.8% p.a.

Conclusion
Hence, the answer is to take the home loan. In fact, there is no need to consider rent because it is applicable to both options. For the same reason, there is no need to consider expenses relating to the house e.g. maintenance and taxes.

The key factor is whether home loan is borrowed or not. The difference in the investment rate of return between the 2 options in the example above is 0.5% p.a. This difference will be larger the greater the gap between the investment rate of return on the share price and the home loan interest rate.

Summary
In deciding whether you should use cash or take a home loan, you may want to consider taking the home loan if you are able to generate a return on your cash that is at a higher rate than the home loan interest rate.

Update: the above points are also applicable when deciding how much loan to take e.g. 90% or 80% and also when deciding whether to make partial prepayment in the future.

Photo for wallpaper

2011-06-30T11:22:00.000+08:00

Recently, I decided that it was time to change the wallpaper of my laptop. I then selected one of the photos I took during my latest trip to Canberra :

Due to the fact that this was taken with my gimpy 2MP camphone, I'm surprised at how good it looks as wallpaper. I can actually believe that it is one of those pictures specially made for wallpaper hehe. Also, the green colour is soothing for my eyes :)

The curry chicken that wasn't

2011-06-27T19:41:00.000+08:00

This is my first time cooking curry chicken in Malaysia. In fact, it is the first time in a long while.

It's not my usual style:

The curry powder seems less red than I'm used to
Instead of drumstick and thigh with skin on, I used chicken keel so that Ban could eat it too
Olive oil and at less quantity so that Ban could eat it too
Added a little sugar

Besides chicken, there were potatos and large red onions. The toughest part during the preparation was chopping the onion. It was so stinging. I was about to put on my swimming goggles when Ban volunteered to continue chopping. I could have used large white onions but from experience, large red onions are better at flavouring the curry.

I would love to add in some curry leaves but those are so hard to get.

The resultant dish wasn't spicy at all lol. In fact, the first time I smelled it, it reminded me of ABC soup, likely because of the onion though I used large white onions for the latter.

It was a success since Ban was able to eat it :) Next time perhaps I should look up how to cook Japanese curry since it's something he can eat.

Consistent weird weather

2011-06-24T13:15:00.002+08:00

These past weeks had weather that were consistently the same each day:

Breeze in the morning, with darkening clouds
Breeze stopped just after noon, with clouds gradually lightening and sun peeking out
Quite sunny in late afternoon, with some breeze
No rain!

I want heavy rain to wash my car! :)

Stomachache when go to bed

2011-06-21T09:48:00.000+08:00

For years, I usually get stomachache half of the time when I'm ready to sleep. It could just be purely gastric or stomach cramp or both. If I'm certain it's just gastric, I'll take some bread and then antacid. If that fails, then it's omeprazole and domperidone. If I'm not certain, then it's all of these.

The only time I manage to reduce the frequency is when I'm in Australia (each time!). I couldn't seem to duplicate that, unfortunately. I tried all sorts and sometimes it worked for a few nights and then it was back to the same regularity.

This time I tried this:

No milk before bed (I used to drink cow's milk and then goat's milk)
A glass of Nestum (not mixed with milk or anything else)
A slice of plain bread, with no milk component in it (so far, only Hailam bread fits this criteria but boy, it's quite difficult to get)

So far, for about 2 weeks, there was only once or twice I needed to take medication. Otherwise, the worst was that I do feel some discomfort in my stomach but I could still sleep, especially if I use my small pillow to keep my stomach warm.

Hopefully this formula (though I wish it's tastier!) works in the long term.

Business strategy

2011-06-18T15:19:00.001+08:00

Conventional wisdom holds that companies should see to their shareholders' needs first, their customers' second and their employees' last of all. I have always done the opposite and so has the rest of our team.

At the Virgin Group, our employees come first, then our customers, then our shareholders. It is simply common sense: If your workforce is happy and well-motivated, your customers are more likely to be happy as well - which means there is greater chance that your business will see strong sales and good profits, generating the results that your shareholders demand.

- Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group and companies such as Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America, Virgin Mobile and Virgin Active

Bubba Gump

2011-06-15T16:05:00.000+08:00

Ban told me of this place that specialises in shrimp dishes. We decided to try it after watching Kungfu Panda 2.

A decent shrimp dish costs between RM30 - RM45, whereas other sort of meat dish costs about RM10 lower. Fair price? You decide.

We took advantage of the special lunch deal (available from Mon - Fri, excluding public holiday), which entitled us of 1 free dish for every 2 dishes we ordered. We weren't sure the portion and so just went ahead.

Turned out that, other than the shrimp broth dish, the portion was quite large. We ended up having to forgo the rice and tried eating everything else.

The pasta dish, broth and the shrimp stuffed with crab meat dish were all delicious, although towards the end it was just too much shrimp for me.

Instead of raising your hand and/or call the waiter/waitress to get his/her attention, they have a unique way for you to do so:

Flip the signboard to this red side to catch their attention.

Flip back to the blue side to indicate that you do not need attention.

Cool, huh?

Oh, and they showed Forrest Gump on tv :)

There was this funny sign stating something that I sometimes would like to do to some of my clients at my ex-company:

Expensive chair

2011-06-12T16:04:00.000+08:00

Saw this chair at Ikea:

I tried sitting on it, just to figure out what was so good about it that it cost that much. Nope, it didn't levitate and started to glide across the floor. In fact, it didn't feel any different from other chairs costing much lesser than this. The price is insane.

Scam suspect

2011-06-09T23:45:00.000+08:00

Recently, a relative posted an ad on a Malaysia website to sell his refurbished classic car. In the ad, he left his phone number as his only contact detail. He then received the following (in chronological order):

(1) An sms asking him to e-mail her information on the condition of the car and his price.

Observation: Price was already stated in the ad. Why did she ask again? Also, why doesn't she call? Outstation? Overseas?

(2) Consequently, after giving the requested details, the buyer revealed that she was in Europe and was getting the car for her husband who was working in the Middle East. She claimed to trust my relative's word that the car was in good condition and then said that she would transfer money to his bank, followed by asking an agent to claim the car. The agent would clear the paperwork with him and the government. She stressed that the whole process would be very simple for him.

Observation: She couldn't get such car at where she was? Or where her husband work? Perhaps it was hard to get such classic car? Also, wouldn't she be in great disadvantage buy paying the full price of the car and then only collect the car? She didn't even get someone to look at the condition of the car.

(3) The seller then received 3 e-mails. First e-mail purported from a European bank informing him of impending transfer of money to his bank account, subject to certain steps he should take in the subsequent e-mails pertaining to the delivery of the car. Included in the transferred amount was the transport fee of about Euro600. The e-mail subject heading was something like "******Abcdefgh*******Abcdefgh*******".Typo and grammatical errors here and there. There was also a Director's name at the bottom, with address of the bank.

Observation: It was strange to have the bank involved in the transportation arrangement when it comes to just a simple transfer of money. Also, normally such notification does not have any 'sign-off' at the bottom. The subject heading and errors were so unprofessional.Also, as I found out on the net, the bank appeared in a list compiled by an European regulator stating that the bank was not licensed by them.

(4) Second e-mail was from a the same bank asking the seller to firstly remit to the freight company 60% of the transport fee i.e. Euro360 to show commitment to the buyer, with the remainder to be paid (out of the to the freight company upon collection of the car. The full amount of the money, including the transport fee, would only be transferred to the seller's account upon successful remittance of the amount above. The formatting of the e-mail was haphazard.

Observation: So the first actual transfer of money in this whole sale/purchase transaction was to come from the seller first? It was strange for a bank to be involved in such a manner. The e-mail was unprofessional. Very fishy.

(5) Third e-mail was from the freight company, asking for details for them to collect the car. They also stated that the goods that they could transport were "Goods Accepted" and goods they couldn't transport were "Goods Not Accepted" (I'm not joking).

Observation: Strange.

Fortunately, my relative responded to the seller that he didn't want such convoluted process but he would happily pass the car over to her after money was transferred into his account without fuss (by now he already knew this was highly likely a scam). Since then, there was no reply whatsoever.

Pain out, exhaustion in

2011-06-03T14:34:00.003+08:00

Finally, the pain in my hand/palm is gone. So likely Ban is right: my hand was recovering from the prolonged use of the wrist holder and just needed lots of time to heal.

In any case, I'm taking precaution by not trying to use the laptop continuously for too long.

However, the recent bout of fatigueness is still there. In fact, I feel exhausted every morning when I wake up (and also by about 10pm). I end up finally waking up about an hour after my intended time i.e. oversleep by an hour and that too with me sitting on bed for a few minutes dozing lol.

I attribute this to lack of exercise and so I'm trying to get back to my exercise routine. Lazy but have to lah.

Subsidy in Malaysia

2011-05-31T18:22:00.000+08:00

There is an ongoing effort of the Malaysian government to reduce subsidy for food and petrol. They have been pitching the argument that it's getting costly to do so, especially petrol, and that they need the money for development of the country.

I used to believe this should be the right approach based on economics. Otherwise, the market price is distorted and thus causing inefficiency.

However, now I rather have those subsidies directly benefiting all Malaysians than to have them reduced with savings in the hands of the government. Why? Simply because I don't trust the government to channel the savings entirely for the good of the people and I bet I'm hardly alone in thinking this way.

Mix rice (again)

2011-05-28T13:59:00.002+08:00

I wrote about the increase of price of mix rice after Chinese New Year few months ago.

Recently, I had this at Sri Damansara, just before going for tuition class:

Guess how much it was? A shocking RM5! Just for a drumstick and a portion of long beans and this was in a normal coffee shop, no aircond and not in the heart of KL.

Inflation in Malaysia is crazy. I'm a little worried whether I can generate enough income in future to afford such inflation.

Trains & Fire Brigade

2011-05-25T13:48:00.000+08:00

While Ban and I were in Australia, we followed my sister and her family on an outing to Canberra Railway Station where they had exhibit of trains of older model and a few fire trucks. In fact, on that day, there was free train ride to Queanbeyan on one of those old models. Unfortunately, by the time we were there, the train was already full and ready to depart and the next one would be hours later.

So we spent our time looking at the trains, inside and outside, as well as the fire trucks. My sister had tea in the train's restaurant cabin too.

Not much I could say as it was quite sometime ago but I do remember the rather nice warm weather (precious during the autumn chill) and the kids generally had fun.

Losing

2011-05-22T13:01:00.000+08:00

It used to be that my dad was not shy from confronting people with regard to certain conflicts. The most common kind of conflict concerned his family. I remember when a restaurant in Medan recommended a crab dish that turned out to be spicy (we didn't know that when we agreed to order), he express his displeasure because we ordered for the entire family which included my youngest sister who was just seven years old. He said that the restaurant should have made it clear that the dish was spicy in view of presence of children.

Regardless of whether he was right or wrong, my point is that he reacted that way with respect to such incident. Just imagine how he reacted when it came to bigger and more important issues.

However, as he aged, he mellowed and came to avoid conflict when he can. It seems to be particularly true once he reached his 50s. He still behaves the same way when in Malaysia and possibly in Singapore but when in truly foreign country like Australia, he shrank away even from the simple incident such as poor service. I remember a particular incident when my sister decided to stand up for him and reprimanded someone for being rude to him. It would never happen when he was younger or when he's in Malaysia, as he would have done that himself. I guess he just want to avoid conflict? Shrug.

I too find myself shrink from conflict especially if it only affects me. If it affects my loved ones, wo-ho lo behold the person who inflicts pain on my loved ones. They'll have more than what they can chew. I also will not hesitate to act on poor service.

Though I still no qualms dealing with third-party, I seem to shrink away from conflict involving people I personally know as I get older. At first I thought maybe I know more people and hence there are also more aggresive people, who are opinionated and who do not hesitate to put me down if my "argument" is not solid. I especially disdain people who simply wave their hands to sweep away my arguments, either with condescending words or in condescending tone and with respect to such people, I used to stand my ground.

But I'm doing less and less of the above in recent years and my self-esteen seems to suffer from this. I'm not sure why. I know I dislike conflict. The whole process of pain being inflicted, finding closure, forgiveness, agreement etc is just too troublesome and emotionally draining and so I supposed I prefer to simply avoid it.

Even more troubling and disadvantageous in such situation above is my gradual lose of coherent articulation of my thoughts. I seem to be losing my vocabulory quickly in recent years. I stammer and pause more often now as I struggle to find words to describe what I think.

I'm losing and I don't know how to turn the tide.

Fatigue

2011-05-19T14:24:00.000+08:00

Ever since I came back from OZ, I've been feeling tired the whole day. At first I attributed it to jet-lag but I doubt so now since it's still ongoing after more than 2 weeks.

Ironically, I feel the freshest on the morning after the day I came back to KL. Thereafter, it was all downhill. Tired in the morning. Tired in the afternoon. Barely can keep my eyes open by 10pm. Strange.

The upside from the OZ trip is that I finall managed to wake up before 10am and enjoy the remaining hours of the morning. I do hope to wake up even earlier.

In spite of this fatigue, I still try to keep to my routine. I guess as long as I'm doing something, although can't be too long on it, I'll forget that I'm tired. Exercise helps a lot. Hope to go for Dynamic Flow this Sunday.

Close kiss

2011-05-15T11:26:00.002+08:00

I wonder which one went that close.

DVD drive kaput?

2011-05-12T20:16:00.000+08:00

One night, Ban and I wanted to watch an episode of "Avatar: The Last Airbender". We usually watch it on my laptop. However, that night the DVD drive was not working i.e. no DVD was detected. I tried a few other DVDs and the result was the same. Using the Device Manager, it was confirmed that the device was working properly.

This happened before. I remember that it was a little out of alignment and needed a little manual adjustment to fix it. We tried that too but still didn't work.

At this point, I gave up and wanted to get it repaired. I went to BML, upon someone's recommendation (albeit for accessories, I think), at Damansara Jaya. The moment the lady there heard that my DVD drive stopped working, she immediately advised me to buy new. She maintained this advice despite the alignment problem I had in the past and also without taking a look at it. Furthermore, she recommended an external DVD reader/writer as it it is, according to her, cheap and hence no reason for me to get the existing internal one repaired.

Tempting though I was to just get over this problem and purchase the external reader/writer (RM169), I decided to not to make such rash decision as I learned in the past it usually turned out not to be in my favour in the end. After some discussion with William, I decided to try another shop.

I was planning to approach Jayacom at Digital Mall but for some reasons, I decided to google "dvd reader is not reading the dvd". That was when I came across this nifty assistance on Microsoft website:

I was running this when I came across someone's suggestion in the forum to just clean the lens. Oooooh why didn't I think of that? I already have a DVD lense cleaner at hand. I tried and voila! It worked!

That saved me money, time and effort. Phew. Close one.

PS: "Kaput" is currently an English word, according to Dictionary.com :)

Checkers @ Bukit Damansara

2011-05-09T18:40:00.000+08:00

Recently, 5 of us had dinner at Checkers. I was the only one who had been there before but it was only once. It was fortunate that I made reservation albeit only 3 days before. It turned out that it was fully booked that night.

At the start, we resolved to try their signature dish, Lord of the Ribs (LOTR), since it is unlikely we'll frequent it often due to budget constraint :)

It is huge and could easily feed at least 2 people. In case you think the bowls are small, here's another picture with the RM1 note:

And no, that note is not a mini-note :)

The Spanish mackerel was surprisingly moist as we expected it to be otherwise judging by its look. It was lightly seasoned and tasted just right.

The Jamaican chicken was delicious! The portion is quite large too for its price.

Lastly we ordered rum chendol, which was not on the menu. We came to know of it from a food review and wanted to try this unique chendol. Turned out that it was ice-cream, not shaved ice. It was quite yummy although the rum was a little too rich for me towards to end.

The aftermath:

The price per person was not as expensive as we expected but then again we're mostly small eaters :)

Shares Part II

2011-05-06T11:54:00.000+08:00

Following from Part 1, here's the average annualised dividend yield thus far with respect to the dividend-paying shares:

Please note the following:
(1) Dividend yield = dividend amount / cost of shares
(2) Annualised dividend yield = dividend yield x frequency of dividend payment (e.g. 2 times a year, 4 times a year etc)
(3) Did not exclude any special dividend payment
(4) No dividend yet for SP Ausnet as I have purchased the shares only recently

Autumn once more

2011-05-02T12:36:00.002+08:00

It's been quite a long time since I was in Canberra during autumn. Probably more than 5 years ago. The reason is because I don't like the cold weather. I much prefer spring. So I went to Canberra during spring the previous two times. Warmer weather (can even wear short pants on some days!), flowers to look at, more energetic and, likely, happier.

However, this time I made the trip during autumn. There were a few reasons: the fact that I am now living in Malaysia and so have to deal with different airlines and their pricing strategy, and also the fact that I'm on a smaller budget since I'm on a smaller income now.

So the opportunity came when I spotted cheap Air Asia X. Not as cheap as I could get hold off, due to timing, but significantly cheaper than normal: RM1,271 plus another RM195 for pre-ordered meal (one-way), 20k check-in baggage, pick a seat and 1 set of comfort kit. That's only for KL-Melbourne. I had to also purchase a domestic flight from there to Canberra and back.

This time I went with Ban :)

Naturally, I showed him my university: The Australian National University. It was there that made me realise how much I had forgotten how autumn looks like. I didn't take as many photos as previously. Here are the photos I took at ANU:

Sleeping beauty

2011-04-29T12:22:00.000+08:00

I've finally met a real-life sleeping beauty. Needs a few kisses, after an interval of time in between, to finally wake up. Sometimes need hugs too. Makes bunny noises :P

SBB and blanket

2011-04-25T13:26:00.000+08:00

How can anyone (apart from Ban) suspect SBB to be an evil bunny? Especially if he's under such cute blanket.

Force of g

2011-04-22T13:25:00.001+08:00

My weight has gone down below my normal weight. Since weight = mass x g and I've not decreased my intake of food, g must have gone down! Alert the press! Gather all scientists! :P

PS: Haven't been blogging much because I'm in Australia with Ban until May 3 :)

Shares Part I

2011-04-17T12:28:00.001+08:00

Currently the shares that I'm invested in are as follows:

(1) AIMS AMP Capital Industrial REIT
- industrial properties mainly in Singapore
- enables me to diversify into industrial properties

(2) CapitaCommercial Trust
- predominantly commercial properties in Singapore
- includes some well-known properties

(3) Cityspring Infrastructure Trust
- assets made up mostly of the sole producer and retailer of town gas in Singapore and sole supplier of desalinated water to Singapore's national water agency
- assets have monopolistic feature

(4) DBXT MSCI Asia ex-Japan ETF 10
- replicates as closely as possible the MSCI AC Asia ex-Japan TRN Index
- enable me to diversify across different countries in Asia excluding Japan

(5) DBXT MSCI Emerging Markets ETF 10
- replicates as closely as possible the MSCI Total Return Net Emerging Markets Index
- enables me to diversify across different countries in emerging countries

(6) DBXT MSCI World TRN ETF 10
- replicates as closely as possible the MSCI Total Return Net World Index
- enables me to diversify across different countries in the world

(7) First Ship Lease Trust
- shipping vessels for transporting goods
- enables me to diversify into maritime industry

(8) First REIT
- healthcare-related properties predominantly in Indonesia and Singapore
- enables me to diversify into healthcare industry

(9) M1 Limited
- telco with more than 20% of market share in Singapore
- enables me to diversify into telecommunication industry

(10) Pacific Shipping Trust

- shipping vessels for transporting goods
- enables me to diversify into maritime industry

(11) SBS Transit Limited
- operates buses and trains, predominantly in Singapore
- has a near-monopoly on buses in Singapore

(12) SP Ausnet
- electricity transmission and electricity & gas distribution businesses in Australia
- enables me to diversify into another country and energy business

(13) Starhill Global REIT
- retail and office properties in Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and Australia
- includes well-known malls in Singapore and Malaysia

(14) Suntec REIT
- retail and office properties in Singapore
- includes well-known properties

All, except (4), (5) and (6), provide regular dividends consistently...so far. For the exceptions, any dividends are reinvested i.e. capital gain.

I hope to set out the actual dividend yields I've experienced so far in another post.

To KL drivers

2011-04-14T13:39:00.000+08:00

Received this in an e-mail:

Chocolate sponge bread

2011-04-10T20:58:00.002+08:00

It's yummy! Those who love chocolate sponge cake should give this a try. It seems to give a little more fuller filling, likely because it's in bread form.

I bought it from The Baker's Cottage at One Utama. Original price was RM3.20 but was on promotional price of RM2.60.

The ingredient of the bread is as follows:
High protein wheat flour
Butter
Margarine (butter and margarine???)
Sugar
Eggs
UHT Milk
Cocoa powder
Chocolate emulsifier (or so I guess - the actual term in Malay language is "Coklat emulko")
Salt
Raising flour
Yeast

Not exactly healthy food...hehe...but it's delicious!

Money

2011-04-07T16:52:00.002+08:00

Money isn't everything but it sure helps in a lot of things.

- Not sure whether anyone said this before. If not, I'm claiming it :)

Avatar: The Last Airbender

2011-04-04T16:51:00.015+08:00

I've watched the tv series a couple years ago and I like it so much that I've been hunting for its genuine DVDs in Singapore and Malaysia. I've finally found it at Animetech at Centrepoint, Bandar Utama.

However, my joy was short-lived: there was problem playing it if chapter was selected (rather than "Play All"). It was the same for all 3 DVDs. What I was afraid most was that this problem was laptop specific i.e. it may be playing perfectly well on a DVD player.

Fortunately, it was the same problem when tested using the shop's DVD player. Since they did not have another copy, they offered to try to get another one from another branch or to order a new one. Should that new copy also have the same problem, then I would be fully refunded.

About 8 days later, I obtained its replacement and so far, it's working well :)

Update on hand

2011-04-01T18:54:00.000+08:00

Following from my post here, I rested my hand for about 5 days where I only spent at most an hour on the computer. I've also diligently did some exercise that supposed to help my hand gets well. The spots of pain all almost gone.

Question now is how do I go from here? Abstaining from computer is definitely not viable. How should I hold me mouse? How do I face the screen? Etc, etc.

Bribe

2011-03-29T18:18:00.000+08:00

Disclaimer: There may be other relevant information that I'm not aware of that may change the tone of the story below.

When asked by his siblings to visit their sick father who was hospitalised, this person (who lives just about an hour's drive away from his father's house) replied that he would only do so if his siblings give him money.

Shameless!

Fried banana, finally

2011-03-26T16:58:00.002+08:00

Finally there's a shop nearby Ban's place that sells fried banana. It's at Dataran Prima, just behind the main road. The shop's name is SS2 Goreng Pisang, if I'm not mistaken.

The banana is one of the sweetest I've ever tasted! The flour is soft but tasteless. Price is either RM0.85, RM1 or RM1.15 depending on its size. The photo below shows the ones that cost the cheapest. I was given one free too (I ordered 3).

The shop also serve coffee, tea and some dessert like Bubur Chacha. Perhaps one day I'll go there for tea time.