Throwing More $$ away

Overheard at the noodle stall, the boss telling his workers. Oh the company staff are getting their annual bonus today. Everybody will be heading for sentosa! (i.e. going to the casino to gamble!)

And yet I who is prudent do not have any annual bonus.

A quote from Hello Dolly (sourced from wiki)
“Money is like manure. It’s not worth a thing unless it’s spread about, encouraging young things to grow.”
Donating your annual bonus to the filthy rich casino isn’t spreading money about, not to mention how it stifles rather than grows things.

Marathon and adaption

I struggled to complete my fifth ever and the second in the same year. Just under 6 hours. This time the usual leg cramps came early at about 25km. Something that I expected from the lack of training.

If it’s such a pain, why do I do it? Because it’s difficult and there is a sense of accomplishment. It’s something called adaptation – our salaries are never enough to bring satisfaction because we get used to the amount. If you run a marathon easily every week, you would probably find it a chore to participate, just like how I’ve completely stopped participating in any runs less than 21km. I’ve adapted. (Read Dan Ariely’s upside of irrationality for more on this.)

This year there was 19000 runners for the marathon, a huge number compared to 10 years ago when I did my first. Back then only serious runners participated and I remembered running to a drinks station that completely ran out of water. With so many dare I say amateurs running, it was a walking festival from the halfway mark. There are so many people walking with you that it didn’t really feel as painful, unlike my run in Melbourne. Officially, I came in rank 3584 among Singaporeans and managed to get my sized m t-shirt. It’s asics though, not adidas. Official time 2:33 for 21 km and 5:51 for 42km.

Throwing $$ away

Bordering on the ridiculous, the papers reported today that the government is expected to earn 300 million from entry charges for the casinos. Every Singaporean has to pay $100 just to enter the casino and that means there are at least 3 million instances of people paying just to go lose money. (The number is actually higher because you can get one year passes for something like $2000.)

Wingtai Asia AGM

What a farce! Took the trouble to pop down to Raffles City to take a look, hoping to get some feeling about the management. All the chairman and the board was interested in was getting the stupid agm over. Nobody asked questions and the chairman sped through the proceedings finishing the agm in about 15 min. It is simply a farce, the board probably think all the shareholders attending are idiots simply there for the free food. The truth is that most are. For the first time today, I witnessed not only the usual mad rush for the buffet but also aunties taking plastic bags out to pack the food. There was even one with those fake $2000 handbags, taking out two plastic sheets and lining her bag, getting ready to put food there. Wingtai gave out some discount vouchers from their retail stores like adidas, g2000, topman, yoshinoya (but not uniqlo), but I wouldn’t want to waste my time again.

I have had a good impression of the company, with fairly well known names in their retail arm, and not too bad property. Perhaps it’s too much to expect them to be like Capitaland. Liew Mun Leong is very impressive and he bothers to address shareholders informing them of the company’s vision and outlook. Even if it is only PR, it still beats treating shareholders as free-loaders. On the other hand, there are these chinese companies who only do PR. I remember one where the chairman will say things like “shareholders, you are my boss!” But you know he doesn’t mean it.

IPO Fever

Made paper gains of about $800 from applying for IPOs of GLP and MIT. Would have made another $70 if I was successful in the IPO of Munxiong this morning. It feels like the days of old when one simply anyhow hatam and made money and occasionally losses. This coming on the back what was known as the Global Financial Crisis is a little worrying. All signs seem to say that people have not learnt their lesson. Wall Street is back to their high-spending high bonuses ways after only so recently having to beg governments for help. US is printing money like nobody’s business.

Question now is what can we do? Ignore the world and squirrel our money to biscuit tins under our beds? We cannot beat inflation. Join the party and hope to get out before the party becomes a riot and the police arrives? That seems at least like the best solution.

Meanwhile I gave up on the other china ipo but is eyeing Xinren Aluminium. I’m now fairly suspicious of china companies, having been burnt a few times, most of them are out to make a quick buck. But then again, with the ever rising commodity prices, aluminium has good prospects.

deja dead

having watched episodes after episodes of Bones – my tv du jour – it’s inevitable that I picked up one of Kathy Reichs novels. Blame it on my current state when I can hardly find time to sit down quietly to read but it took like an eternity and perhaps 30 episodes of bones, before I finished the book. Mind you it’s not that long, old seasons of bones are being shown on fox (singapore) every weekday night at 9pm and all five episodes consecutively once on saturaday and once on sunday.

Back to the book, suffice to say, that’ll be the last I might want to read for while. It’s not really a reflection of her writing as my reading habits. The half-read Sum of All Fears is still languishing by my bedside after nearly six months. I can’t bare to go on reading but don’t want to waste the effort expended on the several hundred pages so far. It’s not too bad of a story but I just don’t the mood for prose nowadays. Reading deja dead I also have to wrestle with the image of a temperance brennan completely different from the funny – in both sense of the word – lady on tv. I mean after watching 50 episodes, one doesn’t watch the show for the crime or investigative techniques, else I would still stay with the csi franchise. It’s the people, the characters, how they interact, their idiosyncrasies.

Meanwhile looking forward to the time when I finally get to watch season 6. And no spoilers please.

Hougang Famous Fishball Mince Pork Noodles

at NUS engine canteen. My mouth is full of the bitter alkali from the noodles. Enough said. Never again.

Olio Cafe @ City Square Mall

Crayfish and crab claw sambal pasta and Portobello burger. The pasta is wonderful even if the freshness of the seafood is suspect. The sauce is wonderful. Must try at Olio. The burger was forgettable I guess … the carnivore inside me says there’s only so much you can do if you can’t use meat. What was interesting was that they served it with sweet potato chips rather than good ole potato. There was also a rather tasty potato soup of the day, which made the meal not too bad. Add in the sweetener of 1-for-1 main course courtesy credit card it was alright.

Even though the traffic to and fro City Square Mall was horrible. It’s a pretty nice place but go only if you are taking the train.

Sweeping Statements

One lesson I learnt from my teachers was never to make sweeping statements. Imagine my disgust when I read the following forum letter by a self-professed humanities scholarship holder.

http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/Story/STIStory_568585.html

Citing two examples, one of which is her own – objective or subjective? – she concluded and I quote “The failure of generations of Chinese Singaporeans to master Chinese is not the failure of students, but of the teachers.”

Mama mia

here I go again, how can I resist you. Yes, how can I resist the magic of Abba. Finally watched Mama mia the movie, courtesy of a new hubstation and 3 miserly days of all channels for free. It’s quite cool to just programme the set to record the show and you sort of play it on demand. The movie was cringe worthy but enjoyable at the level of Hindi movies, the singing was even worse – thanks mainly to toneless Pierce B, but you get mesmerized when that familiar Abba intro comes in.