My (bad) luck with shares

I shall begin by admitting I am guilty for the decline in share price of Starhill Global Reit (SGX: P40U).

When I put in my purchase order in May 2018, its 52-week price hovered between 0.710 to 0.79. I put in an order at 0.715 and was delighted to get it! Immediately after I bought the shares, this was what happened:

Today, Starhill Global Reit is at $0.64 a 5-year lowest.

Whatever shares I buy, their price drops as soon as I I buy them. Same for Guocoland and QAF I bought in the last few months. I think I kinda influence the future lol.

Really no luck with shares. T_T

Cruising with Fam

Did a look back and realised the last time the whole family went for a holiday was 8 years ago! All because one of us is a slave of MOE. Jun and Dec are really terrible times to travel overseas due to peak prices and/or extremely hot/cold weather, especially with a young one in tow.

Thanks to Sponsor Daddy, all of us ventured onboard Royal Carribean's Voyager of the Seas on a 4D3N cruise to Port Klang!

Happy times:

I really, really honestly highly recommend Royal Carribean for a quality, relaxing family bonding holiday. Since everything (well, almost) has been paid for and everything you need is on board, going for a cruise is itinerary-less and stress free. On top of that, RC staff are passionate and customer centric, one feels very much like a premium guest at all times! RC is also very big on cleanliness - there's no rubbish nor stains along common areas, and it is almost mandatory to sanitize your hands before you enter the restaurant. I was most impressed by their eye for details for customer touch points, when I noticed one of them POLISHING THE EXTERIOR OF A METAL RUBBISH BIN!

Okay, I can go on and on about how fabulous RC is, go on one and experience it for yourself ;)

Anyways, as I was saying, it's been so long since the whole family spend some time together. Thanks to this holiday for allowing me to do these, which are hard to come by nowadays:

- Watching my mom dancing along to rock 'n' roll music. You should have seen her face light up when the band played "Woolly Bully", a song unheard of in my life.

- Playing table tennis with my dad. Dad was the one who introduced the sport to us. Brought back memories of our vacations at Park Towers in HK.

- Playing 1 on 1 basketball with my bro, just like our younger days! The disparity in height (and size) between then and now is stark!

- Chilling in the room with my fam and snacking while watching dumb shows on TV

- Rhetorically debating whether it is better to have stinky breath or stinky armpits =P

- Queuing and taking photos with mascots

- Late night partying with wifey till 11.30pm (mom and sis helped babysit yx)!

Thank you Royal Carribean!
We'll be back! :)

OUCH #pocketburn

#incometax

Okay, nation building, better public transport, improving amenities... at least the money goes towards my paymaster....

Feedback to my MP

Ever since we shifted to my current abode, we have always felt that the passageway from the carpark leading to the void deck comprised a blind spot, and it was a real safety hazard. Basically, it is at a T-junction and one is unable to sight oncoming human/bicycle until one stands at the junction. There were a couple of near-misses when I nearly walked into another's nose, but we just reminded ourselves to be more careful.

However, not too long ago wifey was carrying yx were using this passageway when a teenage boy riding an electric scooter zipped past, just mere inches away from causing an accident. This prompted me to feedback the issue to my MP. I took a few photos and described the situation:

The MP in charge of my zone, Ms Cheng Li Hui, replied the next day personally pertaining to my feedback. She understood the safety hazard and tasked her team to look into improving the safety measures. I replied and recommended installing concave mirrors.

4 weeks later:

MIRRORS! 

Great work!!! So efficient!!! =)

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Coincidentally, Ms Cheng was doing a residential block walkabout last Sunday with her team. Her sudden appearance caught me by surprise and I greeted her, "Hi Mrs Cheng..." by mistake, oops!

We chatted while her team stood seriously in the background, penciling down notes while stealing a few photos. I expressed my gratitude for acting so quickly into my feedback. She was like, "oh was it  about the PMD along the childcare centre?", so she remembered my feedback. Ms Cheng was really friendly and sincere during our short convo, so I took the opportunity to pass two areas of improvement (basically about the lack of sheltered drop-off point and water ponding issue at void deck), since I'm more than aware that the feedback were being documented and thus the Estate/Facilities mgmt team would be more serious looking into them.

She also shared there are many activities for seniors in the vicinity like healthy cooking demonstration. I recalled seeing something recently on the RC notice board, so I replied, "oh ya, was it the Briyani?", to which drew a loud, wide-mouth surprised gasp from her and the team! I explained I pay attention to the notice boards very often, haha.

Unfortunately yx was napping this time, or I would have asked her to see Ms Cheng in person, for when yx was younger she would mistake Ms Cheng's poster picture for wifey! Hahaha. So anyway we shook hands a few times before she and her team continued visiting other units.

But two stayed behind. The guy with the clipboard was responsible for noting down residents' feedback, and so asked for my name and contact. The lady asked if I was interested to volunteer in the RC. She shared that I seemed aware of the block and neighbourhood, as compared to "most residents who were only concerned with going to the bus stop and back home". She passed me a form and said someone would be contacting me to follow-up.

Funny incidents with wyx2

1) 

At gong gong house - I was feeding yx her dinner and her mouth was full when gong gong sat down beside her and asked, "Never greet gong gong?"

Based on what she had been doing for the past x months, her anticipated response was that she will shy away and remain silent. 

But not this time. Almost instantly, Yx replied, gesturing at her mouth, "吃饭不要讲话."

All of us burst out laughing!!!

2)

Yx has really impressive memory, other than being able to match clothes to wearer, she is able to recall where she last saw her toys and books!

Scene - at nai nai house. My mom was searching high and low for the foldable strawberry recyclable bag, to no avail. 

I asked Yx, have you seen the strawberry bag? 

She nodded and pointed at the bag on top of the ikea toy kitchen. NO KIDDING IT WAS INDEED THERE!

Came to airport for lunch one day. Gaining back her fats hehe

3)

Likes reading out aloud like a teacher reading out to students in a class.

Yx recited the mandarin words in gibberish except for the following:

- "一" - correctly as "one";

- The full stops as "dot";

- Open and close inverted commas as "眼泪"  ROFLOLOLOL.

Funny things Yx says

On usual weekday mornings, when I'm done with brushing up and changing, yx will still be in slumber and wake up groggily only when I carry her over to my parents' place. This morning, as I stepped out of the bathroom, I noticed that yx had already woken up, and was resting herself comfortably on the bolster.

Upon seeing me, she pointed excitedly at a spot on the bed and exclaimed, "你看, 你看 (look at this!"

Yx sounded victorious. I glanced over and discovered a wet spot on the bed... Gua gua gua... Okay so her diaper had just leaked, and she felt it was an amazing sight....  -_____-

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2 days ago Yx was playing by herself in the living room when suddenly she called out to nai nai, "wo de jiao zhan bu dao ti shang liao (my feet can't stand on the ground anymore)!" And then she started tearing!

Concerned, my mom went over and checked on her, and realised that Yx, after sitting cross-legged for some time, had developed pins and needles in her legs HAHA!

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Don't belittle the 2 hours that Yx spends at daily playgroup, she learns and absorbs many things during that short period of time. Sometimes, Yx surprises us with new nouns and songs we've never taught her before.

For example:

- Yx is able to make a rectangle using her fingers, and describe it as "2 sides long, 2 sides short"

- We've been teaching her this (in)famous Chinese rhyme, which Yx is familiar with and is able to repeat the entire thing by herself:

"大头大头, 下雨不愁, 我有雨伞, 你有大头"

So one day, my sis was repeating it with Yx and it went like this:

Sis: "大头大头, 下雨...?"

Yx: "不愁"

Sis: "我有雨伞, 你有...?"
.
.
.
.

Yx: "Raincoat." 

We've never taught her this word before, figured she picked it up from school! HAHA!

Life is Fragile

Forewarning: Depressing post



It is most unfortunate this blog's 1000th post has to be a sad one.

Received a super devastating news yesterday... my bro's future brother-in-law met with a road accident and passed away almost on the spot. It was no fault of his; he was travelling in a passenger car when a van collided into his vehicle. And the tragic irony was - both drivers escaped unscathed.

To receive news of a loved one's passing is devastating...
To receive news of a loved one's SUDDEN passing? I don't have a word for it. The feeling's indescribable.

Also just learnt that my cousin-in-law will be going bald later this year, in support for Hair for Hope. Her motivation is to support her two close friends who were diagnosed with cancer this year.

Life is fragile. Whether you like it or not, death is the end for everyone. There's nothing one can do. The question is just when - sooner or later; and how - sudden, in a blink of an eye, or torturous, painfully over a period?

Was googling for an image to end off this post with a suitable photo for "Life is fragile" -

... but I wasn't able to decide on ONE image, for every phrase, every abstract in the images seem to describe and illustrate so aptly, so aptly that our lives are weaker, more fragile and more delicate than we think we are.

We are like glass.

Pray that the deceased's family will be granted strength through this difficult time.