A wrap up for last weekend

Yes, it was another fruitful week.

Also, I did goal setting with Miss J on Saturday Morning, while setting our goal, we discuss about our life goals, plans, and to see if we would want to stay here in Singapore for good. We were comparing the good and bad of Singapore with other countries. At some point of time, we were thinking to get a consultant to assess our situation, conditions, qualification, quality of life and decide where would be the best for us. Some of the countries we mentioned were Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, United Kingdom and Malaysia.

After some thoughts, we then went to Wild Honey at Scott Squares for late lunch. We were sharing one and it was awesome. We stayed for a while in Wild Honey. We then wondered around Far East Plaza to do some shopping and asked around the market price for Iphone 5s. I am planning to sell my Iphone 5s Gold colour now, thinking I could cover some of my loss while converting from Singtel to Starhub. For me to save some money from my telephone bills which could easily fetch about SGD 400 ++ a month. With my new plan, I am looking at around SGD 130. A big savings.



Let's come back to Orchard, after a brief stroll far east plaza, we went to Somerset triple one to join ZC and JY Birthday celebration. It was a key dinner for us to wrap up our Chiang Mai trip dinner too. We shared a lot of laughters, photos, stories and memories at the dinner. I am glad Miss J and I made an effort to join the dinner. We went home straight right after our meal.

Sunday Morning, I was woke up by a call from the gym. Asking if I am interested to go for spinning lesson at 9 am. By the time I cleared my vision and looked at the clock, it shows 817am. I woke up immediately and get myself prepared immediately. Miss J joined me for the session too. It was the same trainer, called Adeline which both Jenny and I liked her quite a lot as she is very motivating and friendly. Although the Sunday morning session is not as fun as the night session on weekdays, but the time spent was worth for all the calories burnt.

After my gym session, I went back home, get changed and go straight to Lisa's place, before we start our goal setting session, we went for a meal. The number of people joined the session was a lot more than I expected. I guess people are interested with this goal setting sessions.

After our meal, we started our goal setting session, it too us about 2 hours to complete the whole training of 8 people. After the session, I took a taxi and went to the affordable art fair to catch Jenny at Formula 1 pit building. We were invited by Cary for the fair. The fair is crowded with art lovers and also art for sell. Art fair is a good place for both Miss J and I to synchronise our thoughts. I guess that is why art has play an important role in our society to keep our thoughts synchronised.

Although I am a complete idiot when it comes to art, but wait, there is always first time. So, I tried to talk to a few exhibitors and try to understand their culture. Some of them travelled all the way from India, UK just to sell their art. I am just wondering what is their lifestyle would be like. These are just not a conventional job we met on a daily basis.

After affordable art fair, we went to Novena and had KFC for dinner. It has been awhile since I had KFC, we order 3 piece chicken and also a Zinger burger meal. Thinking back, I had blew my calories quota for that day.

After our meal, we further our conversation about places we want to go and our future plans. Choosing a place to settle down is not easy. There are so many things that we need to consider before really making a decision. At the same time, we are reminding ourselves time is ticking very fast. In a blink of an eye, I am already 28. I guess I need to choose where I would want to go by the time I am 29 and start another chapter of life.

Now is basically a transition period of my life, what I need to do is to experience life.

1% of people's effort

This would be a simple post about my thoughts recently about thinking process and how we approach matters in life. I guess this topic was brought up in my recent trip to Chiang Mai, Thailand. I guess this system would be very useful for my future therefore I would like to pen it down.

So there is a saying that people would rather use 1 % of 100 people's effort than to do 100% of my own effort to complete the job. E.g. Instead of doing a task myself, I would ask 100 people to help me to complete the task. This would leverage the time I have got and also to complete a larger task. Thinking back, people are highly motivated when the task is something worth doing for, and as a team, we could all achieve something bigger, faster and more efficient. I guess it would be a platform for us to learn a lot of things too during the process.

The question brought up by Jonathan during our Chiang Mai trip was how people would contribute their 1% to you in the first place. There are a few methods which in my humble opinion would somehow get people to contribute their 1% to you.

1) The easiest one would be paying people to work for you, so basically I would have to fork the money out to let people work for me. Although it seems easy, but capital is the resources you need to tackle this.
I guess this would be something I would do when I have a certain amount of capital.Of course, with this method, we could probably get 1% more than we required.

2)Be resourceful- I would say in terms of networking, know the key people who could assist me in achieving my goal. This could only be done through networking. Remember there is a saying that it is not about what you know but is about who you know. Also, apart from networking, we could be resourceful in terms of monetary, funding or knowledge which could add value to the group. There is a tendency people would help people with resources, although they don't exactly expect something in return, but their effort could be more justifiable.

An example I would use for this case is Singapore. Singapore is a country with limited resources, they don't even have sufficient water to sustain themselves. They need to rely on Malaysia for water for years. However, the people here are resourceful, I guess this makes Singapore economically sound.

3)System Barter: This is for beginning stage of a cycle, where resources are limited. I help you, you help me. Although this would be very time consuming but at least things could be done. This would be my last resort, as it is time consuming. I contribute 1 % to you and you contribute 1 % back to me.Sometimes, I may need to contribute 2% for a 1% high value work in return.

4) Be convincing: it is possible to convince/persuade people to contribute the 1% to you for free. This would require skills and practice.

As a conclusion, it is key to be resourceful.

Stock vs Property

So let's do a brief summary or at least something for us to differentiate between these two investment vehicle.

Advantages of Stocks: 

Very Liquid: Especially during critical time, it is easier to liquidate stocks from market to Cash than from property to cash.

Tax-Free: So far, all the earnings from stock market is still consider tax free

Transparent: Most of the information are online, it is accessible and hassle free. There are websites that could do a lot of filtering for me too. As time is rather limited, it is crucial for me to read things I need to read only.

Dividend: They got dividend like a passive income.

Disadvantages of Stocks:

Very Volatile: Due to sentiment, market react really quickly with news and black swan etc. It is crucial for investor to be emotionally stable during crisis.

Advantages of Property:

Tangible Asset:

Passive income: Fetch rental


Disadvantages of investing in property :

Illiquid- it takes longer time to change our property into cash.

These information is what I learned from Ken Chee session.


For conclusion, I think Tax Free and being volatile is rather attractive to me at the moment. So for now, I would concentrate on this vehicle first.

Weekend

So what happened over the weekend

On Friday, right after work, I packed my stuff and went straight to Clark Quay to meet up with Choi Mei, Alvin, Lisa, Foh and Shannon for a meal at The sailors. The meal was normal, but rather over priced. We paid about $40 per head for the meal and it was not air conditioned. Seriously, I don't understand how those people would want to dine al fresco in Singapore. It was either too humid, hot or raining. I am not putting a rant here, but it just doesn't make sense at all to do al fresco dining in Singapore. So my suggestion for those who would want to do a comfortable al fresco dining. It is important to have outdoor air conditioner. 

After our dinner, we went a ice cream parlour nearby called Haato & Co, We ordered White coffee, Pistachio, Hazelnut chocolate and Mango. Basically, they were all too sweet. We quickly moved to SQUE for our 3rd round on the night.

By this time, Low sai joined us for a drink Jenny came alone too. It was a rather a fun night. Shannon left earlier after his pure blondes. We also mentioned about setting up a flexible group so that we all could meet up during working hours. Interesting group. Looking forward for our flexible out during our early weekends. 

After our night out in Clark Quay, we left for a beautiful supper in Swee Choon at Jalan Besar. It was a quick supper and we headed back to Novena.

Saturday Morning, I woke up without any thinking of work. It was great. We headed to IKEA at Queenstown to buy some of the crockery and cutlery for some of the home cooking in the future. Jenny said she would want to cook some soup and dinners in the near future, which I am looking forward to. 

Before we start any shopping at IKEA, we went to queue up for their awesome meatballs at their cafe. Their meals are delicious and value for money. No wonder families love coming to IKEA over the weekend. The place is just filled with loads of laughters. 

We went straight to shopping immediately after our hearty and cheap meal at IKEA restaurant. It took us about 1 hour to walk around the entire IKEA, after checking out, we went for another round of tea at TWG just opposite IKEA. 

Saturday night, Jenny went to her farewell dinner at MBS while I went to meet lowsai for a meal to catch up a little bit. 

We had our dinner at nom nom, it was good to catch up with a secondary good old mate after not meeting up for a long time. I hope time could have let us spend more time talking together. We talked about relationships, future plans ( as usual), ways to make money, to stay healthy etc. We covered about travel as well, how important to know more about the world when we were young. 

On top of that, we also talked about things we regretted in the past, if we could restart our life again, what would we do differently. For myself, I would do a work and travel in US and also travel to northern Europe instead of saving the cash now. I could be so much richer inside than to let inflation eat in all my saving. It is rather expensive to save now, especially when the us is printing 85 billion USD every month. 

After a meal with lowsai, I went back home to do some laundry and also to pack my stuff for my trip to Chiang Mai. It is one of my most anticipated trips this year. I guess travelling with a bunch of good friends is priceless. I regretted twice, so I tell myself not to miss any trip with such an awesome travel buddies I have got. I must say I am blessed to have them around me. I hope we could keep on doing this sustainably and make this an annual thing. 

Sunday, started with abit of drizzling, we went for a unique Australian restaurant at 40 craig road called The Plain, I would not want my blog to be a food blog, but I would like to capture all the moments, either sad or happy of course in this blog. I must reassure my self this is not a food blog. 

I ordered darlings and also humpty dumpy, both dish are reasonably served and priced. I guess I would want to go again in the future. After our meal, we went to travel around in china town to check on the IPHONE 5s gold price. Our strategy is to identify the market price first before selling off online. I feel like I am walking along the street in prontera, ( a city in a online game called Ragnarok Online) 

After that, we went to marina square for another tea session at St Marc. I guess, the place is rather pricey. Their portion is minute too. Since I am on diet, I think their portion fits me well. 

I then went to clementi for my badminton session with Andrew, I met Kelvin, Khai wen, wei ping, and also su rong. I enjoyed the badminton session, despite all the pain at my arms while I am writing this post, I guess I love it. 

By the time I reached home, miss J prepared a hearty soup for me.

It made my day and I feel so blessed. 

Deepavali/Halloween 2013

It was a holiday last Saturday, in the morning, we went to Crystal Jade for Dim Sum, their roast pork is good. Lean and crunchy, of course, their settings and the atmosphere is rather a typical delicate yum cha restaurant in Singapore. At least, it is clean. I guess that is the most important criteria I am looking for.

The dim sum session could last about an hour only. It was rather a rush one. I personally don't like it when time is being constrained. I just could not enjoy my companionship and also my food properly. Somehow I just feel like there is a clock ticking in my head. 

After our beautiful lunch, we went to a Japanese Fusion Coffee Shop called Mayson Kaison. They served yummy tangy orange chicken sandwich and also crusty croissant with hazel nut.

We refilled our English Breakfast, as we were on a tight budget and also to control our calories intake recently for the preparation of my Standard chartered 10km run this coming 1 DEC 2013. Through this, I have met a few friends who ran in this event and hence had broaden my topic of conversation with people. I think I showed interest to people more nowadays.

After that, we went straight back to ION and took the MRT back home to change our Halloween costume for a night out with Yuyen. Upon arriving Yuyen place, we brought some drinks over. We were welcomed by Cary in a scary manners.Their door opened by its own and the room is only lit by dim lights. It was spooky at one moment.

After that, when we walked into their living room, we were welcome with laughters by all theirs mates in the living room. It was a proper Halloween costume and we were all ready to party. After hanging out, partying and chatting for hours at their place, we decided to extend our party time to Boat Quay. We took MRT in our chinese halloween costume and we were trying to be friendly to people around us. On top of that, we were all half drunk as well. People were friendly and nice to us when they see us. It was fun.

When we reached a pub, we felt normal again. Because most of the people there dressed up as well. We started drinking some alcohol, make friends do some moves.

It was a lovely Halloween celebration.

Thanks Yuyen and Cary for organising this party. I enjoyed myself alot that night. 

Conversation with my Boss about settling in Singapore

After working with my company for about 2 years, today is my first time to share a lunch with my adorable construction manager. He asked me out for lunch, sitting down in a smoking area, with ash tray on the table. We started to share our first meal together.

Although seeing my construction manager shouting and banging tables most of the time, he is somehow a rather very helpful person and also a friendly one with us.

I learned a little bit things from him about staying permanently in Singapore. In fact, he welcomes me to stay in Singapore, to continue contribute to the economy and also support company I guess. No matter what is his intention, I guess it is good to listen to what he tells me on how to own a HDB property in Singapore.

1. I can put up a GIRO on a monthly basis to transfer part of my pay to property. This would definitely take out a bit part of my salary for me to save up, which I am thinking whether for me to listen to my boss's advice or someone's else. 
2. Me and my partner would have to be a Singapore PR for at least 3 years before I can own a HDB. 
3. I can only own one HDB.
4. I can't own or upgrade my HDB once my joint income for the past few years exceeds 12k a month Yes I am talking about SGD (Fingers Crossed). So each of us would earn about SGD 6k and we are barred from upgrading our HDB. 

There are so much to learn about settling down in Singapore. I guess the best way to do so is to talk with people who had done so.:) 

Weekend in GuangZhou 2013

Last Friday Night, before the clock strike 1730, I packed my stuff and took the bus to Changi Terminal 2 from my workplace. It was a canton fair trip which initiated by Wilson Tsen. Both of us, Teo and I agreed to join him this Canton Fair.

We met up together at airport, had a quick dinner Macdonalds, I had the samurai burger and we then embarked the plane heading to Guang Zhou. We started to discuss about things which had happened to us for the past years in Singapore. From work, women, family commitment, friends and a gossip. We also mentioned about our similarity as we are both Cancerian, which I think really helped a lot in our conversations. 

The flight was about 4 hours, and we took off around 1020pm. Despite being very tired, I was unable to sleep well on the plane. It was a budget flight, so there will be no meal for this trip. 

We managed to talked a little bit on the plane but Teo decided to rest for awhile as our trip shall be rather intense. 

By the time we reached Guang Zhou Bai Yun new airport, it was about 220am. Most of the shops over there are closed and there were little people around. If I am not mistaken, we were the last flight touching down that airport. 

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Both of us do not have any check-in luggage, and therefore we walked straight into the arrival hall. Upon exiting the hall, we were immediately approached by a few locals and they offered to bring us to our hotel in Tian Ho. Of course, at a tourist rate. RMB350. 

With all the research done by Jenny, I am aware that the normal price is around RMB140. So we hackled all the way and finally managed to get the driver agreed with RMB 140. Although it was rather a disaster to bargain with Chinese. Especially when we are all tourist, but it was all worth it. 

Thinking back, it was rather exciting. 

Upon reaching our hotel, we checked in and went to our hotel room 1805. It was a rather new hotel and the room was clean. It was about RMB880 per night for the three of us. So each of us is about SGD70 per person per night. 

Very quickly, we settled ourselves. Teo was very considerate, he bought a few pair of ear plugs for us as he is afraid that his snoring would wake us up. Having said, I had good sleep. 

Day 2, we were rather disappointed with the hotel breakfast and we decided to have a Macdonalds breakfast, it was around RMB30 for a breakfast meal while we were waiting for Ricky, Teo's HK friend and also Wilson. Both of them are travelling to GZ from HK. 

Upon checking in, 5 of us, including ricky's girlfriend went to the Canton Fair via the MRT. 

Upon reaching the canton fair, we registered and entered, although Wilson had some difficulties registering, but it was sorted out with the help of their polite assistant on desk. I must say, looking at the size of the fair, the fair was rather empty. From hindsight, it was the least visitors ever recorded. I guess our gloomy economy climate has an effect on the fair. 

3 of us walked for hours and hours, share our thoughts, jokes and catch up. It was really amazing to synchronising our thoughts, and things we see during the canton fair. It is like 3 little sea turtle looking for opportunity together in the sea. 

After hours of walked, we decided to sit down for a quick meal, we continue our talk, women, world economy, friends and bla bla bla. The place we had our meal was like our Singapore Food Court, just that their food is rather oily. Must be the cold weather. 

After our lunch, we decided to continue our fair, the fair ends at 6pm. We then walked to the nearest MRT station and head towards GZ City. Upon exiting the mrt station, we can see the magnificent night view of GZ. They got sky scrappers all over the place. I was humbled by the progress GZ has made, I think KL is like 50 years behind GZ now. This might not be the case, just my own two cent. I guess Wilson shared the same thoughts too. We were very angry at our government together for one moment. 

After our awesome dinner, which was recommended by Jenny's friend in GZ. We went straight back to our hotel and then to a nearby massage parlour. The massage session was about 153 per person, according to Wilson, it was the best massage he had ever tried. 

We had massage for about an hour and went back to hotel to sleep. 

On our next day which is also our last day in GZ, we decided to skip breakfast and went to Shang Xia Jiu Bu Street for breakfast, we went to a place for yum cha. It was authentic Chinese Dim Sum, it was nicely decorated and they serve proper Chinese Tea. They got several class even for just one flavour of tea. It was a rather enjoying experience to be able to dine with the locals and absorb some of their culture.

After our dimsum, we went to tour around the old city of GZ, and had tea at a Starbucks nearby. Two drinks cost us about RMB66. I still remember there is this report saying the profit margin in China is the highest for Starbucks, which could fetch about 39 %.

After our quick dinner at food republic at the nearby shopping mall in GZ east train station, the main train station for Wilson and Ricky to go back Hong Kong, they boarded the train around 830, and we went for a quick shopping to buy some souvenirs.

We then went to GZ baiyun airport, checked in and prepare to board our flight back to singapore around 220am.

We reached singapore around 620am and that marks the end of our GZ trip.

 It was amazing.

Thank you Wilson for inviting me,  Seah Hean to book the air tickets, covered some of our daily expenses and Jenny done all the research on where to eat, booked the hotel, taxi, packed my luggage and changed RMB for me, Ricky gave me a free ride in Guang Zhou.

I must say it was an awesome and memorable one. Looking forward for another one soon.