Monthly expenses March 2013

I am readjusting my monthly expenses after trial and testing for the last two months as follow:

1. Rent- 17%
2. Groceries-10%
3. Entertainment and Eating out- 14%
4. Saving & investment- 50%
5. Telephone- 5%
6. Transport 4%

Referring to my previous blog, I have basically increased 4% on my entertainment and eating out. I think this would help on my social life. :) 

Homework not IQ

I read an article from Financial Times Guide Value Investing and would like to do a brief summary on how Warren Buffett and Charles Munger would do in order to identify which stock to invest: 

1. read annual reports of not just the company which we are interested but the annual reports of the competitors as well compared to the industry and personal research. 
2. Meet and talk with people from the industry
3. Favourable long-term prospects
4. Operated by honest and competent people
5. A business I understand
6. Available at a very attractive price

Starting slowly. :)

Post Chinese New Year Week

Highlights of the week:- 

1. Ken found a new place in Sengkang, he will be staying close to Chai Ann & Serene. I sincerely hope him all the best in his pursue of his career in Singapore. 
2. Pet ranger's interim business proposal presentation with AGF- Hard work, but amazingly fun. 
3. Authority visit to my work site, very time consuming.
4. Catch up with Caren in Marche Somerset. Drank 1.5 pint and got abit tipsy. :)
5. Celebrated Ken's birthday with Anthony in Bliss Restaurant in AMK. It wasn't a proper one as we were busy with our preparation of our presentation. 
6. Started to use google hangout for the 1st time. This is to try out if we could manage to catch up virtually.
7. Met Cary & Yuyen in their apartment near Novena. A nice catch up session with Yuyen and Cary. A lovely couple. Looking forward to see them soon. 
8. Met Amos in Coffee club near H&M in Somerset. It was a short catch up session with Amos, but wasn't too bad. 
9. Sold my first options. it is part of the learning experience. 

As for coming week, I guess I deserve a more relaxing week. I guess some boring books would be good enough to clear my head off. x

Wine List 2013- 18/2/2013

This is a wine list from my brother's friend in Australia- 

1. Dutschke Gods Hills Road Shiraz- $25
2. Browns of Padthaway carbernet sauvignon- $25
3. Dutschke Willow Bend ( Blend)-$20
4. Laughing Jacks Shiraz-$20

YUM.

 

Side note: 

I got off from work about 6pm yesterday, after an internal audit for quality in my work place which took me about 4-5 hours, I was pretty exhausted. 

Ken came straight from Changi Airport to fetch me from my workplace and we went back to my place. After we settled down in my place, we then went to Soup Restaurant in AMK Hub. It was a place where I am comfortable with. We ordered a package deal for 2 pax and we started our catch up session. It was really nice to meet Ken, and I am looking forward to see him around Singapore in the future. After our meal, we went to orchard to meet up with Amos, he was on transit from KK to perth, for a round of drinks, desserts and some catch up session.When we reached coffee club in Somerset- Anthony, Choi Mei, Ocean and Ah Taur are all there already. While Amos and Suan, a lady who accompanied Amos to buy CD nearby joined the table later in the night. As I was rather overwhelmed to be able to meet two friends in one night, I ordered Te Kairanga Sauvignon Blanc to mark this wonderful short reunion in TCC at Orchard yesterday. 

17/2/2013

1am- 4am- conducted research for US stock online, investigated herbalife stock.I was very interested into the stock but unfortunately Herbalife is not within my circle of competent. I somehow cannot imagine myself buying more of its stock when the price is falling. I decided to let go and continue my sleep. 

0939am- My phone buzzed, saw CCY message saying to postpone our meeting with the market team to 1030am. Great, I overslept! Rushed my way through to Bishan for meetup .  

1030-1315 Reached Bishan Food courst, had a quick breakfast, which cost me about 3 dollar and had some light catch up with Anthony and CCY, without wasting any time we started off with our discussion regarding PR market team for our interim presentation with AGF in March 2013. 

1315-1513- We hurried ourselves to Serangoon NEX. To join our legal team, Serene and Jonathan. We had our quick lunch in Burger King and continued with our discussion, mainly on how to tackle Anthony Teo, partnership, pilot and our funding.

1600-1820- badminton session with Serene, CCY and Jonathan. Awesome session. had fun and done serious workout. This badminton session was organised by jonathan and is my 1st badminton session in 2013. 

1820-2030- Dinner at boon keng food court, went to CCY place's to collect the sleeping bag from CCY. However, I lost CCY's sleeping bag on my way home as my bag was overloaded with stuff. I.e. Badminton racket, laptop, wire, books and shirts, etc. Went to NTUC in AMK to buy a new sleeping bag as Ken will be sleeping over tomorrow. 

2030-2330- Room cleaning and clearing. This was like an annual affair. I have forgotten when I have done the last room cleaning. 

2330-1230am

Showered, and wind down, guess my body deserve a good sleep now. 

I will leave my ironing session to Monday night. I guess I am too exhausted now. Good night! 

Weekend 17/2/2013

Post Chinese New Year- 

1. To sort out all money matters
2. To reply Newton Circus
3. To resume my badminton session on this coming Sunday.
4. To attend Mr Neo's open house. 
5. To GYM at least twice a week. .
6. To rest sufficiently
7. To resume my reading session- FT Value Investing.
8. To edit and amend PR video as per SPCA's request
9. To call Anthony, the pet mobile owner
10. Reply to Lilian- saying that we are ready for meeting up with SCORE
11. To discuss with fatty regarding state land authority approval.
12. Valentines day? Maybe next year. 

Chinese New Year 2013 @ Singapore

I will briefly describe my chinese new year celebration in singapore 2013.

This year, my parents and my younger brother came Singapore to celebrate CNY with me. 

We went around Singapore to eat, hang out, spent time together and catch up with ourselves. I really enjoyed myself these few days. A true quality time spent with my family. I somehow believe that the ties between us when we were away from KK seems to be stronger as we do not have any other commitments. 

It was a special Chinese new year celebration for me this year as this would be the first year I celebrated with my family in Singapore with mild dengue fever. By the time I wrote this post, I have well recovered. I guess readers will not need to worry. :) 

That is all for my simple chinese new celebration with my Family in singapore 2013.. 

Looking forward for our family gathering in April. :) 

Love

Two days MC

I am on two days MC, as doctor said that I have torn part of muscle fibre on my triceps, after I have overworked them on Sunday in Orchard Ngee Ann's City California Fitness.

So basically, I have spent most of the day on bed, trying to get as much rest as possible. 

On top of that, I have taken my very first protein drink in my life today. A chocolate flavour protein shake which I bought from GNC in Ang Mo Kio hub.The reason why I had protein drink, although is utterly dear,  is to hope that I could recover quicker. 

I am wondering what should I do tomorrow if I am doing quite well. :) 

Weekend 9/2/2013

For this coming week,

1)To complete another half of my financial knowledge book. Due to the fact that I am rather green with financial knowledge. Reading FT guide seems to be rather challenging! I shall break down into a few portions. Hopefully, I could complete the book by 21/2/2013. :)

2)To apply POEMS! I have to bring a Malaysian IC for application to site.

3)To arrange a meeting with Anthony and Adrian.

4) To go to gym. :)

5) To renew my RE membership too. 

I guess all these will keep me busy for a while. 

P.S: I have just subscribed a GYM 12 months membership with California Fitness. Maybe it will motivate myself to work out more in the future. :)

Jason's Monthly Expenses

Ok just a quick post on how my expenses will be allocated for the next coming 6 months.

So I will briefly review my goal in June 2013.

1)Rent, Accommodation = 20%
2)Transport                    =5%
3)Food                          =15%
4)Saving                        =20%
5)Invest                         =30%
6)Leisure                       =10%

                              Total 100%

Week Ending 2/2/2013

I decided to spend a little time explaining what I will be doing for the coming week in the following:

1. To catch up with Newton Circus.
2. Meet a young and passionate pet groomers, Desmond and Shi Min, in order to see how we could work together to achieve a common goal. 
3. To catch up with my aunty before she is flying around Malaysia. 
4. To apply POEMS, a brokerage account for shares trading in singapore
5. To study two stocks in US, USANA and COACH.
6. To plan my holiday during Chinese New Year in Singapore
7. To read a book by Glen Arnold-Value Investing . How to become a disciplined investor. 2nd edition.

I think by writing down what I need to do next week would give me a clearer picture of  what I need to do in order to achieve my long term goal. In the same time, I can also track my progress over time. :) 

Value Investing-Mind Kinesis

I joined an investing course called Value Investing by Mind Kinesis and think that this course has somehow added value to myself. At least, I am being walked-through how to set up a brokerage account with Optionexpress, US-based brokerage firm in Singapore. As this course had cost me my arms and legs, I feel like I am now more obligated to invest in stock.

The course is 4 days- Part of the reason why I would like to record some of the highlights that I have experienced over the course is to enable me to retain some of the money I had spent on it.

Basically, Stock analytical skill taught in the course was Fundamental Analysis:

1) Qualitative analysis 2) Quantitative analysis. 

For (1) Qualitative Analysis, we learned about looking for a business that is in our circle of competence. How familiar we are with the industry, as we are trained to invest in a business rather than a commodities. It would be highly advisable that we know the business inside out.

Then we would analyse what is the  economic moat of the business,  we were given some for this. It is good fun to be able to gain some financial knowledge while doing this exercise. We were given to study a few case studies in order to identify economic moat.  

(2)Quantitative analysis, this is the part where we will have to learn how to read 3 basic financial statements: 1) Cash Flow Statement 2) Balance Sheet 3 ) Profit and Loss. This part, we were given case study of a business, and analyse it as a business which we would like to take over. I will not go into details on this, as I believe this would be easily learn from books or internet.

In the course, we were given an opportunity to learn how to pitch a stock too, we were separated into groups, discuss, and investigate stocks. Then, we set up booth in a trade show and explain to people about some potential stocks which we had investigated. We also conducted a presentation on it. During the process, it was a good experience to meet mentors and have a chance to see how the they eventually analyse/pick a stock. It is like learning how to buy fresh and quality vegetables/ fish while following my mum to the market when I was young. 

We played a few games during the course, one of the games that I had learned and enjoyed the most is the virtual stock market session. I somehow reacted to the market, investor's sentiment and eventually became a speculator. I really thought I was clever enough to beat the market, until I lost all my virtual money. The Experience at that particular moment is very real. 

Through this post I would like to say thank you to both founders of Mind Kinesis. Two man Cayden Chang and Sean Seah.

Value Investing Options Strategy Gathering

A gathering for all the Value Investing Graduate from Mind Kinesis Academy.

The setting is more like a place where all the value investors would come together once a month and share their thoughts.

Yesterday will be my first time attending this kind of social settings. In the gathering, there are three VIA( Value Investing Academy) Analyst, sharing their thoughts on the recent shares that they are looking at. One of them, whom I am particularly interested with is ser jing.

Ser Jing, is a student and is currently writing financial blog for Motley fools, he has got a few of his articles that are posted as editor's choice of Motley Fools. He is also invited to attend a seminar/conference, subsidised by Motley fools, to share about his experience/knowledge in USA. 

What I gained from the gathering is basically some reading list/ Authors that are recommended by them. I would briefly list down some that I remember: 

1. Peter Lynch- Beating the street
2. Pat Dorsey
3. Philip Fisher- Common stock;uncommon profit
4. Phil Town-Rule #1
5. Joe Ponzio-F wall street

Maybe is time for me to sacrifice some of my sleeping time to complete the reading list by June. 

Hopefully, I will be confident in investing by mid 2013. 

Subway experience on a Friday Night @ CQ

When I arrived Clarke Quay an hour earlier than required for a catch up session at 8. I wonder around in central, carrying my favourite red bag, with faint of Rebar and concrete. Roaming for food around Central while unwinding my mood from work, I somehow ended up on a queue for subway. 

In front of me, is a lady whom I think she has got the same liking as I do, Hearty Italians. My all time favourite of subway sandwich. Unfortunately my whole reason of joining the queue in the first place was crushed when the server told the lady in front of me that hearty Italian was out of stock. 

When it comes to my turn, although I have heard that there is no more hearty Italians left, I still try my luck and asked the server "hearty Italian please" with a broad smile confidently. Hoping that he will say something different. 

Surprisingly, the young man behind the desk turned to the oven and check for hearty Italians like he had not heard of this question or did the same action a few seconds ago, or maybe he has got memory of  a goldfish.  

For a short moment of time, I  thought the oven is like a magic box which will replenish hearty Italians on its own. But it didn't. The answer is a negative, trying to hold my facial expression of disappointment and to disguise myself that I have heard the same answer just a few seconds ago is a tricky one. I quickly chose another bread which I have no idea of, just for the sake to satisfy my hunger but not my tongue. 

With disappointment being brought forward from the previous section,  the young man asked me if I would like to have my cheese to be toasted. I gave him a Do-I-Still-Care look, and nearly blurted out "whatever". But I didn't, I chose not to, simply because of my self-conscious kicked in. Asking me to behave like an adult. 

Having my cheese toasted, then he asked me what sort of vegetables do I like to have it on my 6-inch sandwich. 

I said : "ALL" while pretending it is very normal to have all the vegetables being fit into a  6-inch sandwich. My char-grilled chicken breast sandwich looked more like a vegetables sandwich now. 

Moving on, it comes to dressing, the final bit of my sandwich preparation. I opt for honey mustard on this occasion as I feel like going on diet- purely. Or maybe I anticipated that I will probably have a few more meals later in the evening.

I then moved to the counter in order to make a payment of my chicken sandwich inundated with vegetables.

The cashier asked me if I would like to have 2 cookies or a bag of crisps with an obvious body language that  her hands were holding a tongs already readily to pick the flavours being said from my mouth bearing in mind that I would definitely go for the cookies. I didn't; I said ": a bag of crisps please".  I chose crisps instead. I took the crisps from the shelf and place it on a tray in front me.

She gave me a blank look, and to reassure what she had heard from me, she confirm with me again in a puzzled look by saying : " You get 2 pieces for cookies or 1 bag of crisps only." Making sure that I will not regret.

Again, I said: " Crisps please"

We proceed with the payment and I left the counter with the tray for the start of my dinner. 

Secondary schoolmates

Last week, I was invited to a small gathering with my secondary schoolmates in an overpriced Japanese Restaurant call Shinkushiya. It wasn't particularly outstanding in any way apart from the figure next to the picture of the food in the menu. Pricey.

Moreover, not just the price, the location of the restaurant could be consider rather far too, it is about 45 minutes away from my place. Door to door would probably take me about an hour.

However, having said that, the opportunity to hang out with my secondary schoolmates would probably be ....Priceless. The opportunity of gathering with a bunch of schoolmates in foreign land is definitely worth all the effort, money and time.

The good thing about sitting together dear secondary schoolmates is that we all speak the same language effortlessly. The idea of sharing stories and jokes in our language which has strong hakka ascent, filling a classy Japanese restaurant is mind-boggling.

From the state of just being together with a bunch of secondary friends, I just realised how mistrust I have become, or should i say, comfortable with suspicion. I would put mask on, hardened my shell to protect myself like a crab. Not only that, with my strong claws, I suspect, I have had hurt someone over the table.

When I was young, I would talk about anything, more open to ideas, people and situation. Like a soft-shell crab. At least, I know I could care-less, do and say whatever I want, waste time, or maybe fall in love with snails. Most importantly, I was generous with trust, time, knowledge (if i had some) and love. Perhaps it is the experience of university, or being abroad, or quite simply growing old over the small handful of past years. I have lost the ability to speak without thinking or speak nothing with a positive gesture.
I somehow become more careful with words, thoughts and body languages. Which I think are essential to survive in a harsh conditions like reality. I cannot afford to be generous any more.

But that particular night, I am not sure if I am wearing a mask or plainly being careful with what I say and do. I have had a weird feelings that I am over- reacting to people whom I was so comfortable with when I was in secondary schools. Although we generally looked more mature, we are somehow still "us". How we used to scream, hate, care, cry, love and be real with each other. I am very impressed we all can get along by being so honest, real and harsh on each other. :)

"Dear readers, although I am now looking forward to our next catch up session with "us", but at the same time, fear that these excitements are just temporary. like a tipping point. "

7th month in Singapore

Despite travelling the same route on bus 22 everyday, I am still struggling when should I press the red button on the double-decker bus in order to stop on the exact bus-stop. Sometimes, I would wait long enough for another person to press the bell, so that I can just observe if the next bus stop is the place I am getting off.  On the contrary, sometimes I waited for too long, miss the bus stop and end up stopping at a bus stop further away.

Subconsciously, I found myself somehow reluctant to adapt the Singapore culture,Singlish, Mindset, Practice, appreciating singaporean ladies, etc. Maybe the gap for a man from a small town and this city has been too wide. I believe keeping this kind of mindset will lead me to extinction. I would probably perish in no time. I am not looking for a solution here but I am sharing fthe insights of my life here in Singapore. 

 I would like to briefly describe how my life has evolved in the past 7 months. 

First of all- Career.  I am please to say that the work that I am in now is somehow ideal for my career. It has been the sort of job which my body and mind can cope with at the moment. I cannot say that it is ideal for myself, or I love my job; what I can say now is that the job that I am currently with is something I have had looking for. I don't want to dress my career up or to glorify my job here, but this is what I am feeling now at the moment. 

Secondly-Social Life.  I am satisfied with my social life here. Lucky to have groups of friends surrounding me. With activities constantly pre-arranged by weeks. It makes me feel balanced but somehow insecure. This is because I don't think is sustainable in the long run. I always envisage my friends to have their own family in a matter of few years time and start dropping out from the social circle. Life in Singapore without my current social circle will be very different. 

Thirdly-Relationship...is something I would like to put on this post, but not to discuss about it now. I always have problem addressing my relationship, maybe because it somehow affect third party. Clearly, I do not want to have any misrepresentations.

Fourthly-Health. I am slowly gaining bad weight in Singapore. Due to eating out, social events(beer is the main culprit), long working hours, insufficient sleep and only exercise once a week. I cannot ignore this aspect of my life any more, as looking at the weighing scale to head east most of the time is depressing. 

So most of the aspects have been covered in this blog. Maybe I will go into more details when I am more ready to share. x

Holland V with Charles

It was on short notice, Charles and I decided to dine in Holland V middle of the week, I chose this place as it is strategically located about in between our work places.

We roamed around the place and I was shocked to see so many good looking men and ladies around Holland V compare to Ang Mo Kio that is..

It was so vibrant and crowded with good looking, dressed up youngster if I still consider myself as one of them. The chatter in the background just somehow dilutes all the stress and things at work. It was a comfortable evening in Holland V.

After roamed for about few minutes, we quickly decided to dine in a Thai restaurant which my parents liked this particular franchise. It was reasonable and has got decent ambiance. Ok, before this post become a food post, I would like to go back to my subject of the day, Charles. .

We started our conversation off with something very light, as in relationship issues. His breakup, my breakup recently, how we cope with it, dealt with it and probably might have moved on. He asked me a few questions about Joann, which I don't think I answered directly. I decided to hold back some of the information which I personally think will not add value to their current state. But I was rather flattered when Charles told me that they were lucky to have me as a close friend of theirs. Hah!
I feel so important now. :)

At the moment, we both agreed that we need a companion to talk things through. Maybe the person we used to share our feelings and emotions with, is no longer present, accessible or maybe should I say convenient to share with any more. It is like we were not friends any more, like what I used to play with my friends when I was primary 7. We temporarily stop speaking to each other to show how angry we are.

The person whom we used to share our bed with, all in a sudden became not only just a stranger but someone whom we would like to avoid. To avoid the awkwardness, frustration, something we might have hoped to happen but fear when it doesn't or the need of clarification, confrontation, etc.

It is a feeling which I choose not to think about it at the moment.

It wasn't our 1st gathering in Singapore, but somehow the gap between our catch up has made it like is our 1st one. It seems that we have not met for ages, it seems he has grown older.  I can see his weariness, he seems to be shorter than he normally is, maybe is the invisible concrete block weighing at least 20 tonnes on  crushing him to the floor. His voice, is not as punchy. His language, is not as mean as before. Cold Jokes were out of the league already. He became so serious to an extent that for the 1st time I hold all my banters in front of him. 


From someone who is utterly confident, bright and positive; to someone whom I barely recognise. Life must have been mistreating him. Having said that, I feel pain and respect at the same time. The mixed feelings which is unjustifiable is seeping into my mind, tinting my specs. Just like how Erdinger is creeping into my head. Fooling with my words, especially the ability to put them in a proper manner or maybe should I say, in a pleasant manner. 

I found myself giving opinions and comments which I think are inappropriate, especially when I am a close friend to both parties of this separated couple. I do not want to choose a side nor do I want to be a referee.
I want to be their mate, someone they can speak to. Someone they can trust their feelings with.
Which I think a friend should be. :)

Geylang Experience

5pm Friday. My asst.site manager,Leopard, called me and asked me to get ready to go for a drink in Geylang with our sub-contractor,Dragon. Geylang is well know for its food, drinks and sex workers. Heading off Geylang with this group of mates will somehow more for the latter.

Long fetched us from Boustead House, which is next to our site to Geylang in his Vios. The journey from Macpherson to Geylang took us about 20 minutes, which longer than usual due to peak hour and weekend. Inside the car, Leopard told us about some of the stories of his, when he started to go Geylang, etc etc.
We have had some random low grades banters and so far, it seems that I am adapting well.

During the journey, despite Leopard tried to break the ice amongst us with his jokes and banters, I was rather nervous. I fear the situation later, where everything would be out of control. However, I desire to experience the contractor's high life in Geylang. Many stories I have heard on site, which somehow related to Geylang. It has become a playground, or maybe a ritual which we shall practise once in a while to upkeep with the 'language' on site. Surely, I don't think I have got the guts to screw someone I barely know tonight. Which I cannot confirm myself. But If I did, I doubt I will be writing this post and show it to the public. It would probably be more like a private post which only Mr Google would know.

Geylang approaches, I looked towards the car window. immediately I could see ladies sitting on the bench along the roads. I wasn't listening to Leopard's banter any more and instead sunk into my own imagination. Wondering what would happen next.

We parked in Lorong 7 if I am not mistaken, very close to where we would like to go, new Shanghai.. A rather run down building. Surely I should not be wholly disappointed tonight, although I have had so many vivid and vibrant pictures of blondes surrounding me in my head. Perhaps, this is what I can disclose what was on my mind that particular time when we reached the area.

We had a light dinner, prawn mee, opposite new shanghai. Quick, easy and light. everything seems to be set perfectly. we went into the old building and started to climb a rather dirty and dark staircase.

I think I couldn't feel anything that time, don't really know what I am doing exactly. Blindly follow my manager, or should I call him buddy tonight, because he acted like 20 years younger than his age yesterday which is equal to my age. Even the tone and language that we normally use in the site office are no longer found.

We went in to a room, number 8, I remember. Inside this room, looks like a below average KTV room, with  black leather chair, double tier square coffee table, huge screen, speakers and a remote control on the table. I find myself sitting on the sofa immediately and started to relax. 3 of us sat at such, there is a huge gap between us. Obviously, we were waiting for someone to fill in the gaps later.

Beers, snacks and laichee were almost served immediately. Everything is in order now. Except.... the gaps.

Ladies are flowing into the room from the doors, very lightly dressed, heavy make-ups, high heels and heavily scented. I was shocked by their aggressiveness. Maybe I would be more comfortable if a pimp or mummy would come into the room first. But it seems this is not the case, the ladies would just walk in the room inconspicuously and jump onto our laps. I can still vividly remember how I declined and pushed many hands, breasts and faces. I was like a sugar dropped in an ant's den, struggling...

Very quickly, I asked myself why am I here in the first place. Definitely not to push some ladies from China, Vietnam and Myanmar, etc....
I wanted to be here to experience. But with the girls pulling my hands so hard, I was turned off completely. No fun at all.

I drank jugs of beer, to get drunk, to show some respect to my buddy, and I.... collapsed on the sofa or maybe flesh.

By the time when I woke up, I was alone in the KTV room. The ladies are all gone. The party went somewhere else.
I grabbed my bag, walked passed the counter, didn't bother to check if the bill was paid as it would probably be unaffordable for me, and I walked out the building.

I was intoxicated and vomit along the main road. But I wandered around geylang, directionless, trying to look for the MRT sign. Or maybe just to breath some fresh air, to buy some time to be more sober. Or maybe to vomit a few more times.
My buddy called me, and asked me to go back to new Shanghai.

I made an U-turn and headed back Lorong 7. When I arrived, I saw my buddy's car parked nicely in front of New shanghai, he has got one cigg on his hand and he told me that his mate called him and told him that I was asleep in the room alone. I am so glad that my buddy came back for me and offered to fetch me home.

Umbrella

I lost my umbrella yesterday. It's the umbrella which I shared so many beautiful memories with . A mini size black umbrella which is rather durable, lightweight and pricey. Quality doesn't come cheap nowadays. We had experienced strong winds in Littlehampton, chilly rains in Chichester, heavy snows in Wimbledon, heavy rain in Stoneleigh road, not to forget the striking sun and pouring rain in Ubi Avenue 1. I can imagine how much more I can dwell on it. 

Thinking back, I lost my umbrella when I was chasing the bus along Ubi Road 1, I was on my noise isolating earphone when I was running, despite hearing a sound of something has dropped out from my bag and hit the floor, I chose to ignore and kept running towards the bus stop. As the bus was approaching the bus stop at that instant.  Having had run all the way for about one and a half minutes, I cannot afford to give up and let the bus go as the next bus will probably be 30 minutes later. 

When I boarded the bus, had myself seated comfortably, I found one of the zip underneath my bag was left opened. It was the compartment where I kept my mini lightweight umbrella. It was empty. 

Instantaneously, I wanted to stop on the next bus-stop and return to pick up my beloved umbrella. I wanted my umbrella back so badly. But the tiredness in me had made the harsh decision subconsciously for me. It wasn't optional. I hesitated for a short moment, and the bus had just passed the nearest bus stop. I am on my way back home, umbrellaless. 

Being optimistic, I naively believed the umbrella would probably still lie on the floor near the bus stop the next day and I shall retrieve my umbrella back. But it seems not the case, when I returned to the spot where I lost my umbrella this morning. I searched for my umbrella. Despite being late for about half an hour, I chose to search for my umbrella. It was not that any more. I was lost momentarily in somewhere I am so familiar with which I  can probably walk with my eyes closed. Trying to accept the cruel fact that, from now on, I am separated with my umbrella. 

This wasn't my first encounter of this similar situation recently. 

I separated with Miss E. over Whatsapps, she initiated and I somehow went along with her decision. We were thousands  miles apart when this event actually took part. It wasn't a drastic decision between us. The dullness of our conversation over some period had probably suggested long before. This might not be the right diagnosis, or to cry over spilt milk but is my impression. 

Being in long distance relationship for about 1 year, with some short reunions in between, is not an easy task to handle. Even for the person who had read 'long distance relationship for dummies'. The idea of maintaining a relationship through Skype, Facebook and Whatsapps seems to be impossible for the long run. 

I feel so much better now to have written some of my feelings on this blog.

So what is up for weekends? 

I will be meeting up with Low read learn, tonight. I heard that he has got promoted and would like to treat us a dinner tonight in Ang Mo Kio.I am happy for him as he was just promoted within his company. Also, I am honoured to be invited to a meal by someone whom I had spent little time with when we were both in Kota Kinabalu. The feeling to be able to catch up some KK friends tonight seems to be rather interesting.  Maybe I had spent too much time with my own group when I was young.

Looking forward to the meal tonight. :)