Sight to Insight

Singapore does have a safari, and it is next to the zoo in Mandai Road. So, the advertisement caught me off guard, as I thought it was an event at the Night Safari. I thought it will be good to have the family there to taste food which we may not normally eat. We had paella, which is Spanish dish, with its rice cooked with oil, instead of water with an assortment of meat. We had briani rice and tom yam (Thai spicy soup). Of course, Claudine had her ice cream from New Zealand (or purported to be). The idea is to have a good family time together, and what better than eating in the Food Safari!

Getting out of the house in Singapore is a must to destress and refill the oxygen in my lungs. With the economic crisis like a meteorite striking a big hole in my pocket, I discovered good events happening in Singapore which are free. This Sunday, November 9, 2008 has the West Winds performing at the Esplanade for free! The family arrived just in time to get into the Gallery of Esplanade, which is behind the band. I have no idea before this event and I am glad we went. It was a 60 minutes spectacular performance by a group of mostly young people; playing Indiana Jones and Out of Africa; just to name a few. http://www.esplanade.com/whats_on/programme_info/big_screen_hits/index.jsp The hall was filled with people from all walks of life. The young folks were absolutely thrilled by the encore, which was from High School Musical, which is the current hot movie. My kid, Claudine knows the tune well, and so do I, because I am hearing it so often from her handphone. http://wasbe.com/conference...

I am a late comer to investing in the stock market. I am not a big risk taker when it comes to growing my cash. Especially now that I am near retirement age, to err on the site of caution is better than having sleepness nights on your potential losses in the unforgiving equity market. In the decade that I was involved in managing my own fund, my investment in the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) has been very positive. I have good return on investment. There is no necessity to reveal number. What is a good return to me? I use the bank interest rate (fixed deposit) as the risk free return. The banks in the best of times have only given me 3.2% interest per annum. This is under the condition you deposit about $50k - $100k of cash. There are not that many people who have that kind of spare cash. When I first started thinking about investing, I have to do the investigating! I have scan knowledge of it. I was a novice, and I was already in my forties! Yes, before that I had put money in the M...