One Night at A & E

Recently, I have a constant chest pain. It has this cramping feel, and my left arm becomes weak, sometimes even numb. I got a bit scared so I visited the company doctor on Monday. She then referred me to A & E. At the nurse's recommendation, I went to Tan Tock Seng Hospital's A & E.

I arrived at around 5.30pm. The A & E was relative quiet and not that many people. Quickly I registered. Then proceed to the screening station, where the nurse checked my temperature. This is a legacy from SARS days. Funny the Filipino nurse can actually speak some Chinese, but subsequently she asked a paramedic to translate for her from English to Chinese. Thinking it a bit too troublesome, I just replied in English.

After the screening station, another Filipino nurse did an ECG for me, then again another Filipino nurse measured my blood pressure. Everything was fast and efficient, and then I just sat there and waited.

Around 6.40pm, it was finally my turn to see a doctor. Dr. Lee Ching Ching asked me some questions. She said most probably my chest pain was not heart-related, but just to play safe, she would keep me in observation for 6 hours. She took my blood sample at 7.00pm, a 2nd blood sample would be taken 4 hours late, then if everything was fine, I then could go home at 1.00am the next day.

Oh my, that started my one night experience at the A & E. I could walk on my own, but they insisted I should lie in a bed, and the nurses would push me, wheeled me around from this place to that place.

I did 3 x-rays. One for my neck, one for my chest, one for my back. Dr Lee suspected I had a neck pain. Frankly speaking, I was not very sure whether I had or had not a neck pain myself. Is stiff neck considered as neck pain?

Up to the x-ray part, it was still ok, but after that, the experience was a bit dreadful. They placed an Indian worker next to my bed. The Indian worker probably was injured at work, a fall or something. He vomiting violently for a while, what came out was blood! His pillow and bed sheet were stained with blood.

Then came a man in his 30s. He is very tall, at least 1.80-1.90m in height, but he is also very skinny. Chinese always say "skin wrapping the bones" (皮包骨), that describes him perfectly. His face was pale without any blood. I don't know what his illness is, but it looks like cancer. What other illness can rib someone of his life this much? Soon he was admitted.

Looking around the whole observation room, I was one of the 'healthy' guys, there was a 17-year teen too. He had a cut on his toe, and he couldn't extend his toe. How did I know this? His doctor was not sure whether he should admit the teen, so he asked my doctor, Dr. Lee Ching Ching, so I know :)

There was an old uncle in the room too. His head was bandaged. Around 9-10pm, a police officer came in to ask the old uncle questions. Very funny scene. The old uncle could speak good Cantonese to his sons, but when the police officer talked to him in Cantonese, he couldn't understand that guy's Cantonese. The old uncle's son wanted to help, but the police officer said no third party should be there while the questioning was taking place. According to the uncle, he was at the void deck of his block, and somebody hit him from behind and robbed him of his wallet. He was sent to TTSH by police.

At around 9pm, there was a change of staff. All those non-patients were asked to leave. The doctors and nurses handed over the shift. Some senior doctor came for his rounds. He went through each individual patient's record and plan. The junior doctors then would report.

The observation room is constantly in some kind of chaos. The drifts finished without being replaced. The oxygen tube removed and forgotten to be placed back. If you want something, the nurses will always let you wait, so you must be very patient, anyway, you are patient. I wonder, luckily I was not really in A or E conditions; if I were, I don't know how much my chances would be to survive. The staff were simply overwhelmed by the number of patients.

The last two hours were the most difficult times. The uncle beside me couldn't walk to the toilet, so he pee'ed in his bed with a bottle. I was like sleeping right next to a urinal! Around mid-night, a Cantonese lady was wheeled in. She was really energetic.

In her bed, she kept saying loudly her son didn't want her, her daughter didn't want her, her daughter-in-law didn't want her. She felt very terrible, hoping a good doctor would come and save her. She also said she had found a very good doctor, but that doctor's medical license had been revoked. She pleaded for that doctor, but didn't mention the name. She repeated that again and again and again, so much so that I could almost recite what she said that night word by word.

At 11pm, my doctor, Dr Lee Ching Ching came to take my blood sample again. She also told me my x-ray and blood test results so far were good. Then again, another ECG. At around 1am, a doctor came to me to say I could go home, but he also handed me a referral letter to see a specialist at TTSH.

Wah, I was so happy that finally I could go home and sleep. On my way out, at the screening station there, I saw a half naked tatoo'ed guy, with blood stains on his hands and forehead. Just wondering, victim of a gang fight?

An exciting night, but I wish never do I need to experience it again.

A Dragon Boat Race turned Tragic

It was supposed to be a joyful event of Dragon Boat racing on the Tonle Sap River in front of the royal palace of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, together with other teams from various ASEAN countries. The Singapore team finished their race, on the way back to the starting line, just about to disembark their boat. All of a sudden, their dragon boat capsized, all 22 members fell into the river. 17 of them were rescued, while 5 of them drown. Their bodies were found after a 30-hour search by 200 fishermen, soldiers and a team from Singapore.

It was such a sad event. There are many sad things in the world, but nothing has been so close. One of the 5 deceased, Poh Boon San, 27, was my colleague's younger brother! This news was so shocking. In addition, ReuBen Kee, 23, was Mr World Singapore 2007.

Amitabah....

Two Seven

The 2 Investing Rules of Warren Buffett:

Rule #1: Never lose money
Rule #2: Never forget Rule #1

The seven deadly sins of investing:

1. Believing that you have to predict the market's next move to make big returns
2. The "Guru" belief: if I can't predict the market, there's someone somewhere who can - and all I need to do is find him
3. Believing that "Inside Information" is the way to make really big money
4. Diversifying
5. Believing that you have to take big risks to make big profits
6. The "System" belief: sombody, somewhere has developed a system - some arcane refinement of technical analysis, fundamental analysis, computerized trading, Gann triangles, or even astrology - that will guarantee investment profits
7. Believing that you know what the future will bring - and being certain that the market must "inevitably" prove you right

These are from this book:

The Winning Investment Habits of Warren Buffett & George Soros
Mark Tier
Inverse Books, a division of Praxis Ltd, Hong Kong
2004

A Day in Batu Pahat

Last Saturday's visit to Batu Pahat was refreshing. Didn't go to Malaysia for more than a year! The rustic look of Malaysian towns make you feel relaxed, the pace of life was a lot slower, and less stressful.

We arrived at Batu Pahat late, close to 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Everybody was hungry so we 'stormed' into a Nonya restaurant for lunch. KA recommended the 'hor fun', a Cantonese style of noodle. The taste was not bad, but the portion was very small. That explains why Malaysians are, in general, slimmer & leaner than their Singaporean brothers.

Alex's chicken goreng looked not bad, too.

Newly opened Batu Pahat mall is modern shopping mall in the making :) In the making means it is still very empty with many shop space yet to be lent out. Bowling in Batu Pahat Mall is reasonably priced. RM4.80 per game, and RM1.50 for rental of shoes. P, WJ, APJ Tan, PY & I enjoyed a bowling game. WJ was the champion with 102 points, followed by me, only 94 points. That was a 10 point improvement from my 1st bowling game, which was back in 1996, in Klang, Malaysia. And this was my 2nd time playing bowling....

EY arranged a room in Hotel Katherina for us to rest before proceeding to his wedding banquet. Being one of the few high rise buildings in a small town, the rooms have very nice views of the town, and the neighbouring hills/mountains. The sunset was magnificent.

Oh, I must mention another shopping centre in town - Summit. KA likes to go there for cheap stuff. Summit is a much older shopping mall than BP Mall, old ventilation system, which makes it less than pleasant to remain inside. Smoking in the building gets the air quality even worse. In addition, I got cheated there. I paid RM16.00 that I thought for a genuine book published by a Taiwanese publisher, only discovered it was a pirated copy. That was bad!

An EL Sale

After many long months, finally I got another extended license sale for one of my photos at iStockPhoto. More, more, more......

Here is the photo...


Some may say I am very 'hao lian', a Hokkien expression for 'self boasting', as I will show-off whatever small little 'achievement' that I have. Hehe... I just want to share the joy. If you don't like it, "that's the problem of others", to quote a former US treasury secretary ;) And you are encouraged to read this.

Good Books

1. Trend Trading
Daryl Guppy
Wrightbooks 2004

2. Chart Trading
Daryl Guppy
Wrightbooks

A Wedding in Batu Pahat

EY held his wedding in Batu Pahat yesterday. A group of us from the office went down to attend his wedding banquet hosted at Grand Seaview Restaurant in Batu Pahat.

I was positively surprised by the grandness of the banquet hall. It is elegantly decorated, with a sense of classic Chinese halls. The food was delicious too.

The day's menu:

1. Cold dish of yam, siew mai, etc

2. Shark's fin with crab meat

3. Roast pig
4. fish
5. prawns
6. mixed vegetable
7. Braised pork with Man-tou
8. Desert - Ice cream

The shark's fin with crab meat is worth a special mention. It really had shark's fin and easily visible crab meat. Many Singapore restaurants replace crab meat with the cheap egg white. Maybe not 100%, but the crab meat is hardly visible, nor detectable by our palates. In addition, for an 80-table banquet, it is quite challenging to have all the food served hot, which was the case yesterday. Comparing with our company's 20th anniversary dinner held at Suntec city a couple of weeks ago, in which the food was served mostly cold, it is quite a contrast.

Instead of just eating and eating, the host invited a Chinese orchestra to entertain the guests with traditional Chinese music. Some harmless teasing games for the bride and groom.

The whole event was well-organized, and kept everybody happy and satisfied.

Wishing the EY and his wife live happily together ever after...

Cloudy...Hazy...

The haze has come back. The pollution index went up to 83 yesterday. Hazy days ahead.... I couldn't see the near future clearly, it feels very much like standing in a thick fog, you can't even see your own fingers if you stretch your hand. It feels bad, I am confused, puzzled. The signals are mixed, charts are noisy, information has been encrypted, whilst I have not the proper decoder.

If DJIA closes up with a good few hundred points tonight, then it may set the stage for next week's rebound; if DJIA closes down, then what will happen? STI had been down for the past few days, but there is also an invisible force supporting the critical levels. What is that invisible force? Is it a super-hero or a dark lord?

There are many things in life that I don't understand. Saizen Reits was bashed on its debut. Its price nosedived from its listed price of S$1.00 all the way down to S$0.83 on the very first day, then finally recovered to S$0.86 at the 1st day closing. What makes it such an unattractive stock? Reading the prospectus, the first year return is 6.5%, whilst subsequent years is around 6% (if I didn't interpret wrongly). The investment is on Japanese residential property catering to the rental market. It is quite different in Japan. Property prices are very high, not any average person on the street can afford a house to call his own. Renting is not uncommon. Unlike Singapore, the Japanese rental market does not rely on foreigner working in the country. So why the bash? Something fishy that I do not know of? Mmmmh..... Then today, just as it was bashed down for no good reason, the price went up to S$0.885 for no particular good reason either. People betting on the appreciation of the Japanese yen?