William and Kate on the Procession Route - The Royal Wedding - BBC

Kate Middleton's Wedding Dress Revealed - The Royal Wedding - BBC

William and Kate Kiss on the Balcony - The Royal Wedding - BBC

The Royal Wedding-Joining the Sentimental World in Celebrations

Westminster Abbey on 29 April 2011

Feeling good about things and feeling happy for people who are happy are good for your own psychic health. I believe people who are interested in others in the most positive way are in the "normal spectrum" and these are the people who make up a healthy and caring society. I am thus transported into the world of "feel-good" moment.

The wedding today of Prince William, the grandson of Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain to his fiancee, Catherine Middleton is indeed a memorable occasion watched by two billion and celebrated by millions of  British and tourists in London today 29 April 2011. 

I spoke on the phone to a colleague just before 5pm today and before we ended our conversation, she reminded me to watch the wedding live on ASTRO Channel 700. The excitement is palpable. 

I am happy for the couple and wish them well though I cannot forget the sad and tragic end of William's mother, Princess Diana in 1997 ( I remember hearing her death when I was on a flight back from London in late August and just a week before she was having a holiday with her two sons, William and Harry! All splashed up in the local papers).

I want to record this day in my blog as millions join in to celebrate the Happy Occasion of Diana's son and his beloved Kate, the future King  and Queen of England, at Westminster Abbey today, 29 April 2011. The Abbey was also where his mother's funeral was held.

Prince William and Kate announced engagement and wedding date in Nov 2010

THE wedding Dress by Kate Burton of Alexander McQueen

The wedding vow

The wedding ring

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

The Prayer

Queen Elizabeth the Grandmother (wearing canary yellow at the wedding) 

The late and lovely Princess Diana, Prince William's mother

 

Sealed with the traditional KISS on the balcony of Buckingham Palace

The adoring crowd

I can go on and on with the pictures but these are my chosen memories of the Royal Wedding on 29 April 2011, my way of joining the sentimental world to celebrate a beautiful LOVE STORY. 

May God bless the marriage of William and Catherine and may they emulate William's  paternal grandparents, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip who have been married for 64 years!

Elton John - Circle Of Life

The Lung - A Man's Pain and a Woman's Instinct - AN UPDATE

This morning I received a text from CLK that her husband's lung biopsy was positive for tuberculosis (TB)! And they are all praising the Lord for that result. Why are they praising the Lord? As TB is a chronic infectious disease which requires prolonged daily medications. Some of the drugs used are really distasteful. The daily injection can be rather daunting.

Still they praise the Lord because the pleural effusion is not caused by cancer. The therapy for cancer carries much more risks and morbidity and the outcome is usually uncertain depending on the level of spread. At least those TB germs, if not the resistant type, will be amenable to anti-TB treatment regime. The intensive treatment will go on for three months following which a chest X-ray will be taken to evaluate its effects.

On reflection, it is not common for a rather wealthy person to have come down with this infection unless he got it much earlier when his socio-economic situation was not so good. TB is generally a poor man's disease.  However if there are infected people around you, you may be easily infected yourself especially when your immune status is compromised. This makes me think about FK's continuous use of steroid for his sinus!

AHB- Amanah Hartanah Bumiputera's First Dividend

For those who are eligible to subscribe to this Reit, AHB, you would be pleasantly surprised that an early first dividend has been declared and paid on 19 April. I happened to come across this information when I visited Maybank, the manager of  this Reit recently. The dividend is at 2.17 sen  for 123 days since it was first launched in November 2010. For those who bought the maximum units of 200K, you all would be laughing all the way to the bank.

Apparently at that rate, it would work out to be about 6.20 sen per annum, slightly lower than PNB's unit trusts and much lower than the market-quoted Reits which by the way is subject to price variation unlike AHB. And another special investment for Bumi is Bank Rakyat new units which, by the way, according to my friends are hard to get as the waiting list is very long. At an annual dividend of 15 sen, who would want to miss out on this?

Anyway I am sticking to my PNB unit trusts and Credit Pacific and of course occasional forays into the stock market. Currently the market is rather deserted after the short rally in early April. Managed to offload my Uemland at 3.16 while my purchased price was at 2.29. Not always lucky though.

Happy investing and Happy Easter!

The Lung - A Man's Pain and a Woman's Instinct

 Yesterday afternoon, an elderly lady, CLK rang me up to thank me profusely for referring her husband, FK. to a Respiratory Physician at the General Hospital. She was relieved that a diagnostic and confirmatory investigation was performed on him and now awaiting a laboratory result for definitive treatment.

FK is a fit 74 year old man who was a Vice-President of an international resort. He exercises at the gym almost daily and is not a smoker. He always prides himself in being able to keep up with young people at his age. Both he and CLK are active members of their church. I caught him self-medicating on an anti-diabetic drug for a number of years and had managed to  persuade him to be on  my  Diabetes clinic follow-up. He always gives the impression that he is healthy and that nothing is wrong with him except for his sinus. If possible he would avoid a doctor like the plague!

About two weeks ago the couple turned up at my clinic without an appointment. According to CLK three nights before coming to see me, FK woke up from his sleep with an excruciating pain on the left side of his rib cage. They called up their regular private doctor and were told that it was not a heart attack. Apparently the pain was relieved by a warm pack and panadol. His doctor also gave him a course of antibiotic as he felt feverish the next day. FK did not have anymore pain after that and his fever had subsided but his wife felt something was not right and decided to see me.

When asked how he was feeling, FK answered confidently that he’d never felt better. There was no more pain and he slept like a baby following the episode which he attributed to muscular sprain. He  also blurted out that his wife was being paranoid.

After getting a further history of his complaint, I proceeded to examine his respiratory system and my auscultation (examination via stethoscope) of his chest revealed a reduced air entry  and  there was a dull percussion (tapping) on his left lower chest. I decided to order a chest x-ray. And I am posting the image below:

Left pleural effusion has been confirmed by CT-Scan

One look at the X-ray I could see that the left lung was abnormal in term of size and position. It looked like there was a space-occupying material pushing his lung away from the pleura (the side of lung nearest to the rib cage). He needed to have a CT-scan of his thorax (chest) to determine  and confirm the nature of the X-ray abnormality  of the left lung. His right lung appeared normal.

I referred him to my colleague in the hospital respiratory unit with a request that he himself see the patient. Cutting the story short, the scan showed the presence of fluid in the abnormal space .in medical jargon, the condition is referred to as pleural effusion. A diagnostic tap was done and more than one liter of straw coloured fluid was extracted and a sample sent for laboratory diagnosis.

Well there are several causes of pleural effusion such as chronic infection, immune diseases and abnormal cell growth (cancer).The result has not come back and I am praying for FK and his loving wife.

A woman’s instinct is often amazing.

Maybank is .... a Cool Bank

I have been a loyal customer of HSBC bank  for many years. I would swear by its impeccable service especially in Premier Banking. It is like going to a house where you sit on soft sofa, have brewed coffee or tea, read coffee table books,  "decadent" magazines such as Tatler Malaysia and use the internet while waiting for your banker to attend to you. Banking has indeed transformed over the years. The only problem now that I have with HSBC is that  they do not have facilities to buy IPOs online neither can I pay my income tax in the same manner. So I am forced to look for a local bank to get this service.

Well, when I purchased a forgettable structured product in 2008 from CIMB ( a local bank), I opened an account there and was treated to their kind of  premier banking but somehow it was not the same as HSBC. The atmosphere at that particular branch was rather boring and the lighting was dim. The space was not ideal maybe because they are renting the premises. Staff were not that welcoming when you step into the bank. There was a security guard who asked you what type of business you want to transact. Anyway I closed the account once I got back my three-year fruitless investment!

Then I remember Maybank, I nearly bought its shares two years back when it was 5.80! So I trooped to the branch nearest to my clinic. The building is purpose-built and you can see that they are able to use their space quite nicely. I remember going to this bank some years ago when I had to send some money to a relative who had the account with the bank. Then the counter was like the old bank set-up, positioned in one unfriendly line. There was a security guard asking what you wanted to do and there was no one coming to offer help when you appeared confused, not knowing what to do and where to get your number etc.

As I entered the bank this time, there was a welcoming desk where a staff with a ready smile was stationed and she immediately gave me a number and told me where to go. Now I noticed there was no more long boring counter, instead you see many desks with staff in smart black and gold trimming uniforms sitting and attending to customers. There were nice sofa for you to sit while waiting for your number to be called. I was attended to almost immediately. A real corporate feel.

I was thoroughly impressed.

Passbook  in a jiffy!

Everything was done pretty fast, while I was changing  my PIN number at the nearest ATM machine,  the staff darted off  to the teller to remit my initial deposit and I got my passbook in a jiffy. When came to the internet banking activation, a helpful supervisor came over and told me one of her staff would guide me. It was a breeze and I was very satisfied with the service.

It was quality service and this is what banking should be like. I was thinking about what their private banking would be like. But  if their ordinary banking is so good why would I keep RM250K just to be pampered by the exclusive service? As I am already enjoying Premier banking at HSBC, why would I tie up more money as my banking with Maybank is only for services I cannot get at HSBC. That money is better kept liquid so that I can conduct my stock market activities without hassles.

Anyway my experience at Maybank is pleasant and most impressive. It is very good to see that they have also transformed their banking services in line with quality global standard and these speak volumes of their leadership. I hope they maintain this culture of excellent service.

Congratulation to the CEO of  Maybank,  Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar as  all these positive transformation has materialised under your watch.

Maybank is now KawanKu (my friend).

50th Anniversary of the First Man in Space -12 April 1961

Yuri Gagarin- the First Man in Space

It was the greatest exploration for man when Yuri A Gagarin, the Russian cosmonaut successfully orbited the earth for 108 minutes in his Vostok 1 spacecraft on 12 April 1961. He inspired the race for space technology and its potential for mankind. Unfortunately  there was no sophisticated camera to record his view of our Earth. All the same Gagarin is a hero to his countrymen and also to the world. We celebrate his achievement because it embodies the spirit of exploration and discovery. In doing so we are reflecting the past and looking forward to the future.

It is also worthwhile to note that space exploration and research now are collaborative rather than competitive. US, Russia and other technologically advanced countries such as Italy, France, Japan, Great Britain  and Canada are all contributing towards mutual benefits in space science as can be seen in the planning , construction, operation and maintenance of International Space Station (ISS). International astronauts are taking turn to conduct  all kind of space research in ISS.

Google joining the Global Celebration of Yuri Gagarin, First Man in Space

Yuri Gagarin who died in a plane crash seven years after his orbit of the earth will never be forgotten. Children should read about his historic flight for inspiration.  In fact activities to commemorate this historic flight into space could have been arranged to get the children interested to learn and know more about space science. Role modelling is important in children's development. Our children are our hope for the future of our beautiful planet. I  would really  like to see a Malaysian as a dedicated space scientist and a true astronaut and not just a space tourist. Will it be in my lifetime? I doubt it.

ASD -Amanah Saham Didik is fully subscribed but not to worry.....

Bumiputra-only product

Last week I met avid fellow investors and we were talking about investing in the low risk PNB (Permodalan Nasional Berhad)  products as a means of getting regular income at a rate higher than the bank. As everyone knows there are products which are reserved for Bumiputra and those open for non-Bumiputra.

Among those that are open to all irrespective of ethnic groups are ASN3, AS1M,ASM and ASW for which all non-Bumi portions have been fully subscribed! Hopefully additional units will be issued for these unit trusts in the near future so that more young people entering the economic realm will be able to join these long-term investment opportunities. The attractive aspect of the products is that they have different financial years where dividends are distributed. ASM and ASW will be by June and AS1M in September so you are able to get regular income throughout the year.

Among the products exclusively reserved for Bumiputra are ASN,ASN2, ASB and ASD. For a long time these products apparently according to my Bumi friends, have not been fully subscribed. So those with money to spare have been putting their money in the last two as they are fixed-rated. However last week according to my friend SJ  she could not get anymore ASD units as it has been fully subscribed. Thinking fast I told her not to worry wait till the middle to late July because some units are going to be released by some investors. The reason is simple. Many people tend to park their excess money for a few months just to get the dividend. And ASD dividend will be distributed on July 01. The dividend rate is likely to be more than 6.35 sen per unit  declared last year according to record.

It seems the way to get more income for people is to park their money just before the dividend is declared then they will transfer back the money to another fund for the next respective dividend. Have you ever thought of doing that? I think you can do that if you are sure you could get back in.  May not be easy for fully subscribed funds though.

I am seriously thinking of parking my AS1M fund in a state-owned variable -rate unit trust if I am sure that its dividend rate is going to be high ( this unit trust has higher dividend yield)  and to be distributed at the end of the year. Park it just after AS1M declares its dividend in September then try to get  back in again in February the following year. You have to be fairly active in your various transactions to do this.

Dynamic parking (reallocation/relocation)  of excess fund seems to be a logical strategy, I think this is what some people are doing to make their money work harder for better income generation.

Stretching your money !

So best of luck to people who are  adventurous!

Admiring the Japanese - one month after the Devastating Earthquake on 11 March 2011

Four weeks back Japan suffered the worst living nightmare in its recorded  earthquake history. The videos only generalise the enormity of the disastrous earthquake which is  10 on the Richter scale. More than 10,000 people are dead and twice more recorded as missing. The calamity multiplies in severity with the resultant tsunami and the radiation fear from badly damaged nuclear plants in the areas worst affected.

A picture is worth a thousand words and a Video multiplies those words. I have re-posted three selected videos from youtube to just indicate the extent of the calamity.

Words cannot describe the extensive annihilation that follows and the radiation fear that hugs the people of Japan.  Heart-rending videos flooded our TV lounges. Our heart goes out to them. Despite the complete loss of possessions and lives the Japanese people have shown to the world what a disciplined and dignified people they are. There is hardly a loss of social order, opportunistic profiteering, looting and fighting. People quickly get organised and infrastructures are speedily repaired.  Indeed they are just an amazing people.

Japan is wealthy and its people  are hard working. They thrive socially and economically in a resource-poor environment. The disaster has set back Japan economically in many ways but I believe the Japanese will rise to the occasion and rebuild in no time.

It seems to me the Japanese are resourceful because of the geographical make up of their country and the potential threats of earthquake as their islands are surrounded by active volcanoes termed as the "Pacific Ring of Fire". Nature and natural disasters bring out the best in the peoples' characteristics when they learn to act and feel as one people in the spirit of interdependence.

SAKURA- Lovely Japanese cherry blossoms

In Malaysia while we are grateful that we do not suffer from devastating natural disaster, we find that we are lacking some positive attributes of a great people. If only we could learn from the Japanese.... no, not only in manufacturing cars.

Japan is one of our world's productive members. They have given so much to the world such as cars, walkman (precursor of iPod), Sony, Mitsubishi, National-Panasonic, slippers, sumo wrestling, Ninja, shushi, Kaizen, 5S you name it, they are all from Japan, the Land of the Rising Sun. So in their hour of need the world should come together to support them.The earlier Japan recovers, the better it is for the world.

When I drive my Toyota Camry, I think of Japan fondly. I am also a hardcore fan of Kose, Shiseido and Noritake porcelain and would have loved to learn karate!

Fukushima Nuclear reactor explosion 14 March 2011

Earthquake on 10 Richter Scale in Japan 0n 11 March 2011

The earthquake-triggered Tsunami hitting a Japanese town 11 March 2011

Music as a Therapy and Music as A delight

I have always loved music and songs. In fact I was quite interested in singing when I was a young girl in a boarding school. My music teacher Miss Chua would encourage me to train my vocal and I remember when "Do Re Mi pi Ca So" were supposed to be vocalised at the different frequency length of your larynx or voice box and you were supposed to breathe in deeply when making certain sound so that you can modulate your voice making it beautiful to hear! Gosh if only I was not talked into doing medicine! (just joking guys). Anyway the late Miss Chua is my favourite teacher and I have always loved her like my mother.  She made me love music. Bless her soul.

When I was working in a General Hospital, there was this elderly Pharmacist whose wife was a music teacher and somehow he got hold of all his interested staff to come up with a musical ensemble and they would go around the wards in the afternoon to play their soft beautiful music for patients and I could see that the patients' eyes would light up and as they smiled. They enjoyed listening to the music irrespective of ethnic groups. Beautiful music is universal. That is music therapy for you and it worked everytime for convalescing patients, speeding up their recovery at least emotionally.

Music is the expression of the soul. Good music and songs would never fail to make me high even in my saddest of moments.I used to buy a lot of CDs sometimes just to get that beautiful piece from an album but now with  music sharing on the net I no longer have to bother wasting money buying unnecessary pieces. Just download those that you specially love and play them to your heart's content!

I love good music and songs particularly those with meaningful lyrics. That is why I chose 'It's the climb" originally made famous by Mylie Cyrus and beautifully covered by Joe McEllery, the 2009 Britain's Got Talent champion.Listen to the lyrics of "It's the climb" you can see that it is about a person who keeps on trying and trying despite the obstacles. It's the challenges which make you stronger as you go through life and not what you finally achieve..... "It ain't about  how fast I get there, it ain't about what's waiting on the other side...". 

Yes, I must admit that when things get a lit bit worked up and  when life becomes a chore, I take refuge in listening to music. Actually I love classical music and used to listen a lot to Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven and Edvard Grieg but I figure I should also be listening to NEW music and current singers like Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Michael Buble, Usher and of course Mylie Cyrus so that my brain's nervous connections are making new  wiring routes instead of just sticking to well known paths of  favourite classical music that can play in my mind the minute I think of them!

I think you can keep your mind fresh and alert by stimulating it with a variety of organised sounds that are music and songs. The other way towards stimulating your mind is by reading a lot and imbibing knowledge, others' experiences, new ideas, concept and theories.  Your mind needs to be constantly challenged to remain active. Fill it with happy sounds and good and positive thoughts.And of course good nutrition.

It is good to post something not related to my work or the stock market because life, after all, is about balance. My PChem, by the way, is doing exceedingly well that it is currently boosting my mood as well :D.

Anyway this morning I woke up with a certain music, a piece from Peer Gynt Suite by Grieg called "Morning" and I am posting it here to be played for my pleasure and for those who find music as therapeutic and delightful. Enjoy. 

 

  

Spiritually uplifting and soul-calming