Happy Valentine's Day - 14 February 2015

FoR All THoSe wITh LoVE in TheiR HeArTs ToDay

..................And  to my Valentine , My Love and

 My Best Friend, Jeff.

The Touching Story of Jeremy the Koala

Koalas are adorable. You can hold the tame ones close to your chest without any fear of being attacked or even scratched. I did that some years ago at Lone Pine, a Koala sanctuary in Brisbane, Australia. A treasured memory.

The story of Jeremy the koala rescued during the recent Adelaide Hills bushfire reminds me of Sam the koala whose image I have always placed prominently in my blog. Sam was also rescued during the a widespread bushfire in Victoria, unfortunately she died due to some internal infection unrelated to the fire.

Jeremy the  three-year old male koala also had his paws burnt and had to be treated to prevent infection. He was very well looked after and later released back into the wild. Here are his images for my record and blog visitors.

Sad looking Jeremy found with his paws burnt during the bushfire
Source : ABC News

Sedated Jeremy being treated with all paws in antiseptic solution.
Source : ABC News

Jeremy's paws were soaked,treated and bandaged for several weeks, at an estimated cost of cost of more than AUD 6000 to the Australian Marine Wildlife Research and Rescue Organisation (AMWRRO). However donations poured in from good-hearted people when they saw him being treated on the FB of the organisation. Jeremy's paws have now healed and he was just released back to his natural habitat today.

Rehabilitated Jeremy being released into the wild , one last look at his human  saviours
Source : ABC News

Stories like this really warm the human heart. What would animals do without human under these circumstances? By the way the fortunate koala is named after a fire volunteer Jeremy Sparrow who found him and brought him in for treatment and so saved his life.

MERRY CHRISTMAS - 25 December 2014

JoY to tHe WoRLd aNd PeAcE oN EaRtH

COMPASSION

FAIRNESS

JUSTICE

INCLUSIVENESS

Investing in Black December

Within a space of 10 days I witness all my stocks come tumbling down. By the way the plantation and oil and gas have started the rot well before that. My capital depreciation mimicked the one in 2008 though to most big-boy league investors, losing 75k  on paper is nothing to shout about, for small-time ones, it's something to learn from. The important thing here is to have the staying power.

The current rout in our stock market is due in part to the falling price of oil and the effects on other oil and gas counters such as PChem, SKpetro and Icon. As a result the financial counters like Maybank  follow in tandem. The low crude palm oil (CPO) price has already affected the plantation sector for more than 11 months now. I only have Bplant and due to its being well-established, the decline in its price is not as alarming unlike my O&G counter, Icon, a new kid on the block. My other bad let-down counter is Caring, a pharmaceutical and healthcare/personal care products  chain, another newbie on the stock market. This one I regard as an ugly stock, a terribly bad investment and will definitely off load it as soon as my loss on it is manageable and compensated for by my other counters. By the way, this stock might go up again once its wealthy owners decide to perk it.

Caring: Gradual decline since August
Source- Bursa Malaysia

I noticed the recent surge in price of my telco stocks namely TM and MAXIS but as per my investing strategy, I have refused to sell them and in less than a week, the gain was wiped off by almost by 50%. This development is attributed to foreign selling on our Bursa, as they say, Christmas comes early to those foreign funds eager to dress up their portfolios before the start of the new year which is fast approaching.

TM: The gradual rise and the steep tumble
Source - Bursa Malaysia

MAXIS: Tumbling as well in December

Source- Bursa Malaysia

The hope for a pre-holiday stock market rally this December has gone to the wind. In fact this December has become a black one for many investors. For some of us this is the time to pick up those stocks which have been overvalued a number of months ago and wait for the bull to return because it sure will return.

You've got to stay positive in all this up and down of the market. Here's hoping a Black December's giving light to making more in the future.

In the meantime, hold on tight to the rail of your roller coaster guys!

Seven Years A Mystery

A 21 year-old girl came with her relatives to the clinic last week. She travelled about an hour to get to the clinic even bypassing other clinics on the way.

She complains of a nagging skin condition for the last seven years when she first noticed it. The crops of lesions would grow in different parts of her body: face,neck,trunk,arms and legs. She has been to many doctors both government and private and has been prescribed with several medications: antibiotics,antiviral,antifungal and anti allergy plus all kinds of creams but the condition never goes away instead more lumps have cropped up.

The papules (elevated lesions) are not tender or itchy or red or ulcerated, in fact nothing which causes physical discomfort. Her problem is cosmetic as the lesions have become unsightly and she is very sensitive when people look at her. In effect, she looks depressed as all manners of treatment, modern and traditional have been tried by her family but nothing comes out of them.

I took one look at the lesions in the neck and immediately knew what they were. To confirm it I had to ask her to undress to check other parts of her body. what I observed on her bare back, convinced me that she is suffering from a genetic disease called "neurofibromatosis". No amount of medications would cure this condition.

Elevated small lumps in the skin
(non-erythematous papular lesions)

The sine qua non of the condition -
 cafe au lait (flat coffee-coloured) spots on the skin

I referred her to a dermatologist to confirm my diagnosis and there it is. I have explained to the close relative the nature of the genetic condition which is passed down through an autosomal dominant gene; meaning to say that her offsprings will have a 100% risk of contracting it as well. The condition could be a mutation in her body itself or she could have got it passed down from one of her parents though, I did not get that history from her as she denied that either of her parents suffer from the condition.

Counselling is mandatory in genetic diseases so as to give the best advice as far as future generation is concerned. In this sad case, at least they do not have to keep looking for a cure for her as they have been doing for the last seven years.

The non-diagnosis of this condition for so long earlier is likely due to the history not been taken adequately, examination is only done cursorily and on only the exposed part as too much emphasis is given to preconceived patient's sensitivity (patient is a hijab-wearing Muslim) and also the preoccupation with using drugs as answers to all ailments.

A seven-year of mystery is finally solved but the emotional pain will need a long time to heal, if at all it could be healed.

MAXIS issues dividend as promised and soaring again

Late last year when there were talks of MAXIS being unable to pay the 32 sen annual dividend like it used to due to some financial issues, I was feeling anxious as I have fallen thoroughly "in love" with the stock and was not about to abandon this blue chip comes what may. I also have great faith in the new CEO, Morten Lundal who has a lot of experience in the telco industry being ex-CEO of Digi, Maxis's rival. He came after Johan Dennelind, another ex-Digi CEO was not able to fill the post citing family commitments.

True enough after a number of months the stock began to slide and I watched with horror as my capital was being attacked so to speak. I kept telling myself to persevere as over the years of my investing in MAXIS, I have received quite a substantial amount of dividends, far more than the amount which was eroded mercilessly during the second quarter of this year. Yes, I cringed when the shares dipped to 6.20 but I took it as part of the excitement of investing.

Heart flutterings when MAXIS dipped  and normalising
 when it starts soaring

I was elated when MAXIS third quarter financial results were rather unexpected and Maxis is still able, up to this stage, to issue another 8 sen dividend per share with its earning per share (EPS) standing at 6 sen. The dividend ex date is on 26 Nov. From then on the stock began to rise to its previous high and today it has reached 6.93.

Credit to Maxis especially its hard-working CEO for having made many transformation and market initiatives to stay competitive in the industry despite declining revenue partly as a result of a reduction in income from voice and SMS usage owing to the introduction of applications such as WhatsApp and Telegram, Viber  and Skype , all of them are free at the moment. Notwithstanding the intense competition, they have succeeded in maintaining the population mobile coverage. Apparently, greater penetration of its service via internet usage is in the pipeline. Now I know how sticky MAXIS is.

Here's hoping MAXIS would be able to sustain its efforts to stay in the mainstream of the industry and continue to add value to all the stakeholders of the company including this minnow investor.

Commander Hadfield's Iconic Zero-G Rendition of "Space Oddity"

 I am very happy to be able to watch and listen again to this exceptional performance of a song recorded in International Space Station (ISS) where Canadian Astronaut, Commander Hadfield was based. The video was uploaded in May 2013 and was taken off till the new agreement recently made to keep it in cyberspace for the next two years.

This famous space song "Space Oddity" was first performed by celebrity singer/composer, David Bowie in 1969. Commander Hadfield recorded it as a farewell gesture before departing from ISS .He was in ISS from December 2012 to May 2013.

This video brings back memories of his daily chattering and chronicling of activities from ISS  and posting them through Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr to be shared across planet earth and inspiring million.

Pretty awesome!