A wedding, dancing and karaoke

Today is Sunday and though I slept late this morning, I woke up to the incessant sound of the alarm clock at 6.30 am . I am meeting a friend at the park where I exercise at 7.30am. The sky was cloudy and it was an exceptionally cool morning. We had such an animated conversation while walking briskly that we did not feel the time was already nearly 9.00 am!

I also remember that today we are yet invited to another wedding held at the bride's house. You see, as last Friday was the start of the school holidays, many weddings are held during this period to enable faraway friends and relatives and their school-going kids to attend the joyful event. This invitation was from 9.30 am to 2.30pm. The centrepiece ceremony, the"bersanding" that is when the bride and groom sit side by side, at the special dais for everyone to admire, was at 11.30am. As we were too tired, we could not make it to the house till after 1.00pm! But attend we must.

By the time we arrived, most of the guests had already left. Small groups of guests were sitting under the gaily decorated tents in the house compound and the lovely dais was there as well with the couple sitting patiently. The bride's parents introduced us to them before we proceeded to the large garage beautifully turned into a dining place. Music was blaring away and I noticed that it was a karaoke with different people taking turns to sing! Young and old, big and small.

We were enjoying the company and the food, when the bride's large extended family started to gather everybody to do the "pocho-pocho" a kind of dance not unlike step or line-dancing where everyone dances to the rhythmic music. They really enjoyed themselves and they called on the guests to join in. Then it was the "ronggeng" a traditional Malay couple dance followed by the ethnic dance of the" sumazau".. oh it was such fun! Even elderly ladies and men participated in the dancing along with the young ones. The bride's father was sporting himself.

It was an unforgettable afternoon. It must have been a sedate affairs earlier on but the latter part was devoted to the family having fun... we were glad we came later. We would have missed this frolicking fun had we come earlier, not to mention the traffic hassles and the crowd jostling for the sumptious foods catered by a local restaurant.

Susan Boyle... what is it about the Brits media?

Susan Boyle
The woman with a golden voice


Like over 100 million YouTube viewers worldwide, I also watched the 48-year old Susan Boyle's amazing singing performance some weeks ago. Her unkempt appearance and age caused the audience to looked down on her till she opened her mouth and gave that awesome rendition of "I dreamed a dream" from the play Les Misrables. Susan was sensational and her simple woman- on- the street look was most endearing. I kept replaying the performance and marvelled at the gift of the voice and my heart really went out to her.

After taking the "world" by storm, Susan became fair game for the British media. She was hounded everywhere she went, to the salon, to the pub. They commented on her every move, even trying to dictate how her appearance should be. How do you expect the poor woman from West Lothian in Scotland to react in these "abnormal" circumstances of media frenzy? Her irritability was understandable and the media attacked her relentlessly , accusing her of uttering a derogatory word in front of reporters, not wanting to sign autographs for a group of Chinese tourists and they even went to the extent of asking people not to vote for her.

The bad publicity could have caused Susan to lose in the final of the competition, Britain's Got Talent on Saturday 30 May. She came in second and did not achieve her dream of performing before the queen of England, Queen Elizabeth. The treatment she received from the British media especially the famously bad tabloids was horrendous. They first loved her then they turned against her. I think, to them the "package' was still important, that is talent, beauty, youth,brain and poise which Susan has only 40% of. In America, Susan was warmly received and treated with respect and adoration by Oprah and CNN Larry King. I wonder why the British media chose, instead, to make money by capitalising on Susan's lack of media savviness

Weddings and venues

Wedding occasions usually present an opportunity to meet relatives and friends. In this day and age, especially in the urban areas, people tend to have wedding reception in public places by invitation only. Several venues are used instead of the house. A hotel ballroom, an organisation's function room, a convention centre, a sports club, a restaurant are among such venues.

One major advantage of not having it in your house is of course, the dispensation with the big preparations and tiring cleaning -up after the event. It is fine if you happened to have a lot of willing friends and relatives to help you. Still the stress would be too much for most people.

Today I went to a wedding held at a house. The road leading to the house was narrow and by the time we came, the cars had been parked on both sides of the road! We managed to park in front of our host's neighbour's house after asking for his permission. The compound were already teeming with people in all their fineries and the wedding dais had been erected right there as well. There was hardly any space to move though our host graciously guided us to the lounge which had several tables for their special guests. The weather was also humid but thanks to the fans! The company was good and the spread was delicious. As more people were coming in, we decided to leave before the ceremony started so that other people could sit down. We thanked our wonderful hosts and were given a beautifully carved wooden fan each as a gift.

The previous Saturday, the wedding we attended was held at a beautiful resort. The parking was less congested and someone was there to guide traffic.The guests were mingling around the spacious compound with lovely background music. Special guests were seated in the air conditioned function room away from the wedding dais set up in the garden but were called by name through the microphone to bless the couple. We met friends,old and new, who we would not have met so soon otherwise and exchanged stories. It was a pleasant afternoon and I was given a quintessential crystal container for attending and a lovely "batik sarong" for blessing the couple as we managed to stay on till the ceremony ended.

A wedding? And the venue?..... a lot depends on your budget. I have attended many a grand wedding at five-star hotels, at one of them, the flowers alone cost about RM25,000! I suppose if money is not the problem, splurging it would not matter. As for me, I am more at ease with moderation.

MRCB ....it's a slow ascent?

Money Plant


Fresh from my lucky foray into construction stocks of UEMWorld and Gamuda in early 2007 up to about July-August of the same year, I was looking for other construction companies to invest in especially with the 9MP projects all lined up. Unsavvy as I was (and still am), I selected MRCB and HSL which boasted 0f high book values.

The price for MRCB was declining then so I bought at the lowest for the year ( clever eh..) but the timing was all wrong to say the least, as it was
just before the March 8 2008 General Election when the current government lost its two-third majority in parliament and five states taken by the opposition as well as the global financial crisis triggered by the US subprime fiasco..... MRCB subsequently had a merry slide, wiping off most of my investment in the space of eight months.. ( Lessons learnt......I should not have read and listened to the mainstream media most of the time!). From RM2.01 it stumbled pathetically to RM 0.69 at one time in Sept 2008. I was exasperated... fun, yes but this was too much I thought..... I know MRCB is a capable company, quite well managed but it is too big and those borrowings for mammoth projects in KL Sentral.. may be just too much liabilities without fresh leads in the construction industry.

To offset my heavy paper losses , I bought a substantial number of MRCB shares at RM0.70 in November 2008 and through the depression of the economic meltdown and my overseas travels, I have almost forgotten about this purchase...... look, today's MRCB share price is RM1.35........ Gosh! Should I clear my position now and not wait for that unknown growth? I note that among my market portfolios, MRCB is the only one not paying dividends this year (PICORPS is yet to make an announcement)... last year's dividend rate was laughable .. despite the construction stocks slowly making a comeback.... I will stick to trading/service and plantations... in fact I will use the profit from the sale to buy more TM shares and get the regular dividends. This is a better option then putting it in the bank or Unit Trusts.

TM stock..... DIvEs today 27 May 2009

Time is Money

As expected the TM shares took a beating today..... from RM3.84, diving to RM 2.85, covering an entire capital repayment value... my current position is still fine at this level.... if it goes lower than RM 2.70, I am in for the long haul folk! The capital repayment will be used to buy more of TM shares and let it ride... ride because it is not a question of if , it is a question of when it will ever soar... and I am going to be loyal to "my company" and reap its fruits of success in the vibrant Malaysian economy ( why can't the politicians behave themselves?) and let avid investors, including minnows like yours truly help the economy back to its feet through investing!

But the TM story has not yet ended, there might be some surprises before the end of 2009 and I certainly hope to follow all those people laughing all the way to the bank!..... Dream a little as always and keeping the excitement alive and basking in the fun.

Cut down on those peanuts!

I love nuts!

She looked distressed as she walked in. She was in her fifties and a housewife. She had this aching pain just below her rib for the last one day. The pain was worst at night and it came on and off and relieved a little when she just sat down quietly. It did look like this pain was worrying her.

She had a history of all sorts of pain, looking at her record and some doctors had also prescribed "those little heart pills" to be placed under the tongue whenever she had left sided chest pain. But she said this pain was different, it seemed to "expand" within you... Ahah, I decided to engage her along that line... the pain appeared "colicky" and was it better after she passed motion? Was it better after she passed wind ?(flatus in our medical jargon). She agreed wholeheartedly.... and what have you eaten prior to this pain coming on?..... a lot of nuts, peanuts...... Madame, this type of food does produce a tremendous amount of gas in your intestines.... the so-called "expanding" pain relieved by passing wind (farting.. in lay man term) points to this condition.

Medication will relieve temporarily but you have to manage the offending agents. Eat in moderation and reduce those gas-producing foods like peanuts,beans, jackfruit etc .. etc.. I have heard people say they are not feeling well because "air" (angin in Malay) has entered their body... how apt in this case!

Infertile.... please investigate me

Three will be just nice!


Today a lady came complaining of a cough and fever and after examining, making a diagnosis and handing her the prescription, I noted that she was hesitant to get up and leave instead she said rather timidly,that she had been married for more than nine years and had not been able to conceive. Then she fished out two well worn forms from her handbag,which she said were the results of her tests done in early 2008. She saw many doctors but none had written out any plan for her, as a result subsequent visit was not productive to the patient and she finally decided to try for traditional medicine. And obviously this had not been successful.

She is 27 and she is getting desperate as she is not getting any younger.

When asked about her previous medical record, she said she had misplaced them... so much for home-based medical record! I have learnt to be patient with my patients, by being empathetic ... can you imagine she was telling me all this after a prescription of her initial presenting complaint had been written out! The cough and cold are just a ploy... the real problem is she has primary infertility and is pleading to be investigated and..... "Please doctor, please do not pass the buck.." ( I am hearing things!)....ok lady I heard you.