THE WACKY BUS DRIVERS

Wacky Bus Driver #01

Route KL/Kajang, via old Kajang Road, sometime during a weekend while I was still a student. I used to visit my sister in Kajang. My brother in-law worked as an officer in Kajang Prison. I visited them from KL almost every weekends to see my favourite one year old niece. Just love my niece so much that made me took the trips although sometimes my pockets run dry for the bus fare.

I found KL/Kajang bus drivers rather strange those days. They drove the bus like they owned the bus company. Most of the time they stop the bus in front of their house and their wife and kids would run to the bus to deliver their packed meal. Got used to it and it didn't bother me at all.

But in one my KL/Kajang trips, one of the driver took things to a bit too much. In this particular incident, a few naughty boys in the bus were disturbing a girl. The girl screamed at the boys a few times and the bus driver couldn't stand it anymore. He stopped the bus and went to the boys, scolded and warned them not to disturb the poor girl, or else. Because of the sheer size of the bus driver, the boys were afraid and stopped disturbing the girl. Along the journey, the boys got off the bus one by one until the last of the naughty boy left.

Finally the last boy pressed the buzzer which mean he was going off the bus and that will be the end of the misery of the girl, the other passengers and the bus driver. When the bus stopped, at the door, the boy gave the bus driver the F words (Malaysian version of F words), spitted on his face, jumped off the bus and ran away into the village.

The bus driver got off the bus and gave the boy a chase. After a few minutes both of them disappeared amongst the village houses.

The bus engine was still running and everybody thought he would be back very soon and all of us would be back on our way. Well he did not return after five minutes, and okay he might be coming back very soon. Ten minutes later we were still waiting, there was no sign of him. Now all of us were getting restless. A few other later busses passed us already. The big question mark was, is he ever coming back to continue the journey?

Finally. the bus driver came back after twenty minutes, cursing under his breath, then got on to the bus and started to drive towards Kajang.

There was no doubt either he didn't get the boy or he was whacked by the boy's father.

Wacky Bus Driver #02

Route KL/Kelang via Subang Jaya. Sometimes during a weekday when I started working. I took KL/Kelang via Subang Jaya bus. That was the best way to commute for me as I can't afford to buy a motorbike, let alone to buy a car. I was renting a flat near the municipal council football field with a few friends.

The KL/Kelang bus drivers behaved differently. They thought they were the Formula One drivers. They sped the bus immediately from stand still, braked heavily when approaching traffic light or stopping and took a very sharp corners. You would definitely swerved left and right heavily and you had to hold to anything you can hold.

In this particular incident, it was rainy and I was in the bus on my way home to Subang Jaya from work. The bus was a bit packed and there was this passenger, a huge lady standing and holding an umbrella. One of the passenger, a nicely dressed gentleman offered his aisle seat to her and she took it with thanks.

And as usual the bus driver did his thing, speeding and swerving the bus. It was kind of cool as I can see that this huge lady swerved along. Probably she was enjoying the Formula One bus. I was seating two seats behind her.

When the bus was approaching Subang Parade after exiting Federal Highway, the driver took a very sharp corner. In such a sharp swerve, the lady lost control and fell on her bump on to the aisle. She composed her cool and climbed back to her seat. I could see that everybody in the bus were about to laugh, but they held back. The driver saw what had happened in his mirror and I could see that he was worried. One can expect an extreme reaction from the lady, but she just kept her cool and behaved as nothing had happened. By this time the driver slowed down and tried to behave in his driving.

After a few corners, the lady pressed the buzzer and the driver stopped the bus. When she walked towards the door the whole bus were quiet. Everybody must had expected an outburst to the driver from the lady, but she walked to the door elegantly with a sweet smile. Nevertheless, the bus driver looked panic.

Just before she exited the bus, ADOII......... the bus driver yelled. She had whacked the bus driver with her umbrella and walked elegantly exiting the bus.

By now the whole bus bursted into laughter. Served the bus driver right.

MOVE ASIDE LEWIS HAMILTON

This is the Formula 1 multi-team fastest time test result in Jerez, Spain for 3 days ending 16th January 2008:

Fernando Alonso (Renault) 1:19:503
Kimi Raikonnen (Ferrari) 1:19:708
Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1:19:772
Nico Rosberg (Williams) 1:19:775
Timo Glock (Toyota) 1:19:779
Heiki Kovalainen (McLaren) 1:19:780
Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) 1:20:099

After the dust of 2007 Formula 1 settled, Lewis Hamilton was hailed by the British media as though he had won the 2007 championship albeit the fact that he was beaten fair and square by the worthy champion, Kimi Raikonnen. He was also projected by the media to win the 2008 championship.

Looking at the result above, I don't think Lewis Hamilton will walk away as the 2008 champion. He would eventually have a tough time with his team mate Heiki Kovalainen, just like what he had given Alonso in 2007.

My best bet for 2008 champion would still be Alonso and Raikonnen. I would also expect the unexpected good showing by Massa, Rosberg, Piquet, Kovalainen and Glock.

As for Hamilton, just watch out for the guys above and for the unreliablility of McLaren car. Raikonnen did't win the 2003 and 2005 championships because of the unreliability issues when he was with McLaren.

Hamilton choked out in 2007 also because of the same issue.

Sorry, my money is not on you Hamilton.

TRADING BASED ON RUMOURS OR TRADING BASED ON RESEARCH?

Before I start with anything, I would like to welcome a long time friend to the 'trading club'. He knows this message is for him when he reads this. Welcome to the club bro.

Well..... I received a text from the other fellow investor a few days ago, 'knapa x beli uemworld leh buat duit le beb n hubline, gtronic beli le cepat'. I replied , 'pasal hubline leh naik?'. He responded, 'Sbb lama tak gerak n business dia v good this year.'

Hmm.... and so I texted my remiser to buy 35 lots. A small investment to that counter considering I am not going to dump all my money on this one. This counter is not even in the 20 counters that I tracked. I bought because I trust my friend and he is an experience investor. He took a lot of market rumours seriously and so far he gained a lot out of it. He took a lot of bold transactions too which I don't even consider. I target medium term investment for this counter, between 3 to 6 months and let see how it goes. At present it is going down.... *sigh*. Even if I am not going to make money on this counter, it is alright for me. I just want see if my friend's hunch is working.

I have changed my investment strategy recently. I am putting my money in a few counters instead of one counter like I used to do before. I researched the 20 counters that I tracked. The capital, the profit and lost, the shareholders etc. I have a good idea at what price to buy and what price I should sell. I am waiting for market shocks, and I would go in and buy. Shocks normally happen a few times in a year. You just can't believe the price of a good counters drop down rapidly at that time.

Just let see what 2008 would land me in.

MY WEBSITE VISITORS COUNTER

Dang....... my website counter gave up on me. It just stop and I have to put a new one, starting from zero again. I have got more than 2000 hits (wooo this is a lot for a small time blogger like me) and I have to start all over again.

C'est la vie.

Something just gave up without you even realize it.

Not that I really need the counter. But seeing the numbers adding-up is fun actually.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008

Happy New Year 2008 to all whoever visited my blog. I admit my posting's graph is going down at the moment. I hope it will go up in 2008.

To my favourite bloggers akula, azwan, cosmic gurl, dnas, da winged acrophobic, jules, kuzza, uba and redhead (.... and I am sure the list will grow in 2008 and beyond), I wish you guys all the best 2008 could offer.

The same wish goes to whoever visited my blog.

THE DOOMED FLIGHT BA 149

Have you ever heard the doomed flight BA 149?

I bet you have never heard of it.

Well it was a flight from Heathrow bound to Kuala Lumpur, refuelling in Kuwait City on the night of Saddam's invasion of Kuwait.

This is a chilling story of the victims of a covert MI6 mission that used British Airways flight 149 on the night of the start of the first Gulf War on August 1st 1990. It was a mission that then went badly wrong, delivering 367 civilian passengers into the hands of Saddam’s Republican Guard. In a traumatic and long-lasting ordeal, they were taken hostage and dispersed to allied targets in Kuwait and Iraq as part of Saddam’s human shield. An attendant was raped by Iraqi soldiers. BBC had reported it as an ill-executed covert MI6 mission at the start of the first Gulf War, The Secret of British Airways Flight 149, has been broadcast on BBC2

BA 149 was secretly used at the 11th hour by an MI6 operation to get a covert unit of former Special Forces men and Intelligence Officers into Kuwait for the purpose of gathering intelligence ahead of Saddam’s looming invasion of Kuwait.

No-one would ever have known of the mission had the plane completed its re-fuelling and departed. But there was a major miscalculation. Saddam’s tanks had crossed into Kuwait earlier than predicted on the morning of August 2nd and met little opposition. As they sped towards Kuwait City BA 149 was still three hours away from landing. But while other flights were diverted from Kuwait City International Airport, BA 149 was not. It was a race against time - a gamble with the fate of 367 passengers and 18 crew at stake - a gamble that MI6 seemingly were prepared to take to get their secret unit into Kuwait.

Me and the Malaysian Passengers

Malaysia was not an enemy to Iraq and due to that fact all Malaysian passengers were handed to the Malaysian Embassy in Kuwait and they were then transported to the Malaysian Embassy in Baghdad. To cope with the big number of refugees, the Malaysian Embassy in Baghdad requested all Malaysians in Baghdad to house some of Malaysian passengers of Flight BA 149. As for me, some of the female passengers stayed in my house before arrangement made to send them out of Iraq.

As a bachelor that time and I was pampered by the ladies during that short period. Twenty of them stayed in my house ranging from 4 years old girl to 65 years old grandma. My house were cleaned, the marble floors were so shiny, no dust, the curtains cleaned and I had hot and good food everyday when I returned home from work. It was heaven. They even wore my clothes because they were handed 'sehelai sepinggang' to me. A chinese girl student wore my 'kain pelikat' everyday.

After one week all my 'dayangs' had to leave. The Malaysian Embassy had arranged busses to trasport all stranded Malaysians to Amman, Jordan and a chartered flight flew them home to KL. They cried before they leave. They gave me presents which I kept in good condition. A paper weight from a student is still on my work desk today. The grandma asked me to visit her in the UK.

When they left I felt so lonely. My house back to its usual mess and no more hot food waiting for me when I returned home from work.

God, I missed them.

WHATEVER HAPPENS TO OUR STOCK MARKET?

My Ms. Pretty remiser texted me a few days ago.
"Our msian gov is not helping our mkt wt the announcement of proton".

I replied.
"The present leadership memang tak market friendly pun. So many market unfriendly issues. How are you?"

She texted back.
"Our leaders r very dumb. They r just not thinkin bout msian welfare. Cakap aje byk. Im ok., just angry wth d govt thats all"

Well.... I can smell it that the people in the market are becoming more and more restless. They want to see some market friendly moves. Issues of failure to get Proton's foreign partner, Bersih Rally, Hindraf Rally, VK Lingam saga, wasting money on Angkasawan and so many more are damaging our reputation and our market.

Our government's damage control failure is hurting the market. Just admit it.

I am pulling my money from the market, at a lost, as for now. Cash is King, but stock market is not. At least for now.