MALAYSIA'S NEXT TOP MODELS

No, no. They are not America's or Britain's next top models. These girls (except one) are the newest Malaysia's next top models and they had visited me and my family on the second day of Hari Raya.... :)




No lah. Two of these pretty girls are my nieces. They came all the way from Manchester and Liverpool together with their friends during second Hari Raya to London and visited their long lost uncle. I felt so blessed.

Whats more, they posed under my appple tree too. Now the apple tree also felt so blessed.



And a few of their poses (one below) will surely win awards.




Looking at them, I think they really have a quality to model. Except they are now serious students in various disciplines.

I wish them all the best and one day to contribute to the country.

1 AUGUST 1990

1st August 1990, a date not to forget.

Gonzalez and I were travelling from Kuwait City to Baghdad. The total distance was 800km and we were travelling by 4x4 Mitsubishi Pajero. It was scorching hot at 45˚C, but luckily the car's Japanese made air-conditioned worked very well to that kind of heat. There was a 2km no man's land between Kuwait and Iraq borders, which mean if anything happened to the car after crossing Kuwait border, we wouldn't be getting help from either Kuwaiti or Iraqi authorities before reaching Iraqi border post.

After crossing both borders, we drove on the Iraqi Primary Highway to Baghdad. It was a five lanes very wide highway with an extra emergency lane. A total of six lanes going and six lanes coming back. I had never seen this kind of highway before. Our two lanes North-South Highway would look just like a country road to them. The distance between one filling station to another was 300km and we had petrol stored in jerry can in case we ran out of it. Saddam Hussein had used his oil revenue to build a super Iraqi Primary Highways connecting Baghdad to the borders of Kuwait, Turkey, Saudi and Jordan. I had been in the US and I can guarantee that even the best highways in the US couldn't match these highways. According to intelligent reports, Saddam Hussein would use the highways as a landing airstrip for his military aircrafts during the war.

While on our way we saw a lot of military trucks on the opposite side heading to Kuwait border. It was quite normal to see convoys of military trucks in Iraq. But the number this time were higher than normal. This time they also had the mobile hospitals in the convoys.

We reached Baghdad at almost 8.00pm. I was so tired and slumped myself in bed like a log. Woke up next day just to hear the news that Iraq had invaded Kuwait at the early dawn of 2nd August 1990. A different version of the Iraqi TV had announced that Kuwait had return to Iraq and they were celebrating. Had Gonzalez and I delayed our departure to another day, we might had been caught in the invasion.

As for the military convoys that we had witnessed, to the layman like me there was nothing to be alarmed for these quite normal military movements in Iraq. But for the military experts, they probably would detect something amiss when the mobile hospitals were involved that time.

For me, I was just there, in one part of the history.

THOSE DAYS......

Well those days, ha! ha! ha! For some unknown reason I remembered an incident that had happened in a once upon a time when I was studying in ITM.

I was so skinny those days. The side effect of being skinny and unattractive was very obvious, no other than not being able to attract a girl. I got used to it and not having a girlfriend was quite okay to me. I knew my look very well, it was so pathetic and I better stay away from trying to market myself, it won't sell.

But one night, my luck was about to change. I had borrowed my friend's motorbike to go to the library that night. Those days the students do not need to have a license to ride motorbike in ITM. When the library closed, I rode back slowly to my hostel, enjoying the night breeze. Half way I saw a girl waving in front of me. I looked behind me and there was nobody there. The girl was definitely waving for me. I stopped the bike near her and I can see that she was very beautiful. She smiled and asked me if she can have a ride to her hostel. I was very delighted and obliged straight away.

She climbed to the motorbike and I rode slowly towards the girls hostel. I started asking her name, her course, her year and lots of questions. She was so friendly and asked quite a lot of questions about me too. It seemed that she was interested in me and I felt good.

The ride was actually very slow but it seemed so fast to me. Well when you are in a company of a beautiful girl, of course time just fly. When we reached her hostel, she climbed down the motorbike and thanked me. Smiled and she dropped a bombshell. She told me that she was desperate for the ride because she urgently need to go to the toilet. She thanked me again, told me that she already had a boyfriend and ran quickly inside. I paused and was gutted, but I took it easy.

On my way back to my hostel, I couldn't stop thinking on why she hadn't been frank on her misery. Had she been frank, I would have sent her as fast as I could and saved her from all the suffering she had to endure on holding it on my slow ride. I would surely rush probably to save my friend's motorbike in case she couldn't hold it.

And why she had to tell me that she already had a boyfriend? The answer I had probably she want to make it clear to me in case I bumped to her again later. Girls.... I really don't understand them.

BETWEEN LAZINESS AND FASTING

I really do not know, is it laziness or is it fasting. I have been so slow in everything during Ramadhan. The first casualty is my garden. The grass is not mowed and the fallen leaves is not raked. Hari Raya is coming and my guests will peek to the garden and they will wonder on what happen to it. If they ever ask, I will say that the gardener is 'mogok'.

It is a few more days to Hari Raya and I hope I still can do something to it.



Oh ya... by the way I got some apples in the garden. But, still... is it laziness or Ramadhan? I just leave the apples there. Should make a good pie if I have a little effort. Let see after Raya if they would turn to pies.

HARI RAYA ABROAD, ONCE AGAIN ON THE SAME NOTE

This year would be my fifth Raya in London, again on the same note. So sad actually when calling my mother on Raya eve. She will ask again if I can come home for Raya. And again I couldn't come home. I don't have the privilege of having 5 days leave like some people. So I am doomed here for Raya...tsk...tsk... tsk...

The Malaysian Ambassador will hold an open house again this year. A yearly event that is much awaited by the Malaysian community in the UK. A huge tent would be erected in his beautiful garden. Malaysians from all walks of life will come and I am included. I hope he will call a 'bomoh hujan' because I think it will rain this time as the weather is changing.

If Raya falls on the weekend, which it defnitely is, a huge crowd is anticipated. I better go there early, I don't want to miss ketupat, rendang and all....

SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI TO ALL. Next year I will return home for good and I am so much looking to it, especially to Hari Raya.

MISS PLAY SAFE AND MR GAMBLER

I have two remisers. First is Ms. Pretty from CIMB Securities and the second is Mr. Jerawat Gambler from AM Securities. When asked for advise, both of them give me different views on the same subject matter. When asked about certain counters in the top volume league, Ms. Pretty always shy away from counters like Iris or Keladi. She said these are sydicated counters and she won't even look at them. She said these are companies of no value and punters buy and sell just to make short term gain. She prefer counters like Bursa, Maybank, Tenaga, Digi and the likes. Mr Gambler meanwhile always ask me to play margin (he uses term play rather than invest), like buying Iris at 0.235 and sell at 0.24 or 0.245 in the same day and take profit from the lower commission charged.

I think as a woman, Ms. Pretty always follow her maternal instinct which result of her being so protective over my investment. I wanted to buy Bursa in one low time at price of 8.50 and she asked me to wait for the next day afternoon as the price was going down. The price drop was actually stop at 8.50 and started to climb. In the next few days it went up to 11.80. I didn't make profit for that particular time. Again recently I wanted to buy Tebrau at 1.21 and she asked me to reconfirm a few times which made me change my mind. Tebrau went up to 1.33 the next day and another boat missed.

For Mr. Gambler, he always want to risk my investment. If I ever give him the authority over my investment, I either be very rich by now or very poor. I gave him a free hand once to do margin trading and I lost RM8K at margin call after 3 days for DBhd. Probably he didn't sell after Dbhd slided a little bit which made me lost RM1K. Thinking it may go up before the margin call, he didn't sell for 3 days and there my RM8K flew away. I didn't blame him. He probably did that in a good faith got caught in a diffucult situation. It is me to be blamed as I gave him a free hand.

I changed my strategy after that. No more free hand. I seek their advise and I didn't really follow what they say. I make my own market research and decide on the counters that I wanted to track. I study the fair prices of their shares. If their prices go down much below than their fair value without a good reason, then I will buy. It is not a difficult job. This always work and I have recouped all my previous losses. In investing, I am always learning. There will always be a new situation that I have to deal with.

I don't think Ms Pretty and Mr. Gambler have all the time to track a a few counters like what I did. I bet they have so many clients who do not track the same counters that I tracked. They look at hundreds counters everyday and my counters may not even show in their radar.

So the best option for me, just make my own decision regardless what they say. So far it works.

CASH IS KING

Asian Financial Crisis 1997-1998, I was in KL. Our stock market went down to the drain. Good and strong companies suddenly became so cheap to own. I was attracted to Maybank, the price went down to RM2.87 from the peak of RM20++. What a great bargain, couldn't get it in a lifetime. But, alas.... I have no money. I did have a little saving of RM30K and it was for my running budget, I couldn't touch it.

I knew that I need RM200K and I will be on my way to be a multi millionaire. But I don't have RM200K.

Maybank went up to RM15 after the dust of Asian Financial Crisis settled. That RM200K should have been above RM1 million already.

So I miss the biggest boat ever, just because I don't have that 'King'.