Farewell my Lovely

SDT 298 E you will be missed and not forgotten

Today, 4th September, I sold my car off and got a newer car to replace it. My Harrier is already 7 years and 2 months old and I decided it was time to upgrade to a newer car. Not wanting to spend too much on cars as they are depreciating items, I did my sums and spent about a week checking newspapers and also websites. I chanced upon what appeared to be a reasonable deal in one of the websites for Singapore resale cars called sgcartmart.com on a Saturday and indicated my interest. The owner had put up the ad just 2 days before and we made contact to meet the following day,Sunday. The appointed time was in the morning and I was just browsing. As luck would have it, it was raining cats and dogs and I postponed the viewing to the Sunday evening and everything just 'clicked in place'. The new car was in excellent condition and the owner had only driven 22,000 km which was very little for 2 years of ownership. He admitted that this was his second car (his first is a BMW 3 series) and used this only for his commute to the office in Shenton Way.

He was very sincere in his dealings with me and showed me every single service he put in for the car, even where every small scratch made (at the back where he used to put his golf bags). I was taken by his car's excellent condition and although it was the first car I viewed, I wanted it as I was very comfortable with the Harrier having been driving mine (SDT 298E) for over 4 and a 1/2 years without incident and only 1 major servicing in June to replace the fan belt and spark plugs.

After some negotiation, we settled on the price and it was then up to me to settle the sale of my car and the subsequent transfer. I went back to my old car dealer who sold me the Harrier and the General Manager, a Mr. Kenneth Tan, handled the deal himself. Doing due diligence, getting my income statements, loan application, settlement of outstanding loan with my bank (Maybank thank you) as well as making me a decent offer for my car was all part and parcel of his commissions.

In the end it all boiled down to numbers, so in essence, I will be paying no cash upfront, and stretching my loan to 8 years, will be paying 10% lesser than what I am paying now for my SDT 298 E. So the kicker is that I will need to pay for another 8 years for a newer car. That means I will be 54 when I finish paying for it UNLESS I sell it away before then.

However given the major depreciation absorbed by the first owner (almost S$ 30,000), it worked out than this new car will depreciate only S$ 8,500 per year for the next 7 and 1/2 years as I would stand to get about S$ 20,000 in scrap value then.
So in essence, it is depreciating very little per year and I can get a decent price when I decide to sell it, say less than the 8
years left on the COE paper.


Toyota Harrier converted to Lexus RX 300

My Harrier is one car which is big on space and although not that fuel economical, it is powerful (2.4L enginer V6) and could transport my elder Boy Noel and his friends to school (as a car pool) without any problems. It is a workhorse and required very little servicing. It has a very spacious boot area for storing of bulky items and best of all, it is not too long in length whereby it can fit into my car porch area without any major problems. I recall sending it for service once every 4 months and nothing major as far as repairs or parts failure were required. Kudos to the Toyota Marque !

I am a Harrier fan and that is why I got a newer car as proof of my enjoyment in driving it. The car which I call my Lovely, will be remebered with fondness.

SAFRA Half Marathon 16 August 2009

Please see the Link List (if interested) on the analysis of my recent 21km run.

Running Pictures - Past Marathons

2002 SC Half Marathon

This one got me hooked on the sport, I had trained almost 1 year to be able to run this half marathon and after the finish (I recall it was somewhere in the east Coast Park) I was interviewed by Japanese Film Crew for some Visit Singapore Tourist Show. The cameraman was taken by my medal and the interver, a lady asked me how I felt. I said " Good, and next year (2003) I will run the Full Marathon.

In 2003, I did run the Full Marathon in the Penang Bridge Run in a time of 5 hours 16 minutes.

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2005 Army Half Marathon


2005 SC Full Marathon ; about 500 m left to go.

This marathon was full of drama for me, firstly I hit cramps on my left calf leg as early as the 23km mark and hobbled from then on. Around the 30km mark, my right leg calf succummed to cramps and it was then enduring the torture till the finish. To make matters worse,it was an extremely hot day and I doused myself with alot of water so much so I was drenched in water from head to toe. My shoes were squishy due to the soaking and I was determined to break the 5 hour mark.

Near the end, 100m or so I hit the final stretch when the massive cramp pulled my entire hamstring in frontof a few thousand spectators. I fell flat on my front, drew all reserves of remaining energy left, another runner helped me up - AND THEN HE LEFT ME - so I fell down again, consumed by tiredness. All around me were people screaming and the announcer was yelling my bib number 1874 and wanting to inteview me.

The last 50m, I was aided over the finish line by a medic, and I made it with 1 minute to spare. I sat staring into space for almost 45 minutes in the finishers tent too consumed by the events that happened and regained my energy to get up and take the taxi home.

Talk about a dramatic finish, this is it !



2004 Half Marathon at 19 km 500 m. 500 m left to go

I finished this is 2 hours and 30 seconds flat, safe to say this is my Personal Best time to date. I had lost a total of almost 5 kg leading up to this run and weighed in at a very healthy 67kg. My lowest in 20 years !

Monthy Python Meaning of Life - Fighting Each Other

This video is really funny and you finally understand why Britain is no longer called Great Britain. It is that they have lost the focus on winning the hearts and minds of the people,countries and small states which they colonised hundreds of years ago. Now, they are just another Western ex-power wondering where it all went wrong for them.

Enjoy this video where they make a complete disaster of attacking the enemy and in fact end up attacking themselves. One of the funniest sketches from the Monthy Python crew of the 70s and early 80s.

Jason Mraz - Butterfly

Golf and Squash ; 2 Sports As different as Night and Day

Recently, Johnson, a colleague asked me to play a game of squash with him and this is the theme of this blog. Golf, the gentleman's sport where there are 101 rules about everything from the shoes to the dressing to the positioning of the body,to the tee-off, to etiquette on the fairways and greens etc. It embodies the values of honesty,manners of courtesy and behavior and players are fined or penalised for slight misdemeanors such as cursing,or even walking across one's 'line' at the tee.

My opinion of it is that it is a social sport, where the competition is mainly between the player and the golf course .How he pits his game against his handicap score is the fun part. Say I am a 24 handicapper (from previous games on the greens, and I am certified by a professional to be competent), during the game with my friends, I shoot a 86 for a par 72 hole, that is actually 14 above par, but after I deduct my handicap, I am actually playing 10 strokes better than my 24 handicap. So if I play a few more similar excellent games and record these score cards with my home club, my handicap will be knocked down to around 16.This is how it works for the handicap scoring system

The trick with golf is one has to round up a gang of similar minded khakis (mates) and arrange a 'flight' of normally 4 people and book with the golf club one
is attached to. Golf club rules dictate that players must abide by the following before playing a round of 18 holes :

1. Form a group (flight) of 3 or 4 players at a prearranged approved time
2. Show proof of competency (handicap card or Playing Competency card)
3. Be appropriately attired in golf gear and spiked shoes

So the fun starts when all 4 of different playing abilities go on the greens and the 'true' characters of people are revealed. Cheaters (those who put false scores) will be found out very fast and can lose their handicaps and those who are impatient also learn patience - by waiting for their flight mates to a) find their lost balls or b) their flight mates may be hitting the balls in all directions except that of the green so its quite comical to see a bunch of beginners in all kinds of rough and waiting for each other to hit onto the green. Trust me, I have been there and done my fair share of 'gardening' or digging out little tufts of the fairways when my stroke is too deep into the ground. The opposite is the 'airstroke' whereby a "whoosh" sound is made when one totally misses the ball. There is also
many versions of the 'slice' where in the most embarrasing case,one hits the tee off with a full blown swing and expecting to see it soar 150 meters it trickes out off the teetop and rolls say 6 inches.

There is a lot of bantering and joking whenever I play with my golf friends,because of mishits, poor hits and excellent or fluke shots. By the time one takes to finish a round of 18 holes (around 4 hours), one is usually burnt brown by the sun, dehydrated and ready for the 19th hole - which is the watering hole or terrace where the depleted energies are regenerated by copious amounts of beer, isotonic drinks and the local food. Normally we have some betting going on so the 'loser' or the 2 'losers' pay for the dinner / lunch.

Squash, on the other hand is a more gladiator like where 2 palyers enter and 1will emerge victorious. It is seldom a social sport where people hit for fun aganinst the wall. Squash players (or squashers) learn a variety of strokes from basic drive strokes to cross court volleys, from boasts to back of wall lob shots.

Invented in France in the early 1500s, the game has evolved over the centuries to incorporate even doubles play (4 people, 2 per team) play.However, for most players, it is 2 per game. Again, there are basic rules to abide befors stepping into the court :

1. Non-marking shoes must be worn before entering the court
2. Players must be attired in all-white (some clubs)
3. Use of yellow or double yellow rubber squash balls are preferred

Again through playing with my partners over the last 20 years (its 10 years since I picked up my racket to play a decent game), it is always about winning the point and fighting for every point with no quarter asked or given.

Now that I am in my mid to late 40s, and with the flesh not so willing, perhaps I may have to develop a 'social squash' mindset where hitting the ball is already an achievement. Or then again maybe not ?

Integrated Resorts ready in 2010

3 blocks of the Iconic Looking Sands Tower almost completed

By the beginning of 2010, Singapore will have its first Integrated Resort Gaming Facility located at the Marina South just next to the floating platform. The second, managed by Resorts World, will be ready by 2011 located in Sentosa. Sands of Las Vegas, whose chairman is Sheldon Sands has placed his bets on gambling in this 'fine' country where there are fines aplenty from spitting to smoking to littering.

It is a contradiction in a sense that the ultra prim and proper Singapore, wants to pursue the gambling dollar.However, the Government having thought long and hard and elicited feedback from all areas such as religious groups, various intrerest groups and the man in the street, decided on a "YES PROCEED" vote in 2007. This is being true to their pragmatic nature, had decided that they wanted to "have their cake and eat it".

The Government has probably had their think tank models and scenario models out a long time ago and decided that the 'pillar' of manufacturing will not be as strong as before and will probably shrink massively in the coming years, hence, the need for new skillsets and mindsets and hence the decided on the gaming and entertainment industry.

Now there are up to 30,000 jobs being dangled for Singaporeans (and Malaysians) displaced by the Financial Crisis such as Croupier, Concierge, Limo Driver, Asst Sales Associate, and alot of other related jobs in the tourism and hotel industry.

Gambling and its related ills like gambling addiction leading to family breakdown will have to be managed. The Institute of Mental Health has spent untold sums of money visiting places like Las Vegas and Macau to study the effects of excessive gambling and how spiralling debt will spell disaster to the family unit. How the casinos can manage to get the finances of problem gamblers and persuade them not to continue now but in years to come (say 5 years) will determine whether Singapore's move into the IRs is indeed successful.

In the bigger scheme of things, there are the new restaurants, Seaworld and Universal Studios to look forward to.I was a small time gambler (during my NS days), but my forays will be limited to the buffet table. My gambling luck has always been 'so - so'.

Neither Win Big or Lose Big. Perhaps its time I seriously reviewed this Mindset if I am to learn from the Big Boys like Goldman Sachs - see earlier post on "Lessons from Goldman Sachs Turnaround "