The Cars I have driven over the last 20 years (1996 - 2005)

Side view of the Toyota Harrier 

        In 1994, I started my first business with 2 friends from University. Times were hard, and we worked long hours, and we made do with little then. My eldest boy Noel was born in 1994, and my business was slowly but surely growing. In 1996, I decided that as a small businessman, I could finally afford a Mercedes, do after doing my sums and looking around in the newspapapers, found, a 190E (2 litre) Special which was selling for about S$ 90,000 (if I recall correctly). The car was about 2 years old. 

    It was white, and was the baby of the E class series then.  I had a young child, another kid on the way, and things were looking good. That was in 1996. In June 1997, I remember, I went to Germany for the Worldwide Sales training of my then principal, and they asked something about the 'Asian economic 'flu'. ASEAN was riding on a strong economic wave, and people were making alot of money from the stock market and also property, so we said, "No problem, its only some problem in Thailand". Little did we know that 6 months from June in Jan 2008, was the start of the Asian Financial Crisis.

      After a good 10 - 15 years of solid economic growth (1982 - 1997), S.E. Asia was touted as the 'darling' of investors worldwide, and modernity had come to all the cities. People were flush with cash and took excess credit to buy things that they never had. Countries did the same things too borrowing more than they could afford to finance their infrastructures and coffers. We all know what happened next, Asian currencies went spiralling and bouncing up and down from the Financial Crisis.

     I drove the Merc through all of it, thick and thin. It was fairly reliable, servicing costs were reasonable, and I made several trips with the family and friends to Malacca. In 1997, my second boy Andrew was born. So the Merc was a reliable workhorse for me. After 2000 (4 years after I bought it), it showed signs of age, and servicing became more common. I had an unforgettable battery failure in 1999 at Orchard Link (going on to Orchard Road), where the 2 lanes became only 1 lane, after my car battery died on me. It may have caused me the most unforgettable stress in a long while, as my car breakdown had caused a massive traffic jam, and many drivers drove by and gave me glaring looks !!

      I finally sold the car in 2002, after I realised that the old car (8 years) was costing me a lot in terms of service. Every 2 months there was some problem or other, so it was time for a change. 

      That would be my Nissan Sunny. Ever dependable and really a workhorse.      

The cars I have driven over the years (1987-1996)

       The time has come, again for me to change my car. I have driven the 2 latest models of the Toyota Harrier  and can safely say that the Japanese marques that I have driven over the last 20 odd years are far more reliable that the European marques. 

        My first car was the Alpha Romeo 33 TI (black in colour) was bought brand new in 1987. Although it looked cool for a (then) young guy like me, it was fine to drive for the first 3 years. The problems started surfacing after 3 years or 60,000 km. There were electrical fuses which blew very often, there was almost overheating of the radiator, and even the power windows died on me. On top of that, I foolishly chose a black colour car which everybody knows absorbs heat. (Black body radiator, and black hole remember ?)  So some of my friends from Germany, like Frank and his family, were ecstatic when I first drove the 'performance' car, but the heat,the non-cooling aircon and the non-power steering for the 1.5 L car took its toll on my guests. After one ride in my sports car, the Europeans were begging to sit in a cooler car !

          The 'plus' points for the car was that it was in the 'sports' category, TI meaning something injection, and had 4 horizontally opposed cylinders which made it quite powerful. I was contemplating the Mazda 3 sports series, and decided then on the 33 because it had a solid feel to it, the road handling was excellent (Italy's roads are like winding for hundreds of miles around mountains, and near the coast, so one wrong move and your car goes over the cliff literally, so road holding was very good. On top of that, the gear shift, was quite a challenge, plus the 3 (yes 3) pedals, for those who don't drive or have never driven a manual car, the clutch, brake and accelerator pedals were positioned very close to each other, giving the shortest reaction time for the driver to accelerate, brake and change gear.  It was a dream to drive it for the first 2 years or so. I drove it for a full 6 years, and decided that enough was enough. The front drive shaft was falling apart and I sold it with some relief in 1993. 

            My second car, was a Honda Civic bought in 1993. I bought it from  a friend for $ 93,000, and truth be told, it wasn't as 'sexy' as the 33 TI, but it was so reliable. I recall I had '0' issues driving this car. It was less powerful that the 33 TI, but the reliability gave me a real 'peace of mind'. I only had to send the car for servicing maybe every six months or so. It was far cheaper than the 33 TI to maintain, and it was sparkling grey in colour.  The transmission was automatic, so it was a brainless brake and accelerated control, plus there was power steering, a God send for a 1.6 L car. I have had only good memories of driving the Honda Civic and sold it with some regret in 1996, after  I started my first new business, had a family and things seemed to be going well. So I decided to upgrade. 

          That, in itself is another story. 

These men have nothing, except a positive attitude and a hope that tomorrow is a better day

To market, to the factory, anywhere but here 

          Recently, my business had a setback which could have made many people shy away from continuing, but I have a strong will and positive attitude to turn the setback into the perfect opportunity. We came into this world with nothing, except our intelligence which God bestowed upon us, our physical and mental capacities, and life experiences. However, what many successful people have is the "I can do it" spirit which means "never say die".

          If these young Indian men, who are sitting on a cart going to market with nothing but a hope and a prayer, why should I worry or be unhappy with my position in life ? Take the new opportunities with both hands and make ourselves into the NEXT BIG THING.

          Never lose sight of my goals, despite the setbacks, I will get there !! 

How do you tell if a stall or a restaurant serves good tasting and value for money food ?

By the length of its queue of course ! 

           I have reached the age where I feel that life is too short to be drinking cheap wine, eating lousy and fast food and wasting precious time on pandering to other people's expectations. Food, which is tasty, should also (ideally) contain as little pork fat, ghee (animal fat), butter, and as little reused cooking oils as possible. It should also have some fibre, and offer as lean a cut of meat as possible offering protein, calcium and some carbohydrates. As little processed food, like nitrites, sodium phospates and preservatives as possible.


          Also, I try to eat everything in moderation, and drink as many as 10 glasses of water per day.


          Nutrients would be from fresh fruit and vegetables, plus my daily dose of health supplments.


           That would leave me with steamed fish, fresh fruits, muesli, and certain high end restautants which  cost up to $50 per person just for 1 meal !  I am joking of course. I do enjoy hawker food, but have abstained totally from the following due to the high amounts of fats and oils :


a) Char kway teow
b) Oyster omelette
c) Mutton soup (Soup Kambing)
d)  Most lab dishes 
e) Curries (limited to perhaps 1 x a month)
f) Fast food like KFC, Old Chang Kee, Macdonalds, and Buger King


        As I approach the big 5 - 0, I think, a complete overhaul of my eating preferences and dietary habits are due. 


        Health is indeed wealth. Seize the Day. Carpe Diem.  

Easter Sunday - a misnomer or wrong choice of title

Today is the day Christians around the world celebrate the ascension of Jesus Christ from the dead. He was crucified on a Friday (Good Friday), for no apparent reason by the Roman occupiers of Israel and died, entombed. 


On the Sunday, 2 disciples and Mary Magdelene went to the tomb to clean it, to their amazement, the tomb door made of solid rock was moved aside and the wrappings around his body were strewn inside.


He appeared in front of many people people before he went up to Heaven, and that is why Christians around the world celebrate his rebirth or Resurrection. So in actual fact, it is called Resurrection Sunday. 


Easter happens to be a pagan (no religion) festival which occurs at the start of each Spring,parents hide the chocolate eggs for their kids to find  and enjoy. It was a convenient way to coincide Easter with Resurrection Sunday, as it as easier to pronounce I guess.   

Budapest visit 3 years ago

Tibor and Tunde

In June 2009, my wife and I visited Budapest on the invitation of our friend Tibor Csombordi, who is the boss of the company Amtest, Hungary. It was after our 4 days visit to Paris, and Budapest was raining, unfortunately. We arrived by Maglev Air, the national airline, and were picked up at the airport by our friends. 

                                                                   Chain Bridge  

 Our hosts, Tibor and Tunde, were wonderful guides and they brought us to St.Anne's      church in downtown Budapest, and later to the Chain Bridge overlooking the Danube river. Hungary is fast developing and they have many lovely places to visit, such as Lake Balaton,the downtown Budapest market and up to the Buda castle.

Budapest or Buda - Pes! is so called, because, the rich nobles lived on the high point on the south of the river, called Buda, while the poorer people lived by the river's edge, or Pes!,

Signs of the 1967 uprising, when Hungary was part of the USSR, and the holes were caused by  machine guns

In 1967 there was a Spring Uprising in Hungary, which was bloodily put down by the Soviets as Hungary was part of the then USSR which has now been broken up into many undependent countries. The memories of that uprising are still fresh, as many Hungarians still hold on to their Communist beliefs even though it has been almost 20 years since the breakup of the Soviet Union.

                   

Vietnam 37 years after the Vietnam War

Kannan outside the Basillica, modeled after the Notre Dame in France

          This is a revisit of Ho Chi Minh city, which I did with my colleague Kannan last year, sometime in May if I recall correctly. This was the 2nd visit for me, and I noticed that while the traffic was just as horrible as the first time around, there was evidence of more high end cars such as the Porsches and Mercedes Sports cabriolets.


          The country has developed very quickly after the 1997 Asian Crisis, whereby the Military Government has allowed lassaisz faire business to operate in a free market fashion.There are many tourist attractions in and around Ho Chi Minh city, such as the Banh Tenh market, the Cu Chi Tunnels which housed the Freedom Fighters or Viet Cong, the monuments celebrating Marxism and the Reunification Palace (see below).

The people of Vietnam are a proud people, and history will show that they won the war against the major superpower of the day, USA, against superior technology, firepower,chemical weaponry and sometimes downright genocide. As stated so eloquently by Marlon Brando in his epic Apocalypse Now, he said something to this effect :


" the side which can embrace the horrors of the war will win "


        War is dirty, horrific and tragic. Whoever can break through the psychological barrier of sanity and embrace or accept the insanity of the deeds done, even though their are many Rules of Engagement during war, as stated in the Geneva Convention, will ultimately prevail.


         After my last visit to Ho Chi Minh, and visiting the Vietnam War Museum, viewing the horrific torture chambers and prisons which the US army had and illtreated the Vietcong, all in the name of 'freedom and democracy', I had a major paradigm shift, or an 'Ah Ha !' moment.


         In the name of freedom and democracy,there are countries controlling other smaller ones for their ultimate political,social or business agendas. Its never about 'democrary' or 'freedom', unfortunately. 


        Look at the USA, it is technically bankrupt, its leaders are chosen from bipartisan parties either the Republican or the Democrat Party, and the leaders have to make good on the promises they gave to their backers who funded them during the election run-up. Is this a good thing ?  Definately not. They may even push though populist policies which seem good for the short run, and in the long run bankrupt the country.


       The USA is a dangerous and degenerating place, in certain states, it is legal to bear arms or carry weapons to protect oneself, in the name of freedom. So if everyone is packing a weapon, what happens when a heated argument occurs, or when someone loses his cool, or snaps ? There are many cases of young teenagers killing dozens of schoolmates, senseless, all in the name of Freedom. Remember Virginia Tech, the Asian schoolboy with a crazy attitude, and went out to massacre close to 30 students. Do you see anything remotely similar in any other 'less free' country ??


        Gangs still rule in many cities, homeless people are everywhere, there are Tent Cities, Food Kitchens, Occupy Main Street, jobless MBA graduates, entire neighbourhoods burned down by the banks who have reposessed the entire block and not finding any buyers, decided to tear down everything, and leave the ground bare, else, there will be destitute people breaking in and squatting. The amount of people moving in a downward spiral runs into the tens of millions, generations after generations have lesser and lesser oportunities of breaking out of the poverty cycle. What is wrong with this society ? 


Plenty   - see above. 


         Vietnam is still run by communist leaders. People are generally happy, there is little or no beggars in the city. There is enough food to feed everyone, it is safe to walk the streets at night. People are generally happy, prosperity is coming to the citites. What is wrong with this system ?   30 odd years later ?


Nothing.    


Do not believe what you read in the popular 'news'. Who is running it and what are their agendas ?? Think carefully.