Hello Everyone in the Financial Blogosphere.
Happy Halloween & Deepavali week.
Have been very busy lately with work, some personal projects, family and friends. Hence it’s been awhile since my last update. One of my loyal reader friends asked me lately how come he never see my article lately. I am very touched by his asking and decided to update despite the busy schedule.
My last Rolf’s H2F3 update is in July. Read below:
HEALTH
Nothing really to report. So it is good news, with no news! Our family’s health are all good. Weight wise, I am still heavy at 79 Kg. Hope to shave off 3-4 Kg. , Covid closure of gym is not helping. At least this is the excuse I am giving myself. Haha….
HOBBIES (LEISURE)
While muscle become flabbier, I did do a lot of walking and occasional swimming and table tennis. However, age is catching up and my knees are no longer good for recreational level competitive table tennis.
One of the best things I have experienced during covid period is my newfound hobby of hiking away from the hustle and bustle of life. I also walk around many landed properties in Singapore. Often, I am overawe by how rich Singaporeans are, with big and beautiful houses. One most memorable trips is to Ubin cycling and hiking. The last time I was there is 1996 where clean toilets are hard to find. Nowadays it is really different with nice pathways and sufficient toilets along the way. Ferry Terminal from Changi Village is really nice too. Boat ride is $4 per pax, and bicycle rental full-day starts from $8 to $15.
Below are some pics.
Ubin
Century Lychee Tree in Singapore
Richie Rich Area
Animals
FAMILY & FRIENDS
Felt a bit sorry for my kids as they are growing up during this covid period where many school excursions are no longer possible. Pictures and performance all have to be taken with masks or do online without parent’s physical presence. That is so frustrating. Even sports CCAs have to be performed using Zoom. How can you learn running by not running? BUT… no choice!
Nonetheless, kids are kids with little complains and always happy-go-lucky. Anyway, all my kids are pretty busy, as we still try to have table tennis trainings regularly and they are also having tuitions here and there. And when they are busy, PaPa and Mummy are also very busy fetching them around.
Restaurant dining is “alien” for me and wife lately, let alone my entire family so as to speak. My wife only just completed 2-shot vaccine effectiveness. We were left with no choice but to be home-bound most of the time and restricted to hawker dine in prior to the ridiculous covid measures of “no vaccine no go dine out” rules.
Best Kway Chup & Curry Rice in Singapore (own tastebuds)
Frankly, it is actually not a bad thing as chances of being covid infected decrease. Expenditure also reduced. We were not left with boring life though, as we frequent friends’ house or they will come over, with wine, home-cooked food and lots of good chit chats! One thing I felt very blessed is although “money not a lot”, I do have quite a handful of true friends and it is still growing year-over-year.
FINANCIAL
Career
More and more people are leaving the company. On one hand it is really bad, on the other hand my job feel more secure as company also steer clear of cost cutting measures, at least for now.
Courses
Thanks to skillsfuture, I attended several courses and awarded with certificates in Data analytics, Smart Cities and Artificial intelligence from NTU and SMU. Frankly, the so called digital courses are definitely not as difficult as when I was studying Engineering in NTU. One “killing thing” is having to do the course online with videos on throughout the day!
Anyway, It is mainly for self-interest /improvement and to spend the skillsfuture credits. Frankly, I doubt it will help in my career search in a new sector, as most of the higher position job are for relevant (or many years) industrial experience in the digital, e-commerce IoT, AI space.
How many Singaporeans are there in these fields with 15-20 years experiences, considering our Uni education in late 90s/early 2000s. For those with non-SG MNC experience will know that why most of the high positions are always majority conquered by foreign “talents”. Singaporeans generally have to contend with the lower or mid-position job.
Read:
Portfolio
China crack-down is bad for my portfolio, but thank God, it hasn’t been devastating and overall it is still seeing green. I feel I have too many stocks now, and likely in next few months, I will do some major streamlining. I also update recent stock buy and sell actions soonest.
Ok, that’s it for now.
Wish all of you a happy holiday week ahead.
ooh, i just realised my comment didnt get published. hmm.. i wonder why…
anw, i was asking where that “best kway chup” stall you mentioned is?
reading the (barren) ” Century Lychee Tree” in Singapore section, cracked me up again.
BroFC, the kway chup was from Ser Garden morning market hawker corner stall.
The century Lychee tree is indeed cracking, but no more lychees by the way. LOL!
Brolf,
engineering in NTU is the worst and easily the top most stressful event of my life.
after every exam, i always feel like i am going to “tabao” it. haha..