For Art Lovers

This is Fernando Botero's "Still Life with Violin".

It's the kind of art that appreciates ten thousand times after the death of the artist.

The original of this particular piece of art now graces an office in Jalan Sultan Ismail. It's lovely to see this little glimmer of light to bring a little glow into our neck of the cultural swamp.

Who is this benefactor of the arts? None other than the chairman of MAS, our national carrier.

This man with the rare artistic soul purchased well over 1.5million MYR worth of paintings to upgrade the class of his newly renovated office. Well, when the renovation of the office alone costs 841,515 MYR, only dead man's art can do it justice.


But didn't MAS just post 368Million MYR of losses in the last quarter?


Any one would think, "What the hell, man?! 368 million??"

Why don't they just hire me on as a consultant! I'll only charge them 50k for one golden piece of advice: "Spend 50k to contract a hit on the dumb-ass running MAS, and for a mere 100k investment, MAS will save 2.3million and MORE!"


Maybe there's something in the news to say what's happening.... A search for Datuk Munir will turn up this police investigation.

Defamation? What's this email that he doesn't want people to see?

Well, look no further: MAS, the flying buffet.

Dream

You know how a song can just speak to you ?

I never, never had a dream come true
Without you, the world out there is painted shades of blue....

Here's the new Borders (3rd in Asia) that just walking distance from my apartment.

That brings the running count of bookstores within 25min walk of my house to:
2x Popular
2x MPH
1x Times
1x Borders

Life is freaking sweet....

Malaysian Bank Base Lending Rate at 6.25%

BOOYA!!

Just got back from Melbourne from a 2wk holiday. Still trying to catch up on what I've missed here.

Naturally, the office internet took a turn for the worse the moment I left. With the absence of the Alpha Male, two computers and one notebook immediately revolted, and the users left without internet use for the entire duration I was gone...

I have a theory that even silicon has a kind of sentience, cos how else can I explain why some things will work only in my presence and then loose its will to live when I'm gone.


And I just found out that the BLR went up 0.25% last week.

This is relevant to all those who are paying for a house...

The Base Lending Rate has gone up 0.25% last week.


All those people who have consulted with me for mortgage advice... I had been advising a Fixed Rate Loan (like AIA's 5.99% Fixed).

Because our BLR of 6% was the lowest we've ever seen in M'sia for the past few decades! (Well, yea, S'pore has a BLR of 4% with most banks giving loans at BLR-1.00%... but that's a BAD sign of things to come!)

Yet most people are optimistic that interest rate can get cheaper still.

The US Federal Reserve thrashed the Fed Funds Rate to 1% to recover from the crash of technology stocks a few years ago. At the same time, real estate skyrocketed, bank borrowings increased, inflation went through the roof. And for the past 2.5 years, they've been raising rates by 0.25% every time they meet. Most anticipated that they'll stop raising at 4%, but they just went up to 4.25% yesterday.


The Malaysian BLR had been lagging & holding steady during this time, and I anticipated a rate increase before the end of this year.

And here we have it.

Loan rates have gone up, but why not the Fixed Deposit rate!? I've been putting my cash in 1mth FD, just waiting for this...



So what does a 0.25% increase mean? Assuming you're not increasing your monthly payments, it means your 30yr loan is now a 32yr loan. You're paying an extra rm14,000 on a 100k loan.


Oh, and in the last 1.5yr, my gold investment has gained more than 25%... If only I had invested more than rm250... But the roof over my head had seemed a safer investment at the time. But a rm50 profit is still a rm50 profit.

BUNNINGS!!!

Went for a 1hr walk to a nearby shopping centre on the other side of a river.

A walk down orderly streets, along well groomed gardens. Breathing crisp fresh air. Down a rolling valley to a jogging trail alongside the bank of the Maribyrnong River. Across a sturdy cantilevered footbridge. Over fresh waters as clean as a ditch in Singapore, and just slightly murkier than Selangor tap water. Meeting an old man walking his Corgi, a man with a beagle and a snow-dog, joggers, bikers...

Houses here are low bungalows, never overly large, and diverse in design. 2 storey houses are rare. I speculate this is for heating economy. Cars are mostly kept in garages, instead of clogging up the common road like in PJ. No one fences up their property, except for privacy between neighbours. Whereas at home, even the middle class have to grill up every window, double bolt their doors, double lock the gate, and put spiky things all around the perimeter, or else jobless aliens will slash wrists, snatch purses, withdraw your assets or deposit their semen somewhere uncomfortable.

It's wonderful being able to walk down a street without keeping your guard up constantly, and to sleep with your guard down. It saddens me to think how long before we can reclaim this basic right in Malaysia...


And on that other side of the river, is a Bunning's. That's a hardware store bigger than a Tesco or a Carrefoure from KL.

I felt like Homer Simpson in Candyland...

Power tools... ***drooooool***~~~

Mitre saws, table saws, circular saws, jig saws, belt sanders, orbital sanders, routers, planers, drills, angle grinders, bench grinders, air compressors, NAIL GUNS!!!

The bigger problem is how to bring all that I desire back to KL.......

Where's My Cow?

Popped into the city.

While my sister brought my parents on a tram-ride around the city, I was deposited in a bookstore to read Where's My Cow?