Competitive Advantage

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One of the important thing to look out for in a good company is competitive advantage. When a company has a competitive advantage, it simply means that it has some edge over its competitor. And when they managed to turn this edge into a monopoly, this is when its stock price will surge. However, do take note that monopolism is under a tight control in Singapore. Recent news has been revealed that there will be some competition in the electricity industry with new players in the market to compete with Singapore Power.

One good example is Iphone. We all know before the launch that IPhone will be a hits among consumers with its sleek design and especially with the Apple logo on it. What is more interesting was that Apple had a deal granting the US telecom operator AT&T exclusive rights in the United States for the iPhone, which can be used to surf the Internet and play music and videos. This is the kind of competitive edge AT&T has over its rivals.

Hence, you can see that their stock price rise significantly over the past 1 year.


 

3 new IPOS within the next few days.

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Check them out here. Look for those whos status is registered.

Did a quick scan of Marco Polo and ARA's prospectus. Their cashflow for the past year is good. Decent earnings. Marco Polo has a nice 12x PE while ARA's is a bit on the high side. PE is a commonly used financial ratio used for fundamentally analysis. Basically it is the price to earnings ratio. The amount of money people are willing to pay for $1 of your share. You can read up more here.

If you have noticed, there is a similar item in their competitive strength, actually this is very commonly used in most IPO prospectus. This is more like a norm that most companies will place in their report rather than a competitive advantage. Now, what you should look for is each of their individual's board of directors' profile. Education wise, it does not matter much as they are already holding a position in the board of directors which is already good enough. More precisely, what you should look out for is whether they are in any of the major public committee, say a member of parliament etc. Below is an example extracted from Cacola's prospectus.

Mr Chau is a member of Dongguan City Committee of the (Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference of Dongguan City) and the (Vice-Chairman of Changping Commercial Association).

Needless to say, we do not know how credible is this or rather hows the status of the committee is, hence one should do his own due diligence via the Internet or any other sources.

Of course the usual disclaimer applys here, PE ratio and board of director's profile are just 2 of the many analysis that people use. Apply them wisely.

Anyway, as mentioned in previous few posts, IPO are mostly based on market sentiments as proven for this year. I will only hold those fundamentally strong IPO, else I will just cash out on the 1st day's trading.

Rokko IPO commenced its trading today and first day closing was a nice healthy 36% gain. Not surprising as its share price was trading at a low $0.25 which is a good price for some speculative plays for all (market aunties uncles etc).

Alright, got a bad flu today and shall take a rest before I do some mugging later at night (If I am strong enough).

 

Weekend Updates

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Didn't have much time to post my weekly updates. Anyway just a short one here.

Was studying the library when I decided to leave my seat and go for some Internet surfing (Checking my stocks actually). Went away for about 2 hours and when I came back I got this.


Nothing much for the weekends. Saturday just went to get Li Ling's cranberry and tried out some G2000 shirt because my sister got 50% discount but didn't find any nice shits. Sunday we went to send Ben off to LA at the airport. Took some photos with his Sony touchscreen camera. Waiting for the photos to be sent over. I think it will take some time cause its from LA to Singapore.

 

Reading 2 - 1 Newcastle United

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Premier League
Final - Madejski Stadium Attendance: 24,119
Reading 2 - 1 Newcastle
Dave Kitson (53)
Shane Long (84)
Michael Duberry (og 76


 

8 Tips for Charming Your Prospective In-laws

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Hey, "Don't worry, they're going to love you!" Well, sort of. The surest way to charm the in-laws is to be yourself -- your best self! Remember, you're going for a job interview, and you want to secure the position of beloved daughter-in-law, not "what ever happened to that girl who drank too much Chardonnay and showed us her....?" You get the point.
With this in mind, here are eight sure-fire ways to enchant your in-laws from the get-go:
  1. Compliment your partner by telling an incredible story about his talents: his solution to the graphic design problem at work saved the company hundreds of dollars -- maybe billions of dollars! Just look at how well your in-laws raised their smart, frugal, disciplined son. Flattery gets you everywhere.
  2. Make your first meeting(s) brief. You're not as charming as Kelly Ripa, as hilarious as Ellen, or jovial as Al Roker -- and these people only grace our lives for a few hours each morning.
  3. Clarify the name game. If your in-law introduces herself as "Penny-pants," you are free to use the nickname. Otherwise, you can address her as Penelope like the rest of the world. Whatever your in-laws call themselves, you call 'em right back. You're like a parrot. A lovely, polite, savvy parrot.
  4. Hey Nitwit! Don't pretend to be an expert. If you know zilch about string theory and you're sharing a table with physicists, don't prattle on that the theory hasn't technically been proven (Einstein only alluded to it.) You're out of your element. And it's killing them.
  5. Channel Ms. Emily Post: Be on time. Bear a small, thoughtful gift. Write a thank-you note. Remember, now is not the time to argue the virtues of medical marijuana, answer your cell phone, or run your hand up your sweetie's pant leg.
  6. Don't criticize, over-clarify, or interrupt your significant other in front of his family. They know that he yammers ceaselessly about the misdiagnosis of his irritable bowel syndrome and how Battlestar Galactica is the best-underrated show on TV. But if you get on his case, they'll label you a nag and defend their son like so many slavering she-wolves who also love Battlestar Galactica.
  7. Don't take sides in family disputes. Embody Switzerland. To avoid having to weigh in on whether the South should have won the civil war, direct conversation toward a happier topic. Didn't your sweetie once sing in a boy's choir? Isn't that precious?
  8. Give a toy to their beloved family pet, even if "Morsels" bites and doesn't like "women who wear long skirts." This pet is above you in the family hierarchy. Swallow your Claritin, and accept that all conversations will be interrupted by "Oh my god! That's the cutest thing" and "Did you see that?" and "Sorry! Let me go get you some antibacterial ointment for that."
Breathe. Relax. And start asking your partner questions now about his family. This way, you'll be prepared with the perfect conversation starters ("You guys just bought a Yamaha motorbike, huh? Tell me about it!"); the mental list of pet peeves (his sister has no time for "cat people"); and the foreknowledge of any "idiosyncrasies" that might crop up (like when his mom opens the door wearing her Navajo headdress. Don't blink, you knew that was coming.) Be prepared.

Source.

 

Facebook is so complicated

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Facebook is so complicated. I have so many requests which I have no idea what each of them means and I do not wanna waste time finding out. Can someone spoon feed me? I am computer idiot.

 

Singapore gets in-principle approval to host F1 night race

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SINGAPORE: Singapore will host the first Formula One night race next year.

The sport's governing body, FIA, has given the in-principle approval to Singapore to host the September 28 race under the floodlights.

Lighting trials have been conducted overseas to assess if a night race could be staged in Singapore.

Singapore had earlier said that a night race will be unique, different and allow the Singapore event to reach out to television audiences in Asia, Europe and the US.

Singapore would proceed with a night race only if the safety and operational requirements of all parties, including the FIA, FOA and Formula 1 teams, were fully met.

Source.

Yes Singapore gonna host the 1st ever night race. A big boost for tourism industry for the next 5 years. Look out for SIA, Lifebrandz, FJ Ben stocks etc..

 

F4+1 Outing Photos

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Alright this is it. The moment you being waiting for. The photos from our F4+1 outing are here.

We met at Serangoon Bus Interchange at 1100hrs supposedly but someone was late, he woke up when we gave him a call few minutes before 1100hrs. I won't say who. Then we proceeded to fetch Li Ling at her house because she is girl so she has the privilege (don't envy). All went accordingly to plan, we had our breakfast, movie, tea break, dinner and kbox. Alright, lets not bored you all with words, we shall go straight to the photos.

Took some snapshots of them during the initial drove to Geylang for our breakfast.Finally reached the place for our breakfast. We looked happy from the picture below cause we are really hungry. No special meaning.
Finally got hold of our crispy and tasty you tiao. Some are over-fried though.
The xiao long bao doesn't taste that fantastic at all. Prefer crystal jade's anytime. Who ordered this?And to prove that we went according to our itinerary, we took a photo with the signboard.Next stop, tea break at coffee bean. Ordered Chicago Cheesecake and blueberry ice blended. Cheesecake was nice but didn't really liket he drink, too sour for me.Our dinner was at Cafe Cartel, Roy's favourite dining place.(?) Ben, its only 7pm, don't close your eyes.
Wendy looks cute in this picture, smiling without showing teeth. haha
Looks like Ben and me have same hairstyle taste while Roy and Gavin has their own too. Why? Cause Ben and me like to cover our foreheard with hair while Roy and Gavin like to style up their fringe.
Again, to prove that we went accordingly to itinerary, we took a snapshot of the food at Cafe Cartel. Now, if you don't believe those food are belong to Cafe Cartel, well I can only say "Ni Heng Xun Leh". I'm hungry again, typing this as the time is close to midnight. argh wheres my supper!!
Cafe Cartel is really generous with the serving of their food. Not very fantastic taste but it was enjoyable dinner with the big portions of serving.
Yes, we did go to ktv and of course how can we miss this MTV song. Now, sing with GUSTO and PRIDE. pei ni qu kan you xin yu..luo zai zhe di qiu shang....Love Duet.Our ge sheng (God of Songs). He can really sing well. Well, better than me. (okok, I know I cannot sing well.)RAAHHHHH!!!To cap it off, we left the kbox at around 2am. The carpark was empty and suddenly something strike my mind. See below.Can you guess what is coming up?"Ok guys, listen to my command..""wah lau eh how long must we wait..."There you go. Hey Roy, lag sia you...Lets do it again. Roy again.. and Gavin... arghOne more chance. Come on Roy, are you on 56k?YEAH! Finally made it. Nice pose there Gavin haha wth is that... Photos below are made by Roy Tan©. (Take note of the copyright sign, this is serious shit)This is nice. So professionally done. Thumbs up.
And thats about all we have. To sum up for the whole outing, other than someone being late and someone who was button-happy, occupied the ktv song queues with so many of his songs, hell it was fun and enjoyable. The movie we wanted to watched initially was some thai boxing show but it was postponed to a later date which I don't know why. We were sad but not so sad. (wth) Instead, we watched someone bad ass show which was given a rating of 4/5 from me because the show managed to keep me on my seats for the whole duration. (duh...) The popcorn was poor though, ordered 2/3 salted but apparently it only had 1/3 salted. And it was not salty enough. Thumbs down for their popcorn.

Alright I shall stop here. I hereby, on half of F4+1, wishes Ben a bon voyage trip to California. Have fun there, remember to blog, take photos of you, yourself, the city, the people, the blonde, the food and everything. See you back in Singapore next year. We shall have another F4+1 outing when you are back with us. And hopefully this time round, someone will not commit the same mistakes again. :P

oh ya I forgot to mention. We did not complete our itinerary, in fact only 2 members of the group completed it and they left us out! ARGH#*#$^)(#^$. They actually went to have prata supper after sending 3 of us home. Like that means what? Like that means disband liao lor. Me ish very du lan with them lor, hor Roy? Still gather what F4+1 outing next year? Disband lah...

 

Newcastle United 3 - 1 Tottenham Goals Highlight Video

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Premier League
Final - St James' Park Attendance: 51,411
Newcastle 3 - 1 Tottenham
Obafemi Martins (45)
Claudio Cacapa (51)
James Milner (73)

Robbie Keane (57)












Last one got from youtube.

 

Stupid Logic Design!!!

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Stupid lab report which requires hand written. Total of 8 pages written. Took me 3-4 hours to finish argh.


The above picture is a circuit that I connected for one of my lab experiment. Its just the 4th lab experiment of this subject and I spent some precious 6 hours to complete a 2 hours experiment. But the feeling of getting it done is great. However, there are more to come. This is only the 1st year, 1st semester, 4th lab experiment. Pray for me.

This is the spot which every morning around 830am will allow the sun to shine through and straight to my face. I finally covered it once and for all. Cheers.

 

New pilot system may result in cheaper electricity for consumers

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SINGAPORE: The way you pay your electricity bills will soon be very much like topping up a pre-paid card.

This is possible under a S$3 million pilot scheme that allows small consumers such as households to switch between electricity retailers.

In fact, consumers will only pay for electricity as and when they need it.

Over the next 2 years, the market regulator will be piloting this new system, known as the Electricity Vending System (EVS), that aims at opening up competition in the market for households and small businesses.

There is no monthly bill. Instead, consumers top up credits on a pre-paid card.

"Under the new vending system, there should be more choices for consumers - from whom they want to buy electricity, ... to how much energy they want to use a day," explained Khoo Chin Hean, chief executive of Singapore's Energy Market Authority (EMA).

There are currently five electricity vendors in Singapore - Keppel Electricity, SembCorp Power, Tuas Power, Senoko Energy and PowerSeraya.

Full Story here.

Don't we just like the phrase "opening up competition in the market"? As the saying goes, consumers stands to gain when there are tighter competition. However, current problems suggested that what if forgetful consumers forget to top-up their pre-paid card and the electricity goes off in the nick of time?

 

The Guys' Rules

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The Guys' Rules
At last a guy has taken the time to write this all down.

Finally , the guys' side of the story.
( I must admit, it's pretty good.)
We always hear " the rules "
From the female side.

Now here are the rules from the male side.
These are our rules!
Please note.. these are all numbered "1"
ON PURPOSE!

1. Men are NOT mind readers.

1. Shopping is NOT a sport.
And no, we are never going to think of it that way.

1. Crying is blackmail.

1. Ask for what you want.
Let us be clear on this one:
Subtle hints do not work!
Strong hints do not work!
Obvious hints do not work!
Just say it!

1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do.
Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1. A headache that lasts for 17 months is a Problem.

See a doctor.

1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument.
In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 Days.

1. If you won't dress like the Victoria 's Secret girls, don't Expect us to act like soap opera guys.

1. If you think you're fat, you probably are.
Don't ask us.

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one

1. You can either ask us to do something
Or tell us how you want it done.
Not both.
If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

1. Whenever possible, Please say whatever you have to say during commercials.

1. Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and neither do we.

1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings.
Peach, for example, is a fruit, not A color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say "nothing," We will act like nothing's wrong.
We know you are lying, but it is just not wor th the hassle.

1. If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, Expect an answer you don't want to hear.

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine. Really .

1. Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as baseball, the shotgun formation,
or golf.

1. You have enough clothes.

1. You have too many shoes.

1. I am in shape. Round IS a shape!

1. Thank you for reading this, especially my dear.

Yes, I know, I will take the sofa tonight.

 

Confusion over Money Numbers

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My mystery MSN friend asked me this question.

一百万 = 1 million
一千万 = 10 million
than 830 million = ?

I decided to post here so that all my readers can refresh their memory or learn from it.

10, 000 = Ten Thousand = 一万
100,000 = One Hundred Thousand = 十万
1,000,000 = One Million = 一百万
10,000,000 = Ten Million = 一千万
100,000,000 = One Hundred Million = 一亿
1,000,000,000 = One Billion = 十亿

 

Life in China, Singapore and America

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The message below is extracted from Mr Tan Kin Lian's blog which I find is very informative so I would like to share this with my readers, specially dedicated to Ben.

MESSAGE FROM A CHINA STUDENT STUDYING IN AMERICA

The life here is pretty different with China or Singapore. I do enjoy the life here, but I do not like some aspect of the American style life.

Most Americans will drive even there is only five minutes walk. They use dryer to dry clothes instead of natural sunlight, even in New Mexico, where there are strong sunlight in 360 days a year!

They drive instead of walking, use washer instead of washing clothes by hands, but they pay a lot of money to go to the gym!

They also eat too much and consume too much energy. I read from somewhere that the energy consumed by an American is 7 times of an Asian.

If you do not have a car, your life will be hard here. You even can not go to supermarket to buy groceries! The public transportation is very poor and the distance from one place to another is very far. It is very different from what I used to in China.

In many aspects, Singapore is more advanced than the States. Most of the system in Singapore is always very simple and user friendly.

In America, it is not always the case, but still much better than China. About the life style, the Singaporean style is also more economic efficient and environmental friendly.

I think the MRT in Singapore may be the best in the world. Singapore is like a small lab and many smart people are trying smart ideas there. I may go back to Singapore after I work 3-5 years in the States.

 

Updates on F4+1 Gathering

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Please take note that the RV time has been changed to 1100hours due to weather forecast. Apparently, it was predicted by Roy Ten that Friday night might be raining, hence our dear Tok Quan might not be able to wake up on time. This calls for an emergency meeting at 171007 2020hours, venue MSN. Itinerary will not be updated again as it has been sent out. We do not want to waste extra resources.

Another update. Yesterday soccer friendly against Hall 11 was bad. Bad play by our team but was predicted correctly. We played the 1st 30min under rain and last 30min under minimum light. In summary, much much more practice and training need to put in before we can seriously mount a challenge.

Also, I did not manage to be allocated a single lot for China Oilfield yesterday. Today's opening was around $1.00, highest was $1.20 almost 100% gain in a single day. Volume was extremely high as overall market sentiments even before the trading has been great for this stock for the same reason I mentioned before.

Better days ahead!

 

Tip Top Curry Puff

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Sorry for the poor quality

In today's Digital Life Page 16, my blog was mentioned in the paper on my post on the Tax Evasion by the Famous Tip Top Curry Puff owner. For readers who would like to read the full post, heres the link. Thanks whoever reported it and published it in the paper. It makes my day.

And before I was notified of this by my friend (thanks Gavin Teo), earlier in the morning at 9am sharp when the SGX market open, the first ever IPO that I was allocated, opened at $1.80. Mermaid Maritime's offering price was $1.56, thats a 15% increase! However, I did not sell straight away. Monitor the stock for an hour before letting go at $2.00. A healthy 28% profit. Market sentiments was really bad before the opening as many people were commenting that it was quite a bad IPO at the price of $1.56 with few of their vessels caught on fire this year. Fundamentally, the company is doing just fine but with the high price of $1.56, its riskiness level was high. Hence, I have decided not to keep this stock, selling on profit on the first day. Based on the IPO data from Listedcompany.com, the overall market sentiments for IPO this year is relatively still good especially after the STI broke record new high. So I decided to speculate on this one.

More importantly, my focus is actually on another IPO that will be commencing trading tomorrow. China Oilfield's prospectus looks really good for an IPO with an offering price of $0.60. Their business has high level of entry, management wise, its above average and they have some healthy cashflow operations. Can't wait to check my CDP account tonight for the results.

Just to divert attention back to my personal life, I have a friendly soccer match against Hall 11 later at 6pm. Really hope it will not rain later. Antipating for this match as its our first ever match after 3 training sessions. As a team, I could not see the gel yet but there is still time. We may not have any outstanding players but hey a team with average skills and superb teamwork are stronger as a whole!

Now, will the results of China Oilfield IPO and the outcome of the match made my day? Stay tuned for updates tonight. Cheers :)

 

F4 + 1 Farewell Dinner for Ben

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This post is to notify all members of F4 including +1 now. Take note of the below itinerary. Dress code is white top (and we meant any kinda top) with jeans. No pants and slipper allowed. But if you have decided to play punk and wear the forbidden items, rest assured we will do nothing to you. Cheers :)

Itinerary for 20th Oct 07.


Nice little video contributed by Roy. Thanks for the effort!

 

I love zhu zha tang!!!

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This is the picture of the cute little pink slipper that Wendy bought at AMK Hub.

Isn't it cute?

And I woke up at 8.30am this morning because there is a schedule notice that the electricity will be cut from 9am to 3pm in my hall. So I have to get up before the electricity cut and of course have my bathe 1st before going out. Went past Canteen B only to see that none of the stalls opened. Proceed to Canteen A instead. Again, none of the stalls opened. Nevermind, went up the library and saw it close for Sunday. argh wasted my trip. Decided to go Jurong Point's mac to have my breakfast and study there.

Decided to go back hall at 3pm, I went up the foodcourt to eat my favourite Zhu Zha Tang.

Yes, I love their chilli! So spicy and tasteful. Again, I ate and sweat profusely.

Oh by the way, the pillow is so huggable and comfortable!

 

England 3 - 0 Estonia

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European Championship Qualifying: Group E
Final - Wembley Stadium Attendance: 86,655
England 3 - 0 Estonia
Shaun Wright-Phillips (11)
Wayne Rooney (32)
Taavi Rahn (og 33)


 

Weekend Updates

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Just some update over the weekend after a busy week as usual.


Selected to join my hall's Dinner & Dance committee as Business Manager. Responsible for finding sponsors and canvassing along with 2 other unknown people which I will know next Wednesday for our first meeting. Apart from that, I am also joining the Inter-Hall competitions for games like Soccer, Volleyball and Snooker.

Decided to stay over at my dear's house on Friday night as we both have commitments on Sat and Sun. After my lesson ends at 5.30pm, I quickly rush straight to AMK for some shopping at AMK Hub. We had our dinner at Stick Rice. Ordered Baby Kailan, Pandan Chicken, Tom Yam soup and LemonGrass Prawn. Sadly, the prawn and chicken cannot make it but we still had our fill anyway. Then we proceeded to shop around for my black soccer shorts for this coming Tuesday's soccer friendly against Hall 11. Bought 1 nike shorts for around $27, kinda ex huh. After that we look around for anklets for Li Ling but couldn't find any nice one. Our last destination was at the basement supermarket (what is it? can't remember). She bought herself a cute little pink slipper to wear at home (can I have the pics pls?), a Silkpro condition and I bought myself a pillow to hug in my hostel! (yeah!!).

It cost $5.90. Much better and also cheaper than the one that I bought at Ikea!

Met up with my sister after that to pass her letters and in returns, received some BBQ chicken wings haha. It was about 11pm before we went back to Wendy's place. After bathing and everything, studied for about an hour plus before we went to sleep in her cosy little room (Sorry no pic!)

We slept for about 11 hours before waking up at 1pm. We both concluded, this is one of our nicest and most comfortable sleep for the past few weeks/months due to her workload and my studies. So satisfying! After washing up, we went for our brunch at Hougang Point's Sakae Sushi. Saw a new set of menu called Teppanyaki and ordered the garlic rice (I love garlic but Ms Sim don't like it).

It cost $3.50. Smell really nice. Recommended for those who love garlic and fried rice.

She straight away ordered the Kikage which I recommended to her the previous time.

After a fulfilling brunch, she recommended the chinese "ButterFly" and "You Tiao". Got picture got talk, see below. Cost me $2.00 for 3 of them. 2 Butterfly and 1 You Tiao. The latter taste nicer though.


We took bus 70 to Paya Lebar before we splitted up. She went to her company's chalet at East Coast while I went back to my hall. Bought a packet of Nasi Lemak for dinner later even though the Canteen is open. The food sux.

$1.20 dinner :)

Amount of letters I received for 2 weeks.