HMFD Rears It's Ugly Head Again

Shucks, the little girl's gotten HFMD.

I'm down with hopefully just a flu virus.

On the wifey's birthday somemore.

Had to cancel the dinner plans I was looking forward to.

Have to cancel tomorrow's plans.

Have to plan for isolation. That's the toughest part.

Must be a rotten day for the wifey.

Hope we all get well soon.

True Fitness Session X This Season

Managed to squeeze in some BodyCombat time.

Been awhile since I last gym-ed, so this session was really good.

True Fitness @ Chevron is getting old though.

Metallica Live In Singapore 2013

What can I say?

Best. Concert. Ever.

Probably the most amazing concert experience I've had in Singapore.

Breathless.

I can finally strike another item off my bucket list.

#metallica

The Unforgiven

After 20 long years, Metallica is finally back in Singapore as part of their Asian world tour.

This will almost surely be the last time they'll ever come to this part of the world considering how old they are.

I started being a fan after falling in love with their Black Album, which I think how most fans started out with them.

It wasn't so deep a love for the band until the Load and ReLoaded albums hit. Commercially both albums weren't really a hit, but somehow I really got sucked into their brand of toned-down thrashy metal.

Thereafter things got serious as I collected all their earlier albums, from Rode The Lightning, Master Of Puppets, ...And Justice For All, Kill 'Em All. Alot of their early songs were hardcore thrashy but some of their earliest hits were anthems.

Afterthat I got their covers album, Garage Inc, and their collaboration with the San Fran Symphony Orchestra, S&M. That was one of the best live albums I will ever own.

Most recently I had to play abit of catchup by buying their Death Magnetic and Beyond Magnetic albums.

I cannot wait to see them live tomorrow.

The wait is finally over.

Space

Where else could you find enough space for all these things lying around the house? 

Swansea City 1 Manchester United 4

Our first league win and away win on the first day of the new EPL season! Must say even I was surprised by such a dominant scoreline. Hopefully we continue this winning run, especially for the next few games against tougher opposition. Here's 5 things I learnt from the game again:

1) A Our Strikers Are On Form

All of RVP and Welbeck's goals were sheer class, especially Welbz's 2nd. They're in really good form right now and that keeps Rooney sulk out of the team, and rightly so. Interestingly, Welbeck scored as many in this game as the whole of last season.

2) Our Defence Is OK

Even if we let newcomer Wilfried Bony score, the Rio-Vidic pairing can hardly go wrong. Phil Jones was an able RB while Evra, while looking lazy at times, had some good moments up front. That being said it will be tougher against Chelsea and Man City surely.

3) Our Midfield Is Still The Glaring Weakness

Much as I like Cleverly, he still tends to disappear after 70mins. He doesn't play as fluently either. Ando looks fitter than before but he's not lighting it up when coming on as a sub either. Carrick is our only sure bet starter, but he's 33 now. Can he last very game this season? And Giggsy? What's with starting him so often? Does he choose himself into the starting lineup?

4) Rooney Can Still Fit In

I know I've said I'd rather have him out of the club if his heart is not in it, but if he continues his current vein of form (he still has a hefty 2yr contract, mind you), then definitely we would be stupid to offload him to a rival. I just thought Moyes might've let him rot in the reserves rather than play competitively. Good handlin of the situation by Moyes so far!

5) Great Start For David Moyes

It was never going to be easy for David Moyes to fill SAF's shoes. So far, he has done admirably well. With this away win, we can hopefully move from strength to strength to win the league! I must say I'm still abit skeptical, but we are definitely on the right track!

GGMU!!!

10,000 Hours

In Malcolm Gladwell book, The Outliers, he hypothesizes that "the idea that excellence at performing a complex task requires a critical minimum level of practice surfaces again and again in studies of expertise"

That the magic number for true expertise is 10,000 hours.

I want to focus on something and clock 10,000 hours too.

Manchester United 2 Wigan Athletic 0

First piece of silverware in the David Moyes era!

I learned 5 things from watching the match today:

1) We really need a good defensive midfielder. 

Cleverly and Ando really can't cut it. Both can't last a full 90mins. This is something Fellaini would fill perfectly.

2) Is Giggs choosing himself in the starting lineup?

He is a legend no doubt about that, but surely he should know that he's just not fit enough to start games anymore? Not at his age. Impact player, yes. Starter, please no!

3) We still have alot of work to do

There were times in the game when I could confidently say we sucked. Times when Wigan actually dominated with a few good chances that a better opposition would have easily converted. Midfield is our key problem right now.

4) We still have good players though

Evra, Carrick, de Gea, Kagawa, Vidic, RVP. All we need is enough motivation and a few newer faces to spark these stalwarts to life...

5) We have exciting kids coming through

Jesse Lingard, Wilfred Zaha, Adnan Januzaj (pronounced Ya-nu-zay), Nick Powell, Angelo Henriquez, just to name a few. Zaha and Januzaj will be the biggest excitements this season.

Definitely wish David Moyes all the best! Hopefully he will bring us even more silverware and more exciting players!

GGMU!!!

Happy 48th Birthday Singapore!

A day late.

But to another prosperous, wealthy and safe 48 years!

Majulah Singapura!

A New Season, A New Hope

With last night's friendly loss to Sevilla, Manchester United have gone 2-2-3. No, that's not our latest formation, but our W-D-L stats. 

Can't feel very optimistic about the coming season with a Charity Shield game against Wigan this Sunday and ten away to Swansea next week. Plus Liverpool and Chelsea shortly to come.

Much as I want to give David Moyes as much support as I can, I have to manage my own expectations for the coming season. 

I guess a place in the top 4 is a good enough expectation right now. No new marquee signings and a first eleven still haven't have played enough spells of poor preparedness.

Really miss the Sir Alex Ferguson days already!

On the bright side, we have got exciting youngsters to look forward to. From Zaha, Lingard and Januzaj, we might be in for a treat from them this season.

Of course I hope we win a trophy and most importantly, defend our EPL crown. But we have to be realistic.

Let the 13/14 season begin!

Is It Time To Cash Out Of Singapore Property?

That's the big question.

Something that keeps me buzzing lately.

Here's why I think property prices will come down:

The Government Wants It To
With all the property cooling measures, stamp duties, restrictions on 2nd property loan, total debt to financing ratio, the impact caused is already being felt. From a rational standpoint, these restrictions make sense because property prices cannot continue to go higher, unless we the citizens want inflation to skyrocket. Furthermore, HDB prices especially, should be further reined in to provide affordable housing to the masses.

The Glut
There have been so many new private property and HDB launches in the last few years that many are predicting a glut. Come end of this year and over 2014 and 2015, we will be seeing many TOPs. All those who really want a first home will be appeased. Will there be that many Singaporeans out there with enough money to buy a second or even third property for investment?

Rental Yields Are Coming Down
Housing rental cost can be used as a forward indicator of future property price movement. With more properties out there in the market, more options are available for subletting. This leads to more choice for potentially tenants. In turn, competition brings rental yields down. As rental yields come down, less people see buying a property for rental as a lucrative investment anymore, so less investors buy property. Finally property prices end up coming down due to lower demand.

Interest Rates Can Only Go Up
With the SIBOR currently hovering around 0.5%, interest rates on loans are at a very low point. Isn't there only one direction it can turn? So when interest rates go up, the loan instalments go up. People have to pay more out of their own pocket to maintain their monthly payments. Less money to spend. Some may even find the rise in monthly payments untenable and hence put their property out on the market to cash out. More sellers come into the market. More supply + Less demand = Property prices coming down.

That 6 Million Population Placebo
Alot of housing agents argue that since the government wants to increase the population of Singapore to 6 million, the demand for housing will be there. But let's take a step back and think about this for a minute. Sure, it is likely to happen, but where are these people going to come from? Currently, they're from China, India, Malaysia and the Philippines predominantly. Are the rich and famous all coming here en masse? NO! The new immigrants are coming here to create a new and hopefully better life for themselves too just like our forefathers did! Would they be able to afford a 600K HDB from day 1 of setting foot on our shores? NO! Even a HDB grant-filled 3 room BTO which even newly minted citizens are eligible for, would set you back about 250K now. Can the new immigrants afford these much less the private properties? I think not.

Perhaps it is time to get out if you can. Otherwise, make sure you have the holding power to tide through a property downtrend.

Of course I could be wrong, but the signs are all there.