The Dead Rabbit's Lair: 2025

Sunday, April 27, 2025

Penang, Malaysia 2025

The kids’ first overseas trip of the year.

It always makes me extremely excited to travel with my kids alone. Even since Osaka 2022, it’s a must do with either one or both of the kids at least once a year.

So this year we get to do Penang together, just me and the both of them. Super fun and memorable!

We flew budget because it was already so expensive to fly during the Easter weekend. Stay at Courtyard by Marriott, which was excellent.

We flew late on the Thursday right after school/work, so by the time we arrived it was 11pm already and all we could do was get to the hotel, made a midnight run to the nearest convenience store for some snacks, and then rest for the night. Still worth it so we could get up early to tour.

Day two we were up and about early. Started with a Penang hawker centre power breakfast, followed by walking from hotel to Georgetown. Visited the Komtar building and then Armenian Street and the murals, then the famous jetties, and then had 菜贩 for lunch, Penang style.

We then chilled our tired bodies at the hotel pool, used the gym awhile, then at night went to the Penang night market. Wasn’t that fancy but still got a power local dinner.

Day three we went for a power dim sum breakfast, followed by a trip up Penang Hill. This was possibly the highlight of our trip. Penang Hill is so beautiful, weather was cooler up there, and very full of greenery. We also got to take the Penang Hill Funicular, which has steeped in history and the ride was fun.

In the evening we went for local crabs at Seafood Choo. The steamed small local crabs were delicious, though I prefer our local Jumbo better haha.

Finally day four we started he morning heading to Toh Soon Cafe but it was closed so we went for Roti Canai instead. The Roti Canai turned out really delicious. Then we chanced upon a fancy cafe where we chilled for longer. Finally went for more toast and eggs and dumplings.

And then we had to head to the airport to fly back liao. Still a very fun and priceless trip with my two most precious gems.

Penang Hill 1984

Mummy sent me these photos while I was on the way to Penang with the kids.

So nostalgic.

I was only 5yrs old. The last time I was in Penang.

My dad and mum look so young then.

Singapore Youth Festival 2025

Went to watch my son perform at the SYF 2025.

His school Chinese Orchestra played two songs.

Very proud of him.

They eventually got Distinction too!

Lower Secondary Class Reunion

Had another BBQ at my place.

This is one of my closer bunch of friends from my youth.

Then someone sent this to the chat group.

What a blast from the past.

Lucky Snail

This snail landed on my lap while we were having dinner.

HOW in the world did it climb onto me I have absolutely no clue.

I believe this is my lucky snail.

Managed to gently let it go by the side bush.

Big Shit

My son delivered this mega shit piece the other day.

Choked the toilet for a brief while.

Heng we managed to flush it down later on.

Excuse the disgustingness haha.

My Kids Keep Me Honest With My Finances

Having a lot of deeper conversations with my kids recently especially about them growing up, what they should study, what they should aspire to work as, what their life goals are.

Yet the way I see it, it is their curiosity towards how I have succeeded in my career and my own learnings and mistakes, that help keep myself honest about my finances.

I want to earn more money to live up to their expectations of how rich I am.

I want to invest well enough so I have something to leave for them, and gift to them.

I want to invest in enough stocks so I can talk to them about what they will ultimately inherit from me.

I want to earn so much money that I have the liberty to pay for their school fees, even when they qualify for overseas schooling.

I want to earn so much money that I can realistically walk them through large investments I make and they get to experience these processes first hand through me.

I want to earn so much money that I can gift them investment accounts that they can invest themselves and see the pitfalls themselves.

I want to lose less money so I do not feel the aches of losing money that could’ve gone towards my goals for them stated above.

I want to lose less money so I do not label myself a compulsive gambler.

These are the things that keep me honest with my finances and investments.

I really want to do and be better for them both.

Family Wefie

Jumping on this trend to ‘Studio Ghibli’ our family photo.

It looks great!

Futsal Kaki

Been playing with this gang for twenty years now!

One of our recent ‘all star’ games where all the oldies came back.

Lost My Phone

So I lost my phones recently.

Here’s what happened.

Basically it was a Tuesday night. I got massively drunk drinking with my team, and left my two phones and staff pass in the taxi when I headed home.

Next day I tried to report to Grab and contact the driver. The driver was sleeping after his night shift so Grab, after several attempts, came back saying the driver didn’t find anything! Even though the driver was merely uncontactable!

I panic and make a police report. My IT even replaced my phone. I was a mess just trying to remember old passwords and logging into websites where in the past I had the phone apps. It goes to show how reliant on our phones we all are.

Finally at 4pm, the wife of the driver calls me and says that all my belongings are safe. I rush down to pick it up in Buangkok.

And just like that I got all my things back.

Below is the Find My app giving me my phone’s location.

What a scare!

Joo Chiat

My all time favourite Joo Chiat junction.

This place has so much history and heritage, and yet we enjoy coming here week in week out as part of our daily lives.

Barolo

Learnt on my last CPH trip that this brand is among the more expensive wines in the world.

Worth considering investing in.

Random Food In April

Just a food photo dump.

Saturday, April 05, 2025

Is Black Monday Coming?

So I posted about Liberation Day, April 2nd coined by Donald Trump sending out tariff to rest of the world and kickstarting the Tariff Wars.

He basically announced tariffs on the whole damn world ( even Singapore got 10%!).

So the following days the markets tanked badly.

By last Thursday the US markets fell 5%.

Yesterday night, it fell another 6%.

There is so much fear in the markets and this time really feels different. All the Mag7 stocks are so hit by the tariffs our iPhones will probably cost $5,000 soon and as the world slows, people will use Amazon less, advertise less on FB/IG. No one is buying Tesla anymore. Who needs anymore AI chips, yet AI is decreasing Google searches.

I fear the world is realizing it all this weekend. Or is it just me that sky appears to be falling?

Worried about my already trimmed portfolios and the amount of extra hurt coming my way.

Singapore is in for a very tough time ahead.

I need to think about better pivots.

Maybe an opportunity is on the horizon.

Stay safe and huat ah!

Monday, March 31, 2025

Liberation Day?

Trump has called on April 2nd to be Liberation Day.

Basically it is when the tariffs levied by the USA on many other nations begins.

Now without going into the politics of it and my own sentiment, let’s take a look from a vesting angle where I personally feel we can be better positioned.

Short USD - tariffs will mean less countries will sell to the US, so demand for USD will decrease. USD will only increase if US interest rates go up (which they are not likely to) or if the IS produces enough to export globally that demand for USD increases

Long JPY, AUD - this then means more global trade via other global currencies. And there are many to choose from but here are my top two choices. JPY is because Japan is poised to raise interest rates, and their currency has depreciated obscenely much in the last two years. AUD is because Australia has been in the doldrums from a poor China downturn for the last two years and with China rising, Australian produce and commodities will be in demand again and AUD will naturally appreciate.

Long China - talk about a waking giant. China performance has been in such doldrums for too long and with Trump’s isolationist policies, China is poised to take on more authority in the world order and that means the rise of China. Will the US regret and start to curb their rise? Only time will tell but China is the largest world power currently capable of challenging the USA.

Long Ex-US Defence - who’s going to be able to rely on Uncle Sam for protection anymore? Everyone and their mothers are already thinking or pivoting to either their own defence more seriously, or looking at other partnerships. This likely means the largest pivot from US defence contractors to Global defence contractors that the world has seen this century.

Short US Equities, Long World Equities - this is probably one of the most predictable arbitrage trades now. The US is isolating and naturally more of the global obsession towards the US stock market for the last ten years, is about to fade. How quickly this plays out would be anyone’s guess, but my guess is that it will be soon.

Long Gold - no brainer here, the world is getting very uncertain and Gold is continuously breaking new highs. It is slated to go higher as the world situation becomes very volatile. Holding physical is even better.

Long Bitcoin - this is a little bit of an outlier, but the technical aspect of BTC being a finite store of value (even if it has no utility) is the same argument as Gold. It is just that Gold is the standard store of value in uncertain times and has been around for far longer.

Anyway all these opinions are purely my own and do not represent any recommendations to trade. Please do your own due diligence when investing or speculating!

Let’s HUAT together!