Mother to our daughter

With each passing year, all three of us grow older by one year. We celebrate Mother’s Day each year honouring all mothers. This is a day to acknowledge a year has passed of mother-daughter relationship together. We show gratitude of mother’s responsibilities towards her child. It is a day of quiet celebration for our family. We are together and we are thankful. We keep the bond and can still lead a healthy life without burden to anyone.

We are not into hug-me-type of family. We show love in subtle ways. A smile, a knowing look, a quiet conversation, being together is what it takes.

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers!

Sunset at Rower’s Bay and Yishun Old Fishing Village

We went back to Rower’s Bay last night to capture the sunset. Sunset was one of my most beautiful I have seen so far and it is right in Singapore.

On the right, further North is Malaysia

A kind of mental issue

Being adamant, stubborn, a perfectionist, wanting order in life is energy sapping, resulting in unnecessary mental disturbances.

Hercule Poirot, the fictional private detective of Agatha Christie’s novels, relied on his systems and method to solve crimes. He had to straighten things that were askew. He could not stand things that were not in order. I have this particular behaviour of Hercule Poirot. I will straighten things and put away things in the exact same place as before. Things need to be in their proper places. Not being able to let go and allow some disorder is a problem.

I am working on this and to be less adamant of wanting things to be in order. It is a battle of the mind. It is a form of stress syndrome and it is not healthy. Knowing this problem is the first step and hopefully I can progress to be less being perfect.

smallMUJI Exhibition

April 26 to June 25

At Muji Plaza Singapura

Work by Tatsuya Tanaka

Transferring MUJI products into representations of varied life scenes using miniature figurines and objects. All based on his experiences in Singapore. The pictures are just some of the many exhibits on display. Can you see Gardens by the Bay?

File Box escalator

Eyes-cream

Jumpoo from Shampoo

Gardens by the Bay

OH! Kampong Gelam Art Walk

10th edition of OpenHouse

Every Saturday and Sunday from 30 March to 12 May 2024.

Book tickets through Klook ticketing platform.

Dive into long forgotten layers of change in Singapore Muslim Quarter in Kampong Glam.

Learn about Gelam trees in the kampong. Tour the neighbourhood’s heritage sights, buildings and enter into some shops. At the same time enjoy art installations that depict its history, heritage, religion and culture of our Muslim Singapore residents.

We were guided by two volunteer guides who were enthusiastic and most willing to share their experiences.

I enjoyed this OH! Art Walk and I am sure you will too.

How to we keep the dead alive?

I like reading musings by Rohit Brijnath, Assistant Sports Editor of SPH. The most recent one is in The Sunday Times dated 21 April 2024. He wrote a piece titled “Acts of Remembrance”.

At my age, I see parents, in-laws and some friends passed away. Do I still remember them as years pass by? Memories fade for sure. How do we keep the dead alive?

We have a file of yellowed documents, government statutory forms, cash receipts belonging to our parents. We have photographs of them too. All these tell a story when they were alive.

We visit temples where our parents’ ashes were kept on Qing Ming festivals. We do think about them at other times when we recall an event that trigger memories. These can pop up anytime.

With colleagues and friends that weren’t with us, I remember them based on my past interactions with them. The most impactful events still remain in my memories. I remember them by what they were good at and how I looked up to them. Each time when I passed by their neighbourhood, I remembered that they stayed there before.

In my case, I write blog posts regularly and do journaling. This is my legacy for my loved ones. I compiled them into self-published books. I have photo journeys in my photo gallery on my phone and in the cloud. They are date-time stamped and locations of these photos.

These people came into our lives. Our memories of them honour their existence. They deserved that much from us.

Copyright © 2024, limkimtong for Living Investment

What do I fear?

Fear is a common response for most people. There are different names for each type of extreme fear or phobia such as fear of heights, fear of spiders, fear of snakes. Fear is something you can minimise the effect of fear but cannot be eradicated totally. We reduce trigger of fear by avoidance, eg. avoiding going to high places.

As I age into senior years, some of my fears take centre-stage. These fears are related to health matters.

The ultimate fear is Death. Why fear death? Firstly, we do not know what to expect on death. Secondly, death brings to an end of life and there are unaccomplished activities and wishes to fulfill.

The other fears of mine are related to medical conditions:

1 Dementia

2 Brain haemorrhage

3 Heart attack

4 Major infections such as Covid-19, dengue fever

5 Falling down and breaking bones

6 Needles in medical procedures eg drawing blood samples

Of the list above, dementia is frightening. It is frightening because we lose mental capacity to remember and losing memories of our loved ones. The impact on our loved ones is agony. They have to take care of us when we forget how to bathe, eat, etc.

Fear is real but it should not be debilitating. Life goes on and we can do something to reduce the onset of a medical condition.

Stay well.

Copyright © 2024, limkimtong for Living Investment

How to de-stress?

How can you cope with stress? Have you encountered thinking in a loop over a problem? How can you bring back the balance in your life? I have my ways to deal with it.

1. Take a break and drink tea
2. Look out of your window
3. Meditate on your breath
4. Go for a walk in a park or nature trail
5. Enjoy tours of places of interest
6. Read a novel
7. Take a short nap
8. Do photography of places, things
9. Arrange a group meet-up with family members and close friend
10. Enjoy a meal with family or on my own
11. Write blog posts and do journaling
12. Take a shower
13. Watch reality musical programme on YouTube
14. Sleep early at night
15. Go on an overseas holiday

The thing is to recognise I am stressed right now. Watch out for signs such as headache coming on, faster heartbeats, breathing fast and shallow, tension in stomach, perspiring under armpit, continuous thinking, etc.

Get away from the stress environment or stressor (things that cause stress to start). Do something else. Distract yourself first and come back to it later to solve the problem. Speak to someone (on something else not connected with the problem.)

I do not advocate smoking, drinking liquor, taking drugs to numb the stress. Having said that, when my headache is overwhelming I take muscle relaxant medication prescribed by my doctor.

Hope you can cope with stress in a healthier way.

Copyright © 2024, limkimtong for Living Investment

Brutal bruising of some Stock Indices

In just three weeks this month, some major stock indices suffered brutal bruising. It wiped out the exuberance in stocks markets for first three months of 2024.

Stock Indices	28-Mar-24	19-Apr-24	Change (%)
Nikkei 225 (Japan)	40,277.45	37,068.35	-8.0%
Nasdaq (USA)	16,379.46	15,282.01	-6.7%
S&P 500 (USA)	5,254.35	4,967.23	-5.5%
Dow Jones (USA)	39,807.37	37,986.40	-4.6%
Australia All Ordinaries	8,153.70	7,817.40	-4.1%
Germany DAX	18,492.49	17,737.36	-4.1%
CAC 40 (France)	8,205.81	8,022.41	-2.2%
Hang Seng (HK)	16,541.42	16,224.14	-1.9%
STI (Singapore)	3,224.01	3,176.51	-1.5%
Mumbai BSESN	73,651.35	73,088.33	-0.8%
UK FTSE 100	7,952.62	7,895.85	-0.7%
Shanghai Composite	3,010.66	3,065.26	1.8%

Nikkei 225 was down 8.0%, while Nasdaq was down 6.7%. Singapore STI declined 1.5%.

Reasons were two-fold:

1. US Federal Reserve (Fed) signaled less fund rates reduction for the year than hoped for by stock markets.
2. Iran sent missiles and drones to Israel in the latest escalation of war in the Middle East region.

The year-to-date changes are attached below.

Stock Indices	29-Dec-23	19-Apr-24	Change (%)
Nikkei 225 (Japan)	33,464.17	37,068.35	10.8%
CAC 40 (France)	7,543.18	8,022.41	6.4%
Germany DAX	16,751.64	17,737.36	5.9%
S&P 500 (USA)	4,769.83	4,967.23	4.1%
Shanghai Composite	2,974.93	3,065.26	3.0%
UK FTSE 100	7,733.24	7,895.85	2.1%
Nasdaq (USA)	15,011.35	15,282.01	1.8%
Mumbai BSESN	72,240.26	73,088.33	1.2%
Dow Jones (USA)	37,689.54	37,986.40	0.8%
Australia All Ordinaries	7,829.50	7,817.40	-0.2%
STI (Singapore)	3,240.27	3,176.51	-2.0%
Hang Seng (HK)	17,047.39	16,224.14	-4.8%

Copyright © 2024, limkimtong for Living Investment

The material presented is intended to be general and written in layman’s language as much as it is possible. The author shall not be liable for any direct or consequential loss arising from any use of material written. Please seek professional advice from your financial advisor or financial institutions on material written covering financial matters.

Fixed Deposit interest rates down

Fixed Deposit interest rate for UOB is coming down after nearly a year.

In June last year (2023), I placed one S$ fixed deposit for 10-month tenor at interest rate of 2.90% per annum. After maturing recently, I found that the same tenor of 10-month FD is now at 2.60% pa. This is 30 basis points down from a year ago.

Same can be said for OCBC time deposit interest rates.

On 27 December last year (2023), I placed out a fixed deposit with OCBC for 6-month tenor at 3.20% pa. Now, the interest rate under the same term is now 2.90% pa. This is same 30 basis points down as UOB.

Copyright © 2024, limkimtong for Living Investment

The material presented is intended to be general and written in layman’s language as much as it is possible. The author shall not be liable for any direct or consequential loss arising from any use of material written. Please seek professional advice from your financial advisor or financial institutions on material written covering financial matters.