Category: Uncategorized

The first COVID19 vaccine had been administered to a 90-year-old lady this week in the UK. The global program to innoculate the whole world against the virus to achieve herd immunity to eventually wipe it out has begun.

With the UK being the first out of the door, other countries will also be providing final approvals soon. While billions of doses of various vaccines are in the manufacturing pipeline, it will take many months before enough people are immunized. We can then slowly return back to the old normal which was just a year ago, where travelling was not banned or there was no 2 weeks quarantine required after every overseas trip.

S’pore is in the sweet spot at the moment as it is able to keep cases under control by quickly detecting positive imported cases the moment they enter the country. It does not have to rush to approve the vaccine but can adopt a wait and see attitude to see and learn how the rest of the countries will roll out this vaccination program effectively.

The UK’s criteria on how the limited supply of vaccine is to be admired. It starts with the front line workers and the most elderly citizens, working its way down the various age groups from the 80s to the 70s, the 60s and below. It is a very practical approach to protecting the most vulnerable first while the rest will have to wait for their turn.

Those that have doubts about the vaccine will definitely want to wait for a few months to see how the first group reacts to it. Those that have a high probability of interacting with the virus (health workers) or might have a fatal reaction to it (the elderly) would prefer to have the vaccine as soon as possible to protect themselves. It is a win-win scenario and should be adopted by all countries to move towards herd immunity via the vaccine.

The race is now against time as winter approaches. As it gets colder in the western hemisphere, more people will gather indoors and the cases may rise if people ignore the advice not to have big Christmas get-togethers. America is seeing newer highs for deaths and cases every day while the lame-duck president is trying to fight to overturn the elections unsuccessfully. He is still having big unmasked gatherings because he already had Covid19. He is literally killing his loyal supporters. This is the height of irresponsibility on his part and stupidity of GOP to blindly pledge loyalty to an egomaniac who refuses to accept reality and facts.

I had a nice afternoon into dinner event this week with a group of university mates at our old school campus on Tues. We met for a walk around the university to relive the undergraduate days again. I cannot believe that we had already graduated 30 years ago. It seems like yesterday that we were still hanging around in the canteen trying to finish our tutorials. The campus has changed a lot, with a lot of new buildings up and we managed to squeeze in 2 beer stops as there was intermittent rain during our walk.

The final stop was at the NUSS Guild house for a quick shower before we head for dinner and more drinks, talking about the bygone days and interestingly, about various medical issues we are currently experiencing. Lots of uncle talking subjects I guess.

My older son and relatives were also back in S’pore on Monday from the UK. They had to quarantine themselves in a registered hotel for 2 weeks like what I did in Oct. Thankfully, they managed to adapt well and getting used to being locked up in a hotel room for the next 14 nights.

As we near the final days of 2020, I cannot help but reflect on what we had all experienced in this 1 in 100 years pandemic. Last Dec seems so far away as the old normal is like a distant memory. Everyone on planet earth had to adapt to a new and strange way of life. The whole world went into a lockdown mode. Each and every soul has been impacted by the virus in various ways.

The light at the end of the tunnel is near but yet we have not reached the worse peaks yet. The vaccines provide hope that we can return back to normal soon but there is more that we do not know yet. It would be months more before we can confidently say that we have beaten back this potent virus.

Current times are eerily like an Avengers movie now. Thanos and his horde (COVID19) are at the front gates of our house while the Avengers (Vaccines) are assembling to confront them in the final big showdown.

Winter is coming and the first vaccine will be launched next week. Cases are reaching new highs everywhere and vaccine production doses are being ramped up. Who will win in the end?

Mind the gap – there is a timing gap problem staring at us now.

As the northern hemisphere gets colder into winter, it is expected that cases will skyrocket. With last week’s Thanksgiving gatherings and more travelling expected into Christmas/New Year holidays, it is likely that hospitals will see at least another 2 new waves by mid-Jan 2021. America has already shown the way by hitting 4 new records within a day this week.

While vaccine production is moving at “Operation Warp Speed” momentum, it will still take months before we have enough for the world in order to achieve herd immunity to wipe out COVID19 completely. If history is to provide some guidance, smallpox and influenza vaccines took years of effort by WHO to eventually keep the viruses under control globally.

The correct approach for the first batch of vaccine next week should be to target the front line workers and the high-risk group of elderly people. Between the choices of having immunity or possible death, it is a no-brainer decision to choose to take the vaccine, right?

Then there are the anti-vaxxers. Like the groups that claim that the virus is a hoax, this fringe group are against vaccinations and are rising to the occasion now. A friend has already sent me a video on multiple conspiracy theories, one of which is that the vaccine will plant a chip into your body to track you. Lotsa of fake news on this topic will be heading to a cinema near you soon…

Bush, Obama, Clinton and now Biden have pledged to take the vaccine once Fauci gives the go-ahead. We need to have at least 60%+ to get sufficient herd immunity and let the virus die out eventually. Even on the topic of wearing masks, Biden has now asked its citizens to wear one for his first 100 days of his presidency. It is like asking a spoilt child to take his medicine. How difficult is that? In Asia, it is the community first before the individual. Individual rights do not triumph over community safety, period. Love thy neighbours and wear a frigging mask, people…

The world is heading towards a make or break moment soon. The timing of the implementation of vaccines could not have come at a better time. But yet mother Nature and winter will be accelerating the already worsening virus situation into the next 2 months. Governments of the world must come together to co-operate and co-ordinate this push to save humanity.

America should ignore Loser Trump and his whinnying tirades as he fades into obscurity. His game plan is so obvious for all to see. To protect himself and his family at all costs after he leaves the White House and to make as much money as he can on the way out. That is why Giuliani is also behaving like a raging lunatic now as Trump is dangling a presidential pardon in front of him.

Trump will of course try to see if he can even pardon himself for all future legal cases if he can too. If not, there is a story going around that he might just resign before 20 Jan for Pence to take over, so that Pence can pardon him. Still, refusing to concede and attend the inauguration on 20 Jan is part of the overall strategy to fire up support from his hardcore base and ensure his survival. Pledging to run again in 2024 is also key. That way, if the law comes after him, he can use it as a shield to claim that the Democrats are out to get him because they do not want him to run again.

He is now already threatening GOP on the 2 seats being contested in Georgia on 05 Jan. His supporters are now telling Republicans in that state to not vote again as the presidential vote was “stolen” from them. If the Democrats win the 2 seats, they will have a clean sweep of the House, Senate and the White House. It will mean that they can and will push through a long list of legislation which Mitch had been sitting on.

In such COVID19 times where travel and vacations are not possible, what can one do? We create fantasy worlds to immerse ourselves into for a few hours to forget about the craziness and pain of 2020.

My friends and I attended such an event on Thurs evening, travelling around the world in 80 days over 150 minutes in an old warehouse setting of make-believe rooms of different parts of the world. https://www.andsoforth.com.sg/

We went in with little expectations and the event literally blew us away with the elaborate props and setups. It was ingenious of the organizers to work around the many COVID restrictions to come up with a night of fun. Though we had to wear masks and keep our social distance of a meter at all times, they still managed to serve us some nice degustation dishes from different parts of the world as we go into each country-themed room.

We created our own gin tonic drink in the first room via instructions from a bartender. Had sake in the Japan-themed coal mining cave and tried nitrogen-infused popcorn for dessert. We saw trapeze dancers hanging around our hot air balloon platform, went into the Indian jungle to meet an elephant and his trainer, hopped onto the Orient Express train in Hong Kong. Alcohol and fantasy made it a lovely night out with friends.

There is light at the end of a horrible once in a 100 years pandemic tunnel now. Is the finishing line to reach normalcy near or still many months away. Can the world come together to fight this Gaia threatening apocalypse? Time will tell. Meanwhile, mind the gap…

What a week of contrast from the previous 7 days! From an impending “Winter is Coming” scenario to a “We now see light at the end of the tunnel”, a 180 degrees turnaround. From pessimism to optimism in a flash.

The virus vaccine is targeted to be rolled out by America in the next 2 weeks. The first group of people to get it will be the front line workers and the elderly. Billions of doses are in the pipeline and there are 60+ vaccine candidates getting ready.

Would everyone take it? The “Yes!” group – sure, why not? The “No” group: fear of the unknown, probably watched too many zombie movies (“I am Legend”). The anti-vaccination people too, with their stance against all vaccines. Herd immunity via the vaccines will not happen if the majority do not take it and the virus will continue to travel around the world for years. Look at the smallpox vaccine. It took years to eradicate.

Would you take it if it means a return to the world before 2020, to travel again and to reduce the possibility of dying? Or do you want to extend the annus horribilis year of 2020 into 2021? If you are a front line worker confronting the virus every day, wouldn’t you want to immune yourself to it now?

There are still a lot of unanswered questions as we head into a critical leg of this virus journey as winter approaches. We can see multiple waves happening over the last 6 months even as we thought that it was under control. It then returns with a vengeance. Just a tiny crack in the defences and it will exploit the gap to infect again. Thanksgiving this week resulted in mass travel not seen since March in the US. This could mean a new wave of cases in the next 2 weeks again.

The approaching Christmas and year-end holidays in a month’s time could be another opportunity for COVID19. Cases could jump again into Jan 2021 as winter begins in the Western hemisphere. While the launch of vaccines will start in mid-Dec, the ramp-up may not be in time to stop the new surge in cases by early next year. More lives may be unnecessarily lost by then as Humanity race against the clock to contain it.

As a forward leading indicator, the equities market have been roaring to new highs this week. The onslaught of good news from the new vaccines has excited investors. Cyclical and old economy shares that had been crushed by COVID19 staged a strong come back as fund managers rushed to rebalance their portfolio after having gone full-on into tech stocks. Biden’s win has increased the probability of more stimulus aid and economic relief to the citizens. We will see more liquidity chasing after assets in 2021.

The world is also going to be more focused on climate change and renewable energy now. A flurry of IPOs that was delayed this year will begin to push for rollout very soon. Interest rates will remain low everywhere. This will be conducive for higher stock market prices. More retail herd mentality trading will drive certain stocks to higher highs as the ease of trading, zero commissions and lockdowns encourage new converts.

What should an investor do now? I feel that the virus has accelerated the adoption of technology across all industries. What normally took a few years to pick up was cramped into months. Cashless payments, eWallets and QR codes are now mainstream overnight. The launching of 5G will make real-time cloud computing a reality and hence autonomous self-drive cars become viable.

I had missed the whole Tesla bull run, thinking that Elon was getting crazy last year. I have just completed reading the book about him recently. I now know the background on how Tesla and SpaceX were created and that Solar City was bought by Tesla for $2.6 billion in 2017. If I had read this book a few years earlier, I would have bought and held on to Tesla for the long run, like what I did for Apple shares. EV companies are the rage now, with China stocks like Nio rising 10x.

Seeking to discover the next big thing, I believe that the time is ripe for a new technology in batteries to bring us to the next stage. Lithium batteries are so old school. There must be a better way to store energy out there. Hydrogen cells look promising and I am getting interested in firms like FuelCell, PLUG and Bloom Energy which may be the next big thing.

Meanwhile, China is recovering much faster than the rest of the world as it looks inwards for domestic growth. Certain Chinese stocks that go deeper into technology like KE Holdings should do well. The time for cryptocurrencies may be ahead as they become a part of the solution to enable frictionless and instantaneous bank payments. Bitcoin is the only successful Blockchain product to date. This will change as central banks like China creates private ledgers to track CNY.

2021 looks to be very exciting with a boom in tech and pent up demand after COVID19 as central banks continue to flood the markets with liquidity. There is a lot of possibilities and trends to benefit from. The general themes are emerging and we should make all efforts to capture them for an interesting ride ahead.

Winter is indeed coming and the next few months do not look good, especially for the Western world. COVID19 cases are sky rocketing and the orange one still refuses to concede to Biden.

The obvious signs are everywhere for anyone to see. Cases are hitting new highs in most places as the weather gets colder. Thanksgiving in America is this Thursday and most still want to travel to meet up with family after a dreadful 2020 of being locked up, even after Fauci advises them not to travel. The UK is 3 weeks into its 1-month lockdown which looks likely to be extended. Christmas is a month away and everyone wants to go home for the winter holidays. Mass travelling is a recipe for a new virus wave.

Over in Asia, the community is always placed before the self/individual. Putting in tough measures to protect the whole village is seen as a given and a greater good. For the Western world, it is individual rights and self before the community. My rights as an individual come first, over and above everything else. A simple thing like wearing a mask becomes a hot political football. The virus is colourblind. It attacks all the weak points of the system. The cracks in each country are exposed for all to see as the weather is going to get colder while more people start to ignore the tougher measures that are required.

While I was in the UK in Sep/Oct, I could see the British crying murder when the pubs are forced to close earlier. People still want to travel overseas for holidays in the midst of a pandemic. Zero contact tracing and limited testings are available. Self-quarantine was unregulated and entrusted on the individual to comply. Even the senior ministers didn’t walk the talk and the population distrust all new measures put up to slow the virus spread. The spirit is willing but the body is weak.

As an example, my friend who worked in HK just returned back to S’pore. He has not seen his family since Jan. Unlike my 2 weeks quarantine in a designated hotel, he was only required to do a 7 days SHN (Stay Home Notice) period at his own home. Immediately upon his arrival to his home, contact tracers personally visited him to ensure that he is at the place he is supposed to be. On top of that, they installed a transponder in his room and made him wear a bracelet which cannot be removed.

If he ever moves too far away from the transponder, a warning alert will be sent to the contact tracers. Over this 7 days period, he will receive random calls to verify where he is and to record/report his temperature daily. A COVID19 swap test will be done for him near the end date to confirm that he is negative before he is released from SHN. Can you imagine the above being done in the EU or America? The citizens will be up in arms protesting about human rights immediately!!!

So you can now see my scepticism and pessimism for the next few months. All the warning signs are turning red and leadership to direct tough measures are nowhere to be found. Biden is unable to transition as President-elect while the orange moron is putting obstacles to make every step difficult, even as Georgia just officially announced that Biden had won there. Cases in the US is going to be more than 200k/day very soon and daily deaths had crossed 2k. Europe is no better as the cold winter starts to set in.

All hopes pinning on the positive vaccine news last week are too premature. There is still a lag time of a few weeks till they are available but there will be a limited supply initially. There are about 30+ vaccines in the pipeline in various phases and another 100+ in development stages. Like the Tamiflu treatment for H1N1, the cure might take a while to implement. Meanwhile, the world has to buckle down for the change in season as the weather becomes more conducive for the virus. More people will stay indoors and tempted to have bigger family gatherings.

Family get-togethers for Thanksgiving and Christmas will just make the virus spread further. I cannot foresee that the Western world would totally comply with masking up, social distancing and avoiding big gatherings in the next few months, after spending months in lockdown mode. They have busted their chances over the last 8 months to tame this beast and now draconian rules need to be in force asap.

The likelihood of the developed world getting their act together is slipping away day by day. We can literally see a shit show developing right before our eyes into early 2021. We are asking my older son to return from the UK for his Christmas holiday break after term 1 ends. S’pore seems to be a safer place than the countries who will be experiencing winter soon.

As Game Of Thrones tag line says : “Winter is coming”….

The week literally started with a bang this week, even as worsening news of the virus develops. One cannot make out where we will be heading next as winter arrives and Christmas could be cancelled for most of the western world.

Just before the US markets open on Monday, the new vaccine announcement hit the news wire – results show a better than 90% chance for 2 vaccines in development. The DJI index futures surged an unprecedented 1,700 points pre-opening as there was a mad scramble by everyone to load up. Buying the futures index was a good proxy to getting exposure to all stocks before the actual US markets open.

I was trying to make sense of the move and just became a bystander watching it as I could not figure out why a single piece of news could have such an explosive one-way effect on stocks. It seems like the machine algorithm black box machines have just decided to buy everything in sight. No one had a good handle in trying to explain this move.

The next day, while expected my portfolio to have a nice MTM (Mark To Market) positive number, I was in for a rude shock. My tech concentrated portfolio actually suffered a negative MTM! How could that happen when DJI showed a more than 1,000+ uptick? Reviewers were talking about this 6 to 25 SIGMA move as being incredulous and impossible in thousands of years, yet it has happened.

Searching for an answer over the whole of Tuesday, a reason finally seems to fit. The good news of the vaccine results was seen as a Hail Mary pass to a market that has seen multiple depressing data of COVID19 winning the war against humans. Cases were surging to new highs in Europe and America as Trump refused to concede defeat while winter approaches.

As I looked deeper into the gainers of the night, I saw that Carnival, the cruise ship operator was the top gainer and up 39%! My investment group chat also mentioned that there was a rebalancing of portfolios by investment managers. It started to make sense. The sure bet of tech stocks over the COVID19 months had become too crowded and the vaccine news created an abrupt change in group herd thinking that maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel now.

Brick and mortar businesses like airlines and malls could benefit if we could return back to the old normal. There was a rush back to these cyclical stocks which have been bashed for months. Many were underexposed to these sectors or had completely gotten out of the old economy, fearing a long and dark winter of COVID19. Tech stocks were sold off as there was a rapid switch out of them into traditional businesses on Monday.

I am still a pro-tech person as I believe that the virus has completely accelerated the push of technology into all aspects of our lives. Zoom, eWallets and cashless payments using contactless process, QR codes and the like will rule and be the norm now. This was just another opportunity for me to accumulate more new tech stocks like JFrog and Snowflake, cloud-based solution based companies.

As the week went on, the weight of new record cases slowed the momentum. Even Trump is now promising a longer Apr date instead of “2 weeks later” for the promised vaccine. He refuses to concede to Biden even as it becomes more obvious who won the elections as more states near their finishing lines. I find it incredulous that the GOP is still toeing the line that he needs more time to absorb the loss, like a kindergarten toddler throwing a tantrum and needing cooling off time. Big sigh…

It seems like the senate election races are still too close to call and it depends on the 2 runoffs in Georgia on 05 Jan. The Republicans still need Trump’s support to win these 2 seats and hence they have to still tolerate the whiny, little bitch (Bill Maher’s adoring term for Trump). Selling your soul seems to be on par for them, versus upholding democracy and a fair election. The lawsuits about voter fraud are being thrown out of court so fast that it is laughable, except that it is coming from the most powerful incumbent lame duck of the world.

How can Biden work effectively to address the critical virus pandemic which Trump had ignored if he still remains a sore loser? America is like a pendulum and always swings from left to right and back every 4 years. So painful to watch at times as they go to the brink of disaster in such a divided country now.

It was a week of catching up with family and friends for me. The business venture I have been talking to a few close friends is finally moving ahead. We decided to register our company and kick start the whole process of implementing the business plan now. This annus horribilis of a year called 2020 will finally end soon. Hopefully, we will get back to a recognizable normal soon.

So many things happening at once as we started the 2nd last month of an otherwise horrible year for everyone. It has been a blur for most as we grapple with factors out of our control, with an invisible enemy that ravaged the world and still continues to do so into the winter season.

I started my first week of freedom busy catching up with life in general after being away for 6 weeks – 4 in Oxford and 2 locked up in a hotel room for quarantine. The sweet smell of freedom coupled with being around love ones and friends again was priceless. We do take such things for granted until it gets yanked away from us. The enforces Spa Detox staycation at Shangri-La was a discovery journey of myself. I have never before in my life been locked in a room for 14 nights before this quarantine.

The US election is starting to feel like a shit show as predicted. The blue wave did not materialize as hidden Trump supporters emerged on polling day. Polls were initially thought to be very wrong again as voting counting began. Given that the polling stations counted the in-person votes first, Trump started with more votes because he had been encouraging his supporters to vote in person rather than doing it via mail. He claimed mail-in fraud without evidence while Biden did the opposite. Biden encouraged mail-in voting due to COVID19 safety worries.

As of now (Day 3 after polling closed), Biden votes have been rising to close the gaps as mail-in votes get counted last and the majority are votes from Democrats. Trump allies have started to file lawsuits left, right and centre without evidence of election fraud. 2 have already been thrown out of court. Hopefully, we should see Biden cross 270 electoral votes in the next few hours.

There are a number of factors against Trump in 2020 which is different from the 2016 elections. Firstly, their Cambridge Analytica secret weapon is no more. The market had adapted and even TikTok fans have managed to use this same force against Trump at a recent rally. The Russians are a known unknown force now and Americans are mindful of the threat. There were a number of swing states where Trump won by the slimmest of margins, from a 100k to a few thousand votes. People then were tired of the incumbent status quo and longed for a rebel to shake things up. This is unlikely to happen again now, after the chaos the have seen over the last 4 years, plus the total mishandling of the virus.

COVID19 has made it harder for him to rally his fan base and attract new troops. By denying facts and doing super spreader rallies, he is literally trying to eliminate his voters. The older generation support has diminished too. Trump, who is part of this group, has implied that they are dispensable. Even when he caught the virus, he had the best medical treatment the world can offer. His supporters do not have this luxury if they catch it.

Seeing the rallies of both presidential parties is like seeing day and night. Both sides say opposite things and only one can be true, right? COVID19 cases have also been hitting historical highs daily – it is wishful thinking that this will magically disappear after 03 Nov. Denial of facts against this virus is a fool’s errand. The rest of the world is still fighting it as Trump ignores the pandemic. We in Asia look in disbelief at how the Western world is really screwing this up big time.

With winter approaching, it may become worse before it is brought under control. Given that the US inauguration is only on 20 Jan 2021, even a Biden win could result in 2 months of limbo as nothing concrete may be done to stop the virus. SAD!

While serving my 2 weeks quarantine, I was supposed to read more. I borrowed a few books I wanted to read but somehow managed to squander away the time watching too much TV and other useless stuff. A book finally caught my full attention as it was a captivating true story. I should be finishing it soon and I have learnt so much in the process.

The book is about Elon Musk, written in 2015 by Ashlee Vance. It was a fascinating story of how he became the person he is and how he had accomplished the amazing projects. I had always had only a vague idea of how Tesla and SpaceX came about and not much about Solar City.

The book does not concentrate on him alone but also mentions about important characters who had helped him along his crazy journey to achieve what no one had done before. Rockets and space travel were his first love since childhood days. Most of what he did was towards this aim. The EV car venture was something he picked up along the way.

His laser focus and deep intellectual capacity made him an ideal candidate to oversee these audacious plans which require a superhuman to pull it off, betting the whole house on these projects all the time. He reminded me of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates put together. He could turn a weakness/disability into a strength by sheer mind power.

Since young, he could move into a Zen state of mindfulness to engage in deep thought. His mom would say that it ostracized him from others as he would freeze and go into a zombie-like state for hours. But he was actually retreating into his inner mind to conceptualize his thinking based on the huge amount of knowledge he had picked up while reading and talking to experts.

He was uniquely placed in this world to accomplished goals that would benefit mankind. Making money was just a secondary byproduct of his successes as he betted the house every time on a new venture. It was interesting to get into the mind of the genius via this book. I have a better appreciation of how he got to where he is now and being rewarded by a 500% jump in Tesla stock price in 2020.

At one time a few years back, I did buy Tesla at $158 (pre-stock split)and sold around $320, trading this range a few times. I finally chickened out as I thought that he was becoming unhinged. He was fighting everyone and blabbing about punishing the short sellers and trying to set a higher price of $420 as a target.

Last year, the stock went to the 800-1k range for a bit and never looked back after that. I had missed the whole ride to $2k before it did the stock split. I should have read this book earlier to understand the man behind the company. It would have been as inspiration to want to participate in his dreams and to buy the stock for the long term.

The book also concentrated on the SpaceX journey which was pretty interesting. It almost went broke a few times after early rockets blew up. The SpaceX innovators from Silicon Valley had no baggage from the old NASA world and just wanted to build an amazing dream for space travel. When you hire many smarter people than yourself and give them the tools to succeed, miracles can happen. Musk was the driving force to bring all of them together.

Finally, a bit of good news on the Skillsfuture front. I came across an opportunity from IBM to train mid-career PMETs who currently are not working to do a full time 6 months study course on AI or Cyber Security to help them pivot to another field of work. https://webibmcourse.mybluemix.net/SGUnitedProgramme

The interesting thing about this was that they will also provide an allowance of SGD 1.5k per month while you study. The whole course cost about 20k which is heavily subsidized and the remaining amount of $500 can be paid using your own Skillsfuture funds given by the government to all S’poreans. The only condition was that you cannot be working full or part time to be eligible. If you do find a job during the course, you have the option to drop out without any penalties.

I had my consultancy work so I figured after talking to the program coordinator that I may not be eligible. That did not stop me from promoting it to my friends. I am happy to say that 2 of them did apply and qualified for the courses eventually. It feels good that I could share a bit of positive news with both of them who have lost their jobs recently. At least there is a decent allowance and that they are given an opportunity to enter into a new career path.

I can start to smell freedom soon, to be released from my hotel room cell in Shangri-La after 14 nights of compulsory quarantine since returning from my UK trip. The COVID19 test results I did on Tues (first trip out of the room on Day 11 for 30 mins in the same building) came back negative on Thurs and so I should be able to check out tomorrow after noon time.

The anticipation and apprehension of returning back to S’pore after spending a month in Oxford was high for me because of this quarantine requirement. You hear about all the negative rumours as so few people have done it before. It did not helped that I visited the famous Oxford Prison during my last week there. The guide had recounted the horrible prison conditions there for hundreds of years LOL. And there I was, heading for a 14 nights of staying in my room/cell.

This was the first time in my life where I will be trapped in a room for so long. The nationwide virus lockdown/circuit breaker period earlier in the year had probably also help me prepare for this. We were told then to stay home for many weeks and to minimize movement when the first wave was surging.

The first night of quarantine was the worse for me as I was still having the effects of jetlag and woke up in the middle of the night feeling disorientated and highly claustrophobic. I broke into cold sweat and had to try to calm myself, wanting to just do some exercise to take my mind off the fact that I will be trapped in the room for days.

The following days became better as I got used to it and started to plan a daily schedule of activities to get into a regular routine asap. I decided to also do 400 stomach crunches before every meal. The hotel provided an activities schedule with QR codes to relevant videos. I followed the exercises schedule religiously, going into Zumba and Salsa classes, HIIT workout, stretch and Yoga flow sessions as a late afternoon activity every day. I adopted a series of calisthenics exercise routine I found on the internet to do it every morning before breakfast.

Like the reason for writing on this blog, I decided to share my quarantine experience on my social media accounts (via Facebook and Instagram) too. I believe that to talk about it will reduce the fear for me. It was also to inform a few friends who were going to do this compulsory quarantine soon when they return to S’pore. Most readers provided words of encouragement and some followed up with questions about the experience. The downside? A few idiots commented that they wished they were in my place and one even sent me photos of himself enjoying his time outside on the beach a few days in a row to make me envious. Assholes!

The daily routine is coming to an end soon. Tonight will be my 14th and last night in this room I have been calling home for 2 weeks. Checking out by noontime tomorrow, I would have been away from home for almost 6 weeks. Looking forward to meeting my wife and younger son again.

This has been a spa detox staycation for me. My body system should be better now with clean living, a simple diet with less over eating and regular exercises throughout each day. Freedom smells so sweet and close – I have gotten a better appreciation of it without taking freedom for granted.

The COVID19 situation around the world is getting worse by the day as summer moves into winter and the 2nd wave hits. The impending shit show ahead seems so apparent that Boris had threatened to cancel Christmas if it is not brought under control by then. Countries are returning to lockdowns now in order to ensure that the rising 2nd wave is flattened.

We are lucky as a small country that the virus is relatively under control now with a proactive government. Visiting the UK with my first hand experience on the ground experience plus watching Myanmar deteriorate rapidly via my regular consultancy calls was a wake up call for me. Many governments with a much bigger population, porous borders and placing a higher value over individual rights have found it hard to contain the invisible enemy.

Asia in general has done much better than the rest of the world. Asian values generally prioritize the community over individual rights. What is good for the village as a whole is good for every person in it. Wearing masks and obeying the draconian new rules of the authorities is a given, we do not question them.

There is no need to politicize the issues like what America is doing. Wearing a mask is not about breaching your 1st amendment right but it is to protect your fellow human beings. Testing and contact tracing is a bare minimum to arrest the spread of the virus. Rushing to reopen is a recipe for disaster. The virus does not discriminate.

The 2 presidential candidates into their final 5 days of campaigning cannot be more different. Their messages are the opposite of one another. Surely one side is lying through his teeth? The virus will be over soon when cases are hitting record highs? Promising over the last few years that a new and better healthcare plan will always be coming in the next few weeks and not delivering? Saying that you have won the war against the virus with bold moves when cases hit historical highs?

This will be a good human case study in the future as Trump supporters remain blind to the actual situation. The echo chamber of social media news keep them them sheltered in an alternate reality world where all news that disagree with their views are labeled fake news. Will they ever get out of this when the elections are over next week and their candidate loses?

My view is very simple. For the sake of the world, I hope Biden wins. If not, then the Americans deserve the orange one and we are all in for a crazy ride ahead.

Just back from the UK after a month in Oxford, I stepped off the plane on Sat morning, 17 Oct with trepidation on what lies ahead for me.

There were only about 50 passengers on the SQ flight from Heathrow and I could even lay down on the empty seats for a nice 4 hours of sleep as we only had 4 persons in my section. About 10 of us disembarked in S’pore while the rest were transiting to connecting flights. In an almost eerily empty Changi, the immigration process was quick and efficient. After taking my luggage, we were ushered to the final bay area to await our fate.

The first thing I asked was “Which hotel are we going to?” The kind lady replied that it was the Shangri-La. We were put in batches as we land, to be transported to the various quarantine hotels. The bus driver said that the best option was JW Marriot. But we do not have any choice on where were can do our compulsory 14 days quarantine due to the COVID19 measures put in place for overseas returnees. It was explained to me that today will be Day 1 and I should be able to check out on Day 15 at 12 noon, which will be 31 Oct. We have to pay $2,000 for this “privilege” that included room and 3 meals a day.

After a quiet bus right (about 12 of us in the whole bus), we reached our destination at Orange Grove Road, right next to Tanglin. Well, it wasn’t the other Shangri-La in Sentosa (LOL) but I guess I should not complain. With the virus still raging on in the world, tourism has completely died in all countries. The only business hotels can get now are staycations and this. I believe that all the top hotels had bided for this quarantine business as a means of survival and to get much-needed cash flow because they will have a higher chance of winning the business. There was no option to upgrade the room at my own cost as I wanted a balcony. I always wanted to stay at the Shang and now I have the opportunity to fully enjoy my room for 2 weeks LMAO…

I had a lot of apprehensions as I got ready to enter the hotel room which I was supposed to spend the next 14 nights. In my whole life, I have never been “imprisoned” in a room for 2 weeks straight. This will be a first for me. The Circuit Breaker/Lockdown period earlier this year had probably prepared me for this. It was important that I quickly settle into a routine schedule filled with exercises, reading and doing work. I decided that I would do 400 stomach crunches before each meal to “earn” it. Hopefully, I will get a 6-pack soon hahaha…

Jetlag settled in quickly and the first day passed quickly as I slept a lot. The first night was the worst as I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night feeling totally disoriented and getting very claustrophobic as I realised where I was. I posted my quarantine situation on social media as a way to confront the challenge ahead and also to update friends current overseas of the situation. We were all fearful of this return trip requirements. There was not much information prior to this as it was a very small group of people that had similar experiences.

Because overseas returnees may be contaminated with the virus, each of us was not allowed contact with the outside world. We had a hotel card key that was only good for a one time use only. Once we get into the room, we cannot get out. But we could bring things into the room. So the use of online food delivery services was allowed. I quickly ordered 2 bottles of wine on Sunday morning. My lovely wife also ordered a care pack for me from Redmart. Both were delivered on Mon. Her birthday was on Sun and we had a Zoom call with my older son in Oxford to celebrate it that night.

By now, the COVID19 cases in S’pore has become manageable and the country was looking to reopen up more as it moves to Phase 3 soon. There were days of zero cases and new cases nowadays are mostly imported ones. Hence the compulsory 14 days quarantine was a good way to identify asymptomatic cases and prevent it from spreading to the community. Travel channels and green lanes are being explored in order to open up the skies again for travel. With more than 100+ vaccines being rushed to production and implementation, I believe that we will be having something like Tamiflu for H1N1 by early next year.

Looking back at the past 8 months since the virus started its grip on the world in Mar, we have learnt a lot more about it now. While cases are still high due to more testing, the coming cold winter season and idiots like Trump/Boris, the percentage of death is lower than the 1st half of the year. The doctors understand it better now and applying new medicines that have a high probability of reducing the mortality rate. In the chaos, the world is getting a better sense of the problem and sharing best practises around the globe. It is just that some countries are still not thinking logically about how to address the problem until it is too late. It only takes a stupid one to re-infect the rest of the world again. Only a good vaccine can have any hope of stopping it in its tracks eventually.

That brings me back to the US elections. The 2nd and final presidential debate happened yesterday. The contrast between the 2 candidates cannot be more distinct. It’s like between yin and yang. It is more presidential now, thanks to the mute button (like a kindergarten class, unbelievable…). Each had a chance to talk about various topics which the US citizens are concerned about.

Trump was on his best behaviour to date and tried not to appear boorish but he still veered off-topic at times and trying to get Biden to stutter, which happened a few times. Trump says he is not racist but I think he only worships money as his ultimate goal. He does not care about anything else as long as he achieves that goal, be it being racist or having zero empathy for anyone but himself.

It was very telling at the end that the last question was to pretend to give a speech at the inauguration if you win. Trump went totally off-script to accuse his enemies instead – super presidential my dear orange moron….. Biden had a more appropriate speech about unity and bringing the whole country together, more hope and less fear. What a contrast!!!

Total is Day 8 for me. Half way there now. I will be having my swap test on Day 11 soon and that will be my first time out of the room for a short while. Daily temperature taking looks alright. I can smell freedom soon 🙂