My Personal Blog

It has been 3+ months since my last blog. I have stopped posting regularly since starting full-time work late last year. It was also laziness as weekends became precious for me, to rest and do leisurely stuff to destress from work plus not having to think about a topic to blog about every week.

A new halftime turning point is about to begin for me in early 2025. Hence, it is time to kickstart my regular blogging journey again. The blogging process has been therapeutic for me since I started in 2016. It helped me crystallize my thoughts and improve my writing skills. Given that I will have more time on my hands soon, the adoption of this disciplined habit will help me stay mentally sharp.

The financial markets had been on a one-way upward trajectory since the US Presidential elections when Trump unexpectedly won. While the orange one was not someone I was rooting for, the win had provided my stock and crypto portfolio with a generous windfall.

Just before the elections, I had even taken on a punt via Polymarket. The betting odds for a Harris win were attractive. But alas, the hard lesson learnt that the market is always right has been reinforced in me again…

Whenever we discuss the US elections, I will tell my friends that we have no say in it because we cannot vote as non-citizens. The only consolation is that I believe that the Americans truly deserve whoever they have voted for. And they have elected for big changes and another 4 more years of chaos.

Trump has been busy announcing his nominees for various government roles. He seems to be more organized this time into his second term in office compared to 2016 which was a total mess. He seems to be adopting a shock-and-awe strategy now. To announce some of the most ridiculous candidates with zero or little experience into critical jobs, to reward the loyalists who were supporting him and the radicals who wanted to change the status quo. Whether they eventually succeed in getting appointed is irrelevant. If they fail to get nominated later, he could just say that he tried but the deep state stopped him. At the moment, he is doing a victory dance to reward his cult members.

Biden and Kamala’s biggest mistake was to ostracize Elon Musk and sway him to the other side. They constantly ignored and snubbed his Tesla and SpaceX accomplishments. Elon’s ego, which was as big as Trump’s, couldn’t help but be attracted to the GOP side after being rejected by the other side.

The richest man on earth now can give the Democrats the middle finger. Courting the tech and crypto bros while spending time on popular podcasts like Joe Rogan was also a masterful stroke that heavily swayed the male demographics to the Republican side. Old news media outlets are on the decline. A surprising report indicates that 54% now listen to podcasts weekly to get their news updates.

The bully tactics have also begun, with Ukraine and Canada getting the first shots of threats and arm twisting from Trump. His strategy is to make the other side succumb to his demands and blink first before the escalation gets out of hand. Remember Rocket Man and North Korea? But I am not too sure if this will work against China though. The Chinese have just decided to fire a warning shot on tariffs to Trump by banning the exports of some critical raw materials. Two can tango and play in the tit-for-tat tariff game…

We are in for interesting times immediately after the 20 Jan presidential handover. Elon and the Trump team, with so many egos onboard, will aim to break everything and try to rebuild from the ruins again. Hopefully, America will survive this massive onslaught to destroy the basic fabric of government institutions that have endured for years. The only thing I am in favour of is the new administration’s aim to dampen the woke culture of the left. In recent years, they have forced the beliefs of the minority down the throat of the conservative majority.

We are really in for a crazy 2025 and it will all start with a bang on 21 Jan. It is probably wise to take some investment profit into Q1 in case we end up with a shitshow. A comedy of missteps could take the American economy back to the stone age LOL.

The other interesting but sad thing that I experienced this week was on Monday when I visited my regular prata/teh tarik mama shop for breakfast. The hardworking staff member at the counter whom I had gotten to know for the past year had not been at work for a few weeks.

I was curious to know if something had happened to him and so I checked with another staff member. Initially, she just mentioned that he had gone back to India. I assumed that it was for a short holiday break and asked when he be back to work.

Her answer shocked me when she said “Never”. More details were then shared with me. He had been stealing and siphoning funds from the cash register. He was taking between $50-100 daily and the big boss finally confronted him with video evidence from the security cameras they had installed in the shop.

Looks are deceiving. I thought that he was an honest and hardworking person who always prepared my regular drink ahead of time the moment he saw me arriving. I did not expect that he had a dark side that could be fueled by personal debts and greed. Probably after stealing the first time, he thought that he found a fantastic financial loophole to exploit. It likely became a habitual addiction to easy money until he was caught red-handed with the video evidence.

Life continues to have many twists and turns. One just has to roll with it and control what one can manage while adapting to those events that one cannot. We have to make the best of every situation that confronts us.

An interesting story about how a small country has been able to leverage its abundant renewable energy resources via a digital solution to build up its strategic reserves.

Bhutan has been quietly mining Bitcoin (“BTC”) using its hydropower resources to the point that its $780M Bitcoin holdings are now equal to 25% of its total GDP!! (13,000+ BTC @ $60k)

To put that another way: Bhutan now has $1,000 worth of Bitcoin for every one of its 780,000 citizens…

Instead of mining resources/generating renewable energy before exporting it through continent-spanning physical infrastructure networks, Bhutan has exported their renewable energy digitally.

This brings a whole new meaning to the concept of “renewable energy exports”. #ThinkingOutOfTheBox

Fun facts about Bhutan:
– It prioritizes “Gross Domestic Happiness” over GDP (~$3.11B)
– It has the 5th highest $BTC holdings of any country in the world

https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2024/09/17/how-bhutan-quietly-built-750-million-in-bitcoin-holdings/

“Bhutan’s entry into bitcoin mining and cryptocurrency investments offers valuable lessons for other small nations:
– Countries can leverage natural resources, like hydroelectric power, for emerging technologies.
– There is potential for economic diversification, reducing dependence on traditional sectors such as tourism.
– Illustrates a model for quiet integration into the crypto space, avoiding unnecessary attention.”

As we were approaching our long National Day weekend, my wife and I had planned for a 3-night vacation trip to KL, the capital of Malaysia last week.

For many years, we had traditionally stayed in S’pore to gather at my sister’s place for a family potluck dinner and watch the NDP fireworks from her balcony. All of us would also wear red T-shirts to celebrate the occasion. But her condo was en-bloc’ed last year and she had to move out. Also for this year, our younger son was joining his group of friends for a trip to the Cameron Highlands. So my wife and I decided to plan for a weekend getaway to KL too.

Our last trip to KL was in 2019 to attend my niece’s wedding. This was just months before Covid hit us and the global lockdowns happened. It was a lovely big family group road trip. We enjoyed eating a lot while celebrating the grand wedding in style.

We decided to take commercial coaches to and from KL for this trip. They now have luxury coaches that cost about 2.5 times more than no-frills buses. We took a day of leave and left on Thursday morning to beat the crowds to spend 3 nights in KL and return home early on Sunday.

The pickup point was at Jurong East and a bus took us through the S’pore and Malaysia immigration stations via the second link where we transferred to a luxury coach for the 4+ hours ride to Berjaya Times Square. A concierge served us breakfast and drinks on the bus and we had a 10-minute toilet break in between.

With Grab easily accessible, we went to the service apartment we had booked via booking.com. It was a one-bedroom 500-square-foot apartment with a living/dining area and a kitchenette. The condo was new, construction was completed in 2023 and it was full of Airbnb guests like ourselves.

We immediately set out to Lot 10 food court for a late lunch and shopping around the Pavillion Bukit Bintang area. In between, we decided to have a beer for a tea break to watch the shopping crowd. It was so cosmopolitan, much more than S’pore. We saw many tourists from the Middle East, China, India and South East Asia.

We just had to eat durian hat tempted us with many such shops on our walk back to the apartment ;-). We rested for a while before heading to the famous Alor food street in the evening for a sumptuous seafood feast. As expected, we over-ordered whatever we fancied and ate too much. We ended the night with a drink at a nearby bistro that had a live band playing pop music.

The next morning, we had a slow and easy morning visiting the gym and chilling in the room. The famous Oversea restaurant we wanted to visit opens at 1130. It was a short walking distance away from the condo for a late brunch meal. After lunch, we walked around the Pavillion area again to do more shopping. I went for an expensive scalp treatment while my wife was busy shopping for clothes for our boys.

After depositing our shopping stuff in the apartment in the late afternoon, we headed to Bangsar to check out the bohemian place that reminded us of S’pore’s Holland Village. It was a quiet, laid-back atmosphere known for its drinking holes and Nasi Kandar food. We had a drink and then settled for a disappointing dinner. We headed back to Alor again as we wanted to have durian for dessert and try the squid stick I had eyed the night before.

On the final day, we had a relaxing morning before trying to beat the crowd to the 1100 opening time of the famous Heun Kee clay pot chicken rice for lunch. Then it was to KLCC for more shopping and a 90-minute foot reflexology session. We then walked back to the apartment to rest and prepare for the highlight of the trip, a degustation dinner at Petaling Jaya.

We went a bit earlier before the 8 pm dinner time slot and they recommended a nice cocktail bar beside it called Terumi, the tender bar. Nice avant-garde bar counter with exotic cocktail concoctions. Dinner was at Chipta 11A Curated Dining and we chose the MYR 500 per person menu and ordered a nice bottle of sake. It was sitting at the counter watching the chefs prepare each dish in front of us. It was a long 2.5-hour dinner affair. I was a bit knocked out by the whisky cocktail and sake by the end of the night…

We had to pack and get ready for an early morning 0730 coach ride back to S’pore. It was uneventful and we reached home by 1 pm, refreshed from a nice and lazy long weekend vacation. I am amazed at how vibrant KL has become during this trip.

Malaysia seems to be at the beginning of a boom with IT data centre investments and an increase in tourism. I really hope that they will finally get it right this time and leverage their proximity to S’pore to make it a win-win result for everyone. It has so much upside it can offer and develop once it eradicates the old corruption problem and catches up with the many years of stagnation and decay. There is so much potential ahead of them if they do it right this time after so many false starts. Hopefully, they have seen the power of the synergy between Shenzhen and HK to aspire to be the same now between Malaysia/Johore and S’pore.

It’s time to pivot again soon for my halftime adventure. Within the next 6 months, I hope to transition to the next phase of my life journey. I am positive that many new doors will open in front of me and new life experiences to keep me occupied and engaged with what life has to offer me.

What a mad few weeks of American political news cumulating to an explosive 180-degree turn of sentiment in the last few days.

We witnessed the shooter who almost managed to assassinate Trump, then the victorious “fight, fight, fight” photo with blood streaming down his ear to the 4-day RNC convention rally that convinced many he would win the presidential elections. This was followed by a loud call for Biden to step down after his missteps and poor debate performance. Meanwhile, Trump decided to choose JD Vance as his vice president nominee, seen as an obedient and inexperienced candidate who would do the bidding of Trump.

Biden eventually announced that he would not stand for election at 1 pm on Sunday and endorsed Kamala. The Democrat media machine spun into full gear and she received the fastest ramp-up of support ever for any candidate within days. More than $100+ million was raised and 60% of the donors were doing it for the first time. This led the GOP to a mad scramble to do damage control as all their advantages seemed to have evaporated overnight.

Some say it was Dark Brandon’s multi-layered strategic chess game that did a rug pull on the other side in the final hours as they assumed they would win after the assassination attempt. It was like the setting up of a trap for the overconfident opponent to fall into. This episode could be a political case study for years when the dust settles down.

Trump now has a lame-duck vice president whose inexperience is showing when he tried to attack Kamala. The aggressive campaign mounted by Kamala has now volleyed and returned any shot that Trump had thrown at her. He is even trying to back away from the next presidential debate in Sep.

The political miscalculation of the attacking points used for Biden is now coming back to haunt Trump. With Kamala replacing Biden, he now becomes the oldest presidential candidate who continues to fumble with his speech and his constant lying is more apparent now. The pointed fingers have now turned back at the accuser.

The things that Trump used to attack Biden previously are now fair game for the Democrats to use against him in return. An assured political victory just a week ago is now not such a sure thing anymore. Was this all planned? They say that in politics, anything is fair game. But the best chess master is the one who plans many steps in advance.

We will now see an intensifying battle between the 2 parties to gain points in the narrowing poll differences between Kamala and Trump. It will be a battle royale fit for TV as each lashes out and tries to score by focusing on the weakness of the other.

An interesting 4 months ahead where all forms of dirty tricks may be used and more name calling too. Trump may stoop to new lows to rally his base. Both will use social media to control the narrative to sway undecided voters to their side. We can certainly see a resurgence of Gen Z first-time voters coming in big waves to help decide the outcome.

It will be an interesting fight to the finish as democracy is on the ballot ticket and the rest of the world will keenly observe to see where America is heading for the next 4 years. Let the battle begin!

I attended an event on Wed evening that was organized by a group of old boys from my Alma Mater. That was the highlight of my week. It was fun and stimulating as the topics of the speakers of the event were so close to my heart.

Not only because it was a gathering of old boys and girls that made it so easy to connect with (thanks to our common school heritage) but the speakers in the event had also talked about the topics I strongly believe in – Sustainability and Artificial Intelligence are converging topics and slowly becoming subsets of each other. They may eventually help to address the existential threat that we are facing on earth – climate change.

A few months ago, a cohort of classmates from the Secondary 4 class of 1984 decided to step up and form the Raffles Business Network (RBN) to tap into the alumni network for the benefit of the school and its old boys. It was a long time coming as the previous incumbent alumni leadership team had been largely passive and unwilling to make full use of the power of the alumni to tasp it for the potential to organize beneficial activities to pay it forward back to the school.

This large untapped resource is so full of diverse experienced people from all sectors who can contribute back to society in a meaningful way. Many are also on the halftime journey may want to pivot to a higher purpose in life rather than just on material gains alone.

This group of commendable old boys from the class of 1984 is determined to change all that. They question why other schools can do a better job of engaging their alumni, even though ours has a richer and deeper legacy of more than 200 years of history since its founding in 1823. If not now, then when? That was their war cry.

They actively engaged the various parties of the alumni network and associations, to brainstorm on collaborative workstreams rather than as standalone parties that currently are not communicating with each other for years. A comprehensive game plan was also mapped out as to how they can engage alumni members to come together to work for the good of future generations.

One of the initiatives was to create a mentorship program where seasoned alumni can be matched with those who just started in their careers to provide career coaching. The other was to curate events for business networking to get alumni from all years to interact and form connections.

They reached out to old boys and girls for venues to organize these events and attracted a lot of alumni to sign up. The first event was a roaring success even though there was a charge of $25 per head. More than 100+ attended and there was even a waitlist.

This week, they had their 2nd RBN event that was kindly sponsored by the Bank of Singapore (BOS), titled “Shaping the future of finance”. Again the response was huge and 130 attended. Coincidentally, there were so many prominent alumni in the BOS team too, starting from the CEO to important members of the management team.

The speakers also talked about relevant topics like AI and Sustainability, and how they are converging into a rising area of focus in the near future to provide solutions to solving big-picture issues like climate change and new tech/medical breakthroughs. A prominent CEO of a successful homegrown quant fund also spoke about how his industry has evolved.

The after-event dinner was a great way for all of us to connect with various alumni from different years. Given that we were from the same school, it was easier to establish new business contacts due to our common school heritage.

I had the pleasure of talking to so many people and sharing about our company’s sustainable investment fund. It was also refreshing to meet some younger alumni and knowing what they are doing in their careers. Some were freshly out of school and phasing into uni life soon. We shared our life experiences with them and offered our perspectives on career choices.

Overall, an interesting evening of fellowship and meeting new friends who share a common history of having attended a school with a rich 200+ years of existence. I felt revitalised by the event, knowing that the school is continuously producing highly motivated graduates for the future of our country.

It makes all of us want to give back to the school in various ways to ensure that this rich tradition is maintained and enhanced by new efforts from RBN.

Auspicium Melioris Aevi – Hope of a better age.

Watching American politics unfolding into the Nov Presidential elections is like death by a thousand paper cuts. Non-Americans can genuinely see the slow decline of the once-great nation imploding from within as a divided nation fights against itself.

This week on Thurs, it was the first presidential election debate hosted live by CNN. We see 2 old men battle out on stage to get voters to decide who will be the best candidate to lead America next. One lied through the 90 minutes and avoided answering questions by pivoting to nonsensical matters. The other had a slow start, stuttered/froze up, and blabbed incoherently at times.

As one commentator had summarized, it was an embarrassment for America on the world stage. Is that what it has become? A nation with such low selection standards for the role of the most powerful person in the world.

The country has basically split into 2 camps of diverse and opposing views. Each side stops whatever the other side proposes, damn the view of the majority. The refusal to talk and compromise to get to a middle ground of constructive debate and discussion seems alien nowadays. What happened to adult supervision and being bi-partisan in the government? We see petty fights as a total waste of time with sanctioned inquiry committees going nowhere. It is a total embarrassment for all to see.

What really amazed me is the raw lack of morality and basic human ethics the MAGA supporters have been displaying for Trump. Facts are twisted or false narratives are termed “alternate facts”. The refusal to accept factual data is astonishing. Double standards are applied. Trump can do no wrong but the other side cannot do the same. Even the religious conservatives seem to bend over backwards for him if the end justifies the means.

The extreme left of the Democrats are also at fault for causing the divide. Trying to force their “wokeness” on the majority causes the conservative right to push back hard by siding with the orange one, regardless of his many shortcomings. The take-no-prisoners attitude from both sides hardens each party to dig in and create a moat around their entrenched beliefs, be it right or wrong. The refusal to talk to the “enemy” fuels anger and accusations, giving rise to absurd conspiracy theories that spin out of whack on social media.

If you refuse to follow the rule of law, you cannot insist that the other side have to. If you commit a crime, you cannot brush it under the carpet and go after the other side for similar slip-ups. All these imply to me that America is on a slow decline to give up its superpower status as the moral arbitrator on the global stage.

As outsiders, we have seen the other side of America’s one-sided might in many countries. It seems like an “I can do anything I want to you but you can’t” attitude. Many have questioned the hypocrisy of certain actions and if it was more about self-interest rather than taking the moral high ground of democracy. BRIC countries are more wary of US intentions and are ganging up to provide an alternative path of over-dependence on the almighty US dollar.

With the Nov presidential elections only 5 months away, I can only imagine what sort of chaos can build up in the next few months. AI fake videos on social media could run amok and confuse everyone. No one believes the official news media anymore and instead rely on their own “trusted” sources aka Facebook, TikTok and the rabbit holes they have fallen into.

It is indeed terrifying times to know that any individual can easily create and spread disinformation to the masses by the clicks of their keyboards. Bad actors with an agenda to harm will aim to inflict maximum damage with minimum effort. We are into wild times ahead…

On a happier note on the personal job front, we have finally completed all the required procedures and administrative steps to launch our first sustainable investment fund after many months of preparation. The fundraising stage can start as we gather firm commitments to subscribe to the fund.

Private equity has had a tough year as interest rates remain high after the Fed rate hikes in 2022. People in the market have also mentioned that several existing PE funds have difficulty trying to execute their exit strategy. Without a low cost of financing to provide leverage, forecasted returns for potential buyers can be nonexistent. This in turn has made investors wary of getting into PE funds.

But yet we will try to raise funds in the next few months anyway. I see that the stars are aligned in our favour to pursue the sustainability cause. Climate change is real and our fund’s investment in renewable energy assets is in the right direction to encourage an adoption to minimize global warming. The fund will be a new asset class with real ESG assets that cannot be accused of greenwashing while providing investors with an attractive yield. It’s low risk and bond-like returns will certainly provide an ease of mind that can appeal to investors with a sustainable investment mandate.

For my current job, I had to read up on sustainability topics and understand the urgency of climate change and why we are running out of time to provide future generations with a livable earth.

The more I read, the more I learn of the reasons to be afraid of if there is no coordinated global effort by all countries to work together to solve this existential crisis or all of us and our children will suffer.

We have seen the visible results of record-high temperatures from 2023 to now as historical records are broken easily. The trend is clear and temperatures are rising to the point of no return if no drastic actions are taken soon. No one wants to take the blame but it is easy to point the finger at others. We have to work together to turn the tide or this will be a losing battle.

So what is climate change? Thanks to many years of uninhibited global industrialization and the ignorance of its side effects on nature, we have been adding greenhouse gas (GHG) into the atmosphere at an alarming rate. This pollution of the atmosphere with the 7 types of GHG (mainly Carbon dioxide (75%) and Methane 15% plus 5 others) has resulted in the trapping of heat within the skies above us. They have formed a blanket of heat insulation that has caused global warming. The record temperatures we see now are a direct byproduct of more GHG being released.

What we need to do now is to aim for carbon zero/neutral as a future goal so that we will not add more harmful GHG into the environment. That is why we see 2030 and 2050 years being branded as milestones for getting carbon-neutral by many countries.

Governments have been using carbon tax as a disincentive to get polluters to clean up their act. The private sector voluntary carbon market is taking too long to develop global standards and authorities must step in and co-ordinate now to get meaningful progress and action.

Singapore has raised its carbon tax from $5/ton in 2023 to $25 this year by 5x and will continue to raise it to $45 in 2026 and 80-100 in 2030. Companies like electricity generating companies (gencos) which emit more than 25,000 tons of GHG per year will be liable to pay this tax. About 50 have been identified as Scope 1 direct emitters of GHG. They will pass this cost downstream to indirect consumers of their products (ie. consumers of electricity) – termed Scope 2 emitters. Scope 3 is for the rest of the end users for “other indirect emissions”.

This carbon tax, while politically friendly to citizens initially, targets large corporations. However, the trickle-down effects will eventually affect everyone in the food chain by raising overall prices as the cost is passed down. For now, companies that can show efforts to remove carbon will be able to register carbon credits for sale to the polluters who want to buy them to offset and reduce their carbon tax.

Burning fossil fuels is the most damaging and releases GHG into the air. Coal and oil to produce electricity, cars burning gasoline and using fire to clear forests for agriculture are some major actions that need to be drastically reduced. Most countries like S’pore use gas/LNG to produce 95% of their electricity needs as it is the least polluting fossil fuel. Yet the burning of gas does also produce methane and CO2.

For cars that use gasoline, data has shown that it is only 25% effective in converting that to energy for use while EVs (electric vehicles) are 75% effective (3x). Hence the big incentive to get more EVs on the road. The issue of EV batteries being highly pollutive to manufacture will be minimised as more used batteries are recycled over time. The components of the used batteries can be reused again. Alternatively, old batteries can be repurposed for other uses, such as home batteries for power storage of home solar panels.

With ever-increasing demand for electricity, the power-hungry data centres will consume more as AI and new chips turbocharge new developments. Crypto mining was once a big consumer until it was banned in most countries or forced to evolve, for example, ETH which moved from proof of work to the friendlier proof of stake.

The big picture of climate change does not look good. We are moving too slowly to stop the freight train of global warming. America blames China and India for huge increases in carbon pollution. China blames America for hundreds of years of polluting the world and then wants them to foot the bill now.

Everyone is looking to renewable energy as a way to become carbon neutral. Solar, Hydro and Wind are the way to go as they are sustainable resources that do not emit GHG when producing electric power. Nuclear power will have to make a comeback soon as they have the highest efficiency of 90% with hardly any pollution and is the most reliable. China is at the forefront of this initiative. As a side note, China produced more new solar electricity in one year (in 2023) than the total combined solar renewable energy America had produced since Day 1!

We need to step up the game to fight global warming and reduce/remove carbon from the atmosphere, or else Earth will be like a frog in a slow boiling pot suffocating from climate change as it heats up to unbearable human conditions.

All solutions to reduce our carbon footprints, like nuclear, must be explored and greater global co-ordination efforts are needed to make the world focused on this existential crisis of our modern times for the sake of our future generations.

It was a tense and long Friday (07 Jun). I was about to meet up with some old friends for breakfast and discuss investment ideas when I received an urgent call that my dad had injured himself while exercising.

Their domestic helper called me to say that an ambulance had sent him to the hospital as he had a fall. She was panicky and almost in tears that it had happened under her watch.

My sister and I quickly rushed to the hospital’s A&E department to check out what had happened. I was shocked to see that there was so much dried blood on my dad when I saw him as I tried to figure out what happened.

He had decided to go for a morning exercise for the first time, by himself without informing the helper. He walked around the block and then went to the exercise park to try to use the machines there. Apparently, he missed a step and fell. There was a deep cut just above his right eye. A good samaritan came to help him immediately.

He was still alert and gave his home number for the person to call to inform our helper. Meanwhile, an ambulance was also activated to transport him to the nearest hospital for immediate treatment.

We had to register him as he had no identification on him and the hospital required the next of kin to provide the information so that they could pull up his past medical records before treating him. We did what we could and the doctor recommended that they do blood tests, scans and X-rays. Given his age at 95, a fall may be a traumatic event on his body and it was better to err on the safe side to do a thorough checkup.

My sister and brother-in-law stayed behind to observe him as I had to rush back to the office. It turned out to be a long day at work with multiple meetings and long discussions which I had difficulty concentrating on.

The doctor called me later that morning to update me on their findings. It seems like he also tested positive for COVID-19 and hence will have to be warded because of his age. It was also necessary to keep him for observation because of his bad fall and he needed stitches to sew up the deep cut above his eye.

After my meetings ended around 5, I rushed to his place to collect a bag of items that my sis had packed which he would need for his stay in the hospital. It seems likely now that it will be for at least a few days.

At the hospital, he was still in the A&E area waiting for all the test results even though his room was ready. He will be putting up at the NCID (National Center for Infectious Diseases) building since he tested positive for COVID-19. He had not eaten the whole day as he did not feel hungry. I made him eat some of the porridge which was provided for dinner and made him drink more water to avoid dehydration. He said his lungs felt dry.

By now, his right eye had swollen up quite a lot as they had done a scope to check that it was not damaged by the fall. They had also applied stitches to the cut above that eye which had caused a lot of bleeding. He had also suffered some fractures around his right eye and nose because of the fall. The eye doctor confirmed that his right eye was not damaged by the fall.

He was finally moved to his room at 7 pm and I settled him in before leaving for the night. Visitation was limited to only 2 persons and the hours were 12 to 2 pm and 5 to 8 pm.

The next morning, the doctor in charge called me to update me. The swelling has gone down. The eye and plastic surgeons were also looking into his case for the first time. They will follow up with appointments later next week to assess his next course of action.

By Sunday, the swelling had subsided even more. That was when I realised that the cut above his eye was quite deep as one can see many stitches holding together the flap of skin where the cut occurred. We would want to recommend to the doctor to let him remain in the hospital for a few more days when he reviews his case on Monday morning.

Life is so fragile as I had discovered in the last 12 months seeing my parents deteriorating physically and mentally as they move to the next stage of ageing. My mum, at 90 years old, had seen dementia creeping in fast as she loses her short-term memory and repeats herself. She cannot remember names and becomes unaware of the environment around her.

Our parents have been living alone together for many years. We could see the stress in my dad as he had to not only take care of himself but my mum too, whose condition had worsened considerably. Our family finally convinced my dad we had to hire a domestic live-in helper for them last Dec and chose one with him after several video interviews.

Things have turned out well in the last 5 months with someone looking after them full time. It has also given us peace of mind knowing that their comfort and day-to-day needs were been taken care of.

This was a new experience for us siblings as we were never prepared for the speed at which their physical and mental health had deteriorated. If one of them had passed on suddenly now, the other survivor would be helpless and unable to take care of themselves and would require support.

I never thought about this stage of life and ageing as it seems so far away until it hits you personally with our loved ones we are close to. It was funny that roles would be reversed when the child became the parent and caregiver.

We must cherish the remaining moments we have left with our parents and make the most of it. Our siblings need each other as a support group to chip in as best as we can so that our parents’ lives are as comfortable as possible in their twilight years.