The High Flying AirAsia (Stock)

On July 21, 2011, AirAsia’s stock closed at RM3.67 in KL Stock Exchange. That was an increase of 17 sen, or about 4.8%, over the previous day. The intra-day high was RM3.70. When I noticed the price hike, I thought, “Are there some good news for AirAsia?” Then, on BBC news portal, I learned that the budget airline had just announced a joint venture with All Nippon Airways (ANA). That says it all…

AirAsia has had a 5-star performance in KLSE of late. I started to track its price since last April. On April 11, it closed at RM2.57. In just a few months, the price has increased by more than 40%! Sadly, I missed the boat and only purchased the stocks at RM3.22.

The budget airline group is expanding aggressively. This year alone, AirAsia has signed deals with Airbus to purchase 300 jets. But my concern is whether it will have money to pay dividend, given that it reinvest so much of its revenue into buying new jets. In fact, the company only declared dividend once, in 2010. AirAsia’s Debt/Equity Ratio was above 2.0 as of 1Q 2011, which was somewhat high.

As a stockholder, I hope AirAsia will do well. But as a potential flyer, I also hope that rivals such as Firefly will give it a run for its money. Kinda funny, isn’t it?

Recycling with Tzu Chi (II)

Last year, I wrote about Tzu Chi’s recycling activities. For the past 4 months, I personally have contributed my time as a volunteer.

Tzu Chi’s recycling program is held on the third Sunday of every month. You may send your disused stuffs to one of the many (temporary) recycling centers near you. However, you are strongly encouraged to sort them first, as this will greatly help the volunteers. Tzu Chi accepts the following items for recycling:

• Paper
• Cloth
• Electrical/electronic items
• Metal/aluminum/glass
• Plastic

I work in the paper section, and therefore have better knowledge of it. For recycling purposes, paper can be further grouped into following categories:

• Newspaper
• Cardboard
• Black-and-white paper
• Miscellaneous paper

It is said that cardboard commands the highest price, followed by black-and-white paper. Please note that shredded paper automatically goes into miscellaneous category.

You can do your part to help Mother Earth too

Hiatus

Hiatus...

What to Sell Online

I signed up eBay recently. Since then I have been thinking:

What sort of things is suitable to be sold online?

(That is, not just on eBay, but all e-commerce sites.)

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As seen on eBay...

I am perplexed as to why people buy dresses online. Don’t you want to try them before making payment?

Anyway, I think one category of thing we can sell online is the hard-to-find items. As a shutterbug, I naturally think of such specialty photographic gears such as tilt-shift lens and light meter. Past issues of magazines also fall into this category. I have plenty of National Geographic magazines, the oldest of which was published in 1930s. Somehow, I am reluctant to part way with my collection.

A second category of merchandise great for online trading are things people don’t feel easy to buy in brick-and-mortar stores. These include condoms, and the “nipple cream” I mentioned in another post.

Finally, if you can price your merchandise at lower price compared to in brick-and-mortar stores, you can sell them online. One advantage of online trading is that you don’t need to pay for the rental or installment of a physical store. The drawback, however, is that postage doesn’t come cheap.

Have you bought anything online? Tell us your story!

我的中文作品

我是華校生。但從大學開始，就比較多講英語和用英文書寫。我愛看英文書，上英文網站。我的部落格，也是以英文為主。我也鼓勵其他人加強他們的英文能力。一些『熱愛母語』的大馬華人，就罵我是香蕉人。

沒錯，我的中文從大學時代就開始走下坡。但『爛船還有三分釘』，我的功力始終是『有返咁上下』。過去幾個月，我寫了幾篇稿，寄去中文報社。一些被淘汰，其他的被刊登了。以下是其中三篇：

《傳統茶室須變革》 – 刊於星洲日報，2011年1月26日

《一個馬拉西亞，一種聲音》 – 刊於東方日報，2011年2月16 日

《股神也有頭痛時》– 刊於東方日報，2011年2月25 日

第一篇《傳統茶室須變革》基本上是翻譯自我的英文貼子Kopitiam - a question of Cost & Price，只是更加詳盡。谷歌翻譯（Google Translate）成了我的最佳伴侶。

說老實話，若非我『熱愛英語』，也未必能寫出這些稿。因為我參考的質料，就是以英文書和英文網頁為主。別怪我喲…

Generosity in Festive Seasons

Festive seasons have always been the time of giving. We exchange presents on Christmas. Muslims donate to the mosque prior to the celebration of Eid (known as Aidilfitri in Malaysia).

I am a sleeping member of a Buddhist society. Each year, during Chinese New Year season, the society members pay visit to selected devotees. They would perform “chanting of blessing”, and the hosts would, in return, contribute some money to the society. I have been taking part in such activities for a number of years. Due to my busy schedule, however, I could only join on perhaps alternate days. This year, I visited a total of 17 houses

One benefactor deserves special mentioning. Her mansion was located near Thien Hou Temple. We arrived at her house at 9pm, and were greeted by the hostess. She was about 30, dressed in cheongsam (旗袍), which highlighted her curvy figure; her brown (dyed) hair was secured in bun, which gave her an elegant look. The lady lived with her mother and three maids. We saw several portraits of her mother hanging on the wall. Also present was a Chinese calligraphy which expounded filial piety. I was told that the lady invited us to her house because she wanted her mother to “benefit” from it.

We performed the routine chanting. At the end of the session the hostess made her contribution. She also gave each of the visitors – about ten of us – a red packet. How much money was inside the ang pau? For privacy reason, I am not disclosing the number. But, considering that we hardly knew each other, I must say that she was very generous.

As a poor man, I couldn’t make a big monetary donation. But at least I was giving my time. That’s another form of generosity. I look forward to next year’s program…

Thien Hou Temple at Night

Chinese New Year is just over. Thien Hou Temple in Kuala Lumpur, as usual, was decorated with loads of lanterns during the festival. Last year, I visited the temple during the day. This year, I decided to go there at night. Here are a few night shots taken there…

This is an “out-of-focus” shot. I focused at the far-away lanterns. The nearer ones are rendered out-of-focus…

In this shot, I focused on the statue inside the temple hall…

This is yet another out-of-focus shot. Manual focusing was used to achieve such effect…

Interesting Items on eBay

I signed up eBay recently. I wish to sell things on the online shopping site in future, but before that, I will make some purchase. Through buying on eBay, I will learn how people run their online business.

As I browsed through the items listed on eBay, I found some interesting stuffs. Here are two…

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Cherry Blossoms for Natural Pink (Nipples & Lips) 粉紅嫩

According to the seller, this is cherry blossom extract which restores alluring sheer pink lips and lightens darkened nipples. Further, there is a description in Chinese which goes like this:

胸前的黑乳頭就像兩粒“黑鈕扣”，讓它變得粉嫩，妳的另一半更加愛妳。。。

My translation: The black nipples on the chest are like two “black buttons”. Turn them pink, and your other half will love you more…

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Sole Cleaner Massage 礦石腳底清潔穴道按摩舒緩墊

Here are some descriptions of the item by the seller:

This unique foot massager features both soft and hard flexible bristles that clean and massage your feet whilst circulating blood stimulation. The sole cleaner is ideal for people for limited movement and makes cleaning your feet in the shower hassle free! This means no more bending down in shower to wash those dirty soles.

If your potbelly prevents you from bending down, you’ll find the sole cleaner useful!