Category: 窺探世界 Explore the World

It is this time of the year again.

When the market becomes very busy and the traffic becomes very congested. When the people whose culture also celebrate the first day of the lunar calendar year become busy preparing for celebration.

That’s right. Some called it Chinese New Year, Vietnamese New Year. But I think the most accurate wording is Lunar New Year (農曆新年).

This is a time when family and friends visit and greet each other in the hope of rekindling relationship and welcoming a new start for the year. Once-a-year meet-up usually takes place on this occasion, before we part and carry on with our busy work or study life again.

This is also the time when this and that feng-shui masters appear in TV and online shows to talk about their latest publication about your fortune for the year. Continue reading “You can’t handle unworldly fascination, when the humanly world matters are still a big mess”

I used to think that Delta variant was already the last variant of Covid-19. But Omicron variant proved me wrong, although some experts said it is a different disease. Since South African medics notified the international society about the new variant in an honest and honourable manner, Omicron spread across the world very swiftly. Given its contagiousness, it still spreads no matter how hard you close borders and lock down cities. How fast it spreads is the only question here.

If we are able to sit down calmly and observe the Omicron wave, we can perhaps come to a more optimistic conclusion. Forget about those media outlets which are shouting and creating chaos everyday because they need to exaggerate stories to attract more views.

I am quite confident about Dr John Campbell’s explanation. Put it simply, Omicron infects more people but most are suffering from flu and cold because we have been vaccinated. Most people recover after taking a rest for three to five days. No hospitalisation tsunami, more people receive booster shot, and Omicron infected many more people and they suffer from mild symptoms. Hopefully UK, US and Europe can achieve herd immunity by March or April. Continue reading “It peaks and it collapses quickly: normalcy to return in 2022? 高峰過總會有下坡：2022年之生活常態化”

Daydreaming is inevitable, particularly when the pandemic still troubles the world. When I watch Simon Yam’s movies, I recall of Hong Kong news reports which covered his stories of investing in properties worldwide to earn rental income. For average Joe including me, achieving ownership of properties worldwide for rental earnings is a dream far too unreachable. We can hardly handle properties properly when we have to always travel thousands of miles to attend to management matters. In this case, the only solution is engaging a management company to handle your properties on your behalf.

Alright, put aside about making rental income from properties worldwide. If you owned properties in KL and Selangor, Penang and Johor Bahru—the three largest cities in Malaysia—for rental income, that would be a big headache in itself. Of course, some individuals in some parts of the world earn a living by utilising property ownership.

If property business became your best pastime and properties in three cities earned you rental income, you might find yourself driving and loitering in one city of your rental income source for one week for the sake of observing the market. Three weeks for three cities and the remaining week of the month would be spent in front of your computer to check how much rental you have collected, the amount to repay banks, and more importantly, your earnings for the month in your property management business. Continue reading “Globalisation dream of owning properties worldwide 春秋大夢之全球有資產”

杜汶澤這段節目精華看了又看還是覺得很過癮。先說明一下，我對大房子沒有感覺，亦不知道房子住得這麼寬敞到底有何用處，但我祇想從現實層面研究一下：實際上，在霹靂州首府怡保是有可能人人住得起六千呎大屋。

去年疫情剛剛在馬來西亞爆發，上台就任才兩週的首相慕尤丁宣佈全國封鎖，經濟活動幾乎完全停擺，房地產產業當然亦無法倖免地慘澹經營。記得那時候我在網上瀏覽就看到怡保市區附近有大房子以五百令吉的優惠價（粵語說「跳樓價」）放租，呎數多少我忘記了，反正就是一千多平方呎以上。若有人當時眼明手快以每個月五百元租下來簽兩年合同，應該是非常划算的交易。

我亦記得七、八年前在怡保看過房子，三層樓透天厝有電梯，叫價六十五萬令吉。以當時匯率來說，這個價格在台灣也就祇有五百萬台幣左右，在大台北地區想要上車置業大概是難若登天。 Continue reading “人人住得起六千呎大屋 6,000 sqf house could be affordable for all”

The new rules for Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme annouced in August 2021 were out of touch with reality. Under the new rules, foreigners must earn an offshore income of RM40,000 every month (US$9,630 / HK$74,865) and place a fixed deposit of one million ringgit with a local bank, although half of the sum can be withdrawn to purchase a local property and pay for education expenses.

Harsh regulations? More to come, mate. For you to enjoy a full or semi retirement in Malaysia, a country famous for its relaxing lifestyle, even if you can afford to meet the much higher financial criteria of MM2H, in future you will need to worry about visa extension every five years. Previously approved for ten years at each renewal, Continue reading “MM2H getting unrealistically expensive 大馬第二家園貴得離譜”

隨著英美和以色列逐步解封，英格蘭的足球聯賽和美國職業籃球聯賽也可以開放觀眾入場了，我心裏其實愈來愈相信各個經濟體解封是指日可待的事。

這股信心其實來自兩個原因：

第一，英美疫苗施打率相當可觀，中國施打疫苗人數也有增加，星馬地區的疫苗接種人數也是開始增加。目前西方國家正在研究交叉施打疫苗的效果，globalnews.ca報導是效果不錯而且後遺症不算嚴重。若第一劑是阿斯利康、第二劑是輝瑞，或者施打兩劑疫苗的民眾可以在接種第三針的時候補上另一個品牌的疫苗來加強保護力，擁有新冠肺炎的更強抗體的人數持續增加，整個經濟運作的環境就愈安全。 Continue reading “全面解封之妙想天開 Thinking out loud about relaxing restrictions”

The Covid pandemic seems to rage fiercely in recent two weeks. Territories in Asia saw a spike in new Covid cases, and many of the patients are asymptomatic. Even patients who had been inoculated also fell ill.

Many are asking whether there still is a need to get ourselves inoculated, since one will still be infected. And the answer is yes. Why? Simply because vaccination helps us avoid falling seriously ill, and one’s infectivity can be reduced significantly when infected.

Put it this way. Even after inoculation we still wear a mask, we still practice personal hygiene by washing hands with soap and water. When there are big events such as concert and football match, the health authorities check audiences’ vaccination record and rapid test result at the entrance.
Continue reading “目標大概是感冒化 A normal cold is probably the target”

一直以來都很想問牙醫：到底牙齒可否用上一生一世？有沒有人終其一生都不需要鑲假牙？祇是早晚刷牙是否足以保護牙齒一生都不會蛀掉？

抱著這些疑問過生活的這些年來，我祇是靠牙線剔除幾顆大牙縫隙之間的食物殘渣、早晚刷牙來維持牙齒衛生。說穿了，我對保持牙齒衛生祇是一知半解，心底比較多的想法可能是期盼自己運氣夠好，希望這些工夫加減做了一些就可以換來一生不需要換假牙。

但是現實總是非常殘酷：這個世界從來沒有白吃的午餐，也沒有什麼東西從天而降而不需要付出代價。哪怕使用牙線從表面上看起來似乎是多麼微不足道，實際上還真的有些學問，看過Dr. Grace這支影片就知道了。 Continue reading “好牙齒原來可以維持一生一世 Lifelong teeth care”