ELAINE'S FORUM #3 (4/10/08) - reflections on my first 101 days of 2008

Greetings. I would be delighted to hear from you on how you are doing. The first 101 days of 2008 have proven to be rather eventful in my quest for spiritual and physical renewal. Here are my top 10 reflections / observations year-to-date:

1) Carpe Diem - One of my most cherished friends passed away in February unexpectedly at age 41. I once read somewhere that we are all passengers on a train, and life is a series of journeys of getting on and off a train. My friend was one of those passengers that left an ever lasting impression when she got off. Her zest for life and her staunch support of our alma mater and other philanthropic organizations have taught me to live life to the fullest, and to give back to institutions that shape us as individuals, or make the world a better place.

2) Digitize everything - I had always wanted to embark on this project, and sadly it took my friend’s passing for me to put it into action. As a tribute to her I scanned all the pictures (from negatives) I have of her pre 2004 into digital jpeg format. I was technology challenged so only went digital in '04. As laborious as this process is (consumer scanners take 1 min. per frame), I highly recommend converting all your printed pictures into digital ones, and then burn them into DVDs. The trip down memory lane is well worth every minute spent. I have approximately 40,000 pictures from my collection to scan! This will keep me busy for a long time, not to mention the hundreds of hours of VHS or mini DV tapes that have to be digitized as well! If I outsource it, yes, I did think about paying someone else professionally to do it - it cost $.19 to $.80 per picture depending on the shop. If you are interested in DIY. go to CNET.com to read the reviews and choose the scanner of your choice, they also provide price quotes.

3) Spinal Health – I became certified as a Gyrotonics instructor. I profess that I still need to work on my forms long before I can venture into the arena of teaching. I got certified simply to learn how to fully utilize the machines and get the maximum benefits for my spine. This work helps open up the spine and is uniquely energizing. Check out the link to Body Evolutions at the end of this email to get a better understanding of how it can help improve your health.

4) Time Share gluts – sub prime related? – I was in Vegas in February for the first time since 2001, and everywhere I went I was besieged by someone offering Time-Share presentation – you sit thru 1.5 hr of presentation, they give you lunch, $150 food or gambling credits, 2 free show tickets, and 2 nights free cruise to the Bahamas! How they make money I don’t quite know, but every agent at the casino was working very hard at peddling the deal. This was reminiscent of a ski trip to Park City a few years ago; I was offered so many viewing or presentation opportunities with promises of free stays! In Lake Tahoe a couple of weeks ago, I read flyers touting 50% off previously owned time-shares – what a bargain.

5) Skiing - this has been one of the best seasons as far as snow conditions are concerned, contrary to last year where I was on brown crud most of the time. I took advantage and skied in Vail, Beaver Creek, Heavenly and Whislter /Blackcomb. I did a PPP analysis on the season's pass for each of these 4 resorts, and hands down your best bank for the buck is the EPIC pass for $579 (you must buy before Nov. 15th), you can ski at any of the following 5 resorts with NO restrictions: Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, and Heavenly. This is an absolute bargain when compared to an avg. daily lift ticket of $80, or Whistler's season's pass of $1,399 CAD (pre Oct.) or $1,799 (post Oct). OK, granted Whistler comes with 10 other resorts, mostly in Canada, and it will be host to the Winter Olympics in 2010, still the price differential is staggering and half of the times you can't see the mountains on Whistler, virtual white-out conditions! Beaver Creek is for those who do not like to walk like me - love their escalator running from the village to the base of the gondola. And at 3pm daily, warm chocolate cookies are handed out at the base. I am very fond of free goodies!

6) The poor Greenback - Arguably I have chosen to travel at the worst of times with respect to the weakness of the greenback, nowhere do I feel more acutely poor than when I am overseas, even when I ventured to my next door neighbor Canada’s backyard last week while skiing in Whistler. The CAD is now at 1.02 to 1US$. All establishments accepted my US $ at par with CAD. In 2000, when I first started going to Whistler, it was at 1.6 ish or so. I bought my first and only pair of skis then, rationalizing that in spite of all the PST, GST, VAT and whatever T they tagged on, it was still a bargain to buy things in Canada. Today, it is cheaper to buy it on the internet in the US, I priced a pair of skis that was quoted at $399 in the US, vs. $699 at a shop in the resort! My flight from SF today was completely full (actually oversold) with French tourists. The shuttle I took from the airport to the city was filled with folks from the UK and Ireland. Tourism in the US will continue to do well as everything is half price or 50-60% cheaper if one is lucky enough to be paid in sterling pound or the euros.

As I plan my trip to Prague in May, I am getting quotes in Euros only. Hotel such as the Mandarin Oriental starts at Euro 450 per night. According to the WSJ, the US$ has declined against the Euro YTD 7%, and against the Czech koruna - a whopping 12%. The one place I am still very interested in visiting is South Africa, and thankfully the US$ has strengthened against the Rand by 15% YTD, I hope inflation there is still contained by the time I visit the country.

7) Food for purchase program - Buy your own food on all domestic flights (that is if you fly cattle class like I have been) - even on a long haul 6 hour flight from NY to SF. I think I will bring my own $.99 Cup 0 Noodle (tastes sublime with lime juice - no punt intended, try it for yourself), which arguably tastes better than the $5 snack boxes ladened with just as much bad stuff.

8) UA oversold flights - the perks are getting better by the day! If you have all the time in the world to give up your seat and be booked on the next flight, you get a first class seat + a free voucher for a future flight!

9) Buy airline stocks for humanitarian reason? On my flight today our captain gallantly announced that thanks to UA, a lucky patient in NY will receive a new kidney as our plane was carrying the organ, which gave the pilot priority status and shaved 20 minutes off our flight time. For a split second I consider buying an airline stock, in spite of shunning a business model during my entire broking career because I think the model is wrought with flaws - high capex, subject to the vagary of oil prices, labor strikes, etc. Yet from a humanitarian standpoint, a plane perpetuates the circle of life!!

10) Investments - I have looked at a few private investment opportunities, two in the retail arena, one in movie production, and explored peripherally whether to become an angel investor. Thanks to the volatile stock market, I have not pulled the trigger on any given my dwindling PA! I am still open to learning about new start ups - l simply love to learn about new businesses and to me it is exciting to watch a start up grow, particularly one that can blossom into a world class franchise. I am a firm believer that now is the time to start seriously looking at real estate investments, where there is turmoil, there is opportunity. Now I just need capital!! Even with Fed Fund at 2.25% currently, money is tight, as evidenced by quotes from Bankrate.com, a 15 year mortgage is 5.24%, 30 year at 5.66%, and a 1 year ARM at 5.53%. My 5/1 ARM was readjusted on April 1st to an annual ARM, I now pay a full 1.5% higher than what I paid 5 years ago (granted I refinanced in April of 2003 before FF hit a low of 1% in June of 2003). I am waiting for FF to hit 1% again……..

CHECK IT OUT:
1) http://www.kiva.org/
2) http://www.trickleup.org/
3) http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=1
4) http://www.freerice.com/
5) http://www.cnet.com/
6) http://www.bodyevolutions.com/
7) http://snow.com/epicpass/info/epic-pass-details.asp


GOOD LUCK ON UNCLE SAM DAY – April 15th! If you are paying taxes, you are doing fine.

ELAINE'S FORUM #2 (12/10/07): Italy, Paris, Asia, Volunteer work & HAPPY HOLIDAYS

HAPPY HOLIDAYS 2007. May the year 2008 (and the Lunar Year of the Rat) bring you stunning successes in all your endeavors.

GENERAL UPDATES:
I just flew back last night on cattle class after spending 3 weeks in HK, Japan & Vietnam as a tourist and not as a stockbroker! For the past 15 years I have only flown business class (one reason to go back to work!!) and now I know what it is like to curl up in a box for 15 hrs in economy. That said, Cathay Pacific’s new B777-300ER planes made it tolerable and even somewhat enjoyable, the flights were full in all classes to and from the US and within Asia. Thanks to Leenor & Bill, and Erika and Colin for putting me up in their wonderful homes in HK & Tokyo respectively.

HK is the hallmark of ostentatious display of wealth; Japan is the epitome of orderliness; and Vietnam is China 15 years ago, full of buzz and energy, at 1/5 of the labor cost of China, it is no wonder that everyone is building plants and setting up offices in Vietnam. If motorbikes are indication of the power of consumption in Vietnam, I will need to do some more homework work on VMEPH (422 HK), the first HK listed Vietnam consumption play specializing in high end popular motorbikes with 8% market share. Apparently Honda is the leader in the segment – according to my tour guide – everyone wants a Honda bike – starting at US$1,000, no one wants the Chinese ones – at $200. Vietnam is the last frontier for MacDonald and Starbucks, neither are in Vietnam yet. There is Pho 24 and Highlands Coffee. The day Mickey D and S-bucks show up, Vietnam would no longer be a third world country.

Since my first FORUM on 8/28/07, I have 1) stopped paying attention to the stock market, too much noises. Though I still read the WSJ and watch CNBC for prosperity; 2) Attended a dear friend’s beautiful wedding in Siena where I missed my flights on both end of the trip but spotted Matthew McConnaughey and his girlfriend on the same flight enroute to Paris; 4) Volunteered at the China Institute (ad hoc projects) and Mount Sinai Hospital (reading to children). If you are in NYC and have time to volunteer, check out the Mayor’s Volunteer Center website (attached at the end). It brings me joy to give something back; one can only go to the gym or go shopping so many hours a day. And 4) Visited Asia.

I have also discovered that Kee’s chocolates was one of the stuffers of the goody bags for the VIPs at the Emmy’s, if it is good enough for the Emmy’s, it is good enough for me.

TOP 10 MEMORIES FROM MY RECENT TRAVELS:

10) LOST LUGGAGE – Italian Way – Alitalia has a policy of not delivering your lost luggage until 48 hours after it is found, unless you go back to the airport yourself to pick it up!! Since I was in Italy for all of 72 hrs, I saw no point in going back to the airport to pick it up when I missed my connecting flight, went and did some retail therapy to make up for the lack of clothes to wear during my friend’s wedding.

9) CELEBRITY SIGHTING: They get privileged treatment even in foreign countries. On my flight from Florence to Paris I was graced by the presence of Matthew McConnaughey and his girlfriend. They boarded the same bus to the plane and no one hassle them (may be folks in Europe could care less about stars). On disembarking in Paris, Air France promptly whisked them away in a private car; meanwhile I had to run from one terminal to another to catch my connecting flight to NYC, which I promptly missed.

8) ONLY IN HONG KONG: 1) The ostentatious display of wealth: Orange Lamborghini during rush hour in Central - driven by some neavu-riched couple. Mind you in HK, during rush hour you can walk faster than you can talk, why drive at all, and of course, why a sports car? 2) A drink that toasts youth and beauty: MoBar @ the new Landmark Mandarin Oriental Hotel – call the "Young and Beautiful" drink, I had to order it to celebrate the youth and beauty of others, mine long gone (or never had)!

7) PRICE DIFFERENTIALS: TAXIS (starting meter): HK: US$2, Tokyo: $6, Saigon: $1. NATIONAL DRESSES: HK: $70 to $2000 depending on whether you buy it off the street or have it custom made. Tokyo: beautiful kimonos in shops in the subway concourse: US$2,800. Saigon: US$ 35 – 70 custom-made. Hanoi airport - souvenir shop ladies will basically quote you a random price on an item unless it has a price sticker on it. I priced a set of coasters - here the range quoted to me was $10 to $25 (you can bargain for them for $1 in Saigon)!!

6) NO FAT WOMEN IN ASIA - It is remarkable that there are virtually no fat women in Asia except for tourists like me? All Asian women are SIZE 0 or NEGATIVE 2! I can never go shopping in Asia for fear of being told that I am an extra large. I was told that a few years ago in Shanghai when shopping with clients at a DB China conf, and I can assure you that it was not in reference to my upper extremities (except perhaps my head)! I asked my tour guide in Hanoi where can I buy an Ao Doi (traditional Vietnamese outfit), I was told I need to have it custom-made, and I won’t be able to breath in it! Who designed all the traditional nat’l dresses for the women in these countries? Why do Chinese Qi Pao have 2 slits up the side of the thighs while all other nations cover up their women neck to toe? What if one has chunky legs, nowhere to hide with those slits!

5) BEST JAPANESE PRODUCTS - Sushi, gardens, hot springs (onsen), flower arrangement and toilets (latest craze: heated toilet seat with bidet). Try Ryokans – traditional Japanese Inns, some with hot springs. Gora Kadan (a Relais Chateau property) is a good one to try. One of my fellow karate class mates traveled to Kyoto and stayed at a Ryokan and met a geisha in training and was given her #, lucky man!! I met a good looking Japanese businessman when I asked for directions at the Nagoya train station and he promptly told me he has 2 kids!

4) MOST MEMORABLE DINNING EXPERIENCES:
A) PARIS - Picnic Dinner - Best restaurant view (& FREE) – None other than the footbridge of Pont des Arts which straddles the Louvre and the Institute de France in Paris. My brother and his partner set up a portable picnic table in the middle of the footbridge and whipped out champagne and gourmet food to celebrate my missing my connecting flight to NY, and we were the most photographed people by locals and tourists on the footbridge or from the boats passing by below on the River Seine.

B) NAGOYA – By chance a group of us (6 people) walked into a tiny local Japanese restaurant tucked away on the 3rd floor of a building (a.k.a private kitchen where the chef cooks by the bar area as he mingles with the clients) and our group took up the entire restaurant! The wait staff barely spoke English, but knew pizza, wine and sake in English. The 6 of us in the group knew collectively maybe 5 words in Japanese. I thanked the good lord that I was born Chinese in this century and learned enough characters to order food, I asked the waiter to write down what they have in Chinese character, so alas some of us had pizza, some of us had chicken and fried rice, in a Japanese restaurant!! As we were half way thru dinner, a diner seated at the bar turned and smiled at us when we were attempting to learn the few Japanese words some of us we knew and lo and behold we discovered he grew up in Scarsdale, where was he when we needed him to order for us!!!

3) MOST LAW ABIDING CITIZENS IN THE WORLD: The award goes to the Japanese. 1) Trains could be empty and people won't switch seats. For example, on my Shinkansen (bullet train) to Nagoya from Tokyo, there was well over 1.5 hrs to the next stop, people just stay put even though they were stuck next to a stranger when the car was half empty. 2) No one jaywalks; even if there isn't a car in sight within miles, people just wait patiently for the light to change. Why do Japanese believe in queues and will line up accordingly whilst everyone else in Asia loosely interprets the definition of a queue??

2) ORGANIZED CHAOS / WORLD’S MOST SKILLFUL MOTORBIKERS: Vietnam roads are the epitome of organized chaos. How do Japanese tourists survive in Vietnam when crossing the roads (especially the ring roads)? It was nothing short of a miracle that I wasn't flattened by hordes of mad motor bikers trying to mow me down. Everyone runs the red light. Someone should make a Nintendo game out of this - for every pedestrian one mows down, one gets a point! Vietnamese are the most slender people in the world, how else can 4 people fit onto a motorbike? A number of fashionable young women were riding their motorcycles in their high heels (I am taking about 3" ones), and not as a passenger, while talking on their cell phones! I saw a young woman in Hanoi riding in a skirt and hi-heel boots - this has to be every man's fantasy of a biker chick!

1) HA LONG BAY: Words can not describe this spectacularly beautiful Unesco World Heritage Site, it was well worth the 3.5 hr each way drive to and from Hanoi, before embarking a 4 hr cruise to see a fraction of this peaceful, romantic, stunning gorgeous natural site of 1600 islands and islets. It really should be included as one of the seven natural wonders in the world. Vietnam is encouraging all visitors to vote Halong into the next group of the new 7 Natural Wonders of the World – see attached link: http://www.new7wonders.com/index.php?id=315&L=0

CHECK IT OUT:

1) HALONG BAY: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/672/video
2) GORA KADAN: http://www.gorakadan.com/
3) NYC VOLUNTEER : http://www.volunteernyc.org/volunteer/
4) CHINA INSTITUTE – http://www.chinainstitute.org/

ELAINE'S FORUM #1 (8/31/07): Regent Seven Seas Cruises / Kee's Chocolates

Hope your summer is going well. I hope to stay in touch by sharing with you from time to time 1) General Updates, 2) a Top 10 list (glean from my travels), and 3) Check it out: things worth looking into (strictly in my humble opinion and I do not get compensated). I will on occasions endeavor to make an introduction to those who have interesting ventures or investment ideas. I would be delighted to receive the same from you if you so incline.

GENERAL UPDATES:

Since my leaving Wall Street on July 6th of this year, I have been besieged by the “break-down demon” in my apt – my living room floor buckled from an air-conditioner leak, one toilet handle broke, one sink cracked, and my dishwasher got recalled by GE for potential fire hazard. At least my apt had the good sense of waiting for me to retire from the Street before breaking down. I have also witnessed my 2 biggest holdings in my tiny portfolio (guess which 2 companies by virtue of my previous employments?!?!) went down 22-24% since their all time highs. Suffice to say I feel a bit poorer now in the investment arena, though hopefully richer in the mental and physical health front.

I have just returned from a 10 day Baltic trip embedded with a 7 night cruise that took me and my mom from Copenhagen to Visby, Tallin, St. Petersburg & Stockholm. I am still suffering from sticker shock in Copenhagen and Stockholm, the US$ don’t go very far there. I wonder if Americans will continue to travel abroad if the US$ remains weak? But given 90% of the 600 passengers (out of a capacity of 700) on my cruise were Americans and most of them are retirees, Americans are still spending. On my return into Newark on Sunday, the immigration queues were equally as long for both the “Visitors” as well as the “US Citizens” lines; there were several hundred people in each queue. So foreigners are spending their rising currencies on US soils, likewise Americans were spending their hard earned US$ overseas.

TOP 10 THINGS I GLEANED / OBSERVED FROM THE BALTIC CRUISE:

1) BEST FLOOR IN AN AIRPORT – Copenhagen hands down wins it, who has nice wooden floors in their airports?

2) THE LITTLE MERMAID – is indeed little – it was human size. I don’t know why I thought it would be bigger!! And apparently it has been decapitated 2x by vandals, luckily the sculpture was always repaired so hordes of tourist would flock to it and take pictures with the little one.

3) RUSSIAN BILLIONAIRES – One of our proud tour guides announced to us on that there are 51 billionaires in Russia according to Forbes ’s poll thisyear. One such billionaire recently paid US$1 Mil for a budding artist’s rendition of a black square on a white canvass. I am moving to Russia to be an artist.

4) SELLING STAMPS IN RUSSIA IS VERY PROFITABLE: I met a very enterprising young lady at the St. Issac’s Cathedral gift shop who sold me postcard stamps for US$ 2 each, when the cost of each was less than US$.50, I was impressed.

5) CATHERINE THE GREAT: Purportedly plotted the assisnation of her husband Peter, had 6 recognized lovers and countless unknown ones, and people loved her, the 18th century was a really avant garde era for women!!

6) CATHERINE’S PALACE – for US$450,000 a night, you can rent out the ballroom and host a dinner for 200 of your best friends. This is a far cry from the palace being used no more than 2-3 weeks out of a year back in the days, Catherine would roll over in her grave.

7) MARRIAGE RITUAL: I saw quite a few wedding parties taking pictures on the waterfront in St Petersburg, with one bride sporting a lime green wedding dress!! There are 2 traditions: 1) The groom carries the bride across one of the 560 bridges to demonstrate his love, so if your groom picks the shortest bridge, you know where you stand, and 2) they go by stature of Peter the Great to be blessed for an eternity of happiness. Our tour guide told us that inspite of being blessed, the divorce rate in Russia is still 50%.

8) TIGER WOOD’S SISTER-IN-LAW: Tiger and his wife has an apt in Stockholm. Tiger’s wife has a twin sister and she uses the apt whenever Tiger and wife are not around and she is stalked by the paparazzis who believe she is Tiger’s wife.

9) IKEA – the name came from the first initials of the founder’s first & last name, and the 2 villages he lived in. Mr. Ingvar Kamprad is 80 yrs old, ranked by Forbes this year as the richest man in Europe (at US$ 33 Bn). He has since given up living in Sweden because taxes are way too high for his taste and moved to Switzerland! If IKEA was a public company, I will buy the stock in a heartbeat – the number of new apts going up in newly gentrified neigborhoods in Stockholm are stunning (both in pace and in design).

10) PASSENGER OVER THE CHAIR: Apparently it is a regular occurrence on cruise ships that passengers tend to tip over on the side of their dining chairs, reassured by our valiant waiter Bembol as he came to my mom’s rescue when she reached for her purse that fell to the floor and I sat frozen watching my mom and the chair tip over in SLOW MOTION…….. Bembol leaped into motion from whence he came and picked her and the chair up before they reach the ground, now, that deserves a 10 for service and paying attention to the guests!!


CHECK IT OUT:

1) REGENT SEVEN SEAS CRUISES: It has earned a 6 star distinction and its Regent hotel chain is renowned for its service. It boasts the largest cabin space in the industry. They only deal thru travel agents; the website is for information only. If you would like to use my agent, send me an email and I will send you her name & #, she got me the best prices and cabin. http://www.regentssevenseas.com/

2) KEE’S CHOCOLATES: Simply the best and most divine handmade chocolates in the world in my humble opinion. http://www.keeschocolates.com/