Up in the Kaveman’s Dig

It’s like 2am now on Nov 1st. I didn’t go out cuz work requires me to be in @ 815am every saturday till December….. anyways, that’s not the reason I am posting..

Yep, none of you have probably heard of this movie. I was totally bored these few days so I bought a bunch of movies and surprisingly enough, this was the first movie I watched. Paris Hilton plays a hot chick and her best friend is totally ugly. But you know what? I thought it was gonna be another chick flick, romantic comedy, but I quite enjoyed it. There were a couple of twists and not a bad story! Funny at times and so true at others.

The movie is about trying to get to a girl through her best friend who happens to be really ugly and trying to impress her friend instead so the girl you are trying to get think you are  a nice guy.

not to spoil the ending for you guys, but if you try hard enough, the ending is pretty simple. take a guess.

But yeah, definitely watch it, if like me, everyone is partying on halloween and you have nothing to do on friday night because you need to go in to work the next day real early.

4.5/5 stars.

“THe Hottie and the Nottie” 2008. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804492/

Starring Paris Hilton, Joel David Moore, CHristine Lakin and Johann Urb ( I wish I had his abs… haha)

Our MDRT breakfast meeting. Lovely!

Let us all take a moment to recap the highlights of the lovely crisis……

Subprime Collapse to Global Financial Meltdown: Timeline

Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) — The following is a timeline of events that led to the current global financial crisis. 

March 5, 2007: HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s biggest bank by market value, says the U.S. subprime market is “unstable” and now in a “downturn,” making it the main drag on company earnings. 

so these guys were the first apparently to predict the downturn…. should’ve been given the heads up since then! :p

March 29, 2007: HSBC Chairman Stephen Green says the U.S. subprime mortgage services division will be “run down significantly” as the bank tries to recover from loan losses.

good call…

April 2, 2007: New Century Financial Corp., which specialized in loans to people with poor credit, files for bankruptcy protection after being overwhelmed by customer defaults.

Here we go, the first to leave…. never heard of these guys, but yeah the smaller guys fall first. A shape of things to come.

July 17, 2007: Investors in two Bear Stearns Cos. hedge funds that invested in collateralized debt obligations backed by subprime mortgage loans are told there is no value left in the funds, wiping out $1.6 billion originally invested.

July 19, 2007: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke tells the U.S. Senate’s Banking Committee that there may be as much as $100 billion in losses associated with subprime mortgage products.

Aug. 9, 2007: BNP Paribas SA, France’s biggest bank, halts withdrawals from three investment funds because it can’t “fairly” value their holdings, as concern over U.S. subprime mortgage losses roils credit markets.

halts withdrawals? Well I guess it’s “fair”…. and in the good words of Kate Winslet “just wait and see, you never know!”

Aug. 17, 2007: The Fed lowers the interest rate it charges banks and acknowledges for the first time that an extraordinary policy shift is needed to contain the subprime-mortgage collapse.

Aug. 22, 2007: Countrywide Financial Corp., the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, sells $2 billion of preferred stock to Bank of America Corp., the biggest U.S. bank by market value, to bolster its finances.

Sept. 7, 2007: The three-month London interbank offered rate, or Libor, the rate banks charge each other for dollars, rises to a seven-year high, signaling efforts by central banks to free up lending are sputtering.

Sept. 14, 2007: Northern Rock Plc says the Bank of England agreed to provide emergency funds to ease a “severe liquidity squeeze” sparked by U.S. subprime mortgage defaults following the first run on a British bank in more than a century.

Oct. 9, 2007: U.S. stock indexes rally to records for the second time in a month after minutes from the Fed allayed investor concern that the U.S. economy is heading for a recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard %26amp; Poor’s 500 Index set all-time highs, with the Dow closing at 14,164.53.

the first of the “all-time highs” rally. We have been breaking records ever since! That’s just scary…but then again, records are meant to be broken right? and profit from it! lol

Oct. 30, 2007: Merrill Lynch %26amp; Co. ousts Stan O’Neal as chairman and chief executive officer after reporting a $2.24 billion loss, six times bigger than a forecast the firm offered just three weeks earlier.

Nov. 4, 2007: Citigroup Inc. CEO Charles “Chuck” Prince, who took over in 2003, steps down after the largest U.S. bank by assets increased its estimate for mortgage-related writedowns.

Jan. 11, 2008: Bank of America, the biggest U.S. bank by market value, agrees to buy Countrywide for about $4 billion.

March 14, 2008: Bear Stearns Cos. gets emergency funding from the U.S. Federal Reserve and JPMorgan Chase %26amp; Co. as a run on the bank depletes its cash reserves in three days.

March 16, 2008: JPMorgan Chase agrees to buy Bear Stearns for 7 percent of its market value in a sale brokered by the Fed and the U.S. Treasury.

April 1, 2008: Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the fourth- largest U.S. securities firm, raises $4 billion from a stock sale to quell speculation it’s short of capital.

Good job……but not good enough. …. RIP.
April 9, 2008: Washington Mutual Inc. rejected an offer from JPMorgan Chase to buy it for as much as $8 a share, or $7 billion, before announcing it received a $7 billion capital infusion from a group led by TPG Inc., the Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the situation.

see above..
April 28, 2008: The U.S. Internal Revenue Service starts distributing tax rebates electronically as part of a $168 billion economic stimulus plan.

May 31, 2008: Bear Stearns ceases to exist as the acquisition by JPMorgan is completed.

June 20, 2008: The Dow closes below 12,000.

July 11, 2008: IndyMac Bancorp Inc., the second-biggest independent U.S. mortgage lender, is seized by federal regulators after a run by depositors depleted its cash.

July 31, 2008: Nationwide Building Society, Britain’s fourth-biggest mortgage lender, says U.K. house prices declined the most in almost two decades in July and consumer confidence fell to a record low as the economy edged closer to a recession.

Aug. 12, 2008: UBS AG, Switzerland’s biggest bank, announces plans to separate its investment banking and wealth management units after mounting subprime writedowns prompt rich clients to withdraw funds for the first time in almost eight years.

Aug. 31, 2008: Commerzbank AG agrees to buy Allianz SE’s Dresdner Bank for 9.8 billion euros ($13.3 billion) in Germany’s biggest banking takeover in three years.

Sept. 7, 2008: The U.S. government seizes control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the largest U.S. mortgage-finance companies.

Now we get to the real meat! Yummm!
Sept. 15, 2008: Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. files the largest bankruptcy in history, and Bank of America agrees to acquire Merrill Lynch for about $50 billion.

And the highlight of the decade is….. tada!
Sept. 16, 2008: American International Group Inc. accepts an $85 billion loan from the Fed to avert the worst financial collapse in history, and the government takes over the company.

I should be all over this like a rash, but since I work for them, I see this as Superman Saves the Day! Come back now ya hear?! We love you State Street.
Sept. 18, 2008: Lloyds TSB Group Plc, the U.K.’s biggest provider of checking accounts, agrees to buy HBOS Plc, Britain’s largest mortgage lender, for 10.4 billion pounds ($18.1 billion).

Sept. 21, 2008: Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley receive approval to become commercial banks regulated by the Fed as tight credit markets forced Wall Street’s two remaining independent investment banks to widen their sources of funding.

Yep, even Goldman and Morgan have to give in…..
Sept. 23, 2008: Goldman Sachs says it will raise at least $7.5 billion from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and public investors in a bid to quell concerns that pushed up the Wall Street firm’s borrowing costs and hurt its stock.

So is anyone still pissed off that the only person profiting from all of this is WB? So it realy proves that people who have more money can only make more money! And poor people just have to hope the rats don’t eat the paper money stuck in their tin under their bed….:p
Sept. 26, 2008: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ends a program that monitored securities firms’ capital after Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, the only companies remaining under its jurisdiction, became banks overseen by the Fed.

Sept. 26, 2008: The SEC’s inspector general releases a report asserting that the agency failed in overseeing Bear Stearns because it knew the firm had “high leverage” and was too concentrated in mortgage securities before its forced sale to JPMorgan Chase %26amp; Co.

Sept. 26, 2008: Washington Mutual Inc. is seized by government regulators and its branches and assets sold to JPMorgan Chase in the biggest U.S. bank failure in history.

Sept. 27, 2008: Washington Mutual files for bankruptcy protection.

Sept. 28, 2008: Fortis, the largest Belgian financial- services firm, receives an 11.2 billion-euro rescue from Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg after investor confidence in the bank evaporates.

Sept. 29, 2008: The House of Representatives rejects a $700 billion plan to rescue the U.S. financial system, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 778 points, its biggest point drop ever. Citigroup agrees to acquire the banking operations of Wachovia Corp. for about $2.16 billion after shares of the North Carolina lender collapsed under the weight of overdue mortgages. Bradford %26amp; Bingley Plc, the U.K.’s biggest lender to landlords, is seized by the government. The Dow closes below 11,000.

Sept. 30, 2008: Dexia SA, the world’s biggest lender to local governments, gets a 6.4 billion-euro state-backed rescue as a worsening financial crisis forces policy makers across Europe to aid ailing banks. Ireland says it will guarantee its banks’ deposits and debts for two years.

Oct. 1, 2008: The U.S. Senate approves a revised version of the rescue plan that was refashioned to entice enough votes for passage.

Oct. 3, 2008: The House passes the revised version of the rescue plan. Wells Fargo %26amp; Co., the biggest U.S. bank on the West Coast, agrees to buy all of Wachovia for about $15.1 billion, trumping Citigroup’s government-assisted offer. U.S. President George W. Bush signs the rescue plan into law.

Oct. 5, 2008: BNP Paribas SA, France’s biggest bank, will take control of Fortis’s units in Belgium and Luxembourg after an earlier government rescue failed to ensure the company’s stability as the global credit crisis worsened.

Oct. 6, 2008: The Fed says it will double its auctions of cash to banks to as much as $900 billion and is considering further steps to unfreeze short-term lending markets as the credit crunch deepens. The German government and the country’s banks and insurers agreed on a 50 billion euro rescue package for commercial property lender Hypo Real Estate Holding AG after an earlier bailout faltered. The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls below 10,000 for the first time in four years.

Oct. 9, 2008: Citigroup walks away from its attempt to buy Wachovia, handing victory to Wells Fargo. The Dow Jones falls below 9,000 for the first time in five years and briefly dips below 8,000.

Oct. 11, 2008: U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson indicates that pumping government funds into banks is a priority, saying financial markets will remain volatile.

Oct. 12, 2008: European leaders agree to guarantee bank borrowing and use government money to prevent big lenders from going under, trying to stop the financial hemorrhage and stave off a recession.

Oct. 13, 2008: The Fed leads an unprecedented push by central banks to flood the financial system with as many dollars as banks want, backing up government efforts to revive confidence and helping to reduce money-market rates.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, HBOS Plc, and Lloyds TSB Group Plc get an unprecedented 37 billion-pound bailout from the U.K. government as Germany, France and Spain prepare similar rescues. Germany says it will provide as much as 500 billion euros in loan guarantees and capital to bolster the banking system, the country’s biggest government intervention since the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.

OK I’m too bored now to write comments on the rest of the news, so figure out what you can and I’m off to bed cuz I had a long day.

News from our Agency division……Yes we are healthy again… and damn we have a lot of agents.

2008 is a shxt year Funny how everyone runs when the markets are low and comes back when the markets are high…. shouldn’t it be the other way round? The way this financial planner figures it out is that, go in when the market is low and quit while you are ahead. This is sort of a poker game theory…. even though everyone hates you for it, you come out the winner. And yes it is lonely at the top. I wouldn’t know what that feels like as I am still working my way up….. and have miles to go!

To my clients: take it easy, look at time, not timing.

To everyone else: take it easy, look at time, not timing.

To the gamblers and “fryers”: Look at timing AND time.

Anyways, for us @ AIG’s HQ, this is the picture:

total assets of over $1 trillion……a 2-year $85 Billion loan…….

and a partridge in a pear tree.

Went to Macau last week, missed the Grand Prix though…sux but actually managed to bump into the garage on the way to dinner. haha lucky me. Saw all these souped up civics and type r’s. I start to wonder how my s2000 would hold up against these babies…I think they would slaughter her hands down haha. But it would be fun to see her race around that track and maybe compete as well….she would give those guys a run for their money.

Anyways, had the usual "Chu Pa Bau" (Pork chop Bun) and dinner at "Fat Siu Lau" old restaurant. Chu Pa Bau shop had to queue for like half an hour to get them. So I got two and then afterwards they tasted so good I had to queue another half hour for another one. silly boy…. but damn tasty they were. I think it is mainly because of the bread they use, aparently it is home made and crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Like quite starchy and chewy too..soo…lovely indeed.

Ended up with the Macau Motor show. Definitely the stars of the show was the Bugatti Veyron ( I think it was the same one that was in HK a few weeks ago at the Bentley showroom in causewaybay) and the Audi R8. I actually sat in the R8. Mighty fine car. Opened the boot, fiddled with the cockpit controls..wonderful. Saw the usual ferrari’s and Bentleys and Rolls. The Bugatti had a "sold" sign on it. Lucky bastard…he must be smiling, but honeslty speaking, people who can afford to keep a Veyron probably have like another 10 supercars like it and probably just add to their collection. Like another toy…man what a waste. I’d give it a good home! haha

Anyways, pic from left to right: Dinner at Fat Siu Lau Rest. / Macau Grand Prix Garage / Queue for Chu Pa Bau / Bugatti Veyron / BV side view / Me in the Audi R8 / Macau Motor Show

I think the grand opening was on thursday night (March 8th) Hongkie celebs such as dodo cheng, 熊黛林, Annie Lau (劉心悠), Josie Ho, Amanda S, and another 300 or so VIPs, etc. attended apparently, so a pretty big deal…… we went on the actual opening day on the 10th. Apparently people had been waiting in line since 8am (store opened at 11am). We decided to avoid the crowd and go in the afternoon, but as you can see in the pics…the line was ridiculously long…starting from the lkf escalators and doubling back to the entrance, I guess to get to the front of the line would take about 2 hours. So we went for a hot tea at Tsui Wah to pass the time and hope the line would subside. Dammit doens’t this just go to show that Hongkie fashion sucks so much that people *need* to go and shower themselves with some proper european fashion. But mind you I ended up spending just or a thousand bucks buying none other than 2 pairs of jeans, 2 shirts, boxer shorts, sunnies and accesories. The jeans were a great buy though @ HKD$249 a pair, you really are looking at low end Giordano type prices for euro style fitting. Really comparable to Zara at half the price or even more. So yeah I also succumbed to the H&M buzz but what better thing to do than go shopping on a saturday afternoon (in fact we ended up going on sunday afternoon, and only cued for like 15 mins…) But I guess the actual gimmick was the M by Madonna brand making it’s world debut in HK. Girls: if u wanna shop, this’d be your paradise, easily spend a day here no sweat. Guys: if u wanna shop, don’t bring your other half as it could cause massive waiting for her, choosing, browsing, arguing, browsing delays, of course tell any girl I told you this and I’ll deny it with a passion. haha. Oh and keep the reciept boys and girls cuz everything apart from swimwear and lingerie are refundable. (I only kept the one pair of jeans and 2 necklaces…, everyhing else was refunded)….haha.

Finally watched The Fast and The Furious 3 - Tokyo Drift on Thursday. Got tickets well in advance as this was probably my most anticipated show this year, so was dying to see it. And I have to say it was awesome. The cars were fantastic, I mean putting a Nissan twin turbo into a ‘67 Ford. haha. I think my fav car was still the RX-7 even though the engine is funny and can’t really handle I guess I like it just cuz it has power and good looks. But the fairlady and evo really impressed. I am so a fan of drifting now…

oh and u get a surprise at the end with a race with Han’s "close family friend"…I won’t spoil the surprise and tell who it is, but it realy did put a smile on my face.

I can’t stop smiling when I remember the words "ready", "set-o", "go!" Oh and I go on the record to say that Nathalie Kelly is number one on my list of ultimate babes. Argentinian father and french-born mother, she actualy looks likea  asian mix. SO her mother could be a japanese born in France I reckon, but anyways, I think this is the first proper movie she has been in but with her looks, she is definitely a show stopper. Would be looking forward for her future movies. I just hope they involve more fast cars and babes. 5 stars for an outstanding movie.

I went back to the carpark wanting to drift my mazda 3… errrmmm….. stick on a couple of slicks and loosen the hand brake and I’m set. haha.

So HKO hoisted the black rainstorm warning today and the rain was almost torrential at times. Suffice it to say I was on driving on the road at that time and I couldn’t see 3 metres in front of me at best. Anyway, I was driving past Yee King Road and I noticed on the opposite side of the road there was this scraggly little doggie just walking in the downpour. The rain was at it’s heaviest at the time. Poor little thing was small, looked like a "beijing" dog (buk king dog), but it wasn’t really I forgot the name of that breed, but anyway it was soaked to the bone and on an uphill struggle up Yee King road. I think it was lost or something, it had no collar or anything, and nobody was out, it’s must not have given a crap about it or something. Anyways, immediately my heart sank. I had to do something. I knew I couldn’t stop the car in the middle of the road, so I raced up to the roundabout at Yee King road / Cloudview Road crossroad and back down again and stopped at the bus stop on the opposite side of the road on Yee King road. The rain was totally pouring it down, it was like 12:30pm, a little after the black rainstorm warning was hoisted. I took a towel out of my car ( i have spare clothes and some towels just in case I wanna go swimming or go to the gym at the time and in case of emergencies) and I went back to pick it up, thinking to dry it and bring it home or at least give it some shelter before the rain stopped. I was thinking of taking it back to my house and well at least dry it up and give it some shelter. I really didn’t know what I would do with it, just instinct, you just wanna save the poor thing you know? But when I got back to the spot, the dog was gone. I dunno if the owner picked it up or it was washed away or something, but poor thing was struggling so hard to make it up Yee King Road and all the while against the wind and rain. I would be hard pressed to do it myself if I was naked and without an umbrella. Poor thing dunno where it went. Anyway I hope it was OK, really breaks my heart when I see something like that.

Kung Hei Faat CHoi! Yeah it’s that time of year again. especially looking forward to lots of lai see as well. haha No seriously, "lung ma ching sun", "sang yee hing lung" and "sun tai geen hong" and "choi sun yat yat loy" (which transaltes to money god comes every day)…but more importantly health over money any day ppl, health over money, I’ve just seen too many of the older people in my life get ill not to care about it now, damn I’m sounding like an old man but I’m right now in between "live while you’re young" and "work hard now and reap the fruit in later life" stage ¬ haha whatever. One of the better sms’s I got, seriosuly guys, some are just outright dumb, but "ball, horse, girl, all through"…so who’s confused?? lol directly transalted it makes bollocks sense. What it means is "may your football and horse racing gambling win all the time and may you get more girls". I especially like the latter. haha Thanks David.

Missing Ferry Corsten in xmas eve was a bummer, man u  guys suck?!? where’s the party spirit…even though I had plans around that to spend it with my fam, cousins were in town and had  a big "typical" family dinner, it was good fun. I mean we can party anytime. But family is only here only so often. So….going to Paul Van Dyke when I get back from London, like on the day. my fight arrives at 5pm and the party is like at 11. will I be jet lagged? yes. Will I still wanna party? hell yeah.

So anyway, I’m havin a blast in london. sitting on my lazy ass all day watching like 20 different music channels and like 20 different sitcoms from the old days….fresh prince of bel air, Wayan brothers (hilarious), back to back Top Gear…drooling over the Pagani Zonda…did u guys see the Zonda, Ferrari F430 and Ford GT try to get out of that slim ass carpark in paris? haha hilarious. u gotta watch it. Absolutely impractical cars but I’d love to have 500 horses under my bonnet anyday….yeah that DOES sounds right!! What else….GTA, MGS, Call of Duty 2, on the PS2. I think I’m gonna invest in a xbox 360, but the only problem is my plasma is only 848 x 460 res. I’m not sure I can get the high def on it….shxt. what the hell. So another week of doing this and I should be ready to get back..the only problem is I’ll be fat and hairy just sitting on my ass all day! haha.