Life Of A Typical Malay - August 1999

Sunday 1/8/1999

I don't know if something is in the air, or if it's a full moon.Is anyone else sick of that song "Believe" (Cher).Yeah,that one,you know the one where she sings,

"Do you believe in life after love?
I can feel something inside me say,
I really don't think you're strong enough.
Noooo..."

Yes.No.Oh puhleeeezzz...

Whoever wrote that is making a bucketload of money off the airplay of that song. I mean,Radio 4,Hits FM,Mixx FM etc have been playing that bloody song at least once an hour.It's already August now,ok? Spare a thought for me,please...*LOL*..

At first, I thought the song was kind of cool, but now...after listening to it for the millionth times since last night,it's like a stomach ache that just don't go away.And it's stuck in my brain for god-damn hours at time.

Since I had the whole apartment to myself again, I figured it was high time to attack those so-called "menial and important mainstays of modern living". In other words, I cleaned my apartment and did laundry.

Last night I could not find the televison remote controller because it was buried under mounds of newspapers and magazines.(I'm talking about the tv in my room,not the one in the living).

While vacuming, I put on Crowded House's Greatest Hits.Everything was thrown out or put in its place as Tim Finn warbled on. I did everything,I even scrubbed the tile around the tub.Exhausted.And two and a half hours later, my room,my bathroom sparkled and shined.Shined and sparkled.I beamed with pride.I smiled.If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it.

After reading Sunday Star,Sunday Times, Mingguan Malaysia and Harakah I phoned a cab.

Oh boy,that terror ride to Taipan,Subang Jaya was a "good" experience, the driver did,what,120 km/hr,all the way.

Didn't spend much time at Parkson, had lunch at one Indian Restaurant, yuck....never again!...

Then to Mat's house to help him downloading a few programs, IE5,Netscape 4.6,ICQ,Yahoo Pager,Neoplanet etc. His wife was not home,pretty obvious to me, there's no more love left in their marriage,but still they are staying together,even though she spends a lot of time with her parents.

Deep down I really feel so sorry for Mat.Yeah, I know he's a grown man, and I know he doesn't have to allow his wife to bitch at him (according to him) continously, but I can't help it wanting to kind of rescue him sometimes!

I don't really "know" his wife but she's a daughter of one prominent figure,and that was the very reason why I kind of distance myself from her (and her family).

Poor Mat,he's just a simple kampung guy,trying to make it big in KL. And while I type this,I remember the day (March 1997) when he broke the news about him getting maried.

"Zainal,I think I hit the jackpot"

"You wot?"

"I'm getting married next month.....to Datuk Ali's daughter,Aliza"

"So?"

"Well,he's lots of businesses,contacts etc,maybe I can just tumpang dia punya tempias"

"I see.You two love each other? She doesn't really look your kind of girl"

"Yeah,we are in love,very much in love."

"I'm so happy for you Mat.Just don't forget me,like my other married friends"

"Nah,you can count on me Zainal,I'm not that bad"

"They said the same bloody things,and look....."

"I mean it,man.I mean it"

 Goodness gracious, do I just want to write a nasty letter to that woman and tell her to grow the hell up.

No,I better not.I'm not a married man,what the heck do I know?

Blimey,it was me whom Mie turned to when he was having problems with his in-laws.And they are a very happy family now.

Now I know that marriage is not a word but a sentence. Am I the only one who feels like this? And am I that bad for thinking this sort of things? He's my good friend,for god sake! I feel so helpless.Well,no one can feel as helpless as the owner of a sick goldfish....oh,ok then...

Good night,and sleep tight.

* Uncle Agony *

Monday 2/8/1999

L ast night Nuar brought home 2 gunny sacks of durians,oh...I really can't stand the smell of durians.The whole apartment smells durians,my car smells durians.

I entered cotton counter for the first time tonight,boy,it was such a stressful night.At first I was a bit reluctant to do anything but Shukri kept pestering me.He even called me chicken.

Since we couldn't do anything because of the volatality of coffee price,we paid extra attention to cotton.I put a sell (short) at 52.50 when the price failed to break 52.90 after a few times.Suddenly it went up to 52.80 and played sideways for a good 60 mins.I felt like screaming. I kept blaming myself for entering market that early.That was the longest 60 mins of my life.

The office was quiet with only me, Shukri,Dominic and a few operations guys. Then jokingly I said,

"That's it. I can't take this anymore.I'm liquidating my position,I'll accept loss."

That took them by surprise.I then laughed and said,

"C'mon,I was just kidding.I'll go for broke...."

And suddenly it made a reversal and traded on negative side,it came down to 51.30 and we decided to get out of the market with a profit of 1.20 (USD 750 per point per lot) but it moved so fast by the time we asked for quote,the price sprang to 52.10 and went sideway again.Towards the closing,it retraced and dropped to 51.57, we just left it open for tommorrow.

Went to Estana with Dominic,had a nice Nasi Goreng Ayam.Left at 3-45 am feeling so tired and sleepy.

where have all the bulls gone?I'm putting this gif (a "gift" by RiRi) here as a good luck symbol...*LOL*..

Tuesday 3/8/1999

I thought last night was tense enough;the presure was double tonight.Huh,I was sweating like hell,not only because of the price movement but I was surrounded by so many people,so many new faces (new traders) I basically felt very uneasy and didn't know what to do.Words got around pretty quickly,before we knew it,everyone was saying...

Wow,Zainal is doing cotton, Zainal is doing cotton..."

 Price went down again,Shukri managed to get out of the market with profits of 1.40 points,I stayed a bit longer,just to see their reactions.

"Get out Zainal,get out!!!!

"Hey,don't be too greedy,for god sake,get the hell out of the market!!!

"Keluarlah Zainal,price's going up, you take some profits now and we enter new one...."

What is this guy doing?

You haven't liquidated your positions yet,Zainal?"

"Greedy betullah kau ni..."

 I just kept quiet.....

Price played sideways just before coffee closing time.And I told them,

Look guys,I'm not going to liquidate my positions tonight,I'll just let the price go,north or south.Since you guys are not trading,why don't you just pack your things and go home,it's late now"

By 2-00 am only me,Dominic and Shukri left,I didn't ask them to stay but they were kind enough not to let me trade alone.

Suddenly,about 5 mins before closing,price went up a few notches and instead of liquidating with profits,I "locked" my position with a "buy", at 51.60.I've never done this,locking with a profit.Locking to minimize losses yes.I've got some ideas...wait what tomorrow brings...

Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions....*LOL*...

Wednesday 4/8/1999

I was so tired this morning I did not even log on to the internet when I reached home at 4-00 am.I went straight to bed,woke up at 6-45 am for Subuh and had a second round of sleep until 1-00 pm.

Then rushed to Hong Leong Finance to pay my car loan,to Maybank to withdraw some money,to Bank Islam to wire Mah her profits and to BSN to update my passbook.

Lunch at Anjung Cafe was good,the waitress was smiling all the time - probably the second fastest way to my heart .I'm not telling what is the fastest way though...*LOL*..

Tony and his new manager were at the office tonight,he did not even look at me,he pretended like he was doing something else when I was talking to Shukri.Lynn wanted to borrow thousand Ringgit,as usual,all those grandma stories.I merely said,"let me sleep over it".

[En Fadhil,the owner of the brokerage house is her dad,and yet she has the ba**s...oh no,she doesn't...*LOL*.. to ask money from me.]

Andrew called a few times asking for the price,explained to him the reasons behind the price movements,up and down,up and down.

"Ah Zainal,that sounds beautiful but what does it mean?"

I did not do anything tonight,cotton moved very slowly,no clear direction.Coffee went crazy again,jumped to 95-00 in just under 5 mins,played sideways and within 10 mins it tumbled to 92-80,only to rebounce towards closing time.

We left early,about 1-50 am,to Estana with Dominic and Shukri for chicken tandoori,I picked up the tab for them,lost a bet actually.

Thursday 5/8/1999
W ho was that idiot who rang me up non-stop this morning.The moment I reached the phone,it went dead.That happened a few times today.

Couldn't figure it out what went wrong with my printer,tried to print some market reports but all I got was a blank page.The same bloody thing happened even after I changed the catridge,dratttttsss....

To one cyber cafe at Section 2 at 2-45 pm,boy,the connection was awfully slow,took me about 3 hours to get about 40 pages of (coffee & cotton) reports printed.The 'puter stalled a few times.

Shukri a été demandé par Tim pour fermer son compte. Apparemment, la compagnie n'était pas trop heureuse avec lui pour pas faire les transactions pour le dernier 2 mois.Et pourtant il reste jusqu'à ce que 2-45 a.m "regarder" le marché.

He suspected something fishy going on,I did not believe him.I then called Zack and asked for his explainations.

Il ne m'a pas convaincu. Je l'ai dit droit dans sa face.Si je ne suis pas permis d'échanger le coton, alors oublier l'idée de moi faire entrer plus d'investissements.

As simple as that.

Market was slow,not much movements,both coffee and cotton.So we left just after midnight,no we were not protesting.

Went to Starbucks Coffee (what a swell place) with Shukri and Dominic,spent about half an hour there,gossiping and stuff.Boy,that cappucino was good,really.....


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