Appreciation Journal : 21st Oct - 9th Nov 2019
Yesterday evening, I attended an investment talk even though part of me didn't want to because of the difficulty of finding transportation home when the talk was scheduled to end, especially since the friend whom I usually asked along who gave me a ride home decided not to go.
The food was very simple(fried rice, fried chicken, a little fruit) but I gamely stayed on for the presentations, choosing to miss the last 7:30 bus home. The first speaker was giving away small gifties to participants answering questions so I put up my hand late in the presentation to answer a simple question & so won a giftie: a thumb drive in a lovely box.
The second speaker's presentation really cemented my conviction that I was at the right place at the right time as I deliberately intended on most mornings as it was on an area of successful investing I was not trained in : the language of business. A = L + E, Free cash flow = Operating cash flow - Capex, Profit = sanity;Cash = reality, The purpose of biz is to grow shareholder equity etc etc
As I was listening, I was also contemplating whether I should ask some random person to give me a lift back & decided against it, only waiting for that very improbable offer of a ride from the one person I mentioned missing my last bus ride home to.
Finding out it was 9:25 and before the talk had ended I walked out to the main road & keep my eyes open for any yellow lights above cars indicating they were taxis.
When I reached the taxi stand in front of a popular mall, I was surprised to find no taxis there( their biz had been that badly cannibalised by ride-hailing app Grab! ). Walking along the main road, there was not a yellow light in sight. There & then I decided to walk the two or so kilometres home, which would be the first time I had done so this late at night!
As I passed the old state governor residence, I heard the sound of a meowing cat. I walked on but just as I turned into the four-lane road that would lead all the way home, a black-and-white kitten had materialised at my side, walking astride & meowing softly. I leaned down to caress it and then kept on walking forward but noticed the kitten keeping pace with me.
After awhile, I again bent over to stroke its head, hoping it would go on its own way but it kept following me; there & then I decided that I would take it all the way home if I had to rather than risk it getting run over on the roads. So I let it walk a little, then picked it up in my left hand & walked it a little & repeated the process. It kept following me until at one point, it stopped at the corner of a grass verge & looked around, meowing somewhat frantically.
I was about to walk on, but looked back at it and decided that I could not just leave it there to Fate and so walked back & picked it up again. Not long after, we passed an Army camp and I noticed the gate ajar and put it down to see where it would go: it followed me, much slower than before and as I walked I realised the meowing had stopped, so I looked back and saw that it was no longer behind me and assumed that it must have intelligently gone towards the open gate of the Army camp!
Feeling happy I had done the right thing, I walked on along the well-lit trunk road, easily, feeling contented & moderately energetic.
After ten minutes of so of sallying forth, and just before a roundabout which would need me to cross the circular road twice, a small car slowed down and stopped just in front of me; I went up to the left front door & noticed an elderly Indian man in the driver seat and he removed some stuff from the passenger seat, indicating that he was offering me a ride!
So I happily opened the door & went in. He advised me to get a bicycle and I explained that I had a phobia about it since a long ago accident and so on.
Serendipity(and perhaps a favour for God's beast) brought me through the last kilometre or so of my road home in a stranger's car!
The food was very simple(fried rice, fried chicken, a little fruit) but I gamely stayed on for the presentations, choosing to miss the last 7:30 bus home. The first speaker was giving away small gifties to participants answering questions so I put up my hand late in the presentation to answer a simple question & so won a giftie: a thumb drive in a lovely box.
The second speaker's presentation really cemented my conviction that I was at the right place at the right time as I deliberately intended on most mornings as it was on an area of successful investing I was not trained in : the language of business. A = L + E, Free cash flow = Operating cash flow - Capex, Profit = sanity;Cash = reality, The purpose of biz is to grow shareholder equity etc etc
As I was listening, I was also contemplating whether I should ask some random person to give me a lift back & decided against it, only waiting for that very improbable offer of a ride from the one person I mentioned missing my last bus ride home to.
Finding out it was 9:25 and before the talk had ended I walked out to the main road & keep my eyes open for any yellow lights above cars indicating they were taxis.
When I reached the taxi stand in front of a popular mall, I was surprised to find no taxis there( their biz had been that badly cannibalised by ride-hailing app Grab! ). Walking along the main road, there was not a yellow light in sight. There & then I decided to walk the two or so kilometres home, which would be the first time I had done so this late at night!
As I passed the old state governor residence, I heard the sound of a meowing cat. I walked on but just as I turned into the four-lane road that would lead all the way home, a black-and-white kitten had materialised at my side, walking astride & meowing softly. I leaned down to caress it and then kept on walking forward but noticed the kitten keeping pace with me.
After awhile, I again bent over to stroke its head, hoping it would go on its own way but it kept following me; there & then I decided that I would take it all the way home if I had to rather than risk it getting run over on the roads. So I let it walk a little, then picked it up in my left hand & walked it a little & repeated the process. It kept following me until at one point, it stopped at the corner of a grass verge & looked around, meowing somewhat frantically.
I was about to walk on, but looked back at it and decided that I could not just leave it there to Fate and so walked back & picked it up again. Not long after, we passed an Army camp and I noticed the gate ajar and put it down to see where it would go: it followed me, much slower than before and as I walked I realised the meowing had stopped, so I looked back and saw that it was no longer behind me and assumed that it must have intelligently gone towards the open gate of the Army camp!
Feeling happy I had done the right thing, I walked on along the well-lit trunk road, easily, feeling contented & moderately energetic.
After ten minutes of so of sallying forth, and just before a roundabout which would need me to cross the circular road twice, a small car slowed down and stopped just in front of me; I went up to the left front door & noticed an elderly Indian man in the driver seat and he removed some stuff from the passenger seat, indicating that he was offering me a ride!
So I happily opened the door & went in. He advised me to get a bicycle and I explained that I had a phobia about it since a long ago accident and so on.
Serendipity(and perhaps a favour for God's beast) brought me through the last kilometre or so of my road home in a stranger's car!
posted by DP at
5:06 PM
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