The lure of The Aircooled engine

Anyone who knows me will know my love of all things air cooled.  I'm not talking about al fresco dining here but the amazing concept of motor engines cooled not by water, but by air.

Since I bought my first VW Beetle in 1988 I have been hooked - old aircooled cars are not the most luxurious of cars, but they have charm to compensate.  Heating is either on, or off and usually tainted with the aroma of exhaust fumes, petrol and oil.  You'll always know where an aircooled car has been parked by the little spots of oil it marks its territory with (or more often the case with badly repaired engines a pool of oil).

They are however notoriously reliable, efficient and plenty powerful when built and maintained correctly.

Porsche famously went on to develop the aircooled engines, developing firstly a four cam, twin distributer model for the Carrera versions of the 356, and then the crowning glory of the 6 cylinder Porsche 911 engine which remained in production until the last of the 993's.

There were of course other manufacturers who built aircooled cars, the most prevalent being the Chevrolet Corvair, but nobody got it quite as right as Porsche.

Today there are hundreds of clubs, websites, forums and shows which cater for the aircooled lover, collector or hobbyist.  My favourites are Volkszone, DDK and The Samba.

I currently own three aircooled VW's and still regret the day I sold my beautiful Porsche 356.  I yearn to own an early 911 which are rapidly going up in price but are the epitome of aircooled ownership.

Mark Paine
Meyado
Singapore

Top 10 Best Things about living in Singapore

The F1 night race.  I just got my tickets for the 2013 race.  As a Lewis Hamilton fan I can't wait to see how the Mercedes performs in the city.

The night race through central Singapore makes for a spectacular event, and the orgainisation of outside entertainment is phenomenal.

Mark Paine
Meyado
Singapore
www.meyado.com.sg

Top 10 best things about living in Singapore

At 9...

Public transport

I can summarise this easily - SMRT are currently running an advertising campaign to allieviate frustrations surrounding the replacement of railway sleepers on the MRT (Underground).  The rationale, according to the advertising campaign, is that broken sleeps equate to a bumpy ride.  A bumpy ride will ruin your hair-do!  How thoughtful is that?

I've lived in some cities with great public transport - notably Madrid and Prague, but Singapore wins hands down, in my opinion for the best run public transport city.

Mark Paine
Meyado
Singapore
www.meyado.com.sg

The Top 10 Best things about living in Singapore

At 10.....

Chicken Rice.

Not to be confused with fried chicken rice, Singapore's local dish of chicken rice consists of, well, chicken and rice.  The chicken comes in a choice of roast or boiled, and breast or leg meat. The rice is cooked in a flavoured broth and takes on a unique flavour.

The best place to buy your chicken rice is on River Valley Road at either the infamous Boon Ton Key or my favorite, Five Star.

At about $4 a plate it's a bargain and very tasty - I doubt very much that it's the healthiest meal you can eat but it sure is nice.


Mark Paine
Meyado
Singapore

Run for Hope 2012 Singapore

This Sunday is the annual Run for Hope, a charity run raising funds and awareness for Cancer.

http://runforhopesingapore.org/news/run-for-hope-2012-is-back-with-a-difference/

I will be participating in the 10k run along with some colleagues from work.  I don't hold out great expectations for a good time, but I'm looking forward to having some fun and contributing to a good cause.

Link

Mark Paine

Meyado

Singapore

International Adviser Magazine article on Mark Paine, Meyado

http://www.meyado.com.sg/images/pdf/international%20adviser%20article%20nov%202012.pdf

How I made 47% on the FTSE

As a financial planner I rarely advocate trading for my clients, however this strategy has worked well for me over the past 24 months.

In a non directional market such as this, the only way to make money is to trade the volatility. That entails setting buy and sell limits.

Although I spend my day looking after other peoples money I rarely have time,or inclination to look at my own (it's like the builder who never finishes his own house) - so my strategy needs to be simple and easy to manage.

Some years ago I started buying the FTSE when it fell to 5300.  It quickly recovered to 5600, so I sold.  Not long after it fell below 5300 and I bought again with the entire proceeds of the first sale.  When it went up I did the same again.

I had to use all the money a couple of years ago when we bought a house, but I started the strategy again with a smaller amount. In the past 24 months I have made over 47% in a market that has only moved sideways.

I'm not writing this to advise people to trade, but just to pass on something that worked for me.

Mark Paine
Meyado
Singapore
Www.meyado.com