Goodbye Gorky of Old

The legendary Gorky Park is no longer sacrosanct.  It has been included into a development programme to make over  and to modernise the landscape so as to make it attractive.

In the picture, a couple danced near the Moscow River in celebration of the checkered glory of the park's  halcyon days.

Realistic Moving Stills- Interesting

Yes, these truly spooked me at first. But today, with computers and software, anything is possible.

Click on the pictures to view the effects.

Enjoy!

Shaddup,Bird!

Yes, this is no ordinary domestic scene.

Oftentimes, it is quite the opposite.

More reminiscent of Mad Magazine's The Shadow Tells.

Marc Anthony and Tiger's Losses

Yes,it depends how you look at it.

Both ladies have their exes too, I am sure.

Why they gave away of shared lives that they were so sure of when they did get married is beyond all comprehension.

I would understand why Erin Nordegrin reacted the way she did after Tiger's transgresses.

But why J. Lo? Are 7 years a mere trifling and a pair of twins to boot of little consequence?

There is definitely more than meets the eye here.

I read today of Erin and a billionaire's scion of a son adating.

Interesting what the billionaire's son sees in Nordegrin. I do.

As for Jennifer Lopez, what are you not telling?

Whatever it is, I know  that both Marc and Tiger will be missing them so.

A Shout in the Shadows

There will always be this sense of unease when you are accosted by strangers.

In fact, in one of my English comprehension exercise to my students, I had one that dealt with dealing with strangers.

The most succinct points were those of escape.

When accosted, do not engage the strangers if possible. Try to get away from the situation. If there is harassment, shout for help.

And so it came to passed.

I was walking towards my car after class just last week.

While walking in the dark five-foot way, suddenly I heard a shout. A man on a motorbike harkened to me as if in need of help to get directions.

I smelled a rat. He could easily had stopped at the brighter coffee-shop areas to do that. Yet, he chose me walking solitarily in the dark shadows-an easy prey.

So, I pretended not to have heard him and quickly walked into the beckoning light of the coffee shop. Safety,at last.

I took my own advice,so it seems straight from the text of my own lesson!

Passing On

Yes, a morbid issue indeed to blog.

My good old neighbour, Mrs Tang, passed on about 10 days ago.

I did not know about the passing on until the day she was cremated.

Looking back, I know another nice lady such as the late Mrs Tang.

There was our affectionately known wife of the manager of Chung Keow Bank. Never got to know their names.

She was so friendly and used to give us things.

In fact she introduced us to fresh scallops. We did not know what it was and had to go to the nearby market to ask the fishmongers what it was;only to be told that it was konichi or scallop.

She passed on when we were in Penang.

God bless the souls of both this lady and Mrs. Tang.

Oldtown-Down the Bin As Well?

 Anything can happen!

The fortunes of man are intricately tied to the emotions of perception these days.

While some analysts are bullish about Oldtown, OSK is pretty conservative in its stance.

Let's read what they said.

"OldTown Bhd is a home-grown proprietor involved in the white coffee business that also operates with an extensive chain of cafes in Malaysia. The group has a total of 182 café outlets in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

It also distributes its coffee and other beverage products particularly in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong although its products are also marketed worldwide.

It plans to grow its chain of outlets by 15 per cent this year and ramp up production capacity of its beverage products by 500 per cent by 2013. While a reputable brand name, OldTown will continue to face stiff competition and rising costs.

OSK Research values OldTown at RM1.34 pegged to 12.5x FY11 EPS.

Inspired to provide quality white coffee to Malaysians, the group’s founders Go Ching Mun and Tan Say Yap created their own instant white coffee formula in 1999.

The duo established their manufacturing operations in the same year under the “Oldtown” brand name and in 2005, expanded vertically into the food services segment under the “Old Town White Coffee” brand name. Today, the group has 171 café outlets in Malaysia, 9 cafés in Singapore and 2 in Indonesia.

OldTown started manufacturing its own blend of 3-in-1 instant white coffee in 1999 and later expanded its product line to include variations of its instant coffee mix. Within a decade, its products were distributed nationwide and successfully commercialized in more than 10 overseas markets.

OldTown expanded downstream into the food service segment by establishing its first café outlet in 2005, and in the span of five years, extended this to a network of 182 outlets.

Apart from a strong brand name, other factors that fuelled this fast growing business are the adoption of a franchising strategy and the fact that the group is operated by experienced management. With a large number of outlets and wide distribution network, OldTown enjoys significant advantage in ensuring that its products are easily accessible to as many end-consumers as possible.

OldTown plans to open 27 more outlets in FY11, which will bring the total number of outlets to 209. The group also plans to relocate its food processing operations and manufacturing plant to a central location in Ipoh.

Construction of the new plant started in 2Q2011 for completion by 2013. The new plant, once completed, is expected to ramp up the group”s production capacity by 500 per cent.

OSK Research decided to be conservative and remain neutral on the prospects of OldTown’s F&B segment, which contributes the bulk of its revenue due to stiff competition and rising costs. The analyst valued OldTown at 12.5x FY11 EPS, which translates into a fair value of RM1.34, or a 7.2 per cent upside from the listing price of RM1.25.

Oldtown has recommended a dividend payout of no less than 50 per cent for FY11/12, which translates into a divided yield of 4.3 per cent-4.8 per cent."

So, will you be lucky when the shares list?