It was baffling to me as to when the odious task of cleaning up my room has evolved from removing dust off the floor and shelves to sorting papers, receipts, bank statements, boxes and shopper bags of various sizes. I am not a shopaholic and certainly has not picked up the rabbit hoarding habit, but looking at the different manifestations of papers around me, I couldn't help but wonder since when have I permitted papers to intrude into my private life.

In fact, I should have realised that sorting paper has indeed become an indispensable and rather annoying trouble after I bought my very first paper shredder earlier of this year. It was a cheap purchase. However, between my stinginess and practicality, I had debated a long while before justifying the worthiness of the purchase. And now, I'm finding myself shredding more and more papers - out-dated bank statements, receipts from groceries and shops, unsolicited credit card and TV license applications which bear my name and address, etc! And I can tell you that this definitely is not after purchase self-reassurance trick I am performing on myself!

Not to mention are also the paper bags from clothing stores, the many hardcover boxes for accessories, including mobile phones, wallets, glasses, perfumes, cosmetics products, and the many sizes of Amazon delivery boxes! Simply listing all of these is an exhausting task itself!

Receiving papers and bags and boxes is one thing, processing them is another. Very often I question myself if a piece of paper is important? Do I need them for reference or the unlikely refund in the future? Can I recycle these bags and boxes for gift wraps even though I have not bought more than 5 gifts in the past 5 years? Surprisingly, the answers to these questions have almost always been "yes" "yes" "yes" and "yes"!

I really am tired of processing these papers. If I were at least amateur enough to develop an app by myself, I'd have started smashing my keyboard writing a programme which, regardless of which retailer I purchase a goods from, will always store the original receipts and statements, perhaps in the cloud, and which will then allow me to simply wipe the face of a any shop assistant (yes, not even printing it out!) with the required proof of purchase stretched on a my massive smartphone screen  for any potential refund/clarification/argument/dispute!

The next phase will then involve writing a system which links the entire banking system, credit card companies, internet and phone service providers, visa processing embassies, or simply any organisation/club/fun house etc who requires your latest 3-month bank statements "in paper" before they start considering your application, which at this stage, should be electronic. Wouldn't it be a genius invention if one can simply click into a button, sign in somewhere with a secure password maybe 80-character long which combines letters, numbers, and the weird symbols on a keyboard, or even with biometric information, for examples, finger print, or eyeball scan, to then attach your bank statement, payslips, signature, passport information, etc etc, without the need to have all these, ahem, shitty printed documents?

And then we still have the packaging dilemma! When technology advances to a threshold beyond human imagination, perhaps we would then have the ability to transmit/deliver goods, not physically, but through the cloud? I'm not certain what would be the mechanism, although I'm almost certain it involves vaporising all goods to nano- or even smaller sizes which will then magically resemble itself when we get home.

Okay, maybe the last suggestion was a tiny bit unrealistic, but surely the first two are possible! Why have no one thought of this before, or are they just too happy to pick up all the papers and keep them in place? Or do they just don't care? I, certainly am no longer finding the need the deal with papers amusing.

Back to sorting and shredding papers, unhappy! :-(

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This is Just A Random Post with Very Long Title to Test the New Bloggger Template This is Just A Random Post with Very Long Title to Test the New Bloggger Template This is Just A Random Post with Very Long Title to Test the New Bloggger Template

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What do the following have in common? Sex and the City, Friends, How I Met Your Mother and Desperate Housewives? Apart from their soaring success throughout the entire life span of the shows, okay maybe not the last one, these popular TV programmes which each has had a vital role during the different phases of my life, had always seen a close circle of friends gather at a common place – Central Perks of Friends, the fictional coffee shop where the girls eat and talk in Sex and the City, the MacLaren’s Pub on How I Met Your Mother, and Gaby’s house for the weekly poker game in Desperate Housewives – and at such regular intervals, chanting the juicy experiences in their lives.

Chinese has a saying. Drama resembles life as much as life resembles drama. The wonderful picture these shows have painted in my imagination about how it is possible, even at the most ethnically crowded, traffic congested, junk food and rubbish piling metropolis in the world, one would be able to find a few close friends whom he/she can always depend on, when all else fails to supress the loneliness of living independently in a big city, has not really materialised after all these years of living abroad all by myself. I couldn’t help but wonder, is this just the idealism fictional TV programmes deceive us to believe in, or have I just been unlucky? Could it even be the case that I am just lazy?

No, it is not that I don’t know, or have not met random people, or regular acquaintances for unplanned or scheduled activities, but these sort of time filling agendas are different from gathering with close friends and talk about anything, literally. Yes, I am not alone, but I am lonely. And having friends boarding on the flight of relationship one after another hasn’t helped alleviating the issue either.

It’s the time of the year where the Chinese celebrates mid autumn festival, a celebration which normally sees the reunion of friends and family. I am spending mid autumn festival alone again for another year, but I don’t think there is much I can do about it. Until I gather sufficient close circle of friends to regularly meet up at a cafe somewhere in town, I think I will just have to go down to the shop in China Town, buy myself a mooncake, and happy mid autumn festival alone, but fabulously.


Here, sharing a funny video which I think fits this post interestingly...

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Let me tell you what I have done in the past 60 minutes before I started writing this.

- I told myself that I *have* to update my blog, because after my recent reading of The Rules of Wealth, I realised how important it is to cultivate a skill that you enjoy and which no one can take it away from you. Writing was the first skill that popped into my mind. I am by no means a writer material, but writing has always been a great resource of pleasure. I care very little if anyone is actually reading or following my blog. It’s just something I enjoy doing.

- So I have decided to write and stick to it, but inspiration was finding it hard to reach my door, at least for today. So I went blog-shopping. I started with my friends’ blogs, and thought it is a great channel to keep myself abreast with the latest development in their well-beings too. However, it seemed like their blog-spheres are drying up. Is it because they are busy and happy with their lives and thus eliminating the need to obtain attention via the virtual world? This thought led me into questioning if I am happy?

- And so I googled “happiness” and arrived at an essay which quoted a survey that says: If you are younger than 33, the chances are you have not experienced true happiness. It made me wondered if it guaranteed that we will find happiness after 33, with crying baby every night, school kids and their academic performances to worry about, thinning hair or receding hair line, metabolism slowdown which rapidly expands waistline, not generating sufficient income for retirement, mortgage debt, etc. And why does happiness has to be associated with age?

- Having thought about the list of unhappiness, which I can go on and on and on about forever,  I was horrified with all the gloomy possibilities. So I quickly went to Amazon and searched for “Happiness in books”. I was inundated by the sheer number of choices – The How to Happiness, Happiness: Lesson from A New Science, Instructions for Happiness and Success, The 18 Rules of Happiness… There are actually instructions and rules to be happy? I am not convinced that I will be happy after reading these books, although I am pretty certain these authors are happy seeing their bulging pockets by selling all these theories to lost souls.

- As I was browsing through the never ending booklist, I remembered an argument I had with my friend this week. Ironically,  it was also about happiness. He associated happiness with the city he lives in, while I associated happiness to work and things we do and the people we spend time with. But we eventually concluded that the people surrounding us play the most critical role in determining our level of happiness. So if we have a close circle of friends, a person we deeply in love with, we should feel happy eventually.

- In the end, I thought happiness could be a great essay topic. As I approached my laptop and started writing, I realised the time which I have allocated for writing had depleted greatly. I was surprised and wondered if I really had just spent an hour thinking about what to write instead of actually writing? But one thing I have known for sure, if I were still suffering from writer’s block, I could have written about better time management the next time.

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Seeing the final blog entry of 2010 still manifesting itself on the main page of my blog is an embarrassing testimony to my failure in meeting targets, especially when it comes to improve writing skills. Despite having a great year at work, only one out of 5 goals has been fully achieved, which is to secure a job, and it is now sponsoring me a longer term visa to remain in the UK, and to reach saving target, despite the latter being a short-lived achievement due to unforeseen circumstance. 

Without dwelling on the details of these failures generated in 2011, I would like to move towards deriving a clear, and hopefully a winning strategy, that would steer 2012 into a even greater year than 2011.

My experience in writing resolutions in the past two years has made me realised that there is a need to distinguish between things I want to do and a mission statement that serves as a guidance to achieving goals.

While my focus in the past – listing things I want to do, for instance, number of countries I want to visit and number of books I want to read - has actually helped my otherwise less-disciplined time management to become more properly structured and properly utilised, this approach hasn’t vastly exploited my individual potential.

Joining my company in the past year and having the opportunities to work with many of my colleagues whose first jobs are with my company, I came to observe that these younger generation is more inclining to committing personal financial suicide than me and most of my peers back home who are now mostly into their 3rd or 4th year of employment. Worse, to be informed that some are still depending on parents’ financial support occasionally was beyond my comprehension. I don’t think it is the age factor, but the upbringing background and the society seasoning have definitely equipped myself with a better personal finance management.

Witnessing my co-workers chasing luxury and the in-my-opinion non-necessities, plus demanding high quality of living is not an issue. It is the sadness that the pursue of  indulgences is based on an inadequate level of income. And the most devastating sight was the complaints that came after. I blame the society and the working environment which have corroding the virtue of modesty that would potentially lead Confucius to confusion.

Fuelled by the growing hunger for greater spending, an influence of my surrounding, and the witness of my financially trapped colleagues, I come to derive my own personal statement: To increase personal net worth by identifying and expanding indirect income sources and to reduce personal liabilities through careful financial planning.

There are still things which I want to do, but keeping this mission statement in mind should steer clear of any unsolicited temptations that would deviate from this central motto, and help consolidating all efforts in the things I do for greater personal achievement. And here are the list of things I want to do:
1. Travel: Home, India, and 2 more to improve life experience and photography skills;
2. Create and maintain photo-blog: improve photography skills and serve as additional income;
3. Improve financial knowledge, for greater career prospect and personal investment;
4. Saving target; and
5. Read.

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An American friend now residing in Canada complained the rent and property prices in Vancouver. I questioned her rent-salary ratio, she quoted 1:4.5. Astounded by the low ratio despite the complaint, I, also currently paying 1:4.5 pre-tax (1:3 post-tax) on my rent, honestly think that her apartment deal as compared to my room deal, is brilliant.

The conversation reminded me of a Japanese colleague. I immediately frowned upon after learning that she was considering to spend near 1:2 for her rent. Despite her constant reassurance that “it’s okay”, I, based on her online shopping frequency, was convinced that a long term financial struggle is brewing.

Speaking from personal experience, I have in the past been famous among my Starbucks colleagues for my profligate spending on rent. At the record’s worst, my rent-salary ratio was 2:3, an unsustainable level which my colleague crassly commented as “no-life”. I, advocated the comfortable living idealism, resented the statement for far too long before I started realising that he was actually right.

How had it changed?

Half a year ago, due to the dire situation in securing a promising employment in London, I, abandoned my ideal living desire, finally caved in to the many procrastinated obligations – remit money back home, saving for travel and return ticket back to Malaysia – and reluctantly moved from a double room in a Victorian house to a 7m2 single room of an ex-council flat alike. As you would have imagined, the limited space found its way to allow misery to creep in.

However, the improved food affordability, the rising social activities and the rapidly increased saving reservoir that followed the effective reduction of rent-salary ratio from 2:3 to 1:3, offset the misery in no time. For a very long time, I was delighted to be living a more comfortable life with money to spend on things I desire.

The paradigm shift in my definition towards a room was so profound that I realised a healthy mentality towards rent is to never make it a priority, but to only consider after other obligations have been fulfilled. Otherwise, you are on course to self-imprisonment, only in a nicer room.

The question: How much rent should you pay before transforming yourself into a (renting) mortgage slave?

Holding to the aforementioned principle, the answer is to calculate the maximum rent affordable after fixing other spending allocations. For instances, allowance to satisfy the enormous appetite for shopping; incentive for dining out and trying out new restaurants enthusiasts; remit money back home; and savings for rainy days.

You must realise that all these “spending” are variable costs. They are not fixed and you have the complete power to adjust them according to your financial needs at any given time. For instance, if there is a planned holiday in Spain in two months, you know it is time to rack up the savings, perhaps from fewer dining outs and reduced shopping.

Rent, and transport if you are a travel pass purchaser, on the other hand, are fixed costs. Like it or not, these are the obligations you must fulfil every month. And this is the chief reason why they should be the last priorities, because you have no power of control on them once you have signed up the contract.

Using the same Spain holiday example, if you are already on a high rent-salary ratio, how do you see yourself saving for the pleasure of travel? Are you going to skip dinners or refraining from shopping, even for travel essentials?

It may sound identical to some people that regardless how much rent you pay, you will still need to save money by reduce spending on shopping and dining to fund the holiday. You are almost right. The key here is, however, the power of adjustment. If you were already on a high rent-salary ratio, spending allocation in other areas are relatively less than if you were on a low rent-salary ratio. This means that even if you reduce spending in the same proportion in both cases, the absolute monetary saving could be vastly different.

Let’s plug in some numbers to illustrate the situation clearer. Considering in both cases A and B, the monthly income is £2000 and 20% allocation in shopping and dining each, and the target is to save money for a planned holiday in Spain in two months.

Case A (rent-prioritised): Rent (good living condition) is the priority and after falling in love with a place, willing to fork out £900 rent/month. This translates to a combined £440/month allocation for shopping and dining.
Case B (allocation-prioritised): Rent (decent living condition) ranked the lowest and after careful budget planning, the maximum rent affordable = £600/month. This translates to a total of £800/month allocation for shopping and dining.

As both dining and shopping are adjustable (variable) costs, if I halved my dining and shopping for two months just to save for my upcoming holiday, Case A and B would return £440 and £800 respectively. If your holiday budget is £1000, it is now clear that an allocation-prioritised budget will bring you closer and faster to your target compared to rent-prioritised budget.

To summarise, the idea is if you are paying high rent, your spending power in other areas will be restrained. By the time when spending adjustment is needed, it will be less effective for rent-prioritised individuals. Therefore, it is crucial to define current and expected spending before finalising the maximum rent affordable. More importantly, is spending that extra on rent really make a significant difference?

My personal experience told me no, and that is my opinion on how one should measure how much rent to pay.

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According to Chinese proverb, the success of wealth or financial management on a micro and macro level respectively lies behind two keys – resourcefulness and austerity (Mandarin: 开源节流). Briefly explained, the Chinese believe that financial discipline avoids profligacy and contributes to deficit reduction, whereas the diversification in income sources sustains massive spending appetite, and more importantly help steering a financial state from toxic to healthy, commonly known as growth.

To any Chinese language learner, Chinese proverbs are famous for the attentiveness in construction. In the aforementioned proverb, the Chinese prioritised resourcefulness over austerity because they believe the former is a more effective financial management tool.

Now, when we look at the West currently engulfed by the abundant misery supplied by the sovereign debt crisis, we also see that apart from the United States, governments in the troubled areas have resorted with a vain hope to financial discipline, or the clichéd austerity, to improve their credibility and then to stimulate the much needed financial support from market to fund their ever ballooning debts.

The Chinese proverb certainly disagrees with the austerity focus. However, I am not discrediting the intelligence of policy makers in the beleaguered countries. It’s no easy job at this economic tough time. Potential financial pipelines everywhere have been so firmly shut it is now near impossible to diversify income sources.

Bearing in mind also is that with individual finances so tightly squeezed, no political party struggling to receive devoted support would ever fire the most powerful financial ammunition of a government – raising tax. Nonetheless, the dire economic situation has forced governments to tactfully experiment this instrument with caution. One domestic example would be the VAT rise by the UK government.

And recently, there was a new addition to this tax raising episode – the Hungarian government is considering the introduction of  Hamburger Tax.

My personal scepticism and general public consensus reckon that the introduction of a fat tax like this is more than just the Hungarian government’s concerns over its citizen health issues. It essentially is a new form of budget revenue. It is a legally intolerable deprivation of personal freedom. And frankly enough, it is indirectly speaking to its citizens that they are not intelligently capable in distinguishing what is harmful to them.

However, buzzing apart, in this example, like it or not, the Hungarian government’s approach has demonstrated the spirit of our Chinese proverb perfectly – generating alternative (tax) income via the introduction of new tax and at the same time driving the population to a healthier living that would eventually reduce the monstrous national health care expenses. Brilliant!

Given the intricacies in implementing such tax – which food to tax, how much to tax, people’s reaction (through the ballot boxes) – I very much doubt its future success. However, if miracle does occur, I am almost certain the UK government would be the first follower.

The number of people severely overweight has tripled over the past thirty years in the UK. This has prompted a costly revamp on the ambulance fleet in the country to up to a whopping £90,000 per fleet so that obese patients could be ferried safely. No kidding! If you were the government policy maker, surely this would be an attractive incentive for the imposition of similar Hamburger Tax.

Forget about whether this is a long term solution to a long term obesity problem or a short term solution to a medium term insolvency hardship, I personally do support such tax to a certain extent. It’s challenging to punish individual’s misbehave as it’s very subjective, especially when it involves liberty right. But if this really does raise the awareness on the health risks associated with obesity, then perhaps this shouldn’t be interpreted as an extreme tax harvesting deception. And if we still remember our Chinese proverb, it could induce saving at micro level too.

Nevertheless, like my friend suggested, I still want to be able to pick up a pack of crisps when I want to, without having to feel guilty, or worry financially.

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Yesterday seen a panoply of dismal expressions to a rather discouraging 2010. Strangely enough, there were actually friends who had liked the entry. Thankfully the likeness was generated upon empathy and not the quenched thirst for sadism through a chain of dejected events happened to me.

Despite a less than perfect last year, it proved to me that motivation could indeed be generated through the establishment of clear goals. Riding on the success from last year, I am again setting out goals which I desire to achieve in 2011:

1. Enter 5 photo competitions. Practices in 2010 have indeed improved my skills tremendously. However, I often find it challenging to motivate myself to carry the heavy camera gear around to take photos. So for this year, with clear objective in mind, I believe the motivation would be escalated;
2. Secure job and achieve saving target. The same goal set for the third year in a row. Sounds naive especially given my visa status. What I believe in, however, is not the evident obstacles to find a job, but is my own determination to never give up regardless of the situation. Moreover, from this year onwards, I believe the universe will conspire to help me;
3. Visit Greece and Spain. 2011 is potentially my last year in Europe. My travel map reminds me that the Greece and Spain must be on the travel list this year;
4. Read four books. Goal set at similar level as last year; and
5. Improve writing. Writing ability had cost me a job in 2010 and I will not allow the same issue to once again jeopardise my career prospects. I set to write an article a week and have it corrected.

Now, these are not exactly goals but some wishful thinking: an iPhone 4 for birthday, a relationship, a win in lottery. Haha!

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Despite years of strenuous efforts and self-discipline to refrain myself from being victimised by the numerous Facebook applications, I, motivated by curiosity, had recently succumbed to Top Status 2010.

A year is a long time, especially in an era when status update has become as frequent as every other hour, or even minute through self-broadcasting platforms, including the famous Facebook and Twitter. A tool which brilliantly analyses the statuses based on popularity and then generates a list of top ten statuses thus becomes an intelligent application which everybody is frantically wow-ing about.

After having much fun with the application, I wondered with much greed, if there is an application that broadcasts the top ten events which happened to us? However fancy, I then swiftly realised that unless every single event was digitally recorded by a permitted stalker throughout the year, it is almost impossible for this genre of personal broadcast to become successful.

Therefore, until this state-of-the-art technology makes its presence, I resorted to the traditional channel through this entry. In conclusion, it wasn’t a particularly good year despite some consolations. I will, however, endeavour to avoid magnifying on the negative events, despite the lack of overwhelmingly upbeat events. So here is a summary of the important events which happened to me in 2010:

• An eventful year at work which forced me to change work location. After much efforts to prove that I am a worthy candidate, I finally received the severely delayed promotion which I deserve very much. Nevertheless, the hunt for an ideal job remains fruitless;
• The year started by seeing a chain of arguments with someone I had emotionally attached to. The relationship then turned toxic and finally ended in mid-year. Soon after that, a knight appeared and generously showered attention and kindness I almost forgot I deserve. However, the knight deserted me emotionally, not physically, after a flash presence, right at a time when I started to attach myself emotionally. It is left unanswered if I am capable of leaving it behind;
• My reliable external harddisk drive decided to betray my trust after dropping on the floor. I thus lost my university works and most importantly, photos which documented the two most precious years of my life – my master’s study;
• Early of the year, I moved into a lovely flat with a guy who I thought was a nice bloke. It turned out that he was a selfish, self-centred bastard who broke his own promise to our shared-dwelling agreement. Despite my frustration and hatred, I chose to compromise and lost half a grand financially; and
• My health condition was very good until the very last month when I was diagnosed with having skin disease. Even when I know it was a punishment to my own conduct, it indeed was an unfortunate end to the year.

Not very exciting from the above for certain. However, when looking at the goals set out for 2010, it actually was positive and affirming. Here are the goals and their respective verdicts:

• Secure job and achieve savings target – Verdict: Failed, despite some promising interviews;
• Two trips: Home and Egypt – Verdict: Achieved. A visit to Sahara Desert really was the highlight of the year;
• Read four books – Verdict: Achieved. Books read include Rough Guide: Egypt (Well, it is a book!), Travel Photography by Steve Davey, A Little History of the World, The Alchemist (A superb and inspiring gift from Fiona, thanks!);
• Revamp Sambal Delivery Post – Verdict: Achieved. It really made me proud when an IT friend complimented on the website. Read here: http://sambaldeli.blogspot.com; and
• Develop Photographic Skills – Verdict: On course. My most favourite picture of the year:

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A shocking revelation of someone’s true age, as contrary to his profile age, has brought me to question if I, and many of you from the era when age discrimination is a crime, have become ageist.

He was a guy I met a few months ago. He has a pair of lips constantly moisturised by lip guard and a body skin definitely softer than mine. I thought his profile age was an overstatement until he revealed that he actually was 5 years older than his virtual projection. Disbelieved. Is this even possible? And most importantly, what is the secret?

Let me briefly explain the term ‘profile age’ before we dwell on the topic. In our current time span when relying on friends to introduce their other single and available friends in the vain hope of finding love has become exponentially challenging, we resorted to the convenience of internet and have become heavily dependant on dating websites. Filling up the age column in a personal profile, genuine or not is evidently another topic, has become inevitable, if not mandatory, on many of these sites.

From personal observation, if someone is out of the socially regarded premier age group, or the 20s, a standard discount – five years younger – is what he will do to ensure a wider popularity and higher scoring chances. And for the record, I have met with people who skewed to the extreme of 10 years. No question, honesty is undoubtedly out of the menu. And yes, everyone wants to date a younger one: 30s prefer 20s, 40s prefer 30s (and 20s), 50s prefer 40s (and 30s and 20s), etc.

Nevertheless, my personal experience has convinced me that the disguises of these cyber liars are utterly undetectable. Well, that of course if we eliminate the idea that my stupidity in guessing one’s age is unbeatable. However, based on the recent revelation and my subsequent reaction, I couldn’t help but wonder, if I have known his real age, will I even consider meeting him in the very first place? And if I didn’t, does it make me an ageist?

I paused, recollected my memory, and then questioned myself: How many people have I turned down based purely on age? Many. And speaking from personal experience, filtering down the list of personal profiles and (subconsciously) associate a person’s age to a certain pairs of words has never become a strenuous task: young, energetic and unwilling to settle down for the 20s; mature, sexy and experienced for the 30s; experienced, romantic and seriously-looking for the early 40s; partially giving up, slightly desperate, and horny for the late 40s; perverse, desperate and rude for the 50s onwards.

Have you seen the downwards trend of the description? No wonder most people lied. Even though my aforementioned description may have been hinting a slight opportunity that I am perhaps an ageist, there is, as always in the rule of universe, exception – when someone looks good. And the guy we have been talking about on here, is definitely one of these exceptions.

When in discussions, while some (older) friends confessed they could hardly imagine themselves dating people older than 40, I questioned on why even though not preferred, I had always ended up with the 40s. Was it because I fell into their cyber lies? Maybe. Was it because I admired their maturity, gentleness and sex appeal? Probably. Or was it simply because I was horny and desperate? Idea rejected – in my defence, I have dated many youngsters too.

While my experience has taught me that as long as the preservation and maintenance are good, age normally doesn’t come in as an issue. However, the more serious underlying concern is, will we even share a mutual conversation topic, which is uber important in a long(er) term relationship? It will be funny to imagine myself talking about Lady Gaga while the other one is telling me about Sunset Boulevard, no?

Nevertheless, I have learnt from experience that despite the obvious fact that two people are from different generations, a relationship could work. The key to success is common interests that are of course independent of age factor. For examples, interests in photography, cooking, travelling, sports. When two people share an activity, for instance, going on a photography tour, they bond stronger together. Failing this, I reckon only magic could make things work.

What’s the conclusion? It’s clear that I am defending that we, well at least me, are not ageist. Or at least I would argue and advocate that we follow our hearts in most occasions. And I believe if you truly like someone, age will never become a topic of concern. (But err, maybe not too much?) Of course, good look never hurt! But then again, who can guarantee an eternal youth? And we certainly do not want to evolve from being ageist to ‘facist’ , do we?

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