Time off for Holiday

I am seriously thinking of taking a few days off for holidays. It is more than a year since my last holiday trip to Copenhagen. Now, I am thinking of somewhere near like Bintan. I like Bintan since recommended by a fellow passenger. Also it is easy to get to. People have to fly 14 hours to Singapore and then to Bintan. Meanwhile, it take on 1 hours for me to get there and I am not taking advantage of it.

It will be good to just go and relax with no computer, no internet. Just read, swim and eat. Sound like a fantastic idea. Maybe it is time to make my fantasy come true!

A Cool Evening Walk in Chinatown

We decide to drop by Chinatown for dinner and take a stroll. Tiong Bahru congee was excellent with deep fried intestines. Sound yakky to my white friends but they are clueless when it come to food! We also have Ah Balling or rice flour balls with peanuts filling in sweet peanut soup. An excellent dessert available only in Chinatown or Maxwell market.

It is very nice to walk around without the crowd. The stalls sells all kinds of cheap paraphernalia and gifts. I feel like a tourist. It is holiday mood to mix with the tourists and walk the tourist's jaunt. Our boys do not seems excited. Only B3 was dragging me around to look for something he seen when he had a school excursion to Chinatown. It is a doll head and when you water it, the "hair" will grow. The "hair" is grass.

It is a good way to end the evening....

360 Feedback

We have 360 feedback for performance reviews. It is a lot of work to write for everyone else. I wonder what would Peter Drucker's views be on 360 feedback.

Improved!

I felt quite good and accomplished for this last trip to KL. Reflecting and thinking of the two days in office, I realised the office is happier and more engaged. Team spirit is stronger and overall atmosphere has improved. I am very pleased with the progress of the action plan we put in place. I know why I feel good. It is the ability to effect positive change on a group of people. I am happy:)

A Good Day

I had a good work day. It is nice to feel accomplished at the end of the day where work not only get done, it is done well. We finished with work day with a meal at Tony Romas. The menu in KL is halal. So only non-pork items are offerred. I had bbq boneless ribs this time and it is much better than ribs with bones. The samplers are excellent. I love the chicken wings.

I did not eat a lot. So it was good. I still feel very full and bloated. Kind of hard to reduce weight. Will have to continue to be watchful. Life is about balance. So I will not hurt myself by eating too much or too little. The Middle Way!

Christmas Festivities

The malls are jingling. The Christmas jingles are on everywhere. I loved Christmas. I was a great cynic in my younger days. I always thought Christmas is too commercial, a way for the retailer to increase their sales. Buying presents, giving gifts and doing the gifts exchange were marketing programs dream up by retailers.

After spending 7 Christmas in Canada, my opinion has changed. The gifts are still required but now I feel the Christmas spirit. I love the snow and the warm fire burning in the fireplace. My mood is green and red of the pointsettia. Our kids setup our Christmas and decorated to its finest. They also hang up the sock and put in their requests to Santa Claus.

Christmas is about giving and forgiving. Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol tells a tale of giving and sharing and the joys that we can share. I will be counting down to Christmas day. Then it is Merry Christmas! my dear readers.

Family in KL

We go to KL for a long weekend. It was shopping and more shopping. Good thing is we do loads and loads of window shopping. We also spent a lot and contribution to the retail sector of Malaysian economy. Things are only a little cheaper than back home. However it is the holiday and vacation spirit. We bought swimming gears, books, toys and had plenty of games. B3 also had an animal ride for RM3. We also played pool as a family.

It is good to take a break and let the family take a break as well. This morning the Eldest boy asked if we are going for a trip. He felt that we have not gone for a trip. KL trip is too short to be considered a holiday.

PSLE RESULTS Day

PSLE results are out today. The release is preceded by a long talk. It is high anxiety time. I was lucky to get there in time to see all the emotions. You can see there are many who are very happy and there are those who are in a state of shock. The top girl of the school cried because she is not happy with her results. She achieved 253 points. I am sure many other pupils who would love to be in her place. It is all about expectations. No matter how good you are, if you fall below your expectations, you will be unhappy.

On the other hand, if you lower your expectations, then you will be happy with the results. B2 was very happy with his results. I am too. He scored only 213 points. I am very happy because my expectations was lower. I thought he will get below 200 points.

I think living in Canada has change my perspective about education and exams. In Canada, there is a huge phobia against exams and results. The focus is on education and not results. Kids are encouraged to do sports. Sports develop team work, ability to work with others and EQ. So when B1 got his PSLE results 3 years ago, I was happy too. I was happy he was top in his class. However, he did not make to the school of our choice. So we do have regrets but not in a big way.

After reading Dr. Seuss' Oh! The Places We Go (required reading for a Leadership Retreat when I was in Canada), I know my kids will have 98.5% chance of succeeding. So why worry. Be Happy!

Cool

It is nice to have cool weather despite the rain. The Thai Cafe at Thomson Plaza has good food at reasonable price. We had a set meal for 4. There is a soup(tom yum of course), cashew nuts chicken, sweet and sour fish, fried mixed vegetables and deep fried prawn cakes. We switch the soup to green curry since my boys do not take spicy food. The green curry was delicious. mixed vegetable crunchy and tasty and prawn excellent. Fish is a little fishy for me and cashew nut chicken is so-so. Together with drinks the meal come up to a total of $52. Not bad.

Back home, I open up a pack of healthy nuts and finished it . How to lose weight?!

Nuts

I am nuts about nuts. I am addicted to nuts. Without nuts, I go nutty. So off I went to buy nuts. NTUC is my choice of supermarket for nuts. I was hungry for nuts last night and there were none in the larder. So today, I make a trip just for nuts. Sugar peanuts, sweet peanuts, healthy choice nuts and memlembu nuts came home with me:) I had sugar peanuts right away. It tastes so good....mmmm. NUTS! The flavours of my life.

Good Stress

Stress well known to be bad. Stress cause heart disease, high blood pressure, insomnia, depression, neurosis, etc, etc, and etc. All bad stuff. Good stress? What is good stress? Where can you get good stress?

Actually exercise is stress to the body and it is good stress. It elevate the heart rate and blood pressure. Exercise also kick in our natural painkiller, endorphin. Exercise also get rid of all the stress hormones by working them out. When we are stress, our body has a fight or flight response. Adenaline is release and if we did not fight or run away from stressful situation, the adenaline stay in the body and our heart continues to pound and blood pressure stays high. Exercise works off the adenaline. Our body can calm down better once the stress hormones are worked off our body system.

Violent Thunderstorm

The rain started in the afternoon 3pm. It drizzles at first then stop. Then the rain starts again steadily pelting away. At about 4pm, the lightning flashes in increasing frequency and intensity. And the winds strengthen to gale force. The rain has become stormy. I took a drive out and tree branches had fallen on the road. Some trees had bigger branches broken and obstructing the roads. I must say our services have improved because there were workers clearing the blockage. This reminds me of living in Toronto where snowstorms are frequent and the city has an army of emergency vehicles to clear snow and remove distressed vehicles.

I also think it may be the global change in weather that we are getting more and more violent storms in Singapore. Unfortunately, scientists agree this phenomenon will become more common in future. We have to learn to live in nature rebelling against man's blatant disrespect for the environment.

Flu Shot

I had a flu shot for preventive measure and my arm feels sore. It is only 0.5 cc. The shot was relatively painless and was over in seconds. The aftereffects take longer time to wear off. The benefits? I guess I can only know when the flu season is on.

The whole family took the shots and I hope we get good return for our money...

Housework

The boys and I sweep and mop the whole house today. It is physically taxing and when we finished, I have a sense of accomplishment. I am sweating like a pig as I write. The boys in this process learn a little of housekeeping and responsibility. This will also prepare them when they flew the coop. The other point I like is they can live independently without a woman. I know I am getting a little carried away. One morning of housework cannot be extrapolate to complete independence. Like Buddha says, "The journey of a 1,000 miles begin with the first step." Today is the first step... :-)

Copywriters are Poets

Reading the papers in the morning, the advertisement by Robinson caught my eyes. Usually, I filters out all advertisements. Robinson put out several full page colour ads. Right at the front page. Therefore, it is impossible to miss. Usually, I would not have bothered. This time, I like the poetic lines about friends and family, warm memories of the Christmas past, and other lines I have forgot. Sigh! my short term memory is weak.

I realise copywriters are good with words and write poetry to attract attention and interest.

Dante's Peak

I just bought this old movie by Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton. It is a very touching movie on dormant volcano erupting. The story line is simple and the human spirit is strong. Adding on the spice of love and family, courage in the suspense of danger and the kids high voice in panic... all great recipe for an exciting time.

I was put on the edge most of the time and together with touching and tender moments, I get the roller coaster ride in emotional ups and downs. It is an enjoyable way to relax in the evening.

Conversation with Inflight Supervisor

On the way to Shanghai, I take a stretch break at the emergency exit. The crews were extremely busy. The Inflight Supervisor was helping the crews and when he saw me, he stopped to chat with me. He is quite young in his early forties by my estimate.

He has similar stories that Boh Tong shares. He serves his former colleagues in first class. According to him, stewardess with a few years know how to make themselves look really good and carry themselves well. They marry to rich husbands. He says he has serves a few of his ex-colleagues. One ex-stewardess because there is no first class from Brisbane to Singapore, she actually fly from Brisbane to Melbourne so that she can fly first class to Singapore with her baby.

Home again

Blogs are banned in China. So, I was unable to update in the last two days. Shanghai is a great city. Food is very good but food of msg. I feel very thirsty and have headaches when I sleep at night. We did plenty of good work in the last two days. Weather is nice and cool. It is people everywhere. Extremely crowded. It must be stressful just living in this city.

Yet Con - Home-Style Hainanese Chicken

We decided to go to Chin Chin, the Hainanese Resturant for dinner after window shopping in Raffles City. Strolling leisurely, our family of 5 have good chat and drink in the slow scene on Sunday. Purvis Street has lots of nice resturant. MediaCorp is filming in one of the bar. The actresses were dressed in their finery. However, we could not recognise any of them.

Before reaching Chin Chin, we notices directly opposite is a chicken rice resturant, very traditional looking and very crowded. We changed our mind and eat there instead. The chicken is taste homestyle and roasted pork crispy, tender and with very little fat. We had steam boat that cost $16 for two plates of raw ingredients. Total bill? $48. This is good food, good value. Traditional food with "classic" furniture. This is a resturant I would recommend.

Walk Down Memory Lane

Beach Road NCO Club used to house the Army Dental Clinic. I had my first "bridge" done by a neophyte dentist. He is a very conscientious man and pay attention to details. The whole operation take a couple of months. He has to grind two molars down to a stump. I think I took 4 to 5 trips lasting up to an hour each. My mouth would be numb for an hour everything time. The trouble is only half the mouth is anaesthesized. So I have crooked smile for the hour the anaesthesia is wearing off.

I walk along the road that I have to take bus back. Odeon Tower today was a movie theatre. There was a beef noodle stall along the Purvis Street which I never fail to stop for a meal. The only regret is I was unable to savour the flavors of this famous beef noodle as my taste buds has not returned to normal after the dental treatment. Bras Basah Complex is still the same then and today, housing all the 2nd hand bookstores.

Soon the NCO Club will be demolish to make way for spanking new buildings as the site has been sold. Another piece of landmark which my memories can hang on will be gone and I will have a hard time to recall the architecture of the building.

Never mind, I have formed new memories... Suntec City, Ngee Ann City instead of the singing Christmas Tree, Centrepoint instead of Cold Storage, Swissotel instead of Raffles Institution. We have to look forward to change and more changes.

School is Expensive!

Even going to Primary cost lots of money. The textbooks, uniforms, school badges, stationery are getting more and more expensive each year. It gets tougher and tougher to live in this inflationary world.

Our "quality of life" has improved over time. Life is better by standard economic measures like TV, refrigerator, oven, etc, etc. The books are new with pre-printed workbook. Do we really need all the material things? I know I cannot live without the computer or internet. But how did I live without them before?

There are ways to disengage on the rat race or material wealth accumulation. Live simply. There 3 books that studied this phenomenon. All 3 have the same title "Affluenza". Money makes the world going round and let me enjoy the finer things in life e.g. good food, cappuccino, movies. Can I reduce my requirements to live a simple life? Should we all live simply and keep the earth intact for our future generations?

How would you move Mt Fuji?

This book is on how the world's smartest companies select the most creative thinkers. It gave a brief history of the new style of interviewing. Most interviewees are well prepared for all the standard questions e.g. What is your strengths and weaknesses? What are you proud of? What do see yourself doing in five years?, etc.



Microsoft give puzzles and time the interviewees as they solve the puzzles. Often times, impossible puzzles are given like the title. The interviewees are graded for their creative answers. I find this an interesting read as the workplace and market have changed dramatically. Google, Goretex, Toyota are companies that have innovated in new management system according to Gary Hamel in his latest title -The Future of Management.



The future success are all created by new and innovative ideas. As usual, only selected few becomes enomously rich while the rest of us toil for pittances.

Thank God It's Friday

I wish all my readers an awesome weekend. Spend the weekend to do what you like or not do anything at all. Weekend is a good break and time to smell the roses. I am glad to have some time for myself and my family... wife, boys, our plants, our pet fishes...mmm. Wonderful.

Work is fufilling but can drain one's energy. It is a good time to recharge.

Ego Booster

My office manager is quite placid and indifferent any happening in the office. It was late in the evening when I spoke to her over the phone to followup on things to do after my meeting with Customer. In a "smiling" voice, she told me I must have an impact as the Customer I met yesterday has dropped 2 container loads order. I told her she sounds like her predecessor.

I spoke to another manager(her predecessor) who told me the office team is excited with the orders that came in. A team member say we should send me to Korea more often!

I did not think much as I have many followup to do. I took a walk in the mall to stretch my legs and get my blood flowing. I decided to reward myself with Coffee Bean coffee as I have abstained in the previous two nights in the interest of reducing my weight. As I was sipping the warm coffee, a wave of euphoria hits me. The smell and flavours of the coffee lifted my spirits. I feel like I am walking on air and the news of getting in two big orders sinked in. This is a wonderful walk. The girls I passed looked prettier. Previous two evenings, I can hardly find any pretty girls walking in the mall.

Mood is a funny thing I realised. Pretty girls are everywhere when I am in a good mood. I now know I am wearing a rose coloured glasses once I feel good.

Fall Colours

It is beautiful and glorious sight with the leaves in green, yellow, red, brown and gold. I spent most of today on the road. South Korea is very hilly and only the lowland are occupied by man. So the hillsides are full of trees. This brought back memories of fall in Canada. Fall is the best season with nice cool weather and still reasonable daylight hours. The maple trees which is very common in Ontario turn into brillant colours after first frost(i.e. below zero celcius). The leaves will fall into big piles and it is fun to play with and in them. I still have pictures of B1 enjoying himself in a big pile of leaves grinning happily.

The Rich Passenger

The passenger sitting beside me is a rich Korean lady. She wear a huge diamond ring and a diamond bracelet with a string of huge diamonds probably 1.5 carats each. Her watch is expensive too. She speaks excellent English and is back to visit her father who is old and ailing. I notices she has the current best seller in the bag as well, The Secret. I have not read The Secret yet. I know it is about getting rich and getting what you want and using mind to cure your health. I do not know why she is reading this book. I thought to myself wealth is never enough.

My old neighbours in the HDB flats in Yishun were regular kind of folks. They were school bus drivers and their wives are production workers. Their combined income would not be more than $3K per household per month. With that amount of money, it must be difficult to feed a family of four. Growing kids requires high expenditure for school fees, books, bus fares, meal allowance, clothes, entertainment, etc, etc. Just daily living. With the current inflation, it must be even more challenging.

I am sure they would love the recipes in The Secret to teach them how to earn or acquire more wealth. From poor to the super rich, everyone wants to know THE SECRET!

Dynamic Korea

On my way from Incheon Airport to Coex Intercontinental Hotel in the limosine bus, the memories of the ride with Kate two years ago. It was the first time we ride on the bus together. We talk a lot about everything. It is also the first time for me to interact with colleagues from other divisions. Since then the nature of my work changed.

Inflationary Pressures

Today, The Sunday Times published an article on the inflationary pressure cause by the rising price of wheat. Many folks in Malaysia are cutting down or shopping in lower price retail outlet even though it is more incovenient with longer queue. A family can save RM300 per month shopping in Price Chopper instead of Premium Mart. One family stopped eating out on the weekend and save RM200 per month. Life is getting tougher and tougher with standard of living deteriorating with inflation. Income is not keeping pace with inflation. This is bad news for ordinary folks like us.

NAFA Concert

Kids does wonderful thing. The NAFA annual concert performed by the students age between 4 and 6 years old was electric. The kids does song and dance, sketches and musical. NAFA focus is on creative pursuits. The curriculum consist of drawing, painting, sculpture, music and dance. Some basic Chinese and a little English. Creative focus and B3 loved going to school. It is fun for him. We pay high fees plus his school bus. The payoff is a happy child and we need not bring him for enrichment class.

It is fun to enjoy the performance by young kids who are very innocent and absolutely adorable. The teachers must have spent lots of time and effort to organise and prepare for the performance.

NAFA must have lots of problems with leadership and management. The turnover of teachers and staff is high. The principal change every year I attended the concert. However the program is excellent for kids and B3 is a happy boy in contrast to kids who attend PAP kindergarden.

Global Warming

I believe in global warming. I believe all the human activities is causing our weather pattern to change. There are people who do not believe in global warming and who feel that the changes are part of the natural weather patterns of the earth. I was reading an article who claim that global warming is blame of rivers and lakes drying up when the increase in temperature is 0.5 celcius. This writer feel that 0.5 degree is neglible and within the range of historical changes pre-dating human civilisation.

I think the writer is deluding himself. With the amount of energy consumes by the population in the world today and the destruction of habitats on land and in the sea, I have serious doubt human has nothing to do with our current unstable and more violent weather. Earthquakes are more frequent too.

We should all do our part to reduce, reuse and recycle and become environmentally friendly citzens of the world.

Up, Up and Away...

The oil price and freaky weather is having an positive on prices. Price of grocery and food is going up and up. It may also be the increase in GST. Salary is stagnating. Nett effect? Our quality of life is dropping. The lower income group get the maximum impact as they spend a higher percentage of their income on food and transportation.

It's been a long time since price has increase so dramatically. I bet those born in the 70's and later has never inflation like this year.

The two percent increase in GST this year is another impact on our prices. Death and taxes are the only permanent things in life.

Busy busy time

It is non-stop work and work. Have plenty of issues to deal with and need loads of analysis to figure things out. Man! It is a wild ride right now....