The Pickwicks Papers

My favorite pastime is going to bookshop and today I was at MPH in Raffles City. There are plenty of books different from Kino. Maybe because the store is smaller and therefore is easier to see all the books. There are so many books to read and so much to learn. Peter Drucker the eminent management guru there are different ways people learn. Some learn by doing, some learn by reading, some learn writing, others by listening. I am a reader. So I guess I learn by reading. Instead of buying a not fiction book as usual, I thought I will try some different. I am not a fan of Charles Dickens. I read a lot since I was in Primary 4. I always find Dickens books a mouthful. The sentences are too long that I forgot the what it was saying in the beginning before coming to the full stop. The Pickwicks Papers was serialised and it launch Charles Dickens career as an author. It is humorous. So after so many years, I thought time to revisit my prejudice. I must admit I have a hard time understanding British humour. I am on my first chapter and I am not tickled so far. Let see if this book can hold my attention.

Bak Kut Teh in Balestier

I was hungry for Bak Kut Teh and went over to Balestier Road. Finding a car park was a challenge. So we have to eat at the coffee shop instead of the famous stall. The coffee shop stall was not well patronize. The food was average and price high. Total bill come to $32 for very small portions. The meat was tough and chewy. My sons struggled with the meat. For $5 serving, there are 3 pieces of mostly bone with tendons. The salted vegetables was too sweet and salty. This is one place I would not go again.

Lunch was much better at Din Tai Fung in Raffles City. The quality of the food is much better in Taipei. The menu in Taipei has a lot more choice and the food was very tasty. A place for me to visit again.

Fine Afternoon

Sky is light blue and fluffy white clouds moving slowly across. Bright and sunny. Beautiful weather. Atmosphere and mood is right for reading. Reading to learn, reading to relax and reading to pastime. With a pot of tea at the side, the pleasure of reading is immeasurable. There are so much to learn and so many books to read. I am a lucky man!

National Day in Malaysia

My office is closed for National Day. So the day is rather quiet while work carry on here. The thinking part is the most challenging. How do we improve performance? What information do we need? How to build effective team? How to balance team dynamics? How to improve the capabilities of managers? Skills gaps and how to train them? Attitude and EQ development. How are we going to achieve the results expected for next year?

Plenty of things to think about!

Parents Teachers Day

We went for Parents Teachers Day at Xinmin Secondary School. The feedback on B1 was good. His English is good but Mandarin is terrible. His E Maths is excellent and A Maths need to pull up his socks. He aced his Geography but borderline at Biology. His English form teacher felt he is very capable but his results is not where it should be.

So far feedback on B1 is consistent. Teachers are impressed by his capabilities and his behaviours. We are pleased to get positive feedback. His results is a mixed bag. We are proud of him.

Sweet - Antidote for Headache?

I was nursing a headache all day today. It got worse in the evening. I began to feel really unwell, general malaise throughout my physical being. So after dinner, I went to Ah Kun, the coffee shop since 1934 and have kaya & butter toast with tea, sweet. After ingesting sugar, the feeling is much better. I realised I like to drink sweet tea and have sweet food to combat my headaches.

Does it really work? This is just instinct and there is no scientific basis. Hard to reduce weight with a sweet tooth...

Sunday - a day for rest

God rest on Sunday. So the bible says. Sunday in our cosmopolitan city and country is study. My boys have to do their homework and study for the upcoming exams. As for me, I managed to finished Charles Handy's The Elephant and The Flea. I am the flea working for an elephant (large organisation). Elephants will have to learn to live with the fleas with the changes that shift to knowledge work. Me a flea have to give up my freedom to work for an elephant who give me pay for my work. Eventually, I have to consider a portfolio work. That is instead of retiring, I will be doing part-time or project work. With the law changing to move the retirement age from 62 to 67 in line with the increased life expectancy, we will all have to work till we dies. Work both paid or unpaid.

Sunday is a good day for reading and learning...

Restful Sleep

Neil was a Taiwanese I had lunch with in Hsingchu last Wednesday. He has a philosophy that sleeping is time wasted. So he sleeps 4 hours a day. My eldest, B1 had the same thinking when he was young, from toddler to primary school. Sometimes B1 falls asleep in the afternoon. The moment he wakes up, he would check with me or Mummy how long has he slept. Then the immediate reaction is he wasted that amount of time. So he will stay up as late as possible perpetuating another nap cycle the next day.

Whereas for me, I need my eight to nine hours of beauty sleep. I sold sleep studies equipment before. Besides the length of time sleeping, it must be restful i.e. oxygen must be able to get into your body. Oxygen saturation of blood should not reach below 90%. Sleep apnea is when you stop breathing while sleeping. This is a very common problem. While you are concious, no matter how long you hold your breath, you will be desperate for air if your oxygen saturation go below 95%. I tried this experiment myself. However, when we are asleep, oxygen saturation level with reach 89 to 91% before the body stirred and then take a deep breath. You will not know this. Hence if you wake up feeling tired, it is usually due to poor oxygenation of your body when you sleep.

How do I know all these? I did sleep study on myself to learn about the equipment I sell. I was a little concern that I have a few hundred episodes of sleep apnea at night. The doctor who specialises in sleep studies told me not to worry. He is only concern with patients with more than thousand episodes. My several hundred episode is "normal".

For Neil who sleep very little, he must have lots more awake time to do the things he like to do.

Ninth Floor Taiwanese Resturant in New Sogo

The resturant serves authentic Taiwanese fare. The decor was bright and modern. It is very zen with matted black chair and polished table. We sat by the window with a clear view of the indoor garden landscape. The dishes were excellent especially the stewed intestines (yes, Kate this is my favorite dish). The beef tripe was not good and vegetable was too bitter. The atmosphere made up for this two poor dishes. There was live Chinese Orchestra music. I love the sound of traditional Chinese music. While I am very western in thinking, speech and almost every else i.e. I am a kan teng (potato) in local slang, Chinese Orchestra evokes the chineseness in me. Kan teng is similar to "banana" or yellow outside and white inside.

Yes, the next time I am back in Taipei, I will go back to this resturant at the time when the live Chinese Orchestra is playing. While I will probably forget in my next trip to Taipei, my host Shelly will remembers.

Taipei, here I come.

Bak Chor Mee Tastes So Good...mmm

I reach home late in the evening last night. Was not hungry and did not take dinner at home. My wife suggested she needs to go to the mall to get some items that sales ended today. I was not impressed by the aluminium foldable clothing racks for drying clothes and veto the purchase decision. It was pouring outside and we were limited to other shops that can be reached under shelter i.e. Shaw Isetan. It is unfortunate that Wisma Atria is cutoff and therefore Takashimaya is out of reach too. Crossing to Lucky Plaza was impossible as it was raining cats and dogs.

At about 9 pm, I was feeling hungry. So we went looking for fishball noodles. Somehow after returning home, it is important for me to taste our local hawker food. The food/snacks stalls in Tangs were closed and the food inAsian Food Mall in Lucky Plaza(by now the rain had stopped) was not appealing. My wife suggested Lorong 5 Toa Payoh hawker centre. Fishball stall is closed too. Luckily the bak chor mee stall is still operating and man! does bak mee taste good. The hawker serves quite good bak chor mee in Lorong 5. I strongly recommend this stall. It is right beside the claypot rice stall. Mmmm! taste of home. There is no bak chor mee around the region. This is unique to Singapore. I also had two bbq chicken wings. The price here is quite good. Bak chor mee is S$3 and chicken wing is a dollar each.

Yes, taste of home, home sweet home...

A Good Day at Work

Today, I meet with a Customer and a prospect for my products. This is an fruitful and productive work for me. My colleague came to the hotel to pick me up early in the morning. She drove me to Hsingchu where an colleague meet another colleague and the sales rep from our partner. The sales rep was young and pretty. She is slim and very innocent looking. She is very feminine. I immediately commented that I now regretted giving her trouble. Beauty does has its advantages.

We then set off to meet a customer who was extremely skeptical at the start of the meeting and became a convert at the end of our meeting. I was very happy to demonstrate my skills and selling techniques. My colleagues and the sales rep have a live experience of how I conducted a sales call. My colleague invited me to stay over one more day in my future trips to train her sales reps. I am more than happy to oblige. She is a very straightforward person and open to learning from others.

The meeting with a prospective customer was different. She was quite junior and lack the understanding of her business and is a little worried as she field questions from us. Finally, I decided to go for the close by bringing the group back to her first issue she brought and gave her an assurance we are in this business and will be able to solve her problem.

The drive back was a little long with traffic jams. Rain makes the situation worse. We did get back to Taipei in good time and have dinner at the New Sogo.

Missed Opportunity

Last December I was here in Taipei and saw a Stirling Engine Kit. It was quite expensive and I thought about it and decided not to buy. This time I specifically go to the same Toy R Us store and same section. The product is no longer on the shelf. I have regrets not buying it the first time. It was quite dear and I thought I should not spend so much for a toy albeit one that work on scientific principle. I search in the internet and there are many versions available and some at very good prices.

Sigh! Sometime when the opportunity is there, I must grab it because it may not be there the next time.

Taipei 101

Walking in the mall of Taipei 101 reminds me of the mall in Petronas Twin Towers in KL. Massive building with high glass ceiling, bright lights. Branded goods stores dominate. In Twin Towers, the bookstore is Kinokuniya. In Taipei 101, it is PageOne. I reckon PageOne store here is bigger than the one in VivoCity. The literature section is massive compared to Singapore. I spent a couple of hours after dinner in my favourite pastime, browsing and getting myself lost in a bookstore. It was a wonderful first evening in Taipei. Simple pleasure.

Din Tai Fung - Taipei

Today, I learn something new. Din Tai Fung is actually Taiwanese resturant and not Shanghainese that I always thought it was. I ate at the original Din Tai Fung Resturant in Taipei. The food is much better than same chain in Singapore. I understand from my host the store we ate monthly turnover is US$8 million. We went there early and had seat. When we finished and come out, the queue was tremendous. The wait would have been at least an hour.

We had shao long bao, two vegetables, two vegetarian dishes, fried pork chop, and two chicken soups. Our total bill comes to NT1,300. The food were excellent. Delicious and tasty and not heavy on the stomach. The chefs are good. The only regret is I did not get the chance to taste so many other dishes available on the menu. I may have to think of coming back to this place again. Sigh! There I go again, forgetting my vows on weight reduction. Temptations, temptations, temptations!

Nap

A short nap refreshes. I was waken up my own snores! Can you imagine this? It is embarassing and also a problem. Snoring is a sign of restricted airways. This mean diminished oxygen going into the brain. Snoring also mean sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a condition when breathing is stop. If you wake up feeling tired and not rested, check for sleep apnea.

Both Tan Tock Seng and National University Hospital offers sleep studies. Sleep apnea can be treated.

Wet and Dreary Afternoon

It is a wet and dreary afternoon. I am listlessly watching tv and feeling bored. Maybe it is time for a nap. Yawn! I think I will sign off and go to bed zzzZZZZ.

Karaoke - Hokkien Songs

My neighbour living opposite my house had a party last night with their extended family. They loved karaoke singing and it is loud. The hokkien songs bring me a sense of nostalgia. I grew up near a hawker center and the hawkers loved to play current pop hokkien songs in their potable cassette players turning the volume up high. Growing up in a dialect environment, my language is terribly weak. My Chinese is horrible and English is barely passable.

When I first lived in Canada, I am proud of my English and thought it was good since I can understand the Canadian English. I was deluded and deceiving myself. My understanding of Canadian English was not precise. Worse, my colleagues had a hard time understanding me with my Singlish accent and choice of words. I was lucky my boss decided I have potential in the company and engaged a speech therapist to work on my pronunciation and reduce my accent. I was humbled and learn English all over again. Today, I continues to work on my vocabulary and grammar. I have come a long way and still have a long way to go. Continuous learning is the key to improving my English, written and spoken.

On a roll with Charles Handy

Yes, I finished the book The Hungry Spirit by Charles Handy. There is one quote that I felt is very pertinent in today's context.

"Look for Customers, not jobs" he told his children. If you make or do something that other people will pay you money for will you be ultimately be employable. That requires self-confidence, a saleable skill or competence and social skills of quite a high order.

The statistics are quite clear. In Britain the shift is quite significant. The combined total in percentage of part-timers, self-employed, temporary workers and unemployed is 51. That is more than half the available workforce do not have a proper full-time job inside an organization.

The employed with an organization will be fewer but earns a lot more with a lot more perks and privileges. The gulf between the employed and the rest will widen dramatically. The rich become richer and poor become poorer. This is not good for social stability.

Feeling Full all the Time

I am feeling full all the time. I am still eating my regular meals but my stomach feels bloated. I just checked my weight and it is still at close to 88kgs. This is only day 3 of my program. I am getting a little concern that the weight loss has not started. I will be going to Taipei next week and wonder what should I do when I travel. Continue to drink the fibers or stop? If I drink the fibers, will I be able to eat the delicious local food? This is hard decision, really really difficult decision for a lover of good food as well as good books.

Psyllium - The Colon Cleanser

I am trying out something my wife recommends to reduce weight. It can be obtained from Organic stores called the Psyllium Husks. It is also called colon cleanser. I will be taking this religiously and see if my weight do reduce. It will be better than the going to cosmetic surgery.

Kuan Yin Temple

Kuan Temple is not too busy at lunch time today. It felt good to offers my prayers and give donations. I had two good lots or "cheam si" today. Praying is a great way to positive mood and I feel much better. I am blessed!

Rain, Rain

Raining today. It is a wet and deary morning. Weather is cool and it is a sleepy morning. I will go to temple at Queens Street for my regular prayers... my soul will be nourished and spirit improved after every visit.

The Power of Intention

I watched The Power of Intention by Wayne Dyer. Wayne is the author of Your Erroneous Zone. I have a couple of his CDs as well. He is inspiring and a good to listen to when you are feeling stressed or down. Listening to Wayne Dyer, life become something that we are in control of and should be grateful. It is what is inside us that we need to get to. He is a good story teller. I wish I can tell stories like him.

Tummyache!

My stomach did not agree with the food I enjoyed so much in Hong Kong. I have stomachache and is still feeling it now. I did not eat the meal in the aircraft. I had fruits and ice-cream only...just desserts:)

This is one of the travails of travelling. My colleague recently came back from India with what he call a Delhi stomach. He will go to toilet after meals. It took him a week to recover. He says eating should not be dangerous thing to do.

Singapore Girl

A very sweet Singapore with genuine smile caught my attention on the flight back. She is petite and slim. Her smile is warm and she gave good eye contact. Yes, it is a good way to fly...

Gu Chap or Mixed Beef Parts

Yes, I have eaten gu chap that costs only HK$30 per bowl. It is more expensive than foodcourt in Singapore at about $6. It is good, very good. Delicious! Yummy! I am glad to taste my favorite Cantonese food in Hong Kong.

Beef Noodles

I am a lucky guy. Tonight I will get a chance to eat Cantonese style beef noodle soup in Hong Kong. I have simple taste. I enjoys hawker fare wherever I go as long as the hygiene level is acceptable.

What did I do on my rest day?

Wake up late in the morning and off to Raffles City for a cuppa in Spinelli and reading my favorite paper Sunday Times. I like Sumiko Tan's social experiment of revealing her cleavage last Tueday. She is so good at describing what happen when there is too much heaving cleavage in a meeting.

"You notice all the men's eyes swivel to the heaving embonpoint, then quickly swivel away, then sneak back again. It alters the whole tone of a meeting and shifts the focus from the business at hand. It becomes all about the bust and the lust - the real powerpoint."

A colleague of mine during my National Service days had this observation "The person who look at the cleavage most is the owner. Everytime a man looks, she will looks down."

I also spend a little time browsing at MPH in Basement 1. Raffles City is undergoing major renovations. More carpark space may be converted to retail. What a pity. It will make parking more challenging and expensive. The malls are getting less friendly to cars.

MPH at Raffles City

I have a chance to browse in MPH Raffles City. There are books that are not in Kino. So it is interesting. I bought a book The Customer comes second. What attracted me to buy this book by the Chairman and CEO of Rosenbluth Travel is the philosophy. I like philosophy happy workers produce treat Customers well. Treat your employees well and you will have no worries about them treating Customers well.

BBQ dinner with ex-colleagues

Tonight, I celebrated National Day with ex-colleagues with a BBQ dinner. It is potluck and everyone brought food in. We had otah, fishballs, packet drinks, potato chips, and I have bbq boneless chicken thighs, squids, hot dogs and garlic bread.

We had a long chat and it was good fun just to talk and catch up with everyone and old times. I enjoyed the company. It is a really good evening....

Career Advice from CEO of Ford China

I was on the way KL on Monday and read all the papers available on the aircraft as usual. The most memorable and impactful was the article on the new CEO of Ford China. He works in GE before and he says the best career advice was from Jim McNerney. He says the easiest way to get fired in GE is not to do what Jack Welch asked you to do. The 2nd easiest to get fired in GE is to do what Jack Welch asked you to do and do it when you know it is wrong.

2nd Generation Prius Delayed

Toyota announces that new model Prius will be delayed by two years because of potential safety issues of litium ion battery. It is the same type of battery that explodes in the laptops causing massive recall. The new battery was going to increase the capacity and reduce the cost of the car. Now I know the cost of Prius will not go down inthe immediate future.

Coffee Bean Sunway Lagoon

Sunway Lagoon Hotel charges RM58 for 24 hours of internet. Totally ridiculous and unacceptable. So I come for free internet in Coffee Bean and have a cup of Malibu Dream. This way I have a drink and save the company plenty of money. At the same time can oogle at the girls. Alas, in reality my eyes are on the screen and not the girls.

Today is the first day of meeting. The pressure on the team is high. They are a little stressed. However we need to improve performance and increase our effectiveness. The team is get gel up and will be more cohesive as we go along. Our results are quite reasonable and we need to sustain our momentum.

Tomorrow is a sharing day and everyone is teaching or sharing with everyone else on something. I am looking forward to learning new things for the team.

Car Showrooms are Hot!

I was doing research on MPVs or MultiPurpose Vehicles and Hybrid Cars. My dream car is one with high mileage. One that use fuel miserly. Today, there are two options in Singapore - Prius by Toyota and Civic Hybrid by Honda. The Prius is very silent. We can hear only the aircond blowing. The Honda Hybrid is like the normal car, the engine is always running and is noisy compared to Prius. Honda handles more like a regular car. The Prius is quite different in handling and does not seem to have the pickup capability (or accelerate fast). It is very green as the engine does not idle. It stops completely at red lights and does not kick in until the car is moving at 25 km/hr or more.

There are so many MPVs nowaday that finding one that fits makes me dizzy. The cheapest is Suzuki. It is called APV and is a little truck converting into a minivan. The floor is high and literally requires the passenger to climb up. Mazda has a reasonable price of $77K MPV with neat seat arrange where the middle row can be converted to captain seats with table in the middle or made into a bench seat to fit 3 passengers. Honda Oddessy has an electrically operated last row seat that folds it neatly into a flat bed to allow large items to be carried. Toyota price is the highest for MPV with basic features and fittings. Parallel Imports has many other types of MPVs. Our concern for parallel import is servicing. With so many vehicles on the road, I am sure there must be plenty of workshops capable of servicing the cars that authorised distributors refused to service. Nissan has two models of MPV as well. The Lafesta has a unique glass top that allow the passengers a good view of the night sky. It will be too hot to open on sunny day with the greenhouse effect.

Every showroom we go are well frequented with loads of people going for test drive. Another indicator that the economy is doing well...

Busy Busy Everywhere

People are out in droves. The best indicator of the economic well being of the country is the crowd at the malls. Long queues at the resturant. Retail and F&B are boomtown. Plenty people spending and spending. This is a great cycle. The mood is positive. Welcome to the strong economy in Singapore.

GoldFishes

My goldfishes are attacked by some parasites or virus. Their tails are ragged and lesions are on their bodies. I have bought some medicine for them. I hope they can recover. Pets do fall sick and it is an education process just like raising kids.

Old Colleagues in Canada

Many times I wonder how my old colleagues in Canada are doing. I know many are still around while many had left. My old boss is now the President. She is a great manager and must be doing good. One colleague has moved to HK whom I still stay in touch. Another I just heard is going to relocate to Australia.

The world is getting smaller....