BBQ lunch and dinner

I am under the attack of germs and is having sore throat, coughs and bone aching all over. My energy level is low. However, I am doing bbq cooking for lunch as well as dinner. It was a fabulous meal. My mum and sisters were here for lunch and we had a neighbour over for dinner. My outdoor cooking skills is now at a level of a master chef (self-praise is an international glory). Everyone had a good time and enjoys the food. I had a great time being the cook although I was feeling weak and coughing a lot.

It is a fantastic day for me and my family. I really enjoys playing host.

Salvation Army

Many people donate their "too good to throw away" stuff to The Salvation Army. We went there at about 5 pm and cars keep coming non-stop. Most cars have one bag. So they come and go fast. We are slow and see many cars as we unload our stuff. This is the consuming world. There are many good stuff being donated - toys, pots, electric kettles, clothing, portasound, badminton rackets and many others stuff in bags which it hard to guess. Salvation Army is killing two birds with one stone. Ridding old consumer products from the wealthy nations and doing deeds in the process.

Flashbacks at Pasir Ris

I had to send my wife and sister-in-law to their aunt's house. I am not the visiting sort. So I decided to go hang out at a coffeeshop to read one of the new books I just acquired from Borders. I walk around the coffee in the Pasir Ris neighbourhood center. Memories and flashback as I pass the coffeeshop, the sight of people eating their meals, the food, the smell, yeah! What was it I remember? Pasir Ris was where my eldest sister lives and we were living with her when we first return from Canada. It was a novel to experience life start early here in Singapore. After getting used to life in Canada and still suffering from jetlag, I was up at dawn and taking a walk around the neighbourhood, the hawkers were getting ready at 5am. In Canada, there is no wet market or coffeeshop. Only plaza and strip malls. No commercial or rather retail activities start before 10am. So my routine was to boil water first thing I wake up to make tea. It is usually cold in the house and nice hot tea will warm me up nicely. Only tv or radio to kill time if the mood to read is not there.

Seeing mostly Chinese and other Singaporeans eating is also a funny feeling after being with mostly Caucasians everywhere. Food is so easily available. All the food we brought back with our shipment of furniture, those we thought we will missed, were forgotten. Yes, I still missed the cookies and muffins. Mmm Muffin was fabulous. Saint Cinnamon was in Singapore for a short spell and was unsuccessful unlike the franchise in Australia and Philippines.

I wonder how it feels to relocate back there again. My older boys may not be able to regain their Canadian accent. B3 is still young and he is at the best age to pick up any accent. Besides the boys language skills, what else is there to offer in Canada? Singapore has been good to us. We really really appreciate and thank God for blessing us.

Pasir Ris will always be the place where I re-integrate back into Singapore the first time back from Canada.

The Paper Chase

Finally, finally! I bought the movie. I went to HMV a couple of years ago to check if they have the TV series The Paper Chase and they do not. However, they have the movie. I did not buy then as I have seen the movie before and I felt the TV series is better. HMV close down the store in Orchard and I kind of regret not purchasing the movie.

Before Christmas, I walk kind of roaming the malls and in the HMV in the underground link between Raffles City and Suntec, I saw a boxset on Miracles on 34th Street. I was tempted but did not buy as we were just passing through. I thought about it and decided I like to get the copy as it as additional commentary on the movie. I find Miracles on 34th Street moving story and enjoys watching it every Christmas. I have the video tape in NTSC or North American standards. I was busy with the home maintenance and repair, kids' activities. Finally, today I managed to go to HMV again but the boxsets are all sold out. Then I found The Paper Chase movie. I decided to buy it so I do not regret not purchasing this movie. I am now watching this movie at 12:44am.

Yes, I am enjoying this movie right now. Students in Harvard Law School, competitive, tough, even ruthless. I like the academic environment. NO! I love the academic world!

Friendly Neighbours

We have new neighbours. Two of them actually. One is just next door to me and the other is diagonally opposite. Johnny moves in only a couple of weeks and he is helping out and finding out better ways of reconfiguring our estate to improve. Today, I visited his place and invited him over. I am very glad to make a new friend. This is one of the best part of living in a kampong. Hurray!

National Treasure - The book of Secrets

B1 is interested in watching movies. Finally, I decided to go and watch National Treasure Part II by Nicholas Cage. We went to Cathay and the movie was screen on the Main Theatre. The storyline is interesting and a couple of new characters were introduced. I like Ben's (Nicholas) mother. It is interesting dialogue and dynamic between the separated or divorce couple. The book of Secrets has a conspiracy theory. Treasure hunt must have bad characters who provide the high speed car chase and narrow escapes. We were keep on the edge. Although my bladder was overflowing due the extra large combo drinks, I was determined to finish the movie without going for a pee break.

I will give this movie a rating of 4 and half popcorns.

Boxing Day

The first time I heard was boxing day was in Canada. The question up in my mind is what is boxing day? Muhammed Ali came to my mind. I thought it is day where boxing match was held or boxing was celebrated as sports in Canada. How wrong was I!

Boxing day sales are held and the malls will be full of people. It is Toronto Star (http://www.thestar.com/) that explains Boxing Day to me. It is the day when all the presents are boxed. Any presents you do not like, you can bring back to the store for exchange. Yes, in Canada, stores will take back your presents and give you back the value in vouchers so that you can buy something else from the store if you do not have the original receipt. It is a good system. The money-back guarantee is widely offerred in most retail stores. If you have the original receipt and the item is in saleable condition, the store usually refund you the money. Some stores even have "No-questions" policy. They will just take back. Others ask why are you returning and record your response for statistic purpose.

I also think about their culture of consume, consume, consume. The buying of presents is a wasteful habits. A lot of people going in debt i.e. using credit card to pay for presents which the recipents may not need or like. At least for most Singaporeans, we usually spend within our means. There is no 13th month bonus and income tax is more than 40% taken at source. You get your pay less what taxes due. Net pay is about half of your gross pay. Beside income tax there is social security and you have to pay health insurance. Then you will need to pay 15% consumption tax in whatever you buy. For services like haircut, the tax is 7%. The after tax income is so low that many are always living from hand to mouth or in debt.

So with such low disposable income, the tradition of giving presents to does not make sense for a immigrant like me. Giving Ang Pow will be a lot better. Anyway, I have grown to love Christmas. It is the time for giving and forgiving. It is also family time and visiting friends. Best part is we get to spend a week at our warm home in the bitter cold winter.

Merry Christmas

It is a glorious day. We woke up late, really late. This is because our boys were up in the middle night checking if Santa left anything for them. My wife woke me up in a panic and told me there is someone inside the house. It was our boys messing with their presents. All is well. So we went back to dreamland.

Since Orchard Road is closed, we decided to go VivoCity for a movie. Guess, what? Every other Singaporean have the same idea. The carpark is chock-a-block with cars parked at non-designated parking lots as long as they are not impeding the traffic flow. The movie theatre queue was long and there were not many seats. So we gave up the idea.

We had lunch at a cafe beside PageOne. Lunch was at half past 3. Guess what, most resturants are full. Yes, people are in a mood to spend, spend and consume. I bet the retailers and F&B outlets owners are doing extremely well. It is a good time for everyone.

Elf - Compliments of OfficeMax & BT

My friend Boh Tong found an interesting program and I decided to make my own as well.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1759669151

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1778450229

Christmas Eve

Party, party and more parties. My neighbours are partying and inviting friends and family to visits. It is festive mood right now. It is alot better than squeezing your way around Orchard Road.

For our family, we have a simple dinner at Max Jack just nearby. We tried the Blue Mountain Burgers, Mad Chicky and Fish N Chips. The Spicy Cheezy Fries was excellent! Maybe it is because we were hungry. The fries were fresh, crispy outside and soft inside. Mmmm, yummy!! The Capuccino which had four stars in the menu was average. Coffee Beans or Starbucks have better capuccinos.

The mood is festive and positive and our neighbour drop by to visit. I really like cluster house concept as it bring back the kampong spirit into city living.

Tonight, I hope Santa Claus will visit and bless our boys with gifts.

Merry Christmas!

Reading Literature?

Kino is giving 20% discount. So this is the best time to acquire books for reading and upgrading skills. The title for this entry is "reading literature?" with a question mark! Why the question? Since I started reading seriously in Primary 4, I read widely. Almost every subject under the sun. Ok, I exaggerated! I read on science and scientists, occult, philosophy, Zen, Buddhism, engineering, astronomy, space exploration, etc, etc. However the books I avoid are under the shelves labelled Literature. I shunned literature because I think it is not reading for pleasure. There are too many serious analysis and thinking about what the author is trying to say or what is he thinking of when he writes the passages. Why can't we just read and enjoy the story? This is why I find literature distasteful. I have avoided literature since I learned my A-B-Cs.

The only subject I failed in my GCE "O" level is literature. I read Hamlet, a tragedy, Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy set in England 100 years ago and poems by Wordsworth. I have never been to England before in school and therefore it is hard to appreciate whatever that was described. Now, more than 30 years after passing out from Secondary School, I am starting on literature again. Why?

I read mostly business and related subjects such as management, leadership, branding, marketing and so on. Business gurus like Peter Drucker recommended that we must also learned other areas as the expertise acquired expand skill level in business. Or Charles Handy mentioned that after spending much time reading all the learned business publications, he realised everything in business politics and leadership is described in War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. Joseph Badaracco, leadership guru in Harvard University uses literature to guide his students who are Senior Executives of Fortune 500 companies to teach leadership program touching on ethics and decision making process.

Our Singapore Government is starting to recognise Liberal Arts Education in US is producing leaders in both business and government and is now supporting scholarship to schools specializing on liberal arts. Liberal arts primary focus is reading literature and related subjects.

As for me, I am also wising up and broadening my reading diet to include literature in an effort to expand my mind and leadership skills. I hope I can increase my effectiveness and improve my earning capability.

Horse Backing Riding

The advertisement by Osim and Panasonic is very tempting. Sit on a simulated horse and work calories off and reduce your weight. I wonder how true and effective the claims are. I am serious considering getting a machine to reduce my weight. Any of my readers who have with this machine, please let me what is your experience. Weight reduction is my primary objective.

Economy is Good

Looks like everyone is spending and spending. Every mall is doing well as reported in our local news. I think it is a paradox. While inflation is hitting us with a vengeance, people are easy with their wallets on consumer products. I am concern on the price hike of day to day living. At the same time, there is a bigger group making frivolous purchase. The rich is getting richer and spending more and buying higher price products like LCD. Meanwhile, a taxi driver who earns $1,500 per month is very happy save $20 per week on groceries for his family of 6.

The money gap is clear and huge. Singapore is beginning to be like US. The socioeconomic levels are getting wider and wider. I wonder if the middle class is diminishing. In US, there are many poor and homeless. Yet, the rich are extremely rich. I find Canada with the high taxes has a huge middle class where everyone not rich but comfortable and very few people are underclass or struggling to survive. Maybe in Canada, they are not out in the streets in huge numbers like US.

As a developed country, I wonder how Singapore can improve our safety net for the down and out and the economically disadvantaged(e.g. cleaners, cashiers in Sheng Siong, low skill and pay workers).

Work while everyone is taking leave

It is work when everyone else is taking vacation. I just realise taking leave today and on Monday, you will get a stretch of 6 days off. It is good for a trip out of the country. The cool weather and periods of rain bring in the festive atmosphere. I was reminded of fall in Canada driving in the rain yesterday. If is nice to be in a protected environment (car then mall) when it is wet outside.

A Good Day

Wake up late as it is public holiday. We have dim sum lunch at Nan Bei Xiao Chi. The food is good. However, I feel hungry again at 3pm. I am always hungry. No wonder I am overweight. I had a meal at 4pm and then dinner at 8.

The boys are nice to each other. It is a pleasure when they are playing and treat each other as friends. This is a nice way to end the day.

YouTube

My youngest is watching YouTube with his friend and neighbour. I did not think too much about it. However, his friend's mum is concerned and told her son that I may not approve of him watching YouTube with B3. I strongly deny this statement. She told me she say "may not" only and not that I have objected.

I find this example interesting. Here is a mum who do not like her son to watch or do something and use me as a way to let her son know not to do. I have no idea what show it is and therefore do not like to make a judgement call.

However, after dinner, B3 told his brothers that he was playing the game in YouTube where he saw the movie on men looking at woman's breast and then look away. My wife threw a fit! She told him and his two brothers this is unhealthy and no boys should be playing this kind of game. I now know why his friend's mum did not watch her boy to watch YouTube.

I think it is time to instill values to the younger generation so that they understand and know what to do. I believe forbidden fruits taste sweetest. With internet and information explosion, it is impossible to police. I will like my sons to have values like honesty, prudence, propriety, work ethics and integrity.

BookFair in Suntec

Popular organised a bookfair in Suntec City. There is a huge selection of Chinese books. English books were by Harris. We tested the Eye exercise machine to help reduce myopia. The machine works. All 3 boys showed improvement after one exercise. However all the boys guess a lot on the post test. It looks like it may work if we use consistently. I am now seriously considering the purchase of this machine. My only concern is it will become a white elephant as the boys will get tired of it after a while and they do not have the discipline of following through unless it is a computer game.

No Future, No Emotions

When liberation happen, the prisoners tasted "freedom". Walking out of the concentration camp with no shouts, no kicking or rifle butts hitting out was something strange for the prisoners. A weird relief from the expectations after living in the camp. There is no feeling of joy or exhilaration. Their emotions are dead. When there is no future, there is no hope and emotions died with them.

Viktor Frankl says there are 2 race of human - decent and indecent. Decent human race no matter what their colour or role is treat another human with kindness. He gave examples of camp guard and commander that the prisoners protect after the Allied forces win the war and the table was turned. He also bring out the example of prisoner who treat other prisoners cruelly.

It is hard to describe the feeling. However, I can say it is hard to fathom what Frankl had gone through and impossible to empathise. I am relief and glad I did not have this kind of experience.

Snow Storm

Toronto had a snow storm on Sunday, Dec 16. You can see how it is like when the snow keep pouring and pouring and pouring.... just click the link below.

http://www.thestar.com/fpLarge/photo/286103

Man's Search for Meaning

Last night, I read this book by Viktor Frankl. It describes the horrors of the death camps in the war. It is a compelling story. I heard of this book many times and finally buying and reading it. I now understand why so many million copies sold. As prisoners, undernourished and hard labour with no medicine, death is a relief and release.

Japanese Bloggers

It seems like Japan has the highest number of bloggers outsurpassing American. Japanese bloggers are polite and write positive things about others. If it is something they do not like, they do not write. In contrast, Americans have self glorification and strong opinions.

I think my blog is tame just like Japanese:) Unlike Japanese, I do complain and write negatively as well.

Wood Table

The computer tables we bought from Ikea as study tables for the boys are worn out. It is also too small. We decided to look for a bigger table. This time we decide to buy solid wood table. Table that will last a lifetime. I am using solid wood table for my home office. It is more than two years old and is very beautiful still. There are some scratches but they are fixable because unlike the veneer which will be permanently damage when scratched, all I need to do is to polish the wood and then apply shellac. The wood surface will look as good as new. The only disadvantage is it take 3 months to get the tables as they need to be made in Burma and then ship to Singapore.

Feng Shui

Wind and Water in Chinese or The Art of Blending in with Nature, Geomancy. I was first exposed to Feng Shui in 1984 when my big boss, VP of Asia Pacific was interview in the corporate TV. He was a young man of 32 and was based in Oxnard in California. He talk about fengshui and how it help in business. For a young man who is so successful, fengshui must have worked. He was born in Shanghai and emigrated to Japan and then to US. He speaks fluent English, Japanese, Mandarin and Shanghainese.

I was working in the factory in Ang Mo Kio Ave 5 and was told that all the doors' positions, height, width and length are specified by the fengshui master he hired. The plant manager table - shape, location and position are "fengshuied". All the managers are specifically sited in their respective offices. I must say the business did well when I was working there.

The factory went from renting the fifth floor in JTC flatted factory to an independent building in Yishun Ave 7. The company was known Gould HB was sold to another company Ohmeda, owned by BOC. Subsequently, Ohmeda was sold to 3 different companies and was broken up. Pharmaceutical went to Baxter, Device was taken by BD and Anesthesia Machine became part of Spacelab.

The VP left the company and start his own business making the same devices as the division sold to BD. This company started when Gould HB was sold to Ohmeda. Fengshui and business acumen works well. The company he started continue to prosper and get funding from Singapore government to do R&D for the hotest device call stents. Stents are used for opening up coronary arteries when they are clogged up with plague.

Today, YC Lu is extremely wealthy as CEO of mainboard listed Biosensors.

Go for Your Dream

What is your dream? Take a step back. Do you have dreams? What is a dream? Webster dictionary define dream to be "wild hope or fancy or ambition". Dream is an ambition, a desired state. We have dreams when we are young. As we grow older, those dreams starts to diminish. New dreams appears. Most childhood dreams disappears and we face the reality of contributing to society.

Many childhood dreams come true. My dream when I was young was to be a scientist inventing new things like Edison. Today, inventors have gone the way of dinosaurs. Research and product development replace the individual inventors. Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Facebook are the new inventions that make the inventors enormously rich. My dream of becoming an inventor is now in the back burner.

Another of my dream is to live oversea. Yes, I did achieve this dream. Living in Canada twice for a total of 7 years. Initially, living oversea was hard. Then making friends and integrating, life become much better. This experience is something I value. I have fond memories of Christmas, barbecues in summer, pick your own apples, indoor swimming in deep winters, different school system, gardening and cutting grass and routine errands in just living. It is really sweet. I would love to go back to live there again.

Coming back to the original question, what is your dream? If you have a dream and fulfill it, life become satisfying. It is something you will feel proud that you accomplish your dream and this strengthen your self-esteem. The road to achieving your dream is pave with rocks and obstacles. Overcoming them builds character and strengths. Go for your dreams.

A Good Day

I spent the morning giving training on new products for our partners today. The session went well. We did demo and tested on competition products as well. Seems like all the products are comparable. There are some minute differences and those differences can be critical. There are 8 attendees and all females except for one. It is always to be the center of attraction in a bevy of beauties.

After training, we adjorned for lunch in Crystal Jade. The food is yummy. My weight today is terrible at 88.5kg. Just one good meal can add half a kilo.

The satisfaction of a job well done is immeasurable.

Grammatical Errors

I always commit to grammatical errors when I write and send too quickly. It is important to read what I have type to reduce this kind of errors. Just look at the comment "Man! This is a long way from 10...lol and btw on Google get 10. I am happy with "1". It is better than "0""

Intead of "btw on Google get 10", I should have written "btw only Google gets 10". A simple remark and I committed two errors. One in omission and the other in breaking a rule. Btw stands for "by the way".

I have a couple of books which I feel is a must for all writers of English. One is The Complete Plains Words and the other is The Element of Style. I also like Painless Grammar. I know a forum writer recommended Martin and Wren's book on Grammar and Sumiko Tan wrote that she actually enjoyed reading a book on Grammar by Swan during her vacation.

I always find books on Grammar dry. Very dry and boring. I always have a hard time completing the book even reading forget about all the practise exercises that typically come together after the explanation and examples.

Shootings and More Shooting

US is notorious for shooting incidents. I wonder when will the country wake up to effective gun control and stopped the murder of innocent victims. Going to school or the malls should not be dangerous or risky. All these senseless killings must be stopped. I think US is the only country in the world that has "death by bullets" when the country is not at war. I wonder what can be done to make gun hard to acquire in US. The lobby is strong and opposition from guns manufacturers fierce.

Is money more important than innocent lives?

This is the question US must face up to one day.

Weighty Issue

I have not been writing about my weight for some time now. Not that I have stopped. I just given up hope for reducing my weight. Right now, my weight at night is around 88kgs. No change from before. Ok, ok, ok! I lied! I was between 86 to 87 kgs. So my weight actually creep up. I am religious in eating fruits. But my problem is still teh-C and teh halia, the calories laden drinks especially when I am not travelling. The consolation is recent show it is better to be fit and fat and thin and unfit. I may be delusional to think I am fit. I love to swim except the increment weather nowaday is not friendly to swimming as there is danger of lightning strike.

Whatever will be will be. The future is not for us to see. Hey, sharera sharera....

Lights Out

It was late and the road was dark. Dizzling rain keep on falling. I am glad to reach the gates of my estate. It looks darker than usual. Press the remote several times and it did not work. The electricity was out. I did not have my cellphone. I am locked out of my own home. Luckily one of the gate opens as there is an emergency system that cause it to unlock when the electricity fails.

I managed to get in with another neighbour. I went out to close the gate and another neighbour just returned home as well. He helps me look for the main switch. We look around and unlock the place. Unfortunately, we did not know how to reset the circuit breaker. I called the managing agent for help. She managed to lock a electrician to come in to help us reset the system. Phew! Now everything is back to normal.

I am glad I contribute positively to our estate.

Rain Rain Go Away

Come again another day.
Rain rain go away.
Little children wants to play.

This is the rhyme that come to mind. It rains non-stop until now with only short spells of breather when rain god decides to take a break. Looking out, the sky is grey and groomy. The dark clouds reminds me of England. The difference is our dark clouds are high up whereas in England, they are low. And with the cold temperature it is really depressing. Here I do not feel depress by the weather. It is just nice to be in a sheltered room looking out.

The SECRET

I was watching an old movie Pretty Woman and it ends with...
"Some dreams come true. Some don't. But keep on dreaming. This is Hollywood..."

The Secret is the law of attraction. Thoughts are things and all you have to think of is what you want to attract. Thinking about it, many dreams come true. Now everyone is seeking Happiness. There is a proliferation of Happiness titles now.

If I think about it. I am quite happy with life. It is wanting what you have and keeping desire for what you don't have to nil. Buddha teaching - desire is the root of all suffering. Nirvana is reached when you have no more desire.

Calm your mind and make it still and it will be like a mirror. Once you attain this state a new world will open up....

Wet, Wet Sunday

It is a lazy Sunday. Rains makes time sleepy. The rain come and go intermittently. Best time to be indoor just like winter in Canada. With the music on, it is heavenly. Yep! Frances Yip singing the old favorites like All kinds of Everything, Love Story in it 24 bits audiophile sound reproduction in Bose sound cube system. Life's Good!

20% Discount in Kinokuniya

For members only. You need to pay $20 for membership fee and enjoys 10% discount for a year. Right now, Kino is giving 20% discount for Christmas and school holidays. The service level is high. The queue time is short even though the queue is long. Kino's management is good at deploying more part-time cashiers. This has improve the purchase experience. It is solid leadership. I wish my company is as responsive to customer's demands.

Christmas!

Christmas cheers and shopping always go together. Orchard Road is all dressed up and bathed in decorative lights. The malls are decorated with giant Christmas Tree - Takashimaya and huge green ribbons spirals - Heeren. Centrepoint seems a little muted, maybe because there is no way to display any finery since the walkway opposite is under contruction.

People are all out in force. Pedestrian traffic come to a crawl due to heavy traffic both ways. Interesting characters start to show up when it get later in the night. My eldest son noticed a lot more pregnant women on the street. I guess rat year will be good for babies. I bet those in the baby business will get a bumper year next year and the year after.

B3, the Noise Maker

"Baby" is his nickname since he is the baby of the family. He is always calling out loud in his whiny, high-pitch voice "DADDEEEEE!" non-stop. His voice knows no boundaries. It can keep going non-stop till my ears hurts and I am totally stressed out. He is totally adorable and is an angel when he is in his normal self.

He loves art and can spend hours working of his drawing or clay sculptures. He is a consummate trouble maker by making a mess everywhere. I am going to miss him very much when he grows up.

Amazing Service by HP

I have a new laptop, a tablet which is the new issue for work. The stylus broke into two and I brought it to HP for service. They dismantle the screen to take out all the broken pieces of the stylus. There is a small circuit board inside. The replacement part was not available. HP delivers! HP call me yesterday to tell me to the stylus is ready. I took the delivery option. I was at Mad Jack for lunch when the delivery guy called and tell me he is at my door steps. I redirected him to come to Mad Jack and he did and gave me the new stylus.

I am totally impressed by HP service. This is going the extra mile. No wonder Dell is in trouble.

Blue Mountain at Mad Jack

Mad Jack is an Australia resturant along Jalan Kayu. This resturant is a semi-self service. You serve the drinks yourself and they serve the food. There is a new item on the menu, Blue Mountain. It is a triple decker i.e. three hamburger meat patties with sliced pineapple, swiss cheese, fried onion and a "special" mad jack sauce. We did not order but our next table did and it is really something. Tallest burger I have ever seen. It looks yummy. Unfortunately, we can only look longingly. The diner, a female looks slim. I doubt very much she can keep this way if she has Blue Mountain on a regular basis.

Velikovsky

Immanuel Velikovsky is a Russian scientist. He has an unique views and perspective of the things he observed and studied. He is brillant and critics were contemptuous his theories. I read about his works when I read books on occult and astrology. Unfortunately his books are out-of-print and only available if you buy through Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com. Both are American and postage will be high.

It will be good to study history of earth to understand what may be coming in future. Velikovsky books would, I believe help in our understanding.

Wondering what happened to Sze Li...

Sze Li is a young graduate who start on her career a couple of years back. She is into jogging into Shape (pun intended). She was the first to visit my blog and drop a comment. I think because of her I keep writing and writing. Along the way, Dan Brown's lawsuit help me to understand writing is a discipline. Writers write every day. It is the same as going to work in the office or factory.

Sze Li wrote long articles and she writes well. She is an engineering graduate who tried her hands in marketing and on food!! My favourite product. Now she is teaching and has less time to blog. However she is onto design and take many photos of interesting works. The link to her blog "Design News" under the caption "Interesting Blogs" on the right of this blog. Sze Li is an idealist and does volunteer work with old folks home.

Pigeon Rescue

Redhill Hawker had a stall that sells only fried tau kwa(beancurd). I remember my father bringing me there for snacks in the afternoon. Amazingly, the stall is still around. One tau kwa now cost 80 centts instead of 30 cents. The chilli is still the same tangy taste. It is nostalgic.

After our meal, we walk around the wet market just to explore a little more of old memories. A mother with two toddlers was feeding pigeons. B3 was clamouring to feed the pigeons and the mother was very nice. She offer some mung beans(green beans) for B3. She also teach him how to feed them so that they will eat from his hands. She noticed one pigeon had its legs tied up and was crippled. She tried to catch it but it flew away and disappeared for some time. She finished her feed and decide to go.

B3 was insistent that I buy some feed for him to feed the pigeons. I thought it is the touristy thing to do. So I bought one dollar worth of mung beans. The pigeons flocks in very quickly once they see food on the floor. This time we managed to catch the injured bird. We borrowed a scissor from the store owner and proceed to cut our the string. It was more challenging than we anticipated. The legs were not only tied together, the strings were all entangled in the toes and had cut in very deep. The blood flow was cut off and one of the toes has turned black. We spent more than half an hour to free the pigeon from the raffia string. Once we managed to cut up all the strings, the legs and toes turn purple and warm as the blood started to flow again. It was a fantastic feeling to rescue an injured bird. I feel that we have acquired good karma even though we have no idea if it was recover or survive.

A Consumate Reader

In line with my moniker, booklover, I like to write about books I am currently reading. I usually have several books on the go. I read before sleeping and in the toilet...yes, right! in the toilet and whenever I am on the plane. Flying allows me to catch up on my reading. However, nowadays new movies compete for my attention. I usually watch the latest movies in the air.

I am still trying to complete The Future of Management by Gary Hamel. Hamel has a "black eye" over his previous book "Leading the Revolution". His quoted how revolutionary, creative and capable Enron was and the tremendous increase in sales and market value of the company Enron. We all know Enron was falsified their financial records and the company is no longer in existence. Leading the Revolution is a good read and very motivational. I remember a colleague in Canada telling me we should start a revolution in the company. We thought the company we work for was risk averse and totally uncreative.

The other book at my bedside is The Art of Possibilities. I read the positive review of this book by Straits Times. This book has interesting perspective and it is a good way for us to look at ourselves and others. The art of possible explore ways to get things done and not take ourself too damned seriously. I like the example of a Taiwanese student. He is 76th of 78 student in his class in Taiwan. In Boston, he is an "A" student. Nothing has change except the label. He prefers to be the "A" student rather than the bottom 3rd. With the change in mindset, he work hard and perform extremely well.

I will save to talk about the other books next time:)

What happened to Books?

I am reading more these days. However, I have not wrote about them recently. This blog has become my diary. I want to write more about the books. Boh Tong, my fellow blogger describes this blog as a Book Lover's Blog. I have been neglecting my passion. No! I have been negligent in reporting on the books I have been reading.

I just finished reading "A Class with Peter Drucker" by William Cohen. The book is on the lost lessons of Peter Drucker. Drucker wrote a lot of articles on many subjects. Cohen is a doctoral student taught personally by Drucker. There are quite a few things that Peter did not write in which he transmits directly. It is the like Kungfu movie where the master has to pass the secret to a special student who will take over his place in the martial arts school.

I realise I do not make a lot of sense to some people especially in a group meeting. I talk in riddles. This is because I do not give people the background and jump straight to the point confusing people in the process. Peter Drucker is the same. He asks the right questions for his consulting work. He only tell you what to do through his questions. However, he does not tell you how. The most famous example was told by Jack Welch. Jack was just made CEO of GE. He consulted Peter Drucker and Peter asked him two questions. First "If you are not in this business will you get into this business?" 2nd "If you are, what are you are you going to do about it?".

With the two questions, Jack Welch came up with the Number 1 or Number 2 strategy. He increased GE market cap by many times.

Lunch in Chinatown Hawker Centre

Salty! We all agree. It is the saltiest food we have experienced so far. The roast duck and roast pork was salty. The three dishes, sweet sour pork, prawn paste chicken and minced pork in the economic rice section was salty. The food were full of MSG as well. We were so thirsty after the meal.

My Mum, Her Mum

Yesterday, we went out with my mum. This morning on our way to brunch we met Her mum and dad rather my mother-in-law and father-in-law. I was hungry for ribs and so decided that we either go to New York New York in AMK Hub or Cafe Cartel. She did not like Cafe Cartel. So we go to NY NY. My in-laws were just outside NTUC and our paths crossed. In fact my wife squeal out like a teenager and I was wondering what happened...then I saw them. Daughters are funny and very filial. Somehow they have plenty to talk to their parents and over trivials and many not important things. It is real quantity time. I really wish I have a daughter everytime. Anyway, I got tired for waiting and decided to head to NY NY to get a table.

We invited our boys' grandparents but they declined saying they have something else to do. My wife was insistent. She check with the waiter to make sure they can serve vegetarian food. Once he confirmed, she convinced her parents to have the meal with us. We ordered a vegetarian pasta and pizza for them. I had my favorite which is ribs as usual with a latte. I ordered a cappucino for my father-in-law and my mother-in-law had orange juice. They enjoyed the pasta very much and my boys help themselves to the vegetarian pizza especially B3.

After lunch, we part ways and my wife is estatic and tell me her parents is very happy. We had a wonderful time as a family. I feel the warm glow inside me to have some quality time with my mum, her mum and dad in two days.

Inflation

Finally, Sunday Times does a comprehensive report on inflation, something I blogged about in the past. The poor are severely and negatively impacted. Members of Parliament(MPs) are getting more requests for financial aids and food care package. Even expatriates are affected as well. Their rental has gone up. Living expenses has increased dramatically.

Ministers are advising people to find ways to reduce costs. Basically their suggestions are reduce your standard of living. This is a commonsense approach and I am doing the same. We are eating out at hawker centres more and cooking at home instead of going to resturants. Getting advice from people who earn millions of dollars a little hollow and demeaning. I have no choice but to adjust downward to my lifestyle. The poor cannot afford not to do. It is something they have to do for survival.

In Japan, when welfare is cut, the poor and jobless starved to death. A Japanese man died in his home recently. In the diary, he wrote his pangs of hunger and how he keep dreaming of just eating a ball of rice. His neighbours saw him all skin and bones and he has no energy to walk just crawl around his house. It will be terrible if our society become polarise into the rich and poor with a shrinking middle class. We all know the rich rule the poor and get richer. Rich are few in number. The majority become poor and poorer. What a terrible thought! I hope this will never happen in Singapore society.

Mum comes to Town...

My mother is here to visit. My wife reminded me to bring her out. I have to persuade her to come out with me as she is not very mobile. We had dim sum breakfast just opposite the Subordinate Courts. The resturant is ran by ex-convicts. So all the waiters have plenty of tattoos. They give great service and pays attention to our needs. Mum was asking me about chilli sauce and the waiter brought two small dishes even though I did not ask him. We had a good meal. All the staffs are very courteous and attentive. They seems to be keen to redeem themselves. Even my wife is who sensitive and nervous about shady characters is very comfortable to eat there. She is the one who suggest we should go to this place. We are very happy to patronize this resturant. The food is good and price is reasonable. My only complaint is their teh-C is terrible. It is lukewarm and taste awful.

After breakfast, we adjourn to Vivo City. We bought an Infrared Heater for mum for her knee problems. We had a fantastic massage by the Panasonic Massage Chair. There were no sales person. It is very nice to get a full course of fifteen minutes massage without listening to sales talk. I am drop by more often and hopefully there are no sales person on duty! I also tried the core muscle trainer. This is like horse back riding. According to the brochure, a professor from Japan visit Europe to study the horse riding therapy. Since horse riding is not popular and very expensive, he work with Matsushita to come up with a machine. This is the third generation machine. The price is $2,288. We walk over to Osim section and I-gallop is available for $598. I did not like I-gallop as the seat is small and it look like a rocking bicycle seat whereas the Panasonic is like riding a simulated horse. Ok, I have never riden on horseback and do not know how authentic it feels. However, if I have the money and going to buy, I will definitely go for the Panasonic model.