Chen Li Ping's Husband

My boys is taking tuition in Learning Point in Thomson Plaza. I decided to work away from my regular "away office" or home office, Swensen. Chen Li Ping's husband was walking looking bored waiting outside for his kid. His mannerism reminds me of myself. Women are good at waiting for kids and standing in queues. Men like me are impatient and get bored. Not only our minds are like monkeys unable to keep still, our body can stay still either. We have to keep moving. He is walking about in his red polo t-shirt with the collar straight up. My wife has a close encounter with him before and she says he smile at her.
If you are keen to have a chance encounter with Chen Li Ping or her husband, be at the entrance of Swensen in Thomson Plaza at about 5:45 pm on Fridays.

How true could you know a person only tru interview??

I have a question from my reader and it is a very good question!
I will answer this question with another question.
After months and years of courtship and hundred of hours of contact time i.e. both quantity and quality, how true do you know the person you are marrying?
Please asked both married and divorced to get a balance view.

Interviews

Interviewing is an art. Trying to figure out what a person is like and whether she will fit the requirements is a game. A game that can only get better with practice. Today, I met and talk to 4 girls. They are an interesting mix. Their command of English range from atrocious to passable. What intrigue me is we have two students who speak better English than the interviewees. Why? In Malaysia, the education system is single language. The school are either Chinese or English. Malay is a compulsory language. So everyone speaks Malay well (at least by my standard). The Chinese educated have trouble with English and vice versa. The two with unacceptable English were striked off immediately. One with ok English and can handle Chinese well demanded high salary and is slick. The final interviewee has good attitude and team spirit. Her pay expectation is also reasonable. What is more important - she has a caring nature. She got my vote!

Lunch...

KH just joined as CEO as I was serving notice to leave for Canada. He flew down to Singapore to interview my replacement. The interview was conducted in Orchid Country Club. Lunch was interesting as he has stories about a stockbroker who is a well known flirt. KH worked in disk drive industry for many years and keep tabs of the famous names. After the interview, we parted ways. He works in Penang and I in Toronto. Recently, KH chance into another colleague, WC. WC suggested we have lunch together.

Today, 9 years later we meet again. This time updating each other with old colleagues and KH is now a potential customer. So we will be in touch...

Hamster

B3 is in Primary One. He is keen on having a pet. He found out that a Hamster cost only $10 and is very keen to acquire one. As you know, boys are going to be boys. Buy a pet and play with it. After a few days, they get bored and found it a chore. Mum, dad or maid will take over the responsibility of caring. So we have a solution to prevent a pet from coming into our home. Set a goal...a goal that will mean serious effort. So mummy told him if he come first in standard i.e. the whole of Primary 1, he get his hamster.
This is a win-win situation. If he really did top in his standard, I would buy him the pet because he DESERVES it!

Words, Words don't come easy

Many have found my blog boring. It is run of mill about my life every day, routine, deary, factual and a complete lack of excitement. I merely state facts without adding colours to them. My writings would be black and white pictures with some shade of greys. I always get inspired by Sunday Times. We now have a stable of columnists who write about a broad range of topics, viewpoints and opinions. For example, I would write about looking for syntax or gammatical errors whereas Janadas Devan put it as "a train wreck of syntax errors". The metaphor conjured the picture of a super long sentence like a train that if wrecks, will be like the train disasters you see in the news. The other observation I have about my writings is they tend to be short and sharp. My fellow bloggers BT and SL entries contains 3 to 5 times the amount of words compared to mine articles.
I realise while blogging is a way to discipline myself to write, words don't come easy to me....

Grrreat Party!

We had a fantastic party and it is very nice. We enjoys every much catching up with old times. The kids are all growing up and we share our parenting issues. Seems like we all share very similar issues with growing kids and maids. The story teller, Lacy was hilarious. She is very talkative and recount the story when the Chinese teacher during Primary School asked for the chatterbox. Obviously, she has not changed after 30+ years.
Character is clearly something for life!

Matriarch Classmates

My Wife invited her classmates over for our favourite entertainment and my signature cooking - barbeque. She is now busy preparing and marinating the meat, seafood and vegetable. I will be doing the cooking later. I sneak to take break and update this blog. It is a lot of fun to set up everything and get everything ready to receive our guests. We will have curry chicken, bbq chicken, chicken satay, egg plants, green peppers, prawns and cuttlefish. The mainstay is still chicken. We are a chicken fan!

Stress increases Weight?

Recently, work load has been heavy and stressful. My friend SL thinks she indulged in food to relief stress and I believe she is right. I tried to eat less to no avail. Sitting all day in front of computer is the best way to increase waistline and I am no couch potato. Maybe it is time to go for stress management course, it will bring my weight down. I wonder how BT keep trim. He likes Japanese food, it is actually hard to see an overweight Japanese. So it may be his diet. Frankly, I know a rather stocky Jap and I think it is because he loves rice.
I tried to exercise hard today and my weighing scales refused to cooperate and gave me a number higher than yesterday.
I have no time to exercise but have time to eat. Since money can solve the problem, I may consider liposuction.

Edison Chen dethrone Casanova

With 1300 photos of rich and famous women nude and in various compromising positions, Edison Chen will go into history records. He has dethrone Casanova by a huge margin. He bring the term "playboy" to a new height, a level which will be hard to match not to say breach. He did what Tiger Wood has done in golf but in Sexploits.
He admits the photos were taken by him in the press conference and is articulate in his Canadian accent. While he say he is not the role model, I am sure many in the audience around the world especially aspiring actors now have a clear standard who to beat to reach the peak.
While I do not condone his acts or behaviour, I salute to his "achievements". He has in business speak "changed the rules of the game". It is a solid "Blue Ocean".

Edison, "heal your soul". You will get a lifetime achievement award in the far future.

Bogged down by Weight Issue

My friend like me is bogged down by weight issue. Recently, my weight has creep past 88kg. I am fairly concerned and try to exercise as much as I can by walking and swimming. Alas! my calories intake seem to be higher than output. I drank plenty of tea with no sugar to stem my hunger. The biggest contributor to my current dilemma is sitting, sitting. I now sit in front of the computer all day long.

So instead of "Sitting sitting the grass grow green" a zen poetry,
I am "Sitting sitting my stomach is bursting!"

Anyway, my friend SL is kind of in a fix and you can read it in http://gszeli1.multiply.com/journal/item/122/Weight_Gain

Wonderful World

Rising costs and lower price. The world is amazingly wonderful right now. I wish I can increase price like our hawker centre and food court. Inflation is everywhere. People are making more more money and bigger bonus. I wonder how much is real. Maybe Straits Times like to report positive news. Now price of rice has gone up.

Another interesting observation is the winds are very strong nowadays. I wonder if the El Nina effect or it is just fluke or global climate change.

The World will have a dramatic change in 2012 theorize some authors as the Mayan calendars end in the year 2012. Is the world coming to an end?

Service Industry

It is really hard to be a service staff. Paid to serve rather pay to be served. Service is the key touchpoint between the company and the customer. My favourite airline is SQ - the service is good, food is ok, some of the girls are pretty, most destinations out of Singapore and of course the frequent flyer points. I enjoys chatting with the girls and the senior stewards. It helps break the monotony of the flying. I know chatting part of their job because they are always polite and willing to entertain my small talks.

I cannot imagine getting slapped hard just because I am doing my job. I heard from "inside" sources that it was the man who went to the gallery to talk. This add insult to the injury as the recipient of the mega tight SLAP on the face was not the initiator of the chat.

I support the stewardess who sued and get redress for the humiliation and emotional distress. Hopefully, she win big and send a signal out to all the jeolous pots to watch out. Just because you have the money does not mean you can throw your weight around.

The Story of a Tail

There a kitten in the back alley. This kitten was chasing it own tail. Chase, chase, chase and catch, bite and let go and chase and chase again and again. An old worldly cat walked by and look at the small cat and wondering what is happening. After a few minutes, he could stand it no more. He stopped the kitten and asked "What are you doing?" The kitten told the veteran I just visited the Cat Guru... he told me happiness is in my tail. I want happiness. So I am chasing after and catching happiness."

The Veteran "You know what, I visited the Cat Guru when I was about your age too. He also told me the same thing. Happiness is in my tail." "After all these years, I got it figured out..." he continues "if you go about doing your own things, you will find your tail will follow you wherever you go."

I Want to be Edison Chen's Computer

This is what a columnist in Sunday Times want to be in his next life. I would say he is not ambitious enough. What is so good about becoming his computer and see the pics of Edison collecting his trophies of beautiful actresses undressed and performing sexual acts with him. Becoming his computer is just looking or seeing. What is the fun and where is the enjoyment? If this is his dream, it is pathetic. Next life, he should be the Edison Chen. Film and photograph all the gorgeous women exposing their innermost secrets. Enjoy sex conquests and captured them in video. That should be the right dream.
Why be the computer and when you are sick, some one copy your files when fixing you up. It is like getting raped!

Home Style BBQ

It is actually quite simple to barbeque meat. The important step is to clean the meat thoroughly.
Use generous amount of salt and rub all over the meat.
Then rinse off the salt.
Next use alcohol to marinate the meat.
Do not do the typical local style of adding soy sauce and pepper to the meat.
Add dried rosemary to the mixture to give the smoky favour to the meat.
Heat up the bbq stove for 15 mins on high heat.
Put meat on the grill and turnover the meat about two minutes and reduce heat to low after another two minutes.
This will seal the meat juices and lower heat will cook the meat inside without burning the surface of the meat.
When the meat are evenly cooked, remove from the stove.
Serve warm and if unable to finish, keep it in the fridge and you can reheat in a toaster oven or eat the bbq meat cold.

Long Day at Work

Two of my old girls has resigned and moved on to greener pasture and brighter future. They had spent four and five good years with us. I am both sad and happy to see them go. Sad that I am losing good competent staff and happy they are moving onwards and upwards. My current office manager will now have to bear the brunt of the transition and training new staff. This will be a real test for her mettles. She will be going through baptism by fire. Hopefully she will become the stainless steel that look back and know that as wrought iron she was not needlessly tortured.

Rare Find!

I found a hard cover non-fiction book at $3.90 in Popular. It is all wrapped and sealed in shrinkwrap plastic. When I pay at the cashier, the cashier could not believe the price and turn the book over to look at the price tag. Yes! it read $3.90. The title of the book is The Origin of Brands by Al and Laura Ries. Al Ries co-authored the best seller and classic on branding. The title is Positioning. Positioning is still the best book on branding and I will recommend this title to Marketing folks and anyone in business.

Butter Cake - Yummy!

Fresh warm butter cake just out of the oven tasted heavenly. My wife makes the best butter rivalling Polar Cakes and Puffs version. It is so rich, full of flavours and the cake melts in your mouth. I am trying to weight by cutting down and as I chow down the cake, all I could think of is let me start my diet tomorrow.
If she can come up with a few more variety of cakes, I am sure we can start a bake shoppe.

Mum Goes Home

My mother left Singapore today. She had been here for 3 months and missing out of the bitterly cold winter in Toronto. She was a little emotional before entering the secured area. My sisters eyes went red as well seeing how she cried. My younger sister's younger son wrote her a note with many hearts and "Ma Ma" on a tissue and stapled to the note. He is very creative and is very attached to grandma. Mum says Sheldon keep going in and out of her room last night. He could not bare to see Ma Ma leaving.

Ma Ma will go to Hong Kong for 10 days to stay with her youngest sister. Then she will head home to Toronto. Bon Voyage Mum. See you next winter.

Broken Wrist

What a start to the first day of school for the new year! Yesterday, B1 complained about spraining his right wrist while playing basketball. Today, B2 fell during PE and hurt his wrist. He called from school asking me to bring him home. When we get to the school, his wrist has a big swelling and it is the right wrist as well.

His mum took him to KK hospital and they found 1 centimeter crack line. So they put a cast. So his right wrist will be out of action for a few weeks.

Honest Singapore

Every year, Reader's Digest will conduct a survey of the honesty of the different cities in Asia. Singapore always come up in the top few. This morning I personally experience Honest Singapore.

I was enjoying my morning tea and breakfast in a coffee shop at Bishan. I ordered fishball noodles from Million Fishball. The coffee shop is opposite CPF building. It is early Sunday morning and there are not many patrons. I read my favorite newspaper Sunday Times leisurely. The author of "Towkay, Ho Sei Boh?" was featured. Sumiko Tan wrote why she dislike Hillary Clinton. I finished reading and decided time to go. As I was driving back toward AMK Central, I was thinking to myself maybe I should stop by AMK Hub to buy fresh food to cook lunch for my mum. I look for my wallet and it is not in my back pocket. Maybe, it is under the newspapers...I picked them up and look underneath and not there! Sh**! I told myself. I must be dropped it in the coffeeshop. Up in my mind, I begin to panic. I have to call all the credit cards companies to report lost cards, police station to file report for lost IC and driving licence.... I made a 180 degrees U-turn and go back to the coffeeshop. There was a man sitting on my seat and eating noodles. I approached him and ask if he has seen my wallet. He just stares back. Meanwhile the coffee lady who as nearby overheard my question and say "YES!" go to the counter. I hurried to the counter and spoke to the counter ladies. One of them take out my wallet and paused.

She asked "do you have your IC in there?" I said "yes!" She opens my wallet and hesitated as there are many cards. I pointed to her where to take. She looks unsure and seems uncomfortable to touch my wallet. So I took it and take out my driving licence for her to see. She take a look at my handsome picture and agree it looks like my face and gave me a nod. A wave of euphoria sweep into me. My emotions just went from panic and fear to happiness and joy. I check the cash and everything is intact.

I salute you! Singaporeans. I live in a honest city and country.

New Interests

I have discover new sections that interest me in Kinokuniya. How I get to know the new sections is through books I bought in Borders or other bookstores while I was on my trips. After I bought the books, I wonder why I did not see them in Kino and then check out the bookweb. I would find that they are put in different bookshelves from where I usually frequently. My favourite is Business, Leadership, Success, Training, Psychology, Self Help and New Age. Recently, I find the shelves on Brain and Business Communication have a lot of subject matters for me to discover.

I am glad I am broadening my interest somewhat although the subject matters are still related. Peter Drucker recommends that we take a completely different subject. For example, he is a minor expert in Japanese Art and Culture. Learning a totally different subject allow our mind to make connections and apply one sphere of learning to another giving greater insights and making one's learning more impactful.

Peter Drucker is a world renowed Management Expert. He studied economics in University and not business. Philip Kotler also studied economics and mathematics and become a guru in Marketing.

Family Breakfast on Edison Chen

We were having breakfast in Toa Payoh Central Koufu after praying in Shuang Ling Shi. During breakfast, the topic of Edison came up. I told B2 who is good with movie making that he may be able to come up with something like to Edison Chen to be instantly world famous. I say I have no idea who is Edison or Cecilia Chung or Gillian Chung or Bobo Chan before. Now I know them.

My wife violently objects. She told him you need not display your penis to gain fame. My comeback is there are millions of pictures and videos of penises in porn website. Nobody cares. However, my point to B2 is he should be like Steven Spielberg and come up with good movie ideas. Porn was not what I am advocating.

B2 may come up with some creative bionicles movies and be a famous director and movie maker in future. I can retires then and become his business manager.

Interesting Pastime of Edison Chen

Edison Chen is an interesting guy or rather he has interesting interest that caught up with him. He loves film-making and photography. He is artistic in his own way and he is the director as well as the protagonist in the pictures and video. He takes pictures of starlets in their naked glory and his sexual acts with them. The scandalous release into the net came out in the news last week that it overwhelm the bigger news of Chinese New Year Celebration. He is now famous, very very famous.

It is entertaining news. Everyone is so obsessed with the pictures. I tried seaching in Google and cannot find anything except garbage commentaries. While the news papers say that it is in the net and the pictures are downloaded at 10,000 copies a minutes, they do not mention the websites. I guess I am not in the loop or do not spend enough time on the new to get to the pictures.

Technology is wonderful and a great leveller. Now you can be infamous at lightspeed. However, there are still laggards out there like yours truly who are clueless. The younger generation are much better. They know where to go to get the right info. Yes, it is your turn to make the world a better place, young ones...

Family Day

It is the tradition of visiting relatives starting with the most senior. We brought our boys to their maternal grandparents in the morning. I did what a lot of men do when they do visiting... my brother-in-laws do it as well when he come to my place. Maybe it just run in our family. What do you thing I did?

My mum, and two of my sisters came over with their kids for dinner. We had a good gathering. My brother-in-law did his own reading and I prepare dinner. However the woman folks gather together and do a lot of small talks. My nieces are all grown.

Family tradition and family values in Chinese New Year give us a reason to get together for a meal. Old fashion time together improves and renew our ties. Also my boys get to see grandma and maternal grandparents and their aunts and uncles. In today city living and fast pace of life (tuition on the weekends instead of climbing trees or marbles with cousins) it is good our boys have some contact time with their extended family.

May the Year of Rat bring joy, peace and prosperity to all my readers. Happy New Year!

Super Long Queue

It looks like some major is going to happen. Everyone is queuing to pump petrol. I had to send my mum to my sister's home. On the way back, I decided to detour to pump up petrol as I am not sure if the petrol stations will be open tomorrow. The queue was incredibly long. There was a 2nd long queue!! Everyone was queuing up to wash their cars. It cost $6 for this privilege. The car washing companies are making a killing. Looks like a good business opportunity. Hire some foreign worker, get car shampoo and a place with water point, hey presto....

Reunion dinner is a quiet affair for us. My mum came over this morning. She stayed with us the whole day. We had steamboat. At 5:45pm when I was relaxing at the poolside, my wife came over and told me to buy rice as she like our rice container to be full for CNY. This is a tradition. I tried Sheng Siong but it was closed. I heard the Giant's radio ad this morning. "Go to Giant for shopping after reunion dinner, it is open and it will be open tomorrow, carpark is free." So off to Giant. Yes, it really is still open. There are more Malays and Indians. A few Chinese like me are last minute shopper. Thank God for free enterprise.

I was explaining to my son that only in Chinese New Year does everything in Singapore shutdown except for Indian stalls, McDonald's, 7-elevens and hotels. Christmas and New Year, the big malls are closed but all hawker centers are open. This is show the Chinese presence in all the small businesses in Singapore and also show how hard workers they are.

The malls in KL are all opened during Chinese New Year. In this aspect, Malaysians are luckier than us.

Have a Fantastic RAT year.

Mad House

It is a mad house in all supermarkets. Trolleys is impossible to navigate and checkout lines are long and the waiting time seems eternal. Yet, everyone is quite patient and there are lots of people who have wonderful discovery of a short queue. I wish I jump queue. No, I just stick to my line as a typical kiasu Singaporean. Hence extending my checkout time by more than 10 mins, which will be eternity at any other time. This is new year. We are all looking forward to new beginnings, new starts, new outlook, change - positive change, change for the better. Yes, the Rat year will be a good year for everyone.

I wish one and all - Kong Hee Huat Chye.

Will Winning A Million $$ Make Me Happy?

I decided to do this thought experiment. What if I have a million dollars dropped down from the sky i.e. Toto, lottery or some wonderful generous soul who decide to give me the money - no strings attached.

What will I do with the million dollars? Will I quit my job? Work is becoming a drag lately. The bad news keep coming. Costs continue to increase and price is under pressure to come down. Competitors are getting stronger and everyone want a bigger piece of the pie. With the stress should I quit and enjoy the Million Dollar windfall?

How about take the family for a holiday to places they always dream of going? Paris the romantic city, gorgeous Banff Mountains in Alberta, Whistler where skiing season is almost all year round, sun soaked southern Europe, maybe the plain vanilla London. We love to go for a tour where we need not watch our expenses. It will be wonderful to be carefree for a few weeks of our lives.

Another serious consideration is donating the money or rather using the money to do worthy causes and make the world a better place. School Pocket Money Fund is one I support when it was first started. Now, the charity has grown to $4 million a year. Maybe they don't need the million. I just heard that my favorite charity World Vision which we sponsor kids from poor country only 25 cents of the dollars get to the kids. The rest go to "administration".

What about the passion of most men? A nice, sleek, brightly coloured sport car. One that attracts the beautiful and gorgeous women. Hmmm! A Porche, Lamborgini, sigh! I can't think of any other brand. My passion is not fast cars.

Maybe it is better to invest the Million Dollar. Where to invest in is the question! Stocks or Property. It will be nice to have a property that give me regular income. Warren Buffett world's 2nd richest man wealth is through investing in stocks. Maybe I should invest in Berkshire Hathaway.

Looks like my head is filled with so many questions and decisions to be made. Having a Million Dollar increase my stress level.

What will you do if you have a Million Dollar?

Reunion Dinner with my Outlaws

We had our reunion dinner with my in-laws. Since they have daughters who are married, reunion dinner are usually held the weekend before the new year's eve. We usually eat at our parent-in-law's house. This time we had it at Lao Di Fang, Chinese Vegetarian Resturant in Apollo Center.

The 2nd daughter, my wife has 3 sons, her younger sister, the 3rd daughter has two boys and small ye-ye, the youngest daughter has two boys. So it is a little interesting. My in-laws have 5 daughters and 1 son, and they now have 7 grandsons and no granddaughters. Come to think of it, my mother has 7 granddaughters before I break the trend with B1. After that, my younger sister, the baby of our family has two sons. My generation i.e. my brother and sisters as well as my sister-in-laws has either only daughters or sons.

My in-laws are strict vegetarians. They are religious and wonderful folks who does not think twice to help the less fortunate.

After dinner, my family adjorned to Chinatown. It is almost 9 pm. We walk by Lim Chee Guan and there is no queue like what was reported in the news. However my son also notice they have ran out of bak kwa. In the cool night, the crowd makes the place hot literally. It is really impossible to move at a pace faster than a crawl. The festive atmosphere was fun but the crowd was a little overwhelming for me. So we walked only one street which took an hour to cover and decide to come to our home sweet home.

A Walk in the Gardens

I took a walk around our estate and the new contractor for cleaning and landscaping is doing a much better job than the previous contractor. It is good to see the landscaping spruced up for the Chinese New Year. With fertilizers, I am sure the plants will have new growth and look healthy, strong and vibrant.

It also shows the importance of competent help or contractors. The quality difference is clear. It is now a pleasure to walk in the gardens again.

Olivia Lum Cont'd

One of the questions posed to Olivia in the dialogue session is "Olivia, you are so successful and a role model, is there anytime you are depressed?"

Olivia takes up the mike, pause for a few seconds and she smiles "I feel depressed many times!" The audience laugh loudly. "It is lucky we can sleep. So when I feel depressed, I sleeps." My wife who is a "kun queen" in army terminology or sleep queen, look at me triumphantly and feel vindicated.

Right now, I need to take Olivia's prescription. I should go to sleep...