Great to Be Home

After travelling for the last three weeks, it is great to be home. As at right now, I do not have any scheduled travel. So it is going to be a real break. Travelling is fun with good food and meeting up with people. It is also can be lonesome.
Saturday night! I took B1(my eldest son) suggestion to go out. Instead of going to a shopping mall, we decided to try Little India and Mustapha. The place was packed and parking was impossible. So we go to Centrepoint instead. We were returning home at about 10:30 pm. All cars were stopped because there is a function in Istana. We sat in the traffic for 10 mins. The funny thing is no one honk at all. Singaporeans drivers are very patient and understanding!

Sorry for No Updates

I apologise for not updating this blog in the last few days. I was in China and blogging is banned there and I have no access to my blog in China.
Anyway, I am back now.
I have a couple of pictures in downtown Shanghai below. They were taken at night and is not very clear. I am very happy to be back home again. It was a tiring trip packed with plenty of meetings.
Will write more tomorrow....

Shanghai

Hakka Food at New Bridge Road

There is a Hakka food in one of the shops in New Bridge Road. This coffee shop style resturant serve Hakka yong tau food which is quite good and reasonable price at $3 per bowl. The drunken chicken is not so good and cost $8. Mui chye belly pork is good except it is quite salty. The meal cost slightly over $30 for our family of 5. It is a little costly as B3 was sharing food with mummy.

A Busy Day and A Busy Week Ahead

It is a busy day ahead with conference call and preparations for a trip out. Today will end with a wedding dinner in Swissotel. This month our business is good. We will see if we break record in sales.
My neighbours who have business locally felt the slowdown of business. Singapore may be going into a recession. Business in North Asia is doing well. So the region as a whole is still going strong economically.

Neighbour Son's Wedding

The second son of my neighbour has his wedding today. The wedding procession is impressive. The entourage was a big group of men and women. There must be more than 20 of them dressed in their finery. The cars were honking away in the morning to annouce the arrival of the newly wed. It is a happy occasion for my neighbour.
We are invited for the wedding dinner tomorrow. I will be celebrating and congratulating my neighbour tomorrow night.

I saw Sumiko Tan

Sumiko is the editor of Sunday Times. I always enjoy her columns. She writes well and put emotions into words. I saw Sumiko in Popular, Thomson yesterday. She was with her sister and her two kids who were visiting from US. I was looking at her. Rather staring at her wondering to introduce myself. I was rude! Finally, I did not.
Sumiko is quite tall for a woman, slim and actually quite attractive. It is a pity that she is still single. I think she is likely to stay single the rest of her life as she choose career over family (I mean a man). It is good to meet er... I mean see my idol.

A Peek into my trip in Seoul

My fellow diners in TGIF or Fridays. This is inside Brennigans Market O.
My favorite haunt....

Very tasty tonkatsu dinner by myself. Food is good but travelling can be lonesome....

Sun is Up Seoul Early

The sun is already up at 5 am. It is May now. Therefore in the middle of summer i.e. in the month of August the sun will be up by 4 am or even earlier. This also mean winter must be long and cold bbbrrrrr!

Seoul Con't

I have pictures now. I just forgot to bring the cables to connect to my computer and cannot published the pictures of my food and the bookstore now. I will do so when I return on Friday. Like you say a picture is worth a thousand words, Janette.
Wandering back to the bookstore, Bandi Luni, I find interesting that while the English books section was small compared to those in other countries, there are lots of book I do not usually see. For example, Pearl S Buck has two other books to complete the Pulitzer prize award winner, The Good Earth. The second volume is Sons and final story The House Divided. It is only bookstore with all the books written by Alvin Toffler, The Future Shock, The Third Wave and Powershift as well as Revolutionary Wealth and one more title I cannot recall now. B L also carry a book authored by Jimmy Carter.
Lunch was late at 3pm. I did not feel hungry even though I skipped breakfast. The meeting was intense but ends well. Dinner was simple mixed tonkatsu platter (picture to come).
Walking about, I notice Korean women seems a little short. The tall, slim with small waist and small hip is few and far in-between. Short and pear shape may be genetic...

Sun Rise Early in Seoul

Day break at 5:30am in Seoul. Sky is bright. It is spring now. If Korea shift the time by one hour, there will be plenty of daylight after work. Summer hours it seems are enacted in US, Canada and Australia. These 3 countries are developed countries and have several common threads. The country is big and sparsely populated. Most people live in suburb in houses rather than high rise apartments. People who lived in the city have 2nd house or cottage in the countryside. There are plenty of places to drive to for recreation.
I love summer hours where we can do outdoor cooking and enjoy the nice weather outside. Yeah, with the seasons, summer is always treasure for the freedom to go outdoor and enjoy simply pleasures of just being outside temperature controlled building.
In Asia, summer is just another workday.

So Seoul

Have an uneventful flight to Seoul and you do want an staid and unexciting flight every time. Temp is comfortable during the day at 18 celcius. Darned! I forgot to bring my windbreaker. So I will freeze tomorrow morning when I have to go out. Good thing is time outside will be short i.e. from hotel to the car.
The underground COEX mall is still the same. It is nicely sheltered from the weather. Lundi Bundi is still there and the English books is limited but interesting as there are a lot of different books that Kino or Borders carry. There are lots of Classics. I believe the range is the widest I have seen. Classics are cheap and good read. For English as 2nd language readers, it is an excellent way to learn English.
Wandering about, I notices there are lots of courting couples and females shopping together. Korean men are not mall crawlers. They stride with a clear purpose. I also notice many Korean women are pear shaped. Their short height accentuate the feature of short and stocky. There are many attractive women to feast your eyes on.
Handbags on displays are high quality and designs look unique and interesting. Many useless trinkets which seems to attract female shoppers.

Look at all these books...

I am very emotional and touched. William Forrestor is dead and he just gave his house and everything inside to Jamal Wallace, his student and protege. The scene opens with Jamal opening the door and entering the apartment with his Mum and brother. The bookshelves are full and books are stack high everywhere. Sly, Jamal's brother look at all the books and say "Look at all these books..." It was simply said and I can identify with this statement as if Sly walk into my workspace. Books are stacked everywhere. Finding Forrestor is a Classic Movie for me. I can watch over and over getting the emotional rides. It is a good movie.

Prayers for Victims in China and Burma

Please just pray to Buddha or Kuan Yin or God after reading. Pray for the safety and recovery of as many victims as humanly possible. Please pray for the souls to rest in peace.
Thank you.

The Story of a Mushroom Chicken

I was thinking of a story I have heard in a few days ago. There is was a mother hen, Lek who has a matronly figure and a calm demeanour. If you approach Lek with a problem, she will help you by doing the work for you. She is very calm in the midst of pressure and stress. She is always there for you. Lek is a very quiet hen, she would never speak ill of any hens or cocks. She is like a mother hen taking care of the all the wounds little chicks will have. She is so wise because she calm all the chicks down with her coo, coo. No worries, have no fear when Lek is here. As the little chicks start to grow and chicks grow fast, very fast. They feel a sense of confusion and emptiness. There are many questions they have. Wise mother hen, Lek always have the same answer - why waste your time wondering and asking questions, why waste your time getting frustrated. If you spend the time fruitfully on the tasks that you are asked to do, you will find that they will be done. Then the time you spent will get the job done and not wasted on fruitless frustration. This is a brilliant brainwave. Lek is an experienced mother hen. This is not her first brood of chicks. All her chicks loved her very much. Her chicks have grown to adults chicken now. Like all adult kids, they want the best for their mother hen. So when Lek was very stressed recently, they noticed. Like all wise mothers, she never reveal what is up in her mind or why she is stressed. One of the chicken notices and went to report to the head chicken of the coop. This chick told the head chicken you must appreciate Mother Hen, Lek. She has her strengths. I know you are the stressing her. Head Chicken told chick, you don't understand. I am trying to make sure Lek not only take care of you but allow you to grow. You are the one who told me you are an adult and therefore can take responsibility. However, Lek is still treating like small kids and not letting you know anything. How can you become an adult if you are kept in the dark? Did you realise you are not a chicken under mother hen Lek? You are more of a mushroom, always kept in the dark.
This comment has lighted a candle into the chicken world. Maybe the world is not so messy or confusing....

Kylie Wong - The Australian Chef

I usually have the TV on while surfing the net. Right now, it is Kylie's cooking show. Kylie is Australian and speaks with a complete Australian accent. For the longest time since I started working, I have been exposed to many Chinese with different English accent. The first is Hong Kongers with their Cantonese laced accent. After that mostly I meet mostly Chinese who speaks with American accent. When I lived in Canada, all the kids speaks with Canadian accent. It is really interesting to see kids who speak Hong Kong cantonese and Canadian English fluently as my first impressions were my colleagues in Hong Kong speaking English like Cantonese. Then I work for a British company. Going to England for meeting, I was once served by a Chinese stewardess who speaks with British accent in British Airways. Now, I have talk to a Chinese customer who is totally Australian. Kylie Wong speaks Australian and her outlook and thinking is ozooing with Australian culture.
So what?! You may think. Chinese has emigrated to every corner of the globe. I agree. I noticed the change. Before the Chinese who lived in the country for years and years do not speak good English and if they do, they do not acquired the host country accent. They lived in Chinatowns and keep to themselves. A whole new generation Chinese have evolved where they are educated in the local schools acquiring the values, behaviours and outlook in their host country. They are bananas or potatoes, yellow outside and white inside.

Feedback is a double edge sword

I asked for feedback, frank open and honest feedback. Ouch! what I heard about myself hurts! It is painful to look into the mirror. Hearing perspectives of me from others is very enlightening. I am very glad to learn the views from other lens. I have plenty to learn and to do. Introspection is something we must do on a regular basis. My direct and forceful approach can be stressful for the receiver. I will need to soften up myself. I will need to exercise patience. Humans are naturally resistant to change.
On reflection, I had a good feedback. Pain is a healthy sign. Pain is a sign something is wrong and therefore need to be attended to. A stimulus like fire on any part of our body will inflict pain and ensure we move away from the fire. When feedback is made respectfully and constructively, it is a gift. And on Thursday, I received several gifts. I am happy to receive these gifts. They help made me a better man.
Thank you so much...

Long Queues, Super Long Queues

There are many queues, many long queues today. It is crazy. Everyone is queuing up to buy books in Kinokuniya. I overheard an interesting conversation, 2 men and a woman standing together looking at the queue and books with a different eye. "Revolutionary Wealth, the books do not run out. They have stacks in different places. They also keep it in their warehouse nearby and replenish very quickly...." Then the group decided to walk to observe another section. It is interesting. The 3 must be working in the book retail. Maybe MPH or Borders. Whoever they are, they are absolutely right to come to Kinokuniya and observe the successful promotion and merchandizing. I hope they learn and counter well. I would love the book scene to get even more competitive. Borders start it, then lose out to Kinokuniya. MPH and Times are now a distant third.

The Power of Flow

Did you ever thought of calling someone and the phone rings and it is the person you were thinking to call?
Have ever been in a rush and an empty carpark lot magically appeared in a totally full carpark and you manage to get your errand done on time?
Did you ever tried so hard and the moment you give up, everything flow as you wished?
The power of flow researches on the events that people experience that seems to connect together effortlessly and that every thing falls in place just a jigsaw puzzle.

Young and Articulate Jenny

Jenny slim figure attracts many men's attraction. She has long silky hair and her clothes always enhances her asset. A little of her top and waist will peep out exciting many men out of their pants! Just looking at her walking will set imagination free and wild. Even women say she is gorgeous. This young girl is fiesty and articulate. She is very open and does not hesitate to voice her opinion. She is very honest and articulate her opinion well. It is refreshing to see young generation like her who are the leaders of tomorrow.
Who says beauty and brains do not go together?

Wondering

I am wonder how Tracie and Suzy (not their real names) are doing? It is several weeks since they left us. Tracie joined the company 4 years ago. She started out as a temp and work extremely hard to learn her job in the beginning. She is a little petite with nice long hair. She has a good figure and has the girl-next-door look. A vivacious girl with a pleasant personality, she is very engaging. Every time I travel out, I hear good things mentioned about her. She is very positive about the company, she is extremely helpful, she delivers and make things happen. Our customers loved her and are sad to hear she has left. The good thing is she has left for better opportunities and more responsibilities. She has grown from a young, greenhorn fresh out from to school to a competent worker with skills and capabilities valued by other employers. It is like watching your kids grown up and flew the coop. It is a mixed feeling. Glad that they have grown and independent and sad to lose their presence and company.
I hope she drops by to visit whenever she come for her home leave.
Next time, I will talk about Suzy...

Jom Bali

Dinner at the Jom Bali coffee shop which is the equivalent of Killiney Road Kopitiam. I had nasi lemak with beef rendang and it was excellent. The tea however was not so good this time. I wish I get a chance to taste the chicken hor fun. It looks so yummy. The chilli is very spicy in Malaysia food. My tongue was burned by the time I finished eating. My weight may have gone up this time as I ate loads during the day.
It is good to get a chance to interact and understand the new team members better. Our new girls are quite a babe. It is sad that one decided to leave us as she did not like the job and is stressed by the workload and lack of proper orientation and induction into her responsibilities.
Even though she has made up her mind to leave, I am still retaining the hope she change her mind. I wish her all the best for her future career. I know she will do well and we learn from our experience with her. Her departure clearly identify where our weakness and confirm our need to change and improve.
Thanks to her, we are on the road to improving our teamwork.

Solid Meeting

We have a day of solid and productive meeting. We review our business and talk about teamwork. Many new members and they are a little lost at times. The meeting is quite long for someone new to sit through all day. It is quite a challenge for girls who feel I am long-winded and get lost in what I was trying to tell them.
Their feedback is valuable. I gain a better understanding on how they feel and their perspective. The reception yesterday was I was one of the best speakers they ever had. Today the feedback was I was not to the point and long winded.
To the business owners and CEOs, I was giving them practical advice. However my girls are lost and confused. Man, do I have a long road ahead...

Talk on How to Increase Your Profits

This morning, I conducted a talk on How to Increase Your Profits to a group of CEOs from Small Medium Industries or SMI in short. In Singapore, we call SME or Small Medium Enterprise. I talk on the basic of increasing your profits. Everyone knows to increase profit is the simple relationship of increasing sales and decreasing cost. Buy low sell high. The difference is profit. If everyone is buying low, how can anyone sell high? The secret lies in value-added. The simple example is you buy in volume and sell in small volume. Your cost will be much lower when you buy in volume as well as the cost of transportation. Selling in smaller volumes allow you to sell at higher price. This process adds value to the product. In the higher price, after netting out all the costs, there should be a profit.
Increasing profits requires your to educated your team on the financial statements so that they can understand how their work impact on the profitability of the company. Sales team need to learn how to sell and have good product knowledge. Operations team must be trained on problem solving skills, process skills, telephone skills, product knowledge, and other specific job related skills. Sales are like hunters, they bring in the big game(orders) and Operations are like farmers, they tend the ground and nurture the crops(Customers). With two well trained team, the company's profits grow and grow and grow.
Good luck!

The Curve at Damansara

It has been quite some time since I was here. I stayed at Mid Valley Mall in my last few trips to KL. Coming back to the Curve is like coming home to a familar place. The MPH and Borders (bookshops as usual) are much smaller than Mid Valley stores. However, I loved the Jom Bali Coffee chain. Jom Bali, Old Town and Uncle Lim are like Killiney Road Kopitiam franchised stores. They serve traditional tea, coffee, toast, softboil eggs and self contained meals like nasi lemak, mee siam, mee rebus and Ipoh hor fun. The food quality do varies and the price are positioned below resturants and above hawker centers. I would not call them cheap and good however, these coffeeshop style chain offers greater value than Starbucks or Coffee Beans.

Book Review

Sorry for not writing about the books I am reading for some time. I am still reading and working through several books now. The library is a treasure trove of book for reading pleasure. I just finish a local book "The boy who talk to ghosts". It is a quick read with a smattering of research on psychic phenomena. The story is about the boy who can see and talk to the ghost of his aunt who was his mother's sister. He also saw his dead sister who died at 10 years of age. There are a couple of stories on how the ghost help his mother from getting cheated when she was out buy silk cloth and locating $5,000 kept in a box that the aunt kept in secret when she was alive. The local context using HDB flat, gambling and drugs theme make it very easy to identify. It is a good Singaporean story.

So Sinful, Sooo Good!

Boh Tong recommended the fried kuay teow in Marine Parade hawker center. Yesterday, I finally tried it. The kuay teow is more like hor fun. It is hot and soft. The fragrant flavor of the "wok heh" (i.e. superheated wok) blends well with the sweet black sauce. There is a generous helping of sliced fishcake and lap cheong (chinese sausage). I asked for "mai hum" or no cockles. The kuay teow is fried with lard with a generous helping of crispy deep fried pork skin. Mmm, it is so delicious that I am salivating as I write. It is good meal once a while as it is pack full of artery clogging fats!
It is sinful but soooo good. The queue is long. So go when it is not regular meal time. At $3 a plate it is cheap and good.

Rising Early

Early to bed, early to rise. Wake up feeling fresh and wise. This is the rhyme I remembered in school. Go to bed by 9pm and up by 6am. I have been doing this naturally in the last few days. Workload is causing me to feel tired and sleepy and I am sleeping early and getting up early. Early to bed is 10 pm for me and waking up on me own at 6am instead of an alarm. It is nice to listen to the birds singing in the morning.
It is drizzling this morning, most of the birds are taking shelter. I can hear them but they must be taking shelter far from my home. The caged birds my neighbours kept are champion singers are they are very loud. The rackety voices of mynahs are muted this time as they must be waiting for the rain to stop.
I can see the sky turning for dark to light blue. Day is breaking and soon everything will come alive everywhere.

Sakae Sushi

There are two sushi resturants in Thomson Plaza. We ate at Sushi Tei a couple times as Sushi Tei is bigger and just outside the waiting area of our boys tuition school. Last night, I notice there is a Sakae Sushi at the ground level beside Subway and Popular bookstore. The food was good and price is a lot more reasonable than Sushi Tei. The menu is different from Sushi Tei. The food quality is about the same level. Sakae Sushi give more value for your bucks.
B3 smells like a sushi. He did not shower or brush his teeth. I have to shower him early in the morning. He now smells fresh. However he has not brush his teeth yet.

Delicious Lunch at Crystal Jade in Toa Payoh

Crystal Jade in Toa Payoh has excellent dim sum. I was treat to sumptious meal by my customer. It is so nice to the stomach. However, the discussion was serious. I have to deal with conflicts and it is challenging. Anyway, the message for both parties is clear and we have a good understanding of the issue and have a good way to move forward.
A "free" meal especially expensive and delicious mean the price is high for the one who is not paying!

Rugby for Girls

At about 8:30pm, a group of 10 girls in sports outfit sat on a table right beside me and my boys in the foodcourt in AMK Hub. On the back of the t-shirt was the word rugby. I was not sure if this is correct. I know only boys play rugby. I am totally out of touch with today's world. On our way out of the foodcourt, we saw another group of girls from Hwa Chong. They were carrying the rugby balls openly. I asked if they had a competition and the answer was yes! So the next question was Who won? She smiles happily and says "we did!" So Hwa Chong girls beats CHIJ St. Theresa. It seems to me the Hwa Chong girls are older and bigger. I may be wrong as B1, my eldest boy told me Hwa Chong is six years now and not just a JC. So there will be "B" division or Sec 3 and 4s grouping for inter-school sport competition.
Rugby is a contact sport. The girls in the team must be tough.

Teh Halia

This morning I go to the market for Teh Halia. I stopped going for teh halia since the discovery of kidney stones. My weight is also creeping up. It is two kgs every year. Time to reduce. My classmate who is the doctor says I have to reduce my food intake by 25% and exercise. He run twice a week for 8 to 9 km. Exercise mean 45 mins to 1 hours of sustained elevated heart rate. Then I can really burn calories. My kind of swimming he says is recreational and has no effect on weight reduction.
So I resolved to exercise seriously to keep my weight down.

Stars shines in dark skies

Early to bed, early to rise. I am up early this morning. Good morning, everyone! The stars are still shining! Stars shines all the time. It is not visible when the sun is out as the strong light crowded out the faint lights of the stars.
Star light, Star bright,
I wish I may,
I wish I might,
I wish my wish will come true tonight.

Good News!

I am happy to report that my kidney stone is no longer showing up in the x-ray. This is wonderful news for me. I celebrated by bringing the whole family to eat out in a Italian makeshift resturant in Takashimaya. The ordeal is not over yet as there are still blood in the urine indicating the stone is still in the uretheter.
I feel so much better today not having to undergo the ESWL or electroshock wave lithrotripsy. Thank you so much for your support. Thanks to angels. Thanks to Buddha and Thanks to Goddess of Mercy.

Hunger Pangs

I am feeling very hungry now. I did not eat much today in preparation for my treatment tomorrow. Man! It is tough without food. Also my weight after one day of no food did not drop by much. Look like for me to lose weight will require more hungry times ahead. It is not easy. Mental discipline!

Heatwave

Temperature is soaring. Heat and humidity is reaching record high. The weather pattern is worrying. The inflation is high. Can our civilisation survive all the changes that is happening? The world is getting turbulent and unstable. Prices of food and rent has gone up but salary remains the same or with small increase. How to survive? The future is looking uncertain. What can we do as an individual? Less carbon footprint, less consumption, more environmentally friendly, it is a little challenging in the city. If we are living in an area with lots of land, we can grow our own food and live off the land.

Pictures and Words

I am posting more pictures as suggested by my readers. I am really a slow poke when it come to something new. I am a bookworm and reader. So words are my vehicle of communication. Pictures is the new medium I am experimenting with. My new phone, the Motorola V9 has a 2 megapixels camera. It is an idiot-proof camera. Snap and Save. No zoom or any other options. You have seen the pictures below and I think the quality is acceptable.
With camera phone, life is so much simpler. A camera is always available. Hopefully, I can fulfil my dream of "capturing" an UFO in my camera in future.

Paranormic View

A picture speaks a thousand words....

Borders Club

I am now a fan of Borders Club. For the same price as Kinokuniya, Borders Club gave the same 10% all year round discount. However, Borders Club discount is permanent. Kino will give 20% during school holidays. Borders advertised with 30% discount and then gave further 10% on production of the card. This make Borders Club much superior value compared to Kino. Also the 3 for 2 deal is good for bulk purchase to buy books for group projects.

Juvenile Mynahs

Juvenile mynah birds are out of their nests. Their baby chirps are loud waiting for their parents to feed them. There must be a nesting season for city birds in our year round same climate environment. I do not hear or notice them before. It is also the pattern recognition syndrome. For example, you are a proud owner of a unique and rare car like a yellow volkwagon beetle, rare because it is hardly seen on the roads or highway. Once you start driving it, you will notice a lot of yellow beetle on the road. Now that we have chirpy, I notice all the juvenile mynah birds in my neighbourhood. By the way, chipy has flew the coop as well. He (I assume he is a male bird) is quite independent now and can fly well. He still need to be fed and will return to the security guard when he is hungry.