Konkatsu!

No more tonkatsu. Konkatsu is the in thing and very hot in Japanese. Konkatsu is not deep fried beef or chicken or any deep fried seafood. Konkatsu is "marriage hunting" or speed dating. It is the latest social fad in Japanese - looking for spouse.

A singles bar owner desperate to turn around his money-losing singles bar from seeking one-night commitments to konkatsu bar. It become a huge success and the place is always full. Women are more eager than men. According to WSJ who quote "experts", women feel urgency to get married for financial stability and men put off marriage until they feel they can afford it.

Marriage works well for women as it allows them to quit their job if they feel it. Whereas poor men if they get married, they can no longer entertain the thought of quitting. That is sex equality that work against men.

Great Service

I have a good trip up to Tokyo. The Steward, now I am clueless about his rank with the new uniform (not sure the colour of his tie) gave me a back massage when he noticed I was trying to stretch myself to loose my muscle. Khoo is from Penang. He thought I may be a Malaysian as my surname is very common in Penang. I was a little surprise he know my name when I get to my seat. Now I know why. He must have thought I was from his hometown. The stewardess is Khoo as well and I asked if she is Malaysian. She is actually a Singaporean. Her service was good too. She is a Teochew girl. She is friendly but not as warm as a Malaysian girl.

It is always a pleasure to fly Singapore Airlines.

Frustration!

Ever tried setting up internet connection? It was a challenge I could not imagine. When sign up with M1 who promise 100Mhz at half the price, it was hard to resist. We signed the contract and was given a box. Instructions was simple. Wait for an SMS a week later, hook up the box and it is ready.

Ready my FOOT! First the SMS did not come. I call 1627 and have to face with 3 levels of automated voice menu. Finally, the customer service after confirming my identity told me the service was activated a week ago. I fixed up the box and tried signing in. It was difficult. A couple of tries by resetting the whole system, I managed to sign in. The trouble hit. I tried to set up my wireless router and it refuse. I seek support from Linksys website and did everything to the letter and resetting all the different boxes by turning all the power off and switching on at the right sequence. Still no joy.

Finally, I call tech support in M1 and she told me the signal was weak. She will get a technician over and for that privilege, there is a possible charge of $80+. Frustration would not be sufficient to describe my day today.

Last Minute!

Is it just my boys? It is close to bed time and now all my boys are doing their holiday homework. Tomorrow is the start of school. 4 weeks of holidays and they have not done any homework that was supposed to be done during the holidays. Isn't this incredible?

Or it is just human nature to push everything to the last minute. In recalling my school days, I think I forgot to do holiday homework as well. Actually, only in Singapore holiday homework is required. In Canada, holiday is holiday. Your own free time to do whatever you like. No homework allowed. I think it is a good and REAL break. In Singapore, the first week of holiday my boys were recall back to school so that the teacher can catch up with the circulum. In Canada, if the teacher missed if the class is slow, there is not catch up. It is gone.

Good and bad. There are kids in Grade 10 and 11 our equivalent of Secondary 3 or 4, who cannot read or write properly. This sound incredible but the assessment tests actually put the literarcy rate of high school graduate at an appalling rate for basic reading and writing unlike Singapore. This is why Singapore education system is highly regarded.

Tonkatsu

Next week is tonkatsu time. Will be in Tokyo to enjoy REAL Japanese food. Good thing is H1N1 issue is not serious unlike Osaka. I hope I do not get worse as I have not fully recovered from the flu I caught in Bangkok. My cough has been quite persistent and refused to go away. It has been much better last two days but can be easily triggered by cold water.

Hissing Black Cobra

A 1.2 metre long hissing black cobra entered my neighbour's house. Luckily, the owner saw it at the landing going into the powder room. It was panic time! We called our pest control to capture the snake. It was hiding in behind swimming floats. The pest control smear sticky rubber used to catch rats on the hook and smeared the snake with rubber to slow it down in case it tried to escape. Cobras are fast movers.

I understand from my colleague who had plenty of experience and exposure to snakes living in the rural Malaysia, cobras do not live alone. If it is brown in colour, it is more dangerous. Brown colour indicates king cobra and if injured and escape will come back and hunt down whoever injures it for revenge. Cobra do not live alone. So there are others lurking.

This is panic time...

Fattening Buffet Dinner

My wife suggested to go for buffet as there is a 1 for 1 deal. The food was good and choice was wide. Plenty of desserts. My boys were very happy. B2 ate too quickly and felt full very fast. He was gobbling his food. B3 was happily picking his favorite food, mostly sweets. B1 had a good time with a wide range. He ate methodically and probably at the most.

I had mostly meat - roast chicken, roast duck, roast lamb leg. A couple of california rolls, unagi sushi, ebi tempura, pumpkin tempura and fish tempura. Of course the must have dessert - I had fruit cake, chocolate moose, banana puff, mango moose cake and vanilla ice with melted chocolae.

My weight reads 87kg before dinner and 88.1kg after dinner. It is 1.1 kg worth of food and drink in my stomach during the 2 hours buffet. How to reduce weight?!!

Tea!

I attended a seminar on Tea by Singapore Airlines. Singapore Airlines will be serving tea from TWG which is a French company who sell tea and pair them with food. It is interesting to get some history of tea in general and the flavoured teas. There is one tea tree and all the different flavours come from proccessing and adding different ingredients.

Japanese Green tea is steamed whereas Chinese green tea is smoked. There are Earl Grey and Smoky Earl Grey and many other exotic and unfamiliar flavours. I love teas and it is nice to know more about teas. I think I will still stick to my basic orango pekoe, Dargeeling, Irish Breakfast and other tea from India and Pakistan.

Heat is On

It is sweltering afternoon. Temperature must have reach high. I wonder about global warming. Toyota is contributing to reducing greenhouse gases by developing the first true hybrid car. The latest 3rd generation hybrid is more powerful and use less petrol at 3.9 litres per 100km.

I hope more people start to give up their SUV and switch to hybrids.

Thanks for Cheering Me Up!

I want to thank BT and Janette for cheering me up with their words. I can feel their empathy and sympathy. It is good to get friends to console in time of grieving over death of a pet.

I probably had some food that disagree with me. I was so sick yesterday. I was sleeping after lunch due to the effect of codipont(cough medication). I woke up after several hours having diahorrea and vomiting with a severe headache.

I was sleeping from 2pm yesterday to this morning 6am a total of 16 hours. Twice the normal I usually spend on dreamland.

The good news is I am feeling much better. My weight drops to below 87kg. Just one day of no food!

No Mood

Sorry for not blogging the last few days. I was sad to bury my new pet, the arowana and griefing for a few days. Even though it is just a few days, it is still a serious loss for me.

This is why my wife told me this is the peril of keeping pets. The emotional attachment and then distress over their deaths. The joy of watching and taking care of it is now gone. Buying things is different. I have bought binoculars and telescope just to observe stars and lost interest very quickly due to cloudy weather. The gadgets are still around and gathering dust. However, the arowana give a totally different experience. Just watching it graceful movement and catching small fishes to feed it is a joy. I really miss the arowana even though we have a relationship for about a week.

Sad

I am very sad over the death of my arowana. It jumped out of the pond. By the time I looked for it, it was lying still at the side of the pond hidden by rocks. I put the fish back into the pond and it was floating vertically. Then some air bubbles came out of its mouth and it moves a little and I can see the gills moving. I was hoping it would recover but it died in the pond.

Silver arowanas are not good for ponds as it can leap up very high. It must have jumped out of the pond and was out of water for some time. Sigh...

Authentic Japanese Food in Anchor Point

It was the most authentic Japanese lunch I have eaten in Singapore. The taste bring me back to Japan. Sakuraya has excellent Japanese food. The sashimi are very fresh. I did not eat any as I am not a raw food fan. I am ok with salads and cucumber and not raw fish or otherwise.

The grilled fish was fabulous. There is no fishy taste at all. I had a mix deep fried tonkatsu, potato cutlet and fish. B2 had katsu don and B1 had tonkatsu. B3 had rice with tamago and salmon eggs.

The food is definitely way superior to our usual haunt, Sakesushi. Also the menu is genuine Japanese style food as it is mostly sashimi.

Price is about $60 to $80 per head.

My Arowana - My New Love...

Troubled

I was up just before 5am. I am tired and sleepy and yet unable to sleep. I am all bothered and troubled. It is not a good state to be in. In the grand scheme of things, when I look back in future, I would probably wonder why did I get so upset.

I like to retell the story of a frog. If you put a frog into a breaker of water and slowly bring the temperature of the water up, the frog would literally be boiled to death. However, if you put a frog in hot water or gave a thump!, it will jumps out of the beaker and be alive and jumping.

The reason I recall this story is right now I feel like the frog where the temperature of water is increasint slowly. I am literally getting killed slowly. The question is why did I not jump? I guess this will be the story for another day.

20% Discount in Kino Again

20% discount is here again. Sale will end at the end of June. I am disappoint that the book I wanted to buy is gone. Sometime waiting for the extra 10% may not be worth it.

Still, it is important to get a better deal. The lesson I learn is if there is only one copy left, do not wait for a higher discount.

On previous Sunday's Sunday Times, there is an article by an Indian columnist on judging city by its bookstores. I missed the article previously but read a letter by a reader. This reader and his wife frequent Kinokuniya and Borders. Recently to PageOne as well. I do the same as well.

After reading the article by the columnist, I realise I do what he does as well. I visit the biggest bookstores in all the cities I visited. In Taipei, there is a 24 hour bookshop right in downtown. In Bangkok, it is Kinokuniya and B2B. In KL, it is Borders and MPH in Midvalley and Borders in The Curve. In Shanghai, there is a 7 storey bookstore right near Hotel Renaissance. In Manila, it is National Bookstore. In Seoul, it is Buno Luni. In Sydney, it is Dymock.

For me, bookstores is where knowledge can be bought. I love reading and learning. So the bookstores it a good indicator of the city. And yes, Singapore is an excellent city.

IT Fair in Suntec

The mass of humanity was huge. Actually, this was an understatement. I wonder how did the escalator manage to continue to function under the huge overload. It is just non-stop stream of human beings that keep coming and going. It was sheer madness.

Just to sign up anything with requires 3 queues. First queue to get a queue number. That would take about 30 minutes. Then wait for your queue number to come up. That takes another 45 minutes. The system was down when our purchase was being executed. Another half another for them to try and re-try signing again. Finally, after rebooting the system, our order was executed. Then we have to queue at the cashier just to collect our modem even though we need not pay anything yet.

Wow, signing for an internet line took us more than 2 and half hours. This is a total waste of everyone time. Yet, M1 refused to just register and then execute the order at a later date. It is incredible big companies love to waste everyone's time in what they know would be a large crowd.

Family

My sisters came over today. They were early and it is excellent. We had chance to chat and talk about everything and nothing. Both my nieces have jobs. My younger niece can only do contract work for now. Job is quite scarce now.

I really enjoyed family time. It is also good to talk in my mother tongue with my sisters. It is fun to barbeque chicken satay, pork belly and zuchini and watch my extended family enjoys the food I cooked. Coffee, tea and me!

Today is a fantastic day.

Good News, More Good News!

Stock markets around Asia reached new highs today. Highest in 8 months. Commodities are poised to grow in price. Oil price just past US$70/barrel. The views are generally optimistic on the recovery of Asian economies.

I would like to say it is a good time to invest. The prices may go down slightly but the trend is strongly upward. So the downside is limited and upsides have plenty of potential. If you are risk averse, go for bonds. All the bankers are selling bonds right now as they feel it is the safe option.

Fishes Galore!

The river is full of life. School of fishes of various sizes, crabs, horseshoe crabs, mangroves trees, clams, cockles... I am very happy to live near nature. It with wonderful. Only problem is it will become a reservoir in future. I love to explore and observe the life plentiful. It is nice to see part of the earth that support so much life.

An Interesting Observation

My youngest son and I noticed grasshoppers are plentiful recently. We have been wandering around our estate for long time. This is the first time we keep seeing grasshoppers. The grasshoppers even come into our house. I wonder if this is a sign. During Biblical time, locusts mean famine as swarms will eat up everything in their path.

I hope this observation is just an observation and nothing more.

Popeye Chicken

We decided to follow B2's suggestion to eat Popeye Chicken in T3. Car park spaces are tight in the malls since it is was raining during lunch time. We had a Fried Spring Chicken meal. The chicken is quite crispy and a little spicy. The cajun fries were crispy and has a little bite as well.

It is a nice change from KFC. The queue is perpetually long. Actually I find KFC chicken is quite good too.

Adventurous Girl is in Liverpool

Looks like my fellow blogger Adventurous Girl is having a wonderful time in Liverpool. Just click on the Adventurous Girl link on the right. She is eating welling and doing lot of exercise. Must say she will have a bright and wonderful future.

Wonderful Roast Duck at Sunrise Resturant

Sunrise Resturant is not really a resturant. It is a coffee shop traditional style. It sells only roast duck and boiled lettuce. RM49 per duck. One of the best roast duck in town. We had two ducks for 8 of us. 7 women and I am the only man. We all have a strong and healthy appetite. The skin was smooth and crunchy. Herbal favour and meat is at the right juicy level.

I even brought one back home. It will be cold as I have save it in the fridge for tomorrow. Cold roasted duck still taste good, actually very good.

Living in Canada

I still have fond memories of living in Canada. My fellow blogger Boh Tong says HERE airline crews who left Singapore has a romantic view of the many countries they visited during the course of their work. The lens as a visitor living in a hotel expenses paid is very different from living and working there.

I do agree with him. Visiting a country for short period from a few days to weeks is very different living there permanently. The adjustment is huge. Discrimination is everywhere including the country we are living now, Singapore. However it is different when you are the one discriminated against. Having live in Toronto twice, first time four winters and after 5 years another three winters, I must say I will go and experience living there all over again.

I count winters like a Canadian. It is really nice to have seasons. Make it easy to remember any events like last fall or two summers ago this happens... Whereas in Singapore it is perpetual summer we do not refer any event like two rainy season ago i.e. the December/January two years ago, so and so bought a cottage.

Like what Boh Tong says, the first time life was miserable as we have to adjust to extreme cold in weather and treatment from Canadian. Until now, I believe there is such a thing called "Canadian Experience". Skills acquired in other countries are not recognised.

However, living in Canada, I made lot of friends with my colleagues. One is still visiting my blog regularly. He is now a Director in a Soccer Club. I also had a big team of 20 strong scattered throughout the different cities. So I get the chance to travel to Halifax, Montreal, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver. So my memories of living in Canada is sweet. We returned to Singapore because of the trauma of my sister-in-law untimely demise while on her way to visit us to see our new baby, B3.

I have no regrets living in Canada. We are very happy in Singapore too. With not much change in income, we have so much more to spend. My income tax rate was at 49% and we have to pay 15% sales tax when we buy anything.

I would say both countries have different attractions and negative factors. Singapore is a great place to work and raise kids but boring in terms of weather. Canada offers many choice in recreation like farms, fishing, water sports and winter sports but the tax really bites into you.

Boys are Busy

My boys are busy with their holiday programs. B1 is out for his school camp, B2 is working for his uncle and B3 is in a camp as well. So I have peace in my home office to focus on my work.

Tomorrow I am looking forward to roast duck in Sunrise Resturant in KL. It was featured in Straits Time before and I am now a regular of this resturant. The duck has very smooth red skin and grilled to perfection in large charcoal fire. The chef will painstaking remove any hairs or feathers during the roasting process. This one of the best roast duck even better than the famous Peking Duck in Beijing.

An Uneventful Day

It is just another ordinary day. Have my meals, do my work and attend to all the emergencies at work.

It is a good day. The weather is fine, a little warm. Our plants are doing fine with the watering. Hmm! Can't complain!

I hope all of you had a good day too.

Working Hard

It is a new month and reporting time again. May has shown further improvement. We are very happy with the progress of our business. There are much work to be done and we are getting there.

It is wonderful to have a team who know the priorities and gel together to delivers more than each add together.

I also have improved and recover some of my physical fitness. I started cycling again and it felt good to sweat.