Bright Orange Light

I was curious with the bright orange light that pulsate just behind SengKang HBD block. I cycled to SengKang Community Swimming where 24hr McDonald drive-thru resturant and 7-eleven is a prominent landmark and saw the fire. It must the methane being burned off in the compost field reported in the news for generating the bad odours recently.
What is a waste of energy! How I wish the energy is put to use rather than burn and polluting the atmosphere.

Dark and Quiet

I was so tired yesterday that I could not write my blog. My brain simply refused to work and stayed blank. I am up early and it is still dark and cool after the rain last night. I am thinking for cycling and now kind of regret not buying a headlight for my bicycle when I had a chance in my previous trip to China. The headlight was expensive. More than S$100. We can get a regular LED flashlights for S$18 or less and it would work. However, the headlight was rate to throw light for 200 metres. It is a little outrageous but I believe it is powerful. I am also a little concern it may be "illegal" in Singapore for possessing such a powerful light.
It is a funny to worry over such trivials but in Singapore we are kind of "scared into risk averse" with the regular publicity of toys brought in for other countries that are illegal. Yes, even touchlight because Laser light of certain power and above used to pop balloons is illegal.
The headlight is just regular light and should not fall into laser category. So I will buy one if I have such an opportunity again.

White Clouds and Blue Sky

The sky is simply gorgeous. It is nice, fresh and clear. The haze that covers the air is gone for now. What a beautiful morning. I sit here listening to birds singing and watching white clouds billowing slowly across the clear sky. It is a beautiful sight. A sight that I always take for granted until the haze took it away.
The streaming sun also lifts up my mood. I am looking forward to the weekend. Work is doing well. We are going to hit record sales for this month. I am very happy to have a strong team who can make things happen.

SAT

B1 has his SAT results today. He scored 750 for Maths, 770 for Chemistry and 800 for Physics. He is quite happy with the results. So are Daddy and Mummy. We think it is good results considering he did not spend much time to prepare as he was preparing for his J2 prelim exams. He was all anxious last night and then discover it is the US time that the results will be release instead of local time.
We are not sure if this result can go to a good university in US but it is a good start. He may need to retake the test to score higher. For now, we are feeling good about it.

Starting on Switch

Switch is about effecting change. Green Mile has a sad ending but the book ties up all ends nicely. Moving to my next audio book, I decided on non-fiction. I just started and will write more about changing behaviours. The book start with a psychological experiment for movie goers. Movie goers in this experiment were given stale, yes! stale popcorns that tasted horrible, like expanded polystyrene used in packaging. Researchers found the movie goers ate more when they were given bigger portion before going to the movie. It does not matter really that all movie goers claimed to be aware and have self-control. If we have bigger portion with us, we just simply eat more even if what we are given are poor tasting, stale food.

Go Green

Channel News Asia is promoting environmentally-friendly practices and I really liked this program. I am practicing most of the recommended ways like switching off standby power, switching off unused lights, opening refrigerator doors for as short a time as possible, using fan instead of aircon and driving a hybrid car.
I am cycling for exercise now. I may start cycling to do more errands when more cycling paths are built and connected. I just do not like smelling the horrible and unhealthy cars' and lorries' exhausts. I feel I shorten my life just breathing in all the pollutants.
Going green saves money and keeps Mother Earth for our future generations.

AudioBook - The Green Mile

I have been listening to the audio book, The Green Mile by Stephen King. It is interesting and hard to stop. The best part of this book is it is very similar to the movie. Or rather the movie was made following true to the story as in the book. The book is more interesting and has plenty of descriptive scenes. The storytelling is amazing and I find it hard to stop. I would recommend this book and the movie to all my readers. It is touching and uplifting. Sigh! It is such a good story.

Changi Point Beach

B3, baby of the family was interested to catch octopus, starfish and seahorse. His sudden interest in marine animals is whet by the temporary aquarium stall in Thomson Plaza. Going to Changi Point brought back childhood memories. It was more than 40 years that I was last there. I recalled my father brought a case of 24 bottles of F&N orange soda. We spent the day at the beach and I was sunburnt with plenty of water-filled blisters on my back. The beach is quite clean but there are no living things on the sands unlike beaches in Malaysia or Australia. Beaches elsewhere have crabs or hermit crabs scurrying around. The water is muddy whereas in Malaysia, you can see right through the clear blue water and see all the life beneath the water.

Clear Sky

What a breath of fresh air! The heavy downpour cleanse the air and now the sky is just blue sky and white clouds. Do not know how long it will last but you never know how beautiful the sky looked until we lost it. Bright and early, I sent B2 for his tuition and then B1. Since I do not have my newspapers along, I decided to send B1 all the way to town. We had breakfast together in the coffee shop right beside the Queens Street Kuan Yin Temple. The place was busy. Plenty of devotees are there. After breakfast, I went in to pray for safety and health of all.
It was a good morning to just say a simple and short prayer and donate to the temple. I felt good.

Warm Dinner

My two nieces came over for dinner. We had assorted Sakae Sushi, chicken satay, stir-fried french beans, and grilled pork balls. After dinner, we had wonderful chat and sharing our stories with theirs. There are so much to catch up and time passes by quickly. Soon it was time to send them home. We are very lucky and have a warm feeling after the dinner. We enjoyed my time with them.

Future & Change

It is interesting to get the views of all our team members on Future and Change. The instruction was "It is up to you to interpret". The general themes are career growth, making more $$$, travel, environment and spending time with family. The youngest in our team is 25 years old and the oldest is 51 years. We are all at different stage of family life cycle.
Some team members cared about our environment which is something I am very gratified to see. Quite a few like to travel and see the world with family. Learning new skills and increasing capabilities are tops in priorities too.
The feedback on the session is: good to share personal aspirations and goals - make me feel closer to everyone, crystallise my thoughts on my career and future, it is important to spend with family...
While whatever will be will be, the future is not for us to see, I like to aspire to see a greener world and less environmental damage. I also like to make the world a better place by helping out a few individuals(I know my aspiration is low), I like the world economy to be growing steadily in a sustainable pace, we can all work and be productive in our society, I hope my boys will grow up to be responsible gentlemen, I lead a fruitful and comfortable life. I seek wisdom and happiness. I also love to acquire more knowledge and learning.
The future looks bright for all of us at work. I am optimistic my team members will grow and be happy in their work and family. My best wishes to all of them.

Hazy Hometown

I was reading The Straits Times on the report on Singapore's plea to be strict on the forest fires has fallen on deaf ears on our neighbour. When we are landing on the airport, visibility was low. We are shrouded by smog. My boys felt the bad air is causing them to fell unwell. PSI is at 100 right now. I have to cycle with a facemask on. The facemask get wet quite quickly as I was breathing heavily. I am not sure if the facemask can work for long term use. It will be costly.

A Healthy Day

Today, we did a radical change from our usual day two of our team meetings. We cycled in Botanic Garden in Shah Alam. The place is huge and hilly. Since we have a team of 9 (one had to leave early due to unforeseen circumstance) with a couple of pretty unfit members, we take it easy. While it is tough to pedal uphill, it is fun to coast your way down.
After our exercise, we had lunch in Klang and dine on delicious Bak Kut Teh (pork rib soup) that our supplier treat us to. After lunch, we shop at One-99 grocery store to buy basic necessities, chocolate, milk powder and toys for the Home for Disabled Kids. Our supplier buys supplies for this home every month. It is quite sad to see the kids.
Today is a day our team will remember for a long time to come. Not only we celebrate our success, we also do charity and try to make the world a better even though it is just a tiny bit.

The Proposal

I was up late watching the movie on the movie channel. Sandy Bullock the nasty editor was going to be deported back to Canada unless she marries an American. She force her assistant who she tortured for 3 years to marry her. She has pre-concieved idea about her assistant who she thought was just a struggling, poor guy who was a recent graduate. In order to convince the law, the couple has to go back to the man's home in Alaska to announce their engagement.
As she travel to the man's home she noticed a common family name in many businesses along the way. She glance at the name tag of her assistant's lugguage, A. Paxton. She always always telling the poor boy her opinion and what to do and has never listened. She asked why did he not tell her he is like the Kennedy in Alaska. He says I never told I was poor or rich...
It was a fairy tale finish where he proposed to her after telling the whole office about seeing her naked body and all the other comical and juicy encounters on the weekend. No wonder America has such a high divorce rate. In one weekend after 3 years of torturous relationship, you can fall in love and get married.

Window Shopping

I had a good time doing some window shopping while waiting for my colleagues from China and Japan to arrive. I bought watermelon seeds and HongKong Kai Lan seeds. I am thinking of buying some chicken poop (aka droppings) fertilizer. There is also a set of hacksaw which I am considering. But it is quite expensive at RM190 per set. The hacksaw can saw through cast iron and come with a diamond cutter for glass and ceramics. I am considering it. The issue is I rarely do sawing. But a good tool will make work light. So I am seriously consider getting a good tool just to keep handy.

The Green Mile - Audiobook

Our main National Library in Middle Road has a wonderful stock of audiobooks. The Green Mile by Stephen King was in the collection and I downloaded to my iPhone. The story is quite interesting and contains more details than the movie. I like the storytelling. I am not a big fan of fiction. I outgrow story books since I go into secondary school. Only recently, I start to read more fiction as it is liberal arts subjects. I have been too left-brain and has not been developing my right brain. I only understand the needs in the last few years since learning the leadership gurus use fiction to discuss morals in MBA classes. The British author, Charles Handy also use fiction work to illustrate management issues and solution.
I am listened through disk 1 and now on disk 2. There are a total of 12 disks. I will be taking a four days break as I am travelling and will not have the chance to listen to my iPod.

We are running out of Oil

There are many books on depletion of oil. We are consuming fossil fuels at an unprecedented rate. Oil price is expected to continue to go up. With the high oil price, our travel pattern will change. We will need to drive less, eat less and travel less. Do more local stuff and eat more local food.
We should do more to save our environment and save the Earth for our future generations.

Finally....A New Bike

I have been holding off buying a new bike. Today, a spoke broke. I have to send it for repair. The shop was busy. I can only get my bike repaired by tomorrow evening. However, when it come to new bike, there is no issue. The Uncle fix up the stand and the pedals right away. I am very happy to have a bike for exercise tomorrow. Now my two olders boys can cycle together with me on the Park Connector Network.

Thank God It's Friday

It has been a draining week. And I am not complaining about workload. It is the stress. Stressful week of dealing with issues. I am pooped!

So finally, the weekend is here. It is fantastic. I shall enjoy mall crawling and going to the library to relax. Eating snacks and spending time with family.

I love the change in pace. I will be bored to death if I am not working. However, the stress of working can kill a man 6 feet tall. This is balancing on a tightrope.

Commodity Prices

Seem like finally commodities prices are on the rise again. Price of petrol is up. Price of raw latex up. Price of wheat up.
Economy of many countries have improved and consumption is up again. This is really good news indeed. I hope the prices do not collapse again.

Long Queue in Singtel

Apple phones have plenty of issues. The queue to get the phones repaired was incredibly long. More than half an hour wait just to get a queue number. Luckily the new iPhone 4 works better than my previous model. Now the reception is much better and calls do not drop off as frequently. I am happy with the performance so far.

Chasing Rabbits

The article in Straits Times discuss what a bankrupt country like America should do. The recommendations make sound judgement. As I read the article, it remind me of the book on Lee Kuan Yew by Tom Plate. The author, Michael Mandelbaum, is professor of American foreign policy at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. The article is titled Rules for a frugal superpower. I really like Rule 2: Concentrate on elephants.
"DON'T chase the rabbits," an old saying has it, "because if you chase the rabbits, the elephants will kill you."
My favorite story in Tom Plate's book is LKY was meeting Jimmy Carter in the White House. After the pleasantries, Jimmy asked him why do you want I-Hawks? LKY has no clue what JC is referring to. Jimmy explained Improved Hawks. Your military wants to purchase from US. LKY responds was well my military must have felt we needed it. But if you have an issue, no big deal. We can always buy it from the Britain. Jimmy went to ask and discuss with him a long list of items. All inconsequential. He felt the meeting with Jimmy was a total waste of time.

Chasing rabbits is focusing on small details. The Elephants are the big strategic issues. I try to do this at work. Focussing on the big picture and big issues. This way our business will be in a strong position.

The Green Mile

I read the synopsis. What attract my attention was it is the same director as The Shawshank Redemption. Another tale by Stephen King . This is an old movie sold by TS video at $9.90. I watched this movie twice. It is always good to have a dvd. A good movie requires a second viewing right away and repeat viewing in future. It is a long movie - 3hours. It is very touching story. Miracles do happen. I am very moved and touched by the story. I would recommend ths movie to all my readers.

Library

In Sunday Times today, a few homes are featured with library as their main focus or separating the rooms. It is also a conversation piece. I like this idea. Maybe I will convince my wife to build a library in my living room. It will be nice. I need to cut out the newspaper for inspiration.

Frustrations with my iPhone 4

This morning I went to Comcentre to get my iPhone 4 fixed again. I waited for an hour yesterday and got a software upgrade. The software upgrade was supposed to improve the reception.
iPhone 4 has weak reception and keep losing signals. Calls keep dropping while I am talking halfway. It is extremely frustrating. I wonder how many missed calls I had so far.

The well-publicised antenna problem is true and true. The iPod is wonderful and games fabulous. Unfortunately, the basic phone function does not work. What's good about a phone that does not work?

Night Riding

The PCN or park connector network is nice to ride at night. The lights are bright and air is cool. No many people are about and just have to watch out for the dog that lie down on the floor near the kampong.

It is a little scary when I ride a couple of nights ago as there is no one about. So I decide to go up to the pavement rather than to risk meeting the unknown. Yes, I am a scaredy cat even though I was trained in the army. Anyway, the effects of military training have worn out after so many years:(

Bermuda Triangle

BBC has a documentary on Bermuda Triangle. Ships, aeroplanes have disappeared over the years. Even today, there are ships disappearing in Bermuda Triangle without a trace or distress signal. It is a mystery and until now, we do not understand or know our Earth. Some say our Earth is hollow. Why are there such theories? There must be some stories. One I have read is people have gone into the center of the Earth, literally and came back to tell the story.
Edgar Cayce says Bermuda Triangle is due to the power crystal still buried below the sea and every now and then will cause ships and airplanes passing by to shift to another dimension. According to Lobsang Rampa, off the coast of Japan has similar phenomenon of disappearing acts and the place is called The Devil's Sea.

Right here on Earth, there are so many mysteries. Our understandings of our world is still at a primitive stage.

Eulogies - Mrs Lee Kuan Yew

I watched the very moving eulogies by MM Lee, PM Lee, Lee Wei Ling, Lee Hsien Yang and the eldest granddaughter. The family is very close and intimate. It is very touching to hear the soundbites of her life. It is a very sad loss but she did well bringing up 3 kids who have done extremely well in life. She is a great woman.

A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words

It is like a compare and contrast question in a composition. Old and New battling out...

Downtown KL

It is an interesting mix and contrast of old and modern, cheap goods and expensive branded stuff, rundown and dodgy vs bright and classy. This is probably the third or fourth time I spent time in downtown KL in say 10 years. It bring the city boy out in me. It is nostalgic and bring back memories of growing up. Now Singapore is quite clean and sterile. We still get pockets of memories or rather micro pockets, more like little pimples. The circular building in Jalan Besar is gazetted today for conservation, the last surviving kampung in Lorong Buangkok...I have a hard time figuring out where are the other "pimples".

As I walked around the Jalan Bintang, progress! Plenty of contructions and upgrading in the works. The best part is there are old style traditional Chinese coffeeshop, roadside makeshift mamak teh tarik stalls and Malay hawker center. It is really really a good place to travel back in time.

Sembawang Shopping Mall

This mall has been acquired by CapitaMall Trust. It used to belong to a family who was upgrading the shopping centre and conducting business at the same time. Now it is much bigger with more car parks. There is a free bus as well. This mall seems busy but the food court and resturants are quite empty. I am a little surprised. We ate in New York New York resturant for lunch and there are only two other tables occupied. It is so unlike the NYNY in AMK Hub.

Starbucks is doing much better with customers studying or surfing the net with their laptops. It's been a long time since I was here. I used to frequent this mall for lunch as my office was three mins away in Yishun Ave 7. The trouble with progress is constant change. So I am back, it is so different that it is quite jarring. It is hard on the memories as I recall the old carpark and the traffic flow. Now, it is so different that I felt quite strange. Same name some familiarity but quite different in character. I wish some thing could stay the same in Singapore. Then I can revisit and relive my memories.

Wonderful Evening

This is a memorable evening. My nieces came over for dinner and my sisters were here as well. We had smoked duck from Cold Storage, sausages, mussels, pan-fried mix vegetables and Japanese curry beef. The food is so good that every one ate well. We have guava, ice-cream and dragonfruit for desserts. Our meal is quite balanced and healthy.

Our family is very happy to host all our relatives.

Jet Lag?

I am wide awake past midnight. I am probably suffering from jetlag. India is two and half hours behind Singapore. Dinner was late every night. We had excellent Indian food and my weight is up. The chicken tikka, lamb bryani, butter naan and fresh lime soda sweet...yummy!

The dust and honking on the road is also incredible as in Incredible India. Fresh coconut are available on the roadside for 10 rupees or S$0.30...incredibly good value:). Traffic conditions has not change a wee bit since I first landed in India 26 years ago. There are more cars and more international brands. Before the market was open, there were only Ambassador, Premier and Maruti (Suzuki-Tata) joint venture cars on the road. Of course bullock carts and camels cart were use in the rural areas. I did not travel out of big cities except going to the airport. In Bangalore, the farms are using tractors. No chance to travel through the semi-desert where camels were the main mode of transport.

I am so lucky to be born in Singapore.

Incredible India

I have a couple of snapshots in India. The buffalo water container transport water for the hot drink stall. And traffic jams Indian-style.