Jobless in America

Yesterday and today, Straits Times published a two part series on Manufacturing Woes in US. Steve Jobs, running the most successful technology company probably in the world was asked by President Obama "What would it take to make iPhones in United States?"

Steve Jobs responded "Those jobs are not coming back!" A quote from a former high rank Apple executive on Tim Cook, current CEO of Apple and an operations expert is the focus on Asia came down to two things...factories in Asia can scale up and down faster and Asian supply chains have supassed what's in the US.

The sub-story is Steve Jobs wanted a scratch-proof glass screen and he got one - super-fast! In less than 6 weeks. The glass screen arrived in the middle of the night and the managers woke up thousands of workers, put on their uniforms, get a couple of biscults and hot tea and the production just run. Within three months Apple sold a million iPhones.

Part 2 of the ariicle published today has the following headline "What an American engineer can't do" It is a compare and contrast. The engineer in US quoted "I wanted family time. We were told we would have to do 12-hours days and come in on Saturdays. I had a family. I wanted to see my kids play soccer."

Meanwhile, a project manager in Shenzhen, China who work for contract manufacturer for Apple said "There are lots of jobs. Especially in Shenzhen!"

Looks like we are in the right part of the world at this moment in time. Of course, in Shenzhen will be better.

Chinese Tuition

B3 has his first Chinese tuition today. It is in Sengkang taught by a Mainland Chinese Teacher. The tuition teacher want to see us after lesson. I was a little concerned why she wanted to talk to us. Usually, it is not going to be good. The assessment from the teacher after his first lesson? Weak, Very Weak!

So B3 will have a lot of work to do for his Chinese. We will need to give him more support as he is very stressed by the lesson.

Meanwhile, B2 has been posted to Nanyang Poly for Accounting course. I think he has decided not to appeal to go to Nanyang JC. We will let it be. He is also negotiating to be a Robotics Instructor as his part-time job.

B1 has a day off and just reported back to camp.

Watertown

Finally, I decided to check out the Watertown project in Punggol Water Park since it is attracting so much publicity. The showflat is hot! It is like a festival going on. Plenty of cars parked and the showflat is so full of people. 600 units have been reported to be sold. The price is incredibly high. More than S$1,000 per square feet. I am not sure if the price will continue to go up. Obviously, many people are optimistic about this place.

The marketing folks in Far East Organization did an excellent job. The publicity in Straits Times help propell the sales. There is a shopping mall at the lower floor. Many swimming pools but not much greenery. The tennis court is on the roof top!

I think this project is overpriced!

Great Deal at Page One

Every book is going at 50% discount in Page One. The bookstore will close Feb 19. It is going to be a sad day as it marked the demise of the 2nd megabookstore in Singapore. Only Kinokuniya is left standing. I hope Kino stay around for a long time. Otherwise I will not have any place to pass my time in the shopping mall.

My family and I bought a lot of books. At half price it is hard to resist. I am glad to get a bunch of books, never mind I may not have a chance to really read them cover to cover. However, they are good reference. They are the wise men for my counsel whenever I need them.

Voyage de la Vie

We got free tickets to this circus spectacular at Resort World Sentosa. The show was amazing acrobatics and death-defying acts. It is very exciting and full of surprises. The females acrobats can bend their spine backward until it formed a "U". They are also very strong and did a lot of the acts without safety harness or nets below.

I have read a lot of this circus in management and leadership book. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and show. This circus started in Montreal with a group of buskers and coming up with a new concept instead of the usual dog and pony plus clown show. I am impressed by the extravaganza. Yes, enjoying the show and experiencing the wonders and the creativity of difficult acrobatics weave into a story bring to life all the citations in the business books I had read.

Nice Surprise

This morning, I received Chinese New Year greetings from two ex-colleagues. Thanks, TK and HK! I was pleasantly surprised by their spontaneous greetings. I do missed working with them. However, one can only look forward to the new and exciting chapters of life.

Chinese New Year is a time to renew relations and family. While Ang Pows (lucky packets) is important, I enjoyed the opportunities to catch up and get updated on all my nieces and nephews. It also give my brother and sisters a chance to get updated on my boys as well.

My neighbours have big parties. So plenty of YAMMMMM SENG! and HUAT AH!!! Chinese are obsessed with wealth. Yam Seng is bottoms up. Huat Ah! means sudden wealth. Money makes the world go round...

A Brief History of the Future

The sun is out in full force. White clouds billowing in cerulean blue sky. Punggol Water Park is quiet with a few workers doing maintenance work. Watertown showroom has a number of cars parked, so must be attracting a lot of interested buyers for the apartment.

I am just letting time pass by and reading about the future by a French econmist and historian Jacques Attali. He predicted the decline of countries and states, demise of nuclear family and the lifetime employment. It will be transient relationships at work, in business and interpersonal.

The future certainly looked more and more different from the present and the past. The population will shift from rural to the cities. The force of change is great and will continue at an accelerated pace. To the future...here we come.

What a Short New Year!

This morning, B3 go to school. We were up early. Mum was up at 5am and I got up 10 to 6. We send B3 to his school bus and then go to the market for teh halia. It is a regular work day. Back to school. B1 has the day off and we just sent him to his camp. B2 was just doing his computer stuff as usual.

I do not know if more relatives will be visiting this weekend. My neighbour has lots of visitors tonight. I think it is all his staff. It is quite noisy and plenty of laughters. They are having a good time!

Many factories are still closed. The stock market is improving. I wonder if the economy will stablise and improve.

Day 2

My brother came with his three daughters. They came over at 11am. So we invited them for lunch as well. They were hungry and we have to scramble to scale up the dishes so that we can accomodate twice the headcount of what we are prepared for. We had braised duck, braised mushrooms with gluten and mexican abalone, chicken soup and the leftover Peng Cai.

After lunch, we have steamed sponge cake which my wife made yesterday and I peeled oranges for everyone. I enjoyed having them over. It was good to see them. My brother health has improved. The scar from his open heart is thin and healed well. It is obvious the surgeon is very good. The scars on his leg where the vein was harvested did not heal as well. This must have been done by a trainee surgeon who is training to be an open-heart surgeon.

My second niece found a job and will be starting work tomorrow. I am very happy to get this update. She will be responsible for accounts and HR function.

Pai Nee

Pai Nee is visiting and pay respects in Hokkien. My good friend asked me this morning if I was going to Pai Nee... I like to blog our tradition..

We all dressed up in the morning and our boys will Pai Nee with us first and get their first Ang Pow. Then we prayed to Laughing Buddha and sets off to the boys' grandparents to pai nee. There we will eat our first meal which is vegetarian. My boys will get lots of ang pows as their aunts and uncles will be there as well. My father-in-law is the eldest in the family. So he will also get other visitors like his younger brother's wife, her son, daugher-in-law and two grandsons.

After plenty of chit-chats and I have to nag at my wife to go home. Everytime she is at her mum's place, she is very reluctant to leave. She will keep talking and talking and talking to her sisters. We finally head home past 1pm. Once we reached, we have to prepare to host my sisters and their kids. I cut up a water melon and my wife cook chicken soup and warm up all the cakes she baked yesterday. She is happy they enjoyed the cakes.

Gong Si Fa Cai

I wish all my readers Prosperity, Happiness and Longevity. May the year of Water Dragon bring more water(money) to you and your family. May your business continues to grow and may your kids do well in the examinations. May you and your family be safe and healthy.

Welcome, the Year of Water Dragon...

Peng Cai

Reunion dinner. Luckily, B1's duty was yesterday. I went to pick him at 6:30am. He was lucky. The Indian who took over his duty came at 7am as promised. So after handover and changing to civy, he was out by 7:30am. We reached home in good time by 8am. I had to wait for him at a coffeeshop just after Chestnut Drive for about half an hour.

Back home, we go to NTUC to buy groceries for Chu Yi and Chu Er (Day 1 and Day 2) of Chinese New Year. My sisters and their daughters and sons will be visiting us on Chu Yi afternoon. My brother and his daughters will be come on the morning of Chu Er.

We had our reunion dinner, just our three boys and us. We had Peng Cai from a resturant in Smith Street. It is the first time for us to try out this dish and it was excellent. Just one claypot dish and it is a complete meal for 5. The food is all cooked and quick frozen. All we have to do is to heat the sauce and add it to the pot and then put the pot on low heat and serve. It takes a long time to thaw and heat the food mind you but it is worth it! We bought this Peng Cai in Takashimaya basement two. It was kind of expensive. But I thought it is about time to try something new instead of the traditonal steamboat. I am glad we tried. The food was great. There are abalone, chicken wings, braised pork belly, fish maw, sea cucumber, prawns, lotus root and plenty of cabbage. The only thing is the claypot cracked and we have to throw it away after our meal. I think I will get this dish again for future reunion dinners.

Money does buy happiness...

Vegetarian Reunion

Last night, we had our reunion dinner with my in-laws. My parent-in-laws are vegetarian, we had a vegetarian Yusheng and a vegetarian steamboat. All the siblings gather around the dining table to talk. My wife is the key speaker. She is better than "Lee Tai Shaw" the Famous Story Teller of Reddifusion of yore days.... Her siblings were very attentive as she regale tales of her friends stories. She had them in stitches on the dirty and smelly toilets. She tell them in such a comical and expressive way that everyone could not help but laugh.

I am thinking she may become a successful standup comic. Meanwhile, I was tucking in freshly fried cashew nuts, durians from Paya Lebar, boiled vegetables and a wide range of vegetarian "I don't what". There are mock everything but I have no idea what is the ingredient. It could be beans or gluten or some mysterious foodstuff.

All Night Long

Tonight is the night. The night for all the market vendors to sell throughout the night. By tomorrow morning, everything will be closed. Sunday is New Year's eve. Most hawkers and market vendors will be closed for a few days. My boys are excited to explore. So I will bring them out just to soak in the atmosphere...

Boy Hurt

Three boys were cycling along the PCN when one of the fell from his bicycle and hurt himself. Worse is he fell on exactly the same way as he previously injured himself. So the whole flesh on his knee was torn off and the bone was showing. He was bleeding but no artery was cut. He must be in deep pain. I wipe off the river of blood on his calf with dead leaves as we do not have any tissue paper. We brought him to the Community Center where he seek help there.

It is a long time since I see an exposed living bone. I feel sorry for this boy.

Capital FM95.8

Capital FM is really good at putting Chinese New Year's festive mood in my car. The non-stop CNY songs and music lift my spirits and mood. The year of Dragon will be soon upon us. It is a good start with stock market up although it is the tail end of Rabbit year.

Capital FM95.8 has stories in Chinese and news in all the different dialects. It is a very traditional kind of radio. Reminds me of Rediffusion of the good old days. Listening to Chinese radio, I hope will improve my mandarin. Language is the tool of trade and for effective communication. Continous learning and development is vital in keeping us competitive in a fast changing world.

Park Connector Along AMK Ave 5

Instead of usually driving to drink my teh halia, I decided to go green and ride my bike there instead. Maybe the traffic is light, I find riding to wet market/hawker center not too bad. I remember breathing the exhaust fumes from all the vehicles especially the foul smelly diesel fumes from the heavy vehicles.

Teh halia and thosai is what I had, costing a grand total of S$2. It is very rich and unhealthy. I did not feel so guilty this time as I expends calories to consuming this extremely unhealthy diet.

I think I can do more to save the Earth by cycling more often to get my teh halia fix.

Madness at Fairprice

It is like the world is going to end. Everyone decended to NTUC Fairprice. It is impossible to move about. The buying frenzy for Chinese New Year is on. Next weekend, we will be welcoming the Year of Dragon. Cars are just flowing in and out of the basement carpark in Ang Mo Kio Hub. The mood is just buy, buy and buy. There are so many customers that we are knocking into each other. As for us, we are stocking up on sodas as well as frozen food. Our freezer is running out of space! We change our fridge from the one we bought and used in Canada, Maytag to Mitsubishi Folio. The Japanese refrigerator has plenty of features but lack the spacious Maytag has.

I just read in today's Sunday Times plenty of supermarkets are open during day 1 of CNY. So it may not be necessary to stock up too much food. The population did not increase but everyone is purchasing as if there is no tomorrow. So where would the excess food go to? I am afraid a lot may go to waste. This is not earth friendly practice.

Noisy Party

My neighbour did not have party for many years and tonight they are having a party and it is still going on! It is so noisy that I woke up and cannot fall back asleep.

They must be celebrating a good year!

Greenwich is Open!

All three boys are home and still active and lively now. They are like owls refusing to go to bed. I am having a hard time nagging and giving threats. It is an energy sapping exercise. Fatherhood is one of the toughest job. Tomorrow all of them have activities. B2 is SOT bridging course and B1 is NUS tea session for liberal arts course.

Greenwich commercial center is open now. The Christmas lights on the trees and food court Seletar Kopi bright and busy make quite exciting to explore. B3 insisted we go, however the carpark was full and we have to go again by cycling. There are going to be a number of resturants like BBQ Chicken, Empire State, Paradise Inn and another 3 or 4 more which is hard for me to recall. Cold Storage is handy but a little expensive. The carpark has limited parking space. Maybe once it starts to charge parking fees, the cars will not stay so long.

Greenwich will become vibrant at night.

Nuts!

We ran out of nuts. Yes, nuts! Two weeks ago, I was at the wholesale center and bought macadamia nuts, cashews nuts, almonds and pistachios. The price is so much better than the supermarkets. I bought half a kg each and my boys enjoyed the nuts and munch them up quickly.

Today, I went to replenish the nuts. B1 saw the nuts when he came home and request to open the cashew nuts so that he can eat them right away. He enjoys the nuts and B2 joins him to munch and soon the cashews are running low. I am glad my family gets to enjoy premium nuts at wholesale prices.

The only nutty issue is our teeth will be worn down more as most of my enamel in my molars are worn down as my dentist observed.

JC or Poly?

It is a mad scramble to visit many JCs and Poly. Understand the courses they offer and the cutoff points requirements. My sister is doing the same thing. She is going to all the different JCs even though her son did well and will definitely enter Anderson Junior College.

Meanwhile, B2 at a higher score or poorer results has less options. He is now making a difficult choice of JC or Poly. JC means he will go on to an University and become a graduate. Poly will mean Diploma which mean less prestige and lower earning power. There are more entreprenuers from Poly as it is a practice-oriented education. Poly is good for people who are not so academically inclined.

The pendulum keeping swinging between poly and jc for B2. Before the "O" level results were out, he was keen on Poly. Then he thinks he want to go to JC. Now, this evening, he think it is poly again. So we shall see. Friday is the D day...

English Prounciation Course

My wife and I are attending an English prounciation course by Norman Lim. Norman was a news reader with Mediacorp. The course is on Tue evening for an hour and half and runs for 8 weeks. The class size is small and there are 40 sounds to learn. So many rules that it is a challenging to remember them.

However, it is enjoyable and Norman is not only a good speaker, he is a good teacher. His demeanor is good. The students are not embarrass and works hard to do repeat the correct sounds. He reads first and we follow as a group and then read individually. So we get individual attention.

I learned the correct pronouciation of some words and ways to continue my learning. It is fun!

D-Day

B2 has his "O" level results today. He did not do too well. He has raw score of 15. So he has a lot less options although he does qualify for JC. Mum is helping him to make the best decision. He will have to find a course that will use his strengths. He does not stay focused on Maths and Physics well. We are disappointed but will move on to decide what on his future course rather than dwell on the poor showing.

His cousin did far better with 10points for raw score. Anyway, life goes on and we have to make do with the cards we are dealt with.

Beautiful Sunday

It is just a normal Sunday. So why is it beautiful? I was up at 6am and cycle aimlessly for a while and return home to make Italian coffee and read Sunday Times at the poolside. B1 went to meet his girlfriend at 8:30am while the rest of the family sleeps in. B3 and I cycled to Compasspoint for him to check out the toys.

We warm up last night fried beehoon for lunch and have to wake B2 up!! He slept past 12pm! It is like he is still on Italy's time. After lunch, the boys and I go shopping for .... underwear! Metro has 20% and we want to take advantage of the discount. My flipflop broke as well and so I get a replacement. Flipflop is stingy with discount. Only a dirty green colour has 20% while the rest are at 10%. I am not particular over colour and pick value to colour choice. So we have to go to Metro in City Square Mall to buy as it has the right size.

Since my favorite North Indian stall is there, we bought masala chicken and tandoori chicken with 2 naans for dinner. B1 has a ride from his friend back to camp. So we use the time we save to go to Takashimaya to buy Pen Chai at 10% discount.

Sony has a few computers on clearance sale and we bought at laptop at $400 discount. With staid normality, I feel today is beautiful.

Very Festive at Hougang Mall

Crowds throng the makeshift stalls. CNY goodies, decorations, apparels and fast food are favorites. Hougang mall is full of people too. The atmosphere is vibrant and new year melodies from the CD and Video stalls add to the festive air.

On the news, the temp stall operators interviewed says that their takings or sales has increased between 20% to 50%. So the economy may not be as bad as we think. The increased in sales may also be due to price increase as prices have gone up substantially.

Confidence is high with people opening their wallets. At the same time, the Buddhist Lodge gave our $670,000 in ang pows, the highest since 1947 when the annual ang pows for the needy started. There are more poor as well.

Up at 3 am!

I received a call at 3;11am in the morning. I tried calling back the number and it is engaged. This call wakes me up and I could not go back to sleep anymore. I have this peculiar issue of inability to fall back to sleep once I am interrupted or waken up. I always envy my wife who just fall back to sleep easily. It may be a woman's physiology i.e. waking up frequently in the night during pregnancy or waking up to feed the baby. It could also be training by her mum. Sleeping seems to be her siblings' hobby and pastime.

B2 was looked after by maternal grandma and he does sleep a lot. My mother-in-law every time she see the boys when they were young is repeating the mantra - go to sleep. Asking my boys to sleep while they are actively running around is so important to her. She would keep repeating over and over like a hypnotic chants. B2 until today still sleeps a lot more than B1 or B3. B1 and B3 were look after by use when they were baby and did not get the training "Po Po" gave.

Since I could not sleep, I decided to go to the 24 hours Koufu in Fernvale to drink tea and read yesterday's papers. There are a few customers there! Seems like there are quite a few people who have insomnia! I like coffee shops. They are place of social gathering of strangers. I bought a cup of teh (tea with condensed milk) and "rent" a place for a few mins. It is good to have company even though we do not talk to each other. Also the tv is on and it is very comforting...

Chinese New Year's Goodies

My wife and I go to Takashimaya to buy CNY Goodies. We bought Pineapple tarts - her favorite, love letter, kueh bangkit and almond cookies. The basement 2 hall is doing brisk business! There are so many samples and it is fantastic to taste all the different products. It is heaty and very filling. So not good for the waistline.

It also has been a long time since I have been to the library. This afternoon, I borrowed 3 audibooks - Brain rules, Napolean Hill's Golden Rules and The Science of Personal Achievement by Napolean Hill.

Cool and Dry

I was cycling in the PCN at about 7pm. The temperature is cool and it is nice to exercise in this kind of weather. It also remind me of the time when El Nino is in effect. I used to visit Bedok Reservoir to learn how to fly wind soarers. It is very breezy and the wind blowing up the slope makes it a great site for flying gliders. It is silent and actually very enjoyable. No propellers, motor or engine required. Just use the wind to fly. I wished I learn how to fly effectively. I had only a few successful flights. My landings were horrible. I actually built a "Gentle Lady" which is suitable for beginners as it is just like a jigsaw puzzle. However, I still need an expert to help me cover the wings and do the washout. The washout makes the plane stable. The wing covering using heat shrink colourful plastics is a little challenging for beginners.

Anyway, the winds will change direction in Feb and the sloping soaring season will be over. Enjoy the cool wind for a few more weeks....

Pasir Ris Industrial Park

This morning, instead of cycling along the PCN all the way, I decided to exit into Pasir Ris Farmway. There are plenty of fish farms. There is a farm that I go in to explore. The sign outside says it is a Koi farm but I could only live prawns and food fishes. Live prawns for $18 per kg. I checked in Sheng Siong and it is $19.80 per kg. So the price different is not much.

The Commando Camp is there as well.

Dry, Very Dry

It looked like it is going to rain. Heavy dark and ominous clouds come and go. The last few days have been dry. My fish pond is drying out! I will need to replenish with tap water. I was waiting for the rain to come in order to save on tap water. I noticed a lot of my plants need watering too.

The weather pattern is quite drastic. Floods or drought. We will need to adapt continously.

Ducks

It is our family "Eat ducks" day. We had Hong Kong Roast Duck for lunch. $18 for half a duck. Then we had Smoked Duck at sale price of $17 per duck. Usual price is $25. Hong Kong Roast Duck is a recommendation from my wife's colleague. It is from a coffee shop in Blk 133 Ang Mo Kio. The chef is from Hong Kong and roast it Cantonese-style. My wife likes the roast duck very much. After all, she is from the same dialect group.

Our boys enjoyed the food as well. I guess they will love ducks like their daddy. Ducks is the favorite food of Teochews and this was pass down from their grandma who is a Teochew.

Chinese Cuisine is so wonderfully diverse and different.

New Year New Beginnings

It is the first day of a brand new year. There will be new beginning. I hope my niece find a job soon. She is actively looking for a finance job. My boys have given her some contacts to help if she can be in a temp position in a local bank while waiting for a fulltime job offer.

B2 is waiting for his "O" level results and hopefully he can go to a JC. B1 is applying for University admission.

All the kids are growing up in various stages and starting new in the different phase.

Many economists are expecting 2012 to be a turbulent year. Economic uncertainty and weakness around the globe. The Mayan calendar ends in Dec 21, 2012. So it may be the beginning of the end... even Yahoo News has 10 different ways the world could end.