Mouthing Watering Expectations...

Since this morning, activities and tasks are non-stop. Work and home require lots of attention after coming back from a trip. I am looking forward to trying out the Rack's bbq sauce. It is actually quite expensive...almost S$5 per bottle. Premium bbq sauce in Cold Storage is only $4 to $5. I am happy to bring back the taste of memories. Memories of my time in Megamall in Manila, indulgent in succulent ribs, my favourite dish. The sauce is sweet and tangy. I also manage to find a recipe for fall-of-the-bones ribs. Please click here http://www.philstar.com/index.php?Leisure&p=49&type=2&sec=42&aid=20070912100

Yes, the weekend is here. I will try out the sauce tomorrow. I will not be able to try out the recipe yet. However my wife marinate excellent tasting meat. Of course I think it is my skills in cooking that produces the best results and makes all the difference.

Falls off the Bones Ribs

Finally, I managed to go and eat Flame grilled falls off the bones ribs at Racks. Racks was my favourite resturant in Philippines when I was responsible for Philippines as a Country Manager. I travelled there every two months and lived in one of the two hotels beside SM Megamall. I know I always gained weight everytime because I will have dinner at Racks by myself.

Racks used to be a chain and had franchisee resturant as well. It has falled on hard times and currently there is only on resturant in St. Francis Square, Pasig City. I loved the food so much that I wanted to bring the resturant to Singapore. I called the owner and make an appointment to meet with him. He is a Chinese Philippino and is quite rich. He had a General Manager who was in the meeting as well. They want S$1 million for franchise fee and I have to set up the resturant by myself and do research for them on the price of port and cost of setting up a commissary. I was young and do not have the money. More importantly, I feel they are greedy and want me to do all the work and give money to them. At no time did they talk about how to help me set up the resturant. My wife reactions went I come home to tell her about my meeting was for a million dollars we can setup a few resturants ourselves and test out all the recipes ourselves. So I dropped the idea.

I have been back to Philippines a few times in the last few years and had no chance to find out about Racks. Finally, I met someone who know this resturant yesterday. The sad news is there is only one resturant now. I am not surprised as the owner was too greedy and the chain did not succeed. The food was good and I love it. Tony Romas, my other ribs resturant is still doing well.

Manila

It been a long time since I was last here. I love Manila. The food is good and girls are gorgeous and friendly. The traffic however leave much to be desired. I had gum infection was having headaches for more than a week. My usual dentist is not available. He is a professor in NUS and getting an appointment with him is worse than pulling teeth out! I have to wait for mroe than 3 months. I was talking to my mum and she told me the dentist my sister used is very good. So I called my sister and get her to book an appointment for me. I was lucky to get treatment on Monday before my trip to here. My gum was infected and the dentist cut my gum to release the pus and clean it up with antibiotics. The effect was immediate. Although painful from the treatment, the pain is much more bearable. The recovery was quick! I could eat normally again by yesterday night.

Dinner last night was at Dad's which has buffet with Japanese and Philippino food. Another team member was there for holiday and she and her boyfriend was there enjoying the sumptious meal.

We have a series of the meetings today culminating in a Japanese dinner with our key Customer. The food is high quality and the choice was wide. We had sushi, yakitori, sashimi, grilled beef, salad and finishing with excellent desserts. My weight is up again!

Crispy Prata at Thomson Road

The crispy prata at Thomson is good. Very good, very crispy. Of course teh halia was non-negotiable. The teh halia is average. Prata is very tasty and is deep-fried. It is probably artery-clogging with all the transfat. Sinfully delightful. The health-conscious devil in me prick my conscience and the devilish tastebuds sends me to heaven. I am glad this place is out of my way. Otherwise, I will be enriching a cardiac surgeon in no time.

Installation of Clothes Dryer

My wife bought a clothes dryer from Best. A simple purchase and addition of a machine is actually a major installation. We have to move the washer to another location so that the dryer can be stack on top of the washer. In order to facilitate the machine to work in the new location, we have to install new water pipe and water tap outlet as well as drainage for the washer. By the way, I forgot the electric socket need to be at the new location as well. The new machine called for a fairly extensive renovation. It is messy and an all day affair with all the drilling and fixing up the electrical outlets and water piping.

After that it is cleaning up the mess. Putting back all the cleaning paraphernalia and reorganising the space is a huge time consumer. It is almost 9pm before we go for dinner. By the way, we did not have lunch....a good way to diet! All the shifting, cleaning and organising are back breaking. The Wife is exhausted but have the satisfaction of accomplishment and a job well done. Our backyard is spick and span now:)

First Job

B1, the eldest completed two days of work. He is very happy to earn his own pocket money. I am very pleased he is learning to earn. I can sense his euphoria when he is very nice to his younger brother and enjoys playing tricks without really scaring them and grinning his head off as he try to surprise them.

It is nice to see him over the moon.

Another Beautiful Day

It is great to wake up without the boys calling daddy. Sending the boys to school is one of the little things I do to bond with my older boys. I wake up early to send them to school and then go for breakfast before starting work. As I usually work at night till about eleven, I do not get my full quota of sleep when schools are in operation.

School break is my sleep break too.

Intense Pace

The pace of work has intensify dramatically this week. No time for my favorite activity - cradling my books and learning. I missed reading my books:(

The bright spot is it should be over soon and I can be worming around the learned pages. B2 is studying for his PSLE. It seems like mothers are godsend when it come to "encouraging" kids to study. Boys need their mummies to sit beside them before they can work. My son and my nephew both requires their mum sitting beside them before they can study or do the test papers. I rather give up on their study or cane them into submission. For this, my hat off to all mothers. Hence Mother's Love is the Greatest.

School Holidays

This week is school holidays. The two older boys are playing computers and attending extra classes in school. School does not stop during holiday. It is very different in Canada. In Canada, holiday is "real". No homework or assignments. Plans for trips usually do not get disrupted. Holiday is time for family, part-time employment, sports, working around the house(maintenance) and vegetating(do nothing:)).

We are in a non-stop rat race. Any one falling by the wayside will have to dropout. We celebrate success, wealth, power and all visible signs of material accumulation. Rare do we publicize acts of compassion, charity and kindness. Straits Times Interactive should have a Act of Kindness site like Toronto Star.

Heat is On

Busy time of the year with budget, contract renewals and making sure the business is in good shape and team in tip top condition. I am giving our team the heat and making everyone on their toes. We are doing everything we can to keep our business growing and growing under challenging conditions.

So it is work and work and work... and I am loving it (tra la la la LA!)

Friendly Neighbours

We had a bbq dinner with a couple of our neighbours and they enjoyed our food and we all enjoyed the company. Man! This is bad for weight. Just tonight alone I gain a kg. Hope this will pass through my GIT or gastrointestinal tract in medical terminology without converting the calories into fat.

We had a wonderful evening. Man is a social animal and eating and talking is the best way to socialise.

Uneventful Day

Another ordinary day. Breakfast and papers. Sending boys to their tuition and piano classes. Routine life in Singapore. No adventure, no excitement. An ordinary existence. B1 playing computer games, B2 with his gameboy and B3 with neighbours' kids. Mummy is busy with her housework and shopping. A weekend day's life of a typical Singaporean family - boring, usual, no excitement or adventure. Food and shopping malls dominates our life. No nature - too hot, no sports - golf is too expensive, no exploring upcountry - too small, no cottages - Malaysia is another country. Variety is the spice of life. We do have variety - resturants, foodcourts and hawker centres or Takashimaya, Vivo City, Plaza Singapura or Centrepoint.

Life in a Sin city - best place in the world to raise a family.

The Pickwicks Papers

My favorite pastime is going to bookshop and today I was at MPH in Raffles City. There are plenty of books different from Kino. Maybe because the store is smaller and therefore is easier to see all the books. There are so many books to read and so much to learn. Peter Drucker the eminent management guru there are different ways people learn. Some learn by doing, some learn by reading, some learn writing, others by listening. I am a reader. So I guess I learn by reading. Instead of buying a not fiction book as usual, I thought I will try some different. I am not a fan of Charles Dickens. I read a lot since I was in Primary 4. I always find Dickens books a mouthful. The sentences are too long that I forgot the what it was saying in the beginning before coming to the full stop. The Pickwicks Papers was serialised and it launch Charles Dickens career as an author. It is humorous. So after so many years, I thought time to revisit my prejudice. I must admit I have a hard time understanding British humour. I am on my first chapter and I am not tickled so far. Let see if this book can hold my attention.

Bak Kut Teh in Balestier

I was hungry for Bak Kut Teh and went over to Balestier Road. Finding a car park was a challenge. So we have to eat at the coffee shop instead of the famous stall. The coffee shop stall was not well patronize. The food was average and price high. Total bill come to $32 for very small portions. The meat was tough and chewy. My sons struggled with the meat. For $5 serving, there are 3 pieces of mostly bone with tendons. The salted vegetables was too sweet and salty. This is one place I would not go again.

Lunch was much better at Din Tai Fung in Raffles City. The quality of the food is much better in Taipei. The menu in Taipei has a lot more choice and the food was very tasty. A place for me to visit again.

Fine Afternoon

Sky is light blue and fluffy white clouds moving slowly across. Bright and sunny. Beautiful weather. Atmosphere and mood is right for reading. Reading to learn, reading to relax and reading to pastime. With a pot of tea at the side, the pleasure of reading is immeasurable. There are so much to learn and so many books to read. I am a lucky man!

National Day in Malaysia

My office is closed for National Day. So the day is rather quiet while work carry on here. The thinking part is the most challenging. How do we improve performance? What information do we need? How to build effective team? How to balance team dynamics? How to improve the capabilities of managers? Skills gaps and how to train them? Attitude and EQ development. How are we going to achieve the results expected for next year?

Plenty of things to think about!

Parents Teachers Day

We went for Parents Teachers Day at Xinmin Secondary School. The feedback on B1 was good. His English is good but Mandarin is terrible. His E Maths is excellent and A Maths need to pull up his socks. He aced his Geography but borderline at Biology. His English form teacher felt he is very capable but his results is not where it should be.

So far feedback on B1 is consistent. Teachers are impressed by his capabilities and his behaviours. We are pleased to get positive feedback. His results is a mixed bag. We are proud of him.

Sweet - Antidote for Headache?

I was nursing a headache all day today. It got worse in the evening. I began to feel really unwell, general malaise throughout my physical being. So after dinner, I went to Ah Kun, the coffee shop since 1934 and have kaya & butter toast with tea, sweet. After ingesting sugar, the feeling is much better. I realised I like to drink sweet tea and have sweet food to combat my headaches.

Does it really work? This is just instinct and there is no scientific basis. Hard to reduce weight with a sweet tooth...

Sunday - a day for rest

God rest on Sunday. So the bible says. Sunday in our cosmopolitan city and country is study. My boys have to do their homework and study for the upcoming exams. As for me, I managed to finished Charles Handy's The Elephant and The Flea. I am the flea working for an elephant (large organisation). Elephants will have to learn to live with the fleas with the changes that shift to knowledge work. Me a flea have to give up my freedom to work for an elephant who give me pay for my work. Eventually, I have to consider a portfolio work. That is instead of retiring, I will be doing part-time or project work. With the law changing to move the retirement age from 62 to 67 in line with the increased life expectancy, we will all have to work till we dies. Work both paid or unpaid.

Sunday is a good day for reading and learning...

Restful Sleep

Neil was a Taiwanese I had lunch with in Hsingchu last Wednesday. He has a philosophy that sleeping is time wasted. So he sleeps 4 hours a day. My eldest, B1 had the same thinking when he was young, from toddler to primary school. Sometimes B1 falls asleep in the afternoon. The moment he wakes up, he would check with me or Mummy how long has he slept. Then the immediate reaction is he wasted that amount of time. So he will stay up as late as possible perpetuating another nap cycle the next day.

Whereas for me, I need my eight to nine hours of beauty sleep. I sold sleep studies equipment before. Besides the length of time sleeping, it must be restful i.e. oxygen must be able to get into your body. Oxygen saturation of blood should not reach below 90%. Sleep apnea is when you stop breathing while sleeping. This is a very common problem. While you are concious, no matter how long you hold your breath, you will be desperate for air if your oxygen saturation go below 95%. I tried this experiment myself. However, when we are asleep, oxygen saturation level with reach 89 to 91% before the body stirred and then take a deep breath. You will not know this. Hence if you wake up feeling tired, it is usually due to poor oxygenation of your body when you sleep.

How do I know all these? I did sleep study on myself to learn about the equipment I sell. I was a little concern that I have a few hundred episodes of sleep apnea at night. The doctor who specialises in sleep studies told me not to worry. He is only concern with patients with more than thousand episodes. My several hundred episode is "normal".

For Neil who sleep very little, he must have lots more awake time to do the things he like to do.

Ninth Floor Taiwanese Resturant in New Sogo

The resturant serves authentic Taiwanese fare. The decor was bright and modern. It is very zen with matted black chair and polished table. We sat by the window with a clear view of the indoor garden landscape. The dishes were excellent especially the stewed intestines (yes, Kate this is my favorite dish). The beef tripe was not good and vegetable was too bitter. The atmosphere made up for this two poor dishes. There was live Chinese Orchestra music. I love the sound of traditional Chinese music. While I am very western in thinking, speech and almost every else i.e. I am a kan teng (potato) in local slang, Chinese Orchestra evokes the chineseness in me. Kan teng is similar to "banana" or yellow outside and white inside.

Yes, the next time I am back in Taipei, I will go back to this resturant at the time when the live Chinese Orchestra is playing. While I will probably forget in my next trip to Taipei, my host Shelly will remembers.

Taipei, here I come.

Bak Chor Mee Tastes So Good...mmm

I reach home late in the evening last night. Was not hungry and did not take dinner at home. My wife suggested she needs to go to the mall to get some items that sales ended today. I was not impressed by the aluminium foldable clothing racks for drying clothes and veto the purchase decision. It was pouring outside and we were limited to other shops that can be reached under shelter i.e. Shaw Isetan. It is unfortunate that Wisma Atria is cutoff and therefore Takashimaya is out of reach too. Crossing to Lucky Plaza was impossible as it was raining cats and dogs.

At about 9 pm, I was feeling hungry. So we went looking for fishball noodles. Somehow after returning home, it is important for me to taste our local hawker food. The food/snacks stalls in Tangs were closed and the food inAsian Food Mall in Lucky Plaza(by now the rain had stopped) was not appealing. My wife suggested Lorong 5 Toa Payoh hawker centre. Fishball stall is closed too. Luckily the bak chor mee stall is still operating and man! does bak mee taste good. The hawker serves quite good bak chor mee in Lorong 5. I strongly recommend this stall. It is right beside the claypot rice stall. Mmmm! taste of home. There is no bak chor mee around the region. This is unique to Singapore. I also had two bbq chicken wings. The price here is quite good. Bak chor mee is S$3 and chicken wing is a dollar each.

Yes, taste of home, home sweet home...

A Good Day at Work

Today, I meet with a Customer and a prospect for my products. This is an fruitful and productive work for me. My colleague came to the hotel to pick me up early in the morning. She drove me to Hsingchu where an colleague meet another colleague and the sales rep from our partner. The sales rep was young and pretty. She is slim and very innocent looking. She is very feminine. I immediately commented that I now regretted giving her trouble. Beauty does has its advantages.

We then set off to meet a customer who was extremely skeptical at the start of the meeting and became a convert at the end of our meeting. I was very happy to demonstrate my skills and selling techniques. My colleagues and the sales rep have a live experience of how I conducted a sales call. My colleague invited me to stay over one more day in my future trips to train her sales reps. I am more than happy to oblige. She is a very straightforward person and open to learning from others.

The meeting with a prospective customer was different. She was quite junior and lack the understanding of her business and is a little worried as she field questions from us. Finally, I decided to go for the close by bringing the group back to her first issue she brought and gave her an assurance we are in this business and will be able to solve her problem.

The drive back was a little long with traffic jams. Rain makes the situation worse. We did get back to Taipei in good time and have dinner at the New Sogo.

Missed Opportunity

Last December I was here in Taipei and saw a Stirling Engine Kit. It was quite expensive and I thought about it and decided not to buy. This time I specifically go to the same Toy R Us store and same section. The product is no longer on the shelf. I have regrets not buying it the first time. It was quite dear and I thought I should not spend so much for a toy albeit one that work on scientific principle. I search in the internet and there are many versions available and some at very good prices.

Sigh! Sometime when the opportunity is there, I must grab it because it may not be there the next time.

Taipei 101

Walking in the mall of Taipei 101 reminds me of the mall in Petronas Twin Towers in KL. Massive building with high glass ceiling, bright lights. Branded goods stores dominate. In Twin Towers, the bookstore is Kinokuniya. In Taipei 101, it is PageOne. I reckon PageOne store here is bigger than the one in VivoCity. The literature section is massive compared to Singapore. I spent a couple of hours after dinner in my favourite pastime, browsing and getting myself lost in a bookstore. It was a wonderful first evening in Taipei. Simple pleasure.

Din Tai Fung - Taipei

Today, I learn something new. Din Tai Fung is actually Taiwanese resturant and not Shanghainese that I always thought it was. I ate at the original Din Tai Fung Resturant in Taipei. The food is much better than same chain in Singapore. I understand from my host the store we ate monthly turnover is US$8 million. We went there early and had seat. When we finished and come out, the queue was tremendous. The wait would have been at least an hour.

We had shao long bao, two vegetables, two vegetarian dishes, fried pork chop, and two chicken soups. Our total bill comes to NT1,300. The food were excellent. Delicious and tasty and not heavy on the stomach. The chefs are good. The only regret is I did not get the chance to taste so many other dishes available on the menu. I may have to think of coming back to this place again. Sigh! There I go again, forgetting my vows on weight reduction. Temptations, temptations, temptations!

Nap

A short nap refreshes. I was waken up my own snores! Can you imagine this? It is embarassing and also a problem. Snoring is a sign of restricted airways. This mean diminished oxygen going into the brain. Snoring also mean sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a condition when breathing is stop. If you wake up feeling tired and not rested, check for sleep apnea.

Both Tan Tock Seng and National University Hospital offers sleep studies. Sleep apnea can be treated.

Wet and Dreary Afternoon

It is a wet and dreary afternoon. I am listlessly watching tv and feeling bored. Maybe it is time for a nap. Yawn! I think I will sign off and go to bed zzzZZZZ.

Karaoke - Hokkien Songs

My neighbour living opposite my house had a party last night with their extended family. They loved karaoke singing and it is loud. The hokkien songs bring me a sense of nostalgia. I grew up near a hawker center and the hawkers loved to play current pop hokkien songs in their potable cassette players turning the volume up high. Growing up in a dialect environment, my language is terribly weak. My Chinese is horrible and English is barely passable.

When I first lived in Canada, I am proud of my English and thought it was good since I can understand the Canadian English. I was deluded and deceiving myself. My understanding of Canadian English was not precise. Worse, my colleagues had a hard time understanding me with my Singlish accent and choice of words. I was lucky my boss decided I have potential in the company and engaged a speech therapist to work on my pronunciation and reduce my accent. I was humbled and learn English all over again. Today, I continues to work on my vocabulary and grammar. I have come a long way and still have a long way to go. Continuous learning is the key to improving my English, written and spoken.

On a roll with Charles Handy

Yes, I finished the book The Hungry Spirit by Charles Handy. There is one quote that I felt is very pertinent in today's context.

"Look for Customers, not jobs" he told his children. If you make or do something that other people will pay you money for will you be ultimately be employable. That requires self-confidence, a saleable skill or competence and social skills of quite a high order.

The statistics are quite clear. In Britain the shift is quite significant. The combined total in percentage of part-timers, self-employed, temporary workers and unemployed is 51. That is more than half the available workforce do not have a proper full-time job inside an organization.

The employed with an organization will be fewer but earns a lot more with a lot more perks and privileges. The gulf between the employed and the rest will widen dramatically. The rich become richer and poor become poorer. This is not good for social stability.

Feeling Full all the Time

I am feeling full all the time. I am still eating my regular meals but my stomach feels bloated. I just checked my weight and it is still at close to 88kgs. This is only day 3 of my program. I am getting a little concern that the weight loss has not started. I will be going to Taipei next week and wonder what should I do when I travel. Continue to drink the fibers or stop? If I drink the fibers, will I be able to eat the delicious local food? This is hard decision, really really difficult decision for a lover of good food as well as good books.

Psyllium - The Colon Cleanser

I am trying out something my wife recommends to reduce weight. It can be obtained from Organic stores called the Psyllium Husks. It is also called colon cleanser. I will be taking this religiously and see if my weight do reduce. It will be better than the going to cosmetic surgery.

Kuan Yin Temple

Kuan Temple is not too busy at lunch time today. It felt good to offers my prayers and give donations. I had two good lots or "cheam si" today. Praying is a great way to positive mood and I feel much better. I am blessed!

Rain, Rain

Raining today. It is a wet and deary morning. Weather is cool and it is a sleepy morning. I will go to temple at Queens Street for my regular prayers... my soul will be nourished and spirit improved after every visit.

The Power of Intention

I watched The Power of Intention by Wayne Dyer. Wayne is the author of Your Erroneous Zone. I have a couple of his CDs as well. He is inspiring and a good to listen to when you are feeling stressed or down. Listening to Wayne Dyer, life become something that we are in control of and should be grateful. It is what is inside us that we need to get to. He is a good story teller. I wish I can tell stories like him.

Tummyache!

My stomach did not agree with the food I enjoyed so much in Hong Kong. I have stomachache and is still feeling it now. I did not eat the meal in the aircraft. I had fruits and ice-cream only...just desserts:)

This is one of the travails of travelling. My colleague recently came back from India with what he call a Delhi stomach. He will go to toilet after meals. It took him a week to recover. He says eating should not be dangerous thing to do.

Singapore Girl

A very sweet Singapore with genuine smile caught my attention on the flight back. She is petite and slim. Her smile is warm and she gave good eye contact. Yes, it is a good way to fly...

Gu Chap or Mixed Beef Parts

Yes, I have eaten gu chap that costs only HK$30 per bowl. It is more expensive than foodcourt in Singapore at about $6. It is good, very good. Delicious! Yummy! I am glad to taste my favorite Cantonese food in Hong Kong.

Beef Noodles

I am a lucky guy. Tonight I will get a chance to eat Cantonese style beef noodle soup in Hong Kong. I have simple taste. I enjoys hawker fare wherever I go as long as the hygiene level is acceptable.

What did I do on my rest day?

Wake up late in the morning and off to Raffles City for a cuppa in Spinelli and reading my favorite paper Sunday Times. I like Sumiko Tan's social experiment of revealing her cleavage last Tueday. She is so good at describing what happen when there is too much heaving cleavage in a meeting.

"You notice all the men's eyes swivel to the heaving embonpoint, then quickly swivel away, then sneak back again. It alters the whole tone of a meeting and shifts the focus from the business at hand. It becomes all about the bust and the lust - the real powerpoint."

A colleague of mine during my National Service days had this observation "The person who look at the cleavage most is the owner. Everytime a man looks, she will looks down."

I also spend a little time browsing at MPH in Basement 1. Raffles City is undergoing major renovations. More carpark space may be converted to retail. What a pity. It will make parking more challenging and expensive. The malls are getting less friendly to cars.

MPH at Raffles City

I have a chance to browse in MPH Raffles City. There are books that are not in Kino. So it is interesting. I bought a book The Customer comes second. What attracted me to buy this book by the Chairman and CEO of Rosenbluth Travel is the philosophy. I like philosophy happy workers produce treat Customers well. Treat your employees well and you will have no worries about them treating Customers well.

BBQ dinner with ex-colleagues

Tonight, I celebrated National Day with ex-colleagues with a BBQ dinner. It is potluck and everyone brought food in. We had otah, fishballs, packet drinks, potato chips, and I have bbq boneless chicken thighs, squids, hot dogs and garlic bread.

We had a long chat and it was good fun just to talk and catch up with everyone and old times. I enjoyed the company. It is a really good evening....

Career Advice from CEO of Ford China

I was on the way KL on Monday and read all the papers available on the aircraft as usual. The most memorable and impactful was the article on the new CEO of Ford China. He works in GE before and he says the best career advice was from Jim McNerney. He says the easiest way to get fired in GE is not to do what Jack Welch asked you to do. The 2nd easiest to get fired in GE is to do what Jack Welch asked you to do and do it when you know it is wrong.

2nd Generation Prius Delayed

Toyota announces that new model Prius will be delayed by two years because of potential safety issues of litium ion battery. It is the same type of battery that explodes in the laptops causing massive recall. The new battery was going to increase the capacity and reduce the cost of the car. Now I know the cost of Prius will not go down inthe immediate future.

Coffee Bean Sunway Lagoon

Sunway Lagoon Hotel charges RM58 for 24 hours of internet. Totally ridiculous and unacceptable. So I come for free internet in Coffee Bean and have a cup of Malibu Dream. This way I have a drink and save the company plenty of money. At the same time can oogle at the girls. Alas, in reality my eyes are on the screen and not the girls.

Today is the first day of meeting. The pressure on the team is high. They are a little stressed. However we need to improve performance and increase our effectiveness. The team is get gel up and will be more cohesive as we go along. Our results are quite reasonable and we need to sustain our momentum.

Tomorrow is a sharing day and everyone is teaching or sharing with everyone else on something. I am looking forward to learning new things for the team.

Car Showrooms are Hot!

I was doing research on MPVs or MultiPurpose Vehicles and Hybrid Cars. My dream car is one with high mileage. One that use fuel miserly. Today, there are two options in Singapore - Prius by Toyota and Civic Hybrid by Honda. The Prius is very silent. We can hear only the aircond blowing. The Honda Hybrid is like the normal car, the engine is always running and is noisy compared to Prius. Honda handles more like a regular car. The Prius is quite different in handling and does not seem to have the pickup capability (or accelerate fast). It is very green as the engine does not idle. It stops completely at red lights and does not kick in until the car is moving at 25 km/hr or more.

There are so many MPVs nowaday that finding one that fits makes me dizzy. The cheapest is Suzuki. It is called APV and is a little truck converting into a minivan. The floor is high and literally requires the passenger to climb up. Mazda has a reasonable price of $77K MPV with neat seat arrange where the middle row can be converted to captain seats with table in the middle or made into a bench seat to fit 3 passengers. Honda Oddessy has an electrically operated last row seat that folds it neatly into a flat bed to allow large items to be carried. Toyota price is the highest for MPV with basic features and fittings. Parallel Imports has many other types of MPVs. Our concern for parallel import is servicing. With so many vehicles on the road, I am sure there must be plenty of workshops capable of servicing the cars that authorised distributors refused to service. Nissan has two models of MPV as well. The Lafesta has a unique glass top that allow the passengers a good view of the night sky. It will be too hot to open on sunny day with the greenhouse effect.

Every showroom we go are well frequented with loads of people going for test drive. Another indicator that the economy is doing well...

Busy Busy Everywhere

People are out in droves. The best indicator of the economic well being of the country is the crowd at the malls. Long queues at the resturant. Retail and F&B are boomtown. Plenty people spending and spending. This is a great cycle. The mood is positive. Welcome to the strong economy in Singapore.

GoldFishes

My goldfishes are attacked by some parasites or virus. Their tails are ragged and lesions are on their bodies. I have bought some medicine for them. I hope they can recover. Pets do fall sick and it is an education process just like raising kids.

Old Colleagues in Canada

Many times I wonder how my old colleagues in Canada are doing. I know many are still around while many had left. My old boss is now the President. She is a great manager and must be doing good. One colleague has moved to HK whom I still stay in touch. Another I just heard is going to relocate to Australia.

The world is getting smaller....

The Sun is out today

Finally, the cloud cover breaks and direct sunlight streams down. Clothes can dry and my solar powered watch can be recharged. It is warmer as well. Weather is occupying my mind nowaday. Our local paper is reporting all the freak weather phenomenon around the world like drought in Australia, floods in China and Britain. Is the the improvement in communication or is the weather pattern really changing?

Miss Potter

Miss Potter is the author of Peter Rabbit, stories for children. The movie is about her life. She always loved to write and tell stories about animals. She draws and colour the animals beautifully. She became very successful and can afford a "Gentleman's Lifestyle". In England, the class system is very clear. The aristocrats who have all the money, land and status by birth. The rest are working class or peasant. Miss Potter was born into a rich family and fell in love with the publisher of her books. Her parents threatens not to give her any of the money should she marry this "tradesman". So she went to check her financial status and found that she could not only afford a country estate, she could buy farms and have very comfortable living for the rest of her life. Very much like JK Rowling.

Her father make a deal with her to stay away from this tradesman for a few months by sending her to the country and she still insist on marrying him, he will allow it. She fell in love with another man in the countryside and marry him instead and her mother object to this marriage as well. It is hard to change a woman's mind! (As you can see with both Miss Potter and her mum.)

Full Moon

The moon is simply gorgeous tonight. It is full and the sky is clear. It is very nice to see the big round face of the full moon. We went to the temple today and now I know why it was so busy. It must be the 15th on the lunar calendar. I am glad our family went to pray to the Goddess of Mercy at Queens Street. This temple is where I like to pay homage most. We had brunch after praying and then adjourn to Suntec City where the boys roam about the mall while I read at the Gloria Jean Cafe. It is a relaxing Sunday....

Intelligence plus Character

Intelligence plus character. That is the mark of true education. Martin Luther King.

Stomp the Yard is a movie about character building, integrity and intelligence. It is a movie on black dancing, university education, team, fratenity and tradition. The ending with the quotation from Martin Luther King sums it all. I was surprised that I find this movie interesting. I am not interested in ghetto dancing but a friend recommended. Maybe I am getting older and more penetrating when it come to movies. I always enjoy movies as an entertainment and never delve further than the exciting action scenes, humorous bits or uplifting music. Now instead of just being entertained, I also look beyond the storyline and go into the deeper level of subtle messages the director intended. It seems like literature class. I am becoming a student of modern literature!

The Sun is Gone

This week our Sun did not shine. Yes, the Earth still rotates and night still turn into day. The cloud cover is quite complete and direct sunlight has not stream through the cloud cover. The tap water is cold. Is this regular or is this a change? Is there small change part of the bigger change? Weather is know to be unpredictable. Is this normal weather pattern?

Butt aches, Calf aches, Shoulders ache...

B2 is in P6 and will have his Nafa test in a couple of weeks. I have no idea what Nafa stand for, maybe National Aerobic Fitness Assessment. I have no idea why the name has to be changed all the time. During my time, it is called IPPT or Individual Physical Proficiency Test. Anyway, I am training him up and man! I am the one who needs to be trained. Every part of my body is aching all over. My buttocks aches, thigh and calf mucles ache, shoulder aches due to chin-ups, any where there is muscle, it is aching. Good thing I have the Philips Infrared Heater. It is great for sore and aching muscles. The heat penetrates deeply into the muscles and warm them up. This increases the bloodflow and is very effective in reducing aches.

I swim regularly but running is a lot more strenous. Running should be more effective in reducing weight. However, it is not so nice to breathe all the exhaust from the cars. I think I will stick to swimming.

The reason for reading Charles Handy

I notices the price tag on Beyond Certainty was in Chinese. My bookmark is the stub of my boarding pass and it shows Taipei. I realised I bought Beyond Certainty in my trip to Taipei and checking the entries in May 10, I probably bought it at 1010 bookshop. I usually give books by Charles Handy in Kinokuniya a miss because the titles do not sound interesting to me. Also it is right beside my favorite guru, Peter Drucker.

I am glad I bought Beyond Certainty and there were many articles (this book is a collections of essays) I like and was summarize in my other entries in May and June. I like the article "When Arithmetic Doesn't Count". It describes very aptly the weakness of having too many accountants.

"If you can't count it, it doesn't count." He articulates well. Some of his best and cleverest and wisest friends are accountants. Their quality is not at issue. What is at issue is what they count. Accountants were trained, and still largely are, to be auditors first and foremost - society's inspectors, conditioned to look backward rather than forward, to be cautious in their estimates, to shun risk, and to count only what the can put their finger on and cross their hearts about. It is a way of thinking entirely appropriate for auditors but not always best for the leaders of growing business.

This has describes so well some companies I know that I decides to read his other books. I am now on the Empty Raincoat. Harvard Business published it as The Age of Paradox. It is very interesting concept he expounds.

Weight is UP Again, sigh!

The Sydney trip is terribly fattening. The fight against weight creep is a losing battle. I need to be losing weight and not battle. Cutting down food intake when tempted by delicious and tasty food is an uphill battle. I resolves to bring my weight back. It is at a lucky number now - 88:)

Monday!

The radio seems to think Monday is the toughest day of the week to pass. I think this is really bad as it sends a message to the masses that work is a drag. It is not true. Most of us want to work. Anyone with all the idle time and need not work will soon find themselves wasting away. Statistics clearly shows that many people die within the first 24 months of retirement. The survivors will live for a long time after the first 24 months. The reason is idleness. Those who survives found new work or different work or play to occupy their time productively. Nowaday, the nature of work has changed. No more 9 to 5. More part-time and "early" retirement or 2nd career. The change in the way we work is clearly shifting. The old ways are going the way of dinosaurs. The Free Agent Nation and books by Charles Handy describes the upcoming changes....

Animal Farm Syndrome

I have not read Animal Farm by George Orwell. My son had it for his literature last year and I bought the York Notes to help him out. I was distainful of such notes during my school years. Now I know they are very helpful as they gave the right perpectives and delve into "behind the scenes" of the author's mind or intent. I remember in Secondary 2, my English and Form teacher of Alfred Tan, while Animal Farm was not our reading list, we had a discussion about it for those who have read or is familiar with the work. One classmate (and I have brilliant classmates) gave a summary on the story which about a farm and how the animals revolts against humans and then the pigs were elected to be the leaders of the farms. The pigs began to act and behave like humans.

Well, I enjoy being an observer and the "fly on the wall" in a conference room. It is interesting to note that in the room, participants would criticises their "human owners" before and proceed to think, act and behave like their precedessors. In figuring out how to get things done, different controls or directives or prescriptive measures were suggested. I call this the Animal Farm Syndrome. The cycle tend to repeat itself. Seems like they do not have any fresh ideas to lead or direct.

Injection of new blood is important to an organisation. Coming in at the right level, the new blood will bring fresh perspectives and do things in a different way. Promoting from within will bring out the "fly in the window" syndrome. The new leaders think they can do a better jobs than their precedessors by vowing not to do what was done to them and proceed to do exactly the same things by trying harder.

Yes, flying harder towards the light will not bring the fly out into the open....

Jetlag

Although it is only a short trip of 4 days in Sidney, the two hours difference in time has an effect on my body. I am sleeping earlier and waking up earlier. I wonder how the steward and stewardess cope with the constant change. Maybe the trips are so short that there is no routine for them to adjust. Or the timing for the trips are disruptive anyway there is no routine. I remember once my sister-in-law arrived Seoul on the night before I leave for home. She arrived at 11pm and called me and want to go to Namdaemoon or Dongdaemoon or one of the "moons" that I can't remember now. It was freezing and late. I was already sleeping and told her to go to bed. So I declined. The next morning, I saw her in the airport at about 8am. Her flight was slightly later than mine but she had to be in the airport earlier. I asked if she did go to the place she said. And she did until 4 am! She still look fresh and gorgeous. It must be the make-up or she is young and does not need any sleep.

Titles of Books by Charles Handy

British author has a different way of expressing. Even the titles are quite unique. Tomorrow is the last day of 25% discount by PageOne. So I acquire a few books by Handy. He has quite a number of books. After reading Beyond Certainty, I was very interested to get more of his views and ideas. The books I acquired today is:
The Elephant and the Flea
The Age of Unreason
The Empty Raincoat
Myself and other More Important Matters

From the titles will you think they are on business or management?

Teh Halia

Break my fast with teh halia this morning. It is good to be back. Last night, I drove around just to feel at home. Me and my boys ended up in Serangoon Gardens. It was half past ten and the place was full of life. Chomp Chomp was very crowded with late night diners, coffee shops full of customers. Coffee Bean and Wine Bar nearby was full of young men and women drinking and talking. Socialising and watching each other is a favorite pastime and girls are dressed well with nice makeup. Makes me feel young at heart too!

Home Sweet Home

Tonight is the last night in the hotel. I am looking forward to going home tomorrow morning. Sleeping in my bed, eating the home cooked food (if you consider tingkat or catered food as home cooked), being with family and in comfort and safe zone - home. Yes, it is a always good to go home.

I remember the first time I emigrated to Canada. We were very poor and was unable to come home for the first 3 years. It is really tough to try out new life in a new country. I was very excited to come back to Singapore after 3 years in a totally "ang mo and HK place". The most welcoming voice was a SQ stewardess saying "welcome" in Singlish. I felt at home already. I remember going outside for lunch waiting SQ to fly past in her approach to the Toronto Airport. Unfortunately, SQ stopped all flights to Toronto due to Air Canada worried about competition.

By the way, I did visit the book stores. Borders is here and there is an Australian chain Dymocks and Angus & Robertson. With the exchange rates, the prices are much higher than at home. So I did not buy any.

Thai Food

There is many Thai resturants in Kirribilli. We went to one that can take credit card since none of us has any cash. The food was tasty. I was not hungry after eating a pack of potatoes chips. Ya, not the best way to lose weight. I had 4 different appetitizers and stir fried chicken with vegetable. We had good company, good conversation and good food. Life is good.

Gloria Jeans Coffee

My new favorite coffee joint, Gloria Jeans has plenty of store here in Sydney. Like they says, if you drive a new yellow volkwagon, you will start seeing many yellow volkwagons on the road. Funny, isn't it?

Moroccan/Turkish Dinner

Last night, we have dinner in CBD or central business district of Sydney. I think the resturant name is Cot (I usually do not remember name of resturants). The meal was excellent or beautiful in Australian terminology. It is interesting as Australian describe food as beautiful or gorgeous. I have not heard delicious, tasty, good, mouthwatering or even yummy. My Aussie colleague tell me it is describing the mental state inside rather than the food.

So my collegeau from China, so how would you describe a beautiful woman? Would a woman feels that she is tasty rather than good looking? Points for Australians to ponder about.

Dinner in Manly

We had dinner in Greek/Italian resturant in a town called Manly. Manly is a tourist town with beaches. It was dark and freezing. So I did not notice much. The food was good. I had sirloin steak medium well. The steak tastes very good. It is very plain and the beef has subtle flavours and is delicious.

We go to ferry terminal at the Opera House and take about half an hour to get to Manly. It is nice and steady and a good way to travel. We should have water taxi in Singapore.

To Sir with Love

On the way down to Sydney, I watch an old movie, To Sir With Love by Sidney Poiter and Lulu. Now as I am writing, it is a wonderful... To Sydney, By Sidney it rhymes! This movie has a lot of sentimental moments for me. It always evoke a lot of emotions and my feelings well up from inside of me. While watching the movie, I also realise I love Goodbye, Mr. Chip as well. It seems like I have an affinity for movies on teacher. The other classic is Sound of Music.
Teachers instill values, transmit learning and change outlook of life to students.

A psychic once told me I was a teacher in my past life. I love to teach and train. A teacher by heart, I enjoys developing people and improving their skills and capabilities. With such strong emotional as I watched the movie (I was moved to tears when Mr. Thackray, the teacher was so touched by the students farewell gift - a song) The lyrics go like this:
The time has come for closing books and long last look...
How do you thank someone who bring you from crayons to perfume
It isn't easy but I will try...
I would rather give you my heart...

Yes, the students want to give their hearts to their beloved teacher. This is the best gift!

Sydney

It is nice to come to Sydney again after more than two years. It is really cold here. I have come Sydney a number of times before. This is the coldest I ever experienced. The airport was very quiet when we landed. For an international airport, it is not so busy. Taxi fare is expensive. It cost me A$50 from airport to hotel. Aussie dollar has gain strength as well. 200 sin dollar yields only 127 Aussie dollars.

I took a walk to Kirribilli. Nothing much has changed. So it is like coming home.

Ahead of Times at Work

Reading Charles Handy's Beyond Certainty - The Changing World of Work, I realise I am way ahead in my thinking at work. This is causing tension and angst in an organisation steep in tradition and conservative thinking. I will reproduce Charles Handy's insights. I can say we have been there and done that!

In Chapter 35, HOW DO YOU MANAGE WHEN YOU CAN'T SEE THE PEOPLE?
Insight 1
The choice of people becomes more important than ever. One bad apple ruins the batch. Recruitment, placement, and promotion become key managerial priorities. An interview may no longer be enough. I suspect that we shall see more probationary contracts give people time to be sure.
This is how we hire new members of our team. They come in as a temp and will be converted to permanent only when we are satisfied that she or he fits the teams and produces good work.
Insight 2
How many people can you know well enough to trust? Probably not more than 50 at most. Organization units must become small and more stable so that people can get to know each other over time. Teams are now the fashion, but for teams to stay together the team have to be flexible enough to tackle a range of tasks. Trust, therefore, leads to a demand for constant updating and re-education.
We invest in training and education of every team member. Training is not limited to job related responsibilities only.
Insight 3
Trust is fueled by talk. E-mail, voice-mail and every other sort of mail are essential if out of sight is not going to mean out of mind. But hi-tech needs to be balanced by hi-touch. Video conferences work better when the participants are friends not strangers. Virtual organizations make a point of meeting together, not necessarily in offices or in office time, so that they can know each other personally as well as electronically.
We hold regular gathering that is offsite. We get to know each other personally as well as know the family of each team member.
Insight 4
The vision and values stuff really matters. If there is no common goal, people put their own goals first. If, however, those who are out of sight think that they are only working to make some anonymous shareholders a bit richer, they are unlikely to do more than they need to. There has to be more point to their work than that, and many hi-touch meetings of the group will be concerned to reinforce the mission and goals of the organization in order to win the commitment of its people.
Our values is very clear. We invest in our team members to improve and increase our capability and our Customers are number priority. Making things happens for the Customers and responding to their needs are the key purposes of our team.
Insight 5
Trust is tough. If people let you down, you cannot afford to trust them anymore. Virtual organizatons require loyalty and good performance. They reward results, but they have to punish incompetence and repeated failure. If they don't, they will have to reinstitute inspections and controls. Do not expect a guaranteed job for life from an organzation based on trust. The security has to be earned.
We help team members to move on when he or she does not meet performance expectations. Feedback is candid and improvement is expected. Otherwise timeline to move on will be set. Two members had moved on in our team attesting our practice of Insight 5.

Like it or not, the times are changing. More of us are going to have to run organizations that we cannot see and learn the ways to do it.
Since Oct 2001, I have managed the team based in Kuala Lumpur from remote. From Oct 2001 to Dec 2001, I manage from Toronto and Jan 2001 to today, I lived in Singapore who the operations stays in KL. Our performance and results are clear indications that the future of work in Charles Handy's vision has arrived.

Teach Your Children Well

I am reading Charles Handy's Beyond Certainty. In the chapter, Teach your children well, Handy summarise a study done on the education and development of Arab executives where nearly 200 executives were identified as notably successful and interviewed at length. The results is universal.

The top factors in order of importance:
1. Good education - 91% of executives had a degree or a diploma
2. Exposure to early role models - what the father does is always the best predictor of what the son will do.
3. Early responsibility - little jobs and bits of responsibility in one's youth help to build self-confidence, the willingness to make decisions and to stand the consequences which some people learn too late in life.
4. Ethics and Values - hard work and integrity, loyalty and honesty.
5. Self-development - an active inquiring mind, the urge to seek out opportunities for learning or for study, push oneself into new situations or risk mistakes, suffer rebukes in search fo experience.
6. Training - nine days per executive per year
7. Problem-solving culture

Success starts young...

Feedback from Niece P

Niece P notices I am not writing as often thinking I may be on trips. She is right. I am tied up and then get exhausted by all the activities required at work. Sometimes, it is the mood to write as well. Write is hard when face with an empty page. Although I am not as wordy as my fellow bloggers BT and SL, I will continue the discipline of writing everyday whenever and wherever I am. Sometimes, I may miss a couple days. China does not allow blogs, so I cannot update the blog whenever I am in China.

Please keep coming. I will keep writing....

Spirits Uplifted!

I have no idea why. I feel so much better being busy. I am working and working non-stop recently. A lot of the work have no clear returns. Yet, I feels good. I know I am a workaholic and is addicted to the adenaline of pace of activities. Maybe it is because other people in my peer group are in the same boat. Other colleagues have similar observations about our work culture. Maybe it feels good just to gossips or nottry to change something that is impossible to change.

I know I am feeling good because I recognised what I cannot change and now flow with the system and processes. It is great not to feel frustrated anymore. I attained samsara in the corporate world. It is peace and tranquility...

Reading

My reading has been put on the backburner recently with the dramatic increase in workload. Paul Cohello, the author of Alchemist was featured on Sunday Times and he reads a lot. He gave his books away. I strongly recommend Alchemist. It is a very interesting read and mythical as well.

Happy

Happy-go-lucky.
If you are happy, you will be lucky.
Lucky you mean a happier you.
Go lucky, be happy.
Let's all be happy and lucky!

Blogspot is Dysfunctional

Blogspot is not working properly, at least for me. The cursor refused to go to the Title. It disappeared when I try to put it up there. So now I cannot type in the title of my entries. Yet sometimes, it work ok. Frustrating!

BBQ Night on Saturday

My sisters dropped by for barbarque dinner on Saturday. I was busying cooking up a storm. I loved outdoor cooking. It is important to have a good stove. I have a heavy cast iron grill. This give my meats a professional looking grill lines. The burnt like that you get in a resturant. The meats were succulent as the juices were sealed in once the meats were seared by the hot grills. Mmm, yummy! It is nice to have family over and cooking is therapeutic as well.

It does take up a lot of time as I spend the day buying groceries and preparing the meal. It was a good day.

Chronic Headache

Seems like my headache is becoming chronic. I wonder if it is the weather. Low pressure cause migraine and maybe my migraine is returning...

Chirpy is Well Again

Chirpy is in good shape. He has totally recovered. Chirpy keep falling into the water as he think or pretend to be a kingfisher. The trouble is he has not caught any fish except almost drowning himself. We have to save him everytime he falls in. He will be like a drown rat standing on the flower pot of the water lilies waiting to be rescued:)

My Apologies for Not Updating my Blog

The last few days was busy at work and preparing for meetings and dealing with all the emails...you know all the traditional excuses. Partly, also no mood to write. I am just back from KL.

I ate something that my body did not agree with. I woke up at 5am in the morning with a royal headache and sweating profusely in a cold airconditioned room. I vomited gastric juices and it tasted terribly bitter and sour. YUCK!! Thought hard about the food I ate the night before. I think it may be too much durians or the sweet sour crabs or fried chicken wings or maybe the satay. Whatever it was, the resturant go into my blacklist of "NO GO".

The trouble with enjoying food is it come back to bite in the night or the next day. So far I have bad experience in China and Malaysia where I get really sick due to food.

Donuts at Vivo City

We were lucky today. The popular donuts shop usually a perpetual long queue and super long wait. We were third in the queue! We had half a dozen donuts, plain, sweety cheese, cheese, chocolate with nuts, almond and rich chocolate. The whole family take a bite of each type so that we can all taste the different flavours. The donuts tasted good. However I am not sure if it is worth the wait. Half a dozen cost $6. Sharing the donuts foster a our family togetherness. The donuts was kind of lunch for us. The boys were were fooling around with each other the rest of the day. They were laughing and enjoying each other company. The simple act of sharing goes a long way in promoting harmony and joy of brotherhood.

Chirpy Improving...

Looks like Chirpy is improving. He can stand on the horizontal bar in the cage. His wing look a little off as well. Chirpy had a treat today. I bought worms for his meals. He seems to enjoy them. The only worry I have is he keep his beak open after eating lots of the worms. They are not really worms but caterpillars of beetles. I wonder how it feels with so many wriggly worms in the stomach.

Affluenza

B2 has this new term for his school work. He learn the socioeconomic stratification of family and their kids. The rich kids do not know they have things that the not so well off kids dreams of. The society is moving towards the haves and the have-nots....

Chirpy is Injured

Chirpy is limping. His right leg seems to have problem taking on the weight. Chirpy no longer jumps up and down quickly. I am feeding Chirpy with earthworms and some fruits as recommended by the experienced "old bird" in keeping birds as pet. I hope Chirpy will recover as it hurts to watch it limp about in the garden.

Sanity Check

Free Agent Nation was very engaging and motivational. It makes becoming a Free Agent looks and sounds like the best thing since sliced bread. I have positive feeling this is the right way forward for me. Reading The Rise of the Creative Class is a sanity check. It shows statistics that is not as optimistic as painted by Daniel Pink in Free Agent Nation. It also talk about the reality of being a Free Agent. Once a Free Agent gets a project, there will be deadline and pressure. Hence no different with working in a big company.



Daniel Pink is in an idealistic world. He is talented and writes well. He is also a practising Free Agent. Whereas creative professional demand other dimensions in work e.g. stimulating atmosphere, teamwork, camaraderie, flexible work hours or caring environment, stability is still sort after.

Homework Time!

My boys are doing homework now. It is half past 11 and they are still trying to complete their homework. School hours are long. One in P6 and the other in Sec 3. Both come home in the late after. I have no clue why do we load our school kids with so much work. Stress in Singapore starts young.

The Rise of the Creative Class

City tolerant of the creative class are more vibrant and grow a lot more economically. What is the Creative Class? The creative professions are scientists, engineers, copy writers, authors, movie makers, etc, etc. There is a strong direct relationship of population of gay to economic growth of the city. Maybe this is why Singapore is now promoting it openness to Gays. I think our government must have been given the statistics and convince of the positive aspects of "tolerating" homosexuality.

School Term Starts Tomorrow

The third term of school starts tomorrow. It will be early start again for the boys. Holidays are over. Routine starts again. It is good that school is back. After relaxing and certainly lots of fun 4 weeks, it is time for the boys to start to study again. We will have peace and quiet at home on weekday mornings.

Kate!

Had a good chat with Kate recently. Missed having her in Singapore not that she is in Singapore. Somehow, it is different feel. Now she is half the world away and busy settling into her new role. She is a good listener and has the patience to hear me rambling away and repeat same old story. Back to her home country, she must be adjusting to reverse culture shock...like having to do everything by herself, listening to weather reports and attending meetings after meetings after meetings. We did not really have much time to catch up as she was in a conference call and then have to go for a meeting. (Read work is just talking and listening.)

HELP NEEDED!

Does any of my readers know where we can seek redress for Developers who does shoddy work and stall for time by not responding? FAR EAST ORGANISATION is taking advantage of MCST all the time. He claims he win all the lawsuits as this is what he is hired to do. He make it clear to us that he has no desire to address our issues or concerns with the property Far East develops.

Far East Developer

We just had a meeting with Far East, the condo developer. It is very sad that a large organisation like Far East do not exhibit the spirit to take responsibilities to make sure the estate is in a good condition after selling their properties. We live in a development that is built by Far East. There were many things in the estates that do not work after we moved in.

While many complaints had been lodged, Jimmy claims he had not heard of them or he only heard them after the warranty period of 12 months is over. For such a big organisation taking a stance to bully customers by quoting legal acts and throwing all the legal terms at us and making us cringe and giving veiled threats. Best of all, he even boast he fights alot of legal cases and he wins them all.

I come out of the meeting feeling discourage and cheated. It is really caveat emptor or buyers beware. I guess one of the way to get rich is to be unscrupulous.

FRIDAY!

Thank God Its Friday! Weekend is here again. I have an extremely busy day at work. I am starting to feel energised. I meant energised by the work rather then the weekend. Weekend is nice too! School will start next week. I have a couple of trips lined up in July. Will have to go to Manila soon. So many places to go and so little time.

What is my plan for the weekend? Do nothing. Just relax with a good book in a cafe. My favorite haunt is Gloria Jean Coffee in Vivo City. The staff are warm and welcoming. They pay attention and know how to make my boys happy. PageOne has 25% discount if you own DBS card. If not, 20%. Same discount as Kinokuniya but no membership required. So much more competitive than Kino. However, Kino still offers broader selection.

Reflections on the Changes at Work

I was thinking and reflecting over changes that has occurred at WORK. I was up in KL two days ago to give a talk on How to Develop Brands. Usually, when I go to the office, the whole team will go out for dinner. Dinner is the time to get to know each other better and build relationship and fosters team spirit.

I noticed our team has more new members than old. There were 6 of us at dinner. Only me and one more colleague that's two of us is in the company for more than one year. Three in the dinner are in the company for less then 3 months. This sets me thinking... Our team were merged into a bigger entity in May '06 for "financial consolidation purpose only" in other words, our profits were attractive to others. "Every thing else was going to stay the same."

In the previous 5 years, it is the last 12 months our team experienced the highest turnover rate in personnel. Our growth has slowed down dramatically. Recently, I visited our office in Singapore. There were many pretty girls. Unfortunately, I do not know any of them because they were all new. I was in the Singapore office only a month ago when I had my farewell lunch with my good friend, Kate. The economies in Singapore and Malaysia are doing well. This may be the reason why our turnover rates have increased.

With the constant change of guards, I wonders how much we spend on cost of hiring and training, how high is the opportunity cost for lost knowledge and experience and the impact on our business. Change is good. For change to be good and healthy, I believe turnover must be kept to 10 to 15%. Any higher will likely to cost the company alot.

I thought about it. Anecdotes are not strong arguments in large companies. There must be facts and figures. Business performance is no longer at the historical rates 30% or more any more. It is in line with the rates of all other divisions. Through its actions, the company has got what it wanted. So the words that we want higher growth and stronger performance are just words. It is interesting to watch everyone repeating the mantras and doing and behaving in a totally different manner to ensure we get mediocre performance.

This is what I call "Actions speaks louder than Words."

Bird

The surviving bird is doing well. I decided to call it "Chirpy". Chirpy gets foster out to a friend every time I have to travel. I do not trust the boys to look after him. I have no idea if Chirpy is a boy or girl. Since we have a family of boys, it is natural that we treat Chirpy as one of our boys:)

Million Dollar Apartments

House prices continues it rise. Condos are now in million dollars and up. So we have lots of millionaires in Singapore. Granted, banks do own a big chunk of the value of the house. If you own a condo, remember! YOU are a MILLIONAIRE.

Colleagues

A busy day interacting with my colleagues. Many conversations and learn and share many things. My colleague, Pat has improved her outlook in work life. She looks brighter and more pleasant. I am impressed by the mind over looks. Looks improved when one is positive psychologically. I believe she probably have some cosmetic surgeries or facial treatment. Whenever it is, I had a pleasant meeting and it is a huge u-turn for her. Hurray! I hope she keeps it up.

BRAND!

Today, I gave a talk on Brand and Branding. I have a series of questions on my presentation slides by did not complete my slides. The questions have a life of their own and I did not follow my prepared slides and just let the talk flow freely. My audience was a group of senior managers from SMI or small medium industries. They are very keen learners and asked a lot of questions, very penetrating and relevant questions on how to develop their brands in a market place that is crowded and everyone compete on the same basis.

Building Brand is a simple exercise. It is not easy and it take time and patience. The message must be simple and clear. It must be consistent and repeated over and over and over, again and again. The attributes must be delivered consistently to fit the message.

Heartware

Money, it seems required for modern living. We must alway worry about money and day to day living. I always look at the life of monk and wonder if it is a good alternative. More Japanese in a survey says they prefer to be born a bird and I can understand why. A bird is free. Just forage for food and free to go wherever and whenever. Yet is this perception true? I wonder how it feel when there are not enough or no food. As a bird, what will I do? Have anyone see birds playing? I have seen birds fighting over food or courtship display, even making love. Life as a bird is survival and passing on the genes.

How about becoming a monk or hermit? Food is a bland affair. All vegetarian and no fancy flavours. Meditation and cultivating the mind. Imagine sitting for more than 20 years? National Geographic had a picture of a monk who meditate for more than 20 years. What would he have accomplished? Inner space or our mind is the Final Frontier, not space. No kids, no family, no love, no sex!, just peace and tranquility.

Ahhh! Maybe a monk is still better than a bird.

Millionaire's Reflections

I am thinking on reading Fooled by Randomness and when I read Millionaire Next Door. I felt good after reading Millionaire Next Door. This is why I bought the 2nd book by the same author, The Millionaire Mind. Fooled by Randomness was entertaining. It is has a point. Whatever recommendations Millionaire Mind has can also be applied to non-millionaire.

So the question is "Is it Karma that determine whether we are Millionaire?" I am just thinking of a friend of mine. He bought a condo a few months ago. This condo is just a paper condo. The foundation is just being dug. With the price going up, he has made $800,000 as at today. Is this luck or random event? Why did I not buy a condo? This guy is 15 years my junior and he is much richer than me now because he bought at the right time. He do not even have to come up with much money to buy as it is on differed payment scheme. With maybe $15,000, he earns $800,000 in about six months.

So if this is a random event, why not me? Lady Luck did not smile on me? It is because I did not participate in the property market that is red hot right now. Should I jumped into the bandwagon now? Sigh! I believe in destiny. What is not mine will not be mine. Although I have a Scientific and Logical mind, I also believe in fate. This is why I am blessed with a great wife and three expectionally adorable and handsome boys. They are worth more than millions. Of course it will be nice to have a million dollars to buy them whatever they want....

Finding Forrestor

This is a movie that I do not get tired after watching over and over again. William Forrestor is a gifted reclusive writer who wrote only one novel in his life. He stopped writing after his novel, Avalon Landing was published as he was upset with all the critics. Jamal Wallace, a black student who scored extremely well in a states test. Jamal break into William's house as his friends dared him to. While in the house, Jamal was surprised by William and ran away leaving behind his bag containing his notes. This is the start of the relationship between a master and his apprentice. Jamal's writings improved dramatically under the personal tutelage of Forrestor. In school, Jamal offended a frustrated Professor Crawford who thinks he knows a lot about writings. Crawford accuses Jamal of plagiarism. Jamal maintains his integrity of not revealing his relationship with Forrestor and was in danger of expulsion from the prestigious private school. At the last minute, Forrestor came up to reveal the truth in the annual competition of novel writings. Jamal was vindicated in a heroic fashion and the story end with Forrest willing all his books and apartment to Jamal when he died.