Good Sunday Morning

Early in the morning, when I was in the wet market for tea, my ex-colleague in Taiwan send message to me.  It was a surprise.  She did not contact me when I was feeling blue.  I support her when she was lonely in Australia.  Anyway, she is still a nice girl.  I chatted with her on IM.  She is up early on Sunday to do her schoolwork.  She has two case studies.  She is taking MBA part-time.  She is working hard to learn and improve her capabilities.  She is very intelligent.  She has a Masters in Mathematics or something similar from one of the big name university in US.

It is nice to hear from friends.  I consider her a friend although it is not close as I felt left out as she was not there when I needed some support.  However, it is good she took the initiative to start a conversation with me. 

Alternative Views

With the internet, it is good to get alternative views.  The http://temasektimes.wordpress.com/ has alot of information that is not published by the mainstream media.  I like reading all the juicy bits on the sex scandal in Singapore.  Even the New Paper with its sensational headline grapping my wife to pay 70cents has practically no information of value.  She felt cheated and when I read the news article I am in total agreement. 

I found the temasektimes way more informative and has plenty of pictures.  Albeit, the girl's eyes are blacked out to protect her identity.  Apparently, this girl make the men feel like they have a young sweet girlfriend.  A few men are repeat customers due to her good service!

Singapore, the straitlaced society, love sex scandals!  I wonder what is happening to the two Senior Home Affairs officers.  News blackout again.  I guess maybe there is no wrong doing and our government may be embarrassed by what take place between two consenting adults?  Or is the whole incident going to be covered by the government?  Over time people will forget.  I wonder.

I believe life for average Singaporeans will get better when more opposition are in the Parliament.  Instead of policies explained over and over again, we may get better policies and policies responding to feedback from the ground.  When Ministers earned millions, they can sympathise well.  I doubt they can empathise since they do not live the life of getting crushed in the MRT trains.

Early to Rise

I am up at 5am or 6am Tokyo time. Am I suffering from jetlag? It is only one hour difference between Singapore and Japan. I just watched the video on blogger and realised my editor is different from what is in the video.

Maybe I need to set-up in the setting. I have to spend some time to figure it out. Right now, there is no way I can do a line spacing or set paragraphs. I need to get to the right editor.

Sweet Taste of Home

My flight for delayed by more than half an hour due to headwind. The flight was quite bumpy like going when I was going to Tokyo. My weight has past 89kgs now. It has increased further. A lot of the increase may be due to fluid intake. I drank a lot onboard until my urine turns clear. A good sign. Only problem is the calories that come with plenty of fluids especially coke and fruit juices.

Lunch is prawn noodles and then it is to Fairprice for grocery shopping. Mangoes are a great deal. It is also good to exercise where I cycle and swim. Running is not an option since my knees will act up. We have a fabulous home-cooked dinner with char siew and fried chicken from Fairprice.

Japan is nice to visit. The cabin crews loved Japanese. I love tonkatsu, yakitori and tempura. My weight increase indicate I am enjoying Japanese food. Wherever I have been, it is always good to come home.

Rained All Day Long

What a dreary day in Tokyo. It rained not stop. The rain however is quite light unlike the heavy shower we get in Singapore. Luckily, I am in meetings and do not feel a big waste however, I still wished it stopped for my last evening here. I have to get up at 4am tomorrow morning. Yuckkkk! Will not be watching any suspense or horror movie. Otherwise I will have only a couple hours of sleep.

I was wandering about trying to decide what to eat for dinner and I remember the Cabin Crew Chief told me the crews are crazy over Japanese food and will not eat in the aircraft during their break in order to enjoy more Japanese food. I was alone and it is hard to decipher what the resturants offer even with pictures. Finally, I decided to try sushi since I am in the land of sushi. I need to know really how good it is compared to home since it is geninue and authentic. The rice is nice and warm. Tamago is sweet. However, I do not find it much better. Maybe because the California roll come with raw salmon. It is quite tasteless which mean it is fresh. However, I still do not like the texture. So I did not enjoy my California roll. Tomorrow, I will get teh halia, chicken rice and fishball noodles....

A Wet Morning

Watching horror movie in a small hotel room is not what I would recommend. Horror movies are usually screened late at night. Unfortunately, in Japan most channels are Japanese. I stayed in an American chain, so at least there are two English/bilingual channels. BBC World and movie channel that screen old movies. Usually, I have the tv on all the time while I work. Last night, after I switch off the tv to go to bed, I want to watch the ending. So I turned it back on and it is past 1 am before I can fall asleep. Then I wake up early. I thought I will go to the fish market to see the action. Unfortunately, it is raining and I pass this opportunity. Now I am back in my room to blog. Starbucks do not have free wifi in Tokyo. Lousy weather is not fun.

Lucky when Polite...

I am so lucky! My host decided to bring me to eat tempura as I requested cooked food. The fish market is nearby and sashimi will be fresh and at good price. However, my raw diet is cucumber, lettuce and maybe carrots. So sashimi is out of the question.

Anyway, the reason why I feel lucky is because after dinner, my host lost his way. I had wanted to ask him where he is going when he went the wrong way. I know the way back to the hotel. But being polite, I just followed. Because we crossed the road and walk along Ginza street, I saw Book 1st bookstore. I have walk past the building a couple of times but did not realise there is a bookstore on the 6th floor.

I am so happy to see the bookstore. I search the store and found the science magazines I like. It took a couple of round. This ia adult science magazine with kits. The kits are sophisticated machines. I like to buy them to keep. B3 always take them out to fix. He is good at fixing up the scientific toys nowadays. Yes, it is lucky I did not lead my host straight to the hotel. I found my favorite haunt.

Tokyo Yokohama Tokyo

The day start with going to the exhibition in Tokyo Big Sight. Then it is off to Yokohama. After meeting, dinner with an old friend and back to Tokyo again. What a long day. My waistline is growing even though my weight is not going too much. I think my bone mass is dropping while the soft tissue i.e. fat is gaining mass. Yakitori has been our last few meals. Tomorrow night, I will have another dinner host by our customer. So it is more wine and dine. Since I do not wine, I compensate with the dine and eat more than usual. I noticed drinkers eat very little. They drink and then nibble and drink more. Maybe they feel full. So while the two drinkers drink, I ate their share:) Then regret when my waistline looked bigger:(

Tokyo

I forgot to write yesterday! I must be busy and in a hurry to pack up for my trip to Tokyo. I am now in Tokyo. My ex-colleague picks me up from Narita airport. My friend from Korea is in Japan at the same time and he arrived about half an hour earlier. He is staying in a hotel close by to my hotel. We travel together in a BMW stationwagon. My ex-colleague make sure he stopped smoking in the car for a few days to clear the smoke smell. It was actually not too bad as he spray anti-odour chemical as well.

Tokyo is a city full of lights. Quite like Hong Kong except the neon lights are more organised and less cluttered. It is very safe to walk about at night. Plenty of empty cabs. There are less pachincko shops in Ginza than TCAT. TCAT is Tokyo City Air Terminal which I used to stay. Ginza is more gitzy. Tokyo is just a concrete jungle. There are not trees or greenery. Small patches here and there, so unlike Singapore. Now I know why others say Singapore is not just a Garden City but a city in a garden. Although trees do fall during heavy thunderstorms and strong winds, it is a small price to pay for living in a garden.

I also noticed the female folks looked much better than before. Japanese women may be going for more cosmetic surgery to look better. As I do my usual stroll to explore the area surrounding my hotel, I realised it is not as busy as before. This is an indicator that the Japanese economy is not humming like before.

This is Home-Cooked Meal!

We have dinner at home as usual. This time we tried salt-baked chicken, a new recipe we learn from a woman who was selling cooking pan from Korea. It is very easy. Just season the chicken and wrapped it in paper and baked it in coarse salt. The result was amazing. It tasted the same as the store bought salt-baked chicken! B1 had requested for fish since he has two wisdom teeth extracted. He cannot eat hard food. I bought fish from the wet market this morning. A red garoupa and two SABA fishes. We steamed the red garoupa, it is fresh and therefore does not taste fishy at all. We fry half a Saba fish and then I barbeque it to make Ikan Bakar, the Indonesian-style barbequed fish. Mmmm! it is so good! For vegetable, we had the leftover sayur lodeh from yesterday.

B3 pronounced this is what I call Home-cooked meal! His standard of home-cooked meal is resturant-style eating. We are quite tickled by his comment and the whole family was very happy to enjoy a sumptious meal together. After dinner, we had dessert. Azuki beans soup with ice-cream and ice-cream with azuki bean. The boys also baked Korean pastry with honey. It was really fun meal and enjoyable with our boys loving the food. This is good bonding time. We had a good time.

Google Chrome

I am trying out Google Chrome to see if the editor work better than internet explorer. Change always cause complications even though it is supposed to be better. I am typing every sentence with a line in-between to check if works.

New and Improved?

Since the "new and improved" blogger.com, I have been unable to paragraph my entries as you can see below as well as this entry. Before, I could "enter" a couple of times to do break into paragraphs. Now I get only one paragraph no matter how many "enter" I did. It looked correct on the editor but when it is published, all the enter or return are removed. So it is one big paragraph making it less readable. I have sent a feedback to google. I hope this get fix. Otherwise I have to break up all entries on each different topic or change in pace or subject.

Fully Booked!!

I have a guest from out-of-town tomorrow. I told him I will bring him to an award winning chef. I just tried to book a table and was unable to as it is fully booked for two weeks! What a shock! So I have shift to plan B. I have to search for the best Chinese resturants and look for alternative. Of course, the one I wanted to go was there. There are 9 other choices but some are too far or too expensive. I settled on Li Bai in Sheraton Towers as it is open early and right near Orchard where my guest is staying. Phew!

This morning, we had breakfast in Bishan. Josephine Teo, the MP for Bishan has a Kopi Talk at 9:30am. She came at 10am. It is interesting show of power. She sat down on the table and then asked the next table of old "aunties" who do regular exercise to join her. After some time, the old aunties excused themselves and then the assistants asked other people to go to the table. It is interesting format. She has many "volunteers" to help her. These volunteers will get people to go to her. It does not like serving people. People are serving the MP from my observations. Josephine Teo is there to explain the new healthcare program. However, I wonder how many will benefits as most who need it most are not educated or read the papers conscientiously. Neither will they be able to fill up the forms required to qualify. It is sad. At least the PAP government is trying to address the voters unhappiness. Our government is always very logical and explain rationale very well why the policies are the way they formulate. It does not matter how ordinary people are suffering or not getting the benefits of the policies. Losing one GRC has huge positive change. Now, there is recognition of aging workers' plight, healthcare issues and foreign talent. Before, it is we know best and it is really good for you as a community and good for Singapore.

Now, if losing one GRC can bring about this positive change, I am sure losing a couple more GRCs will improve the performance of the government even more. Let's hope the electorate wise up and vote more GRCs to opposition. We will get good and effective government who have no choice but to care for the people who elect them.

Hot Hot Hot

The thermometer is rising. It is so hot. My father-in-law is warded in Tan Tock Seng Hospital and he requested to be upgraded to B1 from B2. B1 is airconditioned. I am feeling tired due to the heat. It is only April and hot months are coming. Another interesting phenomenon is lightnings are flashing frequently tonight but no thunder. Recently, I noticed more lightning storms without rain or thunder. The climate seems to have changed as this is a new observation.

Firefly

Flying Sin-KL sector with Firefly is so much better than Silkair/SQ. Budget Terminal is has less people and less flights to process. So immigration and security checks is so quick and easy. Even computers need not be taken out of the bag! Landing into Subang Airport is the best. My office is like 10 minutes away and my colleague can come and pick me up. Better still he does not even need to pay carpark as he can park kind of illegally along the road. Budget Terminal has small shopping area but it has every different type of shops. I had lunch in Subang Airport today and the choice are very good. The price of the meal in Changi Budget Terminal is also very competitive and is actually cheaper than Ah Kun or Toastbox. The aircraft is small and turnaround is very quick. So from boarding to taking off make me feel like I am taking a bus or ferry. Every thing is like clockwork. The disadvantage is the flight is more bumpy and noisy. There are two flight crews and the girls are dressed smartly and well groomed. Their make-ups make them looked very attractive - can fight with Singapore Girl!! I have fallen in love! I will be sorry that Changi Budget Terminal close in September. It is a good way to travel. I must say Subang is so nicer than KLIA. I enjoy local foodfare and in KLIA you have to go to the staff canteen to eat local. Everything else is expensive.

Mid-Valley Mall

It is nice to be back to one of my favorite mall in Asia - the Mid-Valley Mall. I wish I had bottomless appetite. There are so many types of food I want to eat. There are so many temptations. I need my sncaks too. Sigh! This is bad for waistline, cholesterol and blood pressure. I have a really weakness for food. What a glutton I am!

I thought MPH closed shop as Uniqlo is taking over the premise. Then as I explore the basement...actually I was checking out Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, I found that MPH has relocated to basement. I love the extremely rich Krispy Kreme Doughnut. Actually, the first time I tasted Krispy Kreme as in September 2001. I was in San Diego for a week training and the HR lady bought the doughnuts for the trainees. I ate quite a few each day. I was younger and slimmer then and can afford the calories then.

Borders does not seems to be well patronised. I wonder how long it will last. I love Borders and hope it will continue to be a ongoing business in Malaysia.

I have a chance to meet all my ex-colleagues this afternoon. They are happy to see me and I am glad they are working hard as usual. Actually, they are working harder as one is on maternity leave. It is a pity I missed her. Anyway, I shall be back and we may be able to have meal together.

Happy as a Bee

It is a busy day! Work and work. Work and work! I think this may be a lyrics from a song. I am always happy to work and exercise. Tomorrow is travel day. Will have to go to airport early for a short hop.

Maybe it is the exercise or may it is the dinner. I feel happy as I write my blog. I had watermelon that was cut a couple days ago and just cut our papaya. I enjoys cutting up fruits for the family. I was very happy in US to cut mango for the younger boy after dinner. It is very therapeutic to see the boy taking the cut-mango as I slice. He obviously enjoys the ease of eating as I sliced off the skin and cut the mango into bite-size pieces.

Eating as a family is a great way to cement relationship. My friend always have dinner as a family. We have dinner as a family. It was quite different when I was growing up as we do not eat as a family as my mother is always busy running a retail store. It is good to connect with our boys everyday although I wished B1 can come home more often than on the weekends. Even weekends, he may be on duty and does not come home. After army, he may go oversea for study. He just called from camp as I am writing! Tomorrow, he is going to the dentist to have his wisdom tooth extract. It is going to be a complicated operation as the tooth is impacted. Actually, both his wisdom teeth are impacted and horizontal. This according to my dentist who was a Professor is the most difficult to extract.

He is young and I hope he recovers well.

Monday

Many stalls in the wet market are not open as the slaughterhouse for pig has Sunday as rest day. So I have morning breakfast in AMK Hub Toastbox and then buy some grocery at NTUC Fairprice. Only Toastbox is open at 7am in the morning. I like wet market as my favorite coffee stall open at 4:30am. Also there are a few coffee stalls and if my favorite is not open, the back up is.

B2 starts his lessons today at Nanyang Polytechnic. He bought lecture notes and have more to pay. My nieces who were in University and one still in Nanyang Poly must have cost a lot of money for their mum to support. It is tough to live in Singapore where everything cost money and more money. My father-in-law is sick and my wife brought him to see the family doctor whom we have not seen for a few years. Her consultation fee alone is $90. Medicine is separate cost. When we first see her 10 years ago, her consultation fee is $20 to $30. Now it is so high. It is good to be doctor. The fees increase you can charge is way faster than inflation rate.

Monday is start of the work week. It is busy time for everyone as business activities are high. So it is back to the grind for Singaporeans.

Hot Spot - Punggol PCN

NParks did a good job of promoting the PCN. The Punggol PCN is busy in the morning and evening with many out for exercise. In the evening there is even roller-blade class. The PCN is swarming with people running, cycling, walking and roller-blading. Everyone has to watch out as some cyclists overtake at a high speed and is dangerous.

All 3 boys jogged together this afternoon. B3 has to improve his fitness as he will be having physical fitness test soon. B1 is now training B3. B1 and B2 were trained by me before their physical fitness tests before. Now both B1 and B2 trains B3. I am glad to be able to delegate this training to the older boys.

B3 is quite unfit and his face is totally red after the run. He also took a long for his elevated heart rate to recover. Hopefully, his fitness level improve enough for him to pass his NAFA test.

Busy Orchard Road

After dinner, we need to go to Plaza Singapura to meet my brother-in-law to exchange SIM card from our Singtel to his M1 to test the New iPad. Our new iPad has been giving problems with 3G. It keeps latching up and datalink is lost and requires Singtel to reset the network.
It was impossible situation finding carpark lot in Plaza Sin. We had to wait to for mum to go and do the exchange and then go off. The privilege for waiting in the multi-storey car is $2.14 even though we did not get to park our car. Instead of going home as we are already in Orchard Road, we try our luck in other mall. 313 has empty lots. I like 313 as there are designated lots for hybrid cars. Yes, there is a lot just right beside the lift.

We pass time doing window shopping. Orchard Road is jammed packed with merrymakers. All the young adults are out! There are some families like us but they are few and far between. Since all our three boys are together, we try out the Cold Stone Creamery. Two mid size ice-creams cost $17! It is a treat as the last time we had Cold Stone with all three boys was in Korea probably 4 years ago.

At 9:30pm, the crowd is everywhere. Seems like many like to stay out late in Orchard Road. It is a happening place on Saturday Night.

Busy Day

It is a busy day. Up at 4am and now close to midnight. I just finished the estate meeting. What a day! I am pooped. Luckily, it is Saturday tomorrow and I have only tuition for B3.

On the Road to Recovery

My baby niece is on the road to recovery. I just saw her facebook entries. She is no longer in pain and eating. I am very happy to see her improving and healing from the surgery. She is well taken care of by her mum's sister. Family is important in times like this. Her sisters are also taking good care of her.

Up Early

This time it is not jetlag. I am up at 4am this morning. The reason is because I have to send B1 to his camp at 5:45am. I worry I will oversleep and there I could not sleep well. Mum is up now cooking for B3's breakfast and recess.

I have the tv for company. The morning is quite. I went to the roof garden to observe the stars. The stars constellations are different in the morning than at night. No joy when it comes to UFOs. I still harbour the hope to see an UFO one day.

I have to leave in 15mins. B1 is up and ready to go.

Wikinomics

Wikinomics is about new way of doing business. The business models are changing rapidly. Most of the examples are influence by internet and the web. The established model of hierarchy, control and information security is made obsolete by collaboration, information sharing and gaming.

Wiki is tapping the netizens and global talents. Many times for free. The new most valuable companies are Google, Facebook, eBay, Craiglist are all internet based company. Luckily, the old school of not going away yet. Many are still employed in traditional business. However, traditional business are losing market share.

Singtel is on the news yesterday. CEO Chua Sock Something is considering service like viber and whatsapps. The two has been chipping away the sms and voice business of Singtel and billing per customer is dropping as many are using the data plan to do free sms or voice call. Poor Singtel is stuck with expensive infrastructure and overhead. It is going to be a rocky road ahead for Singtel.

A Big Mess

Our aircon has maintenance contract and undergo routine servicing today. The technician recommended chemical wash as the condenser was clogged up with "jelly-like" substance. It is going to cost $200. So I thought I will just go to the hardware centre and buy the chemical and clean myself. The chemical cost only $13.50 and I was congratulating myself for saving money DIY in long form - do-it-yourself. Little did I know how mistaken I am.

I sprayed the chemical onto the condenser and a little splash onto my body and it stings! After that the chemical touches my fingers and they hurts!! The chemical is caustic and I did not use any protection. For an untrained person handling unknown cleaning chemical which is quite strong, I am not really equipped to do the job properly. After I sprayed the chemical, it start to foams out and drips to the floor with all the dirt. The floor even though protected by newspapers. The newspapers were no match. The chemical soaked through and damage the parquet floor. Rinsing the chemical means I have to spray water and lot of water. The drain pipe cannot handle and overflow causing more dirty water to drop onto the floor.

The mistress of the house and master of the universe was furious. NO! That was an understatement! She was so upset that I made just a big mess and dirty the room that my profuse apologies did not reduce her reprimands or criticisms of my sloppiness. Luckily, I have someone to help clear up the mess I made.

I had to eat water melon and pistachios nuts to calm my nerves. Everytime I felt bad, I had to snack. No wonder my weight is now at 89.5 kg. Exercising hard is not making an impact in my weight control.

On the positive side, I am busy at work organising and trips to meet customers and prospects. Today, I just found out one is based in Singapore. So I can meet up with them for lunch. It is nice to have customers in the same country.

Happy Thoughts

It is important to delve on happy thoughts and gratitude. So I decided to stop the entry below and change the subject with a new heading.

We are happy all our 3 boys came back home and have dinner together. B2 and B3 were out for tuition and B1 was out shopping. We also reload our fridge with grocery. I always enjoys going to the supermarket and buy snacks and fruits. I leave the REAL food to my wife. I can live on eating just snacks and fruits.

This morning, instead of my usual tea, I had yinyang or tea mixed with coffee. It is actually quite nice and refreshing.

First Casualty

Haaaiii...a man's body found yesterday morning floating at the Punggol PCN yesterday's morning. Luckily, I did not cycle early in the morning. Many a time when I was distracted during cycling, I find the risk of going down into the water is quite high. It is actually quite safe if we pay attention. The water is very shallow anyway.

I hope this is the first and the last case. I shudder when I think of Bedok Reservoir series of drownings. I am very glad it has stopped.

Paper Chicken

I have a Japanese customer in town and host lunch for him, his wife, his daughter and two grandchildren. The little girl is 7 years and boy 5. The girl is very adorable and quite interactive.

We had lunch at a resturant that is quite popular with Japanese. Hillman Resturant has been around since 1965. My father used to bring us there when we were kids. The original resturant was at the corner of a row of shops below a block of HDB flat and has since been torn down. Today, The Pinnacle stood in its place.

Now the resturant is in Kitchener Road. The sister resturant, Manhill is in Pasir Panjang. The daughter has been to this resturant before. I am glad they like the food. Paper chicken and shark fin omelette are compulsory for Japanese. The steamed fish is so fresh and not fishy at all. It is the first time I enjoyed eating fish. King Pork Rib and claypot noodle for the kids. The tofu is minced meat tofu.

The meal went very well. I am glad that the family enjoyed the meal. They keep saying "Oshi" which means delicious.

JCUBE

JCube was on the news yesterday. So we decided to explore this new mall in Jurong East. It is Singaporeans' favorite pastime! New Malls. The place was crowded with other explorers like us. Many shop are still not ready yet. The ice skating rind is quite busy with many rather good skaters. I am surprised that without many skating rind, we have so many competent skaters. This is the first skating rind many years after the Jurong Skating Rind was closed due to poor business.

The mall is quite small and easy to cover. The problem is it is too crowded due to the publicity. There are a few shops specialising Korean products and a 3-D joyride machine made in Korea as well. Korea is very successful in exporting their culture, products and services. As a country, it has surpassed Japan exporting music, pop culture and even serial dramas.

We are lucky all three boys are available and with us. We had lunch in American resturant chain, Chilli's. This is one of my favorite resturant. It is good my boys are with us. So we order bbq baby backribs, chicken and beef fahitjas and ranch chicken quesdillos, and of course, chilli which is minced beef in tomato sauce. Lunch was yummy. So after enjoying the heavy duty American meal, I feel a little guilty about my weight gain.

UCLA Talk

UCLA held a seminar in Shangri-La hotel this afternoon. There were 77,000 applicants for this year's intake. Undergraduate population is 26,000 students. The school is in Westwood and is surround by "rich" real estate. So it is relatively safe according to the admission director.

The school's symbol is Bruin or Bear. One of the parent raise the point that funding has been cut and the programs and facilities are deteriorating. The response was it is about $200million out of $4 billion. so the impact is not significant in the big picture. The school has raised school fees as well. Overall, it is not is good shape I think.

The attraction factor is weather and diversity. Food is great as there are plenty of ethnic resturants. We have to attend to more talks to make more informed decisions...

My Niece Had an Operation

My youngest niece from my brother had a operation to remove her cyst. It is quite big 17cm X 11 cm X 8 cm or thereabout. She is warded in KK Hospital. The poor girl is in pain although she is recovering now. I am very sorry to see her in pain. She is only 18 years and will miss school for the next 4 weeks.

I hope she recovers well. She is a very brave girl and I am proud of her. Her elder sister keeps her company all day long and I am very proud of her too.

We had duck porridge for dinner and B3 felt hungry about 9pm and ate 3 packs of Korean seaweeds. I am not sure if consuming too much seaweeds can cause potential health issue. The sodium and iodine levels are high.

Busy Punggol Water Park

The PCN is busy in the morning. Many people are out exercising. The track is wet in many place where the water from the field continue to flow out. NParks need to do drainage in some of the places. The water flows out continously for a few days and the track become slippery with moss and fungi.

The PCN is a great concept. It gave Singaporeans healthy pastime to exercise, keep fit and enjoys nature in the city. The Punggol Water Park is busy and the fountains are turned on. It is very relaxing. The fountains also aerate the water and let the fishes thrive.

I enjoys cycling and listening to audiobook. Right now, it is Wikinomics. Wikinomics is about the new world of cooperation and collaboration using internet. Several companies have leverage using giving or opening up their R&D (Merck) or let users hacked into their products (Lego). It is very interesting examples. However, most companies are still operating in the traditional mode. As the world evolves, some companies will thrive and some will become extinct.

Fruits Galore

I am stocking up our fridge with fruits. Two watermelons, mangoes and Barnfield oranges. It is healthy to eat more fruits. My wife says since I returned home, she is eating more, lots more as I keep on buying snacks, fruits and other foodstuff. I enjoys eating well and many times not so healthy. I add potato chips and chocolate wafers. High cal and probably has transfat as well.

I just received a call from my brother his youngest girl is in hospital. I will visit her tomorrow. She just had a operation and still in pain.

Plenty of rain today. My grass patch in the roof is slowly turning green again. My maid cut it too short while I was in US and my nice and green patch had turned completely brown and black. It is recovering and I have given strict instruction for her not to cut it anymore. I spend a lot of time and effort to keep it green. I was very proud of my roof garden until I returned home two weeks ago.

Monitors Up

I am glad I managed to setup the new monitors for my computer system. Now I realised I need a keyboard and a mouse. Sigh! I should have bought the keyboard and the mouse when I bought the monitors. Setting up the system on my own is a little tedious as I do not know all the parts I will need to set up the complete system. Also I need to figure out which brand is better. It takes time to do research and salespersons may not be the best source of information.

My weight today climb up further to 89.5kg. Not good for a man trying to diet. I guess my willpower is low when it come to food.

I have not been doing my 3 gratitudes consistently. I think my happiness level has increased since writing down my gratitudes. But it is just a perception and maybe it has not changed and I am just suffering from the Hawthorne Effect. Maybe self-delusion as I am both the subject and object of the experiment.

Weight Increased

I gained weight due to the good food I had in US expecially steaks. Now I am home, I am having teh halia, teh C and coke - all high calories drinks. Then I have to revisited all the food I like. So my weight has gone up by another kg. Now I am breaking new record at 89kg. I am going to take more oats, more brown rice, more fruits and less deep fried butterfly, deep fried springrolls, deep fried dough sticks, deep fried banana,frenchflies, potato chips,... sigh...I love deep fried food. The most unhealthy food on the planet and they are all filled with cheap but bad palm oil.

New Week

Today is the start of a new week. B2 will be going to school next week. He has been busy as an instructor for Robotics. He enjoys the work and helping out the students. The pay is low but the gratitudes he received from the students after they achieved top 3 positions in the competition gave him a big boost in his ego and sense of accomplishment. He is also happy he overachieve his saving target. I am glad he will be starting school soon. Waking late everyday is not a good thing. At least he was up early for work when the Robotics competition is on.

Meanwhile, B3's maths homework is stumping mummy and I was rope-in to help. The question goes like this - Abe, Thomas and Zach has some stamps. Abe has 1/7 of the stamps, Thomas has 1/7 of Zach. Zach gave away 70 stamps for Abe and Thomas to share. How many stamps did Abe has in the first place? I have not got this figure out yet. I shall do this question tomorrow.

The maths problem nowadays is tricky. I have no idea in real life this kind of calculations are needed.

Lights were out except One

I checked with B3. Yes, we participated in the Earth Hour. I am proud of my boys. However, mum was not cooperative. She insisted on that she needs her light to blow her hair. Sigh...women! Refusing to be environmentally-friendly especially my wife!!

We need to reduce our carbon footprint. Our Mother Earth has taken care of us humans for million of years. We need to take of care her! We must always Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

The 3R should be our way of life. Our future generations will inherit a healthy vibrant Mother Earth.

Nice and Quiet

It is very quiet this morning. No lightning or thunder. No croaking of toads...except once in a long while. The whole neighbourhood is asleep on a lazy Sunday morning. I was asleep last night during the Earth hour. So I did not have a chance to see if my neighbours participated by turning off all the lights.

B3 was very excited about the Earth hour. I do not know if he will make sure we switched off all our lights. I have to check with him when he wakes up. B3 was also asking abot 2012. In a few months, the world we know is supposed to come to an end. I told him nothing is going to change, our conciousness will increase and we will be more spiritual.

There is a fire in Lee Gardens Hotel in Hatyai. It is directly opposite the Central hotel we usually stayed in when we were there for meetings. Thankfully, no Singaporeans was injured even though there were about 50 injured. I do not like Central Hotel in Hatyai. There are no visible emergency exits and the only way to get in and out of the hotel is through three lifts on the reception that is on the 5th floor. The first four floors is the Central shopping mall. I always feel uneasy staying there as I feel trapped. It is fine when everything is normal and running. If there is a terrorist threat or fire, the hotel is a death trap. Anyway, I will not have to go the Hatyai anymore. I will be sorry if any of my ex-colleagues get into any incident there in future.

Brown, Black and Red

Mustapha is a store that has a wonderful range of products. Old obselete brands can be found there as well like Aesop soap. I found brown frangrant rice. We had black organic rice and recently bought red rice in NTUC Fairprice. We mixed up all three colour of rice. It tastes quite good. I am happy to be eating healthy rice. We used the GABA function and GABA is supposed to reduce stress. According to Chinese beliefs, the multi-colour food is healthy for you.

I am now a convert to unprocessed coloured rice. This way to health is really colourful.

Kovan Hawker Center

I am tired of Indian food, so I decided to try Kovan Hawker Center. The food stalls do not start early. Wantom mee and Prawn noodle says they open at 8am even though their pot of boiling water and soup are steaming up a storm. The butcher and fishmongers are selling their products. There are customer at 5am in the morning. I guess the early bird catches the worms.

I went to top up petrol. Price has gone up seriously! It is $2.34/litre of 98 unleaded petrol. A month ago, it was below $2/litre. The pump man told me the rain started at 2am. It was not 4am as I thought. Lightning was striking then as well. I slept through two hours of lightning before waking up. So it was not the flashing lights that woke me. It was jetlag...

Lightning and Thunder

4am. Lightning flashes and thunder boom. The flashes of light woke me up. I tried to go back to sleep but unable to. The toads are croaking. It has been some time that toads have not be croaking when it rained. I am glad they are back.

It all started when we first moved to our current house. We walked along the field to get to the LRT (light rail transit). It was December and the field was wet. We passed several puddles of water and B3 noticed movements in the puddles. He squats down to examine closely and found there were tadpoles. So we were returned home, he get a plastic spoon and container and scoop out some tadpoles. We put the tadpoles into the pond in our front yard. The tadpoles turned into tiny toads and left the pond and our home. Since then, we hear toads croaking every rainy seasons.

Last year, however, the toads did not returned. I was worried that they may all be eaten up by predators along the PCN. It is an eco-system. If they do not return, they are dying from lack of food or were eaten up. I know pollution is not a factor as there are plenty of birds of different varieties in the PCN. The birds ate fruits, insects, fishes or lizards. I have seen a white-throat Kingfisher with a lizard in its beak while cycling.

Soon day will be breaking. I am wondering what time B1 can book out of his camp...

Why I did not write?

I noticed I have not been writing everyday. I did promise to write daily as a discipline to improve my writings. The past few days I have been sleeping earlier and waking up early (ie middle of the night!) as well. My habits were topsy turvy. Once I recover from my jetlag, I will discipline myself to write everyday.

It is about a week since I landed. I weighs myself the moment I landed. It was 88kg! It was a gain of 2kgs from the time I left for US a month ago. I now weigh 89kg even though I cycle everyday for exercise. My food intake has increased. My wife blame it on my teh halia. Teh halia even though I asked for less sweet is still extremely high in calories.

B3 says I am fat and have to reduce my food intake. I agree and will do so after I finished my cravings for local food which take about a week.

My life goal is to be happy and healthy. I have been happy i.e. being a glutton this week. It is time to be healthy again. Eat less and exercise more.

Drunken State

Frankly, I do not drink and have an occasional red wine during my flights. Red wine is infused with reservatrol which is health enhancing according to the research B1 did for his JC project. However, I get gigantic headache and nausea after drinking the red wine at the times. I have stopped totally as the amount of reservatrol I take in will be neligible. Therefore I really do not know what really is a drunk state is like. However, now I am feeling that I am in a drunken state like in a dream and yet awake. It is my body telling me it is middle of the night and I am awake. Maybe it is the sleep debt I am having the last few days.

Midnight Shoppers

Little India is quite busy in the middle of the night. Many Indian coffeeshops are opened. I had mutton soup and plain thosai. Plain thosai cost $1.80 which gave me a shock as it cost only $1 in Ang Mo Kio.

After my meal, I go shopping at Mustapha. Mustapha has practically everything under the sun and many products from India and Middle East. So it is interesting just exploring the breadth of products.

I noticed the shoppers are mainly foreigners. Groups of three girls seems to be the order of the day. First group I crossed path is Japanese. They all wear heavy make-up. Then I met a couple who speaks in a language I cannot recognised. At the rice section, I met three young Thai women dressed sexily with a Singapore man helping them to look for things. They looked like ladies of the night. Then I saw a fairly big size transvestite. It is interesting to see a person who looked like a woman and yet has unmistakable features of man. At the checkout counter, there is a fatter transvestite. I wonder how could these two have any business. They are over-weight, old and horrible-looking with heavy make-up.

I guess the best way to meet and observed the professionals of the night trade should go the Mustapha at 3 to 4am.

Another Night Ahead

Jetlag is one of the "fun" in travelling across time zones. Now I am up in the middle of night while everyone else is sleeping. Luckily, there are plenty of 24-hr spots compared to the past. Also internet helps time to pass quickly.

I will go to Mustapha for window shopping and Indian food and teh halia after I finished blogging. I will eat for my friend who loved Indian food. Mustapha is the first supermarket/departmental store to open 24hours.

It is good to live in the city where it is always busy. I can go to a coffeeshop or cafe and past time with people around me. In US, all you have is a home. This may be why a huge home is needed. Huge kitchen for all kinds of gadgets for cooking, room for entertainment, room for office, room for exercise, room for formal dining, room for casual dining, room for so many different use. So it is like bringing the city to the home. I enjoys going to the cafe where I can people-watch and let people watch me.

I was at Chomp-Chomp at 3am yesterday. There are groups of 3 or 4 eating or walking along the street. They are all young. Groups of older men drink beers outside a closed coffeeshop and making a big mess while they chat and snacks.

It is time to go Mustapha...

Bright Orange Light

I woke up close to 1am. I look up to the night sky and saw a bright orange light moving across the sky. I use the cellphone camera but the details cannot be seen. I used my binoculars to look. Unfortunately, all I can see is squiggles of light. It looked like a regular aircraft from the flight path. The difference is there is no flashing light typical of commercial aircraft.

So it is not likely to be an UFO. Sigh...

World Water Day

I landed into Changi Airport and give my wife a big hug from my friend who asked me to hug her for him when he took me to the airport in Reno. I hug her again from me:) B1 and B2 came as well but both were so sleepy. They were sleeping in the car as it is a bit early for them to get up to come to the airport before 6am.

Immediate reaction from my body is sweating the moment I am out of the airconditioned environment. Reaching home and unpacking, I take my bike out right away. It is good to sweat. The Punggol Water Works is full of people and cyclists. There are organised events early in the morning. The track is crowded with brisk walkers and joggers young and old out for exercise.

It is World Water Day today, March 23rd and I am glad to cycle early in the morning. It is fun to feel the festive mood in the park connector. I sweat a lot after cycling. It felt good to sweat again. All my sweat pores were closed for 3 weeks in the cold winter in US and Canada.

After exercising, I go to Ang Mo Kio Hawker Center for wanton mee and teh halia. I also have fried beehoon. I am a real glutton! I need to do more cycling this afternoon....

One Step Nearer Home

I am in the Star Alliance Lounge blogging. Yes, I left behind the halfway house to moonscape. It is not the "hardware" but the "software". People(the software) is warm in Reno. I made good friends and will welcome to host them when they come to Singapore or Malaysia. So...I shall be back!

Three weeks passed very quickly and now it is time to go home. It is the start of another journey. I am quite impressed by the colleagues I am going to work with. They are responsive and customer-oriented. I am also very happy to be able to start teaching of my concept in managing business. Frankly, I was surprise by the ability of the support staff in understanding several of the key ideas I shared with her. She is one of the rare one that grasp my explanation so quickly. I later found out that she used to be a manager. I think she will enjoy working with me and developing her capabilities and skills further.

I think my weight has increased with the increased food intake. It is nice to go PCN to cycle. My sore muscles have recovered with 3 weeks of rest. Surprisingly, I did not suffer backache even though I have stopped exercising and the bed I slept in was soft.

Gratitude time for happiness!

1. I am grateful for all the good food I have eaten these few days. Even though...hai...my weight is up.

2. I am grateful for all the good people I am working with. Life is so much more fun with capable colleagues.

3. I am grateful to go home. It is time to enjoy my teh halia, roti prata, roast duck, fishballs and all the hawker food that is considered exotic in here in United States.

Yes, life is good when food is good.

Vietnamese Lunch

I had a wonderful lunch with 3 colleagues. We went to Golden Flower and the pho is authentic. I ordered fried spring rolls and everyone agreed it was excellent. I had coffee, the strong and sweet Viet-style and what is called 3 beans desserts. We are an International bunch - a Vietnamese, Taiwan-born American and mainland Chinese Canadian.

The conversation was good. The Vietnamese lady drives a beautiful and new BMW four-by-four. It is obvious she only drives from home to work - so careful and timid. However, she is very nice, sweet and petite.

This is my last meal with my new colleagues before I head home. Ahhhh...home sweet home. I am glad there are good food in Reno, good friends, good memories,... and I shall return maybe in a year's time.

Target is better than Walmart

Today is my shopping day. I went to Walmart first but could not the toys B3 requested. So I have to go to Target. The toy section in Target is much bigger with more varieties. However, I still cannot find the specific toys. So I took a couple of substitutes. Just before checking out, I pass the aisle of knit knacks and hey one of the requested items is there.

Window shopping at Target is so much more fun. The merchandise seems much better and more variety. From my personal experience shopping in the two stores, I will place my bet on Target. Overall, it is a better shopping experience. Of course, having the toy B3 wanted help swing my perception.

Pad Thai

I was supposed to go lunch with two nice ladies from the office A and T. Unfortunately, another meeting on production planning conflicts right at lunch time. So I have break my lunch appointment with the two ladies which I would have enjoyed their company a lot. Work come first! Lunch we can order in and we all ordered Pad Thai or fried kway teow, Thai-style. The pad thai is quite good and quite authentic except minus the peanuts. I wished chopped peanuts were included, then the whole dish will be complete.

I also have spring rolls and fried chicken wings for appetitizer. I will have them for dinner tonight. Reno does have some Oriental food.

Perfect Place for Stargrazing and UFO lookout

I woke up early this morning after a nightmare. My first in the 3 weeks of sleeping outside my own bed. I look out of the window and stars are visible. The sky is most clear unlike Singapore. It is so easy to look at the stars and so many are visible compared to during the clear sky in Singapore. The flashing lights from the aeroplanes can be seen easily too. No wonder, if there is an UFO, it can be seen and videotape, er I mean recorded on video. No one use tape anymore. It is flash memory.

This place does offers a lot of things unavailable in my hometown. Water sports, winter sports, camping, nature, parks, wildlife are just a short drive away. Americans are a lucky lot. They are living in a country bestows with lot of natural beauty and resources, just like Australians. No wonder many like to emigrate to this two countries.

Roller Coaster Ride in Investments

It is hard to invest right now with the stock market going up and down. All kinds of reasons which does not make sense. Greece, Eurozone, Iran...it is not macroeconomics that does not seem to be related.

Commodities is going down now. So it is not so good. While my friend is hoping all prices to go down, I am wishing they will go up so that I can minimised my losses. So our wishes are contradicting each other. However, the markets will move in whichever direction they are going to go. So our wishes will just stay as wishes!

I have not been writing about my gratitudes for a few days now. Actually, I was nursing a headache since this morning and only clears after dinner. Although I had good and filling lunch, it did not help relieving my headache. So my first gratitude for today is headache-free for the evening.

My second gratitude is the fabulous flank steak for dinner. It was done just right. So the meat is tender and juicy. Even the older boy who usually ate very little asked for 2nd helpings. He can be fatten up on flank-steak. The baby is just a snacker like me. He says he finished his dinner but will keep coming back for more meat. He is very adorable and loved to snuggle up to his dad.

My third gratitude for the day is nice warm weather. No snow and no jacket. This is the right way to live.

Warming Up

It was freezing with heavy clouds in the morning when we leave for work. By afternoon when we go out for lunch, the temperature has risen up and it is quite nice. Lunch was all-you-can-eat sushi in a casino. The sushi was good. I love the all you can eat concept. I had a more filling lunch than yesterday. Of course eating with men helps. They understand what quantity of food a man needs.

We had good conversation about food, Asia, durians and travelling. It is pretty consistent that all dads do projects for their boys. This step-father helped the son with his project and there is a small piece he wanted the boy to finish using Excel to produce a chart for the experiment. This boy who had attained master-level in a few of the computer games he played, finds it too difficult to key in 5 sets of numbers into the Excel spreadsheet in order to produce a chart. So he was penalised 5 points and had 45 marks out of 50.

I feel so much better when it warms up. The trip is coming to an end soon. I will be able to exercise off a lot of the weight I gained while living here for the past three weeks. Yep! I have plenty of work to do!

Early to Bed

The boys' bedtime is 8 pm as they have to get up by 5:30am to get ready for school. It is amazing that they just follow this rule. How I wish my boys will follow especially since B3 has to get up at 5:45am. B3 usually goes to bed past 9pm. He sleeps about 10pm. No wonder he has problem getting up. Obviously, my host and his wife has good control over their boys. And they think they are not doing enough!!

This afternoon when I returned home, the older boy was doing his homework. It is about space travel. The answer to one of his questions is incorrect. So I guide him on the concept of "g" or gravity. He think that when a man is in the spacecraft, there is a speed limit as man can only withstand up to 9Gs. What he did not realise is there is no gravitation pull once you are in space. So I asked him to google the question. After we found the confirmation to what I told him, he just googled the other questions and get the answers. Life with the internet is such a cinch.

Busy Day in the Office

It is back-to-back training. First, I was given a whirlwind tour of the office and meeting everyone. Then IT come and brief me on the policies and how to use the computer. After that, it is one department to another. Regulatory Affairs, Innovation, Customer Support and I spent some time with my key contacts.

Lunch was with 2 HR ladies. We had good conversation about kids. A young girl who just left the company came over to buy her lunch. She married an Airforce personnel who is responsible for loading of aircrafts. She will be relocating to Virginia. They were recently married and he is gone for a few months. What a life! I thought I was bad when I keep leaving the country for work. I am out of country usually one week, sometimes two. However, this man is gone for a few months!!!

This girl is young and sweet. Her husband is a native Indian and does not do paperwork or pay attention to where he is supposed to go. He seems quite weak in capabilities. I think military service is good for this kind of men. The girl is now going to school to be a court stenographer. So as husband and wife, they are quite matching in skills and capabilities. So it should be alright for them.

Coming back to lunch. Man! I am starving in the afternoon. Women need so little food. I had half and half. Half a soup and half a sandwich. The meal just flow through my system. I am glad to reach home and snack on home-made cake, home-made cookies and pita chips.

Back to Reno Again

I left Toronto at 9:45am this morning. There is no direct flight from TO to Reno. So it is 5 and half hours to San Francisco and a three and half hours layover before connecting to Reno with an 37 mins flight. Total travel time is 12 hours. What a tiring journey.

I am glad to be back in the home of my friend. Now I have internet and can blog again. The previous blog entry was for Saturday. Dinner is deep fried calamari, curry mussels, fabulous homemade cookies, strawberries and I peeled and slice the mangoes as usual. The younger boy loved mangoes and likes me to cut for him.

I am so glad to visit mum. It is so nice to leave her home better than when I first arrived. I felt so good to vaccuum and clean up her place. We did not have to buy a new vaccuum cleaner after I washed the filters clogging up the intake of fan motor. The vaccuum cleaner just need maintenance. She bought a Zojiroshi 3-cups GABA rice cooker and a new mattress to increase the height of the bed which helps her when she has to get up from the bed.

We had good conversation and ate at the Pho Vietnamese resturant as well as dim sum on Saturday morning.

This is the last week of my trip. I will be glad to be heading home for teh halia, chicken rice, wanton mee and fishball noodles.

Ignorant Immigration Officers

I was going to the Canadian Immigration and a sign says “APEC card” and directed me to a different queue. The officer is surprised by me. He asked what is my special circumstances and I showed him the card. He does not recognized it. He asked his colleague in the next station and that guy just shrugged his shoulders. I just queue with everyone else. It is not a pleasant experience especially with self righteous ignoramous man who is an ass. Canada must have sign up as APEC but their officers do not know. How could the country tap into the economies of Asia Pacific when they treat the holders of APEC cards shabbily? Do they know they are offending businessman who can help them in their economy? I bet they don’t and they don’t care since they have a very high opinion of themselves.
My wife always tells me that Canada is so backward and far behind Asia in technology and products. She is so right! While Asia zooms along, Canadians are falling behind. Anyway, they have a big country and plenty of resources. So they are lucky but it is a matter of time before they screw up their own future.
I am glad to visit mum. I fixed up her light and clean her vacuum cleaner. We also looked for a mattress to increase the height of her bed. The errands are very simple and easy to do but for her, it was impossible as she does not have the ability to do her with her limited mobility and lack of do-it-yourself skills. I am glad I can leave her in a better position than before my visit. We will look for a vacuum cleaner that can suck up all the dirt and hairs.

Morton's Steak of Chicago

Dinner at Morton's Steak with a Japanese customer. The scallop wrapped in bacon was good. I remember the Singapore's version is better. But hey, that was the first time and it may be the law of diminishing returns at work.

I had New York Strip. The meat is quite good but I think Ruth's is more tender. I had a different cut. So it is not apple-to-apple comparison. There are less conversation this time because we had a Korean American who enjoyed talking alot. I took a walk to exercise off some of the calories I ingested.

It is beautiful and cool. This is a nice time to be in Florida. There was a very bright star on the horizon. It is so easy to do star gazing in US compared to Singapore.

I have an early start and a long day tomorrow. So I shall end here.

No Headache!

I am not sure why. It may be the change in the weather or the bed or the pillow or the humidity. I woke up with no headache this morning. I even had some red wine last night. Weather in Orlando is closest to home. It is warm and a little more humid than Las Vegas or Reno.

I suspect it may be the low humidity that dry up my sinuses which is good but cause me to have a headache. It is fantastic to wake up with no headache:)

Orlando

Land of Disney World. We are at Peabody just right beside the Convention Center. Orlando is so much warmer and green. Plenty of lakes. The weather is nice contrast to the windy Reno. It is actually nice to go outside.

Another contrast is the flat landscape. Nevada is just hilly and rocky. There are mostly rocks with scrawny grass and bushes. It is like a halfway house to moonscape. Florida is subtropical with plenty of green.

We have been busy with meeting customers. The dinner at Ruth's Chris Grill was excellent. The steaks are nice and tender. Very juicy inside. Served in plates heated to 500 degress F. It is a nice touch. The crab cakes is made from real crabmeat unlike the crabmeat sticks in Singapore which are made from pollock fish. The deep fried calamari is crispy outside and soft inside with tangy seasoning. Yummy!

I keep waking up in the middle of the night and unable to go back to sleep. This gives me a chance to write my blog.

What A Nice Evening

Dinner is homecooked NY Striploin. The steak was simply seasoned with Lava Salt. The salt is black in colour as it is impregnated with carbon. The meat was done just right for me - medium and it is just pink inside. Very tender and excellent flavor. I learned how to prepare and cook asparagus by observing how my friend's wife does it. Little tricks of wisdom like bending the asparagus until it snaps. Where it snaps is the length to discard as it will be too fibrous. The asparagus is then fried in lard. Mmmm! Yummy. I also learn a meat thermometer is important for bbqing. It takes the guesswork of making sure it is cooked or not inside.

I sit beside the wood fireplace with burning logs to do blogging. It is nice, warm and cosy. The fire will crackles now and then. It is heavenly feeling.

Gratitudes for Today

I forget to do my gratitudes for the past few days. The excitement of meeting new people, soaking up new experience and work work work. Now it is time to do my gratitudes.

I have to crack my head to think of my gratitudes. It may be the jetlag. My brain is sleepy and yet not. Kind of in a limbo state...yeah it is just excuses for not figuring my gratitudes.

Okay, here goes:

1. I am grateful for technology. Now I can keep in touch with family. I can look at the camera remotely and see my family having their dinner. Technology makes travelling so much better. I am not glued to the TV and trying to flip through channels to look for something I like.

2. Shelter. I am grateful to be in a nice warm shelter while to wind is blowing non-stop. It is nice to be sitting beside a warm fire and hearing the crackles as the logs burn.

3. Friends. I am grateful for staying over with a friend. It is so warm and nice to see the frisky boys. Good food instead of hamburgers. Nice soups and Asian cuisine in white land. I also get to cut out the fruits for the family like I do at home. A slice of family indeed!

I may need a nap as I am so sleepy now...zzzzZZZZ.

Windy is the Word

At about 5am in Reno, the winds start to blow. I can hear the sound of the winds. It is very gusty and strong. I was up at 3am and hop back to bed after a couple of hours. It is a little hard to get back to sleep with the noise the wind makes. It also start to feel cold. I don't think the temp of the room dropped. But man! it feels cold!

The winds keep on blowing until now. It is 11am now. This mean the winds have been blowing for 6 hours. I do not know about you. I sure do not feel like going outside. This is exteme weather. Yikes!

There are a lot of nice things to do in Reno as my friend and host pointed out to me yesterday. You can do camping, skiing, water sports...all within half an hour drive. Reno is a small town. The buildings are old and have a good warm feel about them. Even after you renovate an old building and spruce it up, I like the way he puts it "If it is an old dog, after showering and cleaning up, it is still an old dog." The old dog atmosphere is so much warmer than the cold shiny clean skyscraper of tempered glass and stainless steel of Chicago or New York.

I had a tour of the campground and Lake Tahoe, the place is beautiful. It is not lush and green like Singapore - it is winter now for heaven's sake. I like the rugged beauty. Weather is a little extreme with this strong gusty winds. I guess my impression has change from the first time I was here. No sure if I can live here forever but hey, it is quite a livable city. But...I am still in love with San Diego. Maybe B1 might go to the University there and I can visit...

Daylight Saving

Tomorrow, the time will "spring" forward one hour. This mean 7am becomes 8am. The daylight saving signals the start of spring and will give more hours of daylight after work. This also mean warm weather ahead and the dark cold winter is behind us. I loved the seasons when I lived in Canada.

In the summer, we have summer hours. This mean we work longer on for 4 days and have alternate Fridays off. With the long weekends, we can do a lot of exploring outside the home. Usually, weekends are used for grocery shopping, cleaning up the house and laundry. So when we have a long weekend, we can drive out to the country for fishing or tours. It is also fun to visit farms. Summers in Ontario is fantastic. I loved it there.

The day will start earlier by an hour tomorrow.

Lake Tahoe

What a beautiful lake. The water is deep blue and clear. The pine trees at the side of mountains. The snow...it is like a postcard. Lake Tahoe is about half ride from where I am staying. It is a gorgeous looking place. Stark beauty as the landscape is quite stony and full of exposed rocks which nothing grows on.

We had lunch at a resturant in the lakeshore. I had deep fried zuchinni and pork ribs. Both at appetitizer portion. My host has sundried tomatoes skewered with an olive and a small ball of buffalo cheese. I am actually guessing that it is buffalo cheese as I did not know what it actually is.

It is quite windy and the place is filled with people. I must say that it is quite nice to visit. So maybe Reno is not such a bad place to live. There are ski resorts and campsites. In summer, you can do wakeboarding, water-skiing and kayaking.

There is something for me to try! Gliding. We can ride on the glider. It will be fun. It cost about $250 American for half an hour to go up and glide down. If I like it, I may take up gliding lessons in future.

We are going to have barbeque ribs for dinner. The ribs are smoked now as I write this blog. I can't wait to taste the food. I will gain weight this trip. Sigh...

Weekend in Reno

Sales Meeting is over. Now I am in Reno "hanging out" with my friend. His wife is from Philippines and his two sons are good looking. Both boys are a little skinny like B3. One is older than B3 by one year and the other is younger by one year. I guess kids at this age are tall and thin. Our neighbour's girl at same age as B3 is tall and skinny too. It affects both boys and girls.

The moon is full and it is just amazing to watch it rise so quickly over the horizon. Yes, this is the view from the living room. What an incredible view this house has. It my be 15th day on the lunar calendar. The sky is so clear in the desert. I was here in December 2004 as my host reminded me. I am not good with dates as I can remember was I was here. The house was new at that time and the backyard has just gravel on top. Now the backyard is carpetted with grass and nicely landscaped. The house is warm.

Mummy is watching Jack and Jill dvd with the boys. It is good family get together. The house is huge and I have Alex's room. It is the same room I was in the first time I was here.

This reminds me...my gas potable gas bbq stove at home is 7 years old now. I bought this gas stove when I was previously. I will have good rest this weekend.

Up at 3 in the Morning

I was up since 3am here in Vegas. It is 7pm Singapore time. I was unable to go back to sleep, so I turn on the TV to keep me company and hoping it will put me back to sleep but no joy. So I get up and make hot tea as my throat is dry. Humidity is so low here. Pitchers of ice water do not sweat or have any condensation whatsoever even after a few hours. It runs counter to what I am used to. Cold cups at home always sweats immediately. The sweats always leave a big water puddle on the table.

US is so big. So a couple of the fathers have kids going to University. They spend time visiting so many Universities. The choices are quite extensive and many factors to consider. So many good schools that I am very envious that Americans are so lucky. I reflect on this as B1 is evaluating Universities too. It may not be a good thing for Americans to have so many good choices at home. As Jim Collins put it - Good is the enemy of Great. Americans do not even think of Universities in Europe or Asia. In this respect, B1 has an advantage. He has to evaluate Universities in England as America. It is not global evaluation but much broader in scope. So B1 will have broader experience whether he goes to England or America to do his degree.

So it makes sense why Empires rise and fall. Wealth do not last more than 3 generations. When you are at the top of the game, just looking at yourself is busy enough that you will stop looking outside and evaluate how others do. This will be the start of decline...

Fabulous Dinner

It was an excellent dinner. I had sushi for appetitizer and beef short ribs. The resturant name is Roy's. It is Hawaii's theme. The food is very good and conversation was excellent! I learn a lot from this trip. Tomorrow is travel day. I have to pack tonight and will have meeting in the morning and checking out before heading to the airport.

I learn the organizer, a black lady is half Malaysia. Her father is from Ghana and mother is from Malaysia. So I will test my Bahasa tomorrow morning with her!

I am glad one leg of my trip is coming to an end.

Gratitudes

It is hard to think of gratitudes when I am travelling. Maybe it is just the heavy schedules. We keep moving from one thing to another. Also I may be loaded with too much information.

I am grateful to be healthy and adjusting well. Although I get a headache, it may be due to the lousy pillows in the hotel.

I also want to express my gratitudes to be with friends at work and business.

I am happy to have some time to blog and log my thoughts.

A Night for Winners and Many who did not

As usual, the winner get it all! One guy win three out of the 6 or 7 awards. This is how it is in America. It is the individual who win. This is the American culture.

I am so tired and sleepy now. I wonder if I can sleep longer hours tonight.

Warm Welcome

I am a little overwhelmed by the warm welcome everyone extended to me. Seems like some have heard of me as well. My reputation travels before I do. We had dinner and everyone has headed to bed. I like the company. It seems most go off to bed instead of drinking and talking politics. I like this culture. It is fantastic!

Meeting Ex-classmate

Jetlag can screw up bodily functions. I cannot sleep well in the room because of the light and timing. I am feeling light headed, it is like dizziness and headache and yet not. Good thing this feeling has pass.

I also did not write down my gratitudes in the last two days. I am thankful for meeting new friends and colleagues today. I am thankful to be in US and have a lot of opportunities to explore moving forward. I am thankful to have to opportunity to visit mum.

I hope I can adjust to the new clock here quickly. It is going to be busy time and I have lots to learn. I am a happy in a learning mode.

I almost forgot! On the flight to LA, I met an ex-classmate in our night class in GDMM. She was sitting actually beside me before I move to the window seat directly in front of her. I did not recognised her at first...it is rude to look at a woman for too long. While waiting for the washroom, I noticed her and told her she looked familiar. I told her I think she was my classmate in marketing class 10 years ago. She looked at me and call K. I was not sure if she was calling my name and continue to try to figure out who she is. Then she you are K and I told her shamefully, I have forgotten her name and she told me it is Karen. Ahha! She is really my classmate and she was in the same study group. Then she says it is not 10 years ago...I told her I know but I do not want to let other passengers know how old she is. It is almost 30 years ago! It is also a coincident that I met Karen again. I have never met any other classmates again. Karen, I met once some 10 years or more ago in a supermarket where she was selling soap in Unilever. She is now working for Kraft and on her way to Miami for Sales meeting. She is returning home on Friday.

Karen is a very sweet girl and she is still single. I have no idea why. Maybe no Mr. Right that meets her standards or maybe she is not that into men. The other problem is she is a senior executive, so it will be difficult for her to attract men who work with her. Successful women does have this challenge. She enjoys reading fiction and need a reading glass. She does not paint her nails and is very simple in her ways. We says goodbye but I did not get her contact as I know I am not good at networking.

Las Vegas

This is my first trip to Vegas. The casinos are huge! Singapore govt did the right thing to have two casinos instead of one to have scale and cluster effect. All the names I read about or watched in tv shows appeared live in my eyes. Wynn is in the news in a dispute is there. Cesar Palace, Trump, and more. You know you arrived the gambling city right at the airport! Waiting Lounges has the slot machines, even baggage claims area. I wonder who would play while waiting for their luggage to come out on the carousels. Everyone will be in a hurry to take their bags and go.

I woke up at 4am and can't go back to sleep. So it is blogging time:) the weather is cool but not freezing. I am just waiting for day break and walk around the property. Unfortunately, there is no mall attached to the hotel. I
missed my favorite pastime - window shopping.

Sheltering from rain at the PCN

Since my sickness spell at the Punggol PCN previously, I have not cycled far. This morning, I decided to go far again. It is funny feeling as I cycle past Sengkang CC. I keep at it and decided to turn around when I reached Hougang. On the way back, dark clouds gathered and soon after it rains. No! it pours! I take shelter under the same flyover. So I decided to take a picture to show where I was when I felt sick last Wednesday.

When the rains reduce in intensity, I continues my way home and it is cold. I felt the chills cycling back. It is nice to be back home and have a hot shower.

Beautiful Sunday

I drank too much tea last night and have to get up to pee 3 or 4 times in the middle of the night. So I got up late this morning. Late is 8am... We have a lazy day. Lunch is home-cooked fried beehoon. The beehoon is a little dry. Our new domestic help shift from too much liquid to too little. It is hard for her to get it right for now. She does a good job with the laundry and housekeeping. So it is still good to have help at home. It free us to enjoys more time doing what we like. In the evening, I did a short bike ride to Sengkang Community Club and back. Dinner is just leftovers from yesterday's food.

I feel rested and ready for my super long travel tomorrow. I will not be exercising much the next few weeks. It is just a simple day. B2 visited his girlfriend, B1 and I attended a talk by U of T and B3 stayed home to do his homework.

So I am happy to have a rest day. Taking it easy my gratitude for the day. I also happy that B3 had a lot of fun making his Korean donuts in the morning. This time he does all the mixing and forming of the donuts by himself. I only helped him to fry. I am also happy the mangoes I cut is enjoyed by the whole family. It is really simple joy to see my work in cutting up the mangoes is rewarded when my family tuck them in heartily.

Yes, today is a beautiful Sunday.

Wonderful Evening

My sisters and brother came for dinner. I had a wonderful time cooking for them. B1 helped me to barbeque chicken thighs, satay, cuttlefish and fish. I had three types of fish. Now I know which type fish to bbq in future. The grilled zuchini is quite popular as well. It is juicy and crunchy.

I am quite happy everyone enjoys the food. The only healthy food I had was black rice and my baby sis' fresh garden salad. Other than rice and salad, the rest is full of cholesterol and other unhealthy elements such as carcinogens from bbq or sodium from the seasonings.

It is a pity the evening come to an end early. They are in a hurry to go and left just after 9 pm. We packed and clear up our living room. Good time pass quickly.

Gratitudes:

1. I am grateful to have good family ties and everyone happy to come together once every few months.

2. I am grateful for having a domestic who makes entertaining a cinch and letting me enjoys the time with my family.

3. I am grateful to have a wonderful day.

What Am I Grateful For for Today?

Gratitude time! Time to record what the 3 things I am grateful for for today. Before that, I want to put on record I did not exercise today. So I am giving my body a rest. B1 is back home early but went off to have dinner with his girlfriend's family and is not back yet and it is close to 11pm. Okay, B1 just came in. This is good. B3 is getting scolding from mummy over his Chinese homework. B2 is working on the logo of our new company.

I am grateful for the peaceful day. I am grateful my 3 babies are growing up well. I am grateful to live in Singapore. It is a good and safe place to raise kids and earn a living.

TGIF

Friday! I am running into sleep debt. I fell asleep after finishing a phone conversation. Then B1 woke me up when he inform me that he is leaving to have dinner with his girlfriend family. I have to get up to send B3 to his tuition. Now that I am back, I feel sleepy but cannot sleep.

I feel like spending money and spurt on lunch at New York New York in Ang Mo Kio Hub. Now that I am home alone, it is time for blogging...

First Day

I received an email from HR welcoming me on my first day of work. It is nice of her to remember me 12,000 miles away. I will be meeting her in a couple of weeks. As my new boss puts it.... it is nice to be loved!

Taking it easy. I did not push myself at the PCN. No point risking a repeat of yesterday. I am happy today everything went well. I bought fish from the wet market this morning. We had steamed rabbit fish aka pek thor. They are very small but taste fresh. I also have black promfret and squids getting them ready for barbequing on Saturday afternoon.

Coming to my three gratefuls for the day:

1. I am grateful for my friends who standby me in times of need. It is easy to tell who are your true friends when you are in need.

2. I am grateful for the blessed family I have. It is good to have meals and good conversations.

3. I am grateful for the material things we enjoys - TV, internet and good food;-)

Very Sick While Riding in PCN

I must have ate something that caused me to feel like I am dying. Early in the morning, I saw flashes of light. Then I had morning tea in the hawker. The tea was too strong and quite "siap" in Hokkien. So I only drank half of it. At home, I made Gourmet Coffee from Boncafe beans using my Italian coffee maker. I mixed the hot coffee with raw wheatgerm, raw bran and oat. After drinking, the coffee-oat mixture and did not feel good after I drank it. I forgot about the bad feeling and do my morning exercise of cycling in the Punggol PCN.

I rode all the way to Hougang and on returning journey, I felt like dying. It is interesting come to think of it. Wild thoughts come to my head. I start to worry that I may die before I start my new job and trip to US. I thought of how my family will react if leave this world. I stopped under the flyover and lie down to rest. I can see the blue sky and white clouds. The movements of the clouds cause me to be dizzy. I felt nauseous and vomited out only yellow gastric juices.

I thought I will be able to cycle back home after resting. However, after half an hour, I decided to call my wife to pick me up. I tried not call as I do not want her to panic. The last time I called her to pick me up, I had a bad fall suffering retrograde amnesia and a broken wrist. The problem with PCN is it is difficult to tell someone where exactly I am. Also it is hard to know how to get there by road unless you are familiar with the place. So I told my wife I will meet her at Sengkang Community Center. I was sweating profusely as I ride and I was unable to look straight or forward. I just look down on the track and cycled very slowly. It is like I am on slow-motion movie. Luckily, B2 was on the track looking for me before I arrive the Community Club. I handed the bike to him and have to pause twice on the way to the car to vomit. Again only bitter and sour juices come up.

I was in good hand. Although I am very dirty, I could not prevent my body from notlying onto the car seat. So the seat is wet with my cold sweat and dirt from lying on the floor beneath the flyover.

When I reached home, I had a hot shower and spit out a lot of clear phlegm. I lie on the bed and fell asleep for a couple of hours and wake up feeling much better.

I am thankful B2 and my wife is at home to be able to pick me and the bicycle up. I also should thank Angels for watching over me. My wife has to cancel her lunch appointment with Kitt's mother. Kitt is B3's ex-classmate. She is a very sweet girl.

Last Lesson

Today is the last lesson for my English Pronounciation course. We enjoyed this course and it help us with the frequent misprounciation of words. It is good learning. Of course we will lapse into our bad habits again but now I am conscious of misprounciation.

Actually, I will recommend this course to everyone. It is conducted by Norman Lim who is a news reader of yore. He is excellent in teaching us on the right way to pronounce a lot of the words. Poetry become a pleasure when he reads them aloud. The course is 8 lessons of 1.5 hours and is very affordable. They are conducted in Community Centers - Teck Ghee and Serangoon are the ones I know for sure.

My gratitudes for Tuesday:

1. Thank God for a smooth regular day. Everything went like clockwork. My boy had his Subway lunch and picking him up from tuition was a cinch with the traffic flowing freely.

2. PCN is totally opened. The barrier blocking the unpaved cycling path has been removed and the Sengkang to Punggol is totally connected and it is just a smooth ride all the way.

3. B2 have completed his medical exams and his application to Nanyang Poly. Looks like he is all set to go.

Monday!

It is the start of a new week. I have nothing much to do or rather I did not do much. In the morning, B1 and B2 have to follow us to Bras Besar Complex to print the pictures of our extended family i.e. my siblings and their kids together with my family. It will be good for my mum to show to all her oldie friends. They are called "seniors" in Canada. I also have to update my wardrobe for upcoming trip. My boss's assistant has reminded me to look sharp for the formal dinner. I have to test out all my current work clothes. I have grown in size over the years and I rarely buy new clothes. So I will have some serious shopping to do.

Now is a good time to think of my 3 gratitudes.

First - it is good that B1 and B2 follow us to print the photos and then have lunch with us. I enjoyed the contact time with them.

Second - the maid agency did a home visit to our home. A team of three came our home and interview our maid. Now she is perfectly fine for now. I do worry that after talking to our neighbours' maids, there may be a relapse. For now, I am grateful the issue is resolved.

Third - B3 is very happy to get friends calling him. He enjoys socialising with the two friends who called everyday without fail. My shy boy is integrating well in the school.

3 Thanks

It was good to relax and rest at the poolside. While I was napping, heavy dark clouds hangs overhead and thunders keep clashing. It rains then stop. I started on a new book I bought during Page One closing down sale - Good Strategy Bad Strategy. Reading is one of the best sleeping pill according to research. I fell asleep after a few pages...

Back to my thanks for Sunday.

1. Everyone is safe and sound. We had dinner with all our boys and it is a great routine.

2. B3 cycled in the PCN with me. Yes, this time he is on his own leg power. We helped a girl who fell while roller blading. Gave her sister recommendation to see a chiropractor.

3. Mummy completed a deal tonight and she is so happy. We are very happy too:)

Feeling Lazy

Haaaaiiya! I am feeling so lethargic and slow. Don't feel like reading, don't feel like watching TV, don't feel like doing anything. Sometimes, life is so "sian" Hokkien for bored. Maybe I will go to the pool to lie down to sleep.

Nothing to do, I just check who is visiting my blog. I have a referral from Janette. I went to the blog and have a look. Looked like she break up with her boyfriend of many years and found new love. In 8 months, she is "committed". I have no idea what this mean. I think in Malaysia, it means getting married. Janette is very much in love and seems happy. A woman like to be loved. I dropped her a note to let her know she is lucky to be loved.

Yawn... I think I will go to the poolside to zzzZZZZZZ....

Visit Mum in Canada

I will be visiting my mum in Ontario in a couple of weeks. I have not seen her for a couple of years now. She was in Singapore two Chinese New Year ago. Her mobility is limited and it is more challenging to for her to travel.

I will have to help her get a mattress to raise the height of her bed and also to get a vaccuum cleaner so that she can clean up her place. I need to go to the bank to top up some of my accounts in order stop the bank charges. Canadian bank accounts are expensive to maintain. No wonder they are so profitable. The banks always dream of many ways to charge a customer.

I am looking forward to see her and if possible maybe visit a friend or two.

Great Morning

6:30am is not too early to wake up. Best of all, Sunday Times has arrived. So I go to my favorite Teh Halia stall (because price is at S$1 per cup rather than S$1.20 in Chomp Chomp or Jalan Kayu) in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10. I had a plain thosai as well.

The advantage of being a regular is everything is custom-made for me. My teh-halia is not too sweet. My thosai is nicely brown and crusty instead of the usual soft and thick. Usually in order to get a brown and crunchy thosai, you have to order a "paper" style. Paper Thosai is huge and cost $3.50. I like my economy version. This morning my breakfast set cost a total of two Sin dollars. Not bad except I will be feeling hungry as a bear soon.

I like the front page on the Opening of the PCN, Sengkang Loop. Deputy Prime Minister, Teo Chee Hean says plans are on the way to link up all the loops and make it an islandwide cycling path. It will be a two days ride and there will be a place for camping overnight. Punggol Sengkang PCN is the 4th to be opened and is the most scenic. I agree but after riding so many times, at least twice a day for me, the scenes get a little stale. I am looking for more connections. I know I can now cycle to Pasir Park. It will be fun to cycle to more places.

Not So Good Day...

It was not a good start to the day this morning. Our helper says she is sick and cannot work. We know it is a tactic and she has learned from other maids on causing problems for us. So we upset by this issue. We have dealt with this many times. Philippinas like to promise to work hard and agree on the terms of agreement. After they arrived for a few weeks, all kind of stories will come up. They will weasel their way out of their commitment.
My wife now has a headache to deal with.

Moving to my 3 gratitudes for today. My first would be meeting my niece who was jogging in the Punggol PCN with her boyfriend. I am happy she is doing her exercise and keeping ft. Her face is all flushed red and she is trying to catch with her boyfriend. She does love him a lot to struggle like this in the hot afternoon sun. Next, I have Baby No. 3 riding behind me on the bicyle. It is good to have him on my back while we enjoy the scenery of Punggol Waterways. Last but not least, I cook outdoor dinner for my family in which they enjoyed. I have chicken satays, boiled Japanese soya beans and glutinous riceballs with peanut soup for dessert. It is gratifying to see my family eating up my handiwork with gusto.

Life's simple pleasures...

Sleepless in Singapore

I am up at 5am this morninng. So it is off to morning tea in the market. The wet market is full of activities and many hawkers have started operation. A few 24 hour shops beside 7-Eleven, Indian coffeeshop, Shop N Save are opened but not busy. The fishmongers are preparing their fishes for display and butchers are cutting up their meat. Green grocers have their fresh greens neatly placed.

Many are up as there are quite a few customers drinking or having breakfast. I wonder if they are like me, waking up early or just finishing their work. In a big city, there are so many people with all kinds of occupationa and the city ticks 24 hours anyway.

Day is starting to break. I bet there are plenty of weekend joggers in the PCN. So the city will be bustling with people going about with their daily business - tuition, shopping, meals, or simply taking it easy and relax like what I like to do.

3 More Gratitudes

Many things to be grateful for...

1. My Health. So far so good, although my blood pressure and cholestorol are high. I have no symptons and not on any medications. I am enjoying good food i.e. deep fried stuff and plenty of bbq. I enjoys cycling.

2. My Home. I have enough space for my books and all the paraphernalia my boys and wife have. It is quiet and frequent by birds. It is a good place to relax.

3. My Lifestyle. I exercise every day and keep fit. I can relax at the poolside or take a dip. I can watch TV while I work. It is a good life.

Happy

I wrote this title and then start thinking what should I write about. Am I really happy today? Not really. However, I am happy to borrow 4 audiobooks from Bishan. I am happy to think about the food I need to prepare to host my siblings, nephews and nieces.

I am not happy misplacing a recipe book on Barbeque Food. I search everywhere and it cannot be found. I have too many books in many places. It may be hidden behind some other books or it may be in one of the many stacks around the house.

I am happy my car is serviced today. The aircon filter has been changed and tyres rotated. Best of all, it took only one hour. While waiting for the car to be service, I kill time in Bishan. It is quite a nice place. There is a group of young housewives chatting away in one table and another group of older women who just finished their exercise. The oldies are having fun singing as well. The HDB flat is very tall and look like a private condominium. A slice of life in Singapore.

As I review the day, it is quite a happy day. We register B3 to a new Chinese tuition. So now he has basically tuition everyday. This not exactly something to celebrate about. Yet if he does not go tuition, he will be playing his computer games.

Overall, the happy and good things outweighs the negative.

Donation for my Witness

I promised to make a donation to a charity of her choice when my witness wrote the statement. Although the statement she wrote is basically says nothing to help in the situation, she has discharged her promise to write a statement.

I will also discharge my promise to make a donation to her favorite charity. I have written to her to ask her which charity she likes and she has not replied yet. I have a feeling she is not likely to reply.

At first, I thought I will go to the Kuan Yin Temple in Queens Street to donate for her. However, she may not like it if she is a Christian. I hope I do not have to donate to a Christian organisation. Although I support World Vision, in general, I do not subscribe to the narrow and biased views of Christian groups like the NUS Christian Society currently under supension.

So I think if I do not get an answer from her, I will donate to the School Money Pocket Fund for her. This fund help poor school kids who does not have money for recess or stationery. It is also secular.

Family Gathering

My siblings have confirmed coming over for dinner next Saturday. It has been some time since we last gather together. This time my brother is invited as well. I will do barbeque this time.

What am I grateful for today. I know I missed writing my gratitude yesterday.

1. I finally have signed agreement on my new assignment. So I will be flying to US for meeting and training in two weeks. It is a long trip. So I will also visit mum in Toronto. I am glad to see mum again after two years.

2. A drain hole in my balcony was covered when the developer's contractor did waterproofing work and has just reopen back the hole. Now I do not need to worry if the regular drain is clogged by dead leaves. I am happy that slowly my house is make back to a good state.

3. Finally, my witness wrote a statement for me. I do not know if it will help but I have send to my insurer for them to process. I am glad to be able move forward.

Sex Scandals in Singapore

Sex scandals rock Singapore recently. It is a new phenomenon. Singapore is a well-oiled tightly controlled country and recent headlines are make our venerable Straits Times looked like tabloid in the supermarket shelves at the checkout counters in US. It is also interesting reading and quite slanted. Opposition seems to get attention grabbing headlines.

I must say to get into the front page headline is easy if you are in the opposition party and alleged to have done something wrong. It seems like sex, the weapon of choice has move south from Malaysia.

Morals is interesting and debate is raging in the internet. THe future looks interesting...

3 Gratitudes

1. I am grateful to meet old friends and colleagues. It is good to see all of them doing well. WF's daughter is in medical school in Australia and NC's son is doing medicine in NUS.

2. I am grateful that my boys did not too badly in school.

3. I am grateful to be happy with what I have and enjoy.

Party with Ex-colleagues

I am looking forward to meeting my ex-colleagues hosted by a beautiful Thai who prepare delicious Thai food for all of us. We have not met for many years now. She hosted us when she first relocated to Singapore with her husband who is CEO of a Supermarket chain.

Now her husband has retired and they will be moving back to Phuket to live. She invited a few ex-colleagues who she still has their contacts and one of them, forward the invitation to me. I am very happy to meet them again. Most of us have moved on to different company although quite a few still stay in the same company which was merged twice!

I can only go late as I have to pick up B3 from his Chinese tuition. It will be fun.

Sunday Gratitudes

I was up early this Sunday morning at 5:40am. It was raining, so I made coffee with my Italian coffeemaker. At about 7am, even though it is very cloudy and look set to rain again, I cycle to PCN. It was a nice two hours ride.

I have my three gratitudes for today:

1. I met an ex-colleague in Canadian Education Fair. His daughter is evaluating to study in Canada. My ex-colleague is still in the medical industry. We worked together in 1995 in Yishun.

2. The announcement Coney Island will be a nature park. I am looking forward to explore Coney Island once it is open as it is part of the PCN.

3. A good day with my boys and everyone safe and sound.

Great Relief!

My wife did it! She talks about the clogged drain at home with her colleagues and friends today. They gave her plenty of tips. When she returns home, she applied the boiling water remedy and it works! Our drainage finally unclogged. It was flowing slowly with the application of powerful chemical. I also used the slinky to take out some hairs and cotton waste. It is immense relief that finally the water level did not rise when we drain a huge bolus of water through the sink. Fantastic!

Time for my three gratitudes for today:

1. Great dinner. I am grateful for the wonderful homecooked Japanese meal. We cooked Japanese, flavor them with sushi vinegar and sweet sake. We had silvers of Japanese cucumber, tamago, avocado and crab meat rolled into the sushi rice on seaweed with prawn roe. We had wonderful conversation.

2. Place in University. B1 is offered a place in University of Warwick. He is both happy and relief. We are happy too. Although he has a place to read Law in NUS, it is not his top choice.

3. B3 and I. We spend time together for lunch. He is happy I spoil him with candy and we ate the flaming choice seafood platter in Manhattan Fish Market. I am glad he has recovered from his last night's cranky behaviour.

I am making dried mangoes as NTUC Fairprice has great deals - Keith Mangoes for $3.75ea and Honey Mangoes at $3.75 for 5. I love the fruit drying machine. It allows me to take advantage of the lower price when the fruits are in season.

Fingers Crossed

I have poured in more chemical. Now my place smell bad as the ammonia permeates throughout the house as the strong chemical reacts with the organic waste. I am keeping my fingers cross that this time it will work. Looking into the drain hole, the scums looked positively yakky!

At least we are on our way to clear drainage, or so I hope.

Unclogging Drainage

I was up early to continue to work on the clogged drain. I will need to get more "unblocking" chemical which I found out in the internet that it is Lye or Sodium Hydroxide and Sodium Hypochloride. It is very powerful and I will be able to fix this clogged drain in future now that I know what to do.