Goodbye 2008, Hello 2009!

2008 is a year fraught with many sad news – rapid deterioriation of the credit industry leading to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, continual battle against terrorism in India, milk powder and melamine scandal in China and the fatal earthquake in Sichuan. As we are bidding farewell to 2008, we hope that 2009 will bring new hope and more happy news to everyone.

Looking from the homefront, Singapore has not escaped unscathed from what are plaguing the other regions. The financial crisis has led to the collapse of 150-year old Lehman Brothers and caused many retail investors to lose their retirement fund. The terrorism in India resulted in the loss of fellow countryman. The melamine scandal drew fears in many Singaporeans regarding food produce from China. Many Singaporeans contributed generously to the mercy relief for the survivors of the Sichuan earthquake.

Enough of the bad news, 2008 is not exactly without any happy events. The phenomenal success of the Beijing Olympics showed the other regions what Asians were capable of. The world records that were broken in the various stadiums made us wowed by the architectural superiority of the Chinese. The winning of a silver medal by the Singapore’s table tennis women team also made many Singaporeans jubilant for many days.

2009 will continue to be a trying year especially economically with the financial crisis expected to worsen and many more people to lose their jobs. In the security area, fights against terrorism will persevere. The policies to be implemented by newly elected US President – Barrack Obama will be watched by the world. Many are hoping that the new President will lead US to greater heights and resolve some of the long-drawn issues.

Let’s hope that 2009 will be a better year for all.

Review of Resolutions for the Year

End of the year is often an ideal time to revisit the resolutions made at the beginning of the year and also to reflect over the experiences of the previous year in preparation of the coming new year.

For a long time, I have ceased to make any resolutions as it becomes depressing when I realise I fulfil neither of them at the end of the year. It is also not a good sign as I tend to coast along the year with no targets and live the days rather monotonously.

Reflecting on what happened in this year. I have yet again achieved nothing earth-shattering. Neither can I proclaim that I have leapt into another phase in my life or reached any significant milestone. The only consolation is that I have finally set foot on Japan - the land of the sun. It has been a wish for a long time ever since I have started taking Japanese about more than a decade ago. After hearing so much about the language, the people and the culture, I wanted to see, feel and smell it for myself.

In terms of other aspects, I am quite contented with my perseverance in yoga. What started as a trial has become a good weekly exercise routine. After picking up yoga, I find that I am more at peace with myself and also started to start listening to my body. I have learnt how to relax my body and mind. I have learnt that we should be at competition with ourselves and not others.

Of course, I should also do more in the coming year. After all, I am nearly an age where life is not as long-stretched as it seems to be. If I continue coasting through life, I may have wasted my most precious asset - time before I know it.

Failed Assembly

My sister and I bought cabinets from Ikea. Ikea emphasises on self-assembly and which is all the fun lies. After we booked delivery for the items, the delivery asked if we needed help on the assembly, we were confident and gung-ho that we would be able to manage the assembly ourselves and declined assembly. Anyway, assembly came at a charge of 6% of the assembled items.

When the items were delivered and we attempted to decipher the instructions and slot in the nuts and bolts, we became more and more discouraged with each piece. We finally gave up when we slotted in a wrong nail which was too short for the piece. We recognised that it was time to surrender. We had no choice but to call Ikea's helpline and to ask for assembly.

We had to pay a penalty for asking assembly separate from delivery as the helpers would need to make a separate trip down. In fact, at that time which was already late at night, we were more concerned about condemning the whole cabinet as we had slotted in a wrong nail.

Lesson learnt? Next time, we will just ask for assembly services if we buy from Ikea.


P.S. Fortunately, the mistake could be rectified and when the Ikea men came down about 5 days later, they were able to fix it and assemble the cabinets quickly. Phew!

The Delight of Home Delivery

I have never missed post-Christmas shopping for many years as it is often a time when I can get great bargains for myself and for my family. It is also an opportune time to start stocking up for the coming Lunar New Year. Some of the ‘must-go’ post-Christmas sales include Isetan Private Sale, Robinsons sale and G2000 sale, of course. If you have enough time, you can also drop by the Tang sale.

Usually, at each sale, it is easy to tip the total balance over a hundred when we grab home and personal stuffs. With many items, sometimes dragging them home can be a chore especially if they are heavy or bulky. Fret not, this year, we have discovered the convenience of home delivery. Robinsons and Isetan provide complimentary home delivery if you spend more than $150 and $300 respectively.

However, home delivery means that you will only get your items at least only 1 to 2 working days later. Hence, if you need certain items urgently, home delivery may not be an option for you.

Lau Pasat

It has been ages since I dine at Lau Pasat. It used to be a favourite hide-out for my family for weekend dinners when it first retrofitted many moons ago. Then, the businesses started to decline and more stalls folded. As stalls closed, activity and variety of this preserved hawker centre also dwindled. Less variety led to less crowd. It became a vicious cycle, so we ceased to set patronise this hawker centre.

Recently, we passed by Lau Pasat again and was pleasantly surprised. It had undergone another renovation and new stalls were added (At least they looked new to me but I had no idea how long they had been there). This included my favourite 'Small bowl noodles' - dry noodles in a bowl and accompanied with a hot pot of minced meat, egg, crabstick and fishballs, shanghai dumpling (xiao long bao). It has even added in other cuisines, like Korean and Japanese food.

Every night, there would also be live band performing to the patrons which added entertainment to the dining experience. Wow, I never know Lau Pasat has evolved into such a happening place.

Bruce Almighty

I have not watched any movie for a long time, be it on TV or in the cinema. It is certainly relaxing to laze at home catching Jim Carey in Bruce Almighty.

Jim Carey has met with the most unlucky days in his life. He blamed God for not helping him and turning a blind eye to his predicament. He was 'paged' by God. After talking to God, he was given all God's power while God went on a vacation. Jim suddenly was known as Bruce, the Almighty.

When bestowed with God's power, he had initially used it for his own selfish purpose to gain personally. He was reminded from God that he had to take over God's job in helping people while God was on vacation. Since Jim Carey had previously complained about God doing a bad job. it was a splendid chance to prove that he could do better.

Only then did he understand the enormity of the job. He was overwhelmed by the neverending prayers. To quickly fight fire, he simply said yes to all prayers. thinking that he would resolve all misery and problems plaguing the world. Never did he realise he was more wrong. By saying yes to all people who wanted to win lotteries, he ended up creating many winners and thus reducing the prize money per person. This resulted in social unrest and chaos broke loose.

Does the situation sound familiar? How often we may land ourself in a hypothetical situation where we think that if we are in our parents, our lovers, our friends or our bosses' shoes, we will be able to do things better? We think that if we are the CEO of the company, we will not do this and we will do that so that employees have better morale and company makes more money. Or we will think that if we are our parents, we will not be nagging our children or meddle with their affairs so often.

Yet, when we become bosses and parents, do you not see yourself doing some of the things that you do not want your bosses or parents ever to do as a subordinate or child? Despite our decisions as bosses or parents being unpopular, we are still making them because we see that sometimes a seemingly bad decision may not necessarily be a bad one and vice versa? We often make decisions given the best information we may have or with a long-term outlook that in the short term, the decision may seem fruitless or even callous?

Or worse, when we are given powers as bosses and parents, we too can be temporarily consume with the greed of power that we forget our altruistic aims. We may even start to abuse the powers for our personal gains. Afterall, power can be so attractive that it turns evil.

Beneath the jokes of Bruce Almighty, it is a self-reflecting story. It is always easy to imagine being able to do a better job than another person. It is not difficut to imagine but it is often difficult to carry out the idealisms in reality.

Start of all Budget Exercise Work

The peak has finally started again. It is that time of the year where the whole team will work late into the night to roll-up numbers, analyse and put together slides for our bosses.

Every year during this time of the year, our department will still be very rowdy and fully functional and working at 8 pm as though it is only 5 pm. Year after year, we dread this time of the year as the other departments have gone into a holiday mood with their long vacations and genial environment. We, on the other hand, will be slogging our hearts out preparing all the numbers and slides and reviewing with our bosses.

This year, there is no 'black-out' period after Christmas which means that we are likely to work hard between Christmas and the New Year. Sigh! Let's hope budget will end soon. Well, it is too early for this now as budget exercise will likely to wrap up only around end Feb to beginning Mar.

Lush Lallang

It is hard to find a field or even a patch of Lallang these days. Where it used to be a common sight among canals or is some open fields, Lallang seemed to disappear along with the increasing population of Singapore.

Needless to say, I was very excited when I passed by this patch of Lallang near my home. This patch was not natural. It was planted in front of a showflat of an upcoming condominium a few blocks away. The patch was still pretty sparse initially but over the days, the lallang became lush.

The sight of Lallang was nostalgic. Lallang used to be aplenty on a field near my primary school along West Coast Road. On my travel to and fro the school when I travelled along West Coast Road, I would pass by these Lallang. The sway of Lallang on a breezy day instilled a sense of calm for the passerbys. Blowing lallang and watching its seeds sail along with the wind was also a fun activity.

I have moved since sixteen years ago. When I first moved, we would still travel back occasionally to visit friends and my alma mater. Now, I rarely travelled to West Coast. I wonder if the Lallangs are still there or have they made way for new infrastructures.

Baby Showers for Jingyi

Dear has given birth to Jingyi who is as cute as her.

We gathered at Dear’s new house at Woodlands to welcome Jingyi and to celebrate her first month in this world. Jingyi was very serene and lovable in her adorable little spaghetti dress.

She was friendly as she did not resist anyone who wished to hold her. She looked at everyone with curious eyes. When she got tired, she went into a little nap in the arms of the visitors or Dear.

Happy 1st month, Jingyi.

Performance Review

I have not had subordinate reporting directly to me for years. When I took over the coordinating role for the corporate products, I have conveniently forgotten about the taking over the supporting officer.

Managing subordinates sometimes is a tougher art to master than taking over a new project. The balance of assertiveness with understanding and control with delegation cannot be determined precisely with any scientific formulae. In fact, what is the percentage split often differs from personality to personality. Success with one employee cannot be easily replicated for the next.

Subordinates and supervisors often have differing goals and expectations. How to effectively communicate your expectations to your subordinate without being perceived as domineering? How to have open communication without hurting feelings especially when improvements are required? How to encourage and compliment without promoting complacency? It requires many trials and errors and fine-tuning along the way.

I was very nervous when I had to meet my subordinate for discussion of her mid-year review. To be frank, her performance has slackened over the past year because of her personal and family problems. It was time to let her know she would need to watch out and improve or her final year performance would be adversely affected.

Sometimes, the supervisor would be more nervous than the subordinate as the supervisor had to play a motivating and guiding role. This meant giving space yet without appearing too hands-off. This meant encouraging but remaining open. This meant telling directly areas of improvement without appearing critical. Lastly, how to motivate good staff from sustaining their performances while pulling demotivated staff to better performance.

Sigh! I am still learning. Hopefully, my subordinate will give me time so that we can work together as a better team.

Working on a Day I am on Leave

Being a coordinator now for all corporate products' performances, I have a tougher life than before. I used to have no constraint taking day off any day of the month, even though I would try to minimise taking leave on flash day. Now, it is almost impossible for me to take leave flash and the day before main reports are due to be released. It is a huge responsibility which I cannot expect my covering officer to pick up when I am not around.

Report dates are fixed and pre-determined. I unilaterally or single-handedly cannot move the dates. Moreover, any delay in my report will affect my other poor colleague who is coordinating for the whole business group.

To ensure that the reports are still issued on time and without any hiccup when I am on leave, I have arranged my subordinate to do the ground work and send the draft to me. I will review at night and send to my boss for clearance.

She emailed me the report at 7pm. This was where my part came in. I switched on my PC and starting reading the report, checking the numbers, editing the write-up. I ambitiously and naively thought I could be done by 9pm. Hmm, at 10 pm, I was still struggling. Finally, I completed at 10.30pm. It took a while more to send out the report as it was a 5Mb file. When I apologetically SMSed my boss for her to start reviewing, she was too tired to review at 11 pm. Hence, she reviewed only the following day.

Let's hope we can do better next month.

P.S. We still meet our deadline of issuing our reports by 11th but it was only out at 7 pm. Phew!

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Queen Elizabeth I was one of the most well-known queens, especially of her execution of Queen Mary. With power comes great responsibilities. Despite feeling lonely, she has kept many princes and dukes at bay for fear of them wanting a share of the power instead of a share of her love. While trying to fan off attacks from Spain, putting aside speculations of Queen Mary's secret plot against her, she has to preserve her heart from falling in love with the interesting Walter Reigh. When she feels that she is about to give in to her heart, she learnt of Walter's marriage to her best friend - Bess. Feeling betrayed, she wanted to punish them but was distracted by the military attacks from Spain's King Philip - her ex brother-in-law. Fortunately, all turned up well when England fanned off the Spanish attacks successfully and Queen Elizabeth forgave Walter and Bess from Walter's contribution in the war.

The story highlighted some of the restraints, the worries and loneliness of being a leader of a country. As she enjoyed the adulation of the citizens, she lost her freedom to choose what she like. This applied to her marriage and her kinship.

She dared not marry anyone whom she loved because it was difficult to tell if the person wanted her or wanted rewards from her. She dared not give herself whole to the person because she has already given herself to England.

She wanted to forgive her cousin - Queen Mary for wanting to assassinate her, but she could not because the whole country demanded an explanation. When there was an assassination attempt on her, she needed to retain her coolness and regality despite shaking with fear. She could only open her heart in the middle of the night and in the confines of her own room. In spite of a very ill-prepared army who was low on morale, she graciously put on her armour and cheered them on, leading them to victory.

Being a woman in her era was tough. Being a female leader in her era was tougher where the success of a woman was still dependent on who she married and how many children she had. For once, I am glad I am born in the current times where at least any inequalities are subtle and my opportunities and exposure are almost comparable to my male counterparts.

Delighted by Christmas Tree

It is that time of the year where Christmas tree stand tall and proud in our office lobby. The sweet smelling pine will brighten the lazy morning and soothe your exhaustion.

Although I ceased to be as wowed by a real Christmas tree compared to when I first started work here, I am still amazed by it. When I first started work here, it was the first time I have seen a real Christmas tree.

Missing Rainbows

I have not seen rainbows for a long time. The last few days consisted for intervals of rains and sun and I was hoping fervently that I would be able to spot a rainbow. It was a futile hope.

Unexpectedly, while waiting for our bus, my sister pointed out a faint rainbow forming as the sun shown bright on the wet ground after a rain. Can you see the rainbow in the skies?

Second Flash Report

Flash report is a report to management issued no later than the 5th working day after the close of the month. It aims to provide a quick summary of the previous month as well as year-to-date performance of various departments and products. As the turn around time is very short, the numbers are only finalised earliest by 4pm on the 5th working day, it is often a mad rush to meet the 2359 timeline.

Being relatively new in handling this, I am very nervous on this day. Fortunately, the last month has passed by relatively smoothly except for a typo in one of tables in my summary email. I still embarrassed by the boo-boo I have made. Hence, this month, I ensure that I check and double-check all the tables to prevent a repeat.

With last month's experience, I feel that I can complete the flash report within a shorter time despite starting later. By completing early, I still only manage to issue the report at 9 pm. Hopefully, things will take a better turn from now on.

Christmas Gifts 2008

After seeking consensus among the team, we decided to continue with the past traditions of getting Christmas gifts collectively for our bosses and our subordinates.

It is difficult to find a day when everyone is free especially now that the budget exericse has started. Hence, we decided to do the shopping after work. Only Irene and I could make it eventually, she has all the cards to allow us all the discounts we can get and I went as I was the one who initiated all these. I started to regret initiating this since I am not exactly the most creative and imaginative person when it comes to getting gifts.

After finding out from the secretary, we knew that our bosses prefer hand creams or aromatherapy stuff. We headed down to Takashimaya as there was an ongoing members' discount. This year, in addition to the normal gift section at the Talking Mall, Takashimaya also set up a section with aromatherapy items near the L'occitane counter.

The fad of this year is the incense sticks in the essential oils for diffusing the fragrance into the space. After comparing the prices, the fragrance and options, we chose "Lovers" for our lady boss and "Sky" for our male boss.

For the subordinates, we got them hand therapy from Crabtree and Evelyn to be equitable for all. The two best flavours we liked were Rose and Lavender. I personally, was not a great fan for the other flavours - Summerhill and Gardener.

Since both Crabtree and Evelyn and Takashimaya provided gift wrapping services, we saved some trouble agonising over how to wrap the gifts. With just two people shopping this year, our efficiency improved significantly. We took less than an hour to settle all the gifts relative to previous years, where we could took more than a trip to complete all the shopping.

Books and more Books

You must be flooded with all the book reviews in this blog recently and wonder when I have become such a bookworm.

Well, I have always enjoyed reading since young. It is where I know about other culture, practices or another world totally. It is where I can truly destressed by immersing myself in the fiction, away from the hustle and bustle surrounding me or the mundane trivialities that I have to deal with. Reading can be an escapade.

The past 2 weeks when I have been clearing annual vacation leave at home provides a good window for me to catch up some reading and indulge in the solitude of the words.

Reading is also a way of keeping up with English language. For those of us who work at least 9 hours a day, and who are not in the creative industry, our use of the language can be reduced to that few words relating to our work. We only deal with facts and no longer appreciate an appropriate use of the language. Our writing and speech becomes curt and with only statistics and few verbs. Only through reading do we actually see the beauty of the language.

In addition, books are also a means for us to constantly acquire newer knowledge and stay connected. For those of us who have left school, our intelligence and knowledge can truly stagnate unless we do something about it. Reading is essential to know more and to know the latest.

When is the last time you have picked up a book? Since a long weekend is coming, instead of hitting the malls, why not hit the library instead?

The Starbucks Experience

Piqued by curiosity, I pickd up the book which highlighted some of the business philosophies that Starbucks held close to their hearts to attain their current global business success. The book summarised the 5 key principles that Starbucks has integrated into their day-to-day operations.
The 5 principles are:
1) Make it your own - where all employees understand busines priorities and look for ways to bring their individual creativity and passion to meet those objectives.
- Be genuine to connect, discover ad respond
- Be welcoming to invite customers back repeatedly
- Be considerate by being mindful of other people's needs
- Be knowledgeable about your products
- Be involved in the community

2) Everything matters - retail is detail
- Missed details and lose customers
- A small detail is the difference between success and failure
- Important details lie in what can be seen or unseen by the customers
- Ask customers what details they notice
- Details affect emotional connection
- Acknowledge, celebrate and play
- Everyone matters

3) Surprise and delight
- Nowadays. consumers expected to be dazzled
- The most effective events are natural and spontaneous
- Surprise can be as simple as offering guidance
- When breakdown occurs, businesses can still surprise by making things right

4) Embrace resistance
- To work with resistance effectively, you must distinguish between people who have a concern to be resolved and those who just want to complain
- When the concerns of critics are addressed, they can be your strongest supporters
- It is critical to correct misinformation immediately
- When errors are made, deal with them effectively and directly

5) Leave your mark - on communities
- Be good corporate citizen
- Employee morale can be enhanced in a socially conscious organisation

There are many anecdotes in the book to illustrate the gist of the principles. I was really inspired by the extra mile of the company and the corporate social responsibility undertaken by Starbucks' management. I am not a strong supporter of Starbucks as I normally get my caffeine fix with instant coffee or coffee shop's coffee. Moreover, I have not seem to seen some of the passion described in the book in the local Starbucks' outlet. However, I am certainly filled with anticipation of what I will see in the Starbucks' outlet when I next pop by.

Winning

Winning offers an insight of the management philosophy of Jack Welch – ex CEO for GE. The book attempts to provide perspective on how to manage your company, your competitors and your career to create a winning outcome.

Jack Welch also talks about some of the contemporary practices in strategic management – such as building company’s mission and values, six sigma and meritocracy. He highlights some of the rationale as well as the pitfalls associated with the implementation of all management practices. For instance, he reiterated that mission and values should be reinforcing for them to be effective. Moreover, to integrate them into the corporate culture, behaviours aligned to the value system should be publicly acknowledged and rewarded.

On the section of managing your company, Jack Welch emphasized that management of the people is essential to the success of the company. People management starts from hiring phase. Sometimes, the management recruits based on the technical expertise of the employee so that the employee can quickly contribute in the position. However, when the growth potential of the individual is not considered, there is a risk that when the company grows, the employee will fall behind and replacement has to be recruited. Other than people management, handling change and crisis are also essential skills which management should possess.

For salaried employees, we constantly wonder how we can better manage our career to progress both professionally and personally. The first issue to consider is whether we are in the right job. Once we affirm that we are in the job we desire, then we need to look at how we can get ourselves promoted or how to deal with a difficult boss. A successful career often requires certain sacrifices and compromises especially in work-life balance. Jack Welch believes that attaining work-life balance should be the responsibility of the employee and not that of the employer.

It is an insightful summary of the management philosophies of one of the world’s well-known corporate leaders. After reading the ‘Bitch at Work’, ‘Winning’ will be the next appropriate choice.

The Bitch at Work

Perhaps the title already raised some expectation on what to come next or you already recoiled at such a blatant title. Given that I am currently on the roll to becoming a better professional, especially in the cultivation of my soft skills, I am curious at what Elizabeth Hilts has to offer to the ladies at work. Strangely, most of the well-known leaders and consultants are largely male, so I wonder if some of the advices can be adopted by females at work. This is especially a tactic deployed by a male leader and female leader often can generate different reception.

Some of the more interesting concepts introduced in this book include ‘Toxic Niceness’ and ‘Toxic Success’. Being female, most of the time, we seek to please and be in the good books of everyone. We find it hard to say no when a colleague ask us to help out. To succeed, we must get rid of toxic niceness. Toxic success refers to an all-consuming desire to be successful that it starts to mar our vision.

It also lists our some tactics that we can employ when we are met with some embarrassing or stressful situations. For eg, we can use ‘I’ll think about it” to buy time when outright rejection is not an option. It also teaches you some of the things to look out for when negotiating when you are offer a new job. Being a boss is also not a popularity contest. By being nice to everyone can be detrimental to yourself and can even be detrimental to the team. Be ready to go for vacation as we will need breaks to recharge.

This book is a concise, interesting starting point to learn about ladies at work. After this, you are ready to take more the heavier stuff.

Songs

Sometimes a song may already be very captivating but if you watch the drama or the movie for which the song is the themed song, the story will enhance the melancholy, the romance or the mischief of the song. The song will seem even more vivid when now it seems to be telling a story.

The recent 7 pm drama on Channel U “Love aound the Corner” is a good example. I used to like the themed song by Show Luo Zhixiang but I like it more when I think of the story associated with the song. The one song and drama which seem to really complement each other is “Romance at Dolphin Bay”.

One can really feel your feet tapping when you hear Le-Ann Rimes’ Can’t Fight the Moonlight. However, you really want to move with the music after you watch Coyote Ugly. It has even started the trend of bar-top dancing. What about the J-pop? Utada Hikaru’s First Love was endearing but the song has a sense of melancholy with the backdrop of unaccepted love between the teacher and the student.

So which is the song you like? Do you love it more after seeing the movie or the drama?

Angels & Demons

For a long while I was curious about the international attention that Dan Brown garnered over his acclaimed bestseller – Da Vinci Code. When I read the book (courtesy of Ah Peng), I understood why. There are very few fiction writers who have made me gone through so much thinking while following the plot. Dan Brown is clearly one of them. The others are
1) Jostein Gaarder – author of Sophie’s World and A Solitaire Mystery,
2) Mitch Albom – author of Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet In Heaven, and
3) Paulo Coelho – author of The Alchemist and Eleven Minutes.

Angels and Demons is themed similarly to Da Vinci Code. When you enter the prologue, it is almost as if one has started on the sequel of Da Vinci Code.

The opening was a death scene which was gruesome and merciless. Shortly after the murder, the hero of the story was once again stirred from his deep slumber. The protagonist – Robert Langdon was a lecturer on religious symbols. There was again a heroine who would assist or in some situations led the hero in solving the murder and the more sinister plot associated with the murder. Vittoria Ventra was an up-and-coming physicist whose father – a famous physicist, was brutally murdered.

By now, I am sure for the readers who are familiar with Da Vinci Code will be wondering if I have been getting confused. From the similarities, you may be lured into thinking that I am describing Da Vinci Code here instead of Angels and Demons.

Instead of being in the grandeur of the Lourve Museum in Paris, the venue is the the St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. The Pope has just passed on and the cardinals from all over the world gathered at Sistine Chapel to elect the next Pope.

A day before this, a famous physicist who was also a devout Christian – Leonardo Ventra was brutually murdered in CERN – one of the most renowned scientific institutes in Europe. At the same time, one of the greatest break-through in science who could be used to explain the Big Bang, was also stolen. This new discovery, known as the antimatter (opposite to matter), could be the world’s newest source of safe energy as it could produce more cheap energy than nuclear energy and with no side effects of radiation. Similarly, it could also be the world’s deadliest weapon.

Antimatter was stored in a magnetized canister to prevent it from interacting with matter to produce an explosion. However, the canister has to be constantly charged to retain its magnetic field. With it being stolen, the back-up battery in the canister could only kept it magnetized for 24 hours before explosion would occur. As Leonardo was branded with “Illuminati” before he died, Maximilian Kohler recruited Robert Langdon to help solve the mystery. Together Robert and Vittoria went through the toughest 24 hours of their lives.

“Illuminati” referred to a group of scientists who had gathered illegally during the times when Religion ruled the world and the scientists were viewed as threats to the reign of Religion. The head of “Illuminati” was Galileo Galilei. The secret hiding place was within the Vatican City and could only be found by certain marks. These marks were all sculptures created by Bernini – the famous sculptor who was touted to be second only to Michelangelo.

There was an assassin being hired to murder the 4 cardinals who were the chosen ones and one of them was likely to be chosen as the next Pope. Unfortunately, before Robert could stop the assassin, all 4 cardinals were brutally and publicly murdered at the altars of science. These altars of science were believed to contain the directional guide to the Church of Illuminati – their secret lair.

It was again a captivating book with the unexpected developments. A reader would certainly need to hold your breath until the last page as every time when Robert and Vittoria seemed to close in, the assassin was able to escape and lengthen the gap between them again.

The book I was reading was a collector’s edition (this time courtesy of the National Library Board) with pictures and illustrations. They certainly helped especially when famous sculptures, buildings and churches were referred extensively in the book and were crucial for the plot development. It would certainly be hard for a reader who was unfamiliar with the Greek history and sculptures to fully appreciate the intricacies of the mystery. When one looked at the pictures of the insides of famous landmarks, such as St Peter’s Basilica, Sistine Chapel, the Pantheon and sculptures of Bernini, such as Habakkuk and the Angel, West Ponente and the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. Without the pictures, one can really get lost in the words. The significance of these ‘signposts’ to the mystery will not be as impactful.

Being simplistically reading the book as pure fiction and for leisure, I have thoroughly enjoyed the mystery and the plot.

Spring Cleaning 2008

I was clearing three days of leave at home and decided to engage in my annual tradition of spring cleaning. The upcoming Chinese New Year is earlier than other years. It is timely than I start my cleaning now.

I cannot believe how much of a hoarder I have turned into. I realized that I still had notes from JC, textbooks from secondary school and toys from primary school. Despite undergoing a yearly spring cleaning exercise, these things have survived the past few exercises (including the most major ones when I moved about 3 years ago).

I also keep this ‘clearing philosophy’ – if you have touched the thing for 3 years, it shows that you probably do not need it anymore, it is time for the thing to go. The same applies for clothes. I often feel that it is a pity to throw things away especially when they are still in working conditions. However, these just continue to occupy space and disintegrate as I have no use for them anymore. For clothes and shoes, even though I do not change my size (for at least the last 6 years), some I have rarely touched because they have simply gone out of fashion.

Although it is really a heartache to throw them away, I guess I have to in order to prevent myself from turning into a hoarder, even for sentimental and environmental reasons.

Hui's House

I visited Hui's house as I had not had a good chance to talk to her and see her baby the previous 2 rounds. I am surprised at how much Kayla (Hui's princess) has grown. She looked more and more adorable and strong as the days go by.

Hopefully, I can get to see Kayla soon and that she will be able to smile at me more soon. :-)

Lessons Learnt from Learning Fiesta

As the theme for Learning Fiesta centred on growth and development, it was inevitable that many successful stories on some of the world’s most inspirational leaders were quoted. Never before had I felt so strongly about my inadequacy.

Not only did I felt small with the anecdotes of the hard work, determination, passion and positive attitude of the successful leaders. I was also acutely aware of my lack of knowledge of them and their management philosophies. No one is born with the talent to manage successfully. Most of them times, people learn from trials and errors (ie experience) and from emulating the best practices (benchmarking).

When the pictures of the worlds’ most famous managers were flashed, I could not recognize most of them, except for Oprah Winfrey and Donald Trump – both I had seen on TV. Apple’s Steve Jobs, ex GE’s CEO – Jack Welch, Dell’s Michael Dell or even Alan Greenspan (though he is currently in the line of fire for his financial policies which could have contributed to the current turmoil) were lost on me. I might have heard their names somewhere, but I could not identify them from the pictures and worse, I knew next to nothing about what their management philosophies were which made them well-known corporate leaders.

From then, I told myself. I should really buck up on my general knowledge and start reading more about management. This is not only to improve myself professionally but also to ensure that I do not embarrass myself further with such a low proficiency in general knowledge.

Shame on me.

Learning Fiesta

Learning Fiesta is a new initiative and program where over the span of 3 days, different talks are carried out free to all members of the staff. All employees can attend the talks by registering prior to the talks. Each 2-hour talk will touch on different soft skills to promote growth and development of the employees. Some of these talks include ‘What’s my Personal Brand”, “How to Manage My Boss”, “How to Think out of the Box”, “I have Arrived Here, What’s Next”.

I have also signed up for a couple of talks. Some of these talks are given by external consultants. For example, “How to Think out of the Box” was a talk by the founder of Beachworks – a set of tools for building sandcastle which was one of the best selling toys when it was first launched. The speaker chronicled his idea, passion and his success. It helped that he was also very humorous and managed to drive a message in a light-hearted manner.

“I have Arrived Here, What’s Next” briefly introduced to us the importance of managing one’s career and what one needed to do to more proactively manage one’s career development. The guidance was more general in nature and which might be easy in theories but required more discipline to put them in action.

“How to Manage My Boss” drew an overwhelming response. Apparently, the ability to better manage our bosses was one of the most important life-skills and traits necessary for success. The Australian speaker characterized management styles and pointed out some questions that we could pose to our bosses to create the distinction.

The talk is certainly a good start to start us thinking on how to grow and improve professionally as well as to make working a happier experience. It will be great if this learning fiesta becomes an annual event.

Polar Bear Pirates and Their Quest to Reach Fat City

Recently, I fell in love with books on Management and Self-Improvement. I used to stereotype these books as academic, boring, heavy and even edging towards being pompous. Such books, often written by academics or management consultants, load many vague theories. This causes my head to spin while I try to decipher the essence. Hence, I have denounced such books for a long while.

This was until I have started reading ‘How to Get Rich’ by Donald Trump piqued by curiosity and looking out for some celebrity gossip. This was certain contrary to my usual perception. It was concise, simple (even for a management-idiot like me) and was written more in a glossy-magazine than university-textbook style. Not only does it offer new insights, it also reinforces some of the guiding principles which we already are embracing.

On the ‘Polar Bear Pirates and Their Quest to Reach Fat City’, the author – Adrian Webster described this as a ‘grown-up’s book for kids at work’. This book is laid out in a very similar manner to ‘Who Moved My Cheese’. Some of the management approach is spelt out in the description of Fat City and the various residents.

Fat City was the analogy for our dream world – a place reached only by the polar bears who worked hard and brave challenges. These polar bears mostly originated from the City of Rock Bottom. There were also cities of Complacency where the residents were mainly Norm and of Quitter where the Nobodies lived.

Polar Bears had some of the most unique characteristics for success. They were easily one of the most efficient predators of the world. Yet, they often appeared harmless. Moreover, they were also a fun-loving group of creatures.

To set off to Fat City, we needed to know where it was in our heart and whether there was a need for us to get there. Sometimes, people had a certain want in their lives but they did not necessarily need it. Without a burning need, they would not be motivated enough to keep going. Once, we identified the Fat City, we had to be able to get out of our comfort zone and start moving.

En-route to Fat City, we would meet with enemies and viruses. Enemies included the Neg Ferrets, Sinkers, Bloaters, Molasses Men and Head Treads. Neg Ferrets often held a very negative perspective and would be a wet blanket on our fighting spirits. Sinkers were losers who also made sure that no one else had success. Bloaters were characterized by laziness, egotism and full of opinions. Molasses Man was a sweet and slow person. Head Treads took advantage of their positions to hold others back and keep standards down.

Other than avoiding enemies, we should try to also build our own personality to help us reach Fat City. We have to
- Believe in ourselves
- Be a Do-er
- Have the balls to overcome all hardships and challenges
- Be enthusiastic
- Embrace humour
- Ask when in doubt

As the route would be a long and tiring one, we needed to keep focus by remembering where the Fat City we were heading towards. We should line the journey with many milestones and pampered ourselves as we achieve each milestone. Tiny Noticeable Things (TNTs) could have huge impacts as they could be used to motivate or demotivate people. Although we had to be focused, we also had to be mindful that the location of Fat city might change along the way and we should be flexible enough to change our route and even direction.

As Fat City would be located at the highest of the mountains, we had to keep trudging on before we could find it. If we give up half-way through, we would only remain in the City of Complacency.

Feel inspired by what I describe so far, take out a map and start plotting out your Fat City route. Remember, to get there, you must be first willing to get out of your comfort zone.

PassionFruit

I like the smell of passionfruit. It always adds a distinct and nice flavour to any drink or ice-cream. I never see the fresh fruit at all. This is my first time seeing the inside of a fresh fruit and tasting it.

What is the taste like?

Sourish and sweet and with its strong aroma.

First Glimpse of Christmas Lightings

The Christmas lightings along Orchard Road has been put up. Part of it has been lighted. Here is a first glimpse.

Levi's Promotion

Levi's is having a promotion where if you trade in your old jeans (any brand), you get $50 off any regular priced jeans which must be at least above $100. My mum and sister were pretty excited about this. My sister traded in two pairs of her old jeans while my mum traded in my old pair to buy her new one.

You must be asking then why I did not buy any?

Well, to me, a pair of jeans, even after the promotion, of about $80, is slightly too pricey for me. My most expensive jeans so far costs about $50 and I already think it is quite expensive. :-(

Teambuilding 2008

For this year’s teambuilding, we are back at Sentosa for some sun, sand, sea and sweat.

The first part of the teambuilding themed on working together, including across teams so that we could deliver to our customers. This entailed building pipes on the beach to roll tennis-sized balls to the catcher at one end of the pipes. The second activity was on the construction of a race car using pipes. The cars were test-driven before we lined ourselves up for the real race.

The second part of the teambuilding was more of an amazing race where it was kicked off at the beach once again. We had to try to get ping pong balls out of a long pipe which was punctured with holes. As we poured water into the pipe, the holes started leaking water and we needed to cover up the holes as effectively as possible. Next on, we travelled to the Dolphin Bay, the southern-most part of Asian Continent, the Siloso Beach and to the Luge for our challenges.

Unfortunately, before we could complete the entire challenge, rain started to pour. While we waited for the rain to subside, the rain just grew heavier. As it was soon time to go back to the meeting point, we put on the plastic poncho which we were given, braved the rain and started a 15 minute walk from Siloso Beach back to Palawan Beach. This was the first time I had walked in the rain and for a good whole 15 minutes or more - another first experience in teambuilding events.

I seemed to encounter my many ‘firsts’ in the teambuilding events. In the 2008 teambuilding event, there were other firsts such as the first time I walked the hanging bridge to reach the Southern most of Asian Continent. As I was on the bridge, I seemed to be floating on water. It was a beautiful way to look at Sentosa from the bridge. It was a first for me to approach strangers to help us in the games. I was certainly glad by the spontaneity of some of the tourists.
Sometimes, I approached Teambuilding with certain trepidation as I was wary of some of the challenges I would be put through. Yet, I knew I would emerge from these teambuilding events as a stronger person as I would overcome some mental hurdles of performing certain tasks when everyone could certain achieve as long as you try. Hmm, however, I think I may need to continue to work harder on my creativity as I am often at a loss of what to do when I have to think creatively to complete certain tasks.

First Offsite Meeting

This is my first off-site meeting since I join the company.

I used to travel to many places (within Singapore) for meetings in my last job. However, my current job is pretty desk-bound. Actually, I do not stay in my workstation alot. I wonder around the office to meetings and to my line managers' workstations more. Sometimes, you can only find me in my workstation only after office hours or during lunch hours.

As usual with poor direction sense and very general idea of where the subsidiary is located, I have to rely on the cab driver. Alamak, the cab driver has no idea where the place is. In the end, the cab takes a larger detour than the norma route. Needless to say, I am late for my meetings.

I am slightly nervous. Well, when it is in my turf, I am certainly more confident (maybe even more arrogant). Now that it is in others' territory, I better watch my words. *Worried* Fortunately, the meeting goes smoothly and with everyone seems to agree with the general requirements.

Phew.

Given my new portfolio, I can expect myself to travel to here for more meetings in future.

In Her Sister's Shoes

In Her Sister's Shoes is about a pair of sisters who have to confront some of their fears and exchange their roles.

The younger sister was an upcoming TV presenter who had finally made it big after many years of slogging in London. For years, she had hardly stepped home feeling out of place and claustrophobic in her hometown of Dublin. The elder sister had always been a pillar of strength in the family and assumed the mother's role since her mother passed away when she was a teenager. When the elder sister was diagnosed with a similar cancer, the brother-in-law beseeched the younger sister to come home and took care of the elder sister and her nieces and nephews.

Both sisters had to conquer their worst fears. The elder sister had to battle with the illness and the prospect of leaving her children motherless. The younger sister had to learn how to be more domesticated and learning not to tie her self-worth to her career, her fame and her other material success.

One of the scenes highlighted was perhaps also an underlying fear of many of us. There were class reunions held almost every year. For years, the younger sister had been able to swagger into the gathering, held her head high and boost about her successful career. When she was invited to her class reunion while she was taking care of her sister and her nieces and nephews, she feared of attending the reunion. Without the halo of a successful career, she seemed to be bereft of her identity and self-esteem.

Indeed, class reunions became the most dangerous places to be in as she came under attack from exclassmates whom she used to 'triumph' over for her 'lack of everything'. How often we heard of class reunions becoming an arena for exclassmates to size one another up and compete on their successes, wealths, fames and achievements. The younger sister was belittled when she decided to come clean and confess about her loss of job when she had to come back to care for her ailing sister.

I shuddered to think about this. I believe it is the safest to avoid class reunions at all costs, especially for a nobody like me...

James Bond

“The name is Bond. James Bond.”

- A signature line from the world’s most well-known spy.

While many may have watched the action of James Bond on the movie screen, few would have read the book. Is the James Bond in the hit series by Sir Ian Fleming the same as that portrayed in the movie? Has the movie done justice to one of the most charismatic and sexiest fictitious spy? You guess is as good as mine until we pick up the book.

The one that I have picked up is Thunderball. This has been adapted for a 1965 movie - the fourth James Bond movie, starring Sean Connery as the famous spy.

The antagonist is a group made of famous scientists and military experts known as SPECTRE – mainly from the East European countries. The loot? A plane carrying two atomic bombs. The location? Cayman Islands in Bahamas. As usual, James Bond uses his wit, his charm, his guts to investigate and to recover the bombs. With many lives and money at stake and a short turn around time of 48 hours, it is a test against courage and strength. Fortunately, he has once again not let his fans down by putting up a strong victory against the enemies and prevent yet another world’s catastrophe.

The book is equally captivating with vivid descriptions of the people, the setting and the plot. Yet, human imagination is boundless where the excitement of each scene can be played in one’s mind. This is unlike in movies where the scenes are already depicted by the movie director and deliver straight into your face without any room for your imagination.

There are also some differences between the books and the movies. In the books, M is a male and not a female (Judi Dench). In the books, James Bond is supposed to be tall and dark (unlike the current Daniel Craig who is not exactly dark – I believe Pierce Brosnan is a closer depiction of James Bond). In the books, James Bond, having gone through numerous assignments, has many scars all over his body from his past injuries while the skin of the James Bond in the movie seems to be flawless – if the top-bare body of Daniel Craig walking out of the waters on the beach is anything to go by.

Validate these for yourself. Pick up one of the books yourself. *Grin*

Teppanyaki

Eating teppanyaki is almost an art as the chef seasons, cuts and cooks in front of you with a blazing passion and a blazing fire as well.

The set meal offers by Sakae Teppanyaki includes a main dish (which includes chicken, turkey, beef, duck and seafood), 5 sides – salad, stir-fried vegetables or assorted mushrooms, tofu steak or radish chawanmushi, scallops, miso soup and rice, and dessert. The waft of aroma from the food slowly sizzling in the heat is an answer to my growling stomach. As the cooked food is served onto our plates, we tender meat almost melts in our mouth. The strong garlic, pepper and teriyaki sauce seasoning are truly not for the faint-hearted. The rich taste exploded on our palates.

The strong grease suction by the side of the hot plates prevent the diners from reeking of grease smell as we walk out of the restaurant. The leather seats provided comfortable seating. The black crockeries with cherry blossom engravings are exquisite even on display. However, the semi-circle table is slightly crowded to accomodate 8 diners and to have space for our food.

Overall, it is still an enjoyable culinary experience.

(The salad and the nice crockeries)

(The young chef cooking the various meats)

(A set with rice, main course, scallops)

(The stir-fried vegetables)

First Flash Report

Our flash report is a summary of the preceding month's financial performance on the 5th working day.

This is the first month I am doing the report. It is nerve-wrecking because of the short turnaround time. The financial results are out only at 4 pm while the report has to be issued within the same day. For the past few months, my predecessor has been working till about mid-night to roll out the report. Many things can happen to delay the reporting - numbers don't tie, last minute changes to numbers etc.

I am also excited because to me, this is a more important role than just focusing on my own products. At least, I will have a view of the total corporate products and earlier than most people because I will be the one summarising and reporting to management.

For the past few months, I have been knocking off at around 6 plus. My boss was surprised to see me still at my desk at 8 plus, forgetting momentarily that I was doing consolidation for the first month. When I reminded him that I was doing flash report, he suddenly recalled. He encouraged me by saying that since it was my maiden flash report, he would definitely read it.

Fortunately, the report was rolled out on time. The next target? To issue the main report, ie the more detailed analysis of the numbers within 3 working days from the flash report. Let's hope I can make it. <Apprehension>

Botak Jones

He is not a man but he is a western food chains which are well-known names to many Singaporeans. Its huge servings (American style) have often attracted the attention of many Singaporeans. Of course, I have to pop down to savour the food when its latest outlet opened just a street away from my office.

The latest outlet located beside the Youth Park (opposite Cineplex) draws the lunch-time crowd to queue relentlessly under the scorching afternoon sun for our burgers and sausages. I choose the Cajun chicken burger which is rather spicy. The buns are soft. The chicken breast is tender but rather dry for my preference. The portion is not as large as what it is well-known for. According to my colleague, this is part of an exercise to prevent food wastage but cutting down serving portion (but without a drop in price).

The sitting place is on the stage of the Youth Park without any fan fitted. Needless to say, the place is almost like an over under the white tent top. This can make the eating experience slightly uncomfortable. The serving time is also quite long where the preparation of the food takes at least 15 minutes.

When you hold too high an expectation, we often find that reality seems to fall short.

More Work

Just two weeks after I was informed that I will be doing consolidated management report permanently, my boss dropped another bombshell. I would be handling the total product's expense budget in the coming budget exercise. Oh no, more late nights await me for the next 3 months.

Good bye to the knocking off at 6 plus for the past few months.

Good bye to the regular dinners.

How to Get Rich

How to Get Rich is a book penned by The Apprentice's Donald Trump. The book is divided into several sections:
1) The Donald J. Trump School of Business and Management
2) Your Personal Apprenticeship (Career Advice from the Donald)
3) Money, Money, Money, Money
4) The Secrets of Negotiation
5) The Trump Lifestyle
6) Inside The Apprentice

For those of you who have little time and patience for ploughing through thick academic book on management and success, this will be an ideal choice where Donald Trump summarises some of his experiences in a succinct and entertaining way.

Few will know about Trump's failure in the early nineties with a mountain of debts and his determination to ride through life's challenges. For employees and employers alike, this book will cater to your quest for success and offer you insights on how to do well in your role.

Some of the more beneficial insights which I feel I have certainly benefited from his sharing include:

1) Don't equivocate
How often do we fall into the trap of listing out the pros and cons of a situation or proposal and ending with a recommendation that whether the proposal is good or bad depends on the circumstances? At least, I am very guilty of this error. You will see my sitting on the fence in many entries in this blog. <Ashamed>

Donald's advice: If you equivocate, it shows you are unsure of yourself and what you are doing.

2) Manage the person and not the job
Some people respond to fear. There was a guy who confessed that he only started working when he was threatened to be fire. Different people have different ways of achieving results, eg fear or understanding. However, being a leader, one needs to exercise both restraint and power as well, instead of simply ordering people around.

Donald's advice: Being able to learn about your employees and to manage them is essential to a good manager. According to Abraham Lincoln, "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

3) Ask for the raise at the right time
Many of us always think we are underpaid for the work we need to do. Yet, it is often difficult to ask for a raise or we simply do not ask and use job hop as a platform for upping our pays.

Donald's advice: The best way to ask for a raise is to wait for the right time because money, like comedy, is all about timing.

4) Know what you want and keep it to yourself
By keeping certain facts, we will have a better chance of negotiation. Moreover, sometimes what we think we want at the onset of the negotiation may evolve and what we actually want is different.

Donald's advice: Know what you want, bottom line, but keep it to yourself until a strategically necessary moment.

5) Pay attention to the details
How often as leaders or managers, many have overlooked the need for details. By thinking that that have already made it, many have dropped the details and gone only for the big picture. Donald shared a story of a well-known brain surgeon who would go over the components of an upcoming surgery in his head as he jogged each morning.

Donald's advice: If you do not know every aspect of what you are doing, you are setting yourself up for some unwelcome surprises.

There was also a section devoted to describing a typical week of Donald's life. The amount of activities that he packed into a typical day will make a reader exhausted by just reading about it. He tries to contain his meeting to about 15 to 30 minutes which make me wonder if I waste too much time in meetings sometimes. I should really learn to control more of my phone conversations and meetings with colleagues so that I can get more done in a shorter span of time.

Try pick up this book the next time you are in a library or a book store, you may learn other insights from Donald Trump's experiences.

Happy Meal

A meal that will make you happy?

It is served with a burger, fries, milk and a toy.

It is meant for kid but there is no stopping adults for enjoying the same meal.

Smart Investing

Smart investing is a free talk organised by ICPAS (Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Singapore). In the era of stock market crashes and financial turmoil, how to effectively invest and reduce risk are issues that plague many investors. We all know that putting our money in tin cans under our bed will work against us in the long run as the returns foregone will cause our wealth to shrink in this inflationary environment. Yet, even putting money into fixed deposits can be risky now with the collapse of numerous financial institutions.

The talk basically centred on the stock market more than any other form of investment. There was some academic sharing of the stock markets, such as the long-term returns of stock markets and the fundamentals of stock market performances from historical evidence. Laymen, like you and I, are probably aware of this basic information, such as both economy and stock markets work in cycles. However, what we often do not know is how severe or long a cycle is.

To invest smartly instead of speculatively, we also know that we often rely on some basic financial ratios as guide, eg the forecast or actual financial results of the companies, their debt-to-equity ratio (to check their liquidity), their price-to-earnings (PE) ratio to check whether their stock prices are overstated. Yet, we know that markets do not often perform efficiently because of the factors of market failures - people do not have all the information and most people do not act rationally.

The talk was certainly informative and educational. However, for many of us who were avid readers of Today's Business section, most of the points highlighted could be found in Today papers. To me, the talk affirmed the views reported by many financial analysts but delivered in a more anecdotal and light-hearted manner.

We should have more of such talks and to touch on other types of investment tools, so that we can raise the general investment awareness of more Singaporeans. This is so that more Singaporeans can take a more proactive approach preserving their wealth as well as be more discerning when unscrupulous fund or bank managers attempt to sell them unsuitable products.

Sampling at Supermarkets

What I have enjoyed most about the Japanese supermarkets are the ample samples available for patrons to try before buying. This greatly reduces the risk for consumers for many times, we are lured by appearances into buying something which are unpalatable. Not only is this a waste of food, it is also a waste of money.

I was very excited when I shopped at the basement of Takashimaya with its many counters offering a variety of snacks. From Hokkaido specialties, such as fish cake and ice-cream puffs to the French macaroons, you can have a small bite which either entices you to buy or put you off the food totally.

Alright, you may think it is embarrassing to try and not buy, I hold an entirely different view. When you try, you either like it or dislike it. When you dislike it, then you should not buy or it will defeat the purpose of sampling. Nonetheless, you cannot be greedy and hope to eat a feast at these supermarkets.

It is also a great 'advertising' tactic. Many risk averse consumers will stick to things or brands that they are familiar with. Only when they are convinced that a different choice is better will they switch. Some companies do this via word of mouth while some do this with sampling. Once I try for myself and can experience the benefits or great taste, although I may not eat it now, I will certainly try it in future.

JewelFest 2008

Who says only Tai Tais can look at the bling blings? Instead of hopping from retail shop to retail shop ogling at the sparkling stones, the best place to be is the ‘Concentration Camp’ – JewelFest 2008.

The big cream marquee outside Ngee Ann City houses both the well-known local and obscure overseas jewelers. From the simple elegance to the dressy extravagance, the buyers will be inundated with choices for jewellery. Some of the range, cuts and sizes are not available at the retail shops. For the serious buyers who are sourcing for unique and best value-for-money jewellery, this will be the best place.

Diamonds are girls’ forever friends. If you wish to know more about the size, the carat and the cut of the diamonds, many retailers will patiently explain to you, eg colour D is good, a well-cut diamond has 57-faces and will display either 9-arrows or 9-hearts when peer under the microscope. If you are into more elaborate designs, there are jewellery which are themed after the animals – eg snake and scorpion.

It is fine to just glance around but if you are going for the kill, you must certainly get your cards ready. Or you prefer to pay in wads of cash? The items may be value-for-money, they are not exactly dirt-cheap.

The Lives of the Hoarders

Who are hoarders?

Hoarders are people who keep storing things and refusing to get rid of them. These things grow to the extend that they start infringing on the people's living space.

Hoarding arises from psychological problems. The hoarder featured in the Oprah Winfrey show started filling her house with things when her children moved out. She kept buying things without clearing them away. As the years went by, the things in her house occupied every corner and stacked up so high that she could no longer find a space on her bed or watch her TV.

A team was put in place to help clear the things in the hoarder's house. Her children were also recruited to provide the necessary support. To help the hoarders, it could not be done without the hoarder's own effort. The hoarder broke down when she found out that the things accumulated in her home had resulted in the growth of bacteria and mould that made her space no longer safe for living. The things cleared were about 75 tonnes. When a garage sale was held, the things could fill a 10,000 sqft warehouse. Some of these things included 3,000 pairs of pants and 3,000 pairs of shoes.

To help the hoarders and to prevent ourselves being one, we should ensure that we take 10 minutes a day to walk around the house. We take 2 bags with us - one to contain things of goodwill and one for trash. As long as we put one thing into each bag, we will end up with 14 things at the end of the week. More importantly, we should stop the inflow. Things can never fill the void left by people.

Under the Stars

I feel guilty towards my family.

When I was young, I spent alot of time on my books so that I could get into a good school, get good grades, get a scholarship to go into university, get a good job and start supporting them. When I started working, I worked overtime, including weekends to ensure that I get a good appraisal, pick up all the necessary skills, prevent myself from being fired or retrenched so that I can earn my own keep and contribute financially to the family.

Everyday, I wake up, rush around and will not get home until they have gone into bed. Before I go to work, I have to eat my breakfast, read the papers, dress up and get out of the house in record time. Inevitably, any communication with my mum is reduced to what time I will be home today and the big news of the day (given the recent upheavals in the financial market as well as the economy). By the time I get home, I just hope to sit in front to the TV and total immerse in no-brainer programs. I am simply too lazy to talk especially after a day in office answering queries and scolding my line for not making business sense in their cases or their projections. I just want to give my vocal cords a break.

For once, I head home early and have an early dinner with my mum. After dinner, instead of rushing home to watch TV, we decide to sit under the stars and have a nice one-to-one chat. Under the stars, by the pool, with the cool breeze and watching time passes us by, we can have a heart-to-heart talk without worrying about what to do next and cutting conversation short by using monosyllabic words. Who says total relaxation can only be achieved overseas?

With this conversation, I feel that at least I am truly catching up and spending quality time with my mum. At least, this helps me absolve some of my guilt towards my family.

(Pool side view, on the sun deck chairs and under the night skies and stars)

Farewell Lunch

It is another colleague's farewell lunch. We are not from the same department but I talk to him more than my colleagues sometimes as I support his department for all financial matters and he is the business analyst of his department.

No matter how many conflicts you have with the colleague when you are working, you will certainly miss working with him or her when he or she is about to leave. This is because we have already gotten used to each other's working style. Moreover, our relationship has extended from colleagues to friends as you know more and more about the person. Strangely, it is often during the farewell lunch that we are most relaxed and more open with each other.

All the best!

My Room Mate's Wedding

My Room Mate from the KL trip was finally walking down the aisle today after hearing her excitement about her wedding and her new house for a year.

The dinner hall at Sheraton was small but elegant. To ensure that she captured all the memories of her big night, she had taken photos with guests from each table twice. The first was during her first walk-in as more candid shots, ie no proper sitting and standing. The second round was when she changed into her evening gown and taken with more formal setting. She also took photos with each of us individually as she sent her guests home.

I am pretty sure she would have many photos to keep the memories of this special night alive. Look, pose and smile.

Sorting my Blog Entries

I tried to classify my blogs into the various topics and subject matters so that you and I can quickly zoom into past entries rather than ploughing through the archives. I decided to embark this project on a weekend afternoon. What seems to be an interesting exercise turns up to be rather tedious. Midway through this project, I started to regret this.

1) Looking at 600 odd entries to determine what topics it should fall under required some patience and perseverance.
2) While reviewing, I observed that my thoughts sometimes deviate from the original topic that I had intended so that one entry may contain various topics. It can be so complicated that I am torn at how to categorise some of these entries.
3) I was appalled at the amount of entries that I had devoted to food, personal thoughts and working life. I guessed you could by now discern what were some of my main 'aims' in life. *Wink*

Lessons that I have learnt and to be picked up from this exercise.

• I should better organise my thoughts and writing so that I stick to a particular theme in each entry instead of letting my thoughts run wild and haphazard.
• To ensure my entries are more focused, I should break the entries into various entries if a certain incident triggered more than one thoughts. I seemed to get into the trap of writing too lengthy entries so that I could capture everything.
• I should widen my interests further and share more on my other hobbies.
• I should continuously organise my entries instead of letting it grow to such a volume than tagging them into categories become a nightmare.

If you have just started your blog, take heed.

Mr and Mrs Smith

As elusive as whether Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie had already fallen in love in the movie, I somehow always missed the movie when it was telecast. Finally, I could catch the chemistry between the sexy actor and actress as they engaged in gunfires. With a dash of humours, bossa nova music and villains, voila, an entertaining movie was concocted.

After the movie, I kept hearing the bossa nova tune, which set the scene when Brad and Angelina (I made it sound as though I knew them on a personal level) met, humming in my head. La La La La La.

Traditional Dessert

It takes a fair bit of self hypnosis to gulp down the bitter herbal jelly for someone with a sweet tooth like me. Herbal jelly detoxifies and cools down heated bodies, especially effective in the hot and humid weather of Singapore. As I am unable to fan off the temptation of the delicious but heaty food, I can only try to minimize the harm by taking herbal jelly. So far, it has been quite effective in cooling my body heat.

More Local Fare

I craved more local food after last week. I ws back for my favourite minced pork noodles and fried chicken wings at hawker centre near my old place. A picture speaks a thousand words so I will not say too much here. <Grin>

Korean Noodles at Foodcourt

What lies between me and the noodles is its spicy appearance. My sister, who can take spicy food better, is an easy target to try the food with me. I have been hounding her for weeks to try the noodles with me. In case I cumble under the extreme spiciness, she can save me.

How? She can finish up the said noodles.

Well, given the current food shortage, we should not waste food.

The noodles are springy and go well with the slightly spicy and piping hot soup. The kimchi in the soup adds crunchiness to the flavour. My rating? The noodles are good but can be abit pricey given the use of ingredients.

Grey News: Additional Workload

I was told that I would to handle the total corporate product revenue consolidation permanently as an addition to my portfolio as the current colleague handling this will be asked to do another project. Is this good or bad news? I do not know at this juncture. On one hand, I am excited as this is a more important role than my current portfolio of supporting a few departments and products. On the other hand, this change will involve longer working hours permanently as consolidation means that I will always need to wait for everyone to finish their pieces before I can roll-up, do final review and submit to my bosses and management.

I see this as grey news because it is neither good or bad or rather it can either be good or bad news.

Boss from Hell

Claire has reunited with her crush from college who introduced her to the cut-throat successful publisher, Vivian Grant. After being a family-like corporate culture publishing house, Claire braced herself for the worst with the rampant rumours of Vivian as the boss from hell.

On the first day of job, she witnessed a Vivian’s tirade against some of the more senior editors. Claire was loaded with impossible deadlines. She burnt mid-night oil, was on-call 24 by 7 and had no time for family or friends. The working environment was not helping as her colleagues were either equally tired or scheming to get in the good books of Vivian.

Vivian was not just a workaholic who expected the same from all her subordinates. She was condescending and believed that no subordinate was good enough or could not understand what she wanted. She spared no mercy with them and loaded all expletives. She was manipulative and preyed on the Achilles’ heel of Claire – comparison to Claire’s arch rival, Lulu, to get Claire to agree to taking on more assignments.

Sounds familiar? Yes, for those lovers of the movie The Devil Wears Prada, the plot of Bridie Clark’s Because She Can has a similar theme. Claire resembled the eager, impressionable and enthusiastic Anne Hathaway while Vivian Grant was evidently the character played by Meryl Streep. Although all these may edge on the verge of exaggeration and clearly fictitious, don’t we recognize a sliver of truth and resemblance of these characteristics in every day life?

Bootlicking colleagues, impossible deadlines, manipulative bosses or colleagues and endless over-times have become synonymous with successful careers, much to the chagrin of the likes of the Stepford wives. Whoa, when has the definition of a good career becomes so warped? Is working life really that cut-throat?

Why was I able to relate to Claire?

Despite hearing the rumours, Claire was determined to give herself and Vivian a chance as the stint at Grant Books will certainly enhance her resume. She gave herself a timeline of 1 year. Regardless of how bad the situation was, she would hang on for a year. When I first started on my current job, I was filled with apprehension as it was my first job change. I was worried how I would be able to survive in a private and dynamic organization. I had also given myself a timeline of about 2 years to ‘strike it out’. No matter what happened, I would certainly stay on for at least 2 years. Fortunately, I had enjoyed my job in a cordial environment that the past 2 years flew by like a breeze.

I am a sucker for happy endings. This is no exception. Claire managed to call it a stop after a while and despite just weeks before meeting her one-year cut-off. The day she walked out of Grant Books was the day that she could finally see the beautiful Manhattan skies again.

Homework?!?!?

We had a piece of reading - from Harward Business Review as homework from the course. Looking at the columnar 6-page reading in font-sized 10, it was as if I was transported back in time to my University Days. After distancing myself from such heavy reading for a long while (about 6 years ago), it was difficult to get into the momentum.

Actually, I simply could not bear reading it at all. My reading was cramped to the morning train trip before the second day lesson. Fortunately, I managed to finish the reading during the journey from Ang Mo Kio to Raffles Place. Phew, my speed reading had not failed me, even though I had a strong nudge that I was reading but not understanding.

Oh my, I believed I would certainly need to go through a long adapting period if I need to hit the books again. :-(

Buried in the Sea of People

I have never worked in the CBD - the stretch from Tanjong Pagar to Raffles Place. I will only go to these places for course or meeting consultants / vendors. After getting used to the more laid-back area such as Jurong East and Orchard (on weekdays), I nearly drowned in the sea of people when I was at Raffles Place MRT station in the peak hours to attend course.

I was already confronted by hordes of people once I was out of the train and waiting to reach the gantry via the escalator. I was surrounded by people where each of us was probably separated by a strand of hair. My heart nearly went into hyperventilation for the lack of air. I was literally being pushed forward by the people surrounding me. Glancing up, the escalator was COMPLETELY overflowing with people.

The nightmare was only beginning.

The same crowd gathered in front of the gantries waiting to get out of the train station. At this time, you prayed hard that your EZ Link card worked well and allowed you a smooth passage through the gates. Any delay in your passing through the gates could only result in two consequences - either you were stampeded by the crowd behind you or you suffered the impatient "tsk" and stares from the people.

The worst was yet to be over.

The escalator leading from the train station to above ground was equally thronged with people. Another round of jostling and pushing ensued. Everyone was desperately trying to get out of the train station and be in office in "Olympic-record" time. I thought I was already not a slow walker. Here, I was relegated to a 'tortoise' speed relative to the ladies in killer heels and the gentlemen in crisp shirt and ties. They literally zoomed past me. I better gathered my speed in order not to be a road hogger, or worse, a road block.

Finally, I was out in the open air. Although it was not as squeezy as before, the race to the office continued. Many of them carried their bags in one hand and a cup of coffee in another with the papers pressed under their armpits, they could still move along in top speed without dropping anything or spilling a drop of their coffee. Moreover, not a strand of hair was out of place or a bad of sweat was seen. Suddenly, I felt very out of place and frumpy walking alongside these super-power gentlemen and ladies.

Boy, was I glad when I finally reached my learning centre - a rather dilapidated building squeezed between two skyscrapers - OCBC Centre and One George Street. The fight for the morning had ended. I was sure more battling with the office crowd would continue during lunch and on the way home. For once, I was so glad my office was in the more relaxed area of Somerset. :-)

Negotiation and Influencing Skill Course

I think I am one who buckle quite easily when it comes to confrontation. This places me in an extremely disadvantageous position especially when discussing with the line on changing their assumptions or budget. Hence, learning how to effectively and cordially convince my line managers of Finance's perspective is an essential life skill. Hopefully, the Negotiation and Influencing Skill course will impart the necessary tools.

Some of the interesting insights shared by the coach are important while some are slightly impractical from my personal opinion.

1) Win-win are for losers
How often do we paint the ideal picture of a "win-win" situation when we are negotiating? We always strive for the best solution where no party will lose out. However, these are almost impossible. In any negotiation, some people will certainly lose out out more than the others - it is a matter of how big the win is.

2) Business Style
Each person has different business styles. Where negotiating with another party, we should know his or her business style so that we can build a better rapport. Business styles include analytical, driver, amiable and expressive. Analytical people tends to focus more on details. Driver are less patient and prefer to look at the big picture. Amiable people are more people focused. Expressive people prefers concepts and tend to be more articulate. However, sometimes, a person may not fall strictly into one category but may have a mixture of 2 to 3 dorminant traits. Knowing their characteristics, we will be able to present in a manner which the other party is more comfortable and heightens our chance of influencing them to our stance.

3) Listening
Before we can influence or negotiate, it is critical to listen to their concerns. We can improve our listening by actively asking open ended questions to gain better insights. More often than not, we may often focus more on thinking what we should say next rather than actively listening. Sometims, we may even interrupt before the person has finished speaking.

4) Different strategies and tactics
There are different strategies and tactics we can employ in negotiating. These include appeasing, indifference, competitive and cooperative. Appeasing involves more like creating buy-in through buying lunches and gifts, flattery, etc. Indifference means stalling for time or avoiding. Competitive is slightly more aggressive as it includes more intimidating acts. Cooperative seeks better understanding and collaborative efforts.

5) Handling difficult person
One way of dealing with difficult person is to identify his traits and thinking something good about the person so that we will not 'close the door' to this person. For instance, a pushy person may be due to them being too stressed while a person who is temperamental may have personal problems. Hence, we should be more understanding and focus on the better traits of this person.

I agree to some of these tools / concepts but not all of them. Moreover, when it is pertaining to the actual situation, most likely such tools and concepts will not be recollected and we will rely our instinct to handle the situation.

Local Fare

I am certainly a Singaporean at heart. Nah, I am not referring to the less desirable characteristics which are often associated with Singaporeans but more of Singaporeans' hobbies. I am both as much a gastronomic as a shopping fan - both leisure activities which are ranked among the highest in the popularity list of Singaporeans. Food is the favourite past-time of many Singaporeans. Singaporeans' taste are also wide-ranged from our round-the-corner Char Kway Teow in hawker centres to the fine dining by Cordon Bleu / Michelin certified restaurants.


I am too a foodie at heart. However, being a lady, I am also very aware of the side-effects of having too many good things at a time. To prevent my calories piling and tipping the weighing scale, everything has to be taken in moderation. Singaporeans, being highly knowledgeable of the 'hazards' associated with some of our most loved food, will have to refrain from indulging in our 'food spree' too often.


Let me not digress to much from the 'star' of the day. One of my favourite food indulgences is that of barbecued seafood which can be found in almost all hawker centres. The sizzling of the onions and balachan on the stingray placed strategically on top of the banana leaf in the hot plate will whet your appetite and send anticipation to your stomach. The smooth and sweet taste of the stingray is enhanced by the spiciness of the balachan and dried shrimps. The sweetness of the fish, the onions and shallots will also aid in neutralising some of the spiciness. For those who opt for a more balanced meal, the stir-fried kailan, spicy kang kong or spicy sweet potato leaves are equally mouth-watering.



Both are excellent dishes to go with rice. Before you know it, you would already have gulped down a large bowl of rice. For those of us who may be blessed with a very high tolerance of spiciness, the scorching spiciness lingering in our mouth, the sweat and sometimes runny nose from the high spicy level may not put us off. In fact, we feel more 'shiok' from the entire experience. Moreover, spiciness is an acquired taste. The more you eat, the more addicted you are and the better will be your tolerance level.


Don't salivate yet, dinner is still a few more hours away.

Continuing Financial Turmoil

Just as we thought the storm had blown over in the financial markets, the tenacles of the bad assets (I wondered if I could still call them assets when they caused the financial institutions to write-off as losses and be laden with debts) extended across the Atlantic Ocean to the Europeans. Panic gripped the markets worldwide with stock markt plunging and government rushing to put in emergency funds to rescue these stricken organisations.

With some of the familiar financial institutions going under, the question is no longer whether this is the last to be hurt but rather who will be next. Retail investors like you and me start wondering if our miniscule savings stash in the bank are safe. Despite them being miniscule, they can represent our life-time wealth. For the extremely cautious people, they contemplated if not already act on their decision, to withdraw from the banks. In spite of progressing, we seem to be regressing to the times when people hide their savings in tin cans and hang on their roof or place below their bags or maybe even sew them into their pillows.

Therein lies the greatest dilemmas. When you have savings, you worry about where to put these savings and how to make money work for you instead of vice versa. When you have no savings, you worry about your future, your retirement and keep praying hard that you keep your job and no one in your family falls sick. Regardless of which side of the 'grass' you are on, it seems like we will still be burdened with worries. Different worries plague different people.

Which side would you prefer?