Business Planning Seminar 2009

Every year, the Business Planning Seminar was almost like an outing with my colleagues. It was a half-day event at the Suntec Convention Centre where Senior Management would share some of their insights with all the Senior Officers in the company.

We would normally take the company transport to the venue. Taking a bus together brought us back to school days like when we were on excursions. I was actually more interested in the buffet lunch that they had provided. The wide spread of salads and sushis as starters, the hot dishes which included fried rice, fish, vegetables and the desserts with the cute little cheesecakes, fruit-tarts kept my mouth very busy. Well, these were not exquisite selection but they were still free lunch with not too bad quality.

We stood around eating and joking. The one thorn among the roses constantly became our teasing target especially when he was also the youngest among us. I missed such ‘outings’ with my colleagues. We have not had one since our last KL trip last year. This year due to cost cutting measures in response to the economic crisis, the overseas trip would be cut.

Dreaming of Lee Hom

You would never professional approaching 30-year old to live in la-la land after a ‘date’ with Lee Hom. That is if you consider Lee Hom standing at least 3 metres away on an elevated platform and I in a crowd of at least a hundred people as a date. Of course not, I was mere member of the audience while he was the superstar on stage.

Since we heard of confirmed news of his arrival at our office, I was in a super good mood all day. I simply could not wipe the smile off my face. The intolerable hours of checking data, setting up templates and dealing with the thousand-and-one questions from the business managers suddenly faded away. I was counting down hours to meeting Lee Hom. Our conversations for the entire day were about meeting Lee Hom. My big boss was simply aghast at how his officers were almost reduced to a bunch of infatuated fans. He could not comprehend our admiration for Lee Hom. He wondered why we blatantly ignored him in the name of Lee Hom.

Throughout the day, whenever we heard some rumours that Lee Hom had arrived or the event was starting, we suddenly grew excited and forgot about the tasks on hand. We just wanted to fly down immediately. Come on, our hearts were clearly not in our job when Lee Hom was in the same building and breathing the same air as us.

Of course, our ‘lovesickness’ was slightly alleviated when we finally saw him. Seeing him was a much stronger dose of endorphins than 10 laps or swimming. Even for the next few days, I could not help smiling every time I recalled seeing him on stage. Now, I finally understood the idol craze that some of the teenagers went through and to think that Lee Hom was not even my proclaimed idol. Yes, I respected and admired him for his boyish good looks and his musical talent but he was not quite my idol. Yet, his appearance had caused me to forsake my ‘beloved’ job and stood around with hundreds of people busy snapping pictures. Who could ever stop the power of these much adored artists?

Seeing Lee Hom Up Close

Yes, you are right. Lee Hom is that Wang Lee Hom – the award winning Taiwanese singer. He also pens some of his own songs and is well-known both for his talents and looks. When I talk about seeing him up close, I am not referring to his life-sized poster. I am referring to him, physically in person.

Lee Hom was an invited guest to launch a new model of Sony Ericsson phone at Comcentre on 23 April. The few of us suddenly turned into love-struck giggly fans when we first heard this. We started to speak loudly and dropped huge hints to our bosses that we would like to sneak some time off work to see Lee Hom. It was not an every day event that a mega overseas star would arrive at our doorstep.

The most important question was when he would arrive. First, we heard it was 3 pm. We silently thought this seemed too early be true. Then we heard it was 5 pm. At around 545pm, we heard colleagues who were on their way home saw Lee Hom arriving at the lobby. We nearly went ga-ga with joy. We quickly rushed down hoping that we would be able to catch a last glimpse of him before he left for we did not know how long he would stay.

Alas, we stayed in the tentage in front of the stage for a good whole 15 minutes entertained by a not-so-familiar singer, we started to grow impatient wondering if Lee Hom would arrive soon. Although it was knocking-off time, we still had things to do. We decided to abort the waiting and go back up to office.

At 7 pm, I decided I was done for the day and it was time to head home. My bosses were shocked. They thought I would continue to wait for Lee Hom till he appeared. In response, I told them that although I was very excited by Lee Hom’s appearance, I was still not a die-hard fan. If I could see him while he was here, it would be good. However, if he would only make an appearance at 8 pm, I would not go on waiting.

Da-dah. Lady Luck was smiling at me. When I arrived at the lobby, I met my CFO who asked why I was not down to see Lee Hom. I excitedly asked her if Lee Hom was here. She confirmed that he was already on stage. I quickly rushed into the tentage, hoping to move as close to the stage as possible.

Oh my, he was so tall and handsome. I quickly took out my phone to snap pictures of him. I kept chiding myself for not bringing my digital camera. My phone camera had no zoom functionality, so the picture of Lee Hom turned up to be very small. Aarggh, I missed a great chance to take a picture of this handsome talented singer to keep as a momento.

I was an easily contented person. I loitered for around 10 minutes and left soon after when he sat down to autograph for consumers who had bought the latest Sony Ericsson phone.

P.S. I only knew one week later that my CFO, being a senior management, had a chance to take a personal photo with Lee Hom. So envious.

Happy Ants - Memoirs of Zhuo Yu Chun

When I picked up the book, it was because it was a new arrival. I loved to finger and flip the pages of a new books especially one with such good printing. Moreover, it was a relatively thin book published in Singapore. Even if the book turned out to be a yawn, at least it would be a waste of less time than a thick book.

Fortunately, the book was better than expected.

I was like you. I wondered who Zhuo Yu Chun was. Was she some famous politician or artist? What was so great about her that warrant the publishing of a memoir to document her life? There were certainly more famous people around and with more visible contributions, but few had published a book, much less a memoir. By now, I am sure your interest has been piqued like me.

Indeed, Zhuo Yu Chun was not a famous politician. Neither could she be considered an established artist. She was also not the wife of a well-known name in Singapore. Her memoirs was a simple narrative of her learning journey. At this point, you must be wondering what was so great about a learning journey which everyone would be capable of embarking.

Zhuo Yu Chun was an eight-six year old granny but she had not given up learning. She picked up Korean drums at the age of eighty. She self-learned ikebana (Japanese flora arrangement) and even managed to hold conferences on her expertise in ikebana. She was born in the small village of Api in Indonesia but fought against the traditional mindset of girls should not be educated and enrolled in school. Later, she had even travelled overseas to Singapore.

Even after she was married, she continued to want to travel and learn. She had even complained to the authorities when she was refused for an all girls' group travel to China in the sixties. Fighting against all odds, she picked up numerous skills and never stopped her learning throughout her life. She became a role model for her children and even her grandchildren who sought to emulate her for her outlook in life and her hardworking attitude.

She was inspirational in motivating everyone to go after their dreams and make the most out of life. We should not be deterred in our learning. We need to learn to keep ourselves engaged to new things and even to new people. It was a simple book for all to read. It was a simple message for all to learn. Yet, it would take efforts to practise what the book preached. Well, we can always start small.

Wastage

Oprah invited two families for a challenge. Both families were known to be wasting alot of money and resources from their daily habits. To cultivate a more environmentally and monetary friendly practice, Oprah issued a challenge to them to cut back on their wasteful attitude for a week.
- They are not allowed to drink from plastic cups and eat from plastic plates and cutlery.
- They are only allowed a one-hour TV break daily.
- They can only use the computer for homework.
- They cannot go shopping except to buy food for one week.
- There is no wastage of food allowed.

For those of you who think that the above are hardly challenging at all, kudos to you. For those of you who find the above a tall order, you should start examining your lifestyle from today.

For the two families, that one week proved to be a long and arduous week. Firstly, many parents had relied on TV and computer as part-time baby-sitters. As a result, many children were addicted to TV and computer. By depriving them of both, they suddenly were at a loss of what to do. If any parent was guilty of this, please stop immediately.

Many children these days were also very picky over food. To ensure that their children still got the necessary nutrition, many parents would prepare different food for different children in the same meal. This led to wastage as sometimes it was hard to prepare only a single portion.

In terms of wasting electricity, both children and adults alike were guilty of charge. Multitasking was literally in our blood. Hence, it was not uncommon for us to be talking to our friends on MSN while watching TV and listening to our iPod. Some might even use the TV as a lullaby to lure you to sleep. These meant wastage of electricity which would further aggravate the destruction of Planet Earth. These also meant wastage of money when electricity tarriffs were increasing especially in such gloomy economic climate.

When such tough measures were imposed on the families, severe side effects were observed. The children became listless when they had no TV or computer. One of the younger boys even suffered from withdrawal syndrome when he threw into tantrum and foul mood when he was denied his Xbox. The teenage girls refused to get out of bed because the heater was not turned up as high as they would like. To them, the whole week was a torture.

However, towards the end of the week, the families also discovered improvements to the quality of life. When the children were no longer hooked to the computer games, the whole families had more interaction time through board games. The families could also save financially from the cut-down in food wastages, shopping and electrical bills. The improvements were gradual and small but encouraging.

The children were also inculcated the value of cutting down on waste for the benefits of their families, the earth and for their progeny through sustainability. The show was a reminder to those who had been working hard to conserve energy to continue to do so. It was a reminder to those who currently were more laxed in their habits to start cutting down waste.

Tough Session of Yoga

My teacher was going for his overseas vacation for the next 2 weeks. As usual, whenever we stopped for sometime, be it due to public holidays or because of our teacher's schedule, it would be a tough session. My teacher would cramp as many tough positions as possible so that we would sweat it all out first.

Mid-way through the session, my legs were weak from all the standing workouts. My arms started to shiver slightly when I continued to hold them horizontal straight and at shoulder level. By the end of the session, my whole body was laden with fatigue and all my limps felt heavy with each lift. Fortunately, I was not the only one completely exhausted from this session. My mum was also commenting about her exhaustion.

I would definitely be suffering from muscle aches from all over my body starting tomorrow. Sigh!

Strong Winds

We were all in our dreamlands.

Suddenly, there seemed to be commotion outside the windows. My curtains flapped loudly. It was almost thrown outside the windows. The winds continued to howl outside. Fearing that a thunderstorm was imminent, I quickly tried to close the windows to prevent the lashing rain from wetting the curtains.

I had underestimated the strength of the wind.

I was trying to pull the window panes in to close them. I was fighting a losing battle against the strong wind. What I had only managed was to hold the window panes from moving even further out while calling out for help to my sister. It took the two of us to jointly to hole one window pane in. After a good 5 minutes did I manage to close and the lock the windows.

Wow, it was like a typhoon sweeping past. Never have I encountered such strong winds before.

P.S. We only knew from the papers the next day that the strong winds were caused by the Sumatra Squall.

Songs from Chun Hyang

I cannot possibly keep watching the repeats of Chun Hyang, can I? What is the best way to remember this drama? That is to keep listening to the songs that will remind me of the romantic moments. Moreover, most of the songs are in jazz which are soothing for winding down after a long day of work. Do listen to the sound tracks if you have the time.

Hot Hot Weather

Although there is no such thing as a four-season in Singapore due to our strategic location on the tropical region just minimally north of the Equator, there are still months where we enjoy the cool breezes. Typically, April and May are hot and dry months with many Singaporeans hiding in their homes or in the airconditioned places. There are recent reports which indicate that the businesses of many foodcourts have prospered from the hot weather where many opt for dining at foodcourt instead of the non-airconditioned hawker centres.

It is so hot that one starts to loose appetites and become lethargic. We also shy away from any activities that will expose us to the hot sun. Usually, during such hot periods, we will crave the cooler food like sushi and salads instead of soupy food because the experience of sweating while slurping the steaming food is simply not welcoming.

During such hot weather, exercising seems to also take a toll our our bodies. During cooler months, I can jog a full round in the park with just slight breathlessness and muscle aches in my calves. Under the such hot weather and even before the sun is up, my calf muscles start to feel heavy just half a round and I start to gasp for air with heavy breathing. Sweat trickle down my face profusely. By the time I complete the entire round, I am deadbeat.

No wonder, sometimes people can collapse from heat stroke when running long distance and under the hot sun.

I long for the cooler months in Singapore. This is also the period where I welcome going to office because the office is airconditioned.

Food and Poisoning

Singapore is well-known for its variety of delicious local fare which can be found almost anywhere. With the multiracial society and being an open country dating back to even before our independence, we are adventurous when it comes to food. Eating is a national hobby after shopping. What do most Singaporeans do during their spare time? We will reply in earnest that it is likely to be eating out or shopping. We can travel far and withstand long queue just to indulge in our favourite nasi lemak or chicken rice.

We are also often guided by the many food guides (both on TV and in the papers) of the best food in town. Singapore has also prided ourselves our high hygiene level even at the roadside stalls. Hence, most Singaporeans were shocked and perturbed when news of severe food poisoning affecting a large group of people and causing fatalities hit the headlines.

People started asking themselves what had gone wrong? Do we need to now only buy from stalls with 'A' gradings? How often do we not see the gradings prominently displayed in many stalls?

Once triggered, more and more incidents of food poisoning occupied the headlines of the local news. Many also started questioning the policies and penalties to be put in place, such as refusal of rental renewal for stalls below a certain hygiene standard or why the hygiene level of a temporary market does not fall under the purview of NEA. Many theories of how the food poisoning had arisen also were speculated.

Indeed, complacency is often a precursor to problems. How often do we note a less than satisfactory hygiene level in many foodcourts and hawker centres? Rats scurrying around the markets is not a sight confined only to Geylang market. I have seen rats even outside some coffee shops and steamboat stalls. Hence, one can imagine what will happen when the lights are out. Food not properly stored will be a paradise for the rodents. Rats are not the only pests which we should be mindful of. Flies circulating around your food and immediately swarming leftover food when the patrons left the tables are common sights. The sloppy attitude of many cleaners do not help when the wiping cloth is rarely rinsed. When clearing the plates, the unproper disposal of the plates and bowls cause the leftover soup and sauce to drip over the tables, the chairs and the floor. Needless to say, such leftover food lures and continues to feed the flies.

We need to do more to maintain the high hygiene standards of Singapore food. After all, the high hygiene standard of food hygiene in Singapore provides assurance to both the locals and the tourists.

Appropriate Jokes

To confess, I never rate my sense of humour as high. Neither am I an expert where I can cleverly define the thin line between humour and sarcastism or delf-deprecating and diffidence. It is an elusive art to me on when should humour be injected to build rapport and when it should be kept at bay during a formal occasion. I am also hopeless when it comes to determining whether someone is being humourous or is being serious in some of their comments unless they add in the obvious 'Just joking' at the end of the conversation.

Being naturally a more serious than jovial person, I am not very comfortable with the use of humour especially in work context. Some of my colleagues like to crack jokes and engage in trivial banter before we start discussing on work matters. This sometimes take the boredom and frustration out of complex or perennial issues. Yet, when use inappropriately, it can be detrimental to the professional image that you try to project.

Recently, I have met with an incident where I was pretty uncomfortable and was rendered speechless by a comment that my colleague made.

My SMS: The numbers have to be submitted today. There are still problems with a few of the divisions. Have you completed the reconciliation?
His SMS: I am on leave for these 2 days. Can wait until Monday?
My SMS: Ok, we will play by ear cos it depends on when Management wants to see the nos.
His SMS: I know my ears are cute, but please do not play with my ears.

... ...

I was speechless and decided not to send any reply.

Alright, to take it lightly, he was trying to add some humour to a serious issue. Yet, I could not help feeling if this was crossing the line a little. Firstly, it was clearly "Play BY ear" instead of "Play WITH ear" even I took it to the literal sense. Secondly, such a comment especially from a male to a female colleague seemed to exceed protocol and common etiquette. It took the wind out of me and left me feeling even slightly embarrassed. Yet, I was quite certain I typed in correctly with "Play BY ear".

I chose to ignore this eventually because I knew that he could sometimes be rather inappropriate with some of his comments. It was his nature that he tried to see the lighter side of things though sometimes at the expense of others. What could I say? Humour is indeed an art that not everyone is a master of.

Nicknames

Ever since the implementation of open concept to office about 2 years ago, it has improved communication among colleagues. I have initially viewed the open concept more negatively as it would reduce privacy since now what you do onscreen or on the phone would basically be very apparent to all passerbys, including bosses. What I have not foreseen was the increased interaction among colleagues.

When we were in our individual cubicles, despite we being on the same floor, we used to just email or call each other when we wanted to check on something. This was because we did not want to intrude on our colleagues while they were busy with something. At the same time, this allowed us to simultaneously multi-tasked while we spoke with our colleagues.

When we moved to the open cubicle concept, it was not that we cut down email and phone calls completely. We just did less of those and did more of walking to our colleagues' cubicles for a quick chat. Some of the times, in the heat of something, we might even just stand up and holler across to our colleagues. The whole environment was livelier.

With greater interaction, cool formality maintained among colleagues gradually was replaced with a more familiar intimacy. We started telling jokes among each other, gossip slightly especially against the more difficult line managers and even started giving nicknames to each other.

We had an event director - because she was always arrowed to organise events. We had the little boy - because he was the youngest among us and was also deemed as the most innocent among us. We had the master because she was master of three lively boys. We had the chief of business group because she led most of the consolidation work.

What did you think my nickname was?

Drumroll please.

Grrr........

Principal.

I was nicknamed the 'Principal' because firstly, I looked like one with my bespectacled serious look and with a frown on my face most of the time. Secondly, I seemed to have a theory for a lot of things, be it work-related on why others behaved in a certain way to even about food and lobangs and all other things.

Haha, so do not be surpised if the next time someone shouted 'Principal' and I turn my head around. =p

One Litre of Tears

This Japanese movie was apparently based on some true story. I was exploring the site that Ah Peng introduced to mewhen I chanced upon this movie which I have since long heard of. This site contained many video clips of Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese movies and dramas

It was about a girl who was struck by cerebral palsy but who braved through life with her optimistism. Not only did she continue with her learning and writing despite her physical challenges, she had remained cheerful and brought smile to her friends, the medical team who was helping her and her family. It would certainly brought tears to the soft-hearted when we followed Aya - the girl through her short 25 years on earth.

I felt guilty at some of my rather trivial complaints about life and my nonchalance about the way I spent my time sometimes. Looking at my blase attitude towards time - the greatest gift I could always have and comparing against Aya's despondency over what little time she had, I felt I was doing injustice to myself, to this gift and to the people who was deprived of this gift.

I should do better and I will do better. Let's cheer each other on and have a good race during this limited time we have.

The Flyers

Gosh, it was already the first year anniversary of the Singapore Flyers and I have never ridden on it yet. Shame of me. I have only admired it from afar. I nearly could not contain my excitement when I knew I finally would be riding on it to soak in the view of Singapore from Singapore's latest landmark. I hoped I was not wrong in touting it as the latest landmark, but from my recollection, I did not remember any other architecture on Singapore shores that had caught as much attention for the past year.

I was slightly nervous about my maiden ride especially when it was raining the whole afternoon. It would be rather disappointing if it continued to rain during the time of our 'flight'. Fortunately, the rain stopped after dinner and the skies were certainly clear for a good view during our 9pm ride.

(The shopfronts at the Singapore Flyers)

The Flyer was brightly lit up against the night skies of Singapore. I could see it from far from all corners of the Cityhall area. Each capsule was covered with glass to provide unobstructing view from all directions. To move along such a big diameter in 30 minutes, the capsule ought to be turning at a noticeable speed. However, during the steadiness of the rotation, one would hardly feel and notice any visible movement, unless you would staring at the capsule in front or behind you.

(The beautiful landscape viewed from within the capsule on Singapore Flyers)

The Singapore Marina landscape at night was simply breath-taking. How could we have missed such superb view right at our doorstep? I was certain the view was comparable if not more superior than that of the Bund in Shanghai and the Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong. I could not imagine the spectacular view when the Marina Sands project complete end this year.

(The Marina Sands project brightly lit up due to continual construction even into the night)

I was so excited during the whole ride that I almost refused to sit down. I moved from one corner to another, snapping pictures of the scenery, of my family, of myself. Was I not busy? I was so busy with soaking the whole experience and the feast of beautiful landscape in that the ride was almost over before I knew it. Wow. That was simply amazing.

Amazing but short. Of course, I was starting to miss the fun before I even stepped out of the capsule. For those of you who craved for something more exciting, this could be too tamed and slow-paced for you. However, for people who preferred more peaceful activities, this would be thoroughly enjoyable, especially if you were a visual person.

Notwithstanding, the cost of such a ride could be rather expensive considering that the usual price would be about $30 per person for a 30-minute entertainment. This worked out to be $1 per minute - expensive indeed. Pardon me for throwing in pragmatism, I am an accountant and being calculative is almost my second nature. Perhaps the operator should consider reducing the price to promote more frequent rides from locals as well as tourists.

Japanese Economy Rice

I am back at the Japanese foodcourt again at Northpoint to introduce this place to visitor of the day - Ah Peng. Ah Peng is dropping by my house for a visit today. The itinerary is as follows:

- lunch at Ishimura Japanese foodcourt at Northpoint

- travel to my house

- tour my house (about 30 seconds because it is not very big)

- chitchat and watch TV

I know, I know. It is boring itinerary but my house is not very big and does not come equipped with alot of 'perks' - no SCV, Xbox or PSP.

For lunch, Ah Peng had the claypot salmon tofu rice which she commented was nice. With Ah Peng's experience with some of the high class food - eg Angus Steak, Carousel buffet, Grand Corpthorn buffet, her ratings will be rather reliable. Actually, from my rather heartland and hawker taste buds, I think the claypot stall is good because I have tried and found both the unagi claypot and the oyako (steamed chicken and egg - literal translation from Japanese means parent-and-child) claypot delicious.

I went for the bento set this time round. The bento stall was like a Japanese economy rice stall where you could pick a few dishes for your bento. All the dishes looked tempting. I had the stir fried black pepper pork, Thai sweet and sour tofu and the kailan.

Everytime, I ate here, I was surprised at the quality and the variety of the food. With such value-for-money choices, the Japanese restaurants in town would have to fight some tough competition. =p

Trivial Ailments Prone

Recently, I seemed to have been hit by a spate of bad luck. Or maybe it was my body's way of protesting to me. From swollen feet to swollen cheek within a span of a month, it was almost embarrassing to keep visiting the doctor. All these ailments were nothing too serious. They just caused some inconvenience and pain.

You would think that at this age, I should have taken better care of my body. Yet, I often neglect my body when it came to work or in an attempt to be efficient.

Slow down. My body is not as sturdy as it is when I am in my early twenties. I need to slow down and prioritise before my body breaks apart.

Mumps?!?!?

Given my timid nature, especially when it comes to health and mortality (in local terms = kiasee), I was very 'concerned' when I spotted a lump in the inside of my left cheek. It was not ulcer because there is no inflamed area spotted. It was purely a protrusion but with pain. It made speaking and eating difficult whenever the teeth brushed against the swollen part.

I was also worried that it might be mumps and I could be a 'walking bomb', ready to detonate all the germs and viruses to my fellow colleagues and anyone who happened to be near me. After all, I heard mumps were as contagious as chicken pox. Much as I would like to work hard and not cause any inconvenience to my fellow colleagues and my boss, would I actually be putting them to more harm with this inconsiderate action.

Or worse, what if the lump was a precursor or symptom to a terminall illness? Don't we all know that early detection is the best cure?

So immediately after I completed my flash report for the month which usually occured on the 5th working day from the start of the month, I decided to finally go see a doctor to stop all my speculative fears. If it was really meant to be something serious, I might as well hear the bad news now and make good use of my remaining time.

When I showed my GP the lump, he first reassured me that it was no mumps because there was no protrusion on the outside of the cheeks. Phew! One down.

Then he told me that he suspected that it was a viral infection and prescribed me antibiotics to eradicate the viruses. I asked him if I should see a dentist instead. He told me that if after the dose of antibiotics, the swell remained, I should probably check myself in with a dentist. Phew again! It sounded like nothing too serious.

Fortunately, the swell went down after a couple of days and life went back to the peaceful monotony.

Nyonya Kuehs

Nyonya kuehs are sweet desserts from the nyonyas and typically characterised with coconut flaks or paste. Many of them are colourful and resemble the Malay kuehs. Hmmm... they are really tasty. The rich taste nearly explode in my mouth. Try some of them if you happen to spot them.

One place where you can get them is at level 1 of Pearl Centre.

Qing Ming

A day for us to remember our ancestors. Many people would have hurried to the burial place of their ancestors right in the morning to pay our respects to our passed away loved ones. It is a day for us to show our filial piety. When there was hints for us to come back to office to update some number to EVP who wanted to see the latest performance over the weekend, many people violently objected as there were plans underway for Qing Ming. Fortunately, it was only a false alarm.

Experimenting Siew Mai

It has been a long while since we made siew mai. The last time we made siew mai was years ago. It is strange that times fly faster than we even think about it. Memory fades and skills rusts. Needless to say, some of the pointers and tips which we acquire in our last experience have been forgotten. It is starting afresh once again.

My mum bought minced pork. We simply added salt and pepper and minced prawn to the pork and started mixing. A little flour was added for the smoothness of the paste as well as to create a paste. Drawing from the last experience, we were smarter this time round. We knew we should not complete making all siew mais one shot. We should make a few, steam them and taste them so that we could improve along the way. This would also reduce wastage from failure.

(The raw ingredients)

It was certainly a wise move.

(The completed raw siew mais)

The first batch of siew mais tasted a bit too salty. The colour looked too blend. We added too much fillings because we were initially worried that we would not have enough pastry for all the meat paste. Hence, each siew mais was too stuffed with fillings that they lost their daintiness typical of dim sums. Moreover, with too much fillings, the siew mais started to collapse after steaming. The fillings were too discrete instead of more paste-like. Hence, when the siew mais were cut, it was as if we were eating minced pork where we could taste discrete little balls of pork.

(The revised siew mais with carrots added and wantons and dumplings created)

Rectification went underway. To tackle the problem of saltiness and the lack of colour, chopped carrots were added to the mix. In addition, chopped carrots were also added to the top of the siew mai for aesthetic purposes. Beaten egg was also added to mixture to create stickiness among the mixture so that it would be more paste-like.

(The siew mais steaming in the pot)

To create more variety, dumplings and wantons were created. These could be added into soup later.

(The steamed dumplings and siew mais)

All completed dumplings, wantons and siew mais had to be steamed, cooled before they could be stored in the fridge for later use. When we wanted to consume later, we could just take out the items and cooked or steamed again. However, all items would taste best when consumed fresh because the skin would taste harder when they were steamed or cooked a second time.

On the whole, we were pretty satisfied with our work but certainly there was still ample room for improvement in our next attempt. That is, if we attempt not too long after this or we will end up forgetting the lessons learnt in this experiement.

New Drink Recipe

My mum has picked up a few drink recipes from her friend and she was determined to try it out - on us, of course.

1) Avocado juice
- Blend avocado flesh with honey and milk to a smooth emulsion like consistency. Add ice and serve as chilled
- Great as a dessert especially in hot weather



2) Sour plum drink
- Soak sour plum in water and stir. Good to serve both hot or chilled
- Great for cooling down the body in the hot weather and for stimulating appetite.

The first tastes like an ice-cream. The second is good for quenching thirst. Which do you prefer?

Maladjusted - Blogging

Phin Wong's latest article was on interaction between humans and machines. Oops, should I say gadgets. As you can see, I am also not a very techie person. I am still in the dumb phone era. While people have moved on to Twitter, I am still on blogging.

Much as I am a retard when it comes to acquiring new gadgets, I am also guilty of a few sins that he has illustrated. One of which is to blog on the trivialities of life - like what I eat for lunch, dinner, etc. Well, to confess, I am not talented to be able to philosophically comment on life or meanings of life so frequently. The odd occasion when I have something intelligent to say and which is not related to my daily life-style is more like a rare inspiration. Coupled with my rather dull life, food emerged as the most exciting part of my life.

When I am writing such trivial stuff, I have often whether I am driving my readers to sleep. Yet, I still trudge ahead rather shamelessly because I am sure there are some of you out there who, like me, treasure the little pleasures in life. Life doesn't always have to be co complicated and full of deep thoughts. Simple and mindless entertainment can be liberating amidst the drudgery and stress of mundane life.

So, I will continue to write about what I eat for lunch, who I have met and some of the fleeting thoughts that distract me as I go about with my daily tasks.

April's Fool Joke?

Although my boss has reappointed another colleague to lead this year's annual product costing exercise, she has requested me to continue to chair the kick-off meeting for this year's costing. Personally, I thought it was slightly weird for me to chair the meeting when the coordinator was clearly another person this year.

Since the update of the presentation slides and delivering the presentation would not take too much of an effort, so I did what I was told. To ensure a smooth handover and introduction of the new coordinator to the representatives from the various departments, I was to complete the meeting with introducing my colleague as this year's coordinator.

I did what I was told. However, when I finished the introduction, there was surprise among the meeting attendees. Murmuring and giggles started. We were slightly stunned by such response.

It was until later that we realised that many might have thought that either we were playing a joke to them during the meeting by getting a non-coordinator to chair the meeting or that my ending the meeting with my colleague as the new coordinator was a joke. Coincidentally, the meeting was held on April's Fool Day.