Yokoso Hokkaido – Furano

Furano is one of the most famous agricultural towns of Hokkaido, supplying some of the most famous produces such as corns, melons (second only to Yubari Melon) and lavender. The lavender at Farm Tomita is the highlight of this trip. Imagine being surrounded by a sea of lavender and its soothing sweet scent. I simply cannot wait.

As the day of our visit is a weekend, traffic jams are formed way before we reach the farm. The jam is further exacerbated when this weekend is an extended weekend with Monday, known as the Day of the Sea, is a public holiday. The driver has to make several detours before we find our way to the carpark. The detour heightens my anticipation especially when I spot the field of purple some distance away. Finally, we arrive at the Farm after the skilful detour of the driver to avoid the jam. On our way, we hear that some other tourists have walked a 2-km distance to reach the farm.

When we walk towards the farm, a waft of refreshing lavender scent welcome us way before we are greeted by the sea of purple – a clear indication that we are nearing the lavender.

Wow, when we see the rows and rows of lavender, it is as if we are living in a fairy tale. Yet, we certainly know we are not in dreamland with the increasingly distinct scent of lavender. In addition to lavender, there is a kaleidoscope of other seasonal flowers which accentuate the purple of the lavender.


For those who are not really into flowers (especially the guys), fret not. There are many little retail shops by the side of the farm offering little snacks and souvenirs which are mostly lavender related.

As this is the season of melons, one can even grab a well-known Japanese rock melon at cheaper rate than other times. Each Furano melon can be sold at around 20,000 to 30,000 Yen (about S$26 to S$39) relative to the 70,000 to 80,000 Yen at the beginning of the season. Furano melons are typically rounder in shape relative to the Yubari melons which are more longish. For those who wish to consume the melon over a longer period, you should buy a harder melon as the Japanese melons ripen rapidly.

Since Hokkaido is also famous for its dairy products, tasting its ice-cream is certainly a die-die must try. I opt for the melon ice-cream as it combines two of the most famous produces of Hokkaido in one. The sweet fragrance of melon, the bright orange ice-cream and the smooth and creamy texture of the ice-cream keep me hooked. It is difficult to stop once you have a taste of it. Even after finishing the whole cup, I long for more.

Steam white corn is also another popular snack among the visitors of Farm Tomita. The steaming hot corn with large corn eyes cause many visitors to drool even though it is nearing lunch hour. In fact, many of our tour group like the corn so much that they subsequently buy the raw corn back to Singapore.

Our lunch is at the restaurant owned by Farm Tomita as well. There is an adjourning retail space for lavender related products for those who want to bring a little lavender home. Some of the more popular products include the lavender pillows which are made of lavender and charcoal. For the ladies, the lavender horse oil and the scrub draw their attention. Horse oil is very effective for dry and cracking skin especially when one travels to the temperate and cold countries. For the lavender scrub, the shop assistants offer trials on the spot. When a little of the scrub is rubbed onto the back of the hand, dead skin can be seen immediately. After the dead skin is wiped off, the hand which is scrubbed is considerably fairer than the one which has not. However, all other Japanese products, the high quality does not come at a cheap price. The lavender pillow is around 60,000 Yen while the scrub is around 20,000 Yen.

The food at this country-like restaurant is simply superb. It is buffet with a wide array of Japanese-Western fusion. Moreover, it offers ‘free-flow’ of steam scallops. For scallop fans, you cannot miss this because the scallops are big and succulent without any fishy smell. Well, in case you are not aware, sea food is also a local produce in Hokkaido given that it is facing the Pacific Ocean. The pumpkin soup and the pumpkin wasabi salad are must-haves. The soup is rich yellow, creamy and sweet. The pumpkin salad is surprisingly non-spicy despite the use of wasabi.

For people who have grown up in the cities, Furano offers a preview into the country life where enroute to the farms, we see fields and fields of padi and flowers.

A surprising stretch of cheery sunflowers on our way to Furano

Yokoso Hokkaido – Mt Moiwa

Mt Moiwa offers a good view of the night sceneries of Sapporo – the biggest city in Hokkaido. Unfortunately, on the day of the ascent, the evening suddenly turns foggy which shields us from the resplendent lights of the city below. In between the heavy fog, we have only managed to catch a glimpse of the night scenes.

Atop the squarish observatory area, there are indications of the distance from the observatory to some of the cities in Hokkaido found at different corners. Hence, when we stand facing a certain direction, we know we are looking towards Otaru, Noboribetsu, etc.


The most famous night scene in Hokkaido is believed to be in Hakodate instead of Sapporo. To me, the night scene of Sapporo seems subtle when compared to Singapore’s from Equinox at Swissotel and Shanghai from Oriental Pearl Tower.

Yokoso Hokkaido – Otaru (小樽)

Otaru Canal is a well-known water passageway for trade and transport many years ago. However, it has ceased its commercial use about 60 years ago. Now, it has become an oasis in a busy town offering a charming space for the residents.

(Otaru Canal - tranquil and serene)

On a weekend afternoon, there is even a rock concert along the Otaru Canal to add some ‘spice’ to the tranquil waterway.

(A rock concert entertaining the passerbys)

There is a quintessential little retail space located a short walk down the canal. The area is like a miniature Western town with many two to three-storey country-like buildings lining two sides of the road. Most of these shops retail or display musical boxes, cafes or confectionery. Occasionally, there may be odd surprises as one turns a corner to discover a shop selling local Hokkaido produce like melons and snacks or a shop selling stuff toys.

This cake & coffee shop is where we have a little butter cake with a small cup of aromatic coffee. The butter cake simply melts in one’s mouth. Ah, what an idyllic way to spend an afternoon.

(We get to keep the adorable little cup for souvenir)

This building houses one of the widest arrays of exquisitely made musical boxes along the street. The clock tower outside the shop emits steam and chimes every hour. The musical boxes come in all sorts of sizes, designs and themes. For first-time visitors, complimentary chocolates are also given.

LeTao is a famous confectionery with many mouth-watering chocolates and other cakes. Similarly, Rokkatei boasts one of the most exquisite chocolate strawberry in town where a thin dark chocolate crust wraps a whole strawberry. Yummy.

Although this is only a short street, the many confectionery and musical boxes shops are certainly captivating enough to keep you occupied for a couple of hours.

Yokoso Hokkaido - Prologue

Visiting the land of the rising sun has always been a dream since the days of Japanese study.

We heard so much about its language and its culture during our twice weekly lessons. Since then, travelling to Japan becomes a common dream shared by us who sweat through ‘O’ and ‘A’ Levels. We long to see and experience the land which is the origin of the language that caused us to lose sleep during a great part of our teenage years. Two of them have subsequently visited Central Japan and Hokkaido on their own with their better halves. However, we still have yet to visit Japan together despite graduating for more than 10 years.

After much deliberation, I decided to realize my Japan dream. I close an eye to the high travelling cost and signed on a 7-day tour of Hokkaido with Ah Peng – one of the musketeers. Finally, I am a step closer to fulfilling a long-time wish even though prior to the trip, the guilt of the high expenditure of this trip keeps nagging me.

Located in a volcanic belt, Japan is well-known for its hot-springs and fertile land. The beauty of its national flower – Sakura (Cherry Blossom) is the pride of the Japanese. In addition to its natural resource, the Japanese are equally well-known for their efficiency and innovation – boasting many successful management concepts (such as Kaizen) and world-class brands (such as Toyota, Sony, etc).

Japan consists of 4 main islands – Honshu (Central), Kyushu (Southern), Shikoku (Southern) and Hokkaido (Northern). Honshu, where Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto are located, is the most popular vacation destinations among the 4 main islands. Hokkaido is increasingly gaining popularity especially for its hot springs and ski resorts. It is also one of the more sparsely populated islands with agriculture being the principal activity and many of the younger generation migrating to the cities in Central Japan. Being in the most northern part of Japan, the climate of Hokkaido is cool in Summer and freezing cold in Winter. Hokkaido is only occupied by Japanese for about 150 years from the Meiji Restoration period. Prior to this, the land is occupied by mainly the aborigines – Ainu.

Why Hokkaido of all places? Firstly, this is one of the best seasons to visit Hokkaido with its cool climate (average of 20 Deg Celsius). It will offer a respite from the scorching heat of Singapore. Secondly, Ah Peng has visited a good part of Central Japan about 3 years ago. Thus, Hokkaido is new to both of us. Lastly, this is season of Lavender (and maybe even Sunflower) which is one of the primary attractions of Hokkaido in July. If we miss this, we will need to wait another year before we can get mesmerized by a field of lavender.

In another 11 hours’ time, I will be breathing the fresh air of Hokkaido. Yokoso Hokkaido.

Preparing for Hokkaido Trip

Well, it is a last-minute and almost impulsive decision to travel to Hokkaido.

As it is a group tour with almost no free-and-easy time, no prior preparation or reading up is necessary. Perhaps I do not spend time researching about the place, I do not feel any excitement about the trip even as the departure date approaches.

Ironically, my colleagues seem more excited for me than myself. They keep counting down the days of departure for me and asking if I already feel the excitement. They are slightly incredulous about my rather nonchalant attitude towards the trip.

Maybe I will feel more only on the day of departure.

Breakfast at BottleTree

The last time I was at Bottle Tree, I only took a very short walk in the park and without patronising the restaurant since it looked like an expensive seafood restaurant. This time round, I am really here for food. My mum heard from her friends that they served pretty decent and affordable fried bee hoon for breakfast, so we decided to try out this place to have a taste of eating in a kampung setting.

Well, the bee hoon is certainly a disappointment. It is certainly more than made up for by the park itself. We are greeted by many fishermen when we walk around the pond. One of the skilled fishermen has caught quite a big fish. There are also many familiar tropical fruit trees such as the durian, rambutans, jackfruit and even bomb trees. Lotus is also blooming in the pond. Freshly plucked vegetables are also on sale.

It is an educational eco walk especially for the city kids who have grown up in HDB flats. The only durians, rambutans and jackfruits we know are often those which are wrapped in styrofoam boxes on the supermarket shelves. Hence, it is pretty exciting to see them still stuck to their branches as whole fruits, even though we are quite nervous when we are walking under the durian trees. For those of you who are wondering why. Durians drop onto the ground when they are ripe. As durians are not small and they quite a spiky shell, the impact of it hitting any part of the body is unimaginable.

(Jackfruit)

(Durian)

(Chiku)

For those who like to get close to nature once in a while, Bottle Tree is a good venue. Unfortunately, the two Bottle Tree parks are both found in the north (one in Yishun and the other in Sembawang). The one in Yishun is more accessible because it is only a short walk from Khatib Train Station. If you can afford the time and want a more novel place to spend a weekend, Bottle Tree may offer an option.

Coffee Story - A Twisted Version

Some of the loyal or avid readers of My Paper should have recalled coming across this article where one of the regular columnist shared a story about coffee. The story went like this.

People can be categorised into 3 types by their behaviours in the face of adversity or challenges. We can draw analogy from 3 types of food - carrot, egg and coffee in boiling water. Imagine the boiling water as the challenge or problem. The first type of people is like a carrot which is initially hard but turns soft in boiling water. The second type of people is like an egg which is initially soft but turns hard in boiling water. The last type of people is like coffee which adds aroma and colour to the boiling water. We should be like coffee that we change the plight which we may be in positively.

One of my colleagues' colleagues shared with him this story, albeit a twisted version.

To my colleague, he said "J, have you read the Coffee Story in My Paper?"

My Colleague said, "No. What's up?"

To my colleague, he said, "You are just like coffee. You pass your problem to me."

My colleague was seething with anger. As a coordinator, he had to work with everyone to get the monthly variance explanations to management and to Finance. This portfolio was in addition to his routine operational work. Yet, his colleagues seemed not to see the value in his work and thought of him as sharing workload with other colleagues.

When I heard his predicament, I felt sorry for him as well as I can truly empathise with the stress associated with a coordinator. At the same time, I was also irate at this colleague's colleague who seemed to deliver a twisted version of the Coffee Story.

I consoled my colleague that the coffee was meant to be a positive influence to the undesirable situation and I believed he was more than capable to act as a coffee in the current face of difficulties and turned things around. All the best to him.

My Boss In a Humorous Mood

Incident 1
1st July marks the official start of the second half of the calendar year. As I turn yet another page of my calendar, I am suddenly full of regrets and laments of my again un-accomplishment and waste of time. My neighbouring colleague joins in the lament.

My bosses hear us and snigger. One of them offers a solution. She comments that she can help me to lessen my guilt and regret. If I long for more accomplishments, she can help me in the work aspect by giving me more to do. Very funny. I immediately retract my comment.

Incident 2
It is late in the evening. We have just ended a discussion. Both my boss and I are tired and hungry. Notwithstanding, I check with her the schedule for a review meeting the following day and confirm that all the individual stakeholders will only go into the meeting room when the relevant products’ costs are up for review. I seek confirmation that the finance support will too attend the meeting when the products that they do costing for are up for review instead of staying throughout the meeting.

My boss’s reply? She asks if then she will not need to attend the meeting at all since she has not done any of the costing. Very funny again.

Do not be alarmed. These are simply our ways of trying to distress sometimes, by trying to inject more humour into our work. *Wink*

Making Full Use of the New Phone

The new phone comes with a 3.2 Megapixel Camera, so all the more we must fully utilize it for work. If you are thinking that we are using it to take photos of each other, you cannot be more wrong.

Yes, we are using it to take photos but not of each other. Rather, we are using it to take photos of our discussion of white board. Instead of painstakingly transcribing the notes to paper or printing out from the white board which sometimes can be unclear depending on the strength of the handwriting, we can now simply take pictures of the white board. Ta-dah, with this, we simply just download the image onto our PC and with our 17” monitor, everything can be seen clearly.

This saves the energy of discussion halting to allow for taking down of notes and minimize transcription errors especially pertaining to diagrams when in a rush, we may leave out certain critical items. The new phone certainly aids our efficiency.

New Favourite Cheesecake

After my thumbs up for the Secret Recipe's Raspberry Cheesecake, I have found another new favourite. It is the Tofu cheesecake from Sun with Moon Dining. It is a small piece serve delicately with a mint leave on top and covered under a miniature cage. The colour is almost white. Its texture is silky and light. For those who are not well taken to the traditional cheesy and salty smell, this will be one of my supreme choices with only a hint of cheese. Certainly, for those who are big on cheese, this Tofu Cheesecake may be too mild for your liking.

Sentosa Beach Volleyball

Here comes Ms Country Bumpkin again. I have seen the hunks and the babes playing beach vollyball. Erm, on TV. In reality, up close and personal, no. The new monorail in Sentosa? Well, I have heard about them and how one of two of the stations have to close down because of IR construction. I know that there is a station right at VivoCity. That's about all I know about the monorail as the few times I have been to Sentosa, I was taking transport (ie chartered buses).

The monorail is small but compact. It is crowded on a Sat afternoon with many youngsters rushing to Sentosa to enjoy the sea, the sand and the sun. There are also many families going to Sentosa for quality time spent together. Well, Sentosa is now full of activities and things to do with the sky trains, the luge rides, the Imbiah walks and even Cafe Del Mar (the IT bar to go to in town). Finally, I have a glimpse of it (as well as the hunks lying on the beach chairs sipping their drinks) *Wink*

Just beside Cafe Del Mar, there is a public court for the beach volleyball lovers. Once you are in that court, do not move out of it as there are many groups hovering around it waiting for their chance to 'jump' into the court. Despite having no courts, smally groups of people lined along the beach to do their 'dribbling' of volleyball. I know dribbling only applies to basketball. I do not know what is the appropriate word to describe routines for volleyball. If you know, let me know.

I sat with my colleague (we become better friends after being room-mates for the KL trip) while she admired her boyfriend and we chit chat with each other. After a while, her boyfriend encouraged us to play on our own. I was quite apprehensive, especially with my long and frequent history of accidents with the ball. I get hit by ball more often that I hit the ball (resulting in a myriad of injury from damaged specs to sprained fingers). Nevertheless, I thought since I was there, I might as well give it a try. Well, all I can say is I am still equally ill-fated with balls.

It was a rather languid way of spending a Saturday afternoon - basking in the sun and watching the volleyball games. Yet, I still feel this is not exactly my thing. Given a choice, I would prefer to sit in a cafe and read instead. It is abit awkward to be reading on the beach instead of getting into the thick of the action. It gets abit boring as well. Yet, I know my limits. Balls are definitely out for me if I want to protect myself from any potential injury. The only other thing I can do is perhaps to stroll along the beach. However, this requires a right party who is willing to walk that stretch of white sand with me. And I am still waiting.

Shokudo Bazaar

I was late as usual. As always, I was dragged into a last-minute meeting starting only at 6pm. Inevitably, I arrived about half an hour late. There was already a long queue outside Shokudo Bazaar. Fortunately, Ah Peng and Ms Chan were already inside, so I could skip the queue and just went into the restaurant to meet them.

This is the latest F & B outlet that hits the local shopping mall. Its modus operandi is replicated from Marche's concept, except that it has replaced Swiss cuisine with Japanese cuisine. For the die-hard lovers of Rosti, fret not. There is also the Shokudo's version of Rosti being served. For Japanese cuisine fanatics, you will be able to have your fill of Japanese snacks, bentos (set) and even desserts here. After finding a seat, you can just order your food, 'pay' with your card, and either wait for your food to be cooked or order something else before coming back to retrieve your cooked food.

The shortcoming of such a scheme is that it is self-service and you will need to bring your food to your seat. If you are seated at a secluded corner far from the main stalls alley, you may need to walk a fairly long distance. This is especially inconvenient when you are carrying hot pots or soupy food. It is also hard to resist the variety of food and we over-eat when we are attracted by the food array on the table. (Psst, we are slightly shock when we pay which indicates how much we have eaten).

Althought the restaurant is hip, cosy and refreshing, the ambience is not exactly very suitable for chit-chats as it is bustling with people and chatter. Moreover, the location where we are seated is also quite chilly with the aircon blasting down on our food.

For those who have like Marche and for those who wants an affordable Japanese restaurant which offers variety, Shokudo Bazaar will cater to your needs. Personally, I prefer the restaurant to its pasta chain which only offers pasta in Japanese-fusion style. My favourite? The Yuzuu Tea (grapefuit tea) - refreshing and heartwarming.

New Phone

My old office phone can finally walk into the history gallery forever. We have waited long for this new phone.

We could not keep our hands off when we get our new phones. The sleek feel is world’s apart from the previous bulky and heavy phone. The 3.2 megapixel phone adds convenience to our work. Well, we can take photos of discussion sketched our on white board instead of painstakingly take them down with paper and pen. It even comes with a USB charger so that we can charge both the PC and the phone together.

However, in terms of other features, I have not had time to play around and explore. Wait till I become familiarize with the new phone. Hopefully, it can help in my work more than my old phone. I believe its battery life should be more extended than the old phone. *Wink*

Photo-Taking for New Passes

Finally, we are going to get an upgraded security system. We will only need to tap and the door will open as opposed to the current system of slotting in the card into the machine. The current system is extremely inconvenient when we are holding many things on our hands.

For the new passes, we will need to take new photos to be placed on the passes. Hence, we agreed to do it today. After filling and checking our particulars, it is time to sit in front of the camera. Sit straight, a quick brush of hair, smile and click. It is done within seconds. After the shot, we can immediately view the picture and determine if we would like a re-take. We help each other see.

After the photo, we are even given a pack of tissue each. Wow, not only do we get new passes and photos, we even get free tissue. What a wonderful idea and enticer.

Tea Session with GCFO

In order to promote greater interaction between top management and staff, a tea session was organized where several senior officers from various departments in Finance were invited. It was my first such session and I wondered what we would need to do during the session and after.

HR has warmly bought some beverage and tarts for the session. Self-introduction was always an ice-breaker to start the ball rolling. Given the size of Finance, it was my first time meeting some of the invitees. Then we were asked to share what we liked and disliked about the company.

The GCFO then shared some of his insights based on what we have commented. Maybe because we were all very shy, so he had to spear the dialogue session most of the time. Yet, it was still a fruitful session for us to hear direct from the top management as well as picked up new insights on how we could better manage our work and career.

Flat Feet

One of my colleagues commented that I have flat feet because the arch below my feet was not apparent. She asked if I tripped and fell quite frequently in the past. I replied in the affirmative. So my frequent tripping and falling down was not solely due to my clumsiness but partly contributed by my slight 'handicap' of a flat feet.

I used to attribute my many accidents to factors like poor eye-sight (causing me to miss potholes and my steps), lack of motor skills (which meant that any tripping would result in severe injuries because I could not cushion the fall in time) and clumsiness (hence the tripping). Despite trying to always walk on the safe side and avoiding too adventurous sports, I still caused my mum abundant worries with my scars and the loss of blood.

Now, I could finally tell her that my falls were also partly hereditary as flat feet were supposed to pass down genetically. This means that no matter what precautions I take, I still stand a higher risk than normal people in tripping and injuring myself. Knowing my handicap does not mean that I will then throw precaution to the wind. On the contrary, I have to take extra care. I know even if I undergo lasik, practise more yoga or sports, I am still very vulnerable to trips and falls because of my flat feet.

Please also help watch out for me if you are going out with me.

Thanks in advance.

Another Fire-Drill

This time, we participated by climbing 14 storeys down. After we took our attendance, we still went for our coffee before we went back to our office. This was because when the crowd dispersed, there would be a long wait at the lift lobby. Since there would be a long wait at the lift lobby, we might as well enjoy the wait with a cup of coffee instead.

For some reasons, I had either not been exercising for a long time or I had not warmed up. I ended up with very sore calf muscles the next day. Actually, I sort of expected it when my muscles felt very weak after the climb down.

Sigh! You would see me walking weirdly for the next few days.

Friday the 13th

It is Friday the 13th - believed to be an unlucky day, according to the western superstitions.

Do take care.

My Shocking Story on Human Spirit

This is a documentary which portrays people who are different. It has featured the world’s smallest kid and the world’s smallest mum. The world’s smallest kid has a hereditary spinal cord problem which prevents her from growing up. Moreover, the curving of the spinal cord will affect her internal organs’ development. The world’s smallest mum has a bone problem such that her height will be limited.

We always erroneously think that being different, they will feel awkward with people who are different from them and would desire to live with people who are similar to them. We can never be more wrong. They feel nervous when they are about to meet people who are like them. They sometimes avoid meeting people who are like them because they feel that they are normal and may not want to be reminded of their difference. Yet, despite their positivism, some of the inherent differences can still cause some inconvenience to their lives. For eg, the world’s smallest kid cannot swim after her operations for prevent the further collapse of her spinal cord. The world’s smallest mum cannot drive because the mass-market car has not catered for her shorter limbs.

The last thing that they want is sympathy from others. In fact, they are more positive than we think. They are happy with what they have. They too have their mood swings, their wilfulness and sentimental side. They understand their difference and take things in stride. For those of us who are relieved of the challenges that they have to face on a daily basis on abashedly more negative and grumbling than them.

I was moved by their fighting spirit against their haplessness of their conditions. I was motivated by their positivism. Week after week during Monday night, I shared their fears, their resilience and their joys. If you have the time, catch the program on Arts Central and be motivated.

Pampered Like a Queen

This is a sequel to the Miss Country Bumpkin’s adventure.

After my first-in-my-lifetime attendance of a pop concert, I went for my first-in-my-lifetime pedicure. All those times you have seen my painted toe nails, they were outcomes of my own D-I-Y. Knowing my sister has unutilized package, I pestered her to bring me to “see the world”.

Miss Country Bumpkin was both excited and nervous about my “maiden” pedicure. Will it be painful? Will it be ticklish? When I D-I-Y at home, I could withhold my strength for the more sensitive areas during scrubbing. Needless to say, I did not know where to put my legs, when to lift up and when to lift down. The pedicurist had to repeat her instructions many times before I knew what to do and my sister had to on-pass the instructions to me. I was slightly tense while my feet were undergoing the various treatments as it was ticklish and slightly biting, especially when the line of dead skins at the start of the nails were removed.

(My ugly feet before treatment)

My feet were first soaked in warm water. I guessed this was to soften my skin and cuticles. Then it was scrubbing of the bottom of my feet. With the amount of dead skin piling on my feet, the scrub was not intensive enough relative to what I would do at home. After the scrub, it was back to some soaking before the cuticles were trimmed. Then the feet were messaged with lotion before nail colour was applied. I could not make up my mind with the wide array of colours in the catalogue. After the nail colour was coated on twice, we had to move to a dryer for our feet to be blown dry.

No more bending sideway and forward to reach the difficult areas during the scrub. No more bending down and holding my breath when applying the nail colour. No more trembling of the hands when the brush was applied to the nails for fear of colouring outside the nail. All I had to do was sit back and relax and be pampered like a queen.

I do not even feel like a queen during a massage as I will need to move my arms or my body up and down during a massage for the masseur to tackle the more knotty areas. During the pedicure, I literally do not have to do anything except to select my nail colour. After the massage, I feel better but it is a very private feeling. After the pedicure, I have the beautiful nails to tell the whole world that I just have my feet professionally treated. I feel happy just looking at the colours.

(My feet after treatment)

Sun with Moon

I have heard about this Japanese restaurant for some time. The reviews that it gathers are more positive than negative. Hence, I want to give it a try. After all, everyone's tastebud is unique. A man's meat may be another's poison.

There is no set meal offered. For someone who is dying to reward my stomach at the end of a week with a filling meal, I am disappointed. The highlights of the month are on Kyushu delicacies. Hence, I try the Char Siew Ramen while Ah Peng tries the green tea rice with salmon.

(Green Tea soup with salmon rice)

The soup for the noodles is too salty and oily for my preference. I am also not a big fan for pickled ginger even though the ginger helped reduce the greasiness of the noodles. For someone who is quite conscious of what I eat, I am a little put-off by the fattiness of the char siew.

(Char Siew Ramen with Pickled Ginger)

The dessert is more refreshing. The black sesame pudding is a welcoming change to the rather strong taste of the noodles. The pudding is smooth and the black sesame serving is generous.

(Black sesame pudding and green tea tiramisu)

On the whole, the restaurant has not wowed me as much as its reviews. To be frank, I am slightly disappointed.

Medical Check-Up

I had not done any medical check-up since my pre-employment check-up. Hence, when the company offered free medical check-up at the office, I immediately invited my colleagues to sign up together.

As with all medical check-ups, fasting 10-hour before was essential for a more accurate diagnosis. We went for the check-up early in the morning as we were already very low on sugar. After registration, it was off to the toilet for urine test. Then, it was to the height, weight, waist line and blood pressure measurement. All seemed good and ok. In fact, I was 1 cm taller - my all-time high at 167cm. I wondered if this was a result of 9 months of yoga which stretched my vertebrae and made me stand taller.

The last test was blood test. Blood test always made me nervous because the nurses often had difficulty finding my blood capillaries (maybe my skin too thick. LOL). I knew things were not quite right when I felt more than just a tingle when the needle was injected. The pain lingered when the blood was being drawn and I felt the pressure of the pull. This was the most painful drawing of blood I felt.

I was right. That night, when I removed the plaster, I could see the swell and the starting of the blue-black. Sigh!

Forgetfulness

I proudly told my colleague that our medical check-up would be in two days' time.

She looked at me blankly and asked was it not tomorrow.

Then, we frantically searched through our emails for the confirmation of the registration. We found none. No choice, I immediately called the helpline to ask if they could confirm which was the date I had registered for the check-up.

My colleague was right. It was supposed to be tomorrow.

I am really getting more and more forgetful. Luckily, I have asked my colleague before it or I would have missed the appointment.

Looks like my brain power is deteriorating faster than I thought.

Looking Though the Lens

The digital camera is ubiquitous. I celebrate the advent of the digital photography age when we can take and view photos anytime and anywhere. For photos which are not well-taken, we can do editing or retake immediately. Many of the digital cameras even come equipped with a digital video function so that we do not miss out certain important actions in our lives.

Yet, the familiarity with digital camera can inadvertently led us to habitually experience our lives through the lens instead of with our eyes. How often do we practically switch on our camera and scan the sceneries constantly through the camera when we sight see? How often do we attempt to capture certain events on the digital media for future keepsake that we forget our claps and smiles? What we remember are not the blueness of the skies, the freshness of the air or the hilarity of our actions. What we remember are instead whether the flash light is on, whether the red-eye corrector is on, or even whether our hands are shaking when we press the shuttle release. We are gradually viewing all things through the digital camera lens.

It is no doubt a dilemma. Much as we would like to see and experience all the wonders of the moment, we also greedily want to capture the moments so that we can relive the emotions subsequently. Hence, we become increasingly reliant on our cameras, flashing it at each and every opportunity so much so that we forget to enjoy the moment for itself.

This was most hard-felt when I was attending the Angela Chang's concert. This was a concert which allowed cameras to be brought in. Many started taking photos at different moments in the concert. I never brought my camera but I had a camera phone. Spurred on by the kiasu syndrome, I also started to take photos using my camera phone which proved to be rather difficult given the distance I was from the stage and the lighting on the stage. Hence, I was constantly fustrated with the effects of the photos which were often blurred (from too far and the lower resolution of my phone camera) and too white (from the overexposure of light but I could not rectified as camera phone had fewer functions than a full-fledged camera).

To a point in time, I realised I was more concerned about taking photos than truly immersing myself in the performance. This was when I decided to ditch my phone camera and began to enjoy the show through my naked eyes instead. That was when I could fully appreciate the ambience, luxuriate in the soulful singing and be stunned by the kaleidoscopic colourful light and costumes on stage.

Much as we would like to record certain moments, we should not let that overtake our living.

Angela Chang's Concert

Call me a country bumpkin all you like and I will not deny. Fancy my grand old age of 28 and I have not gone to any concert previously. Maybe I should say I have not gone to any paid pop-star concert before. I have been to a complimentary concert featuring Valen Hsu and Grasshopper when I was temping after my A Levels as the company I was temping at was the organiser of the concert. I have also been to musicals and instrumental concerts. However, the ambience of pop concert will certainly be different.

I have always admired the vocal power of Angela Chang (张韶涵), especially from a pretty petite frame. I started noticing Angela Chang when I was catching the Taiwanese drama starring her as an aspiring starlet. The songs featured in the show - "Journey" and "遺失的美好" (My Lost Happiness) were soulful and touching. I was disappointed when the concert was postponed due to the artiste's ill-health condition. Hence, I was full of anticipation when the night of the concert finally arrived.

The venue of the concert was not quite ideal as it was at one of the halls in Singapore Expo where I felt that squarish layout might not enhance the accoustics. Most of the seats were levelled which meant that audience seated further away from the stage might be blocked by taller audience in front. The screens by the sides of the stage were too small to provide good views to audience sitting way behind.

(The stage before the start of the concert)

The concert started at 815 pm with Angela Chang descending from the central of the stage with "夢裡花" (Flowers in the Wonderland). Throughout the next 2 hour show, she has impressed the audience with her powerful vocals and soulful singing. The special guests for the concert were equally impressive. Her songs reverberated throughout the halls. Many sang along with Angela Chang as she belted out the well-known ballads. The ambience was certainly influencing when many started waving their neon-light wands and singing along.

(A very blurred picture of Angela Chang singing, but already the best among those I have taken for the night)

Despite the soulful and up-to-standard singing, I was still slightly disappointed with the concert. I wondered if I had expected too much from a concert.

I have believed that Angela Chang was a singer who sang decently among some of the contemporary artistes. Although she had maintained her standards and sang along harmoniously with the live orchestra, the arrangements of the songs lacked originality. The arrangements followed dutifully to those in her CDs which meant that listening to her at the concerts was similar to listening to her CDs. I liked her original songs and were glad I could hear them live but I was expecting more. A different arrangement to some of the more familiar songs could better enhance her singing proweress. Moreover, there were some more-familiar-songs to the Singapore audience, such as "親爱的，那不是愛情" (That is Not Love) and "C大調 " (C Major) which were missed out. Many of us expected them to be covered during the encore section but we were disappointed.

In addition, I could finally empathise with the many criticisms of the difficulty of eliciting a warmer response from Singapore audience. Despite Angela Chang encouraging the audience to sing and clap along with her during snippets of her song, the response was rather muted. Hence, the ambience was not as lively as the songs performed.

On the whole, it was a good but not quite fantastic concert as I felt that it was too-safe a performance.

Beauty Workshop

I was initially abit apprehensive on the usefulness of the beauty workshop conducted by the CC. Will it be a product marketing platform just like other beauty workshops conducted by some beauty houses? Will it be boring one-way information flow talk when we hear a lot but none specific to our skin type?

I arrived at the class 5 minutes early. Any classmates who have arrived kept to themselves and groups. There was no sight of any instructor. I started to feel unease. When the instructor had not arrived 15 minutes past the starting time, my unease grew. I wondered if the class was cancelled without my knowing. Although the number of arrivals had grown, everyone was quiet. I secretly started to hope this class would pass by quickly.

20 minutes past the starting time, the instructor finally rushed in with all her equipment and teaching kits. She was full of energy and I was instantly taken in by her exuberance and her jokes. Her anecdotes sometimes held little relevance to skin care and make-up yet they were her personal experiences which imparted other knowledge, for eg on how to deal with some beauticians’ hard selling, how to handle stress, how to handle disobedient children or how to cure our headache through pressing the acupoints.

After the long but informative and also entertaining introduction, we were ready to start our class proper. The first step was to learn how to properly cleanse our faces. There were 5 basins in the nearby toilet, so off we went in groups of 5. We were taught on how to wash, scrub and tone our face. We were chided for our mistakes of rubbing very hard with scrub which we thought we were doing a very thorough job. Yet, we did not know that we had inadvertently hurt our skin. Here are more tips:
- When we wash or scrub our face, we should always do in circular motions.
- When we want to dry our face, we would pat our face with a dry towel instead of wipe it with the towel.
- We should scrub both our face and body once a week.
- When we scrub, we should not rub it too hard and hurt our skin.
- We should always apply toner as it refines pores and helps clean away any dirt not removed by the cleanser.
- When we apply toner, we should pat them in for the skin to absorb.
- We must always apply sunblock to prevent damage of skin from the sun.
- For skin which is more prone to oil seeds near the eyes, a gel-form eye cream will be more suitable than an oil-based.
- Moisturisers are a must even for oily skin. Both moisturizers and toner help the make-up to be applied on more easily.

After washing our skin clean, it was back to class to learn how to apply eye cream as scrubs would dry our eyes and caused wrinkles. Then it was the application of tinted moisturizer as moisturizing was essential after a scrub. Well, it was the first-time I saw a tinted moisturizer as it was more popular in the West than Singapore.

Then, it was time for learning the basics of make-up. The instructor required a student to be the ‘model’ for the demonstration. Surprise, surprise, I was picked. My face then became the palette to be used for telling the class how to apply foundation, blusher, eye-shadow, eye-liner to lip gloss. I was extremely nervous with someone so close to my face and the whole class looking at me for a good half an hour. I never felt so ‘stared-at’ and scrutinized my whole life. Fortunately, the instructor was kind and jovial while my classmates were very encouraging and lavish with their compliments. Hence, my nerves were calmed soon after and I began to enjoy the process and also being the centre of attention for once in my life.

My instructor has only done the blusher and the eye-shadow on one-side of the face and I was supposed to be complete the other on my own. Hmm, I was clearly a novice for make-up. To achieve the same colour and effect of my instructor was clearly an impossible task. Moreover, my eyes were closed half the time when she was applying the eye-shadow and I could only feel and hear what she was doing. Needless to say, my attempt was far off from what the instructor had done.

I was not the only one who benefited from the magical touch of the instructor. She was patient and kind enough to do a little something for everyone in the class – from the shaping of eye-brow through trimming and drawing, to make-up on different skin tones and to eye-shadow and foundation recommendation for everyone. Not only did we learn some basics, we also had fun experimenting with the different colours that the instructor had brought along and getting personal consultation on what colours would be good for our skin tones.

With such customized teaching, the class stretched more than an hour after the official ending time, yet many still lingered around to ask the instructor more questions. The instructor also patiently addressed each question and provided more tips to us.

The workshop was certainly successful and useful. I hope the CC would conduct more such courses for the ladies so that others could benefit from this and we could pick-up new skills.

Bring Out the ‘Kampong’ Spirit in You

One of my PE teachers used to have this tagline – ‘Bring out the animal spirit in you!’ This was used at the start of friendly matches or during our physical fitness tests. Allow me to modify this tagline a little – ‘Bring out the Kampong spirit in you!’

Kampong, a Malay word, is used to describe a village. In the Malay village, the community is often cohesive, close-knitted and cooperative. When Singapore started to develop public housing, we have wanted to retain this community spirit so all the flats come with corridors. To be frank, I am not 100% certain this is the reason for having common corridors and void decks for our flats but I learnt this from the Channel 5 series ‘En-Bloc’.

For those of us growing up in HDB flats, the common corridors definitely hold fond memories. Well, my childhood was practically spent on the long-stretched corridors playing chasing games with the kids of my neighbours. We even extended our ‘territories’ to the accompanying stairway. Our play-time started immediately after breakfast and continued through to lunch. We would have skipped lunch if not for the warning canes from our mums.

Community Centres (CC) were built in each housing estates to foster friendly relationship of the community while providing workshops and recreational activities for the public. In the older days when people were poorer and not everyone owned a television, some of the neighbours would go to the CC in the evening to watch television. (If you can recall, the channels are not 24-by-7 when we were young, some channels start broadcasting only at 6 pm on weekdays.)

To be frank, I used to participate in the activities of the CC actively when I was in primary school. I will attend drawing lessons and take part in drawing competitions and lantern festivals of the CC often. Somehow as I grow up, I gradually lose interest in the activities of the CC, until recently.

When I wanted to sign up for yoga lessons at the nearby CCs, I was amazed by the array of activities that the CCs conducted these days. CCs are becoming chic and trendy with coffee outlets for those who wish to chill out after lessons or simply want to chill out at a quieter spot with a nice cup of coffee. The classes available at the CCs cater for all age groups with special classes for children, senior citizens and working adults. The types of lessons are comparable to the latest fad, such as yoga, salsa and in-line skating. For those who prefer the more traditional types of lessons, one can still find the all-time favourites, such as cooking, language, dancing and singing lessons. There are also local and overseas trips organized.

The CC I frequent are relatively quiet on Saturday morning when I attend my yoga lessons except for the fervent basket ball players who dribble away on the court. I was attending a beauty workshop on Saturday afternoon when I was being swept away by the ‘Kampong’ spirit which I thought was long-gone.

The CC was crowded with people with different interests and different age groups. There was a Malay wedding at the multipurpose hall. There were parents bringing their kids for drawing lessons. There were girls (from age about 10 to 60) attending the beauty workshops. The CC congregated the community under the same roof and rekindled the ‘Kampong’ spirit. When I talked to two of my classmates, I was informed that there was even a Women Executive Committee (WEC) which consisted of 30 odd members who met monthly to organize different activities for the ladies. Wow, I was immediately swelled with respect for my classmates. They sacrificed their personal time so that the ladies members in the CC could enjoy different classes and activities.

During the class, the girls also cheered each other on when we were practising our make-up. We encouraged each other for those who were shier and less experimental. We helped look-out for each other when we tried on the colours. This was when we met each other only for the first time and did not even know each other’s name. Moreover, we were also from different age groups. Yet, all barriers were broken when we washed our faces at the basins or applied our eye-shadows together in front of the mirror.

All unease I felt about signing up for a class alone was dismissed. I truly enjoyed the experience. I was also felt with warmth on the experience and the witness of the ‘Kampong’ spirit once again. I will come back for my classes to pick up new skills and

Going Back In Time

The 9pm Channel 8 drama serial was finally reaching its ending. Although it is slightly make-belief with the protagonist traveling back in time to reverse certain decisions and change the ultimate outcome, such a wish can be prevalent.

Come on, in every person’s life, regardless of how happy or optimistic a person is, there will still be instances where we wish we can go back in time. We wish to go back in time to relive certain happy memories or to minimise the regrets from a wrong decision or action. Sometimes, the wish can be immediately or shortly after the occurrence of the event. How often do we wish we can go back one-week in time to while we are still vacationing overseas? How often do we wish to go back to the minute before we utter a stupid comment which hurt our loved ones?

If you are given this ability to go back in time, which point in your time will you want to go back to? This may not be a simple question that can be answered at the blink of an eye. Sometimes there can be more than one moment, especially when we are trying to address past mistakes. Where we are today and what we are today are results of our past experiences. Each past experience or event could be a link in a chain and changing any one of these could lead to a domino effect. The outcome on the new projectile could be so different from where we were previously.

In my past 28 years, there are phases where I have gone through emotional roller coasters. I have been happy, sad, confident and inferior. I will be lying if I say there is no times where I feel like I can do better during those phases. For instance, I thought I should have made more full use of the my time in the university to more constructively use my time, eg pick up driving then, spend more time with my friends, take up more part-time or temporary jobs to gain more experience. On hindsight, I thought I have wasted time when I was in university.

Yet, if you really grant me this wish, will I really want to go back? On second thoughts, I probably will not want to go back. Would I have changed myself or my destiny in the process? I do not know. No single event or experience is isolated. When one event or experience is changed, there is a chain effect. Moreover, I do not live in a no-man’s land. When I attempt to trifle with my own destiny, I do not know who else I will be affecting in the process.

What about you? Do you want to go back to certain point in your life? If yes, what is your purpose? Do you want to change anything?

Pay-Back Time

From the one-work day week to a full five-day work week, the change was drastic. It was as if the motor had just started and suddenly it had to switch to the first-gear. Well, hiccups and lethargic ensued. Yet, rest was a luxury with so much to do and so little time. This was aggravated when my body was somehow still in the ‘recovery’ mode from the lack of sleep.

From the current project of the annual costing exercise to the evaluation of different business models, more ad hoc projects were added on to our plates. Some of these ad hoc projects were spun off from the workshop in KL. With the strategies and aspirations discussed, it was now time to translate those high-level talks into detailed operational numbers and estimated financials. Despite the financials being first-cut estimates, detailed work, review of assumptions and translating these into projections were still necessary. There ought to be integrity in the numbers.

On the other hand, the loss of the three days meant that we needed to work doubly hard to catch-up on any lag on the costing exercise. There was still a hard deadline that we had to work towards. Hence, studying of spreadsheets, piecing the numbers together, checking the links and calling the engineers pretty much summed up our main activities for the week.

Notwithstanding the longer hours, I was still not quite up-to-speed on my tasks as I liked. I really need to work harder and longer. Cheer me on.

Catch Up on Beauty Sleep

The whirlwind KL trip was truly exhausting. However, the exhaustion was only strongly felt when I lied on my bed on the night of return. The shopping, the food, the sight and the sound and the party pumped up our adrenaline. We were kept high even with an average of about 5-hour of sleep on consecutive nights.

My weekend after the return was spent mostly on my bed catching on my much deprived sleep. I needed as much sleep as possible to rest my body and my mind in preparation of the long week ahead.

I will say no more. It’s my bedtime again. Yawn.

KL - Home Sweet Home

3 days passed in a whirlwind. It was time to say bye-bye to KL.

Before lunch, L and I decided to head down to Times Square for a last minute shopping. She wanted to get some T-shirts which she had seen another colleague buying the day before. Too bad, the shop was not opened. We had to head back to the convention hall for an early lunch and a closing message before we departed.

Finally, I bought a necklace while L bought a necklace and a bangle at the same place. At least, my trip to KL was not entirely empty-handed.

After a quick and light lunch, we were on the road again back to Singapore. We slept all the way as all of us were simply deadbeat. Yet, it was still a good trip. A break-away from work and quality time spent with my colleagues. It was almost like an excursion but instead of with classmates, it was with colleagues. :-)

KL - More Shopping on the 2nd Day

We reached the breakfast area about 15 minutes before the start of the morning seminar at 8am. After a quick gobble down of the food, we headed to the seminar to talks and more talks when our minds were clearly in day-dreams from the lack of sleep and the planning of where to go for more shopping after lunch. One of my colleagues were arrowed for some presentation after lunch. Poor girl, she would not be able to join us for shopping.


After lunch, we decided to just shop around Berjaya Times Square since we only had a couple of hours before the start of the D&D. My room-mate decided to head off by herself to Sungei Wang again to get things that she had not gotten yesterday. The rest of us were simply too tired to brave the walk to and back from Sungei Wang and decided to just hang around Times Square. Afte two hours of aimless walking, we decided that we had enough and wanted to find a cafe to sit down and talk. It was the Old Town Coffee Shop. Old Town was a famous brand of white coffee in Malaysia. For fear of losing sleep for the night, I skipped the coffee and opted for the silk hose tea (Sit Mut Milk Tea) instead.


After the 'tea-break', we felt better and decided to walk around some more. With a stomach filled, we seemed to be recharged and had a better shopping mood. Hence, the shopping was more successful for some of my colleagues. Again, I came back empty handed except for the almond flake cookies which my sister asked me to get. According to my sister, this cookie could only be found in the KL's Famous Amos. Well, she better not lied to me, because it was not exactly cheap and I had to hand-carry it lightly for fear of crushing the biscuits into crumps.



Soon, it was time to head back to our rooms to prepare for D&D. Well, as this year's theme was cartoon theme, we were just going to dress in black tops to avoid being too outstanding as we were only the invited guests for this trip.



The night started off already on a high mood with excellence awards being given to deserving individuals who had gone the extra mile. The high ambience was maintained with the numerous lucky draws and bingo numbers announcement. The emcee for the night was also extremely witty with his comments and jokes. The performances by the business units competing for the best performing business unit awards also kept us entertained - with enactment of star wars, drag queens and cheerleading stuns. The highlight was when the different business unit heads danced to the crowd under the game of "Deal or No Deal".


The climax is certainly not over. The next part of the program was the business unit heads dressed as the cartoon characters in the games - with Sun Wu Kong from Dragonball, Zhu Ge Liang from Romance of the three Kingdoms, Chun Li from Street Fighter, Super Mario from Super Mario, Hitman and Lara Croft from Tomb Raider. We were bowled over by the spontaniety of the leaders and their make-overs. The leaders I know in the past are not as sporting to don such costumes and to act out the characters. However, the leaders here truly led by examples by going all out in whatever that they were doing. This drew greater respect from the team.


Amidst all the laugher, we forgot about the time. It was close to 1 am when the event finally came to a close. Despite the ending of the event, our mood was still bouyant and high. It would be difficult to fall asleep immediately. Again, when we retired to our room, my room-mate and I continued chatting about the event and about other things. I went to sleep at about 2 am while she slept at around 3am. For this entire trip, we were sleeping at an average of about 5 hour a day.

KL - First Day Itinerary

After we checked in to the hotel, the first day was free and easy for everyone. The real work would only start the next day with seminars in the morning and D & D from the evening onwards.

Sungei Wang
Our first stop at KL was to head off to Sungei Wang. Apparently, Sungei Wang was famous for the cheap shoes. My room-mate was dying to get shoes since she has not bought any spare pairs for D & D the following night except for her Birkenstock slippers.

There were about 8 of us who headed off to Sungei Wang. However, at the first store, we have already split out and decided to meet later for dinner together since it would be difficult to shop in a large crowd. In the end, 6 of us still shopped together for the entire trip.

Sungei Wang was similar to what I remembered from 6 years ago - my last trip to KL. The mall was filled with boutiques selling clothes and shoes. The shoes and clothes were at affordable prices and young looking. Some of the brands could be found in Singapore, such as Factory Outlet Store (FOS) and Vincci. We used to be able to find one of the most famous clothes chain in Singapore - Seed. However, it seemed that it had already moved out of Singapore about 2 years ago.

My room-mate was already very well-known for her shopping proweress even before the trip. She really lived up to her name by emerging as the person who has bought the most items among the few of us. All of them bought at least one pair of shoes - with some of them buying as many as 3 pairs. I was the failure among the group with no conquests at all in this shopping trip.

Pavillion
Time flew during happy times. Soon, it was time for dinner. We headed to Pavillion - the newest shopping mall along Bukit Bintan for food. The bright lights and the glass panels resembled any high-end shopping mall along Orchard Road. The variety of shops were familiar names in Singapore - from the branded Ferragamo to the famous food chain - Food Republic. We settled our dinner at Food Republic. The price was almost as expensive as Singapore foodcourt when your converted to Sing dollar equivalent. However, in ringgits, it would definitely be too expensive for the locals.

Bintang Walk
After dinner, we started our long walk back to the hotel. Although it was close to 10 pm, there were still many people crowding the streets, with the partying and drinking crowd in front of Hard Rock Cafe and other pubs around it. Across the road, outside Sungei Wang, youngsters were doing street dance to the passerbys. The night was certainly still young for the Malaysians.

A&W & Baskin Robbins
A&W was a familiar fastfood chains alongside McDonald's and KFC during our primary school days before newer chains such as Mos Burger and Carl's Junior wowed the Singaporeans with their Japanese and American burgers. A&W could no longer be found in Singapore.

Hence, when we spotted an A & W outlet, we needed to relive those fond memories and decided to buy our burgers there for our lunch in the bus. I had the Marina Fish sandwich. It was sweeter than the McDonald's version.

We had Baskin Robbins ice-cream after our dinner. Each of us ordered a scoop and share. I chose the "Very Berry Strawberry" flavour. Each scoop came with two pieces of small cookies. After trying Strawberry cheesecake, tiramisu, and a few others (which I could not recall what), I still preferred the tiramisu.

We all sounded like we were old people trying to relive our past by eating foods which reminded us of the past and which could no longer be found in Singapore. By the time, we headed back to the hotel to retire for the night, it was around 1030 pm. It was time to sleep early for a full-day of activity the following night. However, just like young kids going on holidays, we were too excited to sleep early. My room-mate and I chatted for a while before going to bed at close to midnight.

Yawn. The next day would be a longer day. We had to wake up at 6 am for a 8am seminar. Sigh!

KL - Checking In to Berjaya Times Square

Yawns and more yawns. It has been ages since I woke up so this early.

At 545am, I was in the showers.

At 645am, I was out of the house.

At 720am, I was in the office lobby, signing myself in, getting my dinner allowance for the day and all my passes for the next 3 days.

At 800am, our bus finally departed from the office building towards the Tuas checkpoint. The wait was necessary as there are 20 odd buses leaving for KL, fetching a total of about 700 people at one shot.

Hopefully, I would be able to catch a nap in the 5 hour bus journey to KL.

Hmmm. The bus seats were wide and comfortable. At least, there would be enough leg room for our legs to be stretched out for a nice snooze.

The committee was well-prepared in keeping us comfortable during the journey with green tea packet drink, bottled mineral water, twistie packet and other crackers being distributed to prevent us from feeling hungry. Mid-way through the journey, Sudoku and Anagrams were also played on the bus. Sudoku was certainly tough. My 'neighbour' and I gave up when we were not able to undo the wrong numbers we have put in and decided to continue our nap.

By 145 pm, we finally arrived at Berjaya Times Square. We helped ourselves to the light snack while we waited for our room keys. By 330pm, all my colleagues have gotten their keys to their rooms except for my room-mate and me. We decided to give up and bunk in our luggages in another colleague's room and headed to the malls for shopping first.

We decided to try our luck one more time before we left for shopping. Alas, we finally obtained our keys, but we could only go to our room after we came back from our shopping trip as the rest of the gang were still waiting for us.

When we retired to our room for the night, we were surprised by the spaciousness of the room. There was a living room section while the sleeping bed was separated from the living area. The bathroom was also split into 2 - with an adjourning door that could be closed and separate the toilet from the shower area. What a brilliant idea! When my room-mate was showering, I could still use the toilet and vice versa. The King-sized bed was more than enough for the two of us since we were both quite 'stationary' when we slept. Hence, we would not end up kicking each other.

(Our bedroom with the King-sized bed)

(Living room which we have used for put our things and luggage)

(View from our room)

All Set to Go!

We are counting down weekly and then daily. Last year, we were supposed to be going to Malacca but we were pulled out before the trip to help in one of the new system UAT. One year later, we are now going to KL. Until the day we set off, I still prepare myself mentally that we may not get to go because of work.

Nevertheless, going to KL continues to be one of the topics most discussed among the team - what is the latest exchange rate, what should we wear for the D & D, are we bringing an overnight bag or cabin trolley? Despite numerous discussions, we are never tired of talking about it again and again.

We have selected our room-mates at least a month before the trip. I am bunking with L. Although we have worked and talked before, but we were after all in two separate teams. She was more supporting segments reporting while I was more of a product analyst. When she first asked me to bunk in together, I was certainly surprised by this suggestion. I was already felt with trepidation of sharing a room for 2 nights with a colleague and this feeling was strengthened when I was to share room with someone not directly in my team (ie we report to different bosses). Anyway, we were both Capricorns, so I thought we should be able to get along fine with each other.

KL, here we come.

Small Face

I guess within each person's innermost self, there lurks some sort of discontentment with oneself regardless of how confident one person is. From the more superficial discontentment with one's appearance to the deeper inferiority complex surrounding one's personality, skills or even destiny. In addition, this discontentment evolve or may add on in different phases of one's life. It can even extend to the loved ones around one, such as one's husband or kids, in the rat's race to always surpass the Jones.

My current discontentment is with my small face. Well, it is not general a hatred or dislike, it is more of sometimes wishing my face can be slightly bigger to meet my not-so-petite frame. I always think my small face always give the illusion of a 'fatter' figure than I really am, especially in photos. It also results in my seemingly serious look than I really am, with all my features being concentrated together.

When it comes to buying specs, I can really appreciate the seriousness of the problem when it is difficult to select a frame that will not overwhelm my face. With the current trend of more exaggerated frames, this problem is exacerbated.

Using sheet masks is also a form of wastage. Sheet masks are cut out nicely in a face form with opening for the nose, mouth and eyes. They often come in standard sizes which are far too big for my face, so the eyes, mouth and nose openings often do fit my face well. I have to crumple up parts of the sheet to reduce non-breathing problem. Wastage at the edges occur when the edges often extend to a good part above my hairline.

I often thought a bigger face will be 'easier' to look at by others and for 'balanced' reasons. Perhaps if I am only 1.5 meters tall, my face will be more than adequate, but with a height of 1.65 meters and a not-so-thin frame, my face is way too small on my body.

Accuracy of Death

I have always enjoyed Japanese movie or drama more than Taiwanese or Korean. Japanese movies or drama often do not just tell a story, but rather also to highlight certain philosophy. Given the rave reviews that surround the latest Japanese movie starring Takeshi Kaneshiro, I am dying to feel the inspiration again.

Takeshi Kaneshiro was a grim reaper who liked music and was slightly rusty with the latest lingo of the world. For instance, he had amazed some of his targets with his incomprehension of phases such as "pick up girls" and "running noses". He defied all the common images of a grim reaper of someone with a hood and a scythe. Instead, he looked like ordinary you and me on the streets but with a pair of white gloves.

The movie had a poignant start. The grim reaper attended the wake of a ten-year old girl. At the wake, he chatted with a young girl at the wake when she immediately identified him as the grim reaper. The girl was actually the one who had passed on.

The first target was a 27-year-old office lady who lived life in a monotony. She had attempted suicide many times because she felt that she has jinxed when all her loved ones had passed away in succession. She felt that she was always embraced in bad luck whenever she tossed coin to make decisions or attempted to predict the outcome. The grim reaper was to spend the last few days with her and made the final decision on whether she should be given a second chance to live. The grim reaper decided to give her a second chance when she was accidentally discovered as a singer.

The second target was a Yakuza member whose purpose in life was to seek revenge for his leader. He died of a traffic accident instead of at the confrontation with another team. The grim reaper decided that he should still die because this target had already achieved his purpose in life. The last target was a 70-year-old hairdresser who felt that she had already achieved the purpose in life and was ready to go.

The movie adopted a funnier outlook of death which we often shied away from. The three targets appeared to be distinct from one another yet they were linked in their destinies one way or another. The grim reaper always asked the targets what they felt about death. Only the last target asked the grim reaper himself what he felt about death.
- There might be nothing special about death but death was important.
- One should live today like there is no tomorrow.
- Everyone will die. It is a matter of time.

This may not be as romantic as "Meet Joe Black". This may not be as witty as Death Note. Yet, I still feel that it sets one thinking about death and life. Many little details in the movie which might seem distinct but they were not superfluous as they were there to tell us something. The habit of the first target of tossing the coin highlighted that there were two sides of everything, eg good versus bad and life versus death. This habit which was also observed for the young Yakuza member hinted some linking between the first target and this member.

Different viewers might have different interpretations of the statements and events. It was truly an enjoyable show.

Romance

How often do we take a superficial view of romance and associate it with roses, candlelight dinner and seaside view? Yet, true romance should stem from the heart rather than be adorned with these materialistic gestures. I saw this scene in the last episode of the Channel U's 7 pm drama which left a last impression of what romance should be.

The father and mother had spent their entire life taking care of their family and solving problems for their children. When they were young, they were poor and had no spare cash to have any elaborate wedding ceremony. It was only when the father reached 60 years old that they decided to hold a wedding cum birthday celebration.

On the night before their wedding ceremony, they sat side-by-side watching the snow. While the mother was complaining about how young and naive she was when she first married the father, they ended up observing the wrinkles on each other's face. The mother could pin-point when each wrinkle appear on the father's face. The time the wrinkle appeared coincided with each problem that they needed to resolve for their family, eg when their adopted daughter's father passed away, when the youngest daughted got pregnant out of wedlock, when their eldest daughted got divorced, etc.

The father commented that wrinkles were badges of life to signify the honours and achievements from life. He jokingly added that the mother should not ask for face-lift anymore to remove these 'badges'. The mother thanked the father for sacrificing for the family and concluded that she has not regretted marrying him. With this, they continued watching the snow in harmonious silence.

This is what I call true romance. Despite there being disagreements over lifestyles and perspectives, or quarrels and complaints, they still knew they could rely on each other to overcome life challenges. They might not constantly whisper sweet nothings to each other. Nor did they expend elaborate efforts to show-off their affection at every possible occasion, Valentine's Day, anniversary, birthdays, etc. Yet, both of them knew that they had not regretted spending a great part of their lives in each other's companions.


P.S. Although romance stems from the heart, the occasional gift and flower and romantic setting will be equally treasured by the ladies. Such gestures are definitely a welcome reminders of the romance. *Wink*

Cherish

While China was busy with its final touch of preparation for the imminent Olympic Games, and Chinese worldwide were basking in pride for China being the host country this year, disaster stuck. The earthquake caused many schools and houses to collapse and killing many students and residents in Sichuan province. Many children became ophans overnight. Many parents weeped over the bodies of their children buried under the rubble of the collapsed schools. No matter how many soldiers and trained professionals participated in saving any survivals who are buried under the bricks and mortar, we seem to be on a losing end against this battle for time.

Suddenly, my discontentment with the rising heat of Singapore or my complaints about the crowdedness in Singapore appear trivial, whinny and even childish. It is this moment that jerks me out of my narrow-mindedness and keep my perspectives in check. It is at this moment that I cherish the peacefulness of Singapore. Crowdedness and heat are small prices to pay for our blessed geographical location. It is at this moment that I cherish my loved ones being around me. My mum's nagginess and my sister's hot temper are proofs of them living healthily around me to be able to breathe down my neck constantly. (Shh... don't tell them that).

I hope the taskforce will be able to save as many of the victims as possible. Let us pray for the safety of the victims as well as the taskforce working hard at the frontline.

Last Day of a Colleague

When I first started working, I was often saddened when colleagues left the company. It was like seeing your comrade - someone who 'fought through the battles' with you and someone who spent more time hearing you laugh and complain than your family, left. It often took me a while to get used to the replacement.


After 6 years in the corporate world, I became increasingly jaded towards departures of colleagues. Colleagues' last days are no longer tear-jerking moments. I learn to be happy for those who have found a greener pasture. I learn that the transitional moments for both myself and the replacement are often trying but it is a matter of time when both of us will get used to the each other's working style. Departures of colleagues become a matter of life that we need to live with, especially in a prosperous economy where opportunities are many. In the past, we face with departures every 2 to 3 years but in today's economy, colleagues come and go within months.


This latest 'casualty' has been with the company only for 7 months before he decides to seek greener pasture. 7 months, to me, seem to be an extremely short time for himself to understand if the job and the culture is for him and for the company to recognise his talent. Nevertheless, there is never a standard time or period to decide if one should continue staying or should make a move soon. Moreover, everyone has a different yardstick on whether they should continue staying in a company.


Well, best wishes to the departing colleague.

Forgive me, Mother Earth

The heat was really intolerable. It makes me lose appetite and sleep. It seems like by simply breathing, I will be sweating from the activity. To resolve the problem, I have to switch on the aircon for about half an hour before I sleep at night to cool down my room. I will also switch on the aircon when I am at home on weekends.

I know the CFC released by the aircon depletes the ozone layer. I know the high energy consumed by aircon will reduce the world's energy supplies. However, please forgive me, Mother Earth. I have already tried to keep the time I switch on the aircon to the minimum.

The more oppressive is the heat, the more 'short-sighted' I become where considerations for my posterity and green world are temporarily cast aside. In the battle of short-term comfort versus long-term sustainability, short-term comfort seems to triumph almost every time. :-(

New Hong Kong Cafe in AMK Hub

There is a new Hong Kong cafe in AMK Hub which replaces a noodle restaurant. I have passed by the restaurant several times, each time looking into the restaurant and the patrons with interest and apprehension. There is risk involved in trying out a restaurant. Will the food be nice? Will the food be expensive?

No risk, no gain.

There are daily set meals for 2 person, home-cooked dishes, the all-familiar Chinese-Western food (eg chicken chop rice, baked rice), traditional Cantonese food (eg lean-meat century egg porridge, or wanton noodles) and Chinese stir-fried (seafood horfun, egg fried rice). There is not shortage of choices. Well, we have to start somewhere. We go for the claypot tofu with egg (mild spicy) and braised chicken with basil (three-cups chicken).

Well, what is the verdict? It is passable for a Hong Kong cafe but certainly not the best yet. The portions served are quire small which reduce its value-for-money.

Claustrophobia Attack

I used to read about claustrophobia and thought to myself that it could simply be just panic attack. I thought it was just the medical professionals coining another term. This was until I seemed to suffer my first bout of claustrophobia that all doubts about the existence of this condition was swept away.

Friends who knew me would know I was not one who openly celebrated crowds. Only once in a blue moon would I feel excited about squeezing with people to feel the festive ambience. Most of the time I would prefer space and I stressed again I meant adequate and comfortable space for myself.

The journey to-and-fro work was often an ordeal as we were packed like sardines within the train cabin. Morbid thoughts, along the line of mass stampede if something dangerous were to happen, were often generated during that short span of 15 minutes. This discomfort was certainly increasing in intensity and no matter how early or late I could push my going to office or home time, the train was constantly packed to the brim.

More often than not, you would see me spending the eve of public holidays at home, instead of partying in clubs or Orchard Road for countdown or mass dance. Again, crowd was a strangely huge deterrent for me to want to celebrate with the whole of Singapore.

Perhaps it was because my recent recovery of flu and the weakening of my body, when I stepped into the lift or train cabin during peak hours, I felt a sudden lack of air, increasing rate of heart pumping and breathlessness. A 5 minute life ride or a 15 minute train ride felt like an eternity. The closed-up feeling was increasingly difficult to bear. As soon as I stepped into open space, the pent-up feeling dissipated as quickly as it appeared when I stepped into the lift or cabin. This happened a couple of times and I knew this was what claustrophobic people felt. I knew then that I had 'endeared' myself to claustrophobia.

Some people emigrated out of Singapore because of better opportunities and living environment. Some did that because of language - there was a time when parents were emigrating to Australia to lighten the study load of their children as passing of Chinese was a prerequisite for advancement into tertiary institutions. If I were to leave Singapore, I believed the reason would be none other than the increasing crowd of Singapore.

No Mood to Work

It was the day after a public holiday. It was a day from weekend. The office was strangely empty with many people taking leave to enjoy a super long weekend. For those few who remained in office staring at our spreadsheets, we were certainly in no mood for work, especially when we looked at our costing files, our monthly reporting files, etc. The numbers in the spreadsheet swam in front of us.

Sigh! Guess we would need to work harder with the start of the new week to catch up on the slower productivity.

Up Close and Personal with Nature

So often do we get caught up in work that we fail to notice or even deliberately ignore sceneries which we have bypassed.

So often that we sink into a rut or a routine that we think to-and-fro work and home form the entire world.

So often do we immerse ourselves in the concrete jungle that we forget the warmth, the rejuvenation and peacefulness of back in nature.

Although we are constantly being exposed to newer and newer forms of entertainment that has innudated the digital media and sprouting along the city, nothing beats the excitement of up close and personal with nature. Seeing how the little flowers which uphold itself in resplendent beauty against the strong gust of wind or the harsh heat and seeing how fallen leaves still contributing to the earth with its decomposition, I am simply overwhelmed with respect and admiration. This is the time when I can really treasure being alive and able to witness such finery of nature.

P.S. This sudden 'inspiration' came about when I was trudging over the hill in search of hawker food. There is always a silver lining to every cloud. Although I missed my hawker food, my spirits were lifted with this observation.

Upgrading of Another Market

There is a market which we like to go for breakfast because it offers a great variety of local fare (eg wanton mee, mincepork noodles, fried bee hoon) which are good and affordable. However, to reach the market, we need to climb over a hill. Although it is good exercise, sometimes we will opt for the nearer market for sheer convenience.

On this public holiday, we thought we have ample time to enjoy our breakfast leisurely (including the climb over the hill to-and-fro). After much sweat and panting, we reached the market. Much to our dismay, the market was closed for renovation. Argghh! What a huge disappointment!

Fortunately, there were some nearby coffeeshops. Left without any choice (short of travelling to another place for food), we settled for the coffeeshops. Needless to say, the variety and quality were nowhere comparable to the market.

I wondered when the upgrading would be completed. I wonder more if the good stalls would have disappeared together with the upgrading.