Snow in Singapore!

Will you be here for Christmas? Yes, it’s snowing in front of Tanglin Mall at Orchard Road in Singapore. My son and many other ‘kids’ big or small are having so much fun playing with the snow.
You might want to bring some spare clothing to change after playing in the 'snow' as it’s foam sprayed out from machines.

At the very least, come and enjoy the Christmas lighting decoration along Orchard Road. It’s breath-taking!

Botak Jones Western Food

Heard about Botak Jones Western Food from a colleague of mine. A westerner named Jones who is bald (‘botak’ means bald in Malay language) sells western food in coffee shops located in neighborhood areas, not in big restaurants or shopping malls in the city. The food is so good that the wait is about an hour even during non-peak hours.

So I drove for about twenty minutes with my wife to get to their main outlet in Ang Mo Kio, a township in the north of Singapore.

Yes, the western food stall is set in a typical coffee shop without air-conditioning. We were there at 2:30pm and the wait was about 15 minutes. We are very fascinated by the way the menu is written. Every item comes with some humorous explanation. And what impresses me is the way they explained why they have cut down the portion of the fries given. It is to reduce wastage. And we are always welcome to ask for more should we need them.

The staff was friendly and smiley. I ordered The Botak Burger and my wife, Cajun Chicken. The verdict? So so only, really. That means average standard, if you don’t understand Singlish. Although we were hungry, we should have just ordered the sandwich only instead of the set, which comes with fries and coleslaw. The portion was quite big for an Asian like me. The fries are spicy fries, not like the ones you find in Macdonald’s or Burger King, which made them unique but not commonly acceptable.

Well, have a look at their website. You will know what I mean by the humor that comes with their menu. Does it worth driving all the way to one of their outlets to have a western meal without air-con? I will leave it up to you. For me, I am quite happy with Macdonald’s or KFC.

http://www.botakjones.com

Risk

My wife was looking for suitable business partners to embark on a business venture together. So we talked to some of friends whom we think have great potential to work and grow together.

Most of them have these first reactions:

Is it safe?

Is the return-of-investment guaranteed?

Oh, I have seen these being done by others already. There are a lot of these products in the market. Is the market saturated?

Is it competitive?

Having read the books by Robert T. Kiyosaki, we know people’s core values can be divided into that of poor, middle-income and rich.

In decreasing degree, the poor and middle-income core values are that of safety and security, whilst the rich focus on risk and reward.

Coming from poor and middle-income families, we ‘inherited’ the core values of the poor and middle-income people. It took us years of education and experience to realize what is limiting us. There after we commit ourselves to change and still in the process of changing.

Ann Landers’ poem:

To laugh is to risk appearing a fool.

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.

To reach out for another is to risk involvement.

To expose feelings is to risk rejection.

To place your dreams before the crowd is to risk ridicule.

To love is to risk not being loved in return.

To go forward in the face of overwhelming odds is to risk failure.

But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.

The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.

He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he cannot learn, feel, change, grow, or love.

Chained by his certitudes, he is a slave.

Only a person who takes risks is free.

Bulgogi Beef and Spicy Tou Fu Soup

My first encounter with Korean food was in Seoul, the capital city of South Korea. It was the beginning of winter and the air outside was chilly and crisp. There was a medium-sized family-run restaurant at Namdaemun, not too far from the hotel that our crews were staying.

Raw bulgogi-sauce-marinated beef was left on a portable gas-operated stove to cook while we savour the many different side dishes that come with the main course such as Kim chi (preserved spicy cabbage), marinated beansprout, fishcakes, black beans, anchovies and so on.

Slices of cooked beef were then wrapped in green vegetable and eaten while hot. It was love at first bite. The beef was so tender and juicy that I could not help wanting for more. The taste was a little sweet but unique.

Then came the Spicy Tou Fu Soup. The steaming spicy hot soup served in earthenware for keeping warm, coupled with the softness of the tou fu (bean curd) were just perfect for winter.

Subsequently, I discovered a lot more about Korean food in Korean Town in Manhattan, New York. There are a lot of Korean restaurants that open for 24 hour in Korean Town in Manhattan. Coming from the other half of the globe, 24-hour restaurants are perfect for people like me who are coping with jet lag. Even though Korean Town is about 20 minutes walk away from the hotel that we are staying, the love for Korean food often motivates me to make my way there.

Cuti-cuti Malaysia - Last Day - The Horror of Time-sharing Scheme

We left Sungai Petani (SP) with lots of mooncakes, Old Town White Coffee and pamelos in our car boot. The drive from SP to Kuala Lumpur (KL) was about four and half hour. Driving along the North-South Highway (PLUS), we made pitstops to break the monotony of the drive. Restoran Jejantas (literally, restaurant located on an overhead bridge spanning both sides of the highway) was our favourite place for stopping.

Not only the place has lots of carpark lots, it has big toilets and a variety of restaurants. We could choose among the many choices available, Malay Mixed Rice, KFC, Burger King, A & W or Dunkin’ Doughnut. There is also an Adidas sports goods outlet for us to shop too.

The journey would have been shorter if not for the time taken to locate Golden City Condominium located along Jalan Ipoh in KL. We took an earlier exit from the highway thinking that we could avoid the peak hour traffic jam in KL city. But we still ended up going round and round for a while getting stuck in a jam before we finally managed to locate this condominium allocated for us under our brother-in-law’s participation in a time-sharing scheme.

We have heard horrible stories of a time-sharing scheme. The hard-sell tactics used aside, participants are asked to pay a certain amount of fees upfront to secure a number of holiday stay in participating accommodation facilities such as condominiums, apartments or hotels. Our kind brother-in-law let us use part of his yearly quota since he and his family won’t be able to finish it all due to time constraint.

We already had a taste of what it was when we stayed at the condominium in Port Dickson on our first night of the trip. The place was poorly maintained and was not the best located. And the Golden City Condominium (http://www.leisureholidays.com.my/) located next to the Dynasty Hotel gave us the same rundown experience. The management office was located in one of the condo units in the building. We were greeted by two polite Malay ladies who were watching TV in the apartment when we stepped in.

After getting the keys and went into our allocated unit, we were quite ok to discover the place spacious and had a good view from the living room. However, it was quite obvious that this apartment had not been occupied for quite some time. The floor and bed were dusty. And we also struggled with the remote control to finally realize that only one of the three bedrooms had air-conditioning working.

So I called the Malay lady whom I had just met when I checked in. To my huge dismay, she replied matter-of-factly that all the condo units suffered the same air-con problem, only one of the rooms would have the air-con working. The last straw was that she did not express even a tiny sense of apology.

We have had enough of rundown apartments. We wanted our last night of this driving trip a pleasant and memorable one, so we decided to check out the newly renovated Crown Regency (http://www.crownregency.com.my/crown/). For a promotional rate of RM350 a night, the experience was a whole world of difference!

I am not sure whether all the accommodations available under this time-sharing scheme are of the same standard. Or is it just those available in Malaysia? All the apartments that we stayed in during this trip suffered from poor maintenance and management. A lot of my friends said that this is one of the major problems facing the Malaysia property scene.

Malaysia has a lot of natural resources that offer great tourism values, if only there is proper management and upkeep. Looks like a lot more need to be done to attract both first-time and revisiting visitors.

More info on time-sharing scheme:

http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/Crimes/InPerson/MajorPerson/time_shares.htm

http://www.globalresales.co.uk/timeshare-resorts/Golden-City-Condominiums.html

Cuti-cuti Malaysia - Day 4 through Day 6 - Sungai Petani and Penang

My hometown, Sungai Petani, SP in short, is often mistaken as a place in Thailand, Patani. And most of my Singaporean friends thought that it is located at the Thai border. Well, it’s nearer than what you thought. It’s just 30 minutes drive away from Butterworth, the seaport town of Penang state in the northwest corner of Peninsular Malaysia. Of course, near or far, it depends on where you come from, right?

I left my hometown for further studies in Singapore 17 years ago. This trip is my first trip driving my first car home. It feels great. It has a sense of achievement attached, especially when I have a family of my own with me.

SP has developed a lot in the past 17 years. Lots of new housing estates sprung up like mushrooms after the rain. Population has grown large enough for big retail chains Giant Hypermarket and Tesco Supermarket to open their stores here.

The economic activities here are mainly industrial. There are a lot of plastic and electronic factories located around this town. They provide the main driving force behind the banking and retailing industries.

I don’t consider myself as a tourist back in my hometown, but the priorities are the same: eating and shopping. My wife has fallen in love with Penang Assam Laksa – noodles in sour minced fish meat soup. There is this particular hawker that sells laksa from a corner house located at a T-junction in SP that is only well known among the locals. My wife could go there everyday if possible.

But, why not go for an authentic Penang Laksa in Penang? And so we went to Penang on day 4 of our trip. Driving to Penang Island through Penang Bridge took us about 45 minutes. The first place that came to our mind was the latest and largest shopping mall called Queensbay Mall (http://www.queensbaymall.com.my/). I won’t bore you with the details of shopping and eating in this mall. But I had my haircut in a newly open Quickcut outlet there. I was quite happy with the service. Not only it was quick – done in ten minutes – the vacuum suction applied on my head and shoulder after the haircut through a flexible tube hanging on the wall left me feeling clean and neat – no more irritating tiny hairs strewn all over my shirt. Do check out their website: http://www.quickcut.com.my/

Of course, Old Town White Coffee (http://www.oldtown.com.my/) has a branch there as well.

After Queensway Mall, we stopped by a coffee shop along Macalister Road for a treat on some mouth-watering authentic Penang hawker fare. Char Kway Teow (Friend Flat Noodles in Hokkien), Penang Laksa, Pok Piah (Shredded Radish wrapped in thin flour wrap), Hokkien Prawn Mee, O Luak (Fried Oyster Omelette) and so on. Felt bloated? Have some refreshing sugarcane juice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penang_cuisine

We spent the next day enjoying the mental peacefulness in SP – something that is hard to come by in Singapore. Met up with our uncle’s family for dinner before preparing for the drive back the next day. Before that, my wife, who is one of the lady bosses of Scent Discovery (http://www.scentdiscovery.com/), did not forget to check out one of the spas providing facial and massage services located in SP as part of her market survey. The service was just standard but overpriced, she said.

Cuti-cuti Malaysia – Day 3 – Around Ipoh

After leaving Fraser’s Hill with lots of mosquito bite marks on Caden, we headed for my hometown – Sungai Petani. But not forgetting to stop by Ipoh for the famous Ipoh ‘Hor Fun’ – white flat noodles that are served together with bean sprout and soy source steamed chicken. It was raining heavily. After much of going round Ipoh town center trying to choose ‘the best’ Ipoh Hor Fun restaurant, we finally settled down with one that said ‘original Ipoh Hor Fun’ coffee shop. There are many ‘original’ Ipoh Hor Fun coffee shops, of course!

We parked right in front of the shop and one of the waiters was really quick to bring us an umbrella. Talk about Ipoh hospitality!

We had a choice of hor fun in soup or in dry soy source. I preferred the soupy one as the steaming hot soup went well with cold temperature.

Guess what we did after eating? Shop! That’s right.

Ipoh, being the capital for the state of Perak, is not short of pamelos and White Coffee. One company named Old Town White Coffee has a franchise of coffee shops all over Malaysia serving white coffee and local hawker fare such as kaya toasts, laksa, curry noodles and so on. I fell in love with White Coffee the first time I drank it. Why is White Coffee white? Isn’t all coffee black? Check this out!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipoh_white_coffee

Our car boot was already three quarter full with our luggage. A few more pamelos and large packets of white coffee sachets had definitely added more load on our poor Nissan Latio.

It continued to rain heavily as we set off to Sungai Petani from Ipoh. However, it did not dampen our spirit to locate Perak Cave – a huge limestone cave which houses a Chinese temple, home to a large Buddha statue and many more smaller sized deity statues. It has a steep, tall staircase in the interior of the cave rising up to the top of its hill where one is greeted by a panoramic view of Ipoh and its surroundings.

We arrived Sungai Petani in the evening. Our Nissan Latio had a good shower by the rain. It also had a wash of ‘its bottom’ as we had to drive through some flood water before reaching our house.

Cuti-cuti Malaysia - Day Two - The Mosqito War at Fraser's Hill

We stayed at a rundown condominium managed under a time-sharing scheme at Port Dickson the night before. The buildings and the facilities were constructed quite nicely. However, the conditions had since deteriorated due to poor maintenance. Although the free-form pool seen from our apartment window looked inviting, we were cautious on letting our one-year-old Caden crawling around on the floor. The tiles were dirty.

Anyway, we were there just for a short night and we got out of there first thing in the morning. The condominium was not at the beach. So we had to stop by one of the many beach resorts located along the Port Dickson Beach to have at least a photo taken to prove that we had been there. Here it is.

The drive towards Fraser’s Hill took two hours. The road up the hill got more winding as we went further. The lush green tropical rainforest offered some refreshing atmosphere. We spotted some monkeys and colorful birds. But our boy was too tired to look at them.

The last 8 km up to the top was a one-way single lane tarred-road. This road was called ‘The Gap’. Before a new road was constructed not too far from The Gap, there used to have restriction on the timings to drive up the hill. Traffic was only allowed in one direction on alternate hour. For example, going up was only allowed during odd hours and going down during even hours. Not anymore now. Another one-way road had since been constructed and it had brought much convenience to the visitors.

We stayed at The Pines Resort at Fraser’s Hill. We were initially quite pleased to see so many plants and flowers that added to the serenity of the place. The big rooms of the apartment also came with kitchen and dining table. However, the sofa and carpet were dusty and moist. As a family, there was really nothing much to do except to drive around in the car for sight seeing. There was a golf course, a horse riding track, numerous juggle tracking paths and a small pond for canoeing. Dinner was settled at the resorts’ restaurant. The food was not too bad although pricy.

The weather was naturally cool due the high elevation and hence no air-condition. So we left the bedroom door open for fresh air and ventilation. Unfortunately, that also allowed uninvited quests – mosquitoes – to come in.

I was woken up in the middle of the night by the irritating buzzing noise of the mosquitoes. My son who slept on the same bed with us was busy fencing off the mosquitoes’ attack on his chubby face. I quickly applied some essential oil on his face and hands to repel the mosquitoes. That helped him quite a bit but not enough. His grandma counted twenty over mosquito bites on his face and hands the next morning. I felt quilty as a father. I could have done more to fight those mosquitoes. Although at that time, I could not think of any other way.

Both my wife and I agreed that we would not go back to Fraser’s Hill for a long time. Not just because of what the mosquitoes did to our son, that place was simply boring. Nonetheless, the place was great for practicing meditation. It was a perfect place for those who want to get away from the crowd to ‘find meaning in life’.

Cuti-cuti Malaysia - Day One

I did a seven-day driving holiday trip in Malaysia recently. The itinery went like this:
Singapore- Melacca - Port Dickson- Fraser’s Hills - Ipoh - Sungai Petani - Kuala Lumpur - Singapore.

Day One

We started off driving from Singapore up north to Melacca where we stopped for a Peranakan (Straits Chinese) lunch.

The drive through Singapore and Malaysia immigrations was a breeze. Not so much waiting as it was a weekday morning. Stopped by a money changer in the southern most town of Malaysia – Johor Bahru to get some local currency – Ringgit. The number of money changers in Johor Bahru astonished us. There were just so many of them in one area. And they offer very good rates too as a result of stiff competition.

Traffic along the North-South Highway in Malaysia was smooth. The gentle rocking movement of the car made my boy slept through most of the way.

First stop – Melacca. Malacca was one of oldest places where the Chinese Immigrants first settled in. They arrived in the 1800s and cross marriage with the local Malays gave rise to a unique ‘Peranakan’ (Straits Chinese) Culture. The men were called ‘Baba’ and women ‘Nyoya’.

A few well-known Peranakan foods include Curry Laksa, Mee Siam, Chicken Buah Keluak and Ice-kacang. We stopped by a restaurant in an old shophouse behind the OCBC bank for some Peranakan food. It was not our first time there. The carpark in front of this restaurant used to be free. Not anymore. We were warned by two friendly and helpful Melaccans as we parked the car. One even offered to sell us the local parking coupons.

The food used to be tastier as far as I could remember. The Ice-kacang (an iced dessert with red beans, green jelly, sweet corn and Atap seeds topped with colourful syrup and brown coconut sugar syrup) was as mouth-watering as ever!

Next, as requested by my beloved wife, we went shopping at Mahkota Parade Shopping Mall – a huge and spacious shopping centre with lots of variety of goods and services. Prominent shops include Parkson Grand Departmental Stall, MPH bookshop, Nose Shoes, etc.

http://www.virtualmalaysia.com/directory/shopping/view_shopping_centre.cfm?ID=F295A0E7-1792-11D6-B32A00D0B78F6634

And guess what did my wife and mum-in-law buy? Let me give you a hint: Women usually have more than one of these. Different colours and designs to match their outfit. And most of those bought are worn just for a few occasions, then kept in the rack for most of the time.

Got it? Yes, shoes!

As we drove away from Mahkota Parade, we discovered looking out from the car that there is a new shopping centre right opposite Mahkota Parade – Pahlawan Square Mall. There is an even bigger local women shoe retail brand in the mall – Vinci. Looks like we will go back there for more!

http://planet.time.net.my/CentralMarket/melaka1001/pahlawan.html

Energy Level

My wife and I attended “Unlimited Power” Seminar featuring Anthony Robins, Allan Pease and Stephen Pierce recently. We have heard of Anthony Robins for a long time. We have heard of how powerful he is in motivating people and empowering people to change for betterment.

You probably do not need me to describe more about Anthony Robins. A lot of information about him or furnished by him is readily available on the internet and in reading materials all over the world. Basically, he uses Neuro-linguistic Programming to change our emotional state to optimum level to achieve results that we wanted. During his seminar, he highlighted how important it is for us to be at the ‘peak energy state’ to be able to attract people and also to continue to strive towards our goals.

When we realized we are down or not at our ‘peak energy state’, one way to motivate ourselves is to change our physiological state such as exercising or dancing. When we move, motion brings about emotion and we change our emotional state.

During the seminar, for countless times, Anthony asked the 5000 strong audience to be on their feet to jump and dance to upbeat music to elevate their emotional state. He told us to let go of our adult inhibitions. He asked us to be spontaneous like children to be able to experience the extremes in emotional states again. He talked for more than two hours. Not even a minute did he let us feel boring or dull in his presentation. Allan Pease and Stephen Pierce were not as energetic compared to Anthony, although their speech content were no less important.



So rate your energy level now, 0 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. What is your energy level now?

Do you notice Anthony Robbin’s energy level? If your current energy level is low, come on, move your body, pump up the volume and dance!

Parentwonder.com

Abel Cheng is the husband of an old friend of mine back in primary school. He is full of entrepreneur spirit and drive. He had ventured into many businesses and www.parentwonder.com is one of his best products that I have come across.

Parentwonder.com offers many tips and information on parenting, marriage and life. I was invited to post a guest blog and I did. Here is the link to the article titled "Fairness: Where did a four-year-old learn that?":

http://www.parentwonder.com/content/view/343/1/

I hope you will like it and also stop by to navigate through many of the wonderful pages of Parentwonder.com. And feel free to leave comments.

What are you going to do after you retire?

There is an investment banker who went on a holiday. He went out fishing with a fisherman during his trip.

Out of habit, he will ask questions regarding investment to everyone he meets. He asked the fisherman, “Do you have any plans on how to expand your fishing business?”

The fisherman replied, “No. Life is good for me now. I go out fishing in the morning, which is what I enjoy most. Sell my fish by mid-day. Then I will have the rest of the day lying on the beach and relax.”

“Don’t you want to expand your business by buying more boats, hiring staff to catch more fish for you?”

The fisherman winked, “And what will I do after achieving all that?”

“Then you can retire, have your free time to do whatever you want or simply lying on a beach and relax.”

“Isn’t that what I am doing right now?”



So my friend, what are you going to do after you retire? If you plan to play golf after retirement, why can’t you play golf right now? If you are going to do what you enjoy doing after retirement, why can’t you do it right now?

No time lar… I heard some of you said. But time is what we make right? Eh, not so easy man. If we are doing something just to make money but not enjoying it, is that still living? I understand, we have no choice sometimes. Well, at other times? Actually, we have a choice all the time. The point is whether we want to take up the responsibility and have the courage to make a change.

The term ‘Retirement’ is a very vague term. Most of the people usually go by the official definition of retiring at the age of 62 as set out by the Ministry of Manpower guidelines. Do we really have to follow the guidelines? Not necessary. The fact is most of the people realized the importance of retirement planning. But somehow other financial issues such as getting married, buying bigger house and car, going for holidays, child education and so on take priorities. Or maybe back in our mind, age 62 is still far away.



If you have read the book ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ and ‘The Cashflow Quadrant’ by Robert Kiyosaki, ‘retirement’ is defined as the period of time where passive income is more than our living expenses. Come to think of it, this definition is very appropriate. We can retire when we no longer have to worry about working to pay for our daily expenses. At that stage, we have sufficiently built up our financial reserves or assets that will give us residue income such as rental income or royalty to cover our expenditure. In other words, we no longer have to work for money anymore. Going by this definition, the retirement age is no longer significant. We can retire anytime when we have built up sufficient retirement fund. It could be earlier or later than 62. If we don’t work on it earlier, it could happen when we are older than 62. And life might be more difficult then because most of companies today do not employ people older than 62.

Another pressing question is how much retirement fund is sufficient? And will it increase as we age? You will have to answer that question for yourself.

So back to the question of what do I want to do after I retire? I will continue to fly as an airline pilot. Why? A lot of colleagues asked me. I thought retirement means not having to work anymore? ‘Because I love to’ is my answer. After retirement, I will fly not for the money, but for the pleasure of flying. Of course, due to licensing requirement, I won’t be allowed to fly after the age of 62. Then I will continue to blog. You will continue to see me online. Because that is what I love to do.


Retiring does not mean waiting to age and die at home. It simply means we no longer have to work for money. Does that mean that the old folks that we see working in Macdonald’s restaurants have to work because they need money? Maybe. Maybe not all of them. Some might be there because they just want to kill time or get rid of the boredom staying at home.

I see seniors working at Changi Airport too. Some of them help to direct traffic at taxi stands. Some of them go around collecting luggage trolleys left behind by passengers. They will consolidate all the trolleys together, tie them up and drag them using a buggy to the luggage collection point. Have you seen the buggy that they drove? It looks like those being used in the golf course but smaller. It looks fun driving around in them. For one moment, I can imagine myself driving around in those buggies in the arrival/transit hall in the airport.

Pictures are taken at Tonle Sap, Cambodia.

Central Monitoring System (CMS)

Hi, my name is Central Monitoring System, or CMS in short. I exist in most of the modern aircrafts these days including those manufactured by Boeing, Airbus and Learjet. As my name suggests, I am in charge of monitoring the overall aircraft systems and giving the pilots warning or caution messages when there is a malfunction.

I am named EICAS in this Boeing 777 aircraft. EICAS stands for Engine Indicating and Crew Alerting System.


I am named ECAM in this Airbus 340 aircraft. ECAM stands for Electronic Centralised Aircraft Monitor.

The aircraft systems that I monitor include Engines performance, Fuel management, Navigation accuracy, Hydraulic and Electrical systems and many more. As more and more people are traveling by air these days, my role to assist the pilots in executing a safe flight has become increasingly important. The pilots rely on me to give them the correct steps in the form of a checklist to execute should there be a malfunction in any of the aircraft systems that I monitor.

For example, if one of the landing gears did not come down during an approach to land, I would be able to sense it through my sensors and warn the pilots through visual and audio means. Visual means include showing red colour coded messages on the computer screens. Audio means include continuous repetitive chime over the speakers in the cockpit. Through the computer screen, I would also instruct the pilots to take alternative steps to lower the landing gear such as recycling the landing gear lever or lowering the gear through gravity extension.

Having said all that, like all computer systems, I am only as smart as what my manufacturer made me. I rely very much on my sensors and the computer algorithm programmed into my ‘brain’. I may sometimes, due to system complexity and redundancy, give wrong signals to the pilots. In such cases, instead of helping them, I confuse them. Sometimes, sad to say, this can lead to fatal consequences.

Yes, if you are smart enough to correlate, I exist in every one of you too. My sensors are your eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. I process sensory information to tell you, among many things, whether it is cold or hot, whether you need to wear thicker clothing or not for example.

I also grow smarter as you grow older. I am able to take in and store information. When a new event occurs, I will process it based on what I have been told, i.e. based on your ‘knowledge’. When the same event occurs again, I will most likely process it the same way like I did before unless you consciously tell me to do otherwise. As more and more events and information are stored, my database grows larger and you become more ‘experienced’.

Just one word of caution, like I have mentioned before, I am only as smart as what I have been told. The education that you received in school plays a large part in ‘shaping’ me. What your parents and friends told you and how they behave are also taken in by me, be it consciously or subconsciously. Your religious beliefs will also make me process information in a certain way. Sometimes not based on logic.

I will also put the things that you see or hear through the ‘internal checking’ process. After which, depending on how old you are, I will give you the results as ‘moral judgment’. Then I will also instruct you to behave accordingly.

Certain information, depending on how I am programmed, will make me give you the feelings of happiness, sadness, anger, jealousy, confusion and so on. And based on these emotions, I will also make you act constructively or destructively.

The question is: Are you aware of my existence?

If yes, are you going to make sure that I receive only ‘good’ inputs so that I will grow wiser and greater?

In this human body, I am named the same as the child - Caden Chan.

Sawadeekhap...

I was in Bangkok for 6 days last week preparing for a simulator training session while my wife attended a traditional Thai massage course in a school next to Wat Pho – Temple of Reclining Buddha. http://bml.uoregon.edu/keitan/watpho/

For those of you who have been to Bangkok, you know Bangkok hardly sleeps. Activities go on late or shall I say early into the wee hours in the morning. For every 200 meters we walked, we come across a massage joint or a 24-hour grocery store. Besides savouring authentic Tom Yum Soup and relaxing in the good hands of a Thai massage therapist, we just could not do enough shopping in this Asian City of Angels.

From Jatujak Weekend Market, where we could get practically anything under the sun including pets, to Suan Lum Night Market to seven-storey high Mah Boon Kong (MBK) Shopping Center to posh and trendy Central World, we were truly amazed by the variety and colours of Thai merchandise and hospitality.

That of Entrepreneur Spirit…

Thai people use every single space round the corners and along the walkways to set up store to sell things. Hawker food, clothing, cosmetics, women accessories, etc, you name it you have it. Some of the walkways are really not suitable for displaying goods. They blocked the narrow walkway especially during peak hours. Do they need to have a license to set up those stalls?

Life must be tough for the locals huh? God knows what is their cost price and profit margin. Stall owners usually communicate by punching in their calculators with a price too high for their goods’ appearance. Then we would punch in a lower figure and we would most of the time ended up at a price somewhere in between the two. And their ‘Cop khun khap’ (Thank you), most of the time, come with a warm smile and hands clasp in front of their chests. Then further down the road, another hawker would offer us a lower price for the same merchandise. Sh**! We have since learnt not to ask for the price of the same merchandise again once we have bought them.

That of Thai Hospitality and Urbanisation…

I couldn’t get enough of that warm smile and hands clasp in front of the chest welcome from Thai people. I found it so humble and friendly that it never failed to brighten up my day. But my day soon darkened when I hopped into a cab.

First of all, not all Thai taxi drivers speak English. So we have to get prepared to get out of the taxi if the driver does not understand where you want to go or simply refuse to turn on their meters. Some would demand a flat price if you are going to a congested area such as Silom Road or China Town in the evening where there is high chance of getting stuck in a traffic jam. And you can forget about that warm smile, not to mention the loose change you are supposed to get. Just round it up to the nearest 10 Baht and consider it as a tip (not a usual practice in this part of the world).

That of Bangkok Jam…

Have you ever got stuck in a Bangkok traffic jam? Try it, if you want to enrich your life experience on what urbanization has done to this city. The mass transit train system seems futile in alleviating the congestion even though it is really quite and comfortable. I guess it’s because the train fare is still comparatively more expensive than the taxi fare on certain routes. And the train stations are not at the most strategic locations.

That of Tom Yum Goong, Green Curry and Pad Thai…

Speaking about congestion, we were having Duck Noodle Soup at a roadside hawker stall off Yaowarat Road, Chinatown when it started drizzling. We had to quickly seek shelter when the stall helpers set up big umbrellas next to our small dining table. Here we were savouring the hot soup with steam blurring my spectacles when a car appeared out of nowhere moving slowly towards me on my left. It was trying to move out of the alley where this hawker stall seemed to be one of the many other stalls that were in the way of this car. The driver honked lightly and reluctantly each stall inched out slowly of its way including the fruit stalls behind me and me! I actually had to stand up, pushed my chair aside for the car to go through!

Ha ha! That was one of the most memorable dining experience I had in Bangkok. The steaming hot soup, the humidity, and the sign language in the absence of a menu coupled with the thoughts of whether it was hygienic enough to eat at a roadside stall, they made perfect ingredients for a truly Thai city stay.

Guarded

We went shopping at Vivocity – the largest retail mall in Singapore to date. (http://www.vivocity.com.sg) Here I was pushing Caden in his pram and walking along a crowded corridor outside fashion brands such as River Island, Gap, CLUBMARC and so on. A man in his late thirties dressed in jeans and white shirt walked towards us in the opposite direction. He was looking at the floor before he noticed Caden’s pram and he slowly lifted his gaze.

The neutral expression on his face turned into a warm smile when he saw Caden. Then his smile frozen and quickly turned into a defensive mask when he realized the baby’s father was noticing his face expression all this while.

It makes me wonder: Why do adults put down their defenses in front of a baby and quickly become guarded confronting another adult? What had happened as we grow up that made us build this imaginary wall around ourselves?

One thing for sure, we lost our innocence as we grow up. Perhaps, we have been hurt in the process. We realized that the world is not as pretty as what it seems. People can be nice and cruel at the same time. After we learnt about the hypocrisy of human nature and how selfish a person can get, we have lost our spontaneity and childlike curiosity.

Is that a good thing or bad? Perhaps a more relevant question is: Are we happy with what we have lost?

Maybe if I had smiled back to the gentlemen who smiled at my son, he would continue smiling at me too? Yeah, I was not smiling then. I was too proud of the fact that my son had brought down his defenses. My son is cute, huh? I continued with my stern expression. Oh no, you have misunderstood me, I love you smiling at my son.

Maybe that’s why we need babies. We need them to remind us where we come from, what we have become. We need them to remind us to ‘un-guard’ ourselves once in a while and be spontaneous.

So the next time you see a baby, it is okay to let your guard down and say hello. For a simple reason that that will make you happy. And if you don’t want to smile at the father, it is okay too. But retaining that innocence and warmth a little while longer will definitely make this world a better place. Especially when you see Caden and his father. And I promise I will smile back to you too. Cheers!

Born for Love

“I am thirsty.”

“Be patient. You'll get your water soon. 70% of that planet's surface is covered with water.”

“Planet? What's that place?”

“It's where you will be spending the next 90 years of your life in.”

“Then who am I?”

“You are currently a form of energy, an entity in the universe, a pre-life form. The human beings called you, ‘Spirit’.”

“‘Spirit?’, is that going to be my permanent weird name?”

“You will have a new name, a blessed name. A kind woman will give birth to you, feed and protect you. You will grow up over time, blossom, age and die. You will have happiness, satisfaction, sadness and anger. You will taste the sweetness of being pampered, the agony of being torn apart. I guarantee you a wonderful journey beyond words.”

“Why? Why do I have to experience all that?”

“There is no why. There is no need to think too much. You will be guided by a unknown force. The ‘force’ will make you happy and will also drive you crazy. You will become selfish and will also achieve greatness. No one can run away from this ‘force’. It is enormous, it ensembles all things. It is the reason why the universe exists.”

“What is the universe?”

“It’s time. Proceed towards the light source.”

“Now?”

“Yes, go, go live and love.”

The above excerpt is translated from a paragraph of writing found in Taiwanese rock band Mayday (五月天) latest album 'Born for Love' (为爱而生). It makes me think a lot. It seems to remind me of the conversation my son, Caden had with a sage before he came into this world. Did I ask the same questions before too?

Definition of a Poor Person

In my first few postings, I often mentioned that I came from a poor family background. So much so that a good friend of mine who frequented my blog remarked that I often emphasized on myself coming from a poor background. Well, how poor is poor? I found a definition of a poor person in the book by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki: Why We Want You To Be Rich? (http://www.whywewantyoutoberich.com/)

Robert mentioned that a friend of his who worked in a wealth management firm said that the firm defines a poor person as someone who DID NOT have at least $100,000 in cash to invest. Not only the firm uses this criterion to take you in as their client, they also use the same criteria to hire someone as their brokerage agent. That criterion puts most of the people in the poor category. I am certainly one of those. :-)

This picture of living in poor conditions has been haunting me for the past 17 years. I was preparing for my secondary school leaving examination then. It was the poorest chapter of my life thus far. I have to write it down now in this blog as a psychotherapy healing. I have been trying hard to leave it behind me and move on with my life.

My family and I were staying with my grandparents in their wooden house. All my uncles and unties were married and had accumulated enough wealth to buy their own house. And so they left. My family was still trying very hard to make ends meet. But we were happy having the opportunity to take care of grandpa and grandma. The wooden house was almost 30 years old then and was situated right in the middle of a T road junction. The Chinese believed that such location was of bad ‘feng shui’. My parents often quarreled due to financial problems. The conditions of the wooden house had deteriorated so much that if we would have a structural engineer to have its structural integrity checked, we would be ordered to leave the house immediately due to the high possibilities of the house collapsing. The pillars of the house were badly eaten up by termites. The roof was leaking beyond repair.

There were nights I woke up after realizing there were raindrops on my feet. It was a two-storey wooden house. The rain had seeped through the broken roof and flooring and dripped onto my feet. The mattress under my feet was already soaking wet. I would spend the rest of the night praying for the rain would stop so that I could continue sleeping before attending school the next day. If that was not poor living conditions, I don’t know what is the meaning of poor. But our family members have grown stronger and united living through such conditions. My sister and brother have worked hard to bring back money and we managed to move out of the wooden house a year later.

Of course, this definition of a poor person is just looking at the financial condition of that person. Being in a poor financial condition does not mean that the person deserved to be looked down upon. Everyone having born into this world deserves to have a chance to live and do well be it financially, physically and spiritually. All these three aspects of life are interlinked. One way to break away from being poor and move up the social ladder is through education. Through education comes awareness of what makes a person poor. Then one has a choice to change for betterment.

For now, whatever definition of a poor person maybe, I know I have written that poor chapter of my life down and I will move on from here. I have my dear family members especially my elder brother to thank for what I can afford now. Thank you and I love you all.

Guess who is my papa?

The Greatest Form of Wealth

Chinese New Year is just round the corner. Sales advertisements on TV and newspapers, decorations in the shopping malls and songs played by the radio stations are all adding to the festive mood.

As we busy spring-cleaning our house and stocking up on the New Year goodies, back in our mind, we are always hopeful that this coming new year of the Pig will bring us lots of wealth and prosperity. One of the most common greetings we have for fellow Chinese is ‘Gong Xi Fa Cai’ which means wishing you good luck in acquiring wealth.

When we think about wealth, it is always related to money. We often say a person is rich when he has big houses and big cars and wears branded clothing. Those are material wealth and they are easy to be seen. And these impressions are always formed during Chinese New Year gatherings amongst the Chinese relatives and friends.

One strange phenomenon amongst my relatives is that we hardly keep in touch until there are occasions such as Chinese New Year celebrations, weddings and funerals. And for some, Chinese New Year celebration is one good opportunity to show off what they have achieved in the past one year. Going around visiting in new expensive clothes, watches and jewelries gives them an elevated feeling. After all, what’s wrong with that? I have worked hard to acquire those material goods. It’s not like I have stolen them from somewhere.

In his book ‘The Greatness Guide’, under subtitle ‘The Seven Forms of Wealth’, motivation guru Robin Sharma mentioned that wealth could come in seven different forms. They are:

(i) Inner wealth – positive mindset, inner peace, high self-respect and deep spiritual connection,
(ii) Physical wealth - health,
(iii) Family and social wealth – strong relationships with family members and friends,
(iv) Career wealth – professional achievements,
(v) Economic wealth – money and material acquisitions,
(vi) Adventure wealth – experience in meeting new challenges, traveling, forming new friendships and learning,
(vii) Impact wealth – to make a difference in other people’s lives.

The wealth that is easily seen comes in the form of physical wealth and economic wealth. Unless you communicate and understand more of a person, other forms of wealth are not apparent. Especially when you have a big group of relatives and friends during a gathering, you hardly have any time to catch up in depth. Exchanging ‘ang pows’ (red packets containing money – oh, money again) and mandarin oranges would have kept us busy enough. Not to mention we are suppose to say only good words for good luck and avoid bad things even though they might be true. A lot of people just chose to bury their heads in a game of mahjong or locking their eyes on TV or simply munching on Chinese New Year cookies.

To me, the greatest wealth that I have comes in the form of the relationship with my wife. Yeah, you think I am just trying to make her happy. Yes, you are right, my top priority is to make her happy. And I am not doing it because I have to. I do it because I want to, because I love her. And this wealth has multiplied. It comes in the form of relationships with our son, Caden. Oh gee, I cannot be mushier than that.

So, as we make our New Year resolutions and celebrating Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year one after the other, perhaps we should look further than just wealth on the surface. There are many other forms of wealth that we should strive to acquire in order to be a truly rich person.

Thr Rule of 90/10

The ratio of 90/10 could be further reduced to 95/5 or even 99/1. The actual number is not as important as to illustrate the contrast between the majority and the minority.

10 percent of the world population controls 90 percent of world total wealth.

Out of 10 Olympic participants, only 1 gets the gold medal. The ratio is 9 to 1.

90 percent of business fails within the first five years. 10 percent succeeded. Of that 10 percent, 90 percent would have failed many times before. And 90 percent of those succeeded will fail within the next ten years.

90 percent of the flights worldwide took off and landed safely. 10 percent got involved in incident/accident with/without casualty.


90 percent of landings done by a pilot are smooth and comfortable. 10 percent are considered ‘firm or rough or bumpy or uncomfortable’. Passengers focus on that 10 percent and say that this pilot is unskillful.

90 percent of the news reported is bad news. They are either news on disasters, theft, murder, victimization, etc. Only 10 percent is good news and is usually reported at the end of the show.

90 percent of the people choose to be average and comfortable. They refuse to step out of their comfort zone and ‘rock the boat’. 10 percent who chose to take some risk often ended up disappointed and got ‘laughed at’ by the 90 percent.

90 percent of the people are contented with mediocrity. Only 10 percent excel in what they are doing. 90 percent of the people live and die and won’t be remembered soon after they left. Only 10 percent left a legacy. They had contributed so much that they left the world a billion times better than when they first found it.


Should I be among that 90 percent? Knowing that it is definitely not easy to be in that 10 percent, should I still try? Should I continue to live in fear of losing what I have or should I risk losing some of what I have and start living with courage and in high spirit?

Walking Down the Memory Lane

I went back to my hometown to renew my passport recently. It has been 15 years since I left this small town named Sungai Petani located in Northern Peninsular Malaysia for greener pasture in Singapore.



The ‘dim sum’ restaurant my grand father used to frequent so often had since disappeared. He went there ritually every morning to meet his old friends over a pot of Chinese tea and a plate of ‘siew mai’ (steamed minced meat dumpling). I got to tag along as I was his favorite grand son. I was young then. (And still is :-)) My grandpa had passed on. So did many of his friends and now his favourite restaurant too.


I purposely stopped for lunch at one of the coffee shops located in the town center. The chicken rice still tasted as good. But the price had increased by more than 50%.





And guess what? The driving school that I took my first driving lesson was there waiting patiently for me to come back to visit.

After flying to so many places around the world, I still prefer the familiar old charm of my hometown. The people here are still simple, friendly and down-to-earth. It is a good place for me to lay back, relax and enjoy life. If nothing else worth mentioning, a tasty bowl of ‘Asam Laksa’ (white round noodles in sour minced fish soup) should make your visit here worthwhile.