ezyhealth

I am a subscriber of ezyhealth&beauty magazine, publishes monthly.

I used to obtain a free copy from pharmacy but will usually miss some issues either the latest copy is not ready or already all distributed. Hence, I decided to subscribe for S$28 a year. The magazine is pretty informative. I enjoy reading about keeping fit and diet/nutrition related articles. The July 09 issue is very informative. I have enclosed two pieces of information for your reference.

Marathon list for 2009:
showing all the marathon runs happening from now till end of 2009





Recommended Frequency of Health Checks



Besides information on 10 parks to revisit, benefits of inline skating, high blood pressure in children, walking is great etc, it also has some relevant information related to some of the events we are working on shortly.

For more information, please visit the Ezyhealth website or read online. now.

Bill Gates

Ever since Bill Gates stepped down as CEO of Microsoft years ago, he has focused his effort and energy on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill Gates is my super hero though I am sure he is not perfect, nobody is.

If u what to know what the Foundation is working on and its progress, I would like to suggest that you read the 2009 Annual Letter from Bill Gates. You can download it from the Foundation website, under the "About the Foundation" menu or read it online. Though 20 pages but pretty easy to read and informative. For example, it is shocking to know that there are a few diseases that cause half of the children (age 5 and below) deaths worldwide.

As quoted in the annual letter (page 4):

"We were surprised when we saw a newspaper article in 1998 showing that only a few diseases cause most childhood deaths and showing how little money was being invested in creating and providing vaccines for these diseases. A chart in the article showed that a particular type of diarrheal disease — rotavirus— was killing over 400,000 children per year. How could a disease we had never heard of get so little attention and kill this many children? We sent the article to my father and asked him to look into how we could help."

The saying "How could a disease we had never heard of get so little attention and kill this many children?" really gives all a wake-up call and he takes immediate actions to help out.



As reported in zaobao on 26 Jul 09, India presented an award to Bill Gates to recognize the Foundation's effort in contributing to help the needy. In the article, Bill Gates shared that he has given up his facebook account as there are just too many people who wanted to add him as friend - 10,000 people.

Ha...ha...ha... he is still as popular as he was.

Chatterbox

It has been pretty awhile since i visited Chatterbox by Mandarin Hotel in Orchard. Decided to dine there again and realized that the Chatterbox had moved from the ground floor to 39th floor.

What is so special about Chatterbox ? The chicken rice - the signature disk that SQ will serve you if you travel by First Class and also the same one that appeared on the newspaper when the chef who had created it left the hotel to start up on his own (now selling it in the Downtown East - Mr Chicken Rice).

How does it taste ? Not very bad but also but very good. You pay for more than the dish, ie the service, dining experience, culture + scenery since it is now located at 39th floor. Of course, they do provide much chicken in each portion. The chili sauce is great :-) I have come across chicken rice that tasted much better than the one provided in Chatterbox.



How much does it cost ? S$24 per person before all taxes ! I requested another bowl of rice for my daughter and it costs S$3.50 ie much more than what i pack from a hawker center ! It is definitely expensive. But if u have American Express Card, you can enjoy the 1 for 1 promotion. However, there are still many people dining in the restaurant.

Of course, they have other dishes such as Laksa, Hokkian Mee, Nasi Lemak, Wanton Mee, local dessert, fruit juicy, western food, coffee/tea etc. Btw, u may wish to consider dine at Chatterbox and enjoy the National Day fireworks on 9 Aug 09.



Opens Daily:
5am to 1am (Sun – Thu; Last order at 12.30am)
24 hours (Fri, Sat & Eve of Public Holidays)
Weekend Local High Tea – Available on Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays from 3pm to 5pm

Reservations: 68316288

The Great Singapore Feast

I am sure u will like to enjoy good food and to pay as low as possible ?

The Great Singapore Feast 2009

Organized by Restaurant Association of Singapore,
from 24 July 2009 to 31st Oct 2009.

173 restaurants participating in this event (eg. Tung Lok, Crystal Jade, Jumbo Seafood, Palm Beach Seafood, Jack’s Place, LingZhi Vegetarian, Prima Tower Revolving Restaurant, Pu Tien Restaurant etc).

Diners are able to buy food vouchers to use it at the participating restaurants. Voucher is selling at a 30% discount ie paying only $35 for a $50 voucher. Limited to 4 vouchers (each of $50 value) per person and payable only by Citibank credit card.

I have tried to buy some but the online portal is overloaded with high traffic. Cannot make any purchase at the moment. Need to try again later. :-(

Helping out at home

It is, indeed, the time to encourage my daughter to help out at home.

At this moment, she is still very excited to wash things such as vegetables, car, plates etc. Of course i know that she is riding on the opportunity to play with water and soap. Nevertheless, it is a good start and hopefully she will continue to do it willingly and happily.

Meanwhile, it is the parent's job to "promote" it positively rather than making it as a dirty and unimportant chore especially as a mean to punish a kid who made a mistake.

15 Children

As reported in zaobao (also reported in peopledaily.com in China), this family in USA has 15 children.

Wow ! for today's standard world wide, not just locally, whereby the normal is 1 to 3 kids per family. The youngest just born in March 09 and the parent has also setup a family website to respond to queries.



Such news definitely wun have much value or even appear at all 50 - 60 ears ago unless you have a family of 20 children or more. Family planning has changed so much so that a lot of countries are cracking their heads how to encourage the people to get married and to give more birth.

The story also highlighted that news worthiness must also catch on the "right wind" to appear. In 100 years time, family with 5 children maybe given a national award for making significant contribution towards national building. Not possible ? Who knows, right ?

I wun be around by then. Ha...ha...ha...

辉哥

Last week, I came across a small carnival in one of the Pasir Ris neigbhours and saw 辉哥 (Henry Thia) invited as a special guest. He was on the stage singing and entertaining the crowd with jokes, making some funny remarks and giving away prizes for the lucky draw.

Shared one of his jokes with you here:

An elephant and an ant decided to get married. The solemniser tried to discourage them but they insisted and hence became husband and wife. Just after two days, they decided to go separate ways. The solemniser was not surprise but curious enough to ask why?

The ant said: "Do u know, in order for me to kiss the elephant, I have to climb at 10 minutes before reaching the elephant mouth. It's just too tiring and not fun at all".

The elephant replied: "U think it is easy for me meh ? To kiss the ant, I have to use a big and powerful magnifying glass to scan through the ground/grass north south east west before i can locate the ant and kiss it. How dare you complain against me."

Hee...hee...hee...

Rambutan

Brought home some rambutan last night. Worried that there might be ants, I decided to peel all and put it in the fridge first. My daughter saw what I was doing and quickly went to get a small chair wanting to help me.

I showed her how to do it and she dare not to bite off the "shell" and has no strength to twist it open. Hence, I open part of it for her and she finished the rest. She enjoyed herself and sweating much at the same time. Ha...ha...ha...



But got scolded from me later because she dragged again when asked her to brush teeth, almost every night and every morning. :-( tiring

Swimming Pool and aircon

Queuing up to enter into swimming pool ? That's what happened in Wuhan, China as temperature climbs to 39. People are rushing to the pool to cool off. 5,000 people !



It is also hot and humid locally but dun really see many people rushing to the swimming pool, at least no queue at the entrance. Maybe the temperature here is usually around 32 to 34 (and not 39) and most people already used to it. With so many aircon-ed places, it is easier, cheaper and more convenient to just jalan jalan in the shopping centers, airport or staying at home with an aircon running.

Besides being recognized as a garden city, we are also fast becoming an aircon city. Do u know that MM Lee once said that one of the greatest inventions was aircon.

Departures

I first read about this Japanese movie, Departure, when I was reading Cailan's column in zaobao 2 or 3 months ago. Being a producer himself and had studied filming as a subject in Japan, I thought I should watch it after reading his review.

It is, indeed, a very nice movie.



The first thing that comes to my mind after watching the show is to be sincere and show respect towards life. People who are mentally sound but have the tendency to end one's life should really watch it.

Life is precious. Since we all have no choice coming here, we all have a choice to lead and live a fruitful one, to the best possible we can. When the day eventually arrives, the departed and waiting for departures should not have regrets, sorrow and sorry. However, we all know well that it is usually not the case.

For whatever reasons, we have conveniently forget about it, forget about treating each other with the basic sincerity and respect. We compete, we compare, we fight, we get angry, we feel jealous, we hate, we dislike, we look down and we ignore. We all may have fail badly.

The second thing that comes to my mind is how fate could command and help to reveal the truth about life. The actor's father deserted him when he was pretty young at age 6. Of course he hated him and could not even recall how he looked like. A series of happenings - losing his job in a city, going back to his rural home town and landed in a new job until he knew that his father was dead in a nearby fishing port and to pay his father a last visit though he was pretty unwillingly - lead him to realize that his father had not forgotten his son at all. In fact, the actor still missed his father as much too.

Last but not least, all jobs exist with good reasons and contribute its values in a unique manner.

A very good movie. Dun miss it. Watch it asap.

French cooking with local ingredients

Attended a French cooking class conducted by a French chef, Mr Emmanuel Stroobant. A handsome Chef. What makes me decided to go for the class is more than the French cuisine but also the use of local ingredients and done it in the French way. 4 dishes in total:

- Prawns and Tomato;
- Risotto Rataouille;
- Braised chicken with mushroom and
- Lemon tart

The class of 8 participants was conducted in his apartment (nearby the Great World City complex) that has a very nice view of the neighborhood, a very well decorated and modern kitchen. I like the kitchen very much. Wine, coffee, rice crackers and some smoke salmon in between while the Chef demonstrated and explained the dishes. Mr Emmanuel Stroobant speaks well and is lively in his presentation.



We started with a visit to the Smith Street market to buy some of the ingredients for the day. Though I have been to market pretty regularly, I was still surprised to learn that the stall owners spoke good English. When we were back to the kitchen, Mr Emmanuel Stroobant played background music as he started to explain about how to prepare each dish as he was doing the actual cooking.


Participants are free to move nearer to see how he did it, to ask him questions along the way and to have some hands-on to prepare the food voluntarily. Mr Emmanuel Stroobant shared more than just the dishes but also talked about French cuisine, his restaurant, basic skills in handling some of the kitchenware etc. In fact, Mr Emmanuel Stroobant made some minor changes to some of the dishes to better suit the day. The food is served once done. The food presentation is good just like those served in a restaurant.



I have enjoyed the session and of course picked up some knowledge from the Chef himself.

A bit more about Mr Emmanuel Stroobant. He has been in Singapore for 10 years and owned at least one restaurant such as Saint Pierre. A very easy going and friendly Chef with much passion to share his love for food. If u are interested to learn more about their cooking class, pls feel free to contact Mr Gene Mok at gene@ Emmanuelstroobant.com or Tel: 64380887.

Next cooking class? Will try a new session organized by the Raffles Hotel. I prefer a smaller class else I should have already signed up for the class conducted by Sam Leong. 40 participants are just too big a class to share and interact with the Chef.

Why smoke (3)

There is a new kind of cafe in Tokyo. The name of the cafe is called Tokyo Tabacco ie meant only for smokers to enjoy both a drink as well as smoking in the cafe itself. As report in Zaobao (16 Jul 09), the cafe is open to all individuals who are at least 20 years old.



It looks like a gas chamber to me. People who want to die faster should consider having more drinks in the cafe. Hopefully the new concept cafe wun appear locally. I do not think the message and image are healthy enough for the young ones. It dun make any sense at all.

Free Microsoft Office Suite

I am totally surprised to read in today's ST that Microsoft will be providing free Office suite next year to all users.

It will be an online version or web-based office suite ie no software is needed to install it on your computer at all. The move is Microsoft's response to the recent announcement by Google to introduce Chrome operating system to compete with Microsoft Windows. In fact, Google already has an online version of office suite named Google Docs for users now.

The two giants are, indeed, competing aggressively to control and command the Internet space (browsers and search engines), Office suite and the online advertising market. As a consumer, I am happy to see the competition to bring about more freebie and new / enhanced useful features in the software. But I also have to expect adjusting to more changes along the way as the "battle" goes stiffer.

Living in abundance

It's so obvious and yet it does not register me pretty well that I am living in abundance.

- two computer systems at home and one in office;
- two dvd players and one portable dvd player at home;
- two standing fans and a complete unit of aircon for all rooms;
- three bedrooms;
- two toilets;
- fridge with food and fruit, washing machine, car, cookware, sofa, chairs etc;
- many books;
- flow of clean drinkable water;
- flow of electricity;
- tv programmes, scv programmes and internet access;
- DvD and VCD titles;
- shoes, bags, clothing, handphone etc
- tons of toys;
- leisure, travel;
etc

Feeling guilty, especially when there are people both locally and globally who may not have it, enough of it and cannot afford of it?

Why should I? I din snatch, steal, cheat or con others for it. I work for it. I have been working for it for many years and will have to work for it for many more years to come.

I dun feel guilty. What i believe is that
- I should not complain more for it and not enough for it;
- I should help or share as much as I can if situations arises and allows;
- I must be mindful that what i have now may not be there anymore;
- To think and behave humbly and responsibly and
- Learning to lead a simple life

If you think u have too much of something, stop it if u can or if u want, else share it with others. Not just the materialistic aspects of it but also your caring / loving heart.

Chicken Rice

Though I work today (attended two events early in the morning), i still decided to cook chicken rice for dinner at home. Bought a kampong chicken from wet market yesterday for S$8.90, some ginger for the rice and cabbage to make the soup.

It is quite easy to cook chicken rice. Boil a container of water and put the whole chicken to cook it for 20 to 25 minutes. Then fried the rice in a hot pan with the ginger and some small onion before putting it into a rice cooker with the chicken stock + panda leaf + a bit of salt. Prepare some cabbage and carrot to brew it with the balance chicken stock. Cut the whole chicken into pieces nicely (remember to remove all chicken skin). Done and enjoy a nice meal :-)

After tasting the chicken meat and the rice, i am sure i can still do it much better, But i think i have improved a bit as compare to the last attempt. Today, i also tried using sushi wrap to roll into chicken rice sushi. Pretty interesting. I came across the chicken rice sushi a few years ago when i was attending a HR seminar. Impressed with its presentation and it tasted very nice.

Does my chicken rice sushi tasted as nice ? How about making a guess ? :-)

Skype

We finally installed and started to use Skype to communicate as part of our work.

The technology is definitely not new and the company has been in business for some years. Besides talking, users can also send instant messages and organize a conference call session with the team. All these services are free and properly give Skype the edge over other public instant messaging solutions and paid conference call service. At S$9 a month, user can also use the skype to make local calls to landlines and mobiles (almost unlimited calls capped at 10,000 minutes per month or 6 hours a day). Some of the smartphones also comes with skype function. Pretty attractive and exciting.

The challenge remains when using Skype: the internet traffic condition and individual's connection speed to the internet.

New way of traveling a plane

When budget services were introduced here initially, I used to joke about standing instead of having a seat when traveling in a plane just like taking a bus. Yesterday joke becomes today's reality.

Early this week, Wanbao reported that Ireland's budget service is applying for a permit to introduce standing space for passengers. The airline is expected to increase 50% more people by doing so.

For a short distance, I wun mind trying it. Flying to KL by standing in a plane. ;-)

圣严法师 (2)

I like a saying by 圣严法师:

智慧不起烦恼，慈悲没有敌人。
With wisdom, u wun be troubled;
When u extend your kindness, u wun easily make an enemy.

Profound and Powerful. Agree ?

圣严法师

I began to know the existence of 圣严法师 when Kinokuniya email monthly newsletter to its members on books review and updates as well as when 圣严法师 passed away in early Feb 2009. It was extensively reported in various news sources and magazines especially in the Taiwan media. He was one of the 4 most influential Buddhists in Taiwan.

The book "Footprints in the Snow: The Autobiography of a Chinese Buddhist Monk" is his first English autobiography to reach out to those who do not understand Chinese. He had already published two autobiography written in Chinese.

圣严法师 (Master Chan Sheng Yen) born in China in 1930. He had 6 siblings and he was the youngest. It was a typical farming family living in a very poor condition with limited food or no food at times. Wars and natural disasters accompanied them most of the time that forced them to keep moving from one place to another and challenged their determination to stay alive. The parent was caring and worked hard so that the children had the best possible out of the worst.

When 圣严法师 turned 13, his parent has no choice but to let him go as a monk so that he could have enough food and a better chance to be educated. Though 圣严法师 looked forward to it, his mum was very sad and badly blamed herself for it. I felt very sad when her mum spoken to him the last time on the morning that 圣严法师 was leaving the family. 圣严法师 did not blame his parent at all. Instead, he respected and appreciated them a lot for their effort to keep the family going and united.

Being a monk did not mean living peacefully and happily. They also had to work hard to earn a living and to farm in order to have food to share among the monks. Generally, he was happy. When the Communist army started to battle and push the Nationalist army to Taiwan, 圣严法师 followed the troop to Taiwan as a soldier so that he could continue to practice Buddhism. He was a soldier physically for 10 years but living as a monk for life.

When he returned as a monk, he was already 30 years old. He managed to convince a Senior to take him as one of his disciples. The Master was very strict in his teachings and gave him many challenges so that he could be a great monk. The Master believed that 圣严法师 had the potential to be one. There were many interesting experiences. For example, the Master could only gave him one-way bus fare when asking him to buy things from town. When he asked for more, the Master told him that he had to solve the insufficient himself. 圣严法师 ended up having to approach strangers for some help or persuading the driver to let him had a free ride back to the temple. The "training" was not meant to beg for money but to let him overcome the "Me" mindset in his thinking and also to learn more about appreciation along the way. For me, this is the most enjoyable part of the book.

After following the Master for 2 years, 圣严法师 decided to 闭关 (ie to retreat) in the rural mountain area to catch up with his study and practice of Buddhism due to the war and being a soldier for 10 years. He survived mainly on available wild fruits and planting his own crops. There was no clock and electricity. He lived according to the pace of Nature. Very very few people visited the place. He was in retreat for 6 years. He shared much of his personal experience and encounter as he practiced in this part of the book.

The Master encouraged him to further study on the subject of Buddhism and he spent 6 more years in Japan to obtain a PhD. He then moved on to US to teach and promote zen Buddhism. I was totally surprised that he was still a wanderer taking shelter in a public park at night even though he was quite well known then in US. He was already 50 and yet still dun have a proper place to settle down. When the Master passed away, 圣严法师 was appointed to continue the task of his Master to promote Buddhism in Taiwan. He then set his base in Taiwan and traveled around the world to establish more centers to promote the teaching and practice of Buddhism.

It is definitely a book worth reading. After reading, I really appreciate living a simple life. It also makes me realize more that I am living in abundance. Most of us are. We just conveniently forget about it, continue to work and to ask for more.

How much more do we want ? Pondering........

PGE (2)

While the office is busy preparing to implement the PGE and training the PGEs, I hope that the rest of the office is not feeling totally dis-engaged from the PGE or feeling that they are not so good after all since they are not being identified. I am sure a lot of attention will still be on these 17 Officers in the next few weeks and months.

Emm..., technically and practically, the whole office is involved in the PGE. If you are not one of the 17 Officers, you will be supporting them at the ground as well as in office. It is just like your left and right hand. If you have a choice, is right or left hand more important to you ? I am sure u know pretty well that both hands are equally important.

The only different is that there is a master hand that will be "used" more regularly and comfortably. In this case, the "master hand" is the 17 Officers. They are expected to work harder to lead in the task. They can only survive as long as the left hand is support them and supporting them well.

When both hands come together, that's when we can hear applaud, knowing that we have delivered our services to the people who are in need of help.

Insomnia

This is the first time my daughter experienced insomnia.

I was pretty tired after attending an event and managed to get her to realize that it was also, indeed, time to sleep. It was already 11pm+. I slept before her though I could sense that she was still rolling on the bed, moving her legs and trying to find a suitable position. When I realized that she had taken longer time than usual to fall asleep, it was almost 1 a.m. My daughter was still awake and alert! I made another bottle of milk for her, hoping that it would help her sleep better. I have no idea what time she eventually slept or did she sleep at all? She was awake and afresh at 6.30am following me to wet market to do some marketing.

We din give her coffee or tea (She likes to ask for some coffee from me whenever she sees me having it, less frequent now) . She had milk and active as usual. Yes, she had a nap in the afternoon for around 1 hour 30 minutes but should not had caused it.

We do not why she could not sleep well that night. It is, definitely, not good for her to miss her sleep and to rest less than 8 hours a day. Will be observing her closely these few days to see if she experiences it again.

Hopefully, it was a one-off happening.

PGE

PGE becomes a new and hot term these days. Instead of saying what PGE is about, maybe I would share with you what PGE means to me ie the value of PGE:

(1) PGE means gaining a real good understanding of the people we are trying to help and to work closely with the relevant individuals / agencies to extend a real good help as fast as possible.

(2) PGE means making an effort to keep the organization relevant rather than being conveniently forgotten or staying out of tune with the ground.

If we have the first value then the second value will follow.

There are confusions and worries over the PGE especially the 17 PGEs who are appointed to be the champions in the initiative.Why me ? What is there for me ? Do I have a choice ? I may not be happy, how ? Where is the support ? More meetings and late nights ? etc. I do share these concerns.

Though there are support in rolling out the programme, I think one of the best values for the 17 PGEs is to understand if you are in to build a career in the organization. The core business of the organization is in the field and the 17 PGEs are going to deal with the field. Give it a try. If you dun enjoy it, you are not likely to shine fast in the organization. It's time to consider an alternative whereby u can shine better and faster.

For those who like it, it is, indeed, a great career progression and to be easily noticed / spotted by the mgt. I have requested to be one of the PGEs because of the first value and also to "test test" the "water" in the field. No such arrangement at the moment.

For some who prefer to stay low and just wanting to do a decent job, it is important to realize that the organization is going through a journey of changes happening at different levels. To stay relevant at all times, the organization wun have many options but to change and to adapt accordingly.

There is a wisdom in a Chinese saying "不进则退“.

Low IQ and High EQ

While my daughter was sitting on my lap enjoying the ice cream, we posed for a photo taking. I was a bit tired after a day's work and decided to be funny. After seeing the photo, I think it says much about an adult's low IQ and a kid's high EQ.

Ha...ha...ha...