In the market

The market is a place full of vibrant activities. From stalls selling fruits, vegetables, flowers, seafood, meat, etc, all this activities resulted from happy transactions between willing seller and buyer.

Normally, the events in the market start as early as 5 am in the morning. Stall holders will begin to start laying out their merchandises and prepares for a day of selling their products. Early bird consumers normally housewives, will start to stroll in as early as 6 am because they want to get their first fresh product available. I have realized this phenomenon as fruits and vegetables are at their best freshness and big in size to choose from early in the morning. You can also smell the lovely fragrant of the raw vegetables and fruits.

Having discovered this phenomenon which I had totally ignored in the past, I begin to wake up early in the morning to go down to the market to enjoy this precious moment almost every morning.

Another aspect waiting for me every morning is the friendly greeting and smiles from the stall holders when you passed by them. I will readily acknowledged them and reciprocated with similar wishes and greeting with a friendly smile. All this activities lights you up early in the morning and leads you to a good start for the day.

As the buying and selling takes place, bargaining is often heard. Careful observation among these bargain hunters can teach you lessons in bargaining, communication and persuasion. At the end of the bargaining, you can see happy buyers’ and sellers’ faces as one had bought his/her requirement and the other had sold his/her goods.

Another lesson to learn is how to choose fresh and good products. I was ignorant in the past but when I discovered this beautiful activity in the market, I began to learn how to select fresh products for my family consumption. This decision was welcoming with my wife as not only I had an extra fulfilling activities, I also helped her in marketing.

In the beginning, I tend to observe how these experience housewives chose their products. At times, I do not comprehend how they do their selection. After a while, I felt that it was not the right way to learn and began another approach. I began to ask politely from these housewives how they chose their fresh products. Most of the time, they were very willing to share. I benefited tremendously during these conversation and they became my early morning greeting partners. We met most of the mornings, smile and wished each other well to kick off and start our day.

I really enjoyed my morning walk in the market. I will always go there every morning unless my schedule does not permit me to do so. I hope that you will also enjoy as much as I do with this simple activity.

Swimming

I was forced to learn swimming. Being a citizen of Singapore, boys at the age of 18 must serve National Service ie trained as a soldier. This training and service process normally would change a teenage boy to a responsible man with a fighting spirit for the country.

One of the criteria for a combat fit soldier is to be able to swim especially in this tiny island like Singapore which is surrounded by the sea. Being brought up in a kampong, there was no pond, canal or other facilities to learn swimming and for many years before reaching 18 of age, I had no opportunity to learn swimming.

When I was 2 month from enlistment, I began to feel inadequate and pestered my friend, Michael Ong to teach me swimming. Michael, definitely just an amateur in swim, tries his best to coach me. I had 4 sessions of swimming lessons from him before I was enlisted into the army.

In the first lesson of swimming in the army, I declared that I was not a swimmer and was put in the non swimmer category. Later did I realize what I was in for. The swimming instructors, some of them are younger that me, march us to do the confidence test. This required the new, non swimmers to jump into the deep end of the pool which was about more than 2 meters deep and accesses our ability to cope in that situation! Wow – too much for non swimmers to handle – I thought.

When it was my turn, I did not have a choice but to jump into the pool. I found myself sinking and froze in the deep pool. Suddenly, someone picked me up from behind and shoved me safely to the side of the pool. He was one of the swimming instructor, who is younger than me, and had pick me up gracefully and lead me to safety.

My mind began to wonder as I felt embarrassed but I promised myself to learn swimming to the level of his standard. That was the driving force towards my attainment of my lifeguard certificate later in life.

When I passed out from my basic military training and instructor course, I was still not competence in my swimming skills. It was my posting as an instructor in School of Basic Military Camp that I had the opportunity to train further in swimming. As an instructor, I had the other colleagues who are trained as swimming instructors and that's where my swimming skills began to improve with leaps and bounce.

With the swimming skills, I went on to teach other friends of mine who like to learn swimming. Deep in my heart, I know that I was still inadequate, as I did not know life saving skills which was necessary as a safety precaution for carrying out good swimming lessons.

The opportunity finally arrived during my undergraduate days in Nanyang Technological Institute. I was admitted to the second year degree course and being a host élite, I have the spare time in the evening to take up the training as a lifeguard. I jump at the opportunity and never looked back since.

The training was every Monday and Wednesday nights for 3 months with each lasting three hours into the night. At the end of this journey, I was certified a trained lifeguard by the Royal Life Saving Society (UK).

Till today, swimming had given me a lot of benefits. I had trained 8 ladies and 6 gentlemen on swimming based on goodwill of personal friendship. One of them even represented the constituency in swimming competition. Nowadays, I would rather encourage my friends to take up swimming as a healthy exercise. I had also continued to use swimming as my aerobic exercise on a weekly basics.

My second sister

I am sure before I pen this down she knows what I am going to write about her. That’s my sister. Once you start describing something, she can foresee what you want to do. Ooh no!

She is the workhorse of my family. Since young, my mother, being the old tradition lady, had the inking that only male heir will carry the family name and must be treated with extra special care like endanger species. With this situation and given that I am the only son during my first twelve years in my life, before my younger brother was born, she indulges in me religiously.

I was the one who was always given the chicken drumstick since young. When I started to realize it, my conscious made me reject her offer of the drumsticks and began to pretend to get sick of it so that my other sisters had their chance of tasting them.

Needless to say, she and my elder sister had to help my mother in handling all the household chores while I was always excused with lame reasons of guys must study harder in order to be able to run and make a name for the family. Being put in this type of pressure since young, my sister’s culinary skills have been super since young and her methods of handling household chores were consistently executed with lightning speed even till today.

In my humble opinion, she is the brightest child in the family. Given all the circumstances that she was in since young, she had developed good organizing and coping skills and it can be reflected well even till today when she faces difficulties or challenges. Her attitude and character are also solidly molded from these situations.

She is helpful in nature. Having known that my elder son was just mediocre in his studies, she volunteered to guide him along his studies during his “Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE)” period in 2003. She took great pain, commitment and troubles to relearn all the current new techniques and syllabus of the primary school system before she had the competency to guide. Having this experience, she forward her help again towards the guiding of her niece at the point of this writing.

On the hind side, with her strong attitude, determination and tough character, she could always assumed the role of a leader in any household but somehow may have hindered her process in term of relationship and marriage opportunities. Her future partner or spouse should be able to bear her dominance or she must tone down to compromise if any future relationship is to happen and develop.

Presently, she is staying with my mother and helping her intensively in all aspect. Being her brother, I am very grateful to her in undertaking this role as she has somewhat also extended in fulfilling my part of responsibilities towards my mother.

I wish her well in all future endeavors and I recommend that she probably have to tone down a bit for the sake of her health and social life.

Professor Adhityan Appan – my most admire benefactor and confidant.

He is the benefactor of my life. Presently at 72 years of age, he is always humble and active. He does consulting works and lectures part time at the Asia Pacific Centre for Enviromental Law (APCEL).

Recalling my first encounter with him jolted my memory back in 1986. I was working in a statutory board when I received an admission for a course in Mechanical Engineering at Nanyang Technological Institute (today known as Nanyang Technology University) with the degree to be conferred by National University of Singapore.

I took the initiative of asking my company for sponsorship well in advance but the company only replied me 3 weeks before the academic term starts. Given the situation, I resigned from the board giving only 3 weeks of notice instead of the required one month notice. The board accepted my resignation but slapped me with a liquidated damages of one month of my salary which means that I had to pay $1600 back to the board. Sincerely, I was furious.

My colleague introduced Prof Appan to me and I met him at his office in Nanyang Technological Institute for the first time in my life. I related my incident to him and immediately he assured me that he could resolved it for me. My simple mind can’t imagined how he could carry out but one week later, I got a letter from the board stating that my liquidated damages was being waived. Up to today, I still do not know how he managed to do it but I know whatever he had done, it’s all the way out to help me coming from a kind hearted, concerned teacher and mentor.

From that time onwards, my respect for him grew by the days. We had long talks at his office during my stay as a student in the university and he was always encouraging, forward looking and always made time for me no matter how busy he was. From all these talks, I learned a lot about his past works and his family and he understood all my past encounters and my ambitions for my passage of life.

He even wrote a supporting letter for my application of scholarship in the university. I went back to thanks him sincerely for all his help and since then we began to start our teacher-student relationship. I was invited to his house for Deepavali celebration during my final year as a student and I was very glad to be there.

Upon graduation, my first testimony was from him among my final year project supervisor and other professors. One year after graduation, I got married and he attended my wedding dinner happily with his wife even though my dinner reception was just mediocre. Thereafter, there was a lapse of the relationship as I fought for my path and financial stability in my life.

It was in 1991 when my youngest brother was doing his accountancy course in Nanyang Technological University (renamed from Nanyang Technological Institute and issuing its own certificate). I referred him to Prof Appan and he was advising and guiding him all along during the years as a student there.

Even till now, we always keep in contact. Courtesy calls are common and Deepavali blessing for him will always keep him lively. He will always keep in touch with me through his courteous, well wishing card during Chinese New Year.

I am very blessed to have such a benefactor and confidant.

My elder son

When I describe my elder son and if he is reading now, he knows that I am referring to him.

I am very pleased with him as he had tried his very best for his GCE ‘O” Level examination in 2007 and had obtained remarkable results.

My son has shown that he is capable of making it when he put his heart, soul and passion on doing it. Keep going!

It was not long ago that he had obtained mediocre results for his Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE). I understand that he was not satisfied with his result but he has preserved and proven himself.

All along, he had been the nice child, always tried hard to follow his parents’ concerned instructions after taking into consideration that they are beneficial for him.

He had also developed upon himself in term of leadership especially planning, organizing, directing and even socially through the community services and NPCC activities participated in his secondary school. At this point of writing, he is moving on to take up courses in his selected junior college.

I have only one slight concern for him. I like him to take good care of himself physically, doing more exercises and taking the right food in appropriate quantity. He will be serving the nation for 2 years from 2010 through national service.

I am proud of him. I like to encourage him to carry on with his good work and enjoy every of his moment.

From a proud Dad’s - humble observation and opinion

A tribute to my dear friend and ex colleague

I came to know Christopher Michael Forrest during in the infancy of my career with Texas Instrument (S) Pte Ltd in Singapore in 1989. We were told to address him as Kit Forrest or in short, Kit. He was a fine English gentleman living in Bedford, England.

We were in the department known as Singapore Process Automation Center (SPAC) where all research, design, manufacturing and production of high technology automation machines were developed for manufacturing of integrated circuits for all eighty Texas Instrument’s plants worldwide.

I was starting as a manufacturing engineer which happened to take over the operation of the engineering section in Bedford, England due to business closure. Kit Forrest was assigned and contracted to continue thereafter for two years to be the information technology manager to assist and train us in our Singapore research branch during our initial setup cum taking over.

In my manufacturing operation, he had supported me and trained me on the software which had a systematic withdrawal of manufacturing parts from the warehouse.
He had developed this material flow software in Bedford, England and transferred it to SPAC.

In the course of developing the software, he termed a basket of items collected by any of our colleagues as “Kit” which was his short name. His name would always be in the legacy of this software and he was very proud of it.

In my work, I made a lot of mistakes during the usage of his software and he was always supportive and forgiving. When I explained to him that I need a higher level of authorization, he gave me willingly despite the strong objection from his superior. At one point, I was having the highest authorization in his software that I could remedy my own mistakes on the system. That prevented him from clearing my mess which meaned that I was doing part of his job. So wonderful guy!

We had our happy times together. I remembered the moment when I had to entertain his wife and him when she came to Singapore to visit him. I recommended dinner at Bugis Street hawker centre which provided a very good local cuisine. His wife and him were bold enough to try and he graciously picked me up at my residence that day. We had a sumptuous dinner and he was very grateful for showing him this great place to dine although the environment was just mediocre.

When he left SPAC after the 2 year contact, his superior wanted to extend his stay but he chose to go back to England. He settled down back home and continued to work in Bedford. We communicated using email when he was back home. Whenever he came to Singapore, he would take some time out to call me and I will always enjoy his company.

The last time I met him was around October 2005. I came to know recently that he had passed on about 3 month after I last met him.

He is enjoying himself in heaven now. So long, my friend.

My younger son

When I describe my younger son and if he is reading now, he knows that I am referring to him.

Since birth, he is the challenging type. I was taken by surprise when he started banging his baby cot strongly immediately after his birth in the hospital. That's my first impression of him.

As he led his life, he continues to show his grit, bravery and determination.

About a year and half old, he accidentally tripped over his brother feet and landed on his left hand. He cried in pain but when he was seen by the Chinese physician in the clinic, he displayed indifferent although the injured part was swollen. Being overcome by his confidence, I treated the incident as minor.

Three week later, when the swell subsided, I noticed his left arm is not straight! I immediately rushed him to hospital to get an X-ray and it was confirmed that he had a 70% greenstick fracture on his left arm. The doctor noted that his fracture had started to heal and displaced my fear of a crooked hand as the hand will straighten back. What a relief!

I also remembered he hurt his teeth on the toy car at the age of 2 + and hold his pain throughout his night in his sleep. The next morning, his pillow was full of blood but his injured gum and teeth had recovered. He had managed to get through on his own!

For his studies and education, he had done well. He had been constantly topping in the 5% of every cohort. He does his homework well and in detail. His also enjoy his present CCA in National Police Cadet Corp (NPCC).

One concern is his procrastination of work in term of content. He like to stretch his decision on the content of his work to the last minute to obtain perfection which obviously will built up his anxiety and had to work late into the night. I hope he will do better in his time management with his heavy workload and CCA activities.

He should also take care of himself physically with good nutritional choice. I hope he will take up the challenge to build himself up in this direction as well so that he can enjoy and withstand all the activities that NPCC offered.


From a proud Dad’s - humble observation and opinion.

My aunt

I have known my aunt ever since I was told to address her. My family was poor when I was young and could only afford to visit her during Chinese New Year. In those occasions, my sisters and I paid our respect to her and were always very glad when the time comes as we can go for another outing.

Aunt is my father’s cousin. She is 88 years old today – a living legend. From my mother account, she has been into her husband’s family in her tender age to be the child bride and had since given birth to six daughters and two sons. For a record, from her confession recently, she has seventeen grandchildren and fourteen great grandchildren. Although she is not well educated, she always takes her opportunity to learn anything new.

She is gusty lady who is quick at learning skills. She had good culinary skills. I remember on a meal served by her in 1977 that gave me a lasting impression of her culinary skills. I happened to pass by her house to borrow textbook for my pre university classes and she retained me for lunch and her food make me recognized her as a family food expert.

She has a very positive attitude and outlook. She advocated that human are made to work and she live by example taking care of her children and most of her grandchildren. At the age of 88, she is still looking after her grandchildren bearing her suffering of glaucoma which is insignificant to her. She has always enjoyed her responsibilities and takes her charges in stride.

She has also been very gracious and understanding. Over my busy schedule, I have not visited her for the past few years but she is satisfied with just a simple phone call to her. She understood that I have my busy schedules and always ready to excuse me graciously.

I like to recognize that she is one of the amazing ladies that I have encountered before. Only regret is that I am unable to learn from her given all my constraints. Anyway, all benefits have been passed down to her children and descendents. That’s a blessing.

******** The above accounts are my personal views and opinions ********

(The mandarin version will be up shortly. Let me have some time as I am still learning and struggling with mandarin – Thanks)

Learning and change 学习与改变

Recently, I begin to discover the beauty of continuous learning and change and have been enjoying it.

One of them that I discovered is the blog. This blog will spur me in writing both in English and Mandarin and I foresee to learn more during the process. If I made any mistake, please excuse me as I am still learning.

The other learning opportunities are MSN chat, Face book, Maple Story etc

In MSN chat, I learned the lingo of afk – away from keyboard, brb – be right back, bb – bye bye, gtg – got to go etc. I had the benefit of chatting with relatives living in China and a niece located in Hong Kong advancing her career. I also had done video conferencing with them.

I have speed up my learning process with the encouragement and support of my two teenage sons. They are always supporting me with just a shout away and they responded instantaneously. They are my best buddies now!




学习与改变

最进，我发觉在学习和改变中的好处，而且还在享受中。

第一件是博喀，从它，我可以用英语和华语，发挥我的写作能力。如有错误的表达，敬请原谅。

其他的学习，如MSN chat, Face book, Maple Story 等等。

在MSN 交谈时，我学会了简说，如afk – away from keyboard, brb – be right back, bb – bye bye, gtg – got to go等等。

我也向在中国的远方亲戚打了教导， 也向在香港的甥女沟通。

我可以很快的学到这些电脑的知识，都是我两个儿子的支持和鼓励。现在他们是我学习的好帮手。

Hello

Welcome to my blog. Hope you like it.