27.7.10

Well, I'm back to work tomorrow after a short break but long weekend. I didn't really do much over the weekend except going for some nice lunches and dinners in JB, shop around with family, took afternoon naps while waking up late in the morning, attended a nice Sunday church sermon, watched two DVDs (Clash of the Titans and Wolfman) till late nights and got myself a new specs. And, I just reached home an hour plus before I started on this new post. It's also a smooth passage at both JB and Singapore customs since it's a Monday night and lots of cabs too, waiting at the CIQ.



However, it was not the case on Friday nights and eve of public holidays, as well as public holidays. It was a nightmare crossing to JB during these times as you will experiences crowds of people doing the same thing as you. After all, the new JB CIQ officers prevents folks from walking across the causeway since it's opening. thus there are more folks queuing up for buses to ferry them over. A queue line can be in the shape of  'U', where the queue can be as long as to the end of the custom and then it curls up to another line. You can easily queued for 30-45 minutes before boarding the bus.

The crowd is actually common during these times as there are more 'groups' of travelers over the causeway during weekends or public holidays. During weekdays, it's the same 'one group' of  folks which are usually workers who commute between JB and Singapore. Come these special occasions, another three groups of travelers added in - the holiday makers( usually Singaporeans), the 'weekend folks' (those who goes home to JB or nearby places during weekends) and the homesick Malaysians (Malaysians who stayed far away like KL, Penang, Ipoh, Melaka and etc, and took the opportunity to go home during weekends or public holidays).


Thus, my advice is if you are traveling to JB to catch a coach for your vacations, try taking a half day off on a Friday and travel early before 5pm. You can shop around City Square shopping complex to pass time or opt to take an earlier coach. This is better than stuck with a terribly massive crowd and especially if you have children or elderly folks, and rushing for your coach. Alternatively, drive along the second link or take a coach in Singapore.

22.7.10

I'm feeling good after two nights of badminton where the cardiovascular effect of the taxing game has drained out most of the toxicity of the stress hormones in my system, cortisol, adrenaline and whatever flight-or-fight chemicals. *LOL* And, in reward I got the 'feel good' hormones, mainly Endorphins. I have been alert, focus, creative and relax. It's really good to exercise and if possible do it rigorously if your health permits.



While it's good to exercise, it's a sure thing that we needed to rest in between sessions of badminton games or while working out, between sets and whatever physical routines we are performing. The rest in between recuperates back our energies, let us take break to refill our body fluids, let our body cools down and so on. After the rest, definitely we can last longer or perform better in the next workout than continuous workouts with no rest.


A doctor once told me the brain is like a muscle. Though there's no physical exertion, continuously stressing the mind is like a physical workout without rest. So, regardless of taking a short or long break in between work or other mental activities like driving may also yields the same good effect, as taking breaks in a sporting event. A short coffee break with a piece of cake might reinforced the mind and body to performed better. And, a long break like going for a vacation will do wonders!!

That's just my opinion and while I'm taking a short break over a long weekend with a dreaded monday off, I wishes you a good weekend! :)

20.7.10

Thought of studying for my exam tonight and then while chatting with my pretty ex-colleague on msn,  I decided to 'throw' away my usual or planned routine to relax and wind down especially when she kept telling me to take care of myself and family. I earlier told her that I have meetings from 9am till 5pm the whole day today and was real tired! Went to the massage centre and it was closed on monday nights. :P Thus, all of a sudden, I decided to let my hair down (though not much left) and relax the few hours of mondays nights away....surfing the net, chatting and of course reading others blogs!

And, surprisingly, seeing that I have no meetings to attend next monday, I applied leave to take next monday off just now. It's really fun to sleep late on a sunday night seeing some other folks waking up early to start the work week while I'm still snoring and later take my family to a nice western breakfast at a cafe. And, well, maybe it's time I blogged on food again after a long absence.

Thinking of going to Desaru again (where else can go in JB....:P) this weekend but intend to stay overnight this time round. Let's see how it goes.... it's time to re-energised and refresh the mind, soul and body! Alternatively, just rest at home, shop, check out some good Japanese food and sleep!
I will exercise rigorously tomorrow and the day after to 'cleanse' all my stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline away from my system and let the feel good hormone, endorphins,  to release into my system...hahaha...sounds like a geek huh?

19.7.10

Let me take a long hard breath before writing this post. Ok, I'm done!! Well, there's nothing really wrong with me but I thought there are really too many tasks for me to do, both in work and personal. Ok,it's common to be busy in work which shows that you are needed in your organisation thus I'm not going to blog about it. Afterall, I don't blog about my work. It's a sunday night and after a relaxing and rainy weekend, and with 10 minutes to go before Monday morning, I thought I still have a long list of personal goals to achieve, and not much time to work on it, week-in, week-out.
 
I have yet finished my revision for a certification exam after so many months, haven't finished reading two books for two important subjects, halfway through on working out my financial plans and deciding on some major decisions. The best of all is, I'm too tired to work on it during work days and don't feel like thinking about it during weekend. :P


Thus, I think I will still be in the same position come end of the year and thought prioritizing my tasks is the answer. It's always good to have lots of goals but it's also no good if you can't work on it. So, it's time to be contented and work on those which matters more to me until it's has been completed.

If you are like me, and especially those who have work out a new year resolution in Jan but with less achievements, maybe it's time to prioritize!

13.7.10

Most of the folks are very affected by gossips. Even a slight gossip that they heard about themselves can give them a bad day and feel terrible. A friend of mine recently heard something about herself and she really felt bad about it. 


By lending a listening ear to her, I told her that everyone are being 'gossiped' before. There won't be one person in an organisation, school or even in the family are not being talked behind their back before. Even the person who started the gossip definitely have been a victim before and many times too. Thus, if that's the case, why bothered about what people said about yourself. Of course, if you think there is something not quite right with yourself where even your trusted friends or family members also commented about it, just go all out to correct or improve yourself.


Other than that, let's not bother too much about what people says about you but continue to do what you think is right. Afterall, everybody talks about everyone..... even ourselves also gossiped about others though it's better not to start.

Afterall, as in Matthew 7:5 - You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

5.7.10

I just received a letter all the way from Portugal (btw, this post is not about the World Cup and C. Ronaldo :) ). It was sent to me by an attorney and he wanted to help me secure a windfall left by his dead client. A number was given to me to call him if I'm interested as well as contact details like email and postal address. I was laughing when reading the letter.


However, it's also scary to see your personal particulars like address has ended up oceans away from your home!! I really don't know how this fella manage to got hold of my postal address but I guess it's likely due to those job hunting websites where I deposited my resume years ago or I could have given away my contact in some lucky draws where I will get a prize, either a free vacation to some resorts or win some door gifts. I can't remember.By the way, I sat through some 3 hours presentation almost five years ago for a 2 day stay at a chain of resorts only to find out that those are lousy hotels!!

Thus, do not give away your personal particulars easily if it's not necessary. There are always folks who sold your information to some other parties which will later call you to buy their products or gave you a long winded phone conversation on how great their club membership. I recalled the telemarketers addressed me as Sir or Mister but don't even know what's my name when I asked them!

Have a good work week!!
I felt all along, I really had a long list of things of personal goals that I wished to accomplish or achieve. I got myself a small notebook and penned down my wish lists, whether if it's achievable in the short run or not. Some of the goals sounds impossible now, though it can be achieve via a good plan, like settling my housing loans in a shorter time. Some of my other goals are more realistic but required some amount of discipline like passing an exam to getting to get a professional certification in one aspect of my work.

I read a book called 'Dare to Win' written by the Chicken Soup authors, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen who encourages one to list down as many goals as possible so that you can achieved more goals. It's not a bad idea as some goals that you have planned for may not materialize due to some unforeseen circumstances. Thus, just note down what you wanted to do, prioritized it and work on it.


Well,  most of my goals are 'half-baked' and not very accomplished yet while now is already July. I guess it's likely due to discipline and also poor time management. So, I decided to plan out on achieving the goals by allocating a certain time of the day to work on it, as well as make sure that time is right for working on that goal. For example, definitely you wouldn't want to study for your exam on a sat night. :)

Guess I needed to stick to my plan now and work on it.... as well as strike a balance between leisure and relaxation. How about you guys ...any goals set in the beginning of the year has been accomplished?

1.7.10

It's the World Cup break tonight before the quarter-finals commence on friday and saturday nights. Four South American teams, one African team and three European teams vying for the World's most precious trophy in sports. It's almost 3/4 towards the end of the World Cup where 24 teams had already said bye-bye and went home after the excitement two weeks ago!


And not forgetting lots of drama unfolded during the past two weeks like the early exit of World Cup 2006 champions Italy & finalist, France in the first round, the goalkeeper's blunder in England's first match as well as England's shameful exit, the cries of the team which was eliminated due to poor judgement of the referee (offsite goal from Argentina which down Mexico, England's second goal disallowed....etc), the vuvuzela which deafens the players on the field, the fighting spirit of the Asian teams and so on.

 So far this World Cup is not as memorable as the last edition as I watched the matches on live internet tv most of the time, except weekends where I'm back in JB to catch it on Malaysian tv. The live feeds are terrible, most of the time,  they are lagging and jerky and sometimes the channel suddenly went off line and I gotta search for another channel. And, I ended up watching a channel in Russian, Arabic or dunno what language. :) However, the good thing now is I can watch all the matches till the final, as the quarter finals were played over the weekend where I can watched in Malaysia while Singapore tv aired the semi-finals and finals.


My predictions for the Semi-finalist - Brazil, Argentina, Spain and Uruguay. Brazil likely will beat Holland, who is not as impressive as before. Argentina are the on form team and should have no problems beating  the Germans. Germany is not a bad team but I feel that they still don't have the depth to go further in the tournament. Uruguay should overcome a spirited Ghana while Euro champions Spain, though haven't really show their form of late, is too strong for Paraguay. I'm hoping for a Argentina Vs Brazil dream final! :)



Well, that's my thoughts on the World Cup. Looking forward to this weekend for the quarter-finals matches! :) Have a good weekend, folks!