.....times of refreshing.....

It's just Tuesday but I find that the week seems so long or maybe  I'm longing to see my kids and wife in JB over the weekend. Anyway, been feeling good lately, thanks to working out and sufficient sleep. I jogged for almost 40 mins on a Monday evening in the gym while tonight, sweat it out at two badminton courts with only seven people. It was so tiring and I think I'm going to hit the bed soon. I will be having another badminton session tomorrow evening. :)


Mentioning about badminton, well, I guess it's one of the most popular games played around this region and I have started playing it since I was a kid in the 70s. Then, I was holding those wooden racket and hitting those aeroplane brand shuttlecocks at the 'lorongs', in between the pre-war shophouses with the kids next door. It was fun then, just anyhow whack the shuttlecock till it landed on the drains, pick it up, dried it by hitting it hard to the walls and played again!! Yonex was called Yoneyama then, if I'm not wrong!

A wooden racket

 When I was in secondary school during the 80s, sometimes I woke up at 5am to rush to school on Saturdays to book the open air courts, since it is on a first-come, first serve basis. And, we will stayed until 11am or 12pm. At times, we started playing at 2pm under the scorching sun and finish at 6pm. Those were the teen years then, never ending energy at our disposal!! :)

When the wind comes, we have to stop and continued playing after that

 Though I don't consider myself a good player, I continued playing during my tertiary education and really met some good players, and some played for their state teams. It was a great learning experience playing with them. The game didn't stop when I started working in mid-90s and till now, where I played the most games in my life, twice a week! I've also been buying expensive rackets and got myself a coach too. In fact, some of my company colleagues thought I'm a professional player. :)

Got the Yonex Armortec 700 series  for S$230

And, my favourite Apacs Nanospeed at S$80 only.

 
Anyway, it's not easy going for coaching when you are over the prime as it is not easy to change your habits. On the other hand, I was surprise to see my 50+ year old coach whacking everyone of us!! He was so full of energy and I just lost 21-5 to him tonight. I can't even anticipate his shots and he got me running around the four corners. :p

Wow..slept for almost 12 hours from 2am till 1.30pm on a Sunday and never felt so good. And, that's really the wonders of sleep, though we need not slept that much. I felt great, good mood, alert, focus and blissful. This has reminded me to sleep more, at least 7-8 hours during work days so that I can be always on the top and handle stress better. Shop around Jusco with family to fetch some new clothes for wifey and myself, where we will be attending our good friend's wedding three weeks later in KL.


Drove all the way to Kluang yesterday to visit a Chinese sinseh  and felt so much better today after taking the traditional medications. My phlegm and cough subsided after taken two dosages of the cough medication. Well, I usually like to follow up with Chinese medication after recovering from a long recurring sickness like cough and flu - to strengthen my body.
 
We stop by the Kluang railway Coffee for a break of nice coffee, mee goreng (fried noodles), mee kari (curry mee) and roti bakar (toast). Love the massive temporary stalls opposite the cafe for buka puasa (breaking fast), which transformed this corner of the district to a big pasar malam. (night market)

Kluang railway coffee - blogged in my old food blog

Had Fish Head steamboat in Taman Universiti and got some CDs for my PC, before heading home by 11pm. It was quite tiring but yet another good outing.

I was taking a cab back from JB City Square (near JB's CIQ) and the driver is a Malay. He looks tired initially and sorta disinterested. Thus, I started asking him, 'Sudah makan? dah buka puasa' ? He replied ' Ya, dah makan'. Then, silence prevailed. After a few minutes later while he was turning a corner to another road, a motorbike was trying to overtake him on the left but unable and started to horn him. He began to talk about this fella on his dangerous biking and instead of cutting him from the right, the biker tried to overtake from the left, despite the little space the biker had. And, thus we started a long conversation of around 30 minutes and this taxi driver slowly began to lit up. And, when I reached my home, he looks so brightens up after our conversation about dangerous driving, Hari Raya holidays, Politics, his home state, Terengganu and he was so friendly and thanked me and wish me well after I paid him. I hope he will had a good night shift!

I always felt that human beings are complicated beings but as long as you are willing to be friendly, helpful, nice, no ill intentions and etc, even though, it may takes time, eventually the person will like you. This is not trying to win someone's favour but rather to create and maintain good relationships and eventually things will be easier with each other, especially in work. Some folks takes longer time to earn your trust while some will click easily with you.


Though, I'm not an extrovert or outspoken, I do have a lots of experience dealing with different type of personalities and so far, usually successful in creating a good working relationships with them.Some have even became my good friends. I remembers I befriended an Indian national and we almost like buddies, went for bowling, badminton, movies and etc. Anyway, he's back in India now and doing very well as a Director. He's not difficult but I cannot imagine befriending someone who's differ in culture, education, diet, interest and etc etc... However, both of us are open minded and I learn a few indian cuisines from him while he's trying out bak kut teh, dim sum, sushi during some of our  lunches.


What I'm trying to share is, human beings can be complicated beings but no matter how ferocious or difficult someone is, as long as you do not have ill intentions, you guys can be friends. Of course, there are times when someone needed to be alone, thus do not disturb them and let them settled their issues. After all, everyone has their ups and down.
  
Mark 12:30-31 (New International Version)
³⁰Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
³¹The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'There is no commandment greater than these."

I'm back to work today after my medical leaves but can't help feeling lethargic, tensed, slightly grumpy and all the no good feelings. I guess it's a combination of the drugs I have been taking for the past five days, too much sleep, a bombardment of work waiting for me, transiting from a rest mode to a super active mode and etc etc...

Thus, after work, I decided to either go home and rest or joined in my weekly badminton session but with a tired body. After some indecisiveness, I decided to go for badminton and thought of sweating it out even though I'm super tired and know I will huff and puff tonight. And, well, the workout did wonders. I felt so much better now!!This is one of reasons I loved physical activities though I don't possess six packs (yet) or a V-shape waistline (yet)!


Did some research on the benefits of exercise from Mayo clinic and here you are -

1. Exercise improve your mood!

2. Exercise combast chronic diseases like heart disease

3. Exercise helps you manage your weight

4. Exercise boost your energy level

5. Exercise promotes better sleep

6. Exercise can put the spark back into your sex life

7. Exercise can be a fun activity!

Check out this link  from mayo clinic for a short explanation of the above.


If you always felt tensed, bad mood, felt terrible and etc, try a daily workout, before you thought of that piece of chocolate cake. :)

Finally back to Singapore and completed my 2 days MC where I just taken my flu and cough medications as prevention. Yeah, felt better now after a 5 days ordeal with my bad flu in JB!! Feeling quite 'high' now due to the medications and about to sleep soon.

I didn't really go out during these few days except a walk in the park at faraway Taman Sutera but most of the time, stayed at home and with my kids and wifey. Anyway, it's great to be able to spend so much time with them especially my kids where my daughter kept clinging on me and rested on my shoulder, her cute and cheeky smile always lighted a ray in me. And, I really don't know why kids love Hi-5 so much, they have been watching almost 12 hours per day, thanks to me who bought so many DVDs for them and it's original too! Now, I almost know the old and the new Hi-5 teams and their names. My elder kid too, always pestered me to play with him or let him touch my iPhone's games. I always off the internet access when he's playing...in case my I got a new item on my credit card bill.  :)


Well, with our tight schedule in work where we spent almost more than 5 days a week, it's always good to take some time off for family. Played with them, take them out, spend an outing together, listen to them, talk to them....etc, it's time-off for family. Some pictures taken near a mini park, besides Sutera Mall below.

It's so happening over there now!

Well, I was down with a flu and was on a two-day medical leaves. Not a bad thing, as I was able to rest and sleep, blogged, read and also able to cover some of my work for the day as I have email access.Perhaps the flu is an indication of stress and the body told me it's time to go slow and rest.

Flu always get the most MCs...2 days at least....!!

Some sharing here, a few months back, I was asked to update my company on a recreation event. I did the announcement and also mentioned there will be a surprise in the event and I stubbornly doesn't want to reveal the 'surprise' even when asked.On the actual day of the event, the 'surprise' didn't materialise due to some unforeseen circumstances. And, nobody even asked me about it during or after the event.

Pretty Korean lass - Son Dam Bi

I guess sometimes we are too overly serious with ourselves especially on our performance, dressing and etc but the fact is, unless you're some celebrity or some pretty thing, nobody will really give you 100% attention. People will easily forgot your stumbles or your achievements as times goes by. There was once I was laughed at on the stage of hundreds folks due to some blunders. My friends did talk and joke about it after the event but it didn't even last three days! They have forgotten or find it not  worth mentioning again. After all, human beings are naturally more attentive to their own selves or their loved ones rather than you, so, nobody really cares about what you have done. You could have taken a 1 week MC but nobody really bothers. They are more concerned with their projects and work.

Go with the flow....

My wife and I were having problems coaxing my 5 year old kid to complete his homework, which I find that it's really a lot for a 5 year old kid. There seems never ending homework for him daily, be it English, Mandarin, Malay Language, Maths and etc. Sometimes I really pity young kids nowadays. And, these kindergartens too, always wanted to produce brilliant students and hence, pushes the kids to the limits.

Though we tried many ways to get him to finish his homework, be it fear, bribery (of getting him a toy), talking him out, scolding and etc, we still unable to get his little fingers to hold his pencil and start working. Finally, after hours of getting him to work, I was scrolling through his textbook and realised there's always a star given to him for every exercises that he did. Thus, I told him that if he don't do his homework, there will be no star tomorrow. And, guess what, he started working on it.


And, that's the power of motivation!! I believe it works for anyone and in every situation instead of other methods like fear to get someone going. Create the goal and visualised the success picture to make someone or ourselves works towards it. Just like my kid who wanted another star stamped on his textbook  and makes him feel good and proud of himself where he can shown it to his aunts and uncles.

Got back from Singapore yesterday on a rainy night. Developed a cough and sore throat, most likely due to the weather,curry and dark chocolates. :) In fact, seems like a lot of people got sick lately. Anyway, glad I'm home and relaxing after a tough week! It will be another two tough weeks till September in work. Well, the busiest part of the year is back, it seems!

A rainy night!

 I was with my family in Taman Sutera this evening and attracted to their nice mini park nearby Sutera Mall. There were a lots of nicely design figures in animals, insects and human beings which were lighted up that makes the park looks luminous from afar. Anyway, what I enjoyed most is the sudden peacefulness that surrounds me when walking around the park during sunset. It was really relaxing and therapeutic, a great way to wind down. Moreover, the weather was cool after days of pouring rain.This is just the right moment for me to refresh my mind on a weekend!

A walk in the park

Most of the time, we love to hang around shopping malls as a way to relax. Perhaps, going to a park is a good alternative, just like our parents in the older times where there were lesser shopping malls and entertainment outlets. And, letting the kids run around and sweat is definitely a better idea than the arcade corners in the malls.

It was a fruitful Monday, though as usual my 'engines' are slow to warm up and my progress in work typically at a snail's pace. However, thanks to these Monday blues as I decided to go for a run in order to feel good. I had a shower later at the gym and thought it's a good idea to join my Christian cell group in the evening. It was a great evening fellowship with my cell group's members. I felt good by the end of the day and had a good night sleep.


I thought having healthy activities besides work are good for the body and mind and refreshes us. Whether it's religious events  like attending church's activities, joining a sports activity, having a long dinner with good pals, involving in  club activities and etc, really helps to relax the mind and body.At least, our mind is focused on the activities rather than dwelled on negative thoughts or even worse, continues to think about work.We have already been spending 6-8 hours daily for 5 days a week in work and if we worked more than that will be considered as overworked. It's time to turn over to other activities as life is not just about work.


Well, my weeknights are usually full, compared to my younger days. I seems to slowly increases my activities  - from cell group to badminton games and toastmaster's meetings. To me, being active makes me alive, turn me away from work, get to meet more people and of course, improving myself. And, not forgetting to spend quality time with our family where my weekend belongs to them!



In my opinion, life should be live fully and balanced, don't you agree? And, it's mid-week already with two more days to Friday. :)

Hurrah.....I finally got a notebook over in JB and now can go online during the weekend. And with my P1 Wimax, I guess I can bring them with me too whenever I travel far. That's a great idea as I can always online whenever I want as long as there's internet coverage for the Wimax that I've subscribed.

Before I started this blog, I read a short article by the late Dale Carnegie who was a great motivator especially in public speaking. Just like adding an important ingredient to a delicious meal, you can never succeed in public speaking if you don't take the plunge and face your fears by standing in the front, facing your audiences. Though you may or may not delivered a great speech, at least you have taken the first step and built your confidence. And, just like swimming, despite all the theories that you have read but if you don't jump into the pool, you will never know how to swim.


Desensitization is the process of facing your specific fear and manage the exposure within a time period. It can be a long or short exposure to your fear over a period of time till you feel more confident. Gradually facing your fear in 'short dosages' will slowly help you gain confidence towards it, like public speaking. It probably will help if one do a short 1-3 minutes presentation periodically. It's also applies to driving, you may start off practicing in a quiet road and till you feel better, you moved on to busier roads.

You can choose to face your fears gradually in small steps and gain an upper hand over it after a while. Have a nice Sunday!!

Arh.....somebody posted my donkey years old teenage pixs just now at her blog! hehehe... That was  the time when I sported those baggy pants and big t-shirt, with O shape glasses. Well, that was the trend in the 80s then. And, I got lots of hair then... You figured out the blog, she's on my blog roll. :)


Ok, back to my main post tonight. I was helping out with some recruitment for my organisation and my former employers called me to check out more details. Well, I ever worked in two firms which also involved in oursourcing professional manpower. And, now I am their client. That's a real small world!


Thus, it's always a good thing not to burn bridges when you're leaving a company or if your subordinates leaving for greener pastures. And, it's always a good thing to keep the network with your bosses and peers as you might need their help in the future or they may be your potential business partners. It's also the same with your subordinates. Who knows, they might did better than you in the near future and you can form an alliance with them to improve your sales or help you out with a better job.

It's also advisable not to create strained relationships in your existing work place and  take arguments and disagreements professionally. It will be disastrous if  you cross paths with them in the future, especially over an important sales job. Well, probably if you don't like someone, let it just be on a working relationship and that's it.

Just some sharing, have a nice weekend folks!

I was looking forward to the just passed long weekend as Monday is a holiday for Singapore. And to add in the excitement, I'm going to shop for a notebook and get internet access for my home here in JB. However,  my four tyres needed to change and thus I spend a little fortune on it at the expense of my new notebook budget. Then, my two kids suddenly fell ill, one on Saturday while the other on Monday. And, to make things worse, I fell ill today and on a MC today, and miss my favourite badminton session. And then, my car was unable to start just now due to a flat battery, caused by a faulty brake switch where my brake lights keep turning on. There are also a lot of issues in work over the weekend and I kept getting calls from my front line staffs.

I almost look like this..... :P

It's really not a weekend which I anticipated and look forward. Feeling quite frustrated earlier, I thought why not let's feel good as it's just my state of mind. So, I decided to make a cup of coffee and have some chocolate cakes while switching on my old notebook to blog using my newly subscribed P1 Wimax. (Pretty good and fast , btw)

Just like Capello and England, all is not lost after World Cup elimination.....

Yeah, when I'm back to work tomorrow, and there are also a lot of stuffs to complete but instead of being bogged down by it, I decided to feel good and think positive and enjoy whatever challenges that comes in the way. After all, it's how you react to the situations or issues rather than the situations itself. You can either choose to feel good or feel bad , and things will get simpler when you chose to feel good! Doing good will also helps! Try this, if you are feeling lousy,  help someone out. See the difference in your emotions and behavior after that. You will feel good because you did something positive...something good.

I feel great!! I feel good!! Everything is perfect!

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2)

Sometimes I just loved to carry my elder kid who's 5 years old and whenever I carried him, he will hugged me tightly.Sometimes he also rested his head on my shoulder and closed his eyes as though as he is taking a nap. I feel that he sort of felt very secured in my arms and just leave everything to me without any fears or any untoward happening to him. He just have 100% faith in me.
 
How I wish if I can have that kind of faith in the Lord God. The kind of faith that I know HE will always lookout and care for me and diminished all my anxieties and worries and I know that I am being taken care of and shall not be in want. It's like  I know that I am well secured as though as I'm protected by an invisible cocoon. I hope I can developed that kind of faith.

Psalm 23 -

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
 ² He makes me lie down in green pastures,
       he leads me beside quiet waters,
 ³ he restores my soul.
       He guides me in paths of righteousness
       for his name's sake.
 ⁴ Even though I walk
       through the valley of the shadow of death, ^[a]
       I will fear no evil,
       for you are with me;
       your rod and your staff,
       they comfort me.
 ⁵ You prepare a table before me
       in the presence of my enemies.
       You anoint my head with oil;
       my cup overflows.
 ⁶ Surely goodness and love will follow me
       all the days of my life,
       and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
       forever.

It's been a while since I dined in Yew's Cafe, which is one of the better bistros in JB and offered a combination of western, oriental and even Japanese food. I usually patronage the Taman Molek outlet, which is the biggest of their three branches. Anyway, this time round, while on the way to the Tebrau City Jusco Shopping centre in Taman Johor Jaya, my family and I decided to have lunch here.

They seems having some promotion lately and I thought the food are quite affordable. Above is an Italian Herb Prawn Pasta which cost RM13.90.  It comes free with an Ice Lemon Tea.


I had the Rendang Chicken Thai Fried Rice, which was also free with an Ice Lemon Tea. This cost around RM11.90. Perhaps this is one of the best rendang chicken I have ever tried. There's really a Lemongrass fragrance there which indicate a Siamese present.The fried rice was nice too, very Thai style.

My little boy picked the above from the kid's menu, and it's called Neptune Kid with a free pudding. It came with sausages, fish fillets, fries and beans, besides the pudding. And, it's even costlier than ours - RM13.90. haha...

Yew's Cafe & Bistro is located at - Daiman Bowl Complex, Taman Johor Jaya, JB.

Thanks to the plate of nasi briyani I had last Thursday for dinner. It's spicy, lots of gravy and oily and now, my poor stomach gave away and I'm on MC on a Monday today. It's a cool morning and day where I'm sure everyone would envy me and might want to ask me where I had that plate of nasi briyani...LOL. Well, MC aside, I will have to work on today's tasks when I'm back to office tomorrow. So, MC is not that really a good thing, furthermore you also needed to pay for your medical expenses.


And, these thoughts also led me to think about the different nature of jobs. For me, being in a 9-5 kinda routine work, you are given a basic salary with likely a 1 month year-end bonus and some percentage of performance bonus, as well as increment. You are also given some amount of days for sabbatical and sick leaves. And, the better your performance is, promotion beckons and you got a minimal percentage of pay raise, but with more expectations of you.

If you are in the sales or you owned a business kinda nature of job, you probably started off with minimal or no salary and most of your wages are earned through commissions in closing a sales. This means, the harder (and smarter) you work, the more you gained and you can take whatever leaves you wanted, on your own accord. You are your own boss but with lesser security, depending on how you performed and networked. And, you may required to work even if you are sick. :p


It really depends on an individual and what he wants. Unless you are a big shot in a corporation who owns some shares, it's not easy to earn lots of  money quick while you are on a 9-5 while you got your paycheck  monthly. Then,  you can earned triple more than your peers if you manages to close some sales deals or a major deal but you may end up with nothing for months. Another way is, work full time then do some part time on sales and marketing, but that may be tiring and deprived you of rest.

Thus, my point of this posting is, I may afford to take a MC due to my entitlements by my company in a 9-5 job but if I'm in another line, being my own boss, I might have to work to rush some deals though I might earn more. Just some food for thought, on what type of jobs are more suitable for you.

Have a good working week, eat well, sleep well, exercise well and stay positive, healthy, cheerful and motivated always!