QiGong

Lately I've got this feeling that my body isn't functioning as it used to be. I felt weaker and more subtle to being sick. This evening, while having my 2nd pot of tea, I decided to do some QiGong. Being clueless about QiGong, I scour the internet for some basic stance. I came across this site which spoke about the effects of drinking tea and practicing QiGong. I was simply delighted !! I read on, though it was really informative about tea, but it spoke little on the practice of QiGong. I bookmarked the site and started the next round of search for QiGong techniques.

Managed to find this site which offers free lessons online. I was eagered to try out the first stance, called the Lifting Water.

With both hands on either sides of the body while standing, slowly raise the hands and inhale at the same time. Upon reaching a level perpendicular to the shoulders, slowly lower both hands and exhale. The ultimate aim is to achieve relaxation.
I felt great after doing it a few times and could somehow feel the "Qi" inside me circulating. Try it to believe.

Saturday Night At Home

Was feeling bored over what to do at home on a Sat night when this struck me. I had been feeling the accumulation of gases in my stomach over the last few days probably due to the moon cakes. I guess age is catching up now and mentabolism has dropped. I remembered this new tea set which was given to me by a good friend and decided to take it out to make some tea.

After boiling the tea pot for an hour, it was finally ready for its virgin brew of tea. I sat back and enjoyed the tea to my heart's content. Cheers.

An Interesting Picture

Was out taking pictures and spotted this sign on the leg of a bench. I guess dogs poot there quite often.

Sweet Memory: Fishing Childhood

Everyone has something that they remembered from their childhood days. This is one which I have better memory of.

I was about 9yrs of age when my dad brought me and my younger brother to fish. Back then the park which we go to was clean and the water was clear. My dad is a believer of purely line and hooks. We do not need to bring any baits as earthworms were easily available on the rich soil then. Back then I can never figure out how he felt the fish bitting at the end of the line. He pulled fish out of the water like a magician pulling rabbit out of the magic hat.

I have this fishing rod (which I still kept in my store room now due to sentimental values) back then without a reel. Even back then, the rod had lost most of the guides. As I was penniless at that age, I saw some metal wire and thus coil them around the rod in place of the missing guides.

My younger brother and I decided to save up for this reel (Silstar, back then is really a big brand). We bought it and was eagered to try it out. But it seems my brother's liking for fishing died off after the reel was bought. Partly it was due to the fact that we weren't allow to fish without our dad following.Thus the reel and rod was left to sit in a corner of the room.

It was til secondary school days where I have more activities like bbq and chalets where the reel and rod were brought into action again. Most of the time I fished away from the others as to avoid being seen with my mediocre rod. Thus I never really learnt the techniques of fishing. But I really enjoyed those fishing days.

There was one incident which I remembered clearly til today.
It was a chalet and we decided to go to the jetty for some fishing. I brought the mediocre rod and a roll of handline. The handline got a grouper and soon we were making hell lot of noise on the rod. Our noise attracted attention of people around the jetty. The line was constantly getting pulled under the jetty by something.
We were expecting our catch anytime soon and indeed it was meant to be.
We saw 2 figures fighting to get the bait (too bad there was only a bait on the line)
We could make out one of the figure was a reddish color fish but we couldn't make out the other. Somehow the unknown figure got the bait and I pulled it out of the water. To my amazement, everyone of my classmates ran away from me !! I was looking confused and frightend !! (Hey where's everyone ??!!)

Guess what ?! I brought up this eel and one of them shouted snake !! Everyone backed away while I brought up the "snake" and let it coil and turn on the floor. An onlooker fellow angler saw me clueless as to what to do with the "snake" offered to take it away to use as bait. After which the whole group of us started laughing at ourselves for being so gutless. Haha.... Well so what sweet memories do you have of your childhood?

An Enjoyable Weekend

My friend and I decided to go for a good dinner accompanied by a wine session. He offered to pick the tab that night but that was not what makes the dinner enjoyable. We ordered our food from the restaurant owner who designed the dishes on the spot. He handpicked a bottle of fine redwine to go with the food. I must say it sure was excellent. Never have I tasted redwine to go so well with white meat. I'll let the pictures do the talking. And please... Clean your saliva after reading.

Baked Mahi Mahi with Almonds

Beef in Brown Sauce.

Stay tune for more food entries to come.

Customer Service Part 1

Someone actually gave me some idea to write about customer service. This is just Part 1 of the many parts that you will read about customer service.
I sure have quite abit to talk about here. All in all,I've been in customer service for maybe more than 9yrs I guess.

I started out working at the supermarket after the O' levels and after which I served the nation for 2.5yrs. Well some might consider that to be some kind of "customer service" as well. Imagine...How hard it is to please your Encik ,OC and CO when you are made to clean your weapons and prepare your vehicles til "Gee Lat Gee Lat" (Singaporean's way of saying tip top condition) for checks.

So whats the first thing that I was taught when I started my career in customer service?
Well its the rule of of "Customer Is Always Right". Oh ! I can feel some readers right now pointing their middle fingers into the screen right now. Yes, I feel thats rubbish as well especially when you meet nasty customers. I don't support this rule but that does not mean I did not do my best when I was performing my duties. You will understand more as you read on.

Every counter staff or manager will be have role-switch after work. Meaning,they become customers to some form of service when they finish their work.
One that strongly believe in that rule will have this psychological impact when they are out of their working roles. So now they become the nasty customers. Since there's this change if role, expectation is been build up upon the customer service thats serving them. Basically its very much like a boomerang effect.

More on customer service in the next few entries. Stay tune.

Raffles Place Part 2

Think some might be waiting for this Part 2. Ok here it is.

Have anyone ever wonder whats it like during lunch time during Raffes Place ? No, I'm not asking those that are working "In" Raffles Place already. Well.... As some might have seen re-enactment of this in some tv shows/local movies, you'll see alot of tissue paper packets lying around. No! Its not because they have forgotten to take it along with them or have littered after they have finished their meals there.
They are actually used as a marker to tell others that those seats have been taken.

For me, my first experience having lunch in Raffles Place really bewildered me. Its really an ugly sight. It really distinguish the Raffles Place Singaporeans from other areas. I mean.. do you see that in neighbourhood? If tissue paper is bad enough, I myself have seen handphones and and even security passes used to reserve seats. What are those fellas thinking....

Raffles Place Part 1

Have anyone tried taking a walk during the bust hours of Raffles Place before?
Jostling with the crowd right from the moment you step out of Raffles Place Mrt.

Once out the gantry, if you have ever seen Kranji Racecourse before, that's exactly the same scene. People rush left and right for the nearest escalator.

If you have ever been to Raffles Place Mrt before, oh yes.. its filled with shops and boutiques now. I guessed those shops really helps those that really need some form of retail theraphy during working hours.

Anyway if you turn left once you exit from the gantry, you will complete with a crowd of "jockeys",which most of them will continue to "race" towards the tunnel leading up to One Raffles Quay or Lau Pat Sat. There are good reasons why I used the word "race" towards the tunnel. Ok lets picture this... Has anyone seen those migrating beasts that trots across the dessert to get to their next destination?
Oh yes.. Thats almost like it. Or some might want to compare it to the F1 race when one tries to overtake the slower high-heeled lady infront.

But this is just Part 1 of it. Part 2 happens when the beasts rashes back to where they come from. The same thing happen again the next day and the day after. I'm just too sick for all this. If you do not know, my fren, Singapore is ranked one of the world fastest walking speed countries. See... another display of everything also want to be top.

Stay tune for Part 2.

A Brief History.

Well I guess some might ask : Who's this fella thats writting this blog.
Here's a brief history about me.

I graduated from a polytechnic in 1999. After serving 2 yrs of what most guys would call, Liao Shi Gang (Waste Time), NS, I came into the working society in 2001.

I was fortunate to have found my first job from my first interview attempt.
Those were the days when the economy was still recovering. However the economy did not recover much before it was hit by SARS. Therefore I tide over the recovery in this company over 6 yrs. I got my Long Service Award of cause,but who cares anyway.

After 6 endearing years of running around town to get my bucks, I decided to pen down my own experiences and what other fellow Singaporeans have to say. Be it hilarious, sad or whatever feelings that you got from reading, I hope you enjoy your stay here.