School Holidays!!

It's end of the year school holidays again!!! This is the time i am more relax at home. Relax because there is no more test / exams / assessment books to go through with Yi Fan. Phew!!



Now that the academic load is off my mind, I can spend alot more quality time with him...so we talk more on football, and I also spend afew evenings with him for the mind mapping techniques, set up his Gmail and Blog etc etc.



It's amazing how spongy his brain is...abosorb things really fast and after 2 evenings of quick tips and demo...this is what he produce teh next evening - his first mind map (of course to entice him to do a good job, I encourage him to do it with his favourite topic - CARS).









Next 1, I kind of use him as a experiment on bilingual capability of the system...using any random character as a subjuct. This is what he come up with...







Then of course he was influenced by his schoolmates and started talking football staff at home and following football results closely now. I was telling him facts / figures about cars when he 1st started to be interested in cars and within a year or 2...i was already behind him on all the data and info on cars...just look at the MM above and u can see how much he is into it.



I think very soon will will also trying to do catch up if he indulge himself into football info fully like he is now. Too bad i fail as a father to convince him to be a Man Utd fan. He is more incline to be more a Cleasea fan instead. But i shall not give up...when shopping for jerseys in Pasar Malam...I will of course say all Chealsea jerseys all sold out...hahahahahah

We also managed to go shopping / eat out more now during holidays!! Just brought him to the book festival in Suntec and also eat at Pu Tian resturant...which is really rare. (We eat in resturant less than 4 times a year I think...). He was more relax and enjoying the extra freedom these fews days.

Then of course the other thing that happen in the holidays is to let him compose songs. This is what he come up with for the last 8-10 days. A bit of a 中国风...which is rather nice. I hope you enjoy the music too.

Next week...Go cart @ JB then soon...to TAIWAN!!!

Request so far ....Blue crystal stone for Cowgal, Book for Lulu and Meaty beef noodle for Agnes. Any more special delivery order??

Age of Progressive (lens)

Since I was pri 6, I started to wear specs and each year, I have to spend about $300-400 easily on spec degree change or brokeage. Only recently when I do sports less and the near sighted degree have stabilised...my specs bills are abit less than usual.

As far back as about 4 years ago I have started to experience in difficulty in reading. My eyes just cant seemed to be able to focus as sharply ...even in close distance ..as before. Went to the the optician and was told that I was starting to experience the symtoms of "老花".

However, at that point the diagnostic of my eyesight is still rather light in term of the degree so no real need to change my spec to bi-focal/progressive lens yet. It will be changing so wait for it to be stabilise.

So after 4 years, while to notice the drgree actually went deeper n deeper, I have to adjust my spec to my eye distance in order to read in close range. So much so that now the spec have to be at the end of my nose tip now in order to read clearly!! So i think it's about time to get the progressive lens prescribed.


And only then I realise such lenses are NOT cheap!! Biofocal have a ugly line in the middle and are cheaper but the progressive (without line) costs $600!! wow!!...imagine I drop my specs while playing sports...really an expansive exercise.

Law of anti gravity ah- what ever comes down will 1 day goes up again....v true... in terms of my spec bills.

Happy Birthday to me 2008

LT and SM visited me on Sunday. Brought a cake with them to celebrate my birthday too!! So far this has been the 4th continuous years that they bought something for me. (Moon cakes festival inclusive too!!). Too bad Anna is busy having exam and afew others are also busy with their attachment and assignment so cannot make it.

We have dinner in BPP Swensen. Lucky that it was not too crowded and we manage to get a table for 6 seat almost immediately. Had quite a full meal and happily chatting away. My kids /wife are already very comfortable talking to them so I can concentrate eating my steak. :)

Then back to home where we pose with the cake...but all are too full to eat it.

Back to school this morning, after 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of yoga session, the DT/TSOs invited me out for a birthday lunch too at AMK hub. The meal is quite nice - I like the ginger chicken and the kang kong best. Much better than the extremely hot till u got headache resturant in Cowcarwater last year. hahahahahah.

We promise to go out for lunch again to try the japanese western resturant Waraku @ Central soon...their curry pork chop is really nice...so as afew other dish too. Hmmm...Week 9 common test week Tues/wed sound good to me. Time also to fill up my sweets drawer too. There is a Japanese swwet / choc shop at the central where I can get v nice and special Japanses sweets.

Of course...the best thrill of such trip is to see XPY close her eyes in a state of semi conciouslness when I ramp up the car park slop till 8 storey. hahahahaha...see u there!!

Less flexibility - from now on

It's official - from now onwards our annual leaves will be reduced by 14 days. Abit better than previously communicated / rumoured. Comes with it - a 1 time cash payment and a slight monthly salary adjustment.



I really enjoyed the freedom to travel to visit bookshops / visit students / organise outings etcetc since joining the profession. Taking a day off to do personal trivials and taking trips like above is never really a concern for some of us. I always enjoy these little breaks to recharge myself and havinga relax time with the right mood and the right people do woders to your stress.



But the the above changes, I would expect getting other colleague to spare days in the annual leave for such outing will be in general more difficult. Many, will prefer to spend time with own family as there is no more excessive leaves available.



How badly will it affect the staff turnout in future day outings / GTs will remained to be seen...At least for GT 2009 krabi we still have 3 staff joining. As for myself...the carelessness about leave application will have to be adjusted...will have to think abit more b4 applying to go away from work now onwards...I will still try to organise outings...but maybe for the small group meeting to play dice / settlers etc they will have to be controlled.



Christof suggested that we gather support to treat outings with staff and current students as work / PEM meetings and only outings with graduates will be on away basis. I of course 110% support that. We will slowly get use to the new system and find ways to get support for outings for staff too.



Next outing on the line: - 1 day batam trip maybe in Jan/Feb and if course the annual CNY gathering...let's hope the changes dun dampen the eagerness of the teachers to join in.!! See you atbthe outings soon!!

PARADOX of THRIFT

I studied Econs in A level...and with my limited vacab at that time...this is one of the few economic theorms that I can actually understand.

PARADOX = 矛盾 ， THRIFT = 过份的节约

PM Lee also mentioned this threorm in his speech yesterday. In short, during bad timed where confidence in the economy is low and many expect income to be affected, job sbecomes insecured etcetc, it is rather normal that one would tends to be on the conservative side in spending. People save more, keep money in their banks and hide under pillow - "save it for a rainy day" so to speak. Make sense...for some who really have a true concern about their livelihood. It's a matter of survival to make ends meet in such trying times.

However, imagine if this is over done and everyone in the economy do the same instead, then no one go to movies, no one rent DVD, no one eat out, no one take taxi, no one hire maids etc etc. Then very soon, you will see the ripple effect of such severe thriftiness...company have no choice to retrench further due to low business, some even have to close shop, causing even more people to lose job. And there is less and less circualtion of monry in the economy cause every one hide them away under the pillow as soon as they receive the money.

The ultimate effect of such kiasuness....a REAL BIG RECESSION. So severe savings during a poor economy ...for those who can afford and not spend...actually doesn't help and make the economy even worse. This is call the PARADOX of thrift.

"If you have sufficient savings and can afford to spend, you should continue to spend on life's little pleasures. Take your family to the movies, shop, dine out at restaurants and hawker centres, go for your regular foot massage, indulge yourself at a spa, take a taxi, donate to charity and so on. This way, we keep the economy going. In fact, I would say when times are a little slow, you could get the best bargain,"

er- the last paragragh not I say 1...xiao lee say de. So go spend !! (if u can afford).