SERVICE CHARGED

Yesterday, I was reading the Business Times and inside there is an article saying that the customers should change their mindset and start tipping or ‘paying’ for good services.

But I was wondering what happen to the service charge that was charge by the restaurant? Was not that supposed to include the reward for 'good' service as well? By the way, the service charge is paid to the restaurant, but was it paid to the employees as bonus for providing good services? If it is not, here could lay a crux of a simple problem. Because Singaporeans are charge service charges at restaurants in the first place. In these restaurants, no matter good or bad service, there is always a service charge. And most of the time, service are bad, high prices spoil the taste of the food because of raised expectations and this leave a very bad impression of the restaurants in the mind of the consumers.

Let’s do an experiment here. Can you recall a restaurant that offers very good service? Where is it, how was the service and food? Take some time to recall right? Ok now, try to recall the one of the worst restaurant u went to? Can come up with a lot of details right?

What does this experiment tell us? Bad restaurants leave a lasting impression in our mind then good restaurants. So restaurant owners why not share some of your profits with your employees? Customers are charge a service charge no matter good service or bad service is provided. They tend to build in this price into their expectation of the restaurants overall. With risen expectations come greater demands.

The restaurants can abolish service charge or gradually reduce the service charge on the receipt and instead have posters to encourage a tipping culture. This would reduce the expectations of diners. Lower expectations would provide a lower hurdle for employees of the restaurant to provide good customer service, in the eyes of the diner of course.

Maybe have a bowl of something transparent near the payment counter with a sign that says, “Receive good service?” over there to suggest tipping for good service. Promise to the staff the tips receive will be distributed to every frontline staff. So the lack of it would spur employees to provide good service and the sight of a almost full container of tips will signal to diners that this restaurants provide excellent service. One problem here is the lack of tipping which really would take a long time in penny pinching Singapore but I am sure we can come through it.

But this is only one suggestion. Restaurant managers should be able to come up with more ways to improve services.

By the way, one of the best restaurants I have been to in Singapore is Thai Express in Holland Village, friendly service and nice environment. Food is nice but quantity is a bit low though. Hahahaha! But I am happy to pay for the service charge because service is really good.

Cheers!

Where is your Focus?

No, I am not going to talk about photography here. I am going to talk about life here.

Have you ever wonder what is your focus in life? Achieving success, like owning that car, do volunteer work at less developed country, helping suffering Africans and so on. So are you on your way? If the answer is “Yes”, congratulations. If not, why? Have you lost your focus in life?

Have you ever notice how come some of us are extremely pessimistic and some are optimistic? The problem here is our focus. When something happen, which aspect of the problem are we focusing on, the good or the bad? Of course, if you always keep on thinking about the bad things that come with the problem, you would be pessimistic and vice versa.

For example, someone is retrenched, and he keeps on thinking about the bills he has to pay, the livelihood of the family, blame the boss for retrenching him and many problems that come with it. He could become suicidal if he keeps on focusing on the burden that comes with the retrenchment.

What if he had focused on instead the new opportunities that come along with retrenchment? Like this could be a chance to learn a new skill, need a break, the new job could be better and so on. Well, he is in a good position to rectify his problems.

If you are going to tackle a problem, do it when you are feeling right, definitely not when you are feeling low, sad or angry. It does not help at all. To feel right, you have to change your focus, switch from having negative thought to positive thoughts. It is all a matter of changing your focus of thinking.

Even in interpersonal relationship, if you only focus on the bad things that Person A did to you, you would hate Person A to the core, but if you focus on the good things that Person A did for you, you would at least be more tolerant Person A.

Try changing your focus in life and thinking. Hopefully this advice would improve your life in some ways.

So remember, where is your focus? Cheers!

Where has all the good food gone???

Was coming back from work, and heard this snippet in a radio commercial, (The commercial is about a radio talk show)

A: Last time the hawkers also never wash their hand when handling food.
B: But the food taste better than now.

Hahaha! Yah, I also hear this type of conversation now and again from my parents. They comment that the food taste better last time, now the food is so bad, does not really add value at all.

Well I seriously do not think it is because the hawkers are dirty that is why the food taste nice. I shudder at the thought that it is ONLY because of that! Urgh!!!!!

Haha! After much thought I think I have a good idea why the food taste better last time then now. It is because of the quantity available and the price of the food.

In the old days, most of the foods are usually 5 cents to 30 cents!!! Wah so cheap leh! And I heard the quantity is so much! One or two times more than the present quantity that we have now. And they have materials inside also, like fried guo tiao, will have Chinese sausage, egg (self provide, I am not kidding!), vegetable, fish cake and many more. Haha! So my parents really have a great time then. Food was cheap and quantity and variety is a lot.

Nowadays, most of us have to spend at least 3 dollars for lunch and the quantity is pathetic. Most of you reading this would agree, “pathetic” is just an understatement.
I am a bit lucky in the sense, where I am working, it is in an education institution so the food are cheaper than city centre. But, sigh, I still have to spend at least $3 for lunch just to satisfy my hunger for a few hours before I get hungry again. And most of the food sucks in taste. Yucks! If it weren’t for my body needs I would not pay that amount of money for lousy food! Sucks!

Anyway, we can never go back to the times of my parents. But what I really want to know why the hawkers are not able to replicate what the old days hawker can do? More restrictions, higher rents or expensive but low quality materials?! Why? Can anyone shed some light on it.

Cheers everyone! (By the way, anyone tell me where cheap and good food is can?)

Bankrupted by Marriage

Recently, there was an advertisement that was talking about easy loans available at, I think the Post Office. In this advert, the male lead was undecided whether to say the word “I do” at his marriage, because he has not enough cash for marriage. This trigger some thought in me.

Does it mean it would be easier for people to get married now? I mean in Singapore, getting married is a burning affair, to the government because of the falling birth rate and to the new couple because it will burn a whole into the pockets. Why do I say so? Getting married needs a lot of time and money for planning, making wedding photos special album, dinner, transport, cultural stuff and many more. Assuming you break even for your wedding dinner, which is not often the case, you still have the housing loan to contend with. So all in all, it would take more than a few ten thousands of dollars for marriage. I was wondering can people get married so early if they are going to save for this and pay for that! How can the government expect people to get married when young.

So now with this loan, does it mean people can get married easily and early now? What would be the implications? I cannot imagine a scenario next time if I met a friend who told me he was bankrupted because he took out a loan for marriage. That would be a big joke. But I think at least the burden of would be shared out by the couple and not by the groom of course. (Note: that does not mean I am stingy hor. Haha!)

Ok ok! I left out the most important thing. The easy credit you can take out from this loan, that is advertised, is four times monthly salary. So unless someone is filthy rich, so that four times of his monthly salary is able to cover the marriage costs, there is no way one could be bankrupted by marriage. At the end of the day, careful spending is still important here but, guys treat the girls well. I know in this day and age, wedding for many people may not be a once in a lifetime thing. But guys should make their special partner as beautiful as the budget allow because you must know you are the one and only (hopefully) who make her special and most beautiful on that day, so the more beautiful she is, the more it reflect well on you.

Cheers!

Service DNA

Recently during the National Day Rally Speech, our PM say we should raise our level of service standard in Singapore and one of the way proposed is to send these service personnel for more training and skills upgrade.

Actually, I have a second opinion to that. I think what should be done is, a career pathway should be designed for these people. And the consumer behavior and employer mindset should be re-tuned as well.

Has anyone done a simple survey to find out the demographics of these service personnel in the first place? I figure most of them would be people who does not have a degree, former housewives and students. The pool of service personnel should contain mostly of these people. Now these people would not command a high pay due to their background. In this day and age, when Singapore standard of living are rising, while most of these personnel pay remain almost stagnant. How could their service standard increase? They are more worried when her boss would sack her or how to make ends meet with the meager pay. Moreover some of these retail businesses, the reward system promotes a different set of behavior from their employees. Having to contend with difficult customer is bad enough; having to tackle difficult customers without any compensation for the difficulty is worse. Employer here should have a reward system that would strongly encourage employee to provide good service. One way could be to share the profit of the business with these frontline personnel; this would greatly improve the service quality and the image of your business in customers’ heart.

With the reward system in place, another thing would be a career pathway designed for service personnel. Let these people know that the way they treat the customer could give them a chance for promotion, by merit only. Knowing there is a promotion for good performance, a chance to have a career in service would be a good for the personnel.

Talking about service quality, having been to Taiwan recently, I have seen the best that is not yet seen in Singapore and I have seen worst that is found in Singapore. One of the best service staff I have seen is from Taichung when I am buying the 奶油酥饼。(It is a form of biscuit that has green bean paste in it, it taste superb! Anyone who is there should buy it and try!) The staff is extremely friendly, even after the first time when we did not buy anything, she did not show any resentment although I have no idea whether deep in her heart there is or not. When we went back the second time to look around, she still treats us nicely so I decide to buy something from her. (She was also very passionate about the product she is promoting, the taste, history, the baking process. Very good product knowledge) The next day when we went back, because of the great taste, she remembered us! Wow!

Most of the service staff that I see in Taiwan is more or less the same as the one I met in Taichung. At least they do not show their resentment on their face. I guess a sense of loyalty and belonging could be another factor that could improve the service standard in Singapore. Upgrades and training should come later when employer are able to reduce the turnover in the frontline staff.

Let us wish and hope the service quality in Singapore would improve!

Cheers!

Your spouse will determine your success?

Read this article in Sunday Times, title is “Millionaire Can teach us all about picking spouse” and it is written by the author of Millionaire Mind and Millionaire Next Door, Thomas Stanley.

I have read both his books and find it very informative but most of his research on millionaires in US is based on the ‘defensive’ tactics, meaning how these millionaires save, and their way of life as well. But coming back to this article that was found in the Sunday Times, about how millionaires choose their spouses.

In the article, it was found out that there is a highly significant positive correlation between years of uninterrupted marriage and net worth. (Billionaires would be different, like Donald Trump? Haha!)

Millionaires do not consider physical attraction as very important in their marriages, but it was admitted by most of them that it does play a part in to successful marriages. But all of them stated that intelligence is the one that drives them to marry their spouse. And this is the most important part, drum roll please! FUTURE millionaires seem to be able to judge potential partners with respect to traits like sincerity, cheerfulness, reliability and affection.

Ok, ladies and gentlemen, if you want to be a millionaire, start finding future partners with these qualities. Easier said than done? Yah, you are absolutely correct. I am close to thirty and I have not found one yet. Or I should say, I found one or two along the way but forget that love is a two-way street. So I am still in the hunt now. (Would anyone be so kind as to wish me luck on this? Need a bit here. Anyone, please? Haha!)

The problem here is that most of us relate to intelligence, one of the important criteria, as equivalent to having a degree, I have to admit I have such a mental association although I have met an extreme case, where she has a degree but was ‘manipulated’ by someone whose educational level is lower than hers. Scheming fellow! Haha! Well, how do we term intelligence then? An ‘O’ level holder who has the will to pursue a degree and a degree holder who would not upgrade him or herself, who is more intelligent?

I think in this case, intelligence would definitely include EQ (emotional quotient or emotional intelligence). This is something that is severely lack in most degree holders, because it was not taught in University and has to be learnt in the working society. That is why, the other qualities like cheerfulness and reliability come about, I guess.

Is it because my social circle is relatively small or there is a lack of such people in Singapore? Up till now I only found a handful (the number of such people I found are can only be counted by one hand) and I have to contend with the fact that they are either taken or they do not like me (Sad, man!). And worse thing is those that are taken, most of their partners in turn are weaklings! What a waste!

Oh well, I just wish I would find one soon, my biological clock is ticking fast. But I must say, finding one that will complement each other strengths is very difficult. It is like a 2 million pieces jigsaw puzzle, there is only one piece out there that will fit you perfectly. You cannot settle for less or else the whole jigsaw puzzle would look very odd! Haha!

I just wish someone could tell me when is my turn going to come, a bit fed up and tired looking for one. Maybe I should go to US to find one since there are a lot of millionaires there. Just kidding! But definitely, there is no way I will reduce my expectations.

Cheers!

PS: I really need a lot of luck in this area, can anyone spare me some, please? Thank you!

Blogging vs Cafe Talk

Well, it has been close to a month since I have started blogging. Well, response was not good (or was it because my argument is so good nobody commented? Haha!) but that was not the reason why I started a blog in the first place. One of the main reason why I started blogging is to have the possibility of sharing my thoughts to all people who are reading it, from Singapore or overseas. Another reason is the possibility of meeting if new friends who share the same type of thinking, liking and hatred of something.

I found out that there is really some good stuff that happened to me when I started blogging though. It kind of ‘open up’ my senses even more to what is happening around me, making me take in more information then before I started blogging. This is especially true if you make a commitment to contribute to the blog regularly. I also started to think more and deeper. As for writing skills? Well I cannot comment on my own writing skills. I would just have to leave that to the readers. Are there any now? Please respond if you do! Say hello or hi to me please!

I was reading the Sunday Times, my usual routine on a Sunday morning after my morning jog, I came upon a question “Why are so many Singaporeans blogging?”

So here I am again, pondering this question, “Why are so many Singaporeans blogging?”

There could be several reason and I think one main reason could be…. it is better than coffee-shop or café (for youngsters) talk, although there could be a lack of verbal interaction. Since the severe lack of cheap entertainment in Singapore, Singaporeans just want to sit down and have a good chat with their friends. (I have no idea about others; I thoroughly enjoy a good chat with friends, be it full of crap or intellectually stimulating.)

But the problem here is that you can only share this with a small group of people, and the size of this group is very much dependent on the proximity of other tables and the size of the table. (Haha!) Why proximity? Hehe! Politics and policies seem to be one of the best ways to trigger a conversation among friends. And the climate is such that we limit what we talk in the ‘private space’ that we have. Most often talked about subjects would be

1) Fare hike

2) GST increase

3) Elections

4) Opposition and ruling parties

5) Medical costs and insurance

And many more. (Peanuts? Ok, so when has peanuts got to do with politics? Haha!)

So many Singaporeans turn to blogging because the Internet gives them a false sense of security that they can say whatever they want on the Internet. (For those who follow technology news or techie would know this is not the case) So they find it exciting and fun to put their thoughts on the Internet, with the possibilities of sharing their thoughts with the international audience. Which goes to say, the Internet has become a platform for many people to publish their speeches, without the readers or audiences know who is writing it but get to enjoy the ‘gist’ of it. Being a country with very high technology adoption rate and most technology users being youngsters, more and more Singaporeans are going to blogging to voice out their pleasure and displeasure.

Anyway, for those of you who have not started blogging, I strongly encourage you to start one although it can be time consuming. Well all you need is to cultivate the habit. (Please read “No Time or No habit”) I thoroughly enjoy the last month of blogging because I have become more absorbent of information and data surrounding me, which is what would give a competitive edge in a knowledge based economy.

Cheers! And happy one month anniversary to my blog in advance! J

Price of Knowledge Part II

This is a continuation comments on my recent trip to Taipei, Taiwan.

During the 8 day trip to Taipei, I have been to many scenic places like Yeh Liu(where the sand sculpture that looks like a Queen’s head is), Jiu Fen (where the streets scene and food are amazing), National Palace Museum (where it contains a lot of Ancient Chinese Artifacts) and many more.

After the trip, when I was counting the amount of money I have spent during the trip. To my amazement, I only spent around NT$200 dollars for tickets to museum and scenic areas. They are for National Palace Museum, Yeh Liu and Astronomical Museum. This means it costs around S$10.00? I am absolutely surprised.

When I was researching on the places of interest in Taipei, I was also shocked at the number of museums over there. Both big and small is around 20 over museums in Taipei alone. In Singapore, I am not sure of the number of museums because I am not interested in going because most of them charge and it is not value for money, in my opinion. Over at Taipei, the ticket prices are so cheap and there are many museums and places of interest which are actually free.

Museums and most places of interest are big Treasure trove of knowledge. Knowledge like the history, culture and people of the place. This would foster parents to bring their kids to these places to absorb or at least immerse in the treasure trove so they would more or less gain some knowledge through their senses. They would be able to learn more about the local culture, better appreciate it and develop sense of belonging to the nation.

I know museums incur running expenses but would it not be possible to engage volunteers? Volunteers can come from Universities, elderly and other sources you can think of. The Astronomical Museum that I went to in Taipei, has volunteers helping out.

Instead of charging high ticket prices ($25 just for entrance fee alone for family to one of the places of interest in Singapore is absurd.) $25 is still a lot of money for lower income families.

My point here is that knowledge from these treasure trove of knowledge should be made as cheap as possible so that citizens in a nation can enjoy and absorb these knowledge. Maybe the government can subsidies some of these places and tie the amount of subsidies with the number of visitors in a period of time. It would greatly increase the knowledge level of the nation and again knowledge would not be made exclusive to only a group of people.

Hopefully, someone saw this and would make some changes. Cheers!

A possible public holiday that comes every 6 or 12 or 18 years or more

This seems to be phenomenon I notice during the hype over the recent possible Presidential Election in Singapore.

Well there are a lot of sounds and voices complaining about whether there is a need for such an election since we only had one election since the Law was enacted. Well I am not going to talk about it.

The interesting phenomenon is this. One of the grouses that were made because of the walkover by our present President was the cancellation of public holiday that will be declared if there was more than one eligible candidate.

Haha! Are we Singaporean so deprived of rest days? Hmmm… We have only 11 days of public holidays per year. If my memory did not fail me, we have one of the lowest numbers of public holidays in developed and developing nation. Although Singapore has implemented 5 day working week for more than half a year already, but it seems like people in the retail industry are still working the usual 6 day working week. So if a public holiday is declared, the employer will usually have to compensate the worker by giving them an extra day off or some form of monetary compensation. This is good news to the many people who are working in the retail industry. Well who would reject more rest days or more pay without working extra hours?

But are Singaporeans concerned about politics because of the public holidays that are declared if there is an election. This would really be a sad thing for the country if that is the case. Is Singaporeans concern about politics for the wrong reasons? Or is it because like I mentioned in my previous entry that since most of us do not get to vote, we lack of a sense of belonging to this land that we live on, and the only thing to look forward to in an Election is the public holiday that is declared?

This is something I read yesterday night in a Chinese Newspaper. The obvious difference between a citizen and a permanent resident is the right to vote and take part in the decision making process of the country. If that right is not exercised, does that make us any difference from permanent residents?

(By the way, I was wondering how many staff are there in the Election department? Anyone can shed some light?)

Cheers! And congratulation to our President on his second term!

What?!? Not again!

No, I did not miss just one digit to strike top prize of 4D. HaHa! I am talking about the Presidential Election or …. probable election until last Saturday. I was looking forward to the election, because it gives me a chance to exercise my citizen rights, a chance for me to feel that I am a part of this great country, Singapore. But alas, it is a no-contest again, cannot exercise my rights again.

Well most of you may say, you can wait for the General Election to exercise your citizen rights then, but I am living in a GRC. (Anyone familiar with Singapore politics would know why GRC has no contest most of the time.) So it is only the Presidential Election that would give me a probable chance of exercising my rights.

A sense of belonging, to this great country, seems to be missing in me. My family and friends are here and this is definitely a great place to live in. Home ownership is the highest here in Singapore and the number of people who can afford cars and condominiums are many, except that they are limited by the number of COEs (for cars that is) that are issued.

Why do I say that? Supposedly, you have just joined this great firm that has a turnover of $100M., at management level. You think you have it made because of the amount of money you are making. But the problem here is, when there are discussions, your inputs are always neglected or completely ignored. The points that you put through are great but it is simply not accepted by you at all. And when it comes to decision made, you cannot put in your vote at all. This means you make contributions but does not take part in shaping the company at all.

In such a scenario, would you have a sense of belonging or attachment with the company at all? Many would say why I make a mountain out of a molehill of voting. But I see voting as my way of participating in the decision making process of the country which would in turn create that sense of attachment I should have for my country. Older generation has been saying that young people like us are very cold to politics in Singapore and does not pay attention to the environment that Singapore is in. I am wondering, is there a need for youngsters like us to spend time and energy to pay attention at all since we are seldom involve in the decision making process when the resources could be better spent to improve our own lives or the lives of others.

Well Singapore is now 40 yrs and 6 days old! Happy National Day! Cheers!

Which is more important? Straight As or Passion?

Read in The Straits Times a Special on the biotech industry in Singapore. In it is an interview with the Mr Philip Yeo, co-chairman of Economic Development Board (EDB) in Singapore. The interview is a short one on how Mr Philip Yeo is developing the bio-science industry in Singapore. From the article, the foremost important criteria to be considered for a PhD scholarship, is to have very good academic grades first and only then would they be accessed whether they have the passion to eat, live and sleep with bio science research.

In another article on the special topic, Dr Alan Colman (the person who brought Dolly the cloned sheep to the world), question this rationale of why offering these scholarships to people who also excel in other less important areas that are non science.

I completely agree with Dr Colman on this point. Passion should be the overriding factor in determining to whom the scholarship to be offered. Because ultimately, passion is the one that is going to drive you forward in your research and quest for knowledge, not the As that one have! Especially in Singapore where our talent pool is extremely small because of our population size, we cannot afford to have talents that are not developed. Moreover as I mentioned before, research and new ideas need two or more heads to clash and create. The more people, especially passionate people, who would eat, live and sleep with science would spark greater quantity and quality ideas and research breakthroughs because they are passionate about it. We simply cannot afford not to develop people with passion.

For example, I never really read a lot of Chinese during my schooling years. Nope, no Chinese books and no Chinese newspaper, none at all. Chinese comics perhaps. (And because I want to read Chinese comics, I am familiar with the Traditional Chinese Characters) The only time I come into contact with Chinese is when I am speaking to my family and friends. But these recent years, I have read more Chinese books then I had during my schooling years. Why? This is because I discovered my passion for Ancient Chinese War Strategies and Romance of Three Kingdom (through computer games, hehe!). I also found out that Chinese business books are cheaper than English written. Haha! So there I was, my Chinese language improve tremendously because of my passion in Chinese History and Books. My grades in Chinese during schooling years did not spark my interest at all.

Passion is the key. Yes there is only one Bill Gates in the world, because no other people have the same name. There is only one Sim Wong Hoo in the world, because no other people have the same name. But the number of people that achieve tremendous achievement through passion is great compare to people who achieve tremendous achievement through grades alone. I am sure all Nobel Prize winners in academics, they do research not because they have good grades in the subject they study but it is because of their passion to seek more knowledge in the area that they are passionate about.

And like I mentioned before, if we are to develop in a knowledge based economy, we have to raise the overall knowledge (not education) level of the population. Hope someone reading it would bring this up to relevant people. Cheers!

Absolute or Relative?

A few months ago, a survey was done in our local English paper. In the survey, it was mentioned that the lower and middle income people in Singapore gives a higher proportion of their income to charity compare to higher income people. In my opinion, it paints a picture that rich people are misers while the lower income people in Singapore are more charitable.

I have a second opinion to that. Let’s say a certain charity organization needs to get 100 beds for the elderly staying there next year. They would need to raise $20000 (Assuming the cost of everything from mattress to pillows costs $200). Assuming on average a lower or middle income people each donate $200 a year. Charity organization would need to find 100 of such people. But assuming a higher income person donates $1000 a year, the organization would need only to find 20 such people only. From 200 to 20 people, look at the tremendous drop in the number of people to seek and the effort saved by the organization.

Moreover, if they practiced targeted fund seeking, it is easy to raise such an amount than to approach the man on the street to raise the same amount. Now I am not disputing the charitable goodwill given by the man on the street. The point I want to bring across is, when helping charity, it is not a matter of how much of ones’ income is given to charity but the absolute amount that the charity organization receive is more important. $1000 definitely would help an organization tremendously compared to $100.

Anyway any form of donation is always welcome by charitable organization. So fellow Singaporeans do give more generously to charities, of course within your means but please be more aware of who you are donating to. I would always ask the flag sellers what the organization I am donating is. I am selective. Hehe!

Cheers!

Where is the theme?

I am writing this in my blog is because of the deplorable state (my opinion of course) of our local Chinese Drama. I am absolutely disappointed with it.

Here is a bit of background to the story. I am a TV enthusiast since I was young until the university days when I am very busy with schoolwork and my ECA (You will know what it is if you have follow my blog. For those of you who knows, thanks for the support so far!) My TV hours for the week had dropped tremendously from 25 hrs a week to just 9 hrs a week. People may ask, how come you were able to reduce your TV watching hours tremendously with the media competition (during that time). I told them I was very selective and the local TV dramas by one of the station help me with that.

When trying to keep to 9 hrs of TV a day, I always have problem keeping to it when Hong Kong TVB serials are on TV especially when there are two of them running concurrently in a week. Haha! I love TVB serials. And when there was local drama, Well my choices are limited and I have no problems sticking to it. Hmmm…. Why is there a difference?

Here is the reason. There is always a certain theme or good story background in these TVB serials like CID, Police Negotiators, Fashion Designers, Nurses and so on. Local drama? Severely lack of it. They do have themed drama but it is always the police lah, navy lah, air force lah. Sports theme?? I can only recall volleyball and it was so long ago.

I have tremendous respect for our local actors but our scriptwriters, I wish they had more imagination. If they lack in imagination department, they should at least do some research on some interesting profession here in Singapore and put it in our local drama.

One thing I like about TVB drama is that I can learn quite a lot of things about a certain profession. For example the recent TVB drama I am watching now is about police negotiators in Hong Kong. From the drama, I learn about ropes and the thinking of the police negotiators. That they work as a team and each team member plays a different role; Roles like the lead negotiator, strategist, information seeker and one responsible for logistic. The family and love story line in the drama is more or less the same as any other drama but it creates different tastes when profession background is added.

TVB police drama is even the best, the cases are always full of mystery and I particularly like the many twists in it. That is why you see most of the drama develop into series.

Our local drama? Eh…… Family planning? Family members either get cancer or kidney failure or diabetes (Remember NKF, Singaporeans?) Or you got dramas that actually promote stuff outright, stuff that the sponsors of the drama are selling. So commercialized!! I TOTALLY HATE IT! (Notice I am using CAPS here!)

I love TVB drama but, sigh, do not like local drama. I wish any local scriptwriter in our TV station would tell me why they are not able to generate the same quality of TV drama as HK? Please do not tell me that Singapore Market is small when during the recent TV media shakeup, we have our monopolistic (for local market) TV company says it will develop other markets as well.

Why??? Anyone care to give a better explanation. Lucky thing, for the TV company, that my family watches other programmes on TV or else I would ask them to cancel our TV licence. (Yes, in Singapore we have to pay to have licence for radios and TVs in our home and cars. Readers from other countries can shed some light whether they have to pay as well in their own countries?)

Cheers!

Cans or buses?

I have noticed this for quite sometime and I think it would be interesting to put it in my blog.

I was unemployed for quite a while when I graduated from University. Due to some reason, I was at the interchange one morning, during term time. There was a very long line of people, or should I say undergraduates, lining up for that one and only bus that goes to one of the oldest university in Singapore.

The frequency of the bus was decent but it is always amazing how these undergraduates are packed like sardines in the buses. For those of you who are not familiar with Singapore, the bus route does not have double-deck buses plying through because of some obstacles along the route. Okay, many of you may say, so what is wrong with that?

Well take note of the people I am talking about here: undergraduates. They are studying for their degrees, hoping the degree would get them a comfortable job somewhere. Haha! Guys, take a rain check.

When you are working, you are still packed like sardines!!! Ever notice that? Notice the number of people during rush hours?! Notice how packed the buses are? Take notice of the expression on people’s face when buses full of people cannot stop to pick them up. The best thing is, if you take notice, you would know who are the people who are about to be late. If their buses do not stop to pick them up because it is full and you notice they look at their watches immediately, these are the people who are going to be late.

What about lunch time? Still queuing? Oh well what to do? Unless you have a special relationship with the stall owners, it is very likely you have to fight with the hundred people for your food and seats if u are.

So in the end, is a degree a mean to a way out? Sounds like more suffering since when we are working, we got to worry about so much stuff like budgeting, supporting family, paying back tuition loans to banks or CPF (for those that borrowed from parents), housing loan, car loan, saving enough for retirement and medical bills, study fees for higher degrees and many more.

I am not disputing the value of a degree but it seems illogical that the value of a degree has drop so tremendously but the tuition fees are increasing. Haha!

Cheers everyone!

No time or No Habit

Recently I was reading an article in the Chinese Newspaper; it was a column that was written by a famous author in Taiwan. She was talking about the most commonly used excuse by modern day man. “Not enough time.”

Ever notice that, we use this as an excuse for anything that we do not want to do, want to do but do not feel like doing, know it is beneficial to do it but do not feel like doing and many more.

The most common example cited is exercising. Deep in everybody’s mind, we all know that exercising is beneficial to our health. Our government has been trying to promote healthy lifestyle through exercising and diets. But most of us would use the excuse, “Not Enough Time”

But have you ever wondered how come then you have time to watch TV, play computer games, chatting with friends over phone and so on and so forth.

What I wanted to share in this entry is the point that the author is trying to bring across and that is, it is not that we do not have time but it is because we did not develop a habit for these beneficial habits like exercising and leisure reading.

I have met many people during seminars and training that I attend, a lot of people have great difficulty to develop these habits. I can understand the difficulty because it seems to be a fight between the devil and angel. Initially when I was trying to create a habit to exercise on every Sunday morning, I can tell you the angel in me is like fighting a losing battle because the only reason that he can come up with is that I would be healthy and enjoy beautiful sceneries the world can offer (people who travels in China would know what I mean). These benefits that the angel offers are great and I love it. But there is one problem and that is they are not immediate enough for me to make me ‘beg’ for exercise.

But the thousand and one reason the devil come up with are so tremendous and the benefits are immediate like, “Ah come on, Sunday is a time to rest and you need it because of the hectic week.” or “Alamak, later going out with your friends, and your favourite girl is going as well, you do not want to look tired right?”

So how do I develop the habit which I did successfully? Well speed is of the essence here, Haha! Every Sunday morning, when the angel starts to speak, I would say “YES, let’s do it!!” and I would as fast and I could, put on my gear and rush to the park where I usually jog. Once I am there, no matter what the devil say, I would say “Heck with it lah, since I am here, might as well run.” Going back home, change my sport gear to sleeping gear now would seem to tiring.

To develop my reading habit was easy because as I said before, I have good parents who encourage reading, although now they seem to regret a bit because of my large collections of books now. Haha! I always carry a book with me whenever possible so that no time is wasted, time in between waiting and changing buses.

So I really quite agree with the author about her point, and that is it is not that we do not have enough time but it is because we did not have the habit. Below is a phrase I find it meaningful. It was shown on a TV show that was promoting entrepreneurship in Singapore.

“Sow a thought, reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character.”

Cheers!

Save or Safe?

Recently a survey was done on the financial literacy of Singaporeans. It was found out that most Singaporeans, 83% of Singaporean practice some form of financial planning and 87% of Singaporeans know the importance of financial planning. Seems like an good result to most. Let me reveal more of details of the survey.

Two out of three Singaporeans do not have liquid asset that is worth three months of their salary. (Why they use salary, should it not be expenses? And should it not be six months given the current employment climate?) Professionals have no idea how much they need to save for their retirement funds, have little knowledge of the financial products available. There are other reports on different groups of people like housewives and retirees. In my opinion, this is a very dire situation.

For me, I have to thank the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad for letting me know the situation that we are in and the importance of financial literacy. During my university days, I was able to make full use of the library facilities to know about financial planning, investment skills and the investment product available. Thus I was able to invest my savings, in products that I know how it works and also manage the risk. All these learning were my extra curriculum activities in University. I am glad I spend it that way. So at least I know I have a fighting chance of having sufficient funds for my retirement. But I have to admit that I also do not know how much I need to save at the beginning of my retirement. Anyone wants to teach me?

Singaporeans are well protected, to a certain sense, because very risky assets are not available to the average retail investors, but such risky assets are the one that will allow one to have a better chance of ‘survival’ on the condition that risk are managed well.

These few years we have seen how many people have suffered because they do not take care of their own finance or brush up their financial literacy skills. For example there was the issue of critical year for life insurance, a lady suing a bank for directing her assets to risky one when she is about to retire and many that are not published. People should start taking care of their finances. They must know the investment product they bought, how it works, the cashflow regarding the product, terms and condition and so on. Most people conveniently, just buy whatever they think is good, what many ‘advisors’ say is ‘good’ investment and so on. In the end, most did not realize they overprotected themselves with insurance, bought lousy stocks, allocation of investment products is haywire and so on.
How could there be any fighting chance to save enough for retirement, at least?

I do not put the whole blame on these professionals. I think the universities should also be partly blamed. The universities in Singapore seem to be a place to pick up work skills but did not teach the most important life skills that we need for the rest of our lives, regardless of the job we are in. Paid so much money to universities and in the end, we end up with a lot of work skills, which we have no idea whether we are able to apply on our jobs and lack of life skills like EQ and FQ (financial IQ).

Universities here should make financial planning modules be compulsory for all undergraduates. With 13 weeks of training in financial planning, it would not turn most of us into financial gurus but we will at least be able to have the skills to weather financial storms in our life like retrenchment, bankruptcy and sudden death/accident. With the knowledge and proper training, we are ABLE to save enough for retirement which would lessen burden on the nation and families.

I hope some high level people would see this and take my suggestion seriously. Cheers!

Bus Romance, Anyone?

I am sure what I am going to say here, a lot of people can relate to. Recently, I caught a commercial in TVMobile, (for those who are unfamiliar, it is a TV channel that is exclusively for our public eh… private eh… public transport. Haha!) In this commercial all the scenes took place on a bus. The guy met girl on the same bus everyday. He started taking notice of her. One day saw, she was happily chatting with a male, felt a bit sad. Also one of the days, notice that she did not come up the bus. And finally, they set across each other, well not facing each other but across the aisle, each stole a glance of each other at the most precise timing together. Then the commercial ended with the female and male lead watching a movie together happily sharing the one and only popcorn. (Did they share the drink also?)

I am sure most Singaporeans take public transport to work, or else we would not be complaining every time the bus companies want to raise the bus fares. For young guys like me, most of us would usually meet one or if you are very lucky, two or more beautiful ladies who takes the same bus. (Why I say ‘young guys’ is because, we are always on the look out for beautiful girls. Haha ) Well for me, I would think I am one of the ‘lucky’ few since I have two beautiful ladies who would get up on the same bus as me, usually. But I must say I have no luck with girls as yet. Sigh!

Since Singapore, is trying to match-make as many of us young people as possible to rescue our falling birth rate, maybe SDU can come up with a book “101 Way how to get to know a girl on a bus” Pick-up lines could be “Is the seat beside you taken”, if you get on after her and the bus is extremely crowded. If you notice the girl long enough, you would notice how she chooses her seat so that you can make the seat beside you as ‘attractive’ to her as possible. Such book could sell like hotcakes since taking bus to work is not a phenomenon that exists in Singapore only and most of us have this type of experience. Any takers, or should I say writers?

I guess, unless such a book is written and sold, most of us eligible bachelors would only have be content just to look (no ogling, please) at these beautiful ladies that make our morning and (hopefully the whole day) bright and beautiful. Cheers to that! Thank you, ladies! *Smile*

Note: SDU is actually a (please correct me if I am wrong) government affiliated match making board in Singapore.