Musical Inspiration....

The other week while staying in my son's home in Singapore, I learned something interesting from my daughter in law, Chee Ying. She works as a legal advisor with an International Firm. A great lady who works and at the same time a strong and caring mother, husband and daughter to her family. Most of the time, she remains in her home to do her daily work and assignments for her company. 

I asked her how she could perform so well for her boss while she has to fence for the family. While taking care of her three growing children and attending her sickly mum, she has to surf and interact through her laptop most of the time. There were calls coming in and she had to speak effectively to all her clients too. Definitely not me! I won't be able to perform and work efficiently with so much of distraction in the house. Back at home, I have my own locked office room where I do my daily planning and write up.

According to Chee Ying, she enjoyed working while seeing her family around. They were their motivators who give her the inspiration to excel. The noise and disturbance could never distract her. Even when she was young, she needed the music and TV for excitement to make her studied. I think she is totally right because Alvin, my eldest son was the same. When he was a kid, I had to scold him endlessly for listening to his walk-man's music and switching on the TV for entertainment while preparing for his examination. I stopped bothering him until when he could pass with flying colour in all his studies. He ended his education with a super Honour in England later.

Moral of the story - Each individual thinks differently. We require different energies to spur our brains. Some need the softer approaches, while the others might need more sophisticated and creative ways. You have to soul search yourself. So the next time when you see your children who love the music while studying, try not to nag at them so soon. Be more observance to understand.

Without music life would be a mistake - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Don't ask for discount when you want a good job to be done

Ah Soon is my car repairer and sprayer. Last week my car was slightly hit at the back with a dented mudguard. Since the New Year was drawing near and I needed to drive to Singapore, I called Ah Soon to pick up my car for  repairing. He is a guy who could give a shine to one without the brightness. I mean to change the look of an old car like mine.

Ah Soon came in the early morning to take my car and promised to bring it back after three days. I just told him what I wanted to be done and not one word was asked over the charges. Later of the day, little darling was curious about the repairs bill. I told her it's up to Ah Soon. 

The reason was simply I trusted him who would do a good job as promised. When one trusts another person, you don't doubt the other person's creditability and value. In fact by not even knowing what was the final cost of the repair, I had put a lot of pressure on my friend. He knew I have the fullest confidence in him, and he knew he had to deliver. He had to give his best to an unquestionable customer, who seldom comes by in life. True enough! Three days later when he brought back my Honda, it was almost like a brand new motor car. Every corner was properly done with shines from inside to the outside. Believe me, the charges were very reasonable. Not forgetting he had to provide home delivery as well. I was  totally a satisfied customer and I paid him immediately without question.

My personal view.. A lousy customer is one who would request for discount prior to any buying or transaction. The more one who demands, the least he might gain. After all, the seller or the repairer isn't a fool too. Be reasonable and be fair, and the outcome would always turn fruitful and satisfying. And I'm sure little darling learns as she reads my contents.

I like this proverb - “Be realistic, demand the impossible!” - Che Guevara quote

What is golf???

Ranjit, my good friend was trying to persuade me to take up golfing. He sent me a list of explanation.

GOLF AND WHAT IT ALL MEANS

  Golf can best be defined as an endless series of tragedies obscured by the occasional miracle, followed by a good bottle of beer.

Golf ! You hit down to make the ball go up. You swing left and the ball goes right. The lowest score wins, on top of that, the winner buys the drinks.

Golf is harder than baseball. In Golf, you have to play your foul balls.

If you find you do not mind playing Golf in the rain, the snow, even during a hurricane, here's a valuable tip ........ your life is in trouble.

Golfers who try to make everything perfect before taking the shot rarely make a perfect shot.

A 'gimme' can best be defined as an agreement between two golfers ...neither of whom can putt very well.

An interesting thing about Golf is that no matter how badly you play, it is always possible to get worse.

Golf's a hard game to figure. One day you'll go out and slice it and shank it, hit into all the traps and miss every green. The next day you go out and for no reason at all you really stink.

If your best shots are the practice swing and the 'gimme putt', you might wish to reconsider this game.

Golf is the only sport where the most feared opponent is you.

Golf is like marriage, If you take yourself too seriously it won't work, and both are expensive.

The best wood in most amateurs' bags is the pencil.
SENIOR'S DAY AT THE COURSE

David Letterman's Top Ten Reasons Why Golf Is Better Than Sex...

#10... A below par performance is considered damn good.
#09... You can stop in the middle and have a cheeseburger and a couple of beers.
#08... It's much easier to find the sweet spot.
#07... Foursomes are encouraged.
#06... You can still make money doing it as a senior.
#05... Three times a day is possible.
#04... Your partner doesn't hire a lawyer if you play with someone else.
#03... If you live in Florida , you can do it almost every day.
#02... You don't have to cuddle with your partner when you're finished.
And the NUMBER ONE reason why golf is better than sex.....
#01... When your equipment gets old you can replace it!

Instead! I told him... I still prefer the one hole golf at home.

I just helped him to cry....

Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once
Talked about a contest he was asked to judge.
The purpose of the
Contest was to find the most caring child.

    The winner was:

A four-year-old child, whose next door
neighbor was an elderly gentleman, who had recently lost his
wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old
Gentleman's' yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.
   When his mother asked him what he had
said to the neighbor, the little boy just said, 'Nothing, I just
Helped him cry.'

The Hippopotamus and the Tortoise.

Much of life
can never be explained, only witnessed.'
- Rachel Naomi Remen, MD

 NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby hippopotamus 
that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast, has formed a strong
bond with a giant male century-old tortoise in an animal facility in
the port city of Mombassa , officials said.

The hippopotamus,
nicknamed Owen and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down
Sabaki   River into the Indian Ocean , then forced back to shore when
tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before wildlife rangers
rescued him.

'It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old
hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems
to be very happy with being a 'mother',' ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is
in charge of Lafarge Park , told AFP.

'After it was swept away and lost its mother,
the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate
mother. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. 

They swim, eat and sleep together,' the ecologist
added.
'The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it followed
its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes
aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother,' Kahumbu added

'The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a
very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with
their mothers for four years,' he explained. 

'Life is not measured by the number of
breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.' 

This is a real story that shows that our
differences don't matter much when we need the comfort of another.

"The greatness of humanity is not in being human, but in being humane"

Will You Dance With Me?

I ask my little darling...Will You Dance With Me?READ THIS VERY SLOWLY.....

IT'S PRETTY PROFOUND.  

Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven't thought about it, don't have it on their schedule, didn't know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine.

I got to thinking one day about all those women on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back. >From then on, I've tried to be a little more flexible.

How many women out there will eat at home because their husband didn't suggest going out to dinner until after something had been thawed? Does the word 'refrigeration' mean nothing to you?

How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while you watched ' Jeopardy ' on television?

I cannot count the times I called my sister and said, 'How about going to lunch in a half hour?' She would gas up and stammer, 'I can't. I have clothes on the line. My hair is dirty. I wish I had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain.' And my personal favourite: 'It's Monday.' She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together.

Because we cram so much into our lives, we tend to schedule our headaches. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!

We'll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Steve toilet-trained. We'll entertain when we replace the living-room carpet... We'll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college.

Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of 'I'm going to,' 'I plan on,' and 'Someday, when things are settled down a bit.'

When anyone calls my 'seize the moment' friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for five minutes, and you're ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of Roller blades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord..

My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It's just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process The other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-Decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy.

Now...go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to......not something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?

Make sure you read this to the end; you will understand why I sent this to you.

Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed a butter fly's erratic flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night? Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask ' How are you?' Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head? Ever told your child, 'We'll do it tomorrow.' And in your haste, not see his sorrow? Ever lost touch? Let a good friendship die? Just call to say 'Hi?

When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift....Thrown away..... Life is not a race.  Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.

To all my readers - 'Life may not be the party we hoped for.. but while we are here we might as well dance'

No increase in Salary....

Something worth pondering...


When you work in a place where the people give the least and expect the most, the result is quite similar to the above picture which spells exactly what is happening in our world. 


Simple solution - “Don’t complain; just work harder.”  - Randy Pausch quote