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The Little Princes

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Saturday, June 27, 2009

Flock 2.5

Testing out posting a blog entry using Flock 2.5, the "Social" web browser ...

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Palawan Beach

Palawan Beach Pano (Sea)

It's been ages since I set foot on a beach. So last Monday we took the opportunity to take leave and bring the boy to let him experience sand under his feet. We chose Monday morning because there would be less people at the beach, even though it is currently the school holidays.

Reached there bright and early (10 a.m.) and immediately found a nice secluded spot (with a shelter) at the breakwater on Palawan Beach. Had our KFC breakfast at the private beach with the birds (and a squirrel!). The weather that day was really nice and cool. If only I had brought a hammock ... :-)

Anyway, after breakfast, the boy experienced sand for the first time. He initially stood on one leg (the one with the shoe still on) ... and after removing both shoes, he didn't dare to move after walking a few steps! I guess either he is not used to the prickly sand, or maybe his feet are still too sensitive.

Anyhow, it was a nice relaxing morning and we left before it got too hot at noon. Maybe next time can come back to explore Siloso Beach (more happening) or Tanjong Beach (more private).

Click HERE for the slideshow

Palawan Beach Pano (Beach)

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Father's Day 2009

This is the first Father's Day that I am officially "celebrating". Last year, the boy was only 1 month old. So the attention was on the 1 month celebrations.

Anyway, lunch was on wifey (of course, and just as well since I lost my wallet the day before!), and I picked the location. Chose Friends @ Jelita because they currently have a 1-for-1 promotion going on for their set lunch and dinner.

Their set lunch and dinner is a tad expensive, so it was good that they had a 1-for-1. Anyway, the food is not bad. Enjoyed a peaceful lunch, mostly because the boy was asleep, but had to rush through dessert and tea as he was awake by then.

Click photo for slideshow.

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Lost ...

Have you ever done something and later you realised that it's the dumbest thing you have ever done? That happened to me last Friday.

To keep a long story short, I basically left my wallet on top of the car. Moral of the story is not to leave anything OUTSIDE the car. If you have to leave something, dump it somewhere INSIDE (unless you want to lose it of course).

Sunday, June 07, 2009

Being "Cool"

The boy is growing fast. It is amazing to see him develop his skills, especially his emotions. Luckily for us, being happy is something which he tends to show quite often. Soon, he will learn a host of other emotions, some desirable and others not, and these will be displayed freely.

Once upon a time, we were all like this, free with our emotions. I don't know when one starts to learn to put a "filter" on them. Different people learn different "filters" and I guess that partly contributes to the development of our personality.

I don't get called names often but the ones that I always hear are things like "Mr. Cool" or "Cool Man" etc. Why? I guess I may have too many "filters" in place. How did they get there? Maybe it's being the eldest in the family, or having to take on more responsibility and provide a good example to siblings. Well, no idea really.

How does one change then? I got a clue from last week's course on leadership. The trainer mentioned that the human mind consists of 10% consciousness and 90% unconsciousness. To get to the 90%, we have to go through that 10%. My guess is that all these filters are in that unconscious part of the brain and I will need to exercise a lot of practice through the conscious brain in order to effect a change.

So technically it seems one can change his or her personality, and it's really a matter of conscious re-learning.

Commitment

What is commitment?

Does doing a project and working more than 100 hours of OT, sacrificing valuable family time and having your health affected count?

What happens when after all these, the boss of the project tells your team to stop "messing around" and wants to put everyone in a room for a week to "focus" on completing more tasks?

Is it a question of commitment? Productivity? Or is there some other motive?

A Tale of two House-cleaners

We have a house-cleaner which comes every alternate week to clean up the house. Recently, we had to change to another cos the previous one decided to do some food business.

Anyway, both are friends and they are from China. However, when it comes to working, one of them will spend 10% of the working time playing with the boy, and sometimes will take "urgent leave", resulting in us having to skip one week of cleaning or do it ourselves.

The other is very hardworking. She is here every week and even works to the extent of doing OT (overtime) for an extra half hour. Furthermore, she refused to accept payment for the OT saying that it was OK! What surprised us was that even though she is not making much, she gave the boy an Ang Pow for his birthday!

Luckily for us, this is our current house-cleaner. The next time she does OT we will insist on her getting paid. Where to find such attitude these days?

Saturday, June 06, 2009

Hot Park

In case you are wondering of there was a spelling error on the title of this entry, there isn't. The title appropriately describes our experience this morning at the HortPark off Alexandra Road.

We decided to bring the boy down to HortPark today for a short morning walk before lunch. I guess we were a bit late and the weather ended up very hot. There were plenty of things to see for the greenfinger but other than that, it was just heat and sweat. Anyway, we managed to explore most part of the park even though we had to rush from shade to shade.

If you are ever thinking of going there, best time is EARLY morning or LATE evening.


Click photo for slideshow.

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